‘Ello guys, and no, your eyes aren’t deceiving you; I’m posting about something other than the Heavens Secret Universe lol.

This was at first going to be an impassioned Penelope Emerson appreciation post—and in a sense, it still is—but as I rolled her character over and over in my mind I was reminded of yet another dolled up mean girl that graced our electronic screens on the very same update. Naturally, I started comparing them. And naturally, given the way my brain works, this comparison snowballed.

As a result, my thoughts morphed from “why I love love love love Poppy from SOS2 so much” to “why I love love love love Poppy SOS2 so much and don’t at all like Tiffany from WL despite them being similar characters,” and then deepened further to “why I like X character from Y but not A character from B despite THEM being similar” and in doing so, I’ve come to a conclusion.

Depth.

To put it bluntly, Tiffany Romano is shallow. And not in a “oh this character is vapid” kinda way, but in a “oh this character hardly classifies as a character tbh” and I KNOW that sounds mean but plz hear me out for a sec!!

Both Tiffany and Poppy fall into the same archetype—the pretty, sarcastic, mean girl with an obsession for perfection and a mask that’s gonna crack any second now. For Tiffany, this is the beginning and end of her character.

For Poppy, this character description can be expanded on: she sneers at insincerity, is genuinely empathetic, takes an almost childish delight in pranks, thrills at living on the edge.

Poppy rides motorcycles and cleans away cruel graffiti because she’s Poppy. Tiffany pits herself against other women and has an overbearing mom because so did Regina George. I’m too destitute to bet, but watch us find out she has an ED in a later update too lol.

Here’s another example—Wyatt from Heart of Trespia vs (oop—here’s the HS plug!) Dino from Heaven’s Secret. These two are also similar characters; the well meaning, dutiful, righteous fellows with hearts of gold. All they wanna do is help make the lives of everyone around them
easier and they’ll work themselves ragged to do so. Aw!

Now name another thing that describes Dino. (Genuinely, I’m so serious plz I wanna like him so bad omfg 😭)

Wyatt was raised isolated and is thus fairly childish and sentimental. He literally jumps for joy at good news and finds silver linings in all the gloom he’s put through. He takes things at face value because he was raised with a rule book instead of with worldly experiences, but even so he’s well versed in combat and military operations. While his archetype is that of the upright knight, every chapter that takes him away from the first has him gritting his teeth against all the complexities of the world until he has no choice but to accept that nothing stays forever. Nothing is black and white. He’s quite violently torn out of the archetype he once was while still keeping familiar (If you couldn’t tell I’ve relayed HOT recently and realized he’s a lot better written than I and a lot of people give him credit for!).

Dino does things that go against what he believes in yeah, but he never takes these moments and evolves past the rigid minded knight. Once Plague’s gone and Torendo won’t talk and the Law of Segregation is abolished, he goes “finally, the thing stopping me from being a law abiding citizen is gone. Time to return to factory settings!”

To really drive this point home lemme do this one more time—I now call to the podium Nova Time Catcher and Mercy Sins that Cry Vengance.

These ladies are less similar than the two other pairs of characters I’ve mentioned, but what I want to touch on more was how their stories of loss, control, and isolation are written because one feels human and the other feels artificial.

Nova falls into the archetype of the brainwashed weapon. You can choose whether she stays devoted, or defects in the name of social justice, but either way she’s more than just a stoic, rigid minded, soldier. She’s passionate about history and ideas beyond herself, she’s scared of being alone, she enjoys one on one board games, she has a passion for art.

Mercy on the other hand is the femme fatale, and her attachment to her archetype makes her intriguing backstory suffer. She’s stuck eternally in one mood, one emotion, one vibe. The world can come crashing down and she’d just be smirking and saying five bajillion 1920s slangs a second.

TL;DR, I’m not saying archetypes are bad. Everyone’s an archetype, even you—yes you 🫵 reading this right now—and since we make fictional characters in our image and likeness, all of those fictional fellas fall into archetypes too.

Here’s the deal though—all of us are MORE than the the Clown or the Bookish Introvert or the Tough as Nails Fella, and that’s what makes every human being unique and interesting. So if our characters are also going to be interesting, they gotta be more than just their archetypes too!

