accirax

[accirax]

hey everybody! wanted to make a quick post to say that, due to various holiday shenanigans, i'm not sure how quickly i'll be able to get through the entirety of P:EG chapter 1. i really don't want to be spoiled, so i'll obviously be blocking the tag, but i also ask that nobody send me any asks related to the chapter until i'm done experiencing it! i'll probably either make an initial thoughts-y type post once i'm done, or reblog this post/someone else's art when that's the case. thank you :)

with that out of the way...

LAST MINUTE PREDICTIONS GAME JUMPSCARE!!! small explanatory blurbs under the cut :D

before i get into any of the individual selections: the third victim scenario. the basic formula of the predictions game requires that Chapter 3 contain two victims. however, even though i can't find the source, i'm 99% sure i've heard that Team: Eden's Garden (T:EG, if you will) has confirmed that they won't be following along with typical murder "tropes" such as the Chapter 3 double kill or Chapter 4's buff curse. therefore, Venus and i decided that, for P:EG specifically, we would not have two victims, and instead create an extra survivor slot. consider it a bonus rule applied in advance.

of course, the "fact" that there won't be two Chapter 3 victims doesn't mean that T:EG isn't planning to have multiple victims in a different chapter. however, if that's the case, we'll figure it out later. if anyone wants to play against Venus and I, do whatever you like ^_^

anyways!

Toshiko in the role of Chapter 1 Victim

this was obviously inspired by the fact that Toshiko isn't at all visible in the Trial portion of the Chapter 1 trailer. that feels to hint at her absence too obviously, but, does it...?

i'm really torn on whether i think the Ch1 victim will be her or not. on one hand, i think that Toshiko is a really unique and cool character concept that i hope T:EG has the opportunity to do more with. she was one of the characters that got the most focus in (the introductions part of) the Prologue, which might indicate that they're setting her up as a major player in the story.

however, it also tracks that one of the characters who got the most focus in the Prologue would then become the first victim, as the Prologue would be one of the best opportunities with which to give them focus. on the surface, it seems a bit random that they would make her so much younger than everyone else for just a role as the first victim, but it could be intentional. for instance, if the idea behind her character's creation was "what kind of first victim would make Wolfgang become the most aggro?", suddenly it becomes viable.

i swear, the P:EG cast is made up of half high variance characters (will either go super-Ch1-early or super-Ch5/6-late) and half characters that are definitely gonna die in the middle somewhere, but i don't really care where. the high variance characters are way more scary, because getting the coin flip wrong can land you with a bunch of points :( i totally think Toshiko has the potential to go far, which is why listing her first freaks me out.

what i will say is that, if Toshiko is the first victim, i think it's actually a good sign as to the quality of P:EG's writing. if even their first victim is as intriguing and clearly delineated as Toshiko, we're in for a good time!

Jean in the role of Chapter 1 Killer

at this point, i'm believing that Jean is the Chapter 1 killer (as per my theory) until canon proves me otherwise. which, actually, could be very soon‼

Venus and i just replayed the Prologue in order to fully refresh ourselves on the plot and characters before playing Chapter 1, and genuinely, nothing about what Jean did made me think that he wouldn't be the Chapter 1 killer. not to say that i'll be flabbergasted if i'm wrong, just that the theory holds up better than i thought through my admittedly biased lenses.

no idea where Jean goes if he's not Ch1 killer, also. we'll cross that bridge if/when we get to it!

Desmond in the role of Chapter 2 Victim

full transparency, this is probably the assignment on this sheet i feel worst about. Desmond was one of the last three people i placed, alongside Toshiko and Wenona. my initial vibe check would say that Desmond makes it further than this, more Ch4 or 5-ish.

however, i don't hate this placement. Desmond still hasn't totally clicked for me, and while i think that means his content might be back-loaded in the later chapters, it could also just be that he's not too important. i do like the allure of one weaponsmaster (Desmond) being taken out by another weaponsmaster (Eloise), and think that could be a fun Ch2-level puzzle. Desmond and Eloise also seem to have some sort of relevant relationship with one another, given how they were more-or-less introduced together and how, in the new main title sequence, Desmond's ammo shoots into Eloise. maybe that means they could be a killer/victim pair?

sorry, shippers.

Eloise in the role of Chapter 2 Killer

if anyone is wondering why i'm always calling Eloise that Chapter 2 killer, it's honestly more based on a meme/inside joke than anything at this point. however, that's not to say it has no basis in what i actually believe.

when Venus and i played the Prologue for the first time, we both individually got the strong vibes that Eloise would be, specifically the Chapter 2 killer. she seems fainthearted enough to crack under the pressure of the killing game, but sweet enough to be an appropriately surprising twist when it's revealed that she would kill. she has three separate instances of mentioning that she misses her family (her introduction, the investigation, and after the Class Trial) because you have to set up that early killer's motivation early. and, even if she doesn't use her swordswoman skills to carry out the murder, she has the strength and dexterity to take someone out, as well as directly telling us that she's very strategic and calculated.

ever since, we've joked to each other that Eloise is all but confirmed as the Chapter 2 killer. so, no matter what canon says, Eloise is my Chapter 2 killer <3 (/j)

Jett in the role of Chapter 3 Victim

Jett has big Chapter 3 oddball death energy to me. i think that one of him and Mark will probably survive, but, it could go the other way around! replaying the Prologue, he honestly had way more knowledge about horror and haunted houses than i remembered, which could make him a handy ally throughout the killing game instead. i just can't help but fear that Jett is too silly to live. so, my gut instinct is that Jett will die midgame to allow Mark to come out of his shell a bit afterwards.

Ingrid in the role of Chapter 3 Killer

i initially had Ingrid in the Chapter 3 victim slot before i moved Jett there instead. with Jett, i feel fairly confident that he isn't the type to kill anyone, whereas with Ingrid, i wasn't so sure. i just think that Ingrid has Chapter 3 death energy. i think it's the unique blend of sillyness (such that she wouldn't make it farther) and seriousness (such that she can be taken seriously for three chapters and believed as a killer) with which her character is handled that makes me think so?

she does seem to play by her own rules when it comes to blacksmithing, which could lead to her prioritizing her own belief and needs above the group's sometime down the line. Ingrid is 100% one of those characters who i believe will die in one of those middling chapters, so i don't think i'll score too high with her here no matter what.

Ulysses in the role of Chapter 4 Victim

perhaps if i were a smarter theorist, i'd continue listening to myself of the past and write Ulysses down as the mastermind of P:EG. however, i still just can't shake the feeling that he's important enough of a character to take on that role. not to say that Ulysses is a bad character, just that he feels more like one of the minor characters in the story to me. the only time he was of any particular importance in the Prologue was during his introduction, and i have no clue who his most important character relationship is supposed to be with. the only other character for which i believe this to be true is Ingrid (although, even she was one of the characters who got to participate in the investigation, and got to scold Damon at the end), and, well... you've already seen my thoughts on her. i can't help but feel that a character set up to be so important and late game would already be solidifying some important relationships, or at least bringing some comedy or specific insight to the table.

there's also his note-taking habit, which i believe i've said before totally feels like a victim gimmick to me. deciphering the notes Ulysses left to himself about where he went, who he talked to, what he'd been eating, etc definitely feels like something that would be used to create a unique murder case, with him as the victim. if not Chapter 4, then maybe Chapter 2?

Chapter 2 victim, Chapter 4 victim, or mastermind. what a weird space Ulysses exists in.

Wenona in the role of Chapter 4 Killer

hey, it's the third person i was struggling with.

i don't really know what to do with Wenona. she kinda gives me killer vibes, but that seems too obvious? she also kinda gives me late(r) game vibes, which is probably how she wound up in this late-game killer spot.

sorry, i don't have much to say here. hopefully this doesn't blow up in my face, lol.

Diana in the role of Chapter 5 Victim, Wolfgang in the role of Chapter 5 Killer, Eva in the role of Survivor (and also Damon in the role of Survivor)

quadruple combo!!! allow me to share that incredibly specific scenario i've been cooking up (that i really like) which puts these characters in these spots.

firstly, Diana, and her obvious mastermind-coding. the mastermind-coding is so obvious that it has to go somewhere, right? naturally, it could just result in her being the mastermind, but then i'm not sure why they would be so heavy-handed with it. therefore, i re-propose an idea i've discussed before: someone kills Diana because they think she's the mastermind.

in that case, this person is Wolfgang. the man hates killers and injustices, and believes himself to be a good judge of what's right and wrong. therefore, if he believed he had sights on the mastermind, i believe he could be willing to take a shot at them. of course, in this case, he would fail.

therefore, in the Class Trial, he needs to create a cover for himself. what better course of action than to weaponize his ethos as the Ultimate Lawyer to direct suspicions at the easiest scapegoat, the literal Ultimate Liar?

meanwhile, while Damon clearly has a lot to work through in terms of character arcs, one task on his checklist is surely to make friends. everything about the marketing of this game really makes it seem like Damon and Eva are the core relationship around which the whole story is based. they're Eve and the snake, the Debater and the Liar, and the only two who see through Wolfgang's BS from the beginning. thematically, i think Damon needs a support-type character to survive alongside him, to contrast against his initial lonely elitism. the game seemingly wants us to root for this protagonistic duo to have a happy ending-- and it might be a setup to get us to fight for their survival with all our might.

my vision is that the final Class Trial is where Damon has to put all of his character development to the test, to fully let his Ultimate Debater talent shine as he argues against the Ultimate Lawyer to prove that the Ultimate Liar is telling the truth in her innocence. it's a great setup because, although one might complain about how obvious it would be that Wolfgang would be the killer in this situation, it doesn't matter, because even if you figure out that Wolfgang did it, you still get the catharsis of kicking his ass. and as a bonus, we'd get to reap the benefits of the main antagonist actually getting to be the Chapter 5 killer, instead of circling around it without ever getting to hit the target.

Damon learns to argue for his friends instead of against his enemies, Eva learns that there are people out there who will trust her even when she's been called a liar, and Wolfgang has to reap the consequences of letting his own perceived intellectual superiority lead him to becoming the thing he hates most: a sadistic man who kills an innocent little girl. the end!

i know this idea goes against what i've been promoting-- AKA, a "more interesting" fangan where the authors are willing to kill off their stereotypical antag and support early in favor of surprising the audience with more unique antag and support choices. however, just because i've been asking for that doesn't mean that i actually think it's going to happen, lol. P:EG seems like a fangan to me that's deeply rooted in the Danganronpa classics (even if they won't do Ch3 double kill or Ch4 buff curse), which makes sense from a creative team that isn't otherwise active in the fangan scene, and therefore hasn't considering some of its wackier expeditions. however, as long as they manage to do something fresh with their somewhat stereotypical build, i'll still be happy.

oh, and i've always believed that Damon will be the protagonist for the entire game. he just seems so well-crafted to mirror the main themes and motifs of the story that i'm not sure what the team would gain from killing him off so early (other than the excitement of a protag swap).

Kai in the role of Survivor

um, it's the knowledge that some of the staff members ship kaimon, honestly. to me, that indicates that Kai will have an important relationship with Damon sometime down the line, likely that expands beyond Chapter 1. and, as a high variance character (to me), if you're gonna let the guy make it past Chapter 1, you might as well just let him live, right?

that being said, i do see a path to Kai dying midgame depending on how hard they lean into the "dictatorial influencer" thing. if he becomes more of a villain, i could see him going in Ch3 or 4. i do think he has good setup for a character arc, though, going from not caring about the killing game to actually putting in some effort, and think his humor and patheticness could be a good balancer in a surviving cast. i feel pretty good about this one!

Mark in the role of Survivor

again, you could trade this with Jett; i'm reserving this slot for one of them. i think Mark makes more sense as a survivor because i think that the "my best friend died but i live on" arc makes more sense on him than it does on Jett. for Jett, it would bum him out, sure, but i don't see the connection to his likely character struggles of self image and shame (as implied by his character intro sheet).

meanwhile, Mark's introversion currently appears to be his greatest hurdle, and having to continue on after his only friend dies would echo his arc of needing to open up to others and be positive even when the situation seems dire. plus, having Mark be the one who initially wasn't as interested in talking to Jett is good setup for Mark regretting not talking to Jett more when he had the chance.

Grace in the role of Survivor

i think a lot of people actually don't predict that Grace will survive, which was surprising to me, because she's always given me survivor energy. after Damon, Eva, and Wolfgang (not necessarily in that order), she definitely seemed to be the fourth most important character of the Prologue in a way that, to me, implied longevity.

Grace has a lot going on for her. she's always yelling and fighting with everyone, whether that be students she dislikes, the old men of her profession, or even Tozu himself. That already establishes her with potential (negative) relationships with a lot of people, further elevating her importance. also, she's really unlikable (/pos). this gives her insane character arc potential. why would they make a character that brash and aggravating if they didn't have plans to eventually let her change in some meaningful way?

furthermore, Grace was, surprisingly, one of the few characters to actually provide a new, correct argument in the Prologue Class Trial (she's the one who gets the students thinking about the bleach being in a bucket above the door). that may mean that she's smarter than she appears. might be relevant if she continues to hang around Wolfgang, which seems inevitable. she's a really good contrast to him-- someone who has the same sort of passionate fury that he does, but none of the social tact to prevent her from screaming her beliefs in people's faces. if Wolfgang is around for the long haul, i think Grace will be there with him.

... i'm really excited to learn more about Grace in the Prologue, because i feel i've made a lot of assumptions about her that are possibly unfounded, lol.

