#it's the lockdown stupid

[fearandhatred]

listen that good omens lockdown phone call is literally WHAT I HAVE BEEN SAYING everything they tell each other goes in one ear and straight out the other it's kind of incredible

aziraphale hints so many times that crowley could come over if he wanted and does crowley get the hint? no! and then afterwards crowley says outright that he could visit him, and does aziraphale accept? NO! I AM GOING TO THROTTLE THE LIFE OUT OF THEM WITH MY BARE HANDS

[accirax]

DRDT Chapter 2 Recap Analysis

Heyyyyy everybody :D

I'm sure that, by now, everyone has heard the exciting news: DRDT will be back on Friday, September 6, at 7 PM EST! That's so awesome!!! I can't wait to finally see the end of the Chapter, and hopefully for the DRDT community to come back in full force, even if only for a little while. I missed you all :)

So, to get back in the swing of Chapter 2 theorizing (and recap what's just happened for everyone including myself), I've decided to run a bit of analysis on the return announcement itself, specifically the recap that occurs at the end. I believe that anything an author says about their works can hold clues as to how they view their story. And, in this case, what does and doesn't make the recap and how certain events are phrased can give us some last-minute clues as to what we should be keeping our eyes on going into the second half of the Trial.

I'm going to try to keep this as facts-focused and non-partisan as possible, but in a "theory" like this, confirmation bias is basically impossible to fully ignore. It's inherent that I'll be more likely to pick up on "clues" that work with my beliefs than ones that work against it. So, please remember that I am not attacking anyone who believes any of the things that I "disprove" in this analysis, and I'm also not saying that you're already 100% wrong about them at this point in time. I'm literally going to "shoot down," so to speak, some of my own theories, but I'm not taking this analysis as reason enough to abandon them just yet. We can't know if anything is true or false until the Chapter is finished, so it would be silly to call something completely wrong when the Chapter hasn't even restarted yet.

With that out of the way, let's recap that recap, and drain every bit of information out of it that we possibly can!

I think that the most efficient way to see what is and isn't present is to list out the "scenes" that occur throughout Chapter 2, and see what DRDTdev had to say about each of them. With that in mind, our first "event" is...

Eden Makes Breakfast

Notably, all mention of Levi helping Eden make breakfast is omitted from this recap. This includes in the visuals of the clip played.

In some instances, I'm going to write how DRDTdev could have phrased things if he wanted to highlight certain elements in an indented paragraph, just to prove that it was possible to convey the information differently. Like this!

"Chapter 2 starts with Levi helping Eden make breakfast for everyone."

Distributing the Motive

This part seems pretty all-inclusive to what I remember happening in this scene. The only thing I particularly have to note is the finality of "Arturo received J's secret"-- which really makes it sound like that secret was assigned correctly-- but I don't think literally anyone was trying to claim that Arturo was lying about J having that secret.

Investigating the Second Floor

Obviously, DRDTdev didn't go into detail about any of these interactions-- no notes on Whit's theory that the killing game was catered to them, about Levi really wanting to make things up with Ace, or Nico's struggles with socialization. It means that those details are probably less important to the end of the Trial specifically, but I don't think that's much of a surprise.

Caulking the Bathroom

A lot of detail is omitted from what Teruko and MonoTV were actually talking about in the bathroom. Most notably, however, is that the Monocredits are not included in the recap. This may mean that Teruko's second Monocredit will not be redeemed this chapter, but at some later time.

A Chat With Charles

Once again, the use of Monocredits are ignored, as well as the fact that Charles gave Teruko the secret he received in case of emergencies. Therefore, it's possible that the letter (which should contain Eden's secret) won't come up again in the end of the Trial, and that this scene was more relevant to Charles' plot of opening up to Teruko than anything directly related to the secrets themselves.

"Afterwards, Teruko goes to talk with Charles, who hands her his motive secret in case of emergencies. Flustered by Charles' trust in her, Teruko uses her first Monocredit to have MonoTV make Charles go away."

