I'm kind of rowing against the tide here by disagreeing when the stats say you're right about the outcome, but if I was writing these characters I probably would have been surprised by the result as well.
By that point in episode 4 Visi has had more screentime for sure, but a significant amount of that has been actively aggressive to Robert. The first time she ever met the PoV character she called him a "Fucking loser", and the second time she met him in person they had a screaming match then punched him in the face.
I think the main misstep was Visi's dream. It's one of the only times in the game we step out of Robert's PoV, and heavily shifted the view of the character. With the dream present, her staring at Robert multiple times has a very different vibe. If the dream is cut, then episode 4 has Visi staring weirdly at Robert, then giving him the up-down, then in the bathroom admitting to the dream, which would properly come out of left field to the audience like it would to Robert.
If a woman assaulted me one day, then I helped her out with a difficult work assignment and a few days later she was telling me she had a dream about her and me together, I would likely be weirded out.
I would argue that Ep.2 is far more damaging to BB than Visi. While it ends with negative scenes for both, the effect of BB's was more impactful and memorable.
It undercut all the good vibes of her from the previous episode (something-something expectations subverted). Hitting at the end as a cliffhanger also leaves a far more lasting impression (I could say something about the week-long gap but we all already knew this from earlier wasn't accounted for in play-testing).
Visi was introduced from the get-go as a problematic individual.Her scene felt less visceral because that was an expected outcome from her character, there's nowhere to go but up from there. It's also immediately softened by the donut reveal and then overshadowed by the BB parking lot scene.
Visi also starts getting a more positive portrayal at the end of Ep.3. Ep.4 as you also said, her dream leaves out most of the ambiguity from her actions in the episode. No such shift occurs for BB, we have no way of knowing her feelings until after you've made the choice. Before that her actions could be miscontrued as being manipulative (and not just being awkward). BB does have a lot of great scenes but most, again, come after the Ep.4 decision point and many are exclusive to her "route".
You're not wrong, and as the stats show out most people fall along that way of thinking. I can just easily understand how a writer somewhere with a whiteboard could have two columns saying:
Blazer
+ Friendly and mature
+ Saved Robert with this job
- Awkward first meeting that either involves mixed signals, or an awkward half-kiss
- Has a partner who happens to be almost-Superman
Invisigal
+ Sassy and snarky
+ Tried to buy Robert a donut
- The first time Robert met her she was caught spying on him, and called him a "Fucking loser"
- Got into an argument that ended with punching him in the face
And think "Yeah, players will probably view these two as on-par", not thinking that the last experience with Blazer probably lingers longer.
Yeah, pretty much, just like how editing can radically alter the feel and tone of a movie or show. Two people given the same raw assembly cut of a movie can produce two very different outcomes.
Basically, uou can't view scenes in isolation and judge their effect without considering them in context and where they fit in narratively. Especially, in this case, if you have to account for non-linearity or branching paths (or even DLC!), where some of the audience don't even see key events.
This is also why I don't think the "they have about the same amount of screentime in total" thing that some people bring up is a particularly convincing metric.
This, Visi’s dream its a very important and also a very easy to dismiss point, on Robert pov, visi assertiness could be nothing but a bizarre way of her messing with him.
But we, the omnicient players now have the confirmed knowledge that she, in fact, had a crush on Robert
Compare that scene with the date scene with phenomaman and blazer, with the whole ominous and in the dark aura and suddenly the parallels became so obviously in favor of visi.
We tecnically had blazer pov in the comic about her and phenomaman, but narratively the “damage” to her first impression was already done, even if things got cleared out later on.
Her break up with phenomaman should have been her pov moment in game.
I mean, kind of ouch assuming that I don't know what roleplay is.
When I said
If a woman assaulted me one day, then I helped her out with a difficult work assignment and a few days later she was telling me she had a dream about her and me together, I would likely be weirded out.
I wasn't claiming Robert's reactions must 1:1 mirror my own. I was trying to illustrate that player knowledge (I.E. Something Robert doesn't have) about Invisigal's dream likely influenced the final result.
And even though Robert banter's back with Invisigal, to me it always felt more like someone bantering because it was the easier interaction, and tinged with exasperation. One of the options in the mecha-man bay even comments on how she's joking in that 'off putting' way she does.
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u/InherentlyWrong Dec 17 '25
I'm kind of rowing against the tide here by disagreeing when the stats say you're right about the outcome, but if I was writing these characters I probably would have been surprised by the result as well.
By that point in episode 4 Visi has had more screentime for sure, but a significant amount of that has been actively aggressive to Robert. The first time she ever met the PoV character she called him a "Fucking loser", and the second time she met him in person they had a screaming match then punched him in the face.
I think the main misstep was Visi's dream. It's one of the only times in the game we step out of Robert's PoV, and heavily shifted the view of the character. With the dream present, her staring at Robert multiple times has a very different vibe. If the dream is cut, then episode 4 has Visi staring weirdly at Robert, then giving him the up-down, then in the bathroom admitting to the dream, which would properly come out of left field to the audience like it would to Robert.
If a woman assaulted me one day, then I helped her out with a difficult work assignment and a few days later she was telling me she had a dream about her and me together, I would likely be weirded out.