#‘Encouraged murder of Sakura’

[skyahri]

Sakura just found out that Naruto and Sasuke have never watched Disney movies before. She puts on Tarzan, then immediately realizes her mistake when his parents are murdered right off the bat. Naruto is crying because his parents are dead. Sasuke is uncomfortable because his parents are dead. Sakura is freaking out because she can't think of any movies with two alive parents.

Sakura is road rage lol. "Are you fucking kidding me? There were FOUR signs saying that lane was going to end, asshole!" The rest of team seven is hanging on for dear life as she slams the gas and flips off the other driver when she passes.

After being forced into therapy as part of his plea deal, Sasuke was encouraged to keep a feelings journal. Yeah, yeah, okay, whatever. Every night, he plops down at his desk, takes out his black notebook, picks up the frilly pink pen Sakura left at his house a few months ago, and scribbles down different aspects of his day. The ink is pink and glittery, a sharp contrast to his dark and brooding personality, but he can't find it in himself to use any other writing utensil.

Kakashi is a simple man. When technology started to boom, he was with it for all of ten seconds before he was overwhelmed. He has a computer in front of him and three nerds around him trying to coax him through email, but all he's thinking about is the good ol' days of paper and ink.

Shikamaru is the hidden leaf village's secret weapon. He's proved time and time again that no one even comes close to his mental prowess... but that doesn't mean he isn't human. On more than a few occasions, he's spent an embarrassing amount of time using the wrong key to unlock doors. He misspells and forgets words often. He generally lacks common sense because he overthinks things so hard. A side effect of your brain always being at 100, is that it struggles with 1-99.

Hashirama dared Madara to eat a weed once and Tobirama took that as a challenge. Mysterious plants, strange animals, random shit he finds in the woods or at the market- you name it and Tobirama is daring Madara to eat it. "Guess you aren't brave enough-" doesn't even finish his sentence before the Uchiha has completely consumed it and licked his fingers clean.

Masterlist Ko-fi

[yanderes-galore]

Hi hope it’s not to late to request Yandere Naruto with a female ninja reader concept please :)

Sure! Keep in mind I am not finished Naruto so this is a general concept. His obsession would most likely be a ninja anyways so you can also view this as a regular concept maybe (There's another concept in the drafts I was debating on just... combining with this one but I realized I'd have to change genders. So if the regular concept is very similar to this one, it's because I meant to put them together....)

Yandere! Naruto with Ninja! Darling

Pairing: Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Female Darling, Obsession, Clingy behavior, Delusional behavior, Possessive/Overprotective behavior, Stalking, Blood, Violence, Implied accidental murder, Dubious relationship.

Naruto would normally have a ninja obsession in my opinion.

Due to what goes on in the story, a lot of the people he deals with are ninja.

Plus, a ninja obsession would give him the opportunity to stick around them all the time.

A yandere Naruto is a bit amusing since he's oblivious when it comes to other people loving him or hating him.

As shown when he had a crush on Sakura (Who likes Sasuke), while Hinata had a crush on him.

I imagine it would be a similar situation with you.

Ever since you two became Chunin (or even Genin), I can see Naruto looking up to you or encouraging you.

Naruto has a certain personality that just seems to... bring people in.

Which is ironic as he's usually a social outcast or seen as problematic.

The biggest and most important thing Naruto wants from his obsession is simple...

Attention.

While he's been getting more of it throughout his journey...

He likes it the most from you.

You're a girl he respects for her strength and drive.

You also might've been one of the first to not outright judge him for being a "failure" or a host for a powerful demon.

So naturally he gets a crush on you.

Naruto seems like a clingy yandere, following you around and often wanting to train.

When you two are young ninja he often wants to learn from you.

Although, when you're older he likes the thought of teaching you.

Hopefully you're patient when you teach him anything... He either forgets or purposefully pretends to not understand so you stay around longer.

Naruto inspires loyalty and kindness, he's someone even his obsession can trust.

He's been shown to be determined and observant.

He's actually quite smart, ironically I want to call him cunning at times (like a fox...).

He's confident and wants to impress you because you're his crush!

Naruto's obsession most likely comes from the fact he's desperate for attention... and maybe the nine-tailed fox within him.

Maybe that could explain his intense jealousy when he sees you with your ninja team?

While loud, Naruto is also insecure.

He wants nothing more than your attention and future affection.

You're a cute girl who paid attention to him in his youth.

Since his crush is quick, he no doubt notices you faster than he would Hinata and your attention may even make him realize he and Sakura might not work.

Which means you get Naruto following your every move.

Naruto loves to watch you improve and even uses his own improvements to impress you.

Anything to see you smile... for him.

Naruto would want to be the reason you smile all the time.

He can't help but grimace when he sees you smile at someone else or ignore him.

Oof... Ignoring him makes him desperate to get your attention back.

If you were part of his team, he's overjoyed because now he's always with you.

Although... He may not get that lucky, leaving you to another squad.

Much to his dismay.

Naturally observant, Naruto keeps track of everything you do. Both as a ninja and in general.

He doesn't even mean it most of the time....

He just... finds everything you do fascinating.

He's forgetful but always seems to know certain things about you.

At some point I can see the strength gap between you no longer close.

When Naruto matures he'd take on a more... protective role with you.

The ninja is hopelessly in love.

He's oblivious to if you feel the same or not.

You could simply be treating him with respect and that alone is fantastic for him.

He's been alone most of his life... Now he's gaining so many friends...

Now... He hopes to have you by his side, too.

Naruto tends to be someone who wants to help.

He'd always want to help you get stronger and soon even enjoys looking after you...

Even though it might've been the opposite in the past.

Naruto tends to have some emotional problems, they're strongest in his youth but more controlled when he grows up.

I can see him picking fights with others in a fit of jealousy, especially when he can't control Kurama's chakra.

He seems childish at times with you, not caring how he gets your attention.

He just wants it.

You're the girl of Naruto's dreams.

He can't help but daydream about you.

Would Naruto kidnap? It doesn't seem like his thing/he wouldn't be that good at it....

He's obsessed with you and while he hates when others have your attention...

He doesn't want to isolate you too much... no doubt due to his past.

It's possible, but he'll have to really snap.

Then afterwards he makes sure to take care of you the best he can.

The only reason he'd kidnap is because he wants you safe, right?

... For the most part.

Although, a form of this could happen when he's older, where he plans to keep you through marriage.

But he'd have to charm you into dating him first... or trick you into it... either way....

Now, murder? Again, not really.

Naruto may get violent at times but I doubt he'd kill someone for taking your attention.

Maybe if Kurama got involved? Yet Naruto should be strong enough to fight those thoughts...

Hopefully.

Beating someone up after he loses control? Showing competitive behavior?

I can see that... yet while he is eager, he doesn't want to hurt you unless influenced.

Although... the idea of him losing control of his desires?

Maybe he sees you hurt in a fight?

Maybe someone gets too close and his mind gets the better of him?

What if all of a sudden, he sees red and just... lets instinct take control.

Then when he's back in control, you look so scared.

All while he's covered in blood, chakra all over the place.

He doesn't like scaring you... however...

The blood on him was necessary, right?

In these moments he'd be so scared of your reaction, hoping you believe him when he says he did it to protect you.

If not...

He isn't sure if he could let you go.

Naruto would get along with a fellow ninja the most.

You'd have more opportunities to get to know him as a ninja compared to a normal person in the village.

Although... Now he has to worry even more about you getting hurt.

You being a ninja driving yourself to get stronger while caring for him is no doubt his type.

He'd do anything to help you, protect you, have you...

You... You won't be scared if he gets blood on his tracksuit, right? Regardless...

He promises everything he does is to change your life for the better... nothing will hurt you if he keeps a watchful eye on you at all times... or if he carefully becomes the only person you need.

[thottyimagines]

Still thinking about Naruto in the year of our lord 2024 so I was wondering what your take would be on a Sannin swap, meaning team seven has different mentally unstable mentors from canon so they can be traumatized/educated in new and exciting ways <3

I've written a few about the potential dynamics between Naruto/Orochimaru, Sasuke/Tsunade, and Sakura/Jiraiya, but let me tell you about the different iteration that really and truly is my favorite:

Sakura/Orochimaru

Mad scientist, came-from-nothing ninja with insane chakra control reporting for duty.

Orochimaru takes one look at this pink-haired freak with a puddle of chakra who thinks she can stand side-by-side with the kyuubi and the last of one of the great dojutsu and says, would you like to live deliciously?

And Sakura says, of course I would.

It is not enough for her to succeed, others must fail. And Orochimaru loves and appreciates this about her.

Sakura runs away from Konoha with the promise of having a mentor who will teach her, who will focus on her, who will believe that she's more than her pitiful background and more than her overwhelming teammates.

She is, at first, foisted onto Kabuto. She frightens Kabuto.

When she gets good enough to replace Kabuto, which happens in a very alarming two years (max), Kabuto suddenly gets to live with the ever-present threat of becoming an experiment.

Orochimaru adores her and encourages her to steal any and all clan techniques and kekkei genkai that she can. Why should she be barred from knowledge if she yearns for it?

Sakura is the most learned woman in the elemental nations. She has figured out Orochimaru's Body Problem. She's replicated the Strength of a Hundred seal Tsunade uses. They are a plague unto Konohagakure.

She's gene splicing like nobody's business.

The only people who care that Sakura up and left are Naruto, Kakashi, a bit of Sasuke, and Ino. Except for...well, no one has that manic desire to bring her back, the way Naruto did when Sasuke went missing nin. They kind of view her as a failed experiment, though Ino misses her and thinks of her a lot.

Sasuke/Jiraiya

Such a miserable duo, but they kind of like it.

Jiraiya is strong enough to keep Sasuke safe, and he keeps the kid out of Konoha, which he really needed.

Sasuke takes to everything quickly and antagonistically. Jiraiya hates having such a talented student - he is, perhaps, even more talented than Minato - who is so desperately antisocial.

You know that one post that's like, someone who's objectively attractive but has negative rizz? That's Sasuke, and Jiraiya despairs on the regular, because this student of his should, in theory, take over this position as horny spy master with the way he effortlessly draws in beautiful women who can act as informants. Sadly, due to his personality, no one would ever believe that Sasuke is just charming these (knowledgable) women into bed with him.

Sasuke takes to sealing, and Jiraiya is petrified that he's going to come up with something to, like, replenish his clan at an alarming rate.

Sasuke gets rid of his brother with some sort of homemade seal that traps him in a Matryoshka doll or something. He didn't technically commit fratricide, but Itachi is suffering in that thing.

He comes back to the village looking way better than he did when he left. Jiraiya takes that as his main point of pride.

Naruto/Tsunade

Naruto, should he learn chakra control, is the ideal healer in that he has more chakra than should fit in a human body, even an Uzumaki.

It's the chakra control that is Tsunade's true challenge in teaching. And, good god, is it a challenge. Sasuke is already murdering his brother by the time Naruto can reliably aid in a minor surgery.

But once he finally learns it, Naruto is improving in leaps and bounds, as is his way.

He completes a Strength of a Hundred seal six months after he finally learns chakra control. Sakura has had hers for two years, and he does not know or care.

Naruto is saving people at unprecedented rates. Honestly, Tsunade struggles to justify making him a combat medic, because he's doing so much good in the hospital just staying at the village.

Naruto is Naruto, though, so Tsunade teaches him to brawl using her style.

He winds up on the most dangerous missions, due to the fact that he has a natural healing ability with his Kyuubi, and is now the most talented healer Konoha has (who insists on getting out there).

Honestly, I could see him winding up in ANBU, given those skills and traits.

His true hardship, after mastering chakra control, is realizing that his talk-no-jutsu isn't going to work all the time and that he can't derail missions to attempt it.

Naruto is a better hokage for it, in the end.

[themattress]

Personal red flag: fans who judge Celeste's whole character based on how she behaved and what she did in the Killing Game. Calling her "cold-blooded" or "cruel", saying she "hates everyone" or "doesn't care / think highly of anyone but herself", etc. Just ignoring that:

A.) She had her memories of past events and friendships erased.

B.) She was trapped against her will in a situation that encouraged killing to escape.

C.) Because of the above two points, she couldn't look upon her classmates as trusted friends, but as potential killers who might either murder her or get her killed in a Class Trial.

The facts that the two victims before her murder scheme were of a similar physical vulnerability as her and that nobody is listening to the Nighttime Rule she specifically made to reassure herself that she had control over the others and could get them not to kill should not be ignored, nor should the manga-confirmed fact that Taka behaving like Mondo (the previous killer) and feuding with Hifumi over Alter Ego frightened her into "acting first".

More to the point, however, much like with the interpretations of Sayaka as a "snake", media outside of the Killing Game exists to disprove this. In School Mode you can lower her defenses through the right choices and expose her as capable of genuine care and affection, and in the ending it is specifically said that everyone's bond of friendship with one another made the miracle with Usami happen, which includes Celeste's feelings toward them.

And then we have Ultimate Talent Development Program and Ultimate Summer Camp.

