Thanks for the fair reply.
Although I was ranting too much, the way you understood that one sentence is not how I meant it. It's a genuine interest in trying to understand the other perspective.
Fair enough. It's possible that I've spent too much time here becoming desensitized to the number of people who go through life assuming that *everybody* thinks the way they do and something in me finally tripped lol. That it came on the heels of discussions of "masculinity" in the body of your post probably caused me to assign a heavier weight to your choice of wording than I should have. Apologies for any confusion, even if my overall point stands when it comes to [gestures broadly at everybody else]...
For the rest, I'm happy to provide my thoughts, but I want to preface it by saying that I haven't played this game since the last update came out, so I'm relying entirely on months-old recollections, which I admit may or may not be accurate. So generally speaking, take this with a grain of salt ... though I should really play it again anyway, so I think I will.
Broadly speaking, what I enjoy most about SoP is the character development, both in the sense that we learn (through dialog, asides, etc.) enough to get a good picture of the individuals, but also that there is enough left unsaid to allow room for interpretation. In my case, that allows me to dabble in the psychology of the characters and the situations and, in some cases, better relate to them.
1) if men here enjoyed the long conversations about music with Becca which seemed as if they were supposed to feel like 'deep' spiritual/philosophical talk but to me felt like puperty-age girl-wisdom,
I'll admit up front that, as LIs go, I'm much much more a fan of Amy than I am Becca. I don't find the latter all that attractive if I'm being honest, but I still enjoyed her arc because of the dynamic between her and MC -- which I think is sort of a mix of confusion, shyness, hesitancy, and curiosity. They've known each other forever, but to MC, she was always his best friend's little sister... Hands off, because "bro code" and all. But it's established that there was always some kind of spark or thread, lurking in the background when it came to the two of them.
At the same time, the Becca MC sees now is not the same Becca he "grew up" around. She's harder. Cynical. Blue-haired. Evasive. Lesbian... maybe? She's clearly put up walls, and MC doesn't really know why. On some level, she's still the girl he's had a sort-of crush on since he hit puberty, but as the opportunity arises to spend time with her, he has no idea how to navigate the newly built walls around her. My sense of the long discussions about music and such was that MC is trying to gently poke and prod at those walls, to see if there's any possibility of a way in. The conversations aren't deep because Becca won't let anybody in more than she's comfortable with, but the whole thing to me seemed more like a tentative dance... who is she really? Does she feel anything for me? Do I still feel anything for her? Will she ever trust me? What happened in her past? Does she even like guys? ... it's like MC is trying really hard to be respectful, not only of Becca, but also of his friend/her brother (who's name I've forgotten), while also trying to tiptoe forward and scout out the possibilities.
It's a very delicate proposition, and I thought the writers pulled it off well. So I enjoyed that arc, not because of the content of their discussions, but moreso because of what isn't said, and the implications of it.
2) if and why men here enjoyed the sex scene which to me felt promising in the beginning, but then utterly unsatisfying as it was short, didn't show much, and had no real climax,
I generally agree with this. As sex scenes go, it wasn't much, and if I were only here to fap, I'd probably be pissed. But following the long-ish buildup, and the aforementioned "dance", my main takeaway from their encounter was that it was... awkward. And I think that made a lot of sense, given the context. There's still a lot that both of them need to figure out/understand about each other, but it was like the first sign that Becca's walls (or at least a small part of them) could come down.
3) and if the bike trip with Amy is how men here would imagine a romantic date for themselves as to me it felt like a mix of buddies taunting each other jokingly and a guy trying to get out of the friendzone, but I didn't feel a romantic spark that would make me want to embrace, kiss, and sleep with the girl.
The bike trip on its own? No, I don't necessarily think that would be the defining event that would make me want to embrace/kiss/sleep with the girl. For me, when it comes to Amy, those sparks all came during Act 1 -- the playful flirting, the signs of unease around her impending marriage, the frolicking in the pool. Any/all of those would probably be enough for me to be captivated by somebody like Amy. To have the previously unattainable, rich cheerleader drop down and spend a lovely evening on my level would absolutely start giving me ideas, and likely did for the MC as well.
Of course, there's the whole pesky "getting married" thing throwing a wrench into those ideas. So what's a respectful, upstanding guy to do in this day and age? Stand aside, of course, and let the adult woman make her own decisions. But a night like that ... *sparks* like that ... are not easy to brush aside. So when she suddenly reappears -- complaining further about her insecurities about her future, no less -- then, yeah... I'm gonna jump at the chance to spend any time I can with her, especially if it helps her realize that there might be other, better, options.
But here, again, as with Becca, it's not that simple. MC can't just come out and say "your fiance's an ass, you should date me instead" because, frankly, they don't know each other that well. So it becomes another delicate dance between showing empathy, conveying difficult truths (about the world, and her relationship), while also not coming across purely as some sort of uninvited white knight.
I agree with you that their excursion does feel at times like he's just trying to get out of the friendzone. But let's face it ... he is. He just can't be obvious about it. I think it's interesting to watch the internal struggle MC has to manage throughout their interactions, some selfish, some unselfish, and that tightrope walk is what I enjoyed reading/watching when it came to Amy.
Cheers, my friend ... and thanks for the opportunity to engage politely.
