spoiler for Main character energy and a bit of ID3
WAKE IT UP YA'LL! GAS POSSIBLY!
i genuinely think this will become relevant to ID3 cause their AIN'T NO WAY they'll end this book with the poly route where G and C hate each other atp. but the fact OC!Me could see right through them!
in the newest chapter of MCE, they bring up the story of cas and gabe and why they hate each other but it's still unknown and i'm convinced it'll be cover in ID3 eventually if they've been hyping it for 3 different books atp. We see that eventually we'll find out cas' grimore (from the snippet of the next two weeks of ID3) is in lewyn and astoria's possession. which could mean well get a full on backstory or family story, maybe even the story of cas and gabe.
also last book gabriel was the mushy ass one, now cas is returning it (albeit in her own way..)
wait ...i never saw a romantic nature to gabe and cas's relationship but i'm mainly a cas romancer so..
i'm a poly router (with a pref for gabe but anyways) in b3, something is different in their tension. like b1 they had a great irritation with each other, b2 we saw their rivalry escalated but begrudgingly find mutual ground in keep mc safe + the scene were cas affirms that gabe is nothing like lennox and the gabe returning the affirmation to cas about seth's death. And now their relationship is very banter-ous and light hearted but the last few vip chapters (not spoiling) shows a level of genuine concern for each other... (depending on how you see gabe's motives bc of the newst vip chapter..)
unironically, Gas is genuinely a decent slow burn enemies to lovers story (if the writers actually go that direction) in choices imo because the point of slow burn is what in psych we call the "mere exposure affect". The age ol' concept of a long term exposure to someone makes you gain a stronger affection to them. the reason i say it's better than previous (or at least newer enemies/begrudging friends to lovers ships, think hotshot, RwB etc) is because of the fact that neither are directly flirtatious or salacious because A) for the most part, they are not playable, B) the nature of their actions don't change based on mc's romantic/coven choice C) they have prerequisite history. Choices is kinda infamous for forcing the enemies to love each but purely w/ sexual intent but with gas there's an underlying concept of genuine interest in what's best for each other (longest it doesn't interfere with their own desires)
i kinda hope ID3 addresses what mc,Gabe and cas will do after high school, like will they leave town or fake die for a bit? i could see cas just fucking around but does crimson beech have a community collage? cause if not, why do vamps/ gabe still care about academics / go to school if there's no gain but to be an adult for a bit then leave/"die"? does MC have no interest or hobbies outside their LI?
i really would like to see MC have a existential crisis abt the fact they really CAN'T LEAVE CRIMSON BEECH, like what if they wanted to be a zoologist or a film director? I don't doubt it could happen, i mean the vampires of BB can live in relative normality, i mean Vega was a whole ass politician but ID has self contained itself by the lay line lore a little too well💀 unless they plan to do away with lay-lines in B3 (which i would like but then ID would be no different than BB sooo idk)
now that id2 is fully released for vip and is on its way to being wide released. i have some thoughts in the form of a tag "rambleshit" noun: a long winded, strings of thought, typically about a choices book made by finch
minor spoilers, BUT JUST IN CASE
okay let's get my final feelings about the book/ last couple of chapters out the way. i've needed these last few days for 2 reasons: one, the last chapter came out on my birthday and i was literally sitting in the parking lot waiting for my reservation while watching the Himeme playthrough , and two, i needed to digest just how much exposition lore was dropped in the last 2-3 chapters that to a point I felt overwhelmed ! Anyways, overall score 8.5/10. it was a good book story wise, however, it had SO MUCH RETCON and plot holes to a point that i felt like id2 could've been it's own standalone, set apart from id1 (kinda like untamable vs unbridled). there's a few i could explain away, for example, the concept that was the entire point of book one about how vampires get sick from even the tiniest bit of fellow vampire blood, but we have an entire ceremony of vampires doing the exact opposite? or the scene where cas bites mc's lip and licks the blood away. now, imo this could be explained as A) the vampires are just biting for the symbolic purpose of the ritual OR they're injecting venom without drinking mc's blood (which kinda makes less sense then the former but anyways) and B) Cas just doing shit for the sexy thrill or whatever which i can accept
what I CAN'T explain away is things like..mc having powers that everyone just..accepts(?!) with no issue but with cas it's seen as some type of anomaly..? claims "the leylines can grant special abilities" but why only cas and mc? why not the oh idk leaders of the covens? or the elders or even just pull a warrior cats "Power of Three" situation and give gabe, cas and mc powers that's because they have a special destiny or are reincarnations or something freaky deaky about them being polyam or being from different covens IDK SOMETHING! and before someone mentions it, i know cas is a more direct witch descendant then the other vamps, but considering we know nothing about her family, if we go with the assumption that cas is last preforming witch since great grandmama constance, that still wouldn't explain why her powers get awoken now? like please for the love of god correct me if i'm forgetting something but the only connection we have is
