#I will never shut up about sdr2 chapter 4

[gundhams-pandemonium]

okay, Here me out: [Warning, Spoilers for Thh, Sdr2, and V3]

Gundham had a really well thought out plan, however there was many places where he could go wrong/people could get in the way [One of such, With Fuyuhiko who was in the break room] H O W E V E R

It makes sense that a lot of his plan relied on chance, Because he wasn't trying to get away with it. He wanted them to figure it out, but he also wanted to show them it'd be challenging. He wanted everyone to live, but he didn't want to give up his persona of being evil. Because it's harder to lose a friend then an enemy [Even if they saw through his act in the end]

It's just AHhhhH, A lot of characters sacrifice themselves And/Or do bad things to save everyone [Sakura, Gonta, and I'd put Kokichi and Kaito on this list too. I'm sure theres others but brain no work rn] But only rivalved with Sakura's(Because her trial and death I'd heartbreaking and horrid and she desvered better But still her narrative was amazin), I belive Gundham's [And Nekomaru] was done the best

[floorbe]

INSPIRATION HAS STRUCK. ok id like to order a gundham x reader where (SPOILERS FOR SDR2 CHAPTER 4, 5, and 6) reader is the killer of chapter 4 instead of gundham (bc HE SHOULD HAVE SURVIVED) and when reader wakes up from her ✨c o m a✨ (because like you know she was executed) gundhams just there, waiting and comforting her as the memories (killing, being executed, gundhams heartbreak as she said goodbye, etc) come back✌️🥺 and so shes just apologizing but gundhams like its ok!! ty in advance🥺💕

yeah!!! spoilers under the cut// tw death// tw descriptions of execution 

God, why does everything hurt so much? It feels like you’ve been dragged to Hell and back with the amount of burning coursing through your body right now. Stabbing pains hit you everywhere they can reach, and you let out a whimper as it hits you full force as you come back into consciousness. You barely notice the blinding light that unwelcomingly greets you as you try to open your eyes, too overwhelmed by the rest of your (Broken? It sure feels like it) body.

The stark white ceiling above you doesn’t help your eyes get used to the new light, and you end up groaning quietly instead as you try to make out your surroundings. What had you done to make you end up here? Your mind is foggy, and the last the thing you remember is-

“Y-Y/N!” a familiar voice startles you from your attempted memory, and you snap your head to the door, instantly hissing as the motion causes more pain to shoot through you. You feel your hand being taken into someone else's, shakily interlacing your fingers together as the newcomer sighs softly. You struggle to make out their features, your eyes are still adjusting, but you could never forget how his hand felt in yours. 

“G-Gundham,” you rasp out, blinking blearily as you feel his head clench around yours, “Wh-what...?” Your voice breaks off, and you realize just how dry your throat is. Gundham seems to realize your plight, for he releases your hand for a moment and you hear his footsteps receding. Your eyes are finally able to recognize your surroundings as Gundham enters the room again, holding a small paper cup and sitting in a chair beside your bed.

You take the cup with shaky hands, pausing to frown at how disheveled Gundham looks. While he’s always had dark circles under his eyes, they’d now become much more significant. Coupled with his messy hair (he’d always made sure to keep it pristinely in shape... what happened to you?), it’s obvious that something had been keeping him stressed. 

You take a sip of the cool water, licking your lips as you feel it run down your coarse throat. You greedily gulp down more as it brings relief, only briefly trying to hold yourself back from drinking too much at once. It felt too good to wait, and suddenly you felt parched. How long had you been out? Another question to the ever growing pile. 

As you hand the cup back to Gundham to set down on the desk beside you, you feebly try to remember anything from what happened before you were knocked out. What had you been doing? You remember... being hungry. You wince at that intense memory. At least you don’t seem to be too hungry anymore, you try to reason; or maybe you just don’t feel it yet.

You’re interrupted yet again by Gundham; this time he grasps your hand within both of his own, and when you look up to meet his gaze you hold back a gasp at the unshed tears in his eyes. “M-my dear,” he starts, and you can hear his voice crack as a tear rolls down his face, “I-... I thought you...” He intakes sharply, averting his eyes as another tear streams down his cheek. 

You reach your free hand up to cup his face, bringing him back to look at you. “Gundham...” you start, “What... what happened?” There’s a moment of silence, confusion warping his face as his eyes flick around yours. He swallows thickly as a look of realization crosses over, and he bites his lip harshly, seemingly to keep more tears from falling. It doesn’t work. 

“Y-you- you don’t recall,” it’s a statement more than a question, but you nod anyway. He squeezes his eyes shut, his hands tightening their grip on your hand as he lowers his head. “Oh, my love...” he murmurs, and you can see his shoulders jerk as he silently sobs. 

You feel dread fill the pit of your stomach as you tug him closer to you, sitting up more in order to take as much of him into your arms as you can in this position.

Hungry. You were hungry. Why were you hungry? Why didn’t you eat? 

Right, you realize as images of strawberry and grape house flash in your mind, it was a motive. What else? 

“Y-you...” Gundham suddenly speaks up, head raising to look at you with a pained expression, “You k-killed Nekomaru, Y/N.” 

...What?

A sudden image of robot Nekomaru flashes in your head, and you gasp as you watch your hand reach out to hit the button on the back of his head. You barely register the tears filling your eyes as the lump in your throat rises, making your breath hitch as the memories flood through you.

“Oh, God,” you sob, “Oh, God, Gundham I-I did kill him...” 

Then, as suddenly as your memories of Nekomaru came, come the memories of you being executed. You remember Gundham’s confused and hurt expression as you’d said goodbye to him, and a panic starts to rise in your throat. The tears overflowing from both of your eyes as he sobbed, asking you why. Why didn’t you tell him? Why did you take that risk for us? Why not him instead? 

You vividly remember the metal claw tightening around your throat. You were yanked backwards, the choking sensation overriding any fear you felt as you watched the other survivors hold Gundham back as he immediately tried to sprint after you. 

“Do not take them!” he had screamed out, sobbing as you watched him fade from view, “Not them! I volunteer, take me inst-!” 

You remember the excruciating pain from your punishment. The mashing of your body as you felt it break, as you felt the life in your form slowly drain. You vaguely remember hearing screams, sobs... whether they were yours or your classmates, you can’t tell. And then nothing. Dull, numb, soothing nothing. The strong ache in your bones suddenly makes sense, and so do the many wrappings around the visible parts of your body.

You’re brought back to the present as you feel Gundham’s lips press against the back of your hand. Refusing to meet his gaze, you hunch over into yourself, violently shaking as guilt sends sparks of emotion through your body. You sob out apologies to him, your shoulders  jerking as he quickly takes you into his arms, holding you tightly to him. “I-it’s okay, my dear,” he shakily reassures you, his breathing staggered as he tries to calm himself, "It- it’s going to be alright, now.” 

It shouldn’t be alright. You killed Nekomaru. Even if you did it to save everyone, you still killed him. You’re about to go on about how he shouldn’t be holding you, shouldn’t be crying for a murderer like you when the door slams open. You both flinch, heads snapping to the door, now hanging off of its hinges. Dread seeps into you as you watch Monokuma’s short body enter the room; you’re painfully aware of the maliciously humorous glint in his eyes, and if he could smile, you’re sure he would be.

“Well, well, well,” he starts, and it sounds like he’s holding back a laugh as Gundham’s hold tightens, “Look who’s finally up! I gotta say, I really didn’t expect you to live through that one! Everyone out there is so-o tense wondering whether if you’re going to wake up or not... talk about a tease!” He raises a paw to scratch the back of his head innocently, “Guess I’ll have’ta try harder this time!”

You and Gundham share a panicked glance before Gundham speaks, an edge to his voice, “Listen to me, bear-” 

“Well,” Monokuma cuts him off immediately, sharp teeth gleaming as he advances towards you, leaving you clutching Gundham’s coat as he futilely moves in front of you to shield you from him, “It’s time for the thrilling sequel to our cliffhanger! For the hopefully last time, because who likes trilogies, right?” He cackles as he reaches behind him to reveal a button. The button. “Let’s give it everything we’ve got... again! It’s punishment time!” 

[toraashi]

writers on tumblr I’m obsessed with lately (+ why I’m obsessed)

good afternoon I’m 3 hours away from getting off work and about 3 minutes away from losing my mind due to boredom so here is this go follow all these individuals and give them all your love because they’re amazing and their writing deserves all the love and attention in the world 🥰

Author: @nagito-kissmaeda:

Fandom: danganronpa (specifically SDR2)

Rating: 18+ (there are sfw works tho)

My Thoughts: kay listen… i’ve been rereading all these fics over and over for the past week and I can not get over how perfectly nagito is characterized 😭♥️ I love how much attention there is to emotional detail in these works. Like the surroundings are important ofc ofc but I think one of the author’s strong suits is conveying emotion through small actions. Like you can tell the characters love each other, but it’s through the twitch in their eyebrow rather than some straight to the point claim. It makes it feel real and tender even tho the characters are basically being tortured the whole time. Like despite everything horrible happening around them there is still a touch of humanity and it’s found in the smallest of nuances that feel like a hidden gem to the reader, a saving grace sort of thing. also the smut is great So yeah go check these works out.

Personal Favorites: arcade (sfw), lapse in judgment [chapters 3 and 4 have me 😳😭🥵😞] (nsfw 18+), alone at the edge of the universe (nsfw 18+) and the professor komaeda ones are hot as fuck okay that is all thanks

Author: @gureishi

Fandom: Mystic Messenger

Rating: 18+ (with some sfw fics)

My Thoughts: another author I just literally read from religiously anymore. The author’s writing feels so mature and cohesive that it’s so compelling to read. It flows so smoothly while also leaving you on the edge of your seat. The main thing that stands out to me about these fics is how adult the relationships are. I love the healthy dynamics and the way it’s so clear that each character actively works to maintain a positive, healthy and stable companionship and it’s just so fulfilling to read. LIKE ESPECIALLY THE SMUT FEELS LIKE THIS like leading up to the sex just feels so legit and like home-y? Is that a weird way to describe sexual tension? It just feels intimate and familiar. Like even in sex the characters feel really deeply for each other no matter how kinky it gets I guess. Listen idk if that made sense but the point is I really really like it. Also the titles are so cool teach me how to make good titles pls.

Personal Favorites: kiss me harder (yoosung), the only love i’ve ever known (yoosung) [nsfw], gentle fingers (saeran), breathe, darling, breathe in deep (saeyoung) [nsfw]

Author: @kisskunimi

Fandom: Haikyuu

Rating: 18+ only

My Thoughts: okay okay okay I will never ever shut up about this blog ever ever. Every piece of work is stunningly beautiful and literally feels like free verse poetry in the best way. The flow is very stop and go and the “stop”’s are utilized in such a brilliant way to emphasize some of my favorite lines in writing. (I see this especially in learn me, it’s so stunning) This author takes some of the most cliche metaphors/similes/common descriptions I see in fanfiction today and gives it a new feel. I was gonna give an example but it’s so startlingly present in all of the author’s work, so please just go read them, they’re phenomenal and make me feel like life is worth living if I can find a love that feels like this.

Favorite Lines: [I had to include this for this author, some of this writing is brilliant] there’s also more than this but these are my top favorites

“But in your arms he could fall. He could fall and land softly” - learn me

“He can look at you when you talk and see the stars shining in your irises like they somehow came down to earth to possess you. And he looks, he looks and longs.” - learn me

Personal Favorites: instantly (iwaizumi), learn me (akaashi)

[kazziesangel-moved]

💔💉 😨 (the guilty will be... chiaki)

Thanks for the ask Jadyn :3

(and don’t tell Nagito I told you but he was gushing about you earlier. I can tell he’s super happy with you)

Warning: There are actual Danganronpa Trigger Happy havoc and Goodbye Despair spoilers in here (especially near the bottom) as well as character death mentions

Also holy shit, this got long *hopefully the read more works*

💉 Despair AU! What are they like in Despair/ infected with the Despair disease?

in despair/as a remnant: I’m not sure how to describe it but think Junko, but way less mentally fucked up(for lack of better wording) while still loving despair as much as junko.. (maybe like remnant! Mikan but less submissive..)

