Katawa Shoujo Forums

...Nrrrgh.

The Sorry Corner might soon have to become the Sorry Cell Block.

brythain wrote:in Rin's route, Emi doesn't seem very sympathetic about Rin's exhibition woes

Well, although she could be slightly more understanding of Rin sometimes, she also gets told to stop seeing Rin indefinitely by the artist herself, so there's that.

Also... sorry.

Regarding the shipping and triangulation, there's also the matter of Lilly's name.

Which, I'm still not sure what her actual orientation is. Before a certain chapter of dewelar's, I was pretty convinced that Lilly had the "homosexuality is a phase that people grow out of" mentality, and looked down on people that didn't "grow out of it". (It is my headcanon that Akira's bi, mind you, and I could see Lilly being extremely condescending about that.) If that was the case, there's also the possibility that she's a closeted bisexual herself, but considers it not proper to act on those feelings. However, after dewelar's chapter, which explains so much elsewhere, I can now see it as Lilly being straight-as-an-arrow but completely supportive of all orientations (at least in the context of monogamy, anyway).

And, as far as Hanako... I'm still thinking she's bi. I can't decide whether she's had a thing for Lilly or not, though, I can see arguments either way. (Although, by the time of the VN, I think she's realized that Lilly's attitude would be stifling in a relationship, and found someone that was more her type anyway, in the form of Akira.)

bhtooefr wrote:Regarding the shipping and triangulation, there's also the matter of Lilly's name.

Which, I'm still not sure what her actual orientation is. Before a certain chapter of dewelar's, I was pretty convinced that Lilly had the "homosexuality is a phase that people grow out of" mentality, and looked down on people that didn't "grow out of it". (It is my headcanon that Akira's bi, mind you, and I could see Lilly being extremely condescending about that.) If that was the case, there's also the possibility that she's a closeted bisexual herself, but considers it not proper to act on those feelings. However, after dewelar's chapter, which explains so much elsewhere, I can now see it as Lilly being straight-as-an-arrow but completely supportive of all orientations (at least in the context of monogamy, anyway).

And, as far as Hanako... I'm still thinking she's bi. I can't decide whether she's had a thing for Lilly or not, though, I can see arguments either way. (Although, by the time of the VN, I think she's realized that Lilly's attitude would be stifling in a relationship, and found someone that was more her type anyway, in the form of Akira.)

My own headcanon in this respect is that Lils is straight, Akira is bi, Hanako is straight with a girl-crush (not so comfy with Natsume/Naomi). I think of Akira and Hideaki, plot-wise, as being bridging characters who make Shizune's and Lilly's orientations clearer; i.e. Shizune and Lilly clearly straight(-er). Although in my head I have Shizune as a kind of serial orientation-shifter — doesn't hold multiple orientations at a time, I see Miki as the converse: able to hold multiple and imaginative orientations simultaneously.

Isn't it interesting as well though? Considering the pairings. Most of the time, the other girl just simply 'gave up' on you and let Hisao run along with his choice--except Shizune's route; Misha gave a fight

Most of the route is straight forward--there's Hisao and girl 'a', the story revolves around them and them only (as well as things that relate to them). Then there's Shizune's story where it's a love triangle and you get hints flying here and there until Misha drops the bomb herself. The story doesn't revolve solely around Hisao and girl 'a', but also around girl 'b'.

It also feels a bit like a tragedy; you can 'save' one, but you will end up hurting the other or--as a sick joke--you can destroy both. Love triangles...no matter what you do, someone will be in the receiving end of the stick, or everyone ends up breaking to pieces.

Ummm, remember that in Shizune's route, "girl b" doesn't have a storyline of her own, so it seems fair that she's plays a larger role in the route of "girl a". All the other girls have their own route where you can get to know them better, but if Misha got no time in the spotlight during Shizune's route, when would she?

Megumeru wrote:It also feels a bit like a tragedy; you can 'save' one, but you will end up hurting the other or--as a sick joke--you can destroy both. Love triangles...no matter what you do, someone will be in the receiving end of the stick, or everyone ends up breaking to pieces.

Bloody deaths fueled by insane envy optional.

I like the fact that Misha is very promenient in Act. 1. She appears all the time, of course that Shizune tends to tag along (it's fun to say that it's Shizune who tags along Misha and not the other way around) but even then Misha steals the show. Then on the other routes they appear less and less (obviously) but somehow, for some reason, I could never shake the feeling that Misha was lurking around neaby.

