Victoria and the mystery of her background, along with what Edwin knows (what movies has he seen that we have not?) about her, vs. what everyone else knows and what her experiences were and will be are the single thread that weaves the entire story together. I am sure some dispute that and say that Edwin's story is the single binding agent, but think of this; everything Edwin is or what he thinks he is, plans for the future, everything revolves around his thoughts of Victoria. Every single action he makes, every single person he interacts with, all are shaped from his experiences not just growing up but since he found those tapes.
People keep making very interesting, detailed posts and unfortunately I'm just too busy right now to address all of them. But I did want to say something about this bit, because I think it's significant. IMHO, there isn't a mystery about Victoria. The MC isn't on a quest to learn the truth about his mom's porn career, and Kathleen never hints about some dark, secret layers to Victoria's porn career. The whole thing is presented very matter-of-factly: for a brief time after his father died, the MC's mom made a living in porn. The exact details of that aren't presented as important.
I think reading more into it than that is looking for a twist that may not be there. Yes, given the setup it's possible we'll get some revelation about her working with August or Chuck, but I think it's a lot more likely that we'll never delve too deeply into the details because they don't matter. The important things are how the MC feels about the basic premise of his mom doing porn to stay afloat, and how his relationship with his mother changes once she realizes he knows her secret.
One of Killians bullies at school lives in a trailer park as far as i a can remember. I don't think a trailer park kid would go to an expensive school, bear with me, i'll try to get a screenshot, but i am short on time right now.
Also probably an interesting fact, which i wanted to show you as i was searching for hours for my second screenshot above:
Apparently Edwin's Father graduated from law school, and got an expensive looking golden wrist watch as a graduation gift. Edwin thinks when Victoria gives the watch to him "The ingraving alone must have cost a fortune" or something like that. Again i'll add some thumbnails, just not right now, but the scene should be a quick find, it's when Vicky and Hana meet for the second time.
Allegedly, as Victoia says, it was 'lost' in some boxes for all those years. This hints to having a home with moving boxes and stuff.
So Victorias husband graduated from law school, married at one point a - as Edwins paternal grandparents, may have seen it - a runaway tramp (Vicky left her parents home in her teens), which he got pregnant. Or even - as the grandparents may have seen it -, Vicky tricked their promising son into a pregnancy, and adding insult to injury, he worked for a meager non-profit organization instead of making full use of his law degree and start a career as lawyer in a big office. This all points to me to upper middle class parents, who were disappointed in their sons life choices and pinned all the blame on Vicky, that's why they refused contact after he died.
a single Mom with a small kid and no other family will be VERY hard pressed to cough up the money needed to keep the standard they had as a full family.
Even if Edwin didn't go to a private school, this is true, any family loosing one source of income, will get into trouble to keep their former living standard. I am with you on the fact, that Victoria was financially struggling, alot. That's why she worked her ass off (literally and metaphorically) and i am also, pretty sure that they had to downsize from perhaps living in a small house as family to living in a flat after he died. I just don't think she was in a direly desperate situation right from the start.
I have to admit i am inclined to believe, that Victoria 'enjoyed' (that's the wrong word, but i just can't put my finger on the right one, at the moment) her shoots.
I expected you will give me this example, and although i don't think you're wrong with this one, it's just too ambiguous. Victoria just uttering this words in this situation don't really convince me, that she isn't faking it.
Could be true either way. I think there are more hints than this specific one, and if we put them together, the picture is still misty, but a little clearer. Expect a post about this issue later. But be assured that i don't right out reject your notion.
Other than that, i loved that you gave me this (no irony or sarcasm here!)
I assume that's the not-so well put together parts of the town? Always nice to get new info! My honest thanks.
Although Morehead Hills is not Baltimore, i think Edwins first flat we see at the start of the game could be located there.
I am really glad we are back to a better founded discussion.
to conclude this post, i will try to deliver the trailer park bully scene and the wrist watch situation, i am on the issue about Victorias [ - still missing the right word - ] in her videos. Probably tonight.
Cheers, Turret, being salty from time to time shows that we care, no offense taken on my side, i hope on yours neither?!
