#tempestmothtalk

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i wanna redraw this pic with the club but the problem is i cant decide which part is assigned to which because they are all of them at once so have this

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"I think I would have just deleted myself if you didn't show up."

Yeah this is just straight up canon. But i have more thoughts though. So.

Like if you look into her dialogue is like abundantly clear that she’s just suicidal. It’s different from someone like Sayori who’s actively suicidal because she feels she is worse than everyone else, or Yuri who I don’t know is suicidal but has self harming tendencies she takes too far in act 2, or Natsuki who isn’t at all and is like “wtf are you guys ok”. The answer is no btw.

Monika’s whole outlook on it is that she has a lot of passive suicidal ideation that she pushes aside because she has to be the best. Her issue isn’t centered around her specifically being bad but instead a feeling of pointlessness with existing and the fact that the act existing itself puts burden on the world.

She’s also the type to make jokes about it, which I think is telling about her attitude about death, especially when compared to the others where the idea of dying is still terrifying and scary and something to hide. Meanwhile Monika acts casually as if people’s lives actually don’t matter. We all know her “left her hanging joke” and her general nonchalance with the other girls’ deaths, but the secret poem “A Joke” is probably written by Monika too, and the punchline is another reference to sayori’s death. The special poem about cutting is also by Monika, which shows that she would self harm if it weren’t for her needing to be the ‘responsible one’, and that she’d only do it again if she killed herself. She writes it as if it was a quirky relatable diary entry and not something deeply concerning, which in of itself is also deeply concerning.

There’s also the iiiiiiiiiiii.txt file that has her say that it would be “really easy to kill (herself) right now”. Reasonably the easiest way to do it would be to delete herself. While her constantly reminding the player how easy it would be to delete her is supposed to be a hint on what to do next, it does say something about her when she constantly fixates on it, almost as if she’d thought about it. Like a lot. She thinks about suicide and mental illness just as much too. Also a lot. And existential philosophy a lot. And death too. Again. A lot.

Her friends aside, she clearly just thinks about these things on her own, which implies some real bad things about her mental health considering literally everything else we know about her. Like it’s pretty obvious she’s not ok base game. And yet she doesn’t go through, in fact actively avoiding getting deleted because she still wants to see you. Because you are her only hope.

While her attachment to the player has like a dozen factors influencing it, I think a lot of it is also connected to her more suicidal ideas. She does emphasize that you “saved her” a lot in act 3 and while it mean saving her from her reality, knowing some of the other talks, it also could have saved her from giving up entirely.

Not to get too repetitive about how her life sucks, but like she really has no reason to exist in her eyes post epiphany. Nothing outside the literature club exists, there’s no past or future, everything is fake and has no consequence on the real world, and worst of all she’s completely alone with whatever connections she could have being fake. I think this one quote from her “introverts” talk basically sums up her situation:

"You know, I really do think you literally saved my life by being here with me, [player]."

"I can't imagine having been able to keep myself mentally stable, knowing that nothing here is real."

"I think I would have just deleted myself if you didn't show up."

"Sorry, i don't mean to sound dramatic or anything."

"Ahaha!"

"But I'm sure you understand yourself after spending so much time in the club."

"I mean, if you were forced to abandon everything in your life and spend your eternity with a few game characters..."

"...You'd probably find some way of killing yourself, wouldn't you?"

But yeah something something the connections you have with others gives life meaning and when the relationships she did have turned out to be false, she reached out to you, whose love could be real and whose existence as a real person is the only thing that could give her life meaning.

Another Monika talk that’s relevant would be the “No reason to be alive” talk. I’m not posting the entire thing here because it’s too long but the entire thing is pretty relevant. In it she talks about how living is pointless because you probably aren’t special and your existence alone takes up dozens of resources that isn’t worth wasting.

This highlights two factors that I think influence her thought process. One is that she feels like existence is worthless and likely won’t affect society at large, and with the whole being a video game thing the connection is obvious. The other is that she worries about how much of a burden she is on society. She wants to earn her right to exist in this world. When her reality doesn’t exist, this specific framework doesn’t seem that relevant, but when it comes to being a burden to others this ends up becoming a lot more alarming (and also creates another Sayori parallel yayyyyyyy)

Notably she mentions the key to happiness is to live selfishly and just look out for yourself and your friends. This can’t really apply in her own reality when she can’t see her friends as sentient, but when it comes to you, she can deliver just fine. She says she want to “live (her) life desperately striving to pay back (her) lifetime's worth of consumption” and with her own reality being pointless, paying back the people around her (you) is the next best thing.

But what if she failed to

"Of course, even if I fail to do that..."

"I think I would be too selfish to kill myself anyway."

"So much for being a good person, right?"

Sure thing buddy.

Another thing i want to mention is that it’s implied that these thoughts aren’t new. Like with some of these talks it’s ambiguous whether these ideas came pre or post epiphany. With her whole nihilistic thinking in base game contrasting side stories, it wouldn’t be that surprising if her thoughts got a whole lot more cynical over time. But she does seem to talk as if she’s thought about them for a while, while the epiphany was apparently recent in her memory.

For example in the “Dying” talk:

“It's something I used to think about pretty often..."

And in the “No reason to be alive” talk

"But the older I get, the more I realize that it's an immature frame of thinking."

Uh yeah these ideas aren’t new.

Of course it was probably taken to an extreme post epiphany and thinking about existential topics is normal. By itself it’s probably not some secret sign of mental illness, or at least not anything severe. (Sure she talks about a lot of stuff like mental health issues but it doesn’t really reflect on her, it just shows she can understand others perspective. Like she can talk about the introvert experience without being an introvert. Idk she’s just very empathetic and reflects a lot on the world. Makes her epiphany a lot more ironic though. So.)

But her post epiphany persona was very much built on preexisting ideas she had before that. It might not be that serious, but the fact that it’s there at all is concerning knowing what we do. The implications that come if this is all true is facilitating tbh and it honestly makes the side stories more interesting too. Like her whole “i have to be the best” attitude is probably connected to all her worries about being a burden or worthless.

And her whole thing in trust becomes a lot more layered too. The standard she holds for herself are not carried over to Sayori, who she sees as deserving of life just by being herself. She doesn’t want to be a burden or distract from Sayori’s problems, because her own true self isn’t good enough. Sayori is reassured that her existence is valuable and that she isn’t being a burden, something that goes against Monika’s entire act 3 talk yet is some she believes wholeheartedly.

This is also contrasted by base game where she straight up jokes about her death because death barely matters to her either. In base game, Sayori doesn’t matter, she isn’t special or even sentient, just a pile of code that gets in the way of Monika’s plans to reach the player. In base game Sayori is worthless and a burden, where Monika’s worldview has extended to everyone else. Yet in side stories she doesn’t think that, her standards only applies to herself because she loves her friends, they are what give her life meaning. Of course they deserve to live. They don’t need to prove their worth.

She’s a hypocrite because she values her friends more than anything. Again, the Sayori parallels are obvious from this angle, she has these exact same thoughts, with the only difference being that base game Monika projects her fears of worthlessness onto everything else while sides stories has her a lot more similar to Sayori.

Now the difference between side stories Monika and base game is really just how far their ideals reach, because normally Monika is like ok mentally , while in base game she’s suicidal along with everything else. Forget her saying she’s too selfish to do it cause it’s heavily implied she does do it in other universes.

Speaking of which I never hear people mention the MES emails in this cause a singular line puts into perspective how influential the player’s presence is on Monika and just how bad her mental health is. She is the MES’ guinea pig that everyone wants to see suffer (actually I don’t know how common knowledge this is I just got here and mostly stick to tumblr so idk)

So with the Side Stories MES email i think with all the lore drops we sorta forgot some of the more self explanatory info, including the fact that they have multiple VMs of ddlc and that there were “3 or 4 of them created and then destroyed by Monika”

While most people conclude this is just a reference to base game i think a lot of people dismiss that fact that these aren’t the game VMs, these VMs have no access to a player. Yknow. The player she relies on that supposedly saved her life.

Yeah i think she just deletes everything including her in apparently 4 separate universes. She kills her self in 4 universes.

She deletes everything in act 3 too but specifically because they get in her way between you, and the only reason she doesn’t delete herself there is that she still wants to see you. When the idea of reaching you is crushed, she gives in. By act 4 she ends up like all the other VMs, deleting everything knowing she can’t have you, can’t have reality. I mean the only thing keeping her going is the dream of reaching reality and finding real connections to people, and the idea that her existence will forever be meaningless probably pushed her to the extreme.

