Katawa Shoujo Forums

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

NEVER.

[Proceeds to fill my head with new and wonderful headcanon]

Thoughts on Molly. ...

First off, Molly is Japanese. She will correct you if you get that wrong. She was born in Japan. Granted, her parents are both Indian and that's how they tried to raise her, but she considers herself Japanese. In fact, she may try too hard sometimes to be Japanese.

She did spend the first several years of her life in India however and because of that speaks Japanese with an accent. She's fluent in Japanese, Hindi, considers herself to be good at English (although she horribly butchers it when she tries.)

Molly lost her legs at a young age. She doesn't remember how and her parents won't talk about it with her but pretty much as long as she can remember she's walked with prosthetics. She does have a few memories of actually having legs, but they don't quite seem to link up with anything and she's not 100% sure they weren't just dreams or her imagining something.

Molly has a bit of an inferiority complex and often thinks people are looking down at her because she's a foreigner/woman/disabled. Sometimes she's even right.

She's not part of any clubs but enjoys art and music because anybody can appreciate them regardless of language or culture. She plays several instruments herself at various skill levels.

Molly and Takashi are NOT romantically involved according Molly and Takashi and absolutely nobody else. They don't date, they don't flirt, but everybody can tell there's something there, even if neither will admit to it. If asked about it, Takashi will comment that he just spends time with her so she doesn't go annoy somebody else. Although the fact that he will go out of his way to spend time with her and invite her places makes it fairly obvious that what he's saying is just BS.

Another important factor is that Molly was raped several times when she was younger and still associates sex with fear and pain. She doesn't talk about it though. If you're taking her route, you're going to have to accept the fact that your dick isn't some magical cure all for her traumas that shows her how great true love can really be. Sex isn't going to be something she's going to enjoy.

Oddball wrote:Thoughts on Molly. ...

Dude. Yikes.

Oddball wrote:Thoughts on Molly. ...

Hmm, okay, I could see all this. This is pretty well thought out, nothing too crazy or jarring or-

Another important factor is that Molly was raped several times when she was younger

Well then. That took a turn for the unnecessary. "Several times"? Was it different aggressors in each case? Was it a member of her family? How old was she?

Seems like something like that would give her more hangups than just sex-related ones. Something that would be worth mentioning somewhere else than just the last paragraph and that serves more of a purpose other than the singular, "You can't fix THIS one with sex, boys!" which is what I'm gleaning from this.

I'm not saying Molly as a victim of rape is unbelievable. I'm saying something as serious as rape being used to the effect of what amounts to little more than a plot device is not only distasteful, but also makes for bad fiction.

I left that until the end and left out most of the details for a few reasons.

Storywise, if I were to write it out, it's not something the Hisao or the reader would ever find out a lot about. "This happened. You don't get the details."

I knew whatever I did write there, regardless of the details, somebody would have a problem with or want to raise a fuss about it.

And finally, it's not something I personally have given a lot of thought about the details too either.

Now, it wouldn't be just a plot device, at least, no more than the death of Emi's dad or Hanako's bullying is a plot device, however it's not something that defines who she is. It was something that happened a long time ago and she's gotten over it as best a person can, but it's affected how she views and feels about certain things.

And truthfully, one of the recurring jokes on the shimmie is about how rape-able Molly is. I kinda liked the idea of a taking a bad joke and turning it something serious and then making the people feel bad about joking about it to begin with.

But this is just my take on the character. You can freely ignore it if you like. It's not set in stone. In fact, if I were to write out a route for her, it wouldn't even be set in stone for me. Ideas change as the stories get written down and the characters come to life. There's been quite a few instances where I've started a story because I had this one idea or line of dialogue that I absolutely had to use ... and in the end, that idea never even made it into the final work.

Mind you, my headcanon is that Takashi is actually Molly's beard, for whatever reason (despite homosexuality being quite accepted at Yamaku).

bhtooefr wrote:Mind you, my headcanon is that Takashi is actually Molly's beard, for whatever reason (despite homosexuality being quite accepted at Yamaku).

I can't tell if that's an Autocorrect error or if there's a joke sailing right above my head

@Oddball
That seems like a pretty stable basis to write a route from, actually.
Even the whole rape detail, I think could be quite a good point. Kinda like how Spec Ops: The Line went out of its way to make you feel bad I like that.

A beard is someone who pretends to be a gay person's significant other, so that the gay person can more convincingly pretend to be straight.

(Basically, what I'm saying is that my headcanon is that Molly's a lesbian, but she's not comfortable with her sexuality, so she pretends to be in a relationship with Takashi so people think she's straight. And, what's in it for him? The whole "being in a relationship makes him more attractive" factor, which works fine if what you're after is casual sex.)

I kinda liked the idea of a taking a bad joke and turning it something serious and then making the people feel bad about joking about it to begin with.

Kind of like how people stopped making bad jokes about burn injuries after playing through Hanako's route? You're a lot more optimistic about the ability to make people feel bad about that kind of thing than I am.

Guest Poster wrote:

I kinda liked the idea of a taking a bad joke and turning it something serious and then making the people feel bad about joking about it to begin with.

Kind of like how people stopped making bad jokes about burn injuries after playing through Hanako's route? You're a lot more optimistic about the ability to make people feel bad about that kind of thing than I am.

To be fair, car accident jokes are significantly less funny than they used to be for me now.

bhtooefr wrote:A beard is someone who pretends to be a gay person's significant other, so that the gay person can more convincingly pretend to be straight.

(Basically, what I'm saying is that my headcanon is that Molly's a lesbian, but she's not comfortable with her sexuality, so she pretends to be in a relationship with Takashi so people think she's straight. And, what's in it for him? The whole "being in a relationship makes him more attractive" factor, which works fine if what you're after is casual sex.)

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Learn something new every day!

SpunkySix wrote:

Guest Poster wrote:Kind of like how people stopped making bad jokes about burn injuries after playing through Hanako's route? You're a lot more optimistic about the ability to make people feel bad about that kind of thing than I am.

To be fair, car accident jokes are significantly less funny than they used to be for me now.

For me, it depends on whether or not the joke is actually funny to begin with Clever and perfectly delivered jokes are always funny

Munchenhausen wrote:

SpunkySix wrote:To be fair, car accident jokes are significantly less funny than they used to be for me now.

For me, it depends on whether or not the joke is actually funny to begin with Clever and perfectly delivered jokes are always funny

You must be a car tire-wear show Joe.

brythain wrote:

Munchenhausen wrote:

SpunkySix wrote:To be fair, car accident jokes are significantly less funny than they used to be for me now.

For me, it depends on whether or not the joke is actually funny to begin with Clever and perfectly delivered jokes are always funny

You must be a car tire-wear show Joe.

I've spent the last five minutes of my lunch hour racking my brain at that
I'm almost too scared to ask... what?

Munchenhausen wrote:

brythain wrote:You must be a car tire-wear show Joe.

I've spent the last five minutes of my lunch hour racking my brain at that
I'm almost too scared to ask... what?

Dang, I fail at perfect delivery then. I thought it was a good pun when delivered in the right accent.

Guest Poster wrote:

I kinda liked the idea of a taking a bad joke and turning it something serious and then making the people feel bad about joking about it to begin with.

Kind of like how people stopped making bad jokes about burn injuries after playing through Hanako's route? You're a lot more optimistic about the ability to make people feel bad about that kind of thing than I am.

Sometimes my optimism gets the better of me.