#the fake backstories are the only things the v3 cast knows

[review-anon]

Kirumi how’s dancing with Gonta?

Now Gonta...you twirl like this and then you sweep the lady of her feet.

Erm...okay?

*Gonta repeats what Kirumi told him to do and he was very gentle with Kirumi when he was sweeping her off her feet, before putting her down*

Did Gonta do well?

You are learning very fast Gonta. I didn't think you would be a good dancer.

Forest family taught Gonta how to dance. Though their hair spiked.

Was means of getting point across.

I didn't think wolves were known for their dancing capabilities.

Oh that? Gonta lied about wolves.

Gonta is Reptitle. They hair straight when dancing, was means of getting mate.

(That reminds me of a file I saw while in office. Apperantely there is a small population of avian like humanoids that lived within the depths of a forest located in Northern Japan, and there was a instance involving a child. Was Gonta...that child?)

Kirumi, are you alright? You look pale.

Its nothing, I'm fine. I think we should stop and have a break of tea and then we can get back to practise.

Okay!

[funishment-time]

I understand if you need some time to process after that ending, but ... well, I only realize now that your strong understanding of and fondness for the V3 chars despite never playing V3 before now was because of encountering them through DRS! Has playing V3 changed how you view any of them? If so, how?

- goshdangronpa

everyone's going to eat my ass for this one but i like the v3 cast better in Summer Camp when they're Literal SHSLs and a little more connected to a bigger world. i'm sorry! i'm sorry!

BUT

v3 being a microcosm and a vacuum just did not work for me. if you take Moogs' Explanation Of Things as gospel, it feels like you have

a load of characters with no real backstory,

in a world we don't know anything about,

and it ends up Meaning Nothing to me. like, Kodaka. my guy. if you intended Moogs' explanation as The Real Thing That's Going On - not that we know that's the case, but let's pretend - why should i care about these barely-developed OCs that you threw into the Hunger Games Event Generator. they're just symbols you moved around on a board. PNGs in your Toyhou.se. the ending removes both the big and the small implications of any of the killing, because everything is fake, there's no shared history, and we don't even know what the Outside World is like.

"but iris," you might say, "the deaths are still real probably, and death is always sad. murder doubly so."

sure, but like, because we don't know what any of these characters are actually like...i can't feel bad for Kaede dying because Kaede didn't actually die, some chimera did who only existed for like a week. the body that contained her chose to be there and i guess had no family who cared. Shuichi is crying over a shadow on the wall. a bottle of air. they're just ghosts you can project onto, and, so...it's just a lot of emptiness. i dunno.

whereas v3 being a class in the Nice AU, that makes it work a little better for me.

all this to say i stick to the minor things that Summer Camp gives the v3 cast, like:

Kokichi is scaled back to be just an annoying kid, more akin to his JP characterization,

Kork's stopped killing for the time being at HPA so as not to bring suspicion on himself,

Byakuya knows about President Kirumi and is funding her side business,

Tsumugi is pretty much completely normal - there's not a single hint that she's up to something in UTDP/Summer Camp except a short convo with Monokuma you can interpret 1000 ways,

etc etc

to answer your question, then, v3 didn't change my mind on too many of the characters - only showed me what they were all about. and yet much of it felt so Empty to me. because i played Summer Camp first, more to me is said in Summer Camp about a lot of v3 characters than in most of v3.

[dollkichi]

QUESTIONS QUESTIONS AND ANGEL IS HERE FOR ANSWERS!! 💕 Alsoo how could you tell Kokichi was my favorite how did you knooww/silly in all honesty he was my first DR crush he makes me wanna fucking punt him!!!! (romantically) also also, yeah!!! I do YouTube for funises and I have videos on these 4!!! (Hayase has only gotten one because that one drained the life force out of me the pain of being a gachatuber is real....)

Angel originally wanted Roselyn to be the Ultimate Actress cause it fit her past a little more to me (Acting her way through life. Acting so she didn't get targeted next because her family has this wonderful little habit of absolutely slaughtering each other apparently- also Acting so she didn't get hurt for showing anything more than at least blank discontent, Acting to protect herself and her emotions from being flushed out so she wouldn't get eaten alive. The business world is harsh, after all.) and it helped develop her personality and the fact that she didn't really have one, at least she thought. I mean, in one-shot fics I've written, Kokichi was the only person to ever get under her skin where she shows actual personality, while the others usually saw her sweet and proper fake outside persona before chapter 1. Liars know liars I suppose~

But the Pediatrician talent came when my big bro figure suggested it, since Rose and some of her backstory (at least, her side of the bigger story) was based on Mikan (it still is, the actress talent was just a different way she handled it) and my friend said it suited her, and I guess I can see it? Taking care of kids because she wasn't taken care of. But I'm thinking of sticking with Actress since it made me super proud for my first ever DR OC to finally be fully fleshed out!!!

Sukoshi's Talent... she didn't know how she got it either. She was guessing it's cause she was constantly outcasted for one reason (whoring herself out) or another (having a son and being a single mother), or maybe because she was responsible for her family's death. Though she didn't mean to set their house on fire. They were already dead, why wouldn't they believe her? The second fire was her fault. But she didn't have a choice, she had to, lest she died in a house with residents that wouldn't cry nor care if she died.

Nothing was wrong with her. Sure, she talked to herself, but that's because she didn't have friends at school. She tried to make some, but she was either never acknowledged, and even if she did make any, they'd all distance themselves and leave her anyway. She didn't get it. Nothing was wrong with her, so why did they outcast her like this? Maybe she was crazy. That's why everyone hated her. So, she had her mind to keep her company. At least then she wouldn't feel judged with her friends in her head. They feel real, so it isn't harming anyone, right?...

She also pops up post V3 because she wasn't really supposed to be in any game? She was going to be a sort of OC in my head I fleshed out from a dream, but I decided to make a blog for her and here we are! She's thrown into the loop but she fights and kills for her family<3

Ai's whole thing is being stigmatized and stereotyped because she's a demon. Despite all of that, she was raised by a caring mom and and very sweet papa!!! She also made it out of her stepmom's house because Kaede was there she'd probably died otherwise- She wasn't broken down because her mom always taught her to see the best in people, so she tries that motto, sometimes, it gets her hurt, other times.. it actually works. So, she keeps trying no matter now bad it hurts her to do it. </3 Demons, and specifically Succubi aren't and were never treated well, usually either killed to cleanse the world of them, sometimes just ridiculed and judged, and in Ai's case, Used as sexual relief, whether they want it or not, only to either be cast aside or killed to keep their mouths shut. Most humans even HATE Succubi with a passion they'll become priests or demon hunters just to get rid of them, and other times a few judgemental glances, derogatory terms sometimes and whispering is enough to show how much people hate them.

Fun fact!!! All of the Kokichi ships other than Rose wasn't planned to happen at least mostly on my end I just went along and ended up loving them <33

Aaah I ended up rambling-- (｡Ŏ ᗜ Ŏ ̆ ｡) Sorry about that I'm very normal about my DR OCs (III╥_╥⁠)

– 🩷🎮

I AM SO SORRY FOR THE LATE REPLY. I’VE JUST BEEN SO BUSY AND TIRED.

YIPPEE!! THANK YOU FOR THE ANSWERS!!! Also don't worry about rambling, I love reading your asks! They're always such a delight 2 get :3

Oh my god, I used to love watching gachatubers as a kid. I never understood how to use the apps very well myself though. I have a couple friends who still use them and it amazes me what they can do with it!!

CRYING OVER THE REASONS GIVEN FOR BOTH OF ROSELYN’S TALENTS. SOBBING. ESPECIALLY “taking care of kids because she wasn’t taken care of” OH MY GOD THAT’S SO SAD. I’m sure whatever talent you give her will suit her, congrats on fully fleshing her out!! Always fun to finally figure out what you wanna do with your OC

Omg. Poor Sukoshi, the people around her failed her :((

Would totes be her friend. I am hoping she is much happier now post game!! That’s really cool that she came to you in a dream. If she wasn’t supposed to be in any game though, how does she get her talent? Don’t you need to attend the school to be given your ultimate title?

Oh yikes, doesn’t sound like it’s very safe for demons & succubi in your canon. I’m happy for her in the sense that what she went through didn’t break her down and she was able to continue going!! I love characters like that RAHHHH!!! What is Ai and Kaede’s relationship like? Are they close with eachother?

Sometimes unplanned ships are the best!! It’s fun when something isn’t planned between two characters and they end up just having the best chemistry :3

[amazingorangedangantrash]

The only ending everyone seems to ignore is v3 because it’s just... it’s just a mess.

How do feel about this game survivors? And do you think that everyone woke up from the simulator or tv show like sdr2 or only the survivors?

