I second your explanation. All this time we forgot to differentiate between beautiful and pretty... thank you for drawing the line here.Deimos wrote:In a very strict sense Hanako has deformities that make her ugly while she is beautiful at the same time. A moment to explain if you allow me to indulge myself.PinkMagus wrote:If you have to look past defects to love them, then you don't really love them, only the small scope you acknowledge.
Those who truly love learn to redefine defects, such that attributes of a person become merely additions to their person rather than flaws.
In terms of raw prettiness Hanako is certainly the heroine who is rather lacking. But I always thought there was a fundamental difference between being pretty and being beautiful. Prettiness varies from culture to culture and preferred fashion style but regardless of that has a certain uniformity to it. It is rather normative concerning our aesthetical judgements. I, for one, think flowers are petty.
Beauty is, for the lack of some better synoym, entirely different. It is so individual in its depth and can encompass so much more, sometimes literally compelling you to fall on your knees or make your heart soar high into the sky out of gratitude for the existence of your object of affection. I, to name a harmless example, consider the vast sandy dunes of deserts with all their harshness and solitude to be beautiful, sometimes even exactly because of these particular features.
Personally, I think Hanako has defects and those are not lovely because otherwise any attraction would be based on a rather uncommon fetish. I do not know if I am agreeing with you or not, all I want is to express my firm belief that, for Hisao, Hanako is not pretty, but beautiful.
Maybe I am against a no-scars ending because I fear her resulting prettiness would only divert from all the others wonderful attributes she has, but that is enough nonsensical, sweet talk from me for today.
Interesting opinion on the no-scars ending though... when I was initially writing this, I was thinking in the context of removing the source of her sadness, I was also inspired by one of the user's pics in this forum which featured a scarless Hanako....
But now, it turns out that its better for her in the long term if she stays that way... Hisao would always be there for her lol