#and kaito seemed to believe him. so he got. a little respect

[boypussydilf]

like its just a little crazy 2 me how in my opinion komaeda is a significantly more “difficult to understand” person than ouma is. you can listen to komaeda talk for a long fucking time and still not get what he’s thinking or talking about or generally have a clue what’s going on inside his head or why. you can learn things about kokichi ouma by literally just listening to him speak like it’s not even that complicated despite how hard he tries to make it he’s really very direct and almost obvious with things sometimes. and even with his almost alien-feeling worldview hajime tries very very hard to understand komaeda in some way and like. his classmates treat him like a person. Then by the ending of v3’s fifth trial ouma’s feelings and motivations have been practically spelled out for everyone and shuichi is like “damn….. i guess we’ll just never have any possibility of understanding him or figuring out which things he said were true…….” like it hasn’t become blatantly obvious and like he hasn’t been fairly obvious the entire time. yeah you’re a great fucking detective

[kawarikisaki]

He also seems to trust and respect Akako beyond the crush thing and judging by Sun Halo I think he’s mostly gotten over it. Wether he still likes her(that way) or not is up in the air.

Perhaps this one is going to be a hot take, but I'm not actually convinced that he was ever crushing on Akako.

He thought she was pretty for sure. He blushes the first time he takes notice of her, but if blush was all that was needed to make a crush then Kid makes Hakuba's face much redder than Akako does, just saying.

The first time was see them interact is in A Gift from Akako, but the extent of the interaction is really just that; Akako approaches when Kaito and Hakuba are talking, Hakuba blushes a little 'oh we had a girl like that in our class too?' and then Akako pulls Kaito away. When Akako later impersonates Kaito as Kid she does get a big reaction out of him, but honestly there's not really much there.

I don't think it's enough to claim he has a crush on her, especially when any other time they're together going forward they seem to just be friends- weird friends but friends nonetheless. And even if I were to concede that he had a crush on her we can't be sure that was his real feelings and not the effects of her magic. So that doesn't really mean much.

What does mean something is that like I already brought up their next interactions are weird but friendly.

When Midnight Crow rolls around they're at the point where they can banter a little. The interaction we see is brief, and Kaito is also a part of it, but we see both Akako and Hakuba approach Kaito for the same reason but take different paths to get there. Hakuba saying in more flowery words 'I have white in my name so I don't want to see white lose to black', while Akako says 'this black one may be strong, but I want to see the underdog struggle and win.' Both are expressing that in this instance at least they're rooting for Kaito, they don't want him to lose to anyone unless it's one of them, and they don't really hide this from each other- they do however hide it from Aoko, clamming up when she joins the conversation.

And they do something similar again in Sun Halo, with Akako telling Kaito 'hey I read your fortune, it's not good, maybe postpone what you have planed for tonight, but if you do I'm cheering for you' and Hakuba saying 'oh cool, you've gotten a motorcycle license I'll keep that in mind for later but just so you know that's not allowed at school so maybe don't break the law in your civilian persona.' Though notably this time they do it in front of Aoko, though do still take steps to make sure that Aoko doesn't hear a single accusation of Kaito being Kid.

So what does this mean? Akako and Kaito are both aware that the other is an ally.

And we actually see that come into play later in Sun Halo when Akako calls Hakuba and essentially entrusts him with one of her greatest secrets, admitting to having summoned Lucifer to obtain information on where Kid was. And while Hakuba probably doesn't believe that's really her source he does end up trusting her enough to take the clue she got him and is able to follow it to it's conclusion, and when asked how he did it he doesn't tell anyone, but he does inwardly thank Akako for the hint. Just that shows so much respect and trust between these two. It's lovely, magical even, that Akako trusts Hakuba with her secret and Hakuba earns that trust by not outing her but respects her enough to take it as true whether he believes the source or not.

Also the fact that he has her number in his phone and answered even though he was busy. This doesn't seem like something that happens very often, seeing as Hakuba seems a bit surprised by it, but even so it speaks to the idea that these two have interacted outside of what we've seen. So yes, Trust, Respect, Friendship, bonding over their shared rival/friend..... that makes it sound like a Shonen battle manga, but I definitely think it's accurate.

[howdoyoudothedew]

fuck it

2023 writing summary

January

“So, what colour would you like your room to be?” Kaito asked as they prepared lunches for tomorrow. He kept a watchful eye on Ayumi as the boy cut the vegetables while Kaito cut hotdogs into little octopi.

Ayumi thought as he cut. A crease appeared between his eyebrows as the time passed. “White.”

“White?” Kaito repeated, just to make sure. There were so many colours to choose from, that was a rather unexpected one. It also seemed like a rather quick answer, at least to Kaito. When his parents asked him the same thing he’d taken almost a week to plan.

“Yeah, white,” Ayumi said. “‘Cause my dad’s Kaitou KID.”

Oh. Okay. Kaito fought the sudden desire to clutch his chest. How could one six year old be so effortlessly cute?

February

It starts in a coffeeshop of all places, like her life is a weird cliche. And honestly, given her brothers and the predictability of past summers, she really wouldn't be surprised. For all she knew, she actually lived in a cartoon. That also would mean she was a background character, which didn’t really surprise her much either. Though maybe it was for the best. Somehow, she wasn’t entirely sure she’d be able to handle the attention given to a main character.

This wasn’t the first time she’d ever seen the tall, pretty goth. (Objectively pretty. If Vanessa was a character in a book, she’d be described as ‘tall, dark, and handsome’, with the swoop of her long brown hair, the deep blue eyes, and her entirely black wardrobe.) Though that summer was ten years ago and she hadn’t really seen Vanessa around much since then. They sort of lost touch after high school started again.

"Candace!" Vanessa greeted her with a warm smile that could send anyone's heart fluttering.

March

“I can't believe you had a crush on my uncle,” Yang complained.

“Don't say it!” Ruby whined, hands over her ears. “This is worse than seeing him flirt with waiters.”

“I agree,” Cardin said quietly and Sky laughed.

“To be fair, your uncle’s pretty attractive.” Russel shrugged.

“He is,” Dove said.

“Yeah, I get it now,” Sky agreed.

“Gross gross gross gross gross!!” Ruby covered her head with her arms and Jaune laughed.

April

"Vile," Dinobot hissed. "Where is your survival instinct?"

"Eh, who knows." Rattrap shrugged, then tacked on like it didn't give an exPredacon all the advantage he'd ever need over him (maybe the 'ex' was why he didn't. Maybe he really never had the best sense for survival, despite all his practical negativity)– "Must be out for some long service, since that means I trust you."

"You trust me?" Dinobot asked, optics squinted in suspicion.

"What, you got oil in your ears? That's what I said, Chopperface," Rattrap said.

May

When he found Arthur, it was with his hand in an amused, and a little embarrassed looking, Lancelot's. Morgana was there as well. She looked very amused. If this wasn't another thing in a long list of things he felt he had to deal with too much of, Leon might find the horrendous platitudes falling from Arthur's lips amusing, too, but alas.

"Lancelot."

Lancelot looked over at him, eyes alight like he just saw his saviour from the executioner's block. "Leon!" Immediately Arthur quieted– a small blessing. The pout Arthur shot him at being interrupted was the same from when he fought with Merlin. "Thank gods you're here. Help me get him to Gaius?"

June

Valmont only hummed, not really one for acknowledging gratefulness for something that he felt was necessary or obligatory– he was like Tohru, in that respect. Not that either disliked the gratefulness or that they wouldn't do these things if they didn't see them as necessary or obligatory. Just that they didn't see it necessary for the others to thank them for things that ‘of course they would do’. A corner of Chow’s mouth lifted in a smile and Valmont turned from him with an eyeroll and pinkened cheeks.

The scrape on Finn’s leg was perhaps worse than Finn had really thought at first, now that the adrenaline had worn off from their small heist. It pulsed slightly with his heartbeat. Though honestly that could just be in his head. Like when he had his period and thought he could feel his heart through his nether regions. Valmont kneeled between his legs, their first aid kit on the other side of Finn’s injured leg. He slid the bottom of Finn’s boxers up a little so he could access the full scrape. Finn hissed when Valmont started to clean it.

“Oh, calm down,” Valmont said, though his touch lightened.

July

“So, my little bloom, what’s your first word?” Jaune asks. Cardin nods at her, hoping she will say it for them.

She looks up at both of them with bright, pink eyes, and repeats her first word enthusiastically for her parents. “Fuck!”

Jaune bites his lip so he doesn’t laugh or smile and looks at Cardin out the corner of his eye.

August

"Did you know Miriam didn't use a crucifix when she killed her husband? She still loved him, even after all the awful things he'd done," Vlad says offhandedly. Honestly the hope that Arthur might get it without him spelling it out is low, but.

"What's that have to do with anything?" Arthur asks, looking agitated. Or perhaps confused. He can be such a stupid man, and Vlad sighs.

"You can't use the crucifix on me, can you?" Vlad asks. Arthur doesn't answer. "Think. What does this mean about your feelings towards me? I'd really rather not have to tell you, Arthur."

"It means you've figured out some new trick," Arthur says and brandishes the crucifix once more. "Get back! I, Arthur Van Alten, compel you!"

September

"I wasn't out yet!" Rattrap defends himself. It feels good. Natural. He holds out his servo and Dinobot pulls him to his pedes. Somehow, the servo in his feels like it was always there, though they've certainly never held servos before. Neither had the courage.

“Yet I found you cowering like the rat you are,” Dinobot says.

Rattrap can feel his spark pulsing hard, vents stabilizing. The air cycles calmer. "Come closer and I'll show you cowerin'." He pulls Dinobot down closer and Dinobot stumbles a step with a growl.

"Careful, rodent, I might kill you yet," Dinobot says, but his optics flash bright and Rattrap holds no fear toward him.

October

Damn my Hyde! He is supposed to stay with the crown, but now his madness encroaches even my waking moments, for the moments wearing the crown felt like sleep and the moments without I felt awake, but now the crown's memories feel like the impressions of a dream. It feels like I am drowning. The water presses on my lungs even now.

November

Weiss is less of a reaching hand and more of a shoulder. It’s a complete accident, their friendship. A once-in-a-million moment of many other little moments coming together that lead to them talking. They change each other. They hold each other up when they need to be held up, and they listen, and they force each other to be a little bolder through the changes their separate friend groups inflict on them. They tell each other things they’d never tell another soul, too. Unlike the others, Weiss knows what he’s been through. Cardin never thought it could actually help to speak the traumas out loud, but it does. He knows it’s because it’s Weiss. Because she understands in a way the others can not.

December

"Duh, Ren and I did have fun growing up!" Nora says.

"I took her to one after she almost got us kicked out of the zoo when we were ten," Ren says.

"If they didn't want me in the bear exhibit, they shouldn't've made it so easy to get in!" Nora says, a finger in the air. Cardin gives her the look he gives her sometimes, the one where he looks confused for a few seconds before he takes a breath and seemingly shakes away whatever questions he has instead of asking them.

“Well that’s rather enlightening,” Weiss mutters.

[devilish-melody]

Kokichi sighs, and begins projecting what actually happened that fateful day, along with all the traumas he's endured since then.

...

Miu: "Yo, Ouma! What the hell?!"

Kokichi: "H-Huh?"

Kaito: "Don't give us that 'huh' bullshit! What the hell were you thinking, man? Getting us to kick Maki out like that while she's pregnant?"

Kokichi: "Wait, I-I can expl—"

He didn't even have time to finish that sentence before Kaede and Kirumi lunged for him, using both their claws and teeth to completely mangle the incubus who had screamed in complete agony as Tenko, Himiko, Angie, Rantaro, Korekiyo, Miu, Kaito, Tsumugi, Kiibo, and even the person he'd loved most, Shuichi, joined in and started tearing him apart. While some didn't participate, only one truly tried helping him: Gonta. He had tried saving Kokichi from the others, including after the others had left. They figured he would simply die due to the elements and just left him there to slowly bleed out and die. Except Gonta, who held him tightly and tried to make his last moments as comfortable as possible, and both of them cried together for the last few moments. Kokichi's supposed final words had been completely devastating to poor Gonta.

Kokichi: "I-I... just wan...ted... to p-prot-tect... you..."

And then, it seemed that Kokichi had died for the second time, and Gonta gave him the demon equivalent of a burial, that being placing a black rose on his chest so he wouldn't be forced to ascend to heaven as an angel. So when Kokichi woke up a few hours later, still bleeding profusely, he'd attempted to drag himself somewhere where he could find help, when he spotted the mirror and heard a voice from it. The mirror had spoken to him, promising to heal his injuries.

Mirror: "Poor little Ouma. Do you honestly think anyone could forgive what you've done? It's sad to see what you've become... But you can't lie to me. Let's be complete and unstoppable."

Kokichi: "N-No..."

Mirror: "Tsk, tsk. Still young and so naive... What do they do to deserve your affections? Your friends hate you... Your bestie thinks you're a disappointment... Your beloved mentor figure even allowed all this to happen to you. He didn't care about you. Why should you care?"

Weeks went by before he took the mirror's advice, because he wanted to believe in Monokuma and believe he was still loved. But ultimately, it became undeniable...

Eventually, homeless and scared of being on the streets all alone, Kokichi had to resort to prostitution once again in order to feed, chipping away at his dignity and self-respect for his body further and further. That was when the idea of revenge began brewing.

Fast forward to after his first attempt at revenge under the mirror's influence, Kokichi still struggled with Dam's words, to the point that he'd self-harmed and carved the word 'disappointment' into his own skin several times. Living with the SDR2 clan, he became depressed and barely ate, figuring his existence was more of a bother to his new friends. When Dam asked him to fuck Sater, it was incredibly painful for him. Sater gave him no prep, no time to adjust, didn't comfort him when he was in pain, and degraded and spoke ill of him several times. Kokichi began to believe it, and the abuse only continued after that time, leading to his current pregnancy. Sater had even used Dam, Monokuma, and Suke's forms to keep Kokichi scared and complacent. Which explains why he got so much angrier after his first attempt at revenge.

...

And finally... that leads to now. Finally happy with D.I.C.E. and trying to find some happiness with his child. The only difference is he's entered a relationship... with someone who treats him like absolute shit. Routinely hitting him and trying to push him for sex, despite Kokichi being pregnant, calling him names, and humiliating him in front of D.I.C.E.. After everything, the only relationships that feel safe and predictable to Kokichi are the ones where he isn't treated with any sort of kindness or gentleness. And through it all, he's only focused on guarding his baby rather than himself.

Kokichi had heard about Monokuma being in a really bad state, and he knew that he hated him. He must've if he forced him through so much hell. But he also knew that he's soft-hearted for the most part. He's unable to take pleasure in knowing someone is suffering the way he did. So he appears in Monokuma's room holding a big basket of flowers, snacks, drinks, soaps, a few cleaning products and items, and a bunch of stress toys. Not to mention all the hygiene stuff he brought for Monokuma.

"Mon-Mon~! I'm heeeeere~!"

- @devilish-melody

*No answer was given. Monokuma remained slumped over in his chair, still holding the empty martini bottle in his limp hand. he doesn’t even look at Kokichi when he showed up.* @devilish-melody

[drtenebres]

who are the most developed/most focused on characters right now??

Thanks for the ask!! It’s hard to say who is the most developed character right now, due to so many brain cells trying to work together, but we’ve all got our own individual ones we’re working on that we feel the strongest about !

@shslstraws :

blah blah blah this is where jude talks about oumota -Snelly (SHAAAAADDUPPPPP -Straws) 

Kaito (My beloved) - A commonfolk who was oblivious by the magic world around him until he inevitably is pushed to it, by living his new life as a Tenebroso werewolf. The cause for how he became a werewolf is unknown, and he tries to keep away from his friends and family to protect them from this “curse”. Kaito gets in a mix of mages and eventually meets with Kokichi, a plague doctor who claims he can cure him. He slowly realizes and comes to face the reality that is Tenebres. 

Kokichi (Most developed??) - A mage who lived in an orphanage until he gets adopted by two mages, Nagito and Hajime. Kokichi dreams of being far powerful than both his dads and going back to recruit the other orphanage kids to his upcoming organization. Until he gets a set back when he takes things too far with the magi academy, he gets demoted to a Plague Doctor; a low status of a mage. It is until he meets Kaito, on one of his duties, and believes if he figures out the mystery behind Tenebrosos, he will earn the right to regain his place back in the academy. 

Shuichi (Most Focused on ATM) - Born from the great Kyoko Kirigiri and Makoto Naegi, there are a lot of expectations put upon Shuichi since he was very young. The expectations were too high and too heavy to carry that Shuichi decided to leave behind that life and the Kirigiri name. He meets up with Rantaro who gives him the ability of a werewolf, and thinks he can finally start anew. Until he faces the same problems with being a werewolf and being part of a pack, Shuichi decides to live amongst the commonfolk with his new friends Kaito, Kaede, and Maki by his side. 

@baylardian-1 :

Kyoko (Most focused on) - A detective who grew up working under a large magefolk entity in the specific branch that deals with magic-based crimes. Kyoko is telepathic with a hindered use of magic due to a strange curse covering both of her hands. Because of her ability to read minds and the overwhelming loudness many voices can create in her head, Kyoko prefers working alone. Eventually she retires from her occupation and becomes a private investigator alongside her husband Makoto.

Hifumi (Most developed) - A hamster familiar most closely resembling a smitten patsy for Celestia Ludenberg. Not having many friends he impulsively chose to follow a pretty girl one day and has never ceased. Initially out of threat, Hifumi would perform healing spells for Celestia after her hunts in addition to take care of her every beck and call. Nowadays their relationship takes on a more unspoken respect and fondness for one another.

Mukuro (My beloved) - A Tenebroso werewolf nearing closer to being 400 years old in age. Born a mage alongside her younger twin sister Junko, many events surrounding their past are shrouded in mystery. As a Tenebroso she has an unnaturally extended life. Mukuro is naturally covered in scars and physically looks to be reaching her mid 50's-early 60's. She is most often however seen to be disguising herself as a young girl.

@snellymain :

Kiyo (Most developed) - A socially reclusive vampire with a guilty conscience and a sworn duty to feed by killing swiftly rather than turning anyone else into a vampire; since he hates his vampirism and his sister that cursed him with it. Has a huge fondness for humans and anthropology after his controlling sister's hatred for them caused him to have extremely limited interactions with them. Ends up committed to a mage named Angie while the unwanted spirit of his sister began haunting him after many years of being dead.

Mahiru (Most focused on) - A standard mage with very little powers and a high respect for her non-mage mother, matching her disdain for her mage father. She got into photography as she had no attachment to her underwhelming magic, until her mother urged her to go to an academy so she wouldn't let her powers go to waste like her father did. After doing so, being out in the world more, she met Hiyoko and Hiro; in which she happily adopted the former and angrily married the latter.

Angie (My beloved) - A healing-based blood mage raised communally on an island, she heals others wounds with their own blood and often secretly takes their blood for her own use while doing so; mostly to feed her partner Kiyo, but she also has a fascination for blood of her own, initially being a result of her village's blood sacrifices and now a result of her blood magic. Generally a loud nuisance, though a medically helpful nuisance, in her academy.

@samsquatchem :

Doodle + blurb done by Snelly ♥

Yasuhiro (Their beloved) - A nomadic powerful mage with a wide variety of powers, mostly focusing on clairvoyance and near-limitless telekinesis; generally wanders around getting money wherever he can but spending it horrendously, ending up in a constant flat circle of time. He’s basically homeless; not out of poverty but what he considers convenience and tax evasion, for the most part and bums around Mahiru’s place. Close friends and a father figure to Hiyoko, (much to Mahiru’s initial dismay) the two bond over their shared tendency to wander and be in a new place every week + magic that neither know how to use properly, she became quickly attached to him due to him being the first person to talk to her after she ran away from home. Hiro is able to see the future but unable to speak it verbatim or else the opposite outcome will come to fruition, he can only nudge clients in the right direction of his visions. Most people think his magic is a scam and he’s the most useless mage ever.

@sutexii :

Chiaki (My Beloved) - A wooden mask enchanted with a human soul, powered by dream juice and magic robotics. Created by Chihiro to live in the dream realm (where u go when u sleep + also where the killing games take place) to gather data on it for Chihiro’s research, and help those in it travel safely. Has a deep fascination with the unpredictable and strange, and enjoys seeking out new knowledge wherever she can. Still likes her games, and while originally given access to some to help entertain those she’s traveling with, she just ends up hoarding them herself.

Tenko (Most Focused On ATM) - Commonfolk w/ a smidge of monster that comes out when her anger peaks. Abandoned due to said anger issues as a child, and taken in by Aoi and Sakura. She had a very Ghibli idyllic childhood, having adventures with friends and delivering donuts for her mom. Learned martial arts from her mom, taking a particular liking to Aikido, and through it learned to control her anger. Follows childhood crush Himiko around to protect her, leading to her entering the less than legal artifact smuggling trade with her later in life.

Aoi (Most Developed) - Water elemental with a love for baking donuts and raising/rehabilitating carp. Married to Sakura, having met when she wandered into the pond in her family’s abandoned dojo and decided to stay to fix it up, motivating Sakura to fix the rest of the place up in turn. Very carefree, friendly, and laid back, loves kids and taking on the “fun auntie” role. Never worked on her humanoid appearance much at all until motherhood, Tenko enters their life and it became hard to hold back a feral monster baby with fins.

@Soupcifer_ :

Nekomaru (Franken-maru) (most developed) - A reanimated corpse who was brought back to life thanks to the help of Kazuichi and Mikan. Unfortunately, he has amnesia and thus no recollection of his past friendships and family. He's a lot more quiet and mellow in comparison to his old self which makes him seem pretty dull, but in actuality he's being rather attentive and simply trying to understand everything that's happening. He does a lot of behind-the-scenes work when no ones looking like cleaning up after Kazuichi and setting reminders for Akane (still a team manager at heart).

Gonta (My beloved) - A vampire raised by werewolves. He only recently came to terms with being a vampire as he lived most of his life assuming the form of a wolf. He has an obsession with bugs, classic literature, and vintage clothing. Gonta likes to follow around a few of his friends, Angie and Korekyio (wink), and be of assistance whenever he can. He unfortunately has trouble dealing with his vampire nature sometimes due to only having lived with werewolves, so he often turns to Korekiyo for help.

Chihiro (most focused on) - An electric elemental! Chihiro is the creator/parent of Chiaki and Monomi. They have a passion for creating things that run on electricity and magic and as a result created their two lovely daughters (that and to investigate the dream realm). Chihiro also has the ability to possess electronics and machinery! Despite being incredibly small, they can emit a surprisingly large amount of energy which makes possessing large or complicated machinery an easy task.

[dangan-writing]

I need a n g s t

Kokichi, Nagito and Shuichi with a s/o that’s really forgiving? You could make them end up in the hospital and they’d forgive you

So what if they accidentally kill them and their s/o still forgives them?

If you want, you can do a happy ending where they live! Your choice! :)

╔═══════════════════════════╗

*__ i pick different endings if that's okay Anon, And i picked it to be in the killing game, please tell me if you want it to be changed Anon.

*__ and i apologise if it seems rushed, it's hard to write for 3 character's. And also because you were probably waiting for so long. you can still request for me to remake it Anon, don't worry ^^

*___ Tw -> Ch/king, po/soning, Ka/de, caps, violence, curse words, f/re, injuries

*___Mod Miaya___*

»»———————————- ♡ ————————————««

*___Kokichi Oma___*

When somebody hurts you Kokichi will be fucking rude to them since they don't deserve respect since they hurted you

"Ah Kokichi! Calm down, it didn't hurt that much! I'm okay, see?" You try to move around, but gasping because of the pain "O-Oh.." "See! You got really hurt! That person is gonna get it!!" Kokichi wails "H-hey, i forgive them.. it's not like they murdered me or anything! I'm still here, with just some small injury!" You giggled "Are you that nice?" Kokichi mumbled, before getting up "Hey c'mon! Let's go to Keeboy and have fun with him!" Kokichi smiled mischievously, you laugh "let's go."

That was actually to distract you and go to the person who hurted you and prank the fuck out of the person-

He's concerned about you, i mean. A forgiving S/O? He'll be watching out the people who talks to you, he's a liar. He'll know if they're lying or not. It's impossible for them to hurt you since you have a liar by your side! Impossible he says as he didn't realize they lied in front of his face as you and the person walked away together

After a few minutes passed, he was concerned. Why were you two taking so long? You two must not have been- no, that can't be. Unless...

Shit.. he ran looking after you "S/O!!~ where are you?~ we better not play hide and seek! You'd know i win easily~" he tried to keep up his facade, not wanting to freak himself out... then he saw you tied up, with blood and bruises all over you, with you breathing heavily.

"S/O!" He ran towards you, not even noticing the trap beneath him. As he tried to remove the ropes around you, as he turned around, the door was closed and fire started appearing "Oh shit, t-there was a trap?" He was trying to remove the ropes but it was too tight "Aha.. Don't worry we'll get out of h-here S/O! And we'll get that bastard later for doing this to you dear!" He started to breathe heavily, some smoke blocking his vision. He started to grow weaker "H-ha.. S/O i'm t-truly sorry.." he passed out, luckily people started to bust the door open. The people.. Gonta, and Kaito. With Tenko and the other people "S/O, KOKICHI!" Gonta yelled "Is there any water to put the fire out?" Tenko asked, she doesn't even care if the males save them she just wants them to be saved "I have it here!" Kaito yelled holding some fire grenades with him, he passed the fire grenades to everyone and they started to throw it in the fire

After some minutes, the fire stopped. The others rushed in there finding you two, they picked you two up and put you two in the dorms, Kirumi offered to heal you two. 1st degree burns.. a lot of bruises and blood on you. It took you two two days to wake up.. Kokichi woke up first "nghn.. uh what happened?" Kokichi asked, confused before realizing "ah!- is S/O okay! They better be okay!" Kokichi pouted, looking at Kirumi "they're okay, they just needed more rest then they'll be fine, no need to wory Kokichi. I attended to their injuries quickly after everyone pulled you two out of the fire, they are right next to you Kokichi." Kokichi looked next to him to see you beside him resting peacefully "oh damn, nishishi~" Kokichi looked at Kirumi "Can you leave? I have something to do, like a leader would do!" Kokichi just want to cuddle you actually. Kirumi did as he said, but she knew that he wanted to cuddle you after seeing you there beside him, she smiled.

Cuddling..

After some cuddling you woke up aswell due to his constant moving

"Mmmm Koshi..?" You groaned, half asleep. You rubbed your eyes for a bit "Heeeeey your awake noow! You take too long to wake up!" Kokichi childishly pouted, it's too adorable to be guilty with it, you laugh "That's not going to work in me, that's too adorable y'know?" Kokichi tried his scary face, it's a little intimidating. But it's still cute "still cute-" "Man can't you be scared of me!?" Kokichi cried out! Shaking his arms like a child

After you two were okay now, everyone besides one was trying to find the person who almost killed the both of you

It took 1-2 hours to find the the person who did this

It.. was Angie?

