Is Virginia truly after the role of advisor to the Emperor? Or does she have her sights set on something greater? The fact that she's willing to blackmail to get her way should be a huge red flag note Though to be fair, she wasn't the only character to use questionable tactics in the story for her own goals, as Alexios and his sabotage and Cassius and his illegal video of Amicus and Neferu during the second debate are prime examples. Even Amicus, despite showing regret for it and apologizing, started off on his story goals by taking Marco to Adastra against his will . And for that matter, we still don't know the full extent of her affection towards her siblings. While she confesses to Marco at some point that Amicus is her brother and she loves him for it, the way it's worded can lead one to believe that she's merely keeping up with appearances. We also see not a lot of hints that she gets along with her siblings well (though she did save Cassius' life when he was poisoned by getting him to vomit out the deadly substance and administer the antidote, and during the deadly fight between Amicus and Cato she urgently signals Marco to attack Cato after he picked up the knife when the tyrant looks like he's about to kill her brother, which could be read as her saying, "Save him").
Is Alexios truly being a spy and saboteur by choice? Or is he truly Resigned to the Call because he really does have no choice? Cassius tries to offer evidence for the latter, but Marco immediately shuts him down.
Breather Level: While there are still some moments of tension and conflict, the final third of the visual novel can be considered this, as Amicus is finally the proper Emperor of Adastra and Marcos life is no longer in any direct danger, with the antagonists around him having been dealt with. note As Cato was killed off, Alexios was banned from the palace and no longer able to use Marco (and anyone else for that matter) for his saboteur agendas and Cassius Took a Level in Kindness towards the human while also focusing elsewhere on more important matters.
Watching Amicus tear off Cato's throat with his jaws is a sight to behold, if the novel's description of the scene is any indication. It's also awesome after witnessing Cato go off the deep end and his true colors revealed. Sadly, the satisfying feeling is quickly eclipsed by Marco dying from the deep cut he received from Cato moments prior, contributing to one of the biggest Mood Whiplash moments in the VN.
After his true intentions and character are exposed, all the scenes where someone threatens Alexios and makes him panic (breaking through his haughty demeanor) feel like a brief yet highly enjoyable moment. During his last talk with the feline, Marco also has a small moment of satisfaction when he gets through the Omorfans "shield of indifference" and makes him retort after calling him out for trying to steal Amicus' ship.
Cassius sports telltale signs of depression, with his self-loathing bouts and lack of drive after ascending the throne. Amicus is in the same boat, but downplayed.
Alexios projects a cheerful front, but his eventual true colors are revealed, and he is shown to be quite the apathetic person, which probably means he has some form of borderline personality disorder.
Esoteric Happy Ending: Marco being unknowingly still infected with avia pox when he returns to Earth and starts his eight-year integration mission ends up undermining the bittersweet ending he shares with Amicus, as neither end up knowing about all the death and conflict that would unfold once the human leaves the room and starts traveling the world.
It should also be worth noting that even if Marco wasn't infected and no outbreak occurred on humanity, his family and friends (who he did mention more than once while on the titular moon), many law enforcement agencies and a lot of other people on Earth would still end up being EXTREMELY infuriated with Amicus over how he just forcefully took Marco away from his home world for over a year with no hint as to his whereabouts or well-being, obviously contributing to a lot of worry and panic to his loved ones, his home community and many others. And even if Marco's whole story and everything he went through somehow became worldwide public knowledge (showing Amicus was remorseful for the abduction and would do anything to keep Marco safe until he could fix his mistake, to the point where he got him revived by The Parents via a big personal sacrifice after he was killed off, with Marco in turn also forgiving him, falling in love with him and willingly accepting his proposal), many would still never forgive Amicus and would make his marriage to his human being strongly objected the least of his worries.
Fanfic Fuel: What were the Alexios-induced riots really about? What did they entail? Who suffered what in the event? The only acknowledgement so far is given to Scipio in Khemia, but otherwise, the trope overlaps with They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot.
There are a lot of great story ideas for humanity and the Galaxias after Marco finishes his eight-year mission and brings his world into the intergalactic society (possibly with the avia pox outbreak factored out). How would an individual person or group of humans react to a sibling species if they visited their world (or vice versa)? Would the encounters be Lighter and Softer compared to Marco's first time on Adastra amid the social interactions and world explorations, Darker and Edgier with more scenes of brutality and friction or something in-between?