These interactions with Taka, Makoto, Nagito, Kirumi, Kokichi, Mikan, Peko, Hajime, Ryoma, Teruteru, "Byakuya", Tsumugi, Angie, Sakura, Fuyuhiko, Chiaki, Sonia, Himiko, Genocide Jack, Kotoko, Kaede, Hifumi, Korekiyo, Jataro, Rantaro and K1-B0 all feature Celeste being unfailingly polite, considerate of the other person's feelings, and not hesitating to remark on what is admirable or special about them. Now, sometimes this is her lying - she is clearly screwing with Kokichi just as he's doing with her, she dislikes Teruteru on a personal level and is only as civil as she has to be to get what she wants out of him (plus he tends to get off on her yelling at him and she doesn't want to give him that pleasure), and she seems to tolerate Nagito, Angie and Korekiyo more than like them (just look at her boosting Makoto vs. her agreeing with Nagito's self-deprecation), but on the whole the exchanges show a girl who, while childishly selfish and vain, does appreciate and respect other people in her life.

Conversely, there is a trend with her negative exchanges:

They are all retaliatory. Someone else antagonizes her first (accidental on Gundham, Komaru and Akane's parts, deliberately for the others) and she responds harshly. Whereas in the Killing Game she often would be the aggressor in a conflict since she didn't trust the others and was actively trying to keep them at a distance, it's different in a normal school environment. In other words, Celeste would have been nicer had this scene not happened:

Anyone who doesn't understand this about Celeste.....doesn't understand Celeste.

[ac-liveblogs]

I was just thinking about what a shame it was that Kishimoto established that the girls had a kunoichi-specific curriculum, and we didn't really get any plots (or plot points) that evolved from that. (Kunoichi being trained for espionage and needing to be able to 'pass as an ordinary woman', that sort of thing).

And then I got to thinking that there's no real infiltration/disguise missions in Naruto at all, and I think the closest we get is Kakashi's joke identity Sukea and Sakura's Sasuke murder plot. (which makes sense, bc they are not ninja, they are semi-stealthy wizards).

Anyway, then it occurred to me that it'd be really funny if Sai had meant to be some kind of PG-13 honeypot that, alongside assassinating Sasuke, had been meant to try and seduce Sakura to get close to Tsunade's successor for [whatever reason, recruitment or to get closer to the Jinchuuriki, nefarious Danzo committing-a-coup reasons], because Danzo figured she was a shallow girl that would like anyone that resembled Sasuke. He'd have been so bad at it.

but like. he's meant to be keeping a secret identity. and ino gets a crush on him instead (he kinda reciprocates without knowing what the HELL is going on). sakura encourages this so he goes with it except like. this is the mind-body transfer, potential mind-reading girl who's dad is a definitely mind-reading guy that works for Konoha's information gathering team. this is the WORST GIRL to get involved with.

a n d y e t

anyway, i think inoichi should invite sai over for dinner to meet ino's new boyfriend while he's still meant to be undercover as "normal guy". make this boy sweat.

[fastenwick]

I recently started rewatching Dangonronpa game plays with my brother and it reactivated my feral love for the characters.

Sooooooo character rant, spoiler alerts for all 3 of the killing games below the cut.

Best Boi from the first game? Byakuya Togami.

What an asshole, I love him. Not only does he go through some Very Nice character development, but he's such a twink looking guy. I love the idea of him absolutely baffled over the fact he has friends. Also you can't blame him for being so mean to Toko when she LIKES it. Yeah he makes the killing game unnecessarily complicated at first for fun, but then a nice dose of Trauma whips him into shape real fast and he becomes a really cool dude :P

Best Babe from the first game? Kyoko Kirigiri

Poor girl got it soooo rough, no one believed her ever except for Makoto. His luck probably saved her tbh. Her design is PEAK omg, it's so pretty. She's a genius and sooo chill and mysterious. Also the fact that she risked her life so many times to save others and gently taught Makoto/the player how to figure things out was so cool of her to do, im love her.

Honorable mentions

Chihiro Fujisaki

THIS POOR BABY, HE NEEDS A HUG AND ALL THE BLANKETS he deserved better

Makoto Naegi

Hope hope hope, enough said. He's a very encouraging kid, although he does annoy me a littol with his "I'm so normal" stuff, he is a good character all the same. He deserves an cookie 🍪

Toko Fukawa/Genocide Jack

SLAY BITCH my favorite serial killer ever that was just AWESOME in Dispair Girls. I love her design, and the fact that she's a writer, and just everything about her. Mwah.

Sakura Ogami

This BEAN deserved BETTER. This absolutely ANGEL of a human being. Her sacrifice nearly made me cry, she's so sweet and awesome. One of the only people that kicked Monokuma's ass and escaped punishment.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru

His relationship with Mondo is so sweet, this guy needed so much therapy. I was kind of relieved he was murdered because after losing Mondo, he was just suffering. Killing him was sad but it at least put him out of his misery. Poor guy.

Leon Kuwata

His design is so cool, honestly wish he got to stick around more. Poor dude. He should have run away instead of pursuing Sayaka, rip man. I hate Sayaka tho.

Best Boi from second game? Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu

Not only his design just amazing, but he's such a tsundere. And I LOVE tsunderes. His relationship with Peko is the saddest and sweetest thing ever, definitely my favorite sub plot from game 2. The fact he tried to rescue her too... and he begged and cried that she'd be spared, even told her to let him take the fall. And then after that, he became one of the most loyal men of the game. And one of the most traumatized. Rip Fuyuhiko's eye, sister, and his childhood best friend. I was worried he'd just be suffering like Kiyotaka, but he survived and he deserves so much pats.

Best Babe from the second game? Peko Pekoyama

I actually don't like most of the girls from the second game, they're just kind of meh to me, so Peko is the only one I actually can admit that I like because of her relationship with Fuyuhiko and her amazing design.

Honorable mentions

Gundham Tanaka

His design and his voice, omg amazing. Also poor Sonia, they would have made a cool couple.

Hajime Hinata

He was a really nice contrast to Makota imo.

Kazuichi Soda

I love his design soooo much, and his character is fun. Even if he is creepy. Tbh, maybe he's what inspired me to get pink hair.

Nagito Komaeda

This creepy twink is just so much fun. No matter how twisted and weird he is, I could never bring myself to dislike him, he's just too much fun. And has an awesome design.

Ultimate Imposter

This poor guy deserved better. He didn't even get a real name 😭

Best Boi from the third game? Kaito Momota (and best Boi in the series)

I started wearing my jacket like this guy without even realizing it because of how much I liked him when watching play throughs for the first time. His design is pretty nice but his character is so encouraging and hopeful. AND HE'S THE ONLY CHARACTER TO HAVE A FAILED EXECUTION! I literally cheered, Monokuma was so mad. Even though I was sad he died, his character arch and death was just perfect. So well done.

Best Babe in the third game? Maki Harukawa

She's a sweet tsundere, and I love tsunderes, of course I love her. Also she's bad ass.

K1-B0

BEAN BABY BOI PROTECT HIIIIIM this little bot deserves the world. He looks awesome and is such a sweetie.

Shuichi Saihara

ALSO A BEAN BABY PROTECC BOI He's so sweet. He misses his girl (I do like Kaede but not enough to ramble.)

Kokichi Oma

Oooo a little bitch boi that I wanna trap in a room with Fuyuhiko or Nagito, he's such a little asshole. And a shit head. I love him.

Gonta Gokuhara

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY BEAN BABIES IN THIS GAME GONTO DESERVED BETTER he's so sweet and caring.

Miu Iruma

Honestly I just love her design. It's sooooo cool. Super bad ass. Even if she is a slut, I love her XD

Rantaro Amami

🥑 Avocado :3

I wish he lived longer tbh

Ahem, and that's all for now :P

[shsl-hubris-guy]

Anyways I can't stop thinking about how back in the early days of DR creation, it was gonna be a choose-your-own-adventure murder mystery where your interactions affected the outcome. And I can't help but wish we'd gotten Distrust bc I would've loved to see all the potential branching pathways depending on the connections you make

For example, what if doing Sayaka's FTEs in chapter 1 (the government mandated one doesn't count) led Makoto to pick up on the fact she was lying when she tries to get him to trade rooms? Or what if maxing out Chihiro before the end of chapter 2 allowed her to come out to you, and you encourage her to accept help from Hina and Sakura? And what other potential murders could you craft by doing so? If Sayaka doesn't go through with her plan, maybe Monokuma forces Sakura to kill Hina in the first chapter. Maybe there's a world where Hifumi doesn't trust Celeste and kills her instead. So many possibilities

[medicalplagues]

MTG Essay: Puella Magi Madoka Magica and their Colors

I wanted to write my thoughts here about which colors would each of Puella Magi character would have. And we’ll start off with the main characters of Puella Magi Madoka Magica and add thoughts about three other characters as a bonus: Ultimate Madoka, Akuma Homura, Nagisa Momoe. I might do other essays focused on the other characters in the Puella Magi Universe. (And maybe expand on it with Hololive, Vshojo, and Independent Vtubers).

I must make a disclaimer and that the colors I determined are based on memory of watching the anime and the Rebellion Movie (along with playing Magia Record and the recent Magica Exedra.) This will be the same for future essays. I will site the MTG wiki for definitions and philosophy of colors: https://mtg.wiki/page/Color . I will also avoid aligning the girls with any faction, house, or group in the Multiverse of MTG. Thus, don't expect the Guilds of Ravnica, the Khans of Tarkir, the Shard of Alara, etc. to be involved. Their naming, however, will be used to simplify the color combinations.

I will encourage others to expand on this and make constructed arguments about the colors.

Madoka Kaname: White

Madoka may be somewhat timid and good person. There is no arguing that her color alignment with would be with White. I don't really have much say here as Madoka has been benevolent throughout the story.

Sayaka Miki: Jeskai (White-Blue-Red)

You expect Sayaka to be only blue, but she should be more than that. She is a smart girl and talented in a way hence the blue.

White may not be her center color, but she still keeps that sense justice and the vow to protect people. And this comes from her taking up Mami's role as some protector of Mitakihara (more on Mami later).

Red is included as I believe her emotions cloud her sense of Justice. Her emotions show when it comes to friends and loved ones. She even wished for Kyosuke to heal because she loved him.

I would've included black as I saw she wants to get stronger in a way, but there isn't much sign she's willing to sacrifice so much to achieve that. She murdered two people on a train based on the manga, but just an argument.

Mami Tomoe: Bant (White-Green-Blue)

Mami's color alignment would be similar to Sayaka, except it would be green instead of red. You can make the argument that red should be included as we've seen her get too emotional in one of the timelines where she discovered the origin of Witches. However, that is only a moment and doesn't tell much. Green is included to show her experience as a magical girl.

White is there to similar reasons to why the color is included in Sayaka's color alignment. Mami has this sense of duty to her role as a magical girl. Meanwhile blue is included to also show her experience and knowledge of the world of Magical Girls.

Kyoko Sakura: Mardu (Black-White-Red)

Kyoko Sakura would've had black included in her color alignment as she comes off as arrogant, callous, and selfish.

White is included here to reflect her past as a daughter of a preacher and to reflect the faith in God during her final moments. Despite her personality, she has a soft side.

Red is included to show her freedom in living such a selfish life.

Homura Akemi: Sultai (Blue-Black-Green)

Her center-most color would be black to show her coldness, remorselessness, and ambition (mostly to save Madoka). She would do everything to complete her goals even if it means making enemies or fighting alone. Her even hides her true emotions. Red would've been here but she seems to control her emotions and hide them

Green is here to show her acceptance to the cruel world of Magical Girls. She abides to the rules and implications while being blunt about the fate of those who are a part of it. This can be seen when she saw how doomed Sayaka is as a magical girl. She also was blunt with Madoka in one conversation.

Blue is here to reflect her intelligence and understanding of Magical Girls and Kyubey's intentions.

Ultimate Madoka - Altruism (White-Blue-Red-Green, or All-Colors)

Originally I was going to place Godoka under mono-White, but imagine her as all five colors with White being the obvious main color. See the section of Madoka.

Blue to show her omniscience (though Rebellion shows otherwise), red to express her emotions and the salvation she brings, green to express her acceptance of natural order.

I was going to add black to make her color alignment WUBRG, but I don't see anything amoral, selfish, or pragmatically ambitious regarding Ultimate Madoka.

Nagisa Momoe: Boros (White-Red)

Nagisa was tricky to figure out as there is the Magia Record version and the Rebellion version. I decided to stick with only the Rebellion version as that is who we're introduced with.

White is here to show her association with Ultimate Madoka (alongside Sayaka). And along with red, she is showing her innocence and youth. Blue would've been added to express her perception, but I feel she isn't that knowledgeable as she is young.

Akuma Homura: Grixis (Blue-Red-Black)

Now the devil herself... it's not a surprise that it would be Blue-Red-Black. And we all know how malevolent that color combination is (with the obvious example being Nicol Bolas). Red would be for the love she has for Madoka. She kept so many emotions back ever since she became a magical girl. And now they are fully expressed as she ascended into godhood.

I chose black to show the malevolent intent; keep in mind she took a piece of Ultimate Madoka for herself and the powers and memories of friends, family, and loved ones to create a world where Madoka never became a magical. She even said so herself that she would be an enemy of Madoka.

Blue is included as she seems patient when the time comes when she will destroy the universe. She seems to know enough about her role as a devil. And she is likely calculating her next move.

