It's depressing to see how obsessive the deer is, obsessive to the point of believe that a man he barely saw and met yesterday was going to be his boyfriend. Reading this made me so confused on why couldn't the deer see how overly obsessed he was and how it wouldn't be that simple. But with the more I think about it, the more I understand. He obviously has never been in a relationship before and clearly doesn't know how they work. I will be honest, I hated the character at first because I was so confused on how he could even think like this, but I realized the reason is because I never have felt this obsession for a person before. I never have because for me love is something that grows, not pops up in the strand of a couple of days. You don't need to be obsessed with a person to love them, all you need is to know that they love you in the same way and always will. I apologize for the rant.
Hi!Thanks for the comment and no need to apologize! I think this is a good place for having these kinds of conversations.
According to most recent research, there are actually multiple kinds of love! The kind of love Deer is experiencing is different from the type of love you are describing. Deer's type involves dopamine and norepinephrine and is characterized by reduced activity in the brain areas involved in critical thinking. The second type of love involves oxytocin and vasopressin and has no impact on critical thinking abilities.
In this story I wanted to talk about what's it like to experience the dopamine-fueled version of love for the first time: trying to navigate a complicated new situation while your brain is effectively being drugged.
I agree, the obsessiveness and selfishness of the Deer character made me wildly uncomfortable. The bear just had his day essentially shot, and has been living under excessive stress, guilt, and loathing, and yet the Deer prioritized his immediate irritation and sadness over giving a shit about someone he was just saying he loved moments earlier. I like the message at the end, with taking off the rose tinted glasses, but it doesn't overrule the discomfort throughout the rest of the game. I'm sorry about this drawn out complaining, but on the bright side, at least the game is causing an effect in it's players.