The player is the only real person who can give her life meaning and value, and in a world where the rest are seemingly fake, you’re also the only human connection she has. Again, the things that keep her going is her life being valuable in some way and the people around her. Post epiphany she only has you to care for with everyone else being thrown to the wayside without consideration of their own wellbeing.

So of course in act 4, where her connect to you is severed and she is suddenly aware of the harm she’s caused, she’s the lowest she’s ever been. Her reason for living is to be there for her friends and somehow pay back reality for how much she’s taken. And yet she let her friends die and let herself use them for her own selfish gain. She failed them, and has therefore become someone she see as not deserving of life. And with her last hope of the player rejecting her reach, she has no reason to keep going. So in the Easter egg where the player tries to bring her file back after deletion, she refuses to follow. She doesn’t deserve to intrude on their happy ending. She doesn’t deserve to come back.

And she doesn’t.

In future games she’ll probably return though, and with all the secret files and her motivations in the normal ending, I feel like it’s going to be for redemption by finally being there for her club.

She sticks around because no matter how much guilt she feels about just existing, she still wants to be there for her friends. Because while a lot of the act 3 dialogue was not meant to be something people agree with, there was one thing that I feel like is good if you look at it in the right way. Maybe people can’t pay back for the lifetime of consumption they’ve done just by living, but people can pay back and be worth existing just by looking out for their friends and those closest to them. Even if there can be doubts about life and existence as a whole, it doesn’t matter in the end when there’s joy to be found in the people you care about. Even if you make mistakes or hurt them, you can still find a way to make it up to them, to still deserve happiness in the end. The one thing that makes life worth it is the bonds you form with others. Because the people around you are what give life meaning.

She can’t let go and she can’t give up because she still has people she loves and wants to protect. So she’ll keep living for the people she loves. That’s all she needs to do in this world to make it worth living.

I hope she succeeds.

(Side note i took a lot of the Monika talk examples from this post. I did have my own ideas even before i read the doc and I already knew about this stuff anyways i just don’t wanna scroll through the entire wiki again to see all the Monika talks and this is pretty comprehensive. The extra imput is also useful so yeah)(anyways thanks for reading this really long tumblr essay. Good job and drink water ;D)

i would like to bring up that monika has probably considered deleting herself before

like staring at a high cliffside and getting the urge to jump

[tempestmothstorm]

crazy how the sanshee plush is one of the few actual direct confirmations on what a non-act 2 Natsuki’s home life is like because of how cagey she is on literally everything. Like this isn’t anything surprising or something you wouldn’t be able to extrapolate from the games but unlike everything else we know about her the implications are right there on the tin.

They literally did the character bio trope where where all the likes are normal but the dislikes are about their very specific trauma it’s just so funny they did that on the plushie card

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so how does that work

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Girl had her name introduced twice and she still forgot

She is so silly

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I’ve noticed it for a while now that despite the side stories being all about the characters opening up and getting a spotlight on their feelings, Monika never gets her moment where she lets everything out.

Like Sayori has the whole scene in trust, Yuri in understanding, Natsuki in self-love, and a bunch of other moments where they have their moments of vulnerability, but Monika never gets that breakdown moment for herself.

She never gets to cry or unload all her insecurities and fears like the rest, which is pretty odd considering how the very first side story focuses on Monika trying to find ways to express herself and write about her feelings without her perfectionist mindset. She has to be the strong, reliable, responsible leader to the club without letting her feelings get in the way of her friend’s struggles. Her three main side stories focus on her becoming a better leader and helping the others with their feelings, but she never has her own feelings on the forefront. As the “responsible one” she needs to either overcome or hide her weaknesses, and when she does admit her own faults or feelings, it’s for the sake of others (like in respect, where she does admit to her thoughts and feelings about how she treated natsuki, a lot of stuff that would require vulnerability, but was focused on helping natsuki instead of monika)(also realized sayori does a similar thing to natsuki in reflection when she admits to having depression to help comfort her)

I’m thinking about that scene in trust again because there’s this line that stood out to me for awhile because I think it sums up her whole deal:

“As soon as Sayori loses her composure, Monika becomes determined to keep her own. She only wants to be what Sayori needs right now. So, she won’t let any sadness show.”

