I like Emma but then again, I like Bennett & we know what happened to him. As long as Dylan can be paired up with her & have a courtship off-screen, thus getting him off Sophia's back to give some genuine choice to those who don't need incest, there's no need for her to have a separate path. What's required, IMO, is drastic pruning, with the side jobs being obvious candidates & that immediately hits a problem, because the shota children are very popular with the paying fanbase, as shown in the polls.
Contrary to the received wisdom, I don't believe that there's even much of an outline anymore. AWAM now reads as though it's being made up as the Dev goes along, which accounts for the deterioration in the scripts, e.g. I don't think that he decided back in 2017 that Dylan would be a second MC, (now THE MC) & that's only the most egregious example, probably a direct result of the identification of the tastes of the core Patreon fanbase, i.e. the only fans who matter.
One answer would therefore seem to be the elimination of any characters not above a Dev decided threshold but that would rule out Liam & he's vital to the story. That is true, even for the oedipal teens wanting the son to replace the father. Other cast members close to the bottom of the list have only minor parts & may never be seen again this side of 2040. Their positioning is not surprising & their removal would make no difference in the short run, by which in L&P terms, I mean the next 10 years. I came up with a long list of characters who could be written out some years ago & I'm not doing it again. Suffice to say that there are many who could go but what's really needed is a radical solution, i.e. the eradication of a number of storylines.
As I don't seek to avoid criticism, it seems to me that Dylan, the true MC, has too many branches & lopping 1 or 2 off should be considered.
All the above & more would be issues to be resolved before true speeding up could occur. That is they would be if the Dev gave a damn but why should he with the core fanbase he has?
I've played games in the past where the updates went on declining in frequency & quality towards 1 per annum. Fans, (including me), deserted them in droves, along with the usual complaining. Only a few games transcend this obvious approach & I'm aware of the income paid to some Devs who have not updated their abandoned games for years. I've read posts from the ultra-faithful who believe their favourite artist will be back. [After all, it's not impossible....]. If L&P ever takes 'extended leave,' it's clear that AWAM would join this select bunch.
