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twistmusings · 6 months ago

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Character Analysis of the Twisted Wonderland Dorm Rooms - Octavinelle

Dorm Room Character Analysis Series

Azul Ashengrotto

Azul actually has a lot of little touches in his room that are very cute. For one thing, his general decor lends itself to the idea that Azul likes the finer things in life. Truthfully, all of the dorm rooms are have shown a lot of attention to the character's actual stylistic preferences in the Guest room and Azul is no exception.

Rather than having a bedside table, Azul has a second safe in his room in addition to the large one he has in his office. This is interesting because, well, that means that there's things that are likely more important to him than the contracts he kept in his vault in his office. I'm certainly curious about what sort of thing Azul would choose to keep in a personal vault - are they especially important contracts to him? Money? Or, perhaps, just other things that are especially special to him. I know the kneejerk reaction for a lot of folks is to be that it's where he stores his coin collection, however...

Azul actually displays his coin collection in a frame! He has them mounted in velvet.

Several of the other characters have featured a feather pen and ink bottles in their room, however a cute touch is that Azul's pen is actually fish bones. This is a cute little insight into what they may use for pens underneath the Coral Sea. Or, perhaps, Azul just has a flare for the dramatic.

Azul has a trunk and several potion bottles on top of his wardrobe. The fact that Azul has these out in the open on top of the trunk likely means that all of the items in the trunk were potion bottles, and then because they were stored up so high, he placed the ones he commonly uses on top, rather than storing them back inside the trunk. Azul is otherwise very organized, so it would make logical sense that if he's not putting these away, they're likely out because he knows he's going to reach for them again.

This is honestly probably my favorite detail in Azul's room because these are terrariums. Azul never mentions having any interest in Terrariums, but Jade does, meaning that these are likely terrariums that Jade made for Azul and gave him as gifts. This is actually really cute, because though the Leech twins joke about leaving Azul as soon as he becomes boring in canon, this shows that Jade at the very least thinks of Azul in his free time when he's not at work or around Azul by obligation, enough to have given him gifts. it's also worth noting that Azul has these displayed, which means that they aren't a gift that's rotting away in a drawer or stowed away somewhere. It's also worth mentioning that the ones that have plants in them are alive, which requires at least some level of attention to them in order to maintain the environment inside. Little things like this show how much the characters actually care about each other.

Azul's hidden Mickey is next to his shelf of terrariums.

Jade Leech

Jade is an interesting case because he, like Ruggie and Trey, doesn't actually have much displayed in his room in terms of decoration. That being said, what he does have displayed are his terrariums. Jade being the sole member of the Mountain Lover's club, it seems like he probably spends a lot of his free time out and tending to either his plants in the greenhouse or actually hiking.

This isn't likely directly because of Jade, however it seems like Octavinelle as a whole have coat hangers and hat racks that are themed around octopi, which is possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Jade is notably organized - he has his shoes on his shoe rack, his hat and scarf hung up, and his bed made. This will become more important when you see Floyd's half of the room.

There is also this object. While I'm not certain and it doesn't seem to be mentioned in any of Jade's vignettes outright, I suspect this may be a jewelry box. It's a little hard to tell in comparison to a lot of the items in the student rooms, though, so if anyone has any additional input, please let me know! Neither of the other two from Octavinelle have an object like this one in their rooms.

Jade's Hidden Mickey is on one of his terrariums.

Fun fact, Jade AND Floyd both have errors in their Night 2 versions of their backgrounds, as they are both missing the hidden Mickey.

Floyd Leech

Oh, Floyd, sweetheart, you live like this?

Jokes aside, Floyd actually has some things of note! While his side of his and Jade's room (canonically they share a room) is messy, he's messy in a different fashion than someone like Leona. Where Leona doesn't hang his clothes - Floyd does. Or at the very least, it seems like someone does it for him. (Given the haphazard hanging of his jacket, though, I would guess that he probably does it himself.) What does that tell us? Well, more than likely, Floyd gets small bursts of motivation to clean certain aspects of his room, and then grows bored and gives them up. To be quite honest, for those who know of or experience it, Floyd's organization style reminds me a lot of how ADHD folks tend to struggle with forming sustainable cleaning habits, as it's often easier to put something down rather than to put it away.