Eden Retrieves Teruko

A couple of things here! Firstly, DRDTdev draws attention to the fact that Teruko was removed from the group for a day. I don't know if this could factor into murder plans at all, given that it's a whole three days before Arei turns up dead, but it could be relevant. Secondly, any mention of Eden's blackmail AND any mention of Eden's philosophy are omitted from the recap. Given that that's both one piece of information that makes Eden seem more guilty AND one piece that makes her seem more innocent, I imagine that was probably just to keep things neutral/brief. Unlike some of the other text boxes that I showed could have been written differently, that descriptor was already pretty long.

Commotion in the Cafeteria

No comment on who was the one tasked to help each of those pairs (Eden, Veronika, Teruko) or Charles and Whit choosing to sit out, but none of those additions seemed incredibly relevant to the overall plot.

David Suggests Secret Sharing

In this case, "secret" is put in quotations, which strongly suggests that having a family history of depression, whether true or not, is not what David's secret actually was. But, the board basically confirmed that already. Far more wildly, no mention is made of Charles learning of Elliot's existence at all. This is particularly crazy to me given that the last video on the DRDT channel prior to this was the Yoidoreshirazu MV. It definitely implies to me that Charles' secret will not be relevant in wrapping up Chapter 2.

Arei's Breakdown

The use of "rebuffs" as opposed to "bullies" or "demeans" is interesting to me, as it's a relatively chill word to describe what Arei did. We also lost Eden slipping up and telling Teruko that the secret she has belonged to someone with he/him pronouns, but that was likely excluded because we've (most likely) already solved that mystery.

Rose's Secret

No detail about Rose's backstory, but we don't have all day. Far more interesting to me is that DRDTdev draws attention to Nico asking Rose to teach them to paint in a sentence that could have easily been cut. My guess is to highlight the importance of this in relation to Ace's "murder."

Nico Threatens Ace

Nothing of note here; this seems pretty standard.

Nico's Secret

The phrasing "David has Nico reveal their secret" is really cool for how non-partisan it is. It doesn't say "David FORCES Nico" or "David MAKES Nico," but it also doesn't just say "Nico reveals their secret," either. It points out how David pushed things in this direction, but did so in a way where it was still technically up to Nico. Anyways, we also lost Hu telling us about the origin of her name. This is a bit strange, given that it's the main scene we have (in Chapter 2 at least) of Hu and David working together and being on good terms before David's reveal. Perhaps this implies that any relevance this scene has on the Trial has already passed.

Teruko Threatens J

Honestly, the weirdest part of this to me is that it was important enough to make the recap at all. But, it did have a CG and everything. Actually, I wonder if this could have been included to help us remember that Teruko is actively carrying a knife on her at all times.

Ace Nearly Dies

DRDTdev directly phrases this as "Nico attempting to murder Ace," which really sounds like a soft confirmation that Nico was the one who tried to kill Ace, and therefore they were not framed for this crime.

"Late at night, Teruko and Eden spot Nico running away from Ace's nearly dead body in the Gym."

We also lose a lot of detail when it comes to Teruko and Eden investigating the initial scene of the crime, Ace chasing down Nico to kill them on the spot, and Levi offering his aid before being rejected and growing angry. It could indicate that the details of what happened after Ace "died" won't be relevant to the end of the Chapter.

Hu Defends Nico

This scene, in which Ace tries to expose what Nico did and Hu argues that Ace must have the wrong idea, is entirely missing from the recap. I bring this up because, very notably, this is the scene where Arei is last seen, not speaking. Arei's weirdly quiet breakfast is not highlighted in the recap at all, which may mean that it won't be relevant to the Trial.

Teruko and Rose Check Out the Gym

We once again call particular attention to the fact that Rose can't do a pullup because the grippy tape went missing from the Gym at some point around the time of the murder, although no focus is put on the fact that the Gym was closed in between when Teruko and Eden were there and when Teruko returned with Rose. This may suggest that the lockdown logic of how the tape went missing may be relevant to the remainder of the chapter.

A Chat With Charles and Whit

Once again, absolutely no mention is made of Ellie or Charles' childhood amnesia, despite that being the main point of this conversation. Weird.

"Teruko stops by the Computer Lab and talks with Charles and Whit about Charles' memories of a forgotten older brother."

Horror Movies in the Gym

Beyond the lack of detail regarding Veronika's philosophy, I'm quite surprised that Teruko's plan to end the killing game wasn't at all mentioned in the recap. I guess that'll be saved for a further chapter!

