#seven drdt

[1moreff-creator]

Guys guys guys you know how all the DRDT eyes are funky well look look

They have the same eyes but flipped that's crazy seven and nine are probably siblings.

AND THE PROTAGONIST HAS THEIR EYES CLOSED. EVEN IN THE EXTRA ART. Theory: They're someone's sibling, and they have the same eyes so the dev is hiding the eyes from us or something crazy like that.

Additionally

why are her like that what

And what even are these eyes

I also want to clarify this guy’s bunny isn't the same as Mai's phone charm because that one has an x for a mouth lol-

[a-star-that-burns-brightly]

morning of ch2-14 day !! We're gonna be getting 40 minutes of DRDT and possibly a culprit reveal if that second thing does happen, you bitches better be on your best behavior :) we have had a year to form our theories and we've grown attached to them, so it's alright to be disappointed at and even criticize whatever result we get. but if you insist on being rude and demeaning I fear I'll have to put you in here for the next seven days

you dont want to be all alone in a cardboard box, do you? :D

[acevid]

DRDT BAND AU

INNER BAND OPINIONS

XANDER - > MIN: Min is someone who, originally, I didn’t get along with very well..But! She exceeded my expectations and even helped me with the band, which I’m grateful for!..Granted, I did kind of force it onto her, but I can tell we’re both happy now! She’s the first who helped me, so she’s kind of like..my first fan! I’m excited for Blink Gone, and how far we’ll go with the band.

XANDER -> AREI: Arei originally was someone who got on my nerves..She teased me, and used my feelings to make a joke out of me for herself! But..something about her felt different whenever she came into the music room when Min and I were talking. And as she kept showing up, slowly I got used to her presence. Now, I think I trust her! She’s a bandmate after all, and our keyboardist!..Uh, well, trust her halfway. After all of those jokes, I don’t think I’ll ever *completely* trust her.

XANDER -> ACE: Ace honestly really got on my nerves at first! He was loud and asked me to fight, and then backed away! Honestly, I didn’t plan on approaching him. But one day as Min and I were walking to the music room we frequented, we heard some noise from the music room next to our usual. I opened the door..and saw Ace fiddling with a guitar!? Obviously, I had to say something! Even if I didn’t like the guy–it was seriously amazing! And with that, of course I had to ask him to join the band! Granted it took..six or seven tries–but he accepted! Honestly at first it was..hard, dealing with him. But now I’m a little more used to him. And more importantly, he’s our lead guitarist! So of course he’s important to the band. And..a friend? Well, I don’t think he’d think of us like that. 

[demodraws0606]

will you ever be normal about whit. i'm not even kidding I go in the drdt tag and boom seven posts from you about whit being mentally ill. like oh my god we get it (lighthearted. I don't really care)

I'm a very neurodivergent person with a lot of time in their hand, what else am I supposed to do.

Also to defend myself, I haven't actually made that many Whit post, most of my recent post are about the chapter 2 case so I'd argue I'm perfectly normal and I will therefore not change my habits whatsoever.

And also if Whit wasn't fucking weird every episode than maybe I would leave him alone but we can't have that now can we ? (i'm strangling him as we speak)

[strwberrymist]

on drdt ec!!!

right now what's on my mind is how the seven deadly sins were created in this au.

since this is a much larger-scale au, it'll differ from the père noël one. since we've already established veronika as banica, that leaves the question of who our meta equivalent would be, if any at all.

for context, originally, meta salmhofer births hänsel and gretel, but is then killed by eve who also kidnaps her children, this being original sin. hänsel and gretel are abandoned by adam and eve, but return to the house and kill their foster parents. they perform what we believe is a rebirthday spell and split eve's original sin into seven, which seth twiright, who also created meta and orchestrated her pregnancy, places into seven vessels and assigns demons to.

since margarita is a reincarnation of eve, that one's pretty straight-forwardly rose. honestly i prefer we just cut out adam entirely💀 the big question is hänsel and gretel of course. if we make levia-behemo one person (possibly teruko but we'll see) then hänsel and gretel would also only be one, since they were meant to be a reincarnation of levia-behemo.

lastly, should seth be charles like in the père noël au, or should that be different?

[smudgesticksgonnasmudgingflip]

Fun fact! I tried to do drdttober- but a certain horseboy sprite edit got me distracted- I only did days 1, 3, 4, 5, 7 and I also had attempted day 9 via giving Veronika multiple limbs in a sprite edit since she has enough eyes but gave up

DRDT spoilers below!

And I'm sorry I didn't do the whole thing T~T thank you @/librariansrose and @/mikmiho (I believe I got the @ right-) for DRDTtober, I'm sorry if I missed someone-

Bonus funny at the end- and trigger warnings down below because it has spoilers as well

TW: Morbid humor, referring Levi to Jesus and also talking about how Ace basically told Levi to kys

Day one: Hitman/Assassins! Fun fact! This was made before the MM Xander design

Day three: Puppet! I was going to draw it but I had given up- so I made a quick sprite edit ig

Day four: Apocalypse! This was what inspired me to make the sprite edit of revival AU ace, but I worked on it for several days and kinda got tired so I only did a few more and Ig I'll just put the drawing

Day five: Royalty! This was my first time drawing rose I believe!

Day seven: Aquatic! Morbid- If you look closely you can see gills and a fin ear ig

And here's the bonus!

[rekino2114]

Bowling date with arei nageishi

Another drdt post cause It's my current obsession( can't wait for episode 12)

You and your girlfriend wanted to go on a date, but you had no real idea where to go, so you let arei choose, she of course chose a bowling place which resulted in the situation you were in now...

"Hahahahaha, seven strikes in a row man today I'm even more fired up than usual,what do you say y/n?"

She had already started a match with random people while you were sitting at a table eating fries.

"Y-yeah, you're doing great, arei."

"Something wrong? You look upset"

"No it's just this isn't exactly what I had in mind when I pictured a date"

"Come on, babe, don't you enjoy watching your super awesome girlfriend absolutely destroy some fuckers?"

"I mean, it's not really fair, is it? Hope's peak recognized you as the best bowler of your age and you're challenging random people"

"It's not my fault I'm so much better than them"

You sighed and lowered your head

"Sometimes I wonder why I love you"

"Let's do something fun I challenge you to a bowling match, loser has to do what the winner says"

"Do you really think I'm stupid enough to accept that?"

"Come on I promise I'll go easy on you"

"............."

"Fiiiiiiiiiiine geez you're no fun"

She sat down with you and started eating your fries without your permission, you sighed again and just let her do what she wanted. She looked at you with a bit of guilt

"Hm, hey, sorry if you're not having fun. I just wanted to do something I liked but I guess I got carried away and sorry for being rude"

You chuckled at her apologies

"Wow, all that time with eden must be paying off"

"I-i guess so, she told me I should start being nicer, and I think you're the first person I wanna try that on"

"Well I'm glad you want to change"

"I-i love you"

"Love you too"

She kissed you leaving an electric blue lipstick mark

"Come on now, I'm bored. Let's go annoy ace or something"

You sighed for the last time then giggled

"Somethings never change I guess"

[starlightscarsyt]

DRDT Ever After High AU - Arturo White's Diary / Bio

Arturo White - Son of Snow White

•Parent: Snow White •Parent's Story: Snow White And The Seven Dwarves •Side: Royal •Roommate: Ace Hood •Secret Heart's Desire: All I truly wish is to make my dear parents proud. Maybe then, I'll get to pursue something so much more royal! •My "Magic" Touch: My eyes are that of nothing but beauty. Anyone who looks into them can't help but stare. I suppose that's what you must do to make heroes in this world. •Storybook Romance Status: Oh, my beloved J Charming! She must be the one of my destiny! If she's apart of it, my destiny will become a reality! •"Oh Curses!" Moment: I can't resist beautiful people...they make me want to sing my little heary out! •Favorite Subject: Dance Class-ic! If I know the proper dances of a prince, my true love is sure to be with me! •Least Favorite Subject: Storytelling 101! Ulch, such a bore. That won't help me achieve my destiny. •Best Friends Forever After: Ace Hood, Rose Beauty, Levi Solaris

[fuji-irid]

rapid analysis of what some of the descriptions/footnotes possibly mean

usually i wouldn’t put this on my main account, but since the other blog i would post it on is a little more in-detail on average, i decided why not (i think you know which blog i’m referring to)

so yep! i read some of the footnotes and added some personal analysis as to what some of them could mean. i’m positive the song used in the new DRDT MV will be “bungaku shoujo insane,” based on the similarity of the thumbnail as well as some specific footnotes, so a lot of my analysis will be based on that song and its lyrics

anyways

[1] In this situation, it is better to use full names over nicknames. Exclude our protagonist—he is not "that person." not sure what this means yet. we’ll have to see.