Snacks, literally everywhere. Floyd has snacks on his desk as well as on the shelf above his bed. It would seem that Floyd has a serious sweet-tooth, given the amount of sweets that we see in his room.

For the life of me, I could not tell you if this is a trash bin or not, but if it is, it looks like whatever Floyd put in there has teeth marks on it.

Another thing of note about Floyd's room, while there's a lot of things that are strewn around, there's not actually all that much trash around. He has a single empty container on his desk, but otherwise his floors are clean, and it seems like things that need to end up disposed are. Again, whether or not that's Jade intervening because they share a room, it's hard to say.

Floyd's hidden Mickey is on his pillow.

As was mentioned in Jade's section, both Floyd and Jade's Night 2 versions of their backgrounds are missing the hidden Mickey. Floyd's background has an additional error however!

Floyd's box of cookies is actually missing the box in his Night 2 artwork. If I had to guess, since I have experience with digital art, more than likely, the layer containing these details was accidentally deleted when making the edits for the Night 2 cards, resulting in these things disappearing when the background were published. It's a minor error, all things considered, and gave me a little giggle because now it just looks like Floyd has haunted cookies floating in his room.

Addendum

Excellent catch by @twistedminutia that Azul's fish bone pen is likely in reference to the pen Ariel signs her contract with in the original movie! (To be quite honest, and I know this is ironic given that this blog has such a heavy octavinelle theming, but the little mermaid was my least favorite Disney movie growing up, so I never would have caught this myself!)

#not writing;;#twisted wonderland #twst #azul ashengrotto #jade leech #floyd leech #mod azul #character analysis;;#note for the addendum: given how much I like the Octavinelle trio I know this is ironic but I cannot stand Ariel #Like unironically cannot stand her and how they personified her in the movie #Love Ursula though #Then again I watched the little mermaid AFTER I played Kingdom Hearts 2 so #It may well be that I was soured because of the Sora Ariel duet #Though Ursula crawling through the sand in that one cutscene is simultaneously my sleep paralysis demon and also iconic as fuck

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danganronpasurvivoraskblog · 1 month ago

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Dangancember 2024 - Danganronpa Top 24 Class Trials: Number 22 Danganronpa Another 2 Case 5

//Right above DRV3 Case 6 is SDRA2 Case 5, and I'm honestly kind of surprised that this one ended up getting this low on the list, because as far as I was concerned, it was a pretty decent segment of the story.

//But strangely enough, besides the big twist at the end of the trial, this chapter is honestly not very memorable. I actually kind of had to go back and rewatch it in order to make some notes for this.

//Which, to be perfectly frank, was not very enjoyable, because of all the games that are on this ranking, SDRA2 and V3 are easily the ones that I like revisiting the least.

//But don't get me wrong. From what I do remember of this trial, I do respect what was done.

//I think one of the biggest issues with this trial is that this is kind of where, for me at least, the tie-ins with the previous game really start to come in in spades. And if you hadn't played Another 1, which wasn't as commercially available as Another 2 at the time it came out, there are some things here that kind of end up being confusing.

//But what this trial was able to pull off was pretty amazing, and even though I have never been a huge fan of the way LINUJ writes his characters or his story, this chapter in particular showed the leaps that he was willing to take to tell his story that somebody like Kodaka wouldn't.

//Now obviously with Rain Code, it's clear these days that Kodaka is not afraid to mass-murder his characters. It's just not something he felt he could do with Danganronpa due to a very limited cast, especially in the latter parts of the game. And yeah, no one actually dies in this chapter besides the victim, but...We'll take this one step at a time.

//I don't feel like going as in depth about this trial as I did with the previous post, because I care more about that trial and it's failings more than I do this one. And I do understand that this is a widely popular trial, but I, personally, am just not that crazy about it besides how it ended.

//I'm personally not too keen on most of SDRA2's trials, as I've already implied, but putting myself aside, the fourth trial often stands out as a fan favorite due to its bold emotional stakes and plot twists, while the final trial delivers climactic, overarching revelations. Sandwiched between these two, the fifth trial can feel underwhelming, lacking both the emotional depth of the fourth and the high-stakes resolution of the finale.

//Which isn't an issue any of the other fifth trials have except for Game 1 Case 5.

