Kellermann

Engaged Member
Oct 20, 2020
3,613
11,654
I can't agree. James was onscreen with the boss for about 30 seconds. The fact that the boss didn't acknowledge him could just as easily be an indication that she's a grumpy, unpleasant person who doesn't like Bella... which is exactly what her 'Holier-Than-Thou-Hilda' nickname suggests! Likewise the man sitting outside the library looks at them because they're having a loud argument right next to him. This isn't inexplicable behavior, it's normal behavior you're reading too much into.

In the end, there's no actual evidence James was a delusion; it's just a guess that can't be disproven at the moment. If Bella had exhibited any signs of that sort of madness in the present day, I'd be more willing to entertain it. But we've seen a lot of contemporary Bella, and she's always been lucid and sane (if obviously troubled). So unless we assume her mental problems were successfully treated between the flashback and the start of the game, there's no reason to doubt James was real in the flashback.
None of these things mentioned refute the James hallucination theory. You're just saying...well this other scenario could happen. No argument there, but the mere existence of one theory doesn't negate another.

James was on screen for the exact amount of time Bella was during the flashback library sequence so that has no bearing on whether or not he was real. The key point is that Bella is the only one to verbally address James. Hilda takes no notice of him.

We are not told exactly why Hilda is displeased. She just appears suddenly, watches Bella talk, and then dismisses her from work. No explanation whatsoever about why this drastic action is required for simply having a conversation with a spouse. Even if Hilda doesn't like Bella, sending her home with no reason and no acknowledgment of James is odd. I say it is because Bella has been exhibiting signs of mental illness at work. That would be a proper reason to send someone home - When a person is sick, not when they are naughty or improperly using copy machine. Also notice that Hilda doesn't seem particularly angry. You might even say she is more concerned and frustrated than anything. She just says Isabella I think you should go home now. Again something people say at work when you appear unwell. Bella wasn't even disciplined, but just sent home.

If I were sitting outside library in the man's place, I would look up whether or not it was a "loud argument" or a mad woman ranting to herself. The man's look doesn't prove or disprove either one. The fact that he is the central focus of the render does draw my curiosity, however. This is a DPC habit.

DPC hasn't given us enough time alone with Bella to see if she has exhibited this sort of madness recently, but he does announce her troubled mind in neon lights during the crying library scene. And I don't think Bella's mental problems were ever successfully treated. It's clear that throughout the time we have known her, there has been something wrong. I'll bet even Jill doesn't know the true extent of Bella's mental state. My best idea is that during ep. 8 flashback, we were viewing Bella not long after the traumatic incident with James and his departure. Whether it was infidelity, getting sleep humped by Jill, loss of a child...a murder, Bella hasn't been able to properly process what happened. Essentially, a psychotic break has occurred in her mind due to trauma. I think the arrival of MC has pushed some of that to background but all it will take is one good DPC drama and Bella's psychosis will return in full. I hope he doesn't do that though...another Leah would be such a drag.
 

uristmcderp

New Member
Jan 3, 2022
2
13
Jesus this game is in a different league compared to the Ren'Py VNs I've read so far. The renders, the writing, the mini-games, the polish... Is Dr Pinkcake doing the work of a dozen professional developers or what? Are there other Godly creators of VNs I've been missing out on?
 

shazba

Engaged Member
Aug 4, 2020
3,506
19,694
None of these things mentioned refute the James hallucination theory. You're just saying...well this other scenario could happen. No argument there, but the mere existence of one theory doesn't negate another.

James was on screen for the exact amount of time Bella was during the flashback library sequence so that has no bearing on whether or not he was real. The key point is that Bella is the only one to verbally address James. Hilda takes no notice of him.

We are not told exactly why Hilda is displeased. She just appears suddenly, watches Bella talk, and then dismisses her from work. No explanation whatsoever about why this drastic action is required for simply having a conversation with a spouse. Even if Hilda doesn't like Bella, sending her home with no reason and no acknowledgment of James is odd. I say it is because Bella has been exhibiting signs of mental illness at work. That would be a proper reason to send someone home - When a person is sick, not when they are naughty or improperly using copy machine. Also notice that Hilda doesn't seem particularly angry. You might even say she is more concerned and frustrated than anything. She just says Isabella I think you should go home now. Again something people say at work when you appear unwell. Bella wasn't even disciplined, but just sent home.

