Ren'Py Lessons in Love [v0.44.0] [Selebus]

[Moonflare]

- "I begged the driver to stop so I could get off and chase you down and wrap my arms around you and ask you to come home."
- "But of course she [redacted]."
- "I couldn't believe it. Here I was just inches away from finally finding you and [redacted]."

Interesting, my interpretation from "but of course she" was that she managed to get off the bus but was stopped by Maya from hugging him.

I guess that she wasn't able to leave the bus is also valid.

Assuming she has any power to begin with, even if she does, it doesn't seem to be that strong if she couldn't do shit to stop the resets and all that. Otherwise, she is just a normal teenage girl and Akira an adult who not only pursued something with Maya willingly, he also willingly went with whatever Maya did to "steal" him; broken or not he has proven to be able to say no when he doesn't want something, so saying Maya did it all is unfair, he is just as guilty.

I agree, Maya was a child. I think it is relevant that he was broken, and that she acted in bad-faith, and forced/manipulated and even perhaps blackmailed him - since that is also evidenced by her strong refusal to the fact that she was molested. But Akira was still an adult that most likely wanted to "pet the cat" when he first met her. They're both wrong here, or none of them are depending on how the story ends. But we can't in good faith just blame one side (especially not Maya's since, again, a child).

I'm finally on my vacation and have some free time to replay the game once again. I just started, and man, after the whole Ami's mental breakdown, Akira's first day must have looked scary as fuck from Ami's perspective: sudden memory loss, questions about her parents, about the people he's known for years, why she calls him Sensei instead of his real name, why she's living with him instead of being closer to her friends and the like.

Looking at it from that perspective, yes, she takes it way too well. Like way too well. She either remembers fragments of the cycles, or Akira had this happen other times before the resets (Ami is fully acquainted with his sanity pack and auto-pilot mode). Or maybe both.

 

[Comiies]

Spoiler: Spoiler

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[Comiies]

Spoiler: Spoiler

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[steveveve31]

Wow, even I'm a big fan of Maya and I know that Noriko is going to be very important to the story, why do you have this opinion about her???

I know I'm a page late (and honestly other people did a very good and detailed dive into it too!) but yeah in addition to all that, the RL stalker this was a big turn off.

Also, to go a little more meta on it, I remember when she was first introduced Sel doing a post somewhere to the effect of "if the perfect girl doesn't exist you create her, meet Noriko", so when she was so unhinged during her intro scenes, I was already on alert. There was also some other Sel comment when someone was asking him about the original plans for the story if the second floor hadn't gotten added, and he said that Niki would've still happened and been (obviously) vital to the story, but I assumed from that point that Noriko was basically shoehorned in. To be fair, this was all quite a while ago and I might be misremembering!

In general though, I feel like most of the characters besides the original 10 are unnecessary and contribute to bloat on an already insanely bloated game, even the ones that I've come to really like. Uta is probably my favorite of the main cast, but her story is pretty much a nothingburger with a crazy amount of stringing along. This is what happens when the author takes so much pride in word count though (it's still my favorite game on this site don't shadowban me plz k thx)

 

[LessonsInDissonance]

Spoiler: Spoiler

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Yeah fuck that guy

 

[Comiies]

Spoiler: Spoiler

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[Comiies]

Spoiler: Spoiler

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[aramaug]

A little while back there was some discussion of gods and trees in relation to Kaori's events in the forest and Wires's possible involvement. It turns out that in Chapter 1 there is some pretty strong evidence that trees are connected to all of the trinity, and probably to gods in general.

On the first beach trip, after Sensei begins to disassociate, his inner monologue starts talking about a tree that represents the trinity.

Spoiler: Prayer Position

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In "Trinity pt. I" three spotlights that almost certainly represent three gods shine on a tree:

Spoiler: Trinity pt. I

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A connection between gods and trees is also made in "Trinity pt. III" when the "narrator" (probably Pareidolia) goes on a rant against Maya. We're told she's not a god at the same time the text on screen says she's not a tree:

Spoiler: Trinity pt. III

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The trinity tree is also referenced by the narrator in the final beach event.

Spoiler: See You in the Morning

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One more interesting tree reference is by Tsuneyo when she talks about her dad's love of trees.

Spoiler: Like Noodles in the Wind

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Returning to Kaori, it unfortunately seems pretty ambiguous who could be acting through the forest. It also re-raises the question of who sent the treasure maps - I think the original consensus was that it was Wires because of his connection to trees? But given Nao's connection to USER4 and the idea that USER4 could be the tree's trunk, maybe it was them instead?

 

[Moonflare]

A little while back there was some discussion of gods and trees in relation to Kaori's events in the forest and Wires's possible involvement. It turns out that in Chapter 1 there is some pretty strong evidence that trees are connected to all of the trinity, and probably to gods in general.

On the first beach trip, after Sensei begins to disassociate, his inner monologue starts talking about a tree that represents the trinity.