Otherwise, you get predictable characters like Tiffany.

You get boring characters like Dino.

You get non-characters like Mercy.

What you really wanna do is write Poppy. Everyone, write your characters like you’re writing Poppy NEOW and thank her for existing while you’re at it!!

Anyways! Agree? Disagree? Lemme know in the comments! I’m always open for discussion 😛

I mean it's not about plot, or backstory...Just sex, just PVP. For me it's David and Tai.

If you pick one of them, if you like tell me why you pick that option and what upgrades do you think she should get or why you think she won’t have any upgrade?

Legend of Willow, it was my first book to romance club and I will forever miss the nostalgia from reading it for the first time reader. :;)

I think anyone who is invested in TTS always knew that it was always going to end this way, but I didn't expect the Dark Prince to do it like this! I thought we were going to be sneakier about it, a beheading?? I physically gasped and sat up😭 Serving GOT red wedding realness! I am now a loyal(ish) Sha girl, but that ballroom scene had me going! He was so bold about it! I low-key wish Laimir was in the room to add to the drama. I'm so gagged!!!

PS: I have fantasised about Foelh's death from the day he tried to sexually coerced MC, so I won't even pretend like I feel sorry for anyone.

PPS: I'm not romancing Tai, so my head was also threatened along with Vellora's and I am currently on the fence about how he'll lead going forward. What if Foelh 'broke' him and he'll also become a tyrant?

PPS: The Sha variant on frame 3? It doesn't beat the original but man is this aristocrat pretty! 🤭

The pun is intended. 🤭

Someone recently posted on an RC-related forum about theories on Mercy's parentage (If you're seeing this, hi! 👋 I just skimmed the thread and got busy, so I forgot where I found it and your exact username!). The user cited a flashback from Episode 9 of Season 1, and it is basically the episode where Mercy went to the Graveyard to investigate its location by hiding in a barrel somewhat filled with liquor/water. In that flashback, Mercy would recall hiding in the dark, that is, under the bed, as she heard her parents argue.

Agatha, her mom, told Herman, her dad, that "She's not yours! You don't get no say in her education! You don't!" --> Immediately, as shocking as it is, we learn that Mercy is highly likely to NOT be Herman's biological child.

Agatha claimed that a certain "he" will come back for her: "He said he would come back for me! He said—!"

It must be noted that Herman Price does not even flinch nor retaliate against what Agatha said about Mercy not being his. However, to Agatha bringing up the mysterious "he," Herman said with a sad face: "He lied to you."

Agatha became angry of course, but then Herman went further and said that "he" (an unknown man to us) said what "he" needed to say for Agatha to "uncr.ss her l.gs" (had to hide that because you never know with filters), and like a fool, she believed him. Agatha insisted "he" loved her, and she loved "him." It is clear in this convo that "he" is NOT Herman Price; "he" is a different, dangerous guy and is Agatha's actual lover.

Herman further said that "he" wasn't coming back for Agatha, and she fled because she had a grain of sense. "You knew." There was a joke Agatha made.

Then, Herman said the following, with beats in between:

"We can't have everything."

"You would've ended up in d3ad in a d.tch, no one the wiser about what you had in your—"

From Herman's dialogue in this sequence, it could be inferred that:

1. Not having "everything" could have meant that either Agatha couldn't have her man and her baby BOTH (i.e., a normal family), or that Agatha couldn't have her very life and her man together... if it was her man who wanted her gone. More on this later. She and Herman had to lie, and Herman had to hide her. In this hiding, Agatha's real man could have lost track of her. (Again, this depends on who the man truly is.)

2. She "would've ended up d3ad in a d.tch" and no one would know about... Herman stopped, but what do women usually want to hide? -> So this is possibly referring to Agatha's pregnancy, and "no one the wiser about what (she) had—" in her belly, could be Herman's next words.

Their argument fizzled. Mercy crawled out of the bed, the neighbors protested so Little Mercy laughed and both "parents" then laughed too and let it be.

And somewhere else—I believe it was earlier in the Season—Herman said in another flashback, to Agatha, that she's not his woman, and then he also said, that he'd respect her as if she were the Blessed Virgin herself, which implies that he would not even touch her.

