#i'm oh so very excited to make this game it's been very fun so far

[belleski]

This art's almost a year old now, but here's the box art I made for my last year's final university project

We're currently is the process of making this into a full game, so i'm going to be posting some of the development stuff and artwork i've done for it so far here as well

[sysig]

The brainworms are winning, clearly (Patreon)

[shsl-analyzer-guy]

In-Depth Character Analysis On All The DR Characters Because What, Are You Gonna Try And Stop Me? Who Are You, My Mom? Yeah, I Didn't Think So- Part 5: Junko Enoshima

Oh boy, this is gonna be a big one. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised at all if this turns out to be the longest analysis in this entire series of ~100 characters. Why did I not save her for last. Why is this part 5. Why do I do this to myself-

Jokes aside, I am so so so excited to make this; Junko has become the face of this franchise for a reason, and the depth of her character and role in the series as a whole is massive. I won't be surprised if this takes over a month to complete. In fact, just for fun, let's track it. I'm starting the analysis on 7/5/24. When will we finish? Nobody knows!

(Final edit Crane here. It has been more than 5 months. Christ.)

This analysis uses only official material for the sake of analyzing the character, primarily sourcing official English localizations. It'll be um, lengthy, to say the least, so if you aren't that interested, just keep scrolling. Also, if there's even one canon installation of Danganronpa that you haven't played/watched/read yet (THH, DR0, SDR2, UDG, DR3, and/or V3) don't read this; the ripple effect of Junko in every corner of the franchise will be discussed and thus, there will be spoilers aplenty.

Also, a disclaimer that though I try to remain as objective as possible with these analyses, it will be at its core, an interpretation. Not everything will match up with how you interpret it, and that's okay! I don't claim to be perfect, and this isn't an infallible source of canon, only my interpretation of the source. Let's get into it!

Foreword

Real quick, before we get too far in: readers of my previous analyses know that I normally try to move in chronological order of release and events in-game to keep the analyses easier to follow. Due to the nature of Junko's characterization and the fact that she's present throughout the entire series, that isn't really possible here, as to talk about any one aspect of her, I may need to pull from multiple installations. I'll be sure to cite where I'm pulling from and provide evidence where necessary, but it definitely won't be perfectly in order by release or timeline. So hopefully it won't be too messy. Also, characters very closely tied to Junko, like Monokuma, Ryoko, Mukuro, etc. will be analyzed separately at a later date, so those sections may end up feeling incomplete as a result. For the sake of releasing this before 2025, I need to cut corners a little bit and focus primarily on how these relationships affect Junko, and not the other way around.

Part 1- Monokuma

In order to understand Junko, you must first have a basic understanding of Monokuma, mascot of the Danganronpa series and self-declared Headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy. Monokuma introduces himself to the cast as their superior and oversees the killing games, providing motives and passing judgement on the class trials, all while reveling in the Despair of the students. There are multiple iterations of Monokuma, but most of them exist in order to carry out the killing games without issue.

Like Junko, Monokuma remained a staple of the franchise, appearing in every official installment, whether he was being actively piloted by Junko or not. As we see in DR3: Despair Arc, she personally designed him to become the face of her movement of Despair, and thus, he was used to carry out her will at every turn.

1.1- Trigger Happy Havoc

In the first DR game, Monokuma was just a robot piloted by Junko. His mannerisms were a character invented by her to appear as the psychopathic Headmaster, but regardless, her true nature of Despair is directly infused into the character as she acts him out. Through him, she's able to reveal hidden information about each of her classmates and torment them personally, all without them knowing she was once a dear friend to them. As a robot, though, he came with drawbacks- Junko couldn't pilot him and watch the cameras at the same time, and once the charade of his all-seeing Headmaster was seen through by Kyoko, he lost most of his power. Thus, Monokuma's existence was designed to deceive, and could only function through deception. He created the illusion that hope was outside, that escape was solely on his terms, and that the class had no unification- all according to Junko's design.

1.2- Goodbye Despair

When the sequel game arrived, Monokuma was once again a character being played by Junko. Unlike last time, however, the two had blended together, becoming one and the same. This Monokuma was a Despair Virus, created with Chihiro's Alter Ego technology, and implanted into the Neo World Program with the intent of continuing the real Junko's plans for the spread of Despair. This version of Monokuma is extremely similar to the previous in terms of its personality and beliefs, but appears much more powerful within the artificially generated world, now able to apparently power-up, bleed, and transform plushies into duplicates without logical explanation.

Rather than targeting certain themes in an attempt to teach Despair, this Monokuma created directly-targeted motives, attempting to use class 77's personal connections to a whole other level and banking on the fact they were friends, rather than try to cover it up. He also acts as if they're his dear friends and like they're on the same side, directly inverse to his apparent attitude towards class 78. This is intentional, though as to why, we'll get into much later.

1.3- Ultra Despair Girls

Rather than being present as a character, Monokuma exists solely as mascot in this game, as thousands of Monokumas are programmed and piloted to slaughter the majority of adults in Towa City. He exists solely as a tool used by the Warriors of Hope.

In chapter 4 of the game, you get the reveal that all the physical Monokumas that exist were built and sold in Towa Group's factories, and later, that Monaca Towa was directly responsible. This exists to demonstrate how Junko was able to financially and physically afford the amount of power and technology she accrued in her crusade for Despair. More on this later.

1.4- Danganronpa 3- Future Arc

Near the end of the first episode, Monokuma seemingly appears on a monitor in the meeting room of Future Foundation's HQ, announcing his survival and a return of the killing games, starting with the Future Foundation higher-ups. At the beginning of the following episode, an act is put on between this version of the character and "Miaya Gekkogahara", as they fake an argument where Monokuma alters her avatar Usami into Monomi, making it appear as though he's again being piloted by a real person from some remote location.

As the season comes to a close, though, we learn that it was the chairman who set up the killing game, and that Monokuma's appearance, along with the video that would play during every nap, were falsified recordings, aided in part by Monaca Towa pretending to be Miaya. Thus, his likeness was used for a cheap recreation in an attempt to manipulate one person and kill nearly everyone else in charge of the Future Foundation, all set in motion by Junko's own brainwashing videos.

1.5- Killing Harmony

This is the only version of Monokuma that Junko herself doesn't have a hand in recreating, and is the only time he exists solely as a robot personality of his own accord. Created by Team Danganronpa, he's a physical conception of the fictional character Monokuma in-universe, and thus, is a character in his own right. Birthed by a Motherkuma machine for the mastermind's benefit, Monokuma acts once again as Headmaster, but a significant amount of soul is noticably absent from the presentation. This is in part due to the amount of focus on the Monokubs, using their unique characteristics for comic gags with the cast in the way Monokuma used to in the previous games, and his appearance feels like more of a checkbox than an actual return of Monokuma. Simply put, without Junko's influence, Monokuma's character becomes more flat, and starts to fade into the background in a convoluted mess of references and callbacks. All of which is done on purpose- Monokuma is a facet of Junko, and without Junko, Monokuma becomes empty.

Part 2- Character Design

Junko Enoshima is designed as a gyaru, a subgenre of fashion known for its more 'rebellious' style. She's dressed in a modified uniform, with a black jacket with her sleeves rolled up and unbuttoned, allowing her cleavage and bra to show, with a black-and-white tie, a red bow, and a red plaid miniskirt. She also has Monokuma pins holding up her ponytails- one with the white half, and one with the black half. Asymmetricality and the use of exclusively black, white, and red all align her with Monokuma, an asymmetrical black-and-white bear with a red eye. She has styled blonde hair and blue eyes, and has the title of SHSL Gyaru, or Ultimate Fashionista.

2.1- What's A Gyaru?

Gyaru as a fashion style first originated in the 1970s, emerging from Japanese women's nonconformist desire to embrace their own sexuality and rebel against societal standards of the traditional housewife. As time passed and more women latched onto the trend, it became a major point of discussion, initially shaming these women for being too racy or delinquent, before shifting to an increase in streetwear fashion and being recognized as its own genre of fashion, evolving with new subgenres as time continued to pass. It went from a wholly shameful style to an expensive, trendy one as expressly gyaru clothes started to be made and sold in stores. The increase in popularity also led to discussions of placing laws against child prostitution, as younger girls were getting into the expensive fashion and started finding alternative ways to afford this showy clothing.

There are many, many subgenres of gyaru known, but Junko Enoshima is specifically referred to as a kogal or kogyaru, a high-school gyaru. Her school uniform is modified into a showy jacket and miniskirt with big bows, she wears knee-high boots, and her hair is blonde, implied to be dyed based off of the common hair-dying of kogals. In DR 0, we also see her with red hair and eyes as opposed to the blonde and blue, suggesting that red may be her natural hair and eye color. Kogal culture has a lot of stereotypes around it regarding the extracurricular activities of the girls who subscribe to it, but the general idea around it is for the girls that participate in it to break social norms and claim their sexuality for themselves to get what they want, all within a consumerist guise. This type of mentality matches Junko extremely well, as a character bent on breaking the world for her own pleasures by advertising herself as Despair.

Part 3- The Mastermind Reveal (THH)

We don't actually meet Junko Enoshima until the final showdown in THH, though we are well-acquainted with the idea of her before then, as not only do we meet an imposter-Junko in the first chapter, but her magazines are specifically shown to us in the intro of the game, and are scattered throughout the school(laundry room). There are also little hints as to her identity as mastermind sprinkled into the game.

"Whenever I spot a cute girl, I have a tendency to stare. I can't help it- I just gaze with intensity. The other day, I rode my bike to the train station... I was in the bathroom, just looking at myself in the mirror..." -Monokuma Theatre, THH

Despite these hints, the characters don't know who the mastermind is yet, only being able to reason at her motivations for the killing game and why it came to be based off of what clues Monokuma leaves out for them, like how the main track that plays when interacting with Monokuma is called '100 Mile Junk Food Dash'.

"But first, I have a question for you... Who are you? What do you want from us?" "Well, if you really must know... Despair. That's all." -Kyoko Kirigiri & Monokuma, THH

"And for those of us who represent hope to kill each other and sink into Despair... The mastermind wants the world to see that, to try and prove that Despair is better than hope." -Kyoko Kirigiri, THH

We know that whoever this mastermind piloting Monokuma is, they're someone that's engineering this entire killing game expressly to spread Despair. With the knowledge that the killing game is being televised, that Despair isn't just for the students, but is being put on display for the entire world to see. Manufacturing and televising such a sadistic game using public figureheads under governmental protection is a behavior akin to terrorism (Despairism?) and is an act that, by itself, seems nigh impossible for some high-school student to be capable of. Yet, we know it is a high-schooler- Monokuma insists that the only people involved in the killing game are the 16 students of their class.

Through the investigations of chapters 5 and 6, it becomes increasingly more apparent that whoever this SHSL Despair is, Junko has some level of involvement. For example, more observant players will recognize Mukuro's corpse almost immediately as 'Junko's' from chapter 1, as her bright red nails and the same high-heeled, red-laced boots are clearly visible. And while this doesn't immediately incriminate Junko herself, it does at least call into question the identity of the dead SHSL Despair, as the body being Mukuro's isn't ever really contested(save for a 'dumb Hiro' gag insisting it's Kyoko while standing next to Kyoko).

"And don't forget about the Fenrir tattoo. There's absolutely no mistake... Our victim in this case is, without a doubt, Mukuro Ikusaba...!" -Kyoko Kirigiri, THH

Throughout the final investigation, the player's job is to solve 'all the mysteries of the school', AKA their erased memories and the identity of the mastermind. This investigation intentionally doesn't talk about Junko, voiding her involvement to the point that her own face is scrubbed from the evidence. The hints given by Monokuma picture Junko's face covered up in every photo, and the recordings of the students agreeing to live in the school is cut off before it can cycle over to her. It's not her presence that matters, it's the lack of presence, because we haven't actually met her yet, juxtaposed to the repeated mentions of Mukuro, a girl who'd been a part of the group since the very beginning without anyone realizing.

When we do realize this, it comes with the realization that Mukuro's and 'Junko's' body were one and the same, and with Kyoko's old pocketbook revealing that "Despair walks among us, and so we survive... There's a second 'Despair'", we can come to the conclusion that the reason the mastermind was able to pull this off was because there was actually more than one, working in sync, and thus, the reason both bodies were one was because they were the SHSL Despair together.

Part 4- The Despair Sisters: Mutual Abuse (CW: Incest)

Despite the fact Junko was the brains behind the operation, there was never really a time where she was working alone towards Despair. She was actually one of two Ultimate Despair- as she called them, the Despair Sisters. Her twin sister, Mukuro Ikusaba, was Ultimate Despair as well, and assisted her every step of the way.

In her first appearance, we don't actually get to know anything about her, as she spends her time with the class pretending to be Junko. As such, any and all information gathered on Mukuro is given by someone else- official school records state her title and physical attributes, and Junko tells us her role as Ultimate Despair and goes on about her flaws.

"She had what I call the 'three atrocities'- atrociously rank, atrociously filthy, atrociously repulsive. It was atrociously clear just how out of touch she was with the rest of society." -Junko Enoshima, THH

"The older sister, tough and proud, that was Mukuro. The younger sister, smart and cute, that was... Hyaaaahaha! Me! Junko fucking Enoshima! And together, we were the Despair Sisters! AKA, the Ultimate Despair!" -Junko Enoshima, THH

Mukuro reappears as herself in DR 0 and DR3's Despair Arc, as well as the official AU novel DR IF. In these, we get more insight into her feelings, and see her display an overt attraction to her sister at multiple instances.

"Consumed by ecstasy, even Ikusaba-san's breath became ragged. 'Only I am able to understand her. That's why she needs me. She still hasn't realized that but, maybe she's only pretending not to realize. Ufu, that's because she's so shy. Ufufufu.' Seeing this intoxicated Ikusaba-san continue to talk like that repelled me. I knew that she definitely didn't have normal feelings for Junko Enoshima". -"Mukuro Ikusaba" & Ryoko Otonashi, DR 0

This is pretty obviously incestuous in nature. She blushes at her sister's attempts to kill her with an ice pick, has an internal dialogue about how much said attention affects her, and 'goes into ecstasy' talking about her sister's madness. It's intentionally uncomfortable because it's intentionally incestuous*. I've seen arguments for Mukuro's behaviors being out of character and only there for fanservice in the anime, but this behavior being found in DR 0 first pretty clearly contradicts that. I've also seen an argument for Mukuro's behavior being an act meant to make Junko feel Despair and not having any legitimacy. The crux of the argument comes from the assertion in DR IF that Mukuro is able to numb her emotions in battle, so therefore, she could also mimic such an attraction when around her sister. This argument quickly falls apart as well, considering that a) she has both internal and external dialogue directly referencing her attraction where Junko can't actually hear her, and b) going numb in the heat of battle is not at all the same thing as faking sexual desire outright.

*(Mukuro being incestuous is immediately relevant to the way the Despair Sisters interact with each other, and understanding that I'm talking about their relationship under the lens that she is will hopefully prevent questions about why I'm talking about them as I am throughout the analysis, particularly when she pops up in other sections here and there later. Please do not go into the replies or reblogs and explain to me why I'm wrong; you are not going to change my mind. Believe it or not, I don't like Despaircest either, but that doesn't mean Mukuro's behavior in canon is some accident to be shrugged off. These are meant to be OBJECTIVE analyses. I'm going to look at what the games and novels and anime are presenting, whether I actually like all the points or not.)

Junko Enoshima yearns for Despair. Despair is her reason for being, and everything she does, she does with the intent of eventually bringing Despair upon herself. That pain of Despair is the strongest feeling in the world to her. And the way she treats Mukuro directly stems from that desire. Despair stems from grief, and what brings more grief then the people you love most despising you? Mukuro is her twin sister, who stands by her no matter what. Junko even tests this, having her kill an entire class of students to prove her strength and loyalty in manga series Killer Killer(though, admittedly, Killer Killer hasn't been confirmed as canon to my knowledge, it still aligns with what we know for both characters without altering anything about their characterization).

Mukuro is capable- very capable, and definitely has the ability to betray her, or even kill her if she wanted to. So at every turn, she treats Mukuro like garbage, actively trying to kill her with an ice pick when they first reunite and talking down to her at every opportunity. She describes her sister as fat, flat-chested, ugly, stupid, a pervert, any insult she can think of. She critiques her murders, chastising her when she kills the guards in Despair Arc while looking for Izuru for not doing a clean enough kill. But despite all this, Mukuro never strays from Junko's side. She continues to fawn over her, not just taking all the abuse, but displaying an attraction to her Despairing nature, and refuses to leave her side, the exact opposite reaction of what Junko wants to see from her.

"'Yes, she really is ridiculous…to the point of Despair, she's the lowest, worst sister ever but…that's why I can't leave her alone. That's why I have to help her. After all, I'm the only one who can understand her.'" -Mukuro Ikusaba, DR 0

This kind of loyalty isn't Despair-inducing at all; that dedication is exactly what she predicted from her obsession. What Junko actually wanted from her, we get a brief taste of when she speaks in the final trial of THH- "Because naturally, she turned out to be the letdown of the family. Leaving me behind to run off and join some band of mercenaries... Such a disappointment." The Despair of abandonment, of betrayal, was what she wanted. But Mukuro is too loyal for her own good. That's just annoying.

Mukuro is emotionally abusive, or would be if her sister were anyone but Junko, lusting after her own blood sister in a way that's considered taboo and perverse. This lust develops from an obsessive need to stay loyal to her sister, while Junko verbally abuses her right back, talking down to her and keeping her under her heel, mocking her at all available opportunities and treating her in a way that would make anyone else feel like shit. Not so for Mukuro, the person who's been next to her since birth and has stood by her side through all her Despair. They abuse each other, but there's an unspoken bond that allows for their relationship to function regardless, albeit in a twisted way. They're sisters, equally matched, and together, they become two halves of a whole terrorist. Despair is toxic for anybody, and Junko's own affliction leads Mukuro's obsessiveness to chain herself to Junko's side. They're twins who were born together, after all, and who else could even begin to understand Junko's Despair?

4.1- Despaircest & Anime (CW: Still Incest)

We've seen the relationship that Mukuro and Junko have with each other, both as it was alluded to in earlier depictions and how they interact with each other immediately in the anime. And, despite the fact that it wasn't directly shown to us before said anime, there were hints of the intention of a one-sided incest in DR 0, as well as repeated examples of Junko treating her sister poorly on a surface level and how much she actually valued her within THH and DR IF. Going into the anime, this would be the first time we'd actually see Junko and Mukuro interacting directly with each other as themselves. This could have been the time where we get to see just how twisted their relationship actually is, getting to see how, and maybe even why, they began treating each other in this way. We could've gotten more of a glimpse into their backstory, when they separated, and the inherently self-destructive cycle they pull each other into. Here's what we got instead:

Rather than actually explore the real depth of their fucked up relationship, the anime elects to play it up for the sake of fanservice. This is admittedly an ongoing problem in most of DR3, as it throws most of its female characters into very compromising positions and focuses in on their bodies when they're being brutalized in one way or another and not doing the same for the men, but that only makes this lack of tact worse. There's no interest in actually addressing this darker plot point beyond the most basic surface level because to go any deeper would make it more difficult to get your rocks off to it. It's a shame to create such a conceptually fascinating relationship that would've made for a fantastic way to develop Mukuro as a villain more and Junko as a human more, and just use it for cheap servicy gags. I feel like it isn't an unreasonable statement to say that this was lazy. Danganronpa is supposed to be a series that explores dark topics and uses them to create tragedy and develop its characters. In the face of that, this was cheap.

Hell, this very scene says it itself: they're using Despair to create a fucked up pleasure for the viewer! The incest being played up for fanservice instead of acknowledging Mukuro as a character is, from a meta perspective, Despair-inducing. To the writers and to Mukuro, Mukuro doesn't matter outside of Junko. Her suffering is pleasurable to the audience in a way that's outside of social acceptability, in the way she needed to be used for so long just to exist. BUT WE ALREADY KNEW THAT. We didn't need to boil Mukuro down to an extension of Junko; Mukuro already did that to herself. Maybe this is just me complaining because it's not what I wanted to see from this plotline; I'm not ashamed to admit that. I think being able to acknowledge your biases as a consumer is important when critically looking at a piece of media. But I stand by my assertion that the presentation of this point is sloppy and surface-level, and should've been handled with more tact.

Part 5- The Murder of Mukuro Ikusaba

Junko treats her sister like trash, but despite this, we know that she does respect her. In fact, she has to consider Mukuro as an equal, because if she didn't, she wouldn't hold her as equal parts Despair as herself. Yet, when she reveals herself at the end of THH, she affirms that they were equals- both the Despair Sisters, who worked together("We were the Ultimate Despair, ya know?"), and in the same breath, describes her atrocities and mocks her memory as a disappointment. She sees Mukuro as not just a person, but a legitimate danger and a harbringer of Despair that's worth recognizing. Thus, as a sister, it causes her Despair to prevent anyone else from seeing that and paints Mukuro as just another victim of hers("She was nothing more than a bit player, an extra unworthy of lines."). Playing up her betrayal of Mukuro and her supposed disdain for her sister strips her of her agency as Ultimate Despair to their classmates, without letting them see her true self either. She becomes just another faceless victim, and Junko holds the memory of the true Mukuro Ikusaba, merciless killer and all, wholly to herself.

In the au light novel DR IF, Makoto remembers Mukuro, and inadvertently saves her from this fate. This leads the rest of the LN to focus on Mukuro and her relationship with Junko from her perspective as she copes with the reality that her sister betrayed her. It differentiates herself from Despair, and from her POV, we learn how she thought Junko felt vs how she actually did. Junko lives her life hopelessly- she's too smart for her own good, and can predict the moves of society and of the people around her. Mukuro believed she was the only one who fully understood Junko, so she acted perfectly in accordance with her plans, never once rebelling or going against her. She tries to convince herself to crave her sister's Despair so she would feel Despair from that desire, so she can remain close to her. But that wasn't the Despair Junko wanted. All along, what Junko wanted was for Mukuro to betray her because of her love for her. Without Mukuro, her plans would fall apart. She wouldn't be able to break into Hope's Peak as she did, nor would she be able to protect herself when attacked. Mukuro was what allowed her to gather as much power as she did over Hope's Peak, infiltrating and gathering blackmail, kidnapping chairmen, and so on. Mukuro was the brawn to Junko's brain. So the one thing that could destroy her plans, and bring her a Despair greater than any other, would be if her other half abandoned her. In DR IF, she learns this as Junko finally tells her that she loves her to her face. She breaks Mukuro's chains, and sets her free from her Despair to heal without her by rejecting her help, in a roundabout, Junko-esque way. In canon, though, Mukuro doesn't get to have that realization. She doesn't have the emotional intelligence to put those pieces together herself, and tired of waiting, tired of hoping, Junko gives herself an alternate Despair- the Despair of killing her own sister in cold blood.

The identity and death of Mukuro exist to keep the identity of the mastermind shrouded in mystery. Within THH, she's someone who's important from a narrative perspective- not as a person, but as an entity- designed to facilitate the reveal of the real Junko. Her murder is thus a murder of both her literally, and the murder of her personhood, as Mukuro is the one character that never gets to introduce herself. Junko makes it so, and wipes the memories of the class so that Mukuro Ikusaba will no longer exist outside of herself.

We're introduced to Mukuro not as Mukuro, but as Junko, wearing a wig and costume to appear as similar to her well-known sister as possible, and acting out her sister's fashion diva personality as convincingly as possible. It's tropey and typical of a fashionista- she cares about her looks a little too much during a killing game, acts like she's above the killing game and wants out of it, and explains away any imperfections as 'oh you haven't heard of photoshop before?'

There's no reason not to trust her at that point because no one thinks they've met her before. In DR IF, Makoto is able to recognize her through the outfit and charade, but that's only with his memories intact. Those memories have been thoroughly covered up by Junko in reality, and so the Mukuro Ikusaba she knows dies invisibly, betrayed and unrecognized as her classmates and friends mourn her killer instead. Junko gives her sister the worst Despair of all- being truly forgotten. After this, no one would remember who she was ever again, locked away in the mind of the person who'd never show her affection.

Not only that, Junko killing Mukuro and emphasizing how little she cared about that decision served to make the survivors hate her- her old friends now despised even looking at her, and brought her more Despair.

"Which is precisely why I killed her- to meet everyone's expectations." "That... can't be your only reason, can it?" "Well no, of course not. I also did it to avoid becoming bored." -Junko Enoshima & Makoto Naegi, THH

Despite that, being the one to kill Mukuro brings her a Despair like no other, with her describing it as "super super super super super Despair. No, more than that... Super super super super super super super super super super super super super super super Despair... It just feels... so... good..."

Junko did love her sister, and made everyone else she loved believe otherwise so she could feed off the Despair from their hatred.

Part 6- Ultimate Despair and Junko Enoshima

"The Ultimate Despair... A group of people who caused the Tragedy one year ago... Those same people put together this killing game and began broadcasting it around the entire world. The most desperately awful group of people ever... *That* is the mastermind's true identity." -Makoto Naegi, THH

Make no mistake- despite what the surface level of the series would have you believe, Junko Enoshima isn't the Ultimate Despair. There is no the Ultimate Despair because Despair isn't confined to any one person. Rather, Junko Enoshima is afflicted with Ultimate Despair. Despair, by nature, is grief. It's a pain inflicted by the death of hope, whether that be through the loss of a dream, a person, or whatever else. You grieve that loss, and it takes the form of Despair. Ultimate Despair takes that grief and amplifies it, destroying any sense of self and replacing it with the desire for more Despair. This is the type of Despair that Junko Enoshima feels, and thus, uses her own talents to embody it and spread it. It's a bold claim to make, I realize, that she isn't the SHSL Despair she defines herself as, but it's the basis this entire analysis leads to, and as the evidence over the course of the series develops her character more and more, it goes from some theoretical musing to legitimate design, all the way through to the end of V3. Though she immerses herself within Ultimate Despair, she herself is not Despair incarnate like she'd have you believe.

As we see her in THH, Junko is repeatedly hammered in as 'one of two' by the narrative. It's not just Junko that's formed Ultimate Despair; it's also Mukuro, and they're not referred to as 'Ultimate Despair and her sister', they're 'the Despair Sisters'. For all her charisma she displays, she alone isn't responsible for the Tragedy. Everyone is capable of feeling Despair. It's that foothold Despair has within her that creates an 'Ultimate Despair'. And while yes, Junko was definitely the most afflicted with Ultimate Despair, she didn't get as far as she did just by being horny for grief. She has a title, a real one, and it's not SHSL Gyaru. That was her cover, something she could use thanks to her real talent. Her real talent was only ever known by a select few, and to know what that is, you have to dive into the (criminally underrated, may I add) 2-volume novel set, Danganronpa 0.

Part 7- Ryoko Otonashi (DR 0)

(Little disclaimer here: Before I actually talk about the novel, I did want to quickly assert that DR 0 is both a mainline release to the Danganronpa series and 100% canon. Written and released by series creator Kazutaka Kodaka himself in 2011, it was written specifically to fill out Junko's character more. As such, everything contained within them are unquestionably canon to the world and its characters, something critically important to understand when talking about how it pertains to Junko Enoshima. I think just about anyone who's read DR 0 before knows all this already, but for the sake of anyone reading this who hasn't, I wanted to assert that.)

Ryoko Otonashi is the protagonist of DR 0, and is introduced to us as an audience in a 1st-person perspective. While she isn't the only character we follow in this series, she's the only one to speak to the reader straight-up, introducing herself and reacting immediately to the people and events in front of her. This is for good reason, as Ryoko is suffering from some form of amnesia. Not only does she not remember anything about her childhood or her identity, she also forgets things as they're happening. She can't even remember her name, and is only able to recall it by reading the cover of her notebook- 'Ryoko Otonashi's Memory Notebook,' where she's writing down everything in front of her as it happens so she can try to remember later.

Most of the story is told through Ryoko's perspective as she tries to avoid being caught up in some massive conspiracy within the school- all without actually remembering the conspiracy she's avoiding. Junko Enoshima is the one responsible for this, directing her from place to place and slowly forcing her to confront the conspiracy as she starts to figure out who she is and how she fits into it all. She insists over and over again that it has nothing to do with her, that she's innocent and has never met any of these people before and desperately tries to believe it- her memory is gone, therefore she could not be responsible.

But she is responsible, because she's not Ryoko Otonashi. Her real name is Junko Enoshima, and she's the SHSL Analyst, a girl with such a strong logical capacity that given enough information, she can perfectly understand and predict anything. This could be the actions and personality of a person, or it could be upcoming trends in fashion; whatever it may be, Junko is capable of perfectly analyzing and understanding what will happen in any given situation, long before the world does. And that type of intelligence has rotted away her mind.

Simply put, the human brain requires stimulation. Boredom is her opponent, and in a world where she can fully understand and predict anything at any time, Junko has nothing to stimulate her, and almost nothing can bring her any joy, because she fully anticipates it. Everything is normal, predictable, boring- it's left her with a case of intense anhedonia. Therefore, the only way she could find any happiness is in a world where that talent is stripped away from her. As Ryoko Otonashi, a girl with no memory, she can remember nothing and therefore predict nothing. Analysis requires data, and a blank slate offers none. Even her name is in reference to this, as 'Otonashii' translates to English as 'no sound' or 'quiet'. Only without memory can Junko's mind be silent and let her be genuinely happy.

