#this is more generally my thoughts on LITG as a whole

[hopeshoodie]

I was uper annoyed during that scene is s2 where the girls say they will make the boys do a man to man strip or whatever and then when Noah and Lottie's partner kiss while practicing for prom as joke. It's so annoying to me how they don't take like gay/bi men seriously. It's especially so hypocritical if the girls talk about how uncomfortable it is when boys sexualize two girls like being physically close. It's like they try to be woke and say fetishizing wlw is bad but then fetishise mum like????

^^^ All of that.

And like... I get it. Love Island the tv show is super homophobic and heteronormative, basically by design, so it makes sense that a game would fall into those tropes. But it hurts more when said game emphasizes inclusivity in other aspects (neurodivergence, mental health, body shape, etc) but keeps falling short with lgbtq representation.

IF games in general do the wlw vs. mlm thing a LOT, giving female LIs and normalizing wlw relationships while completely ignoring mlm experiences.

Bobby wearing a dress being played as a joke

Bobby wearing a maids outfit and it being played for a joke

Boah explicitly being a joke in cmm

Having two boys kiss in S2 for a laugh

Having Elijah and Arjun get together off screen

Making it so that Tai and Ciaran only date if the player is also queer, so that a majority of players are completely oblivious to their relationship

The boys in S2 thinking Noah is hot is played for a joke multiple times because they couldn't ~actually~ have feelings for him.

And like all of these things, to me a queer person, could be justified by saying 'people are closeted and coming to terms with their sexuality, and there's a lot of denial and humor used to mask that irl'. But... It's not irl. I'll talk more about that in my next post, but these are characters being written by writers primarily to make money and secondarily to entertain with a story. It doesn't matter what the authorial intent with these choices are, because they're creating problematic jokes at the expense of queer attraction.

LITG was never meant to stand up to this amount of scrutiny. It almost feels personal when it's problematic, but that's what happens when you have a team of less than 25 writers on a project. But it still merits scrutiny and criticism. It's still a game/story/art for public consumption.

[ravenadottir]

@the-bisexual-mermaid asked:

"Since fusebox is apparently gone to shit but we are super attached to litg and its characters, we should make up our own season 4! Why don’t you make up the original 5 boys and 5 girls? What kind of people would you want to see in your season 4? What sort of juicy drama would go down between these characters?"

this ask came in july, last year but it was gone from my drafts/inbox, along with so many others. at some point i thought it was a fever dream but now they'res back!

now, about the actual ask, i've assembled not only the original people but a whole concept of what i wanted, including islanders, challenges, relationships, love tropes, who would leave or stay and why. needless to say i got carried away.

so i'm splitting this answer in a few parts, just because i want you to see all the islanders i came up with (34).

but let's start with day 1.

🍦 day 1 - ten islanders

mc won't be part of this batch. i still think it would be brilliant to have her as a bombshell, just not how fusebox made her on season 4 (from what i heard she comes in during the dancing challenge and that's so jarring but pop off i guess).

right off the bat we have first impressions on the new islanders and later on the discovery of their routes. each of them would be fitted into a love trope, but not all of them would be li's, at least not initially.

instead of the phrase they have in their profile info, i would make them describe themselves with three words, which would give us more of a scope to understand what type of personalities we would be dealing with.

for the first couple of days i would only make two episodes since mc is not here. so without further ado, here's my first two days.

🍦 boys:

damian. intelligent, patient, shy. he/him, bisexual.

luke. beautiful, vain, charming. he/him, straight.

ben. fun, tired, ready to go. he/him, bisexual.

tweet. fun, compassionate, daring. he/him, straight.

gustav. creative, fun, persistent. he/him, straight.

🍦 girls:

fingers. intelligent, hard working, ready. she/her, straight.

emily. funny, reliable, sweet. she/her, straight.

diya. kind, smart, adventurous. she/her, bisexual.

kendal. creative, colorful, soft. she/her, bisexual.

liv. good, fierce, done. she/her, bisexual.

