1. As I said in another post, you haven't seen him at his worst. I can understand why you would be confused 100%, and this is intentional. I don't like making people bad for bad sake, they have reason. Without going into too much spoilers though, you'll have to take my word he's a greedy power hungry politician for now out of lore ;)
In lore though, he's done some shitty things already. And had he given rights to half elves like he did to elves, things would have been better for Her.
2. You get two sides of the coin here, the personal side of Trenero, and the way the a part of the world views him. He is a decent loving father, but he's also a slave owning profiteer who hordes money instead of helping others. He's the richest man in the world, a mayor, holds monopolies over many products, and can personally send space ships to other planets in the solar system, but with all the power he has, all he's doing is trying to make more money, specifically off elvish labor because it's more profitable.
3. Ashley hasn't drugged or raped anyone against their will. MC is either willing or has the option to break out of it. While she has threatened people, she's not crazy enough to hurt them (you'll have to take my word for it I guess). And yes, you are meant to laugh that last part off, it was a joke.
4. You hit the nail on the head, it's finder's keeper's. Just like dogs or cats you find on the side of the street. If they don't have a collar, you're allowed to pick them up and adopt them. This is very much how slavery works in Syl'anar. If a slave isn't registered, they can be registered by ANYONE. So the doctor registered Her to the government. It's definitely bullshit, but all of it consistent in my opinion.
The reason the culture / law works like this is because it systematically keeps every single elf a slave, and to be seen as an object to profit off of. If there's just a free slave laying around, why not pick it up and start making money? All to encourage slavery. (which is a very bad thing).
Or maybe a better metaphor would be you being a farmer and spotting a wild cow. You would think to yourself "Oh hey, if I milked it, I could make money off it"
You are right to want to be shown why antagonists are bad, and you will. Cornwall is an often talked about but rarely seen character at the moment, and I do have some things up my sleeve that will make you think "Ohhh, yeah. Fuck this guy all the way."
Thank you for your reply.
So, first of all, my thoughts on villains in general: standing back and not helping when you could do so at no cost does not make you evil, it just makes you an asshole. Actively hindering positive change is the minimum bar for evil, and even then it may not be enough.
Wailing on Cornwall because "he didn't give slaves enough rights does" not make sense. You as an author may know how bad he really is, but Nia doesn't - or at least she doesn't see fit to share it with us - and the MC's interactions with him have been, if not necessarily positive, at least not entirely negative,
The impression he has given me so far is that of a bigot and a racist, but a mostly rational bigot and racist. At the end of the fuck-a-ton challenge he even admitted that he may give my way of "training slaves" (i.e., treating them as people) some consideration. Not out of the kindness of his heart, mind, for he has none, but simply because it may make economic sense. Greed, in its basic state, is a common source of antisocial behavior, but it also means you have a good lever for positive reinforcement. You just need to make it more profitable to do the right thing.
If, as an author, you want Cornwall to be irredemably evil, greed is not enough. On the other hand, if you just want him to be an asshole, then you are doing a fine job. A couple more instances of him not helping when he could would seal the deal, but we may need to be given a hint of his real reasons for not helping beyond "I am an asshole and I'm okay".
Which is why it makes so little sense that the MC wouldn't at least try to ask Trenero and Cornwall for help.
Now, *I* did not understand this, possibly because of the way the scene was structured (a "your ass is mine now" line somewherre might help), possibly because I just missed it, but I assume that the MC understands that Maria is now the property of the insane doctor who called her Tainted Blood (yes, insane, some of her behavior only makes sense if she's twisted in some way). Thus, his first priority should be to get Maria out of the woman's clutches.
Let me repeat this, because it bears repeating: our friend Maria is now legally property of a person who 1) has clearly shown she loathes and despises half-elves and 2) is trained in how to cause the highest amount of pain with the smallest amount of actual damage.
Yelling at Cornwall should not be he MC's first priority. Making sure that Maria isn't tortured should.
Cornwall is a greedy asshole with the power to remove slaves from a bad master. Offer him enough money (call it a campaign donation) and he'll probably rise to the effort of making a phone call.
Trenero has the money, and has been shown to spend it freely. He would also probably rise to the challenge of making a phone call for the sake of his daughters' (yes plural, Lucia knows Maria too) happiness.
And then you can seal the deal by having Cornwall refuse to help the MC because he can only remove elves from a bad master, not half-elves: unlike elves, who are now officially rabbits, half-elves are still roombas, so you can rape and torture them at will with no legal repercussions.
Hence my question to the MC: dude, your friend is probably screaming as we speak, why aren't you on your fucking knees begging EVERYONE BEGGABLE for help?
You said the MC is not a character like the others, but rather the player's character. Then the player should have an option ask, plead, beg, and sell his soul for the sake of his friend. Or at least it should be made abundantly clear why that is not an option: "but... but... Cornwall is a bad guy!" is not enough: Cornwall is a greedy asshole, Trenero is insanely rich, Kali is rather fond of Maria, put the whole damn thing together.
If Trenero gave Kali 500 bucks to buy a dress, he should be willing to fork out, say, between 10 and 100 times as much, and possibly more, to spare his daughter some emotional pain.
Again, as an author, you may decide that he isn't, and that is fine. It is an additional insight in the character, and makes him significantly darker (ignoring the painn of random strangers is basic human nature - we are doing it right now as we debate the finer poiints of a videogame while people are starving and dying all over the world - but ignoring the pain of people you know and love, or at least like, requires a rather special mindset).
Also, IMO the final line from the doctor, where she says that he can buy her, should proobably make it clearer that Maria now belongs to her, and that she's going to sell her. possibly "After making sure she knows her place", just to seal the deal.
I do have a few other minor qualms with the game, but these are small things that one can make up excuses for with little effort, or at least Not Think About with little effort.
The MC ignoring Maria being potentially tortured to go yell at a politician was not one of them, however: it genuinely ruined my enjoyment of the game, which was otherwise rather high throughout, and of the story, which I actually found rather interesting.
Thank you for giving us that window in the world you created, I appreciate the effort and hope to see more of it. Just, please, don't make me be an asshole :)
Your messages are waaaaay too long, I just can't be bothered to read everything. I'll respond to the first paragraph.
Cornwall isn't a villain, he's an antagonist. Meaning he is the anti you. Everything he stands for is everything you don't. The player is anti slavery, cornwall is pro slavery.
I'm not creating villains, I'm creating antagonists. Villains are evil, antagonists oppose the protagonists.
If you'd like a more in depth conversation about the lore, we can do that on the harem hotel discord.
So, I am replaying the game (what can I say, I do like it, despite its flaws), and I happened across this gem:
Ashley: "A half-elf baby would be disgusting!"
OK, so... Are we going to let this pass quietly? Because that's a huge boner-killer to me. That's *my child* you are talking about, crazy girl.
This is what I mean when I say we should have the option to call her out on her BS. That is Not OK, not in any way shape or form.
...aaaand next scene:
Juliet: "No, not whatever. You're seriously going to fail Ashley. And you're lke my only friend there..."
This isn't a "call her out on her BS" line, because we don't understand that this is BS. We don't know the story and we are not yet aware of Ashley's mistake This is more of a "punch in the gut the second time you go through it". Because poor Juliet.
And I'm very conflicted about this: it's either amazing storytelling or terrible storytelling.
For the amazing storytelling option: How broken is Ashley that, even after she (supposedly) found some confidence and defeated the twin demons, she still cannot live up to her mistakes? I hope in one of the next updates she finds the courage to apologize to Juliet.
For the terrible storytelling option: Why are you still going on about that? Stop pretending you can't remember the girl's name!
I really want to believe that this is a bit of genius that will shine later on, once Ashley finally makes peace with her past.
Edit: yeah, no, the more I think about it, the better this is. This is BS of the highest order, and yet we don't understand that until later. Poor girls. Both of them.
How do you apologize to your very first friend *whom you've ignored for the last decade and a half"? You are a fucking genius Runey.
