it's kuafover

My feelings on this remain the same if not worse given how it was pretty much handled the exact same way with the added bonus of sosotte being characterized as trying to manipulate people and amour getting called dull/stupid and “unkempt” and also both characters being just kind of mean and not in a fun way (having a uncomfortably long bit where they go on about making someone potentially get a allergic reaction on purpose and laughing about it) and Betz is like the only one to be like (guys don’t joke about that that’s mean)

and Betz in general in the game and also marketing is viewed by the player character in either route as charming and handsome and intelligent and proper and kind and “a great sense of style and well taken care of clothes”. And while there are some negative things (sosotte very briefly internally thinks Betz is flat and has zero curves, or that she can use him the same way she can use amour, there was never any point of the game where she calls Betz stupid or views him as lesser in terms of intellect or skill. )

but amour gets like “dumb, loud, vain, a trouble maker” and the “nice” things said about him is like how strong he is and that he’s useful to be used as a tool for sosotte to use. That amour is “abysmal at her job” and Betz mentions how amour left sosotte to be attacked by the monsters in the dwell instead of staying beside her as a guide the way Betz did like he was supposed to. Okay that’s. Alright man.

It just gets to a point where the only nice things you can say about your non pale, non skinny characters is “they’re so hot /buff /strong/ awooga look at their boobs” it’s .. insulting. It borders on fetishizing. I’m not saying you can’t have characters you find attractive but it’s a little disrespectful to only market them solely based on their looks and very little about their actual personality or story, but you have no problem showing that depth with the pale characters.

Yes I’m aware that this is “toxic lesbians visual novel” and I’m not expecting all the characters to be likable or perfect it’s just.. not the greatest first impression. Like at all. Yes it’s more then likely a “ohhh it’s all a facade and the characters are actually more complex and deep” but it’s like there are ways of doing this without falling into pitfalls of racism/ableism/ misogyny in your marketing or games writing.

Like unless your story is specifically going to actually tackle those themes and examine it with care (which given how the world of the game is yet another fantasy France setting where everyone is super accepting about gender and pronouns and sexuality, I sincerely doubt this is the intention) it just comes across as jarring.

Like it’s different if it were one or two silly jokes but when it bleeds into the story of the game and it’s repeatedly happening over and over in the marketing and writing alike it feels like unintentional bias at best and actively mean spirited at worst.

The excuses of “oh but the fandom loves Betz! that’s why it’s focused on him more then the actual protagonist” falls flat when a part of the reason people latched into him is because the marketing gave more effort and care to showing him. It gave more effort in giving information about him in posts, his route was done first and purposefully leaning into that just creates a self fulfilling prophecy.

The creator of the game even acknowledged this and that’s why in more recent posts it focuses to be a bit more kinder when talking about the other characters/ giving more focus on marketing. (Which is appreciated) but it’s like by that point people kind of of zeroed in on who their faves would be and even now fandom wise there’s people assuming either sosotte is “manipulative/ a bitch” according to playtesters/ fans or amour is “suspicious” but betz is “girl failure” and “charming” and “babygirl” because of how the demo is written sooo.. whoops? If it’s intended for all three of them to be flawed / not necessarily be likable it did not land as intended.

In general all three girls weren’t given a lot to work with to get hyped to care about them, but the marketing expects you to care because they’re girls and hot and queer.. which.. again isn’t entirely sustainable as a marketing gimmick on its own.

Instances where the marketing where either sosotte or amour is reduced down to by how hot they are or their boobs or the joke is that they’re dumb or forgetful or that amour isn’t as attractive/cool/smelly in comparison to betz : (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17)

Instances where the marketing compliments/favors betz the most over any other character and uses him to promote the game: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19) (20)

I cant put in all of my photo examples because tumblr mobile hates me but. Some highlights of what I mean:

He asked: "Oh, was she the only son or something before *waves hand*?" and I was like, warily, no she has two brothers. And he responded with a great deal of confusion: "Then what's their problem?!?!"

When he found and married my mom, he was nearly 45 and they had so much trouble conceiving that he went to a Guanyin temple supposedly "magical" for praying for children. When I was born (not a son, also an only child until now), my mom said, "when you prayed at the temple did you ask for a son?" He said, "Aiya, everyone is asking for sons, so I said any gender is okay. If I asked for a son, maybe we wouldn't have gotten a child because Guanyin's son quota is already used up. Do you want that to happen?" My mom laughed for days about "son quota" and continues to tell people about it today, but her honest answer was: "Any child is okay."

Jokes on them. They didn't specify a gender, so Guanyin Ma gave them a non-binary child!

More seriously: my dad doesn't care about sons. When I told my parents that I wouldn't marry or have children, I thought he might be disappointed, but he wasn't. Then again, maybe I should have expected that, given he tried to become a monk at 18 🤪 I think he said the thing about sons to poke fun at people who care too much about sons because he frankly thinks it's all a bit ridiculous. In his eyes, a child is a child, so what's the point in caring about gender? If the child "changes" gender, does it make a difference?

but what 'breaking cycles' looks like is more complicated than just not being your parents/caretakers - it's about recognizing how the things that happened to you changed you and how you can heal so you don't hurt someone else in turn. the survival skills you learned in an unhealthy enviroment often translate to poor if not unhealthy interpersonal skills in an enviroment where things ARE safe.

its a difficult pill to swallow for a lot of survivors of abuse (trust me, i know) because we have a tendency to simply want our pain to be recognized. by painting yourself as "absolutely nothing like my abuser" you can abstain from recognizing your own harmful tendencies and live comfortably in the role of victim hood for the rest of your life. it can be tempting to do this especially when so many people will do their best to deny what you experienced - almost like leaning into a stuck door that just won't budge.

the problem with this is if you never recognize that being mistreated made it so you LACK a lot of what other people learned from a loving enviroment, you can hurt people pretty badly even when doing your best just not to replicate what your parents/caretakers got wrong.

this also hurts for victims because, when it comes down to it - it's not FAIR. you were hurt for no reason, and most of us will never hear an apology or even admittance from the person who did it - so why do YOU have to change? why do YOU, the person hurt unjustly, have to put in the work?

- middle aged man who ordered matcha and then just Stood There and watched me make it. when i handed it to him he said i did a good job whisking it and handed me $1.25. ten minutes later when he and his wife left he shouted across the store that i have "good whisk technique" and "don't lose that!"

- woman who ordered a drink with the word "salty" in the name and then said "but with salted caramel." and when i said yeah that one comes with salted caramel she said "really? not just normal caramel?" and it took every ounce of my self control not to say yeah girl that's why it's called. Salty.