HSS & Aiden Zhou Supremacy.

Tagging: @lover-also-fighter-also @cadybear420 @battnatt @aces-and-angels @aria-ashryver

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↓ Pls read these so you know where I left off (in chronological order)

• Mayflower

The writers loved that little girl. So much so she was the biggest plot device ever to be made + a large chunk of diamond Choices go to HER SPECIFICALLY. another tumblrina on here talked so much about Mayflower in a WTD critic post, can't remember their name but they have Noah ILITW as their pfp (last I remember).

But the issue was because she was shoved in our face so much that she wasn't effective in captivating hearts. People who already have a huge soft spot for children and love them deeply were the only people who were mostly positive towards her. However, people who weren't the biggest children lovers (just people who shrug when they see a child and don't like the taking care of them kinda people), got so damn alienated at this. And it's sad. Choices knows how to make good child characters, like look at Ginny from DS (in my opinion) whose very lovable and cool and yet isn't annoying. She can be to some people, but I haven't seen many posts on here who don't like Ginny.

Mayflower? Yeah. No.

And my big issue with Mayflower was that all the screen time she had COULDVE BEEN SHARED WITH OTHER SIDE CHARACTERS!

Like she gets, iirc, 4-ish diamond options JUST for her. The only side characters quest we get are the raiders and that's like 1. If we remove 3 and give it to other characters, we couldve got character building moments (behind a paywall sadly but nonetheless) with the og The Tower™ escapee gang, spend more time with Minna possibly, and get more time with lady Aliyah. Idk. Mayflower isn't as interesting as the other side characters in my opinion. I also think it's diabolical that the Og TT™ escapee gang is barely here and only focused on Dirk when we spend time with any of them (if that makes sense). Like I want to know more about Mack, Cassidy, learn about Nina, because if MC cares so much about them then why aren't we given the chance to understand WHY?

Nyway yeah. That's 1 section done.

•LI cast

... I have to touch on them. They're wayyyyy too bad.

One thing I'll say collectively before I get into them individually: they don't have flaws which makes them nuanced so no real reason to resonate with them with audiences because. There's no flavour girl. There just good people. And that's fine. But can we please make some of them have issues that cause tension in the group?

→ also the group dynamic is low-key forced due to this. In my opinion.

Anyway let's get into it...

Troy

First on the chopping block, Troy.

Troy, Troy, Troy, Troy... What do I do with you.

Troy is cool. But he's literally some fucking guy. I'm so sorry, but he is. And that's fine! Most stories benefit from having one person in the main cast as just some guy, yk? But Troy isn't exactly... Well. He's not the best "just some guy".

He's written to be charming. He ISNT charming. If that makes sense. Like obviously he's the smooth talker, the silver tongue, the negotiater guy who everyone likes, but he's more often then not in my eyes made to act like that. It isn't inherent in his character, like he doesn't breathe charming to me. I used context clues and inferral to be like "he's the charming little brown eyed guy".

Because compare him to Mal Volari in BOLAS- Troy can't compete. Mal was genuinely funny, had good characteristics that were silly & badass in equal amount and good enough interactions with MC that made me go "haha!" Like Mal is the definition of it. Troy isn't, he's merely HOLDING the definition and yelling at you that he is charming so you get the idea. Which I wish didn't happen, because Troy could be cool! But he's also just... There.

No hate to Troy, I do like him. But you gotta admit when a character is fucking mid as hell.

Eli

He's the "prepared, cool, badass, cold guy who everyone looks up to" typa man. And obviously there's people in apocalypse stories who are prepared for this lifestyle and can traverse this new world after it ends. But like... He's also just the trope.

He doesn't have anything about him that makes him so different to other characters like this in other media. I mean that's the whole point of a trope, that it's well known and used in certain genres and shit, but he's just that trope. He has only those qualities and nothing else. Can he be sly at times? Playful? Yes. But those are incredibly rare and very very very hard to find if you ain't paying for diamond choices nor romancing him. So like. Shit.

I'm just saying he's incredibly dry. Like the bone is crumbling type of dry. He could have been so more... And yet all he is, is another survivor-guy in a catalogue full of that.

