honestly, I don't even get the discussion. someone who's desperate to survive will grab a rotten rope. that's what makes penelope a complex character, when we were watching her 'show love' to eclis we knew exactly what was on her mind and how she felt about him in truth. no one raised as many complains then, but now that the consequences of her those actions are here to fuck her over, everyone suddenly seems to have awakened a conscience
u bring up such a good point!! i wasn't around that early on so i didn't know ppl's original thoughts, but what u say is rlly interesting and i completely agree. u put it so well omg
Fr, and being honest his route seemed to be the most simple!!!anyone would have tried to conquer his flag. And also Penelope did care for him just not romantically which while emotionally harmful never actually harmed him. He chose this path despite knowing she never loved him like that.
Personally I won't say Penelope shouldn't have done that.
Yes after reading till this point it feels like Penelope played a significant part in making Eckles like this, but I don't blame her for choosing that path.
When I felt that Eckles became like this because of what happened, a part of me does sympathize with him, which again doesn't mean he has the right to do what he did.
Overall it's complex to be honest. There's no completely white or completely black area regarding this.
Also if you noticed this the way penelope treated Eckles like how she's been treated by duke.. mostly she stayed in her room and given gifts. Both of them were bullied. I gave it thought what if both penelope and Eckles are like mirror to eachother..both desparate to live and to be loved while kept their true emotions shut off. While one chose to stay sane despite everything..another chose madness.
Because penelope really thought she could escape this game with Eckles and put more efforts on him according to the game. I was too rooting for Eckles while reading the novel. Vinter choose not to take Yvonne not to betray penelope so Leila used Eckles feed his obsession and wanting to penelope to isolate from the people who she finally able to gain trust because she doesn't wanted to die by their hands.
People sympathetic towards Eckles but he betrayed..he was one of them who killed penelope over years in the game too.
i totally get what ppl are saying abt how penelope shouldn't have taken advantage of eclis bc irl u obviously shouldn't do that to ppl BUT while everybody DID end up being real, penelope was treating eclis that way while being under the impression that this was all a game, and that there were set paths to get to the ending, and it didn't matter what you actually DID to get to there as long as you followed a path. which makes total sense bc she spent countless hours figuring out those paths in the game (the various MLs) when she was in the real world. she was predisposed to think that it would work the same. and that's exactly what penelope was doing: she won eclis over in the hopes that (bc this was a romance game to her) she would be put on the path to the ending.