Sounds like you and your friend arent that different. As long as you get a benefit, as long as you get provided, you accept that treatment and
use of those "man babies", whatever you wanna call them. As long as they are useful you acknowledge their existence to a point. How was the saying?, a man is loved for what he provides, never solely by being himself.
That sound very much like Lacey.
HE is the villain? Fuck it. HE is the victim. He may be dumb as fuck an idiot and spineless, but he is not a villain, god forbid a man has emotions and expresses them, you really sound like you would fit as part of the character cast.
Blaming the MC for having reasonable emotional responses for such situations?. He was lied into a wedding. Gaslightend numerous times. Emotionally blackmailed into accepting things he never wanted. His emotions and opinions ignored and overuled by his loved one. Cheated and hurt for some selfpleasure by his trusted and even thrown in his face that it was for his own good. His own friends lie, gaslight and defend his wife, saying that his behabiour is irrational and at the same time keep showing photos of how his wife is a complete slut. He was used and abandoned for years by the one that claims that it loves him more than anyone, yet she also claims and shows that she dosent give a fuck about him and has no problem hurting him.
His inner circle of friends are composed of monsters, and yet he is the villain? For what? For having anger towards someone that uses your good will against you? Doubts towards people that lie to him on daily basis? For yelling at someone that has intentionally hurt him despite being the one supposed to love him the most? Having resentment towards the one that has betrayed him in multiple ocassions? All reasonable and expected things for what it has done to him, and even all his reactions fall short.
He has his faults, but he is not a villain, not for what he has done nor what he has felt. At worst you can blame him for being spineless and some flirting with the work crushes, which all the females around him downplay the importance when they do it. Double standards. You cant expect the inexperienced ex-virgin loner that never paid attention to other women to realize his effect over other women. Like is said in the game, a baby with a tank. It just happens that the tank is badly written.
For last, i would like to know what you consider "doing the right thing" is. To me the right things is dropping the dead weight, i would get out of there, cut ALL of them of my life, if necesary move out of the city, hell, moving out of the planet and that still could be considered staying too close. What is your doing the right thing?
And apparently the worth of a woman is once again her physical appearance. What the hell has Christine appearance has to do with her IT skills? Cant a 12 year looking woman have the skill to identify a deepfake?
Sure, you could blame the MC, a supossed IT expert, and say he is the one that should have figured it out. I could say that he was in an emotional state and wasnt even looking at that video on a technical point at all. You know, having been cheated and utterly betrayed like 3 weeks ago proved that the wife could do something like that. Hell, even the wife and her friends thought that she could have done it. So the 3 second flip is kind of justified.
Im sorry to say it crudely like this, but,
Silken on Demand, you sound toxic too for blaming the victim. I dont know what happened with your ex, nor i care, i had my share of toxic women in my life from my mother to some ex. I have seen your attitude. You would fit right into the story, you would get along with some of the characters.