#my idea of how divine luck works before i learnt how it could be transferred is like that scp with the lucky man

[review-anon]

Thoughts on Utsuro since he came up?

Ah yes the closest thing the Danganronpa universe has to a god, and proof that absolute power is a corruptive force.

Utsuro is a rather interesting character because he's essentally to the Another series what Junko is to the canon series, being the main driver of all the bad events which occur over there, but at the same time there's more to him then "I love despair" which I really don't like in all fairness, if I didn't make my distain for Junko clear enough.

The closest person from canon to compare Utsuro to is Izuru Kamakura and it makes sense as both are easily the most powerful entities from their entries. Its a debate between who is stronger but I'm leaning more towards Izuru because while Divine Luck is a very busted ability, Utsuro is extremely reliant on it, take it away and he is less then nobody, to the point that LINUJ has said even Makoto Naegi could beat him up in a fistfight. Izuru has access to every single talent Hope's has had over its 78 years of study and a wealth of knowledge that comes with it. In a sense while Izuru is artifical, Utsuro is natural. And both have become hollow shells due to their abilities domianting their lives and giving them nothing to have, which leads to a certain Despair Bitch taking advantage of them.

Utsuro's story is more compelling as we know how harsh his life has been, his birth was grandeous that it let to everyone in his hospital being cured of their aliments and his parents winning the lottery. Naturally at first his parents adored their son and showed him with love and affection, but as the negative side effects of Divine Luck come to the forefront his parents become obsessed with their good fortune, to the point they started to see Utsuro as less of a person and more of a living luck charm, and often keep him caged up like an animal so he doesn't run away. Naturally he does, and this is when i believe he started to call himself Utsuro, because it has a lot of meanings but the most common meaning is "nothing" which no child will be called that so, Utsuro most likely has a actual birth name but as soon as he ran away, he foresaken it and because he sees himself as nothing, its why he called him Utsuro like he's talking to a shepherd cyclops.

Now Divine Luck is a power I have a lot of issues with, within Utsuro himself, I don't have a issue as we've had lucksters in the past and if Nagito is of any indication, the luck can ruin your life and make it very determintal for you, so Utsuro having no joy in life because his Divine Luck does everything for him, and he cannot even off himself because his survival is prioritised over his death, its easy to see why he would be so desperate to feel something that when Junko comes along, she does her usual tempetations and the promise of feeling something is what makes Utsuro side with her. Heck even Akane Taira wouldn't be changed that much since you still have Utsuro saving her, and then she finds him later to thank him and she sticks around.

The issue though is the idea that Divine Luck can be transferred to others which is something that no lucky ability within Danganronpa has had any indications of doing, and this causes a LOT of issues in SDRA2 as its the reason Void do what Void do and it causes a lot of stupid events that can be brushed aside because of "Divine Luck" its the ultimate BS cause and one that doesn't really work.

Utsuro being the mastermind of the Proto Killing Game was actually foreshadowed much better then Hajime as Izuru was because the only indication you get of Izuru is in Chapter 4 where there is a portrait of him but nothing more then that. By contrast, the reveal that Class 77-B were the Remnants of Despair was foreshadowed much better then Hajime having to undergo human expermentation. Meanwhile you get muitiple hints throughout DRA that not only are things shady with Akane, but also with Yuki, so when Akane reveals that Yuki is the other mastermind, its not that much of a shock.

If you have been keeping track, I've been commenting on Creeper's Dangancember trial countdowns and when discussing 1-5, I mentioned my main complaint was that no other game tries the idea of bad endings. I like to take that statement back because LINUJ to his credit does do a lot of bad endings in the Another series as we get one in DRA and two in SDRA2. The forkpoint in DRA is when Yuki realises he's the mastermind and Utsuro is trying to overtake him. Its a mental struggle where either Yuki or Utsuro will win. Now you would think the best option would be that Yuki wins, that he beats Utsuro back and says he's not doing this anymore. Only if he does that, Akane flips out and orders Monokuma to kill Yuki right then and there. That is the bad ending. Thus the actual ending is for Yuki to lose his mental struggle with Utsuro which results in Utsuro taking back control of his body.

This isn't the first time we have been in control of a culpirt or even a mastermind but what players expected would happen is as soon as Utsuro takes central stage, the player would lose control over him and side with Rei, Teruya and Tsurugi as they fight back against the masterminds. After all, we did this in V3 quite a bit.

But no. This doesn't happen, you still have control over Utsuro when he's revealed to be the mastermind, and as such you are in the only case of a role reversal, where instead of being the hero who is trying to encourage the survivors to keep fighting and defeat the Mastermind, you are the Mastermind and you need to break everyone down and make them fall to despair, with Akane helping you in the process. This is SUCH a unique premise because while not the first time the protagonist has been revealed to be the mastermind, it IS the first time you are the actual mastermind and your job is to make everyone fall to despair. There's a reason why Utsuro's Break Quote in the final Class Trial is "Fall to Despair". And I am SOOO STOKED to see how the Remake team handles the final Class Trial because it has so much potential to be amazing.

Of course we cannot end on a complete downer of a ending so Akane finds her concicous and sides with the survivors and stands up to Utsuro for once which gets her almost killed, before in a strange act of mercy, Utsuro decides to give Akane his Divine Luck before shortly dying. LINUJ said the only reason he did this is for the same reason Asreal in Undertale eventually stops attacking, enough empathy and emotions were still in Utsuro for him to regret starting the Proto Killing Game and listening to Junko.

One thing that bugs me is that Utsuro is a very tragic character who's never had a normal life and was tricked by Junko into helping her with her evil plans to end the world, yet LINUJ still thinks of him as pure evil since he started the Killing Game. Also the way he describes Divine Luck is something I don't anyone has got right which is that with Divine Luck only the results matter, regardless of how destructive a wish is. If you recall how many lives get wrecked by Nagito due to his luck causing misfortune on other people's lives, Divine Luck is that on steroids, sure you yourself have a good life, but everyone else will have a lifetime of misery which at one point made me wonder if Utsuro's Divine Luck works by literally sucking the good fortune away from others, leaving only their bad luck behind. But with the fact he can transfer it to others, kinda makes that a moot point.

Still that idea is what I decided to work on when designing my own Lucky Student OC. Overall Utsuro is a good case for why luck is such a sucky power to have in the Danganronpa universe, though I don't think Divine Luck should have been able to be given to others as having it suck all the good fortune away from people, which leads to ruined lives would be enough a tragedy. And he also gives one of the most unique spins on the Mastermind as no other game has had you be in the villian's seat and spreading Despair instead of Hope which is a nice change of pace.