Search
Search results
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Tiger Stripes in Tabletop Games
Nov 25, 2021
So it was one of those days when I was checking my email and noticed something odd. I had a random tracking number sitting in my inbox for a game arriving soon. I didn’t recall requesting this game, so why was I having one shipped? A mystery still to this day. However, I recognized the designer’s last name, but could she be related to the designer in mind that I particularly enjoy? And would this game be any good? I was cautiously hopeful.
Tiger Stripes is a set collection, hand management, drafting game for two to four players. In it, players are young tiger cubs just earning their stripes (a fact I did not know prior to playing: that tiger cubs aren’t born with stripes). Each cub will earn their stripes by drafting the best available cards and utilizing them to the fullest in order to collect sets of prey.
Oh fact check: tigers are born with stripes already, so this game is not based fully on facts.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game (I think), so what you see in these photos is probably what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS. -T
To setup, each player will choose their tiger avatar cards and also receive seven Stripe tokens. The card deck is shuffled, and each player is dealt two cards for the starting hand. The remainder of the deck is placed on the table as a draw deck, but five cards are dealt to the table as an offer row. The youngest player goes first, and the stripes are ready to be earned, like Boy Scout badges… but for ferocious tiger cubs.
Turns are taken in three steps. The player must make a choice of one action for the first step of their turn: Draw a card, Take a tiger card, or Capture Prey. A player may choose to blindly draw a card from the top of the deck and add it to their hand as their action. Alternately, the player may instead choose to take a tiger card from the offer row and add it to their hand. Both of these are self-explanatory.
The third action that can be taken is to Capture Prey. A tiger may capture prey from the offer row by discarding cards from their hand with matching symbols to their target cards they wish to capture. Each card in Tiger Stripes has one or more symbols printed in the upper left hand corner. By discarding cards from hand to the discard pile, a player may use all the symbols provided by these cards to match with cards’ symbols from the offer row. For example, a player may discard two tiger cards and a snake card, noting the symbols now provided. By using the purchasing power of these symbols, the player may then draft cards from the offer row by paying their cost in symbols. It is entirely possible for a player to be able to draft cards from hand in order to purchase all available cards in the offer row to be added to their hand. An explanation of the significance of this is coming.
The second step of a turn is mandatory only if the prerequisites are met: every set of three like cards in hand are discarded in return for Stripe Tokens. So, for every set of three matching monkey, snake, deer, and boar, the player will receive one, two, three, or four Stripe Tokens to be added to their avatar card, respectively, with any tiger cards discarded to be treated as wild cards to complete a set. Therefore, a player may wish to purchase all cards from the offer row in an attempt to score multiple sets during this second step to earn as many stripes as possible.
Finally, the third step of the turn is to Replenish the Jungle (the offer row). For any cards drafted in the turn, the player will replace with cards from the draw deck to setup the next player’s turn.
Play continues in this fashion of grabbing cards, discarding cards, and scoring sets for stripes until one player has earned their seventh stripe and won the game!
Components. This game is a deck of cards and a bunch of Stripe Tokens. The cards are all nice quality, with linen finish, but are a bit on the thinner side as far as flimsiness is concerned. I think if players are all somewhat careful this will not pose problems. If so, consider sleeving your copy. The Stripe Tokens are oblong octagons with stripey art. Speaking of the art, throughout the game the art is very cute and cuddly… except for the boar. He is crotchety. I do enjoy finding the stalking tiger somewhat hidden on each card’s art. A great nod to the noble tiger’s hunting ability.
Now, as I was typing the rules breakdown I felt like I was typing quite a lot for as light as the game actually is. In fact, though it says on the box that it is intended for ages 7+ I just couldn’t leave out my little 5-year-old gamer son. He grasped the rules really well, and though he hasn’t developed the best strategy-focused brain skills yet, he is still able to play and enjoy Tiger Stripes. In actuality, he and I had a blast playing through this several times. Yes, it is a resource optimization card drafting game, but to him, it was more like procuring a veritable zoo of cute animals that then offered his tiger the stripes needed to win. And win he did. Several times. This certainly isn’t a game of high strategy and multiple-minute turns, but rather a quick and easy card game with a great little theme.