//Also, I don't know if this is just me, but for a trial that is supposed to be incredibly climactic, the themes of betrayal and trust, while VERY pivotal leading up to this entire chapter and what should be central to the trial, feel underdeveloped or poorly executed. While previous trials build strong thematic narratives, this one struggles to create the same emotional resonance. It tries to heighten drama through character conflicts, but these moments can feel forced or out of character.

//What I mean is it really does just feel like the characters got really...dumb...? Which is a big issue I had with Game 1 Case 5 as well. It really kind of feels the cast are just playing a game of Among Us.

//No one even considered the possibility of Iroha being the acomplice instead of the murderer. Just because she did the paintings, doesn't mean she killed Teruya, and since she's a VOID she has to listen to everything Mikado says because it's against the rules to betray VOID, so her being the acomplice was just as likely as the killer, and I kind of saw the trial going in that direction and, lo and behold, I was right. But no, they didn't even consider it

//Everybody spent this entire game always casting suspicion on Mikado, despite the fact that in most of the trials, it's so obviously not him. So what, they just randomly got desensitised to suspecting him of the murder?

//If that's the case, then that's a clever move on Mikado's part. Just that I feel like that could have been explained better. Maybe it's a translation issue.

//And as is the case with quite a few of SDRA2's story beats, the pacing often feels drawn out with repetitive debates and unnecessary padding. Of course, this is NOWHERE NEAR as bad as Trial 2 and 3, but still, this trial lingers on certain points, reducing the overall tension.

//This trial is honestly very hard to review in general because of how intergral it kind of is to the story, so I will say one good thing about it is that unlike quite a few of the Chapter 5's in Danganronpa, this one actually serves as really good build-up for the finale.

//If there's one thing I can give SDRA2 credit for, while the story does feel like it's paced poorly, the plot twists that happen throughout the game are spaced pretty well. Chapter's 4 and 5 really do a damn lot to build up to the final chapter and the events that happen, even though the final chapter ends up being pure information overload anyway, but this is still an insane setup.

//So let's talk about a few things that stand out. Firstly, the victim of this case is Teruya Otori, the Ultimate Merchant, who is actually a returning character from the original Another game.

//Now, I'm not the biggest Teruya fan, at least not compared to everybody else on the internet, but what SDRA2 did with him in Chapters 4 and 5 is actually really fucking good if you're already familiar with his character in Another 1.

//Teruya has fucked up a lot in the past, but this is a very different kind of fucked up that he's become, and for a good reason: Because you can really see how much Tsurugi has influenced his actions since establishing the Kisaragi Foundation.

//In Survivor, I tend to play Tsurugi is more...chill than he is in the canon games, but as the leader of the Kisaragi Foundation, he's still very much the Malcolm X to Kyoko's Martain Luther King. He will find the truth, and he will protect the world by any means necessary, and that's what I find great about Teruya's character in this latter part of the story; because he adopts very much the same mindset.

//Teruya with a gun is intense if you've already played the first game because you know him to kind of be a fun-loving character, kind of like Hiro in the first DR game. But still, it doesn't feel out of character for him to lose it later in the game, because that happened in the original Another too, and again, his plan to stop the game and take control of things has Tsurugi's name written all over it, and I think that's fucking awesome.

//But still, it doesn't stop it from being a little overdramatic, which generally kind of gave me a negative opinion of Teruya by the time he died.

//However, all in all, him ending up the victim of this chapter was still honestly kind of shocking. Sure, they killed off Rei in the first chapter of the story, but by this point, she was revealed to be still alive outside the simulation. So it automatically gave me the indication that those who survived the first game would also survive this second one.

//And it's not like DR doesn't have a precedent set for that. Besides Ryota and Munakata, everybody who survived the Final Killing Game in Danganronpa 3 were the characters from DR1 who survived. Hina and Kyoko almost bit the bullet, but their deaths were ultimately fake-outs.

//And this twist plays into the main reason why my admiration for LINUJ peaks in this chapter, which, again, I will get to.

//Either way, the point is that not only was Teruya and already established character from DRA1, but he also seemed near integral to the plot in this latter part of the story, and it really makes you think that he might be a survivor of this plot. I mean, Tsurugi was, and his attitude in the latter part of DRA1 was very similar to Teruya's role.

//But no. We got straight up sidelined by this twist. AND that's not even mentioning that there was a fake-out literally just before this, that made you THINK Teruya was fine, and that he might have just gone missing.