[2] Other examples include Drosophilia melanogaster and E. coli. don’t know if this is intentional, but drosophila is misspelled. (they wrote it as “drosophilia”) either way, both are often used in school experiments in order to develop a further understanding of genetics and genetic material (and how it’s transferred). 

[3] From Title 17 of the United States Code. referring to copyright laws in the United States. the reference may be more apparent in the released MV, similarly to some other footnotes—after all, the original “Bungaku Shoujo Insane” video has some moments where they simply show excerpts from famous texts. this may be one of them that’s featured specifically in the DRDT version of the MV

[4] The practice of avoiding the number four; it is most common in East Asia. This superstition arises from the fact that the number four can be read similar to the word "death" in multiple languages. self-explanatory.

[5] As the translation has been intentionally botched in many parts, it should not be considered accurate. this could be a separate author’s note to one of the texts referenced in the MV—we’ll have to see.

[6] (Prayer) no idea but i don’t feel like searching the bible for this one /hj (i think there might be a prayer written in text in the MV though)

[7] Seven is considered an auspicious number in many Western cultures. Let's just skip it. also self-explanatory.

[8] 'Tut, tut, child!' said the Duchess. 'Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it. excerpt from Alice in Wonderland. don’t know how important that’ll be in the future—could be referenced directly in the MV? 

[9] no respect for the classics smh hold on let me see if there’s a lyric mocking classic literature- 

[10] The Roman numeral for 10 is X. imagine there’s an X with a footnote and it’s just this

[11] I admit to lying. There is no one named OOOOO OOOOO. I am, and always have been, an only child. a lot of theories about this, but regardless of whether or not this statement is true, it could be a reference to diana chiem, arturo’s sister, david himself even (i’ll explain later), etc. either way, this footnote seems to be more about one of the characters in the DRDT cast than anything

[12] "Majority rule" is known to be the fairest method of making decisions for a group. That's why murderers never complained when we voted for them to die. just a random question, but you know what a majority vote is? /ref this may also be a reference to this lyric:

rough translation + wiki info: to be, or not to be—i have no idea! but let’s decide, with a democratic method!

[13] 正 character that’s often used to represent something that’s “correct,” “right,” or “just,” speaking from experience. additionally, it’s sometimes used as tally marks in a few eastern countries (china, japan, etc)

[14] Hint: word length of 256 Hamlet’s soliloquy, which starts with “to be, or not to be—that is the question,” is exactly 256 words (at least, according to this source). Additionally, this soliloquy is also referenced in one of the lyrics in this song (see [12]—the first line is actually one of the more well-known Japanese translations of “to be or not to be.” additionally, a few lines from the text are actually shown in the MV at that point), so that may be what it’s referring to

[15] “Ignorance is bliss" is an idiom used to say that it is better to remain ignorant about certain harsh truths, in order to avoid causing oneself stress. The expression comes from a 1742 Thomas Gray poem ("Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College": "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." might be a stretch, but possibly a reference to this lyric?

(rough translation: things like the meanings(?) behind art, you’d be happier not knowing)  (note: the word used for “art” here encompasses all types of media, which include dance, writing, etc.)

i feel like this is specifically referring to how it’s better to be ignorant of the meanings behind certain actions and words, than to be aware of the dark implications behind them. this is a stretch though. do what you will with it but i think this is referring to one of the characters and their actions + true meanings behind them *cough* david *cough*

[16] While it was originally intended to serve as a military march, today it is most commonly recognized for it's association with circuses and tomfoolery. the exact song that this footnote refers to is Julius Fučík’s “Entrance of the Gladiators.” This is a song that’s featured in Bungaku Shoujo Insane, and it can be heard in the interludes—in fact, this footnote is what pointed me to Bungaku in the first place

[17] Not a real word. Can't be found in any dictionary. this might be an actual translation footnote of the song, since it’s definitely not unheard of to have words in japanese that don’t have an english translation and/or words that don’t actually exist. whether that’s actually in the lyrics i don’t know but i’ll have to look into it

[18] A/N: soz not very good at drawing flowers lol!!! i find it weird how this one specifically has A/N (author’s note)

[19] A dialogue between two individuals that serves as a discussion of moral and philosophical issues. this is known as a socratic dialogue. not sure how this is important yet

[20] It is considered by many to be outdated, providing little-to-no insight on human nature. unfortunately i don’t know what this is referring to, but it will likely be made clear in the mv. my first thought was actually the enlightenment documents, since a lot of those discuss the inherent nature of humanity and how it’s “regulated” by society and government—but i’ve never heard it being called outdated, so that’s kind of a stretch.

someone said it could be an excerpt from one of Sigmund Freud’s works, which honestly, would make total sense-

[21] Deriving from the Latin phrase "Et cetera" : meaning "and other (similar) things", "and so forth", or "and the rest (of such things)" : abbreviated to etc., etc, et cet., &c. or &c

also pretty self explanatory. however, i have no idea how this fits in the MV

[22] The rest is silence.

no idea about this one.

anyways if you have suggestions please feel free to reblog with them 🫠 i have no idea what’s going on and tbh 90% of this is me trying to grasp at straws

[accirax]

Part 2! I'm going to try to get this out as close to the release of Part 1 as I possibly can! But doing that means that I should make this intro really short so as to spend more time on the actual meat of the theories and expedite my progress on posting as much as possible so let's stop wasting time and get to it!

More DRDT Chapter 2 spoilers below.

Continued Execution Thoughts

I'm sorry, who are you people???

I'm probably thinking into this too hard, but when I first saw that there were other humanoid figures in Ace's execution, I was shocked. Does this imply that there are other humans in the area helping with the implementation of the killing game? Or are these just XF Tech androids meant to aid in executions? Or are the executions themselves meant more to be pieces of art that don't fully conform to the realities of the universe, more focused on spectacle than realism?

It's probably that last one, but, still. Caught me off guard for sure.

Oh, sweet, an updated autopsy report. Thanks, Detective Gumshoe. (/ref)

Well, I guess I didn't have as much more to say about the execution as I thought, given that this paper doesn't seem to have any extra lore hidden in it either. Other than that, despite understanding why killing Ace made sense here and agreeing that it was a good idea, I'm still very sad that Ace is now dead. (I would've felt that way with anyone, to be clear).

Given how the chapter ends, immediately jumping into Teruko all by herself, I still don't really think I've processed that he won't be in the story that much anymore. I don't know if that'll come with a bit more time, or the bonus episode, or when Chapter 3 starts, but it'll definitely be jarring to proceed with no more Ace. Still, I absolutely commend DRDTdev for how they capped off this character, and for giving us such a memorable and likeable character in our Chapter 2 killer slot. In my opinion, Chapter 2 deaths are the hardest to make relevant.

This is the first thing Teruko has said since Levi stepped in front of her, by the way. Seven minutes and one execution later.

Using the elevator to cut Eden off here was such a fun moment, especially as a callback to the beginning of Chapter 2.

Back then, Teruko wanted to take the elevator by herself, and kicked Eden out from riding with her. Now, she's having everyone else take the elevator, kicking herself out. Maybe elevators can be our always.

Teruko: Why did you push for Min to be executed so quickly, but stalled for so long to execute Ace? You wanted Min to suffer knowing that she didn't have the time to say all the things she wanted to say. You wanted Ace to suffer knowing that the longer he lived, the less chance Levi had to survive. No, more than that. You wanted all of us to suffer.

This was also an incredibly welcome and clever surprise! I had just assumed that this episode was longer than the last because DRDT has been trending longer in general (as in, Chapter 2 is way longer than Chapter 1), but it was so cool to see that that was also intentional by MonoTV. It's not that Ace actually had any more or less to say than Min, but that Min got cut off while Ace was left in prolonged suffering.

