#trr meta
Text
Hana and Madeleine: When You Reward Your Favourite Bully with One of Her Victims
Series - TRR's Alternative LIs: The "Romances" That Didn't Happen
Previous - Maxwell and Penelope: When You Like the Side Character So Much, You Gift Her A Shiny New LI
A/N1: Apologies, again, for the length of this. There was so much damn retconning to wade through that it felt like a rollercoaster to write. There is also not going to be a lot of Hana in this, as I needed to unravel so many inconsistencies in Madeleine's writing. I also didn't want this to become a repeat of my essay series on Hana (which you can read here).
CW: Descriptions of bullying and intimidation, as well as dismissiveness of the same both in canon and from fandom. A mention of the 'infertility' plotline written for Hana in TRH1. Mentions of parental abuse and neglect.
In every other essay in this series, it's been important for me to analyse the potential of the pairings TRR went for. No matter how badly PB handled them later on, one could find promise in the possibilities of these pairings, and if written well they could result in a sweet, happy ending for the LIs we didn't marry. With a better sense of balance from the writers and less vitriol and double standards (in some cases) from the fandom, they could have worked.
Not so for this pairing.
In the case of Hana and Madeleine,it would have been far far better if this pairing had never happened at all. The problem wasn't just in the development; the roots of such a pairing itself were rotten.
(White) Female Antagonists
Before I delve into the characters involved in this pairing, it's important we take another deep dive into a narrative practice we often see with PB. Their blatant favouring of specifically white female antagonists.
Now, it's not as if white men in antagonistic roles don't get favourable writing from their teams and adulation from sections of the fandom (one has to only look at some of the posts Gaius Augustine of BB, Caleb of Hero, and Kane of TE got - just to name a few). But we also often see fans of such white women decry the (very little compared to their black counterparts) condemnation that their faves get for their actions in comparison to both antagonistic and romanceable white men. Such readers often neglect to acknowledge exactly how much the narrative bends over backwards to accomodate them, in a way that they never have done for even mildly hostile/wary black and brown women. And often this is with ample support and encouragement within the fandom itself.
One cannot even pretend this is a recent development. The early books had their fair share of white-woman-adulation and you can see some of the patterns that would solidify in PB discourse already take shape in their early books.
One excellent example of this is TCaTF. Compare the treatment that white women like Helene Leventis, Hex and Zenobia Nevrakis are given, to what Rowan Thorn - a black woman - gets. Helene is allowed to escape never to return, or join Kenna, despite being the woman who killed her mentor and close friend Gabriel. Hex is well known in the series for her sadistic torture devices and for destroying an extremely prosperous kingdom. Yet, she is captured - alive - and there are two options that allow her a bit more mercy, and only one that recommends the harshest of punishments. Rowan in the meantime only betrays Kenna if the latter is an absolute tyrant to her, and letting her go if she betrays her is touted as a failure. Her loyalty doesn't ensure she will live like Diavolos' does - you can in fact leave her to die if you don't have enough diamonds/prestige points.
The Freshman was an improvement on this: even if Becca Davenport started out as a classic college mean girl, her redemption arc involved her needing to work to regain trust with the group and her best friend Madison, regardless of the MC's fondness of her. Her housemates immediately set her straight when she lashes out at them at the beginning of TS, and Becca has to plan for almost a-book-and-a-half to get her friendship with Madison back to normal again.
Sadly, this is something that rarely ever happened again. Discrepancies in character treatment became more and more obvious as the years passed. Books where black and brown women behaved even mildly unimpressed or catty with the MC, showed them either suffering grievous fates or written out of the narrative (eg. Scarlett not even getting a proper future in the VoS bonus scene) or being mistrusted and misunderstood constantly by the MC and their friends (Aurora). Books where white women could cause grievous harm depicted them being let off without so much as a slap on the wrist (eg. Aunt Mallory of RoE being rewarded with a happy life, a man and reconciliation with the niece she tried to kill and the daughter she emotionally abused).
(Screenshots from SavageLordBarlow's YouTube channel)
Perhaps the worst and most obvious case to date was that of Vanessa Blackwood of MoTY, who called a young child "guttersnipe" within minutes of encountering her, outed a lesbian teacher, encouraged her son's bullying, provided legal counsel to the MC's ex husband just to see the woman suffer, and engineered a plot to frame the MC for theft so she could lose her job. Once Vanessa had crossed her limits, PB ensured they laid on the sympathy narrative thick, having her show sad faces when the MC scolded her in a paywall scene, punishing only her brown lackey (both the white people involved - Vanessa and Guy - are never named when Tallulah is exposed, even though she literally stole jewellery and framed the MC for them). In the series finale, Vanessa was rewarded with a cushy diamond scene where the MC can choose (in what is the understatement of the century) to call her "classist and a little bit racist" - all she is given at the end of the book is an extremely softball form of criticism.
Compare this to Xanthe of ACOR, who had far less power, who was repeatedly slut shamed by the MC and others for doing her job, and whose end was met in a "comical" scene that implied she'd been sold into sexual slavery while two black members of her scholae gloated over her plight (in a manner so uncharacteristic of them that even players who didn't necessarily like Xanthe were shocked. I would highly recommend you read @cassiopeiacorvus' excellent essay on her, "Xanthe: Courtesan, Rival, Pawn").
In an essay I'd written years ago, I'd noted the following:
"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)."
Madeleine Amaranath is probably one of the best examples of this - with blatant retcons, unfounded adulation and obvious pandering lasting over five books.
Rules of Engagement
When we look at the full cast of TRR, we find at least six characters who are callbacks to its sister series, Rules of Engagement. Leo, Constantine, Regina, Bastien, Madeleine and Rashad (the last one was an addition from TRR2 onwards). Part of TRR's appeal as a series was its ability to reference the earlier one through these characters, but this time from the PoV of Leo's younger brother instead.
Madeleine appeared in only 2 chapters in RoE. She was Leo's fiancée, in an arranged match that not only their parents but their citizens expected, unfazed by the "commoners" Leo brought to his bed and secure in the knowledge that no matter who he slept with she would eventually become his Queen. Leo dashes these expectations, however, by abdicating his claim to the throne - whether the RoE MC chooses him or not.
At this point - when TRR was barely even a concept - Leo was a clear fan favourite. Players liked the idea of romancing a rogue prince from a fictional European country; it meant they could revel in the luxury of touching royalty, while being away from all the hard, unsavoury parts. The Madeleine angle provided them with a rival to fight off, and at the time that was all that mattered.
Was Leo's behaviour in RoE, towards both the RoE MC and Madeleine, dishonest? Definitely, but not many seemed to care much at the time and it hardly created a dent in his fanbase (most of the criticisms against him and his cheating ways and irresponsibility would emerge later - when the Leo stans became Drake stans, and it was more convenient to badmouth Liam's family).
Jeffrey Herdman, a Junior Game Writer with Pixelberry for over 7 years, was a part of both the RoE and TRR teams, and proudly admitted in the TRR2 pre-release interview, to being the one in charge of writing Madeleine:
Q: Very funny. (Just so we're clear, Jeffrey is joking. Sort of.) Out of curiosity, who's your favorite character to write in The Royal Romance?
Jeffrey: Madeleine. It's fun to write someone who's constantly trying to spin a situation to their benefit, and making power plays along the way. I've actually been writing for Madeleine since her appearance in Rules of Engagement: Book 2, so we're practically besties.
Excerpt from The Royal Romance: Book 2 Interview
(If we were to compare this adulation of the character from Jeffrey, to the person who wrote Hana - head writer Jennifer Young, you'd find a surprising difference. In this very interview Jennifer talks about enjoying the process of writing Hana, but pointed to Drake as her favourite LI - "In my personal game, my love interest is definitely Drake, and I totally make Kara write him just so I can read his scenes and enjoy the romance. =)".
Perhaps if Jennifer had spent less time fawning over Drake, and more time doing Hana's story justice, that LI wouldn't be stuck in a situation where the team constantly erased her experiences and history to benefit their favourites)
When you look at Jeffrey's open admiration of Madeleine, and trace her fairly choppy and largely incoherent narrative journey through the books...a lot of things begin to make sense.
TRR1 - Would a TRR1 Madeleine Have Been A Better Fit for Hana?
When you look at the first book, you can tell that the possibility of any of the other alternative pairings besides Liam and Olivia wasn't really entertained. There is no buildup at all for Maxwell x Penelope, Drake x Kiara - and not even a single direct interaction between fellow competitors Hana and Madeleine. In fact, TRR2 often had to cover up for the lack of interaction in certain cases by making the alternative LI come up with justifications for why they weren't approaching the LI before.
There is maybe one implied interaction between Hana and Madeleine, that I don't think even the writers paid much attention to at the time. In the pie baking scene in Applewood, Hana is assigned to Madeleine's team if the MC doesn't take her along. Whichever group Hana is in, she is in charge of the pie design.
In the diamond scene, she takes the MC's suggestions and gives her advice on the amount of apples required for the filling. Given that she gives credit to the MC (in front of Queen Regina) in this option, and doesn't not do the same for Madeleine, it is likely that she was allowed to decorate for the other team, but not with much input from the captain.
This pie has a rose design, which is beautiful but lacks the intricacy and the challenge of the Cordonian Royal Seal, which the MC can suggest in the diamond scene. It's possible that by default, Madeleine handled the baking herself (since Penelope couldn't even boil water and in fact is so distracted she unwittingly helps sabotage the pie), and Hana was assigned strictly decoration duties. But even these possibilities rely on conjecture and guesswork, with no real dialogue or interaction shown.
There are no other scenes where the two women talk or do anything together. Hana may be present in one or two scenes where Madeleine is speaking (such as the dining scene in Ch 17 where Madeleine tells the court ladies about the upcoming Engagement Tour), but the two never directly engage with each other. It's more likely that (like Maxwell and Penelope, or Drake and Kiara), the writers may have thought of Hana and Madeleine only in the second or third book - more likely the third, but there are possible hints in TRR2 if you squint.
Hana is an interesting anomaly among the cast of TRR. She is both Cordonian and foreigner; the ways of the Cordonian court are, in equal parts, both familiar and confusing to her. This serves as an double-edged advantage to the MC - Hana is both skilled and knowledgeable enough to ease her into the culture, and isolated and vulnerable enough for the MC to step up as a hero on occasion. We also find out in Lythikos (TRR1 Ch 7) that she was so deep in the closet that she couldn't fully articulate her struggle to love the romantic English noble who wanted to marry her, in the presence of the woman she was slowly beginning to love. Within the competition itself, Hana is shown having a hard time finding people who will associate with her, often shown left out of events and her yacht party abandoned during the Regatta. The broken engagement could have a hand in making her appear to be struggling in the competition, but tbh Olivia is the only one who brings it up. Overall, she does well in the competition, but gets little credit for the same.
Madeleine is the polar opposite of this. Even though the ladies of the court initially view her with a mixture of pity and respect (due to her broken engagement with Leo, and her position as a Countess and winner of the previous season), their views on Madeleine once she enters the competition range from anger (Olivia), to speculation (Kiara and Penelope), to indifference and later suspicion (the MC).
Madeleine comes into the social season with several advantages: her pedigree and her years of experience at court. Both Bertrand and the MC note that Madeleine hails from a "powerful family" and "is immersed in the intrigues and maneuverings of courtly life", and therefore the MC is cautioned by Applewood to pay more attention to her than to Olivia. If the MC fails to win court favour, both Penelope and Kiara show allegiance to Madeleine. Where Hana is shown to be vulnerable despite her skills, charm and intelligence, Madeleine is meant to be viewed with respect even by her peers - and expected not to return that respect to others unless they're the king and queen.
I often view the Madeleine of Book 1 (and early TRR2), and the Madeleine of the latter half of Book 2, as two separate people (more on that in the next section). Early Madeleine was depicted as a clear threat. While she does nothing too out-of-pocket during the competition, her threats to the MC once she is (optionally) the favourite frontrunner, her singular focus on only the king and queen (and largely ignoring the Prince), and inability to respectfully lose, ensure that the reader registers her as a figure of danger early on. The first time she (optionally) faces an obvious loss and sees the MC crowned as Apple Queen, Madeleine tells her to "savour these moments. You may never hear the phrase again".
Her very extreme attempts to belatedly win Liam's favour after ignoring him the entire season (we later find out that she barged into his sleeping quarters the previous night and suggested the arrangement that Liam speaks about in TRR2), earns her speculative looks from the MC and wariness from Liam himself. Given that the outcome was so different in TRR2 but the buildup to said outcome was so rushed and chaotic, there is a 70/30 chance that Madeleine's buildup in Book 1 was meant to highlight her as someone with the capability to harm the MC, rather than just as a red herring. At the very most, Book 1 would highlight her as powerful, with the intention that Book 2 would follow through with showing her as a cog in a very vicious machine.
But because Madeleine's actions in TRR1 don't result in any direct harm, it's honestly hard to envision her as dangerous beyond the subtle threats (that people could brush off as basic rivalry) and rank classism.
Would Hana's pairing with the Madeleine of TRR1 have worked? It's equally hard to say. If we take only Book 1 into account, and ignore the very real possibility of a threat that Madeleine represents, there's a sliver of a chance that such a pairing could work...if Madeleine works on herself. At this point she hasn't manifested as a direct threat to Hana in a way that, say, Olivia has - and all the MC has at this point are theories and speculation. You'd have to probably change half of Madeleine's characterization, but it could be workable if the foundation for such a pairing was mutual respect from the start.
Still, when you take into consideration that Madeleine being involved in the plot against the MC was a very legitimate possibility, it's hard to see any opening for this pairing. Even Penelope - whose coddling from the narrative knew no limits - was no longer entertained as a potential alternative romance for an LI the moment her role in the plot was uncovered. If any harm was done to the MC, and Madeleine was found to be behind it, there is no way Hana would even be allowed to entertain the thought of her as an alternative LI at all.
You see - hurting Hana is no big deal. But hurting the MC and still getting an LI to show interest in you? Now that would be beyond the pale!
Madeleine: A Red Herring...Or A Villain Retconned?
As I have mentioned earlier, there is one writer - who has seniority in the company because of his many years there, who has always been in charge of Madeleine's writing, and who has always loved writing her. On close inspection one can say for certain that Jeffrey Herdman had a fair bit of sway in the team itself, especially from the fact that one of his weirdest writing suggestions - the MC's supposed obsession with hats - was retained in the books as a gag for a very, very long time (TRF finale livestream interview). When you take both Jeffrey's sway in the team, and the writing of Madeleine in TRR2 and 3 (and beyond), one can make several educated guesses about what Madeleine was built up to be, and how that changed midway.
Plenty of fan posts written in the gap between TRR1's finale and TRR2's release, took for granted that Madeleine would have some role to play in the plot against the MC. While one may assume this was due to "jealousy" from players or "hate for a bitchy character", there were enough signs in TRR1 and 2 that this was the route the narrative was initially planning to take with her.
The MC does voice suspicions of Madeleine in the first book - mostly after Madeleine herself voices threats to the MC during the Apple Queen ceremony. Madeleine also looks apprehensive at the (optional) public support Liam shows towards the MC at the Beaumont estate, and even shows him a suspiciously huge amount of attention at the Coronation. The MC even confronts Madeleine during the Coronation festivities when she gets a note threatening her to withdraw from the competition, believing it was sent by the latter. But beyond this, Madeleine's own words in TRR1 often sound ominous and laced with subtle threats. Still - going by just TRR1's evidence, Madeleine could still work as a good red herring, since she's not exactly crossed a clear line with anyone yet.
TRR2 seems to go in one direction when it comes to Madeleine's arc, then makes a sharp pivot in the opposite direction post Chs 7 and 8. The first half of the book has both the MC and Liam regard her with doubt and suspicion, especially when the MC learns that Madeleine had come to Liam's rooms the night before the Coronation, and insisted he continue the relationship with the MC on the sly while making her the queen. The book presents several contrasts between Madeleine and the MC, presenting their possible ruling styles and envisioning how each woman would fare as a future queen.
In a diamond scene in TRR2 Ch 4, Liam asks the MC how she would handle a plate of curry chicken falling on someone - an incident that has already occurred in some playthroughs to Madeleine (who got recognizably frustrated and called the whole episode "a disaster"). In contrast, the MC can claim she would either defuse the situation with humour or help clear the mess - both of which establish that unlike Madeleine the MC knows how to adapt to different situations, and prefers to find a solution rather than take her frustrations out on everyone else. Liam points out the differences between the two women as the MC "having perspective... every gaffe isn't a disaster".
Multiple scenes in the story focus on Madeleine's rigidity, her inability to adapt, her hunger for power, her belief that becoming queen gives her a free pass to be a tyrant, her hubris that allows her to outright harm some of her ladies in waiting and believe she will never face consequences, and her overall lack of real impact during her own engagement tour (only if the MC fails miserably does the Italian statesman Francesco even mention Madeleine). A lot of this buildup indicates that she won't be as effective a queen as other characters claim she will be.
Her overall behaviour in the first half of TRR2 seems to highlight overconfidence, and a willingness to overstep every possible boundary in the belief that nothing will now prevent her from getting what she wants ("the best part about being Queen is that I don't have to explain myself to anyone. Including you."). Even though she isn't queen yet, both Madeleine and everyone around her behave as if she has already been crowned! That kind of overconfidence - especially from someone who should know better than anyone that winning the competition doesn't necessarily mean she'll be crowned - makes more sense when she is aware that there are powerful people (like the former king and her aunt, the former queen) to back her.
There is also the fact that Penelope's involvement in the plot never got any proper buildup. There is just one scene, in TRR2 Ch 6, where she speaks about feeling uncomfortable at parties and balls, and how much she hates crowds. The reveal of her being the culprit is in Ch 7; the reveal of her social anxiety is in Ch 8. Before this, you have zero indicators of her being involved in this level of deception - even though her history of "social anxiety" should have ideally made that kind of subterfuge difficult, and she should have been able to leave a few tells, signalling her guilt. It is very clear on rereads that Penelope's involvement in the plot was a last-minute narrative decision.
But perhaps the strongest evidence that TRR2 was originally meant to establish Madeleine as part of the plot against the MC, is a line from the very first scene of the book. When a confused MC asks Bertrand how it's possible for Liam to break his engagement, Bertrand mentions a constitutional provision:
"The king is able to change his selection in specific cases for the good of the nation". The MC being proven as framed and unfairly disgraced achieves very little in this context, because the focus is clearly on the king's final choice. This means that the engagement cannot be voided on the basis of the MC being innocent, but on the basis of Madeleine being unfit for the role.
What happens to this "constitutional clause" once Penelope is declared the culprit among the court ladies rather than Madeleine? It disappears completely. If she was really meant to be a red herring from the start, the team would never have added this line in the first place. Nor would they have left the "buildup" for Penelope's anxiety till Ch 6, just one chapter before her reveal. If Madeleine was really meant to be a mere red herring from the start, there would have been more than just one crumb presented for that trail.