People keep making very interesting, detailed posts and unfortunately I'm just too busy right now to address all of them. But I did want to say something about this bit, because I think it's significant. IMHO, there isn't a mystery about Victoria. The MC isn't on a quest to learn the truth about his mom's porn career, and Kathleen never hints about some dark, secret layers to Victoria's porn career. The whole thing is presented very matter-of-factly: for a brief time after his father died, the MC's mom made a living in porn. The exact details of that aren't presented as important.
I think reading more into it than that is looking for a twist that may not be there. Yes, given the setup it's possible we'll get some revelation about her working with August or Chuck, but I think it's a lot more likely that we'll never delve too deeply into the details because they don't matter. The important things are how the MC feels about the basic premise of his mom doing porn to stay afloat, and how his relationship with his mother changes once she realizes he knows her secret.
i wished we could likeand set a thinking face under those posts, because that's how i often feel. In this case a thinking face has to do it, as a little ellbowing, since you are so generous with yours. Everytime you do i'll take them serious, thinking "damn, you ename144 still skeptical, really? I have to work harder then to finally convince you."
You and Turret and of course a handfull others constantly challenge me to hone my posts.
Seriously, i want to thank all of you, you guys (and girls, if there are some) force me on a regular basis to revisit my favourite AVN to delve even deeper into the mysteries of the story. Honestly i discovered alot, which was overlooked by me on my first few runs.
I very much appreciate that.
You, my fellow pervs - this goes out to everyone, who adds valuable insights to this thread -, provide me with the energy and motivation to do that.
Thank you, earnestly.
PS: lol, sorry i didn't reply to the actual content of your post.
1) Kathleen says "how that must have colored your view of women" and Edwin replies that it did not change how he views women whether you want to take that at face value or think he was lying to Kathleen and us the player (since there is no hint that is a lie). I don't think that it would have much influence on his "depravity" or fetishes but i will go (too) in depth on that later on....
2) Has anybody looked to see exactly how similar the pantyhose or whatever are to the ones that we see house girls wearing? I seem to remember the color of them being pretty close. If they are the same and that is more than just a repeated texture that could have big implications whether she was involved the club or something similar should the scene be real, or if it's not a real scene because because of something we learn in the future them being the same could be a hint........ or it could just mean August/Chuck/Whoever shot the movie all buy the same brand of pantyhouse
4. The conclusion I draw from this is that if everything is true and consistent is that there is an extremely high likelihood that Victoria got involved with something beyond porn very quickly and it was likely the main thing that supported them through his childhood. She would have to be making dozens and dozens of videos over the almost decade that Edwin was growing up all while not arousing a hint of suspicion until Edwin finally found 1-3 (which she made within a year) online. The amount of videos she would have to do with different "companies" along with the location of Maryland and the years she would have to be doing it rules out Amateur Porn as what funded her life. I think semi professional or professional porn (working under a stage name) is ruled out as well because she would still have to many videos over the years and it would be much easier for Edwin to find not just 2 or 3 but 10's of videos she would have to make keep a steady income/amount of money in the bank, we also have to consider the fact that as Edwin gets older it gets harder for her to hide and it costs more money to raise him which would mean an increase in videos not a decrease.
5. Unfun fact if she was somehow able to provide for Edwin with the (probably bad pay) at the rate we have seen the videos be shot she would have made: 50+ videos minimum
I took the liberty of numbering your points/parragraphs so as to not have to snip them all to bits.
1. Edwin replies with what he believes to be true. Is that the real truth? Who knows. He could have a *very* colored/biased view of women based on rationalizing that his mom is not a whore/slut/insert degrading societial term here.. Often those with the development, behavior or psychological issues are the last people to recognize that they have them, so asking someone "are you crazy?" and them not realizing they are, doesn't not refute the fact they may well be. Fetishes can develop without outside input, but they can get the initial kernal for the beginning based on our circunstances and environment.
2. I already had a similar thought, was Vic involved with the club or maybe a pre-curser of the club/less 'fancy' bordello, and was mentioned in thread that the CC is too new for that to have occured. I agree with the CC (but could be a shocker if revealed she was involved/knew of the club) timeline but nothing so far I hav seen in the game refutes that Vic could have been part of a different set-up that had a similar function, just maybe not catering to the upscale clientele.
