Katawa Shoujo Forums

Recently I've been subjecting myself to a lot of moral questions (sometimes due to English class and sometimes due to boredom) and find myself a rather quick reactor to said questions compared to the significant majority of my friends.

I wonder how most of the girls would react in some of the more common ethical issues, such as the Trolley Problem or Prisoner's Dilemma.

I imagine their reactions would be as follows:
Prisoner's Dilemma

• Lilly: Don't tell
  Emi: Tell
  Hanako: Don't Tell (Although, real or not, I think she would break down before giving a straight answer.)
  Shizune: If she knew the person, she would game it out. If she didn't, Tell.
  Rin: Don't tell, or just explode the captor's heads.

Lilly's a bit too trusting in my opinion. Emi, while kind for the most part to Hisao and others, probably would follow the path of logic of "They probably won' tell." Hanako, too shy + her closest friends are really the only ones she could consider in the situation, even if explicitly told to do otherwise. Shizune, well... I just get the "tell" vibe from her. Rin, she's a very not-tell person (in a lot of ways) and would probably avoid answering, thus resulting in a "don't tell" result even if she wasn't explicitly choosing it.
[Results change depending on route, slightly, as well if it's someone they know.]

Trolley Issue:
I actually imagine all the girls, aside from possibly Hanako and Rin would pull the lever and save the five. The only way I could think of which would change that is if you used the variations, Fatman would change Hanako, Rin, and Emi to no push (dooming the five), while Lilly and Shizune would have the gumption to push him. In the "Innocent" variation, I think Shizune, at this point, would be the only one to flip the lever as she is more logical than Lilly, who is more emotionally charged.

Of course, this is all conjecture by someone who hasn't done much research on each of the girls aside from completing the game, so I'm open to debate.

Interesting assessment. I think I mostly agree, except:

• Prisoner's Dilemma
  • Emi: I have a hard time predicting one this one, because on the one hand, she doesn't strike me as much of a high-powered thinker (which would tend to make her tell), but on the other hand she's pretty hardheaded (which would naturally incline her to tell them to piss up a rope just for messing with her at all). Hrm.
• Trolly Problem
  • I feel like Fatman would switch them all to no-push, gumption or no. Shoving some random off a bridge is just not something they would think of. If it were pointed out, they'd probably all react in horror (except maybe Shizune, who would enter analysis paralysis and end up doing nothing anyway).

In the "Fat Man" variant only Misha would be truly innocent, as her Wahahah-ing would startle the fat man into falling backwards on to the tracks.

I dunno, for the Trolley problem I imagined Misha grew a giant villainous pink mustache for the occasion and was Waha'ing malevolently from a safe distance away.

The Emi prediction for Prisoner's dilemma was fairly difficult, I made it on the idea that she would be told that she had no connection to the person aside from the heist, which is how it is usually done.

So... hi, it's been a while.

I'll still be pretty scarce for a fairly long time most likely, but I figured I'd stop in and say that I got a hair up my ass today and managed to finish off Rin's good end route. It was really nice at the end seeing Red Armless find a little bit of peace for once.

I think I'll hit the other bad/neutral endings before doing Lilly's path, which will be my last one*. For now, it looks like I'm headed toward the carnival with Shizune, which should be interesting.

Hope everybody is doing well. I know I'm not around much anymore, but you're still in my thoughts and I wish you all a merry Whatever The Hell Holiday You Celebrate.

*After which I'll be able to continue Limbless Wonders, since I'll know how to write the other girls better

Re: Emi and the Prisoner's Dilemma

I have no problem believing that Emi would tell, as based on her trust issues she would presume that her co-conspirator would betray her, too.

ETA: Oh, and welcome back, Spunky. The place hasn't been the same without you .

HOLY SHIT SPUNKY
Glad to hear you're not dead!

Glad to see you're still among us spunky, nice to see ya again

Good to see you guys again too... you rock and stuff.

On topic, I agree that Emi most likely would tell in the prisoner's dilemma due to trust issues combined with her already hasty nature.

That being said, if the person offering the choice insinuated that she was guilty, there'd be a better chance of them moving a mountain with their pinky fingers than of getting her to say a word.

As for the trolley problem, I think she'd be pretty likely to switch the track in the original scenario. She's in the unique position of knowing firsthand both what being hurt badly and what being killed in a crash of sorts can do not only to the victim, but to the victim's family as well. From there it's a pure numbers game, and as much as that seems cold, I think she'd gut it out to spare the greatest number of victims from experiencing that. She'd feel really horrible about it, but she'd do it.

In the fat man scenario, I don't think it would naturally occur to her to push the man, but if she was told about it... I have to entertain the notion that she would still do it, morally proper or not. Once again, her intentions would be to save the most people from the pain she knows, and that plus some impulsiveness could spell pushing by itself. Another dimension though that I don't think has been given proper consideration yet though is her viewpoint on the man's lack of fitness. Generally heavier people aren't in shape because, in a sense, they've given up on themselves. I don't know how consciously that would cross her mind, but that sort of biased thought, even subconsciously, might be enough to tip the scales.

Valjean Lafitte wrote:In the "Fat Man" variant only Misha would be truly innocent, as her Wahahah-ing would startle the fat man into falling backwards on to the tracks.

Twist: The "fat man" is Misha.

Yo, Spunky! [Slightly robotic woman's voice] It's good to see you're still alive.[/voice]

SpunkySix wrote:So... hi, it's been a while.

Geez, almost three months! Whatcha been doin' with yourself?

merry Whatever The Hell Holiday You Celebrate.

Relevant

Atario wrote:

SpunkySix wrote:So... hi, it's been a while.

Geez, almost three months! Whatcha been doin' with yourself?

Various things, but that's really none of your business.

As for how I've been doing in general, I'm in a much better place than last year now that I've switched to English/Philosopy, and it has helped me to get into a mindset where I can read the other routes without feeling terrible about it. It's still kind of strange, but I'm at peace with it.

All I can really say about Lilly's route is get ready to board the feels train, bro.

And good luck.