Is the designer, Isabel duBarry, a relative of the great Philip duBarry? Perhaps. And that is a great thing, because one of our favorite games across the board is Revolution! Perchance game design just runs in the family. I am not sure, so maybe someone can chime in on this here.
When my son adds a game to his rotation, that is a sign of a great little game for us. He has added Tiger Stripes to this rotation and we will be playing the mess out of it here over the next several weeks/months. While this is by no means a gamer’s game, it is absolutely perfect for a game day with kids. My child loves it, and I quite enjoy playing as a tiny tiger out on the prowl for their stripes. If you have littles at home, parents who haven’t quite converted fully into game partners, or newbies you are inviting into the hobby, Tiger Stripes is a good little game to get the party started. It’s quick, easy, features great art and theme, and introduces simple mechanics to hook people on gaming. Go grab a copy and just keep it in your back pocket for those times you need something like this for that one special group in front of you.
Tiger Stripes is a set collection, hand management, drafting game for two to four players. In it, players are young tiger cubs just earning their stripes (a fact I did not know prior to playing: that tiger cubs aren’t born with stripes). Each cub will earn their stripes by drafting the best available cards and utilizing them to the fullest in order to collect sets of prey.
Oh fact check: tigers are born with stripes already, so this game is not based fully on facts.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game (I think), so what you see in these photos is probably what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS. -T
To setup, each player will choose their tiger avatar cards and also receive seven Stripe tokens. The card deck is shuffled, and each player is dealt two cards for the starting hand. The remainder of the deck is placed on the table as a draw deck, but five cards are dealt to the table as an offer row. The youngest player goes first, and the stripes are ready to be earned, like Boy Scout badges… but for ferocious tiger cubs.
Turns are taken in three steps. The player must make a choice of one action for the first step of their turn: Draw a card, Take a tiger card, or Capture Prey. A player may choose to blindly draw a card from the top of the deck and add it to their hand as their action. Alternately, the player may instead choose to take a tiger card from the offer row and add it to their hand. Both of these are self-explanatory.
The third action that can be taken is to Capture Prey. A tiger may capture prey from the offer row by discarding cards from their hand with matching symbols to their target cards they wish to capture. Each card in Tiger Stripes has one or more symbols printed in the upper left hand corner. By discarding cards from hand to the discard pile, a player may use all the symbols provided by these cards to match with cards’ symbols from the offer row. For example, a player may discard two tiger cards and a snake card, noting the symbols now provided. By using the purchasing power of these symbols, the player may then draft cards from the offer row by paying their cost in symbols. It is entirely possible for a player to be able to draft cards from hand in order to purchase all available cards in the offer row to be added to their hand. An explanation of the significance of this is coming.
The second step of a turn is mandatory only if the prerequisites are met: every set of three like cards in hand are discarded in return for Stripe Tokens. So, for every set of three matching monkey, snake, deer, and boar, the player will receive one, two, three, or four Stripe Tokens to be added to their avatar card, respectively, with any tiger cards discarded to be treated as wild cards to complete a set. Therefore, a player may wish to purchase all cards from the offer row in an attempt to score multiple sets during this second step to earn as many stripes as possible.
Finally, the third step of the turn is to Replenish the Jungle (the offer row). For any cards drafted in the turn, the player will replace with cards from the draw deck to setup the next player’s turn.
Play continues in this fashion of grabbing cards, discarding cards, and scoring sets for stripes until one player has earned their seventh stripe and won the game!
Components. This game is a deck of cards and a bunch of Stripe Tokens. The cards are all nice quality, with linen finish, but are a bit on the thinner side as far as flimsiness is concerned. I think if players are all somewhat careful this will not pose problems. If so, consider sleeving your copy. The Stripe Tokens are oblong octagons with stripey art. Speaking of the art, throughout the game the art is very cute and cuddly… except for the boar. He is crotchety. I do enjoy finding the stalking tiger somewhat hidden on each card’s art. A great nod to the noble tiger’s hunting ability.
Now, as I was typing the rules breakdown I felt like I was typing quite a lot for as light as the game actually is. In fact, though it says on the box that it is intended for ages 7+ I just couldn’t leave out my little 5-year-old gamer son. He grasped the rules really well, and though he hasn’t developed the best strategy-focused brain skills yet, he is still able to play and enjoy Tiger Stripes. In actuality, he and I had a blast playing through this several times. Yes, it is a resource optimization card drafting game, but to him, it was more like procuring a veritable zoo of cute animals that then offered his tiger the stripes needed to win. And win he did. Several times. This certainly isn’t a game of high strategy and multiple-minute turns, but rather a quick and easy card game with a great little theme.
