#monika mention

[just-qonika]

HER !!!

ohhh how i love initially benign and cutesy yet increasingly malevolent AI characters who become extremely obsessed with you and slowly infiltrate your life through technology 🥰💖💖💖

[heartbeatbookclub]

I think, in a lot of ways, Monika and Sayori are reflections of each other.

Really, I think all of the girls are similar in a lot of their issues (self-esteem, anxiety, etc) and that's something emphasized in a lot of the stories, and a big part of why they all gravitate towards each other and work to create the club as a safe space for all of them, but I think Monika and Sayori in particular are just very much alike.

I think Trust really emphasized this similarity in the reveal of Sayori's poem, Become the Flower.

Prior to shifting focus onto the poem, Monika talks to herself about her real vision for the Literature Club. I think here, Monika points out what Sayori actually meant when she said that Monika was "trying to make the club [she] needs the most, out of anyone", even if she doesn't actually realize that yet. It's pretty clear that when she says that literature is a window to the real self underneath the person who's "forced to always smile and blend in", and is "forced to be perfect", she's really talking about herself.

I think that a lot of Monika's character throughout Trust is expressed more subtly, often in a roundabout way like this. A huge part of the story is centered around Monika's own personal struggles expressing herself, and that trait is pretty well exemplified in this indirect way of talking about her own struggles. I think that the reason why Monika's characterization here is so subtle overall is reflective of this.

And I think it's pretty blatant that this is statement is also meant to be reflective of Sayori, given that we immediately move from this statement onto the poem which reveals to Monika that she's been hiding her own problems. In this way, I think Team Salvato wanted to explicitly point out how similar they really are, and draw your attention to it.

I think that the way that Trust as a story is put together is meant to really emphasize just how similar they are even in their differences; spending a great deal of time focusing on Monika's own problems, to then showcase Sayori as the mirror to them.

I think the two of them make a very interesting pair in that respect, because a big similarity they have is that they very much place others above themselves, so they both end up individually building each other up while they put themselves down. It creates this strange back and forth where they each insist they suck and the other is great, when the reality is that they're both pretty fantastic.

In the statement Monika made to herself about her vision of the club, while it's clear she's talking about herself, she frames it in the context of somebody else getting those benefits out of the Literature Club, rather than herself. Throughout the entirety of Trust, she speaks dismissively of her efforts and her problems alike, while pointing out that Sayori is providing a lot of help. Sayori by contrast spends most of her time hyping her up and points out, explicitly, that Monika doesn't give herself enough credit. She also dismisses her own efforts, pointing out in most things she does, up into the climax, that Monika is a lot better than her at whatever she's doing. And when Sayori's problems are actually revealed, she explicitly says that she doesn't want Monika to worry about her, and that she doesn't want to have this conversation.

I think this all really shows that both of them are averse to tackling their own problems head-on, and I think this comes out of a fear of being vulnerable, since that's directly mentioned several times in Monika's issues openly expressing herself.

I think what makes Monika's particular brand of self-negging quite so disheartening is that she dismisses it out of hand as her being silly and dramatic, and in that way, she doesn't actually address the fundamental problem underlying it, nor does she actually address the statements themselves as incorrect. The amount of time she spends talking down her own problems as something trivial and silly, particularly in comparison to Sayori's problems, are a manifestation of her own desire to avoid the vulnerability of even having these problems, and it's just...heartbreaking. Sayori's denial is its own can of worms, but Monika's ability to so consistently minimize her issues when they are clearly still impacting her is so uniquely troublesome.

I think a big difference between the two of them in that respect is that Monika wears significantly more of her heart on her sleeve, so Sayori finds it a lot easier to directly target Monika's problems than Monika does in the reverse, but their individual habits of avoidance are coming from the same place.

I'm traveling a bit aimlessly in this essay, trying to tie things together nicely as I see them, but there are just a lot of similarities I notice between their actions and the way they think that showcase that they have a lot of the same problems, and a huge theme in Trust is expressing oneself, which both Monika and Sayori struggle to do, in much the same way.

I think a key similarity between the two of them is their tendency to catastrophize over a situation when left alone, mostly revolving around seeing the worst possible scenario for how they could've personally messed up the situation. I'm just rewatching Trust for this little essay, so there are two major moments I see Monika doing this, but I remember Sayori doing this...a few times, actually, throughout the side stories.

I think the spiral Monika goes into after reading Become the Flower is particularly important, as it exemplifies the habit of dismissing her own problems fantastically; in this case, she has an excuse. It's true that Monika's issues with her perfectionism seem silly and trivial in comparison to Sayori's, but that's exactly the thing: She shouldn't be comparing them in the first place! Her problems are real, and they clearly cause her distress, but because Sayori's own issues appear so much more serious than hers, she dismisses them wholesale as her being dramatic and silly. Because Monika's problems seem so small, she doesn't see them for the problems they really are. In the same way, because her own accomplishments and work seem so small, she doesn't see them for the accomplishments they are.

This spiral showcases Monika's biggest problem, the reason why she has such trouble expressing herself, and conversely, the exact same problem Sayori has. She doesn't want to be the center of attention.

