#would it make SENSE? to have another protag for side order considering the cast of characters included? (👁️_👁️)

[pcktknife]

'why not a new protag for side order' im blowing you up with my mind

[unculturedmamoswine]

I just finished rereading Tortall and Other Lands, and made a totally subjective ranking of the stories. I posted it on reddit but I figured, what the hell, may was well post here too. If i could put it under a cut I would but sadly I am on mobile.

11) Time of Proving

It's good and all; I especially like the concept that the protag, Arimu, has to live alone and map new lands for a year to show her value to her people in order to lead them. But I think I like that bit of worldbuilding more than the actual plot. Though I do think it's pretty cute that Arimu comes up with excuses to keep helping Sunflower. An enjoyable story that's just eclipsed by the greatness of much of the rest of the book.

10) Plain Magic

I like this story. I like the thread magic especially. However, I don't think it really shows us anything new from Tammy if that makes sense. The thread magic, the ignorant folks doing stupid things, the cool stranger whisking away a gifted protagonist to a new life, it's all familiar ground for Tammy fans.

9) Lost

It's hard to put this story so low on the list. It has a lot of qualities to love, but much like Plain Magic it seems like it does mostly what we've seen from other Tammy content. Adria is a girl good at math, which isn't that valuable a thing in her society. But people around her recognize that and take her away to a better place for her, Tortall of course. And we get the darkings, which, cute as they are, seem kinda.. OP. They were OP in Aly's books, too. Ah well, despite my complaints it's still really cool and a fun story. And I love the way it shows the effects of years of abuse and how it makes you feel small. The way Adria's father uses fear to control her whole family, and the way Adria gets away from him by showing her courage, those are important things. I feel sure someone out there was helped by this story, you know?

8) Elder Brother

When I did my ranking, I was baffled that this story was so far down. I really like this story. That's the trouble with ranking stuff you really like, I guess. Fadala is a cool character, Qiom is an even cooler one, and I love reading about Qiom struggling to live his new, more confusing life. Reading about him weeping over his last apples is somehow really sad? And it's very cool to read about a totally different part of the world in the Tortall universe.

7) Huntress

It's very cool to read a modern-day story by Tammy! I love the merging of modern times and the fantasy elements of our usual Tammy stories. It's interesting to see how Corey (I don't think we learn her first name?) isn't devout, and arguably isn't even a believer, but the Goddess still comes to her aid anyway. I suppose it's out of respect for her family. I love the touch of the Goddess wearing modern day running gear. But my favorite thing has gotta be the total utter batshit crazy Pride. What completely insane villains. It's very Tammy to cast the murdering freaks as a bunch of privileged rich douchebags who think they can do whatever they want if they prey on the vulnerable and those that society has deemed as valueless. Golly, does that remind you of anything? It's nice that this story takes a fairly strong 'murder is bad' stance, when even in real life plenty of people are ok with rapists and drug dealers getting murdered. And I like that Tammy shows, through the Lions' threats to rape Corey, that they clearly aren't killing 'bad' people in order to be good guys, but just so they can get away with it easier. Though you could argue that the Goddess killing all the kids somewhat undercuts the 'no murder' message...

6) Testing

Admittedly I probably wouldn't like this one as much as I do if it weren't for the context of it being a semi-autobiographical account of Tammy around the time she rewrote Alanna's books as books for teens. That being said, it's a sweet story that looks at how vulnerable kids can come to trust an adult in lives that have been tumultuous and hard. It's honestly such a feel-good yet realistic tale.

5) Student of Ostriches

I think this one appeals to the kid in me. I was always so enchanted by African animals as a kid and that never really went away. Kylaia teaching herself to fight and run using the animals of her home as inspiration is just unbearably cool to me haha. Though it is much the same as I've said about Plain Magic and Lost in that it's well-trod ground for Tammy, Student of Ostriches really works for me. And it's always nice to have a peek into parts of the Tortall-verse we don't often see.

4) Mimic

I think Mimic sticks in my head more than any other story in Tortall and Other Lands. Ri, Mimic, Grandpa, even the dogs and the crow are all great characters. The beautiful setting, with the great plain and the storms, the dragons, the compact between the village and birds, it's all so memorable. I love that it's about choosing to grow up, and how you can't go back but it's worthwhile and necessary.

3) The Dragon's Tale

Call me basic, but I love dragons! It's so nice to see a story about Kitten, so great to see things from her point of view. Not being able to speak for sixteen years sounds like a freaking nightmare, but she handles it pretty well, I'd say. I like that she clearly thinks of Daine and Numair as her parents, and she adores her bestie Spots, it's just so cute! They really love each other, and I will always be a sucker for stories about people who love each other. But it's not just cute, there's some great meat here in the form of new characters like Afra, Uday, and Kawit and, best of all for me, worldbuilding! I really like when we see glimpses of the Tortall universe that we could never have imagined, as with Beka's unusual wild-adjacent magic. Here we get to see Kawit and learn that she's another example of an immortal that humans overlooked when locking them away four hundred years ago (and we get to see more of Tammy's love of opals lol). I like the subtle implication that opal dragons may be almost a link between classic dragons and basilisks, what with the beaded skin and long long tails. We learn more about Kawit's unusual magic. We get an explicit confirmation of the fact that multiple colors of Gift= more powerful Gift. This whole story is just crammed full of fascinating Tortall content with a soft, gooey center.

2) Nawat

This story is heavy, which is why I like it. I enjoy it when non-human characters are actually characterized as being fundamentally different from humans. It's challenging for the reader and the author to connect with a guy who is considering killing his kid, but I think Tammy succeeds here. It's hard to watch Nawat struggle with the different parts of his life coming together, and sad to see him feeling like his heritage is slipping away. It's nice to see that he really will be able to teach his kids about their own crow heritage when Ochobai grows her first quill. It's also fun to see Aly through his eyes.

