#tw: racism from pb

[lizzybeth1986]

A Brief History of Alternative Romances in Choices

Series - TRR's Alternative LIs: The "Romances" that Didn't Happen

TW: Mentions of OH2's handling of Rafael (though not in detail), racism.

To be clear, this introductory essay isn't directly related to the rest of this series. TRR operated very differently to the other Choices series' when it came to alternative LIs, so a lot of what I'll discuss here won't actually apply to its specific romance mechanics.

Still, it is important to explore what it means to give an LI an alternative romance in PB, and for that we need to look at what the approach to such romances were. Both in the past, and after TRR became popular. Looking into this gives us a general idea of which specific LIs got an alternative romance, why just them and not others, and what such developments said about the way the writing team viewed a particular character.

The Choices App was introduced in 2016, with three stories that were likely meant to cater to different audiences. Out of the three, the crime drama Most Wanted was the only series that focused on a single romantic pairing.

The other two - The Freshman and The Crown and the Flame - presented players with multiple romance options for their main character(s). TCaTF split its narrative between two main characters - Kenna Rys and Dominic Hunter - exploring both Kenna's fight to gain back and then expand her kingdom, and Dom's discovery of his heritage as a member of the Fire Tribes. Even though Kenna and Dom could be paired romantically, they had other potential LIs. Notably, Kenna had 6 (Dom, Tevan, Raydan, Annelyse, Val and Diavolos) and Dom only 2 serious contenders (Kenna, Rose, Sei, Will Jackson all had romances with him. Of these four, Rose was eliminated early on in the series, and Will was a last-minute addition at the end of TCaTF3). TCaTF didn't seem to focus much on the love lives of these LIs outside of Kenna and Dom, until Book 3 in 2017 - and of the cast only Raydan and Tevan seemed to get hints at other potential romances (with Aurynn and Zenobia, respectively).

Unlike MW and TCaTF, The Freshman's focus zeroed in on just one character. It was the first series to feature a customizable MC, whose experiences and choices alone would move the story forward. The original three-book series featured romances with three LIs - Chris Powell, James Ashton and Kaitlyn Liao. By the third book, two more were added to the roster - Zig Ortega and Becca Davenport.

You could choose a boy/girlfriend by the end of Book 1, and change partners in Book 3 if you weren't happy with your first LI and/or wanted one of the newer ones. The first three books didn't really have any alternative romances for the LIs themselves, but all that was about to change (for two LIs) in The Sophomore (released in 2017).

(Screenshots from the UnruleLee Gaming Youtube Channel)

In TS, the MC had the opportunity to pair James and Kaitlyn up with other side characters if she wasn't dating them. Kaitlyn begins to show an interest in Annisa, the new keyboardist in her punk band. Similarly for James and Reyna, a member of the editorial staff of Hartfeld's student-run newspaper. Both pairings only resulted in long-term relationships if the MC encouraged them enough, and she had both free and paywalled opportunities to do so.

What is noticeable at this point is that there are three LIs that are not given romantic alternatives - Chris, Zig and Becca. Though members of the fandom did headcanon certain pairings that had some potential in canon (such as Zig with his roommate Aaron and Becca with Madison), the narrative itself never indicated any romances for these characters, preferring perhaps to focus on their romance with the MC.

A possible reason for this could have been popularity. At the time, some in the fandom theorized that Chris was the most popular of the OG LIs, and that Zig and Becca garnered popularity quite quickly when they emerged as options in TF3. So there would be a lot more investment from the teams in charge of the book to focus their writing on their MC-centric routes.

James and Kaitlyn received criticism and sometimes outright hate from fans - some of whom complained ad nauseum whenever options to help them with their professional lives or personal development came up, while being largely accepting of the more popular LIs' conflicts. So it is possible that the writing focused on giving these two LIs other romantic options, in a way they didn't need to for the other three.

However, giving James and Kaitlyn other love interests didn't affect their overall writing. The Freshman series handled the balance between all five LIs with a deft hand, ensuring that every LI had adequate growth, development and attention within the narrative. Whether they were single or paired with the MC, all of them had unique stories that allowed the characters to make mistakes and learn from them, to confront their fears and conquer them, to deal with their problems in a realistic way.

James' story wasn't simply stuck on Reyna - he spent most of TS honing his writing skills and developing a novel, and later co-writing a play with the MC. Kaitlyn's story wasn't simply about romancing Annisa - it was about dealing with her insecurities, building her band from scratch, getting over her fears of Natasha sabotaging her again, being comfortable in her own identity. Their romances with Reyna and Annisa felt like bonus side stories that we could get if we were interested enough...not the be-all and end-all of their stories.

Alternative romances for LIs didn't happen in all books. Many didn't bother with one, especially those that wound up being one-book stories. Some books that ended with an elaborate wedding for an MC and their LI also seemed to do away with this too, mostly by eliminating other love interests or making their presence scarce (for instance, in RoE, the other two LIs for "Katie" virtually disappear when she make her choice, only featuring in brief cameos and mentions). Alternative LIs often featured in series' that were successful enough to get three books, so more often than not, two-book series' like #LoveHacks would barely even have the time to develop new characters to date any LI.

The books that did end up following this route often lasted long enough for at least three books (with PM and ATV standing as exceptions), and likely had more than 3 LIs. In certain books the pairing was paywalled, and in others you could choose a number of free options to encourage the romance.

After a while a pattern seemed to emerge in who got such romances. Sometimes the alternative LI was given only to the "forgotten fourth/fifth" of a series (the extra LI who would get the least attention) - sometimes the "lucky" LI would be a character that was NOT a late addition to the roster of LIs, but an OG LI that just got so little attention and buildup it became obvious that they were given an alternative because the writers couldn't be bothered to imagine what their romance with the MC would look like. One can confidently say this because very often the "alternative romance" was written with more thought than the romance with the LI or any of that character's individual problems, and it started becoming very obvious that the writers felt more comfortable imagining the playthroughs where such LIs could only be friends with the MC.

Once the Choices app found its "core demographic" and started churning out more books, there were more and more cases of the writers indicating who their favourites were, early on (through providing a higher frequency and quality of diamond scenes for certain LIs, and through their interviews before the book releases). Which resulted in those characters getting more popular and others less so. And it was this "popularity" that often impacted writing choices and treatment.

Such a system of storytelling results in a vicious cycle, where a team will either assume already that one particular character will rake in more money, and give them a head start over others...or where a writer - through intentional or unintentional bias - could push forward a "favourite" front-and-center to the detriment of other LIs.

Here's a list of books that wrote alternative romances for certain LIs (except for OH, but I will get to that one in a minute). See if you can figure a pattern in at least most of these books:

High School Story 3 (2018) - Caleb Mitchell (Jade Ali), Emma Hawkins (Luis Marino), Aiden Zhou (Cameron Levy)

High School Story: Class Act 3 (2019-20) - Skye Crandall (Lilith Vidal)

Desire and Decorum 3 (2018-19) - Luke Harper (Cordelia Parsons)

Perfect Match 2 (2018) - Sloane Washington (Khaan Mousavi)

Across the Void (2018-19) - Zekei Sentry becomes a love interest both to the MC as well as their sibling Eos Elara.

Endless Summer 3 (2017-18) - Quinn Kelly (Kele), Sean Gayle (Michelle Nguyen). (Technically, almost every LI does get some potential in terms of alternative romance...but Estela and Jake's pairings feature mostly in the AUs shown by The Endless (Sean x Michelle, Estela x Zahra, Jake × Yvonne are all shown - among other AU romances). Quinn and Sean's romances, however, are solidified in the MC's handfasting ceremony with their LI, where the couples could share a romantic look and Michelle even leans on Sean's shoulder.)

In theory, the alternative romance could sound tempting. It allows the MC to demonstrate care and concern for an LI regardless of their romantic interest, or lack thereof. It may potentially give the reader the surface comfort of seeing an LI they rejected lead a happy life with someone they can love. It seems like a win-win situation for everyone.

But it becomes apparent when you comb through both the romantic and friendly versions of these characters' stories, that something is not quite right. I will take two LIs here as an example.

(Screenshots from Abhirio's YouTube Channel (D&D3) and Danni Stone's YouTube Channel (PM1))

Sloane Washington's major character points in Book 1 involve her love for coding and astronomy, as well as her strong bond with her mother. Book 2 (2018) does very minimal work on either of these; once Khaan enters the picture, almost every diamond scene she gets focuses solely on the possibility of a romance with him. The narrative doesn't even focus the reunion with her mother Kim on her!

Likewise, many, many complaints emerged during D&D3 (2019) about the way Luke's wedding was handled. His mother - who is supposedly very close to him - only features in letters and one memory about his brother Ezra's gambling addiction, doesn't have a name, is given a used sprite that isn't even dressed in period-appropriate clothing, and never even attends his wedding. On the other hand, his alternative romance with Cordelia was explored in excruciating detail, to the point where the two are given a wedding and the promise of a future child. It is almost as if the writers couldn't bear to envision him marrying their precious MC.

There are two major things that become apparent the more you observe the above list of LIs who got alternative romances.

One, the LIs that don't get "alternative LIs" are often white and male (Chris in TF, Micheal in HSS, Ernest in D&D, Meridien in AtV) with a couple exceptions. The writing takes care to weave their issues and conflicts into the MC's larger narrative and try their best to ensure that we become invested in whatever they have going on in their stories. A good example of this are Ernest's larger storylines about his stepson Percival and his destroyed house in Book 3. On certain rare occasions (especially when there is no default white man in the LI cast), an ambiguously brown man who can be easily exoticized fits into this role of "Creator's Pet" just as well. The writers spend enough time on perfecting their romances with the MC that there is literally no time for anything (or anyone) else.

Two, in all but two of these books, the LI that gets their 'alternative romance' most often...is a black love interest. On the rare occasion a white character is included in such a list, it is often a canonically queer white woman (only if she is an LI tho, because white female side characters have attention and love practically showered upon them) who ends up in such a position (Emma and Skye from the HSS series'). But besides that, it is usually the black LI - who btw is often one of the first people we interact with and written as the most approachable - that bears the brunt of a narrative that makes it clear that it isn't interested in exploring their story on their terms.

That is why Luke's mother never gets a name or his younger brother is hardly seen. That is why Sloane is sidelined in her own reunion scene with her mother. That is why most of the romantic playthroughs featuring these characters feel so scarce on the details or the nuances, while their white male (or ambiguous brown male) counterparts chew scenery in their own and everyone else's playthroughs.

In narratives like these, the "alternative LI" is no longer the sweet, sensitive, "they deserve happiness" route that it pretends to be...but more a sign that the writers are uncomfortable with writing said LI in a romance with the main character, and the audience they most want to cater to is uncomfortable reading it.

When the intent behind such a supposedly-nice gesture becomes so rife with bad faith, what is the end result? What happens when an 'alternative LI' - a route that seemed to promise happier futures for certain LIs - becomes more of a tool to punish them for lack of popularity? What happens when the company that created this system stops pretending to value the diversity they claimed to pride themselves in??

What happens - is that you get a story like Open Heart 2.

A lot of the stories I mentioned above were written within the space of 2017-2019. In fact, most of the books in the list came out in 2018. During these years Choices was gaining popularity in the choice-based storytelling business, and romance stories were on the rise. Many Choices Books at this point had at least 3 LIs - 2 male and 1 female - and some had more. And most of the writing teams managed to get away with treating their LIs of colour (specifically their black male and female LIs) badly without significant backlash.

At the time of OH2's release (2020), the book had four LIs in its lineup. Ethan Ramsey - like most white male LIs - was meant from the start to chew scenery. Comparatively the other LIs: Jackie Varma, Bryce Lahela and Rafael Aveiro were at a disadvantage and often it felt like the team seemed to work more on writing them out rather than incorporating their stories organically into the narrative. Rafael particularly seemed to suffer from this in the first book, and by this time making one LI the "forgotten fourth" became accepted as the norm. So when OH2's cover showed every single LI except for Rafael, there was a sense of mild alarm.

