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a-student-out-of-time · 2 years ago

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Danganronpa and the Mean Girl Problem

Hello, everyone! I’ve come to once again share my thoughts on something.

With the (as of writing this) recent release of Despair Time Chapter 2, I felt this was an appropriate time to discuss some things. First off, I am very interested to see where this fangan is going from here on out, and even from the first episode, I’m hooked.

I really enjoyed the character moments in the first episode, from Eden to Levi to Teruko to J to one of the subjects of my discussion today: Arei.

Now, I have to admit, Arei’s one of the most interesting characters in DRDT to me. She’s not my favorite- that honor goes to Hu- but she’s the one who I think has the most potential for character development within the narrative of DRDT. And that’s also something that concerns me.

See, that brings us to the point I want to address here is in the title. It’s something I’ve noticed across both the canon games and some fangans, which I’ll call the “Mean Girl Problem.”

(Spoilers for the canon games, DR3, the Another series, Despair Time, DR Antebellum, etc. will follow. You have been warned.)

(Also, this became a long-ass post. You’ve also been warned on that.)

As I’m sure many of us are aware at this point, Danganronpa is a very formulaic series. While we see different stories and character arcs play out, we nevertheless see similar archetypes and story beats across them. Sometimes these are broken in unique ways, but we often have very similar starting points.

Oftentimes, these repeated tropes have been deconstructed and explored in different ways, either in the games themselves or among fan games that seek to go beyond the formulaic writing. Even then, however, there tends to be repetition with a lot of them, mostly in terms of things like my least favorite trope, the double murder in Chapter 3.

What I want to focus on here is an archetype I’ve seen a lot and one that often leaves me thoroughly disappointed every time: the eponymous mean girl.

These tend to be female characters who are presented as bullies, either toward one character in particular or members of their group as a whole. I feel this archetype really got its start with Hiyoko in DR2, and it understandably became a point of contention with a lot of people. And it was later repeated with a lot of characters.

I can’t speak for all fangans, so I’ll stick to the ones I’ve seen. Among them, we’ve got Hiyoko, Ruruka, Natsumi and Miu in canon; Rei, Kizuna and Hibiki in the Another series, Mitsuba in Brave DR, Emilia in Antebellum, and Arei in Despair Time. I’ll leave Mitsuba out of this discussion, since Brave DR hasn’t made it quite as far as other fangans, but we still have a lot we can talk about here.

The Mean Girl Problem is a writing trend I’ve seen where these characters end up not receiving much narrative importance or opportunities for development, particularly in comparison to their male counterparts. And when they do, it’s usually squandered hard.

If you already have objections to this, I understand, but allow me to explain what I mean, character by character.

Now, DR1 didn’t really have a Mean Girl character, which is interesting. There were no female characters who were really openly malicious or antagonistic, unless one wants to include Celeste. However, she isn’t really an example of what I’m talking about. The problem really started in DR2:

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Hiyoko Saionji

As I said, this archetype began with Hiyoko. Her introduction had her crushing ants, making her creepy face and then calling Haime a wuss. From there, she spends most of her time complaining, manipulating and insulting everyone, aside from Mahiru who’s the only one that really puts up with her. Her worst insults are saved for Mikan, which...grr, but I’ll move on.

Now, Hiyoko being a selfish bratty girl is by design. She’s a member of the prestigious Saionji Clan and thus sees herself as superior to everyone else, so it’s at least understandable why she’d feel this way. Even if she plays it off in her Free Time Events that she’d been the subject of “assassination attempts,” which some of my friends have attributed to others getting back at her for her bullying, it’s clear she’s not well-liked in-story.

My point here isn’t that Hiyoko is a bad character. Quite to the contrary. Many people who defend her point out that she does have a lot more going on than just being a bully, and I fully agree. I like how much she loves her nation’s culture, how much she misses her dad and her belief that protecting something is a sign of love. That’s interesting.

The MGP stemmed from me asking a simple question: what purpose does she serve in the story?

It’s a serious question: what does her being a bully contribute to the narrative? What role does she serve, either thematically or in the plot itself other than being a member of Ultimate Despair? How does she actually change as a result of the story?

To all of this, I have to say “Not much.”

Now, I’m not going to say she didn’t have any purpose. Again, there were good moments with her. I like how she tried to make a memorial for Mahiru, but it came off as ominous and creepy to everyone, and she admits she’s not good at anything but dancing.

...Of course, then she turns right around and insults Mikan again.

And this brings me to another point about her: nobody in the story really seems to actually acknowledge Hiyoko’s cruel moments. Sure, they get annoyed with her, but nobody takes her aside and tries to explain why it’s wrong. Hajime makes some snarky comments about in her her behavior FTEs, but all he really seems to do is tolerate her.

Her bullying never really seems to factor that much into the plot, other than it just being something she does. Hell, even her being killed by Mikan had nothing to do with her bullying, but simply because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her being a bully was basically irrelevant to everything that ultimately happened with her in the story.

But here’s the part that really gets me: this moment in Chapter 3 where Hajime claims she’s changing:

Which, I guess I understand. It’s not the same thing as earlier, when she basically raged that Teruteru deserved to die horribly for committing murder, and that she wished she could’ve spat on his corpse.

Like, I guess that’s progress, going from “He deserved what he got” to “We’re only working together to escape because we don’t have a choice.” Still though, jeez.

And what comes off this? Again, basically nothing. Hiyoko can’t get her kimono on, Sonia suggests she use the full-body mirror at the music venue and that’s where she gets shanked by Mikan. Not because she was mad about the bullying and nobody doing anything to help, not because Hiyoko confronted her or she confronted Hiyoko.

No, she just walked in and Mikan went “No witnesses.”

And later on, DR3 confirmed that Hiyoko more or less acted the exact same during her time in Hope’s Peak. The only real progress we can really say she got was the fact that she acts more like a platonic tsundere toward Mikan in Side Hope.

Overall, it really seems like being a bully was the focus of Hiyoko’s character, when the game clearly wanted to acknowledge there was more going on with her. Yet most of the deeper elements with her were relegated to her FTEs.

And if she was bad, Ruruka was even worse.

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Ruruka Ando

Probably the biggest contender for the most hated DR3 character, Ruruka is, in a word, a self-centered bitch. Now, again, that isn’t to say that’s a problem and that there isn’t anything deeper going on with her character.

It genuinely seems like she has trouble with empathy, something that was shown when she and Seiko first met and she didn’t even really address that Seiko was crying over the dog she couldn’t save.

One could attribute that to her being a child, but throughout Seiko and Ruruka’s friendship, it becomes quite clear Ruruka asks her for more and more favors, going from medicines she needs to basic things she could probably just buy herself. This is acknowledged and addressed by the story.

What the story doesn’t do a great job of addressing is Seiko’s side of things, where it kinda seems to blame her for constantly accepting Ruruka’s requests and acts as if this is a “both sides are wrong” situation. I don’t think the story presented it well, and just made Ruruka look incredibly toxic and manipulative toward someone who has trouble saying no. Not quite the same as bullying, but more than enough to meet the standards of a Mean Girl.

The manga actually did one better and worse at the same time, where it brings up the idea that Seiko can’t eat Ruruka’s candies and addresses why she doesn’t make sugar-free ones: she refuses to acknowledge that Seiko even has an allergy and that she’s making it up to spite her. Sounds shallow and petty, but it’s a real thing that’s happened with some people.

If you don’t believe me, look up the woman whose in-laws fed her mushroom soup because she didn’t believe her when she said she had a mushroom allergy.

But again, the story wants there to be something deeper with these two. In the Future arc, Ruruka internally admits that she always saw Seiko as her hero, as someone with the talent and skill to do anything, and she was jealous because all she could do was make sweets. That’s an interesting motivation.

And the story doesn’t do all that much with it. Once again, the way it’s framed, Ruruka is a toxic and manipulative friend who wanted to use Seiko’s talents to cheat in her practical exam, and it was largely Nagito’s fault that things went south, then they had a falling out and were expelled.

There is a good story buried in this narrative. The problem is that Ruruka is presented in far too much of a negative light to really come off as someone with a valid point, while Seiko didn’t really do anything wrong. Izayoi is also barely a character and just follows her around everywhere, when maybe he could’ve been the mediator between the two of them.

But instead, after Seiko and Izayoi die, Ruruka nearly kills Kyoko and gets Koichi killed thanks to her bullshit. Granted, she was under threat of her Forbidden Action, but it was still framed as her being a villainous character, with her glaring evily.

This is not the face of someone who was forced into committing evil for the sake of her own survival.

And what happens after all this? What role does she have in the story? Nothing.

She wanders off on her own, rambling to herself about how she’ll survive, and then she gets killed by the hypnosis monitor thing- very graphically and excessively, I have to say- and then nobody even acknowledges her existence again.

I’ve heard speculation that the story of Ruruka, Seiko and Izayoi is meant to show why it’s important to trust your friends, but she had so few good qualities to her and so little going on within the narrative beyond just fighting with a roided-up Seiko that I could barely glean something like that.

She really just feels like she’s there to be an antagonistic force for a while, and when she’s not needed anymore, she’s shoved off to die. And if the story wanted us to at least feel for her, why kill her off in such a mean-spirited and graphic manner? Were we supposed to feel bad or feel like it was karmic?

Either way, it’s not a good look.

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Natsumi Kuzuryu

Here’s what turned out to be a retroactive example of the MGP: Natsumi, the girl who was originally only known through flashbacks and Twilight Syndrome Murder Case, in SDR2, who was originally just Fuyuhiko’s unnamed sister

DR3 came along and gave us a better look at her, though in a way I doubt we were expecting. From what Fuyuhiko had told Hajime, it seemed as if Natsumi was an Ultimate. Hell, he was sure she deserved the title of Ultimate Yakuza far more than him:

But what DR3 gave us was a girl who joined the Reserve Course, and just called herself the Ultimate Little Sister.

She certainly lives up to what Fuyuhiko was talking about, at least in how she was self-centered and arrogant. Even so, it’s obvious the two of them were very close, especially with how Natsumi looks up to him and dreams of joining the Main Course so she can stand by him as an equal.

The problem is, though, her intense rivalry with Mahiru and Sato, who she’s been in conflict with since Middle School. Once again, a character who we were lead to believe was an Ultimate turned out to also be in the Reserve Course.

Regardless, the two of them had an absolutely bitter rivalry, which as we’d learn would eventually lead to Sato murdering Natsumi, then Fuyuhiko murdering Sato in retaliation. DR3 had the opportunity to tell us a little bit more about Natsumi’s side of things.

And what we learn is that Natsumi fears being left behind with her brother in the Main Course, and wants to be acknowledge not for her talent but to earn a title so the two of them can be equals.

Now, Natsumi’s inclusion this way, while a weird retcon, isn’t pointless. It’s a pretty decent means of reinforcing the idea that talented and talentless people can’t mix, fueling Hajime’s insecurity. But once again, it really seems like it brushes over a lot of things with her cruelty toward Mahiru and Sato, none of which prove relevant for the larger story.

This is especially odd because the anime seemed more than willing to sympathize with Natsumi, while also neglecting to giving Sato a full name. And given that both of them die shortly afterward, it does feel a bit emotionally manipulative.

But once again, no relevance to the larger story. They’re not even mentioned once afterward.

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Miu Iruma

Now, Miu’s an interesting case because she has a huge fanbase. I understand why: she’s vulgar as hell, but also confident and hilarious. I call her a Mean Girl because, again, she often goes out of her way to insult and antagonize people for no real reason.

She’s different than the others, however, because she actually does contribute a lot of important details to the plot with her inventions.

It’s thanks to Miu that they get an overhead view of the first crime scene, she’s the reason why Chapter 4 happens, and she’s the one to provide the group with the weapons they need to take on the Exisals and learn the truth about their situation, both the manufactured one and the real one. So overall, she makes a massive impact on the story of V3.

My question is this: does this make her a character or a plot device factory?

Miu has basically no character development through the story, and is mostly just there for either making devices to move the plot forward, for comedy or for fanservice.

We do hits of greater identity and motivation for her in her FTEs and in Chapter 4, where we learn she received her talent after she was in a car accident that left her in a coma, waking up and finding she had a ton of ideas for inventions. And in Chapter 4, just before she attempts to kill Kokichi, she says the world needs her and her inventions.

This suggests either Miu knew what had “happened” to the world as part of the flashback light, or she didn’t but believed this idea in general. That, despite her crude behavior, she has genuinely altruistic motivations. That’s a good character quality for her.

And we don’t get much of that after this moment. The only memory of her anyone really has is of her and her inventions, and everyone except Kiibo basically hates her guts as a whole.

But what makes all of this worse in its own way is that this isn’t even Miu’s real personality, but a fabrication from Team Danganronpa. I can only go off of what we see here, so it’s hard to say what the real her was like, but the version we get here definitely falls victim to the MGP.

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Kizuna Tomori

Moving over to the fangan side of things, we have Kizuna Tomori, Class 79′s Ultimate Cheerleader from DRA.

Now, Kizuna is definitely closer to the Mean Girl archetype you might’ve thought of, i.e. a Regina George or Heather Chandler type. She acts all sweet and touchy-feely with Yuki, calling him nicknames and asking if he’ll buy her things when they get out.