Every friendly moment Marco has with Alexios early in the story gets put in a more sinister perspective after it later gets revealed that the Omorfan was actually using Marco as a means to an end to sabotage Adastra, to the point where it felt like the humans well-being wasn't a concern to him outside of situations where his own life depended on it (primarily when he needed Marco to avoid severe punishment for his sabotage after getting backed into a corner).
Hype Backlash: The series has become so famous and ubiquitous within the furry fandom that it is hyped and promoted everywhere, leaving detractors and most normal users scratching their heads in confusion as to how this series is so popular.
Jerkass Woobie: Life has not been kind to Cassius, and given this, his jerkassery is very much justified. Born with a debilitating disease that makes his bones brittle, Cassius was long neglected and disfavored by his father, with only his mother providing him any kind of love. Growing up, he was always outshined by Amicus and, to a lesser degree, Virginia, which contributed to Amicus's and Cassius's falling out as they got older. Then come the trials, which see him suffer a series of humiliating events, including being vomited on and being forced to abdicate the throne- which makes him the laughingstock of the entire Empire, and will NOT be forgotten for generations to come. He might be an asshole, but gosh, you just want to hug him and tell him everything is going to be okay.
Just Here for Godzilla: Many players read Adastra just for the eye candy that Amicus and Neferu provide, disregarding much of the romantic plot.
Cato crosses this onscreen right before the third Emperorship trial when he decides to aggressively tamper with the event and further his plans of usurping the Adastran throne, which has him threaten to kill Marco and brutally hurt Amicus to make it look like Cassius unexpectedly won (to the point where Cassius, who was a major Jerkass to his brother throughout the whole story up to this point, ends up terrified from watching all the violence and orders Cato to stop, to no avail). He then tries to have Marco executed by the Com after Amicus and his human try and fail to take him down, with Neferu luckily managing to save Marco afterward. Later on, it's revealed that Cato actually crossed the line before the start of the story when Marco and the audience learn that the tyrant sabotaged the previous Emperors transportation ship, killing him in a fiery crash, and then executed the investigators who were looking into the cause of said crash to keep his acting ruler title and plans of another war with the Khemians active. The fact that Cato was very close friends with the previous Emperor for many years prior makes his betrayal more reviled.
Alexios crosses this when his true intentions of being on Adastra, which was to create chaos within the planets government and destabilize its society to keep the wolves from rejoining the Galaxias, are revealed. It should be worth noting that while Alex isn't entirely wrong about some aspects of Adastra and its ways being risky to the stability of the whole intergalactic society (with Cato and some fanatical wolven separatist groups being prime examples) and that the wolves have a lot to answer for in their past actions, his own actions and the harm it caused to everyone around him are clearly not put in a positive light. Marco (who himself was bothered by some parts of Adastras society) finds the cats complete indifference to all the havoc he'd done to the populace, which included starting a series of deadly riots, to be the thing that disturbed him the most on the planet. Then there's the fact that his actions also put every other character at the palace in harm's way (as it got Cassius, Amicus and Neferu nearly killed by Cato, nearly had Virginia forcefully married to the tyrant and indirectly contributed to Marco actually dying temporarily note Temporary in the good route. In the Bad Ending where he didn't submit to The Parents will, Marco doesn't get revived after his throat slit and is Killed Off for Real, meaning that by snitching to Cato about the plans to overthrow him, Alex kicked off a series of events that resulted in the person who at one point considered him his best friend murdered. ). Even the other non-Adastran characters found Alexios' actions deplorable, as Bjarni (the bear diplomat in Interea) shows open disdain to the feline and warns Amicus to keep an eye on the chaos causer. Even Neferu note a Khemian, who's alien race has not always been on the best of terms with the wolves, experienced some harsh Fantastic Racism by some of the populace and was almost assassinated twice by depraved wolven individuals (Cato and a fanatical seperatist) saw Alexios' actions as something to strongly condemn, letting Scipio know about his dislike of the feline in the sequel story.
Neferu (summing up Alexios' character): “He is the most evil, amoral creature I have ever had the displeasure to know. To be clear, I knew he was a spy, just as all governments know that visiting diplomats have ulterior motives——but what I didn't expect was a sniveling coward, willing to destroy the foundation of an entire civilization costing thousands of lives.”
The scene when Marco walks in on Amicus and Neferu having sex is not meant to be titillating, not meant to be sensual, and is not meant to be comfortable. After the emotional scene where Marco and Amicus finally admit their attraction to each other, it is rage inducing to watch this.
Marco bleeding out and dying thanks to Cato is horrifying and heart-wrenching at the same time. The details leave little to the imagination and even cause a massive change in Neferu's character.
Sacred Cow: Adastra has become this to Echo Project's other works, with fans vastly preferring this over the creator-favored Echo, for example.
