What If Choices' Race-customizable LIs Had Surnames Reflective Of Their Ethnicity?: An Experiment Just For FUn (Part 1/3)
As we're probably all aware, Choices has been going ham on their formula of "one LI whose appearance is choosable" for the past few years (ever since they started drawing criticism for narratively favoring white male LIs, i.e., when the Ramsey bubble finally burst; draw your own conclusions), and these LIs almost always have canon names or default names associated with white Anglo Americans. This is one of several reasons these LIs are described by players as "white-coded", or written as if they are white men with any changes reduced to a one-line afterthought, which kind of nullifies the point of romancing an LI of color.
Getaway Girls impressed me with branching that gave two of the six Jordan appearance options (the ones described in the asset files as "Indian") the surname Paudwal, as opposed to the other options that had the surname Parker. And then they NEVER DID IT AGAIN (ingnoring Kiss of Death cause it was a weird case I don't know how to categorize)!!
So here's me assigning surnames to race-custom LIs of other books because it's fun for me:
DISCLAIMER: The Choices single LI formula has for the most part consisted of a white LI, a Black LI, and one or occasionally two other option(s) of varying races. Framing it as white, Black, and "wildcard" raises a lot of questions about racial dynamics and percieved binaries in the United States which are NOT the point of this post but I didn't want to not address it. Also have to address that I will not be assigning new surnames to the Black LI options since most of them are American and a lot of Black Americans have Anglo surnames due to the community's history with enslavement and enslavers, and Choices has simply not given us enough lore to determine if each of the custom race LI Black options are African (or another background) and which languages are a part of their heritages. Would really appreciate if they started writing more African LIs though. Also, similar reasoning applies to face options described as "Native American" in the files re: American colonization.
ALPHA
Channing Luna
These face options are described in the files as "Hispanic". Luna was a Spanish-language surname sound match for Lowe, and plus it also means "moon"!! Yippee werewolf theme!!!!!
Channing Liu
These face options are described in the files as "Asian". The Chinese surname Liu was just the closest sound match to "Lowe" tbh.
BABY BUMP
Clint Kao
This face option is described in the asset files as "Asian". He reminds me a little of the Taiwanese actor Godfrey Gao (rip) so in my head he's Taiwanese like meeee!!! Which sucks cause I didn't like this LI that much lmao. Anyway Kao is the Taiwanese spelling of the surname that is Anglicized as Gao in Chinese Pinyin so I gave it to him cause he reminds me of Godfrey Gao (rip). Not a spelling match but then again there aren't any Chinese surnames that start with the same letter and sound as Covington (e.g., Chang and Cai both start with the letter C but start with the sounds "ch" and "ts" respectively.).
DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS
Charles Quiñones / Charlotte Quiñones
These face options are described in the asset files as "Hispanic". Went with sound matches since there aren't many (any?) Spanish-language surnames that start with K like King.
Charles Kim / Charlotte Kim
These face options are described in the asset files as "Asian". I thought Kim was a pretty good sound and spelling match for King. But it did make me realize that although Kim is the most common surname in Korea by a lot, a Choices Wiki search revealed to me that there's only one character in the entire Choicesverse with that surname and it's the FBI guy from Veil of Secrets?
DISTANT SHORES
Edward Mao
This face option is described in the asset files as "Asian". I originally chose the Japanese surname Morishima because it was an initial spelling match, multisyllabic, and had the ending "ma/mer" sound, but I wanted to honor the great Ming Dynasty Chinese tradition of piracy and its far-reaching legacy. So I went with the Chinese Mao.
Also I know he's canonically from like England which would explain why he's an 18th-century Asian man with an English first name but just for fun if he was from China I think he would be called Mao Aiwei. Or Morishima Eiji if he was from Japan.
Edward Montoya
This face option is described in the asset files as "Hispanic". Montoya was a relatively close Spanish-language sound match.
And if he had a Spanish first name too he would be Eduardo Montoya ovb.
THE DUCHESS AFFAIR
Nathaniel Pandit / Natalie Pandit
These face options are described in the asset files as "Indian". Not a lot of sound matches for Pippin but the Sanskrit surname Pandit has the intial "P" and the ending "i" sound, plus it means "scholar" and fun fact, this word is also the origin of the English term "pundit".
Also since in my research I learned that the vast majority of Indian immigrants to England in this time period adopted English language aliases for use in English society, I came up with some potential real names for these face options: Nathuram for Nathaniel and Nalini for Natalie.
