Agreed. I tried to like your comment but am all out of likes. Will do it after I get more.
But yeah, I tried the Qiu thing a few different ways (I’m so thankful for the back button plug in for firefox, lol) to see what was more palatable, but it all boiled down to him not having balls enough to stand up to his harpy of a mother and putting the MC dead last all the time. That he even admitted it–that he figured MC would be around after he dealt with everything else–was really annoying. Thank goodness for Shay.
I think I saw somewhere that the entirety of b1 happens in like a week? That would explain why it felt so slow!
That’s good to know. I will probably get the second one and see if The Pirate King is worth playing it for. I can suffer through the bloat (or skim it, lol) if there’s a good romance in there somewhere.
Yeah, that was egregious enough that I’m doubtful I’ll bother with the next book. Side character/new “best friend” coming in at the end and saying “you’d better get your shit together” isn’t a far enough reach to me to bridge that narrative gap.
Can I just say that almost every single LI in Golden Rose annoyed me greatly during my Black Heart canon run? Almost every single one of them acts so weird when they see mercenary killing people, and apparently they ignore the fact that it’s explicitly what I get money for.
Mercenaries aren’t morally upstanding people known for their good moral compass, why does everyone, save for Pirate King, twins and Neia give me shit for acting like a merc? I’m the one who constantly bails their asses out of issues, too, so we get an annoying contrast of me constantly saving them and them bitching at spearing people who tried to kill us.
Neia, Pirate King and the twins are the only people who don’t do that or had hints of potential subplots involving that. And all of them are something author doesn’t call a full romance…
I feel like you could write a PhD dissertation on this weird divide between a societal attraction to violence that manifests in stories vs. an authorial/audience discomfort with the ethical violations that come with violence. Everyone’s cool with mercs/knights/soldiers until they aren’t taking lives in the abstract anymore, then that becomes something that only the bad guys do.
Hadrian gets a pass from me because he’s religious still. Golden Rose, in general, at the very least makes the characters get upset about acts that are actually upsetting, and they aren’t moral-grandstanding to you about say, not liking your mom (Wayhaven) or hanging out with someone related to someone you disliked way back in high school (The Passenger).
Now that you say that, I have noticed quite a few more male ROs that have this “shy” archetype given to them more often, though I wouldn’t say it’s just HG/COG as well, I’ve noticed this in other media too, specifically the romance kind(unless I’m unlucky with my media choices).
When it does come this archetype, the “shy/blushing mess” character is one of my least favourable archetypes, especially when it comes to romance. The shy guy falling for the walking bombshell was a trope that was quick to fall away from interests that I just try to avoid it at this point ESPECIALLY if the male lead is part of the “everyman” trope. Ugh. No. avoid and burn.
Ohhh no. I didn’t think it would be that bad. But if it’s THAT BAD, then I’m glad I never touched A in any of my several playthroughs in book 3. I will forever stick to calling them slow burn’s immovable glacier.
Thing is with M, I came for the hornyness, stayed for good character development. If their character development is kept during the overly long dragging of their “unknown feelings” shenanigans, I’ll push through it.
Wait, what? The Pirate King isn’t even a full romance??? Ugh!
Agreed. To all of this.
You’re likely better off avoiding it. The end was awful for A. If you want me to spoil it for you so you don’t have to play it, let me know.
Same here! I just love M’s character.
I’m pushing through it no matter what, but I’m not sure how you can have the character development when you put the character in neutral for extended periods of time. I’m almost wondering if M will suddenly decide not to have sex with the MC and just basically avoid them till they figure out wtf is going on. Which could be interesting if it’s done well.
Please tell me. I’m genuinely curious how bad of a screw up A’s route went. With how people described it, it sounded like an emotional mess.
I have high faith that it won’t be messed up. Book 3 M really impressed me when I thought that they were just gonna be the horny option of 4 ROs. I really love their progress.
Oddly enough, any male character I make usually tends to be strong, decisive and assertive… but for some reason, I can’t help making them incredibly standoffish loners as well. I don’t know why I do this, or what media I absorbed in my younger years to make me lean this hard towards this specific personality type.
It’s been an honest to goodness challenge for me to write one of my new characters, Ernest, who’s strong in both senses of the word (strong in both mind and personality, and also he’s like seven feet tall and made of muscle), decisive, assertive, and also a genuinely sweet marshmallow of a man. I keep trying to write him as an edgelord and having to stop myself because that’s not what I’m going for this time.
To be honest, I’m not really sure what it means myself. Other characters, like the twins, are listed as LIs, but I saw Hadrian and Alessa mentioned as “full” romances and I don’t exactly know what it entails.
Same, ughhh. I want my mc to have a RO who actively shows interest in them and is confident about it. Not one who stutters at the slightest touch lmao.
Drinks Vodka I ain’t Chani but I was invested in the route and was super forgiving at the time. But lemme tell ya it’s just wasting time, a major waste of time.
I’m gonna be referring to A as Adam as that’s who I picked. The man tells you he can’t be with you but never gives you any explanation at all. Just keeps playing mind games with you, like touching or looking at you affectionately, then tell you to yuck off afterwards.
Almost 99%of everyone around the detective and Adam see that they’re obviously in love, we get of bunch of side characters nagging Adam about it. But it goes NOWHERE.
I was attracted to his character at first because I assumed he was gonna be the stoic, straightforward leader. But we got whatever the hell this……is
You forgot to add the part where, after fucking with your head with constant mixed messages for three books, he shows up in your room at the end and wants one kiss before “it’s over for good”, right down to him saying he doesn’t want you to fall for him. And then the asinine “too late!” before a kiss and he walks out on you.
Yet, somehow after he does all this and blathers on about how he will have to stay away from you or resist you or some other load of shit, you’re supposed to be a full-time member of the team and actually answer to him, since he’s the team leader. Like… this is an HR nightmare. It’s bad enough you have mummy dearest as the handler, but now you have to take orders from an asshole who emotionally abused you and fucked with your head?
I hate slow burn because this is how they always end up going. Or you get a hare-brained dipshit like Mason, who bends to the writer’s whims, supposedly brilliant but unable to recognize a genuine emotion if it walked up and kicked him in the nuts, even if he did tell the damned team leader in pretty blatant terms that he’s in love with the MC and that they “have” him. Then, the character gets dumber and dumber until they’re completely ruined, all in the name of dragging shit out because no one is allowed to have a goddammed relationship until the very end.
I may be bitter over this…
This begs the question: is several games full of longing looks and constant denial and headgames a romance? I see no burn, just a lot of overwrought teenage BS.
Probably, but it will probably knock you unconscious before anything catches fire, lol.
I’m having a similar problem writing my MC. I’m writing him as the stoic and strong archetype but I don’t wanna make them too emotionless and neither do I wanna make them too powerful. I love a stoic powerhouse but I don’t love a Gary stu.
Things were set up so well with A - I thought - in the first book. I really looked forward to where it was going. And then it… didn’t go anywhere. My nice rivalmance just fizzled into stupidity.
I don’t understand why people kept - and keep - calling the A route a rivalmance. What would you be rivalling at? You’re on the same side. You’re on the same team, with completely different functions. You’re not competing at anything. A’s not your rival, they’re just an asshole.
For the same reason Elizabeth-Darcy is called the original enemies-to-lovers story, in spite of the fact they’re not enemies at all, she just doesn’t like him and thinks he’s a jerk. It’s about the antagonism.
Will do it after I get more.
My nice rivalmance just fizzled into stupidity.