[most-screwed-by-writers-tourney]

Propaganda:

Rika Sasaki and Yoshiyuki Terada: Unfortunately this is a canon ship. Rika's an elementary school girl (so like, 10), while Mr. Terada is her class's teacher, who appears to be in his twenties at least. They apparently got together sometime before the series even started, and have secretly promised to marry each other once Rika is of age. Sakura, who is one of Rika's friends and classmates, knows that Rika has an older boyfriend and speculates that that might be why Rika's so "mature". This relationship is treated as being as sweet and wholesome and pure and loving as any of the other romantic relationships during the series, being basically considered true love.

Charlie and India: First off they’re uncle and niece. Second of all, Charlie is not mentally well and was institutionalized for decades for the murder of his baby brother. And he’s encouraging similar behavior and traits in India herself.

[its-just-hyper]

@nepeta-leijon-official ALRIGHT! SO! DRHF stars fuka toyoda as our ultimate lucky student and main character! (…till he’s… ahaha well-)

We’ve got a full cast (including a monokuma clone named monosune. Her banter with monokuma is that of a ‘wife’… it goes as well as you’d expect)

Rantaro Amami (ignore his hair thing I swear it doesn’t mean anything for Toyoda)

Fuka Toyoda — ultimate lucky student. He’s believed his luck has been nothing but exceptionally awful, always putting him in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe his luck is changing now that he’s been accepted to hopes peak, right?

Kei Keiouma— ultimate forensic scientist. She’s your kyoko, your sidekick ^^

Chinatsu Hara — ultimate pop sensation. She’s supposed to be a subversion of sayaka. She acts as your ‘antagonist’ and attempts murder at least once. (She fails)

Kohaku Bando — Ultimate Rockstar. What Leon should’ve been. Don’t think about the implications of a Makoto, Sayaka, and Leon homage, it doesn’t mean anything I promise (lying)

Toshiba Tone — Ultimate Basketball Player. We tried to fit into danganronpa tropes so here is your Sporty Big Tit Girl Who Miraculously Survived!

Shiori Shishido — Ultimate Veterinarian. Her size is intimidating until you’ve seen her holding a kitten. She’s a sweetheart and would totally wrestle an Aligator for anyone.

Geiichi Takata — Ultimate Playwrite. Short perv except he’s tall. His disrespect and bad behavior definitely won’t bite him in the ass (lying)

Umeko Mita — Ultimate Gardener. Umeko did nothing wrong. I promise. I promise. I promise. A they slash them (literally), umeko hates bullies and loves flowers.

Shinobu Akamine — Ultimate Blacksmith. Tragic lesbian. Strong and quiet and definitely a target of suspicion, with her weaponry and such.

Hikaru Ozawa — Ultimate Dungeon Master. Fast friends with Umeko, Hikaru is convinced that he’s the one controlling the game, getting more and more distressed and needlessly guilty as more people die. Hope no one hears him calling himself the Mastermind, since he quite genuinely isn’t.

Sayuri Kubota — Ultimate Ringleader. The small and cute one ™. Friends with Shiori over their love of animals (although everyone loves Shiori), totally not just himiko wearing blue ⸝⸝==‘⸝⸝

Hanzo Tsutsumi — Ultimate ‘Motorcyclist’ ashamed of his true talent (shsl janitor) he keeps his distance and tries to act cool. Whhhat, the hidden talent character ™ isn’t a protag? Who could’ve guessed. Huh.

Masuyo Hamamoto — Ultimate Chessmaster. Tragic lesbian part 2. She’s literally so cool and smart and selfless. Only good things happen to the smart and selfless ones, remember sakura? :)

Yuto Nakono— Ultimate Stand-up Comedian. His biting jokes usually get a laugh, even if they can be kind of mean. Of course, he doesn’t really know where to stop, even when lines are crossed. He gets along very well with umeko because of this. (Lying). Good thing umeko did nothing wrong (also lying).

Tatsuki Aoyama — Ultimate Lumberjack. Monokuma let him keep his axe to encourage murder, if not by him than of him for being a threat. He’s chill and would probably help you study for midterms, even though he wouldn’t understand any of it.

Oh yeah here’s some sprites in varying levels of completion, mostly done by @th3ratk1ng . We have all the chapters mostly planned out, also

(Pictured: Kohaku, Shinobu, Chinatsu (her hair is an edgeworth reference, yes) and Umeko)

Oh yeah and this lol

[danganronpa-21]

Can you please do a HoshiMatsu (Ryoma x Kaede) hurt comfort scenario where they go through survivor’s guilt from the killing game? Gonta’s the third survivor being the the greatest comfort too. Also Shuichi’s the traitor like Sakura.

Rating: Teen & Up Audiences

General Warnings: Mentions of Canon Typical Violence

Fandoms: Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

Relationships: Ryoma Hoshi/Kaede Akamatsu, Ryoma Hoshi & Gonta Gokuhara, Kaede Akamatsu & Gonta Gokuhara

Additional Tags: Survivor’s Guilt, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship

Chapter Word Count: 6,014 words

Chapter Summary: Kaede is the most cheerful, optimistic person that Ryoma has ever known... and that only makes it worse when he can see that she's hurting, but she won't tell him why.

[Read it on AO3.]

Ryoma would never love again after losing Mio.

This is what he told himself before shit somehow hit the fan even harder than it had before. Assuming it had, anyway. He still had no way of knowing if what Tsumugi said was actually the truth. Perhaps his entry into her killing school life truly was the beginning of shit hitting the fan, and he’d actually lived a fairly normal existence before that… well, as normal as you could get, being obsessed with a reality TV show where contestants lose all sense of self and get murdered for the amusement of their peers. He still shivers when he thinks about the kind of person he might have been. There is still no way of knowing, but he can’t seem to stop his mind from drifting there from time to time. Kaede is constantly reminding him that he shouldn’t. 

Kaede… He would never love after Mio, but then, out of nowhere in the darkest times of an especially dark life, there was Kaede. 

From the moment they met, she flooded his being with pep and optimism. Confident, plucky, and incredibly friendly, she never struck him as the kind of girl that he would go after. A man who had nothing to live for had little to say to a girl who seemed to believe in the beauty of the world around her. He couldn’t relate to her insistence that they should try to be friends, that everything was not as bad as it seemed, and that they should try one last time to escape. His first impression of her was that she was simply exhausting. He had no idea how anyone could afford to have that much energy, especially in a place that was determined to crush them. Even when they lost their first classmate, a cool and stoic girl named Maki, Kaede kept her head up. She encouraged everyone to keep working together to solve the mystery of their killing school life and get home safe. No matter how many times they stumbled, she was always there, begging her classmates to just try things one more time. 

Perhaps that was what he came to like about her, in the end. She was always a glass half-full kind of person. It applied to every part of her life. He imagines that’s why, in the end, she could come to love someone like him, too. He could think himself a beast, yet she would look at him as if he painted puffy white clouds in the sky just to fascinate her. A killing game was the last place he anticipated surviving, let alone finding love, so the experience was more than a little odd to him… but in the end, they were two of three who survived it all, who came out the other end when Tsumugi made every possible attempt to crush them. And, in the end, it was the two of them against the world – well, the two of them and Gonta, anyway. 

It had been three months since their release from the Killing School Life, and the three of them had holed themselves up in a dingy two-bedroom apartment, trying to figure out where to go next. It was cramped and smelled a bit like feet, but it still felt like freedom in comparison to the enclosed dome of the Gifted Inmates Academy. It was warm, dry, and they could come and go as they pleased, so Ryoma saw no reason for complaining. He did his best to keep things clean where he could, and Kaede and Gonta had taken to decorating it where they could. After all, Gonta’s gentlemanly sensibilities connected well with Kaede’s thoughtful tastes, so they found that the two of them worked well together as a home furnishing team. If they needed someone to fix a leak in the piping of the sink, though, that was all Ryoma. It wasn’t much, but it was home, and they would happily work together to make it more of something. 

Some days, it was harder to do that than others.

The sorrows of their unknown pasts and unforeseeable futures had a habit of grating on them, making it damn near impossible to accomplish anything. If one of them was overtaken by a dark cloud, a faint reminder of what they lost or a flickering memory of one of their dead classmates; it was over. They could be out of commission for days or even weeks. The other two, whoever they were, would take care of them – they were all they had, of course they would – but it would be hard to keep up morale. It is crushing enough for one of them to be experiencing that pain, but when the others can see and understand it so blatantly, it only gets worse. Ryoma is ashamed to admit that it is him most times it happens. He hates being a burden on Kaede and Gonta, but he knows he cannot control the weight of his emotions, no matter how desperately he wants to. It is hard, knowing how much of a burden he is placing on his friends, and even more so on Kaede, who more often than not is the person who keeps up a smile. She never seems to falter quite like he does, and he wishes he could be more like her. Hell, he wishes he could care for her like she cares for him. 

Would she let him if the situation arose, he wonders? She’s never cried or refused food or lost sleep the same way he and Gonta have. Or, if she has, she’s never said a word about it. He hopes that that’s not the case. She deserves to be comforted just as much as anyone, if not more. But does he have an inflated perception of how much she needs him? It is difficult to say, but on their next day alone, he finds himself learning the truth of what she hides behind that glass half-full. 

It is just the two of them. Gonta has gone out on some expedition in search of bugs, so the newly dating couple decides that they will have a nice night in, just the two of them. Neither of them is prepared to go running out into the world for a fancy meal or some lavish date. It seems like a no-brainer that they decide to spend their time together making a meal instead. After all, it adds another layer to their bonding… as does the thirty minutes it takes them to pick out what they are going to eat. Ryoma and Kaede are more similar than anticipated in many ways, but when it comes to food, the differences definitely start to show. The two of them go back and forth on ideas – Ryoma suggests Western and Kaede wants Japanese. Ryoma thinks the meal should feature more carbs like rice and pasta, but Kaede wants it to have more meat and veggies. Ryoma wants something with a bit of spice, but Kaede doesn’t want any at all. Finally they are able to settle on a classic: curry rice with a side of eggplant dengaku. Kaede initially suggests that they try to make the curry rice with the eggplant, but Ryoma has never tried the flavour before, so they decide to stick with the regular meat to keep things comfortable. All things considered, it’s quite fun to get to work on a meal together as a couple. Most of the time, everyone in the apartment takes turns cooking for each other. Kaede and Ryoma have scarcely had the opportunity to interact in the kitchen. 

“How’s that rice comin’, Ryoma?” Kaede asks, lifting her tasting spoon out of the pot of curry sauce. She slips it into her mouth so delicately that Ryoma can’t help but watch. How is everything she does so perfect? Her eyelashes flutter a little as she savours the taste, and when she pulls it out, she grins. 

“It’s rice,” he replies, “Hard to mess up.” 

She giggles – a cute, short little thing, yet one he loves nonetheless. Kaede has a great laugh. It’s musical, ironically enough. Still, he can’t help but notice that it doesn’t seem completely there today. It’s not necessarily gone, but it almost sounds a little more forced. Normally, it comes as easy to her as blinking or breathing. “I guess you’re right about that. The curry’s coming along as well.”

Is she hiding something? It seems like the wrong time to ask. Even if he does, she might just brush him off, not wanting to ruin their evening together. Everyone in the group has had their dark hours, but Kaede has always seemed content to push hers away. Maybe this is another one of those times. He’ll just take things slow for now, see what else he can get out of her. For all he knows, the laugh could have been a fluke. She’s been a mellow cheerful all day otherwise. 

“Do you think it will be ready soon?” 

She shrugs, not stopping to meet his eyes. “Maybe… I think I’d give it a few more minutes, just to be safe. Make sure we really lock in that flavour.”

He doesn’t say anything back, just nods. He shifts attention instead to the eggplant dengaku. While the dish is traditionally grilled, their access to something like that is lacking, so they’ve used a combination of a skillet and broiler to get the effect. It should be just as smoky as one cooked the traditional way, anyway. He slips on some oven mitts and pulls it out with relative ease, inhaling the earthy scent. “Eggplants are looking good, too. Can you pass the miso sauce?” 

Ryoma reaches over to grab a pair of tongs, too engrossed in his soon-to-be examination at first that he doesn’t notice when he can’t hear the clink of the miso bowl beside him. When he first starts looking, he just assumes that Kaede will be ready in a minute. Then, a few more seconds pass, and it becomes increasingly clear that she won’t be passing it. In fact, he’s not hearing anything from her section of the kitchen. When he flicks his head up to look at her, she is staring down at the pot of curry, the smile that was once on her face having disappeared. Her eyes look almost blank as she stares down, watching it bubble. 

“Kaede?” He calls out again. 

Instantly, she snaps to attention. The smile reappears, but her eyes don’t seem to agree with it. 

“Sorry, did you say something?” 

He quirks a brow at her, not sure whether he should press or just asking for the miso. The former makes the most sense, he thinks. If he wants Kaede to open up to him more, then he needs to prove to her that he is open and ready to listen. “Are you okay?” 

The smile doesn’t crack, and her expression does not falter. It seems almost painted on. “Yeah, I’m fine. Why do you ask?” 

“You… seem a bit distracted.”

