Not my favorite, but I love her too <3

Originally posted by Sip_of_Love:

Not my favorite, but I love her too <3

Who is your favourite? ^_^

i actually loved it lol

All three routes were atmospheric, well written and a treat to read, but here's my explanation for why I loved the mermaid the most.

Be warned: This is full of spoilers!

I think, to me, it felt most as though the protagonist brought upon her fate herself in the mermaid route because she clearly obsesses and attaches herself to the mermaid, whereas in the gravedigger and princess routes there is more of an exchange between the characters. With the gravedigger, she takes cares of household chores while the gravedigger goes out to 'work', and she accepts a job at the castle with the princess in order to have a place to live. In those routes, it comes across as the protagonist attempting to build a sustainable life in order to survive. Also, the protagonist shows kindness to the princess and especially the gravedigger. Whereas, with the mermaid, she isn't so much kind as jealously possessive and is motivated by her infatuation and is prepared to ignore her own wellbeing as a result of her obsession. She agrees to dive underwater even though she knows it's a bad idea, while in the other routes she is asleep when she is taken to her death. The protagonist's death at the hands of the mermaid was the only one I felt compelled to accept instead of resist. The obsession and its consequences were really fascinating to explore.

I also felt the mermaid's motivation for killing the protagonist made some kind of sense, as did the princess's twisted reasoning, whereas the gravedigger's felt weak. The gravedigger complained of being deeply lonely because everyone she knew had died, and she talked of being happiest when she and her father lived together. So choosing to bury the one person she finally had in order to continue doing her job was the least convincing, and yet the most predictable, of the three deaths.

The smaller amount of dialogue between the protagonist and the mermaid also gives it a stronger sense that the mermaid is a symbol or an archetype, and her artwork is especially beautiful, in my opinion!