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DR 123 (Patreon)

Published:
2025-06-15 01:04:13
Edited:
2025-08-20 19:25:34
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

A Pyrrhic Discussion.

This is why this took me a week to write this.

Comments

Retexks

In Leecifer we trust, so let him cook

whynot

I had sort of wondered if something like this was coming, Pyrrha and him spent a lot more time 'talking' then talking, and she always felt more affectionate then loving in her interludes. Hopefully this is resolved happily, but, well...

Tai Parry

Okay can't do newlines on mobile apparently. As much as I love the writing of this chapter and want more, I didn't like reading this chapter >_> I really hope Pyrrha can figure out what she's done wrong and explain in a way Jauncifer can understand and accept - because I don't think she's mecessarily in the wrong in her opinion here, this *will* send a message Jaune might not want to send or even understand he's sending exactly, she's just really in the wrong in how she went about trying to argue her case.

Alice

That was intense, I'm actually surprised Pyrra didn't explain her reasoning explicitly maybe even referring to the headmasters PR plan around dealing with Cardin since she has been read in on that

Tyric Gaias

Ugh 😑. Communication! Is it that much of a mystical mystery?!

Templar9999

What i don't understand about this situation is why Pyrrha didn’t just tell him what the issue was. To Pyrha, what Jaune proposed was a MASSICE insult. To the opposing teams, to their schools, and their nations. It would be like an Olympic hockey team intentionally benching half of their players, because they didn't need them. It wouldn't matter if their opponent really was that outmatched, it's about respect. And the Vytal Festival is to Remnant what the Olympics are to us. It makes since that Jauncifer wouldn't see that. It does not make since that Pyrrha, wouldn't explain things to him. When she knows that these kind of social issues aren't something he Grocks. So, they both effed up here. Her for not explaining, him for reacting like he did. I get why he did though. But Pyrrha needs to explain herself for this to make sense.

PublicLee Speaking

Yeah, both people fucked up here (which is one of the, like, half a dozen reasons this was so hard to write), but at it's core the issue was what you got at the end of their confrontation, and the questions she could not, or would not, answer.

TheGrog

I'm really curious as to why 'you are directly insulting a significant fraction of the powerful people in the 4 nations with this plan' or 'can be talk to Ozpin so he's not surprised by this plan?' was so hard for P to say. There has to be some kind of hangup on her side since she didn't even go there once he started getting directly angry. Looking forward to next chapter.

Joseph

Now I really want to see Yang and Blake's view of that situation especially blake and how it they would take the way he implied his family treated him

Nicholas Hammond

There is no bond so fragile than one that has never been tested. Teen angst and personal hot buttons aside this is actually a good chance for this to improve their relationship. Let tempers cool and have time for Jaune to pull out of his mental spiral.

GAMB42

That went somewhere I did not expect. Frankly, the level of miscommunication was kind of bordering on the absurd for Pyrrha, mostly. Jaune's ways are kind of understandable, a bit, because of his biases sure, but why the hell did she not explain her issues clearly?

Heidao

This doesn't sound like the Pyrrha we've come to know in this story, this sounds like a Pyrrha being aware of a ton of stuff stacked against her, the team and most definitely to Jaune, and is handling it so poorly that it's backlashing hard on her. As if even if she could explain, she knows he might go "Fuck it, I'm a dragon so I don't care" and she really wants him to care about it. Might even be of the 'We'll know if you tell him' variety of threats that'll be directed not to him but at others. I think she's gotten his measure, that as a Dragon and as an immortal, that the machinations of those today, mean nothing in the coming centuries. But has forgotten that in her attempts to ply compliance without substance, without reason to a person that will remember and persist forever ,will stain his perception of her in the long run. So while she might worry about 'face' in the Mistralian culture or other threats for him, she's failing to grasp that those mean little to his growing political power, being able to bulldoze through them or just plain outlive the problem. Heck this just might be her at the limit of her conversational skills to counter argue these reasons alone.