Motive Reveal Time

I don't think there's anything particularly important going on here, besides possibly drawing attention back to David being the one to point out that Arei was missing. It's possible that could still be relevant if the specifics of the BDA come up in the Trial.

Discovering Arei's Body

A couple of points on word choice in this one-- first of all, the text says "find her body," which, according to what was said on the slide before this one ("points out that Arei is missing"), should imply that they found Arei's body. However, the way that this slide is phrased allows for the very sneaky "Everyone goes to search for [Arei]. Teruko, Eden, and Whit find [J's] body hanging in the playground." Therefore, in my opinion, this part of the recap doesn't disprove swap theory, at least.

Secondly, the word DRDTdev chose was "find," not "discover." And, in this game, the BDA rule is phrased as "The Body Discovery Announcement will play when three or more people who did not witness the murder discover the body." Thus, by not directly saying that Teruko, Eden, or Whit was discovering the body here, this part of the recap also doesn't disprove the idea that Eden or Whit (or Teruko) could have done something to falsify the BDA. In fact, the BDA itself isn't mentioned at all.

"Everyone goes to search for her. Teruko, Eden, and Whit discover her body hanging in the playground, and trigger the Body Discovery Announcement."

Investigation

Absolutely nothing from the investigation makes it into the recap, likely because the investigation is an entire episode long on its own, and DRDTdev was trying to keep it quick. Not to mention, pointing out particular pieces of evidence here would really highlight what's going to be important in the Trial to come, and DRDTdev may be lowkey trying to further nudge people towards rewatching the entire investigation for themselves anyways. I think that the reconstruction of the note is probably the thing that I'm most surprised to see missing from the recap? I'll also point out that the video clips chosen for the "Investigating the Second Floor" section include Teruko and MonoTV looking up at the Gym's ceiling fans, which could be a sneaky way of drawing further attention to that setup.

Assigning Secrets

We have to go a bit later into the recap to hear about the motive secrets, and what we get is, predictably, very vague. Saying, "currently, the state of the motive secrets is like this" puts the full burden of proof onto the students to assign them correctly, with DRDTdev giving no indication here as to which are correct. Even the most highly contested assignment-- that Xander has the "the killing game is all your fault" secret as opposed to Teruko-- is still treated like fact here. Again, not a surprise, but not much to be gained.

Possibility of Suicide

The specifics of the blackened being the "most mastermind-y" person involved in the case are not included in the recap. This could imply that this rule may not be important to the outcome of this Trial.

Eden and Arturo

"Eden had Arturo's secret" also feels like a soft confirmation that that is Arturo's secret, and we won't reveal later down the line that Arturo actually had a different secret. I feel like this segment is also phrased like fact, therefore implying that Eden wasn't lying about this confrontation happening. We also get no indication as to Eden's feelings on Arei's vow, or whether them becoming friends actually happened.

"In the Trial, Eden claimed to have Arturo's secret, and that he attacked her when she revealed it. When Arei came to save her, the two of them forged a friendship."

What Ace Overheard

While not as plainly put as "it is revealed that," the phrasing "Ace reveals that" seems to support that Ace was telling the truth about overhearing this conversation, although the date on which it happened isn't reaffirmed here. Similarly, "David's secret is revealed" strongly implies that David does have the manipulator secret.

"Ace then claimed to overhear Arei and David talking about [David's] secret, and declared that David's secret was being a manipulator."

The David Reveal

(I'm going to write these ones out instead of having a screenshot because I ran out of images :,( And I'm too lazy to compress them... )

"In response, David acts aggressively and admits to being Arei's killer. Everyone nearly votes for David, but Teruko and a few others believe that David is lying. Then, Charles interrupts and reveals that he has some yet-unknown information that changes the Trial..."

To be honest, I didn't realize that "a few others" were siding with Teruko. Like, Charles for sure, and possibly Ace, given he still thinks Nico did it...? That phrase could be a hint that we'll hear more about other students who don't think that David is the blackened quickly after the plot resumes. Maybe my prediction that we're about to head into a scrum debate for 7:30 AM vs 7:30 PM will turn out to be correct...!

