Your daily dose of Victorian angst

Deluxe Mess💎

[seal000]

road to empress spoilers

i really cant stop thinking about that part where they used the gameplay to make a scene hurt soooo much more. the game gives you SO many choices on how to save bianji so, as gaoyang's best friend, you have to try everything because maybe one of them will actually save him. but no. he will always end up dead along with you and maybe some other people. its a much worse outcome for gaoyang, and the best option is having to say no to her. and it hurts to choose and it hurts to watch her reaction. she keeps repeating that "how could you say no if you dont even try" but YOU DID TRY! YOU TRIED SO MANY TIMES!! AND IT ALWAYS ENDS IN DEATH!!!

sorry im kinda crazy ahout this specific game design choice but gooood. i dont think ive ever seen a chooseyourownadventure game utilize its format like this to make a scene more impactful

[gwyoi]

Gaoyang :(

[syzygynephile]

gaoyang...

[lirien-08]

I cried a little in this chapter

[vellixor]

What is heart-wrenching, tragic-filled, Yaoi sub plot it my high-stakes, court intrigue, backstabbing game??

[ihaveaname00]

Hi guys, I'm not okay over Road to Empress

[brambletakatoil]

With so many options before you, why must you choose the cruelest for me………………………..

[stoopkidlisteningtocsh]

im hearing you about the road to empress yuri. i know princess gaoyang was already mingled with bianji but what about doomed yuri wu yuanzhao and princess gaoyang. something something xi xin (shes so cute). im waiting for the sequel too

THEY MAKE ME INSANE 😭 their doomed Yuri friendship breakup killed my soul I need them to run away together so bad (also low-key bianji as a character seemed kinda rushed. It's like they forgot about him and then went FUUUUUCK right the pill we gotta kill this guy lmao. Like the fact we only see anything of their relationship AFTER he dies was kinda crazy. I was like ur girlfriend is right there come ooooon)

[wuekka]

Simp a brother who sympathises with his gay brother even though he's the one who arranged their meeting, relationship and death :D

LOOK AT HIM~

[wuekka]

This scene absolutely broke me~

[glysreia]

Need you guys to jump on the tragic gays in Road to Empress cause not only do they have a storyline (short but still), they even have an 8 min long theme song and backstory going on 😭

This game is killing me in so many ways

[rainbowdoom32]

All roads lead to soup. And the soup is death.

[stoopkidlisteningtocsh]

Not over the friendship breakup of Wu and Gaoyang fnjfnfjf girl I tried so hard there is literally no universe where I can save him DONT DO THIS TO ME

[wuekka]

I haven't talked about how awesome Gaoyang from Road to empress is here?!

She doesn't want to marry, so says to her father, the emperor this...

SHE CALLS THE MINISTERS AND AGAIN, HIS FATHER THE EMPEROR IN VERY "RESPECT YOUR PARENTS" SOCIETY OUT FOR DOUBLE STANDARDS!

👏👏👏

[nodosauriday]

the thing is that wu meiniang knows she's bisexual but can't think about it too much because she has a job to do. she knows that her relationships with men will be treated more seriously and that they are her primary avenue to power in a lot of situations so that's what she prioritizes, even if her heart isnt always in it. I don't think she thinks about women that much unprompted but is very open minded and would go with it if propositioned by a woman.

liu xi on the other hand is deeply in the closet because the alternative is admitting that the twelve years she spent in the palace centring her life around one woman has never been purely motivated by revenge and is in fact also a bid to be closer to said woman and if that realization hit her i i think it would completely break her worldview. sure she's been in the palace for twelve years and has expressed outright disgust at the prospect of meeting the emperor, has never once looked at the princes, and has an all-consuming obsession with her estranged friend that has permanently altered the course of her life but really who's to say what that means? Who's to say indeed...

its's crazy. shes crazy. im obsessed with her

[nebulaad]

"the love was there" quote but it's specifically about having to say no to gaoyang after dying four times to try to save bianji

[microwaving-tesilid-argente]

Major spoilers for Road to Empress I's Chapter 13 (Love Under Tyranny)

This game makes me start to understand what timeloop protagonists go through.

"...We've been friends all these years, and you won't even try?"

I did, Gaoyang, I did. I made the active choice to loop back time 7 different times because I refused to let your lover die and for your spirit to break. I wanted to save you. I died all 7 times, and in my first few attempts, I inadvertently dragged down people I cherished with me. I tried, Gaoyang, I really did! But you're acting like I never did!

And of course you are! You don't know about what I tried, about how I failed! You don't know that every route leads to failure!

I tried every possible option until I had to accept that I could not help you! Please let me at least stay by your side!

In all the routes where I did more to save you, I failed and I died and you mourned me for the rest of your life! But in this one, where I chose to be at least stay alive so I can be by your side, you cast me aside for "not even trying"?!???