I am so confused by all the backlash. The way people are talking about the scene with Kane makes it sound almost like they downloaded a different version of the game. So confused about some of the comments talking about wanting Will to be "faithful" to Sam as well. It's obvious that the relationship dynamics here as well with other routes are non-standard. The fact that Will and Sam aren't fitting their relationship into a typical monogamous box doesn't suddenly make them morally reprehensible or delegitimize their connection to each other as not being "faithful", whatever that means in this context.
and to think that it's sam who encouraged will to do it in the first place. will's starting to test uncharted waters and people whine about it for whatever reason. i think its not in the writing anymore. it's just that it didn't meet whatever expectations they had in mind and now they're lashing out :3
Nah they won't understand that. They keep saying Will's sex-starved in this update when in fact he's weighing everything seriously.
Spoilers prolly:
1. He reminds himself that he needs to keep his prick in his pants if he wants to keep himself and his friends safe.
2. It was mentioned that he finds Murdoch interesting (for a canine knows what a canine wants) but is a forbidden fruit to him since their relationship is pure business and he doesn't want trouble. The thought is there, obviously. But, as level-headed as good ol' William is, he never attempted to have a go with the fox, no? The slightest interaction they had with regards to this thought is in Murdoch's route when he suspected that there might be something going on between him and Sam and offered paying for Murdoch to do the deed with him (jokingly).
3. He is totally against the idea of going to the barn (possibly because he finds Kane interesting enough) and only agreed to do so because of a lead.
4. Once again, after they went to the barn, we were given the option to mess around or not. And the reason he accepted Sam's proposition is because he trusts the puma, not only because of his sex drive.
An opportunity stumbled on Will's path and with encouragement from Sam, he took it. The entire buildup of his route slowly shows that he is starting to accept who he really is and this update is its peak.
Unsolicited sex? Forced? HAH.
You might be correct: people just turned off their comprehension just because Will did something that is not in their expectations.
This is definitely true, and there is an ongoing harmful perception that people who do sex work are seen as "unfaithful" partners as well (not even necessarily if they are currently involved in sex work, but that if someone has ever participated in sex work then they cannot be "faithful"). What "faithful" means is something that the people participating in the relationship decide on.
(Though honestly I kind of hate this "faithful" word and it's application to relationships in this way. It feels like such a shallow way of describing a romantic relationship).
I get what you are saying. If your relationship is open/poly or has no set boundaries on partners, "faithful" has a very different context to it. I just don't like people saying that because Sam is a sex worker, he has to constantly be thinking/participating in sex. It's a very played out and boring stereotype and one that makes it seem more like an excuse for there to be wanton sex rather than just having a sexually liberated/seeking character.
Not to dismiss what you're saying, but there's another harmful stereotype about sex workers I try to be mindful of-- the idea that it's a terrible, desperate profession that folks are forced into because of hard times (aka the depiction you see in the Les Miserables musical).
A lot of women in the wild west and geishas in Japan found a new sense of agency and autonomy through sex work, and found themselves in economically stronger positions than they were used to. A lot of sex work was banned in parts of the world specifically as a reaction to women gaining political and monetary power through these means as a patriarchal response.
I didn't want to portray Sam's life as a sex worker as something miserable, even though he has a lot of cultural hangups and shame about doing it himself.
Sam likes sex, is good at it, and is making a living in a way he probably otherwise couldn't. I try to portray his work life and also write sex in a way that is meaningful to the plot-- but I also don't want to diminish the joy Sam has doing the act.
That's also a very important perspective, though I think what I and shylover were talking about specifically was people in the fanbase saying that because Sam is a sex worker, he is not and is not able to be a "faithful" partner, because again, "faithful" (still a bad word for this) means whatever the people in the relationship want it to mean. Not that "sex workers aren't faithful" was a problem present in the actual narrative of TSR (or at the least, that was not something I was communicating).
Yeah. It's kind of a strange thing to think about because "faithful" usually refers to religious institutions back in the day, and not breaking your vows. M/m and f/f relationships were often not seen as real or natural by these institutions.
A sex worker would generally want a lot of clients unless they could become a concubine to a rich patron.
-George
Sam hates the stigma attached to him, surrounding his job, moreso than most of the acts involved in the job. Like William, he has a lot of self-loathing that isn't necessary, that cultural hegemony has unloaded onto him. Howly did confirm to me that he loved having sex with clients since the beginning.
What Sam actually hates is struggling to scrape by with how little he's paid, and being demeaned for his reputation.
I don't think making a sex worker who loathes sex *itself* is necessarily a stronger narrative choice, or even a particularly unique one when it comes to how pop culture portrays sex workers vs. the frequent reality.
One of Sam's flaws is that he has good people in his life who he met through his sex work but is too bothered by the stigma to enjoy when good things are looking him in the face-- even if they're things that Sam loves.