u/02alloysius

He's an exhibitionist, i know it

This is something i have noticed to be quite common among strictly eng. localisation players, the so called "Caleb mains".

I even shared some examples here once before in my previous posts. Basically, i feel like Caleb is liked on a surface level, where he's perceived as this cool, hot looking guy next door, as is typical in western romance dramas and whatnot and is basically molded into that lens of a character because the original intended version is uncomfortable for alot of western players.

And that's fine, really, you don't have to like his actual trope, you're allowed to feel uncomfortable. However, i don't think it's very fair to bend over backwards and perform mental gymnastics trying to get across and "explain'' how english version is an alternative take on his character: It's not, it's literally not, it's just there to serve as a more sanitised version and that's it - the fact remains that alot of nuance, actual intention and context gets stripped away and i can't stress enough about this. Much less how you don't personally feel comfortable with the level of possessiveness and obsession he exhibits so much so that you'll resort to inventing baseless scenarios to get your point across and further sanitise the character. (Generally speaking here.) At that point, it's not Caleb, it's an OC and for some reason, he's the one that suffers the most from this phenomena among the eng. fans.

And even in the eng. version, his obsession is still point blank clear and very much on the nose so i will never understand people that insist he's not all about his sister. Time and time again, we see Caleb being indifferent towards others, disregarding of the actual civilisation if it means MC is gonna be safe. His ambitions, his life, everything, it's all about us(MC). In a world without meimei, he's distant, cold, dismissive and i don't think that's a writing flaw, that's very much intentional because we ARE his everything, one and the same. Everything falls back onto us at the end of the day.

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One other thing, Caleb strikes me very much as a social chameleon, he's good at putting on a face, he's good at lying, he'll lie even to MC just to protect her, keep her safe and you know what? He feels awful about it but he'll do it anyway! At times, he'll even disregard our own feelings, all for the sake of protection. That's how obsessed and possessive he is. I mean, c'mon really, you don't just say to someone "I want to build a maze/house just for the two of us" - you don't repeat over and over, reference, reinforce how you want a world where it's just the two of you, away from everything and everyone if you're not a pathologically obsessed maniac who doesn't really care about anything or anyone outside of your only destination and reason.

That's why it's always funny to me when people try to force this hyper independence onto him just for the sake of preserving their own bias and justifying their discomfort over what and who he actually is. Yes, Caleb IS independent as an individual, he doesn't need to rely on others to get what he wants, to accomplish his goals, to protect MC but he very much IS codependent on her just as much as she is on him, they simply can't be without the other even when they're separated, they will inevitably reunite. He even keeps reiterating himself: we should be like the sun and the sky, always dependent on each other no matter what.

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It's not that Caleb doesn't have a life of his own, it's that his life doesn't have a meaning without his meimei and if that bothers you to no end, so much so that you have to, again, bend over backwards just to preserve your "attraction" to his character, then perhaps he's just not the love interest/main for you. (generally speaking, again.)

But of course, i think that people need to remember that this is a pure fantasy game at the end of the day and just because alot of us enjoy something in fiction, that doesn't mean we endorse it in real life.

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I also just got tired of the censorship present in the eng. ver so much that i raised my hands in defeat and switched to JP, at least i can understand some context there, if anything.

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Basically Caleb is essentially yandere done right.

With all that said and done, his dick doesn't stand up for anything or anyone that's not MC - so hey, it's not by his choice, it's by MCs.

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Thank you for coming to yet another one of my "In defense of Caleb's original trope" ted yaps.

Exactly as the title says

I was out in the evening, taking a walk when i was passing by a small kids playground, i had ear buds and was listening to music but obviously not loudly enough to not overhear a little 5 year old kid make a commentary about my appearance to his mother who of course didn't even react nor say anything and just let her toddler go on a potty mouth spree regarding one stranger

It was basically "mom! mom! look at this girl, she looks like a pig!" - "look mom, she's fat as a pig"

And boy oh boy just when i thought i couldn't farm any more reasons for being childfree, life graces me with another freebie

I of course couldn't even bear to stop nor look at them because i literally just overheard him as i was walking by and basically just picked up the pace after that but i would be lying if it didn't sting, for a person that's already self conscious about my own appearance, hearing that said about me out of the blue, by a 5 yr old something is still wrecking - do parents even parent or are they literally allowing their children to get away with anything nowadays? it actually wouldn't shock me if this kid had picked that up from them, maybe that's why she didn't even react nor say anything but honestly, if this is how it started, I don't even wanna imagine how much worse it's gonna get later in life with parents enabling this

Now for the record, i am not even fat, i am just curvy and i feel silly for having to even address this but, well, idk

I just needed to get this off my chest, idk what else to say aside from thanks for reading if you reached this far.

