Show me my Silver Lining - Chapter Select https://www.tumblr.com/writeastormsblog/781206333259169792/show-me-my-silver-lining-a-rhyiona-fanfic?source=share
What Song Comes to Mind About Your One-True-Pairing?https://www.tumblr.com/writeastormsblog/780410529871282176/what-song-comes-to-mind-about-your?source=share
Steal from everything you love. watched a movie and thought "wow that scene hit different"? figure out why and use it. read a book where the banter made you kick your feet? study it. saw a tiktok that made you Feel Things? that's research. keep a notes app full of random lines you'll never use. screenshot tumblr posts at 4am for "inspiration." your influences should be obvious and chaotic. remix everything. that's not theft that's apprenticeship.
I wanted to ship Invisimech, but here’s why I can’t:
Okay, first and foremost— it’s alright if we disagree on my ideas here. I figured to share them anyways because I think it’s interesting to note the points of why I went back and forth on how I felt about their development. Please know I do not intend to shame you or diss where you stand on the matter of this ship. I only wish to share my thoughts, and I want to send a post into the void of the internet that proves you can try to be respectful of others’ opinions while expressing your own. So, here it goes:
When I shipped Invisimech, I ultimately liked the idea of two people falling for the other from different standings. There is something romantic about two people learning to grow together and want one another despite coming different sides of life— one a villain, and one a hero.
However, I struggled to like the portrayal of how their interactions escalated and the interactions overall throughout. I initially tried to dismiss it. Here is what I expressed in a discord chat not long ago:
“See the hard thing for me is I am still uncomfortable with the way the invisigal kiss was written, but I understand how it made sense for her character and in the context her and Robert’s base dynamic, as well as the unrealistic social norms set by the cast of characters (what I mean is, the z-team, as well as Mandy, push boundaries that would easily be called out in real life. Hence the memes of ‘hr violation simulator’.) I have mixed feelings about narratives that do this, mostly because we can become what we consume, and if these are the narratives people will grow up with, I’d like to see more of the portrayal in a rightly addressed manner and not overlooked. For this reason, I’m glad Robert is portrayed with clear discomfort in Malevola’s grabbing. He at least voices it. I wish Visi or Royd would’ve acknowledged it once it happened, but the way the narrative is written, it seems that the norm is to not acknowledge those kind of boundaries being pushed. Mandy still got drunk doing an interview. She peeked at Robert getting undressed, and she also casually flashed him her breast in her office when she tried on a new dress. It’s not really acknowledged much as it would be in real life, or at least as it should be in real life.
So when I looked at dispatch, I think I decided there was an intentional difference of what the writers portrayed to be the norm in the narrative as opposed to what it is in real life. More vulgar and explicit humor; in other words, more “casual hr violations.” In real life, these things wouldn’t fly. I especially wouldn’t be comfortable with the way Visi went about the kiss it if a person did that to me in real life. Even if I had a flirty dynamic, in real life verbalizing consent is personally a big value for me. But here’s another thing: I’m not Robert. That’s also something I had to take into account when interpreting how Visi and him interact with one another.
Where I think it differs is that he is really dead-pannedly amused by a lot of her behavior throughout the story, even in the route he doesn’t romance her. Royd will still note the weird energy between the two— the physical attraction/tension. Robert teases her back with the same level of unhinged humor and will entertain her explicit approaches. He’s so casual when she told him about her dream. I think Visi pushes to see his limits, and he doesn’t voice that he’s uncomfortable during those times. If he was uncomfortable with her advances, like with Malevola, he’d say it. All this to say, I’m not excusing that the kiss should’ve been portrayed with more clear consent. But I’m saying it made sense why Visi’s character kissed Robert by surprise, as he didn’t mind her freaky dream about him and would partake in explicit banter with her.
Visi is also incredibly impulsive, and from her perspective, it’s the last chance she’d get to express to Robert that she really wants to be with him. She was leaving the locker room to go play double agent and hoping to walk away from it alive with his trust not broken. She didn’t know how to explain it all, and obviously couldn’t explain to him what she was involved in, so it made sense that in the moment, she was desperate. She acted without much thought further, desperate to take her chances with him. I’m not excusing the approach and how I believe it could’ve been better, but I do understand the reason behind her character, of how she got there.”
I think the difficult thing in how I analyzed the characters and the storytelling is that I don’t like how the numerous characters treat one another inappropriately throughout the story, but this is how the writers wrote them and the way they are written is very consistent. I considered the consistency of jarring, vulgar characterization as some aspect of world-building— to say that “it’s just the way things are in this fictional setting”— that therefore I could dismiss it and force myself to skim over what I don’t like in order to satiate the indulgence of the enemies-to-lovers trope. In other words, the narrative was so set in its inappropriate social norms amongst the cast of characters that I reasoned it was fine to overlook the bad behaviors as it was their normal… but it isn’t what I want to be my normal and I hope it wouldn’t become the normal of the real world. The characters being okay with this as their norm ultimately clashed with what I was personally comfortable with wanting as my norm, and that’s why I had so many mixed feelings about this ship for a while.
