Theory #2: Kai and Karen (Harvest Moon: 64)

In Harvest Moon: 64, Kai became one of the most interesting and controversial character in the whole Harvest Moon franchise. Kai’s backstory states that he is from a poor village, and works to help his mother support his five siblings. He lives and works at the vineyard ran by Gotz and his family. But of all the things we know about Harvest Moon: 64’s Kai, everyone who played the game remembers him from one word; Master.

Harvest Moon: 64 fans were shocked and outraged to find this dark skinned character working at a vineyard calling his boss “Master”. Because of this, some people has accused Harvest Moon of including a slave type character in the game. These days, we’ve forgotten about this odd fact (mainly because of Mineral Town, but notice how poorly he gets treated over there as well). Because of this, we’ve never really gotten an explanation as to why did the game include this. This is way too strange to be a translation error, and we’ve never had a remake of this game to find out if this was intentional. But after playing Harvest Moon: 64 for a long time, I think I’ve figured out what is going on.

First thing, lets discuss what do we know about Karen and her family. As soon as you enter the vineyard for the first time, you find Karen and her father Gotz arguing. Karen tells her father that she hates him, and Gotz calls her an “undutiful daughter”. Kai just stands there like nothing is wrong, and Sasha just stays in the house looking sad that her husband and daughter constantly fight. The game tries to explain what’s going on between Gotz and Karen, but we only get conflicting details that makes no sense.

The first reason is that Karen claims that she wants to leave to the city to be a dancer, and Gotz won’t let her. We do learn that Karen does in fact have dreams of dancing, but we also learn that she loves Flowerbud Village just as much. She does plenty of dancing in the festivals through the year, and she seems relatively happy despite her anger towards the other villagers. Not to mention that if you marry or befriend her, she quickly drops the idea of leaving the village. Even though the game tries to push this narrative, I am not convinced that this is the real reason why Karen and her father argue so much.

The other reason most people point out is that Karen accuses her father of being lazy and unmotivated. She claims that Gotz’ lack of care has allowed the vineyard to decline. While it is true that the vineyard is struggling, no evidence is shown that it is because of Gotz lack of care for the vineyard. In fact, the vineyard is doing poorly because of a dying tree that you need to revive with the help of the Harvest Goddess. Once the tree is revived, the vineyard will recover, but Karen and her father still don’t get along. Gotz has no control over what is happening to the vineyard, so them arguing over this makes no sense.

So if neither of these things are causing Karen and Gotz to fight and argue, what is the real reason? The only other clue is that if you befriend Kai and Karen, they will get married. I believe this is the real reason why Karen doesn’t get along with her father, and why Kai refers to Gotz as “Master”.

If they get married, that means that they must have been close at some point in the past. Kai came to Flowerbud Village looking for work to help support his five siblings. He took a job in the vineyard, and spent a lot of time with Karen. Kai and Karen must have been infatuated with each other, so Kai found the courage to ask Gotz for Karen’s hand in marriage. Clearly, Gotz did not approve of his daughter marrying the help. He could have just fired Kai to keep him away from Karen, but he decided to abuse and humiliate him instead. Gotz knows that Kai needs the job, so he started mistreating Kai and dared him to do anything about it. He even forces him to call him “Master” as a racial insult over his skin color. Kai definitely hates this, but complies anyway. Supporting his family back at home takes priority to his pride.

Karen must really hate this for several reasons. Watching her father bully Kai for being different has caused her grief. Some of the other villagers must have also looked down at Karen because of what her father does to Kai. This also explains why Karen has such anger issues when you first meet her. Karen must not know that Kai asked her father to marry her. And this is where you (the main character) comes in. You inherit the farm from your grandfather, and begin to heal the villagers using your kindness. If you ignore Karen’s cry for help, she’ll eventually get sick and tired of living in the village and leave. Kai will also leave shortly afterwards; he may need to work, but he still loves Karen.

If you befriend Karen, she will change her mind and stay if Flowerbud Village. She has found a friend who she can trust and seek comfort when the rest of the village is against her. Once she gains enough strength, she confronts her father and forces him to respect Kai as an equal. Befriending Kai also gives him courage to confess his feelings to Karen and propose to her. At this point, Gotz needs to make an important decision: accept Kai and Karen’s love, or lose his daughter forever.

Even though Karen and Gotz fight so much, this doesn’t change the fact that Gotz loves his daughter. Even though he may not like Kai, he would rather them be together then have them elope and run away. He stands aside, and allows the loving couple to be get married and start a family. This story ends when you watch them celebrate their union who had to endure hatred and racism to be together.

I have played Harvest Moon: 64 many times. Karen and Kai left the village the first time I played. So I started over, and did my absolute best to make sure they end up together. In fact, every time I start a new game, I made sure these two end up together. These two are a perfect couple, and I cannot have my happily ever after without them up there in the vineyard.

The one last thing I want to say is how Gotz is treated in the next entry of the Harvest Moon series. In Harvest Moon: Back To Nature, Gotz is no longer Karen’s father or Sasha’s husband. He is just a lonely old man chopping wood in the forest. An odd yet satisfying ending to someone with such hatred in his heart. I do find it humorous that Harvest Moon did this, despite they were the ones who wrote him that way in the first place. But keep BTN Gotz in the back of your mind, this will not be the last time he will be featured in this theory series. Later on, we will be discussing the other shocking backstory in the Mineral Town universe.