Do you want a serious answer to that question?
Because that has the potential to stand this thread on its head. People might have to drag out the torches and pitchforks.
...
Okaaaaay.
(Cracks knuckles.)
It's my take (both from playing the games themselves and from reading various comments he's posted) that he has a personal philosophy he follows, which carries over into his writing - that is to say he really strongly believes in this idea of "personal growth through overcoming adversity."
In short, nothing good can ever happen to you unless something bad happens first. Now, here's the thing: this is a pretty solid life philosophy. It may not necessarily be one
I subscribe to, but I'm a "live and let live" kind of guy, and as long as you're not battering me over the head with your beliefs, I'm pretty much ok with letting people do what they like. But this ties into one of my eternal gripes with the man's writing, and that's basically that I think he sells it a little hard.
I liken it to other writers who are popular but who have also developed reputations for being "controversial" in some way. Cake reminds me a little of Whedon sometimes. Ask Joss Whedon why he does what he does - why create all these beloved characters that you come to love so much, only to just unceremoniously kill them off in as brutal a fashion as possible, and when you least expect it? His answer? "Because happy endings are boring."
There are things I love about Whedon's writing. The aforementioned ability to create characters that you grow to love, for example. But I just wholeheartedly disagree with his take on how nobody is allowed to be happy in his settings. How nobody
should be allowed to be happy.
Likewise, there are times I get the feeling that Cake is getting up on the pulpit sometimes and preaching to the gathered. He basically said as much with Acting Lessons as it was an intensely personal story for him, and etc. etc. It's him showing us his worldview - namely that "You take your lumps, you come out stronger at the other end."
A lot of people loved it. Obviously. I guess I thought it was a bit hamfisted, a bit over-the-top, a bit preachy. It all felt so... contrived. A scenario that was so twisted, so convoluted, and all so that, in the end, he could put two characters together and then hit you over the head with this message that "Hey, they suffered all this tragedy together, but now they're a stronger couple than they were before this all happened." I get what you're trying to say, dude. I just think it showed all the subtlety of driving a truck through the wall of my house.
Which is an unpopular view, and may beg the question: "Why am I
here if I didn't like the game?"
But I did like it. As with Whedon, I think there are some things Cake does really well. He does humor exceedingly well. People have been talking about the BaDIK protagonist's stumbling around Isabella's house in a drunken stupor rearranging her furniture as being a hallmark moment of comedy. It is. He writes good comedy. I kinda wish he'd stick with it instead of trying to teach us "life messages" which come across as a bit melodramatic. But again, I'm kind of in the minority.
As a result, though, there are now a lot of people (even among those who loudly proclaim they love his work) who are "on guard" against... well... some form of treachery in this new game. All this idle speculation going on about who's going to die in what fire and who's secretly a drug dealer or secret agent or time traveling bounty hunter from the 65th Century... I guess I can't speak for anyone else, but I know it's at least
my way of poking fun at how I just don't "trust" things to stay on the level. SOMETHING is going to happen. Because that's just Cake's style. That's how he operates. And he seems to have a fondness for the outlandish, for the melodramatic.
I said it in the AL thread, but I don't think I'd be surprised if "And then... ALIENS!" were to become a thing in this one. Just because. It'd be big, it'd be wild, it'd completely violate the internal consistency of the universe he's already written, and I feel like that's why he'd like it.
It would also make me slam my head against my desk in abject frustration.
(Which would just be a bonus.)
