Then any npc in Hawkethorne or wherever could be a shapeshifted demon, and you don't suspect them of being demons.
Exactly. Trust no one.
Not even Garth. I sure as fuck don't after they let Gweyr back in so easily. Which is another character we don't get call their shit out on. Apparently he was fine dicking a mass child murderer. You'd trust that? You're starting to look pretty suspicious now too...
If a demon queen vowed to steal your soul, at that point your suspension of disbelief is probably really high. That insistent disbelief is a movie trope, if I literally saw a vampire flying I'd probably believe it irl, and unlike the champ I'm not in a world of magic and monsters. A bird woman sponatenously combusted, turned to ashes, you put her ashes in a fire, a firebird woman rose from them - it's a phoenix, case closed. Not even that special. If anything, the Champ trouble with wrapping their head around this is silly, what's there to understand?
I don't think you'd believe you saw a person flying in the sky. You'd think it was something else. Or if it's in a bat form you'd just think it was a bat. It also doesn't sound like phoenix are a particularly well known harpy, it may very well be they were thought extinct. It'd be like seeing a walking talking dinosaur. I don't think the guys that caught a coelacanth originally thought what they had could possibly be what they thought it was. You hit disbelief pretty hard when something big happens. Like winning the lottery, it takes a bit for it to sink in and then you're hopping all over the place.
Maybe I was reaching a bit myself, but I really wanted to make a dig at Phoenix, AZ while I was at it. Place is a hellhole. As soon as an actual phoenix combusts back into life there it'd just burn back into ashes. A cycle of tragedy really.
Okay yeah the zinger wasnt good(just untrue cuz npcs inexplicably throw themselves at the MC), but otherwise...Since the narration deliberately said she got very irritated if you refuse her, she's quite explicitly throwing a tantrum. And some characters are shy and submissive, some are neutral, some are an alpha bitch - which is fine?
Except you don't really get to challenge her attitude. You're more or less forced to go with it which is silly. Especially if you're a high corrupted character because you're supposed to be an edgelord in your dialogue with that. You'd be in a pissing contest with her immediately. The entire temple would be drowning in it.
Even Arona gets to be put in her place. Freaking
Arona. Who also has to come to your rescue apparently because you're suddenly not the guy who beat the shit out of a demonic princess, but the guy that can't tell a horny fire parrot to stop repeating itself.