ROUND 1 â Match 1 of 138
Valdemar (The Arcana)
Problematic because: "Valdemar is Lucioâs Quaestor and head physician during the Red Plague. Theyâre hired to help cure the plague, especially Lucio, but they deliberately drag the process out because theyâre more interested in experimenting than helping people. They dissect bodies (and vivisect people alive - like, they're obsessed with vivisection), use the plague as an opportunity for 'medical research', and are tied to the secret dungeon/lab under the palace. They also make deals with the Devil, weaken Death through that connection, and are one of the most openly cruel courtiers. Theyâre not conflicted about it either." Propaganda: "Theyâre one of the few Arcana characters who doesnât really bother pretending to be nicer than they are. Theyâre calm, clinical, creepy, and very direct about their interests, which makes them stand out from the other courtiers in a different way. I like them because they bring a more medical-horror flavour to the story. Lucio is selfish and theatrical, Vulgora is loud violence, Volta is sad hunger, Vlastomil is gross and corrupt, but Valdemar is controlled. They feel dangerous because theyâre curious, not because theyâre angry, which makes them very effective as a villain."
vs. Keith (Date Everything!)
Problematic because: "He starts off as this sweet older skeleton key you find in the crawlspace, and the game very much wants you to go âaw, poor guy, why was he left down there?â He helps you open the attic, talks about not remembering what happened to him, and if you follow his route he gets you to help hack into an old online journal/account to âsolveâ his past. The route also keeps warning you not to question his innocence too much if you want the Love ending, which is already a little suspicious in hindsight. Then you Realize him - basically turn him into a human - and the nice old man act drops. He reveals heâs been using you, takes your money, and bails. So he builds trust, plays vulnerable, gets the player to help him access money, hurts Dorian in the process too, and then leaves everyone standing there like. Oh. Okay. Grandpa was evil actually." Propaganda: 1. "Keith is a really fun kind of awful because the betrayal actually works on the player. You meet him, he seems gentle and sad, he has history with Dorian, and the whole game has trained you to expect weird little object-people with emotional baggage. So when it turns out heâs been playing you, itâs mean, but itâs also kind of brilliant. I like that heâs one of the few routes where the game goes, no, sometimes the suspiciously charming person really was suspicious. Heâs horrible for it, but I canât pretend it wasnât memorable." 2. "keith is so evil for making me care about him first. like sir you are a key. why are you emotionally scamming me. he acts all sweet and wounded and âoh no i was abandoned in the crawlspaceâ and then the second he gets a human body heâs off with your money. and poor dorian has to deal with the emotional fallout too!! awful man. but also unfortunately very funny" 3. "getting catfished by a skeleton key is insane and he deserves recognition for that alone. heâs lying in the crawlspace like a sad little object granddad, gets you to trust him, gets you to help with his whole mystery, and then immediately pulls the dating sim equivalent of stealing your wallet and fleeing the country"
Who should advance?
Valdemar
Keith
(Disclaimer: All text above was sent in by submitters and not written by OP.)
