#and a whooooole lot of speculation

[ryouverua]

Flashback light! Flashback light!

I just love the animated sequence a lot okay

Aaaw Tsumugi don’t ruin my fun D: Besides, we already missed out on the last one! Which... actually raises an interesting question. If these are being released sequentially, are we going to have a weird gap in our memories because the last one was broken? I guess it depends on how it works - maybe it’ll just bring back the memories that were next in line to be released anyway...

Well, I wonder if Tsumugi has a valid point though. 8′D The flashback lights are probably double-edged swords if Monokuma is giving them out like candy.

... With that said I guess I’m still wondering if all of the memories are theirs? I’ve played around with the ‘they’re regular high-school students who’ve had their memories written over/modified with the memories/identities of Ultimate students who died in the past’ - could at least make a decent jab at the somewhat ‘cyclical’ vibe I’m getting along with the life-and-death/resurrection and escapism theme... And considering there was that ‘Ultimate Hunt’ that showed them being hunted down by an unknown group and that Rantaro seems to have done this before.

Actually with that said, with the reveal of Kaito being sick - that actually... maybe fits in with this a bit. They would do a whole medical exam before accepting someone into astronaut training (forged papers aside lol) and considering the game we’re in, I’d be pretty surprised if this wasn’t a terminal disease he had. So how could he still be the Ultimate Astronaut without a clean bill of health? Well, if they picked up some random kid off the street and gave him the memories of the Ultimate Astronaut without checking for something like that, something that he clearly doesn’t remember - that would make quite a bit of sense, wouldn’t it?

But enough speculating, we have a return guest!

............. Hm.

That is.......... probably a lie, huh.

Damnit Miu, why have we been on the same wavelength so much recently?!

Oh come on, there’s no way that’s going to work -

KAITO I LOVE YOU BUT YOU GOTTA PUT YOUR GREY MATTER TO GOOD USE OUTSIDE OF SPACE TRAVEL

I just have this image of Kokichi with the controller just pressing ‘fast forward’ on the normal pre-flashback light dialogue -

“Come ooooon guys I get it! Blah blah blah dangerous blah blah blah memories blah blah! SHOW ME THOSE SWEET CHEEKS, SWEET CHEEKS!”

Remembered.....?!?!

Unrelated but did he just say talkin’ omg...

YEAH I’M PRETTY SURE THAT’S A BAD THING

So these were definitely the meteorites brought up in Kirumi’s video. And everyone watched that, right? So this shouldn’t be huge news to anyone but uh, apparently it is! Okay! Shit that’s one way to move past the first two games A BIT DRASTIC BUT OKAY

Oh that is not good. We... just got our first glimpse of the mastermind’s potential motive, huh?

THERE IS NO FUCKING WAY THINGS ENDED WELL YOU SWEET SUMMER CHILD

Oooh, new yellow text!

Which I suppose Kirumi would have been helping with...

Could it be because.... the plan required 16 Ultimate talent students? Maybe? but then the ‘Ultimate Hunt’ happened and those students were killed, hence the group funeral? Maybe??? Which is why we have 16 students that may have had to become the original group chosen to save everyone?? I am cramming my square peg theory into a round hole AND IDGAF ANYMORE

Oh fuck we’re not going to find out Miu is part of that cult are we - like it triggered our memories of the world-ending cult for us in general, but she’ll have some sort of connection to it and basically unlock a whole different set of memories for her - ?!

PSYCHE

.... was that just a red herring or is that actually foreshadowing 8′\ Gonta isn’t the only one waving red flags this chapter...

Himiko’s got her priorities straight.

Yeah, see, this is where I’m stuck too. I have theories on all this stuff but they don’t... really... fit together? False memories/identities of dead students (and perhaps them even attending the funeral of the actual students they’re imitating??) - that fits up to the whole ‘getting talents at the beginning of the game/funeral scene, and that feeling I can’t shake about how random/unwanted their talents are to most of them. It can even work with the Ultimate Hunt!

But then the meteors/them being in space or on a spaceship right now, and them being isolated from the outside world makes sense when you consider the meteorites and Kirumi talking about a terrible event she needed to escape to take care of, to protect the citizens of her country. It also makes sense about having the ‘Prime Minister’, an astronaut, an anthropologist, an inventor, a robot and even an artist and musician, along with all of those libraries and other areas containing information/things of human historical significance. You want to have not just kids with potential for a space mission/leadership (... I guess Supreme Leader can technically go there too??) but students representing arts and technology, who can keep those things going. With that said... the only way I can mash that together with the first idea is that the original set of talented children died? Maybe hunted down, aka the Ultimate Hunt, so they found these kids instead??? But even then, some of the talents get a major side-eye like... cosplayer can maybe work as seamstress and I suppose an assassin works as someone cool under pressure/willing to do things that need to be done, but a magician? Really? 

I’m definitely still missing some pieces of the puzzle, and that piece is definitely the mastermind’s role in this. .. Are we going the route of ‘the mastermind is part of the world-ending cult’ then? How very VLR of you

Ah right, that’s true... Ultimate Academy, and not Hope’s Peak, right?

Anyway, at least we’re only in Chapter 4. oTL It’s not like I’m out of ideas or anything - I’d hardly call the rambling from earlier being stumped - but nothing is clicking quite... right for me yet.

Man as much as I joke that I relate to Tsumugi and Shuichi, Kokichi and I have been on a bit of a similar wavelength too. 8′D That’s something I never thought I’d say, and yet here we are...

Hm... is that a good or bad thing?

Anyway, Kokichi seems hell-bent on pissing Kaito off. Which does make sense, actually! They’re officially the strongest personalities in the room and definitely have the most leadership potential. 

Kokichi why are you calling me out like this

RADICAL-9 OR HINAMIZAWA SYNDROME

............ OKAY KODAKA I GET IT YOU’RE FRIENDS WITH THE CREATOR OF THE ZERO ESCAPE SERIES

Kaito stop smashing the 4th wall open

FUCKING LMAO THAT’S THE MOST PRESSING ISSUE YOU HAVE KAITO?!

Oooh, looks like we still have shades of Angie’s council left over. That... could be a hint, maybe? About susceptibility to cults? It could turn out that someone who was willing to go along with Angie’s council was just as easily swayed by the world-ending cult...