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shockersalvage · 9 months ago

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Salvage Showcase- Polaris P. Polanski

Assuming I get this out in time, this Showcase is dedicated to the most popular character in Danganronpa Togami has to offer in the fandom and on the day of Volume 3's release! If its not Shinobu Togami you heard about, you probably hear this girl's name dropped every now and again and for pretty understandable reasons given who she is!

Time to take a dive into the great Polaris P. Polanski!!!!

(...Who doesn't have official art so I'm just using the Vol 2 cover of DRT in its stead)

Summary

Now, Polaris is a character that plays a role in the events of the Legacy Crown Championship in the 2nd volume of Danganronpa Togami. She is Suisei Nanamura's assistant, at best 13 years old at the time, and travels to the LCC to Castle Toajo after Mitsuzo Togami hires Suisei to solve the case of mysterious killings in the competition.

Now, compared to her eccentric boss, she is very silent and has taken to pretty much following Suisei around. Suisei entrusts her to go through evidence or handle them, regardless if the contents are embarrassing or even gorey. Best shown off when, on the ninth day, Suisei announces that he has figured out the culprit - which was Kazuya Togami. During this meeting to discuss such a claim, she hands over Saburo's camera (that has been recording himself in the buff dancing) and was tasked with holding the bag that contains the severed head of Yoru. The latter piece of evidence is the nail in the coffin that had Kazuya initially tossed into the dungeon...

Only for it to 'be revealed' that Mitsuzo was the culprit in a confession note left behind as Mitsuzo appeared to have killed himself. With their client dead, Suisei leaves the LCC on a helicopter and one assumes that Polaris would have done the same.

Except! No, she doesn't! She secretly stays behind and begins working on trying to figure out the 'reliance' that will crown the winner of the LCC and heir of the Togami Conglomertate. In the end? When the chaos of the killings of the LCC had the castle burn down, Polaris would be one of the survivors: having not only figured out what the reliance was, but also finding Shinobu Togami to escort her to safety. As Shinobu wakes up, Polaris has whispered what the reliance was into a tape recorder: and was deemed correct. Thus, making her the official heir to the company!!

Or rather...he. In actuality, Polaris was just Byakuya Togami in crossdress, disguising himself as a girl to infiltrate the LCC (he figured he'd get close to it eventually while working as Suisei's assistant since the detective only takes high profile cases). Byakuya was apart of the hundreds of other Togami kids who were disqualified from even participating in the event due to their Mother's social standing and had been working to sneak himself for a long while. First by acting asa day trader and then as the aformentioned assistant to Suisei.

With his victory secured, Byakuya offers Shinobu to come with him to be his secretary with the other participants dead or missing (like her brothers) and since Shinobu lacked either Hope or Despair - aspects that'd he find use in someone that can write an untainted view of his autobiography. She accepts, though does request one thing: that he calls her big sis! Which gets him taken aback as much as your average teen boy does.

Considering Polaris is Byakuya, her personality is pretty similar to him. She's intelligent, cold, serious, and has no issues in doing unnerving tasks if it means she can get ahead or do her job. While in the LCC she maintains a quiet demeanor, very rarely speaking, when her job is done, she's free to express her usual stern, and critical nature towards others below her.

In particular, Polaris shows disdain towards how the LCC is operated by the Togami Conglomerate, primarily in regard to who is chosen based off their pedigree and acting as if someone from an unknown background can't be the heir (which might implicate Byakuya being from an unknown background himself?)

Yet, in regard to the event featuring Polaris, it should be noted that the flashback itself was a shared unreality memory for both Kazuya and Blue Ink. When we consider Byakuya's account in-game, where he says he was one of the participants, it makes rather unlikely for him to done the alter ego of Polaris or even be Suisei's assistant.

Rundown

In DRT's theming, Reality vs Unreality, and how it affects Byakuya as a character, Polaris represents a major aspect of our Ultimate Heir in using an aspect of Unreality, deceit, as a positive (if only for himself).

From tossing out his glasses that had a tracker on it, in order to fool their enemies and get them off their backs, to faking his death to even Blue Ink during a confrontation with Hasegawa Research Institute, to taking credit for the WDP in order to use it for his own domination conquest, to becoming Polaris even become the heir to the Togami Conglomerate to, most importantly, wiping away Kudan into Blue Ink: Byakuya is no stranger to deceiving both ally and enemy in the WDP in order to get ahead for himself. And this isn't a unique DRT trilogy trait either, remember Byakuya in DR1's infamous moment? Where he tampered with Chihiro's body just to reveal Genocide Jack amongst their group and know who to watch out for when/if he decided to become a blackened? Deceit, even if it makes others thinks less of him or intefers with his allies, is a valued tool of Byakuya when push comes to shove, which does make him legitimately tricky to deal with on top of his high intellect.

