Katawa Shoujo Forums

I've been thinking lately about the "welcome" lines you see on the page when you access the website.

For example it sometimes says "Can you tell me what you think?".
Clicking that takes you to the characters page, showing Shizune's game description.

Now, there were more of those lines but can't remember them at the moment nor does my internet connection allow me to refresh the page so many times to get another line there in a short ammount of time (using a mobile internet connection atm ).

Do those "lines" have any particular reason as to why are they there and does the context/meaning of those lines have anything to do with the characters they represent?

I can't really imagine TELLING something to Shizune without needing Misha first. lol

The lines are all very ironic. That's the point.

Rin: Can you seize the day?
Emi: Can you stand up for yourself?
Lilly: Can you see what I see?
Hanako: Can you face your fears?
Shizune: Can you tell me what you think?

Obviously, they represent the struggles the girls face.

I think it is kind of obvious.

All the lines are referring to the problem each girl has and are a play on words with their disabilities


Emi: Can you stand up for yourself?
She has no legs, technically she could not stand up for herself - but she does by being a very likeable, cheerful and helpful girl in Act 1.

Shizune: Can you tell me what you think.
As you already pointed out communication with her is her defining problem and RAITA made it definite that in order to woe her you would have to learn how to communicate with her via sign language.

Hanako: Can you face your fears?
Dear little flowerchild is always hiding her face behind her hair. Facing herself and facing the world with her face or in other words to make her like herself a little more is probably her leitmotif.

Lilly: Can you see what I see?
Being blind from her birth onwards Lilly has never seen anything and that is why people around her are careful to avoid that particular verb. On another level being blind often means to be perceptive in other ways. Imagine the roleplay of being blindfolded and you will be able to grasp that sentence.

Rin: Can you seize the day?
Now I'd guess this is a reference to the Latin proverb "Carpe diem!" which pretty much translates itself as "Seize the day!" However the proverb can also be translated more empathically with "Embrace the day!" Rin has no arms and therefore no opportunity to truly embrace anything and it maybe alludes to her being so weird and out of place sometimes. It also makes you wonder about her perception of time since the proverb tells you to live optimistically and in th present and Rin does not strike me as possesing these two qualities.

Can you face your fears?

face

Holy hell I missed that completely.

Deimos wrote: Rin: Can you seize the day?
Now I'd guess this is a reference to the Latin proverb "Carpe diem!" which pretty much translates itself as "Seize the day!" However the proverb can also be translated more empathically with "Embrace the day!" Rin has no arms and therefore no opportunity to truly embrace anything and it maybe alludes to her being so weird and out of place sometimes. It also makes you wonder about her perception of time since the proverb tells you to live optimistically and in th present and Rin does not strike me as possesing these two qualities.

Rin's was the only one that struck me as odd. But with the "can you embrace the day" thing you said, it makes more sense. As for her seizing the day or not, it could mean that part of her "disability" is that she's quite distant to others, maybe even distant to what she really wants* or that she procrastinates stuff until it's about to bite her in the ass, but then again, who doesn't do that when being a student!? That's like our hobby

* This could be the case and Rin may put just a facade of "hey, I'm cool with anything, dude" but she's really concerned about what people expect from her or how her interactions are not what would be considered normal, or even, appropriate at times.

abscess wrote: As for her seizing the day or not, it could mean that part of her "disability" is that she's quite distant to others, maybe even distant to what she really wants* or that she procrastinates stuff until it's about to bite her in the ass, but then again, who doesn't do that when being a student!?

* This could be the case and Rin may put just a facade of "hey, I'm cool with anything, dude" but she's really concerned about what people expect from her or how her interactions are not what would be considered normal, or even, appropriate at times.

Rin is the person who needs more supervision and physical help than any other character in KS. Emi has to help her change her clothes and let us not forget the incident on the school festival day with her womanly discomforts and there are many more complications with everyday trivia for her unlike the rest of the cast. I assume she is the last character who is considered girl first and disabled last. But that is some kind of medically-related distance and there is another sort of distance in her scenario.

Let me quote something from a post in this thread: http://ks.renai.us/viewtopic.php?f=13&t ... &sk=t&sd=a I wrote when I was still happy with lurking

Some Lurker wrote: Rin:
As with Shizune it is hard to figure her out. That forms part of the attraction and part of the repulsion. While all other females have an obvious reason to be close to you; in Rin's path this is reversed. It feels like you are the one who is subconsciously and actively seeking her out but you do not know what she gains from you.
This arc is more for the philosophers and artists out there because things are explored and discussed. Weird Theories are thrown around and odd people like Rin an the Art teacher are featured.
Still, I wonder how a romantic connection can be forged from that. Philosophy and art are always linked with detaching yourself from your subjective human nature and from reality to a certain degree and I find it hard to develop something out of this other than something platonic (bad puns - bear with me).
The sleeping scene with her at the festival is taken rather unromantically by Rin and Hisao for example.
I find Rin to be extremely sympathetic but romance seems unlikely considering her nature and that of Hisao in her arc respectively.

(The text has been abbreviated for this quote.)

So yeah, if that is the kind of distance you mean and not the Hanako-kind-of-distance I would need to agree with you.

abscess wrote:she procrastinates stuff until it's about to bite her in the ass, but then again, who doesn't do that when being a student!? That's like our hobby

For you it was a hobby - for me it was dogma!

well thanks for explaining that Deimos. I was kinda curious myself on what those messages meant.

Deimos wrote:So yeah, if that is the kind of distance you mean and not the Hanako-kind-of-distance I would need to agree with you.

Yeah, something like that, artistically and disability-wise it would be with a little dash of Hanako, but just a little one. It's interesting, I grew up seeing artsy characters saying shit like "you don't know how I feeeeeeeeel!" "I'm so saaaaaaaaaad, nobody understands meeeeeee!" "BAAAAAAAW!" Now there are not that many, but I still think it's refreshing to have characters that are capable in art, not artsy characters...... I should stop derailing the topic any further

Deimos wrote:

abscess wrote:she procrastinates stuff until it's about to bite her in the ass, but then again, who doesn't do that when being a student!? That's like our hobby

For you it was a hobby - for me it was dogma!

Oh, really? I'm still a student, so I can procrastinate even more if I want to!

abscess wrote:Rin's was the only one that struck me as odd. But with the "can you embrace the day" thing you said, it makes more sense. As for her seizing the day or not, it could mean that part of her "disability" is that she's quite distant to others, maybe even distant to what she really wants* or that she procrastinates stuff until it's about to bite her in the ass, but then again, who doesn't do that when being a student!? That's like our hobby :D

It's a multilingual reference. I came up with those, and in my native language, "carpe diem" is most commonly translated to "grasp the moment".

I always assumed each line was from Hisao saying that onto each girl - probably as if in each confession scene they all pull the "but I'm not good enough" trick. Well, maybe not Emi, but probably something happens, each girl is downed, Hisao makes them look up with this line.
That's my impression.
Hanako's did confuse me a bit when I thought "but what does she have to face?" but then I realized. (Hanako: "what do I have to face?" / Hisao: "your FACE")

ZystraL wrote:I always assumed each line was from Hisao saying that onto each girl

"--Why you...!!" *stab*

As vision faded, it occurred to me, in some still-functioning part of my mind, that my word choice could have been better.

BAD END

Aura wrote:It's a multilingual reference. I came up with those, and in my native language, "carpe diem" is most commonly translated to "grasp the moment".

Oh. I didn't see your post until just now. Thanks, that makes sense.
Carpe diem can be translated in multiple ways, so it's a bit hard (for me at least) to make the connection to the right saying. It's translated different in my language too...