- Dec 19, 2018
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I'm gonna attempt to touch on all these points.Yeah, that was amongst the hardest choices in the game thus far. On the one hand, Sage deserves to know what Chad did to her - it's hard to say it's not her secret when Chad (as far as we know) deliberately involved her the way he did. But on the other hand, Chad is clearly terrified of the secret getting out and being blindsided by it (rather than revealing it on his own terms) could be disastrous; plus it's not like we know the details of how their relationship started. But on the third hand, Chad being that far in the closet also means it's almost impossible he's ever going to tell Sage himself, which is what I would really like to happen; sadly, the MC is in no position to push Chad in that direction, so maybe telling Sage is the next best thing? On the fourth hand, however, even if Sage takes the news well it's by no means certain learning she was a beard will give her better closure than simply accepting Chad has moved on.
In the end, I generally looked for tie breaks based on a given playthrough. If I felt like I needed to be open and honest with Sage, or that I owed her one for helping Maya/Josy, I usually told her. If I didn't have that extra connection to Sage, I said nothing and hoped for the best.
I am very curious to see what comes of this. Hopefully it will be nuanced enough to have consequences both ways and not just be a 'gotcha' twist 2 episodes down the line.
Oh, and #FUCKYOUDAWE
As I said, this is a very strong argument. But we don't really know just why the relationship started. What if Sage inadvertently cornered Chad and he felt he had no option but to date her lest he give away his secret? Given the traditional connection between the HOTs and Tri-Alphas, it's possible dating the HOT president was expected of Chad. With him being (publicly) single and Sage obviously into him, maybe he couldn't think of a valid excuse that didn't call his sexuality into question.
Granted, it's still a miserable thing to do to someone, but now it's much less deliberate. This is why I wish we had the option to encourage Chad to come clean directly, but the MC is just not in a position where that is plausible (especially if he didn't defend Chad at the hearing).
In about 75% of my playthroughs, I always defend Chad during the hearing for 2 reasons. One, he's being blackmailed and it seems the blackmailer intentionally tried to frame MC, so if I was in a similar situation, I'd have a very hard time not acting out in the same way Chad did.
Two, I saw pretty early on that Chad is going to be a sort of an olive brance between the Alphas and the DIKs with a future friendship with the MC. That's evident in episode 7 after he stops Alex and says "Bro, Stop. He's cool." It's sort of a nod of respect without actually nodding.
Also, as I've said on the forum before. I personally know people that have dealt with being terrified of coming out of the closet for a plethora of reasons so I sympathize with Chad's character. I speculate that Chad wasn't fully aware of his sexuality when he originally began dating Sage. That's also very common with in-the-closet homosexuals, mostly men. College is a time of self-discovery and it seems that Chad discovered he was gay after he was already invested and tied in with Sage. Sage has even said that the ties and traditions between the Alphas and HOTs are strong, perhaps he became overwhelmed and instead of coming clean immediately, he waited for an out of the Fraternity first.....enter MC. Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket to Homosexual Lovin'.
The scene between Sage and Chad if you chose to tell Sage about it sincerely upset me though. Sage was trying so hard to convey understanding, forgiveness and get closure but Chad was having absolutely none of it. He still chose to lie even when he was presented with a slate-cleaning opportunity.
#FUCKYOUDAWE