#kes plays dr1

[catboyebooks]

next order of business — again, i'm going by death order — is "junko's" (mukuro's) FTEs. i'm still sorting out my thoughts there. but in the meantime this is funny

[nyadversary]

30 questions meme thingie... tagged by @autumnalserenade sort of ehehehe

(1.) name / nickname:

kester / kes

(2.) gender:

oh haha no thank you :)

sometimes i think about how im both a transgender bisexual and a bigender transsexual and how thats so epic of me

(3.) star sign:

aries but i think astrology is stoopid i don’t like it. watch as that turns out to be an aries stereotype or something though

(4.) height:

5′9

(5.) time:

6:37 am EST

(6.) birthday:

04/17

(7.) favorite bands/groups:

oh fuck i’m definitely going to forget something important but

mother mother, metric, the decemberists, alt-j, echo & the bunnymen, x, pixies, hole, nirvana, clipping., my chemical romance, blondie, mindless self indulgence, studio killers

(8.) favorite solo artist:

again i’m definitely gonna forget someone important here

emilie autumn, amanda palmer, fiona apple, patti smith, marina & the diamonds, yungblud, poppy, slayyyter, hozier, mika

(9.) song stuck in my head:

i’m so sorry to have to say this but. dr3 despair arc ending theme

(10.) last movie:

genuinely no idea. i try not to watch movies if i can help it

(11.) last show:

it was either hannibal or better call saul, i don’t remember which of those i watched most recently

(12.) when did i create this blog:

sometime in late 2019, i think? don’t remember exactly. i know i announced i remade in early 2020, but i’d been active on this blog for maybe about six months beforehand

(13.) what do i post:

all kinds of stupid and gay shit

(14.) last thing googled:

“in a world where clowns are real” (i was trying to find a particular tumblr post)

(15.) other blogs:

@catboyebooks (liveblogging; we’re playing dr1 right now) @sexytesting (portal sideblog)

also. i did hoard a url the other day to use as like, a danganronpa sideblog maybe? so i don’t have to be unhinged on main maybe? so i can turn search engine indexing off and hide from the fandom at large maybe? it will probably be like some percentage shitposting some percentage sloppily written meta posts i don’t really know. might drop the url if i do anything with it

(16.) do i get asks:

not often, but from time to time! i think most of my followers are mutuals so when we talk it’s mostly through DMs or something rather than asks

(17.) why did i choose this url:

no deep reasons, it’s just nya + adversary although my lovely mutual litzo junkheaded did point out it could be read as “NY adversary” which also fits, i like that too

(18.) following:

92. i’ve never been one to follow a lot of blogs, as long as my dash isn’t super slow i prefer to keep my following count low — i think most of the blogs i follow are mutuals actually

(19.) followers:

116. again i think the majority of these i’m in mutuals with

(20.) average hours of sleep:

i have bipolar disorder so no

(21.) lucky number:

1, 4, 9, 11, 17, 55, 69 (nice), 93, 95, 101, 417, 420 (nice), 428, 666 (nice), 4673

(22.) instruments:

i’m mainly a singer but i used to play fiddle (would like to pick it up again sometime), i know some very rudimentary piano/keyboard (i can do basic chords), i’m trying to learn ukulele and i’d also like to try learning guitar

also my school did force us to play the recorder but we got sort of hardcore with it, broke out the alto/tenor/bass recorders and all that. i used to play alto and tenor mainly but i’ve played like every type of recorder probably lmao

(23.) what am i wearing:

shrieking shack t-shirt with a really deep fried image of harry holding dead dobby on it

black and white checkered pants

boxered shorts

(24.) dream job:

i don’t dream about having jobs simply <3

but no ideally i wind up being some sort of author i guess?

(25.) dream trip:

anywhere. ahaha. let me out <3

(26.) favorite food:

some favorites no order: soft pretzels, like all pasta but my fave is tortellini, virtually all seafood honestly but especially crab, mussels, salmon, and anchovies, udon, ramen but not instant ramen i’ve had enough of that for one lifetime probably but will continue to eat it bc money, cheesecake, pizza but specifically like really good italian style pizza (new york style is also pretty good), garlic bread, really anything with garlic, salty foods in general

(27.) nationality:

american 😔

in terms of more specific cultural background, just for funsies: mom’s side is irish catholic mainly, her dad’s family is from county tipperary, i’m 3rd gen. she grew up on staten island and most of her family lives (or did live) in the tristate area. dad’s side is scots-irish with left welsh and has been here a while, since i think the mid or late 1600s? my paternal grandparents ended up settling and raising their family in socal (san diego) but both their families are from the southern appalachian region (grandfather on that side grew up in rural northern alabama, F to pay respects, and i don’t remember specifically about my grandmother)

(28.) favorite song:

i cannot pick. uh. the most played song in my itunes library is infinitesimal by mother mother, so, whatever that says about me

(29.) last book read:

does... does the komaeda manga count

(30.) three fictional universes you’d like to live in:

Three??? most of the fictional universes i like / am invested in are horrible nightmare realms. the only one i can think of that seems like an overall good time is pokemon and i don’t think i need to explain why that would whip ass

i tag: the girl reading this <3 or, like, whoever, you can do this if you want and say i tagged you, no obligation

[catboyebooks]

one thing i actually didn't know is that dr:if has music and background art, so in practice the experience of reading it is sort of like a kinetic novel except there are no character sprites and no voice acting. when i read a fanslated version back in the day it was of course just the text. this time i'm getting the full experience.

anyway. the opening of the story is a monokuma theater segment where monokuma basically leans on the fourth wall to tell us that this is just an AU story and things didn't really happen like this in canon, but that you'll need to have played dr1 through to the end to understand this story and you'll also want to hang out with "junko" till you've seen all her FTEs. good thing i already talked about those, huh?

[catboyebooks]

like mukuro, leon has three FTEs, and also like mukuro i don't think it's actually possible to see all three of them before he dies. also, if you hang out with him during the last free time opportunity in chapter 1, that FTE will take place in the mens' bathroom. that means his first FTE has a 50% chance of happening in the men's room and his second FTE has a 100% chance of happening in the men's room. i feel that that context adds to these scenes somehow.

leon's first FTE is mostly him talking about how he hates being stuck in a killing game, almost as much as he hates baseball. he does acknowledge that there are some things he likes about baseball, though. for one, he can get into prestigious schools on sports scholarships, and he basically doesn't have to study. for another:

i like how the innuendo he picks is getting to third base and not scoring a home run. someone with his baseball abilities has surely gotten plenty of literal home runs, yet when bragging about his sexual experiences to naegi, he just talks about "getting to third base"... fascinating. not that i'm surprised, but i think this means he has canonically never fucked.

in his second free time event leon talks more about his musical ambitions. asks naegi if he knows anyone who can write music and who might want to start a band with him (but it can't be someone more popular than he is). naegi asks about what sort of music leon wants to make. of course the answer is punk music. he specifically references the damned, the clash, and the sex pistols as his musical inspirations. i mean, i think we already knew he looks up to sid vicious.

leon tells naegi that he's already made up his mind to quit baseball. his plan was that he'd quit after getting into hope's peak, and use his time at school to start pursuing his music career, but obviously it's not really working out that way what with the killing game and all.

naegi has been struggling with the concept of the baseball guy not liking baseball, but he seems to get it at this point. i guess he was having trouble understanding why someone who hates baseball would play baseball, even if they're really good at it, but now he thinks that he gets it, this was just a step along leon's path to pursuing his actual dream of becoming a musician. but just as he's thinking this leon reveals that his musical ambitions are actually about wanting to get girls. he tells naegi that "the girl at the hair salon" told him she only dates musicians (he describes this girl as having an average face but a super hot body, so it's extremely clear this whole thing is just about wanting a hookup). naegi questions whether this is actually the only reason leon wants to become a musician and leon's like, yeah, being popular is the whole point of being a musician isn't it? then he asks naegi if maizono is into musicians, or if she's more into actors, and wonders if he should try becoming an actor. naegi's internally like "...i think i'm starting to understand him better." lmao me too buddy.

