You're probably right, though hopefully the MC will at least inform Maya & Josy that he's ready to attach strings if he's on their branch.
Each of the girls/paths will probably get an 'attaching the strings' scene to cap off the MC's choice last episode, maybe before the party so that the MC doesn't just go in swinging his DIK around and banging every Vixen in sight. Or it could happen during the party too, like when we choose to be with Maya and Josy or not. Either way there should be some heavy commitment this episode, unless Zoey throws a spanner somewhere.
I suspect Zoey is going to be playing as the 'loyal opposition' for the season, the temptation to whichever branch the MC has chosen - including Quinn if the MC is romancing her on Others, otherwise she'll be the opportunity to stop playing the field and settle down. I still think that's a flawed idea because it's effective a lower-stakes repeat of Season 2, but it's the only realistic route I see for her at the moment. If we're lucky the emphasis will be on her being the MC's friend and the romantic feelings will only become an issue near the crisis point at the end of the season; that would maximize the time we spend romancing our chosen girl(s) and give us a chance to get to know Zoey before it all goes down.
The catch is that to keep the chosen girl from pulling even further ahead of Zoey, the chosen romance will probably suffer from some serious flaws that escalate throughout the season until the crisis point. But that can potentially work as long as DPC *does* develop the relationship alongside those flaws and keeps the root cause of the strife relevant and justified. That way Zoey will feel like an alternative to the drama rather than the cause of it. I'd prefer if we used the other LIs for the role, but I can live with Zoey if it simplifies the branching.
Of course understating the drama isn't exactly DPC's calling card, but we'll just have to hope for the best because I'm not up to spending the next 3 episodes with the MC moping about how hard it is to move on from Zoey.
All great ideas that I'm sure DPC will ignore
Nothing annoys me more than Moping MC , since my main save is DIK/Others. I'm not very generous when it comes to my estimation of DPC being able to pull off Zoey's place in the story correctly, mostly because I already think her solo-interlude was a botched and terrible idea. I know a lot of people are fans of Zoey herself, and I don't dislike her at all, but introducing her back into the story now directly after the path locks is obvious drama bait and all it serves is to slow down the content everyone has been looking forward to for years at this point. Instead of being given her own mini-episode, a character like Zoey should have blown back into town like a storm suddenly to shake things up. The confusion here for me has always been whether she's a serious LI contender; her archetype of the returning-ex says no, but she's been given so much content and backstory that I'm not sure whether she's there to simplify the branching or complicate it by being able to choose her in the future.
Zoey can be done right. Everyone is gonna have different opinions on how she can be done right depending on how much you like her and the LI's she's threatening, but I will forever believe that the interlude episode was a mistake and it's not going to age well once more episodes come out. It'll be like a weird fever dream in the middle of your DIK game about this girl you didn't choose and how she's gonna fuck up that relationship you've been grinding towards for 8 episodes
But I gotta agree 100% that making Zoey an alternative to any future drama is the way to go. I can still imagine Zoey being up there on the balcony singing the walk of shame with all the other DIKs, that's the kind of character I wanted for her before the interlude, just a best girl-friend who knows the MC better than he knows himself in a lot of ways and is mature about the whole thing. I don't think she's gonna be as mature as I'd have written her to be, but the friendship element can still be there, and she can represent a subtle threat to the MC's relationships without making a big deal of it.
I appreciate the idea, but I can't get behind it. Zoey just in't a threat to the chosen girl(s). Quinn et al have better cause to be jealous of the other LIs the MC didn't pick; they all had a more meaningful romance with the MC if he pursued them. Hell, I think Josy and Maya had a more meaningful romance even if the MC turned them down! Zoey may have started with the inside track, but she blew it by leaving the MC high and dry then wasting the Interlude learning trigonometry instead of coming to terms with her feelings for the MC. She's going to need most of Season 3 to play catch up, and as I said, I'm not sure DPC can pull that off.
I'm certain DPC can't pull that off, no one could
Zoey can't be a serious contender to 8 episodes of romantic development plus a path lock. I just hope DPC doesn't think that's the case; like I said above, the interlude doesn't give me confidence that he does know. She's being set up as a serious LI contender when she shouldn't at this stage. Again, nothing against Zoey, but her role should be like a scalpel, carefully cutting open the scars of the MC's past so that he can grow as a character and then use that growth to move forward with whoever he's chosen to be with. The interlude introduced her as a blue-haired battering ram with a hot bod who is here to take her big-diked boi back, not exactly reading the room.
