I will preface this by saying that of course I’m a nandermo shipper so I’m biased but like

as a writer

I’m looking at this whole Freddie thing with like... increasing confusion. Like... the way to get your audience invested in a romance is to, y’know, show it? They’re hinting at it, but we’re not really getting to see any of the things that usually get fans into a romance. Not how they met, not how they got together, not how they actually interact, not their ship dynamic... It’s mostly been some generic phone endearments and Guillermo hanging up on him mid-sentence. Hard to get a handle on, y’know?

At this point, I’m guessing that there’s a very high likelihood that we really won’t even see the guy until the end of the season. And while hinting at a mysterious lover is great for a fuckin murder mystery or something, it’s not an effective way to get an audience invested in what a romance is rather than what it could be.

So at this point, I can’t help but wonder if we’re not supposed to be getting invested in it...?

Maybe I just spent too long in Big 2 comics fandom, but I know that a good way to get your fans annoyed at a new love interest is to have an established main character go from 0 to 60 about them with no build-up that the fans are actually privy to. Like, we know that the character has feelings for them, and that’s fine. But in order for the fans to have feelings about them, we also need to kind of fall in love with them, y’know? It’s easy to feel cheated and irritated with a character if the writers neglect that very important step.

When it comes to writing a romance, it’s just... not good writing... And I think these are not bad writers! So the only other thing I can think of is that they’re not writing a romance. Either what they’re actually building to is a storyline about Guillermo’s fucked up interpersonal skills and inability to ever actually be “normal” (highly likely, I think) or one where Freddie causes trouble (less likely, I think, though this show doesn’t really have normal people in it) or it’s going to be a story about Guillermo and Nandor in the end (which feels... pointed in the show itself, but seems unlikely from interviews?) or... I don’t know.

I’ve been trying to give both of these new relationships absolute benefit of the doubt (despite obviously not really wanting them to go well, lmao) because I mean! I’ve changed my mind on pairings that split up my ships if they’re well-written enough! I’ve actually spun dozens of scenarios for how these two relationships could work in my head. But yeah, it’s getting harder and harder with each passing episode. Both Marwa and Freddie feel more like plot devices in someone else’s story than actual characters at this point, and we are swiftly running out of episodes. It’s becoming increasingly difficult for me to see ways that each of these could become well-written romances. (Nandor/Marwa especially is dead in the water, I think.)

And I mean... These writers are so fucking good at writing romance when it comes to Laszlo and Nadja! That’s a pairing that we were also introduced to well after they got together, but they managed to show their ship dynamic so charmingly so quickly that you kind of feel like you’ve known them forever. So the fact that they’re just... not doing that... has me like ??? what are you planning??? because it sure as shit doesn’t feel like a well-developed romantic storyline! lmao

At this point, even if Freddie does stick around for s5 (not a thing I’m hoping for, mostly bc of narrative cohesion reasons which I went into with one of my last answered asks) his introduction has just been so damn strange that I don’t know if this can ever feel like an organic relationship...? I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, and I realized at a certain point that it was because, based on how this is being used in the narrative, it’s starting to feel more like foreshadowing for a bad thing than a good one. Or if not a bad thing, then at least an explosive one?

I mentioned it in one of my last posts, but this is starting to give “Colin’s 100th Birthday” vibes. The way they keep bringing it up, but too quickly for any real information? The way that “Freddie” has been announced as the penultimate episode of the season, the same spot where Colin “died”...? This is starting to make me uneasy!

I guess I’ll just end with saying personally, I kind of hope that the thing with Freddie ends catastrophically just because I like seeing my blorbos Suffer but I acknowledge that’s probably less likely lmao. At this point, I’m just going to be happy if they have a greater plan here that isn’t just “dump an unintroduced love interest on viewers near the end of the season” because again, I just don’t find that narratively satisfying.

but damn, if we aren’t building up a romance, what are we building?? I keep trying to figure it out! ;A;

When Gomez Addams obsesses over his tol goth wife who he calls a million pet names, everyone calls them couple goals. But when a gay lil angel does the same thing for her tol demon gf suddenly it's toxic? As if Charlie isn't such a huge enough sweetheart to deserve having someone fawn over her anyways.

#nbd just choni mirroring one of the most iconic teen drama love confessions of all time

Forget about blorbo in the New York Times, everyone, today my colleague found an omegaverse novel in the Booklist reviews. Winter break cannot come soon enough.

I just want a gacha game where the player character is blatantly and openly a woman and that's the only option for her and all the other characters are also all ladies (cis or normal) and every last one of them is dating and fucking her but also each other. The only exceptions to participating in the romance and sex are the aro and/or ace ones, and the ones who are both are still part of the polycule on a queerplatonic basis.

I crave for toxic diakko. Unfortunately I have classes tomorrow

I will always be in favor of playersexuality. Until the day game designers have more nuanced understandings of sexuality.

Game designers still only understand flamboyant gay, mean lesbian, slutty bisexual, and quirky queer. Any identities not those are not even recognized. And any complex characterizations are only afforded to "normal" straight characters.

While Larian gave us a step in the right direction, they are still coming from the above framework and trying to reiterate upon that. And you have to understand that framework in order to recognize why their implementation is still somewhat shallow while still being the best offered compared to other games in the genre.

In the past, every time I encountered a woman in a romanceable video game who correctly represents my own experience of bisexual/pansexual identity, she was only romanceable by male characters.

These are women who have tough exteriors on a spectrum of "bitchy femme", a midpoint of "aloof androgynous", to "tough masc". All points that are gnc in some way, but all are women who also have a soft interior that is interpreted as conventionally feminine.

Game designers interpret these two traits (outward gnc and inner softness) as a nullification to heterosexual woman. Time and time again. Falling into the stereotype of being a woman for a man to tame.

Will they ever understand? Or do people as a whole just don't understand the many ways bisexuality can take shape?

I'm gonna state a controversial Danganronpa headcanon, you ready?

Peko is an aro lesbian demigirl and Kuzu is a gay trans male but they're both attracted to each other in a consang way that has nothing to do with sex, gender, or orientation and is purely based on the partnership that formed in their upbringing.

i love being queer i really do but my god it can be lonely sometimes

it's ridiculous to me that bi people who date the opposite sex are getting hate. like. i am a bi person who decided through absolutely horrible trauma that i only want to date my own sex. am i to be celebrated then? like, how is that any different? that's still "bi with a preference", how does it invalidate being bi for them or for me?

I bought a linkin park cd today and my mum has already stolen it for her car-

Can't imagine ever feeling bad about being single when Reddit exists. Today in cis het men are hot garbage.

Tw for traumatic childbirth, medical trauma, coercion, gaslighting and medical abuse and fucking troglodyte manchild of a husband. Jesus fucking Christ.

one thing i was not prepared for when i started this rewatch of sdmi has been for it to finally sink in how absolutely heartbreaking daphne's whole deal is. this poor kid, man

can i bitch for a second

look. i don't care what anyone says, if you're someone who wants a partner, you deserve one that doesn't yell at you. you deserve a partner that doesn't make you walk on eggshells. you deserve a partner who you can have civil discussions with when disagreements come up. you deserve a partner who doesn't try to intimidate you in any way when they're mad. you deserve a partner who doesn't "keep score".

shared some of my writing in a workshop and someone commented on the mention of a female background character having a wife and son “I love the LGBTQIA+ representation here” and uh, I literally have a nonbinary major character using they/she pronouns in the light of day but okay lesbians I guess