You can have heavy things things happen and still keep things relatively light.
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Also, in b3, another child is kidnapped by human/supernatural traffickers. If that’s lighthearted, I’m not sure what dark is. (not to mention said child is forgotten completely for half of the story)
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Sure you can. That’s basically 90% of Deadpool stories. But here’s the thing: those heavy things can’t be heavy in the context of the story. When Deadpool blows up a scholbus full of kids because one of them mooned him, you can’t have a funeral sequence for the kids afterwards (uunless it’s just so Deadpool can blow THAT up, too). If you want to play things light, you can’t go “this kid got brutally murdered but you’re not supposed to feel much about it” and then have his mother break down in tears in your arms, unless you’re playing it for laughs. That’s just… not how lightness works.
Don’t get me wrong, I have no problems with things going dark: The Fog Knows Your Name has some absolutely fucked up shit happen, and I love that game. And I also have no problems with things going light: Gower’s work is one of my, lessay, four favourite CoG series, and that thing wouldn’t know heavy if I dropped a pod of blue whales on it.
But if you’re going to put both tones in your work, they don’t cancel each other: heavy wins.
Tbf, all the kidnap victims pretty much are, it’s not like she’s being singled out. And this doesn’t make the story light-hearted, it just makes it look like none of these people CARE.
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Yet, then you have the MC losing their shit and going catatonic when a no-name supernatural is snatched by Sin. Why? You didn’t give a shit about Addie (“Who the fuck is Addie??”), who is a freaking child, yet you can’t go on now?
If it had been Tapeesa/Elidor/Vieno who got snatched in that scene, I could maybe see it, since it’s personal. Or even if the MC was so injured that they were in total shock, but in the very next scene, they just have a bit of soreness and that’s it.
And, in the scene with Sin, they were perfectly coherent and functional. Going nuts over that made no sense at all, given all the other crap they’ve shrugged off with no or little care.
The bottom line that scene was there for the romance “moment” of having the LI show they care. Not that the MC knew it, so what’s the point? It’d be nice if my MC got some of the scenes they don’t remember or experience because it’s only there to show the readers the ROs care. My MC gets dick (literally, for Dezh, lol).
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And that’s fine for Deadpool, but there’s hundreds of cozy murder mystery series out there in the world that have lots of horrible things happen but have a much lighter tone. They are nothing like the Deadpool comics and how the writers handle that narrative for that character.
In everybody’s defence, Addie gets mentioned for literally 2 minutes near the start of the game, and then everybody forgets about her until she gets a throwaway line at the end. Compare that with B1, where the kid keeps getting referenced throughout the story (his mother shows up at the station. That’s an awesome story element. People CARE!), which is itself focused on finding his killer.
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That’s one thing I think was sorely missing from this one–the people element. When the MC finally gets back to work from hiding in the warehouse, they find “dozens” of people are missing. In a small population town. Yet, no one is at the station demanding to know where their loved ones are. No one shows up crying and desperate because they’re scared. No one shows up, period. It was really weird.
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More or less weird that, as @ViIsBae pointed out, the police hasn’t done anything about it because the reports couldn’t go into the system without you signing them first? What if YOU had been kidnapped? Is that just never investigated, because obviously you can’t sign your own missing person report? Should I leave one pre-signed on my desk, just in case*?
*I mean, I guess that’s moot going forward, someone else is going to have to sign all that paperwork that the police station somehow generates
EDIT: Alright, just so everything isn’t just critiques, I’m gonna say that the M route is, so far (SO FAR, don’t @ at me with future predictions, @EvilChani ), the best-written romance in any CoG I’ve played. It’s really stellar.
6 Likes
No future predictions. Scout’s honor (okay, I got thrown out of the Brownies, but whatever…)
I agree that is the best-written romance in any CoG I’ve played so far. The progression from M1 to M3–as it stands at the end of b3, ignoring any outside chatter from the author–is perfection.
I will say that the way the MC is written is a dark splotch on it, but M and M’s path is awesome.
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You should’ve just eaten them, that’s what brownies are FOR.
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I don’t play A’s route, and I probably missed it earlier in the forum, but what exactly happened in B3 that people are saying was abusive?
Also, M’s route has been pretty good so far. My one qualm in B3 (that I can think of right now at least) is that the bakery scene felt like cruel behavior towards MC just to have cruel behavior towards MC
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So I decided to share some strong opinions 
. I spend, like a week writing this and another two wondering if I should even post it. I hope my drivel is of some substance.
Content warning: it’s long, very long. Had to split it into 2 parts.
Agency
The agency shows almost criminal disregard for their human agents, who seem to be only playing the role of grunts, just there to clean up after the “real” agents. Human agents in all books only come after everything is already resolved, and they have no other choice really since they are purposefully disarmed by their employer. I had a huge problem with the reasoning for that in book 2 when Rebecca explained that they don’t want to tempt agents to misuse their weapons and also because the supernaturals didn’t want the lives of their ppl in human hands. This is just so… ughhh!