Is the designer, Isabel duBarry, a relative of the great Philip duBarry? Perhaps. And that is a great thing, because one of our favorite games across the board is Revolution! Perchance game design just runs in the family. I am not sure, so maybe someone can chime in on this here.
When my son adds a game to his rotation, that is a sign of a great little game for us. He has added Tiger Stripes to this rotation and we will be playing the mess out of it here over the next several weeks/months. While this is by no means a gamer’s game, it is absolutely perfect for a game day with kids. My child loves it, and I quite enjoy playing as a tiny tiger out on the prowl for their stripes. If you have littles at home, parents who haven’t quite converted fully into game partners, or newbies you are inviting into the hobby, Tiger Stripes is a good little game to get the party started. It’s quick, easy, features great art and theme, and introduces simple mechanics to hook people on gaming. Go grab a copy and just keep it in your back pocket for those times you need something like this for that one special group in front of you.
Mandy and G.D. Burkhead (26 KP) rated Poison Study (Study, #1) in Books
May 20, 2018
Shelf Life – The Chronicles of Ixia merits closer study
Contains spoilers, click to show
This review is for the entire Chronicles of Ixia series.
The first trilogy, comprised of Poison Study, Fire Study, and Magic Study, follows Yelena Zaltana. The second series, also called the Glass series, follows her friend Opal Cowan in Storm Glass, Sea Glass, and Spy Glass. The final trilogy, Shadow Study, Night Study, and Dawn Study, is where things get a bit odd. Maria V. Snyder had thrown in a few short stories/novellas throughout from different characters’ points of view. Perhaps she got bored of just sticking to one POV, or maybe fans wanted more from the other characters, so the third trilogy is from Yelena’s POV in first person and the POV’s of multiple characters (mainly Valek, Leif, and Janco, with a few others popping in from time to time) in third person.
I’m not sure which editor thought it would be a good idea to have POV switch from first person to third person in the same novel, but—yikes—is it jarring. Even with the wonky POV stuff in the third trilogy, these books are amazing and absolutely worth your time to read. Snyder’s world-building is compelling, detailed, and original. The books take place mostly between two pre-industrial countries: Ixia and Sitia. Ixia is a post-revolution country ruled by Commander Ambrose. His personal body guard and assassin is Valek. In the first novel Yelena is in prison for murder and is offered the choice to be the Commander’s food taster in exchange for her life. She agrees, and throughout the first book she and Valek begin to fall in love.
Ixia reminded me a lot of Communist Russia or China. In its attempts to throw away the corrupt government and society that came before, it has also thrown out all culture in the process. The country has been re-divided into districts with numbers instead of names, everyone is forced to wear a uniform, all art and extravagance has been destroyed, people have to have passes to travel between districts, and magic is forbidden. Anyone born with it is killed (or so the reader is led to believe). But Maria V. Snyder does a wonderful job of showing the good with the bad in this totalitarian dictatorship. Everyone has a job and nobody goes hungry, women are now equal to men, and violence and sexual assault are intolerable. This is why Yelena ends up in prison in the first place: she murdered the man that raped her. Now, this is probably my first major gripe with the series. We learn that Commander Ambrose loathes sexual assault and will execute anyone found guilty of it, but apparently killing a rapist in self-defense is also an executable offense. And all of that being said, Ambrose still has his own personal assassin. It all feels a bit contradictory, but again, that’s what I like about this series: it does an excellent job of peeling back the layers of her fictional societies and pointing out that governments and people in power tend to be hypocritical.
Now, the series name (or rather one of them) is Chronicles of Ixia, but honestly, it should have been called Chronicles of Sitia, because that is where most of the story takes place and is by far the more interesting and vibrant country. Sitia is part jungle, part desert, and full of magic. The peoples are divided into multiple clans or tribes that are all unique and compelling. In the second book, Yelena flees to Sitia after the Commander learns she has magic, and there she finds the family she was kidnapped from as a small child. They are part of the Zaltana clan, a group of people that live high in the trees in the jungle. Whenever I read about them, I would have to remind myself that they were not wood elves or dryads, because while there is magic in these books, there are no fantastical creatures: all characters are human or animal.
