That particular scene is from earlier in the game not the newest update.
And you make some good points about Ashe. We still have a lot to learn about her, I think.
Ohh, right, I remember now! In front of the mirror. Doh, my bad haha
It's not that I don't understand people's reactions. It's just that I find them kind of odd. Like, there's been this simmering plotline of various sketchy dudes going on in the background. Wouldn't it be more strange if I set it up, and never paid it off? I mean, if I show you a gun in act one..
Also, I think people think this is going to lead to MC personally storming a drug den and getting into a gunfight, or something stupid like that. Risa explicitly spells out the plan, and it's not that.
I
also think people are maybe reading a little too much into Lucien's 'empire.' Like -- what do we know?
He's a drug dealer with a bodyguard, who's basically pulled a scam on girls that isn't dissimilar from stuff that's happened all-too-often in real life. Like, stories of girls showing up for modeling, or even porn, and being summarily abused and extorted isn't something that's only in the purview of Mexican cartels and Russian oligarchs. It's GirlsDoPorn, it's Andrew Tate, it's Harvey Weinstein, it's Jeffrey Epstein, it's Instagram models who flew to another country and had their passports withheld unless they did what their wealthy benefactors wanted..
Like, the point of Lucien isn't that he's some abnormally monstrous and horrible human being. It's that his particular brand of monstrous behavior is entirely too common, and people can get away with it for yeeeeears before it's stopped. Because the targets are young women who were 'asking for it,' or at the very least, 'should have known better.'
We actually
do see Ashe visibly nervous in the car, at the very start of the date..
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Otherwise, I'd say your analysis is pretty on-point!
I do think Ashe
giving MC roadhead is maybe a little out of character, and I was probably thinking with my, "Let's add more sex to this update," brain than my creative brain. But, I think that seeing Guy stand up for Viola probably put Ashe in a state of mind where she felt safe with MC.
Yeah, my attention span & memory have always been pretty bad unfortunately. If any of my attempts at analysis ever come off goofy or out of left field or missing some key things, that's why
I thought her nervousness was dependent on how she felt about MC, though? I guess it must've just been her overall enjoyment. I remember her dominant emotion being carefree fun, but my brain definitely skipped over that detail you have here if it was present in romance route. When I replay, I think I will have to pay much more attention to your posing.
And personally, I don't mind when porn incentives win over in minor ways like this.
So, given her nervousness, maybe another perspective is that MC is bringing that wild side out of her that she maybe has repressed to some extent after Wren's accident. Or, at least on certain MC routes. If I'm getting at all warmer, makes me wonder if we will see any interesting effects of that, especially relating to Wren
I am not sure about the others but this definitely is not true for me.
Dating with Brent is actually falls on MC not her. AFAIK, both MC and Nicki liked each other, Nicki waited a move from MC and MC was kinda acted cowardly with bunch of excuses. So it's on MC, not on Nicki.
For the hate part, it's the reason she was ready to exploit her
friend for her boyfriend. She and Brent decided(probably Brent coerced her) that they exploit MC's love to Nicki. So both Nicki and Brent knew MC was in love with Nicki and they were okay to use that. In that interaction I genuinely disgusted when Nicki said to MC that Brent told her
kiss MC on the cheek and he will give the money because he loves you. (Not the exact sentence but same meaning) Then Nicki accepted that offer, reached out MC and acted on it. That shit is disgusting for me and that's why I hate Nicki.
I never wanted Nicki out of the game, I know she is an important part of the story and also agree that patch was funny af. Anyways, no need to beat dead horse we'll have different opinions on the matter and this Nicki stuff was my first textwall war here. So no need to drag this on, though I wanted to say you are wrong and that is not the reason for Nicki hate for some Nicki haters.
Well, I guess I will participate in this Nicki cycle haha. But, to me, Nicki is clearly a case of fucking up and mistaken intention (from the MC's pov). She consistently finds herself in the orbit of certain abusive men that she evidently feels some level of attachment & loyalty to, and then struggles to get away from them because of it. That unfortunately reflects a lot of women, some I've even personally known.
It baffles me, but some people have seemed to interpret that as confirmation that, at best, she's an idiot that isn't worth sympathizing with; or at worst, she's a selfish harpy that just wants to use MC for his money. It seems to have made her the perfect target for male paranoia. Which I actually understand if someone's experienced that sorta thing before; that shit sticks with you and probably fucks with your perspective on women for a while. But if they haven't even, it just seems to echo this whole modern dude-bro moment in time where women are being defined by dipshit grifters like Tate and his incel marks. I'm not aiming that at you or even majority of people who might share your view, but certain people's reactions here were
that cringe and that's what it reminded me of.
Granted, I do think chp 1 can be improved regarding Nicki's writing and Neon's rework will help a ton in that regard; but we do already have plenty of evidence of her true character, even in that 1st chapter. In the very first scene with her,
if you take the 2nd (corruption) option where you exchange money for sex, but are nice about it (complimenting her etc.), you will get to listen in on a phone call with Brent and find out that he wanted Nicki to ask for way more, but Nicki chose to be honest to MC and only ask for the amount they needed to pay off the debt. That's not something an unsympathetic 'moron' or 'she-bitch' would do, but it is certainly something a financially desperate person who doesn't want to take advantage of her friend might do. In later chapters, you also get moments where she expresses her feelings about MC
without realizing he's listening in. Some people have thankfully adjusted their views of her because of that (doesn't mean they have to like her ofc), but others
still refuse to accept that their first impressions were simply wrong.
