Doppelgang

Member
Jul 5, 2022
149
840
I don't think there's really anything irrational about Lena being pissed off at Cherry for sleeping with her boyfriend behind her back and then getting into a threesome with her and Axel pretending this is all new to her. Regardless of Cherry's reasons.
Well, it's obviously not irrational in the sense that you'd expect her to react in any other way. But it's irrational in the literal sense that her assessment of everything about it is controlled by her emotions, rather than having a logical, rational look at it. As a coping mechanism I have no doubts it's better for Lena to pass a black and white judgement of Cherry after what happened (I don't think I'd be interested in anything else myself), but it also prevents her from acknowledging how Cherry seems to feel really bad about what happened, and is constantly on her toes to make sure she doesn't bother Lena again. That very emotional reaction is presumably why Holly implies they should have a talk about it, and why Lena several times jumps to conclusions when she crosses path with Cherry again, e.g. when they meet at Ian's place and when she sees her with Axel outside Blazer.
 

ffive

Conversation Conqueror
Jun 19, 2022
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Well, it's obviously not irrational in the sense that you'd expect her to react in any other way. But it's irrational in the literal sense that her assessment of everything about it is controlled by her emotions, rather than having a logical, rational look at it.
Well, this is actually what i disagree with -- being angry at Cherry for her action is logical and rational. Cherry herself acknowledges she has hurt Lena and in fact this is why she (allegedly) feels remorse in the first place.

Additionally, since Cherry has already shown herself to be a bare faced liar when dealing with Lena, and someone who had little regard for Lena's feelings, there's no rational reason for Lena to believe Cherry is being genuine about her regrets, or about justifications she provides. As such, treating Cherry and her actions with suspicion, as opposed to trusting her blindly despite the evidence to the contrary, is warranted.
 

Reaurt

Member
Nov 25, 2017
292
1,000
Now that I've mostly played through the game for the third time now (waiting for the final version of Chapter 11 before replaying that), and since people are chatting about Ivy...

I've grown to appreciate Ivy as a chaos agent. An instigator. A shit starter, if you will. The kind of person that you're glad you know, because they keep life interesting, but you hope you don't know too many of them. She plays that role for Lena as the protagonist (Jeremy and Perry split that role for Ian).

She's not perfect. She's perceptive and driven, but self-centered and inconsiderate. I also think she's making some strategic mistakes with her choices. Like doing erotic material online (Stalkfap) and then trying to join a high-end model brand (Wildcats), which is a transition that rarely happens in that order. But that combo of perceptive, driven, and inconsiderate makes for great fun. She is also humanized by the fact that she at least somewhat cares for Lena (from the prism of her own outlook and values, I don't think Ivy does empathy and perspective-taking).
 

fatpussy123

Well-Known Member
May 9, 2020
1,092
3,372
Holly forces herself in both of MCs storylines,theres nothing nice or organic about her.
If Stan is a nice creep Holly is a nice creep too,simple as.
Holly has a crush on Ian, but only ever makes a move if he goes on a trip with her and compliments her. Lena she befriends, but only from Lena's advances. She only makes a move if Lena is attracted to Holly (lena_go_holly).
 
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noturiah

Newbie
Sep 2, 2021
99
448
I've grown to appreciate Ivy as a chaos agent. An instigator. A shit starter, if you will. The kind of person that you're glad you know, because they keep life interesting, but you hope you don't know too many of them. She plays that role for Lena as the protagonist (Jeremy and Perry split that role for Ian).

She's not perfect. She's perceptive and driven, but self-centered and inconsiderate. I also think she's making some strategic mistakes with her choices. Like doing erotic material online (Stalkfap) and then trying to join a high-end model brand (Wildcats), which is a transition that rarely happens in that order. But that combo of perceptive, driven, and inconsiderate makes for great fun. She is also humanized by the fact that she at least somewhat cares for Lena (from the prism of her own outlook and values, I don't think Ivy does empathy and perspective-taking).
So, I've been coming around to this view too, partly from posts by SerHawkes and partly from taking a longer view over all chapters so far. SerHawkes calls Ivy a "suggestor of suggestions" and that seems a great description of her, and your idea of "perceptive, driven, and inconsiderate" also hits the nail on the head. As you say, she's a chaos agent. But she's not coming from a place of being evil or manipulative in order to hurt people (which is what I initially thought). She's her own person and that's great, but she also kinda thinks everybody else should be more like her, which is less great.