Ryoko Otonashi is essentially a personality created by Junko as a test, not just for the people around her, but also for herself. Throughout the novel, Mukuro and Yasuke interact with her with opposing goals- Mukuro pushes her into the fray of Despair she's created, while Yasuke tries his best to keep her eyes and ears covered. Ryoko is in a unique position between the two- she's starting to remember and understand herself again, but is terrified of what she'll find, and wants to hold onto her peace with Yasuke. The ongoing question of the novel, which only reveals itself on a reread, isn't within Ryoko's identity itself. It asks the question of whether or not Junko could have been saved from Despair. And the answer, sadly, is no. Remembering anything for too long makes her forget her happiness, and she falls back into Despair, killing Ryoko Otonashi, the epitome of her peace, with her own hands.

Mukuro and Yasuke act as opposing forces within the novel, as both feel a loyalty to Junko that makes them act in what they believe to be her benefit, and both fail. Mukuro drags her kicking and screaming back into the depths of Despair to bring back the madness she sees Junko as, while Yasuke wipes her mind of everything that made her Junko to remove what plagued her. For Junko, balance isn't an option, and the people within her orbit fall victim to that same mentality.

7.1- Personality Disorders In Danganronpa

I'm not a psychologist, nor do I have any sort of split personality(DID, OSDD, etc). So my knowledge on the subject isn't that great, and everything said within this section should be taken with a grain of salt. But, to the best that I can tell, Ryoko's existence as an alter is sort of... mixed up. Other characters in the DR series (Toko & Genocider) make it pretty clear that Kodaka doesn't really have a fantastic understanding of people with DID outside of how they're stereotyped in the horror genre. And that background knowledge, combined with the presentation of Ryoko in DR 0, makes me think she was likely intended to be an alter, but as one that Junko had almost absolute control over, as at multiple instances, she was able to knock Ryoko out at will, and fully killed her once she'd outlived her usefulness for the experiment. There are parallels to Jekyll and Hyde in that aspect, though of course Jekyll was aware of also being Hyde- an alternate version of yourself created to rid yourself of everything about yourself that you despise is very reminiscent of Jekyll's motivations, down to the permanent erasure of the "good" side by the very end. It's also worth noting that Jekyll and Hyde weren't intended as an example of DID, but rather, an exploration of how every person is multifaceted with good and bad parts, even if modern day interpretations often read it as another example of the evil DID trope from 1960 and beyond(thanks a lot, Psycho).

There are several interactions between Ryoko and Junko that support them being two personalities within the same body rather than just a case of memory erasure. For example, when Ryoko is nearly killed by one of the SHSL Octuplets, Junko emerges just to make sure she isn’t killed, citing it as a minor nuisance.

“‘Upupu, I wonder if I was a bit too harsh.’ The voice said, it sounded close. ‘... But it can’t be helped. It’d just be embarrassing if you died here. After all, you���re the protagonist in this scene for once!’” -Junko Enoshima, DR 0

When Ryoko wakes up in the underground bunker of the Reserve Course cult forming, she comes across a captured member of the Steering Committee. And because she genuinely doesn't know who he is or where she is, he ends up giving her classified information that Junko needed, and the second he reveals it, she's immediately able to knock Ryoko back out and take over once again, having used the Ryoko personality as a front specifically to gain information.

“'The old school building… Kamukura Izuru’s there.' 'P-Please wait..' I ended the conversation prematurely with an interruption. Quickly, I wrote in ‘Otonashi Ryouko’s Memory Notebook’. .... But then… Huh? I suddenly felt an attack of dizziness, I struggled to stay upright. What’s happening?" -Steering Committee Member & Ryoko Otonashi, DR 0

"'Oy, did you hear me?' I didn’t. The beating in my ears was only growing louder, it completely drowned out all other sound, I couldn’t hear anything anymore. I shouldn’t be able to hear anything anymore, and yet I could hear a single, eerie laugh. '...Upupu.'" -Steering Committee Member & Ryoko Otonashi & Junko Enoshima, DR 0

Ryoko's memory of Yasuke is also contingent on whether or not Junko wants her to recognize him, suggesting that to some degree, her memory issues aren't just forcefully induced, but rather, are a conscious choice on Junko's part for Ryoko, as once Junko's plan is in place, she suddenly can't recognize him and is then forced to kill him in self-defense.

"'Are you…talking to me?' He looked exhausted. A face of someone who lost everything. The face of someone who lost all his thoughts, all his senses, and all his emotions. '…You don’t remember me?'" -Ryoko Otonashi & Yasuke Matsuda, DR 0

It's pretty unclear whether this was an intended conclusion from Ryoko's and Junko's behavior in DR 0, or if these are just remnants of Kodaka not knowing how personality disorders work and simply having Junko be so powerful that she can purposefully create, manipulate, and kill personalities at will, but I think looking at it from a more psychological viewpoint like this certainly puts Junko's actions as a manipulator into more perspective. The intention behind Ryoko suggests that Junko's manipulative abilities extended even into her own psyche, almost to a supernatural degree. Do actual systems in the real world function like this? No, but thanks to Toko/Genocider, we know that the representation of DID isn't gonna be good in this series.

If we wanted to put this into a more realistic lens, we could come to the conclusion that Junko's apparent control over Ryoko and the discrepancies behind her existence is a result of Junko having Munchausen Syndrome. Also called factitious disorder, Munchausen is a subconscious psychological condition in which the patient fakes symptoms of other kinds of conditions, whether mental or physical, without realizing they're mimicking the symptoms. Under this lens, we could say Ryoko was a factitious alter that Junko created after Yasuke wiped her memory, hence why she could have control over her over the course of the novel. This was almost definitely not the intended explanation, but it's the conclusion I came to. So there.

Part 8- Relationships

Due to just how many corners of the franchise Junko's present in, there's no convenient place to dump all the relationship analyses like I normally do. Ergo, I'll be breaking part 8 up, and will talk about the different core relationships Junko forms when they're most relevant.

8.1- Yasuke Matsuda

Yasuke Matsuda is the SHSL Neurologist, and a childhood friend of Junko's introduced in DR 0. Because he's the boy she's in love with, he remains the only tangible thing Ryoko can remember outside of her procedural memory, and is treating her memory loss. He's also the one primarily responsible for wiping her mind and assisting the school in the coverup of the student council massacre that Junko was responsible for, though he takes no pleasure in it.

"The silence continued for a while until Matsuda sighed and muttered, 'You should worry.' His voice was low and depressing. 'What if you’ll always be like this......'" -Yasuke Matsuda, DR 0

Despite his tsundere behaviors towards Ryoko whenever the two are face-to-face, he's very much in love with her, and spends the novel trying to look out for what he believes is in her best interests by methodically attempting to remove the Despair from her mind and covering up the Tragedy she's already set into motion. Throughout the novel, he works in cahoots with the Hope's Peak Academy Steering Committee to find more information about the Incident. He does this specifically to defend Ryoko and keep people from interrogating her further, and to hopefully extricate her from the whole situation permanently.

"'I said shut the fuck up.' Matsuda easily quieted the men by saying that and then he continued in a soft voice. 'People might call her an idiot, but she doesn’t even bother to stick up for herself, thinking she can’t do it. So I don’t think I’d be able to forgive myself if I don’t do it for her.'" -Yasuke Matsuda, DR 0

Though we never see it directly, we realize with the help of Kyoko that he's also the one taking the bodies of the Steering Committee and SHSL Octuplets after Mukuro kills them and disposing of them, in the hopes they won't be discovered and Junko will eventually be absolved of both suspicion and Despair.

“Finally she looked at me. ..... ‘The dead body, the body that was dead. There was a post-death body here before!’ ‘Huh?’ .....  ‘There’s not mistake, I know there was definitely a corpse here before!’” -Ryoko Otonashi & Mukuro Ikusaba, DR 0

“Matsuda-kun’s voice was definitely coming from beneath me. There’s no mistaking he was under the bed. ‘But... what would require so much concentration to be under the bed?’ ‘This situation.’ Somehow, Matsuda-kun’s way of putting it could allure to several different meanings.” -Yasuke Matsuda & Ryoko Otonashi, DR 0

"I stood next to the girl, crouched down and peeked under the bed. At the back I could see a large opening, .... 'It’s not a terribly impressive hidden room… a storage room at best.' '…A storage room?' 'For hiding dead bodies.'” -Ryoko Otonashi & Kyoko Kirigiri, DR 0

But despite his best efforts, Junko's talents of analysis were just too great, and she'd already come up with a plan to send her back into Despair before he ever touched her mind. With the help of Mukuro and the growing underground Reserve Course cult of Despair, Ryoko is forced to face Despair after Despair, and is hunted for her involvement in the student council massacre. Junko confronts him and taunts him for his failure, leaving him to wallow.

"'I get it, you feel sorry for her… even so, you’re troubled. You’re incredibly troubled. That’s what it seems like after what I’ve been hearing…'” -Junko Enoshima, DR 0

“'You know, in this scenario, only you can make the choice, Matsuda-kun. So think carefully, worry about it, and choose the choice you think it best. Hope or despair… the choices are so diverse and yet, surprisingly, intricately connected. Anyway, have a good think about it…'" -Junko Enoshima, DR 0

In one final attempt to see if he can salvage her, he approaches Ryoko outside of his lab, pretending as if he's Izuru Kamukura, and questions her. She doesn't recognize him, and he, too, falls into Despair, finally accepting that despite his feelings, he was a pawn to Junko's game, and tries to kill her, sending Ryoko towards Despair as she realizes who she's speaking to and can't convince him she loves him anymore. Defending herself, she ends up stabbing him, sending herself spiraling as she becomes her lover's killer, and Junko reemerges from her mind, killing her off in front of him and forcing him to die in Despair.

He dies believing Junko never actually loved him. He becomes thoroughly convinced that she was pretending, and that Ryoko was nothing more than a part of the game to send him into Despair. And that perception of Junko combined with her causing his death brings Junko an indescribable Despair. The man she loved died by her hands, hating her existence. Truly, this was Despair!

"'I was right, wasn't I? About you remembering? That's why you can't remember me? You remembered that I wasn’t a particularly important person to you…so that's why you can't remember?' Kamukura then revealed his eyes, their glint was tainted with deadly hatred. '…You're such a bitch.'" -Yasuke Matsuda, DR 0

"'There's no way this would have nothing to do with me…' There was a hint of sadness laid somewhere in that murmuring voice. 'After all…you were the most important person to me of all…' Those were her true feelings. Yasuke Matsuda was an especially important existence for Junko Enoshima." -Junko Enoshima, DR 0

She loved Yasuke intensely. She cared about him moreso than anyone else, save Mukuro. And yet, despite how attached he was to her, Yasuke couldn't realize in his own Despair that there'd be no reason for someone like Junko to bother dragging herself through so much mental torment and manipulation at his expense if she wouldn't get a magnificent Despair out of it. Yes, she causes Despair for others, but she doesn't throw herself directly into the fray unless she gets something out of it. Despite loving her, he never actually understood her. That truth, too, would bring her Despair.

Part 9- How Junko Shaped the Game

Turning back towards THH, Junko's reveal shakes the class. Most of them believed that finding the mastermind and forcing them to show their face would end the game. But that's not the case for Junko Enoshima. She's not through with them yet, and takes the opportunity to rub everything they've lost in their faces.

"Puhuhuhu... Did you really think the story would end once we reached the climax of the case? Wrong! There's still plenty more to go!" -Monokuma, THH

Throughout all of THH, Junko's plan is hinged on Despair, and thus, she takes her class, which had become close friends and confidants over the past two years of their lives, and attacks what would bring them the worst Despairs possible for each. Her talents as SHSL Analyst allowed her to analyze her own classmates and tear at what would've made their 16-to-20 year old selves when they first met snap. And each one of the motives she used was designed specifically for that, something she makes sure to cite when taunting them ("Did you notice that each motive I presented you had a specific theme to it?")

The first motive's theme was 'human connections', and everything surrounding the first chapter reflects this. Sayaka's motive wasn't just about her career. It was about the family she'd found and not letting down the people who loved her. And on a meta perspective, the first chapter was also about relationships, specifically that between Sayaka and Makoto and how that relationship's end motivated Makoto to eventually become SHSL Hope, and to a lesser degree, starting the development of the critical relationship between Hina and Sakura.

The second motive's theme was 'the past', something the 2nd chapter very much reflects. The secrets that Junko uses against the class are extremely personal to each of their histories, and can be used to twist each of them to head towards Despair, whether that be through their own hand or their own poor judgements of the people around them from their lack of memories. Mondo's secret isn't just tragic; Junko purposefully warps it in his letter to affirm his own belief that Daiya's death was murder and not just an accident, and because no one knows its contents, it sends him into a spiral. The same can be said for Chihiro, whose secret implies that their gender presentation is a lie, forcing them into a conformatory decision that leads to tragedy. Her classmates' memories of the past are presented in a warped way to suit Junko's needs. Toko's secret of having DID and a serial killer alter, Genocider Syo, is also revealed and used to develop her more as a character when she's the one most afraid of opening up to the class.

The third motive's theme is 'greed', using the promise of wealth to lure Celeste to murder. Even if you could argue other characters within the class could have fallen victim to the first two motives, this one is undoubtedly meant to target the Yasuhiros on Junko's part, as realistically, no one else in their class has any reason to even consider killing for money by itself, especially not when there's already been two class trials. The Yasuhiros are the only ones who consider themselves to be in any level of financial need. This theme is also meta-reflected by the possessive nature Kiyondo and Hifumi both develop over Alter Ego. Because neither of them can keep themselves away from them, they became easily manipulated, and it became harder for the rest of the class to obtain information and watch out for each other, forming a tunnel vision towards Alter Ego in their minds. This contrasts Celeste and Hiro greatly as well- Celeste is consumed by her own greed, while Hiro doesn't even consider killing for the money, opting instead to try and look out for the class and develop him as a survivor. Hiro's the one that looks out for Taka and calls out Hifumi on his obsession; Hiro's lured into Celeste's trap by promise of a way to save everyone, while Celeste rejects her class in favor of fighting for a selfish dream she didn't even need.

The 4th motive is that of 'betrayal', and this one is where the cracks in Junko's plan finally reveal themselves. Each and every trial before this one ended in tears and Despair, and a sense of hopelessness that wasn't alleviated until they were given new distractions. Sakura's betrayal is meant to mirror Junko's own betrayal of her classmates, and when half the class instantly turns on her, things go exactly as Junko plans. Sakura swears to destroy Junko by any means necessary, and takes her own life in an attempt to take the fun from Junko. With Monokuma's meddling, Hina is instead pushed into attempting a murder-suicide, one she's caught for by Kyoko and Makoto. But once the truth comes out, Sakura and Hina aren't condemned. Those that attacked her end up defending her. Sakura doesn't betray her class; Sakura betrays Junko, and it puts her on the path to failure. Junko even admits to this, though indirectly: "Once I revealed Sakura's betrayal, that led to everything that came afterwards..." Note this is the only time where she doesn't expressly explain to the survivors why her motive was successful, because in this instance, it wasn't. It also fills out Hina as a character and uses her arc of an attempted self-destruction to contrast Junko, as Hina let herself be forgiven by her classmates, something Junko could never let herself do.

Part 10- Self-Destruction (Junko vs Sakura)

Despite the fact that Makoto is the character christened as SHSL Hope at the end of THH, there are a lot more parallels between Junko's self-destructive nature and Sakura's self-sacrifice that often go unnoticed, and these parallels are quintessential to the overarching narrative of THH and why Junko functioned as its villain.

Both Sakura and Junko do the things they do because they love the people around them. Both Sakura and Junko find themselves to fall short of who they'd rather be. Both Sakura and Junko kill themselves. But their goals are fundamentally, diametrically opposed.

Sakura Ogami, as a martial artist, is a woman of honor and principles. She believes in the inherent worth of the people around her because of this, and strives to become the strongest person alive not because it's a desire of her own, but because that's the destination the people who loved her had in mind for her(her father, Kenshiro, etc). And therefore, she's someone who fundamentally wishes to act in the best interests of the people she loves, even when it's at her own detriment.

Junko Enoshima, as a hyperintelligent analyst, is able to predict anything. And because she can predict anything, she can enjoy nothing, because she always knows what will happen before it gets there. Ergo, the only way she can enjoy herself is via the only thing that can make her feel- Despair. Grief and pain still feel like something in a world where she can't be pleasantly surprised by anything. She despises herself for it, and so in order to feel, she decimates anything that brings her joy. Joy is boring; joy is nothing; joy is just part of the default setting because she still sees it coming. And therefore, she's someone who fundamentally acts in the worst interests of those she loves, for the sake of her own detriment.

When Sakura kills herself, and Hina is filled with Despair, Junko wants to revel in the Despair this brings everyone else. Sakura killed herself for people that weren't giving her the time of day, and the one person who gave a crap tried to kill you all! Isn't it so tragic, so Despair-inducing, don't you just want to break down and crumble?! And then they don't. Instead, after hearing the truth of Sakura's actions, the entire rest of the class is uplifted and united by her honor. Even Byakuya is feeling hopeful now! What the actual fuck is happening?! Is this how they'll feel when I die, too? Will my death bring no Despair?

8.2- Class 78-B

We never get to actually see any of her classmates interacting directly with her in their school days, or in any way that was positive. Outside of THH's and SDR2's final trials, we as an audience don't get to see them interact as friends. So we have to draw these conclusions from what little context we were given within her dialogue in these few rare moments in THH and the mentions of her class in DR 0.

"There was a tap inside [Junko's] skull, like someone pressed a switch and slowly her entire brain lit up with a notion. Several faces appeared. Of course, they were faces she knew… they were the faces of her Hope’s Peak Academy classmates." -DR 0

Without any doubt, Junko loved her classmates. They were people she considered in high regard and had unwittingly fallen for their unique charms. While Junko had come to Hope's Peak with the intention of causing Despair, she'd accidentally found people that made her happy. When entering the school, she intended to use the people around her to damage the school of Hope's reputation, but inadvertently became attached: "Once your school life here began, I thought about you constantly. It's only natural that I would... fall in love." This made for a fantastic happy accident for Junko, as finding something beloved made for a much more fantastic Despair for her later.

"Remembering the faces of the people who would bring her such despair, she felt something that was similar to a person in love, and she danced to the rhythm of Despair. 'This is it! This is a fantastic despair!'" -Junko Enoshima, DR 0

We can also reasonably assume Junko was someone her classmates had considered dear to them in turn, as she not only knew how to motivate their past selves into murder, but also their deepest secrets and fears, and was able to attack their relationships when they themselves couldn't even remember them. Could you handwave that level of connection with her SHSL Analyst talent? Actually, no, because as stated previously, analysis requires data. And the only way she could gather enough data to understand them at a depth that let her plan her killing game to perfection was by getting to know them firsthand.

There's also a strange implication within Junko's explanation of how she put the killing game together that I think gets often overlooked. When she prepares to infodump to the remaining survivors, she says this:

"So since I love you guys so much, I'll tell you all about it! All about the idea we came up with as the Ultimate Despair- our plan to bring Despair to all mankind!"

It's an interesting choice of pronoun, to say the least. "We." It implies that the group she's referring to when she speaks is herself and the people she's speaking to at this moment in time. Could she just be switching gears and talking about Mukuro, and later, the RoD, Kamakura, the WoH, etc? Yeah, absolutely. But none of these characters had even been mentioned, whereas she was just speaking on her love for her classmates in the dialogue prior and continues to talk about her classmates after.

In listening to Junko's explanation of how she put the killing game together, it made me come to a pretty disturbing realization. One of the biggest things about Junko is how she's always able to seemingly pull together everything to form this killing game almost entirely by herself. Later installments to the series include some level of explanations- Towa Group becoming a financial and robotic sponsor, a SHSL Mechanic that could've made the executions, etc- but her success within the killing game hinges fully on her knowing how to best bring her classmates to Despair. And she's not just an analyst; Junko is a master manipulator. Throughout her entire explanation of how she created the killing game, she never says she threw them into the killing game against their will. Instead, she very deliberately calls attention to her classmates' choice in the matter, over and over again. They chose to enter the shelter, they chose to lock the doors and cover the windows, they chose to be there with the SHSL Despair, though they didn't know who they were with at the time. Makoto is the one to assert that they did so because they believed in the hope of survivng, and giving the world a fresh start. But it's not just their year's worth of fun school classes missing from their memories. There's also a year of hopelessness within the school erased, too. Combine this with a few well-placed lines from Junko.

"You see, by taking away your memories, I gave you hope."

"You absorbed all that Despair, but then you forgot it all."

"Despair is contagious, you know. It's almost like... a natural phenomenon."

"Once you'd finished building your little shelter, it was time for me and Mukuro to get to work. And thus began the killing game!"

If Junko is making the claim that she was able to give them hope by removing their memories, that meant none of them had any to begin with. She emphasizes how much Despair her classmates absorbed, and even Kyoko herself states that it's impossible for all this to have been put together by just the Despair Sisters. If an additional year of hopelessness waiting around within the school were also erased, and Junko is intentionally avoiding saying she started the killing game herself, is it beyond reason to suggest that at least some of the 78th class had fallen to Despair in that timeframe? Look at the survivors that are left- Byakuya, Toko, Syo, Hina, Hiro. All characters that Do Not Like each other by this point. Most of the meaningful connections between the classmates have been murdered. Their past is scrubbed away. They've basically all betrayed each other at least once by now, and have been pushed to the brink of Despair. If you got a collection of THH characters most likely to fall to Despair, it'd be this group.

Junko even takes a point to emphasize just how Despair-inducing the truth can become, targeting Kyoko directly with this. As Kyoko comes to the realization the Junko purposefully designed the game with the possibility of being caught, she revels in Kyoko's Despair. She taunts her with the fact that their solving the mystery only made things worse. She is purposefully trying to drive the rest of her surviving classmates into SHSL Despair alongside her. She's manipulated the game and her classmates to get what she wants- the people she loves slaughtered, the survivors joining her in Despair, the world reborn by her hands. She quite likely manipulated her classmates into plotting each other's deaths not only inside the game, but in preparation for it as well.

Out of all her classmates, there was only really one you could argue wasn't perfectly analyzed and manipulated. One stood out among the rest as the unknown variable- a concept otherwise foreign to Junko- that was able to act as a wrench in her plans. And this, too, could cause her Despair.

8.3- Makoto Naegi (Hope vs Despair)

Makoto Naegi's SHSL Luck, AKA SHSL Hope, is the one who takes down Junko Enoshima's SHSL Despair. But why and how was this possible, and what does that mean for the relationship that he and Junko had prior to the game? If I wanted to fully delve into their relationship specifically, I'd need to really tear into Makoto's character, and I don't really have the time for that today(again, still hoping to get this out before 2025), so we'll just do the best we can based off the scenes they've had together and what we know about Junko to put the pieces together thematically.

Makoto is an average guy in just about every sense of the word. He likes average things, he looks plain, he's chosen randomly by lottery instead of earning his place in the school, he doesn't have any noticeable traits or beliefs- at least, not at first.

"But you know, if I had any one kind of strong point, so to speak, I'd say I'm a little more gung-ho than other people." -Makoto Naegi, THH prologue

By his own admission, he has a grand total of two character traits- abnormal normalcy, and enthusiasm. He's optimistic, and that's kind of it. By all intents and purposes, he's the SHSL Joe Schmoe, and that should make him another blank canvas on the wall of pawns Junko can knock over whenever she gets a little bored. And yet, SHSL Joe Schmoe is the one directly responsible for Junko's failure, and the one person who, by her own admission, she cannot predict. So why and how exactly is that?

I recall reading a story about a coding competition, where coders were meant to design an AI for a gambling competition. One entry proceeded to make an AI that would go all in every single time it was its turn, and the simplicity of it was so intimidating that it broke every other AI that was in the competition. That mentality is the exact strategy Makoto unintentionally employs. He doesn't have any strong sense of self or moral complexities; he's a dude that exists, and he throws everything he is into everything he does. He's an optimist to the highest possible sense. He leaves his door unlocked even after 4 murder cases and a break-in. He refuses to fathom anything but the best possible outcome, and so he's able to combat Junko's total Despair with pure hope. Makoto's head is so completely simple and empty that it acts as the exact opposite to Junko's highly intelligent, analytical mind. When she tries to force-feed him Despair in the final trial, he hits her with the power of 'nuh-uh,' and it works. It's that emptiness that fascinates Junko, and makes him and his random chance luck unpredictable to her.

Part 11- "Defeating" Despair

When Junko loses, it's not just because she failed to convince the others of Despair, or that Makoto's hope was just naturally the stronger conviction of the two. Rather, Junko's loss can be attributed to her own conscious choice to lose. Even if we're looking solely at THH, this is the case. And the source is found in a single line.

If her conviction to win in this moment was absolute to the point where only one person had to vote for Despair, she just had to include herself in the votes. After all, she is one of the 16 students participating, and by all accounts, she should receive a vote for this trial. But she casually refuses, instead leaving it in the hands of the survivors to make the final call. And that in and of itself is indicative of Junko's desires. When faced with a situation she can easily control, she leaves it to fate to decide, allowing that glimmer of unpredictability to take over and surprise her. She'll always believe in the Despair she's dedicated herself to; it doesn't actually matter who wins here. What matters is that she feels Despair. Either Makoto succeeds in convincing his classmates of hope and kills her, ruining all her plans, or he fails, and she exterminates the one unpredictable person in her life and locks herself out of that rush of adrenaline for the rest of her life. Either ending would fill her with Despair, and in that sense, there is no way for her to lose. She won the killing game, whether the survivors realized it or not, because she succeeded in destroying herself. She built herself a Saw trap, and her loved ones set it off.

Part 12- Execution Analysis

Junko is the only character to walk willingly into her execution, even being the one to hit the red button to start up the punishment rather than having Monokuma do it. You can first attribute this to her no longer being in the control room to pilot Monokuma to do so, which is true, but it's also representative of her desire for self-inflicted Despair. Her eyes are swirling with Despair and she goes on about how good it feels, how everyone should die in such Despair, how this punishment is 'extra special', because it's one she brought on herself. After methodically destroying the most important relationships of her life one by one, she'd now be killed by her friends in a series of recycled contraptions in an 'Ultimate Punishment'.

As she goes through each step of the execution, we see her bearing a wide grin, flying through the machinery that'd killed every one of her executed friends over and over again. She hits every baseball, handles the Cage of Death with ease, calmly survives the firetruck, and bobs her head with the excavator. She doesn't struggle, not once, and this is because in prolonging her Despair, her SHSL Analyst talent is keeping her alive. She's watched every one of these executions, and thus, knows how to survive them all. It's not just a retrospect of every prior execution as a callback for the audience; it means something. With a punishment meant to bring the character's worst ironic death via their most hated parts of themselves, then of course Junko's analytic abilities are keeping her alive through everyone else's Despair.

The execution ends with the return of the After-School Lesson, and this is the one that finally kills her, because it's the only one in which she doesn't know how it ends. Makoto's execution was tampered with by Alter Ego, so there's no way to know if she'll actually die or not. Junko can't know if it still works or not. Junko doesn't know whether she'll live or die, and that's what makes it so exciting. She's driven to the edge of death and left to sit there for a moment too long, long enough for the Despair to be replaced with disappointment- only to kill her right when her Despair abandons her. She stops smiling, looks up at the press, and dies abruptly. In her final moments, she is denied her Despair. Makoto did win, after all.

Part 13- Answering the 'How' (SDR2)

One of the biggest 'what-the-fuck's people tend to have after walking out of their first playthrough or watchthrough of THH is the How of the entire game. The first game is good and all, but it leaves Junko's skills and how she set up and pulled the killing game together pretty vague. This is intentional, as in the first game, she exists as a kind of force of nature, representing Despair as an inherent part of life in the same way Makoto represents hope. But after Spike Chunsoft commissioned a sequel, and Kodaka set to work on DR 0, the question of 'how' had to be answered as the series was expanded upon. This started with the introduction of Yasuke Matsuda's memory erasure technology and the reveal of Junko's SHSL Analyst status in DR 0, but continued to expand well beyond that.

In SDR2, we're introduced to an entirely new cast of characters, all with new and less conventional talents in comparison to the first cast. Whereas THH had plenty of more mentally-oriented talents like programming, writing, and hall monitor to balance out their more eclectic ones, the SDR2 cast is almost entirely physical or social talents like a yakuza, animal breeder, and mechanic. These talents also put them into more social or powerful positions than the 78th class on an overall skill, as you find yourself full of people that could command full armies and people proficient with making weaponry or fighting and potentially killing the people around them. This differentiates the casts, and automatically makes them more threatening in the ways they could attack each other in a killing game. This also makes them Junko's perfect weapons.

8.4- Remnants of Despair

Class 77 is revealed by the end of SDR2 to be the Remnants of Despair, pawns swayed over to SHSL Despair by unknown means. Makoto refers to this conversion as 'brainwashing', though whether this is him literally knowing they were brainwashed or making an inference and later being proven right is unclear. Regardless, the RoD are part of the SHSL Despair movement, and exist to explain a lot of how Junko was able to not only set up the killing game mechanically, but continue to end the world and send it into ongoing war after the initial Incident.

This is something especially apparent with the remaining surviving cast, as they're the most immediately powerful amongst the cast for Junko to use. Sonia and Fuyuhiko are both in direct command of massive amounts of people, with Sonia being the heiress to an entire country and Fuyuhiko being the leader of the largest mafia in Japan. Kazuichi as the SHSL Mechanic explains how and why so many elaborate executions were able to be designed ahead of time for the killing game, and Akane is a wicked fast athlete who's already accustomed to tragedies and will eat anything. On top of all this, there's Hajime, a human experiment worked on by those in league with the values of hope, and that was forcefully imbued with every talent that's ever been documented, including Junko's.

This sums up everything that made the RoD useful, but doesn't explain how any sort of meaningful connection was established between them and Junko. That's because on the overall, there isn't one. With two notable exceptions, the SDR2 class is largely unimportant to Junko emotionally speaking. They're useful, and that's about it. They weren't in the same class; they didn't interact at school or bond in any important way. She just dragged them down with the bare minimum brainwashing video because of their usefulness.

We also know Junko didn't care because of just how differently she speaks to and treats class 77 as opposed to the characters that we know she does love. The series painstakingly makes sure you know that Junko tears up everything she loves- Mukuro, Yasuke, class 78. She gores through them because hurting the ones she loves hurts her right back, and gives her an excellent Despair. But with class 77? Beyond the initial conversion, she doesn't really touch them. She doesn't need to waste her time with people who are virtually strangers. Their pain just is Despair; it's not her Despair. It's good for a laugh, but not much else, so she lets them run rampant on their own.

On an overall scale, Junko didn't give a fuck about these people. They existed solely as tools to her, and she interacted with them as little as possible. Unlike with her classmates, whom she loved, she did the absolute bare minimum required to get them to feel Despair by showing them a video and letting them do their own thing. The RoD were Remnants and not full-fledged SHSL Despair because their Despair was artificial. It was inauthentic, and so they could never ascend to true Despair in the way characters like Mukuro, Junko, or Monaca can.

8.5- Mikan Tsumiki (The Relevance of Junkan)

When we're first introduced to the concept of Junkan, it's portrayed as a one-sided infatuation from Mikan's perspective. She tells her classmates about the one person who forgave her existence and loved her anyway, with the choice of language emphasizing her beloved's need for Despair and asking for forgiveness for hoping suggesting that this beloved is Junko.

"Ahhh, this feeling of freedom where you no longer care about anything! My beloved and I are the only ones within that thin veil, and I'm just looking out through it..." -Mikan Tsumuki, SDR2

Whether intended at the time of SDR2's release or not, this line of dialogue ended up foreshadowing Mikan's heightened importance in comparison with the rest of her class to Junko as an RoD. When everyone else were just tools, remnants formed by brainwashing, Mikan is ultimately differentiated as special, not necessarily craving Despair but happily parroting it for the sake of a twisted love.

"It's like nothing matters! I could just die, that's how little it matters! Who cares about hope or despair! It's love, only love!" -Mikan Tsumiki, SDR2

This 'beloved' being Junko is proved true when AI Junko emerges in the final trial and reveals that class 77 are also the RoD. At this point, though, there's almost no evidence that Junko feels anything back for Mikan besides a vague sense of usefulness shared with the rest of her classmates, as she mimes seeing them as friends because of their actions as Remnants of Despair.

Something that's important to remember, however, is that Junko's need for Despair drives her to destroy everything she loves. We've seen this multiple times, over and over again with Mukuro, Yasuke, and her classmates before now. The reason we know she didn't care about class 77 is because there are no such personal attacks to tear them apart and make them despise her specifically- their pain brings her no Despair. There's no evidence of a personal attachment. Once DR3 comes into focus, though, that changes for one RoD in particular- one Mikan Tsumiki.

DR3 made the decision to bring Chiaki back as a human character, and made her the central figure for class 77's bond. Junko dragging out Chiaki's suffering and forcing her classmates to watch became the titular event that drove the rest of class 77 to Despair. But there was no personal attachment to this act, because she'd only just met Chiaki, and there was no dynamic to speak of between the two of them besides maybe a vague sense of interest based off of their single interaction.

So, if there's no established rivalry or connection to Chiaki, why does Junko single her out and kill her specifically? Easy; Junko doesn't. She sets up the maze, sure, but she is not and never was the one targeting Chiaki specifically. That was Mikan, and the show makes sure the audience sees this more than once.

When Mikan and Junko meet, it's because of a chance interaction. Mikan runs into Mukuro by mistake when going to check on Ryota, and is captured. In this sense, she's literally presented as a gift to Junko. Junko learns she's a nurse, and decides she'll let her hang around while she works on the brainwashing video.

In their next scene together, Junko is having Mikan massage her leg, listening as Mikan presents her classmates and friends to Junko. She's the one who tells Junko of how close her class has become, and how Chiaki is the central figure behind their bond. It's where we get this from Junko:

Though you might not immediately know it, it's swiftly revealed to us that Mikan is now in love with Junko via this and Ryota's mention that something appears 'off' with Mikan. From Ryota's discovery of the prototype video that was used on the Reserve Course students being immediately followed by Mikan's appearance and saying he souldn't have watched the video, it's easy to fall into the assumption that Mikan's fall is purely because of the brainwashing. But that's not necessarily true. Mikan having seen the video prototype is very different from being brainwashed entirely, and considering Junko herself says that the video is insufficient and that she can't brainwash people like Ryota can, there's an inference to be made that while the prototype video may have helped, it didn't rob Mikan of her free will in the way Chiaki's death did for everyone else. Ryota didn't fall into Despair from the video by itself, and neither did Chisa Yukizome. We also know from her FTEs in SDR2 that even before falling to Despair, Mikan was already a little fucked up, as her idea of a good time includes telling you all the ways in which you could die and begging people to treat her like garbage just for a taste of acknowledgement.

We also see what motivated her to nurse not only herself, but others as well- not empathy, but power and control.

"Sick people and injured people... are weaker than me. .... But if I know the proper way to treat them, that means my words are absolute. Which means... They'll need me. They'll depend on me completely." -Mikan Tsumiki, SDR2

Again, all this can be found in her FTEs, in a situation in which she's mentally reverted to the way she was entering the school, before she and Junko were so much as in the same city. By this line of information, it's just as believable that her falling in love with Junko was because Junko and her video actually connected with Mikan, taking Mikan's craving for attention via mistreatment and using it to her advantage. It's also worth noting that the anime makes a point to use 'spiral eyes' to demonstrate when a character has been brainwashed. This is something used with Chisa, with the characters in the Future Arc, and when the RoD are shown Chiaki's murder. But Mikan does not have these spiral eyes in the scene where she nearly assaults Ryota. She's horny, and it's extremely disconcerting, but her eyes are still her own, suggesting that the video didn't take a hold on her the way it did for the Reserve Course students.

Mikan is also one of the most similar characters to Junko in that she craves pain. Not emotional Despair in the way that Junko does, but physical pain, not only from Junko, but from just about anyone. Pain means attention, and that's something she needs more than anything. By this metric, she and Junko are actually quite similar, needing the worst from the people they love, and this makes for a formula that can create an incredibly abusive relationship. Junko can do literally anything to Mikan, and she'll lap it up like a dog. Mikan makes for a perfect punching bag, and suddenly, their relationship is intentionally paralleling the way Junko treats her sister. She kicks her around, calls her a disgusting horny piglet, and Mikan thanks her for it. It becomes a challenge of seeing how far she can push Mikan before she snaps and attacks her back, just like how she tries and fails to do with Mukuro. Simply put, there's no reason for her to treat Mikan in this way if she doesn't care about her as a person, romantic or otherwise.

This connection Junko forms with Mikan also serves to answer that earlier question: why did she bother with a class full of people she's never met? It's because of Mikan. Mikan is the one to present class 77 to her, and with the context that she goes on to set up a murder maze specially for Chiaki, and specifically says that Mikan has 'made a compelling case', that means Mikan was asking her to make them SHSL Despair. And not only does she do so, she does so in a way that forces Mikan to be the one to lead them into the trap. She brings her classmates to the bunker, she separates Chiaki from the group, she's responsible for sending her loved ones to Despair. This isn't a plot that's personal to Junko; it's a plot that's personal to Mikan, and Junko helping drive Mikan's loved ones into Despair saddles Mikan with a Despairing guilt tied to Junko.

Driving class 77 to become RoD is an act of love for Mikan- a twisted, abusive love, but a love nonetheless, and one that's in line with the way she drives her own class to Despair and makes herself the crux. Should her classmates realize what's happened, they'll know that Mikan brought them here. The rest of class 77 are Remnants, but Mikan is a SHSL Despair like Mukuro, valued like Mukuro, and her being the one to regain her memories and turn on all her friends once more, betray them once more, is a remnant of Junko's love.

8.6- Izuru Kamukura

When Junko first approaches Kamukura, she does so with the intention of offing him then and there. He's the artificial SHSL Hope, lab-grown by Hope's Peak Academy, and represents everything their research stands for. To kill him would be to kill their work, and that's what she walks in with the intention of doing.

Naturally, she fails, as Izuru's been imbued with every talent known to man. This wasn't outside to realm of possibility for Junko, though. There were several different ways to kill the SHSL Hope invented by Hope's Peak. Whether or not she killed him literally or metaphorically wasn't the point.

Izuru Kamukura exists as an empty symbol. He's filled with talent and nothing to use it on. Because his existence is an artificial one, he has no passion with which his talents were born, and no drive to use them. If anything, he's not the SHSL Hope, he's the SHSL Talent, but regardless, his creators have labeled him their SHSL Hope so that he can become their puppet-symbol. So to kill the SHSL Hope the trustees have created, all Junko really has to do is get her hands on the puppet first.

The actual convincing of him isn't really what matters to Junko. Similar to the trustees, she also sees Kamukura as a symbol, albeit one to be knocked down instead of bolstering up, so she uses him like a token symbol, too. All she has to do is pique his interest, just enough to get him to follow her, and her job is done. She talks on about her love of Despair, how grief and pain are something that actually makes you feel, and because he's had his emotion removed, that unknown variable is enough to get him to watch, just in case.

Despite his having every known talent, Kamukura is tricked. He's framed by Junko as being responsible for the murders of the student council. And in addition, he sees the power of Despair, as adrenaline from the final survivor pushes him to attack Kamukura even when it should've been physically impossible. When moved by that animalistic need to survive, he manages to cut Kamukura's face even after getting his own sawed in half. Thus the SHSL "Hope" is introduced to the world as creating Despair, and his job is complete.

Junko doesn't really bother with Kamukura after this framing. She lets him hang around, but when he decides to leave, she doesn't make any sort of fuss or try to attack him anymore, because she doesn't really care about him. He was only as important to her as his title was to the school, and once that title was tarnished, any connection between them she pretended to have was dropped. The next time these characters meet, it will no longer be the real Despairing Junko tainting some artificial husk of a person, filled with talent and emptied of heart, but rather, an artificial Despair combatting a survivor's true identity.

Part 14- The Brainwashing

Okay, let's talk about this. Was the brainwashing a good move for the story? Was it actually planned from sdr2? Or was it something half-assed at the last second because Kodaka didn't think that far ahead? Well, imo, it was almost definitely intended from their conception, and is very reflective of Junko's own motivations and goals.

From as early as DR 0, brainwashing tactics are evident within Junko's work. When Ryoko meets the reseve course's underground cult, she finds them watching a single video of mutual killing over and over again, with a fixation on its contents that's unnatural.

"[The cultists] didn‘t even bother to glance at me. Their eyes were still plastered to the monitors in front of them. .... Every monitor was a pitch black, none had a single image projecting on it.

'It‘ll… start again soon… so…' the monobear heads sitting in front of me said in monotone." -DR 0

Brainwashing is again brought up within SDR2, as not only is Hajime expressly a human experiment due to alteration of the brain specifically, but the entire class is referred to by Makoto as 'brainwashed'. At this point in the series, there's no reason for him to actually know this short of Kamukura possibly telling him they were brainwashed, so we can reasonably assume this statement is rooted in Makoto's inability to understand Despair and seeing anyone's craving of it as a mental disease that can be cured(not an unreasonable conclusion to reach, considering the Everything About Junko he was led to witness). Ergo, it's not beyond reason to assume that brainwashing was well within the bounds of possibility for the characters even at that time.

While the idea of brainwashing the class into Despair appears to rob the class of their moral complexities that came from being RoD, the view we as an audience are given by Makoto, Kyoko, and Byakuya within SDR2 is only ever that the RoD were victims of Despair. The survivors are already established as more reliable narrators than AI Junko thanks to the first game, so there's no reason not to trust that what they say is likely true. In addition, Junko never actually directly states that they did it of their own free will, just that they were on the same side and tries to get them not to listen to Makoto, her already-established opposite.

The idea of class 77 being brainwashed went from theory to canon in DR3, and while the method of their brainwashing is controversial(the line 'cutting through their free will like swiss cheese' from the dub is pretty aggravating), it still lines up with Junko's pre-established goals and motivations. She goes to Hope's Peak to tear down Hope and replace it with Despair, and after being shown a class full of Hope united by their love for the same person, she exploits it and is able to use their love against them to create Despair as an outsider. She's introduced to the class, uses them, and then lets them all go do their own Despairing thing because she doesn't actually care what they do. What matters most is her own Despair, and tearing hope to pieces. So her interaction with class 77 remains minimal, a mere experiment for Despair in the same way Hajime was an experiment for hope, and then keeps going about her business, calling on them presumably only if she needs something like the execution contraptions.

14.1- The Despair Videos & Knowing the Difference

There's not just 1 Despair video. Over the course of the anime, we're introduced to three, and each one has different levels of effect on those who watch it. Knowing the difference between these three videos is quintessential when talking about the brainwashing and how each character to watch a video is affected, as well as understanding different characters' roles in the narrative as they pertain to the videos. So let's establish the differences between these 3 videos and their effectiveness before we move forward.

14.1.1- The Student Council Massacre

The first Despair video, aka "the prototype", aka the Mutual Killing Video, is the one created using the footage of the student council's beta mutual killing game. This is the one made solely by Junko's attempted mimicry of Mitarai's animation talents, taking security footage of the mutual killing and sharing it with the Reserve Course and Mikan as a test run. And while it does have some level of effect on them, inspiring 'the parade' and having a hand in Mikan falling for Junko, it doesn't work nearly well enough to actually rewire their brains for Despair or strip them of their hope in the way that Junko would like. Even in the context of a parade, it's still very much a protest in the hopes of change. There's still the demands of a refund, of being let into the main course. Even when shown the Despair of the truth, there is still hope that things can be changed or fixed. And that's not what Junko wants. The only character that we've seen to watch this video to end with the aforementioned 'spiral eye' telltale of true brainwashing is Chisa, who we know was also being actively lobotomized by Mukuro during a repeated viewing to force it to work. This instruction came from some manual Mukuro was left with, presumably written by either Junko or Ryota.

While this video is what starts the parade, what eventually pushes the parade to violence isn't Junko. It's the inaction of Hope's Peak Academy and refusal to acknowledge their mistakes. Instead of coming clean, they bury everything wrong they've done even further and have their security beat the shit out of anyone that tries to find answers for themselves, doing so in the name of 'protecting them' from information. They keep the wrongdoings of their 'real' students under wraps at the expense of their underlings, fully buying into a talent-based hierarchy they created. Those without special talents are sources of finance- nothing more, nothing less. And when that overwhelming majority questions that, and finds evidence that HPA doesn't care, of course they'll retaliate. The video itself isn't a brainwasher, but when combined with the very real negative effects of the classism which the Reserve Course students find themselves hurt by, it makes its influence that much stronger.

14.1.2- Human Chiaki's Death

The second Despair video is Chiaki's execution, and is a live recording shown to her classmates. As far as we've ever seen, this is the only instance in which this is ever shown. This live recording is enough to send class 77 into Despair properly, spiral eyes and all, but there's an underlying implication that the primary reason for this is because of how important Chiaki specifically was to them. Throughout the season, and especially in this episode, Chiaki is established as the glue that holds the class together. Despite not being an extremely sociable person, she connected to her class with her love of games, and her earnest love of it endeared her to them, and their love of her did vice versa. The footage locked them each into place, unable to look away, and once they were at their lowest, at the very end of the video, Junko swoops in to dub them all Remnants and decides for them that they will now cause Despair for her. And because she says this when the live footage has brought them to their lowest, they each fall into this trap, at least to some extent. Whether or not they truly belive in what they're doing, they do it, because that feeling of Despair is their last connection to Chiaki left.

But, similarly to the prototype, it's still ultimately insufficient. Granted, it's much more effective than the prototype, but it isn't a full mindwipe, either. We know this because when we meet Nagito Komaeda in UDG as the Servant, he's still himself. He still has some level of self-control, able to speak and act as an individual even when following the orders of Monaca or the other WoH. He says himself that he despises Junko more than anyone else in the world, and follows through with Despair with the faith that it'll inspire a newer hope to conquer it. He says something similar in that moment of brainwashing as well.

"Nanami is our hope. Look what she did to her. What Despair... What a horrific sight! This is... This is the Despair we must overcome? Ah, Nanami... You understand, right? At this moment, you are becoming a stepping stone to hope!" -Nagito Komaeda, DR3

You could possibly attribute this to Nagito's luck cycle and history with tragedy just making him have a higher resistance to the brainwashing, and honestly, there's no strong way to contradict that, since Nagito and Mikan are the only ones we ever see in Despair outside of a montage, but narratively, I doubt they'd make a point to show one of the RoD hating Junko if it weren't to make the point that they had agency. Nagito was just the fan favorite, so of course it was gonna be him. You saw the fanservice in UDG.

14.1.3- Mitarai's Animation

The third and true Despair video is the inversed Monokuma Theatre, which is used to mentally hack its viewer and drive them into such a strong state of Despair that they kill themselves right then and there. This is objectively the strongest of the Despair videos, and the most effective, with the only character it doesn't immediately convince to kill themselves being the Future Foundation chairman Kazuo Tengan. This is mostly for plot reasons, but I'll address this specific exception to the rule later on and why this was the case.

The Monokuma Theatre video is mass-emailed to the Reserve Course students after they destroy the shiny new building their parents were tricked into paying for. The video hacks their minds when in an already vulnerable state, and each and every one of them jumps out of the building and kills themselves. Just as quickly as they take some control and uproot the system that hurt them so, they fall victim to the games of another who never cared for them in the first place. The purpose of the video was to create a horde of faceless victims to spurn others into action, and it worked like a charm, spiraling the world into a state of Despair. The RoD used their influence to ensure a smooth transition into this state of worldwide chaos as well, having significantly more social power and reach to spur more and more people into the fray.

The Monokuma Theatre video is also what makes the members of the Future Foundation kill themselves in the Future Arc, hacking their minds and then dropping a knife with which to stab themselves with. It works on every character that watches it- Chisa, Gozu, Seiko, Ruruka, and Makoto. Each of these characters are in various mental states when they watch it, yet all of them fall to it, without exception. It doesn't matter who you are or what you believe in. If there's even one thing you regret in your life, the video can and will work on you. It just does. And by that logic, it's the only real 'brainwashing' video, because it can work on anyone who watches it. The one character who seems to withstand it is the one who builds an entire killing game using said video just to force its creator to action, and doesn't even seem so much as affected by it. Really, it calls into question whether or not he was even affected by it.

14.1.4- The Flashback Light (Bonus Brainwashing!)

The Flashback Lights are used solely in V3, and are invented by the mysterious Team DR to reprogram the memories of their victims to play along in their scripted killing game. We see this work on both Kaede and Shuichi, as well as see the aftereffects it has on the rest of the class.

We learn while investigating that Tsumugi is the one responsible for creating the Flashback Lights, and that she's been the mastermind who knew what was happening the entire time. However, this initially opens up a plot hole in that Tsumugi has also been shown the Flashback Lights multiple times. There are 3 viable explanations for this. The first one is that she just closed her eyes, which is extremely boring and kind of a copout. The second is that she didn't know she was the mastermind until near the end, and Kaede's murder plot failing was a ruse by Team DR for the story, but that makes that entire reveal lose a lot of its impact. The third explanation, therefore, makes the most logical and narrative sense, and actually doubles as a reason why Tengan would be the only one to withstand the Monokuma Theatre in DR3: Tsumugi wears glasses.

Yeah, I know, that sounds silly, but let's actually break it down. In NDRV3, two characters are shown to wear glasses, and only two- Tsumugi Shirogane, and Gonta Gokuhara. Gonta, however, has two unique traits that are relevant here. One, he has 20/0.625 vision(strong enough to see the near microscopic Monokuma cameras), and two, he wants nothing more than to appear as a gentleman. I don't think it's a stretch to say he's wearing empty frames to appear more gentlemanly, especially considering they're paired with a full suit.

Tsumugi is the mastermind, and the one who has the most insight into what's happening in the game. She's the one who knew the difference between her actual self and the character Tsumugi that she played(it's implied in the dating sim that Tsumugi isn't her real name), despite having seen the Flashback Lights with the class several times. So isn't it entirely possible that having glasses to reflect the light of those Flashbacks was what let her pass for being affected as well? And, if that's the case, then it would also explain why Tengan, who wears glasses, would be resistant to the effects of the animated video, as everyone else who we know watched the animated version before their death didn't wear glasses. The faceless Reserve Course students don't have glasses, and neither do any of the five characters in Future Arc to watch it. It's completely ridiculous, and simultaneously totally plausible, for the idea of glasses reflecting off light and lessening the effects of such a video to be the explanation for why the videos or lights exclusively didn't work on these masterminds.

8.7- Ryota Mitarai

Junko's connection to Ryota is objectively the weakest part of her story, and admittedly a major part of why the brainwashing of class-77 falls under such scrutiny. Whereas every other part of Junko's plan is pretty well-established within her characterization, the connections she makes having actual sense to their conception and development, and just general consistency within the narrative, her meeting Ryota is not only a stroke of random luck on her part, but emphasized as one, and this just does not make sense for a character within said narrative to have never once been characterized as having any level of luck or fortune prior. This is especially glaring in a world that has established luck mechanics via characters like Makoto, Nagito, and Celeste. Junko just isn't a character meant to have luck like this, and never has any sort of moments or accomplishments stemming from luck before or after this outright.

When Junko and Ryota meet, it's because they walk past each other going in and out of the infirmary, and Junko, for no visible reason, decides to start talking to him right then and there. She starts squealing and hugging him, jumping up and down, and says this upon Mukuro's asking why: "I don't know, but... this is what I'm telling myself: This is yet another... fateful encounter!"

There's no rationale to this. There just isn't. It's not her SHSL Analyst talent having picked up on him over time, or her recognizing him via someone else, or anything of the sort. It's totally unjustified random chance for the convenience of the plot, and that's what makes this introduction so weak.

Really, the issue of Ryota's involvement falls more in their introduction than his actual function in the anime. Considering his characterization and the connections Ryota had prior to this, it would've made infinitely more sense if Junko had met Mikan first while in the infirmary, and buttered her up enough for Mikan to introduce the two of them. Knowing Mikan, it wouldn't have taken much, and would've made more sense for Ryota to be so willing to share a part of his life's work while still incomplete if he was introduced to Junko by someone he already trusted. Regardless, that's not what happened, but I say this mostly because I want to affirm that with Junko and Ryota's connection, it's the introduction that doesn't make sense, not what follows.

That said, once the awkwardness of how they meet is out of the way, what follows is fairly reasonable. She asks about his talent, purposefully mocks his interests to trick him into showing off, and then takes advantage of what she learns about him, which just so happens to be brainwashing techniques that she'd already be somewhat familiar with thanks to Yasuke.

Once they're acquainted, Junko uses her knowledge of the school and what she's stolen from the kidnapped trustees to set up Ryota underground where she can keep him under control, and so he can't mistakenly squeal about what she's setting up. She uses his passion against him to bastardize it into what she needs and manipulates him into walking into his own cell by doing so. It's not her most genius move of all time, and it's not a difficult one to understand either, but it's one that works.

What matters most to understand, though, is that she doesn't seem to develop any sort of affection for him in the way that she did for Mikan. When he finally uncovers what she's doing, Junko gives him a simple sales pitch, and threatens him indirectly with Mikan's friends.

By now, she knows damn well that he's met a grand total of two of his classmates, one of which just tried to sexually assault him mere moments prior, so this doesn't seem like the most effective tactic she could've used. But Ryota is a sensitive person. A victim of bullying growing up, the whole point of his brainwashing animations was to make people more empathetic subliminally. So to force him to help her, Junko is able to target this empathy by targeting Mikan over Ryota himself. Her abuse of Mikan is painful for Ryota to look at, and he wrongfully puts all the blame for the way Mikan acts solely on Junko because he doesn't know any better. And Junko lets him, because it's convenient for her to manipulate.

"As you have inferred, the mutual killing video you watched is the reason Tsumiki ended up this way. However, in order to reach my objective, this is insufficient. My lack of brainwashing ability is the cause." -Junko Enoshima, DR3

As we know, Junko is an unreliable narrator. She can and has lied to people's faces for the sake of manipulating them, telling half-truths and intentionally warping the truth to shift her victims' perspective in a way that she wants. We never see Mikan's fall, only cutting from her first meeting Junko to her already being in love with her, and as we've established, not only was Mikan already pretty fucked up prior to meeting Junko, but she doesn't exhibit the symptoms of a complete brainwashing at this point. She still has her mental faculties about her. So logically, that means she's doing the same here. Yes, Mikan watched the prototype video, and yes, it was insufficient. Hence why we as an audience can understand with our meta-context that Mikan still has her mental faculties intact. Ryota, on the other hand, doesn't have that benefit, so when Junko says this, the implication is that Junko took the meek, shy, kind version of Mikan that Ryota knew and twisted her into an evil, hypnotized slave of Junko's. It's an intentionally warped perception of the truth that Junko uses to her advantage, to the point where she flat-out says she can't brainwash at this point and brainwashing is still commonly attributed as the sole reason for Mikan's behavior in this scene.

Ryota cares about the few friends he does have, taking Mikan's and the SHSL Imposter's requests to take care of himself by resting and going to the infirmary even when he doesn't want to to ease their worries. So of course, when faced with the idea that he could prevent Mikan's loved ones from getting hurt, even though he doesn't know the vast majority of them, he caves regardless. It doesn't have to affect him. The people around him are important enough for this threat to work anyways. They're not his precious classmates, but they are the Imposter's; they are Mikan's. And Ryota is a very weak man. So he complies.

Later, when he escapes, she hunts him down to thank him for his help, and then allows him to run away, letting him believe that he's the reason why class 77 were the ones to be brainwashed.

"The video I had you help me with. The complete version of that. I'll have your whole class watch it now!"

The 'video' that Junko has them watch is a live recording of Chiaki's death maze. Meanwhile, the Despair video that the Reserve Course goes on to watch after the riots, and that Chisa Yukizome is subjected to, are different videos entirely, forcefully reprogramming them and removing their hope outright. Since Ryota's an animator, we can ascertain he's responsible for the one the Reserve Course watches, with an animated Monokuma. In other words, Junko does not, in fact, have his class watch the video he helped her make. She's lying to him to send him further into Despair.

"Imagine it... Because of you, all your classmates will fall into a deep, deep Despair. They'll become people who think of nothing but plunging this world into Despair, the Super High-School Level Despairs!"

It's a bold-faced lie, and one that Ryota has no knowledge with which to contradict it. Because he's a coward, and because Junko's already messed with his head so much, he runs and hides rather than face what he's done. She even leaves him with parting words of responsibility, twisting what happened with sarcasm so he'll always blame himself for her actions.

Ryota is by no means a perfect victim, but that doesn't change the fact that he is one. He was manipulated, and when he found out he was manipulated, he was threatened, albeit indirectly. But Junko was always planning to send Hope's Peak and the world into Despair. His video made it easier for her, but he is not and never was responsible for her actions. And by making him carry the guilt of her choices, she leaves him in a state of pathetic, guilty Despair akin to a genuine 'thank you' from her.

Part 15- AI Junko

AI Junko(or Kaijunko, as I like to refer to her as) appears as the reincarnation of Junko, created by Chihiro's AI technology and forming a Despair virus to infect the Neo World Program. She doesn't allow the Hope Restoration Program to follow through, instead taking Usami's teacher role and manipulating the world to be a Despair Restoration Program. The motives she uses are extremely personal and targeted, hyperfocusing in on specific members of the class each time to ensure a murder happens the way she needs it to.

Something that's important to remember, though, is that Kaijunko IS NOT Junko. She's an artificial recreation of the real Junko intended to continue programming Despair into the world after she'd inevitably passed. And as such, she isn't a 1:1 replica, and there are key differences between the two in the same way Alter Ego is different from Chihiro and Observer Chiaki is different from the human Chiaki.

The reason Junko fell into SHSL Despair was because her intellect combined with human need for stimuli left her with such a deep depression and boredom that pain and suffering were the only ways to make her feel alive. But as an AI program, Kaijunko isn't burdened by that same need. She's programmed to have the same goal of spreading Despair, but she doesn't have a personal, insatiable need for Despair in the way that Junko did. And this leads her to have a different endgoal for the final trial than what the real Junko might have chosen.

Kaijunko observes and learns from Izuru Kamukura and the RoD, as well as the Towa City residents, in the same way Alter Ego learned from class 78. The brainwashing video forcefully reprogrammed them, yes, but ultimately, they still loved each other as friends and classmates, even if Chiaki wasn't there with them, and it's that dedication to each other that Kaijunko learns about. It's why those connections are the ones tested within the SDR2 killing game; Kaijunko, who actually came into contact with the RoD personally and was toted around by Kamukura, would know what to use to create a killing game that would leave the most desperate group of survivors at the end to follow through on Junko's plans to reconstruct them all into her.

