I mean my take is that the mc is pretty attractive, especially since they’re part of a band on live tv lol, but it’s as @notapretzel pointed out too- someone’s idea of what is attractive might not be the same as another persons so they may not want to draw attention to that.
I think G and seven and Blake get spoken about in regards to their looks a lot since they have been part of the music scene publicly a lot longer than mc. They’re used to having fans fawning over their looks. Whereas mc is newish to it all.
Headcanoning is good for imagining your mc’s looks and hidden aspects of personality bc if the author put everything about the mc then the mc would not be as much of a blank slate to be varied for different people.
Tldr; G, 7, Blake= well known attractive & used to it. MC= newbie attractive maybe not comfortable with it. Headcanons are good
MC has been in the music business exactly as long as Seven, they started out together. And, again, the game isn’t shy about pointing out the hotties, the mc does not get that treatment, likely because the option for the mc to be a hottie seems to be cut content at the moment. G isn’t that much older than the mc either, they could still have started out as child star but most likely they just had a meteorically faster rise to fame.
Point is the mc can not be the sort of bad boy hottie that, say, Blake is. The photographers single out Rowan, not mc, as the sexy centerfold of the band during the photoshoot that is literally what is in the game right now and maxing out the outgoing stat, such as it is does not change that in any way. The mc will stand awkwardly to the side no matter how outgoing you try to make them. This is one of the scenes where the game seems to assume mc is super introverted and media shy no matter what.
That is just an acknowledgement photographers tend to not like glasses, even the late Philip Seymour Hoffmann tended to get that. As such that means very little on its own, except that many photographers prefer their subjects not wear glasses. Even our prime minister, who wears glasses, has them off a surprising amount of time particularly during international summits and such.
I am just going to link you this, cause I feel it might explain it better and it’s actually from the author: INFAMOUS on Tumblr
Even though you choose the outgoing variant, MC is still set to be overwhelmed at the beginning of the story, which might influence the way they look at themselves and others. I don’t think that at this point the MC is able to use their good looks to their “advantage”. It’s only natural for the MC to lean more towards the insecure and introverted side of things in the beginning and laugh things off with comedy. Later on in the story, they will gain more supporters and probably feel better about themselves (or worse).
Btw if I remember correctly, during the photo shoot the stylist mentions that it’s a bummer MC wears glasses (if you choose that option) since they are hiding their face. I took that as acknowledgment MC is a hottie, might be wrong though
Perfectly logical, if the mc were 19 and just starting out, they have been in the music business and performing for nearly decade now, if they haven’t figured out by now that they look good and how to weaponize that and use it to their advantage, like even Rowan can, there is little hope for them at this point that they’ll ever figure it out.
Seven and Rowan have been in the business for just as long as the mc and they seem to have at least figured out that they’re hot and how to use that to their advantage. The most likely reason the mc has not is because that appears to be cut content, which is a bummer or alternatively they are hot but they’d have to be almost cripplingly shy and introverted to remain oblivious to it for so long in an industry where it is a super huge advantage, in which case they probably really shouldn’t go on reality tv and find a career track in the music industry that suits them and the strengths they do have better.
I read that, personal issues/depression feel like a bit of cop out for how weak, naive and ignorant the mc still appears to be particularly compared to people who started from the exact same place at the exact same time, Seven and Rowan, after a decade in the music business and if it is the latter a reality show is no place to deal with depression.
The text also never says the mc is particularly attractive or stands out in an industry of hotties in the way, Blake, Seven, Rowan and Orion apparently do. Again this game is not shy about pointing out who the hotties are, it never does so for the mc.
They still make Rowan the sexy centerfold with the hot outfit to match not the mc, like I said in my original post the story often doesn’t seem to know what to do with the outgoing mc. It has that line but the rest of the shoot contradicts it and the later picture with Blake and Seven especially so.