"Uhm.. Why did you try to kill S/O and uh, Ouma-san?" Shuichi asked Angie, who was tied up in a chair "Ahhh~ S/O wanted to give their blood to Atua! That's what Atua told Angie!~" Angie was cheerful as always. Almost everyone didn't believe that "Hey you almost killed me and my dearest S/O!" Kokichi wailed trying to attack Angie, but Gonta was holding onto him as Shuichi said, Angie laughed "S/O offered me some of their-" Shuichi isn't having none of it "Listen.. uhm, you almost killed S/O and Kokichi, how is that uh- related to Atua? And you started a fire for hell's sake...!" Shuichi yelled at Angie, Angie didn't smile. It sended chills on all of their spines.. it wasn't normal for her to not smile, since she always smiles. Seems like she isn't gonna talk for the time "Guys, please don't worry, i forgive her." You jumped in "WHAT? She almost killed you y'know!?" Kaito yelled "Yeah! The idiots right! Angie killed you!" "She's not dead you fuckin' brat!" Miu yelled at Kokichi "h-huh? That w-was uncalled for!" Oh dear now she messed up "W-Wai-" "WWWWWWAAAAAAAHHHHH!!" Kokichi wailed, annoying the others, especially Korekiyo, Kaito, and Maki. They left as soon Kokichi started to cry, except for Kaito-

"Like i said, i forgive her. I'm still alive anyways so that's good right?"

"You forgivable cutie.." Kokichi mumbles

»»———————————- ♡ ————————————««

*___Nagito Komaeda___*

He's a bit protective, you forgive people so easily. He doesn't mind if it's the hopeful people but, the despairful people?? Fuck no he won't let them go to you ever again, he has a quick eye. He'll catch them if they are looking at you

"S/O! Why do you forgive such despairing ugly humans, they hurted you!" Nagito spoke, angrily confused, you are filled with hope thats what he loves but you are a bit too considerate about *everyone's* feelings, even if it's a inanimate object you still refuse to break it.. you really are filled of hope.. too much hope "Huh? Why i forgive people all the time? Uhm... it's just my nature to forgive them, i am aware of how forgiveful i am. I forgive them, but that doesn't mean i like them, listen.. i forgive people but i stay away from them. I can understand when i forgive someone when they hurted me for so long, that's why you never see me with the people i know that hurted me Nagito." You try to give an explaination, of course. You know it isn't all but you decided to give an answer for him to know "S/O.. i.. i understand, how stupid am i to question such hope!" Nagito please calm down we care for you-

You saw him walking, bringing some stuff. Is.. is that poison? Spear, rope, speakers... what is he planning again? He walked inside the warehouse, you need to stop him from being reckless again. But you didn't move from your spot, you waited for a little while. Then you heard fireworks? Then.. running, everyone? They walked to the warehouse, Akane trying to bust the door open. You still stayed im your spot, trying to see if someone is doing stupid. Eventually Akane busted the door open, then you heard

Fire. What the hell? Wasn't Nagito in there? Shit.. You run in the warehouse

"NAGITO!!" you yelled, trying to get the fire canisters and threw them on the fire, it only made the fire more bigger? It's a fire canister.. isn't it suppose to put the fire out? Soon everyone moved and threw the individual fire canister's

Soon enough, the sprinklers put the fire out. You stood up "NAGITO ARE THERE!?" You tried to run in but Monokuma stopped you "Uh-Oh! Unfortuantely you can't be in here for now! Now get out so i can fix this damn warehouse!" You all got kicked out, after 6 minutes Monokuma appeared "Yahhoo, now it's finished now go in there you damn kids!" it's finally done.. honestly it felt like forever. But no time for that, you all ran in the warehouse "hmnn, i smell somethin'.." Akane's nose twitched like a beast when she said that "...That's probably because of the fire earlier.." Chiaki said, and Chiaki pointed out the there was space in the curtains from here, Hajime walked next to the curtain. You felt sick, it can't happen to him plea-

Ding dong bing bong! A body has been discovered! After a certain amount of time, a class trial will begin!

Screams, Kazuichi, Sonia.. and of course you.

You ran to his body begging that this isn't real "plEASE THIS ISN'T- ISN'T R-REAL" You sobbed, the others felt pity.. They tried to drag you away from his body, of course they did take you away from his body.

You eventually pass out from crying, too tired to investigate for the trial. They dragged you in the trial room, you wouldn't wake up so they had no choice but to drag you in the trial. Few minutes later you woke up

"N-Nagito.. set one of us as the killer..." what? Set one of us?

"Huh? What do you mean he set someone as the murderer..?" you asked in disbelief, Hajime explained what basically happened while you were asleep, you just stood there. You tried to focus, you threw a fire canister in the fire, but it only made the fire larger than before.

What...? This.. is unfair unfair- no.

»»———————————- ♡ ————————————««

"I know who did it." You spoke, interrupting their panicking which they snapped out of it when they looked at you "You only decide to talk now!?" Kazuichi yelled, obviously scared for his life "yeah" you nod "uhm.. may i ask who it is?" Sonia nervously asked, you sighed heavily "uh, it's me."

"W-what!? That can't be true! You saved me when i was starvin'!' Akane yelled out "Huuuuuhhh!? What the hell? S/O bought you some food?! That w-wasn't supposed to be allowed-" Monokuma looked dumbfounded until he was cut off "Who the hell cares!? They still saved me.." Akane looked down, it felt like Nekomaru's death all of a sudden..

Hajime and others felt like crying, you were like a leader trying to protect them even though you forgive people too easily "..." Chiaki didn't said anything, she just looked at you. You smiled at her "Do... do you forgive Komaeda-san for what happened S/O?" Chiaki asked "of course not! He set them up as the culprit you kno-" "Yes." You answered, ignoring Kazuichi's comment "hnm, you still forgive him? After he set you up S/O?" She tilt her head "yes, i know he must have a reason. He wouldn't kill someone for his own benifit, that's what i deduced, i believe he has a reason for this. He loves hope, he thinks me as his hope. He wouldn't just throw me away without an explanation, why would he call me a despairing person? I.. yes, i forgive him.." you lowered your head, you didn't understand any of this, why would he kill himself and you?

"Alrighty! Time to vote! Who would be chosen as the blackened?" Monokuma butted in the conversation "Goodbye everyone.. please remember me and everyone in this damned killing game." You smiled, looking at everyone. You are terrified of what kind of execution you have, but you tried to forget it.

This.. is goodbye for me.

S/O has been found guilty, time for the execution!

Right.. goodbye.

I forgive you all for..

*___Shuichi Saihara___*

The same with the two guys, he'll be pretty protective of you since you are so forgiving, there's a high chance you'll get killed because of your friendly nature and he doesn't want that to happen, not ever

"S-S/O, please try to be less considerate.. N-Not that you should be r-rude to anyone! I mean.. you s-shouldn't forgive p-people that easily, even if they are s-sorry. They hurted you uhm, S/O you don't have to feel o-obligated to forgive them." He hugged you, making you feel protected. You laughed

"Ahah, Shuichi. Thank you, i understand that i shouldn't forgive people that easily but, we really are just like that. No matter how many times they hurted us we forgive them. we people, are like that." You tighten the hug, smiling onto his chest

"S-S/O!" He screamed as he rushed towards you, you choking. He didn't realize he put in the poison instead the water.

"S/O DON'T DIE YET PLEASE" Shuichi was panicking, he is gonna murder his own S/O because he was losing sleep that he didn't realize that he put poison in your drink.

'Please pleaee please please please please please please please please please please please please pleaee please please please please please please please please'

..it....

..It was too late? He looked at your dead body.

"S-S/O.. I.. I'm so sorry... i'm such a failure.." he caressed your face. Sobbing, Before.

Ding dong bing bong! A body has been discovered, after a certain amount of time, a class trial will begin!

"WH-WHAT THE HELL!?" Miu screamed out, she rushed to hide in Kaito's back "EEEEEEIIIII, POOICHI IS THE MURDERER!" "What the hell Shuichi!" Kaito stumbled back a bit. Their screams of terror alerted the others, making Kaede, with Tsumugi and Rantaro on her trail.

"H-huh Shuichi!?" "Aaaauuuhh! The killing has started! It's much more different than Sakura's death on Danganronpa trigger happy hav-" "S-Shuichi.." Kaede, Tsumugi, and Rantaro reacted altogether, Rantaro ran towards Shuichi pushing him and trying to do something so he couldn't move "Anyone here have any rope? We need to tie him up first before questioning whats happened." Rantaro stated, looking up at the others "I-I'm sorry.." Rantaro looked down at Shuichi "you will have to explain yourself later, we don't know if you are the culprit, but be honest later on aight?" Shuichi didn't reply

Korekiyo walked in the scene, with a velvet colored rope in hand "i heard that you will be needing this, and so i give this rope to you Amami-san.." Korekiyo handed him the rope " Thanks Kiyo." Amami tied up Shuichi but didn't question on how Korekiyo found the rope but he isn't complaining "Kekehehe.. it is no problem Amami-san..." weirdo..

After they tied him up, they investigated the crime scene first before talking to him because that will waste their time, as they all went to the trial grounds, with Shuichi still tied up. Kaito guarding so he couldn't run away.

"So.. Shuichi, Why did you plan on killing your S/O. Your S/O." Rantaro said. Even if he is not your S/O he cared abiut you deeply, to just see your dead body fuels him with rage "Y-yeah.. Why Shuichi, you guys loved eachother so deeply, i don't understand why you k-killed them." Kaede tried not to sob, but horribly failed "I... i-i didn't mean to kill them, i was tired, stupid.. just vote me out already, i don't care if i die." .. Nobody tried to argue against him, he already admitted it, no point of arguing anyway

"Man you guys got it right! That was boring. an accidental death! Woohoo surely they wouldn't forgive him, he killed them. They wanted to live, yet. You.. killed... them! Puhuhuhu..lets get with on it, i have a special punishment for the ultimate detective, Shuichi Saihara!" Some of the people were clenching their fists, the ultimate detective.. was going to get executed "Let's give it everything we've got! It's... PUNISHMENT TIIIME!"

...

..

.

Huh? What..

What? Why is he, in a pod? He saw someone outside of the pod..is that? No way, S/O?

You opened the pod, smiling at him "well hello there Shuichi, it's so good to see you again." You held his hand, he looked dumbfounded, soon tears started to build up "S-S/O!" He hugged you tightly, not wanting to let go "I'm s-so sorry.. i didn't mean to kill you! I-i... you can hurt me, anything to make you satisfied with what happened.." Shuichi begged you to do it.. he's sobbing, he's so sorry "it's okay dear, i know you didn't mean it! I forgive you! I don't care how many times you hurt me, i'll always forgive you Shuhara. I love you too much for me to not forgive you, or anyone." You caressed his face, smiling softly at him.

"A-ah.." he looked down before smiling, you standed up and he followed what you did "Now, let's go and watch the others now Detective Shuhara."

"Of course."

╚═══════════════════════════╝

[onebizarrekai]

v3′s art is comically terrible for a professionally distributed game in a series: a compilation

in this not-essay I will list all of the mistakes and problems I have spotted in v3′s art. don’t worry, it’s entirely for fun and I’m doing this on a whim, so please feel free to not take this seriously but also it’s hilarious and embarrassing how ridiculous this is like what happened did they speedrun the whole production or what

see, there are some things you can take as meta like “they made it bad on purpose to allude to the downfall of tv shows that have been on air for much too long” but I have a very strong feeling this is not the case due to the nature of some of these errors

disclaimer, the more I study this art, the more I fear that the artists were underpaid and underslept, so if this is in fact the case, I am so sorry to all of them but also I’m going to make fun of the art anyway

anyway let’s get started!

if you study this image for longer than 5 seconds, you will see that kaede is the only one fully shaded and keebo is literally just his normal sprite pasted into the image. every other character is just an ordinary ref, hence most of them facing the exact same direction with neutral expressions on their faces. it looks like a bad edit, and is probably one of the worst pieces of art in the game. it kind of gets better from here on, but my roasting will not.

with that out of the way, here’s the problem that officially bothers me the most and clarifies my viewpoint of “this is not meta and an actual lack of company communication”

this freaking cg, which seems normal at a glance, but some wiseass was like “oh, kaede is a girl, so obviously she’s going to be shorter than the Male Protagonist™” ah, that’s funny. because if you look at the character bios, kaede is, in fact, one inch taller than shuichi and not like 6 inches shorter as she is shown here.

also shuichi’s shoulder is disproportionate and horrendous and he looks vaguely like a jojo character, but I wasn’t even thinking about that until right now.

thanks guys, 50% of the fandom who has never bothered to check these bios thinks that kaede is like 5′3 (did the developers really put so little thought into her to the point where drawing her correctly in the game didn’t even matter??)

also I would like to point out that, even though this isn’t related to the art itself, yes, a character kaede’s size being only 117 lbs is unfeasible, but this applies to literally every character in danganronpa ever and it’s not new news that it’s unrealistic

update: someone in the tags informed me that in versions of the game that use centimeters, like the japanese version, kaede is actually shorter than shuichi, which just adds another thing to the list of weird decisions the localization team made for no reason. that said, after confirming this, kaede is 167 cm in the original, while shuichi is 171 cm, which are approximately 5′6 and 5′7 respectively, but one inch is still nowhere near as drastic as it is depicted above. (in spite of this, I would rather depict kaede as slightly taller, so I’m probably going to keep doing that.)

the journey continues!

bro if you want kaede to have shoulder length hair then stick to it to begin with

you can pretend this is at an angle all you want but they definitely committed the shorter kaede sin a second time

wait a goddamn second.