It is highly possible that the team had plans for Madeleine to be involved in the plot, or in something shady enough to justify breaking the engagement. It is just as highly possible that Jeffrey, the writer in charge of her character, allowed his favouritism for that character to dictate his writing of her, and convinced the team to change the trajectory of the story to benefit her.
Hana and Madeleine - The First Half of TRR2
Most of the interactions between Hana and Madeleine in TRR2 are overshadowed by one incident in Ch 7 - the one most popularly known as "the chocolate incident". Madeleine was already not too popular as a character when this scene came out, but her admission that she wanted to break Hana crossed enough of a line that a number of players would bring it up as a reason for why they couldn't ever like her, no matter how often she was retconned in canon.
A common misconception made about the "chocolate incident" from Madeleine lovers and haters alike, is that it's viewed as a singular episode rather than as an escalation in an ongoing pattern of threats that Madeleine was already making to Hana.
Viewing it as an isolated incident is precisely what allowed both Madeleine stans, and the canon narrative itself, to severely downplay what Madeleine did, and what she openly declared she would continue doing to Hana. Therefore, it is essential to look into Hana and Madeleine's interactions before Ch 7, as well as the context behind Hana's return to court and the very real and grave threat that Madeleine represents to Hana specifically.
To do this, we must first look into how Hana's return to court (after her parents forced her to leave post Coronation) is depicted. There are two versions of this story - Madeleine's version...and the truth.
Madeleine's Version: "If it wasn't for me, she'd still be on the other side of the world. I've heard dogs remember those who feed them. I hope you'll keep this in mind and remember that dear Hana is here by my personal invitation". This is a half-truth at best and ironically, this is the version Hana sticks to. She is never allowed to tell us differently.
The truth, as said by Liam to Hana post Coronation: "I am the King of Cordonia. I'm sure Lady Madeleine knows that if she wants to keep our engagement, she'll have to give me something. Perhaps I can convince her to make you part of her court". Hana never gets to tell us this. That honour is given to Drake!
Even after the MC (optionally) gets to know this truth, she never talks to Hana about it, and Hana is never allowed to veer from Madeleine's narrative even in private. In the process, Madeleine gets to use her half-truth as a form of blackmail - threatening Hana at least twice to send her back to China if she paces even one toe out of Madeleine's arbitrary line.
In TRR2 Ch 4, Madeleine is shown antagonizing her entire court (ordering Penelope to get lemonade and comparing her to dogs, telling Kiara to exoticize herself by not speaking in English [which itself has colonial/Orientalist connotations]). But none is more ominous and disturbing than her subtle threat to Hana before introducing her to the two suitors:
Being sent back to her parents is a terrifying prospect for Hana...for two reasons. For one, Hana is committed to being there for the MC, to contributing to her investigation (and she does! Massively. Perhaps more than anyone else in the group). For another, she is just beginning to realize what a damaging environment her parents' house is, and she also knows they are already growing suspicious that she hasn't found another suitor yet. By the end of this conversation, Hana is visibly distraught... to the point of needing moral support (something she rarely asks for herself).
Remember - this is an arbitrary rule Madeleine comes up with, that applies only to Hana. In the same conversation, neither Kiara nor Penelope are placed under this kind of pressure. Though Penelope claims in Ch 6 that her parents won't allow her to come home if she doesn't get a suitor, Madeleine doesn't levy any other threats of this nature on her (she harms Penelope in other ways).
Madeleine is aware that Liam was the one responsible for Hana's return. It is implied that she is also aware that neither Liam nor Hana can say this in public. By this coin, she'd know that she shouldn't be the one who can take a call on sending Hana back - Liam is. Yet she issues this sort of a threat, and worse still...is allowed to get away with it through Hana and the MC's silence, both in private and in public.
Unlike the MC and Olivia, the other three ladies of the court are present in official positions to the future Queen, and are expected to publicly pledge loyalty to her. The narrative of TRR2 alone seems to give the King's fiancèe powers and influences similar to an actual Queen Consort's. And Hana, Kiara and Penelope aren't just random "court members" - they are Madeleine's ladies-in-waiting. They cannot even speak to certain people unless she approves of it (Ch 1), she orders them around with the disrespect that many in that nobility reserve for their servants (Penelope in Ch 4), she publicly humiliates and insults them if they make a single mistake (eg. Penelope not getting a metallic dress in time for the bachelorette), and she can get away with causing them grievous harm (Hana). There is no actual point to any of this behaviour - it achieves nothing and (by the narrative parameters of the third book) is actually foolish, because Madeleine's actions could cost the royal family their relationship with the Great Houses. Neither the MC nor Liam (the actual monarch), would be allowed by the narrative later to abuse their power the way Madeleine can, in a position that isn't even hers yet!
It is easy to view Madeleine's interactions with Hana and Penelope especially, as just some regular mean-girls shit, with all the excuses, justifications and crocodile tears that the fandom can shower on said white/white-passing mean girls. Canon itself encourages this reading when they use the word "hazing" to describe what Madeleine put Hana through. But when we speak of Madeleine's behaviour in her engagement tour that way, we miss a very important aspect of her dynamic with these two women. They are no longer competitors or mere allies. They are not just people she knows in court.
They are not Madeleine's equals. They are her employees. She is directly in a position of immense, unquestioned and unchecked power over them. Publicly, she has the authority to invite them into her court, and to throw them out of their jobs. It is from that lens, that we must view her behaviour, especially in Ch 7.
The "Chocolate Incident" and Its Aftermath
Another reason to believe Jeffrey's favouritism for Madeleine allowed for an actual change in the story, is the way this above scene - and the ones preceding it - were handled immediately in both the immediate and long-term aftermath.
Often dubbed "the chocolate incident", this scene takes place in Italy (the first stop of the engagement tour) during Madeleine's bachelorette. For anyone who has forgotten the incident, Madeleine's ladies-in-waiting are supposed to organize different fun activities for her bachelorette, and the MC uses each event as both a PR exercise and an opportunity to check the credit cards of the ladies.
The final activity is Hana's, an intricately-planned chocolate fondue party complete with chocolate-themed games and treats. If one reads too much between the lines, one could maybe notice the tiniest sliver of a romantic hint in Hana's conversation with the MC over her confusing an actual bachelorette party with the show The Bachelorette (It is just as possible tho - if not more - that this is a comic aside pointing to Hana's lack of exposure to modern media).
However, things take a turn for the worst at this juncture. Madeleine heavily berates Hana for not knowing that she is "allergic to chocolate", accusing her of an attempt to murder and even threatening to remove her from her position in court. This leaves Hana so distraught that she ruins her own dress in the process, and is damn near inconsolable. The MC can - if she chooses - comfort Hana along with their friends. At the end of the night, a heavily drunk Madeleine gleefully admits she lied about the allergy and gloats about wanting to keep hurting Hana till she breaks, because she "wants to have a little fun".
She claims, when asked why, that it's because "everyone wants something, but the nice ones like Hana don't even have the decency to act like it". Which sounds like the sort of sick logic that fandom often happily accepts from their favourite white antagonists, where they can project whatever sob story they want to make such a reasoning palatable. Such attempts ignore the fact that Madeleine is torturing someone for supposed "duplicity" when she is herself well-known for being insincere.
Later, when it was convenient for the fandom to hate on Hana, she would be either blamed for the torture Madeleine put her through (because she was "weak" or "too nice", or that she was "spineless and deserved this treatment". I even saw posts that claimed it "wasn't that bad" (in the case of one particularly memorable instance, a Madeleine stan went so far as to say, agreeing with a post expressing a fondness for Madeleine: "...before anyone mentions the chocolate prank: Did Hana die, tho?"). Some also tried to reason that it was fair for Madeleine to target Hana, either to showcase her "wiles" or because of her sad sad childhood.
As I pointed out earlier, every single one of these takes tend to downplay Madeleine's bullying/abuse so that it sounds more like a schoolyard squabble that happened only once, rather than a person in power consistently placing their employee's job under threat, with the stated intention of harming them mentally and emotionally on a regular basis, until they experienced a breakdown. The center of this conflict isn't about different people with different approaches. Nor is it about court maneuvering or wiles because honestly, nothing worthwhile was achieved through Madeleine's abuse, and she had no purpose for doing those things beyond deriving a sick pleasure from other people's suffering.
It isn't about nice vs tough, nor ambitious vs generous, nor "naive" vs "jaded". It is about a gross power imbalance. An imbalance that results in the exploitation of the more vulnerable party...which is later brushed aside by the one who claims to be the latter's "friend" like it means nothing.
Structure wise, one can see striking similarities between this chapter, and TRR1's Ch 7, where the MC can view Olivia in a new light in the first half of the chapter, but be disturbed by her vindictive nature by the end of it. Here too, the MC comes into the investigation of the credit cards fully expecting to see Madeleine as the culprit. Over the course of the evening she finds Madeleine treating her ladies-in-waiting badly, but also calling out the press for targeting only the MC but staying silent on Tariq's involvement (ironically, Madeleine herself didn't exactly believe the MC if she tells her she was set up). She is also shocked when she realises Madeleine isn't the culprit at the club. Still, the court is given a rude shock when Hana is accused of putting Madeleine's life in danger.
Clearly the aim of such a chapter was to make the MC soften a little towards Madeleine, while still keeping some of the antagonistic tension. However, the more direct impact of Madeleine's huge ego trip on Hana made the harm far more visible than Olivia's jibes towards a woman who was far away...plus the scenes that followed in the former sequence centered Drake, far more than the ones in the latter that involved comforting Hana.
Madeleine's bullying also clashes - quite conveniently - with the reveal of Penelope's betrayal, so that the latter overshadows what Hana went through altogether.
It is important to note at this point that the MC is the only person not directly tied in an alliance to Madeleine (besides Olivia and Maxwell, who are then missing at the fashion show backstage scene in Paris) who knows Madeleine's intentions towards Hana. She is the only person present at the event in Paris, who knows that Madeleine intended to continue harassing her until she broke. Hana herself is never made fully aware of this, and if she is left in a vulnerable, dangerous position while on her mission to support the MC's investigation - then the fault lies to a large extent with the MC for keeping silent, rather than protecting her friend from someone who fully intended to hurt her.
I say this because in France (Ch 8), the MC's exposing of Madeleine is by choice, rather than default (this essay has a full breakdown of said scene). Moreover, the option where the MC can "expose" her will result in Madeleine lying about the act being an "official hazing" she does for all her ladies-in-waiting. Not only does the MC neglect to contest Madeleine's claims (or even tell Hana the full truth in secret), she also parrots Madeleine's lie in a conversation with Adeleide in NY, as if it were the truth (Ch 14).
Remember how I mentioned Jeffrey - the writer who was in charge of Madeleine's scenes and sang her praises in TRR2's pre-release interview? His influence here is obvious in the way the narrative sharply pivots away from Madeleine's characterization so far, to engage in a full-blown pity party.
The abuses of her power (towards Hana and Penelope in particular) stop. The parallels that canon makes between Madeleine and the MC as future Queens, stop. No reference, ever, is made of her actions before Ch 8.
For over seven chapters, Madeleine largely fades into the background - sometimes there will be scenes where she is present, but without any dialogue or actions. Sometimes she may make a catty move like getting the MC to pick up her wedding ring, but from a safe distance. Because she doesn't openly antagonize anyone or show up much in Chs 9-15, the sense of distance could allow some to soften in their memories of her. Especially when the only strong reminders of Madeleine in these chapters come from Adeleide, her mother.
Adeleide is an important cog in the machinery that resulted in the retconning of Madeleine's character in TRR2. Without her, Patriotic!Madeleine wouldn't have become canon. Adeleide sets the stage for this extremely inaccurate reading of her, with complaints on two occasions about how Madeleine is "putting too much pressure on herself" and working too hard. Which contradicts her very real actions in Applewood and Italy, where she regularly antagonized her entire court and where she doesn't get much notable approval from foreign dignitaries (Signor Francesco) unless the MC is that bad.
The narrative, at this point, expects us to view her with sympathy, as someone who could have been "an excellent queen" (Adeleide's words, not mine). The stage is clearly set so that we pity her when Liam calls off the engagement and she loses this position, that we can see her loss as "unfair". It ensures that there is an overflow of sympathy for Madeleine's plight, especially since she had already lost her chance to become Queen once before with Leo. By this point, many readers had actually forgotten the "chocolate incident" altogether, and were more than willing to view Madeleine as a patriot who wasn't given her due. A description that, ironically, more accurately fits Hana.
Is Hana Really Just A Nice Girl who Never Fights Back?
As I mentioned before, Hana's "niceness" and "weakness" were sometimes presented in fandom as justifications/reasons for Madeleine's bullying of her, often in an attempt to shift blame or make it sound like Madeleine's stated "reasons" (in TRR2 Ch 7) to hurt her were legitimate. Almost as if to say that Hana was targeted because she presents herself as an easy target.
To be clear, I don't subscribe to such a train of thought myself. Different people react to bullies and abusers in different ways - and not being able to push back aggressively in tense situations doesn't make anyone a lesser person. In fact, canon itself doesn't mind providing a "weaker" person protection against someone like Madeleine...as long as that person is Penelope. So we cannot even claim that Hana's "weakness" is why Madeleine targets her, or why the MC shouldn't have to protect Hana better.
Canon also doesn't help much in this respect, especially with their preferences for the meaner white women. In fact the narrative doesn't even allow Hana the chance to speak up in private against Madeleine's half-truths about her return, and she is made to easily accept Madeleine's "hazing" excuse. Let's not even get into how she speaks about Madeleine in TRR3. Additionally, no one in Hana's own friend group provides adequate protection or support - they stay silent where it counts.
But is Hana really that incapable of fighting for herself? According to the finale of TRR1, no.
Even though the scene is hidden behind a paywall, Hana's pushback against Olivia's treatment of her during the social season is strong, decisive and done entirely on her own initiative, with no prompting or involvement from the MC. She is honest about the ways in which Olivia has hurt her, but also makes it clear that Olivia's opinions and vitriol no longer matter - effectively reclaiming her own power in the process.
Such a scene is a clear indicator that Hana is capable of pushing back, and isn't afraid to speak truth to power - as early as TRR1. While one could say that as a diamond scene, it is possible that it can't be fully shown as canon - there are ways the writers know how to incorporate such things. Often, they have managed to write in similar scenes or the same information into free scenes later on (eg. the selling of Liam's bachelor party photos, which wasn't even that important to the story of TRR2). Hana could have had a free pushback scene with Olivia if the writers really wanted to give her one.
That aside, it's safe to say that there is a precedent for Hana being able to fight back before TRR2, and canon could have found ways to ensure that she could safely do so with Madeleine too. Or at least have more protection and care from her friend group, if her position as lady-in-waiting prevented her from speaking out. Penelope got to demand protection later on, after all - and she wasn't even our friend.
We must also take into account the positions of power that Madeleine, Olivia and later even the MC hold. Madeleine is a countess in line to become queen in TRR2. Olivia is a duchess, and the MC herself is given this honour in Book 2. Hana - despite her skills, knowledge and charm - never gets lands, nor a title unless she marries the MC. Hana's experience in Cordonia isn't just about "other women" being mean to her with the MC being "not like other girls" - all three of the above women are in positions of power over her, and even the nicest of them uses her more often than she helps.
TRR2 doesn't exactly build Hana and Madeleine as a pair. In hindsight one can read romantic hints into Madeleine's mocking usage of the word "darling" around Hana, Hana's attempt to replicate The Bachelorette for Madeleine's bachelorette party, and read parallels into both their toxic family histories (particularly Hana with her mother and Madeleine with her father). But there is no actual romantic content there that one could find with the other three pairs, which leads me to believe that Hana and Madeleine was only taken seriously as a romantic prospect in TRR3.
How did Madeleine become the final romantic choice for Hana, and no one else? Because the relationship was never made Hana's benefit - it was for Madeleine's. Given all the evidence laid out about TRR1!Madeleine, TRR2!Madeleine and including hints that she may have actually been written as the villain at some point, it's more likely that Madeleine's main writer ensured some changes in the writing of his favourite character midway into the story, resulting in her staying longer in court and several retcons that painted her as a tragic heroine and completely erased any actions that contradicted such a narrative.
This specific narrative also seems to draw upon a narrative trope that is seen sometimes in certain stories featuring queer couples - the Armoured Closted Gay. It is employed often enough, mostly to show the pervasiveness and immense pressure heteronormativity can have on some queer people - that sometimes, they hate themselves for not adhering to the norm and therefore project that self-hatred onto people like them. PB had done a similar kind of story in TF and ILITW - with Zig and an aggressive teammate Manny (but with discussions on sexual harassment and about being closeted) and with Lily Oritz and her crush Britney. Unlike Zig's and Lily's cases though, this sort of narrative hardly centers on Hana.
Hana is hardly treated as a person in her own right in this narrative. She is treated as a "consolation prize" for Madeleine's "good behaviour" and "hard work". Which is still a really, really hard story to sell when one of the characters states outright that they'd abuse their power over the other till she breaks.
So how does PB get back from that kind of cruelty, and convert it into an actual romance?
Madeleine in TRR3 - The Royal Retcon
(In order: MC complimenting Madeleine to Godfrey (Ch 3), response to Madeleine's "send my regards to Hana (Ch 9), Madeleine asking for a dance (Ch 16), Optional response about memories of Madeleine's bachelorette in Hana's Vegas diamond scene (Ch 16))
By gaslighting an entire fandom, of course.
TRR3 requires us at the very start to do two things - to recruit Madeleine into replacing Justin as our press secretary, and to convince her family to join the Unity Tour so that Cordonia knows its nobility stands with the Crown. Until this point, we've only had hints of Madeleine's so-called "patriotism", mostly from Adeleide. TRR3 Ch 3 goes full force on this reading: having Madeleine claim (in the most positive option) that all her efforts to become queen was "for my people...it was always for Cordonia", having Hana claim that Madeleine "would mostly likely take a bullet for Liam... because you'd never leave Cordonia without a King". Coupled with Godfrey and Adeleide's toxic family dynamics, the story is set to push forward a narrative where we are meant to sympathize with her and preferably downplay her behaviour from the previous book.
Throughout Madeleine's tenure as press sec, we are expected to laud her "work" - even though the truth is that she makes our work harder by giving us heavy folders and 100 note cards of materials just minutes before our meetings, and leaving out important information (like Zeke) for us to scramble about and find. Where during her time as future queen, her ladies-in-waiting were expected to have every detail perfect as per her desires otherwise face her wrath - as our employee, we are expected to appreciate efforts alone, and be lenient when she doesn't follow our rules (eg. wearing gold for our bachelorette when she was supposed to wear muted colours, trying to sneak in a white dress to our wedding). Most of our responses to her "work" involve fulsome praise, or at most a very light criticism that still claims she's good at her job (she isn't). And it isn't just the MC - even Justin (who recommended her) and Hana are made to sing her praises.
Having canon claim Madeleine does a good job when she actually doesn't is... frustrating, but not as awful as the retconning they do for her past behaviour. But it is part of a pattern that whitewashes Madeleine altogether so the readers can consider her deserving of the rewards that the narrative so badly wants to give her, whether her actual conduct matches up to these fulsome praises or not.