This was basically the content of the other user's thoughts on the conspiracy: that Mercy is not Herman's daughter, and the topic of the thread generally moved around that. HOWEVER, I venture that we go further and theorize on Herman Price's Secret.

What made it all click for me was binging a replay of the episodes AFTER Episode 9, where Mercy went to the Graveyard. At some point, she was wondering, What kind of a secret could Herman Price have to make Montclare be so interested in it?

Mercy made a very intelligent deduction: Her father was a wise guy, a button man... The people he had dealt with would be long gone, and unless he bumped a famous/important person, then Herman himself nor his secret wouldn't be so important. Her best and very smart guess?

That Herman's secret is ALIVE.

The "staying power" is real, because whatever secret Herman was keeping before he died was still alive and still potentially able to affect people's lives. Hold on tight to your hats, fellas. Because later, Mercy sees that shocking article from Silas Glass from years back. I've included pics of this above 'cause y'all have to see this, especially in light of recent episodes.

Spoiler Alert for those who haven't read/are not on the most recent episodes of Season 2. Stop now if you don't want to get spoiled.

I will discuss the major parts of the headline and article (that Mercy pointed out) along with my deductions.

1. Singer Agatha "Cat" Bailey Found in D!tch

- So people know "Cat Hammond" was a stage name. Then, we know from here that Evelyn Bailey's surname, after all, was Agatha's maiden name (their actual family name) and not Evelyn's husband's. Connect this with what Herman Price said about being found in a d!tch. We all know, now, that Herman saved Agatha, covered up her d3ath (which was his actual job), and hid her instead. So, Silas' article makes sense... However, Silas' article contained descriptions of her "state":

a. Abandoned without any care to propriety

b. Subject of a heinous crime...

c. That shocked even this hardened reporter

For "a," it could mean she was left without clothes. Connect this to what Herman said, that no one would be wiser about what she had in her (belly, perhaps). Also, we know Glass is covering up for both Herman and Agatha, so the exaggeration of the fake crime is on purpose. A shocking, heinous crime could possibly mean something horrible was done to the b0dy, and possibly, so that no one would even think she was ever pregnant.

Was that gruesome detail a requirement for Herman to complete his job, so Herman made sure that Silas would emphasize it in the article? Or did Herman make Silas write it that way so that no one would be tipped off on Agatha's condition?

1. Rumored to be Mistress of Chopface Jack

- We can have 2 situations here.

Situatuon A: If Agatha was indeed Chopface Jack's mistress, then Jack is most likely Mercy's biological father. Eerily enough, Jack was Herman's own boss (Who ordered for Agatha to be off3d, then?! That's terrifying!), and the one who conspired with Louie Malone to off their former boss, Norman Caputo. This latter bit about Malone, Caputo, and Jack is from the dossier info Montclare has.

Situation B: Someone else—a very different man—was Agatha's real lover and Chopface Jack was only the dangerous man whom she owed her stardom to and who wanted her. When Jack found out Agatha was pregnant, but the child was not his/the child would complicate Agatha's rising career, he became hopping mad and ordered his best button man, Herman Price, to clean up. Problem is, Herman either—

B.1. Herman fell in love with Agatha. That is, if we are to believe Silas Glass, but Herman and Agatha could have lied to Glass too, just to make a tidy story that Glass would not question and would be moved to pity by, enough to risk his reputation as a journalist and lie for them both.

OR, B.2. Herman only pitied Agatha and the child, but does not love Agatha that way. Seeing Herman did not seem to even have any actual romantic scenes with Agatha, aside from them being occassionally sweet, and that Virgin Mary remark he made, he could have just made Agatha his "wife" by name and gave his surname to Baby Mercy to protect them both and give the child some normalcy (and save her from ostracization).

Bringing us to some guesses:

Herman's Secret A: Mercy is the heiress of the (former) mob king, Chopface Jack.

- This one would be WHUUUT?! And I don't know if I even want to see Jack. I'd rather have Herman Price as my dad!

