#and i do not blame them because they are all really talented cosplayers who do not get the attention that they deserve | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ryouverua · 5 years

Text

Trial 5 - Post-Execution

Investigation 1 / 2 - second half is where I put my own theories that I penned before playing the trial.

Trial: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8

Pre-Execution

;’’’) That’s a good look on you, Monokuma.

what this no i’m not crying you’re crying shUT UP

Have any other executions ended with the corpse literally landing in front of them in the trial room? I feel like this is a first???

uUM

K.... K1-b0? Buddy? Are - uh - are you okay? You’re looking a bit.... ?????

A-ARE YOU THOUGH -

Uh, okay??? So I want to go over Kaito’s execution and be upset about his death and everything but suddenly, this? This came out of nowhere??? also skldfj they took the ahoge off his sprite too omg

Crap I badly want to mourn Kaito for a while and yeah this is taking away from that but I don’t exactly want to not address K1-b0 literally BSoD-ing in front of us -

Oh! Gloating! I’m good for gloating too. Rub it in his face, Sweetcheeks. You’ve got my full backing here.

Normally I’m against kicking someone while they’re down but KICK HIM! KICK KICK KICK! I’m so down for this collective group smack-down.

Man, this Monokuma has been so much less in control and emotional than the previous Monokumas. I mean, the competition is pretty stacked - last Monokuma was literally the god of his world and an omniscient being that pervaded their entire ecosystem with one exception - but between throwing up a second motive in the first chapter, getting ‘overthrown’ by Monodam ** (even if he ‘went on vacation’ and this entire chapter, this ^ guy is barely hanging on by his teeth.

** I just realized the whole ‘Monodam takes over the killing game’ may have been bloody foreshadowing for this chapter sdlkfj

Monodam even got pushed to his limit for all of a whole chapter/killed two Monokubs and even though Kokichi didn’t directly kill them, he does have Gonta and Miu’s aka two classmate’s blood on his hands even with the most charitable look at chapter 4′s events before both Monodam and he ultimately take actions to end their own lives

this has been another mini-episode of ‘I read into things too much’

ANYWAY quietly skips over everything but the most pertinent Monokub dialogue, don’t mind me ~

Who would though, at this point? .... K1-b0, depending on what’s going on with him right now?

Shuichi is so pumped up thanks to Kaito and Kokichi’s teamwork! This has to be what Kaito was hoping for. Kokichi probably wanted to win the trial in its entirety, though...

Something about him saying ‘you’re certainly entitled to your opinion’ is incredibly grating and hilarious. It’s so.... passive-aggressive and banal? So un-Monokuma? I feel like behind the plushie, someone is pouting with their arms crossed tightly and just grumbling to themselves. They can’t even muster up a whole ~despair~ rant right now.

SWEETCHEEKS SWORE :O

I want to make a fun reference to Saimota but then I remember Kaito’s corpse is still warm on the ground a few feet away from them and I cry

LMAO IT SWITCHED TO A SILENT K1-B0 IMMEDIATELY AFTER....

K1-b0 isn’t about to like... become a killing game enforcer or something??? Like, completely flip his switch? fml this silence is dangerous

blah blah blah monokubs do their ‘cute’ schtick and I get tired of it, anyway -

oh great, it’s the sprite I blocked out of my brain up to this point

DID MONOPHANIE JUST DRAG ME

Please put away the tongue when they leave ffs

Aaah damn it, here comes the hammer. D:

Participant......... and then he mentioned about it going on for a long time, so.... a cycle...??? If Rantaro is repeating it, does that mean they’re all repeating it...??? The same sets of personalities/memories/talents, in new bodies every time or something - ? Is that an idea I should follow -

FFFF DID MONOKUMA JUST FLASH US

YES, PUN FULLY INTENDED SOMEONE HAS TO MAKE THOSE JOKES IN MIU’S ABSENCE

yeah hilariously while I was starting to think more about his statements Monokuma literally surprised me just like he surprised Shuichi and the rest of them lmao

Meanwhile Sweetcheeks is just twitching beside her, possibly even foaming at the mouth -

YEAH WHERE’S THE NEXT SET OF MEMORIES, BUDDY

anyway he talks about despair and hope again, I glare at the yellow text with tired resignation, etc

It really does sound like it’s something that’s repeating when he puts it like that, right??? And with Rantaro’s video - what is this, a test simulation of the gopher project or something?

Another wild theory appears - the original students with the talents Makoto/Hope’s Peak wanted to preserve, or for whatever reason digitized their memories/personalities/talents (think Gonta Alter-Ego) died - or were ‘hunted down’ aka the Ultimate Hunt - and in their place they pick up 16 ordinary kids to give them to, possibly by force. Or hell, maybe not, if Rantaro remembers and said something like ‘you wanted this’, though wasn’t that in regards to the killing game??? And then... they set up a simulation? Maybe? To test their viability? .... The question is who introduced Monokuma to the whole thing. Is that part of the test, or was that the cult sneaking in... and if the students really are ‘easily replaceable’, are they just picking up new ordinary kids as replacements? Are they looking for an outcome where they can defeat Monokuma? If this is a simulation, does it operate under the same rules as the NeoWorld program, where they die in real life?

Eeh... not sure how I feel about this. It feels like it has holes still. 8′D

ffffffff

!!!!!!

Aaaaw....

I mean I think we knew after the deductions in the first chapter but yes, mastermind confirmed - ! And -

WHAT

N O

W H A T

please go away

I-I MEAN... YOU REALLY DON’T.... HAVE TO...

BANGS HEAD AGAINST WALL

asdlkfjsdl why junko WHY MUST YOU BE BACK

So I was going to put this at the end of the post but then A LOT OF STUFF happened at the end of the chapter and it... doesn’t really fit there....

Okay... t-there is a second option. I mean, Junko could really be back for the third (fourth? do Shiro/Kurokuma in UDG count?) time and I really hope that isn’t the case fff - but ‘Junko’ facing away from us for a reason, right? Which means it could be someone dressed as her, right? Even if it did sound like her seiyuu...

But out of everyone left, assuming this isn’t happening at the exact same time/immediately after the trial... well, I mean, out of everyone alive, two people could be in Junko-dress right now, right? Both Maki and Tsumugi could fit, and considering we haven’t gotten to look at Tsumugi at all and her talent... I’m heavily leaning towards her.

..... except.................. cospox though. Crap. Hmm....

I think... I could maybe follow up on some of the speculating I made in this post? About Junko being elevated to a larger-than-life figure in history? Maybe there’s some leeway in there, in the same way that we have historical figures that end up being featured prominently in fiction, or even become warped/satirized in various ways because they’re so removed from us in our current time... and perhaps Junko has become more than a person in that same way, or even more than that, a title/role that can be inherited and passed down? Is it possible to get around cospox that way? It would fit in with her early Chapter 1 comments - let me see if I can dig them up from my old posts - ah this one, here, if you want to look at it. i also am totally into what she’s saying if you’re wondering why I remember this so well lmao

If she is from the cult... and this is a parallel to Angie, who constantly spoke about being a conduit for Atua’s message, Korekiyo, who was just a vessel for his sister according to himself, and Kaito, who literally acted in Kokichi’s place............. maybe....... this could work........... ????

...... except I don’t know if it’s enough of a stretch to get around this. I MEAN. MAYBE IT IS. MAYBE. I could just be stretching reeeeeeally far in order to avoid an inevitable Junko returning. maybe i just want to see the power of the ultimate cosplayer since it’s a hobby so dear to my heart idek

Whelp it doesn’t matter the scene is moving on without me anyway so 8′D

FUCK NO MORE TRAINING TIME OR TRAINING JOKES OR STUPID TITLES FOR THE TRAINING POSTS THIS IS THE WORST TIMELINE

Man I really love the close connections Shuichi has to people in this game. Maybe that’s why I’ve been enjoying it so much? He recognizes his classmates and what they have to offer, sure - but he’s a regular kid. He’s got his favoured connections, and the people whose deaths he feels more powerfully than the others, and the reactions he has to everything around him... well, maybe that’s my own bias because they really resonate with me. I don’t usually have much of an interest for audience surrogate characters (I don’t dislike them, I just, you know, don’t adore them or anything) but - and I know now that this is a divisive topic - I really like Shuichi’s personality. I really do. And I think he has one. He’s a quiet guy - he keeps most of his thoughts on the inside - and I get that for a lot of people, quiet = no personality, but the way he has responded to a lot of the situations that have come up previously have both been different than what I’m used to seeing from ‘protagonist’ characters and, erm, pretty... familiar to me personally and that has been a bit of a shock tbh. seriously what’s with this - same birthday, same blood-type, same hobbies, likes and dislikes, same Best Boy, etc....

I’m not sure where this tangent is going tbh, but I guess I’m sorta gearing up for next chapter? We don’t have many people left to work with. 8′D Kaito’s gone, Kokichi is gone, and all we have left are a collection of differing quiet personalities. It’s going to be very, very different, that’s for sure.

“Oh yeah I forgot this turned into a group activity like, three sessions in.”

“I mean, you did too by poisoning them both, but that’s neither here nor there.”

I am being a bit harsh on her though - to her credit, she seemed initially confused about why he was blaming himself (despite him repeating all the things she said to him during the beginning of the trial). There’s no one left to connect them now and she seems to have realized that - they’re going to have to finally do the heavy work themselves.

Like Chapter 4 Maki, I feel like she’s speaking in that same roundabout way she did when asking about Shuichi’s interest in Kaede. “Are you lonely too?” or even, “do you need someone to talk to/be with who understands how you feel?” She still has a lot of trouble being forthright but it’s great that she’s taking the initiative, especially after her earlier confession.

I hate to say it, but I think Shuichi may have ended up in a similar state as Ryoma after Chapter 1 if he was left spinning his own wheels...

Solidarity. 8′/

!!!

For all the things that he did... fml I can’t think of anything better. He spent so much of his time trying to bring you both out of your shells!

I wonder if Shuichi is including his entire class in there. It was only a few days ago that Kokichi said he considered them all friends too. Also Korekiyo hilariously enough

omg they’re still so painfully awkward but it’s so sad and relatable and they’re trying to start building a bridge without Kaito acting as their support...

Ooh! This is the first time they’ve been approached aside from Tenko in Chapter 3, right?

Aaaw he’s so happy to see them. 8′)

YES!!! New team training! New team training!

Yes this is exactly what they need to do after the trial! They need to stick together! ... Now where the hell is K1-b0???

quietly skips over Tsumugi telling us we won’t lose to despair because I am stubbornly clinging to the time before hope/despair was brought back up -

- Sweetcheeks why

so much goddamn hope

But I’ll allow it because it’s leading to an overdue cheesy friendship speech and after the tragedy of chapter 5 I need that right now.

Though... hm. I was sort of hoping Shuichi and Maki could hash out some of her actions in the last trial, or Maki would offer some kind of apology. Would that have happened if they weren’t interrupted?

Yeeessss new image! I love it! Also lmao Himiko maybe you’d manage to finish one if you took the big bulky hat off...

Good - a commitment to keep living is important, especially from Shuichi. Now the majority of you are carrying someone’s wish, huh... except Tsumugi, unless you count Gonta maybe. I figure Miu could count for K1-b0, though I guess that’s a bit of a stretch too?

fuck my heart had been ripped out and stomped on, especially with the flashback to third chapter training:

.... See you, Space Cowboy.