//And credit where it is due, I really feel like this should have happened in Danganronpa 3. Ultimately, I'm glad it didn't, because that would have pissed me off with DR3 even more than I already was, but had DR3 been better structured, a twist where you kill off one of the main cast of the first game would have worked. And they almost did it with Kyoko before she miraculously survived.

//To me, it feels like LINUJ took that extra step that Kodaka and the DR Devs were afraid to do.

//But then there's Iroha, who is a bit of an issue.

//In general, VOID are one of my least favourite factions across the DR multiverse, because I don't really like any of their members besides Hajime M. at least not that much. I might get more into this if and when we cover SDRA2 Chapter 4, but to skip the preamble, this chapter mainly revolves around Iroha, who is the suspected, and ultimately voted for, killer.

//Unlike the rest of the VOID's, who were either revealed to be VOID in the chapter they died, or right before their execution, Iroha was revealed to be a member of VOID earlier.

//I do tend to give Iroha a lot of love for this blog, and I do like her in this blog. But she is easily among the worst characters in the original SDRA2. She was just so unforgiveably dumb.

//Iroha to me was kind of like what would happen if Yasuhiro had somehow turned out to be Junko's sidekick/the traitor instead of Sakura or Mukuro.

//And it kinda doesn't work.

//Like, I get that the VOID's are kind of just a ragtag group of abused children like the Warrior's of Hope, and this kind of bullshit can happen to basically anyone. And it isn't hard to imagine Iroha, type of character that she is, having such a depressing backstory that she could be a member of this criminal group. But that doesn't mean she's cut out for it.

//Literally any other character would have made a more interesting member for VOID than Iroha would. I feel like the only reason she IS one is because LINUJ DESPERATELY wanted to give her plot relevance.

//I'm also fairly sure that when Weeby Newz (pretty big DR streamer btw in case you haven't heard of her) found out about this plot twist, she laughed uncontrollably because of how little sense and how random it was.

//Of all the characters in this game you could have made a VOID, like Setsuka, or in an unexpected twist, Teruya. Why is it THIS fucknugget?

//Anyway, this big reveal happened in Chapter 3, so it kind of took me out of it when we started suspecting Iroha to be the killer, because we already KNEW she was working for the bad guys. So she really wasn't that interesting a killer either.

//...

//But THAT'S when it got me.

//Oh lord, THAT'S when it got me GOOD!

//Okay, so, I know I always preface this with a spoiler warning, and you really shouldn't be reading this blog or these posts if you haven't played the original game, but for me personally, there are two twists surrounding this case that are, without question, two of the most phenomenal twists this game has to offer, and the payoff, as unexpected as they were, was spectacular.

//First and foremost was the twist of Sora and Yuki's true identity.

//Again, the big issue with SDRA2 is that it was more commercially available than DRA1 was in the west, so if you haven't played the first game, the twist that Yuki is Utsuro, and Sora, more shockingly, is Akane Taira, this wouldn't mean anything to you.

//But for me personally, it's very reminiscent of the twist at the end of DR2 that Hajime is revealed to actually be Izuru Kamukura. However, even though I love that twist of the Remnants to death, I would state that Izuru's inclusion is the worst part of it.

//The reasons is that before right until this trial happens, Izuru is not an established character, and the concept of created Hope was not properly hinted at. So when it happens, it doesn't have that much weight to it, as shocking as it is, because there is so little build-up.

//Again, if you don't know who Akane Taira is, this twist means nothing, but if you DO, then this twist is FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC!

//I would argue that because it gets revealed in Chapter 5, it gives the final two chapters more weight to it.

//Unlike Izuru, Taira was an established character AND established threat. And her inclusion in this game, and that Sora might BE her reincarnated body is SHOCKING, and it really explains a lot of Sora's actions throughout the game and why she's so subtly devoted to Yuki.

//Again, it feels like Izuru's, and arguably Utsuro's from the first game's, twist, but with actual meaningful build-up, and a good time to reveal it, because then that information carries on into Chapter 5's trial, and Chapter 6.

//But of course, that's not the biggest selling point for this trial. If you know the game, you know exactly what I'm going to talk about, because this trial, surprisingly, does something that not a single Danganronpa trial has done before. The closest we've gotten is Chapter 6 of V3, and Chapter 5 of DR1, which...doesn't really count for me.

//And that is, of course, that this Class Trial ends with an INCORRECT VERDICT.

