YMMV / Blades of Light & Shadow

• Abandon Shipping: In Book 2, Mal's cold attitude towards Raine's disappearance (and the party in general, even in later chapters), his recklessness in Chapter 10 (which nearly gets Nia killed), and his Unnecessary Makeover have caused a sizable chunk of his fans to jump ship and start pursuing a different love interest instead.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: Why did Aerin save the unicorn with an Arrow Catch? Was it because he wanted to protect an innocent creature? Was it so that his brother wouldn't get a new trophy? Or was it because he's secretly corrupted and wants to get the protagonists to trust him?
• Angst? What Angst?: In Book 2, aside from Imtura, Raine's party mostly react to their return to Morella after being held captive in the Shadow Realm for a year as if Raine had just got back from a vacation. Similarly, Raine is more concerned with what their friends have been up to in the intervening time than processing their trauma. For the first few chapters, anyway. Later chapters make it very clear that the party members are secretly worried and scared that Raine would be taken from them again and are just either putting up an act (Mal) or too busy with the current events (Tyril and Nia), with Chapters 7 and (especially) 8 showing Raine having PTSD-like flashbacks and their love interest(s) having to pull them out of it.
• Anti-Climax Boss: The Dreadlord is hinted to be responsible for the mayhem in Morella for millennia, only to get easily defeated at the Book 1 finale, when Raine stabbed a possessed Nia in the Shadow Realm.
• Awesome Moments:
  • In Book 1, Chapter 11, Tyril takes down a zombie-esque creature with a Flaming Sword to protect his allies.
  Tyril: You shall not hurt my friends! (charges at the enemy with a flaming sword◊)
  • Book 2, Chapter 7 has Tyril and Imtura fight two Shadow Court members in tandem◊, with Tyril summoning a shield made of ice, while Imtura leaps up and slashes them with her axes.
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Prince Aerin. Some fans think he's an Adorkable Nice Guy, or an Extreme Doormat with no interesting personality traits. Once he's revealed to be the villain, readers either hate him and want to kill him, or think that he can be saved from the Shadow's influence. Book 2 made him even more polarizing by making him an official love interest and making him an official member of the party for sections of the story. A large amount of players who captured him at the end of Book 1 would've preferred it if he just stayed in his cell throughout the book.
  • Mal. People either love him for being cynical, cunning, Street Smart and charming, while others think he is just a rehash of Jake from Endless Summer.
  • Nia. She's adored for her innocent and sweet personality, while others find her annoying for being too bland and naïve for her own good.
• Best Level Ever: Book 1, Chapter 15 is considered by many to be the best chapter of the series for its heartwarming reunion between Raine and Kade, the (optional) introduction of Loola, amazing fight scenes that use nearly every skill that Raine has acquired over the course of the book, a potential love confession from Mal, Tyril, or Imtura, and the absolutely brilliant scene where Raine seduces a giant bug monster to the rest of the party's shock (with Mal's reaction being considered the best by far).
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Threep is deemed by many readers as the most interesting and funny of the members of the party, to the point many took the Premium option to save Threep's fellow Nesper.
• Fanon Discontinuity: The "seal the final rift" ending of Book 2 was derided by many, due to the fact that Raine and their party are trapped in the Shadow Realm, poor Kade is in the same position Raine was in for the past year (knowing that his sibling is Trapped in Another World and can't do anything about it), magic is gone (resulting in beings who were dependent on magic either rapidly aging or even dying out), and, as revealed in the teaser for Book 3, this is exactly what Nifara wanted to happen (with the exception of Raine not being in the Light Realm). As such, many fans prefer to ignore this ending entirely and pick one of the other two endings.
• Fan-Preferred Couple:
  • Despite not being an official Love Interest, Prince Aerin got a lot of people to kiss him in his Premium scenes due to his character design and The Good Prince personality. It seems like the writers took notice and made him a potential love interest in Book 2.
  • There are fans who ship Tyril/Mal for being polar opposites, two handsome guys, and their constant banters.
• Fountain of Memes: The Seduction skill is the most widely picked options for the first Skill the player acquired not only for practical application (the skills pops up a lot in the story) but also the absolutely hilarious dialogues the players can use picking this Skill.
• Funny Moments: While exploring the Shadow Realm, the gang comes across a shadow beast. Provided you don’t have a certain magical artefact, Raine has the option of seducing it. Not only does it work, it also prompts this immortal line from Mal:
  No. NO! You cannot flirt with the horrific bug monster! This is where I draw the line! This cannot work!
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • At the end of the first book, Imtura tells King Arlan that "[he'll] have to take that up with my mother" in response to him giving her the first medal in Whitetower history to be awarded to an orc and suggesting that this could be the start of humans and orcs reconciling their differences. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the king will be doing that, since Imtura's mother passed away in Book 2.