It soon became clearer, however, that something more insidious was afoot. The book itself began with a funeral, and Rafael was missing in the first chapter. When Rafael stans finally did get to see him, in Ch 2, they would be hit with a nasty surprise - the LI who was utterly devoted to their MC and introduced them to his beloved Vovó, would be shown dating a childhood sweetheart without any explanation or warning.

(Screenshots from Gabbieschoices YouTube Channel)

When asked about the sudden shift, PB's response was cryptic...but also ominous to a fandom who had already seen all kinds of unfair, horrible treatment meted out to a wide range of black characters by then:

For all intents and purposes, the relationship between the MC and Rafael appeared to be over, with very little by way of closure. Even the few diamond scenes they would get later would show friends-only options. As the book went on, it became frighteningly clear that the narrative was planning to do away with Rafael. At one point, Rafael even spoke of leaving the city altogether, and there were hints towards a far, far worse manner of departure in later chapters.

(Most people who were playing at the time remember PB's plans for OH2 Ch11-12, and the backlash, response and hiatus that followed. If you weren't there at the time, PB's Statement following the backlash - "Representation at Pixelberry" - briefly alludes to the issues that people in the fandom had with the writing decisions OH2 took at the time)

As most of us know by now, this ended with significant changes in the existing story - ensuring that Rafael lived, reinstating him as an LI and having Sora break up with him so they could disappear from the book altogether. Post 2020, no further attempts have been made the "alternative LI" route for LIs.

Part of this could be attributed to the change in format. With the introduction of VIP-access and single-LI books, the need to prepare an alternative romance for an LI has reduced greatly. Other factors too could have contributed: the extra romances becoming too much work, possible fatigue among fandom towards such pairings leading to less revenue from diamond options featuring them, certain books having only one or at most two LIs.

No one in PB has spoken of Rafael's treatment or the inclusion of Sora in OH directly...but since OH2 featured the last ever alternative romance till date, it would be safe to say that perhaps even PB recognised that the Sora story crossed a significant line. In any case, this practice hasn't been adopted in recent books in a while.

At the outset, one could argue that the Rafael and Sora situation is extremely different from the "alternative romances" I have listed so far. Unlike all the others, the intent behind introducing Sora was to deny the player a Rafael romance altogether, rather than present Rafael himself with an option. Whatever the problems with the other LIs, at least they got a romance with the MC!

However, I do think the Sora story was rooted in what the alternative LI route had become over time. It may have started with good intentions - with the idea that perhaps if the numbers showed certain LIs being ignored, it may be kinder to give them happy futures with other people who would love them. As long as the alternative romance was just a part of the character's larger story (as is the case with James and Kaitlyn), it felt less harmful and more sweet.

But when the ability to rake in finances becomes a marker of a character's worth, when the writing itself rigs the game from the start of a series, when both PB and fandom find themselves incapable of examining their own biases with regards to said characters...the purpose of such romances becomes warped.

At such points, it becomes more about establishing that this character's romance with the MC is not worth exploring. About delivering the message that it's okay to drop this LI - that as a player, you had more chance of getting your money's worth if you did drop them.

To be more clear, the Sora story is a culmination of what happens when a certain type of LI is set up to fail from the start. There are less opportunities for them to win the reader over, less time, less options to bring in money. In such an environment, the "alternative romance" becomes about considering certain types of LIs "less worthy", and spending far less time developing their MC-route - because as far as the "data", "money" and "finances" are concerned, they hardly have one!

The culmination of such a system, is that the worth of an LI can be brought down so much that the writers become comfortable with killing a non-main and non-white LI. Sora, as an alternative LI, was a way to write Rafael himself out as a romantic option, not a route meant to move his own story ahead. Sora is what happens when PB pushes forward favouritism and racism to the point where the writing is emboldened to take such steps for LIs of colour (particularly black LIs) they deem unpopular.

Which is why - in the present climate - the elimination of such a system is a marginally better prospect. If we cannot trust such a seemingly "nice" process, what's the use of having it around?

This essay series isn't about all of PB's stories, however. It is about TRR. Still - it is essential to explore and understand the original intent behind using these romance routes, and the history of how such storylines developed over time. Considering that TRR released from 2017-2018, analysing the significant patterns of that time places the writing of TRR's alternate romances into context.

TRR's approach to the alternative LI route has been different from other books, in very specific ways. One of the most prominent ways was that the narrative featured romantic options for the three OG LIs, and briefly attempted one for a fourth (the closest parallel to this in another book would be Endless Summer). Even popular love interests were presented with romantic routes, in case the MC wasn't going to marry them.

Does this mean that TRR managed to avoid falling into the same rabbit hole of bias and favouritism, that the other books did? Not by a long shot. The same problems just manifested in very different ways - and in this essay series, I will discuss those problems, romance route by romance route.

Next - Liam and Olivia: When You Prefer the Side Character to the Main

[ragingstillness]

SPOILERS for Endeavor Season 8

So Endeavor season 8 is finally airing in the US. I just watched the second episode and I can’t help thinking about something else. Don’t get me wrong, I like the show, it’s something I’ll watch of my own volition that I find genuinely interesting. But today’s episode reminded me of my favorite show of all time and I couldn’t help but compare them and find Endeavor falling way short. 

TW: mention of death, mention of murder, mention of abortion, mention of sexual assault, mention of domestic violence, mention of sex work, mention of crime, mention of PTSD, mention of homophobia, slight mention of racism, mention of suicide, mention of workplace accident

/start rant

To preface, my favorite show of all time is Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. It’s a tv show based on a series of books. It’s set in Australia, more specifically Melbourne, in 1929, and features a female detective and a wide cast of other characters. 

To begin let’s look at the women in Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries which from now on I’ll be referring to as MFMM. 

Main recurring characters: 

-Phryne Fisher

-Dottie Collins

-Jane Fisher

-Aunt Prudence

-Doctor Mac

Now let’s look at the women in Endeavor, all 8 seasons btw, in comparison to MFMM’s three.

Main recurring characters:

-Dorothea Frazil

-Win Thursday

-Shirley Trewlove 

-Joan Thursday

And honestly this is me being generous classing them as main recurring characters. Joan and Dorothea appear most often, with Win in the background as one of the main character’s wives, and Shirley Trewlove was only in the show for a season. 

In contrast Phryne, Dottie, Aunt Prudence, and Doctor Mac appear in all three seasons many times and Jane appears at least once if not more often in each. 

I’ll come back to this with characterization later now let’s move on to another thing I find Endeavor falling short in, especially in this season 8 episode. 

In this episode we encounter a man who it eventually turns out has had a gay relationship in his past that his current wife doesn’t know about. He’s trying to connect with his past lover, while both of them are married to women, but his past lover doesn’t want to be together again. This leads the man to kill himself and be one of the few red-herring deaths in the show. I’m sorry but bury your gays much? Is it because it’s airing during pride month? Is that it? Are you trying to bait and switch queer people PBS? (Sorry I’m just kind of mad)

And now let’s compare to an episode where something sort of similar happens in MFMM. A woman working in a factory dies a gruesome death after falling into one of the machines. Soon after, her boss dies and foul play is suspected. It turns out that the woman was indeed killed in an accident and that aside from working illegal overtime, there was no foul play involved in her death. Nevertheless, it is also revealed that she was in a relationship with Dr. Mac and that yet another woman at the factory had a crush on her. Once again, it’s a red-herring death, as she was not killed by anyone, simply an accident. The queer love is connected to the episode as the other woman with a crush killed the boss to frame Dr. Mac, but ultimately the death of the woman was not part of the whole scheme. 

The relationships are treated very respectfully and Phryne helps Dr. Mac mourn her lover’s death in a very touching scene. In contrast to the Endeavor episode, in which we do see a set of pictures of the two men kissing, we never see anything at all between the two women in Miss Fisher, yet the relationship is so much deeper and explored with much more respect. And while it is a red-herring death it’s still important to the overall case. 

Now I have mentioned that MFMM is set in 1929. Endeavor is set in 1950. 21 years later. And yet Endeavor is less respectful about their queer characters. And on that note I return to the discussion of female characters. 

Dorothea Frazil in Endeavor is a journalist. She is well known in the area and well-liked and often is a source of information for the main characters in exchange for favors or exclusives and often in exchange for nothing at all. She’s an independent woman with a great sense of humor and a lot of self-respect. Unfortunately, she is one of the few female characters in Endeavor I can say that about. 

Win Thursday is married to one of Endeavor’s two main characters and acts as a pseudo mother figure to the main main character. She is often seen cooking, or cleaning, or caring for her husband, son, daughter, and pseudo adopted son, the main main character Endeavor Morse, who just goes by Morse. There is nothing wrong with any of that, and she’s shown to be an intelligent, caring person, who stands up for herself when she needs to. However, she never really gets out of that role. She is a mother and a homemaker and a wife and that’s kind of it. She has no other storylines and in fact other than being window dressing or character development for the main characters, she’s really not involved in any of the show’s storylines. 

Shirley Trewlove is the first female constable in the police station from Endeavor. She faces a lot of flack for that and is condescended to by most of the men, including the head of the station, who views her as similar to his late daughter. She is shown to be very competent, able to stand up for herself, composed, kind, and intelligent. However, she is only in the show for one season then transfers out to a different station, ultimately not leaving a larger impact on the show or the main characters. 

Don’t get me started on Joan Thursday. She’s a character that I expect the show wants us to like but I simply don’t. I find her irresponsible, selfish, wishy-washy, and grating. She is the main love interest for Morse and their will-they won’t-they is one of the most infuriating things about the show. Admittedly at the beginning of the series she is very young, so a lot of her issues can be attributed to that, but she just continues to make poor decisions when she should know better and becomes more of an irritant to any progress than any help. She’s put on this pedestal by Morse and her parents and when she runs away from home due to feeling pressured by her parents, her father goes through a period of completely disowning and shaming her. 

Shall I add that we learn next to nothing about the pasts of any of these characters. 

In contrast:

Phryne Fisher is one of the most vibrant, intelligent, excellently written female characters I have ever seen. She’s witty, she’s comfortable in her body, she’s free-spirited, she’s very astute, she’s clever, she’s multi-talented, she’s self-possessed, she’s loyal, she’s passionate, she’s a feminist, she’s an ally, she’s supportive, she’s the whole package. We learn a ton about her past and the traumas that have shaped her into the person she is. She was an ambulance driver in WW1, leaving her with PTSD. She was in an abusive relationship with a man who beat her in her youth. She has lived all over the world and traveled to many places. She carries the weight of the death of her sister and her inability to truly get a confession out of the man she believes to be her sister’s killer. There’s so much depth to her. Yes she’s the main character but I’d argue we get nowhere near that much depth on Morse himself, despite having more seasons, longer episodes, and also being a main character. 

Dottie Collins is also a very complex character. She begins the show as a maid for a friend of Aunt Prudence, but quickly leaves that job to become Phryne’s housemate and housekeeper. She’s deeply Catholic, superstitious, unendingly sweet, but she’s also courageous, intelligent, and adaptable. Her religion is a point of contention for her and Phryne, who appears to be an atheist, but the two of them talk about it often and respect each others’ beliefs. Dottie has a sister who is a sex worker and it’s a point of major conflict between them but Dottie’s feelings about her sister are complex and if she treats her sister poorly she learns from her mistakes and apologizes and eventually they settle into a truce of sorts. Dottie gets into a relationship with a constable from a police station nearby and when he begins to veer towards patriarchal values she pushes back on it and successfully manages to make it clear to him that she is not his property and will not stand to be treated as such. She’s more than just Phryne’s sidekick, the two women make each other better people over the course of the show. 