Another fascinating tribe is the Sandseeds, a group of nomads in the desert known for two major things: breeding super smart horses and having Storyweavers. The Storyweavers are people who have the magical ability to see the future and guide others, but who have to do it really cryptically because reasons (I appreciate that this gets pointed out by an annoyed Yelena multiple times). And of course, the Sandseed horses are fantastic; they choose their rider and able to mentally communicate with magical people. They even have their own horse names for people that they like.
Besides the different clans throughout Sitia, there is also the capitol, the Citadel, which is home to the magic school and the Sitian Council. While very different from Ixia, Sitia is by no means perfect. Its Council epitomizes everything annoying and dysfunctional about a bureaucracy. While the council members are elected and come from every clan in Sitia, they are at best useless and at worst actively impede the main characters.
The magic school is interesting, though the story doesn’t actually spend much time there. I like how magic was done in this series: it usually runs in families, most people with it have control over one or two things (ie. fire, mind-control, telepathy, etc.), but those who have the ability to master more can become Master Magicians after enduring a daunting trial. Magic is bound in people’s blood, so blood magic is a thing and is obviously bad, and magic (and a person’s soul) can be stolen using an intricate and gruesome blood ritual that involves prolonged torture, rape, and then murder.
The power blanket is another interesting concept used in this series. Essentially is resides over the entire world and is the essence of magic, so magicians can pull from it to augment their own magic. However, if they pull too much and lose control, they can flame out, killing themselves and temporarily damaging the blanket in the process. I thought this was a good literary tool to prevent magical characters from being too OP (at least most of the time).
I especially like the romantic relationships in this series. Valek and Yelena are of course the main couple. In the first book they fall in love, in the second book they get separated, and throughout the series they regularly cross paths and save one another. Yelena and Valek are heartmates, and as the series progresses they both have to mature and learn how to trust one another. My biggest complaint about the romance is that all sex scenes are just fade to black, which I personally find a bit boring.
The other major romantic relationship is between Opal and Devlen. This one was a bit awkward. Opal actually goes through a couple of guys first: a stormdancer named Kade and another glassmaker named Ulrick. And I really liked that the author included this. Many people have multiple partners before finding their soulmate, and a woman who does is not a slut. Her relationship with Devlen, however . . . Well, she’s a more forgiving person than me.
You see, it turns out that Devlen is the man who kidnapped Opal a few years earlier and tortured her because he was trying to steal her magic. But he didn’t actually enjoy torturing her and never raped her, which I guess makes it better? Well, he manages to switch bodies with Ulrick and, as Ulrick, tricks Opal into dating him, then, when he’s discovered, kidnaps and tortures her (again) to gain more power. But then she steals his magic, he spends some time in prison, and the combination of the two miraculously turn him into a good guy, claiming that magic is what made him evil in the first place.
I’m going to be honest, I didn’t completely buy his redemption arc even at the end of the third book in the Glass series, but by the ninth book they’re still together and he’s on the good guys’ side, so I guess it was real. And I have definitely watched/read much worse evil asshole to boyfriend stories. At least Devlen genuinely feels guilty for the horrible things he did in the past and attempts to make up for them, and in her defense, Opal has to do a lot of soul-searching before she can find it in her to forgive and trust him, and even more before she can develop romantic feelings for him (that aren’t based on deception, anyway). Also, Ulrick becomes a huge jerk because of his newfound magical abilities, tries to kill Opal, and later gets assassinated by Valek. I appreciate what Maria V. Snyder is trying to do here, which is to teach through her storytelling how good people can become evil, and evil people can redeem themselves and be good. Their romance was uncomfortable to read, but it was supposed to be uncomfortable, because that’s how all parties involved felt.
Now, let’s talk about Commander Ambrose. Towards the end of the first book, Yelena discovers that Ambrose is a female to male trans person. This is revealed to be why Ambrose hates magicians so much: he is afraid that one of them will read his mind and then reveal his secret (which is how Yelena discovers it). After I read the first book, I was really pleased that Snyder did such a good job of depicting a trans person, as that’s really only a small part of his character, and those who know (mainly Valek and Yelena) don’t make a big deal out of it.
