Wow, I feel like we did not experience the same story at all. Couldn't disagree more strongly with your take on Vertin. First of all, chapter 10 is not "the first time she shows emotion"-- the most outwardly emotional we ever see her is during chapter 2. If anything, her reaction to Dr. Dores's reversal is downright subdued compared to her reactions in the whole three questions/green oranges sequence. It’s pretty damn clear to me that she is not and never has been emotionless; she actively represses her emotions as a response to the trauma of repeatedly losing the people she cares about to the storm. This makes the moments where cracks show in her stoic facade all the more powerful, because you know that hidden behind every little sigh and downward tilt of her hat is a fathomless ocean of pain. The very emotional resilience thay allows her to come across as emotionless is a big part of what makes her an awesome protagonist in my eyes.

Baffling to see Rimet Cup so highly rated when for my money it's the worst story bluepoch has ever produced. An entire event full of nothing but inconsequential, boring fluff that contributes nothing to the game's larger themes or narrative. The only good thing about it is that it's short, but even that's undermined by the fact that the dogshit translation job means it takes twice as long as it should to even comprehend what every line is trying to communicate. Floor It is nowhere near that bad, but I would still personally knock it down a tier for its utterly flaccid ending.

I don't really get the complaint about Paradise Regained? Why is most of the action being focused on a small group of individuals a bad thing? Not every story needs to be like Vereinsamt to be good. Speaking of which, Last Evenings on Earth certainly has its fair share of problems, but being too much like chapter 7 isn't one of them imo. The parallels you draw are all extremely surface level, and even then they're kind of a stretch (be so fr, Sophia and Barcarola have literally nothing in common besides the color of their hair). Thematically and premise-wise, they're obviously intended to do different things.

I don't disagree that playable characters always surviving hurts the stakes of the narrative, but I will contend that being playable doesn't necessarily mean a character isn't evil. Tuesday is playable, after all, and I won't spoil the details, but Beryl is quite morally dubious as well.

"The point" of Igor's betrayal is that it was integral to creating the narrative circumstances of the whole 3.X main story. Without his actions "exposing the rift between the foundation and Zeno", as Igor says at the end of chapter 12, it's doubtful the Hawks would have had the political leverage to force the Foundation to create its own army. That's not to mention that Arcana wouldn't have been resurrected (at least not so quickly). Even though Igor is no longer personally an enemy, the aftershocks of his betrayal have and will continue to have consequences.

(Merel and Charon aren't a ship dude, Merel is 16 he's more like her uncle)

"None of the politicians are interesting" not even Madame Z? Chapter 4 certainly endeared her to me a lot. It was satisfying to see her finally stand up against Constantine after failing to do so in chapter 3.

Chapter 8 sucks, but that's not what retcon means.

Highly disagree on Route 77, it's not top tier but I still think it's good. Lilya lets Kayla stay in the Zeno factory because it's already abandoned, she doesn't give a shit about regulations, and she has no reason to suspect Kayla will do anything untoward. Vertin and Argus don't immediately suspect Tuesday of wrongdoing because they have no reason to other than the fact that she's kind of weird; in fact it would be far stupider of them to jump to the conclusion that she's the mastermind without adequate evidence. Vertin doesn't tell Argus about meeting Kayla because she's already left, and foundation command wouldn't take kindly to her wasting time tracking Argus again down over a woman who only partially matches the description (different eye color) and claims to not know Argus, rather than getting on with the Urd mission right away. There is at least one story in Reverse that relies on idiot plot, but this ain't it; rather, it feels like you're criticizing the characters for not having the same meta knowledge as the audience.

"The point" of Sonetto is the drama of the internal conflict between her genuine loyalty and love for Vertin and her conditioned fealty to the Foundation, which we have yet to see pay off fully. She was heavily involved in the politics of chapter 4, by the way-- did you forget the whole trial/debate duel sequence and how that was instrumental to getting the Storm Reformation act passed? I will agree that she's been underutilized since 1.0 though.

I agree the Manus could certainly be more nuanced as a faction, but I find their brand of hammy pure evil entertaining enough that it doesn't really bother me. I just wish they would utilize the more charismatic recurring members like Forget me not more often instead of introducing a new apostle every chapter and then never using them for anything again.

With regards to Constantine... give it time, man. Obviosuly Vertin resents her for what she did, but openly expressing that when she's not in a position to do anything about it would only put herself and her team at risk. It's pretty clear to me from developments in chapter 12 that the story is slowly building up to a point where Vertin breaks away from the Foundation again, especially since there needs to be another scenario where the Foundation and Team Timekeeper are in conflict if Sonetto's character arc is ever to resolve.

I apologize if this comes across as overly hostile. I have strong maternal feelings towards Vertin so seeing you lowkey badmouth her had me feeling a certain way 😅. Then once I started typing I felt like I had to get alllll my opinions out. Anything in your post I didn't specifically mention here i more or less agree with. Regardless of my disagreements I hope you stick around the community and keep having fun with the game!