DO YOU SEE THIS

no………… it wasn’t kaede who shrank. it was shuichi who got taller

speaking of which, can we talk about how shady the perspective is in this elevator pic? look at shuichi and kokichi in comparison to kaede. kokichi, who is canonically 7 inches (edit: or 5, if you’re loyal to the original) shorter than kaede, looks taller than kaede. he’s growing too. what steroids are these gays taking

running into the room, electric boogaloo: I don’t think tsumugi is supposed to be the same height as kokichi

gonta… gonta you’re lookin a bit like a jojo character there

I love how kaito’s head looks kind of like it was pasted onto his body. why is he the same size as shuichi? shouldn’t he be high school bully size or something? his torso is teensy

ah yes, white angie.

I love this cg but why is shuichi’s right hand so much bigger than his left hand

I also love how this cg looks like they literally took pictures of trees and pasted them into the background, especially on the left. the shadows are so weird, especially closer to the ceiling, it’s difficult for me to believe they didn’t do exactly that.

return of Enlarged shuichi

puberty update: kokichi is now taller than shuichi in spite of shuichi never missing leg day. what crimes will he commit

I have to mention it, guys. this has to be one of the worst danganronpa cgs. kokichi’s facial proportions look atrocious. look at the way his face sticks out like his jaw is in the wrong place. his scarf is a pasted texture. that’s it. this moment was so iconic but the cg just looks so… so… off. like something is terribly wrong, but you can’t put your finger on it.

you know what? let’s get into that ‘pasted texture’ thing.

let’s imagine you’re an artist working on a professional game. you’re assigned to draw cgs of kokichi ouma, who has a checkered scarf from hell. sure, it will be terrible to draw, but you only have to draw it once at a time! plus, perspective is pretty important, right? can you be bothered? nah, actually. let’s just copy paste a checkered pattern into the cg, because I’m sure nobody will notice. it’ll blend right in with the other cgs that someone actually put effort into drawing his scarf in, right?

no. the answer is no and I very much noticed. this genuinely looks terrible and I would understand taking a shortcut like that in fanart or even an indie game but this is a full price pc and console distributed game

(an addition: look at kokichi’s TINY HANDS in that last one)

meanwhile, they straight up forgot to color in kokichi’s scarf in this cg.

dude. I forgot about whatever the hell this cg was. anyway look at keebo please just look at him

lovin kaito’s baby arms

real talk, maybe you could argue that he’s missing muscle because he’s deathly sick, but most of his cgs don’t line up with this, and his arms just look disproportionate to his torso size (granted this is a consistent problem across all danganronpa games and a lot of characters have this weird problem, like hajime, but also kaito is bigger than hajime so I kind of have higher expectations of him) maybe it’s his stupid goatee and the way he reminds me of yasuhiro?? it creates this illusion that he’s older than he is and so I keep expecting him to look more like an adult

oh, also rantaro is missing some of his accessories in that video he made–you know the one–but I don’t wanna go back and screenshot it

also you may have noticed that I’m skipping all of the monokub cgs because I literally do not care about them and I’m not even bothering to check and see if they have artistic mistakes in them

JIMMY NEUTRON???

hey um uh kaito you seem to be missing your neck

hey guys do you like my pregame fanart

so, that done, the sprites are also pretty terrible at times. they’re not as interesting to go through, however, and downloading the full sprite sets for every character and studying every single one of them will drive me insane, so I’ll just sum some of the ones I noticed up. I made things for kaede and shuichi before deciding I wasn’t going to get into it, so here are these.

that said, other mistakes include kokichi missing his purple highlights in all of the sprites encompassing a specific pose, stray pixels all over the place on everyone, and everyone also has heavily inconsistent shading, but literally all I think about is how pregame shuichi is unshaded and two of kaede’s pregame sprites have glaring outfit change mistakes in them

anyway, thank you for taking the time to read my ridiculous ramble. in all seriousness, there’s this looming presence of some lack of communication in the development team, like with all the art and design inconsistencies, pieces and sprites that look rushed, stray pixels, and missing basic proportional stuff. these are the kinds of things that you supposedly have to pretty much have in the bag in order to get jobs in professional businesses, so it’s really weird to me that this game suffers from so many of these problems. it’s like they tried to make the art so much more crisp than the other games, but it fell on its face as they realized it was going to take longer to draw everything and they started to rush. it’s weird, because the coloring itself looks normal–it’s just sloppily drawn, and the proportions are a mess once put into the context of perspective. many of the cgs look like they were drawn by different people, and I’m still not over the fact that half of kokichi’s cgs have his scarf pasted in as a texture.

the moral of the story is that if you’re selling a game at full price that also happens to be in a series that has had 3 very good games in it already the stakes should probably be higher than this. v3 has been out for more than 3 years and it’s still $40 (did it cost more than that before? I sure hope not), and the overarching quality of the game is just not as high as the other games. I’m not saying that the other games don’t have any problems with their art at all, they’re just not as glaringly obvious and every artistic choice in those games feels intentional.

regardless, I had a blast roasting the art at 2am, so maybe you got a kick out of all this chaos.

[bullshittierlists]

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR DANGANRONPA V3 (and probably the other games, too, just to be safe)

So, just as a heads up, I made this list a few months ago, I think in the middle of chapter 4. I was going to update it, but I realized that any feelings I had were just made stronger and the list was still relatively accurate. Here are my thoughts:

I see no god up here other than me

Kirumi Tojo - As you may know about me, I can typically tell who my favorite characters are going to be before I indulge myself in a series. This has especially rung true throughout Danganronpa, I was able to correctly guess Taka and Gundham as my respective favorites before actually seeing them in action. Let me tell you that Kirumi surprised me. I originally guessed K1-B0 as my favorite and while he’s still up there, he is nowhere near Kirumi. I realized she was my favorite the moment chapter 2 ended. Not only were her execution and plan wonderful and brilliantly done, her last-ditch plea to convince everyone to let her live sold her for me. Not only did this plea make sense, it almost worked and I kinda wish it would’ve. Her motive was almost completely selfless and she worked damn hard to escape. Her execution was the only time I cried during this game because I wanted so badly for her to escape, but I knew that all of her efforts were futile. I know her biggest criticism is that her plan from hiding Ryoma’s body was completely unnecessary, but I like to believe she was just nervous and overthought the whole thing. I mean, this had to go perfectly in order for her to save her country, of course she’s going to add a few too many steps.

Miu Iruma - Okay, I know this is going to sound fake, but I actually really love the dichotomy of her character. The way that she acts so self-righteous but is actually quite self-conscious really stood out to me. Of course she’s funny and hot, too, but I feel it’s important to really appreciate the way her character was written. It amazes me that she was written to be the least likable character in the entire series and still ended up being one of my favorites.

You’re the best

K1-B0 - Yes, I type out his name every time. As I already mentioned, he was my original guess for favorite character, but it obviously didn’t work out that way. He stayed in his position of first for a while, but I always knew it wasn’t meant to last, I just didn’t know which character would take his place. Even besides my doubts, I still love K1-B0, I just wish more could’ve been done with him in the earlier chapters. There are several opportunities for him to be a really funny character and have good interactions with Kokichi and Miu, but he just comes off as annoying. I feel like he only really started to be utilized after Miu died with Monotaro and I really enjoyed their dynamic, I just wish we could’ve had some of this side of K1-B0 before this point.

Kokichi Oma - This spot probably isn’t as subjective as I’d like it to be. Every time Kokichi was on screen, I would get visibly annoyed, but I knew I was in for a treat figuring out his deeper intents behind what he’s saying. The only reason I really like Kokichi at all is because he’s fun to analyze. It gets boring to analyze Nagito because his motivation is pretty much just a mix of “hope” and “he’s crazy.” Kokichi’s character trait of lying makes it so fun to individually analyze each of his lines to figure out whether he’s telling the truth and why or why not. Other than that, I guess he has some funny dialogue with Miu sometimes.

Gonta Gokuhara - I really don’t know. I know this is way too early to be unsure about characters, but I just know I couldn’t put him any lower, but I also couldn’t put him any higher. He’s just such a sweetheart, but that’s about where the substance ends. I adored every time he was on my screen, but everything that would’ve been fun to analyze about him just leads back to Kokichi. I still really enjoy his presence, though. I’d like a big Gonta hug.

Kaede Akamatsu - I’ll just say it, I think she would’ve made for a better protagonist. I’ll talk about this later, but Shuichi’s character development doesn’t really feel like it goes anywhere and the twist doesn’t feel worth it because of that. I think the twist should still have been incorporated, but with the roles reversed. Either way, we got what we got, and what we got was tears from Clair de Lune. But seriously, she really is a great pianist. I’ve been trying to learn the piece for ages and it’s still too complicated for me. I mean, it’s in 9/8 for God’s sake. Good for her, regardless.

Tenko Chabashira - Tenko’s a weird case. I didn’t actually care for her that much until quite literally a few lines before she died. Fun fact: I spoiled this entire series for myself before I ended up playing it and I’m still mad at myself. This meant that I was just waiting for all of the deaths to happen, especially Tenko’s. I was fully aware that every line could be her last during the seance, but I wasn’t aware that she would pull on my heart strings before she went. When she tells Himiko that she’ll do the seance in her place so she can talk to Angie, I literally almost started crying. Before this, Tenko was just kind of annoying, but not too bad, but this moment really solidified her spot for me. She really just wanted to help Himiko and I wish she had chosen a better target for her affections.

Hey, I think you’re pretty cool, I like you a lot

Shuichi Saihara - Time to elaborate on what I said for Kaede. I actually really enjoyed Shuichi’s character development throughout the first three chapters. Before coming to Hope’s Peak, he was afraid to hurt people with his detective skills. Kaede notices this and helps him through it, passing the reins to Kaito once she passes. Shuichi convicts Kaede and later Kirumi, much to everyone’s detriment, but they’re all okay with it (Nobody was really super sad about Korekiyo to begin with, lol). Then, starting in chapter 4, everyone just kinda flips on him. Shuichi + the rest of the gang - Kokichi all believe that Gonta is innocent and Shuichi tries to prove this. Instead of supporting him, everyone (especially Kaito) tries to... stop him??? from proving it??? They’re all just in agreement that it wasn’t Gonta, but don’t want to proceed with the investigation to figure out who it was instead. It’s really frustrating and made my overall experience much less enjoyable. This is bumped up a few notches in chapter 5 with Maki. I understand that she was part of the whole case, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying that she won’t let me prove Kaito was the victim. It just feels like the character development was all for nothing and every student feels like a human obstacle (except K1-B0, of course). Still relatable and emo, though.

Rantaro Amami - I would make the joke everyone expects, but I’m on my laptop and I don’t know how to get to the emoji keyboard.

Ryoma Hoshi - I genuinely don’t have anything to say about Ryoma. He’s my halfway point because I don’t have anything particularly for him and I don’t have anything particularly against him, either. Go off, funky little cat man.

Kaito Momota - He got on my nerves in chapter 4, but he was a genuinely sweet character that I really enjoyed talking to. Any time he would talk about the stars, I would swoon because he’s just such a natural romantic. Not really my type, though. Very average.

Monophanie - Legally you can’t ask me why the monokubs are where they are. She’s voiced by Natalie Hoover (Sonia) and I guess that’s my only reasoning.

Monotaro - I really just liked his interactions with K1-B0 in chapter 4. Other than that, I greatly disliked his and Monophanie’s presence in Gonta’s execution. 0/10 worst use for monokubs.

Monodam - A nice, non-distracting addition to Korekiyo’s execution. But he had so much potential and just threw it all away. Apparently I’m a basketball dad from a high school movie now.

I remember you

Angie Yonaga - Many times, I’ve found myself asking who I ship from the series and this love triangle comes to mind. Of Angie, Himiko, and Tenko... I only really like Tenko. I don’t hate Angie’s cult stuff as much as everyone else seems to, but she didn’t have nearly enough of a presence for me to latch onto outside of the cult stuff, which was funny, I will admit.

Maki Harukawa - I was so excited the whole game for her to get cool. I knew she was going to get cool, I just didn’t know when or how. But then, it was chapter 5 already and she hadn’t gotten cool in my eyes yet. I was really meh on her by that chapter anyway, but her being annoying really knocked her down a few pegs. She got a couple extra points for surprising me during the case, but not enough to bump her up any spots.

Himiko Yumeno - I was rooting for her to be crushed under the rock at the end. She was fine before chapter 3, but then they tried to develop her with the Akane treatment and it didn’t work for me at all. She just got on my nerves during the third trial and continued to contribute nothing throughout the rest of the game. During chapter 5 and 6, it’s like the writers just completely forgot that she was there. This would’ve been fine if they weren’t the last couple of chapters and she was one of about 6 people left alive. She had a role to play and didn’t play it in the slightest. The most she was utilized after chapter 3 was as Miu’s replacement post-chapter 5. Someone needed to fill the dirty jokes quota and I guess Himiko was chosen. #GiveTenkoABetterLoveInterest2021

Monosuke - The only thing I remember him doing throughout the entire game was distract me from Kirumi’s exectuion. Not a fan.

You are the worst. Literal scum. Leave this planet and never return

Korekiyo Shinguji - Okay, listen. He’s not that bad. His design is actually one of the best, in my opinion and I love his dedication to his craft. However, he just creeps me out whenever he’s on screen and I’d prefer not to be around him. It’s not even the sister thing, I honestly think that’s funny and a nice change of pace, but his overall demeanor is creepy. Not to mention he’s played by Todd Haberkorn and he’s been in one too many roles recently. Hopefully I’ll get over it, but as for now, that loses him points.

