Katawa Shoujo Forums

Personally I kinda like threads like this. It stretches the boundaries and makes us think abou thte characters in new and different ways.

Its a nice change from the usual "Who's your favorite girl?" and "Why all these feels?" discussions.

I think Katie is the most likely to become an emotionally abusive mother.

Just a speculation here.

KeiichiO wrote:I think Katie is the most likely to become an emotionally abusive mother.

WIN

OtakuNinja wrote:

KeiichiO wrote:I think Katie is the most likely to become an emotionally abusive mother.

WIN

Thank you. I'll be here all week!

I can't see any of them becoming abusive, at least by common definitions.

I do think there's a real chance of Emi, Shizune, or Rin becoming emotionally distant (though they'd take very different paths to get there). That can mess up a kid, but can it really be called abuse? I'm not sure it can: it's a problem, but not the same problem.

There is such a thing as a cycle of bullying, but it takes a certain mindset to fall into that, and Hanako simply doesn't have it. If anything, she might prove overprotective to the point of stifling, but again, that's not something I'm sure you can call abuse.

And then there's Lilly. There are people who would call a Catholic upbringing inherently abusive: the Richard Dawkins folks especially love this one. But that's obviously a very subjective judgment, and I don't agree with it, and I don't see any greater danger than that. I guess she also has a chance of becoming overprotective, but I don't think it's as high of a risk as for Hanako.

The bottom line is that I don't think any of them would really become what I'd call abusive, but at the same time, I don't think that necessarily means their kids will not be affected, and there are definitely ways that people could argue for abuse.

pandaphil wrote:Personally I kinda like threads like this. It stretches the boundaries and makes us think abou thte characters in new and different ways.

Its a nice change from the usual "Who's your favorite girl?" and "Why all these feels?" discussions.

New and different ways that make no sense and clash with the known traits of the characters, and therein lies the problem. There is simply no evident potential for abuse from any of them. At worst, Lilly and/or Hanako may be overprotective and Shizune may be demanding but neither of these is abuse.

Nekken wrote:I can't see any of them becoming abusive, at least by common definitions.

I do think there's a real chance of Emi, Shizune, or Rin becoming emotionally distant (though they'd take very different paths to get there). That can mess up a kid, but can it really be called abuse? I'm not sure it can: it's a problem, but not the same problem.

There is such a thing as a cycle of bullying, but it takes a certain mindset to fall into that, and Hanako simply doesn't have it. If anything, she might prove overprotective to the point of stifling, but again, that's not something I'm sure you can call abuse.

And then there's Lilly. There are people who would call a Catholic upbringing inherently abusive: the Richard Dawkins folks especially love this one. But that's obviously a very subjective judgment, and I don't agree with it, and I don't see any greater danger than that. I guess she also has a chance of becoming overprotective, but I don't think it's as high of a risk as for Hanako.

The bottom line is that I don't think any of them would really become what I'd call abusive, but at the same time, I don't think that necessarily means their kids will not be affected, and there are definitely ways that people could argue for abuse.

Oh I couldn't agree with you more. I'm not sure about the others, but I think Rin would require some serious therapy and maybe meds before she could even consider having children, or even functioning in the real world to be honest.

I think Emi and Hanako could handle it okay, assuming they had a partner or husband to help. Single motherhood might be a problem. Lilly I don't worry about at all. I think she'd be a great mom. Shizune might be overly strict, bit as long as the fater was cool, it probably wouldn't be a big deal.

Xanatos wrote:

pandaphil wrote:Personally I kinda like threads like this. It stretches the boundaries and makes us think abou thte characters in new and different ways.

Its a nice change from the usual "Who's your favorite girl?" and "Why all these feels?" discussions.

New and different ways that make no sense and clash with the known traits of the characters, and therein lies the problem. There is simply no evident potential for abuse from any of them. At worst, Lilly and/or Hanako may be overprotective and Shizune may be demanding but neither of these is abuse.

Maybe, but its still encouraged discussion and we've worked out that some of the girls might not be abusive, but maybe overprotective. That's something that wouldn't have even come up in another thread. So I'd say this discussion has value.

anyway, who should we blame? The person who started the thread, or the people who've kept it going for four pages?

Hmm, this talk about being protective reminds me of a story from a long time ago. Whenever my oldest sister was in kindergarten (the 1982-1983 school year), there was a group of two or three 8th graders on the school bus that bullied her every day. They would spit on her, call her names, take things from her, just a whole variety of nasty things. My sister tried to keep the whole thing a secret because she didn't want my mom and dad to worry, but one day after weeks of bullying she broke down crying after coming home from school, and my parents were able to extract the problem from her. My dad asked what the bullies' names were; my sister said she wasn't sure what all their names were, but she did know the name of the 'leader' of their group (I forget what his first name was, but his last was Johnson). No sooner did the name come out of her mouth that my dad picked up a phonebook and started calling everyone with the last name of Johnson, asking each person with perfect civility and politeness if they had a son by the bully's name and age. My dad eventually found the person responsible for picking on my sister... and the moment he got him on the phone, my dad went completely ballistic. My sister says he screamed at the guy at the top of his voice for a solid minute or two, eyes wild as he sprinkled every sentence with a few 'fucks' or 'god damns,' and remembers him saying verbatim "YOU LEAVE MY DAUGHTER ALONE, MOTHERFUCKER, OR I'LL JUMP ON THAT SCHOOL BUS AND BEAT YOUR MOTHERFUCKING HEAD IN!"

The next day, the bully - and even his mother, the bus driver - shied away from my sister because they were afraid of evoking my dad's wrath. The bully greeted her in a very friendly manner that morning, and afterwards never spoke another word to her for the rest of the year.

I wonder if Hanako might also fly into a rage if someone at school bullied her children? Bullying is obviously a very touchy subject for her, and the Bad Ending proves she can rage pretty nicely.

Oh, Hanako could and would go nuclear on their sorry asses.

"Mom, the guys at school teased me that I have a mom who looks like bacon."
"... Leave this to me."

Cue Hanako at the schoolyard going Baconator on the bullies.

YZQ wrote:Cue Hanako at the schoolyard going Baconator on the bullies.

WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!

Turning the kids into bacon?

On a more serious note, giving them a shakedown ala Dr. Casey's dad. Speak a language they can understand.

Xanatos wrote:

YZQ wrote:Cue Hanako at the schoolyard going Baconator on the bullies.

WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?!

I assumed it was a sandwich.

Hanako: Turning bullies into sandwiches since 2015.

I have no idea what the fuck is going on anymore.