1) The Hidden Girl

This story is so good that it makes Elder Brother better just by existing. It's really cool to have Fadala and Teky exploring different attitudes with regard to their culture. While Fadala has an almost Alanna-esque rejection of what her society sees as feminine, we also get to see Teky appreciate what powers women in her society are afforded, and also see her work to change some of the things she sees as wrong. While Fadala isn't willing to play by her people's rules and elects to leave them behind, Teky wants something better for everyone in her homeland. Neither of these attitudes is wrong, they're just different reactions to institutionalized inequality. Like Elder Brother, The Hidden Girl shows us new and fascinating Tortall content in the form of the more monotheistic culture on the far side of the world, which is very cool. We've never really seen an oracle before, and it's a cool new 'badass girl' archetype to add to the Tortall roster. It's all just wonderful, knowing women are changing things all over the world in this verse.

[princeasimdiya12]

That anon is an asshole. Why do you hate Shuichi? I think he fits the theme of truth and lies, but his character development is a complete joke as he has zero struggles after his waifu dead. He never once second guess his actions in class trials and doesn’t even think of major consequences (killing the de facto prime minister and not noticing a serial killer is amoung them). His stans over analyze his actions and try to justify everything he does.

They were quite a jerkhole. I can imagine that most stans would be protective of their favorite characters if anyone were to express disapproval.

And thank you for giving me the opportunity to express my personal feelings on the matter anon. And those are some interesting reasons to dislike him but I have some other reasons.

My answers will be hidden under the “Read More” because they’re long answers. But these are my thoughts and reasons for why I hate Shuichi Saihara.

Reason 1: The Protagonist Switch was Lackluster

Right off the bat, I personally dislike that we were promised a unique and compelling protagonist like Kaede only to switch her with a generic insecure protagonist like Saihara. The use of the protag switch isn’t a bad plot twist and it can be clever, it’s just that the result of switching Kaede for someone like Saihara left a bad taste in my mouth.

I loved Kaede because she was unique as a DR protagonist. Along with having a colorful design and talent, she was assertive, confident and willing to take charge. She was actively involved in the story by stepping up as the group’s de facto leader and trying to motivate them. She was also flawed in the sense that she was quick to butt heads with others and she didn’t completely trust others or practice her own beliefs of trusting in friends. And personally, I’m not even upset that she tried to kill someone. It’s still considered something different for a DR protagonist to do, especially if it was for the greater good. 

But when we get Saihara, he continues the trend of being a generic sad boy who feels insecure about his talents and wants to be stronger. Most of his screentime is spent moping about his problems and how he doesn’t feel good enough. He doesn’t have the same presence as Kaede and just stays in the background while the rest of the cast move the story as much as they can.

In all honesty, if they had introduced Saihara as the new protagonist, or at least make it so that his predecessor wasn’t as compelling as Kaede, then I wouldn’t have been too upset. At the very least I wouldn’t have gotten my hopes up for a protagonist who was actually different compared to the past protags.

Reason 2: Waifus In Refrigerators 

For those that don’t know, fridging is the concept of (brutally) killing off a fictional female character in order to create an emotional impact for her male love interest and his character development.

Kaede’s death and how it impacted Saihara is textbook fridging.

I strongly detest fridging since it robs a female character of her agency and role in the story. It treats her as a tool meant to motivate her male love interest to either avenge her death or grow as a person. Kaede’s death along with her final wish is what pushes Saihara to try and beat the killing game. And from then on, Saihara will take the moment to reflect on Kaede’s tragic end and how he inspired him with her kindness. Kaede loses her identity as a complex leader who was willing to commit murder for a greater good. Everyone just remembers her as Saihara’s innocent dead love interest who inspired him to keep on fighting. It’s also worse in the 6th case when it’s revealed that Tsumugi took advantage of Kaede’s trap to kill Amami which further pushes Kaede into the image of an innocent angel that did no wrong.

And it’s also frustrating since this isn’t the only time that the Danganronpa series has killed off its female characters in order to develop their male love interests.

In SDR2, Peko dies trying to save Fuyuhiko which in turn motivates him to stop acting like a jerkhole and be more cooperative with the group.

In DR3 Future Side, Chisa is the first victim of the killing game which pushes her boyfriend Munakata to become a more direct antagonist towards Naegi for protecting the Remnants.

In the same series, Kyoko allows herself to be poisoned in order to protect Naegi. It’s through her death that Naegi decides to confront Munakata in a final showdown. And while Kyoko does get brought back to life at the end of the show, it should be noted that she was only brought back just to be part of Naegi’s happy ending package. She loses her agency and is brought back just to be his newly revived girlfriend.

In DR3 Despair Side, Chiaki is brutally killed in order for her classmates to become Remnants of Despair. But it’s her final heartwrenching moments with Izuru that inspire emotion inside of him aswell as deciding to turn against Junko.

So Kaede being killed for Saihara’s development is the fifth fridging example in this series and it sucks that Kodaka and his crew rely on this trope throughout Danganronpa.

Reason 3: The Narrative Forces You To Like Him

Another issue that I found irritating about Saihara is how everyone began praising him.

Just after the first case, everyone constantly praises and coddles Saihara for being such a great detective and for growing so much. For me, that praise feels undeserving since he barely did anything to earn it. Thinking back to each of the past protagonists, they didn’t have everyone’s respect in the beginning. They each had to work had and face adversity throughout their stories in order to earn their praise and respect. Even Kaede, who despite being a confident leader, had to deal with people frequently judging her leadership and actions. So I find it questionable that Saihara already earned everyone’s respect after solving only one case. 

By having all the characters praise Saihara, the narrative pushes you to accept him as the new protagonist and recognize how awesome it is to have him. But for me, it just makes me dislike him even more. I refuse to like something just because everyone else does and it won’t take away my admiration/love for Kaede.

It’s also jarring since anytime a character has the spotlight, it somehow has to involve Saihara.

“Wow Himiko! You’re much more expressive now than before. Just like you Saihara!”

