#edited to add the transcripts in the image description because for some reason some of them weren't there?????

[originalaccountname]

Finally caved and did my perceived timeline of what happened to Chuuya, from being brought into the lab for project Arahabaki to being taken out of it.

I originally thought about mentioning it in my Chuuya's true original ability being to amplify others' abilities post, but it was way too long, and not as solid an argument to that specific topic.

Because this is about Chuuya being the original, not the clone, but more importantly the why and how that is the case.

Chuuya's humanity is the core question of SB, and the most important part is that in the end, Chuuya chose to accept himself despite it all, and that no matter what, he is himself and no one can take that away from him.

But once we have been given all the pieces of the puzzle, we can try connecting the dots and deduce the true story behind it all.

-

Project Arahabaki was built to create an ability weapon based on the recovered notes of Pan, a French researcher and Verlaine's creator. The technique uses the clone of a human with a "fake" psyche (persona model) who is fused with a singularity life-form. The clone's original should have an ability able to create a self-referencing singularity (to manifest gravity powers). Pan even had a special ability metal to brainwash that individual. Basically, this concept is supposed to create an overpowered flesh puppet.

So. Project Arahabaki. They needed an original with an ability that could produce a singularity on its own, which is super rare. Joy oh joy, there just so happen to be this boy, the son of a military doctor, who fits these needs! They just need his DNA/some cells to create a clone to use in their project. It's the middle of the war, ethics are disregarded, plus no "real child" should be harmed in the making of this weapon. No biggie, right? Lend us your son for the sake of the country!

Except we know that boy, officially at least, died during the war.

According to N's timeline, there once was this certain boy who managed to create a singularity with his ability while under the supervision of scientists, but got swallowed by the black hole it created, never to return.

He also had Chuuya's supposed "original" stuck in a tube full of mystery liquid, the same kind Chuuya once was in, but that one's flesh and organs melted when exposed to air (normal behaviour), changing it into a skeleton that can be ordered around like an overpowered puppet (literally on strings. The tubes in its back controlled it and kept it going, but would severely limit its range)

Back to our Chuuya:

All N does is lie, so we can't take his word as the simple truth. Chuuya was a miracle they never managed to reproduce. Why is that?

In Rimbaud's notes, he says how in their operation to retrieve the new ability weapon Japan was developing (based on Verlaine), they managed to identify the artificial being, aka the clone, A2-5-8. In the flashback, Rimbaud is absolutely positive it is him, so we have to assume this information was recorded as-is somewhere.

And yet, Dazai is the one to suggest later that, perhaps, the original and the clone had been swapped.

And wouldn't that make everything else make sense?

The clone(s) never managed to hold up to the quality standard necessary to be useful outside of their confines. The skeleton approach was the lab trying something different, like N admitted so to Verlaine. There ever only was one successful attempt, a "miracle", Chuuya. The original child is thought to be dead, yet N the liar supposedly had him in a tube, ready to turn him into a skeleton(???). Rimbaud and Verlaine thought for sure they had the artificial life-form, the clone, but they got Chuuya, who has a graphite scar from before he lost his memories, with a past that was able to be dug up by the Flags and Port Mafia.

My conclusion is this: N swapped out a clone for the original child. His research wasn't giving the proper results, but he had found a workaround, where he could use the original instead of his clone, for better/faster results.

Chuuya is the only one who could harness "Arahabaki" in any way that would remotely resemble "Guivre". Chuuya is the only one who could operate autonomously. That's why N wanted to remove "Arahabaki" and try to factory-reset Chuuya before putting it back in: because there really is only one of him, and he couldn't afford losing him if he wanted to continue his research.

[anistarrose]

Hello, TOH fandom, I am here once again to talk about accessibility!

[Image description: a screenshot of Lilith Clawthorne excitedly holding up a sign, which has been edited to read: "Image Descriptions for The Owl House (and why they matter)" in all caps. End description.]

Image descriptions, like the one I just used above, are exactly what it says on the tin: descriptions of the content of an image included to make the image maximally accessible.

Blind and low-vision people who use screen readers, people who rely on increased font size in-app or in-browser to read text, and neurodivergent people who have trouble interpreting elements of an image (for example, expression) all benefit from image descriptions.

And all images on the internet should be accessible regardless of topic, of course, but I've recently been trying to spread awareness in the context of The Owl House specifically because it's a show with multiple disabled and/or neurodivergent characters! In fact, Principal Bump is canonically low-vision with a service animal to help him in that regard — and I'd argue that making content about disabled characters accessible is extra, extra important!

[Image description: a screenshot of Principal Bump with his palisman Frewin removed from his head, revealing the scars over Bump's eyes. Frewin is in staff form, smiling, and Eda looks on from the side. End description.]

I know it's within this fandom's ability to make our posts about the finale as accessible as possible — and I know that because I've already seen a decent increase in described posts over the course of Season 3! I've seen more artist-described posts especially, which means a lot to me, and even more to a lot of other people, too <3

So, on that note, how to write an image description? It may seem intimidating, especially if describing someone else's post or fanart, but honestly, there's no definitive "rubric" to follow, just a list of general guidelines:

Indicate where the description starts and ends, with "end description" or "end ID".

Place the description immediately under the image, not under a read-more (this allows people who rely on IDs to experience the post the same way anyone else would, whereas read-mores are inconvenient, especially if OP changes their URL)

Minimize caps lock, italics, bold, and strikethrough, which can be hard to read and/or troublesome for screen readers. Generally, it's just best to transcribe in lowercase without particular effects, then indicate in the transcription if something is emphasized.

Likewise, don't put descriptions in Tumblr's special small text. It's difficult to read and inaccessible to many.

Don't make jokes or add commentary in IDs. If an image is meant to be humorous, obviously it's fine to phrase things in a way that tries to capture that, but it's not the place to add your own jokes, nor is it the place to declare subjective qualities like "this art is beautiful".

Descriptions can vary in length, but if one is getting long (if you're describing a comic, for example), then be sure to break it up with paragraph breaks.

Specifically, while I've heard that too many breaks (ie, every sentence) are annoying for some screen readers, long walls of text are conversely difficult for people with visual processing problems to parse. So, it's good to strike a balance.

With regards to length and amount of detail, it varies by personal preference! Most images don't need a whole small essay, but there's also value in describing certain small and symbolic details, subjective as it is.

Speaking of which, if you're the original artist, then you are automatically the expert on what you wanted the image to convey — the nuances of expression and body language, which details are important and which details are not — and for that reason, I love seeing artist-described works!

Below the cut: more on describing Owl House images specifically, on IDs versus alt text, and other possible questions!

When I transcribe TOH related posts, there's a few other guidelines I use, though these rules aren't as immediately important as the ones above. I generally start by indicating the type of image we're dealing with (a screenshot? fanart? a photo of a cosplay?), then mention what characters are depicted.

Unless I'm describing something long, like a comic, and relying on summarization, I usually mention which character designs we're dealing with (is Lilith in her dramatic black dress from Season 1? or is she in her low-battery shirt?). If it's fanart and the artist has come up with original outfits to put the characters in, I'll summarize those too.

(This is the other reason I love seeing artist-described works: because I, personally, am just kinda bad at describing fashion lol.)

Now, I'd like to go over some other questions that I've either encountered before, or anticipate:

What about alt text? Doesn't that accomplish the same purpose as image descriptions?

In a lot of senses, yes, so alt text is certainly much, much better than no description! However, remember that not every person relying on descriptions is necessarily someone who uses a screen reader every day, or uses a screen reader period. Some people do in fact read the descriptions themselves.

[Image description, identical to alt text: a screenshot of Luz Noceda from Season 2, smiling and blushing. End description.]

As you can see above, alt text takes an extra click (or tap) to access. In general, it's also prone to displaying walls of text, and — as far as I know — sometimes just doesn't show up if the Tumblr app isn't updated enough. (Not to mention that, in my opinion, making image descriptions visible to people who don't use them is an important part of spreading accessibility awareness in the first place!)

On the other hand, I've heard some people who benefit from descriptions say they actually prefer alt text, so I'm not going to come out and take a hard "absolutely no alt text ever under any circumstances" stance by any means. But, long story short, this is the reason that in my own posts, I almost always defer to in-post descriptions — the only exception might be if I'm writing a meta post, and functionally describing the images in the text anyway.

I've seen that sometimes you use [ ] brackets and sometimes you don't. Is there a reason?

Basically personal preference. I use brackets in posts like this when I have a lot of non-description writing, and want to make it extra clear where the description ends and the non-description begins. If I'm just captioning some fanart in a reblog and not adding any commentary, on the other hand, I leave off brackets because they're pretty redundant.

I'm nervous about describing images, but I still want to help make the fandom more accessible. Is there anything I can do?

Well, my first piece of advice would be to start small! Hell, start with just making sure you include a description whenever you post an image with just text, like a screenshot of a reply or someone's prev tags. You can build up little-by-little from there!

(My personal accessibility journey went from describing only tweet screenshots whose text I could just copy, to describing simple memes like cat pics, to deciding it was important to at least describe fanart of disabled characters like Eda, to finally describing almost every post I reblog. Trying to make that jump without any of the intermediate steps would've been overwhelming, but at this point, it all feels natural to me.)

But secondly, I would encourage showing some love to artists who describe their pieces! Queue up some described fanart, especially artist-described stuff, and help normalize it!

Get into the habit of checking the notes for descriptions (go to reblogs and filter by comments only) before you share! If someone describes your art, copy it into the original post, so the version of the thread reblogged directly from you will be accessible too! (And if you want to make some little tweaks, no one will be offended.)

You can also look into making your blog theme accessible, such as making sure the font size is large enough (and ideally sans serif, for readability). And if you feel more confident with describing audio, then writing transcripts of audio is always incredible as well, to help out those who are deaf, hard of hearing, or have auditory processing disorders!

I've heard that AI is able to describe images for screen readers pretty well these days. Are descriptions still important/going to remain important as the technology advances?

Well, let me say first that I'm very glad this technology exists, for sure! But I'm of the opinion that human described (and especially artist described) captions are, at least generally speaking, still going to be the gold standard for the foreseeable future — AI doesn't have the context we do for our art and our fandoms; it's much less likely than a fan of the show to pick up on what's an important or symbolic detail.

Are there actually people who need image descriptions in cartoon fandoms? I mean, the source material has such a visual component!

First off, blind and low vision people do in fact watch things like TV, movies, and plays — ever notice the "audio description" option to add narration to a given show in a streaming service? That's there to provide basically the real-time equivalent of image descriptions.

And, second, I'll leave you with this — don't you think a lot more disabled people would participate in fandom if fandom were more accessible and accommodating to disabled people in the first place?

[asexualzoro]

so you want to make a twitter (part 2)

tweeting

i’ve seen a few guides on twitter for new twitter users, which is nice, but something about having the posts being things you had to finds on twitter--a new site for the people who needed those guides--seemed unhelpful to me. so, i figured id make a small series of guides of my own here for anyone considering a move (or just making an account) who dont know how

this is a series of posts, since im going to be sort of detailed, so feel free to use just the pieces you need. ill tag them all “lews twitter tutorials” so you can find them on my blog

this is written under the assumption that youve read part 1 of this mini guide series, and dont know anything about twitter or any other social media site but tumblr

ill put it under a cut to save your space, but here’s the most important feature of twitter: tweeting!

so, tweeting. this is something you obviously have to know how to do.  this is how to make a tweet, differences between tumblr and twitter, and how to interact with a tweet

so, making one! when you make a new tweet on mobile, the screen looks like this

(the icons are p much the same whether you use mobile or desktop, so it doesnt matter which i use)

first, the tweet itself! tweets can only be up to 280 characters, and cant be edited once you post them. theres no feature to bold, italicize, underline, or add linked text in twitter, so its not as good as tumblr for stuff like that, unfortunately. 

here’s what the icons at the bottom do, from left to right

- pictures! this is sort of straightforward: it lets you add pictures. a tweet can only contain either 4 pictures, 1 gif, or 1 video. you cant have a gif and a picture, or a picture and a video. 

a note for artists! twitter is known to compress image quality when images are uploaded, BUT there is a workaround! if you have even one single transparent pixel, your image wont be compressed. 

a note for everyone! you can enable image transcription captions in settings (Settings > Accessibility > compose image descriptions). this allows you to type a short image description to any image you post, if you choose to. it’s a feature i recommend you have on and try to use for your followers who might have worse vision!

- gif keyboard! this image is a search for reaction gifs, basically. i almost never use it bc i can usually never find the specific gif im looking for...

- polls! tis is a feature i like about twitter! it allows you to conduct anonymous polls with up to four options. you can set a time limit and leave it up to allow people to respond. settle arguments between you and your friends or get opinions!

you cant post an image and a poll in the same tweet, so if you want opinions on something in an image, just have the poll be a reply to your tweet

- location! you can add your current location to any tweet. ive had this disabled for so long i genuinely dont know like... anything about this.

listen, im trying my best

- the little circle at the bottom which is grey with a dot of blue is the character counter. the circle is grey when empty, and gets bluer as you tweet. it wont count out how many characters you have left until youre within 20 of being full, in which case itll let you know so you dont go over the limit. 

- finally, theres the + icon, which is for making threads. it lets you edit multiple tweets at once, connected in a string. threads are helpful for a lot of reasons!

if you have information to share, then put it together in a thread! if one tweet in a thread is retweeted, it’s marked as being part of a thread. this will encourage readers to look at the rest!

if you like to livetweet series, put it in a thread! this allows you to keep all your livetweets in one place, and also allows people following you to mute the thread if they arent interested

- i also know on mobile if you close out with the X, you can save a tweet to drafts to edit and post later. i dont know if you can do this on desktop because i never use desktop, and when i have, i couldnt ever find the drafts thing. i know if you delete the app, all your drafts are deleted, too

WELL, now that youve got the basics on a tweet....

interacting with the tweets of others

okay, heres a bit on what buttons do what, and some Twitter Manners

here’s our sample tweet, posted. this isnt how it appears on the timeline, but how it appears once you click it, so i can show the full range of things you can do with a tweet.

you can see the tweet, who posted it, and the date/time, and other stuff

- profile. top left. if you click the icon/display name/handle of the op, you can go to their profile!

- menu. see the little arrow in the top right corner? thats a menu. 

on your own tweet, you can delete the tweet here, pin it to your profile, or mute it. muting a tweet means you no longer get notifications when someone interacts with it

on someone else’s tweet, you can follow or unfollow the op of the tweet, mute the op, block the op, or report the tweet

in the bottom row....

- theres tweet activity. it only shows up on your own tweet, and lets you see how many people have seen your tweet.

- below this would tell you how many likes and retweets your tweet got, but no one liked or retweeted my wonderful tweet for some strange reason, so i cant show you

worth noting, if your account is on private, you wont show up in the notifications of people who arent following you

now for the buttons

- the speech bubble is replies! that lets you repy to the tweet

worth saying, if you reply to a retweet or conversation, its important to be sure to un-@ the people who you arent talking to. when you reply to someone, at the top of the reply it will list everyone youre replying to. click the little names and unclick the check boxes by the names of those not involved, and youre good to go! not doing this is considered rude/annoying

- next, retweeting! retweeting is sort of like reblogging. you retweet another tweet so it shows up on your own account. you can retweet without comment, which brings the tweet as is, or with comment, which allows you to add your own sort of caption. the op of the tweet will nto be notified for any replies, likes, or retweets on a comment retweet

a note! people often do retweets with comments on stuff like news stories to add their own commentary/jokes

another note! DO NOT do this to art by artists, even if youre doing it to be nice! a lot of artists, especially international artists, find this incredibly rude, as it takes away attention and retweets from the art itself. if you want to share art, just retweet. if you want to say something nice, just tell them in replies!

its not uncommon for people to retweet something without comment, then make a tweet of their own to comment on them.these tweets generally start with LRT (last retweet)

- likes are pretty simple. you press the like button and you like the post. one thing thats different from tumblr to twitter, though, is twitter has a feature that shows your likes (and that you liked them) to your followers (if they havent disabled it). 

- the share button allows you to share tweets! you can DM them to your friends, bookmark them (this is good for articles and such), or copy the link to share elsewhere.

and... that concludes tweeting!

[truekomaeda]

V3 Chapter 5 - Transcript

Right, first thing’s first; the transcript / guide to New Danganronpa V3′s chapter 5 trial. Every line of dialogue (Minus the rebuttal showdown and scrum debate, I couldn’t copy those aside from their solutions), with some descriptions of the images when I felt it necessary. Some liberties were taken, such as Ouma’s laugh, and changing all first names to last names. The puzzle solutions might be different if not on normal/normal mode. MAJOR SPOILER WARNING FOR NEW DANGANRONPA V3!!!

(Note - the Exisal’s lines are marked with whoever’s voice they’re using, followed by a question mark)

Chapter 5 Trial Transcript -

“Unified against the mastermind, Ouma, the students must survive a Class Trial without knowing the murderer or the victim. An unpredictable trial begins…”

Class Trial - In Session

Monokuma: Ahem! Now then, let’s begin with a basic explanation of the class trial! During the trial you'll present your arguments for who the culprit is, and vote for “whodunnit.” Vote correctly, and only the blackened will be punished. But if you pick the wrong person… I’ll punish everyone *besides* the blackened, and that person will grad-

K1B0: Graduation is meaningless here… we already know that… We don't need your rules anymore! We’ll find our own reasons to live! And we’ll do whatever it takes to survive!

Monokuma: Wow! An actual talking robot! I've never seen one of those before!

K1B0: Seriously?!

Harukawa: What happened to Kokichi? Why isn't he here?

Monokuma: Aw, don't make that face, killer. This case has some unique circumstances.

Yumeno: Unique circumstances?

Monokuma: Cuz for this murder, the victim’s identity is completely unknown! Given these circumstances… -camera flashes to Momota’s and then Ouma’s photos, each with a question mark drawn over- I decided to start off this class trial while the victim is still anonymous! After all, it’d be a shame if i let such a rare opportunity go to waste!

Shirogane: Is that possible? I thought everyone had to participate in the class trial.

Monokuma: don't worry. The person who’s still alive is waiting behind the scenes for their cue. It’s all part of the overall production. Anyway, let’s get this trial moving!

K1B0: I guess we have no choice but to start the trial under these conditions…

Yumeno: What’s there to even talk about? The blackened is the mastermind, Ouma.

Shirogane: Yeah, that’s the only thing i can think of, too.

Saihara: It’s too soon to decide anything for certain. We don't even know if Momota was the victim…

Harukawa: How long are you going to say that? The victim is Momota… end of discussion.

Saihara: But we need to be absolutely sure. If we don't positively identify the victim… -camera pan, same as previous- ...the other person will never show themselves, right?

K1B0: Before we can identify a suspect, we need to determine who the victim is.

Yumeno: why are we even talking about something so obvious? What a pain…

Harukawa: …

Saihara: (Everyone thinks that Momota is the victim, but i have my doubts… There’s a chance Momota is still alive… If we keep discussing the case, I'm sure we’ll see the truth!

NONSTOP DEBATE

Y- the victim has to be Momota.

S- Ouma took him prisoner... S- So he could’ve killed him whenever he wanted!

Yumeno- and it was his clothes inside the hydraulic press

H- the victim can’t be Ouma because there’s no evidence for it (Present) So the victim must be Momota.

Y- we lost a really good guy today... Y- Kazing! If only mages could cast revive spells…

Saihara- (there’s no evidence that allows us to confirm the victim or the survivor. It’s too early to declare who the victim is!)

(Present) - Ouma’s clothes

Saihara: I have evidence that points to Ouma being the victim! I found *this* in the hangar!

Yumeno: Nyeh! Is that Ouma’s coat!?

Saihara: yes. And look here-- there are bloodstains on the sleeve. That would indicate that Ouma suffered an external injury, correct?

Shirogane: Ouma was injured?

Saihara: the fact that these were flushed down the toilet implies they’re evidence of a crime.

Harukawa: what about it? Momota’s clothes were in the hydraulic press. As long as we have that evidence, there’s no doubt that Momota was the one murdered.

Yumeno: y-yeah, that’s right… it’s one of those irrefutable evidence thingies.

Saihara: … (Ever since she found the body in the hangar, Harukawa’s insisted that it’s Momota’s... -Flashback visual to the three training- But why is that? I thought we had an understanding… I thought… she’d want to believe Momota is still alive. Either way, it seems Harukawa is hung up on Momota’s clothes. In that case, I need to demonstrate the flaw in relying on that evidence. If i do that… i think she’ll realize. There’s a chance that Momota is alive.) Actually, there’s something bothering me about the clothes found in the hydraulic press.

Yumeno: Nyeh? What about them?

Saihara: (there’s something peculiar about those clothes...)

Choose - The sleeve of the jacket

Saihara: Why was only the sleeve sticking out of the hydraulic press? If Momota had been crushed by the press, the sleeve shouldn't have been empty… There should've been an arm inside the sleeve as well. So the fact that we found an empty sleeve should--

Rebuttal Showdown - Harukawa

Saihara: (Huh!?)

Harukawa: you're dumber than i thought if i have to go out of my way to explain it to you. If you can’t even see that, then be quiet. Otherwise, you're just annoying me.

Rebuttal Showdown -

He never put his arms through his sleeves. (PRESENT)

Present - Momota’s coat

Saihara: yes, it’s true, Momota never put his arm through his sleeve… -Normal Momota sprite- ...but that was just his right arm. He wore his left sleeve normally. -Hydraulic press photo- And the left sleeve was the one we found outside the press. Knowing how Momota wore his coat, that’s awfully strange, isn't it?

Harukawa: Then maybe neither of his arms were through the sleeves.

Saihara: huh?

Harukawa: it’s a possibility… in the end, your reasoning is full of holes. Stop getting in my way. I have to defeat Ouma.

Saihara: (Harukawa… what’s really going on? Seems you've made up your mind that Momota is definitely dead. But why would you do that?)

Shirogane: it’s like Harukawa said, though… Momota’s gotta be the victim. Cuz if Ouma, the mastermind, was dead, the killing game would be over.

Yumeno: yeah, that’s true.

Harukawa: Monokuma, hurry up and bring Ouma here. We already know who the victim is.

Monokuma: huh? Already? You sure it’s not too soon?

K1B0: we need the suspect present now that he’s the subject of our discussion

Monokuma: gotcha. I guess I'll bring him out now. Hey mister suspect! That’s your cue!

-Exisal enters court through opened door and jumps over-

Saihara: An Exisal!?

Yumeno: Wh-What!? Why is an exisal here!?

Momota?: Haha, whoops! My bad. Seems like i gave you guys a scare, huh?

Saihara: (...What is this?)

K1B0: is that… Momota’s voice!?

Harukawa: ...Momota?

Momota?: There was a lot going on, so i just hid in an Exisal and kinda dozed off. Haha, and that’s why I'm so late! Anyway, what’s goin’ on, guys?

Shirogane: H-Hold on. Then the one that died wasn't Momota--

Ouma?: Stuuupid! That was just a lie! Ah-haha, you guys thought i died!? I would never! Noooo way!

K1B0: O-Ouma!?

Ouma?: “I’m gonna live till I die! I'm gonna laugh ‘stead of cry!”

Yumeno: wow, that’s old! How old are you!?

Harukawa: I thought as much… your appearance right now is fit for a lowly asshole like you.

Ouma?: Nishishi… you're making me blush! You're getting so angry over me.

Saihara: … Is that really you, Ouma!?

Ouma?: That’s right, Cracker Jack!

Yumeno: Seriously, how old are you!?

Saihara: Then why are you hiding in there? Show yourself!

Ouma?: Oh, this is more for self-defense. Little Miss Crankypants would kill me if i showed myself.

Harukawa: …

Ouma?: I understand how you guys must feel. You can't believe it because I'm like this, right? Nishishi… that’s what i thought. In that case, I brought evidence!

K1B0: ...evidence?

Ouma?: tadaaa! The video camera! It was in the warehouse but i brought it to the hangar, just in case. Man, that was a smart move! Thanks to this, I filmed it so everyone could see it clearly. The moment the victim died…

Yumeno: Nyeh!? Wh-what did you say!?

Ouma?: alrighty then! Let’s watch this shocking moment! Heeey Monokuma! Can you connect the video camera to the monitor?

Monokuma: Roger that!

Saihara: (Monokuma grabbed the camera from the Exisal, hooked it up to the court room’s monitor… And played the tape for us.)

-Momota is shown laying motionless on the hydraulic press, and it lowers to crush him, splattering blood everywhere.-

Saihara: … ...Huh?

M-Momota!?

Shirogane: Th-this is terrible! Why would… something like this…?

Harukawa: …

Yumeno: I-I saw it through my fingers.... the moment… Momota was crushed… I'm… gonna… *huuurk*

Ouma?: by the way, I'd like to add that this footage has not been doctored in any way! This video camera only has the basic functions… Just the Play, Record, and Pause buttons, so you can't edit after filming it. And of course, I didn't upload it to a computer to edit it either. Riiiight, Monokuma?

Monokuma: …

Ouma?: oh, you can talk. Your answer is necessary for a fair discussion.

Monokuma: I see! If it's necessary for a fair discussion, then i will answer! No trace of that footage was found on any of the computers inside the academy!

Ouma?: see? If it wasn't connected to any computer, then editing the footage would be impossible. Which means, this footage is 100% real!

K1B0: If that’s the case… then it would seem our suspicions can be lifted. The body we found inside the hangar, crushed in the hydraulic press, is definitely Momota!

-Truth Bullet added: Murder Video-

Saihara: … (Was that…? Was that really him?)

Yumeno: Poor Momota… I can’t believe he died such a horrible death… I can't believe he died with his guts and his brains splattered all over that machine!

Shirogane: S-stop it… now I'm starting to not feel well…

Yumeno: That’s probably because i used my magic to transfer all my barf over to you.

Shirogane: I know that’s a joke, but the thought of it… *huuurp*

Saihara: (...why? Why was… Momota… killed? Ouma had no reason to kill Momota… He had just told us all that he was the mastermind, that the killing game was over. So what would he gain by killing Momota?)

Ouma?: Nishishi… it looks like you finally believe that I'm the one in this Exisal.

K1B0: Yes. With that, we can definitively say that the culprit is… ...you.

Ouma?: huh? Why?

K1B0: you filmed the moment the victim died, which means you were present at the scene… As the person who filmed this footage, you're the only one who could be the culprit!

Saihara: but if the culprit shot the video, why would they go outof their way to show it--

Ouma?: aw maaan, ya got me. Yeah, I'm the culprit.

Saihara: (...What?)

Ouma?: geez, i totally dug my own grave! Here’s the truth-- i decided to participate in this trial in an exisal after i killed Momota. Of course, it was mostly to make the victim unknown, to jazz up this trial! I took that footage for proof, so i could reveal it after you guys get the correct answer… But...ah-haha! I toootally spaced out! I wasn't supposed to show it right away!

Shirogane: so does that mean… you admit to the crime?

Ouma?: … Oh, man! I dug my own grave again!? Well, i don't think you guys will believe any of the excuses i make now… So...I give up!

Yumeno: you're giving up? Does… that mean it’s been decided?

Shirogane: is it okay that this trial was so short?

Harukawa: that’s fine. We knew from the very start that Ouma was the killer. But before we vote, I want to say something to Ouma… You may be the mastermind, but i won't let you escape after you violated the rules. That would desecrate the killing game Junko Enoshima created, right? ...Your beloved Junko Enoshima.

Ouma?: … Junko…?

