Katawa Shoujo Forums

Think about it. The bad endings in KS and all VNs like it involve a nasty break up that leaves both parties in likely a much worse spot than they were before mentally and emotionally and kills a potential life-long love due to what is usually a small but vital misunderstanding or miscommunication of sorts. Think about how painful it can be to even read about a situation like that. Now think about how much this happens all the time, everywhere.

Kind of puts things into perspective a little bit, huh? Like... what if there was some way to get the "good ending" out of these relationships, and a decent portion of these people are just making that single wrong choice near the end*? Doesn't that make it seem so much worse than the "oh they'll get over it" so many people tend to brush that kind of thing off with when it doesn't involve them?

*Or as early as act 2 in some cases. Whatever.

Or you can use your Godcanon cannon and blow open a plothole to work out how some bad endings can be turned good in some other way...

Wrong forums for this, i'm afraid

Wow, that's... kind of a sobering thought. Similarly though, think about how many good endings there are across the world right now. Granted, a true good end is more difficult to achieve than a true bad end, but a bad end now can lead to a good end in a few years time. (Unfortunately, this can work the other way around too.)

In the real world, it is impossible to achieve a good end.
Achieving what would amount to a good end in a VN just means that from this point on you have to work constantly to keep the relationship going, and even is you do, success is not guaranteed...

Mirage_GSM wrote:In the real world, it is impossible to achieve a good end.
Achieving what would amount to a good end in a VN just means that from this point on you have to work constantly to keep the relationship going, and even if you do, success is not guaranteed...

By then, things would probably just end up as a normal relationship with its ups and downs. I suppose it depends on your definition of a 'good' end, and reaching that stage of 'keeping it stable' is more realistic than, let's say, being unbelievably and blissfully happy after one large relationship-related complication.

It doesn't hurt to hope, though.

In real life, a bad end is not really an end either. Life simply goes on and contrary to the fanfiction universe, I see very few people moping for the rest of their life about a releationship that went bad years ago.

Moral of the thread: try not to see real-life relationships in VN terms.

Frankly, the only good end in life (in regard to relationships) is the death of either person while the relationship is still on good terms.

Otherwise, one of two things happen:

- The relationship goes bad and ends on bad terms. (Bad end)

- The relationship continues on good terms. (Not an end at all, but an ongoing story)

That's a rather depressing way to think about it.

In my relationships I've had some nasty blow-ups, Hanako-bad-ending class. Likewise for my friends. But if the fundamentals of the relationship are strong and the people are willing to try to work things through, relationship breaks can be overcome.

Just like true good endings are very rare, true bad endings are rare.

Potato wrote:
Otherwise, one of two things happen:

- The relationship goes bad and ends on bad terms. (Bad end)

- The relationship continues on good terms. (Not an end at all, but an ongoing story)

Relationships can end on good terms too. You can reach an amicable decision to end it, and can remain on good terms too.

metalangel wrote:

Potato wrote:
Otherwise, one of two things happen:

- The relationship goes bad and ends on bad terms. (Bad end)

- The relationship continues on good terms. (Not an end at all, but an ongoing story)

Relationships can end on good terms too. You can reach an amicable decision to end it, and can remain on good terms too.

That would be a relationship continuing on good terms. Friendship is still a form of relationship. Though in KS terms, I guess those would be neutral ends...

Potato wrote:

metalangel wrote:

Potato wrote:
Otherwise, one of two things happen:

- The relationship goes bad and ends on bad terms. (Bad end)

- The relationship continues on good terms. (Not an end at all, but an ongoing story)

Relationships can end on good terms too. You can reach an amicable decision to end it, and can remain on good terms too.

That would be a relationship continuing on good terms. Friendship is still a form of relationship. Though in KS terms, I guess those would be neutral ends...

I'm interested in this discussion in KS terms.

It strikes me that if you follow everyone's relationships into the long term (say a few decades ahead), some will face early loss, some will find the world a bit too much. But one thing I suspect is that Yamaku alumni will stick together much more than most other alumni — Japan is a relatively small place relative to the States or Canada; it's more like the UK in terms of living space, and with more pressures for mutual help groups to form where the less-able are concerned.

There's a lot of potential for good endings, or at least not outright bad endings. What we would call neutral endings with some hope in them, I guess.

Potato wrote:
That would be a relationship continuing on good terms. Friendship is still a form of relationship. Though in KS terms, I guess those would be neutral ends...

You break up with our other half, you don't describe still being friends with them as a 'relationship' because you'll confuse the hell out of people.

metalangel wrote:

Potato wrote:
That would be a relationship continuing on good terms. Friendship is still a form of relationship. Though in KS terms, I guess those would be neutral ends...

You break up with our other half, you don't describe still being friends with them as a 'relationship' because you'll confuse the hell out of people.

I think those people deserve to be confused. The whole idea of 'relationship' is a simple one, but people have made it seem as if it is a specific kind of relationship without actually being able to specify it (apart from the endemic 'you know what I mean' arch description). Ex-partner-but-now-just-friends is still a relationship, so too bad if someone else reads more than that into 'relationship'. As in that daft phrase 'in a relationship' — there are precious few people who aren't.