When I first saw that image on Monday my initial thought was "Why is this random homeless person choking Rose and what is he doing in such an expensive looking place?" Took a moment for me to realize that he's also wearing nice clothing and that he's groping her chest. I was distracted by how unkempt his hair is.
Ion.TemUS
Well-Known Member
- Jun 8, 2017
- 1,234
- 1,353
- 316
Well, I think the portraits not being ready is no that bad, I think its nice cause then we already know what to look forward to for update 17.
mafuyuchan001
Member
- Nov 20, 2023
- 206
- 113
- 159
We don't have context so it's hard to say, but it's probably just a random old noble that Rose is trying to appease for some reason. If it's not that then it's hard to say what it'll be and whatever it winds up being I don't think there's much point in speculation since it's probably not going to be anything outlandish since we know she just goes right back to either masturbation or riding the Duke based on the rest of the PoL.
From the looks of it, the Duke is probably offering Rose up to other nobles in exchange for political favours and strength on Nos'Ra. He gets more soft power, Rose's reputation and own credibility gets tarnished making it harder for her to hold onto her throne in the long run, and she also gets further corrupted and becomes more of a slut. It's a win/win/win.
I'm not a fan of Rose ending up as a town bicycle, but I think it makes sense for the Duke to use her as a political pawn this way. If it gets him closer to power, and if it makes Rose's position weaker, then why wouldn't he? It would be interesting if Leto and Cyanna start hearing rumours through the grapevine about Rose though. Once you start playing around with the aristocracy, it only takes one person to start yapping before nasty gossip spreads around. Leto should start hearing whispers of Rose being a whore soon, and maybe even Cyanna too (considering she's been sucking off Ulrod behind curtains in one of the latest freeroams).
More importantly, It'd be interesting to see how Leto reacts. I know as an NTR protaganist, he's fated to be dumb about it, but I consider it a true sign of NTR quality if Leto can react in a realistic way whilst still maintaining the fantasy and illusion of innocence with the girls. Something about him fighting for their purity whilst they act in such indecent ways is pretty hot.
I'm not a fan of Rose ending up as a town bicycle, but I think it makes sense for the Duke to use her as a political pawn this way. If it gets him closer to power, and if it makes Rose's position weaker, then why wouldn't he? It would be interesting if Leto and Cyanna start hearing rumours through the grapevine about Rose though. Once you start playing around with the aristocracy, it only takes one person to start yapping before nasty gossip spreads around. Leto should start hearing whispers of Rose being a whore soon, and maybe even Cyanna too (considering she's been sucking off Ulrod behind curtains in one of the latest freeroams).
More importantly, It'd be interesting to see how Leto reacts. I know as an NTR protaganist, he's fated to be dumb about it, but I consider it a true sign of NTR quality if Leto can react in a realistic way whilst still maintaining the fantasy and illusion of innocence with the girls. Something about him fighting for their purity whilst they act in such indecent ways is pretty hot.
Miss Y
Member
- Sep 12, 2016
- 343
- 565
- 325
I think this is really the part of the story that I'm hoping to see soon, because it feels like it has been ages since Leto encountered any actual hints of corruption. He caught onto the Duke's conspiracy in the undercover mission, but doesn't seem that concerned about any of the ladies so far. Vaguely, in Rose's case, that he just doesn't like her being around the Duke, but even that comes off more like he just thinks she hates the man and is unhappy being trapped there, not that he is urgently worried about her safety. There's just not much sense of suspicion or dread from him yet, that he knows something is going on but can't find any hard proof that it's not just his own creeping paranoia — which has dulled some of the game's "mystery NTR" appeal over the past year. You still see things happening in windows and whatnot, but Leto feels so disconnected from it all.
I wouldn't even call him clueless as things are now, because it's not like he is missing blatantly obvious signs right in front of his face like with Noah. He's usually just... somewhere else, or totally passed out. Just in the dark purely by random circumstance, through no specific fault of his own.
Maybe this update we can find out a little more about the goings on since the King and Queen presumably died. Is "The Duke" really the only Duke in the kingdom? Every court has Dukes, Marquises, Earls, Counts, Barons, Knights and assorted suck-ups and hangers-on. It's unlikely the rest of the court is going to be happy with The Duke asserting himself as Regent. Rose is the Crown Princess after all, not just 'a' Princess.
Despite being the very lucky recipient of royal hospitality, Leto is still a commoner (IIRC at one point the Queen spells this all out to him) and what goes on with Rose is entirely out of his control, in a world he is not a part of. Rose could become very active in various court intrigues without the Duke, with Leto just a bystander. Here's hoping anyway.
Despite being the very lucky recipient of royal hospitality, Leto is still a commoner (IIRC at one point the Queen spells this all out to him) and what goes on with Rose is entirely out of his control, in a world he is not a part of. Rose could become very active in various court intrigues without the Duke, with Leto just a bystander. Here's hoping anyway.
Yeah, the way it's set up is designed so that Leto can comfortably be unaware of what's going on without it being a serious plot flaw. But it's going to be imminent that Leto starts catching on. I think I read somewhere that we're at the end of the middle-part of the story, so from now on it's going to have dominoes falling into place. I hope.
I have a feeling that the Duke will be involved in any court drama. He's got de facto control of the city and by extension, Rose won't ever go against him now. The only time I can see her taking control of the court to fight against the Duke is in a potential good ending.
How do you get any of that out of the image? There's nothing that indicates Rose is being sold for favors here. Not that I don't agree that it's a possibility, but all the PoL image indicates is that she's asking a random old man how her chest feels. I seem to recall N_Taii stating that he intends to keep Rose somewhat exclusive to the duke during the course of the game last time we were squabbling about whether or not she should become a slut.