Yumeno: Whatever! It’s Voting Time now! Let’s go before Ouma changes his--

Saihara: No, hold on a second! This isn't right! The culprit comes in, confesses to the crime, and the trial ends? That's not how this goes! That doesn't sound like the kind of game Ouma or Monokuma or Junko would play!

Shirogane: what if the mastermind got tired of it? The Remnants of Despair were like tha--

Saihara: no, if they were tired of it, they wouldn't have put all that effort into the video. There would have been no need for this class trial in the first place. Something’s not right. We need to get a better feel for the situation. I think… Ouma has some sort of plan. He’s trying to trap us.

Harukawa: Trap us? Are you saying Ouma isn't the culprit? Then, are you suggesting one of us is the culprit?

Saihara: (What?)

K1B0: If it’s not Ouma, then the culprit must be one of us…

Yumeno: one of us?

Shirogane: that’s not possible!

Saihara: No, i didn't say that! I was just saying it’s dangerous to trust Ouma--

Ouma?: Nishishi… Saihara is so distrusting… But it’s exaaactly like Saihara said! I'm actually nooot the culprit!

Saihara: (...Seriously?)

K1B0: wh-what? But that contradicts what you said previously.

Ouma?: Yuppers, that was a lie. Sorry! I lied again. The real culprit of this case is super bad at hiding themselves, so i thought i could help… I pretended to be the culprit by using the footage! It made the game more interesting, too!

Shirogane: A-are you serious?

Yumeno: Nyeeeh! What’s the truth and what’s a lie!? I don't know anymore!

Harukawa: it’s fine… because Ouma is the culprit. He killed Momota… no matter how much he deceives us, it won't change our minds. The footage shows he did it! Ouma has to be the only option!

Saihara: (The only option? Is that really true? Are we just going to leave it at that?)

NONSTOP DEBATE

H- There’s no doubt that Ouma is the culprit. H- We all saw that video from earlier, right?

Y- Momota got crushed to death. (Present) Y- What a horrible video.

K- Whoever committed that crime... K- Was in the hangar with Momota!

H- Which just leaves Ouma.

S- Then, the culprit is...

H- Kokichi Ouma, the mastermind of this killing game H- is Momota’s killer!

Saihara: (Ouma killed Momota with the hydraulic press. That's the consensus right now. But is that even possible?)

-Present: Safety Function-

Saihara: the safety function would make it impossible to kill Momota with the press!

Yumeno: a safety function?

K1B0: yes, it was written on the safety precautions. The hydraulic press will automatically stop if its infrared sensor detects a living organism.

Shirogane: so the hydraulic press won't move at all if there's a living person under it?

Saihara: which is why it couldn't have been used to kill Momota!

Harukawa: …

K1B0: which means, it’s more likely that Momota was crushed after being killed by some other means.

Yumeno: so what we saw in that video.... he was already dead by then?

Harukawa: but you could disable the infrared sensor of the safety function with an Electrobomb

Saihara: No, i don't think Ouma would use an Electrobomb for that purpose. It would’ve taken down the hangar’s alarm system and the Exisal’s remote control.

K1B0: it would’ve put Ouma at a significant disadvantage.

Ouma?: but you can't be too sure i wouldn't do that… I'm the type who would do anything for fun.

Harukawa: Also, we don't have any evidence of a different murder method other than the hydraulic pr--

Saihara: No, we do. I have a plausible theory for the murder.

Harukawa: what?

Saihara: (yes, there is a clue that suggests the victim was killed before being crushed. I found it somewhere around the hydraulic press…)

Select - Swipe pattern bloodstain

Saihara: there was a swipe pattern bloodstain in the hangar, suggesting a body was dragged. The bloodstain goes from the bathroom all the way to the press.

Shirogane: Oh! That was the restroom where Momota was being held, wasn't it!?

Saihara: Bloodstains were also found inside the bathroom. That can't be coincidence.

Yumeno: so Momota was killed in the restroom, then dragged to the press and crushed!?

Harukawa: ...If the bloodstain even was Momota’s.

Saihara: What?

Harukawa: We only guessed that Momota was killed in the bathroom… Since his body was crushed, we’ll never know if Momota died some other way.

Saihara: (We might not be able to examine the body, but… We do have evidence that suggests a cause of death.)

Point Out - hole on sleeve

Saihara: the small hole on the sleeve of Momota’s coat is the key to his cause of death.

Yumeno: s-small hole…? No, no, no! There is no way that hole’s got anything to do with a weapon! I'll hit you with my “Everything You Buy Will Go on Sale the Next Day” curse!

Shirogane: Yumeno, what's wrong? Why are you freaking out all of a sudden?

Yumeno: um… I'm not freaking out… I'm just saying… it's impossible for the weapon to be that small.

Saihara: (No… it’s not impossible. I can show you. The weapon that left that small hole in Momota’s sleeve…)

Select - Crossbow

Saihara: I believe the weapon was the crossbow found in the bathroom.

Yumeno: Nyeh!?

K1B0: A crossbow arrow would certainly leave a hole that small. Can we then conclude that Momota was shot with that crossbow? If so, then that crossbow might have been the actual weapon used to kill Momota--

Yumeno: I-I see! It's so surprising that a crossbow was the murder weapon!

Shirogane: Seriously, Yumeno… what’s wrong?

Ouma?: She probably needs to pee. Anywaaay, about Momota getting shot… If that was his cause of death, then i wonder who shot him with the crossbow. Well, I already know! But i won't tell youuuu!

Shirogane: he’s just… playing with us…

K1B0: then let’s show him that playtime is over. Let’s show him that the students of Hope’s Peak Academy will never submit to despair!

Ouma?: … Hope…? Despair…?

NONSTOP DEBATE

O- I wonder who shot Momota with the crossbow.. O- What a mystery, right guys?

K- Who else but you could have done it?

H- The shot would need to be fired... H- From inside the hangar to hit Momota (Present)

Y- We couldn't go in the hangar! Y- The alarm system and electric barrier were in the way!

S- If we couldn't go in the hangar... S- And Ouma was in there, then he must be the one!

O- I see, so I'm the culprit!

Saihara: (Momota would have been in there, but the murder weapon was a crossbow… Knowing that, we should be able to visualize the murder…)

Present - Bathroom window

Saihara: Even without going in the hangar, it was possible to land a shot with the crossbow. There was a window in the bathroom of the hangar. Maybe it wasn't possible to get in, but you could have shot through the window. And remember that Momota was confined to the bathroom.

Ouma?: So if they shot Momota through the window, they could've killed him in the hangar. Which means, the murder suspect list grows to six people, including me!

Yumeno: Nyeh!? What did you say!?

Shirogane: But… put plainly, that means…

Harukawa: it seems Saihara wants to make one of us the culprit. Is that it? ...Is that what a detective does?

Saihara: ...Huh?

Harukawa: Do detectives always accuse people, even when they're friends? ...It seems like it. You suspected Momota in the previous class trial, too. You're always suspicious of your friends.

Saihara: …

Shirogane: Wh-what’s wrong, Harukawa? You seem like you're kind of on edge…

Harukawa: Of course I am. When we said we would defeat the Remnants of Despair, *someone* got in our way.

Saihara: no, you don't understand, I'm not trying to--

Harukawa: It doesn't matter how much you get in my way, i will absolutely defeat Ouma. I won't let despair escape… i won't let it win…

Ouma?: Now, now! Let’s stop this boring fight and continue on with the not-so-boring trial! So we all agree that the murder could be done by anyone and not just me, right?

Yumeno: Th-that might be true, but… I… didn't know about the window…

K1B0: Neither did I…

Shirogane: Really, Yumeno. What’s the matter? You’ve been weird since we mentioned small holes.

Yumeno: Wh-what!? Are you after my small hole too!?

Shirogane: See? Now that’s definitely weird.

Ouma?: Look at it this way-- just because the culprit could be anyone, not everyone is a suspect. We can pretty much narrow it down to anyone who knew about the crossbow.

Yumeno: I never knew about any crossbows! I-in other words, I'm not suspicious! So you can't consider me--

K1B0: it does concern me that Yumeno went to the hangar last night.

Yumeno: Nyeh!?

Ouma?: Whoa, really? You went to the hangar, Yumeno?

K1B0: Yes, she did. I definitely saw her.

Yumeno: Y-you were watching me?

Ouma?: it’s awfully suspicious that you went to the hangar last night… Okay, then the culprit is Yumeno!

Yumeno: W-wait, don't say it’s me! Harukawa’s more suspicious than I am!

Harukawa: ...What?

Yumeno: Th-Th-That crossbow came from your research lab, right? Y-you could’ve gotten that crossbow whenever you wanted!

Shirogane: Anyone could’ve gone to her research lab, though. She’s not the only suspect.

Yumeno: I-I dunno about that! She’s...  d-definitely the most suspicious!

Harukawa: …

Yumeno: E-even if you make that scary face at me… I-I’m not gonna get scared…

Ouma?: Cuz if you start panicking , then we’ll know that you're the culprit!

Yumeno: I said I'm not the c-culprit! I swear! O-Ouma’s the suspicious one! Harukawa too! They're both the culprits!

Harukawa: Why am i a suspect? Anyone could've entered my research lab.

Ouma?: Yeah, I'll admit that I'm suspicious! O-kay! Maybe i am the culprit!

MASS PANIC

<Yumeno’s segment>

Y- I went to the hangar, but... Y- I was only replenishing my magic!

S- What do you mean, replenishing your magic?

Y- There’s a good source of magic around there. Y- So i went empty-handed... (Present) Y- And i left empty-handed

<Ouma?’s segment>

O- I'm the number one suspect

K- “you are the culprit...” K- then explain the crossbow

O- that thing doesn't matter at all… O- I'm the number one suspect! O- I'm the one who shot Momota!

<Harukawa’s segment>

H- Why am i being treated like the culprit? H- The crossbow at the crime scene H- Did not come from me.

S- Anyone could've gotten it from her research lab!

K- Then who actually did?

H- Ouma did, of course.

Present - K1B0’s account

Saihara: you said that you went to the hangar empty-handed, but that’s a lie, isn't it?

Yumeno: Wh-what are you talking about…? It’s… not a lie…

Saihara: But Kiibo saw you. He said you were headed toward the hangar, carrying a large black bag.

K1B0: Yes, Yumeno was definitely carrying a large black bag…

Yumeno: N-no! That was probably… Shirogane cosplaying as me!

Shirogane: You know i can't cosplay as someone unless they're a fictional character!

Saihara: Yumeno… This is the bag you were carrying, isn't it?

Harukawa: that’s… the crossbow case!

K1B0: there’s no mistake. That is the bag i saw Yumeno carrying.

Yumeno: Nyeh… Nyeeeh!

Shirogane: what!? Hold on! Yumeno went to the hangar with a crossbow!?

Yumeno: Nyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeh!!!

Ouma?: Uh-ooohh! Welp, it’s decided then.

Yumeno: W-Wait! That’s wrong! I just brought it there… I-I didn't shoot it! It’s the truth! Please believe me!

Ouma?: You're right-- I believe you! Yumeno is totally telling the truth!

Yumeno: Not you! If you believe me, it makes me look like I'm lying!

Saihara: (...That...is true... But can we really trust Yumeno here? She was acting very suspiciously…)

NONSTOP DEBATE

Y- I'm not the culprit!

O- Yeah, I totally agree

Y- I only carried the case

O- Yep-yep, that’s true too!

Y- i didn't even use the crossbow… (Present)

O- Mh-hm! another true statement!

Y- And that's all! I didn't do anything else at the hangar!

O- One hundred percent exactamundo!

S- Why does this all sound so fishy...?

Y- Nyeeeh! Cuz Ouma won't shut up! Y- Get out of my head, Ouma!

Saihara: (To hit Momota with the crossbow, you’d have to be fairly good with it.. Could Yumeno have done this? That’s the question…)

Present - Crossbow

Saihara: I don't think Yumeno used the crossbow. More accurately… she couldn't use it.

Shirogane: Couldn't use it? Why not?

Saihara: the crossbow inside this case was disassembled. Momota and I learned how to assemble the crossbow from Harukawa, so we could have done it. But I don't believe someone without the proper training could have assembled it.

Ouma?: Well… what if Harukawa taught Yumeno how to assemble the crossbow?

Yumeno: Sh-she didn't teach me that! Right, Harukawa?

Harukawa: …

Yumeno: wh-what’s wrong? Are you… mad about before?

Harukawa: …

Yumeno: S-sorry… I thought they were gonna suspect me, so… I lied.

Ouma?: I really have to question your morals if you're blaming Harukawa for your lie, Yumeno!

Shirogane: I don't think you're allowed to say something like that…

Yumeno: I'm sorry, Harukawa… please… can you tell them the truth?

Harukawa: Fine… I'm not going to lie. I didn't teach Yumeno how to assemble the crossbow. She couldn't have used it.

Yumeno: See! I told you! Just like i said! Everyone who suspected me needs to apologize right now!

Shirogane: She changed back so fast… I think I might have whiplash now…

K1B0: Then… why did you bring the crossbow to the hangar, Yumeno?

Yumeno: I… was asked to.

Saihara: (Asked to…? Perhaps the person who asked was…)

Select - Kaito Momota

Saihara: was it… Momota?

Shirogane: Huh? Momota?

Saihara: Only Momota or Ouma would have asked for a crossbow to be brought to the hangar. Because Momota knows how to assemble the crossbow, he certainly could have used it. Knowing that… I can't imagine that anyone else would have asked Yumeno.

K1B0: I do not think she would bring it at Ouma’s request…

Yumeno: Of course not! Why would I ever listen to Ouma!?

Ouma?: Cuz i know you like meeee.

Yumeno: Nuh-uh! I hate you!

Ouma?: But i like you.

Yumeno: Nyeh!?

Shirogane: Hey! Don't play with Yumeno’s heart!

Saihara: (But to think that Momota asked Yumeno to do that… Maybe Momota is trying to keep the promise we made yesterday…)

-Flashback-

Momota: Don't worry! I'll do something about all this! That’s a promise! All you guys are working so hard, so I can't just sit back and relax!

-Flash forward-

K1B0: But why were you keeping that a secret, Yumeno?

Yumeno: Well, Momota… sorta asked me to keep it a secret… Then Momota died and… I got scared. I thought i was gonna be next.

Ouma?: you're the worst for trying to pin the blame on Harukawa just for that reason! Harukawa, teach this dumb monkey the true terror of human beings!

Yumeno: Don't bully the person you like!

Shirogane: This is way beyond bullying a grade school crush…

Saihara: Yumeno, when exactly did Momota ask you to do this?

Yumeno: Ummm… I think it was around evening yesterday.

I was so nervous about fighting Ouma, I couldn't get to sleep… So i took a walk near the hangar, and that’s when Momota called out to me. I got startled, and wet myself a little, and then he asked me to get him a crossbow.

Shirogane: Umm… that one part was, uh… You know what? Never mind. So if Momota asked for a crossbow, does that mean he was going to kill Ouma?

Yumeno: No, he said it was to disable Ouma. I wouldn't have helped him otherwise. I trusted Momota and took a crossbow from Harukawa’s lab.

K1B0: That’s when i witnessed Yumeno.

Shirogane: But then, what did Momota do after he had the crossbow?

Yumeno: i dunno. I just handed him the crossbow then went right back to the dorms.

K1B0: Presumably, Momota tried to attack Ouma, only to be disarmed of the crossbow… And then, Ouma returned fire and shot Momota. That sequence seems logical.

Saihara: No, it happened a little differently. Both Momota and Ouma shot the crossbow. (And there’s proof of that…)

Select - Ouma’s Clothes

Saihara: Remember that when we found Ouma’s clothes, there were holes in the back and sleeve. The same kind of hole that was found in Momota’s coat.

Yumeno: So Ouma was shot by the crossbow, too?

Shirogane: Then it was Momota who shot him, right?

Ouma?: Hmmm, I'm not suuure. I don't remember anything like thaaat.

Shirogane: you don't remember whether or not you were shot…?

K1B0: There is no doubt that they shot each other with the crossbow, but--

Harukawa: It doesn't matter.

K1B0: ...Huh?

Harukawa: It doesn't matter what happened in between. In the end, Ouma killed Momota.

Saihara: … (Harukawa’s been acting strangely… But why? Does she know something? If so… what does she know?)

Yumeno: Maybe Harukawa’s right. It doesn't matter what happened in the middle. Cuz in the end, there’s no mistake that Ouma killed Momota.

Harukawa: Then, let’s hurry up and vote--

Saihara: No, it’s too soon. There are still mysteries--

Harukawa: who cares about that? We already know who the culprit is.

Monokuma: You sure about that?

Harukawa: ...Huh?

Yumeno: What? Now he’s joining in?

Monokuma: As the one running this trial, it bothers me when anyone says mysteries don't matter. It affects the overall entertainment value, so i encourage you to reaaaally think about things. After all, there should be some mysteries that still matter… For example, is Ouma really inside that Exisal? Stuff like that…

Saihara: ...What?

Ouma?: …

Harukawa: What are you saying? We already finished that discussion a while ago.

Yumeno: Ouma’s gotta still be alive, since the killing game’s still going. His voice is even coming from the Exisal and everything.

Monokuma: But we heard it speak in Momota’s voice earlier, didn't we?

Momota?: Yeah, don't rely on that. After all, this Exisal has a voice changer.

Saihara: (...It what?)

Momota?: Hah! Cuz of that, nobody realizes I'm pretending to be Ouma! But no more! Sorry for the wait, guys! The Luminary of the Stars has arrived! This time for real!

Yumeno: Wh-what? What’s going on?

Momota?: I told you, I'm Momota. I was just pretending to be Ouma is all. There’s a bit of a situation going on, so I didn't really have a choice… Sorry about tricking you guys like that. My bad!

Shirogane: Huh? So Momota’s in there after all?

Harukawa: ...Don't be stupid. How many times are you going to be tricked by him? That's Ouma pretending to be Momota.

Momota?: Hey now, Harumaki. Don't you believe me?

Harukawa: Don't… *ever*... call me that!

Momota?: Whoa there! Chill! You really think I'm Ouma? I mean, i guess i understand. Sorry, I can't really get outta this thing right now.

K1B0: Why not?

Momota?: I can't move cuz of the injury i got from Ouma… Its so bad i cant even stand. That's why I'm in this exisal.

Yumeno: I-Is that so…?

Momota?: But if you guys don't believe me, then we can't move on… So, you're up, Saihara!

Saihara: What!? Me!?

Momota?: Explain to everyone how I wasn't the one that died!

Saihara: … (Momota is alive after all… No… maybe… that’s just what I want to believe. Is it really true? What story does the evidence tell? Does that story end with Momota or Ouma being the victim? I need to give a well-reasoned answer to that question, and soon. ...I can't look away from the truth.)

Select - Momota

Saihara: (I'm trying, i really am, but I can't think of anyone other than Momota. Most of the evidence we have points towards him being dead…)

Momota?: What’s wrong, Saihara? Just go ahead and tell everyone how I'm not dead. Should be easy!

Saihara: No… I won't. Because you're not Momota. Momota is already dead!

-Monokuma interjects-

Monokuma: Puhuhuhu! Good, good! This is already more entertaining! Now, the Ultimate Academy is proud to present its very own morphenomenal trial grounds!

Alright! Let’s give it everything we’ve got!

SPLIT OPINION - SCRUM DEBATE

Which is dead? Exisal , injury, crushed, arrow hole, mastermind, alive

Saihara: I don't… want to believe it… In a way, I still can’t… But the evidence… The evidence shows that Momota must be the one who died. I hate it… I hate it so much, but it’s the truth.

Momota?: …

K1B0: I see. If that’s the conclusion you've arrived at, Saihara, then there must be no mistake.

Shirogane: Then, the one here is…

Momota?: Heh, looks like I messed around too much.

Ouma?: Soooorry! That was just a little joke!

Yumeno: Wh-what a sick joke!

Harukawa: You're still an asshole…

Saihara: True, and I can’t forgive him… but we still need to stay calm, be rational. Because we need to get to the truth of Momota’s death.

Monokuma: Y-y-y-yeah! Just keep calm and carry on!

Yumeno: Why are you saying that!? And what part of that was calm!?

K1B0: Getting back on topic… Why don't we examine the crossbow a little more closely? I think we need to get all the facts straight so we don't fall for any more lies.

Shirogane: I agree, but… what do you think, Harukawa?

Harukawa: … ...Fine.

Ouma?: O-kay! Let’s discuss that then!

Yumeno: Why are you acting like you're in charge of things?

Ouma?: So, if we assume that Momota and I shot each other with the crossbow… ...Then the most efficient way to solve this is to set up a timeline of events!

Yumeno: Hey! I said, why are you--

Ouma?: Alrighty then! Let the debate begiiiin!

NONSTOP DEBATE

O- When the crossbow fired... O- What was even going on?

Y- As if you even need to ask, you were there!

S- The crossbow was in Momota’s possession first... S- So he probably fired the first shot at Ouma, too!

K- Then Ouma disarmed Momota, took the crossbow.. K- And returned fire!

O- I didn't take the crossbow from Momota! O- I secretly brought a different one!

H- But only one crossbow was missing... H- The other two are still in my lab.

Y- And only one shot was fired (Present) Y- So how could they both shoot each other?

O- By the way, crossbow shots hurt a lot! O- My wound is still aching something fierce!

Saihara: (...What? ...What was that just now? I feel like that goes against the information I have.)

Present - Three arrows

Saihara: Wait, Yumeno… what do you mean one arrow?

Yumeno: Nyeh? Well, I only gave Momota one arrow, so…

Saihara: (...What?) Are you positive?

Yumeno: Of course! There’s no way I got that wrong!

Saihara: Well then, that’s strange because… ...there were three arrows in the bathroom, remember?

Yumeno: Nyeh!? Three!? I know I only gave him one! Momota even told me to only bring him one. He said he wanted to avoid fighting.

Saihara: (there were three arrows at the scene, but Yumeno said she only brought one. What is going on here?)

Shirogane: Um… Maybe Ouma had some hidden away?

K1B0: Why would Ouma have two arrows when he didn't have a crossbow to fire them?

Saihara: But we know for certain that three arrows were recovered from the scene… ...and all three arrows had blood on them.

K1B0: And altogether, their clothes had three perforations in them. So we know for certain that they shot three arrows at each other…

Saihara: (Then where did those arrows come from? I don't think Yumeno is lying… There must be some angle to this we haven't considered yet… What is it…? What could have happened? Think! I need to think!)

PSYCHE TAXI

How many arrows did Yumeno Give to Momota? 1 Were all the arrows inside the hangar from the start? No Who brought the two arrows? A third party

Saihara: Could it be… that the additional arrows were brought in by a third party?

Shirogane: A third party? So someone besides Ouma or Yumeno?

Harukawa: That’s just a guess, though. There’s no way a third party exists.

Ouma?: if a third party did exist, why would they bring two arrows?

Yumeno: Momota was the only one with a crossbow. I made sure i handed it to him…

Saihara: Momota said he only needed one arrow. Clearly, he didn't want a fight.

Yumeno: Yeah, that’s right.

Saihara: So, the other two arrows weren’t for Momota… They were for the third party to use themselves.

Ouma?: So, the third party didn't hand the arrows through the window… Instead, they went into the hangar and shot the crossbow themselves?

Harukawa: impossible. There was an alarm system and an electric barrier around the hangar.

Shirogane: Yeah. That hangar should have been completely closed off, right?

Saihara: (It was completely closed off? But can we confirm that? I feel like there might be another way. Some way that we haven't figured out yet. I'm overlooking something… Think, think… What method did the third party use to enter the hangar?)

Spell - Exisal

Saihara: That’s it… the Exisal! The Exisal could be used to enter the hangar! We couldn't get in because of the alarm system and the electric barrier… ...but that shouldn't have been a problem for any of the Exisals, right? So if you wanted to enter the hangar, all you had to do was pilot an Exisal!

K1B0: I saw an exisal enter the hangar last night… So was this third party piloting it?

Ouma?: by the way, i just wanna confirm something with Monokuma. Would the alarm still go off if there was a person inside an exisal?

Monokuma: well, i wasn't trying to keep this secret, but since it’s about the details of the hangar… ...I guess i can tell you guys. It makes sense that the alarm system and electric barrier wouldn't react to an exisal. After all, the hangar is where the exisals are supposed to be stored. It’d be a hassle to disable the security every time an exisal comes and goes, y’know? So even if someone is inside an exisal, the security system wouldn't catch ‘em. Cuz it’d be a hassle to leave the exisal every time you have to put it away.

Yumeno: So it’s like Saihara said? A third party got in an exisal and entered the hangar?

Shirogane: But… can just anyone pilot an Exisal?

K1B0: ...Well, Ouma?

Ouma?: It's surprisingly easy. If you use both hands, both feet, and both nipples, you can do it.

Yumeno: Nipples, too!?

Saihara: Anyway, this third party commandeered an exisal and infiltrated the hangar. That same person must have brought the other two arrows with them!

Harukawa: I told you, that’s impossible.

Saihara: (...Huh?)

Harukawa: There’s no way you can get through security if you pilot an exisal. It’s… not possible…

Saihara: What? Not possible…?

Harukawa: …

Saihara: (Maki… what are you talking about? What are you thinking? What do you know? Why are you trying to hide it? Why…? Why won't you tell me?)

NONSTOP DEBATE

K- If someone was piloting an exisal K- They could’ve used it to enter the hangar

H- That’s not possible.

S- Is operating the exisal S- Really that difficult?

H- Do you even know how to get inside an exisal? H- There were four exisals outside the hangar... H- And all of them were moving, too.

O- I was controlling them remotely!

K- The electrohammers weren't an option K- Yesterday, they were all still recharging (Present)

H- There was no way to stop an exisal H- So getting inside one would’ve been impossible.

O- You're right, it’s impossible!

Saihara: (it’s not impossible. There is one way to stop an exisal. I have to show them!)

Present - Used electrohammer

Saihara: Wait, not all of the electrohammers were being charged! I know because I found one. There was a used electrohammer near Monokuma and the exisals.

Yumeno: Was that electrohammer used by the third party!? Maybe they used it to disable an Exisal!

Saihara: Yes, i think so. When i saw them last afternoon, there were four Exisals. But this morning, there were only three.

K1B0: I noticed that, too. Was the missing Exisal taken by the third party?

Ouma?: Nishishi… Saihara is getting warmer… How about you say the answer right now? Who did it? Who is the third party?

Saihara: … (The identity of the third party… The electrohammer gives us a clue. I saw four Exisals at the scene yesterday when i went to meet up with Momota. This morning, when we were trying to get into the hangar, there were three. The culprit must have used the electrohammer between yesterday afternoon and this morning. There’s only one person among us that i think could do that…)

Select - Maki Harukawa

Saihara: Harukawa… you're the third party we’re looking for, aren't you?

Shirogane: What!? It’s Harukawa!?

Harukawa: … ...What are you saying?

Saihara: Remember what Ouma said…

-Flashback-

Ouma: But, be careful. The electrohammer runs out of battery pretty quickly. So if you use it against an Exisal, it’ll run out of juice with just one shot, got it?

-Flash forward-

Saihara: the electrohammer needs to be recharged for 24 hours after it runs out of battery. That hammer was used last afternoon, so it couldn't have been used this morning.

Shirogane: Oh, right. When we were all gathered in the dining hall this morning…

-Flashback-

Saihara: Harukawa… where’s your electrohammer?

Harukawa: ...I don't need it. I’d rather not use a weapon I'm unfamiliar with… ...This is much better.