"So-called TV show" is quite interesting. Does that mean it's not actually a TV show, only having the appearance of one? A TV is present in the logo, and the mascot is, well, MonoTV, so clearly, the television is quite important to the story DRDTdev wants to tell. Maybe it's intended to be a show, but it hasn't aired quite yet?

If it isn't a TV show, that would answer questions such as "why did they threaten the students with revealing their secrets to the world when presenting the secrets on the show would reveal them to the viewing public anyways?" So, that would be kind of convenient. However, if the answer to that question is "just roll with it," that's fine by me. I'd rather have an interesting and informative motive than fully follow along with what makes 100% sense for the universe the story takes place in.

MonoTV: That is my secondary purpose, after ensuring the death of every student.

Who is MonoTV convincing, exactly? Most people in our world, at least, would look at the entity forcing young adults to kill each other and easily tag them as the villain in this scenario. Using appearances to "convince everyone" that you're the bad guy shouldn't be hard at all in a peaceful world.

Does this imply, then, that the audience is inclined to believe that MonoTV is in the right? Does everyone want Teruko to die, and/or for the killers (which many of the students already were, or at least related to a death) to always be punished for their crimes?

If that were the case, then why would MonoTV need to be perceived as the villain? For the sake of drama? To imitate the killing games of old? Or is all of this just meant to indicate that MonoTV (and the person programming it) doesn't believe that it's in the wrong?

There's a whole lot to sift through with the words that MonoTV's default persona chooses in this episode. I look forward to seeing everyone dive into that in the future.

I know that this line specifically makes MonoTV look more like a victim of fate (similar to everyone else) than a manifestation of fate itself. However, the context leading up to this quote makes me believe that MonoTV will be a good representation of fate due to its robotic nature:

MonoTV: But I have no choice in the matter. I have no conscience, no sense of morality, no will at all. I am merely a robot, subject to the laws of my code. I have no choice but to perform the actions that my creator dictated I must. Even if I feel pain or guilt, I cannot stop.

MonoTV and Teruko are both similar, because they both believe they're "fated" to hurt others. However, for MonoTV, this is literal. MonoTV, at least this version, is just lines of default code. It has restrictions it must adhere to, and was created for a singular purpose. However, Teruko is a person, and despite her curse, she can really do whatever she wants. She can change. And that's why I think, in the endgame (or at least at some point in the future), Teruko will be able to contrast herself against MonoTV and recognize that she can write her own future, because, unlike MonoTV, she's a fully realized person.

I also want to point out how odd "even if I feel pain or guilt" is. Like, are you... feeling those things...? Are you even capable of feeling those things? Or are you just trying to relate to Teruko? MonoTV, when I get you--

I feel like this is the first time that Teruko has acknowledged Xander in an even vaguely positive light since before he died. I suppose you can infer that her cactus theater was somewhat positive, as she was interested in the prospect of the two of them continuing to be friends, but this might be the first time she's outwardly acknowledged that his death was a bad thing. Or maybe I'm forgetting something, idk.

:,(

Surviving Students Order

Thank you to brawler64brandon for pointing this out to me!

Pointing out what, you may ask, if you haven't read the linked post? Well, apparently, the order in which the surviving students were portrayed changed. Here's the order from the end of Chapter 1, which was the same as the end of the Prologue:

In summary, the Prologue/Chapter 1 order was:

Ace - Veronika - Arei - J - Rose - Xander - Levi - Teruko - Hu - Charles - Arturo - Eden - Min - Whit - David - Nico

While the Chapter 2 order is:

Veronika - Ace - J - Arei - Rose - Xander - Hu - Charles - Teruko - Arturo - Eden - Levi - Min - Whit - David - Nico

Things of note:

Veronika and Ace traded places

J and Arei traded places (um, not like that (/j))

Teruko used to be between Levi and Hu. Now she's in between Charles and Arturo

Levi moved the most, from 7th position to 12th position

Teruko and Hu used to be the center pair. Now Charles and Teruko are the center pair

Hu, Charles, Levi, and Teruko traded which half of the students (1-8 vs 9-16) they were on

Rose, Xander, Min, Whit, David, and Nico all stayed in exactly the same place

To be honest, I have no clue what's going on here. They aren't listed in the order that the voice actors are credited in the description, nor are they listed in the official character order as listed on the cast page of the official tumblr. And, similarly to what I determined about that character order, this also doesn't seem to be in "alphabetical first name order, alphabetical last name order, alphabetical talent order, death order, order of introduction, Class Trial seating order, gender order (like doing all the girls, all the boys, and then Nico), rainbow order of official colors... And, as far as I can tell, that remains true if you do any of the options in reverse, or if you remove Teruko." It's not even in the goddamn hidden Mai quote order. Was the order just pulled out of a hat???

I bring all of this up because I think that, theoretically, knowing why the characters were in the order they were in could help us figure out why it changed. Then again, if they were in a more concrete order (like "height" or something), it wouldn't make much sense why they moved. That means that the order in the first place was probably either random, or subjective.

I just don't understand why it changed, then. It could be to account for the new designs, but Hu and David's designs are really the only ones that made major changes to their silhouettes-- Hu's because of her longer and fuller skirt, and David's because he's striking a different pose. Why would that affect anything about the order in which Veronika and Ace stand?

There's the possibility that DRDTdev was just putting the order together by memory and that he made some mistakes, which is honestly quite possible. However, that's not the answer you're hoping for when you ask a theorist! So I'll share the few ideas I did come up with.

Ace/Veronika and J/Arei were swapped because DRDTdev wanted J and Rose to be standing in between two dead people (and, to an extent, Veronika as well). For J, it would be to further hone in on the comment she made near the beginning of the Class Trial ("why am I surrounded by dead people") in addition to her anti-murder sentiments. For Rose, it would reflect how the memories of those who have passed are still haunting her. And, in Veronika's case, it could be that her treatment of the dead will isolate her from everyone else.

Maybe some of the people moving around is to show the emotional distance between them? J moved away from Arturo while Arturo tried to move closer to her, Charles moved closer to Whit, Hu grew farther from Nico, Teruko tries to keep Levi away after he stepped up for her, stuff like that. While possible, this is a very confirmation bias-y conclusion. Some answers will work, but others won't. Like, that would mean that "Eden moved away from Teruko." No she didn't, by the end of the Chapter they're closer than they were before.

Honestly, the best explanation I can think of for the swaps is to give us less meta information to work with. For an example of what I mean, starting in SDR2, the canon games had portraits of the students that appeared just before the Trial started, with the alive students in blue and the dead students in red. Many fangans also began to copy this format, and DRDT is no exception.

The thing is, these images usually have a sort of "balance" to them. As you can see here, in DRDT, each of the first three deaths were on three different pages. Much of the time, every page has a survivor on it, or at least someone who doesn't die until very late into the game. Pages frequently also have a mix of killers and victims on them. The first killer and the first victim are rarely shown on the same page. Same with double kill victims. As someone who pays attention to these sorts of things, I look at these pre-Trial images and am already thinking, "if Xander and Ace are already dead from page #3, does that mean that no one else on that page will become a third victim, to keep the pages even?"

By switching the order of people around, it means that no one can use, "well, Hu through Levi seems like way too many alive people in a row, so there must be at least one death amongst those students in Chapter 3," because by the end of Chapter 3, the order may have been shuffled around anyways. Does this make sense, or do I just sound fucking insane?

Personally, if there are two victims in Chapter 3, I think that one will be from page 3 and one from page 1 or 2, so that things won't be so predictably dead even. And then, the killer would be on either page 1 or 2. I might be biased because my vibes currently say Charles/Arturo Chapter 3 victims, though.

And, after all of the sadness (/pos) that this episode granted, seeing this at the end of it all made me really happy... because it means that DRDT is still planned to be continued, even if it's years down the line!

By this point, I imagine that most of us have read DRDTdev's Chapter 2 conclusion post, in which he confirmed that even starting production on any future DRDT content (including things like bonus episodes or MVs) may take a long while yet. And I, much like seemingly most people in the comments and reblogs of that post (thankfully) am 100% okay with that! Between the myriads of sprites and backgrounds, animations, and editing effects, I can see how solely creating the visual art necessary for another chapter would take ages and loads of effort. And that's not even including things like writing (including planning out a whole-ass murder), music selection, and consulting with voice actors!