The GrandMage

We've seen from her PoV before, though and she knows that Juane is both dense and damaged. So suddenly clamming up is really out of character. Especially when she can pull the, "You're Ozpin's apprentice, you being this disrespectful to everyone else will undermine the opening speech he gave and insert politics in a time we're supposed to be banding together." Even if she doesn't have the words, at least he very least saying it would have political complications for Ozpin and he should talk with the Headmaster first makes more sense than just stonewalling. I'm honestly feeling like I'm missing something because the characters seem to be going against established characterizations to hit a plot point. Has this been something the readers haven't grasped yet because of Jaune's biases affecting what we see of her?

suspiciouscoffee

My take is that it WAS absurd, but not based on miscommunication over the duration of this conversation but rather that they had fundamentally different views of their relationship. She doesn't really understand that there are a lot of little things that Jaune has let go or accepted purely because she asked for it. The difference is that Jaune is trusting, not stupid. Once he became even a little bit suspicious, all of that allowance went away. This is Pyrrha's first romantic relationship and she is a gladiator first, everything else second. She fought on the field, but also off of it while in negotiations and in public. She took what she knew, what she was good at, and tried to extend that into her private life. She didn't realize that by trying to do her thing of dancing around him and score points until she 'won' a conflict only she was fighting, now that he is actually participating the situation has devolved into a conflict where there ISN'T a winner. There was no prize, everyone lost. Pyrrha is a prideful and (rightfully) arrogant girl but she doesn't have the same experience to temper this as Jaune, and so this will be an opportunity for growth.

Nate

Juancifier is in the wrong here. I will not elaborate on this statement beyond this.

Dragonhulk

Every couple fights, the question is will they allow it to break them or will they both grow.

Templar9999

Exactly. This level of oblivousness and over reaction is in character for Jauncifer. He has a legion of issues that he needs to deal with, and Pyrrha accidentally stepped on them. But it seems OOC for Pyrrha to be as oblivious to Jauncifers issues as she is being portrayed as here. I realize that this is at least partially due to perspective bias from the narration. And Jaune interpreting the situation through a series of badly damaged lenses. I understand that the argument is something that is needed for the characters to progress. But it seems like Pyrrha grabbed the idiot ball on this one.

Vrenze

OK Pyrrha

Seraphi

This chapter was really frustrating. pyrrha is completely correct but is refusing to explain her point, making her look like an ass. Where jaunes point is stupid but his annoyance at pyrrha is completely justified.

Seraphi

I've had people act to me how pyrrha is treating jaune here but it's always when their idea or counter point is stupid. In my experience when people are actually right like this they have no problem explaining their point.

Acrimonius

And here is the return of the Autism Warrior. Because using one’s brain for more than a hatrack or emotional storage space is too intensive. God save us from those incapable of abstract thought or introspection.

StrangeCrest

Basically, it is a woman doing woman things. "Do this without me telling you the reason because you doing my will without a justification makes me feel power over you and/or gives me satisfaction in some manner". Literally every woman in my entire life I have known well does this. Some of them all the time, some of them just on occasion. Jaune got upset and just doesn't want to put up with that crap because he wants an "equal relationship", which isn't actually possible IRL or in a realistically depicted man/woman relationship. One party is always the dominant one between men and women in romantic relationships, even if they both genuinely try for an "Equal partner" relationship. And if the dominant one isn't directly and obviously the man, then it is usually the woman dominating through subtle or not so subtle manipulation. Or in other words, this drama is stemming from attempting a "modern relationship" with "modern values", "modern wisdom", and "modern" common sense. There is a reason why the more people try for this delusional crap, the higher the divorce rates go, the more unhealthy the interactions between the sexes become, the worse the dating culture at large becomes, the more isolated from each other men and women become for longer and longer periods of time, and the fewer and more biologically late kids are had.