Saihara: A knife? Well… I suppose you know best.

-Flash forward-

Shirogane: Harukawa was the only one without an electrohammer, wasn't she?

Harukawa: …

Saihara: Knowing that, the electrohammer i found could only belong to Harukawa. And that leads me to the conclusion that Harukawa must be the third party.

Harukawa: …

Saihara: She also knows how to assemble the crossbow and could return it to her lab later.

K1B0: You brought a different crossbow than the one Momota had, right?

Harukawa: …

Saihara: Harukawa took two arrows and her own crossbow from her lab… ...disabled the Exisal with an electrohammer, and infiltrated the hangar. Now we just have to figure out what happened after--

-Harukawa interrupts-

Harukawa: Why… are you doing this?

Saihara: (...What?)

Harukawa: Why… are you getting in my way?

Saihara: Getting in your way? Harukawa, what are you--

Harukawa: Yes, I'm the third party.

Saihara: Huh?

Harukawa: I admit going into the hangar with an Exisal, and then shooting the crossbow. But I didn't kill anyone! I'm not the culprit!

Rebuttal Showdown

Wouldn’t result in a fatal injury (Present)

Present - Poison

Saihara: It wouldn't matter where the arrow hit… if it were poisoned.

Shirogane: P-poison?

Saihara: I noticed something about the poison in my lab during the investigation. There was just a little less in the bottle than before. If that poison had been applied to those arrows… They would've been lethal, no matter where they connected.

Harukawa: …

K1B0: ...Harukawa, do you have a rebuttal?

Yumeno: Wh-what’s the matter? Why don't you say anything? Don't tell me… are you… really the culprit?

Shirogane: Th-there’s no way she is! Cuz… why would she kill Momota!?

Harukawa: …

Yumeno: Nyeeeh! I can't understand if you don't explain anything!

Saihara: Harukawa… is still fighting.

Shirogane: Huh? Fighting?

Saihara: Do you remember that Harukawa said she would do anything to defeat Ouma? Harukawa is trying to kill Ouma in this class trial. She wants to kill the mastermind, a Remnant of Despair!

Ouma?: …

K1B0: Then when Harukawa said she would sacrifice anything, she meant…

Saihara: (The sacrifice that Harukawa is talking about must be…) Select - All of us Saihara: She plans to sacrifice all of our lives in order to kill Ouma…

Shirogane: Sacrifice us?

K1B0: Then by hiding the truth, Harukawa was trying to get us to arrive at the wrong answer… Just to kill Ouma, and the rest of us along with him?

Yumeno: So doesn't that mean that Harukawa’s the culprit?

Shirogane: She knew what happened and tried to hide it from us…

Harukawa: …

Ouma?: But that mischievous plan was ruined alllll thanks to Saihara here. Too bad, Harukawa! I already predicted this would happen.

K1B0: You knew all along that Harukawa was the culprit. That’s why you’ve been so calm.

Saihara: This isn't over.

Ouma?: Hmmm?

Saihara: Maybe we do have the truth now, but this isn't over. We have a choice to make. We don't have to follow where the evidence leads.

Shirogane: Huh? What do you mean?

Ouma?: Does this mean… you're gonna vote for someone else, even if it’s not the truth?

K1B0: Someone else… You mean vote incorrectly on purpose!?

Yumeno: Wh-what did you say?

Harukawa: …

Saihara: Momota told me that only I would be able to grasp what lies beyond the truth. That means finding the truth is not enough. We need to grasp the hope just beyond it. So, Harukawa… please tell us the truth! The truth that only you know!

Harukawa: … So Momota… said that to you. Then… does that mean you guys made up before he died?

Saihara: Yeah… When i went to see him yesterday.

Harukawa: I see… … ...Okay, I'll talk about it. Especially since it’s my responsibility for involving everyone. Saihara… you're so persistent. Were you always like that?

Saihara: Ah, you think so? Maybe Momota’s charisma is starting to rub off on me…

Harukawa: That guy… could be pretty stubborn.

K1B0: Then… what really happened?

Shirogane: Harukawa, please tell us.

Yumeno: Please!

Harukawa: …

Monokuma: And so, Harukawa began telling the truth. A truth that would leave us all in shock!

Yumeno: Don't just start narrating things! You're ruining the mood!

Ouma?: … Well… I guess this turn of events isn't exactly boring either.

-INTERMISSION-

(In the Monokuma & Cubs theater he basically just says that he can't do the theater without the kubs. I don't feel it necessary to fully transcribe)

-IN SESSION-

Harukawa: The flashback light became the motive. When Ouma remembered that he was a Remnant of Despair, I planned to kill him… I thought that if I killed him, this game… and the battle between hope and despair… would end. I was confident in my talent as an assassin. I knew I would be able to do it.

Shirogane: We’ve tried to end this killing game before, but…

Harukawa: ...We were naive.

Shirogane: Huh?

Harukawa: That’s what i thought. I knew Ouma would take advantage of my naivete, simply because it’s him.

Ouma?: Nishishi… Harukawa totally gets me.

Harukawa: That's why i needed to settle it myself. I took the poison arrows and the crossbow… ...and broke into the hangar with an Exisal. But when i entered the hangar, I saw something i never expected. Momota and Ouma were fighting each other. Ouma was shot in the arm with a crossbow arrow, probably by Momota when he fought back. Both of them stopped and looked at the Exisal, most likely surprised by its sudden appearance. Ouma immediately took out his remote and attempted to control the Exisal i was in. I jumped out of the Exisal before he could, and shot Ouma in the back with an arrow. That should’ve been enough to stop him, since the arrow was coated in poison.

Saihara: The strike-9 poison, correct? But why that particular poison? Some of the poisons in my lab were far more lethal…

Harukawa: ...I wanted Ouma to confess his true intentions before he died. And find out why he was always lying and trying to confuse us.

Yumeno: What do you mean?

Harukawa: If he was the mastermind, it would’ve been easier for him to hide in the shadows, right? He could’ve made it seem as if the late Junko was secretly behind this killing game. That way, he could reveal himself as the “surprise mastermind” to liven up the game. Because of his suspicious actions, anyone would already suspect him as the mastermind. Especially with that message in the courtyard… Ouma said it was a hint, but was it necessary for him to go out of his way just for a hint?

K1B0: As a Remnant of Despair, I imagine he wanted to feel the despair of his plan being thwarted.

Harukawa: I think that if he wanted the thrill, he would’ve carried out the plan carefully. So when his carefully laid out plan goes to waste, he would be in utter despair.

Yumeno: Nyeh… That’s a good point.

Saihara: Harukawa must have wanted to hear it directly from Ouma himself…

Harukawa: But it was pointless. I was a fool for thinking I could have a serious talk with him.

-Flashback-

(Harukawa has her crossbow pointed at Ouma, who looks to be in pain and has two arrows sticking out of himself. He’s kneeling in front of her.) Ouma: Wh-what are you... talking about…? Remnants of Despair… what’s that…? I-I don't understand… anything… you're saying… But a-anyway… why are you… starting up the k-killing game… when it should've ended? Y-you already… know it’s all meaningless… and th-that I'm the mastermind… Do you… love killing that much?

Harukawa: ...Shut up, you asshole! I realized it was pointless to continue the conversation, so i shot the final arrow. But then…

-Momota lunges in front of Ouma- Momota: Grk!

Harukawa: What?

-Flash forward-

Saihara: Momota… protected Ouma!?

Yumeno: Wh-why? Why would Momota protect Ouma?

Harukawa: At that moment, my mind went blank. I knew I had to do something about the poison. I rushed to Saihara’s research lab for the antidote.

Saihara: So you didn't have the antidote with you at the time…

Harukawa: I used strike-9 poison to torture Ouma for info, but I planned to kill him from the start.

Ouma?: Ah-haha! That’s sooo mean!

Harukawa: But that was my first mistake. Because of that… …

Shirogane: You what…?

Harukawa: ...I ended up killing Momota.

Saihara: …

Harukawa: When i returned with the antidote, the hangar shutter had been closed. I assumed it was Ouma’s doing. But because of that, I couldn't enter the hangar anymore. I needed to give Momota the antidote somehow, so i went to the bathroom window.

-Flashback-

Harukawa: Momota, can you hear me!? Quick! Drink this antidote!

-Flash forward-

Harukawa: After calling out to him, I chucked the antidote through the bathroom window. Momota noticed it and grabbed the antidote… But… Ouma stole it from him.

-Flashback-

Ouma: Sorry… but I can't die here… Since I’m… the mastermind of this killing game…

Harukawa: Wait! There’s only one antido--

Ouma: Oh… you don't have to worry about Momota. He fulfilled his dream, right? He already… went to space.

Momota: Tch… damn it!

Harukawa: S-stop!!!

Ouma: Phew! I feel so much better! I guess that’s a wrap… ...or maybe not. Because now another class trial is going to start.

Harukawa: Class trial…?

Ouma: You’ll be the blackened for this case, y’know? The blackened who killed Momota.

Harukawa: I...I killed…?

Momota: Shut it! Screw the class trials! Like hell am I gonna let you have your way!

Harukawa: Momota! Why did you protect Ouma!? If you didn't help him, then--

Momota: I couldn't help it… Even if it’s Ouma… I-I can’t have you kill anybody!

Harukawa: ...What?

Ouma: Awww… Momota wasn't protecting me… He was protecting Harukawa! … The situation just got way worse, huh? Harukawa is gonna become the blackened responsible for killing you… all because you protected me.

Harukawa: …

Momota: D-don’t you worry, Harumaki. I'm not gonna die that easily… Just leave it to me. I'll put an end to this killing game!

Ouma: Ah-haha… you're still full of energy, even like that… You really are… not boring.

Momota: What?

Ouma: Nishishi… I wanna see what a dying Momota can do. So show me what you've got! I won't meddle with your plans!

Harukawa: What are you--!?

Momota: Don't mind me… Run, Harumaki! Just… hurry up and run… Run… ...and live! You gotta live!

-Flash forward-

Harukawa: But, i refused to give up… I tried to enter the hangar by breaking the control panel with my knife… In the end… I couldn't…

Yumeno: So that's where the marks on the control panel came from, huh?

Saihara: …

Harukawa: After that, I returned to the bathroom window once more, but I didn't see anyone. The bathroom door was closed. I called out, but neither Momota nor Ouma answered… I couldn't do anything anymore… All I could do… was leave. That's when I made up my mind. As the blackened who killed Momota, I would kill Ouma during this class trial… ...in exchange for all of your lives.

Shirogane: So… that’s what happened…

K1B0: Then Ouma, knowing what he knew, still helped Harukawa cover up her crime?

Yumeno: Was that why you smushed Momota in the hydraulic press?

Ouma?: Momota wanted Harukawa to be spotless. As his friend, I felt obliged to help him.

Harukawa: How dare you… make fun of him! You call yourself a friend…? You enjoyed watching us suffer! You… fuckin’ asshole!

Ouma?: Ooohh, Harukawa is so scaaary. Good thing I'm in this Exisal. Pretty sure Harukawa would've already killed me if I was out there in the flesh.

Harukawa: …

Ouma?: So… what are everyone’s plans now? With the truth out in the open, who are you guys gonna vote for? You can vote for me, but if you do we’ll all die together. Or vote for Harukawa and live. Welp, choose whichever you want. I don't care either way.

Yumeno: Why…? Why are you so calm? Your life depends on this, too!

Ouma?: Who cares? Just choose already. C’mon, who are you gonna vote for?

Saihara: No, we can't vote yet. ...We don't have the whole truth. This case isn't over!

Ouma?: ...Huh?

Saihara: Thank you for telling us everything, Harukawa. Thanks to you, i finally understand… There’s another hidden truth within your testimony.

Harukawa: ...A hidden truth?

Saihara: Yes, I'm positive. Because there’s something wrong with the testimony you've given us. (The part of Harukawa’s testimony that doesn't add up…)

Select - Control panel being damaged

Saihara: Harukawa said she used the knife to try and break the control panel and enter the hangar… But that doesn't make sense, because there is an alarm system on the shutter.

Shirogane: Oh yeah! The alarm should’ve gone off if someone got close to the shutter!

Harukawa: I was too focused to notice at the time, but now that you mention it, it is odd.

Yumeno: Maybe the sensor just missed her?

Monokuma: Nah, the security there isn't that sloppy. If a shady person got near the shutter, the alarm would've gone off without question.

Harukawa: Then why didn't the alarm go off…?

Saihara: Like I told you, this isn't over. There's still a hidden truth to find. (That's right, there must be some kind of reason behind all these oddities. Finding that reason will help us find the hidden truth!)

NONSTOP DEBATE

H- I did attempt to enter the hangar H- And I tried to destroy the control panel with my knife H- At the time the alarm system didn't go off

K- If you had approached the shutter... K- The alarm system would have gone off with 100% certainty. (Present)

Y- Maybe it was just broken

S- Perhaps it was turned to a special setting?

O- Or maybe Harukawa is just telling a lie… O- Did you really try to destroy the control panel with your knife?

H- I’m not going to tell any more lies.

Saihara: (It seemed like the alarm system itself was working properly... So what can we learn from that?)

Present - Electrobomb

Saihara: There is a way to disable the alarm system. An electrobomb would take it down.

K1B0: But Harukawa only had one bomb, and she used it during the raid this morning…

Shirogane: Then the only other person who could’ve used one is Ouma, right?

Ouma?: Huuuh? Why would I use an Electrobomb? I had no reason to shut off the alarm, right? I’d be at a disadvantage if I did that.

Yumeno: I guess so… I can't come up with a reason why Ouma would wanna cut the alarm.

Saihara: (But we know the alarm system was neutralized. It had to be. In that case, then…) I've got it! Disabling the alarm system wasn't the real objective!

Shirogane: What?

Saihara: (The main objective of Ouma using an Electrobomb was…) Select - Disable press’ safety function. Saihara: It was to deactivate the safety function on the press!

Harukawa: Deactivate… the safety function?

Saihara: The electrobomb wouldn't have just taken down the alarm system… ...It also would have disabled the hydraulic press’s safety function!

Yumeno: That’s true, but… why would he do that?

Saihara: There’s only one reason that anyone would want to do that… But if I'm right, it means that we’ve been thinking about this all wrong!

Harukawa: All wrong…?

Saihara: (What aspect of this case runs contrary to the new evidence?) Select - Momota’s cause of death Saihara: ...Momota’s cause of death.

Harukawa: ...What?

Saihara: If the electrobomb was used while Harukawa was trying to deliver the antidote… Maybe Momota didn't die by poison. It could be something else entirely. (Yes, the cause of death could now be…) Select - Hydraulic Press Saihara: The hydraulic press! Momota could've been killed by the press after all!

Shirogane: What!? He could’ve!?

Saihara: If the safety was off, the press could have crushed Momota while he was still alive.

Harukawa: Right after i threw the antidote, I tried to open the shutter… So… Momota should've still been alive!

K1B0: And if he was crushed by the hydraulic press after that, then we have our cause of death!

Yumeno: If that's the case, it’d mean the one who killed Momota wasn't Harukawa…

Saihara: It would be whoever was operating the hydraulic press… Ouma!

Ouma?: … I see… very impressive. The hydraulic press *could* have been the cause of death. But that’s… just a possibility.

Saihara: What do you mean?

Ouma?: it’s possible that I killed Momota with the press, but there’s no way to know. Momota’s death could have been either the poison arrow or the hydraulic press. Both causes are possible, but you'll never be able to determine it… ...No matter what.

Shirogane: No matter what?

Yumeno: Th-that’s not true! We can probably solve this mystery, too! Right, Saihara?

Saihara: … (Is it really possible to determine Momota’s actual cause of death?) Select - It’s not possible. Saihara: I hate to admit it, but Ouma is right. We have no way to prove the cause of death.

Yumeno: Wh-what did you say!?

Ouma?: You can't check the body, and you don't have any conclusive evidence… You can't deduce any more from here on out. There’s no way to know what happened. ...But I know, cuz I was actually involved.

Saihara: ...Ah! So that’s what you were trying to do… You were trying to commit an unsolvable murder!

Ouma?: Nishishi… Do you finally get it? Yup, that was my plan. The gimmick of this murder case isn't the unknown victim… But rather, the unknowable culprit! No one understands but me! Only *I* know the answer! There’s no more room for deduction here! Choose the culprit with your own intuition!

K1B0: I-intuition?

Ouma?: Nishishi… Are you troubled? I'm sure robots don't have intuition, right? But there’s nothing you can do about it. This is just how the trial goes. So… who is the culprit? Harukawa or me…? The heart-racing excitement as the blackened and the spotless face off! It’s… VOTING TIME!!!

Select - Any, it doesn't matter

Monokuma: Hey! That's my line! I'm the one who decides when it’s Voting Time!

Ouma?: Aw, c’mon… No one’s gonna figure out the truth. Let’s just vote already. This won't be a problem, right, Monokuma? Cuz you know who the culprit is, don't you? ...Just like you always do.

Monokuma: ...Eh? … Y-yes… of course…

Yumeno: Nyeh? What kind of a reaction is that?

Monokuma: Th-The culprit, you say? Ah, y-yes… of c-course I know…

K1B0: Hm? Why do you seem so flustered?

Monokuma: F-Flustered? Me? Hahahaha! What are you talking about?

Saihara: (...What’s going on with Monokuma right now…?) Monokuma… do you not know who the culprit is either!?

Monokuma: Huh!? Whaddaya mean I don't know!? Uh, what don't I know, huh!?

Harukawa: ...You don't know, do you?

Monokuma: …

Yumeno: What does this mean!? Why doesn't Monokuma know who the culprit is!?

Saihara: (Monokuma… doesn't know who the culprit is either? If Monokuma doesn't know, what does that tell us about this case…? Wait… this case?) Yes, that's it! So that’s what Ouma’s real objective was!

Shirogane: Huh? What are you talking about?

Saihara: Ouma wasn't just trying to commit a murder that we couldn't figure out… He was trying to commit a murder that Monokuma couldn't figure out, either!

Harukawa: ...A murder Monokuma couldn't figure out?

Ouma?: …

Yumeno: But what’s the point of that? Ouma’s the one who’s controlling Monokuma!

Saihara: But consider how many elements of this case would be cleared up. Prior to this case, Monokuma always knew the specific details of each crime, correct? That must mean that he was using some way of monitoring us…

K1B0: Perhaps there are hidden cameras, strategically placed to avoid our detection…

Saihara: I can’t say for certain, but he must be keeping watch somehow. Ouma probably used the electrobomb to scramble whatever that was. The electrobomb *would* prevent any cameras from sending video wirelessly.

Harukawa: Which means, it wouldn't matter where the surveillance cameras were hidden.

Yumeno: Like I said, what’s the point!? Ouma’s the one who’s controlling Monokuma!

Saihara: Before we determine that for sure, I want to make one thing clear. If the objective were to create a crime that would stump Monokuma, the Exisals… Yes… the Exisals weren't protecting Monokuma, they were… Select - watching him Saihara: They were watching Monokuma.

Shirogane: Watching him!?

Saihara: Yes. Remember what Monokuma said earlier in the investigation?

-Flashback-

Monokuma: Oh, at the time, the Exisals were on auto-pilot and directed to only observe me.

-Flash forward-

Saihara: If they were protecting him like bodyguards, they wouldn't have been facing him. They would have been scanning the area, watching us. But they weren't. That implies that they weren't watching us, they were watching *him*. They were trying to make sure that Monokuma wouldn't go near the crime scene

Harukawa: That reminds me… before I stole an Exisal, all four units were focused on Monokuma. That's why when i stole one to enter the hangar, the other three didn’t pursue me.

Saihara: So Monokuma must have been talking about Harukawa…

-Flashback-

Monokuma: Even if it puts someone at a disadvantage, the class trial must always be fair. The person who shared that info with me didn't seem interested in sharing it with you guys… So you share it instead! That way, it'll be fair to all the participants!

-Flash forward-

Saihara: She didn't want to share that information because it would’ve linked her to the murder. In which case… It could only be Harukawa.

Harukawa: ...You’re right.

K1B0: Um, so… to summarize this discussion… Ouma used the electrobomb in the hangar, and the exisals to watch Monokuma… Thereby creating a scenario in which Monokuma has no idea who the culprit is?

Yumeno: I told you there’s no point! Ouma’s the one who's controlling Monokuma!

Saihara: No, Ouma might not be controlling Monokuma at all!

Yumeno: Wh-What!?

Shirogane: But Ouma’s the mastermind, right!? Shouldn't he be controlling Monoku--

Saihara: Ouma might not be the mastermind!

Yumeno: Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-What!?

Saihara: Remember that the only reason we think that, is because Ouma told us. Monokuma hasn't said a word about that. It's possible that Ouma is just lying to us.

Ouma?: Ah-hahahaha! No way I lied! I'm definitely controlling Monokuma. The mastermind of the killing game is totally me. The one who pitted humanity’s last survivors against each other is… all me, baby!

Yumeno: That’s right! He’s a Remnant of Despair! How’d we forget that?

Saihara: But that doesn't necessarily mean that he’s the mastermind.

Shirogane: Umm...well...I guess. But is that really possible?

Harukawa: ...Well, Monokuma?

Monokuma: … I can't answer that without causing problems, cuz I gotta run this trial fair and squa--

Saihara: Even more reason to give us the answer! If you don't tell us the truth right now, you'll be an accomplice to Ouma’s lies. Does that sound like a fair game? Would you say this class trial is fair?

Shirogane: Yeah, tell us! Is Ouma the real mastermind or not!?

Ouma?: No need to think about it. You're being way too forward, y’know?

Monokuma: Aren't you normally the forward one?

Saihara: (...Ah!)

Monokuma: I mean, I don't mind cuz that's probably part of your strategy, too… But, in the interest of fairness, I suppose it’s time to tell the truth. Unlike the lies you love so much, the truth should be impartial to everyone.

Ouma?: …

Harukawa: ...And what *is* that truth?

Monokuma: I'm not being controlled by Ouma. Cuz he’s not the mastermind.

Yumeno: Wh-Wh-Wh-WHA-WHA-WHA-WHAAAAAAAAAT!?

Shirogane: Is that… really true?

Monokuma: Ouma Was just messing with you. I never once said he was the mastermind.

K1B0: Then it was all Ouma’s lie!?

Monokuma: Yeah, that is what that would mean. With the key from the last motive, he was the first to learn the truth of the outside world… Based on his deductions, he fabricated a lie to make you all think he was the mastermind.

Saihara: I see. Ouma’s own deductions…

-Flashback-

Ouma: Do you wanna know? Then I'll tell you. I'm getting kinda bored with all the lying, so everything I say now will be the truth, ‘kay?

-Flash forward-

Monokuma: His deductions got a lot of details right, though. Pretty impressive, honestly.

Ouma?: …

Yumeno: But, what about the Exisals!? If Ouma wasn't the mastermind, how’d he control them so easily?

Monokuma: He just used Iruma’s remote control, right?

Saihara: (Iruma’s remote control…?) So the remote that Ouma was using was made by Iruma?

Monokuma: Oh, you didn't know? Iruma not only invented the electrobomb and the electrohammer… She also made a remote control that can hijack any electronic device. Ouma just slapped a receiver on each of the exisals and took them for a spin!

Ouma?: Hey, isn't it a bit unfair to tell them all that?

Monokuma: Fairness has nothing to do with it. I offered up that info purely out of spite. Spite towards you, for trying to usurp the mastermind’s role and take over the game!

Ouma?: Well, whatever. It’s way more interesting to defeat an enemy who plays dirty anyway.

Shirogane: Wh-what's going on? It seems like they're… actually fighting…

Saihara: There’s no doubt about it. Ouma isn't the mastermind.

Yumeno: Were we just being dragged around by Ouma’s lies the whole time!?

Shirogane: What were you trying to accomplish by pretending to be the mastermind, Ouma?

Ouma?: …

Yumeno: Nyeh! Now you're gonna be all quiet!? This is so frustrating!

K1B0: Then if he’s not the mastermind, who is!?

Monokuma: Why are you so certain there’s even a mastermind to begin with?

Saihara: (...What?) What do you mean?

Monokuma: Why, that's on a need-to-know basis, and you don't need to know.

Yumeno: But I wanna know!

Saihara: (The real mastermind is not Ouma… who could it be? I was thinking it was Junko Enoshima, but that can't be it. She’s dead. We’ve never come into contact with her. If so… who’s done this? Who planned this killing game?)

Monokuma: Anyway, this conversation has flown off the rails. Let's get things back on track. This class trial is to figure out who the culprit is, not the mastermind. So, yeah… Get to talkin’!

Ouma?: I agree. Before we worry about who the mastermind is, or what my intent is… Let's figure out the culprit!

K1B0: But Monokuma doesn't know who it is. How is he supposed to confirm the results?

Ouma?: We don't need to worry about that. Let's just leave the decision-making to Monokuma. But… you gotta run the class trial, too. So no mistakes, okaaaay?

Monokuma: ...Are you tryin’ to get me to do something?

Ouma?: you've been watching us solve all these cases, but you can't be a spectator anymore. You're gonna participate in the class trial from here on out.

Saihara: (Huh?)

Ouma?: So, let's resume this class trial! Monokuma, you gotta use your brain too! This will be the final class trial! Me versus Monokuma!

Saihara: You versus Monokuma?

Ouma?: ...When I play a game, I intend to win. But what’s considered winning in this game? Beating the other players? No… beating the game’s mastermind is the true victory. And that’s how I'll win! That's why I decided to challenge Monokuma! If I can deceive Monokuma till the very end, then I'll be the winner!

Shirogane: You’re dragging us around like this… just so you can win a game?

K1B0: As I suspected… your thought process defies all logic.

Ouma?: But since the outside world is in total ruin, this game is the only entertainment we have… At least I can enjoy this game to the fullest and feel good winning.

Harukawa: You really are a Remnant of Despair… your way of thinking is just chaotic.

Ouma?: … ...Remnant of Despair? Eh, whatevs. Let's just get this started. If the students or Monokuma don't know who the culprit is, that means I win--

Monokuma: Don't underestimate me. Or Saihara and the others for that matter.

Saihara: (...What?)

Monokuma: Puhuhu… It’s just like a Remnant of Despair to try to assume control of the game. But these kids are all that’s left of Hope’s Peak Academy. If you think they're gonna make this easy for you, you better think again!

Yumeno: Who’s side are you taking he--

Monokuma: Side? Isn't it obvious!? ...Monokuma joins your party.

Yumeno: Nyeh!? Who invited you!?

Monokuma: Now, let’s join forces and unravel the truth behind this case!

Shirogane: Well, we were going to do it anyway…

K1B0: Let’s just ignore Monokuma. His actions are always beyond comprehension.

Monokuma: Yeah! Let's just focus on the case!

Yumeno: Hey! Be quiet so we can ignore you!

Monokuma: Now, where should we start? We’ve already established what Ouma is after…

Shirogane: He’s just gonna keep talking anyway, isn't he?

Monokuma: In my experience, whenever you learn a new fact… …You learn something else along with it.

K1B0: Yes, let's look for that!

Yumeno: You warmed up to him real fast… I guess you *are* both robots.

Saihara: (So, another truth comes out… That piece of evidence makes more sense now. The evidence that I couldn't wrap my head around.) Select - Murder Video Saihara: Let’s discuss the video of Momota being crushed by the hydraulic press. Ouma said that he filmed that video to prove he was not the victim. But we know Ouma was just trying to mislead Monokuma, so what about the video? It’s pretty strange to present evidence that condemns you, after all.

