This game doesn't seem to be about the sort of stealing you mean here, what is stolen is genuine trust and intimacy that MC and FMC will not be able to enjoy for the forseeable future, unless we get some sort of forced deus ex machina.
I cannot agree that the MC is neither weak or idiotic, sadly he is both, for background and story reasons, I wrote several posts already on how some of his weaknesses make absolute sense considering his abandonment trauma, many others do not.
He looks idiotic when he cannot ask a simple question and keeps everything in the air, he looks weak when he cannot wrestle his emotions in a meaningful way, caving in and erasing any sort of emotional growth.
FMC is sort of a size queen here and there and is idiotic in probably 90% of the events, if you read the story carefully as you said, most of Lacey's actions are an absolute tragedy, from letting herself get groped, using the household budget to buy slutty dresses, hiding the landlord, the whole Damian situation and in the end Isaac.
These are only a few examples.
I'm sorry but how can you say that NTR didn't diminish the value of FMC? She admits it herself in the writing.
Starting from an easy one: Damian during the trip, she has shown that she cannot be trusted, she walked all over MC wishes and cheated on him mercifully.
Aside from the whole rule breaking that starts from the first one FMC herself put down, the whole thing was a shit show that almost got MC killed.
I don't know how a person that lies constantly, uses MC jealousy weakpoint to hurt him on purpose (Will) and constantly humiliates her husband without a second thought (Damian and Isaac) doesn't lose any value.
I would llike to remind, that while MC is at the cliffs about to end it all, she is joking around with Mia about Isaac dick size.
Almost none of the decisions made by Lacey seems to be justifiable, I mean as far as I can understand from your post you are a fan of NTS/NTR, but don't let it cloud you from applying some logic: is is justifiable to lie to get married? is it justifiable to lie to your SO for weeks to attend parties with strippers? Is it justifiable to force MC in a NTS situation just after he has been hurt and FMC promises to build his trust anew and then break every single ground rule?
And sorry ketamine use or brain damage do not make it justifiable, especially if you know what ketamine does.
You are right about one thing, Lacey is not evil per se, she is just an addict in search of short term gratification and stumbles around without thinking about future repercussions, which are nonexistant anyway in the story, I mean this woman fucked a minor and half of the world moves to shield her from consequences.
Why did she decide to do drugs?
Why did she decide to be a slut?
Why didn't she tell the MC?
Why didn't she leave college and return to the MC?
Why didn't she tell the MC when she returned?
Why did she constantly lie?
All the answers to your questions are half answered in the game:
- she decided to do drugs as a stopgap for her depression.
- FMC wanted to try and reduce the effect of her trauma on her sex life and Mia wanted to have fun so she pushed her to be an unhinged slut
- She knew she was cheating and that MC would be hurt, she says so herself in a bathroom scene talking about Stephen with a "ph"
- The very weak reason we get is that magicalllly after she gets pounded for 3 weeks by Isaac she has a moment of clarity, just before Anna's call
- She knew she was worthless now, she gave away "like it was water" what MC considers precious and is important to him since he was a child
- We are told she is non confrontational, so she lies to avoid the consequences of her actions
I don't want to sound like a broken record but none of the decisions were justifiable, lliterally none.
Actually let me correct myself, the Lorenzo decision might be justifiable.
Your experience with the military is very different, since you didn't abandon your mother, lie to her knowing very well that it would hurt her (college lie) and then came back and lie again (marriage) after you gave away whatever your mother considered precious and irreplaceable.
MC jealousy is a byproduct of the lies and the absolute lack of trust, in fact we don't hear much about it before the landlord.
Lacey is not a partner you can trust and jealousy stems from it, if she was reliable and trustworthy MC jealousy would have been in control / nonexistant.
MC thinks in a very logical way and he is always in control of his emotions, unrealistically so, even when he was about to commit suicide, he keeps himself in check to extreme extents to the point of being irrationally harsh on himself, we see scenes just after he is cheated on where he chastises himself for a very minor quip at FMC, which would have been warranted.
The only moment where his jealousy is applied incorrectly is when he is jealous about Anna and Mia dancing, Anna then admits she did it on purpose to "punish" him.
The only way to cure MC from the past is mentioned by FMC multiple times: stop, give him back control over his life, make amends, build trust with him and give him time to heal, this would have been a mature and serious way to deal with the situation.
Instead, after we are told and shown that FMC accepts that she cannot make good decisions, we get a formidable plan: to fuck more men and try to dilute the value that MC stocks in intimacy, franklly, this is disgusting behaviour.
Her mind having issues is not a justification, I will repeat myself here: trauma can be a reason but not a justification.
We are not even sure how much of this damage is real since we get a lot of mixed messages about it, especially with her memory (she remembers more than Mia which was sober, especially sex acts, dresses and dick sizes).
As I said before I am very invested in the game and I am looking forward to Act 2 but reading your post I got worried about your views on healty relationships and behaviours!