Cassidy in the role of Mastermind

Diana or Ulysses or Eva or whatever probably makes more sense, but this is my predictions sheet, so I operate off of my vibe check, yippee!!!

ignore everyone who believes that she's the Chapter 1 victim via visibility! ignore everyone who thinks she's too dumb and comic relief-y to pull off a killing game! ignore the eyebrow-raising logistics of why T:EG would give Cassidy an enemy in Wenona/make Cassidy a communist when that doesn't really make any sense with her being the mastermind! i reap the follies of my OWN poor decision making!!!!!! (/j)

... why am i even putting Cassidy as the mastermind after writing all that, you ask? uh, read my old mastermind ranking theory, idk.

okay that's all :) be back after i finish the chapter!!!

[accirax]

hey guys..... would you still let me be in the DRDT fandom if I told you I still haven't watched the DRDT Halloween mv......

[accirax]

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[accirax]

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[accirax]

Analyzing DRDT's Ch2 Motive Diction

The fuck do I think I am, a time traveler? Why am I posting a theory about DRDT's Chapter 2 motive secrets now that Chapter 2 is finally complete? What's even the point in analyzing a motive that's over and done with?

Well, believe it or not, this is actually a theory I wanted to write before Chapter 2 Part 2 came out, I just never got around to it. And now we have more confirmation as to which secrets actually go where! So, really, it's all according to keikaku.

The point of this theory is to look at the language used in presenting the motive secrets, and see what it can tell us about both the secret's owner, and possibly the mastermind/whoever wrote them. What subjectivity did the writer inject into the secrets' phrasing, and could any of the secrets be better or worse than we originally thought? Put on your best scrutinizing glasses, and we'll take a look!

The usual CWs for Chapter 2 motive discussion: death, suicide, eating disorders, self harm, and implied homophobia/transphobia. Oh, and spoilers for DRDT through the end of Chapter 2, naturally.

Also as usual, I'll be assuming that all of the secrets are correctly attributed as they were in canon, other than that Xander and Teruko have swapped such that Xander has survivor's guilt and Teruko has the killing game is all your fault. I'm gonna look like a real fool some chapters down the line if I'm wrong about that, but I feel like most of the fandom has consensus agreed that this is the case.

I'll be dissecting the words of each secret through the lenses of the three Fs-- factual truth, flavored truth, and forced opinion. If those categories aren't as inherently comprehensible as they could have been due to my want for a snappy moniker, let me explain them further.

Factual truth is just that-- a literal statement that must be taken at face value. Under the assumption that all of the secrets are the truth (and it's not that J isn't actually Mariabella's daughter or whatever), there isn't much to be analyzed here. The writer presented the story with no flavor.

"You are reading a DRDT theory."

Flavored truth comes in two main forms. The first refers to emotional truths. Someone's secret describes that they feel a certain way about a certain event. It's likely base-level true, but do they feel that way due to their own opinion, or were they forced to feel that way due to someone else's opinion? And, what exactly does that opinion mean?

"You were happy to read a DRDT theory."

The other option is for when what's written is factual truth, but overlaid with a weird emotional layer. Said layer might make the truth feel overexaggerated, therefore implying a subjective take on the subject. Basically, it's anything that logistically should have been factual truth, but that subjectively I felt had something more to it.

"You prioritized reading DRDT theories over your other responsibilities."

Combined, purple means fact-adjacent, but with a little something injected into it.

Forced Opinion is content injected directly from the writer's perspective, and it's what initially caught my eye and got me thinking about writing this analysis. There are a couple of instances in which the writer speaks directly to the reader without feeling the need to provide any level of verifiable fact. These statements exist only to convey the writer's desired tone.

"Why do you even enjoy DRDT theories?"

Some secrets use only one of these Fs, some use two, and some use all three. On that note, we'll be examining the secrets in reverse spiciness order, with the most straightforward secrets first and the most interesting ones saved for last. So, who has the most sauceless secret?

Charles

"Your older brother died, but you don't remember him at all."

Okay Elliot fans, don't kill me for inadvertently calling your boy sauceless.

It's not that Charles' secret doesn't contain intriguing information, but that the way in which that secret is presented doesn't tell us anything about the person who wrote it. It's not phrased as "how could you have forgotten your dead older brother?" or anything as dramatic as that. Both phrases are presented in a manner devoid of emotion or judgment. They're just two facts!

Rose

"You took on your talent to earn money for your family. But you've since put them in a lifetime of debt."

"Lifetime of debt" feels kind of accusatory, but it is true when the sum total is in the millions of dollars. I think this could have been written a lot more judgmentally than it was, which is why I ultimately left it as factual truth.

Whit

"Your mother is dead. You always omit that truth."

The use of "always" in "always omit that truth" could be called into question, but based on Whit's behavior so far, it seems to be pretty straight up. Honestly, if anything, I think the bluntness of this statement speaks more to the writer's opinions and goals than anything else.

J

"You hide your name and birthright to pretend that you aren't the daughter of Mariabella Rosales."

"Birthright" is defined as "a particular right of possession or privilege one has from birth," if anyone was curious. With the way our society is set up, J should inherit a large amount of money and soft power just by being Mariabella's daughter, so I think this is legit. It has a bit of an emotional tone of superiority to it, but nothing drastic.

Arei

"Blackmail, rumors, lying, stealing, slander. You did everything you could to ruin your sisters' lives."

Ooh, our first instance of flavored truth. We're welcoming it in with a pretty bland example, though-- one that I went back and forth on for a while with whether it should count as factual or flavored.

Ultimately, I decided that, if we hadn't had Arei spell out her backstory and secret for us, I'm sure I would have been speculating about what "ruin your sisters' lives" really meant, and to what degree it was true. I shouldn't disqualify purple text from being purple text just because it was proven true. However, because this really was proven to be Arei's main motivation, we can basically take it as fact.

Levi

"You're a murderer, and you hold no remorse."

A secret which obviously has both a factual and an emotional component, but is also pretty straightforward in how it presents that emotional component.

When I was originally scheming up this theory (before it was revealed to be Levi's), one of my big talking points was going to be about how the divide in this secret opened up the possibility for it to actually be two secrets in one: that the secret's owner was both a murderer, and, separately, held no remorse. That turned out to more or less be true, which was fun!

Eden

"Ever since you kissed her, you were afraid your sexuality would ruin your friendships."

Eden's secret has a pretty obvious factual part-- that she kissed a girl (and she liked it)-- and a pretty obvious emotional component-- that she was afraid it would ruin her friendships.

Much like Levi or Arei, the emotional component is very likely accurate. In this case it's not very dramatized: they didn't go as far as to say "ever since you kissed her, you knew it was a matter of time before your friends would leave you" or anything along those lines. Still, as an emotion-based secret, so there's always room for debate.

Ace

"Your body is falling apart, but you'll still refuse to eat."

"Your body is falling apart" is (probably) a fact, but it feels really emotional. That "probably" is what sold me on this needing to be purple, though. It's hard to say how much Ace's body really was falling apart prior to his death. I'm sure the situation wasn't great, but we know that Ace was still capable of overpowering Arei, lifting ~60 pounds, launching a slingshot, and cutely climbing up swingsets on top of the running, swimming, and general obstacle-course-ing featured in his execution. Ace surely wasn't healthy, but "falling apart" seems like a bit of an exaggeration, based on the knowledge we currently have.

If nothing else, the "but" and "still" paint a picture of Ace being aware that his body is malfunctioning but choosing to limit his calorie intake anyways, which is an emotional layer far beyond the likes of a blunt "you have an eating disorder."

Nico

"No one accepted you because of your identity. You were constantly mocked by your family, your peers, and everybody else."

Does this highlighting make sense to people? Nico being bullied for being nonbinary is (sadly) the truth, but there's a lot of emotional coding to it that isn't necessarily 100% accurate. Like, is it really true that no one Nico met previously ever accepted them? I'm not going to pretend like there aren't deeply transphobic places out there, but "constantly mocks" further makes it sound like not only did everyone hate them, everyone did so physically and/or vocally, as opposed to simply judging in silence.

The weirdest thing about Nico's secret to me is that the writer took what otherwise could have been a factual secret and turned it into a largely emotional one. The only straight up fact we can garner from this is "Nico was mocked by their family and peers because of their identity." What happened to "people threw rocks and laughed at you because of your identity"? That would have been a (more or less) concrete fact that illustrates the exact same idea. But instead, the writer went all in on dramatizing that everyone was against Nico. Is there a reason for that?

Veronika

"You only took on your talent to distract yourself from your incessant need to harm yourself for fun."

Veronika's secret is kinda like Nico's plus Ace's, so it's nice to be able to put it here. Like Nico's, it interweaves factual truth and flavored truth in a way that makes distinguishing between them uncertain. And, like Ace's, it deals with a factual mental illness combined with its subjective motivations.

The core truth of this secret is "you took on your talent to distract yourself from your need to harm yourself," which is what can be seen in blue. However, that has very different implications than "you only," "incessant," and "for fun" add. Of the three, I would rank "incessant" as the most factual, "you only" as the least factual," and "for fun" in the middle.

I do think that Veronika's need to harm herself did feel incessant, but whether it was really for fun is up for debate. It's even more debatable whether distracting herself from self-harm was her ONLY reason for becoming a horror fanatic, as there are many other potential motivators out there, such as a genuine interest in the craft, or even the generalized boredom Veika describes as opposed to just the self-harm angle. In the end, I don't know how helpful making that distinction is for Veronika, but I'll throw it out there.

Arturo

"Your younger sister killed herself because of you. You never should have left."

Our first instance of forced opinion marks where things really start to get juicy. Although, uh, before you interpret my analysis in a way I didn't mean, just because something is marked as opinion doesn't mean it isn't an opinion I agree with. If Arturo sticking around would have saved Felicity's life, then, yeah, he probably shouldn't have left. However, in essence, "you never should have left" isn't a fact, it's an opinion-- one that prioritizes Felicity's life over whatever benefits Arturo gained from running away.

Again! I would also prioritize Felicity's life over whatever motivation Arturo had, assuming that they wouldn't have just, like, both died if he'd stuck around. However, the fact that I hold that opinion tells you something about me and my beliefs. I'm someone who holds the popular opinion of valuing others' lives. And therefore, from the pink text, we can also surmise that the secret writer values others' lives, or at least is willing to leverage that common opinion in order to make others feel guilty.

The only concrete fact present in Arturo's secret is that his younger sister killed herself. The idea that she did so because of Arturo, to some extent, is probably true, but it's based on the emotions of a person that the secret writer probably never even met. Especially when combined with the pink text, the secret gives the vibes of repeating Arturo's dark thoughts back to him to make him feel even worse about the situation. The writer's embellishments of a simple fact were designed to hurt Arturo.

Hu

"You were quite the hopeless child. Dying once wasn't enough, so you attempted suicide three times."

Hu attempted suicide three times: true. Hu's emotional state while doing so was pretty abysmal: yeah, probably. Dying once wouldn't be enough to counteract what she did: ????????

Much like Arturo's, I imagine that the pink text in this case is supposed to mirror an emotional "truth" that Hu holds in her heart. Still, I can't call it anything close to a "fact," given that it's completely based on individual interpretations of penance and morality. And it's an absolutely buckwild thing to say, especially while providing no context as to why anyone would hold that opinion.

It's hard to know what further motives the writer may have had beyond making Hu feel bad when we don't know what Hu did that made her feel as if she needed to die. For instance, if Hu accidentally killed her childhood friend, then we could use that as a data point that the writer was harsher towards murderers. Or, if it was putting her family into financial trouble, we could contrast how the writer treated Rose's secret versus Hu's. However, as we currently have no leads on what Hu's done that she needs to pay for (as her secret quote tells us), there's nothing more to be gained here.

Min

"You always treated the competition with ruthlessness, but poisoning them to win was a bit too far, wasn't it?"

One interesting facet of Min's secret is that it contains one of the most obvious uses of the writer injecting their own opinion into the secret. Like, the entire secret isn't even a statement, it's a rhetorical question. You can feel the writer raising their eyebrow at Min challengingly.

Once again, the pink text is being used to judge and/or shame Min for what she did. I really can't see any other purpose for the pink text beyond doing that.

Xander

"You're constantly blaming yourself for the death of your parents and siblings. It doesn't matter that it's not your fault, just that you didn't go with them."

An even more interesting facet of Xander's text is that this is the only instance in which the pink text is... sort of nice? I mean, not really, as it's still majorly playing to his survivor's guilt in a way that I'm sure would have made him feel awful had he ever read it.

No, what I'm talking about is the "it's not your fault" aspect. I really struggled with which of the Fs to assign to it. From Visiting Graves, it seems like the cause of Xander's family's death was drinking unpotable water, which was likely infected by the Spurlings. Therefore, factually, it isn't his fault, and should be blue.

However, Xander certainly feels like the weight of his family's death was on his shoulders. His secret quote defines his "feelings of guilt for having survived a catastrophe in which others died," and he says in the Bonus Episode itself that "the worst part of it all was that [he] wasn't there." Technically, Xander's family's death being his fault is subjective-- no matter what Unnamed Student says, we can never know for sure that he couldn't have done something if he was there. He is an Ultimate, after all. For those reasons, I felt like maybe the immense emotional connection for Xander should make those words purple.

But then I thought, if the secret was supposed to reflect Xander's beliefs, it would say that the incident was his fault. The writer breaks form in this secret. As opposed to Arturo, Hu, and possibly Min (we don't technically know how she feels about the incident, but I'd imagine that she would agree it went too far), instead of judging the secret's owner in a way that appears to mirror the way that they judge themselves, the writer goes against what Xander would say of himself, injecting their own opinion. That's weird.

Of course, I could definitely be blowing this out of proportion. It could just be that Xander acknowledges that, factually, the incident was not his fault, and therefore he would actually agree with the "it's not your fault." Furthermore, the writer still follows this up with the "just that you didn't go with them," which matches with their usual judgmental attitude. They can't be that soft on Xander when they're still saying it would have been better if he died.

