- Mar 9, 2020
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No to all of that most likely. STWA stories tend to be vanilla.
- Jan 23, 2025
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Imo harem routes are some of the laziest things.
I'm fine with having to chose as its how something with this theme the story is going for should be.
Not everyone should be dateable in a posse fashion. Nothing wrong with building love in other aspects of life.
Prob one reason why I appreciated SW Rebels.. they didn't force the cliche love story, was just people loving like family.
- Nov 14, 2017
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no to either, few 3somes at best. no domming either.
- Mar 9, 2020
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From memory, it changes dialogues here and there between Vi and Ines and I think some with Ines and Valentine too. Basically, Vi kind of hero worships Valentine and if Ines sees him acting like a playboy/womanizer, she tries to warn Vi about what he's really like so she doesn't get her heart broken.
Els digging from Valentine's back as asking Valentine's friends etc.
I genuinely think that what Elspeth told Valentine about Anastasia was true. I really think Els thinks that she's dead.
I think the two parties interested in Valentine are the Crown, because of his citizenship application and military past, and Els' father, who has every kinda connections to dig about the man his daughter can't stop talking about.
It means Ines thinks that she has to protect Vi from getting hurt by Valentine again, because he cut the letters suddenly, which broke Vi's heart.
Although Ines and Valentine discussed this and Valentine explained the situation that he never stopped writing, at least in the timeframe Ines said, but Vi did. Though he instantly realised that it was all Vi's big brother who asked the Annan headmaster/headmistress to block all the communication between the two.
- Mar 26, 2024
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That's part of it, sure, but also all the killing she did. She was a lot more hands on than the boys think. She wasn't a REMF, that's for sure. She thinks it over and over again, that she feels that she and the MC are the same.
Maybe Anastasia was her lover? Either way, that feeling she has about the MC is part of why she's attracted to him. She literally feels that no one else could truly understand her (which is a weird thought, with Alistair also being a special forces veteran with a lot of ugly combat experience).
Yes, at the end of last episode we saw Els, sitting under the rain, with a pistol in her hand. That definitely means that she is a killer. And that certainly didn't sit well for a scholar like her.
I really don't get that bi vibe out of Els, although this is an AVN, which means all the girls are bi, even without actually being one.
I've written this over and over again: Els is by far the best LI for Valentine, to a point of being the best LI of any protagonist of any game I've ever played. She puts it perfectly: Valentine is truely the only one who gets her completely.
Think about it. Valentine killed a guy to protect Viridiana, at a very young age nonetheless. And even though it was legitimate use of deadly force in many jurisdictions, he is still a murderer and it still made him feel like a monster. Els' service also made her a murderer, and for a pacifist, that certainly made her feel like a monster.
Then there's brains aspect. Yes, Els is scary smart, as Valentine puts it, Valentine isn't a dumb dumb like he claims to be. His GDP and LSAT scores aren't off the charts, but still very high.
They are also both drop dead gorgeous.
And their characters aren't that dissimilar. They both put a show daily. They pretend to be one thing, while they are actually not. Valentine pretends like a womanizing asshole, while Els pretends like she's little miss perfect. Yet, deep down both of them are very different. Both of them wants to be loved and accepted as who they truly are, with their faults and vices etc. TBH I think Els is much more open and self aware than Valentine, she's a genius after all. She saw right through Valentine, the moment he let his guard slip: The museum artifact explanation to Amrit, then when he fights. One year, and he only drops the act once, if you don't count the cage. That's commitment to you! Els admitted to Valentine that she was "a little smitten" when she saw the artifact explanation. Valentine isn't a bright, and his luck in women, especially with another trauma of him, Zaina and Verity. Zaina is dead and Verity lied and lied and lied about her, just to make him hurt, probably physically. Even Kana understood that. Feeling like a monster, and having trust issues...
Yes, Els puts her nose where it doesn't belong often. She snoops a lot. She even recorded Valentine's and her father's conversation, while she was using the WC. But she explained why she snoops behind Valentine to Viridiana perfectly: A friend of her (probably Anastasia) was hurting but she didn't think it was her place to deal with that. Then Anastasia commited suicide (not definitive but very probably). And now she is afraid that Valentine may share the same fate. She's literally scared shitless of that happening, since that's her ultimate trauma.
