User blog:General Khor/Queen B: What We Should Have Known, and What It Could Have Been

Hello and welcome to another review blog by General Khor. I know this is a surprise, in fact I originally planned to include Queen B in my mid year review blog, but then I realised, there's a lot to talk about for this series, which is why I made this blog. Before we begin, I'll reveal my rating for this series, and that is...

ELECTRIFYING!!!

That's right, the crowd is electrified! I said, the crowd is electrified! Bzzzzzt! "YAAAAAAAY!"

Yes, this is one of those series that is truly enjoyable and deserves my highest rating, but then again, I have some mixed feelings about the series. Why? Let's get into it.

Book 1
So, we're a transfer student in a prestigious university, and once we set foot in our new college, we're set upon by the biggest bully on campus, Queen Becca. Actually, she doesn't deserve that name, so thank goodness PB didn't call her that, or else Freshman fans would be pissed. Besides, her name's actually Poppy (or should I call her Poopy?). Oh, we also meet a guy at the bar who turns out to be our professor, and guess what, the writers are so determined to get us into trouble with the Dean that they keep forcing him on us, no matter how hard we try to avoid getting intimate with him. Over the course of the story, we sway Poopy's cronies over to our squad one by one, including two who end up on many players' LI wishlists (don't worry, Prof Kingsley isn't the only LI in this story) and most of all, Poopy's own right hand woman Chloe.

Then there's Chapter 10, where we find out the guy at the bottom of the rankings is a crazy stalker, and we get him expelled (I know many of you yelled that he should be arrested, but I chose to just file a restraining order), and we also have a falling out with our BFF Zoey (who's also our 2nd LI) in the next chapter, and it took her two chapters to forgive us. In the end, we have to get the maximum score to be crowned Queen B, but even if we don't, Poopy still gets unseated, as Chloe steals the crown. But then, some phots of us holding hands with Kingsley (which first surfaced in Chapter 12) get leaked on the university blog, and the Dean arranges a disciplinary hearing scheduled for the next book.

Book 2
Come Book 2, and we immediately get thrown into that disciplinary hearing mentioned in the previous book, where the Dean threatens to expel us and fire the professor if we're caught together again (are you happy now, PB?). Oh, and it turns out someone known only by "X" is behind the photo leak, and they are the ones determined to get us expelled and the professor fired. We later discover that X has a bunch of cronies, and one of the students we know turns out to be their spy. It turns out some of the other cronies have reasons to work for X, including one guy to whom we gave a B+ and one girl whom Kingsley called our name by mistake. Another guy resented us for being friends with the guy who stole his dream job, I guess.

The most dastardly of the minions turns out to be Kingsley's friend Lexi, who was the one who took the photos that got us into trouble with the Dean in the first place, and then she sent a video of us together, and that did it: we're expelled and Kingsley is fired, and all this for what? Well, she's in love with the professor, and she thinks we're stealing him away from her. Needless to say, Kingsley breaks up with her for that. Take that, Lexi! In the final quarter of Book 2, after we get expelled, we step up our war against X, and we get to sway the hacker behind the leak over to our side, and she revealed X's identity to us: a former victim of Poopy's by the name of Persephone Dalton. In Chapter 14, we discover that Persephone has been lurking around campus all year as her alter ego, Selene Montmartre (I so wanted to tell those reporters: she's no Montmartre, her name is Persephone Dalton!). In the end, we expose Persephone and she's dragged away in tears. Wow, we really are a bully, if not an even bigger one than Poopy.

Oh, did I mention Poopy is still fighting us for the crown? Well, X set up this voting system to let people decide who's the true Queen B. And it's not the student body voting for us, but rather an elite club called Apoidea, which in my opinion is basically the Society for Bullies and Bitches. Yes, to join the society, you have to be as bitchy as possible, besides dressing glamourously and having good networking skills. We're introduced to the society by Zoey's mom, who becomes our guide. Over the course of the book, besides exposing and taking down X's cronies, we have to impress the society at various events. We briefly get ousted in Chapter 8 (and replaced by Poopy), then we get reinstated by Chapter 9, with Poopy joining the fray. In the end, like in Book 1, we have to get the maximum score to join Apoidea and so graduate as Queen B. And even if we don't, we still get recognised by the president of Apoidea, the Queen Bee of the World, in the end, so we still end the story cackling anyway. MUAHAHAHAHAHA!

