I think the character interactions themselves struggle a bit as well. The MC has very little agency, in the big scheme of things, and can’t respond accordingly when the two “difficult” ROs show their asses. The MC is forced to kind of take it like a doormat and be sad, horny, or resigned. If the MC already has feelings, they aren’t really allowed to voice them (the only choice with M is to say they want sex that means something and with A, it’s basically begging them to stop being hot and cold). The MC can’t have the option to say what they feel (even in a moment of weakness) because things with those two will happen at a later time and there will be no real progress till then, save for a moment here or there (contrast that with F and N, where the MC can decide whether things move forward or not).
Yeah, and I think it’s a line that becomes more difficult to skirt as the story progresses. A kid was killed due to Rebecca’s decision to hide the truth from the MC. And that was just kinda brushed off and ignored. The MC was tortured for hours, and that was brushed off as well, until it can be used for an angst-moment with the RO. Basically, the MC being in pain is blown off until it’s needed for a “romance” moment, be it an angsty one or one where the RO actually shows they care.
I just… I get wanting to keep it more light-hearted, but it doesn’t really feel so lighthearted for two of the paths because the source of angst for them is almost always their treatment of the MC and the fact that they don’t want a relationship with the MC, so there’s no real “romance” in the romance. So it’s like we’re being told to ignore all the real angst (dead kid, torture, regularly enduring hot/cold treatment from the one the MC either loves or is starting to love) for the moments that we’re supposed to view as angsty. In the meantime, we can’t get worn down by the hot/cold shticks from A or M because the MC is forced to get all mopey or fluttery about it. Whereas, for one MC, she’s getting to the point where she just doesn’t care, and the other one walks around on eggshells, waiting for the other shoe to drop. There’s no fluttery from either of them when we are shown it in the text–there’s just an eyeroll from one and the other waiting to be hit over the head with a spiked club, because she knows that’s what follows anything “nice” from her RO.
This is why, as much as I love your idea of it being the RO and the MC in an “us against the world” scenarios where the MC’s blood is concerned (and the effect it has on everyone), I would be willing to bet quite a bit that it won’t happen that way for M and A, at the very least. It will be more pushing the MC away, saying they don’t want them, M being stupid and not getting it, blah blah blah. Because their “romances” are mostly nonexistent and angsty through the whole series, without them being with the MC in a relationship till very late in the series. There’s no us against the world with them–just barriers keeping them apart that slip every now and then.
I could easily see that being F’s story, though, and it would fit well with Sanja’s warning to them (the whole thing with F having to choose and it sounding like F has to choose between their family of UB and being with the MC). With N, Sanja’s warning seemed to indicate N will lose control in some way (which I’m salivating over because that route needs some spice). With A, it was just more of the same, cementing A’s belief that them being with the MC will somehow harm the MC (thereby allowing them to continue their hot/cold routine for several books and have a great excuse for it). With M… it was “figure it out or you’re screwed” so it sets things up for M to continue to be hot/cold/ignorant till b5 when they have to figure things out or everything goes to hell.
For a 900 year old vampire who trains every single day, has enough to control to swing hard and stop short before making contact, it shouldn’t be that hard. M, maybe that applies, because they really aren’t the holding back type, so it’s all or nothing. But A should be able to do this, especially considering they’re the combat specialist.
But I get what you’re saying. We have to head canon why things are the way they are. I just take it for what it appears to be… plot-required incompetence. If the fight scenes didn’t amount to the MC tripping people all the time, I might be more apt to head canon something for all of it, but even the MC’s part in the fights is just… bad. And makes me think of The Three Stooges. Every time a fight scene pops up, I half expect the MC or UB to honk their enemy’s nose (which, actually, the more I think about it, would be hilarious and lend toward the whole “this is just lighthearted” thing). Make it a comedy for the fights, until someone gets hurt for drama purposes.
Watch as now that it’s done Mishka takes like one day for a break before starting on book four for several months.
Wayhaven chronicles and Fernweh Saga coming out in the same year. Beautiful I say 