3. One major thing to point out here.. It's a fallacy to think that the "only" films done were the three we have seen. Some may have thought she was only in 1, until the second appeared, so on and so forth. We don't know the trrue extent of her 'career', only that we have seen at least 3, possibly 4, films or scenes she was in. Someone *could* keep that as a hard stance, the "it only occured if I saw it happen" mentality, but I would caution it may be like building a sandcastle below high-tide mark as the beach; sooner or laterr it will all erode away due to no foundation...
Be that as it may, your 5-9 year potential time span also meshes with Turret's expanded time frame thoughts, and I would agree. However... We have no idea when these films may have stopped either. Just because Edwin found them when he was 16 (hypothetical age) doesn't mean more could not have been made after that, we simply don't know. What we could realistically assume is that he was likely in his mid teen years since it would be expected to have been done with a PC and if they struggled as much as implied then I'd have a hard time believeing that extra cash was spent to get him a internet capable PC when he was under 12-14 range, but who knows really?
Regarding Edwin's "dark tendencies", how do we know those weren't due to him trying to deal with discovering the truth? As noted in my earlier post, having a young boy finding porn from his mom would rattle *anyone* and unless you have been in that situation none of us know how we would react. Especially if it was young enough that the "mom is an angel" mentality was still the major impression, and then BOOM it's all crashing down. Here's a kid who is obviously horny, otherwise why lok for porn, he finds some exciting stuff, see's a hot chick and realizes it's his mom!?!? It would be hard to turn off those hormones, I can guarentee, and him trying to deal with it could have easily led to any/all of the behaviors as either lashing out, or a pre-curser to corruption in himself (like the selling nude pics from voyeur activites)
Regarding Victoria being absent, again, we don't know. Just because it has not bewen mentioned does not mean that she didn't have "girls night out" or "overnight trip with friends", etc, etc. We also can assume, back-tracking through the timeline that Edwin was in high school 4(ish) years prior, and that's when he also knew Chuck. So we can assume that the Edwin/Chuck interactions were approx 4-8 years prior to current time. That's within the earliest stages of the CC being open, and (unknown when Chuck's wife passed away) we can assume he was potentiall involved in something perverted and perhaps encounted Vic that way too, as far back as 7-8 years ago. If my math is right that's perhaps half of the 15 year gap between origional video we have seen and curent time. Who's to say that Vic and Chuck meeting didn't get her out of the business because he had more info, and this also (weakly) links to my earlier thought that Vic's comments/distruct of Chuck was founded on something else. If she met him on a porn shoot, or he made mention to herr that he knew of her films, it adds an entire new layer on the storry for motivations and things.
One final thought for this section... For those who had Edwin with the pyro tendencies trait.. I can't recall if he mentioned his exact age, but look at Vic's pic there when she was crying when he told her, and she was worried about the money to pay for the burnt building. Does her characterr at that point in time look like her origional porn videos or not? I thought they did, and it stood out to me, what if this act of Edwin's was one of those that got her into the industrry to make quick cash for repayment? I know all Edwins wouldn't have this storry, but in this case if he did the math in his head, how do we know he didn't also connect those dots and feel even more guilt and remorse on what his actions caused his mother to "have to do"?
4. Like to request something here that you've vaguely mentioned several times... The idea of "Victoria got involved into something *more* than porn", what exactly are you proposing? What did she get involved with? What thoughts do you have around that specific idea, etc? TYossing out "someone, somewher, did something!" and not offering specifics, assumptions, wild-ass guesses (WAG's) pretty much squashes people discussing the thought, so thrrow it out here and let's all hear it..
I agre that she'd either 1) have to have made a ton og amateur vids to get the nest egg others have implied she might have worked for, 2) maybe she stayed amateur and only used the occasional film to bolster the current 'real job' she had. Edwin mentions she alwasy worked, but how much of that 'work' was in adult industry but she told him something else. or even dressed in props to get into her role? we simply don't know. 3) Maybe she went semi-pro until Edwin hit high school and she was scared off or realized, through others recognizing her (i.e. Chuck) that she needed to stop, 4) perhaps as I mentioned in an earlier post, she went into the escort business. This would fit the "more than adult videos" concept you've mentioned, and also would have potentially made her a LOT more cash.
5. Well.. I personally hope not, but we'll see. Or maybe we won't, and all this talk is for nothing, and the game dev's never really get into her history, and all we ever see are snippits of film as Edwin needs to re-evaluate something in his personal philisophy.
