Jenny and Diane

Okay, now to talk about Jenny and Diane. Jenny is the bigger example since we got more development for her character, but Diane also stuck out to me as being treated in a way that didn't make sense for her character, but could still be explained in the story since we really didn't get to see enough to know if the in-story reason made sense. 

Basically, for Diane we get a loving mother at the start who has a short hookup with our MC, and then they become friends afterwards. The MC then keeps developing a platonic relationship with her, becomes invested in her life and child, helps them out by providing a place to live, 1 million dollars to Diane, and 1 million dollars of a trust account to her daughter Crystal. We're lead to believe that before the MC is taken away to be summoned once more, he has spent effectively 2 years developing a platonic relationship and being essentially Crystal's stepfather. At no time in this relationship did the father who is supposedly a deadbeat show back up. Before being summoned again, the MC then proposes to Diane, and says that he'll remain faithful to her until he gets back. We don't learn what happens after he left until he gets back 6 months later, but apparently Diane hooked back up with her ex in 1 week, gave him literally the 2 million dollars the MC gave to her, and pawned off the engagement ring on top of a symbolic ring the MC gave to her to give to Crystal to show he wasn't abandoning them. Where did this come from? We were never given a hint that Diane was still interested in her ex, that she wasn't strong enough to stay away from him to protect her daughter, or that she would be dumb enough to give away a 1 million dollar trust that was supposed to ensure Crystal's future. Then, when she gets arrested for money laundering that her husband committed with said money, the MC is very eager to take her daughter, get the mom's custody revoked, and then try to get her an even worse plea deal than the deadbeat dad... Why? We could say that in-story, Diane was really a bad or weak person the whole time and caved to the abusive husband who refused to allow a divorce, but even then she hadn't been in contact with him outside basic visitation for 2 years, and at no point showed that she was willing to get back together with him when she was still available. Even then, to randomly say that she is willing to ruin her daughter's financial future for some abusive dude she voluntarily left and stayed away from for 2 years on her own? It makes no sense.

Now, onto Jenny. Jenny's character is introduced as someone who is in romantic love with the image her brother left her before she's summoned the first time, but still seems like a pretty normal and nice person. She's got 2 friends, is hardworking, and able to handle multiple properties that her brother gifts her. For 2 years she's in contact with her returned brother, openly has a crush on him, and is as rich as can be. When he gets summoned again, her accounts are frozen, she can't open any new bank accouts to allow her to get a job, and is supposedly banned from returning home. She scrapes and begs for money for 6 months, and is convinced to help try to apprehend her brother by the government, which culminates in the big betrayal moment where they drug him and kidnap him as soon as he's back. The whole time, Jenny has no idea that he was kidnapped again due to a misunderstanding where the MC walks in on her friend having s*x thinking it's her, and decides to storm out and not tell her that he was getting summoned. Diane doesn't tell her either when she asks her, and simply tells her that he went travelling. So, for 6 months she's left to think her brother abandoned her while having done something illegal and leaving her in a worse financial situation than she was before he came back. So, when he finally gets back she's pissed and wants to hurt him for causing her to quite literally starve... The reaction the MC has and most of the commenters was that Jenny was at fault for reporting him to the police, and that everything the MC does afterwards to force her out of his life, spite her, demean her by paying her the exact amount of money the feds rewarded her for her aid in apprehending him was, and then f*cking her best friend that he promised never to f*ck almost 3 years prior. We're given a moment where the MC admits that he f*cked up, but then turns it around to make it seem like her experience is somehow worse than his? Where he got kidnapped for a couple of days by three letter agencies when she starved for 6 months? How are those equivalent? I then skipped to the end to see how it goes, and her character supposedly devolves further and is treated like a bitch and abandoned by everybody because she keeps trying to get back at her brother... Yet, I don't understand how the MC decided to treat her like sh*t instead of reaching out and keeping her in his life until she calmed down, was able to come to an understanding, and express regret for turning him in while understanding that all of the damage done to try to get to him through her was his fault but not his intention. The man was flashing aroud made up gold, and thought the government wouldn't try to freeze his assets at some point in time???

The biggest travesty with Jenny's character is that her experience over those 6 months doesn't even make sense. Banks are frozen? She can work at a temp service. They often don't require a bank account and can pay in a check that you can cash at a corner store. Need a place to stay? You have a condo that your friends also live in rent free. Need food? Your friends literally live rent free and one of them is supposedly rich. You couldn't ask them to pay you $100 to $150 a month each in cash so that you could have some food to eat. Getting hounded by the feds after they froze all of your accounts and claim that your brother was dealing in illegal cash? Contact a lawyer that would work pro-bono until your assets are unfrozen. You literally had access to millions of dollars frozen for flimsy reasons... A lot of lawyers would be willing to work a case like that with the promise of compensation at the end. Not to mention that the author seemingly turned a young woman who eagerly learned how to run two seperate properties while having showings for rooms, sales, etc... into a woman who couldn't even find a job at a temp service or rely on her friends who live rent free to help feed her while she contacts lawyers to help get her accounts unfrozen since it was illegal for them to freeze those assets anyway? Give me a break. Again, one of those friends who lived rent free, Susan, slept with her brother after he got back. Afterwards when she catches them in the act, Susan acts as if she had been so generous in helping her friend out for those 6 months, but we were literally told that Jenny lived off of plain pasta and box mac and cheese for months... If my friend's assets were frozen and I lived in his house, you bet your butt I'm feeding them and helping them make sure they can get their assets unfrozen. When your friend was up everything was all hunky dory, but as soon as she's broke, depressed, and destitute you want to pretend like you gave her a lot of help even though she is starving in the same home as you. It makes no sense.