Tsumugi Shirogane - I know, not exactly an unpopular opinion. She’s just annoying and downright pisses me off a lot of the time with her “plain” shtick. I already knew she was going to be the mastermind, so most of the game was just me waiting for her to reveal it. I swear, I almost couldn’t take it every time she said something like, “What if there isn’t a mastermind?” “What?? There’s a mastermind????” Just stfu Tsumugi. You all are lucky I don’t have the energy to talk about 3-6 right now.

Monokid - Hate the tongue sprite, that’s literally the only reason he’s down here. He’s also kind of annoying, but made the best addition to an execution out of all of the monokubs. His death was one of the few things that surprised me in this game and it was a welcome twist. I was sick of him by this point, but was still incredibly shocked when he was pushed into the execution. Then, his severed head rolls out to all of the students looking on in shock at Kaede’s death. Masterful. Still hate the tongue sprite.

There we go. Definitely my least favorite cast out of the whole series, but it’s still fun to love on and hate on a lot of the characters, as per usual. There are just a few too many in the middle tier (metaphorically speaking) that are either uninteresting or just don’t get their time to shine. Maybe they’ll eventually grow on me more, but I doubt it.

[fluxbutterflyss]

-ˋˏ✄┈ shuichi flustered over a shirtless kaito

» it was nighttime, and kaito was waiting for shuichi at their usual training spot. his only complaint were the exisals working a little too close to their usual spot, other than that everything seemed normal

» shuichi was probably getting ready, kaito figured. so he decided to get a head-start on shuichi, beginning with thirty jumping jacks to get his blood pumping

» he could hear the exisals getting closer to him, but he didn’t think much of it. by the time kaito caught his breath from the jumping jacks, shuichi still hadn’t arrived

» it was unlike shuichi, just yesterday all he had to do was drag shuichi out of his dorm. would today be a day like that? before kaito could take a step forward, kaito felt an incredibly cold breeze all over his body

» kaito blinked. then he looked down. there, he could see that his close (save for his underwear) had been ripped off. an exisal got so close to the point it accidentally swiped his clothes with it

» “s-sorry i’m late! i got a bit tired and took a small na…” shuichi’s voice trailed off the moment he laid his eyes on kaito. specifically, kaito’s shirtless body. and the design of kaito’s boxers.

» eyes widening, kaito wanted to think of the quickest excuse he could say so shuichi would believe he wasn’t some sort of pervert. with his underwear, that would be the biggest conclusion of anyone.

» “s-sidekick! hey! don’t worry about what i’m wearing, wouldn’t want to go to bed in sweaty clothes would i?” he tried laughing it off. obviously, it wasn’t working

» shuichi was too stunned to speak—no, the correct term would be too flustered to speak

» shuichi’s face was entirely red, his mouth agape as all he could do was stare at kaito being in nothing but his underwear. he wasn’t really thinking of anything, just questioning what he was looking at

» pink hearts on white boxers? both embarrassing and questionable, depending on who saw his underwear. but shuichi thought it was… cute, in the “friendliest” way he could think in

» the two stood in awkward silence for a long time. that was until shuichi uncharacteristically burst out laughing. (well not really laughin, just him covering his mouth as he chuckled a lot)

» “he-hey! what’s so funny! you really don’t wanna sleep sweaty do you?” now kaito was the one flustered. shuichi, one of the most calm and respectful boys of the academy laughing at him. talking about embarrassing…

» “i-i’m sorry… but the fact you can’t even see your clothes a few feet away from you… all ripped…” shuichi had a big, soft smile on his face as he calmed down from his short laughing fit.

» kaito in fact had no way to respond to shuichi. but he tried his best to keep it cool. “this is no laughing matter! from now on i’ll be training like this thank you very much! more room for other exercises that involved stretching!”

» for a while, the two went back to being silent just before the both of them had a good laugh. “alright, i believe you. but you should get dressed, you want miu or kokichi to see us like this?”

» that was the truth, kaito doesn’t want either of them seeing him in his heart patterned underwear. hell, even tenko to see him like this

» in the end the two did end up training together. just with shuichi having a new inside joke to tease kaito with when he needed too. not that he’ll actually tease kaito, that’s not really like shuichi.

[charzoid]

Opinion on Kaito’s hero persona

Just a random thing that I felt like sharing due to how much I see it brought up in fics, fanart, and blog posts. Kaito is my favorite character in the whole series so I wanted throw my 2 cents in the ring on this subject. Despite him being my favorite I’m aware kaito has his flaws but no character in this franchise has zero flaws besides Celest’s cat. Possibly. 

Shuich and Maki’s faith: I tend to see a lot of people complain that Shuichi and Maki got to easily fooled by him in thinking he was truly as strong as he believed but I think it was a bit of the opposite.  Examples:

This line to me when they discover his fear of ghosts to me says they do acknowledge his boldness is an act to an extent but they don’t fully buy it. That along with  this line:

They acknowledge that he’s overconfident and an actor of sorts. Their attitude was less to me as buying anything said like the gospel truth and more of seeing it as for the most part harmless.  I think people really don’t give them enough credit for being aware of kaito’s mask. 

The reason I think they never really say or do about is with them being wrapped up in their own heads in worry they didn’t think about how him acting could lead to anything bad. As much as he cares for them I will say they were a bit neglectful as friends for this.  

Neither Shuichi or maki seem like the type to have had many friendships or at least very close ones. Maki had at least one close friend in her past while Shuichi allegedly had a few random guys he knew from the flashbacks. We can assume though they weren’t very communicative in either though. Not excusing them but just one way to look at it.  Kaito leadership: On a slightly different note I think people over inflate or just plain miss that kaito himself doesn’t see himself as that big a deal despite titling himself the hero. In the investigations he pointedly has shuichi doing the leg work not to gloat that he did it but so Shuichi could put himself in charge without feeling the pressure of the position. Of course there’s also this little line to.

“You fell for a guy like me!” Doesn’t sound like something somebody with much respect for themselves would say.  He likes feeling useful but knows he can only be so useful in the long run so he tries helping those with more useful abilities use them. 

That’s pretty much all I can think to say for now so I’ll just leave it at this. 

[kreept12]

So I saw a The Good Place AU on ao3, rewatched the show and I had so many ideas for a different take on it like seriously !

So here's a bunch of the ideas I had bc I'm losing my mind at this

First of all : Warning, there's gonna be spoilers of season 1 and probably 2 of the show, please go watch it it's so good and funny.

So all the class are residents, except Tsumugi and Kiibo. Kiibo is the equivalent of Janet. Welcome to The Good Place, yaddy yaddy, except there are 3 bad apples : Ryoma, Maki and Kokichi.

 Each one of them are given an identity that isn’t theirs and they’re trying to pull it off, for a while at least. When the day after their arrival chaos happen and they find themselves the only one without the “emergency suit”, Ryoma decide to tell Tsumugi and Kiibo, but Maki and Kokichi saw that he was a fraud too and kept him from giving himself away, because right now Tsumugi and Kiibo don’t know what’s causing all the chaos, but if Ryoma gives himself away, is sent to The Bad Place but chaos is still happening, they will know the other two are here. Ryoma ask them what’s their plan then, which Maki says they try to blend in. Try to BE good people. Kokichi doesn’t believe one bit of this but act like he does to convince Ryoma. And so begin their journey to becoming good people.

(more under the cut cause it’s kinda long)

Here a list of the soulmates btw (not ship, most of them are made for plot purpose)

Suichi Saihara | Kaede Akamatsu

Kaito Momota | Maki Harukawa

Tenko Chabashira | Korekiyo Shinguji

Ryoma Hoshi | Kirumi Tojo

Kokichi Ouma | Gonta Gokuhara

Himiko Yumeno | Miu Iruma

Angie Yonaga |  Rantaro Amami

But it turns out that trying to be a good person isn’t necessary instinctual for them, Ryoma is the one doing well but oh boy the other two are messes. Maki keeps menacing other people and her polite smile is so forced even Gonta knows it’s fake. Kokichi just keeps making pranks on the other residents because there’s no harm in a little prank (he just had problem adjusting to this new group and hates that he likes some of them so he pranks them so they get away from him and he doesn’t have to be vulnerable around them.) 

Ryoma ends up sitting them down after a few days and telling them they need help. So they debate about who would be the best fit. They end up with Korekiyo, mostly because he studies human and they guess moral are part of humen so maybe he knows the best way to be a good person, plus the guy is lonely most of the time, doesn’t gossip and creepily study and takes note of the other residents. 

They ask him and he accepts. He takes it as a new way to study human behaviour in a field he didn’t specialize during his life. (btw, here the characters are aged-up, they’re in their 20s so they can have more Life Knowledge:TM:). They chose to meet up at Korekiyo’s house to study because his soulmate, Tenko, hates his gut and never comes to visit; while the other three have way too caring soulmates that comes to visit them on a daily basis (Kaito being the more insistant, Gonta and Kirumi try to respect their personal boundaries but still, the gang doesn’t want to be interrupted by them, so at Korekiyo’s it is.

A little more about Tenko and Korekiyo. When Tsumugi introduced them to each other, Tenko was out of her mind. First, she’s a lesbian, second, she finds Korekiyo super creepy and has a bad feeling about him, worst than all other degenerate male she ever met (nevermind the fact that she says this every time she meets a new guy). Korekiyo is also unpleased by this arrangement, mainly because she’s a bit much for him. Tsumugi says soulmates aren’t always romantic, they can also take form in a strong companionship. Both are still skeptical when she leaves and basically avoid each other. Korekiyo also asked Tsumugi about other neighboorhood and if visiting is possible, since he would like to see his sister. 

(Little point here, I doubt Korekiyo might be a serial killer here, he might have thought about it but never acted on it. He’s still pretty fucked up by the abuse his sister made him go through, but he also doesn’t recognise it as abuse yet, part of his character arc would be to come to term with that)

So ! The teaching is... Sure going. Korekiyo is good at teaching the theory but oh boy if he doesn’t suck at practice. They’re sure learning, but it’s still a trainwreck and Ryoma is the only reasonnable person in this house. They need a person who is a good person naturally, and wouldn’t go tell Tsumugi their situation...

Yeah they take a look at Gonta and it’s settled. The man is way too nice to everyone and “a true gentleman never tells friends secret to others !”. They thought about Angie for a moment, she seems nice with everyone and alwyas organise parties or artistic activities to unite everyone together, but she’s close friend with Tenko and Himiko so they doubt she would let Korekiyo hang out with her friends. 

Gonta is not the best teacher. He tries his best, but even though he is nice and try his best to help everyone, he is also incredibly naive and can be mislead to do bad things pretty easily, which is what Kokichi proves within the first day his soulmate agrees to help them. They basically have a Insect Meet and Greet. Once Gonta understands he hurt his friends, he’s pretty sad and isolate himself. Ryoma would probably come talk to him. Gonta talks about how he didn’t act like a gentleman and he regrets it, which leads to a conversation about why he wants so badly to be a gentleman and their past life. Ryoma mentions how he didn’t have anything to live for back on earth, no family, no friends, no lovers. Gonta says he’ll make sure he does now, which makes Ryoma laugh. They grow closer after that, Gonta trying to spend more time with him. 

Meanwhile, Kokichi is onto something. Since he arrived here, he felt like something was wrong. Tsumugi keeps saying they have no idea what’s causing all the chaos and there’s no way someone got here by accident ? Three frauds in one go ? That’s not right. So he investigates, everyone. Their past, their actions, their words, he wants to know everything and understand what is really this place. He doesn’t trust anyone. So he used the Insect Meet and Greet to find more info while everyone is busy. That’s when he’ll cross path with Shuichi, because he sneaked into his and Kaede’s house. Shuichi become suspicious of him from there on and they develop a kind of rivalry where Shuichi knows Kokichi is up to something but doesn’t know what, and Kokichi likes to mess with him. He also likes to mess with Kiibo to ask them a myriad of questions about everything and nothing.

Kokichi : Hi Kiiboy !

Kiibo : Not a boy, but hi (bc hell yes nb Kiibo and maybe this whole thing was based of my want to write this dialogue down, but who knows really)

MEANWHILE, Maki ends up hiding with Kaito who has been trying to talk to her for a while and now she can’t leave him because there are insects everywhere outside. They sit there for a while, Kaito trying to start a conversation, but getting frustrated because she doesn’t talk back until they both lash out. Maki insists she doesn’t want to make friends, especially with him and not on the basis of them being soulmates or whatever. She adds that he doesn’t want to be friend with her, trust her. He asks why but she doesn’t answers. So he starts all over again, straighten up and introduce himself again. “Name’s Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars and totally not your soulmate.” She sniggers and introduce herself. They chit-chat for a bit and once the insects are gone, they leave. They say goodbye and Maki avoids him a bit less after this. 

The day after the Insect Meet and Greet, Kokichi arrive at Korekiyo’s home earlier than the others. He brags about how much of a shame it is that Gonta won’t work with them anymore, really it’s too bad. Except that when Ryoma arrives with Gonta in toe, his eyes are the size of saucers. In the days following, Kokichi still tries to use Gonta and make the giant hate him, which is slowly irritating Ryoma. He asks him why he keeps trusting Kokichi after everything he’s done, but Gonta says he believes Kokichi can become a good person, it’s actually the point of everything they’re doing. After a while Kokichi expends his pranks to the other frauds and Shuichi. That’s when it clicks for Korekiyo who goes to talk to him in private. He tries to ask him why he’s trying to get everyone who is close to him into hating him. Kokichi denies everything, just says it’s fun. Korekiyo just tells him it’s not doing him any good and they won’t hurt him if he let them get closer. He still prank them all, but it’s less mean. 

There is also a point where the group wonder if Miu isn’t a fraud too because of her loud mouth. She’s super annoyed by the automatic swear words blocker. She’s so loud and don’t get along at all with her soulmate Himiko who finds her exhausting. 