One clear tactic that is used to achieve this, was to have the person she harmed the most, speak of her in glowing terms. In TRR3 Ch 3, you have at least two instances during the "Cordonia's Most" game where Hana uses the game to compliment Madeleine. Here, she compliments Madeleine on knowing how to "charm a crowd...her confidence and poise", and claims her to be very patriotic. If the MC refuses to coddle Madeleine during their private conversation, the onus to be kind to her rests solely on Hana's shoulders, where she is required to say, "maybe it's time to see if you can catch more flies with honey". Hana is also shown wanting to include Madeleine in group activities (TRR3 Ch 6, before going to the spa), in the same way she tried to include Olivia in TRR2. When we're shown a Hana who is not only willing but enthusiastic to speak to Madeleine, it further encourages the reader to befriend her - almost as if to say, "if Hana doesn't mind being friendly with her, why should you?".
And this wouldn't be possible at all if canon was honest about Madeleine's conduct in TRR2. So much about Madeleine's advice to us in TRR3 directly contradicts her own behaviour as future queen in TRR2 ("having an entourage isn't about vanity...it's about support"). Had canon actually been honest about her conduct, this statement would be viewed as extremely ironic, a huge portion of the blame for Penelope's reluctance to return to court would be (rightly) placed on Madeleine's shoulders and we would be able to call her out specifically on her tyrannical behaviour as future queen, as well as her inability to adjust her work to suit her client now. We would not be placing Madeleine on a pedestal ad nauseum, or paying much attention to her childish complaints that her "efforts" are going unappreciated.
Whenever the early part of the engagement tour is referenced, it is spoken of in the vaguest, most milquetoast terms. The narrative will speak vaguely of "meanness", but never actually specify what Madeleine did. The closest we get to any sort of confirmation of this is in the Costume Gala (Ch 9) if the MC warns Madeleine to stay away from Hana...and even there, the MC just says she did "mean things". Which is the mildest possible way I have seen of someone describing a person who gloated about breaking Hana. Like the word "hazing" from the previous book, all these vague references leave it to the readers' faint memories, or imagination, to figure out what Madeleine did.
But all of these are just hints at best, and most of what we could assume of the writers' intentions came largely from guesswork. There was constantly a sense of something not being right, but many of us at the time couldn't completely articulate it. That is, until Ch 16, and only if we pressed a specific option in the Vegas diamond scene, in just Hana's playthrough:
Unlike the previous scenes - which were mostly attempts to obfuscate the events of the previous book - this scene replaces what actually happened with blatant lies. Not only does it wipe out entirely what Madeleine did, replacing it with a casual comment from Hana about her "fun side", it also smears Kiara for something she didn't do at all during the bachelorette (for clarity, Kiara found out she was a great dancer, and looked quite annoyed if the MC chose a wrong dialogue option as an excuse to see her card. The MC never saw her lashing out at Penelope during this event). Even if the MC and Hana were so drunk that night that they wouldn't remember events clearly (which isn't how they're depicted at all when the "chocolate incident" took place), it wouldn't be replaced with things that never actually happened. The writers were more than ready to throw Kiara under the bus to make Madeleine look better, and have those lies come out of Hana's mouth (and mind you, Hana liked Kiara so much she chose her to be her MoH in Ch 18 of her playthrough, so it can't even have been spite towards Kiara on her part).
In contrast, Penelope is allowed to be open about Madeleine's mistreatment of her. In fact she cites it as the main reason for her reluctance to return to court, and even complains at the MC if the latter asks her if she didn't get the memo on the bachelorette dress code in TRR3 Ch 16 ("oh no, no, it's like Madeleine all over again!"). The group is required to protect her from Madeleine; in Ch 4, when Penelope is upset at the very sight of Madeleine, Drake comes to her rescue and reassures her ("She's with us, Penelope. We won't let her bite."). While Madeleine herself is protected from any consequences for what she did to Penelope (besides an optional tiny jibe in Ch 4), the MC and her group are required to reassure her that they will never allow it to happen again. In a very disgusting contrast, the narrative pushes Hana at the forefront of the diamond scene with Madeleine, without ever considering her comfort or safety around the person who wanted to break her. Not only does the group involve her without ever asking her if she wants to be part of it - Drake and Maxwell safely distance themselves when the time comes for Madeleine to speak personally about her troubles, and the MC can choose not to be sympathetic in certain dialogue options. Which means that the onus to comfort and persuade her is largely on Hana's shoulders. We must also remember that, unlike Penelope, Hana is deprived of the full truth of Madeleine's intentions in the last book too.
Where the writers were ready to at least admit that Madeleine's behaviour affected Penelope deeply, they went to the extent of completely rewriting the narrative of her TRR2 bachelorette to erase what she put Hana through.
The "Romance" in TRR3
(First four screenshots from my playthroughs, next four from the Adventure...Romance...Thrills YouTube Channel, and the final row's screenshots from the Annabelle Lee YouTube channel and the Skylia YouTube channel)
The Hana and Madeleine "romance" is hinted at in 5 scenes (4 in other playthroughs, and just one in Hana's own). As with most of the other romances, Madeleine's feelings are the most prominent. To the more romance-coded overtures, Hana's reaction is usually shock and disbelief, with a small suspicion over whether Madeleine is doing this to trick her into humiliation later. But the narrative gives her very little opportunity to even talk about anything related to Madeleine, especially anything negative. You do have a scene at the finale that is meant to provide closure, but not in a romantic way. This scene is very different from the others, and in some ways puts an end to the possibility of this relationship happening anytime soon.
How did we get from those scenes to this final one in Ch 22? It would be useful to look at the scenes, within the timeline of TRR3's release and with the context of fandom reactions.
1. The "Cordonia's Most" Scene (Ch 3)
This diamond scene is written to give the MC/reader a bit of background on Madeleine's past and family, which will prove useful later when she has to convince the Amaranths to fix their relationship with each other. It is set against the background of a drinking game where an asker can quiz everyone else about who would be the most likely to do a particular action. Hana references Madeleine twice in the game (in a very complimentary manner), and Madeleine references Hana once. It was her comment about Hana being "stupidly sweet and perfect" that caught the attention of some readers and made them wonder if that was the route PB was planning to take with Hana. This dialogue shows up in Hana's route as well.
In later chapters, we see instances of Hana trying to include Madeleine in group activities...such as in Ch 6 where she invites the latter to come with them to the spa after the football match with Jiro and Camellia.
2 and 3. Cross-Referencing Each Other at Costume Gala (Ch 9)
This is a very interesting development, at an equally interesting time. Around the time Ch 9 released (end-April 2018), PB announced that TRR's team would be taking a hiatus, mostly to work on "some exciting stuff" during that break. It also gave them the time to work on certain things the fandom was demanding, and do away with others due to stan vitriol (Kiara's attraction towards Drake being one of them). The next chapter would only appear a month and a half later (mid-June).
Ch 9 sneaked in a scene that hinted at Hana and Madeleine as a romance option, but in a way that made it very hard for players to notice on a casual read. The scene is split in two parts: the MC can choose to speak to either Hana and Olivia, or Maxwell, Justin and Madeleine. Hana and Olivia's scene shows the two commenting on Gala outfits, which kickstarts a conversation about diplomacy vs bluntness. The latter option explores a variety of topics, mostly revolving around an appreciation for Madeleine's "great work".
Both Hana and Madeleine reference each other in their scenes. Hana's dialogue depends on whether the MC is her fiancèe or not; in other playthroughs, she admires Madeleine's costume, the compliment on her good looks very personal. In her own playthrough, she compliments Kiara's outfit but in a more distant fashion ("subtle and clever, just like her...very well-chosen"). In Madeleine's scene (which is the same across playthroughs), the ending involves her telling the MC to "send my regards to Hana", in response to which she can choose a line of questioning (which ranges from "protective towards Hana" to largely indifferent. In all three options, thankfully, the MC can close with "don't let me catch you antagonizing her", but that really is one small mercy in a pile of blatant retconning.
What marks Hana's dialogue about Madeleine as an LI-specific option, is that she says something entirely different if the MC is getting married to her. This is an indication that the dialogue was intended to be read as romantic, and that it couldn't be said by an LI who was already in love and ready to marry the MC. Pretty much in the same way that Olivia in Liam's playthrough cannot hold his hand in Applewood or dance with him in Vegas.
I wrote an essay on this at the time - both on the possibility of the pairing and why it was a bad idea - and the overall response I received at the time was mixed. Those who remembered exactly what went down at Madeleine's bachelorette and weren't her fans hated the prospect, but some weren't as convinced and some refused to believe it would happen. So there was some pushback for it, citing Madeleine's "chocolate incident" (thankfully, since there were players who had forgotten about it), but it was very low-key and didn't gain much traction.
4. An Offer to Dance in Vegas (Ch 16)
The most obvious indication of Hana and Madeleine being a romantic possibility was in the Vegas chapter. It was impossible to miss for people who didn't romance Hana. This scene, again, featured only in playthroughs where Hana wasn't getting married - which meant that many Hana-romancers didn't get to know of this pairing unless they were told by a friend or saw any such posts on their dash (some even found out years later, to their shock and dismay).
The mild pushback from Ch 9 resulted in a scene where the writers could be emboldened to continue writing this pairing, but confirm (in the vaguest possible way) that Madeleine treated Hana badly. Madeleine's non-apology "apology" really reads more like an attempt to get into Hana's pants than actual regret, and is followed by a reaction from Hana that is confusing in its mildness. Hana is surprised at the offer to dance, asking Madeleine whether she's trying to trick her. While the mild suspicion is a slight improvement from Hana's fulsome praise and enthusiastic attempts to involve Madeleine in group stuff in previous chapters, it still downplays what Hana suffered at Madeleine's hands by making her present the weakest, most milquetoast examples of "fooling someone", examples that pale miserably in comparison to what Madeleine actually put Hana through.
With both the "stupidly sweet and perfect" dialogue and this scene, you'll notice that Madeleine is not only the one who initiates the conversation, but is also the only one with an actual voice in these exchanges. Forget having an opinion on whether she wants to have anything to do with Madeleine or not - the narrative doesn't even give poor Hana the opportunity to properly react beyond mere shock.
There was a stronger reaction to this scene than to the Ch 9 one, because it was way more visible (though you could avoid it just by letting Madeleine stay in her hotel) with Madeleine's romantic intentions on full display. Her asking Hana for a dance immediately after the no apology made it pretty obvious. Players who didn't see the Ch 9 scenes or who didn't believe the divergences meant anything, now couldn't deny that this was positioned as an alternative romance. Additionally by this time, those who forgot about the "chocolate incident" did get reminded of the exact scene, so the vagueness with which Madeleine "addressed" her actions in TRR2 felt criminally inadequate for a number of readers.
Most of us, however, didn't know about the retcon in Hana's Vegas scene, until years later. Those who didn't do Hana's playthrough would have had no idea, and those who did more likely chose the more romantic options.
5. "Jealous?" (Ch 20)
This scene is unique in that the option shows up across all playthroughs, but the specific reaction only shows up in two of them. It's understandable that Hana stans would have missed this - the dialogue is an option, the response is very fleeting and you would have to look through the same option in other playthroughs to recognise the variations.
In the cases of both Drake and Maxwell, Madeleine's response to this jibe from the MC is "ugh, please". Dismissive, almost mocking the idea that she would have any interest in them. In Liam's and Hana's cases, she appears shocked for a minute, then composes herself and gives a more neutral response ("I...I refuse to dignify such a ridiculous question with a response"). In Liam's case, one can safely assume that even though she had no romantic interest in him, she was still on the verge of marrying Liam and that alone would make the situation awkward. In Hana's case there is really no other reason for her to feel that awkward besides having lingering feelings that she cannot suppress.
While this version of the scene doesn't feature in playthroughs where she is single at all, it's still a very strong indicator of authorial intent. Even in the face of backlash against the pairing, the writers clearly wanted to continue hinting at the possibility, if they were slipping in hints of Madeleine's feelings for Hana as late as Ch 20 (just two chapters before the finale). The most plausible theory for this inclusion would be that the backlash was a lot more than it was after Ch 9, but not entirely enough to do away without the pairing completely...yet.
6. "I Wanted To Break You" (Ch 22)
No one knows what happened between Chs 20 and 22, and there's little I can think of that would account for such a quick change in such a short span of time. The finale has a scene featuring Hana and Madeleine, that begins by drawing more obvious parallels between the two women and their families (until now, the parallels were not as pronounced. It's not exactly a great parallel to begin with, since Madeleine has at least one supportive parent and doesn't get punished to the extent that Hana has been, if she openly protests against her parents' methods. But in TRR3 the narrative sometimes does use Hana's toxic parental situation as a parallel to garner sympathy for Madeleine's).
However, once the parents are out of the picture, the attention then turns to Hana and Madeleine, setting the stage for either a romantic confession or a full apology. This time, canon opts to go for the latter.
Unlike all the others, this scene is bluntly specific not just about what Madeleine did but what exactly her intentions were. It has her use the word "break"; it has her actually say the word "sorry". It allowed Hana, for the first time, to fully hear the truth about the harm Madeleine planned to wreck on her. And most importantly, it also allowed Hana her own voice in response to Madeleine's revelations, making it very clear to her that her forgiveness needed to be earned, over a period of time.
The dialogues used to talk about Madeleine's bachelorette in the finale are poles apart from the language they'd used earlier ("hazing", "put my ladies through their paces", "mean things", "refuse to coddle", "wronged"). The finale scene was a more accurate return to the original language and purpose of that bachelorette scene. In fact it sounds less like what canon had been attempting to gaslight their readers into believing thus far, and even seemed to borrow verbatim from the language of the readers who closely followed this issue.
One could call it a good closure scene on the surface level...but there are many, many problems with it.
One was the reaction of the MC. Her angry "excuse me?" in response to Madeleine's confession is still a very obvious retcon. It may have been done to preserve the myth that the MC is a good friend/wife to Hana, but reads as extremely dishonest when you remember that canonically, the MC knew the truth about Madeleine's intentions the whole time and just chose to leave Hana in the dark. It's an attempt to make the MC seem protective that ultimately rings false.
Another is the excuse Madeleine gives for why she targeted Hana. "I wanted to push Hana too far, and for her to drop the nice-girl act once and for all! Only, it isn't an act, is it?" My response when I first read this was "if Hana was faking it...so what. So fucking what. Who was she harming". Coming from the reigning queen of duplicity herself, Madeleine is really not in a position to be judging anyone for putting up a front. This also ties into the hollowness of the motives PB tried to belatedly cook up for TRR2 Madeleine's bullying - no matter what canon says to whitewash her actions, her attempts achieved nothing, did no good for Cordonia, and would likely have led to a very fractured court if the Unity Tour was held while she was queen.
Ultimately, the possibility of this pairing becoming canon was laid to rest in the final chapter. One could interpret Madeleine's promise of a starting gesture ("know that if anyone at court gives you trouble, I can make them regret it") as a possible opening to something more, but considering the earlier backlash, that was unlikely.
TRH - Madeleine Gets The Penelope Treatment, Hana Gets Her Entire Childhood History Retconned.
An interesting development that came up when TRH dropped was the departure of Jeffrey Herdman from the team, most likely because he was heavily involved in the writing of its Renaissance-era spin-off The Royal Masquerade. He would return, by TRF (he is part of their finale livestream), but by then his pet favourite character was likely gone.
TRH has a different set of circumstances, and different power dynamics. The MC is settled into marriage and trying for a child, the LIs are working in the council, Olivia is upgraded to cosplaying spymaster and the side characters go on with their lives. The first book of TRH seemed to do a surface-level recognition of some of the complaints certain readers had in previous books, but their favourites and the people who wouldn't get much attention or appreciation, remained the same.
TRH1 was a time when the writers praised Hana and claimed in a livestream that she was the kind of LI they would love to marry, but also where they gave her a condition that (inaccurately) made her unable to safely carry children (just for the MC to be the mother of the heir) and forced her to be immediately okay with that fate. As the sequel series progressed over the course of 4 books, the erasure of all that Hana was in the past was subtle and insidious - the narrative often compared her to Olivia and found her lesser, she was never allowed to even mention her home place China and worst of all - the writing completely retconned the emotional abuse she suffered at home by claiming it emerged from loving protection, from wanting to keep their daughter away from a cult. And even though Hana's discovery of her sexuality was described by Kara as a "journey that she's still on", no attempts were ever made to show her exploring what she likes romantically, or to show her dating. We don't know if she's involved with anyone, we don't know where she lives, we learn very little of her interests beyond what benefits the MC at any given moment, and the narrative never fails to remind us that they like Olivia more than they like her. Hell, they still encourage Olivia to keep insulting and degrading Hana! Hardly the behaviour of writers who love a character so much they would marry them irl, honestly.
On the other hand, Madeleine wasn't very prominent in TRH1, but gained notoriety in the next two books. The first book has her occasionally engage in inappropriate, invasive badgering of the MC to get pregnant quickly, and she continues to pretend that her doing whatever she likes without ever consulting the person in charge is professional behaviour (eg. Setting up the presscon about the MC's pregnancy announcement. She never even considers whether the MC would be comfortable announcing this pregnancy or not at this time). She gets to deliver a small bit of foreshadowing in the second half of the book (an early hint about Queen Eleanor's pregnancy, though Madeleine's awareness of it hardly makes sense when you look at the entire TRH series, and it never comes up as a point again). Her father being exposed as the traitor who poisoned the former queen builds up to a storyline that benefits her the most in the long run.
Hana is given one chapter where she can call Madeleine out on her entitlement (Savannah's bachelorette). She doesn't insult or berate Madeleine in TRH1 Ch 7, but is refreshingly no-nonsense and will not put up with Madeleine's constant whining about an event she had invited herself to. It's a small, cold comfort, since Hana's actions here are tied to making Savannah's bachelorette a success rather than for herself - but it's still gratifying to see Hana in a position where she can call people out without having to worry about the repercussions. Especially when the narrative disrespects Hana in so, so many other ways for the rest of the series.
In the same chapter, the ladies of the court are given an opportunity to talk about their love lives. Of the four, two women can speak about the people they like (Penelope about Ezekiel by default, and Olivia about Liam if you choose), and one only mentions him by name if the MC is married to someone else (Kiara, about Drake, if you choose to ask her over Madeleine). Madeleine doesn't mention anyone at all, insisting that marriage is something she will only consider for the benefit of her country or estate. This was a relief to players who feared that PB might attempt to push the possibility of romance between Madeleine and Hana again.
Though Madeleine doesn't get the romance that PB so desperately wanted to gift her in the last series, and she isn't given any further romances...the narrative clearly wasn't done pandering to her, even though Jeffrey was not officially a part of the team.
Remember how in the previous essay, we explored the levels to which PB encouraged players to coddle Penelope? Entire chapters would be spent just making her feel comfortable and safe, in encouraging her to help us. No actual initiative or enthusiasm from her end, even if her actions caused the problem or there were lives and reputations at stake. No, Penelope's comfort and happiness should be front and center.
