i made this my last controversial opinion of 2025 on twitter so it’s only right i make it my first controversial opinion of 2026 here:
this is probably the only time i’ll ever fully flesh out my thoughts on the dispatch locker room scene, but just so everyone knows where i stand on it—this culture of puritanism we’ve found ourselves in is not as progressive as people think it is. no, actually, i don’t understand why the locker room kiss made people uncomfortable, because not a single kiss in dispatch was preceded by consent. this is not me saying that people aren’t allowed to be uncomfortable by it, but this is me saying that i don’t understand it and i do think that as a whole, people (on the internet, mostly) have gotten too “woke” in a way that is detrimental to the way we consume media and expect humans to interact with each other. because the truth of the matter is, the “surprise” kiss trope has been around for longer than any of us have been alive, and people in real life aren’t asking for consent or announcing what they’re going to do every time they do it. obviously consent is important, especially when it comes to anything beyond kissing or foreplay, and we should all be striving to make sure our partners consent and hold the dignity to withdraw it at any point—which is why the game allows robert the character to retract the implied consent that he’s given over the course of visi’s romance route if the player so chooses.
i understand that as individuals, our experiences and particular traumas shape the way things affect and trigger us—that’s fine. what i don’t believe is fine is going around and using this scene (and her general behavior) to villainize invisigal and call her a pervert, rapist, sexual predator, awful, terrible person because we’ve projected ourselves onto robert as a self insert instead of a character who was written a specific way, with his own thoughts and feelings. as individuals and humans, there is far too much nuance and unspoken/non verbal communication for there to be no difference between kissing a stranger without explicit consent and kissing someone you’ve been actively romantic and built history and rapport with, without explicit consent. and even so—that brings me to this:
the double standard. i want to state, i have no problem with the other kisses that take place in dispatch, even the one that phenomeman forces on robert. in the very first episode, we the player are given the option to have robert the character kiss blonde blazer based on their interactions that have happened within just a few hours. you’re meant to go off vibes, and what you believe this character you’ve played thirty minutes as would do. robert does not explicitly ask for consent—he picks up on the unspoken vibe, goes with his gut, and kisses her (if the player chooses), and she momentarily kisses back before retracting her “consent.” if you are romancing blazer, whether or not you kissed her in episode one, robert again is given the option to kiss her—which he does without explicitly asking, “can I kiss you?” this is such a common trope in media and for those of us who have experienced it, in real life. it happens. it doesn’t make robert a bad person, it doesn’t make you or anyone who might have done it to you a bad person (of course, taking into account whatever did or did not follow it). along with this, it is worth mentioning the smaller things like, again, phenomeman who is an alien with no grasp on human social cues, kissing robert without consent—or when malevola, who the dispatch fandom loves and is frothing at the mouth for a romance route with, grabs robert’s dick as a joke and he openly and aggressively expresses discomfort in (meaning that robert the character is disciplined enough to express these things, is not afraid to do so, and we see how he reacts to textbook sexual assault without player intervention)—and the physical assault inflicted on robert by characters like flambae (please do not tell me attempted murder is not as bad, if not worse than sexual assault—i will not take you seriously).
the point is: we’re holding invisigal, a villain with a complex history who has probably never had a proper relationship, romantic or platonic, to this ungodly standard for acting on intense and yes, probably irrational, emotions with someone she has fallen in love with that she believes may feel the same way. is she invisible while she does it? yes. she left invisible, probably expecting to leave entirely, but it’s not irrational to believe that someone in her situation would stop, hold their breath (literally), and take a leap of faith, which we hear her do. she walks away, pauses, and then runs back to kiss robert in a final act of desperation. these are all things that we as the viewer can, given enough critical thinking skills, infer with the context clues and overall information we’re given about these two characters.
i could go into how the fandom’s treatment of invisigal and the reception of this scene (ie; “Invisigal is immature, Invisigal is pushing 30, Invisigal is too abrasive”) is indicative of a larger problem that probably stems from misogyny (when comparing her character to fan favorite flambae), or racism (when comparing her character to blonde blazer), or lack of media literacy, or all of it mixed together, but that would require novel, and this is long enough already. the overarching point in all of this is:
tldr; Context matters, not everything exists in a vacuum, and i don’t believe, fundamentally, that there is anything wrong with the locker room scene. i don’t think it’s bad writing, i don’t think people defending it are wrong, and i personally don’t believe that what invisigal does is sexual assault (textbook definition aside)—and i’ll be probably the first to say that, even if it is, without any room for doubt, so what? the puritanism we’ve doused ourselves in has left no room to consume media that is meant to make us uncomfortable or question why a certain character behaved a certain way, or even worse, do some self reflecting on why something made us feel a particular way. if the locker room scene made you uncomfortable, it’s well within your right to feel that way, but i do implore you to explore and attempt to navigate that—while at the same time giving a messy character who does messy things some fucking grace, and questioning why all the other fucked up things that happen in this game don’t make you uncomfortable. and if they do, why are we here? why are you engaging with the post game content at all? let us all hope and pray that 2026 brings upon us the ability to engage with things that aren’t black and white. i leave you with this text i found that i think perfectly encapsulates my thoughts on this.
janainaart
andulkaphoto
vaporwave
germansingergirl
prguitarman
