Katawa Shoujo Forums

Rhodri wrote:What goes on in my head is thinking that in the event of a minor character suddenly getting a route, who is their partner in crime? Who is their best friend who appears route in their other's half route to give insight, advise, compliment the personality of their friend or are just there so you can comfort them while everyone else back is turned. In game with have Shizune/Misha, Lilly/Hanako and to a lesser extent, Emi/Rin. Unless I'm mistaken, but thanks to Scissorlips, the dynamic duo of Suzu/Miki has become firm fanon and I'm not sure where it originated beyond their connection in the newspaper club, there's Naomi/Natsume, but their fanon relationship tends to be beyond friends. So what about the other guys and gals? Do they have a confidant? A friend to help support them? Do they even need a significant other to help flesh out a character and their route?

Actually, I think that while some of them do form dyads (e.g. Emi/Rin), these dyads aren't complementary in that particular sense. The reason this is true is that the stronger the dyad, the more problematic it is for Hisao to get in between them and pick one. This is a problem with Shizune/Misha and Lilly/Hanako in different ways. Emi has Meiko and Nurse and Rin as non-problematic support; the first two are parent-figures and the last is not a potential rival (or at least, there's no likely conflict between Emi and Rin in either of their routes). Suzu/Miki is because they sit together, more or less, and are physically complementary. I'd like to try Miki/Misaki because both are naturally curious and complementary.

Rhodri wrote:What goes on in my head is thinking that in the event of a minor character suddenly getting a route, who is their partner in crime? Who is their best friend who appears route in their other's half route to give insight, advise, compliment the personality of their friend or are just there so you can comfort them while everyone else back is turned. In game with have Shizune/Misha, Lilly/Hanako and to a lesser extent, Emi/Rin. Unless I'm mistaken, but thanks to Scissorlips, the dynamic duo of Suzu/Miki has become firm fanon and I'm not sure where it originated beyond their connection in the newspaper club, there's Naomi/Natsume, but their fanon relationship tends to be beyond friends. So what about the other guys and gals? Do they have a confidant? A friend to help support them? Do they even need a significant other to help flesh out a character and their route?

I don't think it will be a big problem. Suzu/Miki and Naomi/Natsume is perfectly fine IMO. Sure their relationship is fanon but isn't this thread about what we think would happen in each minor character's route (which would be mostly fanonical)?

Takashi's friend could be the blind art club member. Or maybe even Rin? I think Takashi would be the kind of person who prefers to work alone in class and focus on his studies.
Takashi needs moar love.

I've always paired Takashi as friends with Taro, but I don't know why

Munchenhausen wrote:I've always paired Takashi as friends with Taro, but I don't know why

Together, they're the Ta-Tas, and they fight crime!

I think every minor character, if given a route, would become a major character.
This means drama. It means that while some people like slice-of-life stories, in the end, someone gets hurt.
This is necessary; the only variable is how much hurt there is, which in turn determines the believable range of outcomes.

Someone recently said my fanfics were melodramatic. I do not apologise for that.

Atario wrote:

Munchenhausen wrote:I've always paired Takashi as friends with Taro, but I don't know why

Together, they're the Ta-Tas, and they fight crime!

I'm pretty sure Ta-Tas are childish slang for boobs

brythain wrote:I think every minor character, if given a route, would become a major character.
This means drama. It means that while some people like slice-of-life stories, in the end, someone gets hurt.
This is necessary; the only variable is how much hurt there is, which in turn determines the believable range of outcomes.

Someone recently said my fanfics were melodramatic. I do not apologise for that.

Aye, like the word Sonder defines; Every person you know, every person you pass in the street, every person you even see is living their own life, complete with sorrow, drama and love.
Also something along the lines of "Everyone is their own main character".

Hey, if it weren't for the melodrama, it'd be boring!

Munchenhausen wrote:

brythain wrote:I think every minor character, if given a route, would become a major character.
This means drama. It means that while some people like slice-of-life stories, in the end, someone gets hurt.
This is necessary; the only variable is how much hurt there is, which in turn determines the believable range of outcomes.

Someone recently said my fanfics were melodramatic. I do not apologise for that.

Aye, like the word Sonder defines; Every person you know, every person you pass in the street, every person you even see is living their own life, complete with sorrow, drama and love.
Also something along the lines of "Everyone is their own main character".

Hey, if it weren't for the melodrama, it'd be boring!

