for me, maya story doesnt even make sense but i dont know, maybe its because im not american and in my country we dont need to pay a loan for 30 years to attend college
she didnt read what she was signing?
and besides that the old story of the religious father that wants to control the life of his precious little girl errrr... so cliche, are we back in the 80's or something?
all the story even makes less sense if we think that derek is her twin, a guy that is naked as a daily basis, only talks shit, only does shit... the baddie religious father only cares about his little girl? doesnt care about the guy that will continue his legacy, his name?
and even maya's attitudes only makes her more "despicable" in my eyes. she basically uses everyone who can solve her problem, she brings all the people to her mess (MC, josy, sage, burkes, now jill), she doesnt care who they are, just want the result. she even joins a sorority that she hates hoping to get the free tuition. sorry but in my books all of this is very wrong and a big red flag, not just for a girl but for a person itself.
in the beginning of the game i liked maya, she was a fresh college student like MC, it was nice, funny and stuff but when her backstory started to be known and all the scenes with her were about tuition tuition tuition tuition lesbian problems tuition tuition tuition tuition lesbian problems... my interest for her and her arc went to zero.
Given the dodginess of the loan, it’s likely the dad organised a private loan as opposed to a federal loan, that way he had more control over the conditions.
But the way most student loans work is you have to start repaying once you graduate / stop studying.
Depending on the degree, the final bill could be over $100,000 (although Maya’s degree sounds like a cheap one).
Once you graduate you gotta start earning cash soon and then start repaying, and a $100,000 debt isn’t nothing.
But in Maya’s case, with her dad threatening to withhold the funds, Maya won’t be able to finish her studies, so her employment prospects drop a bit, and she’ll still have to pay back whatever amount she’s borrowed.
Of course what her dad is doing is illegal, assuming he is withholding the funds, but the fact that she is currently attending college means the first semester is likely paid up, so at this point it’s only a threat from the dad, but it’s still a looming threat being used to control her.
Why does the dad control Maya and not Derek? She’s a girl. Religions, and society in general, have a long standing tradition for controlling women, and while the US has made great strides towards equality, fundamentalist religious types still see their daughters are something to be protected beyond that of their sons.
None of it is a great stretch of the imagination except for the actual specifics of the loan, which Maya doesn't properly understand (and I believe her dad is just bluffing).
And regarding Maya signing without reading, her dad would have just told her to sign and she did. Up until he fucked her over with the loan, although he was controlling, Maya had no reason to believe he was going to shaft her, so she trusted him. Plenty of people signs documents without reading and understanding them, particularly if they are with someone they trust (I went with my sister when she got her home loan, she didn't understand shit and went with my recommendations).
As far as Maya using people, people have offered their help. She thought she could use the HOTs for free tuition, so what? They are literally a bunch of whores, it's not like she was "betraying" them or some shit. And as far as using other people, they've all offered to help where they can.
Maya's in a fucked up situation, she's been controlled her whole life so she doesn't really have a skillset to handle this kinda shit, and she's making some dumb decisions. She's also not comfortable explaining to people that this is happening because her dad is trying to "save" her from being a lesbian, and that just complicates things. That doesn't make her detestable.
The only real problem is this loan thing has dragged on too long for arguably contrived reasons. We knew the HOTs were not a solution for her, and the mc should have told her what he thought the situation was (but he may not have got it that the free tuition is directly related to prostitution). And getting Burke to help was a dead end because he's in the middle of the prostitution ring and was only interested in signing her up for that. She's complained that she can't afford a lawyer, so that option has never been on the table, but now that Jill has offered her services, as long as Maya is prepared to spell it all out to the lawyer, it should finally be resolved (they just have to threated to take the dad to court and it will be over in seconds).
this reiterates the whole issue with this series of events with Jill. It happens the way it does because DPC wills it so. Instead of feeling organic and logical, we blatantly see the hand of the creator manipulating Jill's path. There is no way anybody can say with a straight face that there wasnt a better/more effective way to write a generic subplot about Jill needing "destiny" to confirm her feelings than an impromptu picnic that closes off Jill's path for good yet has basically no effect on Sage's path.
Its poorly conveyed to the player the finality of the decision about to be made, demonstrated how many people assume that there is no reason you cant take care of Sage for that day and just picnic with Jill later. Its an artificial and totally arbitrary fork in the road. And worse still, it makes Jill's character inconsistent as we could easily argue she would appreciate you caring for a sick friend and gladly reschedule. And even worse still, the picnic includes the stupid as hell Tybalt blackmail subplot which is also some poorly written junk that doesnt hold up to scrutiny and makes Jill look like an incapable idiot.
I don't really agree with that. Jill has been created as a certain type of character and it's been consistent all along. She's naïve, she's thoughtful and wants to help. She's ultimately good, but often stubborn about it. But she also believes in destiny, signs and all that shit. She's very different to Sage, and the idea that the picnic decision is a big deal to Jill and means fuck all to Sage to me is more acceptable than whoever you don't choose will dump you. That would have been contrived. When you turn Sage down, she gets pissed for about 2 minutes and then she's over it.
