#anyway naegi Stans don’t kill me

[hibiscuswolverine]

Ha ha oops-

My THH rewrite?? Ghost Au??? Idk everyone the same except Makoto gets tired and is somewhat himself. Ghosts get angry and you might think I took something before writing this all down.

CW: talks of gore, and brief mention of attempted su//c//de

-Sayaka is the first ghost he encounters, both in a dream/nightmare/somewhat memory and then in real life. The Nightmare starts somewhat normal enough it’s a memory of a younger him and Komaru walking along the Santa Cruz boardwalk, they escape their babysitters and run off to the beach. Komaru dares him to play hide and seek with her in the mirror/glass maze that’s on the beach, he declines at first(because it’s dark and she made him lose the candy apple he was eating) but after Komaru calls him a chicken it is on. She goes first and then he goes in *cue cute kid running into every other glass mirror*

-NOw the lights were on (dimmed) but then at some point they go out completely and baby Makoto ain’t really feeling it. So he still looking for Komaru with more urgency and starts to call for her.

-When he does find her it’s like they’re in their own solitary cubes but they can see each other through the glass wall. Komaru tries around all sides to get out and reach her brother but she can’t, so then Makoto tries but to no avail, even the side that he came in is blocked off. And then the light behind Komaru’s cube turns on and nothing is there BUT then the left and right lights begin to flicker. Yeah, so uhm she’s screwed but they’re both 5 and 6 and don’t watch horror movies so they don’t know that yet.

Anyway, Makoto and Komaru are obviously very scared and both are trying anything to break the glass but then they freeze because something does crack neither of them caused it. It’s the glass behind Komaru, then it’s the one on the left then the right.

-Do you remember that one scene in Pennywise 2 where Pennywise smashes his head against the glass and then eats the kid? Yeah so Rip Komaru. (I don’t really have a design(s) for monster Sayaka but the middle would be like one based on her actual death, while the other two would be based on her unused execution.

-After watching his sis get eaten Makoto is in a panic but he’s frozen he doesn’t know what to do because like Komaru he is surrounded on all sides. So he huddles himself into a ball in the middle and tries to ignore the glass breaking, it goes quiet and he uncurls himself only to get jump scared.

- Then he wakes up and he gets jumpscared again!! By Sayaka’s actual ghost who proceeds to choke him (causing him to levitate and eyes roll back) and he passes out.

- He wakes up again its morning now the day after the 1st trial and goes to get ready hesitantly in his own bathroom. And finds marks around his neck, and a big ol’ scabbed stabbed wound in his torso, and a few other ones around it. He is very confused cuz he knows he locked the door so he’s just very confused.

-At some point He gets fed up with Sayaka and her ghost shenanigans(scrapping on his door, screaming at the top of her lungs, banging on the door) and just puts a circle ring of salt around his shower. He also has one on the outside of the bathroom door too just in case!

-Speaking of Makoto’s bathroom it is trashed except for the toilet, sink, and tiles. He shattered the mirror and destroyed the shower in a fit of insanity because Sayaka's hallucination was taunting him. So he uses the bathhouse instead for hygiene needs.

-Oh no I didn’t forget about the others, they’re there. They also help him lose his mind.

-Some don’t do much; ie Chihiro, Hifumi, and Sakura (she mostly hangs around Hina but she did have to knock him out once because he was about to take his own life) and Muruko.

- Taka: gave him a really bad migraine for skateboarding in the halls.

Leon: Idk why but he makes him spit up a baseball? I dunno I might change it but for now, he spits up a baseball.

Mondo: kinda takes a chunk out of his calf (with the pickaxe) but the cherry on top is he gets him in the shoulder and by shoulder I mean like really close to the joint but he missed a few inches. BUT he then tries to rip upward and during this process because mondo got melted guess who’s muscles are getting melted??! Luckily Taka walked by stopping the process before the pickaxe could rip through his shoulder blade.

Celeste: I actually wrote about what she did in my goretober Fic! And I am too lazy to state it so you can read it here- :)). OH! BUT I didn’t mention that she set him on fire, (that’ll be explained later)

Sakaya: Well you know.

-The apparitions do get better over time, but when they first enter the spirit realm they’re kinda pissed at first. Now Makoto and his hallucinations of them are a different story.