Which actually contrasts the other protagonists of DRT (or POV trio) remarkably well in their outings with Unreality. For both Kazuya and Blue Ink, the story makes it clear that they are pretty much being strung along by the whims of their Borges' Story AI, unable to see the truth until late into the WDP (and how they handle that is very different). As for Moleman, despite what he thinks is his past, his entire being as an alter is just a falsehood used by the main personality of Suzuhiko Otsuki to make his killings easier. Basically, all three POV Togami's are depicted as being unknowingly under and/or, even if aware, suffering from the effects of essentially living life under a lie. They are not in control of the narrative woven by others for them, at least, up until Shinobu goes through her development in Volume 3.

But Byakuya? He differs in that he's usually depicted as being the controller or just a user of Unreality. He's not generally caught up in it, but is the one crafting/going along with a false narrative that has enemies pretty much still struggling to keep up and trap him (well, that and having assistance from his few allies), despite essentially having the upperhand or dead to rights. Polaris is pretty much the epitome of this dynamic, even if probably not real, with her being able to come onto the island and take the crown without alerting anyone to her true identity, whilst almost everyone else pretty much killed each other in the mysteries of what was essentially a self-started killing game.

This also makes his actions in the final book of DRT hit that much harder. When he chose not to take over the world, it also meant he was now choosing to submit to being under Unreality, choosing to believe a lie that Ultimate Despair would have crafted that obfuscates the truth of the WDP, hinder his talent and cut his relationship with Blue Ink. All of that, just to save Blue Ink's life. For a character defined by his self-centeredness, even in the trilogy itself, him going for a major sacrifice like that is very telling of his true heart underneath his ego and what he eventually gets back post-DR1 (after some development during that killing game as well).

Personal Thoughts

Polaris is a funny case to me! As said before, she is pretty much just Byakuya and, even then, its very possible that her existence beyond Unreality is, well, non-existant. It doesn't help matters, she only appear in just a long flashback and barely has much of a role in events too until the end.

But that said, she's pretty much the most popular character to come from the DRT trilogy and its not hard to see why (...well aside from the fact she is a mainline character) ! For one, the idea of Polaris gives a layer and interest to Byakuya in a few ways. The most obvious being his interest in crossdress, even if only for a means to an end, is something that gets people's head's turning over Byakuya's sexuality in question and is just a fun concept to explore with such a serious character (and him going on to dress as a nun and state he doesn't mind wearing women's clothes is just so much fuel to use).

Another layer him being Polaris brings is his potential connection with Suisei. Byakuya crossdressing is one thing, but him being an assistant to an eccentric, yet corrupt detective? Someone's whose own arrogance and high intellect towards life reflects onto Byakuya? How much of Suisei rubbed off on Byakuya? They seemed like a stable pair working together, so is it possible Suisei knew about Byakuya's true identity all along? That's not even getting into the parallels between him and Kyoko, being stronger given her connection with Suisei in the DRK series. It's brief, but its a dynamic that has quite a bit of potential to gleam through, if you see assume that even outside of Unreality, there was a possibility that Byakuya diid become Suisei's assistant for a time.

Finally, there's the possibility of Polaris herself not coming from a well off home given her talk with Blue Ink at the end of the LCC, after she won (and her bitterness over people outside the ranking system not being able to compete). Now we know in-game Byakuya was a participant in the LCC for real, so him sneaking into the competition is just false. That said, it could still be possible he had to very much work his ass off from nothing just to be accepted into the real LCC (which is very likely given just how much of the true event is left pretty vague). It gives a real credence to his arrogance and his actual appreciation for hard work, since it means he was legitimately working himself in not just the LCC, but throughout his entire life, into become the powerful Ultimate Heir we know of him as today and gets you wondering if the reason why he's such a condescending jerk is because he's projecting his struggles and victories onto everyone else.

Though, as you all know by now, DRT is not one for making things concrete and Polaris (and what she brings to the table) is possibly just straight unreality produced by the K2K System. That said, DRT not being so concrete means its not a hard denial either of their existence in some other fashion. While Byakuya being Polaris to compete in the LCC is false, whose to say he didn't spend some time in his years posing as her before or after the fact? The details being fuzzy means those who do love Polaris are free to accept her in some fashion, while those who dislike her or think of everything in unreality is being all fake, are also not wrong in dismissing her. It's a situation where, even with unreality being in play, people on both sides can pretty much win.

For me, I like Polaris for the aformentioned layers above and think she just makes for a fun addtion to Byakuya's history. While I doubt he'd have needed or even was crossdressing in the real LCC, him just being so comfortable with himself he can wear practically anything, no matter the gender, is a confidence from Byakuya that you can't help but like and I can't help but basically accept as like a pseudo-canon trait of his.

And that ends DRT's entry! I missed the anniversary of DRT Volume 3, which sucks, but at the very least am glad to get this out a bit quicker than usual! Was inspired to make this after seeing posts of DRT floating about on that day, so managed to make this Showcase quicker than usual.

Next up is back to Killer Killer!

#salvage showcase #byakuya togami #polaris p polanski #suisei nanamura #danganronpa togami #danganronpa #dr togami #blue ink #shinobu togami

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