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First of all, imagine Police Officers walking with no weaponry, that’s just absurd. The video below shows police in the UK trying to incapacitate a man with a machete but they have no means to do so. Only after a long while do they gang up on him and disarm him. By the end, there are at least 2 dozen police officers on the site. How many civilians could be harmed/killed in time for the reinforcements to arrive? Mind you, the useless reinforcements, since they also don’t have any weapons, just some funny shields.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mzPj_IaMzY
The video portrays it as an absolute win because the guy with a machete was not killed like he would be, as they claim, in the US (even though the UK used 10 times more manpower). Because they think in the US, he would get 7 warning shots in the head before they read him his rights or something. That’s just stereotyping law enforcers as crazy maniacs when in reality they apply the necessary force in every encounter, which means they do not shoot everyone by default. Sometimes they just talk, sometimes they have to wrestle someone down or use a teaser to disable them, and unfortunately, sometimes they have to use their firearms. Having a weapon does not automatically mean it will be used, it’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
When you deal with creatures from other realms who literally melt you with acid and eat you, how many agents will you lose before they can call for help and in time for that help to arrive? You can’t take away reliable means of defense/containment from the first responders cos they might get trigger-happy. As MC said, “If they are tempted they shouldn’t be agents”, it’s as simple as that. Seems like the Agency just hires random ppl from the street they can’t risk arming, instead of looking for suitable candidates. How can a worldwide, international, government secret agency have worse employee screening than my local convenience store? -
Secundo - They don’t want humans to have sway over supernaturals’ lives? How about the acid-spitting, blood-drinking, literal-tons-lifting, flesh-eating, mind-reading supernaturals having sway over human lives, huh? Does nobody have any problems with that? How come sups like A, who has a hundred times more strength than a regular human can just walk around with no limitation? And M who in book 2 destroys the high striker game at the carnival with no consequence? That’s a misuse of their power I would argue equivalent to the misuse of a firearm. What the hell, Agency? So humans can’t have weapons while the overpowered supernaturals can act recklessly and unresponsible? How is that not biased? What if they fight some poor Trapper and hit them too hard? Does no one care about the human lives threatened by the misuse of supernaturals’ abilities? It’s the perfect example of a double standard, rules for thee but not for me.
I wouldn’t have a problem with that if the supernaturals were also in some way limited, magically or otherwise, and had to, like their human counterparts, contact their superiors for help. For example, a spell that lowers their strength by 50% that only a handler can lift by breaking some rune or seal or something. Even though I don’t agree that any agents should be forcibly limited in their abilities, at least that way all agents are on equal ground. Instead, we have humans who can’t reliably defend themselves and supernaturals who are at their full strength using their abilities willy-nilly. -
Also, how come the supernaturals decide all those restrictions on humans? One might say that they are a kind of guest in our world. And as guests, they should respect the house rules of the host, especially if they bring homicidal monsters with them. It seems a little unfair to me that they come to Earth, bring their mess with them, and have the nerve to put conditions on whether they will help or not, when they are the ones who created the problem, to begin with.
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And coming back to the recruitment thing, how does it happen? That seems like a difficult process, to expose ppl from outside to the supernatural world, and their reaction to it will ofc vary, just look at Verda and Tina. I’m wondering about that because MC is not aware and the most sensible thing I would argue would be to bring up kids to already know about the supernatural. Like the Belmont family from the Castlevania franchise, a whole clan hunting monsters. It seems like the easiest way to recruit ppl when their family business is already connected to the supernatural. Maybe it is like that and it was solely Rebecca’s decision to keep MC in the dark against all regulations, in that case, -2 points for her.
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The Agency can’t be bothered to send additional teams to help with the search for the kidnapped ppl. Even tho there were dozens and dozens of people missing, only UB is assigned to the town. Even tho Unit Alfa was assigned to do patrols when UB went to save JUST ONE person. The Agency just doesn’t take this case seriously.
For comparison, in the USA, the state of New York with a population of 20 mil, has around 600 missing persons reported per year. The whole state. The people in Wayheaven would be panicking day and night at this point. There would be official searches organized, night vigils, and so on. Not in Wayheaven tho, where neither the Mayor nor the Police Captain cares. This is so weird considering how previously MC was made patrolling the town to ease population worries. Now Wayhaven turned into an empty ghost town with no personality. -
The Agency can’t be bothered to care for its supernatural employees. It is surprising how they can be simultaneously biased in favor of supernaturals and at the same time overlook them so. That’s some 4D chess neglect. As we find out later, Agency knows there were a bunch of kidnappings of agents from all over, yet they don’t think it’s weird that Tapessa, who almost never leaves the facility is suddenly gone for days. And the MC who is working on a series of kidnappings ignores it too. Just because they aren’t BFFs they don’t even address the issue when evidently they have a gut feeling something is amiss. Excellent detectiveying by MC.
