so i’ve never been cheated on but i have witnessed the aftermath of it from my parents' relationship. having listened to what both my parents have had to say about it and what family friends have had to say about it, it seems like their relationship was doomed from the start. they fought a lot, even before the cheating happened, and they broke up not long after i was born. however, i say all this to say that despite all the shit that has happened between them, believe it or not, they are each other's best friend.
even to this day, i don't understand the how or the why of it all but they truly have a bond like no other. their relationship is strictly platonic; i just don't think they were meant to love each other romantically (not for forever at least). but they understand each other better than anyone else and if one of them is in trouble, the other will help them, no questions asked. despite the fighting and everything else they've put each other through, their love for each other is so strong, it's crazy. of course, not everyone understands their relationship. some people will never understand it. like i said, i still don't fully understand it and when i was growing up, the fact that they were still so close actually made me mad.
this is turning into a very long tangent (my apologies) but i brought this up because the truth of the matter is, relationships are complicated. i am not at all excusing what hope did and mc has every right to be mad and lash out (bc that’s certainly what i would do) but at the end of the day, hope and mc still love each other and that’s what makes this whole thing so complicated. now whether their love for each other remains romantic is completely up to the player but the love is still there and in reality, it’s not easy to just drop all of it because of one bad thing that happened. mc of course doesn’t have to stay with hope but their relationship doesn’t need to end on bad terms either (and every emotion and ending is valid because we all handle and process things differently). we as the audience may not understand it (especially bc we don’t know hope like the mc does - i mean they are a fictional character) but that’s just life; everyone does things for reasons we will never understand. and not everything has to be black and white: it's possible to love someone who has done you wrong and to have conflicting feelings towards (and maybe even "hate") a loved one. mc and hope are still allowed to love each other after all of this, whether it be in a romantic way or a strictly platonic way.
(sorry this is so long haha. the topic of cheating kind of strikes a nerve for me because of my parents and after reading some of the responses from some very angry anons, i felt like sharing my thoughts. i mean, those anons are valid in feeling angry towards what hope did but that doesn't mean they should be allowed to attack other anons who want to forgive hope or you for trying to explain that the situation is complicated)
❤❤❤
