- Sep 20, 2018
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August is a tough nut to crack and I don't think we should get too far ahead of the evidence when discussing his love for Hana. He feels something for her, but there are many kinds of love. August wants a better relationship with Hana, but it's not clear why he wants that, nor is it clear what he would or would not be willing to do to earn that acceptance.Hi selberdreher , Grüße!
Like always you make some very interesting points in your post and it can be one possible scenario of corrupting Han, but I think you look at it from the "worst case" point of view.
Hana has quite strong protection through August, which becomes rather clear if you play the Hana path. While August tells us in a conversation that he is not a good person (he has at least quite some selfreflexion others lack), it is obvious that he loves Hana. At the beginning, when August returned into Hana´s life, I too am convinced that it was mainly August trying to preserve/create a legacy, getting to know Hana was more of a "side quest" for him.
But that has visibly changed. He loves his daughter now, August visits her concerts in secret (something he would hardly do if just his legacy was in his mind), he let many of Hana´s "rebellions" slide and you gain points with August if you rip the slimy school director a new one when he insults Hana on the first weekend. August becomes additionally quite philosophical about if he is doing the right thing getting Hana involved with the business.
It is also telling that Kath and Warren when discussing Hana agree more or less that only by circumventing August they can corrupt her.
As for Kath having to become part of the show with Veronica is less of the owners of PC are unprotected, but it was clearly the first time something like that happened and it only happened because of the uncarefully phrased "rules" of the first exhibition. That Kath agreed is more to the point that a business like that obeys much more on a reliability of the stated rules than normal businesses.
On the why side, his motivation makes a huge difference - even if we assume he isn't malicious. Going to see Hana's concert in secret, for example, plays very differently if you think he wants to learn her tastes to better convince her to see reason (from his point of view) versus if you think he wants to see her while she's happy without embarrassing/offending her. Likewise reflecting if he was right to involve Hana in the Club could be a fear that he's leading her down his own path to damnation, or it could be a concern that she isn't up to task of being a criminal boss. Either way he cares for her, but in some cases that care is as much about him as it is about Hana herself. My gut reaction is that August is being at least partially selfless in his love for Hana, but that may just be wishful thinking.
Similarly, we don't really have a good read on how much August would sacrifice to change Hana's opinion of him. We know he's willing to use Hana's dying mother as leverage and that he'll happily throw money at the problem, but neither of those really cost him much. What if it became clear that shutting down the Carnation Club and living a meager life as an honest man would cause Hana to change her views on him: would he do it? Does he want his daughter to accept him as he is, or would he change his ways if that would make him someone she can admire? Until such a situation comes up all we can do is speculate.
Personally, I don't think August would alter his core tenets for Hana because I think he wants a certain level of validation from her; even if she doesn't approve of his actions, he wants her to accept his reasons for taking them. Of course, one of his core tenets seems to be pragmatism, so I do think he'd be willing to alter any of his lesser tenets if that would do the trick, and he doesn't necessarily have to keep making the same decisions going forward.
That would require that Hana agree to spend *any* time with August, and she flat out refused that when he first offered.Well, he is doing a shitty job then. There are hundreds of thousands of estranged family members who reconnect not by blackmailing their daughters by leveraging the health and well-being of their mothers against them. Instead they choose to reconnect by spending quality time with them and try to learn about their likes and supporting them in pursuing their dreams or help out in a tough situation without an ulterior motive. Which is undisputedly a rocky road to travel, and may also have setbacks. Attending her concert was probably the only thing which resembled a normal approach to reconnect with her.
There is no need to keep her around his work for this.
August used Hana's mom as leverage so he could get his foot in the door, so to speak. He probably figured it was the only way he'd have a shot at changing her mind, and since Hana already hated him there was nowhere to go but up. Obviously he could have simply continued to help her mom without strings and hope that would eventually bring Hana around, but for whatever reason he was unwilling to take that chance.
Again, I think it all comes back to why August wants to spend time with Hana.