It seems MC was forced by the plot to ignore it in service of having a big reveal at the auction later. -
Really? It doesn’t matter? How about going to check the kidnapping sites? You know, for the evidence? As it is your job? And what are they trying anyway? MC has been to one crime scene and ignored the rest. Did they forget that there are only 5 people working in this station + 5 from the Agency? If MC does nothing then nothing is being done, why do they act like there is a legion of troopers investigating this case? -
Excuse me, concerns? “Concern” is when Murphy uses DMB, when a Trapper yells: “That’s the owner of the blood that we know from the blood tests that we got the results from the blood lab!” it’s an absolute certainty. Another mole-confirming factor is the ease with which the Trappers find supernaturals to kidnap.
The Agency may not mess with supernaturals who are not rogues and mind their own business, but as they are a potential risk to the secrecy there is no way they don’t know how many sups are in Wayhaven. The only explanation I can think of for Trappers finding those sups is because someone is checking the Agency’s records. The records, the Agency itself is not competent enough to check and assign protection to supernaturals in Wayhaven or at the very least someone to monitor them when they are the sole target of the kidnappers. Or at the varyiest leastest, just knock on their door and warn them to be careful, not walk alone in the night, and so on. -
Sending team Viktor to the final battle.
The moment they were introduced they all but screamed Chekhov’s team
, nothing wrong with that tho. Mermaid people may be water-based in nature but the folklore around them emphasizes their vocal and mind control abilities. I thought, “Good, a whole team specialized in crowd control to incapacitate a crowd, great choice”. But then they proceeded to beat everyone up. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, what is going on here? If they have no special abilities to help in the current situation, why are they even here? Did someone make a typo in the documentation and UA is drowning at the bottom of the ocean right now? -
The teams are named according to the alphabet, Alfa, Bravo, Viktor, and so on. Does that mean there are only 26 teams in the whole Agency? Kinda a small number even for a single country let alone the whole world. I’m hoping a letter is corresponding with, something like a division, more so than just a singular spot only one team can occupy, so that there is more than one team for a letter and the NATO-named ones are just on top in their group. For instance, Unit Bravo is the first place in division B and Team Bambi is second.
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Why exactly UB was never shown that feather, hmm? Who exactly is there in Wayhaven other than them, who MC could pass it to? Who is this anonymous feather-sender all the cool kids are talking about? There was zero staff at the warehouse every time we were there. We never met anyone and UB never mentioned anyone else working there. Wasn’t the whole point of assigning UB to Wayhaven for them to be the middleman between MC and Agency? And the brand new warehouse with the science room was built for this exact scenario, so they don’t have to send evidence away but analyze them on the location. Suddenly, Carl! The secretive and mysterious, plot-convenient evidence collector appeared, but also secretly so we don’t know about him.
The situation is even more problematic since MC just showed the feather to Verda. You investigate a kidnapping of a magical girl and you don’t show evidence you found to your magical team, but the mundane guy, who you are specifically told to keep from discovering magic, gets to analyze it in a lab??? How can MC be so careless and unprofessional, normal ppl don’t act like that, he’s the last person MC should give that thing to.
Seems like MC (to quote a classic) “just kinda forgot”, that N is a certified bookworm and a magic nerd know-it-all. They should go to her by default at this point, regardless if N actually has the knowledge or not.
Or just make N not know whose feather it is. Yeah, she’s the team’s lore expert but hyping her up to near omniscience is a couple of steps too far. That way the results are late because the Agency is double, triple, and quadruple checking that supposedly extinct species’ feather instead of MC plotting with Carl behind UB’s back. We still get that shock when the team first meets Sin but it makes more sense. -
This is not the time for talking amongst yourselves. “My mother taught me” is more than enough in the current situation, they should pay complete attention to Sin, with no distractions. N tries to talk him down and a secret whispers in the middle of it will not help. Stay on target, people, you can talk more about it after the 8 ft tall, invincible man goes away. -
Excuse me? Are they coming from the moon base? Where are they on their way from, exactly? Are Agency’s recovery agents not on stand-by at the Agency’s own facility?
There is a facility 1-hour drive from “the big city” (not sure about the distance from Wayhaven), so why are they coming seemingly from further away? Or did they set off from the closest facility but they got lost since it was Carl driving ( God dammit, Carl! )? -
And the cherry on top.
All those kidnapped pictures on the wall really get to MC, huh? It kinda sucks they have no means of locating those people. If only there was some sort of ability… something to locate others, preferably without the need to meet in person. Maybe through some sort of ritual, using the victims’ belongings or their pictures. Hm… if only there existed supernaturals with such a unique and useful power and were willing to lend MC a hand. But, alas, that’s not the case.
Yeah, that very subtle setup was for Falk, who if you’re friends with, breaks the whole plot of this book. I know he wanted to be left alone, but if you sign the treaty, some maa-alused join the Agency. Even if that was not the case, I believe dozens of victims validate one visit to ask them for help, especially after all the Agency did for them. Surely between Falk and Sanja, they would be able to locate the victims and lead Agency right to them.
While I’m on Falk, here is another issue. He actually met the BBEG in person, why is no one asking him for her description to make a police portrait? Or even better, ask the mind-reading lady from Book 1 to take a stroll in his mind. Surely, he would not mind, since he reads people all the time without their consent or knowledge anyway. Even more so since as he says himself, he saw what she has done in the past, and it was some messed up sh*t. Shouldn’t a fan of justice be at least somewhat invested in getting her captured? Just a tiny bit? Or did MC withheld the fact that they met from the others and then “kinda forgot” again?