-The survivors don’t really know what to do with Makoto tbh, like they know he’s suffering and often find him asleep just anywhere. (Makoto doesn’t fear death at this point so if monokuma were to tell him he’s going to die he would just shrug and go back to sleep and that isn’t despairful at all so he lets him get away with it).

-B//ut I do want the kids to have fun so they do with what they got. Not individually too! Like all 5 of them being homies! They play a game of drunk uno, dance to Queen in the concert hall, watch some movies (i.e mostly horror movies cuz I feel like that’s what junko would leave), a jumping contest in the pool, Act out little plays and scenes from books, they play Mario kart- wii sport - just dance-, s’moRES, ARTS N’ CRAFT-

-The Ghosts are there too but only Makoto can see them, and the more the chapters or time progresses the more ‘back to normal’ they begin to look. How? Through ghost therapy sessions, or FTE events idk.

-At one point in time he’s going to kinda lose his cool at one of them and it’s going to be celeste. She woke him up by setting him on fire because he was so deep in his sleep. She called him because the other four (kyoko not included) were attempting to summon something and celeste claims that she can’t fight the thing they summoned that’s in them (now earlier she told him at some point that she was quite a powerful demon,) and needs him to do it. All he does is beat the thing out of them with a bat (one or two hits).

- Now Makoto is frustrated because she woke him up at the ungodly hour of three something, had to do something she probably could have done herself, and then tell him to take them back to their rooms because she doesn’t want them in hers (it's the rec room but shh). He is not having it, he is tired his wounds hurt like a mother and he just wants to go to bed, so yells at her, dogs on her some, and then leaves saying “THESE AREN’T JUST MY FRIENDS THESE ARE YOUR FRIENDS TOO SO YOU’RE GOING TO BE A GOOD FRIEND AND LET THEM SLEEPOVER OK? OK!” I know I know canon Makoto would be a good dog and carry all these bodies down to there dorm but let Makoto be mean for five seconds ok-

- Something kinda chill, because this is being broadcasted (live I assume) right before and after it cuts to commercials, they show pictures that were taken by the remaining students or various artworks of the students from fans, Like SNL.

I Have other ideas for this AU specifically Makoto’s dreams/nightmare/memories and perhaps a few premonitions? But that’s for another time

[aseriesofunfortunatejan]

This blog has been a mostly-Danganronpa blog for a few years now so I surely mentioned this anecdote once or twice already, but here it is, again maybe, just in case I haven't.

I'm not sure how obvious my favourite characters are to my followers and the majority of my mutuals, but I'd say some I've made pretty clear over the years. There's one character I think I don't mention all that much though, and that would be Byakuya Togami - and Togami is the only DR character for whom I almost died.

(I don't know if I would willingly give up my life for the sake of Togami but the more I think about it, the more the answer sounds like "maybe". Anyway,)

When I first watched DRtA and then a Let's Play of Trigger Happy Havoc, Togami was one of my favourite characters by far. There was nothing special about it - which I have to mention since my Ultimate favourite DR character was also the character I hated the most at first - I just really liked his characterization and quickly started to love the bastard. I was lucky enough to enjoy all of DR, until V3, completely free of spoilers, so needless to say, when SDR2 introduced a now obese Togami, I was stoked to see him again and have him be part of this new cast. I was so interested in what caused his weight gain and how much time could have passed, and especially enjoyed comparing his attitude towards SDR2's Killing Game to that of THH's.

Kodaka must have known what he was doing when he killed him off in Chapter 1. And at that point, I genuinely thought that Togami, this atrocious prick from THH I loved so much, had just died in Chapter 1 of a new 6-chapters-long game even though he was obviously trying so hard to keep such a tragedy to happen again. Togami being the one to act this way meant a lot. So it hit me real hard.

So hard, in fact, that I quickly found myself unable to breathe. I was unaware that I suffered from anxiety back then and during the surrounding few years only had very few and far between anxiety attacks, but looking back, the experience I had in this exact moment was probably one, or at least very similar to one. I found myself in a pure state of shock and unable to control my breathing - not understanding what was happening to me. This would have eventually calmed down, however, it was highly worsened by the fact that back then I suffered from a MSD which caused my ribs to (roughly speaking) close down on my lungs and inhibit my breathing capacity. Again, not something all that dramatic, but added to what seems to have been an anxiety attack - I was in fact finding myself unable to breathe and started to panic, which of course only made it worse.

Now keep in mind - this was all because Byakuya Togami had died. I hadn't even been able to consider he, I mean, we're talking about Togami here, could die, and this sudden event caused me this immense physical reaction.