And then . . . I really wish that the author would have just left the issue of the Commander being trans alone. Yelena discovers it in the first book, she keeps it to herself because it’s nobody else’s business, the end. But by creating this weird intricate background to explain why Ambrose is trans, Snyder just kind of shoots herself in the foot.
Throughout the rest of the series, I kept hoping for some other LGBTQ+ characters to show up to redeem the blunder with Ambrose. I actually believed that Ari and Janco were a gay couple for the longest time, what with their banter and often being referred to as partners. However, if this was the author’s intention, it was never really explicitly stated, and the partner thing just seems to refer to them being partners in combat and nothing else.
The first trilogy, comprised of Poison Study, Fire Study, and Magic Study, follows Yelena Zaltana. The second series, also called the Glass series, follows her friend Opal Cowan in Storm Glass, Sea Glass, and Spy Glass. The final trilogy, Shadow Study, Night Study, and Dawn Study, is where things get a bit odd. Maria V. Snyder had thrown in a few short stories/novellas throughout from different characters’ points of view. Perhaps she got bored of just sticking to one POV, or maybe fans wanted more from the other characters, so the third trilogy is from Yelena’s POV in first person and the POV’s of multiple characters (mainly Valek, Leif, and Janco, with a few others popping in from time to time) in third person.
I’m not sure which editor thought it would be a good idea to have POV switch from first person to third person in the same novel, but—yikes—is it jarring. Even with the wonky POV stuff in the third trilogy, these books are amazing and absolutely worth your time to read. Snyder’s world-building is compelling, detailed, and original. The books take place mostly between two pre-industrial countries: Ixia and Sitia. Ixia is a post-revolution country ruled by Commander Ambrose. His personal body guard and assassin is Valek. In the first novel Yelena is in prison for murder and is offered the choice to be the Commander’s food taster in exchange for her life. She agrees, and throughout the first book she and Valek begin to fall in love.
Ixia reminded me a lot of Communist Russia or China. In its attempts to throw away the corrupt government and society that came before, it has also thrown out all culture in the process. The country has been re-divided into districts with numbers instead of names, everyone is forced to wear a uniform, all art and extravagance has been destroyed, people have to have passes to travel between districts, and magic is forbidden. Anyone born with it is killed (or so the reader is led to believe). But Maria V. Snyder does a wonderful job of showing the good with the bad in this totalitarian dictatorship. Everyone has a job and nobody goes hungry, women are now equal to men, and violence and sexual assault are intolerable. This is why Yelena ends up in prison in the first place: she murdered the man that raped her. Now, this is probably my first major gripe with the series. We learn that Commander Ambrose loathes sexual assault and will execute anyone found guilty of it, but apparently killing a rapist in self-defense is also an executable offense. And all of that being said, Ambrose still has his own personal assassin. It all feels a bit contradictory, but again, that’s what I like about this series: it does an excellent job of peeling back the layers of her fictional societies and pointing out that governments and people in power tend to be hypocritical.
Now, the series name (or rather one of them) is Chronicles of Ixia, but honestly, it should have been called Chronicles of Sitia, because that is where most of the story takes place and is by far the more interesting and vibrant country. Sitia is part jungle, part desert, and full of magic. The peoples are divided into multiple clans or tribes that are all unique and compelling. In the second book, Yelena flees to Sitia after the Commander learns she has magic, and there she finds the family she was kidnapped from as a small child. They are part of the Zaltana clan, a group of people that live high in the trees in the jungle. Whenever I read about them, I would have to remind myself that they were not wood elves or dryads, because while there is magic in these books, there are no fantastical creatures: all characters are human or animal.
Another fascinating tribe is the Sandseeds, a group of nomads in the desert known for two major things: breeding super smart horses and having Storyweavers. The Storyweavers are people who have the magical ability to see the future and guide others, but who have to do it really cryptically because reasons (I appreciate that this gets pointed out by an annoyed Yelena multiple times). And of course, the Sandseed horses are fantastic; they choose their rider and able to mentally communicate with magical people. They even have their own horse names for people that they like.
