Having finished replaying all the possible options (there were so many variables for this chapter) and having had some time to think, I think the main reason so many people are disappointed is that Vasili's reveal just wasn't good
Vasili having killed Sebastyan and betraying Trystan and using Marguerite this whole time, not to mention the supposed twist on the Act thing, in itself has a massive emotional impact. Trystan said themself, Sebastyan worshipped the ground he walked on. He didn't even want the throne for himself, he wanted it for Vasili. And then Vasili killed him, and in his last moments, he knew that the person he worshipped most in the world was just using him
And then there's the implications re:Sebastyan's relationship with Trystan... There were many times when Sebastyan seemed to just have a completely wrong impression of Trystan (not knowing that they support the Act, for example), so it's not impossible that Vasili had been manipulating him about it the whole time. Or, if Sebastyan has always known that Vasili was Juliana's ex, maybe he clung so hard to the theory that it was Trystan's fault so he wouldn't have to face the possibility that someone he loved so much could've done this to her. It's even possible Vasili had something to do with Sebastyan never reaching out to Marguerite. Not to mention finally showing the resentment and loathing Vasili has kept to himself this whole time, which we saw a bit of through the cracks, but still, this would be our first glimpse of who Vasili really is, not who he's trying to show us
All in all, pretty powerful emotional stuff, but the delivery just... Wasn't it. First of all, it was completely unrelated to the entire rest of the chapter, so it feels like they just dropped it from the ceiling. We spend the entire chapter in that dinner with Astrid, hell, we get three separate diamond options all meant to impress Astrid. All so we can get a lock of her hair. Which doesn't even make sense, because we can get that from her hairbrush when she's not in the palace, holy fuck
Astrid is an interesting character and I liked getting more info on her. But, unless there are more twists coming, everything we did this chapter was essentially pointless. Which could have been played for more emotional impact - Vasili is the only sibling other than Marguerite who was never the object of MC's investigation, after all - but instead it was just........... Hey, cool effort you just made there. The killer will now reveal who he is through absolutely no effort of your own, btw
And the delivery is just sad. Like, he's just giving a speech that was clearly written with the sole intention of putting as many damning words in his mouth as quick as possible. No one talks like this, no one makes a speech like this, it's just not natural. The emotional stakes feel very low in context, too, since the setting isn't particularly dramatic. All in all it felt like they slapped this reveal on top of The Astrid Chapter and called it a day
And then the contents of the reveal itself boil down to... "Look, now I got everything I've always wanted". Other than the mention of the Drakovian Nightingale, we didn't even need to have any clues to understand what his speech was hinting at. In fact, most of the "reveal" boils down to vibes. MC thinks that the way he lists off the victims is kind of weird and he mentioned a fucking bird that's literally the national bird anyway, and then Vasili looked angrily at Trystan and... That's it? That's the proof we get that Vasili has been on a murderous rampage the whole time? We don't even get the satisfaction of seeing the pieces and clues fall into place or come in handy to understanding his speech. It's just sort of dropped on our laps. If MC had sat on their ass this whole time it would have gone pretty much the same way, save for the mention of the stupid goddamn fucking bird, like, be serious
This had the potential to be so dramatic and they chose to let us know in the least emotionally engaging way possible, in the span of less than a minute, after zero buildup throughout the chapter and without any immediate stakes. I still think that Vasili was kind of a boring choice of killer and this reveal has so many plot holes (at least for now, maybe next chapter will give us more information that will change the game but im not holding on to that hope too much) and there were many considerably more interesting routes they could've taken and that the reason so many people suspected Vasili was the lack of buildup rather than this being clued into the story... But I also feel like if they had played into the strengths of that plot choice (the maximum angst potential it has) it would have felt a lot less disappointing. Could've made for a breathtaking chapter, even. I guess we'll have to wait and see how they play it next chapter, but for this one it just felt underwhelming
jacobvanloon
theartofmadeline
areudirty
yousharknotpass
izzy806
titsay
