Also there is no Light Orb.
There’s a couple other routes without one Fuko off the top of my head
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Oh okay, I haven’t fully played the game so I didn’t know that.
I still wouldn’t count her as having a route though. Mainly because completing it gets you no closer to After Story. You aren’t required to see it nor will completing her route instead of Kyou’s let you get to it. I’m pretty sure every other character route is required.
I would also argue against that route having a “good” ending 
Although in after story you end up getting her light orb, which does represent Fuuko’s real good ending
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Bookclub discussion begins from this post onward!
I finished Ryou’s route and am working on Kyou’s route right now.
Based on the buzz around Ryou’s route I was kind of expecting to see the relationship fall apart even in the best ending. Instead they just kind of hint that it is a doomed endeavor and finish it. I thought it was really interesting that the fortune telling machine pretty much lectured Ryou about respecting Okazaki’s life choices preemptively.
Ryou and Okazaki have terrible chemistry. I don’t dislike Ryou, but the two just don’t match. She seems very much like the high school girl who got a crush on a boy in class who seemed cool and is now wrapped up in the idea of relationship. This is normal, but not sustainable.
I just got to the part where Kyou runs off after confessing to Sunohara. I feel bad for both her and Ryou. Kyou started setting Ryou up with Okazaki because she truly cares for her sister, and Ryou surely had no idea about how her sister felt. So they ended up in a position where at least one of them would have been hurt regardless and Kyou kind of tried to shoulder all of it, but based on Okazaki’s resolve she starts to buckle.
More added on 12/21/2015
I finished this route last week. I was really impressed with the emotions on this route. Ryou being torn between not wanting to lose Tomoya to her sister, but also knowing she kind of took advantage of Kyou’s caring personality to give herself an edge.
It is good that Tomoya is written in a way where you don’t hate him for moving from Ryou to Kyou. So much of his hesitation is just his desperate search to find a way out without hurting Ryou, and he eventually has to face the fact that not hurting her was not a possibility and drawing it out would only be worse. I am glad that while you hear after a time skip Ryou has a new boyfriend, but that it is not a part of the route and Tomoya has to face the pain head on.
Ryou gets really uncomfortably invested in keeping the relationship together. That she comes right out and says she will replace her sister…well, lets just say I am glad Tomoya was on the same page as me about that. I kind of wonder if she would have been so desperate if the rival had not been her twin sister. Despite the fact that Ryou and Kyou are close I am sure there are many times where Kyou’s more upright personality has at times made Ryou feel like she is missing out.
Final thoughts:
-Sunohara is amazing in this route
-Kyou looks adorable with the shoulder length hair
-I feel compelled to collect all of the dating advice given by Kyou from this and all the other routes.
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Personally I did not enjoy this route as much as I once used and I can’t quite put my finger on what it was that irked me this time.
However one part I loved which stood out to me in retrospect (which admittedly I’ve probably over-thought a little) is in regards to Botan’s ‘back-story’ which is subsequently an important part of Kyou’s character, in another small piece of exposition which at first glance seems insignificant, but in my opinion provides some rich food for thought.
I mentioned the way Yukine’s route used a piece of exposition to clarify some of Clannad’s greater plot which was seemingly deeper than it came across. However it this case, the use of exposition does numbers for Kyou’s character in the long haul as well as her route.
Just so everyone knows what I’m talking about, I’ll copy paste the text of the section of the route I’m referring to;
Kyou speaking to Tomoya about how she found Botan:
"He was trembling here all by himself, his parents and siblings were nowhere to be found. It seems boars only take care of their children if they follow them. I don’t know if he got separated or lost but he ended up alone by himself, and so I took him home with me.
Boars actually forage for themselves even while young. Their mothers don’t give them anything other than milk. I guess in a way that’s how they teach them how harsh life is."
There’s a few things I want to talk about and some points dabble into spoiler territory for After Story which I’ll blank out so you can read at your own discretion.
Firstly it’s pretty weird that Kyou would take home a boar of all things, but this is part of her character which was quite nice to see. It demonstrated a maternal and caring side of her which contrasts her surface personality of being a nasty brute. Botan is in a way someone/thing that had a profound impact on her mentality after seeing what he went through and having to care for him as a pet.
This for me revealed another side to Kyou, because on the surface she’s a sassy son of a gun, but when it comes to something that she cares about (Ryou, or Botan) she becomes extremely protective in a kind of motherly way. Paralleled by the way she was deeply saddened from seeing Botan separated from his family.
Although I would have liked to see Kyou’s character be handled in a way that wasn’t just 2 extremes (tsundere fluff eh?) this piece of exposition also relates to her feelings for Tomoya in a way.