StrangeCrest

This "OOC" thing was mentioned and addressed by Jaune already in a few paragraphs of his inner monologue. Basically, he thought every time she was asking for a favor (like the "Don't tell anyone we are dating") she was genuinely asking for a favor for herself and would hold the appropriate gratitude that giving a favor gets someone (as a person sacrifices one's own interest for the benefit of another), not just trying to manipulate him through his affection for her and saying, but not truly meaning, the "magic words" to try and get a desired behavior out of him. But this confrontation shows that at least some of the time she was just doing the "magic words" to get her desired action through manipulation, rather than her genuinely and honestly communicating. Meanwhile, Jaune truly thought they were both trying to go at a genuine and completely upfront and direct "equal partnership" with no manipulation games whatsoever. So he thought with Pyrrha he had found a unicorn, when that was really just him projecting what he wanted on her and had been ignoring any potential evidence to the contrary. But in actuality Pyrrha is just a normal, if competent, woman, not a special unicorn. Or in other words, Jaune is mad that a woman is being a woman: lying and using social manipulation. That is literally something nearly every person in the world does to some degree, it is just that women are more guilty of this on average than men are (because men have the implied threat of potential violence to persuade others to do their will, where as women have to use tricks). Of course, Jaune does not seem to be aware that he is literally doing manipulation games as well, just approached from a different angle. He is trying to force everyone around him to be honest under the implication that being dishonest is immoral. Definitely a more healthy and moral sort of manipulation than "Do what I want or it implies your love for me is lesser", but basically all human communication is manipulation to some degree at the end of the day.

StrangeCrest

Most people are dog crap at communication with the other sex because both sexes have different communication rules. Explained in a simplified way: men care about honor, women care about dignity. With and between men, you can say or do whatever as long as the men's honor is truly damaged. Damaging another man's honor is breaking the rules and signifies you are an enemy. With and between women, you can say or do whatever you want as long as the women's dignity isn't damaged. Damaging another woman's honor is breaking the rules and signifies you are an enemy. Honor (i.e. men) cares about honesty and truth but does not care about face. Dignity (i.e. women) cares about face but does not care about honesty or truth. Woman: Does this dress make me look fat? (i.e. Tell me you will uphold my dignity even if it goes against the truth) I am sure there are common questions men ask women I could use here, but I am blanking on any at the moment. This basic difference explain the root of a lot of problems in the communication between men and women. Women are expecting to have/trying to get men to play by their rules, and men are expecting to have/trying to get women to play by their rules. This is why men are always so surprised to learn that women lie all the time constantly about even minor things. Because to them, it is the "right" thing to do. I can't answer what the best solution to this is for society at large, but as a man who refuses to not wear the pants in a relationship, my woman would have to follow the honor rules with me and my children, where with other women she could follow the dignity rules.

Tyric Gaias

Yeah, this exactly. Specifically what Quinn said

Dragonhulk

Oh it's worse than that, it's bad life experience making him that way so he's acting out BECAUSE of abstract thought and introspection. If he never stopped and thought what can I change about myself to stop people from walking all over me and what are the signs that they don't really respect me he'd just go with the flow like 99.99% of the world. This makes it even harder for him to change his ways. Though they are both right in the "do it because I asked" situation. When you love and trust someone you can just do it for them without them having to explain themselves because you trust them. This should be a two way road in a healthy relationship, and for big disagreements using words to explain things is absolutely necessary. However, as much of a good person as Pyrrha is, she's still a teenager with little relationship experience, and this Lee is an adult with bad relationship experiences trapped in the body of a teenage dragon.

whynot

I think that's the problem, she isn't right. Like, there might be a justification she has that is 'correct', but that's not the one she cares about. Its an ego trip for her more than it is an argument.

Acrimonius

This actually reflects my own thoughts. Pyrrha is a teenager, warrior or no. But Lee is an adult man in a teenager’s body, and yet we never see that reflected. Remove the references to a past life, and nothing in the portrayal of his actions or thoughts validates him as a mentally or emotionally mature adult. I wasn’t being facetious with the autism reference. Consider: we have a character who has great difficulty intuiting social cues, is blind to most implicit social behaviors unless they are directly explained to him regardless of his “in-universe” cultural knowledge, operates on an extremely narrow band of beliefs with a rigid, almost pathological framework. This character has some mix of unresolved PTSD and autism. It’s this same rigidity that keeps sabotaging his relationships with others. He cannot distinguish between beliefs and incentives, and because he says what he means, he assumes that everyone else operates the same, and gets angry when they don’t “play by the rules”, which is exactly what you’d expect from the logical-compulsive aspect. If you think everyone you meet is a liar or manipulative, then either you’re the unluckiest person on the planet, or your definition of those things, and their relative severity, is in error.