Jane Fisher, and in this case I’m referring to Phryne’s sort-of adopted daughter not her late sister of the same name, is a young orphan living under the care of a verbally abusive woman. She ends up giving Phryne crucial information on a murder case and Phryne, even after professing to not enjoy dealing with children, takes Jane in. Jane is shown to be intelligent, getting a good education under Phryne and putting it to good use. She is also shown to be headstrong and resourceful. When Phryne begins teaching a self-defense class alongside comportment for down on their luck girls, it becomes clear that Jane is also vicious and ready to defend herself and very good at it. 

Aunt Prudence is a fascinating character. She’s an elderly Aunt of Phryne’s, very rich, very proper, and very snooty. However, over time she is also shown to care a great deal about her niece, no matter how judgemental she is about Phryne’s open sexuality. She is deeply committed to her charity work and truly cares about her friends. She also has a disabled son who tragically passes away in the show and whom she has cared for by herself for his whole life and deeply loves. She doesn’t approve of Phryne’s lifestyle but she doesn’t directly interfere to stop it. She treats Phryne as the independent adult she is. 

Doctor Mac is Phryne’s best friend and a very useful friend to have with regards to Phryne’s detective work. Mac has her medical license as a woman, which is unusual for the time, and she does take some flack for it. She’s a lesbian who has essentially a very close qpp relationship with a presumably straight woman (I have my doubts about Phryne’s sexuality but that’s likely wishful thinking). Mac and Phryne are each others’ confidants, having been made friends by both serving in WW1. Mac cares a ton about women’s rights, especially their rights to proper medical care, including safe abortions. She is disgusted by men who disrespect women, stands up for domestic violence survivors, and sympathizes with sexual assault victims. She also stands up for the rights of black women, but that isn’t quite as central to her character, more just a fun cool fact from one episode. Mac is caring and witty and sarcastic and kind and fun and very very smart. 

The difference between the two shows is stark to say the least. Not to mention that all other women who appear in Endeavor are usually victims, used as motivation for men committing crimes, cheaters, criminals themselves, unhelpful witnesses, or other underdeveloped roles. In contrast, the other women who appear in MFMM are nuanced, have complicated relationships with their own pasts, with the people around them. They range from sex workers to professional tennis players, to orphans on the street to the height of society, wives, girlfriends, single women, more defined by their professions and their passions than their relationships to the men around them. While some are the victims of violence they are not brushed aside as a single plot point, they’re treated respectfully and if not, the viewer is shown that the disrespectful treatment was wrong. They feel more like real people with more than three lines of character traits than any of the women in Endeavor. 

So, in conclusion, what really gets me is that Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries is not only set further in the past, the show itself was made earlier than Endeavor. The concept is roughly the same, a detective with unusual skills, somewhat different from everyone around them, working alongside a police detective to solve crimes, usually murders. And yet, not only does MFMM have a better gender balance in casting, its female characters are more complex, its queer characters more prevalent and treated with more respect, the cases more interesting (imo), the main characters deeper, and the show itself more colorful and intriguing. It grinds my gears to watch one show and know that the other is so much better at the same concept. Ultimately, everyone everywhere should watch Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries it is an absolute gem of a show and Endeavor, do better. 

/end rant

[choicesenthusiast]

My Two First Loves, Ch. 39-42 AKA The Incident

What happened this week:

TW: police brutality, racism, gunshot wound, abuse. A heavy bunch of chapters, folks.

MTFL is back, everyone, and with it, of course, is our conflicted teenage MC. I don’t know what counts as dating or breaking up in her book, but while she’s dwelling on her boy drama, Ava’s there to take us to school and never talk about that “moment” before the hiatus ever again. For now, hopefully.

Much to MC’s feeble-brained surprise, the boys are capable of cooperation, and every fibre of her being to drag her obsession away from them and focus on her new hobby: photography club.

The next day we hop into the mind of one Noah Harris, and some insight into his home life, how he cares for his younger sister Hazel (evident in a diamond sledding scene), and his tired mother. Not to mention the fact that he misses you.

In Mason’s POV, we finally get to see the reason for their tragic beef, but first, some insight into Mason’s relationship with his absolute asshole of a father, who controls his growing teenage son’s carb intake like a gym junkie, and if he doesn’t comply, mentally manipulates him into thinking he’s weak and a disappointment.

In a diamond scene, it is revealed that Noah and Mason were especially close friends before the incident, but Mason gave him the access code to their garage and Noah was shot by Mason’s father.

Noah runs into the woods only in time for Mason to catch him with a nasty gunshot wound and drive him to the hospital, because yeah, this poor child was just shot. In a scene prefixed with a trigger warning and a new “skip scene” function, police officers forcibly arrest Noah on his gurney, going even as far as cutting off his airway if he’s black. All while Mason is held back by Mr. Jennings, who watches the whole thing go down with no remorse.

In a disturbingly quick shift of tone, the next chapter goes back to MC’s POV, a situation in which dramatic irony plays a heavy part, because she still doesn't know about the incident and is back on her “Two boys are in love with me” bullshit. She’s still exploring photography in a diamond scene with the shirtless boys. It’s a nice reminder that we are in fact, still reading MTFL.

Thoughts:

Small sidenote in technical changes before we get into things: I do not appreciate the change in the font from all caps. It feels forbidden. Also, the trigger warning and skip scene option were appreciated.

So I guess PB just confirmed that MC is simultaneously the most boring person and entertaining person in this story. I can’t tell if it’s ignorance or just pure obliviousness.

I poked a lot at Mason in previous chapters for comparing his “overbearing father” to MC and Noah’s emotionally manipulative ones, but now I can gladly say that I was wrong and he sadly fits into this category as well. Ch. 41 really switched up quick on Jennings’ attitude towards his son. He’s a lot more emotionally abusive behind-the-scenes, which is unfortunately the case for a lot of people in real life.

While I appreciate that PB is trying to make light of the police brutality and racism (read about it on their blog post here), I definitely don’t think that this was the right book for it. Right intention, wrong time. You really have to consider the tone of the book and I know that they already introduced a little bit of it when MC was arrested but it falls a little flat when the book still carries a ridiculously jovial tone in comparison to say, Ride or Die, or something like that. I especially think that if they really wanted to go through with this plot, they should’ve committed to a black Noah and MC and perhaps a white Mason. Because if they really wanted to bring awareness to the topic, maybe all readers should probably read it. Or maybe it should’ve been told from Noah’s perspective instead of the bystanders, if people are comfortable enough with that idea. Again, it might be different for others (some of you might think this was a great decision! That’s fine) but personally, I appreciate it, yet right intention, wrong time.

[extraterrestrialhumanoid]

Tw: racism, homophobia, bigotry in general, trauma; this is a basic rundown of my life so keep in mind

.

As a totally whitewashed person myself, I've always kind of put people of color on a pedestal. Call it white guilt, call it whatever.

I feel their "auras" or vibes, etc are like 36281531739×more magical than any white person I've ever met. Most especially, I've always appreciated Black women and LGBTQIA of color. They just have some sort of like magical angel fairy unicorn blood dust that just shines out from their melanin like chocolate gold and I just...I just appreciate them so much.

I think back to so many times I've been in need and it's been a Black woman who treated me like her own or helped me and said it was a work of God.

That's the magic I'm talking about. I've never seen that kind of just...warmth and soul and love and Godliness from any white people, male or female, however maybe something pretty close from the LGBTQIA community in GENERAL...but it's not the same. Not even comparable. Like, one is like, you respond with reverence as if you are at the feet of a true deity: you feel blessed and honored to have even been shown that kind of acceptance based off of sheer humanity and the idea of equality, the other is like a slumber party at your brother's house with your best friends and family during a storm, where everyone loves you and accepts you.

Huge Confession:

I was raised by a family of white supremacists, and there has never been a breath of my life that I didn't argue with my family. This is a huge reason for my rejection from my family as a whole. I never conceded to the idea that ANY human life (minus ya know, Nazis) is below any other. As much as my family rejected me, I rejected them because they couldn't reject their bigotry.

My moral code wasn't taught by anyone physical around me. My peers bullied me, and my teachers seemed biased, too. I don't know if it was like, PBS or what, but I *instinctually* knew that racism is bad.

My dad would put some of the few friends I would make (generally POC) he would often make racist jokes at their expense and I would have to defend them all night or protect them in my room from my own father. (He wouldn't hurt them physically, but I'm not sure he didn't traumatize them, the same way he traumatized our family)

I knew homophobia was bad when I was found kissing my first girlfriend before I'd ever even held hands with a boy, and instead of a celebration of Love, I was punished.

I tried to come out as a Trans Male when I was 11 (2002) and my mom brushed it off and told me that I was too young to know what I wanted. Then I tried again at 17, and she just started crying about what she'd do if she'd lost her daughter like that, but here I am: homeless for 10 years (off and on for a month or two in-house, followed by ??? Months of camping, or car-dwelling).

Being raised a certain way isn't valid: it's a copout; it's an excuse to not face the changes you need to make in your life to be a better human being. I say this from an objective, secular perspective.

Every person should constantly review themselves and make edits as needed. Cut the bad, leave some good new stuff, or keep that empty space clean and safe for the opportunity to have something new there later.

I say this from life experience.

You're in control of your own happiness, and your own reality.

[lizzybeth1986]

Quick Thoughts on The White People Waambulance, Chapters 18 and 19

• Sorry this QT is coming out so late, guys. I regret to say my heart wasn't really in this one...and it hasn't been with regards to my QTs for a while. This one might be my last, unless we count me finishing them off for the (not rewritten) Book 1. It's been two years since I began, and the last two books made the process honestly really exhausting.

• I clubbed the two finale chapters together because I really couldn't be bothered to do separate ones for both.

• In fact...I won't be doing any of what I have been doing for my QTs so far. I'll be honest to you: I usually do multiple replays, the last few in tandem with the other routes on YouTube. I go through the scenes one by one. I keep note of differences and variations and carefully choose screenshots that will reflect the gist of the scenes.

But I couldn't be bothered to do any of that this time. I pressed the "continue" and then the "end book" buttons as soon as I finished my first run of those chapters. I'm drained, guys. And I don't think I'll be coming back to the TRH series at least, not even for Liam or Hana or Kiara. Maybe my mind will change by the time the second book comes out (update from present-day Lizzy: no it didn't) but I'm not counting on it. And you'll probably know why by the time this QT ends.

• TW: Discussions on racism, both fandom racism and from within the narrative. The last section of this QT is going to be...pretty heavy, guys.

There's also going to be a lot of anti-Drake, anti-Olivia, anti-Madeleine and anti-Penelope content here, so if you like any of those characters...well, you've been warned.

The ensuing post is going to be LONG, and I know a lot of you have good reasons not to deal with long posts, so here's a tldr:

1. The TRR writing team stick to their weird obsession for jobless whiny white men.

2. Read this book once and you'll feel like you're drowning in an ocean of white tears.

3. WOC continue to get scraps from the writing team, even as they boast of being diverse and inclusive. In fact, they're regularly treated as mere tokens, exotic eye-candy or non-entities, while their behaviour is measured on standards that are very different from their white counterparts (this happens in other books as well).

...okay I wasn't expecting for the tldr to be long too 😅

• Me @ my QTs then:

Me @ my QTs now:

• I'll probably be finishing off my TRR Book 1 QT series when I'm a little less burnt out, but for now this is where it ends, I guess.

• So...here is to summarize the last two chapters: Accident happens. LIs mad. Paparazzi sad (but largely get away scot-free). MC and baby safe. At the Council meeting Kiara slam dunks the murderer of Liam's mother with the style and elegance this fandom still refuses to acknowledge her for. The MC is nice to her for like half a second. Last Apple Ball. New clothes for everyone as if they had a Diwali bumper sale the week before or something. Godfrey is somehow responsible for the security (who thought this was a good idea) and seeing the Auvernese Royal Guard outside our doors is SO not-creepy.

We get to see if we impressed our Auvernese and Monterriso allies enough. Bradshaw compliments Kiara for like half a second. Olivia sees the dude from the Q&A session (Jin) at the Ball and (if you pay) you get to see her catch, interrogate and lowkey flirt with him.