Hoo boy...

Honestly nonny, having only finished the dang thing yesterday I... don't know.

(I kinda went off into a spiel, so feel free to skip to the part where I talk about survivors and what I think happens next)

I understand the mixed response a LOT. I mean- I see what they were going for. The 4th wall break was cool, and the (sorta?) reappearance of past characters was pretty damn awesome. I like that the creators are definitely self aware- and there's a kind of 'learn to laugh at yourself' sort of thing.

On the other hand it can almost seem a little too mocking?

I get the whole yaknow. 'Fictional characters are aware they're fictional and rebel against their creators' thing but- like-?

As I mentioned before, thing is, Tsumugi is not us? We aren't exactly intentionally cruel? There's a BIG difference between the kind of fiction in our world and in their world.

What does Tsumugi call it? "Real fiction"?. Yeah- thing is- we don't have that. We don't have the technology for it, and I certainly hope we wouldn't abandon ethics for it either!!! We can't have 'real' fiction, because in our world, all fiction is fake! The closest you have is fiction about real people, perhaps, but- that's not even remotely the same thing?

So it does come across as a little... um- preachy.

We're supposed to represent the audience but... like- the audience fucking suck! What was that they said during the argument armament? "This guy should have died instead of Kaede!" Like- fucking hell. Imagine saying that to someone, who can HEAR you say it, and who's MURDER you could potentially watch unfold before your very eyes as a result of YOUR actions. I mean- look how empathetic some of us are to ACTUAL fictional characters. Could you imagine if we were in a similar situation to the outside world in V3???

Maybe it's because I keep imagining the v3 cast as like- sentient AI, instead of "just fiction". Because I can't imagine anyone being so sadistic or apathetic otherwise.

So uh- yeah. I don't... know how I feel about that. It's not- very satisfying?

With sdr2, the whole "none of this is real, the killing game is all a lie, you're in a fake world!" felt like a relief ! Whereas here it's more like- "what?? It's all fake? What the hell was the point then?!"

"Nothing matters!" vs "nothing matters..."

The whole HOPE VS DESPAIR, FUTURE VS PAST thing worked, because, well, it's something we can all understand. We have all felt hope and we have all felt despair. We've all, at some point in our lives, felt stuck in the past, unable to or scared to move on.

(Hey- some of us still feel like that now, even).

The first game was very simple- hope and despair. Still relatable, but fairly basic- effective to set up the foundation for the follow up.

The second game made things a little more complicated. Sometimes it's more complicated then just- choosing between Hope and Despair. We refuse to fall into Despair, but we can't just blindly have Hope.

So we choose the Future. We can't promise it'll be a good one OR a bad one. But whatever happens- we need to move on. The only way we can make things change is by making that choice, to create our OWN future.

V3 felt very... complex. It started to get kind of... uh... philosophical? And- don't get me wrong, I don't have a problem with that. It just... it kind of shifted from TRUTH VS LIE to FICTION VS REALITY. And whilst the latter definitely sounds interesting- I don't really know if I liked the direction they took with it-? I wish they'd kept the focus on TRUTH VS LIE a lot more.

(Fiction and Reality are like extensions of Lie and Truth but- only to a certain extent? Really?)

It's kind of harder to get into the final fight in V3 because... what are you fighting? The outside world? I mean- I can't speak for the rest of you, but as far as I'm aware I'm not a fictional character.

(If I am- then wow someone's a reallly bad writer huh?)

I can relate to Hope. I can relate to Future.

I can't relate to Fiction.

I THOUGHT maybe the message was a warning of the dangers of escapism ('please dont go as far as to erase your own personality just to be a part of a type of fiction you like' definitely seems fitting for this fandom)- but the message "fiction has the power to change the world!" kinda contradicts that. I mean- I do like that message, but- I don't like the idea of a series about killing games being heavily influential-!

The whole problem was that people grew so obsessed with the series that they threw away their lives! Is that not the point you should be focusing on-!!!!

The outside world in this universe fucking sucks. So they changed their mind, big DEAL! that's not comforting knowing they let this shit continue for 53 seasons-! I mean, maybe Makoto and Hajime were all 100% fictional, but at some point they started putting real people into these games, and everyone was ok with that!

I just-

I'm glad Shuichi got through to them at last but...

Someone said something which resonated with me- "in a vacuum, this is good". Like... on it's own, I thought the ending was great! It was entertaining, for sure. And the whole concept and stuff was unexpected and interesting. You gotta give em points for originality.

The problem comes with it being the 3rd game in a series. (Ignoring UDG I mean-). When a series becomes a Trilogy, you gotta make it good. This is presumably the last game in the (main) series too. And- after the UTTER NARRATIVE DISAPPOINTMENT of dr3- can you blame people for wanting more? People fell in love for THH and SDR2 (and UDG even if its not part of the main series) for a reason- and, for me at least, a biiiig part of that reason was the continued storyline. The last chapter of sdr2 was the hypest shit EVER. when you see glimpses of the previous game bleed into this one, only for it to turn into what's like- a full crossover???? The previous game isn't just mentioned, it's a straight up sequel!!!! I had absolutely no idea Makoto and co would return (i thought the games were separate) so when i saw that they'd be interacting with the new cast- yoooooooooooooooo-!

Hell, even seeing alter ego again made me go WILD.

V3 plays upon these expectations, and subverts them, but... not necessarily in a good way? You- kind of feel cheated? (Idk if you're an avengers fan, but- it's like expecting *Endgame* and instead getting...

Well- Endgame).

The ending isn't bad persay it's just- not quite what one would expect? I can definitely understand why people are disappointed. The problem is, instead of standing alone, you can't help but consider it as part of the series. Individually, I don't think the ending was that weak or bad, but in comparison to the series as a whole?

Meh.

SURVIVORS

(Oh my- I really got off track, oh dear. I'll- get back to what you asked now.)

KEEBO

W H Y

They rllly gonna rub salt in the wound huh?

(Whilst i dont dislike the other survivors, there are a LOT of people i really really wanted to see make it to the end, and it's just the final god damn nail in the coffin to kill off the last of the few characters I came even close to liking the most-)

Killing keebo was dumb

Maki- I liked Maki quite a bit! She's a bit cold, yeah, but I warmed up to her after hearing her backstory.

I found it annoying (if understandable) that no one trusted her at first. I thought it was sweet that her, Kaito and Shuichi had this friendship trio. They really trusted each other- it was very refreshing. I also love me a strong girl. Her romance thing with Kaito was a little... forced. I'd have found it more meaningful if they kept it more subtle/ambiguous (though i suppose they needed smth to use against her in the final trial sooo-).

Himiko-

I-

*sigh*

Ok I'm going to say this once, and once only.

Someoneonthedrteamhasabigthingforlolis

OK! I SAID IT- AND IM NEVER SAYING IT AGAIN

No judgement here of course. Just. Uh. Y-yeah-

(I'm mainly kidding of course, idek if Himiko counts as a loli but-)

I mean... I'm not... the fondest of very small, childish girl characters (Saionji intensifies). I like a bit of childishness in a character but- i mean- it depends.

(I'll never recover from the "seductive whisper" thing from the love suite event

Never.

Never ever.)

Himiko comes across as like An Actual Child at times and at the start it was VERY annoying. Surprisingly, I warmed up to her eventually. I knew in advance she'd be a survivor so i kinda thought "well she's gonna stick around so might as well try to like her". I do appreciate that she underwent a character arc too, and it was sweet to see how she became a more active, determined person. I wish it hadn't taken Tenko's death for her to finally start changing but whatever. She is quite a cute character and after a while became more endearing then annoying.... (for the most part).

Was she in my top 3 picks for a survivor? No.

The top 10 even?

N-no-

I'm glad she's still alive though. SOMEONE damn well needs to be.

Tsumugi- ah. She's not a survivor, is she? I knew well in advance she was the mastermind so I didn't really warm up to her all that much during the final chapters, for obvious reasons.

Shuichi- if shuichi hadn't survived I think that would have been the breaking point for me, honestly.

Overall- uh... they aren't... the ideal picks. Shuichi is the only one I really wanted to see survive, I was neutral towards the others. Tbh I was just happy anyone was alive by the end of that.

Waking up- for the sake of my sanity, I like to think that after the survivors wake up, they threaten to sue and/or maim the shit out of the dr team if they don't start on reanimating their 'dead' friends right fucking now. Surely they gotta keep their consciousness' somewhere in those memories banks right? I mean- what if they ever wanted a "surprise return from the dead" plotline? Surely they gotta keep em somewhere? Right?

Whether or not they reawaken as their in-game or pre-game selves, who knows. Whichever you prefer, I guess. Maybe a mixture of both.

