Pretty sure there’s a misunderstanding here. My reading was that she threw the gear to the ground, and the chains binding her immediately shattered into hundreds of rusty fragments. I’d find the screen but I’m not on my computer right now. But yeah, it wasn’t her physical strength that broke those chains.
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Kud’s character and arc are hard to discuss for the simple reason that the quality and focus of who she is and what she stands for across the narrative is a bit unfocused. She at once is responsible for many moments of intense emotion while having an arc that I think, as a cohesive and airtight story, is one of the weakest. That is to say that Kud has moments and heights that exceed many other cast members in her role as a supporting character–particularly in instances such as Haruka’s route–while having her own character arc suffer in a few ways. Allow me to explain.
The best thing Kud ever did was be a good friend. Little busters is a story about friendship and I do not think it hyperbole to say that Kud’s many instances of friendship in the other heroine routes is exemplary and downright moving. Of particular note is how she interacts with Haruka and Kanata in their respective stories. Like Komari, she shines as a tool to help create the idea that the little busters as a group is one that cares for one another, particularly when things get rough. Furthermore, her playful and excitable relationship with Masato is one of the greatest in the narrative. This is all to say that Kud’s character is exemplary and a well welcomed part of the story at large.
However, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that her arc expresses some of Little Busters’ flaws fairly clearly. Namely is the opening section of her story which, like Haruka’s route, suffers a bit from meandering to the point. The entire portion of the narrative in which Kud studies for exams is quite slow and drawn out. This isn’t to say that I do not understand why it exists. Clearly it is to endear the audience to her character through the charm of everyday life and to humanize her. But where say, Mio’s humanizing everyday life still took strides to hint at her inner conflict relative to the grander plot of her route, the opening segment of Kud’s route is a lot more fluff than content. There are, of course, hints at Kud’s longing for connection with others and foreshadowing to her time in Tevua, particularly regarding the rigor of her schooling, but I think that relative to all of the other routes, Kud’s suffers from the most padding.
None of this is inherently wrong, but I found the padding a bit excessive. I already was endeared to Kud and her character in common and wanted to more quickly get into the meat of the conflict that surrounds her.
The actual conflict of the narrative is captivating when it does, in fact, start. While I do have some problems with the core choice of the narrative being done by Riki and not by Kud, I would say that beyond that the pacing problems are resolved and the plot is gripping. Of particular note is Kud’s voice acting, which is probably up there with Haruka and Kengo as some of the best in the game. I would have preferred if the ending choice was “Decide for Kud” or “Make Kud choose for Herself” rather than “Have her go” or “Have her stay” as I feel that the actual choice doesn’t respect the character’s agency much, but I do once again understand why it is the case. Kud was weak and shaken and torn between her interests. I just would have preferred it be done a bit more delicately.
The emotions run high and we come to the ending which I feel is a very very mixed bag. In context, the scene in the prison does well to draw out emotion in that good Key way. However, the scene itself is so clearly a deus ex machina, a real one, not like some other routes, that it takes me out of the experience a bit. The communication between the two when many thousands of kilometers apart is one thing, but the teleportation of the gear extends the magical realism to near cracking, particularly given how said action was not suggested as something possible in the narrative prior, or is something as tame as to be acceptable without that context. But plenty of people have railed against that already, so I feel no need to. Again, the star here is Kud’s phenomenal voice acting, which does well to make the scene emotional if a little flimsily conceived.
Ultimately I remember Kud’s arc for its themes, that there is no such thing as an evil person and that no matter what the world tells you you should be sincere to your dreams and ideals. The ideas about empathy do well to teach the reader about some things that will happen later on in the grander narrative while the talk of ambition and dreams is inspiring in a way that I don’t feel the game tries to be in many other moments. However, the execution i bogged down by some unnecessary padding and a plot solution that hits you over the head like a broken gear from a blown up rocket. I still nearly cried though, so it’s worthy.
