straightforwardly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
straightforwardly) wrote2025-11-12 07:42 pm
straightforwardly) wrote2025-11-12 07:42 pm
324.
Over the past few days, I’ve been revisiting Rose of Segunda. This was somewhat inspired by my finally getting around to playing Cinderella Evermore last month, since, like Cinderella Phenomenon, the Rose of Segunda is a visual novel that I adored and that had a sequel released not long after I initially played it—a sequel which I was very excited about and did buy, before promptly spending many years Not Playing It, oops.
Though, in this case, The Thorns of War technically isn’t finished yet. I think it may be the only early access game I’ve ever purchased—but in any case, I’ve waited long enough to play it that there’s not really all that much more left to wait for, lol. I believe Frederique (;_;) and Charlotte’s routes are the only ones that haven’t been released yet—everything else is done, and tbh I’m actually rather intimidated by how long the game already is in its current state!
But this post isn’t about the Thorns of War—it’s about Rose of Segunda, and how much I still love this game upon revisiting it. I’ve replayed the Sofia, Charlotte, Leopold, Frederique, and the Loveless (running away ending variant) routes, in that order. Originally, I was intending on skipping Bastien and Guillaime’s routes, since I remembered not liking them very much*, but revisiting this game has also reawakened all of the fannish feelings it made me feel back in December 2020, and now I’m considering replaying those two routes after all, if only for any potential worldbuilding, Iolanthe backstory lore, and/or Frederique/Iolanthe lore that may be hidden within…
* (Well. More specifically, I considered skipping Guillaime’s route, as I had somehow managed to completely forget that Bastien existed until I started up the game and saw him on-screen. Poor guy.)
I’ve gone back and reread my original wrap-up post for this game, and though I do have new things to say, most of my opinions about this replay mirror the reactions I had then. I continue to be completely enamoured by Frederique/Iolanthe. Their route? Amazing, but even better than that is how their relationship saturates every part of this game, regardless of what route you choose. Truly, deeply obsessed—I’ve been thinking of little else over these past few days, turning their scenes over in my mind and analyzing everything. Which—I don’t think I’ll get much into the meat of that in this entry, since I have so many other things to touch on and time is running from me, but let us simply say for now that I have so, so many things to say about them, together and individually.
I still very much like Charlotte and her character arc, but wasn't sold on the romance, while Leopold once again managed to take me by surprise by how much I liked his route. Yes, I remembered the throne scene and how amazingly iddy it was—but I'd somehow forgotten that it wasn't just that scene that hit me in the id so hard. His reaction to her sabotaging the tea party, how much he seems to genuinely like and admire Iolanthe, and how touched he seems to be by Iolanthe reaching out to him despite his disfavour, the way their relationship builds and progresses—of all the routes I revisited, it was the only one where I found myself compelled by the actual romance rather than being distracted by keeping an eye out for more Frederique/Iolanthe hints. And, of course, I still adored all the additional worldbuilding about the politics in this setting and Leopold’s own burgeoning coup.
Sofia’s route is the one where my feelings have most changed, I think, in that while I still very much like Sofia as a character—her personality, her backstory, her motivations—and still think the ending to her route is absolutely one of the best endings in the game, I found myself much, much less convinced by Sofia/Iolanthe than before. I spent most of my revisit of this route paying attention to and having feelings about the Frederique/Iolanthe moments instead of having feelings about Sofia/Iolanthe—and even though on an intellectual level I still think Sofia/Iolanthe works better as a ship than Charlotte/Iolanthe, I will give Charlotte’s route this: it at least had one romantic scene between them (their interactions after the play) that gave me shippy feelings, which the Sofia/Iolanthe scenes never did, unfortunately.
That all being said… that ending is still one of the best scenes in the game. My Frederique/Iolanthe feelings… they overflow. I’ve shared these screenshots before, but I have to share them again, because I will never get over this:
PROPOSING MARRIAGE TO HIS SISTER’S LOVER SO THAT HIS SISTER (WHO HE HIMSELF IS IN LOVE WITH) CAN BE HAPPY WITH HER, BUT ALSO ESSENTIALLY GETTING THE CLOSEST HE EVER CAN TO ACTUALLY PROPOSING TO HIS SISTER BY USING HER LOVER AS A PROXY asdfghjkl; FREDERIQUE, FREDERIQUE, FREDERIQUE
again: I will never get over the fact that he asks Iolanthe if she accepts his proposal (to Sofia), and that Iolanthe (not Sofia) is the one who says, I do. Wow. These siblings. These siblings!!!