Michael Friede

This really felt OOC for Pyrrha as we’ve know her up until now. Obviously teenagers don’t communicate well but this felt like Pyrrah being deliberately obtuse to….make Jaune go with something on faith? Not have the answers beforehand and just do what someone asks you to in a specific situation? This felt almost deliberate in how OOC it is. Please don’t drag this fight out though Lee

Michael Friede

She’s asking him to just trust her, and not get an answer ahead of time? Which if that’s the case, that’s incredibly difficult for Jaune

Denn Mael

So, Jaunecifer asked PYRRHA effing NIKOS to be sidelined...twice!...in the biggest toruney she has ever participated, and he did so casually without any consideration for her opinions until after she drew attention. Gaming the competition while disregarding and degrading the "honest competitors" including herself. Then she, offended but not wanting to accept the offense yet, tried to "give him face" by getting him to back down "as a favour to her". At this point Jaune's past traumas trigger and he completely entered trouble shooting mode which means "until I get more info, I do not form any conclusions whatsoever because they will be wrong."

Denn Mael

Remember her comment with Blake about "wanting to get back a point even if it wouldn't accomplish much"? Jaunecifer casually declared she would be sidelined twice, first to Yang and Blake, then for Jauncifer himself who has stated multiple times how litte he cares about this tourney. She cares a great deal about the competion, Jaune knows this. I expect her rational was something like "you disregarded my feelings here, if you accept this while you're feelings are disregarded then we are even and I forgive you!"

Michael Friede

Which while understandable, still is weird that Pyrrah didn't just..say that?? This whole giant fight feels forced, because of a sudden inability to communicate. Pyrrah up until this moment has had no problems saying what's on her mind, but suddenly she acts like a totally different person for...reasons?

Dragonhulk

I agree with the spirit, and the only hair I'd split is that the Lee line is supposed to be 25, and many 25 year old's are not mentally or emotionally mature when they have had a healthy life experience. When you have an environment that forces you to go full Vulcan and drown yourself in logic as a shield against deception you are in no way dealing with a mentally or emotionally mature adult. From what I've seen in how he interacts with his fans/critics Lee grew over the years so his self inserts that are him from when he was 25 are capable of that as well, autism (or at least where I stand on the spectrum) greatly reduces the ability for emotional growth. I'm about 20 years behind my younger brothers in that area and I'm at the age where things begin to calcify biologically. Lee as he stands today seems emotionally and mentally mature, but his experiences have left him with a unique outlook at life. Yes even his rants, because my father goes on longer and more passionate ones more than he does. I can see why this took so long to write, half must have been reliving some of the harshest experiences of his life with what many see as a perfect waifu, and the other half must have been the desire to sit down with his past self and explain where his current thinking is faulty and will keep him from being happy.

Dragonhulk

I wouldn't say completely justified. Most people aren't as verbose as writers/heavy readers, so they may not have the words to properly explain themselves. Forget about the level of introspection needed to properly identify your motives for your actions and desires. That usually takes years of therapy for the majority of people.

PublicLee Speaking

The issue is that they're both right... From a certain point of view. However, they also have differing views of relationships, power dynamics, honor, etc. (along with Pyrrha being a mature 18, but still very much 18), that they've never talked about, because both assumes the other agrees with them. However, while Jauncifer is verbose (possibly overly so), Pyrrha is the exact opposite, so the problems laid behind the surface (though very visible in her PoV sections (crystal blade)), until this point, especially with Pyrrha mistaking, to him, as the asking of favors, for blanket and cost-free Compliance. Also, remember that she _is_ Mistralian, with all that entails, while Jauncifer is an unholy combo of American, Draconic, and whatever the hell I am.

Sage Berthelsen

I’m guessing it’s something in world logic or sportsmanship thing. It’s hard to remember that our boy is a teenage Dragon on top of everything else but this chapter felt like a CW tv episode with angst out the ass.

