The Real Threat.
You got attacked!?
Yeah...Looks like the Monokubs are coming after me after all...Sora guided me to the shower, and one of them tried to catch me by surprise.
That’s where you are now? The shower room?
Tsumugi must really hate your guts to be desperate enough to make the MONOKUBS try to kill you.
Thanks for the reminder Kaito...
I just figured I’d keep you guys posted. I can’t talk long obviously because Sora can only hold the barrier open for a short while.
Don’t worry though. I’m alright. Barely scratched. How are things on your end?
No luck. But we’re preparing some new methods of breaking in as we speak. Whether they’ll work or not remains to be seen.
...
Shuichi?
Sorry...I just panicked a little.
I’m glad you’re ok Kaede. And I know you can defend yourself...Heck, you can do it way better than I can. But...
The idea of you being stuck in there with a bunch of killer robots out to get you is making me worried.
...That’s wrong Shuichi.
Huh?
...
*Kaede reaches down and grabs Monokid’s corpse by the ear. She lifts up and shows his mangled body to the people on the other side.
!!!??
Well damn...!
What the hell...!?
K-Kaede, did you-!?
I’m not stuck in here with the Monokubs, guys...
THEY’RE stuck in here with ME...!
*The call ends as Sora runs out of energy.
What the hell do you mean Monokid is dead!?
Exactly as it sounds Boss Lady...
The guy tried to catch Akamatsu with her pants down...literally...but ended up getting pummeled into a sink.
*sigh* Figures...I should have known that you were all so dumb enough to underestimate her...
Not that I can fault you.
“Underestimate her?”
I made the same mistake a few months back. I figured even with my limited combat expertise I could take her in a fight.
But that girl has been putting a lot of time into her training. She’s probably even more skilled now than she was when we last fought. And she wiped the floor with me back then.
Not to mention she still has that fancy weapon of hers.
IT’S-PROPERTIES-ARE-VERY-SIMILAR-TO-THE-KINETIC-SPEARS-SUPPLIED-TO-ORGANIZATION-ZETSUBOU-BY-FANG-INCORPERATED. HOWEVER-IT-APPEARS-TO-BE-MODIFIED-WITH-MORE-ABILITIES.
I see...
Say...Ms Shirogane...by any chance, are there any copies of us left?
Huh?
Will Monokid be resurrected by Motherkuma or however you make clones of Daddy? Or is he dead forever?
...
I’ll take that silence as the latter.
I figured...
Please, take mercy on my brother! He didn’t deserve to die so young!
Listen!
*The Monokubs stand attentively.
Monokid’s death is a minor setback, but I managed to get your little toys up and running by now.
Really!?
You’re right...Motherkuma isn’t programmed to make copies of you 5...But...
Complete your mission, and kill Kaede Akamatsu...and I’ll consider making changes.
I made you all a promise, didn’t I?
*Tsumugi cuts off.
Well...what do we do now? I’m busy preparing Monokid’s funeral, so I can’t help here.
Oh FUCK the funeral! We’ll all need a fucking funeral if we don’t take care of this problem soon enough!
What do you mean...!?
Don’t you get it!? We underestimated Akamatsu and now she knows she’s capable o’ killin’ us!
It’s how humans work! Once they know how to kill, they go ahead and start huntin’ for wild animals like us! If we fight her, she’ll kill us like she did Monokid, but if we turn tail ‘n run, SHIROGANE’ll kill us for betrayin’ her orders!
We wanna rage hell on the world yeah!? Well that’s lookin’ pretty fuckin’ impossible right about now!
...MONOSUKE. PLEASE-DON’T-PANIC.
I-DO-NOT-THINK-KAEDE-AKAMATSU-IS-AS-VIOLENT-AS-YOU-MAY-BELIEVE. PERHAPS-WE-CAN-FIGURE-OUT-A-WAY-TO-CONVINCE-HER-TO-SPARE-US?
*Monosuke sharply turns towards Monodam.
What the hell you sayin’!? You takin’ the enemies side!?
I-AM-ON-THE-SIDE-WHERE-WE-ALL-GET-OUT-SAFELY. I-JUST-WANT-ALL-OF-US-TO-GET-ALONG.
Pretty rich coming from the Kub who KILLED all his family back in the old universe!?
Yeah! Don’t be such a fuckin’ hypocrite! You’re on thin fucking ice as it is, Monodam!
We wouldn’t be in this fucking situation if you had just done your job! But NOOOO you HAD to let Akamatsu and Saihara take the last bomb from you!
I-WAS-NOT-PREPARED-FOR-HER-NEW-ABILITIES.
Nah, you were too soft! You’ve always been too soft fer this kinda work! And if I’m gunna be honest, I don’t trust you!
Monosuke, don’t! Don’t you understand!?
Monodam is grieving the death of his brother! And he knows how strong Akamatsu is! He just doesn’t want to lose any more of his family!
Are you listenin’ t’ me! If that bomb had successfully gone off, we’d be outta this damn lab and into the open world by now!
If anyone’s t’ blame for Monokid’s death, IT’S YOU!
...!
Now THAT’S a bridge too far!
NO. MONOSUKE-IS-CORRECT.
Monodam!?
I-GOT-US-ALL-INTO-THIS-SITUATION-BECAUSE-I-FIGURED-THERE-WAS-AN-ALTERNATIVE-WAY-TO-THIS-THAT-DIDN’T-INVOLVE-KILLING.