//This moment is iconic, and again, I will explain why at the end of this post. I've already mentioned that this trial is dumb, from the way that the characters don't even consider that Iroha could have been an accomplice to murder instead of the actual murderer, but the fact that this still happened is shocking.

//See, what happened is everybody believed that Iroha had murdered Teruya using cyanide. But what ACTUALLY happened is Mikado applied the cyanide PRIOR to Iroha's murder scheme, and all she did was shake some salt into the water. This fooled everyone into believing Iroha, including Iroha herself, had applied the cyanide, and that results in everyone voting for the wrong killer.

//And as the rules state, if the killer is voted wrongly, everybody except them dies. And that's damn near what happened.

//I've established before that I don't like Mikado, because I think he fails to live up to the hype around the likes of Junko and even Akane from the previous game, but for me, this is his most iconic moment, and his BEST moment that really made him FEEL like a worthwhile and worthy Killing Game mastermind.

//His plan is, frankly, brilliant, and any one of the original Danganronpa characters WISHES they could have been this smart with their murder schemes. Even Junko's gambit in Chapter 5 to eliminate Kyoko, and Tsumugi's gambit to stop the killing, paled in comparison to this in my opinion, because both of those actions felt...desperate. Mikado's plan on the other hand, felt meticulous. And cunning, in a good way.

//Having Iroha set up pretty much everything in such a specific way that makes everyone, including Iroha herself, believe that she's the culprit while HE'S the accomplice in the case, really sold this case, and to an extent, Mikado, for me.

//Again, this is Mikado at his BEST. He actually FEELS like a VILLAIN in this chapter, though he spends a lot of the game acting really jovial, buddy-buddy, and dumb with everyone, to the point that he can't really be taken seriously. But these final two chapters do a lot for him, and although he's still my least favourite mastermind, these moments are standout, even for me.

//I think one simple reason why this twist and this whole sequence is so good is because...well...we've never GOTTEN the culprit wrong before. There have been several times, ironically in Chapter 5 usually, where the case just seems unsolveable, but one way or another, the heroes still manage to come out on top.

//And yeah, they do, but they WOULDN'T have if not for sheer dumb luck of Syobai pulling them out in time! But you can't convince me we all haven't ever wondered at one point "Hm...What DOES happen when we get the culprit wrong?"

//And man, LINUJ definitely SOLD that idea.

//And this is the main reason why I like this trial regardless, because yeah, it's still not my favourite, but it really symbolizes why these Fangans ARE great, despite all the issues I personally have with them.

//Trial 5 is painfully frustrating because it generally feels incredibly underwhelming and almost too easy, when it's always been established that Trial 5 in EVERY game, regardless of how good they are, tend to be extremely complex cases that shows off exactly why Danganronpa is such a good mystery series. And when Iroha was singled out as the culprit, I genuinely did not care, and being someone who did kind of suspect that Mikado was the killer, it makes me cross at how stupid everyone was kind of acting in this case.

//But again, the final twist of the wrong verdict is the prime example of what makes SDRA2 such a worthwhile game playing. Wheras DRA1 kind of played it safe with its context, clues, mysteries, and characters, SDRA2's main purpose was to do something DIFFERENT.

//As edgy as it can be, what makes this trial great is because it shows that LINUJ is not afraid to do what the canon games wont.

//Besides the island setting that was ripped from DR2, and a few other story beats, this game is LARGELY different from any Danganronpa game that preceded it, and that's why it's the most well-known and hot-topic Fangan on the market. Because it takes the original series, and sprinkles in some creative freedom; telling a similar story from a different angle by a different writer with his own beliefs.

//Some of those beliefs aren't great when it comes to LINUJ, but the point stands. The fact that this trial ends with a WRONG verdict is...awesome! It's really cool and super different, and again, that's what SDRA2 does so well. It does things that Danganronpa has never dared to do before.

//So overall, a pretty crumby trial that I didn't care much about, but definitely with the spectacular condiment of some of SDRA2's best plot twists sprinkled on the side. Enough to make it one of the most standout trials in SDRA2, but not enough to put it higher on this list.

#danganronpa survivor #danganronpa #ranking #mod talks #danganronpa another 2 #sdra2 #sora #yuki maeda #yoruko kabuya #iroha nijiue #mikado sannoji #teruya otori #dangancember 2024

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