And yet somehow this never happens in the games. So far, M is the RO that makes things about themselves the least.
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Yeah. And the only time M really turns into an asshole is when someone makes a comment at them like F or Haley about them being interested in or being with the MC.
And that’s another one of those things that is a huge disconnect with what Sera has said. She says M doesn’t care what people think, when, quite obviously, they do care quite a bit. She has also said that once M realizes they’re in love, they have no issue with it–given how everything in the games with M seems to be the opposite of what she says, that doesn’t bode well.
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This was always so weird to me, because even just on the friend path, M is often one of the most intuitive characters in the game. And like, how is M good at their job, if they can’t notice or pick up on things.
Not ‘caring’ I suppose can be interpreted multiple ways, like in the sense of M not being as judgemental or caring what others think, and just doing what they feel is right. Which some would consider a positive trait.
Maybe M is the most difficult to write, and the most outside of the author’s type? So she just doesn’t go as deep with the asks. I mean, if I had to answer 100s of asks about what each character favorite underwear color is, I’d probably get lazy after a while with my answers, lol. So I take it with a grain of salt…
Maybe M really doesn’t have a strong preference for a favorite underwear color because M just likes what they like…but it’s maybe not the most fun character for silly tumblr scenarios.
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I remember something like that, i think the author mentioned that in a youtube video she did. Apparently M was supposed to be more grumpy but she couldn’t or didin’t want to write that.
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A might deserve whatever is coming to them, but constantly poking someone about their feelings despite them not wanting/being ready to open up, is just wrong and F is a bully. N has told F un multiple occasions to stop it but no, F can’t hold their tongue no matter how uncomfortable A feels afterwards and F never apologise either. Sera can spin it all she wants about it being banters between family but it’s just plain mean whether it’s aimed at M or A.
Sometimes, I get the impression Sera doesn’t really know what to do with M and for the sake of making their route different from the others she just go with this narrative.
Now I’m thinking of a possible conversation between Alima and M, where Alima is actually useful as an ex, that goes something like this:
A: you never wanted anything serious with me, what made you change your mind about relationships?
M: them (the mc)
And M realises their feelings, the fact that even is they haven’t officially talk with the MC they are in a relationship and that conversation with Alima is the push M needs to have that talk.
I tried a pt where I didn’t start a relationship with N and just kept things more friendly than romantic and it was so uneventful, besides the game guilt-tripping me for not kissing N or starting a relationship with them (I was asked 5 times during the whole book if I wanted to start the relationship), so it’s safe to say that you have to be in a relationship with them by the start of b3, but not necessarily be physical with them. So considering that N confessed to be in love with the MC at the end of b3 no matter how you play, whatever happens in the next book will be exactly the same for all the MC the only difference if that if you’re not in a relationship you’ll be guilt tripped to no end.
B4 will start with MC thinking about how A has been avoiding them since the end of b3 despite now spending 99% of their time with UB. A will get close again then withdraw and the MC will be miserably pining from a distance, but exchanging meaningful glances with A that leads nowhere and once the MC starts to hint that they want to move on, A will get close again just to reject the MC once more, after another kiss of course because if the MC doesn’t go through all the 5 stages of grief in each book with A, are they even doing it right?
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This right is forfeit when they routinely and repeatedly emotionally abuse someone over those feelings, for the same reason that you’re not allowed a car if you keep using it to run over pedestrians.
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That was basically how my N playthrough went. By the end of the book 3 demo, I still hadn’t triggered the relationship yet, and it starts to feel awkward then if you don’t. But, during one of the bff scenes, I realized my MC was probably just supposed to be romancing the bff RO instead.
So yeah, I think if you’re making it all the way to end of book 3 without starting relationship with N, then maybe that MC is mismatched for N’s route, or you just prefer much more slow burn than N’s route allows for. The guilt tripping is probably there to remind you that you’re about to start missing out important scenes/context.
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If this were the case, that’d be fine, but look at how M behaves. M totally cares what others think (and say). Otherwise, M wouldn’t get so mad when someone implies they’re with the MC or like the MC past being a slam piece.
And their inability to notice anything or care about noticing only seems to only be with regard to the MC, according to Sera’s asks.
Yep. And doing it to M can be shitty to some MCs, so F is being a dick to them, too.
From what I gather, Alima is very bitter about M not being with her. I don’t see her being nice about it. More like she’s waiting around for M to stomp the MC’s heart in the ground and dump them.
