#Remember character names challange

[thewalkingsandwich36]

Let's see if I remember Over 100 characters names of mine ! ._.''

Way too many but there's a 105 , I'm a 100% sure there's much more somewhere o-O

Kagaku-sha (project 036)

Midnight (Project 1.1/2)

Flamez ( Project 1.2/2)

Richard ( Project 2)

Project 3

Sam ( Project 4)

Alexander (Project 5)

Sprinkles (Project 6)

Kate ( Project K 007)

Leefi (Project 032)

Lucy

John

Mr Knight

Lime

Luke

Beth

Penny

Majo

Shadowser

Rocky

Sikes

Noroi

Stitches

Lovra

Baesil

Jacob

Reggie

Gabby

Marsh

Blue

Terra

Pips

Error

Amy

Jeff

Glitches ( King of the Blue golden eye clan)

Summer

Sumri

Lizzy

Saski

Mellow (aka Space Goddess)

Masaki

Minus

Amai

Mech

Ushi

Rez

Hann

Kage

Insanity (Sarah)

Jenny

Nameless (aka War God )

Avarie (Soul eater)

Eyesoul (aka Ancient god of everything weird)

Poker King (PK)

Hearts

Pucks

Sophia

Lucky

Bossu

Junnath

Pixel ( Gamer Dude)

Orange ( Comb man)

Mike

Stef

Inter ( Interijensu aka God of information)

Surudoi

Raiton

Ikatteiru

kagami

Akuame ( Cult leader of the red eye )

Zezzy

Yahnna

Zack ( God of all bad choices)

Zehn ( God of all good choices)

Sufo

Shark

Mason

Snowey

Miss White blood cell

Mr Red blood cell

DR Atom

Evil DR John

Barkly

Uni (Unicorn)

Bubbles

Robotica

Honey

Tanya

George

Clausdonia

Shinesery

Faiya

Cotton Candy Fairy

Cookie Princess

Sir Oat Prince

Icey

Puzzle

Stella

Scratch

Sky

Moon

Planty

Poppy

Lucas

[luceafarul-de-dimineata]

Romanian siblings posting

So, I think the current Romania character in Hetalia is very Transilvania. He lives in Sibiu, he has beef with Hungary and we never see him (from my memory) interacting with Turkey or Russia pre-USSR. So, Transilvania he is.

So that leaves the other 2 big parts of Romania up for nerds like me to write for. Wallachia and Moldova/Moldavia (they're Țara Românească or Valahia and Moldova in Romanian so I might switch between those names.)

Wallachia, Moldavia and Transilvania are all siblings, the children between Dacia and the Roman Empire. They barely got to see their parents because they were all too young to remember them.

The three got seperated soon after, Transilvania getting kidnapped by Hungary, Wallachia constantly bickering with Turkey and Russia breathing down Moldavia's neck.

So, here are the character introductions for my little ocs of them. I actually have a lot more toughts on Wallachia than Moldavia so this is more of a Wallachia post

~Wallachia~

She's the youngest of the siblings (around 19 years old in human years).

She just wants to be left the fuck alone to plant her veggies and take care of her goats

She loves impaling things, crushing potatoes, steak, poking Turkey in the ass with her pitchfork

She has a pet goat called Esus because it's gramaticly correct

She adores cheese and anything with lactose. She refuses to believe lactose intolerance is a thing.

She can speak a shit lot of languages: Romanian, Turkish, French, English, German and Italian. In that order.

Her and Serbia have matching tatoos and they both dyed a bit of their hair blue just because

Wallachia keeps begging Serbia to join the EU because she wants to hang out in the back of the class and get drunk on medical alcohol like in the good ol' days

Serbia and Wallachia are childhood friends. Serbia actually thought Wallachia a few words in serbian and slavic (including the word for love)

Back when Turkey was the Ottoman Empire, he would constantly try to invade Wallachia

He did succeed but only a bit

They fought a lot and Wallachia was one of the brattier territories

She really did enjoy seeing the turks impaled at her border

All and all, Turkey was the closest thing Wallachia had to a father, so, inspite of their previous conflicts, Wallachia still talks with Turkey

At some point Turkey let Greece in charge of Wallachia

They got along quite well, especially since Greece would pay her to get naked

Wallachia and Greece still keep in contact and they send eachother cringe christmas and easter gifts... usually socks or cards

Once Wallachia and Moldavia joined forces together, banboozling the West by electing the same president, they played rock paper scissors and Wallachia won.

She once beat the shit out of Bulgaria, to the point that some western powers had to stop her from doing it

Never leave Wallachia in a room with Hungary. That bitch will be dead in an instant

Wallachia loves her siblings a lot but she's also a firm believer in consensual bullying

She did basicly every college under the sun at England's place before he threw her out. Now she's staying in Italy with Felicio

Her and Romania constantly try to see which one is better: Cluj Napoca or Bucharest

It's Iasi, guys, come on

~Moldavia~

She's the middle child at about 20 years old in human terms

She's the scapegoat of the family

Moldova is her kid and she's a very proud mom

She makes the best alcohol in the family

She was a lot closer to Wallachia than to Romania

She's the only one of the three that still constantly goes to church

She created the ice bucket challange and she's amused by how people were using it

She's the best storyteller of them all. She just has a very sweet and homey voice.

She's dating Ukraine and they're in a loving relationship together.

[maria-ruta]

i miss ronya she was so cool. how's she doing these days

awww thank you!!! <3 <3 <3

I miss her too UvU

the game ended on moment when all the demons were defeated and sent back to hell (except for Nafanya and Gra'azt, who now became leader of big group of drow and continues to get more drow on his side from Lolth(shes not happy about it lol))

Ronya got married to goblin widow Hikt (they threw the bouket in Sarit's face so hehe he's next lol) and now Ronya is mama of Hikt's kids from her last marrige - one allready young adult goblin booy, little girl, and baby boy (I don't remember where I wrote their names rip OTL)

(this hella cool bugbear design is work of my friend @tench-art)

Mao completelly turned into fairy and only had one year and one day left in mortal plane to live, and after that she will be joining the Wild Hunt

And Chiviss ( @tench-art 's character) became small demigod and now he had his own illithyd ship, his paladin friend Valya(they are in love but very slowburn/akward about it) and clone of human monk Lee who now has to help Chiviss by doing good things and help fixing stuff he fucked up - and Chiviss plans to travel across other worlds on his ship

AND WITH ALL THAT Ronya was left the only one to rule Fort Asshole (Sarit gave it that name and it stuck X'D ) the fort, that became shelter for many many people throghout our game - basically it was like big town or small city at this point

The game ended at Ronya being like "wait so whos gonna take care of the Fort now?"

and everyone were like "well now YOU are the queen of Fort Asshole, Ronya! your responsibility now byeeee"

and Ronya was like "WHAT THE FUCK IM NOT GOOD AT POLITICS AND MENAGMENT SHIT!!! IM GOOD AT CRUSHING DEMONS SKULLS WHAT THE FUCK GUYS"

But I think Ronya will found a union with other leaders of the different groups of citizens of Fort Asshole

such as orcs Hector and Azog, who represent the interests of orcs

myconid Lubomab, who represents the interests of myconids

Ronya herself as leader of goblins and bugbears

and half-orc Lidia, who represents the interests of everyone else and all kinds of minorities

and together they will come up with something X'D how to take care of the city and trading and etc. Fort Asshole became very important trading point, since now it has the big portal cirlce to the surface, while the last city(Malonderit, I cant find how the city should be written right, I only remember how it was pronaunced so eh), that had the portal to the surface - doesnt have it anymore. So yeah, Fort Asshole has all the chances of becoming big city eventually

I know from what our DM said, that at some point other bugbears of the city will become overly proud and will think of themselves more than other species, bc "our leader is so cool! she is the best and the strongest, and everyone else is weak loosers" so Ronya would have to beat some sense into them

she would tell them(more like angrily roar) that she would never get where she is now without help of her friends and comrades (hell she even DIED once and they had to get her ass a new fucking body), that everyone is equal here and that they should stop embarrassing her. And she would also add that its not bugbears who are stronger than everybody but its particularly HER who's stronger than everybody XD and if anyone of those bugbear assholes wants to argue with that - they can challange her to battle in orcs' arena and see if they could win her in wrestling battle. nobody's up for it? theN SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!

ALSO Ronya promissed her wife Hikt that she won't be risking her life as much as she did during demon invasion anymore so I guess her life gets less adventurie now

She would gladly teach kids her knowladge of hunting, tracking, scouting, and nature of underdark in general... when she has time lol, bc being leader is hella busy job (she didn't want it but she was choosen to do it U_U )

(idk what else to add haha you can ask anything specific if you want. but im very pleased you want to know more about Ronya, Thank you)

[oh-my-may]

HELLOOOOOOO

Very quickly I wanted to share some thoughts on Wuthering Waves so far.

I have completed the main quest up to act IV and I think it goes up to 6 in total? So I am more than halfway done with what the main story has to offer so far. I must say, although it does follow the typical anime rpg plot of recent games, I have been enjoying it!

It took me the first two chapters of the story to get behind all the game specific terms like Resonator, Tacet Fields and Discords etc. but I think as of right now I'm pretty secure in my knowledge of it.

I don't wanna get too much into the lore yet but there's so many things about the world (Solaris 3, right?) that I do not understand (yet) but given how I still have main story to play through I reckon some of my questions will be answered later. But the first thing is HOW BIG THE MAP IS? I think it might be like that for me bc I'm not used to playing open world games on mobile and maybe if I played it on PC I'd have a different impression but like... on mobile it seems huge. The Resonance Beacons are kinda oddly placed I think... like there should be a few more but maybe I'm spoiled from hyv games. From what I can tell on mobile it looks good, too. Can't wait for WuWa to come out for PS5 so I can fully enjoy how beautiful it looks. (no, I don't have a PC to play it on atm)

Scar is really cool, overall I really like the "villain" organisation so far (I know their name but wouldn't trust myself to properly spell it on here lol). Maybe bc they're some lf the only characters in this game that know what colour is lol. Scar's eng VA is *chefs kiss* and I think so far he's the most interesting character overall. Chamellya (? Is that how you spell her name) also seems really cool. Haven't met her yet in the story but I've seen several posts and I really look forward to getting to know more about the Fractuids (????or whatever their name is). Call them the Overseers, that's easier to remember and spell HAHA. Wonder what their motive is for abducting Jue and reviving the other big thing (it starts with Th I know, but can't remember it rn... Threnoid or something? Guys I told you I'm still learning)

When directly asked, Scar said that it brings the Lament and all that but like... why would they want that to happen??? Are humans bad? Is something bad gonna happen to them and they know? And what about putting TD parts into human bodies?? Why?? AND WHERE DO TDS COME FROM ANYWAY?

