#he being ripped off!! mikako knowing but not being able to do anything about it and so he continuing being on mercy of monokuma and ripped

[siriusanotherside]

I decided to wait until you had the inbox more empty to send this thing I was thinking about some months ago.

I was thinking about the class 79 photo that appears on both games, and how the two versions of the photo is broken in a different way, with us never seeing a complete version of it.

In DRA, Yamato is ripped out of the picture, I feel, to represent how he was "ripped" off the rest of the class when Monokuma realized that he had found a way to retain his memories (At the cost of his brain functions), and left trapped somewhere in the building until Monokuma could find a use for him, with everyone else (Except Mikako) none the wiser.

Meanwhile, the SDRA2 photo took away Utsuro/Yuuki and Akane, and with the fact that it was Rei who sent the photo to jog Teruya's memories, maybe they being torn off the picture is a representation of the External Agents being "cut" off the class by the survivors because of their crimes, like a representation of them "not deserving" to be part of the class anymore.

Thanks! :D

That’s a really neat symbolism view! I enjoyed it a lot to see it from this lens, as I hadn’t considered it from before.

After watching, the interpretations I had arrived to were from a different point of view, as in:

•        Another 1 Picture

- Out-Of-Universe reason

> Further the mystery regarding who could be the possible mastermind and to sprinkle more mysteries about who could be the person in the picture.

> Subtlety reference towards Mukuro, as both people are a “hidden” 16th student, causing the viewer to wonder whether they will have a similar role to Mukuro or not.

Notably, Yamato has kind of the reversal role that Mukuro had - Victim / mastermind || Leader / Second In Command || For Hope / For Despair || Dies in the end of the game, while being out for most of it / Dies in the beginning of the game, with no one knowing for most of it.

- In-Universe reason –

> Provoke and cause despair to Mikako, who knows everything.

> Allow characters a hint that something is off and that one more person might exist.

> Cause paranoia over if this person is a mastermind, a victim or something else; and as to why would he be removed from the picture (could he be the mastermind hiding his identity? The mastermind’s helper? Someone who angered the mastermind? Etc).

•         Another 2 Picture

- Out-Of-Universe reason -

> Parallel to Another 1 picture.

> Reference to the viewer that now, in the second game, knows who are the two people missing from the picture and their story.

> A hint of Utsuro & Akane being connected to this killing game.

- Possible parallel to Yamato in the first game that the people who was removed has not caused or aided the killing game but is being used as he was.

- In-Universe Reason –

> Accidental Checklist task completed.

> Divine Luck. In a sense, revealing Utsuro and Akane might have been the trigger to awake Teruya’s memories and thus potentially ruin Mikado’s plans and possibly endanger Sora (owner of Divine Luck) and Yuki (who Sora wants to protect). I feel like this danger could come from both in-game (Nikei realizing that another divine luck user if only due to Akane being a Child of Utsuro, is there and so he has to plan // Syobai whose loyalty could be dubious and has been explicitely not shown this information)

I feel like even if Rei had wanted the picture to go completed to them, Divine Luck would make it so the picture was unfinished in order to protect Sora, and to go along with Mikado’s plans that still had some residue of Divine Luck wanting it to work.

So yeah, while I do think Rei wanted it to go completed, I don’t think she would be able to do so, due to Divine Luck preventing her from it.

I do love the symbolism you talked about in both!

Thank you for the ask.