Yeah I don't care for Martin either, when he stole her anal virginity without asking, that was the final straw
- Thread starter Bob69
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One of Dimajio's strengths is that a couple's fantasy doesn't just grow in one person; they gradually grow their fantasies together through mutual feedback. He might advise her to wear something sexy, or react positively to her about another man's gaze on his wife. And don't forget the scene where Emma is deeply "absorbed" in porn. (This part is actually a crucial turning point in the overall story flow.) The claim that she suddenly became adventurous is wrong. If you carefully follow the story, she gradually became adventurous, and the result is a natural outcome. It's true that Martin is objectively creepy. It's also true that she initially found him creepy. Guess who changes her thought? MC changes her mind, which leads Emma to have a even stronger fantasy about Martin.
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There's a common and important point in Dimajio's cuckold works: 1. The couple is cuckold from the start, but they don't realize they are. 2. The game is a journey to discover their true selves. The important point is this: the FMC fantasizes about the MC fantasizing about her being with another man. Of course, this is only the case when following the pure cuckold path, excluding the cheating path. As one side's fantasy intensifies, the other side's fantasy also intensifies, and this interaction leads to the growth of their fantasies.
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No, it's not wrong. She made a lot of sudden changes. There's no disputing that if you carefully read the story.
It's highly likely that Emma's DP is a shared fantasy of the couple, and there's a good chance MC planted that in her mind. Why? Because it's very possible that the content is in the porn MC gave to her.
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This is a common storytelling pattern for Dimajio. When a couple shares their secret fantasies through conversation or interaction, it doesn't just end there. They confirm and reinforce those fantasies mutually through sex. This is what psychology calls positive reinforcement, where their fantasies are rewarded through sex, making those fantasies a reality.
For example, MC reacts positively to Emma when Martin looks at her. Then, they have sex. This reinforced experience subconsciously makes Emma horny and her fantasy stronger every time Martin looks at her. His stories follow this pattern.
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This is a common storytelling pattern for Dimajio. When a couple shares their secret fantasies through conversation or interaction, it doesn't just end there. They confirm and reinforce those fantasies mutually through sex. This is what psychology calls positive reinforcement, where their fantasies are rewarded through sex, making those fantasies a reality.
For example, MC reacts positively to Emma when Martin looks at her. Then, they have sex. This reinforced experience subconsciously makes Emma horny and her fantasy stronger every time Martin looks at her. His stories follow this pattern.
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I'm not ready to fully respond yet in terms of providing more specifics to back my argument; however, I cannot help but comment in response to what you just said: Believe me, if I thought that positive reinforcement within the time frame portrayed was an adequate explanation for all of Emma's sudden changes, then I already would have thought about that long ago, as I am a PhD-level psychologist.
That can't be an explanation because I never claimed Emma suddenly changed. Also, what I post here isn't just a conversation with you, it's a conversation with others, so it might not be related to our conversation. If I want to say something to you, I will quote your post.
My apologies. I assumed it was a continuation of our conversation given that one post followed another. Regardless, I do not see positive reinforcement as being an adequate explanation for Emma's discrepant behaviors.
There's no need to apologize. It was an understandable misunderstanding. This 'positive reinforcement thingy' isn't just in ETBA; it's a pattern found in his previous works too. That's why his games have a lot of sex scenes between mc and fmc in the early stages. He might not nail it perfectly every time, but through many samples, you can grasp his intention.
***Warning: This is a lengthy comment with potential spoilers. However, you did ask for specifics that back my view on Emma showing sudden changes that contrast with how she initially is portrayed. What I detail below is mostly from the sexual modesty/faithfulness path, and thus it is the mildest Emma path that can be chosen.
On Day 1, Emma speaks to her husband Patrick: "You've always been the adventurer; I'm all about predictability. How did we end up together with such different vibes?"
The first sentence speaks to the personality traits of the husband and wife. Personality traits are enduring characteristics that are stable over long periods of time. This means that for years ("always"), the husband has been the more adventurous one (tending to engage in new and spontaneous experiences), whereas the wife generally likes engaging in planned and expected activities. The second sentence is a question that is asked to emphasize how different they always have been in this respect. Again, this speaks to a longstanding pattern of behavior, and personality traits such as this tend to remain stable and (if they change) change gradually over time. Also, Emma later reveals (through her thoughts) that her only sexual experience is with her husband, which means that she was conservative with sex prior to marriage and has not cheated on husband Patrick.
Soon after meeting Martin and being told that the bedroom is a walkthrough room, Emma replies: "I appreciate the offer and all, but I can't do this." Emma finds the idea of sleeping with her husband in a walkthrough bedroom so uncomfortable that her immediate reaction is to decline the arrangement.
After Martin leaves the room, Emma tells her husband in private: "Maybe we shouldn't have come here at all..." Emma again expresses misgivings about the sleeping in a walkthrough bedroom adjacent to Martin's bedroom.
After Patrick consoles Emma and says that her university dream is important, she replies:: "If I'd known we'd end up in a walkthrough room where the landlord could pop in anytime, I never would've agreed to this." For a third time, Emma makes it plain that she feels uncomfortable being in bed with her husband with another man in a nearby room who might see them in bed.
Soon after that, Emma tells Patrick: "I never used to get into these adventures. Only with you do I find myself constantly stepping outside of my comfort zone." Emma reinforces her earlier thoughts on her husband being the adventurous one.
Continuing the initial conversation in the bedroom, Emma states: "I never thought I'd be in a situation where I have to ask someone to hold the door while I change clothes. I don't know how we're going to sleep, knowing there's a landlord walking around." For the fourth time, Emma expresses feeling uncomfortable about the living arrangement, particularly expressing dislike of the possibility that Martin could see her naked body.
Continuing: "In such a tense situation, I even feel awkward changing in front of you." Emma expresses that even in her husband's presence the mere thought of possibly being seen naked by Martin makes her feel uncomfortable.
Continuing: "If Martin walked in while I'm half-dressed like this, I'd die of embarrassment and bolt out of here."
Later that night on the first day, Emma denies Patrick any kind of fooling around in bed because she's too uncomfortable about the possibility of Martin walking in while they're doing that.
On Day 2, Emma again denies Patrick any kind of fooling around in bed. From Emma's perspective, she misses having sexual intimacy with her husband, but she feels uncomfortable in thinking that Martin might hear them having sex; and she also notes that it made her feel uncomfortable when Martin saw her in bed in the morning.
On Day 3, Patrick tells Emma after they engage in sexual activity in the apartment for the first time (due to Martin not being there): "What's gotten into you tonight, babe? I haven't seen you this excited for a while." In response, Emma essentially says it's nothing unusual and that she just really missed her husband.
However, from Emma's perspective, the following happened to her while her husband was at work: She tripped and fell and in doing so got a full view of Martin's dick. Emma repeatedly noted that Martin was staring at her throughout the day and expressed being excited by it. After her husband told her that maybe she should try to be more modest and not call as much attention to herself, she expresses being slightly disappointed because she would like to be a little naughty around Martin. From Emma's perspective, she further expresses being surprised by how much she enjoys being in the spotlight and thinks that maybe it's because Martin is the one who is taking the photos. She then later admits that part of her motivation for wanting to have sex with her husband so badly is how turned on she feels from the photo shoot with Martin earlier that day (which means she lied to her husband about being excited only because she missed him so much). After having sex with her husband, Emma lies in bed awake that night, thinking that she is still so turned on from the photoshoot with Martin that she could have another round of sex.
On Day 4, Patrick wakes up from having a nightmare about witnessing Emma kiss Martin while on top of him, and after noticing that Emma is not in bed with him, he finds her outside of Martin's room trying to sneak a peek as Martin views/listens to porn on his laptop. Then it is revealed that from Emma's perspective earlier in the day, she is starting to enjoy Martin's attention so much that she forgets her husband will soon return home from work.
