the Interlude disproves that perspective. as well as some flashbacks that have nothing to do with MC in the slightest. and for those reasons alone if there were intimate scenes in the past (between say Bella and her husband) that would provide a meaningful contrast to her personality to when MC meets her, they actually can and should be shown. just like it should have been shown that Zoey was playing the field in San Diego and that she a lot of mediocre to bad experiences that helped her realize how she felt about the MC.
just because DPC is too afraid to commit to showing how actual relationships work, doesnt mean it was actually the right decision for the narrative he is trying to sell us. you dont have to agree with that, and you can gain more enjoyment from the psuedo-harem fantasy that this game tries to present. more power to you if thats the case. but allowing DPC to collectively put our heads in the sand to avoid talking about "the scary stuff" that keeps the anti-NTR brigade up at night is doing the story and all of us readers a disservice. especially if its all just for DPC selling out to get even more money
yes however there is risk and risk
Zoey already didn't start out with the crowd's favor, if we had seen her enjoying herself freely in San Diego her position would not have improved. to make such a character work takes a particular narrative sensibility let's say uncommon.
probably, if we ever see them, in the epilogues something like that will be there, i don't think we'll see the LIs piling up cats as their hair grays.
the problem of the past remains, we have 2 out of 5 LIs who are virgins (heterosexually) which is a quota quite out of any statistical sample.
the only one of the other 3 for whom the problem has been resolved quite elegantly is Josy, Maya tells us that she knows what to do with men, that's enough, we don't have to see anything.
but with Bella and especially Sage it is a disaster. with Sage there is really no harmony between what we are told and what we are shown. in the flashback, which takes place more than two years before, we already see a very cold Chad towards her, and this coldness does not allow for pauses, what need was there to reiterate this behavior? already in the present apart from the jealousy there is no moment of tenderness, of complicity between Chad and Sage, they look like husband and wife after 30 years of marriage. but this same Sage is the one who is looking for a fuckbuddy and who gives grades after sex. it is really a tragicomic situation
Bella is simply a confirmation of a fear, not at all authorial, of DPC to agitate his patreons too much. Bella is already a character full of objective difficulties (all unaddressed, but after all we are only halfway through the game, it will be talked about in the next 10 years), dark omens about her future and her health that make her the LI for true believers, she fights it out with Quinn for the highest chance of a bounty hidden not even too well in the grass.
But in spite of this for this fear of other people's peas he has given us a flashback so aseptic and strange that any theory of a "sixth sense" development, however futile, finds no objective grounds for objection