Also at some point, after Korekiyo began to understand that he was abused by his sister, Tsumugi reaches out to him. She give him a letter from his sister. She tells him visiting is not authorised yet, but she managed to negotiate postal communication just for him. He doesn’t take it well. At all. He has a mental breakdown, having flash-back and being terrorised of what to do with this letter. He doesn’t leave his home anymore and doesn’t answer to anybody, the group can’t have class with him. Everyone is getting worried and ends up asking Tenko for helps. They don’t really think he’ll talk to her but they really tried everything else. Himiko slides a word in their favor and Tenko agrees. She goes to the house, knocks and tells him to open. He doesn’t. She stays in front of the door for a while. After a few hours, Korekiyo finally asks what she wants. She says she wants to make sure he’s not dying or something. He says she heard his voice so now she knows he’s not dead, she can leave. But she doesn’t. She asks him to open the door, that it’s typical degenerate male behavior to lock themselves up and not face their emotions. She’s about to say he’s an idiot for making everyone worry like that, but the words die in her throat as the door opens and she sees her soulmate. He’s a mess. He lets her in. He sits down on the floor, she follows. After a few minutes she asks what’s going on. He tells her about how he recently found out what he always believed was false and maybe someone he cares a lot about actually hurt him a lot. He talks about his sister, about what he thought. He says he was wrong but don’t go in the details, he can’t for now. He cries and lose his composure again, which rings a billion alarms and raise his sister voice in his mind. Tenko instinctively reach her hand out and tries to stroke his hairs in a reassuring paterms. After a while, he calms himself and show her the letter, tells her he doesn’t know what to do. She takes it, rise to her feet and help him up. She goes to the chimney, light up a fire and give him back to him. “You don’t have to worry about this if it doesn’t exist anymore”. He let it falls into the flames and they both watch it burns until they are only ashes left. 

Korekiyo still needs some time, but he slowly let the other back. Tenko also go to talk to Tsumugi, telling her to cut the postal communication thing. She seems disapointed but agrees. 

After that they both start to get better. Tenko slowly try to have a better view on guys, she understands maybe not all of them are bad, like all women are perfect. Korekiyo is slowly opening up to others, slowly trying to move on from the abuse. It’s slow, for both of them, Tenko stops calling guys degenerate, but keeps the male, Korekiyo drops the hat, but keep the rest of the uniform. They’re making progress and supporting each other in little ways. 

Maybe the cast of Danganronpa 2 can be the demons (you know bc of Ultimate despair and all, and maybe the survivors of the game can be the demons that would end up agreeing with the humans) but I didn’t thought too much on this.

ANYWAY that’s a few things in my mind. If some of you are interested I’ll probably answer questions about it or post more if I have ideas. Maybe draw, who knows ! Hope some of you liked my ideas

[oumakokichi]

for as much as i like kaito, he feels... underwhelming. not character-wise, but in terms of his actual development. there is a lot of things he NEEDS to work on that just goes unaddressed, and they tease by doing things like repeatedly giving characters lines even in bonus modes that are like "wow kaito is sooo confident i wonder where he gets it all from :)" without actually delving into the likelihood that it's all played up. it's so disappointing, since kaito could've been so much more imo.

I honestly couldn’t agree more, anon. Back before the localization came out, I honestly had a very positive impression of Momota despite all his flaws. I really wanted to like him; I even translated his FTEs myself because I was excited to see more about him and if his friendship with Saihara would be expanded on in a way that felt genuinely fulfilling or interesting!

But honestly... as time has gone on, and after replaying the game several times since then, I can’t really say I enjoy him all that much anymore. Obviously, I still like him well-enough, and I would never deny his importance to the plot or to Saihara’s character growth. But as you said, so many issues go completely untouched in the narrative even when they feel like fundamental flaws in his character that should be explored.

And having character flaws isn’t a bad thing in and of itself. Characters should be flawed! It gives them a chance to grow and develop in interesting ways. The problem with Momota though is that his character... doesn’t really do that. The most he develops is insofar that he recognizes that cooperating with Ouma was necessary in chapter 5, that a compromise does need to be made even with people whose beliefs you fundamentally disagree with.

But even that little bit of character development feels like it could have been so much better if it hadn’t just been about the potential for Ouma and Momota to cooperate when literally no one expected them to, but about the recognition that Momota was wrong on some level.

There’s never any real acknowledgment of his flaws that got them into the entire predicament in the first place: his jealousy of Saihara is touched on briefly in chapter 4 and hinted at even earlier, but is ultimately dropped completely. Saihara is treated as being “just as much to blame” for their fight as Momota, and the story tries to push for them to “both apologize to each other,” despite the fact that Momota’s recklessness and refusal to listen to facts very nearly killed everyone in the chapter 4 trial, and despite the fact that Momota is the one avoiding him and even very coldly referring to him by his surname after having called him “Shuuichi” for most of the game since chapter 2.

It’s so frustrating to see the game almost touch on these things and explore a narrative where the character who wants to be a hero more than anything is limited by very human, relatable flaws like jealousy, stubbornness, and even his own physical limitations... and then just not do anything with it. In the end, Momota’s apology is pretty much entirely handwaved by Saihara since Momota is going to die no matter what. Instead of ever getting called out on his flaws or getting a chance to work through them organically, Momota is remembered as the Big Hero that he always wanted to be, and any valid criticism of him or the problems with his way of thinking is just sort of brushed under the rug without being further explored.

It’s also really, deeply uncomfortable to see people make excuses for the homophobia, transphobia, and toxic masculinity that are very much present in his character. The English version may have removed the slurs, but it doesn’t change the original intent of his character, or the fact that those things were said. And people (especially LGBT people) have a right to be uncomfortable with a character who goes around saying slurs and punching characters in the face for being “too weak” or “too feminine.”

It’s an undeniable fact that Momota has a lot of good traits, and I completely understand why he’s very well-liked by most people: Saihara likes him, therefore we want to like him too on some level. We want a “best friend” character who believes in us and uplifts us the way he tries to do for Saihara, who is anxious and unsure of himself. But between the narrative’s refusal to ever really criticize him, and the fandom insisting that some of his worst traits just don’t exist or that people “can’t be uncomfortable” with him... his character just doesn’t really rank as high up for me as he used to.

I would have really liked for his character to be more of a direct subversion of the shounen tropes that he seemed to embody at first, and I definitely think there’s ways to flesh him out or explore those flaws in fan-works, and I have a lot of respect for people who acknowledge that those flaws exist without talking over the people who are made uncomfortable by them. I completely understand your feelings on Momota anon, because in the end, it’s a very complicated topic. Thank you for the interesting ask!

[potatotrash0]

I’ll literally never ever stop thinking about Celeste and Kokichi...they’re just. So interesting and I’m a sucker for complex characters that make me think and allow me the space to speculate and theorize the crap outta them....my little analysis? will stay under the cut because this got way longer than I originally planned.

I just find it so fascinating how Kokichi doesn’t bother with niceties like a lot of the other characters do. He frequently points out things that the other characters either don’t notice or don’t acknowledge, like the fact that Monokuma wants them to work together in order to break them apart and create rifts in the group. Similarly in THH, Celeste brings up several uncomfortable topics, one of the most notable ones for me being the idea of adaptability and survivability being closely interlocked, that those who can’t adapt are bound to wind up dead.

Their statements are cold and unnerving to think about, but I also can’t help thinking about how they’re...not actually wrong? Both ideas are unpleasant for everyone else in the group, but at least how I see it, going about things normally and trusting people you don’t even know isn’t smart, regardless of how optimistic you want to be.

Something I also want to note is that a fundamental part of both their characters is that they’re liars, but how they lie and the reasons why they lie in the first place are just so vastly different from each other.

Kokichi is someone who’s tendency for lying seems to stem from 1.) a lack of trust and 2.) a fear of vulnerability. He exaggerates and fakes his reactions to things frequently and says afterwards that all of it was a lie, but also mentions odd things like “just hit the reset button on your feelings,” which suggests he doesn’t really give himself much time to process how he truly feels. There’s also the fact that he writes, “油断ならない?” under Saihara’s picture on the whiteboard in his room. I believe, and I say this tentatively since I don’t know Japanese and I’m working off translators and kanji websites, that phrase roughly translates to “yudan naranai.” “Yudan” seems to mean “carelessness, recklessness.” “Naranai” seems to mean “do not become.” I’m guessing that Kokichi is making a note to be cautious around Saihara, or to not get careless around him, though why exactly Kokichi feels the need to make that sort of note, I’m not sure. From the English translation of “trustworthy,” I assumed that he trusted Saihara, but I’m wondering now if it would be more accurate to say that he simply acknowledges the detective as a notable figure in the trials or something along those lines. I think he was already formulating his plan with Kaito at this point, so perhaps he was noting that Saihara might’ve been able to find out about it if he wasn’t careful with his words, though I haven’t actually finished V3 so I’m not sure if my assumption lines up with canon. (I’m noticing now that @/oumakokichi said that yudan naranai as a phrase means “tricky,” not “be careful.” I don’t know if it’s like. A Japanese turn of phrase that I just don’t know about or if I translated it wrong skjfkdjf)

Kokichi’s lies are also very...wild. Like his rather chaotic and loud personality, he tends to lie like second nature. I believe in Salmon Mode, if you agree with the idea of Kokichi stopping his lies, he says that it’s arrogant to expect someone to change such a vital part of themselves just for the sake of other people’s approval. The best descriptor I can come up with for his brand of lying is that...it’s like a minefield with both real and fake mines. It’s hard to differentiate what’s what, and while you can take a guess, there’s always a chance that your assumption will backfire and blow up in your face unless you pay extremely close attention.

Celeste, on the other hand, seems to lie more out of insecurity than a lack of trust. She hates the idea of being ordinary, calling her real name a loser’s name, and is shown to be willing to go to extremes to achieve the lavish life she desires. Even beyond the whole murder plan, gambling in Japan is illegal, so she’s breaking the law as well as resorting to risking her own life in gambling matches in order to get the money she needs for her castle. She’s also a lot more particular in how she lies. She seems to have an elaborate backstory all planned out, from her being descended from French and German ancestors to her likely fake gambling matches inspired by various gambling manga. She sticks to it well, firmly restating details like her name being Celestia Ludenberg, even when it’s clear that some people don’t buy it. Juxtaposed to Kokichi’s minefields, Celeste’s lies strike me as more like a carefully woven web of half-truths. Not quite lies, but definitely not the whole story either.

I also find it interesting how their motivations and actions in their respective killing games differ. Kokichi is shown to actively despise the work of Team Danganronpa, calling them sick for enjoying toying with people’s lives. In the Japanese version, I believe he says something along the lines of, “A game where people lose their lives...how could that ever be fun?” He also mentions to Saihara that a game can be won by simply not playing. He flat out says, “Regardless of your reasons, the moment you felt the urge to kill, you had already lost. You agreed to be part of this killing game when you allowed murder to fill your heart.” He’s not really subtle about his hatred of the killing game, and even the whole “I love this game!!!” spiel in Chapter 4 is a rather pathetic lie. At least, it seems obvious to me, seeing as up until that point, some of his most serious moments have included him explicitly talking about not playing by Monokuma’s rules. I think Saihara himself notes that Kokichi seemed to have upped the whole evil persona. Though, being an observer, I guess I could be biased.

Celeste, however, said herself that she wanted nothing more than to get out as soon as Monokuma showed up. Just outright states it, that her whole “adaptability is survivability” mentality was a facade she put up in order to hide the fact that she was always considering killing someone in exchange for freedom. It’s a direct contrast to Kokichi’s insistence that they shouldn’t give into Monokuma’s trap, as well as his strong disdain for murder.

And since I’ve gone over their differences all this time, I wanna go over a few notable similarities real quick?

I notice that they both have a theme of hiding and suppressing their emotions. Kokichi’s more subtle about it, his most explicit line being that “hit reset on your feelings” line. Celeste states it outright, saying that she takes pride in being able to fool her own emotions, that “the conscious deceives the unconcious.” However, neither of them have full control over what emotions they show, as Kokichi is shown a few times to lose control and try to play it off as a lie afterwards, and Celeste loses her temper with Hifumi and during the trial. When it came time for her to be executed, even Makoto was able to see through her smile despite her efforts to appear composed.

Another thing is that they both seem to be rather commanding characters. Celeste is one of the first to take initiative, immediately establishing the no-wandering-at-nighttime rule, as well as bringing up the adapt to survive idea. She repeatedly reminds everyone to adhere to the rule, appearing ticked off when people don’t and even saying that Chihiro had their death coming to them for meeting someone at night. One of Kokichi’s first moves is to befriend Gonta, and he doesn’t have any issue ordering the guy around, not unlike how Celeste orders around Hifumi. Gonta obviously doesn’t really seem to find Kokichi physically attractive, but the boss/goon dynamic is similar. This is likely more of a “you’re easy to pick on so I’m gonna keep doing it” sort of deal than him being commanding, but I will bring up that Kokichi does seem to find Miu’s more wimpish side amusing, enough that he doesn’t seem to get bored of insulting her through the game.

This is...probably all stuff that me and plenty of other people have gone over before but I just. Man I just think they’re so neat........I love them.....they make me happy to think about....

[dangan-meme-palace]

Dont sell yourself short! Having read your analyses you definetly dont suck at writting!

Anway i realy love your oc. I havent seen anything like it. Can you describe her relationship whith Kokichi? How they get along, there chemistry, etc?

This got long as shit lol

OC -> Kokichi

Basically my OC really respects him and wants to be friends. She really needs his help as well, because she knows that she can't fix this problem on her own and she needs someone a bit smarter to help her out.