Kud is the best supporting character in the game, even if her own story is just pretty okay~
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Alright, haven’t finished rereading Kud’s route yet, some of this is just from what I remember:
I didn’t like Kud. I liked her a little, more than Mio or Komari on my first playthrough, but never too much. And while those two more or less grew on me (especially Komari) over time, my opinion of Kud probably got worse, if anything. There’s just nothing to her, she’s completely one dimensional.
To address this:
Honestly, it was largely the other routes that made me think worse of Kud, her own route didn’t really do much of either for me. Am I the only one who thinks she’s actually pretty arrogant? (Clannad: Much like Nagisa, who I didn’t like either) She’s just absolutely certain that she knows what’s best for other people, and that she can properly understand them and sympathise with their circumstances. Haruka spoilers: Kud, you’re not Haruka. To be honest, you don’t know shit. Yes, you have your circumstances too, and I’m not even gonna talk about who’s circumstances are “worse”, but they’re different. Stop acting like you have any right or ability to lecture Haruka. And yet, Kud can’t even can’t even face up to her own problems properly.
It’s not really important to anything else, but Kud’s character design… I mean, I lean towards (21) myself, but Kud takes it way too far. It actually makes me glad that the h-scenes aren’t in any of the versions I’ve read, because Kud’s would probably make me outright uncomfortable.
Now, the route itself. I don’t like Kud, and this is probably my least favourite route, but I liked it decently enough. One idea I had that I thought was worth discussing was: Her chains, are they real at all? It’s pretty much accepted that the part where Kud throws the gear, and when it breaks the chains break along with it, represents her low self-esteem and let go of the idea that it’s okay for her to be sacrificed as long as she can be useful that way. Once this happens, Key magic breaks the chains alongside the gear, and she’s able to escape.
But what if those chains actually don’t exist, they’re purely psychological? It could be that she was just thrown in the well((?) I can’t remember what it was, specifically), because the Tevuans (or whatever they’re called) didn’t think there was a way out. After she breaks free of her mental chains, she gains the will to continue living, she decides that it’s not worth being sacrificed after all.
Finally, something completely unrelated, how dare they change the final CG from the original.
Swiggity swoogity where that booty?
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The absurdity of the ending is there to illustrate just how strange this world is. The strange magic exists in this route to tell us NOT to take it at face value, and to think about why scenes like this might’ve been included, and what they add to the narrative.
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Let me tell you the story of someone who grew up as a Third Culture Kid, like Kud.
As I have mentioned before, I was born in a former Sovjet country. I grew up with two native languages and two religions. After celebrating my 10th birthday in my home country, my family immigrated to Germany. That means, except for my family, I had to leave behind everything I had. That includes my childhood friends, whom I’ve been playing with ever since Kindergarten. Part of why observing the core Little Busters members is tugging on my heartstrings is because they are childhood friends who grew up together. Something I had long lost.
Everything was new and I did not know what to expect. It was a whole different world, the possibilities of which I couldn’t possibly gauge. I couldn’t speak German when I entered school. That made communicating with my ‘peers’ very difficult. Back at home, I had started learning English in the first grade, so I could communicate the important things to the teachers if need be, but my classmates, whose curriculum was much milder, weren’t as proficient. It is no wonder, then, that anywhere I went, I felt completely isolated. I was always alone. My parents could only relate to my struggles to a certain extent due to the difference in age and obviously, they couldn’t accompany me to school. And my brother was several years younger than I, thus attending a different school. Only a few years later did our circumstances become comparable. So I had to adapt to the new and foreign environment all on my own.
