#i'm almost done with dr: kirigiri 2

[aparticularbandit]

....

YUI ARE YOU GONNA BE A CRIMINAL IN THE BLACK CHALLENGE

IS THAT WHAT THE LAST BOOK IS GONNA BE

IS THAT WHY KYOKO SAYS SHE CAN'T TRUST ANYONE ANYMORE

AND SHE DIDN'T CARE AND BURNED HER HANDS OFF TO TRY AND SAVE YOU

IS THAT WHAT THE LAST BOOK IS

[oumakokichi]

I'm not completely sure why Ouma wanted to trap everyone in Gonta's lab and make them watch the motive videos?

These asks are not exactly the same, but they are related to the same topic, so that’s why I’ve decided to answer them together. The second ask also made me realize that summarizing from that particular conversation between Momota and Saihara is perhaps one of the best ways to explain why Ouma did what he did.

The discussion they share in Hoshi’s room while looking for the motive video he had pretty much hits the nail on the head. As the second anon says, it starts when Momota admits that he actually wanted to have everyone get together and share all their motive videos right away, rather than holding onto them and not talking about them like Kiibo suggested. He talks at length about how he believes that’s the true meaning of “cooperating,” and how doing so would probably have actually strengthened the group as a whole. By embracing those motives and watching them, Monokuma couldn’t have used them against them. Here’s a screencap, to show what I mean:

As shown, Saihara realizes belatedly that that’s exactly what Ouma tried to do by holing them all up in one place and trying to force them to watch all the motive videos. For all that Ouma talks at length in Chapter 2 about how the group shouldn’t cooperate with each other and how he doesn’t believe that cooperation will solve anything, his plan was actually about cooperating in the truest meaning of the word.

The reason Ouma talked so emphatically against cooperating with the rest of the group’s plans while actually putting a plan of his own into motion to try and force everyone to cooperate and review their motive videos was because he knew that he had to act the part. Acting friendly and trusting and cooperative, not only in ndrv3 but in any DR game, is a surefire way to make sure the ringleader will just send out another motive in order to cause more paranoia and suspicion. Ouma himself says in Chapter 2 many times that it’s exactly when they all start getting along with one another and trying to cooperate that Monokuma comes around “to torment them.”

Kirigiri even alludes to this as early as dr1, in fact. I’ve been doing a dr1 reread recently, and I was amused to see in dr1 Chapter 5 that Naegi has many questions for Kirigiri similar to what many characters in ndrv3 have for Ouma. She says that she knew from almost the start of the killing game that there was a disconnect in her memories, and that her talent and purpose at Hope’s Peak must have been disadvantageous to the mastermind, which is why she was made to forget them. Naegi then asks her why she didn’t just talk to everyone else, so they could all cooperate together and act as one big group of friends in order to find out her talent and her reason for coming to Hope’s Peak.

She responds by saying that such a plan wouldn’t have worked for quite a few reasons. The first, of course, is that cooperation would only have drawn the mastermind’s attention. Acting like a big group of friends would only have given the mastermind more cause to try and split them up and get them to distrust one another. The other reason is that she couldn’t eliminate the possibility that the mastermind was one of them, someone actually hiding within their group and only pretending to be their friend.

Even in dr1 Chapter 1, Kirigiri says point-blank that trusting people too much is just as dangerous as not trusting anyone at all. So she couldn’t trust the group enough to cooperate with them in order to find her memories, other than Naegi—and her bond of trust with Naegi was something only built up gradually throughout the story, not something immediate and inseparable.

All of this sounds… well, very familiar. Ouma’s reasons for acting in the shadows and putting these plans into action without telling anyone his reasons why are pretty much exactly the same as Kirigiri’s. Like Kirigiri, he knew that open talk about cooperation and being friends would only cause the ringleader to give them even more motives and incentives to kill. And like Kirigiri, he suspected the ringleader was someone in their group only pretending to be friends with them (and in this case, he was right).

So, his plan with capturing everyone and forcing them to watch the motive videos in Gonta’s lab was the perfect way to try and neutralize the threat of everyone’s motives, while still seemingly refusing to cooperate. After all, he pulled off his plan in such a way that he seemed incomprehensible, chaotic, and self-serving—but even Saihara notes that Ouma doesn’t actually seem evil or malicious when putting that plan into action. He thinks to himself that he can’t actually see a single trace of “evil intent” on Ouma’s face, before quickly shaking his head and thinking that that could very well be another one of his lies.

But we know, of course, that it’s not. Given all the evidence we’re presented with in Chapters 5 and 6, Ouma’s objective was to stop the killing game. He hated killing and death; that’s simply a canonical fact about his character, not a subjective opinion. And so he was willing to use extreme measures in order to try and force that game to a halt.

