loved the explorations of child acting, fandom, and behind-the-scenes showrunning in this vn. a lot of people have talked about the elizabeth scene and the fanfiction scene, which were rightfully horrifying... but for me, the most impactful scenes in this game were when i saw, firsthand how leslie is sidelined to soothe everyone else's white liberal guilt — from the showrunners and writers to rita and her family themselves. that, and the exhaustion he feels as a public figure who wants to return to some sense of normalcy.
parts in particular that did this especially well, imho:
- one of the junior writers coming up to leslie and telling him "you paid off all of my student debt, all of us couldn't have done this without you", and leslie just thinking to himself about how everyone's career advancement relied on him staying around.
- the scene between leslie and the veteran teacher, where he spoke about why he didn't want to pledge allegiance to the flag, but was told again and again to water down his honest statement to something that was much less challenging.
- the scene where rita and her family are talking about the mass harassment the show is receiving because leslie is a main character... but so much of the comfort is aimed at rita herself versus leslie, adding to the tokenization.
- everything about fandom's perception of leslie and how that impacted his mental health. (esp "I don't want to see my likeness be your comfort character. : ) )
all in all, good work. i'm gonna chew on this for a while...