I’m at a point in my life right now where I want to crave more content that depicts and portray the behavior of values I want to embrace rather than content that normalizes behavior of values I don’t feel comfortable with and initially wanted to overlook just to fulfill the itch of a romance trope. If this type of indulgence doesn’t phase you, by no means am I trying to shame you or assume I’m better for wanting to cut this kind of content. It is my personal choice, and I believe it’s better for me to step away because the discomfort was always there while I yearned for some semblance of a romance arch between two people from very different lives. I can’t accept their dynamic as romantic, though I really wanted to because I saw the potential in how it could’ve been written. If the portrayal and development of all character dynamics were more aligned with my comforts and beliefs, I would’ve been more appreciative of the depiction of the trope.
✨🪻Artwork of Rhyiona digitally painted by me, but the flowers are screenshotted from game and cutout + layered using piZap. Additionally, sparkles n other animated stickers are from Instagram🪻✨
I got so offended when a professor once asked me if I used AI for my writing. Um, excuse me? What are you suggesting about my level of capabilities and my sense of integrity here? Who spat in your coffee my gosh
Whew! Haven’t done digital art in a while. We’re not going to talk about how long this took to color in, but to give you an idea… I’ve been coloring over the sketch in my photo album app with my finger.
Rehash of a central mystery (who started the fire)
Rehash of Max and Chloe reuniting and reconnecting after several years apart
Rehash of Rewind AND Backtalk
Rehash of the train tracks wire cutting puzzle when Max has to cut the bomb wire with Loretta
Same setting and cast of forgettable characters
NO hints of the previous game's hook about Diamond having powers and Safi recruiting more powered people. Now she's just chilling on campus again
The merged timelines completely remove the moral dilemma of the first game's final choice. Instead of "Bae or Bay?" it's gonna be "SHIT DOESN'T MATTER." Way to retcon and shit on Dontnod's writing!!
"A definitive close to the Max and Chloe saga" THAT'S LITERALLY WHAT FAREWELL WAS FOR!
So... what is this game contributing to the series, again?
"go to hell" is basic. "i hope your favourite game that literally shaped your teenage years gets sequel after sequel undermining its previous themes and only serves as a cash cow for the company" is smart. it's possible. it's terrifying.
For real. Remember when storytelling actually cared about telling stories that reach people on an emotional level with enriching themes and amazing characterization? And not about insensitively capitalizing on audiences craving nostalgia? :(
Actually, y’know what? Disregard my previous statement; Writers poorly writing narratives like they did in LiS Double Exposure aren’t storytellers— They’re just businessmen.
Okay, real talk— I absolutely could NOT stand how the Alchemist Cottage building does not add on doors and especially considering I wanted to design a bathroom. The Alchemist Cottage will let you add doorways to walls, yeah, but not necessarily doors unless they are entry ways from the outside?? Anyways, so I creatively worked around this— because I was absolutely NOT going to have a doorless bathroom— by having the back door of my house lead straight into a Kilima Pavilion building lined with stone walls (the recipe for the Builders Stone Wall can be bought at city hall for a hundred coin). I hope this creative take helps out those who are also incredibly peeved by the thought of a doorless bathroom. Feel free to take inspo n ideas from this
Palia plush drops, my beloved <3 Yo, disco deer is my favorite!! I’m so glad I finally got him. gotta appreciate the black market hidden in the sewers for that one. I’ve put the entire elder sernuk in extinction to spawn in disco deers, and I could NOT get a plush drop since FOREVER. Thankfully, I found a kind player who would trade me a disco deer plush for a piksii shmole plush. Finally, the teleporting bastard is mine!! >:D
I thought I knew who I wanted her to be. I thought I knew her story. But after the past few months, getting to know the parts of me I don’t like, I wonder if I’ll make her go through something like it, too. I think my favorite characters out of any narrative works were ones that resonated with the most flawed parts of me. In a way, I could look at myself in an indirect lighting. Maybe I need to reevaluate what I thought I knew about my main character.
She’s this main character I’ve envisioned for forever. I know her schedule, her favorite color, and how she likes her coffee. I could tell you her pet peeves and the parts of her body she doesn’t like. She’s not a self insert, but I planned to write her struggling with the same flaws and bad tendencies I have. I’m hoping she’ll figure it out before I do on how to overcome things, and maybe that’s the issue. As the writer, if I don’t know the solution to the conflict, I’m ultimately left hanging. Maybe that’s why I’m stuck where I’m at.
I don’t know what to think of her when it comes to having a solid storyline. I miss writing. I want to come back to her soon.