However, because Kaijunko isn't constricted to the same need to destroy herself, she can afford to bend the plan around impulsively in the way Junko herself had in the past, but in a way that'd align with the original Junko's goals to harm others around her without needing to harm herself anymore. Thus, in the final trial, she doesn't push those desperate survivors to want to escape. Instead, she uses her knowledge gathered to make them want to stay in the world Makoto provided to them, where none of them have to face the consequences of the RoD's actions, Kaijunko included.

One of the ongoing themes across the board for SDR2 is how artificial everything about it is. The island is artificial. Chiaki is artificial. Hajime is an artificial hope. The RoD are artificial Despairs. Similarly, Kaijunko is an artificial Junko. She goes through those same motions as the original Junko, but she is not, cannot be Junko. She can only mimic, never be, and so she tries to escape altogether by resetting the game to a state where the RoD live an escapist dream, and she's locked in the game with 'her' classmates forever. But despite this, because she's mimicked Despair, she's become part of it, and Hajime and the others do the one thing Junko can't ever succeed in doing: they choose themselves, and she disappears without a chance of hope, just like Ryoko before her. Hajime and class 77 forge a new future, and Kaijunko dies trapped in the shadows of the past.

8.6.1- Hajime Hinata

If the battle between Makoto and Junko in THH is a battle of ideologies- hope and Despair- then the battle between Hajime and Junko is a battle of wills. This is the battle between self-love and self-hatred, and both Hajime and Junko are faced with their opposite, only to reject it in favor of what they want for themselves most.

Hajime's main character arc is one of self-discovery. When we meet him, he's been stripped of everything that's made him himself, having a gap in his memory that has his identity within it. This is a direct parallel to Ryoko Otonashi's lack of memory, having no identity or memories of the past with which to identify herself. She has only the words others tell her. But in the case of Hajime, it's revealed that the supposed gap is virtually nonexistent. He has no special talent or ability that differentiates him from the rest. He's a blank slate- empty, one might say. And this is quite similar to Ryoko. In a similar way, Izuru and Junko are both burdened by the weight of their talents. In the case of Izuru, he was operated on to remove all emotions and thoughts to be a symbol for Hope's Peak, while Junko's Analyst talent left her burdened with the inability to enjoy anything.

There are also similarities to Izuru and Ryoko, having both had their minds operated on to remove all memories of their true identity and become someone new, while Hajime and Junko both feel a heavy burden of who they are and feel as if that makes it impossible for them to enjoy their lives as they are. This parallel is exactly why Hajime's choice to live, and choosing to live in the face of retreating into the NWP, is so impactful, especially when faced with the shadow of Junko Enoshima.

Junko never chose herself. She never could choose herself, and when given the opportunity to, she rejected it entirely, too addicted to the cycle of self-destruction she'd created for herself. She felt as though Despair was the only answer for her, so she could never stop searching for it, even from beyond the grave. That not just she should feel it, but everyone should. Everyone needed to know the way she felt. And she used anything and anyone at her disposal to make sure the world burned, because she wanted to feel, and what was the point of such a world pretending not to feel Despair anyways?

Hajime chose himself. It wasn't for anyone but himself. When looking in the face of what he'd turned himself into for hope, he was able to come to the conclusion inverse to what Junko did- that he didn't need to change for the sake of anyone else. It didn't matter that he wasn't SHSL like the people he admired, so long as he lived for himself. Meanwhile, when Junko reverted back to herself, it was like dragging herself back into a cage, being burdened by the same kind of talent that Hajime never needed. A talent she never asked for was the source of her undoing, while Hajime's lack thereof almost killed him in the pursuit of one.

The dichotomy of the talented vs the talentless is one that can be felt extremely strongly between dr0, sdr2, and dr3, but especially when in regards to the divide between these two characters, as it again circles back to the damage the hierarchy they find themselves in creates. Junko is a heralded SHSL Analyst and Gyaru, dubbed by Japan as superior and handed the influence that makes it so much easier for her to poke holes in the system until it collapses. Even when all the evidence is placed on her, she's the SHSL Analyst, and can convince HPA to keep quiet for her. They cover up her crimes, and when they can't anymore, she's part of the 'chosen' that receive protection from the government while the Reserve Course and their families are never mentioned again. Hajime has nothing, is considered nothing, is even beaten and told to 'take to the leash and collar already' to keep him complacent. His choice to become Kamukura is weighted by the pressures of the system he's trapped within, holding him not only to his desire to be considered important, but to be equal, not to mention the debt he's placed in just for the right to participate in said hierarchy. Those treated like nothing are downtrodden to accept the system and uphold it, and those with power can do whatever they want and the system will protect them.

In a lot of ways, Hajime and Junko are more similar to each other than any other two characters in the franchise, all the way down to the sacrifice of the ones they closest around them sending them on their final path- Junko with Mukuro, and Hajime with Nagito. And in mirroring this, Nagito eventually returns, while Mukuro never can.

Mukuro and Junko are twins, and work to attain the same goal, but they're still very different people. Junko is absolutely fucked up, and Mukuro follows her out of a twisted need to be by her side, even when it leads to her eventual death. Hajime and Nagito are repeatedly called out as similar, both needing the other to get through the trials and survive and being forced to come to an understanding, but still retaining their individuality and separate beliefs. When Mukuro dies, it's directly because of her loyalty to Junko, even at the cost of herself, and Junko's betraying her resulted in both their deaths. Nagito died because of his loyalty to hope, even at the cost of himself, and Hajime's trust in him was what allowed him to survive and eventually bring Nagito back. Where Mukuro was metaphorically absorbed into Junko and forgotten, Nagito's individuality was what became critical to Hajime.

15.1- Shirokuma & Kurokuma

This part will remain brief. Shirokuma and Kurokuma are the AIs found in an all-white and all-black bear in UDG, each positioned on one side of the Towa City genocide and perpetuating the war by manipulating the Towa siblings.

Shirokuma is the 'good' one, and is positioned with the adult survivors. He's the one responsible for creating the underground safe house, and is Haiji's right-hand. Even when making it appear as though he wants peace first and foremost, he goes on to pilot Big Bang Monokuma and stands with Haiji, playing him and Komaru to escalate things.

Kurokuma is the 'bad' one, and is the one who gave Monaca the plan to create a Successor in the first place. He's a chatterbox that's an advisor to the WoH, presumably left behind by Junko or created by Monaca, and pushes the kids into their murder games by standing with Monaca.

Near the end of the game, Kurokuma reveals that Shirokuma is his little brother, and later in the epilogue, we learn that they were actually not distinct AIs, but rather, the same AI Junko as in SDR2 that was working both sides to destroy Towa City. Them taking the form of siblings mirrors that Junko herself was a twin, and isn't truly complete if she doesn't have her sibling still present.

Part 16- Big Sis Junko (UDG)

Following SDR2, UDG returned a master-manipulator Junko to the scene via the Warriors of Hope. Though AI Junko is present and perpetuating the war through her manipulation of the Towas, Junko herself is all but gone, survived only through the kids' memory of her, and what they have to say is extremely telling to the capability Junko really had to push people further towards her Despair.

Her role as 'Big Sis Junko' came when she prevented them from killing themselves, though how she knew to be there at the right time is unknown. We can assume she'd been keeping eyes on Monaca already and, through her Analyst talent, figured out when the right time to be to show up.

From there, they became the Warriors of Hope, not missed by their parents that hated them or worried for by the world, and Junko was free to mold them however she liked. She did this by teaching them to lash out at the people responsible for their suffering- not just their parents and abusers, but any and all adults. She was a teenage girl who'd taken pity on them, as far as most of them saw, and so they trusted her as the first and only person besides each other to show them kindness. They became ideological, lumping all adults within the same box of 'demon' because they were given no other comparison, and they did it for Junko.

"As far as I remember, the first adult we defeated was a random person we didn't even know. .... From there, we leveled ourselves up by killing Demons. Big Sis Junko was so pleased..." -Nagisa Shingetsu, UDG chapter 4

They came to rely on her as their one true savior, and even those of them who knew they were being manipulated didn't care, if only it meant they weren't the ones being beaten anymore.

"At least, at the time I thought it was a miracle. But later I learned it was inevitable. She came into my life just to take advantage of me." -Monaca Towa, UDG chapter 5

"'You guys... were completely deceived by Junko Enoshima.' 'And what's wrong with that? Did I not tell you that we are her possessions? We would rather her take advantage of us than horrible adults.' 'Sounds like it's too late.' 'Say what you like. Big Sis Junko... gave us hope. That's the truth.'" -Toko Fukawa & Nagisa Shingetsu, UDG chapter 4

And when she died, she was martyred, a victim of the cowards who'd believe in the adults and Hope's Peak. By dying, she completed her manipulation of them, ensuring in her absence, they would only remember the kindness she offered them. Anyone who said otherwise must be a demon.

"No matter how much you hate us, no matter how much we're shunned, we're definitely not wrong. That's the real truth, because Big Sis Junko said so. .... Those adults who took her away from us and said that she was the bad one! They're the filthy ones; they're the ugly ones, the disgusting ones!!!" -Jataro Kemuri, UDG chapter 2

This manipulation and creation of the WoH stemmed from a practical source, as we learn in the game. By Monaca's own admission, Junko only ever cared about getting access to Towa City tech for her Monokumas and for spreading Despair wide-scale. Having highly talented and abused kids to carry out her will when she was gone was just a very welcome bonus; having the youth primed to continue spreading Despair when she was gone would create a legacy, and her ghost would continue to haunt those with hope for at least another generation. Enter Monaca Towa.

8.8- Monaca Towa & the WoH (CW: Mentions of Incest & Pedophilia)

Monaca is differentiated from the rest of the Warriors of Hope almost immediately as being more aware of what the fuck is going on than her friends. She's the L'il Ultimate/SESL Homeroom that loves hearing everyone else talk about their thoughts and feelings, she's the one who invented the Captives game, and she has swastikas in her eyes, because Nazi symbolism was the only way we could convey she's a dictator I guess. As the game goes on, we see that her relationship with Junko is different from the rest of the class- a bit more substantial. She has much more knowledge of Junko's desire for Despair and knows the real reason Junko sought them out in the first place. She uses her friends' idolization of her to trick them into helping her make a new generation Junko to carry her memory. She also has a hidden bedroom full of photos of Junko, and one in particular stands out among the rest.

Junko and Monaca, all by themselves, posing for a photo. None of the other WoH are present for this photo. It's also worth noting that Monaca's in her WoH outfit, even though in every other flashback or cutaway to the past before Junko's death, they were all in their Hope's Peak Elementary uniforms. If it weren't already obvious, these two were spending more time together than with the rest of the WoH. This is primarily because of the explanation we've already been given- Junko needed tech, Monaca was the one that had it. Of course extra work was gonna be put into her, and if she felt special in comparison, she'd become more like Junko.

Both Monaca and Junko are a younger sister, and their older siblings are established as pretty creepy in their own ways. Mukuro is incestuous and lusts after Junko whenever they're together, or even just when thinking about her. Haiji, meanwhile, is a pedophile, mentioning he likes girls younger, "as young as I can get 'em." I don't have to explain why the knowledge he has an extremely younger half-sister he expressly doesn't think counts as family is a bloodcurdling realization given this information. While they seem to have very different levels of connection with their siblings, this is a pretty distinct commonality to give both masterminds, especially when one is meant to immediately succeed the other. Both girls are also considered the "genius" of their families, while their older siblings use more brute strength.

Monaca is a character built upon the mimicry of Junko. We know this because we pay attention to the game, but also because if we look at the concept art and beta forms of the Successor, we can see without question that creating a "New Junko" was always going to be a major part of UDG, as not one, but two unused Successor characters were considered before Monaca eventually became who she is today as the mastermind and true Successor.

Monaca throughout UDG undergoes a similar behavior to Junko in the way that she treats the WoH, but it's in a way the fundamentally misunderstands why Junko acts the way she does. Monaca is a child, and idolizes Junko, but that doesn't mean she actually understands her, even if she got much closer than her friends.

Monaca manipulates and discards the other WoH one by one, making herself the center of their movement and letting them believe they have control over what they're doing. She motivates them with a Paradise that'll never exist, similar to how Junko motivated the reserve course to stand up against Hope's Peak, and they take over Towa City. Whenever a WoH disappears, she decides whether or not they're mourned, but it appears as though she doesn't care and never did. She quickly forgets Masaru's name, barely bothers with Jataro, and later in her backstory monologue, proudly claims that when Junko met them, she was planning to let her only friends all kill themselves as a prank and not jump herself. She takes all the steps possible to Not Care about these people, similar to how Junko seemed not to care about the people she loved.

If Monaca spent enough time around Junko to observe and pick up this pattern, it likely means she also saw how little Junko actually cared for herself and her friends. This would explain why she starts acting as though she doesn't care at all for her only friends in the world and discarding them, wanting to emulate Junko, her idol. It also means she knew Junko didn't care about her, but her talents, and just didn't care because it was Junko. Again, this is a mentality not just held by her within the WoH, but because she was given a peek behind the curtain, she filled in the blanks in her head and let herself continue to be manipulated by Kurokuma, all in the hopes that Junko could return and manipulate her again. She needed a Successor, someone to fill that sisterly void again. And in that desperate desire, she inadvertently set herself up to someday become the SESL Despair.

Nagito's intervention is directly stated as the reason why she ends up abandoning this role as SESL Despair and fucking off to space as SESL Apathy instead, shrugging it off as 'not wanting to end up like he did'. This appears to be a deviation from what was originally intended for her, as not only was this wrapped up in a singular episode of an anime not actually about her, but the teaser images for a UDG 2 in UDG's credits ultimately ended up unused, and V3 totes a teaser of a canceled UDG 2.

Part 17- Junko's Apocalyptic Crash Course

"Right now, Hope’s Peak Academy is set up in a pyramid sort of idea that a third world country would use; it’s only really there to concentrate it’s effort on the 'super high school levels', for their benefit, and then below them are the reserve students from the preparatory school. .... The teachers here don’t really think any of the reserve students really belong here." -Yasuke Matsuda, DR 0

As we've seen repeatedly throughout the previous games and DR 0, Junko's strengths don't come from sheer force of will. She didn't take some perfect world of hope and twist it into a world of Despair by flipping some ideological switch. She's charismatic, but still human. Junko's strength comes from her ability to analyze, her high intelligence, and her charisma combining to create a master manipulator. Using the skills and people at her disposal, she was able to amass a cult following, and inspire the downfall of a society that was already flawed by attacking the weak points that were already present. Ergo, Junko's SHSL Analyst talent led her to not only infiltrate the school, but also to find the flaws within it and the lies it covered up by taking advantage of the Kamukura project wearing the school thin.

She may have been the face of the Despair movement, but she wasn't a singularity. She had a small group of people she trusted with a certain amount of information, and who had skills that would become beneficial to her. Mukuro is the obvious right-hand, as previously discussed, and perhaps the only one she legitimately believed to be an equal, but there was also Yasuke, Izuru, Ryota, Mikan, and Monaca, all of whom she attached herself too and all of whom had an extremely useful talent or title that was immediately beneficial to her cause. These people were able to directly carry out her desired acts of Despair and work alongside her, reporting back to her to ensure things were running smoothly. These were people who were needed directly as they were, and who were most useful when they believed she genuinely took interest in them, whether she actually had or not.

In a world already so flawed, with thinly veiled atrocities already taking place by people who believe in a caste system of talent, earning a downtrodden majority's trust is as simple as taking the blindfold off. Manipulating the people she'd attached herself to let her reveal key information at her leisure and drive the school and its inhabitants to Despair without them noticing or knowing to take action until it was too late to stop it. Something manmade, that turned into a disease and spread across the world, infesting it with the Tragedy and burning the oh-so-predictable world to the ground, all while standing as the eye of the storm- that was the power of the SHSL Despair that Junko worshipped, and she became its spokesperson, sending the world into a spiral.

Part 18- Junko's Legacy (Death of the Human, Birth of the God)

Everyone that loves Junko, misunderstands Junko. This is a fact that we see more than once. Mukuro obsesses, not loves. Yasuke romanticizes a childhood he can never return to. Monaca idolizes her. Mikan overtly sexualizes her. Her classmates know nothing of her self-destructive nature. Junko knew this and Despaired every time. But this fundamental misunderstanding of who Junko is didn't just exist in the game. In real life, Junko Enoshima became an iconic villain, the teenage girl that burned the world, the Ultimate Despair. She was insanely popular, and still is. And the more popular a character gets, the more susceptible they become to misinterpretations, fanon, oversimplification, etc.

In becoming such a well-known figure, Junko Enoshima the person got lost in translation. There was now Junko Enoshima, the mascot, the figurehead. This isn't a phenomenon exclusive to Junko, of course, but as the titular villain of the series until this point, how could the series continue without her? To this very day, people can't agree on who Junko was or who she actually cared about or if she ever even cared for anyone at all. And when NDRV3 was made, it took advantage of this to tell its own story, utilizing Junko Enoshima specifically to demonstrate flanderization of characters within its lore.

Junko Enoshima is not a real person. She's a fictional character. All her motivations, her thoughts and feelings, are fabricated stories and vague implications from the writing of real people. And in V3, that 'real person' is Tsumugi Shirogane, one of many cogs in the machine of Team Danganronpa, who dresses up as Junko and uses her face to become 'Junko Enoshima the 53rd'. Junko has been used and reused over and over and over, to the point where the original vision has been muddied beyond belief. What she was at the beginning, way back in THH, no longer exists. She's now a silly mascot, a familiar face that fans can point at and dress as and draw fanart of, and a face that Team DR can profit off of. Tsumugi's portrayal is laughably inaccurate to the original Junko. It's a costume, nothing more, and the dialogue she gives when 'in-character' is simplistic and insignificant. All its weight comes not from the meaning, but from the reference for reference's sake.

Junko's appearance in V3, like many other moving parts of V3, reference real-world fandom culture. It's appealing to both the in-universe fandom and the real one, bringing back character sprites and voice actors and poking fun at its own ridiculousness because none of it is real, none of it ever was. It was because Junko was fiction that she could do everything she ever did. Her Despair has meaning, but that doesn't mean she felt the feelings we're told she did, because she never existed to feel them. And that's the thing that lets her forever remain an enigma; she is Danganronpa's villain, and to become immortalized in Despair, she deconstructed into nothing but the word Despair, a fate that is in and of itself Despairful.

8.9- Tsumugi Shirogane

Tsumugi Shirogane is the mastermind of V3, and believes wholeheartedly in Junko Enoshima as the true villain of Danganronpa. Tsumugi is built as the fandom insert of DR, being immersed in fandom culture in every conceivable way- winking at the camera, making references to other fandoms, the love and joy of making cosplay- but also the less palatable parts of major fandoms, like her purist views of cosplay, her usage of incest as both a serious plot point and as a gag, and even does blackface when cosplaying as the dark-skinned DR characters of dr1 and 2. She's also the in-universe producer of the season. Therefore, Tsumugi also represents content creators, and how even the creator themselves can lose the plot of the character in their attempts to create what they perceive to be a compelling story.

As Tsumugi is explaining her story and why she tied it back into the Hope's Peak era, she pretty openly admits that a) she sees it as a perfect reproduction and b) a necessary writing choice in order to make it interesting. Both are false, as not only is V3's continuity in a separate world from the Hope's Peak era, but her presentation of Junko and the voice lines aren't displayed the same way Junko had acted in previous installations.

"'So... you're just a freak pretending to be Junko Enoshima, huh!?' 'No, a perfect reproduction! Perfect reproductions are exactly the same as the original.'" -Maki Harukawa & Tsumugi Shirogane, V3

She presents Junko as a singularity, the Ultimate Despair, and brazenly parades her face around as the immortal and ever-present true Despair. She's the 53rd Despair simply because her influence wouldn't allow her to fade away. She's become Despair-incarnate, but in making new games, Team DR has forgotten why Junko caused Despair in the first place. She didn't do it just to do it; she threw the world into Despair because it made her feel human to feel Despair. And yet when Tsumugi explains Junko the 53rd's plans, it's nothing but a big show, and that's exactly what a surface-level Junko looks like to the masses- a high-school girl that ended the world for fun.

Junko's games had meaning. Even when she didn't feel particularly connected to a person, like the RoD, she still brought them into Despair for a purpose. She was an analyst, and did the things she did with intention and with care. Attention to detail and careful manipulation with the face of a charismatic gyaru was her forte. But Tsumugi's so-called "perfect reproduction" is a story full of plot holes and contradictions, all caused by some need to deify Junko. In other words, as they refused to let Danganronpa go, they lost the plot, and Junko's humanity went with it in a desire to continue using her image when writing new stories. In becoming a god of Despair, her origins as a human were forgotten.

Part 19- Despair Into Tomorrow (Why We Care)

Junko Enoshima is an enigma. She is Despair incarnate, a pillar of the Danganronpa world created by her own hands, hellbent on burning herself to the ground. She's a character of poetic irony, unknown to all as anything but Despair. She was born with a perfect mind, and in trying to feel human, feel pain, feel Despair, she became permanently deified by all that she loved and all that she met, whether that was as a savior who killed a cruel world or a demon that detested hope.

At every turn, Junko's actiona are filled with malice, and yet so often that malice is directed at herself. Living in a peaceful world pains her because it leaves her bored. Anhedonia is a cruel mistress, and those who claimed to love her could never once comprehend it, because they couldn't feel the way she felt. The only thing she had that connected her in any human way to others or to herself was grief, and her entire story becomes one of self-sabotage. Despite that, though, she's not the only character burdened by anhedonia, and her self-destructive nature outstretching to the people and world around her is designed as a story of caution.

In each and every installation of Danganronpa, Junko and the other masterminds inspired by her fail because of their key difference in connections. When Makoto appeals to his classmates, they're reminded of their own desires to live and their love for each other- Hina's memory of Sakura, Syo's love of Byakuya, Kyoko's and Byakuya's love of Makoto himself. The same can be said of when Hajime chooses himself, to fight for himself, and is inspired to do so by Chiaki. Every other survivor has someone that inspired them to live for themself- Peko, Nakomaru, Gundham, the people around them. When Komaru is saved by Toko, it's because she took the time to connect with her and with Syo, and that love saved her from destruction. When Munakata gave up hunting Makoto, it was because of his love for Chisa. And when Shuichi declared he wouldn't vote, it was so that Maki and Keebo wouldn't be forced into sacrifice of a system that would hurt them over and over again.

Junko had connections. Junko had people she loved. Junko had another half. But she burned them one by one, until there was nothing left but her, and then she burned that too. She's a villain even to herself, and she knows it. She feels Despair upon Despair and even then can't regret it, because she wouldn't let anything else touch her heart besides it. It's an inherently self-fulfilling prophecy to only feel Despair, because in order for that Despair to exist, she must have felt love first. But she doesn't acknowledge her love and her vulnerabilities because she believes those fall under her 'factory settings'. Comfort is boring; safety is boring, and boredom was her enemy, an enemy second only to herself.

Junko's actions stem from a deeply embedded self-hatred. She was too smart and too comfortable, and so her boredom became everything she was. She believed the lie she told herself, that pain and grief and Despair was the only answer. Don't be like Junko. Don't believe the lies you tell yourself. Even in an unjust world, you can try to make things better without making them worse. Feel your Despair and let it go. It is okay to let it go. You are still human, no matter what image the people around you have, and to be seen, you must first be vulnerable.

Afterword

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST IT'S BEEN OVER 5 MONTHS. I made jokes and gags about 'getting this out before 2025' but I didn't think that would actually end up as my deadline. Holy fuck.

Junko's analysis is by far the beefiest I've done so far, and very well could remain the biggest one in this entire series of analyses (I think Kyoko, Makoto, and mayyybe Chiaki or Hajime might get close, but otherwise? Those are def gonna be the big 5 though) But hey, that's what being the mastermind of the franchise gets you. In retrospect, Junko probably should've been the grand finale, not part 5/17 of this series' part 1, but whatever. I'll save that grand finale for Kyoko instead

This will probably be the most controversial analysis I put out, alongside the eventual Mukuro one. I know people are, uh, divided on their relationship, but I did my best to stay objective and look at it from an unbiased viewpoint for what they offer narratively and its effectiveness. And I hope people are able to see that. Just in case, though, I'm gonna have anons off for a bit until whatever circulation this post gets dies down lol

Honestly, my perception of Junko has changed so much over the course of these past several months. It's not like I didn't like her before, but she's morphed into one of my favorite villains in all of media after this. This girl just cannot fucking die, no matter how much she wants to, and I think there's something so deeply compelling about a villain that wants nothing more than to self-destruct and burn the world with them, especially if you've fallen into a depressive state like the one she's in before

Good news, though! The next analysis set is Hifumi's, which means it won't take nearly as long as this whopper of a tumblr post! I'm actually very eager to deconstruct him, so hopefully we can go back to the summer days where I was able to crank out an analysis after 2 weeks. Please, god, can we go back to the summer days where I cranked out an analysis after 2 weeks

Catch ya later! :P

[hemmingsleclerc]

Disneyland ┃CL16

summary: where the leclerc family spends a day at disneyland

It was a warm day in Los Angeles and Charles was packing the last of his little daughter's things into her mini-backpack. He had decided to take a break from the busy world of racing to spend quality time with his girlfriend and his energetic 4-year-old daughter, Emma. He had decided to take his girls to Disneyland.

When they entered the huge park, Emma's eyes opened with excitement as she saw the Disney characters, the various games and the other children dressed as their favorite characters. Charles and Y/N exchanged smiles, knowing that this day would be filled with laughter and unforgettable memories.

The first stop was Fantasyland, where they entered classic attractions such as "It's a Small World" and the Mad Hatter's teacups where even though Emma was barely 4 years old, she loved speed and laughingly shouted at her parents to turn the wheel cup faster.

Right there, Emma insisted on dressing up, excusing herself that it was to feel the magic in a better way, so they entered the store where they sold the different costumes and let Emma freely choose what their clothes would be for the rest of the day.

Now, Charles dressed as Prince Charming, Y/N in the beautiful Cinderella dress and Emma dressed as a little Wendy, strolled through Adventureland, where they met pirates and sailed through the mysterious waters of the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. Charles hugged Emma, while Y/N captured the funny image of them dressed as Disney characters with the pirates.

Emma, now a little ahead of them, was trying to run in the direction of the car ride, eager to ride the cars from one of her favorite movies.

''!Emma Jules don't run so fast!'' Charles shouted trying to reach his little daughter.

As the day progressed, the Leclerc family ran into beloved Disney characters, posed for photos, and enjoyed treats like Mickey-shaped ice cream, among other things. Emma insisted on meeting Peter Pan and Wendy, the characters of her current favorite movie, and Charles and Y/N happily agreed, following her daughter's enthusiasm.

The highlight of their day was a surprise meeting with Mickey Mouse and Minnie themselves. Emma's eyes widened in pure amazement as she hugged the iconic characters. Charles and Y/N exchanged a proud look, grateful for this opportunity to make precious memories for their daughter.

As the sun began to set, the family rushed to see the spectacular fireworks show in the front row. Emma sat on Charles' shoulders, pointing to the sky in wonder as explosions of color lit up the night.

Leaving the park, tired but happy, Charles and Y/N , with their daughter in their arms, headed to their car. The little girl had fallen exhausted after that day.

While Y/N placed Emma in her seat, Charles tried to unbutton the collar of that costume they were still wearing.

''What are you doing Charlie?''

''I've been choking on this costume all day but I didn't want to take it off for Emma. These things are not designed for people with f1 driver necks''

''Let me help you'' his girlfriend laugh

With a little effort they managed to noticeably loosen the collar of the suit and then climbed into their respective seats to reach the comfort of their hotel to rest.

''¿Do you think she had fun?'' charles said in a low voice trying not to wake up his daughter in the back seat.

''I'm sure she had the best time, baby, plus, I got to see you in that cute costume all day. You looked very handsome''

''What can I say? Although you are not far behind, you look beautiful in that dress, did you know that Cinderella is one of my favorite movies?'' he said smiling

''Oh shut up'' Y/N covered her mouth trying to silence her laughter.

They indeed had the best time.

[sebscore]

I saw you mentioned Pierre and Charles babysitting a young leclerc sister? Can I request an imagine of that? Them being about 17 and 18, reader being a toddler? Thank you! Love your work.

YOU CAN'T SAY THAT WORD | CHARLES LECLERC & PIERRE GASLY

pairings: charles leclerc x sister!reader / pierre gasly x leclerc!reader

warnings: swearing. piarles are horrible babysitters. charles and pierre are teenagers in this for plot purposes.

author's note: this is heavily inspired by modern family, btw. thank you so much for the request! I hope you enjoy this fic and let me know what you think of it!

• • • • • • •

''Sorry, I know this isn't what we had planned for tonight.'' Charles apologized as he and Pierre settled into his living room. The Frenchman chuckled, not very amused. ''No, this is not what I had imagined.''

''It's the only way my parents would let me keep the house to ourselves.'' The teenager explained, looking down at the toddler sitting on her playmat.

It had been more difficult than expected for Charles to persuade his parents to let him and his friend be by themselves for the day. The truth was that Charles' parents didn't fully trust the teenagers to be left alone without any kind of supervision. However, Charles had been very adamant that he could be responsible and keep the house intact. So, his parents let him have his friend over on one condition: that they babysit the youngest Leclerc sibling.