Now fade to bla -

..... Huh.

I’m glad one of you is concerned after what happened. 8′/ I’ll excuse Shuichi and Maki because they have every right to be distracted by grief but between you and Himiko you couldn’t keep an eye on him?

Because seriously, none of them know where he is. And there is no way that’s a good thing.

BUT SOLIDARITY!!! also robophobic!!!

Well that’s an ominous way to end the chapte - oh never mind it’s not over??? What, three ‘epilogues’ this time? Not that I’m complaining because I’m happy to extend the trial for as long as necessary but jeez -

K.... K1-b0???

It was lost after the accident??? So it wasn’t just programming... a... a transmission then? So it really was some sort of antenna...

Wait that makes it sound like you weren’t just using it for guidance but actually being controlled by it?!

More hope and despair references -

Music change???

Wait, dude, what do you mean by that -

What

WAIT WHAt ARE THOSE TURBOBOOSTERS

HE CAN FLY?!?!

UM EXCUSE ME WHERE DID THIS COME FROM

Kokichi was dying to see all of these cool functions and only now when he’s literally dead do you show them off? RUDE

WAIT WHAT THE FUCK K1-B0 THERE ARE STILL LIVING STUDENTS DOWN THERE

MISSILES TOO -

OH WOW UM OKAY THIS WAS NOT THE QUIET CONTEMPLATIVE END-OF-CHAPTER SCENE I THOUGHT WE’D BE GETTING DEAR LORD

dON’T YOU ‘END TITLE’ CARD ME, GAME

a;sdlkfja

i forgot this

happened at the end of the

chapter

oh god

skldfj

ugh, ghghhgh

cool thanks sweetcheeks and I will cherish this forever,,,

...

assuming he survives long enough to

#Ryou plays drv3 #Shuichi Saihara #Maki Harukawa #Kiibo #Keebo #K1-b0 #Kaito Momota #spoilers #drv3 spoilers #Himiko Yumeno #Tsumugi Shirogane

46 notes · View notes

fraeulein-elster · 6 years

Note

For the ask thing: all of em (if you want)

omg okay challenge accepted:1. What is you middle name?Ann2. How old are you?273. When is your birthday?the 6th of september4. What is your zodiac sign?Virgo5.What is your favorite color?blue and pastel pink

6.What’s your lucky number?3

7.Do you have any pets?not anymore, no :(

8.Where are you from?good ol’ Germany. Northern Germany

9.How tall are you?5′8′’

10.What shoe size are you?european 41 (US 7)

11.How many pairs of shoes do you own?honestly I have no idea. I have at least 3 or 4 different kinds of black high heels, 2 or 3 pairs of other high heels, I have my ranger boots, my pastel pink winter boots, my normal black boots, I have 2 pairs of black boots that I bought for cosplay.. don’t make me count them all :D

12.What was your last dream about?it was something absolutely random and I remember my mom being in it. but I have no idea what it was about.

13.What talents do you have?my talents include overthinking, being depressed and lonely and isolating myself and also hating myself, I’m really good at this.

14.Are you psychic in any way?not that I know of. I have a pretty good intuition most of the time though.

15.Favorite song?atm it’s “Kætteren” by Myrkur

16.Favorite movie?Spirited Away

17.Who would be your ideal partner?I don’t think about that too much. I’d be happy with someone equally weird as me, nice and considerate, respectful and open minded. I tend to fall for unusual people.

18.Do you want children?yes and no. I love children and would love to have kids of my own but I also don’t want them to experience this fucked up world. I would just feel guilty and the need to protect them from everything.

19.Do you want a church wedding?fuck no. what am I supposed to do in a church?

20.Are you religious?kinda. I am what the kids call a filthy heathen.

21.Have you ever been to the hospital?nope. only to visit others. and for my own birth of course, lol.

22.Have you ever got in trouble with the law?no. I’m a good noodle.

23.Have you ever met any celebrities?sadly not.

24.Baths or showers?well if I had a proper bath tub I would take a bath more often but I only have a shower so yeah.

25.What color socks are you wearing?beige

26.Have you ever been famous?hahaha what no. well there was a time back in 2012 when everyone and their mom lost their shit about some pictures featuring me and my dearest friend @fahrlight in our Natasha Romanoff + Loki cosplays. that was wild. but people quickly lost interest in me (and I don’t blame them, I’m not a frequent cosplayer and also a potato face)

27.Would you like to be a big celebrity?nah not really. I would like to be a good actress though.so anyone wanna hire me for their film projects? I’m not a trained actress but I’m very passionate about it xD

28.What type of music do you like?metal. heck yeah.

29.Have you ever been skinny dipping?nope.

30. how many pillows do you sleep with?only one and that one’s pretty flat because I get headaches when my head is too high up while sleeping and I have problems breathing when my face is buried in fabric and fluffiness.

31. What position do you usually sleep in?fetal probably xD or on my belly (my boobs hate me for that but I like it too much to stop)

32.How big is your house?my apartment is about 60 square meters.

33.What do you typically have for breakfast?an apple and 3-4 slices of bread mostly (when I’m at work)on the weekends I’ll have anything that’s close enough to grab without moving too much.

34.Have you ever fired a gun?not a gun but a crossbow.

35.Have you ever tried archery?not really no. but I’d love to.

36.Favorite clean word?crunchy

37.Favorite swear word?I say fuck a lot. like, a LOT!

38.What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without sleep?I like sleep too much so I think about 20 - 24 hours?

39.Do you have any scars?yup.

40.Have you ever had a secret admirer?hahahahaha no I don’t think so. I’m disgusting.

41.Are you a good liar?I think so? maybe??

42.Are you a good judge of character?most of the time, yes.

43.Can you do any other accents other than your own?nah, sometimes I like to switch between germany dialects but that’s all. anything else besides our northern german dialect sounds stupid anyway ;) kidding, you guys are okay.

44.Do you have a strong accent?hahaha apparently I do. one friend (who is from another state in germany) told me “you really sound like a northern german” and I never really realized that before :D

45.What is your favorite accent?wtf’s up with accents anyway? I don’t have a favorite besides our own of course xD but I do like listening to foreigners speaking german.

46.What is your personality type?INFP (if this is what the question is about)

47.What is your most expensive piece of clothing?I have no idea, I try not to waste too much money on one piece of clothing.

48.Can you curl your tongue?yes I can.

49.Are you an innie or an outie?both actually :D

50.Left or right handed?right.

51.Are you scared of spiders?ugh, yes I am. they’re disgusting.

52.Favorite food?pasta, fish, tomatos, kale, coleslaw (!)

53.Favorite foreign food?sushi

54.Are you a clean or messy person?kinda both

55.Most used phrased?in german I say “das ist ja nicht so knusprig” a lot, which translates to “that’s not very crunchy” and I say that to everything. I’m fucking weird.

56.Most used word?probably “fuck”

57.How long does it take for you to get ready?on work days about 45 minutes for showering, brushing teeth, preparing my breakfast for work, putting on make up and getting dressed.

58.Do you have much of an ego?I’m pretty positive I lost it somewhere.

59.Do you suck or bite lollipops?I only bite them when they’re almost gone.

60.Do you talk to yourself?all the fucking time. every day. I also talk to my dolls and call them my children.

61.Do you sing to yourself?yes

62.Are you a good singer?nah, not really. but also not super bad.

63.Biggest Fear?fire, strangers, spiders

64.Are you a gossip?not really but I sure do like listening to people spilling some tea sometimes.

65.Best dramatic movie you’ve seen?I don’t really pay attention to the genre when I’m watching a movie.

66.Do you like long or short hair?depends on the person but I do have a preference for long hair, also on myself.

67.Can you name all 50 states of America?of course not, I’m from germany. the last time I was in school learning about that was at least 10 years ago.

68.Favorite school subject?english, in which I had even better grades than in german, don’t ask me why.

69.Extrovert or Introvert?I would say occasionally outgoing introvert

70.Have you ever been scuba diving?no but I’d also love to do that!

71.What makes you nervous?social interactions of any kind.

72.Are you scared of the dark?nope. to me the dark is rather calming.

73.Do you correct people when they make mistakes?depends on the situation, the person and the mistake. but I remember getting shit for being a know-it-all so I tend to bite my tongue more often.

74.Are you ticklish?yes and if anyone tries to tickle me they will have to be prepared to get their teeth kicked in.

75.Have you ever started a rumor?oh hell no.

76.Have you ever been in a position of authority?I kind of am, I work with children.

77.Have you ever drank underage?yup, I started with 14. my mom said it was okay as long as I didn’t get caught by the police. parenting done right, yeah :D

78.Have you ever done drugs?nope and I don’t want to start.

79.Who was your first real crush?oh shit I have no idea. it might be that one girl that I got introduced to by a friend. I really can’t remember, it was so long ago. I am old!

80.How many piercings do you have?2 right now, my nose and my belly button. I used to have my bottom lip pierced but I took it out a while ago because it’s hard applying lipstick with that shit.

81.Can you roll your Rs?yes!

82.How fast can you type?pretty fast but not super duper fast.

83.How fast can you run?not as fast as I could run back in my school years.

84.What color is your hair?dyed black atm. I might go back to brown.

85.What color is your eyes?blue

86.What are you allergic to?besides dust, nothing really.

87.Do you keep a journal?nope

88.What do your parents do?my mom has never finished a training because she got pregnant with my sorry self before she could. she’s currently hired as a cleaner. my dad is a post man.

89.Do you like your age?it’s okay I guess.

90.What makes you angry?everything inconvenient, disrespectful people, sheer stupidity and 274805 other things.

91.Do you like your own name?I used to hate it but it’s kinda growing on me.

92.Have you already thought of baby names, and if so what are they?of course omg every girl I know has thought of potential baby names. I’d like Ivar but not (only) because of (historical) Ivar but also because I like the sound of it. and for a girl I’d like Idun.

93.Do you want a boy or a girl for a child?I couldn’t care less.

94.What are your strengths?I’m loyal and also I’m not an asshole so yeah..

95.What are your weaknesses?all of them. I’m impatient and angry a lot.

96.How did you get your name?my mom really liked the actress Deborah Rennard. that’s why she named me Deborah. and since my mom also has a middle name, I had to have one too. there’s not a lot that goes with Deborah, so she finally came up with Deborah Ann. the problem is that I’m from germany and everyone’s pronouncing it incorrectly. that’s why I used to hate my name so much.

97.Were your ancestors royalty?I have no idea. probably not xD

98.Do you have any scars?am I mistaken or didn’t I already answer that question? well yes I do have scars.

99.Color of your bedspread?pink atm.

100. Color of your room?all my walls are white.

1 note · View note

murasaki-murasame · 6 years

Text

Danganronpa V3 Liveblog Part 19 [Chapter 6 - Trial]

I was going to make some sort of a vague meme about this ending, but honestly I don’t even want to indirectly spoil anyone about what happens, so I’ll just say that this was fantastic.

This probably won’t actually be the end of my liveblog, since I have some post-game content to do, and some optional bonus things throughout the game I might just google and write about later whenever I get around to that. But this is the ending of the main game.

Anyway, thoughts under the cut.

[Fake edit: hahahaha holy fuck this ended up being 10.4k words long. Good fucking luck to anyone who wants to read all of it, I guess, lol]

Jesus christ, where do I even start with this??? There’s just . . . so much shit that went down. So much.

