VN Ren'Py Our Red String [Ch.13.3.4] [Eva Kiss]

[Socrambus]

I'd guess it's the "stealing other guy's girl" factor, since it's the only storyline like that.

That's just one layer because is not just any other guy. It's your friend who is taller, more handsome and used to be way more successful with girls than you in your teens. And Cindy kind of embodies the trope of the hot popular cheerleader that paid no attention to Ian and was way out of his league back in the day.

So "stealing" Cindy has the forbidden fruit appeal with an extra of betrayal of a close friend. And it also works as validation for Ian that despite everything (his awkard teens, Gillian's break up, struggling writing career and so on) he's now better than Wade and he can get a girl like Cindy. I don't think it's about Cindy as an individual and more about what she represents, kind of the platinum trophy Ian gets for being more confident, working at the gym and getting this career on the right track.

And Cindy as a character is the insatisfaction of someone with a normal boring life when confronted with the (fake or not) appeal of the exciting and successful social media stardom. I find her refreshing compared to most other LI (on this game and others) that she provokes love and hate reactions not just based on her looks and attractiveness but on her contradicting personality. She has obvious flaws and it kind of makes her more real as a character and enhaces the guilty pleasure vibes on her path.

 

[Nifferman]

That's just one layer because is not just any other guy. It's your friend who is taller, more handsome and used to be way more successful with girls than you in your teens. And Cindy kind of embodies the trope of the hot popular cheerleader that paid no attention to Ian and was way out of his league back in the day.

So "stealing" Cindy has the forbidden fruit appeal with an extra of betrayal of a close friend. And it also works as validation for Ian that despite everything (his awkard teens, Gillian's break up, struggling writing career and so on) he's now better than Wade and he can get a girl like Cindy. I don't think it's about Cindy as an individual and more about what she represents, kind of the platinum trophy Ian gets for being more confident, working at the gym and getting this career on the right track.

And Cindy as a character is the insatisfaction of someone with a normal boring life when confronted with the (fake or not) appeal of the exciting and successful social media stardom. I find her refreshing compared to most other LI (on this game and others) that she provokes love and hate reactions not just based on her looks and attractiveness but on her contradicting personality. She has obvious flaws and it kind of makes her more real as a character and enhaces the guilty pleasure vibes on her path.

y do people even assume Ian wasn't popular ?? He was in band and was in a long term relationship, and the dude's been doing martial arts since he was pre-teen. Is it because he is 175 ??

 

[Chemish]

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[BlandChili]

At this point the Seymour debate is moot. I doubt it will be part of Lena's half of the update unless EK has already announced it (Did I miss something?). In my opinion the Seymour arc, while way too tame, at the moment has some of the biggest potential. Axel having similar potential for depravity (e.g. BDSM) though no hints at group involvement on that path...yet.

Unless Eva does another split (like with Cindy's birthday party for Wade and Holly's book fair) I doubt Seymour and Lena will ever have a significant amount of time devoted to them alone. We are talking about an optional route here after all, so any Seymour scenes that become too lengthy will need non-Seymour alternatives to at least fill in some of that same time slot.

Since Billy's route is optional too, or at least seems that way so far, it probably won't serve as a Seymour alternative either, for example. Last scene I recall that was a direct replacement was when Lena was introduced to that random new photographer guy.

 

[ffive]

y do people even assume Ian wasn't popular ?? He was in band and was in a long term relationship, and the dude's been doing martial arts since he was pre-teen. Is it because he is 175 ??

IIRC Ian has some bit of internal monologue how their entire little clique was more of "the weird kids" in HS, with Wade being relative exception. Jeremy's new persona is a result of trying to get away from that stereotype, while Perry and Emma never bothered.

 

[Socrambus]

y do people even assume Ian wasn't popular ?? He was in band and was in a long term relationship, and the dude's been doing martial arts since he was pre-teen. Is it because he is 175 ??

It's mentioned several times during the game:

            i "Sometimes I miss those good old times in high school..."
            p "Good old times? We were a b--{w=0.5}bunch of nerds, have you forgotten?"
            w "Hey, speak for yourself."
            p "You were a nerd as m--{w=0.5}much as any of us back then, W--{w=0.5}wade."
            e "We were not the most popular kids, that's for sure, ha ha."
            i "Well, you never cared about that. That's why you were quite popular despite being a nerd, Emma."

        h "I've never been too popular... Especially during high school. I didn't have many friends even when I was a kid..."
        i "I understand that feeling. I was never too popular either and spent most of my time alone, living in the fantasy worlds I created for myself."
        h "Yes, that's right..."
        $ flena = "n"
        l "Is that so? You told me you were in a rock band..."
        $ fian = "smile"
        i "Yeah, but we never were the cool kids, not at all!"
        i "We were a group of misfits that happened to be lucky enough to meet each other at the right time."
        i "If it weren't for them, I would've been way more lonely during my high school years."

Although I get what you mean, the rock band thing feels kind of odd for the vibes Eva is trying to portray. And it's kind of weird that it's not used for Ian playing bass with Lena and almost not used to relate to Lena's music thing (Ian usually relates with his writing as an artsy thing too). Maybe a D&D group would have worked better than a rock band for the nerd vibes and also as a way to connect with Holly through fantasy.

 

[ffive]

Unless Eva does another split (like with Cindy's birthday party for Wade and Holly's book fair) I doubt Seymour and Lena will ever have a significant amount of time devoted to them alone. We are talking about an optional route here after all, so any Seymour scenes that become too lengthy will need non-Seymour alternatives to at least fill in some of that same time slot.