Neferu getting his testicles violently smashed in by Cato- which has become legendary in-universe as of Khemia.
Marco bleeding out from his injuries during the duel.
Squick: Cato trying to force Virginia into an Arranged Marriage. He is considerably older than her- old enough, in fact, to be her father and had also once been close friends with her real father. Downplayed as Cato didn't plan to marry Virginia out of lust (as he didn't even show any disturbing romantic interest towards her prior) but of political purposes in an attempt to make his claim to the throne look more valid. When Amicus challenges him to the duel after halting his plans to execute Neferu, Cato also gives off an Implied Death Threat that includes Virginia as one of his planned kills, also indicating he wasn't going to keep her in his forced relationship for long.
Out of every example for this trope, the whole climax of the duel between Cato and Amicus and the immediate tragic aftermath is without a doubt the scene that most would shed tears over. During the aforementioned fight to the death, Marco ends up defying the rules and uses the knife Neferu was almost executed with to save his barely conscious wolf from getting his throat torn out by Cato, stabbing him critically twice and making it look like the main antagonist would die before anyone else would get hurt, only for Cato to gather up enough energy to take the knife from the human's grip and deeply cut his throat with a wild swing, being so sudden that it takes Marco a moment to realize what happened. Cato is then killed off as Neferu stays beside his friend, looking in complete horror as to what transpired note later confirming to Scipio in Khemia that despite feeling at peace when he was going to die, seeing his friend get executed instead and graphically bleed out is when he truly felt afraid , and when Marco manages to regain consciousness despite all the blood he lost (struggling to even keep his eyes open), he sees his wolf looking down on him with an expression of pure grief and horror (with the still image worthy of being the tearjerker image page). Finally, before he succumbs to his cut and loses consciousness one last time (with voices giving him assurances that things will soon get better), some of the biggest sob inducing lines are brought up, with Amicus desperately trying to have Marco stay awake while Marco slowly fades away, trying to profess his love to his wolf one last time.
Amicus (in complete despair): “Stop that, you're going to be fine. Felix will heal you, we'll rest in my room, I'll take you to the island…I'll take you to the city…we'll be happy…we'll grow old…together.”
One of Marcos final thoughts: How unfair. My last moments and I can't even tell my wolf that I love him.
The ending, of course.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: The story does very little with Virginia and doesn't make her more distinct beyond the obligatory description of "I'm a woman in a male-centric plot so all I can contribute is show that Women Are Wiser."
What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Adastra was written during critical times when LGBT rights were being hotly debated by the media and political circles. Police protests over racial justice and other major issues were especially prevalent. As a result, there are overtones of political statements and social commentary peppered across the series, with parallels between Adastra and the United States, for example.
Interea contains examples of:
Unexpected Character: Bjarni, a diplomat who is also the first bear character to appear onscreen in the entire series. This is especially surprising since Marco didn't mention him during the main story when reflecting on his tour of Adastra, thus making the first appearance of another Sibling species more unexpected.
Khemia contains examples of:
Crosses the Line Twice: Amicus calling out Neferu for not informing him of a past eviction that leads to a series of events that nearly resulted in him and Scipio getting murdered in a seedy hotel room (with the optics alone enough to irreparably ruin the Adastra-Khemia alliance)? Not funny. The Com then informing the trio that a report of the incident was filed to Virginia (who would have reacted FAR more harshly compared to her brother, with some strong words for him as well), prompting Amicus and Neferu to give a MASSIVEOh, Crap! reaction followed by the wolven Emperor frantically ordering Com to delete the report? Hilarious.
Diagnosed by the Audience: Scipio suffers from some form of PTSS (formerly PTSD) caused by the riots brought about by Alexios's actions.
Fridge Horror: Scipio's account of the riots was just one of possibly thousands of other survivors' stories, meaning it's strongly probable there are even worse accounts of what the populace experienced.
Nightmare Fuel: Scipio, who was a university student caught in the middle of the riots, recalls the horrors and fallout of Alexios' actions from Adastra that he witnessed in a more first-hand perspective. He and his classmates were violently attacked by rioters who decided to raid and burn the campus. This led to the deaths of some students and staff members, including Scipio's professor getting his head violently smashed in and some young pups getting burned to death in another building (with Scipio lamenting how they died before figuring out who they wanted to be in life).
Tough Act to Follow: Given the success of Adastra by furry vn standards it inevitably led to Khemia being considered short even though only the first few builds have been released. This has unfortunately led to such severe strain on the creator that it is currently on hold.