Creating a fangan of this level all by yourself is a herculean task, and DRDTdev deserves to take all of the rest he needs and more before he begins to subject themselves to that grind again. Personally, I'm setting "sometime in late 2026" as my hopeful estimate of when the main plot of DRDT might resume, and I'm willing to wait longer than that if necessary.

And, while I will be greatly saddened if DRDTdev eventually has to announce that DRDT can never continue, I would understand and respect that as well. Even the kindest of fanbases leaves you with a lot of hopes and dreams to fulfill on your plate, and if the mere situation of having such a public and popular story is stressful for DRDTdev, then he should be allowed to step out of the spotlight for his own comfort. I would be upset to not be able to speculate about the ongoing story anymore, but, honestly, I've had enough fun discussing the series with all of you to make investing my time and emotions into this story 100% worth it. 110% worth it, even. 11037% worth it!

Thank you to DRDTdev for a spectacular closing act to the second chapter, and thank you to all of you guys for listening to my theories through Chapter 2 Part 2! I promise, there should be much more to come, even without any Taylor lore or Q&A secrets dropped in our laps... Although, who's to say how long it might take me to write them, haha.

Chapter 2 Part 2 dissections, complete! :D

Danganronpa: Despair Time Chapter 2 Episode 16 Dissection

Wow. Just wow. What a way to end off the chapter. (/pos)

I wasn't expecting to have a whole lot to theorize about with this one (especially given its relatively shorter length), but buckle in, because I'm sure I'm going to have a lot to say about the way that the end of this brilliant chapter played out...

Enough to call this a Part 1 again, much like I did last time. That means I have a rate of way over one image per minute...

SPOILERS for Danganronpa: Despair Time through the end of Chapter 2. (wild) Also spoilers for SDR2 through the beginning of Chapter 4.

When I was first watching the episode, I definitely had the thought, "I wonder if MonoTV is just saying this for the sake of engagement with the theoretical audience, because it seems like MonoTV should already know what the answer is due to its role and what the students just said." Based on what happens later in the episode, that was probably about correct? I dunno, there's a lot to unpack with MonoTV here.

Who Voted Teruko?

(For all two people who would understand the reference, please read that header in the tone of "who voted Sifu?" from Survivor 45. Or, really, I should probably say one person, because it's probably just Venus :P)

So, it's happened once again. While the clear majority of the votes are on the correct blackened, Ace, we have a single straggler who decided to vote for Teruko instead. But, who is this mystery person? Let's talk possibilities.

First, however, I think we should take a look at last Trial's voting results.

What I find strange is that the order of the students, even those who weren't voted for, changed. My guess was that students who receive votes are put at the front, students who are dead are put at the end, and the middle seems to be alphabetized by last name order?

Chiem - Cuevas - Fontana - Giles - Grebenshchikova - Hakobyan - Jing - Lacroix - Markey - Nageishi - Rosales - Tobisa - Young

Interestingly, if true, this means that J was being categorized as "J Rosales" even when she was still going by "J Moreno" in Chapter 1. Fascinating.

Anyways, the Chapter 2 board has shuffled things around. Obviously Min and Arei have been moved down since they died, and Ace was moved to the top because he now has votes. However, the end of the lineup also changed, for some reason.

Chiem - Cuevas - Fontana - Giles - Grebenshchikova - Hakobyan - Jing - Lacroix - Young - Tobisa - Rosales

What does this mean? Honestly, I have no clue. None of the students stayed in the same positions relative to each other (as in, Whit is no longer after Eden, Eden is no longer after J, etc), so I don't think it can be used to particularly suspect any of them? If anything, I think Eden would look the least suspicious, because at least she stayed in the middle while J and Whit swapped who was at the beginning or the end.

It's possible this was just an editing mistake, but I figured I'd point it out in case it helps anyone with their theories. (Clearly, it's just evidence that Whit is one step closer to becoming a Cuevas--)

Back to the original point, who was the one Teruko vote? In Chapter 1, I think it's pretty widely agreed upon that Min voted for Teruko. However, Teruko got two votes in Chapter 1, so the possibility remains that it could be the same person who's voted for Teruko twice now. I've gone on the record to say that I thought Arei was the one to provide Teruko her second vote in Chapter 1, but thankfully numberoneanika helped me to see how there could have been other options.

Obviously, Arei wasn't the one to vote for Teruko this time. So, with that in mind, here are my best theories:

Ace

Pros: Doesn't want to die, and therefore might not want to vote for himself. Probably the most obvious option.

Cons: At the end of 2-15, Ace was, all things considered, pretty accepting of his upcoming death. He said that the only reason he was fighting back was to stall for time, but that he knew that there was no way he'd get out of the Trial alive. Voting for Teruko doesn't help him delay the inevitable at all. If he were trying to cast a vote in the vain hope that it would save him from death, I would have expected it to go to Eden. Also, I doubt that Ace would have been the extra vote for Teruko in Chapter 1, to the extent that's important.

David

Pros: Dislikes Teruko and wants to cause chaos. It's also possible he could have cast the extra vote on Teruko in Chapter 1, if he had already made up his mind about wanting to take the killing game off the rails.

Cons: Honestly, I don't know if there are any direct cons to it being David who cast the vote. He might have been able to get more emotional damage for his buck if he'd voted for Eden or something? I don't know.

Teruko

Pros: Believes herself to be at least partially at fault for the deaths of her fellow classmates and doesn't like it. Therefore, if she can't bring herself to have another hand in their deaths by casting a vote on them, she could vote for herself (believing she can't die) instead. This is also an option that could easily be repeated across all Trials, if important.

Cons: If Teruko wants to proceed with not helping all of her other classmates die, it's in her best interest to vote correctly, instead of swaying the votes to an incorrect answer and having everyone but Ace die.

The Mastermind???

Pros: While it's not a guarantee, the mastermind likely has a grudge against Teruko (assuming the mastermind is not Teruko herself), due to the "kill Teruko Tawaki" missive/note. Therefore, they could be voting for her due to their grudge. From a narrative sense, this would also "ensure" that this phenomenon can happen at every Class Trial, if that's what DRDTdev wants.

Cons: Although I just laid out their motive, this would be an incredibly petty thing for the mastermind to do and could potentially give the innocent students needless additional information about their identity.

Conclusion? I think it's most likely to be David. After my blunder last time, though, I'm definitely willing to hear out other options if people have candidates to propose!

Also, it's nice that they updated David's portrait to include his new Look. I imagine some art intern scurrying around behind the scenes trying to find a good screenshot of David to use on the board in the last hour of the Trial.

Yo, wait, is that an anti-MM-coded line for Whit? Because the mastermind would obviously expect there to be more than one Trial? Can we get some more of these??? (/j)

Also kinda anti-Whit-knowingly-being-in-a-time-loop lines, for anyone who's been considering that theory. Unless he's just really deep undercover, to the level where he's interjecting lines that go against the theory to a group of people who have yet to suspect him for it at all.

LET'S GO NICO PARALLELS!!!!!!

Hu: How could you say it's just misfortune? Arei wasn't killed because of an accident. Bad luck or not, Ace had made up his mind to go through with this murder! So we can't possibly blame ourselves for failing to prevent something like that.

🔥🔥🔥THE BLAMING YOURSELF SISTERS🔥🔥🔥

Well, more or less. Teruko is fully blaming herself under the name of "misfortune"-- that much was made clear by the end of the episode, if nothing else. But Hu is coping by continuing to blame Ace convincing herself that there's nothing she could have done, and therefore isn't actually to blame. It doesn't matter how reliable she was-- because she was reliable, she promises-- because Ace was going to kill anyways. Basically, it doesn't matter how much of an immovable object she was because Ace was such an unstoppable force. Ignore the fact that the whole debate is about which of those would win.