My Opinions
So, according to TV Tropes, people are unhappy about having to play as goody-goody characters and want to play as a mean or evil character for once, so PB promised a book where they can be as bad as they want to be, which is why they had us play as an alpha bitch, the TV Tropes name for a queen bee (In fact, I don't know why we call this kind of person a "queen bee", I think "queen bitch" is a better term to describe them). In other words, we aren't meant to be a saviour, we're meant to be another Poopy, like Zoey and Persephone accused us of (Someone even said on TV Tropes that we're meant to be a villain. After all, what do you expect from a series inspired by Mean Girls?). If you look closely, you find that the game favours the dark side path, which feels kind of realistic, while the light side path feels kind of fake, especially in Book 2, so even though I chose the light side path, I can almost hear the MC cackling in the finale. Look, I get it, some of us want to play as a villain, but others only like playing as a hero, like me, so really, why can't we be Student Body President instead?

Not to mention how forced Prof Kingsley is. The devs were really determined to get us expelled, which is why they forced Kingsley on us, and it finally happened in Book 2, Chapter 12, so I guess they're happy now. Even if we still graduate in the finale, what benefit do we get from romancing the professor? Well, we get to give the Dean the finger, and that's it. Worse, if you want to avoid Kingsley as much as possible, Zoey is the only option left, which means the game favours LGBT players more, as the only option for straight players like me is male Kingsley. I really wish Carter and Veronica became official LIs in Book 2 at the very least, that way the devs can cater to straight players as well as LGBT ones (there will be 2 males and 2 females, or 1 male and 3 females in total), too bad that never came to be.

How I Pictured the Story
So, at the end of Book 1, whether we win or lose, it should have been Poopy who exposed our relationship with Kingsley. I mean, surely she remembered those photos even though they were deleted, she's seen them after all, so we'll still have that hearing. We also should have had the chance to be a genuine nice girl. For those who chose the light side path like me, you've seen how fake that route is, so that is a wasted opportunity to explore how a nice girl leads the student body. I mean, if we won, we can choose to abolish the rankings and declare ourselves Student Body President if we go down the light side path, while if we go down the dark side path, we use our new found power to take revenge on Poopy and co, after all she's gotten away with bullying for at least 2 years, and she has to pay. If we lost, it'll be pretty much like Book 1, where we can choose to be a noble crusader or a ruthless fighter.

And it would have been great if the Dean is related to Poopy, say Steinhelm's her grandma or something, which would give Steiny a good reason to let Poopy get away with bullying for 2 years. If we win in Book 2, we'll expose Steiny's nepotism to everyone, she'll have to apologise to the whole university and resign, Kingsley will replace her as dean, and most importantly, we'll be remembered as the true Queen B (if we won as a mean girl) or the first ever Student Body President of Belvoire (if we won as a nice girl). By then we would have already graduated, so our relationship with Kingsley won't be illegal, right? And if we lose, Steiny will remain as dean, and most importantly, Poopy will graduate as Queen B and so get away with 4 years of bullying. I kind of pictured the MC screaming "NOOOOOO!!!" should we lose. Oh well, at least we still have our LI, right?

Conclusion
So there you have it, I expected a story about fighting bullies, not being one myself, and I think my idea for the series is WAY better. Of course, if the devs wanted something out of Mean Girls though, they could have made this series The Freshman Origins, exploring a certain someone's university days before she met a certain MC, and how she came to be the queen bee of Hartfeld. Queen B, B for Becca, get it?

So what do you think of QB? Let me know in the comments. That's all for today, until then, this is General Khor. The end, and thank you for reading.