Diary of a Nameless Doki

Trust the plan - I'm cooking up something on Etsy.

Shop Icon by mfrzart; https://vgen.co/mfrzart

Banner icon [she also did my social media banner] by mokou; https://vgen.co/minmofu

This artwork was done for vitto [antagonic] on vgen! And after a month of waiting and almost a full day without sleep, I finally got the first batch of pins I ordered. If anyone is interested in having their own, I'm in the final stages of setting up my Etsy shop "TheFifthDoki".

This commision was done by artist wolly on vgen, and I love how she rendered their hair, it looks so amazing!

Well darn. My charms have arrived, but I forgot to double check where the holes for the magnetic clutch would be made and so only an Epoxy/Non Epoxy side will go together.

I waited so long to commission this artist in their style, because it just looks so cool - but they just finished the commission and you should check out all their works, ShuuShuriken on vgen [https://vgen.co/ShuuShuriken]!

Very cool commission by Nightingalium on vgen, they even wrote an *objectively true* description without me even asking.

[https://vgen.co/Flanyaa]

The commission and commercial license was provided by artist Flanyaa [https://vgen.co/Flanyaa]

Awesome art made by st4rgummi on vgen! [https://vgen.co/st4rgummi]

This was my second time commissioning them, and they included a freebie icon as well which was very kind of them. I also love the little details on the bag my boy has!

Commission of my goat and his friend done by artist glex on vgen! [https://vgen.co/glex]

For a little something I'm working-

Absolute menace btw. Sayori is candy stealer - she must be stopped. While looking through some of the in game dialogue I see one of many reasons why boy grumbles about his friend, she's a thief!

[Yuri Route]; "Fair enough. I'll go ahead and get the book." - MC

*I retrieve the book from my bag.*

“Ah, I have some chocolate as well..." MC

*It's a bag of small chocolate candies that I kept hidden from Sayori's candy radar. I take it, since it'll go well with the tea.*

This commission was done for me by artist "mafer [https://vgen.co/mfrzart]!

This gorgeous commission was done for me by artist yaraberry [https://vgen.co/yaraberry]

This lovely commission of the MC was done for my by vgen artist renacchi06 [https://vgen.co/renacchi06], go check her out!

In philosophy there are two categories known as Accidents and Essences, accidents are the properties a things [or in this case character, the Male Protagonist (MC) can have] has, whereas the essence is what defines the identity of the thing or character itself that is essential to it, without which it ceases to be what it was prior.

Dan Salvato calls the Male Protagonist a "cursor", an "interface", and a "blank slate that says whatever is convenient", but these are merely attributes [accidents] attributed to the Male Protagonist that have no bearing on who he fundamentally is - low energy boy who is self deprecating and struggles with self esteem, who shows up for his friend Sayori and meets Yuri and Natsuki on their terms as a good friend and listener should. He consistently engages to all of the girls from a "Ich und du" [I and Thou] manner - seeing the girls as ends - as people to encounter and not projects to fix. He shows up despite feeling like he doesn't belong and engages earnestly in the interests of Yuri and Natsuki in particular trying to understand their own world's they occupy, accepting all their eccentricities and hobbies.

"Vessel", "blank slate", "interface" - these are all descriptions of the Male Protagonist that collide violently with his "MC-ness" which as established is a boy who has a defined, if understated personality and presence, and the way he relates to the girls itself is contrary to how players engage the game, and beyond that the Male Protagonist is a very "bad" dating sim protagonist but a good person, one who never keeps score, never demands romance, and doesn't even think he belongs around the girls [poor guy...], to say he is a vessel is beyond asinine as the Male Protagonist is arguably the worst vessel in the history of dating sims for never optimizing for romance.

Another error Salvato engages in is that of "nominalism", that is to say that things are only what we name them and universal categories don't exist, for example the Male Protagonist is deemed not a character because Salvato had deemed to be not, whereas in Aristotelian/Thomistic thought, [the essentialist position], objects or characters in the case of the Male Protagonist have an essence that exists [in the text of DDLC] regardless of whatever has been said of them, he has a particular "MC-ness" that exists irrespective of Doylist intent ("The MC is a meta commentary on visual novel/dating sim protagonists") as established before, and to say he is somehow not a character like the girls simply because of what is said about him by the fandom, author, or metaverse lore files is absurd. Truth precedes concensus, and the essence of things, not the accidents determine the reality of that thing.

A commission that Vgen Artist "mozzkrill" made for me, go check her out [https://vgen.co/mozzkrill].

Beyond this Male Protagonist Appreciation Post, I wanted to say how of all the girls, and I don't particularly like them, Natsuki is the only one I fully respect. She locks in during Act 2, and she is the only one who remains fully grounded in the world she lives in. When she hands over the poem/note to *the Male Protagonist, she has no awareness of a human behind the monitor*, she said he's not acting like himself, that he's quiet, and in a daze to my recollection. This implies he has a self [and of course he does, even if Salvato doesn't want to admit], and she recognizes his humanity where no one else did, not even Sayori in the epilogue.

Even though we never are shown his face, the Male Protagonist has one diegetically, and beyond that Natsuki clearly perceives the face of a boy. Again she's the only doki after the Male Protagonist I fully respect because with him, she saw a human person deserving of dignity. I even call her the Martial Lady of Loyalty, instead of whatever nickname the fandom gives her for being so grounded.

The Male Protagonist is more of a man than Dan Salvato ever will be.

Dan Salvato will never have the humility as an author to recognize the male protagonist as human who was treated like an animal.

The Male Protagonist took on blame for a death he could not prevent, and said nothing in his life mattered more than Sayori's.