!! SPOILER WARNING !!!! SPOILER WARNING !!!! SPOILER WARNING !!!! SPOILER WARNING !!!! SPOILER WARNING !!!!\
so in the scene after mezz defeats kazeem in slut mode WITH the good luck charm, mezz completely submits to mahir... BUT his eyes aren't green meaning he isn't under the effect of submission or dragon's breath! so does that mean anything significant or am i just reading too far into things lol
Generally the idea in both the games is that if the hypnosis/conditioning/mindfuckery goes deep enough, it becomes internalized. It becomes MEZZ, so there's no need for the hypnosis itself, just a trigger to turn off the fake confident hero bunny he used to be and flip on who he really is now. That's why there's no glow: no need for dragon's breath any more. The conditioning is complete. Same reason the boars don't need the clips when you meet them again. Now, his eyes DO glow for the boar scene, but that's because of the different nature of the boar control vs the hyena one. Hyena one is about learning to be of service, so once that's internalized, the scaffolding of training can be removed completely, and no more glow. Boar control is just about being OUT of control, being puppeted and light and floaty and helpless. So he still has that altered state, he just goes into it by himself when they trigger him, no need for the clips any more.
this is super interesting because, if the boar control is all about puppetry and the hyena control is about enforced servitude, then what could chapter 3's premise be? maybe something to do with savagery/losing his ability for coherent thought... and the other possibilities for chapters 4 & 5, along with the red eyes are interesting too!
also, another question if you don't mind, i noticed that there are only 3 endings where the credits show up along with only 2 that have the "CRUEL SERENADE" title in the ending monologue. the 3 are the slut mode ending where mezz wins against kazeem with the good luck charm, where mezz wins either in or out of slut mode without the charm and mezz losing the kazeem in normal mode (the two with the "CRUEL SERNADE" title at the end are bolded). do you think any of these will be significant in the next chapter?
(also super sorry if i sound rude or passive-aggressive in these comments, i promise i'm not it's just i am LOVING this game and it is my new favourite thing to obsess over)
Oh no worries, I enjoy people taking the time to think these through. I think I've discussed theming for 3 a bit in the dev logs though, definitely recommend reading those if you haven't.
As for the endings, not sure what you mean by significant. The credits indicate a "full" or "real" end, ie that you've gone all the way through the story for the episode and concluded it one way or another. Lack of credits is meant to imply that things got cut short part of the way through, and there's a lot more to see. My memory's a little blurry: did I do credits after the normal loss? If so I guess credits don't indicate a scenario that could carry over to the next game, but title drop then credits probably do. I think that was the intention.
And yes, as discussed, various things that happen in GT have the potential to be reflected in 3, just like stuff from 1 was reflected in gt.