To start things off, I wasn’t kidding when I said that this was a fantastic ending, overall. I loved it a lot. It was so ambitious and intense and surreal that I couldn’t help but like it. I definitely have SOME issues with things, but I’ll get to them later.

I should at least say that, as you can all verify from my last post, I wasn’t exactly expecting Tsumugi of all people to be the mastermind. I guess it justified her continued existence in the story, after she felt so weirdly pointless.

Though before I talk about Tsumugi specifically, on the whole topic of pointless characters, Himiko was definitely . . . the weakest link by far. I don’t really hate her or anything, but she just had so little going for her as a character by the end. Even the whole thing with Tenko dying and giving her emotional strength and development and stuff felt like it didn’t really change much. So seeing her alive by the end, especially in the epilogue scene, felt . . . awkward. It’s not like I wanted her to die or anything, but I feel like the epilogue might have had a bit more . . . weight to it, if it was just Shuichi and Maki left. I dunno. I’ll talk about the epilogue later.

On the topic of Tsumugi, I honestly think I might prefer her as a villain over Junko. Mostly because this game’s entire ending and it’s overall theme feels way more interesting than everything Junko represented. I’ve said before that I really do like Junko as a villain, and that seeing her come back yet again would have been totally fine, but I think I liked Tsumugi as a villain even more than her. I’m aware that with how Tsumugi’s character works in general, there’s not much that actually sets her apart from Junko, but still. The things she represents on a thematic level are really interesting to me.

I also just appreciate that it was genuinely surprising to me that she was the mastermind. I really didn’t see it coming until they basically spelled it out for me.

I probably should have guessed where this trial was heading in advance. I said last time that the shot put ball and whatnot confused me, but it should have been obvious that it was hinting at Kaede not truly being the first killer. And the detail of the secret entrance to the hidden room being in the girl’s bathroom should have clued me in about Tsumugi. I could easily see someone else figuring it out if they had a good memory and also figured out that the chapter one case would be relevant again, but I didn’t remember the detail about Tsumugi having gone to the bathroom around the time Rantarou died, so that was a genuine surprise. I really like that they actually planted evidence pointing toward her at the start of the game, even though it didn’t really become apparent until you learn stuff much later in the game.

I also really liked the whole detail of how her talent as the Ultimate Cosplayer connected with her role as the mastermind. It really wasn’t what I was expecting at all.

To dive right into the Big Twists, it turns out that my guess about how this would end was basically the opposite of what I expected. I’ve said before that I expected the reveal to be that the world of V3 was a fictional story being broadcast to the ‘real’ DR world, but in the end, if we at least take the ending at face value, it was the entire DR franchise that was ‘fictional’ in the context of V3′s world. So that threw me off big-time. In general things escalated way more than I expected, and there were way more layers of meta going on than I thought there’d be.

But I love how that all tied into Tsumugi’s identity. Like, I totally believed that she was really Junko, or at least some kind of clone or descendant or whatever of Junko, and I accepted the idea that ‘Tsumugi’ was just a fake identity. But nope, Junko is just a character she’s cosplaying! I didn’t consider it at first because of the whole cospox plot point, but then the big twist happened and it became clear that she can cosplay as Junko because, in the world of V3, Junko is a fictional character.

The whole scenario of her continually switching between cosplays was, to be honest, genuinely disturbing. Especially since they got the original VAs to voice their appropriate lines. So it really felt as if all of the previous characters were coming in, which helped make the trial feel really fever dream-y, in a good way. It really hammered in that feeling of artificiality going on.

It’s interesting to me that, with how the whole ending worked, ‘Tsumugi’ was probably still a fake identity of sorts. Like how every other character’s identity was made up, to the point where it was heavily implied that even their names were fictional. So it’d make sense if Tsumugi’s whole identity was also fake. She called herself the Ultimate Cosplayer, but if we believe her story then the whole concept of Ultimates wouldn’t truly exist in their world anyway. But I like the implication that she was basically just pretending. It’s consistent with everything else, at least, and her talent didn’t really play into her actual plot role at all, just her ‘aesthetic’ as a character, if that makes sense. So I like the idea that she was just a random, ‘talentless’ member of Team Danganronpa who adopted a false identity in order to take part in the killing game. The idea that we might have never known her true identity at all beyond, well, her job position and her personality, makes me like her even more as a villain, somehow.

In general, I love how incredibly meta this ending was. I love how cynical it was. I love how it rejects itself as a franchise, and everyone playing it. It’s great. The fact that they openly talked about the Danganronpa franchise, Team Danganronpa, and the entire fandom, was just great. I totally get why the guilt-trip nature of it might bug people, but I like it. It’s certainly hard to argue against the point it’s making. This game only existed because people actively supported this series. Because they genuinely enjoyed experiencing the emotionally thrills and catharsis that the killing games gave them. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the series just keeps going like nothing happened.

I’m aware that the ending wasn’t really intended to be genuinely spiteful towards it’s audience, especially since the final moments of the game are all about the audience changing their minds and deciding that they want to stop the killing games, and to also save as many of the remaining characters as possible, but there’s definitely still a very clear element of spite going on that can’t really be ignored. It’s very vocally aware and critical of the way that people enjoy violent media, even if it also accepts the possibility of people being able to change for the better and be positively influenced by the stories they read.

It just fascinates me that they even went this far. That they took their franchise to such an absurd point. That they created the idea of this fictional future where their own franchise would grow so big and so popular that they’d start killing real people to continue it. That they made themselves, as the people who made this game, the villains. It’s such an incredibly risky move that I’ve basically never seen before, especially if we take into account that this franchise has been going on for like 5+ years already. It’s also part of why I don’t think this ending was 100% spiteful toward it’s audience. Because, at the very least, it also holds itself accountable in all this. The devs are aware that they’re the ones actually sitting down to make these games in the first place. So it’s not like they’re placing all of the blame on their consumers.

The whole back and forth spiral of emotional tension and cynicism and hopefulness and redemption and self-awareness made the whole ending part incredibly intense and emotional. It really did feel like the people making the game were laying themselves bare and engaging in a direct conversation with the people playing their game, to ask them to consider the idea of violent media, and the idea of the authenticity of lies/fiction vs truth/reality.

Weirdly enough, this whole ending reminds me a fair bit of Nier: Automata, and that game’s entire thematic point. They’re very different games, in obvious ways, but they’re weirdly similar.

I didn’t really see the whole Argument Armament section coming, but oh man that part sure was an experience. Thankfully I’ve been slowly getting better at them, but it was still really stressful. But what truly made it special was hearing the voices of the audience during it. I just love the entire concept of you literally arguing against the voices of people saying stuff like ‘ugh, I hate meta endings like this!’ or ‘I’ve invested too much time and money into this franchise for it to just end!’ or ‘I just want to see people kill each other, death is the entire point of Danganronpa!’. And then eventually it just became a bit of an unending scream of ‘HOPE DESPAIR DESPAIR HOPE HOPE HOPE DESPAIR HOPE’, which was honestly the most perfect way it could have ended. With how obsessed this franchise has been with the concepts of hope and despair, and with how more and more emotional weight and baggage has been placed on those concepts, it’s very fitting that this game basically ends with you facing down a horde of disembodied voices mindlessly shouting out that words, and you telling them that you plan to end the Danganronpa franchise.

And on the whole note of that part, I really liked how Keebo played into the ending. Maybe it would have had more impact if he’d been the protagonist this whole time, but the idea of him being ‘the audience surrogate’ was really cool, if only because it set up the aforementioned scene. I also liked that he wasn’t immediately validated in being obsessed with hope. He wasn’t necessarily in the wrong or anything, but he wasn’t able to argue for hope in the face of despair in the way he wanted to. They also didn’t try and suddenly ignore Shuichi in favour of having Keebo suddenly be the protagonist in the end, so that was nice.

Before I talk about the epilogue and some other assorted points, I should say that the part where they explained the game’s title was AMAZING. I loved it so much. The reveal of this being ‘Danganronpa 53′ was such an effective ‘wait what’ moment. And then we got the incredible parody logos for Danganronpa 4-10. That was an amazing scene. And in general I just love the sorta-dystopian future that whole scene sketched out, of the DR franchise going on for such a long time that they eventually decided to hold a ‘real-life killing game’. But anyway, it also completely validated how weird this game’s title is. I guess on some level it’s still a bit unnecessarily confusing for it to have ‘3′ in the title, but I like that they gave such a surprising yet effective explanation for the ‘V’ part. I may or may not have laughed out loud when one of the random lines of audience dialogue said ‘V is the roman numeral for 5′. I don’t know why that was so funny to me, but it was.

The audience dialogue thing was also an amazing concept that added a lot of unexpected comedy to the situation. It did a great job of encapsulating the attitudes of the fandom. It was hilarious to see random lines of text floating about that were complaining about the ending being boring and them wanting to see an exciting clash between hope and despair. There were too many lines for me to remember, or to have even noticed in time, but a lot of them were really hilarious. I kinda lost it when they started complaining about Shuichi, and when they randomly started insulting him over how he didn’t have his hat anymore. That was great. Then we got some random and hilarious lines like ‘Shuichi is so yummy <3′. I think my favourite one was probably ‘Danganronpa 25 was the best one’. That made me laugh. The writers of these games know us so well, lol.

Though, as I kinda said above, I do appreciate that the audience got their own redemptive moment in choosing to allow the franchise to end by not voting, while also asking Keebo to do what he can to save everyone other than Tsumugi. That was really nice.

Back on the topic of the game’s title, I wish they’d kept the ‘everyone’s new semester of mutual killing’, since they ended up name-dropping it during this trial, but they never really brought up the English game’s subtitle outside of the part where the game’s full name was said. I think that the name-drop would have just had more impact if they’d kept it as the game’s subtitle in English. It’s a minor issue, though.

I kinda want to leave my thoughts on the epilogue for as late in this post as I can, so I should talk about some other points first.

I talked a bit about how this trial went back over and re-did chapter one’s trial, but I didn’t go into much detail about it. I thought it was a really neat concept, to go back over such an old case and point out how the conclusion everyone came to was wrong. I thought that that whole trial was complicated enough as it was, but I really wasn’t expecting there to be a whole other layer to what went down in it that was being saved until the end of the game. But it actually made a lot of sense. As I said, we knew from the start that Tsumugi went to the bathroom around when the murder happened, but that didn’t seem to be an important detail until we found out later that that’s where the hidden entrance was. They even took the time back in chapter one to go over her cospox to explain how she couldn’t have possibly been the killer, which did a good job at getting us to stop suspecting her. But as it turns out, she was able to kill Rantarou in a way that avoided needing to use her talent at all.

It also addressed the one thing I disliked about the first trial, at least in terms of the in-universe logic and mechanics of it. At the time, I suspended my disbelief about it, but the idea of someone being successfully killed via a complicated Rube Goldberg machine felt a bit contrived. So I love that the big twist was that Kaede’s whole complicated set-up actually ended with her missing her shot, and so Tsumugi had to rush in and beat Rantarou to death with a spare shot put ball to make it look like Kaede’s idea had worked. I don’t quite know why, but the image of Rantarou just being absolutely baffled by the fact that a shot put ball just fell by his feet out of nowhere, and Tsumugi panicking in the background and rushing in to beat him to death with ANOTHER shot put ball was just the most hilarious thing ever to me. It was great. But I do feel genuinely bad for Rantarou. He must have been so confused about all the unexpected things that happened in the moments before he died.