so, ok, i've seen leon's first two FTEs before. and based on those two FTEs i was ready to say something about how it's both funny and interesting the way the subject of leon's talent is handled. he actively hates doing the thing he's great at, but he's continued to pursue baseball because the fame and success it gets him will give him a leg up in his future musical career. but he doesn't actually have any passion for music either, he just thinks it'll make girls like him. leon has an incredible talent for baseball and absolutely zero desire to use that talent except where it might personally benefit him, like when it nets him scholarships or gets him laid to third base. contrary to hope's peak's views on talent, leon doesn't seem like he's going to "bring hope to the world," he doesn't even seem like that exceptional of a person. he's a teenage boy whose only ambitions center around popularity and sex. aside from the sportsball ability he truly is just some fucking guy. and i was gonna end the post on that note, but then i read leon's third FTE, which i'm 99% certain i have never seen before, and... well, why don't i just describe it.

leon tells naegi that he has something to tell him but it's secret, so can they go back to his room? once they're in leon's room naegi asks what the secret is and leon, after hesitating a second, blurts out "let's play baseball!" then he tries to play it off as a joke. naegi isn't convinced:

...right, so he's actually just tsundere about baseball. leon winds up admitting that he misses the game, and he tells naegi that if he makes it out of hope's peak he's gonna drop out and see about returning to his former school. naegi's supportive and says leon's teammates will surely welcome him back if he agrees to practice and leon's like "fuck that i hate baseball practice" then tries to get naegi to agree to come to one of his baseball games. naegi thinks "i don't think he learned his lesson."

aside from just saying that this is very funny to me and i laughed, i do want to comment on leon's anti-baseball practice stance. when he and naegi first meet during the prologue leon tells naegi that he's never been to a single practice and naegi is in awe that someone could be so good at baseball without ever practicing. on face value this supports the idea that leon is naturally, innately gifted at baseball — in other words, his talent actually does work the way hope's peak thinks talent in general works. this in itself is funny because even when leon finally admits to liking baseball it really reads like the part he likes is his celebrity status, being The Star, etc. but also i'm not sure you can take it on face value that he doesn't practice because in the above screencap he's basically telling naegi he's never gone more than a few days without playing. even if those are all "real games" and therefore not practice in his head, he's obviously putting in the required hours to excel at the sport.

also. just want to touch on this briefly. i think it's generally known, but during game development leon was used as the placeholder Boy Sprite while maizono was the placeholder Girl Sprite and kodaka got sick of looking at them, which is why in the final game they both die in chapter 1. i know some people complain about this because they like leon and/or maizono but honestly, i just think it's funny and i'm fine with the amount of time we get with both of these characters. maizono's great but i love her for her chapter 1 antics and that wouldn't have hit the same way had she lived, and leon... i dunno, did you expect the guy who wants to be sid vicious to live a long and happy life? do you really need more from this character than getting to hang out with him in the mens' bathroom while he complains about baseball?

[catboyebooks]

hiiii omg it's been forever hiiii <3 but i said i was gonna talk about maizono, right? maizonoposting time. again, she only actually has two free time events and for a minute there this tricked me into thinking there wouldn't be much to talk about, but i kinda think there's a lot to talk about here anyway — still though i'll try and keep it (relatively) brief because we have everyone else's FTEs to cover also.

i must have already talked about maizono's first FTE while liveblogging dr1 (though i don't remember the specifics of what i said) because that's an important scene and it's not actually optional. the tutorial makes you pick maizono to hang out with when it's explaining to you how FTEs work. on a first playthrough this doesn't stick out as weird — the game is just making you pick maizono because it has to explain free time events to you and from a story perspective it seems most likely naegi would want to hang out with maizono at the first opportunity anyway. it's framed as a decision he makes, not something he has to do... but also he kinda doesn't have a choice. this entire conversation is maizono manipulating naegi into thinking the two of them have some sort of Special Bond™ and there is no doubt in my mind that if he didn't take the initiative to go talk to her the second they had some down time, she'd have come and knocked on his door instead like "umm naegi-kun i have something i really want to talk to you about 🥺🥺🥺" like i don't think he could have avoided this. anyway. should probably talk about the actual scene now.

