no because every day I think about how legitimately powerful it is that Warframe has a dating sim built in. It sounds ridiculous every time I say it to someone to get them to play Warframe but I am unbelievably serious when I say that just the concept of it makes me cry.
Like let’s talk about this. Drifter, right? First of all it’s mostly implied that Drifter doesn’t really remember being close with their parents, which is a great start lmao. Anyways Drifter makes a deal with the god equivalent of a monkey’s paw. They’re alone for hundreds of years. They’re stuck on the fucking Zariman surrounded by nothing but the haunted screams of adults they once knew and trusted. Then they manifest Duviri and everything is okay for a little! But that very quickly also falls apart.
Teenager alone in a big vast world is scary on its own, let alone getting fucking murdered all the time over and over and over!!! They lose their one companion, Thrax, they’re at the mercy of the changing moods and the fact that this is a trauma manifestation, and on top of that they lose all sense of emotion. They literally care so little that they don’t know time is passing. hundreds and hundreds of years !!!!!!!!!! the world is changing, the world they knew no longer exists, hell there’s a whole alternate universe running along parallel to theirs!
Ok but then they escape Duviri and they get stuck in all the Narmer bullshit. Suddenly it’s their job to deal with that, and during that time they learn about the kid, the other universe. Are given powers they have no understanding of and have to catch up with lore.
And then this is the other big thing for me: they have Operator. Who is them but isn’t them. Who is so much more beloved and strong and talented than Drifter, even while being younger. During Lotus Eaters there’s the scene where Lotus sends Drifter to 1999 and it’s very clear at least to me that she can’t bear to part with the Operator. That’s her beloved kid. Even though Drifter is technically the kid, Lotus has her favorite. This is proven as well when you talk to Roathe about a backup plan in the theoretical case that Lotus manipulates the Tenno in the future: she does not care about You, as in the Drifter. You are not the Tenno. You are the expendable one.
And Drifter sits there and says “yes you’re absolutely right we can’t put more pressure on the kid! Of course I’ll abandon the first allies I’ve had in centuries, I’ll abandon Ordis and Kahl and the kid and this wonderful new world I still know very little about!” Drifter talks multiple times about how they don’t want to burden the kid, and so they’ll take on the hard work. Which in some ways, for sure Drifter is better equipped emotionally for a lot of this shit as they’re more mature, but still!!!
Point is, Drifter is passed from place to place, apathetic and alone, just put on quest after quest. Then Lotus sends them thousands of years away into the past, gets Drifter out of her metaphorical hair. And Drifter meets the Hex, understands their mission: don’t let the nuke go off, stop Entrati. Fix the timeline. That’s it.
But hold on… the Hex… like the Drifter.
They talk to Drifter daily, open up to them, play games and go on adventures. Together, as a team. They give Drifter nicknames and tease them and do favors for them. They fall in love with Drifter.
Like can you fucking see why this makes me ugly cry if I think about it too hard???????
Drifter experiences love. For the first time ever. After years of being stuck in endless apathetic gray. After being shunned over and over and over again. They’re still… loved. By strangers who know nothing about their past, what they’ve lived, what they’ve done. Drifter doesn’t have to think about stress and war all the time anymore, they can develop interests, try food, make jokes. Do you understand how much this hurts my soul in the best way???
Every dating option understands, too, on some level. They know what it’s like to be unloved, alone, pushed aside. To be hurt until they can’t hurt anymore. To have terrible relationships with their family or their past. To miss their relationships or their past terribly. Like Drifter is being SEEN for the first time ever and it just… omfg
People can shit talk and pooh-pooh the dating and KIM chats all they want. But oh my fucking god, I’m in pain. Warframe is a fucking gift to this earth I don’t think anything has ever made me feel so heard and understood before