And it goes on and on in her FTEs, where Yuki eventually wises up to the fact that she’s incredibly materialistic and she gets mad when he calls her out on it. Then she goes on to reveal that she’s the Queen Bee of her school, having boys do whatever she wants, buying her things and basically pimping out her fellow cheerleaders to them in exchange.

And it really seems like she doesn’t understand that this is a bad thing. Not that she knows and doesn’t care, but that she can’t comprehend that this isn’t supposed to be how things work.

Things get interesting in the last one, where she basically tries to have sex with Yuki, and he demands to know what the hell is going on with her.

She did all of this deliberately. She understands that she’s not a good person, but she’s also scared of guys who are only interested in her for her looks. She basically turned every guy who was interested in her into her servant, but in the process, she ultimately isolated herself from everyone else.

And there’s also the influence of her mother, Minako, who also seems to value her appearance. I can only image what kind of situation Kizuna was in to feel this way, where she was scared of being taken advantage of by guys if she drops this facade. One that’s kept her from even having friends.

In the game itself, Kizuna also isolates herself from everyone thanks to Tsurugi’s tyrannical rule, and also ends up quite lonely. Something Akane goes out of her way to help her with after she and Yuki find her crying.

It’s a really sweet and wholesome moment, where Akane assures her that she does consider Kizuna a friend, never saw her as weak and that they can confide in each other. Something Kizuna never really had before then.

And what happens afterward? Well, turns out she’s a fake bitch.

Which inevitably leads to Kizuna attempting to murder Akane.

The thing is, lying and scheming aside, Kizuna actually kinda has a point here.

The motive in Chapter 2 of DRA is, naturally, secrets. The one she found suggested local normal protag Yuki Maede might actually know the identity of the mastermind, and as we learn in Chapter 6, that turned out to be him.

Not only that, but Akane was actually his colleague and fellow Ultimate Despair. Kizuna unintentionally targeted both masterminds, and had she pulled it off, she may have actually ended the Killing Game early on. True, she was only focused on escaping, but it would’ve been beneficial to a greater number of people.

But what really bothers me is LINUJ’s attitude toward her. He created a pretty sympathetic backstory for her, which doesn’t excuse but explain her behavior, yet he admits in her design document that he made her to be the character everybody would hate and wanted to give her the most painful death possible.

Which he did in the form of a stab would in the stomach that took about thirty minutes to kill her. Like...jeez, dude. It’s also kinda hard for me to hate her not only when she’s actually kinda right on repeat viewings, but she also took the time to try and tell everyone it wasn’t actually Akane who killed her via dying message.

I also don’t want to be that person, but the fact that the character with the most sexualized design, the most overtly flirty and outgoing personality, and a backstory about trying to prevent guys from taking advantage of her weakness, is portrayed as an unrepentant villain?

Maybe it was unintentional, but it doesn’t sit well with me.

Really though, once again, I must ask why? What was gained from all this? What does it actually organically add to the story? Is there a lesson to be gleaned with this?

Not really any that I can see. I understand the points LINUJ raises when he talks about how we shouldn’t ignore the wrongdoings of a character because we sympathize with them, but I must also ask if utterly demonizing them for those wrongdoings is a bigger issue.

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Hibiki Otonokoji

Oh boy.

I’ve already talked at length about my problems with SDRA2 Chapter 3, but that was mostly me rambling about Kanade and the story. Instead, I’ll keep it short and focus strictly on Hibiki. Because out of all the victims of the MGP, Hibiki got robbed the absolute hardest.

I’ll start by saying that Hibiki isn’t so much a general bully as she is big sister bully. Her ire is mostly directed toward Kanade, who she insults, belittles, orders around, and harasses for her own amusement. At least it seems that way.

As we learn throughout the game, the Otonokoji Twins really have a mutually toxic relationship. Hibiki bullying Kanade is, according to the latter, because Hibiki’s actually a try-hard who’s jealous of Kanade for being better at her in everything: academics, athletics, even music. She hates losing more than anything.

That setup is at least an understandable motivation, and it could’ve made for some decent development opportunities, which the game actually did take at first.

See, because of SDRA2′s unique setup- there being five masterminds in the group- she understandably doesn’t feel safe trusting anyone except her sister at first. It takes a lot of work to get her to even leave her room and hang out with everyone.

Thanks to Setsuka’s encouragement, she admits that, yes, she wants to be friends with everyone. Hibiki is naturally a social butterfly, and even if she’s scared of what might happen because of the Voids, nothing will change if things stay the same.

And that’s a lesson she actually takes to heart afterward.

She genuinely tries to change her attitude and be more of a team-player with everyone, hanging out with them and trying to cheer up the group when they’re down because of their situation.

Because she takes responsibility for the things that happened, be it Yuri’s death at the party and Kokoro’s death due to the concert they held. And she’s doesn’t want there to be a third one.

She knows she’s not very smart, but she doesn’t want to be a burden on everyone and wants to contribute however she can. And the start of Chapter 3 actually shows her practicing what she preaches, even cracking jokes with everyone.

The disappointing thing is that everything that was going on with Hibiki was far, far more interesting to me than what actually ended up happening.

But instead of focusing on her trying to change and grow as a person, we got to spend the rest of the chapter glorifying another serial killer, turning Hibiki into a background extra and then revealing that her life had been literal hell, her parents are dead and her real personality probably doesn’t exist anymore, capped off with her dying a meaningless death.

A chapter that also effectively made her and her sister’s presence completely irrelevant to the actual story. While I complain about the MGP, nobody got it worse than Hibiki.

She deserved so much better than that.

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HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Rei Mekaru

Danganronpa Another’s original bad bitch, Rei is one of the few mean girl characters who actually managed to not only survive, but also receive development as a result. Good for her!

The thing with Rei is that she’s largely more similar to Byakuya than Hiyoko or Miu, although she dabbles in the Mean Girl archetype on occasion, particularly toward Kizuna. I’ll still include her because it’s an interesting example of slow-burn character development.

Rei starts out as cold, dismissive and condescending toward her classmates, and while she’s clearly intelligent, she’s also more than willing to let everyone try and solve the cases themselves while also insulting them at the same time. This continues on for some time, at least until Chapter 4.

It isn’t until she sees Haruhiko and Satsuki willingly sacrifice themselves, allowing the rest of the group to survive, that ultimately rattles her view on things and gets her to reconsider. She almost seemed baffled when Satsuki gave up any chance she had to escape.

Likewise, in what was a pretty hilarious moment, when everyone basically isolates Yuki when it seems like he might be the traitor, she calls them out on their sense of false righteousness when they talk about the power of friendship. It’s not often you see these sorts of characters touch on something like that : P

Really, Rei’s character development really seems to take place in the second half of the game, which is probably how she manages to avoid falling victim to MGP. SDRA2 hits us with what looks like Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome, only for it to be revealed she survived.

Of course, given that DRA already has Kizuna as a victim of the MGP, it was probably a given. Still sad that, by the end of SDRA2, she and Tsurugi are the only survivors of Class 79.

Emilia Carmine

We now come to what’s probably my favorite fangan thus far: Danganronpa Antebellum, which has its own resident Mean Girl, Emilia. Now, I’m gonna be frank with this: Chapter 3 of Antebellum isn’t finished yet, so I can’t really call this an example of MGP, and I hope I don’t have to.

What I will say is that Emilia does fulfill a lot of the Mean Girl tropes: she insults everyone, antagonizes them, and she’s easily the most foul-mouthed out of everyone. However, in contrast to the previous examples, she also has a genuinely sweet relationship with her best friend Mint, who she considers a brother. She teases him a lot, but it comes off more as teasing than actual bullying.

Even toward Shinku, she gradually goes from mocking him to opening up to him, to enjoying his presence. Emilia herself was raised in a very controlling, heavily restrictive manner by her father, who also kicked out her sister Elodie on account of her being trans. Emilia was very close with her, and would do anything to reunite with her. A motivation that nearly drives her to murder Shinku in Chapter 2, which, if it hadn’t been for Mint and the BDA, she very likely would’ve. Something she regrets immensely.

The sad part is, at the end of Chapter 2, her crime is revealed: burning down her father’s hospital, killing and injuring many people. A revelation that drives a wedge between her and Mint that never ends up resolved. While Emilia wants to make up with him, the group is split in half when the ceiling caves in and Emilia is killed in the game’s double murder, never even getting to see Mint again.

It’s too early to say, but this is feeling more like a genuine tragedy than a case of MGP, and I highly doubt she’s going to be forgotten by the end.

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And that finally brings me to the subject I brought up at the beginning: Arei Nageishi.

Now, I called Arei the most interesting of the Despair Time cast because she has a quality that makes her a bit different from the other Mean Girl characters: she legitimately values friendship.

That might sound bizarre, given that she still openly insults and antagonizes the group. While she does go out of her way to be cruel to Teruko and Xander in her introduction, it seems like she wants to be included in group activities.

And of course, she falls into a self-pitying session of fake crying to get sympathy, which Hu shuts down immediately. Now, one could easily just write this off as attention-seeking behavior, but it’s the small details that interest me.

They shut her down on that.

Xander is, of course, disbelieving that she could be that oblivious to the situation. However, I think her behavior has less to do with her being oblivious and more to do with her having a skewed perspective.

See, when MonoTV shows up to announce the new motive, he specifies that there might be some bad news about their friends and family. Arei’s reponse?

No jokes, genuine concern over the motive.

And another moment that caught my attention was in the wake of the trial and Min’s execution. It was fucked up and horrifying, and everyone is understandably freaking out, but the reactions differ. Most everyone is freaking out about their situation, wanting to leave and being afraid of dying. Others are genuinely sad for Min, and among them?

Yeah, after the girl she’d previously accused of excluding her gets executed, Arei is genuinely upset to see her go. This was also after she’d spent the trial railing against any potential murders, mostly Teruko. She doesn’t make jokes, she doesn’t say she deserved it, she doesn’t shrug it off like it’s nothing.

She’s genuinely sad to lose Min.

Another insightful bit comes from her FTE with J, where she thinks to herself how fun it is to mess with her, and how she finds her cute.

Yeah, Arei has a system for how she bullies people, ranging from just teasing to wanting to utterly destroy their lives if they’re mean to her. A lot of this stems from the fact that she was the Queen Bee of her school, and like Kizuna, she used her looks and status to get guys to do whatever she wanted.

But the most interesting part to me is when J starts ranting about her mother, and Arei has this to share.

We’ll come back to this, but suffice to say, Arei has a very odd idea of what friendship is. She’s under the impression J likes her because she didn’t leave the situation.

Something else worth bringing up are the characters quotes from the tumblr page, both the public one and hidden ones. For Arei, these are as follows:

Public: “If I tell you a secret, will you promise to keep it?”

Hidden: “Because that’s what friends do”

And then there’s a hidden one in relation to the mysterious Mai Akasaki, who seemed to have been a friend to the entire group:

“She doesn’t like when her friends fight.”

For someone who continuously insults and looks down on the group, Arei sure has a lot of quotes in reference to friendship and trust.

Which brings me to the first part of Chapter 2, where MonoTV distributed the group’s deepest, darkest secrets...to the wrong people. And Arei, who’d previously been complaining about the situation, immediately quiets down.

She’s not making jokes, she’s not making fun of whomever’s secret she got. No, she is horrified.

This might’ve been easy to overlook after everyone is confused about not getting their own secrets, but after Arturo reveals J’s true identity to the group, Arei once again drops the jokes and complaints. She makes some pretty good points about their situation.

To me, this feels like a pretty group-oriented approach, subtly hinting she saw something really concerning and thus it’s better that they all start sharing secrets before things escalate in the four days before everything is revealed.

And the comments about having a famous parent like J are compounded here. I’m starting to get the sense Arei might’ve been neglected by her parents. Bullying and attention-seeing behavior like hers often stems from a lack of self-esteem, difficult home lives, and even being subject to bullying themselves. While Arei certainly has a high opinion of herself, what she really seems to want is attention and companionship.

I feel this makes for an interesting potential arc for her, given Despair Time’s themes of trust and betrayal. If her focus is on making and earning trust, it makes for a nice contrast to Teruko, who’s said she won’t trust anyone again and doesn’t want to leave. Like it or not, though, they’re gonna have to work together if they want to survive.

Of course, as interested as I am to see Arei’s development, it’s also a cause for concern. With how many death flags have already been raised just in part 1, both for her and for others, all we can really do is wait and see.

The True Issues With The Mean Girl Problem

Let me just say upfront what this essay isn’t about. This isn’t about how Mean Girls characters should never be made villains, this isn’t suggesting that anyone who engages in the MGP is inherently sexist or misogynistic and this isn’t about how any of the games or fangans I’ve mentioned are bad. DR3 is bad, but for numerous reasons.

No, this essay is me wanting to touch on the existence of a double standard I’ve noticed and how I feel this limits the works in terms of creativity. This isn’t a call-out post of creators in particular, just the acknowledgment of a writing problem.