On Day 5, Patrick again awakens and notices that Emma is not in bed with him. This time he witnesses Emma peering into Martin's room as Martin watches porn on his laptop. After Patrick expresses surprise that Emma did not turn around and head back to their room, he notices that she is completely captivated, with her legs shaking in excitement. If her husband interrupts her, then Emma says she was just curious after getting out of the shower and wanted to see what was going on inside of Martin's room, where as expected he again was watching porn and leaves it at that. If her husband continues to watch out of curiosity about what she will do, then Emma begins to breath more heavily, puts her hand to her forehead, and then turns around with excitement/emotion on her face. From Emma's perspective, she got out of bed that night because she heard the sounds of Martin watching porn coming from his room again and could not help but take a look at what he was doing (which means she lied to her husband about being out of bed because she took a shower). In the scenario where her husband interrupts her, Emma still stares at Martin as he masturbates to porn. In the scenario where her husband does not interrupt her, Emma further witnesses Martin call out her name twice while he says that he wants her so bad and that she makes him so horny. Emma reveals none of this to her husband prior to him leaving town the next day.
Then while Patrick is out of town (regardless of path), things become increasingly provocative between her and Martin. Of note, Emma immediately agrees to do a beach photoshoot with Martin in a rather skimpy bikini, even if her husband previously said he did not feel comfortable with her modeling in skimpy attire. After their photoshoot on the beach, Emma then immediately agrees to get in the water with Martin after he removes all of his clothing. Then when she gets a leg cramp, she feels Martin pressing his dick against her ass. When she speaks to her husband later, she omits that they had this particular interaction (the third time she conceals information from her husband). Emma also agrees to posing as a couple with Martin in visiting his brother's home, and she further agrees to get in a hot tub with everyone completely naked.
As you can see, even on the sexual modesty/faithfulness path, Emma acts in a number of ways that are quite discrepant from how she initially was presented.
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***Warning: This is another lengthy comment with potential spoilers. However, you did ask for specifics that back my view on Emma showing sudden changes that contrast with how she initially is portrayed.
What I detailed in my previous comment was along the sexual modesty/faithfulness path. Obviously, taking any other path will involve Emma displaying thoughts and behaviors that are even more discrepant with how her personality was initially described and in even starker contrast to her initially expressing so much discomfort in relation to the married couple's living arrangement with Martin.
As an example, I now will provide the choices and outcomes involved in one of the other paths below, which I suppose can be called the cheating path since Emma conceals from her husband every sexual interaction she has with Martin:
Patrick tells Emma she should be proud that in many years she is the first to attrack Martin's attention
Patrick tells Emma he is okay with her modeling in lingerie if she is into it
Patrick tells Emma he is okay with Martin touching her to adjust her pose or clothing while photographing
Patrick tells Emma he experiencing a whirlwind of emotions when he noticed Martin looking at her in a thong
Patrick stops and watches Emma in the changing room as Martin watches her
Unknown to Emma, Patrick watches her looking at Martin as Martin masturbates and calls out her name while watching porn
Outcome: Prior to her husband's presence in the dressing room, Emma thinks to herself that she is excited and enjoying Martin watch her while she changes clothes. After noticing her husband also watching, Emma says that she is curious about teasing both men at the same time ("something I wouldn't have even dared thinking about before"). Then later while looking at Martin as he masturbates and calls out her name, Emma removes her bra so she can touch her bare breast while stimulating her clitoris with her other hand.
Patrick tells Emma that he is feeling pretty turned on after she shares with him that she was feeling embarrassed and excited about Martin glancing at her and touching her to adjust her pose during the photoshoot
Patrick tells Emma that he can see why Martin enjoys working with her so much
Patrick sends Emma a porn clip involving a couple (just one man and one woman)
Outcome: Emma sends Patrick a porn clip involving two men having sex with one woman. As she does this, she thinks that maybe Patrick would have preferred a threesome video with two women instead of two men, but she sends the porn video with two men anyway. After sending the threesome video with two men, Emma thinks to herself that she is both worried and excited. She then showers and leaves the bathroom door open, which results in Martin seeing her bare breasted.
