This is a really wonderful demo and did not feel short at all. Thoroughly enjoyed the intricacies of the choices.
Spoiler, fan rambling: I think my favorite was regarding the ones about the witnesses and the greedy soldier. The COLLATERAL DAMAGE COVER STORY was perfect, but I wanted to honor Alexander's trust in Lydia. I wasn't too convinced that bribery would keep the witnesses silent once they've received payment, but thought it better than appointing positions of power to people motivated only with incentives. Though the bribe may fund people with questionable loyalty, at least the money is gone once they've spent it; unlike with power which Lydia cannot as easily take back once granted. As for the GREEDY SOLDIER decision, it was really tricky. I could see that bribing them again is simply using the same solution that did not work the last time, but I also wanted to avoid killing lest Lydia be known as a tyrant too early on her to-be-reign. So, I initially chose to beat the greedy soldier up. But I guess they were smart to plan an ambush. Since Lydia might need the MASTER OF MURMURS unharmed, I decided to have them assassinated. It's just so intricate a game; I love how it goes beyond value judgement and ideal choices we all want to make and into all these consequence-driven choices.
My favorite character has been Theodore. Initially, it was Alden. He was a good mix of FRANK, PRACTICAL, and COMPETENT. Though Alden brought up LYDIA'S GENDER the most at the beginning, it was mostly because he knew that other people would use it to discredit Lydia's birthright, not because he believed it made her incompetent himself. Writers, it did not escape my attention how, when he talked to her about POLICIES for the first time, he did not bring up her gender at all. So he is simply that: frank and practical. Traits that I see in Theodore as well, even if he is tainted with prejudice and his practicality blurs into cynicism.
Alden is probably my second-favorite now, still a favorite. I don't know why, there is something about always suggesting BLOODY MURDER as the FIRST SOLUTION to everything that turns him into a sort of comic relief. Real murder is not funny, of course, but with all his insistence as an advisor...it makes him a bit 2D in a good, comic "are you for real" way. He has been insisting on brute force for much of the demo, even though it's his responsibility as advisor to see that it could also be bad for Lydia to be seen as a tyrant in the long run. In stats-speak, -10 people.
I've begun to see Alden as a mouthpiece and PERSONIFICATION of any ruler's need for self-preservation. I think it's CLEVER WRITING because considering the plot where the story begins where only Lydia and a few others know of the regicide, there is no other way to convey the threat of being outcast(?) as a ruler and even just staying alive from that POV and limited set of characters. If it were any other story, the threat could be portrayed with interactions with nobles in the Court, specifically in how Lydia has to please them just to protect herself and her plans. But that involves too many side characters and trivial pleasant-sounding conversations and do not convey the gravity of regicide that has happened to the former king and that may someday happen to Lydia.
The writers of Imperial Grace dived straight into it, straight into the plot, without luxury of pace, without excess characters or ones prematurely introduced, without trivial details, in just the right heavy atmosphere. I absolutely loved it!