Actually that no punctuation plot hole ooc wattpad fanfic written by that 12 year old will ALWAYS be better than character ai. And I love that 12 year old btw
back again rereading twsb despite the fact that i have yet to make it past chapter 83 ever but im thinking about how jesse's ignorance must seem to the people around him. we never see anyone think his lack of knowledge about the divine or magic or anything which you would think is a plot hole but actually it aligns perfectly with their perception of him. it is publicly known that the king hates jesse's guts and wants him dead- so why would jesse have ever received a proper education? how sad must it seem to the cardinal that someone from the holy kingdom knows nothing of his own power- because the logical assumption to make is that he simply was denied the chance to learn.
but also the progress he makes so quickly considering that he landed in this world like a week before starting to train with his power is incredibly impressive
(Felt like exploring their designs while in the middle of writing my "What if TWSB Was Genderswapped? : Gender Expectations, Trope Subversion, and How Jung Eunseo's Gender Identity Affects QPB" essay/analysis (which somehow took an somewhat academic turn) 😭 Please look out for that, whenever I finish it... TvT)
I actually spent quite a bit thinking about this lmao (my thought process would make much more sense if you read my essay but it's still a WIP so 🥹👍) Have some fun silly abridged thoughts instead! :
Cédric M. Riester —> Ségolène Benz Riester
I firmly believe that female!Cédric would look a lot like her mom 🥹 Like Mother, Like Daughter! Long hair is a hassle when you're a swordsman, so she keeps it short... (until she gets jealous over Yeseo and Chris bonding over braiding hair TSK)(actually canon tho LOL)
I also gave female!Cédric the name "Ségolène" (Sieglinde) since it's the French female form of "Siegfried" (to which the author originally confirmed was supposed to be his name until it was changed to better fit the Riesterian setting)! "Céline" was also an option, but there's already a Riester ancestor with that name (Ced's grandmother and Frédérique's mom) and I didn't want them to just switch their names or make her "Céline II", and I'm already SO biased towards "Ségolène" hahaha
(As for the middle name. Well. LMAOOOOO It's self-explanatory, but if you're curious, see the screenshots of my IG story justifications later below! I also just thought it was. really funny OTL)
Christelle Olivier Rambouillet —> Christian Aude Rambouillet
A pretty-looking young man by the name of Christian... I chose "Aude" as the middle name, since that was the sister of "Olivier" in the "Chanson de Roland" where the name comes from! It works well, I find, because Aude is also the betrothed of Roland, which ties in to "Christelle/Christian's" character setting of "love interest", and how Ga-in would eventually gain agency outside of it.
I kept male!Chris' hair long because of the significance it carries for Ham Ga-in who couldn't cut it out of respect/guilt for Ollie 🥲 It's quite a small but significant aspect of Ga-in characterization that would translate well into any version of their character: the notion of "this isn't my body, so I must take care of it well in the original owner's place". (And later, the implied future cutting of hair being the resolution of these dilemmas and internal struggle! I love Ham Ga-in a lot...)
(AND YEAH LOL CHRIS IS STILL SHORTER THAN CED, tho if you want to, you can choose to believe that Chris' 19y.o. body still has room for growth xD)
Jung Yeseo:
As for Jung Yeseo... hahaha her name can remain the same! I wanted to draw her as a pretty girl-next-door unnie, who looks studious, gentle, and cute (but surprisingly fierce when angry LMAO)
Major inspiration was taken from brown-haired shoujo-romance MCs! The original body of the MC from "I Raised a Black Dragon" was especially notable for me. Her design was really cute and always reminded me in some way of Yeseo... TTvT
Anyhow, she's naturally a girl who obliviously captures the hearts of both women and men 🥹👍
(And here's my initial messy IG story thoughts!) :
(Additional thoughts from my twitter/x thread 😭) :
In the first place, CeChri in a Genderswap AU would be so funny to me bc woah... Pretty Transmigrated Duke's Son MC x Handsome Crown Princess (who is taller than him)? Revolutionary. It'd probably be a very genre-convention-defying RoFan haha (I WANT IT)
ADDITIONALLY LAUGHING bc FredAu about the engagement would be like: "Sadie, do not worry, you'll like him. Young Lord Christian is a gentle young man known for his reserved personality, who is also very beautiful (reminds a bit of Alex when we were younger...)(insert nostalgic feelings)..."
🔥, after they've finally become acquaintanced: "Not beautiful at all."
🌊 "WTF????"
🔥 "Not gentle either (TSK)."
Ségolène would probably even get pissed off seeing Chris' long hair. As a knight, she always thinks about convenience. Besides, her father could pull it off because he was very beautiful.