[usodanee]

Why do you think the History of Hope’s Peak Academy was in Ouma's lab? It's weird how Saihara didn't follow up on this even in the trial

Hey anon, thanks for the question! Let’s dig right in then? Spoilers for V3 below, but since the question is already a spoiler you knew that.

Okay, without keeping this too long, this answer might disappoint you a little since it’s not based on a crazy theory or whatever, but I think it was placed there intentionally, but it didn’t have much to do with Ouma. I’m gonna give you a few theories I think are the most plausible answers. 

First of all, let’s start with Ouma’s lab, which is hidden until the very last chapter. It’s the very last ultimate lab we uncover, minus Amami’s lab, but Amami’s lab would have opened at an earlier point in time if Amami had stayed alive. Ouma’s however was unintentionally uncovered by Kiibo when the entire school was wrecked, and it’s likely to assume that if Kiibo hadn’t started destroying things we would have gotten another treasure from Monokuma to unlock Ouma’s lab as the final area. 

Now as to why Ouma of all people was meant to have their lab revealed after everyone else… there’s no right answer to that. My theory is that it has to do with Ouma’s character and what he was meant to be, as it is very clear that Ouma was always meant to be set up as some kind of villain. With set up I mean, intended by Shirogane and the rest of Danganronpa, which is why Ouma eventually did what he did, as things got more complicated and the group was more and more manipulated by the circumstances presented to them. Ouma, as he acknowledges himself, was going up against forces he had no control over. Nobody was truly able to trust him, and so began to work on his own to stop the mastermind and the killing game, which eventually led to the events of Chapter 4 and 5. However, while I feel like things were intentionally set up to make Ouma a suspicious person (as his personality as a liar was also a set up, and liars are generally hard to trust) what went beyond their planning was that Ouma claimed to be the mastermind in order to stop the real mastermind. It’s a big vague and up to interpretation to what kind of extend personalities and plotlines were set up, but it’s very obvious that Ouma, at some point, went against what Team Danganronpa wanted out of his character, as even the real mastermind, Shirogane, couldn’t see through his trick in Chapter 5. 

So in short, Ouma was meant to be a suspicious person, perhaps even meant to be some sort of fake mastermind, but Shirogane was always meant to be the true mastermind and I do believe that it was also intended for her to reveal the stuff about “everything is fiction” at some point, since it was her main argument to drive everyone into despair in the final trial. What went wrong however was Kiibo blowing the entire place up, since his “inner voice” was cut off, and Ouma and Momota working together to stop the true mastermind in Chapter 5. 

That’s what I assume, so with that in mind I’d like to look at how the game was supposed to go down if none of this would have happened. Let’s say Ouma had survived Chapter 5 because he didn’t try to stop the mastermind, and an entirely different murder took place with an entirely different culprit, motive and victim. Let’s pretend Ouma wasn’t involved in any of these events and Kiibo hadn’t taken damage from Momota’s failed execution.In that case the remaining survivors (now including Ouma) would have likely gotten another item to explore the academy and perhaps found an item to unlock the pathway to Ouma’s lab. 

Let’s say at that point, even if Ouma wasn’t involved in the events of Chapter 5, people were still suspicious of him. And then they found that lab. First of all, it raises questions as to the extend of Ouma’s talent, as obviously the silly wigs and toys and cartoon villain-esque set up would have perhaps given the impression that Ouma wasn’t as evil as he seemed. Perhaps that was meant to be another plottwist? The suspicious guy is actually just a silly little clown boy! But we can’t be sure about it, as even when we discover the lab in the game as it is, it’s not until Saihara checks Ouma’s motive video, we get a 100% confirmation that Ouma’s talent is not what it seems. 

I’m talking a lot, but it boils down to the fact that I think the History of Hope’s Peak Academy was placed in that room at the very beginning, much like Amami’s survivor’s perk video was placed in his lab before the game even started. So let’s talk about Amami for a quick second.

Amami is the survivor of V2 and was allowed to send himself a message he unfortunately never got since he never reached his lab. Monokuma mentions however that since Amami died, his lab has been closed off for everyone so it’s unlikely someone went inside while the game was running. The laptop with the video was placed there with the intention that Amami would eventually watch it, while also letting him know that he himself failed. Amami, before his memories were manipulated at the start of V3, entered another Danganronpa game with the intention to stop Danganronpa. As Amami in the video mentions however, that if he’s able to watch this message, it means he already failed (as the game has been going on already and many people died already) I feel like the video was meant for Amami alone. Giving him the full message and a general idea of who he was and what his intention was before entering the killing game, but placing this message in a place unaccessable until a few killings happened is cruel. It’s like saying “You finally got it, but it’s too late now!” And would have probably gotten to poor Amami. 

Besides, we have to remember what it means for Team Danganronpa, that their survivor from V2 has the intention to stop Danganronpa in general. They wanna keep going with Danganronpa for another 50 seasons and this teenage boy wants to stop them? Of course they’d set it up in a way that the circumstances made it basically impossible for him to succeed. Even if he saw that message, people had already died. Poor Amami man I love that dude. 

Okay, back to Ouma then. So if Amami’s video was placed there intentionally for him to see it if he survives this long, just to let him know his original intention failed, then I can assume that the History of Hope’s Peak Academy was placed intentionally in Ouma’s lab too. Though… I don’t think this book was placed for Ouma in particular, but rather for everyone else besides Ouma. I’m gonna explain.

So, as said, let’s assume Ouma made it through Chapter 5 and his lab opened up normally, however it was intentioned to open up. That means everyone, Ouma, Saihara, and everyone else, has access to it now and can explore it. Unless idk, Ouma was the first one to see it and took the book and hid it somewhere, it’s likely that everyone else got to see it too. Everyone else was already working together at that point too, so if something this suspicious showed up, surely they would have shared it. 

And this is where things get a bit messy because there are multiple possibilities in my opinion.

So all of the flashback lights people got until that point didn’t talk about Hope’s Peak at all. Perhaps for the 53rd game of Danganronpa, they really intentioned the whole weird Gopher Project backstory, but I have my doubts. We see the flashback room in Chapter 6 and get a general idea as to how flashback lights are made. We also get to know that the memories have been made up the entire time, the Gopher Project memories as much as the Hope’s Peak Academy memories. As a quick reminder: They only got the Hope’s Peak Academy memories AS A RESULT of what Ouma did in Chapter 5. Everyone was basically stuck in depression hell because Ouma was revealed to be the “mastermind”, the outside world is dead, etc. The reason they got a new flashback light with Hope’s Peak Academy memories was to motivate the cast and keep going. Basically, because the show must go on. So it makes me wonder if they had gotten that particular flasbhack light without all of these reveals too. Or of they had stuck with the Gopher Project story, as these two clearly don’t mix. We don’t know, but we can assume that Shirogane was desperate for the group to go on after what happened, and that’s why they got the flasbhack light at all. If the contents would have been the same if Ouma hadn’t done what he did? We don’t really know.

We do know however that it’s a possibility either way, as the flashback lights could create basically everything. Whatever kind of memory was convenient at that moment, they could make it. So in the end there’s no real way to tell as to what extend everything was planned and what was improvised because of Ouma’s plan to rebel against the mastermind. As with a lot of things with V3, we just don’t know what’s the truth for sure. 

Another possibility I considered is that there was some sort of way for Shirogane to access Ouma’s lab and put the book there AS A RESPONSE to what happened in Chapter 5. Since you know, it was her flashback light who led everyone to believe Ouma worships Junko Enoshima, and Ouma and Momota both didn’t even know who she was lmao. So if we assume Shirogane only mentioned Hope’s Peak Academy at all out of desperation because everyone was just laying in bed and dying, then perhaps she planted this “evidence” to further present Ouma as a worshipper of Junko Enoshima. 

Lastly, if we put those two ideas together, there’s also the idea that Shirogane planned to mention Hope’s Peak Academy at some point right at the beginning. As I mentioned above, I do believe the whole “Everything is just a story and all of your memories are fake!” was supposed to be the big plottwist in the end. It was always meant to be that way, it’s just that the way that led up to it wasn’t entirely how Shirogane planned. 

So if we assume that, then this was how the game was likely going to be run, according to Shirogane’s plansThe killing game starts, Amami might or might not make it until he can see his own lab and see that he was the survivor of the previous game, everyone keeps getting memories of the Gopher Project, Ouma is set up to be a suspicious person and people start to assume he is the mastermind but he is not, everyone eventually finds Ouma’s lab and the History of Hope’s Peak Academy and perhaps gets a flashback light of it to further “prove” that Ouma is a remnant of despair, the whole Ouma being a remnant of despair being revealed to be a lie by the true mastermind Shirogane and it’s revealed that every memory has been fake and they were part of a show all along.

Something like that. It makes sense in my opinion that the whole plottwist was always meant to be “we’re all in a show” because of Amami’s survivor’s perk and also Kiibo’s entire existence. It also makes them feel very hopeless and powerless but I mean we all know that best boy Saihara didn’t take any of that shit in the end (which also went against Shirogane’s plans, obviously) 

Also, if things really went according to the plan I mentioned above, then Ouma himself would have gotten the flashback light about Hope’s Peak Academy too. We all know that flashback lights are able to change entire personalities, so I do believe Ouma could have ACTUALLY become a remnant of despair if he was hit by that flashback light. And everyone else would have likely believed he’d been a remnant of despair since the beginning, since Ouma was intentionally set up to be at the very least suspicious.

Okay then, long answer short: 

I think it’s possible that the History of Hope’s Peak Academy was placed in Ouma’s lab at the beginning of the game. If that’s the case, I think it was with the possible plottwist in mind that they could make Ouma out to be a remnant of despair, as he himself would have believed so too if he was exposed to a flashback light that made him a Junko worshipper. However we do know the Hope’s Peak Academy memories don’t line up with the Gopher Project story and don’t line up with the History of Hope’s Peak entirely. I think even these “errors” were intended however, to give them a hint to the ACTUAL real plottwist, that ALL memories they’ve been getting were fake. 

So Ouma was meant to be set up as a fake villain, everyone would have been focused on him for a while until it was revealed neither the memories of Hope’s Peak nor the memories of the Gopher Project were real. Shirogane is the real mastermind, not Ouma, and this was all part of a show. 

The other (unlikely imo) possibility is that Shirogane put the book there as a response to Ouma’s actions in Chapter 5 and it was more spontaneously put there than anything else. I believe the other possibility is more likely though. Ouma was meant to be a fake villain, a fake mastermind, and that’s why the memories and the book were placed where they were placed.

I hope this was understandable to some extend lmao this got long and messy but there you all go. 

[thiefking]

Do every single one from the danganronpa ask meme. All of them. Every question

HE HE HE…

obviously spoilers for entire danganronpa series under the cut, along with very specific character hate, a TINY dash of ship “hate” which should not be taken seriously, me being indifferent about characters you might like, and also me being fairly morbid. my opinions are all over the place! boy do i have a lot of them. some of them probably won’t be yours, because people can have opinions. all kinds of em! fascinating stuff. please oh please, let this post not somehow make someone start arguing with me because i didn’t put a thousand asterisks everywhere

1. Favourite game?

sdr2 is the best just like factually speaking

2. Favourite Protagonist?

i tried to answer this and my answers were “komaeda. wait he isn’t-- KIRIGIRI! wait no” so there’s that. i like all of them though

3. Favourite antagonistic character?

i assume this means the Rival characters right... i like komaeda and ouma. in my danganronpa rp server, i had my oc rob and also humiliate and cyberbully togami, and drew a squirtle on his stupid bald head because hagakure asked him to, so there’s that

if antagonistic also covers the characters who are murderers + masterminds/villains, then... ok gonna be real here? there’s only one character i am familiar with who i know i hate and it’s t*ruteru

4. Favourite character?

entire sdr2 cast (except t*ruteru), most of the dr1 cast (hifumi is gross, i don’t honestly care either way about leon or sayaka, and for clarification i like togami as a character but dislike him as a person), most of the v3 cast (i haven’t actually played v3 yet and once i do it’s probably gonna be more like all of them or all of them except one. i do know the general plot and characters, it’s just that i get way more emotionally invested when i actually play the game)

5. Best girl?

don’t you go making me choose...

6. Best boy?

the same as above except the answer is komaeda and we should all hurry up and acknowledge this

7. Favourite class trial from all the games?

i have multiple favourites but because it was the first one i thought of, i’m gonna give kudos to the third trial in sdr2. it was especially interesting because the murderer seemed obvious if you only took in the basic facts, but when you know what kind of person mikan is, it seems completely preposterous that she’d do such a thing-- which makes the solving of it all the more DELICIOUS... oh it was so good i loved it... the whole time i kept searching and searching for any answer other than mikan and coming up with nothing, and knowing that, i knew that it had to be her, but i couldn’t fathom the why and that alone was enough to keep me in doubt for ages... the very end when she starts to break down eliminated my doubt but my questions of “why” only increased tenfold and it made it even MORE delectable i fucking LOVE puzzle’s and mystery’s

8. Least favourite character?

i am physically incapable of summoning empathy for t*ruteru even with his sad backstory. i hope they tossed him in another volcano after the dr3 anime was over

9. Least favourite class trial?

i actually legit keep putting off playing v3 because i know who dies first and it makes me so mad

10. What would be your Ultimate SHSL Title?

HMM... i think i’d be a shsl ??? which i understand isn’t a real title but like... that’s sort of just... how it’d be, considering my personality and the existing characters i kin... later would be the reveal of my actual title, though i’m not too sure what it’d be myself. probably something like shsl detective, shsl writer/storybuilder, shsl puzzle/mystery enthusiast, shsl kinner of mysterious smart autistic bishies with pretty hair and ptsd... something along those lines

11. Favourite cast?

sdr2. next

12. Favourite Danganronpa 3 character?

the teacher, the large gay bodyguard guy, the small gay animator guy, and the chick who komaeda went to for his constipation issues

i don’t remember any of their names

13. What’s your opinion on the Danganronpa 3 anime?

forgettable but the parts with sdr2 kids’ school life is blessed and so is the happy ending

14. What do you think about Danganonpa 1 anime?

i saw it when it first came out and not once since. i will probably not watch it again because i prefer a more hands-on mystery-solving experience, even when i already know the answers

15. Your absolute OTP?

OUMAMI!!!!!!!!!!! IS CANON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

also komahina good

16. Your absolute BROTP?

sdr2 cast is all best friends. some of them are also dating but most importantly, they are all friends

17. Do you have an OT3? Which one?

i probably do but i can’t think of any serious business ones because i’m too busy thinking about a ship that came from rp called “horsepack” that consists of souda/momota/hinata

18. Favourite rare ship?

okay get ready for this: fuyuhiko/chihiro

it came to me in a dream once. fuyuhiko was like yo chihiro check this out and he showed her a box with a bunch of mice in there and she was like :O! and then the two of them just like. took handfuls of mice and hung out like that. it was good. 

the laws of shipping fuyuhiko and chihiro are these: fuyuhiko is a trans boy and bi, chihiro is a trans girl and also bi, and they have to hold handfuls of mice together at some point

19. Who do you think is an underrated character?

i refuse to acknowledge the fandom for long enough to notice which characters are classified as underrated for the most part because i live in my own brain palace where i can love every character and that is all that matters. that being said, i think it is fairly obvious that hoshi from v3 is underrated just... factually speaking? people do not pay attention to him very much it seems but it also seems he is a good little man. i know little about him, but that is the technical definition of underrated, so that is my answer i guess

20. Who do you think is an overrated character?

again i don’t know if he even IS overrated in the fandom but i think leon is kinda boring. i don’t hate him or even dislike him necessarily because i don’t... care enough about his character for that... i could probably be influenced by someone who is passionate about him, but right now he’s just kind of      existing

21. Favourite voice actor?

megumi ogata snatched me bald. megumi ogata didn’t even leave me with my scalp

22. Favourite talent?

shsl luck is a neat concept to play with, shsl adventurer is flat out aesthetically Pristine, shsl detective is fun, and shsl ??? is delicious and interesting even if it’s not a real title

23. Favourite mascot?

my brother got me a monokuma plushie for my birthday and the first thing i did was choke it. also, monokuma is hilarious and i hate his slutty little ass but love to watch it go, which is the same opinion i have about dimple from mp100

also, i’m really sleepy writing this and i don’t know what the fuck i am saying right now

24. Favourite Monokub?

i haven’t played v3 and i already know the answer is none

25. Least favourite mascot?

none probably? maybe?

