It's not also entirely clear to me where the traditional aesthetics end and outliers begin. For example, one could argue that those characters from GDT fit well within the traditional aesthetics.

I'm definitely one of these outliers, but admittedly struggle to come up with mainstream examples. Most of the stuff that comes up is individual artworks and indie stuff. Maybe the closest would be Lae'zel from Baldur's Gate 3?

I read the book when I was like 15 and it's possibly my favourite. I still sympahtize with the Monster more than any other protagonist. Having none of the adaptations, it's always amusing how differently most people think of the story based on them.

I'm thinking they would turn it into poison gas...

Yeah, that's the feeling I've gotten as well, certainly.

Fucking soul-crushing when you run into an issue and have no way to ask for help.

Still not sure if I'm going to keep at this or give up on the project...

I still have to play both games, this is definitely increasing my motivation to do so.

"Follow your ambition,
Learn and thrive and grow,
You don't need permission,
To find your fortune's flow..."

Songs like this always get me pumped up, especially when it feels like nothing's worth trying. Man, Gavin just doesn't miss.

That could certainly be possible, nice catch to point out! Probably would be more dependent on if that would work with the balancing, and if the amount of possible choices would grow too big that way or not.