#hssca

SpreadJoy #937 spreading positivity with quotes and @playchoices characters.

Quote by Lori Deschene

SpreadJoy #936 spreading positivity with quotes and @playchoices characters.

Quote by Lori Deschene

SpreadJoy #935 spreading positivity with quotes and @playchoices characters.

Quote by Lori Deschene

This feels guilt trippy AF I'm sorry. This one scene in HSS:CA here makes me feel like I'm batshit crazy for calling the entirety of MTFL emotionally manipulative (I still think HSS:CA is leagues better than MTFL don't get me wrong, but you get my point).

The problem is that I just don't feel like Danielle goes through enough hell for what she did. We're just expected to suddenly feel bad for her because it took Rory's mom's life being on the line to get her to back down?

I guess I don't mind the characters hearing her out, but moreso in the sense of "I'll give her one chance to see if she actually feels bad". Instead, though, the narrative tries so hard to push that Danielle feels actual remorse for what she did, like she didn't intentionally cause legitimate harm to other people.

Like... when we had to hear out Brian and Zoe, the story didn't expect us to be kind to them. We could if we wanted to. But we could be more cold and unforgiving if we wanted to as well. We could call Brian's apology weak if we wanted. We could continue being cold towards Zoe. There wasn't only one "right" way we could respond. (Not to mention, we actually see Zoe put in her own effort to change. She doesn't just list the bad things she did and say that they're bad and then go "We cool?", we see her actually move on from Caleb and Brian and then stand up against Brian for the sake of someone she doesn't even care about.)

But in CA it seems like they really really really want us to feel for her and think being kind to her is "the better option". Sure, we do have an option to be more unsure about being cool with Danielle in the end of the scene, but the option to be more forgiving is emotionally charged enthusiastic ("If it's up to me, yeah we're cool!") while the option to be less forgiving is very softcore and unsure ("I don't know..."). No option to be more pissed at Danielle?

Also the fact that Danielle only changes if we do that premium scene. Otherwise, when she reappears for a Book 2 cameo, she suggests sabotaging Lorenzo's campaign. It's so gross to me that it's entirely on the CA MC to get her to change, and that she otherwise learns nothing. I get human connection is important to personal change/growth but Danielle needs to go through more hell before I can feel sympathetic towards her.

How Cher would respond to this if we were allowed:

NGL I'm starting to feel like this would have been a much better "fighting over a love interest" plot than whatever tf the actual story tried to do with Danielle and Rory in Book 1 lmfao

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO