Katawa Shoujo Forums

what if the girls were never disabled?

Emi
I don't think Emi would be very different on the surface. She'd still be happy and outgoing. The one key difference I think would be that she would have a lot more friends. As we know the accident killed her dad causing her to not let people get close.

Hanako
I personally think she'd be a lot less shy. More of what we can see during the end of her route. She'd probably still be a pretty quiet person, but definitely not as shy as she is at the beginning! (library scene). Also without her scars she'd probably be a lot more confident.

Lilly
One of those characters that haven't been affected much by her disability. She'd very likely act the exact same, but just have an easier time getting around due to her vision.

Rin
Would she still paint? I wonder. I'm also wondering if her mental state counts as a "disability". If so she'd probably be pretty normal. She strikes me as a nerdyish tomboy so maybe? If not then she'd pretty much be the same but with arms.

Shizune
Would still be aggressive and assertive, and I think without needing to have Misha translate for her would make things much easier. But that's a given. I wonder if she 'd still be friends with misha?

I think one of the best parts about this game is that I can sum up my answer for all of them as "pretty much the same."

In my opinion, Hanako's scars have little to do with her shyness; they are more of a metaphor for her withdrawn nature, especially the way she hides them with her hair. I'm sure she is embarrassed about them, but her social anxiety goes much deeper than something superficial.

Of course, you could argue that if she didn't have them in the first place, she wouldn't have gotten bullied in middle school, but that's stretching it a bit I think.

Boring

The game does try to make the argument that it shouldn't matter if someone had disabilities or not. So it theoretically wouldn't be all that different, but I at least feel that the game and the characters would lose their uniqueness.

Skarl wrote:Shizune
Would still be aggressive and assertive, and I think without needing to have Misha translate for her would make things much easier. But that's a given. I wonder if she 'd still be friends with misha?

I don't think Shizune would still be aggressive and authoritative if she could hear. Well, she would still be like Hideaki: strict and obedient while suppressing the desire for childish things, but passive. Jigoro's constant insults with his loud, brash demeanor would wear Shizune down to the point where she'd be afraid of criticism and authoritative figures. She'd be shy, unable to take risks, and suffer from low self-esteem. She would then get into abusive relationships and be prone to suicidal thoughts.

And she probably wouldn't be friends with Misha

In some cases it really depends on whether you mean their disabilities were somehow magically cured, or that the events that caused those disabilities never happened.

For instance, if Hanako's house never burned down, she would have parents growing up, she wouldn't have gone to the orphanage, she wouldn't have been teased by her friends (and therefore, she wouldn't develop her deep aversion to social interaction), etc. She would be a completely different person. On the other hand, if the fire still occurred, and she managed to escape it unscarred, but her parents still died, she might retain a lot of her personality. And it would be still different if the fire occurred, her parents died, she was badly burned, and then medical technology managed to heal the burns, because we can see from Hisao's character arc that even a significant amount of time in the hospital can greatly change your outlook on life.

Emi's in a very similar situation, and although it is stated that she used to run as a child and be very close to her father, it's really impossible to say whether her personality would develop along the same path had their accident never occurred and he was a live throughout her teenage years. Maybe he would have inspired her to have the same ambition and drive as she does in the game proper, or maybe she would have become rebellious, irresponsible, and directionless. In the absence of such a formative event, there's really no telling.

Lilly appears to be very in control of her disability during the course of the game, but it's later implied by Akira that her blindness was the cause of almost all of the major events of her life with regards to her family. So, were she not blind, it's possible that her family would have never left Japan in the first place, which would affect her personality immensely. She wouldn't have to learn to be independent and motherly from taking care of herself and Akira; she wouldn't have had the same feelings of familial abandonment that drew her to Hanako and Hisao in the attempts to create a family for herself; she wouldn't have had the same English tutor (or possibly any English tutor) when she was younger, so her views on love and her ambition in life would be different.

Shizune initially appears to be different, because she seems to care very little about her deafness. However, a lot of Shizune's personality is a result of her disability as well, or more specifically, the after-effects of her disability. Her inability to communicate well with others is a common theme throughout all of the events of her past that you can see in the game: without that communication barrier, it's likely everything in her past would have gone differently, and not just for her. It's entirely possible that Jigoro would act differently if he had not had to spend such effort trying to raise Shizune without being able to communicate with her, and as a result may have raised Hideaki differently as well. And of course, the division between her and Lilly would have been much less likely to occur if she could communicate directly with Lilly, and that's even assuming that her personality at that point in her life would be the same, which it probably wouldn't be. If she wasn't deaf, she would have had a lot more friends during her childhood, and those friends could have influenced her in any number of ways.