“Oh, well,” Kaede shrugs and tucks her hair behind her ear, “It’s nothing you need to worry about. I’m just lost in my thoughts.” 

Ryoma purses his lips. “It’s best not to be lost in thoughts all alone.”

She simply shakes her head and turns back to the curry pot. “Never you mind, Ryoma. I don’t want to ruin our night with my silly worries. They’ll come and go just like always.”

“You might feel better if you talked about them.” 

“And you might feel better if you let this go,” she chuckles, surprisingly without even a hint of bitterness, “Seriously, Ryoma, I’m fine. Let’s just focus on making a nice dinner, okay?” 

Ryoma sighs. “Whatever you say, Kaede. I just want you to know that if you need me, I’m here.” 

“I know. I’ve always been able to depend on you, Ryoma. Ever since the moment we met.” 

His brows furrow at those words. Nice of her to say, but not so easy for him to feel… If she’s that worried and there’s nothing he can do, is she actually being honest? Or is she just trying to placate him? He bites his lip absent-mindedly.

“... Right.” 

Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Kaede frown, but she seems to decide that it is better to not try to convince him. Her attention sneaks back to their meal, and he decides that it would be better if he were just to grab the miso himself. Once in his hands, he coats the eggplants carefully, watching out of the corner of his eye as Kaede begins to scoop the rice from the pot into a duo of bowls. Nothing more is said between them as they prepare everything. It is best if things remain wordless for now. As soon as they have their food served, they make their way to the couch to sit and eat. 

Even that ends up being quiet. It would be excessive to say that there is necessarily tension between the couple, yet there is a sort of pressure between them. After all, Kaede doesn’t want Ryoma to know, but all Ryoma wants to do is ask, so how are they supposed to overcome their competing desires? Is there any way to get through this situation that will leave them both satisfied? In the end, they just resort to not talking about it. Kaede steers conversation in other places instead. Should we make a bowl for Gonta, she asks. Yes, I’ll do that after I finish up here, Ryoma responds. Then there is some silence again, broken only by the sound of chewing. This eggplant is really tasty, Kaede tells him. It was Mio’s recipe, Ryoma admits. That draws the conversation on longer, but only by a few minutes. There is still nothing of true substance, just a lot of beating around the bush. This was not at all the date night that they had planned. Knowing that she was hiding from something from him, Ryoma couldn’t entirely blame her for not wanting to talk, but the constant beating around the bush served to make the conversation all too stale. Listening to tangents about the weather and the sound of chopsticks scraping against your bowl could get old fast. 

In a time like this, you would think that the minutes would pass by like hours, yet it seemed that the meal went by in a flash. Before he knows it, Ryoma is done, and he is watching Kaede shovel in the last of her curry. The air between them is still relatively still and quiet, but he can see that by now, Kaede’s pleasant demeanour is beginning to falter. As she looks down at the last of her food, her mouth curves into more of a frown than it does a smile.

“All done?”

It’s a stupid question to ask, Ryoma knows, but it’s the only thing he can think of other than “are you sure you’re okay”. That, he knows, is not something he will get a proper answer to. It’s more than likely that he’ll get the same answer as before – yes, I’m fine. Or, if Kaede is getting particularly sick of the prying, he might be told to stop asking. He’s never seen her get angry about that, but he hasn’t ruled out the possibility. There are plenty of people who just hate to be asked, over and over again, if they’re fine. He would know. When it came to Mio, he used to be one of them.

Kaede nods softly, holding her hand out in expectation. He places his bowl in it carefully, muttering his thanks as she stacks it on her own and rises from her seat. His eyes flicker away as she begins to walk to the kitchen. It would be unnecessary to watch her every move, and if they’re not locked in conversation, he has no need to stare at her. Looking at her would only remind him that she’s in pain, and that he doesn’t seem to be able to do anything about it. He’s half-way through lamenting to himself about what a terrible boyfriend he is when suddenly, a quick gasp snaps him out of his thoughts. His head whips over to Kaede, and he is able to catch the exact moment that the bowls fully slip out of her grasp, falling hard and fast to the floor. Within seconds, the bowls crash against the ground, smashing into pieces of black bone china. Kaede yelps as they make contact, trying to shuffle her bare feet away from the site of the accident. 

“Kaede!” Ryoma exclaims, rushing to her side to assess the damage. “Are you okay? You didn’t get cut, did you?” 

Kaede doesn’t answer. She just stares down at the chunks of shattered bowls, eyes chasing each piece and splatter of leftover curry or miso. Ryoma places a hand on her lower back and peers up at her face, hoping it is just shock that has struck her silent. As soon as he sees her eyes, however, his heart sinks. In that place he has so often associated with joy, he finds only tears. They are just on the edge of her lashes, and are met with a quivering lip further below, but it will still be a few more seconds before they fall. 

He darts down to look at the floor, taking care to examine the space around his girlfriend’s feet. None of the broken china seems to have scraped or cut her, with most of the pieces falling in front of her rather than around or behind her. Definitely not hurt. He is about to ask her again if she’s alright, when suddenly he hears her start to sob. 

God, it’s only the first time he’s seen Kaede cry and he already hates it. Someone so kind and warm should never have to experience any pain, even over a broken plate. 

“Hey, what’s wrong?” He asks in the softest voice he can muster, brows furrowing as he rubs the part of her back he can reach. “It’s okay, it’s just a couple of bowls.” 

Once again, Kaede does not answer. She just keeps crying, fat tears slipping down her cheeks one after the other. It’s like she doesn’t even know Ryoma is there. That makes her crying sting worse. So much for her knowing she could always count on him. He’s practically useless to her right now. He heaves a heavy sigh, shaking his head. 

It won’t do him any good to be self-deprecating. He may not be the boyfriend she deserves, but he needs to try to be. He owes her that much.

“It’s not about the bowls, is it?” 

Kaede shakes her own head frantically, still whimpering like a little girl. Her hands reach up to swipe at her eyes, creating black streaks with her mascara. He makes a mental note to grab her some make-up wipes in a minute. For now, he just needs to get her comfortable, away from the scene of the crime, so the two of them can have a real talk about what’s happening here.

“Why don’t you go sit down, Kaede? I’ll clean this up, and then we can talk about what’s going on. That sound good?” 

For a sliver of a moment, she hesitates, like she’s frozen in place by her tears. It is not until he repeats her name, softer and gentler, that she finds it within herself to nod and sniffle, stepping back from the bowls to let him get a better look at the ground. He wastes no time rushing to the kitchen to grab a garbage bag to put them in, only watching out of the corner of his eye for Kaede’s safe arrival to the couch. Judging by the lack of yelps of pain, he can only assume he made it unharmed.

Just like their meal, the moment between the two of them is most silent, except now what was once conversation has now become the sound of Kaede’s soft crying. Part of Ryoma almost feels guilty for wanting to ignore it, but he already feels as if he is doing that very thing – he just wishes the tears would stop. He’s not so selfish as to wish that Kaede be his happy girlfriend who always supports him and Gonta, but more that she should not have to feel that sort of pain. In the back of his mind he has always known that she is as tortured as they are by what happened. It’s just that he didn’t want her to be. He wishes it didn’t have to be so. And that’s just the problem – if she is as tortured as they are, then this is perhaps the first time she has had the courage to show it. 

How close does she need to be to her breaking point for this to be the case?

Ryoma cleans up the remainders of the bowl as best he can, resolving to vacuum up any of the more minute pieces he would have missed. His focus right now, his greatest focus, is joining Kaede on the couch so they can talk about what’s happened. As he went through the process of cleaning, her sobs tempered themselves slightly, but it would be an exaggeration to say that they had been crushed entirely. Her eyes were definitely still wet and her heart still pained. When he is reunited with her, the weight of her emotions has not left her. It is still laying there inside of her, festering, but trying desperately to grasp at the solace that Ryoma is offering. Perhaps part of the pain comes from being unused to comfort when these sensations arise. 

It hurts that once he finally rejoins Kaede, the first thing she tries to do is flash him a smile. It is by far the weakest from her that he has ever seen, and the fact that she even feels she needs to do this breaks his heart. What has the world done to this poor, kind woman? They have already won their battle against Tsumugi and Team Danganronpa, but a bitter part of him longs to fight them again, if only to take revenge for her. Alas, he cannot. All he can do is take her hand in his own and stroke her thumb with his, prepared to listen.

“I’m sorry for getting upset,” she whimpers, reaching up to swipe at her eyes, “I know it’s not like me to be so…” 

“Don’t apologize.” He cuts in far before he can actually think to do so. “You have nothing to apologize for.”

Kaede says nothing in response, only stares gratefully at him. Why does he get the sense that it was not uncommon, in her other life, to say sorry when she was hurt? Did nobody comfort her? No, no. He shakes the thought from his mind. They must have. Kaede spoke so fondly of her family, in particular her twin sister… This must have come from somewhere else. All he can do is pray that it is not his own failure to support her that has made her feel such things. 

Ryoma draws in a deep breath, trying to refocus. Don’t get away from yourself, this is about her. You say you want to take care of this woman, so put your money where your mouth is.

“I want to know what’s wrong, Kaede. You haven’t been yourself today, and I know you didn’t like those bowls enough to be upset that they’re broken.” 

Kaede chuckles softly. “They were pretty ugly.”

“Like something your grandmother would own.” 

She laughs again, and it’s like music to Ryoma’s ears. Nothing in this moment is perfect, but that little giggle is as close as it’s going to get. He hates that he’ll have to direct her away from this small joy to get back to the source of their problem. It might be that realization that makes him squeeze her hand.

“Now, please tell me what’s going on with you.”

That small smile, the one that felt like such a prize, quickly melts. Her expression is almost pinched, but he can tell it’s not from discontent with him. If she has such little experience expressing her emotions, then this won’t come easy. Learning to be the one person who keeps up a happy face surely took a toll on her, even if she won’t admit it. The heavy sigh expelled from her lungs only serves to confirm his theory. 

“Can I… can I start by asking you something?” 

Ryoma shrugs. “If it’ll help you.”

“Do you ever… do you ever feel like, I don’t know… responsible for some of the stuff that happened? Like when we were in the Killing Game?” Kaede’s eyes dart down to her lap. “I know we’ve always said that it was Tsumugi who did those things, and Team Danganronpa, but… if what they said is true, then we agreed to it, y’know? We agreed to our friends getting hurt.” 

“We didn’t agree to anything,” Ryoma corrects, much more sharply than he intends to, “We didn’t have any control over the agency of the others. We chose for ourselves. We were blinded by that choice, by our passion for something like that. It didn’t seem so wrong then.”

Kaede swallows so thickly in the moment, he almost has to wonder if he’s said exactly the wrong thing. The way her brow quirks doesn’t exactly do his confidence any favours either. Nonetheless, he stills himself. He remembers what this is all for, who this is all for. “You think we didn’t think it was wrong?” 

“If something like that was on television, then it would be pretty normalized. Hell, Tsumugi suggested that the whole damn thing was popular. People might not bat an eye, because the participants consented and knew what they were getting into. Nobody would ever really consider what was going on on the other side. I mean, it’s just like when you used to see the Olympics on TV. Everyone thinks they could do it, but nobody considers what you put yourself through.”

“I… guess…” 

“I know that probably doesn’t settle your worries. And, honestly… I get it. I can say everything I just said, but I get it. Sometimes you just feel so guilty for surviving, and for doing what you did to survive. You wonder why you deserve it over everyone else.”

Kaede nods, teary-eyed. He tries not to pay too much attention to the quivering of her lip and the crinkling of her chin, lest his fussing upset her more. Right now, it seems best to just let her feel as she needs to. Perhaps the best thing he can do for her right now is let her know that her feelings are understood and heard. “Everyone wasn’t perfect, but they were… they were kind at heart, I think. And at the beginning there, I could feel how badly everyone wanted to survive. I could feel…” She sighs, her voice breaking the longer she goes on. “I could feel them. Even when we started losing people, I could still feel them with us. Their spirits never left me. I couldn’t stop thinking about their loved ones… Their families… It didn’t matter if maybe Rantaro didn’t have all those sisters, or if Angie’s island wasn’t really real… There must be people out there who loved them. There always are.”

Ryoma doesn’t answer, just keeps stroking her thumb, knowing that he has her on the right track. He needs to let her speak, to let her share this fear with the world. 

“And sometimes, I just wonder… what did I do to deserve to be here? Do they… do they hate that it was them who died instead of me?”

Her voice lowers to a whisper. 

“Sometimes I do. I don’t feel like I have a right to be here. Not when I could have gotten everyone killed.” 

Ryoma squeezes her hand tightly. “Nobody’s life is more valuable than yours, Kaede. Nobody’s life is more valuable than anybody else’s, you know that. I wasn’t exactly friends with a lot of ‘em, but I know that if they were here, that’s what they would tell you. They know you did the best you could. You never wanted anyone to die.” 

Kaede sniffles. “I just… I wish nobody had to get hurt. I wish they didn’t have to go through it. I wish we’d all been smarter.” 

“We were kids, Kaede. Kids are stupid. Teenagers think they’re invincible until suddenly something happens, and they realize that they’re not. I understand how you feel, I really do, but if there’s one thing you taught me, it’s that we can’t let ourselves be bound to our mistakes forever. If we do something bad, and we lose someone, then we owe it to that person to try and be better in the future. And all I’ve seen you do is try and be better for the people you left behind.”