So this is me almost d y i n g. Truth be told, a MSD isn't all that dramatic and I would most likely have fainted, which would have allowed me to breathe slower again. But saying "I fainted because of Togami" makes me sound like a completely different type of fan, and still, who knows, I was on top of an inverted mezzanine, I could have fallen to my death somehow--

In any case, I didn't faint either. I immediately shared my reaction with my best friend at the time and though I have absolutely no memory what I actually told her, I know that I let her know I was having a big physical reaction, couldn't breathe and was starting to panic. For her to react this way must mean I was being very worrying, but she actually ~saved my life~ in a simple manner - by spoiling me the Imposter's actual identity.

I do love the Imposter so their death in SDR2 is still sad, and this was my first DR spoiler ever, but boy, I wasn't mad. Just knowing that this wasn't actually Togami, even though I had no idea if he would ever show up in person again at that point, suddenly made me feel a lot better. This might seem like a random story about some hardcore stan overreacting to a fictional death, but I think I simply can't convey the genuine shock and panic I experienced, followed by sudden and complete relief.

All of this goes to say, Togami undoubtedly means a lot to me (for some reason). The same can be said about Danganronpa in general. I can't say this was a positive experience but I'm impressed by the strong emotions this series was able to make me experience - and I have never felt so involved in any other game than I did in SDR2.

In the end, Togami survived the entire Kibougamine arc, and that makes me happy. Interestingly, I was persuaded while watching DR3 that Togami would be the one to die, with all this "someone is going to die because of Naegi" stuff. With the building exploding during the rescue, I even thought he did. Part of me couldn't accept it, but I was waiting for the reveal, for Hagakure to find his body in the ruins-- aaaaa. I knew it would have been so good, in a dramatic way. But I also knew that if that happened, I might have to take a break off Danganronpa. It would have been that big of a deal to me.

Evidently it didn't happen, and I think it's funny that Togami is the only character I've documented feeling this way about. Kirigiri was actually the one to die, and to be completely honest, I'm pretty sure I like her a lot more than I like him, but somehow I don't remember her death being “that” big of a deal. I mean, it still was - I was so shocked and confused, but I don't remember my entire body making me feel like I was going to die, effective immediately. Part of it might have been that I was already persuaded there had to be a catch, because something was missing. But still, I was able to continue watching, maybe even a little relieved, while I knew I wouldn't have been able to accept Togami's death at all.

And I genuinely don't know why that is.

Anyway, tl;dr: you might not have known that, but Togami is one of my favourite Danganronpa characters.

[96percentdone]

DR1 character rankings

I got bored and kept seeing @halfpastmonsoon do these and decided fuck it I’ll do it myself. It’s my blog right like?

Anyway uh in case someone gets super irate about it these are just my opinions and you’re allowed to like characters I don’t like for whatever reasons you want? You’re also allowed to hate characters I like! But isn’t an invitation for you to fight me just because I have different opinions, yeah? Okay! Under the cut!

1. Kirigi//ri Kyou//ko: she’s my god damn wife what do you want from me. I’m really gay did you see her in DR3--OKAY NO FOR REAL. Kiri is so good holy shit she’s like morally complex because she’ll do anything for the truth, even throw you under the bus just to make sure she can still live to find it. She’ll get mad at you for keeping secrets and yet she’ll keep like 8000 from you and except you to roll with it. My point is Kiri has flaws, but more importantly, she has like an arc where she learns from them? Like with the secrets she realizes she was being unfair, and when she throws you under the bus it’s when it clicks just how she was gonna KILL Naegi just tomake sure she could keep operating as herself. She realizes her mistakes, and she comes clean on all her secrets and apologizes. She’s got a lot going on. And I love her so so so much.

2. Oo//gami Saku//ra: too good for this fucking sinful earth. okay. No, but seriously I think she’s amazing simply because of her arc. She betrays them all in a moment of weakness, because she fears for her dojo, and over the course of getting attached to them realizes she can’t throw them all under the bus like that either. So she resolves herself and finds the strength to fight Monokuma, and suffer alone as consequence to her actions. But even that’s not enough. It’s not enough to just accept you’ve sinned and take your punishment, you have to do something, and she does. Through her own strength and love for the classmates around her she kills herself just to end their fighting. It stopped being about her, and just...grijgoirjgoirjgowe okay I love her. 

