I'd recommend to just use con sole cheats so you'd make the story actually good, but also, since I haven't played a female route obviously, how is it different? I'm genuinely curious now that you've pointed it out
Choice of Mods
Join our amazing community to find Choicescript games and modifications to improve your gameplay!
Stories that left you disappointed for a reason
- Thread starter Sant
- Start date
It's not even that. Lena is a Blade fangirl, and as someone who thinks that Blade is as romantically or platonically attractive as a piece of cardboard I am kinda mad about it. It's Blade, then Chase (because he is female readers' fave), then Tallys\Trouble depending on her mood. As a Redmancer I am always shafted, too. Can't even imagine how Briony or Lavinet crowd feels... Or are you saying it's gender-biased for MC?
I mostly read Blade and Briony's routes
which makes the difference SO obvious when it comes to how much content they got... i dont dislike his parts just not my fave and now im extra annoyed because of the extra attention he gets...Why don't you like Blade though? Hes sort of a fan fave too afaik not just the writers (and you are so right about that)
Simply the amount of content they got... interludes... for example Blade gets moments where other characters talk about him and the mc which doesn't exist for others and most of all other female ROs... or none of the female routes got a confession while 3 out of 5 male ros got it...
I'm a Blade fangirl too but gotta agree lol poor Lavinet got like...minimum story (which......ngl...does anyone even like her?)
Ok, so the whole 'stoic and emotionally unavailable\not in touch with their emotions' thing is a huge turn off for me for romanceable characters (sidenote: compare him with O from infamous. O is stoic but they are not stunted; they are single mature&professional person in a circus). That, combined with overabundance of Blade compared to any other character + Lena's constant reminders that 'um, acshually, when SoH was a book Blade was a cannon RO for MC, hehe' and him always getting more content waaay ahead of the others gradually turned me from being neutral about him to disliking him lol, He also has the most tropey and cliched personality, imo, because most of the other chars have bits and pieces that graduate them from being tropey.
that's so interesting bc i like to compare them (plus A) too n i always thought Blade was way more emotional and complex compared to other two ~ he's kinda a character archetype yes but there s a reason its a popular archetype
i find trouble or chase way more cliche (or Tallys/Lavinet tbh) (thats my opinion.jpg)
I adore her!
And hearing this is actually bullshit, but I suppose I can be a touch understanding; writing many routes and whatnot, but focusing on some more than others is not good in my opinion.
One should focus on all at once, or don't release content until they have the same amount of content for every route/character
I just hate it when authors play ro/oc favourites...
There is, but, to me, the most-fun-to-romance characters are those that are either emotionally mature\aware (that's why I vastly prefer Red and Riel over other male ROs in SoH) or have enough rizz\outer drama to pull off being immature (hello, Dragon Age Zevran and BG3 Astarion).
tbh I think A's reasons for limited emotionality are very diff from O and Blade. I also wouldn't call A cold as much as introverted + neurodivergent. As for O, I wasn't talking about emotionality but about maturity lol E.g. take his one-sided beef with Red. Some commander you are, dude...
Agree to disagree 
but u were talking about emotional availability, not maturity there.. I find the fact he's like a badly socialized guard dog endearing...i wouldnt expect Blade to b mature..he s rlly stunted and weird in some ways but thats what makes him fun to read
And A is like...the coldest character imo.....i was going w them first n ....just didnt enjoy at all....M on other handddd
but u were talking about emotional availability, not maturity there.. I find the fact he's like a badly socialized guard dog endearing...i wouldnt expect Blade to b mature..he s rlly stunted and weird in some ways but thats what makes him fun to readAnd A is like...the coldest character imo.....i was going w them first n ....just didnt enjoy at all....M on other handddd
So true btw...normally i pick the character who got the least attention/content this is pretty much an exception
Blade is an otome isekai male lead. Literally cold Duke of the north personality.