She figured out that he was going to be the antihero antagonist type and tries to mitigate the harm that comes his way or at least be there with him to make sure he doesn't die. She tries to do little things for him since can't do a whole lot without compromising her already vulnerable position since the workout squad wouldn't like it if she directly defended him. She feels a bit guilty for not doing more, but tries to focus on what she can do.

She stays behind after the Insect Meet and Greet, yells at Maki in Chapter 2 when she chokes him and goes to check up on him afterwards, after he hits his head in Chapter 3 she makes sure he's alive and then makes a little med kit for him from Tsumugi's sewing supplies and places it somewhere he can easily find it, and she calls out Shuichi and Kaito's bullshit during the 4th trial (under the guise of a friend being disappointed in their fight and their actions) and proves Kokichi's innocence (which is exactly what he didn't want but she didn't know RIP.)

The biggest thing she did for him was in Chapter 5 where she disavowed the workout squad because they were being jerks to him despite that putting her life in danger (because her survival hinges on how close she is to the protagonist,) tries to check up on him because she's really worried about Kokichi possibly attempting suicide after what he said before Gonta's execution and the fact that he isolated himself immediately afterwards, and saves his life in the hanger despite both Kokichi wanting to die and the fact that Monokuma could use Kokichi's plan to get her executed if she doesn't play her cards right. She essentially steps out of the safety and security of being a barely-involved side character to make sure he lives on.

Kokichi -> OC

Very confused about why she's trying to stick with him but he's not upset by it. The only problem is that she seems to know things the rest of the cast doesn't and she's been acting strangely since she took her tumble, which makes him initially suspect that she's either the mastermind herself or a spy/mole for the mastermind.

He initially hangs out with her to keep an eye on her, but then he finds that he actually enjoys her company and is really conflicted about it. He eventually confronts her about what she knows in Chapter 3, but she can't answer him. This frustrates him because he actually wants to believe in her but she's making it hard for him.

After that he distances himself from her, to her dismay, but misses her a bit. He doesn't trust her enough to help him pull of his plan in Chapter 4 so she's not involved and is clueless as to what's going on. He gets very frustrated that she's ruining his plans by proving his innocence and starts trying to hurt her to make her stop (and kinda take out his frustration,) which he succeeds in, but she still respects him so much that she keeps trying to help which makes him second guess himself.

Why is he so mad at her for lying and not telling him important things when he does the same thing? That's not exactly fair, especially when she's tried so hard to be a good friend to him this whole time except for that one thing. And why exactly is he mad that she won't open up to him anyway...? Because he likes her lol. He eventually comes the to conclusion that she's not the mastermind and is either being blackmailed or otherwise silenced by the mastermind, believing in her actions up until that point and having faith that she's not just pretending to be his friend.

Despite this, he still distances himself from her to keep with his "I'm the mastermind" plan and since he feels like he's already hurt her enough anyway. Ending on bad terms and having her get hurt by that is preferable to watching her die after getting involved in his riskiest plan to date, especially since Gonta just died. He's not someone who can properly get along with people anyway, she's better off not getting closer to him than she already has... is what he keeps telling himself, but he can't bring himself to actually want to cut her off despite going through with it.

In Chapter 5 when she begs to be let into the hanger or else "they" will kill her, he lets her in under the assumption (and guilt) that his actions led the mastermind to target her as well. It's a lie, but she actually manages to pull one over on him this time since she knows more about what's happening and he knows that she knows more than he does, so he trusts in what she's saying about how she's being targeted. She's not 100% lying, she really has been targeted since the beginning, but she's not telling him everything and the reason she started banging on the hanger door in the first place wasn't because she was scared and needed his immediate help, but rather because she was scared for his sake and decided to put him on suicide watch.

Being in the hanger and coincidentally having been the one who swapped the poisons and antidotes in Shuichi's lab is how she saves his life, but it's still kind of a betrayal since she's wrecking his self sacrificing plan that he thinks will save everyone (she knows better though, which is why she stops the plan. If the plan would've actually worked she would have let him die, albeit while feeling very guilty.)

Their relationship is rocky in Chapter 6, with both sides wanting to reconnect despite both having done wrong by the other even if they were doing so for the right reasons. Neither really knows where they stand with each other and they're really awkward despite working together to investigate the mastermind (aka her leading him step by step because she already knows who it is, they were friends last season afterall.)

Once they get out of the game their relationship finally has time to heal since neither of them have to juggle their killing game personas and their friendship at the same time and they inevitably get together.

She helps Kokichi through therapy and he helps her reconcile with everything she's done to get to this point. Many tears later their relationship is really strong and they're practically inseparable.

The end :D

[zahra-kha]

Dear Diary 32

The weekend was a blast! Well, up until I nearly bled out in the middle of the forest.

I was late to Hanami so I missed out on the fortune-telling which was sad about, but I did manage to get a good luck charm. I’m not sure how well it’s working, but I didn’t die, so I guess it’s doing something. I was really hoping to get my fortune told, I enjoy that sort of thing, but I guess I’ll have to wait for another festival.

I ran into Tamala, Nivaar, Vivien, and Arashi while I was there, oh! Before that though, a strange person bumped into me and handed me off a letter from Lord Thiji Higuri from the Regalia sending his regards. I responded to her giving a formal greeting from house Kouris and infomed her that I’d try to visit the Regalia to give proper respect and greetings to the Mythrite Sultan at some point. It’s not exactly often or common for someone of his standing to reach out to someone of my position, so I should at least give him due respect.

Some of the folks from Ebonheart were there and I chatted with them for a bit before I gave them space to enjoy the festival. I didn’t want to crowd them.

So there was a ritual and a blessing sort of thing. I didn’t really understand it, but it involved lining up to drink sake. I wasn’t sure if that was a religious thing or not, but I didn’t feel very comfortable jumping into something like that when I have my own beliefs and I pray to my own gods. That’s not to say accepting blessings from another belief set is bad, it’s just that I’d like an understanding of what I’m accepting before I accept it. I’m probably overthinking it, I doubt the priests would have offered a blessing to all if it was harmful or insulting. I’m not sure why I felt so apprehensive about it.

After everyone went up to accept the blessing, it was time for the performances. Everyone was so amazing! There was such a variety of performers celebrating the beauty of spring and from different cultures too!

I was performing as well. I did two songs, one on the blossoming of a new love after heartbreak (Yes, it was a personal song, and I don’t often sing about my feelings, but I also feel my songs won’t reach anyone if I don’t try to reach out and touch their hearts with my own). The other was about the powerful bonds of an unshakable love, and I think that moved some people. I really tried my hardest with that song.

The Sword Princess Zenos one was inspiring, I wanted to go home and write some friend fiction featuring Trystan as the warrior of light and Vin as Sword Princess Zenos. I wonder how badly I can bastardize this? I won’t be satisfied until I’ve upset some people (in a good/bad/funny way!)

After the performances, someone named DJ CARVI came out. He had this amazing car thing and started playing this awesome music while playing on the guitar! We danced and danced until we nearly passed out! He looks so cool, and I love his personality! The music was unique and flowed well and just....

[There’s a series of hearts and little doodles of CARVI’s helmet along with little notes saying ‘I ♥ DJ CARVI’ written on the margins. Zahra is clearly a fan]

I tried to see if Tamala could get me an autograph but she already had one so I politely asked if he had signed autographs after his show. He did us one better and give us illegal copies of his album and signed them! I’m not supposed to listen to it but that’s okay! I’ll just try and check out another showing of his and see if I can find places where there’s orchestrion scrolls of his work. And maybe some posters. Or other merchandise.

He was really cool.

So anyway, the next day was Lucky Sparrow’s 4th anniversary! We had a wonderful turnout, so many showed up in green and gold. That was so nice to see, I loved the support, it just goes to show how much people love Lucky Sparrow and how much they’ve given to everyone. I’m proud and honored to be a part of them.

The performances were ama-zing! We practiced and practiced and everything turned out well! Suki and I got to do our solo acts, and I even saw some familiar faces in the crowds! I think I heard Kaito, Vel, Koh’a, and S’aeil out there! I think one of them was celebrating their own anniversary! Scorpius showed up too and wished me luck, that was kind of him.

We all got a bit sappy after, which made me happy. I love the environment with the troupe, it helps me feel a little less alone. It’s warm and comforting, which I think I needed after everything that’s been going on.

Speaking of...

After the show I went back to the encampment and found it empty. I thought it was going to be my best chance of investigating everyone so I tried to hurry.

I went through Sahrin’s things first. I admit I was still upset Cecilia even insinuated that Sahrin may have tried to kick her out. Even if we cleared the air on it, I wanted to prove his innocence. I didn’t find...much? A locked jewelry box and a bunch of really raunchy letters to Fitaan. Gross.

Fitaan’s tent was...strange. It was like going into a room felt like someone was trying too hard to show it’d been lived in. Things that looked normal upon first glance, but then didn’t make sense as you really thought about it. A bedroll but no pillow, sheets or blankets to be found. Cooking utensils but no traces that food had ever been in the room. Not even dried herbs or meat. Thrown away parchment in a trash bin, but no writing utensils to shown he’d been writing anything. Sure, he could have taken some of the items with him to track down Armand but...the room feels too neat, clean, and off for that. It’s like it has the appearance of a normal room but there’s enough bits and pieces once you look around to know otherwise.

Esila’s tent was normal. Smelled of metal and polish but that’s likely from all the blades she has laying about. She has a hobby of collecting axes and swords. I tried to be careful, but she really didn’t have anything that I could find.

Armand’s room had been cleaned out by Sahrin already, he took everything of relevance with him. I didn’t find much of anything outside of letters he’d saved from old lovers and a letter from Sahrin congratulating him on job well done on his first solo performance at a village he was at in Thavnair.

It was when I went to Sai’s room that everything went downhill. I’ve been to her tent countless times. She’s been training me with how to use daggers, she’s taught me how to be a better songwriter. Sai is...the calmest of the group. The quietest. But when she speaks she always has kind or profound things to say.

I’ll be honest, there was a part of me that didn’t believe Cecilia, either. She’d just come to the troupe and suddenly she disappears and then reappears and starts saying Sahrin kicked her out, then that Armand was behind it, and suddenly I’m just supposed to believe the people I’ve cared for since childhood are trying to hurt me?

I went to the encampment to...

I wanted to prove everyone wrong. Myself wrong. I didn’t want to believe my family would betray me. Sahrin. The troupe. And I was angry with myself for doubting them. Angry for not doubting them more. I was angry at my friends for doubting my family, and I was angry at myself for being unreasonable about it. I just wanted the truth. Mostly, I was angry that this was happening at all.

So when I heard something click after finding a letter in Sai’s drawer, I think my mind went completely blank. I stopped thinking, I didn’t move, everything just went white.

I don’t remember too much of what happened, only that instinct told me I had to go. I had to leave, I couldn’t be found. I don’t know if that was out of fear or just a sense of survival, but it started raining heavily so I lost my bearings quickly. It’s fuzzy, but I don’t even think I realized the trap had been a knife until I finally found a spot to sit down because I felt really tired suddenly.

I needed a healer, and I could only think to call Gail. She came and I don’t remember much of our conversation after she arrived, but I think she brought me to her apartment somehow and I got shoved into her bath. I told her as much as I could as I tried to warm up, I don’t remember how long I was out in the rain, and I didn’t feel much pain, just exhausted.

Oh, but after she healed me and got some food in me, godsdamn did the pain come in full force! I think the blade had been poisoned, because after I got back to my apartment I felt feverish and weak from the after effects. I’m still recovering, the fever is gone and I was able to take a look at the letter.

Gail got a good look at it too, seems like it was a letter from Sahrin to Sai, a really old letter too. I guess from the days before the troupe was formed. I know Sahrin is very anti-Imperial, but I guess Sai is too, looking over the letter’s contents. I’m not sure what this all means, but I guess when Sahrin was thinking of making the troupe, he had some grand designs and made some promises to Sai about it. I wasn’t able to find out much else since I triggered the trap, but the letter was well taken care of even after all these years. It must have been important to Sai.

Sai, was it you? Did you put Armand up to killing me? Deceiving Cecilia? How much of everything going on is you? You were like a sister to me, I don’t understand. I don’t understand.

[elyvorg]

Anonymous asked:

i was wondering, how different do you think it would it be if Kaede had remained the protagonist, and Shuichi had been the one to die in chapter 1? do you think she and Kaito would have become as close friends as Shuichi and him did, or would their dynamic be too different for it to happen? i mean, i can't see her becoming his sidekick lol anyways love your blog and your analysis <3

[Got this ask over on my commentary blog but answering it here, partly because nothing about the ask or my answer to it is commentary-specific and it reads more like one of my AU posts, and partly because this ended up being Rather Long, even for my ask-reply standards, and readmores don't work on asks on my commentary blog's theme.]

  In general, I love to imagine Kaede and Kaito hypothetically being friends! They are both so good and so similar and so selflessly focused on supporting and encouraging everyone around them with little heed to their own wellbeing that it just feels right that they should be friends with each other if given the chance.

And because of how similar they are, I like to think that the friendship they’d have would be very healthy and beneficial for both of them. They’d be equals – and more than that, they’d able to keep each other’s selflessness in check. Each of them would worry more about the other than themselves and therefore notice how self-destructively selfless the other can be and advise them to look after themselves more. Through this, they’d both have no choice but to realise just how similarly too-selfless they themselves can be and that maybe this isn’t always a good thing. They’d come to a mutually-supportive agreement of “I’ll try to look after myself more, so long as you promise to look after yourself more, too.” It would be so good!