You complain that it's not obvious to the character that this decision is quite serious. Do you need a "Spoiler: This decision will eventually end your relationship with Jill down track"? I don't want that kind of shit in the game. That's hand holding for snowflakes.
It was clear to me this decision was huge.
When he let Jill down, she took it as a signed and distanced herself. He could have said, let's go later, but the weather changed anyway, and it would have been called off and Jill would have still taken it as a sign, and people would have complained that was contrived too.
The other option to go to the picnic and see Sage afterward (it's not like she wasn't dying) actually was something the mc tried to do, but Sage turned the mc down when he suggested this. DPC fucked this up because no one sees that exchange between the mc and Sage over text message because DPC didn't give us access to the phone after that scene, so we can't see the messaging. It's a legit bug that still hasn't been resolved.
This link, the same as the one above, shows the exchange that we don't have access to because of a game bug.
In that scene, you choose the girl you wanna be with. If you're trying to fuck both girls, you're either breaking the prior engagement with Sage who isn't well (but the mc does offer to just visit her later but she blows him off, so actually that's not that bad of an option), or you're turning down an excited, naïve girl (who never takes the initiative with guys but has done so here) who's put together a surprise birthday picnic date.
To expect Jill to go, "Oh Fuckface, you're such a good friend to this other girl, your Chick points resonate with my own Chick persona, and now I love you even more for turning down the impromptu picnic that I just had some servant throw together for us." is to be deluding yourself. She's gonna feel some hurt, and she read more into it than she should have.
I'm sure there was a better way to write all of this, the entire story in fact. But it's been written this way, and it's good enough.
Sure, it was the way DPC wrote it, but like with any story you have to assume a certain amount of poetic license. It's not going to be the only time where a choice creates a branch between LI paths.
Besides, I don't mind the choice personally. I've always felt like some people are making
way too big a deal about that EP6 Jill/Sage choice. And I think her reaction makes perfect sense. From Jill's perspective she planned a big surprise for MC and MC just blew it off so that he could hang out with another girl. By EP6, Jill is clearly starting to catch feelings for MC but she is still
very conscious of the fact that he's dating other girls...
and MC just blew her off for one of those girls. That's why it was a big deal for her. Even despite being let down, she was really friendly about it.
You're either letting down one girl or the other. But the way I see it, Sage's issue is
really really minor (I mean.. it's a cold and Sage is a big girl), while here Jill is in person, dressed up for something that she's clearly excited about. Any dude with half a brain can tell that it's a surprise birthday date. For me, it's not really a difficult
or controversial choice at all. On my first playthrough, I literally chose Jill without a second thought, only to later find out people were losing their shit about it on the forums
.
I think mostly, people don't like this Jill choice because when the branches get locked in in EP8,
she's the one who chooses to stop dating
for her own reasons. With Jill, her breakup blindsides the MC while in all the other branches it's the LIs who are essentially waiting on MC's decision. It was the blindside that I think some people didn't like.
You've got a point there, Jill doing the dumping and M&J doing the dumping resulted in a similar response prom the players: Hate.
When I first found out about the consequences of that choice I was upset (not that I was really trying to pursue Jill anyway), but now I with you and don't mind it. Although, I don't think she rejects him because he went to hang out with another girl. If I remember correctly he doesn't even say who it is, just that its a friend, so I don't believe she even knows. Not that she couldn't put two and two together.
I think of it this way now; Jill doesn't reject the MC because he specifically turned her down for that date, she did it cause she didn't think he was boyfriend material. Its on that date MC and Jill end up sharing some very personal things that leads to a better connection. Its there that she does fall for the MC. Without the date, that "spark" never happens. Without that feeling, she turns the MC down.
While I'm sure it could have been written better, it is very much like real life with missed opprotunities. We never know what sort of long term outcomes could have been when we chose one door over another. Choosing one could close any number of doors down the line.
So much random shit happens in real life. You go to the laundromat only to realise half way you've left your wallet at home, head back to get it and miss out on meeting a hot babe and fucking her with her head in the dryer.
Considering how many times I've missed out on fucking a girl over a washing machine, it's proof that these little decisions can have lasting effects!
So turning a girl down for a date early in a relationship, that's definitely gonna have repercussions!
In ep 9, tommy made a comment that quinn said that riona is getting things for free, but riona counters this.
thinking about it, riona has been serving in the restaurant, but i've never seen quinn do so. for all i know, she only had sex with the mc and no one else for ep1-9 if i remember correctly.
Quinn obviously has sexual experience, but she's pimping other girls out, not herself. She fucks for her own pleasure, and I could not see her sucking off some random john in a glory hole, she has too much of a high opinion of herself. When she and Riona fucked the mc, it was part pleasure part business, and the mc called her out on that.