I think in terms of characterization, the issue with Candrid is that she always seems to be on the default "trickster" mode all the time we see her.
As said by the MC, she's always playing her games, and there just doesn't seem to be any serious moments with her (from what we've seen so far).
Early on in the beginning of the game, it was somewhat amusing gimmick to her character, but if she doesn't have more to offer other than that, it just feels her character is so incredibly skewed to one side (lacking depth, compared to other clans' LIs, or even other BB LIs like Sonja & Yrsa).
And tbh, I'm not sure whether this is just me, but I think it would have been better if Yrsa would have gotten the Affinity boost by +1 if player chose to MC to tell her that it was Candrid's plan (so choosing to keep MC's mouth shut leads to +1 Affinity with Candrid, whereas disclosing it to Yrsa leads to +1 Affinity with Yrsa).
MC telling Yrsa "You're the one I trust the most" (which only appears when MC chooses to disclose it was Candrid's plan, and not when he keeps it a secret) I think it would have fit better with Yrsa getting that affinity point (in Candrid's place. Vise versa if alternative is chosen).
Though meh, I guess I'm not too heavily affected by this given Bears never were my favorite clan out of the three (Dark Ravens all the way for me, even though I will continue going through all 3 clans' routes)
I think that is because she has a big plan and, as you can see, doesn't trust anyone besides herself. I think it will take a while for Candrid to actually starting trusting the MC and opening to him. An example of that is the fact that she is the only Main Heroine that still hasn't a sex scene with the MC.
Uh, I don't think I agree with this example tbh. Sure, out of Astrja, Nox and her, she's the only one who hasn't had the vaginal sex yet, but if we exclude that one aspect, I'd say she's had the most lewd/sexual content compared to the other two (Blowjob in the beginning, then Boobjob, Cunnilingus, Handjob and more).
And if it were me, if she suddenly starts expressing seriousness and trusting MC just cause they had the full sex, it's gonna feel a bit like a flip of a switch all too sudden.
It would feel much more natural if she started showing such trait from early on, so it shows that she opens up to the MC little by little building up their relationship.
Instead, at this point, it feels like she's locked in on the "trickster" mode.
And some people do like her that way I understand (different strokes for different folks, I guess) but for me, she just seems to lack the degree of gravitas that seems to exist in other characters (not just main LIs, but also all the other side LIs as well).
Of course, I hope to be proven wrong (more in-depth characterization of LIs is always welcome), but from what we've seen so far, I'm not too optimistic about her evolving past "just the trickster girl" in terms of her persona.
My personal take on Candrid is that all of this is on purpose. I think that's obvious to almost anyone playing. However, I don't think it's as simple as "she's crazy" or "she's always playing her games". I don't
know obviously, but I
believe something extremely dark happened in Candrid's past. I wouldn't be surprised at all of she ends up being an incredibly deep character. I can think of several ways in which her level of involvement with what happened most recently could turn out.
As far as affinity goes, there are temporary approval / affection points and then permanent affinity points. Generally speaking, in order to get
affinity, you have to have acquired a certain number of
temporary points for a specific character by the end of that character's event. If you go through an event choosing the correct things, you'll get points for whichever LI, but they are only temporary. Usually, by the end of the event a check is made to see your total temporary points for the character whose event it is;
only if those are high enough does an affinity gain happen for that same LI.
At the end of an event, after an affinity check is made for the LI "owning" that event, the temporary points are typically cleared (i.e., reset to 0). I might be misremembering, but I
believe that points only ever get cleared for the individual involved in the affinity check. In other words, Candrid's affinity is checked at the end of this event (she's the primary character if you don't count Helga), so her points are thereafter reset to 0. This happens whether you gain affinity or not. However, Yrsa
does not get an affinity check during this event (since it's Candrid's event). That means that the MC would still have a +1 with Yrsa if the MC tells her (and another +1 if the MC never slept with Helga at all), which would carry over to the next Yrsa event.
That could give you a head start on points for the next one. In a few cases, it might actually be needed to get a total of temporary points that otherwise might not be possible during a single event. That had been actually true previously.
Anyway, my point is just that leftover temporary points are actually
not useless like I thought very early on in the game. They don't get cleared out until that specific character gets an affinity check, and so they can be used in events coming thereafter.