3. As//ahi//na A//oi: throwback to when the consequences of trying to get everyone killed mattered even a little! I love her a whole lot! She’s super bubbly and excitable and tries quite a bit, but the thing I like the most is how she’s is pretty much exclusively run by her emotions. ch4 plays out the way it does because she gets so caught up in her guilt instead of thinking it through more she decides they all must die for their sins. It’s only when she’s forced to think about the ‘suicide note’ that she recieves she realizes she fucked it up, and then apologizes. Her apology is glossed over a little too fast if we’re being honest, but it’s there, and we see everyone reason their way into forgiving her. Listen I just like ch4 a lot and she’s a big reason as to why.  

4. Eno//shima Jun//ko: throwback to when DR villains were actually good and compelling. Girl makes a fucking entrance and she stands out because she literally can’t decide what she wants to be out of boredom. It becomes so clear just in how she treats herself that the only thing in this WORLD that matters to her is her own entertainment and that to her, entertainment means despair. Boredom is the one true despair, and it can only be satiated by seeing other people suffer at their worst. She embodies despair because suffering is the only thing that can satisfy her own personal despair. She wants everyone to suffer like she does, so she can get off on it. It’s paradoxical and mad, but it’s genuine. Even when she loses, she wins, because now she suffers from the despair of failing. She suffers because things don’t go her way, but things not going her way alleviates her boredom. She goes beyond human comprehension and yet her actions have very real and permanent consequences. And she’s a joy to watch. DR3 never happened to ruin her. Nope.  

5. Fu//kawa To//uko: Man I love Fuka//wa I really do she’s a lot of fun, and it’s just a shame her potential isn’t capitalized until DRAE, but I did enjoy seeing her. The serial killer twist is fun too! I’ll admit I largely like her because of what DRAE does for her, but I think her persecution complex is interesting to see in motion, and that for someone you’d expect to be smart given her talent she’s just kinda a fool. She doesn't actually know what she’s doing at all. I’m mad she doesn’t get her moment in ch6 and it goes to Syo instead I think it’s crap how DR1 ignores her as a character, but given how well she’s used later I think DR1 is basically just her backstory in a lot of regards so ye. 

5.5 Genoc//ider S//yo: lmao she gets ranked less than Fuk//awa only because I like F//ukawa slightly more but they’re pretty much tied otherwise. She’s funny. I’m a little annoyed that she’s the one with the big climactic dialogue in ch6 versus actual Fukawa but whatever man.

6. Fuj//isaki Chihi//ro: y’know I had like several paragraphs here as to why I ranked Fujisa//ki here and then I realized the discourse I’d reopen on the subject is not worth it because Fujis//aki Discourse is eternal and no matter what pronoun I use someone would fight me SO. We’re just not gonna explain why. You’re just gonna have to accept it. I’m not doing Fu//jisaki discourse. If you message me on the subject, I will ignore you. The end. 

7. Na//egi Mako//to: Egg is a super static character if we’re being honest. He makes no change and doesn’t develop, but I think it was actually the point. I pretty much exclusively prefer a character who develops, but egg does his job well because he was meant to be SYMBOLIC of hope. Hope is not something that changes, it simply IS, so having him start optimistic and trusting, and remain optimistic and trusting works because he embodies the concept he represents. It’s kinda boring that it feels like he’s a vehicle to view the plot, but he works, and he’s a little funny at times. Also, I’m gay for Ogata Megumi so there’s that.

8. Ishi//maru Kiyota//ka: Honestly I think Ishi is kinda boring, but I just really like that he got suuuuper invested in Oo//wada only to crash like. I think Kodaka doing that and realizing how bad people took Ishimaru’s later death made him start having actual development arcs based on someone else’s sacrifice which is good. So at the end of the day, I like Ish//imaru if only because of what he inspired. But he’s kind of a cute character, and his “not actually gay we promise” dynamic with Oow//ada was fun. 

9. Hag//akure Yas//uhiro: For comic relief he’s actually kinda funny although I will never never never forgive the man for “Kiri//giri-chi is a ghooooost!!!!” shit in ch5 listen no fuck off fuck you she’s not a ghost. But he’s useless, but it’s kinda funny how useless he is, and I like how his useless stupidity actually plays a role because he makes things even more complicated than they need to be in ch4 because he’s dumb. So there you go. 

