Something that doesn't make sense to me (spoilers)

[squareandrare]

Why would Ernie Madsen agree to be the president of the company when he wasn't a part of the Clanced Trust? The whole idea behind the Clanced Trust and the Roottree Guarantee is that it wouldn't make any sense for anyone to be president if they weren't being paid through the trust. So why did Ernie do it? He wasn't independently wealthy, so he couldn't really afford to just work for free (despite his apparent interest in candy).

This kind of stuck out to me as an obvious plothole, but maybe I missed something.

[BayOfRoses]

It was Ernie Jr. who became president, not Ernie senior. Ernie Jr. was Elias' great grandson

[squareandrare]

Yes, I'm talking about Ernie Jr. He was from Sam's line, so he wasn't paid by the trust (they hadn't yet acknowledged Sam as a blood relative). That's why Ernie's wife had to turn to the family to pay his medical bills when he got sick.

Edit: Sorry, they had acknowledged Sam as a relative, but she and her family were only given the farm, not payouts from the trust. The point is that Ernie Jr. wasn't rich.

[BayOfRoses]

Maybe he accepted because Guy died so suddenly and no one else was prepared to become the president. You don't have to be rich to run a company after all

Or I'm into this game too deep and this part wasn't really thought through

[squareandrare]

You don't have to be rich to run a company, but you do have to have an income to put food on the table. Given the financial hardship his wife and daughter later faced, he couldn't really afford to take a job that only paid a few dollars a year. But for some reason he did it anyway. If the company were truly that desperate for a new president, it seems like Ernie could have at least negotiated something. But the game paints it as a "he loved the idea of candy so much that he became a great president." Just doesn't make sense to me.

[BayOfRoses]

True. Maybe he received some other kind of benefit from the company that isn't mentioned, or they relied on Debbie's income, or someone in the family helped them financially. But I don't remember any explanations for that either so I do see the plothole, Ernie's situation could've been explained better

[Eauxps I. Fourgott]

My guess is that he took it because of the combination of the following factors:

1) He had a genuine passion for the candy/company.

2) Under ordinary circumstances, his wife's income and whatever other support they received was sufficient to live on.

If I'm correct, the financial hardships only came AFTER he fell ill and the medical expenses started to rack up. And IIRC he was president for quite a while before that happened?

[Dave Mongoose]

From what I remember, Ernie Jr was interested in the running of the company and Zac was preparing him to take over from a young age, but Guy basically pushed to be made the next president because he wanted the power and prestige.

The topic of their financial hardship is mentioned in a couple of clues, IIRC. They survived on Debbie's income and some help from Carl, particularly when Ernie fell ill.

[lentinant]

Originally posted by Dave Mongoose:

From what I remember, Ernie Jr was interested in the running of the company and Zac was preparing him to take over from a young age, but Guy basically pushed to be made the next president because he wanted the power and prestige.

The topic of their financial hardship is mentioned in a couple of clues, IIRC. They survived on Debbie's income and some help from Carl, particularly when Ernie fell ill.

I think the primary point here is - why the company with pretty much billions as a profit could not provide even regular salary to a person who basically did run the entire thing. The way and the reason why Ernie Jr became president do not really matter here. The company did have other staff that was paid; it's not like all income went solely to fund the Trust.

[HeeCawRoo]

Originally posted by lentinant:

I think the primary point here is - why the company with pretty much billions as a profit could not provide even regular salary to a person who basically did run the entire thing.

they *could*, but they didnt because elias (original) only wanted his legitimate descendants to be able to be president. the president is not payed well specifically so that nobody else could afford to do it.

ernie jr did it anyway because he genuinely cared about the company, and suffered for it. its not so much a plot hole, just a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing the founder did.

[ftoaster]

Also when guy tanked the company and then managed to get killed in a car accident the company probably went into full panic mode and oh hey cousin Ernie jr was already learning the business from Zac so he’s the best of a bad situation

[mumismatist]

Originally posted by Dave Mongoose:

From what I remember, Ernie Jr was interested in the running of the company and Zac was preparing him to take over from a young age, but Guy basically pushed to be made the next president because he wanted the power and prestige.

The topic of their financial hardship is mentioned in a couple of clues, IIRC. They survived on Debbie's income and some help from Carl, particularly when Ernie fell ill.

Always got the impression that another reason Zac was forced to capitulate and make Guy President because Guy was a "llegitimate" Roottree and Ernie Jr wasn't.

You're right about the financial hardship bits - after Ernie fell ill and handed the reigns over to Carl, Carl and Brenda strongarmed the company into looking after Ernie when Debbie's salary couldn't cut it, probably as a repayment for how Ernie helped them to set up ROOT.

Looking back Ernie's death was probably what really spurred Sam to start working on 6Pieces, because now she knew her descendants would be hung out to dry if anything happened to them and she wanted them to be secure.

[squareandrare]

Originally posted by HeeCawRoo:

ernie jr did it anyway because he genuinely cared about the company, and suffered for it. its not so much a plot hole, just a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ thing the founder did.

Maybe "plothole" is too strong, but it just defies credibility that someone would be willing to be a CEO for multiple years for no pay. It really hit me when reading the letter from his wife thanking Carl for helping with the medical bills. I'm sitting here thinking, "Are you kidding me? That is the absolute least they could do, given that he'd been working his butt off for years for no pay to bring more money into the pockets of a bunch of trust fund babies."

I kept expecting that there was more to this. Some secret payments to Ernie, some side benefits he was getting, but I never found anything. By all appearances, he just worked as a CEO for free.

[Fien]

Spoiler alert!
Something else that doen't sit well with me but I may have missed stuff. EC and CE are identical twins. (Sam as a child thinks CE is her dad when she meets him by accident.) So CE and EC grew up together until it was discovered EC was homosexual. (kissing etc) Identical twins: one hetero, one ♥♥♥♥, doesn't make much sense. It's also a bit too much to believe that Lauren's dad would deny his twin's existence when identical twins who grew up together always have a strong bond.

[HeeCawRoo]

Originally posted by Fien:

Spoiler alert!
Something else that doen't sit well with me but I may have missed stuff. EC and CE are identical twins. (Sam as a child thinks CE is her dad when she meets him by accident.) So CE and EC grew up together until it was discovered EC was homosexual. (kissing etc) Identical twins: one hetero, one ♥♥♥♥, doesn't make much sense. It's also a bit too much to believe that Lauren's dad would deny his twin's existence when identical twins who grew up together always have a strong bond.

this is simply not how families work. twins can like or hate each other just the same as any other siblings. siblings having different sexualities is also completely normal.

[Fien]

Noooo! That's not true. I've never heard of dentical twins "hating" each other and sexuality is not a choice. You cannot equate dentical twins to siblings. Identical twins are rare and those with a different sexual orientation, if any, must be extremely rare. So your statement is based on what exactly.