Monokuma: Then what kinda mistake was Ouma tryin’ to get me to make?

K1B0: Maybe he crushed Momota with the hydraulic press so the cause of death would be unknown?

Saihara: But if that were the only objective, there would be no need to film it. Discovering the crushed body would have been enough. No need to show us the film.

Monokuma: That’s true.

Yumeno: I guess you're starting to fit in after all. If you get any cuter, I’m gonna hug you!

Shirogane: Huh? Really?

Saihara: There must be a reason you went out of your way to show us the body being crushed.

Ouma?: No reason, really. That's just my twisted personality.

Saihara: (You're lying again, Ouma. There’s a method to your madness. If you wanted Monokuma to make a mistake, then showing us the video… It must have something to do with trying to fool Monokuma. Taking the video of the murder but keeping the victim’s identity hidden… What does it show? What doesn't it show?) Spell - Victim Saihara: ...The victim.

Harukawa: Huh?

Saihara: (Is it even possible? No, that’s a question for later. For now, we know that…) If you show us the moment of Momota’s death, of course it would lead us to believe he died. Even if we can't positively identify the body, we would still believe Momota was the victim. And that might be exactly the mistake Ouma was going for.

K1B0: D-Does that mean the victims were switched!?

Yumeno: Nyeh!? Switched!?

Shirogane: Then it was some other dead body that got crushed by the hydraulic press?

Harukawa: What?

Yumeno: Where would he even get another body!?

K1B0: There should be plenty to choose from if you reuse the body of a former victim--

Ouma?: If there was an unknown body, then we could guess the victim was switched… Ah-hahaha, but too bad! Switching the victims was impossible! The footage showed the body being crushed… When in the footage would they have been able to switch the victim? And we already established that the footage was not doctored in any way. The camera doesn't have any editing functions-- just play, record, and pause. Monokuma also said that no computer was used to edit the footage, remember?

Monokuma: Dammit! Me and my big mouth!

Ouma?: Which means, switching out the victim would not be possible. Also, if the victim was switched, then that would mean Momota is still alive. We already discussed this sooo many times. The chance of that happening is imposs--

Harukawa: ...It might be possible.

Ouma?: Huh?

Harukawa: There could be a trick to make the switch possible. We just haven’t noticed it yet…

Ouma?: Ooohh, and what trick is that?

Harukawa: …

Ouma?: See, you don't know do you? I told you, it’s imposs--

Saihara: Harukawa’s not wrong. There is a way it could be done… So we can't just give up here!

Harukawa: … Hey, Saihara… I’ll think harder about this as well… So… can you confirm whether or not the victim switched places? If Momota is… alive or not?

Saihara: Harukawa…

Harukawa: I don't like the thought that i killed Momota… I don't… want that.

Yumeno: Okay then, let’s talk about the possibility that Harumaki mentioned.

Shirogane: Yumeno, if you call her that again--

Harukawa: ...Yes, please.

Shirogane: Oh… Uh… Okay. Then let’s all talk it over together!

Saihara: (Together…)

-Flashback-

Momota: And don't forget… you're not alone! Don't try to do everything yourself. It's just gonna wear you out. When times are hard, you gotta rely on your friends.

-Flash forward-

Saihara: Yeah… I'm sure we’ll figure something out.

Ouma?: Geez, you guys are a stubborn bunch. There's no trick.

Monokuma: That’s probably another lie.

K1B0: However, if the victims were switched, then that would mean the footage was altered. How could it be altered when we know that the footage wasn't edited?

Shirogane: If we could figure that out, maybe we’d know how they switched places.

Yumeno: i knew there was a trick to that video the whole time!

Ouma made it, so it’s 100% suspicious!

Saihara: (A trick to that video… What could it be? What’s suspicious about it?)

NONSTOP DEBATE

Y- There must be some trick to that video!

M- That’s what you all gotta figure out!

O- There is no trick. O- You can check but you won’t find anything.

S- Did the placement of that camera seem odd to any of you? S- The filming angle seems unnatural, don't you think?

H- The person in that video... H- Was it really Momota?

K- Something seemed off about that video to me.. K- When the hydraulic press stopped for a brief moment. (Agree)

Y- Could it be… Y- The video was shot at another location?

M- Any other bright ideas? M- Come on everybody, speak up!

Saihara: (I feel like someone said something that gives us a clue… If we put our heads together, we can find hope… We won't fall into despair!)

Agree - Hydraulic Press

Saihara: Kiibo is on to something! Isn't it weird that the hydraulic press stopped for a second!? Because when Kiibo and I first investigated that hydraulic press…

K1B0: Yes, that's right! The hydraulic press kept lowering itself without stopping!

Saihara: But in the video…

Harukawa: The hydraulic press stopped briefly… right before it crushed the body!?

Shirogane: But… why would it stop?

Saihara: (Why did the press stop? There's only one reason I can think of.) Mind Mine - Stop Button Saihara: The only way to stop the hydraulic press is the “Force Stop” button.

K1B0: An electrobomb went off in the hangar, which would've interfered with the safety function… There’d be no way to stop the hydraulic press unless someone used the “Force Stop” button.

Harukawa: When you say someone… you mean Ouma, right? He was the only one there.

Ouma?: … Hm, actually… maybe I pressed it by accident? I don't really remember… So what of it? The press only stopped for like, a sec. You can't switch the victim in such a short time, can you?

Yumeno: That's true…

Monokuma: There’s also the question of how the bodies got switched while the camera was rolling. That would've clearly been caught on camera.

Saihara: (While the camera was rolling…) Ah, I see. It wasn't just the press that stopped…

Monokuma: ...Eh? Huh? Whaddaya mean?

Saihara: If you stop something else at the same time you stop the hydraulic press… (Yes, I see it now. That's how the bodies were switched! If you stopped that, you could have swapped the bodies easily…) Mind Mine - Camera Saihara: The culprit stopped the video camera at the same time as the hydraulic press. Then, while the camera was off, they switched the body under the hydraulic press. After the body was swapped, the press and the camera were started simultaneously. So it just looks like the press stopped for a moment.

Monokuma: That’s what I’ve been saying this whole time!

Yumeno: When did you ever say that?

Shirogane: So they stopped at the same time… The camera position did seem odd to me… But now I get it. The trick wouldn't work unless it was set up there.

Monokuma: ...Huh? Why?

Saihara: To get the trick we just described to work, the camera had to be set up precisely. (Let’s pin that down. Where was the camera set up…?) Select - control panel Saihara: The video camera must have been set up somewhere around here. To operate the press and the camera at the same time, it would have to be near the switch.

Shirogane: That’s why the video was taken from that unnatural angle. If they were recording it like normal, they would've used a better angle.

Harukawa: And if it was recorded at such an odd angle, then that proves a trick was used.

Yumeno: Camera angles, huh? Looks like your cosplayer experience is finally useful.

Shirogane: Well, cosplay doesn't really come up all that much in class trials…

Saihara: There was a reason the camera was set up there, but also a reason for the height. When the press was stopped, you couldn’t really see who was inside it, correct? That was intentional. The body was mostly hidden by the press, making the swap easier.

K1B0: The camera must’ve been placed at such a high position so it would produce that angle.

Shirogane: I wonder if they used that tripod in the hangar to adjust the camera’s height.

Monokuma: Did they get that from the warehouse, too? Geez, that place is like a 4D pocket!

Yumeno: You don't get to make that reference…

Harukawa: Then… that logic is correct, right? Ouma used that video angle trick, and switched the victim in the hydraulic press. In that case, Momota is--

Yumeno: Before he was crushed by the press, he was swapped with a different body! So Momota’s still alive!

Saihara: Well, wait just a minute…

Yumeno: What!? But I just summed it up so nicely!

Saihara: … Yumeno, the different body you mentioned… what are you talking about?

Yumeno: The bodies from the other cases. Ouma’s the mastermind, so he’d-- Nyeh…? Wait… The mastermind…?

Saihara: Yeah. Ouma isn't the mastermind, so… ...I don't think he’d be able to produce a body to switch out.

Harukawa: ...What?

K1B0: Well, Monokuma? Do the rules allow for a body to be reused?

Monokuma: Very well, I'll answer that.

Ouma?: ...You’re giving in pretty easily.

Monokuma: Well, it’s crucial information to make the trial fair. This discussion is pointless if it’s not clear what the culprit was allowed to do, right?

Ouma?: Ah-haha, you're a convenient mastermind. But I guess that makes defeating you worth my time.

Monokuma: Now then, regarding the re-use of a dead body… That is impossible! All the dead bodies have already been thrown away!

Yumeno: Th-Thrown away!?

Harukawa: The other bodies are… gone? Then who did Momota switch places with?

Saihara: … (Ouma and Momota were the only ones in the hangar at that time. If they were the only ones present during the body-swapping trick… Then the real victim was…) Select - The other person in the hangar Saihara: (If it wasn't an old body, it could only be…) …

Harukawa: ...What’s wrong, Saihara? Who did Momota switch places with?

Saihara: Harukawa… I think I missed something very important here…

Harukawa: ...Something important?

Saihara: (If I have the timeline right, there were only two people in the hangar at the time. Which means that something had to have been decided before… I have to pin that down. Can't let anything escape me this time!) Spell - Victim Helped Saihara: I can't believe I overlooked this!

K1B0: What do you mean?

Saihara: There were only two people in the hangar at the time the bodies were swapped. Which means… they were working together.

Shirogane: Huh? Working together…?

Saihara: The only two people involved in the swap were the victim… and the culprit. The culprit was operating the camera and the hydraulic press, while the victim lay inside. If they switched places while the press and the camera were stopped… ...Then the person who turned the camera and the press back on was the original victim. To put it simply, both people operated the press and camera at different times. An impossible trick… unless the victim and culprit agreed to cooperate beforehand!

Yumeno: The victim and culprit cooperated? Is that… even possible?

Saihara: It sounds bizarre, but perhaps that was the whole point. Commit a crime that was so confusing, even Monokuma would be tricked.

Monokuma: Geez, this culprit’s a real jerk. ...So, have you realized whodunnit yet?

Harukawa: …

Saihara: (The culprit of the case… If my detective work hasn't failed me, the culprit is inside that exisal…)

???: …

Saihara: (It can only be them.) Select - Kaito Momota Saihara: The apparent victim we saw in the video was Momota. Which means… ...Ouma was operating the press and the camera… at first. If the two of them switched while the press was stopped… ...Then the culprit who started the hydraulic press again and crushed Ouma… ...Must be Momota!

Harukawa: …

Saihara: So… the person inside that exisal isn't Ouma… It has to be Momota!

Yumeno: Wh-What did you say!?

???: …

Monokuma: So the culprit for this case is… Kaito Momota… That is what the Ultimate Detective has deduced, right?

Shirogane: Momota is the culprit? What…? You're joking, right? You can't be serious…

Saihara: i don't want to believe it either… but it’s the only way any of this makes sense. My detective work has led me to the conclusion that Momota is the culprit.

???: …

K1B0: ...Is that true? Is Momota… really in there?

???: …

Shirogane: hey, answer us! If you really are Momota then--

Harukawa: I'm the culprit.

Saihara: (Huh?)

Harukawa: There’s just no way that Momota can still be alive… Because I'm the culprit.

Yumeno: Wait, you? But didn't you say--

Harukawa: I saw it with my own eyes. Ouma drank the antidote that he stole from Momota… There’s no doubt Momota died. And he died because of my poison arrow.

Yumeno: But you told us that you didn't want to kill Momota and--

Harukawa: Yes, I never wanted to. I wanted to believe that I didn't kill him. But… the truth speaks differently. In the end, I was just running away from the facts.

Yumeno: H-Huh? I don't understand…

Saihara: … (Harukawa, are you…? Trying to protect Momota? If he’s the culprit, you're trying to help him get away?)

Harukawa: There was only one antidote, so it’s more likely he died from my poison arrow. This is the truth…

Ouma?: It’s not decided yet. I could’ve still killed him with the hydraulic press. Either way, those are the two options. Monokuma knows the answer, riiight?

Monokuma: ...Huh? Are those the only options?

Shirogane: I guess that’s how things turned out…

Saihara: No, that can't be! The person in that Exisal is--

Harukawa: It's not Momota! I saw Ouma drink the antidote! There's no mistake… Momota is dead… I… killed Momota… There is absolutely… no doubt. That's… the truth.

Saihara: (Ah, I thought so. Harukawa is trying to protect Momota. I understand how she feels, but if Momota is the culprit… Why did he agree to Ouma’s plan?)

Ouma?: …

Saihara: (I can't imagine that Momota would do something so selfish… There must be some reason for it. I truly believe that… But I have to get to the bottom of this before i can uncover that truth…) But Harukawa… you don't know for certain that Ouma drank the antidote.

Harukawa: ...What?

Saihara: You saw him drink it right in front of you, but you couldn't confirm he actually did it. So maybe… there’s another possibility.

Harukawa: What… are you talking about? Impossible… That’s… impossible… There is no other possibility! I killed Momota!

Argument Armament - Pretended to drink the antidote

Saihara: Ouma just pretended to drink the antidote! He didn't actually drink it!

Harukawa: He pretended… to drink it?

Saihara: Drinking the antidote was part of his lie. Harukawa could only see so much through the window. She didn't confirm Ouma drank it. I believe that Ouma knew this and just pretended to drink the antidote. After Harukawa left, he gave the antidote to Momota. There's a strong possibility that all of this was done… … To make Momota cooperate.

K1B0: Make him cooperate?

Ouma?: …

Saihara: The swapping trick required the victim and culprit to work together. Momota’s cooperation was essential to Ouma’s plan. However, I don't think Ouma would be able to sway Momota easily… He needed leverage. He gave Momota the antidote… in exchange for his cooperation.

K1B0: In exchange for his own life, you mean.

Saihara: Momota had no choice, he had to cooperate after Ouma saved his life. That's just Momota’s character, and Ouma knew that. He swallowed his pride with the antidote, and agreed to participate in Ouma’s plan.

Yumeno: But didn't Ouma make this plan? What good is it for him if he’s dead!?

Saihara: I imagine this was all part of Ouma’s plan to confuse us. You wouldn't think that someone would plan their own murder.

K1B0: He went so far as to give up his life… just to create this mystery?

Saihara: Only Ouma could think of something so nefarious. Who else would agree to die just to execute their plan?

Yumeno: He’s crazy… why would he go that far?

Monokuma: I bet Ouma was determined to beat me at my own game, no matter what.

Ouma?: …

Monokuma: But too bad! Saihara figured out the truth!

Ouma?: ...Truth? Are you sure it’s not delusion?

Saihara: Delusion?

Ouma?: A delusion completely off the mark, to make you think that I died… But, who cares what you guys think? This is between me and Monokuma. I don't give a crap if the extras in this game get it right or not.

Shirogane: E-extras…?

Yumeno: I'm fine with being an extra!

Shirogane: Huh? Why?

Yumeno: If we’re just extras then even if we get it wrong, we won't get kill--

Monokuma: No, I'd still kill you all. Don't put Ouma’s words in my mouth.

Yumeno: Wh--!? But why!? You were being so friendly with us!

Ouma?: If Monokuma gets it right, then he takes everyone’s lives, yeah? But if Monokuma gets it wrong, then he’d have no right to take everyone’s lives. If Monokuma doesn't know who the culprit is, then this killing game can't function anymore.

Saihara: (Can't function anymore…) … Momota… I believe in you.

Ouma?: ...Hm?

Saihara: (If you're cooperating with this plan… you must have a reason. To determine that reason, I need to reveal the truth!) I still think Momota is the culprit. Thinking of it that way makes all the pieces fit. I will show you the truth… The truth you can't deny!

Closing Argument -

Let’s go over the trick that Ouma and the culprit created together… Last night, Kiibo saw Yumeno from the window of his lab. She was carrying a black case and heading to the exisal hangar. When she reached the hangar, she handed the case to someone through the bathroom window. That someone… is the culprit of this case! Locked in the bathroom, the culprit had asked Yumeno to bring him a certain weapon. A disassembled crossbow from Harukawa’s lab. The culprit was going to use the crossbow to challenge Ouma to a fight. Some time passed, and Harukawa made her way to the hangar. She was going to the hangar to kill Ouma and save the culprit trapped in the bathroom. However, the hangar had an electric barrier preventing her from entering. Fortunately for her, she had an electrohammer to get around the barrier… in a way. She used her electrohammer to disable an Exisal and climbed inside. She knew Exisals could bypass the barrier… so she got inside one! Around that time, the culprit and Ouma began their confrontation. While Ouma was checking up on them, the culprit ambushed him with the crossbow. But the culprit didn't intend to kill Ouma, they just wanted to disable him. That’s why the culprit aimed for Ouma’s right arm. If they really wanted to kill him, they would have shot him in his vitals. Ouma reeled from the arrow, and the culprit jumped on him immediately. He didn't want Ouma to have the chance to summon an Exisal with the remote. While they were fighting, something happened that caught them both off guard. The shutter of the hangar opened, and an Exisal stepped inside! Ouma was definitely not expecting an Exisal to interrupt them. He pulled out his remote in an attempt to control the Exisal… But Harukawa leaped out of the cockpit and shot Ouma with her crossbow. The arrow hit Ouma right in the back. And it was no normal arrow. The tip was covered in a lethal poison from my lab called strike-9 poison. The poison kills slowly. It seems as if Harukawa wanted Ouma to confess before he died. But even with poison in his veins, Ouma continued to spin his lies. When she had had enough, Harukawa tried to finish him off with another poisoned arrow… ...But this time, Harukawa was the one caught by surprise. To keep Harukawa from becoming the blackened, the culprit used their body to shield Ouma. The culprit’s left arm was struck by a poison arrow. Harukawa remembered that there was an antidote in my lab, and immediately ran off to get it. The strike-9 poison slowly circulated through their systems, and would soon kill them both. But in that desperate situation, Ouma thought up a clever lie. He incorporated this unforseen event into his plan to help him win the killing game! Or, should I say… help him defeat Monokuma. That was Ouma's true objective. It's why he claimed to be the mastermind. Thinking fast, Ouma closed the shutter so that Harukawa could not re-enter the hangar. Thus Ouma’s final lie was set into motion. When Harukawa returned with the antidote, she couldn't get back inside the hangar… ...So she went around to the hangar bathroom, and passed the antidote through the window. But after the culprit was given the antidote, Ouma immediately snatched it. Ouma drank down all of the antidote while the culprit and Harukawa watched in horror. Harukawa must have been panicking, thinking the only antidote was now gone. She believed that the culprit was going to die from her own poisoned arrow. But it was all another one of Ouma’s lies. He had only pretended to drink the antidote. Harukawa tried desperately to break into the hangar, even slashing the control panel. But she couldn't get the shutter to open again. Defeated, she had no choice but to leave. After Harukawa had left, Ouma took out another weapon. An electrobomb capable of disabling communication devices for hours. Ouma’s plan was to use an electrobomb to knock out Monokuma’s surveillance cameras. That was why he commissioned Iruma to make the bombs in the first place. After detonating an electrobomb, Ouma coerced the culprit into drinking the antidote. In exchange for the antidote, Ouma asked the culprit to cooperate with his plan. Ouma needed to work together with the culprit to execute his final lie. Under normal circumstances, the culprit would never have agreed to such a plan… But because the culprit owed him for saving their life, they agreed to Ouma’s request. Ah, “request” is a generous term. It was more like blackmail. In any case, the two were now working together as accomplices in an insane plan. There was a lot to prepare, and not a lot of time. They had to work fast. If Ouma died from the strike-9 poison, the whole plan would be ruined. After fabricating the scene in the bathroom, the culprit dragged Ouma to the hydraulic press. This is how the swipe pattern blood stain from the bathroom to the press was created. Ouma, with the support of the culprit, stood in front of the press’ control panel. The two of them were finally ready to execute the insane lie! While Ouma was setting up the video camera near the hydraulic press’ control panel… The culprit laid face up inside the press, draping their coat over their shoulders. Then, Ouma activated the press and the camera’s record button at the same time… The hydraulic press came down slowly, all caught on tape for us to see. Normally, the safety function would have triggered, but the electrobomb had disabled it. The press got lower and lower, and just as the culprit disappeared from view… Ouma pressed the “Force Stop” Button and the camera’s pause button simultaneously. The two then switched places… and also switched roles. The “culprit”... and the “victim.” The would-be victim became our culprit and started up the press and camera. Ouma had saved the culprit’s life because his trick required their cooperation. He wanted to win the killing game… even if it meant dying himself! And so, Ouma was crushed by the press, and the whole thing was caught on video. The culprit’s left sleeve was dangling from the press, making us think he was the victim. Now alone, the culprit collected the video camera… ...and tore the hydraulic press’s power cord, so that it could never be raised again. This would make it impossible for us to determine the identity of the crushed body. But there was another reason the victim was killed in this way… It obfuscated the cause of death, making the case that much more difficult to solve. This was all part of Ouma’s plan to create a murder that not even Monokuma could figure out! With the press disabled, the culprit returned to the bathroom to flush Ouma’s clothes. Finally, they climbed inside an Exisal to hide, and waited with bated breath. And here they are now, in this trial… pretending to be Ouma. They're trying to deceive Monokuma in order to defeat the true mastermind! ...And that’s it. That's Ouma’s Unidentified Culprit Trick. The culprit is in that Exisal. ...It’s you, isn't it? ...Kaito Momota, the Ultimate Astronaut!

Saihara: ...I’m right, aren't I? That's you in there, isn't it, Momota?

???: …

Shirogane: Really? Is it really Momota?

K1B0: I must reluctantly agree with Saihara’s deduction--

Ouma?: Man, Saihara sure loves his cuh-raaaazy deductions!

Harukawa: ...Huh?

Yumeno: You’re… still not gonna admit it?

Ouma?: Admit it? But it’s wrong.

K1B0: But, logically speaking, his deduction tracks…

Shirogane: If it’s really Momota in there, he would have admitted it by now…

Yumeno: Was Saihara’s reasoning wrong somehow?

Saihara: (No, my detective work was flawless. It's the truth. I'm sure Momota is inside that exisal. So why is Momota still fighting me? Is this about Monokuma? Or is there another aspect to this?

Ouma?: You claim everything is set, and that’s it. You don't have any evidence, do you?

Saihara: …

Ouma?: You all think the body was switched when the hydraulic press stopped for a moment… ...But that’s just speculation in the end. No evidence to back it up. So if we reverse our reverse way of thinking, then it’s likely I didn't do anything, right? It's totally possible that the body-switching never happened, and Momota is dead. Not *just* possible, it's the actual truth…

Shirogane: Well… it’s true there's no proof that the bodies were switched…

K1B0: No, we should trust Saihara’s deduction! I'm sure everything will be okay! This emotion I've learned… I believe you call it “faith”. That's what I'm feeling right now.

Yumeno: That's right… We have to believe in Saihara.

Ouma?: Well, I don't care either way. But if you guys get it wrong… … You'll have to deal with Monokuma.

Monokuma: …

Ouma?: What will the results of this Voting Time be? If Monokuma makes a mistake, he won't be able to execute anyone, right? Then it will be my victory. And that will ruin the entire killing game.

Saihara: (Ruin…? I see… so that's your objective! You mean to ruin the killing game itself! That's why Momota has been so stubborn all this time… But… what does he mean by ruin, exactly? Monokuma can do whatever he wants to the rules. How do you “ruin” something like that? What would be the point…?)

Ouma?: C’mon, Monokuma. Start the voting already.

Monokuma: Yeah, yeah, I'm getting to it. Sheesh… let's proceed with Voting Time, shall we? Sorry I fell short of your expectations, but I'm pretty sure I won't make any mistakes. Cuz I got the Ultimate Detective’s airtight logic on my side.

Saihara: … (...Now I know. The whole truth, and why. I believe in my own logic… And… I believe in Momota… From this point on, it's not about logic! It’s about how far I'm willing to go! I believe in you, Momota. Not as a detective, but as Shuuichi Saihara.) Ah… can I just say something? I’d like to have one last conversation before we vote.

Monokuma: ...Hm? One last conversation?

Harukawa: There’s… more to talk about?

Saihara: You see, before we vote… there's something I have to say. I just need you all to listen…

Ouma?: …

NONSTOP DEBATE

Saihara- Alright, let’s pin this down

Saihara- Who’s inside that Exisal?

K- Hm? Momota, right?

H- That’s what you said isn’t it

M- Ouma's the one who died (Lie) M- And the culprit is Momota standing right there!

S- Isn't that correct?

O- Ah-haha! Of course not! O- I would never die!

Y- I trust Saihara!

Saihara: (Momota is trying to ruin the game. That's why he’s hiding the truth. I don't know exactly why, but he’s putting his life on the line for it. So to put my faith in him… this is the only way Everything we’ve determined up to now… what if I turned it all on its head? Yes, I need to lie…)

Lie - Ouma’s Disappearance | Ouma Seen

Saihara: Ouma, I'm sorry. I just… can't lie for you anymore…

Ouma?: ...What?

Harukawa: What do you mean… lie?

Shirogane: Why did you say “Ouma”? The one in the Exisal is--

Saihara: I'm so sorry, everyone. I've deceived you all.

Monokuma: ...Huh?

Saihara: The truth is… after we found the crushed body, I… saw Ouma.

Yumeno: Nyeh!? You saw Ouma!?

Ouma?: …

Saihara: Yes. He threatened me, told me that if I didn't do what he said, he'd kill us all. He wanted me to lie about what I saw so that the trial would be more interesting… But I can't do it anymore! I can't keep lying like this! I have to tell the truth… Ouma isn't dead! He's alive!

K1B0: H-Hold on! Why did you wait until now to mention this!?

Saihara: I'm so sorry Kiibo, but… it's true. (Really… I really am sorry. But this is the only way. Momota is trying to fool Monokuma… Trying to ruin the class trial. If Momota is risking his life to do this, then I'll stand by him. I believe in Momota! I will believe in what he’s trying to do! He's not doing this to hurt us… I'm sure he’s trying to save us all.)

Monokuma: …

Saihara: (If Monokuma wants to rely on my detective work, fine… I'll just lie.) Everyone, please… don't vote for Momota. There's no doubt about it. Ouma is in that exisal! He's the culprit!

Ouma?: …

Monokuma: Hey Saihara… I dunno what you're scheming… But as far as I'm concerned, you guys aren't extras at all. If you guys are wrong, you're gonna hafta take your punishments like champs! Got it!?

Saihara: … ...I’m not wrong. We can't vote for Momota!

Momota: Stop it! That's enough.

Saihara: Huh?

Momota: It’s… over. -Momota exits the exisal- Momota: If you guys get it wrong and Monokuma gets it right… Then you'll all get punished. There's no way I can let that happen. So… It's fine. Let's end this.

Harukawa: M-Momota!

K1B0: So… it really was you?

Momota: My bad for tricking you guys. I'll explain everything. But before that, it's Voting Time. Alright, don't get it wrong! I'm definitely the culprit, you got it!? I'm the one who killed Ouma!

Saihara: Momota, no!

Momota: Just like you to figure it all out, Saihara. You're really something else. So all you gotta do is believe in your reasoning. That's what detectives do.

Saihara: …

Momota: Hey, Monokuma! Let's hurry up and get this vote started!

Monokuma: Puhuhu… Well said. Let's get this started, then. The heart-racing excitement as the blackened and the spotless face off! It’s… VOTING TIME!!!

Select - Kaito Momota

Monokuma: Puhuhu… It seems the voting has finished. Now then, let's see the result.

-All votes for Momota-

Monokuma: Who’ll be chosen as the blackened!? Will you make the right choice or the dreadfully wrong one!?

Verdict - Kaito Momota

Post-trial -

Monokuma: Well, if the culprit’s gonna confess, then I guess even morons can't screw this up… The blackened who killed Kokichi Ouma is Kaito Momota! You all got it right!

Saihara: …

Harukawa: …

Momota: So you all got it right, huh? Even Saihara and Harumaki voted for me… What a relief! Well, I knew you guys wouldn't get it wrong.

Shirogane: …

Momota: But man was it hard to act like Ouma the whole time… I mean, sure, he wrote most of his own lines. Seriously, look at this huge script. He wrote the whole thing. -Book of Ouma lines- It's even got a bunch of alternative lines for different events, too.

Yumeno: …

Momota: But even so, I still had to ad-lib. You guys couldn't tell though, huh?

K1B0: …

Momota: Hey, c’mon guys… don't look so sad... You guys got it right. It's all good.

Harukawa: Why…?

Momota: Hm?

Harukawa: Why… did you kill Ouma? You were so against the killing game… So why did you kill him? I believed… that you absolutely wouldn't do… such a thing…

Saihara: Harukawa… (Was she protecting Momota… or just believing in him, like me…?)

Momota: Yeah, I should explain. Most of it’s just like Saihara said. After Ouma pretended to take the antidote, he gave it to me… Then he told me I had to cooperate with his plan…

-Flashback-

Momota: Plan? What plan?

Ouma: I-I’ve been thinking… this whole time… of a plan to throw the mastermind off guard…

Momota: Throw them off guard? What are you talking about? You're the mastermind!

Ouma: Ohhh… um, that was a lie… I-I only pretended to be the mastermind…

Momota: Pretended!?

Ouma: You all fell for it… But y’know… I prepared a bunch of stuff… Like this remote control… I had Iruma make it… The mysterious message in the courtyard… Using Gonta and making him a murderer… All that preparation was just to make you guys think I was the mastermind.

Momota: Wh-What the hell!? Why’d you do all that…?

Ouma: The reason why… I pretended to be the mastermind… ...was to end this boring killing game!

Momota: To end it?

Ouma: I thought if I showed you the despairing truth, you guys wouldn't want to go outside anymore… I thought it would end the killing game. But instead… this happened. I'm gonna die by Harukawa’s hands… Why do you think this happened? Why do you think Harukawa tried to kill me? Why do you think the killing game started again?

Momota: Why…?

Ouma: Because the true mastermind instigated it. I'm certain of it. They made a move… without us noticing. Maaan… thanks to that, everything is ruined…

Momota: The true mastermind instigated it? So whoever that person is, they also instigated Harukawa’s actions, too?

Ouma: Yeah… they probably tried to eliminate me because I pretended to be the mastermind…

-Flash forward-

Harukawa: ...My actions were instigated by the true mastermind? B-But that can't be… The reason I tried to kill Ouma was… ...because I remembered the truth from the Flashback Light.

Saihara: Maybe… making you remember the truth was what the mastermind wanted…

Harukawa: ...What?

Saihara: Maybe the true mastermind had us use the Flashback Lights… ...so we would target Ouma as a Remnant of Despair?

K1B0: So the Flashback Light itself was the true mastermind’s trap all along? They expected us to target Ouma once we remembered he was a Remnant of Despair?

Saihara: Ouma certainly expected it. That's why he talked about the true mastermind. (But… even so, this is all rather convenient for the true mastermind. The person claiming to be the mastermind just so happened to be a Remnant of Despair? We’re all students of Hope’s Peak Academy, and our fates are tied to the Remnants of Despair… I never would have imagined that fate would bring us to Ouma’s murder. It just plays too nicely for the true mastermind.)

Momota: I didn't know about that Flashback Light. Guess that's another mystery for you. Anyway, like I was saying…

-Flashback-

Momota: Then who is this true mastermind!?

Ouma: Wh-Who knows… I dunno either… But it doesn’t matter… we can’t lose… This game is pointless… unless you win. That’s why… I thought of a special plan… When I'm on the verge of losing… ...my plan will help me win!

Momota: I don't really get it, but is this the plan to throw off the mastermind?

Ouma: Well, it's not that difficult… Momota… I need you… ...to kill me.

Momota: Wha-!?

-Flash Forward-

Momota: The plan was… to make a case where the victim was unknown. And then trick Monokuma into thinking I was the victim so he’d mess up. If he ruled that either Ouma or Harukawa were the blackened… Then I'd show myself and Monokuma’s ruling would be invalid. And if Monokuma’s ruling was invalid, the killing game would end.

Saihara: That's what I'm most curious about. What makes you think it would end?

Momota: Yeah, I asked Ouma about that myself. Why would Monokuma care if he messed up on who the blackened was? And… this is what he said.

-Flashback-

Ouma: Even if it’s Monokuma or the true mastermind, they can't break the rules as they please… Being unfair like that… isn't allowed…

Momota: What do you mean?

Ouma: Death games are meant to be watched. If no one was watching, there would be no reason to be such a stickler for the rules… There would be no point in making this a game in the first place… But Monokuma’s been a stickler about the rules, and making this game interesting. That's why he agreed to my plan in the Virtual World… Which means Monokuma is aware that someone is watching us… In which case… I have no doubt that this death game is being shown to someone.

-Flash Forward-

Yumeno: So… this is some kind of show!?

Shirogane: But who’d be watching? We’re the only people left, aren't we?

K1B0: That's right! The Flashback Light is the reason we even remember that!

Momota: But Ouma mighta been right. Why have a death game if no one’s watching? I wasn't sure about it at first, but after this class trial, there’s no doubt. Monokuma can't do whatever he wants. He’s bound by the rules of the game. That's why he couldn't afford to get the culprit wrong. Why he relied on Saihara. It's just like Ouma said! If this game’s rules matter so much, someone’s watching.

Saihara: (A death game is made to be watched...) If that's true, then… who? Who… is watching this?)

Yumeno: What's this all about, Monokuma!? Is this killing game really a show for someone!?

Monokuma: Puhuhu… Who can say?

Yumeno: Nyeh!? Why won't you tell us!? We were friends during the trial!

Monokuma: ...Honestly, I was just happy you guys cooperated with me. Humans love to help. They jump at any opportunity to extend a helping hand.

K1B0: Then, here's another question-- Who are you, really? If Ouma, a Remnant of Despair, is not the mastermind… Then who’s the true mastermind? Is it another Remnant of Despair like him?

Monokuma: I'm not gonna spill the beans on a perfect “To Be Continued” cliffhanger like that!

Yumeno: Wh-Why you… are just too cute!

Shirogane: Huh? Really?

Harukawa: I understand Ouma’s plan, but… why did you agree to work with him, Momota? Why did you agree to kill Ouma? Because he saved your life? You should've just… ignored him. He's better off dead anyway…

Momota: It was kinda hard to ignore such an annoying guy.

Harukawa: ...What?

Momota: Geez… I wonder how far ahead he planned this evil scheme of his.

-Flashback-

Momota: Y-Yeah but… killing you… What are you talking about!? You want me to kill you!?

Ouma: I figured you'd react like that… But… are you sure you're okay with that? Because if this poison kills me, then Harukawa would become the blackened. And her crime would be exposed so easily. If that happened, then Harukawa and I would've died for no reason, right? Which is just what the true mastermind expects…

Momota: Wha-! Dammit… that's playing dirty! So that's why you gave me the antidote…

Ouma: Nishishi.. I *am* the Ultimate Supreme Leader. There is no depths I won't sink to. ...Even if I have to sacrifice myself.

Momota: …

Ouma: Anyway… this is our chance… Our chance to end this killing game. That's why… you have to kill me, so we can win and ruin this killing game… We’ll bring the true mastermind and everyone who’s watching… ...We’ll bring them down to utter despair! Then everyone who died can rest in peace! Ah-hahahahahaha!!! ...Ack, aw crap. I'm gonna die soon… Can we get this started already?

Momota: You're seriously crazy, dude.

Ouma: Nishishi… But, y’know… I… wasn't boring, right?

-Flash Forward-

Harukawa: Then… he blackmailed you by using me!?

Momota: No. I agreed to his plan once I heard the words “ruin this killing game”. He was crazy, but that let him come up with some crazy plans… And we needed a crazy plan in order to stand a chance against Monokuma. I bet on that chance. I didn't have any other choice… Cuz… I'm outta time.

Harukawa: Time…

Saihara: Momota… you mean, your health…?

Harukawa: But you said you were fine! You told me not to worry about it anymo--

Momota: Ah, my bad. That was a lie.

Harukawa: A-A lie...?

Momota: Haha, yeah it’s pretty bad. Honestly, I'm at my limit just talking.

Harukawa: N-No… it can't be…

Momota: But I gotta wonder how this happened. I don't remember at all. In my memories, I was fine during the medical exam for my training…

Saihara: (If he was fine during the medical exam, then that means…) This might be… the virus.

Momota: Virus?

Saihara: One of the plagues that caused our planet to crumble. A virus carried by meteorites that spread across the globe. Hope’s Peak Academy, along with the rest of the planet, was in danger of extinction. Even though we had come so far and triumphed over so much despair… We were almost wiped out in an instant. This must have something to do with the virus. Momota didn't use that Flashback Light, so he might not remember it…

Shirogane: But weren't we supposed to be immune? We were selected because we didn't--

Monokuma: Perhaps the virus was dormant when you were selected for the Gofer Project… You could've been infected the whole time, showing no symptoms until very recently.

Yumeno: W-What!?

Harukawa: Momota is… infected with the virus!? But how could that be!?

Momota: I dunno what you're talking about, but… I guess I'm pretty screwed, huh? Well, I knew this was coming. That's why I agreed to Ouma’s plan.

Saihara: …

Momota: But you know, when I found out about the plan, I thought it was pretty awesome. Ouma left me with a whole outline of it. I freaked out when I read it. It was a pretty good plan. I thought we might be able to trick Monokuma. But I knew Saihara’d see right through it in the end!

Saihara: ...What?

Momota: Haha, and that's exactly how it went! Nice job, Saihara! You're really something!

K1B0: Momota, did you…

Momota: Yeah, I knew you guys would figure everything out. That's why I was able to get on board with Ouma and lie like that. Even if I messed stuff up during the trial, Saihara’d see the truth. Heh. Just what I'd expect from my sidekick.

Saihara: Wh-Why…? If you knew I'd see through it, why--

Harukawa: If you knew it was pointless from the start, then you shouldn't have gone that far…!

Momota: Nah, it wasn't pointless. It ended up being a huge success.

Yumeno: W-Why?

Momota: Because of this plan and Ouma pretending to be the mastermind… We got closer to the true mastermind’s lair… Behind this truth, there’s gotta be a hint that leads to the real truth.

Saihara: The real truth?

Momota: Yeah, no doubt. That's why Ouma gave his life.

K1B0: You talk as if… he was your partner. When you hated him so strongly before…

Momota: Oh, I hate his guts. Honestly, I'm still pissed off at him. He made us go through so much crap. To the end-- No, even beyond that… He was a lying sack of shit.

-Flashback-

Ouma: I-It’s getting… harder to breathe, so… Please… can you…

Momota: Hey, can I ask one thing? You want to ruin this killing game, but… You kept saying how fun this game was.

Ouma: … That was a lie… obviously… H-How could a game… that you're forced to play… be fun…? I had to think this game was fun to survive… I had to lie to myself!

Momota: You little…

Ouma: The bastards who created this game to toy with our lives… and the shits enjoying it… They all… piss me off! Th-that’s why… I'm willing to do whatever it takes... to end this game!

-Flash Forward-

Harukawa: Ouma said… that?

Momota: That coulda been a lie, too. He probably just said that so I’d cooperate with him.

K1B0: Was it really a lie…? I think his dying words may have been the honest truth…

Yumeno: No, it's definitely a lie. He’s not the type to shed real tears.

Shirogane: I wonder which one it is…

Saihara: (A lie… or the truth? Even now at the very end, I don't really understand Ouma… But maybe that's what lying is all about. The truth is in the eye of the beholder, huh? Ouma… was the very embodiment of a lie.)

Momota: That pretty much wraps up my explanation. Now, finally… I need to apologize to Saihara.

Saihara: What? Me?

Momota: To be honest… I was jealous of you.

Saihara: Jealous…?

Momota: Because you were always saving us, y’know? Your detective skills kept us alive… You were just way too cool, and I got frustrated… So that's why I was so harsh on you. My bad…

Saihara: … Hey… No, Momota, that's not true… I was only so confident because you were there for me, Momota. When you made me your sidekick, you said that you’d “take the responsibility”... And that… That’s why I can do all this. If you didn't talk to me back then, even now I'd be--

Momota: Hrkh! *cough* *cough* *cough*

Saihara: Momota!?

Harukawa: M-Momota!

Shirogane: Momota, are you okay!?

Momota: Heh… H-How can I be okay? I'm… about to die…

Monokuma: You sure are, bucko! Cuz it's punishment time!

Saihara: Punishment!?

Harukawa: ...I won't let you… ...I won't let you kill Momota!

Monokuma: Oh? You planning on getting in my way? You know what'll happen if you do that, don't you?

Harukawa: I don't care what happens! I planned to kill you anyway from the start.

K1B0: Y-Yes… I’ve been determined to fight back for a while now…

Momota: N-No… Stop…

Saihara: No, Momota, I can't! I can't let you die, Momota! I don't care if you're sick! I don't care if you're dying! I won't let Monokuma touch you!

Monokuma: … ...Puhu. Puhuhuhuhuhuhu. Puhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhu.

Shirogane: Wh-What’s so funny…?

Monokuma: Oh, just thinkin’ about life… and how irreplaceable it is. Know what I mean?

Saihara: What…?

Monokuma: When a life ends, those closest to it mourn. But if you could somehow recycle that life… Then those closest to it wouldn't need to mourn anymore, right? If we could recycle life, the world would be filled with hope. That's my point.

Saihara: What are you talking--

Monokuma: Alright, kids! Time for your grand re-entrance!

Monokubs: Rise and shine, ursine! With our powers combined, we are the monokubs!

Saihara: Huh?

Monotaro: I'm Monotaro! No matter how you read it or spell it or say it, it's still Monotaro!

Monophanie: What the-!? That's totally a lie!

Monosuke: What the hell’s goin’ on? I coulda swore there was more of youse chumps before!

Monokid: Fuck if I know! Let's destroy Monodam now! This sadsack is bummin’ me the fuck out!

Monodam: …

Yumeno: W-What the!? Weren't all the Monokubs completely destroyed!?

Monokuma: Those old Monokubs were destroyed. These Monokubs are the latest model. They still got their factory settings, so in a way, it's like they’re brand-new characters… But who cares!? Now that my cubs are back, I'm not lonely and miserable anymore!

Shirogane: You… brought them back on a whim like that?

Monokuma: You guys are just as replaceable. Maybe not as replaceable as the Monokubs… But finding other people to participate in this killing game is easier than ya might think.

Saihara: (Finding other people?)

Monosuke: I got no idea what’s goin’ on or what any of this means, but that’s right!

Monokid: Hell yeah! We’re so fuckin’ lovable and shit! Except Monodam, of course!

Monodam: …

Monokuma: Oh, do you know what else this means? Now that the Monokubs are back, I’ve got my Exisal entourage protecting me again. Still wanna defy me now?

Yumeno: Th-This is bad! If he’s got the Exisals again-

Harukawa: So what? It doesn’t matter… I won’t let you kill Momota. I’ll… fight until the end…

Momota: S-Stop… Even if you fight the Exisals, you’ll just get killed, dammit! The remote control and the last electrobomb were crushed in the press.

Harukawa: No… I won’t give up.

Momota: Harumaki! Enough alre-

Harukawa: I’ve never felt this way before! I’ve always fought to kill, but… this is the first time I’ve fought to protect someone!

Momota: Huh?

Harukawa: And… I’ve never… ...Been given a nickname like “Harumaki” before, either.

Momota: You…

Harukawa: And I’ve never… ...met someone as stubborn as you before… … And… I’ve never… (Harukawa starts crying) ...Fallen for someone before.

Momota: Harumaki!

Saihara: Harukawa…

Harukawa: I… don’t want this to end. I just… don’t… That’s why I won’t let you kill Momota! I absolutely won’t let you!

Momota: … Harumaki… I’m sorry… but that’s not an option. I don’t have as much time left as you think... I’m… fighting just to stay standing.

Harukawa: B-But I…

Momota: Hey, Harumaki. I asked you before… What’s your enemy? Before… you hated yourself so much. You didn’t even like yourself a little… And wasn’t that the reason you tried to distance yourself from others? You decided that you didn’t deserve to have friends, didn’t you? That was your enemy. But not anymore, huh? You’re alright now! You fell for a guy like me! Now you can learn to like yourself!

Harukawa: … U-Ugh… uuugh…

Momota: Hey, hey… don’t cry. Can’t you send me off with one last smile? You guys, too. I’m not gonna allow any tears. Send me off with a bang.

Saihara: … Alright… Momota. I… won’t cry.

Yumeno: M-Me too! I’m gonna hold it in!

Shirogane: Yeah! I’ll endure it!

K1B0: I can’t cry. Even if I wanted to… (Ironically, his crying sprite is displayed.)

Momota: Hey, sorry about the wait, Monokuma. You can go ahead and start now.

Monokuma: Can do!

Monotaro: Oh boy! My first Punishment Time! I’ve never seen one before!

Momota: But let me just say this to the true mastermind controlling Monokuma… You better get ready! My friends aren’t gonna lose to you!

Monokuma: …

Momota: That’s all. I’ll leave the rest to you guys! End this ridiculous killing game!

K1B0: We’ll end it. So, please... don’t worry.

Momota: And Saihara… Never forget, you’re not alone. You have friends. Don’t try to do everything by yourself, okay?

Saihara: Yeah... Momota. Okay.

Momota: Don’t forget! The impossible is possible! All you gotta do is make it so!

Saihara: Yeah! Thanks, Momota!

Harukawa: …

Momota: Harukawa.. How long are you gonna cry? You should smil--

Harukawa: I-I can’t… That’s impossible… I can’t…

Momota: Haha... of course… My bad for making you cry like that.

Harukawa: Ugh… U-Uuuugh…

Momota: Alright then! Let’s end this with a bang! A special punishment suited to the Luminary of the Stars!

Monokuma: You don’t gotta tell me! I’m excited to get this started!

Momota: Oh yeah? Well screw you! I’m not gonna die the way you want!

Monokuma: It’s… PUNISHMENT TIME!!!

-Momota’s Execution-

( Momota is put into a rocket similar to that shown in danganronpa 1, though this time the rocket flips downwards and descends into the core of the earth in a spinning, drill-like motion. It resurfaces on the other side of the world and flies him to space from there, at which time his illness finally kills him and the execution fails. The rocket returns, and Kiibo protects everyone from the debris, getting his ahoge disconnected in the process. Monokuma seems furious.)

Saihara: M-Momota!

Harukawa: …

K1B0: … (He appears to be glitching.)

Shirogane: Kiibo, are you okay!? You got hit by that debris when you protec--

K1B0: I-I’m… fine… More importantly…

Monokuma: Ghghghgh…!

Saihara: What’s the matter, Monokuma!? Upset that Momota won!?

Monotaro: Eh? Whaddaya mean Momota won?

Harukawa: He died before the end of your punishment. Momota didn’t die from your execution!

Yumeno: Th-That’s right! Momota wasn’t killed by you!

Shirogane: It’s… Momota’s victory.

Monokubs: Wah! We lost!

Monokuma: Hmph… I dunno if he meant to do it, but he certainly went out like a stubborn jackass. Well, whatever! It’s not like this is the end of the killing game! So it’s fine!

Shirogane: It’s… not over?

Monokid: Hell yeah! No shit!

Monosuke: Ain’t it written in the school regulations?

Monophanie: The killing game will go on until there is just one blackened or two spotless.

Saihara: School regulations… So you’re gonna follow the regulations, huh? The only reason you want rules is because you’re showing this to someone!

Monokuma: ...I just want an entertaining killing game, but you’re entitled to your opinion.

Saihara: … That’s… enough! Enough of your bullshit, Monokuma! I made a promise to Momota! I will end this killing game! And to give Momota’s death meaning, I swear I *will* keep my promise!

Shirogane: Yeah! We’re not going to let anyone else die!

Yumeno: Who’s gonna even play that game anymore!? It’s already over!

K1B0: …

Monotaro: Hmm… you could cut this tension with a knife. What’s everyone talkin’ about, anyway?

Monokid: Feels like we stumbled into the last act. I dunno what’s happenin’ at all!

Monosuke: Yo Pops! Fill us in! We wanna help ya out!

Monophanie: Oh! Monosuke is acting nice! He’s sucking up for brownie points!

Monokuma: Ohhhh, I just can’t help myself around you cute little cubs. Gather ‘round, kids… I’ll spend a whole month telling you about what you missed.

Monophanie: A whole month!? Won’t that take longer than the whole chapter!?

Monodam: …

Monokuma: I’ll tell you all about it, while I smother you with hugs and kisses! You kids go on ahead and wait for me at home.

Monokubs: Okay! So long, bear-well! (For some reason it zooms on Monotaro specifically)

Monokuma: Huh? Why did I stay behind? Cuz I wanna give you all a reward for working so hard.

Yumeno: We don’t want it! Just go away!

Monokuma: By the way… I dunno where you got the idea that this killing game can be stopped. There’s nothing a participant can do to end this killing game. No way! Nuh-uh! This game is gonna keep going and going for a long time!

Saihara: (During his ranting, Monokuma took out…) Huh? A Flashback Light?

-Monokuma uses the light, no memory plays-

Saihara: Urgh… Gah…

Yumeno: W-What? What did you just do?

Harukawa: Was that… A Flashback Light just now?

Shirogane: Is it… broken? I don’t feel like I remembered anything.

Monokuma: Puhuhu… this Flashback Light has a special effect. You’ll remember soon enough… You’ll remember that despair is the only choice you have. And that hope doesn’t exist here at all! Ah-hahahahaha! The killing game will never end!

Saihara: (And then… Monokuma left. He declared that this killing game would continue. He declared… there is no hope. )

…

(After that, I honestly don’t remember how we got back. It took all I had just to accept the reality that Momota was gone... And not just Momota… Ouma too… Someone we all trusted, and someone none of us trusted... we lost them both. But it wasn’t all for nothing. Because we’re drawing ever closer to discovering the true mastermind…)

-Junko Silhouette in front of Motherkuma-

???: The killing game will never end… Never ever! As long as I’m around, it’ll never end. It’ll repeat over and over and over… Why would I ever let something this fun end? I want to have more fun. As long as it’s fun, we have to keep doing it. That’s just simple supply and demand. Puhuhuhuhu… Puhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhu. Such... despair.

-In the courtyard-

Saihara: (Later that night… I found myself standing in that one spot in the courtyard. The place where Momota and I would train together... My heart… felt crushed. All the loss and guilt and helplessness… sinking into my chest. But still I… I stood there.) …

Harukawa: ...What are you doing?

Saihara: Ah, Harukawa…

Harukawa: ...So, you came too.

Saihara: Yeah... … Harukawa… I’m sorry.

Harukawa: For what?

Saihara: I was the one that drove Momota into a corner… Just like Akamatsu I… I end up betraying everyone important to me... It’s all my fault.

Harukawa: … ...Are you feeling lonely?

Saihara: Huh?

Harukawa: Are you lonely… now that Momota is gone?

Saihara: … Yeah… lonely. I… I feel so lonely, and so sad I… I don’t know what to do… The only reason I’m still alive right now is because of Momota. If he hadn’t have been my friend, I would be…

Harukawa: ...Me too. I can’t remember the last time I ever cried that hard. I wonder how long it’s been… But, I won’t cry anymore. I’m sad, but… I’m grateful to Momota.

Saihara: Grateful?

Harukawa: Yeah. I want to tell him that rather than being sad or lonely… ...I’m grateful to him. … That’s why… I won’t cry anymore. I’m not going to wallow in pity. I want to show him how much I appreciate all the things he did.

Saihara: Yeah… Yeah, I guess it’s the same for me too. I want to show my appreciation, too. I’m sure that our friends who’ve passed on… don’t want to see us miserable. ...Thanks.

Harukawa: Yeah…

Shirogane: Ah, so you guys were here after all. Just like I thought.

Yumeno: I knew you guys would be here cuz I cast a spell to find you.

Saihara: Shirogane? Yumeno?

Shirogane: Umm… If you don’t mind, can we join in your training?

Saihara: Huh?

Yumeno: I’ll train you all from the ground up so we can end this killing game together.

Harukawa: We’re… going to end this together?

Shirogane: Yumeno and I promised Momota.

Yumeno: Yeah. We’re gonna do what we promised and work together to end this killing game.

Shirogane: We can’t afford to lose to despair!

Saihara: … Yeah… Absolutely. (Monokuma said there’s no hope anywhere… But he’s wrong. There is hope. My friends are my hope. Momota said it best… I’m not alone. That’s right. I have friends. Not just my friends here, but also the ones who have died… They all gave us their hope too… That’s why… I’m going to live. I want to live for everyone who died. Despair cannot defeat me. I will hold on, and survive no matter what. … Thank you… Momota.)

-Flashback-

Momota: Let your sweat wash away all your sadness, fear, worry, and hardships... Just start moving your body and your pain will become memories before you know it.

Harukawa: ...Then you should train, too.

Momota: Well, I don’t have anything to worry about. Cuz, I mean… I’m Kaito Momota! Luminary of the Stars!

Saihara: Hey! No fair, Momota!

-Flash Forward-

Shirogane: Oh, by the way… What happened to Kiibo? Do you know where he went?

Saihara: Kiibo? Ah, I don’t know…

Yumeno: Nyeh… What is that guy off doing?

Harukawa: I don’t think a robot really needs to do any training...

Shirogane: But the rest of us are here. I kinda wish he’d come, too…

Saihara: …

-Blank screen-

K1B0: It’s quiet… Too quiet… And yet, this silence is quite refreshing. I used to hear my inner voice with perfect clarity… It would fill me with the power of hope… Guide me along the right path… ...I can’t hear it anymore. All I hear now… is silence. That silence means my will is now my own. Even if despair is all we have to choose… Even if hope no longer exists… I will never give in to despair! I...I will end this. No matter what, I will force this to end. This school, this Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles, is steeped in despair...

-K1B0 flies into the camera-

...And I will destroy it.

[kjt-lawyers]

The Anatomy of the Perfect Pitch Email

Posted by amandamilligan

If you need to get backlinks and generate brand awareness for clients, a great way to start is by creating original research and then pitching that research to writers. But the promotion of your work is probably the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to the pitch email you send to a writer. 

To make this task a bit less daunting, in this episode of Whiteboard Friday, Amanda Milligan of Fractl walks you through a real pitch email that resulted in coverage of one of their stories.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. My name is Amanda Milligan. I'm the Marketing Director at Fractl. Today I'm going to talk to you about the anatomy of the perfect pitch email.

This has to do with the digital PR space. The way that we get backlinks and brand awareness for our clients is by creating original research, new studies and surveys, and then pitching those things to writers. Now the pitching and the promotion is some of the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to this — the email you send to a writer.

So what I've done here is literally write out a real pitch email that was sent to a writer that resulted in a publication and coverage of the story. I'll shout out to Skylar who wrote this one. What I'm going to do is walk through each piece of it, each element that we think is extremely important and that we include in all of our emails.