Morgan Lurker

Wow. Very emotionally charged and well thought out social conflict, eagerly awaiting next update. In Lee we trust! (Hashtag anyone?)

Vysirez

Happy to see a new chapter. I was pretty confused reading this chapter. First read Pyrrha seemed OOC, I couldn't figure out why she wasn't at least trying to explain her reasoning. Then after reading some of the comments and replies it seems that she is trying to play some emotional games because she's upset about potentially being sidelined. Which also seems a bit OOC from the characterization we have seen so far, but not completely, I mean it feels possible, just fairly dumb, which isn't impossible either, teenagers are pretty dumb pretty often. but it does leave this feeling like an excuse for the MC to get offended and storm off. Plus without the comments, I would have been left feeling very confused about why Pyrrha wouldn't try to explain anything, but I honestly have no idea how to convey the required info without a Pyrrha POV.

asdo

I am confused why Pyrrha just dances around the quest of just 'why?' when asked. She could have given any reason whatsoever even as a token reason but instead just says 'just trust me' like for what reason does she need to keep the reason a secret?

PeakHorroshow

Honestly Pyrrha is very OOC here and this argument broke my suspension of disbelief and immersion. It does not make sense at all for Pyrrha to behave like this. Still, kudos for the effort and it was well written.

Setras

I've spent like ten minutes trying to find a nice way to say this, then realised that with your thing about blunt honesty I'm probably better off saying it flat out. So you know, this is intended in the spirit of constructive criticism, not a personal dig. Your stories would immediately go from a 7.5 to 9 if you could just bring yourself to stop manufacturing unrealistic reasons to rant about your IRL hang-ups about communication. The Yang one wasn't too bad - people get weird about talking about sex stuff so while it did feel forced, it was at least believable, but this one? Pyrrha only needed to say "because it would injure the other contestant's pride, offend people, look incredibly arrogant and make unnecessary enemies" her utter refusal to even try to explain was entirely out of her established character and it made the scene really feel like you making an excuse to throw a tantrum unnecessarily. If you wanted to make it feel less forced, perhaps you could take another look at the conversation and have her at least make an attempt to explain her actual reasons but do so poorly? Then you could have the blow-up be about her asking "do it for me" regarding caring about other people's feelings part. Jaune would still kinda come off as the *sshole but he already does so...