This last item is why I think her character is the hidden gem in the story, where we're dying to know more, but (speaking forr myself only) am dreading what could come out.. What if she was a Carnation, or the earlierr version of it, etc. Side-note.. Unrelated, but do the previous CXarnation loserrs really get nothing, or does anyone think they get at least part of what they were asking for, but sign on as a house whore (HW) for X months/years to work off their debt? There are multiple mentions of the HW's "being on the hook" so wondered if anyone caught that...
People keep making very interesting, detailed posts and unfortunately I'm just too busy right now to address all of them. But I did want to say something about this bit, because I think it's significant. IMHO, there isn't a mystery about Victoria. The MC isn't on a quest to learn the truth about his mom's porn career, and Kathleen never hints about some dark, secret layers to Victoria's porn career. The whole thing is presented very matter-of-factly: for a brief time after his father died, the MC's mom made a living in porn. The exact details of that aren't presented as important.
I think reading more into it than that is looking for a twist that may not be there. Yes, given the setup it's possible we'll get some revelation about her working with August or Chuck, but I think it's a lot more likely that we'll never delve too deeply into the details because they don't matter. The important things are how the MC feels about the basic premise of his mom doing porn to stay afloat, and how his relationship with his mother changes once she realizes he knows her secret.
If more of her backgrond aren't present then that will be that, we will likely never know, as you mention. I do hope that when/if a discussion does occur with Edwin and Vic and she learns he knows, it does have some impact on the story. Otherwise it's a seriously wasted premise that could make an ok story exceptional.
I say this bit because without the mystery of Victoria, what her trrue past and experiences were, how much Edwin saw of her, that all plays a huge role in his perceptions that the story is trying to break down. Without Victoria then PC becaomes a rather run-of-the-mill corruption game, and frankly middle-of-the road otherwise.
I get the premise of the game is supposed to be the 'Carnations' but that's not really true, the story is about Edwin and how he relates to them and everyone else. Victoria, and his history outside the family, i.e. her porn career and how her doing that influended him once he found out, is the heart of Edwin's psyche and the true story. The rest is fluff and not super exciting IMHO.
Assuming Vero, Rosa and Feli actually agree with this and tell Kath they will not perform at the last minute she would be forced to give them something or the club would take a massive income and reputation hit, right?
This is where I think the "Canon Edwin" and "Your/Mine/His/Hers" Edwin need to have a distinction in our discussions, I made different choices regarding the carnations but that does not make my or your Edwin any less valid. However every Edwin HAS to lie about working at the club (so far), every Edwin HAS to take his dick out when he first meets Veronica and Lucy etc. A perfect example of what I mean is Every Edwin HAS to meet Hana on the first day but you can choose not to go to concert, not to talk to her while she is in the parking lot, not pursue sex with her at all.
Honestly hoping this update is like 80% Ian, 15% Hana, 5% Intros just so that this Ian and Mina discussion can move forward
Absolutely. Sure some run have a better Edwin in them then others. Wouldn't i myself have opted for the pursuit of Hana and having kept Edwin's involvment with the club at the bare minimum necessary i would have probably considered to also pursuit a redemption arc with Mina.
At this point of a game release it's hard to see what will happen moving forward, but we can say, so far, that the authors know how to tell a story and how to build a well working character pshycology. Therefore i'm very confident that all the possible endings of the game will feel solid and deserved.
I agree that the endings will all feel solid and deserved, the post you quoted is more about the idea that there are things that happen to every Edwin and there are choices that influence him that we the players make. I think that more weight should given to things that happen regardless of our choice (as far as story discussion goes) ie you shouldnt say Edwin is as bad as Ian when edwin is only forced to have have sex/get a blowjob like 3-4 times during the time the game has takes place.
Yes, but i don't think you can partake in a run where Edwin completely abstain from having sexual acts at least during the showtime, but i might be wrong with this, i haven't tryed.
And i don't personally find entirely compatible this situation with a relationship with the unaware Mina. Hana on the other hand knows what's going on and she can decide to be on board. While to Mina Edwin would be, at the very least, starting the relationship under false premises "i work in a sort of gentlemen club, i do nothing weird". It's not even the sex per se, it's more about the lack of honesty, which is what destroyes Mina's faith in Ian in the first place.