“I wish I could have saved them,” she sobs, “I wish I could have done things differently.” 

“But you couldn’t.” 

She stares at him wide-eyed, blinking at him in disbelief. 

“I couldn’t either. Neither could Gonta. Even Shuichi, in his last moments when he tried to save us from his… his own mistakes, couldn’t save us completely. He could only save the ones who were left. And I know he would regret that it could only be the three of us, but the fact of the matter is, that was the best he could do. He trusted us to keep doing better on behalf of everyone. If he didn’t, he’d have left us to die.”

There is a pregnant pause that stands between them, but for the first time in this whole conversation, Ryoma doesn’t doubt what he’s saying. All of the heart skips of panic and twistings of his belly have melted away now. All he cares about is making sure she knows. She needs to know that she did all that she could, that she did more than enough. 

“All of their hopes are pinned on us, Kaede. That’s why we survived.”

Kaede doesn’t answer, just turns her head down. For a moment, he thinks he’s got her figured out and maybe she’s soothed, but another hiccup reminds him that it isn’t so. At any moment she could burst from his grasp and run off to her room, determined to never speak to him again. He won’t let that happen. There is still more to say, more to do to soothe her. He has to soothe her.

“How can you… say all this, but say you understand…?” 

“Because I learned from someone that sometimes, even if everything is dark, you need to look for the light. I’ve heard a lot of lies in my life, mostly coming from myself, so I learned to find the truths, even if they’re hard. I can’t let the lies rule over me, and I can’t let those demons win.” 

Ryoma slides his hand along the underside of Kaede’s jaw, turning her face towards him gently. It still breaks his heart to see her beautiful eyes gleaming with such sadness. Any tear that falls now will be wiped away by his thumb on her cheek. 

“You taught me that, Kaede.”

She presses her face further into his hand, holding onto his wrist. It doesn’t seem like she has much more to say, so he just lets her rest her cheek against him, stroking it comfortingly. Before long her eyes flutter closed, and he finds himself sitting in wait, listening to the sound of her shaky breaths. What a perfect creature. In spite of all their circumstances, he is glad that he and Kaede were brought together. He just hopes that with moments like these, he can ensure that it is worth her while as well. 

He's not sure how long they sit there, drinking in the comfort of each other’s presence and the ideologies they share, but the quietude is peaceful. Over time, Kaede’s tears begin to dry and her breaths stabilize. Everything most definitely is not okay now, but it’s better, and Ryoma thinks that it is a victory in and of itself. He knows he could never heal her guilt entirely. The best thing he can do is support her as she fights through it, just as she has done for him. He thought he would never love again after losing Mio, but today has more than proven to him that he would do anything for Kaede. So he’ll embrace this quiet, and let her tell him what she needs. 

In the end, the answer ends up being that she needs a surprise appearance from Gonta. 

The apartment had been so quiet that the moment he swings the door open, the two of them jump a little – which, hilariously, also makes Gonta jump. For a moment a flicker of alarm catches in Gonta’s expression, wondering if he caught them in the midst of an intimate moment he wasn’t supposed to see, but it fades when he realizes that the two are just sitting on the couch.

“Gonta!” Kaede exclaims, pushing a smile. It is not symmetrical or perfect, but it’s stronger than any of the other ones that she’s given Ryoma today. That’s another victory, he thinks to himself. “You’re back early.” 

The bug enthusiast nods carefully, placing his bug catching box down on the counter. Ryoma tries not to cringe – he respects Gonta’s affection, but he really doesn’t want bugs where the food goes. “Gonta is sorry to interrupt; Gonta had good luck today, found dung beetle friend much faster than expected.” 

Ugh. Ryoma tries even harder not to cringe. Not just a bug where the food goes, but a bug fascinated by fecal matter. Blegh. “It’s okay,” Ryoma says, trying not to sound strained so Gonta won’t be hurt by his disgust, “We were just…”

He glances to Kaede. It would be easiest to be honest with Gonta about how she’s feeling, but they are her feelings. It is ultimately her call to make. She can say whatever she wants to say, and he’ll support her. 

“Ryoma was comforting me.” She places a hand on Ryoma’s thigh. “I’ve been having… a hard time.” 

“Something is hurting Kaede?” Gonta asks thoughtfully, his brows furrowing.

She nods gently. “Yes. I’ve been having a lot of trouble with my memories. I feel guilty over things that happened, when we were in the Killing School Life… I didn’t know how to talk about it. You and Ryoma have both been so open and honest with me about the way it makes you feel, and I… hadn’t been doing it back, and we realized that that was hurting me.”

“Yes, bottling up hurts Kaede. It hurts Gonta, too. Good that Ryoma and Kaede talked.” He pushes a smile. “Can Gonta help?”

He gestures at his bug cage on the counter. 

“Maybe Kaede like to meet dung beetle, learn few fun facts?” 

With one last exchange of gestures, a smile crosses Kaede’s face as well. Then, they both turn back to Kaede. 

“Sure, bring ‘em on over,” Ryoma sighs, finding it within even himself to put on a grin, “And tell us everything you know about him.”

Leave it to Gonta to make sure things stayed perfectly imperfect. A failed date, a poop-loving bug in their home, and a lot of tears… but progress is progress, and Ryoma cannot be prouder that they were able to make it. As Gonta opens up the cage and starts talking about his dung beetle, gently guiding him around the cage with his finger, Ryoma feels Kaede’s head lean on his own. At any other time, it might not mean much of anything other than a sign of affection, but today… Today he thinks it means that he did good.

[thenewfuture]

Ranking the Mainline DanganRonpa Entries

Hey guys. The mastermind ranking list brought a lot of discussion and attention here, and I had a lot of fun making it. Now it's time to start list that won the second place on the poll; ranking all of the main series entries.

Oh, beloved DanganRonpa. How you started out as a niche spiritual successor to Ace Attorney, to now becoming your own big entity that can rival the best of them. Where have the years gone?

Quick rules to explain the process here:

-Like I said this is only the mainline entries. Fanganronpas like the Another series, Rebirth, Blowback, etc. will not be counted.

-That being said, I will also not be including any side content like Summer Camp S, The Kirigiri, Togami and Ultra Despair Hagakure novels, Killer Killer, IF, and Zero. For one, because a lot of them don't do much to add to DanganRonpa's overarching story. And two, a good half of them I have not seen nor am I interested in doing so because they don't much for the main series anyway. Apologies...

-This list is going to be INCREDIBLY SUBJECTIVE AND OPINIONATED, if you disagree with any of the spots I've put them in; that is completely fine, just don't be a jerk about it.

-And finally, the following will contain massive spoilers for the DanganRonpa series and their respective games and entries. View at your own risk. But considering this is on a story blog that takes place after three of the entries here, maybe you shouldn't be here anyway, but I'm still warning others just to be safe.

#5 DanganRonpa 1: Trigger Happy Havoc

Why is the subtitle for the game way bigger and upfront on the cover while the actual series name is way smaller? I don't get it...

To kick off our ranking list, it's the game that started it all. The very first DanganRonpa game, Trigger Happy Havoc! Now don't get wrong, even though it's this low doesn't make it the "worst", just my personal least favorite out of all of them. I mean I would have had to like the first game to some degree if I stuck with the series this long, right? I think this game has just aged......poorly...

The premise of the game starts out very well, each student is trapped in an enclosed environment and the only form of escape is to kill another classmate. This sort of environment encourages distrust of others so that when it's inevitably time for a murder, not only are you devastated that the character you were growing attached died but also saddened at how another character you liked could do something like that. That's all fine and dandy......here's the problem...

You can't convince me these guys were EVER friends! Not only is the player supposed to get attached to the other characters, the characters themselves have to from lasting trust and bonding experiences so that they too can feel despair. But barring a few good exceptions, it's not really done with anyone else. Let give a few examples:

Could imagine Sakura getting well with Kiyotaka? ......Hard, right?

Could imagine Leon getting along with Touko? ......No, right?

Could imagine Celeste getting along with Aoi? HA! Right?!

And that's not taking into account despair loving diva Junko and her sister Mukuro who would barely have any identity of her own.

Like I said; there are some great relationships here, I am not ignoring that. I was saddened with Kiyotaka having to get separated from Mondo too, and even more saddened when Aoi tried to get everyone killed because she believed the reason for her best friend's suicide was everyone else. But the comradery of the group doesn't work as well as it should or could have been we focus on these smaller groups and leaving behind the characters that exactly fit into a group of there own. Many of the other games fix this by having much more morale boosting events and activities for the rest of the remaining cast, meanwhile I can't exactly say the same here. As an unfortunate downside of this, it makes some of the characters bland and forgettable at best. Cast makes or breaks your visual novel game people, and the cast of THH leaves a lot to be desired.

The pacing's also very slow here. Because Monokuma doesn't outright say that a blackened has to survive and outwit the others in a class trial, the first chapter feels much more sluggish as a result. Future entries would go on to fix that issue by telling them right out the gate. And like I said, because there are hardly any events or anything of note going with the cast at times, most chapters play like: "waking up, meet up with everyone else, talking about what happened, explore new area, Free Time, Free Time, sleep, wake up, meet up, Free Time, Free Time, motive, sleep, wake up, meet up, Free Time, Free Time, sleep, Free Time, Free Time, oh hey someone kicked the bucket"

The slowness also translates to the gameplay as well. Having no breaks means going through 1 to 2 hour trials in one big burst. The joke of "Naegi, telling them" is very much true here and it's normally him, Kyoko and whenever he's not being a dick, Byakuya carrying the trials with everyone else offering their input every once in a while. "Gee, I wonder if we could spice this up by having other characters object to your line of thinking?.......NAH!" The minigames are serviceable as well, I mean Hangman's Gambit was never bit it's fine here, Climatic Return is always awesome, and while MTB is fine I just want to talk to the person that suggessted having this sort of action take place NUMEROUS TIMES in some of the later trials! And I have an unexplained, visceral, HATRED for the RE:Action prompt. Imagine having to watch and read some text explaing important information to just suddenly STOP TO A HAULT and press another button to get more info because your character to ask, "what do you mean?" by himself.

All in all, while Trigger Happy Havoc may not hold up as well as most of its predecessors, and maybe some of my reasons boil down to me spoiling myself on this game but watching a let's play of it and skipping down to see who survived, that doesn't mean there isn't a whole lot good to this game. The characters I do care about are written pretty well, Makoto is a good protagonist for this game and works in a number of ways, the trials are fairly simple to what we get later down the line, and the atmosphere works well for a killing game environment. I just have a few issues with it personally that question if I want to go back to it on numerous occasions. But as I said, if I didn't like the first game somewhat I wouldn't really be here, would I?

Just remember your first shot isn't always going to be your best, and that's okay.

#4 DanganRonpa V3: Killing Harmony

I consider V3 to be the Fire Emblem Fates of the franchise..............now I know that made sense to a whopping two of you, so let me explain.

Fire Emblem Fates comes off the massive success of its predecessor, Awakening, and fixes a lot of its issues. The gameplay is much more advanced and easy to understand, the music is really good, the environments look amazing, and there is a ton of content for many to enjoy. .......Everything else with it?

OH BOOOOOOOOYYYYY!!!!!!!!

A great number of characters are incredibly one note, has an insane number of unwanted fanservice moments, has numerous localization controversy, and the story is so GODDAMN convoluted, confusing and messy, surrounding itself in a mountain of incest!

.........So onto V3...

DanganRonpa V3 comes off the massive success of its predecessors, and fixes a lot of issues. The gameplay and mingames are much more easier to understand and scrum debating is awesome, the music is fantastic, the graphics and environments take use of its new console software, and there is a lot of content to enjoy. .....Everything else with it?

OH BOOOOOOOOYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!

Some of the characters are incredibly one note, has insane number of unwanted fanservice moments, has numerous localization controversy, and the story is so GODDAMN convoluted, confusing, twisted and messy, surrounding itself in a MOUNTAIN of incest!

..........Ya get it now?

I don't want it to seem like I'm ragging a whole lot on V3, but there are a lot of things that this game does that is straight up bad.

I will be nice and start with the good first however. I really like the cast and their designs, very unique and hard to forget even if I tried. The Ultimate Academy is a pretty cool set-piece for the killing game to take place in; having it be closed off to the world like Hope's Peak Academy but open to see the sky and other areas like Jabberwock Island, a pretty decent blend of the two. The music is a phenomenal treat for the ears, and for the eyes comes amazing sprite work for the new characters as well as Monokuma and great use of angles not before seen in the class trials. The new minigames for this game, Scrum Debate and Mass Panic Debates are also hella fun. And the bonus content is spectacular with Salmon Mode and Ultimate Talent Development Plan treating the fans to some actually GOOD fanservice.

That's about where the compliments end unfortunately. The other minigames aren't that fun to play through, Mind Mine is pointless and I don't enjoy it. V3 is notorious for having the ridiculous and mind stretching logic of all the class trials and that is a fact, Seesaw murders anyone? The back route mechanic sounds good on paper, and I'm not going to pretend that actually having multiple routes in a trial isn't a tremendous amount of work to pull off, but most of the optional ones are just time wasters as we don't learn much and just end up back on the correct path after a few minutes, so one has to wonder the point of all that. While I do like this cast, there are some stinkers that bring it down for me and can't compete with other ones. What the fuck is with all the incest in this writing?! And of course...the big two...

Why did we replace Kaede, a unique talent personality type who had tremendous potential for the first ever girl, main series, DanganRonpa, class trial protagonist.....for Shuichi? A low self-esteem, doesn't feel like he belongs, boy protagonist?

THIS IS THE THIRD TIME WE'VE HAD SOMETHING LIKE THIS!

We were this close to greatness....this close... And I love Shuichi too, but it still hurts everytime I think about it man, come on! Kaede could have done great things for this story or even have the two share the role of dual-swapping protagonists! And oh, that story though...

I get it, the power of fiction is real and it affects reality,and it does work for this game's overall theme of truth and lies, blah blah blah... But with how many times they HAMMER the message of: "Everything's fake! Everything you know and lie isn't real and it didn't happen! Look at you, the fans, you love killing games! You love DanganRonpa! Hahahahaha!" The message work so well it loops back around to feel insulting to not only the "fake" audience of the TV Show series, but also the auidence that's playing the game now. And apparently must have not worked enough because we still have people making videos on what they want in DanganRonpa 4, as well fans like me still being here and creating content discussion for it right now.

And with how ridiculous some of the characters' backstory are, such Gonta living with actual dinosaur people, Kaede preforming for famous kings across the world, Kirumi being the FUCKING PRIME MINISTER, maybe these were the clues all along to help you figure out this place was a fictional world. And I know that this is the series where a high school girl can overthrow the world into chaos, demigods are basically born left and right, and ghosts and aliens directly affect the plot, but I think we should have some sort of groundedness to this world, no?

Bottom line: V3 is a good game but has a mediocre story and because this is the last game in the series(maybe?), it leaves nothing but a bad taste in my mouth. I swear these writers aren't even trying anymore, DanganRonpa 17 was the best.

#3 DanganRonpa 3: The End Of Hope's Peak Academy

*THE BIGGEST AUDIBLE GASP KNOWN TO MANKIND*

Mod Freeze, isn't DanganRonpa 3 relegated as one of the worst installments in the franchise by the fans? Yes.

Mod Freeze, isn't the Final Killing Game a massive jumbled mess of time management, rules, and scope? Yes.

Mod Freeze, didn't DanganRonpa 3 not utilize a whole bunch of its characters as well as the DR2 cast? Yes.

Mod Freeze, isn't DanganRonpa 3 responsible for instilling the idea of the Remnants of Despair simply being brainwashed? Yes.

Mod Freeze, is this straw-man arguments tired out and old? Yes.

Mod Freeze, why is Danganronpa 3 so high? Well my dear reader, that is a long and extravagant answer.....

I like it.

........................

....That's it.

I'm not here to paint you a picture on how DR3 is the greatest piece of media in the history of existence, or even sway your mind from thinking that DR3 is so garbage that it could be mistaken for a Garbodor. I like DanganRonpa 3, for the simple fact that I enjoyed my time with it.

Now I am not blind to the various things DanganRonpa 3 has done wrong. It doesn't utilize most of the branch leaders well or hardly gives you any reason to care about them. A good chunk of the DR2 cast get left behind in the dust, especially those that should garner more attention like those present for the Twilight Syndrome case. And those that took the time to read and explore other lore such as DR0 do not get rewarded. Skips what could be interesting scenarios such as Chisa's time in the reserve course or even a few moments with the THH cast. And that's not even mentioning the Final Killing Game with all its confusing and convoluted bullshit.

But honestly, despite all that, I didn't mind any of that too much. I really liked the idea of a free-for-all killing game that Future Arc tried to implement, and seeing the fun and cute moments of the 77th class was such a delight. Some characters ere unfortunately narratively more built important than others, but some of them stuck out to me for the best of reasons. Chisa's fun mommy-sue nature, Seiko's tragic backstory and relationship with Ruruka, Koichi how he's trying to protect and be there for Kyoko, and a lot of the designs here for these guys kick ass.

Great Gozu is a more well-rounded character than a good chunk of others from THH and V3, and I can and will fight you on that.

Some of the returning cast was done really good here too, a real Chiaki for added wholesomeness, Hajime with his doubts of self-worth due to lack of talent, Imposter shined more than I thought he would, dude would ever imagine Imposter getting some shine in the main series, never me, holy cow. And we explored other characters who we hadn't known more about, like Izuru finally making him his own character, exploring the relationship and natures of Natsumi and Sato, and Mukuro.............y'know let's just not talk about that blunder...

I don't even mind the brainwashing portion either because.......that's what it always was....

And I had a talk with an anon a while back about this topic. I don't mind it too much because, if you're telling me that Junko can just switch your marolaity with a few words from her silver tongue, that makes her look too overpowered and the rest of the DR2 cast indigenous and kind of already shitty people. And I know a few of them can be swayed to despair give the right circumstances(Fuyuhiko, Peko, Mahiru, Mikan, Hiyoko, Akane), but honest to god how can someone like Imposter, Nekomaru, or ray of sunshine fall to despair with her words. I think we're stretching it here...

DanganRonpa 3 may have disappointment me as well as others on a quite few number of fronts, but kept me more invested in its story and mysteries than the past two entries. Again, my personal opinion of course... Without DR3, I wouldn't be making The New Future in the first place so it has to have some merit of enjoyment in here. And I think there could be more stuff to enjoy from this anime as well, squint and tilt it a little bit and you might find a gleam of hope...

But hey, what do I know? I'm the guy that likes DanganRonpa 3 :P

#2 DanganRonpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls

Okay how do you say this name?! Ultra Despair Girls: DanganRonpa: Another Episode?! DanganRonpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls?! DanganRonpa Ultra Despair Girls: Another Episode?! DanganRonpa 1.5 Final Remix?! THREE FIVE EIGHT OVER TWO DAYS?!-Wait.

These years have shown that not much has changed in the grand scheme of this list, as it's secured second place spot has not been challenged. And that's funny because I'm pretty this game is much more divisive in the fandom as well, and it has the unfortunate perk of being more well known than the anime series. I mean, a game with no class trials, no investigations, no definite mascots, smaller cast than normal, a huge change in gameplay, and Monokuma being demoted to near Goomba status. It may be a spin-off entry, but these are some drastic changes to the formula, almost a whole new game at this point.

However, I think Ultra Despair Girls is a fantastic entry to the series, and you would do yourself a disservice by skipping out on it. Makoto Naegi's little sister, Komaru, fights through the streets of Towa City for survival against the Monokumas and the Warrior of Hope with the help of a returning face, Touko Fukawa.Right off the bat, I have to say this idea for a story is really impressive. Because this takes place after THH but before DR2, we get to see kind of the world is during the Tragedy. Hectic, apocalyptic, barely clinging onto hope.. I may not be a fan of zombie or horrors movies, but the ambience here is top notch and works extremely well.

We have a ton of colorful characters as well, the Warriors of Hope are good antagonists with heartbreaking and understanding backstories, seeing relatives or people close to the first's game cast is an excellent treat as well like Hiroko, Kanon, Yuta and Taichi even if we get a little out of those two...and of course, the main big bad, Monaca. If you read my ranking list of the series' masterminds you know full well why I like her. She is a perfect villain for this sort of story, a twisted and manipulative person with the face of the child but the heart of a demon.

Of course, I can't forget to mention Komaru and Touko. Komaru's development from an average whiny high school girl who can't do anything learns to stand up and fight for herself. And Touko, who has outgrown her shell of being reclusive and venomous to others....while still retaining that somewhat, now has an active roll of helping Komaru get through these tough times. She offers her advice, lessons, support, everything. These two's relationship make this game for me and I'm sure many others would agree with me on that front.

Okay, time to get on to the negatives here, ah......oh boy....

For starters Towa City is huge and many areas here are really cool looking, but the path is quite linear and that can be quite tedious for exploring and hiding collectibles. It's not too hard, but there are a lot of collectibles to nab, and if you miss one you have to start the chapter all over again so be mindful. One of which is the wanted list that the WOH have to hunt down other "demons" aka, THH's families and friends. You give them to Hiroko to hopefully go get them, but do you ever seeeee or meeeeet them in the Resistance base. Nope! That's a missed opportunity if I ever heard of one!

And um.......all the.....uncomfortable....things this game does....hoo boy... From Touko's fantasies, to the scoring screen at the end of chapters, to.....the Motivation machine in Chapter 3, and.....j-just how manipulative and twisted Monaca can be in chapter 4, this game proves it is not for the faint of heart. Probably not even that too, those who aren't faint of heart might reel at some of these questionable decisions here. I'd call it fanservice but because some of these scenes involve, ahem, MINORS; I'd call it fansqueezing with how much it'll squeeze and hurt you with all this psychological trauma. I suppose I've either seen worse over the course of my life to not be affected by this, or I've endured these sorts of things in the game so many times that I have become numb to it. Remember folks, I platinumed this game.

Ultra Despair Girls may make you feel despair at times, but beyond that despair, lies hope. Hope of a game with a great story, great cast of characters, and a great episode for this franchise in general.

Oh, also this...

Another point to V3 being so low. How dare they tease us…

#1....DanganRonpa 2: Goodbye Despair

"Wow, shocking! The guy that's blog is about the DanganRonpa 2 cast ha DanganRonpa 2 as his favorite! I tooootally saw this coming a mile away!" Hey look man, I don't appreciate all that sass. I saw that train coming a mile away too and I didn't say anything. Also on you're right-

*HOOOOOORRRRNNN!* *CRAASSSSH!*

Eugh....oh, oh that looks bad.....A-Anyway....

Yes, if you follow me on my main blog you probably know that I love DanganRonpa 2 a whole effin' lot! I love mah boy Hajime! I love mah girl Chiaki! I love my other boys, Fuyuhiko, Kazuichi, and Imposter! I love mah other girls, Sonia, Ibuki and Mikan! I love DanganRonpa 2!

Everything is so right here. The gameplay, the setting, the story, the characters, it's all great!

Mind Dive and Rebuttal Showdown are excellent additions that keep the mystery paces going as well utilizes other characters and their outlooks on certain things. It's almost like it's a real trial here guys. And some would say that an island doesn't really fit for a whole killing game setting, and I agree somewhat, but I love all the places of Jabberwock island and I can argue waking up and finding yourself on a deserted island far, far away from any signs of civilization works just as good too.

And the cast, the cast is perfect! A great combination of personalities coming together to make every moment feel that much more impactful and memorable. And even though I may not like afew of them(Hiyoko, Nagito, Teruteru), they evoke more of a emotional reaction out of me and stick out in my mind far more than other members of the other casts. Not to mention there are plenty of group activities and moments together that serve to boost the character's morale and hope. While again, some of them are locked behind presents, some that aren't work well enough. The party at the old building, a beach party on the second island, Ibuki's concert, there are so many ways for the characters to come together that when some of them do die, it is really sad and heart-wrenching. Like what THH was trying to do, but better!

And the main story is really good as well. Having characters we all know and love turning out to responsible for the Tragedy set up in the first game is a really nice twist, as well as learning that it may be possible to bring them back. Some say it a cheap action that miiiiiight devalue all the tragedy and lose the player and characters have went through, and again, I can see that point being made. I personally believe if you give me the option to have them back I would take it a heartbeat.

If there is one true negative I have for this game, it's that the motives are fundamentally lacking in some regard. The motives for chapters 2 and 3 are very much targeted for specific people, and don't affect the others too much, which made the motives in THH work so well is that anyone could fall into the temptation, everyone was treated equal. And with those two chapters, eehhhhhhh.....not so much....

But even still, I hold DanganRonpa 2 very near and dear to my heart. It was the first game I saw and watched from beginning to end, the first game I played and even why I bought a Vita in the first place. I would come back to this game at a moment's notice, the emotions I felt through every chapter make me want to sit by the beachside and experience it all over again...

DanganRonpa 2: Goodbye Despair is my favorite game in the entire series. I cannot express how much I love it so much...

-Mod

[usagirln12003]

Sasuke Uchiha: Hogwarts AU

Sasuke Uchiha is a Pureblood wizard that was born on the 23rd of July 1979 and started attending Hogwarts on the 1st of September 1990, being sorted into Slytherin house.

He has a Blackthorn wand with a Dragon Heartstring Core.

His Patronus is a Black Mamba.

His favorite subject is Defense Against the Dark Arts and his least favorite is Divination.

Sasuke was a happy child, eager to please and be worthy of his family name. One of Sasuke's most significant bonds is the one he has with his older brother, Itachi, who by merely being mentioned can elicit strong reactions from Sasuke's otherwise calm demeanour. Sasuke adored Itachi when he was a boy, enjoying his company above all others'; as an infant, he would cry whenever he was held by someone besides Itachi and would immediately be happy once held by his big brother again. When Itachi murdered the rest of the Uchiha family, Sasuke was crushed not only by the loss of his family but also by what Itachi told him: that he had never loved Sasuke. Sasuke devotes years of his life to avenging their family by killing Itachi, which Itachi encourages whenever they meet. At the same time however, he became determined to do so through his own means, including rejecting Itachi's instructions of practicing dark magic for power, simply to not give Itachi the satisfaction. With his new outlook, he became cold toward others, unmoved by and uninterested in what they do or think of him, choosing instead to keep to himself. He stopped using honourifics, something considered rude in the Japanese language. His only goal in life became to take revenge for his family's deaths by any means, even if it meant acquiring the Unforgivable Curses.