Okay so far for that. Also I quite like Jihnsi, which is suprising to me... I do find it weird that most characters in this game share almost the same color palette, I think it's cool that she's devoid of any color and she's just... pale. Everything about her is so pale and I think that's really cool, somehow. Just like the Overseers it makes her stand out to me.

I haven't met Jiyan yet :( Apparently I will in the next chapter but I have to level up quite a bunch until then... so lemme give you some other thoughts.

First of all I like the open world! I wanted to save exploration for until I have finished the main quests completely but since you have to level up in between the game leaves you no other choice. I haven't even unlocked the entire map yet (as I said I think it's HUGE on mobile lol) but so far it's been very cool! I like the twist they put in the puzzles, somehow they came up with new mechanisms that aren't just repetition of other games open world puzzles. I like that most challanges aren't time gated (like the sniper ones, I'd be dead if they were on mobile HAHA). Besides the challenges where you fly around as that bird and have to fly through rhose rings.. it goes so fast I can NOT control that at all on mobile. Will save those for a later opportunity ig.

The battles have been fun so far. Again I have to say how dynamic the system feels it's really fun with Intro Attacks and all that, the dodge attacks are really cool and yeah... on mobile I just press buttons and can't be as smart with my moves because I barely know wtf is going on and I can't control my fingers as diligently on the tiny buttons lol. Does the mobile version have controller support yet? I think I read somewhere that it doesn't, but I'll probably be the first to jump to it lol.

(Rn I wanna mention that I saved this post until this point and finished writing it afterwards until suddenly the wifi at work disconnected and then I lost hald the post :((( so I have to kinda rewrite half of it, yaay...)

SO. AGAIN.

The echo system is really cool and innovative. Its pretty new to me personally as a system to exchange for the artifact/relic stuff. Its cool you can use the echos ability. I just figure its gonna be a pain to farm later, given how you're not always guaranteed to get an Echo from every enemy snd the stats are random too... I haven't gotten too much into the system yet and what set or whatever is best for each character... but I'm glad that auto euqip is a thing already haha. I'll probably have plenty of time to figure this all out later.

I have arrived at a point in the game where the game wants me to level characters... the game recommended team level 40 for the Scar fight when I had my team at 25... Currently I use Rover, Verina and Chixia and habe been quote enjoying them. I'll try and use Rover as long as possible, so far I really like her playstyle! I also like that the game basically adds two new elements to the roster: light and darkness, basically. Seems pretty cool. Do the elements interact? Haven't gotten too much into the meta yet, so are there like reactions like on genshin or just status effects? To conclude my thoughts I'd like to add that I'm not sure yet how worth it is leveling up my characters rn? I know that Verina is very good and as I said I'll try and level Rover for now, but as for the third slot... although I like Chixia I ultimately wanna get Jiyan or some other 5star lile Calcharo? I also have no idea (yet) how to effectively farm level up material. There must be something like a ley line or calyx surely, I just haven't found it yet. Overall I'd like to spend the 240 energy the game gives me but besides bosses I haven't really found something on the map... oh yeah there was spme forgery challenge ig that's like for weapon stuff? We'll see...

Since I have lots of leveling to do (6 levels to continue the main quest...) I figured doing normal quests is the most effective way to do that, although I have noticed that not all quests give Union Exp? I find that a bit odd. Also are there any of these smaller quests worth paying proper attention to? Like that tell important lore? So far I've only done a few and they didn't really seem significant ... some photo taking and infiltrating an enemy camp, which was pretty cool because Rover dressed up as one of them snd snuck arpund the camp, but it didn't seem that important in the grand scheme of things? Do let me know if there are certain quests that are really cool.

I have done Lingyangs character quest and it was pretty sweet. I liked the camera switch in the cavern a lot. He's also just generally a very cite character, he falls out of the character colour scheme and he's just adorable :( I did get him as my first 5star on the 50 pull banner... sadly I don't like his playstyle :( I think I dislike the way gauntlet characters feel on mobile? Idk. I also dislike that lightning 4star gauntlet man (forgot his name. He was one of my first 4stars and his trial felt weird playing him idk...) in terms of gameplay. I do think this is just a mobile thing for me, at least with the controls. As I said, when the game gets controller support this might change.

I'd like to mention a few things that bother me, too. No game is perfect and I do think that kuro games is definitely able to fix these things. First of all I've noticed that in the open world when expllring it's often very silent? As in... there's no background music? Idk if it's just programmed to set in very late? I know that there is music, since it does play when I log in... but when I walk through the world and change areas it's so oddly silent for so long... it's kinda scary sometimes haha. Also I often hsve the problem that spoken dialogue randomly cuts off mid sentence without any trigger? Like it just doesn't play the entirety of the sentence? And this happens quite frequently, especially in the first few chapters of the story. Also when the text appears on screen... it seems that sometimes it is so long that it doesn't fully appear on screen? It doesn't scroll down or anything the longer texts are just not displayed? Idk.

Another thing I noticed is that the Rover's voice over often seems very monotonous and almost... empty? Like there's no emotion or anything... at least for female Rover. I do like that she gets quite a bunch of spoken lines, but sometimes they seem oddly off against the other characters... one example that really botheres me wss in act 4, when Scar gets arrested (and Scars voice over is phenomenal btw!). There's this moment where he wants to flee and in the lsst second Rover jumps in and says something like "not so fast" or something like that and its just... the character is in action and there's high tension and the line just falls so incredibly flat? I think it may be a directing problem, maybe they just didn't tell her what the context was but like... it really bothered me. I generally like the Eng voice over, although I do find some of Yangyangs pronounciations weird? It irritates me how she says Huanglong a lot of times? Like I get it that its closer to the Chinese pronounciation but other characters say it with an english accent too? Or her breathy "Rover" all the time? I think this is just me but it was quite annoying.

Other than that (and I already mentioned it) it will tske me some time to get used to the colour palette of the characters... i do like the character design, but almost every character has the same colours to them? It's all mainly black with white/grey details and occasinally some shade of blue/red or green in between. Very few characters fall out of that scheme, like Encore, Verina or LingYang. Or the Overseers, but they're not playable (yet?)

Other than thode pretty minor problems I'm excited to explore the world a bunch now. Very excited to see how the story ends as of rn. The devs are very attentive to player feedback so I'm vurious to see where the game is headed. I do think it has lots of potential. As I said, I can't wait for playable Scar and just generally to explore more of the world. Are there gonna be more countries added to the world? I'd say yes as of right now but are there mentions of it in the story? Very excited for it!

Also I'm looking forward to meeting Geshulin in the story. Ive seen short clips of him and to say I'm obsessed would be an understatement. This game nails it's morally grey male characters.

I'm not used to taking screenshots during mobile games, so I have only this one of Scar for now, maybe I'll mamage to make it a habit. Bye for now! (Wish me luck on Jiyans banner)

[animatorweirdo]

Good morning/evening! It's muffin anon and I've got a crack fic idea for you today. And a dare. I challange you to complete this idea with the first plot that comes to your mind. Good luck!

Imagine you are in your living room, watching the Fellowships of the Rings you get transported into the scene with the Nazgul.

With your couch.

In your pajamas.

While stuffing your face with popcorn.

The Nazgûl stop in their tracks. The character look at each other and then you and then blink.

Once.

Twice.

Thrice.

And then the fight continues as if you weren't there. Then, one of notices you and tries to stab you. You press the pause button and the Nazgul stops.

Mid-air.

With his sword held just above your nose. You carefully duck and get to another place and repress the button.

The Nazgûl launches and butchers your beloved couch.

"My couch! My very, very expensive couch!"

Continue from here.

By the way, I saw this exact same scene in a C-drama, though I cannot remember its name, and thought it would be funny to something similiar in Lord of the Rings. What do you think? Where does it go from here? Please tell me the name if you know it, I want to watch it again.

As always, I wish you a pleasant day/night!

As a little payback, you start using the remote to stop the time and move the Nazguls around so that they hit each other. The Nazguls are confused when you hit the play button and pause again to do it all over again. The Nazguls leave as some sorcery makes them fight each other. You feel satisfied then you realize only Frodo can see you and talk to you because of the one ring. His friends and the striders can't and walk through you like you were a ghost. "Oh, fuckingtastic!" you curse out loud.

You technically join the trip, talking with Frodo most of the time and others feel strange as they can't hear or see you, but they can sense you and see the effect of your timestopping remote. After getting to Rivendel, you had hoped Gandalf and the elves might see you but no they can't. They do feel your presence much stronger and call you Frodo's strange guardian. Not seeing much of a choice, you join the fellowship, seeing you might go back if you finish the movie, in your pyjamas nonetheless as you don't have a change of clothing.

(Done)

[valkyrie-kun]

Did you really read that zvtara dissertation? Can you please spare us the suffering and waste of time and tell us what is written there? How are they doing with the proofs of the "canonicity" of zvtara?

hello🥰

"unfortunately", i did not read it fully as it would be far too much of a strain on my poor, anxiety-coded brain.

but what i did read and what i focus on when (rarely) researching zutara posts when i am brave enough, are their anti-Maiko arguments. part of it for the shits and giggles (and to challange my viewpoints on atla actually), and part of it to get to the core of the label they give themselves - the FeMiNisT ShIp.

and that i still have to figure out, because i do not feel an ounce of feminism in their takes. au contraire: not giving female characters the same judgment as the male ones is the most prominent theme, as far as i got it. and that was basically the maiko part of that abomination in a nutshell.

they said the usual s3e1 argument "i just asked if you were cold" when she refused to be his therapist who he is in a dire need of to be an indicator of how she makes light of his feelings. oh, and they straight up lied saying that the she badly influenced him or vice versa by suggesting to OrDer SeRvAnTs ArOuNd. that is all i remember and they lost me with those arguments. i agree that their relationship is not perfect, but that is what makes it realistic and sweet and rewarding in the long run and an endgame finally, as gene yang (is that his name?) confirmed.

regarding their "canonical" evidence, i did not look that up, but as far as i got it from a discussion with a friend, they adore pirate episode due to a dumb necklace intercation. and also the crossroads of destiny and finale because of the "clues".

i do not have any wish rn to dive into that for shits and giggles purely. but if i ever do somehow, i will make a post and paypal to finance my recovery from reading the "dissertation" (lol).

one part was enough to make me roll my eyes to heaven and get annoyed. so take that as you like.

