My Butler ~Forbidden Romance~ || thoughts and prayers [part 1]
disclaimer: i like to trash on dating sims, but i think liking them is valid. see me ramble about this here
[part 0 here] [part 2 here]
as a reminder i watched this playthrough thank u dirili
i use MC and you and us interchangeably. not parasocial, neither of us actually want to be her
- your aunt's mega rich!
- she owns a talent agency
- she kidnapped invited you to her mansion so some of her problem talents can learn how to "treat women right" by buttling you for a bit
- is she a pimp?
- oh my gosh she might be a p-
- you choose one of three men to torment i mean buttle you
- unfortunately the two actual capable butlers aren't love interests. they just hang around and act concerned sometimes
so yeah let's talk about the men
just kidding; a quick aside about my watch-through
my tolerance for fictional men being horrible has its limits. like there's the fun kind of bad where you get to yell "booooo you suck" at the screen, and then there's the unfun kind of bad where you realize that it's bad. it's just evil. it's not fun it's just unpunished sexual assault
with that in mind, each man got 3 strikes. if a man struck out, i would simply skim through their route.
not full on skipping their route in case they mentioned food or something that would help me remember how this got on my tab heap in the first place
also i mean i gotta know what happens
curiosity killed the cat. i was not satisfied, it did not bring me back, but it would live rent-free in my head if i didn't know the ending and it does not deserve that space
two of the three men struck out quite quickly, so for those two, the summary is all you're getting and i don't care if i'm missing some quintessential detail.
i promise it would not redeem these characters. i promise you they would not stop having red flags if only you read the heartfelt moment in chapter 4 or whatever
jk you don't actually need to memorize this. it's really unimportant.
man number 1: Makoto Kamisaki
"blunt and sarcastic" *untrue; see following points
has the personality of a moldy wet sock like he is SO SOCIALLY STUNTED bro can't construct a full sentence and contradicts himself every other sentence
it's supposed to be that he's tsundere or something but genuinely he just stutters the most hurtful things with no apology and then says the exact opposite and then goes back to the original hurtful thing he said
how can be blunt when he can't even get a thought out?! how can he be sarcastic when he has no wit!?
he ALSO has yandere tendencies
but he doesn't commit to it in a fun way. he's just a real life realistic controlling domestic abuser who won't communicate to his loved one but will try to isolate her socially from everyone else and make them go through him and keep her away from others and that's not interesting that's just really sad and pathetic he's so pathetic
i'm so mad that this man is so sad and pathetic but also dares to be so horrible and controlling to someone he can't even talk to properly like this man is NOTHING he is NOTHING and NO-ONE and
him knowing how to wear his butler uniform isn't even going to save him he's just horrible
even his art looks so limp
image yoinked from the nintendo canada site. he's the man on the right. look at how his arms dangle down like wet noodles
oh right. i had so much anger i almost forgot to rate his butler skills:
he is so bad at the job he is supposed to do
does not know how to take care of another human
slapped mc into a pool because he was In His Feelings and then proceeded to not get her dried off for forever she was COLD and SHIVERING and he sucks at his job
so coincidentally the men did rank themselves from least favorite to most favorite. because oh my GOSH i hate this man
i hate him i hate him he sucks i hate him he's trash i hate him so MUCH
cannot hold a proper conversation but yanks her around and demands things. incel behavior
literally says "her feelings don't matter anymore" and then "i'm going to keep being her butler whether she likes it or not"
strike 3 is so baffling! why are you doing this! you keep telling her you're not happy to be her butler and she's a nuisance and whatever why are you so possessive! (the answer is supposed to be "he doesn't mean it when he says he doesn't like her" OK THEN GROW UP AND USE YOUR WORDS)
i have special beef for controlling men that aren't even charismatic about it. don't let rotten paper towels push you around, ladies, enabling him will not fix him he needs to learn how to communicate
he's beyond "i can fix him" and "shy man", btw. i promise i like shy men