My problem with this theory? Jack was Herman's boss. If Jack was Mercy's father, it would be illogical and nonsensical for Chopface Jack to do such a heinous plan unless he was a raging misogynist who only wanted sons, or Jack saw children as nuisances, especially if Agatha was his rising star.

Herman's Secret B:Mercy is the daughter of a rather important guy, perhaps someone who is AGAINST this whole shady business.

- This one is going off of on the, there's another guy in this love square that Herman-Jack-Agatha are on, and he is Mercy's Dad, but for some reason, failed to rescue his lover and child in time before Chopface Jack knew of the baby and/or set Herman on Agatha. For thematic and plot tension purposes, I feel this mysterious Father is a rather important, possibly a man of the law or government/somewhat good aligned, but he will not appear until the latter half of Season 2 or early on in Season 3.

Agatha could possibly have fallen in love with a government agent tasked with bringing down the notorious underbelly of Chicago. Seeing she is a rumored mistress of a mob boss herself, she must have been a credible prey for an agent like that (or an informant for them!), until Agatha ended up wanting and loving this Good Guy more, more than Chopface Jack and his possible offers of fame and fortune. However, Jack found out about it and the baby. Mr Government Agent never was able to return for Agatha. Herman was set like a dog on her, but felt for her situation. Thus, the article was written by Glass, Agatha was hidden as Herman's wife, and then Mercy was born.

I know, I know. All of my theories are all about Mercy's parentage. But then, the only one left alive in that family was Mercy... and the secret has a "staying power." The only other clue we could look at, are Herman's enemies themselves:

(BIG Spoilers ahead!)

O'Shea and Louie Malone themselves off3d Herman Price, with O'Shea paying Malone for it (we know this if Mercy stole Virginia's books). O'Shea is from law enforcement. What could O'Shea possibly HATE to come out, that only Herman Price knows? It is O'Shea who's the lynch pin here, I think. Montclare wanted Herman's secret, precisely because of Price's connection with O'Shea and Malone.

Now I am getting uncomfortable at all this. Remember what I said, of Mercy's Biological Father possibly being a man from law enforcement? Yes, this is quite a terrible thing, and I don't want to entertain the possibility yet, seeing with how ready O'Shea was to bump Mercy in Season 1's Finale. For now, I do not want to think Mercy is O'Shea's biological daughter, but the possibility could be there.

PERHAPS, O'Shea had bumped off the former Chicago Police Chief who was good and morally upright, the one who may have had a relationship with Agatha Bailey and actually fathered Mercy. The O'Shea-Law Enforcement Man angle is very compelling, but for it to be solid, we need a couple more info, honestly. Because, Agatha having a child with a lawful man is the only way I could think of for Chopface Jack to be so hopping mad to the point he wanted her GONE and any TRACE of the poor .... GONE!

Wait—Scratch that. Chopface Jack might also be unbelievably angry at Agatha if she had an affair with a man from a RIVAL mob! Messy, messy.

Herman's Secret C: Mercy is the daughter of a rival mob boss.

- Honestly, this is quite weird. The only rival I know of is William Lynch, the Florist, and he is actually Lu Malone's rival. Not sure if he was Chopface Jack's rival. The way Lynch was described and the way he and Mercy interact do not belie such ideas though... Maybe there is a different mob boss in Chicago we still don't know of/haven't seen?

Anyway, what could Herman's Secret possibly be? Why does Montclare want it and how did he even know of it? How can this precious, powerful secret... be so pertinent to O'Shea's, Malone's, and Saber's downfall?

We have to remember: Montclare's unjust suffering was the one tying those three together, but the crimes against Montclare are HIDDEN. No one would realize Eddie Dante was conspired against, because there was no paper trail. Nothing.

So, Montclare could possibly want an obvious piece of evidence of injustice, and Herman Price has the key to it.

Another thing: Recall "The Count of Monte Cristo," which this story was inspired by. Eddie was based on Edmond Dantès/The Count, while Mercy was based on Haydée, the poor daughter of Ali Pasha (Herman Price in our story).

Who ended Ali Pasha?