She appeared sometimes on Emi's, and sometimes on Hanako's. Of course she is showing up alongside Shizune on Lilly's.
I always get the feeling that in Yamaku, where you are, Misha isn't far off.

She doesn't get her own route, but she manages to shine very strongly in Shizune route.
During the Three Stars video, on the rooftop when Shizune and Hisao are "talking", seeing her smile drop, made me sad. Poor Misha, she deserves love.

Also, I think that the only bisexual characters in the game are Misha and possibly Hideaki (for obvious reasons). Akira sure plays the part, but its of course stated that she has a boyfriend therefore ruling that assumption out of the window. My headcanon.

Guest Poster wrote:Ummm, remember that in Shizune's route, "girl b" doesn't have a storyline of her own, so it seems fair that she's plays a larger role in the route of "girl a". All the other girls have their own route where you can get to know them better, but if Misha got no time in the spotlight during Shizune's route, when would she?

She doesn't, but that's not the focus of it.

The fact is she does play a significant role in that of girl 'A'. I have a habit of putting 'a' 'b' or 'c' in the back of girl if said character is involved in the route/journey of a character, either romantically or as an obstacle (e.g. In School Days, we see Makoto sleeping around with girl 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', and 'g'. Add cross days in the list, and there will be girl 'h' and boy 'b').

In its respect, Misha is a character of her own that is part of Shizune's route that basically isn't all about romance between boy 'a' and girl 'a', but instead a relationship between boy 'a', girl 'a', and girl 'b'--a love triangle.

brythain wrote:I see Miki as the converse: able to hold multiple and imaginative orientations simultaneously.

Whereas I see Miki as being basically lesbian - she's probably experimented with some of her guy friends, but ultimately decided that she just wasn't into guys that way - in my headcanon. (And, in my headcanon, she tried something with Hanako. Not sure how far it went, not sure whether Hanako reciprocated, other than being fairly sure Miki triggered a Misstep.)

Now, I wonder how Lilly would react to knowing that Miki was hitting on Hanako...

What probably plays in Misha's advantage is that she's Hisao's neighbor in class. Emi, Rin and Lilly are part of another class, so they don't appear in the class segments that are littered throughout each route. Hanako's in class 3-3 too, but unless you're on hers or Lilly's path, she's being herself and making herself as inconspicuous as possible. Misha doesn't have that skill.

other than being fairly sure Miki triggered a Misstep

Wouldn't 'triggering a Misstep' require Hanako to...like...having spent at least several weeks talking to Miki, hang out together and befriending each other to the point where Hanako would even open the door of her dorm room for Miki (or visit her)? If all of that happened, I'm sure people at Yamaku would remember it and they wouldn't tell Hisao that Lilly was the only person Hanako ever talked to. Unless it's a conspiracy that they're all part of to cover it up. But that's getting into Kenji territory.

And you deal with nobody else in 3-3 other than Miki (who has her own busy schedule).

That is a good point about the whole "triggering a Misstep", although I figure SOMETHING pretty bad happened...

In any case, it would've been during their first year, almost certainly, and it could simply be that Hanako didn't interact with anyone else for the rest of the year, or the beginning of second year until she and Lilly became acquainted. Then, she got the hermit reputation. (But, ehh, it doesn't line up perfectly.)

Another thing about Miki... why has it become fanon that she's friends with Suzu? Canonically, she "tends to get on better with guys", to the point that she doesn't even talk to Emi, her teammate, much.

bhtooefr wrote:Another thing about Miki... why has it become fanon that she's friends with Suzu?

For the same reason it's become fanon that Suzu falls asleep at nearly random times -- when there's no available canon, it's easier to build a fanfic by borrowing from a widely-respected work like Scissorlips'.

I'd say it still contradicts Hanako's characterisation in the VN. When Hanako first met Lilly, she didn't even have the courage to speak to Lilly until several visits later and Lilly couldn't even see her scars. It wouldn't make sense for her to be buddy-buddy with someone who could see her scarring perfectly well a year earlier. I'm pretty sure at least Misha, who's extremely indiscrete, would have mentioned that kind of thing to Hisao when she complained to him about not being able to get Hanako away from Lilly's side.

And I think we can credit Scissorlips for the Miki-Suzu connection. It might have been there before, but he popularized it.

Suzu's route might be medically inaccurate, but Sissorlips laid a lot of foundation blocks that a fair amount of the fanon is built on, the Beijing being one of the other significant things. What other fics have stuff that is seen as accepted fanon?

EDIT,

God, the answer to that was sitting right above my post! Hanako's therapist, Yumi Takawa first appeared in Sisterhood and has popped up elsewhere!