Despair disease:

In THH, she gets it after chapter 2. Due to when she gets the disease (a bit after Leon’s death and right after the death of both someone she trusted and someone like a brother to her), she becomes a lot more apathetic/bloodthirsty, even attempting to kill the others multiple times (her attempts never succeeded)

In SDR2, she’s not as hostile with the disease but still have the apatheticness (is that even a word?) like in THH after she got it. They basically just stop caring about living or dying and have way too neutral of a reaction to death for it to not be off-putting.

😨 *Chiaki* has been found guilty! What’s their reaction?

In short, she shuts down and almost has a breakdown due to the trauma/stress from chapter 3-5 catching up to her on top of her closest friend after Ibuki being guilty/blackened..

Long reaction/rambling:

During the beginning of chapter 5, she’s recovering from the trauma of both seeing her best friend dead/that whole trial (Chapter 3) and getting almost killed herself (Chapter 4) so she almost breaks down after finding out her closest friend after Ibuki was a/the blackened/guilty.

The closing argument onwards, she just shuts down and is apathetic like if she had despair disease. She definitely couldn’t watch the execution though and she had to hide behind someone so she wouldn’t see it

Little side note but the breakdown I mention she almost has? She definitely breaks during Chapter 6 after seeing Junko due to THH events

💔 What do they do after a trial/execution? Do they do anything at all?

Since it’s kinda a case by case basis, I kinda included reactions during the trials/executions too but it should get the general idea across

Chapter 1 in THH: During the whole trial, she’s super defensive, refusing to believe Leon’s a murderer but after the execution, she lashes out at everyone for letting Leon die while also blaming herself for not doing anything to sabotage it. Afterwards, she just hides away for a bit in his dorm to cry and promising to avenge him while hugging one of his jackets

Chapter 2 in THH: During the whole end of trial-execution phase, she has mixed feelings. In a way, she’s happy that two of the people who voted Leon guilty are gone but sad about it since Chihiro was someone she could trust and Mondo was like a brother to her. I have this whole thing for after the trial/execution but in short, THH!Becca confronts Junko and she ends up getting the despair disease due to Junko taking advantage of her grieving over Leon and brainwashing her.

The other THH chapters: Due to the despair disease, she’s strangely happy about every execution since to her, it was one less person to deal with herself at the end of the day. After Chapter 2, she’s even carried a mini checklist on who’s still alive.

--------------------

Chapter 3 of Goodbye Despair: I wrote a whole thingy here on my old blog about her reaction immediately post trial but after the execution, she says nothing and just hides away to cry/break down/finally give her chance a grieve. (Also little fun fact but in her canon, she’s the one who finds Ibuki dead)

Chapter 5 of Goodbye Despair: *see the chiaki is found guilty reaction for that*

[nadisabug]

Fictober 2019-Day 4

Title: Chapter 4: Broken

Prompt number: 4 "I know you didn't ask for this." Fandom: Danganronpa (SDR2) AU: ;) a surprise Rating: T (Teen for cursing) Warnings: angsty, other than that, none Tags: SuperDanganronpa2, Komahina A/N: This one got me :( poor Hajime, I love my idiot son so much... but I love angst so much more :)

°°°°

Komaeda had a concussion, a high fever, the tail ends of pneumonia, and a small laceration on his head.

Despite that, he was laying on the makeshift bed looking as perfect as ever. His high cheekbones and sharp chin made him look regal, even though he was laying on a thick comforter on a desk wearing nothing but the gown Tamaki changed him into while Hajime pointedly looked away. His soft, fluffy, white hair framed his head, spread out over the pillow. While his eyes were closed, Hajime could still see them in his mind. The warm, green gaze that shook him to his core.

After Tamaki had done all she could do, she left Hajime alone in the room with the sleeping patient. He settled into a worn desk chair next to the bed and promptly forgot about the rest of the world. At some point, Tamaki had come back in, citing Hajime's need to eat as her reason, and dropping off some rations. He did not touch them.

Other than that, Hajime was left alone.

"I missed you," Hajime finally spoke, his voice hoarse and weak from disuse. "I know... I know you haven't missed me. And that's okay but I-"

Hajime stopped to swallow the emotions rising in his throat. "You know, I half expected Chiaki to storm in here by now." Hajime chuckled weakly. He glanced down at his hands as he wrung them. "She was so upset. Tamaki ha- oh, you don't know her. She's one of the girls who used to be in my class. You might know her sister, she's um, gosh it starts with an m..."

Hajime looked up at the ceiling as if Tamaki's sister's name was up there. "Last name is same as Tamaki... Tsumiki... Tsumiki... Oh! Got it, Mikan. Tsumiki Mikan. The Ultimate Nurse, if you want to go with her title."

Hajime looked to Komaeda, expecting some sort of confirmation that he recognized her. Instead he kept snoring lightly.

"Well, anyway," Hajime licked his lips, feeling himself redden in embarrassment. "She had, um, heard from her doctor friends that Hope's Peak had been dumping some stuff on citizens, making them act weird. They'd get this really high fever and just completely lose it. Their entire personality would flip. Had to be some sort of delirium." Hajime paused, then shook his head. "Whatever. The point is that they've been doing some sketchy stuff and Tamaki told Chiaki. Chiaki wasn't too happy about that and told me that I couldn't do my debut until they had figured out what was going on. We had been hijacking the programs for some time now, but I had never, you know, like appeared. This was my first time, so I wasn't about to back down. The citizens needed me; the broadcasts were just not cutting it. So I told her I was doing it anyway, danger or no. She only let me because it was supposed to be a small one, since attendance at the Hope Demonstrations have been decreasing at a steady rate- you probably know that though- and there shouldn't have been any risk. Still, she hated the idea, so the chances of me actually going were so very slim. But I did. And the chances of you being there were so, so small."

Hajime smiled at Komaeda. "But you just so happened to be there." He chuckled and reached out to push a strand of hair behind Komaeda's ear. "You always had such great luck..." Hajime's hand lingered longer than it should have. He just let it hover there, basking in the warmth of Komaeda's feverish face. Hajime's fingers were just a hair from touching Komaeda's cheek, if he so much as-

Komaeda shifted in his sleep. Hajime yanked his hand back as if he had been burned. He cradled it in his lap, frowning down at it.

"Ch-chiaki would normally have yelled at me by now," Hajime stuttered, forging through. "But she hasn't. And it's because of you." Hajime spared a glance at Komaeda to ensure he was still sleeping. He was. Hajime looked back down at his hand. "She knows... What you mean to me..."

Hajime shifted in his chair. "Everyone here treats me like I'm a hero. It's not enough that they elected me as their leader, but they treat me like I'm a... like a..." like I'm an Ultimate. "Like I'm special or something. Like I'm strong. Like I'm smart or good at something or important in some way. Like I'm their hero."

Hajime shook his head. "I'm not though. They think that I'm the one who was strong enough to oppose Hope's Peak. That Kamakura was a disease that I fought and overcame. None of it is true. You are the only reason I got through it. Your disapproval of me when I was..." Hajime's voice caught and all he saw were flashes of red, white, black, and blonde hair. "Lost... That was how I got the strength to pull myself together. If I hadn't... If Kamakura hadn't ran into you that day, he would have gone through with her plan. But instead... I emerged... And now I'm here."

Hajime frowned. "They think I'm their last hope, but really I'm nothing without y-"

Hajime froze. During his last sentence he went to look at Komaeda again, to see if he was asleep or to just look at him Hajime did not know.

But what he did know was that Komaeda was not asleep.

Hajime fumbled out of his chair, standing up in his haste to back away.

"I uh, I um, uh," Hajime sputtered, trying to find the words that were coming so naturally moments before.

"I don't want to hear your stupid voice," Komaeda snapped.

Hajime closed his mouth. What.

Komaeda struggled to sit up, but only managed to scoot up a bit higher on the pillows. Once he gave up, he turned and looked at Hajime.

"Why are you here? I don't want you here. I don't want to see you or hear you."

Oh god. Everything in Hajime deflated. He remembers me. Hajime thought he had forgotten since the last time he saw him he... fuck.

"Why am I here?" Komaeda continued, his sweet voice twisted with fever and malice. Komaeda's voice, the voice that Hajime had missed so much, had that steely edge that Hajime knew all-too-well and Hajime hurt so bad. "Why am I not at the school?"

"I'm sorry," Hajime blurted. "I know you didn't ask for this. Any of this. I picked you up and shouldn't have and I am so sorry."

Hajime risked looking at Komaeda when he did not hear him respond. Komaeda's face was twisted with confusion, and Hajime didn't know what to make of this.

"I did not wanted to be rescued by you," Komaeda spit, venom palpable in his voice.

Hajime did not know what to say. He looked down at the ground, and took a tentative step back. He knew this would happen, he knew Komaeda would remember him and hate him because of it and never want to see him there was no way he could ever talk to Komaeda or even get close to him he was so stupid-

"Hey," Komaeda barked, his voice crackling with the mucous in his lungs. Hajime met his eyes. They were their usual green, but there was a coldness to them, a darkness, a black tint that sent electricity shooting through Hajime. "Get out. I don't want to be near you."

Hajime couldn't respond. So he nodded and turned around. Then he walked out of the door. He shut it softly behind him, like if it made a sound everything that was Hajime would shatter, and leaned up against it. Clutching it. He wasn't sure if he could stand on his own.

Hajime knew damn well it was going to be like this. He didn't expect anything different. He knew Komaeda would remember and hate him or find out what he supported and hate him or reject Hajime...

He knew all of this.

So why did he feel so broken?

[96percentdone]

What about 6, 7, 8, 9 and ten for Komahina?

6. Least favorite canon moment of them?

This isn’t really a moment so much as a mechanic but I really don’t like how Komaeda’s free time events are locked off if you don’t talk to him once on day one in chapter one. I understand that yeah Hinata wouldn’t want to spend time with him, but I think it really gets in the way with the idea they keep trying to emphasize of Hinata wanting to understand him. Like chapter 5 comes along and Monokuma is like “wow you really understand Komaeda-kun” and Hinata’s like “I really don’t shut up” because Hinata doesn’t feel like he does. But it’s hard to really feel like he put in much of an effort in canon as it is, and having those events be not available if you just don’t do it in that. It gets in the way of the message being sent and it really was just like avoidable by just NOT having that be a mechanic.

Also it’s just fucking stupid as hell to lock Komaeda off after chapter 1 because what about all the people who decided they cared about Komaeda’s life AFTER chapter one’s reveal like. it’s dumb kodaka. it’s a stupid mechanic.

7. Favorite headcanon trope/idea? (Your own or someone else’s)

I really like komahina fics where it takes Hinata 10000000 years to realize he’s bi and he’s having gay feels. I don’t really like it when it plays into the fujo trope of Komaeda being like his exception and he’s never had gay feelings before, and some internalized homophobia or some shit, yadda yadda, but I like when Hinata is just exceptionally emotionally oblivious because it makes my day when he figures it out.

Ideally what happens is Hinata realizes not only he has a crush on Komaeda, but he’s had like several other gay crushes before, and like even some het crushes he just missed because they were more low key than he expected of them, and just goes “wow I’m a dipshit” and I, the reader, cry, because he’s so oblivious but I love him. 

I actually. When I used to run an ask blog. Because I’m a sap and also this is the best idea I ever had. I had Hinata’s very first crush be on Komaeda. Who he met when they were kids for a very brief period where they never quite got each other’s names, and Komaeda’s hair was its natural, not white color, and it was gonna take him a bit to realize that too but I didn’t get that far. Komaeda doesn’t remember this at all because his life is too much of a trainwreck. if i ever wrote a komahina slow burn this would happen for real. i’m too much of a sucker.

8. Least favorite headcanon trope/idea? 

I mean besides all the weird fujoshi fan favourites, like the ones I just talked about, or yandere Komaeda, etc…can we fuckin stop with the “chapter 3 but Hinata realizes that Komaeda is actually being gay and confessing his love for him” fics because like we have 20000 of those are we not bored yet. did we not beat that trope into the ground. it was fun for a while but now its just exhausting.

9. Favorite aspect of them/their relationship dynamics?

all of it. AAALLL OF IT. I wrote like an entire post about why Komahina is great actually I’m just gonna link that shit right here and move tf on. It’s good kids. komahina is good.

10. Least favorite aspect of them/their relationship dynamics? (Can be headcanon)

The part where Komaeda dies and his arc and their relationship is never capitalized on in canon in a meaningful way. This is the long part but it’s also the best part of the whole post so under the cut:

Okay to be clear, I don’t mean I wanted sdr2 to end with a big damn kiss or whatever, that’s not fitting at all. I just feel like killing off Komaeda absolutely destroyed his character arc but also the dynamic and thematic exploration that was going on up until that point. Like chapter 5 is a brilliant chapter and it makes sense for Komaeda to do that but it’s also a god damn waste. 

See, what was really great about their dynamic, was how Komaeda constantly challenged Hinata’s perspective of hope and himself by almost being a more extreme version of him. Komaeda is so fundamentally warped by the concept of talent and hope, that Hinata in an attempt to distance himself from that is forced to reevaluate himself. In chapter four Komaeda tells Hinata “you aint got no talent” which just crushes everything Hinata had his hopes banked on, but…it’d be better if that happened to Komaeda too.

Maybe you think “but Skylar Komaeda was crushed he learned they were all despair” to which I say “that’s not enough and it doesn’t change him or his perspective on the world.” Komaeda learning they’re all despair just fuels him into pulling off his most elaborate greater hope gambit yet which he wins fuck you fight me. It doesn’t change his worldview, not like chapter 4 does with Hinata. He just doubles down. Chapter four, in essence, is the heroes low point, and one where the view of the antagonist seems to have been bolstered. 

….And then it stays like that. Komaeda’s idealogy is never effectively challenged. Komaeda dies believing he is correct, doing the same shit he’s been doing from the start, and chapter 6 doesn’t really call him on that. This is actually like a really big problem with dangan ronpa in that they set up an in-group antagonist who they then never really finish up that resolution in a meaningful way for the conflict. Sure in chapter 6 Hinata is like “FUCK THAT HOPE OR DESPAIR, FUTURE!” which kind of addresses it, y’know hope was Komaeda’s whole thing and it’s being rejected, but Komaeda’s idea that hope comes from despair is not proven wrong, and that the greater the suffering the greater the happiness. Hell, you could argue that because of the ending, where the characters learn the worst about themselves and overcome that to become their best selves and be happy, Komaeda was only proven correct. Komaeda dies believing he is right, and then the narrative indirectly confirms he is right. It’s uh…it’s not good. 

But…y’know what would be better, and more interesting? If Komaeda lived. Say his chapter 5 gambit just…failed. Like Kuzuryuu or Hinata or someone finds him while he’s tying himself up in the warehouse and the fuckin domino panels don’t completely fall over because sometimes dominoes are like that. Or maybe they do but Kuzuryuu or whoever doesn’t get to throw that one grenade before the sprinklers go off. It doesn’t matter. What matters is Komaeda lives. And he’s confronted. 

It’s important Komaeda fails this because this is what will crush his entire understanding of the world. Komaeda’s luck cycle isn’t real, it’s a coping mechanism. (His luck is real it just doesn’t work the way he thinks it does, all it does it make things that are super unlikely for most people extremely likely for him). Komaeda believes greater hope comes from great despair because that’s how he thinks his luck works. His luck makes him miserable, and then gives him something really awesome to counter it! What his luck gives him is never actually enough to justify his suffering, but he has to believe it does. This is Komaeda’s ultimate gambit for his worldview, the greatest feat he thinks he can pull to create the greatest hope from the worst despair, and…it fails. It fails, and he lives, thus also not grating his really obvious death wish. Komaeda, having banked his whole worldview and every wish on his luck, failed. It didn’t work. He was wrong. Where does he go from here?

Not only that but Komaeda’s talent failing him to such a massive degree would showcase to Hinata truly how little talent would actually save him or make him better. Komaeda banked everything on his talent and he was ruined by it, and maybe Hinata can find that happiness he was looking for elsewhere. Maybe there are other reasons he can be important. Maybe talent isn’t the only thing that matters. This is much more satisfying than Nanami just being like “hey hinata stop bein a lil bitch and love yourself already” in chapter 6. 

So chapter 5 has our hero on the recovery path, and Komaeda in a state of like existential despair. But…here’s the thing about Komaeda. He can recover too. Komaeda, like all of them, is not hopeless. He doesn’t have to be ruled by his despair, which is a big thing about chapter 6. Chapter 6 is a lot of going “yeah fuck that we were horrible and shit and we’re gonna own it but we’re not gonna let it define and ruin us. We’re gonna move past it, and be better.” And that…boy does Komaeda need that. 

Komaeda’s whole life was defined by his luck effectively making him miserable. Unlikely horrible things keep happening to him and he get poor compensation prizes occasionally, and he’s given up. He wants to die. Sure he talks a lot about finding the greater hope, but his actions convey that deep down, that greater hope to him, despite everything he says, is death. And now he’s no longer convinced of the worldview he’s been selling himself, and he’s left with nothing but his own despair. Something he doesn’t think he can move past.

Can you imagine how powerful chapter 6 would be if Hinata wasn’t arguing with Enoshima over the value of their future, but was actually trying to convince Komaeda of it? Enoshima thinks she’s got this in the bag because there’s no way the miserable Nagito will ever fuckin agree to the shut down when he’s given up on everything, and Hinata says no. No, they don’t have to give up. There is more than their pasts, and their talents, and the vague concept of hope, there is still the future, and for that alone it’s worth trying. It’s enough to live and move forward for the sake of living and moving forward and being better than you are, even if it seems hopeless.

Hinata realizes that they’ve all been focused on the wrong things. That it’s not about hope, or despair, or talent, or banking yourself on these ideas, it’s about the future you can make, and it’s not ruled by abstract concepts. And I think him teaching Komaeda this and it resounding throughout the other survivors and they kick Enoshima’s ass and then you see Hinata at the end choosing to live as himself, because being himself is enough, and you learn the sdr2 kids are doing what they can to live on, is like way more potent than like canon. 

[magioftheseas]

Hiyoko & Yasuke

Summary: Saionji Hiyoko’s FTEs in the SDR2 Protagonist Matsuda Yasuke AU. Yep. They’re different enough from canon, I swear.

Rating: PG

Warnings: Language...? Hiyoko’s still definitely a bitch. Matsuda is, too.

Notes: This was a prize for correctly guessing the reference in Chapter 4 of the main fic! Since Hiyoko deserves more appreciation, I cross-posted it to here. Her and Matsuda predictably bicker and don’t get along that well, all things considered, but they have an enjoyable banter and a surprisingly interesting relationship. Since I probably won’t be able to portray it to its fullest in the main fic, I was pretty okay with writing up this. It was pretty difficult tho so FTEs for the entire cast is looking like a far-off dream lol. If there’s interest in certain characters (and/or a request I accepted/a thing I was commissioned), then ehhhhh maybe more to come. Maybe.

Read this fic among others HERE

Main story is HERE

Commission? Donate?

By all accounts, this is a shitty fucking idea but...

“One! Two! One! Two! Left! Right! Left!” A giggle. An intake of breath. And then, she wails. “Waaaaah! Some fucking creep keeps staring at meeeee!”

“I’m just astounded you’re still not bored with squishing thoraxes,” Matsuda muttered, already questioning every single choice he could’ve made that would lead to being in this situation. “Do you have a vendetta against drones or what?”

But I guess it’s better than stomping crabs.

Saionji snorted.

“And now the weirdo creep is asking me strange questions. And in such a droning voice! I hate it!”

“Sorry, my baby talk is pretty rusty. But if you’re that whiny, would you be pacified with a candy?”

“If it’s lemon I don’t want it!” Saionji exclaimed, looking absolutely affronted.

“...”

Matsuda pulled out a lollipop.

“Orange, then?”

“Give it! I’ll never forgive you if you don’t!”

“Alright.”

Somehow, with that little exchange, a devil’s contract had been formed.

FTE#1

“Mm, mm.” Sickening smacks of the lips, and Matsuda really was wondering how things turned out like this. Saionji looked pretty content, at least. “Hey, hey, Matsuda-nii. You wanna know what I think about you?”

“I can’t imagine it’s positive,” he replied. “Even if you weren’t a yappy bitch desecrating our serene cultural beauty, I get the feeling you would still think I’m kind of a dick.”

“Mm...” Just like that, Saionji’s wide, watery eyes filled with tears. And she begin to sniffle. And she wails yet again, “I ABSOLUTELY WOULD THINK THAAAAAT! MATSUDA-NII’S SUCH A JEEEEEERK!!! A P-PERVERTED...SHIT-SPEWING...COMPLETE ASSHOLE!!!”

“At least most of what you say is true and everyone knows it.” With a roll of his eyes, he dropped a crumpled up handkerchief into her lap. “So shut the hell up. Do you have any fucking pride at all? Pathetic.”

“U-Uu. The worst. The absolute worst. You even gave me such a shitty fucking rag.” Irritated, she still fiddled with it. “Did anyone even teach you how to fold?! Oh.”

She quiets when she sees that there’s a candy tucked inside. It’s wrapped up cutely in pink and orange polka dots. Her face pinches up so much so she looks constipated. All the same, she finishes up her lollipop so that she can unwrap this new candy and pop it into her mouth. Bitterly, she seems to like it a lot.

Not that Matsuda is really looking at her anymore.

“You really are a pervert, thinking you can pacify me with that.”

“I forgot about it,” he said, shrugging. “But think what you want. I’m not interested in the line of correcting stupid, stubborn brats.”

She hiccuped, sniffling and blowing her nose on his handkerchief.

“I-If you were really sorry, you’d get me the sweet I really like.”

What makes you think I’d fucking care? And anyway...

“You mean those gummies you always eat?” Matsuda asked,  Just pick them up at the damn supermarket. You’re a big girl, aren’t you?”

“THAT’S NOT IIIIIIT!!!” Saionji shook her head furiously. “Dummy! Stupid! Perv! That’s just ordinary candy I happen to like! What I really like is special!”

“Shut the heeeeeell up,” Matsuda snapped. “If you want me to figure shit out, don’t be so fucking vague about it. Haven’t you ever been to a doctor before? Shouldn’t you know this?”

“U-Urgh.” Grumbling, she wiped irritably at her eyes, glaring back at him darkly. “What I really like is special, sweet, small, and shaped like a star!”

“Oh.” Matsuda inhaled, nodding in understanding. “Confeito.”

She nodded back.

“Well.” Matsuda rubbed at the nape of his neck. “I dunno what to tell you, then. They don’t have that shit at the supermarket.”

Just like that, Saionji’s face turned to stone.

“And even if they did, like hell I’d share any with such a bratty, yappy troll.” Matsuda frowned. “Do you really think that with a face like that, and if you cry, that you can just get people to do whatever you want? You’re not even a kid, you’re the same fucking age as me.”

Saionji bit her lip.

“Still, I guess confeito’s at least good taste,” he sighed, shrugging. “Small yet intricately designed, sparkling like the stars they’re based off of. They’re works of art, along with flower candies along with the kind of aesthetic treats enjoyed at a tea ceremony. Personally, I’m a big fan of Mont Blanc, too.”

“Too sweet,” Saionji muttered darkly. “Foreign sweets are way too disgustingly sweet. They’re uncultured.”

Matsuda gave her an unimpressed look.

“Even castella?”

“M-Mmgh.” Saionji fidgeted, seething as she did. “Castella is...it’s... It’s fine, but...”

“Buuuuut? What?” Matsuda’s brow furrowed. “What’s got you so bitter?”

Saionji got to her feet, eyes brimming with tears again, and she shoved him down none too gently. He grunted as he landed harshly onto his back.

“Big! Stupid! Jerk!”

He only barely managed to avoid her stomping feet and just as he glared, she had already rushed off, leaving him in her proverbial dust.

And what the actual fuck was that about?

He sputtered a bit.

Seriously what the hell?

Sighing, he shook her head. He wasn’t in the mood for chasing her, especially considering the shit she’d scream at him if he did, so for now, he’ll just leave her be.

FTE#2

Unsurprisingly, the next time he saw her, she turned away in a childish huff. Since he had time to think about it, even though he hadn’t really wanted to, he can figure that she was probably pissed about...being called out on her shit.

Predictable.

He would’ve just given her time to sort that nonsense out on her own, but Saionji kept sneaking angry glances. Kept sneering. Kept turning away with a childish huff.

Oh for fuck’s sake. What a goddamn nuisance.

So, in the end, he approached her first after all.

“Yo.”

“Gross.”

“I’m not going to apologize,” he snapped, unaffected by her look of contemptuous disgust, even as he retained his usual scowl. “So if you’re trying to guilt me, it’s not going to fucking work. Just. Letting you know.”

Saionji bristled, but then, she sighed heavily.

“Of cooooourse not. I’ve known that from the start that fake tears weren’t going to do shit on someone like you,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You’re awful. Super cold. The kind of person I hate super much even if it’s not the most.”

“Were those tears really fake?” he asked, unimpressed. “If you knew that it wouldn’t work, you wouldn’t have reacted so strongly.”

“Shut up.” Her expression would’ve terrified a weakling like that mechanic guy but Matsuda just met her glare coldly. “A filthy, shit-spewing asshole like you should just keep his trap shut.”

He shook his head, tilting it with a twisting frown.

“And you can’t even be bothered to say please? You’re about traditional dancing, right? Where’s your fucking formality?”

Saionji reddened with anger. With a stomp of her foot, she huffed and then, with trembling shoulders, she mumbled, “You really are someone I super hate very much.”

He waved his hand.

“Then, there’s really nothing more to say,” he said, and he turned on his heel. “I’ll get out of your sight then, brat.”

“Y-You really don’t feel bad or guilty at all?!” she sputtered. “Where’s your heart?!”

“Bedside manner is reserved for patients, and I don’t have the patience for someone like you,” Matsuda snapped.

“W-Wah...” Shuddering, Saionji’s breath hitched as her fists balled. “T-The worst. The worst. I hate you so much!”

Urgh.

“I don’t really hate you,” he said. “But I can’t exactly say I like you, either. Then again, with the way you act?”

His head was throbbing, which was even more irritated. It was only worse when Saionji wailed and wailed.

Urgh. Urgh. Why do I...?

“Will you shut up, you bitch? Shut up!”

Unsurprisingly, she just got louder.

“Shut up!”

And louder.

“Shut...!”

And louder.

“Saionji, for fuck’s sake!”

Saionji’s mouth shut, but she was glowering darkly and viciously. Chin tucked, with eyes hooded yet bright with fury.

“Call me that again and I’ll fucking kill you.”

And now she’s actually threatening me?! Is this the same gremlin or is it now the other one? But more than that...

“You don’t want me to call you by your name?” A pause. “Your family name? What? Is your family that bad? Well, the rotten apple doesn’t fall far from...”

He ends up trailing off as she scoffed, lips trembling, eyes glimmering.

I’m treading into sensitive territory, here.

“Just don’t use it,” Saionji snapped. “It’s an awful wretched name and I hate it more than I hate you.”

Matsuda opened his mouth to say something, but for once, he thought better about it and kept his trap shut.

...your family name, huh...

Saionji ended up being the one who turned on her heel and stomped away. Matsuda watched her, feeling a weird twist in his gut. Guilt, maybe? Gross.

I might’ve gone too far after all. Shit.

FTE#3

“Yooo.”

“Grooooss.”

Saionji sneered as he shuffled his hand into his pocket. Grumbling lowly, he ended up pulling out a bag of sweet buns and very nearly flings it into her face. Saionji’s expression shifts to unreadable, but she immediately opens the bag. Her beady eyes are expectant as she takes a bun and bites down into it.

“I actually should apologize for before,” Matsuda muttered, averting his gaze. “Family matters can be delicate, I guess.”

That said.

“I’m not really going to pry into said family matters, mind you. That’s really none of my business. So it’s whatever. Just take what you will from it.”

“Mm. Mmf.” Saionji chewed and swallowed, blinking at him a few times with those childishly wide eyes. “You really are suuuuuper fucking pitiful, huh? You have no grace in apologizing at all!”

Matsuda grumbled.

It’s whatever. Whatever. Just what the hell am I trying to accomplish, again? Fuck.

“Yep!” Saionji giggled. “You act all high and mighty but you’re just one of many unimportant losers under me! So you should just accept your place as a slave and don’t bitch so much!”

Matsuda blinked. And he held up his hand.

“You’re about thirty-eight centimeters too short and about a hundred years too young to make those kinds of demands.” He rubs at his nape. “Still. Sorry about earlier.”

“I don’t forgive you,” she chirped. “Not until you grovel.”

“I’m not that sorry.”

“Awww! Then what good are you even for?”

“Do you even remember what my talent is?”

“Nope! Why should I?”

Matsuda rolled his eyes.

Playing around with a spoiled brat really isn’t a worthwhile use of my time. I should just leave.

“You’re a doctor, right?”

Just as he had turned on his heel, the words gave him pause. Saionji’s tone was high and cheerful, but lowered in pitch when she clicked her tongue over the syllables of doctor.

“If you’re a doctor, then you should stay by my side.” Another click of her tongue, followed up by a giggle. “Don’t you know? Anyone with the surname Saionji is cursed to die.”

If he hadn’t been drawn in before, he was definitely curious now.

“Bloodlines are always targeted by organizations and are often subjected to assassinations,” she went on, waving a bun around as though it were a fan before stuffing it into her mouth. She had some manners to chew and swallow, touching her lips before finally going on, “Since I’m head of the family, I’m a target, too. I’ll get pins in my shoes, dead mice on my bed, food poisoned, and stage lights dropped on me. I’m in a lot of danger, Matsuda-nii. That’s why you have to protect me.”

“That’s w̴̡̫͆̃͗̓̃h̴̞̤͂͒̊͋̕ỷ̷̛̻̓̿̽̀...”

A sudden striking pain in his temple, and Matsuda was immediately snapped out of the moment. Grumbling, he rubs at his temple, and he grimaces at Saionji’s innocently blinking eyes.

“That sounds like you need a guard, not a doctor,” he huffed. “If that’s what you’re so concerned about, why not indoctrinate one of those two meatheads or something? Well, I can’t speak for their observational skills, but...”

“But nothing!” Saionji shrieked. “Those two are sooooooo boring! Owari’s so gullible that she’ll believe anything I say! What’s the fun in that?!”

“There’s also that I’m a specialized doctor,” Matsuda added, exasperated. “As not fun as it would be to turn up with pins in your feet, that’s not my field. I wouldn’t be assigned to work on that. Pins in your skull, on the other hand...”

Saionji’s cheek puffed until they looked rosier than cherries.

“If general health issues are a concern, then go for the healthcare committee chick,” he said. “Tsumiki Mikan, was it?”

“Mmgh.” Just like that, she went from pouting to splitting with a smirk. “She is really fun to mess with.” Just like that, her smile quickly dropped. “You, on the other hand, aren’t much fun at all. Just when you were showing potential, too.”

Potential?

“You really are hung up on your manipulative act, huh,” he mused. “What’s even the point of that? You clearly aren’t that good at it. You’re way too easy.”

“What was that?” she asked, gaze hooded.

“Playing dumb isn’t going to help, either,” Matsuda said, gaze drifting to the side. “You’re too obvious. Despite some shallow similarities, you’re actually nothing like...”

He stops. He blinks. Once. Twice.

Just...what was I in the middle of saying?

His head hurt. It really hurt. It was as if all his thoughts came crashing down in a heavy heap that dig into his head deep enough to pierce nerves. It really fucking hurt.

“Matsuda-nii?”

Saionji sounds as confused as she does frustrated.

“I... I-I need to go.” His mouth felt dry, head and heart pounding, thoughts in shrieking, shattered remains. “Right. Away.”

“Hey, what the hell, Matsuda-nii?!” When he took off running, Saionji yelled after him. “H-HEY, MATSUDA-NII!!!”

He could hear her, but it was detached and distant, as if she didn’t even occupy the same plane.

FTE#4

The next time their paths had intersect, Saionji was, as per usual, pretty pissed right off the bat. But this time, her glare bore into him intensely, almost searchingly, like there was something she needed to see and yet nothing yielded. She was frustrated. Still confused. About what had happened.

Which was fair, Matsuda had no idea what the fuck he was on about earlier either. Truth be told, he barely remembered it because he downed so many pills afterwards that he passed out. As it stands, he’s just grateful he didn’t get his idiot ass seriously sick. He’s still a little drowsy and out of it, but keeping his body active should work wonders.

He should avoid anything that aggravates whatever that was, which would include Saionji. But. Even if that’d be good in the short term, he had a bad fucking feeling about the long term.

And so here they were. Matsuda lowkey wanted her to stomp on his foot and storm off because this intense, glaring silence wasn’t doing anyone any favors. His head doesn’t hurt, but he’s tired.

So. So fucking tired.

“...you don’t know what happened either, huh.”

Finally Saionji does speak, shuffling so that her hanging sleeves press together at the ends, hiding her curling fists.

“You know...” She stomps her foot. On just the dirt. “You really started acting so freaky and weird! It was scary! You should’ve showed up with sweets to make up for it, Matsuda-nii! Why didn’t you?!”

“Urgh.” Glumly, he digs through his pocket and pulls out another wrapped candy. He then unwraps it and pops it into his mouth, making Saionji shriek. He only shrugs. “I haven’t really been in the mood to give away snacks that I can just eat myself. Sorry. I guess.”

“You pig! Your perv! Y-You pig perv! You’re the worst!” Saionji sobs. “J-Just the WOOOOOORST!”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it.” Matsuda swallows down the candy. It itches his throat a little. “So. Now that we’ve come to an understanding, we can just not bother with each other anymore.”

Saionji sniffled into her sleeves, shoulders hitching.

“I still don’t have any interest in catering to you,” he went on. “And I’m...”

Just so...so tired.

But he’s alert enough to avoid, Saionji trying to stomp on his foot for real. However she does latch her sticky fingers onto his coat.

“You owe me! You’re not going to just tap out, you jackass! Meanie! Jerkface!” She blows her nose on his coat, to his recoil of absolute disgust. “I-I... I demand compensation for emotional turmoil! Five bags of sweet buns! E-Every day...for a week!”

Matsuda’s response was to none too gently wrench her off of him from the back of her kimono. She wailed, and he doubted that it hurt that much. All the same, she only shut up when Matsuda muffled her sobbing with his handkerchief, pinching her nose until she blew on that.

“A lab coat is shit for doing anything about mucus, you fucking idiot,” he hissed. “And that many sweets will rot your teeth! Just how unreasonable are you? Not everyone signs up for brat sitting, so are you really that spoiled? Or are you just stupid?”

Saionji hiccuped but smacked his hand away despite keeping his handkerchief for herself as she continued blowing into it.

“I swear.” Matsuda grimaced at the stains on his coat, wiping it off with the spare handkerchief he carried around with little success. “If you wanted to keep hanging around for some unfathomable reason, you can just converse like a normal person. Like about manga or something?”

“M-Manga is...for gross pervs.” Saionji’s trembling like a leaf. “I-It’s for gross, disgusting, pedophiliac pervs!”

“Oh for fuck’s sake.”

“N-Novels are way better!” she wails. “L-Like The Madness...of Nakazu!”

He does perk at that. Sucking in his breath, Matsuda threw his head back.

“I Am A Cat isn’t a bad read,” he mumbled. “It’s probably my favorite of Souseki-san’s.”

Saionji nodded furiously.

“Right, r-right!” She sneezed, hiccuping and rubbing at her eyes. “What a miserable, wretched time period! How sad for Souseki-san to be surrounded by...by awful, wretched, stuffy pigs!”

Your behavior isn’t much better than those ‘stuffy pigs’.

Matsuda sighed.

“Although isn’t it disrespectful to disregard an entire medium because of a few undesirables? There are works that put emphasis on long-standing cultural ideas and aesthetics.”

“There are too many works that don’t!” Saionji exclaimed, heated to the point that her grip on the handkerchief was white as bone. “They stress other super undesirable ideas and aesthetics! And they pander to such a low brow! There are ideas that far more deserve to be retold and retained in the public conscious! And with such an influx of shit, those ideas are getting muted and muffled, overturned and overwhelmed by what’s nothing more than trash...!”

“Hhh... I can’t argue with all of that, but don’t rip anything.” Matsuda waved his hand. “I’m too tired to argue period. So just tell me about Madness of Nakazu instead, you stupid brat in a kimono.”

“Gladly! It’s about a father who...for his daughter’s sake...”

And such was how he spent his free time. He still had to wash his coat afterwards, which wasn’t great.

FTE#5

“Matsuda-nii, you seem like the kind of person who falls asleep in the middle of performances.”

“Well, that wouldn’t be a wrong assessment.”

“You really have no class at all!” Saionji laughed and there was a cruel edge to it. “Aren’t you ashamed?”

“Not particularly.” He shrugged. “Performances like that are sometimes meant to evoke a sense of serenity, so I still appreciate them even if I fall asleep. The effect that visual arts have on the brain isn’t one that can be understated.”

“Oh, right, you’re a brain-obsessed brainiac.” Another cruel, childish laugh. “That’s so weird.”

“Understanding this is how we put to words the effect and significance of the emotional reactions the arts evoke. It also shows just how deep our biologically-ingrained empathy runs,” he rambles on, not giving her much thought. “For example it is believed that we map the movements and actions of others onto our own somatosensory system. When a dancer leaps, the audience soars. Adrenaline pumps in response to the sight of death-defying acrobatics and stunts. That kind of thing.”

Saionji fidgets, frown twisting.

“That’s nothing exclusive to traditional dancing, though,” she pointed out. “It completely ignores the importance of how in order to set my audience at ease, I must first be relaxed to my fingertips!”

“Yeah.” Matsuda blinks, rubbing at his eye. “There is that.”

“Traditional dancing isn’t just about showcasing beauty! It’s about evoking the feeling of that beauty!” Saionji exclaimed. “It’s about making everyone feel the same love for that beauty that I feel! Which is far more important than just the clinical explanation of it!”

Matsuda hmphed, brow furrowing.

“Similar to your passion for the dancing, my passions lie in those clinical explanations,” he snapped. “It’s rude as hell to dismiss them, especially when they’re the foundation keeping your performance afloat. Even if you moved beautifully, if people were incapable of that empathy, the necessary stimulation required for that appreciation would be unreachable.”

Saionji seemed pretty unimpressed with that.

“I shouldn’t have to hear this from someone who just falls asleep!”

“I don’t always fall asleep,” Matsuda griped. “I wouldn’t fall asleep during your performances, for instance.”

Because I do have a sense of self-preservation.

“If you do, I’ll publically humiliate you and post it online,” Saionji seethed.

“I definitely wouldn’t. I’ll make sure I’ll stay awake if it’s you.”

“...”

Saionji bit her lip, playing with her sleeves for a bit.

“Y’know... Daddy used to say the same thing, but he was way nicer about it.”

Hmm?

“I thought you didn’t like your family?”

“Daddy married into it, so he’s fine.” Her frown deepened. “But my family name really is important, as my hag grandmother used to say.”

Maybe she’s the disliked family, then.

Matsuda decided not to push the topic.

That’s not my place to barge in on. Family matters can be delicate.

But he remembered, vaguely, The Madness of Nakazu, about a father who went crazy in order to protect his daughter. How they lived happily ever after, and how real life wasn’t always that simple.

“I don’t like your tone,” Saionji said, apropos of nothing and ironically making it easier on him. “But, y’know, I don’t always hate the things you say.”

And how am I supposed to respond to that?

“Alright.”

Brilliance.

“You really are super uber pitiful though, Matsuda-nii,” Saionji said, eyes wide. “But that’s alright. Once you accept your place under me, I’ll definitely protect you.”

“No, you won’t.”

“No, I won’t!” she laughed again. “Like hell I would!”

“Yeah. I’m not surprised.”

But, y’know... I think I have a pretty good picture of your character.

“If you do fall asleep in the middle of my performance,” Saionji said, lowly and seriously. “I’ll never, ever forgive you.”

“I won’t, I won’t.”

All things considered, I guess we’ve gotten to know each other reasonably well. I don’t see us getting all that close for obvious reasons. This bitch is still a major pain in the ass and ears with her shrill whining, but...

“Promise you won’t! Swear on your life!”

“I won’t.”

She’s not the worst person and weirdly enough, dealing with her is nostalgic, almost bittersweet.

But if I think too deeply on that, it’ll definitely hurt.

[ryouverua]

Trial 5 - Pre-Execution

Investigation 1 / 2 - second half is where I put my own theories that I penned before playing the trial.

Trial: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8

HOW MANY TRIALS ARE GOING TO END WITH A CONFESSION ANYWAY

Hnngh - okay, this is actually happening now. We’re having a post-trial talk with Kaito before we send him off to the gallows. Cool. Cool. Cool cool cool cool -

marvels again that on the most basic detail I was right but as a whole I was very, incredibly wrong about what went down

This is going to be a weight for her to bear for a long time, huh.

He’s trying so hard to stay positive and cheer everyone up - how can you be so upbeat right now???

well I guess there’s the fact that he’s had plenty of time to come to terms with his own death since yesterday’s events but -

get this man an Oscar 

Kaito is low-key impressed just saying.

I’m sorry when the fuck between the extreme muscle spasms, seizures and general shut down of his body was he supposed to have written this? Was this something he started before all this happened? Was this a contingency plan? omg - was he thinking of Shuichi when he originally wrote the script and came up with a ‘in  case something happens to me’ trial plan, then filled in the details up until he died to match the exact circumstances of what actually happened? He did ask Shuichi to be his partner last chapter... how long has this particular plan been in his head for???

How hard was it to swallow his pride and ask Kaito for help instead of Shuichi?

going for those Beatrice vibes even beyond the grave, huh

PLEASE ELABORATE PLEASE -

DAMN IT -

okay I see what the game is trying to do here. And I appreciate it going and highlighting how clever Kokichi is for his foresight, his planning, and his general awareness and understanding of the people around him. That is coming through loud and clear.

But can we talk about Kaito’s ability to ad-lib on the fly, in character, and react to all the situations he was presented? Because Kokichi could not predict the exact future. He clearly planned things, not just in the general sense, but there is only so far a mere mortal could go.

“When Shuichi brings up these points, counter with those.”

“Flatter Himiko to throw her off. Here are some sample lines. Push it as far as you need to to make her flustered.”

“Play on Tsumugi’s ‘everyday boring girl’ syndrome.”

“Here are all the insults I’ve come up with to use at K1-b0 to distract him. Choose the ones that fit the moment, or use them to come up with your own if needed.”

“These are turns of phrases I use to project my incredibly important image.”

“Here’s a 20 paragraph speech I’ve prepped as a giant SCREW YOU to Monokuma, you can break it up as you need to but you have to make sure you get through all of it at some point because I want to rub this in his face and if I’m not there to do it you NEED to do it for me.”

I’d laugh if he had scripts and script notes denoting possible variations, but there’s just a bookmarked page partway through the script and it’s this long  anti-Monokuma manifesto

Anyway, I want to admire Kokichi’s planning, absolutely - but I also want to appreciate Kaito’s own skill along with it, because I don’t think they should take from each other at all. Even if he broke character a few times (which is even more hilarious in hindsight), he was utterly convincing in full acting mode!

:(

.... does K1-b0 power off his eyes when he wants to look incredibly depressed... sorry, utterly distracted for a moment...

(Himiko looks depressed too - I’m just trying to not literally upload every single frame of the scene already and it’s HARD.)

Fucking hell Kaito, with all of your self-aggrandising talk why is it now that you can’t understand why everyone is upset?!

Well... I mean, I do kind of get it. Trying to make everyone around you happy - in general, and with themselves - is practically your raison d'être. And right now, you’re the reason everyone is so upset. But still, it’s only because everyone cares about you so much!!!

Kaito put on a pedestal and pushed off of it - check. 

How?? Like, how did he phrase it??? Did he decorate it with his normal sureme leader talk? Did he lay out that Kaito basically owed him a debt now? Or did he leave it with just ‘Maki will be the blackened if you don’t do this’?? I have a feeling that whatever I get from the flashbacks, it still won’t be enough 8′D

In the last chapter? Or longer? ... It must have been longer, right? He was writing on that stone since at least chapter... 2? 3? and was talking to Monokuma in Chapter 4. 

LMAO WHAT A CASUAL WAY TO DROP THAT PARTICULAR KNOWLEDGE BOMB

“Oh shit really? Wow, go figure.”

i enjoy kaito’s mildly shocked face here

HOW MUCH GEAR DID YOU GET MIU TO MAKE FOR YOU??? Am I going to have to pore over all of your interactions after all??? You guys gave each other so much crap during the trials and outside of them??? You had that ridiculous black-and-white scene in front of the computer??? How close WERE you two before she lost herself to paranoia?!

I can’t help but think everything with Gonta was improvised based on how events were unfolding around him. Would he have still tried to do the same thing if Miu hadn’t been making an attempt on his life? Or did he know that at some point down the line he would have to orchestrate a murder to convince everyone that he was the mastermind? Was this something he had to steel himself to do, or was that always in the back of his mind as an option from the beginning?

I’m sure that last bit upset Kaito the most - he was Gonta’s most stalwart defender in the last trial.

I haven’t seen this sprite in a while, jeez. Or... have I seen this sprite before??? It’s definitely similar to the ones he showed in Gonta’s trial, but I don’t recall him being so, erm, sweaty then.

#calledthat

That has to rankle more than anything. He highlighted Maki’s talent repeatedly and continuously called her out about it, and then this. 

The fact that he’s framing it as ‘the true mastermind is at fault’ and not putting it all on Maki is interesting. I wonder if Kokichi just sees Maki as a weapon as opposed to a person? Accurately in this case, perhaps...

Frowning/serious Kokichi is so strange?!?! Not that there’s any reason for him to be smiling here, but it’s really telling that he can’t even bring himself to do it here. This is probably the closest we’ll get to seeing his true feelings and thought process, huh...

Whelp I just went back to this part after writing a whole blurb a few screenshots down and the ‘mastermind doesn’t remember they’re the mastermind’ theory I concocted for fun just died an unceremonious death. I did enjoy those brief few minutes of my oddball ‘Maki doesn’t remember she’s the mastermind’ theory while it lasted so I’ll leave it up for you guys to laugh at enjoy! Unfortunately Monokuma being in time-out debunks it unless there are two masterminds.

If we tie this to the funeral scene... I proposed the idea that the flashback lights give their brains scenes to work with - aka that they aren’t necessarily actually their memories, but perhaps someone else’s, for example - and that their brain works to interpret them and make sense of them, and generally fit them into their own world view. I think it’s becoming accepted now that memories themselves are somewhat pliable and can even change during each ‘recall’. So if they were given the flashback light that said, ‘hey, there’s a cult working to destroy you all and it’s led by the traitor in the group, X’, their brains would fill in ‘X’ with Kokichi based on the context at the time. It also gives room for the idea that I originally had, aka that the talents and perhaps even memories they all have aren’t necessarily their own - that they could have easily had their talents switched between them in the prologue, and the fact they landed like this was just a coincidence - and the one known as ‘Kokichi, Supreme Leader’ could have easily one of the other classmates in a different timeline. The mastermind would be able to have the ability to adapt to any scenario, if that was the case...

lmao yeah that was pretty obvious

So even Kokichi never figured it out in the end? That’s pretty significant - the kid is basically a living lie detector. That leaves four possibilities that I can think of:

1) The mastermind isn’t actually among us. I highly doubt that - we’ve been building to a reveal from the beginning, even as far as having Shuichi find the door in the library. 

2) The mastermind is among the dead - someone Kokichi never got a chance to ‘read’. The best candidates for that would be Rantaro and Kaede. Rantaro would be the almost too obvious choice, between his memory loss, the video where he tells himself ‘you wanted this’, and his general intelligence and knowledge of the proceedings - and, hell, his lab door. Alternatively, this would be a good way to bring Kaede back into the game - we did see a shot of her wearing that helmet too, and also it would be nice to see her again tbh 

I just... don’t think this is the case though. Not only because we’ve done that with Junko already, though that’s a bit one, but because everything was set for DR1′s twist from the beginning - 15 students and 16 stands, the ‘odd one out’ murder aka Mukuro, etc. Rantaro’s video is certainly hinting at something, but I’d be shocked if it was leading to his reveal as the mastermind.

DEBUNKED :( 3) The mastermind doesn’t have their memory. Now, we’ve already done this with SDR2 so I really, highly doubt this is the case but if it is this way the best choice would be for it at this point in the game to be Maki. I mean, Shuichi would have been viable too... if he wasn’t the protagonist, because then we’d really be retreading old territory. Anyway, here’s the fun ‘what if’ for why Maki!mastermind could potentially work - it would really add onto Kaito and Kokichi’s conflict. Kokichi never liked Maki from the start, and antagonized her repeatedly - what if it was he sensed that potential in her? What if she was sent to infiltrate the mission by the cult and have everyone killed like this? And on Kaito’s side, he spends big chunks of the game trying to redeem her. What if it worked? What if it turned out that both Kaito and Kokichi were right, as a follow-up to this chapter where they both set aside their differences and work with each other (and, well, are killed by Maki). What if Kaito turned someone who had the capability to set up this game into someone that wouldn’t? There’s so ground that could be covered in this direction - I mean, I doubt it’s true which is why I said from the getgo that I highly doubt it’s the case, but it would be a fantastic reason to have highlighted her character so much and really give depth to, well, ‘tsundere assassin learns to love’. I could go on about this tbh...

4) The one I’ve been partial to for a while now... the mastermind is someone who specializes in lying. In putting on a mask. In breathing life into a persona, inhabiting it, becoming it, until it’s indistinguishable from their own identity - perhaps becomes their identity in those moments, to the point that Kokichi wouldn’t be able to realize they were lying. Oh, Kokichi was incredibly adept at it, sure - but he was recognized for his leadership skills, as unorthodox as they may have been. There’s someone else still alive, however, whose talent addresses the concept of ‘becoming another person’ has not been showcased much if at all to this point. 

now mind you other than the proclivity for cults shown in chapter 3 and references to escapism, I still haven’t gotten a proper motive in mind but at all but hopefully that’ll come next chapter??? anyway I’m getting distracted again

kokichi has the heart of a gamer

You just know that’s Kokichi’s game face. I mean, Kaito has his ‘optimistic!’ face on right now to give him the strength to face his own execution - maybe this is Kokichi’s way of comforting himself too?

THAT MUSIC CUT!!!

“ALSO HOW THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING THAT WITH YOUR EXPRESSION, IT’S JUST THE TWO OF US, CAN YOU PLEASE TELL ME BEFORE YOU DIE -”

Could it have worked the other way around? If Kaito let himself die, Kokichi pretended to be Kaito in the exisal and it was left decide whether ‘Kaito’ mercy-killed ‘Kokichi’ via the press or if he died by poison first, would that have been viable? Probably not as effectively... it would be a lot easier for them to believe Kokichi was pretending to be Kaito, less believable that Kaito wouldn’t show himself in the exisal, and a whole host of other factors. Maybe not, then.

And of course Kaito asked Kokichi that, because if he’s going to be committing to a plan this wild he needs some assurance.

Then there have to be people alive, right??? But they saw the burning ruins around them when they tried to leave, and even collapsed because of the air quality - so what, did they crash land in an area that was wiped out or something? But there are still places where people are alive?

It was a test, then.

... Gonta... has to have been a heavy weight on his conscience. I think we can officially say his breakdown over him was real if he would go so far as to try and end the killing game like this - and if Gonta was a necessary sacrifice, it was one Kokichi was pushed to make when he had few options left.

I think the chess analogies I’ve been associating with him are accurate at this point, and it would even be fair to say that if you were to think about Kokichi’s strategic thought process, the allusions are almost necessary - the whole game is about exchanging pieces in order to get a more powerful position on the board and eventually corner the ‘king’, and at some point Kokichi looked at the board and his available moves, as well as the ‘piece’ Miu Iruma putting him in a ‘check’ position, and realized that his only option was to intercept her with ‘piece’ Gonta. I also like using chess here too because there’s duality in that too - there’s the side of Miu that Kokichi can and clearly did use for his strategies, and the side that the mastermind used by way of motive.

Ah, and of course I’d be remiss to not mention that Yu-Gi-Oh! the card game works well too here (hell, it comes up in his FTE) even though it’s less accessible; it’s a game where more powerful moves require sacrificing lower level ‘monsters’, and there’s a literal graveyard they’re sent to. Also, unlike chess, playing from the graveyard is a legitimate strategy in YGO . I’m sure, especially after this trial, Kokichi can relate to that strategy in particular.

Or maybe as they’re suddenly starting to imply it’s more like the ‘Black Book Club’ ala YYH? There must be people alive then, right? ... So maybe... people who survived through unscrupulous means and sheer force of wealth and need some sort of entertainment??? They remembered being kidnapped at the beginning of everything, right? Were they intercepted before the gopher project had a chance to play out and now they’re being kept in an isolated facility somewhere meant to replicate the ship, but it actually isn’t the ship at all? Wait, when did I start wearing a tinfoil hat - ?!

Kaito is defending Kokichi, everything is right in the world

Shuichi: Please don’t redirect the spotlight at me - ah, shit shit damn it shit 

“It’s just like Kokichi said!”

mm thank you game, keep feeding me merci beaucoup

Himiko just gobbles up any bit of positive attention thrown her way with the obvious and incredibly glaring exception of Tenko??? man I really need to do her FTEs or something - does she just not know how to handle straight-up affection or -

i n h a l e s

KOKICHI OUMA

IS NOT

A REMNANT OF DESPAIR!!!!

K1-B0 YOU’RE KILLING ME HERE!!!

This just makes me wonder if betting and big money in general is wrapped up in all of this. “Who is the mastermind? Now gentlemen, place your bets before the reveal!”

MAKI IT’S THAT ATTITUDE THAT GOT US IN THIS SITUATION IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!

tsun

dude he found a way to save Maki and potentially stop the game, I would hardly call it ‘evil’.

“I mean, I was hoping we could cut straight to the chase, but you’re actually a decent guy at the end of the day, and unlike most of the rest of the class don’t actually want me dead. Damn it.”

Fucking hell, between the music and his faces it so so easy to frame him as eeeeviiil!!! And yet just looking at the text in isolation, it reads:

“But are you sure you’re okay with that? Because if this poison kills me, then Maki would become the blackened. And her crime would be exposed so easily.

If that happened, then Maki and I would’ve died for no reason, right? Which is just what the true mastermind expects...”

And yeah sure it still has a bit of an edge to it, but it’s way more ambiguous when presented outside of his “Supreme Leader” aura which apparently can warp both his face and music.

Kaito is still trying to filter this through his ‘hero vs villain’ narrative, bless his heart. Either that or this is a heavily edited version of events - it would be interesting, even if it’s unlikely, if we found out that Kokichi made Kaito promise to tell everyone a different story than what really happened in the event of being found out.

There are gears turning in Kaito’s head right now, you can’t tell me there aren’t.

even if some of them are just him thinking ‘no seriously how are you doing that with your face’

NO!!! NO ‘D’ WORDS IN THIS HOUSEHOLD!!!

FUCK I want to have a montage of Kokichi doing incredibly kind-hearted and generous things and just doing his damnedest to spin it all in the most scary, ominous way possible!

“To answer your question, it’s really hard for me to hold my face in these expressions and the muscle spasms beginning to wrack my body are making it that much harder.”

But you can see shades of yourself in him, can’t you? That’s the scary part. Their goals aligned. This whole time, they’ve just wanted to help their classmates survive. They assigned themselves bombastic personalities in order to take the pressure off of those left in the class and damn it, they both prepared themselves to die alone in order to make good on their wish to save everyone left. Kaito made references to Kaede’s last wish - I wonder if Kokichi took it to heart as well?

No you were, Kokichi! No you fucking weren’t! Fml I don’t know how much solace that gives you at the end of the line, but...

Okay I nearly ended the post here as a tribute to Kokichi’s efforts but I have a rule of doing a single post-trial, pre-execution post and I must resist that urge -

LMAO IS THAT WHAT YOU GOT OUT OF THE EXCHANGE

I-It’s going to take you a while to warm up to the idea of ‘Kokichi actually wasn’t the dick he pretended to be’ huh. 8′D

OH REALLY

IT WASN’T BECAUSE OF MAKI OR ANYONE ELSE

IT WAS BECAUSE YOU TWO AGREED ON SOMETHING

SO YOU WEREN’T ULTIMATELY BLACKMAILED OR COERCED INTO THIS, EVEN IF THAT’S WHAT GOT YOU LISTENING INITIALLY

YOU CHOSE TO DO THIS FOR THE GREATER GOAL OF RUINING THE GAME

just. just want to make sure that point was clear for myself. Seems like it’s important characterization-wise, that’s all.

This seems like a good time to note that I am 99% sure Kaito had those swirly despair!eyes DR is known for in the last image with him coughing up blood. That was definitely the turning point for the chapter.

Also, Kokichi didn’t just swallow his pride - Kaito did too. He’s wanted to be the hero who swooped in to save the day for how long??? And here he is, admitting that this was fully Kokichi’s plan, and acknowledging that Kokichi was correct in a lot of ways even if he didn’t agree with him on everything. Beautiful.

nO IS IT FINALLY HAPPENING WE’RE ACTUALLY TALKING ABOUT THIS NOW

‘THAT WAS A LIE.’

OKAY THAT’S IT, WRAP IT UP FOLKS, WE’RE DONE HERE.

“Ha ha yeah I could probably drop dead at any moment tbh ha ha why are you giving me those looks huh ha ha ha hrk -”

I’m guessing the medical exam took place before all of these events happened. But wasn’t the whole point of selecting these guys that they were immune or something??? I mean clearly it wasn’t true - I guess it was dormant or - ?!

... which Monokuma then brings up himself. Cool, thanks.

How dare you say that so cheerfully. >:(

L M A O

he’s so bloody casual about the whole thing

I mean I get that it’s because he’s come to terms with dying but

damn it Kaito

A chance to end the killing game and save everyone, knowing he was on his way out either way, and a way to save Maki specifically - it really was the perfect storm, huh?

Well damn it I know it’s implying this all happened after Kokichi died, but the idea of Kaito visibly fangirling over the plan in front of Kokichi, giving him a bit of external validation for the first and last time since his miserable life started here, makes me feel a little better. If nothing else, he would have at least felt good about the chances of success before he died.

FUCKING DAMN IT IT’S LIKE KAITO LINED UP HIS DIALOGUE STRAIGHT AT MY HEART AND PULLED THE TRIGGER

MERCILESS

DAMN YOU KAITO I SEE THAT SMILE YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU’RE DOING

my BOYFRIEND

I’m not sure if he’s trying to comfort Shuichi after messing up Kokichi’s plan or not but if he is, he’s incredibly good at it.

Was it????

again, more praise for him -

Kokichi, beyond the grave: NO YOU DUMBASS I GAVE MY LIFE SO YOU COULD END IT IN A SINGLE TRIAL as soon as you join me in the afterlife I am going to KICK YOUR ASS -

AIBOU

Oh you big hypocrite. Wait - no - let me check -

*takes off shipping glasses*

Nope, I still don’t buy it. Kaito has a tendency to go to an extreme with his words - he’s shown that time and time again. The fact that he’s already started layering praise on Kokichi at this point - that means something. The idea of him as a whole still rankles Kaito and he still has their clashing viewpoints and outlooks on life to work through, but his opinion on him has already turned so much at this point. If he had more time to think on it, I bet it would change that much further. And again - pointing to that love hotel scene - Kaito loves a challenge, and people that challenge him. Kokichi was a fantastic rival for him, and the fact that he knows now that he never meant any true harm to them is important. He also hasn’t been given a chance to really digest the importance of everything Kokichi revealed to him - he basically got the script and plan thrusted into his hands, spent whatever time he wasn’t sleeping and recuperating studying it and preparing for the trial, and now, well, we’re here. Kaito has been shown to be very good at reevaluating people once he’s cooled off, and he hasn’t had a chance to really do that!

.... If only he had more time to reflect. 8c

!!!!!    g o d ........

The darkened face sprite...

Insert Himiko parallel here.

WELL COOL THAT WAS PRETTY UNAMBIGUOUS

“NO DAMN IT! I HAVE MY ROCK-SOLID VIEW ON HIM! STOP MAKING HIM LOOK SYMPATHETIC!”

If you really thought that, would you really share those words with everyone? In fact, just the fact that you said that in reference to being a ‘lying sack of shit’ in regards to his supposed feelings during the game and acting like everything happening was fun -  that, uh, kinda speaks for itself!

Thank you K1-b0!!! I officially forgive you for calling Kokichi a Remnant of Despair again.

don’t you pull this shit on me game

just because you have the class split down the middle doesn’t mean you can pull the wool over my eyes

WAS HE.... THOUGH....

No seriously, what an odd thing to say. I... I don’t know what to make of it. Do actions not speak louder than words? Am I the crazy one here??

!!!!!!!

HE’S ACTING ON HIS CLAIM OF ‘COMMUNICATION BEING IMPORTANT’ AAAAAH

OH MY GOD WHAT AN EXCELLENT APOLOGY

Seriously I could probably learn a thing or two from it, damn.

Chapter 5′s entire mission is to make me cry, I see, I see.

Even now, three chapters later, I am still incredibly impressed by that move on Kaito’s part. He just knew exactly how to alleviate the pressure Shuichi was under.

?!?!

AH NO NOT COOL WHAT THE FUCK NOT IN THE MIDDLE OF THEIR HEARTFELT APOLOGY DAMN IT

as;dlkfj Kaito you and Kokichi are tied in having the most horrifying sprites in the game. Congratulations! You did win at something after all!

ANOTHER FUCK YOU FOR MAKING ME LAUGH WITH THAT ‘YOU SURE ARE, BUCKO!’ BULLSHIT

speaking of sprites that denote great terror!!

I-It really is the Kaede scene all over again D: including them being willing to fight Monokuma and Kaede/Kaito protesting!

I hope you do little man!!! 

This was the strength Shuichi desperately wanted but didn’t have in chapter 1 - and man oh man it’s nice to see him showing it now, in full force!

but as usual Monokuma is off thinking about his own thing

DOES

THAT

ARE YOU SAYING WHAT I THINK YOU’RE SAYING

THAT YOU RECYCLED LIFE

THAT THESE GUYS ARE NOT JUST REPLACEABLE, BUT PERHAPS REPLACEMENTS

DID YOU RECYCLE MEMORIES AND TALENTS, PERHAPS -

oh NO APPARENTLY NOT DON’T YOU DO THIS

...........

Okay they all introduce themselves here but you know what? No. No. I’m not dignifying you guys with your opening screenshots even if I do love your theme song. sorry monodam I like you but I’m lumping you in with the rest of them

YOU ARE DEFINITELY MAKING SOME SORT OF STATEMENT ABOUT THE ACTUAL STUDENTS HERE

PERHAPS ABOUT HOW YOU GATHERED UP SOME NO NAME KIDS AND FORCED TALENTS, MEMORIES AND ABILITIES OF DEAD STUDENTS FOR SOME REASON, OR THAT YOU HIJACKED THE ORIGINAL PLANS OF PEOPLE WHO DID THAT

perhaps to make sure those that were immune to the virus were what humanity needed to survive or something???

I JUST -

I JUST DON’T KNOW IF I’M RIGHT ON MY CURRENT ASSUMPTION OR IF THERE ARE OTHER OPTIONS I’M MISSING BECAUSE WHAT I’VE COME UP WITH FITS PRETTY WELL

oh jeez okay we’re making a direct comparison then - I guess that’s fair at this point of the game, but I guess I just wasn’t ready for it?

THAT’S. THAT LITERALLY GOES AGAINST THE WHOLE ‘EVERYONE IS DEAD’ THING. YOU KNOW THAT, RIGHT?!

YOU’RE REALLY NOT

Except you. Only you. so basically the opposite of monokid. whatever i really don’t care about the kubs tbh

........ oh fuck

Sadly I’m on Kaito’s side in all of this.

It really did grow on her, huh. When was the last time anyone showed her any sort of affection outside of that ‘childhood friend’ hinted at in her FTEs? :(

I didn’t keep all of the interspersions of Kaito reacting in surprise to Maki’s statements but the fact that he didn’t realize his impact on her, that he was really getting through to her, is sad to me. Makes sense - the only indication he got that she was starting to respond to his ‘training’ was from Shuichi in the hangar bathroom scene, and then just a few hours later she busts in, completely throwing away everything he said about her being more than her talent, and basically acting as the mastermind’s weapon. It is incredibly interesting that he’s so shocked by all of her outbursts here - that he didn’t realize how much she actually cared about him.

Aaaah she’s crying D: Those sound clips, man...

And here’s the confession that was pretty much inevitable at this point.

For once Shuichi knew a matter of the heart before Kaito. That’s significant - in fact, it may actually say more about Kaito than Shuichi. You brag so much, but when it comes down to it, you really did underestimate the power your positivity had on people - or perhaps, more likely, your own self-confidence was shaken that badly in the last chapter?

Figures you’d only let us see you bleed is when you physically can’t hide it anymore and are actually about to drop dead.

KAITO UNDERSTANDS PEOPLE

INCREDIBLY WELL

AND KNOWS HOW TO SUPPORT THEM UNTIL THEY CAN STAND ON THEIR OWN

You - are you not going to address her confession at all??? omg I... I think Kaito may not feel the same way about her. Oh. oh jeez this is awkward...

Seriously though, what a smart way for him to take that confession and use it to help her. Whether he likes her back or not, it doesn’t matter - he won’t be around much longer anyway. What’s most important to him right now is that his friends will be okay when he’s gone - and in this moment, that they stand down and live.

I mean. Come on. He’s literally dripping blood from the mouth and smiling through it. Kaito, you’re absolutely ridiculous and I love you.

easy for you to say, you can’t see yourself right now

whatever Kaito you can’t fucking stop me I’m on the other side of the screen

WHOA DAMN WHERE DID THOSE COME FROM

Wait, that’s a reference to Ishimaru, right? Uh, Ishida?

.... does that mean this is him speaking for both him and Kokichi right now???

“Like I did. Like Kokichi did. Learn from us. Grow in our absence. Thrive. And take that sonuvabitch down.”

YES ONE LAST SAIMOTA BRO-TALK FOR THE ROAD!!!

OH GOD OKAY SPEAKING OF THINGS ‘FOR THE ROAD’, ANOTHER DEPRESSING SPRITE

Man, you just weren’t ready for this game at all. Physically you were stronger than everyone else, but mentally...

And just like that, he backs down. There’s probably some pretty valid criticism levelled at Kaito about being persistent and not always taking ‘no’ for an answer, but he does when it’s most important to, I think. And he knows to back down here because damn it, she needs to get this out of her system.

You’re not just some hero, Kaito, and that’s okay - you’re not some larger than life Ultimate Astronaut, Luminary of the Stars, just as Shuichi isn’t just the Ultimate Detective and Maki isn’t just the Ultimate Assassin -

You’re Kaito Momota, Shuichi and Maki’s friend. <3

THE FIRE IS BACK!!! 

YOU TELL HIM, MY MAN!

Just so you know, when I played this through initially I just. I just paused the game a few screenshots before this because it was late and FUCK THIS SHIT I’M NOT WATCHING HIM DIE BEFORE I SLEEP TONIGHT

not sure if delaying the inevitable was any better but anyway, that’s where my head was at. I was incredibly Not Ready either way.

THIS IS ALREADY INCREDIBLY ‘NOPE’

NOPE IS AN EMOTION RIGHT

fuck it it is now

holy shit it’s the execution that started the whole series off

Also I’m mad about how pretty the whole thing is. Is that the planetarium that we can use as a gift???

Nice new threads, Monokuma.

NO HE’S ALREADY IN SO MUCH VISIBLE PAIN THIS IS NOT COOL AT ALL

NO FUCK YOU

I KNOW I SHOULD BE IN AWE OF THE CALLBACK BUT NO

Usually these are ironic though??? His whole thing is about how he wants to  go to space, though I suppose the irony of being killed with what you love always fits like it did with the others...

OH FUCK YOU AGAIN

I didn’t notice it until I looked at this still, but aren’t those the headmaster’s bones???

HE’S COUGHING THE WHOLE TIME.... FFF

I-Is he still alive at this point??? The headmaster was reduced to bones at some point during the trip, right???

!!!!!!

HE’S TRYING SO HARD TO CLING TO LIFE...

KAITO!!!

KAITO, YOU MADE IT!!!!

oh god he

he smiled... for just a moment....

Kaito, on his way to hell, at Monokuma: ╭∩╮(︶︿︶)╭∩╮

OH COOL HE DIED SMILING

I’M DEFINITELY NOT CRYING OR ANYTHING

He died amongst the stars.... 

Wait so does that mean they didn’t see any of this happen??? Or was it projected on a TV for them or something -

oh jeez -

WAIT HOLD ON WTF?!

OI NO COLLATERAL DAMAGE ALLOWED!!!

AHOGE DOWN, AHOGE DOWN?!?! 

Despite the smiling, despite him finally reaching space, there ultimately isn’t any happiness be found in death. He never wanted to go out like this. :(

GOOD FUCK YOU MONOKUMA

[thisisareallymeaningfulurl]

JACOB MY LOVE IF YOU SEE THIS GO AWAY IM TALKIN ABOUT YOU AND SPOILING SDR2

You still there cutie? Seriously not a joke go away and read another post. For those of you who aren’t my boyfriend and don’t care if I spoil a 10 year old visual novel, read on.

So I had a great conversation about SDR2 with my boyfriend last night. He’s at the beginning of chapter 4 right now so I was kinda probing him a bit about his theories and trying to see how he’s piecing things together and oh boy it was wild. He’s mostly unspoiled except he knows Komaeda is going to be murdered (he’s seen the body briefly) and he knows Gundam is going to die (though he’s 100% convinced he’s going to be a victim). He’s also seen that there is a Tetris execution and is thusly pretty convinced it’s Chiaki’s but I’ve made him less certain of that. He’s right obviously but he doesn’t need to know that. But let me tell you the things he’s getting right and wrong are very interesting.

• He’s figured out they’re in the matrix. I’m not surprised he knows because the game makes it pretty obvious early on. He just has no clue why yet but one of his guesses was pretty on-point! He thinks it’s a simulation to protect the students from what happened in the tragedy- half right but not exactly. The thing he’s weirdly right about is that the interference with the program came from a follower of Junko’s. He just doesn’t realize exactly who those followers are…

•He’s very very convinced Fuyuhiko is going to die. As such, he thinks Mechamaru might live and is very confused as to why. He also thinks Akane might die but “isn’t really sure”.

•He thinks chapter 4 is going to play out with Fuyuhiko killing Gundam. When asked why he said “he doesn’t want to kill him but I think he’s going to have to. Probably for a self-sacrificial reason”. I think that’s pretty amusing how close he is. Wrong characters, shockingly correct setup.

• Chiaki is going to kill Komaeda. This he is very certain of. Obviously he’s bang on, but his reasoning is hilariously incorrect. He thinks Komaeda is going to “say something stupid and push things too far” and Chiaki is going to “finally shut him up”. He doesn’t seem to know why she might actually kill but is very convinced she will. He’s going to be very upset when he finds out why this actually happens.

•He is very convinced Junko isn’t actually dead. She is, obviously, but when asked who the mastermind is in this game he swears it’s going to be her. He’s… half right? But I’m excited to see how he feels about the whole Izuru thing. He’s probably going to hate it. Mostly because he’s REALLY attached to Hajime and sees himself in him.

•He almost made himself cry thinking it might be Sonia who kills Gundam. He’d never thought about that before and was very distressed by the idea. Sonia is his best girl and he is a huge Sonia/Gundam shipper. I just went ahead and told him that was definitely not going to happen to preserve his ability to sleep at night. Bless his little heart.

And finally, the one that made me bite my tongue the most. The one that made me want to yell into the void: when talking about the simulation theory he has, he suddenly gasped and said OOH TIN FOIL HAT MOMENT. His totally crazy crackpot theory that he immediately dismissed as himself being paranoid? That one of the students is actually a computer program. That’s the unbelievable goofy theory that there’s no way it’s true. When I tell you that absolutely SHOOK ME TO MY CORE when he said that and immediately dismissed it. It was a purely random joke guess on his part but I cannot WAIT to see how he feels when that actually gets revealed holy shit.

[whenyousayrun]

Finally finished New Danganronpa V3. Some thoughts on the cases under a cut to try to avoid spoilers.

Case 1: Okay so I was spoiled on some things before hand, though half of those ended up being fake (Kaede is the first murderer, Miu is the first victim, Maki is actually Ultimate Assassin and Rantaro’s Ultimate is therapist). The funny thing is that this was about two months ago and I didn’t realise this meant Kaede would die after the first trial until the day before I got the game. I kept thinking she would be the actual murderer but someone else would get executed in her place because she successfully lied and she’d try to stop the game afterwards realising it was a sham. ...Which is kinda hilarious when you consider what actually happened.