I-SUPPOSE-I-DO-NOT-MAKE-A-VERY-GOOD-APEX-PREDATOR, HUH?
Monodam, what’s wrong?
MONOSUKE. IF-I-BRING-YOU-KAEDE-AKAMATSU’S-BODY...WILL-YOU-FORGIVE-ME-FOR-MY-PAST-MISTAKES?
...?
...
...Hell, if it gets us outta this shithole, I’ll try...
GOOD.
*At the same time, the Monokubs hear the sound of a lab door opening to the side. Monodam turns towards it and approaches.
DO-NOT-WORRY. I-WILL-MAKE-SURE-WE-ALL-GET-ALONG...
NO-MATTER-WHAT-IT-COSTS...
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Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 2.11
Be aware that this is not a blind playthrough! This will contain spoilers for the entire game, regardless of the part of the game I’m commenting on. A major focus of this commentary is to talk about all of the hints and foreshadowing of events that are going to happen and facts that are going to be revealed in the future of the story. It is emphatically not intended for someone experiencing the game for their first time.
Last time, as we finished up the second trial proper, Kaito continued to be adorably supportive and encouraging to Shuichi, Kirumi was desperately, furiously determined to save “everyone”, Shuichi was brave enough to face the truth and do his own version of saving everyone, and Kaito noticed Shuichi being a hero apparently without his help (even though he definitely still did need Kaito’s encouragement to do so, just not directly in that precise moment).
Now for the trial conclusion and Kirumi to continue to be determined.
Kokichi: “Phew, thank goodness we managed to get through the class trial again!”
Yeah, no thanks to you, who could have made it take half as long if you hadn’t been an asshole.
Angie: “Hey, hey, how long have you been lying to us? Is that why you took such good care of us? So you could deceive everyone?”
More of Angie not giving a fuck about anyone ever – she’s happy to immediately jump to assuming Kirumi never cared about them and was always deceiving them, rather than being hurt that she apparently did so.
Kaito: “Hey, Kirumi. Tell me… Why? You were always thinking about everyone around you… How could you kill someone?”
Kaito, as always, really wants to understand! He could respect Kirumi for her selflessness and caring about everyone else, and that just doesn’t add up with someone who’d commit murder, so he’s desperate to make sense of it.
Monokuma: “Puhuhu… Human beings have always been selfish, self-centered creatures.”
That’s rich, in this game. Kirumi isn’t even remotely the only selfless person here.
Kiyo: “Well, Kirumi? Were your feelings towards us simply another falsehood?”
Kokichi: “N-No! It can’t be! Say it ain’t so! That… was just another lie, too?”
Kokichi is still trying to get everyone to think that if someone seemingly trustworthy lied to everyone then nobody is trustworthy ever.
Shuichi: “I don’t… think so… I still believe Kirumi cares about us.”
Maki: “…And how would you know?”
Shuichi: “I can’t say for certain, but I can sense that this trial has been agonizing for her.”
Shuichi is also showing some good people-intuition! Although if he really did get this sense then I don’t know why he pictured her grinning evilly during the Closing Argument.
And of course Maki is the one to question that, because she runs on the belief that if someone is a murderer then you should just assume they’re a horrible person and stop trying to understand them further or consider whether they still care about people despite that, right?
Kirumi: “I’m just… lost. Because if I tell you why I did it, you will regret what you’ve just done.”
Isn’t that what she wants, though? To make everyone try and sacrifice themselves for her so she stands a chance of escaping? She should be quite happy to tell them her motive. Maybe this apparent conflictedness is also part of her gambit.
Kaito: “Spit it out already. Otherwise… we can’t accept this outcome.”
Kaito still just really wants to understand and can’t accept things if he doesn’t.
Kokichi: “Does that mean someone broke the agreement and traded you your motive video? Alright, fess up! Which one of you did it! Close your eyes and raise your hand if it was you!"
Obviously Kokichi knows full well nobody showed Kirumi her video because she received her own. He’s just trying to make everybody think that everyone’s agreement to co-operate by not sharing the videos was all a big lie and someone secretly stabbed everyone in the back because that’s always what people will do, right?
Monokuma: “Hmmm? Y’know, I meant to bring this up earlier cuz it’s been bugging me for a while… All this talk about videos being switched… What does that mean, exactly?”
Monokuma did not intend to switch the videos! Everybody was meant to see their own and nobody else’s.
The kubs argue for a bit about them getting accidentally switched and admit that that’s what happened, then:
Monokuma: “Ah, it seems I misunderstood. I completely forgot that the plan all along was to redistribute the videos.”
Monophanie: “D-Daddy!”
Monokuma: “It’s not your fault at all, kids. It’s my fault for forgetting.”
This is clearly Monokuma lying to save face and try and pretend to the audience that he’s still a good gamemaster who totally knows what he’s doing. The truth is that the videos getting switched was completely unintended.
Kirumi: “I see… The Monokubs merely distributed the motive videos at random… Receiving my own video was nothing more than… bad luck.”
I really like how Kirumi considers receiving her own video to be bad luck, and not good luck! She would have preferred to remain blissfully ignorant of the fact that her country was in danger than to know about it and feel forced to sacrifice her friends.
Monokuma: “Only Kirumi could save the country from impending doom. Yes! The future of the country rests entirely on her capable shoulders! But Kirumi is up to the task, for she only accepts requests that only she can fulfil.”