I guess that explains it, she just copy and paste her old notes then
Except I'd rather he was actually cold and unavailable. He's just emotionally stunted, because the author needs him to be to add "cute" tropey moments, then go all teehee he's such a wet cat~ about him in asks.
Tbh I don't think this type of behavior, or level of trauma, is endearing. Realistically, it's something that can *majorly* screw you over in life. The fact that the author also seems to treat it as something cute is a part of what puts me off Blade; it's like when anxiousness or idk crippling self-esteem issues get treated as cute when irl they are anything but (and, yes, also can screw you over).
Also why I keep saying it ain't dark fantasy: dark fantasy wouldn't be going into these dumb (sorry, but it is how I see them) romance tropes. Dark fantasy Blade would be actually cold due to being so emotionally broken it'd take him a life to maybe get slightly better (and then it would have turned out that by softening up he lost his edge, and then he'd die lol).
This was supposed to be dark fantasy?? But Blade is just a stoic person at best, there's not any real depth to him, and sure, I am best buddies with him, but even when you hear his whole story, it's so dead and detached, and not at all portrayed good, or how it should be.
There is no impact, and him being broody or whatever, just ain't it.
To me, he's just a bland, stoic stereotype, and that's about it. And the author failed at trying to portray him as some tortured soul, who's missunderstood and cold, because he's really not. I don't recall a single instance where he was remotely "dark" or "cold" so yeah, not sure how it was ever regarded as such
i wholly disagree with all these but its too hot to argue..just gonna say agree to disagree.. imo he s the best written ro in thereSee, he is a wet cat. I don't want him to be a wet cat. I want him to be actually cold and detached as a professional assassin would be. That's why we disagree
Oh, literally same. I completely get you. When I first found the game way back in the day, Blade was my first pick for a RO, and he seemed like the most compatible one for the kind of MC I was playing. Then I started following the author on social media, joined the discord, started supporting her on Patreon... and realised just how much favouritism there was for Blade lol. It all eventually just culminated into me being totally turned off by this RO entirely. I didn't think much of it at first, because I feel like it's inevitable that as an author you'd have some characters you like more than others, I mean I am a writer too and I definitely have some favourites lol. But it was becoming way too blatant and on the nose with Lena and Blade, like it felt the whole fandom was one huge circlejerk about how amazing Blade is, and then it started bleeding into the actual game as well
Also, while I quite enjoy other aspects of the game, I really don't like the romance system in the game in general and it's still very possible that I'm just not going to romance anyone for my canon playthrough. You're basically forced to play a pretty specific kind of MC for every romance, and the romance points requirements are kinda strict, so you'd better pick any romance option that pops up for whatever character you're trying to romance, even if you don't like it, or else tough luck! - you might end up getting locked out of the romance.
I especially hate how your MC behaves when you pick the romance options for Blade.... It felt like I either had to pick between 'sexual harassment simulator' or 'uwu blushing flustered otome protagonist' in terms for romance dialogue for him lmao. It felt so uncharacteristic for the kind of MC I was trying to play (more on the serious and reserved side) that it completely ruined my desire to romance him. There was some more normal options as well, but they were few and far between. At this point I enjoy the platonic friendship the MC can have with Blade way more tbh and find it much more compelling, especially with what happens later on in the story.But overall it's been a while since I played bc at this point I've replayed the game so much that I'm just waiting for the it to be finished, last time I played was around that chapter where you investigate some tree or sth in the elf quarter in the city I think?? So idk if there's been any improvement at all... but judging by what people are saying in this thread, it seems like the favouritism is going strong lol. I myself am now a Red and Ayla enjoyer, but I'm pretty sure the author doesn't remember they exist anymore
EDIT: Oh, also honourable mention to Chase who is clearly the author's second favourite, as some people already said. I already find the kind of character trope he embodies very repetitive and annoying, so he was insufferable to me as it is. But the author's clear bias towards him makes me hate him even more
Last edited: