#I have really intense feelings about the non-simulation v3 survivors' concepts of Identity but I struggle to articulate it

[g0nta-g0kuhara]

(ouma anon) ngl always saw as shuichi just being a fanboy MSMFMSMFMMZV dork

OKAY LOOK. Here's my take on pregame stuff:

I really like thinking about pregame personalities as concepts that haunt the actual canon version of the characters, specifically the survivors in a non-simulation post game. I'm not even sure they're real or if they're something Tsumugi made up to make them feel more despair. That's why for a while I insisted on calling them "audition tape" versions of the characters rather than pregame, because that's what they are to me. They only exist in those tapes.

I like creepy/distressing art of fanboy pregame shuichi because it adds to the horror of Tsumugi's killing game. These were *real people* being used as fictional characters in the killing games he was obsessed with, and the world at large also loved it. Art of pregame Kaito channeling his passion for greed/fame rather than adventure and uplifting others is so against the hope he brought Shuichi, Maki, and other members of the cast that it adds to the horror of the Ultimate Real Fiction reveal. Pregame Kaede, optimistic until the very end Kaede, being so hateful towards the world also adds horror to the reveal.

But when it comes to thinking of them as actual characters interacting with each other, I start to lose interest. Because those aren't the characters that I spent a year getting to know yknow? They're completely different people, and ones I'm not sure exist outside of those audition tapes.

It's also why I don't really want to think about pregame Gonta. Because Gonta's backstory and his personality in canon are so important to me that I bristle at the idea that "in reality" he was actually different. Especially if he was like. extremely violent or charismatic or something else extremely opposite to who he is in game. Which I guess is the whole point and Would add to the horror of the reveal, but STILL.

TLDR; pregame Shuichi is a fanboy who is also very intense and even creepy but is also only a metaphor. Thank you for listening to my rant