“Man, it sounds like you had a harsh life growing up Harumaki. Just like you and your detective work, eh Shuichi?”

The narrative can’t help but force Saihara to be around and praised by the people around him despite the spotlight not being on him in that given moment. 

Reason 4: He’s Not a Good Detective

While Saihara’s role as a detective may fit the theme of Truth and Lies, that doesn’t mean he was good at the job. My issue being that he was unproductive and biased for the role.

While he did set up that trap in Chapter 1 to catch the mastermind, he doesn’t do anything as proactive in the later chapters. He spent most if not all of his time going to training with Kaito and moping about his problems. It goes on like this for 4 chapters and it takes Kiibo threatening to blow up the school before he actually gets to work on solving the mystery of the killing game. As a detective, you’d think he would put more effort into actually solving the mysteries of the killing game or try to put some thought on who the mastermind could be.

The biased part comes with how he interacts with others and how he’s more critical of people based on how they treat him. Saihar has a tendency to be very judgmental towards the students and doesn’t look at the entire picture. 

He writes off Ouma as the embodiment of lies and doesn’t bother trying to learn more about him or his true motivations. 

And on the opposite side, he openly praises his friends while blatantly ignoring the problematic things they’d done throughout the story. 

He considers Kaede to be an inspirational role model despite how she betrayed him and wanted to commit murder behind his back.

He worships Kaito and treats him as a perfect hero despite never noticing his ongoing illness or the fact that Kaito didn’t trust his friends enough to reveal his own insecurities.

He deems Maki a reliable friend despite the fact that she went behind his and everyone’s back in order to kill Ouma and was willing to gamble everyone else’s lives if it meant taking revenge on the supreme leader.

Shouldn’t a detective be more persistent when presented with a mystery while also acknowledging all the sides (both good and bad) of a given person? If his personal bias was treated as a flaw by the narrative, then that would actually give his character significant depth. Especially if he worked on managing his biases and learning to acknowledge all the sides. But it isn’t treated as a bad problem.

For me, the fact that he’s supposed to be a detective who “grows stronger” and is so good at his job despite all of this really rubs me the wrong way. If anything, it shows me that he’s really bad at the job.

Also, I would like to bring up that I don’t count him investigating the murder cases as being a good detective. Why? Because Hajime and his class in SDR2 were able to solve their class trials without a detective figure. Being a detective, or having one, doesn’t make solving the class trials any easier.

Reason 5: An Unnecessary Cliche

Personally, I really see no reason for why Saihara’s character needed to be the generic insecure protagonist for this particular installment of Danganronpa. It’s the same cliche storyline featured in a grand majority of anime and light novels. It’s repetitive and irritating knowing that so many stories focus primarily on a sad generic boy who doesn’t feel good enough and wants to be stronger. 

It’s also worth mentioning that in comparison, the past protagonists at least had narrative reasons for why they were generic and insecure in the first place.

For Naegi, he was the first protagonist of the installment and his normalcy was meant to contrast the extremely talented and radically different students he’d be involved with. As the game progresses, he uses his normalness to bond with the students and rally them together in the name of hope.

For Hajime, he’s treated as a deconstruction of the generic insecure protagonist. It’s because his feelings of inferiority and longing to be special that he decides to accept Hope’s Peak’s experimentation and become Izuru Kamakura: an incredibly talented super-being who lost his humanity.

For Komaru, she was regarded as an ordinary girl that had the potential to lead others which is recognized by the adult resistance and Monaca. So throughout the game, both sides were pushing her into becoming either the next symbol of Hope like Naegi or next symbol of despair like Junko. But she ultimately decides to be neither of them and wants to be her own person.

There were reasons for why each of these protagonists were considered generic and insecure as it contributed to the narratives. But for Saihara, there’s really no solid reason for why he’s the only normal one of the V3 cast. And everyone is more than happy to praise him as the best one out of the cast despite doing so little to earn it. At most, Tsumugi reveals that Saihara being an insecure boy who grew stronger thanks to his friends was for the sake of a fictional storyline. Obviously it was meant to mentally break him but it honestly feels like a weak reason to keep the trend of a generic insecure sad boy. Not to mention there are other reasons for why I believe this doesn’t work.

The setup for the “Danganronpa is a fictional TV show” twist didn’t have enough buildup so it doesn’t make the cliche that strong.

Saihara still continues the role of the insecure boy who grows strong and saves the day. While Tsumugi states that his role was written for him, Saihara still continues the tropes of his archetype by saving the day. It’s ultimately because of him that he’s able to convince his friends and the viewing audience to give up on Danganronpa. It was the writer’s way of having their cake and eating it.

If the reveal was meant to be a shot at how it’s become a cliche, then why not live up to it? If they wanted to show how Danganronpa was running for too long or how it’s cliches were getting old, then why not commit to those ideas? Instead of having everyone praise and worship Saihara, make them question if they’re really going to depend on a generic guy to save them. Instead  of being just a cute quirk, actually show the negative sides of Saihara’s anxiety and depression and how they would hinder him from participating in trial discussions. Maybe even have Kaito lose his temper at Saihara because of how much he mopes around.

There’s so many ways they could have gone with deconstructing Saihara’s stereotype or showcasing how it’s become old and stale. So it feels disappointing that they never went that far.

And another reason for why I dislike his characterization is because it brings to mind Ryota Mitarai from the DR3 anime. Just like Saihara, Mitarai is a main character who’s described as generic, insecure and spends most of his time whining about how useless he is. Despite this, he manages to survive the killing game since the other more unique characters are killed or move the events of the story. I personally found Mitarai to be a frustrating character. I detest characters who constantly whine about how useless or miserable they are as a means of getting sympathy from the audience. So having to deal with Saihara who more or less shares multiple characteristics with Mitarai felt very exhausting.

