#edit: if you're seeing this from the tag i've reblogged with additions hehe

[windcarvedlyre]

I never noticed until now that the skull chain thing prominent in Komaeda's official art:

is actually barely visible in most of his fullbody sprites.

The only times we see a lot of the chain is when he's really rattled, and even then we never see the whole thing.

That feels symbolic to me. He's had a life surrounded by trauma, trapped in his luck cycle, leading him to psychologically chain himself to a harmful ideology to cope. Post chapter 1 he's open about the morbid parts of his worldview- and under other circumstances he's open about things like his relentless paranoia, since it's so normal to him- but the more vulnerable parts of him? Those he doesn't advertise. You have to peel back some of his layers to see those outside of the rare occasions his vulnerabilities surface, and even then it's really hard to get the full picture. Do any of us, really?

As an alternative interpretation, there's an interesting comparison to be made with his outfit as Servant, too, as both include a chain willingly worn and tethered to nothing. Both versions of him present themselves as passive and subservient but actually crave importance and control, but Servant is way more blatant and extreme about that- and likely more self-aware about it, at least when comparing him to Komaeda pre-chapter-5. Servant's chain is much larger and in a more prominent and degrading place.