The emphasis on the fact that only Kirumi can do this is pretty important. If someone else could save the country without her, then it’d be wrong of Kirumi to sacrifice thirteen people to escape when she doesn’t need to. But, given the Flashback Light properties of these videos, I can completely buy that Kirumi might have become convinced that only she was capable of saving everyone and therefore that she had to escape or everyone would definitely die without her. Maybe some of the other students should have questioned that part a little more, though.
What with Kirumi being the de facto prime minister and the one responsible for saving the country from impending doom via meteorites and space virus, one has to wonder what her connection with the Gofer Project was supposed to be. Kirumi would never have approved of a strategy that only saved a tiny handful of people including herself and left most of the country to die. The Gofer Project was presumably run by a separate part of the government that didn’t believe Kirumi was capable of saving everyone and figured it would be better to at least save some people. Still, that brings the Ultimate Hunt part of the backstory into question, since Kirumi would never have given up her position as prime minister and her ability to save everyone by erasing her talent-related memories. She’d have wanted to avoid the Hunt, but she’d have also wanted to continue acting as prime minister and trying to save everyone at the same time – if anything, she could have used her influence as prime minister to try and shut down both the Ultimate Hunt and the Gofer Project.
Again, this backstory is actually pretty flimsy when you think about it for a while.
Kokichi: “And we just stopped Kirumi from doing that, because we selfishly wanted to live… Wh-What should we do? D-Did we just make a terrible mistake? If everyone outside dies because Kirumi is dead… Doesn’t that mean we pretty much destroyed the country!? Wh-What do we do!?”
This is another one of those outbursts from Kokichi that sounds pretty genuine and therefore probably involves Kokichi telling himself that he’s totally just acting and he doesn’t really feel this way at all.
Monokuma: “I am the ruler of this world. Nothing is beyond my power.”
Shuichi: “Nothing is beyond your power? What kind of arrogant, ridiculous—”
Keebo: “That is 100% a lie! It is impossible that he could bring disaster to a country!”
Monokuma is telling the truth, but only in the sense that he’s talking about “this world” as in this fictional story, which he can manipulate the backstory of as he pleases. In this universe, Monokuma can’t actually bring disaster to the whole, real world. Junko’s ridiculous despair-spreading powers don’t exist here.
Monokuma: “Let’s talk about Ryoma. It would be a shame to completely neglect him.”
In this game, it makes perfect sense that Monokuma would want to take the time to explain Ryoma’s motive. Not for the sake of spreading despair, but for the sake of making the story more interesting. What’s the point in having this whole story about how Ryoma gave up on living if nobody ever hears it?
Kokichi: “We know your motive to kill, but why did you kill Ryoma specifically?”
Kirumi: “Because he was easy to kill…”
Because even with how determined Kirumi was to save everyone outside, she still couldn’t bring herself to directly kill anyone who wanted to live.
Ryoma: “So… you got a reason to survive… That’s the complete opposite of me… Heh… That’s good… If you’ve got something to live for, it means your life has value. Hmph…”
Kirumi: “After he said that, he told me he would clean up the tennis balls lying around… And then, he turned his back toward me.”
Ryoma just let Kirumi kill him. He never wanted to throw his life away for no reason, but he was happy to die in chapter 1 to let everyone escape the time limit. By showing him her motive, Kirumi gave Ryoma a reason to die.
Kirumi: “A person like him would have noticed my bloodthirst emanating. He already knew…”
Kirumi is aware of how perceptive Ryoma was! Although calling her feelings “bloodthirst” is a bit much; it’s not like she was going to enjoy killing him.
Shuichi: “Then Ryoma… knew he was going to be killed…”
Kaito: “…”
I like that it makes a point to pan over to Kaito saying nothing here. He is not happy about this.
Kokichi: “Wait a minute, it’s Maki’s fault that Ryoma decided he didn’t want to live anymore.”
Maki: “…What?”
Kokichi: “Ryoma only gave up on life after you showed him his motive video. Well, since you didn’t watch his motive video, I guess you had no way of knowing…”
Yes, she didn’t, so let’s stop trying to make it sound like Maki’s a terrible person who deliberately led Ryoma to his death, shall we, Kokichi? The only person who knew the contents of Ryoma’s video before he saw it and therefore arguably led him to his death by helping him see it was you. Good job deflecting that responsibility onto someone else.
In fact, yeah, Kokichi could absolutely have prevented Ryoma’s death. Most people, if they’d seen Ryoma’s video and had him asking them where to find it with the earnest plea that he just wants a reason to live, would awkwardly be all “uhhhh not sure you should see it actually”. A reaction like that would probably result in Ryoma figuring out what it contained anyway, which would be just as bad as him seeing it. But Kokichi? He is the one person who could just go “Nope! Not gonna tell you! Because I’m eeeevil, nee-heehee!” or something to that effect, and Ryoma wouldn’t have questioned it. That would have been Kokichi using his villainous persona in a way which is secretly for the purpose of saving someone, like I see frequently argued as what his character is supposedly about. But that’s not what he did. He did the exact opposite, being “helpful” for once and in doing so deliberately giving Ryoma information that he knew was likely to lead to his death.
Shuichi: “Wait a minute, you’re talking as if Ryoma saw that motive video… Didn’t you just say that he only checked the name and didn’t watch the video?”
Uh, localisers? Think you made a booboo here. Shuichi’s definitely supposed to be talking about how Kokichi supposedly only checked the names and didn’t watch the videos in full.
Maki: “…You’re right. He was looking for a reason to live.”
