Yes, that's right. Realism will take second place to Sophia discovering her 'inner slut.' This is one of the over-used cliches of games of this type but it's definitely corruption. Anti-blackmailers should be pleased with such a development, where an essentially good woman goes astray largely of her own free will, with just a bit of a shove from a dastardly villain. That she will make the transition has already been telegraphed in task one. As for the double standard with a male protagonist, I agree with you but that is what society has done, not us, not the Dev. There are some who, no doubt, will view the lewder switched-on Sophia as a sexually liberated woman, which is another legitimate POV. Extending this line could see Sophia as a sexual predator, i.e. she knows what she wants & she knows how to get it. Would that be a way to go?
Personally, I prefer the good woman to be forced into things which are against her nature, rather than having a choice. That way her essential character remains intact. Speaking of choices, anti-blackmailers are ridiculously over-supplied with ways to avoid or stop the whole thing & (incredibly) there are more coming up. It's almost embarrassing how many ways there are to avoid it. I would relish having the same number of chances to progress in the game without having to indulge in the ubiquitous incest but I have had to accept things as they are & avoid it when I can. (Even half the number of chances would do).
Once again I'm defending the blackmail element, which itself has so far been almost ludicrously mild, even childish, ('show us your knickers'... is in keeping with the school setting). Blackmail is NOT rape, it is not even the beginning of rape. It's prescence at least currently provides some edginess & gets away from the suburban soap scenario. If it wasn't there, (which for many it isn't, or soon won't be), the story would be like a slightly porn-influenced romantic novel. Most romantic novels today are indeed porn-influenced in any case.
I've stirred controversy before without meaning to but now I will deliberately go out of the comfort zone. [As far as I'm concerned, the more Sophia is kept out of her comfort zone, the better]. There should have been a stronger, tighter reason for the blackmail, such as Sophia accessing Bennett's personal file, digging for counter leverage to his blackmail attempt, only to be ironically discovered by Aiden.
Stating that there will be no rape, or forced sex, while it no doubt reassured some vanilla fans, also surgically extracted the tension that the blackmail should have provided. This doesn't mean that these things would HAVE to happen but simply knowing they CAN'T happen is counter to the normal game-world practice & makes the whole blackmail storyline(s) superfluous, (other than as a corruption device, referred to above), even though I still enjoy them out of curiousity to see what actually WILL happen. Sophia doesn't really know this of course, which also helps to keep things buzzing.....just.
I don't practice blackmail in RL but I won't be guilt-tripped because I follow it here. I enjoy a good war film but I don't want the wars on Earth to continue. I like murder mysteries but I don't want to murder anybody. I'm tired of having to point out that this is fantasy, so next time there's 'white knight' post, I may indulge myself & deliver an anti-incest diatribe. Peace.