She loved Tomoya, but knew Ryou liked him too. But her primary response was to encourage Ryou to chase after Tomoya which created a nasty love triangle. The important part I want to draw here is the way that Kyou, despite being usually hostile for comedic effect, when it involves someone she cares about she feels the need to help them in anyway possible to make sure they are happy because she can’t stand to watch someone feel lonely.
But oh dear…
Situation where she cares deeply for 2 people with no options to make every party happy. Her inner conflict causes her to break down transitioning us in to a highly melodramatic ending.
I dont like the way the route was executed myself, but I respect the thought gone into the characterisation because it ultimately gives foresight to the reader of how she might progress in future.
And now spoiler territory!
After Story major spoilers The reveal of Kyou’s motherly personality and care giving attitude is kind of a subtle foreshadow of her untold aspirations of wanting to become a kindergarten teacher and caregiver to children. A lot people say that Kyou would have been the perfect step-mom for Ushio if Tomoya ever decided to remarry at some point after Nagisa’s death (in a hypothetical scenario where Ushio doesn’t die) and I can’t help but agree. Kyou’s route solidifies just how strong her feelings are for Tomoya. I can see it happening, definitely.
Overall I’ve grown to really respect Kyou’s character. Even if specifically her route was slightly… over-doing it on the drama side of things.
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Man this route, or routes I guess, make me feel very conflicted. I’m a lot like Tomoya, I suppose. It’s hard when you have people that you care about and want to put their happiness ahead of yours, especially in a love triangle situation. All parties involve were to blame, yet they all cared about each other, so I can’t hate any of them. Since I’ve also experienced both sides of one-way attraction I can relate a lot to Kyou’s route. Even though it worked out in the end, it really could have ended up with everyone unhappy, and I still don’t quite feel satisfied with the way it ended, even though I can’t think of a better one.
A lot of people seem to have a strong preference for one twin or the other (even if its based on negative opinions) but really I can’t seem to choose. On one hand I think Kyou has a lot of bad habits and aspects that are really unappealing, but a lot of the other aspects of her personality are very relate-able and resonate a lot with me, like her motherly attitude with those she cares for and hiding her feelings by acting like her normal self.
I also feel like Ryou as a character could be more developed, because I’m sort of curious as to the basis of her attraction to Tomoya in the first place and her sudden transition into boldness seemed a bit too sudden. At the same time, she’s the kind of character I want to root for. I want her to be happy. I think that Tomoyo really helped her get out of her shell more and I liked that part of the route. I’m glad that there was an ending for her, but I don’t like how it’s so short and just a cut off version of Kyou’s route, because it kind of makes you feel guilty for being faithful, know what I mean?
In the end it’s just a very conflicting route for me. It’s certainly a more traditional romantic drama, but the way it was written resonated with me emotionally.At the same time the ending didn’t really make me feel good, and I can understand people who don’t like this route because of the love triangle drama.
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Time to break what I’ve been doing the entire time and put out a post long before I’ve finished and collected my thoughts.
This route is so fuckin’ dumb. Like ok so
That’s been the whole thing so far, and, as seen here, the the writing pretty much knows that, the route keeps acknowledging that the whole thing is fuckin’ dumb.
But it’s still continuing to go along that fuckin’ dumb path. And now I’ve got the choice that, much to my dismay, I’m supposed to expect Tomoya actually does give going out with Ryou a go and that’s going to be hours of fuckin’ dumb wasted on some fuckin’ dumb romance between someone who doesn’t give a shit and the stuttermachine 5000.
BLEH.
I was struggling to articulate what it was about the route that I didn’t like, but I think you just nailed it quite explicitly 
The whole route treats Ryou like dirt, and there is always a feeling that Tomoya is fully aware that it’s a dumb thing to do, but does it anyway. The way the route concludes doesn’t really help either.
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Random thought I forgot to write about, Sunohara is such a bro in this route despite still being the butt of the joke for much of it. Props to you, Sunohara. MVP of the route.
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I wonder how the twins could be considered to be “psychologically apt” in their attraction for Tomoya, if you know what I mean. The other characters are either similar to Tomoya or otherwise fill in some role for him that he’s been lacking in his life, yet Ryou’s feelings seem like they’re just an ordinary high school crush.
Though maybe reading Kappei’s route is necessary to really get into her character, since that’s where the major part of her character development actually happens.
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Sunohara kicks so much ass in this route. Like, it is freaking crazy. He was my favorite part of this route and it really permanently endeared his character to me. Which is good because I did the Mei route the other day and I spent a chunk of that route wanting to kick him again.