But yeah, I was super surprised when Rantaro died since I was so sure Miu was the victim, but I knew it was Kaede all along who was the culprit. For quite some time I thought it would end up being an accident and I’m honestly still a bit pissed it was intentional but was hidden from the viewer while Kaede was the POV character. I also wish the roles had been switched with her and Shuichi and Shuichi was the decoy protagonist. I mean he’s a detective with duct tape in that case, that is super suspicious. 

Case 2: I WAS SO FOOLED. I wasn’t too surprised Ryoma died because comical proportions characters never last long, but this is seriously the only case where I got to the point where I had to select a culprit and didn’t know who to choose. I tried Angie before Kirumi because the magic show was her idea and she insisted on the piranhas. Like all I was sure of was that it was someone who was involved in the set up of the show and not Momota or Kibo since they left before the tank was set up.

Case 3: Okay this one was obvious. I was certain Angie was going to die with how her cult was going and the easiest way would be to have her killed. I was so confused when there was only one victim at first though but when Tenko got into the cage I knew she’d be victim number two. I FELL FOR OMA PRETENDING TO BE DEAD. I had a feeling this game would have less survivors than the previous ones so I thought a third victim was plausible. I am so angry at myself for falling for it after the DR3 anime fakeouts. 

As for the culprit, Korekiyo was super suspicious from when the seance started so yeah... I was pretty sure it was him before the trial started even if I didn’t figure out the trick. 

Case 4: I was actually starting to think Miu was going to be a final survivor after that fake spoiler I got so I didn’t expect her to die until they said something was wrong with her avatar. I actually thought Gonta was gonna be the victim since the muscle bro is usually the case 4 victim, so when he wasn’t I then thought he would survive till the end. I remember going into the trial thinking Kibo was gonna be the murderer, but I figured out it was Gonta by process of elimination by the halfway point of the trial. Seriously Gonta deserved better.

 Also fuck the monokubs for hijacking his execution video. Dear god I dislike the Monokubs aside from Monodam. At least Monodam shuts up and gets rid of annoying kubs. On another note, I still don’t understand Oma or what was true about the guy. Oh right I remember in the beginning of the investigation he was so suspicious in a blatant way I thought he couldn’t be the culprit, but then I thought maybe that is what they want me to think and he is therefore the culprit and it hurt my head.

Case 5: Okay I love this case so much. I went back and forth on who the victim was so many times, at first I thought it was Oma when the body was unknown, then I thought it was Momota after all, but then the exisal appeared but then it switched back to pretending it was Oma and ahdjfgi for some time I thought they both died and it was an alter ego in the exisal. I also thought I was clever and figured out it was Maki before the trial started but then they cleared that up before the half-way point which meant I was on the wrong track. Basically case 5 was a wild ride.

And as I said, I still don’t understand Oma, but I also think that was the point? The whole theme of the game is lies and what is truth and it is really fitting. Oma is like a schödingers cat and I don’t think there’s any correct answer to his intentions and whatever headcanon you have is correct.

Case 6: Of the survivors I had Tsumugi pinned as the mastermind since she was so unsuspicious. And I remembered her bathroom break back in the first case right when the trial started so that cemented it for me. Why I could remember that 5 cases later and not Kirumi being alone in the gym which was discussed within the same case, I have no idea. As for the controversial plot twists...

The whole meteors and last survivors thing being fake just relived me. I had been suspecting it since Rantaro’s video at the beginning of one of the chapters plus I thought the meteor plotline was incredibly stupid so I was glad to see it gone. I retroactively don’t mind it since it was fake though, kind of like with Persona 2 and jetpack hitler resurrecting to excavate alien Mayan artefacts. 

As for the fictional bit... I have issues with it, but probably not the same ones the general fandom have. I just thought they didn’t take it far enough. Screw this real bodies stuff, I like to think everyone was just viewer submitted OCs/Self Inserts. One of my favourite books as a kid was Sofie’s World and I’m a longtime fan of Umineko so my fictional characters being fictional doesn’t face me. I just hope Kodaka and Spike Chunsoft sticks to their word and ends the series here, or otherwise I’d be disappointed. I do have to roll my eyes a bit at the hypocritical call out of people enjoying murder fiction. It didn’t work in Umineko and it didn’t work here, but it wasn’t too bad.

I’m also disappointed the player didn’t turn out to be Kibos inner voice. I thought this was where Uchikoshi dropped that plotpoint during too many drinks with Kodaka and the reason he missed following up on it in ZTD. But then nope, just the in game viewers. Since the viewers ends up helping, it would have been much cooler if it was me as a player who did that. I am always for fictional characters revolting against their creator. 

I also don’t think this has any effect on the Hope Peak’s Saga. It just means they are set in different universes. 

But basically, this game had my favourite cases so far and aside from the fact I didn’t think the ending took it far enough and instead chickened out, I liked it. The SDR2 cast is still my favourite cast though. Also the fact that Megumi Ogata had like 10 lines towards the end made all the trouble I went through to get it playing in Japanese worth it. (I have a European Vita but bought a NA copy of the game, getting the DLC was hell).

[serahne]

this question is silly tbh and i just started to check your blog lately so from curiosity i couldn't keep this question to my self it's fine if you want to ignore the ask though :) , but why you shipped komahina or why you choosed it over hina//nami , sorry if this ask was rude for you

Hi there ~ Don’t worry, there is no silly question and you aren’t rude at all ( good god, each time someone is saying that to me I wonder if I’m really that scary ). I can definitely explain why I enjoy Komahina more than Hina/nami, please remember that it’s mostly based on my own interpretation of the characters, and that someone else’s interpretation is just as good as mine.

Except when people claim that Hajime is a Griffindor. I’ll bite.

Why do I ship Komahina ? Well…

( You may think it’s a joke but wait to read my answer, and you’ll see it’s not )

Anyway, if you even glanced at my blog you know that I’m unable to shut up, so under the cut !

To anwer your question, my main reasons to ship Hinata with Komaeda are… the characters themselves. Let’s start with Komaeda, because it’s easier. Shorter. Something.

Komaeda is a character who doesn’t do emotional connections. He has this kind of unbreakable mindset that is fascinating to study, mostly linked to his past and his luck where he seems absolutely unable of sympathy and rationalizes all his feelings. I’m not going to say that Hinata is the only person he ever developed feelings for, we can’t know that. But he is the first person he realized he developed feelings for.

Until then, he didn’t need to think about it. Of course he liked Hinata, Hinata is a symbol of Hope, he is talented and so better than he is ( there is… more to it especially the ‘I feel like we are similar but I promised to keep it short ). The equation was I love Hope = Hinata is Hope = I love Hinata. There was no… internal contradiction in him. And then, of course, chapter 4 happens and it’s the worst. Hinata isn’t talented. He is despair. Worse, he is actually Izuru Kamukura, some kind of abomination who is one of the leader of the Despair Team. And yet, he still has feelings for him. The equation doesn’t work anymore, Komaeda is broken, his world is falling apart, he is willingly pushed into a character development that he didn’t ask for, and it’s so painful for him that he kills himself, trying to take everyone else with him.

That’s… fascinating. Sad, too. But damn, Komaeda.

Dr:ae showed us that he could evolve, though. His mindset wasn’t set in stone. With time, with new objectives, he can accept that someone who didn’t have any talent ( Naegi ) was able to beat despair. Actually, he even says that someone who doesn’t have talent, who isn’t praised and elevated by the society, beating despair, is even more hope-inducing. Which is why I think he will come to respect Hinata, and by extension, himself. With time.

So Hinata is Komaeda’s hope to change. To get rid of this stupid mindset Hope’s Peak’s world gave him. Obviously after dr3 being with Hinata would also allow him to not suffer from his luck, which would also help him to develop real relationships with people without them dying, so it’s good for him.

Now, Hinata.

I’m absolutely fascinated by this boy, and I even started to write a complete analysis of his character here and here ( for now I only covered Hinata before Hope’s Peak Academy and Hinata in dr3 but it’s already giving you a lot of keys to understand how I see his character ).

To be short, Hinata is someone who is always trying to find a way to run away from an unpleasant reality. He numbs himself to block out the exterior world and not face it the way it is, because it’s easier. It’s easier to play video games with a cute Ultimate girl and forget about Hope’s Peak segregationist system ( Dr3 ), it’s easier to convince yourself that you are an Ultimate too and fit with everyone ( Sdr2 ), it’s easier to think that it’s going to be okay, that they’ll do their best and will get out of it without problem, it’s easier to think that they are good people who can do no wrong.

And that’s where Komaeda comes in. Komaeda doesn’t allow Hinata to take the easy way. Never. From the first chapter, can you guess what would have happened if everyone had taken the easy path and voted him as culprit after his breakdown ? Because that’s the logic though to have right ? The only one who can do something bad is someone who is unstable, right ? Wrong. And thanks Mikan to save the day, because Hinata would have ran into this one if you hadn’t been here.

Through the whole game, Komaeda is someone who motivates Hinata to face the truth. Not only Hinata, mind you ( In chapter two, he pushes Koizumi to play the game too ), but especially him. He is the one who spit out Hope’s Peak ideology, how people are born for greatness and can rise through society or are born to be trash and will never become anyone ( which is a terrible thing to think, but is nevertheless what’s Hope’s Peak is all about ), something that Hinata refuses to accept even though he suffered through it. Of course, he is also the one who tells him that he isn’t an Ultimate, and repeats it, again and again, so he won’t run away from it. Hell, in his FTE, Hinata tells Komaeda that he is trying to understand him, and Komaeda replies that it’s really brave, to try and understand someone that you don’t. And I agree. Hinata is never braver than when he is facing him.

Chapter 5 is everything. Komaeda’s final test. Hinata is the only one who keeps going, you know. Who refuses to vote a suicide, even though everyone is almost begging him to, that he doesn’t want to think about another possibility, that they are all so damn tired. He keeps going. And after that, he does something even Komaeda didn’t expect : he understands him. He understands his luck, his hope, his goal and he beats him. At this moment he doesn’t need to be scared of Komaeda anymore, because once you understand something, you stop being scared, that’s just as simple as that.

On a lighter note… I admit I adore how Hinata can’t help but care about him. How angry he is with himself when he realizes he is super worried about Komaeda when he is sick, how embarassed he is when they joke about the sticker, how upset he is when Komaeda starts treating him coldly and I love how hyped he is anytime Komaeda speak during a trial and how attentive to him he is. That’s the cheesy part of me talking, sorry.

I think after dr3, Hinata would need some time to think about himself, the world, the meaning of life, whatever else, for a while. So he wouldn’t rush into a relationship with Komaeda or anyone else. I’m just saying that after sdr2 these two have such amazing connection that it could definitely lead to something great, whether they get together or not.

TLDR ; I love that Hinata is the way for Komaeda to change, and I love that Komaeda is the way for Hinata to accept himself, as hard it is after everything he’s done and become. It’s… honestly so rare to find such amazing bond between two characters who are so-well written, without one overshadowing the over but completing each others.

You don’t have to read it if you enjoy Hina/nami, but since you brought that up, here is why I don’t like it : The reason I dislike Hina/nami, it’s that Nan/ami’s role is the exact opposite of Komaeda. Her role is to shelter Hinata, as part of the Neo World Program. Her goal is that he never remember who he was, that he erases from his past every bad things he did and never have to face them. If you observe her in the game, she is the one who always go for the ‘easy’ route. She is the one who suggests Komaeda as the killer, she is the one who stops Hinata to go through the Final Dead Room and to face whatever is inside, she is the one who say to Hinata that it doesn’t matter if he has talent or not.

That’s just what she is coded to do, but that’s also what dr3!Nan/ami does. She brushes off Hinata’s insecurities, saying that the only thing that matters anyway are friends, not realizing that it’s a very easy thing to say when you are a sheltered, privilegied girl who is adored by everyone for her talent while he is struggling with what looks like depression. She is always painting Hinata a reality that doesn’t exist to make him feel better and hum… I feel like he deserves more than a not-super-bright girlfriend holding his hand through life and forbidding any development on his part. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about her, by the way, she probably brought him comfort when he needed some.