Now think of that treatment, but on steroids and lasting for two whole books. That's what Madeleine's story - starting from TRH2 - looks like.
TRH1 ends with the reveal that Madeleine's father, Godfrey, was involved in the assassination of Liam's mother Eleanor. So a certain amount of narrative focus on Madeleine was expected, perhaps. But the second book doesn't stop at just that.
We are not merely asked to be kind to Madeleine. No, kindness towards Madeleine is expected of us. The warning issued in TRH2 Ch 4 promises "consequences", which means we know straight off the bat that we will be punished if we're not nice enough. It insists we take note of her "fragile state", and give her the mercy and compassion she had never given to anyone in her court.
To give Madeleine the smallest of credits, she acknowledges this just two chapters prior to the oath ("in the past, our positions were once reversed and I was...unkind to you. I had no reason to expect any kindness from you..."). However, this admission does sound disingenuous in the face of the narrative's implicit demand that we treat her nicely. Because if she did recognise her own past behaviour in TRR2 esp as hurtful, and herself as not exactly deserving of kindness, then it makes no sense for her to judge people for behaving exactly as she expected. A genuine redemption arc would have been one where she understood no one owed her kindness after what she'd done, and still determinedly forged ahead to do good for her country. After all, the narrative wanted us so badly to believe this woman was patriotic, right? If her "patriotic spirit" was so tied to her ego that you needed to pamper and praise her every five minutes, just for her to not support such an obviously-foolish tyrant as Bartie Sr, then it can't have been as strong as canon so vehemently claimed.
TRH tracks our "treatment" of Madeleine over 2 books and 10 distinct scenes. Of these, 6 scenes allow us to choose between kind responses and unkind ones, 2 others require the player to choose one among multiple options of people, and 2 scenes are check-in dialogues rather than actual choices (which means that the player doesn't choose an option, they just find out through such scenes whether they are winning Madeleine's favour or not). I imagine that the first category is the most important, with the second being options that you don't necessarily need to choose Madeleine for if you want to go for one of the others, as long as you pressed enough "kind" options.
To elaborate, here's the breakdown:
Kind/Unkind Responses
- House Amaranth's pledge (TRH2 Ch 4). Notably, the "most hurtful" one doesn't even accuse her of anything - it just tells her that the family needs to earn back the Crown's trust. Compare that to Madeleine's accusations to Hana that she was trying to kill her and deserved to lose her position in court. You know, the cruel treatment that some Madeleine stans claimed "wasn't that bad".
- Carrying the Heir's train at Anointing Ball or not (Ch 5)
- Deciphering Madeleine's conversation with Godfrey on his boat (ie whether she is betraying or helping the MC) (Ch 6)
- Acknowledging Madeleine's help in capturing Godfrey, at the Gratitude Ball (Ch 7)
- Gently encouraging Madeleine into being Penelope's bridal attendant, rather than mocking her (TRH3 Ch 2). There is no longer any need to acknowledge Penelope's earlier fear of Madeleine - we are expected to forget entirely that she was the main reason why Penelope didn't want to return to court in TRR3.
- Trusting Madeleine to help with investigations at Fydelia (Ch 6)
Choosing Among Multiple People:
- Speaking about loyalty before making a pledge to the Heir. Other ladies of the house are also presented as choices (TRH 2 Ch 14)
- Babysitting the Heir during Fox Hunt. Other choices are Regina and Savannah (TRH3 Ch 10)
Relationship Check-in:
- The way Madeleine greets you at Fydelia (Warm Welcome/Cold Front) (TRH3 Ch 6)
- Whether Madeleine helps you escape with the Heir in Ch 13, or allows the child to get kidnapped by Godfrey in Ch 15 (Desparate Times/What Goes Around)
The ending of TRH3 has Madeleine either thriving and inheriting her mother's estate, or being merely fired from her job in Royal Communications (a better punishment would have been to strip the entire Amaranth family of their lands, but I digress). She is notably absent in TRF, possibly because she wasn't entirely very popular to start with and two whole books of coddling her didn't exactly help matters either. As one of the junior writers in the TRF team said, "some people exiled her so..."
The first few opportunities to win her over, notably emerge from attempts Madeleine makes to assure the Crown/MC of House Amaranth's loyalty, and you will find that even at an early stage she expects to be included in sensitive discussions that call for discretion, and to be constantly praised for her efforts. Let me give a reminder, again, that she hardly ever gave any praise to the women working for her, and in fact punished them just to keep them constantly in fear of her.
I know it sounds like I'm labouring too much on this point, but it's important to understand just how much effort the narrative had put into coddling this one woman. Chapters and chapters of branch coding, writing two routes, title cards, dialogues, rewards and consequences.
This is similar to the way the narrative encouraged kindness and sympathy towards Penelope, but it's now over a lengthier period of time and with more drastic consequences. We were required to coddle Penelope over a chapter each in three specific books, or be deprived of her support/help. We are required to constantly shower Madeleine with praise and sweet words over the course of 31 chapters, or she will help an unscrupulous Regent-Elect kidnap our child. She will even openly accept that the only reason she put a mere child through that, was because we weren't nice to her ("Wouldn't you have done the same to me? You've made it abundantly clear you see me as the enemy").
But if the MC deserved a punishment this cruel for just mocking Madeleine at every turn, then what punishments should Madeleine get for what she put her own ladies-in-waiting through? What should she get for planning to "break" one of her courtiers? A second broken engagement doesn't seem entirely enough by such parameters.
Then again - as I said before, the narrative deliberately shifted the goal posts for what a potential royal could and couldn't get away with, in the time between Madeleine's engagement tour and the MC's marriage, for this very reason. So that Madeleine would never have to face the kind of constant censure the MC and Liam would face regularly. Among characters in canon, or among largely biased stans in the fandom. Speaking of which...
Fandom
Madeleine's popularity has always been a mixed bag, ever since TRR2. By TRR2, there were people who loved her for what they thought were her craftiness and wiles, some who suspected her to be involved in the plot against the MC, and a number of Liam stans had reactions that ranged from stanning, to indifferent (after all, both Liam and Madeleine showed a mutual disinterest towards each other), to slightly jealous (after all, she was still his fiancée).
But it was Madeleine's treatment of Hana in Ch 7 that definitely crossed a line for quite a few. It was so unwarranted, and her justification for this act so inarguably cruel, that it turned several people off her immediately. The way canon dealt with this was to make her feature less in the story until the memory of the "chocolate incident" was faded and almost forgotten, and then encourage fans to sympathize with her.
The gamble definitely worked, with plenty of help from hardcore Madeleine stans who often downplayed what happened to Hana ("a prank", "making Hana cry just once" were some of the terms used to describe it). By TRR3, I recall having to remind some of my mutuals what actually happened in this scene - their own recollections of it were that vague. The Hana and Madeleine ship would have died a far quicker death if more people remembered this incident as it was shown, and not as narrative wanted us to remember it (and also, if more people cared that it was Hana being hurt, rather than their fave white girl/boy).
Madeleine gained some popularity among the wlw crowd - a couple of them did have a soft spot for stoic, aggressive or women often labelled as "bitchy" (I know a few who also showed a similar amount of love for ACOR's Xanthe or BB's Priya, to be fair...but the adulation for the white female antagonists was a lot more), and Madeleine clearly fit that bill.
A point that often came up from Madeleine stans who were wlw (and reiterated with other mean-girl characters) was that grey-shaded and villanous male characters weren't subject to as much censure as their favourites were. While there is truth to such an argument, it fails to take into account the role race often plays in the way some "mean" women are loved and certain others are scorned. Madeleine clearly did not have the scale of hate that a Xanthe or even a Kiara (who isn't even on the same level) got. In fact when it suited them, many in the fandom were more than ready to view Madeleine as a victim when Liam broke his engagement with her.
Madeleine's "patriotism" - as I've now clearly established - was a retcon made to erase the worst aspects of her characterization. Sometimes it was used to make people feel sorry for her losses, other times it was made to cover up her actual behaviour in TRR2. But there were very few readers who didn't consider it an undeniable fact. Even among those who were indifferent towards her. For instance, in an anon ask that compared Madeleine and QB's Poppy, a poster responded that "the difference between the two was that Madeleine had a sense of duty, and Poppy was just petty". In TRH3, players who claimed that "we can all agree Madeleine is fully redeemed" when she worked with the MC to protect the child from Bartie Sr, stayed mysteriously silent when the other consequence (her helping in the child's kidnapping because she didn't like the MC's pettiness) showed up.
And while these responses could be attributed to the way canon gassed Madeleine up in TRR2 and 3, some of these players had no problem nitpicking the political savvy or work of certain other (CoC) characters, esp Liam (often bashing them for "throwing parties every day", even though the general populace was depicted as being happy with their rule and influence. Mind you, no prompting from PB was necessary to bash these characters). So why were these parameters never applied to Madeleine? Why was practically no one asking what the political relevance of her bullying (as future Queen) was, or why we were expected to sing her praises for poor time management or terrible work ethics towards her boss, or ask what work she actually did in canon as Royal Comms Director? (There is a reference or two to the position, but you aren't shown that many instances of her doing much work). For quite a few, the fact that she walked around with a job title in TRH was more than enough (somehow Kiara never got this kind of fandom treatment despite being part of the Diplomatic Liaisons department).
How does this adulation for such a heavily retconned character, affect the way the Hana and Madeleine ship was viewed? For one, it meant that readers bought into the retcons easily enough that Hana's pairing with her was seen as an extension of her "redemption arc" by some.
Take the example of the various posts that argue in favour of this pairing, or fic that features them as a couple - a lot of them center Madeleine: her pain, her history, her reasons, the correctness of giving her a reward. Hana is barely mentioned or given much attention in these arguments - and often when she has any sort of voice, it is only there to humanize Madeleine. Supporters of this pair often took stances that were either ready to throw Hana under the bus, act like she hardly mattered, or treat her like some sort of blank slate to scribble their adulation for Madeleine over.
Hana is often viewed as less worthy of a focus - she is often the benevolent saint who forgives Madeleine because she "worked so hard to be better". Often it never matters to get into detail why Hana thought Madeleine earned her forgiveness, what Hana's perspective was, what journey she went through to get such a point. Because if Hana's journey really mattered in such a ship, the most pressing questions would revolve around why Hana should ever trust a person who wanted to break her in the first place. Why she should feel safe around such a person. Why her own friend group wouldn't want to protect her from such a person.
Some readers would bring up their parallels as daughters brought up in families that didn't value them, but neglect to take into account the nuances of those dynamics (Madeleine's mother at least wanted to be supportive, and no matter how bad things got, Madeleine was never in danger of being disowned. Hana was, repeatedly). Nor is it fully honest about how Madeleine was comfortable being a perpetrator of abuse, in contrast to Hana's own deep discomfort with the idea of controlling her partner.
In certain cases, I can maybe see this attitude in fandom emerging from an acceptance of the narrative's retcons as truth. But I also think there were as many readers who were just inclined to liking the mean white girl, and finding justifications and excuses for her behaviour.
Fandom's attitudes towards Hana herself often played a small role in how Hana's end of this story was ignored too. When TRR3 fucked up her arc phenomenally (by rushing her parents' turnaround from disowning her to supporting her in Ch 15), it became popular to view Hana as a lesser character, and the "meaner" white women as better. People who wanted other options for female LI often took their frustrations out on her, calling her "weak", servile and submissive, dismissing her honest accounts of the treatment she faced even from her own parents as "whining". If that was the way people preferred to view her emotionally abusive childhood...then what can one expect from such a fandom when she was being outright bullied?
Fandom was already comfortable with the idea of erasing Hana in their content, or replacing her with either their fave white girl (or an equally white OC esp in their fanfic - but more on that in a future Hana essay). So neglecting to center her in what would have been her only canonical alternative romance wouldn't be too difficult for some people.
Which merits the question...is there a way to write about (or write fic for) such a pairing, in a way that centers Hana, respects her story, makes it clear that she has the right to never forgive Madeleine no matter what she does to "earn" it - if that was what she wanted? I highly doubt it. You'd have to completely change Madeleine for that to happen, and that would more likely result in a situation where you were too busy working on her as a character, to give Hana the attention and focus she deserved.
And that's a real pity, because there's plenty to explore about Hana if you actually take the effort to look.
Conclusion
In a lot of ways, once the team had decided upon making Madeleine into a more positive character, they tried to draw a little from Olivia's arc to replicate its success. You can see some of these parallels in the way TRR2 structured the bachelorette as a semi-callback to the childhood- reveal-mocking-Savannah sequences in TRR1 Ch 7. Both chapters gave you reasons to start seeing these women in a different light, while still feeling free to dislike them. In both chapters they also targeted LIs - the only difference was that Drake's diamond scene post that confrontation centered him, and Hana's parallel diamond scene a book later...centered everyone else.
That attempt in TRR2 didn't work for several reasons - the timing wasn't right, Madeleine's cruelty had gone too far for some, the retconning hoodwinked quite a few people but not enough.
So when they tried to pair her up with the victim of her bullying, and twisted canon to make it happen - enough readers emerged to call it out, enough people pushed back by Ch 16, and the possibility of this alternative pairing garnered enough dislike that not only did the writers have to backtrack, but they also had to wipe away their past retcons and write in a scene where Madeleine gave Hana the full, unvarnished truth about the "chocolate incident". Hana was, thankfully, given a chance to give Madeleine her most polite "no".
And although that ship would never be brought up again, the team (even without Madeleine's top writer Jeffrey) still attempted to make pampering and uncritically praising her a narrative priority. She gained a bit more popularity during this time period - quite a few were inclined to feel sorry for her (especially considering the way her father's crimes affected her social standing) and saw only what happened if you were consistently nice to her.
But there was also a significant section of people who were tired of the constant coddling, and who didn't like that it was demanded of the player (when there were far more deserving WOC in the same book, who didn't get this level of kindness). It was significant enough that Madeleine wasn't given any scenes in the final book, and the writers cited her lack of popularity as a reason why.
As a Hana fan myself, it was a relief to see Hana not be paired up with her bully. But it was also immensely disheartening for me to see that "ship" get as far as it did, and to see the narrative do so much more work for Madeleine, than they did for Hana even in the follow up series. It was even more disheartening to see so many in fandom follow suit.
--
By now, we have explored 3 out of the 4 alternative pairings that TRR put forward for the LIs. They all vary in terms of buildup, attention, and payoff. But there are several things that are common about them. They all have either significant histories with the LI, or the narrative thinks they share something in common. The moment an "alternative" option ends up harming the MC, they are no longer suitable as an option because of the LI's loyalty towards her.
But perhaps the most common factor among the three women we have explored so far is how the LI is expected to treat the alternate, no matter how jealous the MC is allowed to get, no matter what the alternate themselves may have done in the past. The alternate is supposed to be treated well. With respect, with kindness, with compassion.
Betrayal doesn't allow an LI to treat their alternate badly. Bad behaviour doesn't allow an LI to treat their alternate badly. Disregarding consent doesn't allow an LI to treat their alternate badly. Classism doesn't allow an LI to treat their alternate badly. Not loving them back doesn't allow it either. Not even extreme levels of bullying...allows an LI to disrespect them.
In the next essay, we will see if any of these rules apply to our last alternative LI - Kiara.
Next: Drake and Kiara.
#essay series: trr's alternative lis#the royal romance#the royal heir#the royal finale#hana lee#madeleine amaranth#trr meta
107 notes
·
View notes
Text
November Creator of the Month:
Lizzybeth1986
Each month CFWC highlights one of our talented fanfic writers, and this month’s writer of the month is @lizzybeth1986 We hope you will enjoy learning more about them and their work below! The writer is selected at random. More info can be found on the navigation page.
Quick Links:
Tumblr Blog:
Blog
Masterlist
How do you want to be known on Tumblr?
Lizzy, absolutely 😁
*Center art by @sazanes
More below...
When did you start playing Choices? What was the first book you played?
I started playing mid 2017, I think. I played the flagship books (TF, TCaTF, MW), and def preferred TF at the time.
When and why did you join Choices fandom?
I joined the Tumblr fandom in 2017, around the time of the TRR finale. Mostly because the Liam hate at the time was intense and I wanted to write metas about why Liam was, in fact, not “a dick who betrayed the MC” 😂
I did have a Tumblr account before that (made it in 2015 to follow Bollywood film posts), but never actually used it.
How did you pick your blog name?
I was lazy af so it was my middle name plus my birth year haha
Pull up the first post in your archive, and tell us about it!
I started out with a couple reblogs, but my first actual post was about the romance points mechanism in TRR1. There was a point in the middle of the book where one nice word to Drake would give you an automatic romance point, and I was like, “Huh??? Either treat him like shit or risk him catching feels for me? Is that how it is???”. Thankfully, that stopped after two chapters. After that, I did an essay series analyzing Liam’s actions in the finale called “The Crown, The King and The Flame.”
Romance Points Post
The Crown and the Flame
How long have you been writing fanfiction?
Almost 6 years now! I started doing Liam fics around the beginning of TRR2.
What is your favorite Choices book, and what is your favorite Choices book to write about?
I’m the most invested in TRR and PM, but between the two I’d probably say PM is my fave book overall. But yeah, my favourite book to write about would be TRR, because Liam, Hana and Kiara are such fantastic characters to write about! (Hayden and Sloane, too, but I’m still in the process of getting comfortable writing them).
Share the first fanfic you wrote with us. Do you still like it, or would you change it if you were writing it today?
It was Keychains, my two part fic series featuring my MC and Liam. It was set around the time the MC was waiting in the airport in TRR2, just before Maxwell and Bertrand intervene. It had a follow up with Liam’s PoV too.
I really like it. It included some really good hc’s I made at the time, like Esther buying an apple keychain to represent Cordonia at the same time, and Liam calling her his wife in Greek and Esther not realizing what the phrase meant. I thought the pathos and slight humour was quite well-done. I can’t think of much I would want to change in the story.
Keychains 1
Keychains 2
What is your favorite fic that you’ve written?
As a series – Eleanor’s Kitchen! It’s ongoing, and it’s a joy to write. I love exploring food from a cultural lens, and since Cordonia was a fictional country, I could explore a variety of ethnicities and food cultures. Liam had a literal diamond scene that explored gastrodiplomacy, and I wanted to explore his childhood and Eleanor’s friendships too.
Individually – I would say my Kiara fic “An Ear to the Ground”. Kiara is a delightful character and exploring the social season through her eyes was a real journey! I also love “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)” which explores the early days of the Sloane & Hayden friendship. I used asterisms and constellations to symbolize moments in their friendship.
Eleanor's Kitchen
An Ear to the Ground
The Stars (Are Out Tonight)
Do you have a fic that you didn’t expect to be well received, but it was? What about one you expected to be but found could use a little more love?