For awhile I expected a curveball, which looks less likely now: Els will heal Valentine if he lets her, if she isn't behind the death of Zaina.
- Mar 26, 2024
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I do want to point out that never once do I recall Els ever stating that she's a pacifist. I think it was Alistair who said that, and he could have been pranking Val. When Val mentions the pacifist thing to Els, she doesn't contradict directly, but gives him weird looks.
As far as the violence in the service bits, Els flashbacked to blood on her face and hands, much like Val did. We have yet to hear her actual war history.
Valentine had a lot more violence in him than killing that asshole. He used to fight all the time as a kid, he was a "scrapper", I think it was referred to as. Remember, he went into the service because he felt himself a monster, but not because he felt bad about killing, but rather he didn't feel bad about it. He was active duty in warzones, and then an MMA fighter. He felt violence was in his nature. Els feels the same way, apparently, because she equates herself to him and vice-versa.
As far as the violence in the service bits, Els flashbacked to blood on her face and hands, much like Val did. We have yet to hear her actual war history.
Valentine had a lot more violence in him than killing that asshole. He used to fight all the time as a kid, he was a "scrapper", I think it was referred to as. Remember, he went into the service because he felt himself a monster, but not because he felt bad about killing, but rather he didn't feel bad about it. He was active duty in warzones, and then an MMA fighter. He felt violence was in his nature. Els feels the same way, apparently, because she equates herself to him and vice-versa.
- Aug 20, 2020
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I disagree. Valentine IS Elspeth's best pick for HERSELF, but not necessarily the other way around. Just because people have a similar background doesnt make them compatible. She is very obsessive and damaged as an LI and you have to constantly pick no sooo many many times to have nothing to do with her because she always pick 'YES" as opposed to other LI's that after a few times the path is over, but on Valentine's part, you can always pick "NO".
Also, its one of the AVN's rare models i grew to dislike. The overly massive breasts with the overly minuscule nipples annoyed me more and more each time i see them.
- Mar 26, 2024
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Well, damn! You are totally right on that one.
That may be a real(!) scene or just an expression to give the trauma feeling to the player. Probably the first, but can't ignore the possibility of the latter
Well, he loved to scrapped, but as Vi put it "there wasn't any malintent behind it". It was just his way of making friends. And he still has nightmares about that first killing, which makes is very traumatic for him.
Well, I agree with you on the physical features of her, but that's where our agreement ends. You think any ordinary hotty may become the love of Valentine's life? Verity is a pop-star yet he was the one who broke up with her. Valentine is much deeper than he lets out. Besides, you can't blame a girl for her determination.
I've seen weird nipples in my time but nipples, plus breasts... Yeah, the Author kinda did her dirty on that front. But he makes up with, IMHO, great writing.
- Apr 25, 2022
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Yeah she and Vi have reeeeeally tiny nipples for their bust sizes. It's a big turn off for me. That's one of the things I hope the dev improves on eventually. (That and those awful animations).
Ines is best girl, imo. Easily the best looking girl in the VN and she's definitely become a lot more charming over the story.
- Aug 5, 2016
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lol, lmao even. Elspeth is way out of Carl's league. She's a genious, she's a hot fierce redhead with D cups, she's a milllionaire heiress...What does Carl bring to the table? More ptsd?
- May 20, 2022
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If we want to be cynical, Valentine brings a better way of dealing with PTSD.
Valentine suffers from multiple traumas:
-Having killed a man, as a teenager
-The guilt for not having protected Vi
-The trauma generated by the suicide mission
-More guilt for not having protected his future wife
-The betrayal by his best friend
-The death of his former friend and therefore a failure to close their relationship
And from what little we've seen behind Elspeth's characters, Valentine is the least unstable
- Aug 5, 2016
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I think swallowing it all and not wanting to talk about it is not a better way of dealing with mental trauma.
I mean, hallucinations of dead people are a red flag about something being wrong in your head.
Elspeth on the other hand has been going to therapy for some time, she's the one pushing Carl to seek help for himself.
- May 20, 2022
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And she continues to have visions like Valentine. I mean everything seems to point to her not working fully towards her recovery unless she sees someone similar to her getting better/healed