I’m also very grateful that part of the twist was that Kaede was truly innocent [beyond having had the genuine motive and intent to kill, but you get my point], and that, specifically, she wasn’t even related to the mastermind. After the twin sister reveal, I expected that part of the twist would be that Kaede was in on the mastermind’s plan the entire time, or at best was unaware of it but still related to the mastermind. I immediately thought that it’d be too lame and out of the blue for anything along those lines to be the case, so I’m glad that the twin sister thing was just a red herring, and that Kaede was just a random, everyday person. I guess this also means that her moments of being cross-eyed weren’t some sort of a hint at some kind of ‘mental instability’ or whatever. That’s nice. I didn’t really mention it at the time, if I remember right, since it didn’t really feel important enough to talk about, but I’m very thankful that the game didn’t use something like that as any sort of a sign toward someone being ‘crazy’ or villainous or whatever. I mean on some level they still played into that trope to some degree, if only in order to use it as a red herring, but still. One of my own eyes is kind of crossed, a bit, so it would have been slightly depressing to see something like that be used as that sort of plot point. I sure didn’t expect a game like this to give me a reason to bring up that kind of a personal detail, but here we are!

This also gets me onto the topic of Rantarou himself, and . . . honestly, his entire deal ended up feeling really disappointing. He kinda just served to give an example that backed up what Tsumugi said about the state of the world. We didn’t really learn anything new about him. We just got a bit of context for what killing game he was a part of, and why he got roped into this one. Which is fine. I just kinda wanted something . . . more. I think he’s the kind of character who I might want to spend some time thinking about before I make a final decision on how I feel about his place in the story. I’m at least genuinely curious about how exactly his killing game ended up, for him to end up as the Ultimate Survivor. I’m still not entirely sure how that whole concept works, especially when they casually mentioned that if they executed Tsumugi, then Maki would become the new Ultimate Survivor, which I still don’t quite understand, since she was one of the ones volunteering to die in order to let everyone ELSE survive. Anyway, I think the basic implication is that he was the only survivor of his game, so I wonder if that means that he killed someone and successfully escaped. It’s the only way I could really see it ending up that way. I guess the alternative option is that maybe he and one other person survived and escaped because of the rule about the killing game ending at that point. I’m not sure, though, since it seems odd that only one of them would have been called the Ultimate Survivor and forced into this killing game, and not both of them. Then again there might also be something else to it, with how he implied in his video message that there was some trick to the ‘two survivors’ rule, but I still can’t quite work out what that would be. Either way, with what we know now, I feel like his whole thing of saying that he wanted this killing game to happen makes me think that he was taking some kind of genuine pleasure out of it. If it was just a matter of him saying that he needed to win, it might have just been out of a desire to survive, but in that case I don’t think he’s say that he wanted this game to happen. I dunno. His whole character feels weirdly confusing to me, but maybe it’ll make more sense once I spend some time going over things in my head.

And on a similar note, I said before that I expected the Monokubs to be somehow based upon other survivors from his game, but I guess that one didn’t pan out the way I expected. What WAS the point of the Monokubs, in the end? Was the entire running thing of them seemingly having repressed memories like everyone else a red herring? It felt like their characters just sorta stopped existing early on in this trial after they all got blown up and then never mentioned again. I wouldn’t be too surprised if they were genuinely pointless, but it’d still be a bit lame.

I guess I’m on a bit of a roll here with talking about specific characters, so I should take this time to say that I honestly feel kinda bad for Kokichi now. This trial didn’t really tell us anything new about him, but it spelled out a lot of the fairly obvious things being hinted at, and it made it abundantly clear that he wasn’t really a bad person at all. He didn’t have anything to do with this. He really was completely lying about being the mastermind in order to try and stop the game. Even his gang seems pretty harmless. So it’s pretty hard not to feel bad for him, even if he was still genuinely annoying and irritating as a person. Though now that we’ve gotten to the end of the game, I’m still a bit confused about all of the stuff that went down in chapter four that pointed toward him being obsessed with Shuichi, and jealous of Kaito’s closeness with him. I still feel like there were very deliberate hints pointing in that direction, but it never went anywhere. There’s at least the whole ‘when I find someone I like, I do anything I can to make them notice me, even if it means strangling them’ scene, which seems even more confusing to me now. I dunno. Maybe he DID have his own feelings for Shuichi, and it just didn’t get explicitly mentioned in the game itself. Maybe it’ll be elaborated on more in his free time events, and post-game stuff in general. Either way, it still feels like a bit of a strange loose end. Maybe I’m reading too much into things.

Though it’s hard to unironically call anyone in this game innocent or sympathetic after the whole plot twist about them all being Danganronpa fans who volunteered to take place in a killing game. That sure was a twist. A lot of the ending had a more comedic tone to it, even if basically all of it was genuinely kinda horrifying and emotional and involved the characters finding out that everything they knew was a lie, but that part in particular stuck out to me as being 100% horrifying. Although it was kinda amusing seeing the game point out via Shuichi that there’s already been several detectives in the franchise. Which I guess takes on a slightly different context when you think about this being the 53rd entry in the franchise, but you get what I mean. Everything else was just depressing and unexpected, though. Seeing Shuichi excitedly talk about having planned out an exciting murder AND execution for himself, and how neat it’d be to have a detective become a murderer, was really hard to sit through, especially since he still had that little moment of being flustered about not wanting to be too demanding toward the people running the games, that made it clear that it was still genuinely him saying it. Then we got the part of Kaede saying that she has no real faith in humanity, which just hurt a lot. And then they dragged Kaito of all people into it and I started to genuinely wish the scene would stop because I didn’t want to see what he had to say. But then he went and had the most terrifying audition of the three, where he talked excitedly about wanting to murder everyone else in the game. That really just twisted the knife that had already been stabbed into my heart after the first two auditions we saw.

So it’s hard to be TOO sympathetic of anyone when all of them genuinely wanted this. I guess, come to think of it, this also probably ties into what Rantarou said about him wanting this to happen. He probably did genuinely like the idea of taking part in these games. Which puts a really sinister twist on his character, and also every other character in the game.

In general it’s kinda awkward to talk about any of the characters in the way they’re presented to us, now that we know that all of their backstories and talents and stuff are just lies, and that they’re actually just normal people who willingly took part in a death game. We probably don’t even know any of their real names. But it’s pretty clear that a big part of the game’s message is that just because these things might be lies, it doesn’t mean that they’re ‘not true’. These are still the characters we know and love. These are still the people that they genuinely believe themselves to be. At least after having their memories replaced, they became people who didn’t want to kill others, who were horrified by the idea of it, who banded together to stop it. For the most part. You get what I mean. So there’s still value in the characters as we knew them, even if they were the result of taking existing people and then replacing all of their memories and giving them new identities. There’s still value in the experiences they went through, the lessons they learned, the feelings that they experienced, and even the feelings that we experienced because of them. In spite of this trial’s set of reveals, it really was, in the end, a celebration of the power of fiction. It embraced the value and meaning of fictional characters and their stories. It validated the characters, and the experiences they had in this game. So I’m still allowing myself to see them as the people we knew them as, and to feel sympathy with them because of it.

It’s really disturbing to consider that the identities they were given were just . . . made-up identities that had barely anything to do with who they were before. It’s especially depressing to think about how all of their motives and whatnot were thus completely made-up and pointless. All of their backstories and traumas and whatnot were just fictional. Which makes it really depressing to think back on topics like Ryoma’s self-loathing because of his past, or Kirumi’s dedication to protecting the country even if it meant killing everyone else in the game, or Maki’s history with being trained as an assassin and how that basically broke her as a person. In a sense, those things still hold weight and validity because the characters at least BELIEVED them to be true, but it’s still just . . . depressing to think about how much pain was put onto these characters in the name of giving them interesting backstories and whatnot. This also presumably means that Kiyo wasn’t ACTUALLY a psychopathic serial-killer who had an incestuous relationship with his sister. Huh. He sure got the short end of the stick in terms of how his backstory reflected upon him as a person.

[Fake edit: I don’t know how I forgot about it, but there’s also the fact that apparently Kaito was just given a terminal illness as part of his backstory, which is a really fucking disturbing concept. To think that they just casually decided to make things more interesting by messing with his health like that. Especially since it’s pretty easy to guess that they gave it to him because of how enthusiastic he seemed to be about wanting to kill everyone. So it’s like they were giving him the illness as a sort of dramatic irony, to set up a scenario along the lines of him dying from his illness after he killed all of his friends, making everything he did pointless. And of course there would have been the additional angle of it becoming something that the audience at home could sympathize with him because of, which . . . definitely worked, I suppose.]

But obviously the characters weren’t exactly all clean and sinless individuals before this game, even if these depressing backstories and whatnot are fake. They clearly all had their own problems before the game started. And the characters we know now are probably at least nicer, on average, than the people we saw in those auditions.

And as I said above, Tsumugi was probably no different. She clearly knows all about what her life was like before this game, but Tsumugi as we knew her for 99% of the game was almost certainly a false identity. She was still the closest to her original self out of everyone in the game, but still.

At least we know that, on a visual level, it was only their outfits that got changed. So that’s nice to know, I guess, even if it’s not particularly important.

Now that I’ve gotten to the end of the game, I can finally talk about the last major thing I got spoiled about! Which didn’t even technically end up being completely accurate in it’s implication anyway! Yay!

Basically, a week or two before I started playing the game, I was just scrolling down my dash, and one of the recommended posts was a fucking DRV3 meme about Shuichi rejecting both hope and despair, in favour of dying. Of all the ways to be spoiled, I got spoiled via a goddamn meme, and of all the things to be spoiled about, I got spoiled about THAT. So throughout this ENTIRE game, I’ve had the vague idea of Shuichi dying stuck in my head. Which has been kinda agonizing. I’m so glad that it wasn’t actually accurate, and that he lived, but I still hate that I got spoiled about it. I suppose that I only had myself to blame for not having installed xkit by then in order to blacklist the DR tags, but still. Considering that I had never posted anything about DR before that point, I can’t really be blamed for assuming that Tumblr wouldn’t decide to just randomly suggest me a post about it.

That point, and the point of me having seen a screenshot from Kiyo’s execution, were the main things I got spoiled about. I also thought I got spoiled about someone [aka Kaito] killing because of their terminal illness, which ended up being technically untrue and probably just a made-up example of the sorts of motives in this game, even though it still lead me to the correct assumption of ‘Kaito ends up being a killer’. Those are the main things. I also knew in advance that this game has a really controversial ending, and that it has a bonus dating sim mode thing, but I didn’t know anything specific about those things, so the nature of the ending still surprised me, and honestly the existence of a dating sim mode isn’t really a spoiler to me.

So yeah, those are the things I knew about this game in advance. I wish I could have gone in COMPLETELY blind, but oh well. It didn’t end up affecting my enjoyment of the game as much as I was scared it might.

Anyway, the main character left who I want to talk about is Shuichi. I’ve already talked about basically everyone else, including Keebo and Himiko, and I don’t really think there’s much to say about Maki. I still love her a lot as a character, but this part didn’t really give me much to say about her that I haven’t said already, except for one detail [that I’ve kinda already talked about] that I guess I’ll mention again in a second.

