They know if Akira wanted to take her, she would let him. They know that she would come running back to him even if he did so. And still, he chooses her happiness over his own pleasure, even when she tries to force the issue.
This honestly sounds like Red Path Sensei,
choosing her happiness over his own pleasure. I understand how the end result of Io green path feels very special and hard-earned , and maybe in the green path Sensei and Io have reached a deeper, higher mutual understanding; I felt that too and I very much enjoyed that. But that is never sufficient enough to say going green for Io is much better than going red. How is stopping the cycle of abuse early on not better?
If you're asking me which path is better as a viewer, then the answer is green. Absolutely. Missing out the latter half of
Stomachache is a tremendous loss. Missing out two broken people finally reaching some agreement after their miserable attempt is another tremendous loss. However,
if you're asking me which path is better for them or which path is better if you were trying to be in the shoes of one of them (which is what I am almost always at),
then the answer is not green as long as nothing bad is happening in the red path as of right now. Again I don't buy the Selly punishing, the game general theming, or even missing something important in the future as reasonings. These reasonings are not diegetic and thus even if I as a viewer do care about them and do observe them, they can't validate the statement "thank god I let Sensei fucked Io" when they are not in-game and when nothing bad is happening in the red path as of right now to change my mind.
Red path shows the beginnings of an insidious, creeping anxiety. "If not now, when? I am the abused and he is the abuser. It will happen someday and the only question is how much will it hurt. And the more I trust this lie, the deeper the pain will be..." The key motif within the red path version of Even Winning Feels Bad is distance.
A continuation of me saying "as long as nothing bad is happening in the red path": I generally don't feel this "insidious, creeping anxiety", the "the more I trust this lie, the deeper the pain will be", or the "It will happen someday and the only question is how much will it hurt" in any red path versions to be really honest. Neither does rewatching
Empty Heart Appeal or rewatching
Theme Hospital give me the sense of looming evil or Sensei was lying, and I don't remember if there is anymore meaningful red variant line that can contribute.
It's not like Sensei was very obviously suppressing some dark urges to rape Io if he didn't previously have sex with her, or Io was constantly on the brink of breakdowns because she thought her value in his eyes has down to zero (she briefly did that in
Empty Heart Appeal but the red path Sensei stopped her and things didn't go south). I found no variation in
Even Winning Feels Bad; which red variant scene give you this feeling the strongest? I am starting to think that maybe I miss something in the red path and that
in-game something is a strong driving force for everyone else to pick green that easily.