10. Ik//usaba Muk//uro: She like has no real character as a result of like not actually existing as herself in the 2 minutes of time she gets before she dies so I don’t know how people stan her, but I think there’s something interesting about her pretending to be someone she’s not the whole time. You see more of that in school mode, but I wish there was more of it in the main story to hint at the reveal than her DEATH. I feel like she’s a lot more interesting in theory than in practice. 

11. Oo//wada Mon//do: I just don’t care about the man what do you want from me. He’s kinda funny though, and “his totally not gay we promise” bromance with Ishi//maru is nice. Also ch2 hurts sufficiently and provides interesting commentary on toxic masculinity. But honestly, I just didn’t really get all too invested in the guy. His design’s cool though.

12. Ma//izono Saya//ka: she’s just really boring guys she’s like not interesting at all, and I don’t appreciate the game forcing her on me just for a plot twist of ‘oooo she dies and was gonna frame you for murder!!!’ There’s like nothing To her, and she’s intentionally played like wife bait so the reveal hurts more but it doesn’t really work when you’re not taking the bait, huh? All that being said I actually kinda like that at the end of the day she ISN’T wife bait and she’s kinda conniving and manipulative, but Kodaka decided we have to preserve her as “ultimately good” with that “dying message means she really does care” thing he hammers in so she’s a little wasted. I’d like her more otherwise. 

13. Yama//da Hi//fumi: He’s creeeeeepppyyyyyy. I’ll give him credit for one thing though and that’s like his creepiness is like reserved towards an AI? Like he’s not like a certain sdr2 character who I won’t mention by name, but like it’s still. It’s not good. Also for comic relief, he’s not very funny. But I also just kinda feel bad for him because his existence is treated as a joke by everyone, even the writers, and that probably explains why he’s written like that, to begin with. 

14. Ce//lestia Ludenb//erg: She’s a bitch? She’s not even a fun bitch she’s just a bitch. I just don’t like her better than thou attitude before her reveal, and her motivations after her reveal in ch3 did nothing to endear me to her. I think the writing behind her though works, which is good. The plot twist is satisfying for that reason. She’s like Ouma jr in regards to the DR Liar archetype, which is great tbh, and she has payoff, I just don’t like her as a person so she’s super far down my list lmao.

15. Toga//mi Byak//uya: listen he’s a douchebag and gets no real character development at all. like in ch4 he decides he’s gonna stop playing the killing game how Monokuma wants, but he still is the same fucking condescending better than thou asshole he started as. His major character flaw ACCORDING TO THE NARRATIVE is that he’s a self-absorbed piece of shit who thinks he's right about everything all the time, and yet even when he gets WRECKED in ch4, he like...stays the same. Instead of thinking “maybe I’m wrong sometimes” the conclusion he reaches is “I’ll stop doing what Monokuma wants” which alright fine but like that’s not the arc we set up for you. So basically Togami from start to finish is just a douchebag with no actual redeeming qualities. I will say one thing. I like him MUCH better outside of DR1, where he seems to have actually developed a little, and he’s kinda funny. Also his backstory is fucked I’ll admit that. But dude I don’t like the man. 

16. Kuwa//ta L//eon: If you’re wondering why Leo//n’s down here at the bottom even if I just professed to hating Toga//mi with my entire being it’s because I very aggressively don’t care about him. He is a non-entity to me. You could erase him from my memory and nothing would change at all. Also he’s ugly.

[horrorbutgay]

NDRV3 Demo Analysis w/ Full Game Spoilers!

(My friend Elfi/Apri made this and jesus fuck shes a fucking genius please love her)