HOWEVER,

anyone is free to discuss maiko with me anytime 🥰🥰🥰

[sconesandvodka]

I’ve been seeing you reblogging Love is in the Air and I’ve never heard of it but I’m curious. Is it good? What’s it about?

Knuckle down, you just gave me a free pass to rave over one of my latest obsessions - hope you are ready!

The show is based on two novels by Thai author MAME; "Love Storm" and "Love Sky". It is about the separate (but connected) love stories of two friends, and the ups and downs they both faces along the way.

The first half of the show starts with the character Rain, whose car breaks down during a thunderstorm. A handsome stranger stops, and helps him out.

Rain later discovers that the man is the legendary Payu (= 'Storm') that everyone at his architectural faculty talks about, but who Rain himself never met as Payu graduated before Rain started. When Rains car breaks down again, Payu is there to help once more, this time taking the car to the garage his family owns and operates. Payu is under the impression Rain is flirting with him, looking to hook up - but Rain refuses him. Payu wont accept money for the reparations to Rains car, rather opting for a payment in the form of Rain being/talking respectful to him as a senior. Payu also clearly loves to tease and rile Rain up - and as Rain gets fed up with him and this behaviour (as he quickly turned from lovestruck-by-the-stranger-who-helped-him to annoyed-by-the-cocky-senior-who-his-classmates-worships-as-a-hero), he vows to make Payu fall in love with him.

Payu is definitely amused by this (and very much not opposed to his challange...), and gives him a month to accomplish his task. What follows is Rains mission to juggle schoolwork and making Payu fall for him, all while falling for Payu himself.

The second part of the series focuses on Rains friend and classmate, Sky, who during Rains arch helps Rain sneak into an illegal streetrace that they hear Payu is attending/helping out with. Sky is able to get this information from his ex, who also moves in these circles. During the race, Sky meets Prapai (= 'Wind') - a racer and also a friend of Payus - who helps him escape the guards that discovered him. In exchange for helping Sky out, Prapai hints heavily that he wants to sleep with Sky. Sky, clearly upset by this still just replies "just take what you want", and they end going back to Prapais place (and I will die on the hill that notorious sleeps-around-Prapai sees this as playful flirting, although we we all wished for better communication and clearer consent..)

Afterwards Prapai tries to ask for Skys name and number, but Sky refuses. As Prapai remembers Sky coming to the race with Rain, he eventually convinces Rain to give him Sky's number - and Prapai starts his journey on pursuing Sky. Sky, who clearly suffers from a lot of trauma, keeps rejecting Prapai - sure that Prapai only wants him for sex. Prapai - never giving up - is very determined to prove him wrong.

I could write for days about this show, but I'm going to try to hold back haha - and I think I managed to avoid spoilers? (Like, Payus identity is literally revealed in ep 1, Sky's trauma is also revealed early on, but the viewers learns more about it as the show progresses).

This show has literally become one of my all-time favourite BLs, I love the story and the characters to bits. I really didn't think that would happen when I started the show - I don't know how well versed you are with BLs, or Thai BL-shows but the author MAMEs works are.. well, people love to hate them and there are reasons for that. Not only does her works often include themes of (past/) trauma (which in itself is not a problem, but rather how its portrayed/dealt with), pretty stereotypical 'top-bottom'-roles and the stories are usually pretty... mid.. but consent in general is also most often portrayed a bit.. iffy, although that is a problem with the majority of all BLs despite author and country of origin.

Love in the air - or rather especially the novels which it is based on - is not an exception to scenes that is playing way too loose with consent, although I am really (pleasantly) surprised how this adaption handles it overall. It's one of the few shows we actually see the characters asking for consent and respecting boundaries, and although the bar is on the ground, the times they do adress it, its done pretty good. In adapting the novels to a show, they made some really good changes to the story and characters, and the actors are phenomenal! The chemistry between them, especially Peat and Fort who plays Sky and Prapai are out of this world! And the story between Sky and Prapai are really the strongest bit in the show - Rain and Payus love story is more lighthearted, more humours and sweet (with some darker bits in the mix) and it's wondeful - but Sky and Prapais story are much more complex, more serious and it has some real gut-punching moments in a way I never expected after watching the first arch.

There is also some of the best adult scenes I've watched in BLs.. Like, whats up with Thai BL and NC-scenes (NC=No children 17 and under) lately???

Like, look at that shit??

Who signed off on this??

Spice aside, there is also so much more to this show, but yeah - trying to not spoil too much and to hold back (this is long enough as it is...)

If you are interested in watching it, I would really urge you to give it a chance - and to keep in mind that (at least in my opinion), the show just gets better by every episode.

[royalwriteroftheuniverse]

Forgot (might change the name)

18+just incase (maybe ill make this a challange if anyone wants to add any sweet fluff to fix the angst in story Don't print or repost anywhere. But reblogs and comments are welcome :)

Pick chris character/chris

Forgot

Because friends seriously forget.

You wanted him to remember more than anything. friends forgot, which you tell yourself is merely from accidentally putting the wrong date in Facebook some family forgot but HE forgot and that hurt more than anything.

You got used to people letting you down... well other people. Even though every year you got your hopes up only a little so every year you'd hope a little less . But the fact that HE forgot made it hard for your heart to stay together that day...to-day....

You braced yourself for others not him but in in your mind you felt like in the back of your mind you knew. Sure it was the first year you'd known each other so maybe it would be diffrent with him? But why would you get your hopes up? Because it was him and you were falling ( if its cap then this worse than loki after dr strange found him) faster then free falling faster than jumoing off a doc fastdr then a door opening in space or flying. You were falling.

Together though? Who are you kidding. Hes qway alt its probably casual dsting at best. And with fall holidays people did have a valid excuse to not even get a card. But the few gifts you had gotten over the years were prcuious.. even if those friendships fell apart they did care at one point.

You could remind him but then I'd just be fake.

You knew it would be silly to get your hopes up. But you did and you don't know why you allowed yourself to get hurt every time. You dont even know why you expected him to be diffrent. But you did and you weren't sure what hurt the most....geting your hopes up and being let down or him.... him forgetting.

Him causing tears gou have right now.

But why would he remember.....

Tag list

@nana1000night

@sparklybarbarianninja @sapphire-rogers

@hawkeyes-queen

If i forgot you in tagging plz send me a message to remind me.

[ssuckitlosers]

USUK fic recs:

Yes I have been rereading old usuk fics instead of doing work.

Stardropdream wrote a lot of good fics! Their account is orphaned now but I highly recommend reading:

‘Bottle it Up’ it’s set during the war and could probably be read as platonic. Their relationship is portrayed in such an interesting and realistic way that feels very fitting for the characters. Also touches on their attitudes towards war. It’s very interesting, cannot recommend enough.

‘Coffee and Cigarettes’ is fairly nsfw. Mainly explores America’s character and his thoughts and fears around power and control. It’s a really interesting introspective around America. The second in the series focuses on England, which is also pretty interesting.

‘Highway Cloudbusting’ is a classic. It’s been so long since I’ve read it that I don’t remember much, except liking it so much that I’d still count it as one of my favourites. I’ll reread it soon and update this.

‘Born on the Fourth of July’ by Pennylane. I reread this yesterday and I still recommend it. I think my favourite part is how the characters are portrayed. America and England’s relationship is really well explored, they work through their miscommunication and it feels very accurate to the characters. And I really like how France is portrayed in this fic, he clearly cares for England and I think their friendship is often underrated. Pennylane also wrote ‘Cuckoo in the Nest’ which is another one of my recs, but I need to read it again to say more on it.

‘The Hudson River Challange’ by monobuu. Okay, so this is a crack fic. I was going to delete it from my rec list a few days ago because I was like wtf why? Then I reread it and it made me laugh, it’s genuinely more funny than it has any right to be, so it stays and I’m actively sharing it here too.

‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ by merakily. So I don’t know how to talk about this fic without kind of spoiling what happens. I haven’t read it in a while but I know it’s amazing. It ripped my heart out and I still recced it, which is a testament to how much I enjoyed reading it. I’m pretty sure I cried for so long after this but I want to read it again soon.

‘you committed, i’m your crime’ by Anonymous. Definitely read the tags for this one. I don’t quite know how to explain it, but if I didn’t think this fic was really good, I wouldn’t rec it. Alfred and Arthur aren’t good people but you can still root for them to be together imo. I remember it being a really good supervillain fic and I’m going to go reread it after I’ve posted this. But again, read the tags before.

‘His Clockwork Heart’ by Firebear. I’m obligated to rec this because I have made multiple people irl read it. I had to talk to someone about this so bad that I made my friend whose never even watched hetalia read it. Back in the day, I read this on ff.net and cried, so this is a rec from past me.

‘Eight Steps to Victory’ by Zeplerfer, is another fix that I haven’t read in a while but remember liking so much that I’m still going to rec it. Made me crave more dancing au’s.

‘Just Like Heaven’ by maddiemoiselleeee. I remember this being interesting, another one that I think I cried reading. But again it’s another fic I need to reread, like I remember the main things that happen but I’ll read it again and update this.

‘American dreams in an English village’ by Butterfish. I have no recollection of this fic except that I remember liking it, genuinely the name is the only thing I remember. But I also commented that I loved it so I’ll trust past me again lol.

[loopscereal]

Back in late 2019 i had never even heard of twitch, I was on minecraft youtube watching hermitcraft, i had just recently found this funny video series on youtube by Wilbur Soot where he challenged his viewers live. Back then I thought Technoblade was just another reoccurring viewer of Wil’s! Thats so absurd to think back on!