26. Favourite execution?

okay this question INVITES morbidity so. like. i get to be morbid.

the ones that make me laugh the most are celestia’s and (look i was very sad but i can explain) alter ego’s because ... when i see them i can’t stop thinking about two specific vines. celestia’s execution is funny on its own but when i think about this fucking vine it gets worse and HERE. LOOK. I LOVE ALTER EGO BUT THIS MAKES ME GO HAM

the most brutal and ultimately chilling? leon’s, by far. it was EXTREMELY well done and sets the tone for the game so well

the one i like because the character deserved it? gee i wonder if it might be t*ruteru’s just can’t tell

and then there is only one that fills me with a sort of mysterious, enigmatic emotion-- very strong, but indescribable and neither positive nor negative. junko’s. really, junko in general elicits this emotion from me, she’s very interesting. what an excellent villain

27. Least favourite execution?

gonta didn’t deserve that and he definitely didn’t deserve such a weird-ass fuckin execution either

28. Favourite unused execution?

i don’t know any actually El oh el

29. Which character should survived in your opinion?

rantaro and ouma actually ARE alive and v3 is fake

oh also... all the characters i like. those ones should have lived

30. Which character would’ve deserved to survive?

hey i dunno how this question is different to the last one so i’m just gonna say that actually, you know how in sdr2 everyone is in a virtual reality and they’re shsl despairs being cured? the same is true in v3 and izuru also revives all the v3 kids. this is fact, and kodaka signed the rights to danganronpa over to me

31. Is there a character you think who shouldn’t have survived but did?

t*ruteru

also, realistically? like not because i dislike him. the opposite is true, i like him a lot. just realistically speaking. the fact that souda somehow survived sdr2 without dying seems almost unrealistic, not because anyone would have killed him but because he’s a dumbass

32. Least favourite protagonist?

none

33. Character with the best clothing?

take a wild kinnie guess

34. Best character design?

celestia, sakura, chihiro, sonia, gundham, gonta, touko, korekiyo, kirumi, chiaki, and junko

and once more, take a wild kinnie guess

35. A character who should’ve got more character development?

all of them lol

36. Character who looks amazing but you don’t like?

i mean. junko sucks as a person, does that count even though junko as a Character and villain is immensely interesting to me 

37. Favourite minor character?

komaeda’s pet dog

38. Favourite eyes?

*kinnie answer*

39. Smartest murder plan?

once again, while it’s really obvious the most likely culprit is mikan, the DRASTIC contrast between her personality and the concept of murder ITSELF, let alone the way she went about it, is enough to cause some pretty goddamn severe doubt, though not enough for her to get away with it

actually all the murder plans from mikan’s onwards were really smart and very fun to solve

40. Favourite culprit?

(i count sakura and komaeda as victims, not culprits, and kaede and chiaki are also excluded)

culprit who as a character i just love dearly: gundham

culprit who made things the most interesting: gundham, mikan

culprit who offed a character i didn’t like: celestia

41. Person you’ve never expected to become a culprit but they became? (Doesn’t include Chiaki)

mikan, gundham, and... junko probably counts, eh?

42. Honest opinion on Tsumugi Shirogane?

she’d have a really bad twitter account with a smug anime girl icon and do nothing but post just the worst tweets about the worst anime. she watches sword art online and thinks it’s a masterpiece

43. Describe Monaca Towa in 3 words!

didn’t play drae

44. Describe Nagito Komaeda in 3 words!

kin me id

45. Unpopular opinion?

komaeda doesn’t deserve to be treated the way y’all treat him and i wish you BEASTS would treat him with any decency considering he’s actually a very interesting character but no y’all just gotta treat him like a meme. fingers in his ass isn’t even funny, man... it’s really not... it’s like the epitome of Haha Sans Undertale Cringe Epic XD why don’t you calm down and find a real jokes

46. Unpopular headcanon?

all of my headcanons are popular in my brain palace, so actually i don’t have any unpopular ones

47. A headcanon you have about a character?

i have a lot but i’ll pick just one... uhhhh oh how about this fuyuhiko and nidai are both trans men and fuyuhiko is a lil jealous/Self Conches because nidai passes better than him but nidai is actually extremely supportive of fuyuhiko and validates him every time they see each other and they become buddies

also, nidai runs warriormale

48. Favourite OST?

sdr2 island 5 theme

also enjoy the intro theme, dr1′s execution & hangman’s gambit themes and... like, a LOT of the music in general. excited on the Stonecold Jam front for v3 that’s for sure

49. Favourite mini game?

i assume this means the in-trial minigames....? i actually kinda like logic dive especially because it also happens in ace attorney which is hilarious to me, also the end comic thing? but that one is less about the minigame and more about the ART STYLE they use for it... it’s so nice

50. Favourite game design?

you know the bonus parts where it’s basically just a dating game and nothing bad happens? ign 10/10

51. Character you thought you were gonna dislike but loved in the end?

i can’t really remember, probably ouma just because i saw him and was like “oh god his hardcore stans are gonna be terrible aren’t they” but turns out he’s my little rat baby and his boyfriend is rantaro

52. Character you thought you would like but disliked in the end?

t*ruteru... what a disappointing little wretch...

53. Favourite game end?

sdr2 because everyone lives

54. Least favourite game end?

v3 is fake, refer to my above True Facts about how it’s actually in reality sdr2 again

55. Favourite love hotel scene?

i haven’t played v3

that being said i like how rantaro’s isn’t even remotely sexual or even that romantic at all but if i went into my rantaro headcanons/analyses that’d take way too long, also i’m only halfway through this thing and it has taken forever and i am so very sleepy

56. Best free time events?

basically all the sdr2 ones but ESPECIALLY komaeda fuyuhiko and gundham, i haven’t done the dr1 ones yet..., also rantaro’s

57. Character who should’ve lived longer?

rantaro

58. V3 Pregame! headcanon?

I THOUGHT THIS ONE SAID PREGNANT

59. Favourite moment?

EVERYONE GO AMUSEMENT PARK AND BE HAPPY!!!!!!!!

60. Saddest moment?

danganronpa existing

61. Character who looks like the love child of ???

this one is dumb and i’m starting to rush this because i wanna go to bed and play acnl til i pass out. also rantaro, n harmonia and kirumi are siblings in an alternate universe

62. Describe Mikan Tsumiki in 3 words!

good lovely wonderful

63. Describe Kyoko Kirigiri in 3 words!

good lovely wonderful

64. Which character seemed like they were gonna be a culprit but they wasn’t?

“but they wasn’t”...

fuyuhiko is my answer

65. Who did you never expected to die but they died?

when i saw komaeda’s body discovery my mouth was legitimately agape and i just sat there staring for a few seconds

66. Describe the last trial from V3 in 3 words!

didn’t play yet

67. Which character would you never want to meet in real life?

are you fucking kidding me have you PLAYED danganronpa even amongst the characters i love are ones i literally could not physically or mentally handle being around in real life for extended periods of time. if nidai came up to me screaming about shitting i’d cower like a tiny trembling mouse

68. Which character would you like to meet in real life?

sakura oogami... i can trust her

69. Choose one character which you would take with you on a trip.

sakura oogami again because i get tired easy and she can just like... carry me if my legs get bad

70. Character you would have a sleepover with?

chiaki, chihiro, naegi, sonia, gundham, gonta, twogami. silly but not overwhelming and the perfect crew for some video game fun

71. Character you can relate to?

komaeda rantaro we been knew

72. Character you can relate to but you dislike them?

i’m just gonna start responding to the questions i have no answer to with things i made in blender by mixing animations/textures or just fucking with the models to incredible results

73. Character who deserved better?

this is a funny joke question since the answer is obviously god damn near all of them

74. What do yo think of Hiyoko Saionji?

i like her. little gremlin girls are good

75. Describe Gonta Gokuhara in 3 words!

baby boy. baby

76. Favourite research lab?

77. What do you think of the fandom?

it was hell in 2013 and i know without a doubt it’s still hell now but i have the wisdom to avoid it

78. Favourite random/unnecessary scene?

part in dr3 anime where the sdr2 kids play video games in class together

79. Which character has the cutest design?

chihiro is just a little baby ...

80. Hope or Despair?

hope

81. Could you be the Ultimate Lucky Student?

my boyfriend gets mad at me almost every time i send him a screenshot of one of my 10/10+1 pulls in bandori or sif

82. Favourite chapter?

sdr2. just, sdr2. also final chapters of dr1

83. Least favourite chapter?

84. Which character do you easily forget?

mahiru... also it’s weird like. she was put in the game As a tsundere, but whenever i read her Tsundere lines it genuinely feels out of character for her, even though she’s literally in her source material. it’s strange

85. Could you be a Dangan Protag? Why?

no, because i’m WAY better suited to the mysterious assistant character who actually knows what the hell is going on way ahead of the protag lmao

86. Favourite Anthology chapter?

i don’t know if i should know what this means or not SO

87. Describe Peko Pekoyama in 3 words!

good lovely wonderful

88. Describe Mondo Oowada in 3 words!

domestic bakery au

(just think about it. just a little bread shop that he and ishimaru run as husbands. chihiro helps out there)

89. Least favourite Danganronpa 3 character?

i don’t think i managed to end up liking the guy with white hair despite dr3′s best efforts

90. Do you like Junko?

yes she’s interesting

91. What do you think of Monokuma?

he’s funny and i hate that he is. he sucks, but he’s great

92. Least favourite Monokub?

93. Did you like the Monokubs?

haven’t even played v3 but the answer is no. some freak in a server i was in cemented this dislike

94. Did you like the Warriors of Hope?

i am so fucking tired and it’s been like almost a year since i last played any danganronpa game i don’t know what this means

95. What do you think of Gundham Tanaka?

he’s perfect and looking at him fills me with happiness

96. Who’s an overrated character you dislike?

(i didn’t make this one but i was partly responsible for its existence also looking at it makes my fucking sanity drop like looking at the grunt for too long in amnesia)

97. Overrated ship which is your NOTP?

sai*uma is fake, oumami is canon and also, rantaro would treat ouma right and actually put forth effort to understand him

98. Outfit you dislike?

tenko honey i’m sorry but what on earth is with that skirt... also gonta please put some shoes on

99. Your absolute NOTP?

komaeda/any woman but especially junko what is wrong with people

100. Opinion on all the Protagonists!

[96percentdone]

Do you think v3 should have gone with the gofer project/humanity extinction thing or stayed with the fiction vs reality bit?