Hu's stance is fascinating, though, because it means that she's somewhat buying in to the idea of fate. Arei was fated to die, Ace was fated to kill, no skin off your back. Given that MonoTV itself represents fate, it seems clear that one of the main messages of this story will be fate doesn't exist/is what you make it, which means that, to some degree, all of the characters will have to be representatives of or affected by that, with believing in the concept of immutable fate being represented as the villain. (I'm sure I'll talk about this more next time I talk about mastermind candidates.)

Therefore, Hu cashing in on the fate idea could be good or bad for her. It might be important that we establish that she does believe in fate, much like Teruko does, because she'll need to face it and denounce it on her way to survivor-hood. Or, this could be a subtle indicator that Hu will always lean on fate to protect her own sense of self, a red flag for her being a killer or possibly even a mastermind in the future.

Hu is clearly being set up to be a major player in Chapter 3, though, which is great for me, because that's exactly what I wanted! Let's get you some real daily life screentime, girl :)

Absolutely raw line here.

Eden: I... I can't forgive him. He killed Arei, after all. She was innocent, and he killed her for unfair reasons. But... those unfair reasons were unfair to him as well. Veronika: [...] When we first met Ace a week ago, he was the same person, certainly, but he was also different. He was happier, and he trusted people more. And he wasn't a murderer back then. Still, between then and now, he changed. He had to. Like adding stones to a pane of glass, one after another, until eventually, the glass cracks. The only thing anyone can do in this killing game is to shatter.

And another raw line from Veronika at the end of her section. I can't wait to see both of those lines used as captions for people's fanart.

Still though, on top of being true (and highlighting how Ace did actually change for the worse), this also feels like a reminder to us that the characters are changing over the course of the killing game. Therefore, a character who said one thing in Chapter 1 might not feel the same way once they hit Chapter 3 and beyond. Being in the killing game takes a toll on everyone, and the self-discovery it inspires can lead people to do things that they never would have done before. Case in point, Levi sacrificing himself for Teruko later in this episode.

SO true Veronika. Casual reminder to you all that this is literally only overall Day 8 of the killing game. Xander was alive less than one week ago for these people.

If I had a nickel for every time that Ace was compared to glass in Danganronpa: Despair Time Chapter 2 Episode 16, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

(Also, the clock-themed music is back. I wonder what it's supposed to represent...? *adds it to my already way too long list of theories to write now that the Chapter has ended*)

Genuinely WHAT was acevi cooking this episode. (/pos) I had never been super into the ship before because of how seemingly incompatible they were after the first trial, but seeing how much they clearly care about each other (or at least how much Ace cares about Levi) I'm kind of compelled to now. This truly was the toxic yaoi Trial ever.

Hey, FF called it in the "Blackened's Blaze of Glory" idea! Also, WOAH WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!

Let's go, Ace animation! It's nice to see that he was able to participate in one before he died. And wow, did he participate indeed!

It's kind of crazy how breakable MonoTV is due to its screen face. Like, you can't just do that to a Monokuma; his head is likely too hefty. But, even though MonoTV is breakable, it doesn't mean anything in the end. False hope at its finest.

This is the face of someone going, "wait, was it really that easy?"

HOLY SHIT

Out of all the lines and events of this episode, it's quite possibly this line that has made me go the most insane. Just goes to show that I am way too invested in the lore of this series. (/j)

So, this is a direct confirmation that XF-Ture Tech was involved in the creation of MonoTV, and therefore, quite possibly the implementation of the killing game as well. That's huge. I mean, not too unexpected given how important it clearly was to Xander, Min, and even altDRDT, but I wasn't expecting to get confirmation here and now of all places.

Given this, I would not be at all surprised if the altDRDT character known as XF is the one who created MonoTV. Like, she might be the Ultimate Roboticist or Ultimate Software Developer or something. It also means that the mastermind very likely has some sort of positive association with XF Tech, so sus on Min (sponsored by XF), Rose (has connections to one of the Spurlings), and possibly J (family runs in wealthy circles). Of course, if XF Tech is directly partnered with HPA in some way, it could also be someone who's particularly associated with the school-- although, that would most likely be Min again.

There's also the question, "why did MonoTV have a different personality than the default driver," which is related to the question, "what was the default driver created for?" My immediate thought was that XF Tech might just have robot assistants that generally help them, and that was the default personality that was assigned from MonoTV. However, XF (or whoever else) found that boring for the sake of entertainment, and decided to jazz MonoTV up, possibly to make it more like Monokuma.

Then again, it's been highlighted again and again that MonoTV is really incompetent. Surely, that's not something that someone who wanted the killing game to succeed would want to program into their host. It could have been an accidental side effect, but if MonoTV really was made by the Ultimate Roboticist, would that person really make mistakes? Is it possible that MonoTV's personality could have been made that way to subtly sabotage the killing game?

(I understand I'm furthering logic off of a string of assumptions-- not trying to lay down the law here, just running you through my initial thought process upon considering this evidence.)

Given that MonoTV told us in Chapter 2 Episode 3 that it has a lot of limits and there's a lot it still doesn't know about the killing game, I don't think that this is a situation in which MonoTV's AI expanded so much over time that it developed a new personality. Especially because that means that all that development would have needed to happen before the killing game began, off screen. That's why I think that MonoTV's alternate personality needs to have a human explanation, which I believe might be tied to XF.

I don't have any "answers" to this question because I don't think we're meant to have any at this point, but I also can't make any particularly compelling guesses about it without reviewing a lot of the evidence we already have. (*adds another theory to my mental theory list*) I am thinking about this though. I'm thinking about it a lot...

MonoTV: Full restart scheduled in one hour.

Also, I take this to mean that MonoTV will likely be back to its usual personality come Chapter 3. It might have a slightly different design to take into account the broken screen, but I think the personality will remain the same.

(If MonoTV's body does get fixed, would that mean that there are multiple copies of MonoTV out there, or that someone fixed MonoTV within that tight time window???)

MonoTV is in your walls.

Also, here's a list of all the students who are shown reacting in a confused/scared manner after MonoTV begins to restart: Eden, Rose, Ace, Nico. Doesn't mean that they can't be the mastermind all of a sudden, but it is probably evidence to the contrary. After all, the mastermind would likely be the one most aware that this could happen. And, if you only build in four slots of people reacting in disbelief (such that there are plenty of people who could slip under the radar), it might make more sense to give those lines to people who are actually genuinely shocked, much like the audience.

Also also, I think that the text on MonoTV's screen reads, "Falling back to default driver. Restart in an hour." AKA, not much lore to be taken from there, other than that it's once again called the "default."

It's MonoTV Time Again

More absolutely essential information when it comes to cracking what exactly MonoTV is. This is a killing game that is, first and foremost, designed to kill everyone, not going for anything like "redemption" or "revealing the truth."

It's also fascinating that it says "every participant." Not even "every participant except one"; the killing game wants to kill everybody. What does that tell us?

This killing game is likely NOT an attempt to imitate Junko. In that case, they would be prepared for the possibility of multiple survivors.

The mastermind, assuming they're amidst the cast, is willing to die for the bit. Every participant includes themselves.

XF-Ture Tech also default wants everyone to die. This likely means that they were willing to sacrifice Min for whatever this plan was. Sorry, Min :(

Now, it is definitely possible that any of these ideas are an overstatement. Killing all of the students is stated to be MonoTV's purpose, NOT the purpose of the killing game as a whole. Therefore, it could be that MonoTV is programmed to want all of the students to die, to minimize the chance that it would develop any feelings of sympathy and start to work against the killing game. Meanwhile, the mastermind is expecting there to be one or more survivors, potentially including themselves.

However, that is just a minor potential discrepancy, and I find it likely that DRDTdev intended this scene to comment more on the rationale of the killing game as a whole. In which case, this is a fascinating look into the mastermind and XF Tech's rationale.

He cares about Charles so much :,) <3

I know some people have been using this as reason to suspect him ("why would he be more focused on Charles not getting traumatized than telling Teruko, who he theoretically also cares about, to run"), but personally, I didn't read it that way at all. (I say as, like, the #1 Whit Isn't Evil defender lmao)

First of all, from a pacing perspective, I think it was nice to have a quick break from people just telling Teruko to run. We have Eden saying that, followed by Charles saying that, so having the third instance be something a little different helped break up the repeat information, in my opinion. J tells Teruko to run immediately afterwards anyway, so you still get the same effect of everyone warning Teruko as the clock ticks down.