Still. You'd think that the writer would want to play up Xander's insecurities that he was at fault for his family's deaths. If Xander were alive and the motive had been handled properly, Xander would have picked up a paper that told him that his family's deaths were explicitly not his fault. Is that really what MonoTV would have wanted?

David

"You exist to manipulate others. Everyone else exists to be taken advantage of."

You might be surprised to see David's secret all the way down here, given how relatively simple it is. Just like Charles' secret, it's two pretty blunt statements, and it's all written in one color. The difference is that literally nothing in this secret is objective fact.

Disregarding 1) any arguments of determinism ("David was always destined to be a manipulator because he has no free will") and 2) the possibility that this is a soft confirmation of DRDT being in-universe fictional characters ("David was always destined to be a manipulator because he, as a character, is reading his scripted lines"), there is genuinely no way to historically or scientifically verify anything that's said in these secrets. It's based on emotions and emotions alone.

But, whose emotions are they? David certainly believes this to some extent, given that his admission that he's a "lying, manipulative, scumbaggy piece of shit." The sentence "everyone else exists to be taken advantage of" is really aggressive, and, in combination with his Ch2 heel turn, it's very easy (and potentially correct) to believe that these are David's home-brewed feelings.

However, keep in mind the writer's propensity for intentionally stirring up the secret holder's most hurtful thoughts (like Hu) and things they'd rather forget (like Arturo). There's nothing in the secret itself that tells us that David enjoys being destined to be a manipulator, even if he believes in that idea.

David: You were right. I'm a good for nothing liar. But I call those lies "motivational speeches" and everyone eats it up.

Much like how the secret itself could be David's opinion or someone else's, we don't know which parties hold the opinion that David is a "good for nothing."

Look, I'm not trying to say that David has done nothing wrong in his entire life, even if villain apologism is my side hustle. I just think it's important to ask ourselves what entity is declaring this secret as "fact," considering that nothing about it is actually provable. At the very least, it's sure hard to accurately tell the group the exact contents of your secret when it's not based on anything factual.

Arei: Why did you lie about your secret? David: I'm sorry? I don't quite understand.

(Can you tell I was convinced to finally put this theory to paper whilst working on a David analysis...?)

On that note, though, I'll leave further speculation about David for another post, lest I go too far down the rabbit hole here. I just think there's a lot of room for interpretation when it comes to the manipulator secret.

Teruko

"How could I even select what secret to make your motive? Just about everything you've done in your life is worth killing for. The killing game is all your fault."

And, surprising no one, Teruko's secret is at the very bottom. I don't even know where to start with this one.

We'll start at the beginning, I suppose-- Min's secret has one of the most obvious examples of the writer injecting their own opinion into the secret's text; this is the other. They even both have rhetorical questions! Twinsies :D

The first sentence has legit nothing to do with the "factual" contents of the secret at all. The entire sentence is 100% the writer's opinion. They even refer to themselves with the "I" pronoun!!! And the second sentence isn't much better. What's regarded as "worth killing for" is entirely up to the reader's opinion, and "just about" is incredibly vague. Is what Teruko's done 80% worth killing for? 90%? 100%, with a single exception?

I've also always thought that "killing for" was a weird choice. It should be "killing over," right? Killing for is like, "oh, I'd kill for a sandwich." Generally, it's seen as a positive thing, something you really want. If Teruko's life is worth killing for, that would put Teruko's life in place of the sandwich (lol). AKA, "oh, I'd kill for Teruko's life." Given what we know of Teruko's life-- that she's faced being orphaned, poverty, extreme injuries and more-- it's hard to imagine that anyone would willingly want that for themselves.

However, there are two ways I thought of to explain the word choice that don't involve assuming that the phrasing got messed up. The first is that the writer really covets Teruko's capacity to survive. As Teruko herself told us, she's the Lucky Student, so she can't die. "Kill for" could indicate that, despite all of the hardships Teruko has faced, the writer still believes that Teruko's constitution makes her life enviable and/or desirable.

The other is the more literal interpretation: that whatever Teruko has done has made others want to kill on her behalf. We already saw this once with Min, who felt compelled to attack Xander if it meant potentially saving Teruko's life. There's also our usual throughline from Prologue Hands Guy that ending the killing game and killing Teruko might be linked. Therefore, conversely, if there's anyone out there who's interested in the continuation of the killing game(s)-- XF-Ture Tech?-- it might stand to reason that they would be willing to kill in order to keep Teruko alive.

Both of these interpretations struggle with the lead-in of "just about everything you've done in your life," though. It's because both of them directly relate to Teruko's luck, which to me seems less like what she's done and more like who she is. But, the origins of Teruko's luck are undefined enough that I don't think I can use that to shoot either possibility down.

On to "the killing game is all your fault." I was tempted to make this sentence entirely pink, due to how likely it seems that this sentence is overexaggerated. Teruko is still a totally viable mastermind choice, to be clear. There are a lot of things that become a whole lot more convenient if Teruko is the mastermind, this secret included. However, if Teruko were a self-aware, despair-loving mastermind, why would she put a secret basically accusing her of such into the killing game?

You could argue that, if MonoTV were competent, no one would have seen this secret other than Teruko herself. It's still kinda weird to write that down for herself, though. It would have been a lot safer to just leave the secret off at "How could I even select what secret to make your motive? Just about everything you've done in your life is worth killing for." And, I don't think anyone who happened to see the secret would think too much of it. Perhaps Teruko wanted others to know she was the mastermind? If that were the case, why not correctly claim her secret when David asked her in 2-13?

(Once again, I really hope I'm right about this secret being Teruko's.)

In the end, I decided to just flag the "all" as being the writer's opinion, as an endeavor as grand and complicated as the killing game surely has more than one thing behind it. Every canon killing game, despite having a main instigator, had many other individuals aiding in its creation. And, the writer clearly has a vendetta against Teruko in this secret, so I'd be more surprised if they weren't overexaggerating her involvement to some degree.

However, "the killing game is your fault" remains in blue, even though we can't verify it to be true at the moment. If you recall, at the top, I decided to make the assumption that all of the secrets were true to at least some level, and this is where that kicks in for Teruko. Plus, if the writer (who is quite possibly the mastermind) believes that the killing game is at least partially Teruko's fault, then that's likely the case, no?

What Did We Learn?

Now that we're done with all of the secrets, let's turn it back to see if we can figure anything out about the writer. The ways in which secrets were handled can kinda be broken into tiers, like this:

Charles, Rose, Whit, and J all had 100% factual truth.

Arei, Levi, and Eden had some factual truth and some flavored truth, but the emotional truth was pretty easily verified as correct.

Ace, Nico, and Veronika had a mix of factual truth and flavored truth in a way where it was harder to parse what was feeling or fact.

Arturo, Hu, Min, and Xander had some factual truth, some flavored truth, and some forced opinion, all of which had some elements of assigning blame.

David and Teruko were struggling to present anything certifiably factual at all.

Meanwhile, if we try to categorize the secrets themselves:

Levi, Arturo, Min, and David all had secrets regarding harming others.

Ace, Veronika, and Hu all had secrets regarding harming themselves.

Rose, J, Arei, Charles, Whit, Arturo, and Xander all had secrets about their families, with the latter four relating to dead family members. (Levi also technically counts for this, but it's not explicitly mentioned in the secret.)

Eden and Nico have secrets relating to their identities and the crises they face because of them.

Teruko has a secret that's hard to define :/

What does this tell us? Well, honestly, not much. All of the people in the "straight facts" tier have secrets that relate to their families in non-violent ways, but that may just mean that the lower-stakes secrets were harder to dramatize. Everyone who dealt with a negative effect on a large group of people (Min with the competition, Xander with his large family and by extension town, David with... everyone, Teruko with those in a killing game) is near the bottom of the ranking, but it also follows that those with more grave secrets would face further scrutiny for it.

There's nothing as simple as "everyone whose secret referred to a death was harshly judged" or "everyone who harmed themselves was treated more kindly." Therefore, we can't really assign any of those straightforward beliefs to the writer. Alas.

However, assume with me for a moment that 1) the mastermind is the one who personally wrote out the secrets and 2) the mastermind of the killing game is one of its 16 contestants. Nothing too crazy, but those are both (kind of) assumptions.

(I know that, technically, MonoTV said "the real mastermind is one of you" at the end of the Prologue, which would mean that one of the 16 students has been confirmed to be the mastermind. However, I personally don't believe that's necessarily the case. You can read more about that in Mai's section of my (albeit outdated) Mastermind Ranking, if you wish.)

If the secret-writer is a mastermind hidden amongst the cast, that means that they must have written a secret about themselves. Which category would be the most likely category to find our mastermind in?

Well, the obvious answer is in the top tier, as they're the least suspicious. If you want to fly under the radar, give yourself a secret that won't be the talk of the town if it comes out of the bag. Veronika has already primed us to recognize that someone's secret doesn't have to be the worst thing they've ever done, which could be foreshadowing that we'll later learn that the mastermind's secret works the same.

In terms of the mastermind's specific identity, it's also interesting to consider which secrets had the most information packed into them. Most-if-not-all of these students attended Hope's Peak together as friends for a little while, but some were certainly closer than others. All of the secrets are secret, naturally, but to write a secret like David's, you have to know a lot about how his mind works, which implies closeness. The secrets that include something about how their owner thought or felt-- the "why," so to speak-- include Levi's, Eden's, Veronika's, Xander's, and David's. Conversely, you largely don't need to know anything about how Charles, Rose, Whit, J, Arei, Ace, or Nico thought or felt about their various circumstances, just that they happened. Arturo, Hu, Min, and Teruko are in sort of a weird place where the secret seems to reveal how they felt, but could also just be the writer feeling the same way.

In terms of the ones where you don't need to know anything, the results are a toss-up. You could argue that, if Whit were the mastermind, he could have hurt Charles way worse than he theoretically did, but you could also argue that Charles' secret was left more vague on purpose as a form of protection/favoritism.

However, the fact remains that, somehow, the person who wrote the secrets had to at least get into Levi, Eden, Veronika, Xander, and David's brains in order to transcribe how they felt about doing their various deeds. Who knows those five super well? Honestly, my first thought was Teruko, but it's also undeniable that a talent like David's or Whit's would lend itself well to understanding how others' minds work. And, of course, there's Mai, whose main talent thus far seems to be understanding others.

As a final note, I want to list a couple of secrets that I feel have anti-mastermind energy. Secrets you read and ask, "now, why would that person have written and released this information about themselves?" The level to which this is the case varies, but I'm going to include everyone I had the thought for. These people include:

Whit. Why would he tell everyone about a truth he prefers to omit?

J. Same thing: if she doesn't want everyone knowing she's Mariabella's daughter, why would she make that her secret? Why would she even create the opportunity for someone else to read that?

Eden. Less so than others (as, if she's in a supportive crowd, she might want this secret to get out), but if she's afraid of how people will treat her after learning she's a lesbian, why would she say it?

Nico. Same as Eden, basically.

Arturo. He really seems to want to forget this. Unless he's a mascohist-ermind (Ellis, is that you? /j /ref), I don't know why he'd remind himself, especially with such strong wording.

Teruko. Again, assuming she wants to keep this under wraps, why release that secret into the world?

You could also count Charles and/or Levi for this category. However, I decided that just because they seemingly forgot about the contents of their secret wouldn't mean that they would have no motivation to write it, which is really what I was judging.

Sorry if that wasn't as conclusive as you were hoping for! (/gen) If it were more conclusive, I probably would have made the theory earlier, or someone else would have had the same thought. As we learn more about the secrets in future installments like whether the Teruko/Xander swap thing is actually correct, these are the sorts of questions that I want to be keeping in mind.

And, of course, please take this analysis with a grain of salt! I always assume that everything in DRDT is 100% accurate to real-world logic because I really respect DRDTdev's storytelling. However, much like my note content analysis, I understand that going so far as to say "Charles can't be the mastermind because there's no way he'd know about how Veronika felt about her self harm" is quite possibly going too far. The most important facet of the secrets is that they made for an interesting story development, which they did! Any logic about how the in-universe secret-writer found out this information is just a cherry on top. But inspecting those cherries for quality is what we get up to 'round these parts.

Thank you for reading! And hopefully I'll find the time to write more DRDT stuff in the near future :)

[accirax]

This ain’t your average announcement— Danganronpa: One Shot Chapter 1 will be here on Friday, November 22 at 2PM PST with its first part of six! Further parts will be posted weekly, same time, same place.

[accirax]

i really hope this isnt a bother (i love ur posts btw !!! ur honestly one of my fav tumblr users) but in the tags of ur recent proj edens garden post u mentioned sth with the crew going on and i was just wondering what it was??? im not rly big into the fandom and its not sth i can find stuff of from searching up so i wanted to ask to see if u can clarify!!! AGAIN RLY SORRY IF THIS IS A BOTHER OR IF IT LIKE. INVITES DISCOURSE! im genuinely asking 😓

not a bother at all! the only problem with your question is that i don't have that great of an answer, as i don't know much about the alleged crew drama either.

i just saw this fanganfessions post where someone vented their issues with the project, as well as a (primarily) DRDT blogger expressing their issues with the game. (i won't link that post here in case they don't want to be dragged into further discussions on the topic, but if they do happen to see this, feel free to chime in/explain.) that blogger cited poor moderation of the fanbase as well as the creators making fun of other fangan projects as reasons why they'd come to dislike the project.

much like you, i don't want to stoke the flames of discourse nor spread misinformation on a subject i know very little about. however, it was also bugging me to hear multiple voices expressing their distaste for (at least some of) the game's staff and then write a really excited and positive post pretending like i hadn't heard it.

currently, as i wrote in those tags, my stance is that many amazing series unfortunately have less than perfect people developing them (see: the colorism, sexism, fatphobia, etc of the original Danganronpa games). and, as far as i know, the Eden's Garden team hasn't done anything egregious enough to cross my personal boundaries of when i'd start to feel uncomfortable supporting a project. however, i totally understand why it could make others feel icky, especially if they were directly involved in whatever discourse. i don't want to discredit the voices of those who the team may have upset. i plan to proceed with caution when it comes to giving the game my full support.

hopefully that all sounds reasonable ^_^ and thanks for sending in the ask! it's good to ask follow-up questions, even if i unfortunately couldn't give that detailed of an answer for you.