🌊 "WOW! Are you really calling your own fiancé ugly then???"
🔥 "And short."
🌊 "............."
Also thinking about Yeseo first transmigrating, trying futilely to remember what Ségolène looks like. According to Eunseo, the main female lead is very beautiful, so Yeseo images a gorgeous woman with long ebony hair who would look amazing in ornate ball gowns worthy of her position as Crown Princess. A cold-hearted beauty.....
Reality —> Gorgeous, tall woman, broad-shouldered and muscular, with short hair and wearing a knight's uniform.
🌷 "!!!?" (JAW DROPS)
'Wow!? Are the standards for female love interests different these days??'
Yeseo is so flustered she can't raise her eyes (Ségolène is too tall 🤭)
"In the first place, isn't the gap between the FL and the 2nd FL too large...?"
Ségolène: Tall, stunning woman in a uniform with fierce eyes. Hair as dark as the night, a figure that looks undoubtedly very reliable and strong. Great with the sword, and would definitely cut you down without hesitation if need be.
Losna: Significantly shorter, gentle-looking beauty with sly eyes. Long golden hair that curls coyly at the ends, divine-looking yet somewhat enticing like a siren. Soft hands that have never touched a blade, but whose tongue could cut deeply while delivering words in the kindest tone.
🌷, heart pounding, flustered (DENSE): (chuckles) "If I were a man, my heart would definitely be in a frenzy! Even the MC is very pretty, too... They truly are the protagonists!!"
🔥 (piercing stare)(wants yeseo so bad)(is it possible for someone to be so lovable?)(cuteness aggression is so real)
🌊 (thinking about how to make yeseo their priest partner)(very determined and having fun)(already making plans to have everyone in an arranged official sleepover that lasts a lifetime<—somewhat warped view of marriage)
Whenever people see CYC together, it's as if the Empress, Cardinal, and Prince Consort have come back from their youth.
A cold-looking and stubborn Crown Princess with a sword, a young powerful Cleric with a gentle face, a Duke's strong and pretty son with long hair.........
🔥 (knows from FredAu's gazes that she has gotten parental approval)(like mother like daughter LMAO)
🌷 (doesn't know that her fate has been sealed TSKKK)
(If you can't tell, I'm having a lot of fun with this AU LMAO. Please look forward in 19474893 years when I finally finish my What-if Genderswap AU very-serious essay about this topic TTvT👍
the only reason people say that "mafuyu and tsukasa have nothing in common" when presented with mafukasa parallels is because they equate mafuyu and tsukasa being similar to "tsukasa has depression" because the fandom equates mafuyu's personality to being depressed and nothing else.
it doesn't help that people (primarily younger people in the fandom) who DO believe in mafukasa parallels end up making the mistake of portraying tsukasa as depressed because as of right now he is not (although it's possible he was in past because of his Very Unclear Middle School Backstory but that's irrelevant)
anyways, mafuyu and tsukasa are narrative foils because their core personalities are built off of the concept of wanting to make the people around them— especially their families— happy.
they both developed personalities at a young age based on someone they looked up to. for tsukasa, it was seiichi amami's performance that inspired him to be a star— a hero that could cheer anyone up. for mafuyu, it was her mother taking care of her that inspired her to be a nurse— and you can see the similarities from there.
for mafuyu, her identity would first come into conflict when her mother expressed her want for mafuyu to be a doctor— suddenly, "everyone's" happiness didn't match what she wanted to do, leaving her in a state of disorder and eventual depression.
for tsukasa, his identity was something he nearly forgot in its entirety at the start of the main story— becoming arrogant and fully absorbed in a hero persona, forgetting the kind person he truly is. furthermore, his current character arc seems to be foreshadowing that what "being a star" to him is going to be called into question— maybe it is something more than just being the main character that saves everyone.
their insecurities are incredibly similar.
in mafuyu's first mixed, mafuyu feels insecure towards ichika because unlike ichika, she feels as if her lyrics have no genuine meaning to be expressed to other people— despite them being her very real feelings. this is brought up again in her second mixed as well.
in tsukasa's third focus event, something similar happens. when watching seiichi's performance, he thinks that his acting is "real" and feels inferior towards him, which is ironic because tsukasa has been method acting this whole time. when tsukasa is acting out rio or bartlett or really anyone at this point in the story, it's not just those characters— it's a reflection of his traumas.
just like mafuyu, tsukasa undermines his passions he's poured his feelings into because someone else's work is more genuine in his eyes.