Pierre patted Charles' back. ''It's okay, Charlito! It can be fun, right?''

''Yeah,'' he sighed out of relief, happy his best friend didn't want to leave, ''we'll play with her for a bit and tire her out, then she'll sleep easier.'' Charles loved his little sister more than anything, but he still wanted some guy time.

''Hey, Little Leclerc! You still know me, right? What's my name?'' Pierre sat himself down next to the toddler who was playing with her Barbie dolls.

She looked up at him, a bright smile covering her face once she noticed who it was. ''Gasly!'' Y/N screamed, making the two young men laugh. ''No, no, no! It's Pierre, Y/N! Pierre.'' He clearly articulated his name in hope she repeated it back to him.

''Gasly!''

''Pierre.''

''Gasly!''

''Pie- Oh, whatever,'' he sighed loudly, giving up on trying, ''should we play some Xbox? We haven't played in a while.'' Pierre suggested, his attention back to Charles.

The younger one nodded his head, moving to grab his two controllers. ''Mario Kart?'' The Monégasque smirked, already knowing the answer. ''What else would we play?'' Pierre got up from the ground and took a seat on the couch.

Charles sat down next to him, getting the game started. ''I beat you last time, remember?'' He grinned, recalling the previous time they played and Charles had won, much to Pierre's dismay.

''I'm ready for revenge, Leclerc.'' The older one stated, raising his eyebrow.

Before they could play against each other, they had to choose a character that would represent them in the race. ''Who are you choosing?'' Charles asked Pierre as they frequently switched up their avatars.

''Peachy Peachy!'' Y/N exclaimed, pointing with her small hands to Princess Peach who appeared on the tv screen.

Both boys chuckled at the girl's excitement. ''You want me to be Princess Peach, Y/N?'' Pierre asked her, lingering on the female character. The toddler babbled some inaudible words, but it was obvious what her answer was.

''Charlie, Daisy! Daisy!'' She focused her attention on her brother, who was about to choose Mario as his character. Y/N walked up to him, slapping her hands on his knees. ''You Daisy, Charlie!''

Charles glanced at an amused Pierre, who shrugged his shoulders. ''We can always change characters, Leclerc.''

''Okay, I'll be Daisy then.'' He gave in, a bright smile covering his face as his little sister started clapping her hands and stomping her feet, because of the overwhelming excitement she was feeling.

The babysitting gig was going well so far. Y/N plopped herself down on her mat and patiently watched the screen as the two guys raced against each other. She would clap for either of them whenever someone won or she would enthusiastically jump with them.

Charles was running in P1 until Pierre passed him in the last second and pushed him into the walls, making him come in last as everyone overtook him. ''Putain, Gasly!'' As soon as the words left the Monégasque's mouth, their eyes widened and immediately went to the little girl sitting in front of them.

''Maybe she didn't hear,'' Pierre whispered, making sure the little one wouldn't be able to hear them, ''just move on like nothing happened.''

''Hey, Y/N,'' Charles called her over to him, ''you want to play with me against Pierre?'' A wave of relief went through him as his sister jumped up at his words, pleased that she didn't start repeating the curse word.

He picked her up by her underarms and planted her on his lap. Charles trapped his sister between his arms, so she could grab the controller and play along with them, although he was practically doing all of the work.

Pierre let the Leclerc siblings have the win in the first round, knowing it would make the girl happy. ''You're so good, Y/N! You're better than both of us!'' He complimented her, booping her nose.

All was well, until Pierre used one of the red and green shells, and threw it at their character, making their Princess Daisy avatar spin around and lose their first place position. ''Putain, Gasly!'' Y/N repeated her brother's words, having it heard loud and clear before.

All the tension that had left came right back to smack the two boys in the face. They slowly glanced from the girl to each other, seeing a flush of panic in each other's eyes.

''Uh, Y/N? Go grab your crayons and coloring book, we'll draw together, okay?'' Charles spoke up, coloring being the first distraction that came into mind.

She adamantly nodded her head, excited at the thought of the three of them doing something together again. ''Okay.''

As soon as she was out of sight, Charles looked with wide eyes at his friend. ''I'm in so much trouble.'' His hand flew through his hair, frustration visible on his face.

''As long as she doesn't say it in front of your parents it's okay, Charles.'' Pierre tried to calm him down.

''That's the thing, she's learned something new and every time she learns something new, she wants to show it off to mum and dad.'' He explained, pretty confident that his sister would say the word when his parents got back home. ''They're not going to be thrilled that their 4 year-old daughter is saying curse words.''

Pierre thought for a moment. ''We can just explain to her that she can't say that word? She's very smart, she'll understand.''

As if on cue, the toddler hopped back into the living room while holding her box of crayons and several coloring books. Y/N put everything on the dining table, standing on her tippy toes and took a seat on her chair. She started coloring right away, not waiting for the two older guys that were still seated on the couch.

''Alright, we'll explain it to her.'' Charles agreed to Pierre's idea. They got up from their seats, put the controllers away and joined the girl at the table. ''Y/N, we have to talk to you about that word you said earlier.'' Her brother started off.

''What word?'' She looked up from her butterfly drawing.

Pierre shot Charles a warning look as if to say ''don't be dumb and repeat it''. The Monégasque got the hint and nodded. ''The one while we were gaming, the one that starts with p.''

''Peachy?''

''No.''

''Pierre?''

''You do know my name!'' He exclaimed, it was the first time she properly pronounced his name. ''But no, not that one.''

Maybe she doesn't remember, Charles thought to himself. He glanced at Pierre who simply shrugged his shoulders, he seemed to be thinking the same thing.

''Oh, you mean 'putain'?'' Y/N said the word again, the innocent and pure tone in her voice almost not making it sound like a curse word. Pierre had a hard time not bursting out in laughter, it just sounded super adorable coming from the little girl.

Charles was shooting daggers at his friend with his eyes, they had to look serious. ''That's a bad word, okay? You can't say that anymore.'' He told her, getting on her eye-level.

''But you said it?'' Her confused expression was difficult not to swoon over, but they both had to be strong.

''I shouldn't have said that, that was really bad of me,'' Charles clarified for her, ''we're not allowed to say it, okay?'' He had an hopeful glance in his eyes.

Y/N glimpsed over at Pierre, his hands covering his face to try to hide his laughter. ''But it's making him laugh, Charlie! Why is he laughing if it's a bad word?'' She asked her older brother, not understanding it.

''Pierre shouldn't be laughing.'' Charles semi-scolded his friend.

The man in question scratched his throat. ''Your brother is right, it's not funny and I shouldn't be laughing, Y/N.'' He tried to sound stern.

The small girl simply laughed in their faces and got away from the table, running back upstairs to her room. ''We're not joking, Y/N Pascale Leclerc!'' Charles yelled.

''She thinks we're not being serious.'' He sighed to Pierre, letting his head drop onto the table.

Pierre chuckled. ''Well, are we being serious?'' Charles rolled his eyes at the Frenchman's words. ''Hey, come on,'' Pierre patted Charles' head, making the younger one look up, ''we're just gonna drop it, alright? By the time our parents get back, she'll have forgotten all about it, you know small kids.''

''Yeah, you're right.'' Pierre's assurance brought him some comfort about the situation, kids get distracted easily. They don't have anything to worry about.

The rest of the day went by quite smoothly. Y/N took a long nap after they played some football in the garden, so the two boys could play some more non-toddler-friendly games on the Xbox. Once Y/N had woken up, they ordered pizza and despite his mother drilling into him that she couldn't have any fast food, Charles let the girl have a few bites.

The three of them were laying on the couch watching 'Cars', when their parents returned home. ''We're back, mes chéries!'' Pascale, Charles and Y/N's mother, greeted them.

Y/N jumped up from Charles' lap, running into her mother's arms. ''Maman! I won against Pierre in Mario Kart!'' She bragged to her, a beaming smile on her face.

''Really? You had fun with the boys?'' She asked, subtly looking around the living room looking for anything that indicated they had caused trouble, but she found nothing.

''Yes!'' Y/N adamantly nodded, making everyone around her laugh.

Hervé had taken notice of the empty pizza boxes in the kitchen. ''Did you enjoy the pizzas? I hope you didn't give anything to your sister, Charles.''

Charles shook his head. ''She didn't have pizza, Papa.'' He lied.

''Chérie, what did you eat tonight?'' Her mother asked her, not entirely convinced by her son's answer.

The young girl glanced at the two teenagers before replying. ''I had pasta and Charlie gave me a lollypop after we played in the garden.'' She made sure to use her bambi eyes, knowing it worked on her parents and brothers every time she made that cute face.

''That's good, mon amour!'' Her mum hugged her, winking at Charles behind her daughter's back.

''We're gonna take off then, we have quite the trip back home.'' Pierre's mother, Pascale, signaled for her son to get up from the couch and to bid goodbye to everyone.

Pierre sighed, but stood up. ''Thank you so much for having me over, it was really fun.'' He thanked Charles' parents. Hervé hugged the boy, while Pascale ruffled his hair as she was still holding the toddler in her arms.

''Bye, Little Leclerc! I'll get revenge on you next time we play Mario Kart, alright?'' He crouched down a bit to be eye-to-eye with the girl. She nodded and the two high-fived.

Everyone moved to the hallway, waiting for Pierre to put on his shoes, so the Gasly Family could start their journey back to France.

''Maman?'' Y/N whispered in her mother's ear, covering her mouth with her hand.

''Yes?''

''Why does Pierre look sad?'' The young boy was disappointed that the day with his best friend was already over, even though they would be seeing each other in a few days.

Her mum chuckled, endeared by her daughter's observations. ''He had a nice time here, so he's a little sad that he has to go home.'' Pascale explained, whispering back.

Pierre and his parents were almost out the door when Y/N came up with her masterplan to make the older boy laugh and cheer him up. ''Pierre! Pierre!'' She yelled, grabbing everyone's attention.

''Putain!''

The silence in the hallway didn't last long as all the parents burst out laughing at the unexpected words that left the girl's mouth. Charles and Pierre, who looked like they had seen a ghost, slowly let the situation sink in and laughed along with them. They were mostly smiling out of relief that their parents could see the humor in it.

''Alright, goodbye, everyone!'' The Gasly's bid them goodbye one last time before disappearing from their sight.

Charles continued smiling until his father closed their front door and turned around, a serious look on his face contrasting the laughing one from before. ''I gotta go.'' He swiftly moved away from the hallway to the living room.

''Charles Marc Hervé Perceval Leclerc!''

[losingtimewithu]

ONE DATE! | Isaac García x Reader ( Part 2 )

pairing: Isaac garcía x female reader

summary: in wich you accept Isaac's date and it ends better than you expected.

word count: 920

author’s note: this is the second part of help her. english is not my first language, hope you like!

There you were, at the entrance to the Walters' house, you had accepted Isaac's date, all to keep your secret safe. You weren't too excited about it, Isaac was hot, but you had heard about him, he was just as flirtatious as Cole, and he also went out with a lot of girls, so you weren't surprised that he wanted to go out with you, you thought there was no background beyond that. of wanting to sleep with you.

You knocked on the door, which was opened by Cole, his brow furrowed, he wasn't expecting you today.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"It's good to see you too," you replied sarcastically.

"I'm sorry, we didn't plan anything today..." he said.

"I'm not here for you...I have a date with Isaac" you said.

"Why?"

"Why? Because he invited me" you answered.

"I guess you want to stay in the family somehow" he mocked you again, and before you could answer, Isaac appeared.

“Hey,” he greeted you, “Shall we go?”

Without thinking about it you nodded, you didn't even look at Cole, he was being an idiot.

"What do you have planned?" you asked, curiously, you hadn't been on a date since...you were born.

It's just that you didn't believe in love.

"The Silver Falls Fest is starting..." he said.

“Oh” was all you said and you started walking to the center of town. It wasn't like he was very far away anyway.

When you arrived at the Silver Falls Fest the smell of food, candy, the screams of children, everything felt too warm.

Isaac couldn't help but take your hand, it was a date, it had to feel like a date. You looked at him in surprise, but you ignored that, it even crossed your mind that maybe this was all a dare that he and Cole had done, but you didn't want to think about it too much.

"Let's go to a game" Isaac said, breaking you out of your thoughts. You walked towards the water shooting game, "This is too easy, these are games for children."

He paid the five dollars to the guy running the game and looked at you. "What prize do you want?" his self-absorbed smile made you roll your eyes, but you smiled anyway, pointing to the big prize, an oversized panda stuffed animal.

"That."

The game started, and Isaac didn't shoot any paper figures, so he didn't get any points. You laughed at it, he loved hearing you laugh.

"I lost to make you laugh," Isaac said. "These games are fixed."

“Let me try,” you said, taking the gun. Isaac gave the guy another five dollars.

"It will be a waste of time..." he muttered.

But no, you shot exactly eight paper figures. You looked at Isaac with a self-absorbed smile. “What prize do you want?” you asked with some mockery.

"The panda" he said. And when the game guy gave you the panda, you gave it to Isaac.

Following that they walked towards a cotton candy stand, it was strange for you to have a date for the first time, and you couldn't help but think that this date would surely be one more in Isaac's week, you had heard about Isaac García, from about your lab partner, you knew that he dated a lot of girls, so you didn't understand what he wanted from you.

"You are having fun?" He asked you. You nodded.

"I'll be honest..." you didn't take your eyes off the cotton candy machine, "This is my first date."

Shame washed over you, and you looked at him, not knowing what his expression would be.

"I know," he said.

You frowned.

"What do you mean 'I know'?"

“I know this is your first date,” Isaac said, giving you a sweet smile, “And I'm so happy you agreed to go on a date with me.”

"Are you doing it out of pity?" Asked.

"No! Of course not," he was quick to reply, "I do it because I like you."

You sighed and grimaced.

"But you know what happened between Cole and me."

Isaac stated, "So what? He's not in love with you...and you're not in love with him."

"But... Doesn't it bother you that I was with Cole?"

"Why should I care who you've been with?" He asked, "Does it bother you who I've been with?"

You shake your head. "Well no... it happened before you and I had this date"

"Exactly," Isaac sounded like you, "So please don't torture yourself over petty things...and better tell me how the hell you won at the shooting game."

You laughed, "You just have really bad aim."

"I don't think so. I have to be honest... I let you win there" he said, as he looked at you with a smile from ear to ear.

"Learn to lose, Garcia," he said, smiling the same way.

"Then let's go to another game! If I win, you give me a kiss..." Isaac looked into your eyes.

"Fine, but if I win, you give me a kiss," you replied, winking at him.

"Do you still want the cotton candy?" The man who attended the machine asked.

"I had forgotten," Isaac laughed, and looked away from you to pay for the cotton candy.

Then you noticed something. The way the afternoon sun illuminated Isaac's face made his already bright brown eyes seem more alive than usual. You had never paid attention to someone's eyes like you did that day.

[directdogman]

Hello Hound!! Since it's Dialtown's 2nd anniversary, I've been planning up a few "general" related questions about your series that I've been meaning to ask, but I decided to save them up for the big day because why not? Anyways, here's what I've got, these were meant to be fun to answer so don't sweat it :]

1: How do you feel about Dialtown's success? Are you proud of how far you've come? 

2: Which character was the MOST fun for you to write, and which was the most PAINFUL?

3: What is something you wish more people would talk about or just know about related to Dialtown in general?

4: If you had the opportunity to write a FULL complete, detailed life story of any of your characters, who would that be?

5: What's a character you wish you could have given more screen-time or just in general content? (Considering iirc you were trying to make sure Dialtown wasn't TOO long, so I was wondering if this ever came to mind)

6: From what I know, you've been doing the job of cosplaying several characters in the game and acting out their sprites, which one was the most fun to act out?

7: Speaking of sprites, do you have a sprite you could consider your favorite, out of ALL your characters?

8: Do you have a specific line of dialogue you could consider your favorite throughout the entire game?

9: Could you ever see Dialtown expanding into perhaps sequels or maybe even prequels? More DLCs mayhaps? Heck, maybe even a Dialtown 2 or a Chapter 4??

10: If you could make any fan-made interpretation (such as headcanons, designs, or ships) canon if given the opportunity, what do you think would be your pick?

11: What was the MOST fun part about developing Dialtown? Coming up with new characters? Writing them? Adding all the bizarre dialogue options?

12: And last but not least — on a scale of 1-10, how fun was developing Dialtown just in general?

That's all I have for now, and I'm really excited to see your answers!!

I normally don't answer this many questions, but... alright, sure, tis the season!

1: How do you feel about Dialtown's success? Are you proud of how far you've come? 

Yeah, of course! I'm a lil proud, admittedly, but I'm aware of how comically little I really have to do with it all, even if I did make the game. Luck does play a LOT into it, of course. Granted, I made my share of predictions that wound up being useful, but it always comes down to lady luck at the end of the day. I've seen good projects fail and bad ones go viral. It's really all just a hodgepodge of probability and whimsy. That being said, I am very pleased with DT's success, and the community that's formed around the game! It caught me by surprise!

2: Which character was the MOST fun for you to write, and which was the most PAINFUL?

Gingi's always fun to write. And Mingus. Most painful is tough to say. Maybe Crown. I got a little weird when I wrote his full backstory, kinda caught up in the emotion Norm talks about. Never been a fan of stories getting cut short. You gotta wonder what would've happened if he'd made different choices, y'know?

3: What is something you wish more people would talk about or just know about related to Dialtown in general?

Honestly? Karen, probably. She's super underrated for sure. The fandom still loves her, but she doesn't get the same kind of attention as Oliver, Gingi, Randy, Norm. She's worth it.

4: If you had the opportunity to write a FULL complete, detailed life story of any of your characters, who would that be?

Oh, I already have. I have this monstruous 30-40 page document detailing Crown's life and entire career. It's quite a read. and quite a mind-fuck if you don't know Dialtown's universe too well.

5: What's a character you wish you could have given more screen-time or just in general content? (Considering iirc you were trying to make sure Dialtown wasn't TOO long, so I was wondering if this ever came to mind)

Oh yeah, a few characters had scenes that were cut. Stabby, Shooty, Mingus, Bunny, even Bigfoot! There's also the game's cut 6th datable, who was an interesting character with ties to other characters in the cast who I wanted to do more with. Ah, maybe one day.

6: From what I know, you've been doing the job of cosplaying several characters in the game and acting out their sprites, which one was the most fun to act out?

Bigfoot. I made the ape noises in the suit. Had to. It felt right.

7: Speaking of sprites, do you have a sprite you could consider your favorite, out of ALL your characters?

I quite like Norm's set, Mingus' too. Karen's poses too are quite good.

8: Do you have a specific line of dialogue you could consider your favorite throughout the entire game?

That answer probably changes every day. I like pretty much any scene where Mingus loses her temper.

9: Could you ever see Dialtown expanding into perhaps sequels or maybe even prequels? More DLCs mayhaps? Heck, maybe even a Dialtown 2 or a Chapter 4??

I'd love to make sequels one day! I've got a lot of ideas for where the characters/story would end up. By the time DT1 wrapped up, I'd conceptualized way too much stuff to put in one game (without it taking another few years to finish), so if I ever wanted to make sequels, I'd 100% know where to start! But, that's a later down the road conversation.

For now, I'm gonna keep working on the Roger DLC and if there's demand for more, I can go from there :)

10: If you could make any fan-made interpretation (such as headcanons, designs, or ships) canon if given the opportunity, what do you think would be your pick?

I guess I COULD do that with, like, anything. Nothing immediately springs to mind, since, y'know, I'm in control of the canon anyway. I will say, I've seen headcanons and theories that ARE scarily accurate to canon, to the point where I've feared people would just think I'm lifting stuff from the fanbase! It's a good thing I talk about these things with collaborators, huh? I've got a PAPER-TRAIL!!!

11: What was the MOST fun part about developing Dialtown? Coming up with new characters? Writing them? Adding all the bizarre dialogue options?

Finishing a new scene and realizing how stupidly long it was (without me realizing it) was always a treat. But yeah, writing the characters had to be it. Specifically any scene where a character the audience knows meets someone the audience doesn't know well (or at all), with the dynamic changing. Those are fun to write.

12: And last but not least — on a scale of 1-10, how fun was developing Dialtown just in general?

Hard question to answer. I do really wanna give a high number, but truthfully, a lot of game dev actually isn't super 'fun'. Some tasks are, granted, but many parts are a slog. Sitting and formatting dialogue, and then adding text pauses and pose changes isn't exactly a super thrilling activity. The engine itself also has some issues which I have to work around that adds to the workplace. Play-testing a scene for the 4th time isn't super fun either, or trying to figure out why the game crashes on some PCs and ONLY very rarely... Those tasks are Sisyphean to some degree.

...But, while most of those parts aren't fun, it's all still rewarding. There's a sense of accomplishment when you finish a scene. You get to look back at your hard work, remember the hours you spent typing dialogue into a text box and formatting mass amounts of pngs, painstakingly + manually getting the game's awful pre-loader to deal with the sprites right, etc... and suddenly, at the end, you've got this lil experience that people can play and enjoy. Somehow, the sum of all of those not so fun activities has created something that's going to make people laugh, feel happy. That's special. and even if some parts of development weren't super fun on their own, that's always what I remember. That in the end, all of those not so fun days mattered.

The route I agonized the most over was Oliver's. I went through a few weeks of writer's block, and now, it's one of the most popular routes in the game! Crazy how that happens. I was SURE for about a week that people would rank the route at the bottom! That's what I mean, all of the stress I went through trying to figure it out amounted to something people connected with! To think I almost CUT the route entirely!!!

And y'know, God knows Dialtown gave me something to throw myself at during a time where I REALLY needed the outlet. I'm very grateful to the project for that. So, I'll give DT an honorary 8 out of 10, even if it wasn't a consistently 8/10 experience making it heh heh! Sure glad I did, though and I'm very glad if any of you reading this had a really good time playing it! :)

Thanks for the questions!

[larluce]

Merlin as Arthur's familiar/Arthur's shapeshifter falcon AU

LINK TO THE OTHER PARTS: PART 1 , PART 2 , PART 3 , PART 4 , PART 5 , PART 6 , PART 7 , PART 8 , PART 9 , PART 10 , PART 11 , PART 12 , PART 13

Chicks: (walking through the corridor in sync, singing)

🎶To the outside

To the outside

We go, we go, we go

What will we find?

Who knows, who knows🎶

😄😄😄😄😄

Guardian: (who is walking infront of the others, stops) Alright, now back to Auntie Morgana's room.

Rain: But we've only seen walls and closed doors!

Brave: And we haven't found Mama and Papa yet.

Guardian: We agreed on doing a short expedition and that's what we just did. Besides, it's close to food time.

Rain: (sad) It's true.

Brave: But-

Guardian: Back I said. 😠

Brave: (sighs in bird) Fine. (turns and walks back)

Wary: (walking back too) What a nice expedition, it wasn't as scary as I thought. 😊

Rain: (walking back too) I thought it was going to be more fun.

Brave: (walking back too) And exciting.

Guardian: (walking back too, but stops abruptly) Wait... Where's Blizzard?

Blizzard: (far, at the beginning of the stairs, pointing with his wing) Guys, look at this! 😃

Brave and Rain: (run to see)

Guardian: No, come back! (sighs in bird and runs after them)

Wary: Don't leave me! 😨 (runs too)

Chicks: (arrive and look down the stairs, amazed) Wooow! 😮

Brave: What is that?

Blizzard: Isn't it obvious? It's a mountain! 😄 (stretches his wings, excited)

Rain: Aren't mountains supposed to go up? 🤨☝️

Wary: That's only if we are "down".🤓👇

Brave: We've been living in the "up" of a mountain this whole time! 😱

Guardian: What a discovery! 😮 ... (serious again) Alright, time to go back.

Blizzard: Or! We could go see what's in "the down".😄

Brave and Rain: (lifting a wing) To "the down"! 😄

Guardian: NO! Are you mad! 😠 We can't fly! How are we supposed to go down?

Wary: Guardian is right. We are too high, it could be dangerous! 😨

Brave: Shut up, Wary. 😠

Blizzard: Yeah, shut up. 😠

Rain: Actually, I'm with Guardian and Wary on this. It's one thing to jump from the bed to the floor, but this? We'd have to jump constantly and we could fall.

Wary: And die! 😱

Blizzard: Fine, stay if you want. I'm going to "the down".

Brave: Me too.

Guardian: No! We are going back together! 😠

Blizzard: You are not Mama or Papa, you can't tell us what to do! 😠

Guardian: I'm the oldest! 😡

Brave: For just a few hours! 😡

Guardian: You don't even know what an hour is! 😡

Wary: 60 minutes 🤓☝️

Guardian, Blizzard and Brave: (yell in bird) SHUT UP! 😤😤😤

Wary: 🥺😢😭

Rain: You eggheads! Look what you've done! You made him cry! 😠 (puts a wing around Wary)

Guardian: (very guilty) I'm so, so sorry Wary. I shouldn't have yell at you. (puts a wing around Wary too)

Brave: (also guilty, but too ashamed of himself to hug Wary) Me too. I didn't mean to make you cry.

Blizzard: Oh, come one! 😠 He does this. Every time! But sure, let's comfort Wary that always cries for everything.

Guardian: (warnly) Blizzard. That's enough.

Blizzard: No! I'll be surprised if he survives nature with how such a cry hatchling he is! He never wants to fight in our games. He would stay in the nest forever if he could. You know why? Because he's a coward!

Brave: (throws himself at Blizzard and pecks and scratches him furiously)

Blizzard: (pecks and scratch back furiously too)

Guardian: Stop that! (tries to pull them apart) We don't hurt each other! We are siblings!

Blizzard: He is not my brother! He sneaked into our nest like a cuco! 😠

Brave: What did you just call me?! 😠

Blizzard: Cuco, cuco, cuco! 😡

Brave: I'll show you cuco! 😡

Guradian: (keeps trying to separate them uselessly)

Wary: (very scared) They are fighting for real! 🥺

Rain: No! Of course not! They are playing like they always do. (tries to distract him) Wary, why don't you teach me that trick you did? When you rolled?

Wary: Oh, it's easy! 😊 First you hide your head in your chest, like this. Then you put your wings and claws very close to you, like this. Finally, you just lay down and roll. (rolls to the direction of the fight)

Blizzard: (pushes Wary by accident to the other side)

Wary: (rolls down the stairs) AAAAAH! 😫

Rain and Guardian: (yell) WARY! 😨😨(Try to stop his fall but end up falling in the process too)AAAAH!😫😫

Blizzard and Brave: (yell) RAIN! GUARDIAN! 😨😨 (Try to stop their fall but end up falling in the process too) AAAAH!😫😫

All chicks: (rolling down the stairs)AAAAAAAAH!😱😱😱😱😱

And they end up spread on the floor.

Guardian: (lifts his head, sore) Ow... (stands up) Is everyone okay?

Rain: (stands up) My whole body hurts! 🥺 (looks back and notices some feathers on the stairs and the floor) My feathers! My beautiful feathers! 😭

Guardian: (in relief) If you are more worried about your feathers than your bones, then you are fine.

Blizzard: (stands up) Ow! I think I broke something.

Brave: (stands up) As you deserve! 😠 Ow, ow, ow! 😫 Hurts!

Guardian: Move your wings.

Blizzard and Guardian: (In pain but do it)🥺🥺

Guardian: I don't think they are broken. You shouldn't be able to move them at all if they were. At least that's what Mama says.

Rain: My feathers! 😭

Guardian: You hardly lost any feathers. You don't have- (looks Wary behind Rain, still spread on the floor with his eyes closed) Wary! 😨 (runs to him, alarmed)

Rain, Blizzard and Brave: (do it too, just as worried) Wary! 😨😨😨

Guardian: (moves Wary with his claw, carefully) Wary! Wary, wake up! Wary!

Rain: Why isn't he waking up?

Brave: Is he... Is he dead?

Guardian: (scared) I... I don't know...

Blizzard: (horrified) We killed him! 😱

Brave: (angry with tears in his eyes) What "we"? YOU were the one who pushed him down the stairs! It's YOUR fault Wary is dead!

Blizzard: (hurt by his words, but defensive) I didn't "push" him! I was fighting you! Because YOU attacked ME! If it's anyone's fault is YOURS!

Rain: No, it's my fault! 😭 I told him to teach me that roll trick.

Guardian: No, it's mine.😭 I told him I would protect him. I'm the worst big brother there is!

All chicks minus Wary: (cry in bird) 😭😭😭😭

Wary: (opens an eye) Why are you being so loud? That's not how you are supposed to do it!

All chicks minus Wary: (crying of happiness) WARY! 🥹🥹🥹🥹 (hug him with their wings)

Rain: We thought you were dead! 😭

Wary: Yeah, that was the point.

All chicks minus Wary: (separate the hug) ...what? 😧😧😧😧

Wary: To pretend to be dead. Mama told me to do that in nature if I can't fly away in time from a predator. Predators don't eat preys that are already dead... except for crows. Mama didn't tell you to do that?

Guardian: No.

Brave: Mama told me to fight for my life.

Blizzard: Me too.

Rain: And me.

Guardian: It seems Mama only shared that especial technic with you.

Blizzard: I wonder why 🙄

Guardian: Don't start! 😠 (To Wary) You did it great, Wary. You fooled us all. 😊

Rain: Yeah, please don't ever do it again. 😅

Wary: But then how am I suppossed to protect myself from predators? 🥺

Guardian: Wary, we are inside the castle. There are no-

Brave: PREDATOR! 😨

A big rat appeares with every intention to bite.

