Katawa Shoujo Forums

I'm reading through all the replies. Thanks guys. It's slightly comforting to know that other people experienced the same thing. I'll give it a shot and try to make things better. Maybe I'll let you guys know how I'm doing in a year's time. I'm already looking at the KS bandaged heart locket, and considering buying it, as a reminder of course.
Maybe I'll write fan-fic for you guys. Not heavy/dark ones. Light ones, before the game started. Maybe about Hanako discovering dubstep. That'll be fun.

Keneshiro wrote: Maybe about Hanako discovering dubstep. That'll be fun.

Haha, that sounds like it would be a pretty fun read actually. Always good to have people writing about the things they care about.

Keneshiro wrote:I'm reading through all the replies. Thanks guys. It's slightly comforting to know that other people experienced the same thing. I'll give it a shot and try to make things better. Maybe I'll let you guys know how I'm doing in a year's time. I'm already looking at the KS bandaged heart locket, and considering buying it, as a reminder of course.
Maybe I'll write fan-fic for you guys. Not heavy/dark ones. Light ones, before the game started. Maybe about Hanako discovering dubstep. That'll be fun.

Oh we're always glad to help! Just don't ask how that anonymous poster found a picture of someone from Toddler's in Tiara's visiting a burn ward because even i found that a little odd. But Katawa Shoujo fans come in all shapes and sizes, from insecure morons who draw images of the characters dying violently in a desperate ploy for attention to emotionally retarded cynics who devote themselves to escapism because they loathe their fellow man to people who apparently keep pictures of burn victims in a kiddy princess crown on their PC. Honesty you seem mentally healthy to some of us.

sadguest wrote:

Pyramid Head wrote:

Snow_Storm wrote:Just find yourself a 18-year-old orphan girl, set half her body on fire and viola! You own Hanako!

No no, you'd have to set an eight year old girl on fire and kill her parents to get the psychological damage right, and really waiting til she reaches the age of consent assuming she never finds out you were the murderer takes too long. Better to just find a shy partner than try to grill your own.

Congratulations to you sick people out there. Enjoy your joke.

Maybe you should think before you post. How many learned nothing from this game?

Oh, I'll enjoy it. Same as I enjoy Holocaust jokes, 9/11 puns, cripple jokes, and so on.

If you can't laugh at tragedy, it will only make it worse. And for the survivors, arbitrarily deciding it's off-limits for humor only highlights that the victims are different and potentially broken.

I knew a burn victim once, very much like Hanako (though not an orphan). It wasn't the accident that troubled her most, nor bullying. It was the fact that afterwards, she was treated like a defect. it was everyone side-stepping and dodging around it like she was some sort of fragile doll or (to borrow her analogy), a car wreck to be talked about only in private out of morbid curiosity. I never saw fit to do any of that. I'd crack a joke about her condition now and again if it came to me and she'd be fine. She'd appreciate the joke if not for being funny or enjoyable then for being open instead of someone forcibly changing their behavior around her. I'd say we became good friends but my own issues prevented that, and she died three months after we started talking........

Turning them into special cases to be tread around like glass only shows that they're not "normal" anymore. Hell, I know people that joke about my conditions. The jokes may not be funny, and some are just downright distasteful, but I'd rather have that than people biting their tongues and stumbling over themselves in self-censorship to safeguard the damaged kid. Obviously cases will vary by individual but arbitrarily deciding "It's tragic so you're sick if you joke about it" isn't the way. There is a place for jokes and a place to keep quiet, sure, but just deciding those jokes can't be made at all is only highlighting the damaged nature of the victim. And nobody wants to be treated like damaged goods.

And now I've probably revealed too much of my own connection to Hanako...

Xanatos wrote:I'd say we became good friends but my own issues prevented that, and she died three months after we started talking........

Of what, if I may ask?

Supersona wrote:

Xanatos wrote:I'd say we became good friends but my own issues prevented that, and she died three months after we started talking........

Of what, if I may ask?

I...Never asked. She seemed in good condition, physically and otherwise, when I saw her last.

She'd been away for a week visiting relatives when it happened so...I couldn't see her a last time. I couldn't handle a funeral when it came. I've never liked the notion of funerals. "We're going to gather in respect of someone's life because they're dead now."...If people respect a life, they should show it when it still matters. Death should never be a catalyst for that. Funerals are just a grim irony. It seems less about paying respects, which anyone can do when the person is still alive, and more about getting rid of the remains. A funeral is just a fancy method of garbage disposal at its core.