🍦 recoupling

girls’ choice, as they come out of the bedroom, just like in litg. these are the couples formed:

fingers + damian

liv + ben

kendal + tweet

diya + luke

emily + gustav

🍦 challenge

never have i ever. a good chance to get some of the tea on the islanders and their past experiences. oh, i forgot to tell you, mc is watching everything happening in real time. the villa life starts on day 1 and you have access to all that is happening.

the suggestions are all written down in cards and they pick them up at random and use little pickets with a “i have” or “i have never” written on it.

first up. “never have i ever slept with someone without knowing their name.” ben, liv and tweet raise the green sign while the others stare in horror.

“how do you shag someone you don’t know the name…?” kendal asks.

“well, i could show you but i already know yours.” liv responds, leaving kendal giggling.

“never have i ever got drunk and texted an ex.”

liv, ben, kendal, tweet and fingers raise the green.“

"fingers! kendal!” ben smiles.

“it happens… you did!” fingers say, timidly.

“yeah, but i’m me… you’re… well, you!”

“what’s that supposed to mean?”

“it’s a compliment, it means you’re better than him.” emily says with a chuckle.

“i’m not…! i’m…” she gets uncomfortable and damian grabs a card to avoid the tension.

“never have i ever betrayed a friend.”

general ‘oohs" and 'oop’ are loud as ben, tweet, emily and gustav raise their greens.

“i mean, ben i get, he’s him, but gustav?!” fingers is shocked.

“he was… not a good person. i ended up telling everyone what he did, so i guess that’s technically a betrayal.”

“what did he do?”

“suffice to say he got his punishment.” he crosses his arms and stops talking. the game goes on but in a faster pace until the last one.

“never have i ever cheated.”

luke and diya raise the green one. “alright then… good to know the ones to keep an eye on.” damian said.

“well, it’s not that simple.” luke says.

“i answered ’no’ because i haven’t, you said ’yes’ because you did.” ben winks. “sounds pretty simple to me.”

“whatever mate.” luke stands up and stretches, trying to look unbothered. “i’m gonna take a dip. see you all later.”

🍦 after the challenge

everyone scatters all around but the girls stay back to discuss the game. “so… luke huh… and you two…?”

“oh come on,” diya responds, “it was… a really bad relationship, the type you can’t avoid or break up, even when you have to. it reminded me so much of what lucas koh said on season 2 you know? the relationship was really bad but none of us was brave enough to end things.”

“right… what happened?”

“well, she was being possessive, always trying to control my every move, calling all the time, and if i didn’t pick up she would go feral. one night i went to meet a friend and, well, things happened. i didn’t plan on it, but i didn’t stop it either. eventually we broke up, and i stayed single for a really long time. i had to.”

“yeah, it’s tough. sometimes you know someone is just not good for you but you’re trying anyways.” kendal says.

“well, i guess that’s rooted in pride. no one wants to admit defeat.” fingers grabs her water bottle.

“yeah, but i don’t like looking at relationships like that. it’s not about winning or losing. it’s about working or not.” liv stretches. “and we all have a bad relationship to talk about.”

“that’s the one thing we all have in common i think.” emily says.

“that’s sad.” kendal completes. “but i’m glad to bond over something. i feel like being in here can be intense at times so i’m happy we’ll have friends to rely on.”

🍦 nighttime

the night falls and they receive a cryptic text:

islanders, grab on to your tanning lotions for dear life, change is about to hit the villa. #coupleuporbreakup #couplesnottrios

the first night in the villa is already heated with the possibility of changes happening so soon. couples are going to bed and it becomes clear which ones are getting along and which ones were each other’s last option.

🍦 day 2 - conversations

after the first night they have a chance to talk and spend some time together, to get to know each other. couple by couple have a conversation about their likes and dislikes, one past experience and who they’re looking for, type wise.

damian and fingers are getting along, liv and ben as well (too well if you catch my drift), kendal and tweet are vibing and happy to spend time together, emily and gustav don’t connect at all and it’s awkward to share a bed, so much gustav offers to put a pillow between them. diya and luke don’t see eye to eye romantically but they’re happy to stay friends until other people come in.

“why did you choose me and not gustav, though?” luke asks diya.