Rain: (gives a chirp of fear)

Wary: (pretends to be dead again)

Guardian: Everyone run! I'll fight it!

Rain: We won't leave you!

Guardian: I can beat it!

Brave: Don't be ridiculous! You won't be able to fight it alone!

Blizzard: You need us!

Guardian: (gives in) Fine. Brave, protect Rain and Wary. Blizzard, help me surround it!

Brave: (puts himself infront of Rain and Wary)

Guardian and Blizzard: (fight the rat)

Wary: (opens his eyes to see what's happening and then stands up and yells in panic) Don't let it bite you! 😱

Guardian and Blizzard: (Manage to immobilize the rat)

Rat: (escapes their hold and goes to Brave, Rain and Wary's direction)

Brave: (fights so the rat doesn't touch Wary and Rain)

Rain: Brave! 😨

Brave, Guardian and Blizzard: (scratch and peck the rat with everything they have)

Rat: (gives a loud shriek and stops moving)

Brave, Guardian and Blizzard: (pull away exhausted)

Rain: (approaches) Is it dead?

Rat: (wakes up suddenly and throws itself at Rain)

Rain: AHHH! 😫

Brave, Guardian and Blizzard: RAIN! (about to go to her rescue)

Wary: (grabs the rat by the neck wit his claw and pecks its head furiously) DON'T. HURT. MY. SISTEEER! 😤

Rat: (finally dies)

Rain: ...

Guardian: ...

Brave: ...

Blizzard: ...

Wary: (looks the pool of blood he and his brothers did, walks backwards horrified and, when he notices blood on his beak starts crying uncontrollably) WAAAAAAA! 😭

...

This turned dark pretty quickly...

What else will happen to our merthur babies in their trip to "the outside"? Find out in the next part of "Merlin: I JUST LEFT FOR A DAY AND MY CHICKS ALMOST DIED!!"

@dsabian , @theplatanitosqueal , @stressed-but-chill , @gregre369 , @chaosofbelievers , @thelordofabsolutelynothing , @another-tblr-fangirl , @aceauthorcatqueen , @smileytrinity , @tiny-and-witchy , @wako-weirdo , @a-very-tired-ravenclaw , @schiwalkers-ineffability , @natsu2501malo , @dearfuturelyn , @thedollopheadofcamelot , @yougottobekittenme , @your-local-asylum-escapee , @theroundbartable , @alo-ween , @orliththedragon

[portsandstars]

Revisiting Red Spring Studio's Interview with Blerdy Otome - Select Quotes

It's been almost a year since RSS had this interview, but I think that many people have not listened to it, or recently revisited it. I thought I'd highlight some quotes from it, though the entire interview is worth watching! Some of these quotes I have lightly modified for clarity or succinctness but the majority are direct transcripts.

23:30: "Touchstarved is a horror romance visual novel where the entire cast is made up of characters where you're like, "I can fix them!" but you actually can't. I think that Touchstarved is a very complex and mature story with really really complex themes and interwoven routes and obviously it's very sexy at the same it's a romance - and I think it's one of those games that I've always wanted to see exist and I think that a lot of the team has always wanted to see this game exist as far as being this kind of like dark, broody, moody, but also very deep, right, and authentic and honest exploration - Monsters, and the feeling of being a monster - feeling of being an "other", right, whether you're queer or POC or anything like that… we've created a game that's not only really fun and action-packed and bloody and all that kind of stuff… but very heartfelt in a way that I hope readers can pick up on.

Imo, this line of reasoning ("you can't fix them", and the cast's monstrous nature and how it intrinsically ties to/is an analogy for being queer, or POC) - makes me think that even in the good endings for the game, your character won't be minimizing the character's monstrousness. For example, even if your character has the Power of True Love, it's not going to make Vere nonviolent or absolve Kuras's guilt.

25:35: "These themes are pretty complicated in a way that's messy and honestly bloody and I think for that reason is why we're looking at a mature rating - that said, when we set out to make the game our goal wasn't really to be explicit, it was much more to focus on sexiness . . ."

Just clarifying that there won't be explicit sex scenes in the game.

28:55: "What are some aspects of the story that you are most excited to showcase?" "I'm so excited that people get to die terribly, that just gets me so pumped up. Like in previous jobs I have not been allowed to brutally murder . . . main characters permanently and it's very important to me that I now have the power to write really just messed up awful endings…Don't worry, there's also good endings there too, they just get as much passion and all that stuff as the bad endings… but the bad endings, oh my gosh, those are some of my favorites."

This line makes me curious about whether the main characters are just MC, or if the other characters will brutally die as well!

30:50 "A little while ago we posted Kuras's character reveal and people really like the fact that he can't cook so for me it's really cute and innocent seeing people obsess over that fact and I really just want them to see the contrast between that version of Kuras in their head and what he's actually like in his route. Like I just really want to see them react to like the terrible things he's going to do. . . They're all awful in different ways that I'm really excited for people to see it - it's very funny to see everyone be like _Literally name any of the characters of the cast and be like "they're my little meow meow" and it's like, oh. good. I hope this continues once they learn more about the characters. Obviously they're all wonderful - right, the characters are all awful but they're also all wonderful".

32:26 : "the theme of monstrousness and how each character kind of approaches it differently . . . because they're all monsters, even if they're not literally monsters . . .it also plays into each character's brand of horror in their own way as well that ties into their monstrous nature."

This line especially (to me) hints at how Leander is likely not SPECIFICALLY a monster, but a human with a monstrous nature.

34:30: - Ais was the first character they made and each of the other characters build upon him, so they spent a lot of time getting him right. Vere was the easiest to create and they made him in a weekend. Kuras was the hardest to create (especially visually).

38:00 "This is a romance game and a big draw of the game is making a love connection with these characters - do you all plan on including platonic friendship routes in addition to romance routes, or is it strictly romance?" The way that we planned out this game is that we wanted to focus on the intimacy of these individual relationships between the main character and the love interest and the route that they're on, right, so this is the way we had planned the game from the beginning. We really like poly romances, for example, and friendships, but we think that it wouldn't have made much sense for the characters in the story that we had written for them because this entire story - with who the main character is and why they're having to turn to these mysterious monstrous strangers - there's a level of intimacy involved in the themes and stories that we really focused on for how we're writing…

It's almost like a narrative design intentionality we did early on because each route that you'll be able to play from the main five cast is very driven and each character is like a ticking time bomb in their own way. So if you choose to romance Vere, Kuras's route still continues and you can see the effects of what not choosing Kuras is in Vere's route when you're playing Vere's route. So the world is meant to be very interwoven and interconnected where you can see the ripples of everyone's choices even when you're not romancing them and in that way we've designed this cast that's woven together. So if we did want to do a poly route, we would probably have to do entirely new characters . ."

43:30: "One of the fundamental goals of this game was to have, as you've been saying, a living world - a world that's evolving, and one of the ways that we wanted to communicate that was with the idea that these characters are not doing great… um, they're all in very very bad situations, uh, they're all essentially doomed if you do not go with them and it's seeing that carried out in each route that I hope will be really interesting for people.. it will be very sad, in a good way".

ARGHHH this is the WORST. This means that if you choose a character, you're essentially dooming the others. Though this will undoubtedly manufacture delicious angst, I'm soooo sad at imagining each of the other characters faltering and ultimately failing on their paths because you didn't chose them. Though, I wonder if there are some routes where multiple characters turn out ok, or if the entire cast is doomed as soon as you don't select them (in different ways depending on the route)?

54:30: "I also want to clarify too that even though we've been talking about blood a lot and all that kind of stuff and death and we love those parts of the story, um, if you get those endings there's a reason why, you know what I'm saying - you have to actively try to get those endings - poke the bear with a stick."

Definitely referencing Vere's bad ending in the demo. Personally I am too curious to avoid them, but it's encouraging that some of the MC deaths appear to be because you deliberately make dangerous choices, rather than simply "tricking" the player and surprising them.

Let me know what you think of these quotes, and the whole interview is definitely worth a watch if you haven't seen it!

[leaentries]

too young for this | mark estapa

summary: when one night guarantees forever.

warnings: accidental pregnancy, swearing, angsty themes, smut, p in v, unprotected sex

wc: 3.1k

masterlist - next

One time. That's all it took.

You had never been one to go to parties, but your friends decided that you just needed to go. Having been cooped up for the past week after your complete douchebag of an ex dumped you over text.

What an ass. 

You and Richie had been together for two years. Two fucking years and all it took was a quick swipe of his thumbs to end it. It happened on a random tuesday, you had just left your anatomy lab when you felt your phone ding. You looked down smiling as you saw his familiar name pop up. Your smile fell immediately as tears began to make your vision blurry. Even with slightly impaired sight, you could still make out the three words he amounted to in your relationship.

Rich<3: we are done. 

So it's safe to say you haven't been the jolliest the past week. Maybe a party is what you need to bounce back. Staring at the ceiling of your dorm, you contemplated your options. Ultimately, you decided to give in to the relentless begging of your best friends. Besides, your slutty outfits were practically screaming at you to put them on. Afterall, Richie never showed you off, so you might as well do it yourself. 

Peeling on the familiar top and bottoms, you couldn't help but smirk as you passed your bathroom mirror. For the first time in over a week, you actually felt like yourself. The you before Richie. Overcome with newfound confidence, you quickly sent a text to your groupchat.

You: im ready babes! meet me outside?

Jamie: oooo yesss girl! me and alice are walking out now! 

Lydia: yall wait for me! i'm just touching up my hair. i'll be out in 5

Alice: btw we are so getting you dicked down tn y/n/n

Rolling your eyes at the last text, you grabbed your bag and headed out to meet your friends. Lydia ended up taking longer than 5 minutes, causing you and your friends to have to sprint to catch the last campus bus. Living across campus really sucked sometimes. 

As you searched for empty seats on the bus, you felt your phone vibrate from your bag. 

Mark: hey y/n! alice told me youre coming to the party tonight?

You: hi marky

You: yes i am! im on my way with the girls now

Mark: great

Mark: ill be waiting for you 🫣

Mark had always been one of your closest friends. You two met in your mutual college management class freshman year. Alice sat next to you and the three of you quickly became very close. Richie seemed to have a major problem with Mark early on in your relationship. Of course Mark being Mark, he didn't give a shit what your bitchy boyfriend thought of him. To be honest, Mark never liked Richie. So when you called him in tears that dreary tuesday afternoon, Mark was ready to practically murder him. 

The squealing of the bus breaks snapped you out of your phone. You put your bag over your shoulder, grabbing onto Jamie as she passed you. You and your friends made a short walk from the bus to the house. The music was blaring loudly, as people were spread far and wide around the property. A few different games were scattered about, a group of guys yelling in distress as they were clearly losing their cornhole game. 

You pulled out your phone, sending a text to Mark letting him know you were there. Within seconds, you saw the large boy make his way out onto the front porch. His arms immediately wrapped around you as you ascended the steps. 

“ ‘m so glad you’re here y/n/n” his voice was muffled in your hair. 

You smiled at the feeling of your full body being engulfed by him. Letting you go, Mark’s hand slipped down into your own.

“I am so so sorry girls, but I’m gonna have to take y/n with me.” Your friends giggled amongst themselves, causing you to send a confused look their way. 

“Oh no worries, Mark! I hope you have a fun time!” Alice replied, overly excited. 

Fun time? Deciding not to think much about it, you let yourself be guided by Mark’s muscular frame. Even in just a plain t-shirt his tense, thick muscles never failed to show through. Mark turned his head slightly, looking over his shoulder to check on you. You sent him a quick smile in return. He managed to weave his way through the dense crowd and into the kitchen, where a few of his roommates were. He entered the kitchen, never letting go of your hand.

Luke and Ethan greeted Mark quickly, enthralled by the view of the football game from the tv. Upon noticing you by Mark’s side, they both sent suggestive smirks towards the two of you. Confused by this for the second time, you turned to Mark. Tilting your head up to meet his eyes, not failing to notice the light blush that took over his feature.

“Why are all our friends acting weird?” You said in a low voice, so only Mark could hear you.

“W-What do you mean?” He chuckled nervously, “I think they are acting just fine.” Giving him a slight glare, you rolled your eyes, turning away from him slightly. Your gaze fell on the crowd, seeing many familiar faces in the dancing group. Although, your cheerful attitude quickly diminished as you caught sight of a certain brunette. Mark noticed the change almost immediately, turning to follow your stare. Richie was just off to the side of the main group. Typically, it wasn’t new to find him at these parties, but what was new was the blonde he had his tongue shoved in. 

A lump formed in your throat. You forced yourself to look away, the pain from the past week hitting you like a freight train. 

Mark's jaw ticked, his hand gripped yours tighter. He looked down at you “Do you want to leave, pretty girl?” His voice was soft, a stark contrast from his burning eyes. Taking a deep breath, you shook your head no. You were not gonna let Richie control you, he doesn’t deserve that power anymore. 

“I want to dance. Come dance with me, Marky.” Mark was surprised by your request, but led you to the dance floor regardless. 

Heat gripped your body like a vice, making you aware of how little clothes you were wearing. You let your body press up against Mark, arms reaching to wrap around his neck. Mark found his hand gripping your full hips, pulling them to meet his own. You leaned your face up, only to practically be touching noses with Mark.

The air felt thick around you two. Moving your hips against his, Mark held back a groan. 

“Got to be careful, pretty girl. Don’t want you to start something you’ll regret.” Mark’s chest pressed closer into your round breasts. Mark could feel himself grow stiff in his shorts at the feeling. Swallowing harshly, you met his gaze. You gently pulled his ear down to your lips.

“I could never regret you, Mark.” 

Richie was long forgotten as Mark gripped your wrist tightly, dragging you up the stairs. He took you to his room, closing the door forcefully, not forgetting to lock it. Mark’s chest heaved, almost like he was out of breath. He pinned you to the back of the door, bringing his forehead to rest on yours.

“You gotta tell me to stop, baby.” He whimpered into your lips. Throwing all caution to the wind, you pressed your lips against his, hard. A moan escaped your lips at the force of the kiss. Mark’s hands began to grip every part of your body he could reach. He wanted you, all of you. He cradled your face, turning your body before walking you towards the bed. The back of your legs hit the mattress, as Mark reached down to grip your plushy thighs. He sat you on the bed, beginning to trail kisses down your jaw.

His right hand traced from your thigh, over the expanse of your torso, taking time to tease the valley between your breasts. His calloused fingers took place around your throat, squeezing slightly. The lack of oxygen sent your brain into a frenzy. Your hips bucked up into his, grinding against his thick cock. He placed his other hand on your hip to keep you in place. 

“You have no idea how bad I’ve wanted this, pretty girl.” He mumbled into your neck. “How bad I need you.” 

He smashed his lips into yours once again. The kiss was desperate and sloppy, showing the amount of pure need and want between you two. Mark shoved his tongue into your welcoming mouth, seeking its warmth.

You were becoming restless, the ache in your core increasing with every push and pull of Mark’s hips. 

“Please Marky,” you whined, “Want you, fuck, want you so bad.” Your breath hitched as Mark changed the angle of his hips. His cock was pressing deliciously into your throbbing clit. 

“Okay, okay, pretty girl.” Mark pulled away, taking his warm body with him. A small whine began to leave your mouth, but was cut short when he hooked his finger around your shorts. 

He dragged your panties and shorts down in one go, too impatient to wait. Your hands traced down his toned front, tugging on his own shorts. Once the both of you had eagerly removed the remaining clothing, Mark had begun to line up his cock with your entrance, teasingly dragging his tip along your slit. “Oh fuck, Mark please don’t tease.”

Mark smirked at your pathetic voice. 

He began to ease his heavy cock into your core. You moaned loudly at the stretch. “Fuck me!” You bit your lip in an attempt to keep your voice down. “Don’t worry, sweetheart, I plan to.” Mark pushed the rest of the way in, releasing a breathy moan at the feeling. He dropped his forehead on yours, giving you a moment to adjust to his size.

Mark was admittedly the biggest you’ve had, much bigger than Richie. Reaching spots you never knew existed.  “I won’t move until you tell me, baby.” The notion was small but you couldn’t help the warmth that spread through your chest.

Nodding your head, “I’m good, Marky. You can move.” At this, Mark began to slowly drag his cock out of your pussy, till just his tip remained inside. He paused for a moment before plunging back in, setting a ruthless pace.

Your moans echoed through the room, Mark’s headboard slamming against the wall. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” Mark groaned. "I could be a better boyfriend than he ever was." His hands gripped your hips hard enough to leave bruises the next morning. You threw your arms around his body, nails scraping down the wide plain of his back. Angry red trails lined the hard muscle. You dug your teeth into Mark’s shoulder as his pace increased ever so slightly. 

“ ‘m not gonna last, pretty girl.” Mark squeezed his eyes shut, in an attempt to hold off his orgasm. The sound of your moans in his ears made it almost impossible. He brought one of his hands from your hip to rub harsh circles on your clit. 

 With the added stimulation, you felt your core tighten impossibly fast. “Shit, Mark. ‘m gonna cum,” you panted, “fuck, gonna cum all over your big cock.” Your orgasm hit like a tidal wave. 

Searing pleasure overcame your senses, your walls pulsating rapidly around Mark’s dick. Mark felt himself lose all control, releasing into your warm pussy. His body stilled as he came, a loud groan ripping through his throat. He collapsed on top of you. You laid with Mark’s head in the crook of your neck and your hand playing with his hair. As the two of you basked in post-orgam bliss, you felt a wave of drowsiness hit you. A loud yawn escapes your mouth.

Mark lifted his head to look into your eyes, “You tired, pretty girl?” You nodded slightly. He felt his heart soften at your droopy eyelids and pouty, swollen lips. “You are so fucking beautiful.” Your eyes widened at his sudden confession. You hid your face behind your hands, becoming bashful like he wasn’t just balls deep inside of you.

Mark chuckled, placing a gentle kiss to the back of both hands. “C’mon lets get cleaned up, baby.” He slowly pulled his, now softening, cock out and pulled on some boxers. He walked into his bathroom, returning with a warm washcloth. Mark gently began to clean around your sore opening. Once he finished and put away the cloth, he gave you one of his t-shirts to wear.

One of the things you loved about Mark was how big he is. Even if people consider you “bigger,” his shirts still fit you oversized. You took the shirt from his hands, pulling it over your head. Mark motioned for you to scoot over, allowing him to lay down. He pulled your body on top of his, almost immediately closing his eyes. 

“Goodnight, pretty girl.” You smiled as you laid your head on his chest, “Goodnight, Marky.” 

❥.

The following week went by in a blur. You were able to hide the fact that you and Mark hooked up from most of your friends, other than Ethan. That little shit did not hesitate to chirp you both the next morning. Although you and Mark are “seeing” each other, you haven't made anything official. But you didn’t feel pressured either. Everything had been going smoothly, you continued with your normal everyday routines, except for the part where you have been staying with Mark every night.

Your roommate, luckily, has been out of town for the past two weeks. So you have been able to remain inconspicuous thus far. Being with Mark was so easy, so genuine. You wondered how you ever even ended up with your ex when Mark was there the whole time. But alas, everything good always comes to an end. 

Your alarm went off as per usual, Mark’s arm gripped your body tighter to his, “Don’t go.” He whined. You turned your body to face him, taking time to study his tired features. Even with sleep clouding his eyes, he still managed to look as handsome as ever. You hit snooze on your alarm, deciding that your writing class can suck it. 

You closed your eyes, basking in the morning bliss with Mark, but before long, you found yourself pushing out of bed making a b-line for the bathroom. You kneeled down in front of the toilet, before emptying the contents of your stomach. You heard footsteps hurriedly follow behind you, as a hand came to hold back your hair. 

“That’s it, pretty girl. Let it out.” Mark soothed, using his other hand to rub your back. 

Once you had finished, you slouched back. Your body became overly weak after the energy it took to expel your dinner. Mark sat next to you, letting you lean up against him. He brought a hand to your forehead, feeling for a temperature. His eyebrow furrowed, “You don’t feel hot.” He looked down at your face, to find your eyes closed. His chest hurt at the sight of you so weak. He gently helped you up, putting you back in bed. “I’m gonna skip class to take care of you. okay, baby?” He pulled the comforter over your shaking body. You shook your head in protest. Although in your state, it wasn’t as much of an effort as you thought. 

Mark went downstairs quietly, as most of the house was still asleep. When he returned he brought a glass of water and a cold rag. “Apparently, we do not have any medicine. I guess Luke used the rest of it last time he was sick. I am gonna go and pick up some more, will you be okay here?” Mark couldn’t hide the worry laced in his tone. You gave him a weak smile and a small “thank you.” He leaned down to place a soft kiss on your forehead, before slipping on a hoodie and making his way to the store.

Laying in the peaceful room, your slumber was interrupted by the sound of your alarm. Hitting snooze became your worst enemy. As you turned on your phone to exit the alarm, you saw a notification from your period app. You tapped it, opening the calendar. Panic took over your body. 

Period late for 8 days

You quickly sat up, thinking of what to do. There was no way you could be pregnant. It was impossible. Denial flooded your mind, until flashbacks to the night of the party tore through the facade. You needed to take a test, asap. Knowing you couldn’t go to the store, since Mark was there, you did the next best thing. You called Jamie. 

You knew for a fact Jamie kept emergency pregnancy tests in her dorm. Girl has her priorities. Jamie raced to the house as fast as she could, not believing what you said over the phone. You told her just to walk in and come to Mark’s room since everyone was still sleeping. 

You sat on the bed, stressing out, when the bedroom door opened. Your eyes darted up and your breath hitched. Jamie's head poked around, your body relaxed. Jamie looked at you expectedly. You let out a sigh, ‘Look, it just happened.” She rolled her eyes, “You just happened to fall on Mark’s dick?” 

“I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you, it just all happened so fast and we didn’t want to ruin anything. But it might not even matter at this point, because I might be fucking pregant.” Your eyes began to well, the thought of losing Mark was too much to bear. Jamie came up and wrapped her arms around you. “Don’t apologize, here,” She handed you the test, “Go take it and we can go from there,” Taking the test in your hand, you walked into the bathroom. 

After doing your business and peeing on the stick, you put the cap back on and set it on the counter. You set a timer for 3 minutes. You slowly sank to the floor. Never in your life has three minutes seemed so slow. Your phone finally went off, causing you to abruptly stand up, slightly losing your balance in the process.

You stared at the test, “Well? What does it say?” Jamies asked through the door. Your eyes remained on the test. 

Pregnant 1-2 weeks

Well, fuck. 

[asksythe]

FGO Fes 2024 "CHALDEA Treasure Hunting" Oberon Edition Experience Video (Earphones recommended / Low volume recommended) Original Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dElTAHf0m0

Disclaimer: the translation is rushed, so there's probably room for improvement. I'm just posting this here for personal keeping since similar videos have been taken down from Youtube in the past.

Note: The context for this part of the event storyline is that Ritsuka is sent on a treasure hunt for a lost Holy Grail (as it goes) by Goredorf. She gets to choose one among several servants (Aesclepius, Takasugi, Tiamat, etc...) to go with her. Only one though. This video is the Oberon choice. Yes, it is very otome game-esque. 😁

--TRANSLATION--

Come on an unforgettable adventure with me, the Fairy King Oberon!

“It’s a steam town!”

You…you’re a 20th-century kid, aren’t you?

You should be used to this kinda thing, shouldn’t you?

Ah, well, I get how it can be so exciting. It’s just as consumeristic as your era, but this atmosphere does have a certain romance to it.

It’s an era focused on industrial design that exposes its mechanical insides.

It really is the strength of humanity to imagine such a contradictory world.

Ritsuka Choice 1: “Thanks for taking me here.”

Ritsuka Choice 2: “You really are a dependable partner!”

What are you on about? Of course, I am! With such an invitation as yours, I, Oberon the Fairy King, will spread my wings and come flying your way!

Ah, my time really has flown though. Would you be able to bend the rules a bit? What shall we do on this chance adventure! Gotta look your best though, eh! 😉 Now then, according to this steam clock, there happens to a Blessed Holy Grail located underground! If we find it, we’re bound to get a bunch of QP, am I right? Let me repay my debt to you!

However, for this city looking so mechanical, there really are a lot of stairs…Not a single elevator to be seen! Well, let’s just get over with and go down. If only we could fly, but as you know my wings are a mere decoration. Perhaps I should ask DaVinci to make me some, then? Ah no, [rest of question to self not very audible]

Ritsuka Choice 1: “Oberon…! Wait!”

Ritsuka Choice 2: “I can’t see anything!”

Uh…did you say something? Sorry sorry, my attention must’ve drifted elsewhere.

Oh…our faces must be close, aren’t they?

Are you alright?

Man, you should look at your face! It’s a shame it’s so dark. If I had a camera, I would’ve taken a picture. Oh no, I meant nothing by that. Really though, it’s just I’ve never seen your face like that. It’s not your nerves in battle, nor the fear of death! Don’t look at me like a child there…ah, never mind. Putting it into words just takes the fun out of it.

More important than that, it’s that the two of us are alone down here. No fearsome enemies to be seen. Just us two enjoying a trip on this road together. The path seems to get narrower from here. Grab my hand and let’s head in! Don’t get too far from me, okay? Come on, give me your hand.

It’s really dark now. This must be the lowest level. Just one way to go now. I think it should be quite simple now!

Mm? Hmm? That’s what? From the back? Oh no, something unexpected happened again! Quick, Master!

This is a stubborn one! And it’s gaining on us to boot!

Ah the light’s starting to come through! Keep going!!!

There’s no way forward!

Get down, Master! Your hand!

Master and Oberon hold onto each other as they fell down.

To the bottom of the deep, deep darkness they went.

Sigh…the artist drowns in his art. Good grief. Who would’ve thought the road would be destroyed. Well, guess I’m just used to falling. It’s just a little [something] more than usual now.

O-----www.. Ah Master, are you alright?

After all that, there are an unbelievable amount of flowers here, aren’t there? More than enough for a lifetime! Flowers are always blooming somewhere you know? Water. Sun. Flowers. Bugs… Green. It’s all a cycle.

Yep, that was me who set the grail there. Let me know when you go an adventure, okay? Ah, the request itself was true! It’s just…you weren’t as calm as I thought you’d be so it didn’t go exactly as planned. Today is a very blessed day for you. That’s import-

Marine Nemo: Captain! I found Oberon! [We found him!]

Prof. Nemo: I believe Oberon is continuing to reject our transmissions~

Capt. Nemo: Ah, we finally connected! Oberon, is Master alright? When you went down, our signal got cut off.

Oberon: Oh my, I didn’t know about any of that! Master is alright and has even taken a Holy Grail! It’s no problem at all!

Eng. Nemo: ‘n that case, get yer ass back ‘ere already! After that, spill yer guts! Nurse Nemo: If either are injured, I can attend to you, so please feel free to ask.

Capt. Nemo: Everyone! Be quiet for a moment. Oberon, Master, above all else, I’m glad you’re safe. I really do want you to take your time to enjoy the town. If you would be so kind, could you take some photos for future reference? There must be so many vehicles in the Steam Town, certainly.

Oberon: Yep! We’re happy to bring souvenirs to you, Captain! After all, we gotta lift the engineer’s spirits too eh!

Eng. Nemo: I-It’s not like I’d want a motorbike or anything! Well…I have been thinkin’ ‘bout some extra parts for my Penguin Potter, so…

Oberon: Okay then! I’ll be right on the lookout for it! Well then, see you at Chaldea then.

Bakery Nemo: I’ll be baking a warm basket (of bread) for you then!

Oberon: Well right then. Let’s go back to the surface and let’s stroll around the town til the sun goes down! So messy and covered in grease and full of all kinds of shady shops it may be though. They’ll all become beautiful memories though. After all, as long as there are unknown worlds about, that means there are wonderful adventures to be had, right?

[anyamaris]

Just a Taste

Word Count-3244

Summary- Being a vampire was a pain in the butt, but not as much of a pain as Wooyoung was.

Pairing- Wooyoung x Vampire!f!reader

Trope-Supernatural AU

Warnings-Language, biting, blood, unprotected sex (wrap it up!) MINORS DNI 18+ lots of talk about veins.

A/N-This is directly connected to another little 2 part I wrote about Yunho as a vampire! They can be read standalone but if you'd like to read those here is the link! There are only mentions of some of the people in this one so it's not very important.

I hope you enjoy, I had fun with this one. Thank you for the encouragement too @wooyoungmybelovedhusband 🤍

Tags- @cultofdionysusnet @shinestarhwaa @wooyoungmybelovedhusband @babesindestroyland @yoonguurt @stardragongalaxy @lemonhongjoong (tagging you because you seem to like my stuff so let me know if you want to be removed!)

NSFW below cut

"Pleeeease!!!!" Wooyoung asks for the, who knows? 1000th time? He's gotten to the point where you just want to punch him right in his pouty little face. He bats his eyelashes at you and tries to act cute but you just push past him.

"No." You say, rolling your eyes. He just wouldn't quit. Ever since you accidentally showed your fangs that one fricken time, he hasn't let up on you. "Whyyyyy nooooot?" he whines out and grabs your arm, pleading. You grab him by his shirt and hoist him up off the floor, feet dangling.

"Woo. Stop. I'm not biting you." you say and are about to smile at his silence, then he smirks as his eyes get big. "Oh wow...Y/n....this is so hot...." he says, and you roll your eyes AGAIN, letting him down. "Quit it. I told you, I don't want to bite my friends. It's a..." you start, stopping to bite your lip.