I don’t want to be rude, so hopefully I don’t offend anyone, but I personally hated this route. Not the writing or anything, just the actual story of this one. I was cheated on many times (my ex had a 4 month relationship with another girl at one point when we had been together for about 2 years) and it’s a real sore spot for me. So having to play through as someone who is stringing a girl along while having feelings for someone else was just… I did not enjoy it one bit. It made me very angry.
I don’t much like Kyou and I didn’t before this route either. I didn’t hate her though and I still don’t. But I find a very strong conflict in what she wants to accomplish (helping others) and how she acts. I wanted to see more of Ryou and I’m glad I got to because I really like her. So on top of the emotionally difficult aspect of playing someone who was falling for someone else, it also happened when I was growing quite fond of the girl he was dating.
There were some good things. The acting dramatic about Botan was quite funny. I liked the affection rating and event flags gags. Kyou looked cute with the shoulder length hair. Sunohara surprised me with his wisdom in this one. The whole time I was thinking “You can’t get out of this without hurting someone and you’re only prolonging it and making it worse” and he took the words right out of my mouth.
But yeah overall it was not for me, sorry! I did not like it, I did not like how people were being treated, and I especially did not like how I was excited to complete the Ryou route after and it was barely different and much much shorter. I actually wanted to see them interact more as a couple because darn it I LIKED HER! Oh well~
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Ok
This route is fuckin’ dumb.
Literally the entire thing, THE ENTIRE THING has it’s foundation build on ‘The both like Tomoya’, but WHY DOES RYOU LIKE TOMOYA, there is NO GOD DAMN CATALYST TO SPARK THOSE FEELINGS. The entire thing us built on a brick that EXISTS because they story NEEDS IT TO EXIST instead of MAKING THE FUCKING BRICK FIRST.
“Aww kanon naw das the point man Tomoya/Ryou is supposed to be this fake ass shit romance” NO, that’s only Tomoya, the route pretty clearly wants me to believe Ryou is head over heels for this assmuncher SHE DOESN’T FUCKING KNOOOOOOW.
Ok but see, once they start going out, Tomoya starts doing some stuff that could believably make Ryou start thinking ‘yo I’d bang that’, a lot of saying embarrassing things to help her self confidence, and bunch of stuff that would be really legit if she WASN’T INTO HIM BEFORE HE STARTED SAYING ALL THIS SHIT WHY IS SHE GOD DAMN INTO HIM FOR NOT FUCKING REASON THIS IS SO DUMB WAIT THIS IS JUST BOOTLEG NAGISA AS WELL SHIT GAME 0/10.
So, with that GIGANTIC KAIJU MULTICOLOURED ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM ADDRESSED, time to talk about the rest of the route, talk about is as if the foundation wasn’t made of unsettled jelly.
Cause it’s actually pretty solid. I MEAN ASIDE FROM THAT DUMB SHIT UP THERE but I won’t mention that anymore.
Kyou’s Character
Hey Aspi, screw you.
Kyou is cool beans, I like her…colourful descriptions in her threats. I like how she’s kind of a shithead, FLAWS ARE GREAT CLANNAD GIVE YOUR GIRLS NATURAL FLAWS MORE. oooh that’s a good word for Kyou, Natural! She dumps her emotions and thoughts everywhere and they’re pretty prone to swing on a moments notice and change when she’s given time to think LIKE A HUMAN BEING.
Her personality feels like a person without the need of some ridiculous overblown character trait that completely encompasses her entire being without any need to create any personality to go with it, like, I dunno, being so shy you can go several conversations with ‘um/uh/e-eh’ being your only words and s-s-stuttering so bad it’s practically a medical condition, THAT’D BE A SHIT CHARACTER WOULDN’T IT?
Ryou’s Character
lol
Botan’s Character
has more depth than fuckin’ ryou at least
Puhi Puhi!
The Route
It’s fuckin’ dumb.
So fuckin’ dumb.
Even aside from, ya know, THE RYOU LIKING TOMOYA problem, it’s fuckin’ dumb.
But see, all the other flaws? It’s aware of them, they’re part of it, everyone SUPPOSED to be a GOD DAMN NO BALLS STOP BEATING AROUND THE GOD DAMN BUSH HOLY SHIT little pile of trash, people can be like that BECAUSE COMMUNICATION IS REALLY FUCKING HARD GUYS WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO(people are bad at being people). I am not ragging on the route for that, it’s legit(I hate it, in writing or in REALITY FUCKING HELL PEOPLE) but I get the routes intent, it’s showing how GARBAGE THAT BEHAVIOR IS GROW SOME BALLS JESUS.