So lately i noticed this divide and debate about whether or not LADs is designed as a self inserting game or a 3D romance novel through which you as a player, engage with the MCs storyline and her perspective

More than that, i have seen alot of shade being thrown at self inserters that are deeply invested into their main/s - claims such as the game actually not being self insert friendly despite being advertised as one where you're literally referred to as the "Player" and Miss Hunter instead of MC (which is how we refer to ourselves in the Global or wanna discuss the game from the 3rd person)

Now i know that this fandom has a good track record of whether it's policing everything and everyone ranging from headcanons to interpretations all the way to how you personally connect with your main/s to inventing headcanons and presenting them as facts, confidently at that- but i never thought I'd actually see there being so much condescending behaviour thrown around at people who choose to put themselves in the game, the game they're spending money on by the way, the game that's meant to relieve you of your real life problems for a moment and help you escape reality

So why? I get that the MC regardless of which LI she's written to have a corresponding personality traits with, isn't going to resonate with everyone but i think it's important to remember that this game is being made in China, for Chinese girls and women who LOVE self inserting and that it is localized for us global players - and one that is notorious for stripping alot of context and nuance from the original text just so it doesn't come as "off-putting" for certain audiences (see Caleb) - that being said, if you find yourself personally not being able to relate to MCs personality, regardless of the type she has had written for every specific LI, I don't think it's fair and rather i find it quite uncharitable to strip away the relevance and resonance from others that do see themselves as MC

I don't know but i feel like this bitterness and anger over one deleted character has spilled over in every other category so much so that self inserting is now wrong or "not intended and here's why you're wrong for doing that" and quite frankly it's sad

Anyways, i wrote this at the crack of dawn so if i made any errors in my statements or got something wrong, feel free to correct me 🫩😮‍💨

I keep bringing up how Caleb and MC are symbolically twins and i can't get it out of my head given how much the game doesn't hold back on feeding into my thoughts so i figured i'd go more in depth with this or well, try to

I will be referring to their bond as i go because the concept of twin flames is strong with them given that they're both literally born from the same source, they share the essence. Now granted, while not biological twins, they are metaphysical if that makes sense

Their core tenet is catastrophic, from the conception and their childhood, with both of them being experimented on, separated again and again which left Caleb with CPTSD to being separated once again after the explosion and this time, his disappearance to which MC legitimately thought was death - though their separation IS necessary so both halves can go through an intense and painful growth, it's the catalyst for the change and a path towards healing together as we later experience through his memories

Now there's also a magnetic inevitability that i keep getting from them both when it comes to their bond. To me, it's mirroring and messy- they can literally trigger each others fears, deepest traumas and their darkest desires which again, just further justifies to me their chaotic and obsessive emotional energy they share

All in all, they are very much one, one soul in two halves, yin and yang, destruction and creation. They're both stubborn as hell, obsessively devoted and ARE very much so willing to cross "moral lines" for one another because they literally CAN'T be kept from each other, one cannot be without the other, it's fundamentally impossible - They are each others perfect and slightly twisted mirrored reflection - freak4freak

The taboo stops being relevant because their connection is literally transcending normal human mortality so the progress we saw throughout all these memories is something I'd describe as... universe forcefully pulling two halves of the soul back together, where it was always meant to be.

Aaaand that's to say, please don't separate the twins, they can't live without one another, they must stay together always at all costs 🥹 (i also think that Caleb being a Gemini is chef's kiss, narratively flawless 👌✨) Honestly though, all of this is just another reason why i think they're only fixated on each other and no one else catches their attention, Caleb's especially, that's my theory at least as to why, well one of the reasons like i said - which makes it extra adorable when both of them kept on checking if the other is dating someone else 🤭

Anyways, i hope all of this made sense and if i made any errors, feel free to correct me 🫣

I can't help but wonder how hard it must have been for him throughout all those years, holding and harbouring feelings for his mei mei, not being sure what to make of them and at some point even being certain that she doesn't feel the same way (he's wrong ofc)

Going as far as to promise that he'll let her go and yet, he couldn't let go of his feelings. The pain and suffucating per his own words until he couldn't keep pretending anymore. It's just ughh, chefs kiss, everything-- to love someone this much not knowing whether they feel the same way even when it's painfully clear they do but just don't know how to properly communicate at that point is, everything to me, truly

I genuinely think that his love for her is a huge part of what kept him going, even if he didn't count on them reuiniting, he still held onto his love. The fact that it's also reinforced multiple times how no one else could ever catch his interest is--- it's heavy and it's a testament to his undying devotion despite everything

idk, i'm rambling and gushing and just loving how both him and MC are a freak for each other, no matter what and i haven't been the same ever since his latest memory dropped 🥲

I feel like this is the perfect time to bring in this topic especially after the recent... events, so let's see it, what are some of the wildest takes/mischaracterizations you have come across regarding the LIs/your faves in general?

ones that really made your eyes roll and scroll