In his pursuit for the power to take his revenge, whenever he meets new people, he makes an evaluation of their abilities: those he perceives to be weaker than himself he arrogantly disregards, giving them little attention so that they won't hold him back; those he perceives as stronger he fixates over and tries to surpass. During his Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons, he is repeatedly exposed to Kakashi Hatake's philosophy that there is strength in teamwork. For a time, Sasuke accepts this, experiencing it first-hand on several of his adventures with his best friends Naruto and Sakura. He even become attached to them and started to forget the vengeance he craved, achieving after so many years a measure of happiness. However, between both the manipulations of Orochimaru and meeting Itachi again in his fourth, where he was and is utterly defeated, Sasuke decides to sever all ties to Hogwarts in a single-minded pursuit of power, leaving the school to focus solely on himself. Kakashi tried to help Sasuke realise the contradiction in his viewpoint: he is driven to gain power because he lost his family, yet sacrifices the family he still has (Naruto and Sakura) in order to gain that power, which did have a profound impact on Sasuke and would have turned him away from the path of darkness had he not been influenced by the Sound Four.

So focused on vengeance, he willingly accepted Orochimaru's offer of power, seeking out the dark wizard to train Sasuke in all he knew, even allowing Orochimaru to experiment on him despite knowing the man was using him for his own gain. Ultimately however, Sasuke decided that letting himself be used by Orochimaru would be a disgrace to his family name, turning on Orochimaru and acquires new team-mates with abilities that could further his goals. Following his training under Orochimaru, Sasuke developed a very composed and detached demeanour, similar to Itachi, never letting himself get worked up during duels. Likewise, Sasuke initially retained his morals by setting a firm no-kill policy for himself and his team against those unrelated to his revenge and openly expressing disgust at Orochimaru for his horrific experiments. In addition, despite becoming cold towards his old team, Sasuke did become attached to his new teammates, still subconsciously holding a notion of teamwork, comparing them to the bond he had with his best friends and pushing himself to extremes to save them.

After Itachi dies in battle with Sasuke and he learned that the hateful older brother that Itachi seemed to be was all an act and that, in truth, Sasuke was the most precious person to Itachi; his murder of the Uchihas was done on the instructions of the Ministry of Magic, in order to protect Sasuke. Sasuke becomes overwhelmed by this discovery and starts conspiring against the Ministry and the wizarding population of Britain for ruining his and Itachi's lives, knowing full well it isn't what Itachi would want him to do. As time passed after this and his hatred increased, Sasuke's fall to darkness steadily eroded much of the goodness he once had: he would without hesitation challenge and even slaughter any and all who stood in his way, left Jūgo and Suigetsu without caring for their fates, essentially sacrificed Karin to strike down Danzō Shimura, and even tried to kill his former best friends when they impede or attempt to dissuade him from his objectives. He also allies with Tobi and Akatsuki when their goals align, but left them without comment when he no longer needs them. His abandonment of all his former loyalties and his criminal acts convince his former classmates that Sasuke is beyond salvation. Tobi determined that Sasuke was carrying the entirety of the Uchiha's hatred on his shoulders, and this caused Sasuke to gain an unwavering and twisted pride of his family, deeming anyone who possessed his family's blood without being one of them or even someone who just isn't an Uchiha as inferior wizard trash and impostors, and became increasingly irate and unstable when witnessing it. Ultimately, Sasuke came to believe that the Ministry's destruction will free the Uchiha from being associated with the rotten wizarding world and the resulting purity will restore the family. He also became very reckless, as he stopped taking care of himself completely, which caused his eyesight to deteriorate drastically within a matter of years.

After his final encounter with Itachi thanks to the Resurrection Stone, between learning of Itachi's struggles in life and knowing that Itachi made the choice willingly to become the villain for the sake of peace, Sasuke is left uncertain about what course to take. From long contemplation, Sasuke came to a warped view of helping the world to ensure no further conflict between them: if a single individual, what Sasuke calls the "True Minister", is solely responsible for making the difficult decisions, killing and the like for the greater good, then everybody will be unified in their hatred of that individual. He volunteers himself for that responsibility and planned to eliminate what few friendships he still has to ensure no turning back. But Naruto, by refusing to give up on saving Sasuke from darkness, demonstrates that their friendship is too fundamental to who Sasuke is and that it cannot nor should not be broken. On coming to terms with this, Sasuke stops fighting the many bonds he's made and chooses to die so the Curse of Hatred would die along with him. However, after further convincing from Naruto, Sasuke chose to live to find redemption instead. Afterwards, Naruto returned Sasuke's first wand, which Sasuke keeps on him during his long travels as a symbol of their friendship. Even though he no longer uses it, he carries it with him regularly, truly valuing it and only letting people he truly trusts hold on to it.

After the Fourth Wizarding War, Sasuke began adopting some of Itachi's views: he decides to fight for Hogwarts' future so that Itachi's actions aren't made meaningless and bases his understanding of the "Minister" around the decisions Itachi made. He also starts poking the foreheads of those dearest to him as a sign of affection, something Itachi used to always do with him. While still not very open with his emotions, Sasuke became more committed to make connections with people. This included his former best friend Sakura Haruno. While originally their relationship was mindless infatuation from Sakura for his good looks and indifference if not blunt irritation from him, over time the two came to better understand one another and true respect was formed between them. Though while he cared for her as a friend, he did not reciprocate her feelings. After he admitted to being defeated by Naruto and let go of his hatred, Sasuke sincerely apologises to Sakura for how much he hurt her - to which, she tearfully forgives him, allowing them to reconcile. They later maintain a long-distance relationship while he pursues a journey of redemption. The two of them later marry and have a daughter, Sarada. While not very affectionate with his family, he is indeed happy about having them and cherishes it, voicing it to others, and feels a strong connection to them when they are apart. Likewise, he enjoys teasing his wife by declining affection, but is strongly against letting other men flirt with her. Sasuke's emotional distance seems to from being so committed to his long-stretching missions. At the same time, he regrets not having been a more attentive man to his family, especially for his daughter, having missed out on much of her childhood and by extension not knowing much about her, showing a noticeably unsure side when trying to be close with Sarada. Still, Sasuke loves his daughter dearly and will go to great lengths to protect Sarada and puts her feelings ahead of his own, as despite having his own memories tampered with without his knowledge, witnessing Sarada summoning her Patronus was enough to make Sasuke change his mind and help Boruto after she pleaded him to despite Boruto being seemingly a dark wizard.

During his time as a wanderer, Sasuke was a recluse, keeping contact with people to an absolute minimum and maintained his strong sense of pride; he is willing to help other witches and wizards if their problems are beyond their expertise but ignores their requests if facing insignificant issues. Stemming from his inspiration of Itachi protecting Hogwarts from the shadows, he also sometimes acts independently on his own and helps the Ministry, but does not even bother to interact with anyone during such instances if not needed. At the same time, he is willing to acknowledging significant events as he sent a note congratulating Naruto for his wedding. Acknowledging his mistakes and once free from hate and vengeance, Sasuke reverts back to the type of person he was prior to the massacre; being kind to others and displaying a sense of humour but maintaining his aloof exterior. Although publicly regarded as a hero for his role in the war, Sasuke feels that his crimes and imperfections outweigh anything heroic he has ever done. Ashamed of his past actions, Sasuke referred to the person he used to be as an entirely different person when he told Boruto about his past actions, albeit without directly telling Boruto he was referring to himself.

As an adult, Sasuke becomes wiser and mature, as well as genuinely warmer and caring, though his tendency to appear deadpan remains. He does retain his habit of insulting others, although it is usually more comical than cold, and mostly aimed towards Naruto. He has also shown a degree of humility, openly admitting to his failings, particularly as a family man. Although he fulfills Itachi's wish for him to protect the wizarding community in Britain, doing this from the shadows and investigating the mysteries of Kaguya leave him unable to spend time with his family, to the point of even failing to recognise his daughter, Sarada. Regardless, he is protective of Sarada and is very supportive of her goal to become Minister one day and not end up like him. Even more, Sasuke loves his family dearly as he tries to spend time with them when he is able to come home, and expresses pride in his daughter's growth and achievements.

As Boruto's godfather, Sasuke is devoted to his godson's well-being and progress. Despite seeing Boruto's usage of a cheating device to pass his finals, Sasuke agreed to take him as a student, as he saw it as similar to his own past of willingness to do anything to attain power. He later reprimanded Boruto for using the device, but still saw his true power and lent him his old wand as a sign of trust and faith. Taking his role as a mentor seriously, Sasuke is willing to let Boruto participate in dangerous duels against the Ōtsutsuki as he saw the boy is living up to his potential that may turn the tide of the fights, even when Naruto decided otherwise. Because of this, Sasuke made it clear he is prepared to kill Boruto should Momoshiki put him under the Imperius Curse, per his duty as Boruto's teacher.

Despite atoning for much of his mistakes, he still feels much guilt for them, openly feeling that for all his fame as a wizard, he is not someone to admire or be emulated. At the same time, Sasuke retains some of the ruthlessness he had during his criminal days; Sasuke was initially hellbent on eliminating the clones of Shin Uchiha despite their visible fear and hesitation towards the end of their duel, and was only convinced of sparing them by Naruto, and when the notorious criminal Shojoji remained arrogant and fearless when interrogated by Sai Yamanaka and Ibiki Morino, Sasuke's sudden arrival and presence were enough to intimidate Shojoji into revealing details about Kara, with Sasuke mentioning that despite changing his ways, he'd still retained his reputation of being unmerciful and brutal towards criminals.

Even so, Sasuke is also very balanced and adaptable. When Sasuke took a mission as a disguised prisoner in order to locate the potion ingredients needed to heal Naruto of his illness that would eventually strip the latter of his ability to use magic, Sasuke kept a low profile by pretending to be weak. He even allowed the abusive prison guards to beat him as his top priority was finding the cure Naruto needed.

[hana-akari]

"Here," No happy birthday, no nothing. Just Sasori extending a piece of paper to Sakura. On it, is written: fuck off pass. It was exactly what it said. "I'mma be honest, I may've spent my fun money on the twins again so I couldn't get you a gift," Not that Sasori knew what to give her besides alcohol and he didn't want to encourage her drinking, especially around the children. He tried getting her a card but they didn't make happy birthday cards for people you didn't like. "If ya ever want me to fuck off, just use that pass." He shrugged.

Sakura was honestly so surprised Sasori even acknowledged her birthday at all. She was just expecting the usual. Him acting like he was on his period 24/7. With some attempts at being nicer to her after she pointed out it wouldn’t be good for the twins in the long run if they openly hated each other all the time. It still crushed her that it pushed Sarada to attack him.

She took the paper and frowned a bit, “Ya know, you could’a sketched me something, or painted me something. I would have hung it in the twins room. You may be an asshole, but I admire your work. Even your puppets when they aren’t killin’ anyone…” Even though sometimes the sight of the blades on them bright up some ptsd flashbacks that she was too prideful to acknowledge,

“I’m actually hoping one of the twins turns out to be an artist like you. Not the whole murder weapon thing… I don’t know. Have a peaceful life making art for people. I’m hoping you teach them art… I can’t. I’m not built to create.” Only to destroy and break things. Like her life. And her daughter’s life. God, she’s just trying so hard not to fuck over the twins too. Sakura often just wanted to blame him for everything but really, it was all her fault for sleeping with him. It was her choices that brought him into her family. Now she suffers the consequences of it. The consequences being the ones she loved the most suffering and it killed her. At the very least, he loved the twins. For how long, who knows. She’s surprised he head out this long with their crying but they’re mostly past that stage,

“While I have you here and you’re not ignoring me or treating me like the worst person on the planet… I’m having the back of the house renovated to be your room to do with as you wish. I can’t expect you to just live on my couch until the twins are adults. So I will have the room built and get you a bed and other things you might need. From there you can paint, do whatever you want with it.” He might be less bitchy if he had his own space to storm off to. They both benefited from this. She gets her living room back and he gets his own space to do whatever he does in his free time. Probably secretly hoping for her death. He’s probably waiting for the day she never comes home again. So he can celebrate her death,

“If you can put up with me long enough, I’ll even let you pick out your own bed and things you might want for your room. Consider it a thank you gift for being so good with the twins, and spoiling them, and attempting to be civil with me for the sake of the kids. I’m really not as awful as you seem to think I am.”

[blackaquokat]

Nobody asked me, but now that I've finished the main story of both Danganronpa games (Let's Plays, anyway, I'm going to play myself now), here are the thoughts running through my head. This post will be for the first game, I'll make another post for the second one.

(spoilers under the cut: I know the games have been out for a while but still):

1. It took me a LONG time to finish the first game after the first execution. I really liked Leon and not just because his design reminded me of Kirishima from MHA. I felt really bad about the situation he was in, even if, you know, he still killed Sayaka, his death was Brutal. I stopped watching for a few months because it haunted me, until my sister encouraged me to keep going because she wanted to talk to someone about it.