Human connection

So to start, I actually use this email because it didn't delve too much into the personalization. I wanted to show an example of what happens if you can't personalize as well. But personalization or any kind of human connection is extremely important, and it should be the lead into the body of your email.

So in this case, it's a little more general. It says, "We all remember the horror flicks that left us sleeping with the lights on." So that's a more general human experience. I know I slept with the lights on when I saw "The Ring" for the first time. That's just some way to connect with the person who's reading it, to have them think of a memory.

However, if you actually have a chance to personalize an email, for example, if the writer has written something that resonates with you recently or you follow them on Twitter or LinkedIn and you like something that they shared, you can connect with them — you went to the same school, you have the same love of animals. We actually have a lot of people who pitched this year like pitching pictures of their animals and talking about how much they love dogs or cats.

Anything that is genuine can do really well. But remember that there's a human being on the other side of the email that you're sending, and just humanize this a little bit. So that should be about a sentence or two. As you can see here, it ends about here. So you don't want to go into a whole life story, but touch on that a little bit.

Top-level project description

The next segment is a top-level project description. So the next sentence here says, "Could you imagine if one of those characters occupied the room next to yours?" So now we're bridging the kind of anecdote to the actual project. "To explore this further, my team asked over 1,000 TV and movie fans about their most and least desirable fictional roommates."

So right there you know exactly what the project is about. It's about a survey we did asking people which fictional characters in all kinds of media they would like to live with. So it's very fun. It's a light piece. It's a fun piece. However, the structure is still the same when creating these pitch emails. No matter if it's hard news or something a little more lighthearted, this is a really effective way to go.

Main takeaways

So that covers human connection and top-level project description. This next piece is arguably the most important. This, as you can see over here, are the main takeaways, the biggest, most interesting, new insights from this study that you did. You don't want the writer to be sifting through your content trying to figure out why they care or why any of their readers are going to care.

It's your job to pull the two or three most interesting takeaways, literally create a bulleted list for them so that they can see it very quickly. So in this case, Skylar literally said, "Here's what we found: The Beetlejuice home ranks as one of the most identifiable movie houses. However, Beetlejuice was the least desirable fictional roommate."

Understandably. The reason why I can assume she called this out is because, in this particular pitch, she was pitching a home publication, so she's talking about houses. The reason I highlight that is you shouldn't have even the same body of a pitch that you send to everyone. It depends on who their readers are and the topics that they cover, the subtopics they cover.

Even if you know they're relevant and you're pitching them in the first place, make sure to tailor every aspect of the email to them specifically. You might have a list of 10 to 15 interesting takeaways, and you piece together which ones make the most sense per writer. So then some other facts. "Movie fans agree Norman Bates would have been equally undesirable as the Hulk would be as a roommate."

Which is just fun. "Despite appearing in your dreams while you're fast asleep, Freddy Krueger ranks as less desirable than Hannibal Lecter." So the fun thing about this project and something I didn't mention at the top is that we were pitching it around Halloween. So it makes a little more sense. You have that timeliness factor also.

This is fun, but they're basically writing these bullet points thinking like, "What can the writer's headline be? What are they going to say is the most interesting part of this project, and why do they think it's going to be fun or funny or entertaining or useful or informative?" So that covers this section. It's extremely important. Honestly, as you're creating content, you should be thinking of these things, hypothesizing what these could look like.

Link to the content

If you can't even imagine what little bullet points you're going to be able to create after you do something, it might not be interesting enough, or you might not be on the right track. So then this is important. It's small, but it's important. "Here's a link to the full study." Linked. Some people do the tactic of kind of asking, "Oh, do you want to see the rest? We can send it to you."

We don't recommend doing that because you don't want to add an extra step. You don't want writers to have to work for anything. You want to give them everything they need to make a decision. So you're making it easy for them by calling out the bullet points that are the most relevant. Then you're saying, "But listen, look at the whole study if you want. If this is intriguing to you, here it is. You can view the whole thing and make a decision as to whether it's a good fit for your audience." So be sure to do that. 

Direct ask

Then Skylar did a good job by saying, "It's the very first day of October," which it was at the time, "and your readers are gearing up for Halloween." So she's tying it back to the relevancy of the project to their readers, which is what you always have to think about. The writer only cares about whether something is going to resonate with their readership. That means that they're doing a good job. So she kind of ties that up. "Any interest in sharing this exclusive study with [the publication]?" So I highlighted here a direct ask. So come out and say like, "So do you want to cover this?" In this case, we were pitching it as an exclusive, meaning nobody else hadn't covered it yet, which makes it a little more appealing.

You're saying, "You're going to be the first ones to talk about this study." You can say it's exclusive, and you can highlight that in the email as well. But even if you're not doing that, if you're pitching it to a bunch of people or somebody has already covered it and you're still pitching it, just make sure you directly ask, "Are you interested in covering this?" Don't assume that they even know how to respond. So those are the four main components of a pitch email.

Conclusion

Now there's a lot that goes into making this work. This is just one piece of a greater puzzle. Your content has to be fantastic, because, as I say, no fantastic pitch can salvage a terrible project. You just can't pitch your way out of it. But also you need to be targeting the right people.

So sometimes we have fantastic pitch emails go out, or anybody has fantastic pitch emails go out, but the person, for whatever reason, can't cover the content. That happens. It certainly happens. Sometimes people have full editorial calendars, or they just wrote about something recently similar. But you want to avoid the situation where they say, "Cool pitch, but this isn't my niche."

This happens all the time in the industry. We surveyed 500 publishers last year, in 2019, depending on when you're listening to this, and they said that their number one pet peeve is being pitched content that does not match their niche. So they're being pitched things that they don't typically write about. So this is a fantastic way to increase the chances of your pitch being successful, but that doesn't mean that it's foolproof if you haven't done all these other steps.

If you're interested in learning about those things, check out my other content on Moz. I've talked about what makes great content. I've talked about some things to look at when it comes to who to pitch. All these things fit together. But I did want to break down for you exactly what that pitch can look like. So best of luck out there. I know it's tough.

Talk to you soon.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[thanhtuandoan89]

The Anatomy of the Perfect Pitch Email

Posted by amandamilligan

If you need to get backlinks and generate brand awareness for clients, a great way to start is by creating original research and then pitching that research to writers. But the promotion of your work is probably the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to the pitch email you send to a writer. 

To make this task a bit less daunting, in this episode of Whiteboard Friday, Amanda Milligan of Fractl walks you through a real pitch email that resulted in coverage of one of their stories.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. My name is Amanda Milligan. I'm the Marketing Director at Fractl. Today I'm going to talk to you about the anatomy of the perfect pitch email.

This has to do with the digital PR space. The way that we get backlinks and brand awareness for our clients is by creating original research, new studies and surveys, and then pitching those things to writers. Now the pitching and the promotion is some of the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to this — the email you send to a writer.

So what I've done here is literally write out a real pitch email that was sent to a writer that resulted in a publication and coverage of the story. I'll shout out to Skylar who wrote this one. What I'm going to do is walk through each piece of it, each element that we think is extremely important and that we include in all of our emails.

Human connection

So to start, I actually use this email because it didn't delve too much into the personalization. I wanted to show an example of what happens if you can't personalize as well. But personalization or any kind of human connection is extremely important, and it should be the lead into the body of your email.

So in this case, it's a little more general. It says, "We all remember the horror flicks that left us sleeping with the lights on." So that's a more general human experience. I know I slept with the lights on when I saw "The Ring" for the first time. That's just some way to connect with the person who's reading it, to have them think of a memory.

However, if you actually have a chance to personalize an email, for example, if the writer has written something that resonates with you recently or you follow them on Twitter or LinkedIn and you like something that they shared, you can connect with them — you went to the same school, you have the same love of animals. We actually have a lot of people who pitched this year like pitching pictures of their animals and talking about how much they love dogs or cats.

Anything that is genuine can do really well. But remember that there's a human being on the other side of the email that you're sending, and just humanize this a little bit. So that should be about a sentence or two. As you can see here, it ends about here. So you don't want to go into a whole life story, but touch on that a little bit.

Top-level project description

The next segment is a top-level project description. So the next sentence here says, "Could you imagine if one of those characters occupied the room next to yours?" So now we're bridging the kind of anecdote to the actual project. "To explore this further, my team asked over 1,000 TV and movie fans about their most and least desirable fictional roommates."

So right there you know exactly what the project is about. It's about a survey we did asking people which fictional characters in all kinds of media they would like to live with. So it's very fun. It's a light piece. It's a fun piece. However, the structure is still the same when creating these pitch emails. No matter if it's hard news or something a little more lighthearted, this is a really effective way to go.

Main takeaways

So that covers human connection and top-level project description. This next piece is arguably the most important. This, as you can see over here, are the main takeaways, the biggest, most interesting, new insights from this study that you did. You don't want the writer to be sifting through your content trying to figure out why they care or why any of their readers are going to care.

It's your job to pull the two or three most interesting takeaways, literally create a bulleted list for them so that they can see it very quickly. So in this case, Skylar literally said, "Here's what we found: The Beetlejuice home ranks as one of the most identifiable movie houses. However, Beetlejuice was the least desirable fictional roommate."

Understandably. The reason why I can assume she called this out is because, in this particular pitch, she was pitching a home publication, so she's talking about houses. The reason I highlight that is you shouldn't have even the same body of a pitch that you send to everyone. It depends on who their readers are and the topics that they cover, the subtopics they cover.

Even if you know they're relevant and you're pitching them in the first place, make sure to tailor every aspect of the email to them specifically. You might have a list of 10 to 15 interesting takeaways, and you piece together which ones make the most sense per writer. So then some other facts. "Movie fans agree Norman Bates would have been equally undesirable as the Hulk would be as a roommate."

Which is just fun. "Despite appearing in your dreams while you're fast asleep, Freddy Krueger ranks as less desirable than Hannibal Lecter." So the fun thing about this project and something I didn't mention at the top is that we were pitching it around Halloween. So it makes a little more sense. You have that timeliness factor also.

This is fun, but they're basically writing these bullet points thinking like, "What can the writer's headline be? What are they going to say is the most interesting part of this project, and why do they think it's going to be fun or funny or entertaining or useful or informative?" So that covers this section. It's extremely important. Honestly, as you're creating content, you should be thinking of these things, hypothesizing what these could look like.

Link to the content

If you can't even imagine what little bullet points you're going to be able to create after you do something, it might not be interesting enough, or you might not be on the right track. So then this is important. It's small, but it's important. "Here's a link to the full study." Linked. Some people do the tactic of kind of asking, "Oh, do you want to see the rest? We can send it to you."

We don't recommend doing that because you don't want to add an extra step. You don't want writers to have to work for anything. You want to give them everything they need to make a decision. So you're making it easy for them by calling out the bullet points that are the most relevant. Then you're saying, "But listen, look at the whole study if you want. If this is intriguing to you, here it is. You can view the whole thing and make a decision as to whether it's a good fit for your audience." So be sure to do that. 

Direct ask

Then Skylar did a good job by saying, "It's the very first day of October," which it was at the time, "and your readers are gearing up for Halloween." So she's tying it back to the relevancy of the project to their readers, which is what you always have to think about. The writer only cares about whether something is going to resonate with their readership. That means that they're doing a good job. So she kind of ties that up. "Any interest in sharing this exclusive study with [the publication]?" So I highlighted here a direct ask. So come out and say like, "So do you want to cover this?" In this case, we were pitching it as an exclusive, meaning nobody else hadn't covered it yet, which makes it a little more appealing.

You're saying, "You're going to be the first ones to talk about this study." You can say it's exclusive, and you can highlight that in the email as well. But even if you're not doing that, if you're pitching it to a bunch of people or somebody has already covered it and you're still pitching it, just make sure you directly ask, "Are you interested in covering this?" Don't assume that they even know how to respond. So those are the four main components of a pitch email.

Conclusion

Now there's a lot that goes into making this work. This is just one piece of a greater puzzle. Your content has to be fantastic, because, as I say, no fantastic pitch can salvage a terrible project. You just can't pitch your way out of it. But also you need to be targeting the right people.

So sometimes we have fantastic pitch emails go out, or anybody has fantastic pitch emails go out, but the person, for whatever reason, can't cover the content. That happens. It certainly happens. Sometimes people have full editorial calendars, or they just wrote about something recently similar. But you want to avoid the situation where they say, "Cool pitch, but this isn't my niche."

This happens all the time in the industry. We surveyed 500 publishers last year, in 2019, depending on when you're listening to this, and they said that their number one pet peeve is being pitched content that does not match their niche. So they're being pitched things that they don't typically write about. So this is a fantastic way to increase the chances of your pitch being successful, but that doesn't mean that it's foolproof if you haven't done all these other steps.

If you're interested in learning about those things, check out my other content on Moz. I've talked about what makes great content. I've talked about some things to look at when it comes to who to pitch. All these things fit together. But I did want to break down for you exactly what that pitch can look like. So best of luck out there. I know it's tough.

Talk to you soon.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[epackingvietnam]

The Anatomy of the Perfect Pitch Email

Posted by amandamilligan

If you need to get backlinks and generate brand awareness for clients, a great way to start is by creating original research and then pitching that research to writers. But the promotion of your work is probably the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to the pitch email you send to a writer. 

To make this task a bit less daunting, in this episode of Whiteboard Friday, Amanda Milligan of Fractl walks you through a real pitch email that resulted in coverage of one of their stories.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. My name is Amanda Milligan. I'm the Marketing Director at Fractl. Today I'm going to talk to you about the anatomy of the perfect pitch email.

This has to do with the digital PR space. The way that we get backlinks and brand awareness for our clients is by creating original research, new studies and surveys, and then pitching those things to writers. Now the pitching and the promotion is some of the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to this — the email you send to a writer.

So what I've done here is literally write out a real pitch email that was sent to a writer that resulted in a publication and coverage of the story. I'll shout out to Skylar who wrote this one. What I'm going to do is walk through each piece of it, each element that we think is extremely important and that we include in all of our emails.

Human connection

So to start, I actually use this email because it didn't delve too much into the personalization. I wanted to show an example of what happens if you can't personalize as well. But personalization or any kind of human connection is extremely important, and it should be the lead into the body of your email.

So in this case, it's a little more general. It says, "We all remember the horror flicks that left us sleeping with the lights on." So that's a more general human experience. I know I slept with the lights on when I saw "The Ring" for the first time. That's just some way to connect with the person who's reading it, to have them think of a memory.

However, if you actually have a chance to personalize an email, for example, if the writer has written something that resonates with you recently or you follow them on Twitter or LinkedIn and you like something that they shared, you can connect with them — you went to the same school, you have the same love of animals. We actually have a lot of people who pitched this year like pitching pictures of their animals and talking about how much they love dogs or cats.

Anything that is genuine can do really well. But remember that there's a human being on the other side of the email that you're sending, and just humanize this a little bit. So that should be about a sentence or two. As you can see here, it ends about here. So you don't want to go into a whole life story, but touch on that a little bit.

Top-level project description

The next segment is a top-level project description. So the next sentence here says, "Could you imagine if one of those characters occupied the room next to yours?" So now we're bridging the kind of anecdote to the actual project. "To explore this further, my team asked over 1,000 TV and movie fans about their most and least desirable fictional roommates."

So right there you know exactly what the project is about. It's about a survey we did asking people which fictional characters in all kinds of media they would like to live with. So it's very fun. It's a light piece. It's a fun piece. However, the structure is still the same when creating these pitch emails. No matter if it's hard news or something a little more lighthearted, this is a really effective way to go.

Main takeaways

So that covers human connection and top-level project description. This next piece is arguably the most important. This, as you can see over here, are the main takeaways, the biggest, most interesting, new insights from this study that you did. You don't want the writer to be sifting through your content trying to figure out why they care or why any of their readers are going to care.

It's your job to pull the two or three most interesting takeaways, literally create a bulleted list for them so that they can see it very quickly. So in this case, Skylar literally said, "Here's what we found: The Beetlejuice home ranks as one of the most identifiable movie houses. However, Beetlejuice was the least desirable fictional roommate."

Understandably. The reason why I can assume she called this out is because, in this particular pitch, she was pitching a home publication, so she's talking about houses. The reason I highlight that is you shouldn't have even the same body of a pitch that you send to everyone. It depends on who their readers are and the topics that they cover, the subtopics they cover.

Even if you know they're relevant and you're pitching them in the first place, make sure to tailor every aspect of the email to them specifically. You might have a list of 10 to 15 interesting takeaways, and you piece together which ones make the most sense per writer. So then some other facts. "Movie fans agree Norman Bates would have been equally undesirable as the Hulk would be as a roommate."

Which is just fun. "Despite appearing in your dreams while you're fast asleep, Freddy Krueger ranks as less desirable than Hannibal Lecter." So the fun thing about this project and something I didn't mention at the top is that we were pitching it around Halloween. So it makes a little more sense. You have that timeliness factor also.

This is fun, but they're basically writing these bullet points thinking like, "What can the writer's headline be? What are they going to say is the most interesting part of this project, and why do they think it's going to be fun or funny or entertaining or useful or informative?" So that covers this section. It's extremely important. Honestly, as you're creating content, you should be thinking of these things, hypothesizing what these could look like.

Link to the content

If you can't even imagine what little bullet points you're going to be able to create after you do something, it might not be interesting enough, or you might not be on the right track. So then this is important. It's small, but it's important. "Here's a link to the full study." Linked. Some people do the tactic of kind of asking, "Oh, do you want to see the rest? We can send it to you."

We don't recommend doing that because you don't want to add an extra step. You don't want writers to have to work for anything. You want to give them everything they need to make a decision. So you're making it easy for them by calling out the bullet points that are the most relevant. Then you're saying, "But listen, look at the whole study if you want. If this is intriguing to you, here it is. You can view the whole thing and make a decision as to whether it's a good fit for your audience." So be sure to do that. 

Direct ask

Then Skylar did a good job by saying, "It's the very first day of October," which it was at the time, "and your readers are gearing up for Halloween." So she's tying it back to the relevancy of the project to their readers, which is what you always have to think about. The writer only cares about whether something is going to resonate with their readership. That means that they're doing a good job. So she kind of ties that up. "Any interest in sharing this exclusive study with [the publication]?" So I highlighted here a direct ask. So come out and say like, "So do you want to cover this?" In this case, we were pitching it as an exclusive, meaning nobody else hadn't covered it yet, which makes it a little more appealing.

You're saying, "You're going to be the first ones to talk about this study." You can say it's exclusive, and you can highlight that in the email as well. But even if you're not doing that, if you're pitching it to a bunch of people or somebody has already covered it and you're still pitching it, just make sure you directly ask, "Are you interested in covering this?" Don't assume that they even know how to respond. So those are the four main components of a pitch email.

Conclusion

Now there's a lot that goes into making this work. This is just one piece of a greater puzzle. Your content has to be fantastic, because, as I say, no fantastic pitch can salvage a terrible project. You just can't pitch your way out of it. But also you need to be targeting the right people.

So sometimes we have fantastic pitch emails go out, or anybody has fantastic pitch emails go out, but the person, for whatever reason, can't cover the content. That happens. It certainly happens. Sometimes people have full editorial calendars, or they just wrote about something recently similar. But you want to avoid the situation where they say, "Cool pitch, but this isn't my niche."

This happens all the time in the industry. We surveyed 500 publishers last year, in 2019, depending on when you're listening to this, and they said that their number one pet peeve is being pitched content that does not match their niche. So they're being pitched things that they don't typically write about. So this is a fantastic way to increase the chances of your pitch being successful, but that doesn't mean that it's foolproof if you haven't done all these other steps.

If you're interested in learning about those things, check out my other content on Moz. I've talked about what makes great content. I've talked about some things to look at when it comes to who to pitch. All these things fit together. But I did want to break down for you exactly what that pitch can look like. So best of luck out there. I know it's tough.

Talk to you soon.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

#túi_giấy_epacking_việt_nam #túi_giấy_epacking #in_túi_giấy_giá_rẻ #in_túi_giấy #epackingvietnam #tuigiayepacking

[bfxenon]

The Anatomy of the Perfect Pitch Email

Posted by amandamilligan

If you need to get backlinks and generate brand awareness for clients, a great way to start is by creating original research and then pitching that research to writers. But the promotion of your work is probably the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to the pitch email you send to a writer. 

To make this task a bit less daunting, in this episode of Whiteboard Friday, Amanda Milligan of Fractl walks you through a real pitch email that resulted in coverage of one of their stories.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. My name is Amanda Milligan. I'm the Marketing Director at Fractl. Today I'm going to talk to you about the anatomy of the perfect pitch email.

This has to do with the digital PR space. The way that we get backlinks and brand awareness for our clients is by creating original research, new studies and surveys, and then pitching those things to writers. Now the pitching and the promotion is some of the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to this — the email you send to a writer.

So what I've done here is literally write out a real pitch email that was sent to a writer that resulted in a publication and coverage of the story. I'll shout out to Skylar who wrote this one. What I'm going to do is walk through each piece of it, each element that we think is extremely important and that we include in all of our emails.

Human connection

So to start, I actually use this email because it didn't delve too much into the personalization. I wanted to show an example of what happens if you can't personalize as well. But personalization or any kind of human connection is extremely important, and it should be the lead into the body of your email.

So in this case, it's a little more general. It says, "We all remember the horror flicks that left us sleeping with the lights on." So that's a more general human experience. I know I slept with the lights on when I saw "The Ring" for the first time. That's just some way to connect with the person who's reading it, to have them think of a memory.

However, if you actually have a chance to personalize an email, for example, if the writer has written something that resonates with you recently or you follow them on Twitter or LinkedIn and you like something that they shared, you can connect with them — you went to the same school, you have the same love of animals. We actually have a lot of people who pitched this year like pitching pictures of their animals and talking about how much they love dogs or cats.

Anything that is genuine can do really well. But remember that there's a human being on the other side of the email that you're sending, and just humanize this a little bit. So that should be about a sentence or two. As you can see here, it ends about here. So you don't want to go into a whole life story, but touch on that a little bit.

Top-level project description

The next segment is a top-level project description. So the next sentence here says, "Could you imagine if one of those characters occupied the room next to yours?" So now we're bridging the kind of anecdote to the actual project. "To explore this further, my team asked over 1,000 TV and movie fans about their most and least desirable fictional roommates."

So right there you know exactly what the project is about. It's about a survey we did asking people which fictional characters in all kinds of media they would like to live with. So it's very fun. It's a light piece. It's a fun piece. However, the structure is still the same when creating these pitch emails. No matter if it's hard news or something a little more lighthearted, this is a really effective way to go.

Main takeaways

So that covers human connection and top-level project description. This next piece is arguably the most important. This, as you can see over here, are the main takeaways, the biggest, most interesting, new insights from this study that you did. You don't want the writer to be sifting through your content trying to figure out why they care or why any of their readers are going to care.

It's your job to pull the two or three most interesting takeaways, literally create a bulleted list for them so that they can see it very quickly. So in this case, Skylar literally said, "Here's what we found: The Beetlejuice home ranks as one of the most identifiable movie houses. However, Beetlejuice was the least desirable fictional roommate."

Understandably. The reason why I can assume she called this out is because, in this particular pitch, she was pitching a home publication, so she's talking about houses. The reason I highlight that is you shouldn't have even the same body of a pitch that you send to everyone. It depends on who their readers are and the topics that they cover, the subtopics they cover.

Even if you know they're relevant and you're pitching them in the first place, make sure to tailor every aspect of the email to them specifically. You might have a list of 10 to 15 interesting takeaways, and you piece together which ones make the most sense per writer. So then some other facts. "Movie fans agree Norman Bates would have been equally undesirable as the Hulk would be as a roommate."

Which is just fun. "Despite appearing in your dreams while you're fast asleep, Freddy Krueger ranks as less desirable than Hannibal Lecter." So the fun thing about this project and something I didn't mention at the top is that we were pitching it around Halloween. So it makes a little more sense. You have that timeliness factor also.

This is fun, but they're basically writing these bullet points thinking like, "What can the writer's headline be? What are they going to say is the most interesting part of this project, and why do they think it's going to be fun or funny or entertaining or useful or informative?" So that covers this section. It's extremely important. Honestly, as you're creating content, you should be thinking of these things, hypothesizing what these could look like.

Link to the content

If you can't even imagine what little bullet points you're going to be able to create after you do something, it might not be interesting enough, or you might not be on the right track. So then this is important. It's small, but it's important. "Here's a link to the full study." Linked. Some people do the tactic of kind of asking, "Oh, do you want to see the rest? We can send it to you."

We don't recommend doing that because you don't want to add an extra step. You don't want writers to have to work for anything. You want to give them everything they need to make a decision. So you're making it easy for them by calling out the bullet points that are the most relevant. Then you're saying, "But listen, look at the whole study if you want. If this is intriguing to you, here it is. You can view the whole thing and make a decision as to whether it's a good fit for your audience." So be sure to do that. 

Direct ask

Then Skylar did a good job by saying, "It's the very first day of October," which it was at the time, "and your readers are gearing up for Halloween." So she's tying it back to the relevancy of the project to their readers, which is what you always have to think about. The writer only cares about whether something is going to resonate with their readership. That means that they're doing a good job. So she kind of ties that up. "Any interest in sharing this exclusive study with [the publication]?" So I highlighted here a direct ask. So come out and say like, "So do you want to cover this?" In this case, we were pitching it as an exclusive, meaning nobody else hadn't covered it yet, which makes it a little more appealing.

You're saying, "You're going to be the first ones to talk about this study." You can say it's exclusive, and you can highlight that in the email as well. But even if you're not doing that, if you're pitching it to a bunch of people or somebody has already covered it and you're still pitching it, just make sure you directly ask, "Are you interested in covering this?" Don't assume that they even know how to respond. So those are the four main components of a pitch email.

Conclusion

Now there's a lot that goes into making this work. This is just one piece of a greater puzzle. Your content has to be fantastic, because, as I say, no fantastic pitch can salvage a terrible project. You just can't pitch your way out of it. But also you need to be targeting the right people.

So sometimes we have fantastic pitch emails go out, or anybody has fantastic pitch emails go out, but the person, for whatever reason, can't cover the content. That happens. It certainly happens. Sometimes people have full editorial calendars, or they just wrote about something recently similar. But you want to avoid the situation where they say, "Cool pitch, but this isn't my niche."

This happens all the time in the industry. We surveyed 500 publishers last year, in 2019, depending on when you're listening to this, and they said that their number one pet peeve is being pitched content that does not match their niche. So they're being pitched things that they don't typically write about. So this is a fantastic way to increase the chances of your pitch being successful, but that doesn't mean that it's foolproof if you haven't done all these other steps.

If you're interested in learning about those things, check out my other content on Moz. I've talked about what makes great content. I've talked about some things to look at when it comes to who to pitch. All these things fit together. But I did want to break down for you exactly what that pitch can look like. So best of luck out there. I know it's tough.

Talk to you soon.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[nutrifami]

The Anatomy of the Perfect Pitch Email

Posted by amandamilligan

If you need to get backlinks and generate brand awareness for clients, a great way to start is by creating original research and then pitching that research to writers. But the promotion of your work is probably the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to the pitch email you send to a writer. 

To make this task a bit less daunting, in this episode of Whiteboard Friday, Amanda Milligan of Fractl walks you through a real pitch email that resulted in coverage of one of their stories.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. My name is Amanda Milligan. I'm the Marketing Director at Fractl. Today I'm going to talk to you about the anatomy of the perfect pitch email.