Broadly, the MGP can be summarized in four points:

Mean Girl characters have sympathetic qualities to them, but they're very understated or left unexplored in the main story. Their defining feature there is being cruel or antagonistic to others.

Despite that, their bullying is often brushed aside and is simply shrugged off as annoying by the other characters. It has no impact on the story, does not catalyze character development and rarely has anything to do with their actual deaths or the death of any other character.

When they do start to undergo any significant character development, especially before Chapter 3, they tend to die more often than not.

Following their deaths, they're rarely mentioned by the narrative again, highlighting their overall unimportance to the story as a whole.

As I’ve said, a lot of these Mean Girls are much deeper than their portrayals within the main stories tend to want to explore, yet they’re often subject to much harsher criticism both in these stories, from creators and from the fandom.

On the other hand, male characters who present these traits are often given the label of The Rival, and I have to be honest in saying that a lot of Rivals end up doing things that are much worse than simply being bullies. Despite that, they all get a chance to develop:

Byakuya: Has a very condescending, classist view on everyone, and is the one who takes the entire concept of a Killing Game completely seriously. Seriously enough that he tampers with Chihiro’s body in the name of making the game more interesting, exposing Genocider Syo’s presence and figuring out who’s his biggest threat. He doesn’t give a damn about anyone but himself, at least until Chapter 4, when Makoto and Kyoko save him from getting everyone killed because he doesn’t even consider that someone might do something altruistically.

Fuyuhiko: Starts off SDR2 as a loud, antisocial asshole, one who wants nothing to do with the rest of the group (sans Peko) and who also contemplates what he has to do in order to win. He also makes threats, however baseless, like selling Mikan to a whorehouse or selling Hajime’s organs on the black market.

Kokichi: The biggest troll in all of V3 at best, and someone who self-identifies as an evil villain. A lot about his character is meant to be ambiguous, but within the confines of the story itself, Kokichi actively antagonizes and even endangers the group, from the Insect Meet-and-Greet to revealing Maki’s identity against her will, to tricking Gonta into killing Miu while believing their situation is a hopeless nightmare in order to save himself, etc.

Tsurugi: Essentially takes a page from Light Yagami in his utter dehumanization of criminals, viewing all those who dissent from his commands as potential criminals as well. His sense of justice is incredibly black and white, where killing for any circumstance whatsoever makes someone human garbage, and he’s happy to say as much. It gets to the point that he’s willing to force the group to commit mass suicide to prevent another murder.

None of this is a complaint about any of them as characters. I happen to enjoy seeing them and the roles they play in the story; Fuyuhiko gets the most development out of them all, Byakuya becomes more of a team player with his fellow survivors, Kokichi dies but is vindicated in that he helped bring an end to the Killing Game, and Tsurugi...well, that’s another matter entirely.

Tsurugi is a prime example of negative character development; not full-on villainization, but progressively becoming worse from his experiences rather than better. He doesn’t become a less violent and morally absolutist figure, but doubles down when he becomes leader of the Kisaragi Foundation, even willing to sacrifice Teruya and work with Syobai to stop Mikado.

The thing is, that’s still a form of development. It still falls in line with the concept of character progression, which the Mean Girls rarely seem to get. For them, their negative qualities aren’t brought on by the circumstances of the game, but are simply part of who they are. They’re rarely even worsened by the game itself, at least not in the same way Tsurugi is. They only seem to exist.

Now, I’ve seen some points raised about this, such as “Some people don’t change” or “They’re meant to serve as a warning about X”, and while I can understand those points, I have to ask why they don’t seem to be applied in the same way to Byakuya, Fuyuhiko or Kokichi, along with what sorts of object lessons rival characters are meant to serve as. Chapter 2 of DR1 has a solid and understandable lesson about the dangers of toxic masculinity, how succumbing to it in different ways ultimately culminated in the tragic deaths of Chihiro and Mondo.

It’s hard to have any sort of object lesson about Hiyoko, given that her death was unrelated to her bullying Mikan. It’s hard to say anything about Kizuna other than “she’s a bitch,” according to LINUJ. The closest you could get to with any sort of object lesson is probably Ruruka, but even then, it was so imbalanced and tried to show there being two sides that it doesn’t work.

Furthermore, if the goal is to show them as awful people, why is it that these characters are given so many sympathetic qualities that get people to like them, only to them cut them down in their prime and tell those audience members they were stupid for getting invested? Are they meant to be characters we hate and whose deaths we should find karmic, or are they meant to be tragic examples of someone not meeting their true potential? You can’t have it both ways, especially when those sympathetic qualities are barely touched on in the actual story.

I can genuinely see both sides of the argument; the ones that don’t like these characters because they’re bullies and the ones who want to see more because they clearly saw potential in them as characters. I completely understand why you might feel one way or the other, and I’m not saying you’re wrong.

If you want to make a character who serves as a foil to another, where both of them have similar flaws and negative qualities but one changes for the better while the other gets worse, you can absolutely do that. You can have characters who are genuinely bad people but who are still engaging. You can have mean girls, you can have rivals, you can have all kinds of wonderful creative characters like we do across this series and its fan entries.

My point with this is to show you why I feel that following the exact same character traits, and then writing them off as bad people simply because they’re bullies, feels not just uncreative, but borders on genuinely toxic and harmful. The idea that people can never change and that only bad people do bad things is not a healthy mindset to hold, especially when we might display these very traits without knowing it.

We can and should always work to be better, both as people and as writers. I love seeing people in stories and the real world learn from their experiences and grow better, hopefully with the benefit of hindsight. That can often come with needing to address the harm that’s done by actions and ideas we regret ever doing or holding, and if we look back and cringe at those moments, we do better for ourselves and others.

So what can we do here? Simple: let the Mean Girls get the same opportunities for development, growth, change and narrative impact as other characters do. As I said, it happens with Rival characters and it also happens with others through the games. Don’t restrict them or yourselves to the archetypical or formulaic writing you’ve experienced. If you don’t want to include a Mean Girl, you absolutely don’t have to.

For those that do, we also need to be willing to acknowledge and accept when mistakes are made by them, realistically approach the problem and see what can be done about it. Do they get better? Are they forgiven? What happens if they’re not? Or only some members of the group forgive them and others are hurt by those that do? Would they change by their own desire or would it be from someone calling them out on their behavior?

I know we love to say things like “X did nothing wrong” as a joke, but sometimes people will jump through mental gymnastics to justify liking a character, inventing stretched-out reasoning for why they’re not really at fault. I’ve never felt that way about any character I like; I fully acknowledge some of my favorite characters of all time have done some horrible things, and I still love them in spite of that.

If we could simply accept the idea that characters we love are and can be fucked-up people, we’d be a lot better off for it. Liking them doesn’t mean you fully support everything they do. Fictional people in fictional settings gives us a chance to explore things we may not be able to in the real world, either as a lesson, out of curiosity or for whatever reason we wish. And doing research for this essay, I can see Mean Girls have that appeal to them too, especially for those who relate to them.

I believe allowing Mean Girls to be more than just bullies is beneficial to both sides: people who want to see them move on from bullying because they don’t like bullies, and those who want to see them grow and have more prominence in the story. The multiverse of DR is rich with story potential for these characters that so rarely gets tapped to its full extent.

After all, in a series with a core theme about the importance of hope, wouldn’t it be best to show that some people do change for the better?

#danganronpa #mod talks #mod rambles #a student out of time #long post #dr1 #danganronpa thh #dr2 #danganronpa 2 #sdra2 #Super Daganronpa Another 2 #dra #danganronpa another #dr3 #danganronpa 3 #drdt #danganronpa despair time #v3 #danganronpa v3

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hopeymchope · 3 years ago

Text

Judging the Danganronpa x Sanrio character pairings

You may have already heard that a DANGANRONPA X SANRIO line of crossover merch was announced a few days ago! Which is obviously AMAZING, because they’re combining cutesy characters that have often been marketed to wee children with everybody’s favorite murderdeathkill game! I LOVE IT.

I have a niece who went through a Sanrio/Hello Kitty phase, so I actually know a few of these characters. In turn, this means that I have THOUGHTS on how the DR1 and Sanrio cast were paired up.

Granted, I still had to look up a lot of these guys and read about them. But now I feel adequately educated to the point where I can judge just how well the Danganronpa and Sanrio pairings actually match up.

Makoto Naegi/Cinnamoroll - Obviously this totally works because Makoto IS something of a cinnamon roll, eh? EH? But Cinnamoroll is said to be shy albeit still very friendly. He also likes to seek out fun new adventures. So, aside from “very friendly,” I’m not sure that this sounds like Makoto. I also doubt that calling a character a “cinnamon roll” is common slang in Japan. So this is whatever.

Sayaka Maizono/Wish Me Mell - Mell has the power to connect people’s hearts by simply stating the feelings they keep inside. She was initially withdrawn and believed she didn’t have any friends, but the people who cared for her finally broke through her shell and convinced her that she DOES have friends. So uh, Maizono... I guess music can also bring out people’s feelings? And perhaps you could plausibly HC that Sayaka has often felt like her surrounding friends were “fake” and only there because of her celebrity status. There’s not really much to go on here.

Leon Kuwata/Tiran - Tiran is an orange T-rex that is said to be scatterbrained but still a strong and reliable leader. Meanwhile, Leon has orange hair, and he’s certainly strong and kind of scatterbrained sometimes. It sorta works.

Kyoko Kirigiri/Marroncream - Marroncream is bright, positive, and fashionable. She is talented at making crafts and sweets. She lives in Paris. She has nearly nothing in common with Kyoko, although Kyoko did live abroad a lot in her younger years. So I could try to latch onto the Paris thing.

Hifumi Yamada/Pokopon - Pokopon is a raccoon that loves to read but dislikes ghosts and “the thunder god.” (uh... what?) He also finishes his sentences with the unusual suffix “-das.” Of course, Hifumi loves to write (which certainly is connected to reading), and he likes to end all names with a weird suffix (”-dono”), so I can see how they might make a cute pair.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru/Pekkle - Pekkle is a duck who is good-natured and kind. He loves to sing and dance. It kind of sounds like he should’ve been matched with Sayaka, but instead he’s here with Taka. While Ishimaru is definitely a good person, I don’t think most people would immediately describe him as “kind.” And he certainly isn’t known for his love of music.

Yasuhiro Hagakure/Monkichi - Monkichi is a laid-back, easygoing guy who is upbeat and loves puns. His dream is to become a poet. It’s said that once he sets his mind on something, there is no stopping him! And in comparison, Hagakure is... well, he’s kind of laid-back in the sense that he’s kind of lazy? But he’s actually pretty high-stress a lot of the time, too. Honestly, there’s not much linking the two.

Chihiro Fujisaki/Kurousa and Shirousa - Shirousa is the white one and is the older sibling to Kurousa, the brown one. Shirousa is described as an energetic leader and Kurousa is described as being nice but lazy. They like to make cakes. What does any of this have to do with Chihiro? Beats me. This particular pairing is nonsense.

Byakuya Togami/Badtz-Maru - Badtz-Maru is said to have a bad attitude and dreams of being “the boss of everything” when he grows up. He tends to act a bit selfish, and he mocks things he dislikes/disagrees with. He enjoys expensive food and collecting photos of movie villains. With the exception of that last point, I’d have to say that this sounds like a near-perfect match for Togami.

Mondo Owada/Goropikadon - The Goropikadon are a group of cave boys whose actual names are Goro (blue hair), Pika (pink hair), and Don (teal hair). Goro is always hungry and joking around. PIka is a thoughtful, shy mama’s boy. Don is serious and places a high value on honesty. Overall, I suppose that how quick Mondo is to get angry and resort to violence kind of makes him seem like a stereotypical caveman? But in terms of their distinct personalities, only Don’s focus on honesty rings true for Mondo.

Toko Fukawa/Lloromannic - Another multi-character one. The Llormannic are a pair of creatures named Berry (the black one, who is male) and Cherry (the pink one, who is female). They are mischievous and love to play pranks on humans. Cherry was originally alone and created Berry for companionship; however, she mixed up her magic spell ingredients and used salt when she meant to use sugar, which resulted in Berry turning out to be a more hostile being than Cherry. I suppose the fact that Berry is a darker creation of Cherry’s sort of reflects the relationship between Toko and her other self, Genocide(r) Syo/Jack. However, Berry and Cherry are still best friends. Toko and Syo/Jack are definitely not that.

Celestia Ludenberg/Kuromi - Kuromi is the rival of a bunny named “My Melody” who doesn’t appear in this promotion. Kuromi is said to look “tough and punk” in her jester’s hat with the pink skull on it, but in reality she is very girly. She enjoys writing in her diary, reading romance books, cooking, and checking out good-looking guys. I suppose Celestia did have that dream of living in a mansion where she was served by handsome guys dressed as vampires? So... they both like hot guys? But that’s all I’ve got here. Pretty sure this pairing only exists for aesthetic reasons. And admittedly, their aesthetics mesh very well.

Aoi Asahina/Keroppi - Keroppi lives with his family on the edge of Donut Pond. He is bubbly, a fantastic swimmer and, because of the name of his home pond, is often associated with donuts and/or things that are donut-shaped. Ok, so this was an obvious pairing, then. They nailed it. Probably the single best pairing they came up with.