It took me a year to learn the new language, but only a day to realize that everyone at my new school was fundamentally different from me. To the other kids, everything about me was different and weird. The way I look, the way I talk, the way I dress myself, the way I move, my thought process, and my interests. They had fun watching me struggle with the their native language, and hearing how strange mine was. “Hey, hey, how do you say ‘Penis’ in Russian?” Why did they want to know? In order to shout out those words for several weeks in every situation imaginable. Kids certain ages sure are easy to entertain…
Sometimes, when I did things, they would start laughing. I thought it was a good thing, so I kept doing it, but I eventually realized that they were making fun of me. And that they had gotten the wrong idea. Their image of me was off to a ridiculous extent. Full of confidence, they would talk about what they thought why I am the way I am. Even after I had learned the German language and was capable of communicating normally, I would still slip up a lot and every mistake I made was still funny to them. It wasn’t just the kids. The teachers, too, would often misunderstand my words and intentions and scold me. I don’t think most kids had wanted to be mean, but I did have to deal with actual bullies, as well. To be fair, though, I was only faced with outright hatred on very, very few occasions.
I have changed schools several times. One of the hardest things about it was that every time, I also had to say goodbye to the few friends I did have and start from zero again. As a foreigner, and a shy kid on top of it, making friends really wasn’t easy. The people I tended to get along with back then were simply those who would talk to me normally, the same way they talked to others. I didn’t want to be alone, so I was quick to trust kids who seemed nice. Unfortunately, it didn’t always end well. No class was like the previous, but It always started with me becoming an outsider. As I was growing up and getting accustomed to this not-so-new-anymore country, the differences between me and my peers kept waning. My cultural background was becoming less and less obvious and it became easier to blend in. But to this day, I remain different from everyone around me. Needless to say, I am also different from people my age in my home country. Don’t get me wrong, though. I only attribute a small fraction of it to the cultures I came in touch with and to my nationality. I am by no means as interested in cultures as Kud is. I think what made the difference was my starting point and the big change in environment in the middle of my growth.
I hope this post has helped you understand, even if only a bit, what it’s like to grow up in a foreign country. I hope it made it easier for you to relate to Kud’s everyday struggles.
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After reading Naoki’s post, it came to my mind. If they are in Japan and Kud speaks perfect Japanese (even if annoying with the なの), why the hell does she try to speak English at first when she herself knows that she’s bad at it? They are in Japan after all, and Japanese is supposed to be the main and almost only communication language…
However, let me tell you that the situation that you lived and that is so similar to Kud’s isn’t necessarily the standard for a “Third culture kid”. Due to economic agreements here in Spain with China, there are an awful lot of Chinese 1€ stores, and behind every one of them, there is a whole Chinese family that emigrated from China (normally due to them having more than one child or some of them being girls).
So with all of this, when we were in what I think that corresponds with 8th grade, we got a new student, a Chinese girl called Yi Jie, although she presented herself as Naomi and, to date, we call her that way. She had just arrived from China and had studied Spanish for a month. Guaranteed that she had serious issues communicating, but being surrounded by the Spanish culture, she quickly learned the basics of the language, and, in about 2 years, she could perfectly speak the language (with a strong accent), but otherwise grammatic-wise perfectly. And yeah, kids would ask her for translations of silly words, and the typical “how is my name written in Chinese?”. She always answered such questions and even tried to teach some of us the spoken language. She never disliked doing any of that according to herself and I know she’s not lying because that’s something I asked her last year one day that we went out to have dinner out with a couple of friends from our high school days.
Well, as I have already spoilered, she stayed with us all they way until college. In class, no one ever laughed at her for doing weird stuff. Some may have been surprised and would ask why she would do some rude things, like belching when eating and so on. But she never took it as something personal. She was extremely understanding that she was in another country and that things were different. She also quickly dropped some of those habits and acquired the ones of the Spanish people. By the time we started the last two years of High School you couldn’t tell that she wasn’t Spanish aside from her accent. Hell, she even learned Catalan too!
She made some close friends, she’s now attending university, and in fact, she’s one of the few friends from high school that I still talk to and go out with from time to time. And many times have we all asked her about her experience during the first years here in Spain, and asked her to be completely honest so that if we ever did anything that annoyed her, she could tell us. Well, to Naomi, all this culture shock was, rather than an annoyance, something that intrigued her. She was curious about the cultural and historical reasons for the different habits and etiquette in Spain. Like how we don’t make slurping noises while eating spaghetti because we simply find it annoying to have that kind of noise, or why we normally have lunch at 2 or 3 pm because of the Spanish Civil War aftermath.