This has to do with the digital PR space. The way that we get backlinks and brand awareness for our clients is by creating original research, new studies and surveys, and then pitching those things to writers. Now the pitching and the promotion is some of the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to this — the email you send to a writer.

So what I've done here is literally write out a real pitch email that was sent to a writer that resulted in a publication and coverage of the story. I'll shout out to Skylar who wrote this one. What I'm going to do is walk through each piece of it, each element that we think is extremely important and that we include in all of our emails.

Human connection

So to start, I actually use this email because it didn't delve too much into the personalization. I wanted to show an example of what happens if you can't personalize as well. But personalization or any kind of human connection is extremely important, and it should be the lead into the body of your email.

So in this case, it's a little more general. It says, "We all remember the horror flicks that left us sleeping with the lights on." So that's a more general human experience. I know I slept with the lights on when I saw "The Ring" for the first time. That's just some way to connect with the person who's reading it, to have them think of a memory.

However, if you actually have a chance to personalize an email, for example, if the writer has written something that resonates with you recently or you follow them on Twitter or LinkedIn and you like something that they shared, you can connect with them — you went to the same school, you have the same love of animals. We actually have a lot of people who pitched this year like pitching pictures of their animals and talking about how much they love dogs or cats.

Anything that is genuine can do really well. But remember that there's a human being on the other side of the email that you're sending, and just humanize this a little bit. So that should be about a sentence or two. As you can see here, it ends about here. So you don't want to go into a whole life story, but touch on that a little bit.

Top-level project description

The next segment is a top-level project description. So the next sentence here says, "Could you imagine if one of those characters occupied the room next to yours?" So now we're bridging the kind of anecdote to the actual project. "To explore this further, my team asked over 1,000 TV and movie fans about their most and least desirable fictional roommates."

So right there you know exactly what the project is about. It's about a survey we did asking people which fictional characters in all kinds of media they would like to live with. So it's very fun. It's a light piece. It's a fun piece. However, the structure is still the same when creating these pitch emails. No matter if it's hard news or something a little more lighthearted, this is a really effective way to go.

Main takeaways

So that covers human connection and top-level project description. This next piece is arguably the most important. This, as you can see over here, are the main takeaways, the biggest, most interesting, new insights from this study that you did. You don't want the writer to be sifting through your content trying to figure out why they care or why any of their readers are going to care.

It's your job to pull the two or three most interesting takeaways, literally create a bulleted list for them so that they can see it very quickly. So in this case, Skylar literally said, "Here's what we found: The Beetlejuice home ranks as one of the most identifiable movie houses. However, Beetlejuice was the least desirable fictional roommate."

Understandably. The reason why I can assume she called this out is because, in this particular pitch, she was pitching a home publication, so she's talking about houses. The reason I highlight that is you shouldn't have even the same body of a pitch that you send to everyone. It depends on who their readers are and the topics that they cover, the subtopics they cover.

Even if you know they're relevant and you're pitching them in the first place, make sure to tailor every aspect of the email to them specifically. You might have a list of 10 to 15 interesting takeaways, and you piece together which ones make the most sense per writer. So then some other facts. "Movie fans agree Norman Bates would have been equally undesirable as the Hulk would be as a roommate."

Which is just fun. "Despite appearing in your dreams while you're fast asleep, Freddy Krueger ranks as less desirable than Hannibal Lecter." So the fun thing about this project and something I didn't mention at the top is that we were pitching it around Halloween. So it makes a little more sense. You have that timeliness factor also.

This is fun, but they're basically writing these bullet points thinking like, "What can the writer's headline be? What are they going to say is the most interesting part of this project, and why do they think it's going to be fun or funny or entertaining or useful or informative?" So that covers this section. It's extremely important. Honestly, as you're creating content, you should be thinking of these things, hypothesizing what these could look like.

Link to the content

If you can't even imagine what little bullet points you're going to be able to create after you do something, it might not be interesting enough, or you might not be on the right track. So then this is important. It's small, but it's important. "Here's a link to the full study." Linked. Some people do the tactic of kind of asking, "Oh, do you want to see the rest? We can send it to you."

We don't recommend doing that because you don't want to add an extra step. You don't want writers to have to work for anything. You want to give them everything they need to make a decision. So you're making it easy for them by calling out the bullet points that are the most relevant. Then you're saying, "But listen, look at the whole study if you want. If this is intriguing to you, here it is. You can view the whole thing and make a decision as to whether it's a good fit for your audience." So be sure to do that. 

Direct ask

Then Skylar did a good job by saying, "It's the very first day of October," which it was at the time, "and your readers are gearing up for Halloween." So she's tying it back to the relevancy of the project to their readers, which is what you always have to think about. The writer only cares about whether something is going to resonate with their readership. That means that they're doing a good job. So she kind of ties that up. "Any interest in sharing this exclusive study with [the publication]?" So I highlighted here a direct ask. So come out and say like, "So do you want to cover this?" In this case, we were pitching it as an exclusive, meaning nobody else hadn't covered it yet, which makes it a little more appealing.

You're saying, "You're going to be the first ones to talk about this study." You can say it's exclusive, and you can highlight that in the email as well. But even if you're not doing that, if you're pitching it to a bunch of people or somebody has already covered it and you're still pitching it, just make sure you directly ask, "Are you interested in covering this?" Don't assume that they even know how to respond. So those are the four main components of a pitch email.

Conclusion

Now there's a lot that goes into making this work. This is just one piece of a greater puzzle. Your content has to be fantastic, because, as I say, no fantastic pitch can salvage a terrible project. You just can't pitch your way out of it. But also you need to be targeting the right people.

So sometimes we have fantastic pitch emails go out, or anybody has fantastic pitch emails go out, but the person, for whatever reason, can't cover the content. That happens. It certainly happens. Sometimes people have full editorial calendars, or they just wrote about something recently similar. But you want to avoid the situation where they say, "Cool pitch, but this isn't my niche."

This happens all the time in the industry. We surveyed 500 publishers last year, in 2019, depending on when you're listening to this, and they said that their number one pet peeve is being pitched content that does not match their niche. So they're being pitched things that they don't typically write about. So this is a fantastic way to increase the chances of your pitch being successful, but that doesn't mean that it's foolproof if you haven't done all these other steps.

If you're interested in learning about those things, check out my other content on Moz. I've talked about what makes great content. I've talked about some things to look at when it comes to who to pitch. All these things fit together. But I did want to break down for you exactly what that pitch can look like. So best of luck out there. I know it's tough.

Talk to you soon.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[xaydungtruonggia]

The Anatomy of the Perfect Pitch Email

Posted by amandamilligan

If you need to get backlinks and generate brand awareness for clients, a great way to start is by creating original research and then pitching that research to writers. But the promotion of your work is probably the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to the pitch email you send to a writer. 

To make this task a bit less daunting, in this episode of Whiteboard Friday, Amanda Milligan of Fractl walks you through a real pitch email that resulted in coverage of one of their stories.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. My name is Amanda Milligan. I'm the Marketing Director at Fractl. Today I'm going to talk to you about the anatomy of the perfect pitch email.

This has to do with the digital PR space. The way that we get backlinks and brand awareness for our clients is by creating original research, new studies and surveys, and then pitching those things to writers. Now the pitching and the promotion is some of the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to this — the email you send to a writer.

So what I've done here is literally write out a real pitch email that was sent to a writer that resulted in a publication and coverage of the story. I'll shout out to Skylar who wrote this one. What I'm going to do is walk through each piece of it, each element that we think is extremely important and that we include in all of our emails.

Human connection

So to start, I actually use this email because it didn't delve too much into the personalization. I wanted to show an example of what happens if you can't personalize as well. But personalization or any kind of human connection is extremely important, and it should be the lead into the body of your email.

So in this case, it's a little more general. It says, "We all remember the horror flicks that left us sleeping with the lights on." So that's a more general human experience. I know I slept with the lights on when I saw "The Ring" for the first time. That's just some way to connect with the person who's reading it, to have them think of a memory.

However, if you actually have a chance to personalize an email, for example, if the writer has written something that resonates with you recently or you follow them on Twitter or LinkedIn and you like something that they shared, you can connect with them — you went to the same school, you have the same love of animals. We actually have a lot of people who pitched this year like pitching pictures of their animals and talking about how much they love dogs or cats.

Anything that is genuine can do really well. But remember that there's a human being on the other side of the email that you're sending, and just humanize this a little bit. So that should be about a sentence or two. As you can see here, it ends about here. So you don't want to go into a whole life story, but touch on that a little bit.

Top-level project description

The next segment is a top-level project description. So the next sentence here says, "Could you imagine if one of those characters occupied the room next to yours?" So now we're bridging the kind of anecdote to the actual project. "To explore this further, my team asked over 1,000 TV and movie fans about their most and least desirable fictional roommates."

So right there you know exactly what the project is about. It's about a survey we did asking people which fictional characters in all kinds of media they would like to live with. So it's very fun. It's a light piece. It's a fun piece. However, the structure is still the same when creating these pitch emails. No matter if it's hard news or something a little more lighthearted, this is a really effective way to go.

Main takeaways

So that covers human connection and top-level project description. This next piece is arguably the most important. This, as you can see over here, are the main takeaways, the biggest, most interesting, new insights from this study that you did. You don't want the writer to be sifting through your content trying to figure out why they care or why any of their readers are going to care.

It's your job to pull the two or three most interesting takeaways, literally create a bulleted list for them so that they can see it very quickly. So in this case, Skylar literally said, "Here's what we found: The Beetlejuice home ranks as one of the most identifiable movie houses. However, Beetlejuice was the least desirable fictional roommate."

Understandably. The reason why I can assume she called this out is because, in this particular pitch, she was pitching a home publication, so she's talking about houses. The reason I highlight that is you shouldn't have even the same body of a pitch that you send to everyone. It depends on who their readers are and the topics that they cover, the subtopics they cover.

Even if you know they're relevant and you're pitching them in the first place, make sure to tailor every aspect of the email to them specifically. You might have a list of 10 to 15 interesting takeaways, and you piece together which ones make the most sense per writer. So then some other facts. "Movie fans agree Norman Bates would have been equally undesirable as the Hulk would be as a roommate."

Which is just fun. "Despite appearing in your dreams while you're fast asleep, Freddy Krueger ranks as less desirable than Hannibal Lecter." So the fun thing about this project and something I didn't mention at the top is that we were pitching it around Halloween. So it makes a little more sense. You have that timeliness factor also.

This is fun, but they're basically writing these bullet points thinking like, "What can the writer's headline be? What are they going to say is the most interesting part of this project, and why do they think it's going to be fun or funny or entertaining or useful or informative?" So that covers this section. It's extremely important. Honestly, as you're creating content, you should be thinking of these things, hypothesizing what these could look like.

Link to the content

If you can't even imagine what little bullet points you're going to be able to create after you do something, it might not be interesting enough, or you might not be on the right track. So then this is important. It's small, but it's important. "Here's a link to the full study." Linked. Some people do the tactic of kind of asking, "Oh, do you want to see the rest? We can send it to you."

We don't recommend doing that because you don't want to add an extra step. You don't want writers to have to work for anything. You want to give them everything they need to make a decision. So you're making it easy for them by calling out the bullet points that are the most relevant. Then you're saying, "But listen, look at the whole study if you want. If this is intriguing to you, here it is. You can view the whole thing and make a decision as to whether it's a good fit for your audience." So be sure to do that. 

Direct ask

Then Skylar did a good job by saying, "It's the very first day of October," which it was at the time, "and your readers are gearing up for Halloween." So she's tying it back to the relevancy of the project to their readers, which is what you always have to think about. The writer only cares about whether something is going to resonate with their readership. That means that they're doing a good job. So she kind of ties that up. "Any interest in sharing this exclusive study with [the publication]?" So I highlighted here a direct ask. So come out and say like, "So do you want to cover this?" In this case, we were pitching it as an exclusive, meaning nobody else hadn't covered it yet, which makes it a little more appealing.

You're saying, "You're going to be the first ones to talk about this study." You can say it's exclusive, and you can highlight that in the email as well. But even if you're not doing that, if you're pitching it to a bunch of people or somebody has already covered it and you're still pitching it, just make sure you directly ask, "Are you interested in covering this?" Don't assume that they even know how to respond. So those are the four main components of a pitch email.

Conclusion

Now there's a lot that goes into making this work. This is just one piece of a greater puzzle. Your content has to be fantastic, because, as I say, no fantastic pitch can salvage a terrible project. You just can't pitch your way out of it. But also you need to be targeting the right people.

So sometimes we have fantastic pitch emails go out, or anybody has fantastic pitch emails go out, but the person, for whatever reason, can't cover the content. That happens. It certainly happens. Sometimes people have full editorial calendars, or they just wrote about something recently similar. But you want to avoid the situation where they say, "Cool pitch, but this isn't my niche."

This happens all the time in the industry. We surveyed 500 publishers last year, in 2019, depending on when you're listening to this, and they said that their number one pet peeve is being pitched content that does not match their niche. So they're being pitched things that they don't typically write about. So this is a fantastic way to increase the chances of your pitch being successful, but that doesn't mean that it's foolproof if you haven't done all these other steps.

If you're interested in learning about those things, check out my other content on Moz. I've talked about what makes great content. I've talked about some things to look at when it comes to who to pitch. All these things fit together. But I did want to break down for you exactly what that pitch can look like. So best of luck out there. I know it's tough.

Talk to you soon.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[ductrungnguyen87]

The Anatomy of the Perfect Pitch Email

Posted by amandamilligan

If you need to get backlinks and generate brand awareness for clients, a great way to start is by creating original research and then pitching that research to writers. But the promotion of your work is probably the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to the pitch email you send to a writer. 

To make this task a bit less daunting, in this episode of Whiteboard Friday, Amanda Milligan of Fractl walks you through a real pitch email that resulted in coverage of one of their stories.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. My name is Amanda Milligan. I'm the Marketing Director at Fractl. Today I'm going to talk to you about the anatomy of the perfect pitch email.

This has to do with the digital PR space. The way that we get backlinks and brand awareness for our clients is by creating original research, new studies and surveys, and then pitching those things to writers. Now the pitching and the promotion is some of the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to this — the email you send to a writer.

So what I've done here is literally write out a real pitch email that was sent to a writer that resulted in a publication and coverage of the story. I'll shout out to Skylar who wrote this one. What I'm going to do is walk through each piece of it, each element that we think is extremely important and that we include in all of our emails.

Human connection

So to start, I actually use this email because it didn't delve too much into the personalization. I wanted to show an example of what happens if you can't personalize as well. But personalization or any kind of human connection is extremely important, and it should be the lead into the body of your email.

So in this case, it's a little more general. It says, "We all remember the horror flicks that left us sleeping with the lights on." So that's a more general human experience. I know I slept with the lights on when I saw "The Ring" for the first time. That's just some way to connect with the person who's reading it, to have them think of a memory.

However, if you actually have a chance to personalize an email, for example, if the writer has written something that resonates with you recently or you follow them on Twitter or LinkedIn and you like something that they shared, you can connect with them — you went to the same school, you have the same love of animals. We actually have a lot of people who pitched this year like pitching pictures of their animals and talking about how much they love dogs or cats.

Anything that is genuine can do really well. But remember that there's a human being on the other side of the email that you're sending, and just humanize this a little bit. So that should be about a sentence or two. As you can see here, it ends about here. So you don't want to go into a whole life story, but touch on that a little bit.

Top-level project description

The next segment is a top-level project description. So the next sentence here says, "Could you imagine if one of those characters occupied the room next to yours?" So now we're bridging the kind of anecdote to the actual project. "To explore this further, my team asked over 1,000 TV and movie fans about their most and least desirable fictional roommates."

So right there you know exactly what the project is about. It's about a survey we did asking people which fictional characters in all kinds of media they would like to live with. So it's very fun. It's a light piece. It's a fun piece. However, the structure is still the same when creating these pitch emails. No matter if it's hard news or something a little more lighthearted, this is a really effective way to go.

Main takeaways

So that covers human connection and top-level project description. This next piece is arguably the most important. This, as you can see over here, are the main takeaways, the biggest, most interesting, new insights from this study that you did. You don't want the writer to be sifting through your content trying to figure out why they care or why any of their readers are going to care.

It's your job to pull the two or three most interesting takeaways, literally create a bulleted list for them so that they can see it very quickly. So in this case, Skylar literally said, "Here's what we found: The Beetlejuice home ranks as one of the most identifiable movie houses. However, Beetlejuice was the least desirable fictional roommate."

Understandably. The reason why I can assume she called this out is because, in this particular pitch, she was pitching a home publication, so she's talking about houses. The reason I highlight that is you shouldn't have even the same body of a pitch that you send to everyone. It depends on who their readers are and the topics that they cover, the subtopics they cover.

Even if you know they're relevant and you're pitching them in the first place, make sure to tailor every aspect of the email to them specifically. You might have a list of 10 to 15 interesting takeaways, and you piece together which ones make the most sense per writer. So then some other facts. "Movie fans agree Norman Bates would have been equally undesirable as the Hulk would be as a roommate."

Which is just fun. "Despite appearing in your dreams while you're fast asleep, Freddy Krueger ranks as less desirable than Hannibal Lecter." So the fun thing about this project and something I didn't mention at the top is that we were pitching it around Halloween. So it makes a little more sense. You have that timeliness factor also.

This is fun, but they're basically writing these bullet points thinking like, "What can the writer's headline be? What are they going to say is the most interesting part of this project, and why do they think it's going to be fun or funny or entertaining or useful or informative?" So that covers this section. It's extremely important. Honestly, as you're creating content, you should be thinking of these things, hypothesizing what these could look like.

Link to the content

If you can't even imagine what little bullet points you're going to be able to create after you do something, it might not be interesting enough, or you might not be on the right track. So then this is important. It's small, but it's important. "Here's a link to the full study." Linked. Some people do the tactic of kind of asking, "Oh, do you want to see the rest? We can send it to you."

We don't recommend doing that because you don't want to add an extra step. You don't want writers to have to work for anything. You want to give them everything they need to make a decision. So you're making it easy for them by calling out the bullet points that are the most relevant. Then you're saying, "But listen, look at the whole study if you want. If this is intriguing to you, here it is. You can view the whole thing and make a decision as to whether it's a good fit for your audience." So be sure to do that. 

Direct ask

Then Skylar did a good job by saying, "It's the very first day of October," which it was at the time, "and your readers are gearing up for Halloween." So she's tying it back to the relevancy of the project to their readers, which is what you always have to think about. The writer only cares about whether something is going to resonate with their readership. That means that they're doing a good job. So she kind of ties that up. "Any interest in sharing this exclusive study with [the publication]?" So I highlighted here a direct ask. So come out and say like, "So do you want to cover this?" In this case, we were pitching it as an exclusive, meaning nobody else hadn't covered it yet, which makes it a little more appealing.

You're saying, "You're going to be the first ones to talk about this study." You can say it's exclusive, and you can highlight that in the email as well. But even if you're not doing that, if you're pitching it to a bunch of people or somebody has already covered it and you're still pitching it, just make sure you directly ask, "Are you interested in covering this?" Don't assume that they even know how to respond. So those are the four main components of a pitch email.

Conclusion

Now there's a lot that goes into making this work. This is just one piece of a greater puzzle. Your content has to be fantastic, because, as I say, no fantastic pitch can salvage a terrible project. You just can't pitch your way out of it. But also you need to be targeting the right people.

So sometimes we have fantastic pitch emails go out, or anybody has fantastic pitch emails go out, but the person, for whatever reason, can't cover the content. That happens. It certainly happens. Sometimes people have full editorial calendars, or they just wrote about something recently similar. But you want to avoid the situation where they say, "Cool pitch, but this isn't my niche."

This happens all the time in the industry. We surveyed 500 publishers last year, in 2019, depending on when you're listening to this, and they said that their number one pet peeve is being pitched content that does not match their niche. So they're being pitched things that they don't typically write about. So this is a fantastic way to increase the chances of your pitch being successful, but that doesn't mean that it's foolproof if you haven't done all these other steps.

If you're interested in learning about those things, check out my other content on Moz. I've talked about what makes great content. I've talked about some things to look at when it comes to who to pitch. All these things fit together. But I did want to break down for you exactly what that pitch can look like. So best of luck out there. I know it's tough.

Talk to you soon.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[camerasieunhovn]

The Anatomy of the Perfect Pitch Email

Posted by amandamilligan

If you need to get backlinks and generate brand awareness for clients, a great way to start is by creating original research and then pitching that research to writers. But the promotion of your work is probably the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to the pitch email you send to a writer. 

To make this task a bit less daunting, in this episode of Whiteboard Friday, Amanda Milligan of Fractl walks you through a real pitch email that resulted in coverage of one of their stories.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. My name is Amanda Milligan. I'm the Marketing Director at Fractl. Today I'm going to talk to you about the anatomy of the perfect pitch email.

This has to do with the digital PR space. The way that we get backlinks and brand awareness for our clients is by creating original research, new studies and surveys, and then pitching those things to writers. Now the pitching and the promotion is some of the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to this — the email you send to a writer.

So what I've done here is literally write out a real pitch email that was sent to a writer that resulted in a publication and coverage of the story. I'll shout out to Skylar who wrote this one. What I'm going to do is walk through each piece of it, each element that we think is extremely important and that we include in all of our emails.

Human connection

So to start, I actually use this email because it didn't delve too much into the personalization. I wanted to show an example of what happens if you can't personalize as well. But personalization or any kind of human connection is extremely important, and it should be the lead into the body of your email.

So in this case, it's a little more general. It says, "We all remember the horror flicks that left us sleeping with the lights on." So that's a more general human experience. I know I slept with the lights on when I saw "The Ring" for the first time. That's just some way to connect with the person who's reading it, to have them think of a memory.

However, if you actually have a chance to personalize an email, for example, if the writer has written something that resonates with you recently or you follow them on Twitter or LinkedIn and you like something that they shared, you can connect with them — you went to the same school, you have the same love of animals. We actually have a lot of people who pitched this year like pitching pictures of their animals and talking about how much they love dogs or cats.

Anything that is genuine can do really well. But remember that there's a human being on the other side of the email that you're sending, and just humanize this a little bit. So that should be about a sentence or two. As you can see here, it ends about here. So you don't want to go into a whole life story, but touch on that a little bit.

Top-level project description

The next segment is a top-level project description. So the next sentence here says, "Could you imagine if one of those characters occupied the room next to yours?" So now we're bridging the kind of anecdote to the actual project. "To explore this further, my team asked over 1,000 TV and movie fans about their most and least desirable fictional roommates."

So right there you know exactly what the project is about. It's about a survey we did asking people which fictional characters in all kinds of media they would like to live with. So it's very fun. It's a light piece. It's a fun piece. However, the structure is still the same when creating these pitch emails. No matter if it's hard news or something a little more lighthearted, this is a really effective way to go.

Main takeaways

So that covers human connection and top-level project description. This next piece is arguably the most important. This, as you can see over here, are the main takeaways, the biggest, most interesting, new insights from this study that you did. You don't want the writer to be sifting through your content trying to figure out why they care or why any of their readers are going to care.

It's your job to pull the two or three most interesting takeaways, literally create a bulleted list for them so that they can see it very quickly. So in this case, Skylar literally said, "Here's what we found: The Beetlejuice home ranks as one of the most identifiable movie houses. However, Beetlejuice was the least desirable fictional roommate."

Understandably. The reason why I can assume she called this out is because, in this particular pitch, she was pitching a home publication, so she's talking about houses. The reason I highlight that is you shouldn't have even the same body of a pitch that you send to everyone. It depends on who their readers are and the topics that they cover, the subtopics they cover.

Even if you know they're relevant and you're pitching them in the first place, make sure to tailor every aspect of the email to them specifically. You might have a list of 10 to 15 interesting takeaways, and you piece together which ones make the most sense per writer. So then some other facts. "Movie fans agree Norman Bates would have been equally undesirable as the Hulk would be as a roommate."

Which is just fun. "Despite appearing in your dreams while you're fast asleep, Freddy Krueger ranks as less desirable than Hannibal Lecter." So the fun thing about this project and something I didn't mention at the top is that we were pitching it around Halloween. So it makes a little more sense. You have that timeliness factor also.

This is fun, but they're basically writing these bullet points thinking like, "What can the writer's headline be? What are they going to say is the most interesting part of this project, and why do they think it's going to be fun or funny or entertaining or useful or informative?" So that covers this section. It's extremely important. Honestly, as you're creating content, you should be thinking of these things, hypothesizing what these could look like.

Link to the content

If you can't even imagine what little bullet points you're going to be able to create after you do something, it might not be interesting enough, or you might not be on the right track. So then this is important. It's small, but it's important. "Here's a link to the full study." Linked. Some people do the tactic of kind of asking, "Oh, do you want to see the rest? We can send it to you."

We don't recommend doing that because you don't want to add an extra step. You don't want writers to have to work for anything. You want to give them everything they need to make a decision. So you're making it easy for them by calling out the bullet points that are the most relevant. Then you're saying, "But listen, look at the whole study if you want. If this is intriguing to you, here it is. You can view the whole thing and make a decision as to whether it's a good fit for your audience." So be sure to do that. 

Direct ask

Then Skylar did a good job by saying, "It's the very first day of October," which it was at the time, "and your readers are gearing up for Halloween." So she's tying it back to the relevancy of the project to their readers, which is what you always have to think about. The writer only cares about whether something is going to resonate with their readership. That means that they're doing a good job. So she kind of ties that up. "Any interest in sharing this exclusive study with [the publication]?" So I highlighted here a direct ask. So come out and say like, "So do you want to cover this?" In this case, we were pitching it as an exclusive, meaning nobody else hadn't covered it yet, which makes it a little more appealing.

You're saying, "You're going to be the first ones to talk about this study." You can say it's exclusive, and you can highlight that in the email as well. But even if you're not doing that, if you're pitching it to a bunch of people or somebody has already covered it and you're still pitching it, just make sure you directly ask, "Are you interested in covering this?" Don't assume that they even know how to respond. So those are the four main components of a pitch email.

Conclusion

Now there's a lot that goes into making this work. This is just one piece of a greater puzzle. Your content has to be fantastic, because, as I say, no fantastic pitch can salvage a terrible project. You just can't pitch your way out of it. But also you need to be targeting the right people.

So sometimes we have fantastic pitch emails go out, or anybody has fantastic pitch emails go out, but the person, for whatever reason, can't cover the content. That happens. It certainly happens. Sometimes people have full editorial calendars, or they just wrote about something recently similar. But you want to avoid the situation where they say, "Cool pitch, but this isn't my niche."

This happens all the time in the industry. We surveyed 500 publishers last year, in 2019, depending on when you're listening to this, and they said that their number one pet peeve is being pitched content that does not match their niche. So they're being pitched things that they don't typically write about. So this is a fantastic way to increase the chances of your pitch being successful, but that doesn't mean that it's foolproof if you haven't done all these other steps.

If you're interested in learning about those things, check out my other content on Moz. I've talked about what makes great content. I've talked about some things to look at when it comes to who to pitch. All these things fit together. But I did want to break down for you exactly what that pitch can look like. So best of luck out there. I know it's tough.

Talk to you soon.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[gamebazu]

The Anatomy of the Perfect Pitch Email

Posted by amandamilligan

If you need to get backlinks and generate brand awareness for clients, a great way to start is by creating original research and then pitching that research to writers. But the promotion of your work is probably the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to the pitch email you send to a writer. 

