#maybe i'm just honestly *generally kinda boring and average-or-slightly-less*

[shevr]

a

[maxthesillyy]

Hi I have thoughts that are genuinely crazy, and I think ur the only one who might understand. I've read ur posts on amatonormativity before and they're good, and I was hoping u would have an nuanced answer to this maybe? Anyways my question/ thoughts are abt Warren and how heterosexual his character nd interactions are written. If u dislike Warren and it kinda seems like you do (??), then u don't have to answer this but I'm kinda still asking bc I can't think of any other lis blogger to ask. Anyways I've always disliked how almost every single of his relationships with female characters in the game are written as romantic. He has a crush on Max, Brooke has a crush on him. In Ep. 2 he's hugging/comforting Alyssa when Kate is on the roof and a lot of people in the fandom who hate him interpreted it as cheating/manipulation/romantic . In the alternate uni in Ep. 3 he's in a relationship with Stella and he's holding hands with her. Taylor in the Vortex Club says he's a cutie or something. And all I'm thinking is like: the person who wrote Warren must of forgot that boys and girls can be friends bc why is everything Romantic all the time?? I think the writers genuinely forgot male-female friendships exist. Why didn't they explore Max and Warren genuinely having a sibling-like relationship or somthing? Why can't Warren platonically be friends with Stella? Why can't he idk platonically hold hands with Stella? Like that's a thing. Why can't he just be friends with Brooke? Why can't he platonically hug Alyssa? That is also a thing.. Like I am just so mad, like Why is the writing like this? I know the fandom doesn't like Warren bc he's is a Ugly N*rc Cishet in their eyes, but the whole 'Warren is bad bc He's Male and Str8 and Weird so he must Die' thing isn't even an argument to me. If anything isn't it the fault of the writers that everyone and esp pric3fielders hates Warren for being an 'Evil Straightie'?? Like I think abt this so much it's killing me, what so u think?? I hope this isn't a big ask but did u like ever notice writing flaws abt like relationships in the game?? Do u ever think interactions could have been better in it?? Wanna know ur thoughts bc i actually trust u on a topic like this.

i definitely dont hate warren!! but i also honestly don’t think about him a lot. probably because of exactly what you said— how dontnod wrote him in the most amatonormative, boring way possible.

i feel like a lot of people who hype him up a lot don’t really remember the act the dontnod writers made him play. DEFINITELY NOT saying nobodys allowed to enjoy his character or wish he was better, but just that a lot of his fans act like he was this cute, do-no-wrong, sweetie pie (aka. infantilizing him. another topic another time)— when in reality the dontnod writers just made him this boring, average, slightly ignorant 17(?) year old.

and honestly the more i think about it, the more that sucks a lot!! Warren could’ve had HUGE potential, but it’s all dropped because they were more focused on Max and Chloe’s story.

which, on one hand, kinda fair and understandable considering this is the Max and Chloe game. but on the other hand, really disappointing.

especially because on most playthroughs, people won’t and don’t get at all attached to him because of how he’s just a. Generic Somewhat-Compatible Love Interest so the game has plausible deniability from being straight up gay. Warren’s whole personality is geek who is romantically interested in Max and gets violent once or twice for the plot.

which in the end just means that it’s one less person that makes the ending choice harder. just one less character the majority of players are worried about letting die.

that saying, i don’t think that if Warren was written better then more people would choose the Bay ending, but just that the hesitance would be more intense. which honestly is just as important as the actual choice itself so.

it also just means less interesting character dynamics/development. especially between Max and Warren. like you said, if they had more of a brother-sister dynamic than their “Boy obsessed with girl who’s obsessed with this other girl.” dynamic, then it would’ve meant SO MUCH MORE that Max was starting to drop Warren in favor for her overwhelming paranoid obsession with Chloe being alive.

It also would’ve meant SO MUCH MORE to Max that she sacrificed someone she considered a brother, than just some guy who wanted to date her. The guilt could’ve been even more than what it already is. The missed angst potential is crazy.

OH MY COD— AND IT WOULD’VE HIT SO MUCH HARDER. TO HAVE WARREN ALSO HUNTING MAX DOWN IN THE NIGHTMARE SEQUENCE. Max going through SO MUCH trauma because of the men in her life, she starts to feel like she can’t even trust a guy she considered close enough to be her brother. like i said: the missed angst potential.

PLUS the idea of Warren being “The Big Brother” of the campus is a WAY more compelling and interesting character idea than just an average 17(?) year old boy who really wants a girlfriend.

(something something. people hate fictional annoying characters more than fictional murderers. something something)

and going back on what i said with “Somewhat-Compatible”, Max and Warren’s non-existent romantic chemistry is almost entirely based on telling not showing (ex: the eclipse scene, Max being able to write on his dorm room’s whiteboard, Max SAYING she thinks Warren is kinda cute, etc). not to mention that Warren’s romantic path is 100% completely optional and avoidable, while Max and Chloe’s is basically out of the player’s choice unless they actively hate Chloe or smth.

and im saying that as an active pricefielder. i literally can’t hate Max and Warren’s ship because theres nothing to hate. theres nothing between them besides bland, “they share some of the same interests”, amatonormativity.

which brings me to how absolutely insane a lot of pricefielders are about Warren. it’s kind of like when people hate a girl character because she gets in the way of their MLM ship. except here it’s a poorly written boy and a WLW ship.

i’m also pretty sure Warren gets the same treatment as any other stand in girl love interest— as in im 90% sure the only other boy we ever see him interact with is Nathan. so.

and i definitely do consider myself a pricefielder— i love Max and Chloe’s ship with all of my heart, but some of us are just WAY too much into shipping culture and think every minuscule thing that goes against their OTP needs to be publicly executed. (<- voice of guy who got called homophobic for saying Max and Chloe aren’t canonically girlfriends.)

which, unfortunately, includes Warren, a character who is such an amatonormative nothing-burger that his personality is even easier than Chloe’s to twist into a “evil motherfucker who should die.”

it’s kinda like the post i made today about people hating the poorly written character instead of the author who made them that way. Warren has a lot of potential as a character, and the writers just completely dumped him away in favor for making him Generic Male Love Interest So This Game Isn’t Just The Gay Game.

honestly before this ask, i dont think i ever truly realized the tragedy that is Warren’s missed character potential. so 100% definitely thank you for sending this! i yapped a lot more than i expected