Drama can be really good and fantastic if done properly.
Melodrama can be fine in small doses but too much melodrama is the most annoying and frustrating thing ever. It just leads to forced and stupid drama. It leads to making the story a lot worse and just spoils everything. It also restricts the potential a character could have. IMO Melodrama is only good in small doses in most cases.
Brythain I think it isn't the best idea to dismiss whatever the critics say. If your story has a lot of crazy melodrama than it might be a good idea to check it out. Too much melodrama just leads to comedy in some cases.

Forever_ambivalent wrote:Brythain I think it isn't the best idea to dismiss whatever the critics say. If your story has a lot of crazy melodrama than it might be a good idea to check it out. Too much melodrama just leads to comedy in some cases.

I'm not dismissing criticism; just not defending my work from it in this case. 'Melodramatic' implies 'romantic and sensational, lots of ups and downs, happy ending'. I don't think I do that an awful lot, but I would certainly rework my material if it were reasonably shown to me that this was the case. So far, I've made a number of major edits in response to critics who have pointed out exactly what the problems in my work were. I don't mind being told what's wrong; I can then fix things. But I also believe KS is intended to be melodramatic for the good endings and just dramatic for the bad ones.

I agree with you on the matter of too much melodrama leading to comedy. That's Shakespeare's favoured technique in things like A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night. If I could pull that off, I'd be... a lot better as a writer than I currently am.

brythain wrote:

Forever_ambivalent wrote:Brythain I think it isn't the best idea to dismiss whatever the critics say. If your story has a lot of crazy melodrama than it might be a good idea to check it out. Too much melodrama just leads to comedy in some cases.

I'm not dismissing criticism; just not defending my work from it in this case. 'Melodramatic' implies 'romantic and sensational, lots of ups and downs, happy ending'.

I go by the textbook definition of "melodramatic". Basically anything that is melodramatic is exaggerated (almost over-exaggerated) and overemotional.
A lot of people are melodramatic by nature so obviously stories will need a bit of it.
The problem here is that we have entirely separate definitions of the word. I never thought melodrama was ever sensational. Normally it pisses me off because if there was that much overemotional bitching, exaggerated emotions and ridiculous conclusions IRL than I would become asexual ASAP.
But romantic and sensational stuff is good.

Forever_ambivalent wrote:

brythain wrote:

Forever_ambivalent wrote:Brythain I think it isn't the best idea to dismiss whatever the critics say. If your story has a lot of crazy melodrama than it might be a good idea to check it out. Too much melodrama just leads to comedy in some cases.

I'm not dismissing criticism; just not defending my work from it in this case. 'Melodramatic' implies 'romantic and sensational, lots of ups and downs, happy ending'.

I go by the textbook definition of "melodramatic". Basically anything that is melodramatic is exaggerated (almost over-exaggerated) and overemotional.
A lot of people are melodramatic by nature so obviously stories will need a bit of it.
The problem here is that we have entirely separate definitions of the word. I never thought melodrama was ever sensational. Normally it pisses me off because if there was that much overemotional bitching, exaggerated emotions and ridiculous conclusions IRL than I would become asexual ASAP.
But romantic and sensational stuff is good.

*grin* depends on which textbook… it's hard to find a 'tight' definition of such a term. Surprisingly, Wikipedia has areasonably nuanced take on it.

That said, I don't think we have entirely separate definitions of the term, and I would certainly worry if my work was filled with overemotional bitching, exaggerated emotions, ridiculous conclusions, extreme moral positions, and so on…

Munchenhausen wrote:

Atario wrote:

Munchenhausen wrote:I've always paired Takashi as friends with Taro, but I don't know why

Together, they're the Ta-Tas, and they fight crime!

I'm pretty sure Ta-Tas are childish slang for boobs

That was part of the joke, yes.

By day, mild-mannered special-school students. By night, they patrol the mean streets of Sendai in their Push-Up-Mobile, scanning for that which would try to sag their perky spirits.

I'm never going to write a Miki route.

NEVER.


But I have written a few one-shots for her and I have a general headcanon for her (although I have a habit of changing and tweaking some details to make it fit whatever I'm writing at the time.)

Miki's the youngest child in her family and also the dumb one. All her older brothers and sisters are getting into law, or medicine, or things like that, and she's basically a straight C student. Miki tends to hear a lot of "why can't you be more like your older brother/sisters." She's also the only one that sides with dad when her parents get a divorce and stays living with him. That doesn't mean he doesn't still look down on her, he's just not as bad about it as the others are. One thing he does have though is a hobby she thinks she can reach out and connect with him through. It's basically her last chance at getting her father's approval ... or pretty much any of her family. Her dad is into wood working as a hobby. He likes to build things. Being as smart as he is isn't an option for her, but she's always been a physical person and is good with her hands.