Though I guess it’s also worth talking a little bit about the surviving cast. Which I’m more or less including Keebo and Tsumugi in, even though they died at the very end. The fact that Shuichi, Maki, and Keebo lived until [more or less] the very end was pretty predictable since they’re all so noteworthy, although as I said above I genuinely expected this to end with Shuichi dead, so I suppose it ended up being surprising that he actually lived to the very end. In that sense I guess Maki was the most predictable survivor. And obviously Tsumugi staying alive until at least the final trial made sense, in the end, since she was the mastermind. So other than Shuichi who was surprising for his own unique reasons, I’m still slightly baffled by Himiko surviving. Even in spite of her [relatively minimal] development and focus, she still felt really weird as part of the final three characters, next to much more important ones like Shuichi and Maki. But this sorta thing always happens in these games, and it’s probably a good thing that at least one of the survivors was someone who I would never have expected to survive.

Anyway, on the topic of Shuichi. I still adore this boy with all my heart and soul. He’s wonderful. At this point he probably beats out Hinata as my favourite DR protagonist. He’s such an incredibly good boy who deserved a much better life than what he got. I’m just kinda casually ignoring the stuff we learned in his audition, lol. But I kinda have to ignore that whole can of worms if I want to talk about what I like about any of the characters, really. I really felt horrible for him during this entire trial, especially after the reveals started kicking in. Seeing him go through so much emotional pain, until he decided to just accept death as a means to put an end to the killing games, just kinda broke my heart. There’s several points during the overall trial/ending that I nearly teared up at, and him talking about how in spite of the fact that everything he went through might have been a lie, the pain in his heart was still real, was definitely one of them. That really hit me hard. I loved seeing him be so resolute in saying that the concept of the killing games is horrific and deserve to be stopped even at the cost of his own life, but it was still hard to watch.

I hate to keep bringing this point up again, especially at this point, but I still at least like to believe that he had his own crush on Kaito. I’m very aware, especially now that the game’s definitively over [aside from the bonus stuff], that it’s probably not canon, but I still choose to believe it. I’m still choosing to believe in the way that his story and his thoughts and feelings toward Kaito came across to me. And hey, in spite of the guilt-trip-y nature of parts of this ending, it was ultimately still a celebration of the meaning of fiction and the validity of the things that fictional characters allow us to experience, so I don’t feel too bad about sticking to this interpretation. I know that the game made a pretty clear point to address Maki’s feelings for Kaito while not saying the same sort of thing about Shuichi’s feelings, but still. Though I should say that it’s not like any of this meant that I felt negatively about Maki’s feelings for Kaito and how they were portrayed. I still felt bad about seeing her find out that they were more or less a lie that had been written out as part of her character. I mean, it’s hard to call those feelings a lie when they were based upon the sorts of interactions and dynamics that would understandably lead to such a thing, so I won’t dismiss her feelings or call them fake or anything, but I can also see how the game was organized to force her to feel that way, which is still fucked up.

This is getting more into headcanon territory, there’s certainly something appealing about the idea of Shuichi developing feelings for Kaito without it having been ‘written out in advance’. Again, I’m not trying to imply that that whole deal makes this sorta thing less genuine, but still. There’s something both cute yet tragic in seeing things through this lens of Shuichi developing feelings that nobody had expected or planned for. Especially since, in hindsight, even if it might not be ‘canon’, I wouldn’t be surprised if Kaede was literally written by Tsumugi as being ‘Shuichi’s designated love interest’. They were even literally shoved into adjacent lockers, just to hammer in the fact that the game basically shoved them together. This isn’t some kind of ship hate, though. I actually still quite like Shuichi/Kaede as a ship, as I’ve said a few times before. But with how this ending works and what it says about the game in hindsight, it’s hard not to retroactively interpret these sorts of things through this kind of lens. With how many things Tsumugi specifically pointed out as being part of a pre-written script, it’s hard not to wonder just how many character points and relationship dynamics were similarly ‘part of the script’. And out of basically everything that didn’t get explicitly talked about, Shuichi and Kaede’s dynamic seems like the most likely think that was ‘forced’ to happen. Especially if we assume that Tsumugi might have expected her to survive for most of the game, whereas she died basically immediately and then Shuichi spent most of the game interacting with Kaito [and Maki, to a slightly lesser extent].

So even if I won’t really be as bold as to call any of this canon, there’s definitely room to make some interesting interpretations regarding concepts like the sometimes ‘forced’ nature of love interest scenarios in media. In spite of my warm feelings toward Shuichi/Kaede as a ship, I can’t help but me very intrigued by the idea of him not following along with that whole dynamic that was set up from the start, and instead getting cut off from her almost immediately, and instead spending most of the rest of the game with Kaito, in a way that might not have been planned for. I like the idea of a character like Shuichi indirectly rejecting the heterosexual romance set-up that he was basically shoved into, and instead developing feelings for another boy in a way that nobody planned for, entirely of his own volition. It’s just an appealing idea to me. I guess along these sames lines it’d be hard not to also look at Maki’s romantic feelings for Kaito that were explicitly fabricated, but as I said above I have no interest in engaging in ship hate, or denying her feelings. You get what I mean, though. I also can’t help but think back to that one scene where Maki asked Shuichi if he liked Kaede or not, and he just kinda vaguely said that it’d be normal to like someone even in a situation like this, and after that his hypothetical feelings for her pretty much never came up again. Not explicitly, at least. I figured at the time that he ‘obviously’ had to have been in love with her, because that’s how these things work, but after the concept of romantic feelings being fabricated came up explicitly in canon, it’s hard not to look back on that scene and wonder if there was anything more to it.

Another thing along these lines that’s kinda interesting to think about in hindsight was that it was Tsumugi who had that one off-hand line about asking Shuichi if he, Maki, and Kaito, were part of a ‘reverse love triangle’, which he hurriedly denied. At the time I was kinda intrigued by that line’s existence since it, in addition to Shuichi’s whole ‘I shouldn’t talk about another boy like that’ line, made it explicitly clear that the game was at least aware of how romantic his feelings for Shuichi come off as being, but that line certainly gains an interesting new context when you know that Tsumugi is the mastermind who knows everything, including the ‘settings’ of every character. I can’t tell if this somehow supports my whole aforementioned interpretation of events, or if it implies that this whole set-up in my head might have been intentionally planned by Tsumugi. I’m not really sure. It’s hard to tell just based on that one line if this might have been something she specifically wrote into Shuichi’s character. Though the fact that she goes out of her way to basically mock Maki over her fabricated feelings for Kaito, while not doing the same for Shuichi, makes me think that she only wrote Maki as being in love with him.

So for now I’m sticking to this whole headcanon interpretation, partly because I just fundamentally ship Shuichi and Kaito, and partly because I like this hypothetical meta-narrative subversion of romantic tropes in media.

Anyway I think that’s basically everything I feel like saying about the characters, and most of the story beats. Before I talk about the epilogue, and my feelings on the game as a whole, I should probably talk about a few more of my issues with the game.

I think we can all agree that the mini-games were, and always have been, largely pointless and unnecessary. They’re just not very great. They’re definitely more stream-lined and not as clunky as they used to be, but they sometimes feel SO ‘stream-lined’ and simplistic in design that I start to question why they even exist. The Psyche Taxi is probably the biggest offender of that. It’s such a waste of time. It never tells you anything new. It’s just this painfully drawn out procedure of the game spelling out stuff that it just went over a minute ago, and there’s not even any way to make it go by any faster because there’s a limit to how fast the car can go. I never felt like it did anything to help me solve any mysteries, at least from what I can remember. I think that the Mind Mine thing also felt pretty unnecessary, with there being only like one time where I had to think about which option to choose. I also never ran out of time in it or anything. The Hangman’s Gambit was also pretty bad, but mostly just an exercise in frustration where I either know what the answer is but have to figure out what exact wording the game wants from me, or I have no clue what it wants, and I have to awkwardly stumble my way into a solution. Which at least got a bit more manageable when I got the skill that shows the first letter of the answer immediately.

The sword rebuttal game was fine. It’s a neat representation of arguing with someone, though it usually wasn’t too difficult to figure out the logic of what to do, and sometimes the slicing mechanic just felt a bit clunky and hard to control. There were definitely a few moments where I felt stumped by the logic of them, though. The Mass Panic Debates were also OK, though they ended up never being anywhere near as difficult as I expected. I think that they were afraid of them overwhelming people, so they never made the logic of them too difficult. I don’t even think I needed to get that one skill that lets you focus on one conversation at a time. I’m glad I got the skill that silences loud voices, but that wasn’t really part of the inherent difficulty of those parts, and more just an annoyance that I got a skill to get rid of. The Scrum Debates were a really neat concept, but they felt woefully shallow and under-used. It basically always felt like the logic of them was just another Psyche Taxi-esque scenario of the characters rehashing an argument they’d already gone over before, with it just sometimes being guesswork to figure out which keyword was meant to argue against each statement. I really wish that they could have re-worked it so that new sorts of arguments and debates came up during them, that made me think about it from different angles. I also wish that there could have been more than one of them per trial, since that just lead to them feeling really minor, especially since we didn’t even get one in chapter six, so there were only five in the entire game. I think that there was also only one Mass Panic Debate per trial, which similarly made those parts feel kinda shallow and forgettable in spite of how both of them were hyped up as the new mini-game types. I guess I’m glad that they never tripped me up too hard, but it was also a bit disappointing that they never felt very exciting or meaningful.

Also, even though it wasn’t really a ‘mini-game’, I was never a huge fan of the sections where you have to browse your entire list of truth bullets and pick one. Those parts nearly always fell into being either so easy that it wasn’t any kind of a challenge, or so weird in their logic that I almost had to brute-force the answer.

In general the best part of the trials gameplay-wise were just the regular non-stop debates. Nearly everything else feels kinda unnecessary. But the regular debates were really good. They obviously varied a whole lot in difficulty, but that’s fine.

And even though this isn’t a complaint, I should round this section off by saying that the Argument Armament parts were really good and I have no real issues with them, other than that I kinda suck at rhythm games, so it took like half the game before I started getting actually good at them. I can’t really say that they were TOO difficult as rhythm games in spite of my inherent lack of skills at the genre, since I’ve seen a lot worse from regular rhythm games, and I’ve also witnessed the absolute insane nightmare known as Drakengard 3′s final boss, but still, it probably would have been had if they were genuinely difficult as rhythm games, and in practice they were at least difficult enough for me to struggle with them, and they made the finales of each trial appropriately climactic. Plus, as I said before, the one with Keebo was absolutely great as a way of representing the idea of arguing against the entire DR fandom.

The closing arguments have also always been a really neat idea, and I’ve always loved the aesthetic of them. Including the music. They’re always a neat way to end things off in a trial. The puzzle element of them still does feel a little pointless since the entire mystery’s already been solved and so it feels a bit like padding, but it’s not a big deal.

I guess I’m getting off-track in terms of talking about my complaints about the game, but other than the mini-games being largely boring or obnoxious, there’s not much else to go on. Maybe I should go back and quickly give my thoughts on each case’s murder mystery, just to end things off.