Unfortunately, the gofer project bit in its execution is super tied into the fiction versus reality shit they thematically jump to in ch6, so in my ideal v3 game we have neither. Because the fiction commentary was fucking awful and not at all why I play dangan ronpa, and it’s not why I played v3 in particular. Under the cut!

I played v3 for truth versus lies. That’s the theme I wanted, and the one I signed up for. It’s the thematic concept that had me hooked from start to finish, and it was well exemplified in its gameplay and it’s true protagonist (Saihara representing the truth) and it’s shit starter (Ouma being the embodiment of lies), as well as several other choices they made. So you would think in a game ostensibly about that, it would stick to that through all of its chapters, right? 

But they don’t. The gofer project bit could have worked for just being lies and part of the lie theme if they just left it at that. If the ch6 reveal left it at just being a load of shit they fed the cast for whatever reason, it would have worked better. But it doesn’t work, because ch6 recasts it as being part of plotting, and backstory, and also all of them are fake, and it becomes clear that it’s not meant to be a lie, it’s meant to fiction. And fiction and lies are not interchangeable concepts. Do you consider all the books you read lies? Do you consider all the lies you’ve told stories? No. So why does Kodaka think you can just mash them together?

And maybe I’d accept this game actually being about reality vs fiction if it stuck with that instead, but with ch6 and the epilogue alone, they manage to recast v3 into a confusing thematic mess. ch6 reveals it’s all about reality vs fiction, but then the epilogue comes in and messily tries to tie it back into truth versus lies with that whole speech Saihara gives. It’s like Kodaka remembered at the last second what his game was supposed to be about.

And not only that, but you look at chapter 6 and you see how much of it just doesn’t actually make any sense (like the prologue vs ch6 disparities), and you realize that no it’s still about truth versus lies. Now you have to decipher the lies! Except good luck with that because the writing is super messy and you can’t clearly discern fuckin anything because Kodaka was too busy trying to be clever. And it still means this game can’t decide what it wants thematically at the last second. Just because reality vs fiction ends up being some kinda elaborate cover (or lie) for the true theme doesn’t mean it isn’t confusing as all shit.

And for a mystery game, this is really bad. In a mystery, particularly in the DR flavour, you’re supposed to leave understanding what is the truth. Mysteries are about the truth. As a genre it’s inherently skewed towards the truth as that’s it’s purpose, so while thematically exploring truth versus lies in this genre is fascinating in the context of the genre, because it’s a mystery you should leave being able to clearly figure out the truth. But you can’t, because like I said the writing is so confusing and messy that people are still asking for what the real truth is. 

And y’know what I could accept it as a mystery genre subversion, or something like Umineko, if the set up of the series wasn’t literally biased against that. Dangan Ronpa as a series is especially biased towards the truth. You have characters thrown into a life or death situation where they have to find the truth in order to live. Even in this game, where you can lie, it’s a lie told to further finding the truth. Ultimately, even if you lie or cover the truth up, the set up is biased towards making it clear and understandable in the end. So suddenly ending it on this note of “good luck discerning the truth for yourself lmao!” really doesn’t work. 

Maybe they could have done it, if the writing wasn’t super messy. Maybe they could have had the truth be readily apparent after some key reveals, because they did that with Ouma. By the end of ch6′s investigation, you can clearly put together who Ouma was and his goals through all the lies without the game explicitly telling it to you. You can have the truth be clear without it being spelled out explicitly.

That should be doable in ch6, but it’s not. What the fuck is up with Shirogane’s cospox? How about those audition tapes? What the fuck is with Shirogane’s cosplaycat criminal line? Will we ever know? No! Because Kodaka had no interest in answering that. Kodaka was too busy being clever with his not actual meta commentary and his hiding the real theme with the fake fiction vs reality theme he poorly executed that insulted the audience that he didn’t even bother properly writing his actual theme.

So basically this is what I think: I think v3 in order to be the game it was supposed to be, the game we all wanted it to be, it needs to be torn down from the ground up in it’s execution. I don’t think we can keep either the gofer project shit or the fiction versus reality shit, because I think both of them are directly related to each other, and they both made a shit game. So there you go.

[oumakokichi]

So was the world in v3 implied to be messed up or was that just part of the game's script

I plan on writing a much longer piece on my thoughts regarding Tsumugi’s act in Chapter 6, the epilogue (and how it ties in with the prologue), and the outside world, but as far as what I think personally… I definitely think the outside world is messed up, at least to some degree.

First and foremost, I think most of Tsumugi’s speech in Chapter 6 is a deliberate attempt to make the cast fall into despair, rather than “the whole truth.” Considering lies and truths are the central theme of ndrv3, it makes sense that the ringleader would lie, even at the very end.

I think most people were somewhat turned off of the final chapter and the ending because they’re inclined to take most of what Tsumugi says at face value–Junko did, after all, usually tell the truth once she was outed as the mastermind (though she had her white lies in Chapter 6 as well, and ultimately told the survivors that what they believed was up to them). But Tsumugi operates in a very different way than Junko; not only is she entirely different as an antagonist and a ringleader, but her motives are different as well.

What she wanted had little to do with actually inflicting despair or ending the world. Her first and foremost priority was carrying on the show. Anything that would put things back on track and continue the show, all the while making it as entertaining as possible, was good and fine by her.

She wanted to send the other characters spiraling into despair not because she was actually obsessed with making others despair the way Junko was, but because Danganronpa, and particularly the Hope’s Peak arc, centers around having characters nearly fall into despair, only to find their “hope” at the very last moment. It’s pretty obvious that she wanted them to play into those tropes and deliberately told them anything that would break their spirits in order to do so, so that Kiibo could later come in as the “SHSL Hope Robot” and play the Naegi role to her evil ringleader role.

This means that most of what she said was probably a combination of truths and lies, rather than the absolute truth. We know there are some things she said that have to be true, because there’s considerable backing and evidence for them. However, it’s just as clear that she lied about other things, in order to try and make the show more entrtaining for the audience, and in ordr to try and more quickly pressure the rest of the group into falling into despair and carry on the “hope vs. despair” narrative that DR is so well-known for.

The most obvious piece of proof that she lied about the outside world being “peaceful” and “fine” in my opinion is Momota’s illness. In Chapter 6, she takes credit for it, claiming she wrote him to be ill as part of her scripted scenario, then uses that as a springboard to claim that she actually wrote Maki’s romantic feelings for Momota as a deliberate ploy to spice the show up. But there’s pretty solid evidence that she absolutely did not write Momota’s illness, or even know that he was sick in the first place.

In the Chapter 5 post-trial, Momota finally comes clean about the fact that he’s terminally ill, and Saihara guesses that he must have the virus which they found out about from the Hope’s Peak flashback light earlier in the same chapter. This virus supposedly came from the meteorites which crashed into the earth, and wiped out most of humanity within a very short span of time.

Momota, who didn’t use the Hope’s Peak flashback light because he was being trapped in the machinery bay by Ouma at the time, had no clue about the virus, but notes that it’s “very strange” that he’s sick. Even he’s not sure why he’s ill. Most tellingly, he notes that “in his memories of astronaut training,” he doesn’t remember being sick at all. This part is actually so important that it’s noted in yellow in the game, meaning it’s supposed to deliberately serve as a clue.

These memories of astronaut training (memories of his talent, in other words) are the same memories Tsumugi takes credit for writing. They’re part of the “scripted scenarios” for her show, the “character backstories,” in other words. Had she actually, deliberately written Momota to be sick, there’s no way (in my opinion) that she wouldn’t have included memories of his illness among the other memories she implanted using the flashback lights. Momota’s illness is entirely missing from his “scripted backstory”–which means, in my own opinion, that Tsumugi couldn’t possibly have written it.