If I were sitting outside library in the man's place, I would look up whether or not it was a "loud argument" or a mad woman ranting to herself. The man's look doesn't prove or disprove either one. The fact that he is the central focus of the render does draw my curiosity, however. This is a DPC habit.

DPC hasn't given us enough time alone with Bella to see if she has exhibited this sort of madness recently, but he does announce her troubled mind in neon lights during the crying library scene. And I don't think Bella's mental problems were ever successfully treated. It's clear that throughout the time we have known her, there has been something wrong. I'll bet even Jill doesn't know the true extent of Bella's mental state. My best idea is that during ep. 8 flashback, we were viewing Bella not long after the traumatic incident with James and his departure. Whether it was infidelity, getting sleep humped by Jill, loss of a child...a murder, Bella hasn't been able to properly process what happened. Essentially, a psychotic break has occurred in her mind due to trauma. I think the arrival of MC has pushed some of that to background but all it will take is one good DPC drama and Bella's psychosis will return in full. I hope he doesn't do that though...another Leah would be such a drag.
At first I wasn't even remotely on board with this theory, but now I think it would work well to tie in with the fact that Bella really does need help (as per the monologue in episode 3).

I can't help but keep that monologue in mind:

mc: "At the time I couldn't understand Bella."​
mc: "The attraction was there, but for her it felt so wrong."​
mc: "I remember feeling bad about kissing a married woman."​
mc: "I figured she felt the same since she was being unfaithful to her husband..."​
mc: "...which, of course, is a very big deal."​
mc: "But if I had known the real reasons to her tears..."​
mc: "...and to her persona..."​
mc: "I wouldn't have kissed her that night."​
mc: "I would have called out for help."​

To me, that was one of the most poignant scenes in the game so far.

This is future mc talking to us, saying he wouldn't have kissed her if he knew what was going on.

He says at the time he figured it was just out of feeling unfaithful that she was upset, "but if I knew the real reasons...", that "real reasons" comment means eventually he found out being unfaithful wasn't really what it was all about. There's something deeper and more fucked up going on.

Maybe Jill doesn't even know the full extent of all this shit. It's Bella who is protective of Jill, but if Jill knew that there was some shit that was deeply troubling Bella, she might not be so quick to lean on her for help all the time and would be more inclined to help Bella.

Obviously we know James existed, we've seen Bella's wedding photo. It sounds like Bella hasn't been with James for about 3 years (based on Bella's comments when she was turned on by the mc the first time she stays the night), and it's hard to gauge how old she was in the ep8 epilogue, it could have been 10 years earlier, or 2 years.

The big problem with Bella is, if she's fucked up, she's no longer reliable, so we can't simply just accept everything she says and anything we see from her perspective.

It's definitely intriguing, and I hope the payoff is decent. :unsure:
 

ename144

Engaged Member
Sep 20, 2018
3,195
13,322
None of these things mentioned refute the James hallucination theory. You're just saying...well this other scenario could happen. No argument there, but the mere existence of one theory doesn't negate another.

James was on screen for the exact amount of time Bella was during the flashback library sequence so that has no bearing on whether or not he was real. The key point is that Bella is the only one to verbally address James. Hilda takes no notice of him.
But Hilda may also have no interest in him. The fact that she doesn't speak to him tells us nothing about why she isn't talking to him. That's my point. You can't use it as proof Bella is imagining James because the scene would play out the exact same way if James was there and Hilda was just giving him the cold shoulder for behaving like an ass in her library.

We are not told exactly why Hilda is displeased. She just appears suddenly, watches Bella talk, and then dismisses her from work. No explanation whatsoever about why this drastic action is required for simply having a conversation with a spouse. Even if Hilda doesn't like Bella, sending her home with no reason and no acknowledgment of James is odd. I say it is because Bella has been exhibiting signs of mental illness at work. That would be a proper reason to send someone home - When a person is sick, not when they are naughty or improperly using copy machine. Also notice that Hilda doesn't seem particularly angry. You might even say she is more concerned and frustrated than anything. She just says Isabella I think you should go home now. Again something people say at work when you appear unwell. Bella wasn't even disciplined, but just sent home.
By that logic, shouldn't Hilda tell Bella to get help or something if she's worried Bella is going crazy? Or at least allude to previous suggestions Bella get help? Sending her home without explanation seems a lot more in keeping with a show of disapproval than it is with a concern over Bella's health.