Chapter 1′s case is still a major highlight of the game, if not the entire franchise. I love it a lot. I guess it’s probably the most interesting case in the entire game, but most of the rest of them are still very good too, and this wasn’t the one I had the most difficulty with, even if I didn’t see the identity of the culprit coming. I still have general issues with the basic concept of setting up a female protagonist only to replace them almost immediately with a male one, but it still played out in a really compelling and emotional way, and at least fulfilled my desire to see a DR protagonist become a murderer, in a way that I didn’t even see coming even though they laid out hints for it in advance. Though obviously it’s impossible to talk about it without talking about the chapter six twist about how her plan actually failed, even though Kaede herself thought it did. That was a really neat extra layer to that whole mystery. I’m also still kinda sad that they killed off Rantarou immediately, especially since I feel like the endgame did a bit less to develop his character than I wanted it to. He’s definitely someone who I want to learn the most about via free time events and stuff.

Chapter 2′s case was probably the one that at least felt the most difficult to me, at least when I was actually sitting down and going through the trial. It was probably because I was playing it later at night than I should have, but as I talked about earlier in this liveblog, it just kicked my ass. It was the only trial in the game that I had to take a break from and come back to a day later to finish it, though a big part of that was due to me misunderstanding how retrying parts of the trial worked. Either way, I can’t help but commend Kirumi for setting up a mystery that, at least to me, was very difficult to solve. I’m also still sad that they killed off Ryoma early on as well, since he was another favourite of mine, but I liked his role in this chapter so I’m fine with it. This chapter in particular is one of the more depressing ones when you know in hindsight that everyone’s backstories were completely fabricated and forced upon them.

Chapter 3′s case was weird and I think most people also probably see it as a low point of the game. I loved the whole occult aesthetic of it, and the plot twist of killing someone off during an investigation, but it ended up feeling too easy. It was weird, though. Like, the identity of the culprit was obvious from the start, even ignoring that I’d been spoiled about it, but the actual logic behind how the murders happened, mostly Tenko’s, felt surprisingly difficult to me. It was basically at the same level as Kirumi’s case in that sense, but maybe even higher than that since I distinctly remember dying in this trial like five times, but I didn’t need to stop and come back to it later since by this point I knew that retrying parts of a trial if you die isn’t really a big problem. The motive in this case was definitely the most bizarre, not to mention the most unsympathetic. It’s almost weird how in a game filled with mostly sympathetic and understandable killers like Kaede, Kirumi, Gonta, and Kaito, you have Mr. Psychopathic Incestuous Serial Killer thrown right into the middle. It was just bizarre. I also wasn’t a huge fan of the game for killing off Tenko, a lesbian, in a way that was explicitly described as being ‘a pointless waste’. But whatever. I quite liked Angie’s whole sub-plot in this chapter as well, though I’m glad she got killed off.

Chapter 4′s case is still . . . iffy to me. I know that it was intentionally unsatisfying and kinda depressing and out of the blue, but it just really threw me off and felt really disappointing. It’s probably my least favourite case in the game, but maybe chapter three is worse than it. It doesn’t help that this whole chapter happened before Kokichi started getting any degree of redeeming or even particularly interesting qualities, at least in my opinion. I also still feel a bit let down by how the whole climax felt so weird and unexpected that I wasn’t even as depressed by Gonta’s death as I should have been, considering how much I liked him as a character. There were definitely a few parts that got to me, but not too many. I really liked the whole virtual world concept, though, even if most of the mysteries related to it felt painfully easy to guess. This chapter also made me like Miu a fair bit more, and it was pretty neat getting a case about someone’s murder attempt getting turned against them, even if it’s not a completely original concept in this franchise. I also still feel a bit confused about certain aspects of Kokichi’s feelings and motives in this chapter in particular, as I went over before, but it’s not a big deal. [Honestly, my favourite part of chapter four was probably just finishing off Kaito’s free time events.]

Chapter 5′s case was really depressing, and also way more complicated than I expected it would be. I at least remember it feeling pretty difficult, though the effect was lessened a bit because of the weird detail of me kinda-sorta-not-really-but-technically being spoiled about Kaito being a killer, which made the outcome of this case pretty obvious. But it was more about the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ than the ‘who’, in the end. This is where I started liking Kokichi a lot more as a character, which also makes me think back about this chapter positively. And obviously I love every part of the game that has Kaito in it [except for the one obvious exception, lol], so that made it a really emotional ride as well. Having to actively pick him in the vote and have him get executed was incredibly painful.

I guess there’s not much to say about Chapter 6′s case that I haven’t said already, so . . . yeah. It’s obviously not a murder mystery trial like the others so I can’t compare it to those ones in that sense, but it was probably still my favourite trial just due to how incredibly intense it was, and how much of an emotional roller-coaster it put me through. It’s at least easily my favourite chapter six trial in the series.

I don’t think there’s much else to say about the characters, other than that they’re probably my favourite cast in the series, as a whole. It’s hard to compare them to the casts of DR1 and DR2, since they all feel like they’re going for slightly different things, but still. I just love this game’s cast a lot. It probably helps that this was the first game I actually played for myself rather than reading/watching an LP of. There were definitely a few characters I felt ambivalent about to the very end, like Himiko, but for the most part I liked them. And chapter six definitely made me like Keebo and Tsumugi a lot more, in very different ways. I’m still kinda ambivalent toward Keebo, but he at least ended up being more than just pure comic relief, though I still dislike how his ‘persecution complex’ is framed by the narrative, with how he gets treated by everyone in practice. I liked the vague idea brought up of him learning to embrace the things that make him unique, but it fell kinda flat because of how badly his character as a whole was executed. And as I said above, I really like Tsumugi now, after having seen her as boring and pointless up until this point, even though she definitely feels less like her own unique character, and more of a representation of ‘the ending of DRV3′, and all that entails. I still think that I might prefer her as a villain to Junko, but it’s hard to compare them. Again, it’s kinda less about them as individuals, and more about them as the concepts they represent. Anyway, the characters I liked least were almost definitely Himiko and Kiyo. At least with Kokichi he was still a genuinely interesting and complex character who I slowly warmed up to, Rantarou was just sorta disappointing rather than actively bad, and Angie served an interesting plot purpose even if she was hard to like as a person, and pretty flat. Himiko and Kiyo were the ones with least going for them. Mostly Kiyo, whose entire purpose was just to be really creepy and off-putting. I’m more ambivalent about Himiko. I just wish that she felt more . . . interesting, I guess, or had more development. But in general I actively liked the majority of the cast, by the end.

Anyway, I suppose I should finally talk about the epilogue, although there’s not really much to say about it at this point. It was just really good. I was initially skeptical of the idea of the ending ‘backpedaling’ on actually killing everyone off, but at least Tsumugi and Keebo genuinely died, and I really liked the way that everyone else surviving played into the element of the audience themselves having their own redemption moment of sorts. The part where Shuichi says something along the lines of ‘maybe they wanted this lie to become the truth’ was one of the moments in this part that nearly made me cry. I think it put me the closest to actually crying, honestly. It was just a really effective way of tying together this game’s lies vs truth theme in with the whole theme of the power of fiction and the redemption of the audience. The idea of us, as the audience, loving these characters enough to want them to live, to want their ‘lie’ to become a new sort of ‘truth’, really got to me. And on that whole note, I forgot to mention it, but I really loved Shuichi’s whole speech about the love between all of them, and how the love passed onto them from everyone that died has meaning, and can even change the world itself if it could successfully get through to the audience and change their minds. That was a really nice scene. I also couldn’t help but like it when Maki pointed out how much Shuichi was sounding like Kaito, and how obviously Shuichi could do something like change the world, since he’s Kaito’s sidekick. And, of course, the part where Shuichi used Kaito’s catch-phrase about the impossible being possible also really got to me.

It’s interesting that, right at the end, the game basically calls into question everything that Tsumugi said, and made it unclear what the outside world will truly be like. I can see why that might seem unsatisfying and wishy-washy to people, but I like it. I like that, to the very end, you can never tell for sure what the truth is. It really gets across what the game is trying to say about the concept of truth vs lies. And on that whole note, I loved Shuichi’s whole part of saying that you can’t really call either truth or lies ‘bad’, and that lies can be just another way of telling the truth. It’s a simple concept, but it hit pretty hard as the culmination of this entire game. And I quite liked the final line of [from what I remember] ‘If the world can change to even a small degree, then this story won’t end’. That was a nice way to end things off. The whole ambiguity of this ending does make me wonder if they’ll decide to genuinely continue the series. I honestly hope they don’t. Partly just because I really resonated with the whole point about the killing games being inherently evil and needing to be stopped, but also partly because it’d kinda destroy the ambiguity of this ending. We’ll see. I’ll probably be fine either way.

I feel like Tsumugi’s final words about her being a ‘cosplaycat killer’, and her seemingly disappointed or annoyed expression before she died, will nag at my brain for a while. But I think that’s a good thing, that the game’s leaving me wondering about what her deal is, even to the end.

I think I’ve finally, finally run out of things to say, so all I can do is just say that this was a fantastic game. I get why a lot of people disliked it, but I really loved it a lot, even if it had some issues. It was undoubtedly my favourite game in the series, though. I certainly prefer it over DR3 as a conclusion to the franchise. I’m kinda sad that this is the sort of game where you can’t really explain why it’s so good without spoiling people. That sucks. And it’s also the sort of game that only really has it’s full impact if you’ve experienced the franchise up to this point, so I couldn’t suggest that someone go into it blind.

As I’ve said before, I’ll check out whatever post-game bonus stuff there is to do, so that’ll be the rest of this liveblog. I’m not sure how many posts it’ll take to finish it all off, and how much time it’ll take, but we’ll see. I think I might take a bit of a break from the game for a day or two in order to let my thoughts on it simmer for a while, and also so I can do some other things I need to do. Once I’m done with the entire game, that’ll probably be when I allow myself to dive into the fandom, finally. That’ll be interesting. I’m not entirely sure if I’ll reblog fanart and stuff, though, in case I want to keep my followers unspoiled. I dunno. There’s probably a good amount of stuff that’s not TOO spoiler-y that I can reblog. And to be honest I wouldn’t be surprised if I even end up making some of my own fanart. I at least really want to draw Shuichi and Kaito, for obvious reasons. But this franchise in general tends to have the sorts of characters that make me want to draw them, so who knows what I’ll do.

Anyway I need to forcibly stop myself from continuing this post because my brain is starting to melt a little bit and I need to go to sleep, lol.

#murasaki rambles #danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #danganronpa v3 spoilers #I can't believe this ended up being so goddamn long #then again this part of the game took me like 4-5 hours to play through #and very nearly the same amount of time on and off to actually write this post up

1 note · View note

oumakokichi · 7 years

Note

can you please explain why ouma isn't a nazi or nazi coded? i'm genuinely wondering

I’ve talked about this issue before not long after the game’s launch here. I would really recommend reading this because I think I summed up my thoughts on the issue pretty well, and without including any spoilers at all for people who haven’t played the game. If you’re looking for a rebloggable response that absolutely would not spoil anyone looking to get into ndrv3, then I suggest this one, because it’s the easiest way to clear up misinformation.

I can, however, talk more in-depth about the reasons behind why he’s not a Nazi in this ask, but that will require touching on actual spoilers from pretty much the entire game. I’ll include them all under a read more, so people can read only if they don’t mind being spoiled per se. So please only read at your own risk! If you’d rather not be spoiled, please just read only the previous response which I linked to!

The most important thing which requires explanation is this: Ouma is absolutely not a Nazi in any shape, form, or fashion, nor is he coded as one. However, his promotional material was intended to provoke a certain kneejerk reaction from people and therefore did use aspects of Nazi military imagery with his hat in particular. The Panta bottle might also, as some people have speculated, have been a reference of sorts.

