Katawa Shoujo Forums

Y'know, that we know a decent amount about at Yamaku, maybe even a couple more really peripheral characters. 20 tops. Much smaller if you're looking at guys. And there's... how many people on this forum alone? Over 10,000, with 500+ on at once at its prime, according to the stats. Let's cut that down to regulars and semi-regulars only. That's about 30 people if you want to be relatively conservative about it. Let's say for a second that everybody here ends up at Yamaku. Big influx of new kids. Ratio's slightly off. See where this is going?

Yes, no? Put simply, somebody is going to be heartbroken here, big time. We talk about how it would be in real life and who we'd go for and how they'd react to us by ourselves, but we sort of forget that when it's not a hypothetical Internet thing, more than one per girl usually doesn't fly, and that we wouldn't be alone. Women/men are not trophies to be won, and that's important to understand, but competition is a very real thing with real consequences for both the winners and the losers, and amplifying that times an entire forum could get hairy. I guess what I'm wondering is what you think the deconstructive implications of dumping a bunch of starry-eyed forum fanboys/girls into their favorite VN high school all at the same time would be when so many of them would have their sights set on the same much smaller group of people.

How would we handle that? Could we even handle that? Assume just for the purpose of this hypothetical that we're all single when this happened.

The way it all works out in my head is everyone is peaceful until someone makes a move towards one of the girls. Then it turns into a bloodbath.

Goddamit spunky you just set the universe of fire.
In all seriousness though, its not something that can be thought of just like that, it really heavily depends on a multitude of other factors, what classes we end up in, who tries to befriend us, our interests, who we run into, what clubs we join. Even the personalities of minor characters that barely get mentioned (Suzu, Newspaper club etc)

Heck, it would definetly be an interesting run, but then, it would really be down to who the girls like to spend time with..

Under the circumstances of this hypothetical scenario - assuming the forum population of 30 or so hasn't been driven out at the end of white canes, artificial blade-feet and incessant conspiracy ranting - the OP is right. We are, after all, talking about individuals - from both parties - who not only have their own 'taste', per say, for friends, but who are also still a largely unknown quantity (for the canons: outside of the VNs plot). Ergo, we wouldn't know for ourselves how they might react in such a situation unless we see it for ourselves.

Realistically speaking, any admiration or love I may have for one of these girls (Lilly, to use my go-to example) would likely go unrequited, not only just because she could very well turn me down, but also because I'm not exactly what one can cal the "courting type" - I'm pretty slow to pick up any subtle signals a girl might be trying to pass on to me. Conversely, I might act on my emotions far too quickly (without doing anything outright dangerous or illegal, mind) and have the whole thing spectacularly blow up in my face.

So, at best, I might merely be someone who just happens to hang out with Hanako and Lilly or tries to pitch in with some small tasks for the Student Council. But as for seriously pursuing a relationship in a strictly formalised, rivalry-strewn environment? Probably not likely further then that.

I don't think much would happen.
I would just live my life and perhaps try to befriend Lilly or Misha or Rin. I doubt I would try to go any further.
They aren't really what I consider to be my ideal girlfriend either.

I'd probably sleep with Suzu a lot. And not much would happen while we were sleeping.

SpunkySix wrote:I guess what I'm wondering is what you think the deconstructive implications of dumping a bunch of starry-eyed forum fanboys/girls into their favorite VN high school all at the same time would be when so many of them would have their sights set on the same much smaller group of people.

How would we handle that? Could we even handle that? Assume just for the purpose of this hypothetical that we're all single when this happened.

In your extremely unlikely scenario, the majority of starry-eyed fanboys would either run a mile or just stand there and stare at their shoes when confronted with the objects of their lust. It would be a lot like the chatroom scene in Futurama - all the nerds are asserting what studs they are and how they want a woman to satisfy them, until Leela appears and they all immediately recoil in terror at the presence of an actual woman.

If I were in the VN, and dumped in there with the other forum regulars... well, my anxiety is worst when interacting with someone that I actually think I might have a chance of dating, and also want to date.

Which means it wouldn't trigger at all except with Hanako and maybe Emi. (I can't recall if I would have thought Emi was out of my league when I was in high school.) No trigger on Lilly because I'd immediately write her off as out of my league, no trigger on Shizune, Misha, or Rin because I wouldn't want to date (or really associate with) any of them.

Now, because this is a forum that's chock full o' Hanabros, my anxiety would go to 11 for her specifically - I'd think she's in my league, but I don't do well in a situation like that. And, for her, the sudden influx of guys trying to get close to her would probably send her anxiety to 11. Upshot, we'd avoid each other most likely, and she'd hide in her room.

I'm sure I wouldn't even try to get close to Emi, either. Too close to the "out of my league" threshold while also having quite the fanclub of her own.

