#The colors are so badly put together but I thought this was peak character design xd

[jupiter--dream]

I love cringe and I remembered my first ponysona, in 2015, made in MS paint with a deviantart base. Can't find the original drawing, but I remember it vividly and I doodled the ponysona from memory adhsdfgyhj

[oumakokichi]

I'm not sure if this was asked before but I'll do it anyway. So, what's your opinion about Danganronpa V3 having three protagonists: Kaede Akamatsu, Shuichi Saihara, and Kibo? Do you think this strategy effective in terms of plot, gameplay, and people's reactions? And which protagonist gave you their most significant contribution throughout the game?

I feel like the multi-protagonist plot twist was very, very effectiveoverall! Ndrv3 is a game about fully subverting and playing on people’sexpectations, and they managed to keep doing this the whole way through. Byputting the game on such a meta scale and very intentionally dealing withthings like audience perception and the expectations people, even in-game, hadfrom each protagonist and each character in the cast, having those expectationsflipped upside down was all part of the fun.

I’ve talked about the fact that I’m not happy with the Kaedebait-and-switch protagonist role in particular, because of how shitty it is topromise a female protagonist and then snatch her away after getting people’shopes up. But I do like protagonist switches in general, when they’re welldone, and thematically, ndrv3 really does well with this kind of thing.

Not only the Kaede switch, but also the switch with Kiibo,and later even with Himiko and Maki, was exceptionally well done. It was meantto catch players unaware, and truly highlight the fact that contrary to “advertisement”or “audience expectations,” every single character in ndrv3 is meant to be theprotagonist of their own story. It’s one reason it was so hard for people topinpoint who the “intended protagonist” was from promotional materials alone:most people’s first guess was Kiibo, but there was also Maki as a close second,and then the “confirmation” about Kaede came. And there were so many characterswith ahoges this time around, further teasing at and playing on the assumptionmost people had that a protagonist would be marked just because of theirhairstyle or a certain physical quality about them.

Momota in particular really highlighted the theme of “anyonecan be the protagonist” super well. Momota is, technically speaking, adeuteragonist, not a  protagonist. But hecalls himself the protagonist thewhole way through the game, and many things about his design allude to this aswell. His shirt, which most people took to be a throwback to either Leon’s orKomaeda’s, actually features a design meant to resemble kabuki face paintings. Thecolor red is often used to symbolize characters who are very passionate,heroic, and active: a protagonist figure, in other words.

The fact that Momota is clearly not the protagonist or even aprotagonist, both because of circumstances (his illness) and the fact that therole is clearly already Saihara’s, makes it all the more interesting that herefuses to stop calling himself one. Momota really doesn’t care if people don’twant him to take charge or be the protagonist. He’s going to do it anyway,because that’s what a protagonist is supposedto do, and because he loathes the idea of sitting back passively and justletting things happen when he should be taking a much more active role in hisown story.

Both Kaede’s bait-and-switch, as well as Momota’s veryactive stance as a “sidekick character” who nonetheless calls himself aprotagonist frequently, should tip players off to the fact that “theprotagonist” is a much more subjective role than they might have previouslythought. Saihara, who steps into the role rather unwillingly, was not meant tobe a character who either the players or the ndrv3 audience wanted to become their new protagonist.

It makes sense, then, that Kiibo would be Tsumugi and theaudience’s “ideal protagonist” figure. He was essentially designed as such fromthe start, which is why everything about him is meant to intentionally mimicand yet subvert on Naegi. He’s the same height as Naegi, his robot “talent” issomething beyond his control just like Naegi’s “good luck” was, and he’sultimately destined to be a force of optimism and hope within the group—whetherhe likes it or not.

Kaede’s take-charge attitude, her energy, and herwillingness to get things done was precisely what made her so likable right offthe bat, but Kiibo’s rather innocent behavior, his willingness to believe thebest in people, and his sense of fair play is what appeals to the ndrv3audience and even the players themselves in Kaede’s absence. And what’s more,he’s someone the audience gets to “participate” with. They can considerthemselves a part of Danganronpa as long as Kiibo’s around, and by contributingas his “inner voice” they get to feel as if they themselves are “the hope” ofSaishuu Academy.

This is why the baton gets passed to Kiibo in the Chapter 6trial. Saihara was never meant to be a Hope’s Peak-type protagonist, and whenthings seem utterly pointless, depressing, and crushing, he doesn’t want to goon. He’s tired, moreso as he slowly realizes that any option he could pickwould only be playing further into Tsumugi and the audience’s hands. But Kiibotakes over due to his inner voice, and his own innate desire to do what’sright.