In fact, if I wanted to spin wild conspiracy theories, I'd say this is more indicative of a twist that Bella didn't actually work at the library and had been lying to James about her job. If Bella was just an overenthusiastic girl who came by the library often and organized the books on her own, Hilda's polite dismissal would make sense even if James were really there. If Bella is a genuine employee talking to an imaginary person, Hilda's lack of concern over some pretty blatant problems is still hard to explain.

DPC hasn't given us enough time alone with Bella to see if she has exhibited this sort of madness recently, but he does announce her troubled mind in neon lights during the crying library scene. And I don't think Bella's mental problems were ever successfully treated. It's clear that throughout the time we have known her, there has been something wrong. I'll bet even Jill doesn't know the true extent of Bella's mental state. My best idea is that during ep. 8 flashback, we were viewing Bella not long after the traumatic incident with James and his departure. Whether it was infidelity, getting sleep humped by Jill, loss of a child...a murder, Bella hasn't been able to properly process what happened. Essentially, a psychotic break has occurred in her mind due to trauma. I think the arrival of MC has pushed some of that to background but all it will take is one good DPC drama and Bella's psychosis will return in full. I hope he doesn't do that though...another Leah would be such a drag.
I strongly disagree; we've seen Bella for more than enough time to notice if she had conversations with imaginary people as you suggest. She hasn't. Moreover, we've ALSO seen some of her own thoughts, and none of them are addressed to another person. Even the infamous library scene involves Bella interacting very lucidly with the real MC in the real world, worried about his real actions.

You can say Bella used to be delusional but now she's not, but that would require her to have undergone some extremely successful therapy in the intervening years. And there's no indication of that, either.

I need to see a situation on screen that can be best explained by Bella being delusional before I'll buy in to that concept. Thus far, at most we've seen situations that are debatably well explained that way. You're looking for any twist that can fit into what we've seen, not looking for signs that there IS a twist in the first place.
 

Meushi

Well-Known Member
Aug 4, 2017
1,146
12,721
Because obviously the internal thoughts of a woman suffering from mental illness can certainly be taken as gospel truth. /s ...
Traumatised <> hallucinations. There's evidence in game of the former, there's none of the latter. This is a baseless assumption.
I don't see much cause to send an employee home for the great offense of having her husband visit in public library. ... Sending an employee home for the day is what you do when they are sick. In this case, mentally.
don't you find it strange how everyone ignores James? ... Bella's boss doesn't even greet him, warn him for his inproper behavior or straight out tell him to leave, if he really was there she could've told Bella to take her break or something instead of sending her home.
Yes it would be weird to send Bella home just for talking to her husband, but that's not what happened. Their chat opens with James suggesting they bang there, talking about previous public sex, Bella's fantasies of having sex at work & closes with James suggesting a makeout session at work. So no, I didn't think it was odd that Hilda told Bella to leave.

I didn't think it was strange Hilda didn't acknowledge James in their brief on screen interaction either. Bella is her employee, not James. She's being disciplined for inappropriate behaviour at work.
The background guy is a nice detail. DPC is using a technique similar to the Deep Focus, where something in the background is sharply in focus. And knowing he's crazy about small details, I don't think he just placed him there for no reason.
I'm sure background guy was there for a reason, but I'd say the reason was to emphasize that Bella & James were making enough of a racket to attract attention. Nothing in the scene says crazy lady talking to herself to me.
None of these things mentioned refute the James hallucination theory. You're just saying...well this other scenario could happen. No argument there, but the mere existence of one theory doesn't negate another.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Your theory hinges on Bella having hallucinations, there's no evidence for that. The other theory doesn't make any extraordinary claims, it's straight up what happened on screen.
 