Patrick writes nothing in response to the video that Emma sent (in other words, does not say that he likes it)
Outcome: Emma tells Patrick that she noticed he did not have anything to say about the threesome porn video she shared. Patrick replies that he is "worried these fantasies might turn into something more." In response, Emma says she gets it. Though Emma admits that she probably should not have sent that video, she then cannot help herself but to think about Martin performing sex acts on her instead of her husband as she has a masturbatory video chat with her husband (unknown to her husband, who believes she is imagining him pleasuring her). After the video chat ends with her husband, Emma is still not sexually satisfied and continues to masturbate in bed as she thinks about what she viewed earlier on porn sites. Lastly, Emma decides on her own to drink wine with Martin to celebrate that evening, despite knowing that alcohol supposedly gives her problems with controlling herself.
While Emma is in bed that evening, Patrick makes a noise to distract Martin when he notices him kissing Emma on her legs and ass in bed (with Emma actually being awake and acting as if she is asleep but says nothing)
Outcome: Emma agrees to wear some particularly provocative lingerie for Martin, which she admits makes her look like "some high-class escort." After the photoshoot, Emma allows Martin to place his hand on her butt for the third time that evening, and she then gives him a handjob and licks the tip of his dick until he cums. When her husband asks why she did not answer the phone, Emma conceals all of this having happened from him.
At the end of the next evening, Patrick decides to call to check up on Emma after the party at the home of Martin's brother (after he sees an email indicating that Emma failed to tell him she and Martin would be posing as a couple and would be in a hot tub completely naked together)
Outcome: Emma allows Martin to finger her and grabs his dick while in the hot tub. Then when Patrick calls her while they are on the way home, she allows Martin to stroke her pussy. Then when arriving back at Martin's home, Emma allows Martin to kiss her legs and ass while she is in bed. (Note: If Patrick decides not to call to check on Emma because it is already past midnight, then she allows Martin to give her cunnilingus.) When Patrick asks Emma about what happened at the party and afterwards the next day, she conceals everything from him.
While in bed together on the first night after returning from out of town, Patrick decides to pretend to be asleep when he realizes that Emma is getting up from bed (and assumes she probably is heading to the kitchen or bathroom)
Outcome: Emma joins Martin the shower, gives him a blowjob, and has sex with him in a standing position. As this is happening, Patrick gets tired of waiting for Emma to return to bed, hears the shower and assumes it must be Emma (thinking it would be nice to join her in the shower), and then knocks on the bathroom door three times. When Emma finally answers the door, she keeps him from entering and says she just needs a couple minutes to finish.
On the day before moving into their new apartment, Patrick decides to wait for Emma and Martin to return from viewing photos together (choosing to trust his wife although he heard her and Martin whispering in the hallway)
Outcome: Martin tells Emma he is crazy about her, and during the next evening (the night prior to moving into a new apartment), Emma is given the option of going to Martin's room. If the choice is made for Emma to go to Martin's room, then she gives him a blowjob and has sex with Martin in multiple positions, ultimately allowing him to cum inside of her. If this happens, then the next day while her husband is busy moving (before she and her husband have even slept one night in their new apartment), she gives Martin a blowjob, allows him to perform cunnilingus on her, and has sex with him in multiple positions. Upon hearing her husband return, Emma then makes up an excuse to have her husband go do something downstairs, resumes having sex with Martin, and then again allows him to cum inside of her. When Emma and her husband finally have sex in bed in their new apartment the next night, she is aroused in part by thinking about the professor (Matthew) having flirted with her and put his hand on her knee when they had dinner that evening.
Along this path, Emma's behavior is even more discrepant from how she was presented at first. Despite Emma not being a very adventurous person apart from her husband, never having had sex with anyone but her husband, and expressing discomfort about the living arrangement with Martin four times, within a matter of days and with little initial encouragement from her husband to be open to posing for photos in lingerie and considering fantasies they might explore, Emma has become sexually obsessed with Martin (and the idea of having sex with other men) to the point that she is allowing it to occupy her mind even when she is supposed to be sexually focused on her husband. She further has had many inappropriate moments with Martin and has engaged in multiple sex acts with him, which she has concealed from her husband all along the way. If her husband is trusting of her at various points and does not make special efforts to check on her, she also has full-blown sex with Martin a number of times, which includes having sex with Martin in multiple positions as her husband is busy with helping them to move into their new apartment.