Early 2020 I watched tommys vids in youtube where he ran around being purposefully annoying twoard the dteam, speedrunning challange, yt vids became yt vods, and he would mention checking out twitch, so would wilbur. By July of 2020 I was following wilbur on twitch, by September I had followed tommy, October I had followed tubbo.

Soon enough I was following a whole new chain of creators on a new platform, invested in their story. I hadn’t yet really registered that their timezines matter much since i was accustomed ti watching vods. I *STILL* regret having missed the pog2020 vs swag2020 election because of this! I still regret that!! God!

November 16th came and went, I was enamored with all the art that came out because of it, then Wolf the witch, then known as “channel without a name” had uploaded their animation of the 16th in the 20th. I was there, in that live chat, and after the premiere, I had made friends. I didnt think that would last, but here i am, almost two years later, and most of the “premier gang” members are still active we still talk regularly.

We watched origins together and fell in love with the vod, learned how to install mods and use fabrics launcher! I installed minecraft java edition fir the first time ever because of this, we played minecraft together, we branched out and screenshared to eachother when one would play any other game.

We had a channel specifically for when some damned streamer would go live to scream about it and summarize the premise to each other if we had missed it. By the time Tales Of the SMP rolled around we would all sit in vc together and watch as someone screen shared.

We’ve had three “seasons” of our origins smp, with shops snd community houses. I remember building water tunnels for our resident merling, and my friend would make awnings for me since i was an enderian and couldnt leave the house when it rained. We pulled pranks on eachother, my whole wheat farm was replaced with carrots, me replaced a friends house with jack-o-lanters and acacia wood!

I found other common interests with friends, we found we coult talk about other things other than minecraft incredibly easily, we made comics together, played new games together, suggested music together, celebrated together, we grieved the death of a fucking music bot together! I still miss groovy, we had so many late night ham sessions with groovy.

We still talk about c!tommy, c!tubbo, a friend makes animations about the eggpire and recently got new egg lore. It feels good after havjng seen and heard them hold on to it for so long, and thats what we’ve all done. Holding on, i guess.

I really have had so much fun, playing with my art style along these two years, creating little ficlets for my friends about characters i adore, going insane about new animations from the community. Ive had a personal au about clingyduo for well over a year now, maybe even two years? No idea, but god its been so fun, fullfilling even.

My vocabulary has deffo been changed, example A is right there, “deffo” was ages ago and hasn’t left me since. I dint think dsmp is going to leave me even if i stop interacting with it (which i don’t think I will just yet)

I love all the results I’ve personally gained from being a part of this.

Thank you so much to the streamers, the artists, the musicians, *some* of the clips channels, everyone who wrote character analysis, wrote fics, or just screamed in twitch chat or posted in the youtube comment section or live tweeted/ live blogged any moment they loved.

Thank you to the fanbase, more than anything, for making this place so loved.

[orlissa]

For the anonymous ask, my favorite fic of yours is Midnight Prayer. I'm not even that religious, so I don't know why I like it so much. Maybe it's because it's something that is rarely explored in darklina fics (at least the ones that I've read). Aleksander has had a long life and that means that he has beliefs and/or cultures that are older than most (as it's made most apparent with language or in this case religion). Not sure if it's canon or not, but it's my personal headcanon that Aleksander (and in extension Baghra) follow (or used to follow) a different religion and hold a different native language than the rest of the set of characters (I don't think the English or Ravkan, whatever you want to call it, is the same as it was, lets say, four centuries ago). I almost imagine their native language to be similar to latin, meaning that it's now a dead language. Sure, people can learn about it, but no one actually speaks it, except of course, for them. It could explain too why, despite everything his mother did or didn't do for him and vice-versa with Baghra, they still seek this companionship with each other. It could be (amongst other things as well) because they are the only remaining piece of that part of their identity. Who else knows about the Old Gods? Who else knows and speaks Old Ravkan (is that the name of the language? let's pretend it is, shall we)? Who else knows the words to the prayers and/or the rituals? Four centuries is a long time for language and for beliefs to change. It's quite possible that there is not a lot of documentations of it as well (I don't think the people/Grisha back then were preoccupied with writing a dictionary, for example. Their priority was survival, the rest was only secondary).

Anyways, I could go on, but you get the picture. Not sure if this made any sense, but yeah that one is my favorite of yours (it helps that the writing is so good too!)

Oh, and sorry for this mini essay lol got too carried away I guess lol

Never say sorry for something like this, never! I thank you sooo much for taking this much effort to write me such a lovely message.

Yes, the questions of language and religion are very interesting in this context.

When writing about Sasha's religion, I take a lot of inspiration from my country's history, and a bit from my personal experience (as a pagan living in a country ripe with right wing Christian propaganda). So... my country became Christian in exactly 1000. It was basically a political move, because all the peoples around us were already Christian, but still, it was an executive decisions--suddenly laws were made that every 10 village had to build a church and everybody had to attend mass every Sunday (except for the person who was minding the fire). The old, politehistic and shamanistic religion was completely eradicated. We literally have no written sources on it. We don't even know the names of the deities. (Which makes for an interesting paradox when you have hard-core patriot guys who are both into Christianity and old legends using pre-Christianity imagery, but I digress.) So in my fics, the Old Religion is something that was forcefully ended to make way for the Saint Worship, and it's just Aleksander and Baghra who remember.

I imagine Aleksander's faith to be casual, but sincere. He is not crazy devout, doesn't have a strict adherence to the rules, but finds solace in the practice. He doesn't have unshakable faith in the existence of the gods (after all, he has seen the Saints rise and fall, and knows there is nothing divine about them), but it still calms him to pray sometimes.

As for language... now that's interesting. I'm honestly baffled by the show's "Old Ravkan" stuff. Language changes, it evolves. Look at texts from hundreds of years ago. Shakespeare is a bit odd, but still pretty understandable, but something from the 11th-12th century? that's a challange. But you can still find familiar words and patterns. And yet, the show's "Old Ravkan" is basically a completely different language. What I can imagine is that pre-fold the territory was held by another people, who spoke "Old Ravkan", then the current guys came & conquered, establishing "New Ravkan" as the official language -- so "Old Ravkan" would be the dialect of an ethnic minority, not the archaic form of the current language. (Personal bit: my dad's family is Danubian Schwab, a German minority living in Hungary. They've been here for generations, and they they speak their own dialect of German--my grandma, my aunt, they're all still bilingual.)

As for Aleksander, I would think that his speech patterns evolved with the language (your speech patterns evolve all the time, you add words to your vocab, leave stuff behind), but what remains, and what he really needs to be careful about is prnounciation. Because the syntax and the vocab might have stayed relatively the same, but the Ravkan language now uses different sounds than hundreds of yours ago--diphtongs disappeared, short vowels turned into long ones, soft th's turned into hard d's... And he needs to sound polished and educated, so he really, really needs to pay attention to how he talks.

[ministryofmagiclondon]

Draco Malfoy, bully or bullied?

Didn’t we all kind of despise Draco book 1-5? But as we turned the pages of the Half Blood Prince we felt..., pity? Pity for the character we loathed, the evil, hateful bully. I mean, he is a spoiled brat but also perhaps very misunderstood? In HP and the chamber of secrets we see Draco with his father entering Borgin and Burkes.., there is no love and affection in their relatioship. Draco was raised by a family filled with hate and smugness, hating on muggles and muggle-borns, thinking they were better than the rest. Combine this with no affection, no hugs and kisses and a lot of money. Draco learned at an early age that money and pure blood is what matters. He thought he would arrive to Hogwarts and become the most popular student there, as his father had a lot of power and influence over the ministry. He failed to understand though that his fellow 11 year old students don’t care about money nor ministry officials... but fame and cool stories such as the story of Harry Potter..., that they do care about.

Having been shoved to the side his whole life by his unloving parents Draco was jealous of the famous and popular Harry Potter. His name had circulated around his family home for as long as he can remember, and although it was with anger and hate.., they at least talked about him. They didn’t talk that much about Draco, for he was an ordinary boy. Desperate to prove himself Draco wasted all his years at Hogwarts to try and beat Harry in everything. When the moment came that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named himself gave Draco a quest, he was proud. Although he saw the fear in his mothers face, he was happy, because finally came the time where he would make his family proud. Someone believed in HIM. We have to remember Draco was only 16 at this time, a teenager desperate to prove himself, desperate for affection and praise. This, as we know was not a challange given to Draco out of belief in his talents though, but an attempt to hurt his parents who failed their missions. Draco realised that the path he was on was not the right one, he started questioning his parents choices and beliefs and this is where we see character growth. For he loved his parents of course and now he knew that he would be the reason for them being hurt.., and maybe even killed? And maybe he would be killed too? Of course he was scared of death, not every child can be as brave as Harry, that is in fact not normal. Most people fear death, and most people fall for peer pressure and will make choices to become popular. Draco was a normal teenager in his actions. You can also not say that Draco really had a choice, as explained he was brought up with certain beliefs and nothing else would have been accepted. In many parts of Britain physical punishments are used in child upbringing, more so before than now. With strict and posh parents, we don’t know in what kind of environment Draco really grew up. Was Draco maybe bullied his whole life at home?

Draco was indeed a bully, but perhaps things would have been different had he gotten help and guidance earlier. Hogwarts had no support system to catch these trouble makers before things really got out of hand. Or maybe, he is just a spoiled kid who been treated as a prince his whole life and therefore looks down on the rest?

What do you think?

[thestalkerbunny]

I would like to know your middle school character.

Okay, just as a heads up; take this with a grain of salt, I made these characters when I was like 14 in middleschool after we did a mental health unit in Health Class and making them was sort of my way of retaining the information better.

So the Character's names are Josiah and Jaggity. Josiah is a human boy, he is roughly 14-16 himself at the time of his creation. He is artistic, he had a sister who died in a very bad situation, he had mismatched eyes, severe anxiety about most things and lived essentially in a group home. Like very much a middle school creation. Josiah was also severely schizophrenic to the point where he most likely couldn't function on his own and had to live with other people. Josiah often felt very bad about himself because from my understanding at the time, Schizoprania was perceived as something dangerous and scary by other people.

(I was a very fond of him at the time I made him and I still am because he was used in a Rp group on DA I used to be in and he has a lot of sorta weird happy memories of people I don't talk to anymore because they've sort of dissapeared off the internet.)

Jaggity was essentially his primary visual hallucination. Jaggity was described as a roughly 7ft tall emaciated cat with no eyelids or pupils, a glasgow smile, a massive hole in his chest and razor blades for fingers. Again. Peak fucking middleschool edginess, me.

Jaggity was basically the visual personifiaction of 'fearing yourself to be what others think of you.' Schizoprania in media is often feared and considered a horror trope. Jaggity appears as a monster. A monster who no matter what he touches he ruins it because his razor blade hands can't hold anything without hurting it. The flip side to the knife analogy is that while people would be concerned about him hurting them-he's just as much risk if not more at hurting himself. Coal Tar often dripped from his eyes, mouth and nose-being perceived as again dangerous (coal tar is a highly flammable substance) as well as disgusting. He was noted to have the smell of kerosene.

He was basically the visualization of how a young boy saw himself who had been taught by main stream media that being schizophrenic and mentally unwell in general is a bad thing.

And like, I feel like I've really really grown as a person and understanding mental illness and writing mentally ill characters BETTER; but even though I'm still rather fond of these characters in general, in design and nostalgia for when I first made them, I sort of restrain myself from touching them at all out of fear people will start yelling at me for past ignorance I had as a stupid middleschooler because the internet isn't kind nor lenient to past mistakes. They do often make their way into goretober art back in the early days of me doing my Goretober challanges

(Mainly Jaggity because his design was sort of so over the top and exaggerated)

But yeah those were my 'masterpiece' middleschool ocs I refuse to touch out of fear of internet based backlash even though I made them when I was super dumb and young to try an help me remember stuff for a test I was studying for.

I was also really into the song 'Monster' by Meg and Dia at the time, so the inspiration comes from there as well.

*gore art below*

[taecrossing]

New Horizons Challange!

Each day make a post so other gamers can get to know you and your island~

Day 1 - Post a picture of your island flag and explain the name of your island.

Day 2 - Post a picture of you with your current villagers. Show us the family.

Day 3 - Make a mini slideshow explaining each of your villagers, tell us about them and what are they like on your island.

Day 4 - Have a photo shoot with your favourite villager (Or 2, or 3). Explain why they’re the best.

Day 5 - Who’s your favourite Special Character? And if you could bring one from previous games, who would it be?

Day 6 - If you play with any of your friends, take a photo with them. If not post up your FC so we can come and play with you~~

Day 7 - Post a picture of your house exterior.

Day 8 - Post a picture of favourite room in your house.

Day 9 - Post a pic of your favourite outfit. Let’s have a fashion show!

Day 10 - Talk about a funny incident you had in the game (did the nickname you chose your villager to say backfired? Funny bug? Villagers having interesting convos?)

Day 11 - Is there any villager you badly want on your island? Time to show them off.

Day 12 - Show off the place in you’re island that you’re proudest of.

Day 13 - Are you a businessmen in ACNH? Give us your Nookazon ID so we can potentially become your customers~

Day 14 - Post a favourite picture you took in ACNH. The one that makes you remember the good times you had while playing.

Tag others so more people can do it or don’t tag anyone at all. I hope this challenge can bring the gamers together and we can all appreciate ACNH.

[ironstrange-is-the-endgame]

2019 Fic Review

thanks to @strangemischief for the tag

1. Fics Completed This Year (jut the finished ones and from January to December)

And maybe I've always been in love with you

Scarred chest and broken mind

Can we live that real life

The Matchmakers Team

I would whisper words, singin' you to sleep

Dreams start their drifting & you hear a lullaby

Secrets that are not meant to last

You're making the typical me break my typical rules

feeling so high, but too far away to hold me

I've been afraid, don't wanna fade out of my body

That's what you get for waking up in Vegas

It's crucial that you see the truth

The worst and the best idea

'Cause people believe That they're gonna get away for the summer But you and I, we live and die

Flip a grin, shake a thing, name a shame

Romantic confessions are overrated

And yet a masterpiece, and yet I'm half-diseased

And in the end, it is about you.

And if yours is the last voice I hear, I'll die happy

You were dancing in your tube socks in our hotel room, flashing those eyes like highway signs

Promise you'll remember that you're mine

Giving up control

There's nothing I want but money and time 

I need another story, somethin' to get off my chest

You're not ready for what's commin'

In your eyes there was an honesty no lies but you weren't free

You should know you're beautiful just the way you are

If you were ever in doubt, don't sell yourself short, you might be bulletproof

And maybe you're not the villain, maybe you are the hero

'Cause I can't help my mind from going there

I'm looking for someone who speaks my language, someone to ride this ride with me

I love the sound of happiness

You rest your head and turn the light on, if only I could wish your kiss

To make a name you pay the price, you give your life, no other way

I'm still comparing your past to my future

Did you loose what won't return?

The cause and effects when life interferes

Who lives, who dies, who tells the story

Tell me what you need I'll give you everything I can

The only person who matters

Some scars are deeper than they seem

Boyfriends' relics and other Avengers-worthy things

I’ve been questioning when you’re gonna see I’m not part of your machine

Feels like I'm falling into a world I can't control

Help me piece it all together before it falls apart

Soul broken

You are a sweet relief, you save me from my brain

I think there's a flaw in my code

I'd been down, give me some space, you don't know what's in my brain

So many questionable choices, we love the sound that our voices make

we can do anything if we put out minds on it

Wonderin' if I could sneak out the black

A simpler life, an odder relationship

Who has the knowledge and wisdom Tell me who'll be the hero to protect the kingdom

2. Words Written: 168397 between published WIPs and completed fic.

3. Most Popular Fic:  for hits People come and people go, the trouble is that sometimes you don’t know who is meant for you while for kudos Dreams start their drifting & you hear a lullaby

4. Personal Favorite: I have no fucking clue, probably I'd been down, give me some space, you don't know what's in my brain

5. Favorite Scene: “I’m offended, and I’m sure Carol would be as well if she heard what you said about her powers,” Tony smirked and Stephen found astonish how the man could go from serious to a complete playful tone in zero time. That reminded Stephen why he didn’t need to complicate things. Yes, he was probably gone for the man, but he needed all the friends he could get, and making things weird between them was the best way to walk out Stark’s life. He didn’t want that. “Will you ever stop to think that much? Stephen, people like you for who you are, not because you can hold a fucking river with a single hand. Or because you can create a shield against the power of six Infinity Stones, or because you brought everyone back from Halloween Town dimension. People like you because you are smart and funny, and a person who can give advice, and someone who really listens to others’ problems. And because you have a Cloak with a lot of personality.”

As if prompted, the Cloak moved over so that it could also cover Stark’s arm. Stephen had no idea of what he could tell. A part of him knew that, probably, but another, a bigger one, was well aware of the fact that he was nothing without magic. Tony’s smile was so sincere that he could believe that his words were honest too.

“How?” He asked, almost a whisper.

“I don’t know about the others, but for me, it’s because of the snark. You are the first person ever capable of keeping up with me. But for Rhodey, but he’s always seen me as a little brother and turned me down every time I tried to make a move on him.” [ Who has the knowledge and wisdom Tell me who'll be the hero to protect the kingdom]

6. Biggest Challange: Writing smut, especially Giving up control and  I'm looking for someone who speaks my language, someone to ride this ride with me

7. Proudest Line: “Are you fine?” Rhodey asked her, after some minutes in which they just stay there like this. The man’s arm was around her waist, almost completely support her weight.

“Always,” She replied, almost immediately, without even giving the man the possibility to add something. She knew that she wasn’t, but she was just too stubborn to admit it.

“Do you want me to let you go?”

“No,” It was a plea, her eyes still fixed on Tony’s form, in the background, she could hear the siren from an ambulance.

When James answered her, Nat knew he was smirking: “I wasn’t expecting anything else.” [ Help me piece it all together before it falls apart]

8. Most Touching Comment: I don’t know... I received a lot of touching comments, I usually love when people compliment me on my insight on the characters and getting them in-character (which is something that is being extremely difficult for me recently and this is why I slowed down with the writer aspect of the fandom), but I can’t choose just one of these comments. 

9. Something That Inspired You: It mostly depends. It can be a tv series, a movie, a book, but also a lecture at the university or just walking around with the music in my earpieces. 

10. Proudest Accomplishment:  Again, writing smut which got more than 2 kudos is niece. 

11. 2020 Goals: post the Peter is Tony and May’s kid fic which is basically mcu rewritten with ironwidowstrange. 

tagging; @amethyst-noir @notjustamumj @drstrangefangirl8900

[kaibutsushidousha]

Artbook Data - Writer Team Interview

I really saved the best for last with this one. This interview was a wild ride, with at least two big pieces of fandom common knowledge being proven wrong.

Interviewees:

Yoshinori Terasawa: The producer for the Danganronpa series. Tasked with the challange of organizing this ragtag band of weirdoes while fighting schedule and budget. This time his title on the credits changed.

Kazutaka Kodaka: The writer, and one of the series’ creators. He created this game in paralell with writing scripts for the anime. Also experienced in writing novels and manga.

Takayuki Sugawara: Involved with the series’ development since the first game. For V3, aside from giving the order for the game to happen and offering many ideas, he also wrote all the secret lie routes for the Class Trial.

Shun Sasaki: This game’s director. Kodaka’s right-hand man, with the important role of transmitting Kodaka’s thoughts to the staff. The many bonus modes were all made at Sasaki’s idea. 

The inital theme was going to be Psychoamerican, with the game being set on a desert!?

Interviewer: It has been a month since the game was released (interview recorded in February 23, 2017), so how much have your thoughts changed since the game’s release?

Kazutaka Kodaka: Not much.

I: Then it must mean everything, including the fan reactions, was just as expected.

KK: Yeah. I was wishing for an unexpected reaction, but everything went just as expected, for better or for worse.

I: How about you, Terasawa?

YT: Kodaka says “just as expected”, but I was thinking the game would be a little bit more well received. You know, when I look at the timeline, I see more critical opinions than I imagined I would.

I: That said, I’m getting the impression that we’re getting more and more positive reviews, compared to how it was immediately after launch.

YT: We’re feeling this too. I’m very thankful that one month after launch, the positive opinion have been getting gradually more vocal.

I: How about you, Sasaki?

SS: Same as Kodaka, no big changes. I'm just still stunned that it’s over.