“i feel like i would be too harsh because he gives me the vibe of someone that takes things like… too seriously.”

“he does actually.” they share a laugh. “well, i’m glad to have a friend in my couple. we can stay together until we find someone we like.”

“agreed.”

🍦 in the afternoon

they are spoiled with brunch on the lawn, but there’s a catch, they’re not having the meal with their couples, but with different people.

the boys get to choose who they want to sit with and gustav has first choice: kendal. “she’s so tender and sweet, i feel like we would get along really well.”

ben shouts “so you think you’re sweet, huh? i like sweet guys.”

“dream on, ben.” gustav responds.

damian chooses liv and fingers get pissed but doesn’t say anything about it. ben likes emily’s vibe so he picks her, tweet invites diya to his table, leaving luke to eat with fingers. he turns to diya to say “i wanted to avoid that, mate… she looks like she’s going to eat me alive, and not in a good way.”

diya chuckles and shakes her head before sitting with tweet. at the table some of them are comfortable but others are just feeling the awkwardness. fingers and luke start talking and realize they have more in common than they thought.

“you’re a model, right?” she says.

“yeah, i supposed you don’t think much of it since you’re literally a doctor.”

“well, i wasn’t rich, my family didn’t have money to get me into a good school, so i modeled throughout my entire school life. now that i have a job in a hospital i can actually pay the bills and all, but it was really between my family’s savings and whatever i could scrape from my modeling gigs.”

luke is kinda surprised. “you know what, i can definitely see it, you’re really beautiful…” embarrassed he quickly changes the subject as he sips on his drink. “i thought you were gonna bite liv’s head off.”

“well, that might still happen, she’s… pretty cute.” she winks. “i was just mad about not having a first date with our actual couple, but that’s not her fault.”

“right… how are you feeling right now?”

“i’m surprised by how much we were able to talk even though not having anything in common, at least on a surface level.”

“i can get pretty deep.” he smirks.

“was that a sex joke?” she says seriously.

luke gasps and chokes on his mimosa, tripping on his words to make her know it wasn’t. “n-no! not at all, i was just…” he notices her smirk and is relieved. “alright, you got me… but i’ll get you back.”

in each episode i would like to flash out their personalities, and even their dynamics, because i believe we have a lot of space and time to make that happen if we avoid fluffly pieces that don’t say a lot.

right after focusing on luke and fingers, we would move on to liv and damian.

“how are you feeling in your couple, damian? are you getting along?”

“well, yeah, i like her. fingers can look really tough but she’s also really funny.”

“so you think if someone came in, your head wouldn’t turn?”

damian thinks hard. “i don’t know… right now i’m thinking this is great, all of us are getting to know each other and we have the opportunity of doing that with no interference. but if the perfect girl or guy walked in i would… i would probably recouple.”

“and what makes the perfect girl or guy?”

“it’s a balance… i feel like my life is pretty boring back home. i barely have places to go and people to see, and the idea of going out every week is jarring to me. i need someone that wants to relax with me on the weekdays and weekends.”

“what do you like doing then? on weekdays?”

“reading is a shout, watching some shows i enjoy, cooking together. like i said, everything back home is what people call boring, but i like it. i prefer the peaceful nights than the agitated ones. and classes run until 3, so sometimes i have very early days… i want someone that has the same desire of staying put and enjoying a book. when we travel i would like to be with them by ourselves.”

“not even a group trip?”

“well, sure, but i would be cooking a meal for them at least once, and i would want to enjoy the place with them as well…” he sips. “i’m sorry, i’m going on and on about myself. tell me about your type.”

liv’s eyes go wide. “i’m… in between types… i feel like it restricts my options so much and like, i don’t wanna miss out on something great because i stayed true to one format.”

“that’s fair.”

“with that being said, like you mentioned, i want someone that keeps up with my routine. i work at night, almost every night of the week, so i sleep from 4 to 11, it can get pretty crazy.”

“oof, that sounds exhausting.”

“it is, but i can’t see myself doing anything else. but it’s also the kind of life i wouldn’t trade. i love singing, i love the crowd, the drinks aren’t half bad either.”