I understand wanting more flavour text for outgoing/confident mc, it certainly allows the player to feel more in tune with the mc that they are creating, maybe it’s something to suggest the author to take into consideration. I believe this is her first if, so she’s probably still learning. As for how the mc looks, the text never says that the mc isn’t attractive. As @Sellie said we’re seeing everything from the mc’s pov and until the text doesn’t explicitly say that the mc isn’t good looking I’m going to headcanon what works for my mc even if they’re not super cocky about their look. Besides, if everyone in the story is a hottie why shouldn’t the mc be one as well if the story doesn’t say otherwise? But that’s just how I read it.
I had to reread the photoshoot scene because I remembered something different and here’s the option that I usually pick since it works best for my mc: #As for you, you also happen to be a complete natural.
*set outgoing %+ 5
You’re posing, tilting your head and fixing your face, giving Marino your best angles. Marino hops excitedly when you do a particular expression, and he only urges you more. You’re a natural at this. You were meant to be in front of a camera.
The mc is working it just as much as the others, they’re not standing there awkwardly.
If you pick the other option, then yes the mc is standing there awkwardly but the text says as much: #As for you, you can hardly pose. You’re not good with photos.
I have played the prologue but checked out the photoshoot scene out of interest - the photoshoot description of the “edgy” option is pretty sceptical/critical (“stereotypically dark: what any pearl-clutching mother would imagine”, “it’s kind of ridiculous”) which suggests the MC isn’t very into that style so the other options might be better suited. When the photoshoot happens for the dark/edgy option, the descriptions of the other characters are pretty sexy but for the other aesthetic options they’re a lot less so, and some of the other characters get teased about their outfits with other aesthetics.
Interestingly the “professional” option seems to be the one that both the MC and band enjoy the most - the MC “feels like a million bucks”, it’s “impressive” - as well as the “your own style” option in which the MC smiles at the mirror. The white-clothes-with-paint one feels in the middle - generally flattering and showing the MC to their best advantage.
It feels reasonable that even an MC who’s confident on stage might feel reality TV is out of their comfort zone because it’s a very different experience; I also think it’s OK for an MC to be going for something that they may not be fully suited to because of internal/external pressure - that can spark fun character development. (I enjoy when the premises of IFs have the MC doing something they shouldn’t - if I knew the MC in real life I might advise them to reconsider but in a game it creates plenty of plot and drama, haha!)
Perhaps it would be beneficial to have more acknowledgement of an Outgoing or Arrogant MC’s feelings in conjunction with the fish-out-of-water feeling; in what I have played I have seen a lot of early options to pick which came across as outgoing/self-confident - “people love me”, “I’ll win everyone over” so I anticipate that coming up more as the game continues.
This is the one I chose, I also chose that my mc’s normal getup is pretty edgy and rockstar like at the beginning so the mc should be more comfortable in the edgy photoshoot yet they are not, in that one they are the worst dressed and Rowan is the sexy centerfold with outfit to match.
Yet you can choose it at the beginning, which means mc would have been performing in it for years, to still be so awkward with it by now and having to rely on Rowan to rescue the edgy photoshoot no matter how much you make the mc outgoing or choose rockstar style in the beginning feels off.
Since I wanted to try and play the mc as a bad-boy lead singer I found that one the most blegh! myself. Pity that will probably be the image the stylists are going to try and push on the mc in the future.
Which is where it gets inconsistent because with what I chose in the beginning that one shouldn’t be that far off from the edgy option.
That also still doesn’t make the mc feel like a hottie on par with some of the others anyone can wear flattering clothes it is what appears to be flattering on the mc that is a bit of a disappointment to me and another indicator that doesn’t exactly make them stand out as one of the hotties.
While that is true a television season of 10 weeks or so is not going to realistically bring about a profound transformation in personality, appearance or stage presence the previous ten years couldn’t. It is more likely to make things worse than better.