Interestingly, even if Patrick is untrusting and checks on Emma at every opportunity along this path, she still engages in multiple sex acts with Martin, does not have sex with her husband in bed on the first night in their new apartment, and allows the professor to grope her during dinner. Also, in what must be an error in the game, Emma mentions to herself while in bed with her husband in their new apartment for the first time that she is having trouble not thinking about the passion she shared with Martin while they were moving and expects it to happen again and again (when nothing happened between her and Martin while moving if Patrick is untrusting and checks on Emma at every opportunity).
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I see now why you came to that conclusion.
First of all, I didn't study psychology, but I did take an introductory writing class, and I'm pretty sure Dimajio must have studied writing as well, because I find him utilizing things I learned in class in his games. One of the lessons in Writing 101 is that when a person makes a decision, they are assumed to be making it rationally, but subconsciously they are making it emotionally first and rationalizing it later. In other words, they don't make a decision because it's rational, they make it because they subconsciously want it.
The following early game scene defines who the characters really are, and it's one of many similar early scenes in his other games. It's a conversation between Patrick and Emma as they're unpacking in Martin's apartment on their first day.
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Here we can see that Patrick is a cuckold from he's responding positively to a situation that a normal husband would find very offensive. There's another important thing: he doesn't know he's a cuckold himself, because being a cuckold is a shameful sexual orientation, and if he did know he was a cuckold, he wouldn't bring it up because he's afraid his wife would find out. Furthermore, if a normal husband witnessed this situation, he would sleep in a hotel or something and stay there until the next day when a separate room with a partition was available, but he decided to stay because that's what his subconscious wanted.
Emma's Cuckold is revealed right after that.
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The reason Emma brings it up in that moment is because her subconscious wants Martin to look at her naked. The subsequent conversation reveals that she is also a Cuckold (although it's technically the opposite of a cuckold). If she had simply wanted Martin's attention, she wouldn't have brought it up because it would have aroused her husband's jealousy. The fact that she brought it up indicates that she wants to share the situation with her husband, and just like in Patrick's case, she doesn't know she herself is also a Cuckold. The very last sentence is a line that expresses her internal conflict between her subconscious and her conscious. In writing, when a person imagines a situation, it's because they subconsciously want it.
You're right, people don't change that easily.
As I've said before, they were cuckolds to begin with, and they don't know they're cuckolds, and the whole story is about them discovering who they really are. I think it's different when you look at it from that perspective.
On a side note, you shouldn't take what the characters say literally, but in context. For example, they say that Patrick is the adventurous one, but they are misjudging themselves. It's Emma who is actually the ambitious and adventurous one. It's Emma's dream of being a journalist that made them leave their stable situation in Hometown to come to NY. Patrick is responsible, supportive, and somewhat reckless, and Emma is cautious, but she's fundamentally smart, ambitious, and challenging as a journalist should be, and she's also a bit of an attention seeker, as evidenced by her work at the TV station, her nude dancing, and her modeling.
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- Mar 16, 2018
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I disagree that Patrick responded positively to the situation. He made it clear from the start that they were going to stay with Martin to save money and get on their feet in the big city. If he had gone along with Emma's wishes, who expressed discomfort about staying at Martin's home four times in their initial conversation, then they would not have stayed as a married couple at the home of a "stranger" (which is how Emma initially perceived Martin). In fact, in looking back over the dialogue again, I noticed that while Emma was taking a shower during the first morning at Martin's home, she thought to herself: "If Martin hadn't suggested putting up a temporary plastic wall, I never would've agreed to live here." Thus, this is the 5th time that Emma says something to that effect, and it's more difficult to doubt that this is what she was genuinely feeling when she was thinking it to herself.
I believe you're making a lot of assumptions here, to the point of what I would say is overinterpretation, similar to what can be seen with Freudian psychoanalysis gone wild. I instead view this early back and forth between Patrick and Emma as a brief playful interaction between husband and wife as they try to overcome a good bit of initial nervousness about the uncomfortable living situation with Martin that they are trying to accept. People sometimes joke about things to try to alleviate some anxiety about the situation.
