The Blessed Unrest

bekah. twenty-seven. partner in crime to kirisawa and soryu. reiner's queen and shield. isfp. biologst. writer. occasional gamer. graphics maker. here you'll find posts about otome games, from voltage inc. in particular.

[otomebear]

spoilers for nathan’s update

boy, nathan’s gentlemanly switch got flipped fast with this mc, huh? i’m still in stitches over the poker scene. don’t wanna let her anywhere near the incubus, right cayde?

[otomebear]

Kinda mad how much I’m enjoying Nathan at the moment

[jarebear20]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

art by @tazmynburt

Summary:

9:30 Dragon. The nation of Ferelden is on the brink of war, with the machinations of those with ulterior motives setting the stage for all out conflict as the Blight looms on the edge of the Korcari Wilds.

Transported into Thedas, one woman is found by a group of Avvar and brought to their hold, where she is given a chance to live under the name of Heda Snow-Walker. Any plans she had on staying uninvolved with the Fifth Blight are shattered when tragedy strikes, and now her only chance at survival lies within the armies at Ostagar.

Too bad she already knows how that will go.

Excerpt:

“Forgive us, Asleif.” Tova might have bowed, if not for the burden she carried. “I would not have come if–”

“–If it were not vital,” Asleif finished. “Very well, bring her inside before the chill takes us all.”

The heat of the fire in the center of the room was a welcome relief. Tova carefully laid the lowlander as close as she dared to the fire pit. “We found her stumbling around in the snow,” she explained, watching Asleif kneel next to her. “We tried to keep her warm, but I did not think we could make it to the hold in time if she has been bitten by frost.”

Undoing the druffalo pelts, Asleif looked over the woman’s frame. Tova wondered if she saw the same thing she did: the strange clothes, the pale skin that had started to change color from being exposed to the snow. She had not known a lowlander to be so foolish as to be walking this far into the mountains without the proper protection.

“You did well to bring her to me.” Asleif brushed a strand of the lowlander’s dark hair away from her face. “She needed to be away from the cold. And now we must do our best to warm her up. Come, help me remove these garments from her.”

Continued on Ao3

[catboykotaro-remade]

PLEASE vote for juliette in the survey omg

[otomebear]

I’m hella amused at the fact that we can select Poseidon for AFK

Look, Zeus, I will happily bone either of your brothers, but you are SOL for the rest of eternity

[otomebear]

GIVE RYLAND A ROUTE 2K19

[otomebear]

I hope everyone is having a lovely Pride month

[rvs-fanart]

Finished <3 Cute little Comet. For the contest by @lovestruckvoltage @lovestruckgame Main Art account : @raptorvonsqueaker

[otomebear]

Can I just say thank you to anyone who participated in the discussion my post caused? ‘Cause it could have turned nasty and I’m so glad it didn’t come to that.

I’m all for a difference of opinion in fandom, and I’m glad we could at least talk it out.

[otomebear]

Yo Lovestruck, we really need to talk

Why do you only give WOC representation with MCs when they’re tied to criminal activity?

GiL MC–WoC

VN MC–WoC

and now QoT MC–WoC

Would it have been so tough to have the MC be a WoC in another story? You’re all about trying to play with tropes and expectations, but right now you’re leaning way too far into stereotypes without doing anything new.

Sure you could argue that the MCs end up involved in morally grey situations, but those situations are still ultimately illegal. When you have a white MC get transported to a magical land where she could potentially end up a queen but make the Latina MC get involved with a crime ring, it sends a very bad message to the people reading the app.

I want to support the stories of WoC, but you have to do better @lovestruckvoltage. You owe it to your readers

[anxiousdepressedintrovert]

Was the GiL a WoC though? She didn’t seem like it. And the MC for Love and Legends was Asian.

[otomebear]

Given how the art style for GiL, the MC was obviously not white.

And I’ve played most of the routes in L&L and don’t remember them once referring to her having Asian ancestry

[anxiousdepressedintrovert]

It wasn’t obvious to me. Sorry. I thought she had a bad tan. She looked orange in a lot of the cgs.

Just because character ancestry isn’t referenced doesn’t mean it’s not there. VN MC’s heritage wasn’t referenced in Duke’s route but it was in Andi’s route. It shouldn’t make a difference.

I get what you’re saying and I mostly agree with you, I’m not happy about the representation either but the way I see it, we have to start some where. I’m not going to get into moral greys because I’m not arguing with you.

I reblogged your post for a reason, I still liked and agreed with your main points: LSV needs to improve their representation and how POCs are presented to their audiences.

[otomebear]

Sorry if I came off harsh. That wasn’t my intent at all, I promise.

You raise excellent points and they gave me pause to think. While I’d love to agree that someone’s ancestry shouldn’t have to be brought up in order for them to be considered PoC, sometimes it is important. And given how Lovestruck usually goes out of their way with addressing representation, such as mentioning how any of the MCs are into girls no matter who’s route she’s on, it struck me as jarring that they wouldn’t mention the L&L MC having asian ancestry. I don’t feel they had to do it in Duke’s route ‘cause the MC is very obvious a WoC there, but that’s my personal feelings.