My biggest issue with Rose being what amounts to a hooker for the noble class is that it doesn't really make sense unless the duke has an effective means of powering the peacekeepers without her. As far as we know, based on N_Taii's own words on the subject, the amulet only works for the duke. Furthermore if the duke does create a way to remove himself from the equation that would actually lessen his power since it would mean Rose could potentially power the peacekeepers without him which would potentially put too much power in her hands. If he doesn't then Rose would probably start to be diminishing returns as she becomes more and more accustomed to being a whore which could cause her to become desensitized to the depravity of what she's doing. Honestly if N_Taii takes that route I wouldn't be surprised if the amulets become a required part of the dress code of his maids since we do know that Ulrod and the magic shop owner are in possession of amulets that can draw a lower quality amount of energy from Cyanna and Lily.
As for Leto... I really don't want to see it go this route as he's been too passively involved in Rose's corruption for too long. I would really like to see him be at fault for kickstarting a higher level of corruption for her and I highly doubt Leto would be able to motivate the duke into turning his girlfriend into a whore.
Whenever Rose has acted in a slutty manner, it's always been for one reason or another. She only really had sex with the duke in order to save Cyanna and Leto. I can't imagine her letting a random old man touch her for fun, even at her fullest stage of corruption it wouldn't seem likely or make any sense.
Logically, the Duke has probably told her to convince this old man (probably an aristocrat by the location) to do something, one way or another. It might be for favour in court, it might be for some sort of trade reason, but I also don't see the Duke just giving Rose up for fun, or for sexual gratification. Everything he's done in the story has been tactical and careful in order to get him closer to the throne.
I don't see her becoming a hooker for the noble class, but another tool in the Duke's arsenal to gain power. In this case, the tool being a beautiful young woman that's highly coveted for sexual reasons.
I'd also like Leto to push Rose further away... I don't think the developer has the balls to write a situation that could make Rose fall out of love with Leto, however. I think from how the story has gone, it's much more likely that Leto will be an unwitting passenger for the corruption all the way to the end.
Matoga
Active Member
- Nov 3, 2019
- 838
- 1,438
- 307
Hopefully today's PoL will say that the release date is within the next few days cause i really wanna know what the context behind this image is, or even what the other images will look like while we're at it. When i first saw that we're gonna get more than one of these, my immediate thought was that we'll probably get 1 for each of the other 3 girls as well, but then i realised that for that to happen, it would need to be in a dream sequence or something similar to that because of Haylen and Lily, like for example when Leto gets kidnapped and he's unconscious:
So yeah, sadly it is VERY unlikely that we're gonna get an image like the one above for Haylen, but on the bright side...Cyanna COULD still get one, so there's that.
Ion.TemUS
Well-Known Member
- Jun 8, 2017
- 1,234
- 1,353
- 316
I do trust N_taii to not do that tbh. I can hardly imagine Rose to end up town bicycle except for like an extremely-bad ending variant maybe.
Yea I think that is a very narrow path to walk. I definitely do enjoy the "hidden cheating" in NTR a lot, with an emphasis on hidden, but it's definitely the hallmark of a good NTR game to thread that needle. And also, I feel like there is more than enough room in the story (considering the plot so far) to have Leto get more suspicious in certain ways without having him necessarily discover and hard suspect anything. I think him being "worried about the Duke's influence" (and the other antagonists in their respective routes) is definitely the way to go in that regard.
And I definitely think it would work well if we pushed for Leto to become more aware of the political side of the conspiracy. After all he already is on the trail. So it makes perfect sense, and it makes sense given the archetype he is too. He is just oblivious on a sexual/relationship level, he is not dumb or unobservant. He is smart about other things and relatively good at combat too. So he is the hero archetype, and I actually really liked that about his position in the story. That he is not helpless or weak. That he can defend himself and that it is just the manipulation of the antagonists and the insecurities of the FMCs that makes them try to "buy" his safety with various acts of depravity, despite it maybe not always being absolutely necessary, or the antagonists stacking the odds against him in a way so anyone would assume he can't make it out alive. But the story has done a great job convincing us time and time again that he would have had a really good chance non the less, cause even in cases where the "safeguards" the antagonists promised to our girls failed Leto prevailed, albeit by the breath of a hair. But yea, I like that about him, that he is not dumb, it gives depth to the story and the stuff that is happening behind his back.
It's also one reason I think that the cheating can't be fully revealed to Leto until close to the end, because the way I see him as a character he would not let it happen would he know about it, that just doesn't feel like it's him (unless was at the point where he had actually given up on himself and the world).
But yea, definitely hope to see more of him getting close to the actual conspiracy happening and getting more worried about the girls, albeit for non-sexual reasons. And would really be cool to see more of the goings on in the Kingdom and the court and whatnot in general.
As Twyfor said, there is more than ONE Duke, there is an entire Kingdom and quite a few nobles Id recon, so the intrique going on there could make for an interesting plot as we move further into the second half of the story.
quandin
Active Member
- Feb 9, 2021
- 697
- 1,589
- 267
I dunno, Rose has acted slutty exactly one time... with the pirates. A slut is someone who sleep around, and as far as we know she's yet to willingly do that. Most of her sexual behaviour outside of the duke has been with the duke's maid staff in his presence. Given the fact that her entire relationship with the duke, even up to the current update is under duress I would hardly call any of her behaviour slutty. If she does agree to let a random noble grope her for the duke to gain their favour then I am very interested to see how N_Taii approaches it because letting anyone aside from the duke or Leto touch her in such a way is a pretty big step forward in her corruption.
Yar, looks like we could be getting it this week... or next week depending on his artists. Part of me hopes it gets delayed until around Halloween because it could inspire N_Taii to give us more free roams while he waits for the sprite commissions.
