#either making this its own au or combining it with talentswap

[tophats-tea]

drawing fanart everyday for Danganronpa: A New Generation until the First Episode comes out

Day 293: Roleswap AU

Check out the fangan!

[exclamaquest]

what drew u to hiyuta? its just such a unique pairing

essay under cut

as all good things do, my love of hiyuta started in an au! in my original talentswap au, the way things shook out had Hiyoko and Yuta on Jabberwock together after the events of swap universe SDR2. through that, i started to explore their potential dynamic in the au more (Yuta having been through Towa City with soldier!Hifumi, and Hiyoko dealing with the guilt she felt from being a blackened) and started putting them together in more aus (most notably powers au, which is where it solidified more as a ship for me).

eventually, i started thinking about them in a potential nondespair au. i think that while they're a great example of opposites attract (their dynamic is in the same very rough vein as April and Andy), they do have a LOT in common (although Yuta's character is very speculation-heavy, you can easily extrapolate a lot about potential directions he could have gone in).

Hiyoko and Yuta are both uniquely affected by their talent or by their lack thereof. we know in canon that Yuta is a gifted swimmer in his own right, but chose to pursue track and field because he knew that he would never be as good as his sister. despite being incredibly good at his chosen field, there's no question of him ever being an ultimate. as someone who grew up in the shadow of a famous relative, i can say firsthand he's in a very unique situation. despite his own merits, through no fault of his own, he will always, always be overshadowed by his sister.

it's nobody's fault, really--it's a combination of what's necessary for Hina to shine to her full potential and the way that the world is structured around the ultimate system. that doesn't make it any easier for him to cope. for the most part, he isn't Yuta, he's Hina's brother. if one thing had changed, if he had been noticed before her, he would be an ultimate, but that's not how the cards shook out, and he has to be okay with that fact.

Hiyoko, as we all know, isn't "herself", either. she's the heiress to the Saionji family. ever since she was taken from her father, she's been shoved into the spotlight. she's desperately trying to carve her own path while still being forced onto one that's been set for her since before she was born. she's under a lot of pressure to perform in specific ways and to be "on" all the time--she doesn't have time to figure out who she is. she's a pessimist with trauma she's unwilling to work through. she does legitimately care about her talent and about preserving japanese tradition (as you can see in her FTEs), but her relationship to her talent and her family's legacy is tainted.

i think a lot of the ship is about the contrast of the shadow vs the spotlight. they're two people with very different but equally fraught relationships to their talents or lack thereof. due to this i feel like they'd very much be able to see through that in each other--they're not Hina's brother and the Saionji heiress, they're just Yuta and Hiyoko.

they're also finding themselves outside of their families and cementing their personal identities alongside one another.

ofc there's the fun combination of the unhealthy pessimism with the unhealthy optimism too. Yuta has the good old Asahina "if i don't think about it, it didn't happen" don't-do-sadness thing going on, while Hiyoko is firmly in the realm of assuming the worst from everyone. Yuta sees beauty in everything and Hiyoko is drawn to destroy it.

i think there's a lot to be said about them learning from each other in this regard--Yuta learning that it's best to be cautious in certain situations and that it's okay to take what he wants and to be selfish sometimes, and Hiyoko gradually coming to realize that there is beauty in things and sometimes things DO work out for the best in addition to letting herself put her guard down.

i'm gonna cut myself off here because this is getting long. i COULD go on for longer but tl;dr i think they're very very cute together and am always open to talking about them.

and they both like traditional sweets :]