So, tl;dr: she didn’t find it as hard and, in a way, depressing as what the impression I got from Naoki. I guess the main difference is Naomi not having to go from school to school. Now that I think of it, the names are really similar, maybe you’re destined to be together. 
At this point I don’t know if this post really belongs to this thread. I guess it does, after all, we’re discussing Third Culture Kids, right?
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[does this regularly with Ika for Czech words]
[sweats]
She’s just trying to practice as much as possible. Learning English is a top priority for her because of her career ambitions, and precisely because she herself knows she’s not good at it she’s taking every chance to practice it when talking to her friends. If I’m not mistaken, we don’t see her using random English when she’s talking to people she’s not familiar with.
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Literally the first sentences she speaks to Riki. (Refrain spoilers) Although this might be because she already knew him from the original world
If you’re referring to when Riki bumped into Kud while she was carrying the box, they already knew each other before the start of the game, as Riki was the one who showed her around the school when she first came there.
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So I have finally finished Kud route which is my last route before jumping into Rin 2 and Refrain (hype but I’ll save that for later)
Throughout my past common route playthroughs, I clearly remember calling Kud useless because of the baseball matches. This opinion did change quite a bit when I was reading Haruka route when (Haruka) it was foreshadowed that Kud had family problems of her own but it was quite not enough to convince me to start liking Kud.
However, reading this route showed that behind her childish looks and behaviour were problems she couldn’t share to anyone.
“A Declaration toward the Gear Wheel” - My interpretation of this message is that you should be yourself and never give in to society’s pressure and expectations and finally, show them that you are also more than capable of achieving great things in life.
It’s kinda explicit but since the world is described as a clock in the route, I am viewing the functional gears as society and the so called “rusted springs” as those who are made fun of like Kud.
In recent society, it is true especially in my country of origin (South Korea) a lot of students are forced into studying hard so that they can get into the top colleges of the country. Otherwise, you are either considered a failure or barely any company would want you as an employee.
Above is also the reason why I find the first half of the route (exam stuff) quite enjoyable. Sure enough there is a lot (maybe too much) of unnecessary kisses and hugs and other cute stuff but mainly I felt that it was there to show that Kud can also do well if she works hard (I mean she passed all subjects and that gets pretty hard from high school).
Also I really liked the scene where Kud breaks the chain with the gear because I felt it signifies something important.
First to begin with, chains commonly symbolize pressure, oppression, or lack of freedom. That oppression for Kud’s case will be the society telling her that she’s a fool and won’t be able to do anything right. That she’s a faulty gear and won’t become a cosmonaut. Therefore, the breaking of the chain would symbolize her shattering all those worries and continuing forward.
Another thing I would note here is that she used a faulty gear to break the chain meaning, she, a once considered a faulty gear, has finally managed to step up to society proudly as Kudryavka Noumi.
Overall, I felt the route was well written. As much as I enjoyed the cave/jail scene, it did break Physics a lot but it’s really not that serious of a problem since that’s not the reason the scene exists. A lot of Russian words I’ll have to research about came up. Maybe I’ll try to learn Russian as well 
)
Or those were my thoughts (obviously) , please tell me what you think 
All in all, I give this route a 9.5/10
…
Also, although I like Kud’s route, I still can’t stand Wafuu.
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So Kud huh? I don’t know what to say. I can’t understand kud like i did other characters.
Most of her position as a foreigner and her struggle to blend in has already been explained by @Naoki_Saten.
That was a great post man.
I also had some problem of blending in. I was a loner before, i didn’t had much interaction with kids in my school and i was kind of a shut in so i didn’t know any subjects to discuss with them that were common with us.