First off, let me mention that I immediately went into sleuthing mode while I was playing the demo for about 4h (both English and Japanese), because I'm aware that even DR demos have a decent difficulty level to its case writing (judging by suspicion not necessarily incriminating Hifumi The Harmless in the demo until the manga came into the picture with the full story) and this demo seemed too easy if you don't give it some proper thought like most of the unspoiled fandom is still not used to doing. From what I managed to piece together with the clues shattered throughout the demo and based on the knowledge of the full game's content, I'm convinced Naegi is the correct culprit vote like we all thought, BUT (huge but) paying attention and giving it some thought grant you the speculation that he could've actually had an accomplice outside of the protagonist room. And that accomplice is no less than the scheming mastermind of the game: Shirogane Shirogane Tsumukweeeen. (Yes, that Despair Arc dub meme never gets old) Let me start my explanation with the clarification that this demo is clearly another in-universe promotional method for V3 like the Maki, Kaito and Ki-Bo poster. It's like a popular show treating its fanbase with the kind of sneak peek preview to let them know what to expect. I also want to clarify that people were indeed able to enter the protagonist room before the gym announcement, because how else would you explain Tojo being able to clean the whole dormitory? This leads me to the conclusion that Tojo likely got her hands onto a master key from Monokuma with Tsumugi's aid and she locked the doors of all the rooms after cleaning them. Yes, Hoshi was there too, but so was Yumeno for a bit and that still doesn't mean they entered the dormitory later. Considering how Ultimate Dedication Kirumi is able to afford wasting time on introducing herself if she was supposedly in the middle of cleaning when you just arrive at the dorm, it's quite safe to assume the job was already done at that point and that is why the protag room is already locked if you do try to open it before going to the gym. In fact, all the rooms are locked. Kaede clearly was the last student to wake up, and Tsumugi being the only one with the ability to confirm Kirumi's alibi - despite Hoshi and Yumeno presumably being at the dorm as well - is a major hint that the clean-up was pretty much done waaay before you awoke, got past all the other students from the AV Room onwards to the dorm, and finally listened to the introduction of those three. I say three because I honestly think Yumeno was in the kitchen at first and only appeared in the dorms once the body discovery announcement was made. Anyway, Kirumi obviously locked the doors for safety and privacy measures once the clean-up was done. I believe Hagakure's "corpse" was already in Kaede's bathroom at this point, and here's why Tojo probably neglected to inspect and clean ALL of the bathrooms: As someone who comes off on the surface as a trustworthy and supportive person, not to mention that she acts as a huge fan of a maid's work, Kirumi is inclined to believe her if Tsumugi simply insists for example that Monokuma told her that all the bathrooms were taken extra care of to be spotless. As I've established, there is no breathing room for the player after the gym announcement, so Tsumugi had to be the only character present while Kirumi was cleaning the dormitory. Because she simply admires Kirumi's work as a maid due to how much of a geek she is, so she had to keep watching and this doesn't seem suspicious to you at all without fullgame spoilers because they always made Tsumugi out to be a bland motherly "heart on her sleeve" nerd type of girl. It is entirely understandable that Tsumugi - as the MM getting her lifetime dream of a writer debut on TDR come true - wants the killing game to start as fast as possible, and this is emphasized in the full game by how she gives them a two days time limit right off the bat to commit a murder or else they'll all be mass murdered. In the full game, this doesn't work out so well and she doesn't like how Kaede gets so well along with Amami in that bonus scene (explaining why Kaede believes in his innocence to be the MM in Case 1) without even knowing about his impressive SHSL Survivor status as the only survivor of V2. And Rantarou also turns out to be better at nail painting than the Ultimate Cosplayer thanks to living with twelve sisters at home, making her outraged with jealousy. To push her over the edge, time is running out and a mass execution would be a boring and way too quick end for the season, which would affect the ratings. She can't allow that, so she goes with the two characters she passionately dislikes so far to get them out of the picture and continue the show. Arguably, she would've even been fine with any vote that wasn't her because the MM being executed would also end the show too early. Kaede and Saihara were the prime suspects, so even though she framed Kaede for also trying her hardest to expose her due to the same reasoning and she conveniently set a death trap with a similar method to how she decided to kill Rantarou (remember, the heavy iron balls were in the warehouse available for anyone to grab), Saihara would have been fine too. Kaede works better though, because she is legitimately convinced of her guilt. Shadowing her as the demo first culprit is a nice nod to the full version and it makes perfect sense in context, and I'll explain why right now. No, sadly enough, there are no chances of that but that info is (preferably?) not spread through the fandom and only on the wiki. Turns out that when you enter Amami's research faculty, you discover a recording of himself before the memory manipulation process (there's a vast difference with that