Put another way, she doesn't think she deserves to be the center of attention. Her problems are so trivial; her accomplishments menial. Her fear of vulnerability isn't a fear that others will hurt her; it's a fear of being selfish.

Sayori is very similar, in that the reason she actively works to avoid showing any possible sign that anything is wrong is because she doesn't want anyone to worry about her. She doesn't want other people to dedicate time and energy to her.

I think that for both of them, this comes from low self-esteem. Sayori is self-explanatory I think, but I'd say Monika's perfectionism makes it exceptionally difficult for her to really feel accomplished in anything she does, which, coupled with her constant preoccupation with how she appears to other people (I think Monika places very high expectations on herself. I mean, Trust literally starts with her frantically apologizing and saying "I normally don't ever do this!" when Sayori finds her napping) makes it very difficult for her to feel confident in herself.

The fear both Sayori and Monika have in being vulnerable isn't that people will use that vulnerability to hurt them.

It's that people will try to help them.

And I think that's a really big part of why Sayori feels like she can trust Monika with her darkest thoughts, because she understands that they're the same in a lot of ways.

Monika created the club which she needed the most...and it was also the club Sayori needed the most, for the exact same reason.

I think it's kinda easy to overlook a lot of this because of the sheer amount of focus placed onto Sayori and the more explicit issue Monika has (insofar as the plot is concerned), but I think Sayori is exactly what Monika needs just as much as Monika is what Sayori needs.

[noel-levine-fan]

i am once again posting about my old halloween AU instead of working on my 2024 halloween drawing. procrastinates drawing by drawing

[ddlcbrainrot]

Monika already has a caffeine addiction, coffee shop AUs will just make it worse

i am aware. in fact, i am a strong believer that not only is she a coffee addict, but also a coffee nerd. which means whoever is the lucky barista gets a bunch of coffee facts as they take her order

she lives in that coffee shop. whoever has the last shift literally has to throw her out of there. i imagine the workers being yuri and natsuki, bc 1. co-workers natsuri is funny and 2. they are the worst possible people to be in that type of work bc of their social skills. yuri just kind of awkwardly stands over monika until monika is like "... its time to leave isnt it?" and natsuki is straight up like "im not getting paid enough for you to stay longer"

hm.. would sayori be a customer? i cant really see her drinking coffee, maybe the place also has a bunch of baked goods and sayori cant resist them. but for some reason manager sayori popped into my head... lots to think about

[starlypenguins]

So when chapter 12 of ibvs came out i never actually read it so im doing that now

i’ll give you updates as i go

[tempestmothstorm]

For some reason because of the side stories Sayori is the only club member where we don’t know her opinions on smut. What’s her stance on freaky literature cause we got specific lore from everyone else I’m half convinced it just never crossed her mind

[just-qonika]

Qonika, how evil and powerful are you in comparison to Monika?

"im afraid i dont think weve met" :3

[the-fabled-void]

Rip Monika DDLC, you would have loved a derealization diagnostis /hj

(I KNOW THE META NARRATIVE IS ESSENTIAL TO HER STORY)

[sethmp3]

Me just scrolling to tiktok:

Seeing a picture of sayori with the realistic eyes staring at me with a red background:

TW!!! REALISTIC EYES AND CREEPY IMAGE AUGHHHH

[fandomwe1rd0]

TW SUIC*DE JOKE UNDER THE CUT

Monika: You really left Sayori... hanging the other day.

Player: ...

Monika: Get it? Do you get it? Because she hun-

[nugsanart09-works]

SAGAU that is just that: Self-Aware AU

just what it says in the tin. no cults, no yandere, just plain old ddlc minus the damned romance aspect. (Monika, i love you but i have had enough of the romantic shit)

warning: i am basing this on my character roster and shenanigans. you can play around with the idea but yeah, my content is based on my account if anything. also, novaverse lore because screw it imma inject my own spin in this thing

there are hierarchies on this thing:

GALAXIES = other media

NEXUS = Genshin Impact/Hoyoverse

NEBULAE = leakers/content creators/playthrough folks

(SUPER)NOVA = the player (me and you); referencing the big bang even though it means that I fucked up the symbolism tier for this lol; can be the SI-OC/Reader/"Creator"

AURORAE = the Creator's mouthpiece/interactive HUD; kinda like Paimon in-game and not lorewise

SUNSHINE = the ones in the nova's character roster a.k.a. the ones that came home

EARTHSHINE = the characters who have the potential to "become aware" a.k.a. stubborn fucks who refuses to come home smh; if the sunshines try to tell the earthshines about the situation, the earthshines would not hear them or understand it one bit

*note that op is not the smartest when it comes to cosmology but pls ignore that for the sake of

✨ fancy titles ✨

the first ones to gain awareness are Traveler and Paimon.