This leads me to believe that Momota was probably already sick prior to the killing game and just wasn’t showing symptoms at the time. Tsumugi herself seems to have had no idea that he was sick whatsoever in Chapter 5; she freaks out almost as much as Maki, and most of her questions for Momota seem to center around his illness, rather than, you know, pretending to be sad that he’s going to die. Clearly, him being sick wasn’t a part of her scenario, and she was somewhat shaken and alarmed to realize that someone with a very contagious, deadly disease had been living among them the entire time without showing any symptoms until now.

If Momota’s illness was real, then that raises… some very interesting possibilities. Most of those possibilities circle back to what we see in some of the other flashback lights. No other possibilities for his illness are brought up besides the virus–and the virus supposedly came from the meteorites.

The same virus was even foreshadowed by Ouma long before Chapter 5; he comments that “it wouldn’t be strange if the meteorites carried some deadly disease that wiped out humanity,” to which everyone replies that that sounds way too fake, like a twist out of a sci-fi novel. He replies by saying that they deal with things like Exisals and flashback lights on a daily basis, so they’re already basically living sci-fi.

This seems to imply that something very well could have happened to the outside world, though it’s unclear what, specifically. A virus of some kind seems to be pretty certain, but where it actually came from or how many people it killed is up in the air. At any rate, it’s equally obvious that the ndrv3 characters are not the “last survivors of humanity,” so the entire world can’t possibly be in shambles either.

But I do think it’s possible that whatever disaster happened could just as easily have led to a forced assimilation to the “peaceful world” that Tsumugi describes. That’s essentially what Mitarai tried to do with his brainwashing in dr3–and it very much seems like DR as a whole exists to entertain the masses in the ndrv3 universe so that they get their fill of bloodshed and violence from TV, rather than by actually resorting to it in real life.

It’s also worth noting that in the prologue, we catch a few glimpses of what the outside world might be like through a few brief moments of narration from Kaede. Kaede’s cynicism and distrust for others shows through loud and clear. When she talks to Saihara, recalling how she was kidnapped, she mentions how jaded and bitter she felt at how “disgusting” the world was, and wasn’t surprised in the least that no one tried to help her, even though her kidnapping supposedly happened in the middle of broad daylight.

It’s only a small hint, to be sure, but it definitely suggests that the “peace” Tsumugi describes in Chapter 6 is nothing but a thinly crafted façade, reinforced by the media. Which is… well, very Brave New World. Given Kodaka’s love for references and throwbacks, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was intentional, actually.

Anyway, those are just a few of my thoughts. I definitely don’t think the outside world is nearly as okay or peaceful as Tsumugi pretends in Chapter 6, and Momota’s illness is the clearest evidence that something was going on. She couldn’t possibly have written him to be sick as part of a scenario when she herself had no idea that he was ill in the first place. But I don’t think the world is a complete, smoking pile of ash, either, since there are obviously still other people around. As usual with ndrv3, I think the answer probably lies… somewhere in the middle.

Anyway, thank you for asking, anon! This is one of those questions that’s always really fun to discuss, so I hope I could help!

[junkobears]

1,16,22!

Bless your soul for giving me more ask meme questions to ramble over! I’ve already answered #1 in a previous ask, so just #16 and #22 here! Ho boy there be V3 spoilers here for sure.

16. If you could change anything in the show, what would you change?

Do I even gotta say it at this point anymore? V3′s Protagonist Switch would be reversed immediately, that is absolutely what I would pick no matter the scenario, if I was rewriting the series, if I could only make one change, etc. It’s just so garbage and basically sets up every other issue I have with V3 and its writing in general. 

I know people will argue that it’s important to have the switch to represent the truth/lie theme of the game, but honestly? I think it could work even if we never switched POVs. You already have Akamatsu acting as an unreliable narrator with her death trap set-up being hidden from the player until the trial reveals, and if Saihara gets executed in her place (the evidence implicates him too much for Akamatsu to properly refute, he takes the fall, w/e) then you already have Monokuma’s false verdict in play right from the get-go. Then the central mystery of the game would be WHY Monokuma would go along with the lie, alongside Akamatsu as MC being defined more by her failures as a leader getting people killed instead of generic “YA GOTTA BELIEVE IN YOURSELF” shit. Etc it ties in with the overarching theme just fine nerds.

Although I think it could also work with Saihara as the initial POV too, but it’d be much more difficult to pull off the narrator trick obviously. But, like I’ve said before, he could’ve been used in the promo material as the perfect sequel protagonist, being the shy timid bland dude unsure of his skills + being a detective directly this time, which directly links him to the DR formula + truth/lie theme. Then surely having him killed off and replaced by Designated Love Interest Character as THE protagonist would be much more a shocking swerve??? God I fucking hate the actual canon twist the more I think about how it could’ve been really unique and subversive if done in any other possible way than the shit we actually got.

Current endless salty rambling aside, other major changes I’d make to this series: Yukizome as DR3 Future Arc’s mastermind, Junko would not get the DR2 kids to join her despair cult via a random brainwashing anime she stole from a nerd dude who’d never been mentioned before, Matsuda (and DR0 in general) would have never existed, the DR2 dead kids would stay comatose forever, AND Saionji would replace Souda as DR2 survivor.

22. Popular character you hate?

Haha, oh hun, ya sure I gotta answer this one?. The top three culprits are Saihara, Komaeda and Naegi, who all basically personify everything I hate about both the DR series and fandom culture in general. I guess those are the low-hanging fruit options though.

So how about I pick some characters from all the major installments that I don’t DISLIKE, but find very… average/boring and overrated compared to the fandom love for them instead? Much more interesting an answer IMO. They’d be Fujisaki, Imposter, Nagisa, Great Gozu/Bandai, and Gonta, respectively.

Fujisaki: Gender discourse has ruined him forever, from BOTH sides of the debate being awful in every way possible. Beyond that I find him to be kinda bland in general compared to the DR1 cast, I don’t think he actually has any real NEGATIVE flaws? I mean I guess he has issues with gender roles but other than that… there’s not much else to the character. I feel the game and fandom both portray him as too angelic and innocent in the overarching narrative, I guess?

Imposter:  Okay I don’t dislike this character at all and in a story that actually used them for more than a cheap fake-out I might actually find their character dilemma interesting, but I REALLY, REALLY do not understand the fandom love for the Imposter. I mean, I found it super lame to bring back a survivor character from DR1, kill them off first and then just reveal it as some random dude who was impersonating him for no reason beyond “We had to shock the players without actually killing off a fan fave (at the time)!”. That’s such a shitty move, writing-wise, and I’d have found it LEAGUES more interesting if it had actually been Togami who died, who’d entered the program willingly as another Observer to guide the DR2 kids to rehabilitation.

Togami’s brand of ‘noblesse oblige’ leadership in DR2 was a pretty logical/fascinating progression from his character growth in DR1, IMO. I find the whole thing super disappointing as a whole, but the fandom apparently loves this character and I have seen numerous posts saying that the Imposter’s character is one of the objectively better written parts of DR2/DR3. What the fuck? If someone wants to explain this opinion to me, I’m all ears.

Nagisa: Like the above two, another character I don’t dislike and there are things about him that I appreciate/like, but he seems to be the majority’s favourite Warrior of Hope and I just don’t really get it personally? I found his form of child abuse to be the least realistic, if I’m honest. The whole “my parents treated me as a customizable RPG character who must be a perfect lab rat at all times” thing. I just find the other four kids’ backstories and characters much more interesting/realistic I guess. Also I can’t lie that brand of anime hair looks so ridiculous IMO… it’s way OTT haha.

Great Gozu/Bandai: They both were dead by the end of Episode 3, did jack shit and had no real character depths, but they seem to be ranked favourably by a lot of fans. Why? Is it really just the beloved Good™ People and Kind-hearted Bara tropes in effect? Was it because everyone else in Future Arc actually had flaws and some of them were pretty awful people (aka actually interesting as characters) so you gotta stan for the pure wholesome characters instead? I just will never get this fandom trend personally.

Gonta: He’s the one character in V3 who I find to just be… there… Even Shinguji kinda interests me more as a character, and Saihara at least makes me actually angry. Gonta just bores me. Frankly the level of gullibility just started to annoy me by the time he died. He really just seemed to exist to be used to further Ouma’s character IMO. Maybe it’s just me? I’m clearly not into the Beloved Bara dudes in this series that everyone else seems to adore, haha. Also the caveman speak in the English localization is SO ANNOYING… RIP Gonta I’ll never grow to care much for you.

[oumakokichi]

Do you believe the V3 mastermind was a victim or they are really evil all along?Implying mastermind was brainwashed, I curious if anyone accept them as innocent despite their action.