[accirax]

Project: Eden's Garden Chapter 1 Trailer Analysis

Oh my god it's actually time.

As I'm sure you've heard by now, Team Eden's Garden has finally announced the release date for the fangan's true first chapter: December 20th. And, they did so in a flashy new trailer, which is nearly three minutes long! Naturally, there's a lot of content baked in to those three minutes, so I'm here to take a look at what was flashing by in those rapid-fire montages, as well as make predictions regarding what will happen at the first Class Trial. This will be fun!

And here's hoping I don't run out of images 🤞

The trailer begins with the "mascot" (in this case, Tozu) saying that it's been far too long since we last conversed. Classic.

Next, we see a preview of some locations, both new and old. CAM04: Dorm Hallway and CAM24: Tree of Ignorance were already explorable areas within the Prologue, and CAM08: Damon's Dorm was visible in the Ch1 demo released last year(?). The new locations include CAM32: Hallway A1, CAM35: Pharmacy A1, and CAM39: Pharmacy A5.

(By the way, I'm going to assume that both the numbering of the cameras and the time displayed in the lower right have no particular meaning, because I can't find any connections between them. At first I thought it was weird that Damon's dorm was Camera #8 despite him being 9th in alphabetical last name order, but given that the hallway is Camera #4, I don't think there's a correlation).

While all of the images are intentionally blurry, I'll do the best I can to describe what we can see. The most obvious point of interest is the door at the back of the hallway, under which "CAUTION" is written in big red letters. It also seems that there might be blood dripping down the door, which, if true, would match with the other blood splatter on the floor near the bottom right of the screen. It definitely gives the impression that something happened here before, and that that something was bad. There's also a grate on the wall that's splattered with red, but given that blood is pink in the DR universe, I'm assuming that's rust.

The pharmacies are very interesting to me. First of all, there are two of them. What kind of establishment needs two separate pharmacies? I guess you might if the pharmacies are as different as the two pictured. One looks more like an old-fashioned office or science classroom (it kind of reminds me of v3's Ultimate Detective Lab, honestly), and the other like a scientific research facility. A pharmacy is defined as "a store where medicinal drugs are dispensed and sold," so perhaps Pharmacy A1 is for selling and Pharmacy A5 is for creating?

The "A" in these tags could stand for "area," but they more likely stand for "alpha." At the end of the Chapter 1 demo (watch Weeby Newz's video on it if you want the same level of info I have), the students are about to go through the lowercase "alpha" door in the Tree Room to explore a new area. These three areas are almost certainly behind that door-- perhaps with the checkered pharmacy being room #1, and the blue pharmacy being room #5?

It's also possible that the entire area is considered "the pharmacy," and is dedicated to the production of medicine. But, whether that's the case or not, I have to ask, "why?" Out of all the things they could have put into this falsified Eden's Garden Academy, why make two rooms dedicated to creating drugs? Why potentially make up to five rooms dedicated to creating drugs? With very little information regarding the overarching plot of Eden's Garden, it's hard to determine why. The only connection I can make offhand is that this may have been the origin site of the drugs used to knock everyone out on the train.

I do find it very interesting, though, that this is not just a location in the school, but the very first one we're discovering. Normally, I'd think that places like these, which aren't that conducive to students hanging out (like a pool or recreation center) would be reserved for future chapters. It may imply that drugs and/or poisons are a necessary component of the Chapter 1 murder. We'll see!

Our first of the rapid-fire CGs! This one shows Kai pointing at something within a fancy pink room. There's a canopy bed dressed with pink cloth, some floral-looking wallpaper, and two small paintings of what also appear to be plants on the wall.

Given the appearance of Damon's room earlier in the trailer, I find it likely that this is not a new location in the alpha corridor, but instead, someone's room. There are many pink colored characters in P:EG-- Diana, Toshiko, and Kai himself-- as well as Cassidy, whose character color is close to pink, and Ingrid, who has pinkish hair. Of the main three options, I'm guessing that this is probably Kai's room.

People have been quick to diagnose this as a potential BDA image. If that's true, I acknowledge that this being Kai's room would be a wild choice, because it would mean that someone other than Kai was found dead in Kai's room. It would be a THH parallel, though! I just think that it's likely to be his because, well, he's in there, and all of the references to flowers seems fitting for his butterfly motif. However, Toshiko's kimono does have flower patterns on it, and flowers also match up with the ~romance~ of the Ultimate Matchmaker. If this is Kai providing a BDA in Toshiko's room, though... maybe Toshiko isn't dodging those first victim allegations.

If it's not a BDA, though, what is Kai pointing at? Imagine if it's just a spider or something, lol. He does look pretty worried, so perhaps this could be the arrival of something like DRDT's custom weapons? If a weapon suddenly appeared in my room a the killing game, I'd be kind of worried. It could also be a mysterious note, as (spoilers) we're about to see a few of in this trailer.

One cute(?) thing to mention is that, if this is Kai's room, it likely means that Kai was willing to invite Damon into his room to check whatever this is out. That could mean that they're friends! It's not cute if this is actually a BDA. It's also not cute if Kai is becoming Damon's friend just so that it hurts more when he dies in Chapter 1 :(

Woah, it's a note! (/j)

This and the image directly before it in the trailer seem to be of the same thing: a piece of paper that says "to Damon Maitsu" on it. Or, it's possible that the first one just says "Damon Maitsu" and this one says "to Mr. Maitsu"-- they look a little different, although the handwriting seems identical. I don't think there's any paper conspiracy for me to crack here.

To my memory, the prologue included some flashback CGs, so I would imagine that's what's happening here, unless Damon actually kept his Eden's Garden acceptance letter on his person (possible). It could also be a new letter that Damon receives during the course of the killing game if, as I posited, Kai was pointing out a letter he received in his room.

And furthermore, more note content? Why is this hypothetical piece of paper more visible in the trailer than Toshiko?! (/j)

Or, maybe it isn't. This note seems to read, "Meet in [???] at 8:10 p.m. tonight [???] Damon Maitsu." Due to the spacing of the words-- namely, that it doesn't seem like there's much more to this message beyond what we can see-- this paper appears to be pretty small. Combined with the color, I predict that this note is, in fact, sticky. And therefore, not the same as the piece of paper (which also has a different ink color) as the other note.

Further extrapolating from the spacing, the note looks like it's signed "-- Damon Maitsu". Otherwise, there would need to be a word before Damon, the end of which has no letters tall enough to appear next to the D. (It's LGI's "Ms. Naegi" crisis all over again... /ref) If so, that means that we might have an example of Damon's handwriting on our hands! Or the handwriting of someone who was trying to impersonate Damon :/

I wish we had a better lead on where this note was telling folks to meet up, but it's way too vague.

Then, yet another piece of paper! It's definitely different than the yellow one, and probably different from the signed one as well, due to being typed and not handwritten. Then again, sometimes typed letters have a handwritten signature at the bottom, so it's not impossible.

This text's formatting reminds me of how scripts are normally written: both the font and the center alignment are used in standard scriptwriting formats. I actually at first thought that everything after "beneath a" might have been spoken by a character whose name starts with L, but that would mean that their dialogue starts with a lowercase letter. Plus, names on scripts are usually written more like this (imagine it's centered):

LINDSAY beneath a [shoulder] If only [head]

in the sense that the character speaking's name is in all caps. There appears to be a lowercase i after the capital L, so it's probably not a name.

Still, that begs the question of why the top line is so much shorter than the one beneath it. In a normal passage, all of the lines would have relatively even margins other than possibly the last one. Could the wonky spacing be indicative of a poem, or something else written in verse? Due to the script/poem idea, I'm inclined to believe this belongs to the ever-dramatic Tozu, but I could be wrong.

Next is another CG, depicting Damon, Cassidy, and a sneaky Jean in the background. Based on the shape of Damon's ahoge, we can tell he's a little annoyed or flustered by whatever Cassidy is pointing at.

The wallpaper pattern we see in the background is that of the Dining Hall. Do NOT ask me how I remembered this offhand, because I don't know.

Furthermore, based on the wall being to the characters' left, it's likely that they're standing on the left side of the room. (It's possible in reality that it could be anywhere else in the room in front of the wallpaper only, but based on cinematography rules I won't bother explaining this is probably the case.) So, what is Cassidy pointing at? It could be the fireplace, the painting of the jackal, or the vent. Or, obviously, something new that appears in the Dining Hall in Chapter 1.

Based on my theories that the vent will be involved in the Chapter 1 murder, I'm inclined to believe that it might be what Cassidy's pointing out. If that's true, it means that she (and Jean) (and Damon) is dodging the Chapter 1 victim allegations! However, given that the characters are looking upwards, unless they're on the floor, it's probably not actually the vent. Maybe it's something on the fireplace mantle?

Also, based on straight vibes and nothing else, I don't think this is a serious CG. It might just be that it reminds me of v3's casino CG, but I kinda feel like Cassidy is just trying to teach Damon a game while Jean watches, or something. Projector on the Dining Hall walls? "It's more likely than you think," I lie.

The next six images consist of three spooky screenshots of what seem to be some sort of database which say "Ultimate" (and a picture of Damon), and three zoom-ins on what I believe to be paintings found around the school.

The only one I found of particular note was this one, which sort of looks like two people getting married? Both figures seem to have light skin, and the one in the white dress might have some shoulder-length red hair. Cassidy marriage arc??? I can't imagine what context this photo/painting/CG would appear in, but it might be important.

After that a few illustrations depicting the killing game's rules flash by. I won't be uploading all of them because 1) you can probably guess at most already if you're familiar with DR/fangans, and 2) I think these might have been shown in the demo anyways. To sum up, I think the rules can be attributed as such:

Tozu is in charge (and/or participation in the killing game is mandatory)

No destroying school property, with a focus on cameras and NG bracelets

You can't kill/injure Tozu or Mara*

Students can become the blackened by killing

Once a dead body is found, it's time for a Class Trial

... The same thing again? Oh, maybe #5 was about how to trigger a BDA, then.

Um...

Okay, actually, I don't know what this one is. Is this saying that you can't rip paper, or you'll get executed? As in, papers that Tozu gives you? Dude, maybe my "Tozu gives the students mysterious letters" theory actually had some merit to it!

If not that, could this be something about breaching contracts? The Prologue did mention "registration materials" that Damon presumably signed. Those could have been a cover-up for a real waiver the students accidentally accepted. Or, maybe this is the big reveal that all of the characters are actors in a scripted performance. In Chapter 1? Yeah, probably not.

*Technically, only Tozu (who stands between Mara and the student) has an X over him, which could imply that it's only illegal to harm Tozu. However, it's likely that, when the rule is revealed in the e-Handbook, the graphic will cycle between Xs on Mara and Tozu, or something else to that effect. It would be interesting if the rules don't protect Mara, though. I'd imagine the in-universe explanation would be "see what happens if you even TRY to hurt Mara," but that would absolutely feel like a rule intended by the writers to be broken in the future.

I'm sure someone could do a super in-depth analysis of the religious implications of this painting, but that person is not me. All I will say is, "these are the animals of Mara and Tozu." Oh, and, based on the next image, this painting is located in Pharmacy 1.

New locations! Like I alluded to above, the first image is definitely of Pharmacy 1, and I think the second is too.

The third is a bit harder to decipher. We've got a glowing photocopier with an Eden's Garden Academy logo on it, a tiled floor, many green cabinets, a medical kit, and lots of vines. I wonder if this might be a third pharmacy that functions more like a doctor's office...? I don't know what the photocopier is there for in that case, though. I'm assuming that the location behind Jett in the fourth image is in the same room due to the similar green cabinets, and the fact that you can see a similar first aid kit on the wall behind him. If that's the case, there's also a sink in this room. That's not helping me either.

After that, we have a shot of Jean with a proposition in the Dining Hall, some general purposes art which I think we've seen before, and a slick 3D animation with Damon catching a fallen apple. What do they have in common? I don't have much to say about any of them.

Free Time time! Or, at least, I'm assuming that Ulysses' part is part of his first FTE, given that it was packaged in with all this other stuff. With this, we can conclude that Ulysses, Wenona, and Wolfgang will all be available for at least one FTE in Chapter 1. I am very curious about that in general-- with this first chapter release, will we immediately be able to view all of everyone's FTEs? Or will they cap everyone off at, like, two for now? Unfortunately, there's no way for me to answer that now.

The other three images are more intriguing. The first definitely shows Damon's gift inventory, with the Black Forest Cake being highlighted. The interesting bit is all of the chibi pixels to the side, with positive and negative arrows by some of their heads. At first, I thought that P:EG might be going for something like SDRA2's ambitious FTE system, where characters have positive or negative opinions on you based on actions you take and gifts you give. However, on further thought, I bet that this is an in-game way of telling you who will like which gifts. As far as I can tell, many people either look up which gifts to give which characters or save-scum until they get something right, so taking guessing out of the equation is probably a good thing. Plus, now we know that Diana, Jett, Toshiko, Mark, Wolfgang, Cassidy, Desmond, Eloise, and Kai like cake; Grace, Ingrid, and Wenona don't; and Damon, Jean, Ulysses, and Eva are neutral. It's an extra good system if it gives us insight into Damon as well!