FIRST COMES LOVE
Blake Mai
These face options are described in the asset files as "Asian". I decided on Mai since it could be Vietnamese or broadly Sinophone.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Blaine Juárez
These face options are described in the asset files as "Hispanic". Not any Spanish-language surnames that start with the letters "Ha" as far as I know so I went with a sound match.
GUARDED
Ash Harada
These face options are described in the asset files as "Asian". The Japanese surname Harada is a sound and spelling match and also one of the most common surnames in Japan! EASAYY!!! Though headcanoning them as Japanese brings the total number of Choicesverse Japanese-Americans Named Ash to three. Laugh out loud.......
'shout out to the all time spineless wormboy, pre-rewrite covington (baby bump). never forget letting a random woman have free and complete access to his house for no reason and taking 18 chapters to say literally anything in his baby mama's defense'
POSTS/CONFESSIONS DO NOT REFLECT MOD'S PERSONAL OPINIONS!
A month had passed and there was no sign of Christian. He didn’t make contact but there also seemed to be no HYDRA but things aren't always how they seem. It was quiet. Too quiet. Things were different between me and Bucky. All I wanted was to be there for him in the way he always was for me but he was guarded lately. I’m not sure what was driving us apart. The week following Jamie's death we were closer than we’ve ever been. He was by my side through all of it.
The funeral was held in the upper east side although I requested it be back in Covington. Jamie had ties in New York City with the elitist and it was out of my control. It was grand and I sat in the back row. All of the team came. I was thankful for that. It was elaborate and I couldn’t help but think that Jamie would have hated it.
4 weeks ago
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Nat asked y/n. She was all dressed up in a tight black dress and black heels to match.
“I’m fine. I’ve come to terms with it. I’d rather the funeral not be at the damn Louvre but it wasn’t up to me” Nat smiled at Y/n’s joke
“Some people would kill to have their funeral at a place like that.”
“And some people are killed to have a funeral at a place like that” Y/n said back. Nat was silent. Yn started laughing.
“Nat. Come on. That was funny.” Nat scoffed but there was a smirk on her face.
“Alright. Enough with the jokes. It’s showtime. We have to put on our game faces.” Both y/n and Natasha walked out to the common room with their faces stoic as ever. Steve and Sam sat on the couch and stood up when the girls entered the room.
“How are you doing?” Steve asked genuinely. Nat looked at y/n and they both started hysterically laughing.
“You either have shit on your face or they’ve officially lost it.” Sam said aloud. Nat stopped laughing and put a serious look on her face but as soon as she looked at y/n they both lost it again. This time Steve and Sam started laughing as well. Nat poured drinks in short glasses and they all clicked glasses. Steve immediately spit it out.
“What is this?” He asked with his face scrunched up.
“Fireball. We gotta get a little fucked up before we have to with the fat cats” Nat downed the rest of her drink. Y/n smiled and went to pour herself another.
“Steve, you might want to drink up. We are going to sit with like 100 of Tony clones.” Y/n joked. Steve drank the rest of his drink and pursed his lips together.
“What are we talking about? Me I hope.” Tony sauntered into the room with his expensive suit.
“Oh you have no idea” Y/n mumbled and Nat must have heard it because she started laughing again.
“Anyway. Clint can’t come. He is with the kids. He told me to tell you that he loves you and he’s sorry.” Tony said. Y/n raised her glass again.
“To Clint!” She had to be on her fourth glass at this point. Hell it was a funeral why not make it a party.
They all made it to the limos that Tony had ordered and Bucky came down. He was fidgety and y/n couldn’t help but notice. She put her hand on his thigh and he looked over at her.
“Have a drink” She grabbed the bottle of tequila she had stashed in her purse. She took a swig and handed it to him. He didn’t think twice before throwing it back as well. The bottle was passed around to everyone beside Steve politely declined.
“Thor. You got any of the good stuff?” Y/n breathed.
“Of course!” He pulled out a flask and handed it to her. She poured some in the champagne flute and then one for Bucky.
“To Mr. Moneybags for getting us this limo.” She cheered with Bucky.
“You know me. Philanthropist by day, playboy by night.” He smirked.
“Jar. Jar. Jar. Jar!” Nat took an empty glass and placed it on the little table in front of Tony. He rolled his eyes but threw a hundred in it. They got to the funeral and sat in the back. The place was packed.
“Who knew Valentino had so many friends” Sam uttered.
“Acquaintances. He didn’t like any of these asshats. They're all here for show anyway. It’s an investment opportunity.” Y/n said.
“Business as usual.” Sam said back. The funeral progressed and it was boring of course. There was a gathering in the ballroom following the ceremony. It was way more upbeat. Drinks were being passed around and the sounds of laughter were heard.