Conclusion

So those would be my reasons for why I hate/strongly dislike Saihara. I can admit that alot of these reasons weren’t so much because of Saihara or his actions but how he was written throughout the story. He still did alot of things I didn’t like don’t get me wrong, but alot of fault can be traced to the writers and how they decided to write him and Kaede’s characters. I still find his archetype as a generic insecure boy who mopes around to be an unappealing archetype but I’m sure most of his fans would suggest otherwise.

If you’ve managed to read everything here, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to do so. I can’t imagine many people would want to read a critical post targeted towards one of the most beloved characters in Danganronpa. So thank you for doing so.

And as always, if you agree or disagree with anything I’ve written, you’re more than welcome to reblog this with your comments. I’m always up for friendly discussions. 

[horrorbutgay]

NDRV3 Demo Analysis w/ Full Game Spoilers!

(My friend Elfi/Apri made this and jesus fuck shes a fucking genius please love her)

First off, let me mention that I immediately went into sleuthing mode while I was playing the demo for about 4h (both English and Japanese), because I'm aware that even DR demos have a decent difficulty level to its case writing (judging by suspicion not necessarily incriminating Hifumi The Harmless in the demo until the manga came into the picture with the full story) and this demo seemed too easy if you don't give it some proper thought like most of the unspoiled fandom is still not used to doing. From what I managed to piece together with the clues shattered throughout the demo and based on the knowledge of the full game's content, I'm convinced Naegi is the correct culprit vote like we all thought, BUT (huge but) paying attention and giving it some thought grant you the speculation that he could've actually had an accomplice outside of the protagonist room. And that accomplice is no less than the scheming mastermind of the game: Shirogane Shirogane Tsumukweeeen. (Yes, that Despair Arc dub meme never gets old) Let me start my explanation with the clarification that this demo is clearly another in-universe promotional method for V3 like the Maki, Kaito and Ki-Bo poster. It's like a popular show treating its fanbase with the kind of sneak peek preview to let them know what to expect. I also want to clarify that people were indeed able to enter the protagonist room before the gym announcement, because how else would you explain Tojo being able to clean the whole dormitory? This leads me to the conclusion that Tojo likely got her hands onto a master key from Monokuma with Tsumugi's aid and she locked the doors of all the rooms after cleaning them. Yes, Hoshi was there too, but so was Yumeno for a bit and that still doesn't mean they entered the dormitory later. Considering how Ultimate Dedication Kirumi is able to afford wasting time on introducing herself if she was supposedly in the middle of cleaning when you just arrive at the dorm, it's quite safe to assume the job was already done at that point and that is why the protag room is already locked if you do try to open it before going to the gym. In fact, all the rooms are locked. Kaede clearly was the last student to wake up, and Tsumugi being the only one with the ability to confirm Kirumi's alibi - despite Hoshi and Yumeno presumably being at the dorm as well - is a major hint that the clean-up was pretty much done waaay before you awoke, got past all the other students from the AV Room onwards to the dorm, and finally listened to the introduction of those three. I say three because I honestly think Yumeno was in the kitchen at first and only appeared in the dorms once the body discovery announcement was made. Anyway, Kirumi obviously locked the doors for safety and privacy measures once the clean-up was done. I believe Hagakure's "corpse" was already in Kaede's bathroom at this point, and here's why Tojo probably neglected to inspect and clean ALL of the bathrooms: As someone who comes off on the surface as a trustworthy and supportive person, not to mention that she acts as a huge fan of a maid's work, Kirumi is inclined to believe her if Tsumugi simply insists for example that Monokuma told her that all the bathrooms were taken extra care of to be spotless. As I've established, there is no breathing room for the player after the gym announcement, so Tsumugi had to be the only character present while Kirumi was cleaning the dormitory. Because she simply admires Kirumi's work as a maid due to how much of a geek she is, so she had to keep watching and this doesn't seem suspicious to you at all without fullgame spoilers because they always made Tsumugi out to be a bland motherly "heart on her sleeve" nerd type of girl. It is entirely understandable that Tsumugi - as the MM getting her lifetime dream of a writer debut on TDR come true - wants the killing game to start as fast as possible, and this is emphasized in the full game by how she gives them a two days time limit right off the bat to commit a murder or else they'll all be mass murdered. In the full game, this doesn't work out so well and she doesn't like how Kaede gets so well along with Amami in that bonus scene (explaining why Kaede believes in his innocence to be the MM in Case 1) without even knowing about his impressive SHSL Survivor status as the only survivor of V2. And Rantarou also turns out to be better at nail painting than the Ultimate Cosplayer thanks to living with twelve sisters at home, making her outraged with jealousy. To push her over the edge, time is running out and a mass execution would be a boring and way too quick end for the season, which would affect the ratings. She can't allow that, so she goes with the two characters she passionately dislikes so far to get them out of the picture and continue the show. Arguably, she would've even been fine with any vote that wasn't her because the MM being executed would also end the show too early. Kaede and Saihara were the prime suspects, so even though she framed Kaede for also trying her hardest to expose her due to the same reasoning and she conveniently set a death trap with a similar method to how she decided to kill Rantarou (remember, the heavy iron balls were in the warehouse available for anyone to grab), Saihara would have been fine too. Kaede works better though, because she is legitimately convinced of her guilt. Shadowing her as the demo first culprit is a nice nod to the full version and it makes perfect sense in context, and I'll explain why right now. No, sadly enough, there are no chances of that but that info is (preferably?) not spread through the fandom and only on the wiki. Turns out that when you enter Amami's research faculty, you discover a recording of himself before the memory manipulation process (there's a vast difference with that and brainwashing :')) in which he reveals that he is from the previous killing game and he was the only survivor there. That likely makes him more worthy of the SHSL Survivor status in the fanbase's eyes. Especially Tsumugi lmao She's a full-on critic Anyway, I liked clearing that up for the people here, but now onwards. I'm almost 100% sure that Kirumi would vaguely hint towards this exchange of words happening between her and Tsumugi if the player voluntarily approaches her after she decides to stay behind with Hajime, but that's something I'd have to check with a replay. Hajime and Makoto actually being in the demo/in-universe preview episode is also a great treat to hardcore fan Tsumugi. Especially Makoto, the protagonist of her favorite cast. We already established before that Tsumugi is going back to the original and she wanted to recreate the DR1 cast & killing game whilst simultaneously criticizing the flaws of her favorite game/season (the reality tv killing game started with reboots of the original fictional material with real actors, as evidenced by the collage sequence if you manage to read through all of them.)(edited) I initially thought of them possibly being Tsumugi's cosplays, but that ended up being too far-fetched for my taste and some of the 53 seasons do involve aforementioned reboots of originally fictional source material. It's just a little too fastly skipped on in the collage for the most part after the first ten entries.(edited) And just who from the cast do you think even Tsumugi would detest despite being a DR1 stan? That's right: Yasuhiro Hagakure. This passionate hatred is even further emphasized by there not being a Hagakure parallel in her fanfiction. She likes her casts well-rounded. But that doesn't explain the revealed fake death at the end, so let me continue my theory. Tsumugi invited Hajime, Makoto and Hagakure along to the live preview of her writing and acting debut on Team Danganronpa. Because she arranged the perfect protagonist who's like no other and ideal to keep milking the series, on top of that that person is also female, the actors for the OC leads (who obviously also survived in their portion of a reality tv killing game to stay faithful to the omnipresent motto of keeping the MCs alive, despite the vast differences in the rest of the  survivor sets for DR1 and 2 which I'll tackle in a bit) are brought back to their roles to guide Kaede and introduce the nostalgia Tsumugi is going to include in the upcoming season. Ah, and before anyone comes up with a "Rantarou" rebuttal for the sake of completing the DR1 parallel, keep in mind that his personality mainly stems from the previous season and there are some characters (like Gonta) that even Kodaka admitted he has never written before because Tsumugi managed to give a sense of uniqueness to the cast.