> Comfort Hanako

[ShadeHaven]

If she could even fathom such a thing, let alone do it, she'd probably become even more of a recluse after ruining their relationship and most likely losing her best friend.

[pandaphil]

A bit off-topic, but was it ever explained why she suffers such awful bouts of depression on her birthday? is it just trying to avoid people making a fuss over her?

[SpecimenSix]

A bit off-topic, but was it ever explained why she into a fit of depression on her birthday? is it just trying to avoid people making a fuss over her?

That's what I got out of it, yes. It was never stated anywhere so this is all just speculation on my part but I think the fire happened sometime around her birthday or even on her birthday itself.

And I don't think Hanako would ever do anything like that either. Even if she had feelings for Hisao she loved Lilly and would never purposely do anything to hurt her.

[pandaphil]

A bit off-topic, but was it ever explained why she into a fit of depression on her birthday? is it just trying to avoid people making a fuss over her?

That's what I got out of it, yes. It was never stated anywhere so this is all just speculation on my part but I think the fire happened sometime around her birthday or even on her birthday itself.

That's always been my running theory too.

Of course if you really want to get dark, we could imagine that she accidentally started the fire herself while playing with the candles from her cake the night after her birthday.

Ugh, you could make a fanfic that would kill people with just a little effort.

[SpecimenSix]

That's what I got out of it, yes. It was never stated anywhere so this is all just speculation on my part but I think the fire happened sometime around her birthday or even on her birthday itself.

That's always been my running theory too.

Of course if you really want to get dark, we could imagine that she accidentally started the fire herself while playing with the candles from her cake the night after her birthday.

Ugh, you could make a fanfic that would kill people with just a little effort.

I've actually thought of that possibility too. That was my initial thought, but even so I don't want to believe that. Hanako's been through enough already to have to live with the guilt of something like that.

[ShadeHaven]

A bit off-topic, but was it ever explained why she suffers such awful bouts of depression on her birthday? is it just trying to avoid people making a fuss over her?

It's probably that she felt her existence was the reason her parents died.

Since her birthday sort of celebrates that, you can imagine how she feels.

[Carighan]

I don't see how this is an exclusive thing. Hanako and Lilly obviously already get along well. Lilly is used to girls making advances on her. Hanako has no prior experience. Hisao does whatever Lilly tells him to.

This'd be resolved peacefully and with a larger bedroom.

[YZQ]

TV Tropes to the rescue. To quote the lady herself: Every birthday was the same. Everyone doing their best to pretend that I mattered. Everyone pretending everything was alright… for one day of the year. I didn't want to exist, but they wouldn't let me.

[Guest Poster]

Every birthday was the same. Everyone doing their best to pretend that I mattered. Everyone pretending everything was alright… for one day of the year. I didn't want to exist, but they wouldn't let me.

Imagine for one day of the year all those "others" pretending to be happy for you. The classmates who usually bully you. The teachers who usually look the other way. The orphanage staff who usually have their hands full with other children. Would you enjoy it? Or would it merely emphasize how messed-up the rest of the year is? Hanako's birthdays feel fake to her and exist merely to rub salt in her wounds. That's why she hates them. It's not directly related to the accident or the death of her parents...Hisao merely speculates all that before Hanako lets him in on the real reason.

As for the bit about Hanako having already tried a suicide attempt...I'd like a quote for that or I'll assume said poster is mixing some things up. I can't recite Hanako's park scene by heart, but I'm pretty sure I'd remember a statement like that. And I don't.

As for the scenario in the OP...I'd have a very hard time imagining Hanako to be even capable of such a thing. She looks up to Lilly and Hisao to some degree and the possibility of Hisao (someone she cares about) harshly rejecting her advances or being disgusted by them would prevent Hanako from even approaching him for that sort of thing. If, by some miracle, it did happen, I'd imagine Lilly and Hanako would silently walk out of each other's lives. Hanako, whose self-esteem is already painstakingly low, would relapse into a self-hatred fuelled depression and would refuse to even leave her room. Since Lilly is blind and Hanako has experience avoiding people, the two simply wouldn't run into each other anymore. Lilly for her part would probably let Hanako go...silently taking the whole thing as a personal failure on her part...and might seriously reconsider moving to Scotland.

Still, I have a really hard time imagining a cheating Hanako.

[pandaphil]

Still, I have a really hard time imagining a cheating Hanako.

Nicely done. I've played through Hanako's park scene numerous times, and she never mentioned being suicidal. Me being the sensitive sort, I think if she'd said such a thing, it would have stuck with me.

I'd say that covers it pretty well. If by chance she did feel herself falling for Hisao, she'd probably insist that it was proof that she was a bad person. That there was something wrong with her for even thinking such a thing.


As for her birthday, I wonder if getting her involved in helping plan a surprise birthday party for Hisao or Lilly would help ease her feelings at all? Or would she consider birthdays in general to be a waste of time?

[YZQ]

On birthdays, Hanako still cannot escape the shadow of comparing her good friends (Lily and Hisao) with her bad ones who abandoned her after the fire. Hanako is very mixed when it comes to interpreting social signals. It is never good to assume that she sees your point of view, cause there is a good chance of her misreading.

[Guest Poster]

Or would she consider birthdays in general to be a waste of time?

I don't think she does. The matter seems to be strictly a personal thing and closely tied to her own experiences.

[YZQ]

Hopefully, she'll get to have a happy birthday party, together with a band of true friends.

[Oddball]

On birthdays, Hanako still cannot escape the shadow of comparing her good friends (Lily and Hisao) with her bad ones who abandoned her after the fire. Hanako is very mixed when it comes to interpreting social signals. It is never good to assume that she sees your point of view, cause there is a good chance of her misreading.

I think Hisao and Lilly confuse the hell out of her regardless.

She's spent close to a decade with nobody that ever really liked her, but then she meets two people that actually do seem to care.

She just can't get her head around the idea that people actually like her and want to hang out with her, so she keep looking for signs that would tell her that they don't really care and are just showing her pity,and while she expects the pity and is probably even subconsciously looking for it, she still seems to hope that they do like her.

As far as the comfort thing goes, it would never happen. Hanako would rather suffer in silence and be miserable than inconvenience others, especially those that she actually thinks of as her friends.

Or would she consider birthdays in general to be a waste of time?

I seem to recall Lilly saying that she and Hanako spent Lilly's birthday together having one of their tea parties, so I doubt she hates birthdays in general. Hanako just hates her own birthday.

She says towards the end that the bullying in elementary school was so terrible that she tried to kill herself when she was ten years old... the next day, the other students told her that they were sad her suicide attempt failed and that they wish she would have died so that their classroom would no longer harbor someone so 'hideous' and 'disgusting'...

She never says this. You might be confusing the game with some fanfic or the leaked beta script (not sure if she says it there either) or something.

[OtakuNinja]

This would happen.