the basic gist: maizono makes a big show of how much she appreciates having naegi there with her, he responds in turn because he has a crush on her and assumes she's also being honest, and then maizono starts talking about how she always regretted never having gotten to talk with naegi back when they attended the same middle school. he's of course surprised — why would a famous idol singer want to talk to Just Some Guy like himself? — and so maizono tells him that she remembers him rescuing a crane from the school pond, leading it out of the pond and to safety. she makes a crane wife joke about this and says she's "come back to return the favor" but also says that she's sure he'll lead her to safety, just like he did with the crane.

i love this scene. i think it's a fucking doozy. the first time through this probably just reads like some cutesy high school m/f romance anime bullshit, when instead it's a very calculated move on maizono's part and she's doing cutesy high school m/f romance anime bullshit at naegi on purpose. maizono really lays it on thick at the start of this conversation talking about how she'd feel lost without naegi, and i know they're in a high-stakes situation and all but this is, like, day 2 of them interacting. (naegi responding with complete dumb sincerity that "you being there is what saved me" actually made me wince on a replay.) regarding the crane story, i'm sure maizono just remembers this because it was a weird thing that happened in middle school, not because she's been longing to talk to naegi ever since. she references folktales multiple times while talking about this (the crane wife, but also she works in a reference to senbazuru and another one that i'm not totally sure on but the wiki thinks might be about urashima tarou?) because she's trying to mythologize and thus romanticize this whole middle school crane in pond incident. she and naegi have never interacted before (that they can remember) and have nothing to draw them together beyond having attended school together previously — in order to force a bond, maizono has to act like this is a fated encounter between the two of them.

maizono's second FTE i have less to say about. the entire thing is basically maizono flirting and dropping hints that she wants to date naegi, implying heavily that she has a crush on him, etc. most notable part imo is that she draws the conversation out and deliberately pauses often, probably to give her a chance to observe naegi's reaction (he's internally freaking out and gets super flustered during this scene). she also says "we've been friends since middle school, in a way." the phrase "in a way" is doing some very heavy lifting there, but it's pretty obvious maizono wants to spin this into a "reuniting with childhood friend" romance arc even though they weren't childhood friends. she knows and understands the tropes.

both these FTEs happen before a motive is introduced, so i don't think that maizono's manipulative behavior is because she's already actively plotting to use naegi as a fall guy when she commits murder. maizono tends to get some... strong reactions from the fandom, i've seen some people act like she's an evil master manipulator &/or like she's #girlboss, but mostly i think she's scared and desperate (understandably so) and she wants an ally. manipulating naegi into thinking that the two of them have this super deep and meaningful bond and she totally likes him back is an easy way for her to get somebody on her side, and... she's an idol. she knows exactly how to sell naegi the idea that, even though she's a seemingly perfect unapproachable celeb, she actually really does know him and care about him and have feelings for him and she wishes they could date for real, because convincing fans of this is basically part of her job. he's naïve enough to fall for it, and a first-time player might just think "huh, the romance subplot in this game seems kinda clichéd," but in hindsight it's like. Yeah, of course the idol singer doesn't actually have a crush on you, dude, her job is making people develop parasocial relationships with her so that they can entertain the fantasy of dating her, that's, like, what idols do...

aaaanyway. i could talk more about this but it'd end up spinning out into a general discussion of 1-1 and i feel like i need to save that for if/when i turn into a youtube video essayist guy. this was just supposed to be about maizono's free time events and not a whole character analysis on maizono but in my defense she's an interesting character. i think we get a remarkably strong sense of who she is considering she dies at essentially the first possible opportunity lol

[catboyebooks]

fuck it. next order of business is we're gonna go through all the dr1 free time events one character at a time. i did wonder about how i should go about this for a few reasons, like:

when i played dr1 for this blog it was on my phone, because this was before the switch port came out. i don't really want to go play it on my phone again. i also am not 100% sure i even have my old save file because i got a new phone since playing dr1 lol

i don't really remember all the free time events i've already done, and i think the amount i posted about them was pretty minimal compared to the more in-depth style i used when covering sdr2

it's. Literally been like two years.

so i'm just going to fucking simplify things and look all the free time events up on the wiki so i can talk about them. Anyway we're starting with maizono because she died first and i think she only has like two free time events