Spoiler: Prayer Position

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In "Trinity pt. I" three spotlights that almost certainly represent three gods shine on a tree:

Spoiler: Trinity pt. I

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

A connection between gods and trees is also made in "Trinity pt. III" when the "narrator" (probably Pareidolia) goes on a rant against Maya. We're told she's not a god at the same time the text on screen says she's not a tree:

Spoiler: Trinity pt. III

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The trinity tree is also referenced by the narrator in the final beach event.

Spoiler: See You in the Morning

You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.

One more interesting tree reference is by Tsuneyo when she talks about her dad's love of trees.

Spoiler: Like Noodles in the Wind

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Returning to Kaori, it unfortunately seems pretty ambiguous who could be acting through the forest. It also re-raises the question of who sent the treasure maps - I think the original consensus was that it was Wires because of his connection to trees? But given Nao's connection to USER4 and the idea that USER4 could be the tree's trunk, maybe it was them instead?

This is a very good analysis. I can't see anything wrong about the conclusion of which parts of the tree each god is. Good job.

On the narrator addressing people, Rin possibily hears the narrator when she's rejected by Chika and is patted by Akira (it's either the narrator or the room with the clocks) - but Ayane for sure hears the narrator on "all for you".

Spoiler: all for you

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[aramaug]

This is a very good analysis. I can't see anything wrong about the conclusion of which parts of the tree each god is. Good job.

On the narrator addressing people, Rin possibily hears the narrator when she's rejected by Chika and is patted by Akira (it's either the narrator or the room with the clocks) - but Ayane for sure hears the narrator on "all for you".

Spoiler: all for you

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Yeah, Sensei consoling Rin is the same event that I was talking about. Before she starts hearing the ticking, the narrator talks to her:

Spoiler

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She doesn't react that time, but then (after talking about the tree stuff) the narrator seems to address her again (she's the one crying) which is connected to her hearing the ticking. So even if she's hearing the room with clocks, the narrator is probably involved in causing it.

Spoiler

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Ayane hearing the narrator in "All For You" is really interesting, thanks for pointing that out. I already thought that narrator was Himawari, and for me that basically confirms it. Seems like she's intentionally raising her voice so that Ayane can hear even though she's talking to Sensei, which makes sense for Himawari because she's doing it "all for [Sensei and Ayane]".

 

[XHunterz]

What the actual fuck happening

 

[Riolol]

What the actual fuck happening

You'll have to be more specific.

 

[Moonflare]

What's happening is that we're almost reaching page 1900 before the update rolls in.

Keep em theories, silly and appreciation posts coming. Nearly there boys.

 

[Bingoogus]

What's happening is that we're almost reaching page 1900 before the update rolls in.

Keep em theories, silly and appreciation posts coming. Nearly there boys.

I always find it mildly amusing when folks reference the page count, you know you can edit how many posts appear on each page yeah? We're on page 633 for me currently, the far more useful and important number is post count and for that, we're a few weeks away from 40,000.

 

[Riolol]

What's happening is that we're almost reaching page 1900 before the update rolls in.

Keep em theories, silly and appreciation posts coming. Nearly there boys.

Let's try to keep things moving then. If you had to adopt one of the girls from the class who would you choose? I'd go with Yasu, something about her activates my protective instinct.

 

[Bingoogus]

Let's try to keep things moving then. If you had to adopt one of the girls from the class who would you choose? I'd go with Yasu, something about her activates my protective instinct.

Sana... for reasons...

 

[Riolol]

Sana... for reasons...

Hey if we're going by those reasons I'll take them all.

 

[Fire Lord Zuko]

Let's try to keep things moving then. If you had to adopt one of the girls from the class who would you choose? I'd go with Yasu, something about her activates my protective instinct.

From class? It should come as no surprise, but Ami. Her love would be unconditional, the cleaning and cooking around the house would be more or less handled, and after the trauma she’s endured she really does need someone to hold her together.

This wasn’t asked, but I’m throwing in Chinami and Tsukasa too. Chinami needs stability and Tsukasa just needs new parents in general. Really sad…

 

[Riolol]

From class? It should come as no surprise, but Ami. Her love would be unconditional, the cleaning and cooking around the house would be more or less handled, and after the trauma she’s endured she really does need someone to hold her together.

This wasn’t asked, but I’m throwing in Chinami and Tsukasa too. Chinami needs stability and Tsukasa just needs new parents in general. Really sad…

Ami's a strong contender for sure, if only she were a bit less batshit.

 

[Moonflare]

Let's try to keep things moving then. If you had to adopt one of the girls from the class who would you choose? I'd go with Yasu, something about her activates my protective instinct.

I have met a couple of Yasus in my life, so I'm done with that honestly. I think Yumi could be a good choice, she really is the girl most in need of being loved and for whom love would fix everything. I don't know if I'd be up personality-wise to dealing with delinquent Yumi though, conflict gets me too worked up... Let's see...

Huh, I never thought I'd arrive at this answer, but I think Tsuneyo. She's very much so a family person, and the parenting part to her specifically would be in my wheelhouse. Either her or Rin, but Rin already has such a good family it's hard to even imagine me doing a better job.