YMMV / Wishful Thinking (2019)

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Both Aubrey and Jaime are seen as shy and awkward Love Interests with insecurities about their feelings for Lydia, or as creepy stalkers because of their erratic behaviours (Aubrey outright lies to Lydia about visiting her at the hospital, rather than admitting his concern, while Jaime spends a lot of time hanging out at Lydia's house, having a crush on her that lasted years).
• Catharsis Factor:
  • In Chapter 8, Alec gets embarrassed when his reassignment of Lydia and Aubrey has backfired after begrudgingly feeling impressed at their story on the emus. Bonus points for players pursuing Jaime, because it started with Alec's ungrateful attitude towards Jaime after the latter fixed the power outage at the station in the previous chapter, and Lydia stepping in to defend his honor.
  • In the finale, many players take the premium option to humiliate Alec during his arrest, with Aubrey, Ellen, June, Maggie, and Tony telling him how much he sucks as a boss, in addition to his cooperation with Charlie Carmichael.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Anna Koishi already has several fans due to her character design, being a self-made woman, and firing back at Ellen for asking rude questions during her interview.
  • Jinx, a cat that Lydia can adopt in Chapter 3, instantly became beloved by the fandom due to its hilarious thoughts.
• Just Here for Godzilla: A significant number of players only play the book just to see how the emus in the cover factor into the plot.
• I Knew It!: Players aren't surprised that Charlie Carmichael is a Sleazy Politician all along. Conversely, Ellen Thompson is Good All Along.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Players interpret June getting excited that Aubrey reads for "pleasure" as a Double Entendre, in which he reads erotica.
  • The amount of recycled character models hasn't gone unnoticed by fans. While this is common for other Choices books, it's quite glaring here as even supporting characters have recycled models. It's gotten to the point that there's a joke that Lydia is actually Female!Eli from The Elementalists who has lost her memories, or a long-lost triplet sister.
  • Aubrey's detractors like to make several dark jokes about his thoughts and often compare him to a stalker or serial killer.
• The Scrappy:
  • Aubrey is already hated for coming across as a forced love interest, getting tons of Character Shilling such as June emphasizing that he reads, and lying to Lydia at the hospital which many find creepy. He gained more detractors in Chapter 3 with many finding his thoughts such as "I've been watching you for a long time" and "She's so...soft" (if Lydia hugs him) to be genuinely disturbing. Players also hate his entitled behavior when he wished Lydia would say something to make him feel better when she's suffering from stress as a result of her father in a coma.
  • Lydia's dad is hated for coming across as overprotective and unsupportive of his daughter's decisions.
  • Alec Burdock is widely hated for being a Bad Boss with Skewed Priorities on which kind of news gets the headlines, lifting Lydia up at the expense of others, and behaving ungratefully towards Jaime. Not helping his case is that he's revealed to be Charlie Carmichael's partner in crime.

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