Sakura Ogami/My Sweet Piano - Yes, the character’s name is literally “My Sweet Piano.” She’s described as soft, kind, and girly. Given Sakura’s secret love of girly things, I can see how this soft, pink, girly sheep would be something she’d love to be around.

Junko Enoshima (...?)/Hello Kitty - Hello Kitty (a.k.a. Kitty White) is described by Sanrio as “cute, bright, sweet, kind-hearted and tomboyish.” They also say that Kitty is very close with her sister, Mimmy. As for Junko... look, the only reason I think maybe this is supposed to be Junko is because Mukuro already has her own Sanrio matchup (see the next entry), but in terms of her appearance, this “Junko” sure looks like it’s “Junkuro.” The telltale sign is that giant bow on the left side of the head, which only Mukuro-as-Junko has ever worn. I doubt we’re supposed to be thinking that they did two Mukuros in two different outfits, though?

It’s like this: If it’s Junko, well, I guess both Junko and Kitty are icons within their respective brands. And Junko tries to put on a “cute and bright” exterior persona, I guess? But that’s pretty thin. On the other hand, if this is Mukuro in disguise, this is actually a semi-decent matchup! Mukuro is arguably tomboyish and certainly very close to her sister (at least from her own perspective), so these two are not without their parallels.

In either case, both Kitty and the Unknown Despair Sister have a big bow on the left side of their head. Which I think is the real reason they’ve been paired, honestly.

Mukuro Ikusaba/Little Twin Stars - Kiki and Lala are a pair of twins that were born on December 24th. Mukuro is one half of a pair of twins ALSO born on December 24th. Instant connection! Kiki (the blue-haired boy) loves fishing and inventing things. He is curious and cheeky. Lala (the pink-haired girl) loves drawing, writing poems, and cooking. She is rather timid. In short, the “twins with the same birthdate” thing is the only thing connecting Mukuro to these two. Still, it’s not bad.

Also, the most amazing thing to come out of this team-up so far HAS TO BE MonoKitty. Hello Kitty cosplaying as our favorite psychotic MurderBear? How great is that? SELL ME MERCH OF MONOKITTY.

#sanrio #danganronpa x sanrio #sanrio characters #danganronpa merch #hello kitty #danganronpa crossovers #danganronpa official art

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oumakokichi · 4 years ago

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So what do you think of Kaede and Kokichi's relationship? And if Kaede remained the protagonist how do you think it would change?

Considering it’s Kaede’s birthday today I think this is a really fun question to come back to!

Kaede is an absolutely amazing character, and I love how different her relationships with the rest of the cast feel from Saihara’s. She and Ouma have an especially interesting friendship in their FTEs together (one of Kaede’s FTEs with Ouma might be one of my favorite FTEs ever, really), so I don’t mind going a little more in-depth on my thoughts about their dynamic, as well as about how that dynamic and the story itself might’ve changed if Kaede had remained the protagonist!

Warning for spoilers as always, though I’m pretty sure most people know about the chapter 1 twist by now.

I think one of my absolute favorite things about Kaede is just how easy it is to get attached to her in such a short amount of time. She’s only around for the prologue and a single chapter, but despite that (or rather, because of the sheer length of the chapters in ndrv3, which tend to be much longer than dr1 or sdr2’s chapters), we still get to see so many different sides of her and just how complex of a character she really is. And I think that’s largely the reason for her continued popularity to this day: Kaede might not stay around for long, but we still really feel like we know her by the end of it.

And really, I think that’s pretty similar to how the actual characters feel about Kaede themselves. Despite how short her time is with all of them, she leaves such a powerful, lasting impression, even after her death. This is a pretty big change from previous DR games, where the chapter 1 culprits especially tend to suffer a pretty big lack of relevance or relationship to other characters in later chapters. Often times the victims are at least somewhat memorable (Maizono and the Impostor both at least come up a few times in their respective games), but characters like Leon or Teruteru just don’t feel like they have much of an impact on the other characters or the plot itself after their trials are finished.

This is totally different from Kaede, whose positive outlook and outgoing attitude already makes her fairly likable to most of the others, but who also openly invites the others to rely on her once she establishes herself as a leader figure fairly quickly in chapter 1. Most of the other characters latch onto her almost immediately, either because she seems so reliable and helpful (Saihara and Tenko in particular seem to like this about her), or because they can’t help but respect her and what she’s trying to do for the group (characters like Momota, who really values group cooperation, come to mind).

Personally, I think Ouma fell into the latter category. He and Kaede have something of a complicated relationship almost right from the get-go in chapter 1, but it’s still pretty clear that Ouma did respect Kaede a lot and recognized that she had the group’s best interests at heart, even if he didn’t always agree with her methods.

Likewise, I think Kaede was somewhat curious about Ouma and really wanted to get along with him, despite how difficult he could be. We see in Ouma’s introduction, both in the demo and the actual game, that Kaede clearly recognizes on some level that part of his annoying attitude is really just his way of teasing others, and that he doesn’t seem particularly malicious. More specifically, she describes him as “having a childish streak that makes him hard to hate,” which is a pretty spot-on description of Ouma in a nutshell. In short, she knew he was annoying and childish (on purpose, most of the time) but she definitely didn’t think of him as evil or cruel. This may in part also be because she didn’t live long enough to see him embrace the fake villain routine by the end of chapter 4, of course.

Ouma has a few teasing remarks throughout most of the game, but it’s not really until the death road of despair is discovered that he and Kaede butt heads for the very first time. This is because of a big, fundamental difference between their ideologies: while both of them very much have the group’s best interests at heart, they completely disagree when it comes to whether it’s worth it to cooperate as a team or not.

By the end of the game, Ouma is extremely paranoid, refusing to cooperate with absolutely anyone unless it’s out of some mixture of chance and necessity (such as working with Momota in chapter 5). He keeps all his cards close to the chest, and refuses to confide in or trust any of his remaining classmates, believing it’s fully possible any of them could be the ringleader.

But before the events of chapter 4, we see that he’s actually not opposed to the idea of selective cooperation. He strikes up a tentative collaboration with Miu early on, commissioning her to create some extremely useful inventions with the intent of using them to try and end the killing game. He also extends an invitation of cooperation to both Kaede (in one of her FTEs) and Saihara (in chapter 4, in the parlor of the VR world), though he goes about this in such a sly, underhanded, and off-putting way that both of them shoot his offer down flat. Even he’s not beyond the idea of teaming up with people he perceives as “useful” or “smart,” as long as it’s a much smaller, one-on-one effort rather than trusting or working with the entire group.

By contrast, Kaede is someone who believes that group unity is almost a necessity if they want to escape the killing game. This is very much in line with the role she establishes for herself as a leader. Unlike characters like Momota, who has always sort of longed to embrace a “hero” role, or Saihara, who is considerably more awkward and unwilling to be a leader because of how guilty he feels, Kaede’s role is much more about boosting and maintaining the group’s morale.

This is lampshaded several times by the classical music pieces that she references, often in an attempt to either clam the others down or fire them up at the idea of working together and escaping. It’s also a fantastic little clue that her own positive outlook is something a bit more crafted than it seems on the surface; she always tries to be optimistic about things and face her problems head-on, but that’s in large part because she tries to energize herself and present that reliable, dependable persona to the rest of the group. In short, she believes that if she reveals her own uncertainty or lack of faith in her plans, the rest of the group’s trust and morale will fall too.

Like I mentioned, this difference in their outlook is really what begins to cause problems for them once they discover the death road of despair in chapter 1. Kaede sees the tunnel as their one opportunity to escape without having to rely on the killing game itself; even if it’s extremely difficult and damn near impossible to get through it, the chance of injury is a risk she’s willing to take, no matter how many times they have to start over. But Ouma disagrees with this mindset and criticizes her in front of the entire group, pointing out how everyone else is already exhausted and even injured, and saying that she has no right to make that decision for the rest of them.

He even goes a step further and accuses her of strong-arming the rest of them by “denying them the right to give up in an impossible situation.” He claims that by positing herself as an inspirational figure, she has the “moral high-ground” no matter what the rest of them do or say, and clearly doesn’t think it’s possible for them to continue down the death road without someone getting seriously injured, or worse.

These harsh words really take Kaede aback, especially since most of the rest of the group seems to more or less agree with Ouma. She’s extremely hurt—not just by the fact that no one seems to really want to keep going with her plan, but also, I think, because she felt as if Ouma was right on some level. In my opinion, this is why she cries once she’s alone in her room later: because she did feel as though she’d forced everyone else to go along with an unreasonable plan. It’s the first time that we really see the cracks in her leader persona beginning to show, as well as the self-doubt that she carries.

I honestly think many people who dislike Ouma on their first playthrough of the game may have started here, right at this moment. Because so much of this seems to be fairly black-or-white initially—Kaede is presented as the unequivocally good heroine, trying to get everyone to work together and escape, and Ouma by contrast seems mean and unreasonable for arguing with her in front of everyone. We’re not supposed to linger on the fact that he makes several good points about everyone else’s safety and exhaustion because how he goes about it is off-putting and unlikable.

Not only that, but we as first-time players aren’t supposed to know about all the similarities that Ouma and Kaede actually have in common, despite their differences on the matter of group cooperation. We’re not supposed to know just yet that they both want to save the group, no matter what it takes, or that both of them are willing to go to extreme, sometimes morally grey measures in order to try and stop the killing game. We’re not supposed to know right away that Ouma can be every bit as self-sacrificing as Kaede, despite the selfish things that he says in front of the others, or that when push comes to shove, Kaede is willing to lie almost as much as he is.

We don’t know any of that, initially—which is why that scene hits so hard and sets Ouma up to be so unpleasant. But I think going back on a replay and evaluating it again is pretty interesting specifically because of all these similarities that I’ve listed. The fact that they clash here is especially interesting, given the sort of roles they embody to the rest of the group, with Kaede deliberately choosing to be someone that the entire group relies on and finds trustworthy, while Ouma later sets himself up to become a villain who’s hated by everyone. And despite this, their goals are largely one and the same: expose the ringleader and end the killing game.

I think it’s specifically because Kaede realized she couldn’t continue pushing everyone to do the things she wanted them to, no matter how badly she wanted everyone to cooperate and escape together, and that’s ultimately why she turns to Plan B when she hears from Saihara about the bookshelf hiding the ringleader’s lair in the library. And for all that she does want to trust and cooperate with everyone else, she actually goes about this plan in the most Ouma-like way possible: by doing everything herself and without telling anyone her real intentions, not even Saihara.

Something I especially like about Kaede as a character is just how nuanced she is. Because she is simultaneously the brave, trustworthy, outgoing protagonist that we see her as, but she’s also so, so much more than that. She’s fiercely determined and cares about everyone else, yes, but it’s also because she cares so much that she’s willing to do things like lie and attempt murder behind everyone else’s back.

If we look at the audition videos as any sort of clue as to what the characters might’ve been like before the start of the game, I do think there was a somewhat more skeptical, cynical side of Kaede deep down that didn’t quite trust other people—and that’s all the more reason she wanted to trust them and work together with all of them, because she knew exactly how hard it was to do so. It’s such an interesting contrast from Ouma, who could easily have used all his lies and charm to cooperate with people if he wanted to, but who instead continually pushes people away because of his skepticism, all the while pretending to act completely arrogant and self-assured in his plans. Deep down, I think both of them were much more vulnerable than they were ever willing to show in front of other people.

And I think by the end of chapter 1, Ouma became more or less aware of that side of Kaede, once she confesses everything she tried to do to end the killing game. Prior to this, I personally think Ouma still very much liked and respected her guts and her attempts at leading the group, but that he ultimately thought she was doomed by her reliance on trust and cooperation when they didn’t even know who the ringleader was within their group. But I think that after hearing just how far she was willing to go to stop the killing game, including but not limited to lying to everyone else and going behind their backs with her own plan, he couldn’t help but respect her even more. Despite his accusations that she was too soft or naïve for trusting everyone else, her actual attempted solution was far closer to his own outlook than he initially gave her credit for.

This is why, just before Kaede is about to be executed, Ouma drops all of his usual acts and facades with her and gives her a sincere goodbye, telling her that she “wasn’t boring.” And this is really the highest compliment someone like Ouma can give: she did take him by surprise and surpass all his expectations from her, and I do believe he was genuinely sad to see her go when she attempted such a huge sacrifice for everyone else’s sakes.

Truly, the only part of her plan that I think he disagreed with was the act of (attempted) murder in and of itself. He felt that despite her good intentions, she had “crossed a line” that shouldn’t be crossed, and that she fell into the ringleader’s trap the moment the idea of murder crossed her mind. Considering how much DICE’s “no murder” taboo guided Ouma throughout the game, it’s not surprising at all that this is where he disagreed with Kaede. Though ironically, he himself crosses the same line in chapter 4 when he decides the only possible solution to Miu’s attempt on his life is to kill her himself, and therefore winds up getting his hands dirty without ever directly committing murder, much like Kaede herself.