To make this task a bit less daunting, in this episode of Whiteboard Friday, Amanda Milligan of Fractl walks you through a real pitch email that resulted in coverage of one of their stories.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. My name is Amanda Milligan. I'm the Marketing Director at Fractl. Today I'm going to talk to you about the anatomy of the perfect pitch email.

This has to do with the digital PR space. The way that we get backlinks and brand awareness for our clients is by creating original research, new studies and surveys, and then pitching those things to writers. Now the pitching and the promotion is some of the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to this — the email you send to a writer.

So what I've done here is literally write out a real pitch email that was sent to a writer that resulted in a publication and coverage of the story. I'll shout out to Skylar who wrote this one. What I'm going to do is walk through each piece of it, each element that we think is extremely important and that we include in all of our emails.

Human connection

So to start, I actually use this email because it didn't delve too much into the personalization. I wanted to show an example of what happens if you can't personalize as well. But personalization or any kind of human connection is extremely important, and it should be the lead into the body of your email.

So in this case, it's a little more general. It says, "We all remember the horror flicks that left us sleeping with the lights on." So that's a more general human experience. I know I slept with the lights on when I saw "The Ring" for the first time. That's just some way to connect with the person who's reading it, to have them think of a memory.

However, if you actually have a chance to personalize an email, for example, if the writer has written something that resonates with you recently or you follow them on Twitter or LinkedIn and you like something that they shared, you can connect with them — you went to the same school, you have the same love of animals. We actually have a lot of people who pitched this year like pitching pictures of their animals and talking about how much they love dogs or cats.

Anything that is genuine can do really well. But remember that there's a human being on the other side of the email that you're sending, and just humanize this a little bit. So that should be about a sentence or two. As you can see here, it ends about here. So you don't want to go into a whole life story, but touch on that a little bit.

Top-level project description

The next segment is a top-level project description. So the next sentence here says, "Could you imagine if one of those characters occupied the room next to yours?" So now we're bridging the kind of anecdote to the actual project. "To explore this further, my team asked over 1,000 TV and movie fans about their most and least desirable fictional roommates."

So right there you know exactly what the project is about. It's about a survey we did asking people which fictional characters in all kinds of media they would like to live with. So it's very fun. It's a light piece. It's a fun piece. However, the structure is still the same when creating these pitch emails. No matter if it's hard news or something a little more lighthearted, this is a really effective way to go.

Main takeaways

So that covers human connection and top-level project description. This next piece is arguably the most important. This, as you can see over here, are the main takeaways, the biggest, most interesting, new insights from this study that you did. You don't want the writer to be sifting through your content trying to figure out why they care or why any of their readers are going to care.

It's your job to pull the two or three most interesting takeaways, literally create a bulleted list for them so that they can see it very quickly. So in this case, Skylar literally said, "Here's what we found: The Beetlejuice home ranks as one of the most identifiable movie houses. However, Beetlejuice was the least desirable fictional roommate."

Understandably. The reason why I can assume she called this out is because, in this particular pitch, she was pitching a home publication, so she's talking about houses. The reason I highlight that is you shouldn't have even the same body of a pitch that you send to everyone. It depends on who their readers are and the topics that they cover, the subtopics they cover.

Even if you know they're relevant and you're pitching them in the first place, make sure to tailor every aspect of the email to them specifically. You might have a list of 10 to 15 interesting takeaways, and you piece together which ones make the most sense per writer. So then some other facts. "Movie fans agree Norman Bates would have been equally undesirable as the Hulk would be as a roommate."

Which is just fun. "Despite appearing in your dreams while you're fast asleep, Freddy Krueger ranks as less desirable than Hannibal Lecter." So the fun thing about this project and something I didn't mention at the top is that we were pitching it around Halloween. So it makes a little more sense. You have that timeliness factor also.

This is fun, but they're basically writing these bullet points thinking like, "What can the writer's headline be? What are they going to say is the most interesting part of this project, and why do they think it's going to be fun or funny or entertaining or useful or informative?" So that covers this section. It's extremely important. Honestly, as you're creating content, you should be thinking of these things, hypothesizing what these could look like.

Link to the content

If you can't even imagine what little bullet points you're going to be able to create after you do something, it might not be interesting enough, or you might not be on the right track. So then this is important. It's small, but it's important. "Here's a link to the full study." Linked. Some people do the tactic of kind of asking, "Oh, do you want to see the rest? We can send it to you."

We don't recommend doing that because you don't want to add an extra step. You don't want writers to have to work for anything. You want to give them everything they need to make a decision. So you're making it easy for them by calling out the bullet points that are the most relevant. Then you're saying, "But listen, look at the whole study if you want. If this is intriguing to you, here it is. You can view the whole thing and make a decision as to whether it's a good fit for your audience." So be sure to do that. 

Direct ask

Then Skylar did a good job by saying, "It's the very first day of October," which it was at the time, "and your readers are gearing up for Halloween." So she's tying it back to the relevancy of the project to their readers, which is what you always have to think about. The writer only cares about whether something is going to resonate with their readership. That means that they're doing a good job. So she kind of ties that up. "Any interest in sharing this exclusive study with [the publication]?" So I highlighted here a direct ask. So come out and say like, "So do you want to cover this?" In this case, we were pitching it as an exclusive, meaning nobody else hadn't covered it yet, which makes it a little more appealing.

You're saying, "You're going to be the first ones to talk about this study." You can say it's exclusive, and you can highlight that in the email as well. But even if you're not doing that, if you're pitching it to a bunch of people or somebody has already covered it and you're still pitching it, just make sure you directly ask, "Are you interested in covering this?" Don't assume that they even know how to respond. So those are the four main components of a pitch email.

Conclusion

Now there's a lot that goes into making this work. This is just one piece of a greater puzzle. Your content has to be fantastic, because, as I say, no fantastic pitch can salvage a terrible project. You just can't pitch your way out of it. But also you need to be targeting the right people.

So sometimes we have fantastic pitch emails go out, or anybody has fantastic pitch emails go out, but the person, for whatever reason, can't cover the content. That happens. It certainly happens. Sometimes people have full editorial calendars, or they just wrote about something recently similar. But you want to avoid the situation where they say, "Cool pitch, but this isn't my niche."

This happens all the time in the industry. We surveyed 500 publishers last year, in 2019, depending on when you're listening to this, and they said that their number one pet peeve is being pitched content that does not match their niche. So they're being pitched things that they don't typically write about. So this is a fantastic way to increase the chances of your pitch being successful, but that doesn't mean that it's foolproof if you haven't done all these other steps.

If you're interested in learning about those things, check out my other content on Moz. I've talked about what makes great content. I've talked about some things to look at when it comes to who to pitch. All these things fit together. But I did want to break down for you exactly what that pitch can look like. So best of luck out there. I know it's tough.

Talk to you soon.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

https://ift.tt/2NAYQNR

[noithatotoaz]

The Anatomy of the Perfect Pitch Email

Posted by amandamilligan

If you need to get backlinks and generate brand awareness for clients, a great way to start is by creating original research and then pitching that research to writers. But the promotion of your work is probably the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to the pitch email you send to a writer. 

To make this task a bit less daunting, in this episode of Whiteboard Friday, Amanda Milligan of Fractl walks you through a real pitch email that resulted in coverage of one of their stories.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. My name is Amanda Milligan. I'm the Marketing Director at Fractl. Today I'm going to talk to you about the anatomy of the perfect pitch email.

This has to do with the digital PR space. The way that we get backlinks and brand awareness for our clients is by creating original research, new studies and surveys, and then pitching those things to writers. Now the pitching and the promotion is some of the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to this — the email you send to a writer.

So what I've done here is literally write out a real pitch email that was sent to a writer that resulted in a publication and coverage of the story. I'll shout out to Skylar who wrote this one. What I'm going to do is walk through each piece of it, each element that we think is extremely important and that we include in all of our emails.

Human connection

So to start, I actually use this email because it didn't delve too much into the personalization. I wanted to show an example of what happens if you can't personalize as well. But personalization or any kind of human connection is extremely important, and it should be the lead into the body of your email.

So in this case, it's a little more general. It says, "We all remember the horror flicks that left us sleeping with the lights on." So that's a more general human experience. I know I slept with the lights on when I saw "The Ring" for the first time. That's just some way to connect with the person who's reading it, to have them think of a memory.

However, if you actually have a chance to personalize an email, for example, if the writer has written something that resonates with you recently or you follow them on Twitter or LinkedIn and you like something that they shared, you can connect with them — you went to the same school, you have the same love of animals. We actually have a lot of people who pitched this year like pitching pictures of their animals and talking about how much they love dogs or cats.

Anything that is genuine can do really well. But remember that there's a human being on the other side of the email that you're sending, and just humanize this a little bit. So that should be about a sentence or two. As you can see here, it ends about here. So you don't want to go into a whole life story, but touch on that a little bit.

Top-level project description

The next segment is a top-level project description. So the next sentence here says, "Could you imagine if one of those characters occupied the room next to yours?" So now we're bridging the kind of anecdote to the actual project. "To explore this further, my team asked over 1,000 TV and movie fans about their most and least desirable fictional roommates."

So right there you know exactly what the project is about. It's about a survey we did asking people which fictional characters in all kinds of media they would like to live with. So it's very fun. It's a light piece. It's a fun piece. However, the structure is still the same when creating these pitch emails. No matter if it's hard news or something a little more lighthearted, this is a really effective way to go.

Main takeaways

So that covers human connection and top-level project description. This next piece is arguably the most important. This, as you can see over here, are the main takeaways, the biggest, most interesting, new insights from this study that you did. You don't want the writer to be sifting through your content trying to figure out why they care or why any of their readers are going to care.

It's your job to pull the two or three most interesting takeaways, literally create a bulleted list for them so that they can see it very quickly. So in this case, Skylar literally said, "Here's what we found: The Beetlejuice home ranks as one of the most identifiable movie houses. However, Beetlejuice was the least desirable fictional roommate."

Understandably. The reason why I can assume she called this out is because, in this particular pitch, she was pitching a home publication, so she's talking about houses. The reason I highlight that is you shouldn't have even the same body of a pitch that you send to everyone. It depends on who their readers are and the topics that they cover, the subtopics they cover.

Even if you know they're relevant and you're pitching them in the first place, make sure to tailor every aspect of the email to them specifically. You might have a list of 10 to 15 interesting takeaways, and you piece together which ones make the most sense per writer. So then some other facts. "Movie fans agree Norman Bates would have been equally undesirable as the Hulk would be as a roommate."

Which is just fun. "Despite appearing in your dreams while you're fast asleep, Freddy Krueger ranks as less desirable than Hannibal Lecter." So the fun thing about this project and something I didn't mention at the top is that we were pitching it around Halloween. So it makes a little more sense. You have that timeliness factor also.

This is fun, but they're basically writing these bullet points thinking like, "What can the writer's headline be? What are they going to say is the most interesting part of this project, and why do they think it's going to be fun or funny or entertaining or useful or informative?" So that covers this section. It's extremely important. Honestly, as you're creating content, you should be thinking of these things, hypothesizing what these could look like.

Link to the content

If you can't even imagine what little bullet points you're going to be able to create after you do something, it might not be interesting enough, or you might not be on the right track. So then this is important. It's small, but it's important. "Here's a link to the full study." Linked. Some people do the tactic of kind of asking, "Oh, do you want to see the rest? We can send it to you."

We don't recommend doing that because you don't want to add an extra step. You don't want writers to have to work for anything. You want to give them everything they need to make a decision. So you're making it easy for them by calling out the bullet points that are the most relevant. Then you're saying, "But listen, look at the whole study if you want. If this is intriguing to you, here it is. You can view the whole thing and make a decision as to whether it's a good fit for your audience." So be sure to do that. 

Direct ask

Then Skylar did a good job by saying, "It's the very first day of October," which it was at the time, "and your readers are gearing up for Halloween." So she's tying it back to the relevancy of the project to their readers, which is what you always have to think about. The writer only cares about whether something is going to resonate with their readership. That means that they're doing a good job. So she kind of ties that up. "Any interest in sharing this exclusive study with [the publication]?" So I highlighted here a direct ask. So come out and say like, "So do you want to cover this?" In this case, we were pitching it as an exclusive, meaning nobody else hadn't covered it yet, which makes it a little more appealing.

You're saying, "You're going to be the first ones to talk about this study." You can say it's exclusive, and you can highlight that in the email as well. But even if you're not doing that, if you're pitching it to a bunch of people or somebody has already covered it and you're still pitching it, just make sure you directly ask, "Are you interested in covering this?" Don't assume that they even know how to respond. So those are the four main components of a pitch email.

Conclusion

Now there's a lot that goes into making this work. This is just one piece of a greater puzzle. Your content has to be fantastic, because, as I say, no fantastic pitch can salvage a terrible project. You just can't pitch your way out of it. But also you need to be targeting the right people.

So sometimes we have fantastic pitch emails go out, or anybody has fantastic pitch emails go out, but the person, for whatever reason, can't cover the content. That happens. It certainly happens. Sometimes people have full editorial calendars, or they just wrote about something recently similar. But you want to avoid the situation where they say, "Cool pitch, but this isn't my niche."

This happens all the time in the industry. We surveyed 500 publishers last year, in 2019, depending on when you're listening to this, and they said that their number one pet peeve is being pitched content that does not match their niche. So they're being pitched things that they don't typically write about. So this is a fantastic way to increase the chances of your pitch being successful, but that doesn't mean that it's foolproof if you haven't done all these other steps.

If you're interested in learning about those things, check out my other content on Moz. I've talked about what makes great content. I've talked about some things to look at when it comes to who to pitch. All these things fit together. But I did want to break down for you exactly what that pitch can look like. So best of luck out there. I know it's tough.

Talk to you soon.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[drummcarpentry]

The Anatomy of the Perfect Pitch Email

Posted by amandamilligan

If you need to get backlinks and generate brand awareness for clients, a great way to start is by creating original research and then pitching that research to writers. But the promotion of your work is probably the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to the pitch email you send to a writer. 

To make this task a bit less daunting, in this episode of Whiteboard Friday, Amanda Milligan of Fractl walks you through a real pitch email that resulted in coverage of one of their stories.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. My name is Amanda Milligan. I'm the Marketing Director at Fractl. Today I'm going to talk to you about the anatomy of the perfect pitch email.

This has to do with the digital PR space. The way that we get backlinks and brand awareness for our clients is by creating original research, new studies and surveys, and then pitching those things to writers. Now the pitching and the promotion is some of the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to this — the email you send to a writer.

So what I've done here is literally write out a real pitch email that was sent to a writer that resulted in a publication and coverage of the story. I'll shout out to Skylar who wrote this one. What I'm going to do is walk through each piece of it, each element that we think is extremely important and that we include in all of our emails.

Human connection

So to start, I actually use this email because it didn't delve too much into the personalization. I wanted to show an example of what happens if you can't personalize as well. But personalization or any kind of human connection is extremely important, and it should be the lead into the body of your email.

So in this case, it's a little more general. It says, "We all remember the horror flicks that left us sleeping with the lights on." So that's a more general human experience. I know I slept with the lights on when I saw "The Ring" for the first time. That's just some way to connect with the person who's reading it, to have them think of a memory.

However, if you actually have a chance to personalize an email, for example, if the writer has written something that resonates with you recently or you follow them on Twitter or LinkedIn and you like something that they shared, you can connect with them — you went to the same school, you have the same love of animals. We actually have a lot of people who pitched this year like pitching pictures of their animals and talking about how much they love dogs or cats.

Anything that is genuine can do really well. But remember that there's a human being on the other side of the email that you're sending, and just humanize this a little bit. So that should be about a sentence or two. As you can see here, it ends about here. So you don't want to go into a whole life story, but touch on that a little bit.

Top-level project description

The next segment is a top-level project description. So the next sentence here says, "Could you imagine if one of those characters occupied the room next to yours?" So now we're bridging the kind of anecdote to the actual project. "To explore this further, my team asked over 1,000 TV and movie fans about their most and least desirable fictional roommates."

So right there you know exactly what the project is about. It's about a survey we did asking people which fictional characters in all kinds of media they would like to live with. So it's very fun. It's a light piece. It's a fun piece. However, the structure is still the same when creating these pitch emails. No matter if it's hard news or something a little more lighthearted, this is a really effective way to go.

Main takeaways

So that covers human connection and top-level project description. This next piece is arguably the most important. This, as you can see over here, are the main takeaways, the biggest, most interesting, new insights from this study that you did. You don't want the writer to be sifting through your content trying to figure out why they care or why any of their readers are going to care.

It's your job to pull the two or three most interesting takeaways, literally create a bulleted list for them so that they can see it very quickly. So in this case, Skylar literally said, "Here's what we found: The Beetlejuice home ranks as one of the most identifiable movie houses. However, Beetlejuice was the least desirable fictional roommate."

Understandably. The reason why I can assume she called this out is because, in this particular pitch, she was pitching a home publication, so she's talking about houses. The reason I highlight that is you shouldn't have even the same body of a pitch that you send to everyone. It depends on who their readers are and the topics that they cover, the subtopics they cover.

Even if you know they're relevant and you're pitching them in the first place, make sure to tailor every aspect of the email to them specifically. You might have a list of 10 to 15 interesting takeaways, and you piece together which ones make the most sense per writer. So then some other facts. "Movie fans agree Norman Bates would have been equally undesirable as the Hulk would be as a roommate."

Which is just fun. "Despite appearing in your dreams while you're fast asleep, Freddy Krueger ranks as less desirable than Hannibal Lecter." So the fun thing about this project and something I didn't mention at the top is that we were pitching it around Halloween. So it makes a little more sense. You have that timeliness factor also.

This is fun, but they're basically writing these bullet points thinking like, "What can the writer's headline be? What are they going to say is the most interesting part of this project, and why do they think it's going to be fun or funny or entertaining or useful or informative?" So that covers this section. It's extremely important. Honestly, as you're creating content, you should be thinking of these things, hypothesizing what these could look like.

Link to the content

If you can't even imagine what little bullet points you're going to be able to create after you do something, it might not be interesting enough, or you might not be on the right track. So then this is important. It's small, but it's important. "Here's a link to the full study." Linked. Some people do the tactic of kind of asking, "Oh, do you want to see the rest? We can send it to you."

We don't recommend doing that because you don't want to add an extra step. You don't want writers to have to work for anything. You want to give them everything they need to make a decision. So you're making it easy for them by calling out the bullet points that are the most relevant. Then you're saying, "But listen, look at the whole study if you want. If this is intriguing to you, here it is. You can view the whole thing and make a decision as to whether it's a good fit for your audience." So be sure to do that. 

Direct ask

Then Skylar did a good job by saying, "It's the very first day of October," which it was at the time, "and your readers are gearing up for Halloween." So she's tying it back to the relevancy of the project to their readers, which is what you always have to think about. The writer only cares about whether something is going to resonate with their readership. That means that they're doing a good job. So she kind of ties that up. "Any interest in sharing this exclusive study with [the publication]?" So I highlighted here a direct ask. So come out and say like, "So do you want to cover this?" In this case, we were pitching it as an exclusive, meaning nobody else hadn't covered it yet, which makes it a little more appealing.

You're saying, "You're going to be the first ones to talk about this study." You can say it's exclusive, and you can highlight that in the email as well. But even if you're not doing that, if you're pitching it to a bunch of people or somebody has already covered it and you're still pitching it, just make sure you directly ask, "Are you interested in covering this?" Don't assume that they even know how to respond. So those are the four main components of a pitch email.

Conclusion

Now there's a lot that goes into making this work. This is just one piece of a greater puzzle. Your content has to be fantastic, because, as I say, no fantastic pitch can salvage a terrible project. You just can't pitch your way out of it. But also you need to be targeting the right people.

So sometimes we have fantastic pitch emails go out, or anybody has fantastic pitch emails go out, but the person, for whatever reason, can't cover the content. That happens. It certainly happens. Sometimes people have full editorial calendars, or they just wrote about something recently similar. But you want to avoid the situation where they say, "Cool pitch, but this isn't my niche."

This happens all the time in the industry. We surveyed 500 publishers last year, in 2019, depending on when you're listening to this, and they said that their number one pet peeve is being pitched content that does not match their niche. So they're being pitched things that they don't typically write about. So this is a fantastic way to increase the chances of your pitch being successful, but that doesn't mean that it's foolproof if you haven't done all these other steps.

If you're interested in learning about those things, check out my other content on Moz. I've talked about what makes great content. I've talked about some things to look at when it comes to who to pitch. All these things fit together. But I did want to break down for you exactly what that pitch can look like. So best of luck out there. I know it's tough.

Talk to you soon.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[lakelandseo]

The Anatomy of the Perfect Pitch Email

Posted by amandamilligan

If you need to get backlinks and generate brand awareness for clients, a great way to start is by creating original research and then pitching that research to writers. But the promotion of your work is probably the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to the pitch email you send to a writer. 

To make this task a bit less daunting, in this episode of Whiteboard Friday, Amanda Milligan of Fractl walks you through a real pitch email that resulted in coverage of one of their stories.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Hi, everyone. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. My name is Amanda Milligan. I'm the Marketing Director at Fractl. Today I'm going to talk to you about the anatomy of the perfect pitch email.

This has to do with the digital PR space. The way that we get backlinks and brand awareness for our clients is by creating original research, new studies and surveys, and then pitching those things to writers. Now the pitching and the promotion is some of the trickiest part, and a lot of it comes down to this — the email you send to a writer.

So what I've done here is literally write out a real pitch email that was sent to a writer that resulted in a publication and coverage of the story. I'll shout out to Skylar who wrote this one. What I'm going to do is walk through each piece of it, each element that we think is extremely important and that we include in all of our emails.

Human connection

So to start, I actually use this email because it didn't delve too much into the personalization. I wanted to show an example of what happens if you can't personalize as well. But personalization or any kind of human connection is extremely important, and it should be the lead into the body of your email.

So in this case, it's a little more general. It says, "We all remember the horror flicks that left us sleeping with the lights on." So that's a more general human experience. I know I slept with the lights on when I saw "The Ring" for the first time. That's just some way to connect with the person who's reading it, to have them think of a memory.

However, if you actually have a chance to personalize an email, for example, if the writer has written something that resonates with you recently or you follow them on Twitter or LinkedIn and you like something that they shared, you can connect with them — you went to the same school, you have the same love of animals. We actually have a lot of people who pitched this year like pitching pictures of their animals and talking about how much they love dogs or cats.

Anything that is genuine can do really well. But remember that there's a human being on the other side of the email that you're sending, and just humanize this a little bit. So that should be about a sentence or two. As you can see here, it ends about here. So you don't want to go into a whole life story, but touch on that a little bit.

Top-level project description

The next segment is a top-level project description. So the next sentence here says, "Could you imagine if one of those characters occupied the room next to yours?" So now we're bridging the kind of anecdote to the actual project. "To explore this further, my team asked over 1,000 TV and movie fans about their most and least desirable fictional roommates."

So right there you know exactly what the project is about. It's about a survey we did asking people which fictional characters in all kinds of media they would like to live with. So it's very fun. It's a light piece. It's a fun piece. However, the structure is still the same when creating these pitch emails. No matter if it's hard news or something a little more lighthearted, this is a really effective way to go.

Main takeaways

So that covers human connection and top-level project description. This next piece is arguably the most important. This, as you can see over here, are the main takeaways, the biggest, most interesting, new insights from this study that you did. You don't want the writer to be sifting through your content trying to figure out why they care or why any of their readers are going to care.

It's your job to pull the two or three most interesting takeaways, literally create a bulleted list for them so that they can see it very quickly. So in this case, Skylar literally said, "Here's what we found: The Beetlejuice home ranks as one of the most identifiable movie houses. However, Beetlejuice was the least desirable fictional roommate."

Understandably. The reason why I can assume she called this out is because, in this particular pitch, she was pitching a home publication, so she's talking about houses. The reason I highlight that is you shouldn't have even the same body of a pitch that you send to everyone. It depends on who their readers are and the topics that they cover, the subtopics they cover.

Even if you know they're relevant and you're pitching them in the first place, make sure to tailor every aspect of the email to them specifically. You might have a list of 10 to 15 interesting takeaways, and you piece together which ones make the most sense per writer. So then some other facts. "Movie fans agree Norman Bates would have been equally undesirable as the Hulk would be as a roommate."

Which is just fun. "Despite appearing in your dreams while you're fast asleep, Freddy Krueger ranks as less desirable than Hannibal Lecter." So the fun thing about this project and something I didn't mention at the top is that we were pitching it around Halloween. So it makes a little more sense. You have that timeliness factor also.

This is fun, but they're basically writing these bullet points thinking like, "What can the writer's headline be? What are they going to say is the most interesting part of this project, and why do they think it's going to be fun or funny or entertaining or useful or informative?" So that covers this section. It's extremely important. Honestly, as you're creating content, you should be thinking of these things, hypothesizing what these could look like.

Link to the content

If you can't even imagine what little bullet points you're going to be able to create after you do something, it might not be interesting enough, or you might not be on the right track. So then this is important. It's small, but it's important. "Here's a link to the full study." Linked. Some people do the tactic of kind of asking, "Oh, do you want to see the rest? We can send it to you."

We don't recommend doing that because you don't want to add an extra step. You don't want writers to have to work for anything. You want to give them everything they need to make a decision. So you're making it easy for them by calling out the bullet points that are the most relevant. Then you're saying, "But listen, look at the whole study if you want. If this is intriguing to you, here it is. You can view the whole thing and make a decision as to whether it's a good fit for your audience." So be sure to do that. 

Direct ask

Then Skylar did a good job by saying, "It's the very first day of October," which it was at the time, "and your readers are gearing up for Halloween." So she's tying it back to the relevancy of the project to their readers, which is what you always have to think about. The writer only cares about whether something is going to resonate with their readership. That means that they're doing a good job. So she kind of ties that up. "Any interest in sharing this exclusive study with [the publication]?" So I highlighted here a direct ask. So come out and say like, "So do you want to cover this?" In this case, we were pitching it as an exclusive, meaning nobody else hadn't covered it yet, which makes it a little more appealing.

You're saying, "You're going to be the first ones to talk about this study." You can say it's exclusive, and you can highlight that in the email as well. But even if you're not doing that, if you're pitching it to a bunch of people or somebody has already covered it and you're still pitching it, just make sure you directly ask, "Are you interested in covering this?" Don't assume that they even know how to respond. So those are the four main components of a pitch email.

Conclusion

Now there's a lot that goes into making this work. This is just one piece of a greater puzzle. Your content has to be fantastic, because, as I say, no fantastic pitch can salvage a terrible project. You just can't pitch your way out of it. But also you need to be targeting the right people.

So sometimes we have fantastic pitch emails go out, or anybody has fantastic pitch emails go out, but the person, for whatever reason, can't cover the content. That happens. It certainly happens. Sometimes people have full editorial calendars, or they just wrote about something recently similar. But you want to avoid the situation where they say, "Cool pitch, but this isn't my niche."

This happens all the time in the industry. We surveyed 500 publishers last year, in 2019, depending on when you're listening to this, and they said that their number one pet peeve is being pitched content that does not match their niche. So they're being pitched things that they don't typically write about. So this is a fantastic way to increase the chances of your pitch being successful, but that doesn't mean that it's foolproof if you haven't done all these other steps.

If you're interested in learning about those things, check out my other content on Moz. I've talked about what makes great content. I've talked about some things to look at when it comes to who to pitch. All these things fit together. But I did want to break down for you exactly what that pitch can look like. So best of luck out there. I know it's tough.

Talk to you soon.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!