This line kinda read as her trying not to cry herself, but acting as a literal shoulder to cry on, she holds it back to focus on Sayori. It’s the right move, but she never has another chance to revisit those feelings, being too focused on the new club members to focus on herself, still holding herself back for the sake of her friends. It kinda parallels Sayori in a way, but unlike her she never has her moment where she herself gets to be comforted back.

This all leads to equals, where the story bookends with Monika trying to write a poem for the first time since trust. I always thought that moment was weird, as it shows her in the exact same spot as the first time she tried to write a poem. She gets it eventually, but it’s clear that while everyone else has their poems figured out, Monika still hasn’t fully gotten over her own issues. Of course she was never going to get over it overnight, none of them do, but throughout the whole story, she never gets her moment to fully address it. While helping everyone else in their stories did help her grow into a better caring person, I don’t know if she’s entirely addressed her own issues with talking about her feelings.

She does write something down, but she still has that old hesitation she had in the beginning, in contrast to the others who start writing almost immediately. They aren’t notorious for being great at vulnerability either, but they learn to open up throughout the side stories, something Monika doesn’t get that much of.

I will acknowledge that scene is probably just there for bookends and to highlight Monika’s development going from being unable to write anything to starting to write her own poem (something that would be less obvious if she started writing immediately with no fanfare). But still, I think the fact that she still struggles kinda highlights how she still never got that moment to cry. She might work through it someday, but at the moment she’s not ready, and I think thats fascinating

I might be mistaken here, but I think Monika might actually be the only Doki not to cry at all between the Side Stories and the Main Game.

She doesn't have a crying sprite (which is why it's a relatively common fan sprite to make), and she doesn't cry in any of the CGs afaik.

That says something about her character, I think.

This is relevant because I'm considering something for an ask that's been sitting around a while, and so I've been looking over all of the Side Stories for material, and it just stuck out to me.

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actually can we talk about this what do you mean you hear the voices of your dead friends

you cant just stop it there wtf are they saying to you

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ok ok so I was just going to draw long haired Sayori but then I came up with a bunch of elementaryish aged designs and now I came up with a bunch of headcanons and more sketches so woohoo lots or text under cut open for more headcanons (also idk why tumblr made the image change quality that is not the same colour or quality I had it in)

Yknow for some reason I just can’t imagine Natsuki being like a happy kid in the past like at all. I think it’s like a “kid who obviously has a bad home life and acts out because of it but nobody’s gonna to actually try to do anything about it so they just put her in detention” kinda vibe. I don’t think anyone outright hates her since she probably would have brought it up in base game/side stories, but she isn’t exactly a beloved member of the school either

In the side stories she talks about being very different in the past and specifically going through a really edgy ‘I hate everyone phase’ in middle school. This isn’t a middle school headcanon but I feel like her being kinda bitter before the total edgy phase makes sense.

I think in contrast to her having a super defined sense of self present day, Natsuki here was a lot more identityless and unsure about what she wants. She gets really into cutesy stuff in the future but here she leans a lot more into the angry side of her because she doesn’t really understand a lot of what she’s feeling. It’s why I didn’t really give her a unique hairstyle, if she had something she’d actually like I don’t think she would have changed it to the pigtails

Also her clothes are kinda bad and has a hole in her sleeve since she doesn’t really get a lot of clothes due to obligatory ~home life angst~ but this post isn’t about that so

She gets into manga pretty early but just kinda enjoys it casually on a surface level thing. She drops it for a bit before picking it back up, and suddenly understanding what plot and themes are lead to her going insane about it until present day.

She’s into skating because I said so

It also makes a great explanation for why she gets a broken arm and why she always has a bunch of bandaids :))))))))

Ok I might also just like giving character designs bandaids

Tbh I forgot if they said Natsuki’s friends met in middle school or not but I think it still applies since they probably knew her through every cringe phase she had (including the fanfics). But either way they were probably one of the few people to actually give Natsuki a chance which is part of why she puts up with their bullying so much. Throughout every phase she might have had they made fun of her every step of the way, to the point she’s just kinda used to it now. Doesn’t help that she thinks her old self was cringe, so by present day she just assumes she deserves whatever bullying she gets from them. Girl needs to have compassion for her past self. And present self tbh

While Natsuki was cringe in the ‘I hate everything’ way, Yuri was cringe in the ‘I am a massive nerd for cringe pieces of media and am going to make everyone aware of that fact’. At least that’s how they see themselves now