At the end of the day I just want a more diverse representation for everyone. Thank you for your contributions to my post

XOXO

[otomebear]

joiedecombat replied to your post: Yo Lovestruck, we really need to talk

Also, while they’re not MCs, I think we should at least acknowledge Mac, Liora, and maybe Ishara as WOCs in positions of lawful authority, as well as Persephone as a WOC who is never indicated to be involved in criminal activity. Just off the top of my head. We could use more variety in MCs for sure, but I’m not necessarily seeing the basis to claim that there’s a trend of WOC = criminal.

This is very true, and I’m very grateful for each of these lovely ladies for being awesome in each of the apps they appear in (why can’t they let me love perseophone ;-;)

My point was just expressing a wish for there to not be a trend where WOC=criminal and all of the ladies you mentioned help prove it’s doable c:

[otomebear]

I think you're arguing a trend that isn't exactly there. GiL MC isn't usually considered a WOC, given that she's a blonde girl with tanned skin in California - this is the first time I'm seeing her described as non-white. Monarch and the Syndicate are vigilante super-heroes acting in the public interest against a corrupt corporation. Compare the SP crew, taking bounty hunting jobs and running afoul of two different governments; why do you consider the VN cast more 'criminal' than the SP cast?

I mean, I fully hope there isn’t a trend of it. Maybe I’m just more sensitive to it because of the day and age we currently live in. I am more than happy to be proven wrong. It’s just...I’m one of those that really want more representation in media, so when I see that there’s a possibility that we get more representation but at the expense of leaning into stereotypes...it makes me feel gross.

As to your comments about the GiL...she’s not a natural blonde. The people have Lovestruck have said this in the past. Which does not mean that she’s PoC, but you can’t use her hair color as a determinant. And she tends to read to me as PoC because of where the game is set and by the fact that her skintone doesn’t match up or even remotely look similar to caucasian characters in that series. You could argue that she has a tan but tans aren’t usually colored that way. Which Is my impression of things, so obviously you don’t have to take it 100% as fact. Others in the comments have stated that the GiL MC is supposed to be Mexican/Latina, but I can’t confirm that.

As for Monarch...you do realize that the entire premise of the game is around the cast being villains, yes? The MC says herself in the app at several points that they’re villains. Just because we like them and feel for them as characters doesn’t negate that. Monarch is a WoC involved in a crime syndicate.

I wouldn’t say that I consider the SP MC or cast to be any less criminal than VN cast. I mean, she’s very clearly working with the Empire in Antares’ route, so she is contributing to illegal activity. But she’s also very clearly not PoC, so she doesn’t really apply to the argument. It would be like trying to compare the number of white men arrested to PoC men to prove there’s no discrepancies there.  Sure one confirmed white person is involved in criminal activities, but that doesn’t erase the multiple PoC that are involved in those activities.

At the end of the day, I wanna see PoC MCs involved in stories that don’t tie directly into crime in some form or fashion. Not too much to ask, I think

[otomebear]

I’m just gonna go ahead and say this, since apparently it needs to be said.

1) I am 100% fully behind having WoC MCs. Flat out. End of story.

2) My post was intended to highlight a problem that is starting to emerge, in that most of the WoC MCs end up usually being on the wrong side of the law, whereas the white MCs don’t.

I am in no way trying to complain about there being a WoC MC. I want more WoC in the media I consume. That does not mean that I cannot point out flaws in the current media.

[otomebear]

I gotta say, the MC for L&L reads as 100% Asian to me - to the point that calling her 'white' feels like whitewashing to me.

Ugh, yeah that’s a very valid way to look at it. It’s just...normally Lovestruck would reference it at some point during the story? Like with the VN MC she mentions how things are tough for black girls (or something to that effect).

With L&L MC we don’t get any of that. The closest we get is a reference in a completely different app that can’t be regarded as 100% fact.

Maybe it’s the art style that doesn’t make it click 100% for me. ‘Cause I know Lovestruck can draw Asian characters.

As someone mentioned though, given how the L&L MC in some routes is the actual WQ with her bad parts taken out, it still doesn’t help the point I was making with how the WoC are usually the ones that get involved in the morally and legally wrong thing. ‘Cause Asian MC that is responsible in an earlier life for wiping out an entire race save for one person? Yikes

[otomebear]

Yo Lovestruck, we really need to talk

Why do you only give WOC representation with MCs when they’re tied to criminal activity?

GiL MC–WoC

VN MC–WoC

and now QoT MC–WoC

Would it have been so tough to have the MC be a WoC in another story? You’re all about trying to play with tropes and expectations, but right now you’re leaning way too far into stereotypes without doing anything new.