I think in this particular scenario EK is planning to have Lena entertain herself with Jeremy as an option, if she doesn't go with Seymour. There were some earlier crumbs dropped to that effect earlier. Failing that, there's always Stan and Robert :hidethepain: The alternative could also always be a simple skip of a day, the game does this sort of thing sometimes if a day is dedicated to events of route the given protagonist isn't on.

 

[Geigi]

IRL I had such an opportunity with a stunning girl in my twenties, but in the end I turned her down, the lad was a really good friend and a genuinely great bloke. I had my limits. Maybe like Jeremy, girlfriends of very good friends is where I draw the line.

Respectable.

 

[Xupuzulla]

About Seymour,EK clearly likes him very much,she cried when she did bad in the popularity poll so yeah that character is not leaving anytime soon,is going to get worse IMO.

 

[Nifferman]

It's mentioned several times during the game:

            i "Sometimes I miss those good old times in high school..."
            p "Good old times? We were a b--{w=0.5}bunch of nerds, have you forgotten?"
            w "Hey, speak for yourself."
            p "You were a nerd as m--{w=0.5}much as any of us back then, W--{w=0.5}wade."
            e "We were not the most popular kids, that's for sure, ha ha."
            i "Well, you never cared about that. That's why you were quite popular despite being a nerd, Emma."

        h "I've never been too popular... Especially during high school. I didn't have many friends even when I was a kid..."
        i "I understand that feeling. I was never too popular either and spent most of my time alone, living in the fantasy worlds I created for myself."
        h "Yes, that's right..."
        $ flena = "n"
        l "Is that so? You told me you were in a rock band..."
        $ fian = "smile"
        i "Yeah, but we never were the cool kids, not at all!"
        i "We were a group of misfits that happened to be lucky enough to meet each other at the right time."
        i "If it weren't for them, I would've been way more lonely during my high school years."

Although I get what you mean, the rock band thing feels kind of odd for the vibes Eva is trying to portray. And it's kind of weird that it's not used for Ian playing bass with Lena and almost not used to relate to Lena's music thing (Ian usually relates with his writing as an artsy thing too). Maybe a D&D group would have worked better than a rock band for the nerd vibes and also as a way to connect with Holly through fantasy.

well lotta girls including Alison and Cindy thought he has attractive and who care what Perry thinks

 

[SlowGoesSlow]

I can’t wait for Seymour to take Lena to Disney World, she’s gonna be so surprised.

 

[ffive]

I can’t wait for Seymour to take Lena to Disney World, she’s gonna be so surprised.

We'll be getting conclusion to Seymour arc as a DLC:

 

[dolfe67]

Unless Eva does another split (like with Cindy's birthday party for Wade and Holly's book fair) I doubt Seymour and Lena will ever have a significant amount of time devoted to them alone. We are talking about an optional route here after all, so any Seymour scenes that become too lengthy will need non-Seymour alternatives to at least fill in some of that same time slot.

Since Billy's route is optional too, or at least seems that way so far, it probably won't serve as a Seymour alternative either, for example. Last scene I recall that was a direct replacement was when Lena was introduced to that random new photographer guy.

Every route is optional. The non-seymour alternative is Lena staying in the beach house. I remind you that she will leave early to go with seymour for just a couple days. Seymour is a main character and has/will have as much content as the other ones.

 

[Skylark21]

We'll be getting conclusion to Seymour arc as a DLC:

View attachment 3797470

 

[Blurpee69]

IIRC Ian has some bit of internal monologue how their entire little clique was more of "the weird kids" in HS, with Wade being relative exception. Jeremy's new persona is a result of trying to get away from that stereotype, while Perry and Emma never bothered.

I don't think it's that Emma never bothered, more that she embraced it and was comfortable with who and what they were. When the band is brought up, we see Perry shy away from it more than the others, whereas Emma clearly stuck with it since she will play rhythm for Lena at her concerts. She only seems to have doubts recently as literally everyone is changing suddenly, she admits as much during the shopping trip with Lena.

Perry, as much as I like the character, is the only one simultaneously stuck in the past, but also embarrassed about the past. He wants to maintain the status quo, while Emma is OK with who she is and is OK with what the others are doing with their lives. Wade is in a somewhat similar boat as Perry, but he had a successful job until he was unexpectedly let go, and his confidence took a huge blow when he couldn't find another place to hire him within a reasonable time. Speaking from experience, that is a very relatable reaction from Wade.

 

[Socrambus]

well lotta girls including Alison and Cindy thought he has attractive and who care what Perry thinks

It's not about what Perry thinks, maybe Ian really was more popular and cool than he thinks he was, but that's his self-perception and what really matters. He starts the game just recovering from Gillian's cheating and clearly lacking confidence. From there you can take him on several paths depending on your choices and I think that Cindy's path is mainly about what I said before.

 

[Nifferman]

We'll be getting conclusion to Seymour arc as a DLC:

View attachment 3797470

Seymond is a pos but he isnt Billy level

 

[ffive]

Seymond is a pos but he isnt Billy level

I mean, we're getting Clinton to play voice act Seymour, obv. Actors turned presidents are a thing, there's no reason we can't have it the other way around.

 

[Xupuzulla]

Every route is optional. The non-seymour alternative is Lena staying in the beach house. I remind you that she will leave early to go with seymour for just a couple days. Seymour is a main character and has/will have as much content as the other ones.

People need to cope with the fact EK loves him and sees him as a very important character in this game.

 

[Leongen43]

I mean, we're getting Clinton to play voice act Seymour, obv. Actors turned presidents are a thing, there's no reason we can't have it the other way around.

I see, so Monica Lewinsky could give Lena a voice, they already have experience working together and she could even do her job well with an object in her mouth, right?