cas gets cut from the business card, lennox's face morphs (again, odd ability cause cas's powers seem to be exclusively nature related and premonition doesn't seem to match that, unless she has mc's type of premonition from the leylines but that wouldn't make sense either cause mc's manifests in out of body, future seeing, while cas's manifestation is more like actual intention sensing *cough, they should technically switch their ability names cough*, the cut never heals unless cas let's the power out/or is happy and gets worse when she's upset. so when you think of it, there's really nothing that directly correlates with the leylines that connects it. maybe it's because the leylines come from creators and witches are split descendants of vampires so whenever the ley lines are getting fucked with it affects witches too?? idk
a few more unaddressed issues are but not limited too: what beef cas and gabe have in the branding room (i'll get back to that one later), libby having partial memory, (same thing as above), if vampires can actually sleep, how in the first book G+C can hear us murmuring their names from miles away but we can't hear cas screaming in the woods, having vampire sight but straining to see that pile of bones in back of the cave etc, WHY LEWYN IS STILL NEVER HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR KILLING HIS OWN COVEN MEMBERS??
that's my biggest issue with id2, there's so much guess-timating w/ info and lore that would be fun to theorize or hc in a standalone but in an ongoing series it creates more headaches and others are plain plotholes. i think id would've been more consistent if they spent more time explaining the lore of WHY things are instead of WHAT things are, you know?
now lastly, here are my id3 theories/ hopes:
libby is a witch. that's the only explanation we have for why she acts so odd all book + why her memories are the most intact despite her not doing anything to awaken them like mc's mom did
gas's beef with each other is explained. i saw someone hc that the reason gas hate each other beyond the typical Clement vs Venandi bs is because they're exes and while i would love the angst of exploring that + it would explain their sudden intrigue (if u choose the poly route end) to possibly get together + it would be so carnally delicious if we have some real slow burn enemies to frienemies to lovers out here but i doubt it. however their beef seems to stem from before mc came into the picture purely because of how gabe talks and treats cas in the first few chapters of book1 and from the branding room scene (my hc/ theory however: in the branding room premium scene, g+c talk briefly about a situation where gabe "was playing the hero", cas was "scaring humans" and as a result got punished likely by branding. my theory is that while as a human, gabe's grandmother was a fluked hunt by cas, with gabe protecting his nan, this sparks sarah to investigate into vampires more which leads to the covens trying to kill her. so gabe hates cas for nearly killing her and consequently getting him turned and cas hates gabe for ruining her hunt / giving her first brand)
gabe getting powers. we know gabe is kinda a literature nerd and can read specific vampire languages that seems like pretty rare ability for a newer turned vamp so maybe that could be his. idk it just feels odd that cas and mc have powers but gabe doesn't (even if reading super well is for NERDS 🙄/j maybe they can make it fun and unique to him)
witches are absolutely the villain of the next book, there's no doubt in my mind but since it seems like witches were playing both sides of the field of vamps v hunters, it's safe to assume we might befriend a teenage witch (possibly libby??) and we have to fight with against evil witches??? 🤷🏾♀️
more like point 4.2 but we could also possibly meet cas's family or even parents! while its safe to assume them being dead is what made cas an orphan, its pixelberry and there's a good chance they'd bring out that random of a plot twist, like with gabriel and lennox being cousins, out of the blue andddd the heirloom book cas has from her parents looks suspiciously like the grimoire astoria has🤔
multi pov: if id3 is assumingely the last id book, and they're going to keep teasing gas, i would love see that all exclusively from their pov's (ik it's unlikely pb would suddenly change the format of a book at the supposedly end of the series but these books need a new element or it's going to feel like a repeat of the last 2 books)
gas. self explanatory. they need to kiss regardless of which route you choose. idk how or why or when but it needs to happen
these mofo's will graduate human high school. yeah that very forgotten aspect of immortal desires is that it's a TEEN supernatural, so we need to pop in some extra credits or something and graduate since they're all seniors/ "18" (in my hc cas is a super senior and is like 19 when she was turned but anyways)
