- Sep 2, 2021
- 100
- 451
I think you phrase this very well, and reading it I'm realizing I agree with you. While I loved the "slutty Holly" montage of phone photos Ivy shares with Lena, the fact that Ivy seemed to be mocking Holly behind her back to Lena - for following Ivy's own directions! - didn't sit well with me. Ivy bossing Holly around because of her own idea of what's sexy and fun, so she wants Holly to experience that too, is what I thought we were seeing for the last half-dozen chapters or so. Now I'm less sure. I'm thinking of Ivy in some variants of the conversation after the shower scene in ch11, telling Holly that she's jealous Holly "prefers Lena." I took that as joking around, and Lena does too, but maybe Ivy was being more honest there?I don't hate the direction Ivy has taken, but I do miss the old Ivy to a degree. The Ivy that had a soft spot for Perry, because of his stutter, the Ivy that found Wade attractive, before she learned of his ties to Cindy. Back when she wasn't necessarily manipulative, but was genuinely trying to help Lena and Holly out, even if we as the players knew most of Ivy's suggestions aren't for the best they were at least coming from a place of good intent. To some degree how Ivy treats Lena and Holly could still be viewed through that lens, but the more recent chapters do bring that sentiment under more scrutiny.
When Lena finds out Ivy has been seeing Axel socially and having him shoot photos of her and push her portfolio to Wildcats, the player can get Lena a Will point if Lena believes Ivy has had no ill intent by not telling Lena about it. That doesn't mean Ivy doesn't have ill intent - as ffive mentions, there are long-running suspicions of Ivy's motives on our forum - but it does mean that Lena not being suspicious of Ivy benefits her (and us, in the game). When Ivy is paying attention to Lena's feelings, which does happen occasionally, she can be quite tender. At the same time she's brutal to Lena about sleeping with Mike if Lena has been sleeping with him. It's canon that Ivy is hooking up with him regardless, so it's not like she sleeps with him to hurt Lena, but it can be difficult to read her dialogue there without thinking some part of Ivy is enjoying making Lena feel small for possibly having feelings for Mike. So I do wonder if Ivy might be changing some, starting to get a little hard and cruel.
If that's the case, my guess might be that the hinge moment is getting passed on by Wildcats, which is also unable to change because of a player's decisions. As I've said before, if Ivy's motives in general have been mostly unclear, the one thing it's obvious that she unequivocally wants is to model with Wildcats. Axel may or may not really be trying to help her, and any version of Ivy is going to set Cindy as her nemesis for getting the job, but is Ivy starting to take out her frustrations from not getting the gig on her friends, on Lena and Holly? I do wonder.