The Quarry thoughts about themes and intentions
This is copy pasted from reddit and added onto but I will probably expand even more later. Please note this is not endorsement or denial of any ship, It's simply observations while trying not to lean towards such biases. @thylocalrat knows how difficult it is for me not to enthuse about my favorite rarepair but this was important to me not to.
My personal pet theory is that the game is intended to mimic high school. You form surface opinions while seeing it the first time. Dylan should win the aloof cool guy or his story doesn't mean anything as a gay man, a habit that even a lot of us queer people tended to fall into wanting back when we were so young. Because we were told this and not mature enough to question. So it's a typical trope, especially in high school opinions. Emma is definitely just a typical popular bitch with a burn book, Laura is top tier women power, Nick is a nut, Jacob is the selfish asshole jock, it goes on from there.
Then you dig a little deeper and notice things like Nick and Abi are referred to as so deeply dedicated but they never spoke a single word to each other before that day. What they're dedicated to are wishes and whispers of what they hope each other truly is. It's of note that Abigail's sketches of him have him in nerdy glasses we never saw ourselves.
Dylan and Ryan could work but it would require a lot of changes on both their parts. It's not just about admitting Ryan is flawed and deeply entrenched in depression but Dylan is too, and he enables a lot because he's looking for validation. Dylan being a character who has "no good reason" to be depressed is everything to me. We need this rep more in media. It's still okay to be sad no matter how good your life is.
Max isn't an idiot. Everyone talks about how it's a plot hole he left the letter in the trunk to be found. They don't consider it was stupid on purpose. If you read the information offered, Laura is entering graduate school and he was rejected for freshman. College is a point of contention that I believe he's only trying because Laura needs to follow the rules and expectations she thinks life has. It was the only way he could tell her. Any interest in Ryan was because it was a reflection of her infection. The lovers tarot card is not immediately honest to what people think the meaning is, nor intended to be so.
Of course, there's Jacob. But my thoughts on him would take a post all on their own.