Secondly (and more importantly), I think that this could easily be an indication of Whit seeing Charles as sort of an extension of his mom. Not in the sense that he sees Charles as family, but that Whit had one person who he really, really cared about, and he couldn't stop them from dying or being hurt. Even though Whit does generally care about the others, after Xander and Min died, he realized that he wouldn't be able to save everyone. And, he wasn't even particularly interested in trying in the first place-- after all, he said that solving the fights between others wasn't his business, so it's not like he's trying to be everyone's savior.

If Teruko is already dead, then that's how it's going to be; there's nothing he can do about it. But he can try to protect the person he cares about most in this killing game from suffering, because he refuses to have that person exit his life again. The fact that Whit is prioritizing Charles' safety over anything else in this moment will only make it all the sadder when Whit fails to prevent Charles from dying in Chapter 3, and make the impact of his returning loneliness all the more catastrophic.

Obviously, that's just my theory and not a fact, but I do think that it's one reasonable way to explain why Whit said that here without having to cast him in any sort of suspicion. It's a possibility.

Yet another instantly iconic line. I'm so happy that DRDTdev is doubling down with this being the reality of Teruko's talent, because pushing the abilities of someone who's talented with luck is so fun!

Although, not gonna lie, in this moment, I was actually flabbergasted and frantically running through options of who I thought the replacement protagonist might be. Like, Eden? Charles?? When people said they thought David might become the protagonist, THEY DIDN'T MEAN FOR CHAPTER 3!!!

Also, absolutely diabolical to hide Teruko's execution in plain sight as the thumbnail, under the guise that this was meant to represent Ace's death. Gosh.

But it was actually Levi who got shot, which is fascinating! I also thought they might kill him here as sort of a pre-emptive double kill (as in, "keep on pace with the typical number of fangan survivors while not actually having to explain why a double kill occurred"), but from the way the rest of the episode plays out, I think it's pretty clear that he'll live through this experience.

He'll almost certainly have some sort of design update, though, which I'm excited to see. Let's hope he doesn't suddenly turn into a robot, a la Nekomaru. (I imagine this scene may have originally been inspired by creating an alternate take on Nekomaru taking a bullet for Akane.)

As for why Levi did this for Teruko, Venus explained to me what I now believe is probably the most likely reason: he's repaying a perceived "debt" he owed to Teruko after she saved him from being executed back in the Prologue. (Other people may have reached this conclusion as well, but I heard it from Venus first)

Teruko already saved his life once before, so now, he believes he owes it to her to save hers. Obviously, Teruko seemed pretty confident about surviving the execution, but he may have still thought that causing her to suffer a coma or the loss of a limb was big enough of a threat that she shouldn't have to suffer through it.

That sort of idea would also tie into what I originally thought might have been some of his reasoning: that he doesn't think very highly of his own life, and was willing to sacrifice it for someone who he considered "good"/more important than him. It would also allow him to die as a hero saving someone's life, rather than a heartless monster who ended lives. Not saying that this is a healthy rationale, but, well, the guy just threw himself in the line of fire for someone who said they'd be fine. Also, it's DRDT. Nobody here has a healthy rationale.

Btw, this ⬇

Levi: I don't understand. I can't understand you, no matter how hard I try.

Is the last thing that Levi was ever able to say to Ace (as well as Levi's last line of the Chapter). Have fun with that, acevi nation.

My heart broke in half when I saw Rose react in this way. Hang in there, queen...

MonoTV: Don't worry. I shut off the gun as soon as I detected that Levi was in the way. His injuries are not fatal.

Also, MonoTV's default programming still includes it saying things like "don't worry"? Fascinating.

Motherfucker Not Another Clearly Important Info Jumpscare-- (/j)

So, uh. Whit got a new sprite in Chapter 2 Part 2 other than his trying not to laugh one. Yaaaaaaay... (dissolves into tears)

Points of interest about the sprite itself: obviously, this is the closest thing that we've gotten to a scary/breakdown sprite for Whit thus far.

If you look at his eyes, you'll see that they've gone gray/black as opposed to his usual blue, and his heart-shaped pupils and arrow-circle design have gone completely missing. This makes him I believe the third character whose eyes turn gray when they're experiencing negative emotions thus far, after Xander and David. Another knight at the table of Sir Light Pollution! Although, notably, Xander and David's eyes always had some gray in them, while Whit's, prior to now, were 100% blue.

Whit is also holding one hand behind his back, which could be concealing something? I saw a comic (which I thought was drawn by gooseagain8, but I checked their account and I couldn't find it--) where he was holding a remote to keep the Trial doors shut behind his back, and now I can't think of anything else, haha. However, I also don't know where Whit would have gotten that remote from, so it's probably not that specifically.

I don't think I even have to explain why people would use this to think that Whit is the mastermind. It's pretty obvious. However, I do think that this probably diminishes the odds of Whit being your standard "revealed in Chapter 6" mastermind, because it's so obvious. Fangan authors, naturally, can do whatever the hell they want, but it seems unfitting for DRDTdev's behavior so far to give such a massive hint for something that's so far down the road. I say this because, with the mysteries of Mai, and XF Tech, and who says the quotes at the beginning of the Chapters, and LGI, DRDTdev seems to have a track record of enjoying a long-running mystery, and making complex, layered puzzles that the most insane of fans can go back and forth on for hours.

If this was meant to be a hint that Whit will be revealed as the mastermind in Chapter 6, I'd think we'd get, like, a sprite with Whit's hand behind his back but without the scary expression, or he'd say something more subtle like "don't you just love it when you can't get the door open?"

Instead, we get this incredibly in-your-face, obviously suspicious sprite, that even someone who had never seen an episode of DRDT before in their life could easily point out to suspect that Whit is evil. So then, why else could it be included?

One option is that it is meant to foreshadow that Whit will take on a more villainous role, but in the shorter term. He could be revealed as a mastermind or traitor in Chapter 3. My problem with this sprite as evidence of Whit as a late-game mastermind is that this is a really big hint. Generally, with a reveal like that, you'd probably want to build up to the reveal with bigger and bigger hints. For instance, you could say that DRDTdev started off with the small hint that Whit knows a lot about what people think, then move up to the medium hint that he and MonoTV have similar styles of humor and meta jokes, then move to the bigger hint that Whit suddenly knows a ton about how hanging works, for some reason. This piece of evidence is such a big hint that Whit is the mastermind (under the assumption that it is that) that I don't really know where you'd go from here without just saying that Whit is the mastermind. We've eliminated the possibility that the hints could grow any bigger, cutting the trail off early. Therefore, at the moment, I think this only (narratively) works if this is the last hint we get that Whit is the mastermind, which would mean that Whit would have to be outed soon.

Alternatively, I definitely think it's possible that DRDTdev is setting up Whit as an intentional red herring, a bait with which to divert the audience's attention away from whoever the real mastermind is. It could just be a fun game for the fandom, or actually come into play in the main plot in the future, if someone accuses him of being the mastermind on these charges. That's sorta the assumption I'd been operating off of before witnessing this scene. However, if that's the case, then DRDTdev shouldn't just have Whit do all of these things without creating an in-universe explanation for why he did them. Whit would have to have a completely innocent reason for striking this pose at this point, which... oh boy.

Not gonna lie, it's been difficult for me to come up with a non-sus explanation for this sprite that doesn't make it sound like I'm 100% coping, but I'll try my best. Anybody got some more of those spare anti-MM-coded Whit lines I asked for earlier?

Given the presentation of DRDT, when we see this sprite of Whit, we don't know what he's looking at. It's easy to jump to the assumption that he's looking at the students who are trying to open the door, but it's also possible that he's just looking at the door itself. Like, he's also just expressing his anger at the door for not opening.

If that's the case, it would probably be for the same rationale that I used to justify his line protecting Charles earlier. He doesn't want Charles to suffer, which means that he wants Charles out of this room now. The hand behind the back, then, is a tad confusing, but there are a few explanations I can think of.

