A few thoughts about “the psycho couple”
I just played Saeran AE (and got the “famous” bad end, I just want my boys to be happy T^T) and I never liked the "psycho couple" yet I want to say a few things about what I remember about the routes and these two.
*BE CAREFUL, SPOILERS AHEAD*
In my opinion, V just reveals his true self in this AE. V is a man who has a twisted concept for love, and believes loving Rika is to stay with her no matter what happens, accept her concept of happiness and do everything to reach her goal independently who hurts along the way and how twisted it is. He knows what they are doing is wrong, but his happiness depends on her happiness, and that's why he won't stop her.
V is the center of everything. Without V, Rika loses her strength. There will be no one to let her do anything without any punishment, and yeah, she does what she wants because there's no one to say that her actions are wrong and try to stop her.
After killing Saeran's and Seven's mother by accident Rika finally freaked out, and the guilty made her even more twisted. The choice to hide the reason about Saeran's mother's death made her madness uncontrollable. At that point she wanted someone to stop her, well she commited a crime and she knew it and needed to be punished but then when her lovers say that's alright and helps to cover her actions Rika feels more comfortable to believe that she is free to do anything and still be loved.
Also, V probably sees himself in her, or maybe he just wants to help because she has a dream to realize and he can help her. Once, he had one dream too, but it turned things complicated and he changed to be a photographer, a career similar to what he dreamed to be when he was with his mother and more acceptable for society and his father.
But the truth is V has a trauma too (who doesn't have one in mysme?), he can't love himself, Rika doesn't love herself too. They don't understand what love is yet they wanted to be loved .
Then, V tries to cover Rika up. He even lied saying that she died for his friends. And instead of trying to stop her, he just watched, because when Rika finds her happiness she'll stop. Well boy, the girl is not satisfied, and she even takes Saeran, tortured and brainwashed him to hate his own brother. V says he didn't expect that would happen with Saeran, but later on we find he's investigating the place by himself... and well I'm gonna stop here.
When I said V is the center of everything I'm referring to Secret End, V’s route and V’s AE. In Secret End, Rika just stop herself after being in shock with V’s death. In V's route mc made him realise that his love wasn't really love. And he says that was an obsession. Well, I completely agree, he is obsessed with Rika and his ideals (but I was a little sad when I first read that he felt nothing more than obsession with Rika, As for me it was love and at some point and it turns into obsession, but i'm not his fan so...). The other point is mc makes him realize that he needs to love himself first, and that's why he goes on a trip to discover more about himself (I think it is shown on the good end). I said all that because his After End apparently (I didn't play) is the end where everyone is happy, and just reinforces the idea that the real problem is V and all turns out good because mc "stopped" him.
I'm the person who usually likes the villain and I think Cheritz lost an great opportunity to explore V as the "true" villain, because he has the potential to be a manipulator, psycho (well, he reminds me Mark Jefferson from LIS in that bad with an camera and when he tooks photos from Rika. Plus, I think Jumin has more emotion than him lmao), or just the person who wanna do anything to make his lover happy (I love V's voice actor, imagine V with his evil laugh).
I don't like the development of V's character but I wanted to see him like a real bad guy in the game, or at least, didn't create his route in the first place - I learned more about his mother than about him ???. I never saw him as a playable character and they just turned Rika into a "poor, sad and traumatic person who deserves all the love and any therapy and no punishment". Also, V’s route is boring and the chats are too long, most of the time I just see Rika and him arguing when I wanted to escape with Saeran (srry, my twins deserve the whole world, and V deserves Rika).
Finally, this is some thoughts that I had when I was playing the game, and they come back now with Saeran's After End (and hopefully I’ll get the good end).