Kiibo might contribute to a very “Hope’s Peak” type of hopemost of the time, since he’s only listening to what his inner voice says, butit’s true that he is a force of hope in his own right. While he starts outrepresenting “the hope of the outside world” by relying on his inner voiceexclusively, Kiibo truly steps into his own role the moment he discards thatvoice in the Chapter 6 trial. By being able to consciously evaluate thesituation, and by relying on his sense of fair play and objectivity which issomething inherent to him, and notsomething that was particularly part of Tsumugi’s or the audience’s plans, heembraces a very different kind of hope.

And that hope is something very simple, and admirable: hewants the rest of the group to live on. Even if Saihara and the others decidethat they’ll “use their lives” as sacrifices once and for all to stop thekilling game, Kiibo wants them to have futures, and wants them to live. This verysimple “hope” is something so deeply ingrained in him and something he wants sodesperately that even after the audience has, for all intents and purposes, “killed”most of Kiibo’s original personality before deciding to blow up the school andend the killing game at the end of the trial, Kiibo retains enough of his freewill and personality to intentionally avoid killing Saihara, Maki, and Himiko,and instead blasts the dome of the school open.

He provides them an option to attain that future with theirown free hands. Even if they’re all only fictional characters, even ifeverything they remember or everything they’ve done was a “lie” or “illusion”in one way or another, Kiibo’s “hope” is ultimately a wish that they’ll live onin spite of everything. They don’t have to give up completely in order toarrive at an outcome that’s neither hope nor despair. They can still end thekilling game without having to end their lives as well.

And this realization that his “inner voice” and that thedesires of the audience who wanted so badly to see a “hope vs. despair”showdown that imitated the Hope’s Peak killing games were wrong is why Kiibohands the baton back to Saihara. If Ihad to pick which protagonist contributed most significantly to the overallgame, I would have to say that it’s Saihara, without a doubt.

Kaede, unfortunately, we only had around for a very shorttime, and while she left a lasting impression on the whole group long after herdeath, it’s impossible to say that she really had a huge amount of autonomy.Kiibo’s contributions are significantdespite only really getting to shine as a protagonist in the last chapter(though there are certainly hints of his protagonist nature even earlier on,and in Chapter 5 particularly), but his largest pitfall was in unwittinglybeing a puppet for both Tsumugi and the audience for most of the game.

Saihara is a protagonist whose entire nature as someone whowas neither wanted nor expected by the players or the audience is the mostimportant point about him. His conflicts, his development, and the answer thathe reaches at the end, are all vastly different from previous protagonists likeNaegi or Hinata. As a detective, there are very different things expected fromSaihara than would be expected for a normal person. And as someone who,according to Tsumugi’s own words, “was supposed to be weaker than anyone” according to the personality sheplanned for him during the killing game, Saihara’s ability to step into theprotagonist role and constantly change himself despite anyone else’sexpectations is hugely important, not only to his character but to the themesof the game itself.

Without other characters there, and without the very reallessons and experiences he lived through alongside people like Kaede, Momota,Ouma, and the others, Saihara would never have been able to come as far as hedid. But it’s precisely because of the others’ contributions that Saihara isable to reach a truth no one else wants to reach, and seek a result thatTsumugi and the audience never once foresaw.

His conviction by the end that they can form “their owntruths,” and that lies and illusions can have a real, lasting impact onreality, gets through to Himiko and Maki to the point where even they become protagonists very briefly inthe Chapter 6 trial. They reach a point of deciding for themselves what tobelieve, no matter what “facts” or “truths” they are presented with, and it’san incredibly rewarding moment to see them all band together and arrive at theconclusion that yes, their lives do have real meaning, and yes, they can followSaihara’s example and do something entirely unexpected from what might havebeen planned or intended for them as fictional characters.

The theme of protagonists, and of what makes a story, andwhose perspective the story is being told from, is so incredibly interestingwithin ndrv3. There certainly are elements I wish had been handled better, butoverall, the protagonist switches were handled very well, because you couldtell it was an extremely important theme of the game which Kodaka had intendedfrom the start. I hope I managed to share my thoughts on it well, because Ihonestly feel like the ndrv3 cast shines so much specifically because so manyof the characters have this potential to shine on their own as protagonists oftheir own story.