I have to admit I’m quite creeped out by all the SSW fans who are gushing over Manerkol as a RO. I’m not sure if I go so far as comparing him to Hitler, but he seems to be a brutal dictator who is ready to torture or kill anyone who opposes him. And I, for one fail to see anything romantic or otherwise “RO material” about that. I’m not sure excactly how that romance path works, but any romance path that involves helping an evil overlord like Manerkol and basically turning traitor on your friends, is a romance path I’d stay far away from, so if that romance part works like that, it’s something that would be even harder for me to see the value of. I’d also have to admit that outside of a general kinkiness on behalf of the Manerkol fans, it’s hard for me to say what’s the attraction of that romance path. Unless his reputedly sad backstory is so sad that it makes them feel really sorry for him.
In some ways, it’s a bit easier to understand why some people go for Hayden Winter because although the captain is plainly evil, that character also possess a certain seductiveness and seems to be quite good in bed( and being a shapeshifter probably also means a lot of potential for, shall we say, sexual creativity, so there is that). One of my MCs did also, in one playthrough get into bed with Winter, which was certainly…interesting, but not interesting enough for me to not go with other ROs. So I can see that there is a certain sexiness to Hayden Winter that some may find appealing. But apart from that Hayden White seems like a completely despicable character. It’s revealed that the character murdered the captain of Ruby’s previous ship and as far as I can remember, Winder, tries to kill L and the main character for fun in and in order to get the package back without even giving them the chance to return it. And since I’ve also have tried the Ruby and D companion paths, I know that the captain is not on principle opposed to trying to make a deal. So either there is something about L that rubs Winter the wrong way or that the Captain only tries to kill those deemed to be to weak to defend themselves or not sexy enough to screw instead. So although Winter is not necessarily a psychopath, the captain sounds quite a bit like a sociopath who is happy to kill or murder someone else just because it’s “fun”.
And unlike Manerkol, Winter hasn’t even got a sad backstory, that can give you a little sympathy for the character or at least an explanation(though not an excuse) for the general murderousness. In short, I fail to see any redeeming qualities in Winter, unless you count the character being good in bed as a redeeming quality. I’ll admit that WInter is an interesting character, but mainly as a villain, certainly not as a RO. And if there was a way to one of my characters to kill Winter off for good, I’d happily seize that opportunity with both of my hands.
I have never played Samurai of Hyuga, so I don’t feel qualified to say anything about Jun/ko, but if the Jun path is as abusive as I’ve been given to understand, it’s easy to understand why I lot people won’t like it. And in the same way, this makes it difficult to understand why people can put themselves through it and even like it. I know that the Yandere characters can be quite popular, but still…
Anyway, I do tend to stay away from ROs that I feel are somewhat suspect, so to speak. If I feel a RO is a bad person, I normally won’t let my MC enter into a relationship with that person. I can deal with a certain amount of rudeness and I enjoyed the M(organ) path in the Wayhaven Chronicles, at least in Book Two, that brough the sexy. But if a character consistently treat other people like dirt or, even worse is straight up evil in a way that leaves no clear way for redemption(unlike say, “ambigiously evil” J in the Lost Heir trilogy) and moments of kindness for that character; I generally stay for away from trying out that RO path. And cruel and/or treacherous behavior, like stabbing the MC in the back(whether literally or metaphorically) is also a no-no, so I completely understand all the hate for Darcy and knowing what I know now, I don’t think I’d ever be able to pick them as a RO.
One thing I’m curious about however, is that many of the people who have stated their dislike of M and similar characters, have stated no dislike for charcters like Winter and Manerkol. I’m just wondering if that dislike is due to you never having played Soul Stone War or the Evertree Saga or it’s just that you think that those characters respective brands of evil and crueltyare less bad or annoying than the rudeness of characters like M? And if it’s the second reason, I’m curious about what makes that rudeness worse than the evilness and cruelty of characters like Manerkol and Winter?
Give me a few to prepare the screenshots!
