Unless you take affirmative action to assume the debts of the estate (either start paying them unprompted and with explicit knowledge that they're not legally
yours, or contractually obligate yourself to do so) then the debt remains with the estate. While it's true that if you want to 'inherit' the assets of the estate you'll need to settle the debt in some way, if the debt
outsizes the estate then... why would you bother? You're just taking on a liability. I suppose you might have some sentimental attachment to the house but -- uhh -- it's really a simple math problem regarding financial liability. Courts ought to (and usually do) protect people from assuming frivolous liabilities through the assignment of an attorney ad litem and court appointed executors in the absence of an executor being named in the death instrument (legal will, etc.).
Furthermore, if he was actually living in the house (and that house was actually owned by the parents) that would
probably be covered by homestead protection and could not be taken to settle the debt. You can scrawl a big 'fuck you' in magic marker on a piece of cardboard and mail it to your debtors.
This is, however, a porn game, so the legal realities and protections that would exist for these young adults is not really relevant. They could be living in the fictional state of XYZABC where you get to assume someone's assets once you walk around their property three times for all we know, and for all that it matters to the story.
I will say that I'm generally not much of a progressive (in the western political sense), but holy shit the way you write the 'mistresses' makes me want to start assembling the guillotines and setting up barricades.
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It's infuriating! Which, I suppose, speaks to the strength of the writing, but god damn I have
never played a a game that actually made me want to storm the Bastille just to throttle some dumb rich kid.
Ultimately, the game is clearly made by someone who loves Femdom -- which is fine! -- but I think one of the weaknesses of the Dominance route is just how how much the entire narrative has internalized the Stern's ideology in a way that taints the other two routes. In all three routes, it's taken
seriously, when it really shouldn't be. Like, the Sterns are clearly just wealthy, hyper-privileged nutjobs from any reasonable outside perspective. Their aristocratic mien is just a fabrication they used to justify their own cruelty and it's glaringly obvious to anyone who has ever studied any sort of history, politics, or philosophy. This is just how people psychologically operate once they've accumulated enough power -- see: The vast majority of aristocrats though history.
So the resentment that he feels at his treatment is logical and sensible, but it's written with this burning, unexamined pathos that's completely anathema to actually doing something about his treatment at their hands. He's overwhelmingly resentful and bitter -- and while he occasionally pays some lip service to the notion of stoically accepting what he needs to do until there's an opportunity to turn the tables, the moment-to-moment internal monologue is extremely far away from doing that. It's just whining and a focus on the psychology of the Sterns instead of actually working out solutions. It's certainly not any actual Stoicism. It seems like the more 'dominant' approach would be to internally reject the absolute
nonsense that the Sterns are all blathering on about in their own little cushy privilege world, just smile and nod, and then make actual moves behind the scenes to check out the layout of the house or possible weaknesses in his situation.
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Now, obviously, the scarcity of developer resources and time means that the three routes can't really be all that different in terms of assets and scenes, but I think they have a terrible coherence in theme and ideology that really undercuts the entire point of having three 'different' routes.
It's especially funny because I can't tell how on the nose it's all supposed to be. The three Sterns perfectly exemplify the different styles of this twisted thinking. The Mother has this beautiful, ideological house of glass where everything she does is perfectly justified because the world
just works this way and that's how it should, and always will. The Youngest doesn't even bother with building her own coherent ideology -- she's simply
the best and everything should go
her way and when it doesn't she throws and tantrum and ignores the existential crisis by using naked power to force the world back into compliance without any sort of serious attempt at justification. The Older Daughter is in the weird state of maybe knowing in her
heart that the ideology is probably wrong, and paying a bit of attention to softening the hard edges of it, but ultimately never even contemplating sacrificing the advantages it brings her -- and maybe even using her faux-softness as an attempt to maintain her position, consciously or unconsciously. This is
absolutely the three kind of ways that 'power', (expressed in political, religious, or other terms) protects itself and the ideological world that it builds. It tries to makes the abstract values judgement that define it into concrete rules of nature that cannot be questioned.
Then you even have the Maid who just exemplifies 'serf mindset.' She knows her place, has long since stopped questioning it, and even enjoys it! Depending on the route, the best she can come up with is 'softening' it ala the Older Sister to make it more acceptable and enjoyable, or passively providing an 'out' to someone who just won't accept it -- but if directly challenged, in words or in action, she'd side with the Sterns in a heartbeat.
Allegorically, it's just... perfect. Absolutely perfect. Completely on the nose! Which is why I really can't really figure out if it's intentional or not based on how the MC handles it.