Ouma’s title translates the most closely to “Super High School Level Supreme Leader,” but according to the actual ndrv3 guidebook for the actual Japanese version of the game, which included some attempts at actual English translations, it was translated to “Ultimate President.” Therefore, while there can be a negative association of his title with a possible translation to “dictator,” this is not the actual intended translation of his talent in-game.

All of these things were meant to convey an image, even prior to the game’s release, of Ouma as being someone ominous and evil-looking. However, I do not like or condone the way in which Kodaka went about it at all. Nazism is a serious, real-world issue. Unfortunately in Japan sometimes, there is a certain prominent trend to treat nationalism, fascism, and extremely coded military imagery with a certain degree of mystique, as though it was “cool” or “trendy” to use it for promotional purposes.

This dates back to a lot of Japanese WWII history and Japan’s own not-so-pretty imperialist conquest, but that would be a long, long discussion so I won’t get into it. Suffice it to say, Japan is not exactly respectful or tactful with these issues all the time, and Kodaka’s choice in promotional art for Ouma is likely a reflection of that. This doesn’t excuse them using this kind of imagery, of course: as I stated in my previous response to this question, ignorance is still ignorance no matter how you look at it, and it’s still something that was very disrespectful and poorly handled.

Ouma as a character, however, has absolutely nothing to do with these poor decisions in promotional art and planning. He is not a Nazi at all. In fact, he doesn’t even wear the hat and cape from his promo art at all in-game, except for in one CG. And everything about him, from his “Supreme Leader” talent to his so-called “evil, secret organization” to his clothes, is fabricated.

The truth about ndrv3′s plot twist is this: all of the characters actually signed up for the killing game themselves and were assigned talents and backstories in order to participate in a “killing game reality show.” Their talents are fake, and all their outfits are made and provided for them by the mastermind, who is the SHSL Cosplayer. Quite literally, Ouma and the other characters didn’t even pick their own clothes out. Everything about their designs was very carefully concocted even in-game in order to appeal to certain character tropes or provide the audience with expectations for what each character would say or do.

Prior to entering this killing game reality show, Ouma and all the other characters were presumably just normal high school students. There is some debate as to whether SHSL talent even actually exists in the ndrv3 universe or not, but considering the amount of emphasis that is placed on the ndrv3 characters feeling so plain and worthless and boring in their everyday lives that they willingly signed up to “join the world of Danganronpa,” there is quite a lot of indication that they were all just extremely normal, talent-less kids. So of course, pre-game, Ouma had no association with Nazism in any shape, form, or fashion.

The thing I think most people fail to realize is that his in-game backstory has nothing to do with these things, either. Ouma’s so-called “secret, evil organization” is associated with various underground crime syndicates like the yakuza, and controls things “from the shadows.” It’s never mentioned in the context of nationalism or fascism, nor are the beliefs typically associated with Nazism ever brought up by Ouma or any other character in the game even a single time.

The most important fact is this: even for Ouma’s assigned, in-game backstory, his organization literally does not exist. There is no evil crime syndicate or secret organization “with more than 10,000 members.” Instead, he and 10 other people had a group named DICE which was literally a group of pranksters who went around performing fake crimes and pranks for fun. Their single-most important motto was not to kill anyone while doing these pranks. Quite literally, they were a group of friends who wore clown masks and went around pulling pranks for laughs and thrills, and they had absolutely no association with Nazism, fascism, dictatorships, etc.

This isn’t a matter of speculation or fake rumors; I’ve translated Ouma’s motive video which provides his in-game backstory myself. If anyone would like to read the translated transcript and double-check this information for themselves, I have a link here.

In order for a character to actually be a Nazi or to be Nazi-coded, the character would have to actually show signs of endorsing Nazi beliefs or behaving and performing in the way that Nazis do. It is very fair to say that Ouma’s unfortunate promotional art is coded. Ouma as a character, however, never once over the entire game makes any references to Nazism or Nazi beliefs. He’s not associated with alt-right or ultra conservatives, nor does he have anything to do with the military. Therefore he himself as a character has nothing to do with Nazism, and the blame lies with Kodaka and with Japanese sentiment towards Nazism and WWII history as a whole as some kind of “decorative prop” that can be used for marketing strategies.

I don’t blame people for being uncomfortable with Ouma’s promotional art. I myself am uncomfortable about it, and was very wary about Ouma’s character pre-release until I played the game for myself and confirmed with my own two eyes that he had nothing whatsoever to do with these kinds of things. I really do not appreciate that Kodaka chose such an insensitive and hurtful way of trying to market a character for cheap shock value, because it’s in extremely poor taste. And I really cannot blame other people if they’re disappointed or put off by Kodaka’s decision either.

However, it is definitely a fact that Ouma as a character is not a Nazi and is not Nazi-coded either. The behavior and beliefs people expected from him are understandably influenced by their opinions of his promotional artwork, yes, but in-game Ouma does not reflect these things at all. Everything about his character both prior to and during the killing game is associated with mischief-making, pranks, and being a huge liar who pretends to know about things and influence things from the shadows the way any crime boss might. But he is not associated with militaristic or alt-right imagery even a single time, other than Kodaka’s very poor choice in promo art for him (which again, isn’t even worn by Ouma in-game except for the single CG within his motive video).

As far as coding goes, a character can certainly be coded in a certain way based on their actions, beliefs, spoken opinions, etc. Were Ouma actually to hold certain alt-right or conservative beliefs, or to spout dangerous ideology typically associated with Nazism, then it would be possible to call him “Nazi-coded” regardless of what clothes he was wearing. However, this is not the case.

If anything, Ouma is coded as an orphan: his DICE group were “closer to him than family,” he refuses to talk about his own backstory, has the ability to pick locks and is associated with petty theft, and upon closer inspection, the clothes given to him in-game are extremely ratty and tattered compared to everyone else’s, suggesting an image of poverty. Ouma never once says or confirms that he’s an orphan. However, there is reason to believe he could, perhaps, be one, based on in-game speculation and the way he acts, thinks, and talks. This is the very definition of “coding” a character, without ever outright stating or confirming a fact about them.

Again, I completely understand people being extremely uncomfortable with or angry at Kodaka’s decisions regarding Ouma’s promotional art. It was extremely ignorant and insensitive of Kodaka, and it’s not something that I myself am happy with at all. However, it’s also not a reflection on Ouma as a character, and I feel that trying to insist that Ouma is tied to or associated with Nazism when he’s very clearly not is trivializing the issue of real-world problems regarding Nazism nowadays.

I hope I managed to clear up your questions, anon. I can understand people’s confusion based on the really unfortunate promotional art, but I do hope people give the game a chance for themselves when the English localization hits in September. Ouma is a fascinating character, extremely complex and well-written, and I really hope people do stop spreading misinformation about his character because of rumors and speculations which date back to before the game was even released.

#ndrv3 #drv3 #new danganronpa v3 #kokichi ouma #ouma kokichi #ndrv3 spoilers //#nazism //#antisemitism //#my meta #okay to reblog #anonymous

211 notes · View notes

blueseadespair · 7 years

Text

Drv3 Alternative Mastermind AU Chapter 1 Class Trial

Disclaimer: Don’t own Danganronpa. Also I added parts where one would play the game. If it was a game. Also this one is a long one.

Chapter 1 Class Trial

My hart pumped as the doors opened and revealed a large dome like room with stain glass. In the center was a circle of seats and 16 stands. They all looked pretty Sci-fi. At what looked like the head of the room, was a large podium with a chair and five empty spaces in front of it. It carried an air of final judgment. So this is where we would debate who had done it. Who had killed the SHSL Cosplayer Tsumugi Shirogane. My heart pulsed in I could feel the blood pumping through my body. Then Monokuma appeared along with the Monokumars.

Monokuma: Thank you for waiting, now it is time for the much anticipated class trial!

Monokid: Hell Ya! It’s the main event!

Monosuke: All that goody-goody getting along was making me sick.

Monotarou: Yeesh it took you people a while.

Monofunny: You guys were getting along so well.

Monodam:…

Monokuma: Now take your places, Your names are labeled on your stands.

As we did that we noticed on stand that had a picture of with an x through it. The picture looked like a girl, but it was pretty blurry.

Maki: What is that?

Monokuma: I would be sad if you all didn’t participate, even if you are dead. So I have frames for all the people that might die, and have died. I look forward to seeing what you have in store for me.

Rantarou: This is actually happening. So that dream was-

Monokuma: Now, now don’t go spoiling anything yet now.

Rantarou:..

Monokuma: Now as usual I’ll give the basic explanation of the class trail. The key is to find who the blackened is and you will have to vote who you think it is. If you choose the correct one, only they will be punished, but if you choose the wrong one, then everyone else will be punished. Now. Let’s begin.

Kaito: You say that, but where should we begin?

Shuichi: Then would the murder weapon be a good place to start?

Ryoma: Seems like a good idea.

Tenko: But isn’t it more important to find who killed her?

Rantarou: That maybe true, but the murder weapon might lead us to a clue.

Kokichi: What kind of weapon might help narrow down who the killer is.

Kaede: Then we should start with that.

(Now is the time to remember everything up until now, I have to. Have to find the killer!)

Rantarou: According the Monokuma file… she had several wounds across her body.

Mui: You think one of them might be what killed her?

Maki: Well, it would have led to her death, with all the blood loss.

Himiko: So is it all the wounds on her body?

Tenko: No it could have been that-

Angie: The thing Angie found? You mean the hammer?

Kirumi: It definably seems like a possibility.

Tenko: Then was the blow to the head what killed her? If so only a guy can hit hard enough to kill!

Kaede: No, that's wrong!

Tenko: Huh?

Kaede: I don’t think the hammer was used to deal the finishing blow.

Shuichi: I don’t think so either.

Kokichi: It would be too obvious, and while I don’t like this situation, it would be boring if this mystery were to be solved this easily.

Rantarou: True, it must be more complicated then that.

Korekiyo: Then let us continue to move forward. I want to see where this progression leads.

Kaito: You have no concern about our current situation do you?

Ryoma: That’s just how he is leave him be.

Miu: Just leave him alone.

Maki: Then what do you think dealt the finishing blow?

Kaede: I’m not sure, but the Monokuma file didn’t specify what killed her, only the time she died.

Kaito: Then we still don’t know what killed her!

Korekiyo: But I must say, the murder place sure does seem suspicious.

Kirumi: You mean-

Korekiyo: Yes: the talent room.

Angie: You think Angie did it?

Korekiyo: Not exactly, but you are suspicious.

Angie: Angie is telling you, Angie didn’t kill that girl.

Himiko: Isn’t saying that making you more suspicious?

Kiibo: Besides isn’t Angie a little short to be able to hang the body as well?

Kaede: No there might be a way.

Shuichi: You mean that?

Kaede: Yes. Couldn’t the ladder been used?

Miu: What ladder? I don’t remember no ladder.

Gonta: Of course! Gonta remembers that there was a ladder in the room. They could have used that.

Miu: Then it wouldn’t be unusual that a ladder was there. Kek, never really cared much about what was in that room. Didn’t have anything of value to me.

Kokichi: Then you’re pretty useless in this case.

Miu: Hrng! I dare you say that again, runt!

Rantarou: Now, now lets get back on topic.