Leona and Bianca make it to the ball (where is Bartie Sr. Where are Xinghai and Lorelei. Where is Regina) and this time the narrative makes sure to shoehorn a plot element into their presence here: Leona is there so we can do something about the reveal that she constantly ratted us out to the press for money. ("oh look! Walker Ranch was plot related after all! We have a reason (albeit a flimsy, paper-thin one) to set 9 whole chapters in Texas. Even though we had to literally come up with this bit in the last minute, because really - all we wanted to do as a writing team was nut collectively over Drake Walker")

(I also can't believe that between the time I wrote this line and the time this QT finally came out - they literally found a way to re-fucking-write Book 1 so they could nut collectively over Drake Walker earlier)

• Why were we required to dress down in Texas for these assholes when they couldn't even bother to dig up their Sunday best for this ball??? Oh right, they're Walkers. Hypocrisy runs in the family.

• Good thing is you can choose to banish Leona if you want. She's angry about it for a second then accepts it and leaves. But like what is the point of banishing her when she hardly even bothers to come there in the first place? She's not going to be bawling her eyeballs out saying "boohoo, they threw me out of this country that I spent like five minutes in and never even wanted to visit in the first place".

• Bianca is present at the end of Chapter 18 mainly to deliver to us a plot point at the very last minute: a clue about where we could find proof about Queen Eleanor's murder. Bianca mentions conversations Jackson had with her, and a secret room somewhere. Her leaving the palace and abandoning her children is addressed, and the MC gets to berate her. It's...short.

• Why this important piece of information was given to Bianca when idk LEO could have pitched in and spoken about it, no one knows. Oh wait. I keep forgetting. Bianca is Drake's mother. That's why.

• Okay so Amalas valiantly found out about Leona's involvement in this and gave us tangible proof via photographs. But we're kiiiinda forgetting that the scrutiny and privacy invasions were happening even before we hauled ass to Walker Ranch? Who was responsible for those? Who was the "source" that the Chapter 17 paparazzo was referring to, the one that mentioned they would triple the price for more photos of the Queen/Mother of the Heir (Coz like why would she do that. She's already broke)? How did Amalas come by this information so easily and why was she really that invested? Why is no one asking these questions? Why isn't the group asking these questions? Why are they stupid. Jesus, they're all so stupid. HOW ARE YOU SO STUPID, SQUAD.

• Shortly after they get rid of Leona and Bianca, the rest of the group give the happy couple a choice of toys for the nursery - and that's our final nursery purchase. You can either go for the corgi - which is on brand for the series by now I think - or the lion, which is seen as very Cordonian.

• More party shenanigans. We're nice to Kiara for another half-second. Kiara arranges a photoshoot for us. The team can't pretend to give a fuck anymore about its fans so they will ask us to pay for an edit that I've seen millions of edit-creators in the fandom do wayyyy better. Like let's be honest - compare the engagement shoot pics (messy as they were) to the shoots we eventually got this book. You can see the difference. You can tell which one required more work.

• Anyway, if you choose this scene you wind up going back to the ballroom, dance with your spouse, aaaaand it's time for another diamond option. This time your spouse gives you something you've been craving (mousse parfait for the Liam MC, chocolate chip cookies for the Hana MC, handmade chocolates for the Maxwell MC and a choice between bacon and a veg version of it for the Drake MC. Damn, team TRR. Your favouritism is showing). The couple also writes a letter to the baby that the child can read growing up, in a bit of a parallel to Eleanor's letter to Liam that we see at the end of the chapter.

• After this, Liam reveals he has been pondering over what Bianca said, and wants to find out where they could find that secret room. Cue Liam's own flashback scene for free. Godfrey bringing to Queen the same goblet that the RoE MC found in a flea market in Book 2 for Regina (or perhaps just a similarish one). Liam and Eleanor reciting a rhyme that turns out to have clues for the secret room.

• To give the team credit, they seem to have (finally) put some thought into this. Like this actually feels like Liam's scene. Not one that delivers information about his family but is really about another character. They seem to incorporate all the things Eleanor seemed to be known for - things that were hardly addressed in the books when it came to talk of her. She is shown with a love for books given that books and poetry form an important part of the clues she leaves for Liam. One of the books is about foraging, which is unsurprising considering her love for gardens that was established in Book 1 of TRR.

• So...like...nice job but why was practically everything about Eleanor (including the way she'd stand up to Constantine, her displeasure at the sound of Godfrey and Bartie's names, her nature that Liam not only inherited but also learned) left only for your finale? Why no buildup? Why was I seeing you lot constantly pandering to Drake's family the entire time? Why do I know way, way more about Jackson than I do about Eleanor whose story this WAS? Why is she and her son suddenly getting this burst of attention at the tail end??

• They still manage to push young!Drake into a scene focusing on Liam and Eleanor, so we can see how Eleanor's teaching of how to be a responsible royal began to make inroads into Liam's way of thinking. It's the ultimate irony, that Liam took his mother's advice so much to heart that he lets Drake stay in his home, eat his food, and complain about those dastardly nobles to his heart's content for free.

Poor Eleanor in her grave is like

• Very fitting, how Constantine's proposal to Eleanor happens in the hedge maze, very much like Liam's first declaration of love in Book 1.

• If you're married to Liam, you get an extra letter that's addressed to Liam's future wife. She clearly knew her days were to be numbered by the time she gave birth to that second child at least.

• Lmao @ how the team somehow managed to remember that Eleanor would have been Leo's stepmother too. He's mentioned a couple of times. They didn't have enough time to develop a sprite for young!Leo but somehow had all the time and resources to make one for young!Savannah who had literally no purpose in Drake's flashback scene? Hmm. Hmm.

• They somehow manage to find the twin to the RoE MC's gifted goblet that Godfrey gave Eleanor the night she died, and Liam reveals that he's been obsessed with poisons enough to know that it wasn't the drink that was poisoned, it was the cup itself. Everyone is shook.

• Love that extra little detail about Liam's obsession with learning about poisons and how it's a sign of how deeply Eleanor's death affected him. But tell me honestly if you remember this plot point coming up even once before in any significant way. Even during the one time a person is poisoned in the previous book (by the laws of karma, the victim in this instance is Godfrey's only daughter) Liam shows very few signs of this "obsession". At a time when he has also lost a father. Convenient how something that could have added more depth to Liam is kept aside until there's a scene where his knowledge is required. Convenient indeed.

• I kind of understand why Liam acts on impulse, okay. The man just discovered who murdered his mum, at least some amount of irrationality is allowed (esp considering he hardly got to express ANYTHING when his goddamn father died). But you'd think Liam's friends would hold him back and help him think this through? Convince him that there are more effective ways to confront and get a confession out of Godfrey who after is in charge of security at the moment? You seriously think charging into the ballroom and suddenly stripping this man of his titles is going to actually work??? You couldn't figure out how to make him vulnerable instead so that he wouldn't be able to escape???

• I mean like, sure, one could always rationalize it all as "well see Lizzy, they needed a dramatic end to this story and they needed to wrap this mystery up quick". But there were other ways they could have spread it out than make it all sound so...so random. And you bet we all know why the narrative had to scramble around last minute to solve this. It's because we spend half the damn book in a dilapidated ranch with a shit family!

• Anyway, Godfrey escapes...and the MC tells her spouse that she's going into labour after...two contractions? Um. Okay.

• So. That ends Book 1 of this new series. And with it my QTs, for this series at least. My QTs for Book 1 (the OG, not the rewrite) might continue, but I'd need to repeat my failplay again because I lost most of those screenshots 😭

General Thoughts on the Book:

• So far, this is what I can see as happening in the next book:

- The birth, obviously

- Any extra perks from our purchases (ie. the nursery and the garden)

- Subplots involving the LIs' conflicts regarding parenthood and their own childhoods

- The mystery behind Eleanor's death isn't quite over yet, nor is the truth behind the constant paparazzi presence in TRH. Leona was the scapegoat this time around, but how did Amalas get all this information so quickly?

- Where is Eleanor's other child? Olivia's investigations may or may not lead to that answer. I'm pretty sure Jin might be involved as well.

- Another possibility is that Madeleine may give us important information since she was potentially aware that Eleanor was pregnant at the time.

- The mystery behind Jackson's death and what he knew regarding Eleanor's condition.

- What part did Bartie Sr have to play in all this? How involved was Constantine in the murder (if in fact he was)? What more dark secrets will we learn about Constantine, Godfrey and Bartie Sr during this time? What ultimately caused the breakdown in Constantine and Jackson's relationship, since Drake mentions Jackson being around when Regina was Queen as well?

- Speaking of Regina, how involved was she in any of this? We know she was Godfrey's cousin-in-law and Bartie Sr made a comment on her during the announcement about the heir, and that she married Constantine a couple years after Eleanor's death, but was she aware of any of this or was she largely out of the major plot and brought in later to cement Godfrey's position and power?

- I'd mention the possibility that Lorelai could know something, but they didn't really give anyone connected to Hana any time at all, so I have my doubts.

- Operation Swan, and possibly a visit to Monterisso. Liam's younger sibling must be in one of these places but my guess is on Monterisso.

- I'm guessing the team will write a nice wedding for Penelope and Ezekiel next book, while Kiara continues to get scraps from the same team.

- Drake and Olivia will continue to eat into the plot. Madeleine will join this unholy trinity as well because they've set the stage for her to have plenty of angst.

With that over, these were my thoughts once this book was finished:

WHERE ARE THE DUCHESSES?

Remember how, back in Book 3, we all marvelled at the number of women in this country who were in positions of power? Adeleide and Emmeline were powerful duchesses while their husbands were secondary figures, and Joelle though married into a noble family is an influential artist and - according to Liam - the embodiment of King Fabian's values. It seemed like, despite the underlying sexism and racism in the story, women were at least at the forefront of Cordonian politics.

This is virtually gone in TRH1. Godfrey (who wasn't even interested in Krona in the first place, much less Cordonia) and Landon (whose only concern seemed to be Penelope, leaving Emmeline to manage the duchy) have a seat in the Council. In fact we never even see either of these woman in the book. I can maybe understand the logic behind not appointing Adeleide, but the fact that Emmeline is passed over for her far-less -qualified husband is a mystery to me!

Also, has anyone noticed how white-male-centered the whole Eleanor story is? Notice how we never see Eleanor's friends, besides Jackson? We never see any of the courtly ladies of that era? She's the Queen. She'd have her own court. I find it impossible that Eleanor would have no interactions of importance among her own goddamned court, that Joelle, Emmeline or Adeleide wouldn't even be mentioned in her story thus far. It's fascinating that forget being part of her story - these women are largely forgotten in the book itself.

(Note: It's also important to add that none of Kiara's family - besides Zeke - makes an appearance this book. At all. One member of Penelope's family and one member of Madeleine's family is in the council, but we never really see or hear anything from Kiara's, even though Hakim was Constantine's old friend and Joelle could have easily been connected to Eleanor, given that Eleanor was exactly the kind of ruler Joelle would have loved and respected.

While we're on that subject, Lorelai could have been connected to Eleanor as well - considering that we know next to nothing about her years in Shanghai. There were ways Hana's story could have been tied into the overall plot as well that were largely ignored. The fact that both the main and secondary WOCs presented opportunities for better plot and story, and despite that they were largely ignored in the books...I think that says a lot. But I will get into more of that in detail in a different section).

