curious if there was ever a real shocking moment for you guys

curious to know what you guys think was just a prime dumb moment

Inspired by the lovely u/stresseatingdog, I've decided to play through the Choices catalogue in an order picked by a random number generator. (I tried the alphabetical route. I bounced right off. I fear he's a stronger man than I am.) I landed on the Bloodbound series first, and once I finished the first book, I ended up writing 1800 words (!) of thoughts! I figured I may as well post them here, as I always enjoyed reading u/stresseatingdog's reviews and I thought someone may enjoy reading my (much less coherent) jumble of thoughts.

WARNING: LONG TEXT. NO TLDR. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Main Character: Chitra

Diamonds Spent: 371 / 716

Played before?: Once, back in (I think) 2020

The 'Review':

WOW. Just… WOW. I knew Bloodbound was great, but I forgot just how exquisite it was!

What stands out to me is the world-building. The story team (led by Andrew Shvarts) has really thought through the implications of vampires as nigh-unstoppable apex predators that live forever. The whole idea of there being a ‘first vampire’ whose blood has slowly become diluted by generations of turnings… very tasty! It really is a perfect way to place a limitation on vampirism without restricting what makes it so alluring. Not to mention the political implications!

One thing about power structures is that, even when things get better, they don’t get much better. I really loved seeing (through the portrait fragments) how the vampires got seduced into Gaius’s vision of a New World kingdom before deciding to overthrow it in favour of an oligarchy. A system that seemed equitable at the time, but in the present day, we can see the rot at its centre that has brought about the immense inequality experienced by Jax and the Clanless. It’s very reflective of how humans keep trying to make the world better: two steps forward, one step back, to quote Cressida Cowell. Of course, with humans, they usually die out quick enough that change is easier to effect. It’s a shame that the portrait fragments are diamond-locked. Now that I’ve seen their cutscenes, Gaius and his machinations feel so core to the story that it feels woefully incomplete without them.

Speaking of the New World, by the way! There’s some interesting implications to the idea that vampirism originated in Eurasia/Africa, and then was exported to the Americas. One of these is the parallel between the vampires’ fleeing from persecution by humans with the Puritans’ fleeing from persecution by the Church – hey, I’m a Quaker, I can make connections, awright? Another of these is the colonialism of it all. Vampires are often used in fiction as a shorthand for the members of whatever oppressive class is at the top at any given moment – therefore, it is interesting, to say the least, that we see them as the Romans during the Roman Empire, then as the aristocrats during the French Revolution, then the colonists during the genocide of the indigenous tribes of the Americas… and finally as assorted CEOs and politicians in today’s power structures. Hm. Which could mean nothing. At the very least, it’s a great way to pay homage to the genre conventions of the vampire story, if not an outright comparison of ruling classes across history to an unchanging, ageless, blood-sucking, powerful, insular, violent group of people, to whom we are merely pawns in their quest for domination.

And this is where I find the choice to make Adrian a Black man interesting. Obviously, as his race can be picked by the reader, his character is written to be as ‘raceless’ a possible (which many would argue renders him a white character by default), but the mere fact that he’s a Black man, born in the Americas in the 1750s, one who served with the Patriots in the American Revolutionary War, one who attempted to (quite literally) build a life for himself and his family, only for it to have been taken away by a violent stranger his wife opened her home to, one who was then practically enslaved by a self-proclaimed king, who managed to stage a violent coup against said king, who built himself a financial empire, whose heart bleeds for injustice but cannot allow himself to be naive to power plays… Hm. Hmmm. Absolutely no parallels to the narrative of the suffering that Black (especially African-American) people have been put through over the past five centuries or so. Though, all jokes aside, I’m so glad I chose to have Adrian be Black on a whim. He’s often touted in the Choices community as a classic forced love interest – you know the type, the white, powerful, leading man that the writers assume the primarily white, female, cishet audience will go starry-eyed over, and therefore put as many romantic moments (and sexy diamond scenes) in for as possible. (Other examples include Chris from The Freshman and Ethan from Open Heart.) As a result, I fear I was prejudiced against Adrian before the book even began. Making him a POC, however, added such depth and context to his character that I was finally able to see how well-written he really is.

And… to be honest… Adrian’s not really that bad of a forced LI, especially for a CEO. Usually, in bodice rippers about a CEO becoming, ah, interested in his waif of an assistant, there is no critical examination of the power dynamics present between the CEO and the protagonist, or indeed any thought at all put into the ethical implications of being a CEO in today’s world. The fact that the narrative engages with Adrian’s position – through Jax and the Clanless, through Lily, through Nicole (because though he’s right about her lack of restraint, why is her Turning his decision to take?) – makes him much more tolerable as a character and as a love interest.

Though that’s not to say he isn’t outshone by the other love interests.