Kud is much more better than me. I didn’t even have the courage to speak or start a conversation but Kud has that, she doesn’t hesitate to speak up and make connections with people, she is always eager for that. That’s something i very much admire in Kud.
At the first half of the route i thought her problem was blending into society. She was depressed when she was considered oddball. The laughs for her english only discouraged her and the way she viewed herself grew more negative. That’s why she was so happy when the Little busters opened up to her, when they helped her in test. She was happy to find a place to belong to. The tears shed by her after she passed the test by the help of little busters are the proof of that.
The story here got a little rough. The way they tried to take this route into romance was not smooth. I felt like all the other busters were ignored and Riki was then given credit that ‘You helped me the most’ and then love develops. Kud’s mom’s revelation was also like that, too sudden.
I think Kud had two regrets. first was ‘Not being able to fit in’ and second was her mother’s words ‘I hope you become a useful gear too’.
The second one obviously the focus of the route. I like how they represented her the chains as her regrets holding her down. She wanted to be a useful gear, she wanted to be by her mother’s side but she couldn’t. So she punished herself for being afraid but Riki made her realise that punishing herself wouldn’t mean anything. Her wish was to become a useful gear and Riki told her that she can do so by being at his side.
People don’t have to worry about being useless because there will always be one person to whom they will hold meaning.
Now the most controversial topic of this route. (Warning :- after refrain spoilers)
This scene!. I dub this the Worst set of choices in a VN.
There is no way for me to put it in other than offensively. All these choices are made by Riki for Kud. We are choosing the path for her to take instead of her choosing what she wants to do herself.
I’m sorry but if you can’t even choose what to do with your life and just push it on others, do you even deserve this life?. This life is yours, the choices are yours and the regrets that come with it are also yours to burden. Pushing the responsibility on others is just cowardice on your part.
The one who has to choose for you is also forced in a pit. They wonder what will happen if they choose wrong. If that happens then that person would be in regret forever because of his choice and you’ll hate him for making that choice.
Even if they choose right, you are basically forced to face your fears. You never decided what was the right thing to do, you were made to do it. Is that truly strength?.
Kud is a weird character for me. Till now every character i saw in LB, i either hated him or liked him. But Kud remains neutral to me. This route is hard to understand.
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Is that third choice unlocked only after Refrain…? I don’t remember seeing it on my playthrough…
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Yeah you have to play refrain.
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Sure enough that’s true but I think I can understand how Kud and Riki feel
Kud already knows that she has two options fundamentally :
- Go back to find about her mother’s whereabouts and take the chance that she won’t be able to see Riki ever after again
- Stay with Riki and take the chance that she won’t be able to see her mother ever after again
Her mother and Riki are both important people in her life so she’s torn apart about what to do (I mean, why else will she be torn apart if she wasn’t aware).
But here, Riki also knows that she has the two options only and the last thing he wants is to see Kud suffer and so, all he did is try to help her come up with a decision because otherwise, it might be too late for either options and you might as well just end up regret not doing anything back then.
Besides, you won’t know which is the right choice until it eventually happens and that’s what the bad end of Kud’s route 1 basically is; Riki regretting the wrong choice and thinking “Should I have told her otherwise?” as he watches a depressed Kud unable to help her further.
Also, I don’t think it’s really weird for people to help those close to them come up with a decision. It happens a lot in real life too when you know the other person is suffering.
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I’ll be honest with you guys. Most of the time I see someone talk about Kud, my salt meter goes over 9000. Because it’s usually pretty negative talk.
Kud gets a lot of hate. Part of it is due to Kud Wafter, which barely anyone has ever read since there’s no translation, yet everyone hates for some reason. Maybe because “It’s her fault my Waifu didn’t get a spin-off.” Taste is subjective, but what does make me mad is when people read through the route of a girl who was isolated for most of her life because everyone treated her like a weirdo, and then they still go “wow, she’s a weirdo!” when they finish reading. Many people are dismissive of this actually very well thought-out character.
