LORY

Characters being horrible isn't the issue; the issue is that creators sometimes avoid holding them accountable for their actions because of personal favoritism. Watching characters act like assholes can be frustrating when the cast stays passive and does nothing about it. In some cases, the cast never fully acknowledge that the asshole is a terrible person; instead, they treat them as if they were far better than they actually are, showering them with undeserved kindness and support.

Creators will also vilify other characters for being rightfully angry, even forcing those characters to apologize despite not being in the wrong. When they’re desperate for you to like them, they’ll shove their trauma in your face in a poor attempt to make you care about them out of pity instead of making them an enjoyable, well-written character.

at least, that's what I think they tried with their clumsy double agent writing.

do you really think it was her idea to get those energy readings? she's not that smart. it's probably how shroud found it.

like, there's a reason why the safe opens by itself if you fail to hack it.

shroud already had the pulse(he was the one who put it in the safe) and wanted robert to know that. it was also a good opportunity to make robert trust visi more.

what I think the plan was:

step 1. visi goes to the warehouse.

but how exactly? two options here:

1) not alone.

she leads the drunk z-team to the warehouse filled with supervillains, so they could deal with robert's friends all at once while they're vulnerable.

2) alone.

except she decides to make shroud's life harder by going with the team because she's kind of in the process of changing sides. only that doesn't happen, and she goes alone anyway.

step 2. visi gets the pulse.

a few supervillains fight her to not be suspicious.

step 3. shroud appears and takes it from her.

she knows he's going to appear after the lights go out(maybe it was a sign?), so she takes it before he can.

I don't think shroud was trying to kill her. she's his double agent. it wouldn't benefit him. but they had to make it believable. he watched her until she found her inhaler then left. a few more seconds and she would've grabbed it.

what do they get out of this?

1. I'm sure shroud knows robert's watching, so he gets to feel smug about it. like, haha, look! I've got the pulse! you're a loser!

2. robert trusts visi more, because she risked her life to get the thing he wanted — a good thing for shroud's spy.

Now, though... I think that when she caught Thunderwhatever guy, Shroud thought she betrayed him (because you're not supposed to do that, girl, that's one of your own). Hence, the fight at the Sardine.

Later, she learns that Shroud tracked the Pulse, takes that info and tells Royd. She knows Shroud will likely be there and will try to take it from her, so she takes the Pulse before he can appear.

He also really does try to kill her because betraying people is not cool and you have to pay for it. And the opening the safe thing is just plot convenience.

I like this sentence bc it described why I'm way less tolerant towards Invisigal than Flambae, who also punched Robert without consequences (I don't like it either but I'm less ready to go to war against it).

Not counting on how it's the ONLY time Flambae doesn't suffer consequence for being an asshole, his anger and desire to hit Robert is understandable. Morally wrong, bc Robert didn't deserve it, what wrong he did was either self-defense or a punishment for Flambae's bad actions (or not even his fault cf the tooth), but it's normal for Flambae to be angry that Robert cut his fingers, arrested him and humiliated him repeatedly.

For Invisigal, her violence (physical or verbal) toward Robert is never morally correct or understandable. She's the one who hurt and destroyed Robert's life when he did nothing wrong to her, but she's always ready to insult or mock him, even in ways that make no sense (dad bod, really?).

She punched him in the face because he rightfully scolded her for messing up the mission and getting someone hurt when everything was avoidable if she had listened to him (she had no reasonnot to do it), and the only reason his tone rose is bc she didn't take the situation seriously and started insulting him.

She tries to kill him if he doesn't untie her when she knowingly lied about the Pulse when he was in a vulnerable moment - it would have reassure Robert a lot and helped her case if she said she had it - and got him tortured by Shroud - it wasn't her intention but she knows it happened so she knows Robert has good reason to be angry at her. Additionally, she wasn't honest about her relation with Shroud and he learnt it directly from the villain. She should know and understand he has really really good reasons to not trust her. But she's still so angry she tries to have Robert killed and he only survived by chance. And when she escaped, she left Robert on the ground, inconscious, wounded and in a pool of piss.

She willingly put herself in an untrustworthy position to save a man then betrays and tries to kill him when said man doesn't trust her. What did she expected ?

However, lets not pretend that the characters that often are more broadly headcanoned as ace are not also characters that are broadly viewed by their fandoms as childish, innocent, naive etc. etc. The asexuality isn't what is infantilizing, it is the "omg this character is so sweet and innocent! They *have* to be ace!" whether that is being explicitly said, or present more implicitly in the general conversation surrounding the character.

