oh wow, I would read the heck out of that story (Story 4 I mean) ^star-eyed emoji^ I LOVE it!
I think that in modern writing yeah, the antagonist is absolutely more importnt than the protagonist more often than not.
about you Versailles story - omg I HATE when that happens! it happened to me with my first book, the historical fantasy I'm writing in Hebrew. a lot of it is centered around the main heroine's dating and than marriage to the prince of the kingdom (her love interest). now the thing is, Jewish dating and wedding tradtions changed INSANELY from 3000 years ago (when the story is) to today, and I - who was not even 12 and an absolute idiot, didn't really know the old traditions at the time so I just wrote it as though it was happening today and when I found out how far off the mark I actually was I had to change EVERYTHING. I rewrote the whole thing from scratch, don't ask me how.
well, may the wolf eat you, than. or something. lol.
about your second message - well, the concept of confession never really sat right with me either. what kind of authority does the priest have to 'absolve' me?! I mean, sure, a religious community's leader/religious scholar can provide me with guidance based on the religious books of that religion on how to fix my screw-up, but not ABSOLVE me as though he's G-d! that's either up to G-d or up to the person I sinned against! that's just freaking weird. and kind of voyeuristic, on the priests' part - like why would you want to know everyone's sins?
