There is also another issue which is a bit meta and difficult to voice even in my own language. I hope i can convey this in a comprehensible way.
Do you guys believe, that every choice which actually alters the story splits off a seperate thread of reality like in Steins:Gate?
This would imply that an Alison on Ians path would be a different person entity than an Alison who never got involved with Ian, and if this was the case there could be indeed a character with a great personality in one thread of reality and a despicable one in another and we can't argue about those traits because we would compare two different characters.
I have to admit i am kind of fond of this idea, but it would probably kill any debate.
If on the other hand there is only one in-game reality which can evolve in different ways, i think it's admissible to conclude on a characters personality by looking at their what-if choices.
There was one which particularly stood out to me and that was Wades reaction on Cindys post of her first photoshoot. In my canon playthrough myIan urged Cindy to do nudes and she posted the backside topless picture in which she slips off her undies. To which Wade reacted -understandably- upset.
BUT he also went ballistic on another, very tame one, in which she didn't do nudes and posted a reasonable and beautiful, fully clothed picture of her looking over her shoulder. A picture which could have evoked a proud, yet surprised reaction from her boyfriend, like "Wow, look how beautiful my girlfriend is. Wait, who took that picture? Eh, nevermind, perhaps i ask her later."
To which i thought something along the lines of 'My boy Wade, perhaps you are an asshole and don't deserve better than get your girl stolen from you.'
I am wondering about at which point of the progression of a characters arc we can't conclude on or compare a characters personality anymore. Is a fair assessment of Alison, for instance, feasible if we take these two different weekend trips? The one in which she has a threesome with Jeremy and Billy versus the one she spends with Ian? I kind of think yes and no.
The seed for this branching was always existent in Alison at the start of the game, and her personality nurtured it into growing these two different branches. However the threesome Alison is as far away from the Ian Alison that they could very well be in another Steins:Gate reality. They are backwards comparable, but not directly with each other.
Does this make any sense? What is your take on this?
Hi,
selberdreher ! Interesting theory by you! I think you are both right and wrong here, depending on the character.
Take Lena: We can get a really nice, pleasant Lena, even on the slutty, Stan and Seymour-affine paths, but we can also get a narcistic, self-righteous, clearly unpleasant Lena on the "normal" paths, depending on choices made. This is near parallel universes, due to the extremly broad range of outcomes, considering Lena´starting personality.
In Alison´s case, this is nearly the same, but what many players (you included it seems) miss, is that you can shut down the "Jeremy-Alison" path completely, no matter if you pursue Alison or not, early in the game, maybe that´s because the choice which does this does not seem to affect much on fisrt look!
But generally the Alison we meet at game start is a friend who liked Ian already back in school, which was reciprociated by Ian, but both were too shy/oblivious to act on it. Alison´s current situation is one of frustration. She is really mobbed at work, similar to Ian, due to her straightforwardness (can be learned esp. if you have lunch with her) and had an overly jealous boyfriend, despite she was always loyal.
It is actually quite understandable that she wants to let off steam, have some fun and get her job and relationship status back in order.
And here is where our take on of Ian comes in. We can develop this starting situation in various ways. We can e.g. stay just good friends (we do not pursue Alison at all), we can become friends with benefits (pursuing Alison mainly for sex), we can become a "Voyeur-Ian" with the option to become a "Cuck Ian" (helping Jeremy pursue Alison, then pursuing her too), we can be an Ian who likes his girlfriends rather "wild" (letting Jeremy start with Alison, then pursuing her fully to get into a love relationship, but with the option to experiment) or we can be an Ian who finally recognises his old feelings for Alison (pursuing her right from the start, blocking Jeremy early on).
Alison likes Ian very much and prefers to be with him (and sgnals him up to a certain point, e.g. changing clothes style), but if Ian does not react, she is now at a point in her life where she does not want to wait all that much longer and acts on her own.