See this is a problem, the route is flawed so god damn much but it’s built around those flaws, they are the backbone of the story SO IT’S REALLY HARD TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THIS ROUTE, what it should be doing so bad, it’s doing so good(Aside from Ryou liking Tomoya for no reason at the start AAAAAAAAAAAAGH). The fake ass relationship of Ryou and Tomoya is great, it’s a fuckin’ dumb ass time wasting charade that does nothing…BUT THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE, it’s dumb, and stupid, and shouldn’t be there AND IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE IT’S BRILLIANT. The route is full of these fuckin’ dumb things that really are fuckin’ dumb but the way they’re used has me like ‘shit that’s great how they’re using that fuckin’ dumb thing’.
Man look at all that Kyou being NATURAL, she holds back the feels she was too scared to even get out to help her sister WITH HER STUPID RELATIONSHIP THAT SHOULDN’T EXIST and that’s cool as balls, it’s not that deplorable ‘I’VE SO GOD DAMN SELFLESS’ I lovehate in characters, it’s overwhelming love for her sister combined with her own fear making her falsely believe it won’t matter to her. And the tiniest break she gives herself with ‘hai practice kissu’ is wonderful, it’s that one selfish thing she gives herself and it blows up all in her face with the rumors, she handles it poorly at first in a panic but then manages to compose herself, all these things really bring out that she’s natural and a good character with real emotion and AND NOT A PIECE OF SHIT LIKE YOU, SAKAGAMI-SAN.
Also MAD BRO SUNOHARA. Total swagmachine this route, yet again.
I bet all the idiots who were seriously insulting him back in common feel dumb.
Overall
So in short, that massive senseless rambling basically amounts to me saying: Route is a fuckin’ dumb mess of stupid misunderstanding bullshit and an absolutely unforgivable foundation, but it’s crafted around being fuckin’ dumb, I cannot bring myself to be anything less than impressed by the writing. I found it rather enjoyable, if infuriating at times. Fuckin’ Dumb/10
By the way, I don’t really dislike Ryou that much.
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You really do point out the main gist of the route quite well. I myself have a soft spot for stories that involve people doing stupid and/or selfish things and watching the characters grow from that. It’s definitely a personal thing and I can imagine it being infuriating for some others, but I am still looking forward to reading it again~
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Yes, Ryou has no real reason for liking Tomoya. She just has a crush on him. And thats because Kyou is friends with him. Ryou says herself that there is no real reason. She just happens to like him because her sister talks to him and Ryou is around them. She is super shy and does probably not talk or is around other boys. So its perfectly fine for me that she develops a crush on him, even if they are not compatible at all.
That being said, Ryou is the least best match for Tomoya at all. I would even support Tomoya x each of the sunohara siblings more. Tomoya has absolutely no interest in her and Ryou just likes him because there is no one else she could like (at least in this route).
Anyway, I like their route. Everyone is acting pretty dumb here (Except sunohara, mr. MVP). Ryou, for accepting her sisters help even if she knows how much it is hurting Kyou. Tomoya, for just going with it only because kyou said so. And of course, Kyou, for trying to ignore her feelings and help her sister. She just tries to be a good sister and help Ryou, thats obvious, but helping someone while the same thing is hurting you pretty badly is not a good idea. In the end they will both get hurt.
But being dumb is a totally normal human thing. And because of that I like their route. You see them struggling to order their own feelings and decide whats best for them. I also liked dating Ryou. Even if it makes no sence for them to date, it was a good read for me. Ryou trying hard to not act shy and be confident was cute. Also, its funny that Youhei is actually the smartest person in this route. This fact alone makes this route pretty amazing.
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You do seem to be the most passionate reader. 
Ryou was really depressing on this route. When you go for the Kyou ending it made me really uncomfortable that she liked Tomoya enough to try and become like her sister to keep him. Especially because, as you said, there is no great reason for her to like him in the first place and they have terrible chemistry when they are going out. I think at a certain point it really was more of her wanting to out-do Kyou at something as I am sure Ryou is generally upstaged. She is in the kind of sad position of loving someone but also feeling jealous of them it can be hard to rationalize the two emotions. I think you see Ryou at her worst in this route where as when she plays more of a supporting role she works better.
Yeah, I liked Kyou’s development in this route a lot and I thought she stayed likable the whole time. Kyou. I think her dilemma was well played out, and I think the almost practice kiss, followed by a rally behind her sister, followed by a sort of breakdown…well it was very believable and I think did a good job showing that even while she can be rough around the edges Kyou does care a lot about doing what is right and taking care of her loved ones.
As someone who probably insulted Sunohara on common I would say I feel more relieved than dumb 
Sunohara had shown signs in other routes that he was actually pretty great, but this route was his golden moment for sure. I can’t dislike him at this point, though I would still probably punch him if I saw him.
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