Class of '09- Secret Video Message

I guess we'll never know.

[mikeolson]

The grand irony here is that Nicole does know. Jeffery doesn't understand that despite all the attention Nicole gets, shes still incredibly lonely because the people who give her attention don't actually care about her, and she's too emotionally repressed to form connections with people who might.

[ggbg]

I love that Nicole and Jecka actually have a serious talk with Jeffery after he demands her to give him an explanation on her behavior, and then when Jeffery downplays her problems she goes right back to mocking him. They truly aren’t made for eachother.

[dmvzyhn]

Nicole’s graduation speech and adulthood is definitely the canon ending. I’d certainly like to believe so

[bondage]

I like how grey things are. Jeffrey can be a victim of bullying and still a total creep. Likewise Nicole can be a sociopathic asshole and a victim

[Mr.Mo_]

Perfect example of “the grass is always greener on the other side”

[rookiewarrior]

When they said coke I was thinking of the soda. I'm way too old to be this clueless.

[Coin_operated_doll]

Never played class of ‘09 but from all the conversations I’ve seen with Nicole this feels like the one conversation she takes seriously

[kyrarose]

"How would you let some crazy guy get your number like that in the first place?"
Hearing this asked hurt. The auto-response most the time really is just "Oh, you're being harassed? It's your fault for being vulnerable"
Excuse me??

[guidomista]

Class of 09: the realest depiction of high-school

[tedbrittain]

I see a lot of people talking about how one person in this conversation is right and I think that's pretty reductive, IMO they're both wrong if anything. Jefferey is essentially saying "you have a choice of what to do, and then you choose to hurt people who haven't necessarily hurt you just because you can, you have the resources to get whatever you want and all you use them for is to toy with others like a game". And Nicoles response is essentially "I know what I'm doing is wrong and I don't care, I'll never get what I actually need so instead I'll satisfy any fleeting want as a consolation prize for never being fulfilled, because the structure of the culture and society around me inhibits my actualization; a culture you perpetuate, which is why I'm okay with talking past you, I know you won't get it but it's fine for me to make fun of you because nothing I actively do can be worse than the things you passively perpetuate." Jeffery is willing to empathize with Nicole, but doesn't have the tools to, Nicole has the tools to empathize with Jeffery, but isn't willing to; if she started empathizing with Jeffery, everything would come crashing down, the only power she has would disappear, principal Lynn touches on this when she talks about controlling men and not 'falling for' caring about them. Nicole is able to validate her self perception of superiority by being aware of her capability (to understand him when he can't understand her) that Jeffery doesn't possess, and uses this to insulate herself from the emotions that might come from actually meeting Jefferey on his level. Jeffery thinks Nicole has abandoned her humanity, Nicole believes that she's transcended it. It's a greek tragedy to Nicole, the great value that society attached to the aspects of herself that she has no control over represent an inexorable prophecy to Nicole, that she's destined to fulfill; willing or unwilling. I think this is why in half then endings she becomes extremely successful and in the other half she hits rock bottom and stays there. Because the societal impressions pushed onto Nicole are real, and she has a decent chance of riding them all the way to the top, but so too are her traumas and vices caused by them, and depending on how the out world treats her, either could win. In every ending one thing stays consistent, Nicole doesn't change. This is why Jefferey is angry with her, on some level he recognizes that Nicole won't change, but he can't change (not saying this is necessarily true tho). It's funny because I think SBN3 deliberately made these characters as direct parallels, Jefferey has an abusive dad, Nicole has an abusive mom; Jefferey gets no attention because he's an unattractive boy, Nicole gets all the attention because she's an attractive girl; these are equally harmful, but in such different ways that it makes those who experience them have a difficult time empathizing with eachother. I think the choice to make Nicole the perspective character was concerted; everybody will give attention to a story about an attractive girl; nobody will give attention to a story about an unattractive boy. And in terms of a video game/visual novel, attention = success. I don't think it's a coincidence at all that Nicoles bad endings often involve drug abuse, and Jeffery's most notable bad ending involve extreme violence; Nicoles mom is abusive because she does drugs and ignores her daughters problems, Jefferey's dad is abusive because he's a violent gun nut; Nicole sees the world as uncaring and meaningless, Jefferey sees the world as evil and hostile, so of course Nicole responds by not caring about anything and Jefferey responds by hating everything, sound familiar? Class of '09 is a lot of things, most of all a love letter to the 2000's, but I think SBN3 is trying to say something really poignant about... something? Societal neglect of genders in different ways? Cultural prejudice on the basis of sex? Maybe even more generally a statement on empathy and hate? Because what this conversation reveals about these two characters is that they hate eachother. Nicole talks past Jefferey on purpose because she doesn't want to give him the understanding he's desperately searching for and Jefferey attacks her back with pure sincerity, the one thing she can't touch without collapsing. But he opened the interaction with sincerity so maybe he was the aggressor here? Or he wasn't trying to because he still didn't understand? Maybe Nicole can't even take Jefferey trying to connect with her sincerely because she's too jaded by this point. I think in the end it's just 2 broken people trying to find what they're looking for and never getting it. I think maybe it's two different people who have the same kind of trauma, who feel the same kind of pain, but can't connect over it because the things causes are so disparate. And so they end up hating eachother instead.