LI SPACE AND STORY

• Now...as we all know, The TRR/TRH series is primarily a romance-focused book first, with an underlying plot about royalty and politics. So it makes sense to evaluate the book based on what it gives its love interests. That includes the number of scenes they get, and the kind of focus their story is given. So...here's the rundown of how that goes in TRH Book 1:

Liam: Overall, not too bad. He gets one individual scene, a free and paywalled childhood scene (though the free one is essential for the group's realization of who killed Eleanor). The letter his mother writes to Liam includes an extra section towards the end, meant for the MC who marries him. However, we must note that a lot of this "attention" was thrust into the very final chapter of this book, and 99% of the same book didn't exactly make an attempt to explore his inner thoughts on anything - his mother's death, the dealings with the foreign countries, his political activities. Eleanor being pregnant came from a scene that made Olivia the center of attention, the MC had the opportunity to ask him how he was feeling only once or twice, and most of the time the narrative relegated it all to "the matter is still being investigated". It's a slight improvement from the absolute lack of concern the MC and the narrative showed about Liam's emotional state post his father's death in Book 3, but not much.

Variations wise, the team did step up on the basic ones for most of the LIs, so clearly we've moved past the days of seeing cut-paste scenes and the likes of Liam and Hana saying "I'm so dumb in love with you". However, in playthroughs where the MC is Liam's wife and Queen of Cordonia, her lack of genuine concern for her country and lack of curiosity about the place she's ruling, sticks out like a sore thumb. The fandom loves to highlight how the plot is "written for Liam" or is "easier in Liam's playthrough", but besides his own child being the heir, nothing else from Book 3 onwards seems like it was particularly written with him in mind.

Drake: Hoo boy. So 2019 was clearly the year that many people didn't believe me about Drake eating up space, and the year they had to eat their words because in TRH it was too obvious to be ignored. On an overall scale you cannot avoid the extra perks even his LI scenes got - his Valtoria scene in Chapter 4 was longer, set in a different place and he was allowed to expand on his decision to say yes to Liam's request in a way Hana and Maxwell never were. We learned way more about his familial relationships and dynamics than all the LIs combined. His childhood scene was the first to be given variants depending on whether the MC was his wife or not. His sister's wedding takes up almost half the book, leaving little to no space for either the intrigue, or even the pregnancy that was supposed to be THE most important part of the book.

An insane amount of retconning was done to emphasize strongly on the "marshmallow" part of his personality, having him state time and again that for the MC he can even "sport a tutu if you said you had a thing for the Sugar Fairy". Part of these changes could be attributed to the backlash the team got for having him call a pink cake "girly".

There is a strong possibility that Jackson might be explored further in the second book, and it's no surprise considering that he's the one parent that is most talked about in the series. The book looks like it was truly written with Drake in mind, with a heavy dose of Olivia, and everyone else was added as a bit of an afterthought.

Maxwell: Pretty awful treatment for a character that the head writer of the team claims to like. He has no individual character scenes, and one childhood scene where his older brother Bertrand is given more focus. Ironically, Maxwell was more wary of Bartie Sr in TRR Book 2 than Bertrand was, but somehow they changed this little detail so that Maxwell could be written out of his own story.

His LI scenes were also not given much effort - some were badly written, and some scenes (like the free ones) showed little to no variations between the friendly and romantic playthroughs. One that comes to mind is the baby announcement photoshoot, which was so poorly done it added nothing of value to the character or the relationship.

Like the last book, Maxwell isn't allowed much development in TRH1, and he's still forced into a largely "court jester" role in the story. This reflects very poorly on him in certain situations, such as the chapter where we finally get glimpses of his book. The aim was to be humourous and light about the events of the series, but he comes out of it sounding thoroughly insensitive towards his friends, none of whose consent he took to write this self-centered pile of garbage.

However, there is hope that they might do things a bit better for him next book, if the rewrite of him in TRR 2.0 was anything to go by. However, it would be awful if they tried to do a better job of him and then left out Hana. Speaking of which...

Hana: I'm going to begin this section with a comparison to another character, someone who should have been treated as a secondary character - Olivia.

Olivia in this book has 2 character scenes (they're very plot driven, but they also explore her outside of her friendship with the MC and dynamic with the group). The spy scene with Auvernese royalty, and the scene with Jin, the Auvernese spy. An entire chapter is spent in her duchy (by now we've seen Lythikos four times and I'm now sick of the place), and she winds up taking over Maxwell's Q&A scene as well.

So that's technically 2.5 scenes AND a childhood scene that revolves around her even though it's about Liam's mother. In addition to this, Olivia also gets her own mini-book, The Royal Holiday, that revolves (again) around her duchy and has the group clamouring to give her attention when no one else wants to.

Here are the stats for Hana, who by virtue of being an LI, is also a potential co-protagonist in the series:

Nothing.

Zilch. Zip. Zero. Nada. Nothing.

She has one childhood scene that is part of the group's scenes - a beautiful, heartbreaking one that serves as a slap in the face to anyone who'd dared to be dismissive of what she went through earlier - but none after that, and no individual scenes either. The team - in one of their most offensive choices this book - force a storyline where she has fertility issues just so the MC can be the one carrying the child, and the same MC can opt(!!) to ask about her well-being after two days. The same MC has the chance to whine about not getting pregnant soon enough in front of Hana.

There have been a few efforts made to make the MC appear more caring towards Hana: she can angrily defend Hana against Isabella's jibes, and she can make Hana relax for once during the baby shower (unlike the wedding reception where the same MC treated her like a bridesmaid). The MC even gets to tell her wife that she should never consider herself secondary or unimportant.

All of these are nice, but at the end of the day they're all scraps. I'd equate it to how we're allowed to give Kiara compliments on the final two chapters, but the white women around her still get a far bigger chunk of space, story and attention dedicated to them. The team have a pattern of adding these tiny tidbits that will temporarily satisfy stans while still maintaining the status quo, and that's precisely what's happening here. Its important for us to understand this. Underneath all this surface concern and all these scraps, Hana is still getting dust in place of actual story and characterization. And given that they made ZERO major changes to Hana's scenes in TRR 2.0, I'm not expecting that to change.

As for the book in general...I don't have to go into why this book is a mess, do I? We all know. We've all witnessed how disproportionate the writing has been and while I'm glad more and more people recognize what I've been seeing since Book 3, it's sad that it took 9 whole chapters in Walker Ranch for so many to understand exactly how much space Drake has been eating up for no good reason.

BLACK HOLES AND WHITE TEARS

I'll begin this section by talking about Drake Walker. He's the most prominent sign of the larger problem.

Drake Walker is what I call a Black Hole LI. And yes I mean black hole as in the one that exists in space (Beckett from TE also fits into this category). He is the kind of LI that sucks up everything. Love. Light. Joy. Common sense. Other characters' spaces.

He is the kind of love interest that will have Liam's traumatic experience centered around him. The kind of love interest for whose problems - largely created by his mammoth ego - we have to resolve in Shanghai, the home of the lone female LI. While that same female LI gets nothing, and then disappears in a subsequent chapter. The kind of love interest whose love confession can take precedence even over the MC's own issues (remember the Beaumont House chapter in Book 1? The one that took place the day after Tariq nonconsensually kissed the MC? 98% of the dialogue revolved around Drake's feelings. Not about the faulty lock, not the possibility that the MC's security had been tampered with - Drake's feelings). The kind of love interest that was given an entire extra wedding and artwork for his mother in Book 3 itself - none of which were given to any other LI.

A Black Hole LI is totally the kind of LI that would get 9 whole chapters in their home while we have never even visited the homes of the others since the early books of the previous series.

This wasn't something that began just this book. It's been a constant since Book 2, and you can even see signs of his story gaining way more importance in Book 1. It's also not something we can - in all honesty - blame simply on finances and fan popularity: the writers confirmed Drake to be one of their favourites, and attempts to give his scenes additional perks (eg plot elements pushed into both the Whiskey scene and the Beaumont Office scene) happened long before they could make any conclusions about his popularity. I bought the Beaumont Office scene to find out more about that family. I bought the Marshmallow scene so I could find out more about Liam and Hana's conversation post Coronation (remember - Hana was never even allowed to speak about her return to Cordonia because that scene was given to Drake). I bought the Italian Restaurant scene to learn more about Liam's assassination. The funny thing about all these three is that these were their stories to tell, yet Drake is the focus. Quite a few of Drake's initial scenes sold because the team consistently made the effort, consistently ensured that the information from his scenes would benefit us in the long run. The narrative allowed for Drake to have his own story, and additionally let aspects of his story overshadow that of the other LIs' (see the examples I've given above). Even though he has very little of value to contribute to the larger story (no job, his friendships are shallower than a wash-basin, and no genuine communication with any commoner in the story - only endless whining).

The treatment Drake gets that no other LI does, is a problem in itself, but it also is a small part of an even bigger issue. He isn't the only white character who gets this sort of attention and detail to his story.

Take Olivia, for example. Started out as a rival to the MC, before her sad sad childhood and her genuine love for Liam was revealed in the Book 1 finale. Over the course of the story, her role changed from petty rival to Warrior Duchess to reluctant bff. Over the course of the original series, Olivia became one of the most prominent characters in the story, on par with the male LIs. I'm not sure how many people realize that Lythikos is the ONLY duchy in the kingdom we've seen thrice (four times if you count Holiday). To give you an idea of how big a deal that is, here's how many times we've visited other duchies besides the capital and Applewood:

Fydelia - 2

Portavira - 1

Castelserraillian - 1

Ramsford (the home of our sponsors!) - 1

Hana's mother's home - Never.

Lythikos has a detailed familial and cultural history, and I wouldn't be lying if I said we know more about this one region than we know about the entire country of Cordonia. And honestly for me, the obsession with this one duchy has reached saturation point. Lythikos is not Cordonia. Lythikos is not all there is to Cordonia or even the only place that should matter. Yet it seems the team is more than eager to flog that horse until there's nothing of interest left.

Olivia is the only character who gets an entire mini book that revolves around comforting her and making her feel better about her background and origins. I don't think we've ever given Hana this much attention when she left her home for us. Or when she was being bullied by Madeleine. Or when she was the other bride in that grand wedding. Or when we received the news that carrying a child to term would be dangerous for her body. Or --

We were given an entire mini-book to comfort Olivia - the woman who continued to call Hana "damaged goods" and " a failure" for not marrying a man, while Hana's friend/wife stood by and watched. The woman who didn't have to think twice before making snide remarks about an equally skilled courtier who never did her any harm, only because she could get away with it. Istg when I heard that most of the court snubbed her during that first event in Holiday, this was my reaction:

Like girl I feel bad for you but at least now you know how it feels to be held responsible for shit beyond your control!

Hana, in the meantime, is forced time and again into situations that would break most people - but with very little payoff. Her arc with her parents was given a resolution that confirmed that Hana could only be considered worthy if she was useful. She was made to interact time and again with the woman who harmed her with such glee in Book 2. The MC - as a friend or as a wife - is at best neglectful of her issues and at worst someone who uses and discards Hana as she sees fit. And now...in her romantic playthrough she's given a storyline that doesn't allow her to bear children easily, and the MC spends less than two minutes to actually check on her. Hana is one of the co-protagonists, yet a side character given the treatment she should be getting. One could technically blame finances for the way she's being treated too, but keep in mind that the bad treatment goes as far back as the Applewood chapters in Book 1. Technically a time when she was bringing in money.

I get it. Olivia is a fan favourite. Many in the fandom wanted her to be an LI, the writers didn't, so they carved out this middle path where she'd have a major portion of the story anyway. But keep in mind that a lot of this attention came - and is still coming - at the cost of Hana. The team pretty much gave Olivia what they'd been refusing to give Hana all along.

On a smaller scale, you see similar patterns with the secondary characters - especially the women of the court. Madeleine and Penelope had elaborate backstories designed to make people forgive and sympathize with them, and Kiara - even though her backstory in Book 1 was inherently tragic and deserved to be handled sensitively - was given validation with great reluctance from the team, and with no consequences if we treated her cruelly. Even now, the team has only tossed Kiara a couple of scraps in the final chapter, while already setting the stage for Madeleine to get her own tragic "patriotism" arc for TRH Book 2, and a possible wedding for Penelope in the near future.