Lilly... it's unlikely, but we might end up being friends, although that would be incredibly awkward with Hanako avoiding me and me avoiding her. I could see a scenario in which she decides she likes me, though, and I'm completely oblivious to her advances, happening... because that did happen to me in high school. TWICE. (One of the times, it was with the class's Miki, the other time, it was with a staff member (although by that point I was both a student AND staff) that Akira reminds me of, quite a lot.) And then my anxiety kicked in, HARD, once I realized what was up.

As far as side characters... speaking of the class's Miki, yeah, I'd write Miki off as out of my league.

And, the Akira... well, if I got close to Lilly, Akira naturally follows from there. I could see myself hanging out with Akira, too, having written her off as way out of my league but a seriously cool person to hang out with. And, given that Lilly's the gatekeeper to Akira, I suspect most people wouldn't get that chance (with Lilly not responding well to attempts to get under her skirt without a relationship already in place). I could also see Akira trying to hook me up with Hanako or something once she realizes my anxiety issues, and both of our issues conspiring to foil Akira's efforts.

Also, I'd likely end up in Suzu's circle of friends due to some shared (fanonical anyway) interests. I'm honestly not sure whether I'd be attracted, but if I were, the awkwardness would probably eat at me and I'd withdraw and become a shut-in, especially if leghumpers are there.

Fanonical Saki and Rika, I'd avoid both of them for different reasons. (Saki's, well, not very nice, and Rika's insane, almost as bad as Kenji.)

In your extremely unlikely scenario, the majority of starry-eyed fanboys would either run a mile or just stand there and stare at their shoes when confronted with the objects of their lust. It would be a lot like the chatroom scene in Futurama - all the nerds are asserting what studs they are and how they want a woman to satisfy them, until Leela appears and they all immediately recoil in terror at the presence of an actual woman.

Heh, that was kind of my first thought too. When Aura, in another thread, (maybe jokingly) asked whether we thought the inconsistent portrayal of contraception was sending a bad message or not, my initial thought was that for a large part of KS' audience it probably wasn't going to matter either way. Or maybe I'm just too cynical.

This was already mentioned earlier, but what's convenient about Hisao is the fact that he's kind of a mallable character who changes according to what path he sets out on to fit with the girl he's pursuing. Most real people aren't nearly as mallable and the question is...would the girl in question be interested in YOU or would she be put off by some of your traits?

Three or four side girls?

Let's see... Miki, Yuuko, Naomi, Natsume, Ritsu, Misaki, Ikuno, Suzu, Molly, Meiko, Akira, Sae, Saki, Rika, Hitomi, Hachisame, Time-Warp Tan, ther art club girl who's name I forget, the KS2 girls... Ryouko ...

there's probably more, but I'm drawing blank now.

Oddball wrote:Three or four side girls?

Let's see... Miki, Yuuko, Naomi, Natsume, Ritsu, Misaki, Ikuno, Suzu, Molly, Meiko, Akira, Sae, Saki, Rika, Hitomi, Hachisame, Time-Warp Tan, ther art club girl who's name I forget, the KS2 girls... Ryouko ...

there's probably more, but I'm drawing blank now.

Dibs on Hachisame. Sharktopus 4 lyfe.

Oddball wrote:Three or four side girls?

Let's see... Miki, Yuuko, Naomi, Natsume, Ritsu, Misaki, Ikuno, Suzu, Molly, Meiko, Akira, Sae, Saki, Rika, Hitomi, Hachisame, Time-Warp Tan, ther art club girl who's name I forget, the KS2 girls... Ryouko ...

there's probably more, but I'm drawing blank now.

How many of them do we really know anything about though, enough to have people actively seeking them out in a high school setting as any sort of a priority? I'd say maybe Miki, Yuuko, Saki, Rika and maybe Suzu and Molly at most, from what I know. Maybe I'm off? Akira and Meiko would both be there sort of, but neither of them actually go to the school, and both are older than high school age by quite a bit. Even with all of those characters though, there's a decent chance that any of the user's strongest priorities would overlap quite a bit with the main group of six alone.

And yeah, Hachisame would be awesome, but I highly doubt she's actually a thing at any sort of semi-realistic Yamaku.

Let's add on to this a little. We're all there... how many of us are cool with knowingly pushing Hisao towards the edge of a building to his death, indirectly, on top of the situation that has already been presented?

Let's say for a second that everybody here ends up at Yamaku.

Well, considering that most of the people here don't even speak Japanese and/or are way to old to go to High School there would certainly be a few problems...

SpunkySix wrote: Let's add on to this a little. We're all there... how many of us are cool with knowingly pushing Hisao towards the edge of a building to his death, indirectly, on top of the situation that has already been presented?

Manslaughter ne'er won fair waifu.

Mirage_GSM wrote:

Let's say for a second that everybody here ends up at Yamaku.

Well, considering that most of the people here don't even speak Japanese and/or are way to old to go to High School there would certainly be a few problems...

Fake it. Pretend your deaf... and mute... and have that thing where you've aged really fast...and made you not Japanese.