Upon nearly finishing what was supposed? to be my final read-through, an idea came to mind to fold together two of the plot points in a way that would strengthen the themes, cut down on redundancy, and bring some of the conflict closer to the leads. You know, the kind of thing that you’re supposed to think of before writing 150,000 words.
Better late than never? Hopefully?
It would only take a substantial rewrite of three or four chapters and some smaller edits. I just have to decide when in the story to resolve this new plot point, look it over, and decide whether to do this.
Okay, I gave Villainess a little too much credit: it doesn’t question the dynamics or ethics of dating sims in the slightest. What it ended up being was one of those scenes in an action movie where 7 people all have guns pointed at one another, except in a romantic context. (We’re currently a few episodes into the second season.)
Most of the time it’s charming as hell, and the dynamics between the female characters in particular are refreshingly not toxic. However, there’s a nauseating subplot where the main character’s brother wants to bone her, and he and her “main” love interest have no personality except that they want to date her and are at each other’s throats over it. Which, you know, scans for a dating sim character, but it is not at all interesting to watch. So two out of the eight leads are dead weight at this point, and the story is adding new characters like it’s running out of ideas of what to do with the characters it has.
Sophia’s great, though, and Alan and Mary’s fistbump in the second opening sequence is just the cutest thing. Ditch Geordo and Keith, give the others something to do, and we’re good to go. (This is 100% not what this series is going to do, I know. Just saying. That’s what I’d like to see.)