Detective's Blood
Or as I call it, “the biggest problem of the series” or “DB”. The Agency doing nothing about its potency boggles my mind beyond belief, but I guess at this point incompetence is on-brand for them.
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The Agency, for some reason has no interest in using DB at all. After testing in B1, they should insist on MC donating it to them, especially after Murphy’s modifications, testing it again whether they already did in B1 or not.
I’m not saying MC should be forced to give them blood (not initially at least), but the Agency should really, really, want it. Just like everyone else. It’s like MC has the cure for cancer and they don’t even ask about it. They obviously know how supernaturals are strengthened by it, not only vampires, and they do nothing to get it for their agents. Imagine a team in a desperate situation with no way out, they can just pop one vile of DB, turn the tide, save lives, and complete the mission. DB can be possibly even made into a sort of cure for DMB or some regeneration-accelerating solution and I don’t have to tell you how useful that would be to have, even to UB. -
DB and by extension the Detective, is an enormous danger to the whole Agency. And I don’t mean, if the bag guys get them, oh no. In fact, if everyone leaves MC alone, just to live their life in their small town, the Agency’s secrecy will be doomed, and the fact that it is not already is a very big oversite.
Specifically, I mean the world-breaking mechanic of DB’s sent revealing supernaturals’ true appearance. How is every supernatural in town not revealed yet if just a whiff is enough (like mermaid girl)? Huge neglect on the part of the Agency (again
) to not address that problem. I was hoping B3 would do something about that but nope, the issue is nonexistent even tho we know from the number of kidnappings that there are dozens and dozens of supernaturals in town who could be revealed unknowingly by MC.
At the cinema with the MC, after the movie, the whole room can be filled with unveiled sups. They either somehow kept outside a 1km radius away from MC or are vampire-level strong and unaffected by DB but at that point how did they even let themselves get kidnapped?
Another issue this brings is that the Rogues will have absolutely no problem finding MC. Just send 5 to circle the town sniffing for an hour and they will find them, no problem, and that is not taking into account the possibility of the supernatural’s enhanced sense of smell.
We already know that vails exist as well as other magics, so why didn’t the Agency give MC a smell-blocking enchantment or smell-absorbing clothes (that’s a real thing), at the very least kept MC contained until they come up with some plan? Letting MC move freely compromises the secrecy of this whole operation. -
The blood drive is such a non-problem in my mind. Just fake a fever and keep coughing all day and no one will take blood from you since they can’t risk the health, or even life, of ppl down the line getting your sick blood.
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The DNA changing, invented seemingly just to solve the “issue” with the blood drive is just unnecessary and world-breaking. Unnecessary because there are simpler methods to solve this problem, world-breaking because now there exists a supernatural who can literally change our species. For instance, the DNA difference between a human and a chimp is only 1,2% so it’s safe to say that any change is potentially catastrophic to human life. They could change our IQ or our spectrum of visible colors, potentially even reproduce DB or preMurphy mutation within another agent, or just change some already bagged blood to have its properties and who knows what else. I’ll do you one better, they could just change Douglas back to normal.
The Chamber
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There were 5 of them, 2 humans and 3 sups, and for 20 years now, there is one human to 3 sups. They really couldn’t find a replacement for that long? Seems like an overrepresentation of one side to me. Shouldn’t there be an equal amount of representatives from both sides? You know, to avoid situations like one side strongarming or overruling the other in their favor? Like establishing rules in favor of agents of a certain origin and the detriment of others? Nah, that would never happen!
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When MC was supposed to meet with them I was sure that meeting was in order to officially make a request for the MC to donate their blood, and I was even getting excited for that, but instead, it was just to say ‘hi’ and introduce some more eccentric characters to the readers. Other than finding out about Rebecca nothing of substance came out of that whole encounter.
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So the Chamber barely does anything then. And that means that Rebecca lied when she said she resign because she would have even less time with MC than she did as a handler. Keep digging that hole for yourself Rebecca, meanwhile, -20 points.
She also said it was too many painful memories or something to that effect. Yeah, doing the job her husband, who was at the bottom of the food chain, had nothing to do with was too painful for her, but going back to the town they were living in and meeting their mutual acquaintances is fine. Why even stay in this town? With how she acts about her husband she should get rid of everything that could remind her of him, and that should include the supernaturals. But I guess MC reminded her of him even more, so she abandoned them instead. Heh, classic Rebecca.
Sin
He was just wasted, bearly scratched the surface of what he could have been, and the convoluted soul bond does him no favors.
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A little nitpick here. Maybe I’m the only one who thought this, but after reading this part I got the impression that he was working for Trappers for centuries. That they were just passing his ownership down the line hence trapping him in a neverending cycle of servitude, and Cessair is just his newest owner. But after reading till the end it seems like only recently he was “recruited”? It’s unclear to me. -
So basically, MC can kick his ass. If a halfhearted punch can split his lip that means he has no (or shouldn’t have) super durability like vampires do. And that would make sense, he got an unbreakable barrier but he himself is a very venerable, interesting tradeoff. And interesting situation when it’s only the MC aka “the weak human”, who has a fighting chance and not the mighty vampires.