Kokichi: Nishishi~

Miu: Hurmp.

Korekiyo: So she could have used the ladder. Was there anything unusual about the ladder?

Kaede: Well…It looked like there was a blood splatter on the side.

Tenko: So you think that she could have been wounded after she was hung!? How cruel!

Shuichi: Judging by the splatter I would say so. I can also say that we could eliminate Ryoma from the suspects because it seems that even with the ladder he wouldn’t be able to hang her body like that.

Ryoma: I thank you for your support, but we still have many other suspects.

Tenko: Then there is no way that a girl could do it, that's just too cruel!

Korekiyo: Are you sure about that?

Tenko: Huh?

Korekiyo: A girl could do it to you know.

Tenko: You think I did it!?

Korekiyo: You would have the strength for it.

Angie: I told you Angie didn’t do it.

Tenko: Wait, why are you turning on me!? It could have been Gonta!

Gonta: Gonta didn’t do anything!

Kaede: Calm down!

(It’s no good, they aren't listening)

Shuichi: With everyone talking surely you the SHSL Pianist will be able to tell who is speaking and pick out a weak spot.

Kaede: I’m not sure but I’ll do my best.

Angie: Angie is not the culprit.

Tenko: Tenko didn’t do anything.

Gonta: Why are you blaming Gonta?

Angie: God was the one who did it

Tenko: Tenko was with Himiko and Kirumi.

Gonta: Gonta was with Kaito

Angie: The one who punished her

Kirumi: Yes we were together

Gonta: Until Angie called Gonta over.

Korekiyo: Your God seems like a scary deity

Kirumi: Even when we heard the Monokuma Announcement

Kaito: Yup, he was with me and I ran into Kokichi

Angie: So it was divine punishment

Tenko: See Tenko is innocent

Kokichi: Well that’s not a lie

[Statement: God is the one who did it: Truth Bullet: Monokuma’s testimony]

Kaede: No that's wrong! It had to be someone here, because a person, not a God had to have killed her.

Monokuma: Yup! It sure was a person! No Gods here.

Angie:…

Kaede: So do you have anything to say? You’ve been pushing this God think quite hard.

Angie:…

Gonta: Angie? Is something the matter?

Kaito: No way, it couldn’t be…

Tenko:…Angie?

Miu: H-hey, Say something.

Angie:…

Maki: Out with it.

Angie:… And if I did?

Himiko: No way you would kill someone like that?

Miu: Then we have our culprit? Monokuma, can we start the vote?

Monokuma: Already? That was quick! Alright!

Monosuke: Rushing to the main event of the main event?

Monotarou: No class.

Monodam:…

Monokid: Is it our turn now?

Monofunny: This is so heart pounding!

Kaede: (Wait, no something’s off)

Rantarou: Wait!

Kaede: (Huh, Rantarou?)

Monokuma: Hurk! Wait is it?

Rantarou: I think that’s wrong. It’s still too early to decide that Angie is the killer.

Shuichi: I think so too.

Kokichi: Like I said before it wouldn’t be fun if it was too easy to solve.

Shuichi: Let’s discuss some more and see what else we can find.

Monokuma: Hump, very well continue.

Monotarou: Looks like we have to wait our turn.

Monodam:…

Monokid: Well we don’t have to worry about this bucket of bolts.

Monofunny: Don’t be mean to Monodam.

Monosuke: You all are just as bad.

Kaito: Let’s just ignore the peanut gallery.

Korekiyo: That seems to be for the best.

Rantraou: It seems suspicious that Angie, first tried to defend herself, by denying that she was the killer. Then latter proclaim that she is the killer.

Ryoma: Your right that is a bit suspicious.

Miu: Then why would she try to make us hasten our vote!?

Kirumi: We don’t know that yet. Does anyone have anymore information to offer?

Shuichi: Wait, do you guys remember the neck wound?

Himiko: Neck wound? Wasn’t there a ribbon around her neck?

Rantarou: Yes, but that seemed to keep us from the real wound, and possible fatal injury.

Shuichi: I guess only Kaede, Rantarou, Kokichi, and I know about it.

Rantarou: Yes, it seems that it was made by something sharp.

Tenko: There wasn’t anything sharp in the art room was there?

Ryoma: There were, but they didn’t seem to have any blood on them.

Angie: The only thing that had blood on it was the hammer.

Kaede: Wait, that might not be it.

Kaito: Huh?

Kaede: Let me think…That must be it!

Miu: Don’t yell so suddenly!

Kokichi: Did you find something out Kaede-chan?

Kaede; Yes! Miu, do you remember what nicked you?

Miu: Sure do! Still have the cut on my finger!

Rantarou: Wait, cut?

Miu: Ya, Kiibo has it since it won’t cut him.

Tenko: You had such an important piece of evidence! Show it over tin can!

Kiibo: D-don’t be so rude! I have feelings too you know!

Shuichi: Wait then that means-!

Ryoma: This must be the true murder weapon that Monokuma was hiding from us.

Monokuma:…

Himikio: Then why would it be there?

Maki: It should have been at the crime scene.

Kirumi: Then maybe they were trying to disguise their crime?

Korekiyo: That would make sense, but who?

Kaede: Then lets continue to discuss. (Although, we need some new information to make a break though, or we will be talking in circles.)

Tenko: So Angie is still the killer?

Miu: It would seem so.

Angie:…

Kirumi: Did anyone see the victim before she died? Perhaps heard from her?

Gonta: No, but Gonta remembers Angie asking Gonta for help.

Kokichi: So Angie only left to get Gonta?

Kirumi: That would seem to be the case.

[Statement: only left to get Gonta, Truth bullet: heard one voice, Lie bullet: heard two voices]

Lie: Please believe in this statement

Kaede: Wait, if I remember I heard two voice’s inside the room. One of them was angie, and the other was Tsumugi.

Kokichi: What are you talking about wasn’t Angie with us? How could she be at to places at once?

Himiko: Does she know how to use magic as well?

Kaito: Then which one is the real Angie?

Kokichi: That was a pretty bad lie.

Rantarou: What if she is telling the truth, though?

Miu: Huh?

Shuichi: There might be a way to discuss this further?

As we said that our podiums began to move and elevate us so that we would face each other face–to-face, two rows of 8. On my side Shuichi, Rantarou, Angie, Gonta, Kiibo, Kirumi, and the portrait. On the other side were Kokichi, Ryoma, Tenko, Himiko, Miu, Kaito, Korekiyo, and Maki.

Miu: This whole thing with two Angies is stupid.

Shuichi: What if there was one instead of two?

Himiko: It must have been magic

Kiibo: There is no way magic would be able to do this.

Ryoma: Then maybe there was a recording?

Kirumi: There was no sign of any recording.

Maki: Angie seems to still be the killer.

Rantarou: Should be trust what Angie has to say.

Korekiyo: Then should be trust Kaede’s ears?

Gonta: Gonta believes in Kaede’s hearing!

Kokichi: Should we believe your lie?

Kaede: Whether or not it’s a lie, we should discuss that!

[It was Tsumugi’s voice (who’s voice was heard?) It was Angie’s voice]

After we had won the argument that it was Angie’s voice the podiums settled back into their original positions.

Kokichi: That was a lie though, that you heard her voice right?

Kaede: yes, but I did hear a voice. It sounded hoarse, but I’m not sure it was Angie’s voice though.

Rantarou: Then let’s us assume that it was Angie’s voice, what does that make our Angie here now?

Shuichi: I mean Tsumugi was the one that was supposed to be murdered right?

Kokichi: Then that would mean that Tsumugi wasn’t the one to die?

Maki: Then Angie was the one to die, and get replaced?

Tenko: How?

Kaede: I think I might have an idea. Do you remember the wire?

Kaito: Wire?

Tenko: Ya, there was a piece of wire that helped to hang her body!

Korekiyo: It would seem they used it from the storage room, because there wasn’t any in the art room.

Himiko: What was unusual about the wire?

Kaede: It was the way that it was used.

Kirumi: Used?

Shuichi: Yes, it Looked like it was used to tie her limbs. There were actually two different types. One to tie the limbs, and the other to hang her up.

Kaede: It was even near her knees.

Rantarou: So you think the wire might used to attach something?

Kokichi: You mean like extensions? Because that would seem to be the answer. Because Tsumugi-chan limbs are longer than Angies.

Shuichi: If I remember correctly, she also had powder on her.

Maki: Powder?

Kaede: Yes, like make up.

Gonta: Then if Angie, was the one to die, who is Angie that is here now?

Korekiyo: Why don’t we ask the person in question?

Angie:…

Himiko: Angie?

Ryoma: Seems like we have her in a corner.

Angie?:…

Shuichi: No, you shouldn’t be Angie.

Kokichi: Your disguise was pretty good. SHSL Cosplayer Tsumugi Shirogane-chan.

Angie?...Tch.

Miu: Huh?

Angie?: Looks like I’ve been found out. Yes, it is I, Tsumugi.

Tsumugi: I was getting tried trying to play that girl Angie. It feels good to be my normal self again.

Kaede: Then why did you kill her?

Tsumugi: do you have any proof that I killed her? Some one could frame me as the killer.

Shuichi: Well a lot of the evidence points to you.

Kokichi: Then that powder on her face was makeup to look like you.

Tsumugi: And what about it? It doesn’t mean that it’s true.

Rantarou: That may be the case, but why go through the trouble pretending to be Angie?

Tsumugi: Tch. I hate your type.

Miu: Well we found the correct culprit, now we can vote.

Kaito: Wait vote…!? You tried to make us hasten our vote so that we would vote the wrong killer!

Maki: Your not so dumb after all.

Kaito: Hey that’s rude!

Kiibo: By having us hasten our vote we would have all been killed, because the killer we thought was actually the victim. And the victim was the killer.

Tsumugi: But I was telling the truth, that Angie didn’t kill anyone, an yet you doubted her.

Himiko: That's because we thought she was you, I mean the person most suspicious.

Kokichi: It was a pretty good plan, but I don’t like be lied to. Only I get to do the lying.

Tsumugi: You still don’t have that much evidence. The Thread scissors aren't enough. Some one could use that against me. What other proof do you have?

[PTA, BTB with Tsumugi, Answer: Tied Limbs]

Tsumugi: Guh. How would that be a sign? Kiumi could have killed her! She’s good with that kind of stuff!

Kaede: You're the only one who can sew besides Kirumi.

Tsumugi: She could have been hiding! Like in the room until everyone was gathered to ast like she was in the crowd.

Tenko: But, Kirumi’s alibi would be me and Himiko, because we were together ever since your event.

Kirumi: And during that event everyone was still there and alive.

Tsumugi: No, no, NO! It’s not over yet!

Kaede: No, it is. I’ll go over you crimes once more and prove that your it.

(After my explanation)

Miu: Monokuma, we know who it is, it time to vote!

Monokuma: Huh, is it my turn? Is it truly? Then with further Ado its time for Your regular scheduled voting time! Please choose the button on who you think is the blackened. Will you choose the right one or the wrong one? Upupupu.

Class Trial End

AN: If you did play or spoiled your self about the actual game (Like I did) Kaede was made the killer, and then you switch to Shuichi, who is the new Protag. Spoilers, In this one Kaede stays protag.

#danganronpa #danganronpa spoilers #ndrv3 #ndrv3 spoilers #drv3 #drv3 spoilers

4 notes · View notes