Ren'Py Lessons in Love [v0.46.0] [Selebus]

[ratmanirl]

Yumi going to school just to see Akira in detention somewhat draws her even closer to one of my favorites. I'm always debating if I really like her or that i just find her hot, cause she did do a lot of fucked up shit in her bullying (I'll probably reach a conclusion during a replay).

How is it that he saw Niki in Yumi though? I would think that he saw himself instead, since she comes from a broken family where no once cares about her.

If he saw Niki in her, I'd expect that Maya would be at least aware of her existence before the resets but that doesn't seem to be the case. Actually, from their first conversation, it's like Yumi is even doubtful of where Maya came from. Add Pareidolia knowing Yumi by a different name and her having keys to the roof, and maybe there's something there.

Also, since we touched on Maya, new Maya recently said that she has no home but has been with Akira for years. We know she came from somewhere, haven't really talked to him about it either, and ended up living in his rented out tutoring place. So what happened since? He kept renting the place just for her and only stopped when school started?

Yumi is like the only girl that Sensei has sacrificed a significant amount of time helping without receiving sex for it. The main reason initially was probably guilt due to assaulting her, but at this point, Sensei has pointed out that there's something valuable within the relationship as he himself is confused on what he wants the endgame to be.

Spoiler: Sensei's thoughts on his relationship with Yumi

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Spoiler: He had his chance to exploit her, but managed to stop himself.

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She's also one of the girls that he truly feels comfortable with revealing how weak of a person he actually is to. Perhaps the fact that he doesn't feel the need to seduce her, and that she holds no real expectations for him, helps.

Spoiler: Perhaps another thing is that she calls him out on his bullshit?

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Spoiler: Her being the first person he told about Maya

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This ties in with several themes of the game. First is love - obviously if your goal from day one is to get in their pants that's kinda a perversion of what love means. Perhaps the fact that he is spending so much time on Yumi (which as mentioned several times in the game is rare since he hates doing anything) without sex as a goal makes it much closer to a real "love" than the other relationships? Or another way to look at it is, since he seems to use sex as a way to connect with (lol) others, is there something he's learning about relationships when he's doing all of this without using sex as a means?

Second is redemption - his chance to significantly improve the life of someone else. Just as he finds meaning in being a father for Ami and improving her life, perhaps there's also meaning in helping Yumi grow as a person outside of just exploiting her vulnerabilities for sex. It's like that story The Spider's Thread - just as the sinner was offered a chance to redeem himself from hell due to the one good thing he's done, Sensei might similarly view this as one of his last chances to become a good person.

The connection with Niki isn't really significant beyond the joke that they're both tsunderes.

 

[LoveRedHairedGirl]

I seem to be in the minority, but I actually kind of like current passive aggressive Futaba. She's getting to the point where she's just done with the drama.

I actually think she is kinda forgotten in this fuckery of the world. I can't even remember when we saw last proper events with her

 

[DeSkel15]

Edit: Ok I'm gonna write Selebus a salty, malding comment (in my mind) about how the fuck are we dicking Weird Ass Genius girl but poor sweet Noriko is still being cucked by story pacing and Ami.

The irony of this is not lost on me:

Spoiler

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Noriko has to have some of the worst luck.

 

[LoveRedHairedGirl]

But at least Noriko made a new friend, Yumi

 

[Squalicorax]

So what's up with Akira being consistently called Sekai in the early happy events. Was that always a thing? First in hexidecimal as his name when he asks Amiokay for his own hexidecimal alternate version, then in a different event she calls him that in japanese, "What is wrong, 世界?"
The implication seems to be that Sekai is to Akira what Amiokay is to Maya and I don't know what to make of that.

 

[Honga]

Also I can't believe I actually finished this game...
It felt.. so long, I came home from work and played it... for months.
Now... it's finished...
My evening ritual... is no more...
Send support fellas

Just play from the beginning again.
With hindsight the plot will reveal itself on another level. And u might have missed one or two hints, developments etc during your first play through.

 

[Apollo259]

I don't remember the specifics of him being called Sekai. But one thing to consider about Akira's relationship with Maya that I don't think has been discussed much, Is how much their relationship mirrors his own relationship with Sekai. That mirroring, the fact that he is the one that put her in that position, and what he seems to take from it is really extremely fucked up.

He cares about her more than the others because he can understand her more than them as she is in the same position he was in with Sekai. Additionally and quite tragically, Maya seems to have come to the same conclusion In thinking that they are the only people that can understand each other.

I think I'm not doing a good job of expressing what I'm thinking about them. But essentially Akira is to Maya, What Sekai was to Akira. In this context their relationship is really quite dark, if not the darkest in the game so far.

Edit: Specifically, him doing to her what Sekai did to him being a major factor enabling their relationship to progress to the point that loosing her would break him in the way loosing Sekai broke him is just super fucked up.

 

[TheSeedy1]

Oh shit. My gut feeling about Ami is largely accurate based on this whopper of a moment.

Spoiler: Chapter 3 Spoiler

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[Fire Lord Zuko]

Also, what are the theories on what Sensei and Nao see after entering the Wire God's door in the forest? Had the same vibe as Truman's Show. Kumon-mi = simulation experiment confirmed?

