#but this scene has been in my head for a while nnow | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

siriusanotherside · 1 year

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Right nnow, some people in a Discord group really hate SDRA2 and prefer DRA much more, because they find SDRA2's writing (Both in characters and in cases) much, much worse (Like, finding Kokoro and Kanade's intelligence more like a informed attribute, and finding Yuki annoying and whiny and preferring "Yuuki" much more bc they felt his breakdown was better written), and pretty much saying they LINUJ unlearned everything he learned when he did the first game (Bc in the first game, the characters questioned the others' testimonies, and feeling that Kokoro and Kanade's clues in the first two cases on SDRA2 came too out of nowhere)

EDIT: HELLO ASK THAT HAS BEEN IN ASK HELL FOR A LONG LONG TIME. IT IS FINISHED FINALLY! First, It is valid to have preferences for whatever reason between games. And even disliking other games for A/B/C/D, as taste is taste and everybody has their preference. I also feel that the structure (and cast) of Another1 and Another2 is different enough that it can happen of one hating one and liking the other. You can also dislike a character for not-deep reasons (there are characters I dislike just because their voices make my ears hurt or because I dislike the color palette).

Idk how Discord works well, but given the intensity of this, by what I am reading in the ask, I would say to try to either block them (or something similar to filtering them) depending on how frequently they do so (like say if they are flooding the chat with it non-stop). That said given that you said it is a Discord group then… It might be easier to filter it out of your feed? like a channel thing?.

I do greatly disagree with their criticisms though.

Addressing the criticism regarding Yuki VS Yuuki.

I would disagree because while they may share the same name and near same appearance they have very different: resources, connections/friends, structure of the killing game and pressures. All of those points snowball into very different breakdowns.

Yuuki/Utsuro Killing Game (calling KG) didn’t aim at him, specifically, and he had Divine Luck protecting him against most of the worst parts of it (People he cares about always survive, never betray him; No motive targets him, specifically). All participants, as far as he knows, have sympathetic motivations for killing and are being manipulated by Monokuma. As far as Yuuki knows, this is all caused by one evil person and should they find this person, everything would be over.

Yuki KG, on the other hand, is specifically targeting him in order to cause as much suffering on him as possible. As far as He knows, the game is caused by 5 murderers who are waiting to kill them, and twice shown to be willing to betray their friends (Hajime -> Shinji / Enma -> Kokoro).

The mastermind repeatedly shows that he is invincible and can bend reality and so no one can do anything about it. Not only that, but Kanade serves to skyrock the paranoia in everyone since her trial shows that even if one person is not a Void and seems to be a meek, shy, calm, softspoken, civilian, they could still be secretly a serial killer with a very different evil agenda.

All of this creates very different mindsets.

Adding to that, Yuuki is waking his memories, and while he is horrified of it, he still has the choice on what to do regarding them. Yuki is, basically, getting another person shoved inside his head while having his personality artificially (Mikado’s AI creation thing) fluctuate between both without any input of his, continually feeling powerless.

It is notable, that at the end, Yuuki’s Horror is discovering his memories. Yuki’s horror is being replaced by someone else while discovering his body doesn’t exist anymore and he is only a brain.

Yuuki doesn’t have to deal with people he specifically bonded with, canon-wise in scenes through the story, (Akane and Tsurugi), dying. Yuki loses his best friend / big brother figure / leader figure in a horrifying way.

Monokuma allows for Yuuki group to……regroup and have moments of lightness and closure, meanwhile Yuki group doesn’t have this type of closure and are in increasingly tense and anxiety inducing sequences.(Think of Chapter 4)

Also, Yuki has to deal with, since Chapter 3, extreme moodswings and jarring changes in his personalities as if he is disappearing. Yuuki has to deal with odd dreams, once an angry outburst he quickly assumed was due to the KG and only truly has the illusion shatter in Chapter 6.

(Ohhh nice parallel it came to me, but Yuki gets executed in spite being and knowing he is innocent of Teruya’s murder. Yuuki dodges execution despite unknowingly having a connection to Yamato’s murder.)

All of this creates two very different breakdowns and ways of dealing with it. Yuki, due to the circumstances above, gets an on-going increasing-through-chapters breakdown. Yuuki’s proper breakdown happens in chapter 6.

Yuki reacts to the constant pressure of his killing game that barely allows him to breath, by crying, by snapping, by breaking under it. Yuuki has enough moments of levity to rest and truly snaps in chapter 4, in which both him and Akane have time to address it and apologize, and 5, in which he grabs and scares Mikako due to suspicion.

One breakdown is just more openly helpless due to Yuki’s lack of agency, of hope spots between despair, and lack of resources to fight. The other is a built up for the reveal of the mastermind, which Yuuki gets agency in what to do with the information, and has Divine Luck subtlety protecting him from the worst of the killing game.

Yuuki gets to decide what he can do to what happens to him. Yuki can mostly watch in horror unable to prevent, affect or deal with what happens to him.

So, in conclusion, both breakdowns have different aims and constructions that suit each character specific arc and foreshadowing and are both greatly written. Yuki’s is just more painful to watch due to it being a reaction to his lack of agency VERSUS Yuuki’s being a build up to find out a mystery that, in the end, he is still able to have agency in it.