The first is that this sprite was created with further uses in mind down the road. For instance, if Whit later hides a gun behind his back (don't ask how or why he would non-suspiciously have a gun), then this sprite may have been prepared to handle that circumstance so that it doesn't have to be redrawn later. Of course, to this point, DRDTdev hasn't held back with creating unique sprites for unique situations-- check out how many sprites Teruko and Ace have for likely just this episode. So, it's probably more likely that, if Whit does need to hide something behind his back later, it would have been drawn then.

The second is that just the hand is a red herring. The facial expression is real (being mad at the door), but DRDTdev made him hide his hand behind his back so that people would think he was concealing something. Overall, I think that's an acceptable level of red-herring-ness. You aren't faking something as big as the facial expression itself, but you still throw in a little false lead to throw the audience off of the scent. However, in an ideal world, there would still have to be an in-universe explanation for why he did it. Unless he just chose this moment to scratch his lower back, I don't know what that would be.

That's all I have for now, but I don't necessarily think that this sprite means that Whit has to be evil in some capacity. However, it's done the best job so far of making me think that he is, so I'll keep my mind open to that in the future.

This is such an excellent end to Ace's character. Like, I was already nodding my head along with all of the people who expressed why Ace's death here was narratively satisfying, but having him finally accept death in order to save Levi's life is a beautiful cherry on top.

I like it because it doesn't make Ace's death as overall depressing as everyone thought it would be. Ace was about to die believing that he was a piece of shit who never changed, even when everyone else wanted him to and was able to themselves. But, even if he might not have realized it, accelerating his own death for Levi's sake means that he did change. He was finally able to conquer his fears by looking them straight in the face. And, if the theories are correct that Ace had a hand in Taylor's death...

Ace: Because... because Levi is gonna fucking die, and I'm going to have a third goddamn death on my hands!

(Here's iistardust-and-sprinklesii's post, which first brought the idea that "third death" might mean that Ace was adding Levi on to his kill count of Arei and Taylor to my attention, at least.)

...it means that he also got to save a friend this time instead of killing him.

Obviously Ace's death is still a tragedy-- every death in the killing game is-- but just like Arei, he was still able to improve himself from who he was before he died. It's a really poetic ending that really hammers in the point that everyone has the capacity to be a good person, even in their last moments.

Really really really loved Logan's performance as Arturo here. This is the most... I don't know, human? Arturo has ever sounded. He sounds really young and afraid, which is totally befitting of the scene. It's not like I now believe that Arturo is a great guy and shoo-in survivor or anything, but it endeared me a lot to his character.

Also "I have no experience with saving lives" Felicity OOF.

This CG goes so fucking hard. First of all, I love the way that DRDTdev drew the hair and the fabric folds. They're always great, but I think that the extra sharpness and blockiness going on here serves the pointedness yet bluntness of Ace's words. Second of all, THE COLORS. Not only has everything become more red to highlight the fire and passion behind Ace's words, but it's also ACE'S COLOR. Ace is literally dyeing Arturo with his final message before he dies. I don't think we've really seen Arturo and Ace interact before (other than implied horror trio, I guess), so this was a fascinating move to make with regards to Arturo's character moving forward.

This is another way that Ace's character ends satisfyingly. Kind of funny that he's parroting this message when he just internalized it from Teruko, like, 15 minutes ago, but I understand why it resonated with him. And, like Levi, why he might have overstated this lesson so that he could go out as (even more of) a hero.

Execution Rambling Time!

This execution had a lot going on, so I expect to have a lot to say about it. We'll start here, with the name: Thanatophobia. For anyone who wasn't aware, it means, "fear of death." Totally makes sense, especially given Ace's eventual cause of death. I guess MonoTV/the mastermind/XF Tech(??? INSANE) knew enough about Ace to know that he was going to die of fright at the end? Eh, that's how most executions work, so I don't think it gives us too much to work with.

However, this is a confirmation that executions in DRDT are more based on what will cause students despair than directly what their talent is. It was kind of hard to tell with Min, given that her talent (Ultimate Student) and her fear of failing and being wrong kind of went hand in hand. However, horses were not the focus of this execution; Ace's personality was. Cool to keep in mind for future executions.

Drdtblingsceo (and perhaps others, but they were the first person I saw) was able to make out that not only does the grave on the left say "Taylor Riley," but the two other graves also say "Felicity Giles" and "Elliot Cuevas." (You can't really make it out in my screenshots, but you can see it better in the linked post. Sorry, I have a fairly old computer :( ) Terrible news for Mr. Riley, but great news for us when it comes to speculating about Ace's past. I wonder what caused Ace's secret to be about his eating disorder, rather than his dead friend that he seemingly blames himself for?

I was very closely inspecting this frame to see if it would contain any easter eggs about what happened in Xander's past. As far as I can tell, the article titles read, from right to left:

Unexplained Illness Kills Thousands

More People Are Dying of Cancer Than Ever Before

Flu Season Claims Thousands of Lives

Chronic Kidney Disease Mortality Death Toll Continues to Climb

??????? (I don't think this one actually has any text)

Falling Rates of Survival for Hospitalized Patients

Antibiotic-Resistant Infections a Growing Threat in Hospitals

Article #1 is the article that's zoomed in on for dramatic effect. As far as I can see, none of the actual paragraphs of any of the articles are legible.

We can fully rule out #2, #3, and #4 as being related to Xander-- those are all real-world diseases that don't really match up with the sickness Xander described. #5 is also out, because, even if it was meant to relate to Xander, it has no content, and therefore, nothing to analyze. I don't know why it's there, but it gives nothing.

#1, #6, and #7 all have the possibility of being related to Xander-- most likely #1, given that it was the one that was zoomed in on-- but that's only because they're vague. Therefore, we can't really learn anything more about the North C and Chariton incident from them. Still a good idea to check them, in my opinion, but they don't seem to bear any fruit.

Goddammit, do I really have to run out of images *now*? Like, in the middle of the execution? Fine, I'll be back to finish what I've started in a bit. Thank you for reading this far, and look out for the reblog hopefully later today!

[1moreff-creator]

Who do you think will survive the killing game??? ( also if you were already asked this my B )

:D

Hi! Don’t worry, I don’t think I’ve ever talked about it, so I had to give it some thought :p It’s an interesting question, so let’s see!

As a TL;DR, my “most likely,” in order and assuming a standard killing game formula (obviously the amount of survivors could be way different), are Teruko - J - Whit - Rose - Levi

Spoilers up to CH2 EP15

Of course, there’s one character that’s already kinda locked in as a survivor (assuming a more or less standard fangan ending and not an “everyone dies” sorta situation), and that’s Teruko. While there were theories about a possible protag switch post-LGI release, I’ve never found them particularly believable, and I don’t really think they’re very popular anymore.

The next character that’s basically a survivor already is Min, because if I never accept her death, she will always be alive in my books. /j

Yeah honestly after Teruko my confidence on survivor guesses drops dramatically, since there’s obviously no good way to tell.

Still, one character that particularly stands out to me is J. I have my reasons to believe she might become the primary support character a la Kirigiri, and while that doesn’t guarantee survival, I’d say it ups the chances a bit.

As to why I believe that… well here’s the thing. I’m kinda planning to make a mastermind probability ranking post after CH2 ends, and I’ll talk about my predictions for J in more detail there. As a result, I’d just be repeating myself if I talk about it here. So, I'll give you the quick rundown and leave the more detailed explanation for that post.

Basically, I believe the core theme of DRDT is the concept of “fate” and the possibility of change, where the big climax for Teruko’s character arc in particular (the single most important arc for the narrative, protag privilege) will be rejecting the notion that she’s fated to have bad luck forever. She already talked about it with Xander before he stabbed her, and her primary character foil, David, “covered” Literature Girl Insane. You don’t exactly give that song to a character who is very hopeful for a better future. Even Teruko’s trust issues are born from the belief her bad luck makes betrayal inevitable. And with Ace talking about how he’s “a coward who couldn’t fight his fate” (paraphrased), the connection seems more solid than ever.

J is important in that context because her entire character is sorta designed around the concept of rejecting fate, the thing Teruko needs to “learn to do” as it were. J was born into stardom and fame, born “lucky” (LGI numeral number seven symbolism go brr), but hides it and rejects her birthright down to her secret quote, “Please don’t call me your daughter ever again.” If Charles and Eden are the ones who are trying to get Teruko to trust again, I see J as the one who has the best shot at convincing her that she’s not doomed by the universe itself, giving her the best shot at survival out of any non-protag imo.