Salt aside (and I assure you, I was planning on making it way more salty than this), let’s take a closer look at Kud and her route.
Kud says “wafuu” a lot, her english is bad but she keeps using it, she has some childish tastes but she also likes the Japanese culture. Her academic knowledge is way above high school level, but she struggles with tests in Japan due to their restrictive structure. She’s pretty agile and quick on her feet. She loves dogs, but also cats. She practices cooking at a regular basis. Her dream is to become a cosmonaut, like her mother.
Most of her childhood, Kud was traveling around the world with her grandpa, because her parents were too busy with work. When grandpa was too busy with work, too, he had her play with dogs to kill some time. I don’t think it’s been stated explicitly anywhere, but it’s not much of a stretch to assume her “Wafuu” is the result of spending so much time with dogs. Her grandpa was a japanophile who didn’t seem to be particularly well-informed of the modern japanese lifestyle. He put Kud through some harsh training on using the chopsticks. He collected edo period paintings and insisted that Kud should sleep on a wooden pillow that made her neck hurt. Isn’t that the kind of ‘pillow’ Japanese women used in order to not ruin their special hairdo that took several hours to make? It’s not for everyday use!
I attribute Kud’s childish tastes, and even her manner of speech, to the way she grew up. With no peers to play with, she didn’t get to grow tired of certain pastimes like shadow tag. Due to sparse contact to others during crucial stages of development, she didn’t adjust her manner of speech.
Kud was supposed to pursue higher education in Japan. Therefore, her grandfather taught her Japanese through textbooks. The problem is, Japanese and English are fundamentally different and have different alphabets. Kud struggles a lot with English, even moreso than the average Japanese person. And from what I’ve heard, they’re pretty damn bad at it, especially with the pronounciation. But she still keeps trying, because it’s a requirement for becoming a Cosmonaut. Therefore, she speaks english on a daily basis in order to get some practice.
That’s right. She’s getting a lot of shit and sneers for trying to acquire a valuable skill.
The next screenshot looks to me like an implication that her grandfather might have taught her Japanese in order to keep her away from the Tevuan space program.
Kud loves to learn new things. She even reads through technical books and certification test reference books. This is something I find particularly admirable because most students outright hate studying. Speaking of admirable, did I mention that Kud knows exactly what to do with her life and become a cosmonaut, which requires a tremendous amount of effort, talent and luck?
That dream, however, is a double-edged sword. Every failure to get closer to it weighs heavily on her and makes her feel more distant to her beloved mother. In fact, what made Kud return to Japan was that she was doubting that she might be Mom’s real daughter, probably due to the disparity in their abilities.
Since she grew up in a rather unique way, the vast majority of people she encounters find her strange. So much that Riki, whom she met in high school, was the first one who didn’t laugh when she told him her name. She fell in love with him right then and there. It seems like the only people who treat her like a normal person are Riki, the Little Busters, Kanata, Sasami, (A-chan?), and some embassy officials. That doesn’t mean everyone only ever makes fun of her, and it is said she’s somewhat of a celebrity in her dorm. But they don’t seem to realize she’s an actual person with more to her than just exotic things. But Kud believes that nobody in the world is truly evil, refusing to blame anyone for the pain they inflict on her.
Yes.
In the first place, that scene started with the other person pretty much picking a fight. Kud was friends with both parties, knowing that both of them are good people, so she tried helping both. She had experienced the pain of loss first hand and didn’t want her friends to cherish what they have while they still can, rather than suffering like she did. It was by no means a lecture. If anything, I think you have mistaken the actual ‘aggressor’ in that scene.
Rather than the similarity to my arbitrarily constructed user name on the internet, I find the similarity of her name to Kud’s last name, “Noumi”, more intriguing.
The differences in our situations would be too many to count, but if I were to point at what I think made the difference, I’d say it’s the people.
In Germany, schools past the 4th grade are divided in three tiers. I ended up in the lowest tier since I couldn’t speak the language. My changing schools was due to advancing through the tiers from the lowest to the highest one once the language stopped being an issue.