The thing is, there aren’tany implications that the ringleader was brainwashed. Whether the ringleaderseized control of the game forcibly in order to make a “copycat rendition” ofsomeone else’s killing game, or whether they went up to Team Danganronpa andasked to be made into the ringleader specifically, the implications are stillthat the ringleader was a very deliberate and knowing antagonist who didabsolutely everything willingly, and had funwith it (which is why they’re such a fun character, if you ask me).

I’ll be discussing spoilers for the whole game under thecut, including the ringleader’s identity, so only read if you’re comfortablewith that!

There’s no reason to assume that Tsumugi was brainwashedinto anything she did in ndrv3. The word “brainwashing” certainly comes up afew times in-game, particularly in Chapter 2, but never for anything that hasto do with her. Angie’s art talent is implied to work very similarly to Mitarai’s,and it’s heavily, heavily impliedthat she brainwashes people both on her island and the Religious StudentCouncil into doing what she wants, but that’s about it. And even then, Angie’sbrainwashing is never brought up on as much of a plot-relevant level as Mitarai’s,nor does it seem like it’s infallible, considering Saihara keeps refusing tofall for her gaslighting in her FTEs and prison mode.

But as for Tsumugi, the term never applies to her. There’sno implication of brainwashing or mind control or anything of the sort in herFTEs or her prison mode events; if anything, she’s very obviously pulling thestrings and knows much more about things that are going on with the othercharacters, with Saishuu Academy, and with the killing game. If she wereactually brainwashed or just another poor victim in the midst of the group,that would need to be foreshadowed and clues would need to be presented—consideringthey’re not, I’d say it’s pretty safe to say she does everything of her ownaccord. Tsumugi is a master manipulator, not really one to be manipulatedherself.

I think people still have a mistaken impression that the rememberlights are brainwashing tools the same way that Junko’s and Mitarai’sbrainwashing videos in dr3 were. But that’s not the case. Everything we knowabout the remember lights proves that they work much, much weaker than any ofMitarai’s brainwashing videos.

Tsumugi herself says that once you know how they work, i.e. by implanting false memories into your mind andtriggering a reaction somewhat like déjà vu, that pretty much negates theireffectiveness. Ouma himself is living proof of this; he obviously doubts theremember lights’ credibility right from the start, and as such, is the onlycharacter early on who doesn’t believe that their memories or backstories arereal. Just by doubting that the remember lights are telling the truth, you canmake yourself immune to their effects. Knowing for a fact that the memories on them are fake means never believing asingle thing they implant into your mind.

As the ringleader, Tsumugi was the one responsible forcreating the remember lights used on the other characters. We know very littleabout how the killing game show works, but we do know at least a few of Tsumugi’sprivileges as the ringleader. The first is that she had access to the secretroom in the library, along with the Mother Monokuma which informed her of allthe goings-on in the school and allowed her to directly control Monokuma. Thesecond is that she could use the remember light setup in one of the classroomsto make new remember lights in plain sight, since even if someone walked in onher using it, it was programmed to close up and hide itself the moment someoneelse’s footsteps approached.

Since Tsumugi was the one programming those remember lights,selecting the memories to input into everyone else’s minds, we know then for afact that she definitely knew how those remember lights worked. There’s no wayto assume she could’ve been unknowingly brainwashed into being the ringleaderor set up to take the fall for someone else while also knowing how to use theremember lights herself. It just wouldn’t add up—therefore, we have to assumeshe was doing everything willingly.

I’ve mentioned it before in a few other pieces of meta, butone of the things I like the most about ndrv3 is how much of an element ofchoice and free will there is among the cast and their decisions. Certainly,the remember lights and their implanted backstories can make certain charactersmore likely to do something or to behave in a certain way. It can influencetheir mindsets, particularly when they don’t know how those remember lightswork, and it can really influence their motivations. But there’s always an element of choice.

Any of the characters had the potential at any point in timeto start acting differently from how they were “scripted” to act on the show.Saihara is perhaps the best proof of this: despite being picked by Tsumugi tobe a detective who was “weaker than anyone,” he changes arguably the most outof the entire cast, putting aside his hat as a symbol of his insecurities andfear of exposing the truth by as early as Chapter 2. Every single time Saiharabecame stronger and more capable of handling the truth he was so afraid of,every single time Himiko began facing her emotions head-on and tackling thingsenergetically instead of using her laziness as an excuse, we’re given proofthat the characters can change at any point in time, as long as they reallywant to.

To assume that Tsumugi was “brainwashed” into being theringleader or was “actually innocent all along” is to deny a huge part of hercharacter, and that takes all the fun right out. Who wants a ringleader or amastermind figure that was only actually doing it because they were justanother pawn in someone else’s schemes? Tsumugi is so incredibly fun andinteresting as an antagonist because she definitelythrives on pulling strings and manipulating scenarios from behind the scenes—sheloves to plant little seeds of doubt, sit back, and observe her handiwork, andyou can really tell on a reread.

Trying to delegate her to the role of “brainwashed victim” alsopretty much ignores all the reasons why it’s heavily implied Tsumugi throwsherself into “the world of Danganronpa” and fiction in general so much. Tsumugiisn’t someone manipulated or forced into the bad guy role. Rather, she’ssomeone who asked for it, whether bydirectly asking Team DR to let her be the ringleader on the show or by puttingon a copycat show of her own as the epilogue implies.

She’s a cautionary tale of the dangers of immersing oneselfin fiction too much. Ndrv3’s ending provides much-needed commentary on the waysin which fiction can and does influence the world around us. Tsumugi has thrownherself so far into fiction that she no longer wants to even interact withreality and willingly chooses to view the people around her as little more thanexpendable fictional characters. She, and the people like her (of which thereare implied to be many in the ndrv3 killing game audience), claim thateverything’s okay “because it’s justfiction.” Fiction is “just a lie,” therefore it “can’t influence reality anyway.”

These words are a reflection of her mindset, and provide uswith a little bit of a closer look at how desensitized society must be in ndrv3in order for this killing game to have thrived for 53 seasons. If Tsumugi is avictim of anything, perhaps she’s a victim of the state of society in ndrv3,which is heavily implied to be bleak and boring and horrible enough that thepressure makes people want to live inside “the world of Danganronpa.” But eventhen, that’s by her own choice.

Characters like Saihara are implied to have been just asdesperate to escape from reality, judging by his audition video, and yet he changedhis outlook and his behavior drastically by choice. So we can assume thatTsumugi remains on the outskirts of things, manipulative and uncaring ofeveryone around her while viewing them all as “fiction” because… she wants to.Because she honestly values the entertainment of the killing game more than thelives of the people she’s with—after all, those lives are completely disposable.As she and Monokuma point out several times in the game, there are plenty of people who would step up totake the characters’ places on the show, who would love to be willing substitutes if it meant getting to be a part ofDR.

Tsumugi is fun as a character because her mindset is soabsolutely cold and removed from everyone and everything around her. The factthat she can’t entirely view them all as fictional characters despite wantingto drives her up the wall in Chapter 6, which is why she becomes so desperateto try and crush their spirits and make themaccept the fact that that they’re “nothing more than fictional characters.”

Since we’re never given any indication at all, not in themain story or Tsumugi’s FTEs or bonus mode content, to think that she wasactually just brainwashed into taking the fall for everything, I would say it’shighly unlikely. And if it did turn out to be the case, I would be incrediblydisappointed, since it would take away everything that makes her so enjoyableas an antagonist. Even in the epilogue, Saihara speculates about how muchTsumugi said was the truth and how much was a lie—but he never once speculates thatshe might’ve been a victim just like the rest of them.

I think people’s refusal to acknowledge Tsumugi as her ownantagonist, and a very different kind of antagonist from Junko at that, islargely because people don’t know what to make of her or the unansweredquestions that she left. But people fail to realize that even dr1 hardlyaddressed all the questions or mysteries by the end of the game. The state ofthe outside world and how much of what Junko said was true or not was left in acatbox at the end of dr1 in very much the same way that Tsumugi’s mysteries areleft in the catbox by the end of ndrv3.

It wasn’t until dr0 and sdr2 that Kodaka decided to providemore explanations about Junko’s motivations, her talent and backstory, and whatexactly happened to the dr1 survivors after opening that door. So in the sameway, I think future side materials will shed a lot more light on Tsumugi—after Kodaka’shad his fun teasing players along for a while, at least.

Anyway, this is my take on it! There’s a lot of room for speculationwith Tsumugi and whether she was lying about certain claims or not, but it’s atleast pretty clear from all the evidence in-game that she wasn’t brainwashed,at least. And that’s something I’m grateful for, really. I’ve had more thanenough of brainwashing subplots thanks to dr3. Thanks for asking, anon!