The second is surely P:EG's equivalent of the Monomono Machine, with Damon receiving a zen garden from the funky hourglass contraption. The interesting part to me is that the currency is named Marabucks instead of Tozubucks. Yay for inclusivity? Also, I think it's fun that the percentage reads "1,13%" instead of the standard American "1.13%". (And P:EG seems to be, on the whole, an American-coded game, given that the majority of the characters speak in American-accented English and the cast's live appearance was in Texas.) Gives you a little behind the scenes peek at who was coding this section of the game :)

The last thing... uh, what? It seems to be a Pong-like minigame, probably used to earn bonus Marabucks. You bounce the "orbs" through the "pachinko" to... I guess score points against Mara and Tozu? And, probably if you do well enough, you get varying levels of money. Perhaps I spoke too soon, and the Marabuck is simply the lesser Tozubuck.

Up next comes some dramatic zoom-ins through those spiffy remodeled locations. I appreciate them jazzing up the "outdoor" area specifically; the lack of polygons in the doorway arch always bugged me. Even if they kept those similarly unbeveled shapes in the archways to the side... (/lh)

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for...

WE GOT SCENES FROM THE CLASS TRIAL?!?!?!

To clear the elephant in the room, as everyone has been reporting, Toshiko is the only student who can't be seen in the Class Trial at all. Does that mean she's dead? Uh, probably not. As part of a mystery-writing team, I would have to imagine that whoever crafted this trailer would be smart enough to know that their mystery-loving fans would comb through whatever they're given for answers (hi 👋). And, if there's one to be found, they'd find it. Therefore, I'm more inclined to believe that Toshiko's absence is an intentional red herring. Then again, this is very possibly the P:EG team's first time writing a fangan, so if they didn't think about things like that, it would be understandable.

So, who is dying if everyone else is present? To me, there's a big gulf between how easy it would be to fake someone's participation in the Class Trial. Subbing out a death portrait for a regular sprite is easy, recording a fake line of dialogue is a bit more effort, and creating original artwork is really not worth the effort. Thus, we can divide the characters into tiers.

ORIGINAL ART (basically guaranteed safe) Damon, Wenona VOICE ACTING (very likely to be safe) Diana, Grace, Wolfgang, Jean, Eva SPRITE VISIBLE (possibly most endangered) Mark, Desmond, Kai, Ingrid, Ulysses, Eloise, Cassidy, Jett TOTALLY ABSENT (reverse psychology safety???) Toshiko

Damon's unique minigame sprite and Wenona's Rebuttal Showdown art appearing over his face should also squash the rumors that Damon will be replaced before the first Class Trial at least, lol.

Within those tiers, I also want to highlight two outliers: Wolfgang and Eva. Because, of course it's those two.

Although Wolfgang is in the voice acting tier, in reality, I'd say he should be moved upward into the "basically guaranteed safe" tier. This is because his line is shown in Nonstop Debate format as opposed to the regular dialogue format. Although his lines don't have the animated word art thing going on, I still imagine that it would be easier to create a fake line in the regular dialogue boxes than in the minigame. Also, notice that I said lineS. Wolfgang also has two lines, and unless the team is really yanking our chains, I can't see why they would create two fake lines when one would surely suffice.

Meanwhile, while Eva is in the voice acting tier, she's bordering on the "possibly most endangered" tier. It may just be my "Eva could die first" bias speaking, but her line is a whole lot shorter and less specific than Diana's, Grace's, or Jean's. In fact, if you remove the comma, "obviously the case" could easily be one of her stock dialogue lines that plays over unvoiced portions of the Daily Life. If the team were to create a fake piece of dialogue for the Class Trial, sneakily repurposing a line that already exists for other purposes would be the most efficient way to do so.

Expanding on that, what is "obviously, the case" supposed to mean here? I'll once again draw attention to that comma. Grammatically, it's not that some truth is "obviously the case," but that the case is the thing that's obvious. In what context is Eva saying that, though?

Jett: Uhhh, sorry, what are we supposed to be focusing on again...? Eva: Obviously, the case.

Or, could a physical case, like a briefcase, be relevant to the murder?

Grace: But what could the killer have used to fucking store a disguise?! Eva: Obviously, the case.

The only thing I'm remembering offhand that could be a physical case is the medical kit, but obviously there are plenty of locations and props for this Chapter we haven't seen yet. At any rate, Eva's dialogue raised a flag for me. So, I'll be scrutinizing any cases we may see or any pre-Trial words Eva speaks when the Chapter comes out.

Also, Diana and Grace might be a bit safer than Jean and Eva because what Grace is saying seems to be a response to Diana. They both mention peace, and Desmond is striking the same pose in both of their shots. I doubt that the P:EG team would either record Diana expressing the same sentiment that someone else actually expresses, or come up with a fictitious response from Grace that doesn't actually exist. If you want to get really nitty-gritty about it, consider that tier as ranking Wolfgang as the most safe, then Grace, Diana, Jean, and then Eva :)

Under the dual assumptions that Toshiko is a red herring while Eva's dialogue is genuine (such that both of them are safe), though, who's the most likely victim from our "sprite visible" tier?

Well, the only victim option left from my Chapter 1 Killer/Victim theory is Kai. Fan-favorite first victim choice Cassidy is also on the table. Otherwise, I could see Ulysses, given that (if he's not the mastermind) he gives BIG victim energy with his notetaking becoming a central aspect of solving his Trial. I'd expect they'd save a gimmick like that for a later Trial, where it could better be used to shake up the status quo, but I could see it as a good intro case too. I could also see someone taking Desmond out if they were afraid of his weapon-wielding capabilities, although that's... kinda backwards thinking. Desmond's capability to kill is scary if you're trying to kill him, but it doesn't offer much in the Class Trial.

Still kinda convinced it's gonna be Eva, but I'm aware enough to recognize that's probably just the stubbornness of wanting to believe that my old theory was true.

Speaking of old theories coming true, can we rewind for a moment?

Jean: ...but, I'd rather be suspected than be the reason this trial comes to a standstill.

Hey. WHAT.

For anyone who hasn't read/forgot about the Chapter 1 victim/killer theory I just linked, in that post, I argued my case for why Jean would be our unexpected Chapter 1 killer. Needless to say, when I saw this, I screamed.

What does this MEAN?!?! Full disclosure, I was pretty convinced that the Jean!killer theory would either be, like, 100% on the money, or laughably incorrect to the level of accidentally misinterpreting Jean's entire personality or there not even being a hint of suspicion thrown on his name throughout the entire case. To see Jean acknowledging others' suspicion of him in the TRAILER has me reeling.

Assuming that this line isn't fake (which also guarantees that Jean isn't the first victim), this means that there will be a point in the Trial at which Jean will be suspected as the blackened. The line itself could easily be something that a sympathetic and honest spotless would say, or something that a blackened could say pretending to be just that, so we don't get any hints there. What reason would Jean have to be suspected if he isn't the killer? Why and how would anyone choose to frame him? But also, would the P:EG team really want to have their players go into the first Trial already primed to believe that Jean could be the blackened based on the trailer? I feel like this line was included as a cruel (/lh) trick on me specifically, but my theory wasn't nearly infamous enough to warrant that kind of attention.

It's absolutely going to be eyes on Jean for me when the first Chapter comes out. I'm so curious to see the context surrounding this quote. Did I actually call it early? Or will the "evidence" that I stacked up actually prove to make Jean a believable bait, but not the real blackened? (wouldn't be the first time :P /j)

Moving on, there's a very dramatic scene of Tozu looking over the Trial grounds, while Damon looks back. I double checked, and everyone is visible (in silhouette form) in this shot, which makes sense as it was likely created solely for this spoiler-free promotional material. In my mind, the only clues we can pick up here are that Damon is further cementing himself as the true protagonist of this story. He also blocks out Wolfgang as he looks at Tozu...? Could have symbolic significance, but could also just be a result of the pair being opposite each other in the Class Trial seating.

After that is another fast-paced montage. The first screen is the same shot of the Pharmacy table. I don't know why they put repeat info in here, but as far as I can tell, all of the props and textures and whatnot are the same. If my assessment that the murder would utilize the Dining Hall vent is wrong, I wonder if this could be a hint that Pharmacy A especially will have significant meaning-- possibly, as the site of the first BDA. That being said, they also repeat the same image of the photocopier ivy room as the third image in this montage. So, if that's the case, it means both locations will have to be highly relevant.

I feel like this image out of context looks really NSFW. I promise, that was not my intention...

Anyways, this is from the Prologue BDA.

It's Cara's doll legs, as is made extra apparent by that same cylindrical thing in the back. I'm not sure if this was put here because the Prologue case will continue to be really relevant to Chapter 1, or just because they wanted a BDA-looking thing for the Trailer yet didn't want to put in a spoiler one. Based on the different size/shape of Cara's thighs (now I feel NSFW /j), there is a slight possibility that what's shown in the Chapter 1 trailer is (an image of) the real Cara's body as opposed to the doll. However, we know that some sprites and backgrounds have been redone during the hiatus, and that could extend to Cara's art as well.

This knife is also from the Prologue BDA.

You think you're so clever, P:EG team, don't you...? (/lh)

Can you believe the students are going to investigate area alpha in Chapter 1? Or maybe this is Damon telling me I'm wrong about that, haha.

Hey, they rigged a 3D Tozu model! It's looking good. I'm sure they're glad that Tozu's mask meant that they don't have to make a whole mouth rig for the guy, lol. My guess is that this model will be used for Tozu's "punishment time" animation, the equivalent of Monokuma hitting his button with the mallet.

The last thing of note in this trailer (other than the release date) is the Chapter's splash art! The full version was posted to Twitter, which I'll be showing for clarity's sake.

“Strange that one minor event, one small action, can alter the path of everything.”

... You gotta start dodging these allegations better, Cassidy.

Chapter promo art predictions are always a tricky game when it comes to predicting who will die. On the creator's end, I'm sure you don't want to draw additional attention to your first deaths by spotlighting them in the artwork. But, if you want to highlight some of the most important characters of the chapter, that'll often include the victim and/or killer if the Daily Life is well-crafted. Plus, especially for early deaths like these, if you don't put them in the chapter art early, you'll never have to chance.

But, forget all that. Who's actually shown in the poster? Obviously, Damon, Jett, and Cassidy are, but I believe that Wenona's jacket and hair are shown to the left of Damon? If you squint, you can also make out what might be Ingrid's arm on his right. That would be consistent with where he's seated in the Class Trial. Yeah, and then that weird blob behind Wenona is actually Jean and Eva!

See what I mean? Well, if we have 7 characters on the poster, maybe it's not so suspicious for any of them after all :D

And, really, it's 8 characters. I imagine others have made this connection already (even if I haven't personally seen it), but... that's a chameleon wrapping its way around Damon. AKA, Diana's animal motif. That means that Diana is more or less on this poster as well!

As the literal framing device of the Class Trial, the chameleon makes this poster reek of Diana being the Chapter 1 killer. However, even that feels too obvious, at least to my highly-scrutinous eyes. Then again, if this was just supposed to communicate that Diana will be important, why not just put her on the poster...? I really don't know what to make of it.

And... yeah, December 20th! I'm super excited!!! While we're certainly not in a drought of in new and exciting fangans nowadays (read Danganronpa: One Shot here!), productions of this scale-- especially playable ones-- are few and far between, so I really hope that this first Chapter lives up to the hype. I'm pretty sure I'll have more to say about this fangan in a few weeks, so I'll see y'all then for Project: Eden's Garden's true beginning!

...

(Honestly, after all this time in the DRDT fandom, it's just crazy to me that we're going to learn about the victim and killer at basically the same time... (/lh))

[accirax]

I remembered that you did that fun prediction game when Disventure Camp: All-Stars was still coming out, and I was wondering if you had any thoughts about this new season so far? Whether that be what characters you like, who you think will win, anything really, I just think it’ll be interesting to hear your thoughts.

oh, you mean my power rankings? i'm glad you thought they were fun enough to remember them come season 4! i probably won't keep up the tradition this season (mostly just bc they took a while to write per week), but that doesn't mean i can't share a little of what i'm thinking now. especially since you asked so politely ;D

overall, i think the season looks really great so far! as has seemingly been the tradition with each season, the art has just gotten better and better, and the new crop of voice talents seem, well... talented! (i wonder if any of them will hop over to RR for future seasons, assuming there are more 👀) my sister and i both agreed that this season seems to be even more based off of modern Survivor, what with the twist at the episode's ending and the way in which they packaged everyone's beginning confessionals. as someone who's been a fan of Survivor for basically her entire life, i'm definitely looking forward to that aspect.

as for my favorite, it might have to be Anastasia so far. i love her judgments and her ambition, and the prospects of a relationship with Marissa have me intrigued. i also really liked Isabel-- "i dedicate my life to the Lord, but i dedicate my body to the algorithm" was absolutely the standout one-liner of the first episode, imo. i'm also sure that i'll be a fan of Spencer in the future provided he sticks around for long enough. i always enjoy arrogant-yet-bullyable nerds a la Miles Edgeworth or Byakuya Togami :)

as for my predictions, given that not THAT much gameplay has occurred, they're largely still the same as what i discussed in my pre-season analysis. however, i have a few updates, which i'll list here:

i've grown even more convinced that Alessio WILL be the first boot from the Blue Team, and likely the first boot of the season, given how Blue lost both of the initial quality of life challenges. if there was literally ANY challenge that Alessio could have proven his worth with, it would have been one that relied fully on visual memory, like the flag challenge. but alas, contributed nothing at all. now Alessio has no allies AND no worth in challenges. he's super dead, imo.

related, i don't think Lynda will be the first Blue boot anymore, but she could definitely still go early, given her beef with Anastasia (where Anastasia has more solid allies than she does).