And, that's pretty much all I had to say... 30 images later. Look, a lot of it is images, so there wasn't actually that much analysis involved! Besides, now is the third-best time to be hyped and rambling about DRDT Chapter 2-- the top two being while the chapter is airing and just after it's finished, obviously-- so I can say as much as I want! And so can you!

If there are any particular phrasings within the recap that struck you as interesting, feel free to talk about them in the comments or a reblog! I'd love to see what other people think about this, and add my two cents (if desired).

From what it seems, the DRDT community seems to be just as excited for the return of DRDT as I am, which makes me very happy. I hope you enjoyed reading this analysis, and once again, please remember that I'm not trying to shame anyone for believing in anything that may be "disproved" by what DRDTdev said, or to fully convince them out of it before the Chapter begins. If I were DRDTdev, I would be trying to phrase things in the most vague and misleading ways possible to throw off nosy people like myself. It's also definitely possible that I read into things too far in my excitement. That's what this practice round is for, before we dive back in to the real meat of the mystery on September 6th!

Oh my god... we're actually going to dive back in to the real meat of the mystery on September 6th...

See you then!!!

[dizzybizz]

soon..... soon...

[medusa-was-innocent]

[isaacsapphire]

This is a weird thread, because omgwtfbbq are you going on about claiming that material conditions hadn't changed between 2012 and 2020.

The material conditions absolutely changed. The political conditions changed. The media conditions changed.

I honestly suspect that riots are an inevitable response to lockdowns, it's just the ones in the US unsurprisingly centered around race politics as the ostensible justification, which then shaped the sociopolitical response of the bored and physically safe... For now Blue tribe, which urgently glanced around at their immediate surroundings to find something they could pretend gave them agency over the causes of these enormous civil disturbances and so allow them to imagine they could change between their home office chair, their couch, and their mattress, and they fell upon their CSI binge watching and their toddler's Paw Patrol toys as a way to tell themselves this was actually their fault... And under their control, and they're one of the good ones, please don't hurt me.

There's kind of two definitions of "Copaganda".

Definition one refers to movies like, say, Dirty Harry or Lethal Weapon 2, which assert, essentially, that cops should be judge, jury and executioner and any attempt at oversight represents a corrupt or weak system siding with criminals over ordinary people.

Antipathy towards this kind of thing is long-standing in the left-wing mainstream, calling Dirty Harry fascist propaganda is as old as Dirty Harry.

Definition 2 is broader; A show like CSI depicts the police as a benign investigative body, made up of a team of people with diverse viewpoints who use the scientific method in a relentless pursuit of the truth, even when the truth might conflict with their preconceptions.

This is understood as "Copaganda" because by depicting American police in this utopian light, it might convince the American people that police routinely live up to this standard and that there are rigorous procedures and peer pressure to catch out the people who don't live up to this standard, which is not particularly true in the real world, where police are often credulous, prejudiced and unscientific and regular oversight is nearly non-existent.

Concern about definition two was extremely niche before 2020, and after 2020 concern about definition two has left-wing thinking about police to the extent that I've seen neurotic people express concern that, say, Star Trek is Copaganda because it depicts a functioning law enforcement agency.

And it's very weird to me because nothing really changed in 2020; the cops didn't get more corrupt and cop television didn't really change much either, but suddenly we all had radically different opinions about it.

[fansito]

Yuiko made me wonder about others crackships (and rarepairs) of Danganronpa Antebellum or any other fanganronpa in general

So, crackships and rarepairs of fanganronpas?

[uncanny-tranny]

By implying that children are too stupid and rude to learn about the world and learn how the world works and how to interact with others, you are casting responsibility away from the people who are responsible for that child's upbringing and placing the blame on the children (who don't have the autonomy given to them to be allowed to decide what they want) who can't help what they do and do not learn, often.

If the children aren't okay, then investigate why before turning to thought-terminating clichés of, "Well, the kids are just stupid and dumb and aren't even worth the effort because they're lazy!"

