Even if something doesn't rise to the level of the actual definition of NTR, not everybody is comfortable seeing someone that they are romantically interested in having sex or just being mildly intimate with someone else, even if that someone else is their partner or spouse.
It's easy for people to internalise these games because you are almost literally being put in their shoes to see what they see and experience what they experience, so if seeing this kind of thing would make you uncomfortable in real life, then it will make you feel uncomfortable here. Even if it's shown in flashback form like with M&J it can be uncomfortable because although it happened before they met the MC, it's like watching a sex tape of your current partner with her ex-partner; you can ccept that they've been with someone before but you don't want to see it.
The problem is that this feeling of being uncomfortable is conflated with NTR, but the two things are vastly different, but it's still probably a good idea for DPC to avoid showing LIs with "love rivals" in intimate ways too much in order to not have this controversial topic plague the game in any way.
This is exactly the point I am trying to make. I get that people feel icky about the past relationships of their IRL partners. But if you are hoping to elicit some kind of emotional response from your audience those are the places to go. Anyway, the MC is literally shown to have a face that is not shared by the players the world over. I don't see a reason to actually 'put themselves in his shoes'. That's just me though.
And forgive me for my ignorance but I didn't see anyone particularly upset over the M&J scene (in the past). I am a sporadic reader of this thread at best. However, I feel people complain more when it is a straight scene. Despite the fact that we are in the 21st century there are people who think women who have had sex before have been sullied. Which is absurd. If the problem people have with being in a relationship with Sage is that she is, to use a term that has been bandied about, Chad's sloppy seconds then they need to grow up.
I don't mean show in a completely literal sense ofc. But some form of exposition is necessary. Whether Sage blurts out that MC is much better than Chad during a heated moment or Sage's friend (though she hasn't been shown to have any) confides in him that she seems more content with him than she has ever seen Sage with Chad. People do irrational things but they tend to rationalize their intentions about them later.
I personally think something like that would be more interesting because we're all flitting back-and-forth between simple theories that he's cheating with another girl or that he's gay and cheating with a guy, but to find out that he secretly likes to hang out down by the docks and be called "Chanel" would be hilarious.
The thing is that should not stop him from being intimate with Sage. And even though this is a game about literally turning lesbians straight, I'd rather not see crossdressers be made the butt of a joke to plug a plothole.
Big fan of your encyclopedic knowledge of BaDIK universe btw.
Chad being gay is the only explanation in universe that would explain Chad's behaviour, the other one would be no NTR and I'd rather stick to in universe explanations if possible.
I've seen some women trying to save relationships in which they were abused IRL, didn't notice the abuse and still wanted to be with that guy, I'm not surprised by anything at this point. Thinking it now coldheaded it's easy to say "Why doesn't she just left him?" We don't know for sure what's on her head, but I think I understand her.
The Stockholm syndrome is indeed an actual condition, yes. But DPC has written himself into a corner with the way he has portrayed the Sage-Chad relationship. Whether he can wriggle out of it only time will tell. Thhe point that I was trying to make was that either due to his own aversion to NTR or to appeal to the anti-NTR crowd DPC wrote the plot the way he did. In doing so he has overly complicated matters for himself and made us commit mental gymnastics to rationalize Sage's behaviour. The problem could have simply been solved by what I stated earlier.
Maybe I am way off-base here. Maybe DPC looks like MC and he modelled Sage after his IRL partner. But I find that unlikely considering that my SO would be the object of desire for horny perverts worldwide is more disturbing than posing a model with a different generic white guy face.