meanwhile, i'm not as convinced that Amelie will be the first Red boot anymore. she seems to have the stronger positive relationship with Hannah that i initially pinned for Benji. i'm predicting that one of Amelie or Benji will be the first Red boot, but i'm much more uncertain on which one. i still think both of them may be premerge, though.

might be too early to call it, but i'm feeling a lot worse about Logan's odds in general now? idk, he just had a really quiet premiere. i had the thought that he could be eliminated early despite his athletic prowess to show someone else's strategic blindside capabilities (such as Anastasia or Lynda), and i can't get it out of my head. also, the fact that he's paired with Alessio in the intro is... not great. then again, Miriam managed to win despite being paired with Dan (who she barely had any relation to) in the intro, so who's to say?

i see the Jade vision more now. although she still hasn't exactly "shook up the game," the first episode definitely made a point to show that she's an intellectual. plus, she has an alliance with Spencer now. that Jade/Spencer/Diego trio is going to go SUPER far, i feel. Spencer winner train, let's goooooooooooo--

oh, and i was just straight up wrong about Tristan not having any natural allies. well, maybe they're not "natural" in the sense that i don't see them having too much inherently in common, but the Tristan/Ivy/Zaid alliance is totally a thing. i forgot that the three of them were posed together on the poster, and at the time i wrote that post the intro wasn't released yet. this alliance will probably carry them to midgame, at least-- although, it is a little threatening to go up against the Jade/Spencer/Diego trio on the same tribe.

hopefully that suffices! thanks for sending in the ask. it always makes me happy to hear that people think my thoughts are interesting :D

[accirax]

HELLO I SAW YOU RBED MY DRDT ART I JUST WANTED TO SAY IVE BEEN A MASSIVE FAN OF UR ART FOR MONTHS N UR TAGS WERE SO SWEET THANK YOU WAHWHAUGHHHH :(((((

of course! the art was fire; i merely rbed accordingly o7 (<- anyone who didn't see this before should look at it now ;) )

and thank YOU for this sweet comment as well :,D

[accirax]

We’re just one step away from achieving our goal—only $218 separates us from raising the $10000 needed to bring stability to our family. 🌿💞

This campaign isn’t just about numbers; it’s about providing hope and a future after the hardships of displacement. 🛤️🌟

Your generosity has brought us this far, and we’re so close to the finish line. 🕊️

Let’s make this dream a reality together. 🤲💖

Be the difference today. 🌟 Even the smallest contribution can help us reach our goal. Donate now:

https://gofund.me/abbc2759

https://gofund.me/abbc2759 (<-clickable link)

[accirax]

"A Cry from the Heart of Besieged Gaza"

My dear brother/sister,🍉🇵🇸

I am speaking to you today from the heart of suffering and pain, from the Gaza Strip, which is being subjected to the most heinous types of wars and destruction. I am Mohammed Saqr, a young Palestinian man who dreams like any young man in the world, but this dream turned to ashes due to the fires of war that destroyed my home and deprived me of everything I own.

Tell your story in a moving way:🇵🇸🍉

I aspired to complete my university studies, but the war displaced me and my family of 12, and destroyed everything that connected me to my previous life. Imagine losing everything you built with the sweat of your brow in a single moment! Imagine being deprived of your most basic rights to live with dignity and security!

Donation goal:

We are striving to rebuild our lives anew, and we hope that you will help us achieve this dream. Your donation, no matter how small, will contribute to:

Providing safe shelter: to build a new home that will receive us after years of displacement and asylum.

Resuming studies: So that I can complete my university studies and achieve my dream.

Family support: To provide a decent life for my family who have endured a lot.

A call for solidarity:

I invite you to be part of this humanitarian effort, and to contribute to shaping a better future for Gaza and its people. Your donation is not just a sum of money, but a message of hope and solidarity to the Palestinian people.

A strong conclusion:🍉🇵🇸

Do not let injustice and oppression prevail, and do not allow our dreams to be lost. Help us rebuild our lives, and may your hand be white in bringing a smile back to the faces of children and youth in Gaza.🇵🇸🍉

link to his gofundme is in his bio!

[accirax]

For some stupid reason tumblr isn't letting me post a reply to this post so I'm leaving it here instead:

About the staff stories tier list - Really? It's kinda the opposite for me. By that I mean Jensen's backstory ep is the best one imo and at the top of the list. Krystal's was also pretty good so it gets 2nd, even though I still hate her (seriously, am I the only one who gets legitimately confused when people in or outside the show talk about how she's "changed"? When Oliver said that I just mentally laughed because... Since when??? And how??? in WHAT way!?? Sure she may be softer to the people closest to her but she's still a bossy, b*tchy, sadistic @$$hole who only cares about what gets the best ratings for her show at the cost of the players' physical & mental safety) (*sighs* sorry for that random mini rant..) And Derek & Trevor's and Marcus & Nina's tank at the bottom, in that order.

Also- you don't like dogs..? 😟 Guess that's the end of this friendship then... (Haha, jk, jk! (mostly..))

For Jensen’s episode, I just think that, if you DON’T lean on the crutch of “people will instinctively care about these dogs because they think that they’re cute,” there isn’t much incentive to get invested in the story.

The hosts’ stories have more of an “in” due to being more connected to the show itself (which, as fans, we SHOULD all care about). They also deal with questions that I think are more directly raised by the story itself— we’ve heard a lot about Kris McLane (or however you spell that) already, and I always wondered how Derek and Trevor became such close friends despite their opposite personalities. Marcus and Nina’s story is also more of a natural story question (“what the hell is Nina”), and, even if you don’t instinctively care about the father/daughter bond, there’s a supernatural hook to make up for that. Even if the answers provided in these episodes weren’t always excellent, they were at least episodes that I felt had a reason for existing.

Meanwhile, Jensen’s episode stars a character we’ve never seen before (the wolf cub), a character we’ve never seen before (Jensen’s sister), and a character with a whole four minutes of screen time who we haven’t seen for two whole seasons, if you watch chronologically (Jensen himself). The question raised isn’t anything as specific as “whose name was carved on to Jensen’s knife” (because we’d never seen it before) or “why was Jensen so mean to people but so nice to dogs” (because he had never been seen with a dog before), and therefore can only be the vague “so what WAS this guy’s deal?”

And I know that’s a lot of talking about what the situation was going IN to the episode as opposed to the content of the episode itself. I’m just trying to illustrate my point that, given my pretty reasonable lack of interest in the episode’s premise (for the reasons above), without an instinctive care for dogs, I found no reason to get invested in the pretty cliche storyline. Giving Jensen the exact same soft side as resident grouch Karol did not invest me in his story. Hence, I was bored for pretty much the entire episode (other than the part where his sister died, which while entertaining also felt out of place with the tone of the show), and didn’t enjoy it much.

That being said, liking a cliche story isn’t at all a moral failing. I like watching ranking videos on YouTube, and someone who grew up watching many of the Disney direct to video sequels, I’ve watched several videos of people offering their thoughts on them. And, every time, I disagree with their placement of The Little Mermaid 3: Ariel’s Beginning. Everybody always says that it’s “just mermaid Footloose,” and had no reason for existing. Well, guess what? I’ve never seen Footloose! So, to me, it’s just a fun (if unrealistic) story about banning art that manages to persist anyways. Thus, I understand the urge to defend stories that you like that others call cliched.

(That’s my tangent of the post, lol.)

As for the “not liking dogs” thing, I grew up next to some really mean dogs who would bark and growl at my sister and I. I used to be afraid of dogs to the level where, if I was at a park and an unleashed dog was running around, I would climb on top of a picnic table and cry. After my family got some cats, my fear diminished as I realized that cats and dogs really weren’t that different, so if I wasn’t afraid of cats, I shouldn’t be afraid of dogs.

However, due to my rocky start with dogs, I find it difficult to feel anything regarding dogs above a neutral. Like, if someone shows me a picture of their dog, I can acknowledge that it’s objectively a cute dog and say “aww, that’s nice!”, but I don’t really feel any desire to pet it or coo at it like I would a cat. And I’m still a little afraid of big dogs 😅

Hopefully that’s a sufficient answer ^-^

[accirax]

https://youtu.be/Sh8vMGy7bYs?si=-O5KrXHWnoQTNK17

So between this and Dan's cover, who do you think won? :3 (not that it's really a competition or anything)

I don’t know why this ask disappeared from my inbox for a moment…

Honestly, even though I overall prefer Viester’s vocals, from what I remember I think that Genesis’ deeper voice suited the song a bit better. But they’re both good!

[accirax]

Disventure Camp Season 4 Pre-Season Analysis

Welcome back, campers! Now that we've fully spun off the end of DCAS, another season has rolled into town. And, in my opinion, it's looking really great so far!

As with any series of predictions, it's sort of a fool's game to try to predict entire-season arcs and characterizations when all we have are a couple of minute-long intros and a singular trailer. Still, I wanted to share what I've observed so far, as well as analyzing what was happening in that chaotic trailer before the first episode comes out-- for us non-Patreon normies, at least.

SPOILERS for the prior 3 Disventure Camp seasons, as well as possibly this one if I'm right in my analysis. You've been warned? Here we go!

The Profile Rigs

When I originally watched the 18 individual character intros, I was watching very closely for one thing-- the profile rigs. When Anastasia's trailer dropped, everyone was quick to notice the spicy new front-facing and side profile rigs the characters seemed to be sporting. However, come Hannah's interview, suddenly, her profile rig was nowhere to be seen. Did that mean it didn't exist?

Slowly but surely, the trailers were released, and six characters were left without profile rigs-- Hannah, Benji, Lynda, Spencer, Jade, and Diego. Would these be six pre-merge boots with no shot at returning for the latter half of the season?

... And then the actual trailer dropped and Lynda, Jade, and Diego were revealed to have profile rigs as well. It's possible the other three have them as well; I didn't scrub closely enough to 100% confirm that they didn't. And that's why I waited until all of the character trailers were out to make my theories! Saved myself a lot of work by letting my theories get disproven before I write them 😎 But, for anyone else who was thinking along those lines, know that line of logic is essentially debunked.

Haha. About that. While I anticipated that there might be a trailer after the audition tapes finished, I certainly wasn't expecting there to be an Episode 1 trailer AFTER the main series trailer. Therefore, I wrote part of this post before watching the Episode 1 trailer. There honestly isn't a whole much in it other than some further character work (which is great) but in terms of challenges and stuff it doesn't change much of what I wrote. In the event that it does, I'll be adding further thoughts like this, in pink text.

Episode Count

Let me preface this by saying that, along with not being a member of the Patreon, I also don't follow Jared or Robert on Twitter, nor am I a member of any Disventure Camp Discord servers, official or otherwise. (And yet, I still take the time to write out this entire post. Such is my personality.) Therefore, it's possible that I could be missing out on something that's been confirmed or de-confirmed along the way.

That being said, I know from DC4's original announcement that this season has been stated to be 26 episodes long. That's two episodes longer than All Stars, our previous 18-person example. A standard 18-person season with no bells and whistles would need a total of 16 episodes to eliminate 15 people one-at-a-time, with a one part finale. That boosts up to 17 episodes if you assume a two-part finale, which I am at this point. However, that still leaves us 9 episodes short from our episode count this season. What does that mean?

Well, for starters, I'm going to assume that the first episode is an introductory, non-elimination one. Whether that's in the S1 tribe swap sense, the AS interview into tribe reveal sense, or an entirely new sense altogether, I don't know. But, even the description of the first episode on the wiki seems to support that the first episode will just be about introducing the contestants (as does the apparent lack of challenge/tribal footage in the Episode 1 trailer), so I'm fairly confident that can lock us in for at least 18 episodes.

For the other 8 episodes, I think we can predict a combination of:

Hidden Tribe Swaps: This is describing the thing that happened to Grett and Ellie in S1, where they thought they were being eliminated but instead they swapped tribes. I feel like I remember people being disappointed that nothing like this ever happened in All Stars, so I wouldn't be surprised to see it make a comeback in S4. Any instance of this occurring would add an additional +1 episodes to the season, because although it "saves" two people from elimination, given that the standard rate of elimination is 1 person/episode, we only actually prevented one person's elimination. Therefore, if this were the only solution, we could have 8 whole tribe swaps. I really hope that doesn't happen.

Comeback Challenges: You all know what this means. Someone is eliminated from the competition, but they get to come back through some sort of redemptive challenge! Based on the length of the season, I'm almost certain that this will be included. It grants you a whole +2 episodes every time it happens, because not only do you cancel one episode's elimination, but you add another player who will need to be eliminated again. If this happened, for instance, once at the midpoint and once near the Final 5-- mirroring the comeback systems of shows like Top Chef or Survivor in its seasons with the Edge of Extinction-- that could already book us for half of our extra episodes this season. Also, I want to point out that we know from the original DCAS boot order list's third version that ONC was once planning to have a comeback challenge in which two eliminated contestants came back at once. (Maybe the original plan was that eliminated contestants would work together, instead of being paired with a current player.) That also opens the door to the idea of two players coming back via one challenge, each instance of which would be +3 episodes.

Non-Elim Cliffhangers/Two Parters: This, to my memory, has not yet happened in Disventure Camp outside of a finale, but I think it's still possible. This refers to any episode that doesn't end on an elimination ceremony, but instead on some other twist or revelation-- Survivor's infamous hourglass twist did this in Season 41 and 42. If this was to occur, I hope that the ending-worthy cliffhangers would be more along the lines of a big strategic decision and less "OMG A is about to tell B that they like them!!!" However, given something we see in the trailer (which I'll get to in a minute), I'm inclined to think that this happening would be more advantage based and less love triangle based. But we'll see. And, obviously, each time this happened would grant us +1 episode.