“so it’s really fun!��

“yeah… but have you ever seen soul, the movie? that moment that the main character enters a zone they can see from the other realm? i know it sounds dumb but… that’s how it feels…”

“no, i completely agree!! whenever i’m explaining something really hard and my students can give me examples of it, in practical terms, i feel like my job is done, and i enter that zone of…”

“satisfaction.”

“yes! it’s good to do the work, but it’s even better to see the good results. for every F i grade there’s hope that person can achieve an A, you know?”

“yeah… i would know, i was an F student.” she laughs.

after that just a chit chat amongst the islanders, general reactions to things the others are saying, in general, and them getting to rest after the meal. the night would fall quickly and we would see the couples talking and having a drink after dinner, nothing too out there.

liv comes to join fingers and kendal, who are having a cocktail by the pool. “so, how was the date with my partner?”

“umm… it was interesting…” she takes a sip for every pause. “we got to talk about life back home… the work we do… our types…”

“whoa, whoa… slow your row, red!” fingers adjusts herself on the seat, pulling the cushions closer. “spill it!”

“listen, damian is a very quiet guy… i reckon he likes peace and quiet.”

“i can be quiet.”

“the point is not if you can be, it’s if you are.” liv watches her reaction while taking a sip.

“so, what? you think his head might turn?”

“well, i asked him that…”

“and…?!”

“and… i think you two should talk.”

fingers stare at the roof terrace where a couple of the boys are having a heated discussion to what it sounds like the best place to have a vacation, damian’s voice the only one not being heard despite his presence.

“yeah, i’ll talk to him.”

“so… what about you kendal? how was the date with gustav?”

kendal giggles lightly but confidently. “i think he might have a thing for me.”

“really?!” liv lights up.

“is that so hard to believe?” fingers says.

“no! i’m just excited because kendal here might have a thing for her couple… tweet…”

“he is really fun, and super cute… and so flirty all the time. i’m just…” kendal hesitates. “i don’t know if i would continue with him.”

“oop… hold on, let me get in position!” liv exclaims. “alright, spill!”

“it’s just, he’s really sweet, but it seems like we never have anything to talk about. yesterday it was fine, we were having a conversation about our hometowns and then, poof! nothing. the conversation died and never came to life again. this morning i was kind of relieved the brunch wasn’t with him.”

“oh… girl… do you think he feels the same?”

“i don’t know. he must, right? the vibe was dead so fast, and it’s a shame because… wow… he’s really cute. and a really good cuddler!”

“aham. so are you gonna tell him this?”

“i guess. just not right now! i’ll give it time to breathe, you know. maybe it will get better.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the end of day 2 is solely the chats they’ve been having after the brunch. but there’s more to come on day 3 and that’s a subject for a new post, so… bye!

[hpowellsmith]

Hello!! I love all your work on LITG and CDLC :) I was wondering if you could direct me towards who wrote Angi?? I love our 1-2-1’s with her :D

Hello, thank you so much, that's so kind ❤️

Rhea Newton, who I'm lucky enough to work with at Tributary Games currently, came up with the original concept for Angie and wrote an in-character application to the show to establish Angie's personality and voice. At the concept stage, the narrative team at the time (me, Rhea, Fiona Sangster, Ben Sabin, Frankie Wakefield-Harrey, and Leah Muwanga-Magoye) came up with a lot of ideas through doing these IC applications*, distilled them down, and figured out how they would interact with the MC and other characters. Angie was one of the ones we chose to go through! (Honestly it was an easy decision - we all loved her and thought she would bring a fun dynamic!)

The team collaboratively refined Angie's character and outlined episode plots, and wrote her in the episodes we worked on. Rhea also outlined Angie's MC-related storyline.

When Maria Chaudhary joined the team**, she took on writing Angie's in-depth one-to-one scenes - if your MC is close to her you will have played through one of them during Episodes 11-13. Maria did an incredible job and I hope the content remains as it was when I left - if so there are a lot more exciting and heart-tugging Angie moments ahead.