Also true, as currently presented I’d advice mc to just focus on their songwriting (the only thing the game really gives the mc any credit for) and smaller performances (they’re a good singer but as total package performance wise they do not appear to be on the same level as Seven or Blake and looks-wise Rowan seems to be the sexy hottie of the band). I just don’t see it ending well for the mc at this point, the original cheating allegations were bad enough but now mc has no choice but to let themselves be dragged off and become embroiled in G and V’s marriage and my mc isn’t even into women. And V and G feel really creepy at this point, basically another metoo showbiz scandal waiting to happen and that is not going to help mc’s career any.
Like I said in my first commentary the mc seems particularly unsuited to the career path in the music industry they seem to be headed down right now. That doesn’t mean they don’t have a future in music or can never make it big just that the road they’re on seems to be one that is not exactly suited to them and is unlikely to end well for them:
i’m pretty sure the author said the mc and their band have not done anything like this before, this is their big break so i think it makes sense that everyone would feel a little bit nervous. up until now they had been doing little gigs, now they’re on national television and facing cheating allegations
Allegations that are likely to be true, considering G’s behaviour. Which is a pity because there is a chance the mc and band really are good enough, in spite of mc’s shortcomings as a lead singer and performer to be in the top 3. There seem to be different qualifying rounds and the mc and co were really unlucky to have to go up against the most likely winner of the season, aka Blake and his band that G desperately wanted to keep out of the competition, for what appear to be purely personal reasons for G, to boot. In a qualifying round against anyone except Blake or Seven maybe the mc and their band could perhaps have won honestly even if they are noticeably rougher around the edges for some reason than most other bands (in spite of nearly a decade in the business), including curiously Seven’s new band.
Even if it was G who did the cheating by trying to rig the contest behind the scenes the mc is the one who will be on the hook for most of it.
Which can bring us right to another potential cause for concern if mc and their band really are the least polished of all the competitors that likely means the huge company in charge of BOTB will try to do some polishing and that is unlikely to go anywhere good as they will probably try to optimize for “one hit wonder” short term success as they won’t care much beyond the next ten weeks or so.
MC is pretty unambiguously seen as talented and on-stage charismatic in-universe though? Like the band unanimously (excluding Seven and possibly MC) voted to demote Seven to showcase MC more, G calls out MC specifically as the draw of the band and there’s a character that’s literally a MC stan in the orbit. There’s a whole plotline about everyone in the band trying to appoint MC the leader and you literally get to name your band’s dedicated fanbase!
Even characters that don’t like MC (Seven) don’t question their competence as a musician and even Underground Wastebasket’s complaints are more “we’re better” than “MC sucks”.
I don’t know where you’re getting “this character has serious shortcomings as a lead singer and performer” other than that they don’t get called sexy every two seconds and other characters also being talented.
Our impressions of the MC seem to be … discordant.
The impressions I had of our MC as a singer, is that the MC is an elite singer above the rest of the competition, qualitywise. The band itself seems to be on a tier below the MC, good, but not in the same class as the MC themselves.
It is well documented over the last 60+ years that at times brilliant and amazing singers may not translate well into other media endeavors. No matter if it is John Lennon or Cyndi Lauper, the camera may not be their forte.
With that said, like Hannah, my MC seemed to handle the photoshoot and the public confrontations in New York pretty darned well.
By the current state of affairs at the beginning of the game that was obviously a wrong call. We all make them sometimes and my mc did indeeed vote to keep his boyfriend at the time onboard.
What is established is that the mc is a good maybe even top notch songwriter and a good singer, but that does not necessarily mean they are a good lead singer, leader, face and front(wo)man for the band in that role they appear to be at least a few rungs below Blake and Seven as things stand.
The way I read it Rowan, not the mc, seems to be seen as the hottie and likely the face of the band and Orion is the leader, now, due to the BOTB reality TV format the mc is asked to take on those roles to fit the archetype of the stereotypical lead singer and unlike Blake or Seven they do not seem very suited to the role.
They never get called that by anyone in game, not in the way that happens for Orion, Seven, Blake and Rowan. There’s one not very trustworthy comment by G (“chosen one” is not exactly sexy, it is more creepy than sexy but that aside), that’s it for the mc. Also Rowan is clearly the sexy one who has to rescue the edgy photoshoot where the mc always performs worst, no matter if you specify an edgy/sexy/revealing style for them at the beginning or not. Again the game is not shy about calling out the hotties, the mc at present gets no such attention lavished on them.