(edited) And the remaining students also managed to drift apart from the character arcs she so thoroughly planned for them, but that's meta for another day. Remember the "fake" AU leaks that I eventually explained to be V3's version of the (either tv or game) outcome for the events for 1 and 2 in their universe? Well, Hagakure dies in that. Probably also the first victim, explaining Monokuma's fourth wall breaking comment that this is actually his second time dying. It's a double-sided statement that you won't catch up on if you haven't practically finished the game. His character was basically recycled with a look-alike actor in order to fool the audience with that pretense of Danganronpa just being a cool TV show (more on that in that ending meta I plan to discuss here some time) - I assume they do this with all previews of new seasons once the audience started doing some digging on the real people behind their beloved characters or perhaps the real names were initially not even included in the credits (like when they did the reboots) until they started with new storylines to not run out of ideas, keep profiting and take the thrill a step further) - and because he therefore wouldn't have experience with acting like Hagakure, Tsumugi left him out of the preview until it was time for his body discovery. Being the comic relief character he is supposed to be, Hagakure's actor was fortunate to be able to be used as a fake death with the plot convenience of Ultimate Detective not entering the crime scene in the demo. All this clearly explains the black screen ending scenario where the returning characters all wonder if their acting was good, and Hagakure suddenly rushing in to reveal it was a fake death. TDR is teasing and deceiving you, the unspoiled viewer anticipating their announced renewal for another season, because deception is what it's all about with V3's Truth vs Lies theme. A neat manner to let the world know what to expect. TDR probably also uses these previews to test the results of the memory manipulation used on the cast and the audience's reaction on seeing this cast in action. The company wants to know if Tsumugi's adjustments are sufficient or if there's anything left to mold their personalities for in order to appeal the whole cast to the audience, explaining the pleasant surprises like Tenko initially being hyped up as the discourse character yet actually being the most morally good female of the cast. Seriously, the best part about V3 is that it all (even the promotion) comes full-circle if you give it some proper thought. The entry is filled with a never-ending cycle of full-circle moments which are able to blow your mind when you finally connect that cycle. Spoiling, fourth-wall-breaking game promotion before the game is even out. It's incredible how far they planned ahead, honestly Anyway, let's continue. There's some necessary details left to make the full picture. So basically, Tsumugi arranged this whole scenario with the three of them, and considering how safe it is to assume how passionately Tsumugi despises Hagakure, they might as well have even had to resort to a compromise to give Hagakure's nobody actor a planned fake death as long as Tsumugi makes sure nobody enters the protagonist room. The fake crime scene they set up must not be exposed. There's obviously frozen blood bags in TDR's various morgues from all the reality tv killing games, so they used the dead Hagakure's blood to shroud the new actor in. This is all done to make the timing so fresh and in case they cannot prevent the Ultimate Detective from investigating the crime scene. Saihara would definitely catch up on fake blood, after all. You can supply blood in a fresh manner by sustaining them in frozen blood bags. Common scientific knowledge. And it makes sense to supply their blood because TDR started these behind-the-scenes kidnappings and schemes up with running out of ideas and the reality TV reboots of their original source material. No way would the ratings - which are so important to them because they're making a good living off of this show and it can't end in their eyes - stay unaffected by a simple reboot, hence the new survivor sets that I will headcanon as being part of the TV reboot from now on. This indicates that they kept the strengths of the original entries, but they twisted the story of the games like we already were informed of by Tsumugi. They're greedy and huge perfectionists, so those previously fictional characters really had to be brought to life. That's where the development of the futuristic technology comes in. More on TDR specifically in my ending meta though! :P Well then, let's further detail how this off-screen plan worked so well in case the realization is not hitting someone yet. The knife is actually just twisted in a gaping hole from his shirt being stabbed in his abdomen non-fatally, so I suppose it makes sense that it looks so real once he plays dead and they add real blood on him. Implying that the fandom or the in-universe audience will spend that much doubt to it with how legit it looks, but Saihara definitely would inspect the corpse more as it's his duty. It's a huge plot convenience that Saihara does not bother to do so, likely because he's already made up his mind on who the culprit is like all of us did from the start: Naegi Makoto. And while he is not exactly wrong, he's dense to the major foreshadowing of an accomplice due to a lack of evidence. A nice mirror to the real first case. Tsumugi truly is a master puppeteer, and I still view her as a controlfreak because the term means that she is obsessed with maintaining her control of something. And that is emphasized in the game multiple times once Monodam, Angie and Korekiyo turn the planned pattern for the killing game around in chapter 3 and so onwards. Back to the demo: after the preparation process is done, Hagakure is left alone in the bathroom waiting for his scene to act like a corpse, not allowed to make a noise.(edited) Tsumugi and Makoto split up; former approaches Kirumi to start cleaning as soon as possible (probably convincing Monokuma to give the SHSL Maid a master key) in order to avoid anyone meeting Hagakure; the latter goes to check on Kaede in the AV Room in order to continue the plan "smoothly" as he mentions later in the class trial. Wanna know why he had to part ways with Kaede when all the students are demanded to go to the gym? It's simple when you've gotten this far. Since Tsumugi cannot possibly ignore this order from Monokuma and come out of the shadows with her real personality, Makoto is the one who needs to proceed with the last phase of the plan: splashing the actor playing dead in freshly kept blood from the frozen blood bag for his original predecessor. Hagakura is the one who got the kitchen knife and might as well have been the one to non-fatally stab himself, but that's just a small detail and it makes sense that the cast without the detective (thus inexperienced with murder cases) would legitimately assume his death to be for real just upon the sight of a drenched murder weapon and the excessive amount of fresh blood.(edited) And this is exactly why the blood confirms the time of death being a few minutes ago when they were all at the gym. Lastly, this also explains Makoto's hair dropping at the crime scene. Stuff like that commonly happens, especially when you're in a rush and they probably had to fake a convincing struggle in the short period of time they had. He was obviously able to access the room because he was the first one to receive the keys due to likely being the only person not to be infected with sleeping gas alongside Hagakure.(edited) I can't connect where Hajime's part comes in though, so maybe he wasn't involved - which I can understand cuz a fangirl prefers cooperating and interacting with her favorites - or perhaps his only contribution was (unknowingly of Tsumugi's elaborate scheme) aiding Tsumugi and Kirumi with his confidence and experience in order to convince Monokuma to hand over that master key for the maid to do her job. I really believe Hajime's actor was kept in the dark because unlike a personified Naegi, the personified Hajime wouldn't be lured to a route as corrupt as the former took by being willing to do anything to keep living off of TDR's unquestionably high salary if you survive AND return to the show. No, this actor only thought he was hired again for nostalgia's sake, because that's what we all assumed as well. And Hajime was the most intended as a returning lead to guide Kaede on the road of leading her group and passing the leadership onto her, despite not being her instructor like Naegi but that's all according to plan, of course. This is my demo headcanon. This is my conclusive interpretation of the demo

