Katawa Shoujo Forums

BMFJack wrote:The fire.

It was her birthday. People (and kids especially) have a knack for feeling guilty about things that are in no way their fault.

It's suggested that the fire happened on her birthday, but it's not confirmed anywhere in the VN. I don't think the devs gave an exact date for it either in the Ask! thread.

The exact detail regarding her birthday is that she hated celebrating it, as the people who would normally shun/bully her will pretend to be nice to her on the day.

I personally think it didn't happen right on her birthday but near enough that people would be nicer to her around the time.

On the flipside, it's my headcanon that the fire not only happened on her birthday, but that the fire was a result of the candles on her birthday cake.
Nothing intentional, just a completely unexpected freak accident, but still enough to give her that "Everything would be better if I was never born" mentality.

I know that her given reason for hating her birthday is that whole "everyone pretends to care about me" malarkey, but there's no reason the two should be mutually exclusive. Besides, why would she want to tell her love interest that she believed the housefire was (in)directly her fault?
Did you know Silly String is very flammable?

LorSquirrel wrote:I personally think it didn't happen right on her birthday but near enough that people would be nicer to her around the time.

Because people wouldn't just be nicer then because...Birthday...

I don't have a link handy, but cpl_crud wrote a short piece about The Fire. It happened on a winter's storm. Hanako's mother was working by candlelight; Hanako wanted a nightlite; she got one and her mother walked her back to bed, not noticing that she (the mom) had knocked over a candle onto paperwork, setting the whole thing off.

So apocryphally, The Fire and Hanako's birthday are pretty well separated. This leaves the question, what is it about Hanako's birthday that was so bad? I mean, if two-faced assholes could cause that much trauma none of us would ever get out of bed.

My current thinking was that her birthday was a big deal at the orphanage, with Hanako having to write invitations to all the jerks around her, and then thanking them for being such good friends and then Hanako apologizing for being such a misfit when the just want her to act normal and healthy. That should mess anybody up.

Munchenhausen wrote:Did you know Silly String is very flammable?

Proof. So flammable you'd probably have to get it on something somewhat less flammable as a feeder kindling.

On the other hand, it would be beyond comically awful if that were Hanako's deal…

Liminaut wrote:This leaves the question, what is it about Hanako's birthday that was so bad? I mean, if two-faced assholes could cause that much trauma none of us would ever get out of bed.

Could it be, perhaps, that Hanako may just be a bit of a wuss in the first place?

One thing I've rarely contemplated is what Hanako's true personality is. Like, how would she respond to life if her parents weren't cooked for 25 minutes at 240˚C? How would she respond to life if her parents were medium-rare, but she wasn't? What would she be like if she was a normie?
For all we know, she could just naturally be skittish as a deer anyway. If the fire had happened to anyone else, maybe they would deal with it better?

Munchenhausen wrote:

Liminaut wrote:This leaves the question, what is it about Hanako's birthday that was so bad? I mean, if two-faced assholes could cause that much trauma none of us would ever get out of bed.

Could it be, perhaps, that Hanako may just be a bit of a wuss in the first place?

One thing I've rarely contemplated is what Hanako's true personality is. Like, how would she respond to life if her parents weren't cooked for 25 minutes at 240˚C? How would she respond to life if her parents were medium-rare, but she wasn't? What would she be like if she was a normie?
For all we know, she could just naturally be skittish as a deer anyway. If the fire had happened to anyone else, maybe they would deal with it better?

I suppose that if she hadn't gone through that kind of trauma, she'd have become a cooler person. But it's not possible to disentangle personality from experience easily, except in computer games.

You know, I always have this thought that Hanako is someone that is very easily influenced. If she hadn't had that scar, she could potentially be one of the popular girls in a normal high school with her own groupie--might have awoken a more sinister side of her too...

You know, one who bullies those who challenge her position and what-not. The burn scar torched both her physical and mental state, which *thankfully* kept her in the more docile side we know and love (unless you tip over to that point)


And what I had in mind is this (and why she hated her birthday, in a way).

Aside from the common bullies at kindergarten-junior school level (kids are irritating and scary that way), there's something else I has in mind.
While previously she gets to spend her birthday with her parents, congratulating her and singing along with her, she is now faced with the reality that she has to spend the entire thing alone forever. You add the bullies to the equation (if they are even part of it) and it is a very traumatic thing to remember.

So, if she has to celebrate it alone then why should she? Why should she celebrate it alone when the time she actually had someone beside her is when she is not celebrating her birthday? That's probably what's going in her mind, I think

Liminaut wrote:I mean, if two-faced assholes could cause that much trauma none of us would ever get out of bed.

Not sure there's much room to compare the average person's dealings with assholes to Hanako's case...

It was rather telling that Hanako did not have any role models to look up to during her days at the orphanage. One would expect that having struggled to have friends among her peers, she would at least have a mentor figure among the orphanage staff to look up to. Ironically, according to her, she did become a "big sister" figure to some of the younger kids just before she left.

I don't think it's one single thing but more of a combination of things that make Hanako's birthday traumatic.

For someone who just wants to be left alone or has social anxiety, a "forced" birthday party at the orphanage would be traumatic...plus the whole reminder of why she's at the orphanage and doesn't have a family to celebrate it with...

Eurobeatjester wrote:I don't think it's one single thing but more of a combination of things that make Hanako's birthday traumatic.

For someone who just wants to be left alone or has social anxiety, a "forced" birthday party at the orphanage would be traumatic...plus the whole reminder of why she's at the orphanage and doesn't have a family to celebrate it with...

Wait, but everyone there has a birthday party and they all don't have parents/family.

brythain wrote:

Eurobeatjester wrote:I don't think it's one single thing but more of a combination of things that make Hanako's birthday traumatic.

For someone who just wants to be left alone or has social anxiety, a "forced" birthday party at the orphanage would be traumatic...plus the whole reminder of why she's at the orphanage and doesn't have a family to celebrate it with...

Wait, but everyone there has a birthday party and they all don't have parents/family.

True, but if Hanako just wants to be left alone, forcing her to have a birthday party where she's the center of attention...

There's also the idea that at least some of the other orphans don't know the exact situation of how they became orphans, or were used to being "wards of the state" from a young age. Hanako on the other hand knows her parents are dead, and she came into the orphanage at an age were she would have known outside life...