#especially about tokos character arc...... thats like the only thing i like about udg

[its-no-biggie]

i LOVE this. i really dont like these 2 very much in canon but this dynamic is SO much more compelling, and honestly feels more in-character for BOTH of them. not to mention the implications for ultra despair girls.......

okay consider. the setup is the same - byakuya is captured and toko is stranded with komaru and has to save him. and you can keep the stuff about how shes already on thin ice with the future foundation bc of genocide jack, and if she comes back without byakuya she might get kicked out - but get rid of her "i HAVE to stay with the foundation to stay close to byakuya-sama" motivation. i dont think she would stay with the future foundation out of loyalty to the cause or anything but like. maybe she likes the job stability in a post-despair world. maybe shes worried what will happen to her if she isnt affiliated with the future foundation (because of the whole. serial killer thing). ANYWAY she thinks if she returns empty-handed she'll be in a bad spot so. unfortunately she has to rescue him. then instead of constantly being like "i cant wait to see him again~~" the whole time shes like "ugh why did it have to be HIM who got taken hostage..... hes gonna be sooooo smug when i rescue him...... he'll never let me live this down...... maybe i can just leave him behind......" so her driving force can still be rescuing the hostage but. shes kind of annoyed about it the whole time lmao

AND!!! this strengthens her character arc!! her big character flaw that she overcomes in this game is that shes, to put it bluntly, a selfish coward. she betrays komaru to save byakuya, not because she cares about saving the life of a hostage but specifically because of her one-sided obsession with him. if the hostage was anyone else, she would not get this involved. and then her big turning point is letting komaru go free, even if it means she cant guarantee that byakuya will be safe. but doesnt that have more weight if she explicitly views byakuya as a pawn to be traded for her own self-interest? she doesnt actually care about saving HIM, shes sacrificing herself and her own interests to let komaru escape. this is functionally what this story beat is supposed to be, and it gets muddled by having tokos sacrifice be. a loved one in danger. yes, tokos obsession with byakuya is self-centred, and she doesnt really think of him as a person, but at the end of the day, she is trying to save a person she cares about. so just. give her a selfish motivation that ISNT centred around a romantic interest???? if the character arc is about her learning to set aside her own interests for the sake of someone else (komaru), then having her not even care about the hostage shes trying to save, only seeing him as a pawn to further her own interests, is WAY more coherent.

and i mean. this doesnt solve the problem that byakuya is basically just an object used to further tokos narrative in this game, but like. if youre already doing that, you could at least do something more interesting than having her be obsessed with him yknow? hell, in this au you could even lean into the fact that byakuya is obsessed with toko - he pulled strings to get her into the future foundation and shes enjoying the perks of it. she knows if she saves him here she'll be able to call in a favour in the future. its way more interesting!!

anyway and then the scene where she saves him would be HILARIOUS. hes like a princess in a tower waiting for a prince charming to save her, except hes an entitled asshole and she wants nothing to do with him. byakuya (smugly): "i knew youd rescue me" "took you long enough. i was starting to think you werent coming......" "wow, you did all that just to rescue me? you must really care" toko: *we should have just left this guy in the cell istg*

[ Danganronpa ] - Reversed

What if Byakuya was the one obsessed with Toko ?