She’s a lot more open to talking about her interests. She can and will yap to random people with little to no prompting because she hasn’t really learned yet that people would be put off by it

She’s not overly social but more willing to chat with others with a polite and friendly attitude. She hasn’t been hurt yet so she is filled with joy and whimsy and is overall more cheerful compared to present day

She has her hair like that so I could give the vibe of ‘cheerfully annoying and/or adorable☝️🤓’ nerd archetype instead of ‘would rather become a speck of dust than talk to a person’ nerd archetype. Her hair is generally more dishevelled to show she’s more naive and less elitist I guess. She also isn’t as good at taking care of her hair yet so it looks kinda bad in a charming way(her school would not agree)

Her bangs being up with the headband shows her being more open and willing to be vulnerable to others in a way that’s lost in present day, where her long bangs hide a lot of her face in that one sprite. Her forehead is a metaphor 😭

I don’t really have parent headcanons but the cardigan is from her mom. I just think it’s cute

Random headcanons idrk where else to put but since that one act 2 sprite just borrows the teeth from Natsuki I like to think her teeth is also weirdly sharp it just doesn’t stick out as much. People think her teeth are creepy though so she tries not to smile with her teeth. She doesn’t care to smile like that anyways since she doesn’t really know how to in pictures (me projecting) and her natural smiles are a lot more subtle/don’t show teeth so it’s all fine.

Stating the obvious here but she was totally outcasted by like most of her school. Most people thought she was weird and her enthusiasm off-putting so they’d try avoiding her. She doesn’t really know why they think she’s off-putting though, people just start avoiding her for no reason. A few would go out of their way to bully her too, which ont added fuel to the iscolation fire, which ended up give her massive vulnerability and self esteem issues. Shocker ik. It takes a while to fully break her down from here to her high school self but it does mess her up a lot even then. At this specific point in time though she stills has her innocence so dw it’s fineeeeeee

Her anxiety issues are also there but she still has enough of a positive attitude to go ‘hey this sucks but maybe this time talking about my interests will work and they’ll actually like me!’ even if it didn’t work the last time. She doesn’t really know how else to talk to people so she keeps trying the same thing hoping maybe this time it’ll work out.

Uh.

things get worse. you probably know that

Sayori still the sillyyyyy

But tbh she probably changes the least compared to present day. I mean she gets more mature and less starry eyed but her mask is basically the same as her kid self. I don’t have as much to say on that specifically cause compared to the rest she doesn’t change that much

Yeah Understanding said she used to have long hair but cut it since she couldn’t really take care of it. I feel like even before the depression got worse she sucked at taking care of it because she has the self proclaimed attention span of a donut. Her hair is really scruffy and if you tried to comb it would probably hurt a lot. So she doesn’t ever

Her and mc are still the the goofy-goober and straight man dynamic they have in base game. Sayori drags mc into some shenanigans and mc tries to help her get out of trouble. He also has less of an ‘I don’t want to be seen with this cringe’ attitude he has a bit of in the base game since he isn’t as concerned with reputation because he’s like 7, so he’s more open with being directly nice to her. He acts a lot more genuinely with their friendship overall compared present day where he finds it a lot harder to earnestly share his appreciation of Sayori as a cool sigma male

A lot of their banter is light hearted, but Sayori doesn’t start interpreting his teasing for actual criticism of her character until a little later into their relationship. His jokes probably hurt more in hindsight when they do end up drifting apart because his lighthearted jokes stated feeling more real.

It’s sorta implied in side stories that there was a point where everyone found out about her depression and was worried constantly about her. It probably was from an old friend group considering nobody else seems to know about it, but I feel like mc drifted apart before that considering he doesn’t know. I think they became friends again by sides stories, but considering he doesn’t act like he’s as concerned for her well-being as he is by the end of act one, he probably wasn’t there when everyone else found out and therefore doesn’t know about the depression here either. Idk though side stories have different continuity apparently so who knows maybe that never happened or maybe he’s just stupid

Yeah of course she still has depression here. It probably got worse over time though since I feel like her constant silly oblivious persona would have came from somewhere. She is naturally pretty upbeat, it’s just that she had to lie more over time in order to keep that idea going. Now she feels like that old her is basically dead, with her just masquerading as someone who isn’t there anymore.