But then he smashes against a building and is all messed up when he should be either A. completely fine due to his barrier or B. Dead. Since he has a durability of a human and he just hit a wall at 60mph. I would be very much in favor of A, since it would show those centuries of experience in action, and his capability of using his shield for offense, and solidify him as an enemy we can’t just overpower but rather, had to reason with and convince to resist the soul bond. -
How come he is not affected by DB? Even the strongest supernaturals (aka UB) have trouble handling it up close, and Detective is leaking all over after that building fell on them. How cool would it be if Sin, even by accident, got some of that magic juice in him and that brief power-up would jumpstart him into eventually breaking that soul bond at the end of the book? Or if he just went to town on MC’s neck and drink them dry? That’s just me theorizing but the DB effects should be a constant worry and looming threat over MC.
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And he flies away… Wow, didn’t picture Sin as such a selfish guy but I guess he is now. I guess the moment he tasted some freedom (although he really shouldn’t, more on that later) he immediately forgets about all the people he so lamented having to help enslave. Can you at least give us a testimony about Trappers’ facilities you visited or people your ex-boss sold Supernaturals to… oh you’re already gone…
And what is with MC’s weak argument and no rebuttal to Sin’s accusation? You basically got a portable and invincible flying-tank-man in between jobs, surely you can do better than that to recruit him, eh? Make a case for yourself instead of going “Oh well, I tried”. Please put in more than 30% of effort, say something about how he can help them actually save all the people he kidnapped until now, or at the very least make up for it by saving others. Don’t let him equate Agency as the same as Trappers and leave with that notion. This is serious business and MC acts like they offered him a sandwich and not an actual chance for redemption. -
Sin is a similar case to Falk and the rest of maa-allused. They are OP and too useful, therefore complete stakes-breakers. That’s why, they are done and gone once the plot demands it. In Falk’s case, this book would be basically resolved after the first kidnapping. If Sin stayed around I expect the same in the next book, and the next, and so on. They were introduced with soo crazy abilities that keeping them in, would force the author to account for them in every future book, every encounter, and enemy villain MC faces. Use maa-alused to track, then send invincible Sin to extract. Yeah… stakes are sufficiently killed, therefor they both will be forgotten like they never existed. That leads me to another point: Supernaturals are way too overpowered. To the point that when the plot puts them in any trouble I just can’t believe it. With what we know about UB, the challenges they face are just insufficient or contrived. Below is how someone who moves “like a blur” or " faster than the eye can see" fights humans.
It doesn’t matter what amazing weapons or equipment you may have when your opponent acts faster than you can react to. Wayhaven makes their vampires too cool, and strong, with basically no real weaknesses. So much so that their enemies will have to have even crazier and crazier new abilities to actually pose a believable threat to them, to create real stakes. Like in Sin’s case literal invincibility shield. Upping the stakes is a dangerous rabbit hole, ultimately leading to their destruction. Just look at Marvel movies, when nowadays in every movie they have to save the multiverse. Not just New York or Earth, not even our universe oh no, it’s all of them and all possible timelines as well. And they want us to believe that some gangster might be a threat? But I digress. The point is: too many OP supernaturals.
Greedy Lady and Soulbond
Similar case to Sin, she also has untapped potential.
But wait!
There’s more!
She is also stupid.
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What a weak case she makes for herself. She had no arguments to convince anyone. She is an embodiment of “throw money at the problem and it will fix itself”. We get nothing substantial from her about her world view, and why she is the way she is. No big speech about how money rules the world, how anyone can be bought for the right amount and with enough of a push. No lament or joy about how people are willing to sell their friends, dignity, or ideals for profit. She could even secretly drive ppl into debt only to then “graciously” pay it off for them, for a favor or two. There is so much that can be done with a materialistic character but there is no clash of ideas with MC. Instead, we get Rebecca and Sin telling us she’s greedy, and that’s that. She comes off so shallow.
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She kidnaps people close to MC. I thought, to keep them as hostages and force MC to her will. Ok, that’s fine, but then she just proceeds to sell them away just to irk MC?!?!?! WHAT? She specifically targets ppl MC cares about because MC cares about them, and then she assumes MC suddenly prefers money? If MC prefers money and would join you anyway, why kidnap important ppl for the MC to force them to join you in the first place? So you think MC wants money or their close ones, which is it? Make up your mind woman!
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She invites MC to her hideout, just like that? Just… Wow. So they have a Frog-shaped detector-man and she thinks that makes her immune to the Agency? Frogmir here, already failed to detect Rebecca sneaking around, what if the Agency was not incompetent and sent a whole army of human agents? They could just surround them and wait for the participants to leave the forest to catch them then, or just put a bunch of motion-sensor cameras around and watch who leaves the forest and follow them home separately. What a massively stupid move on her part to reveal her location. Why not kidnap MC, while using Frongo to make sure UB is somewhere else? They already know where MC works and lives, and due to their blood sent should easily find them in town. That way you don’t announce to your biggest opposing organization your precise position.