While I started out with 5th-graders with the lowest tier of education, your friend entered the 8th grade. According to my experience, kids usually get more tolerant and tactful with age, though it’s not proportional. But as I said, this attempt at an explanation is hardly more than a guess.
It doesn’t seem like you have read through the new part, so I suggest you do just that.
That aside, I believe you are being too harsh. You are expecting a young girl who was deprived of a normal life to make a life-changing decision and choose between leaving her lover to get a chance at, in second-best case, dying along with her family and ‘betraying’ her family, then blaming herself for whatever happens to it next, possibly for the rest of her life, since she tends to put a disproportional amount of blame on herself for things she has no control over.
Sure, it’s cowardice, but it’s understandable that she would be unable to just up and decide between two horrible options. Thus she asks the only person she could turn to to help her.
You could also take the situation as her already favoring one option over the other, but wanting to share the burden of the decision to make it bearable. And even if as we see in the bad ending, the consequences are unbearable even if someone else does decides in her stead.
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By no means do I think the other person was blameless in this situation, they are the one who picked the fight. As for Kud, just by knowing both doesn’t mean she knows literally anything else about the situation. She’s in no position to lecture her. Altruism and arrogance are not mutually exclusive. She’s still trying to force her solution on someone else without taking into account her complete lack of information. It would’ve been fine if it was just a suggestion or something, but she basically calls her a spoiled brat and tells her to suck it up. Not to mention, she does her
“talking down to a child” face. (This isn’t from the exact scene, I just found an example.)
Edit: Rereading the scene, it feels like it really was much more of a suggestion than I remember, and she doesn’t really tell her to “suck it up” or anything like that, but I still think she was being intrusive with her own solution, and she was warned by Kurugaya in advance not to do so, so she can’t exactly claim ignorance.
And the main reason I feel she’s arrogant is the “talking down to a child” face, as I’ve said, and accompanying change in tone of voice
Well, she is pretty weird in some ways, by most English-speaking fans standards, at least… But weird isn’t even on the same scale as good-bad, and lotting them together never ends well. Even if I were to call her a weirdo, I’m not trying to insult her. Of course if she were a real person I wouldn’t say that, because even if I mean no ill will by it, she’ll obviously interpret it that way.
Real quick, I don’t actually hate Kud. I just like ripping on her. Though she is my least favourite LB! character, that doesn’t say much.
The reasons people actually hate Kud
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Over the top loli pandering. Yeah, this one isn’t the actual characters fault, so I’m not personally bothered by it.
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“Wafuu.” Different people are obviously going to have different reactions to this verbal tick, but you can’t really blame someone for finding it annoying.
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My own reason - arrogance. I’ve already talked about why I think this.
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Being one-dimensional. Some people think Kurugaya has this problem too, but I don’t think so. Every other character just has such depth - there’s so much more to them than what you see. But not Kud.
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She pushes the most important decision of her life on someone else. I get why she did it and everything, but it is cowardice, and imagine being Riki in this situation!
6. She’s useless in the baseball practices and games. Fuck her.
Sorry if I missed any.
But yes, I don’t think many people have such petty reasons as Kud Wafter (unless they actually have read it, in which case I can’t say either way) or that she’s a weirdo.
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Oh believe me i read it and it further solidified my thoughts. In fact this choice is what made me think of it as this way.
That’s what we call character development. To make a decision and stay firm on it. She was afraid to choose before and she’s afraid to choose now.
I wish that were true. Take a look at these pictures.
(Warning after refrain and haruka route spoilers -)
What’s the difference between them?. The choices with Haruka’s are only an opinion while with kud they are a statement. Haruka had already made a decision that she was wanted to know who she was, that she wanted to know her identity. Our choices were to only support her or discourage her, the decision was already made. Kud on the other hand asks us 'what should i do?. She as @machelmore said.
Haruka also asks Riki this in her route and his reply is what I’m going to use here.
