What am I doing on this planet ????

In feudal Japan, during this time period, Nobunaga would still get his way no matter what Mai says or does, because he’s the one with the power. If you want your thoughts and opinions acknowledged and validated, you’d better know somebody and own some assets.

Mai’s a homeless, penniless, stranger, every last thing about her weird and foreign even though she’s in her home country.

She can’t push too much or go to far without personal risk, and the game operates under the premise that we’re trying our best to assimilate just long enough for the wormhole to whisk us back home.

 One of the themes in Nobunaga’s route is watching this man, who has been used to getting his way for a long time, adapt to someone finally putting their foot down and resisting.

In order to achieve this, Nobu has to be as arrogant as possible to make the change noticeable and long-lasting. There needs to be a clear line of distinction for his transformative before and after. 

Once he falls, he renounces the way he formerly behaved, and it’s never seen again, but to get there, there has to be something they bump heads over, as a story device.

The overly flirtatious and sexual supposition that the thing Nobu wants to “claim” is Mai’s body, is dramatically turned on its head when he reveals that he’s after something completely non-sexual, her heart.

In a world where Nobunaga more often than not gets what he wants without having to put up much effort or think too hard, we learn that even he has room for growth.

Over in IkePri, we’re introduced to a world where connections are everything, and gossip will make or break you.

In this world, these attitudes would never dare be turned on the Rhodolitian princes, who are hosting Gilbert. Instead, they’re placed upon the shoulders of an unknown and mysterious woman with no political power, an easy target.

Obsidian is the enemy, and that’s that. No one is trying to hear the “just give them a chance” pitch. They’re bad, and everyone associated with them for any reason is also bad. The end.

Even if all Gilbert did was just stand there quietly, Belle would be an outcast for showing him kindness. Gilbert knew this would happen, and still chooses to visit Belle before he dies.

Because he just can’t move on without seeing her, he goes into protective mode, framing it as if he’s isolating her, as he maneuvers her to safety.

His crazy behind does like isolating her (yanderes gonna yandere) but Gilbert instantly clocks that her proximity to him is what’s got everyone’s 5/$25 panties in all kinds of knots.

Unfortunately in this world, the only safe place for her now that he’s allowed himself this last bit of selfishness is in Obsidian.

He plays up the villain shtick because her reputation is already “ruined,” since Belle didn’t shun him immediately. 

In the world of IkePri, the second she was nice to him, Belle could never go back from it. If Gilbert left her side, who knows what could have happened in a palace full of vindictive ministers. 

This is why he keeps sticking to her. She can’t even trust her maids to not be whispering who knows what behind her back.

She has Rio, sure, but Sariel has him running to and fro, so he’s not always there, and the princes are but friendly (I can feel Chev side-eyeing me) strangers to her. Just ask Yves how well it goes being a Rhodolitian royal with connections to Obsidian. They can’t even keep their own ministers from being a pack of jerks.

To protect Belle, Gilbert goes out of his way to make sure everyone sees them together in a ‘as long as I’m here, you’re not gonna mess with her” way, using his mere presence. Without his surgery, he won’t last long, though, so he has to act quickly.

By playing the villain role, Gilbert absolves Belle from all responsibility. She didn’t choose to go to Obsidian…why, we all saw her being made a “hostage” on stage in front of a large crowd! 

Gilbert makes the choice to bring her to Obsidian because there’s nothing she can return to without retaliation. 

By making Belle the empress, he gives her the power to protect herself regardless of which country she’s in, and regardless of why he’s there or not.

One key theme in Gilbert’s route is that of the heart-of-gold antihero, with a twist.

Depending on whose viewpoint you’re looking at it from, Gilbert is both a villain and a hero, and often both at once.

Even if all of Rhodolite knew the truth about how Gilbert has saved them, they still wouldn’t believe it. He leans into his reputation because, unlike Belle, he can get himself out of any jam with his money, power, and army.

Belle does lose certain freedoms, but that is largely because of how Rhodolite operates. Her own country made her a pariah who would have to watch her back, so one of the other big themes of Gilbert’s route is trust.

Trust that she’s not walking into some kind of death trap in a foreign land, trust in herself to handle everything coming at her nonstop without breaking down. Gilbert trusting that he won’t up and die before he can get his beloved bunny to safety, he trusts her not to easily murder him when he’s sick and frail.

Even Chev trusts this woman he just met to do spy work for him with no experience whatsoever and not die, herself, in the process.

Just because she’s now in Obsidian doesn’t mean she’s 100% safe, but it’s a far better option than leaving others to fend off assassination attempts for her, when she doesn’t even know they’re happening in the first place. 

To keep her from running back to Rhodolite and becoming a target again, Gilbert does trap her with vital secret information that will be her killed if she leaks it, but again this, too, is where the theme of trust comes in.

Overall, I believe the inner workings of the game world are critical in understanding how and why characters are the way they are. 

Without this important context, it’s easy to just write some characters off as jerks. Certainly some of them are jerks (and need to be, because the whole purpose of their route is to make a sharp change) but the world-building fills in the explanation for why that is:

 Nobunaga really can have you executed for popping off at the mouth and non-compliance. Gilbert could have left you to fend for yourself, having satisfied his selfish dying wish of seeing you just once.

You could have chosen death over playing strip Go with Nobu. You could have given Gilbert a cold reception and risked a political snafu with lasting consequences.

I like that the games allow us to pus these men who have never really been tested before, and see how much we can bend them to our will.