here is where the definitive edition, as I understand it, really shines: in the original release you're just kind of told what everyone was up to in between acts

now you get to play it

Sylvando's best friend is a kink gear muscle man who answers to "Dave, but pronounced with two syllables" and I think that's beautiful

I need to take this outfit off of him

he needs to get down with his clown self

the thing with Sylvando is he could be a mean stereotype of a camp gay man, but he is also totally and unabashedly heroic

"what if the circus performer was also the chevalier sans peur et sans reproche" say less

he cares so much

oh my god thats one of the additions to definitive?????

YEAH

i REALLY need to make it past that stealth mission where erik gets stabbed

i keep getting walled their out of pure "i hate even 10 minutes of stealth mechanics"

erik gets stabbed a lot

(love interest behavior)

I love him so much

Sylvando really is just The Best

unfortunately, I can't help but make a contrast with how Jade is treated

bc they're both characters who use their Charm stat

and Sylvando is charismatic, he knows how to work a crowd, people want to follow him

meanwhile Jade is Has Tits And Ass

people want to sexually objectify her

her interlude will make it painfully clear that charm isn't something she does, but something that is done to her

Sylvando's interlude is for adult activists

where did the chorus girl boy outfits come from? how did they change costumes so fast? don't worry about it!

the power of queerness provides!

...and now we go to Jade's interlude. for the contrast.

who I've had in the finishing school outfit since I got it

because it's solidly unsexy

as if to make up for the fact that she is immediately coerced into this bunnygirl suit

the thing about Boodica is: would

don't lie to yourself

she has a terrible personality, BUT she is a woman who has muscles and THEREFORE the most attractive woman in this game

Jade and I have done nothing to deserve this being a thing

but sure, just...destroy Jade's agency, it's fine

but now we cut to: character whose agency is going to suffer but in a fun and satisfying way

(it's Erik)

It would have been so easy to lean into the fact that Jade and Jasper have several shared design elements and a preexisting relationship and play around with temptation towards darkness or what have you. Instead we get someone’s weird hypno fetish