The Nao door scene is definitely weird, and it isn't too far fetched to see why one would think they're all trapped in a simulation and Kumon-mi is just part of one big experiment. However, I still don't fully subscribe to this theory, for one key reason:

Spoiler: The Reason

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[Moonflare]

I think I'm not doing a good job of expressing what I'm thinking about them. But essentially Akira is to Maya, What Sekai was to Akira. In this context their relationship is really quite dark, if not the darkest in the game so far.

Edit: Specifically, him doing to her what Sekai did to him being a major factor enabling their relationship to progress to the point that loosing her would break him in the way loosing Sekai broke him is just super fucked up.

I don't agree with your interpretation, at least, as of update 0.40. What has been presented seems to suggest that the more correct parallel, if one is to be made, is Yumi being to Akira, what Akira was to Sekai. Pareidolia seems to believe so, and states it.

Spoiler: Yumi's case

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Spoiler: Maya's case

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So Maya hasn't been broken and molded by Akira, she uses him as a crutch to deal with what's been done to her. Whatever that is. We just don't know "her Sekai", but it's definitely not Akira.

 

[Moonflare]

The irony of this is not lost on me:

Spoiler

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Noriko has to have some of the worst luck.

So the lesson here is second place gets cucked by Ami regardless of how many amazing things she did for Akira, while first place gets to ride the Akira train - and even if she does fucked up things all the time, that only upgrades her into a unique and valued tool at his disposal?

Never knew grades would be that important (Poor Noriko just can't catch a break...)

 

[LoveRedHairedGirl]

Spoiler: simp mumbling without much sense

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You know, if Sensei wasn't a predator, it might be actually pretty cute story about delinquent slowly becoming invested into her teacher. In a perfect world, he'd have adopted her and/or would help her reunite with her mother.

And I kinda like that we start talking about Yumi way more often after the headcanon of mine, lmao.

 

[Teitonii]

please .39 full save i beg

 

[Fire Lord Zuko]

please .39 full save i beg

Spoiler

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[ratmanirl]

Spoiler: simp mumbling without much sense

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You know, if Sensei wasn't a predator, it might be actually pretty cute story about delinquent slowly becoming invested into her teacher. In a perfect world, he'd have adopted her and/or would help her reunite with her mother.

And I kinda like that we start talking about Yumi way more often after the headcanon of mine, lmao.

Perhaps it’s because she’s like one of the only characters that is making actual improvements in becoming a better person.

Maybe that’s also part of the draw for Sensei. Seeing that people who are broken can get better.

 

[Moonflare]

Spoiler: simp mumbling without much sense

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You know, if Sensei wasn't a predator, it might be actually pretty cute story about delinquent slowly becoming invested into her teacher. In a perfect world, he'd have adopted her and/or would help her reunite with her mother.

And I kinda like that we start talking about Yumi way more often after the headcanon of mine, lmao.

Spoiler: Io stuff

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Spoiler: Yumi stuff

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[Xiondingens]

Man, speaking of Futaba - I don't know if it was always like this and I never noticed, or it is something that only became so in current chapters, but my god she became so boring of a character to me.

It seemed like she had somewhat of an arc dealing with her body in the beginning and went to the gym and stuff, and then she just became, at most, a reason for more interesting stuff to happen (with nodoka mostly, but one scene with Imani too).

I guess it's understandable since we have to develop stuff with the second floor girls, but first floor has a lot happening still, idk...

Imo, she was always boring. So far she has always been a one topic character that never gets more then an inch deep.
First we had bullying that has ended. Then she started training, that looks abondoned/forgotten and now she is angry because of Nodokas book.

I mean sure, she is a sweet girl and all that, but she really doesnt give one much to work with. I mean even all the lewd stuff feels actually completely disconnected from her day to day personna. Just think of the

Spoiler

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that felt so horrible disconnected to everything. And was never mentioned again, so even when i cant recall that it was i would guess this was just optional connent, and that doesnt mean anything.

And that is her whole problem, all her storylines dont really have much meaning to her. The bullying was more for the character development of yumi and nodoka. The body stuff was probably just to have a gym in the game world established -only that sel didnt do anything with that either- after that it was more about Imani and the whole book storyline is again more about Nodoka as about her.

I mean really, if you actually look at it she feels more like a side character in her own story lines.

 

[DeSkel15]

Spoiler: Io stuff

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Spoiler: Yumi stuff

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The respect line is from Yumi's Chapter 2 'Abyss' Event:

Spoiler

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It's actually about Chika though.

 

[DeSkel15]

Speaking of Yumi, I'm still wondering if her being on Ami's list will ever be a plot point:

Spoiler

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Frankly, I wonder if Ami's list will even come up again.

 

[LoveRedHairedGirl]

Speaking of Yumi, I'm still wondering if her being on Ami's list will ever be a plot point:

Spoiler

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Frankly, I wonder if Ami's list will even come up again.

I guess it is not literal list, but rather mental note "Yumi might love him" or something like this.