I understand what you're saying about them possibly having cuckold-related tendencies and not being aware of it, but neither of the two paths I presented in detail in my previous two comments involve cuckolding or even sharing. In the sexual modesty or as-faithful-as-it-gets path (the first one I presented), on two separate days Emma twice denied Patrick any kind of sexual activity in bed out of fear that Martin might see or hear what they were doing. Yet she's comfortable enough to twice stop by Martin's room to try to get a look at him as he watches porn on his laptop computer in bed? Of all the inappropriate or sexually oriented moments that Emma has with Martin, she chooses to conceal all of them from her husband and thus does not even share what happened while he was at work/out of town. Then on the other path (the second one I presented), Emma repeatedly engages in sex acts with Martin (all of which she conceals from her husband) even after her husband outright tells her that he is worried the fantasies they briefly shared may become reality if they continue to entertain them.
I agree that what the characters say should not always be taken literally, and that an attempt should be made to take their words in context. After all, characters (and people in real life) can be dishonest with their words. However, some of what was said were words between Emma and Patrick, and some of what was said was from Emma thinking to herself. Sure, it's still possible that Emma thinking to herself was not entirely accurate, but when she is having thoughts to herself about her own subjective feelings, this self-talk is likely to be literal in the context of the character.
I realize that we probably could debate back and forth a lot about issues/points of interpretation related to the story, but that's not something I care to do (not saying you do either), especially since I will be leaving town to visit family soon. So I would like to end this post by saying that I appreciate our discussion and your willingness to keep an open mind in considering other perspectives, even if we ultimately will continue to disagree about some things. Also, despite any criticisms I may have about characterization and branches of the story, I altogether am enjoying the visual novel and will follow it to completion.
In thinking back about it, the most discrepant behaviors that Emma displays on any path are the following: She initially expresses to her husband that she feels uncomfortable about the sleeping situation at Martin's home a total of four times, and then while in the shower the next day she thinks to herself that she almost did not agree to stay there. She also denies her husband any kind of sexual activity while they're in bed during the first two nights out of fear that Martin will see or hear them having sex. However, along one path (the cheating path that I detailed in my second lengthy post above), Emma twice has sex with Martin in his home while her husband is in bed. More specifically, along this cheating path, Emma first has sex with Martin in the shower while her husband is in bed, and then the next night she has passionate (LOUD) sex with Martin in his bed while her husband is in bed. Furthermore, along this path, Emma (a happily married woman who previously only had sex with her husband) does not show any kind of struggle of conscience whatsoever based on her internal dialogue.
Though these discrepant behaviors do not make sense particularly in relation to Emma, they also would not make much sense in relation to any other married woman. In the case of Emma, she's so fearful of Martin possibly seeing or hearing her and her husband have sex that she refuses to have sex with her husband while Martin is at home, yet within a matter of days, she goes from feeling that way toward Martin to twice having extramarital sex with Martin in his home while her husband is in bed? Furthermore, even if this cheating instead involved a married woman with no conscience who cared only about the potential consequences of getting caught (and thus had no concern for her spouse's feelings), it still would amount to taking an incredibly foolish risk by having sex with another man in close proximity to her husband.
Besides, it's hard to believe that a wife who is moving to the big city with her supportive husband in order to pursue a college education is so easily willing to put her marriage on the line like that. Beyond any potential consequences for her, if she has a heart it would seem that she should be concerned about how hurtful this would be to her husband if he finds out. On top of that, it's also hard to believe that Emma is all of a sudden feeling so intensely aroused from noticing male attention toward her (as if it puts her in a continual state of horniness). It's not like she was the ugly duckling or something. I'm sure that she would have been at least somewhat accustomed to receiving male attention in her prior young adult years.
Though these discrepant behaviors do not make sense particularly in relation to Emma, they also would not make much sense in relation to any other married woman. In the case of Emma, she's so fearful of Martin possibly seeing or hearing her and her husband have sex that she refuses to have sex with her husband while Martin is at home, yet within a matter of days, she goes from feeling that way toward Martin to twice having extramarital sex with Martin in his home while her husband is in bed? Furthermore, even if this cheating instead involved a married woman with no conscience who cared only about the potential consequences of getting caught (and thus had no concern for her spouse's feelings), it still would amount to taking an incredibly foolish risk by having sex with another man in close proximity to her husband.