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Welp… She dead. Bearly explored and already gone. But that aside, the issue is that after choosing to rescue the kidnapped sups over chasing her, Sin announces to everyone that he will continue to protect her. I guess he was tying his shoes at the time she got killed and couldn’t give her a hand. Bummer.
But if you go for her instead, he does nothing anyway. I played 2 times and in both, he never fight with me and can’t be convinced to stand against Cessair. Is that a Batman “I don’t have to save you” moment? Then what’s the point of that soul bond if he can choose not to protect her? Sometimes Sin acts like he has no other choice, magically forced to obey, and other times he can do what he wants, like letting Cessair get captured and/or killed. Even if she is in handcuffs what is stopping her from willing Sin to murder everyone on the site or at least to free her? There is no official bondage-breaking scene, why is it assumed he is free? This soul bond mechanics is so wonky and inconsistent.
And also, he seems to not be aware that the bond is “fake” for some reason. If I remember correctly if you go the research route you can find out about a ritual Trappers performed to form an artificial soul bond. And it seems they don’t need the subject of that bond to be present for it, or Sin just didn’t think it was suspicious when he was asked to stand in the middle of a pentagram
? In all seriousness, he should know how the bond is supposed to form even if he never did form one before, and whatever process the Trappers used should be apparent to him as artificial.
As he is a character with a seemingly unbreakable barrier I assumed that he can be exploited emotionally. Like being manipulated by Greedy Lady to fall in love with her for the Bond to form, but she doesn’t love him back, so the bond is incomplete, therefore so exploitative to one side but also possible to be broken. That was also why I thought he wasn’t so willing to try and go against her, coz despite what she makes him do and what she herself does, he still had feeling for her.
A is giving mixed signals, stringing MC along, and the plot makes MC super sad about it regardless of what personality you play. Besides the plot deciding how MC feels I have no issue with how A is acting. For some reason, people really expect a closed-off, 1000-year-old virgin with a tragic backstory to know what they are doing. They are like a drug addict, they think MC is bad for them but are already hooked and can’t stay away despite their best efforts. The only problem is the plot determining MC’s sadness despite their personality, knowing A’s story, and all the other characters telling them A just needs some time.
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PART 2
Trappers
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Man, what a letdown. They are still just glorified cow hoarders to me. There is nothing special or unique about their faction. They were already underwhelming in B2 but they had some potential left. Alas, B3 is the final nail to their coffin for me. When they were introduced as a concept I thought of them as similar to the hunters from the Supernatural TV series but on the evil side.
I thought they will use some contraptions and unique equipment, maybe even some magical supernaturals’ body parts as they have no abilities of their own and no financial backing. Just good ol’ human creativity and malice. But nah… just rednecks with cow prods. -
How about giving guns to the humans fighting Trappers? They only use melee weapons (for some reason) so that will be easy. Or better yet have Trappers use guns. Just some human-on-human violence, nothing to see here. Then we can just shoot them in the knee, then whack em’ and pack em’.
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Also, Cessair works for the Rogue’s leader?? Whaaat?? But she’s with the trappers, she keeps sending them after MC! So the Rogues and Trappers are basically the same group now? There are already supernaturals working for them who should be idealistically incompatible with them. And I don’t mean the forced ones, I mean working of their own free will, like the bunch who did “the thing” to Douglas.
That’s just meh… I thought they were 3 distinct, rivaling factions: 1. The Trappers - who use their ingenuity to build, dare I say it, TRAPS to capture supernaturals. 2. The Rogues - using their abilities in the cause of supernaturals’ supremacy. 3 The Agency - good guys with both ingenuity, abilities, and also government funding.
That’s how it looked in my head and it makes for an interesting dynamic between the 3 groups. And now the bad guys will just blend in since they all work for the same person? -
From facilities? As in multiple, different ones? How is only one team assigned to finding them then? Seems like a case that calls for a multi-facility combined effort. Also, " There is no possible way Trappers could better them" huh? Kinda ironic you say that, but more on that later, now I would like to point out how disregarding A is towards the threat the Trappers pose. Looks like A knows what the reader already knows when both shouldn’t. I agree with A, but the plot seems to disagree, still trying to make Trappers threatening while simultaneously demeaning them and portraying them as unable to face the Agency without help and being let’s say, intellectually challenged. -
Little problem here. At the beginning of the scene, the interrogated Trapper doesn’t know where he is and is told he’s in the Agency’s Facility. He doesn’t know which facility or even in what country he is for that matter. And yet he still knows that the auction is “not far” when he can’t possibly know that in relation to his position.
Additionally, “not far from here”??? So the trappers set up an auction of their kidnapped agents right at the Agency’s doorstep?? How incompetent is the Agency to not notice that? (the answer is, very).
