I hate responding to questions like this on F95 because I feel like there is no answer I can provide that will make people happy. Harem Hotel isn't a depressive game, and one tragedy does not make the entire story tragic. Harem Hotel is a drama, which means ups and downs. Probably like much of the anime people are familiar with here. I think it should be pretty clear where the game is headed. It's always been a happy ending. That moment was a very powerful motivator for her character.
If I wanted to make a tragic and depressive story, why wouldn't I start the story with elves being invaded by humans, or during the industrial revolution when elves became slaves permanently?
Instead, Harem Hotel starts at the height of Syl'anar's power, after they've fully gained control of the elvish population, in a time of peace. So what would you think would be the logical steps taken from here? Syl'anar has already won.
I'll take it as a compliment that you've gotten so attached to her character that you don't want to see more harm done to her, haha. It's my goal as a writer to get you attached to these characters like that. Your investment allows me to write things that wouldn't work if you had none.
As depressing as the ending might be, over all, I would love to play a game in that time period, back when Lin was young. And even with the ending there is, with "perma-slaves", we could still have a happy story for the characters involved.
For example, the story could be similar to this one, where the MC is providing a safe-haven for as many elves as they could. They may have lost the war, but they won the battle, kind of thing, where they manage to at least eek out a decent life, even if society as a whole is getting worse.
I mean, sure, you could do another Toy Maker style story, but is that good for the mental health? XD
Alot of hate has gone the way of the "good" doctor and rightly so. But what if:
She already hid an half elf from the authorities and got found out and is now living with those consequences. Now being more watched than ever, risking not only her job, but jail time and loosing the custodie of her twin sons to their deadbeat alchoolic father. what if behind the sceen she somehow made it easyer for us to be the first buyer to see Maria's sale go online. what if at night she needs her meds to cope with her actions but still cry herself to sleep. She certainly didn't become a doctor to tear apart famalies but to save lives.
Of course she could also be all on the face and be hunting for runaway slaves, rejoice in the fact that with her work she can find people trying to hide, be herself a slave abuser and punish her kids when they play with the slaves.
The thing is beside that one interaction we don't know her. Runey can boast about one of the beter riten stories on the site and maybe the one that go get the player and make them think the most. So I am sure that while the interaction we had with the character was onedimentional, the character might not be.
Quite an interesting take, it would be easy to do a redeemer arc for her, but I guess the question is, is that what we want, or is it more fun to play with the "evil" doctor? lol