Kokichi: “Which means you shouldn’t have shown him his motive video in the first place.”
Kaito: “Wh-What do you mean? What… did his video show?”
I like how Kaito butts in here because he cares about understanding what happened to Ryoma and can’t comprehend how a motive video could possibly have given him less reason to live.
Monokuma: “This message is for Ryoma Hoshi, the Ultimate Tennis Pro… Unfortunately, there is no one in the world who is important to you!”
Gah. Monokuma just puts it so goddamn bluntly.
Just, seriously, poor Ryoma. Even though he had no reason to live that he knew of, he was so desperate to find one, to find even the tiniest shred of hope. Going to his motive video, where he expected to find that hope, only to be met with absolutely nothing… that right there is genuine despair. These games love to throw around the words “hope” and “despair”, so much that honestly most of the time they kind of forget what the words actually mean, but Ryoma’s story here is a perfect example of their real meanings. And the game doesn’t need to use either of those words at all while telling it!
Kaito: “Th-That’s what he was shown…? If he saw something like that…”
See, I think even Kaito gets it after seeing that.
Tsumugi: “He just… gave up, then?”
Kaito: “To hell with that! That damn moron!”
Kaito does not for a second actually think Ryoma is a moron for being suicidal after what he’s just seen. He’s just lashing out and deflecting his own pain because he realises now more than ever that he could have helped, that he should have helped, and if he had then maybe Ryoma wouldn’t have even wanted to see his motive video and wouldn’t have given up on life like this.
Kirumi: “You are free to judge me for killing Ryoma… I would bear the burden of being seen as evil for the sake of my nation and its people. Because *that* is what it means to serve with selfless devotion.”
I love all of this game’s selfless murderers who are willing to turn themselves into horrible people and become the villain for the sake of others. It’s not that any of them don’t think the murder they commit is an awful, unforgivable act – they’re just selfless enough that they’re okay with corrupting their own integrity and decency like this if it’s the only way they can save everybody else.
Gonta: “Monokuma… Gonta have question…”
Monokuma: “Oh? What is it?”
Gonta: “Can Gonta be blackened instead of Kirumi?”
Oh, Gonta. Of course one of our future selfless murderers would be the first one to offer himself up as a sacrifice to let Kirumi save the rest of the country.
Several of the others agree with Gonta that Kirumi’s life is more valuable than their own and maybe they should have got the culprit wrong.
Shuichi: (Then… what was the point of me doing all this…? Why did I reveal the truth? What have I done…? Was I wrong? I-I shouldn’t have—)
More fuel for Shuichi’s issues about how he’s afraid of revealing the truth! Not only is the idea of the murderers doing it for selfless reasons a strong running theme of this game, but it also fits very well with Shuichi’s arc about the truth being painful sometimes.
Kaito: “What kind of face is that, Shuichi? If you’re my sidekick, then suck it up!”
Shuichi: “…What?”
Kaito: “That goes for all of you! To hell with all this value of life shit! Life’s not just some thing! You can’t trade it or put a price on it!”
Shuichi: “Kaito…”
Kaito: “And your life doesn’t just belong to you. It’s for your parents, your grandparents, your friends, even your neighbors. It’s not something you can just decide to throw away on your own. So we didn’t do the wrong thing! Life’s purpose is to be lived!”
Kaito is so good, yet again. He believes that life is infinitely valuable, and therefore that one life is worth just as much as several and that no one should go throwing their life away, no matter the reason.
Kaito: “So I’m just gonna go ahead and say it! I wanna live!”
I like the way he phrases this. He knows that everyone in this room still wants to live, but it’s like they’re all afraid to admit it because they don’t want to come across as selfish next to Kirumi’s desire to save the country. Kaito puts it this way, as if he’s coming out and saying the thing everyone else also wants to say but won’t, because he believes that there’s never anything selfish or shameful about wanting to live – that’s just what living things are supposed to do.
Kaito: “I haven’t even traveled to space yet. There’s no way in hell I’m gonna die here!”
Reminder #2 that KAITO CANNOT DIE BEFORE HE HAS GONE TO SPACE. This is still important and will never not be.
Maki: *sigh*… “The idiot’s talking again.”
Tenko: “But… he’s right. I mean, you’re right, too. He is an idiot. But he’s right.”
Angie: “Yep! He’s an Atua-damned idiot!”
Miu: “Hahahaha! I dunno why, but idiots always fill me with inspiration!”
Kaito: “H-Hey, shut up! I told you to stop calling me an idiot!”
Yeah, sure, he’s an idiot – an idiot who potentially just saved everybody’s lives with his “idiocy”. All they really mean by “idiot” here is that he’s incredibly straightforward, with his fundamental belief that throwing your life away is always bad regardless of how complex the situation may be, like it is now.
Kokichi: “Maybe his stupid speech is just what we needed to hear. Kirumi certainly looks shaken by it.”
Gonta: “Huh? Shaken…?”
Kirumi: “…”
Kokichi: “Do you really think someone as desperate to live as Kirumi would give up so easily? Of course not. In fact, she probably still hasn’t given up, even now. She was hoping that learning the truth would make one of us volunteer to die in her place.”
See? Kaito just quite possibly saved everyone by having the conviction to not let go of his own desire to live.
Kokichi: “But Monokuma would never allow a blackened to escape punishment, so maybe… she wanted everyone to rebel, so she could use that as cover to escape on her own. …How about it, Kirumi? Am I close?”