Interesting. This seems to indicate that the LI has a set point where they will admit feelings no matter what the MC does or says. That’s kind of lame, really. The MC is really inconsequential in the “romances” if they can do nothing to prompt the LI to realize their own feelings sooner in the story. That pretty much cements my belief that this is the vampires’ “love” stories and the MC is just along for the ride.
Well, given what we have so far and the fact that N declares their love no matter what, that makes sense.
Whatever happens in each book with all of the LIs seems to be set in stone no matter what the MC does (with the only real meaningful choices being whether or not you kiss, fuck, or enter a relationship with the LIs who want it), so this isn’t a big surprise.
The guilt tripping with N makes me want to play that route without Triss entering the relationship with them. Guilt tripping is a good way to make me and most of my characters resist what the author clearly wants.
I don’t think this will be isolated to A’s path, given the chat with a romanced F where F says they and the MC won’t get to see each other much from now on. It’s probably a way Sera can do another time jump–write it so that the team has been so “busy” that the MC never gets to see the LI for the past month or more. And probably keep it that way for the first five or six chapters to justify dragging A and M out for another entire book.
Sounds about right.
And M will avoid the MC or be a dick to them again up to chapter 10ish, then it will build like it did it b3 and end b4 with M hinting they have feelings again only for it to mean absolutely nothing and M still confused at the beginning of b5. That’s assuming we don’t just get M being a dick for the entire book, which wouldn’t surprise me at all.
I just wonder where this stupid ball ties into the overall story. It’s obviously going to be a part of the villain’s plot, somehow. otherwise in A and M’s routes, there’d be no way in hell to get them to go with the MC to it. But maybe the original plan is for the MC not to go and UB is supposed to work with some other team to prompt the MC to get bothered by their LI going with someone else? Only then something happens and they go. I don’t know… Sera likes tormenting the MC, especially in the A and M routes, so it likely won’t be as easy as the MC and LI being forced into going together.
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N acts even weirder in LT where you don’t initiate anything with him. My character kept saying she wasn’t ready and didn’t want it, yet he kept grabbing her by the cheeks, touching her forehead with his, saying to A that whatever he has with her is precious… dude, she didn’t start anything with you! Even Hawkins and my MC had healthier relationships than that and they’re both horrible people that would make the world burn in new and unique ways.
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I think that might be M caring about hanging into their identity as the one who doesn’t care, rather than caring so much what Haley thinks. They are having feelings that don’t fit the persona they built themselves.
But either M is confused, or M doesn’t like change, I’m not sure… Or the author is straying from the original “once M realizes their true feelings for MC they won’t care about running away from them and will just accept it”.
But I mean, M doesn’t seem to care about a lot of the fun/silly ask scenarios, because Sera doesn’t see M as a “fun” or “funny” character I guess?
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That sounds plausible, but it still amounts to caring what people think since M’s response was based on someone else’s perception of what’s going on with M and the MC. Still, it makes sense that M would be pissed off if someone would view them in a way that contradicts their own perception of themselves. And that they’d say or do whatever necessary to set the record straight, the MC’s feelings be damned… because the appearance of being who they want to be is more important to them than the MC.
Used correctly, this would also serve a purpose in an Alima/M “misunderstanding”. Rather than Alima being the one to prompt M realizing the thing with the MC isn’t meaningless, it would be the MC’s reaction to it. M tries to play it off that it shouldn’t matter what they do (“since this is just meaningless fun”), but notices the MC is upset over it and ends up saying it meant nothing and the MC can snap back, “Just like us, M, I get it.” Making M recoil and shake their head and blurt out that’s not true at all, because what they have with the MC means everything to them. Then give the MC a chance to ask wtf that means so the two of them can finally shit or get off the pot.
It’s not just “fun” scenarios, though, it’s everything.
There was one ask about what the LI would do if they made the MC mad and were getting the cold shoulder, and the MC hadn’t spoken to them in days over it. All but M would’ve made an instant effort to fix things. M? She said M wouldn’t even notice the MC wasn’t talking to them… and this was pretty deep into the romance!
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If that was the case M wouldn’t apologize to the MC after the bakery scene. It was kind of a forced apology but still.
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But the MC went to M rather than the other way around. Given what Sera said, I don’t think M would have ever gone to the MC and would just have waited for the MC to approach them.
And yeah, the apology was forced by the MC. M did feel guilty for upsetting the MC, though. Kind of.