[antthonystark]

tbh there definitely are some problems with shadowhunters like izzy's yin fen storyline and how every black shadowhunters has turned into a villian but it isn't racist every single time something bad happens to a poc. it would be if the only characters who had to suffer were poc but every character on the show gets hurt at points and like...... idk there is bad stuff that needs to be acknowledged but not everything is a problem.

note: i just basically used this ask to let out all my opinions on this issue, but i sort of broadly agree with some of what you said but not necessarily as a whole. also this is incredibly long, so don’t feel the need to read all of it! 

essentially: i don’t think shadowhunters is racist in any significant capacity, and while i’m never gonna go after people for critically analyzing or evaluating the show if that’s what they want to do, at the end of the day, personally, i don’t think nit-picking at it is a really productive thing to do. esp when there’s a lot of…. well, actual racism in the media. 

See, the thing is, a lot of the stuff that people are calling“problematic” in a racial sense, to me, is just indicative of a positiverace-blind casting ethos in the show. Now, race-blindness is not generally a good thing when talkingabout race, but when it comes to casting, I personally agree with it, in termsof having open casting calls for characters that don’t have to be race-specific(e.g. for Izzy or Luke, who are racially ambiguous in the source material, butnot for Magnus or Maia, who are clearly and importantly Asian and mixed-racerespectively in the books). Because of this ethos, Shadowhunters is an incredibly diverse show.

I guess I should probably includehere that I’m a person of colour myself as a disclaimer? I of course don’tspeak for all people of colour, but that does (or should) go without saying.

I think my general opinion on raceand Shadowhunters is that I think it does racial diversity extremely well. Ithink characters of colour are given great storylines and personalities (withone slight exception that is the one that you’ve mentioned and I’ll get intothat in a minute), and I like that they are able to afford a diversity in moralcharacter and moral alignment to characters of colour that many shows cannot simply because they don’t have enough actual,well-written, non-stereotyped diversity to begin with. I also think the waycharacters of colour are positioned in the narrative is not looked at enough,and instead they are looked at in isolation and without narrative context whichleads to oversimplified and inflammatory comments regarding Shadowhunters beingracist, which I highly and heartily disagree with. No show is going to beperfect in its depiction of racial minorities, but I think Shadowhunters is oneof the best ones out there and certainly the best one I’ve ever watched.

Also, I talked about the racialallegory in Shadowhunters here and also here, so I’m not going to get intothis  on this ask, but basically I thinkthat people don’t really know what allegory means and take it way too far atface-value - in that they think it should correspond perfectly with real-life social structures, which it doesn’t - which is not the purpose of allegory, and I think people criticizingthe casting of certain roles as POC despite them being the “oppressor class” inthe allegory (which is quite a loose allegory anyway) is a bit hypocriticalseeing as I think diversity in general is more important than casting based onan allegory that is already encoded in the narrative irrespective of castingdecisions.

BUT. Let’s get into it now! I’m goingto start with some number-crunching as a fun activity to illustrate theimportance of comparison groups, because science is important guys.