My feelings about the whole thing are complicated (in general it was fun working on the season, and I'm sad that it ended the way it did) but my immense pride in my colleagues' work, and the pleasure of seeing players enjoy characters we made, are very straightforward ❤️

*if you are interested, the characters I came up with at the concept stage include: Hazeem, Lexi, Kobi, Bruno, Valentina-from-that-ad, Towel-Guy-from-that-app-art, and a couple of others who don't seem to have been officially revealed yet

**at that stage, Courtney Byrne, Anna Winterstein and Chavonne Brown also joined the team; if you have played through any kisses you will have seen their and Maria's work, as well as some shower scenes in Episodes 11-13 (Anna wrote Bruno's and Najuma's, Chavonne wrote James') and friendship scenes (Courtney with Kobi, Chavonne with Thabi)

[hopeshoodie]

Rarepair Sunday- Hopeisol

Headcanons

The actual power couple we deserved. The both came into the game with opposing strategies- Hope thought it was important to be cordial with everyone and play the social game, Marisol came in prepared to be extremely competitive and selfish. 

But throughout the game, they gradually adopt each other strategies unknowingly (as Marisol burns through partners she’s only tethered by her platonic relationships with MC and Noah, and Hope reverts to being territorial and selfish because MC/Priya sabotaged her relationship and didn’t have the decency to not gamify it). Marisol approaches Hope towards the end, after she breaks up with Graham for flirting with MC, to thank her for the advice. “You were right, the only thing keeping me sane is the friendships. It was dumb to actively TRY and sabotage friendships with the girls for the sake of gameplay.” And Hope starts silently crying because she feels like she hasn’t had the luxury of that. 

They hug, Marisol leans in for a kiss, Hope hesitates, then Marisol pulls away and starts apologizing profusely for ‘misreading the situation’. Hope shushes her by kissing her back, and it gets heated.

When they pull away Hope laughs lightly and admits “that hardly helps my inability to build friendships.” Marisol grins and kisses her again, deeply. They get a little handsy, but it doesn’t go much further.

Neither of them talk about it after. Marisol starts dating Elisa, and gets really involved in the toxicity of that relationship. Hope finishes the game with Noah. 

Both relationships don’t survive the real world for more than three months. Hope finds her mind periodically drifting back to Marisol…

After sending a text, they meet up for brunch and the rest is history. For some reason being out of the villa erases a lot of their awkwardness- now they’re just best friends. They ramble about politics with each other, have most of the same values, and consume the same kind of media. Hope invites Marisol on a work trip to somewhere in South America, and they become more than friends.

Best. Dressed. Couple. Ever. Neither of them keep active social media, but what does get posted to instagram is absolute fire. Marisol has that really classic, monotone, sleek fashion taste and Hope has the really elegant style with bright contrasting colors and sharp silhouettes. They are… Stunning.

A lot of LITG couples struggle with the day to day. Hope and Noah struggled with this- they were totally fine when they were doing grand gestures or being intensely affectionate, but then when little hiccups came up or the daily minutiae of making food/going about their daily life set in they couldn’t keep the same affectionate energy. Hope and Marisol do not have that problem what so ever. While they can be super affectionate, that part of their relationship is a bit more lacking whilst they get along really well on all the little details.

Their dynamic is like highschool lovers because neither of them have had such an emotionally important sapphic relationship before. They’re absolutely infatuated with one another and feel like it’s them against the world. There’s a ‘we’re building our empire’ vibe. But equally explosive is their arguments- Marisol is passive aggressive and Hope is SO reactive. Their disagreements, though few and far between, end in screaming and sobbing in separate rooms. They definitely break up a few times, then Hope will bring flowers and beg to get back together or Marisol will awkwardly show up and pretend that nothing ever happened. They mellow out with age and consistency in the relationship, but the first few years are super intense. 

Love is Hope making an effort to plan out vacations/events for them then insisting Marisol follow through and come. Love is Marisol encouraging Hope to find a WOC therapist and talk about anger management and insecurity with her. Love is Hope holding Marisol accountable for making selfish mistakes and insisting, calmly and firmly, that she needs to apologize and make amends. Love is Marisol finding little jokes that make Hope laugh and then peppering them around her world, forcing Hope to admit that she loves the ducks of the month. 