[catboyebooks]

we've got a list of places of interest — mostly areas that were locked before, plus the garden and dojo (areas naegi figures directly relate to mukuro's death). i'm just gonna go down the list, so we're starting with the headmaster's room on the fourth floor

[catboyebooks]

heading to the dorms to be like hey guys im not dead

[catboyebooks]

wow okay. once naegi and kirigiri are alone they have a much more direct conversation about What The Point Of The Killing Game Is than i remembered occurring

[catboyebooks]

well i sure forgot the title of the epilogue is the same as the subtitle for sdr2

[catboyebooks]

ok so before we get the reveal proper, i guess we have to make sure everyone's on the same page. hagakure is, as usual, confused ("wait, mukuro and junko are the same person?") and fukawa has interpreted this as like "mukuro is the mastermind, she disguised junko's body as her own in order to throw us off." this is disproven pretty easily as they already know the body they found in chapter 5 matches up with mukuro's profile.

this is where naegi actually gets to name junko as the mastermind, but togami immediately jumps in to start arguing with this. going off what i was saying about him before, i think he's bitter he didn't figure this out so he's stubbornly refusing to accept this as possible

[catboyebooks]

the jig is up, as they say

[catboyebooks]

ok well anyway naegi's figured out what kirigiri was implying.

the morgue in the bio lab has lights that turn on automatically when a body is occupying a slot. so they know how many bodies are being stored there, and can match that up with the number of deaths they know have taken place. there have been nine deaths that they know about (counting "junko's," excluding mukuro's) and nine lights were on. if mukuro was killed without anyone's knowledge, you'd expect ten lights.

we are soooooooo close

[catboyebooks]

oh yeah monokuma's getting very antsy about this line of discussion and is now demanding they prove that the body was moved using the tarp, despite the heavy circumstantial evidence suggesting this. kirigiri responds saying there's no definitive proof but he does seem to be getting awfully worked up about it doesn't he

[catboyebooks]

feels like we're getting very close to proving the mastermind killed mukuro. i wonder if/how monokuma's going to try derailing this, because it really seems like they've exhausted all other possibilities, and from there i don't think it should be too tricky for them to figure out that they actually saw her die back in chapter 1. and once they figure that out it'll become obvious who the mastermind is

[catboyebooks]

so i vaguely remembered this next bit but oof ouch owie

jin's room has a "hidden door." i say "hidden" but it's very obvious where the door is, there just isn't an obvious way to open it. kirigiri's already figured out that you can open the door via inputting a passcode on the nearby computer, but she hasn't figured out what the passcode is. she's been trying different things without success.

of course it turns out the passcode is kirigiri's full name, and naegi realizes almost immediately that this might be the case, but — and i think this is a great moment for him, it's very sweet and very emotionally intelligent — he realizes that kirigiri either hasn't considered that her dad might use her name as a passcode, or, if she has considered it, she's afraid to try it because the outcome will upset her whether or not the passcode is correct. they don't have the luxury of not investigating everything they come across, though, so he brings it up. gently. asks if he can try inputting her name just to be sure, and she allows it.

once the door opens, kirigiri, looking distressed, heads in straightaway. the room is pretty bare, with unfinished walls and only a few pieces of furniture. in the center is a table bearing a brightly-wrapped box. kirigiri seems to have a very good idea of what's going to be in the box before it's opened, so she gives naegi a warning that this will probably be unpleasant before he goes to open it. and yeah it's her dad's bones in there.

naegi ofc doesn't figure out who the bones belong to immediately but kirigiri spells it out for him — alter ego told them a while ago that the headmaster was probably still inside the school, but monokuma recently confirmed that no one outside of their class has been in the building since the killing game started. if no one is there but them but the headmaster never left, then, well... only one conclusion really. also we saw how this game cold opened lol.

again we have naegi being pretty insightful about kirigiri's emotional state. she's being as calm/stoic as usual, and naegi's definitely commented (mentally) on her demeanor before and wondered how she manages to stay so calm, but he's definitely aware here that it's a façade and this is really affecting her. she wanted to get closure from seeing her dad again and she's been robbed of that opportunity. to repeat myself, ouch