#roubrainrot

exhibit A. luke and jin are generally more laidback in their demeanors. they undeniably have a dedicated handful of fans, but (pardon my phrasing) they seem to lack conviction that doesn't befit the "prince" archetype (i'm dodging words like "brave" or "noble" because cybird loves to play around with morally gray characters haha 😭) and their tones are very different from the others. disclaimer, i have not read their routes because i quit shortly after reading the routes i wanted, but these two in particular get VERY overshadowed. i still like them wholeheartedly, i just think maybe they'd prosper better with a different theme.

of course we have sariel! compared to the rest of the cast, he's dark with a mysterious aura. when you think "prince", you think of the stereotypical prince charming, the handsome rich guy with a sword. "but what about gilbert? he has a dark color palette too!" sariel is more of a "side character", gilbert is not. gilbert is the worldwide disaster. gilbert loves to take the spotlight. he's darkly charming. he's very endearing in his own red flag way. that brings us to...

ikevil has a very nicely written cast. it's pretty hard to dislike any of the suitors... unless you are media illiterate or don't wait the story through and jump to hasty conclusions about the character's nature cough cough you know exactly whose route i'm referring to. among the cast is liam. you knew this was coming. on the surface, he's cute, cheerful, and a girl's bestie, so it's understandable that people who come for villains tend to settle for others. as a result, he flops in events, and has faced crushing last place defeats in two JP elections and one in EN so far (poor kitty).

there are multiple reasons for this. there's the reason above, but i've also seen a couple posts with reasons citing "i see him more as a younger brother" and "he's more like a friend" as a couple examples. notably, no one hates liam. nooooooo one. if you hate liam, i do not like you. in any case, liam is undeniably amazingly written, but also radiates too much best friend energy for the audience drawn to the danger. again: he's sweet, genuine, caring, and cheerful. doesn't quite sound like a villain, right? we love him, yes, but we came here for the blazing red flags. strangely, alfons and roger are also overshadowed as well, which i find rather ironic considering the sheer quality of their character and the 🚩🚩🚩🚩. i think it's primarily due to aesthetic, which is a whole other post.

the most popular outliers are ring and gilbert. i believe that cybird uses this tactic to intentionally form an intriguing contrast and keep interest intact later on. yes, we have two more princes. we also have a chaotic ball of energy. yes, we have two more sexy villains. we also have a cute little guy who you can corrupt, if you're into that. now, i wasn't there when gilbert released, but i can say this for sure for ring: he is a HUGE hit in the fandom right now.

so in general - some characters feel out of place. i think maybe they should have been pushed until later for more appeal (like ring and gil) or in a completely different game. it's all about timing.

regardless of the choices cybird has made with some suitors, i really like how all the games and characters turned out. what i don't like is how that all that good writing (each route is about the length of a novel!) goes to waste. i'd like for cy to be more strategic when it comes to what type of character they decide to put in what game.