Assuming Vero, Rosa and Feli actually agree with this and tell Kath they will not perform at the last minute she would be forced to give them something or the club would take a massive income and reputation hit, right?
Don't think they would be able to because of how different their issues are. For instance doubt Rosalind would be willing to wait extra weeks when she has loan shark thugs going to her home to threaten she and her daughter.
Ian fucks more women. Period.
The guy pratically lives inside the Carnation club and it is implied he likely had sex with most if not all of the prostitutes working there.
Or a bad end where they drug the hell out of the MC with some super-aphrodiasic and bring mom in to see just how much the drug kills any morals he might have. A truly bad end would be them both drugged and part of a giant orgy (or poor Victoria used by the entire club after Edwin has his way with her and the drug wears off for him). Not really sure how that end would occur unless he somehow tried to break the club and Kathleen found out about it and wanted to punish/nreak him.
Not sure if someone has already made this point, but I don't think there is any possibility that Victoria and Edwin ever become sexually involved with each other, if only because the game is on Patreon.
I am not sure what the amount of enjoyment she got from doing the porn has to do with not looking for a partner? Especially considering the last confirmed tape was 13 years ago? Or how that ties into Edwins Naivety at all? Since you say " if Victoria actually enjoyed doing the porn" Where is the evidence for the fact she did not enjoy it? Because it is logical (and often the case) for women in the real world?
In case there is a miscommunication I dont think Victoria (or Rose/Veronica/Felica) are whores because they enjoy(ed) having sex. I just think that they are characters (who like the male ones) can enjoy having sex.
The point I was trying to make is that Victoria is more or less explicitly said to be sexually inactive and satisfied with her life since a long time ago, IE: not looking for a sexual partner or sexual release. The suspension of disbelief comes from thinking that there is no rhyme or reason for this to be even a discussion in the story because it is irrelevant to her character without retconning the fact that she is very much fine being sexless and making Edwin be more oblivious that he has shown to be, to be completely blindsided by his mom's sexual activity, something that wouldn't even need 'hiding' between them either.
To the discussion at large, to me, focusing on things like that just seem to be trying to make her into another victim of the club/club adjacent people and that, to be completely honest, would just be a boring development. Like using your talking points that Chuck and August might have been involved with her, that development would just make them more villains than they already are, which would destroy any nuance that this story might have while also throwing away a good character in Victoria just so she could fit in the same role that the other carnations already are.
Victoria's character isn't only refreshing because you aren't gonna dick her down, she is refreshing because she exists as the grouding character to Edwin's high flying one.
Not sure if someone has already made this point, but I don't think there is any possibility that Victoria and Edwin ever become sexually involved with each other, if only because the game is on Patreon.
Haha okey, i don't wanna be a screenshot nazi, i just find them a convenient way to quickly prove a point. It saves the others the time to look it up, and if they do, they can also check the context of the surrounding scene. Which was e.g. important for me to get the Mina situation, and enabled me to comprehend finally, what she actually said and meant, after i realized those three pictures were from the "say something nice to each other" challenge at Edwins birthday.
I mean if you describe the scene, so we are able to find it relatively easily, that's fine. And i am pretty sure i can lookup the Nintendo game session, following your description.
I just wanted to prevent the common use of stuff like "Everyone knows"/"Someone said" to cover for flimsy arguments.
Just be as specific as the matter at hand has to be. We don't need to provide a screenshot to prove that Vicky is 46 years old, we can say: "Check her Profile." But we should be ready to backup stuff we bring to the table, if someone asks.
In this case a thinking face has to do it, as a little ellbowing, since you are so generous with yours. Everytime you do i'll take them serious, thinking "damn, you ename144 still skeptical, really? I have to work harder then to finally convince you."
You and Turret and of course a handfull others constantly challenge me to hone my posts.
Seriously, i want to thank all of you, you guys (and girls, if there are some) force me on a regular basis to revisit my favourite AVN to delve even deeper into the mysteries of the story. Honestly i discovered alot, which was overlooked by me on my first few runs.
I very much appreciate that.
You, my fellow pervs - this goes out to everyone, who adds valuable insights to this thread -, provide me with the energy and motivation to do that.