The only character who really seems to have any reasonable chance of having the same personality if she were not disabled is Rin, and that's still only a chance. It's impossible to speculate clearly on the topic because the game reveals essentially nothing about her past. It's possible that she was raised in such a way that explains her unique thought patterns and mannerisms that would not have changed if she wasn't disabled... or it's possible that there were crucial events in her formative years that caused her to act the way she does now, just like the other girls, except we the readers do not know about them.

Hanako, even without scars would still be shy as fuck. Hell, some folks with scars usually show them off with pride sometimes or don't give a fuck. She may have more friends and talk more with people, but still be a bit shy and quiet. Perhaps her general nature is a shy lass.

Emi would be still cheery and care free. If the accident still offed her fahter, she would have some form of PSTD but it wouldn't be as terrible as the canon game is.

Shizune would still be a bitch with leadership skills and aggressive as fuck. Honestly, no change really expect she has a voice and could commicuate with others without a middle man (Misha)

Rin would still paint maybe.

Lilly, even without her blindness would still be polite.

What do you mean the girls are disabled? They're not.

They just LOOK like they're disabled, but they're not. So they'll act just like how they normally would.

Shizune would be the leader type--this time with more voice and authority
Emi would be running as usual
Rin would be painting, and her mind would still wander around in the clouds
Lilly would still be the Yamato Nadeshiko of KS and act all polite while having tea
Hanako would still be the shy girl she is--with less bacon.

so I don't think there is much different, because they're not disabled to begin with--they just look to be.

Mahorfeus wrote:I think one of the best parts about this game is that I can sum up my answer for all of them as "pretty much the same."

Hear hear! I think exactly the same. I consider the greatest strength of this work its consistent betrayal of its expectations, with the first such expectation being that one's course of life and identity is altered coping with disability. Far from it. There are hints dropped in the narrative that suggest the girls' personalities exist independently of the perceived crutch they bear. Even Hanako, who could easily be argued as a totally different person in the long run without the house fire that traumatized her so, makes references to the fact that she wasn't overly outgoing before the accident. The struggle tempered and made apparent that inclination to isolation, certainly, but didn't seed it.

Still, Mahorfeus has said it best in his brevity: pretty much the same.

Don't tell me....Normala Shoujo

They'd be pretty much the same. You are not your disability.

Emi would be running around.
Lily would be sitting and drinking tea.
Hanako would be reading happily in a sunbeam.
Rin would be painting and thinking unusual thoughts.
Shizune would still be ambitious (you most intelligent beautiful girl at school and you NOT running student council? disgraceful!), and need a minion, who'd still SEE her and fall in love with her, Misha.

Tricks and hos, that's what.

Rin would probably be the same. She's pretty out there, and I think it has little to do with her arms. I always got the idea that Rin just sort of fell into painting because she couldn't think of anything else to do, so she would probably still be doing it, only with arms.

Shizune, with her ridiculously flawed family, probably also would be the same. I still say in such a family she should have a personality disorder or something, but... She would probably yell a lot, barking out orders or reprimands for rule infractions. Kinda like how she does, only with a crazy sharp edge that isn't dulled by Misha's interpretation.

Lilly seems hard to predict. It's hard to say if she would be the same or a bitch. I guess I didn't understand enough about her background to really know where she developed her persona. The Catholic school or her younger years with her parents? It seems to me a girls-only school would breed bitchiness.

Emi would probably still run since she was doing it before the accident. She probably wouldn't be so retarded about things since she wouldn't have the hangups with her dad. Maybe she would have married the first boyfriend.

Hanako isn't disabled... But obviously she would be COMPLETELY different since her entire personality was changed and redeveloped in response to how everyone treated her after the fire. Who knows how she would be...

The only person I could see changing 360 degrees is Jigoro.

He'll be this high-expectations, highly protective father.
...
...
scratch that, he already is. Nevermind

I agree, most characters would be largely the same, but Hanako... dunno. I think her anxiety is too closely tied to the events that caused her scarring (and to whatever else that happened after). I mean sure, people can be inherently anxious as a personality trait, but Hanako's mental condition would probably be better if the fire never happened.

I get the feeling that they would be weaker if not shallower if they didn't have disabilities. To overcome as far as they have to reach the beginning of the game gives then strength.

Except Rin and Lilly, I don't see those two changing much. Rin would be Rin, even with arms imo lol. Lilly may be exactly the same, because her character seems to be more flavored by her parents abandoning her at 12 than her blindness. Then again her parents may have took her to Scotland if she wasn't blind. <.<