I did kind of get the impression that what she wants from him (undying loyalty, total attention) is not the same as what he wants from her

I'm glad to know my entries are giving an accurate impression of these two! Although perhaps that's no surprise, because everything they do has me rolling around in noisy agony.

I'm enjoying all the routes to inevitability in this. Like they're kind of predestined to do the fucked up shit regardless.

Yes! I'm enjoying that, although there are multiple dramatically diverging routes in this game, they're ultimately all just different ways to absolutely fuck up the relationship between these two.