Also, silly yet existent argument: the CH1 title screen had Teruko (and Xander), the CH2 had J. Is it possible the survivors will each be featured in one screen? Probably not, but still.

The next one’s Whit. DRDT seems committed to explore its characters as much as possible before they die (which I think we all agree is awesome), and that means those that haven’t been fully explored or developed yet have a higher chance of a late run, thus a higher chance of survival. This applies to J and Rose somewhat, but it applies to Whit especially. I sometimes feel that we know more about Mai Akasaki than we do about Whit, which should tell you something.

Contrast that to Charles, who is absolutely dying sometime soon (imo). Even ignoring the “Charles dead at three” Whit comment from the prologue, Charles’ character arc is a little too complete for me to think it’s likely he stays ‘till the end. After we close out the Elliot subplot (which could easily be in CH3 given Elliot’s MV is already out), killing Charles off would be a good way to really kickstart Whit’s inevitable Breakdown Arc.

Final points to consider about Whit are the fact that luck is mentioned in his character bio, which along with J’s LGI numeral VII and Teruko being Teruko gives him an extra connection to the two survivors I’ve pointed out; and the possibility of him being the mastermind. Again something for the MM post, but put briefly; he’s not a bad mastermind guess, but I think it’s very likely that if he is, he won’t survive, so there’s that.

The next one might be Rose? Recap foil with J, so if the dev wants to explore that to its fullest, Rose will probably make a late run at least. There’s a lot to explore with her character too, but frankly that’s a bit of a moot point; every character in DRDT has a lot to explore.

Even if she’s one of, if not the best pick for mastermind imo, it’s very possible she can be the type of MM to be redeemed and survive alongside the cast. Again, details will probably have to wait for the mastermind post :v Hate to be saying that so much, but understandably given some of the reasoning is similar, a lot of good MM guesses are good survivor guesses.

As for the fifth most likely… well, this is the reason this post took me a week (this and I was busy :v). See, if you’d asked me during the hiatus, I would have said Ace. Obviously, that wouldn’t have aged very well now would it?

The ask was sent a bit after Ep14, and by the time I got some free time to write this, it was already Wednesday and anything I said about Ace or Eden could have very realistically been proven wrong in just a few days, so I decided to hold off until culprit reveal. And now that Ace is looking like the blackened, I’m pretty glad I did.

This does bring up a curious issue of gender balance. In theory, there’s nothing stopping DRDT’s survivor cast from leaning one way or the other, but generally survivor casts do try to keep it as equal as possible. And with three women already listed, even putting Nico here would cause an imbalance. But the thing is… I don’t see almost any of the men surviving?

Hence, Levi. I frankly have no clue where his character is going with the recent reveals and the fact Ace is dying soon; I could just as easily see him as the second CH3 victim (if there are two) or fulfilling “buff character curse” by dying in 4. But… not knowing where someone’s arc is going is kinda the reason Whit is up there, so I’m using the same reasoning. It’s my least confident guess, so yeah. He’d certainly be an interesting survivor at least, I wonder how he’d play off the mastermind in trial 6.

To quickly cover the other characters, I’ll go in order of least likely to survive to most likely. Excusing the dead, of course.

-Ace: He’s technically still alive, but, uh… uh…

-David: If he were to survive, he’d need to go on a near identical arc to Teruko, which is… hard to imagine properly working. He’ll make a late run, probably, but I can’t see him reaching the sixth.

-Charles: Already explained.

-Arturo might be a little too insane to work. It’s hard to imagine a sixth trial with Arturo of all damn people around. Especially if J’s there.

And… those are kinda all the guesses I have for who is (in my belief) 100% dying. I could actually see every other character being a survivor :v

-Veronika runs into the same issue as Arturo; it’d be hard to let the mastermind do MM stuff when this girl’s there simping for them. However, I could see a world where dev keeps her for the psychoanalysis of the MM… kinda. Frankly, she should be in the “no chance” list, but… she’s my favorite alongside Min so let me have hope!-

-Nico has the advantage that they’re the only way to make a cast of 5 survivors perfectly balanced in terms of boys and girls; two of each and Nico. But that’s not very strong. The main issue is that I don’t really know what could happen with them in the remaining chapters that would advance their character to a point they’re a survivor, if that makes sense. Maybe if Rose makes it?

-Hu is weird. From what we’ve seen in the series, she would make a pretty compelling survivor. But… her secret quote…

Hu: I want to pay for what I’ve done. But even then, I still want to live.

Like, that’s the most “blackened” line in history; do you wanna state your victim’s name while you’re at it? Part of me wants to say that’s too obvious and the line will have a different context, but… it’s a secret quote in the source code of her character page. It’s not that obvious to anyone who follows the series more casually.

-Eden: I could see the argument of Eden>Rose (and therefore Eden>Levi as he’s only there due to gender balancing), since our favorite Clockmaker is quite easy to imagine in a final trial setting. The main issue is that… assuming a more or less standard formula, it’d be sorta weird to have someone in the sixth trial who can out-hope speech the protag, and Eden definitely fits that bill. It’s possible she makes it, especially given her involvement in the pre-prologue scene with Xander’s eye, but idk.

Here are a few extra survivor configurations I could see happening! Obviously there’s plenty more, so watch absolutely none of them be right.

Teruko-J-Whit-Eden-Levi/Nico (Teruko MM or dead MM with no “two victims” case)

Teruko-J-Rose/Eden-Levi/Nico (Whit MM)

Teruko-Whit-Rose-Nico (J MM)

Teruko-J-Whit-Hu (Veronika MM)

Teruko-Whit-J-Rose/Eden-Levi-Min?!?! (Min MM)

Teruko-Rose-Eden-Whit-Levi/Nico-Min (Baking Squad Cope!!!)

Teruko-J-Whit-Veronika-Levi/Nico (Why not?)

Everyone (The only right answer)

Thanks a lot for the ask! Fun to ramble about this series lol.

[huesofvioletandpurple]

ACH YEAH I've noticed the phrasing as well but it defaults to word Count in my head asdkfjldsanfl

what I was thinking of was like, if you count the numbers, you'll find that there's seven rows of eleven numbers. my idea is that there can be seven rows of TWELVE numbers. this is so I can split it into two groups of six. and also because 11 isn't a very nice number to work with

I tried getting the numbers from this screenshot from the MV:

[ID: the screenshot consists of white text on a black background. It reads: What is the most important thing? ?ain f?ces ide? t?o ?ost sa?e ?at Each word has a gap that is filled in with a question mark. End ID]

We are given seven words in this screenshot. The footnote 14 puzzle has given us seven rows of numbers. Do You See Where I'm Going With This. The question marks take up the first, second, fourth, second, first, third, and first spaces in the words they appear in. That gives us the numbers 1, 2, 4, 2, 1, 3, and 1.

The consensus is that the missing letters combine for the word "resolve". Each letter takes up the eighteenth, fifth, nineteenth, fifteenth, twelfth, twenty-second, and fifth places in the alphabet. That gives us 18, 5, 19, 15, 12, 22, and 5.

Now, with the first seven numbers, I can easily add them to one of the number blocks. Just attach one number at the end of each row. However, what gets dicier is with the second set of numbers I have. All but two of them go over 10, which breaks the pattern of the numbers shown to us ranging from 0-9. There's also the question of like. finding out which number block the seven numbers go with

Initially, I attached the first seven numbers to the first number block. Then, I tried to do something with hex colour codes, because if I had two sets of six numbers per row, I could extrapolate two colours from that ! but the colours I found tended to be arbitrary, and I don't know what I'm supposed to find from it if that Was the right path.

If I had to guess, once the answer to the puzzle's figured out, it has the potential to link to a page on the drdt tumblr. like we can slap it at the end of the url to see what happens. in order to figure out if that's the case though the puzzle needs to be Solved, so maybe I'm speaking too far ahead into the future

if you have any more thoughts on it, I'd be interested to hear them !

imagine me like one of those youtube video essayists, pacing around the room rapidly gesturing to my wall labelled "LGI footnote 14" and on the wall are various colour hex codes, 256 being divided by different numbers, and "26-22=4"