Kirumi: “You… are the most detestable cretin I have ever met. You knew exactly what I would attempt, yet allowed me to explain anyway.”
Damn right, Kirumi. Someone needed to say it. She’s got an especially good point that even though he knew her plan, he let her carry it out anyway. Someone who genuinely cared about helping the others would have used that insight to warn everyone before Kirumi started trying it. There are so many things about this killing game that Kokichi is more aware of than everyone else and could be telling the others about to help them stand more chance of escaping – but he doesn’t, because he doesn’t give a fuck about anyone except himself.
(Also, as underhanded as her methods may be right now, Kirumi is so impressively determined. She is still looking for any possible way to get out of this alive even though her situation is almost completely hopeless at this point.)
Gonta: “You… try to trick Gonta!? Try to trick everyone!?”
Miu: “Seriously!? You back-stabbing cunt!”
I would say it’s harsh of people to blame Kirumi for being manipulative when their own desires to sacrifice themselves for her were still genuine. But it does make sense coming from Miu and Gonta specifically – Miu because she’s the second-least trusting of anyone here, and Gonta because he’s still just barely learning to wrap his head around the idea that anyone can be manipulative and want to trick people.
Kaito: “Enough! She was just trying to stay alive in her own way. Nobody can blame her for that!”
But of course Kaito would be the one to shut that kind of talk down. He wants to live strongly enough that he’s not willing to throw his life away for Kirumi’s, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t still respect Kirumi’s desire to live and want her to get out of this alive too if at all possible.
Kirumi: “So no matter what, I cannot die!”
This is accompanied by a voice clip of Kirumi saying, “You must live!”. Oops again, localisers. In Japanese, such a phrase wouldn’t have a subject, and apparently when translating the short voice clips, they didn’t necessarily know the story context they’d be used in, so they clearly didn’t realise that this one was obviously supposed to be “I must live!”
Shuichi: (She just ran as fast as she could. …I heard my voice call out.) “R-Run… Run! Run, Kirumi!!!”
Tenko: “Please ruuuun!!!”
Keebo: “Run! Please hurry!”
Kaito: “Hurry! Run!”
I like everyone else cheering her on like this – even after what she did to them, they still all want her to survive! Even Kaito, who was the one who stopped everyone else from sacrificing themselves for her!
Also, props to Kirumi’s voice actor for going all in on this part. Like, damn.
It’s a neat touch how in the usual “Game Over” animation, Kirumi is still running the fuck away instead of being dragged. I’m not sure where she’s planning on running to, though. Presumably the only way out of the trialgrounds is the elevator, which I imagine only works when Monokuma wants it to. The only other things in the trialgrounds she could run towards would be… oh, yeah, right. The execution devices. Whoops.
I’m reasonably appreciative of Kirumi’s execution, because it’s very relevant to her relentless determination to escape and her willingness to utterly destroy herself for the sake of her people. Could do without yet more fanservicey clothing damage, though.
Apparently, it’s based off a Buddhist story about a prisoner in Hell who was given the opportunity to escape by climbing out up a thin thread, but then other prisoners started climbing up beneath him, he didn’t want them to escape with him and he shook the thread causing it to break and all of them to fall back into Hell. But I gather the point of that story is supposed to be that the prisoner’s selfishness was his downfall, because he wasn’t willing to let anyone but himself escape. That really doesn’t fit for Kirumi. She would have been more than happy to escape with everyone else if she could have done. It’s only thanks to Monokuma’s ruleset and not her own will that she had to try and sacrifice them.
Kokichi: “I… I can’t take this anymore… Even Kirumi was killed so brutally… WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!! I DON’T WANNA DO THIS ANYMOOORE!!!!!”
Sure, Kokichi, you just keep overexaggerating your feelings so that you can tell yourself they’re all just an act and you don’t actually care at all that someone was killed horribly.
Himiko: “A-Am I… gonna… end up like that too…?”
A rare case of Himiko actually expressing how scared she is! The shock of the awful execution might have brought it out of her and made her forget to hide it behind Atua.
Shuichi: “That must be why Kirumi did not want to show the videos. She thought that if everyone felt the same murderous rage that she did… this killing game would become pure chaos. She… wanted to stop it.”
Kokichi: “If that’s the case, then we really shouldn’t show our videos to each other!”
Keebo: “That was our consensus from the beginning. Not including you, of course.”
Shuichi’s right, and this is exactly why Kokichi’s attempt to get everyone to watch the videos without any sense of camaraderie was a terrible idea and why his reasons for doing so were not for everyone’s sake.
Kiyo: “I had assumed Kokichi would try to show us our videos to… get under our skin. But that did not come to pass. What, I wonder, were his intentions…?”
Kokichi: “Huh? I’d never do anything like that. I’m still thinking about what Kirumi said.”
Yeah, Kokichi, you’d never try to get under people’s skin, it’s not like that’s your entire talent and the point of your “secret, evil organisation” or anything.
By “what Kirumi said” he means the hint that the videos worked like Flashback Lights, which, now that we know that, is a very good reason to not share them. But Kokichi saw his own video too, so he’s the only other person who might have already known about their Flashback Light effects. If he knew that before he tried to show everyone the videos then he clearly cared even less about protecting everyone.
Shuichi: “Still… how could Kirumi remember something she never should have forgotten? Serving the entire nation seems too important for her to just… forget.”
Yep, it’s almost like Flashback Lights don’t recover lost memories at all.