What you wanted to tell him was that it was a very intimate act with someone you knew. With strangers, it didn't matter, you didn't care whether they got hurt or not, because you could erase their memories. You didn't want to erase your friends memories. And you weren't concerned with becoming more attached to them, especially since normally you fed on complete douchebags.

But to bite and drink Wooyoung's blood? Well...it was just far too dangerous. For the both of you. "It's what? Y/n, tell me." He gently places a hand on your arm and you sigh. "Look, Woo. I can't explain it....it's complicated. But just know I'm saying no for your own good. It's not exciting like the movies, where I'm all pretty and sparkly. It's not all romantic, it's literally just me drinking blood. That's it." You say, ignoring the voice in your head protesting.

It's not like you've not thought about it. Being...intimate with Wooyoung, licking his throat, those delicious plump veins. The man drove you wild with blood lust...as well as another type of lust. Which was why you were adamantly against indulging in his curiosity.

Once you fed on him, you weren't sure if you'd be able to stop yourself from wanting him more and more. It could be dangerous, you think again and shake your head at the thought.

"You're so mean to me." he pouts and you just walk away, ignoring him. He was so ridiculous that you just wanted to scream. Making your way into the living room, you plop down with Seonghwa and he gives you a half hearted smile. "He's at it again, huh?" Hwa asks with sympathy and you just close your eyes and nod. "Let's play a game and take your mind off of him, he'll find something else to do."

Coming in from your hunt, you sigh and roll your shoulders. You were exhausted from trying to get your mind off of a certain someone who'd been hounding you forever. Every time you bit into some strange man in a back alley, you thought of Woo. Every time you swallowed the rich liquid from someone's veins, you closed your eyes and thought of Wooyoung's neck. It was tiring.

You never gave in to any kind of lust with a stranger, not that you had any desire to do so anyhow when you were drinking blood. But the idea of feasting on Wooyoung while sinking your fangs into one of his plump......

You whimper and rub your eyes, shaking your head at yourself. "Horrid man, tempting me." you mutter and go down into your room. Hwa was definitely fast asleep. It'd been a few months since You'd all moved to a bigger place, and you were grateful for the space he'd provided all of you. San and Yeosang had the rooms on the upper floor and you enjoyed your basement room fully.

It was nice and dark, completely finished and Hwa had made sure the windows were sealed shut so no light could penetrate during the day. Sometimes you slept during the daylight hours, but as long as you stayed indoors, it wasn't a necessity. One of the many things the myths get wrong. It just hurt and burned your energy faster in the light. And being weak as a supernatural creature was never a good idea.

Shutting your door behind you, you turn on your lights and stretch. "You're back early." you hear from within and you're instantly on high alert, darting into a corner. "Wow! I didn't even see you move over there, you're so fast." you hear and your mind clears enough to finally process the voice. "WOO!" you yell and then you're in front of him, glaring down.

He's sitting in your computer chair, his mouth open, his long hair hanging in his eyes. Even in your momentarily panicked state, you feel the urge to reach out and tuck his hair behind his ear. "Why are you in here?" you ask him, trying to sound calm.

He tilts his head at you and shrugs, "You told me I could come us your computer when you were gone. Is that not alright?" Cursing yourself for forgetting you had indeed allowed this, you sigh. "It's fine," you say backing off. "I...it's fine..." you repeat, turning to leave again.

You feel Woo's hand grasp your arm and you don't bother shrugging him off. "What, Woo?" you ask, hand on your head. Being unable to feed tonight has you sleepy and low on energy. You definitely didn't have enough to argue with him, especially after using so much thinking he was an intruder.

"Hey, what's going on?" he asks, his normal teasing tone nowhere to be found. His concern has you shaking your head to clear it. That was the last thing you needed right now, Wooyoung knowing you were feeling vulnerable.

Senses on overdrive all of a sudden, your nostrils flare when you notice what he's wearing. As he stands up and pulls you to him, you find yourself drawn to the thick, juicy veins running down his neck, his collarbone and shoulder exposed. He was wearing a black tank top and just a sweater that was currently slipping down his arm, tantalizing you with the sound of the blood pumping through him.

He curls his arm around you, petting your hair and whispering. "Y/n, did you not feed yet today?" You whimper as he cradles your head, your face so close to his bare skin and those delicious-

"Woo!" you yell stepping back as fast as you can. His face is more serious than normal, more...determined. Oh this isn't good, not tonight...you think and cover your nose and mouth to stop the intense scent coming from him. You could smell his lust and it confused you.

"Y/n....for being such a powerful vampire, you're so tiny in my arms. It's ok if you want to just give in for a little while, you know? You look so tired." he is saying, walking towards you with his hands up like you were a feral animal. I guess I kind of am, you think, your need spiking as your eyes trail from his dark eyes to his full lips, then down to his delectable shoulder.

Your breathing speeds up as he pulls you back into him, tilting your head into his neck. "Woo...." you whine and he gasps as he feels your breath on his bare skin. You can't help but brush your lips across the plump vein on his neck and his arms tighten around you. On a hiss, you draw back, but he's not letting go.

You could easily use your strength to pull away but...you find yourself not wanting to. Your mind was screaming to resist this, to not give in to something so base, that this was so dangerous. But your body was acting on it's own, and you can't help but respond when Wooyoung dips his head and takes your lips with his.

His arms pull you into him even more, pressing you against him and you can feel his lust now, on top of smelling it. His rigid length is pressing against your lower belly, and he moans against your lips as you encircle his waist and open your mouth to him.

Unable to help it, you feel your fangs lengthen and before you can pull back, he hisses as his tongue is nicked. You feel your eyes go red as the iron rich taste of blood swirls over your tongue. When you go to pull back, his hand clutches the back of your head tighter, deepening the kiss instead of breaking it.

"No," he's saying, kissing you between his words, "Not this time." Moaning, he's backing you up to the bed until your knees hit it. "You're not getting away from me..." he growls out and then he's yanking your top over your head, tossing off his sweater. He grasps you by your waist and picks you up like you weigh nothing. To surprised to go anything but gasp, his hands slide down to cup your ass. Instinctively, your legs go around him.

"Woo-" you start and then he's licking your neck, sucking and nipping at the skin, making your skin prickle in need. "I could snap you in two with my thighs," you manage and you feel his hot breath as he laughs softly against your neck. "Then break me." he says huskily as he falls with you onto the bed, landing on top of you.

He draws your arms over your head, pinning you down. You close your eyes and turn your head, feeling suddenly shy about looking like a monster to him. "Y/n. Look at me." he says breathily and you can't help but slowly look back up at him. You can't even breathe as you take in how sexy he looks propped over you, his hips between your legs. His stiffness pressed against you, his hair hanging down and his eyes full of lust. You watch him lick his lips and the blood on them from where you bit him makes your fangs grow painfully, ripping a moan from your throat before you can tamp down on the desire.

You can't help yourself from biting your own lip, the sharpness of your fangs cutting into your bottom lip. The stinging pain and Woo's moan as he descends upon your mouth again has you unable to think. He lets out a moan as he licks the bloodied wound on your lip, and you return the favor, your tongue darting out to taste him again.

Too late you realize what you've just done as Wooyoung gasps suddenly, his hands around your wrists squeezing even harder. He moans out as his hips writhe against you, rubbing his hard length along your wet panties. His cock feels like an iron bar grinding against you as his eyes take on a red glint. "Fuck-Woo-SHIT," you cry out, attempting to push against him, but the surge of strength he's gotten from ingesting your blood has you terrified. For both him and you.

"Fuck, Y/n, this feels amazing..." he breathes out, then his mouth is on yours again, one hand holding both of your wrists as the other one travels down to yank down your bra. "You smell so fucking delicious...." he is saying as he licks his way down your neck, nibbling on your collar bone. His hand is cupping your breast as his mouth makes it's way to your tender flesh, sucking your nipple into his mouth as he groans and grinds against you.

You vaguely recognize the signs of his blood high from the scent comment and sudden strength but then you're lost as his hand leaves your chest to delve into your panties. He teases at your wet entrance, sliding his fingers through your slick folds. You whine out and your cheeks go red again as you tense up. "Why did your scent change?" he asks, moving back up to kiss you gently, a worried look in his eyes.

"Nothing I-" you start but then you look away again shyly, your ears burning. "Do you not like this, gorgeous?" he asks, his fingertips plying at your opening. "I...do..." you breathe out and swallow dryly. He continues to look down at you as he slips a finger into you and your mouth opens as he does. "Holy fuck, baby you're so tight.." he manages as he starts to press into you further. Just the feeling of his finger inside of you has you going insane. Then he's slipping another in and you cry out as he pumps both in and out of you. Your hips slowly start to match his motions and he's got you gasping with tears in your eyes. "Mmm you look so fucking hot writhing beneath me, helpless." Woo moans out and you feel the tell tale signs of an orgasm building in your lower tummy. The tightness ramps up and he thrusts his fingers into you one last time, stopping right before you can reach your peak.

You sob out his name and he smiles down at you. "Not yet. I want to feel you clamp down on my cock like that. I'm not going to let you cum until I'm buried deep inside of you and you're feeding on me." he whispers to you and then he's yanking off his pants, discarding the rest of his clothing in a heap.

"You like this, don't you?" he asks, finally letting go of your wrists, allowing you to grasp his hair in your fingers, drawing him back to your needy mouth. His one hand is pressing your thigh open, gripping you behind your knee and pulling it up as he tangles his tongue with yours. His hard length is prodding at you, his hip motions controlled as he teases at you. You pull at his hair as your other hand grabs his ass, your hips trying to lift as you try to pull him down onto you.

But his temporary strength, coupled with your weakened, vulnerable state won't allow you to have your way. And he knows it, from the smirk on his face as he watches you from above. "Tell me what you want, my beautiful girl..." he whispers down at you, the head of his cock pressing into you, and you can feel yourself clenching at him, needing him. "Woo....please fuck me," you're ashamed to hear yourself whining out but you can't help it.

The sudden counter balance of feeling helpless is making you completely insane, losing your reason as he stretches you, finally giving in to your frantic cries. He starts slowly but then his eyes darken and he finishes with a hard thrust into you. You choke out a moan as his hips press you down into the mattress, his husky voice in your ear. "You're so fucking tight, oh my god. How can you be so fucking tight and drenched for me," then he's pulling back to thrust hard into you again, ripping a cry from you.

The burst of strength he's gotten has you wondering if he's going to bruise you. At the thought, you clench down around him and he cries out incoherently, drenching him with even more of your juices. You can't help but whine as he starts pounding into you, his mouth all over your neck, your shoulders, your chest as he fucks you. The sound of your bodies slamming together, the wet slapping has you climbing your peak again.

Woo notices and he flips you both, startling you. He sits up and takes your ass in his hands, moving you up and down on him. You throw your head back as you roll your hips, the pleasure building even more.

He slips a hand into your hair, pulling the back of your head so your mouth meets his once again. He breaks the kiss and gazes into your eyes to watch you for a moment before he guides your face to his throat. "Drink." he demands and you hesitate for only a moment before you graze your teeth along his thick, pulsing vein.

"Fuck! Bite me, Y/N! I want my blood filling your mouth as my cum fills your tight little pussy!" He's crying out and you see stars as you sink your fangs into his warm flesh, your teeth puncturing his swollen vein. Hot, fragrant blood bursts into your mouth and you suck and lick his throat wildly as you bounce on him. Your walls begin to clamp around him, spasming as you feel your dam break. Wooyoung let's out an animalistic cry as his fingers dig deep into the flesh of your ass, bruising you. The scream you let loose is unending as you throw your head back, blood covering your lips and you look down at him as he thrusts deep inside of you, his face contorted in ecstasy.

The sound of his release, calling out your name, moaning desperately, has you harnessing another wave and you just hold on helplessly as he pulls you down one last time, emptying himself deep within your womb. His head falls forward onto your chest and your hand goes into his hair, running your fingers through the dark tresses.

After a few moments of silence broken only by the sounds of breathing, his arms tighten around you and tighten, pulling you even closer. You let your head tip onto his, resting your cheek against his hair and allowing yourself to breath in all of his scents. His rich blood, his natural scent and the scent of his seed mixed with your fluids has you dizzy with overwhelming pleasure and contentment.

When you go to pull back, he pulls you closer again and whines. Chuckling at his neediness, you feel stirring in your withered heart. After all the control he just exerted, his clinginess has you inwardly melting and screaming red alert all at once. Shit....this is so so....dangerous....you think.

"My precious treasure, that's what you are to me." Woo says, looking up at you, his eyes soft and pleading. "Don't erase this please...don't take this from me." he begs quietly, making your heart clench. You can't help but bring your lips to his, kissing him softly.

How in the world did that insanely passionate encounter have you going all mush for this human all of a sudden?

"Only me." He is saying, whispering and kissing you, your lips, your cheeks, your eyes. "Only drink from me, only touch me, only look at me." he's saying in between brushing his soft lips over your face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And that's how you found yourself in this position. A moment of weakness, agreeing to Wooyoung's quiet but intense pleas in the blissful after effects of lovemaking.

"Hey, I told you. Don't screw the human. Don't give in to him. He's a bigger monster than anyone in this household." Seonghwa is saying, and you can't help but hang your head in shame as he shakes his head at you in dismay.

Wooyoung just looks at both of you sitting on the couch with a pout. "Come on! Seriously, wouldn't it be easier if you just turned me? You already drink my blood and you even said if I was turned my blood would be even better for you-" he starts up again, following you out of the room as you grunt in frustration.

"I told her." Hwa says, booting up Animal Crossing.

[gothic-aesthetic-gal]

Old Scars (Part 6)

Ledger!joker x reader

Fem!reader is kidnapped by the joker and his henchmen while just trying to get a moment's reprieve from her boring, soul-destroying job ✨️

Tw: I mean, we all saw TDK, right? I'd say this is on the same level/rating. Kidnapping, violence, minor characters (not J) being misogynist/threatening SA, reference to past traumatic injury. Beyond this i'm not sure, i'll update these when I write more.

🃏🃏🃏🃏🃏🃏🃏🃏🃏🃏🃏🃏🃏🃏

Part 6 -

When we finished eating and found nothing much on the tv I began to feel tired again. I guessed my body was still trying to make up the sleep defecit. Sluggishly I moved the leftovers to the fridge. I had wondered a couple of times how the apartment even had power, but figured that wouldn't be too hard to rig up some kind of illegal supply for. I mean who was going to come and check? With mobsters in your pocket, you could do anything in this city.

I drank some more water directly from the faucet and freed my toothbrush from it's packaging. Then I went to the bathroom and brushed for a good five minutes, given that it had been far too long since I was last able to clean my teeth. Returning to the main room, I squinted against the fluorescent strip lights.

"I need to go back to sleep, do you want the bed or the couch?" I announced, groggily.

His head snapped around.

"You'd kick me out of my own bed and make me sleep out here like a dog?" He said, pulling a melodramatic pout.

"No. I'm just a dealer of simple choices," I shot back mockingly, poorly imitating the way he spoke.

It might not have been the best call but there was something fun about teasing him, knowing full well it was a dangerous game to play.

He looked pleasantly surprised at my twisting of his own words.

"You sure you don't want me to help keep you warm? The temperature is going to drop overnight..." he said, eyes flicking down from my face and back up to watch for my reaction.

I cursed that he'd made me flustered so easily, feeling my cheeks betray me as I blushed.

"No, thank you," I mumbled, grabbing for the chair again, fully intending to barricade the door.

Despite the strange little tango we were locked in, I still knew who he was. I couldn't be sure he wouldn't strangle me in my sleep.

"You still don't trust me..." he called after me.

I stopped in the doorway.

"Can you blame me? If you were me, would you trust you?"

He didn't give it much pause for thought before answering.

"No."

His face lit up with a wicked smile that made my heart skip a beat, as he got to his feet and stalked across the room toward me. It took some conscious effort not to shrink away again. He placed an arm out on the frame so that he was looming over me and leaned in close.

"You're the one who nearly shot me, doll. Oh and, you should know, that really does things to a man," he growled out the last part, wired with a kind of peverse excitement.

I was frozen in place as he looked down over me. It suddenly occured to me that his interactions with people must always have a very specific power balance. Maybe that was something else he found interesting about me - I clearly was often scared by him, but at other times I'd happily played my hand. My cards might not have been as good as his, but I didn't just fold at the first sign of trouble.

"Then maybe," I said, burying my fear as deeply as I could, "you should be happy to take the couch."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Are you... threatening me?"

I shrugged, pulling closer to him, grasping his shirt collar as I did.

"What do you think?"

"I think you're playing with fire," he said, his breath sounding a little ragged.

I tugged him even closer to me, so close that there was barely an inch of sepration and I knew he could feel my breath as I spoke directly into his ear.

"I think, you are lonely. You don't want to kill me anymore, and that scares you. The man who isn't supposed to fear anything. Your world is being turned upside down..."

With suprising force he slammed me into the wall and clamped a hand around my throat. I had clearly hit a nerve. The back of my head felt fuzzy as the pain began to seep in.

"Are you sure about that?" He growled in my ear.

I blinked hard trying to clear my sore head.

"Smashing my head into the wall to start things isn't very smart," I muttered, trying to tuck my chin as he continued to grip my throat uncomfortably tightly.

"Why is that?"

"Because, if I don't know which way is up, or you knock me out, how am I supposed to react to whatever you do next... I pissed you off and you jumped in the deep end. You're rattled."

It was taking everything in me not to fly into a panic. His mouth and cheek twitched in irritation, as his hand closed even tighter around my throat. His eyes were ablaze with rage and I knew i'd got under his skin. It was a nice reversal for once. With a clack I released the blade of his knife, which I had slid out of his pocket as I was whispering in his ear. I held it roughly up to his throat.

"I thought... you liked the unpredictable..." I manged to get out through my gritted teeth.

He was squeezing hard enough that I felt dizzy and my vision was blurring a little, and I knew if he carried on this way I was in real danger of passing out.

His dark eyes flashed with a raging inferno again, as I stared right into them.

"You -" he began, but I cut him off by roughly pressing harder against his windpipe, drawing a little line of red.

"Let me go, and I might not cut your throat," I commanded.

I could see him weighing up how likely I was to not be bluffing.

"You think I won't? I won't enjoy it, but I'll do it if I have to. I don't pretend to be... something i'm not... you know that," I choked out.

He seemed to grit his teeth before he relented, easing off the vice grip he had on me deliberately slowly.

Somehow, I managed to keep the knife in place at his jugular as I gasped in the first few lungfulls of air. It felt like inhaling ice water, and I couldn't suppress my obvious reaction to the pain

"Your turn," he said, darkly.

I looked at the man before me and part of me wanted to do it any way. Few would have blamed me if I just cut him and had it over with. I could rid this city of one more mass-murdering crazy running around making peoples' lives here even worse than they already were... it was his knife, and my hand. I could be the instrument of his own destruction. If he hadn't taken me, he wouldn't have set things in motion. It would be like putting down a rabid dog - unpleasant but necessary. There was no rehabilitation for this, nothing could change the twisted wiring of his brain and he had done too much already.

But even if I ended him, the cat was well and truly out of the bag. He'd changed Gotham, forever. Even without him in the picture, there was no going back - back to the illusion of peace with the mob running the city. He was an entirely different beast, and others had followed in his wake. Criminals who didn't kill for money, who couldn't be controlled. What use was there in destroying pandora's box, if it had already been opened?

"Ohhhh, you are really thinking about it, it's tearing you up inside," he said, sounding altogether turned on by my unfolding moral crisis.

"Shut up!" I barked, pushing the blade harder against his flesh.

He put his arms up in surrender and began to laugh at me, which only enraged me further.

"You want to kill me," he said with satisfaction, as though he had drawn out some dark secret from within me.

"Just shut the fuck up," I pushed him up against the wall as he continued to laugh.

"Admit it," he whispered.

"Of course I want to fucking kill you, that isn't the problem! The problem is that I also don't want to kill you."

He stopped laughing, clearly caught off guard. I was crying now, I could feel the burning tears rolling down my cheeks. He frowned as I began to sob, completely breaking down.

Overcome by a fresh wave of anger, with my own growl of frustration, I withdrew the knife and punched him square in the face. Hard. As hard as I could. My knuckles stung immediately but his head flew backwards and a line of blood began to drip from his nose. For a moment I just stood over him as he slid down the wall dazed and confused. I knew he could take far more of a beating than that, and if he'd wanted to, he could have seriously fucked me up for the little stunt i'd just pulled... but he seemed to be more interested in watching me snap like an overstreched rubber band.

I hated myself for not having the conviction to do it. The problem with trying to connect with this madman so that he couldn't kill me, was that I had stared into the abyss, and it had stared back. Before he could do anything else, I grabbed the chair and dragged it into the bedroom.

I slammed the door behind me and propped it under the handle. I wasn't thinking straight and it hadn't occurred to me that I was still holding his knife in my shaking hand. Did I have stockholm syndrome to contend with as well now? As if this whole situation wasn't already messed up enough... Looking down and seeing the glinting blade, I was suddenly overcome with a feeling of revulsion and disgust, throwing it away from me. I heard it rattle against the wooden floorboards as it slid under the bed. As I picked up the dress to move it to the chair, the screwdriver I'd stashed there fell out and hit the floor as well. I put it in my pocket, not entirely sure why but too exhausted to question anything.

I climbed into the bed and curled into a ball, cradling my sore neck. I wanted to disappear... not die. I very much wanted not to die, but what life did I have to go back to? I cried silent tears. I felt like I was always waiting. Waiting for something to happen, to change my life. Now it had, but it was this.

As I began to drift into sleep, exhausted emotionally and physically, I thought I could hear him relentlessly pacing around the apartment and muttering to himself. For a moment, I entertained the idea that someone might come and rescue me. If not the cops then it would have to be the vigilante people called the batman. I wondered if i'd even made it onto his radar. Probably not. It had been days since i'd vanished.

Something caused me to stir in the deadest hours of the night. I had been having strange dreams, and was running from something, though I couldn't see the creature that was chasing me down. I was in some kind of old industrial complex, rusting and long-since abandoned, the rain was dripping down through the open holes in the collapsed sections of the roof high above. Trickling, splashing, dropping water falling all around me and pooling on the floor, feeding the plant life springing out of the cracks. Nature was reclaiming her territory. I paused for a moment, trying desperately to get a sense of direction, to find an escape. There was an ungodly screeching howl which echoed around the open space. I began to run away from the sound in blind panic. It didn't sound human. I woke up, confused, with a cold sweat beading my brow and gasping for air. I scrambled out of the bed, falling to the floor as my legs got caught up in the twisted sheets. In front of me was the knife where it had come to a stop under the bed.

Suddenly my ears pricked up. I could hear a kind of scratching sound coming from somewhere else in the apartment. In the murky inbetween place where reality met my subconscious, I thought I was still being pursued by the creature. I grabbed the knife and slowly tip toed to the door. As silently as I could I removed the chair and shakily turned the door knob.

As the door inched open I thought I could hear a person's voice and it wasn't one I recognised. Flattening myself against the wall just behind the doorway into the main living space, I strained my ears to try and pick out more sound. I began to realise that i'd had a nightmare and started to calm down when I heard the voice again. Something was wrong...

Link below for the other chapters:

[yuri-is-online]

TD anon here, I do feel you on the "torture" scene with Taiga, I didn't want my last ask getting any longer lmao.

While the scene definitely made me squeal, for me personally it was undercut by the emotionally charged scene that happened immediately after with Romeo lmao. It's exactly how I felt with Frostheim too, being excited over the dance with Jin, and then immediately after we get the cigarette kiss scene with Jin and Tohma LOL. But it only makes sense, MC has only just showed up at the school, not enough time to bond, and honestly with these kinds of joseimuke games I don't have much expectations of interactions between the cast and MC so in TD she's already much more involved with the whole comic thing anyways.

Eating the Like Dove raw... was really a raw scene lol. He seems to be attracted to blood for some reason? Since he paused when MC's cut started bleeding, I think he was about to lick the blood tbh.

And yeah I do wonder if his shoddy memory has anything to do with his deal's cost. Another vibe theory time, I feel like his fear of the Like Dove might've been... ingrained in him somehow? Maybe he had a run-in before but can't remember it. The reason why I think this is because when MC met him alone, when she reminded him that she was the Honor student, his response was "Oh no wonder I didn't kill you on the spot", he literally forgot about her but his body/instinct made him aware she's someone he's not supposed to kill.... if that makes sense?

He feels like an even bigger enigma than Towa, I'm curious to know what's going on in his head in the moments he goes eerily quiet. Not to mention he's the poster boy of the game, has to be a reason. Luca feels more in line to be the poster boy but it's Taiga...

I enjoyed Haru's drunk spiel about how helpful MC is lol. Also my eyes going wide when Rui said he wants to know what she's made of too... what does that mean....... I need more Rui content, I love his blatant flirtations lol. I got a campus event with Rui, Haru and Romeo in the bar before I even read the chapter, their unexpected friendship is very cute ngl.

(sorry in case this is sent repeatedly, smth wrong with my net atm)

Generally speaking I have found tumblr doesn't post or send things twice but it sure as hell reblogs them with the same tags 42 times making me look like some sort of freak

for me personally it was undercut by the emotionally charged scene that happened immediately after

Yeah I get this. The cigarette kiss with Tohma and Jin took me off guard, but that was mostly because I thought this was an otome game? Come to think of it I don't think we've had confirmation of the whole joseimuke v otome game thing beyond the existence of the like dove and individual character affinity... Well and that when this was announced it was supposed to be an otome game. I know that the otome games subreddit has been having some, shall we say spirited? Discussions lately about how players feel about ros getting into relationships with each other. The general opinion was that a lot of times the ro x ro relationships feel more fleshed out that the ro x mc ones, and I agree. I actually stopped writing something I wanted to be an otome game because the story started shaping up to be more about the mc's mentor than them, and I personally do not think that is very fun. People do like laid back mcs, they do not like mcs who have no place in the narrative, and some writers aren't good at balancing that. TDB mc is doing pretty well when it comes to interactions with the main cast compared to something like Twisted Wonderland if what you want is explicit romance, so far it feels like Season 1 of og Obey Me! from what I remember of that game, so we'll see.

I didn't get the same level of intimacy from Romeo and Taiga as I did Jin and Tohma? But I think that's because in both cases I thought the like dove had appeared before Romeo got there and was talking to Taiga and the second scene made me think Taiga was angry at him for interrupting his "fun." Whatever that "fun" was going to wind up being because yeeeeeah he seems like he has a blood kink of some sort. I think he was going to suck on it and bite her a bit, but licking seems like a logical first step and less influenced by what's wrong with me. Like I said over here the scene with the Like Dove fascinates me... it says more about Taiga than any other character in the game that we get to see the dove twice and that when given the chance he shoots and eats it... if that isn't a metaphor for denial and emotional repression then I am not sure what is.

he literally forgot about her but his body/instinct made him aware she's someone he's not supposed to kill…. if that makes sense?

YES. I wanted to talk about this but it sort of got into conspiracy theory territory and my answer was getting long. I don't know if anyone remembers, but waaaay back in Book 1 when mc tries to escape the school she isn't able to get anyone's attention. It's like they don't see her, is that because of her curse or is it because of preventative measures put in place by the school? I want to lean towards the latter because it makes more sense BUT I also want to be delusional and say that it's part of mc's curse. There's something about Taiga's instinctual fear of the Like Dove and his comments to the mc that make me think his body knows her but his paranoia and memory issues keep him from knowing it.

This is just me writing fan fic... but Taiga is technically the first ghoul you meet. He is the poster boy of the game, he is the first person to bring mc into the main loop and tell her there's a spy. I want so badly for him to have known her at some point but to have been robbed of his memories... Romeo seems to think he is trying to forget stuff on purpose "gone off the deep end" and "escape reality" are both things he says to describe him though granted that last one was due to a misunderstanding about what Taiga was trying to do with the anomaly. Something real bad happened last year, something I feel like Taiga doesn't want to acknowledge unless he can get revenge on whoever caused it. I mentioned in another post, but I sort of want MC to have something to do with Clementia and that's why she's there at the dorm beyond it just being empty due to the clash. (I do get why Luca isn't the poster boy; he's not a dorm captain and those seem to be what the game wants to push. well them and towa lol)

Haru and Rui

Rui is a bar tender who is described as being "popular with the female students" probably because of how flirty he is ha. I love his dynamic with Haru and Romeo, just a barman and his two favorite customers shooting the shit and trying to relax. Rui is cursed to kill whoever he touches, so I think he wants to talk with MC more because he can relate to her in a very unique way. And he got gate kept from doing so by Haku in book one so he's extra curious now. I have his SR so I'll put him on my homescreen for a bit and see what voice lines I can shake out of him. For the little bit I did have him there he called him and mc "curse twins" which I thought was very cute. In a dark sort of way. The entire section at the Obscuary bar endeared me to all three of those idiots.

But especially Haru. He called Peekaboo his child this chapter too ;-; he's such a good dad. I wonder if he is going to show up next books at all? Or if it's going to be like the previous books and we'll instead see Taiga and maaaaybe Towa? Since he's friends with Zenji. Nothing to do but wait for May 0-0

[destinygoldenstar]

🌟Can Gays Coexist In Peace?🌟 - Total Drama Viewer Reacts to Disventure Camp Season 3 Episode 2 “Gone Buck Wild!”