From her own perspective she's a good friend to Lena and to Holly - and sometimes she really can be! - but it's also that she wants them to see life from her viewpoint and accept her ideas of what's important, fun, etc. She puts up with Louise, who makes no secret of hating her, and has no real issue with Lena living with Louise or being her friend. But also Ivy doesn't hesitate to mock Louise to Lena, or stir up problems between Louise and Jeremy in her (delightfully) bitchy way. And she may be too driven for her own good; we'll see what happens with the Wildcats storyline, which if you think about it is the only thing Ivy really wants for herself.
 

Doppelgang

Member
Jul 5, 2022
149
840
Well, this is actually what i disagree with -- being angry at Cherry for her action is logical and rational. Cherry herself acknowledges she has hurt Lena and in fact this is why she (allegedly) feels remorse in the first place.

Additionally, since Cherry has already shown herself to be a bare faced liar when dealing with Lena, and someone who had little regard for Lena's feelings, there's no rational reason for Lena to believe Cherry is being genuine about her regrets, or about justifications she provides. As such, treating Cherry and her actions with suspicion, as opposed to trusting her blindly despite the evidence to the contrary, is warranted.
Well, now you're nitpicking, and I think the "controlled by her emotions" part of the quote makes it pretty clear what I mean by "irrational" in this context.

Of course Lena has reasons to distrust Cherry and treat her actions with suspicion. That goes without saying. If Lena's goal (consciously or unconsciously) is to get a complete understanding of everything that happened and whether her judgement of Cherry's character is representative of her in general, the rational thing would be to talk to Cherry and listen to what she has to say. If her goal is to get over it by allowing herself to be angry without taking in all the nuances, as well as limiting her contact with Cherry and Axel to a minimum, it's obviously rational to not bother about what she's got to say.

I don't really care if we're calling it irrational or not, but the point is that Lena's seemingly not interested in getting a more complete understanding of the whole situation, and/or her strong emotions get in the way of it. I'd probably react the same way myself, but as players we know that Cherry's perspective adds nuances to it, and also gives us good reasons to believe that she actually is genuine about her regrets.

There's in other words a clear discrepancy between what we as players have seen of Cherry's character, and what Lena's seen—at least partially because of how Lena relates to all of it. The topic I was discussing, was the possible future developement in the relationship between Lena and Cherry. In that context the discrepancy is clearly interesting. Considering how Lena and Cherry are getting drawn into the same group of friends, they'll likely end up talking about all of this at some point, be it through a confrontation or in more civiliced forms. If that happens, I assume it'll include the option for Lena to take note of Cherry's perspective and adjust her own—with whatever consequences that might include.
 

dontcarewhateverno

Engaged Member
Jan 25, 2021
2,324
5,526
Well, now you're nitpicking, and I think the "controlled by her emotions" part of the quote makes it pretty clear what I mean by "irrational" in this context.

Of course Lena has reasons to distrust Cherry and treat her actions with suspicion. That goes without saying. If Lena's goal (consciously or unconsciously) is to get a complete understanding of everything that happened and whether her judgement of Cherry's character is representative of her in general, the rational thing would be to talk to Cherry and listen to what she has to say. If her goal is to get over it by allowing herself to be angry without taking in all the nuances, as well as limiting her contact with Cherry and Axel to a minimum, it's obviously rational to not bother about what she's got to say.

I don't really care if we're calling it irrational or not, but the point is that Lena's seemingly not interested in getting a more complete understanding of the whole situation, and/or her strong emotions get in the way of it. I'd probably react the same way myself, but as players we know that Cherry's perspective adds nuances to it, and also gives us good reasons to believe that she actually is genuine about her regrets.

There's in other words a clear discrepancy between what we as players have seen of Cherry's character, and what Lena's seen—at least partially because of how Lena relates to all of it. The topic I was discussing, was the possible future developement in the relationship between Lena and Cherry. In that context the discrepancy is clearly interesting. Considering how Lena and Cherry are getting drawn into the same group of friends, they'll likely end up talking about all of this at some point, be it through a confrontation or in more civiliced forms. If that happens, I assume it'll include the option for Lena to take note of Cherry's perspective and adjust her own—with whatever consequences that might include.
So basically, they're going to bang. I agree! :D
 
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