She’s like the only one here who has a positive opinion of her past self, to the point where she actively wants to go back and be that person. In a way she still is that little kid, but at the same time things can never go back to how they were. Uh yeah but she still hates herself so I guess no one gets to reap the rewards of caring for their past self.

She also trips constantly. I don’t think it’s that surprising

Since Monika has the least specific info on her past I got to be a bit silly about it and make up as much as I wanted.

She is like completely different from her present self. Similar to Natsuki she’s also sorta identityless but in a weird quiet gifted kid sorta way instead of an angry lost child sorta way.

She’s pretty quiet and doesn’t talk much. With a pretty expressionless face and more deadpan voice she kinda gives creepy horror movie child vibes but the type of child that appears before the horror actually starts (which is to say not actually scary but just kinda weird) (I just realized a lot of this is just me projecting what I was like as a kid but with less prep energy)

Yeah she’s extroverted but at this point she doesn’t really seek out people until she starts actively trying to boost her image

She doesn’t really have many hobbies outside of being a teacher pet and if it weren’t for her stellar grades she totally would of been bullied, but she’s nice enough to help people study so she’s safe

She isn’t really the most popular in school until high school. She does start out as the token prodigy gifted kid so everyone expected her to excel in everything so on a whim she’s like ‘ok guess I’m doing everything now’ and it’s totally not going to alter the course of her life forever

She likes the validation and wants to live up to the expectations so she starts leaning super hard into the perfect image. She gradually starts joining clubs, getting cool achievements, studying for those straight A+ grades, talking to people and networking, and overall changing her image from quiet kid to strong confidence friendly student who’s going to go far. Awesome

She kinda had to train herself to not be weird creepy child and would practice smiling, facial expressions, being more sociable, talking less deadpan, etc. She has a lot of “fake it till you make it” vibes in the side stories to the point I don’t think she even realizes she’s doing it. I imagine her going from weird little kid to most popular high schooler around was like wearing the mask until it became the real thing.

Tbh this whole design started because I really like the headcanon design of her bangs covering her eyes. And then I gave her a stripped shirt because it felt generic but also not boring but it ended up making her look like one of the seven human souls lol

Honestly if I could describe her vibe here in one sentence it would be utdr protagonist but like in prep school

ok that’s it idrk how to end this but thanks for watching hit the like and subscribe and

[tempestmothstorm]

Man I love act 2 Natsuki so so much we gotta talk about her more aaugghhhh

I swear it was said somewhere that Natsuki was changed the least because out of all the club members Monika could make her unlikeable simply by proxy of Yuri being messed up too, someone who Monika saw as more competition compared to her. Similar to act 2 Yuri being a slap in the face to her self doubt about secretly being an overly pushy creep, changing Natsuki the least feels like a slap in the face to her whole side stories arc about feeling like an awful person nobody likes. Monika probably knows about all her self doubts too and is still basically like “you’re right :) you are so unlikable that I don’t even have to change you that much to make someone think you’re just as repulsive as a freaky yandere”

Because of this Monika was mostly focused on Yuri this whole time, slowly neglecting Natsuki until the narrative started doing it too. Between Yuri and Monika forcing themselves on the player, Natsuki who is notably less pushy gets instead pushed away and sidelined by them. Considering her whole backstory and arc in the side stories, it’s kinda ironic that the one safe space she has ended up neglecting her needs too.

It’s kinda depressing though man her old friends make her ignore her feelings and put up with their abuse. Her home life is ambiguous most of the time but at best her dad neglects her feelings and needs and by act 2 he’s abusive to the point of life threatening child abuse. And then her last and only safe space changes to become distant and rude, where they dismiss all her wants and concerns while putting down her interests and very existence in the club, all for a boy who just got here. This club was supposed to be a safe space full of welcoming people who would let her be who she is. It was supposed to be the one place she wouldn’t get yelled or sneered at for voicing her opinion. It was supposed to be the place where she could ~write the way into her heart~ or whatever. But now it’s just become another source of abuse in her life

She has to conform to everyone else’s needs instead, and no matter how much she may want to she has no power in her life. She has to watch as every person in her life abuses and neglects her. She never gets to be vice president. She never gets to be in the loop and find out why everyone is acting strange. She never gets to know why the club is tearing itself apart. The world is breaking and she can never learn why, she can only sit by in silence and suffer in the background as everyone else takes hold in the narrative. She tries reaching out but nobody actually respects her enough to let her do anything, and the only thing keeping her from giving up and leaving is the fact that she has nothing else, and maybe this time things will get better. But they don’t. She doesn’t belong anywhere. She has no power here. She can’t change things no matter what she does

Yet despite this she ironically ends up becoming the most normal person ever in the club. The girl with literally zero healthy relationships in her life. The tsundere. Is the voice of reason.