Zerak

I am going to give you my honest opinion because I enjoyed your stories and I hope my criticism will help in some way. I have been reading your stories for around 5 years, but it reached a point where I needed to take a break from how annoying some aspects became. I stopped reading your fic almost at the start of this year (with the intention to come back later) due to the way your MC looks for ways to pick fights with people, and with all your fic having the same MC (other than the SW one). And this chapter embodies most of what I think is holding your stories back. No matter how much your characters progress and grow, it feels like they are stuck on the default of “the world hates me, everyone lies to me, and people want to control me or take advantage of me, and no one knows how to communicate”, the biggest example of this is the Barbie fic, after saving their ass with Scooby and showing them he knows how to navigate the company should have made them trust him more, but it’s like the medical Barbie reverted back to how she was in chapter 1 of that story or worst when talking to Russian Barbie. That development felt forced, like you wanted there to keep being friction and conflict where they work around him, or don’t trust him fully because he is a “Ken”. When Barbie should have been the best fic to show people that stop treating him like that from how hyper competent the Barbie are and their line of work. But it’s like you are allergic to characters growth in a way where they don’t act in a manner that you hate. The Barbie fic was my second favourite of your glimpse (after 70’s show) but that slide back made me stop wanting to read it. Back to this chapter, it felt completely and utterly unnecessary to dance back and forth like that, it’s like you wanted the drama because it allows you to progress some other plot point you want, that or you are incapable of imagining people can ever be honest with you as a person, not even in your own self insert stories. You should show this communication issue decreasing over time in a story, or just get him mind reading powers. For example in X-men you over analysed the issue with avalanche to the point everyone is painted as being evil, or rather callous, when the reality is they likely did not think of the deeper meaning, which isn’t a justification for not doing so, but it also doesn’t mean intentional harm, it’s something that should be brought up to them so they can improve. In this story you are all about communication and hating gaslighting and whatnot, but the MC gaslights them all the time about being a Dragon, he will get pissed if they don’t believe him, then he will gaslight them when they actually think he is a dragon. And he does the same with the books he gives Blake. And the same with Ember (he did to her what he broke up with Yang on). And then there is the fact he is turning them into Dragons without telling them. Had the situation been reversed he would have been very pissed. But he is putting it off, idk why. My only guess is you want a big reveal moment during or after the festival, even if it clashes with the established morality of the MC. This whole fight makes no sense and is very off putting. After all the growth he had with Pyrrha you threw it all away over her refusing to explain her reasoning even though you firmly established she will explain things to him when she asks him to do things, elaborating on why she thinks that. Instead of “just take my word for it”. And that whole “I’ll allow you to tell them” goes against the whole reason they kept it a secret in the first place, and goes against the character you established for her. Not her canon counterpart, but her in your story. I am personally a cynical person, but I also give people the benefit of the doubt for their actions. If the MC in your stories reflect how things are IRL, I think you should probably start doing the same, it’s fine to be cynical and assume the worst outcomes, and prepare for when people screw you over (document everything), but give people the benefit of the doubt, and if someone hurts you sit down with them and explain your thoughts, if they don’t change then keep them at arms length. Peoples intentions are not as important as your outlook on life, if you keep going the way your are (again assuming MC is based on you IRL to any degree of accuracy) it will just make things worst for you, more depressing and things closing in around you. As cliche as it is, by keeping this us you are letting everyone who ever hurt you (intentionally or not) live rent free I in your mind and worsen your quality of life. Your stories are interesting, the way you show things change is interesting, but constant repetition of the whole emotional guilt tripping thing drags things down. It feels like the more things change the more they stay the same, which means all that character growth and bonding was pointless.

PublicLee Speaking

Thank you for your feedback. This fight has been planned for a while, because there's serious underlying flaws with the relationship between Jauncifer and Pyrrha, that have been hinted at throughout the fic, specifically in that Pyrrha does not see their relationship as an equal one, but one where, while he leads, she holds his emotional reins. As long as he does whatever she wants, that's fine, but when he doesn't, she pulls on them to get him in line, in her mind, for his own good. The issue, especially with those kinds of relationships, is that they can seem fine... right up until you say no, and mean it, at which point they go off the rails. Pyrrha does care for him, and in fact is making problems where she normally would not because of her care for him, but Pyrrha pathologically does not communicate, and because of that everyone reads what they want to see in her, which is part of why she's popular, but, at the same time, other than 'nice' and 'polite' there is very little anyone can do to describe her in canon that isn't recounting facts about her accomplishments, and not about her as a person. This isn't going to be a Yang situation, thank god, but a lot of times couples do fight, and that's just part of the story. Also, Pyrrha HAS been given the benefit of the doubt, repeatedly, so your stating that she has categorically not in the story at all is confusing, and it's only now that she's finally not getting her way, that Jauncifer is not doing what she wants, there's problems, because of her own inflexibility, and the fact that a majority of the complaints are about how out of character she is, when she isn't, and how Jaune is in the wrong for not doing what she wants, when she's not doing what he wants is just fine, is... kind of my point. At the end of the day, MHA, while things are rough here and there, is a NobleBright story, where things tend towards the positive, and the main cast might be damaged but their all good kids, DR, meanwhile, is a NobleDark one, where things can change, but it leans towards the negative and destructive (just look at how Canon turned out), and while things can get better, RWBY & JNPR are not mentally healthy, or, at the end of the day, even good people (see the turning a blind eye to Cardin bullying Velvet, Blake's rampant racism, everyone believing that Yang would 100% intentionally break the leg of a downed and surrendered opponent, etc.), but because they're fighting criminals and murderbeasts made of sentient darkness, and are mostly cute girls, they seemingly get a pass from most. Last note, 'He's doing to her (Ember (I assume you mean Cinder)) what he broke up with Yang on' is a wild take, and one that should probably make you take a step back and look at your own biases for, because he didn't break up with Yang for not communicating, he broke up with Yang because she was trying to get him to, as far as he knew, commit Rape. Especially as it's explicitly stated with the Cinder scene, that, while they are throwing attacks back and forth, she never says no in any way shape or form, and with Aura it's the equivalent to rough bedroom play more than anything else. If she had ever told him no, stop, or so on, he would've, but she explicitly did not, and that's kind of a major point in the entire thing. Importantly, his actions with Cinder still messes him up, especially as he's not got as firm a handle on his inhuman instincts as he thought, and then, and it's kind of the issue at play here, Pyrrha downplays it and convinces him to keep going. So, I hear your concerns, but they are not in alignment with what's happening in the story, and some of your complaints (her letting RRWN in on the secret being 'out of character' when it's really not, as she's, in her eyes, trading less important favor (which is already at least partially compromised) for a more important one) and comparisons really underline that fact.