Cordonian Waltz was definitely a surprise in terms of reception!! It was written in the style of headcanons I was seeing at the time, and I wrote it in second person. It became my most widely-read fanfic very fast, and every once in a while it would experience a major surge in readership. I enjoyed writing it and thought it was a lovely, romantic piece, but I really wasn’t expecting it to finally have 250+ reblogs out of it, and people coming and telling me this was the fic that got them into Liam x MC in the first place. I find that deeply gratifying 😍
There’s a lot of fics that I feel need more engagement and appreciation, but I can understand that those characters also don’t exactly get much of an audience. My entire PM set comes under this category; they typically get low readership. I think my Hana and Kiara fics too could do with more of an audience.
@twinkleallnight once told me that when she reads my stuff, she usually takes a long time just to ruminate on the story, and I like to believe that often, that’s why the engagement isn’t always immediate. Which I like too!! I like that some of my stuff can make people stop and think, and I like to believe that over time, the work will have its own impact.
Cordonian Waltz
PM Set
If you could write only angst, fluff, or smut for the rest of your writing life, which would it be and why?
Probably fluff but with a lot of observation and sometimes somber reflections. I’m not that great with angst…and I’ve never actually tried smut? But maybe one day 😄
Do you ever recognize yourself in any of your MCs or in your writing?
Yes! Some of my MCs are v different from me but I always incorporate something from my life experiences in them. Like Esther taking photos of the sunset or Basil not being science oriented but still having an interest in space.
Character wise I find I put a lot of myself into a lot of the characters I write. Notably, Liam, Hana, Kiara, certain Haydens and Sloane. Liam’s love for learning, different aspects of Hana and Kiara’s experiences as queer women, Sloane’s experiences as a neurodivergent woman, and especially my Scholar!Hayden’s (Iris) observations. I tend to incorporate a lot of my feelings and experiences more into certain canonical characters than in MCs.
What element of writing do you struggle with most?
Dialogue, I think. Especially when it’s a character I don’t relate to that much. But also sometimes when it’s a character I love but am only starting to write because then I really overthink it!
Do you have any neglected work you really want to finish?
Hmm…probably neglected wouldn’t be the word I’d use…I just take a very long time to kickstart them 😂
But yeah, definitely my Petals and Thornes series? That’s the fic series I’m doing for Hana x Kiara, that is supposed to explore TRR2 and 3 from their PoV (with significant changes). So far I’ve only been able to do some one-shots and hcs in that universe, but I do want to start the actual series soon!
I have some essay series’ I’d love to work on too! My Hana essay series which has two essays left, The Hayden Young Project, and a possible series on the alternative Lis of TRR!
Petals and Thornes
Hana Lee: A Study in Erasure
If someone you know in real life (who isn’t involved in fandoms) asked to read your work, would you let them? If yes, what would you recommend they read first?
Hmm. A few people have asked me, actually, and while I’m not fully opposed to showing them I’ll probably take some time before I do show my work. I’ll probably overthink how much will be understandable to a reader who doesn’t have the context of the source, and what they may not understand.
What to show them first? I’m not sure! Maybe the smaller ones first, like Cordonian Waltz. Or my RCD fic Snowstorms, because it doesn’t have more than 2-3 canon characters featuring and I do talk a little about being a closeted queer teen figuring out their sexuality through cinema, which is an overall relatable experience to some!
Snowstorms
Are there any writers (published authors and/or fanfic writers) who influenced your writing?
In my early years I used to emulate Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s style. Much of her work that I read as a teen was pretty flowery, sometimes bordering on purple prose, and I really loved that style and tried to go that way. But now I think a variety of writers from different genres inform my writing. In terms of published authors, Jhumpa Lahiri, Helen Hoang, and non-fiction ones like Rukmini Pande, Ruby Hammad and Mikki Kendall.
In Choices fic, @callmetippytumbles for sure – a lot of the questions she was tackling with her MC in her Home series served as inspiration for some of the ideas I’ve been having in mind for Petals and Thornes. @thefirstcourtesan is a great writing buddy to have, too, and she has a knack for saying a lot in very few words! There’s also my amazing group of friends (shoutout to @cassiopeiacorvus, @thecapturedafrique, @mand-delemonde, and @beyonceswigs, as well as @twinkleallnight , @dcbbw @mariemarieohcontrary , @choicesfrog, @grapecaseschoices and @ohsnapitzlovehacker…the discussions are so good and leave some much to think about afterward 💖💖). All these discussions ALWAYS fuel my ideas and make me think out of the box.
I’ve also recently started writing polyamorous characters and relationships, and @angelasscribbles stories and resources have been such a great help in navigating that!
Home
@angelasscribbles Poly Resources
Which one of your stories would you most like to see as a movie/series?
Haha! I’ve not even started the proper series yet but I think Petals and Thornes? But besides that maybe Eleanor’s Kitchen may work as a series idk 😄
Do you write original fiction?
I do try! I’ve done a few short stories but before I started fanfic, I did a lot of spoken word poetry and that was fun.
What other hobbies do you have?
Reading, watching video essays, spending months on hyperfixations 😂 and a little cooking. My kid’s gotten into craft recently and has succeeded in taking me down that rabbit hole too haha.
I used to be into making fruit wines but have gotten inconsistent with that over the years.
What’s your favorite emoji?
Because I have a huuuge thing for nerds – this one: 🤓
BONUS – tell us anything you’d like (if you want to).
A story my mum often tells about how I got into writing, began with some good old-fashioned sibling rivalry. Apparently as a child I was notorious for writing things on the walls of our house. One day my older brother got a hardbound royal-blue covered notebook to write in, with gold lettering on the cover…and I got instantly jealous that I didn’t get one (I was 6 or 7 and already fond of telling stories). When I complained my mum made me a deal – she would get me the same notebook…IF I stopped writing on the walls and began writing in that instead 😂 It worked. My mother is a smart woman.
I love spoilers!! I will read the end of a novel I’m reading and then go back and read the rest. Sometimes I even read books all the way backwards lol.
I love romance, and my favorite tropes include second-chance romance and mutual pining while believing the other person will never love you back! Because, at heart, I’m a dramatic bitch.
#choices fic writers creations#cfwc creator of the month#the royal romance#perfect match#lizzybeth1986#playchoices#playchoices fanfic
76 notes
·
View notes
Note
1, 9, 15, and 25? (from the meta writing asks)
hiiii :D
1. Tell us about your current project(s) – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?
In theory I've been writing the sequel to The Royal Ranger lol. I'm on chapter five and it's going slow tbh. But in my defence I've been moving and actively job hunting
BUT ANYWAY :D the story follows Halt and Crowley now in Araluen, trying to get the Ranger Corps back in order. And, genuinely, the best thing about writing it is getting to write autistic Halt again. no seriously it's such a relief and when i was writing The Ward Ghost where Halt wasn't autistic i had a hard time not writing him similarly to how he was in TRR lmao
9. Are you more of a drabble or a longfic kind of writer? Pantser or plotter? Do you wish you were the other?
iiiiiii no longer nearly fall into any of these camps! I started off mainly writing drabbles for the fandom, but I also quite enjoy writing longfics. I had a firm, chapter-by-chapter outline for my first longfic, The Treewalkers, but for TWG and TRR i had a vaguer outline so i had something to build towards while keeping it flexible enough to change the order of events as needed to fit the story. I tend to pants it more with my drabbles because they're easier to edit - I can easily go back and add some foreshadowing or change an earlier event if I decide on something later on, because it all gets posted at once, but my longfics have to conform to the canon I've already posted, so they need more work
15. Which is harder: titles or summaries (or tags)?
TITLES :'( I usually stare blankly at the ao3 title box for a while before coming up with something, and TWG went through like four titles before I settled on the one I did (it was originally called The Thief and the Ranger, then The Ranger and the Hunter.....)
25. What part of writing is the most fun?
Long dialogue exchanges! I love having characters talk things out, it's so fun and can result in so much character building or humour :D
Link to the ask game if you want to play!
6 notes
·
View notes
Text
We are now down to our last two days for this week! We will also be keeping a bonus week for everyone who couldn't finish their content in time, so you can definitely try and finish it by 3rd March so we can feature you in our masterlist and thank you video!
Today's theme is all about Home and Family! We all know that Kiara's family happens to be the most sorted, most well-adjusted family in the TRR/H series - they also feature some of the most talented and ambitious people! This is an opportunity to explore either Kiara's relationships with family, or to think about her home, Castelserraillan. This wonderful province is known for a variety of things: their vineyards, their love of the French language, their cultural richness, their passion for reading and literature, their long history with archery. It would be great to explore Kiara's home as well!
Any and all content is welcome - as long as Kiara is the focus of the content and it depicts her positively. Fics, art, edits, moodboards, meta, interactive media, headcanons, playlists, even screenshots featuring her best scenes! We also accept WIPs so if you don't think you will have the full content ready by the end of the bonus week, you can still share a snippet of it with us!
The theme is not strictly tied to a day. If you would like to post something on a later day, you definitely can...just tag the post for the day it was meant for (eg. #KTAW Day 1, #KTAW Day 2 etc)
Be sure to do the following when creating your content:
1. Use the tags #kiaratheronappreciationweek and #KTAW for your posts, along with the day you have planned the content for.
2. Tag @kiaratheronappreciationweek in your posts, as well as the co-hosts @lizzybeth1986 and @sazanes.
Fan-content blogs have been a great inspiration and support to us, and we would definitely like all of you to show them some love by participating in their events:
@choicesficwriterscreations - Primarily fanfic. Check out their roster for weekly and monthly events here!
@choicesmonthlychallenge and @choices-february2023 - Any and all content welcome. Check out their prompts for February!
@choicespride - Any and all content welcome as long as the characters or themes are LGBTQ related
@choicesprompts
@choicesholidays
@drake-walker-appreciation and @maxwell-beaumont-appreciation are hosting events soon.
Happy Kiara Theron Appreciation Week!!
#kiara theron#kiaratheronappreciationweek#ktaw#the royal finale#the royal heir#the royal romance#KTAW Day 4#KTAW Day 4: Home#KTAW Day 4: Family
9 notes
·
View notes
Text
content masterlist
general choices content
transparents & scripts
choices failplay video series
choices mcs: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
fanfiction
a courtesan of rome
roman questions
bloodbound
death rattle
the royal romance
a lesson in sources
the royal couple: 20 years later
headcanons/prompts/appreciation weeks
bloodbound
kamilah sayeed headcanons
perfect match
hayden young appreciation day 2022
hyaw 2020: day 1
nadia park appreciation day 2023
sloane washington appreciation week 2023: day 1 day 3
swaw 2022: day 1 day 4
the royal romance
hana lee appreciation week 2024: day 1
hlaw 2023: day 2
hlaw 2022: day 1
king liam appreciation week 2023: day 2 day 3 day 4 day 5
klaw 2022: day 1 day 4
kiara theron appreciation week 2023: day 3
ktaw 2022: day 1 day 2 day 3 day 4 day 5 day 6 day 7
liam headcanons
trr au
meta/essays
general
being single in choices books
the billionaire's baby
washington state surrogacy laws
bloodbound
love interest appearances & diamond scenes
a courtesan of rome
xanthe: courtesan, rival, pawn
the royal romance
the broken base of brothers beaumont
tags
cassi draws
cassi edits
19 notes
·
View notes
Text
cringe confession but i miss writing meta. i know nobody is stopping me from doing it but i miss writing serious things about silly little characters.
#i just can never think pf specific topics <3 probably doesn't help that for the past year my primary special interest has been trr#anyway. open invitation to always send me meta asks. i like to talk!.
13 notes
·
View notes
Text
ANGRY RANTING AHEAD - about The Royal Romance, which I know most of my followers are oblivious to, so under the cut it goes! :P
Replaying TRR to earn more diamonds to throw recklessly at Desire & Decorum and honestly I’m still so angry at Constantine?
In Book 1, the royal court goes to Applewood Manor in chapter eleven. Roughly halfway through the book, about halfway through the social season per the press interviews at the regatta in the chapters before.
And Riley’s door is already missing its lock.
She’s an oblivious darling when it comes to the court in canon, but she would have noticed her door suddenly going from being able to be locked to suddenly missing a lock. So it has to be already gone.
Which means that all of this, the planned humiliation of her - it was planned before they even got to Applewood. Before the Apple Festival, before the Royal Hunt, before the fancy feast. Not at the end of the book, not at the last minute - it was that early in the game. Maybe they didn’t have all of the details ironed out, but Constantine was already planning something that early.
And you have so many little moments AFTER those chapters before the end where he seems to show approval and is nice and polite and it makes me so furious! SCREW YOU CONSTANTINE. (yes I do yell at him everytime there)
Applewood starts the chapter after the beach party, which is the chapter after the regatta where Constantine announced he was abdicating and Riley “won his approval” by winning the yacht race. (yeah I see you you lying snake)
Applewood also starts the chapter after the Forgotten Falls scene, where Liam almost says that he is love with Riley. Where Liam finally starts to open up about his feelings and show his preferences, and throw caution to the wind even though he’s terrified of choosing the wrong woman, especially now that she will be QUEEN. When Liam clearly chooses this wonderful woman who he shows this beautiful private spot to, and hesitantly asks her to play along with a romantic superstition about the Falls - where he lets her see how much he’s willing to go all in, if she’ll let him.
Applewood starts the chapter after Liam and Riley come back from the Falls and meet Constantine on the beach. Where the King sees the way his son looks at this commoner American girl and decides that the best course of action is to tear them apart. Maybe he doesn’t know exactly how he’s going to do it, but the fact that Riley’s lock is already gone at Applewood by the time they arrive means that Constantine had already chosen. Rather than try to prop up one of the other candidates, rather than try to gently dissuade Liam otherwise, he chooses to go after Riley directly.
I suspect Liam let something slip about wanting to choose Riley in that same scene between them on the beach because he’s super quiet and withdrawn in most of their private moments over the next few chapters, almost like he’s mulling over a decision and trying to reconcile what he feels vs the words his father has said to him.
He manufactures a scandal by invading her privacy and violating her trust in her own bedroom, arranging for someone to photograph a moment of intense humiliation purely to keep her away from his son. “Look at this Liam, look at your unfaithful commoner girl, don’t choose her, choose someone else. For your country Liam.” He undermines Liam’s faith in his own people by ordering Bastien to help in this (even if Liam doesn’t find this out until later). Someone who Liam should trust with his life, and his father turns them against each other.
And not only does he do all this...he sits on the photos. For over a month he sits on these photos of his perfect little scandal, smiling and pretending to support Riley and Liam, pretending to support Liam’s right to choose. Smiling and being nice to Riley as though he isn’t holding her future directly in his hands.
He waits until the last possible moment so Riley will have no chance but to defend herself. Waits until the ball, when Liam was smiling so hard he was almost glowing as he came out of that maze, reassured of his choice and his love and convinced that he was going to lead an amazing life together. Waits until Liam is literally on that podium, about to propose to his beloved partner... and the scandal breaks.
Riley is taken away, Liam is devastated, and Constantine wins.
Except that because he waited so long...Liam fell in love first. If those photos had been released immediately... maybe Liam’s faith would have been shaken. Maybe he would have believed them. But waiting until the ball - until Liam has already all but told this woman he’s going to marry her and promised her a future together because they love each other so much - it was cruel, but it’s also ultimately why he failed.
Liam is right, no matter what kind of king he ends up being - he will always be the better man.
#choices: stories you play#the royal romance#trr#prince liam#king constantine#angry ranting meta#later on i do tend to agree with his POV a little more#but in book 1 it's just so insidious and cruel and UGH
42 notes
·
View notes
Text
the reason miss parsons appeals to me so much is the same reason why hana from trr appealed to me so much... its the GAY storyline that NOBODY expects to happen because there are quote unquote “better” prospects but it happens ANYWAY because gay love is SUBVERSIVE and it PERSISTS
#also d&d being a period drama makes it better because its setin a world where love like that is never expected to be acted on let alone EXIS#T#i reached character limit#theres just... like theres a whole META THING above the storyline that pb gives us. same with hana#especially that shit in trr thats like... mc helped hana find love and mc helped miss parsons realize her nonattraction to men and consequen#attraction to women is like? normal? i eat that shit up my dude#bz
16 notes
·
View notes
Text
Six Sentence Sunday (8/19/18)
One day, @the-everlasting-dream wrote a crack fic, We Need To Talk, where she bravely confronted her TRR characters. Then, one day, we mused and pondered and wondered what would happen if... it happened again, only this time, I was in for the ride and faced the characters I’ve put through hell and back.
So, with further ado, here is a preview of our currently unnamed “Crack Fic” in which we end up in Cordonia, and confront our worst enemies: our damn MC’s.
Meanwhile Elle’s breathing has picked up as she realises how much danger her and Chelsea are in with both Elizabeth and Jaela in the room, the only thing separating them from their wrath being the wooden door of the wardrobe.
Elizabeth: At least Chelsea didn’t push you off a fucking cliff. I think I’m the only MC in the fandom who can lay claim to that one…
Jaela: And I’m one who can look Liam dead in the eye and tell him I don’t want his kid…
Elizabeth: Ouch… yea thats pretty terrible. I mean at least I have the brain damage excuse to fall back on for being a bitch right?
Jaela: ….
Jaela: Anyways… who the hell writes this kind of shit and claims they’re completely fine….
Elizabeth: Yeah what the fuck did we ever do to deserve this?
22 notes
·
View notes
Photo
A somewhat oft overlooked line though one that’s always stuck out to me since it gives me such a wonderful window into Giovanni’s mind in regards to how he views the bosses. This is legitimately the one and only line we get from him about the men he supposedly trusts enough to hold the keys to his kingdom and clearly his opinion on them is fairly low.
Popular fanon seems to be that Giovanni was the one who supposedly reached through the multiverse and plucked the bosses from their worlds like apples ripe for the picking and I’m somewhat baffled by this view. For a man who has such an overblown ego and is so entitled, I find it hard to believe at all that he would purposely recruit anyone and risk having to share any of his power.
Then Chrissy why does Giovanni have the bosses gathered at all? Personally and this is my headcanon and it’s been such since my first playthrough given the bosses’ accounts on how they end up with Giovanni, I tend to believe that it was simply a confluence of events of astronomical proportions that dropped all of them metaphorically into his lap.
Yes, it’s a huge coincidence that of all the people they all happen to be bosses of previous gens, but I find that more believable than the idea of Giovanni himself wanting to have the bosses in his service. Since for him to personally nab them would mean he’d have done research on said bosses.
And as we’ve seen with how swiftly and easily he took over the Aether Foundation knowing that would be the gateway to the Ultra Beasts, Giovanni definitely does his research before hitting worlds. If that’s the case then he would know what kind of people he’s dealing with in regards to the bosses and while one can make a case for Archie and Maxie, I highly doubt Giovanni would have taken that risk with Ghetsis. Hell, I really highly doubt Giovanni would take the risk in having people like Lysandre or Cyrus on his team either since anyone wanting to destroy the world would be deemed unstable in his eyes.
So TLDR, Giovanni had nothing to do with gathering the bosses, they just came to him and he went with the flow.
