- Jul 7, 2017
- 542
- 2,223
My idea of her being "moral" but failing would exist on a razors edge for being believable. To be honest in my mind I built a whole carefully stacked house of cards to justify her behaviour that came tumbling down with the whole implied Jill thing. Like you said the Jill thing strips credibility in my mind.See and this is why I said a long time ago that I don't think DPC could have designed a more fucked up relationship game if he tried (that is assuming that wasn't his intent in the first place).
I can see the morality vs lust thing, however most people try to avoid their personal temptations. Not Bella she invites them into her house and allows them to stay with her. Add in the whole (theoretical) encounter with Jill and Bella loses so much credibility that I just can't swallow it.
I like all the LI's and all of the Side Girl's, even crab infested Arieth. No personal favorites so far. I just can't swallow them as "real". They are all such a bunch of extremes and contradictions that I have almost scratched myself bald trying to figure them all out
My prior theory on why she was so cavalier with being around the MC was she thought she could control it, thought she was above it all. An ice queen. She pushed him towards Jill and said to herself nothing more would happen but that kiss when he was drunk changed something. She said it herself it's the first time a man has made her feel this way in years. If Bella was in a relationship but he walked out years ago and MC awakened something in her I could see her morality being realistically tested.
Away from him, with rational thought she believes she can handle him. Believes she will not succumb. Up close her morality crumbles and she starts making bullshit excuses. It's actually classic adultery behaviour called the Affair Fog. Away from the MC she makes decisions like hooking him up with Jill. Encouraging their relationship. Up close the pressure builds (as she put it "like a sneeze") and she starts making shitty rationalisations (classic affair fog) and justifies her behaviour to herself ("Would James even blame me?" and so on). Then it happens and she lies to herself. Never again she says. Like so many other adulterers. Her belief she can end things with MC would be arrogance, not inconsistency. She's 35 and believe she can keep feelings for an 18 year old in check.
I was so invested into this theory prior to the implied Jill thing because it gives her a sliver of a moral out, she can have the psychology of someone cheating without the full moral issues. It would require nuanced as fuck writing but if James has walked out on her years ago. If he wont so much as speak to her and she's been lying to herself that they're still married she could exhibit all these "affair fog" feelings towards the MC whilst there still being a slim justification for cheating... well more it was never cheating because the relationship had already ended. Let me be clear, that is not an excuse I personally would accept but the MC as a character could accept it. The MC could say "she didn't cheat, they stopped being married when he walked out and didn't talk to his wife for years." All this is rendered kinda far fetched if she has repeatedly cheated on him so not a theory I support anymore.