I respected her while she was alive...Hell, I loved her while she was alive. But her corpse is just that: A corpse. She wasn't there anymore so I had no need to be there...And no strength either.

...And I just never asked...

Xanatos wrote:

Supersona wrote:

Xanatos wrote:I'd say we became good friends but my own issues prevented that, and she died three months after we started talking........

Of what, if I may ask?

I...Never asked. She seemed in good condition, physically and otherwise, when I saw her last.

She'd been away for a week visiting relatives when it happened so...I couldn't see her a last time. I couldn't handle a funeral when it came. I've never liked the notion of funerals. "We're going to gather in respect of someone's life because they're dead now."...If people respect a life, they should show it when it still matters. Death should never be a catalyst for that. Funerals are just a grim irony. It seems less about paying respects, which anyone can do when the person is still alive, and more about getting rid of the remains. A funeral is just a fancy method of garbage disposal at its core.

I respected her while she was alive...Hell, I loved her while she was alive. But her corpse is just that: A corpse. She wasn't there anymore so I had no need to be there...And no strength either.

...And I just never asked...

Ah well, at least you got it out. The joys of the internet anonymity.

Keneshiro wrote:Ah well, at least you got it out. The joys of the internet anonymity.

Heh. I couldn't care less about the anonymity. I'd say all this just as well if I were known. It just happens that people I find online are better than most I find in person here. I miss that girl...

Funerals' true purpose is for the deceased close ones to share their pain, plain and simple. You feel better when you see you're not the only one who feels like shit. As Hisao himself puts it during Hanako's route, 'Misery loves company'.

The real question now, sir, is would you accept an Internet Brohug if I offered one? :]

Ascended Flutist wrote:Funerals' true purpose is for the deceased close ones to share their pain, plain and simple. You feel better when you see you're not the only one who feels like shit. As Hisao himself puts it during Hanako's route, 'Misery loves company'.

The real question now, sir, is would you accept an Internet Brohug if I offered one? :]

Brohug? Sure. There'd be less war if there were more brohugs.

i think the true irony here is that mr. sadguest here is the one that didnt learn from Hanako's path
because Hanako's path is not about being sensitive to those who have issues, rather its the opposite
Hanako's path teaches Hisao not to treat those who have issues or disabilities like they're broken machines, or like delicate pottery.
she neither wants nor needs a white knight. she just wanted someone to treat her like an equal, to see her for who she is. to see her as Hanako: the dark haired and intelligent beauty, not Hanako: the socially awkward scarred girl.

oh and i hate funerals as well. my tutor said he does as well, and that he prefers a Wake. if you dont know, its where rather than have a formal funeral where people sit around and silence and cry, everyone parties to celebrate the life of the person that has passed. they tell stories, drink, and hang pictures of the deceased to remind who this is for. that sounds a much better way to remember someone.

Ascended Flutist wrote:Funerals' true purpose is for the deceased close ones to share their pain, plain and simple. You feel better when you see you're not the only one who feels like shit. As Hisao himself puts it during Hanako's route, 'Misery loves company'.

This is a really interesting way to look at it. Every time someone makes a post about their first playthrough/missing a character from the game, it's almost like we are having a small funeral for them in a way. Pretty insightful.

yummines wrote:oh and i hate funerals as well. my tutor said he does as well, and that he prefers a Wake.

A wake does sound nice. I'm going to request copious amount of alcohol be at mine when I'm gone.

Xanatos wrote:If you can't laugh at tragedy, it will only make it worse. And for the survivors, arbitrarily deciding it's off-limits for humor only highlights that the victims are different and potentially broken.

There is some truth to this, but I think there is a limit to how far we should go with these jokes. Though that limit will likely always remain subjective. I think it's good to be wary of what company you are in before making such jokes. Some people might not be as at peace as other people with they're disabilities/lose.

Hmm. Last funeral I went I was more angry than sad given the fact it was for my cousin...who was a murder victim and he JUST got his Master's Degree.
I swear to God the second I find out whoever killed my cousin, I'm gonna kill them before the cops even attempts to get an arrest warrant out.

Anyway, on topic because this is gettin' rather depressing.

Um...err....since this is a Hanako's topic, this picture should be on subject, right?

In the words of the Wise man and Humorist Pierre Desproges : 'One can laugh of everything, but not with everyone.'

Ascended Flutist wrote:In the words of the Wise man and Humorist Pierre Desproges : 'One can laugh of everything, but not with everyone.

I just met you, but I'm pretty sure I love everything you say.