they were the first ones you gain as playable characters so they deserve that much, esp if they have to deal with your shenanigans as their nova

the next one to realize smth is up would be Amber

the sagau that i know of tends to start off with Kaeya a lot but i fully believe my girl Amber should be the first teyvatan aware for the amount of times her baron bunny saved my ass

when you, her nova, gained control over her, she gained access to some perks such as:

conditional immortality — when left alone by the nova/not in the current party, she can now just. not die. permanently that is. unless the nexus decides that she will be out of the narrative, she just cannot die and will constantly respawn. if the nova is logged in and she didn’t heal herself, her hp will be in the red zone lmao

disabled friendly fire — a sunshine attacks another person whether they are a fellow sunshine or not, the attacks will just go through them without harm. enemy mobs, specific plant life and the likes are the only ones capable of getting damaged

access to the inventory – anything the nova has attained, they can take and use. good luck with your hoarding because your food are definitely gonna decrease by a LOT once you log back in

private chatroom — just so they don't go insane, sunshines can gossip and pass news to one another on how things are going on their end. they speak of how far the nova (not traveler) is with their journey, and maybe just be a support group since i subjected them through a lot of bs

time loop — ...yeah. so long as you (the player) haven't progress in the given storyline in-game, you essentially trap them in an localized time loop. characters will end up "blinking" back to where they are initially if [1] the nova logged in, or [2] traveler, piloted guided by the nova, is in the area and the playable character is included in the quest the nova stumbled upon

spectators to the music — whatever bgm you have whether you have the in-game music on or are using a custom playlist, the ones in your current party (along with the parties beside the current one if you're toggling and choosing between the groups) will hear it. jean and tighnari are definitely disappointed in me for playing unholy while yaoyao is in my active team that one time w h o o p s

gained written and verbal language — whatever language you have downloaded in the game is now something the sunshines are proficient with.

for example: i have both english and korean voice packs downloaded so therefore they can speak both now. i only have english for my text. if i end up doing the typical isekai bs in the sagau community with my kr voice pack activated, the only way i can communicate with them is through writing back and forth in english lmao. if they manage to communicate with me in the self-aware Monika way then once they start speaking i am screwed since i don't speak korean :') – i don't see them speaking in textbox since [1] my speed reading sucks ass and [2] do you want your screen to be filled with text? do you?

depending on who you obtain next, they're the ones next in line with the madness. good thing they have the sunshine trio to help them out with this now. hallelujah Amber 🙏

that's it for now since this is enough of an info dump alr + this is the basic stuff you need to know for now. the rest of these will be just me and the shenanigans i subjected my playable characters through. that or someone's requests idk. hope you enjoyed this thing

[anothermonikan]

There’s this TikTok account who’s whole gimmick is like, posting DDLC facts everyday until there’s a ‘new DDLC game’, and people are so mean about the technicalities of that in the comments, they’ve explained countless time that they mean Project Libitina, and they still keep getting comments by people who think they’re being smart by pointing out that there’s not gonna be another DDLC game, like. They are having fun posting about a media they like. And also people are like ‘Your gonna run out of facts DDLC isn’t a big game’ which I’m like. Wrong. X. Buzzer. I still learn new things about DDLC and I’ve been an active fan of the game since December 2017

[ddlcbrainrot]

I feel like the ddlc girlies are united by 5 things

queerness, trauma, literature, girlypop, and a deep, intrinsic love of Good Luck, Babe by Chappell Roan

is it just me

all those words are synonyms

[thatsylveonfurry1225]

hi that one post about monika having a hamilton phase happened and then i heard satisfied and had. A brain blast because of a visual i had to part of the lyrics

which lead to this

which i am officially dubbing the Wingmonika AU

————————————————————————————————

postgame au where everything restarts after act 3, and monika remembers *everything*

and she doesn't even have the will to carry things out again.

she probably goes out of her way to set things back, to try and just let the game happen as it's supposed to, but with 

one

little

change

she's doing the *opposite* of what she did last time.

she's not trying to push the mc towards herself, she's trying to *push him towards anyone else.*

she'd probably have some dialogue hints to try and push the player towards sayori *first*

she *knows* about sayori's interest, and she just wants to make her vice president happy for *once*.

the second she realizes the player's on someone's route, she literally starts trying to wingman, just because she hopes beyond hope that if they *get* their ending, the game can be *over*

*and then it starts all again.*

if this au got applied to say.

a modded version that *gave* monika a route.

she would *actively* try to push mc away towards the other girls.

both because she associates "her route" with.. well, act 3, but also just because she *doesn't feel like she deserves it.*

————————————————————————————————

[heartbeatbookclub]

Coil

I've been working on this fic for the better part of the last week or two.

It's not finished, but it's to a good enough point that I feel I can share this much. Whenever I do write the last part on my mind I'll elaborate more on my overall thoughts, both on the fic and what's contained within it.

But for now, here's this silly little post-canon thingy!

Er, uh, given its nature, DDLC's typical warning applies, mostly relating to suicide.

[dennisboobs]

[cw discussion of csa] i saw ur post about lolita being dennis' favorite movie so i ran to watch the 1997 version and holy shit. uhhh just a couple parallels i noticed were dolores being 14 in the movie + dolores "seducing" humbert for money and dennis using sex as a tool to get what he wants in his adult life? idk do you have more thoughts about this because i'm going crazy a bit over here

[referencing this post, i assume]

ALL I CAN SAY IS. YEAH.