Characters from Christine Love's 2016 eroge Visual Novel Ladykiller in a Bind. Contains Spoilers, both marked and unmarked!
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The Twins
The Beast
AKA: The Hero
Our super-cool heroine put unfairly in way over her head.
- Ambiguously Bi: The Beast can become this, depending on the player's choices in game and whom they choose to form a relationship with.
- Ultimately a defied trope. Even in paths that involve her romancing men (notably with The Boy's route, and infamously with The President in a cut scene), her narration makes it very clear that she still identifies herself as a lesbian, and emphasises that she isn't interested in men; any interest she shows in them is justified as being something she views as in-character for her brother to do, or as otherwise appealing to her preferences as a queer person anyway.
The Beast: It's not straight if they look good in a skirt. - Book Dumb: Her GPA sits at a shockingly low 1.0. Played with, in that she is wiser than she appears and the low grades are partly because she does she doesn't think High School really means much in the long run.
- This is also a case of Write What You Know on the Creator's part. She said on twitter that's what her own high school GPA would have been if not for a couple of sympathetic teachers.
- Butch Lesbian: Downplayed. The Beast herself is more androgynous in her appearance than overtly masculine. Her personal wardrobe does have "butch" elements to it though, like her biker jacket and heavy-duty work boots, and she uses the word to describe herself.
- Deadpan Snarker: She gets in a few good ones at the Prince's expense.
- Ethical Slut: She enjoys sex. A lot. But she very much makes sure her partners enjoy themselves as well and don't do anything they don't want to.
- Hidden Depths: Despite being framed as being rather stupid, she has a lot of emotional intelligence and strong opinions (for example, her speech to the Photographer about how no one really goes and runs away from home to a foreign country to escape their problems).
- Lady Looks Like a Dude: She's rather flat-chested and has androgynous facial features. This, of course, helps her to more easily masquerade as her twin brother.
- Manipulative Bastard: A possible way to play her, especially if you want to keep your suspicion low and your votes high, leading to a few Your Approval Fills Me with Shame moments with her brother.
The Prince
AKA: The Brother
My twin brother, a grandiose Machiavellian piece of shit.
The one who got The Beast into this mess, and is making her narrate the story back to him. While she's tied to a chair...
- Ambiguously Bi: The Swimmer is his ex-girlfriend, and it's pretty heavily implied that he had some kind of sexual or romantic relationship with The Boy; however, see the below trope.
- Bourgeois Bohemian: Has elements of this in that he used to smoke cannabis with his classmate, The Boy - and that's not getting into how he's a socialist/anti-capitalist who's a member of a terrorist/revolutionary organisation, targeting his very rich father first and foremost.
- Hidden Depths: Who would have guessed that his plans involved being an anti-capitalist who wants to start a revolution?
- The Chessmaster: See: "grandiose Machiavellian piece of shit."
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Sure, he might be one of the main cool kids in his class, but that doesn't mean his classmates are particularly found of him.
- Manipulative Bastard: See also: "grandiose Machiavellian piece of shit." Not quite a master though, since he may get what he wants, but he's also hated for it.
- Rich Bitch: A rare Gender Flipped example of the trope.
- Wicked Cultured: He has a lot more cultural knowledge than the Beast does, frequently expressing exasperation at her not getting a reference.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: During the Boy's scenes, we learn that the Prince has a little black dress. The Beast also once makes a joke about him wearing her leather skirt, and he insists that he didn't try it...before adding that he wore a cute sundress instead (the Beast, for reference, doesn't own any sundresses).The Prince: I'm surprised you don't wear dresses, they're so comfortable! It feels really freeing.
The Classmates
The President
AKA: The Rival
Fuck this arrogant jerk and the high horse he rode in on.
- Arranged Marriage: Set up for one with the Beauty. Depending on your choices, you could get her out of this arrangement.
- Student Council President: His role.
- Unknown Rival: It's a Lampshaded trope that he is this trope to The Prince; The Prince cares way less about the President, and their rivalry, than the President himself does.
The Nerd
AKA: The Lieutenant
The president of the student council's right-hand woman.
