A post for y'all's pondering:
All of the mc's introspective thoughts from episodes 1 through to 9:
Episode 3 was the fist time, and to this day, we don't know the extent of this one:
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."
Obviously this spawned a lot of theories and remains the most poignant passage in the game so far.
Then we had the "Doors" monologue at the end of
Episode 3:
mc: "Doors are funny."
mc: "Be it metal or be it wood, they're made to do the same things."
mc: "To keep you safe or secluded..."
mc: "...and to protect the things you value."
mc: "Protect you from whatever is on the other side."
mc: "Or worse..."
mc: "They are made to keep things on the inside."
mc: "Things you don't want anyone else to see."
mc: "Locked away."
mc: "It's weird to think that something so simple as a knock, often repeated three times, is all it takes to get someone to open that door."
mc: "Curiosity takes over and it exposes you."
mc: "Some doors are meant to stay closed."
mc: "Because opening them..."
mc: "...may change everything."
It was pretty cool the first time I read it, culminating in Josy being on the other side of the door. Less impact now of course, it's all water under the bridge.
We didn't get another exposition until
Episode 7:
mc: "When I look back at the first month I had at this place, I was worried that every day would be filled with crazy."
mc: "How could I not think that? Every day was."
mc: "There was everything from fighting people to Hell Week pranks and wild parties...ones that I either was invited to or had to attend anyway..."
mc: "But after Hell Week, it kind of died down for a bit. Just like I hoped it would."
mc: "Days were a bit more mundane."
mc: "The DIKs were focused on working, and on top of that, I spent time studying."
mc: "I started working out more."
mc: "It was the same kind of workout I always did: cardio and sparring."
mc: "But I was tempted to join the gym with Josy. Now I had the money for it."
mc: "I didn't want to spend it frivolously, though."
mc: "Since it wouldn't go a long way to help Maya, I just saved it."
mc: "Well...not all of it. I put money back in the tuition account to cover the money I borrowed for the threesome with Quinn and Riona."
mc: "I can't believe I spent $500 on that... Even if it was enjoyable, I was thinking with my dick."
mc: "It was pretty dull at times, but dull days are needed to appreciate the fun ones."
mc: "I thought about what Sage told me in the library, how it's good to have some sort of a balance between studies and parties..."
mc: "I came to like that way of thinking more than I thought."
mc: "But then the weekend came, and I could feel how the DIKs weren't having any fun."
mc: "Hey, I was bored too, but I had to act like I wasn't to keep the morale up."
mc: "We had to save money for the mansion."
mc: "Everyone wanted to restore their rooms and have it like it was before."
mc: "They were missing the strobe light dancing, the bar tables, the mini-fridges filled with alcohol..."
mc: "...the crowded parties, the blasting music and the relaxing and fun times."
mc: "And instead, they were faced with something new to them. Reality."
mc: "It didn't matter how hard we worked, the money wasn't meant to be spent on anything until the place was back into shape."
mc: "This made the weekend feel a bit weird, and well..."
mc: "The boys tried finding other ways of satiating their need for alcohol."
This scene is actually my favourite non-lewd animated scene so far. The mc going for a jog while he reminisces about how things started turning out. I feel that DPC nailed that whole scene. I felt nostalgic just watching it.
Not sure about it leading into Vodka Tampon Bullets though!
Later on in
Episode 7 we get some more inner dialogue:
mc: "Dad brought us three vans filled with furniture. Granted, some were worn out and ended up in the dumpster after inspection..."
mc: "...but a lot of it we could use. There was everything from fancy to standard furniture in that van. Hell, there even were mini-fridges and TVs from that hotel."
mc: "We really struck gold."
mc: "After unloading the truck, everyone was excited to pick out what they liked for their rooms and the mansion."
mc: "We didn't quite finish, but we spent all day decorating the mansion. Well, the parts of it that we could at the moment."
mc: "After seeing even more potential than I thought for my room, I was starting to get worried that others would get jealous."
mc: "Even so, this room was mine now, and I worked hard for it."
This was another scene with some non-lewd animation that I thought was really nice. The panning shot of the mc's room was cool. I felt his satisfaction. A side note, that animation of the (almost finished) mc's room was the largest animation file in the game at that point! I won't tell you that the third longest animation at that point was the introduction of the Madame!