The difference here doesn't just lie in who gets attention and who doesn't. It lies in how the MC is supposed to view these women as well. A lot more sympathy and understanding is automatically extended to the white women, and the MC faces consequences if she fails to acknowledge their pain. Far less sympathy is offered by default to the black and the Asian woman - the MC may be friends with Hana but a huge chunk of their relationship is mostly about the MC benefiting from Hana's skills without giving much in return.

Even though their misdeeds are acknowledged and spoken about, both Madeleine and Penelope are written in such a way that the problems they're currently facing matter more than anything they've ever done in the past. Hana is made to sweet-talk Madeleine despite being bullied by her in a previous book. The MC herself never gets ANY opportunity to directly address what Penelope put her through in Portavira, because what the MC went through matters less than Penelope's condition.

Compare this to the relatively small scale of Kiara's "misdeed" (being honest about not continuing with an alliance - I'm surprised people think this is an actual thing to be offended about!), and the way the MC is allowed to mistreat her sans consequences afterwards. We're even allowed to call Kiara a snob in the books - which isn't at all true if you look at any of her scenes in canon - and constantly make fun of her desire to learn (in fact, if anyone in the series could be called a snob, it would be Olivia). If I were to sum up how a woman of colour is spoken about in the books, vs a white woman - this screenshot would do the trick:

(Notice how none of the options to speak about Penelope allow us to speak rudely of her, yet in Kiara's case we're allowed to make judgements on her as a person. In Hana's case, while we don't exactly drag her the way we can drag Kiara - we get precious few opportunities to actually defend or support her when others talk rubbish about her).

When you explore the series overall, it's impossible to ignore the casual racism that makes disrespecting people of a certain race/colour easier than on another. It's impossible not to see where the narrative chooses to give consequences to an MC who treats a white woman badly, and where it allows the very same MC to suspect, and then (optionally) gaslight, a woman of colour a couple chapters later. It's impossible not to see which people are meant to be respected despite their bad behaviour, and which people can still be treated badly despite their better behaviour. It's impossible not to see a pattern emerging.

This is not even a problem that plagues only the TRR series. From TCaTF to ACOR to Platinum to even MoTY, there is an ongoing pattern of discrepancies between the way white people and people of colour - particularly women - are treated. Many POC characters are placed in situations where it's easier for them to suffer/die/be shown disrespect, than it is to show them kindness or mercy. MOC are regularly either exoticized (Prince Hamid is the most glaring example of this) or placed in very traumatic situations for which the payoff isn't always going to be that great (I know this happens to Dallas, but I don't know about the payoff for Syphax).

WOC particularly suffer quite a bit in a lot of PB novels, in comparison to their white counterparts. Rowan Thorne of TCaTF, as a character, didn't deserve for her death to be made easier than her survival (in contrast to Diavolos, who was given far more opportunities AND will live simply by virtue of allying with Kenna), any more than Kiara deserved to be interrogated by the people who should have been concerned for her safety or Xanthe deserved to be shipped to slavery. All this, while a Vanessa (who is in a position of power and who plays an active role in rendering the MOTY MC financially helpless) gets a diamond scene where she "explains" her situation and a Madeleine doesn't even have to hear about her bullying from her victims.

The fandom, too, has contributed to this on a number of occasions. Speaking specifically of TRR, how many times have we seen Hana being dragged on Olivia posts? (also, if we were really measuring Olivia by the impossible standards that we held for Hana's characterization, Olivia would appear pretty damn one-note too: after all, 80% of her characterization consists of knife jokes). How many times was Hana being looked at with disdain for either her niceness or the poor writing for her, while the same fandom would regularly coo over a nice-presenting Penelope (whose characterization is one of the most inconsistent in the series)? How many times have we seen Kiara being called a creep/obsessed for merely looking at a man, while almost no one judges Olivia for kissing a man without his consent? How many times have people forgiven a traitorous Penelope and hated on a far more innocent Kiara in the same breath? How often did the fandom hate on Liam for accepting the MC's advances after she rejected him, yet not say a word when Drake did the same thing? How many times has Maxwell been loved for his humour and childlike nature while people of colour with a similar personality (Lily from Bloodbound, for example) were hated on instantly? Clearly, there have been more instances of people in the fandom sympathizing automatically with the white character, than with characters of colour. Time and again, brown and black characters - particularly women - have been required to match up to impossible standards (if they're nice they're boring. If they don't like the MC they're <insert every gendered sexist insult you can think of here>). The standards are far more relaxed for white characters, and they're often given more breathing room and to most of what they want without the constant judgement that black and brown women get. The standards set up for both are grossly different.

Racism is a beast that assumes many forms - and not all forms of racism will appear obvious to some, especially when such stereotypes are so normalized in media and popular fiction that we almost accept it at first. Almost. To get to the root of why there's such an imbalance in this series - among others - we need to first acknowledge the sexism and racism that are such a vital part of its narrative, and that its fandom regularly buys into and (sometimes unwittingly) promotes.

At this point, it's important to understand that having queer characters or characters of colour simply exist in the books isn't enough. Token rep can be found in PB's books by the dozens, but at the end of the day it means nothing if there is a constant reluctance, over and over and over, to treat those characters with the same care and sensitivity that they treat their white ones (or their "exoticized brown" ones).

• Like I mentioned earlier, I won't be playing TRH from this point forward, but I do hope to finish my TRR QTs soon. I have a LOT of thoughts! If you'd like to be tagged on those, do tell me!

[lizzybeth1986]

Excerpts from The White People Waambulance QT:

TW: Mentions of racism within the PB books. If there is any take-away that I want from reading the above essay, it's this.

Here's me being real about the TRR series as a whole:

The Whole Point of This Entire Essay:

In conclusion...

[lizzybeth1986]

I seriously need to hear your take on the mess with Aurora. I don't know if they are trying to demonize her or to dumb her down. I don’t even know what the writers expect us to think about this situation. Are we supposed to be mad at Aurora? I agreed I’d do the same and the writing still made it look like Aurora was a snake. They have created a great female rival who had nothing to be redeemed for, so they thought 'we should give her Landry's story.'

Disclaimer: The read more doesn’t appear to work properly for asks, so apologies if it’s not functioning properly on your end!

TW: discussions on racism in PB’s books

I'm sorry it took me such a long time to answer this, anon, but this question sparked a LOT of thoughts that I wanted to sort out and make sense of before I could present them as a response! Some of these were thoughts that I had for a long time but never really got to talk in detail about, and I'm happy I can expand on those thoughts through this ask. Thank you so much for this question because it's one I've myself had been thinking about often before I deleted the game.

In my mind, the hate towards Aurora had always exceeded her perceived crime. Aurora is viewed with scorn and suspicion pretty much for minding her own fucking business and not liking the MC (ultimate crime right there). Even though the narrative does mark her as innocent in the end, show Landry as the culprit and eventually integrate her into the friend group - it is done in such a way that Aurora is

Not allowed much opportunity for pushback even after being suspected. For instance, Aurora is so aware of the extent of the MC's dislike that she spells it out to them that they were suspecting her. Yet the MC doesn't exactly apologise to her and Aurora is instead expected to be grateful for the small kindness of allowing Aurora room in their flat later on.

Sympathized with only by option rather than default, even when it's obvious we were wrong about her. Even Landry is given better - he has the upper hand in the conversation where we confront him, and we behave civilly to him during the time we  have to help Banerji (as opposed to Aurora, who the MC could choose to blame for her very legitimate reasons for keeping a distance. The MC also has the option in the closet scene to tell her to "suck it up" and minimize her negative previous experiences as well). In this way the treatment reminds me most of Kiara because Kiara, too, has to jump through hoops to get the tiniest crumb of sympathy from the MC and Drake, with zero remorse for putting her through that...while women who have behaved worse than her can demand 5-star treatment. So the MC is allowed to only optionally sympathize with her in the closet scene, still allowed to accuse her of being a jerk in the best option, and never really has to apologize for their misconceptions about her. In both cases the MCs are viewed as ultimately right in their treatment of these characters.

Still disrespected, even after the narrative shift that marks her as innocent. Not only does Jackie still make snide remarks on her nepotism - the MC who is aware that Aurora is practically blameless and in fact is under immense pressure from her aunt Harper doesn't bother to correct her. The words "Princess Nepotism" are still used against her as well.

Still subject to what could become a future pattern of behaviour from the MC's side, where they're allowed to shit on her even when it's clear she's innocent or didn't intentionally cause harm. Many many Open Heart stans have pointed out by now how we're given practically no options to fully have her back and show her sympathy that isn't rooted in blame. And this is not a pattern we even  see in ALL people who embody the love-hate or even antagonist trope - but I will discuss that later.

Might I add, Landry was allowed to be treated better and he ratted us out. Until the fandom called the team out, the narrative was VERY happy to shoehorn an immediate redemption arc around the same time that the MC's friend was still snarking on Aurora.

I'm not very surprised they went this route with Aurora. Well...maybe a little, because somehow I assumed that her popularity among the fandom would protect her a little more - but I guess when you're a person of colour who has seen story after story after story of  characters of colour being repeatedly thrown under the bus, there are certain patterns you learn to expect.

Here's (IMO) the most important one: check out who the narrative rewards you for treating well, as opposed to who will be made to support you either way.

You're allowed to show basic decency to a black or brown woman. But you're expected to show kindness, understanding and empathy to a white woman, and richly rewarded if you do. In some cases you will also face consequences if you don't. (Fandom - take note of the difference, and be sure not to forget it).

The woman of colour can get penalized by the narrative for something as basic as not liking, or not wanting to interact with, the MC. Very often, she is written as an inferior foil to either the MC or to another character (preferably white) and very little effort is made to explore her origins, motivations or backstory. In certain stories we are allowed to speak garbage about her behind her back, we're allowed to say things about her that have no basis in canon. In certain stories (TRR, Open Heart, perhaps Veil of Secrets may apply in this category as well) the narrative encourages us to suspect and blame her, with no consequences to us as such when it's revealed that she was innocent all along. In a lot of cases, she isn't even allowed to call you out on your words or behaviour. It's also interesting to note: a lot of the black female "antagonists'" behaviour (since the trope has been misused often in their case) doesn't even begin to match the way a white woman in the same role is allowed to behave  with us.

The white woman's rude behaviour, on the other hand, is often followed up with elaborate backstories, excuses and explanations - often in such a way that their initial crime is forgotten, ignored or retconned and what they do to the MC and/or their friends is almost viewed as secondary. The narrative begins with framing her as an antagonist before using her (sometimes tragic) past to excuse her actions, and you as the MC are expected to be understanding and let her off easily, even when her actions have caused serious damage. In some cases (like Olivia's) she is praised merely for being the "snarky badass" who will make snide remarks and underestimate you/your friend, while you rejoice for even the smallest crumb of acknowledgement for this friendship. In some cases (like Madeleine's or Vanessa's) she does unforgivable things which are then immediately followed by a massive sympathy arc - one that diverts our attention from the previous action...and eventually faces the barest minimum in terms of consequences.

Vanessa Blackwood is an obvious and glaring example of this pattern. She targets our child with the word "guttersnipe" from the moment she meets her. She delivers the papers contesting the MC's custody of the child with a smile, rejoicing over the thought that this child will be ripped away from her impoverished mother. She enables and in some cases even encourages her son August's bullying. She engages in classist, racist and homophobic behaviour. In a bid to make her case in court  stronger, she devices the plan to frame the MC for shoplifting at the store she worked in so she would lose her job.

Who faces the (arguably not enough) consequences for this? Tallulah, the brown woman who stole items on Vanessa's say-so, for Guy's benefit (Guy is also her accomplice, which is hardly ever addressed in court).  The worst that happens to Vanessa is that she loses her case, but given that she ultimately chooses to do so…is it really that much of a loss after all?

