#anyways mr. grind on his dick and make him curse derek suarez will forever be that bitch

[peachiseas]

I'm also someone who didn't understand Baxter's hold on everyone. I get it, it's full of drama and angst. You've got an LI who can be your ex and you can play it up on his route. He's flirty, sweet, and smooth but deep down he's hurt and traumatized. These kinds of flavors appeal to a lot of people. Realistically, I could never go back or talk to someone who told me to fuck off and cut contact with me for 5 years. No matter what the reason was.

Derek suffers from being absent for 10 years, but dude at least bothers with phone calls and occasional visits (according to the in-betweens). I also get that his family get in the way a lot but they're endearing (Jorge being my favorite) and welcome you with open arms.

The other reason why some didn't enjoy the DLC much bc it starts at Step 2 where you're both 13 and that's probably not as exciting for them bc all you do is slight flirting and being all blushy and shy, unlike in Step 3 where you get to do more than that. That kind of reason though irritates me. I didn't hear anyone complaining when they flirted with Cove at 13 but Derek? nah that's boring. It's all about experiencing the joys of young love and being silly teens!

Tbh... I'm going to be honest, Baxter in game is literally word for word one of those love interests you would read about in a cheesy melodramatic korean romance webtoon. And you know those work well for that audience, but in Our Life? It really doesn't hold up especially when all of his issues stem from being "too rich" which gives off a woe is me attitude and "my parents are too controlling" which is more acceptable but it also gives off a woe is me issue especially because once again. His family is ultra wealthy. It sounded more of an inconvenience than it did a legitimate problem for him in step 3 because he easily had the finances to break away from that, or that could have been just shoddy writing. And then ofc you have the random shoehorned "my parents are super bigoted" line that boils my fucking skin cause it feels so fucking weird to just have that in there and then move on like nothing happened and you got to sit with the information that real world racism and homophobia exists in a game like OL still.

It's just so very weird and very mishandled, and I feel bad cause I like the idea of Baxter actually trying to struggle to get his independence, but we get. None of that.

Also, people who complain about Derek's dlc in that regard are usually extremely biased, and I do not take any of that criticism because it's not even genuine criticism. You could say, "I think i would have loved to spend more time with Derek solo," and that would be fine. But to say "I dont like his family because their boring" or "We dont get to make out with Derek or do anything of that sort in step 2" and dismiss his DLC cause of that? Yea, that's the bias showing. Which is funny too cause Derek's makeout scene is leagues better than all of Baxter's makeout scenes combined but whatever