Hanako Games

How did Mallory...

#1 by Darksilverhawk - May 28 2015

So, Mallory is new. She just started this year. She mentions that her roommate encouraged her to run for student council.

Student council elections are in the spring. She wasn't at the school yet. She didn't have a roommate yet. How did Mallory get elected?

Re: How did Mallory...

#2 by hanako - May 28 2015

Since this is never spelled out or explained in the game itself, you can come up with whatever explanation you like for fanfic purposes. This isn't WordOfGod, just WordOfVague.

That said, how it worked at my school was that not all positions on the Student Council are up for general election, only the 'main' positions (president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary). These would be elected at the end of the previous year. The rest of the Student Council would be filled out with class representatives, and those would be appointed at the beginning of the new year, two for each grade level. That gives a chance for new students to be involved, which is especially important with the freshman class, who weren't even in high school the previous year and thus may not have been allowed to take place in the officer vote.

The only characters specifically mentioned as holding official positions are Elsa and Vonne, who were both elected. It's implied that Althea holds no official position, and that Rowan didn't run for council at all but was appointed by someone else. (My profile posts for the girls have Althea, Rowan, and Thais all listed as rank 'Member', but those aren't in-game and thus not solid canon.)

This, of course, leads to two different questions:

1. Is 'Hospitality Officer' a real rank, or something Mallory made up?
2. Where is the rest of the student council? With multiple elected officers and appointed representatives from each class, there should be more than six people total.

And yes, I have my own ideas about the answers to those questions (I think about these things far too much!), but this is already going way out from what's actually in the game, so I shouldn't stop people from having fun speculating.

Re: How did Mallory...

#3 by silentheartsong - May 29 2015

Well, how big of a school is St. Claudine's? A smaller school might be forced to have fewer representatives.

I'm also put in mind of Katawa Shoujo, where there don't seem to be elections and joining the Council is optional.

Re: How did Mallory...

#4 by LateWhiteRabbit - May 29 2015

It wasn't the School Council (we didn't really have one), but in my school, the yearbook staff held most of the 'power'. Two hours or more out of class a day, exempt from homework assignments if the staff declared they infringed on yearbook business (everything infringed on yearbook business ), got to leave campus, had free run of events and classrooms (ability to interrupt classes in session), and trading favors to get vain students featured prominently in the yearbook with flattering photos. Or threatening students with unflattering photos to get their way.

The staff had a teacher "sponsor", but we saw her about as often as Elsa sees Ms. Talmage. The sponsor only saw the yearbook AFTER it was published. The staff also did things like decide the theme and location of the prom, organize picture day,etc. Each year, it was an open secret that the staff held an end of year "Debauchery Party" where they locked themselves away in a hotel room overnight to celebrate the yearbook being finished. It became kind of a game for the rest of the students to try and discover when and where it would occur.

The staff consisted of 8 students - 4 Seniors, and 4 Juniors. Students had to start petitioning and campaigning freshman year to get in. Official submissions were NOT allowed, and the staff had to invite you to join, and the staff had to unanimously agree to you joining for you to get in. Only 4 slots opened up a year. So everyone served two years on the staff. Members generally included students like the cheerleading captain, the valedictorian, the most popular or well-connected students. (The elected 'Class Presidents' were usually members of the staff - so I guess it had a lot of overlap with being a council.)

Being accepted to the yearbook staff was the best thing that happened to me in high school.

My personal theory is the St. Claudine's council has a lot more power in "elections" than they let on, and Elsa sure as heck picked that cute new girl to be her power lackey for the year. No surprise Thais ended up on the council with an older sister in power either....

Re: How did Mallory...

#5 by Darksilverhawk - May 29 2015

Maybe there's two councils? One for keeping order (Elsa's branch) and one for more stereotypical student council things like pep rallies and dances. In my school freshmen and sophomores couldn't be on the student council at all (the newspaper and yearbook also barred freshmen). Elections where held at the beginning of the year and only juniors and seniors were eligible to campaign.

I'm kind of imagining half the slots being filled by lottery at the beginning of the year now. One gets on the student council. One gets on the administrative council. One's yearbook. One girl gets her name called and is just inexplicably never seen again.