as someone who nearly died at 22 due to serious health issues, society's obsession with youth and hatred of the signs of aging really gargles my goyles. not everyone gets to grow old, it's such a privilege and yet we treat it like a disease, or a curse, something to avoid for as long as possible. it truly it strangles the soul to witness
The older generation's fixation on forcing you to have kids is something they absolutely refuse to unlearn. You can give the calmest and most reasonable explanation for not having kids and the only thing they can think to say is, "But what of the heir to the lands?" "Who will inherit the throne?" "Please sire upon your barren death there will be a parochial schism that will soak our soils with brother-blood." They literally hate to see you happy with just a cat.
will the LIs be jealous when the villain makes advances toward the MC? 👀
Yes.
Though all for different reasons, lol!
The supernatural is a villain, but my word…they are quite the personality and presence, hehe! Certainly going to be difficult to ignore them even if your MC isn't even slightly swayed by them!
It's difficult to balance the jealousy thing. I don't want to write the characters as not trusting their partner if they're in a romance, or as being possessive, but also…the MC and the villain have a connection that the vampire and the MC don't. That's just a fact that can't be denied!
And for some, it's that connection that makes them nervous, and for other LIs it's just the fact that the villain is so…much to resist that makes them uncertain!
…That was all totally a bit vague, but I don't wanna spoil anything, hehe! :D
So, I've been replaying N's route lately and an epiphany came to me last night when I was playing the end of Book 3.
It's in Book 2 I believe that you can ask Nate if he's ever killed someone while talking to him about how old he is. He frowns for a minute and says, "Not with my own hands, no."
Weird, right? After what we see in the mirror at the carnival, when he says he got turned at sea, it's clear that the image in the mirror was of that time right after he got turned. He's covered in blood, surrounded by bodies while wearing a British Royal Navy uniform.
Originally, since Falk declared N Not Guilty, I assumed that perhaps N had come to terms with the reaction they had to being a newly turned vampire. I thought maybe they'd lost control and slaughtered the men of the ship, or perhaps they'd been attacked and defended themself. A sort of Jekyll + Hyde situation where N doesn't consider their frenzied state to be truly Them.
BOOK 3 SPOILERS AHEAD
And then we get into Book 3, and it's really clear that N has not been to therapy enough to not blame themself if they'd killed that many people. They're overprotective and selfless to the point of self sacrifice for the slightest inconvenience and they blame themself for any little inconvenience that befalls MC. Clearly, they are not well-adjusted enough to separate something that happened in desperation and fear from who they truly are.
This put me on the back foot, trying to figure out what that could mean. If you are dating N, they tell you about their brother, M*lton, who was killed by vampires. They tell you about joining the Navy to seek revenge or to at least find out what happened to their brother. Makes sense.
The moment that made my theory CLICK in my head happens at the end of the book, if you ignore Rebecca's idea and go alone to the auction.
So, you get captured and the auctioneer person tries to sell you off for your blood. Just like the other 3 routes, N will come to rescue you at the auction, and they have a brief spat with someone in the audience who tries to outbid them.
[ID included on screenshot.]
This moment I originally thought was a pheromone thing. It doesn't seem like just a threat, as Nate seems visibly shaken and weakened by whatever it is he did. Also, the strange way the supernatural responds seems to suggest some kind of influence.
And then it hit me --- "Not with my own hands, no."
N's power is some kind of mind control / suggestion ability.
They never killed anyone with their own hands because they told the pirates / vampires to kill each other or kill themselves.
The theme of control comes up several times in N's route. N prides themself on being very in control of their body and their emotions, keeps their wants hidden and their true feelings locked firmly away beyond anything that is pleasant or kind. It makes me wonder if, aside from being able to influence people on command, if they can accidentally influence people when they get too emotional.
I also think it might require touch to really make the power work. They constantly keep their hands in their pockets and, while this is a normal enough idle motion, the fact that they touched the supernatural here and often put their hands in their pockets / withdraw touch when having a disagreement with someone suggests it might have something to do with it.
The amount of trust that UB must have in N when they have a power like that is enormous. It also sheds new light on the arguments that N and A often get into, as it seems that if N really wanted to, they could get their way every time via this weird power.
It also sheds new light on Rebecca's concern for N and MC. The assumption that MC is immune to this ability is there, but there's always the chance that they aren't, and Rebecca being worried about N forcing MC into doing things via suggestion seems to be very real.
It also makes me wonder if N has ever tested out whether their suggestion works on MC, or if they've thought about it with something small. Makes me wonder if we are entirely immune or if there's going to be some caveat like with M and their pheromones causing MC pain.
EITHER WAY, I feel like I figured it out. I'm losing my mind with the implications of it all.
vaporwave
gracieabrams
titsay
dailybridgerton
gamechangershow
tangentwithtanner