Thank you, earnestly.
PS: lol, sorry i didn't reply to the actual content of your post.
The discussion is one of my favorite parts of the game - PC has a lot of layers to it that merit investigation, and I would have missed a lot of them if you and the others hadn't pointed them out. I wish I had more time to dig into the issues now, but August has been a real crunch this year.
Be that as it may, your 5-9 year potential time span also meshes with Turret's expanded time frame thoughts, and I would agree. However... We have no idea when these films may have stopped either. Just because Edwin found them when he was 16 (hypothetical age) doesn't mean more could not have been made after that, we simply don't know. What we could realistically assume is that he was likely in his mid teen years since it would be expected to have been done with a PC and if they struggled as much as implied then I'd have a hard time believeing that extra cash was spent to get him a internet capable PC when he was under 12-14 range, but who knows really?
You're right, we have no hard evidence for when Victoria's porn career stopped, but I do think we have some indication that it ended a while ago.
This is what the MC tells Hana, and I think we can all agree he isn't lying. Now the MC isn't omniscient, but he's generally presented as smart and capable. If, during his formative years, he stumbled on an old video of his mom doing porn, I don't think he's going to shrug his shoulders and rationalize it away. No, he's going to investigate and find out how deep the rabbit hole goes. When did it start? When did it end? How does that synch up with his memories? That sort of thing.
And at least to me, that's consistent with what we've seen. He knows it started after his father died, and thinks it didn't last long. He has a collection of her videos that he hates but feels bound to watch just to remember what he owes his mother. We know he's never talked to his mom about this, so he must be getting his information from somewhere. I don't think it's idle speculation.
Regarding Edwin's "dark tendencies", how do we know those weren't due to him trying to deal with discovering the truth? As noted in my earlier post, having a young boy finding porn from his mom would rattle *anyone* and unless you have been in that situation none of us know how we would react. Especially if it was young enough that the "mom is an angel" mentality was still the major impression, and then BOOM it's all crashing down. Here's a kid who is obviously horny, otherwise why lok for porn, he finds some exciting stuff, see's a hot chick and realizes it's his mom!?!? It would be hard to turn off those hormones, I can guarentee, and him trying to deal with it could have easily led to any/all of the behaviors as either lashing out, or a pre-curser to corruption in himself (like the selling nude pics from voyeur activites)
As Simpgor pointed out, the timeline doesn't seem to fit the MC finding out about her porn career before driving his mom to tears. Beyond that, though, I'd also say the narrative cuts against it. If Victoria is at the point of despair over the MC's behavior, starting a porn career to throw money at the problem is a bit of a muddled theme. But if Victoria has already been doing porn to make ends meet, suddenly everything snaps into place: she's agonizing over the idea that the MC would never have acted out if she'd been a 'better' mother.
If more of her backgrond aren't present then that will be that, we will likely never know, as you mention. I do hope that when/if a discussion does occur with Edwin and Vic and she learns he knows, it does have some impact on the story. Otherwise it's a seriously wasted premise that could make an ok story exceptional.
I say this bit because without the mystery of Victoria, what her trrue past and experiences were, how much Edwin saw of her, that all plays a huge role in his perceptions that the story is trying to break down. Without Victoria then PC becaomes a rather run-of-the-mill corruption game, and frankly middle-of-the road otherwise.
I get the premise of the game is supposed to be the 'Carnations' but that's not really true, the story is about Edwin and how he relates to them and everyone else. Victoria, and his history outside the family, i.e. her porn career and how her doing that influended him once he found out, is the heart of Edwin's psyche and the true story. The rest is fluff and not super exciting IMHO.
I take your point but I don't think I can agree. Victoria is a big part of what elevates this game above the standard corruption fare, but still only a part.
In most corruption games, the "cost" of corruption is generally handwaved. We're repeatedly told corruption is a bad thing, but all too often the reasons why it's bad are little more than platitudes while the perks of corruption are shown in all their tantalizing glory. In this game we see the price of corruption quite clearly thanks to all the time spent with the Carnations. Moreover, we also get see some of the perks of resisting corruption.