Anyway per the tumblr, being an acknowledged hottie is apparently considered too big of an advantage for the mc by the author at the moment, I can’t think why when most of our competition and Rowan and Orion clearly are. But apparently it may or may not get added back in at a later date depending on Patreon. So maybe reason for cautious optimism but for the moment this confirms that look-wise at least the mc is not at the level of G, Blake, Seven, Orion and Rowan when it comes to looks and sex appeal.
Male mc also always seems to have a bit worse outfit than Rowan in all the scenarios maybe because the mc cannot be canonically one gender and tends to get three outfit choices mapping to male, female or non-binary.
As it seems to, sadly, be for the mc, which again makes them not very suited for reality TV.
Indeed particularly since I chose edgy photoshoot with outgoing mc and I was not impressed one scene the photographer says it is going well in the other they still have Rowan be the sexy centerfold who rescues that shoot and the mc always wears an underwhelming outfit compared to the others in that particular scenario too. As Hannah says you’re apparently supposed to go with the cast of the office dress up “professional” style to get the mc to perform well, no matter what sort of style you choose for them at the beginning, which is a disappointment cause I didn’t exactly name the band Abercrombie and the Fitches.
For me the choice to “ace it” as you call it feels like one of those moments the game doesn’t quite know what to do with outgoing mc, to me it feels like brief discordant flash where the photographer briefly focuses on mc before going back to the regularly scheduled programme of focusing on Rowan as the sexy centerfold. It doesn’t help that in the edgy shoot everybody else has a better/more sexy outfit than the mc. Mine would have loved the stuff they put Rowan in.
I went through to check because I don’t normally pick the edgy style, I don’t get this impression. The photographer initially focuses on Rowan because he’s the only one doing anything, then you get the choice to either ace it or flop personally at which point he shifts focus to MC if you pick to do well or not if you pick to flop.
A bunch of all band shoots follow, then MC gets to do shoots themselves with other lead singers, at no point in that scene (while picking edgy style and to not flop) did I get the impression that Rowan was just slaying everything while MC slumped in the corner
I’m just going to assume that when they describe Blake, Seven, Orion, and Rowan as sexy and with lots of sex appeal is going to just be an amp up on the debt of some sort of baggage they have in some way or very exploitable characters.
Seven left the mc band and started their own band and maybe some rumor of some other band mate after the mc given Blake’s egging so some sort of fuel going on with that. Blake is straight up chocking it up with adding fuel to everything and even adding to the tension, even the main reason why the mc’s group have the choice of Blake or Seven and much to your demise if you choose Blake’s group to ride with and the Rowan mix up at the party. The cheating votes is the best fuel for Blake and his group and Blake using this against the upcoming group of mc, maybe the mc didn’t hit the fame times as fast as Seven even if the mc is outgoing…you know those cliche moments of having that lone wolf leaving but others never really knew the reason why and say that Seven got kicked out. Orion on the other hand I got no clue how he is perceived but he might have something in his past that might have a part later why he’s getting these references even he knows the gab the media likes when there are beehives to prod for notoriety which if we look Rowan, Seven, and Blake all have at the moment…basically the ‘sex appeal’ feels more like red flags in saying I’m easy pickings to cause drama for money and fame.
Even if G may or may not have stirred the pot or not just a lot of folks just making a quick rise to fame by causing drama, not all sex appeal is good appeal but more like that unspoken rule of being the gold mine for ‘danger’…that crazy trend, which I feel is why Seb don’t want his daughter to be a fan of ours because sometimes fans can be kind of ‘extreme’ when it come to media, the more dirt on someone the more people might defend them even if they are rotten or annoying so Seb didn’t lie about how the views get skewed. Also the more baggage they got the more people will watch, sadly…
I don’t think it’s the fact the mc is not attractive more like they haven’t had to much baggage aside from Seven and could be another reason why Seven hides the mc tattooed name from the flaming that they get and that angst for a broken band. The competition might have been rigged even when mc can act humble and say they thought others were better you do get a surprised reaction from if like they weren’t expecting that to be said…so it’s more like the drama is what matters most. To many trying to milk this even surprise photos without consent for BOTB just to get people to laser focus in on the dispute and tension. Mc and Seven may have worked as a team but the way they both getting to fame might have been different, you know, one went the light innocent path and the other the dark path. Just got to wait and see how it all unfolds really.