Last edited:

Casiope

Member
Nov 30, 2017
199
755
Jesus this game is in a different league compared to the Ren'Py VNs I've read so far. The renders, the writing, the mini-games, the polish... Is Dr Pinkcake doing the work of a dozen professional developers or what? Are there other Godly creators of VNs I've been missing out on?
It's not so much that Dr PinkCake does the work of a dozen professional developers, but that most visual novel creators on Patreon do the twelfth of the work of professional developer.
Also he's dedicated full time and doesn't count his hours on the project. He benefits from a certain experience since Being a DIK is not his first game on Ren'Py. I think he found the most efficient way to work between writing, rendering and coding so as not to lose time between each step; he himself explained that he does several tasks at once.
These efforts would be nothing without a certain idea of the quality. I do have some criticism about the writing, but all in all, I have to admit that Dr PinkCake outperforms the competitors.
 

felicemastronzo

Devoted Member
May 17, 2020
11,095
21,709
DPC hasn't given us enough time alone with Bella to see if she has exhibited this sort of madness recently, but he does announce her troubled mind in neon lights during the crying library scene. And I don't think Bella's mental problems were ever successfully treated. It's clear that throughout the time we have known her, there has been something wrong. I'll bet even Jill doesn't know the true extent of Bella's mental state. My best idea is that during ep. 8 flashback, we were viewing Bella not long after the traumatic incident with James and his departure. Whether it was infidelity, getting sleep humped by Jill, loss of a child...a murder, Bella hasn't been able to properly process what happened. Essentially, a psychotic break has occurred in her mind due to trauma. I think the arrival of MC has pushed some of that to background but all it will take is one good DPC drama and Bella's psychosis will return in full. I hope he doesn't do that though...another Leah would be such a drag.
but wouldn't it be an extreme and imaginative addition completely unnecessary? the relationship with Bella already without any addition is the most complicated and least likely, is there really a need to add a pinch of the "sixth sense" to his narrative?

it would really seem to me a useless surprise
True, and yet during their date she also says that the B&R rule book matters, I wonder how DPC's going to proceed with this plotline, the easiest way is to just make it possible for students to date teachers as long as they aren't in the same class, but if he chooses for it to be forbidden then I'm definitely curious and a little bit afraid of what might happen.
That dialogue is a really poorly written moment, one of the worst written in the game.

there are two people who are making clear the obstacles to their relationship, they compeltely forget the main one (the fact that Bella is married), and the other one they are considering they know where to look to see if it's actually a problem or not but they haven't looked at it yet, they will in the future, maybe but without hurry

Bella asked Mc to end her relationship with Jill without knowing if their relationship could ever have a future, she will check that out later....
 

znar25

Well-Known Member
Apr 25, 2021
1,571
4,419
but wouldn't it be an extreme and imaginative addition completely unnecessary? the relationship with Bella already without any addition is the most complicated and least likely, is there really a need to add a pinch of the "sixth sense" to his narrative?

it would really seem to me a useless surprise

That dialogue is a really poorly written moment, one of the worst written in the game.

there are two people who are making clear the obstacles to their relationship, they compeltely forget the main one (the fact that Bella is married), and the other one they are considering they know where to look to see if it's actually a problem or not but they haven't looked at it yet, they will in the future, maybe but without hurry

Bella asked Mc to end her relationship with Jill without knowing if their relationship could ever have a future, she will check that out later....
I always found that interesting. She implies that she never thought that far ahead in regard to a relationship with MC, yet...
Note: on a Bella path (baseline) with no other LIs or sides.....
1. The early library scene where she yells at the student while thinking about MC. Something about that lunch time story MC told her got her on that track. Combined with the previous drunk MC kiss; combined with MC went to the trouble to put away books to say "thank you" for her help. Part of her mind already jumped ahead several steps bypassing any logic. Possibly because she was lonely and couldn't control it.
2. In the path where MC stays at Bella's. After MC leaves, she calls MC from the gym asking MC if he wants help cleaning up his room in the mansion. I think she enjoyed the idea of MC staying with her (and not just the intimate moments) and wanted to make sure she didn't lose him.
3. After the Tybalt tennis match at Bella's. When MC tells her about his mothers diary, Bella moves close to MC, looks into his eyes, kisses him and says MCs name. That is not someone wanting to date to see if someone is suitable. She is already in to MC and thinks--difficult as it might be--that a relationship is possible. She says she wants a date but part of me thinks also that this is just pencil-whipping a report to make it look official (to justify how she already feels about MC).
4. Ep8, dinner at Bella's place by the pool, she again states she never thought that far ahead re: a relationship when they are talking about elephants. I am not totally convinced. That is a throw away statement to convince herself that she is doing due diligence in regard to evaluating MC. One possibility is that she is in love with MC and hopes this thing can work. Also, she has had to deal with a husband who wasn't the greatest and Sage's dad hitting on her. MC is top quality man material in every way even if you don't count the magic dick.