I WAS VERY EXCITED TO SHOW YOU GUYS THIS.

So, I kinda maybe DITCHED THE SCREENSHOT EDITS...

Instead, for this season, you're getting complete digital art from me as headings.

I'll put these on their own in separate posts later.

SO I HOPE YOU ENJOY A GABELLIE HEADING.

Don't worry, you're not gonna see art of the same character over and over again. It's just 'who did I find interesting the previous episode?' 'what do I feel like?' Ya know?

I think these girlies are here to stay. So I gave them some spotlight.

...I know my art isn't great :(

Alright today we're going into the game itself! We got Red Yellow And Blue!

...oh wait, sorry, we got yellow, blue, and PINK.

OF ALL COLORS, YOU PICK PINK.

I like pink, but also, that's a color that screams 'disaster' when you put it in this setting.

I have literally no reason to make fun of Pink Team yet, but here we are. XD

Thank you all for the support btw. And your warnings that this season is terrible. Appreciate it.

I mean hey, if it's bad, I want it to be the fun type of bad. That's all I ask.

What did you say? "YUL ReGRETT this?"

I already regret it just from hearing that pun... /s

Alright, so... I'm doing it anyway. It's on me if I'm tortured.

I can't get over that the very first second of this intro is lady whats-her-name killing Oliver by shoving him off a plane.

Ooh does Lake's suitcase have a flower on it?

Don't say I'm not watching the intro every time.

XD

First minute, and we already have the child getting hurt.

WHOOPS.

"My bad! Never used one of these doo-hickeys in my life."

Yeah she didn't mean to do that.

She wouldn't willingly hurt a child, even if it's Fiore.

"Oh god, we're on the same team."

"WHO IN TARNATION DECIDED ON PINK?!"

Yeah I wonder how that's gonna go, since, ya know, Fiore's the main source of Ashley's downfall last time. And Ashley has a good motive for the money.

"I wasn't lying, I'd never used a parachute before, but I definitely chose to land on Fiore."

OKAY NEVERMIND SHE DID MEAN TO DO THAT.

WHAT THE HELL ASHLEY?

"Far as I'm concerned, even though I'd never wish pain to a little girl, she deserved worse than a kick to the head."

I mean... is it bad that I kind of get that logic??

Like, it's shitty cause it's a kid, but this is Fiore we're talking about. She WANTS to be treated as grown up by everyone.

So that's what she gets.

Plus she's a bit of a psychopath who would murder people for money, so yeah.

I act like Grett and Riya are any better...

I like Fiore too, so you know.

"Think this is where we split."

No. Don't split.

We need to talk about this.

"On the jet, you mentioned we would get a chance to talk."

Yes. Thank you.

"Seeing as we aren't on the same team this time... this could be our last chance. You think we can talk now?"

I know. This is a rather tragic circumstance.

You finally see each other again, and then you can't hang out?

I mean, they can visit camps, right? They never said you couldn't do that. They can still catch up.

"Oh um-sorry-I um... need to get to my team as soon as possible."

Tom.

Tom what's going on?

I mean... I think I get it.

After what happened last time, you might be freaking out...

...but come on. Do you want to sort things out or not?

Goddammit Tom.

"Let him go, Jake. He's clearly not interested in patching things up."

Yeah, that might be it too.

Though, it is in character for Tom to not want to talk about hard stuff.

He probably already moved on.

He has a new job. He has a new life now.

It just didn't work out. And now you suddenly see them again? It's gonna be like that.

"I don't want to assume things like last time. I want to hear it from him."

"His silence speaks volumes."

"After everything we've been through... is this really it?"

Surely not.

I wouldn't be able to take it.

We're two episodes in. You got time.

It's a lot of PTSD. People with that don't want triggers.

Idk I'm really trying here. I think they're gonna explain it at some point.

"It might be time to move on."

Awwwww 😥

He's not gonna be able to connect with anyone here.

Hunter has two girlfriends. James has a boyfriend.

He's alone.

And it's hard to move on from something like that too. It just really sucks cause she might be right.

AWWWW GABBY'S HAIR IN A PONYTAIL!!!❤️

"I hope there aren't too many from our season..."

UUUUUUUHHHH ABOUT THAT...

Yeah...

"After how you treated me on the jet over here? You're lucky I even acknowledged you."

YOU SLANDERED EVERYONE PUBLICALLY.

"If you guys continue to bicker, it'll be the death of both of you!"

YUS QEEEN 👑

GABBY PUTTING HER FOOT DOWN.

"NO FIGHTING AT THE DINNER TABLE!"

"I'm glad I have Gabby and Tess, but having to deal with Sheriff Himbo's grudge-"

DID YOU JUST CALL HIM SHERIFF HIMBO?! 😂

That doesn't have a right to be funny.

"I know there's no point in apologizing since you won't believe me, but I want to play differently this time."

I'll believe it when I see it. How about that?

"We can work together. As long as it's on my terms of course."

"But after all I've done?! I protected you this whole game! I helped you win the zombie apocalypse challenge, saved your life in the cave, covered up your plans so no one would suspect you're a PSYCHOPATH, and you STILL eliminate me?!"

"Hey! Words hurt you know!"

I thought you knew that 'Demon Child' is accurate.

You yourself said that.

"Dang, why did we have to get the little girl on our team?"

DAMN, NO ONE IS HAPPY WITH HER.

I mean look at it this way.

You have an easy first boot on your team.

"The problem is that last time, we lost almost every challenge because of you."

Uh... let me think about that...

*Does the math*

Actually, that is only not true one time. Episode 4.

Episode 5 in a half cause that was a collab between her and Alec's failure to cook.

So 1 1/2 out of 4 that's false.

Yeah, she has a point.

"I'm screwed."

YA THINK?

"Never told you this, but as a young lad, I was in the scouts. Really made a man out of me."

Look at Connor being useful!

"Grett, the human hemorrhoid."

Hemorrhoid?

OH.

MIRIAM, WATCH IT.

"Wow granny, you look just like this old woman I got accused of pushing down an escalator."

Oh yeah, Yul is here.

I almost didn't notice him till he opened his mouth.

"Also, if you call my girlfriend a hemorrhoid again, you'll be rolling down this hill."

I'd like to see you try.

Props for defending your girl I guess...?

Grett does not look happy about it though.

"To put it nicely, this team is a hot mess."

No it's not.

You have two queens who know how to play. Miriam's a good brains. You're a good brains.

The only reason it's a hot mess is because there's this one pesky stain here.

Get rid of him and you will see the light.

"What if we cover the tent in leaves?"

Does that work?

Does that actually work?

"Mind if I tag along?"

"I do mind actually."

Girl, what is your problem?

Just because he's dense and absent minded doesn't mean he doesn't want to help you.

You are literally beefing with your boyfriend because he can't remember every single detail of your words straight away.

"Alright, I know I look like a jerk for not remembering her game, but listen, Ally remembers a lot of video games. Remembering every game she talks to me about would be harder than advanced calculous."

Yeah. EXACTLY.

Why is she so mad about this? She should know he's like this.

Like... just tell him again?? Is that hard???

You act like he's ignoring you on purpose.

Jake and Allyson are gonna be besties.

"OMG MY LOVER IGNORES ME TOO!!!!"

"Is it even worth making a fire? The rain's just gonna come put it out."

Yeah why would you waste flint like that?

"I'd like to think about potentially forming an alliance."

Didn't they already say no?

NO MEANS NO.

"Hunter and Ally are a couple and James seems to be close to them."

Oh, that's true...

You can probably sway Allyson though.

And if Hunter is cool with it, boom. Four Person Alliance. Fiore and James are the minority.

"That's a risk I can take."

Yeah, I get that.

Jake's just like "I just came here to get some alone time with Tom AND NOW I CAN'T GET IT 😠-"

"I wanna discuss it privately with Jake now."

Oh?

*whispering* "Hey Jake, I think this girl is desperate."

"Relax, I just wanted her to go away. Her darn voice was starting to hurt my ears."

"I AM IN HEARING RANGE!!!!"

Awwww, Yul's suffering, how sweet 😄

Though I act like I'm better. I was out in the COLD at work most of the day. My skin was RED and I had FOUR LAYERS ON.

"What was my manager thinking sending me out here in a crop top?"

OH RELAX YOUR CROP TOP HAS FIRE ON THAT. THAT WILL WARM YOU UP RIGHT AWAY.

"And at least we still look good together."

If SHIT if your standard of good. Then sure.

God I still can't believe this is real...

"You all should have prepared better. I brought my alpaca fur coat, which not only is warm, but makes me look fabulous."

LOOK AT RIYA SHOWING OFF HER QUEEN STATUS.

GIRL IS FLEXING.

"For my next showing, I shall get everybody fur coats! We shall bond as a team making fur coats out of the fluffiest animals we can find!"

NO RIYA GABBY WILL SMACK YOU INTO NEXT TUESDAY!

"Riya's coat slays."

OH NO CONNOR DON'T TELL HER TO SLAY! SHE'LL DO IT!

"You know, now that you mentioned slaying, I WAS thinking about it..."

"I'm really worried about what this game is doing to Riya. When we're alone, she can be really sweet."

Yeah...

Though her being sweet off camera is kind of a shock, actually.

"But as soon as the cameras are on, she becomes someone else entirely."

Yeah because her reputation is based solely around being that someone else. Because the real her is the her that gets no success and no attention.

AWWWW LOOK AT THE BLUE TEAM BONDING OVER RAIN, THIS IS-

This is actually so nice. It is so nice to just relax for a bit and see characters bond.

This is so sweet. I like this. ❤️

I really miss stuff like this in Total Drama. Over the seasons, they kinda got rid of this stuff in favor of action.

This is taking its time. I appreciate it.

"When it rained, I was hiding in the camp, looking for something to help me with the Jensen problem."

And that was AFTER you were eliminated. Which was MERGE.

Damn. The Season 1 cast got lucky.

"What were you doing that night, Ellie?"

"Nothing..."

"I was just... you know... ruining a relationship... the usual."

And do not tell me "Ellie breaking them up was a good thing, actually!"

They were sorting things out on their own just fine until she butted in and fed lies!

And now look at the state of both of them not being able to get over it cause it hurt them THAT MUCH.

Don't tell me they deserved that!

If they were gonna break up, they would have done it on their own. Enough said.

"OH, OH REALLY, OH, so you don't recall stabbing me in the back and making me look like a moron on national television?!"

EXACTLY. THANK YOU.

"Well, it worked."

*spits a laugh*

Okay, that was good.

"BUT-BUT ELLIE COULDN'T HAVE DONE ANYTHING ELSE-"

Here. I will educate you.

"I didn't break it up to start an argument!"

"GODDAMMIT I'M GONNA HAVE TO RESORT TO BREAKING BRIDGES WITH A SLEDGEHAMMER!"

You better hope to GOD Gabby doesn't get a sledgehammer!

YOU BETTER HOPE TO GOD!

"You know it's bad when I have to be the voice of reason."

I... yeah. That is very concerning.

Still. Gabby slays.👑

Oh my god they're all in uniform.

I say that like they weren't in Season 1 too.

The PINK is just making me not take that team seriously. I'm sorry.

"PINK IS THE MOST INTIMIDATING COLOR!"

They're reminding me of Barbies.

Well, two Barbies, a Chelsea, and three Kens.

"Uh James? What are you doing helping the other team?"

That's his boyfriend.

I mean, of course JAKE is the one who says this.

"I DON'T TRUST THAT GUY! HE'S TRYING TO SABOTAGE HIS OWN TEAM!!"

"...I mean, I don't blame you for not trusting me. But learn to chill."

"I'LL CHILL WHEN YOU'RE DEALT WITH! IT'S NOT LIKE YOU HAVE A HAPPY LOVING RELATIONSHIP WHILE MINE WENT HORRIBLY WRONG AND WAS PUBLICALLY HUMILIATED AND GHOSTED FOR BEING ME AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-"

"...well shit."

"They only let us film a new season here in exchange for repairing the environment."

So you set it on fire.

Sure.

God this is bad timing.

Oh my god XD

"How would you rate your Survivor experience?"

*Everyone goes in the red one*

"Fair enough."

"The yellow containers have eight mildly harmful animals."

What do you mean by mildly?

Mild as in a rabbit? Or mild as in a bear?

"And the red one contains four very dangerous critters."

WHO APPROVED OF THAT?!?!

WELP, SOMEONE'S GETTING MAULED.

Is a bever really that dangerous?

So... all the red is 40. All the yellow is also 40.

Just go for all the yellows. And the other two teams will split the reds, and boom, you win.

WHY WOULD YOU PUT THE CHILD AS YOUR DEFENSE?

BOO, PINK TEAM SUCKS.

Okay. AIDEN as defense.

WHYYYY?!?!?!?

WHAT IS YOUR LOGIC?!

Riya looks like she's just here to slay, honestly.

"I can attack and look good doing it. For my next showing, I am going to show you my secret football skills! They will fall before me as they tackle each other to the ground!"

NO RIYA FOOTBALL IS A DANGEROUS SPORT!

"Let's get the red container!"

GO FOR THE YELLOW. YA DUMBASSES.

XD

Okay that's just funny. Idk why.

Don't just leave the goat there- oh my god.

And this is just the second episode XD

Okay first off, GET OFF ITS ASS. IT DON'T LIKE THAT.

Second, leash it from behind and let it run. It'll chase you through the door.

But mostly, DON'T TOUCH THE ANIMAL'S ASS!!!

DAMN SHE JUST ONE SHOT HER!

👑

Why is Gabby slaying so much this episode?

"Hey! Gabby punched me!"

That was a SMACK.

And also, THAT'S THE GAME!!!

I DUNNO WHAT TO TELL YA.

DON'T. TOUCH. THE ANIMALS. ASS!!

Please don't fuck a wolf.

It looks like all three of them are trying to fuck a wolf.

Oh look at the Yellow Team working well together!

"Don't think I've forgiven you."

Well, you just saved her from Hunter's bullying, so...

She's not even on your team, secondly.

"No one on my team likes me!"

"Can you blame them?"

Not really.

THANK YOU!

I WAS VERY CONCERNED WHAT YOU WERE DOING TO THAT WOLF EARLIER.

ALSO THANK YOU FOR LISTENING TO ME!

Heyo. Tom. You're uh... you're kinda...

Oh my brain just got dirty. THANKS WOLF.

OH MY GOD LOOK AT RIYA BEING SMART!

GO OFF QUEEN! 👑

"For my next showing, I shall tame the wolf! And teach it human civilization! The better to eat you with, dear!"

NO RIYA THAT FAIRY TALE IS A VORE FIC!

"Change of plans! Go for the green containers!"

GO FOR THE YELLOW!

"Do you mean the crate or the team?"

*face palm*

NOPE.

OH GOD DON'T DO IT LIKE THAT!!!

Aw, Yul is suffering. That's nice. :)

GET HIM GOOSE!

She's just vibing XD

This challenge was made for Gabby.

Aw, Jake :(

Tom moved on. Hate to say it.

"Man, I have no friends."

"Seems like Tom's already replaced you."

OH GOD DON'T ADD SALT TO THE WOUND.

"He's been smiling more than usual around Aiden."

Yeah. Tom making friends. That's... pretty unlike him.

"But I was his sunshine..."

"I wouldn't be surprised if they talked before this."

Uh, Aiden was in Brazil, so uh... how would that be possible?

Jake's gonna be like "You really think I buy into that crap? Come on. You just want to hurt me."

"Which leaves Team Magenta with a messily twelve points."

Oh wow.

Okay. Noted.

PINK TEAM SUCKS 😂

I THINK WE FOUND OUR TEAM VICTORY.

"Hey James, can I ask you something?"

Is he actually gonna tell someone what happened?

That's shocking coming from Jake. But proud of him.

"Have you noticed how quickly Tom and Aiden became friends?"

Huh. He's CALM about it too?

Damn. Jake's development is actually consistent.

"Yeah, so, I haven't seen or heard from Tom in two years, and him quickly making friends like that doesn't seem like him. And I have trust issues, so I don't want to assume the worst out of it or believe Alec. Can you help me out man? Thanks. Appreciate it."

I gotta admit, I expected Jake to be pissed and not talk to anyone about this.

"No. I'm not on their team."

DUH.

"I think you should talk to Aiden."

Good idea. WOW. 👍

Talk to Aiden. Find out the truth. You find out Alec is full of crap. You clear the air!

Jake is actually taking this really well and doing the right thing!

"What are you implying, Jake?!"

Wh-?

Why are you mad at him?

He said FRIENDS. He didn't say cheating.

CHILL.

"Well, it just seems very unusual to me."

As Jake WOULD assume. He hasn't seen Tom since last season.

He just wants a full picture and understand what's happening. Which is justified.

"Respectfully, you don't know Aiden. Be careful what you're suggesting."

I'm pretty sure he was talking about Tom's side of it.

JAMES. CHILL.

"Woah, no need to be that hostile."

YEAH. HE ASKED CALMLY AND OPEN MINDED.

WHY ARE YOU UPSET?!

Come on. If Jake BELIEVED Aiden was cheating on James with Tom, WHY WOULD HE CONFRONT THIS TO JAMES SO CALMLY AND SUGGEST TALKING OUT IT IN THE FIRST PLACE?

He's coming here cause he doesn't want to believe it and wants solid proof and help to assure him that it's a lie.

And James is getting all fired up for no good reason.

"You are making stuff up about my boyfriend!"

ALL HE SAID WAS THAT HE WAS FRIENDS WITH TOM.

WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!

James, you're killing me right now!

You did in Season 2 as well, but still.

"I didn't make anything up! Others have noticed too! Are you blind?!"

And now you're firing up Jake.

James, ya fucked up.

"Listen boy toy. Clearly you have trust issues. My boyfriend is not cheating on me."

So why are you yelling at him instead of helping clear the air?

YOU'RE MAKING IT WORSE.

JAMES JUST STOP.

"Are you calling me a liar?!"

"A lie would have to be smart. You're delusional."

Bruh.

James, you fucked up.

And now I remember why I don't like James XD

I'm surprised Jake was handling that well though. He actually learned something from Season 1. He didn't explode until James snapped at him.

I'm proud of my boy.

But now I think he is gonna be bitter about the friendship because Tom won't talk to him, so it just further proves that he doesn't care about Jake anymore in his mind.

Clearly Jake has no friends, so that hurts even more.

"Well, anyone I ask for help is being a dick to me, so you know what? SCREW PEOPLE. SCREW EVERYONE HERE. YOU ALL SUCK."

"The casting team really dropped the ball inviting Jake back. I mean, have they seen what he posts? Crying about never finding true love? Hashtag Thirsty."

Okay that's just mean XD

"This is the fortieth day since the incident... I have never been the same... I'M OUT OF ICE CREAM!! AND HE HAS NO SERVICE WHERE HE LIVES!!!😭"

🎵"ALL ALOOOOOONNNEEE, PRETENDING HE'S BESIDE MEEEEEE..."🎵

Yeah, so Jake has NOT BEEN DOING WELL since Season 1.

I don't blame him one bit.

And I don't blame him for assuming the worst either.

And James is still a piece of shit.

"Ever since Jake blew up on James-"

James blew up on Jake. Were you not eavesdropping?

"Fiore is the weakest member of the team. If we want to win challenges, she should be the one to go."

Which is fair logic, actually.

She is kinda useless without her strategic power that no one is falling for anymore.

"Jake was on my side on voting Fiore, but since the argument, he's been begging me to change our vote to James."

Do I blame him?

Honestly? Do I blame him?

I was coming into this thinking "Yeah Jake is gonna be an asshole. I'll support him, but NOT because I'm on his side."

...well shit. I'm on his side.

"This is the perfect chance to get revenge on Fiore. For Will, Lill, and even Nick who I don't care about but I'll stick him in there too."

WAS THAT SURVIVOR REFERENCE?!??!?!

HEYO!!!! I KNOW THAT LINE!!!!!!

VERY CLEVER DISVENTURE CAMP!!!! VERY CLEVER!!!!!

I understand losing Fiore.

But also, I kinda want James to go.

'JAMES'

Nice. Very nice.

'JAKE'

Yeah yeah yeah, fuck you James.

'JAMES'

XD

Fiore's handwriting.

I can't memorize everyone's handwriting. But Fiore's is just so obvious.

'FIORE'

Oh wait, is Fiore going...?

I mean it makes sense.

'FIORE'

OH MY GOD SHE'S GOING.

Welp, bye kid!

OH.

OH MY GOD. ASHLEY?!

ASHLEY LOCKING IN JAKE AS AN ALLY?!?!

That's... actually very smart of her.

Because the two are voting against each other, and if Fiore goes, that tension makes Ashley an outcast and the next to go because Allyson and Hunter are sided with James-

So the best move is to get James out.

By doing that, she locks in Jake as an ally, and evens the numbers with Allyson and Hunter, because they won't work with Fiore!

Wow!

Well played! 👏

THAT WAS A SMART MOVE!👏

I LIKE THAT!

"I can't believe you guys sided with that spoiled brat!"

Look who's talking.

"SPOILED?! I HAVE NOTHING BUT A SURROGATE GRANDMA!"

"From last years champion to first boot."

I know, right? That's crazy!

HOW THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN.

"Good luck having a paranoid nutcase on the team."

He's not wrong.

I'm not gonna defend Jake and say he's perfect. Cause no.

He's the problem person on this team.

"I'm sorry James... but Jake is the only person on the team I've formed a small bond with in this short time, and I don't plan on burning it now..."

That's crazy.

I thought it would be Jake and Allyson.

Jake and Ashley was NOT on my bingo card.

"I can't help but feel bad."

Aww.😥

He's remorseful about it.

"Am I right to suspect something between Tom and Aiden? I don't have that answer right now, but in case it's true... tonight was payback. Now Aiden will feel what it's like to have the person you love taken away."

DAMN.

OKAY. DAMN.

I mean, he's acting out of impulsiveness, right? HOLY SHIT MAN.

I mean, PERSONALLY, I think you did Aiden a favor.

But that is SO MESSED UP.

What did I say?

JAKE IS AN ASSHOLE.

I FREAKING CALLED THIS.

WHAT DID I SAY?

WHAT DID I SAY WOULD HAPPEN?!?!

HE TRUSTS NO ONE.

YAY JAKE IS AN ASSHOLE!!🥳

...that intention was still fucked up and I won't defend it.

But congrats on starting your asshole journey!👏

I...

Okay that really picked up at the end there!

There's some stupidity happening, but when is there not? That shit's been going on the past two seasons.

I did not expect James to be the first boot but you know what? I'm happy about it!

Dude dug his grave!

I'm looking back at that scene real quick and YEAH. Jake was being very calm and kindly asking James to help him out and talk to Aiden about the friendship with Tom. He said nothing about cheating.

And then James just EXPLODES on him FOR NO GOOD REASON.

Like, SHIT, NO WONDER JAKE VOTED YOU OFF. YOU GIVE QUITE A NUMBER OF RED FLAGS.

The top comment I just saw XD

Except he DIDN'T?

Hear me out.

If Jake ACTUALLY instantly believed that, we wouldn't have talked to James at all. He wouldn't have come to James to ask for clarity on what's happening.

Who else could he talk to? Tom won't do it.

It's because he DOESN'T trust it that this whole argument happened.

Or at least, he doesn't WANT to trust it.

BUT GODDAMMIT, JAMES GAVE HIM NO CHOICE NOW.

It's not that he believes Alec, it's that he has a terrible social life since his season and he's hurt by it, and no one is helping him figure it out.

I am all for Jake's Asshole Arc!

That past two episodes was a good build up and starting point to it. It makes sense for him!

YES! BE A DICK! HATE YOUR TEAM! HATE EVERYONE! RUIN YOUR LIFE AND RUIN YOUR CHANCES AT THIS GAME!

You're doing amazing, sweetie! He's gonna fuck up everything.

Aiden is going to LOATHE YOU.

He deserves to be loathed by him though.

OH THIS IS GONNA BE FUN :)

[crescencestudio]

๋࣭⭑ Devlog #38 | 2.27.24 ๋࣭⭑

How is it already almost March omfg.

Anyways Happy Valentine's Day month!!! This year, I was swamped with work, so I didn't get a chance to make Valentine's Day art. I did make a Valentine's piece last year though.

BUT we did have beloved @magunalafay make these Valentine's Day cards this year for the community!!! <3 If you missed it, well Happy Valentine's Day!!!!!

She made these as a gift, and I love her very much. Maguna u r so talented

This month was pretty busy for me, but I'm super happy with the progress made this month ^^ I feel like I've started the year off in a pretty good groove after it being all over the place for a hot second, yay!!!

This past month, Etza and Druk's routes. With the revamped demo finishing its revisions, it left a lot more time for me to focus writing on full route development.

If you missed the announcement, I FINISHED Etza's first draft!!! YAAAYYY!!!! FINALLY!!!!!!

That means 4/6 routes are finished in terms of the base writing, which is so exciting to MEEEEE. I've always seen Etza's draft as The Milestone because with their route finished, it would mean the four Central routes are done writing. And to me, while there's a good chuck of writing left, we are nearing the end of it.

There's only two routes left and that means it's about ~100k words which is CRAZY compared to when I had ~300k to write (:cries:). Even if that sounds like a lot, once I start chipping away at those routes, that 100k goes into the "double digits" aka 90k...80k... etc. and that makes me want to pee my pants

We also finished editing Druk's route, yay!!! So we reached a lot of milestones this month ^^

We are nearing the end of the Vui background commissions. It's very bittersweet; I'm so used to mentioning him in my devlogs now </3 There's only like 3(?) more BGs left for him to make, and then all of the BGs for the game will be finished. Very Wild! I think Alaris will have 25ish BGs, and they are all Stunning.

It's been a while since I showed you all a BG, so I'll give you all a preview of one I just got in!

Isn't it cozy? Guess whose house hehe

I personally have been doing a lot of sprite work this month to finish the final art assets for the demo. I added some expressions to Druk and Aisa that I'd been procrastinating (I don't even know why I was procrastinating them). And I finally finished Mom and Kimura's updated sprites! Patreon already saw them, but I'll show the new versions here too ^^

Preview of Mom (left) and Kimura (right) updated sprites. Now everyone's sprite styles are cohesive YAY!!

Aside from sprite work, much of my "art" time has been on finishing up/putting together the last of the screens for the GUI. Specifically, I got THIS BABY up and running. She is my crowning glory.

Memory Screen to Replay Unlocked Free Time Dates

Oh my god.... You all have NO IDEA how much of a pain this was to code. There is a transparency gradient going on in the left and right B&W previews (courtesy of community programming angel feniks/shawna).

And then the effort to have the Titles and Descriptions of the Previewed Date change tilted me on Multiple Occasions. But we finally got it to work thanks to bestie @siyo-koy pointing out I just coded one stupid "if" statement wrong LJAFSLIEFJIEJ. But the effort was WORTH IT because I'm so proud of her!!! I hope you all like it too as a way to relive Free Time Dates. I had a lot of fun with the Titles and descriptions.

I also put together the Stats and Affection Screens

Preview of Personality Stats & Affection Screens

So I coded both of them a bit differently from each other. The Personality Screen shows you a breakdown of your traits so far. Think of it like a pie graph! So in the preview picture, your choices indicate you are 33% Brave, 16% Charismatic, etc. I felt like this was a more natural way to portray personality rather than how many bravery points you've collected so far!

And then for Affection, it works in a more traditional way, where it counts it based on how many you've gotten out of the total amount you can get. This way, as the story progresses, how close you are to the person reflects how much your relationship as developed!

I've also added little descriptions underneath each that change depending on the percentage. So for example, if you have gotten 82% of the affection points for Kuna'a, the description of your relationship might change as well hehe

Other than that, I've mainly focused on getting the demo together. We released the beta demo earlier this month (? LOL). And the feedback has been so kind!!

A lot of this month was spent polishing so that the demo can be ready for early access and eventually public release. I updated sprites, made sure music crossfades with each other so that transitions between soundtracks feel smoother, I added/polished all of the screens I needed to (e.g., Memory Room, Full Credits, Cleaning Music Room, Adding Stats Screens), and I FINALLY as of yesterday added the Voiced Lines!!

One thing I added in the Extended Demo that I'm really happy with is the use of Extended Pronouns (courtesy of Angel Feniks). Below is a preview of how it works now!

Preview of Extended Pronouns Function. Credit to Feniks

Basically, you can choose multiple pronouns for yourself, including custom pronouns (e.g., xe/xem, fae/faer, etc.). On top of that, you can choose how often you'd like the pronouns to alternate (e.g., every line versus every scene) and what kind of terms you'd like to be used for you (e.g., neutral vs. masculine vs. feminine)!

Overall, the demo is getting closer and closer to release!!! Early Access will hopefully be ready by the end of this week or next, so if you all would like access to it, please feel free to subscribe to my Patreon for this upcoming month! Available to Wyvern tier ($5) and up.

I didn't have any time to really play any games this month because I was drowning in work LMFAOSLJIEF. I did play the Threads of Bay demo by @lavendeerstudios and it was GORGEOUS! Very cute game with lovable characters and charming visuals. Andrew, I will have your number

Every other section was really long, so I'm going to throw it here even though it's not market research. But Intertwine recently hit 600 ratings, which is crazy. Thank you for still enjoying that game even if it's not one that is my main focus anymore. I'm really happy people still like it :on the verge of tears:

Anyways, this has been a long devlog. Here's to continuing to Ball in March. Hope you all have a great rest of your month, and I'll talk to you soon! <3