Wow, I feel incredibly honored that you took the time to write such a heartfelt review!
It was very important to us to handle these topics with respect while not shying away from showing some of the more ugly parts, and it's a relief to hear we succeeded.
I'm glad our story resonated with you in such a way and made you rethink certain things. Responses like yours truly make our hard work worth it!
It is so very nice and sweet of you to respond to my comment! <3 And yes, you absolutely succeded to handle a delicate topic respectfully and with care (at least, in my opinion), and the characters' responses to the situation felt very realistic.
In this respect, there is something I'm curious about. I wondered if there was a deeper reason behind naming the characters as various plants/flowers, and googled their symbolical meaning. I'm not sure if I found some direct correlation (well, in the case of Strelitzia and Lycoris it kinda fits, but less so in the case of yellow oleander and lily?.. I guess?..), however, I noticed that all four plants have extremely beautiful flowers and all of them are to some extent poisonous. Which just cannot be a coincidence. :D And, as I see it, it fits the story perfectly, especially given how the main characters are capable of acting both constructively and destructively.
Still. I can't help but wonder, if the degree of their namesakes' toxicity matters. :P It was difficult to place lily on that scale, but concerning the other three plants, it looked kinda like "strelitzia < lycoris < yellow oleander", where strelitzia is only mildly dangerous and oleander is nearly lethal. At first I thought that it was kinda fitting, given that Strelitzia's course of (non-)actions seemed to be the most safe option (at least he won't cause any further harm "for the person's own good", making false assumptions about what would be good for the said person), buuuut then I thought that it unlikely was what creator(s) meant and intended to convey. Am I looking TOO deep? :D
(On an unrelated note, one of the other commenters said that their favourite character was Lycoris, and another commenter said that they found Oleander to be the most relatable. With me, you've got all three main characters covered, because my favourite (and one I find the most relatable) is Strelitzia. :'3 Although I like all of them really, really much).
Anyway, thank you again for your awesome work! I started to read Artificial Selection and I LOVE IT so far too. And I also keep Google around while reading it, because I feel I need it. :D
It makes me really happy that our game affected you enough to make you look into it that much!
To be completely honest, our main focus was on the flowers' colors, and that their names at least remotely sound like human names. The cool thing about flower meanings are is that they can be interpreted in multiple ways! So even if they weren't our main objective, we still made them work somehow:
Lycoris flowers are frequently used at funerals and are connected to various tragic legends. This is a nod at the fact that he was most affected by Lilium's death, and had the biggest inner turmoil when it came to figuring out how to help him.
(Yellow) Oleander's high toxicity represents his aggressive/proactive approach when it comes to helping Lilium, and the fact that he seems like the least friendly one out of the three. (It is, however, not meant to rate his approach as more or less valid. One of the main morals of the story is that there isn't "one right thing to do".)
Strelitzia is probably the prettiest and most extravagant out of the three, and so is the flower. Other than that we didn't think much deeper. :'D
Lilies are also frequently used at funerals and symbolically represent innocence. "Innocence" may be used in a more negative sense to signify "naivety" or "cowardice", which are probably Lilium's greatest flaws.
But of course all of this doesn't mean your interpretations were wrong! Technically, their meanings are whatever resonates with you most.
Thank YOU for your kind words, and I look forward to hearing what you think of Artificial Selection once you complete the demo!
Thank you so much for sparing the time to respond me and to explain in depth the reason and meaning behind the characters’ names! *0* It helped me to understand them better, and it was very fascinating to see some of my assumptions and theories confirmed, and some of them proved false. (I don’t care much for my interpretation. It is only valuable as a mean to uncover and understand the author(s)’s intent, and the second I learn that I’ve got something wrong, I change it accordingly).
BTW, I can’t help but think how, during the bad path, the characters spectacularly failed to uphold the same values/standpoints they professed. :D Dealing with Lilium, Strelitzia asserted that they mustn’t break personal boundaries and make assumptions about what is best for the person. And dealing with Nano, he said something along the lines of “Hey, I know you want to look like a human, let’s get rid of these antennae”. He also had similar issues in the good path (concerning Nano’s clothes), just not to the same degree and then showed guilty conscience about it. And Oleander, who argued that they should learn as much as possible to deal with the situation, refused to look up the information when there was a possibility that he was wrong, because he didn’t want to ascertain it for sure. :D I don’t remember anything specific right now, but I have a feeling that in Lycoris’ case there was something similar (and, well, he clearly struggled with depression and didn’t try to contact professionals, even though he advised to do so in Lilium’s case). I don’t know if it was intentional, but the irony is delicious. :’3
I also proceed to play Artificial Selection, and proceed to love it immensely. <3 I will write soon in more detail.
In the bad path, they never got around to viewing Nano as a friend or family member, but merely as a tool to complete their assignment.
This is why Lycoris uses Nano's dependency on him to boost his own ego, why Oleander didn't bother properly explaining to Nano how bodies work and made it figure things out on its own, and why Strelitzia didn't respect its boundaries or bodily autonomy. So yes, the irony was definitely intentional. :D