In order to kinda work through thisinformation and opinions you’ve presented here (because I’d like to think I’mthe type of person to admit when I’m wrong about something), I did some very rudimentary number-crunching.Taking all the main and recurring cast members on the show as listed onWikipedia (and I included Cleophas just because I feel like some conversationsare surrounding her), I did the math using the following 26 characters(specifically non-mundane characters):

White (10): Clary, Jace, Alec, Valentine, Jocelyn, Hodge,Lydia, The Inquisitor, Blackwell, Sebastian

POC (16): Isabelle, Simon, Luke, Magnus, Raphael, Meliorn,Camille, Maryse, Robert, Dot, Pangborn, Alaric, Maia, Victor Aldertree,Cleophas, Raj

Preliminarily, there are 6 more POCcharacters in the main/recurring cast compared to white characters, so it trulyis a show that represents diversity, if nothing else. So I think that’s quitenice.

Also, in terms of broad moralalignments, 50% of the whitecharacters are depicted as clear antagonists, and every absolute antagonist (Valentine, Imogen, Sebastian) is white(the remainder are Hodge and Blackwell the henchman). The remaining 5 are goodto ambiguous.

Comparatively, out of our 16 POC,there is much more moral ambiguity as I’ve assigned it, but anyone who iseither depicted as absolutely antagonistic or as more ambiguously antagonisticcomprises of 31% of the POCcharacters, and none of them are thevillain (who are the 3 mentioned above). I included Camille, Maryse (astretch), Pangborn, Aldertree (still sorta ambiguous but mostly evil), Cleophas(again, still somewhat ambiguous). I didn’t include Raj because I labelled himas ambiguous/lawful neutral, but including him still it jumps to 37.5%, still less than the proportionof white characters who are clearly antagonistic. The remainder are (62.5% - 69%) ambiguous to good.

Of course, as I said, this is arudimentary and over-simplified analysis, but the purpose thereof is toremember that there is no claim that can really be validated without acomparison group – you can’t say that POC are disproportionately villainizedwhen you don’t account for the control proportions, which in this case would benon-POC or white people who actually have a slightly higher proportionalvillainization than do the POC characters.

But now, onto the fun stuff! Let’sactually analyze things with narrative context.

Let’s begin with the big one, whichis Isabelle and the yin fen. Like Isaid earlier, I feel like this is…not thebest plotline to give their major Latina character, overall. I’m hesitant to utterlycondemn it until I see its full arc play out, though, because I feel like wehaven’t seen enough of it for me to condemn it as fully racist (since I seethat word as being quite a weighty accusation still). The disclaimer of coursebeing that I’m not Latinx, so I would of course defer to Latinx people’sopinions first and foremost. But if I might give my opinion, I do think thereare some mitigating factors (again, depending quite a bit on how things playout).

I think the key differentiation herebetween the portrayal and the harmful stereotype is that, in terms of how it’snarratively structured, it’s very clearly an antagonistic machination againstIsabelle (on the part of Aldertree) rather than some inherent characteristic ofthe Latina Isabelle that gives her the substance abuse problems. (The latterbeing the harmful stereotype.) It’s not great, admittedly, but I think itprovides a small but not insignificant mitigation, because in this way itdoesn’t negate all of the wonderful ways in which Isabelle defies harmfulstereotypes – that this plotline does not define who she is, but rathersomething that was unfairly and deceptively doneto her. (Which I think is also a slightly better way of portraying people withsubstance abuse problems, because it’s much more true to life of addictioncompared to the more common “people with drug addictions = inherently worthlesspeople” trope).

Also, it’s not a great plotline as Ikeep saying, and I think they could have done something different with her, butI also like that she has her own autonomous storyline? Compared with seasonone, where she largely played the support system of characters like Clary andAlec. I like that we see her struggle and suffer as any main character shouldget the chance to do – and ultimately grow – because Izzy is by no meansreduced to a one-note character through this plotline, and it actuallyhighlights some of her character struggles – drug or no drug – such as herinability to admit defeat and ask for help when she needs it.

Again, these are mitigating factorsto a storyline that does play into harmful stereotypes, so I’m not saying itentirely salvages or entirely excuses it, but it’s – as usual – a bit morecomplex than “racist fucking pieces of shit!!” or “not racist shut up!!!!!”

Regarding the rest of what you’vesaid plus what a lot of other people are saying, another thing that’s importantto consider is that I think using screentime as an absolute measure ofnarrative equality is a bit of a flawed paradigm, esp. when it comes to showthat juggles a lot of mains and side characters as well. While screentimeshould absolutely be considered, I think there’s an equal weight that should begiven to a character’s place and position in the narrative, and theirsignificance thereof.

In this case, I’d like to use Luke asan example. I saw a few recent complaints about Luke not getting enoughscreentime, and I can totally respect that (and would love to see Luke get morescreentime). But I think people think that this means the show is making himirrelevant, and I just don’t see that as being the case at all? When it comesto narrative positioning, Luke is in the extremely key position that is usuallygiven to the main protag – he’s the literary foil of Valentine. I mean, that’smy interpretation – he’s the Dumbledore to Val’s Voldemort, if you will. He’smuch more the perfect foil to Valentine than either Clary or Jace, who arerepeatedly highlighted in connection – rather than in contrast – to Valentine.Thus, to the main story arc, Luke is much more significant than a characterlike, say, Alec or even Izzy, because, just as an example, Alec’s narrative andemotional involvement in the main villain arc is usually tangential, connectedto it through Jace more than anything.

That’s one example, but I feel likepeople tend to oversimplify certain notions to just “amount of screentime”which is one measure, of course, and a significant one, but not generally thewhole story.

I think that most characters ofcolour in the story are given really critical parts in terms of how they’repositioned in the narrative structure and overall plotline that I think isreally gratifying – they’re not tangential, there’s not expendable, they’re notthere to just support the white protag and then get out of there. Like Cleophasfor example, they’re given complex motivations of their own that have norelation to the white protags (like Cleophas or like Maia), and they’re alsogiven crucial, pivotal moments in the episodes.

