#honestly she's treated so poorly by the narrative itself it's no wonder the fandom treats her poorly

[catgirl-catboy]

Not sure if you're interested, but if I can give my perspective on Kokichi's treatment as a certified actual compulsive liar, you're absolutely correct that the other characters are deeply hypocritical in how his lying is treated in comparison to others and that beyond being kind of annoying and kind of an asshole he really didn't do anything that bad up until chapter 4, but in my experience the way he's treated is very true to life and honestly hits me personally very hard because I relate. When people realize someone lies often even about mostly small and petty shit, it changes how they treat you and everything you say that they don't like is often written off as a lie, you being a known liar becomes the easiest excuse in the world to treat you poorly and gives people a convenient justification for disliking you. Himiko lying about her magic isn't treated the same because it's one thing she lies about (I'd argue for the sake of not breaking the illusion and ruining the wonder) and while they do get annoyed with her about it, mainly in chapter 2 where her refusal to be honest is actively being a hindrance to the investigation, it doesn't change their overall attitude toward her because it's still just the one thing and they kind of know how to work around it. As for Shuichi, I honestly am not sure how many members of the cast even really notice that Shuichi lies as often as he does, and even those who do probably find it easier to excuse because they can recognize that he's doing it to reach the truth, Kaito and Maki in particular find it easier to both excuse and play along with simply because they trust Shuichi's judgment. As far as Kokichi is concerned, they don't trust that he's lying for any good reason because they don't know why he's lying at all, because he does it constantly about both important and meaningless things which makes it easier to just assume that he's at best unreliable and at worst a threat. It is a flaw and it is hypothetical, but it's also eerily similar to how I was treated by my peers as a teen.

Anyway sorry for the rant I just have a lot of feeling and thoughts about Kokichi because he actually was the first time I saw a compulsive/pathological/whatever liar in fiction that wasn't treated by the narrative as just pure evil without any nuance or grey area, or some kind of high school mean girl (looking at you Miraculous Ladybug), and that had a really strong effect on me and allowed me to actually confront and cope with that part of myself.

Oh, I am VERY interested.

May just be the autism, but what lies the Danganronpa characters do and don't seem to care about seems entirely dependent on their pre-existing biases.

Sure, Kokichi lies about enjoying bugs during the meet and greet. But Kaede and Shuichi do the exact same thing in Gonta's intro, and its completely brushed off!

Considering how truth vs lies/fiction is one of v3's main themes, it feels like Kodaka is shooting his message in the foot.

As a whole, one of my major gripes with the franchise is that it has a serious problem with protagonist centered morality, and those problems are named Syo and Kaito.

I would argue that a lot of Kokichi's lies also play into his persona, and that he always has to "perform" in a sense due to his talent, if that makes sense. Himiko's skill as a performer wouldn't be questioned because of who she is offstage, but Kokichi's absolutely would. Then again, there's a lot of skepticism about Kokichi's talent in canon and in the fandom itself, so that could explain it.

People are weird. Danganronpa characters are even weirder.

[luckyspacerabbit]

hi, I saw you mentioned Emily Wong in your post about non Japanese asian characters and I'm genuinely wondering if I missed something there. I know she doesn't show up in me3 but can you treat her poorly like the rest of those characters beyond not taking her quest?

Hi! I included Emily Wong not because of what player action does to her but because her game narrative supports the general trend of fates for non-Japanese Asian Characters.

Also, it's okay to not know about Emily's fate specifically! It was released in a "broadcast" (?) The broadcast was launched before ME3 back in 2012 to promote its actual release and doesn't appear in-game. Here's the link to all her actual text and the broadcast itself.

This is the summary from her wiki:

ME3:

She eventually arrives at El Monte Airport, where she meets some members of the National Guard who are attempting to hold off the Reapers with anti-aircraft guns. The National Guard and their air support lead a counter-attack which is ultimately ineffective.

Wong realizes that the signal she is broadcasting led the Reaper forces to that location. In an attempt to escape in a sky van, Wong is shot at and injured as the Alliance forces and airport are destroyed. Bleeding badly and without any other weapons to use, she steers her sky van toward an approaching Reaper at ramming speed. Her signal is subsequently lost, and she is presumed dead.

I'll put my analysis under the cut honestly because I don't really want to catch nasty fandom attention hahaha, so if you're interested in my thoughts on why I included Emily Wong as supporting the negative trend you can read on.

In my opinion, this follows pretty much the same general story fate as Fai Dan, with some exception being that Emily's can be seen as part of a "personality-based character flaw" given the fact that she was always portrayed as ambitious and attempting to get the edge on stories through "unsavory" means (idk i think it's fine tbh) like bugging the traffic control room, even in the first game.

In the end, she has to "atone" for her "selfish" mistake by effectively taking her own life as penance for her ambition for success, or, in another perspective supporting what she deemed as a good.

Though Emily is not in a leadership role she is ambitious which in my experience has always been seen as a threat. Take for example people who fear job outsourcing to Asia, or in American education, claim Asians are gaining too much of an upper hand because of their rigorous work ethic. And though fear-mongering over Asian countries continues today, during Mass Effect's production I would venture to say it was even more explicit. Like The Office (U.S) had an entire episode dedicated to debating the threat of China and even I have to still sit through it during dinner every day lmaoo. (the threat to American democracy* just to iterate, and it's usually based on fear-mongering scary headlines )

Emily's story isn't solely driven by racial bias much like a lot of things aren't! I consider hers to be a bit more of an intersection mixing with the trilogy's anti journalism message as well as, overall being used for tragic brownie points to promote the game, but I thought the overlap was worth noting since it's part of a trend. Hope that helps!