No kids, no attachments to their hometowns, two large corporate incomes- they live their absolute best life. Travelling and fashion are the big investments for them. I don’t think either of them really feels a need for home ownership, so they periodically upgrade just for the hell of it and enjoy condo/apartment living. 

Almost every day they visit each other’s office for lunch. It’s not a consistent ‘at noon my wife comes’ because it changes with their workflow. But even if it’s a busy day, Hope will visit and sneak Marisol a coffee during a 5 minute break, or Marisol will show up and they’ll eat lunch in Hope’s office with the door firmly closed and the blinds drawn. They’re not overly affectionate in public though- Marisol is a fan of kissing Hope’s wrist and the back of her hand, and Hope loves to run her hands through Marisol’s hair and hold the back of her neck. 

Light nsfw but they definitely come into their own sexually through each other. Neither of them has a lot of experience with women, and I think if they were with someone who was experienced it would be a process of embarrassment and discomfort. But because they’re both learning together, the power dynamic is a lot more balanced and they don’t enforce strict roles onto themselves. 

They adopt a really crotechedy, mean old cat and constantly joke that he’s the man of the house. He’s an asshole, but they’d both die for him (and they both just want some other presence to be in the home, even if they don’t interact with him outside of sitting in the same room). 

While they’re still friendly with the other contestants, they’re much closer to their non-Love Island friends, and are generally more isolated than other characters. They’ll show up to the 1 year, 5 year, and 10 year reunion, but not much more than that. Neither of them were close enough to keep tabs on or reach out to other islanders. Maybe Noah reaches out years down the road and he reconciles with Hope, but neither of them feel the need to keep in touch. 

They are SO supportive of each other’s projects and careers. They both intently listen to the other ramble about their workdays, have a deep understanding of what the other’s position and role is, and want the other to be challenged. Marisol often jokes (and honestly it’s kind of true) that if Hope was sick she could fill in, and a couple of times when ranting about a negotiation Hope has suggested a tactic that ended up working. 

When Marisol’s dad is struggling with alzheimers, Hope is honestly more attentive to him and the situation than Marisol can bring herself to be. Hope visits him at least three times a week, takes charge of all the arrangements, and encourages Marisol to visit him on ‘good days’ while quietly discouraging her from visiting on bad days. 

They’re the best aunties to Hope’s brother’s kids. Hope and Marisol 100% spoil them, and are happy to watch them for a weekend, but are always relieved when they go home and the house is quiet again. 

As they age, they both get a lot more philanthropic than they were. I can see Marisol retiring and accepting a role on some kind of board or nonprofit. Hope will work for as long as she possibly can (and considering she works in corporate, that’s a lot longer than you’d expect). They both struggle with retirement, and how to provide structure to a day when they can’t work like they used to.

Hope really struggles with losing the mobility and strength that she’s used to having. Not being able to do things that she ‘should be able to’ brings her to the point of a breakdown multiple times. Marisol struggles to know what to do, outside of laying a sympathetic hand on Hope’s forearm and nodding sadly. They still travel a lot, but it’s more confined to tours and cruises than it used to. Admitting that her health/bodily abilities make an annual trip unfeasible is the hardest thing Hope ever does.

And despite how Hope’s health is the first to start wavering, Marisol has similar problems to her dad. Far too soon. Maybe a year after Hope admits they need to opt out of another trip abroad, Marisol starts to turn sharply downhill. Hope can pretend it’s fine, that Marisol hasn’t been blankly sitting on the couch for 9 hours or forgetting basic information or getting lost in the middle of stories. But then the wandering starts, and the fear and confusion at not recognizing where she is. Admitting Marisol needs more care than their condo can provide, that SHE can provide, absolutely shatters Hope. They both move into an assisted living home, because Hope can’t bear to leave Marisol alone.

The worst days are when Marisol outright doesn’t remember her. There wasn’t anyone in her life early on who looks like Hope, so there’s no one for Hope to ‘pretend to be’ like a sister or aunt. Marisol will just assume Hope’s a nurse on these days. Being brushed aside and dismissed is better than not seeing Marisol at all. 