  • When Raine and their party return from the Shadow Realm, King Arlan remarks that they've been gone for two weeks, despite it not feeling anywhere near that length of time. Imtura casually responds that time moves differently in the Shadow Realm. In Book 2, Raine themself would end up kidnapped and taken to the Shadow Realm for that exact same length of time, and the combination of the former reason and Valax's experiments meant that Raine was gone for a whole year, resulting in trauma and angst that lasts for most of the book (by contrast, the scene with King Arlan greeting them after they were gone much longer than they thought is Played for Laughs).
  • During a premium scene in Book 1 (released in early 2020), the party are looking through books in a library, and one of them is very raunchy, leading to Imtura asking "Ooh, we looking at smut?" This was before the notable rise of 17+-rated Choices stories that forewent actual plots and compelling love interests in favor of those that bordered on Porn with Plot territory and had only one love interest, much to the disappointment of many fans. As such, the fandom's answer to Imtura's question is now likely to be something along the lines of "Yes, unfortunately".
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • In Book 2, Chapter 3, it's revealed that Mal and Nia opened an orphanage together in order to protect and educate young children. The best part is when Nia tells them a story while warming them with Light as Mal watches with a smile◊.
  • A premium scene in Book 2, Chapter 10 has Raine spend time with their new party member Cherta. When Cherta mentions the importance of family and asks Raine how many family members they have, Raine replies "One, five if you count my found family", meaning that they love Nia, Mal, Tyril, and Imtura like siblings.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • When Raine meets Mal for the first time and comments that he doesn't look like a hero (because he doesn't have a sword or any magical artifacts and he isn't wearing gold armor), Mal points out that gold would only weigh him down, he doesn't mess around with magical artifacts, and his daggers serve him perfectly well. By the end of Book 1, Raine themself can have a powerful sword (if they have the Blades skill), several magical artifacts at their disposal, and shiny gold (and white) armor that is mandatory for a No-Damage Run.
  • Raine can opt to flirt with a bug monster in Book 1, Chapter 15, much to the shock of everyone else (especially Mal), followed by them remarking "You're Just Jealous that I'm such a good flirt". In Book 2, Raine can opt to flirt with the Shadestalker...and it doesn't work, because the Seduction skill (along with the other non-Elite skills from Book 1) has been Put on a Bus in Book 2.
  • The series' name is often shortened to "Blades" by many fans, and later, Pixelberry themselves. Enter Hot Shot, an ice hockey book where the main character's assigned team is called the Seattle Blades.
  • In Book 2, Chapter 13, one of the options when encountering the Shadestalker is to flirt with it, to no avail. The April Fools Day book Make That Date! would feature the Shadestalker as an official love interest.
• I Knew It!:
  • Fans correctly predicted that Aerin would be corrupted by the Shadow Court because the bullying he suffered from his brother Baldur makes him susceptible to its promises.
  • Fans have also correctly predicted that Aerin and Valax will redeem and be Promoted to Love Interest due to them being featured in a sneak peek for Book 2.
• Like You Would Really Do It: The finale of Book 1 has Raine stab Nia, who's being possessed by the Dreadlord, in order to save the world. Because Nia is a love interest, Pixelberry killing her off was seen as a bridge too far (and if they went through with it, there would likely be mass fan outcry from the players who had romanced her). Sure enough, Nia is revived by the broken shards of the Blade of Light minutes later.
• No Yay: A good amount of players feel this way towards Aerin and Valax in Book 2, feeling that Aerin has a weak Freudian Excuse for his villainous actions in Book 1 and that Valax spending a good amount of the Book trying to hunt down and murder Raine does not make her a suitable love interest. Many would've preferred if Aerin had stayed in his jail cell (if captured) and Valax didn't redeem herself.
• Realism-Induced Horror: In a fantasy story involving enchanted weapons, magic, and shadow monsters, the relationship between Aerin and Baldur stands out for how close-to-earth it is. Baldur, believing he's the only one worthy of being king and his brother is a useless nobody, treats him like garbage, implicitly beating him frequently (even as children), and destroying his sense of self-worth. This treatment eventually caused Aerin to snap and murder his brother in cold blood, with him saying that he's been wanting to do that for 20 years, while his father sobs over Baldur's death. Though a sword made of shadow and corruption is involved, the base idea is still the same; a victim of a horribly spoiled, cruel and entitled Big Brother Bully reaching his breaking point and taking bloody revenge on the older sibling, leaving their father to grieve is almost as frightening as the shadow monsters, yet realistic enough to happen to any unfortunate younger sibling in the real world.
• Shocking Moments:
  • The sudden reveal on August 18, 2023, that Book 2 would premiere on the very first day of September, came as a surprise to many fans, considering that nearly all previous books were released on the last Wednesday/Friday of the month, and Dirty Little Secrets had its early access premiere on the same day as the reveal. It's safe to say that hardly anyone was expecting it to be released so soon.
  • The end of Book 2, Chapter 1 shocked the fanbase by revealing that Raine has been gone for a whole year.
  • Many fans were blown away by the reveal of a fifth Elite Skill in Book 2, Chapter 14, after Book 1 only had four. Made even better by the fact that it's a skill that uses Shadow magic, and it's taught by Valax, not to mention the animation of the symbol in the middle of the skills sheet shattering to pieces to reveal it.
