#the elementalist

-The Elementalist in Stained Glass-

I really can't believe this is real life. I don't think there's enough words in this world to explain hoe much this story means to me.

I remember how empty and heartbroken I felt when they announced it wouldn't comeback, and now, I can feel it with the tip of my fingers.

The elementalist 3

About poopy as li

And The Getaway Girls gang

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Title: Hallway Argument Book: The Elementalist MC: Rams O. Erndheart Rating: General Audience Words: 585 Summary: This would be the first time Rams had ever gotten in trouble. And it was all thanks to Beckett.

beckett: metal

shreya: fire

zeph: water

griffin: earth

aster: wood

atlas: moon

mc/eli: sun and [blank]

all of the characters have different attunements that they prefer, right? so based on the patterns here, mc should technically be sun and air attuned, since that's the only element missing from the other main characters. unless you count kane, I guess? but for obvious reasons that I won't name, you can't really count him.

- Abbie and Tyler were bad friends and a bad couple. They get progressively worse after TFM.

 - Professor Vasquez is what Professor Hunt could have been before they realized how many people were attracted to the rude professor/mentor figure types. It’s been down hill from there.

- Kaitlyn, although not perfect, has the better storyline across all the TFM books that is consistent with her character. Everyone else either gets sabotaged or they’re Abbie+Tyler.

 - The writers of TFM started to lose what the series was about with The Sophomore aka the book immediately after Vasquez dies and FULLY lost it with The Junior. TFM should’ve ended with book 4 aka the summer road trip. 

- The Junior is fucking awful. It proves the writers did not know what to do with the series once Vasquez died. 

 - Sebastian did not need to be redeemed and they certainly did not need to retcon B2 to make him sympathetic. The fact that they make him more likable than Abbie and Tyler was a terrible sign. There were plenty of other side characters they should’ve expanded upon instead. *cough* Madison Eckhart *cough*

 - A Most Wanted sequel would have not only completely gutted the point system, but implemented a forced and cliche romance between Sam and Dave that didn’t need to be there.

- Dom x Kenna is bad. And the insistence the writers had on their relationship sabotages Dom’s character and the multiple LI mechanic Choices has going on. 

- Speaking of which. It’s hypocritical for a game called Choices, which promotes player choice on how they want to play to, insists that one love interest/romance route is superior/canon and focus most of the attention on that. Dom x Kenna, Chris Powell, Mark Collins, handsome strange (ame), the list goes on.

- Having said that... Val x Kenna is canon.

 - Diavolos isn’t a bad character. In fact, including a Nevrakos ally was a good addition. The concept is very interesting. But the last book of the series was not the right place to introduce and develop a new LI. 

 - RoE isn’t that bad. I spent a lot of time making fun of this book and criticizing it. In truth, there have been worse books in the Choices library. The problem isn’t even so much that the writing was terrible, there’s just a frustrating amount of laziness. I don’t care if it was supposed to be like a soap opera, intentionally awful and over the top or whatever. That doesn’t mean they can’t give the writing more thought.

 - Party!twin is the best playable character of the bunch.

 - The grandmother is the true villain of RoE. Sure, she had her reasons and everything worked out in the end, but honestly... wtf.

 - I don’t give a shit about The Royal Heir, TRR should’ve let us customize our MC and romance the prince as a guy. Honestly, if they’re really trying to rewrite the series or make a retelling using the PoV of the prince then I think they should ALSO write a new TRR with a fully customizable MC. If they did this, I might actually come back. 

 - Hana Lee is super pretty. 

- The prince storyline is the only time the whole forced LI thing that PB is obsessed with has ever really work. And i know... duh, right? That’s the whole premise of the book: compete for the prince’s heart, maybe fall in love with someone else along the way. BUT LISTEN... the prince is so patient and kind towards you. He’s interested, but never forcefully. You look at other LIs in the early books and it’s by no means like that. Chris, Mark, even Drake in this book. There is an insistence, either from the character themselves or the writers, that you/your character is in love with them.

 - Olivia should’ve been added as a LI. If Maxwell was added, she could’ve been added too. Especially if they were gonna add a whole sequel series. 

 - The Savannah plot line is bad, but more than anything I dislike how it casts Bertrand entirely as the bad guy. The guy made mistakes and definately not blameless, but the book treats it as if Savannah did nothing wrong and... oh boy... running away and living off the Beauomont’s money for years (?) in the city of paris with no job. That’s incredible. 

 - The LIs for Lovehacks should have been the friends group. Leah and Ben should’ve been recycled for a different series while Mark gets cut entirely and thrown in the trash. There were way too many characters in that book. 