But the good days are so lovely. Gentle. Soft. Both of them feel whole.

Marisol passes before Hope does, and Hope doesn’t have it in her to move out of the home and be on her own again.

[hopeshoodie]

One of the reasons I find LITG so compelling as opposed to a lot of other interactive fiction games (and why I keep coming back to their characters) is how realistically nuanced all the personalities are. Gary is a bit superficial but with very important and likable lived experiences, Rocco is hypocritical and fake but with depth, Hope is amazing and confident but with a temper, Shannon is smart and conniving but with little control of her emotions. So I thought I’d make of list of

The Things I Don’t Like in my Favorite LIs

I’ll try to keep these more based in canon than headcanon, and I’ll move in order of how much I adore them. These aren’t gripes I have with how they were written or things I’d want Fusebox to change, they’re aspects of their characters that I dislike. 

Noah

God I love Noah. He’s one of my favorite characters… Across most media lol. While I do see his cowardice as a flaw, I don’t dislike it- I lowkey relate to it a lot and think it makes him a really interesting and likable character. 

But I do dislike his willingness to take actions he knows are wrong (or let things happen through inaction) when he knows he won’t face the consequences for them. This manifests most obviously in how he reacts to the whole ON situation. He lets Hope attack Priya without admitting to his role in leading her on, and if he and MC kiss he never tells Hope about it. He knows in this case that Hope will direct all her anger onto the girls and that the rest of the villa won’t call him out, so he doesn’t do the right thing and tell the truth. If MC directly calls him out and says he needs to choose between Hope and Priya, he’ll get angry and storm off. He also needles Hope, either intentionally or unintentionally, but not providing reassurance and treating her anger as baseless- basically making it look like she’s being irrational to everyone else. But Noah does openly flirt via glances and faces with other women, and makes comments to Hope he knows will piss her off. The part that bothers me about that is how easily he just doesn’t take responsibility for his role, instead acting like the victim who’s just trying to fix everything.

That tendency to do the thing that will hurt those around him if he knows he won’t get caught extends to his friends too. He leads Priya on when he lowkey knows in his spirit he’s not going to switch to her. I CANNOT find the post for the life of me, please tag me if you find it, but someone posted this whole theory that Noah had to be the one to vote Lottie and Bobby/Gary out, despite him and Lottie being friends. I think it’s pretty canon that Noah’s observant enough to sense which couples were doing ‘well’ in the game, so it would make sense for him to advocate against getting rid of their biggest competition.

Just in general his lack of control of his body language would make me mad irl. I know they had to write him that way because otherwise him liking MC would come out of nowhere, but having someone who’s smart and otherwise loyal making very obvious eyes at other girls, winking and pining after someone else so visibly? Boo boo the fool.

Priya

I love Priya for the same reasons I love Noah- she recognizes that it’s just a game and knows how much mental space to give to occurences (she’s not out to hurt anyone but also knows when drama is dumb), she’s mature and open about her intentions, and she’s witty. My first playthrough, I loved her and Hope the most and wanted every other girl to fuck off. But she’s got a ton of character flaws that bother me.

While she can recognize good strategy in the game and what’s ‘too real’, she’s bad at applying it to herself. For example, when everyone gets mad at her for Operation Nope, she acts like that was totally unforeseen and goes into victim mode. That response always bothered me and I really preferred the moments where she could accept that she was probably unpopular and going to be voted out. She recognizes that taking MC’s man is the best way to cause as few waves as possible in the villa coming in, but then if MC is openly hostile about it she once again goes into victim mode.

She’s vindictive and not good at letting things go when she feels slighted. When Lottie tries to walk away from a confrontation, Priya realizes she’s right and won’t let it go. When Noah leads her on and she realizes he won’t switch to her, she rightfully feels shafted and goes and tells Hope to force Noah to either switch or admit his shitty behavior. This is my least favorite action Priya takes in the season- no one gains anything from her bragging to Hope and the villa that Noah said he might be happier dating Priya. Priya might feel vindicated in the moment, but it hurts both Hope and Noah and it ruins Priya’s long game in the villa. 