Questioning how they might’ve gotten along if Kaede had actually lived past chapter 1 and continued being the game’s protagonist is interesting, mainly because so many factors would change as a result. Kaede and Saihara are so fundamentally different as protagonists, and Kaede herself is much more in line with what we would expect from a Hope’s Peak protagonist instead. Kodaka himself has described her in an interview as being extremely similar to Asahina, and I personally think she’s something of a combination between Asahina’s outgoing attitude and Maizono’s carefully crafted façade (not to mention moral ambiguity). So it stands to reason that the game and its themes wouldn’t quite be the same if Kaede were still the protagonist.

On the one hand, I do think there would be interesting potential for a possible alliance between her and Ouma, especially given how similar they could both be. Ouma himself proposes such an alliance to her in one of his FTEs, though she does get angry and shoots him down, as I mentioned earlier. But it’s interesting to consider if Kaede might’ve been more willing to cooperate in smaller, one-on-one alliances if she had attempted her plan in chapter 1 and failed without getting executed for it.

There’s also the fact that Ouma claims to remember her and everyone else adamantly in his FTEs with her, even going so far as to claim that she and everyone else forgot about him, even though he never forgot about them. It’s unclear whether he’s referring to his memories from before the game still being intact (which is likely, since he’s pretty skeptical of the flashback lights right away), or if there’s some other explanation for it, but personally, I don’t think it can be dismissed as a complete lie. Even if Kaede herself accuses him of lying and making it all up, he goes uncharacteristically blank and claims that “even he’s not that good at lying.”

This adds huge potential to Kaede sticking around, as there could easily be an underlying mystery element. In addition to the trials themselves and the mystery of the outside world, it’d be very possible to explore their dynamic further, as well as why Ouma said the things he did and if he was actually telling the truth about knowing her and everyone else from before. Kaede is absolutely persistent enough that I feel like she would’ve pressed him for details about this, especially once it became clear in the main plot that their memories were unreliable.

On the other hand, it’s really unclear if Ouma would’ve still been willing to offer that alliance to Kaede once she had attempted to commit murder. Assuming the events of chapter 1 stay more or less the same and the only difference is that Kaede survives instead of getting executed, this raises some potential problems with Ouma actually working together with her or trusting her. She did, as he puts it, “cross the line”—even if her murder attempt wasn’t successful, Ouma claims that she was already too far gone the moment she even considered murder as a possible solution. This could definitely cause another clash of opinions between them, especially as Ouma is much too paranoid to work directly with anyone who he thinks might kill him.

Another potential source of conflict in my opinion is the Hope’s Peak flashback light in chapter 5. Unlike Saihara, who deals primarily with questions of “truth or lies” and is ultimately able to see through Tsumugi’s false ultimatum in chapter 6 with the choice of either the “hope ending” or “despair ending,” Kaede is, as I mentioned, much more in line with what you’d expect from a Hope’s Peak protagonist. She’s extremely smart of course, but she has a bit of a reckless, headstrong streak where she tends to act based on emotion rather than reason, and this could get her into quite a lot of trouble once Tsumugi started rewriting everyone’s memories in chapter 5.

Saihara was able to see that both of the choices Tsumugi presented in the final trial were bullshit and would ultimately keep the cycle of Danganronpa ongoing, but I’m not entirely sure if Kaede would realize the same thing, or even if she did eventually realize it, I’m not sure it would’ve been in time to stop it. Because of her self-sacrificing nature, I personally think she would’ve chosen to be one of the sacrifices for the sake of “hope,” much like Amami presumably did in season 52. This ultimately means that Kaede sticking around might have ultimately led to a “bad end” of sorts, where even if the rest of the group went free aside from her and one other sacrifice, Danganronpa itself never gets dismantled and lives to see another season.

The only possible way I see for Kaede to avoid falling into this trap and making this choice is if enough of her classmates rubbed off on her or helped her see things in less black-or-white terms like “hope” or “despair,” and in more nuanced shades of grey instead. But considering how completely fooled almost everyone was in the actual events of the game, it’s difficult to say if this would happen. She would definitely need to talk and debate with someone who viewed the flashback lights a lot more skeptically, whether it was Saihara or Ouma (or maybe even Angie), before she could reach the truth about what Tsumugi and Team Danganronpa were really after.

This analysis has gotten pretty long by this point, so I’ll just wrap things up by saying that I really do love Kaede and Ouma’s friendship, and I think they had more potential of getting along than either of them might’ve realized in canon. Despite their fundamental differences, both of them were two characters who went farther than almost anyone else in trying to stop the killing game, and both of them weren’t afraid of getting their hands dirty if necessary. I think the fact that Ouma claims to remember Kaede and everyone else from before the killing game is super interesting, and I would’ve absolutely loved to see it touched on more if Ouma had lived longer.

All in all, Kaede is such an amazing, morally grey character who really helps to establish what we can expect from the rest of the game, and I think that’s part of what makes her so memorable. Maybe one day we’ll get some sort of DR:IF equivalent where we get a semi-canon look into a scenario where everyone lives, and hopefully there we could see not only more of Kaede being a protagonist figure, but also more of her interactions with Ouma and everyone else.

#danganronpa #new danganronpa v3 #ndrv3 #kaede akamatsu #kokichi ouma #ndrv3 spoilers //#my meta #okay to reblog #lamekit

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anonymouslyangsty · 3 years ago

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Idea: Escape Room AU. Making a loose interpretation of that one horror movie. Some of the Danganronpa characters are invited to play in an escape room, but find that if they don't solve the puzzles in time the consequences are deadly. Not only that, but each of the rooms are deliberately designed to invoke past traumas of each of the characters. My main motivation? High stress Ishimondo.

YES. 100% yes. You don't know how much I crave action/adventure Ishimondo. Yes domestic fluff is sweet, yes the death game can be intense. But there's something special about people having to actively fight for their lives together, and solving murders just doesn't hit the same.

So yeah I like the idea, it almost gives me YTTD vibes (for those who don't know, Your Turn To Die is like DR but you win puzzles or die. I love it)

(If you're interested, there's a fic that kinda fits this idea. It's Beyond Despair. It's basically "everyone who dies comes back and now they have to do puzzles to survive. I'll try not to take too much inspiration from it for this concept)

But yeah I love this idea. I think things like this do best with smaller groups, so here's an idea: Leon, Hiro, Chihiro, Mondo, and Taka go to an Escape Room over the summer for Mondo's birthday. Then surprise! It's all death trap filled.

Just trying to think of potential rooms on the spot...I warn you that I've only gone heavily into the backstories of Taka and Mondo when it comes to DR1, so I might be missing out on some good ideas.

Hiro has to make a bunch of predictions to stop the others from getting harmed, perhaps a form of Russian Roulette. If he predicts where the bullet is incorrectly, he ends up shooting someone. He's probably not aiming for anything vital just in case, but it would still suck.

Not sure how this relates to trauma. Maybe he messed up an important prediction, and that led to someone getting seriously hurt?

Chihiro's great issue is weakness, which he tries to overcome. So maybe his room is having to hack something with a timer, where failing to do so in time leads to everyone burning alive. It would test his mental fortitude.

Or we could go the physical strength path. Like a situation where the solution is in an area so small that only Chi can enter, but something inside has to be forcefully pulled open. So Chi has to find the strength to do it, either by outsmarting the trap, or pure strength.

Or maybe it's both? Chi has to show both mental and physical strength to pass the trial.

Mondo has his own issues with strength, not to mention his guilt for the whole Daiya thing. Maybe he gets put into a situation where he alone can solve the puzzle, but cannot act. Instead, he has to tell the others what to do.

Think something like the game Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. The basic premise of that game is: there are two players, one with a manual, and another with a bomb. The player with the manual has to instruct the other player on how to defuse the bomb. The player with the bomb cannot see the manual.

And that would be pretty stressful for Mondo. He isn't confident in his intelligence, so having to solve the puzzle alone would already be a problem. Plus there's the fear that he'll fail his friends, that he'll mess up and get them all killed.

For Leon...I'll admit that I don't have a solid idea for him. He wants to leave baseball and become a musician, right? So I'm not really sure how to infuse that desire into his room.

Plus I don't want to make his room just "hit this target to escape" because he can probably do that really easily...But it still needs to be involved with his talent in some way.

Here's an idea. It's not ideal because I'm not sure how well it fits into his character, but at least it includes his talent in a way that won't be horribly easy for him.

The group has to play a game of baseball, Leon vs everyone else (sure the teams are uneven, but Leon's the best baseball player around, so it's fair).

The game has to end with 12 home runs (why 12? there's a dumb reason.). For each point the enemy team gets, the other team is punished somehow. Each punishment is worse than the last.

Leon is a way better player than all of them combined, so it's not about him winning. It's about him deciding who gets hurt. Does he save himself, or save the others? It's a game of selfishness vs selflessness. Not to mention a delicate balance of ensuring nobody's too hurt to keep going.

As for the punishments, we could add another layer of selfish vs selfless actions. Maybe the losing team has to decide among themselves who takes the punishment, or they can all agree to take a slightly less harmful version of it.

And Taka. I'm...not sure? His character is all about morality, but Leon's trial kind of has that covered. There's also his role as a leader, but Mondo's trial covers that. Whatever the case, I'm just going to throw out ideas.

First thought is to focus on Taka's passion and strong work ethic. Think of it as kinda the opposite of Mondo's proposed trial. Taka's placed on some kind of pedestal that leaves him about 8 inches from the ceiling. On top of the ceiling is some kind of button, just far enough away that he has to reach to touch it.

While he's up there, everyone has...some kind of puzzle to solve. I don't know what honestly, probably some moral dilemma or something to keep on theme.

Now here's the point of this trial. Around the beginning of the room, Taka's shot with like half a dose of sedative. Not enough to knock him out, but enough to make the process of reaching up to hold a button pretty hard. Whenever he isn't pressing the button, water starts filling the room. If he passes out, they all drown.

This trial places him in a position of power, as everyone is relying on him to stay strong despite the struggle he's facing. And it's the opposite of Mondo's trial because he has no agency. He can't really help solve the puzzle, all he can do is keep that button held. But it's also similar to Mondo's trial because, if he falters, everyone dies.

The downside to this option is that it has nothing to do with morality. Mondo could just as easily have this trial, since it's more about hard work and strength.

Another option is something that focuses far more on morality. I'm not sure of the details, but perhaps it's a situation where he has to decide who of his friends to hurt to help everyone escape. And he wants to find a solution that leaves everyone unharmed, but that very well might not be possible.

Or maybe something like the prisoner's dilemma? (In very basic terms, you have prisoners A and B. If A and B trust each other, they both escape. If one betrays the other, the one who betrayed escapes with some extra benefit. If both betray, both get nothing.)

In this hypothetical situation, perhaps this is the last trial, just long enough for little resentments within the group to build. For the stress of the situation to make friendship become overshadowed by self preservation. Can they really trust one another to do the right thing, or will they get betrayed?

This is more morality related, but it's also not specific to Taka. Taka doesn't play a lead role, they all do, since they all have to face the dilemma.

Final idea, and admittedly the least formed one. They’re in...some kind of puzzle, with a timer of course because we need the pressure to be one. In the room with them is someone none of them know, bound and gagged.

They can spend time trying to solve the puzzle the hard way, or they can do it the easy way. But the easy way means killing the captive (Maybe they have a key in their stomach or something). And you want to do the right thing, but there's a timer and the moral option takes so much longer.

Taka continues his role as moral compass for this trial. He has to be the one to declare if they go the easy option. If he choose it, he personality has to get the key. There's a knife provided for the task

It could feed on Taka's fears of corruption and morality. Is it better to sacrifice one to save the group? Is he being selfish for trying to save a stranger rather than his friends? Taka has a very black and white view on morality, and this trial would force him to shatter that.

It could also lead into a fear that he'll become just as corrupt as Toranosuke. After all, if he can't solve this trial without any deaths, how can he be a good man?

Honestly? While I called this one the least formed, I think I like it the most. It's a real moral dilemma.

#kiyotaka ishimaru #hiro hagakure #mondo owada #chihiro fujisaki #leon kuwata #danganrompa #also #thank yall for dealing with my slow response time #an ask tag

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illusionsofcontrol · 4 years ago

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Who was your least fav character in the whole Danganronpa series?

HOOO BOY THIS IS VERY HARD TO ANSWER

It might be between Junko and Ruruka (confectionary girl from the DR3 anime). Obviously, I hate Ruruka because she was very selfish and annoying. But I don't know if I'd consider her my least fav, because that would imply I actually have passion behind my hate, and I don't. She's just one of the most unforgivable characters, imo. Obviously there's Junko, but Junko is on a ridiculous level while Ruruka felt more like a real person, and a realistic character is a lot easier to feel actual anger towards.

Junko, however, I've grown to resent from a writing standpoint. She was good in DR1 and SDR2; wacky and a little annoying, but a suitable villain for the series. However, DR3 really ruined her character for me. The first two games and Ultra Despair Girls really emphasized how manipulative she could be, and I thought that was a very interesting aspect of her character. Like as wacky as she was, she was genuinely terrifying in that aspect. Junko was supposed to be someone who knew just what would bring people to despair and lure them to her side under the guise of love and friendship. SDR2 heavily implied that she honed in on the class's individual despairs, as all of them had something tragic about their lives.