 - I think more people need to accept that Mark and Chris were creeps in their first books. Chris gets a slight pass since he was a product of early choices focusing on one LI (that they never learned from), but Mark is a fucking creep. He first meets the MC while he was streaking in her lecture hall. Then he spots her and decides to chat up this hot college girl. Red flag. But somehow they’ve become close friends.

- The cast of HSS is great, I wouldn’t change it for anything, but I cannot explain how much it pained me, as someone who played the original HSS game, to see that original friend group walk away and leave me behind. 

- Also I don’t like that they started pairing the original characters off with no context beyond existing in previous media. Sakura x Nishan or the Wes/Autumn/Julian love triangle, regardless of how good or bad they are, is kinda hollow if it’s just... there in the background.  

- I dislike what they did with Mia/Katherine. Bad call to not only have them get together and break up off screen, but also make it a rough break up and have Katherine... idk, graduate or move schools so you default take Mia’s side. Not a fan.

- HSS b1 is one of the few books in the choices library to actually implement choice in a creative way through the three different school activities. It’s not perfect, but it was fun. Not only does it change the type of activities your character participates in, but also some of the characters you’ll interact. For example.. sure, Aiden is still a main character, but he’s much more prominent if you choose band while you get to interact with Mia and Sydney more in cheerleading. So even though Aiden feels less important than, say, Maria who is more involved in the main plot, it feels like you have a slightly different social group depending on what route to take. Again, not perfect, but I think that was neat.

- Then b2 went and ruined it by giving you a primary friend group. Can you imagine the power book 2 would’ve had if they gave the MC a different friend group based on what activity you were involved with in 1? And that affects who is involved in the main plot of 2? PB would never, but it would’ve been so cool. Imagine one play-through Ezra and Myra are apart of the your group to take down Isa, but in another it’s Payton, Sydney, and Mia.

- Talia and Tariq al-Assam were the student body president (either or both, doesn’t matter) before Maria Flores. It’s canon. 

 - Having Isa revealed to be a con-artist who is only mean and doing bad things because she is a criminal was a VERY LAZY way to take the story in B2. It would’ve been a lot more interesting to have her be mean. Just make her a regular principal who’s not good at her job aka doesn’t care for the students. Then you have MC speak up for the rights of the students. But instead MC finds out she’s a criminal, exposes her crimes, and everything goes back to normal. 

 - Adding Hunt (and dropping Addison) as an additional LI for RCD was a BAD move. Not only was it unfair (I’ll get to that), but RCD was already having trouble balancing four LIs. The last thing it needed was to add a fifth.

 - Also, his romance ruins the story B2 was trying to tell. You can’t have a story about how an older producer assaults the main character then have a different producer meet the main character alone (at night) under a bridge so soon after the assault happens and incorporate a new romance route with said producer. 

- And not only should they have NOT included him in B2, Hunt shouldn’t have been in the book AT ALL. His storyline should’ve went to Teja and Seth who were already making their own movie. MC could’ve joined them instead. Then the story remains unchanged, same plot just different movie, BUT you get to include Seth and Teja more who were SORELY in need of more screentime and proper development. 

- AND NOW the reason why it’s unfair for Hunt to have been added as a new LI. This motherfucker was already a date option back in Hollywood U. He had TEN dates. Other characters were lucky to get 2 or 3. And there was an entire personal storyline involved too while everyone else (for the most part) got standalone stories with minor conflict. Only one character (Chris Winters) got the same treatment. The fucking disrespect of bringing Hunt back like this. 

- Addison feels OOC to me. She was never, you know, passive or timid, but her personality in RCD feels closer to Lisa or Aria. Also, her design is worse. Downgrade. 

 - BSC is good, but I think it would’ve been better if one of the LIs was from the city like MC. Have them relate to MC more personally. Common ground, you know. 

- Though I wouldn’t change the LIs for Class Act for anything, I think it would’ve been really clever had they pulled a Tom from ILB and incorporated Brooklynne as a character and/or LI for Class Act. Expand upon her in a school setting with her peers, incorporating her growth from BSC and develop her further. And I don’t think that JUST Brooklynne should benefit from this, but ANY side character that was fairly popular with fans or have the potential to be explored more in a different setting. For example, Fatima from AME in something fashion related. 

- Speaking of Fatima. Fucking... they had her cameo in Queen B only for it to come after them copy&pasting her model as a student they called her ‘Begonia Thotte’. Clown behavior.

- Also, Fatima is descended from Kenna Rys. IDK how, but I stand by this headcanon.

