if you can stand, you can fight

You could just. Hc LI is a lesbian in your playthrough. No one would stop you. But I think it's important to remember when making a post about any non-gender locked books, that not everyone is playing the same as you are. The ambiguity is not there to erase gay and lesbian rep, it's there so everyone can idk self-insert a little better. As much as it's possible anyway with a choices book.

No I know! That's what I actually did originally. I HC-ed Cas in my playthrough as lesbian, and immediately got 3 anons saying I'm erasing Bi rep because every time an MC is gender customizable the LIs have to be bi. Which, imo, is strange! I get that the politics are complicated in a choose your own adventure game, so ultimately I just ignore it most of the time. Because obviously you should have the ability to self-insert how you want.

I don't know how clearly I'm making my point - I like that LIs are romanceable regardless of how the player selects their protagonist. I guess that I'm just pointing out that 'bi-by-default' is different from intentional, thoughtful representation.

Interesting! I played him as Indian and thought it felt somewhat...generic to any POC LI? Like he talks about being different from his brother, but no specifics about his heritage or his connection to the country. Maybe I'm being nitpicky because I'm of a South Asian background, but I think it would've been enriched with more stuff about where his birth parents came from, or maybe being mistaken for a sepoy when he was on duty, since the Crown's army was heavily racialized - I guess I was just looking for something more.

Okay I'm sorry I'm just not very familiar with Choices sexuality discourse. I'm bi, I was hc-ing Cas as a lesbian in my playthrough, I wasn't actually thinking very hard about the content of my post. That being said, for the future I'll keep in mind that she's bi.

However, I also think that this generally hits the nail on the head about my issue with customizable race and genders in this game. It completely erases potential for more specific representation, and means that everyone is just...bi by default. Want lesbian rep? Or gay rep? Nope, we only have ambiguous stuff to avoid any kind of accountability. Or the characters are presented as weirdly racially ambiguous in the text when, in reality, their race should influence their dialogue at least slightly. You're telling me that John from the Unexpected Heiress has the exact same dialogue when he's white and when he's Indian? That makes zero sense. Anyway, I digress.