However, DR3 retconned a lot of that. Instead of gradually manipulating everyone, Junko just... tricked people and used Ryota's animations to spread despair by literally brainwashing them. How is that real despair??? In my opinion, DR3 took away the one interesting part of Junko's character and just left the annoying bits.

So I guess that's why Junko might be my least favorite character, with Ruruka being a close second. But these are just my opinions, I know they both have their fans and it's fine.

#ask #dr spoilers #dr3 spoilers

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monomonomagines · 5 years ago

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can i get a matchup? i would like a female character from dr1~ i can be hard to understand bc i'm easily annoyed by a lot of things and get bored quickly, i can also get moody suddenly. i have anxiety and find showing my true feelings hard. i don't like loud places or loud, very emotional people. i'm affectionate but quite shy, sadly. i enjoy writing poems and stories, photography and visiting beautiful places like old castles or temples. i have a weak spot for ambitious and charismatic people!

Hiya, Anon! I’m very sorry for this taking so long. Things have been very hectic where I live with the Corona Virus so I’ve been a bit preoccupied. Anyways, I’m finally free to write so there’s no need to worry anymore. I hope that you enjoy this even if you had to wait for it. Thanks in advance! I love and appreciate you!

For your first match, I’d pair you with...

Kyoko Kirigiri!

Since you don’t do well with emotional or loud people, Kyoko is a perfect fit for you. She’s easily able to deal with when you’re emotional or anxious and would be the voice of reason for you, or if you needed a shoulder to cry on. She isn’t used to being very affectionate herself, but she’d be great at easing you out of your shell so that you can feel more comfortable around her regardless.

For your second match, I’d put you with...

Celestia Ludenberg!

Although Celeste has her moments, she typically remains cool and calm. She doesn’t enjoy showing her emotions even if they can be a bit extreme in certain cases but she still could make herself stay calm or quiet for you. She, of course, is selfish at times and will want you to write poems or stories somehow about her or her aesthetic but she’d also love to visit old castles with you so that she can get ideas for her own dream castle.

#danganronpa #danganronpa matchup #dr1 #danganronpa trigger happy havoc #danganronpa x reader #x reader #kyoko kirigiri #celestia ludenberg #ask #mod toko

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aparticularbandit · 1 year ago

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I have come to...settled with Case 2-3 and the shenanigans, and here is why.

The motive for all three cases so far has to do with the lost memories (with the exception of Nagito, who didn't actually kill anyone).

Teru Teru murdered Byakuya because he wanted to know what happened to his mom during his missing time.

Peko killed Mahiru (on Fuyuhiko's behalf) because they believed Mahiru was involved in the murder of Fuyuhiko's sister - a murder that Fuyuhiko had forgotten about and for which, in those memories, he had already killed someone else.

Mikan killed Ibuki (and Hiyoko) because she regained her memories and reverted to her self that is in love with Junko.

They're all memory related because right now, while Monokuma is definitely wanting everyone to kill each other, he's also very much trying to get them to remember themselves and who they became so they can become those people again (people who, as evidenced by Mikan, would be totally cool with killing each other). Regaining their memories is a triumph over what Future Foundation is trying to accomplish; it's less about the murder and more about screwing over FF and getting his peeps back.

As opposed to the first game, where none of the motives have to do with the missing memories because none of them know they have memories to miss (other than Kirigiri). Each of those motives has to be more tied into the characters as they are then because the goal is suspicion and murder for the entertainment of the masses and to increase despair worldwide.

The goal in this game isn't global despair. It's getting the gang back together and turning them back into who they were before. It isn't really even about despair. This game is about hope - about different nurture leading to different outcome and about Monokuma trying to prove that can't happen. It's not about corrupting the hope of the world. It's about redeeming the despair.

(Which makes Nagito's turnabout later such a big deal - even though I haven't gotten there - because while Nagito may be all about hope, he has no hope in redemption. Once they've fallen into despair, there's no way they can become anything else. That's why they all have to die. But they prove over and over again that they have hope and hope in each other and hope in getting off. These people likely wouldn't kill each other without those additional memories as a motive (Nagito being the exception) - which is why Monokuma has to keep screwing with things.

Because oddly enough, despite being the Fragments of Despair, they wouldn't kill each other for the reasons the characters in DR1 would. They're friends. They start as friends.

DR1 cast starts as enemies. And they treat each other accordingly. (With perhaps the exception of Chihiro's death. Which had nothing to do with Chihiro, really, and everything to do with Mondo's own insecurities. But again - that's selfishness coming into play. The characters in DR1 are so incredibly selfish, right off the bat. The characters in DR2...aren't.)

#musings #bandit liveblogs #bandit liveblogs danganronpa #obviously i haven't finished it yet #but you can see their selflessness in so many ways #from how mahiru treats hiyoko #to how byakuya steps up to try and protect them #to nekomaru stepping in to save akane #to peko killing for fuyuhiko #to mikan slaving after everyone who was sick to the point of getting sick herself #to ibuki trying to help everyone feel better while fuyuhiko was recovering #even to nagito trying to create the ultimate hope - he's got a selfish way of doing that but there's selflessness in that too #idk #i just #had thoughts

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2ki8h1 · 5 years ago

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What if Ishimaru and Mondo had both survived the killing game?

So, at the beginning of this year (2019), I decided to embark in a different project: to write a full fanfiction surrounding a certain idea: “What if both of them had survived the killing game?”. The goal of this was to include Ishimaru, as well as Mondo, in the canon plot described by the games and anime (I still haven’t read the novels or the mangas) by creating an adventure surrounding them but also focused in points I wished I saw in Danganronpa. In other words, write about their character development, their relationship (yes, it was supposed to be mainly focused on Ishimondo as a couple, slowly blossoming their romance) but it was also an opportunity to write about tragedy and despair (I enjoy writing horror and angst). I won’t reveal any major spoilers (about my fanfiction) because I haven’t decided if I will continue to work on this. I have other tasks at hand that I need to prioritise. It was supposed to be a big project which I estimated to be longer than 100.000 words. [so far, I have only written over 13k with the 1st chapter still at the beggining, while the second one is already at the middle with over 10k words.]

The point of this post: since I don’t know if I continue this or not, I would love to share the best moments I have wrote so far (both humorous and romantic and I have decided to not share any gory/sad parts). I will give context for every part I share without giving too much details.

NOTE 1: The narrator tries to put themselves in the feet of the character they are focusing on. So, they also try to adopt their way of speech and attempt to convey their feelings facing the various occasions (for example: the narrator is more crude and sad when the character in focus is Mondo)

NOTE 2: English is not my first language. So I apologise for any mistakes found.

WARNING: HEAVY SPOILERS FOR DR1 AND SDR2.

1. “Hopes and Dreams”

Chapter: 1

Context: epilogue of DR1, looking at the metal gate that locked them inside the school, after defeating Junko.

The prospects of a new start were high amongst everyone. Makoto was experiencing a restraint holding his body, in other words, he felt tensed. Suddenly, the feel of warm leather touched his right palm. Kyoko had approached him and gently held his hand. She didn’t made eye contact however he appreciated her kind gesture. “You will not fight this battle alone.” Her speech motivated him and invoked a determined willpower from within which led him to furrow his eyebrows and squeeze her hand slightly harder. Amused by his mood changes, Kyoko tried but failed to conceal a shy, joyful smile.

Mondo walked closer to his brother and hurriedly hurled his long coat to fall over the other man’s shoulder and placed his right arm around Ishimaru’s neck to enfold him in a friendly embrace. That action startled Taka, who barely succeeded to sustain both feet on the ground after the abrupt (and clumsy) headlock. Along with an open, radiant grin, Mondo spoke: “Finally, we’re leaving this place!” Taka with his left hand reached and grabbed Mondo’s right wrist and looked back at him to return his kind words with a soft, resolved smile.

(...)

Byakuya continued to show suppression of his emotions to let his cruel image rule whatever perceptions he wishes others to have of him. Toko was next to him, fidgeting her fingers in embarrassment, peeking briefly at her “beloved” every two seconds with an odd, lustful desire on her face. Hiro, in the other hand, was screaming and crying in ecstasy, praying down in all fours, blessing the floor underneath and showing gratitude to whatever god (or alien) was looking after him.

2. “Lost happy memories”

Chapter: 1

Context: shortly after opening the door, the survivors stand inside the school grounds but outside the building, thinking what they should do next.

Even if any of the lost memories had still not returned, Mondo remembered fondly of the small time he spent with Chihiro during the game, it had been enough for him to develop feelings of admiration towards the geek. He reached out for a specific content that was sitting inside of his long coat’s left pocket (the same coat that continued to shelter Ishimaru’s shoulders) to purposely find the set of stolen photos that served as evidence in the former trial. He glanced upon one in particular. It starred him hugging fiercely both of the baseball star and the computer nerd – he was happy. No, he was extremely happy. Look at his wide, stupid grin; it was a smile that he didn’t recall to see a long time ago. He browsed through the rest and his suspicions were confirmed. He had good times at Hope Peak’s academy. However, the collection was limited. Did he get along with the rest of the class? Were he and Ishimaru as close as they currently are or were they fierce enemies fighting about dumb things? There were a few of him smiling towards Taka. More than anything, he wanted to believe in the happiest statements. He glanced through the same photographs once again but he ended up with the same doubts. He wished to rewind time and relive through those moments one last time where he could adopt the same idiotic, relaxed posture he seemed to use back then. At least, he wished the set included a photo of him with his kyoudai. Did they also resolve their differences with a competition in the sauna? He laughed at the thought.

Ishimaru sighed while pointing at one of them. “I will miss them as well.” At the end of his index finger was a photograph captured by Makoto: They were all posing for the picture, in their school uniforms, inside their classroom (well, almost everyone - of course, Leon insisted in wearing his version of a “uniform”). Mondo turned his head to encounter red eyes glazed, stained with tears that fought to break free. Wow, he really was kind. “We were lucky… I wonder if I truly deserve to be one of the s-”

Maybe too kind for his own good. “Shut it...” He caught Taka surprised with the response. “What would I do without my brother next to me?” Mondo added, wrapping an arm around the other’s neck in a friendly way.

“Maybe it’s true. I still have a lot to lecture you about the true value of effort!”

That was not what Mondo wanted to hear “Oi-“

“And, as selfish as this may sound, I am truly relieved you weren’t the one who passed away.”

Sadness and guilt. Mondo looked at Kiyotaka and remembered how those two words felt. Those were feelings Kiyotaka was over familiar with… hell, even he knew the despair hidden behind those terms.

Mondo had quickly learned to detect those moods. In fact, he was pretty good at it! And he was unnecessarily proud of that achievement... The diagnosis? Symptoms of a low self-esteem. He still hadn’t figure it out how to improve his condition however, he had to think about it later; right now, he wanted to focus in leaving this creepy-ass school.

“Movin’ on… What th’ hell is this creepy smile?” In a sloppy attempt to change the subject, he shoved the mentioned picture in Taka’s face.

“Whatever do you mean?”

“Look at your face! You look like those creepy clowns but without the makeup. So stiff and robotic and why are you behaving like a soldier?”

“Ghk- Are you saying I am ugly?”

“Wha-! Ah- Shit! no!” just like mentioned before… embarassingly sloppy “That’s not what I meant! I just wanted to tell ya’ that ya’ need to smile naturally and not force yourself just ta’ try to look good in th’ pictures because it has the opposite result you intended!” Mondo pulled off a different photograph. In this one, they were with their gym clothes, enjoying a P.E. class and Ishi was smiling brightly while cheering for their class “For example, in this ya’ look natural ‘cause ya’ got caught off guard!”

“Oh- I see.” Disappointment was felt in his voice.

“Well- See? It doesn’t mean yar ugly or nothi’, actually I think ya’ are very good lookin’. Ya’ just look funny in photographs. Not everyone is photogenic! ... (especially you…)” he babbles.

“Thank you.” Taka released a soft smile. The type of smile someone would like to record it with a photograph “You are a very kind man, kyoudai!”

And Mondo gets easily flustered with sweet (and cheesy) praises “Oh! Stop it! Don’t worry that pretty head of yours thinking that yer’ ugly or some bullshit like that…”

“I don’t usually concern myself over those issues. But I can��t stop myself from wondering if the lack of a more relaxed posture or behavior is the result of my failures at adopting socials skills.”

Mondo couldn’t deny it. He had the same opinion. He gave it a shrug in an attempt to give the conversation a closure.

“And if I may say so myself. I think you are a very attractive man yourself, Mondo.”

Mondo blushed even harder at the sudden compliment. And again, that cute smile… if only he could make him smile like that in photos…

“I know!! What if I force you to smile spontaneously?”

A small silence broke between the two “Force me to smile spontaneously?” Mondo cringed at the obvious mistake “Did you think that through?”

“Eh- shit! Atleast I am tryin’. I don’t see ya’ spittin’ any ideas!”

Taka chuckled. Mondo never considered to see Ishimaru laugh as he did right now. It created an ambience of comfort. It’s a new side that Mondo wished to see his brother with it in more occasions. “I will try to think of something too, then.”

