PE Removal: Paula Miner

At times, I hate Easter eggs, but it is what it is.

What is the work?

Again, no real need to restate what the premise of Doki Doki Literature Club! is since nearly everyone and their grandmother knows about it. But to quickly sum it up: DDLC is a visual novel distributed by the indie game developers Team Salvato. At first it appears to be your typical romance game where you try to woo one of the girls... well, except for Monika, since she was the only one without a route.

And, needless to say, she did not like that. Not. One. Bit.

The game takes a leap in genre when Sayori's depression leads her to committing unalive and becomes a psychological horror game. It would receive additional features called DDLC+ where it gives even more lore to the original game, including the fact that an organization is overseeing Monika's antics in the game.

So...

Who is Paula Miner? Why doesn't she count?

Paula Miner is the overarching antagonist of the game, the Project Manager of the VM1 simulator, otherwise the DDLC universe itself. Working for Metaverse Enterprise Solutions, Paula is initially depicted as a borderline sociopathic control freak (the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree there, does it?") who is aware of Monika's (and later the other girls') sapience, but does not care that she is subjecting them to madness inducement and pain because, in her own words, they were just programs in much the same way that Monika herself tries to justify elevating the other girls' bad traits. In her messages to other members of the team, she comes off as very cold and heartless, dispelling Ive's fears when he had ethical concerns on the project.

Not only was she responsible for the creation of the DDLC universe as well as indirectly for Monika's actions, the ending makes it clear that she caused the destruction of the world dozens, if not hundreds of times already before deciding that she and her team collected enough data and could pursue the next project. Libitina perhaps???

So, she is cruel, apathetic, maybe even prejudiced against AI/computer programs. Truly a monstrous person....

Except, here is where my dumb self messed up.

Several files can be found in the main interface. Hell, that is actually how we find out that MES exists in the first place. You would need to have played a huge percentage of the game for that. Now... that includes an Easter egg, 14... which I had no idea existed even when I did research and watched analysis videos explaining the deeper loooore. So, to basically give what it was:

“	Dearest Ive, Where are the years going??? >~< Doesn't it feel like ever since we graduated, we're just the same doofy college kids but we're being put into increasingly adult situations? It's hard to believe how much can happen in just one year...but all of my memories this year are full of reminders why you've been my very best friend for so long. My gratitude for you is higher-reaching than the mountains I'm gonna live in after faking my death. ;p (throwback to you ACTUALLY entertaining that plan after helping me break up with Daphne...to this day I can never tell how serious or joking you are about things...or life in general...but I think I would literally implode if I didn't have you to remind me that things never matter as much as they seem in the moment, and that things will always be okay.) Imagine if we really do end up working together at Metaverse...that's literally the only way I think I'd be capable of coping with a mundane desk job. I know you said that your referral of me won't go very far because you're not a senior engineer, but...as I'm coming out of my rough patch, it's the future I imagine for myself every day. I'm sorry for always being such a bundle of stress. I always feel like I want to be doing more for you, because the amount you do for me just seems like more than anything I could give back. You inspire me to always improve. And when I don't believe in myself, I stay motivated to become a better person so that I can deliver all of my best qualities to you. I love you and I always will, until we face the end of the world together. Wishing for another 14 million years of friendship. With everlasting love, Paula	„
	~ File 14

So... yeah. She very clearly has some affection for her teammate Ive even though she is shown very explicitly deriding his ethical concerns in the other messages. There is no indication that she gets over this care.