[raytorosaurus]

ngl i lowkey missed this type of economy in recession where one of them breathes and everyone flocks to tumblr, summoned by various gcs or dms or changes in atmospheric pressure, to flood ur entire dash with a million slightly differently formatted screenshots of the same thing

[serendippertyy]

not really a question but i never was too interested in the santa clause due to the family themes overshadowing christmas kinda { and personal life being kinda like those themes with discomfort hitting } besides the like santa dynasty/coat thing and how that whole shebang worked cause that is one of the coolest ways of kinda humanizing santa, but now i am very interested thanks to every piece of bernard propaganda/art i have seen cause oh my god he's such a silly.

am i about to consume a very interesting piece of media this holiday season, maybe, maybe not. am i going to possibly add santa clause themes into my hc for the north pole. god yes.

ahh welcome aboard to this train wreck!! 😅 y'know while I say I love the santa clause trilogy it's moreso a guilty pleasure of mine, there's tons and tons of bits of lore but none of it connects or makes any sense. and I can understand being put off by the family themes because that too is very underdeveloped and gets worse in the disney+ series..

that being said there IS bits and pieces of the santa clause that is very special and hard to find in other holiday media, like the humanizing of santa/thousands of years of santa lore, and the way the north pole operates and the vintage homey aesthetic of it all. idk something about it is very unique and cozy to me despite how embarrassingly goofy and messy it can be.

and yes it helps that bernard is there and maybe I do put up with the other bs in this series because I love him heehee (totally haven't watched the second movie 10 million times just for him nooo...) but he too is not there very often and I made up 90% of the things about him haha

anyway all this to say yes I am self aware about its issues and in no way am I saying it's FANTASTIC or anything, but there is definitely something in it for everyone! and I support you adding themes from tsc's north pole into your own hcs, it's one of the best parts of the series!

but yeah follow me on my santa clause sideblog /nf 🤟😝

[hazellevessque]

No but seriously what do lockdown drills do. We’re not even hiding?? Like. We’re just huddled together away from the windows and doors. And the ONLY precaution is locking the door so if the shooter gets through that we’re all dead. Like we’re literally just sitting there out in the open. How does it help genuine question

[kaiserkisser]

oh my god what the actual hell was kid me up to?????????????

[bleaksqueak]

Well, I feel a bit like a Dumb of Ass. Maybe you remember me hurting my back some months back and that slowing my art production down? I never *fully* recovered from that. It would get better, but then it would flare back up if i so much as blinked wrong (or slept in a Very Normal pose - like for example, a cactuar pose or Hail unto Gloria (Gloria a Las Plagas, maybe even). I've been fortunate my whole life not to ever deal with back, arm, shoulder or hand pain despite the lifestyle of drawing like a manic art weasel, so it turns out, due to that, I might not have known how to deal with back pain after hurting myself... and for extra stupidity points, "it's just a mild thing, so I need to rest, it's not worth a special doctor visit and complaint" ... so guess who took resting too far on top of far reduced physical activity o nthe heels of lockdowns and got into a severe inactivity loop that trapped them in a recurring pain loop due to it. (Hint: It Were Me) SO UH. PSA, DON'T DO THAT TO YOURSELF. Good news is I'm doing something about it because I reached my breaking point of annoyance over being Slowed Down and Achey. My brain going 90 miles a minute and wanting to slather everything down does not mix well with a body LARPing as a bedridden victorian urchin boy: "Oh, what tragedy.... A Breeze [Contorts Into Pain Pretzel]"

The rest of the good news (but also maybe the sad part) is just after getting back to doing basic stretching and getting back into exercise break routines, I already feel way better with way less pain. My back/neck/traps had become a giant (and possibly sentient) knot.

[windydrawallday]

Don't you love when the impostor syndrome jumps in the middle of a happy moment? :')

This is ventart but ended too well looking to let it rot between my files, so here it goes! When was the last time I drew [Scintilla], uh? I think this is her first rodeo with this type of art. Poor thing.

My interpretation of Lockdown is here too because.

Because.

[he-who-needs-to-be-silenced]

I’ve been procrastinating on so much

Fuuuuuhhhhhcccckkkkk

So much to doooooooo

School work, unfinished flocking piece, (I don’t think I will finish it), Erythra piece, maps for the Aline project, a Euramerica mini mural, and I started a big aquilops drawing

Fuck

[bastardraccooon]

how many little things had to go a certain way for a big thing to happen?

[a-lonely-tatertot]

seeing a post with a time stamp that says 3 years ago and you just have to sit down for a sec. like god so much has happened and yet it feels like yesterday