I liked Cleophas’ position in thenarrative and I loved the struggle between Luke and Cleophas – a clash ofvalues, of ideals, a pained family history – it was just so rich anddeliciously complex to me, in a way that relationships between 2 POC are rarelyif ever depicted. Had she been straight-up evil, I think it would have beenanother story, but she was a complicated and extremely dynamic character with aset of uncompromising principles. Personally, I find all of this that much moregratifying (and not racist) than just “this character is a good person and aperson of colour this is the rep that I want and deserve” (but MUCH MORE onthis in the next section).

And then, I mean, there’s some stuffthat’s just…not … racism. Like,there’s – it’s just not. Like, I saw one person going “oh Valentine had theupper hand in the fight against Luke so that means racist” like lol if any oneof the protags could beat Valentine in a fight then he wouldn’t be a veryeffective villain now would he? That’s just being silly. Also, I saw one persongoing “oh, they made Simon and Maia’s date all about the white girl’sfeelings!! racism!!” like lol, I’d rather have Maia be like “hey man you’restill into this girl so I’m not going to let you string me along here” becausehaving Maia puppy after Simon while he’s into Clary would be a lot moredemeaning, wouldn’t it? And speaking of Clary, don’t get me started on the “lolClary is a white saviour!!” thing. Like. You keep using those words but I don’tthink they mean what you think they mean.

Furthermore and most significantly of all, as I alluded to earlier, one of the mostimportant things about POC representation is that it should not feed intostereotypes. Like, there’s nothing inherently wrong with having POC playantagonistic roles provided that (a) they are not the only antagonists and (b)that they are not playing into and supporting harmful stereotypes about thatgroup of people. Because people can shout “Representationmatters!” until they’re blue in the face, but if they don’t understand why it matters, then it makes nodifference. It matters to show young people of all colours and races that theybelong in and have an important place in the media that they consume andinteract with, and it matters to show allpeople that people of colour are as dimensional, complex, multifaceted, andimportant as white people. I think Shadowhunters accomplishes both of thosegoals amazingly well.  Again, is itperfect? Nope. Does it try? Yes. Does it accomplish a great deal? Yes. Shouldit be condemned? Not at all.

To illustrate, let me use Raj as anexample. As a South Asian myself, I’m pretty aware of how we’re stereotyped. IfRaj was like Raj (lol) from the Big Bang Theory who was shown in the narrativeto be desexualized and unattractive and socially incompetent, or a characterwho was shown to be backwards and sexist, or excessively cheap, or something like that – I’d take a hugeissue with it. I mean, those are pretty extreme to show you what I’m talkingabout, but these types of things can creep into portrayals of POC subtly butinsidiously. I think that’s why the Izzy/yin fen thing is indeed something thatcan be seen as “problematic” for sure.

But I don’t take issue with Raj’sportrayal (it’d be cool to see more of him though) because there’s no harmfulsocietally-engrained stereotype that we’re snarky or slightly unlikeable, so aDesi, mouthy, maybe somewhat insensitive half-angel warrior is not a portrayalthat I find racist or harmful in any significant way. Actually, it’s kindarefreshing. Hell, I’m snarky and significantly unlikeable,and South Asian, so Raj is like. my dude. Nor is Raj the only Shadowhuntershown to follow orders to a point that is considered immoral or “against” theprotagonists – Alec is, Lydia is, Aldertree is, Maryse and Robert are as well.

I hope that gets my point across when I say “mean character of colour”=/= “racist portrayal”. You wanna think critically, my dude. Think about aportrayal and think, “what effect isthis having that does something to support racism in any larger context outsideof this show?” and if you’re coming up blank, then….you’re probably good.

I’m most comfortable talking aboutRaj being South Asian, but we’re right up there next to the Southeast/EastAsians so let’s take Magnus as another great example. Magnus takes harmfultropes associated with South/east/East Asian men and destroys them. Rather thanbeing submissive and desexualized, he is repeatedly shown as one of (if notthe) most powerful characters on the show, and is one of the most individualistcharacters who doesn’t bow to any institution or will except his own, and he’srepeatedly shown to be extremely sexually attractive in the narrative. Not onlythat, he’s a complex and well-rounded character in many, many different wayswith a rich backstory, and he is repeatedly shown to be his own character withstories independent of his relationships with any of the other protags.

A final one I want to mention isMeliorn. As someone who was raised Muslim and comes from a Muslim family (stilla closeted atheist), I’m very sensitive to portrayals of Arab people (oftenMuslims) since they are far-and-away one of the most stereotyped as terrorists or similar such roles. But Meliornis depicted as a very peaceful, meditative, powerful being with strong earthlyconnections – and it’s just so far from any stereotype that I really appreciateit.  

That’s just a couple of examples,but, more than that, I think one of the things that is the best about how Shadowhunters portrays people of colour is one ofthe things that other people seem to use as a detractor towards it. That is,that they are all complex. I likecharacters that have complex or ambiguous moralities. I don’t want charactersof colour to all be perfect loveable angels, because the whole point of goodrepresentation to me is to show audiences that we are people.

We can be characters that could havebeen white people – that, essentially, we can play characters that are notwritten as “Asian” or “Black” or “Latin” but that are excellent,well-conceived, well-rounded, unstereotyped characters that could have easilybeen written for and played by white people, but aren’t, because POC have a right to exist in the exact same spacesas do white people. (But still and significantly – SH doesn’t ignore theexisting ethnicities of the actors they cast, having Iz, Raphael, and Simonspeak Spanish; making references to Magnus’s Southeast Asian culture andupbringing; even having Maia briefly mention the problems of police and blackyouth; and of course the allegorical implications of Downworlders.)

And that’s why I like Shadowhunters,because it executes this concept beautifully, and that’s why I will yell tillI’m blue in the face about how it’s not racist. There’s no point in over-criticizing a show that does so much good when there’s so much bad out there, in my opinion. pick your battles fam.