TS: I’m the opposite of Sasaki. We’ve always finished Danganronpa on the edge of the deadline, but this one we were REALLY improving everywhere we could until the very last second. I feel like the production is still not over even now. Maybe we’re all lying when we said we made it in time (laughs).

I: Was V3 really this hard? When did the project start?

KK: It was late into Ultra Despair Girls’ production. Sugawara called me about a new project and ...

I: So it was Sugawara, not Terasawa.

KK: For some reason, he never calls me directly. Always has someone relaying his message to me. Then me and Sugawara started coming up with some content and wrote the project pitch. It was completely different from what’s now.

YT: It was going to be set in a desert.

I: A desert!? Do deserts have schools?

KK: The design theme at the time was Psychoamerican, so we thought it should be in a desert.

YT: If I recall right, it was going to be a desert where a Future Foundation was stranded...

KK: And so we made the project pitch with loads of American-ish stuff, like Vegas neon lights. I can’t remember much of the details.

YT: But even back then, Kodaka already had the game’s direction and that ending in mind.

I: So the ending idea stayed the same through the how development cycle. Was it Terasawa or Sugawara who asked you to make the V3 project?

KK: It was more the company itself than Terasawa. 

YT: Yeah. I was the one who directly asked for it, but the very company was pointing out that it was about time for a new number Danganronpa sequel. At the time, the DR:AE development cycle was approaching its climax, so everyone was at the mood of “What are making next?” and the next cycle started very naturally.

I: I see. Then, was moving away from the Kibougamine series also decide from the beginning?

KK: Yes. No one ever considered continuing the Kibougamine series with V3.

TS: The Future Foundation ship I mentioned earlier would be set up as the ship from the DR2 ending for a twist of “haha, it was a different ship all along”. It was a red herring planned to draw the fans’ interest. 

I: And why did you change settings?

KK: We all know DR1 and 2 follow each other chronologically as the Kibougamine series, but at first I never said they did. When I say from the start that it’s a sequel, the fans start expecting characters from the previous games. But personally I’m not a fan of having a previous survivor in the killing game, having to experience the murders, investigations and Class Trials all over again. I thought that when I made the next numbered title I should reboot the setting and characters.

I: Let me get this right, all you had defined back at the project pitch stage was doing a reboot and the story’s ending. Yes?

TS: Yeah. We didn’t have a concrete idea of how we would present the ending, but it we were settled on the direction that it was something that would make the player part of the plot. 

I: And how exactly did lies, one of the game’s main themes, entered the stage?

TS: We had decided from the start that we would have the lie mechanic. Lying was actually a gimmick I came up with for DR2 and I really wanted the chance to include it for real in a next game.

I: Any other elements decided from the start?

KK: I think we decided the true meaning of “V3” in our first discussion. Did we? I vaguely recall we see saying it would be clever if V3 actually meant 53.

I: I agree, I was impressed when I played it!

KK: It’s just the part that the first game were also fictional in-universe and that V3 was the 53rd Danganronpa game that we came up with later. At the time we just though of the initial clever curveball. This was back before we had the idea to make the DR3 anime. We went with the name V3 just for this joke, then later we thought “If this is DRV3, the anime should be DR3”.

I: The game was decided first, huh. And how exactly did the “New” and the “Everyone’s Killing Game New Semester” came about?

KK: When we had to present the game for the Sony Press Conference (September 15th, 2015), we thought we should add something before the title, like the Super in Super Danganronpa 2. So we went with “New”.

YT: But for the first logo we wrote “NEW” in English letters.

I: And you already had the subtitle back then.

KK: The subtitle was also put together on a rush for the Sony Press Conference. We basically just added the “Everyone’s” there because the ending was pretty much completely planned at that point.

YT: We need to have these big presentations like the Sony Press Conference, because otherwise we never settle on a title (pained laughter).

The design theme changes to Psychocool! The production finally starts for real.

I: Now I have several questions about the contents of the game. We know you have the decided on the title, then presented the game under the final design theme of “Psychocool”. For what reason did you decide against the “Psychoamerican” theme?

KK: To be honest with you, Psychoamerican was never a design theme I was really serious about...

TS: We just needed something to pitch a project with.

YT: Every good project pitch has a few bluffs on it. 

KK: At the time I was busy with Ultra Despair Girls, so I decided to leave the theme decisions for later. But after watching Sugawara’s presentation at the project meeting, I may have regretted neglecting the subject (pained laughter).

TS: That’s because my project file on the meeting as a blank piece of paper (laughs).

I: (laughs) Suguwara, did you really explain the entire project with a blank paper?

TS: No, each page had a head title. “Scrum Debate” was one, for example. And did the explanations with just that. Judging by the participants’ reaction, the overall tone of the meeting was “What the heck is going on here...?” (pained laughter).

I: And after all these hardships, you settled on the Psychocool theme. What was the deciding factor here?

KK: We started putting some actual thought into it, notice how hard it would be to deal with a desert setting, and decided the American part wouldn’t work. At the time I was considering given a more adult image to it, so we decided on Psychostylish. But we didn’t go very far with this theme, did we?

SS: I don’t think we did.

KK: So, the players who experienced DR1′s Psychopop in their teens grew into adulthood with DR2′s Psychotropical, and now cooled down after their growth... That’s why V3′s theme became Psychocool.

I: So it had a more mature image.

YT: But us changing themes 2 or 3 times before made things hell for the graphics team, since we wouldn’t settle on a direction already.

SS: Because before we decided on the Psychocool theme, the designers had already started working with no design concept. Kodaka already some ideas in mind for a ruined school with growing vegetation and some machines in it, but without any concrete direction, they had to redo their work multiple times.

I: I’ll ask about the design concept in more detail in the designer team interview. The next question is about the story. Is “what could be a lie” something you think about in the earlier plot planning stages?

KK: Include some lie elements back in the plot planning, but there’s nothing that was always meant to be interpreted as a lie. It all started in a project meeting where Sugawara said “I want to use lies”, but without any concrete idea of would that be implemented into gameplay. Later, when I started planning the plot, I was looking back at the project file and the discussion notes, scavenging for content I could use and found that I could use lies to fill the gaps in my plot. And so was born my liar character, Kokichi Ouma.

I: Usually the characters make the plot, but sometimes the plot can make a character.

KK: They are just robots instead of characters, but the same goes for the Exisals. They came from a joke idea told in the project meeting.

TS: We mentioned the Exisal as a mascot replacement for Monokuma. “Next mascot should be a monkey” (laughs).

KK: But not having Monokuma as the mascot feels wrong to me. Yeah, we were rebooting the characters and the setting, but I think changing too much does more harm than good, so I decided to keep Monokuma as the mascot without a second thought.

I: About what you just mentioned about Ouma, did you create all the characters as you were planning the plot?

KK: Yes. I thought 16 was the perfect number of students, as it was in DR2. Before I had any plot, I asked Komatsuzaki for some designs based on his impressions. I was planning the plot as I was receiving the designs and came up with the details along the way, I think.

I: At what point did you decide on the dual protagonist scheme with Kaede Akamatsu and Shuuichi Saihara?

KK: I can’t remember when exactly I decided that it was doable, but I’ve been wanting to do it from very early on. I was thinking that if I could do it, it would make for an awesome chapter 1.

I: The Ikebukuro Namjatown had a poll to guess who would survive. Harukawa was first, Saihara was second and Akamatsu was third, so I thought the fans saw it coming.

KK: I was also weirded out by how high Saihara was, but then I heard about the unfortunate hatless Saihara sprite visible in the PV. Since the ahoge is the symbol of the Danganronpa protagonist, I’m pretty sure this spoiled the twist.

YT: You didn’t notice it when the PV came out?

KK: I didn’t. Sasaki told me about it later and I was like “Oh no, really...?” (laughs).

YT: I see, because it very early on in the video.

SS: It was. What a shame...

KK: That said, a lot of characters were predicted wrong. Our survivor Himiko Yumeno got the very last place.

YT: She reestablished balance.

I: Yeah. Just look at our presented protagonist Akamatsu. While there were a lot of people thinking she was safe because she’s the protagonist, there were also a lot suspecting even the protagonist could die.

KK: I think the majority was predicting Akamatsu would die. But I think that as they watched the PVs and play the demo, a lot of them noticed how we made all the Class Trial assets for her and started thinking “Yeah, of course she wouldn’t die”. At very least, I think not many people predicted she would be executed as the culprit in the Class Trial.

This is how the 16 students watching the new Class Trial were born

I: In this interview for Danganronpa 2, you mentioned that Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu was supposed to die along the way, but as you were finishing your plot he became a survivor. Did V3 also have a character like Kuzuryuu?

SS: I’m pretty sure no character was changed. Though I vaguely recall we changing the order in which they died as the murder tricks demanded.

TS: When Kodaka was thinking of the murder trick for chapter 1, he asked me “What SHSL should we kill off?”. I answered “Killing the detective would be a shocker”.

KK: For context, I wasn’t too sure if it was ok for Saihara to be the Super High School Level Detective. Because Detective Saihara would mean a protagonist title ripping off Kyouko Kirigiri’s. But I ultimately accepted the idea of him being a detective.

I: I see. So this didn’t have any big changes like DR2 had. Was there any student talent or character trait that you decided on based on their murder tricks?

KK: I always plan the characters and the tricks at the same time. And this time I planned part of the tricks along with Kitayama. Whenever we discussed, I just told him “This is the culprit, this is the victim and this is the type of case I want” and he would come up with the details for me. Otherwise none of us would know what to do with his murder tricks.

I: If any other character had their characterization changed along the way, like you said Ouma did, tell us about it.

KK: I changed Harukawa’s title after seeing the finished desing. I kept her title as Super High School Level Child Caregiver, but made her actually an assassin.

SS: I remember you going with Bounty Hunter Harukawa before you changed it to Assassin.

KK: You’re right. She looked so out of the ordinary in that illustration that I thought she would work out as assassin and changed it, if I recall right. I tend to change my plot points a lot, so that’s why it’s always better to do all part of my work at the same time.

I: Is Kodaka always this nonchalant when talking about major plot changes?

SS: Yeah, he just comes out of nowhere and “I made Harukawa an assassin”.