No hate to him ofc, but damn could he have been so much better and cooler :<

Angel

Oh Angie Wangie. My girl...

She's so chaotic, fun, and nice with flaws (which makes her better then the male options by a few places) and how oblivious she can be at times + reminds me a little of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope.

My issue with her is that we never really see her as anything but.

She's always happy, and we know why she is as she explains that if she doesn't laugh she cries, but wish we got more moments where she was sad or angry that weren't linked to MC almost dying and stuff. Like I wish we got a moment where she's angry at something personal, crashing out, and we get to be vulnerable with her. Does that make sense?

Because I fucking ride at dawn for this woman, but she's also not that explored upon. She's better than the male LI's by a few of course with how she genuinely has issues and shit, but still... She is just the chaos junkie trope and nothing more and that makes me so fucking sad :<

#letmygirlcrashoutwithoutitinvolvingMC.

Shannon

My beautiful sweetie pie scientist gf, WTD could've done you so much better my love.

She's literally just a sweetheart who happens to be a scientist. That's her whole thing. Can she be really badass? Of fucking course! But she's always in the background in a way. She does grow during the story, but we never see her get to a point where she can fight zombies a little easier, where she can stand her own ground without needing someone else there to do that for her. Ykwim?

Like, with Nia from BOLAS, she's a sweetie pie and I love her just as much and she grows so much during the entire series. Going from timid priestess to a hero who is well known and can very much fight her own battles. A part of her character is about her getting tired of the group treating her delicate iirc. Shannon doesn't get that. And I want her to.

I'm not saying Shannon should've went from shy to badass. I'm just saying, Shannon could've been a sweetheart ALONGSIDE being able to vouch for her own self and fight without help. Because in zombie fights she's always losing a weapon and scared or needing to be saved, and that's fine, but holy shit like the WHOLE ENTIRE GAME???? let me girl improve steadily!

Even if it was a one time thing where she stands her ground against zombies, and I mean without the gas canisters, that would've went a whole way with her.

But yeah.

If you hate her, you will die and go to hell. But if you cannot get attached to her, I completely understand. She deserved better writing :< I really hope in my fics, I am able to rectify this bs because DAMN.

Sledge

... *Sighs*.

Y'all already know how much I love this woman. Im so down bad for her, and it sucks, because the writers really did NOT give a single shit about her and that pissed me off to Pluto and back and LET ME TELL YOU ANOUT IT!!!!

I already make enough posts about Sledge being mistreated, undermined, pushed to the side, put on the backburner. And I'm ready to count this in because what the fuck WTD writing team.

I really... Really... REALLY... Cannot stand how Sledge is never really utilised after chap 12 and shit.

She's an antagonist for a good portion of the game, and when she's with MC & Co... She's rarely given enough screentime to even redeem herself! As much as I love her, flaws and all, the fact PB made her a li when they knew damn well they weren't gonna give her enough time to actively make readers see she had changed some of her ways in learning through MC, see her genuine good traits OUTSIDE OF PAYWALLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!‚ and just let readers actually know her since she's barely in the game...

Like nobody gave a SHIT about her. No one. Many people dislike her, and I can understand that. She's not given much to MAKE her likeable, and it's so sad.

She's a love interest and yet if they didn't do that, and made her a side characer with a singular hookup option NOTHING WOULD HAVE CHANGED IN THE STORY. I'm being deadass. That's how bad it is.

Also, how do you expect fans to like her genuinely and get invested in her if there's only 2 hookups with her, 1 incredibly suggestive flirt option, and a single tame romance option that you do at the end of the damn. Game. And the rest of the game having her barely here (and I know it's a PB staple to have an LI that's barely even here but c'mon, at least Oliver Cochrane from DS has substance for people to like him even if he's barely there). Like, there's nothing wrong with only liking her because she's hot, sexy, because there's noth-fucking-else to like about her besides her hookups and appearance.

She doesn't even get a CG. I had to make my own CG for this woman because the one CG spot she could've been given was instead used to show a zombie. Like fuck bro. This is nuts.