now, then, foils have many similarities and parallels (and i could honestly list a lot more), but how i define them is that they usually have some kind of major branching difference that MAKES them foils.
for mafuyu and tsukasa it's pretty straightforward.
mafuyu's people pleasing behavior comes from external expectations and pressures— her mother's demands.
tsukasa's people pleasing behavior comes internally, from himself— if he can't meet his own standards, if he can't be the perfect big brother or the perfect star, then he is nothing.
and even then, there's some overlap.
tsukasa's behavior was indirectly encouraged by his mother praising him for being a "good big brother" over the phone instead of asking him if he was okay while home alone.
mafuyu's terrified to be herself around other people because she doesn't want to worry or bother them— she doesn't want to be a burden— and projects her mother's expectations onto them, not realizing that they would prefer the real mafuyu if they knew the truth.
and the concept of mafukasa being foils is most perfectly and blatantly portrayed in these two cards.
mafuyu, the marionette, sitting limp on the floor— puppeteered by her mother's demands and donning a mask to hide her true self.
tsukasa, the jester, standing above everything else— puppeteering silenced plushies— his feelings. he's not being completely honest with himself, and he doesn't even realize it.
mafuyu has cut her strings and ripped her mask in half. she has acknowledged her true feelings and expressed them to her mother, even if she had to run away in the end.
javier slowly moving into lloyd's room, one pillow and forgotten shirt at a time, and lloyd not noticing it until he realizes it's been a couple months since javier has slept anywhere that wasn't lloyd's bed
he is in fact the last person to notice this
marbella and arcos thought they were trying to be discreet and didn't want to rush them on announcing their courtship. all the servants thought it was about time, as sir asrahan slept in master lloyd's room every night anyway and it was getting a bit pitiful to watch him do the walk of shame every morning even if he did manage to make it look classy. emily has been delivering both of their clean laundry directly to lloyd's room for weeks now, it made little sense to separate it and do two trips when she was gonna end up picking most of it from the young master's room anyway.
in javier's defense, while he did start to subtly leave more and more things in lloyd's room, (justifying it to himself by reasoning something could happen to lloyd while he was off picking and dropping stuff from his room he was gonna use every day anyway so really it just made sense to leave in lloyd's room permanently-), he didn't intent to completely abandon his own room and he genuinely thought they were on the same page when lloyd told him to just climb on the bed already, my back hurts just looking at you, i promise i don't kick that much
there really are just so many things someone could possibly mean when they invite you to share a bed with them after all, right? and if lloyd didn't really seem eager to do anything more than just sleep together then that was fine with javier, he would take whatever lloyd was willing to offer. the fact that sometimes they would wake up entangled with one another, having gravitated towards each other through the night, was an added bonus that he was happy to enjoy when it happened but not something he would force or even insist upon.
lloyd did actually offer to share a bed out of completely platonic reasons. because he knows first hand how uncomfortable sleeping on a chair can be and it simply wouldn't do for his knight to be in anything less than top shape over something that can be so easily fixed. (and if he wasn't able to fall asleep for hours the first few nights because the knowledge that javier was so close he could feel his body heat through the blankets and yet so out of his reach in almost all the ways that mattered taunted him mercilessly,,, well no one could prove anything.)
the cuddling was a bit of a curve ball but he was very proud of being able to feign nonchalance and act just as casual about it as javier had despite wanting nothing more than to crawl into a hole out of mortification.
he almost has an apoplexy when he finds out javier thought they were,, something already. he hadn't known anything else besides platonically sharing a bed was even on the table!! and is honestly a bit offended no one thought to mention it to him. he could've been getting railed for weeks now. months even!!! outrageous he demands backpay immediately >:(
I believe Lloyd just subconsciously puts on his con-man face everytime someone looks at him so he can repel them with his "ugly face" , and then one day, he just got too overworked and is too tired to realize he had let down his com man face for once and the whole barony went: "???!?!?!?!" Because GODDAMN! This man is pretty as FUCK! Like, REALLY! Not on the same level as Javier but CLOSE.
lloyd (or new lloyd) is the best thing to ever happen to javier they’re so happy i love thd, look they’re so silly, did i mention how happy javier looks
the webcomic can have one (1) funny "earnest moment interrupted by comedy" joke. as a treat. but also because it is so in character for them ajkshdjkas
yes they will say the most earnest shit to each other and then immediately try to cringe out of their own bodies. they are best friends but they would rather jump out of a window before admitting it. they are incredibly devoted and grateful to one another but you could not water board that out of either of them.
the only thing that can get either of them to admit how much they care for each other is if the other is in life threatening danger and not a second before aakjshdks
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