That is, intentionally or not, making the connection between asexuality and childishness. The implication then being that the character doesn't have sex because they, despite being old enough to definitely know what sex is, somehow do not. And often times, these characters aren't even childish/immature, or even innocent. They are just happier, more optimistic than the other characters that surround them. But even if they were, plenty of immature, childish people have sex. Just look at the average college student, for gods sake.

I would be far less put off by this if the badass grizzled action hero was more commonly headcanoned as ace. (Yes, I know that people do this, I am one of them, but broader fandom in general does not - from what I have noticed at least) Yes, he has been hardened by the world he lives in. He has lived through the horrors. He spends hours brooding in a bar with a glass of whiskey in one hand, a cigarette in the other. And no, he does not want to fuck you, or anyone for that matter, he wants to blast zombies heads off with his big fuck-off gun. But often times this character is portrayed as the sexually confident dom. Why? Because he is more serious and brooding? How does that translate to wanting to be sexually dominant in bed? Answer is that it doesn't.

Personality does not dictate whether or not a person has sex or not, or the way in which they want to have sex. So when we assign certain personality traits to specific sexualities - often unconsciously - we create false narratives, like that all aces are sweet and innocent and would never hurt a fly. Which is. Not how that works. And I don't even mean this in the "ace people actually make the most raunchy jokes, write the best smut etc." way (which is just stereotyping in the opposite direction). I mean it in the, asexual adults are still adults. And them not having sex is simply because they don't experience sexual attraction to some degree. That's it, that is the only requirement. So it becomes deeply weird when the majority of characters that are broadly viewed as ace by the fandom, are also the same characters that are viewed as "childish."

(I could also get in to how adults liking more "childish" things does not equate to being actually *like* a child, and how hobbies also cannot dictate sexuality, but that is another conversation that I do not want to get into right now.)

And of course this isn't to say no one should headcanon a character that is more "innocent/childish" (however that is being defined) as ace, or the serious, world weary badass as being a dom. It's fandom, people can do whatever the fuck they want at the end of the day. This is more about recognizing patterns, and learning to question those patterns.

Do the developers not see what Visi and co. are doing as sexual harassment, or do they not view sexual harassment as a problem?

Bc each time Robert is assaulted/harassed, he's visibly not happy about it and often protests or fights against it.

In the first case, SA can't be used in the analyse in what these characters are intended to be. It's more of an out-of-universe interpretation. It is a big can of worms of issues, that the writers can't see sexual harrasment as such, just because the victim is a man.

On the other hand, the writers do know that it's SA, but since it's toward a man, then it's not important. It's either funny or sexy, but not the horrible, traumatising crime that it is, which is another separate issue. In this case, it can and should be used to analyse involved characters, victims and agressors.

Yes, if it's true, it's not mean to be taken seriously but it's supposed to be there, and it should be critized as what it is. Invisigal's physical assault during ep 2 is not supposed to be taken seriously but it's there. It's text, not subtext.

every woman at one point or another flirts, touches, sh, sa or shows interest in robert. except prism (for some reason...) who as far as i remember made only one comment about his dick.

The inclusion of the romance muddles the already weird and weak dynamic they're trying to set up with invisigal. Because its framed largely as her having crush on robert, like the inclusion of that dream was fucking weird. Like before that she feels more like a troubled teen who your stuck with because blonde blazer believes in her. She literally behaves like a child refusing to go to incidents you dispatch her to. Then you give her a pep talk in the park where shes smoking on a swing set like a moody teenager and she gives her weak i was born with villian powers spiel. Which i've said before is such bullshit when she's on a team with a literal demon from hell. People dont just think you'll creep on them because you can turn invisible you actively do that, its our introduction to you.

They just put this unnesscary weird sexual undertone in her story because even if you don't romance her she has a wet dream we have to watch and theres always shot of her looking like kicked dog when your romance with blazer is showcased. But actually before the dream she is constantly making gross and uncomfortable sexual jokes that are largely aimed at robert. She's like if oghren for dragon age was a manic pixie dream girl.

I honestly think the story they wanted to tell with her would have been better if she wasn't a romance and was actually as young as she acts. Like if she was an 18 or 19 year old who you're trying keep from going down a dark path. I also feel her story would have been better served if blazers role as a mentor to her was highlighted more. Because blazers the one who actually believes in her.

The only interestin thing about her to me is blonde blazers belief in her. I want to know why. Blazer feels like her dorky but beautiful and perfect older sister and even though she's the only one who believes in her, invisigal still resents her for being perfect.