All this may be theory, but it is one possibility. Bella is into MC. On this particular path, at the end of Ep8 where you do not pick Bella and call her on the phone to cancel the date. She may be saying those words to MC that she is OK with the decision, but I suspect she is hurt bad. Dropping her at this point (again, Bella path no other LIs or sides), is ugly and cruel.

Anyway, picking Bella (which is the only right choice on this path)....all Bella has to do in Ep9 is spank that brat Jill and tell her MC is the property of Bella. Woe be it to anyone that thinks otherwise. :::: a dutiful Bella smirk is appropriate here::::
 

felicemastronzo

Devoted Member
May 17, 2020
11,095
21,709
I always found that interesting. She implies that she never thought that far ahead in regard to a relationship with MC, yet...
Note: on a Bella path (baseline) with no other LIs or sides.....
1. The early library scene where she yells at the student while thinking about MC. Something about that lunch time story MC told her got her on that track. Combined with the previous drunk MC kiss; combined with MC went to the trouble to put away books to say "thank you" for her help. Part of her mind already jumped ahead several steps bypassing any logic. Possibly because she was lonely and couldn't control it.
2. In the path where MC stays at Bella's. After MC leaves, she calls MC from the gym asking MC if he wants help cleaning up his room in the mansion. I think she enjoyed the idea of MC staying with her (and not just the intimate moments) and wanted to make sure she didn't lose him.
3. After the Tybalt tennis match at Bella's. When MC tells her about his mothers diary, Bella moves close to MC, looks into his eyes, kisses him and says MCs name. That is not someone wanting to date to see if someone is suitable. She is already in to MC and thinks--difficult as it might be--that a relationship is possible. She says she wants a date but part of me thinks also that this is just pencil-whipping a report to make it look official (to justify how she already feels about MC).
4. Ep8, dinner at Bella's place by the pool, she again states she never thought that far ahead re: a relationship when they are talking about elephants. I am not totally convinced. That is a throw away statement to convince herself that she is doing due diligence in regard to evaluating MC. One possibility is that she is in love with MC and hopes this thing can work. Also, she has had to deal with a husband who wasn't the greatest and Sage's dad hitting on her. MC is top quality man material in every way even if you don't count the magic dick.

All this may be theory, but it is one possibility. Bella is into MC. On this particular path, at the end of Ep8 where you do not pick Bella and call her on the phone to cancel the date. She may be saying those words to MC that she is OK with the decision, but I suspect she is hurt bad. Dropping her at this point (again, Bella path no other LIs or sides), is ugly and cruel.

Anyway, picking Bella (which is the only right choice on this path)....all Bella has to do in Ep9 is spank that brat Jill and tell her MC is the property of Bella. Woe be it to anyone that thinks otherwise. :::: a dutiful Bella smirk is appropriate here::::
On the development of their relationship I agree with you, at the beginning Bella is very resistant to even consider it possible, at first she minimizes it to just physical attraction, until she decides to get carried away.

But their dialofo during the dinner scene at Bella's house remains nonsensical.
At that point those resistances have already been overcome, it is no longer MC who forces his hand, it is Bella who asks him on a first date and who reassures him after this has apparently failed.

at that point there are 2 big WTFs. the first, huge, is the fact that just talking about the elephants in the room neither of them thinks it's appropriate to talk about Bella's marriage, when MC knows practically nothing about it. before it might have been too personal a topic to force Bella to deal with it but now?

the second is that they haven't even looked into what they think is their main obstacle, Bella works in the library, she didn't find 5 minutes to check the BR rules? it's been days since the first date. if the rules prohibit it what do they do? in that case can Mc go back to Jill?

really superficially written
 

Kellermann

Engaged Member
Oct 20, 2020
3,613
11,654
Traumatised <> hallucinations. There's evidence in game of the former, there's none of the later. This is a baseless assumption.