For Christ's sake I'm making a psycho analysis series about me going unnecessarily deep into her quotes and actions in the game because THERES GENUINELY NOTHING ELSE I CAN USE TO UNDERSTAND HER CHARACTER AS SHES BARELY EVEN HERE!!!!!!!!!!!

Like holy shit! The way I have to dig deep just so I can add more pieces to her character in canon, because if I do anything else- it's headcanons and fanon storylines for her that I make. There's more HCs & fanon storylines about her that I've made than genuine character substance. That ratio is fucking insane.

And please don't get me started on the fact she isn't ever mentioned in promo.

You could say it's because she was a surprise 5th Li option. But like, she's barely even an LI at this fucking point. Be so for real rn.

If I can be so honest, I just think PB hates masculine women and just had Sledge be there because they knew some people were bound to be desperate for it and give them praise- DONT THROW TOMATOES AT ME! JUST THINK ABOUT IT!

↑ Probably not masculine women exactly, but just women who are the genderbent versions of popular male tropes like the "brooding lone wolf" for example. I can't remember there being many masculine women LI's in total actually. It's that fucking hard to remember because there's either barely any OR there's no visibility.

Sledge was a token masc woman. Fight me over it. It just makes way to much fucking sense.

PB also just has a double standard for women in total like fuck you PB.

Anyway... If I go on longer about Sledge's mistreatment, y'all will probs fall asleep with how much complaining I do. So I'll stop. However, Sledge is just always in the corner. She's never a real forefront after being an antagonist, and I'll never get over this.

I hope the people who interact with my Sledge based works get a sense of what she could've been like in my writing and art, and how she could be so much more likeable and better because holy fucking shit does Sledge get nothing but a spot BY the table.

• The MC themself

MC themself is so fucking annoying and the amount of times I went "My MC Luciano would never fucking say/do that." In game because I had accidentally thought of my MC to be way more smarter and intellectual than canon MC is so sad.

MC is so naive. That's not even a question, it's fact. I understand MC was sheltered for most of their life, but they always have dumbass options that make me pull my scalp off. Like my personal loathed option is when MC is at the carousel with the raiders in chap 11 with Sledge and goes "We didn't do anything wrong!"/"We could join forces!" Like SHUT THE FUCK UP! you're going to get your shit rocked and the raiders at that specific point in time don't give a fuck my guy. STOP IT!

MC can also be so ruthless for no reason at specific points. Like when you can either kill Angie's zombified parents or not. If you pick the option to kill them, MC is so cold. I can't remember specific quotes but it's something along the lines of "well you can stay here with them and be alone or pick up" LIKE BRO DONT DO THAT????? like why do you think Angel is harsh when Cassidy needs to get taken out because she got bit? You were literally so unnecessarily mean. It's just so fucking dumb. I'm sorry.

Throughout the story, MC also is just very oblivious and out the loop. I can't remember exactly when so my argument here is weak as shit, but like I just remember at times in my various playthroughs when I looked at my MC in game and went "Dude, use context clues. For the love of god." And face palmed and cried from second hand embarrassment.

• Storyline

I don't have much to say about the storyline, besides the fact that it feels so... Compact. And as another tumblrina once said, there's no stakes in this game.

Sure MC can get hurt, LI can get hurt, people (side & background characters you don't know) can get hurt or die, and your colony can be shitty. But at the end of the game that doesn't really matter.

In ILITW at least, there was high stakes (in my memory of playing it anyway). Like characters from the book could die which changes storylines completely, options that made certain events differ wildly, and also with the characters being so well made that you genuinely feel for them- I would've loved if we had stakes like that.

Let the audience get severely stressed, let the decisions they make in a DECISION BASED GAME have crucial consequences regardless of how small it was (like butterfly effect stuff. Or even change how certain characters behave towards you. (Like that happens but only for a min and doesn't continue for the rest of the story). I would've loved if I had to do mental calculations on what each choice meant for my MCs & cast's future. That would've made the game more compelling then it is rn.

That's all I have to say.

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PHEW... My finger hurts from typing.

Mind you, this post was in one take. I didn't save it to drafts and work on it in intervals. I was so fucking pissed off I did this in one take which is crazy.

WTD writers, why. PB, fuck you. Everybody else, thank you for bearing with me <3

Style based on this post.