- Skye is the best character in Class Act. I’m sorry. I don’t make the rules. Her conflict with her parents is so emotional and engaging. And it’s consistent throughout the trilogy. Including Brian as her brother was also brilliant. Her brother could’ve easily been a random nobody. A copy&paste minor character. But making him somebody we knew from the previous trilogy not only connects us to that series, but it adds a new dimension to the whole Crandall situation and helps us understand her little bit where she’s coming from early.

- Rory is nonbinary. 

- Not a single character who accuses MC of sabotage in order to get the starring role apologized. I’m specifically looking at Ajay. They’re all bad friends except Rory, Skye, and Erin. 

- Natalie and Clint’s crush on Rory gets REALLY creepy really fast. It starts off as bad comic relief, but then it quickly becomes obvious that their purpose is to help push the MCxRory plotline. But it’s weird, you know? Because there’s a turning point in how creepy they are where you have to wonder WHY Rory wants to be anywhere near them let alone consider them friends. In B2-3 they cool down, but... wow.

- Katherine should’ve been apart of Class Act somehow. There should’ve been a place for her. Plus, Class Act needed that connection to HSS. Most of the original characters are gone, graduated, so the only one left is Mia. And she’s graduating in this trilogy. Having Katherine return not only would’ve helped connect to HSS more, but also give a bit of closure to Mia/Katherine. 

- No shut up. Stop right there. I don’t want to hear “we don’t talk about Mia/Katherine” drama. I’m right. 

- It’s hilarious that in b2 they give Clint a love interest thinking players will be invested and pay money for someone who was BARELY a character. It’s even funnier because Graham, despite being introduced as a LI for a side character, becomes even MORE of a real character than Clint, Natalie, and Trevor. I mean, Natalie almost gets there. But definitely not Trevor. 

- It’s amazing how the plot of Class Act b2 is based on Rory and twin getting into a fight and becoming enemies during the presidential elections and despite this being the major conflict of the book, they don’t show the turning point where they start becoming enemies. The scene is reduced to a montage where one second, it’s a friendly competition and the next they’re practically at each other’s throats. The book would be SO much better if they wrote the scene in full.

 - AME b1 had it’s flaws, but it was a good book. It adapted ES’s friendship system well enough. The other contestants were interesting. This series had a lot of potential to be a great, continuous series, but instead, B2 sabotaged any chance of that and B3 killed it.

 - Ivy could’ve been A LOT more interesting, but PB reduced her to a one-dimensional rival character for players to hate. And then for the next two books they flop between being a complex character to being a generic rival character. 

 - Bianca is underused in the series. IDK why they even bothered giving her a RP twitter account tbh. They passed up on SO MANY moments that could’ve easily been tweaked to be romantic. 

 - Even though she isn’t a LI, the sheer POWER of a romance involving Aurora could easily beat any of the official LIs. And before you ask, yes, she’s better than Ethan. By a lot.

 - The fact that Ethan calls us (the MC) stupid for not buying a diamond scene should be a red flag. Both for Ethan as a character and Pixelberry. Like... please take that in... Ethan, upon facing rejection, immediately lashes out, insults and degrades a possible romantic partner. That reveals severe emotional immaturity. Just for starters. Then there’s Pixelberry using a LI to call their players stupid for not giving up a few bucks to read a romantic scene with a fictional character that’ll last maybe less than ten minutes. Big yikes whichever way you look at it whether it was accidental or not. 

 - Ethan Ramsey is not a good character, but he’s popular. And that’s why Open Heart fell apart. Because PB was too concerned with making money than telling a coherent story. Everything goes back to Ethan. The other LIs cycle appearances while Ethan is in almost every chapter. They just couldn’t stop themselves from putting as much Ethan content into each book as they could. And it’s not even like they cared about his character. Apparently, they resorted to copy&pasting scenes from previous chapters/books just to put more content for him which is kinda funny if you think about it. 

 - Bryce and Jackie are meh. Still deserved better though.

 - P2R is a cute book, but the writers did not know what they wanted to do with the plot or various conflicts. The dialogue is really bad too.

 - Having said that, Marisa and Ahmed stand out. Marisa especially. They both could’ve been really good LIs, but I feel like they got left behind because of P2R’s bad writing. 

 - Ending the It Lives series at book 2 was disappointing, but I guess you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a shitty romance dominant book.

 - Having said that.... Perfect Match deserved a book 3. They set up several different interesting storyline ideas. Easily enough content for a third book. But again who knows how they would’ve handled that. Maybe best it ended on a relatively high note. 