and brainwashing :')) in which he reveals that he is from the previous killing game and he was the only survivor there. That likely makes him more worthy of the SHSL Survivor status in the fanbase's eyes. Especially Tsumugi lmao She's a full-on critic Anyway, I liked clearing that up for the people here, but now onwards. I'm almost 100% sure that Kirumi would vaguely hint towards this exchange of words happening between her and Tsumugi if the player voluntarily approaches her after she decides to stay behind with Hajime, but that's something I'd have to check with a replay. Hajime and Makoto actually being in the demo/in-universe preview episode is also a great treat to hardcore fan Tsumugi. Especially Makoto, the protagonist of her favorite cast. We already established before that Tsumugi is going back to the original and she wanted to recreate the DR1 cast & killing game whilst simultaneously criticizing the flaws of her favorite game/season (the reality tv killing game started with reboots of the original fictional material with real actors, as evidenced by the collage sequence if you manage to read through all of them.)(edited) I initially thought of them possibly being Tsumugi's cosplays, but that ended up being too far-fetched for my taste and some of the 53 seasons do involve aforementioned reboots of originally fictional source material. It's just a little too fastly skipped on in the collage for the most part after the first ten entries.(edited) And just who from the cast do you think even Tsumugi would detest despite being a DR1 stan? That's right: Yasuhiro Hagakure. This passionate hatred is even further emphasized by there not being a Hagakure parallel in her fanfiction. She likes her casts well-rounded. But that doesn't explain the revealed fake death at the end, so let me continue my theory. Tsumugi invited Hajime, Makoto and Hagakure along to the live preview of her writing and acting debut on Team Danganronpa. Because she arranged the perfect protagonist who's like no other and ideal to keep milking the series, on top of that that person is also female, the actors for the OC leads (who obviously also survived in their portion of a reality tv killing game to stay faithful to the omnipresent motto of keeping the MCs alive, despite the vast differences in the rest of the  survivor sets for DR1 and 2 which I'll tackle in a bit) are brought back to their roles to guide Kaede and introduce the nostalgia Tsumugi is going to include in the upcoming season. Ah, and before anyone comes up with a "Rantarou" rebuttal for the sake of completing the DR1 parallel, keep in mind that his personality mainly stems from the previous season and there are some characters (like Gonta) that even Kodaka admitted he has never written before because Tsumugi managed to give a sense of uniqueness to the cast.(edited) And the remaining students also managed to drift apart from the character arcs she so thoroughly planned for them, but that's meta for another day. Remember the "fake" AU leaks that I eventually explained to be V3's version of the (either tv or game) outcome for the events for 1 and 2 in their universe? Well, Hagakure dies in that. Probably also the first victim, explaining Monokuma's fourth wall breaking comment that this is actually his second time dying. It's a double-sided statement that you won't catch up on if you haven't practically finished the game. His character was basically recycled with a look-alike actor in order to fool the audience with that pretense of Danganronpa just being a cool TV show (more on that in that ending meta I plan to discuss here some time) - I assume they do this with all previews of new seasons once the audience started doing some digging on the real people behind their beloved characters or perhaps the real names were initially not even included in the credits (like when they did the reboots) until they started with new storylines to not run out of ideas, keep profiting and take the thrill a step further) - and because he therefore wouldn't have experience with acting like Hagakure, Tsumugi left him out of the preview until it was time for his body discovery. Being the comic relief character he is supposed to be, Hagakure's actor was fortunate to be able to be used as a fake death with the plot convenience of Ultimate Detective not entering the crime scene in the demo. All this clearly explains the black screen ending scenario where the returning characters all wonder if their acting was good, and Hagakure suddenly rushing in to reveal it was a fake death. TDR is teasing and deceiving you, the unspoiled viewer anticipating their announced renewal for another season, because deception is what it's all about with V3's Truth vs Lies theme. A neat manner to let the world know what to expect. TDR probably also uses these previews to test the results of the memory manipulation used on the cast and the audience's reaction on seeing this cast in action. The company wants to know if Tsumugi's adjustments are sufficient or if there's anything left to mold their personalities for in order to appeal the whole cast to the audience, explaining the pleasant surprises like Tenko initially being hyped up as the discourse character yet actually being the most morally good female of the cast. Seriously, the best part about V3 is that it all (even the promotion) comes full-circle if you give it some proper thought. The entry is filled with a never-ending cycle of full-circle moments which are able to blow your mind when you finally connect that cycle. Spoiling, fourth-wall-breaking game promotion before the game is even out. It's incredible how far they planned ahead, honestly Anyway, let's continue. There's some necessary details left to make the full picture. So basically, Tsumugi arranged this whole scenario with