Yes it would be weird to send Bella home just for talking to her husband, but that's not what happened. Their chat opens with James suggesting they bang there, talking about previous public sex, Bella's fantasies of having sex at work & closes with James suggesting a makeout session at work. So no, I didn't think it was odd that Hilda told Bella to leave.

I didn't think it was strange Hilda didn't acknowledge James in their brief on screen interaction either. Bella is her employee, not James. She's being disciplined for inappropriate behaviour at work.

I'm sure background guy was there for a reason, but I'd say the reason was to emphasize that Bella & James were making enough of a racket to attract attention. Nothing in the scene says crazy lady talking to herself to me.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Your theory hinges on Bella having hallucinations, there's no evidence for that. The other theory doesn't make any extraordinary claims, it's straight up what happened on screen.
Trauma can lead to a psychotic break and psychotic breaks commonly involve hallucinations.

I think it is most unusual to tell an employee to leave with no explanation and it's even more unusual to not say a word to the man who instigated all of the supposedly offensive behaviour. At the very least, DPC should have given us another minute to see how the conversation played out instead of cutting away. But I think that was on purpose. To hide the true nature of the interaction.

Hilda isn't really disciplining. She just says you should go home (and she didn't even catch them in the act...they were just having a naughty talk). That doesn't sound like any workplace discipline I ever saw or received myself...unless it was way back when I spent the night at my school mate's home and his sister caught me going through her bras. She had some tig ol' bitties :PogChamp: They sent me home straight away because it was their only option when you have a pervert kid running loose.
Fun fact related to BaDIK: A couple of years later I earned the nickname pervert just like MC because at summer camp I got caught spying on the girls' shower. :sneaky:

The background guy can go either way. It works whether James is physically there or not.

I wouldn't say there is no evidence for Bella hallucinating. Bella is clearly shown to be in the throes of mental episodes quite often. It isn't an extraordinary leap to suggest that she is hallucinating James because, as previously noted, psychotic breaks often involve these visions. We see a couple of incidents that demonstrate Bella's mental fragility: Future MC describing Bella's broken state in the library is a major clue. You also have Bella's panic attack or whatever that was in the DIK mansion. Then there are lesser but still apparent oddities such as never smiling other than wedding, unwillingness to discuss past, being constantly agitated and aggressive, etc. Bella sure does have a lot of the standard symptoms. I think most everyone would agree Bella is mentally ill. The only debate is how deep is it and does it involve any hallucinations. It's certainly not the only possible or probable explanation for the flashback, but it is something DPC would absolutely love to do to his players. He has a thing for dropping bombshell :eek: moments.

When I first played the flashback I didn't immediately think Bella was breaking, but I did immediately have a feeling that something just wasn't right with the scene. Sort of like a Hitchcock film. You don't know what exactly is wrong, but you just have an overall sense of uneasiness and you keep noticing bizarre things and actions on screen. That is what the flashback feels like to me. On second run, I thought...wait a minute, is this fucker actually there? This entire scene would work just as well if he is not. If this were any dev other than DPC, I wouldn't think twice about it, but I've played enough hours of his game writing to see how much he loves a plot twist.
 

arnielinson

New Member
Mar 23, 2018
4
10
mc: "At the time I couldn't understand Bella."mc: "The attraction was there, but for her it felt so wrong."mc: "I remember feeling bad about kissing a married woman."mc: "I figured she felt the same since she was being unfaithful to her husband..."mc: "...which, of course, is a very big deal."mc: "But if I had known the real reasons to her tears..."mc: "...and to her persona..."mc: "I wouldn't have kissed her that night."mc: "I would have called out for help."
this is why I'm always respectful to Bella in all my playthrough,I never make a move on her unless I'm really going for her.
sheesh that whole monologue is giving me Leah vibe,god i hope i'm wrong.
ugh,chills.. you'd think after all these years you can forget a fictional fiery bitch that sets some fictional girls on fire but noo she'll still there,lurking around the back of your mind. ready to pounce and do it all over again,even showing up in the front of that MILF bar just to screw you around.
You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.
 
4.80 star(s) 1,526 Votes