TS: The script still wasn’t finished at the time, so even I didn’t know the reason for the change, I could say is “Really?” (laughs).

SS: Though I like her a little better as an assassin than as a bounty hunter.

I: Yeah, that’s not a situation where you can say “no” for no reason (pained laughter). By the way, Ouma and Harukawa are super popular. Did you expect them to this many fans?

KK: Sure, Harukawa got a lot of attention on the first teaser visual, and she’s a tsundere character very easy to understand, so I thought she would be popular. And Ouma is remarkably “Danganronpa”. When he is doing so much work to get things his way and getting many big scenes in the process, it’s no surprise he would get popular.

I: I think Kaito Momota got even more big scenes than he did. Not to mention his story role was pretty important.

KK: Momota was a character I was much more unoptimistically hoping to be popular. Because in the previous games I never had any characters as super friendly as him and Gonta Gokuhara. When I was writing the script, Sugawara or Sasaki told “This cast is our tightest group of friends so far”. Now that I think about it, I guess this strongly influenced my decision to put Momota as the leader. Byakuya Togami from DR1 would be constantly on the edge if he was there.

I: He sure would (laughs). Opposite question now, what character did you think was less popular than you thought they would be?

YT: Less than expected? I guess Ryouma Hoshi? Just my personal opinion though, I understand it’s because he died too soon.

KK: A lot of people I know love Hoshi. 

TS: I know lot of Hoshi fans too.

KK: To me, the most unexpectedly unpopular character was Korekiyo Shinguuji, not Hoshi. I mean, his uniform is awesome and his unstable relationship with his sister feels like a classic underground movie. Shinguuji is one of my personal favorites and I thought he would be popular. But the people playing the game called him “gross” (pained laughter).

I: Shinguuji, one-of-a-kind as he is, he’s really not for everyone.

KK: Meh, whatever, I don’t wriite characters trying to make them popular. Be it for Momota or for Shinguuji, I was thinking I would personally love if they became popular but that was not the goal. In fact, the only character I wrote with the popularity polls in mind was Miu Iruma, and the goal there was to get her the last place! I think this gave her strong character quirks, not mention that trying to make everyone popular makes the cast weird and lacking in variety. 

I: I see. Speaking of Shinguuji, I felt that while his motive was quite unrelatable, most of the other students had sympathetic motives. Was that on purpose?

KK: For the motives, I was just trying to avoid a repeat of what happened with Mikan Tsumiki. Yeah, I know Shinguuji’s was close. But this time most of the motives were based on their murder tricks. The first thing I did was give a definite theme for each murder trick: chapter 1 is the protagonist being the culprit, chapter 2 was a fusion of murder trick and magic trick, chapter 3 was a new death during the investigation, chapter 4 was the culprit not knowing that he is the culprit, and chapter 5 was the culprit and the victim working together. That makes chapter 2 the only outlier. I just really wanted to use the twist that Kirumi Toujou was the Prime Minister. I also absolutely wanted to have piranhas in my story (laughs). 

I: (laughs) Another big difference I notice is that I couldn’t predict the culprits based on the murder tricks.

KK: That part was very intentional. I really didn’t want any moments of “I don’t know the trick, but the culprit is this guy” the best I could. Chapter 3 was easy to figure out, but I think chapter 2′s clever hooks did a lot better.

Kodaka is Barack Obama!? The personality felt by Megumi Hayashibara.

I: Sayaka Kanda voicing Akamatsu was a highly discussed topic. How exactly did you decide that?

KK: The initial was to have (non-voice) actors playing the role of the two protagonists. After many twists and tuns, we had only Kanda voicing Akamatsu.

YT: She had a great performance as Junko Enoshima in Danganronpa THE STAGE. I invited her to the Akamatsu with high expectations, not only because she obviously a very talented actress, but also because she is so associated with Junko Enoshima that it would give the fans a lot to speculate about. 

I: Another big surprise was the other protagonist Saihara being Megumi Hayashibara. Hayashibara is not someone most people would imagine voicing a boy...

KK: Hayashibara was my personal request. It looked difficult at first, but ultimately she accepted it. She might have been initially wary but then felt it was okay because she shares a lot of history with Ogata and Takayama, who voiced the previous protagonist.

I: I see. Not that you mention it, in a previous interview Hayashibara made a comment about you: “He’s like President Obama”. She didn’t elaborate on that, so please tell us why!

KK: When we were recording chapter 6, Hayashibara asked me “Does Danganronpa always ends like this?”. I answered “It’s not always like this.” and the conversation continued from there. After I created Danganronpa, many other stories with death games started appearing. I know death games are exciting and easy to employ, but so many of them didn’t think their endings through or were just the using the game as a sadistic system to kill characters. Then, as I was analyzing what it means to “truly escape the death game”, I reached the conclusion that it’s the characters upsetting the death game itself. As I explained to her how I made that ending because I had to take responsibility for creating Danganronpa, Hayashibara said “Wonderful!”...

I: And where does President Obama come in? 

KK: Hayashibara talked about one time when President Obama dismantle bomb facilities in the US to say “It’s important to take responsibility for what you make”, so I answered “Then I’m Obama?” (laughs).

I: (laughs) What a conversation.

KK: Hayashibara seemed to be very convinced by this explation, seeing how she put even more power into her chapter 6 performance.

I: Saihara’s chapter 6 voice acting was indeed on fire. Speaking of chapter 6, I was really surprised by the twist of having the DR1 and 2 characters there. Was that decided from the start?

KK: I didn’t even considered it when I was planning the plot. The idea came to me only when I started writting chapter 6′s script.

YT: That’s pretty late into the process.

KK: I was thinking that just Tsumugi Shirogane’s cosplays would be too weak to express the mastermind’s threat level. As I was thinking on how could I make her a character on par with Enoshima, since the ending was going to be that, I had my epiphany: “She should cosplay every character before her!”. And if I want a perfect cosplay, I would need the real voices. When I talked to Terasawa about how awesome she would be if she could cosplay even voices, and how much of a visual punch it would be to have all previous characters, his reaction was “Wait a minute...”.

I: I can see how he wouldn’t be ready for that.

KK: I was doing the recordings for the DR3 anime at the time, so I was naive enough to believe asking for just a couple additional lines would be enough.

YT: Life is not that easy (laughs).

I: (laughs) But everything worked at the end.

KK: I have to admit, I did some emotional blackmail there. Saying “I already started the script, I can’t go with any other twist now”. I had already resigned to the fact that we couldn’t have everyone, but in the end, the entire cast came to the recordings.

I: Impressive work, Terasawa.

YT: After Kodaka’s blackmail, I had to do my part, too. The result was splendid and very meaningful to the game, but we can’t use that in promotional material, so, from a cost efficiency standpoint, it was really bad (pained laughter).

KK: But one problem I would want to fix if I had a chance is how this made her total dialogue really long. I could have made it all a lot more concise, but you know, leaving one character with only two lines who be such a waste.

I: That said, I think the result was splendid. Just as you wanted, it made Shirogane a lot more awesome, in my opinion. On the topic of Shirogane, was making Super High School Level Cosplayer the mastermind talent decided from the start?

KK: Yes. The mastermind being a cosplayer came first from that ending punchline where she asserts that their entire world is part of her cosplay. Also because I really wanted to have a cosplayer character somewhere.

The Love Hotel was born from a cancelled game mechanic!?

I: Our next topic will be the setting and the special scenes. Starting from how the Kibougamine Academy was rebooted into the Saishuu Academy. Tell us how the academy was created.

KK: I think didn’t put any school name on the project pitch. The thing is, V3 is a project initiated under the idea of being something of a culmination of the series, of putting an end into everything, so we went with the name Saishuu, which carries the nuances of both “final” and “talents being locked up”. Another neat detail I only noticed now is that it’s kanji form is pretty easy to write (才囚).

I: You’re praising yourself too much (laughs).

KK: I love Saishuu Academy’s name, but I like its emblem just as much. The design includes a subtle prisoner aesthetic and a Monokuma. Though I wonder, how will the localization handle this? (pained laughter).

I: That’s a good question (laughs). Then, how was the academy’s design decided?

KK: I only asked them to make the wall. The wall was my utmost priority.

TS: I remember that this wall got its birdcage style because I suggested to include a jail or birdcage motif. V3′s school has a prison atmosphere, but prisons still have sports grounds and whatnot, you know? Because of this, we decided to make the Saishuu Academy with explorable areas outside the school building.

I: The Saishuu Academy has a lot of strange areas. A casino is already bad enough, but it has even a love hotel...

KK: Whose idea was the love hotel again?

SS: It was based on Sugawara’s idea of nighttime raids, from the project pitch.

TS: Oh yeah, at the time we had a set rule where you could only solve the academy’s mysteries at nighttime. The idea was to explore the academy at night and investigate the mysteries, but you could also peek into the students’ rooms.

YT: Yeah, I was thinking of making an investigation game like this. 

KK: The problem was that this was going to make the game too lenghty, so we left the parts where you enter the students’ for dialogue as the Love Hotel.

SS: Yeah, and since we thought it would be nice to have an element where you can flirt with the characters, they became those erotic scenes...

I: I see (laughs). Did you write the Love Hotel scenes, Kodaka?

KK: I gave the Love Hotel scenes to a substitute writer. Except their version were really not acceptable, so I had to rewrite them myself (pained laughter).

I: What an interaction to have. Enough about character scenes. We also had many new secret routes in the Class Trials.How exactly were these secret routes created?

SS: The secret routes exist because we wanted to incorporate the Lie Bullet into the story, not only the gameplay. But lying is something we kind of needed to convince most players to do. You know, we needed to add moments where the player would want to lie. And all thanks to Sugawara, we could do it.

I: You wrote the secret routes, didn’t you, Sugawara?

KK: I was too busy with everything else. Since already had semi-done scripts for the proper route, I let Sugawara have his ideas based on that.

TS: That said, I was also piled up with other jobs, so I had other developers do some bits, like pointing me out where I could lie. Some pointers I followed straight, while others I had to rethink. I tried to include as many secret routes as I could, but this was a work I couldn’t get done in time for the voice recordings.

I: I think making secret routes is hard even when the proper route script is complete...

TS: It was relatively easy to make the new content for the secret routes. The difficult is how to get back to the original route.