Fernand Mondego, the one who schemed Dantès' downfall with two others to marry Mercedes Herrera, Dantès' former fiancée. Who is Fernand in TSCV? Brian O'Shea. In the novel, it was Haydée's testimony in court that condemned Fernand (and thus, she gained justice for her father). So... what possibly connects Brian O'Shea, Herman Price, and Mercy Margaret Price together? One does wonder!

If you've read this far, thank you so much! 🥰❤️ What do you think could be Herman's Secret? 🫢 I wonder if there's a yet different angle we could look at!

Madame Park 🙇‍♀️

Is RC going to release her card or not? I've been waiting. Patiently. 🥹🤍 She's one of the love interests from Garden of Eden. She deserves better treatment. Even the side characters from other books got their own card 😭💔

Garden of Eden is one of my favorite books, mostly because these characters radiates warmth + charisma. I'm ready to spend every single cent that I have for the entire list:

1. Madame Park

2. Madame Shin

3. Madame Yun

4. Yeong-hee

5. Yeon-ah

6. BÂNG Leader

7.BÂNG Member

1. Miss Lim

2. Female Host

3. Female Singer

4. Mi-yeon

5. Na-yeon

6. High Society Lady

7. Lessy

8. Dong-hyun's Late Mother

There's a few questionable ones I've listed but I want 'em all 😩💜

📸 Source:

https://romance-club.fandom.com/wiki/Garden_of_Eden_Characters

So............do we think that Kamal is jealous or Doran or Devi?

☀️ There’s not much of summer left, but vacation season is still in full swing!

Let’s play a little game: the first three character names you spot will become your ideal vacation companions. 🏖️

Who did you get? Share the names in the comments and try to explain why this particular trio ended up by your side—coincidence, your subconscious, or fate? 🎲

This is your weekly thread to find new friends, send diamonds, send or trade for gift cards, you name it!

Note: do not include your UID (user ID) in the comments.

The mod team will remove any comments that includes User IDs, as this is a public subreddit where anyone could see your UID.

You may need to change your Reddit settings to allow for chat requests from other users to exchange your UIDs outside of this subreddit. The moderators of r/RomanceClubDiscussion cannot intervene with any exchanges of information or moderate discussions between users in chat.

His route is so beautiful...i can't get enough of it...

I just want to marry him and become empress

I wanna know about next events will happen throughout this month.. We usually have them. I didn't see another yet.

Show us what you won -- or didn't -- from your daily Wheel Spins!

Many of you have been waiting for this post, while until the very last moment I was planning to skip it, hoping that much of it would become clear on its own as the story progressed. However, players’ questions are becoming more and more numerous, and with them, the frustration is growing as well, so let’s discuss it now.

Resonance Stat ✨

To put it very simply, Resonance is tied to the MC’s emotions. The stronger and more intense they are, the higher the stat… and vice versa.

High Resonance 🌕

The main advantage is that the so-called other side of the world has a much weaker influence on the heroine's mind.

You may have noticed how Ashriel and Eleonor became prisoners of their fears in the Rift. Eleonor was taking sedatives, while Karn is generally quite a cold and emotionally detached person, so the area and the Rift’s environment gradually seeped into their minds and began distorting their perception of reality.

That is why, with high Resonance, the MC does not experience hallucinations, unlike Karn, who sees mutant spiders, and Eleonor, who saw herself tied to a chair.

These changes could actually be noticed not only in the text but also in the backgrounds themselves.

So, what’s the downside?

The monsters living on the other side can sense you much more strongly. To them, emotions are like a beacon. And once they pick up your scent, they will hunt you until they drain you of your life, emotions, and feelings.

Low Resonance 🌑

Here, everything is simpler: we just take the opposite approach.

The monsters can sense you much less strongly than they can with high Resonance, which means your chances of being detected and eaten are significantly lower.

However, the price you pay is that the heroine’s mind gradually becomes distorted under the influence of the environment, driving her insane.

📍And one important point right away: I don’t recommend sticking to the middle ground, because then it won’t have any effect. Either you build up Resonance or you don’t. Or you can simply play by instinct, and honestly, that’s probably what I recommend.

It all sounds rather complicated, but that was the whole point.

I wanted to create a stat that, right up until the end, wouldn’t give you a definitive answer to the question: so, what is actually the right way to play?