Observing those two talking was Kirigiri; detective mode activated: the right index finger intertwined and resting on her chin as she would normally do whenever she found herself immersed deep in her thoughts. “Those two seem to be in a good mood. It’s good to have someone to rely on.”

“Well, I consider myself lucky too. After all, I am the ultimate lucky student if I have you backing me up.”

That was… unexpected. Was he trying to be smooth, flirty or just kind? One look at his facial expression: huge smile, eyebrows tense, shoulders determined. He was definately not trying to be flirty but that comment was very effective. She turned around, flushed.

3. “Makoto, the servant”

Chapter: 2

Context: daily life of Makoto in the Future Foundation.

Makoto had woken up with a tedious mood. He checked his alarm clock and groaned… 4 a.m., “Great!” He said before slamming the snooze button and slumping back into the flat, old pillow. He blamed Togami for that. The man continued to impose him waking up at ridiculous hours to perform the most preposterous tasks. To be honest, he sometimes felt to be Togami’s pet or worse… a servant. He cringed at the idea and quickly dismissed such unwelcomed thoughts to not further the cranky mood he was in.

“Peasant, I will need my coffee at exactly 65ºC (150ºF) with just a sniff of cinnamon or I’ll have you thrown into the dungeon. Naegi, you tell them the answer!” He adjusted his imaginary glasses, pointing forcefully to a random nearby object while attempting to copy Togami’s presumptuous act with an over exaggerated high-pitched voice. “Makoto, that was not what I wanted y-you to t-tell… t-them.“ …but he merely ended in chuckles in the middle of the last one, ridiculing his own failed attempts.

He pushed the sheets to one side and hopped off out of bed. Imitating Togami would always lighten his mood. He grabbed his phone to see what horrifying tasks awaited him that day…

4. “Reunion”

Chapter: 2

Context: Mondo was part of the 2nd division (army) while Ishimaru belonged to the 14th division. Mondo was a soldier, facing wars in different points of the world; while Ishimaru worked in Future Foundation’s headquarters, safe from any danger. This was not their first reunion but it was the one where they spent the most time apart. The location of the reunion was in a cafeteria inside FF.

At the end of the corridor, he rested his hands over the knees to normalize his respiratory rate. One mental reminder to himself was to put his exercise in order! Those sleepless nights and postponing his exercise regime were clearly affecting his stamina. Though, he would have to worry about that later. Still panting, he recomposed to an upright stance to meet the single entrance of the beautiful building where Mondo awaited him. The smell of freshly baked buns was causing his stomach to start rumbling. He touched the glass door but didn’t push it to open. Instead he looked through the stained glass and tried to spot him. Shaky breaths were quickly turned into condensation whenever these brushed over the surface of the glass, defocusing the once clear image and forcing Kiyotaka to clean the droplets with his right sleeve. It had been wise to look for him behind the entrance door. It avoided a clumsy search inside the cafeteria for anyone to watch and whisper. He sensed something was beating fast inside of him. He confirmed that his heart was racing when he placed a hand close to his chest. Why did he feel so nervous?

The cafeteria was still pretty empty at this time of the day but a few people were starting to fill the empty chairs and placing their trays on top of the metallic round tables to start enjoying their meals. Loud laughter and loud chatter slowly scattered across the space, too much to his annoyance. He looked at his right, straight to his usual table. It was almost hidden by a load-bearing wall, away from the restless crowd and at the same time, closer to the landscape he so enjoyed. That blooming tree filled his morning with color and energy and made him believe that he could endure another harsh, boring day. Darn, someone was already occupying that… spot. Wait… sun-kissed muscles, different uniform (if not mistaken, he recognized it to be from the 2nd division), bleached long hair… That was Mondo right?

“Mondo.” he whispered only letting himself to hear before opening the door. The smile vanished in a brief second after he noticed bruises, scars and some bandages covering his best friend. Mondo turned his head around almost unconsciously to the scraping sound that the front door’s metallic base did over the tile floor, a common sound that repeated every time someone moved it to open.

Not five seconds passed when a very trembling Ishimaru had his arms around him. Mondo felt a stream of warm tears running loose in his cheeks, damping the collar of his t-shirt. Taka was crying, of course. Gently, Mondo folded his arms around the other’s midsection, pulling him to his lap to allow his forehead to drown in Taka’s neck, surrendering to the embrace.

The comments mocking the odd pair suddenly reverberated through the room, filling the air of not-so-sneaky murmurs. Without separating himself from the warmth radiated from Taka’s right shoulder, Mondo rotated his head, locking eyes with the few smug fuckers. A narrow purple iris shined in contempt out of a squinted corner of his left eye. Some deviated his looks, frighten by the former delinquent’s cold stare, while the boldest ones maintained the glare beside a derisive smile, maliciously enjoying the scene.

Yet, Taka was only focused in who held him; giving minimal concern to his surroundings. “Without hearing from you, I thought you were gone for good!” Hell, he didn’t even seem to notice the bastards around them! He only knew how his arms trembled and how his eyes hurt, overdriven with emotions.

Taka shifted to close the embrace even tighter, to reduce any amount of space that still remained between the two. The strong dedication put in those words chocked whatever sickening feeling Mondo was struggling with. Kiyotaka cherishing him was the remedy he needed to immediately light his mood and now, it was his turn to return the favor. Mondo moved one hand to ruffle Taka’s soft hair, while the left rubbed his back, working in tandem. Whatever it was, the affection was soothing the other’s tears. Mondo gave him time to compensate the time they had been away from each other so this position lasted for a few minutes.

Suddenly, Taka raised his head to look directly into the other’s eyes, who replaced kind eyes for a big smile. Mondo had a wide variety of smiles but this one, this stupid wide, teeth-clenched one meant ‘everything is alright’ where as Taka just continued to feel as hurt and tired. He inspected the scars meticulously, especially the ones across his face before unwrapping his arms around Mondo’s neck. Mondo didn’t budge but his palms slid to rest in other’s hips. Taka detected a tiny cut just under the left eye. He glared at it for a bit before rubbing it gently with his thumb to depreciate the change of texture that usually escorted injuries.

Red eyes were glazed deep in thought to which Mondo frowned and sighed. “Who are you?”

Taka was taken aback with the question. “What? Do you not recognize me?”

The exaggerated dismay on Ishimaru’s expression lines was what caused the loud, boisterous laugh that followed. It started off as a snort but it quickly developed to guffaws. That laugh only belonged to Mondo and to Mondo only. Taka simply gawked at him in absolute oblivion until the other stopped to explain. “I-I am just playin’ ya.” He managed to say between chortles “Ya’ almost fooled me with that long hair of yours, but your face continues the same. Oh gosh! How long has it been? 5 months? Hmph- it looks good on ya!”

This had not been the first time apart but it had been the longest they have been away from each other.

“This is hardly the time for games!”

“Sorry! Pout as much as you want. That cute angry face does not work on me! It was fuckin’ hilarious to see your reaction!”

Mondo conceded. He did look older, more mature, like a proper business man. He smirked turning Taka alert to his movements. He proceeded to remove his gloves and threw them carelessly on top of the table. He cupped Ishimaru’s pale but warm face against his cold hands. He flinched with the abrupt change of temperature but melted into it nevertheless. He pushed Taka’s bangs back revealing the angry wrinkled forehead and some kinky strands of hair that fought free from the grip. He noticed the obvious dark rims under the eyes, knowing full well he was the cause of that predicament. Regardless, he chose to leave the subject untouched. In any case he still had the same face and the same soft raven hair.

(…)

Although not evident, Kirigiri did worry about Ishimaru’s well being. He had a gorgeous smile when he truly felt happy and he was the only who could perform such a confidence boost in Taka.

“Hello, Mondo. It is nice to see you’re back safe.”

He looked at his right to see the former ultimate detective staring at him with a formal smile. “Hello Kirigiri. How are you?”

“Good. What about you?”

“Meh- could’a be worse!” he answered, looking fondly at Taka.

The conversation quickly died and Inadvertently, Kirigiri’s eyes fell over Mondo’s lap, where Taka was still sitting.

For once, Taka was able to read the surprise in Kirigiri’s face and immediately jumped out to his upright position leaving Mondo stunned.

“I didn’t realize I was still in y-your lap. I am so sorry kyoudai!”

He could have been quieter in saying that… Kyoko attempted to cover a snicker behind her usual thinking expression which became apparent that it would be a hard task when holding an apple in each hand.

5. “???”

Chapter: 2

Context: after the “reunion” moment. Taka went to grab breakfast for himself and Mondo, while the other waited for him in the lounge.

Taka rushed to the kitchen without running. Old habits die hard I guess. Mondo chuckled at that. A tall man with ridiculous hair was now approaching Mondo.

“Mondo! So nice to see you again, man!”

“Same, Hagakure. How are you doing?”

“Fine. (gasps) those are some ugly, nasty scars.” Hagakure pointed it out “Are you ok?”

“No, dude. Can’t you see I’m dead?”

“AHHHHHHH- a ghost!”

Mondo is now the one stunned by Hiro’s overreaction.

“Bro… Chill… I am just teasing you… Did you seriously think I was dead? How high are you?”

“Are you sure you didn’t come to haunt me??” Hiro continued, half-hunched, covering half of his face with his forearms, squinting towards an even more stupefied Mondo,

“You have serious problems. I was bein’ sarcastic, ya’ big idiot!”

“Oh- haha! I am glad to hear it!” Hagakure quickly to his usual chirp self and laughed it off “It would be bad news if I had been haunted by a ghost.”

“Whatever man…”

Thank you so much for reading!! And apologies for my terrible sense of humour!

#my writing #danganronpa #Future Foundation AU #ishimondo #Kiyotaka Ishimaru #Mondo Owada Oowada #naegiri #Makoto Naegi #Kyouko Kyoko Kirigiri #Touko Toko Fukawa #Byakuya Togami #Yasuhiro Hiro Hagakure #togafuka #naegami

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linkspooky · 5 years ago

Text

Thanks for the tags @jeanandthedreamofhorses

Rules:

Name your top 10 favorite characters from 10 different fandoms and then tag 10 people.

I’m gonna tag @kenkamishiro @inumaqi @bloodycarnations @kaibutsushidousha @desmondneedshisscalpel @harostar @cirrocumulus-cloud @coromoor @sir-argues-a-lot (list your top 10 buff dudes conspic)

Hello my name is link and my faves for each series can be divided into two strict categories, white haired bastards, and black haired bastards. Blonde is just white haired bastard LITE. Herre are ten of my favorite bastards.

1. Kumagawa Misogi - Medaka Box

My favorite character of all time, Kumagawa Misogi is a fantastic character because he embodies every bad victim stereotype. He’s aggressive, he lashes out, he blames other people for his problems, he has a bad attitude, he’s pessimistic, he’s ugly, he’s mean. He has every single character trait that people traditionally consider bad, and yet underneath it all he’s still a good guy. By playing the bad victim (which is intentional act on his part because Kumagawa is very self aware especially of his own flaws and weaknesses), he makes the point that all victims even the ugliest ones are still human underneath.

Like the reason Kumagawa is a bad person isn’t because he’s selfish, or because he doesn’t care about other people’s pain. He cares. He cares way too much, to the point where his emotions are so deeply ingrained in him and so illogical that he almost always acts on those feelings above everything else. At his heart he’s a person who wants to save others, especially those who are weaker and those who have been abused, but it always manifests in the most negative ways and his good intentions always go wrong.

Yet through all of that we see Kumagawa continues living, and that’s the most important part of his character, even as the worst person ever, even completely useless, even as a disaster for everyone around you, you have to keep living and keep struggling to be better. Kumagawa finds identity in being a loser, and he comes to accept himself the way he is because that’s the only way for him to move forward. Not only that but Kumagawa is clever and genuinely subversive, not only is he capable of outwitting people because he’s so good at bluffs, lies, and he’s just so used to surviving every situation that his brain is stuck in permanent survival mode, but he also subverts the whole ‘weak character has to become stronger to protect the people around them’ trope. Because, Kumagawa is still weak but that never stops him from helping others. He never thinks becoming strong is the solution, and his character development is him leaving the mindset that it would be better if he was the one hurting others rather than being hurt by them.

2. Enoshima Junko - Dangan Ronpa my favorite Junko is not actually her appearance at the end of DR1, or in DR3, or in DR2 as alter ego though all three of those are fanastic and fun to watch. My favorite reading of Junko is how she’s represented in Dangan Ronpa Zero, as this like, girl who has this incredibly overactive brain who literally makes a plan where she lobotomizes herself because the only way to stop herself from getting bored is to erase her own memory so she constantly forgets everything, and even THAT DOESN’T WORK.

I’m not saying Junko is a tragic character in any way, but the fact that she can never escape her own head no matter how desperately she tries is what makes her interesting. Even her obsession with despair fails her in the end, because she was getting too bored of a world that was exactly what she wanted, pure chaos. If you read her that way there’s a lot of interesting subtext with her character and her actions.