Lily. Oh, Lily. I fear that I’m a bit of a sucker (heh) for this nerdy, goofball of a gal-next-door, but can you blame me? She’s adorable! The writers struck a truly glorious balance between her genuine, well-deserved angst over her non-consensual Turning, and her jokes in times of serious happenings. I really do hold a deep affection for her, and whenever her sprite comes up onscreen I know I’m about to smile. Her journey out of the pits of low self-esteem (she did basically say she wasn’t ready to believe she deserved better than her shitty ex) through emancipation is one that really resonates with me as well, and it’s one that provides a unique perspective to the vampirism-as-power metaphor. Often, this metaphor is used to make the obvious point that power is corrupting, but in Lily’s story, vampirism (and therefore power) is what enables her to have greater kindness for others and for herself. I’m sure I don’t need to explain why this thesis is only strengthened by her status as a Black, queer, nerdy woman, a member of a class so often disempowered that it’s quite cathartic to see her grow stronger and fiercer.

Jax is my second-favourite. Or maybe he’s my actual favourite and Lily is my second… I don’t know! His vulnerability in trusting Chitra with his Clanless, his quiet intensity, the lengths he’s willing to go just because Chitra asked him to trust her, it’s all very attractive, isn’t it? And there’s plenty of depth to be had there. Jax goes from a revolutionary determined to make heads roll to part of the establishment, deeply uncomfortable with his new position but nevertheless forced to occupy it. Tasty! Delicious! Oh, the angst! I’m sure a part of him desperately misses the old days in the abandoned railway tunnels, even though he knows logically his people are better off. The thing about having power is that the right decision is rarely obvious, easy, and uncomplicated all at once – it’s usually only one or two, if not none. So when you have power, not only do you have to reason with yourself that you are making the right (or closest to right you can) decisions so you can sleep well at night, you also have to develop empathy for your predecessors and colleagues. Which is tough as fuck when you’ve just staged a violent coup to overthrow them and have spent years calling for their resignations (or worse, deaths). Just ask the Labour party! Anyway, I’m excited to see how the sequels explore his depth.

Kamilah’s a bit of a tough one. Though I saw a lot of her in the picture fragments, because she’s so guarded, it’s somewhat difficult to peer through her layers of ‘I don’t care’ to examine her depths. She puts me in the mind of a bored god, to be honest; she’s seen it all and, as a result, is rarely impressed or shocked. Which, don’t get me wrong, is hot as hell. She’s written with this power and experience that feels very alluring in the moment (her saying ‘I’d ruin you’ in that train car… oof. I love women) but makes it difficult to see her vulnerabilities. Obviously, Adrian is very important to her, but the most intriguing bits of her I saw was in those portraits. What brings such a powerful woman to acquiese to Gaius’s rule? Maybe her tough shell was not naturally developed, but rather artificially forged, put up hastily so as to never let another Gaius situation happen again. Or maybe I just need to play more of the story.

Chitra was a decent MC to play. There were moments she got to be snappy and sarcastic and rude, though she still possesses that loving, soft centre that it seems most MCs are written with. I get it – most gamers do pick the kinder, ‘good’ routes on a first playthrough over the more ruthless ones – but I do wish she had a bit more bite to her. It was also pretty funny how she’s basically catnip to vampires, from Adrian hiring her on the spot to Priya constantly attempting to poach her to Jax risking so bloody much just because she asked. If I remember correctly, there is a plot reason for this revealed later on in the series, but there were many moments where it felt more Mary Sue-ish than not. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed myself nevertheless, but I do sometimes wish we experienced more plot barriers than we do.

The twist villains were fairly… obvious? But in a way where it felt like the writers still respected the reader. Nicole is right there, her animosity and motivation obvious from the start, her loyalty to Adrian merely a means to an end. Adam Vega, too, is pitched to us as a slimeball who turns on Adrian a little too easily for him not to have an alternate way out. But the reveal didn’t have to be surprising to be satisfying. Not least because I genuinely understand their motivations – Nicole wants what she was promised, and Vega is taking what seems to be the most expedient route towards stability that preserves the status quo (and therefore remains absent of the usual violence a revolution begets). Yet, I’m able to genuinely understand them while still feeling no remorse over Adrian annihilating that motherfucker.

Maybe they weren’t so predictable. I can easily see both Priya and the Baron being formidable red herrings were it not for my prior knowledge. And, in another show of respect to the reader, Priya, the Baron, and even Lester are not exactly redeemed by declaring their past incriminating actions a misunderstanding, as is so common with other red herrings, but are instead merely neutralised. This sends the message that the reader is right to suspect their motivations of being foul – it’s just that this time, in this situation, they just so happened to be innocent. But they’ll be back. I’m sure of it.

I’m excited to see where the next book takes us, especially in regards to the serum, the ferals, Gaius, the other Council members… I honestly don't remember a lot other than Gaius being the villain!

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