Then came the end of
Episode 7:
mc: "Josy knew some of my life struggles, but I don't think she could quite relate to that feeling I had walking through the gym."
mc: "It might sound stupid, but I felt like I was...normal. I've always felt a bit on the outside when growing up."
mc: "But I tried to be me, and that can be hard."
mc: "Being yourself isn't just about showing your best sides to others..."
mc: "...it's coming to terms with your flaws and daring to be different if it is what it takes to be you."
mc: "People hide the way they are in many different ways."
mc: "The truth is that it takes guts to show people who you are, unfiltered."
mc: "But it's never too late if you want to change and walk that path through life."
mc: "It can take one person to make you want to change and take that first step."
mc: "Although not recommended, sometimes, alcohol does the job for you."
mc: "And if you dared to be yourself, who knows what you'd stand to gain."
mc: "But on the other hand..."
mc: "If you dared to be yourself..."
mc: "...who knows what you'd stand to lose."
This was a cool note to finish the episode on. I enjoyed how the camera focused on so many different characters, giving us a little peek into their lives.
In
Episode 8 there was a bit more retrospection:
If you blew it with Jill:
mc: "I've been thinking about that moment a lot..."
mc: "In retrospect, I can't say that I blame her."
mc: "I didn't show enough interest in her or let her know that I was interested."
mc: "Love doesn't come without effort."
mc: "She made her choice and I had to respect that."
mc: "It sucked and hurt, but it wasn't the end of the world."
mc: "It meant I had to keep trying to find love."
Or for those who went on that fated picnic:
mc: "Some moments in life make life worth living and, for me, this was one of them..."
mc: "Choosing to be with Jill was such an easy choice. And not because it was convenient, but because when the moment came to decide...I didn't second-guess myself."
mc: "I dreaded breaking the news to Josy and Maya..."
mc: "The only thing comforting me was that we agreed on having no strings attached from the start."
mc: "But all I felt at that moment with Jill was happiness."
For those who spent 8 episodes chasing Jill, it was appropriate that either way, the mc stopped and took a good look at where he stood.
Then there was the winddown at the end of
Episode 8:
mc: "Summer was over. And we welcomed fall...and winter."
mc: "I'm getting ahead of myself."
mc: "From desperate times to the promise of happier ones."
mc: "Things were finally changing for the better."
mc: "At least, that was how it felt at the time."
mc: "Well... Some things were. Others, not so much."
mc: "The point is, changes were coming for everyone."
mc: "People come."
mc: "And people go."
mc: "Yes, even teachers."
mc: "And some people even return."
mc: "It's the circle of college."
mc: "With these changes, new choices present themselves."
mc: "I hadn't found the perfect time to tell Jill about my change of heart yet..."
mc: "...and postponing to tell Josy and Maya the same thing wasn't something I looked forward to."
mc: "But telling them at this time wasn't an option for me. I didn't want to kick someone who was already down and trying to get back up."
Which of course lead into the infamous, "
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." scene (and I don't mean a "fuck scene"):
mc: "Looking back at it... I keep wondering how the fuck I missed it."
mc: "I chalk it down to never asking the right questions."
mc: "I think it was the walls in the hallway that first made me feel ill."
mc: "Or was it that all too familiar scent?"
mc: "As I walked into their home..."
mc: "It was like my body was on auto-pilot..."
mc: "It hadn't understood what had already hit my brain like a truck in slow motion."
mc: "There was just one word on my mind, and it kept repeating."
mc: "Fuck."
mc: "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck."
mc: 'Fuck."
I love that he actually said it out loud in the last line.
Then comes Episode 9, and like all things episode 9, even the exposition was pretty lousy:
mc: "That night, the guests came in waves."
mc: "First to the party were the dormies."
mc: "As Tommy explained, dorm people who love to party with us come early, so they don't miss out."
mc: "They aren't the most fun people to hang around, but some of them might surprise you."
mc: "We had a shot battle coming up, so fun times started early on."
mc: "The HOTs came later than expected."
mc: "At least it felt that way; maybe it's because the dormies came early."
mc: "Showing up a bit late was the HOTs' thing tonight. It was like they were the main event."
mc: "And boy, did they look the part."
mc: "The party was by no means perfect. Just like Tommy tried to warn me when we planned it, things would go wrong."
mc: "Last to our party came The Pink Rose girls."
mc: "I'd say this was around when trouble started, but it had been brewing all night."
The mc's narrative of the night was really quite bland, unlike the previous episodes where his inner monologue had provided us food for thought or invoked emotion, episode 9 was just mater-of-fact statements... Please DPC, pick up your act for future episode!
But anyway, that's all there is to it.
I thought it'd be interesting to put a spotlight on all of this, because I liked (up until episode 9) the way DPC injected the mc's retrospective thoughts into various scenes. I like the formula of a monologue stocktake at the end of the episode, although when it starts I'm like, "Fuck, the episode is ending! Nooo!", it's still a very good way to end each chapter.