Stop asking me what is good for you and ask yourself. Only you can tell what’s good for you. I have no way to understand your life or your situation, the one who understands you the most is no one other then yourself.
Here one came up with a decision and one failed to do that. Indecisiveness is a bad trait.
You can expect someone to support you in your decisions but it is cruel and selfish to put them in a position like this. I know kud loves Riki and Riki is the one whom she can take most support from but there is a fine line for dependency. I’ll end this with a final picture.
_“When people help you in hopeless situations like that, there is no resolve in your decisions”. _
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While other heroines have to deal with personal problems, the problems Kud is faced with are of a national scale. And due to her mother’s influence, the part about becoming a useful gear for the world, Kud feels responsible for things that are way beyond her power to change in any way.
When her country is facing a crisis, Kud feels the obligation to return and be with her family.
I remember how I felt back then. By how the story was going, I knew telling her to stay was probably the wrong answer. But I put myself in Riki’s shoes and quickly concluded that I couldn’t possibly let this girl go to such a dangerous place. At that moment, I simply couldn’t choose otherwise. So I just hoped my hunch was off…
The bad ending then was a huge shock. Not only the last two scenes, but also the ones leading up to them where you just watch Kud get taken apart by feelings of guilt. I felt guilty for doing something so terrible to her and cursed the fact that I only had cruel options to choose from.
While logically, sending Kud to her death made little sense, it was important for her character development. She felt this was something she had to face. That she owed it to her mother, whom she had previously run away from.
Curiously enough, there is one character who actually supports the option of letting Kud return, namely Kanata. She insists that it’s better to regret doing something, than to regret not doing it. I think it’s important to have a character like that around, even though her scenes can only be viewed under certain conditions. I’m assuming that Kanata wants for Kud to stick to her ideals, even if it means risking her life.
But here’s the problem: The responsibility Kud feels is self-destructive. She considers herself useless and thinks she has to do something. That she owes it to her mother and the world. That she needs to be punished.
There are several references to Laika. By Kud herself, and by Kanata.
Laika, also called Kudryavka, got chained up and sent into space to die there horribly, all alone. But the project itself brought glory to her nation.
Kud thinks a useless gear like her, someone who failed to become a cosmonaut, is a fitting sacrifice. But a sacrifice for what?
The insurgents in Tevua are represented by a former Colleague of Kud’s mother. A woman who was voiced by a russian native speaker in the anime (I’m impressed they decided to find one). Someone who lost her home due to global warming, blaming the space project for it because the funding was redirected to it. She calls Kud “The fake Laika.” and “The failure that ran away after all that money was squandered on her…” She refuses to believe that Kud is innocent and insists that someone needs to take responsibility for the catastrophe. That is what the masses demand.
That’s right. The people need someone to blame. In a desperate situation, they turn to their deities and hope for a miracle, offering up a live sacrifice. A ridiculous reasoning that reminds us of the message of a certain other LB route.
As Kud comments in the cave scene, “This is the only way to make everyone accept… the irrational. They can’t come to terms with how much they’ve lost. Hence, they pray to God.”
Kud is about to die. But she thinks that’s fine. That she deserves it. That this is her role. The actual problem is not that she is about to die, but that she has accepted it as the right thing. Even though she doesn’t want to die. Even though she wants to be by Riki’s side. And Riki convinced her to abide by her wishes, not by what she believes to be her role. Thus, she shatters the “useless gear”.
This route’s message is to not blame oneself. There are things beyond one’s control they must not feel responsible for. One’s role is decided by oneself, not by others.
It ties in with the message of another girl’s route, Namely Haruka’s, which is “To not blame others.”
The act of assigning blame itself is fruitless. Rather than burdening yourself with the past, you must move on.
In the epilogue, we find out that Kud had mistaken her mother’s words. Her mother did not mean to tell her to become a “useful gear” to the world that is indifferent to her as an individual. She should become a kind of gear she wants to be, for the things or people that are precious to her.
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