Victoria serves both halves of the equation. We see how the MC's pervious actions brought her to tears as a child, and thus we take more seriously his concerns that getting involved in the Club might likewise hurt her. Meanwhile she serves as an example of what the Carnations aspire to (Rosalind in particular), and thus we're encouraged to help them achieve their goals rather than simply exploiting for cheap thrills.
Still, in the end Victoria is a supporting character in the MC's story. She doesn't need to have a major role going forward because she's already had a impact on both the MC and the player. We need to see how her relationship with the MC changes after their secrets are revealed to each other, but anything beyond that is gravy. In fact, I think trying to tie her into the rest of the narrative more directly runs the risk of overshadowing her connections to the MC. If you keep putting twists in your story, eventually the story becomes more about the twists than the straightaways. I'd hate for a character as grounded as Victoria to be trapped under a pile of soap opera tropes.
That's not to say any new link between Victoria and another character automatically makes the game worse, just that such links should be used carefully and sparingly.
Again it is 100000% impossible for Victoria to be involved with the club at its current location/incarnation. Ian says he has been attending since he turned 18 and he is 21 which means he has been there for 3 years worth of competitions.
Lookin at those 2 pictures there has only been 3 competitions (if it was 4 competitions done it would be nearly 5 years). This lines up with Ians age and him saying he only missed one show (if there had been 4 years he would have missed all of the first years shows). This means that Ian would have 100% had to seen Victoria as a carnation (he does not act like he has).
That's not not necessarily true. If the Club opened by holding the first Exhibition the then-upcoming 4th anniversary would be the 5th annual Exhibition.
Having said that, I entirely agree with your take that Victoria is definitely not a former Carnation.
Also related, but unrelated, going forward in PCs story its very likely, that our experiences will diverge, thus our informations will differ and so will our common shared knowledge.
As a kind of disclaimer: i have a canon playthrough which deviated very little along the way, there is no high/low toughness one, no high Vero affection one, no Rosie no deal one. I don't play a universial ren'Py mod nor do i rip the CGIs.
I estimate i have actually seen like perhaps 80% (tops) of the currently available content, and i expect to drop this ratio dramatically in the next updates, because i don't want to spoil myself too much, in case i want to replay PC with other routes (which i intend to do).
This restricts of course all my statements and theories to my current playthrough. So asking for visual proof is less a bullying, but more a "i don't know, please show me".
Which is especially true for Vickys Videos. I just cannot say if i pokemoned them all, so i am highly interested if someone else has snippets i am unaware of.
The main thoughts I had today related to Victoria, namely why I kep coming back to her in this story and why her characterr quite frankly makes me as a player, nervous and slightly agitated. It finally hit me, while Edwin may be the heart of the story and the pivot around while everything else turns, Victoria is the soul of the story and the contemplation of what her 'true' story may be and how it will impact this narrative is the thread that ties everything together.
While it is true, that Edwin is not on a quest to learn about his Moms exact start, duration, extend and end, it's only so, because he made up his mind already about what implications this has and had on him.
"She loved me, and tried her best to keep me fed and sheltered, with all this external adversities imposed on her. She had no agency in this and was forced by the circumstances and people who exploited her weakness. I should be and i am grateful and try to repay her one day for her sacrifices she made for us. That's why i'll get a PhD in Medicine, to be able to provide a carefree life for us finally. And of course it didn't impacted me in any other way, especially not my perception of women."
Of course there is a mystery about Victorias porn career, and knowing exactly when she started, why she started, how long she was in and who had their fingers in that development is pivotal for Edwins stance towards the carnations, the club and the owners and his general outlook on life.
And most importantly: will he, in the upcoming future events, still be able to fall back on Victoria as a guiding, soothing and grounding figure who kept his ethics in check sofar, if his perception of his Mother changes.
The second one is:
The gaze through the lens of the videocamera provides us with with rare objective data. It's not how Edwin sees the videos, he wasn't operating the camera, it's our view on the scene, we are the camera man. The timestamps are objective dates in a game which purposefully hides and blurs important turning points and incidents of this story. (That's why i am so keen to set them straight)
Every thought, every spoken line and even the actions of the ingame characters could be flawed by self-deception and delusion, by the attempt to deceive others, or the will to manipulate and to enforce a hidden agenda. Truth is a rare commodity in this game.
and the third one is simple: i can get off on them, hard. Vicky sex scenes ftw.