They literally said it right at the beginning of the interaction, Jefferey is still trying to figure out the big idea (the way people interact and society actually works) Nicole already figured it out and realized that being aware of it wouldn't help so she went back down a level (medium ideas) because constantly living with what awareness with no agency about it is crippling, and in intentionally choosing not to understand she can also deny empathy, making her immediate circumstances a playground. Jefferey thinks that if he can figure out the big idea it'll make a difference, nocole know it won't, if had to choose who's morally in the right it's probably Jefferey, if I had to choose who's actually correct in their perceptions and assertions, it's Nicole.

I think the advent of technology in the 2000s is the perfect setting for the themes of this story, it's new enough that adults don't fully understand it yet, but useful enough that it makes a huge influence in the power balance between kids and adults, giving kids/teens a hitherto unheard of amount of agency and capacity for independent thought and expression. It lowered the barrier of entry to being different than your parents or disagreeing with authority figures, and so authority derived from things like religion or culture became more tenuous than ever before. But the number of youth that felt completely alone increased proportionally. I don't know what I'm really getting at I guess I'm just screaming this into the void because I'm thinking these things over myself. Anyway, if you read this whole thing, I hope it helped you hone your own insight as to what the VN actually means, if you can think of something interesting about all this that I didn't mention please share, I'd like to hear other people's perspectives.

[zeroanonymity]

God it's a genuinely incredible moment. Like that's a perfect summation of the game, isn't it? Jeffrey presumably being the player before playing the game. It's a weirdly empathetic and even sweet admission on the game's part in the form of another hilariously well paced skit.

[extenduss]

"I guess we'll never know."
there's something about that line and the way it's delivered that kinda hits. it's like she sort of WANTS to see herself in Jeffrey's shoes, and she wants Jeffrey to see himself in her shoes. but neither of them can

[Naznt-Kosu]

The contrast between Jeffrey and Nicole reminds me of the movie "Two Distant Strangers"

Jeffrey does not understand the extent of 'attention' Nicole gets and undermines the amount of sexual harassment, trauma, and threats she receives naturally. This is why Nicole is harsh to other people as they only see her for body, especially the adult holy shit, they are terrible people

Jeffrey is right when he says "Every time I try to have a normal convo you just make it a joke about me" And I know it's a joke, but it's obvious by now that Nicole's "jokes" are very mean-spirited. Despite all the trauma, Nicole just overall seems like she's incapable of being kind. And yes, sociopaths are capable of expressing generosity or kindness.

[amandahugenkiss]

What I like about this is that both of them are in the wrong. . Both of their suffering is valid, but instead of having the empathy to understand the others problems, they dismiss them. If they just stopped and thought about what the other has to go through, this could have been the beginning of a friendship rather than a pissing contest as to who has it worse. It shows what happens when you only think of your own problems and don’t empathize what others may be feeling

[csarine]

I like this ending because even though the reasoning for Nicole acting out is obvious, it sums her behaviour up pretty well. And, I guess people who are only liked solely for their looks tend to feel this way a lot. No wonder why Nicole's suffering so much.

[cipher]

instead of this i got some weird irl video that was low quality of someone running into the woods with a knife.

[tils]

What’s really fucking depressing about all of this is that not only does Nicole understand exactly what Jeffrey is telling her, but the fact Nicole actually did try being nice in one route but ended up killing herself, she actually listened to her mom and tried to build new friendships with boys. She didn’t even wanna hang out with them to begin with, she gave them a chance anyway and EVERYONE INCLUDING JEFFERY, and even Jecka just screwed her over because of something she didn’t do.
And that’s not even the worst part. Her mom kicked her out of the house as soon as she got home.
Everyone who could’ve ever possibly even cared for her turned against her in a matter of minutes.
and in another ending, it’s revealed that another reason Nicole is such an ass to everyone ls just for her to feel any type of satisfaction and that she simply built a wall around herself because she’s too emotionally repressed to build new friendships.
And I can see why.
Everybody seriously seems to ignore or straight up downplay how terrible the boys and even Nicole’s family are in the game.
And from both perspectives, I hope this is a wake up call.
Jecka did text Nicole and apologized so ig that’s something, it was too late by then obviously but at least someone cared.

[LGHTDUD]

“I’ll guess we’ll never know…”
Aka
“Except I do know and feel being “you” for a day, because I was that at some point, and I’d rather kms before I get to that point again.”

Nicole literally pretty much explained how lonely she was at the beginning of the game prior to “being pretty” and once she became such she started to exploit such to her advantage. And is disgusted at Jeffrey because he sorta represents a past portrayal of her before the pretty part. She, like Jeffrey and even Jecka is just as insecure except manifested in a different way.

[girlfriend]

in the original Class of 09(not the re-up) you can clearly see that Nicole DOES know how it feels to be in Jeffery's shoes. Back when she didn't close off all of her emotions on the people around her and build a thick wall.

[ash._.es_._]

Now THIS is good writing. We will never, EVER like Jeffery, but this establishes so much between these two within three minutes. The comments on this video shows PLENTY proof how this secret video had its standing here. THIS is the type of shit Flip Side should’ve went balls to the walls over, but instead we just got 15 dollar shock humor with less content.

SBN3 had a ghost writer. Change my mind.