And as I’ve said before in a different thread, there is also the issue of why in a gender-neutral world the protagonist has no option but to get married. That is non-sensical and shoots a giant hole in the plot of part 1. In the real world poor male nobles went out into the world to make their own fortunes, just as Gabriel(a) does in this story. It was the subjugated daughters of the nobility who were afforded no ability to make their own fortunes and were required to marry. And yet supposedly neither gender is subjugated in this world, so both options should be available to both sexes. Why your character can’t do what Gabriel(a) did isn’t believably explained. It’s yet another bit of sloppy storytelling in support of a political agenda, and this time you can’t even use “magic!” to try and explain the contradiction away.
- Go out
- Get married
- ???
- Profit
Is only subjugation to the angsty teenage “But mom, I wanted a better car!” brigade.
However this particular gripe *could* have been resolved quite simply through taking one character, and extending it further: Your aunt. A woman who is heavily focussed on using you to obtain wealth, connections, and social status, - and with an overly cautious idea of how to achieve this, - just epitomises the sort of familial pressure which would force someone to try the laziest possible way to get wealth known to man. You’d only have to assume a basic level of ‘Gives a damn about family’ for the plot to flow.
@Drazen And how exactly is your relatively powerless aunt going to bend you to her will when you’re legally an adult and are free to give her the finger and join the military instead? She would need to be given a lot more power and ruthlessness than she was to force you to her will. I’m not saying it’s impossible to make work, only that the authors didn’t even try.
@P_Tigras No forcing is required. Just say a) the PC follows the ‘Gives a damn about family’ premise, and b) they decided previously to fulfil said premise by succumbing to familial pressure, rather than providing for the family through some other hypothetical route. Both of those, I think, could fall under the minimal necessity of railroading required for a game to function.
But I certainly agree with you, that the authors didn’t even try. In fact, they did the opposite, by giving me an “I don’t really want to go” option, at the outset!