Sunday, October 15, 2023
A Relationship With Many Sides
When
it comes to relationships most forms of media present monogamous
pairings as the normal and rarely explore beyond this line of thinking and
when they do the presentation of the opposite extreme is generally
negative. Enter the visual novel, here is a space where polyamorous
relationships are given an equal examination to their more
traditional peers through these games' endings. While they by no
means form the majority of romantic interactions in the medium, they
do exist in significantly higher numbers than elsewhere and each is presented with
the sincerity it deserves. When it comes to how polyamory manifests
in narratives there are two groups, those involving exactly three
participants and those numbering greater than that baseline. These
have differing means by which they come about as well as how they end
up defining the people they connect which gives each a unique flavour
for the player. Despite the nuance on offer from these endings there are
various problems with perception due to people’s ingrained ideas of
the value of monogamy and the way more erotic titles also make use of
this type of ending for a different effect. Let’s expand our
romantic horizons and see how visual novels use polyamorous endings.
Three Is The Magic Number
When
presenting a non-monogamous relationship to the player it is hard to
get them to understand it the further away it is from the two person system
they are familiar with and as such adding only one additional
participant is the most common polyamorous grouping. One of the major
advantages of this trio over a greater number is it can be neatly
divided into three pairings and play off the established idea
of a love triangle as a form of common ground with the player. Like
the sides of a triangle a relationship formed of three people has
three lines of emotion which the player has to understand, one from
each person to the other two. By having neat and easy to follow lines
the player can keep track of how the relationships of each part of
the trio inform the eventual collective romantic ending. Another trick often employed is to have only two of the three
characters on screen at the same time in an imitation of the standard
monogamous interaction and only having all three express their
feeling together when the game heads towards its ending. This means
the player is never overwhelmed by possible clashing or overlapping
love from those in this relationship and it helps them understand the
factors leading towards their eventual union, only to reveal it a
dramatic fashion for the most impact when the time is right.
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| Sisters are a recurring presence in trio relationships |
We can
look to Ren'ai, Karichaimashita for an example of this techniques through its use of the love triangle. This is a game which plays the
idea of a love triangle for comic effect and likes to poke fun at it
with dynamic between Emi and Hasumi and it is into this environment
that it introduces its trio. Twin sisters Chinatsu and Konatsu form
the narratives backbone of this relationship and engage playfully
with the love triangle and its tropes even going so far as having
the twins swap places to fool the protagonist. However, rather than
presenting it as some sort of competition between the twins it eases
the player into the unique bond the three develop and uses its
undermining of these conventions as a constant source of humour. At
its ending all these threads are gathered together to create an
acceptance in the player of the relationship which has formed between
the characters while not directly shoving the polyamory in their
faces. Broadly speaking this is how most non-standard relationships are
presented in visual novels and showcase a more sympathetic and
relatable take on the subject.
Why Stop At Three?
Once
the number of people in a polyamorous relationship exceeds three it
tends to spike by quite a bit, jumping up to anywhere from five to
seven. This spike is due to the benefits of the triangle’s simple
relationship dynamics being lost so it becomes more important to
commit to the characters individual paths towards the polyamorous
ending rather than asking the player to keep track of each possible
bond in the romantic lattice. Showing the micro level of each
character’s bonds has a similar effect to the focus on a
single relationship used by trios by bringing these intricate feeling
down to an easy to understand level which can be subtly built up into
a larger picture. This foundation is then added to as the game piles
on the other participants in the polyamorous relationship and little
by little a complete picture of formed as it reaches its climax and
reveal with the narrative’s ending. Giving the player the space to
breath and get to know each character helps form a detailed idea of
what would lead a person to this type of bond while asking the
player to consider what that tell them about the nature of
relationships in a broader sense.
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| The build up for polyamory takes a long time |
Lamunation! provides a good
showcase of how to present a larger number of people in a polyamorous
ending. To start with it divides its core game into routes following
sets of heroines as they deal with their own issues and lets the
player see the close feelings they already have with the rest of the
core cast. These segregated routes spend a fair amount of time
showing how the characters bounce off each other to make the later
shift into all of them being intimate appear organic. These are
things like Lamune’s inability to say no to the other girls or the
Prateado twins tendency to share everything between each other and they
provide the reasons and motives for the eventual polyamorous ending once
all other routes have been completed. Nekopara follows a similar
approach except rather than routes it splits its catgirls into pairs
and gives them individual episodes to shine in. By doing this the
episodes can rely on the previously mentioned relatable power of
trios to show the dynamics forming around them and bringing in past
trios to slowly build up the whole picture of this relationship
before organically letting it happen.
Problems With Perception And Lust
It
might be obvious at this point that there is an important drawback to
the inclusion of a polyamorous ending and this manifests through
their negative connection with lust and the dominance of monogamy. In
many ways visual novels do not help themselves when it comes the
connection to lust since there are a number of games using
polyamorous endings which utilise it as a form of erotic fantasy
rather than treating as a potential and interesting manifestation of
human relationships. These tend to be titles like Imouto Paradise or
Funbag Fantasy which have no interest in being taken seriously on any
level and exist purely for eroticism with little concern about how
they are perceived beyond their target audience. There is nothing
wrong with this per se and the continued popularity of this type of
fantasy does show there are many people who willing to accept a
simple representation of these ideas. However, it does effect how
those from outside the medium see polyamory within visual novels and
there is a definite tendency by these people to present games including this type of relationship
as horny and of a lesser narrative quality regardless of what the truth actually
is for each one. Beyond this issue there is a fear by developers that
treating a polyamorous bond with complete seriousness might alienate
their predominately monogamous audience, hence why all the titles
mentioned in this article present it through some lens of comedy.
Treating it as a partial joke allows them to deflect the idea that
they are supporting a non-standard relationship and make it more
palatable for potential players. Overall these problems do muddy the
water when it comes to discussing polyamorous endings and are worth
always keeping in mind when you encounter one.
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| This is totally innocent right? |
Conclusion
Addressing
polyamory is a delicate balancing act that few are willing to tackle
so its presence within visual novels as endings is an interesting
convention. While the reality is a mixed bag between sympathetic and
emotional presentations and simple titillation, making for a muddied
overall coverage of the idea, there are nevertheless more meaningful
narratives about it than in most other mediums. If there are three
people in the relationship, the visual novel can focus in on each
pairing within that trio to make the sides of a triangle and allow for
an easy and nuanced understanding on the part of the player. Beyond
that number and the title has to fixate on the characters
individually in order to give them the time they need to present
their growth towards the polyamorous ending. Everything comes
together at those endings and leaves the player to consider the value
of what they just witnessed. This type of relationship and ending is
not suited for most visual novels due to the amount of narrative and
emotional set up it requires to be effective, but it is still worth
considering if the pieces fall into places for this kind of bond
between your characters as you plan your visual novel.