#ℜ┊this is satan speaking ( OOC )#ℜ┊ i build my castles in the air ( HEADCANONS )#more of a meta/rant than a formal HC#hence the lack of the HC banner#but I legit was kinda surprised when people walked away from TRR ep#thinking giovanni was the one who recruited the bosses#it just doesn't mesh up with what we've been presented with his personality
10 notes
·
View notes
Text
First of all if you haven’t been reading @lizzybeth1986 ‘s newest series, what are you doing?? Secondly, I went overboard in my commentary and notes (oops) so all of this is in direct response of the essay: China, Cordonia and "Home".
This is just a copy/paste live-blog of what I feverishly typed in an attempt not to forget what I wanted to say after I finished reading. Spoiler alert, I had TOO MUCH TO SAY 😭
<<read more in place for your scrolling ease>>
Probs not intentional but it really feels like the writers set Hana up to fail, my Godddds
In every other place where Hana could have mentioned where she came from, they made her use terms like "home" or "where I come from". An example of this is the conversation at the ruins in Ch. 13, where Hana can say, "I've visited ruins around where I'm from, and they're just as beautiful as these".
I always thought there was a plot reason they never gave a specific origin of country for Hana way back when, but it never crossed my mind that the writers just didn’t know themselves 😑
Keeping that in mind, let's look at how Shanghai itself is written. Unlike Italy and NY which got 3 chapters each, Shanghai had only 2. But it's still possible that in those 2 chapters we'd have plenty of background material about Hana, right? Right??
obviously can’t speak for the current employee demographics at Pixelberry as it’s been since 2018(??) since I kept close and excited tabs on the writers, and said writers have been laid off or quit, but I believe at the time of TRR 1-2, there was a sizable amount of writers who identified as Asian and so it boggles my mind that when it comes to some of their Asian characters—hell, Asian love interests!!—that they wouldn’t put in the extra research and care to give these plots and characters more depth and substance. Like hello??? BIPOC representation still needs work but you’re a whole ass game company who prides yourself in your diversity and inclusivity and you couldn’t create that needed representation?? HelfreakinLO??
Gonna keep jabbering to myself because I’m thinking and reading and the MC design they picked to be on the cover of the TRR books is the East Asian design so obviously they’d cared enough for visibility reasons for that but still…
<<a new line of thought>>
In reference to the Shanghai cuisine section, this is a gross simplification of what Lizzy carefully explained (brain go burrr) but all I could think was “dang, Hana has some disrespectful AF friends?!?” Like I don’t care for cannon Drake and MC has slowly appeared on my would-like-to-kick list, but the sloppily written narrative makes me laugh and wonder how Hana doesn’t go ape shit around this group of so called friends. Because wow.
Tea Service (free): China is known for its tea culture and esp its tea houses, that are often hubs for political and cultural discussions.
any and all links in this meta series I have clicked and interacted with but I just wanted to note this section because gong fu cha is a new-to-me concept and I want to know more so YAY LEARNING
Shanghai should have been treated differently. This was Hana's home. This was the place she likely spent all of her childhood and most of her young adult life growing up in. What we should have been seeing was her house, her childhood haunts, places that made her feel safe and happy. Folk tales she grew up on, local traditions she may have participated in (I mean, isn't this stop at the tour during the time of a festival?). And if for some nonsensical reason the writers wanted to alienate her from her own city, don't brush that aside like it means nothing
tell me you can’t write your female LI without telling me you can’t write your female LI 🤷🏾♀️
<<not sure what this was in direct reference too but I’d like to note that a few minutes after fuming to myself and reading some more, this exact note was addressed in the essay ASGSGDHD>>
Asian culture is not a monolith like wyd???
This is hardly the only indication of Hana having her Chinese heritage erased. In TRH, almost no mentions are made of her home city or home country. In Book 1 there is a heavy focus, again, on the European-influenced skills she grew up learning like horseriding and dainty tea parties.
it’s the missed opportunities at every turn for me. TRR’s popularity aside from everyone’s favorite trope (mine too) of commoner x royalty, this series could have been a force to be reckoned with and instead we have retconning and repeated character assignations and plot holes galore and the centering of men and white (female) fragility that serves no purpose except maybe to appease the reader fanbase, and it’s all such a waste and I hate it here 😭
For a person whose story was not only about self-discovery but also finding a sense of belonging, not meeting that need in her "single" playthrough is an awful reminder that nothing in Hana's story is written with her in mind.
funny how we have like a8 billion whole books spanning the TRR universe with PLENTY of opportunities to explore and expand upon Hana as a person and not an afterthought and it’s been squandered. Go on PB, give us nothing 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
A possible argument for the latter situation at least...is that the team may not have known enough about China or Shanghai, and may have been reluctant to step on the toes of people who did. In which case, why choose a country you don't know, and don't want to do proper research for? Because calling a city that's capable of moving entire buildings with the help of robot walkers, isn't one that anybody in their right mind would call "ancient".
nothing to add, just wanna scream YES in solidarity because these were my thoughts. Like…yeah, I have nothing to add. This speaks for itself.
#hana lee: a study in erasure#talking that ish#I’m sorry but tag space was limited#I had to mosey over to a whole entire post LOL#ENJOY PEOPLE 😭
11 notes
·
View notes
Text
Liam and Olivia: When You Prefer The Side Character To The Main
Series - TRR's Alternative LIs: The Romances that Didn't Happen
Previous: A Brief History of Alternative Romances in Choices
A/N1: My apologies for the length of this one! There was a LOT to explore, and even more that I had cut out from my initial draft.
A/N2: This essay operates on the premise that Liam is not the "favoured LI"/"golden boy" of the team - an argument I have made in detail in other Liam-centric essays. I am not interested in arguing those same points in my comment box/reblogs. Visit the Liam section of my meta masterlist if you want to learn more about that.
CW: Mentions of non-consensual kissing. Mentions of the plot against the MC in TRR1. Very fleeting mention of the "infertility subplot" TRH pushed onto Hana.
(Screenshot from HIMEME's YouTube channel)
As I mentioned in the previous essay, TRR (along with ES, to a far smaller extent) was the only series that seemed to make an attempt to pair even their popular LIs with another character. It also was (along with TCaTF) one of the very few books that hinted at an alternative romance in the first book itself.
This section of the essay series will perhaps be the longest, since Liam x Olivia got the earliest hints, and was built up first. While the other three pairings were introduced or hinted at in Books 2 and 3, the reader got to see glimpses of a possible Liam x Olivia pairing from the finale of Book 1 onwards.
Why An Alternative LI?
TRR is, essentially, a story that hinges on the likelihood of an arranged marriage. The character that makes this entire story possible, Liam, is expected to pick a bride by the end of his social season, whether he is ready for marriage or not. The ending of Book 1 itself ties his ascension as a king to marriage.
(Screenshot from Skylia's YouTube channel)
To prove Madeleine's point, the finale actually shows us that until he picks a fiancèe, he literally won't be addressed as king, but still as Prince Liam. So while this point does get heavily retconned later on in the series, the original story itself required Liam to be married sooner than any of the other LIs.
But Liam's story doesn't just hinge on needing a good Queen for his kingdom. His arc - at least in Book 1 - involved learning that being a good king doesn't mean he needs to sacrifice his own desires or romantic sensibilities. If that were the case, he could have just been stuck with Madeleine. No - the story was supposed to be about Liam learning to validate his personal aspirations without hurting his political position. It was essential then that the woman he picked was someone he either was already in love with (the MC), or someone he grew to love over the course of the series.
When you take this context into account, having an alternative romance becomes not only convenient, but essential.
And if the MC doesn't choose Liam as her endgame...who better for this "romance" than an old friend who has always held a torch for him?
A Romantic Rival
(Screenshots from Skylia's YouTube channel)
As most of the fandom remembers the first book and the trajectory of the Liam and Olivia relationship in it pretty well, I'll try not to go into too much detail. The Olivia of Book 1 has two parallel storylines: the one with the MC, where they first start out hating and then learn to like each other...and the one with Liam, which begins with Olivia assuming she will win the social season, but becoming more and more resigned to the MC's chances of winning as her position in the competition declines.
There is obviously a lot more focus on her dynamic with the MC, for two reasons:
1. Until the MC chooses an endgame, an LI will never show more interest in another person. It will always be the alternative LI whose interest initially drives that side-story. Making an LI reciprocate that interest can result in a negative impression of them, as fans could potentially believe that their love for the MC is not genuine or special. This is the case for all LIs in the series, not just Liam.
2. Narratively, the first book wants to make Olivia's love for Liam their big character reveal. It is the first time Olivia actively opens up to the MC, and is canonically the beginning of their "friendship". So very little emphasis is placed on her emotional attachment to Liam until the Coronation (with her cactus gift and her confession to the MC before leaving), and even less on how Liam feels about her.
Whatever little we do get of Liam and Olivia's dynamic before the finale is focused on their childhood friendship. We learn from Liam that she was a sad, lonely child when they met, heartbroken by her parents' death and the negligence of the aunt who was supposed to raise her. Her attachment to Liam emerges from his support of her when they were children, and we later learn in TRH that he not only supported her, but often empathized with young Olivia and comforted her in ways that didn't give away her vulnerabilities.
Olivia claims at the beginning of TRR1 that "everyone just assumed Liam and [Olivia] would get married one day". Given what we learn later about Constantine and the Nevrakis family (and the fact that no one backs Olivia's claim at any point in the book), it is possible she was exaggerating. But it is also true that until the MC gains more popularity and Madeleine makes her entrance, Olivia is assumed to win the social season quite easily. In the same way that Madeleine is positioned as the "political" rival in Book 1's story, Olivia is viewed as the "romantic" counterpoint to the MC.
From Liam's end, there is actually very little shown about his thoughts on Olivia. It is clear that he cares for her, wants the MC to think well of her and understand her circumstances. While as a child, he comforted her when she was called a cactus by reminding her that they were tough plants that no one messed with; as an adult he is pained by her vindictiveness towards people who haven't even harmed her. There is plenty of grounds here for some sort of relationship, but enough there that shows why the MC who will marry him would be a slightly better fit.
The second half of TRR1 focuses on softening Olivia to an extent - having her and the MC optionally bond over their dislike for Madeleine (who is viewed as the "bigger bad" at this point) and having her only occasionally approach Liam for his company. Her feelings for him come to the forefront only during his Coronation, around the time she withdraws due to the blackmail exposing her parents' attempts to assassinate King Constantine.
This moment in the series completes Olivia's transition from antagonist to a possible friend. The reveal that Olivia loved Liam all along ensures that the MC can sympathize with her for not getting the man she loves, and allows the reader to envision her as a future ally.
To some who already vouched for a Liam-Olivia endgame before the finale, this moment was a confirmation. To others who didn't exactly see Olivia's actions towards Liam as rooted in affection, this moment was a revelation. Whatever it was, this moment made her extremely popular in the fandom.
But this scene also had a more important purpose - it provided players not interested in Liam, a possible out from the situation. The ending of TRR1 hinged on Liam choosing the MC as his future bride, then being forced to accept someone else when the scandal broke out. Book 2 allows the MC to explore what she wants without the expectations of a social season. The prospect of a titled lady who genuinely loved Liam being his potential endgame would make it easier for fans of other LIs. It sounded like a perfect ending for everyone.
The (Unwanted) Kiss, and What It Says About the Fandom
(Screenshots from Danni Stone's YouTube channel)
A scene that often gets ignored (or conveniently forgotten) when discussing Liam x Olivia in TRR1, is the kiss in Lythikos.
The Lythikos Ball in Ch 8 is already a social battleground of sorts for Olivia. She wields her power as hostess here - monopolising Prince Liam's company, and humiliating the MC and her friends with the worst seating and ice-cold food. Things come to a head when - while dancing the Cordonian Waltz with Liam - she forces a kiss on him, completely disregarding his ability to consent.
I use these precise words to describe this incident for two reasons. First, because canon refused to do so. Second, because most of the fandom refused to do so.
Different characters in the story respond to this incident in different ways. A shocked "what a bold play!", a sarcastic "Olivia's growing up, how sweet", and an enraged "she's gone mad with power here!" emerge from the ladies of the court - all focused on Olivia's intentions and actions. None of these responses ever address Liam's end of this situation.
Even more interesting are the options the MC is given to address the situation when Liam speaks to her later.
(Screenshots from Danni Stone's YouTube channel. This is the second dialogue option)
She either speaks to Liam like nothing happened, or engages in victim blaming. Personally I think both options are as bad as each other. Neither of these options include "are you okay?" or "were you comfortable with that?".
Liam's answer to the MC's (optional) accusations is perhaps the only time the issue of consent is even barely addressed (and even here Liam is duty-bound to think of Olivia's welfare over his own comfort). It is appalling that it takes the MC practically victim blaming this man for that to happen. And it is equally disturbing that Liam's response is so apologetic, so contrite, as if this entire situation was his fault.
The kiss is viewed as a number of things in the book: an affront to the suitors who have no power in Olivia's estate, or a political blunder. But what does it mean to the man who had this kiss forced upon him? Would he really feel comfortable or safe around her again after that? The writers clearly didn't know, nor did they care. And most of the fandom was only too happy to follow suit.
The few times this kiss was spoken about amongst the fandom, the question of consent was barely ever addressed. The kiss was either brushed aside as unimportant, seen as an indication of the "love and passion" Olivia had for Liam, or viewed as a manifestation of her jealousy towards the MC. Liam is sometimes seen as "clueless" for not "noticing Olivia's feelings...I mean, she literally kissed him!!" All of which could be true, but it doesn't erase the fact that his consent was never given, nor his comfort with the situation ever considered.
It is doubly ironic given the fandom reaction to the MC's plight in Applewood, after Tariq attempts to kiss her without her consent (though this situation involves significant privacy violations and dark conspiracies, and Liam's does not). The MC's situation was (rightfully) viewed as horrible and potentially traumatising, and many were upset that the emotional impact of it wasn't adequately addressed in the story. It wouldn't be surprising if Liam's situation wasn't viewed on the same level - given the difference in contexts - but the fandom and canon rarely saw this as something that happened to him, without his consent.
Ironically, the fandom never really considered Olivia planting a whole smacker on Liam's mouth as possible "proof" that she could engage in creepy, entitled behaviour...but they did often view Liam as "creepy" for...complimenting diamond-option outfits, or saying romantic-coded dialogues that the MC would reciprocate by default (again - I don't deny this is a problem and those lines should have been coded properly. However one cannot deny the doubt standards here). Olivia was the one who forced a kiss on the object of her affection in canon, but Liam was the one who got so many "abuser" and "harrasser" (and worse!) depictions in fanfic when TRR2 and 3 were out.
I will be addressing this particular scene again in another context, in a later essay in the series. I would like my readers here to not forget this scene, or the (lack of) outrage around it. It would be helpful to ponder over why Olivia's behaviour here is largely viewed as no big deal, especially when other side characters (and at least one main character) could be villainized for far, far less.
Olivia and Liam in TRR2 and 3
(Screenshots from Skylia's YouTube channel)
TRR1's finale and TRR2 show a small shift in Liam and Olivia's dynamic. Now that he is engaged, and in love with a woman who isn't Olivia, their interactions become sporadic and awkward. To ensure that Liam won't be viewed as a cassanova, the narrative keeps their interactions to a minimum. Group scenes that involve Liam often leave Olivia out, and group scenes that involve Olivia exclude Liam.
However, to address the "romantic potential" from TRR1's finale, the book shows Liam and Olivia interact in at least one scene in Ch 10. Here, they have a short, stilted conversation that leaves Liam concerned about Olivia's well-being, and that makes Olivia grieve over her unrequited love for him to an equally concerned MC.
Olivia's story in TRR2 largely centers around establishing her character (snarky, prickly, warriorlike. Much of this is actually a deviation from her writing in TRR1), strengthening her relationship with the MC, and integrating her into the core group.
Olivia's feelings for Liam get addressed again after the MC makes her final choice of LI. The MC's acceptance or rejection of Liam's proposal results in a bit of tension between the two women. If Liam is the MC's choice, Olivia admits to her heartbreak despite being truly happy that Liam has found love. If not, she reveals a slight resentment that the MC could so easily throw away the love that Olivia so badly wanted. The narrative allows Olivia her complicated, ambivalent feelings towards the Liam x MC match, and expects the MC to understand and sympathize. By default.
If you don't choose Liam in TRR3, his romance with Olivia does start here. And by this I mean that Liam is now allowed to reciprocate her affections.
(Screenshots from the Skylia YouTube channel (Drake playthrough). The screenshots aren't in order. 1st Liam x Olivia scene is the handholding at Applewood (5), 2nd is dancing at Vegas (1st two), 3rd is Liam asking Olivia for a dance at the finale ball (middle two), and the last is Liam asking Olivia out (6))
Even in the playthrough where Liam is marrying the MC, his default is to trust Olivia, show her kindness and staunchly defend her to people who suspect her motives. Liam advocates for her innocence in TRR3 Ch 2, even as her family becomes one of the prime suspects. The MC may vouch for her by choice...but if she does choose to suspect Olivia, it is Liam who pushes back against the idea.
By this point, the MC and Olivia can cement their friendship if the former has worked on gaining her trust. If not - the book has already created an inbuilt mechanism to ensure Olivia's loyalty anyway. It is tied to her gratitude and affection for Liam, the one person who consistently believed in her from childhood. Whether the MC makes an effort to win her approval or not, Olivia respects her. Her emotional attachment to Liam as an old friend, and loyalty to her king, ensures that her support is gained by default throughout.
Outside of his own playthrough, though, the narrative does slip in a few extra scenes where Liam shows an obvious romantic interest in Olivia. It's small - he isn't exactly yelling from the rooftops that he loves her - but it is definite progress where he seeks her out for support, dances with her and eventually asks her out to dinner at the finale. The scenes are few but prominent, and leave no doubt to the reader that Liam fully intends to court her.
So...why is Liam still single in the Drake, Hana and Maxwell playthroughs of TRH?
Writer Bias
When you read enough interviews and watch enough livestreams from the TRR team, one thing becomes very, very clear. They love their TCaTF callbacks. And no callback is more beloved to the writers than the repurposing of Zenobia Nevrakis' sprite to create her descendant, Olivia.
In this section, I will focus in particular on Kara Loo, COO of Pixelberry and one of the head writers of the TRR/H/F series. Going by several interviews and social media posts, Kara wrote most of Olivia and Drake's scenes and dialogues (along with "some of the Prince's speeches"), and was in fact the driving force behind how Olivia's character came to be, in the original series.
"...when we were creating Book 1, we wanted an evil redhead to be your antagonist, and Kara said, "Oh, what if we used Zenobia, but the twist is she's a Nevrakis descendant?"" - Jennifer Young, Looking Back on The Royal Romance (Sept 2018)
Kara has openly admitted before to having a fondness for Olivia's particular character type. In an interview with Daily Dahlia, she spoke of Val, one of the TCaTF LIs, in glowing terms that perfectly fit the way Olivia has been written as well:
"I love writing Val Greaves in The Crown & The Flame. I love writing for characters that are a little meaner and will really just say what they’re thinking, even if it isn’t exactly tactful." - Daily Dahlia's Interview with the Pixelberry Crew (Sept 2016).