Sure you could argue that the MCs end up involved in morally grey situations, but those situations are still ultimately illegal. When you have a white MC get transported to a magical land where she could potentially end up a queen but make the Latina MC get involved with a crime ring, it sends a very bad message to the people reading the app.

I want to support the stories of WoC, but you have to do better @lovestruckvoltage. You owe it to your readers

[anxiousdepressedintrovert]

Was the GiL a WoC though? She didn’t seem like it. And the MC for Love and Legends was Asian.

[otomebear]

Given how the art style for GiL, the MC was obviously not white.

And I’ve played most of the routes in L&L and don’t remember them once referring to her having Asian ancestry

[atlas-fucking-molniya]

I agree with @otomebear - the only indication that L&Ls mc is of asian heritage that I have managed to find is that her ”canon” name MIGHT be Yuusha, but that is only references in Havenfall as far as I know - not really great representation if you have to dig that deep to get even an inch of recognition for said heritage.

And even if the L&L mc is of asian heritage, I still wouldn’t really count it as a example of an undisputably morally GOOD woc mc given that she is the Witch Queen reborn/WQ’s vessel/”reverted back to her innocent self pre-WQ”/etc. depending on which route you play. That’d mean that the one woc mc that isn’t on the morally ambigious side STILL can count as the biggest fucking villain through ALL of Lovestruck’s stories (with her as the Witch Queen commiting genocide really only being the tip of the ice berg).

And as far as mc in GiL, I can’t say I’ve ever seen her heritage ever having been addressed as such, but even if she is ”just” a tan white person, that’d still mean that all the woc mcs we have still are on the morally grey side and are involved in illegal activities (L&Ls mc is only exempt from this if we ignore her potential past) side while all the white(-passing) mcs are innocent and good heroes in their stories.

[a-lovestruck-salamander]

Valid complaint, but I’d like to remind everyone that the Castaway MC exists. Yes, that’s still a disproportionate amount of WoC MC’s who are involved in criminal activity, but I haven’t seen her mentioned in this thread, so I thought I’d bring it up.

[otomebear]

I do mention her in a later reply (and apologized for forgetting about her in the initial post). She also gets involved in criminal activity (though selective since it depends on the route), so the point still stands

[otomebear]

Yo Lovestruck, we really need to talk

Why do you only give WOC representation with MCs when they’re tied to criminal activity?

GiL MC–WoC

VN MC–WoC

and now QoT MC–WoC

Would it have been so tough to have the MC be a WoC in another story? You’re all about trying to play with tropes and expectations, but right now you’re leaning way too far into stereotypes without doing anything new.

Sure you could argue that the MCs end up involved in morally grey situations, but those situations are still ultimately illegal. When you have a white MC get transported to a magical land where she could potentially end up a queen but make the Latina MC get involved with a crime ring, it sends a very bad message to the people reading the app.

I want to support the stories of WoC, but you have to do better @lovestruckvoltage. You owe it to your readers

[anxiousdepressedintrovert]

Was the GiL a WoC though? She didn’t seem like it. And the MC for Love and Legends was Asian.

[otomebear]

Given how the art style for GiL, the MC was obviously not white.

And I’ve played most of the routes in L&L and don’t remember them once referring to her having Asian ancestry

[atlas-fucking-molniya]

I agree with @otomebear - the only indication that L&Ls mc is of asian heritage that I have managed to find is that her ”canon” name MIGHT be Yuusha, but that is only references in Havenfall as far as I know - not really great representation if you have to dig that deep to get even an inch of recognition for said heritage.

And even if the L&L mc is of asian heritage, I still wouldn’t really count it as a example of an undisputably morally GOOD woc mc given that she is the Witch Queen reborn/WQ’s vessel/”reverted back to her innocent self pre-WQ”/etc. depending on which route you play. That’d mean that the one woc mc that isn’t on the morally ambigious side STILL can count as the biggest fucking villain through ALL of Lovestruck’s stories (with her as the Witch Queen commiting genocide really only being the tip of the ice berg).

And as far as mc in GiL, I can’t say I’ve ever seen her heritage ever having been addressed as such, but even if she is ”just” a tan white person, that’d still mean that all the woc mcs we have still are on the morally grey side and are involved in illegal activities (L&Ls mc is only exempt from this if we ignore her potential past) side while all the white(-passing) mcs are innocent and good heroes in their stories.

[otomebear]

I did forget about the Castaways MC, which is something I apologize for.

And even with her it doesn’t look good ‘cause she does have no trouble actually being a pirate in Joaquin’s route. Sure she tries to temper the pirates from hurting people, but she has no qualms robbing people.

edit: I should clarify, this is not a post intending to villify Lovestruck. But they do need to be aware of how some of their decisions come across, especially because people get excited when someone looks like them and is the star of the story.

Your stories should be diverse and shouldn’t follow a trend of casting WoC in sterotypical roles

[otomebear]

bardvarric replied to your post: Yo Lovestruck, we really need to talk

there’s also the castaway mc

True. Ty for the reminder