the three of them, and considering how safe it is to assume how passionately Tsumugi despises Hagakure, they might as well have even had to resort to a compromise to give Hagakure's nobody actor a planned fake death as long as Tsumugi makes sure nobody enters the protagonist room. The fake crime scene they set up must not be exposed. There's obviously frozen blood bags in TDR's various morgues from all the reality tv killing games, so they used the dead Hagakure's blood to shroud the new actor in. This is all done to make the timing so fresh and in case they cannot prevent the Ultimate Detective from investigating the crime scene. Saihara would definitely catch up on fake blood, after all. You can supply blood in a fresh manner by sustaining them in frozen blood bags. Common scientific knowledge. And it makes sense to supply their blood because TDR started these behind-the-scenes kidnappings and schemes up with running out of ideas and the reality TV reboots of their original source material. No way would the ratings - which are so important to them because they're making a good living off of this show and it can't end in their eyes - stay unaffected by a simple reboot, hence the new survivor sets that I will headcanon as being part of the TV reboot from now on. This indicates that they kept the strengths of the original entries, but they twisted the story of the games like we already were informed of by Tsumugi. They're greedy and huge perfectionists, so those previously fictional characters really had to be brought to life. That's where the development of the futuristic technology comes in. More on TDR specifically in my ending meta though! :P Well then, let's further detail how this off-screen plan worked so well in case the realization is not hitting someone yet. The knife is actually just twisted in a gaping hole from his shirt being stabbed in his abdomen non-fatally, so I suppose it makes sense that it looks so real once he plays dead and they add real blood on him. Implying that the fandom or the in-universe audience will spend that much doubt to it with how legit it looks, but Saihara definitely would inspect the corpse more as it's his duty. It's a huge plot convenience that Saihara does not bother to do so, likely because he's already made up his mind on who the culprit is like all of us did from the start: Naegi Makoto. And while he is not exactly wrong, he's dense to the major foreshadowing of an accomplice due to a lack of evidence. A nice mirror to the real first case. Tsumugi truly is a master puppeteer, and I still view her as a controlfreak because the term means that she is obsessed with maintaining her control of something. And that is emphasized in the game multiple times once Monodam, Angie and Korekiyo turn the planned pattern for the killing game around in chapter 3 and so onwards. Back to the demo: after the preparation process is done, Hagakure is left alone in the bathroom waiting for his scene to act like a corpse, not allowed to make a noise.(edited) Tsumugi and Makoto split up; former approaches Kirumi to start cleaning as soon as possible (probably convincing Monokuma to give the SHSL Maid a master key) in order to avoid anyone meeting Hagakure; the latter goes to check on Kaede in the AV Room in order to continue the plan "smoothly" as he mentions later in the class trial. Wanna know why he had to part ways with Kaede when all the students are demanded to go to the gym? It's simple when you've gotten this far. Since Tsumugi cannot possibly ignore this order from Monokuma and come out of the shadows with her real personality, Makoto is the one who needs to proceed with the last phase of the plan: splashing the actor playing dead in freshly kept blood from the frozen blood bag for his original predecessor. Hagakura is the one who got the kitchen knife and might as well have been the one to non-fatally stab himself, but that's just a small detail and it makes sense that the cast without the detective (thus inexperienced with murder cases) would legitimately assume his death to be for real just upon the sight of a drenched murder weapon and the excessive amount of fresh blood.(edited) And this is exactly why the blood confirms the time of death being a few minutes ago when they were all at the gym. Lastly, this also explains Makoto's hair dropping at the crime scene. Stuff like that commonly happens, especially when you're in a rush and they probably had to fake a convincing struggle in the short period of time they had. He was obviously able to access the room because he was the first one to receive the keys due to likely being the only person not to be infected with sleeping gas alongside Hagakure.(edited) I can't connect where Hajime's part comes in though, so maybe he wasn't involved - which I can understand cuz a fangirl prefers cooperating and interacting with her favorites - or perhaps his only contribution was (unknowingly of Tsumugi's elaborate scheme) aiding Tsumugi and Kirumi with his confidence and experience in order to convince Monokuma to hand over that master key for the maid to do her job. I really believe Hajime's actor was kept in the dark because unlike a personified Naegi, the personified Hajime wouldn't be lured to a route as corrupt as the former took by being willing to do anything to keep living off of TDR's unquestionably high salary if you survive AND return to the show. No, this actor only thought he was hired again for nostalgia's sake, because that's what we all assumed as well. And Hajime was the most intended as a returning lead to guide Kaede on the road of leading her group and passing the leadership onto her, despite not being her instructor like Naegi but that's all according to plan, of course. This is my demo headcanon. This is my conclusive interpretation of the demo