Satoh wrote:He is also caustic. He grates more on the people he cares about than anyone else.
I think that grating more on people he cares about is because of proximity - he didn't irritate Gord, who never spent much time around him. Haseo seemed to become less of a jerk in general as the trilogy progressed, particularly to the people helping him out (such as Gaspard and Silabus, who helped him get his third form back).
Satoh wrote:While Alkaid doesn't technically agree to be married at that time, she does say that she's willing to see 'where it goes,' which is about as clear as asking someone out in games,
I should also mention that Alkaid is unique in that she is A. the only character it is possible to propose to twice, and B. is the only character that can be explicitly formed a relationship with. This is because, while Atoli and Haseo are clearly very fond of each other, the player can choose to send an emailed proposal to Alkaid. (Not tied to the card, as I remember it)
I'm not sure what you mean at B, because Haseo forms a relationship with a lot of people, some of them becoming fairly close (Atoli, Pi, Kuhn), and others much much more distant (Piros). I also want to point out that I think you're partially incorrect about proposing twice, though that deals somewhat with my suspicion of canonity in cards that I'll go into later: I believe you're referring to the Leader (Just follow me) Card:
Re: Marriage proposal
> Yes, it's a proposal.
...*blushes*
Um, well, Haseo...
I'm only a high school student...
I know that continues (I'm writing a Card FAQ), further supporting your idea. However, I think that the Flower Gift card shows a little more certainly (er...maybe just overtly) that there's serious interest from both of them in the other:
Re: So get it
> So get the wrong idea.
So that's how you really feel.
Haseo... I will forever keep those words in my
heart. Not Alkaid's, but in Chika's heart.
And just so you know...You don't want to see me
when I've had my heart broken!
Satoh wrote:In the end my point is that Alkaid, is as much canonically related to Haseo, as Atoli is.
I'll agree to that, though with the note that none of them are strictly "something happens" canon. You're correct about the trust/affection meter being a game mechanic and not any indicator of how the characters actually feel, though since the greeting cards can be thought of in the exact same manner of the Promise Card as non-canon because you can easily with-hold them and send any ones you want to whomever you want...in other words the information they reveal about the characters
is canon, but the
effects those cards have is not necessarily so.
Satoh wrote:Where the real trouble starts is that Bordeaux is 14,
I think the "Bordeaux is a creepy stalker that annoys him at best" is where the trouble with her starts, though I thought that her addition as a bonus character made no sense - though I've already gone over how I'd have preferred Saburou.
Satoh wrote:Tabby, Shino, Atoli, and Alkaid are all canonically heavily tied to Haseo relationship-wise, but any of the characters could develop, given enough time.
Very true.
Satoh wrote:Personally my favorites are Tabby, Alkaid, and Bordeaux. (I'd count Natsume in there if she didn't turn psycho at the last minute...)
Do you mean Natsume's repeated "Kite, look at me!" or "Are there any Tri-Edges lying on the ground?" Or something else? I'm also curious as to how Bordeaux adds to that list, because I don't see anything conducive to building a relationship in Roots or the games. Tabby was most definitely my fav from Roots (when she reappeared in the Forest, I did a little dance and cheered "Woo! She's back!", and that was before I found how easily she can tear through enemies...AND has a combo-fav). She was also the first one who said, to one degree or another (depending on your interpretation of "Haseo wo daisuke") "I love you, Haseo".
Ranylyn wrote:Atoli says that she'll do everything in her power to be the perfect girl for Haseo.
That's a pretty clear "pick me, Haseo! I like you!" to me. My only issue is that it seems to indicate she's still not growing out of her starting point of "I absolutely need somebody outside myself to validate my own existence", which I think is one of the pitiable things about Atoli.
Ranylyn wrote:Phases that make someone act like a jerk are often rooted in some great sadness. In Haseo's case, it's pretty clear he feels responsible for not being able to save Shino.
I think you're very close, but I think Haseo's issues stem from before that: his family was apparently almost completely uninvolved in his life, and he had virtually no friends in the real world. Shino was just the incident that forced him to dedicate himself instead of burying his head in the sand like he did through much of Roots. That's also, I think, why Alkaid's PKing didn't cause him to regress: he'd already started to advance as a person and he realized (besides the fact that he was already on the way to saving the Lost Ones) that he couldn't afford to be willfully blind to the people around him, that even if they couldn't do something to immediately help him that he had to sometimes look out for them so they could help him down the line.
Ranylyn wrote:but except for one scene, he was largely unaffected.
Well...he seemed to venerate Shino from Roots on, but once Alkaid was PKed her name showed up right next to Shino. The fact that dwelling on Alkaid would not have helped push the game forward is also a narrative issue that I think is partially responsible: especially if a significant portion of your audience already saw Roots, who would really want to see Haseo become a mopey recluse again? As to your Moon Tree comment, I'm afraid I don't understand - could you elaborate?
Ranylyn wrote:Haseo realizes just how much of an impact a great shock can have on your force of will. The incident was not Atoli's fault, yet she claimed it was.
Or ignorance - no matter how many people told her, no matter how much evidence was shown, she wanted to take everything on herself. Trying to convince Atoli that the AIDA server wasn't her fault is like trying to convince GyppyGirl2021 that Alkaid is not the spawn of satan.
Ranylyn wrote:Haseo is telling Atoli to embrace her newfound determination and to move forward on her own,
Though a lot of people had been working on that (Pi and Kuhn both mention discussing things with Atoli and trying to get her to move on), it was just a matter of getting through Atoli's thick skull. A lot of people had
that particular problem - Haseo didn't truly seem to grow out of his 'shutting out everyone' issue until Alkaid became a Lost One, Pi didn't come to truly accept that anybody outside herself could really help project GU fight AIDA until she herself was overwhelmed by AIDA and Haseo saved her in Vol 1, and the list goes on.
Ranylyn wrote:Alkaid was a sore loser who didn't ever seem to take her defeats as motivation to train harder.
So what was that in the "crab cave quest" in volume 1? Seems to me more like she wouldn't
stop training hard, her issue was more like Haseo's in that she (initially) had a single-mindedness that caused her to focus on her main goal (reclaiming the palace throne) and ignore things around her (like treating other people, particularly those she might have been struggling against, decently - and she does this with Atoli, so you can't claim she didn't grow).