“I say we blow this popsicle stand and go to a real party.” Tony said. Steve looked at him incredulously and was about to tell him how insensitive his remark was when y/n jumped in.
“Tony. That was the best idea you’ve ever had. You’re a genius!” She grabbed a drink off of a server tray as he walked by and headed toward the door. The limo was waiting out front and Bucky was quick to follow her.
“Where to?” Happy asked. Tony looked toward y/n and she smirked.
“The Delancey.” Tony said and he started to play some music and LED lights lit up the back.
“Tony, are you kidding me?” Sam asked. He was starting to smile as the Teach Me How Dougie came on. He saw the smile on y/n’s face and he stood up. He hit the dougie as he made his way to y/n.
“May I have this dance Ms. L/n?” He stuck out his hand. She got up and started to dance with Sam. They were all laughing and eventually Nat joined in and Thor tried to dance but was not hitting any of the moves. Everyone was laughing. Y/n started dancing in front of Bucky. He smiled but stayed sitting, his arm casually resting on the back of the seat.
“Come on, Sergeant, show me what you got.” He got up and Nat changed the music. Ain’t No Mountain High Enough came through the speakers. Bucky started to sing to y/n and she looked surprised he knew the song. She started to voice the Tammi Terrell's part and everyone started to join in.
“Cap, I know you Marvie Gaye.” Steve smiled and he reluctantly got up and started dancing and singing.
“No, no, baby!” He started screaming. Tony screamed and pretended he was having a heart attack.
“Oh my god the fossil has been brought to the 21st century!” The rest of the night was a blur but everyone had fun. The most fun they had in a long time. It felt like things weren’t as serious anymore. The weight of the world was lifted and every bad thing had been forgotten for the night. Bucky and y/n made it back to their room. Bucky basically holding her up. As soon as they made it to the room y/n hit the bed with an ‘oof’. She rolled onto her back and smiled at Bucky. He jumped on the bed and y/n laughed.
“Thank you for today. I needed this.” She said as Bucky put a strand of hair behind her ear. She did the same thing as the bun in his hair couldn’t hold all of the front pieces.
When a character reaches a certain number of files, I have been putting them into according to their outfit or variation in order to prevent the character folder from becoming messy and making it difficult to find what you're looking for. The ask I had regarding Avery prompted me to go through every book folder and have a look at characters where this may need to be the case. Now the following characters have now been sorted into outfit folders, along with the characters who are already sorted into outfit folders.
I have not included Rory Silva, Skye Crandall, and Logan from Ride or Die as I need to finish their folders. But once I have, they will also be sorted into outfit folders.
In the case of Adrian, Gaius, Jax, Kamilah, Lily, Rheya, Cas, Gabe Adalhard, & Bastien, they are organised into Vampire and Werewolf eyes folders instead of outfits. And in regard to Kyra & Dakota, they are organised by their hair.
If there are any characters I have missed that you think should be sorted like this, let me know.
Thanks for the tag @jerzwriter! I'm not going to do every Choices story I've played bc there's so many, but I'll do most of them (not including single LI books)! If there are any specific books you want to know about lmk. Also, I'm putting a 💎 next to the ones I played with diamonds! Not tagging anyone because I think most people have been tagged already, but if you haven't then take this as your sign to do it too ❤️
A Courtesan of Rome: Cassisus Longinus
Across the Void: Sol w/f!MC
America's Most Eligible 💎: tbh I've replayed this with every, single LI, but the first time I played I romanced Adam McIntyre (Handsome Stranger) with a m!MC; I wish Carson was an LI though! And I plan on writing for him with a f!MC eventually (this was actually the idea that got me into writing Choices fanfic)
Baby Bump: "Clint" Covington, although I renamed him Jesse
Desire & Decorum: Annabelle Parsons 😍
Distant Shores: Edward Mortemer w/m!MC
Foreign Affairs: m!Blaine Hayes w/nb!MC
High School Story 💎: Michael Harrison; The first time I played with a f!MC then I replayed with a m!MC; I also did a replay with a f!MC romancing Emma Hawkins
Laws of Attraction: Aislinn Tanaka w/m!MC, but might switch to f!MC for Book 2
Open Heart 💎: Ethan Ramsey (obvi) w/m!MC then w/f!MC
Perfect Match: Damien Nazario, f!"Hayden" Young (renamed Maya), & Sloane Washington w/f!MC
Red Carpet Diaries 💎: Thomas Hunt, my beloved 😍
Rules of Engagement: "Leo" Rys renamed Lysander (bc I had just seen A Midsummer Night's Dream before I played it lol)
Thanks for the tag lovely @jerzwriter. You're so wonderful!