And what does Vanessa get in the end? A nice, cushy little diamond scene where you have to stand patiently, listen to her sob story, and maybe tell Vanessa she was "a little bit racist". This is the story that I had seen some on my dash hail as "the god-tier realistic story that acknowledges racism and sexism". A friend of mine argued once that Tallulah's accusation would probably not work since it would be seen as hearsay, but it's not like PB are powerless puppets in the hands of their own story. They were the ones who created it. They're the ones who encouraged that expectation that they would address sensitive issues like these with sensitivity and respect. They could have found ways to not hide the evidence behind a paywall and to leave solid proof along with that accusation, but in this case Tallulah wasn't even allowed to mention their names.

Constantly, Vanessa was shown in a position of power, and was shown abusing that power then getting away with precious little consequence. Contrast that to Xanthe, who had very little real power in ACOR, could wreck very little real damage in the overall story, yet met a cruel, horrific end that two black people were witness to, and were made (by the narrative. I refuse to believe that Syphax as he was written would NOT be disgusted if he saw/heard about it) to laugh at. I don't recall her ever getting a nice cushy diamond scene aimed at getting us to sympathize with her circumstances (which in fact are pretty tragic if you actually sit down and think about it. She'd be groomed to be a courtesan since she was a literal CHILD!)

And you can see this with so many books that by now I've lost count. A Rowan Thorn can be punished for betraying Kenna (even if, in that playthrough, Kenna is a tyrant who doesn't deserve to rule a can of beans, much less a kingdom) - and it's made easier for her to die even if we've secured her loyalty, whereas Diavolos lives on and can even marry Kenna BECAUSE of said loyalty. A Madeleine will be given a sympathy arc, after which writers will then use her victim to majorly retcon a bullying incident so the writers would never need to address what she'd done, but a Kiara will be hated, treated with scorn and suspected for treason just for being ambitious. An Ellen would only get respect for her hustle towards the tail end of a standalone series about the cutthroat journalistic world, a Scarlett wouldn't even be given a future - even the goddamn bed and breakfast owner gets more importance!! And all of this happens alongside the other characters praising the MC for being an inspiration, or being "different", or being a "trusting kind person". Sometimes even a character from the list I've just named is made to heap those praises on this person.

Within this book itself, Landry the real antagonist is allowed to push a narrative that blames us for not gassing him up to Ethan — even though our very first diamond scene involves him having an opportunity to engage with Ethan but being too nervous to take it and instead passing the task to us. The narrative is written such that it sounds like Landry had a right to be angry with the MC for "not doing enough", and for having the attention from Ethan that he craved. In doing this, the same narrative ignores the positioning of Landry as a mediocre white male armed with privilege that an optional person of colour who is new to the environment, will not have, and ignores that you can't equate the MC not recommending friends to superiors to deliberately sabotaging another person's career. Despite his duplicity, gross entitlement and flimsy excuses, the narrative still jumped on his weaksauce redemption arc faster than you could say 'scalpel'.

Aurora was a character that in some ways could fit Olivia's particular trope very well - the prickly rival who is shocked by your uniqueness and (sometimes) kindness and gradually grows to be your friend. In fact she fit it even better - because she never really knowingly harmed someone or tried to undermine us. This is what a lot of people in the fandom wanted to see as well - an arc that somewhat resembled Olivia's or Becca's (I will always see the fandom as complicit in the way black and brown women in these books are treated, as many in fandom also value said women less. But in this case, Aurora was eventually viewed as an exception and loved). Yet the treatment she is given at this point fits Kiara's more. The character who has potential, has promise, should be respected the way white women in her narrative position already are - yet is never really allowed her own voice against the horrible treatment meted out to her. With such characters, it always makes me severely uncomfortable to see them not address their pain and instead praise the MC, or watch them call them/her a friend. I'm acutely aware of how those MCs (or sometimes, their group as well) do not deserve their loyalty or devotion, or how little they give them in return. I'm aware of how all this will end too: the MC will be "right", again - never have to apologize, again - be treated with a respect they do not deserve, again. In a better book, I'd much rather Aurora or Kiara gave the MC the middle finger and left them for good.

I'm tired. Honestly. Women of colour (men of colour suffer this too, but this is perhaps not the post to address that. It's important to note also that often the men of colour pushed into similar situations are often not even antagonists to begin with, but our own friends and potential partners in the story.  Shane Parker of Platinum is a good example of this) in these stories are forever expected to place the comfort of others above their own pain, and I'm done with it.

[lizzybeth1986]

Is it just me, or is QB having some racist and sexist undertones? I honestly don't understand what this book is supposed to be. Also, why do people want Poppy to be an LI? Am I missing something important here? Is it secretly a masterpiece exposing American nepotism and hierarchy?

(Note: I believe this ask may or may not have been a continuation to this one, since I got both at the same time)

TW: talk about racism

So sorry for the delay in responding to this one, Anon! I'd been working on my essay project so this one took a little time.

I honestly think the point of Queen B as a story was really nothing more than a "Mean Girls" type look into High School. That's literally supposed to be the appeal, IMO. There's a rank newcomer, who comes to a posh school, and has to beat the most popular girls to get to the top. And honestly I've been told the story seemed to be written more for the #BadGirl MC than the #GoodGirl one.

Which is why the storyline they wrote for Zoey, and the way they approached it too, was very much out of line. It wasn't just that Zoey was subject to an attack after the reveal that she'd be subjected to racial profiling, or that a character that both the writers and a lot of the fandom loved was actively encouraging this racist attack on her. It was that if Zoey's story had any value to her writers...they wouldn't just push that forward with a paltry line from Zoey's mouth about how Belvoire was more classist than racist. They would BUILD UP to that. They would have us explore what she has to go through in her public life in multiple ways, make a distinction between what she faces as a result of not being from old money and what she faces as a black girl, and actually work in focusing the section following Bacchanalia, on her, not on the MC's desire to treat her as her walking talking closet.

(ETA: @thefirstcourtesan also tells me that Zoey and Poppy were pitted against each other financially as well - eg. A diamond option where you could only choose between the two. So romanticizing Poppy would also lead to Zoey being hit financially. I can't even put into words how fucking shady and insidious that is)

One thing that I did like though was that Zoey stood her ground after that event, and the MC had to really work to get her back even as a friend. Zoey knew her worth. She knew she deserved better than the paltry apologies and excuses the MC was putting on the table. Not many MCs have had to put in that level of effort esp when they act shitty themselves (TRR MC, hello?). Plus I thought that scene with the Professor where they can advise the MC to be honest about the hurt she caused rather than making excuses or explaining was very well done (even though at the time I felt the pivot to their relationship was too soon for my liking, but that's maybe just me).

Again...this is advice from someone who is no longer playing, so there may be not much value to it - but I'd suggest we keep observing how Zoey gets treated and whether they allow Poppy more space than her. Just because a female LI seems to have a few good scenes in one book doesn't mean the team has 100% changed their views or how they choose to write the character. Very often in the greater scheme of things, the stuff we loved so much are really crumbs tossed before the team goes back to the status quo. I've seen my fair share of LIs who'd been treated nicely for a diamond scene or two/a chapter or two, before their teams gave them worse treatment than usual. And unfortunately I'm sure they might do the same to Zoey, especially in the light of that Q&A from the team where two of them have mentioned Poppy as a favourite character, and no one seemed to find much worth talking about with Zoey besides her clothes. It never bodes well when the writers' interviews themselves sideline their prominent black female character to highlight their fave white/nonblack WOC one.

This is a thing I keep coming back to when I talk about Creator's Pets in PB's books - the "favourite" character who gets the lion's share of attention, writing and plot, tends to overwhelmingly be white, or exoticizable brown. And the writing itself is deliberately skewed in their favour, which results in other characters - who are maybe even more valuable to the story and more interesting to boot - losing out even before they get developed.

What may happen to Zoey in the future narratively, has also happened to other WOC (notably black but there is at least one dark-skinned Asian woman in this list) who are official LIs. It's one of the major reasons I hate "Make _____ an LI" campaigns because there are occasions (and this was one) where to do that the fandom would have to actively ignore the female LI that was THERE. Sure, some may come up with the excuse that they were frustrated by the lack of attention on Zoey, but I've seen people go gaga over white women who were even more poorly written lmao. You want fair treatment for female LIs? Then maybe learn not to ignore the ones they're presenting first.

[lizzybeth1986]

The white characters usually get more attention from the writers but I’ve noticed that the fandom doesn’t hold black character and other CoC to the same standart. Asian Liam, Poppy, Kat, Damien, Thomas, Alana and Raleigh instantly become fan favourites whereas black characters like Sloane, Shane, Zoey, Kiara, Lily and Luke barely get a #TheyDeservedBetter mention. Why are asian and latino characters and faces so much more popular than the black and blasian characters and faces?

(So this is something I've spoken about briefly in a couple different posts, so thank you for the opportunity to let me expand on this a little, anon)

TW: fandom racism, and I mean some of the examples are pretty damn gross

You're right. I've spoken before about how even when we speak of character-of-colour treatment in the fandom, we tend to miss noticing that there's often a hierarchy within that broader category. White characters of course get way more of a pass from PB and the fandom, but you'll notice for instance that certain characters of colour (and you'll find that majority of these seem to be the Latino LIs) get away with messy behaviour more than others...under certain conditions. I have a couple brief thoughts over why.

Colourism

When we speak about racism, it isn't simply enough to frame it as white vs POC. Leaving it to just that simple binary makes it easy for people to miss the nuances of how we view different people of colour. It even allows some to justify their "preferences" in LIs and favourite characters by claiming "I don't only like white characters! See, my MCs date Zig and Damien" (believe me, I've seen this argument myself preeeetty often).

For those not familiar with the term, colourism refers to discrimination that focuses on skin tone, and not just race. Often, you can find people discriminating against others in their own communities for being darker skinned, and you will also notice that lighter-skinned people of a certain race will be viewed as more attractive and more deserving of opportunities to darker-skinned ones. Examining racism without going into the harm of colourism leaves out a HUGE chunk of the nuance that goes into this discussion. Here are two really good videos that go into how colourism plays out in larger race discrimination: "This is Colorism" by YouTuber T1J, and (my favourite!) "Confessions of A D-Girl", a TED Talk by Chika Okoro.

There are many of us who enter into a new series for the first time looking out for characters to pair our MCs with (not all, mind you...but from what I'm seeing on my dash and in the tags, many). And the thing with going into a series with romantic attraction in mind, is that the characters you have a preference for? At least in this fandom? They're also the ones you'll give the most sympathy to, the ones you'll spend the most money on, the ones whose actions you'll keep striving to justify no matter how ridiculous said actions may be. The way the fandom is now, being "attracted" to a character type doesn't simply account for the way they're romanced: it accounts often for whether we see them as human at all. 

It accounts for who we choose to understand vs who we choose to hate on, when these characters mess up or make mistakes. So a Damien can get away with not apologizing to Hayden or Sloane for his past hypocrisy and hostility - to the point where his fans will hail his growth as "exceptional" for the tiniest crumb of humanity towards these two characters - but a Shane will be called "not a true friend" for rightly pointing out that perhaps his BFF is not as invested in their friendship as he is.

In short, I think we as a fandom tend to assign worth based on desirability. And that "desirability" is often limited to whiteness, or to an adjacency to whiteness. The closer you are to "white" the more attractive this fandom may find a character, and the more forgiving they will be of their flaws.

You'll notice that most of the CoC who get this preferential treatment tend to have lighter skin tones - like you mentioned, often the Latino or Asian characters. I would, however, acknowledge that other factors deserve to be pointed out too.

1. For instance, are the differences in CoC treatment related to the overall cast of characters, esp LIs? For instance, would a Justin be so easily viewed as "abusive" (!) if the BFF character wasn't default white? Would a Damien have really been treated so well mid-Book if the only "white" "male" LI in the cast wasn't customizable?