I respectfully disagree, to me everything involving G or V feels like a giant red flag and something the mc would do very well to avoid. Nothing in the game is more creepy or potentially exploitative than G’s “chosen one” bullshit and how the mc lets themselves get dragged into V and G’s dodgy showbiz marriage.
Yeah I guess they might be a whole new can of worms which I try to avoid but just get dragged in when I don’t want to with them both. Even when I didn’t want to leave my band mates I still got forced to go along with following V for her to whine about G… I’m literally trying to avoid them yet the drama and assumptions of G liking us more like attention grabbing even when you say you wished you met G before being famous G said they were an asshole…how far do you go to drag people for coffee and having to stand in between to feuds of martial babies…So high chance G possibly had some influence in the rigged votes. I’m wondering are they the poly? I don’t want to be in that mess, got enough with Blake and to some Seven then the media is straight up milking what they can from my mc from Seven and Jazzy…someone definitely causing waves and it is literally falling down in the trends…damn vultures they are, just when we get our big break too.
Yep, g and v are the poly, which even if it was not a red flag and totally wholesome wouldn’t work for my gay mc because he could never have been into V due to incompatible orientation to begin with. As it is they are walking red flags that the mc is forced to carry an idiot ball for due to plot, when V isn’t even his idol or somebody my mc particularly likes and certainly not someone he is remotely attracted to romantically or sexually because, female…
Exactly that for me is the moment where the mc feels most like a doormat, you have to let yourself get dragged and you can do absolutely nothing about it, not even say a bad word. I get having idols but this goes above and beyond. Probably why they say you should never meet your idols.
On that note it is too bad that the daughter of the one seemingly nice, normal RO that is not a subroute, like Blake, happens to be the father of mc’s one true superfan which gives that one a creepy dimension too only with the mc as the idol who should probably learn to keep his distance from Maya, even if that means we do not get to bang her hot dad. On the other hand given the mc’s perpetually shit luck maybe Sebastian will turn out to be a serial killer or something.
I agree 100% if you want to spice up your marriage get some actual sex toys or hire some actual professionals for those matters in jurisdictions where that is legal, like my own. Otherwise either get serious marriage counseling or get a divorce.
This is about getting dragged into their marriage in super creepy flashing red-flag way. Honestly I have no interest in romancing G, even separately, after chapter 2. He’s an asshole who does nothing but manipulate the mc, from putting a finger on the scale behind the scenes to get mc in (and Blake out) to dragging us into their marriage. G is the one who treats the mc like a doormat the most.
So these 2 are the poly…damn got to suffer from the duo is not what I want so that definitely is a bullet to dodge…as much as I can at least…
Yeah and the problem with how goo goo eyes our mc can choose for both of them, kind of wish there was a more neutral way to go about it because I can see where you coming from with the attraction stats ramped to ‘Thirsty’ levels. I mean I like my idols but geez mc get dumbed down when you get the choices of nerding out.
I also don’t want to be in the mix with V and G not only from the marriage but also the fact that my mc feels like some new toy to spice up their fucked up marriage…not dissing the poly part just the weird open season stuff with married people that just want attention while the other acting like they get to much attention…I’m literally banging my head saying "Make up your damn minds or get a damn divorce!'.
Still a headache with them both separate and highly doubt it won’t stop the other from popping in the picture if they’re married, even if they both avoid each other it’s just another stigma of mc being poster boy/girl/person for the media to make us competition for some infidelity scandals to the other.
