Catch me rewriting Ezarel's route with a different protagonist who also doesn't like to be touched due to past trauma and the two naturally work through fears and discomforts together and don't push boundaries (aka ignore consent)
T H I S
You cannot know how saddened I am by the fact that they did my ex-boy wrong like that. Ezarel was literally the reason I started playing Eldarya. I loved him SO MUCH. I was soooo excited to learn what had happened, why:
1) Valkyon told us "not to fall in love with Ezarel/not to take interest in Ezarel"
2) Nevra told him to "better get used to being touched instead of limiting himself to touches he initiates".
We can also clearly infer that his responses to touch would indicate that touch is a taboo with him, rather than something he doesn't appreciate.
All these clues clearly build up to a greater plot, but then....? Nothing. Like, NOTHING. AT ALL.
Our character (MC) straight up put her hands on his waist, put her head on his shoulder, SAT ON HIM, all of these before they got together. And I was like???? So, when is he going to get mad, or tell her not to do that. Why was it so triggering before, and not anymore?
More importantly, and another consistency mistake on the writers' part, WHY WOULD MC ALLOW HERSELF TO INITIATE THOSE TOUCHES IF WE WERE CLEARLY ALL AWARE OF HIS DISCOMFORT WITH IT. It felt very "I'm special and get special rights", which okay, a lot of MCs are written this way, but where is the explanations, where is the consistency? And, by making it canon, and despite Ezarel's sudden lack of care about her initiating touch, she, again, is characterized as a boundaries-crossing MC.
You build up Ezarel's plot only to give it up when we approached the logical climax. And what did we, players who had Ezarel as cdc/lover, get instead? A shitty, shitty arc with a random h*e who got to ultimately flee and live with him. I-
You make the MC canonically cross strict physical/touch boundaries after having so many times made it clear that a character strongly feels upset when someone initiates touch.
Double homicide. But are we surprised?
I've heard that they changed the teams of writers, but if we as players are able to come to these conclusions, a team of PROFESSIONAL WORKERS PAID TO WRITE FOR THIS GAME could really have taken the time to ??? familiarize themselves ????? with the storyline and the plot of one of the MAIN characters.
Anyway, this is why my username is @ezarelz, he was my baby initially, but yo, the lack of consistency and inefficient use of Ezarel's arc led me to reconsider.
The ultimate result: I ended up with his best friend lmao, my man, Nevra. MC is still shitty with Nev at times on this route, but this post doesn't focus on that. And also, as I had a past with Ezarel, and had never kissed Nevra, I got the spiciest dialogue of the first season:
In episode 20, Nevra said, and I quote: "At first I thought I liked you because of your kiss with Ezarel. The appeal of the forbidden."
NEVRA CLASSIFIED MY GARDIENNE AS "FORBIDDEN/OFF-LIMITS" WHICH MADE HIM WANT HER EVEN MORE I- Y'all this is the b e s t line I had read in the whole game.
To have access to this part of Nevra's thoughts and imagine him longing for my gardienne in secret as he considered it "not possible" to court me due to my past with Ezarel, but still trying to spend moments with me at the Fenghuang Temple because he gave into the envy (of the forbidden), literally trying to charm me despite considering me off-limits, made me fall for him. HARD.
I know this particular route storyline isn't common, most people had kissed their final LIs prior to getting with them, so they didn't unlock this dialogue. But I did, and I did not regret it one bit. He says the same if you kissed Valkyon, I checked.
Anyway my OC's lovestory with Nevra is *chef's kiss* but,,, eh I'm drifting off. Can't make a single post without adressing my love for that man, damn.
Anyway, don't hesitate to tag me if you ever choose to publish that story! I'd love to read it, and I'm sure many others would, too!
Kisses :)