Non-Competition Episodes: Namely, the Loser's Motel episode. Or, alternatively, if we spent an entire episode focused on the staff, or Jensen, or prior competitors or whatever. (I do not want it to be that alternative possibility.) Instances of this would likely be very limited, but they could still be used to absorb +1 episode or two a couple of times throughout the season. There are enough "missing" episodes that I wouldn't be surprised if each of these things happened at least once.

The Trailer

Finally, time for some actual, direct content analysis! I think it'll work best if I divide this into sub-headers. Before that, though, I want to point out that I'd imagine that anything depicted in this trailer is probably from, like, Episode 4 at the latest. That's not just because of not wanting to spoil what happens too late into the season, but also because I just don't think they'd have animation for any farther than that complete at this stage.

The Setting

It's a circus. With clowns. Yeah that's pretty obvious. I'm just putting this here because most of the opening trailer shots (of the season trailer and the Episode 1 trailer) seem to be communicating this fact and this fact alone.

The Teams

I swear there was an official image delineating the teams somewhere, but I can't find it. No matter, it should be pretty easy to determine who's on which team based on this trailer anyways.

There are many images in the trailer that support these being the teams, but this is the only one where everyone is on screen at once. Therefore, it's a given that the Ice Team is comprised of Logan, Ted, Marissa, Anastasia, Natalia, Isabel, Lynda, Richard, and Alessio, while the Fire Team is comprised of Zaid, Hannah, Tristan, Ivy, Jade, Benji, Amelie, Spencer, and Diego.

This will be important to keep in mind, as tribe draw is a crucial factor in determining whether you'll find allies in the early days, or if you'll wind up on a tribe you don't mesh with and be kicked out for it. For instance, the Fire Team seems to have a lot of younger players on it, which means that Amelie, the only player in her mid-30s, could initially be on the outs and struggle to find allies. Doesn't mean she's totally screwed, but leanings are all we really have right now.

The Challenges

Based on the trailer, I think I can confidently say that we've been shown three different challenges thus far.

The first is this "fighting with sticks in swimsuits" challenge, which happened in both S1 and S2, if I remember correctly. The weird thing here is that they don't actually seem to be near a body of water, but what do I know?

Based on the crowd, we can see that everyone is present at this challenge, which means it must happen pretty early in the season-- probably either the first immunity or reward competition. I'm going to wager that we didn't get enough footage to definitively decide which team wins, so I'm not even going to try to determine that.

The next is what I can only describe as a "hunting clowns" challenge. Not sure if it's a "last clown standing without being shot wins" or a "the most points scored on the clowns at the end of the challenge wins," but it's likely one of those. The only characters we're able to definitively place in this challenge are Marissa, Isabel, and Natalia (all as archers) and Hannah, Diego, Benji, and Spencer (with the former as archers and the latter as clowns). ONC was a lot cagier with who was shown in this challenge, which would make me think that it' might take place after the first elimination. If true, that would make all of these characters safe from being the first boot of their tribe.

This challenge is even cagier that the last, as the only way to piece together that they are likely part of the same challenge is by noticing that they all take place in this train-looking location.

I have no idea what happens in this challenge. We've got chickens, math, ice baths, worms, and getting your head shaved. I'd think that this might be a repeat of the "face your fears" challenge from S1, but chickens for the tour guide and math for the marine science student feel a little out of place for that. Also, why would Richard's fear be going bald if he basically already is bald? It's probably something else, but I have no clue what.

Anyways, we can see Diego, Jade, Ted, Ivy, and Richard in this challenge, with a bonus Logan, Anastasia, and Spencer as they can all be seen on the train in these scenes.

Other than that, there are a couple of screenshots that I think could be challenges, but likely aren't.

Between the log and the booth (both showing opposite teams), I at first thought there might be some sort of heavy lifting challenge in the works. However, both scenes look like they take place in a more camp-like setting, so I think these are probably just taken from scenes of each team arranging the camp. The last one would also match with that, as Ivy holding up a decorate posted while Zaid might be dusting or adjusting some lights. The trio looks a bit too calm for a challenge in that last screenshot, anyways.

Then there are these, which are a bit more confusing.

We've got Spencer rearranging some flags, and Jade taking a swim... in her normal clothes? Both of these could be challenge-related, but they also could be more scenes of daily life around camp. Spencer's could truly go either way, as rearranging the flags could be more housekeeping work or it could be some sort of puzzle. I'd be inclined to say that Jade's was part of a challenge, except them it seems like she would be in her swimsuit...?

In the Episode 1 trailer, we see Spencer collecting similar flags from the other members of his team (with several of them looking displeased).

That definitely places this scene in Episode 1, and, based on their stances, probably not in a challenge? But, also, I don't know what this would mean outside of a challenge. Perhaps it's not a team vs team event, but something more like the Sweat vs Savvy challenges that have been seen in recent Survivor seasons? In them, contestants have to choose between attempting a grueling but fairly reliable test of athleticism or a quick but unpredictable test of intelligence in order to earn flint for their tribe. I could see that the Fire Team might have wound up doing the intelligence (Savvy) task, which Spencer fully takes over-- possibly to win or lose it. However, there are a few flaws with this. First of all, Disventure Camp contestants don't need flint, so I don't know what they would be competing for. Secondly, there doesn't appear to be any corresponding footage of the Ice Team competing in any challenge...? Therefore, I'm not sure how Fire would wind up in this disadvantageous position, where Ice neither had to win a different challenge nor compete in their own Sweat vs Savvy task. So, maybe it's just about camp decor? I'm excited to see what these flags are about on the 30th.

Between the hunting clowns challenge and the train challenge, we've had confirmed appearances from Marissa, Isabel, Natalia, Ted, Richard, Logan, Anastasia, Hannah, Diego (in both), Benji, Spencer (in both), Jade, and Ivy. If I'm correct that these are immunity challenges two and three (in either order), that could spell trouble for Lynda or Alessio on Ice and Tristan, Zaid, or Amelie on Fire. Again, because we don't know which challenge will occur first (or even that they're guaranteed to be immunity challenges), none of the people pictured are guaranteed safe. However, especially for Spencer and Diego, I feel confident that they won't be the earliest of early boots.

Also, I wasn't sure where else to put this, but, hey, it's that thing I said we'd get to later. This sign-- which reads "Go down the path together to a private booth; you're both about to make a major decision" is giving BIG Journey energy. If you don't know what a Journey is, in the new era of Survivor, they've started having points at which (typically) one player from each tribe goes off to an island together, they get to chat for a little bit, and then they play sort of game (whether against each other or against chance) where they either win something (typically some sort of advantage) or lose something (typically their vote).

The interesting thing here is that this scene is decisively set at night, which, in Disventure Camp, is often reserved only for Tribal Councils. That being said, we already have footage of a challenge happening at night (hunting clowns), so this could be part of a challenge or on a non-Tribal night instead. No idea who will be part of this Major Decision Pair together, but it's neat that they're bringing in even more strategic Survivor aspects into this new season. I love strategy!

The Tribal Councils

Just pointing out that we have footage of both tribes going to Tribal council, at which I would have to imagine that everyone is present. (Why would ONC show footage of a Tribal at which not everyone is present if that necessitates that said tribe already went to a Tribal Council at which everyone was present???) Not much to say here, just that it seems very likely that both Tribes will go to Tribal a minimum of one time in the first 3-or-so rounds of the competition. My money is on the first two Tribals being one per team.

The Relationships

Given Tumblr's image limitations (and also the limitations of the time I want to spend writing this post), I'm not going to go over every time two characters are shown on screen together. Given that, I am necessarily being biased in portraying which trailer relationships I think might be important. It could be that I'm blowing something small out of proportion, or ignoring something important because I think it's more circumstantial.

Oh, and, also, just because this is the "relationships" section doesn't mean that I think all of these relationships will be romantic in nature. Friendships and other platonic relationships totally qualify as well! That being said, Disventure Camp's gonna Disventure Camp, so I wouldn't be surprised if several of these relationships are romantic in nature.

Speaking of toss-ups, Hannah and Benji! This is the pairing that I most fear I might be blowing out of proportion the most. But, when I saw this shot in the trailer, I immediately thought, "oh, I guess they're gonna be a couple!" We know from Hannah's intro that she's bi, which means that she has the capacity to be attracted to Benji.

I hadn't thought of these two as a pair before because I thought Benji would be eliminated early, but I think they could be really cute! I could see Benji's silly vibes making Hannah laugh, and Hannah's social skills covering up for some of Benji's awkwardness. Even if the relationship is short due to Benji getting eliminated early, I hope we get to see a lot of this dynamic!

As opposed to the other two, Ivy and Zaid seem to be shown together a lot in this trailer. Another pairing that I did not expect, but that I'm open to! They seem like they're having fun with each other. Sort of predicting romantic on this one as well, but it could totally be a friendship. Either way, an alliance seems inevitable.

Spencer and Diego definitely seem to have some sort of bond, as everyone predicted from the poster alone. Many people have also, I believe, already begun to ship them. I went on the record a few weeks ago as saying that I thought that Logan and Spencer would be the ship of the season, but with their being on different teams, I can't deny that spenciego(?) might win out in the end.

Of course, these two could also just be friends, and Spencer could wind up with Logan, or no one at all. Or, imagine if there was a love triangle with Spencer of all people being the main target of affection. Would that be wild or what? No matter what, I'm a fan of "opposites attract" dynamics (romantic or platonic) so I'll be happy if these two do wind up being a pair!

In the same post in which I predicted logancer(?) true canon, I also predicted that Richard would befriend Logan, which seems to be the case. I mean, c'mon. A gay basketball coach father figure and a probably-gay swimmer with a probably-not-great relationship with his parents feel like they were made for each other. And, given that these are fictional characters and not real people, they probably literally were...!

Don't have much more to say about these two because their dynamic already feels really familiar. They even both have their first initial on their shirt. They will be besties, for however long both are in the game.

Those are all of the main dynamics I got out of watching the trailer, but I did want to highlight a couple more that struck my interest.

Isabel + Natalia

Could just be a coincidence, but I felt like Isabel and Natalia were pictured together a lot in the trailer. And that's so cool. Again, a relationship I totally didn't see coming, but that I would love to see play out throughout the season if that's ONC's plan.

A lot of people in the comments of Isabel's audition tape were expressing the fear that Isabel would be one of the main villains of the season, and while (as an agnostic person) I don't have any particular dog in that fight, I do think it would cool to have the nun become besties with the trans woman. Show a little example of what Christian people should be doing, eh? They seem like they could balance each other out well, in another "opposites attract" kind of way.

Anastasia + Logan

These two have a very clear scene together in the trailer, with Anastasia yelling at Logan (on the train). This could be more of an established dynamic, but I could also see it being more circumstantial, with Logan, like, messing something up in that challenge or whatever. I could see them being a pair as a sort of prep girl x jock boy kind of thing? Not sure, but I'm noting it for posterity.

Lynda + Everyone

Seemingly, everyone wants to talk to Lynda. We have Marissa shaking her hand, Ted pulling her into a bush, and even Emily spying on her spying. It's interesting in the context of her saying that "she'll be the one pulling the strings." Aren't people like that supposed to be more... under the radar?

Still, it's probably a good sign for her, at least in the short term, to have so many people wanting to talk to her. I couldn't really pick one of these instances that seems more important than the others, so down here it goes.

Character Thoughts/Predictions

The only thing I really have left to do is run through the characters themselves and provide individual thoughts on how far I think they'll make it based on (mostly) their audition tapes). I'll try to keep each individual character's part fairly short and sweet, because... well, this post is long enough as is.

I'll go in order of the audition tapes' publication because why not. And I'll now feature the last names, so that I can try to internalize them before I presumably start tagging them all the time when I make my posts!

Anastasia Sizova

This girl has a name that's really similar to someone I went to college with. It's very distracting.

Distractions aside, I've seen people predict that Lynda, Amelie, or Isabel would be the main antagonist of the season, but honestly, I kind of get those vibes from Anastasia. She's not as obviously ~evil~ as the former two, which I think could help her make it deeper into the competition. Plus, with her not revealing why she moved to Australia, as well as having a stated goal outside of winning Disventure Camp, Anastasia feels pretty fleshed out. She's got secrets to share later down the line-- although, not necessarily as a villain like I predicted.

I definitely get late game vibes from her, and I think she'd at least make the merge. However, I don't think that Ice is a great tribe draw for her, as I don't see any clear allies for her there. Is "eliminated early, but returns via unannounced comeback challenge to slay" way too specific of a prediction? Yeah, definitely. So, I'll just stick with "late game and I like her" for now.

Ted Gordon

Many people have claimed that Ted has first boot energy, which I... sort of disagree with? Back at the time of Hannah's tape, at which point I was thinking that anyone with a profile rig would be making it decently far into the game, I could very easily see a future in which Ted made it deep into the game. Whether it was Ted actually delivering on the strategy he promised, or others finding his rough edges endearing, I could see him making it decently far into the game.

However, watching it back, I can also see why Ted would be a first boot. He's got a fairly abrasive personality, and his overconfidence could easily lead to overplaying. Personally, I see more of a mid-game exit from him, with maybe a slight bias for pre-merge as opposed to post merge. Let's hope the train can save him from an embarrassing early exit.

Hannah Roxas

Similarly-but-opposite to Ted, despite initially predicting that Hannah might win the entire season (very early, with only the Casting Call Club info), when I thought she was destined for pre-merge, I could easily see Hannah going out pre-merge. Her not knowing anything about Disventure Camp could easily lead to her being outplayed, and her revealing she's bi in her interview felt like something that ONC wanted the audience to know, but didn't have the time to explore in the series proper.

The trailers, however, started changing my mind back. Now, Hannah has something in the works with Benji, and seems to often be annoyed at Spencer. If the two of them are fighting, it could mean one of them is out of the game soon. Or, it could be DC's classic bickering duo and they could both totally make it far. I could definitely see Hannah as an Ashley-like "fuck all y'all villains"-type character, where her lack of knowledge of the game leads to her condemning those who are more into strategy than friendship.