And she messes that up too with one nasty power tool accident.

Miki doesn't like to see people left alone due to how she views her own family so he's tried more than a couple of times to connect with Hanako. That's always ended poorly. She's also good friends with the guy that Emi used to date and still holds a grudge because of how Emi broke the guy's heart.

Miki also has a hard time accepting the fact that she's disabled, being "stupid" was bad enough, so she's made no real effort to adjust and tends to ignore her problems whenever possible. If I was writing her route, she have a scene very late where she talks about how she keeps her hand bandaged as if it's somehow going to miraculously get better if she doesn't pick at it.

Basically her route would deal with getting her to actually accept the fact that she's disabled and dealing with her family issues.

Oddball wrote:I'm never going to write a Miki route.

NEVER.

'Cause of the "Miki Route Curse" right?

Oddball wrote:But I have written a few one-shots for her and I have a general headcanon for her (although I have a habit of changing and tweaking some details to make it fit whatever I'm writing at the time.)

Miki's the youngest child in her family and also the dumb one. All her older brothers and sisters are getting into law, or medicine, or things like that, and she's basically a straight C student. Miki tends to hear a lot of "why can't you be more like your older brother/sisters." She's also the only one that sides with dad when her parents get a divorce and stays living with him. That doesn't mean he doesn't still look down on her, he's just not as bad about it as the others are. One thing he does have though is a hobby she thinks she can reach out and connect with him through. It's basically her last chance at getting her father's approval ... or pretty much any of her family. Her dad is into wood working as a hobby. He likes to build things. Being as smart as he is isn't an option for her, but she's always been a physical person and is good with her hands.

And she messes that up to with one nasty power tool accident.

Miki doesn't like to see people left alone due to how she views her own family so he's tried more than a couple of times to connect with Hanako. That's always ended poorly. She's also good friends with the guy that Emi used to date and still holds a grudge because of how Emi broke the guy's heart.

Miki also has a hard time accepting the fact that she's disabled, being "stupid" was bad enough, so she's made no real effort to adjust and tends to ignore her problems whenever possible. If I was writing her route, she have a scene very late where she talks about how she keeps her hand bandaged as if it's somehow going to miraculously get better if she doesn't pick at it.

Basically her route would deal with getting her to actually accept the fact that she's disabled and dealing with her family issues.

Now that is an interesting headcanon. Also, it seems there's a recurring thing with people having Miki's injury being the result of a power tool mishap. Huh, interesting.

Misha: "Can you whisper sweet-nothings all night long?"
Iwanako: "Can you accept an apology?"

Oddball wrote:
Miki's the youngest child in her family and also the dumb one. All her older brothers and sisters are getting into law, or medicine, or things like that, and she's basically a straight C student. Miki tends to hear a lot of "why can't you be more like your older brother/sisters." She's also the only one that sides with dad when her parents get a divorce and stays living with him. That doesn't mean he doesn't still look down on her, he's just not as bad about it as the others are. One thing he does have though is a hobby she thinks she can reach out and connect with him through. It's basically her last chance at getting her father's approval ... or pretty much any of her family. Her dad is into wood working as a hobby. He likes to build things. Being as smart as he is isn't an option for her, but she's always been a physical person and is good with her hands.

And she messes that up too with one nasty power tool accident.

Miki doesn't like to see people left alone due to how she views her own family so he's tried more than a couple of times to connect with Hanako. That's always ended poorly. She's also good friends with the guy that Emi used to date and still holds a grudge because of how Emi broke the guy's heart.

Miki also has a hard time accepting the fact that she's disabled, being "stupid" was bad enough, so she's made no real effort to adjust and tends to ignore her problems whenever possible. If I was writing her route, she have a scene very late where she talks about how she keeps her hand bandaged as if it's somehow going to miraculously get better if she doesn't pick at it.

Basically her route would deal with getting her to actually accept the fact that she's disabled and dealing with her family issues.

I like this headcanon, though mine's pretty different.

Miki isn't the youngest in her family, but more of a middle child. Her father's a mechanic who owns a small garage while her mother works is more of a typical office lady. Miki grew up as the only girl, but this didn't exclude her from learning about cars at a young age like her brothers did. Because of this, her father blames himself for her accident and has since become more protective of her.

The one thing our headcanons do have in common is Miki's reason for keeping her hand bandaged.