Even if M approached the MC first, they wouldn’t even understand why they were upset with them. At least that’s what i would expect from M’s character. Instead we got all that fluff. Not that im complaining. I liked M in this book.
M feels like a way different character than author’s explanations in the asks. Maybe she changed her mind about M later on.
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Did Sera ever post a character sheet/personality type profile for M, like she has for other characters?
I get the need to keep M’s character aloof and mysterious as possible, so that this way when the romance actually does happen, it’s more impactful and intense.
But even very aloof and individualistic people care about people and things once in a while. They just have different values, and/or have insecurities, etc, preventing them from acting on their feelings.
I guess I don’t understand M’s characterization.
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Eh, I think even M could understand that the comment upset the MC. They just didn’t know why they (M) cared that the MC was upset. That’s what I got from that scene. It was more about M being bothered by the MC being upset than about what upset the MC (because M still didn’t get why the comment would bother the MC since M was just stating the truth–I think they never did understand that they were disrespecting the MC by saying it and just made a mental note not to call the MC a slam pig to random people again).
And the “apology” scene wasn’t really fluffy at all. It was the MC forcing an apology from M, followed by M wanting to know why the MC was at the warehouse soaking wet and if they wanted to borrow clothes (seriously, that made M look like both a fucking moron and an asshole), then shrugging and saying the MC had a room there and didn’t need permission to stay there once the MC said they needed a place to stay. M was the only LI not to either assume the MC wanted to stay there or offer it.
Yet, the answers from her about M are still basically the same as before: negative or dismissive, with a few nice ones sprinkled in to indicate M will eventually give a shit about the MC.
I never saw the character sheets for any of UB. I searched for them on tumblr and on patreon, but I guess she chose to remove them because “spoilers”. 
M cares about UB, obviously. And for a non-romanced MC (well, one that M doesn’t dislike), they get the same level of care. It’s just a romanced MC that is treated differently.
Because it isn’t consistent and doesn’t coincide with what Sera has said about them.
A is predictable and you know what you’re going to get (I saw the combo of kiss at the end followed by A running away coming a mile away). You know what you’ll get with F and N.
With M, you never know what’s coming because M turns on a dime and there’s no solid foundation for them when they are romanced. When they’re not romanced, M is more solid. Like the conversation with them in the kitchen when they say they’ll end up doing something horribly uncomfortable to make the MC happy, but in the romanced path, M behaves the opposite way with the Tina/Verda dinner and is a total dick while the MC is forced to beg them to go (which they do very reluctantly). Made me glad Dezh went with no one learning, because that scene with the begging was nauseating.
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I wasn’t talking about apology scene being fluff. I meant that in general. M was less like a brick in b3 and that was nice. Comparing it with the A route it feels like a fluff lol.
You’re right about that. It’s obvious M not the author’s favorite. So is F i think.
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Oh, then hell yeah, it was fluff, and I loved it! I want more of caring and demonstrative M in b4, instead of M being a heartless dick (which is probably what we’ll get… or just M avoiding the MC for most of b4).
As for A, getting repeated slapped would feel fluffier than A’s route, lol.
I think she likes F far more than M. She sees F as the “fun” route where they and the MC are bffs as well as lovers. And she makes a point of having very little “angst” in it, so it’s the “easy” route.
I think Bobby’s story is another thing that kills me with the way she portrays the character in asks (and in text, really). She makes this NPC who could’ve been involved with the MC, then proceeds to make them so horrible that it’s inconceivable any MC other than one that is extremely psychologically damaged could’ve been in a relationship with them. Bobby can’t kiss, sucks at sex, is selfish, is demeaning, is a user, and, for all intents and purposes, their only saving grace is that they’re hot and they wouldn’t have cheated on the MC. I have to head canon why my MCs would’ve ever been with Bobby because she makes the character so innately terrible.
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Trying to avoid people wanting a Bobby route, probably, lol. Because unfortunately it’s kind of a good set up for one. Sleezy reporter ex who constantly meddles and exchanges snarky banter but actually does care about MC, etc. I would have played that route not gonna lie. 
But no, so Bobby needs to be as horrible as possible.
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Is it because they spent the entirety of the college time high and drunk? That’s how my MC convinced Tina to not to try to talk him into drinking.
MC: “Last time I drank, I made a terrible decision.”
Tina: “Oh, it can’t have been that bad, what did you do?”
MC: “Bobby.”
Tina:“…” slides glass away from MC
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