Overall, I guess I'd place Hannah as a mid-gamer, more likely post-merge than pre-merge. But also, I think that early premerger is her cap-- I don't see her making it super late game.

Logan Bell

I remember who his voice reminds me of! It's Brett Hand from Inside Job. I love Inside Job...

In my mind, Logan has an easy ticket to the merge. As established, he has a clear ally in Richard, and his Olympic-level athleticism will surely make him a critical player for his team to keep around if they want to be winning challenges. However, athleticism is always a double-edged sword, as physical prowess can also make you a target once it's every man for himself.

I see like a final 7 or 8 placement for him? Little bit further if he does have the aforementioned romance plot with Spencer? He'll be #1 in everyone's rankings of their favorite himbo. Of this season. It'll take a lot to beat the collective love of Tom.

Zaid Hakim

I truly had no vibes on Zaid going into the audition tapes, and, even now, I still struggle with what to do with him. At least now I have a relationship with Ivy to go off of, as well as his care for his mom. That's cool!

Overall, Zaid seems like a really chill guy. If I knew him in real life, I'm sure I'd want to be his friend. However, average, cool guys are hard to place in a series like DC. Does his lack of exaggerated traits indicate that he might be easy weight to cut early in the game, or is his personality now simple to allow it to grow later in the season?

Due to the immense focus on him and Ivy hanging out early in the season, I'm sort of inclined to believe that it would be the former. Of the two, the Episode 1 trailer seems to indicate that Ivy has a bit more going on, so if this pair is to be separated partway through the game, I think it would be Zaid out first. And, they might be focusing a lot of Ivy and Zaid early because they don't get that long in the game together.

I have no oppositions to Zaid, but I guess I'm putting him premerge. I won't be at all upset if he makes it further, though.

Tristan Vik

Tristan actually had a shockingly low amount of content portrayed in both of the trailers, given the fan favorite I assume they'll be. It makes me worry that they might be an earlier boot than people expect.

That's compounded by the fact that I don't feel they have any natural allies on the Fire Team. Preseason, I had scoped out Natalia (trans handshake) or Alessio (artist handshake) as allies for them, but both of those two are on the Ice Team. I could see Tristan being friends with Hannah, as they're both friendly and about the same age? They were also shown in the trailer with Ivy and Zaid, so they could be a third cog of that relationship.

It is true that Tristan's perhaps overly jokey nature and apparent lack of strategy could cost them early on. I would have predicted a pretty late-game finish for them otherwise, but maybe the vibes are off? Or, maybe the lack of content is just indicative of them saving Tristan's content for later on in the season. With their spindly build and machinating lack, I can't see why anyone would really target them early on. At this point, I'm kinda thinking surprisingly early (premerge) boot for Tristan, but I could totally see it going the other way.

Marissa Xulu

I really want to know why Marissa's dressed so army-core when she isn't even enlisted in the army yet. That doesn't make sense to me. I guess she just comes from a super military family?

Anyways, copy and paste Logan's curse of athleticism bit here. Kinda wild that the two of them are on the same team, actually? I guess whoever in the (in-universe) DC staffing department wasn't too concerned with balancing strength, because they seem like the two biggest athletes here.

I feel like Marissa will also be a mid-game, probably post-merge boot? But I also feel like I keep saying that for everyone. Hopefully that'll change as we move further on the list.

Amelie Pierre

You can see it throughout this post-- Amelie seems like she's at risk for not having any natural allies on her team, she doesn't seem to appear in much of the challenge footage, and I (personally) have claimed that she seems like too obvious of a villain to be the true main villain of the seasons. With those aspects combined, it's not hard to predict that I personally think that Amelie is at risk of being the first boot, or at least the first boot off of the Fire Team. There's a very easy path to nobody liking her (due to her clearly not helping out with whatever log moving the team is doing in Episode 1) leading to everyone voting her out first as a consensus pick of an unfriendly and strategically dangerous player.

I do really like her vibes and backstory, though-- making a character like this a wedding planner feels like a match made in heaven, yet somehow not too much of a stereotype. Amelie's continued presence wouldn't be a problem, but she is probably my best pick for first boot at the moment.

Benji Hattori

Do you guys think Benji will be eliminated early--

Repeat from Hannah's section; I could very easily see a Benji-less future for S4 when I thought it was "foreshadowed" that would be the case. And, even now, he's not giving me a ton of hope. Both his Casting Call lines and his audition tape are giving big clowned upon energy, and in the hunting clowns challenge (where he literally is a clown), we see Spencer getting mad at him before he gets hit by an arrow. At least we know he won't be eliminated as a challenge threat...!

His friendship with Hannah might buy him a bit of time, but I could still totally see Benji being the second or third boot off of the Fire Tribe, pre-merge. If, for instance, Spencer is the one to orchestrate his removal, it could further the rivalry between him and Hannah. There's also a future where Benji makes it surprisingly deep as a non-threatening comic relief character, but I'm definitely leaning towards a quick exit.

Natalia Baez

I can tell they're gonna have fun with Natalia. All of her dialogue in her audition tape feels to me like the writers have a great understanding of her character, which is great to see. And, damn, why is she so strong?!

Outside of being excited for a potential relationship with Isabel, I don't really have much to say about Natalia, other than that I like her. I imagine she's probably going to make it decently far, as another fan favorite-looking type...? Really, that's it, though.

Lynda Anderson

Even preseason, I felt like Lynda was way too obvious of a villain to make it far. I know that she says she's going to be behind the scenes and under the radar, but the woman just oozes evil vibes. Like, these people have all seen Fiore compete in S1, right? They should be able to spot this "innocent" act from a mile away!

My best guess is that Lynda will attempt to play the under the radar game, but get ratted out by her team pretty early. That could be as early as the first Ice boot, as the footage seems to suggest, or maybe more of a second or third Ice boot.

However, I could be overthinking it as well. A lot of people seem to want to talk to her, which could indicate that she's assimilating well. Of course, one of those people is Ted, who probably wouldn't want to align with the "innocent house wife," so it could also go to show that her act isn't working.

Lynda is one of those characters who's either getting cut really early or making it super close to the end, but will most likely not get eliminated in the middle of the game. I guess I'll call it a "high variance character" for lack of a better name. Lynda could get kicked out for scheming early, or place, like, third as the main villain. As I said, I'm predicting the former, but if Lynda makes it to the merge, she could go super deep.

Isabel Carboni

Isabel... confuses me. Like, she's super cool, but I have no idea what to do with her. There just aren't many characters like her out there to compare tropes against, y'know?

I do think that the Lord has big plans for Sister Isabel in the sense that the DC writers are the gods of the DC universe, and I don't know why they'd create a character like Isabel if they didn't have plans of what to do with her. There's a slim chance that she was just added to DC4 as an early flame-out character, but I definitely get the sense that there's more to her beneath the hood than that.

I don't think she'll be a villain, though, despite her hinting at it in her audition tape. I think she might make, some kinda mean moves, but I don't think she's going to be an all-out "religion is bad" kind of character. Even if she is the main antagonist, I believe it'd be in a way that's divorced from her faith. I also don't really think Isabel's going to win, but, maybe a losing finalist...? That might be pushing it a bit too far, though. Given how popular Isabel seems to be, I bet ONC is wishing that Isadore has a late game placement, at least.

Is anyone else worried about the 999 (upside down 666) on her name tag...?

Spencer Lawrence

Spencer is perhaps the highest variance character in this cast. He's either getting voted out, like, literally first as a consequence of his hubris, or he's going to character arc his way into being the winner or something. Personally, I'm sticking with my prediction that he could be the winner.

If he does win, though, he's got a long road to get there. His audition tape is basically screaming for him to get proven wrong one way or another, whether that means getting voted out or just coming close. For a highly specific prediction, my vibes say that the first Fire vote will come down to which the Fire team dislikes more: Spencer or Amelie. Diego, seeing potential in Spencer, will pull some strings to make Amelie the boot instead, and then Spencer will be forced to play the game from the bottom instead of being the dominant force that he planned.

The fact that Spencer is seen so often throughout the trailer (in all three of the challenge locations, even) definitely bolsters my opinion. I'm probably reading into his interactions more because I thought he might win, but he seems to have something cooking with Diego, Hannah, and Benji already. It's main character energy! ... Or "gotta show the early boot before they leave" energy. Like I said, high variance.

He literally has the vibes of Jake combined with Alec, people. And you know who various groups wanted to win DCAS? Jake and/or Alec. Boom, I rest my case. (/j)

Richard Miller

You keep slaying, Richard. You keep slaying...

Richard also has decent longevity to me because of how strongly I believe he's going to have some sort of emotional arc with Logan. Other than that... yeah, I dunno, chief.

I certainly don't think that Richard is winner material, especially in a world where Miriam already won the first season. I think he'll likely be eliminated before Logan; it's just a question of when. Do I mark him down as another vaguely early post-merge boot? Yeah, probably. I could also see him as, like, the last pre-merge Ice boot, to force Logan to play for himself going into the merge. It's something like that.

Ivy Berki

I didn't really get much from Ivy preseason, but now that we've seen more of her, I really like her! Her combined aspects of a relationship with Zaid, an actress' redemption, and a potential nepo baby backstory(?) give her the legs to make it really far in the competition, honestly. Plus, she has a good tribe draw-- she's near the middle of the pack age-wise, and on top of foreshadowed relationships with Zaid and Tristan, I could totally see her being friends with Hannah and/or Benji due to their similarly bubbly personalities.

Given that Riya just won last season, I really doubt that Ivy would win this one here. However, it would be pretty funny if she came in third place, so that actresses would have taken up the first, second, and third slots collectively. Otherwise, she could also go out in more of the Final 5-6 zone, potentially. Or, earlier than that, obviously. But I definitely get the vibes that, out of her and Zaid, she'll be the one that makes it longer in the competition.

Jade Tanko

I know a lot of people think Jade has super late-game energy, but I... don't...? Not really, at least.

I just feel like we don't know a lot about her. We know that she has vitiligo, and that her parents are from Nigeria, and that she likes marine biology, and she wants to "change the way that this game is played." That's cool, but, like, what's her personality? "Chill"? Without any obvious allies, is that enough to carry her to the endgame?

I'd very much like to see whatever game-changing strategies Jade has in store, but I don't know if I believe it. She could be the sort of "kind yet under-focused" early boot trope that Lill, Dan, or Maggy fell into. But, in their fourth season, I sort of hope that wouldn't be the case, and I also don't know why they'd have her claim that she was going to shake up the game if that wasn't untrue.

I genuinely have no clue what to do with Jade. Maybe I should just call her fifth place as some sort of consensus. Personally, I'd lean more midgame. But I could just be missing that special something that everyone else can apparently see.

Diego Olivo

Diego's initial lack of a voice actor troubled me, but I don't actually think that situation was under "his" control. Now that he does have one, I think he could do fine! ... Probably!

His potential for romance with Spencer is really what's saving his chances with me. Spencer had better not get voted out early, lol.

Don't get me wrong, Diego seems like a sweetheart! He's another person that I'd love to know irl. And, most likely, he'll make it pretty deep due to his friendly personality and probable physical strength. Between him and Spencer, I still lean Spencer, but it could be Diego! Who can say? I was also willing to believe that his no-profile-having-ass could have been kicked immediately. Let's dub him fourth or whatever and call it a day.

Alessio Castelli

I want Alessio to kick ass in the competition because I think he's cool, but... I fear the first boot allegations may be tolling for him. If Lynda isn't the first Ice boot, I think it's basically over for Alessio due to the footage. And because I don't know what allies he'd have on that team. He's shown with Logan in the trailers, I guess...?

Although having a spotlighted presence in the Episode 1 trailer is ostensibly good, for Alessio, I can't help but read it negatively. "I don't care about early bonding; I care about the deconstruction of civilization" sounds all well and good. But, it could also easily be a confessional illustrating how his lack of game awareness will be his quick undoing. The main point I've seen in favor of Alessio is that his character intro says, "Will Disventure Camp 4: Carnival of Chaos inspire him to find his artistic spark again?" as opposed to just "will Alessio win" or "have fun watching Alessio!," which could indicate a longer run for him in which that question is answered. However, it could also be answered with a resounding "no" as he's eliminated first. It could even be that he figures it out in the Loser's Motel or at the finale or whatever.

Even if Lynda is the first Ice boot and Alessio survives, I don't think he'd make it too much further. Early merge boot is my latest forecast for him.

Finally done! This post is way too long. Excited to see the season on the 30th, and get proven totally wrong in subsequent episodes 😎 Thanks for reading!

[accirax]

I had a silly thought about Brad from Reality Resort. I might be the only one that finds it funny, but I thought I would share.

Episode 2 revealed Brad is a psychology major, which gave me this idea he might do some little experiments on the other houseguests to figure out their reactions to certain things.

For example, he might take Marcus's wallet (will give it back when the experiment is over) and see how he reacts to being unable to find it, ranging from grumbling complaints to total meltdown. As a point of comparison, he takes Finn's too (also will give it back) to see if he reacts differently than Marcus, or the same.

Anyway, that's my silly thought. I hope you like it.

This is a really great headcanon! In the game, I could see that he might be too conscious of making enemies of other contestants to attempt stealing their stuff. (Even if he plans on giving it back, that couldn’t stop someone from getting mad at him in the middle of the act.)

However, I could totally see him pulling this off at his frat. Or, if/when Brad is eliminated, he could try it out at whatever Loser’s Motel/Ponderosa may exist at Reality Resort (I genuinely have no idea if it does). Thank you for sharing your silly thought :D I do like it!

[accirax]

im going to go insane on september 6th 2024 send tweet