But, well, that’s the most ideal scenario. The problem is, even without the stress of the killing game, Kaito is really not great at making friends outside of his sidekick thing – and Kaede is not a potential sidekick. In UTDP, Kaede and Kaito somehow aren’t properly friends with each other despite having a mutual friend in Shuichi, which makes me sad. (I don’t know why Shuichi never tried to do anything about this and get his two best friends to befriend each other as well; come on, Shuichi.)

In canon, Kaito clearly really wanted to befriend Kaede during chapter 1, but asking her for a hug out of nowhere was extremely not the best way to go about it. And on Kaede’s end, she appreciated Kaito being on her side but otherwise seemed to wholly underestimate him and not realise how amazing a person he is. All she saw from him in chapter 1 were his unfulfilled promises of being the kind of hero who can Get Shit Done – because Kaede herself was already filling the role of luminary-hero and preventing Kaito from really shining as much as he could.

So, would they actually have been able to reach that ideal mutually-supportive friendship if Kaede had continued to live, despite the stress of the killing game and their respective issues? Let’s break this down!

Chapter 2-ish

Kaede would be pretty torn up by Shuichi’s death in this AU (and his crime, for that matter – if Shuichi died instead of her then presumably it’s because he was the one who tried to kill the mastermind and missed). But she’s more emotionally resilient than Shuichi, so she’d be better at dealing with it than he was in the reverse scenario.

Naturally, realising that she’s bound to be having a hard time with the events of the first trial, Kaito would reach out to Kaede, much like he did for Shuichi at the beginning of chapter 2. He’d check in on her, making sure she’s all right, passing on his own experience in dealing with grief that she presumably doesn’t have. But as resilient as Kaede is, that’d be all she’d need. She’d have been able to bounce back and continue to do her best to lead and encourage everyone, without needing any more targeted action from Kaito. He wouldn’t have needed to invite her to training and make her into his sidekick.

Still, Kaito would keep letting Kaede know that he believes in her, that he’s on her side, that all the encouraging and rallying she's been doing is great and she shouldn't let what happened with Shuichi, nor any of Kokichi's anti-cooperation bullshit, discourage her from continuing. With how she’d have needed to hear something like this after Shuichi’s trial, Kaede would probably come to realise more than before how good Kaito is. Kaito would definitely have stood up for Shuichi in his trial, too, just like he did in canon for Kaede, and Kaede would likely have noticed and appreciated that from him.

But even so, they’d be more like just friendly allies at this point, rather than anything approaching close personal friends. Again, Kaito is really bad at making friends with people unless he can make them his sidekick first.

Chapter 3-ish

Maki might end up being a big turning point in all this. Her talent would still have been revealed one way or another, Kaito would still have believed in her and sidekicked her, and she’d still have agreed to it. None of that needed Shuichi around to happen.

Kaede, as lovely as she is, would have also got the sense that Maki is a fundamentally good person and not wanted to just write her off as a dangerous monster like everyone else was trying to. So she’d have really admired what Kaito was doing for Maki and come to see from that, if she still hadn’t already, exactly what an amazing person Kaito is. After all, Kaede would have wanted to help Maki herself but been somewhat less able to do so than Kaito. She’s not quite as stubbornly persistent as him (because literally no-one is), and she doesn’t make quite such an overt point of being there to support people through their issues, both of which are things Maki needed for Kaito to get through to her.

Perhaps, seeing how Kaede also cared about helping Maki, Kaito would have invited her to Maki’s second training session, too, not precisely for Kaede’s sake but so that she could also help Maki? …Though that would be when Kaito’s phobia was beginning to be a thing, damn it, thanks a bunch, Tsumugi. Maybe instead, Kaede sees that Kaito isn't well and worries about - well, about Kaito, but also about how Maki will do without him. So Kaede starts talking to and helping Maki in Kaito’s absence, she and Maki become friends that way, and then maybe when Kaito is back to normal they become something of a trio and Kaede does get roped into training with them? I want to imagine that happening, and this is a way it could feasibly happen, so shush, we’re going with this.

Reminder: Kaito has issues

At this point I need to point out the fact that Kaito would absolutely be jealous of Kaede. I’m pretty damn sure he already canonically was chapter 1. Kaede was all the things that Kaito values in a person and strives to be himself, but apparently better at it than him.

…Though, really, it’s less that she was better at it and more just that Kaito’s inability to control his emotions meant that Kaede got the chance to start encouraging and rallying everyone together first. Kaito might have been able to realise initially that that’s the only reason for Kaede overshadowing him. But because that’s not what it looks like on the surface, it would be very easy for him to forget that as time went on, especially as he started feeling weaker and more useless himself thanks to his illness.

And, consider: in this AU, Kaede didn’t kill anyone. In canon, seeing that she’d grown desperate enough and weak enough to resort to murder probably shattered Kaito’s idealised image of her a little bit and made her realise she was still human. But here, there’d be none of that. She’d have had some vague, nebulous insecurities here and there after the tunnel thing and Shuichi’s death, but those mostly didn’t affect anything and would be very easy for Kaito to forget had ever happened at all. Just like he did with Shuichi’s much more noticeable weaknesses.

What I’m saying here is that not only would Kaito be jealous of Kaede, but he’d come to see her as an invincible hero, rather like he did for Shuichi but without her paradoxically also being his sidekick at the same time.

(He maybe wouldn’t idolise her quite as much, since she wouldn’t be as obviously super-competent in the trials like Shuichi was – the impact of a luminary rather than an action hero is a lot harder to notice. But Kaito would notice her impact, all the same. He notices the impact of everyone except himself.)

Chapter 4-ish

Despite the fact that he’d be idolising her like this, would Kaito try to sidekick Kaede anyway in an attempt to feel important and needed and more associated with her success as his illness gets worse? I think he might, sort of. Making her his sidekick is actually something he brought up in his FTEs with Kaede in chapter 1! He let it slide when she brushed him off, but still, the fact that he suggested it at all says a lot. He has to have known she didn’t really need his support, but all the same, in chapter 1 he was desperately floundering around without a sidekick or any way to feel important in this deadly situation, which came through just a little bit there.

Here in chapter 4-ish, Kaito would have Maki as a sidekick to let him feel like he’s making a difference to at least someone, but otherwise his illness would still be breaking him down and making him feel weak and useless. He’d be just as desperate to compensate for that as he was in canon chapter 4. And maybe, if Kaede really had joined the trio – and if she’d been helping Maki in Kaito’s place during his phobia-driven absence – it would be all too easy for Kaito to feel like Maki didn’t need him and would have been just as well off with Kaede alone.

It would probably be quite easy for Kaito to subtly shift his behaviour towards Kaede from “you’re here to help me help Maki” into “you’re here because you’re totally my sidekick and also need me too, right,” as his co-dependency gets worse. Which on the one hand probably would be helpful for Kaede, because she’d probably be pushing herself quite hard to keep supporting everyone at this point and shouldn’t be carrying that burden alone. But on the other hand, this wouldn’t exactly be the healthiest reason for Kaito to be doing this.

Of course, Kaito’s reasons for doing this would all be pretty subtle, partly because Kaito doesn’t want anyone to know he has issues, and partly because even he isn’t really that consciously aware of how he needs to be needed. But it would probably be more noticeable with Kaede than it was with Shuichi, in which Shuichi was already officially Kaito’s sidekick and was supposed to need his support (since the part where Kaito increasingly felt like he didn’t was mostly happening in Kaito’s head). And even in canon with Shuichi, Kaito’s attempts to insist that Shuichi totally needed his advice, right did get rather noticeably aggressive in his final FTE.

So, maybe Kaede would notice what’s going on with Kaito. See, on the one hand, she’s not nearly as perceptive as Kaito is, so I don’t think she’d have been able to pick up on his illness on her own like other people might have if they’d been close to him. But if Kaito was being this needily co-dependent towards her, I feel like Kaede might just be able to spot it and realise that the root of this behaviour is some kind of insecurity on his end.

She wouldn’t be able to automatically equate this to “he’s literally dying”, but it’d be something – something she could call him out on and nag him about and ask him what’s wrong and offer to help. Kaede’s not as perceptive as Kaito, but she is pretty persistent in wanting to help with others’ personal problems once she’s noticed them, because she has that same kind of supportiveness as Kaito himself. So maybe she wouldn’t drop it even as Kaito inevitably told her that, what, no, he’s totally fine.

Kaito actually admitting it???

Still, I don’t think Kaede’s persistence and supportiveness would quite be enough on its own, because she’s still not perceptive enough to figure out the problem without being told what it is. I think Kaito would have to meet her halfway and willingly open up to her about what he’s going through.

But… if it’s to Kaede, maybe that actually would be possible, more than it ever was with Shuichi and Maki in canon. With less of an image to live up to as only Maki’s “hero”, and having never really thought of Kaede as his sidekick for whom he has those same expectations to fulfil, admitting to his vulnerability should be at least a little bit easier for Kaito. And Kaede would be right there as someone he knows he can trust and turn to for support, because she’s been doing such a great job of supporting everybody else. She’s already a hero to him.

This wouldn’t even be about Kaede saving his life, either. It never even crossed Kaito’s mind that telling someone about his illness would potentially save him, because the obvious resulting path of everyone rallying to escape in order to not lose him is something he’d never have imagined. Other people risking their lives for his sake? Nope, that’s backwards, that doesn’t exist in Kaito’s head. Shuichi was a hero to him, but even so, he had no idea that Shuichi could have literally saved his life.

Kaede’s not an action-oriented kind of hero like Shuichi was, though; she’s a luminary. What she does for other people is support them emotionally, helping them believe in themselves and feel stronger. Kaito may be convinced that he’s not surviving this, but that’s not what he’d expect Kaede to do for him anyway. Talking to Kaede about what he’s going through should help him feel at least a little bit less scared and helpless about his impending death. During some of those lonely nights in which he can barely sleep due to his illness and doesn’t have anything to distract himself from how awful he’s feeling, maybe he’d realise that Kaede’s support could help ease this at least a little.

Perhaps most of all, Kaito would have less to lose if he confides in Kaede and admits that he needs her support right now. With Shuichi, Kaito had built up this image of himself as the invincible hero whom Shuichi definitely relies on, and he was clinging to that as the source of most of his self-worth even as he increasingly felt it was all just an illusion. Admitting that really he’s the one who needs Shuichi would have shattered that supposed illusion and left him with nothing to cling to, and there’s no way he’d have willingly done that. But with Kaede, there isn’t nearly as much of an illusion of that in the first place, especially if she’d already been nagging Kaito to open up and offering her support.

Kaito would also have less to lose in the sense that he only has one sidekick to potentially let down, instead of two. In fact, this’d be less than half as bad. For one, there’s always the option of confiding in Kaede privately and making her promise not to tell Maki so he can avoid “failing” her at all. And even with that, he’d know there’d still be a risk of Maki finding out anyway – but, if it’s Maki, and not Shuichi, that’s perhaps not so bad. What Kaito has going with Maki as his sidekick is much less of an illusion to him. It’s clearer that Maki really does need him, so maybe, even if Maki ends up finding out about all of his weaknesses, he can still at least do something for her and not be a complete and total failure, maybe?

(Also, I should point out that if Kaito did confide in Kaede while making her promise not to tell Maki, Kaede would immediately tell him that that’s stupid. Obviously Maki will still be inspired by him and care about him even if she knows what he’s going through! Kaede would settle on, “since you trusted me with this, I won’t tell Maki – but you should,” and keep giving Kaito pointed nagging glances every time the three of them were together until he caved.)

A better chance than normal, at least!

I maaaay have kind of nudged this AU into the direction of Kaito learning to accept support and surviving, because this is a Me Post and I always want things to end up there if it’s even remotely feasible. And realistically, I probably shouldn’t be saying that this would definitely happen. At the end of the day, it’s still Kaito, and he is still so instinctively averse to talking about his issues of his own volition.

But I really do think that it’s at least significantly more possible that Kaito might have bitten the bullet and talked about things willingly than it ever was in canon when Shuichi was there instead of Kaede, which is pretty fascinating. It’s not even specifically because of how good and supportive Kaede is, though that obviously helped quite a bit.

Rather, this thought experiment essentially just led me to the conclusion that Shuichi being alive – him in particular, not anybody else – is one of the factors that killed Kaito. And that’s heartbreaking. But it’s also probably kind of true?

Shuichi happened to show Kaito a paradoxical combination of traits. He was somebody who really obviously needed Kaito’s support (at first) and whom Kaito therefore officially and firmly took on as his sidekick, thus setting up all those expectations as a hero who Must Not Fail Him. Yet at the same time, Shuichi was someone Kaito very quickly began to see as heroically invincible, to the point that he felt like the only way for him to match up to that and still be worthy of calling Shuichi his sidekick and keep being needed and not fail him was to somehow be even more invincible than Kaito already usually feels like he needs to be. There was no way he was ever going to willingly admit to anything approaching weakness in that state, to an even worse extent than his already-messed-up standards.

Meanwhile, with Kaede, Kaito would still see her as something of an invincible hero – but she was never also an obvious sidekick whom Kaito cannot afford to let down by admitting that he’s the one who needs her. And then there’s Maki, who very obviously does need him and is an official sidekick of his – but he doesn’t also see her as invincible in any way like for Kaede and Shuichi, so maybe it wouldn’t matter quite as much to her sidekickhood if Kaito admits he isn’t invincible either.

With Kaede and Maki, one would be a hero to him and one a sidekick, but neither of them would be both at once like Shuichi was. That was the thing that really broke Kaito and made it so completely inconceivable for him to admit what he was going through.

(And, geez, please don’t ever tell Shuichi this. It is not remotely his fault, just a result of the way Kaito’s issues responded to him, but you know Shuichi would blame himself and aaaaa. God I love Kaito’s delightful self-destructive issues and his messed-up relationship with his best friend.)