The love for mean (and white! Don't forget white) women among the team, is pretty clear when you look at the kind of reception TRR's mean white women get.
Notably, Kara does have the occasional nice thing to say about Liam too. In an interview before the release of TRR2, she spoke of how "considerate and loving he is", how "there is nothing mean or selfish about him". As a Liam fan who kept seeing him bashed left and right after the TRR1 finale, those words initially felt like a massive relief.
But now, seeing the way the team treats nicer and more diplomacy-oriented characters in the series, this fulsome praise for Liam's selflessness gives me pause. It reminds me too much of how most of the team swore up and down that Hana would be their choice of LI to marry in a livestream, at the same time that they were slamming an infertility subplot on her in the books. Looking back with the knowledge of how the writers would treat Liam later, praise like this seemed less focused on finding him lovable, and more on ensuring that he gave constantly to the MC without ever getting much in return.
While Liam's treatment is not as bad as Hana or Kiara's, one must take note that the team - esp the head writers - have never really hesitated to throw Liam under the bus or retcon entire chapters and backstories to make characters like Drake seem better than him (eg. The narrative choice to have Drake claim Liam was leading the MC on when they first met in TRR3, which has led to more than one attempt to rewrite the bachelor party).
Part of this could be attributed to just the fondness for a specific character type. But I do think that with Kara in particular, ideology also plays a role in her preferences. There are at least two interviews from the team where her liking for darker, more violent storylines has been mentioned. In TRR3 the team affectionately called some of their brainstorming sessions with Kara as "Kara's trail of bodies" (one idea was to kill off Madeleine in Lythikos), and in the TRF livestream they mention that she initially wanted a war storyline.
This leaning towards a more militaristic mindset shows...in the care that Kara takes for Olivia's dialogues and especially her spy scenes (tho such scenes actually don't contribute much to the plot). In contrast there is a subtle disdain for the more diplomacy-minded characters shown in scenes where Olivia's ideologies are measured up against theirs (eg. Any scene where Hana and Olivia are supposed to work together, or the vast difference between the "valiant" Lythikos tournament and the "ridiculous" Castelserraillan flower competition in TRH3).
Even though it is often the diplomacy that saves the day at the end, the framing always highlights the militaristic way of thinking more positively. Given that Kara writes a lot of Olivia, and a fair amount of Liam, it's pretty obvious now where her (and the team's) particular bias may lie.
Because of this bias, it became far easier for TRR's writers to lean into popular fandom myths when it suited them, or pander to a particular section of the fandom. Which is the subject of my next section.
Fandom Entitlement
Olivia often has two types of fans - the ones who wanted to ship her with their MCs in canon (and couldn't), and the ones who wanted to be "bestieeeees!" with her. The frustration of the former was rooted in the fact that wlw had only one romantic option, but I will not be talking about them.
The latter were found in plenty among the Liam, Drake and Maxwell stans - all of whom either viewed her as an ally to win over (Liam), or as someone to push onto Liam, so they could romance the men they preferred in peace (mostly Drake and Maxwell. Some Hana stans but not as many).
As I'd mentioned in an earlier section, Olivia's final scene in TRR1 allowed people who didn't want to romance Liam, to envision a narrative 'out' for themselves. By the time Olivia reappeared in TRR2 Ch 5, she'd gained a cult following among many, many fans. A lot of them were actively rooting for the start of a romance between Liam and Olivia, and very few resented her for her feelings or begrudged her past actions.
But there was one downside. The intent among the majority who rooted for this pairing, was more about "getting Liam out of the way", than any actual romantic potential. Because of this, certain Liam x Olivia stans (ironically, the Drake romancers were the loudest voices in this group) felt a ridiculous level of entitlement towards this pairing.
A number of readers insisted on having Liam fall for Olivia immediately, wanted him to show feelings for her instantly, and complained when he didn't do so while his (optional) romance with the MC was still on.
Olivia's sad, longing gazes in TRR2 propelled many a reader to complain about what an awful situation poor Olivia was in and how insensitive and uncaring Liam was (even in the face of screenshots that clearly showed him worrying about her desolate mood). One of many examples comes from a post in Feb 2018 - a Drake stan's written walkthrough of TRR2 Ch 10, and ironically the following lines were made above a screenshot set that clearly showed Liam noticing how sad she was and worriedly asking the MC about that:
Liam finds you and as always, can’t help fawning over you. This time Olivia is right there and he is like, Oh yeah, Olivia, you are too here, hi. She definitely notices, gets upset, and leaves because she really does love him and she is third choice at best.
This was not the only one. There were multiple posts like these, and they often positioned Olivia as a figure of sympathy, yearning for a love that would never be hers. Liam in these readings was always positioned as someone who "didn't care" and later, "didn't deserve Olivia".
When he did start showing an interest in Olivia in Book 3, it went largely unnoticed by most of the fandom, even though he was romancing her in at least 3 out of 4 playthroughs. There were very, very few posts made about any of these romantic moments. Instead, from Chapters 3 to 10 of TRR3 - where Liam didn't show any indications of heartbreak re: the MC - certain Drake/Maxwell fans made posts complaining over his not pining over the MC, or theorizing that some of his friendly attempts to educate the MC about the country had to have been done with more than friendship in mind.
This section of the fandom often got insane amounts of pandering from the writers themselves. When TRR3 returned from a hiatus post Ch 9, we were suddenly hit with more scenes involving Liam's "heartbreak" (it featured sporadically in all three of the other playthroughs, but you could tell it was tailor-made for the Drake one because it got referenced there waaaay more) before the big battle with Anton. Fandom spoke far more on these scenes than on the ones they got for Liam x Olivia.
What was completely missed was that such "heartbreak" scenes happened because there was a demand from readers who weren't even Liam stans in the first place, and the same stans didn't hesitate to flip and label him "desparate" or "pining" or write fanfic where he was an absolute creep in response to a thing they asked for!
As for talk of the Liam x Olivia ship post TRR3, the phrase "sloppy seconds" started to be used often to address the pair after the series ended, and there were quite a few posts claiming that Liam didn't deserve such an incredible woman like Olivia.
(Edit Source: the playchoicesconfessions Tumblr blog)
Using the pining subplot that nonLiam stans had asked for, some of the same people would insist that Olivia "deserved better than to be sloppy seconds" (at some point after TRR3, I noticed that even some Liam stans would say the same!). This argument often came hand-in-hand with the lie that Liam never cared for Olivia enough (as one can see in the edit above). It also often hinged on the premise that the MC was Liam's first love, that he wouldn't (and shouldn't!) ever get over her, and that anyone else would rank as second best to him. And while I agree that Olivia deserves a partner who would wholeheartedly love her, this argument seemed to come from people who were eerily reluctant to imagine Liam leading a happy life without the MC.
Tbh, the fandom at large has always had a very confusing relationship with Liam as a character. I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said that from TRR2 onwards, making Liam a scapegoat was a very popular reading from the fandom. He was often expected to live up to impossible standards - way more than the other male LIs - and criticized incessantly for dialogues and action that the other two could easily get away with.
Many fans were (rightfully) frustrated by how Liam could have romantic lines by default (which the MC would by default reciprocate, to their chagrin) all through TRR1 - while ignoring romantic default dialogues from Drake - but also complained when Liam responded more calmly than expected to her rejection of his proposal. They also didn't like that he could be largely neutral/merely friendly towards the MC for most of TRR3. Damned if he didn't, damned if he did.
I'm not saying that this was the viewpoint of the entire fandom. There were people - yours truly included - who pushed back against such a biased view of this pairing. Against a view that insisted on centering only Olivia's feelings, while either badmouthing Liam for not returning her love, or ignoring the times when he did. There were people who pointed to canon for proof that he cared.
But enough voices vouched for this other, more unsavoury reading that "Olivia deserves better than to be Liam's sloppy seconds", that it became quite popular. That it became the accepted view in canon too, when the writers began work on TRH.
Olivia x Liam (not), TRH and Beyond
As we all know by now, Liam x Olivia did not happen in TRH. After a dance and an invitation to a date in the finale, Liam was back to being single and uninterested in any romantic relationships (like all the other LIs). It went to the point where he was ready to appoint the MC's future child as his heir (heir apparent, not presumptive. The fandom mockingly dubbed him "Rumpelstiltskin" for this). At the time, I imagined that perhaps the narrative was trying to erase the pair altogether, since no other LI got paired up either. It would be fair.
This wasn't exactly the case. In fact, in my opinion, what they managed to do was much worse.
(Screenshots from the HR Gameplay YouTube channel. Liam is renamed "Rayden" here)
Savannah's bachelorette (TRH1 Ch 7) has the MC and the ladies "address" certain pairings that were hinted at in TRR3. One doesn't get addressed at all, one addresses the LI by name only if the playthrough isn't the one where the MC is married to him.
Olivia's is the only one that got addressed regardless of whether the MC was married to the man she had wanted or not. And looking at the scene now, I really, really wish they didn't write it at all.
If the MC encourages Olivia to talk about her feelings for Liam, the latter shows anger and resentment over Liam not choosing her twice over. This, despite the fact that he did attempt to date her the previous book. This, despite the fact that he never indicated interest until he actually felt it. This... despite the fact that not returning the feelings of someone who likes you romantically is a normal, natural thing that said someone should accept without judging other person!
In fact, the fandom was more than willing to view other LIs "not returning feelings" as normal, natural and blameless...so why did only Olivia get sympathy and praise for her unrequited love, and why did only Liam have to be criticised for the same?? Even in THIS scene??
Liam x Olivia would not be referenced for 3-and-a-half books after this, until the very end of TRF. Over the course of the series, the team tested her compatibility and possible chemistry with at least two side characters. One was Jin, the Auvernese spy that Olivia fights with in TRH1 Ch 19. While they did seem to have some banter in the first book and a smattering of scenes in the second, interest quickly died down and Jin was written out of the story once the Auvernese royals' scandals were exposed.
TRH3 then hinted at Amalas x Olivia as a pair, peppering hints as early as the introductory chapters. There had been a few murmurings among the fandom for the same, since a number of wlw were fond of Olivia, and people liked headcanoning her as bi or lesbian (in fact, when the team claimed in a TRH1 livestream that having Olivia as an LI would "soften her" too much, the fandom protested). Amalas x Olivia was met with more approval than Jin x Olivia, and in TRF you could encourage Olivia to ask either Liam or Amalas for a dance.
Liam himself never got any other options for romance (understandable, none of the LIs did), and in fact had several aspects of his story chipped away, chunk by chunk, to benefit other characters. In the end, Liam is treated like Olivia's "alternative LI" than the other way around.
It was a pretty ironic ending for a pairing that people felt so entitled over in the beginning. After years of protests against Olivia being Liam's "sloppy seconds" just because he chose her after being rejected by their MCs... the narrative didn't mind treating him like some sort of "consolation prize" (one of two) for Olivia. And as expected, nor did the fandom.
Conclusion: Could This Pairing Have Worked?
Much as I dislike it now, I did think Liam x Olivia had some potential back then. Politically and emotionally, Liam and Olivia were opposites in many ways. There was a lot you could explore. Their background history and the sweetness of their childhood story had the potential to add layers to their dynamic.
But for a pair like Liam x Olivia to work, romantically, some things would need to change:
1. Respect in the writing room for both their ideologies, not just Olivia's. If you view one with adulation and the other with disdain, that will eventually show in the writing. These two could have been a solid power couple if the team could just set aside their boners for violence and knives once in a fucking while.
2. THE KISS. If you're going to have that kind of a scene around, especially in the context of TRR1's larger story, it needs to be addressed. From Liam's point of view. With Olivia openly regretting it and atoning for it, and Liam getting to choose how to handle that. It isn't just enough to assume they spoke offscreen, and then pretend the forced kiss never happened or that that violation meant nothing.
Olivia was wrong. Olivia crossed boundaries. Olivia disregarded Liam's consent. Liam was the victim here, not the person the MC should be shouting at - even by option.
If a romance should proceed between the two, that kiss deserves to be addressed with a lot of sensitivity and respect to Liam's own experience.
3. BALANCE! Between their perspectives, their viewpoints, their beliefs. Which would only be possible if you equally valued both characters.
4. Respect for Liam's feelings and his romantic choices, whatever they may be. Liam knows what he likes best. Him not returning Olivia's feelings is not a crime, nor does it make him any less of a caring person. Him falling in love a second time, seeing an old friend in a new light, should have been embraced as a concept.
Loving someone else deeply in the past shouldn't make his feelings for his second love any less genuine. But most of the fandom adopted such a way of viewing the Liam x Olivia relationship because it allowed them to pity Olivia and blame Liam (again) - and the team validated those sentiments out of excessive care for one character, and a lack of it for another.
Changes like these four would have definitely made for a better-written alternative romance. But given the kind of team and the fanbase TRR had, none of the changes I mention here would ever have a hope of becoming a reality. Olivia is too popular, too beloved to her writers and fandom, (and too white!) to be viewed with even this much of a critical eye. And tbh, once the fandom has marked a character (esp a character of colour - customizable or not) as a scapegoat, they would enjoy bashing them too much to stop. From then on, it would only be a matter of which excuse, which nitpick, which set of double standards, would work best.
Liam and Olivia had potential. And the narrative was able to get that story to the point where the two could at least have a first date. But team TRR squandered all its future possibilities in the mad rush to pander to a portion of their fandom, with a clear bias for the side character...and so we will never know how a more balanced portrayal would've looked like.
A/N3: I have quoted posts that have actually appeared on Tumblr, but without any identification marks. All of them are one among many such posts - either lost to digital decay or hard to find. I do not want to call out any of the individual posters - I want to make it clear that many of these posts are indicative of a fandom-wide problem. Do not try to find out, or harrass, these posters.
Next - Maxwell and Penelope: When You Like the Side Character So Much, You Gift Her A Shiny New LI
#essay series: trr's alternative LIs#the royal romance#the royal heir#the royal finale#king liam#liam rys#olivia nevrakis#trr meta
102 notes
·
View notes
Text
SOME ROYAL ROMANCE THINKY THOUGHTS
One way to tell if I love a story, is by how righteous I complain about the shit people in the story get up to. For me, this meta is high praise because the story made me feel. So my complaints are, without a doubt, my compliments. My butthurt is my mark of approval LOL Why else would I even bother to write this up if I don’t absolutely fucking LOVE it? And you should know I despise Kiara, so forewarning. I love to hate her.
Adelaide and others spoke of Constantine being a tyrant. And he was. But can you blame him?
Godfrey and Barthelemy teamed up to murder the queen in order to more easily manipulate Constantine, hoping to rule through him. Their plan backfired, however, because her death only hardened him, and made him the exact opposite of what they wanted. Rather than someone easy to manipulate he became hardened and cruel.
The Nevrakis’s were part of a coup to seize the throne, with Barthelemy. Everybody wants to take power, which made everybody around him a potential threat.
Barthelemy wasted his life, and the Beaumont fortune trying to seize power. This is proof he’d make a shit leader. He couldn’t even manage his own family’s money, abandoned his sons, all in the single-minded focus of getting what he wanted for himself. That kind of a selfish person can’t make for a good leader for a people. He couldn’t manage to be a good “leader” for his own family. How’s he supposed to rule Cordonia?
Godfrey’s wife, Adelaide, was perfectly willing to sell her vote to the highest bidder, knowing that her vote could lead to taking a child away from her parents. She was willing to destroy a family if it meant staying rich and kept in exclusive social circles. This is coming from a woman who has a daughter she supposedly loves. How she could be willing to do that to another woman is sickening and proves she doesn’t understand loyalty in any sense of the word and therefore can’t be trusted. Today it’s Barthelemy. Tomorrow, it’s whoever offers her what she wants.
Kiara...I have a LOT to say about this bitch. She willingly decided to vote to have MC’s family ripped apart, and King Liam’s throne taken from him, despite them having been friends with her. Her excuse? She saw the king, and MC (regardless of who she married) as reactionary to the power grabs, rather than preventing them. Reactionary is all you can be, so the stupidity in this astounds me. What is she, 12 that she can’t understand that?
Kiara’s betrayal is honestly the worst, but not surprising. She always acted superior to MC. Remember she ushered Penelope away in Book 2, talking about how MC was beneath them, like that kind of talk is supposed to be forgiven/Forgotten? She’s always seen MC (you) as less than her, yet she claims friendship? Ok.
She was supposed to be MC’s friend, but she was willing to tear a child away from her mother because she thinks good leaders stop their enemies beforehand. Since when, Kiara? That’s literally impossible, you fucking simpleton. Liam would have to be omnipotent to prevent every power grab. She’s too stupid to see that no matter who came up against Liam/MC, they always failed, because MC and friends are intelligent people who know how to deal with threats. Also, they’re kind, generous people who want the best for their country. She immediately sided with a man she didn’t even fucking know to rip MC’s family apart. She was only willing to reverse her vote, talking her “I still see you as a friend” bullshit, after she got something from MC. MC had to, like with Adelaide, buy Kiara’s vote with a favor by salvaging the flower festival and the car show. Kiara’s been there to personally witness all of MC and Liam’s triumphs, so why the fuck MC still gotta prove herself to Kiara for her to do the right thing?
I know PB ain’t gonna go this deep, but Kiara reeks of treachery. She can’t be trusted. It makes more sense that she turned on MC/Liam if Barthelemy promised her power, but she chickened out, and Barthelemy kept his mouth shut for leverage over her later. But, seriously, they ain’t gonna go there. And this is why I know TRR series has sooooo much potential to keep going, but fans don’t appreciate how good this story is. Why? Because they’re too butthurt they can’t date Olivia, or Madeline *hard eyeroll*.
Going forward, Liam should banish Kiara from court. She’s not loyal. She’s not their friend. Friends don’t vote to tear children from their parents’ arms. Do you have a friend with a child, and that friend is a good parent (not someone who is a danger to their child)? Could you imagine a circumstance in which you’d do anything that would endanger their rights as parents, to possibly lose custody of their child? No? Then what’s Kiara’s excuse for this betrayal? “But Barthelemy promised the baby would stay with MC!” So👏🏼Fucking👏🏼What? One, why would she trust someone making a blatant power grab against people who are allegedly your friends? Someone she doesn’t even know? And how would she feel if she was labeled a temporary guardian to her own child before they were taken from her? The depth of my hatred for this character can’t be measured and I really wish I could decide to never forgive her, and banish her from court for life, but PB will force forgiveness on us. That’s why this game isn’t really choices. If Kiara had concerns about their ability to rule, why didn’t she take those concerns to them rather than aligning herself with Barthelemy to bring ruin to MC’s family and take the throne from Liam, a man she’d once competed to marry, to be his queen?
Considering that the court is packed with greedy traitors, it’s no wonder Constantine became so bitter, jaded, and cruel. He had to be to survive people like this. I’d love to see Liam go on a dark descent like his father but not succumb.
In conclusion, Adelaide and Kiara were as much a traitor as that sad sack Cedric. They should’ve been dragged off and jailed. Everyone who voted against MC would at least be permanently shunned from court and Cordonian society if the choice was mine. Because if they’d side with Barthelemy, they’ll stab you in the back with the next world-be usurper.