Tenko: “Does that mean we have motives to kill that we’ll remember by watching our videos?”
Shuichi: “And if that’s the case, maybe it’s for the best that we don’t watch the videos. As long as we don’t see the videos, we won’t know our motives.”
Kaito: “Yeah, now I’m convinced. It’s probably for the best. Those motive videos would just mess us up. It’s better if we just believe in each other.”
The first time Kaito “changed his mind” about what to do with the motive videos, it was less that he’d really changed his mind and more that he’d just gone from being unsure to actually having a strong opinion. But now he’s very decidedly changed his opinion to the opposite one. Kaito is very adamant about sticking to his convictions, but despite this he is still also willing to change his views if new information comes to light that makes him re-evaluate things and realise he was mistaken.
Kiyo: “Hearing you speak of everyone’s sake is the least believable lie I’ve heard yet…”
Kokichi: “How rude. I’m always doing stuff for everyone’s sake. I’m sure you won’t believe me when I say stuff like that, so I’ll just keep lying…”
No. Kokichi is not doing anything for everyone’s sake. If he really cared about everyone else, he should be acting in literally any way other than this.
Kokichi: “But maybe seeing Kirumi’s final moments has made me change my views.”
I doubt it, considering how completely impossible it is to get Kokichi to even acknowledge how he really feels on the inside, let alone act upon it and change himself as a person.
Kokichi: “Running away to live… might not be a bad idea.”
…Although this is interesting. Implying that Kokichi wasn’t already planning on living, and Kirumi made him vaguely consider actually finding a way to survive himself. But, well, guess he really doesn’t change his mind about that after all, then.
Kaito: “Yeah, true… It’s okay to run sometimes. You just gotta win in the end. That’s all you gotta do…”
Meanwhile this situation has genuinely made Kaito change a little and realise that you can’t always throw yourself recklessly at every obstacle and expect to never get killed. He’s accepting that sometimes you have to back down and take minor losses for the sake of surviving, just so long as you don’t give up overall.
Gonta: “It’s just… even when all this bad stuff happens, stars are always so pretty. But stars here different. Not same ones Gonta used to.”
Shuichi: “Different? Do you mean… the position of the stars?”
Gonta: “Yeah… Gonta looking, but no can find star he remembers.”
This is supposed to be a hint at the backstory of them all being sent to space. It wouldn’t be hard to give Gonta memories of stars that are different to the ones up there.
Although… isn’t the story that they were taken back to Earth? That’s what the fake outside world on the other side of the tunnel is for. They were only meant to be in cold sleep for a few hundred years; the stars shouldn’t have changed significantly enough in that time.
That said, the stars they’re seeing are only false projections onto the dome, so they could be anything. But in story, the starscape projected onto the dome would presumably be the correct one, right?
Regardless, I’m also calling bullshit on the fact that Kaito doesn’t recognise that the stars are wrong too. You’d think he’d be another person who’d definitely know what they’re meant to look like.
Kokichi: “Everyone seems to be treating me like some kinda compulsive liar… But that’s ridiculous! There’s a way worse liar than me in our group!”
Shuichi: “A liar worse than you?��
Kokichi: “… …I’m talking about Maki.”
Of course Kokichi would think that Maki, who is lying about precisely one thing, is a “worse liar” than someone who lies every other sentence. Because someone who lies all the time and never gives anyone any reason to trust them is totally fine, but someone who claims to be trustworthy and is lying about that – that’s the most terrible kind of lie anyone can tell, right?
Kaito: “What do you mean, Maki’s a liar?”
Ha, of course Kaito would care and butt in about this.
Kokichi: “Ryoma was blackmailing you, wasn’t he, Maki?”
Keebo: “B-Blackmail?”
Kokichi: “Ryoma just so happened to discover Maki’s true identity. So he used that to blackmail her. I bet he said something like… ‘If you don’t show me my motive video, I’ll tell everyone what you really are.’”
This is complete and utter bullshit. Ryoma is not the kind of guy who would threaten another person like that. Especially not when he would have seen in the video exactly why Maki is an assassin, and when he himself has killed several people and is therefore in no position to judge someone else for it. Kokichi is only assuming that Ryoma blackmailed Maki because that’s exactly what he would have done in Ryoma’s position, and he’s projecting his own distrusting, manipulative assholery onto everyone else.
I think it’s likely that Ryoma mentioned that he’d seen Maki’s true talent, which might have contributed to Maki being unwilling to admit that they met, but there’s no way Ryoma would have threatened to tell anybody else about it. To put it how Ryoma would, that’s just not cool.
Kaito: “Wh-Why you… What shit are you making up now? Maki’s true identity? What—”
I like how Kaito assumes that Kokichi is making up shit to discredit Maki. It’s almost like that’s basically what Kokichi was doing the entire trial and Kaito has every reason to assume he’d keep doing that even though this time he’s actually telling the truth.
Kokichi: “Nee-heehee, I’ve known Maki’s true identity the whole time.”
Maki: “…!”
Shuichi: (For a moment there, I thought Maki had disappeared… She moved so fast…)
Kokichi: “…Gh!”
Maki is so terrified of everyone finding out. The moment she hears confirmation that Kokichi definitely knows her talent, she immediately attempts to shut him up. Even though this attempt is desperate and hopeless – they both know that she can’t kill him in front of everyone unless she wants a very swift trial and execution. She’s just trying to intimidate him into keeping quiet, but since he’s smart enough to keep his cool and know that the threat is empty, it won’t work.
