Vasti event was fantastic (positive rant)

Wow, this one was a surprise for me. Based on the fact that this is a minor character event, and how much they emphasized the yandere nature of Basti in the previews, I assumed this one to be a nothing-burger of a story where Basti constantly and awkwardly goes coo-coo over Commander and competes with other clingy dolls in some silly ways. But no, it turned out to be a pretty interesting story with some super funny moments and even some genuinely emotional ones.
 
I loved how they showed how humanity is trying to rebuild the modern day-level convenience in the yellow zone, namely the wide-spread internet access. I also love how that effort was riddled with corruption and exploitation of the underprivileged, giving the world a nice sense of weight and realism.
 
I love how barely a single brain cell was shared between 2 or I guess 3 dolls. The shenanigans of Dushey and Phaetusa/Sweeper were genuinely hilarious to read, and only very occasionally clingey.
 
I love how complexly the personalities of Basti and G41 (I can’t spell her new name sorry) were written to be. Basti was yandere and super down-bad for SKK as expected, but she was also self-aware about it. She new there was something unhinged about her obsession with SKK, and she was aware she was projecting that onto Zoey. Both she and G41 got cold feet when they heard SKK’s voice; even though reuniting with SKK was their singular desire for 10 whole years, they also realized how much they changed over time and how much SKK must have changed. And I love how desperate Basti became once she realized (or rather decided) that she’s not going back to SKK after all. The scene where Basti gets jealous over Dushey for growing tomatoes with SKK and shit-talked other dolls like WA and Klukai felt earned instead of coming off as a standard harem anime shit, because Basti’s monologue about her despair and her pleading to die with only her love for SKK in her heart that came before that was so sincere and genuinely touching.
 
I loved the friendship between Basti and G41. They are both down-bad for SKK first and foremost (although the affection seems to be much more platonic for G41) so it might not pass the test for hardcore yuri fundamentalists, but I found it genuinely heartwarming how Basti was like “You are my best friend, even though this will probably be the first and last time I acknowledge that, and while I’m absolutely not ready to share Darling’s love with you, I’m ready to give everything else I have for you and I will come fight for you anytime you are in trouble.” That was really moving.  
 
I loved how dolls weren’t always nice to people around them in this event and at times showed selfish or even asshole-ish side. Good. I loved GFL1 event Lycan Sanctuary for this exact reason. Depicting not-so-nice aspects of our favorite characters not only adds much-needed depth and complexity to their personalities, but it also makes sense because these girls are mercenaries. Hired guns. Real life mercenaries are opportunistic dicks and so should fictional ones, but if the writing is good enough a story can make those dicks cute and lovable at the same time.
 
And finally, I love, love, loooooved how SKK apologizes to Basti and actually listens to 500+ hours of her voice messages. This shows him/her owning up to the pain they caused to their dolls by suddenly disappearing without much explanation, no matter how little choice they had at the time. Despite mostly loving the last event, I was somewhat baffled by how SKK is seemingly ignorant to the level of affection/obsession the dolls and humans around them have toward them. This didn’t happen this time, and I think it’s a very good character development for SKK.
 
So overall, damn good stuff. Even the much-dreaded spoiler thing largely turned out to be a non-issue. The event mentions some stuff from unreleased event sure, but it felt more like in media-res story telling method than serious spoilers. Kudos MICA, now go back to your desk and bring over my beloved G3 to GFL2 already.