Responding together as you both make the same point. I'm not a Bella fan. Bella being deceptive does not make Vanessa's deception any less deceptive. Vanessa could have been honest and still called Bella out, Vanessa could have just not engaged with Bella, there are so many options to not be deceptive. Vanessa leads Bella on because she love mind games. It's not about tit for tat, responding to fire with fire or anything. Ethics is an independant status that we should hold to regardless of anyone else's two-faced antics. All Vanessa's behaviour towards Bella shows is that she like to play deceitful, manipulative games, which is 100% her character throughout the game. At the point that Vanessa meets Bella, how does she know why? We know why, but Vanessa defaults to ...something because she thinks Bella's someone she can leverage, without even knowing (at that point) why Bella's approaching her. If she does know, is she storing the information for future blackmail/leverage? She is not being transparent or sincere in her first interaction with Bella, regardless of Bella's intentions.
Similarly, there is no ethical way to justify how she exploits Mario's affection for her own purposes. She is blueballing him into wearing a buttplug, doesn't matter that she justifies it to herslef by also wearing one. She is manipulating him into doing something he would unlikely choose for himself by withholding sex, implying that if he submits to her antics, he'll get a reward. She's grooming him for her own amusement, while looking down on him. Is that the basis for a healthy, loving relationship? Sure, hold off sex if you're inclinded to treat it as something special, but leveraging it like that, knowing he would be ashamed if it got out (while telling people she's just met, please let it get out she thinks) while dangling a carrot of a reward - she actually cheapens their relationship. Sex becomes transactional, and a reward for how much he endures. And the first moment she meets Nika, she's attempting to seduce him and cheat on weak, faithful Mario, further abusing him. So she dumps Mario to be sincere? Or does she continue being manipulative and deceitful?
Even throwing out the knowledge of Mario's buttplug is a double game. She can test Nika and Nami's integrity to find out what kind of people they are - if rumours spread about Mario, she knows from where. She's a pretty stand up girlfriend
Nika would be wise to notice how she treates Mario as being her default mode of behaviour.
The fact that she is friendly is another misdirection. She knows Noji is important to Nick, so she is the dutiful host. Don't forget that she knows about Bella and Nika, but says "I don't think we share the same social circles" when Nika says he thinks he's seen her before. More misdirection. She triggers Zara to be more competitive towards Nika, then actively bets (the driver's license) against her while knowing what their mom did to Zara, belittling her own sister for the sake of a stranger she's just met - playing games with her sister's mental health.
She applies social darwinism to ther ethics, and that ubermensch mentality is something I despise. Weak people shouldn't be exploited even if we don't like them - or should Vic be exploited like Mario too? Or Damian? How does Nika respond as someone with crippled emotions? He supports Damian to further his own goals (well, baskets), and he has many choices to be kind to Vic, and it seems cruel to me not to take the chance to be supportive.
On the social darwinism, her "I'll never need to work, I'll see where life takes me" attitude also shows she's really entitled, and she's into Mario as a gold digger. Zara still has goals, Vanessa plans to float through life amusing herself at other's expense. If she doesn't go for Mario, does she just sponge of daddy Nick? Her plan for her future is to manipulate people so she can be indolent in her lifestyle.
Nika also doesn't judge Vanessa by what Bella's seen, which is why he calls her to call off interacting with Vanessa, because he realises how manipulative Vanessa is. But I still love this to describe her:
I am literally am too old for that kind of gag, even if I was born yesterday apparently....