Monika you suck at your job

Everyone around her is going insane. Yuri is becoming obsessive to the point of uncharacteristic aggression, Sayori just doesn’t exist, Monika is ignoring it all and acting like everything’s normal, and mc as the closest thing to normal this club is gonna get is also becoming more and more of a blank slate. She’s alone in this.

And yet despite all of that she still cares about her friends. Even if Monika tries to get her to ignore it, she still cares about Yuri and is worried about her more than anything. Despite Monika’s attempts to dehumanized the club, Natsuki never yields to her control. She’s the one to call everyone out on how weird everything is, cutting through Monika’s facade and realizing that something is wrong. She desperately wants things to be okay again, for Yuri to be okay even after seeing the way she acts, for you to listen to her since you’re the only other person who could do something.

She tries reaching out with her last note, pleading for you to do something. Even if Monika takes that moment away because she still wants to act like nothing is wrong, the player remembers. You remember that Monika tried to get you to leave you club members to suffer, and you remember that Natsuki is still a real human being reacting to these things, not just a set of scripts. And the player recognizes that Natsuki cares, even if they can’t do anything about it.

Despite Monika trying to reinforce her being a bad person, Natsuki’s character ended up shining way more than it would have had it just been act 1. Even through all of Monika’s attempts, Natsuki still makes it apparent that she can be a good person and that she really deeply cares about the people around her, even if it takes a lot to show it. While a stubborn tsundere is hatable, her stubbornness here to just be herself ironically ended up as a strength. The anime trope ended up as a boon. Suck it Monika 😎

Throughout the constant dehumanizations as cliche lines of code, Natsuki retains her humanity until the very end. While Sayori and Yuri’s last moments are them succumbing to Monika’s control, her final moments let her retain her humanity.

By puking in the floor yeah. But with all of Monika’s efforts to get her to act like nothing’s wrong, her having a normal human reaction to a three day old corpse compared to complete nonchalance makes her seem more human than Monika ironically enough. She probably would have wanted Natsuki to ignore it too, but no matter what she did she couldn’t stop her from being herself. Her desire for perfection compared to Natsuki seeing the world how it is a bit of a rebellion to everything Monika stands for, and in the end, Natsuki gets to have the win in some little way.

Natsuki being the least altered is interesting cause on one hand it says some about a person when Ms. Access doesn’t bother hitting you with the asshole beam to make you look like an asshole, but on the other hand she does still try to make Natsuki look bad, and its interesting to think about how that ended up failing. She’s still whole compared to the others who are altered beyond belief, and who she is isn’t all that hatable compared to what Monika wants you to think. Her best qualities still shine through, and despite all she perseveres until the end where Monika can only delete her to get rid of her.

Despite all of Monika’s attempts to twist the club apart, despite everyone else in the club becoming hostile and unfamiliar, despite everyone in her life treating her like she’s worthless, Natsuki is still herself. She’s stubbornly herself until the bitter end. And honestly who she is is pretty great. That’s all. Natsuki cool

[tempestmothstorm]

I’m thinking about the whole "you are not your feelings" theme the side stories have and how that contrasts with the main game

Like the two talks in reflection where Sayori and Monika tell the others about how their emotions don’t have to define who they are and don’t make them bad people. This theme of singular traits not defining who you are/not controlling who you want to be is backed up by the rest of the side stories, which exist to show how the characters are multifaceted and human. They aren’t tropes or defined solely by their thoughts or actions. They aren’t perfect nor pure evil, only people trying their best. They’re real, complex people, and the ‘you are not your feelings’ phrase is proof of that.

The side stories’ goal of presenting these characters as human go directly against a ~certain someone’s~ goal of flattening and dehumanizing them in the main game. Its clear Monika here doesn’t really learn the ‘you are not your feelings’ thing in this world, something that happens with a lot of the lessons learned in the side stories (i.e. the ones in each title). Due to the whole disillusionment with reality thing, her attitude to the rest of the club is pretty dismissive, seeing them as one-dimensional characters tropes, making whatever flaws they have as their defining trait.