*ok so about the fingers in mouth. he hand-fed her, so that's the reason, but the game is really into like detailed descriptions of fingers in mouth (in man 1 and 2 routes) and also feet (man 2) like i need the game to chill a little. we get it appendages are seductive can we move on
final words is that any time in the other routes he gets jealous that another man has MC it makes me happy. the other men may suck but he sucks even worse
man number 2: Shohei Yonekura
"conceited, mischievous and sarcastic"
Nice Guy(TM) where he's grossly sweet and when you start rejecting his advances he suddenly switches up on you
disdain for MC at first. i assume he changes idk
doesn't know how to button a shirt. it's a butler uniform not a butler suggestion
he's an ok butler. knows how to do some things. iirc a lot more interested in being a menace than actually buttling
honestly i don't have too much to say about his route because
a) i noped out a lot sooner and
b) he sucks more conventionally than man 1 does. like i think we're used to devilishly flirtatious and pushy LI's at this point
to be fair, he does know how to talk to people. the game did warn us that he does not know how to treat ladies properly and yep that's also true. i assume he does scratch the spicy story itch. idk, he lost me when:
as you undressed for a bath, he took his clothes off and hopped in the bath with you
as you undressed for a bath, he took his clothes off and hopped in the bath with you
he started feeling you up in the bath and was on his way towards your private parts; reminder, both of you have no clothes on
cue me screaming this song from the rooftops
keep in mind that this is like the second thing he does; the first is him giving you a foot bath (this is where the very detailed feet description came in. i think feet were kissed. honestly it's a blur).
the butler uniform was truly a butler suggestion
yeah so that was the end of that. i think after this is his Nice Guy(TM) facade cracking and it turns out he's an actor and maybe the journey is him going from manipulating MC to loving her but i don't know
side point: the butlers seeing you naked is a weird point. i tried to operate with the suspension of disbelief that MC doesn't like these men helping her bathe/dress, but lets them anyways because that's what butlers did in Ye Olde Times? it's one of those things that are a huge red flag in real life, but this game is pretending it's a necessary discomfort because They're Butlers And They Trained For This.
even though MC asks them to not, she ends up letting it happen so that's obviously consent *massive eye roll*.
that doesn't excuse the men from taking advantage of it sexually but i guess it's not like a complete stranger yanking off your clothes
- no but seriously is our aunt a pimp like i genuinely feel like all of these guys are trying to solicit us in a framework that she set up
- it's a chilling thought
man number 3: Yosuke Kira
knows how to treat ladies well
"Glasses are really versatile. First, you can have glasses-wearing girls take them off and suddenly become beautiful, or have girls wearing glasses flashing those cute gri-"
i promise this does not bias me too much
also the glasses are fake he can see just fine
mostly knows how to wear a butler uniform i'm so proud
cheese and crackers he's actually competent. he's actually a pretty good butler
also he actually considers MC's feelings/consent frequently*
*look. the bar is really low. but he's actually got "normal" fictional teen romance toxic man levels instead of whatever deranged category men 1 and 2 are in
he looks the most capable of sadism, so i'm really surprised he is the one person who did not strike out (yet, i'm about 2/3rds through his route, but that's a lot further than the other two made it). the "sadistic outbursts" thing is really scary but it turns out that it means
like "heh heh i'm carrying you to your room and you're so flustered" kind of tease
he tells her he wants to see her cry, and yet, i have not seen him make her cry yet. he backs off before it would actually happen
doesn't know how to be emotionally available in romantic relationships
100% i would still not tolerate this man's shenanigans, but the sadist label absolutely goes to naked-two-faced-groping-bath-man-number-2 miles before it hits this guy.
also? part of his route also involves MC pushing back against him. this route encourages MC to be the tiniest more assertive and communicative. the smallest W
so basically next post will be the literary equivalent of being flabbergasted by mr kira man number 3's plot and throwing the other 2 men into a sewer somewhere