  • Pixelberry announcing a Book 3 on Christmas Day of 2023 was something that absolutely throttled fans, as given the high production cost of this series, as well as the fact that it took 3 years for Book 2 alone to be produced, fans were totally not expecting a Book 3, but were pleasantly surprised, regardless. Even better, the January 2024 Choices Insiders confirmed that it would be released in 2024, within a year of Book 2's ending despite there being a gap of over three years between the first and second books. When Nifara said "See you soon, Realmwalker...", they meant real soon.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: Book 2 has a much slower growth than Book 1. While it wasn't until Chapter 4 that all four love interests had been introduced (with Imtura only joining the party officially at the end of Chapter 5), the first two chapters introduced the skills system and other gameplay mechanics, two of the love interests, the central goal of gathering the Onyx Shards, and the Shadow Court. Book 2, by comparison, dedicates half of the first chapter to a recap of the first book, flashbacks, and dream sequences, with the second half of the chapter only tangentially introducing The Watcher and the new villain Valax, and by the end of the chapter, Raine has only just escaped from the Shadow Realm. Chapter 2 reintroduces Kade, Threep, Tyril and Loola (if you rescued her in Book 1), as well as the vague goal of closing the rifts between the two realms and reuniting the scattered party. By the end of Chapter 2, Nia has only just been reintroduced (along with Tyril earlier in the chapter), and the other two love interests are still MIA. Chapter 3 is spent properly reintroducing Nia and finding Mal, while Imtura only appears at the very end of the chapter, and the whole party isn't fully reunited until halfway through Chapter 4. Fortunately, the second half of Chapter 4 kicks things into high gear with our five heroes fighting Valax in tandem, and Chapter 5 has the party well on their way to the first rift.
• Unnecessary Makeover: Mal's new short hairstyle (first seen on the cover of Book 2, later in a brief optional scene in Book 2 Chapter 2, and fully shown in the next chapter) had some fans wanting it changed back to his long, luscious hair from Book 1.
• Underused Game Mechanic: A couple of skills don't see as much use as others.
  • Kaytar only pops up as an option a grand total of three times in the whole story (plus one time where it automatically activates if Raine has it), and most of its uses are circumvented with other premium choices. If you defeated the Drakna Queen in Chapter 9, obtained the brooch in Chapter 11, and freed Loola in Chapter 15, it only pops up once (and even then, you can still gain XP if you have Brawling and use that skill instead). However, it becomes more useful in Book 2.
  • To a lesser extent, Stealth. If you have Deception, you only really need Stealth in Chapter 11 if your leg is injured and Chapter 16 if you didn't free Loola. Like Kaytar, it also becomes more useful in Book 2.
  • While Charisma has many more choices associated with it, the only time it is mandatory for XP is in Chapter 2. After that, every choice involving Charisma has at least one other option that also gains XP. In fact, Charisma is the only skill that doesn't have any choices associated with it in the last two chapters, and if you got the Egovore Stalk in Chapter 9, the last time it pops up is in Chapter 12, regardless of your other choices. Besides, the fastest way to level up involves acquiring Charisma last, meaning it won't be used at all. It comes up once in Book 2, Chapter 1, but you only need it if you don't have Brawling.
  • After the first chapter in Book 2, none of Raine's regular skills from Book 1 are required for XP at all and don't even come up.
  • If Raine is an elf, the Shadowsight skill qualifies, since every choice where it comes up can be circumvented by an alternate choice where Raine uses their heightened elf senses or a different choice that doesn't require any skills to use, but earns XP regardless.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: King Arlan in Chapter 14 after Prince Aerin kills Baldur, causing him to cry over the latter's death. While what happened was indeed horrible, with Arlan saying he never thought that Aerin would stoop as low as killing his brother, the crux of the issue was that Baldur had abused Aerin for 20 years, causing the latter to snap and kill the former, and a major catalyst in Baldur's behavior was that King Arlan endlessly doted on him and treated him like he could do no wrong, letting his awful behavior go unchecked while ignoring Aerin. This led to the former growing up as a spoiled Royal Brat who got away with everything while simultaneously making the latter more and more resentful and angry towards the former, eventually cumulating in the events that transpired in Chapter 14. While Arlan's loss is tragic, he is at least partly to blame for how he raised his sons in the first place.
• The Woobie:
  • Kade. He was bedridden until he was six years old, which is why he developed a love of reading and wrote his own stories. When he realizes that he can be a hero, he gets absorbed by the Onyx Shard and ends up stuck in the Shadow Realm, where he's beaten and tortured for days. Shortly after he's rescued from the Shadow Realm, his sibling is abducted and ends up going missing for a whole year.
  • Imtura in Book 2. After Raine's disappearance, she waited a long time before giving up hope of them ever coming back and had a falling out with the rest of the party. She now spends her days drowning her sorrows in nearby taverns, having had no contact with any of her companions for months.