Besides, it's hard to believe that a wife who is moving to the big city with her supportive husband in order to pursue a college education is so easily willing to put her marriage on the line like that. Beyond any potential consequences for her, if she has a heart it would seem that she should be concerned about how hurtful this would be to her husband if he finds out. On top of that, it's also hard to believe that Emma is all of a sudden feeling so intensely aroused from noticing male attention toward her (as if it puts her in a continual state of horniness). It's not like she was the ugly duckling or something. I'm sure that she would have been at least somewhat accustomed to receiving male attention in her prior young adult years.
I suppose your last post was not solely directed at Billfk.
I find myself that I view the problem in question very much different depending on the path. Because I don't focus just on specific empirical facts but the overall narrative logic. We should keep in mind, that we are not observing a real individual but a narrative construct, therefore possible inconsistencies could always be due to the carelessness or indifference of the narrator, and are not always consistent or (in your view) inconsistent behaviours he intends to portrait (and keep further in mind that he hinted to the fact that he wasn't personally equally interested in all the different paths, so maybe he simply didn't care to hit the mark of plausibility here).
So I think your points are much more valid for the cheating and sharing route. I would think myself that her behaviour is much more improbable on the cheating path because she indeed risks detection and the loss of marriage and her behaviour here not only demands indecency but total ruthlessness (or how you would put that in psychological terms). The risk reward relation doesn't fit, following the impulse here is totally callous and dangerous. And to a lesser extent I would also regard the sharing route as not very plausible for an inexpeerienced couple in this situation (I guess many users would disagree) - yes, they are in it togther here, but they would do it just for some additional "fun". Is this worth the risk of inviting another somewhat "creepy" guy?
But on the cuck path she neither risks detection and her marriage (at least not at the beginning and not with her as the guilty part, which I would think is an important factor for her behaviour. She has his approval, she feels secure). Nor is it just a "fun experience", but I would see a certain urgency of long existent needs and fantasies here. Here I agree with Billfk, that the couple is already a cuckhold couple before acting on it. Although I would describe that dynamic in a slightly different way than Billfk. Just one point here that you mention: yes, she must be used to male attention (I get the sense of a very healthy entitlement and sexual selfconfidence on her side) but she doesn't get the kind of attention she really wants and has learned that it exists from other guys, from her husband, that would be my guess in that regard. She wants this kind of attention to be acted upon vehemently and by a type of guy which is different. Her husband seems to be the adoring guy who wants to do things for her, not so much to her. But she would explore these things still from the safe space of marriage and with a devoted husband behind her, which is an ideal situation to be in for her.
One point which seems to be central for you is what you call her being "fearful of Martin". As I wrote in an earlier post - couldn't that be a sign that she is not sexually indifferent and that she is curious (because certainly she never was "fearful" of her husband). Doesn't this fear imply that she suspects he could do things to her? But we probably won't agree here.
Inspite of having a different opinion I like your persistence, that you come back again and again to this topic because I myself think about characters and motivations, too, and see them as central to the erotic impact of the games.
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I try not to reply, but end up doing so, but your problem is that you're trying to take what the character says too literally, without considering the context before and after. Let's look at the shower scene you point to as a problem.
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She finds the situation unpleasant, but the very next moment she's enjoying it. The contradiction is repeated in a series of lines.
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In the next line, she thinks about the situation and even masturbates to it. Her nature, contrary to her reason, is to enjoy the current situation.
Contradictory lines like this are a textbook way to show a character's internal conflict, and the character grows through this conflict. Here, Emma's perception of her current situation changes.
If she's positive about the situation from the beginning, she's just a slut. It's the process of being corrupted by the conflict between her rational mind, which is uncomfortable with the situation, and her nature, which is instinctively drawn to the situation, that makes her a realistic character and makes her compelling.
Doesn't even have to be a process. In the shower inner monologue you quote, "awful" is simultaneously "thrilling". And both is on the level of her feeling, not necessarily reason vs feeling. I personally have no problem with this ambiguity, there are things which are awful and thrilling at the same time, especially in sexual matters and in horror.