2. On that note, WHY, of all the available classmates, did Sayaka pick Leon as her potential victim? Why, if your goal was to kill, would you pick one of the Ultimate athletes? I feel like she would have had far more success if she'd chosen Hifumi or even Chihiro (sorry bb, I love you). Is there a lore reason behind it?

3. All that said, I am unfortunately interested in Leosaya content for the dramatic irony and tragedy of it, so if anyone has suggestions, let me know, and I also want to see Leon and Ibuki being best buds because she left her music group to pursue her actual creative dreams and Leon hated baseball and wanted to pursue dreams of being a musician and I can see them teaming up to be in a weird-ass band together. Someone direct me to any Leon and Ibuki platonic (or romantic, I'm down) content.

4. I think Leon is gaining blorbo status for me, but not as much as some other characters from the second game, but this is in no coherent order so bear with me, and also keep in mind, I have yet to play through all his possible dialogue in the School Mode version of the game so this is liable to change.

5. I went from waiting eagerly for Byakuya to die to being devastated that he died in the second game to REALLY HAPPY that that apparently wasn't even him (though I do like the Imposter & would like to know more about them). AND THEN to being so excited that he's apparently in a power throuple with Kyoko and Makoto, OT3s FOR THE WIN!!!!

6. Hina and Sakura were really sweet, and I Loooooove how protective Hina was, because yeah, the whole point of the fourth case was she underestimated Sakura's strength, but I also think Sakura deserved to be protected. Just because she's strong doesn't mean she didn't deserve people defending her.

7. On that note, ya'll, when I didn't know what to expect from this game, I legit thought somehow Mondo and Taka were going to die in that sauna. My stomach was in knots over it. Then they just. Were bros. And I was confused but on board with them (platonically AND romantically) and then the second case devastated me and not just because I had to watch Taka be Sad for so long.

5. I feel...so bad about the whole case with Mondo and Chihiro. They were BUDDIES. I know the whole point of the story is that people betray each other but God, imagine the "motive" you were given wasn't so much a motive as it was a fucking PTSD break and it lead to you killing someone that you were not only cool with, but who admired you for qualities you didn't feel worthy of, just FUCK--

6. If you let yourself stop and think of the Everything about these games and the stories, it really fucks you up, let me live in No Despair Land where everyone's friends with each other and there's no murder--

7. Also, the whole thing with Junko. I remember, before I took a break after Leon's execution, vaguely wondering about her last words? But it was a fleeting thought that didn't lead to anything, AND THEN IT CAME BACK AROUND??? So holy shit, that was cool.

8. Gotta say, as frustrating as a lot of repetitive stuff in the game got, I understood why it was needed for the case solving portion. As some of you can tell from my Clone Wars series with sweetiepie08, I LOVE mystery solving stuff when it's done right, and even if some of them are So SO convoluted, it's satisfying to see how they fall together.

9. The VAs in these games are fucking awesome. Even if some of the shit they had to say was ridiculous (which is par the course if that's your job), they did so damn good.

10. YA'LL, I legit thought Makoto was about to be executed, so when Alter Ego suddenly showed up and saved him, I shrieked, and then KYOKO found him, and I know a lot didn't happen after that except a shit ton of exposition, but I was so psyched.

11. *sigh* I don't know what the public opinion is of Toko, but she drove me insane with the debilitating inferiority complex. And then the Genocide Jack/Jill thing happened and I mean, at least she was...slightly more interesting with that, but still, I think Toko was somehow my least favorite out of the whole gang, next to Hifumi. I also would not have predicted that she'd be one of the final survivors.

12. I legit thought Hiro was going to snap at one point after his long period of denial at the beginning. I thought he'd snap and kill someone or get killed, so when he survived until the end, I was very surprised.

13. Tbh, I did not predict the endgame survivors for either Danganronpa. I think literally all I would have gotten right was Makoto, Kyoko, and Hajime. Everyone else was quite a surprise to me.

14. Not to compare another Danganronpa character to MHA, but I was super fond of Taka right off the bat because he's so Tenya coded, those two are definitely cousins or something.

15. Someone add onto my agenda of doing a Danganronpa x MHA fusion somehow, I'll make thoughts on another post.

16. I really loved Kyoko's dynamic with Makoto, idk why, and I just fucking love Kyoko in general, she's so cool. Sherlock Holmes, step aside.

That's about it! I'll make a post about the second game later.

[nalanzu]

Episode 19: Sehen - prelude to insanity

So 21 months later in the Real World but like, a week later in Weiss Time, we open on a crying girl who falls to her knees screaming. We then cut to a teenage boy listening to music, who also starts screaming as he loses his mind and flings himself from a second floor window.

I cannot in all honesty quibble with the episode title card's claim that seeing is the first step to losing one's goddamn mind.

Moving on, the flowershop delivery van is bringing arrangements to a theater. Incidentally, Aya knows way too much about being backstage, and Omi is far too cheerful about his claim that the warren of hallways and doors backstage mean that a fire breaking out would murder everyone in the building to death. I don't remember this episode ending in arson, and now I'm annoyed that this isn't foreshadowing.

Inside the theater, they find Sakura. You remember, the teenage girl, the high school student, the one that bears an eerie resemblance to Aya's little sister, Aya. (Who was kidnapped recently, as we recall.) Omi, that little rat bastard, immediately finds somewhere else to be with the air of doing Aya a favor.

Sakura tells Aya how she was trying to see him, repeatedly, but he was never at the shop when she went. Aya, facing the other way, says he wasn't avoiding her, and also tries to avoid agreeing to meet with her.

In a Dark Basement, a mad scientist type sits typing music into a computer. He is of course approached by Schwarz - Crawford. The two of them have some evil banter about how the composer's music will capture everyone who hears it instead of just half, before having a bit of a tiff as Crawford refers to the music as an experiment and the composer snaps that it's "sound art." Y'all are both just psychopaths.

It's the next scene where I feel the episode starts to veer off the rails - Omi and Yohji are discussing the relationship (or lack thereof) between Aya and Sakura. Omi is shipping them hard, because Sakura has some Very Big Feelings and it's rude of Aya to ignore them. Yohji, on the other hand, feels it's perfectly reasonable for Aya to be worried about his missing sister and also that Omi needs to find someone to bang instead. He points at a random high school girl wearing headphones, who - surprise surprise - starts screaming before running into traffic.

Very handy for them to see This Episode's Plot Device in person. To be fair, depending on how many people are listening to this particular CD, it is perhaps not statistically unlikely. On the other hand, one would think if it were that many people, someone besides Kritiker would sit up and take notice.

Back at the flowershop, our four assassins share some weirdly light-hearted banter about dead teenagers, including Ken teasing Yohji for not being able to understand a woman's heart and Yohji pointing out, again, that he does not want to fuck children. It is at this point, with spectacular timing, that Sakura walks into the shop and the entire team encourages Aya to go have a romantic rendezvous with the jailbait. Literally all of them. When he clearly wants nothing to do with her.

The Aya and Sakura conversation involves Sakura pushing Aya as to how he's related to girl!Aya, and when he reveals that it's his little sister, Sakura tells Aya she's in love with him. Aya very clearly tells Sakura that he does not return her feelings. Repeatedly. Sakura points out that he entrusted her with his sister, and wonders if she was just conveniently there or if it was because she looks like his sister, and also she thinks he's up to something besides the flowershop work. It's a clumsy monologue, clearly hinting at Sakura seeing Behind The Veil, so to speak. (This is, in fact, foreshadowing.) Aya attempts to shut it down multiple times before literally getting up and leaving. However, he throws out this gem before walking out the door: "I don't deserve to be loved by anyone."

There. There is so much to unpack here and we're only halfway through the episode.

Meanwhile, Omi is sadly watching from across the street. Omi is a bit of a creeper. Sakura, however, thinks Omi is an appropriate confidant and apparently relays the entire conversation.

After the commercial break, we apparently have a bit of a timeskip ahead to Yohji, Ken, and Omi in the flowershop talking about how Sakura hasn't been around "since then." Yohji and Omi think Aya was a cold asshole. Ken says he understands where Aya is coming from. In theory, one could infer that Ken was having a bit of empathy. I strongly suspect, however, that this is not actually the case, because it is not Dramatic enough.

Meanwhile, the news is playing a story about a suddenly violent individual. The viewer, of course, immediately understands that the composer in cahoots with Schwarz has finished his next piece. Weiss, on the other hand, are shocked and appalled. The news mentions that hundred(s?) of young people have been running amok. Ken, our adorable Captain Obvious, realizes it is Not A Coincidence.

We have cut back to Sakura, who is failing at track and field. Because she is Sad. Also, Aya is stalking her, via the very conspicuous flowershop delivery scooter. JFC.

Omi, having remembered the one screaming girl had headphones in, is apparently the only person to put togther the clue that all the people going berserk were listening to music. IDK how, but he is. He decides they need a copy of the CD, so instead of BUYING ONE, they go stalk one of the victims' families and steal it.

Then, in a stunning display of self-preservation and good judgment, Omi PLAYS THE CD where they can all hear it. Aya and Omi are unaffected. Ken and Yohji shortly begin to scream. Omi, with nothing more than a 90s computer, figures out how the music works on the brain. (I cannot help but feel that one would need a lot more information, a lot more equipment, and a wider pool of test subjects to make this determination.) Am also not sure how Omi determines there's no permanent brain damage to Ken and Yohji, but here we are.

Birman appears to give Weiss their mission, as they have been Investigating and know who composed the music. This may or may not have been down to some very basic detective work, given that these are CDs that are literally sold in stores. Birman tells Weiss they have to murder the composer before he plays his new song in front of 50,000 people. Meanwhile, I wonder if anyone has ever heard of soundcheck.

Weiss do make a very dramatic group in their Assassin Clothes at the venue. Backstage. In suspiciously empty hallways that suddenly produce Schreient. Shenanigans ensue. Said shenanigans, however, do have a banger soundtrack. Seriously, the music in this show is so good. Nothing ELSE is, ok, but goddamn.

Schreient is foiled by some dart-assisted metal grates while Weiss rushes to stab a guy to death on a stage in front of, again, fifty thousand spectators. As he is not yet on stage, our Villain of the Week decides he will protect himself from the oncoming assassins (and how does he know they're coming...?) by playing his new song. Of course, it has a Dramatic Effect on everyone around him. Not, however, on Weiss, as they are wearing earplugs. Clever boys.

I was not kidding about Stab To Death, by the way. Aya gets the kill this week.

He is, of course, for maximum effect, witnessed by Sakura. He is remarkably sanguine about the fact that this random teenager knows he's a murderer and doubles down on the reason he can't return her feelings being that he does not deserve to be loved. This concludes the episode.

There are a few themes I want to explore here; the sound-as-a-weapon is a solid B plot (and it IS the B plot), although it's not particularly well fleshed out. I love a good non-traditional mass murder method, and this one is usually pretty fun. The extremely convenient timing of Kritiker's investigation and Weiss basically stumbling into the solution to the mystery are quite clunky and contrived, but that's partly a flaw of the medium itself and partly because the majority of the screentime and emotional weight of this episode have been given over the the main plotline.

Aya and Sakura, both of whom need a good smack upside the head with a brick.

Sakura has been pushing and pushing at Aya while he clearly says he's not interested. She's been imposing on Weiss in general and Aya specifically since her introduction, and the narrative continues to paint her in a sympathetic light. Much of this sympathy is generated by the rest of Weiss cheerleading the relationship on because of the intensity of Sakura's emotions. At no point does any character seem to understand that Sakura's feelings do not entitle her to any part of Aya and that she needs to put it back in her pants or that this clear and obvious harassment is in fact not acceptable behavior.

I don't say this to bash Sakura, who is acting very much like a teenager. I do side-eye the writers. Sakura is clearly an audience stand-in with whom we are meant to sympathize; we are meant to feel her pain when Aya rejects her. And that's valid! It's not inappropriate for her to shoot her shot... once. It's the fact that she does not take no for an answer that crosses a line. It's that Aya's FRIENDS seem to think that Sakura's feelings entitle her to his time and his person, and how they have zero concept of a boundary. No means no, guys, and doing something your friend expressly says he does not want because you think it's for his own good is incredibly fucked up. This is bad and they should feel bad. The narrative, however, thinks they are absolutely correct in this course of action, as evidenced by the reasoning behind Aya's refusal of Sakura's feelings.

Aya, on the other hand, is playing the victim. He does terrible things, and then very publicly expresses self-hatred in an obviously manipulative bid for sympathy. "I don't deserve to be loved." My dude, if you truly feel this way, there are two course of action which need to be taken. Yes, both of them. One is therapy. The other is to stop murdering people to death.

By painting the rest of Weiss as correct for continuing to push Sakura at Aya, this specific storyline is furthering some very harmful ideas - that emotions entitle one to someone else, that ignoring someone's stated wishes in order to "help" them is the right thing to do, and that being flamboyantly upset about a problem you have created is somehow the mark of a tragic hero.

Apparently Weiss has no concept of a healthy boundary.

.....and somehow I still love this terrible show. FML.