Kaito: “H-Hey, Maki! What the hell is going on?”
Kaito is still trying to understand Maki and figure out why she’d suddenly threaten to kill someone like this.
Kokichi: “Y-Yeah… you can probably… snap my neck like a twig right now… But that’s… not your style… Y-You would rather… kill from the shadows…”
As if it’s remotely about this being her style and not the fact that if she killed you in front of everyone she’d be immediately executed. He’s still just trying to force across the fact that since she’s an assassin she’s obviously a sneaky, horrible, backstabbing person that nobody should ever trust or like, right.
We don’t see what happens after Kokichi reveals her talent, but Maki probably dropped him in defeat as soon as he did. There’s no point her threatening him any more now that the worst possible scenario has come to pass, after all.
I imagine that she left to hole herself up in her dorm without a word soon after, while everyone else was busy being shocked. And that Kaito tried to call out to her and get her to talk, to no avail.
---
[Chapter-end ramble] [Next post]
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:D Finally someone else who likes the Monokubs!! Queation: do you have any headcannons for the kubs?
Oh boy do I ever!!! Because no character, no matter how minor, is safe from my constant need to analyze their story and put my headcanons on it even if they’re fuckin homicidal little teddies
As an umbrella thing I personally think the Monokubs operate differently from Monokuma. Where Monokuma requires the presence of the mastermind to be active because he needs to be controlled (Shirokuma and Kurokuma also apply here) I think the Kubs operate like Usami does, having actual programmed autonomous AI, hence why they were still active during the time in chapter 1 that Monokuma was “killed”, and therefore absent for a period of time. They have little programmed minds of their own and don’t need the mastermind’s input to do stuff. Now, on to the individual Kubs (this is largely just headcanons on their relationships with one another as a family or little things I think the Kubs do on their spare time like Monodam mentions in a Monodam Theater segment)
Monokid
- nowhere in his programming was he given the ability or knowledge to control his emotions, specifically regulate reactions, hence why he gets loud and excited or screams at the most minor of provocations
- can’t actually play the guitar he can just strum it in an attempt at recreating a rhythm
- of the small rooms the Kubs and Monokuma were given in the top attic-like floor of the academy, his is by far the messiest, one window is totally smashed and almost all of his furniture is broken in some way
- probably best that the Kubs never really wander the academy unless called because if he saw a murder happen literally the entire academy would know what was going on because he would SCREAM
- honey isn’t actually like an alcoholic beverage to bears, it’s just. Just Monokid it does weird shit to
- goes after Monophanie if Monodam isn’t available as a punching bag
- actually kind of respects and thinks Monosuke is cool (the feeling is NOT mutual)
- his best friend is probably Monotaro but they need to never be left unsupervised because they can and will level the entire campus with the pure chaotic games they play together
- in terms of his favorite student aside from Kiibo, who is his babysitter, he is drawn to Kaede because of her musical talent and will often just... show up in her lab unannounced and watch her play the piano for an uncomfortably long time
Monodam
- Loves replicating things he sees on TV. He sees characters build a fort on a show? He’s gonna do that. Characters are hosting a slumber party on whatever he’s watching? Heck yeah sibling bonding time. Watching the Matrix? LET’S GET THE AIRSOFT GUNS FROM HARUKAWA’S LAB AND PRACTICE DODGING BULLETS, GUYS!
- Wants to wear some kind of neat accessory like his siblings
- Also wants to learn how to do yo-yo tricks but he has no fingers :(
- Monosuke organizes poker games between all the Kubs every Saturday and despite never playing poker before in his life and not really understanding the game in the slightest Monodam is insanely good at it and keeps winning
- Keeps his own living space very tidy, he gets a nice feeling of satisfaction when things look nice
- Pushed Monokid down the casino basement stairs once on “accident”
- Does all the Kubs’ grunt work
- His best friend among his siblings is probably Monophanie, they do arts and crafts stuff together and bond over their mutual preference for peace and getting along
- Of the students his favorite is Saihara, who he admires the talent of and refers to him as “detective”, often asking him random questions about secrets of the school to see if the shsl detective had already figured them out
Monosuke
- ftm transboy!! ( if you notice he shares a few physical similarities with his sister, Monophanie. Not just the eyelashes, but the white jagged eye, too, something none of the other brothers have, just Monophanie aside from him. Silly headcanon I know but you can pry it out of my cold dead hands )
- Takes no shit. Zero. None. Will cut a bitch if given the chance.
