#e-p

I heavily agree with you on why they're bad writing and have my own points to note. And to preface, I agree that its okay if people enjoy these characters I don't have on the people who do I'd just like to critique how they were written.

My biggest gripe is the fact that all of EPs characters that have routes feel heavily romanticized. In Gato's writing it feels very much more horror which is why it's so compelling. It makes me want to survive but it also makes me want to learn more about why these characters are the way they are. With Sano, Akira, Vincent, and Cain it feels like their bad actions aren't as bad as they should be portrayed. They feel romanticized. And while there is a level of that in btd, Boyfriend is in the title, it is also supposed to be horror. It feels like EP doesn't really know what he wanted when writing them. Like he didn't know if they were supposed to be hot or scary. So it teeters on vague flirting and suddenly shocking actions from the characters for little to no reason. Why does Sano put bugs in the MC? Why does Cain use them as a plate? There's no explanation to it other than evil guy does evil things. Whereas characters like Lawrence do things for a reason. When he bleeds MC out hes doing it so he can take them apart easier so he can make art with their corpse. He quiets them so he doesn't get in trouble with his neighbors. And in Ren's case he's desperate for a companion of any kind but also influenced by Strade so his intentions are twisted by sick actions of his abuser. Cain feels like the biggest example of it. He takes MC as a form of entertainment. But thats it. He's described as a romantic but you hardly even see that. As if "romantic" was just something to describe him to get people interested. All the characters have some sort of ending with love mentioned but EPs feel like they fall flat. Strade loves people so much he kills them or keeps them as a pet. Ren desperately wants someone to love him but he's been influenced by Strade so he's become more violent since now he believes hurt is part of love. Lawrence wants a soulmate or companion but he knows he's volatile and he has been hurt by people before so he struggles to begin connecting with people.

Another one of my gripes is the ending where Vincent and Farz keep you as part of the pack. The part after the "you survived" screen made me and my friend lose our shit because Sano suddenly appears like he has a connection with Vincent but it turns out they have none. They're strangers. It's sloppy world building. Then suddenly Lawrence shows up for some reason and it's suggested they're friends but anyone who's gone through Lawrence's route even once knows that's simply not true. It's a half assed way to connect the characters.

I'd love to rewrite EPs characters and give them more depth. Gato's characters feel like they have thought put into them, they have backgrounds that show how they got to where they are. Even if Strade was born with such violent tendencies it shows he made an effort to become charismatic and social so he could help his twisted tendencies. Plus EPs myriad of characters just makes the routes clunky and awkward like you pointed out.

I feel like they all have potential if they just had more time, thought, and effort put into them. Sano was what drew me in to BTD in the first place and I still enjoy the idea of his character but in practice it's just blegh.

-🪽

-Ensete was created as an emoji -Ensete started his first games which were:  Guess who, tag, life all had strange twists and a lot of chaos -The original Ensete server was created  from there several games of cops and robbers were played, at least one or two more games of life, and a game of cat and mouse in the server you had to have ‘tokens’ to become a player, each person starts out with a ‘token’ and that token was the players life, if you were tokenless then (to Ensete at least) you were dead. Tokens could be traded and earned by playing the game or if Ensete just happened to take a liking to you or what you said for a brief time You could also speak to “Nan” (me) or later “Nansete” (sorta still me) for hints and just for talking, there was a suggestion box but I’m not sure it ever really got used. From here on the timeline is sketchier because I have bad memory buut -”Anti” was mentioned (and an Anti RPer was invited to the server) -this lead to a “virus” being detected, but instead of Anti being detected it was Ensete who was read as a virus -Players initiated a system reboot/cleaning sort of thing which worked to some extent, but Ensete could never fully go back to what he originally was -Ensete-Secondary was created (Nan became Nansete) -Ensete-S (E-S) began to run more... orderly games, his favourite being chess - E-S began to believe that Players/Users souls got in the way of gaming, so he began betting for their souls, only to rip them out and turn their bodies into NPCs (Non-Player Characters)  - ES intended to go through and make every Player into an NPC, but first a deal was struck ooc for one of the best chess players present to fail on purpose, they wanted in and ES wanted to be sure he never lost, and so  -”NPC-002” was the first? created NPC, though there was already an NPC present they were thought to be run down and didn’t interact much (more on 001 later though) -I believe the next to happen was all the Players banned together to regain NPC-002′s soul, when they did... well the -”NPC-ALEX” (the name of the RPer, or their chosen name anyway) was re/born -the Players realized ES was bad news and started working on getting him removed, and possibly bring back EP from here on out it is an absolute m e s s and hard to remember and write it all down haha They played against ES and I believe he lost? and that allowed them to bring back EP who cast ES out of the system  NPC-ALEX wanted ES back as they were worried EP would just get rid of them as they didn’t care much for ‘hunks of metal’ ES told them

that software “soul” was required (whereas he usually removes said software)

On the topic of Sano specifically, I feel like his route worked better than a lot of EP’s work on the BTD games because he’s not trying to be an “edgy” character. He feels a lot more developed than Vincent and Cain, he has more depth and complexity around his feelings toward Y/N, and I just generally really like him as a character. I feel like EP’s work is best when they’re not trying to fit strictly into the “evil guy who kills you” archetype.

-🌀

U want twins? Kojimacest.

U want twink x bad boy? Veni and demian in the elevator, already doing the boombayah!

Old men yaoi? CAIN X RIRE!

I've not even mentioned yet how Darqx literally made her WHOLE party, full of dudes, and not a single female character. (I'm even convinced that Izm x A.E.D is canon 😭) and her main villain (Rire) is a stress toy to Cain.

- 🐰

-🐰