KK: I tried not to touch on Sugawara’s scripts too much, but I did edit some character word choices or some parts where the topic got too long.

I: How did the fans react to the secret routes?

KK: I didn’t hear much about it.

YT: I often check Twitter for fan opinions, but that’s never really tweeted about.

TS: I think a lot of people don’t notice where they can lie to get a secret route. I did make them change the song for the Debate where you can do Perjury, but that’s not listed or hinted in any tutorial, so...

KK: Not to mention it’s a really minor change, so I find it pretty difficult to notice on your first go.

The mystery novelist Kitayama adds even more well polished murder tricks

I: Since we are talking about Class Trials, I would like to ask about the murder tricks. First, tell me how Kitayama joined the party.

KK: Once I knew I would have to work on this and the DR3 anime at the same time, I thought I would have to ask someone for help, since the time I would have on the scripts would shorten. I thought that if I could smoothly get all the murder tricks decided, I could handle both scripts just fine, but unfortunately the discussion went for much longer than I expected. In the end I didn’t gain any time from all this, but thanks to Kitayama joining me, we boast higher quality.

I: How was your work?

KK: I told Kitayama the trick themes for each chapter and had him come up with the howdunnit. With that, Sugawara and Sasaki’s developer team can plot out the trick, then I check it all and put it together as the script. 

I: Was there anything big you had to fix?

KK: Depends on the chapter. For chapter 1 I pretty much used Kitayama’s idea exactly as it was. Even the “I tossed away what I was holding” descriptor was left exactly as Kitayama wrote it. On the other hand, chapter 2 was very different from the initial draft. 

SS: The chapter 2 trick was the water slider instead of the ropeway using the floating tube, right?

KK: Yeah, that one. Lining up a lot of floating tube to make the corpse slide on them. Then she would only have to cut the rope connecting them and that would leave just countless floating tubes on the pool. I fought finding the tubes during the investigation would be a fun idea, but when it came the time to script it, I got a lot questions. “Is this really enough water pressure to make a corpse silde?”. “Won’t she get wet from the water on the gaps between tubes?”. “Are sure the corpse can enter the fish tank?”.

YT: I’m a physics major, so this bothers me a lot. One little detail like this can ruin the whole case for me, so I made sure to comment everything I noticed.

KK: Yeah, so I had to change to the whole water slider trick into a ropeway trick. Sasaki, you’re the one who argued the most against this, weren’t you?

SS: I was (laughs). I had to plot the trick for chapter 2. So when Kodaka told me “The water slide won’t work”, I was like “Really...?”.

I: The script is where you start to notice the problems.

KK: More exactly, the plotting stage doesn’t put all that attention to detail. Because the workload for plotting a trick as a lot bigger than it sounds. And we’re definitely not gaining any time if I happen to see plans before they’re ready...So, the issues only start showing up when I’m doing the script.

SS: In chapter 2, even my idea to gather all the students together, the Insect Meet-and-Greet, caused some back-and-forth.

KK: Yes, I let the developer come up with the finer details, like for example the reason why all students gathered together. So, for this one I was like “What’s an Insect Meet-and-Greet even supposed to be?”.  Then he explained to me that the group would be assembled to look at Gonta’s insects, but I still had no idea why they would do that. I still wanted to do it, it was a fun idea, so I implemented Gonta’s Insect Meet-and-Greet on the form of Gonta kidnapping the students under Ouma’s orders.

I: Do you have any other case of struggles to connect a trick’s dots?

KK: Chapter 3, handled by Sugawara, also took a lot of time.

TS: I used Kitayama’s idea for the main trick using the seesaw, but we needed to change all the steps that lead to the crime, and that was the time consuming part. 

KK: Oh yeah, we changed the seance ritual.

TS: At first, the trick was that the students would all hold hands and sing Kagome Kagome together, while the culprit would stomp the floorboard. But if that were the case, when the culprit stomped the floorboard, the people holding his hands would feel the movement, you see...

I: And that’s why you had to edit. Next is chapter 4, how was it?

KK: Chapter 4 also had a murder trick by Kitayama, but it was a trick using a rope. Since we changed chapter 2 into the ropeway, that would make chapter 4′s a repeat. While we were thinking of how to make a ropeless trick, one the developers gave the looping world idea, so I created the trick using the loop.

I: Chapter 4′s trick was an idea that made a really good use out of the game world. Was there any reason to change the characters’ visual into the chibi models?

KK: I was born because we wanted to make a game inside a game. At first, we wanted to make a fully 3D world.

YT: You were calling it “VR”, weren’t you?

TS: But then its main gimmick became the loop trick, so we had to give up because a loop would be too hard and far too costly to portray in 3D. 

SS: We also considered using the bonus modes’ 8-bit sprites, but the consesus what that those were too visually unimpressive, so we made new ones, if I recall correctly.

KK: Also because to make the trick work we need to make the game in 2.5D, not 2D. Most of us thought it would be difficult to use the 8-bit sprites under that circumstances.

I: And for the chapter 5 trick, the twist where the victim and the culprit were in cahoots was very original, and I honestly couldn’t tell which of them was the culprit until the very end.

YT: That one is the hardest to figure out.

KK: I’m glad I could put the Exisal to good use in the 5th trick, with the victim and the culprit switching places. Also, I loaded chapter 5 with a large amount of information to distract you from the truth, so you being confused about it is exactly what we wanted.

The feelings imbued in the shocking finale. And an intriguing plan for the future!?

I: From this part on, I will be asking about the controversial chapter 6 and your plans for the future. I was told that when you were writting the chapter 6 script you added many extra animations and cutscenes of the school being destroyed. 

KK: At the plot planning stage, the only thing I had planned for chapter 6 was the endgame. Only when I actually reached that part in the script that I saw I didn’t know how lead the path to that. In DR2 I prepared some surprises to thrill the fans, like Kibougamine Academy appearing and whatnot. I wanted this game to have an element like this. And that’s when I arranged a meeting with all of Sasaki’s developers. I said “I put Kibougamine in DR2′s finale, so now I want V3 to have a set up as good as that”.

SS: Everyone agreed we should have one, of course.

KK: And that’s where I suggested we should explode Saishuu Academy. With Ki-bo appearing to help us around at the tightest moments, fighting the Exisals and all that. I talked with Sasaki’s team to ask if they could do it, they said “I think we can” and I answered “Nice” (laughs).

I: (laughs) That said, I think that was hard on who was managing the budget and schedule...

YT: You get me. There was suddenly a lot more to make.

KK: But we weren’t behind on the deadlines, were we?

SS: That’s right, we weren’t.

YT: That’s not how it works! (laughs)

Everyone: (laughs)

I: Chapter 6 had a lot more animated cutscenes too, hadn’t it?

KK: I wasn’t expecting that. You know that scene where Ki-bo first appears, flying to the glass? I was think that was going to be just some CG, not a fully animated cutscene. So it was a good surprise, like “Are you really making him this cool? Thank you!”.

YT: And his cutscene was quite a long one, at that.

SS: A CG would be too weak and unconvicing for this. We decided we should have this animated to give it the impact it deserved.

I: And I assume the same goes for all the add cutscene. Was the idea of slapping away the block-pathing debris conceived and added for the same reason? 

SS: It was. Honestly, there was so much more we wanted to do but didn’t have time to...

KK: To be completely honest, I was thinking chapter 6 was going to be a lot more visually simplistic than that. But once we started we didn’t want to stop. I’m glad the finished version is this much better than I imagined.

I: Speaking of chapter 6, can I ask Kodaka to explain the ending? 

KK: I went with that ending because I wanted to change where the player stands in V3. In 1 and 2 the player was an outside observer to the killing game. But in V3 I wanted the player to experience the same shock as Saihara and take part in the debate from the same position as him. Then, as Saihara is shocked to learn “This world was fictional. The Akamatsu and Momota I believed in were all fiction”, the player would also be hit with the fact “Everything I played so far is fictional”. But it’s a fact that everything you played so far still resonated with you and you gained a lot from it, so I was hoping you could synchro yourself with Saihara and take his side in the argument after he gets back in his feet. I was thinking that it if the player and the characters could outgrow this fiction, it could even create a new relationship between player and game.

I: I see. So that’s what you were thinking.

KK: I prepared a lot of tricks to make it easier for the player to sync up with Saihara, like Ki-bo’s “Do you want to save?”. Just empathizing with the characters was not enough for chapter 6, I want to share their point of view. That why, to make it harder to insert and emphatize in one specific person, I shuffled the POV with everyone.

I: I think the finale intentionally avoids stating what’s the truth and what is a lie. Do all of you in the production staff share the same answer to this mystery?

YT: Kodaka might have the answer on his mind, but I think we don’t need to know. We don’t even know if we can take everything Kodaka says as correct. See, the real right answer is the answer you came up with yourself.

I: You mean you just want everyone to think of the answer with their own personal interpretations?

YT: Also, I want to take this moments to tell all the fans that we never had the slightest intent to tarnish or insult the past games. We still think of Danganronpa 1 and 2 as our very beloved children. We love all 3 games from the bottom of our hearts.

I: Kodaka said before that V3 is a culmination and an end to everything, but will the Danganronpa series continue?

YT: Like with the first two games, we are completely burned out after finishing it, so, honestly, we don’t have any solid plans for a next game yet. However, as a producer, I want to answer to the fans’ support and expectations. I need to think long and hard about the future of Danganronpa.

I: What could this future be holding for us...?

YT: Who knows. DR1-2 Reload and Ultra Despair Girls will be ported to the PS4 this year, so I think we’ll get many new fans. If something in this trend incites Kodaka’s desire to write, we could be having a new game. Or at least that’s what I expect. I hope our fans expect the same.

I: I’ll be looking forward to it. Now, one message from all of you to the fans.

KK: Thank you for buying this artbook. How about replaying once more now that you know the game better? Or even better, buy another copy of the game and the book!

TS: I think there’s always something of value, be it good or bad, in someone playing a videogame for the first time. So the words I want to say here are the same words of gratitude said since the old days: THANK YOU FOR PLAYING.

SS: I saw a lot of intense critical commentary both for and against this game, so I’m very happy that this game managed to make this many people feel something about it. I believe leaving you wanting to talk about of you felt is one of the more characteristic traits of Danganronpa, so I love that you can enjoy exchanging your opinions.