 - Alana’s romance route is one of the best in the entirety of choices. MC’s cringe-y and horny dialogue aside, the fact that you can chose to be emotional or casual when pursuing her which leads to different outcomes really embodies what Choices should be about.

 - I know PB would never make it and MotY wouldn’t work with gender customization, but I think a single father MC storyline would’ve been cool.

 - Bucket Harringtoad isn’t interesting enough on his own for the writers to focus so much of their time on him. 

 - TE would’ve been so much better if the MC was blood magic attuned. The magic quiz that determines your attunement is a gimmick that doesn’t really mean anything to the story. And the story kinda ignores it to take a Twitches angle anyway. They should’ve gone with blood magic instead. 

- The whole friendship bracelet thing still doesn’t make sense. IDK if they fixed it, but like... the only thing Atlas, your twin, sees is that bracelet. Meaning one of your friends has betrayed you. But to see that bracelet, they also must have seen their wrist. All of MC’s friends have different skin tones. Atlas would have seen that bracelet attached to Beckett’s white wrist. And this could’ve easily been fixed! Just have Beckett drop his bracelet, but replace it with MAGIC!!! And don’t tell me that’s not how magic in The Elementalist works because this book is fucking fictional, they can make it so it works like that. 

 - AtV is the only book I can remember off the top of my head that was so badly written and boring that it made me put it down.

 - Pax and Eos are bad characters and bad siblings. You can’t even claim their bad relationship is part of the story. It’s just awful, they’re truly terrible people, but ATV passes it off as if there’s some sort of disagreement between the three or something. Pax is a brat and Eos is an arrogant shit. Neither grow as people, we’re just forced to deal with them and we’re made to feel bad when they annoy us. 

- The alien designs for AtV were terrible. If they were just gonna make them all look human and not develop any of the alien races, they should’ve just made most of the cast human. Who cares at that point! They even reuse one of the aliens and pass her off as a ‘bejeweled pop star’ in Platinum. 

-  If PB were so worried their paying players wouldn’t want to romance aliens then, again, they should’ve just made the main cast all humans with maybe one actual alien-looking LI. As such, PB and those players are cowards and have no taste. You know who you are. 

- And no, don’t tell me they’re pulling a Star Trek. This wasn’t live action, this wasn’t the 1960s, and AtV does NOT say or do anything meaningful about.... anything, really, but certainly not their alien species. 

 - An ES spin-off based on the bad Rourke ending would be amazing, but in the current day... the writers would fuck it up and make Rourke a LI.

- They should totally make a what-if, low stakes college drama featuring the Endless Summer characters. 

- It’s actually kinda amazing how large the cast was in ES and how every character, even the non-LIs, get their own story and decent development. Now compare that to some other Choices books with less main characters. 

- The whole good girl/bad girl thing in Queen B is bullshit. It doesn’t really change much beyond dialogue, but mostly the story acts as if you’re following the bad girl route regardless. Zoey gets mad at you even if you prioritize her, people still think you’re the new Poppy. If they weren’t gonna commit then why bother. 

 - Veronica, Chloe, and Carter should’ve had bigger roles in Queen B as free posse members (requiring skills instead of money/diamonds to recruit). All three, but especially Chloe, are really interesting and could offer more to the story than Kinglsey ever could. 

 - Oh and poor Chloe. They demote her to dumb blonde sidekick after b1. It’s like they saw players found her stupidity charming and decided that was THE ONLY THING people liked about her, so they made that her one defining character trait in b2 instead of expanding upon her complicated relationship with Poppy. 

 - Veronica looks better on the cover art than her character model. Honest downgrade, she deserved better which brings me to my next point. 

- Choices needs to update their art style... at least fix up their anatomy/posses and body types. There are too many characters that look stiff and a little uncanny. I know they can do it. They’ve released some very nice cutscene art. At the very least, they should put as much effort into the character models as they do the art for the same characters that appear on the cover. 

- While i’m at it, they HAVE to stop reusing character assets like they do in books like Queen B. Just pull an early RWBY and make generic faceless background characters. If they really can’t spare the resources/time to make individual background characters then they should just sit down, make a batch of basic, faceless stock characters and they’ll be good for however many years choices has left. Introducing new characters and have them be the secret villian or something, like X/Selene, is ruined when ALL of the characters are copy&paste.

 - Professor Kingsley being a LI with most of the focus on them actively conflicts with the story Queen B is trying to tell. It’s like they’re telling two different stories, honestly. Queen B would’ve been so much better if Professor Kingsley’s role was similar to Professor Vasquez, but younger. Sure, sprinkle in some romantic diamond scenes maybe. But it should be extra. That or save them for a one-LI only book.