Personally, I think Nyx was leaning into the 'childhood bully' there with Ethan being the antagonist.
As someone who was bullied when he was younger (god I wish someone would try now as things have changed) it definitely leaves an impression throughout the years.
I'm not sure I agree with 'cartoonish' though I definitely see what you mean.
Rather, as it was revealed his last name is Bloomberg, I'm taking it all to mean he comes from family/privilege/money and has people who are hanger-ons/bootlickers who will do whatever he tells them, to further their own goals and it in turn, props Ethan up.
Ethan is an A%%hole, hands down. And they usually are not smart, but definitely used to getting their way. That's part of what I think will lead to his downfall.
Remind me; Zane is the surfer dude always at the beach who was supposed to do the photoshoot with Erynn, right?
I think if anything, hes more of 'another' choice for the ladies affections/interest.
Personally, I think its late in the game to add that kind of layering, but as I have said before, this is Nyx story to tell. I'm just trying to enjoy the ride for as long as I can!
And I definitely agree, Ethan really only affects those on the Erynn path, so in that regard, I'm ok with less of him as I am not a big Erynn fan. She just seems way too needy for making poor life choices all around and is holding the MC up as her white knight to save her from bad choices.
He's definitely rich, he's the son of the owner, he is always at clubs and with women he pays to be around him and he sends Erynn and other girls on jobs with rich powerful men... His name wasn't even needed to figure that out.
Ok, now we established that he's a rich asshole... Rich or not he is still not interesting or a good villain, i don't even know what kind of argument you made about him being worth keeping? Because you like to see stupid bullies go down? You are still getting that, just faster.
Zane is the surfer dude, brother of Brooke the clerk, works as a model, ex-bf of Erynn(the guy on the tape) and teacher at the school(and all the girls have the hots for him).
As you can tell, his pre-introduction work is already made, by Nyx own choices she made him a kind of important character despite having minimal screen time, why let it go to waste?
He doesn't need to be a cackling mustache twirling villain that only exists to screw us over...
But instead someone that due to circumstances competes for the affections of the same girls you want... a rival instead of a villain.
He doesn't even need to be a bad guy, just unfortunately in the way.
I'll take that over a one note villain 10 times out of 10.
Like i said before, relationship stuff is Nyx strong suit(imo), girls jealous of other girls, that's the special sauce... Police stuff maybe not so much, so the message of that particular plot line kinda got lost in the boredom if i'm honest.
I like Erynn, i think she's a sweet girl that has been through a lot, stuck in a bad situation which she was scared to tell others, and didn't know how to get out.
Good characters can have flaws(need flaws) and things to overcome, just making them cool and confident from day 1 is easy.
Cool and confident also wouldn't work for a character in the place Nyx put Erynn, it wouldn't make sense this girl who is suffering being super brash and confident with everything else.
Greatly disagree on "bad choices" though, what bad choice she made? Have a bf?
She was taped against her will and blackmailed into doing things against her will, those weren't by choice.
And since you don't care about this topic either way... maybe let this topic for those who actually care
