But you only feel like blaming Sharon for how she acts because of out of game knowledge. Power hierarchies haven't been established in the story so far. Every time the PC's origin and his visions came up the answer was: "We don't know and it's just fairytales anyway." Calisto isn't an established character, which is why it's so weird to me how many people are rooting for her over Sharon, considering more than half of the story so far has been a Sharon romance. That's what I meant, when I said that I feel like a lot of the story progression seems to have happened through fan speculation outside of the game.
In the story so far Calisto was a nameless secret lady, who broke the vamp rules by turning a random DJ and leaving him for dead. She's responsible for all the bad things happening to the PC and Laurie, with Sharon being the only saving grace. Telling Sharon that you'd want to kill Calisto, if she ever showed up just made sense and it's pretty lame that this choice didn't have any effect on the story. When she finally shows up she's depicted as lazy and cruel, but it's like we're suddenly supposed to root for the bully, because the PC did a 180 on his feelings for her.
And there it is again: We, as in the players, know that we actually are supposed to root for the bully, because this isn't our first vampire story of this style. But the PC doesn't know this, because everything he knows he knows from his mentor Sharon, who always was the anti-bully. How powerful could this unknown lady even be? Who's to say she doesn't catch fire just as quickly as the feral nos? Who'd even notice she's gone, when nobody seems to have cared about her existence so far? I mean, we the players know, because we speculated enough about it and we know the source material. But how is the PC supposed to know that the stove will burn him, if he's never touched it before? How's he going to cuddle up to Sharon in the morning with a clear conscience, after he just stood there and watched her get bullied by the same lady that fucked up his and Laurie's lives?
I don't understand why you keep on insisting that I'm "blaming" Sharon, when I clearly said before that I'm not.
I can only blame Sharon if as result of her actions my MC somehow suffered physically or mentally, and that's not what happened in Calisto's visit case.
And no, while I like Calisto as a character, no way do I like her more than Sharon or Carmen (so I don't know about other folks, but "rooting" for Calisto certainly doesn't apply to me).
Basically, Sharon just played with fire which she shouldn't have and got burned. Nothing more, nothing less.
MC (I had my MC kiss Calisto's hand) wasn't affected by Sharon's actions so no blame involved to Sharon and definitely no rooting for Calisto involved.
But just because I don't blame Sharon (due to MC being unaffected), that doesn't mean I'm gonna ignore her bad decision to actively challenge Calisto and not call her out on it (and Andrew was just the same as Sharon, since he was basically fueling her fire from the side
) with her actions of acting like an idiot.
How were they (MC and Sharon) to know that Calisto is someone very powerful? Well, it's not like I remember the previous episodes scene by scene but the signs were definitely here and there iirc:
- With MC's growing number of abilities Sharon is constantly surprised with MC considering with general vamps they wouldn't have anywhere near as many abilities as MC has
- When being present with Markus and Sharon (during their meet with Marcius), Markus gets curious as to who MC's sire must be when he unleashes his claws.
- MC meets Calisto for second time (i.e. first time after she turns him) and notices her to be a powerful presence. Not only that, couple of explanation is given to the MC, with the whole "Priestess" and "Temple" etc which if I'm remembering correctly he even tells Sharon.
Not only that, time and time before Calisto even arrives MC tells Sharon "Please behave if she gets here" but every time she just shrugs it off ignoring his advice. Even just before Calisto arrives he once again tells her to be civil, but as you can see that didn't happen. She puffed her chest out, and actively challenged Calisto and suffered the consequences.
And no, I don't blame Sharon for not listening to my MC's advice (which he gave time and time again). I don't expect the LIs to be always yes-girls, and don't expect my MC to be always yes-man either.
But this scene clearly showed that Sharon had an issue with her pride/ego (yes Calisto provoked Sharon, but if Sharon had no issue with her pride and ego, she would have brushed it off, and not let it get her riled up), and there is even a scene of MC trying to tell Sharon that (after she suffered from Calisto's mojo).
Regarding Calisto, yes she is a bully. She turned MC into a vamp on a whim, and by indirect result messed up Laurie's life as well.
But that doesn't mean I think it's sensible for MC to be gung-ho against Calisto when he's clearly nowhere near ready for her.
My conscience? It is very clear (with what happened with Sharon getting a dose of Calisto's mojo infliction).
As I said previously, there were multiple scenes where MC told Sharon to behave and be civil towards Calisto as well as there being obvious signs here and there that whoever sired MC is a vamp that is powerful (despite not being widely known in the vamp society).
Not MC's fault if Sharon didn't listen to his advice and suffered due to it (just because she couldn't control her pride and ego) and MC shouldn't feel guilty about it either (why should he? He only tried to convince her multiple times, yet they all fell on deaf ears and Sharon learned the lesson the hard way).
And this is despite me preferring Sharon over Calisto.
Even if I like a LI, when she makes bad decision or poor choice, I will point it out and call out their mistakes.