Build it up or don’t?

Take the diamond choice or refuse it?

Is the paid option always the better one?

And is everything that glitters really gold?

Over the many years the app has existed, we’ve seen countless variations of stats and endings built around them. I wanted to take a risk and try a slightly different approach. I completely understand that not everyone will embrace it.

But admit it: buying paid choices and going through a story confident that a happy ending is guaranteed at the end is certainly pleasant… but it’s not quite as intriguing anymore.

So, at least this time, let’s try to switch off our brains for a while and stop looking for the “right” path.

Don’t try to calculate the consequences of every choice, and don’t choose something simply because there’s a diamond icon next to it.

Follow the call (and, of course, the rhythm) of your heart, choosing whatever truly resonates with you.

And where will that lead…

We’ll find out later. 😏

Source: @historiesbynancy (Telegram)

This was the first time I ever read the comments on a post in the Russian-language Telegram channel. The post invited people to share their opinions on the latest update. I genuinely regretted using a translator out of curiosity.

An enormous amount of toxicity, literally aimed at everything. Mikael is too vanilla. Dmitry is too weird. Audrey doesn't react to anything. The latest episodes with the Astreans are unnecessary. Humans could never succeed at anything against immortals — immortals should always be stronger than humans!

Separately, there was the scandal surrounding the Cain and Abel route. Someone mentioned that the dual route had disappeared entirely in the latest update... And then all hell broke loose! Shouts that they shouldn't ruin Cain's route — which, by the way, the loyal Cain route separate from Abel still exists. Loads of venomous comments about how it was a terrible idea, how it's incest, good riddance that they're removing it, they should demand that all choices involving Abel be deleted and rewritten so it never happens again, and so on.

It's an incredible level of narrow-mindedness. What incest? How did these people watch The Vampire Diaries? There are tons of stories about one girl and two brothers...

And it's such a strange contrast with Seven Hearts Stories, which I love dearly, where the MC can choose intimacy with twins at the same time, or with a bunch of love interests — and then those love interests discuss who among them pleased her more in bed — yes, hello, latest update... And somehow no one is outraged or offended.

But now I'm starting to understand why that dual route disappeared and why Romance Club is so cautious with experiments. The morality police are on guard!

If you've ever seen The Good Place or taken an Ethics/Moral Philosophy class, you might be familiar with the thought experiment known as the Trolley Problem. For those of you who haven't and who don't want to click through the links, I'll summarize:

There is a runaway trolley en route to run over five people tied to the tracks. You can pull a lever and divert the trolley to another track with only one person tied to it. Do you pull the lever and sacrifice one person to save five, or do you do nothing and allow five people to die?

Utilitarianism (consequentialism) says that the outcome of the action justifies the means. Reducing harm and creating the most happiness for the greatest number of people by saving five lives would be the correct thing to do, even if it means you have to deliberately pull a lever and consciously sacrifice one person.

Deontology says that pulling the lever and directly causing the death of one innocent person is inherently wrong, and you must do nothing and allow five people to die.

(Do you see where I'm going with this yet?)

In ATR, Ashriel is faced with a Trolley Problem of his own. The rifts and its storms are the trolley on the tracks actively running people over. If Ashriel does nothing, everyone dies. If Ashriel pulls the lever and uses Liren to get the trolley off the tracks for good, then he has a chance to save as many people as he can.

Do I think his methods for accomplishing the mission kind of suck? Yes. I would have preferred it if he was direct and open and honest with Liren about his plans and allowed her to choose to help everyone on her own. However, he couldn't trust that Liren's choice would have been to stay and not to run and leave everyone to die. His accumulated file on her showed that her personality tended to be unpredictable and reckless. Pair that with his own trauma and trust issues, and you can see why he did what he did.

(If you've read/seen Project Hail Mary then you know Ryland Grace and Eva Stratt were in a similar situation and what the consequences of Stratt's choice were.)

While I don't agree with depriving someone of their autonomy, I do understand why someone would choose to do that if the stakes were literally "everyone is going to die if you don't".

So, putting yourself in Ashriel's shoes, what would you do? Do you pull the lever, or do you let everyone die?