- Academic Alpha Bitch: Definitely can come across this way, although not as much as The President does.
- Ignored Enamored Underling: A lot of other characters assume this is the case with her and The President. It isn't (see above point about her asexuality); she's just deeply loyal to him.
- No Social Skills: Very prominent in her scenario.
- Shrinking Violet: She's is normally outspoken, except when it comes to romance.
The Boy
AKA: The Flower
A charmingly pure boy and an accidental heartbreaker.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Even disregarding his ulterior motives listed below, he steals The Beast's phone and tries using it to pressure The President to get together with him. Then he still behaves like a victim, which, while admittedly may not intentionally be this, can result in The Beast furiously calling him out on it despite saying he doesn't even deserve brutal honesty.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: He has very delicate and feminine features, wears dresses, and is first encountered in the girl's corridor; this all leads The Beast to initially assume that he identified as a woman, before realising that the dresses are a new look and he still identifies as male.
- Shipper on Deck: For the Prince and the Beauty.
- Deconstructed, as he has ulterior motives for wanting the Prince to romance the Beauty - he's in love with the President, and essentially wants the Beauty to be out of the way.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: He likes wearing dresses, even if the main reason is for the President to notice him. That said, he isn't wholesome at all.
The Swimmer
AKA: The Slut
A hedonist who always looks like she just left the pool.
- Betty and Veronica: Is initially presented as the Veronica to the Photographer's Betty; doing the Photographer's route locks you out of her route.
The Photographer
AKA: The Flame
A one-woman yearbook committee always seeking action.
- Betty and Veronica: Is initially presented as the Betty to the Swimmer's Veronica; doing the Swimmer's route locks you out of her route. Subverted in that the Photographer is much more canny and dangerous than she appears to be.
- Camera Fiend: She is this, being an apparent Instagram celebrity, and also the person in charge of the school yearbook.
- Do You Trust Me??: A consistent theme in her route is to do with trust, and she asks this question more than once; most specifically, she asks if you'd be willing to give her all of your votes, and perform a sexual favour in order to get them back in exchange for her returning what she gave you and reward you with interest.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Your brother tells you to be wary of her, and one end of her route involves date-rape drugs.
The Athlete
AKA: The Bro
Dude, dude, duuuuude, like... he's just this guy, you know?
- Dumb Jock: Lampshaded and discussed as being his main appeal to girls.
- Kissing Cousins: Is more than happy to make moves on the Beast, even though she's his cousin (and he's well aware she's a lesbian).
The Beauty
AKA: The Princess
Beloved queen of the class with a secret sadistic streak.
- Arranged Marriage: Set up for one with the President. Depending on your choices, you could get her out of this arrangement.
- Brains and Bondage: She provides one of the most thoughtful portrayals of BDSM in games. Even if you don't have much contact with her outside the sessions, it's made clear how much planning she does.
- Secret-Keeper: Knows about the Twin Switch, and helps you remove suspicion... for a price.
The Stalker
AKA: The Hacker
The most shy nerd ever with the most obvious crush possible.
- Apologises a Lot
- Playful Hacker
- Shrinking Violet: She knows what she wants, but is much too scared to ask.
Other Characters
The Maid
AKA: The Boss
An actual adult responsible for making things actually work.
- Almighty Janitor: She nominally has a servant position and some of the characters are rather nasty to her, but she also is in on the Prince's plan and actually the dominant force of their partnership, making her maid identity more of a cover.
- Secret-Keeper: Knows about the Twin Switch.
The Father
AKA: The Abuser / Laurence Sr.
He’s never lost control — the man who bought the world.
- Abusive Parents: Right there in the name. Plus, the way he talks about and treats his daughter...
- The Voice: There’s no video from his side of the call.
- To the Pain: He has some very interesting ideas what will happen to the apparent captors of his son should he not get released, including them getting arrested, their father suffering a tragic accident, and their mother being dragged through the mud by the media during the trial before they will be murdered in prison.
- Walking Spoiler: It's hard to talk about his involvement in the plot without spoiling the Prince's schemes.