The best part about Junko is she’s not what is considered a fictional psychopath in a traditional sense, she actually has the ability to make connections with people and genuinely care about them. However, with Junko that just means you’re going to be worse off then if she did not care about you at all. Junko’s motivations are so simple, she really is just trying to enjoy the life everybody else does, but she can’t because her brain is a supercomputer. And she’s trying to feel something about the world, or create some meaning about the world, some reason to continue living in it and she’s willing to break the world and all her toys to accomplish that.

3. Dazai Osamu - Bungou Stray Dogs No Longer Human, and The Rising Sun two of Dazai’s works are in my top ten favorite books of all time. Bungou Stray Dogs understands the writings of Dazai when they personify him in this character.

What makes Dazai so fantastic a character is that he’s genuinely mentally ill and traumatized, especially from the way he acts he’s been suicidal since he was a teen and a person is not born that way. Yet, at the same time he’s also a bad person. Which is a fantastic bit of nuance. He’s not bad because he’s mentally ill, he’s bad because he runs away from responsibility, he abused Akutagawa as a way of venting his feelings for the port mafia then completely abandoned him, he doesn’t trust people and goes out of his way to manipulate and control his own allies.

Dazai struggles the most with seeing people as people, and part of this is for what I call Junko Reasons when a character is smarter than everybody around them and therefore, can read them to a certain extent that they become predictable and boring and cannot relate to them in any way. Part of this however is also Dazai’s own fear of loss, which makes him want to control everything.

Rather than an adult, he’s more like a child that’s far too smart for his own good. He is smart enough to predict and control situations far in advance, and yet he’s so emotionally vulnerable that just the idea of experiencing loss itself makes him scared to ever be emotionally invested in anybody. And Dazai will spout philosophy all day to make it seem like he’s simply too smart to have friends, but his one sincere friend was just an average person that became his friend because he treated Dazai like a normal human which is what Dazai wants ultimately. The human failure wants to be human and his story is his slow journey to that state.

4. Shigaraki Tomura - My Hero Academia Horrible. Terrible. Baby. Infant. Shigaraki Tomura is a character I have loved since his introduction. Just like Kumagawa he’s a character always violently lashing out at the society around him. Also like Kumagawa, he’s always taking in victims of trauma around him who aren’t ‘acceptable’ or ‘good’ victims and giving them an outlet and genuine friends.

Shigaraki Tomura has scars that reach deep under his skin all the way to his bones. One of the most interesting things about his character is how much of a subversion he is from the way he’s originally presented. All Might reacts to Shigaraki like he’s a psychopathic manchild who does not care about a thing and destroys things for no reason. That is also what All for One raised him to be, someone who exists to be a symbol of destruction and fear and nothing else.

Yet, we eventually learn why he is this way and how little sympathy the hero system has for a victim like Shigaraki. He’s a man-child because he was literally raised in All for One’s basement, only for the purpose of becoming a villain and nothing else. He’s deeply angry at heroes because he knows deep down none of them would save him, he’s a bad victim, and only the good looking victims get saved.

Despite having every reason to turn into a heartless symbol of destruction, Shigaraki is very, obviously, not. He’s trying desperately to be All for One, but he can’t be that person, because Shigaraki cares about people too much. He wants validation, he wants freedom, and he wants the same for the people under his protection and that keeps him human and stops him from turning into the monster he was raised to be.

5. Norman - The Promised Neverland so the exact opposite of a villain who cannot help but be good, we have Norman an undeniably good person who chose to become a villain instead because otherwise he was powerless and that was the only means of accomplishing his high ideals.

Norman is the smartest of the gracefield children, and admired by both Ray and Emma and yet in spite of all of this, his self esteem is incredibly low. He has always put Emma on a pedestal and declared her a good person, and himself the bad person. Due to that he has almost no dreams of his own, and desires almost nothing for himself, putting absolutely everything into making the ideal world that Emma envisioned come true.

Norman regularly denies that he is a human being, a common trend on this list, because to be human is to be fallable and make mistakes. He puts far too much pressure on his shoulders, and that turns sensitive, kindly Norman, into a card carrying manipulator that plays high risks games with people’s lives in order to get the best result. He is at the same time, an angel someone wanting to martyr himself for heavenly ideals, and a devil someone who wants to commit evil so Emma’s hands can stay clean and Norman is so complex because he’s simultaneously both at once.

6. Orihara Izaya - Durarara!! Sometimes you just grow up and become an Izaya stan, and you reflect back and regret every single choice you made in life. Orihara Izaya is interesting not because he’s a card carrying mastermind, but because he pretends to be.

Izaya’s image as someone who can manipulate all of Ikebukuro is something that far outstrips who he is as a person, which is just a very sensitive and lonely child. Izaya is basically too sensitive to love anybody as an individual, or even be an individual himself, so he denies the personhood of all of humanity and instead decides to love humanity. Because accepting everything about humanity and being happy no matter what the result is easier for him than having to deal with individual hardships. He basically wants to become an observer to everybody, and wants to no longer have a body, or be a person, or have to have feelings that aren’t a bemused smirk.

Izaya is however, extremely transparent in his actions to the point where several characters can see through him. It’s interesting to have a mastermind-type character whose actually not that much of a mastermind, but still because everybody sees them as one things generally go their way. Izaya is great at lying, bluffing, and playing speed chess but he never really has the city in his palms as much as he claims.

Another interesting quality about him is how complex he thinks and all these little rules he sets up for himself. Basically his only friend is Shinra because, Shinra is guaranteed never to love Izaya because he already has Celty, and yet at the same time Izaya also gets mad that 1) Shinra will always choose Celty over him and 2) Shinra is too detached to love anyone as a person. Even though, he also envies that detachment because Izaya is too sensitive basically to live. In short Izaya is petty. Petty, petty, petty, petty, petty, and he has to follow his own petty little rules to the letter.

7. Takizawa Seidou - Tokyo Ghoul: Re he starts as a lovable, but repressed bastard who has all this resentment for his life, and the people around them, and constantly blames them and takes it out on them. Overall though, he’s someone you can see turning into a better person if he just grew up a little.

Then instead of getting better, he gets way worse and hits absolute rock bottom. All of the ugly emotions that Seidou was repressing come to the surface and he turns into a monster who makes other people suffer to take out his long held resentments about the world. Not only that but all of the flaws he shows as a ghoul were there to begin with, he always had an inferiority complex, he always resented others, he always lashed out, it was just they were brought to the surface instead of being repressed.

Seidou however after hitting rock bottom gains awareness, and also the realization that even after he’s crossed the point of no return a long time ago, he can still continue to live and do improve himself. Not only that but it’s his resposnbility to improve himself for the sake of the others around him.

One of my favorite parts about his character is he used to be an example of how great Ishida was at not playing Good Victim Bad Victim because Seidou is introduced to us as this monster who went insane because he was ‘weaker’ than Amon who stayed righteous despite being ghoulified. Until we learn that actually, Seidou went insane because he took a chainsaw to the face, and Amon was just saved by other people and never endured the same, and therefore never even attempted to come to terms with himself as a ghoul either.

One of my reasons for liking bastards is because they are all objectively terrible, but most of them also have such a deep sense of self understanding so that the ones who have positive arcs, actually feel like they’re very honest about who they are as a person and grow from there. They just genuinely accept who they are and live as who they are not in denial about anything. Rather than following a narrative blindly laid out for them they break free and create their own.

8. Kiryu Yoshiya - The World Ends With You If there is a death game for some reason I always end up liking the mastermind the most. Kiryu Joshua is this child, who is just, too smart, too creative, too much for the world. When he’s pretending to be human that just turns him into a pretentious tool. When he’s the demigod of Shibuya, that means he might destroy the entire city because the people aren’t growing in the way he wants them too.

Joshua is very unique because he’s basically the closest to what I call a “Junko Enoshima for Hope” he places people in terrible death game like circumstances, and shows little empathy at all for the ones who lose, but at the same time his intention is to give a second chance for people who have died, and also to steer people in the right direction.

In a meta sense Joshua will basically force you to have character development. The fact that he sees himself as the author in other people’s stories means he has to control everything. It’s a unique character trait to have a god complex when you are a literal god.

Despite his good intentions, he’s also very flawed especially in the way he treats people around him, even the ones he likes like Neku and Sanae. He enjoys pushing their buttons, and pushing them to their limits far too much, and makes attempts to control them like any other piece on the board. Joshua is also, suicidally depressed and a lot of his musings about the world in general are some of the most tragic but insightful thoughts I’ve ever read. The fact that Joshua changes his mind at the end, is basically just as impactful as watching someone give life another chance when they wanted to die, because for Joshua, Shibuya is his life.

9. Jack Vessalius - Pandora Hearts it’s another mastermind yay. The fun thing about Jack is unlike most of these characters who are like, halfway broken, Jack is just this extremely broken person whose far beyond the point of no return. Not only that but he’s not interested in living as a person anymore anyway, even if he were given the chance to come back.

Jack has worn masks his entire life, to the point where it’s made him an incredibly selfish person who is never genuine in any situation. A child who has told lies all of his life. At the same time Jack is not the one who got himself started on this path, he’s a victim to the cruel and uncaring ways of the nobility, as a bastard being raised with his mother destroying any sense of identity he had by only seeing his father in him. Jack is in a way for them, a reckoning.

Except Jack does not care about any of that, because his entire goal is to go to extremes, and make the most convoluted plan in history, because he wants to find a reason for himself to keep living. When the person he was using as a reason to live dies, he decides to destroy the world for basically no reason at all, because the act of trying to destroy the world gives him something to do and a reason to keep on living.

Jack needs to find identity in something, otherwise he’s entirely empty on the inside and he’s exactly the tool the nobility raised him to be. Which is why he ends up doing all of these things for basically no reason, because that is his reason. He wants to feel things like a person. He wants to desire things like a person. He wants to know who he is, and what he wants. And yet, he’s also so terribly afraid of being a person that he does not let anybody get close to being able to understand him.

In the end one person accepting Jack as a person in spite of all of his lies, and saying they were happy to meet him is enough for Jack to give up all of his plans and instead offer his body up to others.

10. Accelerator - A Certain Magical Index Accelerator is such a fave for me that I will literally go out of my way to read a series that I’m not even a fan of because Accelerator is in it.

What I like about accelerator is he is pretty much past the point of no return, and he knows he’s never going to be forgiven for what he’s done and yet that doesn’t stop him. He’s not doing this for atonement. He killed 10,000 sisters and he’s going to save the other 10,000 that are remaining. And he knows he should have done that from the start, but it’s too late to take back a single thing he did.

Accelerator is just this fantastically messy character. He plays the villain, but secretly nobody desires more for heroes and justice to exist in this world than Accelerator himself. We see him finally motivated to help others, because even if he’s a bastard, and will always be a bad person marked for what he’s done, that’s no excuse not to do something when somebody innocent needs help in front of you.

He’s also, genuinely traumatized, and also genuinely disabled. He goes from this untouachable character to like, someone who is very desperate, with a very fragile sense of ego whose constantly reliving his trauma and having flashbacks in the middle of fights. Accelerator is so genuinely plagued with guilt for what he’s done it almost destroys him several times. And he’s never going to stop feeling that way. He’s never going to stop being broken. And still he fights.

11. Jacopo Bearzatti - House in Fata Morgana I know this is cheating but sssh, I wanted to talk about Jacopo. He’s the best bastard on this list because he’s not even a bastard.

Jacopo is someone who breaks himself into fragments because he’s not good enough. He’s always born in an incredibly low position in life, and is always trying to make something worthwhile of himself. He views himself as a person lower than dirt, whose only good quality is how hard he can work. One of them is going to break, either the world, or Jacopo himself.

Jacopo’s heart is either made of stone or glass and it’s impossible to tell from an outsider’s perspective, because he’s able to commit himself to doing incredibly heartless things, but at the same time Jacopo is far too kind and emotional and it’s something that destroys him over and over again. Jacopo is someone who always takes far too much responsibility, which means he will forgive other people who have betrayed him, see the humanity in his friends when they turn knives against him, but because of that he ends up being hurt over and over again. Jacopo kills his own heart not because he’s unkind, but because he’s too kind and empathic, and it’s something that will literally get him killed unchecked.

However, the amount of responsibility that Jacopo takes is ultimately what turns his character from a tragic downfall to a redeeming one, because reincarnation Jacopo is willing to take responsibility for two lifetimes worth of mistakes that were not even his. Ultimately Jacopo does genuinely want to do right by the people around him, which means if they do not want him he would force himself to let go because it’s not just about his atonement but the victim’s feelings as well, but if they wanted him he would spend the rest of his life working for the sake of both of them. Jacopo’s realization at the end of this story, because I want to see it too. Is one of the most touching things I’ve read in all of literature.

Honorable Mentions: Reiner - Attack on Titan, Akechi Goro - Persona Five, Subaru Natsuki - Re: Zero, Emiya Shirou - Fate Stay Night, Kaworu Nagisa - Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ryoji Mochizuki - Persona 3, ii-chan -Zaregoto, Squall Leonhar - (FF8)

#spooky speaks #kumagawa misogi #enoshima junko #osamu dazai #takizawa seidou #shigaraki tomura #orihara izaya #norman tpn #accelerator #jack vessalius #joshua kiryu #top ten list

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