2. Customizable characters. Contrary to popular notions of them being "favourites" and "forced" in general, I've noticed some...pretty disturbing trends in the way fandom chooses to perceive them (more on this in a future essay). Suffice to say that I've noticed that customizable characters are treated best (both by fandom and PB) when either there are no default white/"preferred ethnicity" characters, or when there's more than one customizable character and the default option...is dark skinned (Platinum, hello?). Cases where the race is non-customizable but the gender is...also factor into how we treat them.

In every other case, the fandom has often set  them to standards that they know are impossibly high, and has been guilty of constantly shifting goal posts to justify a negative opinion of said character (Liam and Hayden are the biggest examples I can give of this trend. Just look into how often Liam is called "creepy" for just breathing next to the MC or Hayden being labelled "whiny and complaining" for rightfully calling out their friends for treating them like a goddamn object). Most times, said people in the fandom justify the vitriol as "pushback against a forced LI", which I personally find hilarious given the actually forced LIs tend to be the darlings of the same fandom.

3. Sexism. Very often women of the  ethnicities that the anon has mentioned above, are not always given the same amount of consideration either. Do the female characters listed in anon's ask (Poppy, Alana) get more preferential treatment than a Lily or a Zoey do? Very much. But I feel like I still can't place them on the level of treatment their male counterparts get. After all, Hana Lee is Chinese, and she's been given a gross amount of hate for no fault of her own, and just because the team that wrote her refused to explore her immense potential. How did the fandom speak about that problem? By constantly comparing her to a white woman and speaking of her in derogatory terms. Ergo - they decided she was the problem, and chose to shit on her to prop up Olivia instead.

Plus, it's far, far easier for us as a fandom to make one flaw of a WOC her entire character, while brushing aside her male counterpart's own flaws as things that make him cool or interesting. Look at the people some fans compare Poppy - a freaking college student - to. Vanessa. GAIUS. Look at how Jackie Varma is often still viewed with the same annoyance and irritation by fandom in the latter book, even though she has grown and changed and acknowledged the MC's gifts in their profession in the previous one. This is something black women in the books face the most, but other women of colour face this too in comparison to the lighter-skinned MOC.

(I must take the time here to highlight - as a South Asian woman who used to light up every time a desi character was introduced - how appallingly we treat the few South Asian female LIs in the books. No one bothered to explore the roots of the problems in Teja's characterization, instead happily comparing her to Marcus von Groot like canon did and viewing her as merely a bad character rather than one who was unjustly treated to poor storylines by the team. People were more than happy to shit on Jackie for her distancing from the MC, rather than even questioning why she was being written out of the story like this. Y'all will have deep dives for every pasty white character or "spicy brown" character that sneers at you, why the hell did you not have the same energy to give these women?)

Not many will highlight straightaway that they don't find darker skinned people attractive enough to show empathy to... but in this case the actions speak louder than words. Choosing lighter skinned LIs of color to prove you have POC in your LI roster, making snide comments about the appearance of the darker skinned sprites ("their smiles look like a horse's" - yes I  actually recall reading that shit with my own two eyes), using whitewashed faceclaims for them repeatedly, focusing on ONE moment that you dislike in their stories rather than their entire arc, constantly ignoring their issues and taking their dialogues out of context...no one is going to straight out tell the world if they have that inherent colorist bias, but one  can tell when they do.

Sexual Stereotyping (Objectification? Fetishizing?)

I mentioned in the previous section that very often Latine LIs (mostly the male ones but sometimes that includes certain female LIs like Sonia or Bianca or an Egyptian LI like Kamilah - though not always to the same extent) tend to be treated "well" by PB and the fandom...esp when the rest of the LI cast include darker skinned or customizable characters. But it would be remiss of me to mention this without going into the other, very dangerous trend we follow in our discussions of them - that we often reduce them to their antics in the bedroom.

Most of the fandom is aware of, and speaks about this. How often we talk about their sex scenes, their dirty talk, over any other thing they say or do...how the fanfic featuring those characters have them yell badly-translated Spanish during smut scenes. The moment Damien began to say "get down to your knees", the fandom basically left no stone unturned to speak of him more as a sex object than as a person. And PB leans into this: Damien's sex scenes are written with more care than most things in his story, Raleigh's Spanish dialogue in their final sex scene is given more attention than their entire arc, the fandom goes gaga everytime the MoTY MC says "sir" in front of Thomas.

So even while such LIs benefit in some ways from the preferential treatment, it still comes at the price of them being seen as whole human characters. The underlying sentiment is still "we will like you but only when you prove that you're desirable enough to fuck". Up until such a point, comments on a Damien or Justin will range from pure annoyance to straight-up accusations of "abuse". It's still not the same level of empathy we're often willing to extend to a default white character like Beckett or Ethan or Drake - who are often viewed as more than their bedroom antics.

There are times when this extends to how we view other lighter skinned CoC as well - though not always to the extent of Latino characters. You see this on occasion with a couple of Asian male LIs, such as Jax or Asian Liam - not very often with South Asian male LIs since there aren't any who are adults (Ajay is still in school, but I did see the fandom flip every time he called the MC "jaan". I can only hope it was an innocent joy at seeing a Hindi/Urdu word somewhere).

An interesting contrast to this would be the fandom reaction to Zephyr from TE (not an LI, but clearly a prominent character - placed in a similar "valued friend" role as Zack from TF), who was both brown AND aro-ace. He was suspected almost immediately, people were intent on labelling him untrustworthy almost as soon as it was clear that he wouldn't be a romantic option. He was mocked and called annoying and once it was clear he was innocent, none of the Beckett stans who badmouthed him earlier, spoke about the things they'd said - instead they moved on to showering sympathy on the actual culprit in that scenario. How much of that might have been related to being unable to shove him into the box that many Latino characters had already been placed into? I honestly don't know. But I do wonder about it sometimes.

So...well...MOC who are light skinned, or of an ethnicity that people can easily sexualize/objectify...get "better treatment" than black characters. But when I see that treatment on its own, or in relation to the white characters...can I really call it "better"? To what extent can forcing brown characters into stereotypes that make their body and their more sexual aspects more prominent or important... really be called good treatment?

Black Characters

Right so...here's where I'd like to point you to some other fab posts on fandom racism and hypocrisy from fellow black players...coz this is stuff they've been speaking about for a long, long time. This is a very small list, so anyone who has seen more of those and would like to add, feel free! I'll update it on this post:

"Being (a) Black (LI) in Choices"

A reblog I recently saw that was not Choices fandom centric per se, but mentions how fandoms suddenly take an interest in white side characters when the main love interest is a person of color

This post that was written after Omar from AME was given a goddamn DOG as a fucking faceclaim

Treatment meted out to unpopular female characters

Related to this, how black female antagonists were written vs others, esp white ones

These posts about Dallas James  and why the fandom suddenly turns their back on the "grumpy slowburn LI" when he is black. The second essay explores a variety of coc besides him, though.

On Shane and Feeling Betrayed

This fantastic essay on Lily Spencer, written way back when BB Book 1 was out. It's mostly about PB, but does discuss some of the fandom issues as well

This essay on Kiara, written back in Book 3

This essay on both Harper and Aurora Emery

This wasn't calling out the fandom or anything re: Abbie Bishop in The Freshman series, but I do recall it really shifted dialogue from "Abbie and Tyler are both annoying" to actually looking at Tyler's treatment of her.

The sheer lack of content and vocal love for certain black characters

As far as my memory goes, here's a sample of the opinions I've seen on black characters in fandom:

- Mocked for having trouble interacting in social settings and general awkwardness (Sloane)

- Hated on for breathing in their fave LI's direction (Kiara. Mind you, Olivia on the other hand can force a kiss on Liam and the same fandom simply shrugs)

- Suspected of shady shit even when it's clear the culprit is someone else (Grant, Griffin, Aurora, and now Zoey)

- Mistrusted even after they prove to us they're on our side (Sloane, Vera)

- Hated on for not being the "perfect" friend (Shane)

- Hated on for not wanting to be friends (Aurora)

- Hated on for normal responses to a traumatic situation (Imogen)

- Hated on for xenophobia (okay) without ever examining the slut shaming and biases the same character faced (Xanthe)

- Faceclaimed as a dog (Omar)

-Rejected for being "rude" (Dallas)

- Called "forced LI" when Beckett fucking Harrington was in the same fucking book (Griffin)

- Rejected because his story arc involved being a workaholic (!) (Mr Sloan from from RoE)

Btw, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There's probably a million I'm missing. But the fact of the matter is that black characters can and do get measured up against a standard that most others - that includes lighter skinned characters of colour - are not. When they are wholesome and compassionate and loving and emotional, they'll be called 'boring' or 'spineless'. The moment they voice an opinion that isn't convenient to the MC or the player, they deserve to be hated on, they deserve vitriol. There is precious little attempt to even acknowledge they have a perspective, much less explore what that perspective may be. When they're subject to bad treatment, often the same fandom will tiptoe carefully around that fact, sometimes justifying the treatment, sometimes only providing mild acknowledgement that contrasts in a huge huge way to the loud protests they'd made against the same characters earlier.

I'll come back to the original point I made- the disturbing trend of correlating desirability to worth, and who we choose to give empathy to. In a colourist/racist society especially, that has dangerous repercussions. In a society that sees darker skinned people as...not good enough, not worthy enough, not attractive enough (though it won't be said out loud), an attitude that views a black person as not meriting concern or empathy in situations where white or lighter skinned characters would - results in an environment where PB can almost get away with killing a Rafael from OH because he's "not that popular".

Most of the awful stuff that has happened to multiple black characters, happened because PB believed they could get away with it. And where did they get that impression from? I don't know. You tell me.

[ladykateofledfordpark]

As an ending to TRH QT, I really want to thank you, @lizzybeth1986. Personally, your thoughts and very valid criticism taught me A LOT, and I'm sure that when I myself write I'll be much more careful in the way I write characters- especially POC.

Anyway, I wanted to thank you for teaching me so much and bringing all this to light. You have no idea how much I learned from you, and I really enjoyed reading your QT (even though I can't blame you for losing the will to do them anymore).

Thank you for this. ❤

Quick Thoughts on The White People Waambulance, Chapters 18 and 19

• Sorry this QT is coming out so late, guys. I regret to say my heart wasn’t really in this one…and it hasn’t been with regards to my QTs for a while. This one might be my last, unless we count me finishing them off for the (not rewritten) Book 1. It’s been two years since I began, and the last two books made the process honestly really exhausting.

• I clubbed the two finale chapters together because I really couldn’t be bothered to do separate ones for both.

• In fact…I won’t be doing any of what I have been doing for my QTs so far. I’ll be honest to you: I usually do multiple replays, the last few in tandem with the other routes on YouTube. I go through the scenes one by one. I keep note of differences and variations and carefully choose screenshots that will reflect the gist of the scenes.

But I couldn’t be bothered to do any of that this time. I pressed the “continue” and then the “end book” buttons as soon as I finished my first run of those chapters. I’m drained, guys. And I don’t think I’ll be coming back to the TRH series at least, not even for Liam or Hana or Kiara. Maybe my mind will change by the time the second book comes out (update from present-day Lizzy: no it didn’t) but I’m not counting on it. And you’ll probably know why by the time this QT ends.

• TW: Discussions on racism, both fandom racism and from within the narrative. The last section of this QT is going to be…pretty heavy, guys.

There’s also going to be a lot of anti-Drake, anti-Olivia, anti-Madeleine and anti-Penelope content here, so if you like any of those characters…well, you’ve been warned.

The ensuing post is going to be LONG, and I know a lot of you have good reasons not to deal with long posts, so here’s a tldr:

1. The TRR writing team stick to their weird obsession for jobless whiny white men.

2. Read this book once and you’ll feel like you’re drowning in an ocean of white tears.

3. WOC continue to get scraps from the writing team, even as they boast of being diverse and inclusive. In fact, they’re regularly treated as mere tokens, exotic eye-candy or non-entities, while their behaviour is measured on standards that are very different from their white counterparts (this happens in other books as well).

…okay I wasn’t expecting for the tldr to be long too 😅

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