Besides the different clans throughout Sitia, there is also the capitol, the Citadel, which is home to the magic school and the Sitian Council. While very different from Ixia, Sitia is by no means perfect. Its Council epitomizes everything annoying and dysfunctional about a bureaucracy. While the council members are elected and come from every clan in Sitia, they are at best useless and at worst actively impede the main characters.
The magic school is interesting, though the story doesn’t actually spend much time there. I like how magic was done in this series: it usually runs in families, most people with it have control over one or two things (ie. fire, mind-control, telepathy, etc.), but those who have the ability to master more can become Master Magicians after enduring a daunting trial. Magic is bound in people’s blood, so blood magic is a thing and is obviously bad, and magic (and a person’s soul) can be stolen using an intricate and gruesome blood ritual that involves prolonged torture, rape, and then murder.
The power blanket is another interesting concept used in this series. Essentially is resides over the entire world and is the essence of magic, so magicians can pull from it to augment their own magic. However, if they pull too much and lose control, they can flame out, killing themselves and temporarily damaging the blanket in the process. I thought this was a good literary tool to prevent magical characters from being too OP (at least most of the time).
I especially like the romantic relationships in this series. Valek and Yelena are of course the main couple. In the first book they fall in love, in the second book they get separated, and throughout the series they regularly cross paths and save one another. Yelena and Valek are heartmates, and as the series progresses they both have to mature and learn how to trust one another. My biggest complaint about the romance is that all sex scenes are just fade to black, which I personally find a bit boring.
The other major romantic relationship is between Opal and Devlen. This one was a bit awkward. Opal actually goes through a couple of guys first: a stormdancer named Kade and another glassmaker named Ulrick. And I really liked that the author included this. Many people have multiple partners before finding their soulmate, and a woman who does is not a slut. Her relationship with Devlen, however . . . Well, she’s a more forgiving person than me.
You see, it turns out that Devlen is the man who kidnapped Opal a few years earlier and tortured her because he was trying to steal her magic. But he didn’t actually enjoy torturing her and never raped her, which I guess makes it better? Well, he manages to switch bodies with Ulrick and, as Ulrick, tricks Opal into dating him, then, when he’s discovered, kidnaps and tortures her (again) to gain more power. But then she steals his magic, he spends some time in prison, and the combination of the two miraculously turn him into a good guy, claiming that magic is what made him evil in the first place.
I’m going to be honest, I didn’t completely buy his redemption arc even at the end of the third book in the Glass series, but by the ninth book they’re still together and he’s on the good guys’ side, so I guess it was real. And I have definitely watched/read much worse evil asshole to boyfriend stories. At least Devlen genuinely feels guilty for the horrible things he did in the past and attempts to make up for them, and in her defense, Opal has to do a lot of soul-searching before she can find it in her to forgive and trust him, and even more before she can develop romantic feelings for him (that aren’t based on deception, anyway). Also, Ulrick becomes a huge jerk because of his newfound magical abilities, tries to kill Opal, and later gets assassinated by Valek. I appreciate what Maria V. Snyder is trying to do here, which is to teach through her storytelling how good people can become evil, and evil people can redeem themselves and be good. Their romance was uncomfortable to read, but it was supposed to be uncomfortable, because that’s how all parties involved felt.
Now, let’s talk about Commander Ambrose. Towards the end of the first book, Yelena discovers that Ambrose is a female to male trans person. This is revealed to be why Ambrose hates magicians so much: he is afraid that one of them will read his mind and then reveal his secret (which is how Yelena discovers it). After I read the first book, I was really pleased that Snyder did such a good job of depicting a trans person, as that’s really only a small part of his character, and those who know (mainly Valek and Yelena) don’t make a big deal out of it.
And then . . . I really wish that the author would have just left the issue of the Commander being trans alone. Yelena discovers it in the first book, she keeps it to herself because it’s nobody else’s business, the end. But by creating this weird intricate background to explain why Ambrose is trans, Snyder just kind of shoots herself in the foot.
Throughout the rest of the series, I kept hoping for some other LGBTQ+ characters to show up to redeem the blunder with Ambrose. I actually believed that Ari and Janco were a gay couple for the longest time, what with their banter and often being referred to as partners. However, if this was the author’s intention, it was never really explicitly stated, and the partner thing just seems to refer to them being partners in combat and nothing else.