It also makes me think once again on what I’m pretty sure was the first fic idea I ever had for this game—a post-canon fic about the three of them setting up a household together, like they planned, starting off with Sofia/Iolanthe and featuring Sofia’s growing friendship with Frederique, as well as her slow realization that Frederique and Iolanthe’s feelings for one another might cross the expected boundaries of siblings. After I heard that Sofia’s Thorns of War route had been released, I set what little I’d written of it in the discard pile, since regardless of what I wrote, it’d be already jossed.
But now… I’m toying with the thought of picking it up again. After all, I still haven’t played Thorns of War, so it’s not like the contradictory canon knowledge exists in my mind yet. And the only person I would be writing it to please is myself. In general, I’ve been thinking it might be kind of nice to try to finish my December 2020 Rose of Segunda WIPs/concepts before I move onto Thorns of War? Or at least the ones I decide I want to write. Which, actually, I’ll list them here:
1. “to have something in the end” — Frederique/Iolanthe, set after the Loveless ending where they (platonically) run away together. I’m actually currently working on this one! And it’s the one that I have the most hopes of actually finishing /knocks on wood
2. the aforementioned, currently untitled post-canon fic for Sofia’s route featuring the mess of dynamics between her, Frederique, and Iolanthe
3. “you are my mirror, reflected” — Frederique/Iolanthe, possibly pre-canon? exploring hellion!Iolanthe’s characterization (since I normally play and write scholar!Iolanthe) and how it intersects with Frederique’s character. This is literally just a concept and a title—nothing written yet—but I still find myself drawn to it.
4. a treasonous affair, Frederique/Iolanthe, set in the Loveless ending where she marries the prince, inspired by their interactions in the Thorns of War demo. I only have like paragraph written on this, and I might actually wait on going back to it until after I’ve played Thorns of War; I think incorporating the new canon could be good for it.
I also have a fifth concept on my list, but I’d always intended on waiting to play Thorns of War before exploring it—namely, a post-canon fic based on the bad ending for Frederique’s route, where he comes home from Alvardia years later and they have a second chance romance. So it’s technically part of the list, but in a “maybe one day” sense, not, “let’s aim for the near future” feelings I’m currently approaching the other ones with.
It’s getting later than I’d like, particularly since I still want to try to get some writing in tonight, so I think I’ll wrap this entry up here for now and tackle my other thoughts at another time.
Though, in this case, The Thorns of War technically isn’t finished yet. I think it may be the only early access game I’ve ever purchased—but in any case, I’ve waited long enough to play it that there’s not really all that much more left to wait for, lol. I believe Frederique (;_;) and Charlotte’s routes are the only ones that haven’t been released yet—everything else is done, and tbh I’m actually rather intimidated by how long the game already is in its current state!
But this post isn’t about the Thorns of War—it’s about Rose of Segunda, and how much I still love this game upon revisiting it. I’ve replayed the Sofia, Charlotte, Leopold, Frederique, and the Loveless (running away ending variant) routes, in that order. Originally, I was intending on skipping Bastien and Guillaime’s routes, since I remembered not liking them very much*, but revisiting this game has also reawakened all of the fannish feelings it made me feel back in December 2020, and now I’m considering replaying those two routes after all, if only for any potential worldbuilding, Iolanthe backstory lore, and/or Frederique/Iolanthe lore that may be hidden within…
* (Well. More specifically, I considered skipping Guillaime’s route, as I had somehow managed to completely forget that Bastien existed until I started up the game and saw him on-screen. Poor guy.)
I’ve gone back and reread my original wrap-up post for this game, and though I do have new things to say, most of my opinions about this replay mirror the reactions I had then. I continue to be completely enamoured by Frederique/Iolanthe. Their route? Amazing, but even better than that is how their relationship saturates every part of this game, regardless of what route you choose. Truly, deeply obsessed—I’ve been thinking of little else over these past few days, turning their scenes over in my mind and analyzing everything. Which—I don’t think I’ll get much into the meat of that in this entry, since I have so many other things to touch on and time is running from me, but let us simply say for now that I have so, so many things to say about them, together and individually.