In the submissive route, the MC would clearly just accept the current status quo and revel in it like a pig-in-shit. Buying into this philosophy makes r
eality itself confirm that he's a lowly, horny worm. I don't know how you can get much more invested in your fetish than having the world itself built around it. The Younger Sister peeing on you isn't just sexy, it's the way the world is supposed to be. It's
right. It feels good to be right, to know your place in the world.
In the neutral route it's a little more unclear. The best I can say is that it's the rational fetishist's experience of the world -- the MC realizes that these Sterns are fuckin'
nuts but he's certainly getting off on it so... whatever? He's not going to go full investment into the lifestyle -- he has
some dignity -- but while it feels good and it doesn't overly insult him, he's willing to play the role. In the narrative, I can see this being dramatically expressed by having him struggle with his identity. The Sterns seem pretty sure that this is the way the world should be, and he
kind of enjoys
some parts of it, but there's definitely a 'too far' -- where that line is, and what that line means, would form the heart of the MC's journey.
The Dominant route, fundamentally, doesn't need to struggle with these questions. The world was
not made with the Sterns on top -- they have more
money, not more
dignity. Their place of superiority is an immaterial illusion that is supported by very real cameras, guns, and people who are bound to them by ideology or financial compensation. Which is why every time the MC starts thinking about turning the tables on the Sterns it reveals the thematic weakness of the entire route. It's not about 'turning the tables, and being the one on top now, mwahahaha! I'll get my revenge, and put you in a collar where you belong, you cunt!
'
Because that's the way the Sterns think the world is! Being bitter and resentful, constantly waiting to 'turn the tables' on the Stern girls isn't a rejection of their dominance, it's a submission to their ideology. That's... much, much worse. Because even in the Dominant route, the Sterns are
right, and the MC is just learning to do what they do, but to be
worse than them. He knows what it's like to be on the bottom of their ladder of beliefs, and he can't wait to put someone there.
Mind you, I'm not saying there shouldn't be a revenge, or that the Sterns shouldn't be dragged down. I'm saying that the MC should dispense with the bullshit and pageantry of the whole dom/sub thing. It's a fetish, it's not
reality. If he finally punches the Younger Sister in the face, it shouldn't show that he's somehow
more dominant than her which caused her magic forcefield to stop working. It should reveal to her that it was all a sham in the first place, that her imagined dominance was as fragile as the tolerance of someone no longer willing to play along with it. I think that realization would hurt the Sterns more than having the tables turned on them -- their world deserves to be broken.
But hey, it's a
fetish game, so if that means they get to be in chains for a bit while the MC goes Conan the Barbarian, then sure. Whatever.
But, as it stands, the most annoying thing about the Dominant route is that the MC can't escape the thing that put him in this situation in the first place. His focus on the indignities heaped upon him, and his focus on becoming the dominant one in the relationship, are just yapping and wasted air. He doesn't ever try to meaningfully affect his situation, internally in his thoughts or externally in his actions. He's resentful, and pathetic, like a dog fighting the pull of a leash. Either slip the leash or walk along with it! The struggle is just sad.
So, I think, there's two readings into why the Dom route isn't satisfying. The surface level 'problem' is that the MC isn't particularly effective at either stopping his mistreatment or making advances toward ending it. He frequently seems to either be pointlessly deceitful or frame his own actions in reasonable cowardice/caution rather than as some sort of principled rejection of his treatment. He really doesn't
act like a dominant person at any point, nor does he really seem to be learning how to be.
I think the deeper problem is that even if these problems were 'solved' -- he flexed his cock and broke through the cage and went around having his way with the Sterns while laughing in a deep, honeyed voice -- that wouldn't be a satisfying conclusion to his conflict with the Sterns. It's that their treatment of him is
unjust, not their treatment of
him is unjust. A large part of the irritation around the insufficient, unsatisfying nature of the 'dom' route is that this entire games buys much more into the
philosophy of submission and dominance. It shows off
why and
how this kind of fetish is thought out, and how it's adherents picture the world. It's not merely that one person has power and use it to subject another person to their whims -- rape them, chain them, take their stuff -- this piece of fiction shows off how that transcends practical reality and becomes worldview.
People can still like having a collar put on them, someone taking a piss on them, or someone shoving them down face down in the sheets and going to town on them. They can like someone calling them a fat pig or putting them in a cage! But the whole reification of dom/sub stuff as a worldview is as weird as those Selectacorp games where easily half of the fetish is just that it's set in a world where misogyny is true.
The Sterns are contemptible people -- the game
constantly illustrates this. Becoming contemptible to beat them will taste like ash. Sexy, sexy ash.