Tagging anyone who wants to play! It's kinda fun to think back on all the books that I've forgotten about
America's Most Eligible: Handsome Stranger
A Courtesan of Rome: I romanced them all equally but chose Cassius
Baby Bump: Clint Covington
Bachelorette Party: Ash Tanka
Big Sky Country: Sawyer
Blades of Light and Shadow: I romanced everyone because why not, but chose Mal and I tried to replay to pick Tyril but ended up with Mal again
Bloodbound: I romanced them all but chose Jax
Crimes of Passion: Trystan
The Crown & The Flame: Dom Hunter
Desire and Decorum: Ernest Sinclaire
Distant Shores: Edward Mortimer
The Elementalists: Beckett Harrington
Endless Summer: Jake McKenzie
The Freshman Series: I romanced them all but ended up with Chris
The Haunting of Braidwood Manor: Eleanor
Home for the Holidays: Nick Peralta
Immortal Desires: both is good!
It Lives Series: Tom, Parker, Andy, Connor
Laws of Attraction: Gabe but tbh I didn't finish the book and was just ehh
LoveHacks: Ben Park
Mother of the Year: I played for both Thomas and Levi. I expected to fall madly in love with Thomas like everyone else but I really love Levi so much more. I really feel guilty because as great as Thomas is, I wanted to adopt Luz more than be with him lol
Nightbound: Cal
Open Heart: I romanced everyone, but have one playthrough choosing Ethan and one choosing Bryce (though I did not read book 3 for either)
Perfect Match: Hayden and Damien (two playthroughs)
Red Carpet Diaries: book 1 no one. Book 2 + 3 my beloved husband Thomas Hunt💖💖💖
I know this is HWU, but IDC look at my babies! 😍😍😍😍
The Royal Romance: I romanced everyone and still got bored (sorry!!!) I really tried to love it like everyone else so I kept restarting to choose different LI and still haven't made it past book 2 with anyone. If I had to pick someone it'd be Liam. I LOVE Max, but not with MC. I have a full on HC for an OC with Max that I might write one day but have yet to have motivation to take it from my brain to a google doc/tumblr post.
Rules of Engagement: I romanced all 3 men. I chose Leo in one play through and Dean (bartender) in another. I like the bartender more than Leo
Save the Date: Justin Mercado (hate me for it, I no longer care. I loved writing Justin but the hate and harassment really became too much and I stopped. I really want to write him again if only to take back the narrative and end on my terms)
Surrender : I wanted to love this book but NO! It's such an unhealthy portrayal of BDSM
The Unexpected Heiress: Mr John
Veil of Secrets: Flynn O'Malley
Wake the Dead: Troy Hassan (though I'd love to replay with Eli one day, or Shannon😍)
I literally had no idea I've played so many Choices books. Wow!
'Baby Bump was a decent book, but I loathe the Ch1 flashback scene of MC and Covington met.
The part where women are fangirling over Covington read like it was written by someone who once heard some people stereotyping Twilight fangirls and thought that that was enough to make them knowledgeable about female gaze.
Plus, it's very unfitting to the book's otherwise realistic wholesome nature; that type of writing would be more at home in something like Queen B, LoveHacks, Bachelorette Party. I mean, I'd still probably roll my eyes at it, but it'd be more tolerable in those books because it at least fits their wild, comically exaggerated themes.
I think they were trying to hype up Clint to make us feel "lucky" that he's the one who knocks up our MC... but it just feels forced, pandering, and very disconnected.'
POSTS/CONFESSIONS DO NOT REFLECT MOD'S PERSONAL OPINIONS!
Welcome to the twenty-first official Cadybear's Reviews! Today I'll be talking about Baby Bump, which I have ranked on the "Gold Tier" at 8 stars out of a possible 10.
WHY DO PEOPLE HATE THIS SERIES!? WHY!? It’s FINE!
Okay, I can maybe see why people may not like it because, let’s be real, accidental pregnancy is a very overdone trope. And apparently there were a lot of parts that were originally problematic when the story was released and had to be re-written, but I wasn’t around for that and I know next to nothing about the original lines, so I can’t say much about them. But even now, how does it get ranked as being among the worst so often? Even if you think it’s bad, it’s really not that bad.
Like… I found it decent? I don’t think it’s nearly as bad as a lot of people have said it is. And I’m saying this as a GNC cis woman who experiences major genital dysphoria and absolutely REVILES the idea of becoming pregnant. Like, I would rather die than ever experience being pregnant. And yet I still quite enjoyed this story.