By watching everyone’s motive videos, not only would they all have been able to theoretically shoulder the burden by knowing everyone’s motives in addition to their own, but they would also have known immediately who was most likely to kill. While motive videos were originally an incentive in dr1 Chapter 1, I’m honestly more reminded of dr1 Chapter 2, with its “secrets you don’t want anyone else to know” motive.

In dr1 Chapter 2, all the characters similarly considered sharing their secrets with each other—the idea was proposed by several characters and considered heavily, but ultimately everyone was far too embarrassed and paranoid and afraid to share them with one another. Had they actually done so, however, Mondo’s murder of Chihiro would’ve been avoided entirely. Knowing everyone’s secrets at the time would’ve taken away Monokuma’s leverage over them, and caused them to come to terms with their own dark secrets, all the while enabling the rest of the group to keep an eye on the characters they knew had the secrets most worth killing for.

The same applies to ndrv3 Chapter 2. Kirumi’s motive video was rigged to go to her from the start precisely because it was such a guaranteed trump card that would start the killing game up again. Her motive video “went to her by mistake, because the Monokumerz messed up,” but that’s simply an excuse; the Monokumerz do whatever they’re scripted to do, as part of the killing game show, and that means that Kirumi was absolutely going to get her own motive video no matter what, because it had the juiciest incentive of all to kill for.

Had the rest of the group seen her video, or even seen Hoshi’s video with its blank and depressing message, they would’ve had a much better idea of what was at stake. Everyone would’ve been able to discuss the potential fate of their “most important loved ones,” everyone would’ve been able to talk to both Kirumi and Hoshi and keep an eye on them to monitor what they were likely to do after seeing such horrible videos.

And of course, everyone would also have known about Maki’s talent as a SHSL Assassin, which was something Ouma wanted to make clear to them as soon as he found out himself. Having an assassin hidden in their midst who wouldn’t come forward or tell them about her talent even though she was extremely dangerous and had killed plenty of people in the past was a very dangerous, unstable scenario.

Having that fact brought into the open might not be something Maki herself liked very much—but it was undeniably necessary. Keeping her talent a secret was unfair to the rest of the group, and the longer she kept quiet about it, the worse the backlash would’ve become. That’s the reason Ouma goes ahead and exposes her talent at the end of the Chapter 2 trial anyway, in order to try and force the group to come to terms with the fact that Maki is a threat and should be watched carefully.

In addition to all of these things, I strongly believe that watching all the motive videos together would’ve exposed several inconsistencies, both in the videos and in their own memories. Having these inconsistencies exposed would’ve made them seem less credible; without even knowing if the videos or their memories were even real, the characters would’ve been a lot less willing to kill for them.

For example, Kirumi’s status as the “shadow Prime Minister of Japan” can be called very easily into question just by looking at Momota’s FTEs. Momota mentions in one of his FTEs that he actually introduced the current, elected Prime Minister of Japan to politics. In fact, he wholeheartedly seems to believe this. If that were actually true, then he and Kirumi should, theoretically, know each other, or at least know about each other. Even if Momota never knew Kirumi, because she was such a well-kept secret, there’s no way Kirumi, as a SHSL Maid whose duty was to remain diligently on top of everything, wouldn’t have known who one of the Prime Minister’s close friends was.

And yet, they know nothing about each other prior to the game. This inconsistency can’t be easily explained away by “they were made to forget before the game started,” because Momota did know about Hoshi prior to the killing game, having looked up to him as a sort of tennis-playing hero in middle school. Therefore, if Kirumi were really the “shadow Prime Minister,” then she should have known about Momota. But she didn’t.

Realizing and discussing this fact would’ve made her motive video seem instantly less believable. Without believing it to be true, the likelihood that she would’ve been willing to commit murder for it decreases significantly. There’s no reason to risk one’s own life or to kill everyone else over something that seems so obviously fake, after all.

As someone who clearly distrusted his own memories and the motive videos right from the start, Ouma knew these things, and that’s exactly why he tried to put his plan into action. Had he actually managed to succeed, I do believe there was a very good possibility it would’ve worked—not least of all because Tsumugi looked very shaken up when she realized his plan herself. If the ringleader looks so obviously dismayed after hearing about a plan like that, then that seems to indicate Ouma was probably on the right track.

Anyway, this has gotten long, so I’ll stop now, but I hope I could clear up the first anon’s question. As for the second anon, thank you so much for stopping by—I was also very glad to see Momota and Saihara hit on the right track in that conversation, even if it was only briefly. Going back and seeing all these little clues and hints to the fact that Ouma was doing things with the group’s best interests at heart is so rewarding, because I feel like there’s always something new to see.

Thank you both for asking!