Also, Trappers know the location of the facility?? How is that not a massive security breach and why wasn’t anything done about it since MC was attacked right outside of it in Book 2? And they are surprised that their agents are getting kidnapped all the time? -
Yeah, they shouldn’t lose them at all. With how overpowered the vampires are portrayed there should be no way for Trappers to escape them. By what possible means can humans escape vampires at night? We can’t even run away from a dog, and UB is a little better in both senses and speed. We get no explanation on this whatsoever. The famous Unit Bravo, let some Trappers slip. Was it due to some new equipment they used? Weapons? Gear or even snares? If they used some new tactic they should discuss it with the team and develop countermeasures. In the game, it seems like the Trappers just powerwalked away. UB comes off as suddenly incompetent against Trapper, who should not pose any threat to them, to begin with. -
So the Warewolf pack tho lives in a forest and away from civilization wants money now? Ok, I guess. Not only that, they want Trappers’ money. The group that is an enemy of all supernaturals and regards them as lesser beings only to be exploited? For one, do they really want to do business with such a despicable group? Second, Trappers can’t be trusted, obviously. What guarantee does the pack have the Trappers will honor their part of the deal? For all they know the money could be fake and they just want to take in whoever brings them the MC as a bonus. With all the messed up things they do, breaking a word to some supernaturals is no big deal for them. I wonder if the pack had any one of their members taken by the Trappers before in which case, what would Uncle Jeremiah say if he knew his family is taking money from the same people who made him into a rag for some rich snob’s mansion? -
No, they are not and we are reminded of it again. Sadly. But my main focus is the random old guy. Why is there some old guy we don’t know instead of that kid from the beginning? She was forgotten for the whole book so I was sure we will actually meet her at the finale. Since everything started with her I thought now will end with her. But we get some Randy instead. The series likes to create and introduce new characters, which is not a bad thing in itself, provided it does not come at the cost of already existing ones. The old guy did nothing really important or meaningfully influenced MC. What if we met that kid in a ragged state after weeks of captivity, begging MC to save her instead of chasing the Greedy Lady? Or at least the woman Sin kidnapped? Now that’s some proper dilemma for MC, save the kid they spend all this time looking for, or sentence hed for a lifetime of abuse by choosing to go after Cessair instead.
The kid and the woman are both supposed to be important for setting the story in motion and for MC’s emotional turmoil but the plot forgets they exist the moment they are “offscreen”, and this is the perfect opportunity for them to make a comeback. But instead, we get Herbert to whom both the MC and we as the reader have zero emotional connection.
(Disclaimer: I can’t, with all certainty claim that his name is actually Herbert.) -
Hold up. Wait a minute. Something aint right. Trapper can do that? Really? THEM? I barely believe they can tie their own shoes at this point, let alone create such an elaborate compound, and Rebecca is acting like that already happened a bunch of times before. I guess the DNA-changing guy had a day off that day.
I would give a pass to Rogues using it since they have unknown abilities and ( in my head) experimenting on humans and turning them into sups, in a way serves their supernatural supremacy movement. But really Trappers? They really swing from one end of the spectrum to another, either they are super treating or complete morons, no in-between.
Random things
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Sooo… Why do vampires look like humans then? If there are no humans, where would that likeness come from? And F’s mom is a Witch if I remember correctly, and she also looks like a human? Is Witch a separate species now? A suspicious amount of human-looking folks in this alien dimension.
Also, does no humans mean that Vampires used to turn other supernaturals into vampires? or those thralls? That had to be the case since if they didn’t know they can do that, they wouldn’t try to do that to humans in the first place. That means a vampire Anunnaki or a bloodsucking unicorn in the future.
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I just want to say here that I don’t like how nothing is known about Rook besides that he’s Rook. No name, no family, or a photo. For someone so (potentially) important to MC and essential for Rebecca’s development and her treatment of MC, we learn next to nothing about him throughout the series. I’m starting to think MC got a good ol’ case of Immaculate Conception.
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On a similar note, I don’t like how MC’s and Rebecca’s relationship is left ambiguous and unspecific throughout their early years. R says she wants to make everything up to MC but we don’t even know what that is exactly. Maybe she was just away a lot but when she came back she spent all the time with MC, or maybe it’s the MC who rejected her because of her leaving frequently, or R straight-up abused MC, we don’t know. We can determine how MC feels about what happened but we should not have influence over the actual events. The backstory should be set in stone and the thing changing should be our perspective as we see the events from new angles.
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Nitpick here. What is A’s car? Why leave that to our imagination when a real car can convey so much about them? Whether it is a Porsche, Ferrari, or an American Mustang, just a brand tells a lot about the owner’s personality. Like, for instance, BMW’s drivers are typically jerks
. Maybe you have to pay royalties for using specific car names, I dunno just seems like a missed opportunity. -
I’m starting to see a pattern here, hmm. There is way too much space for the reader/player to insert their own head-canon. So much ambiguous stuff left for us to fill, it’s hard to sink your teeth in, so to speak. Who’s your dad? You decide! How was your relationship with your mother? Figure it out. I guess that its purpose is to not lock players out of what they would like to be there, but in turn, seems so… hollowed out? Like the story is incomplete. It’s difficult to be emotionally invested in a question mark.