Zerak

Yes, I did mean Cinder. And also fair on the differences. As for the OOC Pyrrha, it’s because before when she did things he did not like, or tried to act around him (like trying to set him up with Nora) she for the most part explained her reasoning. While here it’s almost an entire chapter of going back and forth in what amounts to “trust me I know best”, “No, I want an explanation”, Trust me I know best”. It is very frustrating to read and feels like there is no character progress at all. It is genuinely emotionally draining to keep seeing this happen over and over again. Grant part of it is from having the same MC in every story, but it’s genuinely draining. I read the chapter around 1:30am, planning to sleep after, but it suck with me in a bad way, that I went back and wrote the comment I wrote at 3am. The main issue isn’t the conflict, it’s not the nature of the MC, it’s the feeling where nothing changes. We keep getting the same thing over and over again. The moment we start to think things are advancing in a good direction it repeats. Which we don’t see happen in MHA story (at least with his partner), he had that semi-breakup with Mina then things improved, and she worked to help him with his insecurities. So even if this was something you were planning for a long time, the fact that a lot of the readers reacted very negatively to it means something isn’t right, or rather the execution failed. Could be the timing so close after the catharsis did his and Weiss finely going somewhere. It could be how much of the chapter was dedicated to the argument, but the point is the chapter did not land well. Idk how you would go addressing without knowing your plans for the story, but it might be worth attempting a different writing approach in one of your other stories, you have a lot of stories, so that would allow you to experiment without affecting your main 3 stories. Granted you are already doing this, but it’s mostly driven by the situation the MC is in (their test and their starting world), what I mean is testing different ways to write scenes like this, where they don’t loose their impact, but also don’t leave the reader drained reading them. It’s the reason I stopped reading the Worm story, Herb’s character was mentally draining to put up with. There are stories that have a great plot, and are well written, but reading them is emotionally draining, where you feel like you need to keep trudging through to see the cast reach past all the things holding them down, but at some point you can’t keep going, or need to take breaks from the story, idk if you read it but Going Native by Ideas-Guy is one example of this kind of story. I am writing this between tasks at work, so if there is anything that is reads like it’s missing something or cuts off wrong and needs to be explained better let me know and I’ll try to explain what I mean better.

PublicLee Speaking

Okay, that's fair enough. Herb IRL was draining to deal with, and I only did because he was my best friend for a while. And it being draining is... Kind of the point, in a way, because it will get better, as the Yang situation is getting better, but the inequality has been festering for 300k words, and now it's finally an issue, as part 2 of that fight is going to happen after the first round, where we get to the emotional heart of the issue, especially as, is often the case, the fight wasn't about what the fight was about, and has a lot to do with Pyrrha's expectations which she, like Yang, never talked about. Weiss, in comparison, will provide a PowerPoint presentation and be willing to argue points openly, because her broken home has taught her the cost of not doing so. Blake, meanwhile, will have _completely different issues,_ as while Dencifer lucked out with his romantic prospects, Jauncifer did not. However, with time, they can get better. But that only happens if everyone involved is willing to put in the work required.