of topic. but I just had a servie on the app where they asked for opinions on story ideas and it was one clichi after the other. so yeah episode clerly has nothing orginal to come up with .
And you choose the second becuz you don’t have that much gems or don’t want to spend them on this sh*t and everyone is like “Jeez yOu ArEn’T aS fUn As i ExPeCtEd” “boo kick her out”
Don’t worry, I’ll do the rant. (this is gonna be long):
The story praises “being bold” as a way of gaining validation from your dates (this one sentence is so problematic oml). This is annoying for two reasons:
It’s shallow (your value is based on how promiscuous you are) and it promotes the “extrovert ideal” (the only way to gain said validation is to be bold). It’s obvious why the promiscuous part is messy (young users reading it + the lowkey sexism) but I’m more concerned with the praising of being bold.
The only time the MC gets to be quiet and/or more turbulent is when there’s a reason: she’s insecure, she has low self-esteem or confidence, she’s been affected by a traumatic event, she’s gone through or is going through something personal at home (like divorced parents), she can’t socialize (as in she doesn’t know how to be like “normal” girls) or she’s in a “broken phase” in which she will be “fixed” by the LI, the chatty BFF or the MAGIC POWER of being told “Just believe in yourself ” - A prime example is The Next Step (TV Show). Riley was a quiet, introvert-ish character who was “fixed” by her LI James and frenemy Ella. I really liked this show but this one storyline annoyed me because there was nothing wrong with Riley. She was mature and responsible but she “needed to learn how to loosen up and have fun” which resulted in her getting in trouble multiple times but it’s ok because she “learnt to loosen up”.
[This happens to male MCs too but I mentioned “she” because girls are stereotyped to be emotional and boys are stereotyped to keep their emotions locked away]
This contributes the idea that quiet=problem and that the “fix” is being “normal” aka talkative. This is wrong because social anxiety can’t be “cured”, introversion is unchangeable and being shy can be overcome but it takes time and this is done individually not by being shamed by other people.
TL;DR: “Loud=good, quiet=bad” is harmful and overdone, we need more quiet MCs + more quiet MCs represented well and Episode is messy yet again.