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One last thing. Maybe it’s because I’m a guy, but it is so bothersome how overly emotional characters are in these books. Important/fight scenes are “interrupted”, by the simplest physical or eye contact, turning MC into jello. All the “heats” and “thousands of unspoken emotions” really tire me out mentally. I get that it’s a romance, but damn, that’s an affection overload. Characters seem like infatuated teens, barely keeping it in their pants, not grown adults. I don’t advocate for muting all their reactions, but to give maturity to them, as well as some more variety.
The worse offender is Rebecca who at the sole mention of Rook falls apart like clockwork. It’s been 20 years already, get a hold of yourself, woman! Your child (and the reader) knows nothing about their father and that’s your fault, you don’t get to be evasive anymore because you’re sad. Time to face reality, whatever it may be.
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Don’t have time to respond properly right now, but had to say I enjoyed your very in depth analysis of b3. There are quite a few points you made that I had myself, and you hit some I had chosen to let slide. (I do disagree about A–going hot/cold on someone constantly is emotionally abusive, and even they recognize it at the Addie crime scene–M is guilty of the same thing, up until chapter 14ish, with the not-a-date scene.)
There is one thing I’d like to respond to now:
This is the thing of which this series is most guilty. There’s no variety or intensity to the emotions, it’s all one note, slammed as hard as the author can hit it. And it ends up having the opposite effect for which she aims. Instead of eliciting emotions, it either numbs the reader from the overly ridiculous reactions or begins to grate. I can’t fathom anyone over the age of 13 behaving this way constantly and managing to hold down a job or otherwise be an adult. Everything shouldn’t cause the MC to lose their shit, but it does. And it just makes the MC come off as weird and sort of mentally and emotionally challenged.
Anyway, nice analysis. You kind of remind me of my older brother, and that’s a compliment! Even if he did ruin every movie or TV show I watched while growing up, lol.
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You touched some really good points that I had a lot of issues with, primarily the Agency incompetency, how underused Sin was, how quickly the big evil was defeated and how one dimensional the MC is despite the personality stats. I’m so done with them almost fainting and having their breath taken away each time the ro enters the same room.
Your in-depth analysis only solidifies how “weak” B3 is, at least in my opinion. You need so much suspension of belief to enjoy the narrative because nothing makes sense; as I see it the purpose of B3 is to push the relationships forward (or backwards) while the detective is supposed to solve a crime but isn’t really bothered for 3/4 of the book. It still baffles me that the MC is going on a date with the ro and/or colleagues when only half an hour earlier they were crying about 12 missing people and yet still choose to do nothing, because of course people that are captive and their worried relatives can wait while the detective is having some bonding time. Priorities I guess.
Exactly, I never really cared about Rook or Rebecca. She’s the only source of information about our deceased father but shares the most useless things and when you try to dig a little deeper she pull the ‘it’s too hard to talk about him’ card, after 20+?! Rebecca needs to visit a therapist asap and bring A along. The Captain also seemed close to Rook but not once has he said anything of value, how am I supposed to care? Rook passed away when the detective was 2, they have no memories of this man. The author should have thrown in some flashbacks just create some rapport or something.
Imo, Rebecca should have been Rook’s former partner who now mentors the MC and helps them navigate the supernatural world, her role as an absent mother, that keep lying to the MC at every opportunity, brings nothing to the story.
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Yeah, witches are considered a different supernatural species in Wayhaven… or I suppose, a different type of human born with supernatural abilities.
I guess we don’t really know if pure blood echo world vampires actually all look human, or if F only does because of their mother, or if it’s just a glamor supernaturals use when they enter the human world…unless it was explained somewhere else on Patreon or in an Ask or something.
Witches are supernaturals. There are no humans in the Echo World (except maybe literally one).
I have successfully finished playing through the series again (once for each member) with the release of book three! I absolutely loved it! And now I can officially rejoin the world of Wayhaven discussion
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Is it just me or is anyone else confused on why there is a good amount of people complaining about B3’s plot being boring yet it seems to have gone unnoticed by all the beta readers? I’m not trying to be rude, I love the series but it just seems like some revising could have made this problem an easy fix. Especially since it was a game literally YEARS in the making. Not to mention that this book has more than just plot problems but I feel like everything else could have been overlooked with a better plot.
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Unfortunately, it seems like suggestions regarding plot changes are not very welcomed, which would be fair if a beta went and tried to change the narrative to fit their personal needs, but I hardly doubt that’s the case. The author has a story to tell, which also fair, but sadly it’s going to be ruined by watered down installments for the sake of “I have like three more books planned.” Wayhaven being trope-y heavy also doesn’t help with this issue, since you can make me like a slowburn just fine (A and M), but if you dangle the carrot in front of my face only to take it back at the end of every book then ehh I might not be here next time.
Plus these books could heavily benefit from some editing, when it comes to the writing style etc, but that’s also 100% not happening.
Tldr; I still enjoy wayhaven for the romance nonsense it is, but I’m also salty and will use the next book as a “make it or break it” situation.
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