double standards and gender roles in "Dispatch"

Spoilers for Invisigal's romance options/route in Dispatch.

Okay, forewarning, I'm in a ranting mood. I played Dispatch with my boyfriend over the weekend, and I love Telltale games (AdHoc was created by Telltale's former developers), so I had high expectations. Unfortunately, I ended the game kind of disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the game had some really great moments, and generally I had a good time with it, but I literally cannot stand Invisigal's character.

https://gamerant.com/dispatch-preview-point-click-superhero-management-game/, The Z-team.

The story of Dispatch pretty much revolves around Invisigal's story and how she develops from a villain and into a hero. Each member of the Z-team follows this path, but the interaction between Robert (the player character) and Invisigal is especially prevalent--especially considering that she's a romance option in the game. That's kind of where my criticisms come from. Invisigal, under the guise of a romance option, consistently behaves in a perverted way with no consequence, and no outcry from any other character in the game--she doesn't even apologize.

Invisigal's power allows her to turn invisible whenever she holds her breath. This allows her to do things like hide in a room while the player character is changing, sneak into the men's bathroom and kindly inform Robert about a sex dream she had with him, and even force a kiss onto him while she is invisible. The intention behind these scenes is supposed to reinforce a sort of romantic tension between Robert and Invisigal, but it rings hollow--instead leaving a sour taste in my mouth. At best, it's sexual harassment, and at worst it's full blow assault. It's not ever very romantic, because it never feels reciprocated. Instead, it's always Invisigal pushing herself onto Robert. Is this an acceptable thing to have in a game, and to use as a method to build a romance? I'm not so sure about the romance part, but I think it's acceptable to have in a piece of media if done well--which unfortunately, isn't the case here. If we actually saw some development from Invisigal, where she acknowledged her past mistakes (because they were mistakes) and learned from them, these previously offensive scenes could represent a sort of weakness or flaw on her behalf. But these scenes are never mentioned again, let alone portrayed as bad events. Characters can do bad things in stories, but if the point of the story is redemption, there should be some kind of visible growth from the then versus the now.

For the sake of argument, and under traditional patriarchal views, imagine Invisigal were a man, and Robert were a woman; under these conventional gender roles, the things that Invisigal had done throughout the game become a lot more obviously offensive. Why is it that a female character cannot fall under the same scrutiny as a male character? I can't say for sure that my criticisms would be more widely shared if these characters presented under different genders, but it's a phenomenon tracked even beyond fictional pieces of media and into the real world. There seems to be this double standard that women cannot commit acts of sexual harassment or sexual assault, and that men cannot be victims.

But in this instance, although fictional, Robert would be a victim here. In fact, if you don't lean into the kiss that Invisigal forces on you, you are actually pretty much locked out of her romance option. To me, that feels completely tone-deaf as to what the scene is actually conveying. Again, it's not romantic--it's just weird.

Dispatch was otherwise a pretty fun experience. The gameplay and the other story options were very compelling, and I found Robert to be a pretty interesting character too. But with how integral Invisgal's story is to Robert's story, and thus the main story as a whole, it felt impossible to ignore how improperly written her character is. I think with some minor changes and additions, she could be a very compelling character with interesting growth. But right now, to me, she falls flat.