I also don't buy into the whole but she has so much character development angle people go for with her. Because she really doesn't. She starts off really shitty and annoying and she might be slightly less shitty at the end. Compared to everyone else on the z-team fucking weak development.

Sex is not essential. You can live without it. Full stop.

Not having sex isn't shameful or a sign of failure. It also doesn't make anyone boring.

You are not entitled to having sex with anybody and nobody is entitled to having sex with you.

Sex is not what makes someone an adult.

Nobody's worth is defined by how much sex they have or don't have.

Sex is not equally important to everyone.

You can have fulfilling and happy relationships without sex.

You should only have sex on your own terms, not because you feel like you owe it to someone, or because you feel like you'd be incomplete without it.

Know your boundaries around sex and be firm about them. Know how to respect other people's boundaries.

The previous point also applies when it comes to discussing sex. If someone doesn't wanna talk about it or hear about it you have to back down.

It's really just a masturbatory work as a whole. It was (at least figuratively) written with one hand, and probably intended to be played with one hand as well. You're supposed to be swept up in being this ordinary guy who manages to be a superhero, who has these two Hot Chicks who are wildly in love with him. You stole Superman's girlfriend and now he's depressed and you're in charge of telling him what to do? This edgy girl who flirts with you incessantly turns to the good side through the power of having the hots for you? (Ok, that's simplifying Visi's storyline and character MASSIVELY, but you get my point.) Like. Of course the game with "you cucked Superman" for one love interest and "canonically a massive voyeur" for the other has weird scenes that feel like the writer has some sort of humiliation kink. It's literally written in the plotlines!

There is narratively very little purpose for having a drawn-out cutscene of Visi's dream about Robert. We rarely see things that aren't from Robert's perspective to begin with, and Visi literally reveals this information to the player later on. It's voyeuristic and I don't see why this cutscene is mandatory even if a player has been making choices in a different direction. The fact that devoting screentime to this is necessary but again, explaining Shroud's deal apparently isn't, really highlights the priorities here?

It's essentially just supposed to be a game where you, cisgender heterosexual white man, get to be a badass superhero and date these two hot women. All of the superhero plotline stuff has such lackluster writing and minimal stakes, it's pretty much just set dressing. The decision to use the concept of "reformed villains" seems mainly like a reason to write a (poorly executed) villain redemption arc, and to have their main characters behave like edgy assholes. There's hardly anything there that explores the concept of what would drive someone to crime and why they would want to change.

Invisigal's redemption being so tied to whether or not the player chooses romantic choices towards her (oversimplification of the RMC but it does have an impact) makes so much more sense when you realize that her character is so thoroughly centered around Robert because that's how she was conceptualized.

I don't actually think the Sweet Exit counter being so low was a bug. I think the devs legitimately didn't think people would be upset by Invisigal kissing them. This is a bit of a conspiracy theory though. Even with the Sweet Exit counter being upped there's still some issues of the implementation of her route.

All the issues around characters' behavior towards Robert and them sexually harassing them makes more sense once you realize that part of it is because it's someone's fantasy. There's also the issue of female-on-male harassment and assault not being taken seriously, yes, but it's primarily "oh this is so hot". that's it!

Flambae's entire deal being an elaborate accent joke, Prism the loud cussing fatherless black rapper from Flint Michigan, the only reference to queerness being a couple of throwaway jokes (no before you start condescending about how "not everything has to be queer" i don't mind Robert only having female love interests. it's just very funny to see the fandom jack off itself over the "bisexual representation"). Very Obama era for something that started development in 2022.

The sexual harassment schtick is also very interesting because clearly you are not meant to take it seriously, it's funny slapstick the same way Flambe's shenanigans are, but then you have very earnest and serious romances so it just comes across as kinda...kitschy? This was written with cishet men who would like to be dickgrabbed by skinny karlach in mind, but then you get Visi, who keeps up that behaviour while you're in a relationship with Blazer, and obviously you're meant to find it titillating that you have both the madonna And the whore creaming themselves over you but it feels like it kind of takes away from the earnestness of the romances? (And also their characterization, visi especially, but that's for another post).

The ending was also... The final showdown being about saving your heckin pupperino is so aggressively reddit I was left kinda speechless lowkey. Chase and Phenomaman suddenly not being able to use their super speed to grab your dog from a Normal Dude was extremely stupid.

BANG BANG BANG | Flambert Edition!

This song stuck in my head real bad and it's soooo them.