Blood & Chlorophyll Ch. 12 - Reflection

So this was an interesting chapter.

Cards on the table, I'd actually never heard about LitRPG's until I found the Becoming Monsters setting through Otterly's work. I thought it was a neat idea, and then quickly discovered that LitRPGs are EVERYWHERE. There are multiple websites filled almost entirely with them, and they have a gigantic online fanbase. They also, as I was quick to learn, have a lot of tropes, both good and bad. If you find people who claim to dislike LitRPGs, you'll likely hear something along the lines of "It's just a boring slog of watching the main character power level until he's the most badass dude in all the realm". I've seen other authors complain about this too. About how tired they are of "Love interest who's a healer" and various tropes like that.

But, that's not the genre's fault.

Every genre has trends, tropes, stereotypes, but no genre is defined by them.

To me, it always felt like the complaints were aimed at poor writing, rather than actual frustration with the trappings of the genre.

There are a million different reasons why I decided to start Blood & Chlorophyll, but I would be lying if I said that other people's perceptions of the genre wasn't one of them. There's absolutely no reason why I couldn't take this genre and make a cute lesbian romance about two girls trying to protect a home.

And the first ten or so chapters were essentially just a romance with extra wrinkles. The System doesn't come up too much, other than being the reason for the Race Change and various other small details about the world. Sure, Kat wants to be a Delver, but she doesn't spend every weekend grinding rats in the basement to try and Level Up.

This chapter is really where things start to shift a bit. I've been looking at it as the start of Act 2, the moment where our main couple is together and it's finally time to dig into the actual Dungeon preparation.

This means the RPG aspect of this LitRPG is suddenly front and center. They're talking about Class Features, Race Features, Experience, all that good stuff. If people came here for cute lesbian drama, would they be turned off by the change of tone? Are the fans that love this stuff going to be turned away by the slow burn romance at the start of the book? I feel like I'm in untested waters here, and I'll be interested to see what people think of the next few chapters.

In case you're wondering, I won't be ditching the romance. I still have lots of plans for non-Dungeon plots, and we'll still be spending a lot of time with Kat and Alicia as they navigate the early stages of their relationship. I happen to enjoy writing happy couples just as much as I enjoy writing awkward lesbians trying to ask each other out, and I think you'll like some of the things they get up to.

On the whole, I don't actually have too much to say about this chapter specifically. I happen to greatly enjoy people exploring their powers, which I'm sure explains the entirety of Book One of Suddenly A Succubus as well.

One big benefit is that we finally get some more time with Tabitha. She's a character that I've been really excited to start featuring, and hopefully you all see why. I think she's going to add a really interesting texture to the group, and I've got some really fun plans for her moving forward. She's got a bit more edge than the other two, who are both pretty emotional.

We did get to see Kat and Alicia Level Up! I was really excited for that part, especially for Kat who's been dreaming of Spellcasting ever since the Change hit.

Anyways, I hope you're all enjoying the change in pace, and I'll see you next time!

Nyx <3