She’s kind of basic lmao. Like I love her and I love how sincere she is but like… Discovering boy bands in 2020… Alright you do you girl I’m just gonna judge you a little bit. No shade to anyone who loves pop music, cringe culture is dead, I just don’t really think that meshes super well with Priya ‘mature and aloof’ character.

Henrik

He’s very afraid to be the butt of the joke or seen as killing other people’s vibe, so he’ll ignore his own feelings for the sake of others. The scene where his misunderstands the body count thing is a really low-stakes version of that- he gets confused, but instead of embracing that genuine confusion and admitting he was wrong, he plays the whole thing off as an intentional joke. That indicates to me he’d be willing to do the same on a bigger scale- be it him not asking for what he wants in a relationship or communicating his boundaries. This further makes sense with how he says yes to Blake and how if MC dumps him he just gives up and accepts Chelsea despite not really feeling invested in that relationship.

You can have a hobby, that’s great my dude. But for the love of god talk about something else once in a while. I feel like he acknowledges this with the ‘you know I don’t live in a cabin’ joke, but it doesn’t erase how he always defaults to talking about his job in casual settings.

Carl

Carl has very limited unique scenes to him because of the whole post-CA-personality-merge thing that happened to all the CA boys, so there’s not a lot of in-text fiction to base his flaws on (and most are just headcanons) but-

He makes it clear he doesn’t care about the game or drama, which is totally fine. But he doesn’t so much as ask MC how she’s feeling or about it, when it’s clearly very important to her. 

His poseeeeee. I hate it. Like he’s kinda cute, but whyyyyy did they give him fuckboy hands.

Marisol 

My relationship with Marisol is a lot of ‘I love the thought of you but I need you to be better’, so there’s a LOT that I dislike about her

The constant posturing of needing everyone else to see how Deep (™) and Smart (™) she is. Literally everyone and their mom agree that when playing S2, Marisol’s anaylzing people is annoying as fuck (and not always accurate). She justifies her analysis with basic body language (which is often inaccurate or incorrectly applied) instead of just saying ‘I think Gary likes you’ or ‘Hope and Noah seem fake’. Her need to project intelligence is condescending and not genuine.

An extension of that performativeness is how she stifles the funnier parts of herself. She gets insecure if MC goofs around in the grocery store and treats genuine jokes that she makes as embarrassing (saying the Duck of the Month club is an embarrassing secret and justifies being silly as ‘bobby rubbing off on me’). She’s so scared to seem unintelligent or like a ‘normie’ that she’ll discredit genuine parts of herself. 

 Her need to firmly tell everyone she’s bisexual while shutting down potential wlw relationships and only aggressively pursuing men. This is a super realistic flaw, I’ve met so many questioning and bisexual women like this, but it doesn’t mean it’s not frustrating to me. 

How she insists that she doesn’t want commitment- hopping from boy to boy, not letting relationships develop deeper intimacy- when she clearly wants it. After day 23 with MC, Marisol becomes so intensely loving and physically involved, which contrasts the very hands off approach she took to other, earlier relationships. She’s unable to admit to herself and others that she wants to be emotionally and physically vulnerable with someone. I find the second iteration very endearing as she’s overcome the former, but for most of the season I’d find her ‘no-commitments’ attitude very annoying.

Lol and as a bonus content, here’s Shane. You thought I was gonna leave him off of here just because he’s not in canon? Lol no, I’ve been thinking and writing about him so much recently. I can’t help myself. This blog is for the gremlin who lives inside my head and no one else.

Shane

Even though he calls other people out for having emotional reactions, he’s very motivated by anger and frustration as well. He just is condescending towards those who don’t internalize it like he does, which is unhealthy for him and frustrating for other people. 

If he doesn’t like a person, he has no problem being unkind to them. It’s never open bullying or combativeness, but he’ll make them feel left out in group settings or not laugh at their jokes/engage with them out of politeness. It doesn’t take much for him to dislike someone either- if they do a few bad things he disagrees with or one big thing he’ll hold a grudge about it.