#splash art analysis in the works btw

[sunderingstars]

↓ detailed outline below cut ↓

[pompadorbz]

you obivously like taka but what do your think of ishda both as a concept and in the story proper

Ok prepare yourselves for this one, because I need to go on a full-scale rant and analysis over this actually. I think that Ishida is perhaps one of the most WASTED concepts I have EVER seen in my life. There are so many directions he could've gone in as a character and the writers decided that the best option was for him to just stop at a screeching halt before he ever got even a MOMENT to gain momentum. It's a decision that both angers and fascinates me, because not only is it shrugging off an entire character for practically no good reason, but ALSO, there's even some table scraps of evidence pointing to the possibility that he was meant to have even just a LITTLE more to his character. For starters, he not only has unused gift dialogue for when you give him a present before a free-time event, but an entire (albeit INCREDIBLY short) event.

Meaning that at some point, there was likely going to be more of an attempt to flesh him out that they just didn't end up going through with. Another thing that will forever fuck with me, is. Why does this splash art exist?

Like it's cool. It's raw as hell. But what reason does it exist? Like really think about it for a moment here. Ishida as a character doesn't have much more than. I'd say about 1-2 hours of screen time. And this isn't a Syo kind of situation, either. Syo appears fairly early on and then CONTINUES to front on multiple occasions. No offense to my guy Ishida but he literally eats dirt and then dies. SO WHY DOES HE HAVE AN ENTIRE PIECE OF SPLASH ART?? AND WHY IS HE WEILDING MONDO'S PICKAXE? AN ITEM THAT HE NEVER RECIEVES (and if I recall correctly, you only ever see in the chapters FOLLOWING his death)??? Why go through all the effort for a character that is around for only a tiny portion of the game if there weren't MORE PLANS for him initially? And like. No matter how you choose to look at Ishida's existence there is always SOMETHING that just doesn't add up or is never explained. Is he possessed? Or is this just a really poor coping mechanism? If its the latter, then why does his hair turn white? Why do his eyes light on fire? If it's the former, then why is the fact that A GUY GOT POSSESSED BY A REAL ACTUAL GHOST NEVER EXPLAINED, NOR EXPLORED??? Really, the only thing Ishida is used for is just a quick fix to nearly everything left unaddressed in chapter two's climax. A band-aid over a bullet wound. SO IM GONNA PERFORM FUCKING SURGERY RIGHT BEFORE YOUR EYES. CHECK THIS SHIT OUT. I'M GONNA WRITE A BETTER ISHIDA, AND BY PROXY, A BETTER CONCLUSION TO KIYOTAKA RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW (spoilers: I literally cannot think of a SINGLE way for him to die that doesn't work to the detriment of any other character. I am a firm believer that for his character to even WORK to a well written degree without using other characters as fodder, he needs to end up in the survivor roster)!!! This isn't gonna be like. INCREDIBLY detailed, um. I'd love to write this in full form someday but for now I'm gonna just do a sort of synopsis. BUT FIRST!! I need to talk about Kiyotaka as a character and the silly, funny, and interesting little things that are done to establish him because weirdly, Kiyotaka has this like, air of importance to him for both the first and second chapter. Like I might even go as far as to say that he could've been written as a red herring for BOTH the chapter 1 and 2 murder trials if the writers really wanted to go in that direction. Ok so with the prologue and chapter one, obviously every character is going to be given at least a little bit of time to have their base personalities established, and Taka isn't exempt from that by any means. He honestly gets a LOT more establishment than others in this chapter since he ends up becoming this sorta de-facto leader of the group right off the bat (and btw, I don't consider his eventual downfall and death to be a subversion of his character by any means. To me, a subversion implies that there's going to be at least some sort of attempt to tie in the subversion to his previous actions somehow, and no effort is made here. Chapter one already gives a great character subversion of the childhood friend trope with Sayaka, so if Kiyotaka's death is meant to be a subversion of his own character trope, then I'd say that it's comparatively much weaker). Kiyotaka even ends up being the one to set the morning meetings into action, which Is kept up for the entire rest of the game with little to no breaks in that formula if I recall correctly? Can you believe it guys. He started that. He started that and nobody thanked him. Anyway.

Then in chapter 2, things start to get a bit inch resting. The obvious one is Kiyotaka becoming friends with Mondo to then set up the events of the trial and how they relate back to Mondo, while simultaneously not making the culprit and victim completely obvious. Which by the way. Mondo's friend didn't necessarily HAVE to be Kiyotaka. It could've worked with multiple other characters but they chose SPECIFICALLY Kiyotaka. Absolutely fucked up. Anyway. The OTHER thing that happens to establish Kiyotaka in chapter two is. This.

fucking!!! oopsie!!! I fucking guess!!! Kiyotaka is the one to suggest revealing the secrets, which other than Monokuma himself dropping the motive, ends up being the domino that sets the entirety of chapter two's murder in motion. In a really fucked up in evil way, you could technically say that Taka blaming himself for Chihiro and Mondo's death actually has some merit if you pin it back to this! Fun! I think something about the second chapter that I don't see people discuss a lot is that while Kiyotaka is obviously being put into horrible grief over Mondo and Chihiro's deaths, blaming himself for both and even going as far as to vote for himself due to the amount of responsibility he feels, there's also this underlying second. thing. That I think acts as the nail in the coffin for his entire mental state once chapter 3 rolls around. Kiyotaka is somebody who at his core, has an INCREDIBLY black and white understanding of morality as a whole. In his mind, a person is either good, or they're bad. With him befriending Mondo, we see his morality take its very first major deviation. Almost. Mondo is somebody that Kiyotaka considered to be wholly bad at FIRST, but upon learning how similar the two of them were, he came to the conclusion that he made a lapse in his judgement, and that Mondo was actually wholly good. And THEN he commits real actual murder. Kiyotaka JUST made a friend for the very first time, and now he's learning that said friend committed murder. But not only did he commit murder, he committed ACCIDENTAL murder, and is still being punished. Meanwhile, Togami, someone who tampered with Chihiro's corpse for the sillyfunnies, and Syo, a wanted serial killer, BOTH go free completely unscathed, lacking any sort of further consequence for their actions. So not only is Kiyotaka in a state of heavy and immediate grief, but in addition to all that, his entire perception of morality as he knows it, and the BASIS for how he's lived his ENTIRE LIFE, has just crumbled in front of him in under an hour. This bad boy can fit so much PAIN and CONFUSION. This was so life shattering that I will once again remind you- he was suddenly willing to give up his, AND everybody else's lives to let Mondo go free. AND THIS IS ALL JUST TO PREFACE THE ISHIDA STUFF!!! So now we've hit chapter 3. I think pretty much everything goes as it does up until Kiyotaka becomes Ishida. THEN there are some substantial changes. I figure to start, I could think up a fun little reason for Ishida's hair to be white, although it's really just a metaphor. Once again, bro's entire understanding of morality has just crumbled, and I think that in his head, he tries to justify where he went wrong. Instead of just being the Mondo-possessed Kiyotaka, I think he becomes more determined than ever to fix the mistake that he 100% swears he must've made for chapter 2 to transpire the way it did. He begins to believe that he must've been acting too much out of pure logic, and that he should instead switch gears to a more emotional way of thinking through issues, hence his hair going from black to white. it's cute (it's also a nod to this lil line here).

When it comes to the chapter 3 murder, I think that Kiyotaka is vocal enough about his change of heart that Celeste susses him out in no time flat, and realizes that he's in a very vulnerable and easy to manipulate state. I think that he essentially swaps places with Hifumi here, and she's able to convince Ishida that Hifumi plans to hurt alter ego, or rather, that he hurt Celeste in one way or another. She's able to sniff out that Kiyotaka still feels spite towards everybody else, so if he can be convinced that she is the only good person left in this entire killing game (or grow a bond to Celeste), then he could end up helping her commit her murder. Except I don't think he needs to be convinced that he'd be making an escape with her (I didn't mention how he was willing to vote for himself in chapter 2 for no good reason). Rather, I think that he would play the roll of a red herring in the trial along with an unwilling Hiro, pretending to be the murderer as a last resort to cover Celeste's tracks. However at some point I think he would end up slipping (possibly in a similar fashion to how Mondo did with the colour of the tracksuit, which also ties to Celeste's own account, funnily enough), and that ultimately leads to Celeste's death. In Ishida's mind, i think he feels like he'd failed a second time to keep someone he cared about alive. He doesn't catch onto him being manipulated to begin with until later I think. Chapter 4 rolls around and I think things start to calm down, BUT. I think he remains INCREDIBLY silent during the entire thing, maybe only making a comment or two during the trial. I think as the truth gets slowly revealed it's like looking in a mirror. A. Very Hina shaped mirror. Watching somebody else also go to incredibly extreme lengths for the sake of someone they care about and trust strikes SUCH a chord, I think. It's perfect timing for alter Ego's execution to happen as well, I think. It's all a giant metaphor for something, probably. Anyways the reason I didn't go into depth with chapter 4 is because. There is a fic that I love that does that already. When I read it I was in a voice call and I had to refrain from actually losing it because it just??? happened to share a brain cell with me??? thank god??? Anyways it's called Stage 3: The Chrysalis (Also Known as Pupa) and it changed me forever. Go read it. That's an order. BUT ANYWAY after chapter 4 ends I think Kiyotaka would be fully back in form (now complete with emotional damage but hes working on it), and he'd end up taking a backseat so that the major endgame plot stuff can kick into high gear. Him and Hina are best friends now (real), and Ishida as a concept is fixed. This took like two hours to write, Spike Chunsoft should hire me so that I can write them a better game.