IcemanABC wrote:I'm not sure what part of the post offended either of you but it's an a real question and you don't need to jump to the defense of some writers turning tail when asked about their intentions. They can chicken out just fine without your help, and ban whoever hurts their feelings when it's appropriate, or just stay silent, or whatever.
Actually, I find it quite interesting that an actual internet troll with his weak bait would try to co-opt a response from the writers, breaking the very Rule 3 that he showed. There could just not be an answer since they didn't consider the ramifications of subverting her route, but the troll says "dey no respond since u troll" which is, unsurprisingly, going to cause confusion about what the writers actually think, if something like that were spread around as a rumor.
Huh. Turns out I missed something here.
Assuming that your first post was a genuine question, the lack of answer wasn't from hiding or anything, it was simply from not noticing. I only come here when I get a notice from the system or I want to post something (this time it was the closing of the 5th anniversary comp on the subreddit).
Anyway, in case you don't know, Hanako had two writers. I had to leave the project after the first draft of the "released" path was done. Suriko took over it, and I like to think that he kept most of the same themes intact. But more on that later.
Am I surprised that Hanako has such a following? Yes. I'm surprised about almost every aspect of the KS fanbase. It's a source of inspiration and, to be honest, going to Comiket with the other devs and VN devs from other groups is about the closest thing I have to a non-work social life. I did not expect that when I first joined the project in the pre-4LS days.
Did we deliberately degrade her character? No. I wanted to go a different way with Hanako, but it didn't mesh with the game. So the two main themes that I wanted to look at (remembering that Suriko also mixed in his own themes) were:
1) The fact that someone like Hanako, who couldn't even enjoy someone wishing here a happy birthday, could "evolve" to a point where she could actually start a relationship and
2) That mollycoddling/white-knighting is not the answer to those kinds of people. They want to be respected and then loved, not pitied and loved.
With that in mind, instead of some fantastical teen romance story, getting Hanako to actually "fall in love" with Hisao
was the story. After that, the power seemed to come out of the story, and it was like starting again on a whole new arc. I think that this is why a fan work like Sisterhood (which I still need to read) is both popular and long.
AFAIK, it addresses a whole new "story" in Hanako's life, which means that it needs the whole new beginning-middle-end/conflict etc. At the time of drafting the Hanako path, I couldn't think of a more dramatic conflict than Hanako finally accepting herself as a person and rejoining the world. To beat that and install a "second act" (as it were), you have to get a bit fantastical.
That's why the original Hanako paths had so much death and drama. Moving Hanako from Hermit to Hisao's Girlfriend was a feat in itself, so to have an interesting story after that required some real fantasy. And that is where I overstepped the line, going so far away from the rest of the game that we had to delete the whole path.
Suriko might have other opinions.
tl;dr No, we didn't purposely "degrade" Hanako. Yes, I am surprised at how popular she is. Writing stories is hard. Read my book (please - and rate it on Amazon)