I guess it kind of helps that the book is very clearly a pregnancy book from the beginning, so I kind of went in knowing what to expect and thus not self-inserting as the MC at all. Unlike something like TRH, which is a continuation that suddenly introduces a “MC gets pregnant” plot to a non-pregnancy series… but that’s a subject for a different day.
I’ll be honest though, this story has a pretty awful start. In the flashback in B1 Ch1 where MC meets Mr. Covington, they try waaaayyyyy too hard to make the player swoon at the idea of having his babies. Like, did the guy they wanted to be MC’s baby daddy HAVE to be a celebrity company salesman, who is also the keynote speaker at MC’s graduation?
And don’t even get me started on the Clint fangirls, who feel like they were written by someone who’s only ever been surrounded by the “Facebook Mom” stereotype and has never met (and probably never will meet) a real horny woman in their entire life.
Literally, the scene is just all like “OMG LOOK!!! BIG FAMOUS CELEBRITY SALESMAN!!! OMG HE HAS *GASP* ABS!!! OH WOW, A MALE LI IN CHOICES WITH ABS AND BIG MUSCLES! THAT’S SO UNIQUE AND SPECIAL AND TOTALLY NEVER BEEN DONE BEFORE!!! OMG ALL THE OTHER WOMEN ARE CHANTING OVER HIS ABS AND WANT TO HAVE HIS BABIES TOO!!! DON’T *YOU* WANT TO HAVE HIS BABIES TOO!?!?!?! AREN’T YOU SOOOOOO LUCKY THAT YOU’RE GOING TO BE HAVING HIS BABIES?!?!?!?!?!?!?”. Like, how much intelligence do you think your wlm audience has PB? Really trying to pander to the “Facebook Karen Mom” stereotype here, huh?
With that in mind, I guess I can understand why people may have gotten a bad impression of the book at first, because the story for how MC got pregnant in the first place (and her conflict with Cassandra in Book 1) feels straight out of one of those weird Instagram and Facebook ads.
But besides that, it was an okay series! I found it mostly cute and wholesome. Literally everything else was fine! There were even a few moments in Book 2 that made me cry, like when MC can record a sweet message for the babies with a plush bunny she can get from the Baby Baskets.
Besides maybe Book 1 Dr. Mariana Castillo who is just way too unserious (at least she gets better in Book 2), I honestly really liked the main cast. Even though MC is technically an outsider to the town, she still gets to be very driven and gets shit done rather than being the typical doe-eyed newbie who needs to be shown the ropes. Clint is a sweetheart and does get to be more than just “har dee har muscular celebrity salesman who knocks you up aren’t you soooo lucky” that they wanted him to be in the first chapter. Mayor Dixon is a nice mix of goofy and tsundere, and the female version Myra contributed to my bi awakening. Luisa is just a queen all around. MC’s sister… initially she could sometimes be a bit of a stereotypical “OMG girly girl talk best friend to talk exclusively about LI and diamond outfits” but she does become more than that too, and I really like her subplot with Bao. Speaking of, Bao is just the most absolute precious ever (and shame on PB for making him the sister’s LI and not one for MC /jk).
The antagonist characters were… kind of a mixed bag, I will admit. They were memorable, but also kind of stupid. Like I said before, Cassandra’s storyline in Book 1 just felt petty and cheap, plus I’m tired of straw loser villain female antagonists who exist solely to compete with the MC over the LI. It never got too overbearing, but it was still stupid. Book 2 Cassandra is great though.
Then there’s Craig, who wants to destroy everything MC and friends accomplish and take over Gracetown because… potatoes. I guess he’s alright as he is actually a threat in Book 2, but the townspeople can be pretty damn meek to him which is a little weird. But he was still a strong antagonist in that book. Book 1 Craig feels a lot more like he just exists to be an annoyance for the sake of being an annoyance, though.
Jebediah is a lot more compelling as an antagonist character, and I did expect the Covington family conflict to be incredibly boring but it turned out otherwise. He’s a jerk at first, but it’s nice to see how he does genuinely try to change throughout the storyline of Book 2.
Also, props to this for being one of only three Choices series ever (the others being OG HSS and ILITW) where the collectible system has some items that aren’t diamond-walled. The baby blanket collectibles are really cute, and it’s really refreshing to have a collectible system that isn’t “the first one is free and then the rest you have to pay for”. Like HSS, there are even some pieces that are determinant on your success in certain events. Why can’t more series do their collectibles like this??? (Oh right, because it requires actual effort).
Would I say it’s a good or accurate portrayal of pregnancy? IDK, I’m not an expert. But it’s fine if you just want a lighthearted pregnancy story to chill out to.