Oh boy are we Quinnposting
I kinda have to agree with the Sage/Quinn threesome being bad writing but not necessarily because it didn't check all the Quinn boxes for me as a fan. Obviously all of Shaz's suggestions about how the scene should have gone are 10/10 and he should be writing the game
But the scene afterwards where Quinn is smoking and asks the MC how long he's been banging Sage in a roundabout way then puts her head on his shoulder makes up for the lack of emotion in the threesome I feel.
The real problem I have with the threesome scene is that it actually happened at all. Like Shaz says, there was (to me) a surprising lack of chemistry between the three in that moment, which I can only put down to the fact that you can get that scene without being on Quinn's 'path', so the reactivity to whatever relationship dynamic that exists there was lacking. Don't get me wrong, not every sex scene in the game has to incorporate deep themes of every relationship, sex can just be sex, but there was so much wasted potential in the reactivity aspect that the scene becomes negative instead of neutral. I think DPC kind of understood that, which is why you have the Quinn smoking scene almost as a concession for those who are on Quinn's path and expected some more personal interactions. So from my perspective, if the reactivity isn't there, the threesome is kind of pointless - whereas the smoking scene with Quinn is important because, just like at the HoT party, it shows Quinn's natural jealousy towards Sage and the MC.
Which brings me to the real reason why I think the Sage/Quinn threesome was bad writing: the Sage/Quinn connection. There's a lot to say, and a lot has been said, of the dynamic between Quinn and Sage. In my opinion, it's one of the most interesting in the game; in fact I'm struggling right now to think of a relationship between two characters in the game (independent of the MC) that has as much hidden context and potential. Maybe Bella and her husband takes the cake, but a lot of that is still wild speculation (Bella is crazy tho
), whereas the Sage/Quinn stuff is mostly overt at this point.
Quinn is jealous of Sage. We can see that when the MC is involved with both of them, at the HoT party and after the threesome and all that, which is perfectly natural. The interesting part is that Quinn is only, uniquely, jealous of Sage - she doesn't show jealousy when the MC is with any other girl in the game, and even offers to set him up for free with any of her girls (though according to the official walkthrough it 'impresses' Quinn if you say you're only interested in her, what impact that has is a mystery). But even more interesting is that Quinn's jealousy isn't purely romantic, and that's where the real potential comes from. Quinn is betraying Sage's friendship and trust in her by using the HoTs as a cover for her dealing drugs and prostituting the girls. She's probably doing this because she has no other choice, or because it's for someone she cares about more than Sage, but regardless of whether the actual reason is a good one, I believe that Quinn's jealousy of Sage has a lot to do with the betrayal. There are a few telling scenes throughout the game where we see Quinn overtly fuck with Sage in an almost provocative manner.
The first and most glaring is the car wash scene with the HoTs, where Quinn basically tells Sage she can run on home to her parents (who are now revealed to be Burke and Jade) for money instead of making the HoTs work. Sage shoots right back at her that bringing up her parents was 'crossing the line', which immediately tells us that Quinn knew the line existed and chose to cross it anyway. That's not something a friend does, even for someone who likes to fuck with people like Quinn. It seems obvious to me the contrast between Quinn's familial situation and Sage's is being highlighted in this scene - Sage has rich parents she can go to for help, Quinn comes from poor parents and doesn't have that option, and by taking a shot at Sage for that Quinn is revealing some jealousy of her and resentment of her own situation especially as it relates to gathering money for a hidden purpose. The other scenes relate to the leadership of the HoTs, Quinn grooming the new HoTs to join the restaurant and using the pretext of needing more money to lie to Sage, blow off the DIKs and sell drugs at the prep mansion. Over the course of the game, up to the current point, Quinn has done nothing but fuck with Sage either openly or secretly, while Sage has done nothing but treat her as a friend and cover for her as her replacement, even if she gets (justifiably) angry at Quinn from time to time.
The fact that Quinn seems to only be uniquely jealous around Sage, combined with the fact that Quinn openly fucks with Sage a lot, and has completely undermined her in her own sorority, leads me to believe it's personal in some way. What is it about Sage that makes Quinn jealous or resentful? Is it her rich parents, how smart she is, how hot she is, how much of a threat she is to Quinn's plans? Did something happen in the past with them or is Quinn expecting something to happen in the future that's causing her to treat Sage differently to every other girl, most likely something to do with Burke?
So with all these questions and theories about what's really going on with Quinn and Sage, the threesome to me felt even more flat and emotionless. It would have made much more sense to me if the requirements for the threesome were flipped, where Quinn would only have sex with MC and Sage if she didn't care and it was just sex, but if you're on her path and she's jealous she'd flat out refuse. Her refusal would be confusing for both Sage and the MC with how out of character that would be, and reinforce how uniquely jealous she is of Sage and how her feelings are growing for the MC at the same time.
It would also have been perfectly fine to keep things as they are and for the threesome to go ahead, but incorporate things like Shaz suggests with the kissing and Quinn's panic at Sage noticing her acting differently around the MC. Things like that would keep up the themes of Sage's and Quinn's relationship nicely too. Instead we really got nothing of that, you could really put the threesome in episode 3 or whatever and it wouldn't make a difference, the progression isn't there.
