Of course, but it's one thing to gloss over inconsequential things to facilitate gameplay mechanics. It's another entirely to gloss over the entire character development arc of the main character. I doubt the writer would have done that.
Side note, I also edited in a character profile you may have missed since I didn't think you'd reply that quick. I think it better explains his probable situation and why he never bothered trying.
Of course you can always say pull yourself from your bootstraps, but imo I don't think he ever got the opportunity to leave that toxic environment the first time. The barrage of jokes kinda mask the severity, but without Mer's utilitarian interference and/or the speculated looks buff I severely doubt many would pull themselves out of that situation. He didn't even have one relationship he could rely on. Add the bullying we see in the second chance just from kate (literally tied up for days), it's already a fucked situation. And that happens after he self improves and makes friends. Imagine that happening and having no one to go to or even untie you. It's not an exaggeration to say some kids wouldn't have even made it to adulthood in his situation.
I don't disagree with you by any means. I think it's a mix of factors. He underwent a lot of genuine bullying, and while it probably didn't have the psychosexual components seen in the game, it was probably brutal. If anything, it might have been worse than what we see in the game, given that conservation of detail means we never actually see any male students like the jocks who were involved in a lot of it. It probably also happened on a regular basis for
years, not just the couple of one-off events you trigger when you choose to approach a known bully. No surprise at all that fucked him up.
I just don't buy the MC's claim that the bullying was
universal. Rather, it's more likely he responded to the bullying by retreating into his shell, and ignored or didn't see the people who were decent or neutral toward him because he was too wrapped up in his own problems to notice. If we're assuming his prior life resembles the real world, most non-bullies probably didn't pay much attention to him one way or the other unless he did something to actively draw their attention. They were too wrapped up in their own stresses and hardships too (top of my head, his teacher probably really was insecure and Lindsey probably had a ton of pressure to excel on her, for example). If he'd applied himself or made an effort to reach out socially (and not just sexually), even to people he wasn't trying to sleep with, he would probably have found at least a couple of likeable people, but he'd become afraid to and didn't realize the faceless masses had faces of their own. Separately and in addition to that, he fell down the incel rabbit hole, also a common thing in real life, and that convinced him of all sorts of bullshit. He latched onto it because it let him reassure himself that the shit he was dealing with wasn't his fault. Unfortunately, it also enabled his worst behavior, shittiest personality traits, and perverted attitudes toward women, which only amplified his problems by kicking off worse retaliatory bullying and made previously-neutral people more likely to actively avoid/dislike him.
As for his home life, I agree it was a hybrid. There was probably a measure of unintentional Golden Child/Dross Child treatment by his mother growing up, which when combined with plain old sibling rivalry, meant that he gave up on life at home too. When he stopped making any effort and retreated into the lowest expectations and worst behavior, though, that's when he actively became a disappointment and creep under their roof. Differences in ambition aside, no surprise his sister wanted nothing to do with the brother who'd perved on her and their mother throughout her teenage years.
I'm certainly not trying to spout a bunch of "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" crap. Like I said, I've been where he was at the start of the game to an extent. Not quite the same, I had more education, a supportive family, and never fell into incel crap, but unable to find any work in the field I'd studied for, single, woefully out of shape, and dealing with the depression spiral of feeling like a complete failure, knowing I needed to change, and didn't have the wherewithal to actually act on it, which made me hate myself worse. I did eventually find a job (a crap job loading boxes, but it was some sort of job, it helped solve the "out of shape" problem really quick, and my education helped me move up to corporate in short order), and started getting my shit together. I'm not going to pretend for an instant it's easy to overcome, and I don't think less of him for struggling to do so, but it's necessary to at least try to do
something, wallowing is the absolute least healthy option. If anything, his ability to afford his rig and the like is evidence that he had at least some support, presumably from his mother, even if she had written him out of the will.
It's not an exaggeration to say some kids wouldn't have even made it to adulthood in his situation.
Believe me, I'm very aware of that part. Suicide's one route he might have gone down (intentionally or through drug abuse), but not the only one. I've been trying to avoid saying this, but we're all presumably adults here, so I'm going to put this out there and trust people to understand I'm not making light of it: If the MC at the start of the game had been into guns as much as he is porn, he'd be a very likely school shooter. The history of extreme bullying, the social isolation, the self-loathing over not amounting to anything... Shit's complicated, but from a layman's perspective, he has "blaze of glory/be remembered for something/I'll show them all" written all over him. It's a piece of mercy that he grows out of that quickly in the new version of reality.
