Sorry for the misunderstanding, that was colorful language and not meant literally. People "steal" kisses and moments and shit in romantic media all the time, MC is expected to be taking from a few (or several, or many) jars and should do that (MC shouldnt be in only one) that was my point, and apparently I failed horribly at conveying this. Sorry my bad.
Thats a very good point, trusting the customer and shifting the content but not always. If theres a cohereant story outline already and DPC is sticking to it like the writer he is I think the error is in being able to singly pursue someone, it breaks the story kinda and thats why Zoey is needed now halfway in, to make it a story, to force people into a love triangle. The problem is that its taken too long since development start to reach this point, many fans have become too focused on the one LI and cant look beyond it.
To me going into a single LI in a narrative work like this so alien so the crossroad as an event wasn't of huge importance at all, instead a focusing and catalyst
for drama not against it to do sappy stuff. Its like making a love story (a bit of hyperbole: like Gatsby or Wuthering Heights) and removing one of the suitors and obstacles until its only the one couple instead of a love triangle. It would end up having zero tension. Instead is a damn Marty Stu/Mary Sue story, an infallible main character that does no wrong, is great at everything(massive fighter, plays the guitar, huge dick, charismatic leader, snares all the ladies because everyone wants a piece) that always succeed.
Supremely boring and most of all an extremely bad read. Like 99.9% of fan fiction. (IMO BaDik is in the porn category of story first with lots of smut instead of Porn first and story is whatever batshit insane "landlord" and "housemate" bullshit you always ignore since is copy pasted from elsewhere and fast forwarded through.)
MC have to be a shitty partner and break people to make the story sound (or the LI have to do it). I think the timing is great, its midway into the story which is good place to start raising the stakes, getting a label and enter into a bit of commitment (on the surface but not actually doing it maybe?) or you add new character from the outside that emotionally* means more to the story than any of the current LIs, its all done so it can come crashing down later in the final act. It have to come down in the final act how else is it a story worth reading!? Imo DPC feels like a writer first, porn delivery guy secondly. How the hell do you churn a happy, content and successful monogamous dating into an interesting story for 8 more episodes where the setting is collage, partying and sex? And multiply by 5 to match each different LI. Each requiring happy soppy stuff to cater to each girls fans?
It just doesn't make sense from any angle imo to do that or make an outline like that. MC have to do dumb shit and fuck it all up (or the LIs). Simply HAVE to fuck it up.
*
I dont think much of "your" or "my" choices because they shouldn't and cannot overshadow story, and thats why often when I read anger directed at Zoey or the Interlude, I think many fans are ignoring what have been written and shown to us (MC likely doing at least two LI and a side or two perhaps) people have instead made their own fanfiction in their head instead where there is only the one LI and with no sides and carefully follows walkthroughs to enable that at maximise favorability. Why else would the anger be so extreme (at times) for Zoey? Because she is presented with huge emotional pull on the MC that works in an out of story if you look at it in whole, its coherent and match up with MCs character in the first couple episodes, its in fact greater than all the LIs at the moment. And each vocal fans fanfictionlike headcannon cannot easily accommodate that, all they see is danger and the stress response is anger imo. Great content, it just cannot compete with fanfiction headcannon where every word against headcannon is treated as shit.
All in all, If its all only wholesome stuff happening... its boring. Might as well stop reading and just skip through all text until you get the lewd scenes at that point (which manwhore mode kinda facilitates if thats your thing while also enabling huge drama if you like everything burning
, which is what it seems to be leaning towards for that particular path which I enjoy as well, the aftermath is whats interesting). I think im rambling. Been going over this reply too much.
I get where you're coming from and with I agree with parts of it, but I think as much as we all hope, the stories that we - the players - dream up become canon, we have to look at what actually
is canon.
As of right now, DPC put a hard stop at the end of Season 8, not the players, not wishful thinking, DPC did. And he went as far as he could, short of using chastity belts, to ensure that all other sexual LI ties, except for the girl you chose, are cut off. Even Jade was taken of the field and put onto the bench, and he did give everyone the choice to stay single.
If you take a linear progression, from what we can tell after season 1+2, I think most agree that it goes roughly like this:
Season 1 - Joining the DIKs and getting to know everyone
Season 2 - Zeroing in on a certain LI and/or fucking everything that moves.
Now logically, a 'normal' progression for Season 3 would be :
Season 3 - Being in a relationship or fucking everything that moves.
And both those choices are present and accounted for. You have a point, that Zoey is a joker wildcard, and we have no idea yet where she will fit in and how.
You make the point that there has to be tension, and I agree with that, but why does it have to be love/sex drama tension ?
Why cant it be that the DIK's face a huge problem that threatens them, why cant it be Quinn making the HOT's explode, or drama related to your LI choice. Stuff like you chose Bella, and Burke of all people finds out, or you choose Sage and you have to deal with Jade, Tybalt and Stephen, or you choose Jill and her family doesnt accept you, or you choose MJ and the MC has to deal with Patrick and Tommy.
Wouldnt the game feel stale, if we recycle the same problems over and over, just with different faces ? Shouldnt there be a natural progression ?
Now I'm not claiming or suggesting that the Episode 8 choice should be final, as a matter of fact, the No/Yes Sage path proves that choices arent always final, but given what it took to get there, it should take a good amount of time to cancel it and to reorient the MC.
And who knows, so far cheating has never been an issue, because the MC didnt have anyone to cheat on, maybe thats a big part of the Season 3 progression, or as others suggested, consensual 3ways with your LI, well or 4ways if you're on the MJ path.
Above all this towers one question, we can discuss what will or wont happen, but we have to ask ourselves : Was the Ep08 decision meaningful for DPC ?
And what we should discuss is : Should the Ep08 decision be meaningful or just a cliffhanger before we go back to what we did the first 8 episodes ?