I still very much like Charlotte and her character arc, but wasn't sold on the romance, while Leopold once again managed to take me by surprise by how much I liked his route. Yes, I remembered the throne scene and how amazingly iddy it was—but I'd somehow forgotten that it wasn't just that scene that hit me in the id so hard. His reaction to her sabotaging the tea party, how much he seems to genuinely like and admire Iolanthe, and how touched he seems to be by Iolanthe reaching out to him despite his disfavour, the way their relationship builds and progresses—of all the routes I revisited, it was the only one where I found myself compelled by the actual romance rather than being distracted by keeping an eye out for more Frederique/Iolanthe hints. And, of course, I still adored all the additional worldbuilding about the politics in this setting and Leopold’s own burgeoning coup.
Sofia’s route is the one where my feelings have most changed, I think, in that while I still very much like Sofia as a character—her personality, her backstory, her motivations—and still think the ending to her route is absolutely one of the best endings in the game, I found myself much, much less convinced by Sofia/Iolanthe than before. I spent most of my revisit of this route paying attention to and having feelings about the Frederique/Iolanthe moments instead of having feelings about Sofia/Iolanthe—and even though on an intellectual level I still think Sofia/Iolanthe works better as a ship than Charlotte/Iolanthe, I will give Charlotte’s route this: it at least had one romantic scene between them (their interactions after the play) that gave me shippy feelings, which the Sofia/Iolanthe scenes never did, unfortunately.
That all being said… that ending is still one of the best scenes in the game. My Frederique/Iolanthe feelings… they overflow. I’ve shared these screenshots before, but I have to share them again, because I will never get over this:
PROPOSING MARRIAGE TO HIS SISTER’S LOVER SO THAT HIS SISTER (WHO HE HIMSELF IS IN LOVE WITH) CAN BE HAPPY WITH HER, BUT ALSO ESSENTIALLY GETTING THE CLOSEST HE EVER CAN TO ACTUALLY PROPOSING TO HIS SISTER BY USING HER LOVER AS A PROXY asdfghjkl; FREDERIQUE, FREDERIQUE, FREDERIQUE
again: I will never get over the fact that he asks Iolanthe if she accepts his proposal (to Sofia), and that Iolanthe (not Sofia) is the one who says, I do. Wow. These siblings. These siblings!!!
It also makes me think once again on what I’m pretty sure was the first fic idea I ever had for this game—a post-canon fic about the three of them setting up a household together, like they planned, starting off with Sofia/Iolanthe and featuring Sofia’s growing friendship with Frederique, as well as her slow realization that Frederique and Iolanthe’s feelings for one another might cross the expected boundaries of siblings. After I heard that Sofia’s Thorns of War route had been released, I set what little I’d written of it in the discard pile, since regardless of what I wrote, it’d be already jossed.
But now… I’m toying with the thought of picking it up again. After all, I still haven’t played Thorns of War, so it’s not like the contradictory canon knowledge exists in my mind yet. And the only person I would be writing it to please is myself. In general, I’ve been thinking it might be kind of nice to try to finish my December 2020 Rose of Segunda WIPs/concepts before I move onto Thorns of War? Or at least the ones I decide I want to write. Which, actually, I’ll list them here:
1. “to have something in the end” — Frederique/Iolanthe, set after the Loveless ending where they (platonically) run away together. I’m actually currently working on this one! And it’s the one that I have the most hopes of actually finishing /knocks on wood
2. the aforementioned, currently untitled post-canon fic for Sofia’s route featuring the mess of dynamics between her, Frederique, and Iolanthe
3. “you are my mirror, reflected” — Frederique/Iolanthe, possibly pre-canon? exploring hellion!Iolanthe’s characterization (since I normally play and write scholar!Iolanthe) and how it intersects with Frederique’s character. This is literally just a concept and a title—nothing written yet—but I still find myself drawn to it.
4. a treasonous affair, Frederique/Iolanthe, set in the Loveless ending where she marries the prince, inspired by their interactions in the Thorns of War demo. I only have like paragraph written on this, and I might actually wait on going back to it until after I’ve played Thorns of War; I think incorporating the new canon could be good for it.
I also have a fifth concept on my list, but I’d always intended on waiting to play Thorns of War before exploring it—namely, a post-canon fic based on the bad ending for Frederique’s route, where he comes home from Alvardia years later and they have a second chance romance. So it’s technically part of the list, but in a “maybe one day” sense, not, “let’s aim for the near future” feelings I’m currently approaching the other ones with.
It’s getting later than I’d like, particularly since I still want to try to get some writing in tonight, so I think I’ll wrap this entry up here for now and tackle my other thoughts at another time.