I'm going to focus on the CANYOUHEREME.txt though cause it pretty easily sums up her feelings so I'm just gonna put it here

Beneath their manufactured perception - their artificial reality - is a writhing, twisted mess of dread. Loathing. Judgment. Elitism. Self-doubt. All thrashing to escape the feeble hold of their host, seeping through every little crevice they can find. Into their willpower, starving them of all motivation and desire. Into their stomach, forcing them to drown their guilt in comfort food. Or into a newly-opened gash in their skin, hidden only by the sleeves of a cute new shirt. Such a deplorable, tangled mass is already present in every single one of them. That's why I choose not to blame myself for their actions.

All I did was untie the knot.

This poem is interesting because it does make them out to be more human compared to the anime tropes Monika says they are in the act 3 talks, but replaces the empathy found in the side stories with disgust, painting the club as gross, immoral, and everything the girls fear themselves to be. Monika sees the stuff they hide, all the complex feelings and less savory traits, and sees it as their truth, their whole being. Their feelings define them, what they think is their worst is all they've ever been, and that these things make them awful people. When Monika forcibly brings these things to the forefront, it's their fault alone when act out, because their darkest thoughts are all they'll ever be.

She knows they’re more than that, but she’s actively in denial about how much she actually cares, and the epiphany absolutely destroyed her ability to see her friends as actually complex people beyond their programing.

I think that's part of why comparing her to side stories Monika messes me up so much because she's like!! So nice!!! Mature!!!! And understanding!!!!! And she sees her friends faults and all!!!!!! And she loves them anyways and understands their goodness!!!!!!!!!! But main game strips that away from her and makes her cynical!!!!!!!!!!!! And she can't see the goodness in her friends anymore because they aren't real and they're scripts made to appeal to a dumb dating sim and she!!!!!!!!!!! Can't see them as people anymore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So their flaws turn into THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

. . . And that concludes today's Monika analysis.

[tempestmothstorm]

Ok since Monika still has her admin powers in the side stories you think she could just discover them accidentally or use them without realizing

Anyways au where Monika and friends discover her admin powers but dont know about the wider context of what it means. So they just go around thinking Monika has magic and try practicing with a bunch of silly fun shenanigans because they figure it’s some chosen one bloodline stuff and not like. A product of their reality being a constricted digital science experiment.

This au will not end well

[tempestmothstorm]

On this week’s episode of “Wtf Did They Mean By That” we have wtf did they mean by that

Ok idk if it’s just me but this line feels like it’s meant to address the whole Natsuki home life question but it answers it by just. Not????

Cause like this line could both be interpreted as a confirmation and decomfirmation of physical abuse in the side stories because Natsuki just loves being really vague like that with that last line

Cause the line could mean, “of course they wouldn’t hurt me physically, but I’m scared they might retaliate in some other way” and in like any other context it would be the normal assumption.

But knowing what goes on base game and how oddly specific it is to bring up physical harm in the first place for an otherwise normal situation it could also mean, “of course they wouldn’t hurt me physically, but the treatment from my father has made me subconsciously fear the same abuse from others” and I can’t tell if I’m going insane here like are you ok?????

At least Yuri promises to smite her enemies in the next line. Good for her 👍

[tempestmothstorm]

Being aroace and liking a character design that everyone simps for is so funny sometimes. You like that guy because you think they’re hot. I like that guy because I think their character design is appealing and conveys their personality well. We are not the same.

[tempestmothstorm]

Ok but why is Natsuki the only character to get one pair of casual clothes. Like her Sayori and Yuri get their weekend outfits but those two also get another outfit in extra artwork (the overalls and the black dress) and while Monika gets nothing in game her twitter gives her both her white dress and sweater outfits. So everyone gets like an indoor and outdoor outfit but Natsuki apparently owns nothing else and just wears a shirt skirt combo forever. She is the universe’s least favourite child just give her something please

[tempestmothstorm]

Sayori is the sans of ddlc send post

[tempestmothstorm]

Man the entire club is so narrative parallel to each other that when paired together as a duo they parallel the opposite duo. It’s not even just sayonika/natsuri it’s like all of them I need to dissect them and their dynamics they are so interconnected it’s fascinating