- gets overexcited about some things and accidentally will blab about info ahead of time (he SUCKS at keeping secrets)
- the Monokubs have zero need for real currency inside the academy’s walls, there’s absolutely no economy in an academy of 16 teenagers and 6 stuffed bears so why is he so obsessed with making a stable profit?? No one knows
- Hates receiving affection from his father and will peace out if he sees anything like that coming
- gets roped into a bunch of schemes his siblings come up with and won’t try and stop them or anything, he’ll just bitch nonstop about how bad of an idea this is
- actually good at organizing events like poker nights, movie nights, what have you
- his best friend among his siblings is probably Monophanie, the two have been close since they were first created
- as for his favorite student, he hates literally everyone (his babysitter, Kiibo, included) but honestly thinks Ouma is great because of how much he stirs the pot, and Monosuke loves shit stirrers like that
Monophanie
- soft pink shit like, everywhere. Her room is covered in pink carpet, the super plush kind that’s basically like walking on a mat of faux fur
- in addition to constantly puking if she gets really caught off guard she can have then occasional fainting spell
- waters any and all plants on campus, even if they’re weeds. If it has a flower it’s hers now and she will care for it forever
- actually requests a lot of practical things from her siblings, surprisingly, like soundproofing Monokid’s room and fortifying the walls of Monotaro’s room so his ninja stars stop busting through the other side when he throws them
- ships all of the students with each other. All of them
- the love hotel was probably her idea though she had envisioned something much more cheesy-romantic and wholesome than what her father did instead
- loves crafts!! Especially making flower crowns and leis to cover her brothers in
- of her siblings, her best friend is probably Monodam, she thinks he’s adorable and appreciates his calmer, quiet nature compared to the rest of her weird-ass brothers
- in terms of her favorite student, she thinks Yumeno is adorable and finds her magic so cool, she probably sneaks away from whatever important thing the Kubs are doing to watch Yumeno’s occasional shows
Monotaro
- the literal living emobiment of “I just walked into this room super excited to do something very important but now that I’m here for the life of me I can’t remember what it was”
- shirks chores and responsibilities completely unintentionally, because he just simply forgets about them and spends the rest of his day doing other pointless tasks
- his room is a disaster and it’s a wonder how he finds what he needs in there, but he always manages to get by somehow
- loves playing computer games
- forgets he loves playing computer games
- he’s “discovered” his love for computer games about ten times now
- is convinced he’a the leader but it’s really just Monosuke and Monodam doing everything from the shadows and then Monotaro being thoroughly convinced he was actually being helpful
- his best friend is, of course, Monokid, because he’s his wildest sibling and they can go out and play rowdy, rough and high energy games together
- while kiibo is generally liked among all the Kubs, Monotaro is by far the closest to him and loves the robot to bits, often following him around campus when he forgets what he’s supposed to be doing, because if he “follows Daddy around, he’ll figure it out eventually”
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Let’s finish the Prologue for Danagn Ronpa V3, for real this time! Hopefully.
Right, we need to go to the gym.
And here we are. It’s time to begin...
Tsumugi referred to herself in the third person for some reason. Not in the same kind of way Gonta does, though.
Yeah good luck getting Himiko to use actual magic, Tenko. That ain’t happening. Outside of a potential execution sequence that is. (Oh god, if she kills someone, her execution sequence is gonna be magic tricks ending with the “saw a person in half” one, but the saw actually cuts her in half. Oh no.)
Kokichi is scared...or is that another lie?
And right after Kaito says he’ll kick the Monokubs asses...Gonta hears a weird sound. The Exisals, if I have to guess.
Yuuuuuup.
Kokichi is the only one not freaking out, because he thinks the giant robots are really cool. Which they are, but there’s a time and a place for everything, you know?
Did Kokichi just imply that Himiko is ugly? She’s kinda cute, actually.
Yeah, Kaito wasn’t preparing for giant fuckin robots.
Rantaro doesn’t think the group’s in danger. Probably because if they were, they’d already be dead? Yup.
Rantaro has this situation under some modicum of control. Yup, this is coercion by force.
Monodam spoke for the first time in the game. With a whammy line like that one, too.
The Monkubs are fighting each other, but I don’t think it’ll get far enough for an Exisal or two to get destroyed, sadly.
And just as Keebo suggests fleeing, a new voice! I’ve got a good idea as to who it is.
Yeah that’s Monokuma alright, no doubt about it.
“Father”...why would a mastermind need to have the Monokubs around...but why would an AI have kids...? What is Monokuma’s true nature this time around...?
...Never call Monokuma “daddy” again, please.
What’s with the wings...oh, they’re fake.
And the first thing Monokuma says is that he’s the god of this new world...That’s concerning. Especially considering how every time the phrase New World was bought up in DR2, it ended up having a deeper meaning - the Neo World Program.
Does he have a new voice actor or something? He sounds more feminine than before. A bit higher pitched than I remember.
Yeah the prologue IS kinda taking longer than I’d thought.
And he just blasts the Monokubs aside haha
Second generation failures, huh. Sucks to be you, kubs.
Hey Monokuma, what’s with the Nazi uniform hat in this CG sequence?
“Cuz Daddy gets all his alternate facts from the most trusted names in fake news!” A little too on-the-nose there, Monophanie
“I can see it...the despair and madness swirling around that cursed thing...” hey Kiyo, lemme tell you. You are not wrong.
Yeah, I guess if Keebo exists, Monokuma not having a mastermind behind him can make some amount of sense...
And here comes the killing game explanation.
Ah, so when Monokid kept mentioning his “rock hard rager”, it was exactly what I thought it was.
Still, there hasn’t been a motive for murder handed out yet. I suspect both carrot and stick are forthcoming, though.
And here’s the intro sequence movie!
Why were there missiles or meteoroids or whatever raining down in that one shot? And there was that image of Kaede with some device strapped to her head, like we got a vision of at the (second) beginning. And all the Ultimates had weird shadows with blood-colored eyes (well Danganronpa blood’s color, at least).
“Achievement unlocked: Ultimate Cold Open” yeah pretty much
Also, we’ve got no concrete reason to kill yet. Monokuma hasn’t said anything about us escaping the Academy if we win, or if the Exisals will kill us after a certain amount of time if no one kills each other, or anything...
Anyways we got an Academy badge present.
Next time...chapter 1!
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