32 notes
·
View notes
Text
Albert Einstein - 181 Cursos EAD Gratuitos
O Centro de Educação em Saúde Abram Szalman do Albert Einstein Instituto Israelita de Ensino e Pesquisa, possui 181 cursos EAD gratuitos.
São diversos cursos para comunidade da Radiologia, temas como COVID-19, enfermagem, medicina e outros temas da áreas da saúde.
Segue abaixo todos os cursos gratuitos em onde alfabética:
1. #Nashday - Esteatose Hepática, uma Epidemia Silenciosa
2. A Dor da Pessoa em Situação de Rua
3. A Importância das Terapias de Suporte para o Sucesso do Tratamento do Paciente Oncológico
4. Abordagem do Paciente Grave com COVID-19 no Pronto-Atendimento
5. Achados de Imagem da COVID-19 na TC de Tórax
6. Agentes Etiológicos
7. Aleitamento Materno - Amamentação e Benefícios para Mães e Crianças
8. Aleitamento Materno - Anatomia da Mama
9. Aleitamento Materno - Anatomia da Mama e as Fases da Produção do Leite Materno
10. Aleitamento Materno - Apojadura e Ingurgitamento
11. Aleitamento Materno - Como Amamentar o Bebê
12. Aleitamento Materno - Como Armazenar o Leite Materno
13. Aleitamento Materno - Prevenção e Manejo dos Principais Problemas Relacionados à Amamentação
14. Aleitamento Materno - Técnicas de Amamentação
15. Alteração do Nível de Consciência
16. Alterações Cardiovasculares da Infecção por COVID-19
17. Ambu - Ressuscitador Manual
18. Angiotomografia de Aorta e MMII
19. Antiagregação Plaquetária - Implate Stents: Menos pode ser mais?
20. ASCO 2019 Highlights: Bexiga - Radioterapia Adjuvante, Primeira Linha Terapêutica e Novas Drogas
21. ASCO 2019 Highlights: Cabeça e Pescoço
22. ASCO 2019 Highlights: Gastrointestinal Alto
23. ASCO 2019 Highlights: Gastrointestinal Baixo
24. ASCO 2019 Highlights: Ginecologia
25. ASCO 2019 Highlights: Mama Parte II - Doença Localizada - Heloisa Veasey e Rafael Kaliks
26. ASCO 2019 Highlights: Mama, Doença Localizada
27. ASCO 2019 Highlights: Mama, Tratamentos Locais
28. ASCO 2019 Highlights: Melanoma
29. ASCO 2019 Highlights: Oncogeriatria
30. ASCO 2019 Highlights: Próstata e Recorrência Bioquímica
31. ASCO 2019 Highlights: Próstata, Doença Sensível à Castração
32. ASCO 2019 Highlights: Pulmão
33. ASCO 2019 Highlights: Radioterapia
34. ASCO 2019 Highlights: Rim, Papel da Nefrectomia Citorredutora e Primeira Linha Terapêutica
35. ASCO 2019 Highlights: Sarcoma
36. ASCO 2019 Highlights: Sistema Nervoso Central
37. Aspiração Traqueal
38. Atendimento Oftalmológico na Atenção Primária (Aula)
39. Atuação Fisioterapêutica no Tratamento da Dor
40. Atualização Fonoaudiológica - Pacientes Oncológicos
41. Aula sobre Dengue
42. Avaliação do Volume Vesical e Retenção Urinária com Uso de Recursos Auxiliares - Point of Care
43. Boas Práticas para Assistência Psicológica Durante a Pandemia da COVID-19
44. Câncer de Mama
45. Câncer de Próstata
46. Características de Personalidade e Saúde
47. Cardiopatia e Gravidez - Dr. Daniel Born
48. Casos Clínicos da Cardiologia 2
49. Casos Clínicos da Cardiologia 3
50. Cetoacidose Diabética
51. Cicloergometro
52. Cinecoronariografia
53. Coleta de Hemocultura
54. Como e em quais pacientes deve ser realizado a monitoração da PIA
55. Como Medir Corretamente a Pressão Arterial
56. Complicações no AVC (Acidente Vascular Cerebral)
57. Comportamento da Infecção por Coronavírus nas Crianças
58. Contingência em uma Pandemia: Um Desafio para a Enfermagem
59. Contingência em uma Pandemia: Um Desafio para a Enfermagem
60. Coronavírus (COVID-19) - Manejo dos Casos Suspeitos
61. COVID-19 no CTI Adulto: Aspectos Organizacionais e Epidemiológicos
62. Curso para Gestantes: Cuidados Iniciais com o Recém-nascido
63. Curso para Gestantes: Métodos de Alívio da Dor
64. Curso para Gestantes: Tipos de Parto
65. Definindo e tratando a ira nas UTI"s do Brasil
66. Delirium (Estado Confusional Agudo)
67. Desintubação Paliativa e Manejo de Dispneia pelos Cuidados Paliativos
68. Diagnóstico de Infarto e Troponina
69. Dicas para Ministrar uma Boa Aula Online
70. Dicas para Ministrar uma Boa Aula Online
71. Diretivas Antecipadas da Vontadeparecer do Conselho Federal de Medicina
72. Doação de Órgãos: Introdução Doação de Orgãos
73. Doenças da Aorta
74. Educação e Conscientização sobre o Tratamento Oncológico: Uma Abordagem de Todos
75. Educação em Saúde - A Educação em Saúde
76. Educação em Saúde - Aspectos Básicos do Desenvolvimento Infantil e a Vulnerabilidade Social
77. Educação em Saúde - Conceitos e Possibilidades
78. Educação em Saúde - Metodologias Ativas e Outras Práticas de Ensino
79. Efeito da Estimulação Elétrica Nervosa Transcutânea em Cirurgias Abdominais
80. Efeitos da Hiperóxia
81. Electrical Impedance Tomography
82. Emergências Pediátricas
83. Enfermagem em Nefrologia
84. Enterobacterias Panresistentes
85. Esclerose Múltipla
86. Estratégias de uso de órteses e benefícios funcionais na fase aguda da reabilitação do paciente neurológico adulto
87. Estratégias para Prevenir Disseminação de Enterobactérias Resistentes a Carbapenêmicos (ERCs) e Enterococos Resistentes à Vancomicina (VREs)
88. Estruturando um serviço de imagem na pandemia por COVID-19
89. Farmácia
90. Farmacovigilância
91. Fisiologia do Exercício (Parte II)
92. Fisioterapia no Grande Queimado
93. Follow Up Pacientes com Insuficiência Cardíaca
94. Gerenciamento do Comitê de Crise durante pandemia por COVID-19
95. Grupo de Suporte de Terapia Nutricional CTI-A
96. Guia de Preenchimento de Dados Pós-Transplante
97. Guia de Preenchimento de Dados Pré-Transplante
98. Higiene de las manos: cómo realizarla adecuadamente
99. Idoso e Doença Cardíaca
100. Impacto de Sistema de Apoio a Decisão na Farmácia Clínica
101. Inovações no Tratamento Percutâneo da Valvopatia Mitral
102. Institutional Outcomes Report2015Q1
103. Lesões por Pressão
104. Manejo das Doenças do Sistema Nervoso Periférico
105. Manejo do Paciente Psiquiátrico na Semi-intensiva
106. Manejo dos Sintomas do Tratamento Oncológico
107. Mascarillas de protección respiratoria: cómo usar adecuadamente
108. Medicações Inalatórias Materno Infantil
109. Metas Internacionais de Segurança do Paciente
110. Mortalidade Materna
111. Movimentação e Transferências - Minimizando o Risco Egonômico
112. Necessidade de Vacinação contra Gripe e Pneumonia
113. Noções Básicas de Diabetes
114. Novas Tecnologias em Ecocardiografia
115. Novos Anticoagulantes e Antiagregantes
116. O Enfermeiro na Avaliação de Resíduo Vesical através de Ultrassonografia
117. O Enfermeiro na Avaliação de Resíduo Vesical através de Ultrassonografia
118. O Papel da Nutrição no Combate ao Câncer e como Aliado ao Tratamento
119. Oncologia para Médicos - Cabeça e Pescoço
120. Oncologia para Médicos - Câncer Colorretal
121. Oncologia para Médicos - Câncer de Pele
122. Oncologia para Médicos - Cardio-oncologista
123. Oncologia para Médicos - Cuidados Paliativos
124. Oncologia para Médicos - Ginecologia
125. Oncologia para Médicos - Pulmão
126. Oncologia para Médicos I
127. Oncologia para Médicos II
128. Oncologia para Não Oncologistas - Imunoterapia
129. Optiflow - Terapia de Alto Fluxo de Oxigênio
130. Optiflow - Terapia de Alto Fluxo de Oxigênio
131. Óxido Nítrico
132. Palestra Sobre o Dia Mundial do Autismo
133. Pancreatite
134. Papel do Líder no Engajamento e Experiência do Colaborador
135. Papel do Líder no Engajamento e Experiência do Colaborador
136. Por que participar de uma Pesquisa Clínica para tratar o Câncer
137. Pós-ASCO para Pacientes: Fique por dentro do que foi discutido na ASCO 2017, O Maior Evento de Oncologia do Mundo
138. Pós-ASCO para Pacientes: Fique por dentro do que foi discutido na ASCO 2017, O Maior Evento de Oncologia do Mundo
139. Precauciones específicas para profesionales de la Higiene Hospitalaria
140. Prevenção de ICS Relacionada ao Cateter
141. Prevenção de Infecção
142. Prevenção de ITU no CTIA
143. Prevenção de ITU no CTIA
144. Prevenção do Coronavírus - Para Pais, Mães e Profissionais da Educação
145. Problemática da Sustentabilidade em Saúde
146. Prontuário Médico Eletrônico
147. Proteção Radiológica
148. Protocolo AVC
149. Responsabilidades do Especialista em Suporte de Vida Extracorpóreo
150. Ressuscitação Volêmica Precoce na Sepse
151. Retirada da Aliança
152. Saúde Feminina
153. Saúde Feminina
154. Segurança do Paciente - Higiene das Mãos (Equipe Administrativa)
155. Segurança do Paciente - Higiene das Mãos (Equipe Assistencial)
156. Segurança do Paciente - Prevenção e Controle de Infecção
157. Segurança do Paciente e Colaborador - Papel da Fisioterapia
158. Segurança do Trabalho - Aplicação de Insulina com Agulha BD
159. Segurança do Trabalho - Punção Venosa Utilizando Agulha Eclipse
160. Segurança do Trabalho - Punção Venosa Utilizando Dispositivo Insyte
161. Segurança do Trabalho - Punção Venosa Utilizando Dispositivo Nexiva
162. Segurança do Trabalho - Punção Venosa Utilizando Dispositivo Scalp
163. Segurança do Trabalho - Uso do Cateter Íntima
164. Síndrome Coronariana Aguda
165. Sondagem Nasoenteral
166. Sondagem Vesical
167. Stent Coronário
168. Terapia Transfusional
169. Transplante de Medula Óssea: Mitos e Verdades
170. Transplante de Medula Óssea: Mitos e Verdades
171. TRR/Líder de plantão - Novo Modelo
172. Ultrassonografia na COVID-19: Aspectos de imagem e segurança
173. Uso Correto das EPIs pela Equipe Assistencial
174. Uso Correto das Máscaras: Cirúrgica e N95
175. Uso de Plasma Convalescente em Doentes da COVID-19
176. Uso de Plasma Convalescente em Doentes da COVID-19
177. Ventilação Mecânica
178. Ventilação Mecânica Básica
179. Ventilação Protetora para Todos
180. Visita multiprofissional na UTI via telemedicina
181. Workshop de Medicina Integrativa: Fechando o ano com Disposição, Energia e Bem-Estar.⠀
Para acessa o curso basta entra no link (https://bit.ly/2VRvJaF), realizar seu cadastro e se inscrever no curso de sua escolha.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
● Fonte: Albert Einstein
● URL: https://www.einstein.br
OBSERVAÇÕES
Os cursos possuem declaração de participação, exceto se você optar por assistir as aulas sem realizar o prévio cadastro.
Alguns cursos não estão disponíveis de momento. O Interessado será obrigado entrar em uma lista de espera, se for do seu interesse é claro.
#radiologia #técnico #tecnólogo #tomografia #emprego #odontológico #crtr #oportunidade #concurso #contratastado #processoseletivo #conter #ressonância #tc #rm #mamo #mamografia #radioterapia #medicinanuclear #raiox #densitometria #hemodinâmica #radiologiaindustrial #radiologiaveterinaria #cursos #live #webnar #voluntário #gratuito #saúde #medicina #ciência #radioproteção
— Por Cesar Dantas
— Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inforadbrasil
— Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/inforadbrasil
— Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/inforadbrasil
— Twitter: https://twitter.com/inforadbrasil
O conteúdo é uma publicação Inforad Brasil. A obra está licenciado com uma licença Creative Commons Atribuição 4.0 Internacional. (CC BY 4.0)
1 note
·
View note
Text
y'all want some don headcanons before I go to work? no okay here they are
So I think compared to Chris, I get the impression he had a later start in the limelight? Started out as a standup comedian in his 20s, maybe had one or two B-movie roles or some minor parts in Lifetime-esque dramas until eventually making it big on a show not unlike America’s Funniest Home Videos. He’s had pretty moderate success at a fair, if a bit slow, pace that rockets after being pitched TRR and offered a place as the host.
#toca.txt#meta tag#something about his hosting style just makes it seem like he got his start through comedy#it feels right for him?#trr don#td don#I've got similar thoughts on Blaineley's career but I've gotta skedaddle!
15 notes
·
View notes
Text
@imgoingtocurnyscho
TL;DR: I was always fond of Justin but it wasn’t until his traitorous reveal that he became my fav.
I was here when Justin was first introduced and the general feel was that most of the fandom was uneasy around him, which always influences my opinion on a character in the opposite direction. It’s a personal instinct to dig through the dislike into something that’s interesting, and from the very get-go, I appreciated how professional Justin was. He was charming, slightly geeky, and just overall took everything the MC threw at him whether it was perfectly complying with his advice or blatantly ignoring it and making a fool out of herself in the media.
[[more]]
I think the moment I really liked him was at the end of TRR Book 2 when Justin really pushes for Tariq’s confession to hit the press right away. Immediately, Bertrand, Maxwell, Hana, and Drake take the opposing side and encouraged the opportunity to talk to Madeleine and Liam as a courtesy before releasing Tariq’s statement. It was the first time Justin’s advice seemed to border on ‘cold’, and the frustration he briefly expresses if you decide against it was fascinating.
I went through with his advice and the wicked delight he took in the nobility’s faces when confronted with Riley’s innocence was also interesting. Finally, the perfect PR agent was showing some cracks. He was like the more cruel best friend I wanted instead of goofy Maxwell and perfect Hana. But he’s just doing his job, so I always understood that any advice and “bond” he may have with Riley is from a career stance.
Replaying the book, PB was very purposeful with keeping Justin a pro (in glaring contrast to the experience we have with Maxwell in Book 1), minimizing his extended time with Riley and having the one-on-one times focused on Riley’s objectives. We get one chance to flirt with him, and it’s the very first time we meet him ( “You can manhandle me anytime.”). He easily shrugs it off and compliments her charm. What a fuckin’ professional!
With his reveal as a traitor? Holy shit. Was it a surprise to me? Yeah. I thought it was just Lucretia.
Stage 1: Most of the fandom doesn’t care about this character. I’ll like him!
Stage 2: Oh, he has some slight depth under that professionalism? Love it.
Stage 3: He’s fucking evil? Ulterior motives? AND he keeps his somewhat charismatic approach when confronting Riley in the vault to kill her, briefly expressing some sorrow that it has to end with him shooting her? I’m in love?
Bonus: Anton and Olivia’s first words to each other are:
This is like my favorite scene. They’re married. Anton knows that’s his wife and he’s still like... I dunno, terrified of her. There’s something hilarious in how “Justin” behaves around Olivia. It’s such a genuine character Anton has built for years.
I’m a fan of “the mask and you becoming one and the same” trope. I really think Anton and Justin have melded together. If Anton was an angry kid growing up under his father’s revolutionary teachings, and Justin is a persona crafted to schmooze his way around nobles and learn their dark secrets, I’m excited to see what Anton’s personality really is. I don’t want ALL of Justin’s charm and geekiness to evaporate. I don’t think it will, especially when Riley says “I put up with your stupid catchphrase for this?!” and Anton, while holding a gun pointed at her, casually says, “Hey, I’m gonna trademark that one day.”
He’s so funny. He’s so dry. I want to see more of that! There’s a lot of question marks surrounding this guy I thought I had figured out, which just fuels my initial fondness for him.
And I think... he believes he’s doing the right thing.
The videos the Sons of Earth have put out have valid points. They call out the royal family for their corruption and Liam’s weakness as a ruler. I dunno. Maybe we’re skipping a lot of the politics to keep things “fun” in the game, but I don’t think Liam going on a hundred Tours and dedicating most of his time to sleeping with Riley is going to be a great legacy. He doesn’t even want to be King.
But Anton does. I hope, however misguided his intentions are, it’s shown that he really just wants to lead Cordonia out of some stupid tourist spot and expand international outreach by getting rid of the current royal family just taking care of each other and those fucking apples. The Sons of Earth have inadvertently killed Constantine, attempted to murder Liam and Riley (who has proven herself to be more dangerous than I think Anton suspected, what with her popularity skyrocketing and rallying the country against him), but other than that, there aren’t any casualties. For staging a coup, they’re pretty well restrained in not needlessly taking lives. No takeover is ever going to be a peaceful negotiation.
Anton’s the only thing keeping this third book interesting.
Where I want the story to go: Anton wins and does a phenomenal job with expansion and trade and international policies that don’t keep Cordonia a shitty little tourist island with a fondness for the world’s shittiest apple (with Olivia who finally gets over Liam omg and is a great Queen who focuses on Cordonia and everyone loves her and she bickers with Anton all the time but they get along eventually) and Liam & the crew have a happy life somewhere else.
Where it’s probably gonna go: Anton gets close to winning but is arrested and has a meltdown and we focus on decorating a boring wedding. Olivia marries Liam maybe if you’re not romancing him?
Of course, Classic Pixelberry can pull a fast one on me and dump all of Anton’s careful characterization out the window and just go “Yeah, Anton is power-mad and wants to kill everyone and waste all of the country’s money because he’s evil.” That would suck, in addition to not making any sense.
This is incredibly long but I love Anton so much. The potential is there. I have more screenshots and meta shit at @kingantonseverus but I think I’ll cut it here. Thank you for asking! I’m sure you weren’t expecting a novel to read but if you’re ever interested in talking more on Anton or the other Books, I’d like to!!
1 note
·
View note
Last Seen Blogs
zombro-draws
Zombro Draws
nayeonsnumber1hoe
🌸Naynaynayeon🌸
sooro0sh
Untitled
mishacollins-gifs
Misha Fuckin' Perfect Collins
slipper007
There is seemingly nothing but chaos...