Addressing Kokoro’s intelligence as an informed trait

I do believe Kokoro’s intelligence shows up enough during her screentime to be shown to be a consistent trait. She identifies something is odd with Sora, she is able to read the emotions/thoughts of other people with a good deal of frequency and point out so and she tries to come up with the best choice in a sea of bad ones to deal with her problems.

Looking beyond the trial, in chapter 2, this is a constant. Her main goal is to live, which means not to anger and become a threat to the Voids and to non-Voids, so she immediately glues herself on the one person who is confirmed not to be a Void, has aversion towards killing, wants to save them, and is committed to protect them (Teruya). She tries her best to stay neutral and not interact with anyone as to not anger the Voids or show any inclination on who they are.

The clue in trial one is brought up while being consistent with Kokoro’s character presented in Chapter 1 and in chapter 2. Notably, if you do all of Hajime’s free time events, it is also consistent with that, since in them, Hajime spends a good deal of time grappling with the realization he is going to have to kill someone, and so does show a window for Kokoro to be able to be able to read his doubt and then realize that he was the killer.

Also, ultimately the clue was not just a clue thrown there and forgotten. Kokoro’s clue gave her credibility and role through the trial gave credibility to her as a very unexpected threat to the Voids that could snitch on them at any moment and would be believed by the others due to said credibility.

On why Kokoro doesn’t make the optimal choices everytime

The vibe I get / my interpretation upon seeing Kokoro arc is that Kokoro is extremely smart in the book / deductive way but lacks in terms of how to apply it. Using a metaphor, Kokoro is a doctor that can identify what you have with precision, and can suggest a treatment but flounders when it comes to applying said treatment.

Kokoro is smart in technical terms and in able identifying what other people feel to the point of being able to almost read their thoughts. But. Notably, repeatedly, she seems to lack the ability to engage with the emotions she identifies in someone else, as well as, being overwhelmed by her own emotions due to the abnormal situation she is in (Killing Game).

She can identify who the Voids are and that they want her dead, and so she scrambles to try to make herself less of a threat. Kokoro can connect the dots that if she hints or outright tells on a Void, another will kill her. She clings to Teruya due to him being the only person neutral that she can hope to protect her.

There are different kinds of intelligence. Example: Shinji is not booksmart, but he is emotionally smart in that he can rally, motivate and comfort people. Kokoro can point out what the person is feeling and nearly thinking, but she sees it in a clinical way without engaging with said person emotions, be it by feeling them or by addressing them. As such, she can’t comfort, motivate, rally or de-escalate successfully the group.

Chapter 2 showcases this, in which Kokoro has to navigate being a threat to the voids, not wanting to die, and trying to parse her own feelings on the situation, and how to try to deescalate the situation. She fails sometimes and increases the paranoia and distress with the group both Voids and not-voids.

One moment I also think showcases this is when we look at the first trial in a Watsonian way. Kokoro is able to identify the killer, but she lacks a way to bring it up that wouldn’t derail the trial and possibly make people dubious. So she lets Sora take the reins of said trial, so that Sora can “build the road” to the conclusion.

In Enma’s case, Kokoro seemed to be overwhelmed by the situation. Kokoro knew Enma was a Void. She knew Enma was observing her. She was also shocked by the way Enma interacted with her, as if genuinely wanting to be friends and Kokoro……also started to want to trust and be friends with Enma.

Kokoro strikes me as a very lonely person who was never really approached this strongly by someone that committed to being her friend (even if with dubious reasons), and so, I think it did touch her and made her want to trust Enma.

Notably, it is during the hopeful moment, when Hibiki who previously was freaking out over the Voids, commits to try for friendship with the show, that Kokoro tries to reach out back to Enma and feels confident doing so.

However, due to the her lack of… way with her words, bluntness and generally not really great empathy, as well as the nervous-ness of the situation it went as it went. I imagine that due to Enma never really hinting at her trauma to Kokoro, Kokoro ended up underestimating the intensity of the trigger that talking about it was, and so was caught out out of guard.

In conclusion, I would say that Kokoro is smart, but that she lacks in emotional intelligence to use what she sees to propel others towards her own goals.

Addressing Kanade’s intelligence

Much like Kokoro, Kanade intelligence is a consistent trait. Is it used for evil? Yeah, but Kanade and her actions do showcase it.

Kanade creates a persona that immediately hides most of her intentions and makes people underestimate her. The facade she shows into the world is of a meek, follower, crybaby with no confidence, who is bullied by her sister. Hibiki follows it up by being loud, yelling insults at her, and seeming (and believing) to be the one taking charge of them. This makes it so people are less willing to scrutinize or pay much attention to her, seeing her with either pity or looking away.

All hints she herself gives that she may be more than she shows are fairly neutral, after all, who is going to call her out for liking horror genre? Or for staying calm while Hibiki panics upon the bodies and say she is trying to calm her?

Notably too, the person who most gives away both Kanade’s plan and abilities are not she herself, but Hibiki who talks about it in a setting where Kanade can’t stop her without throwing away her mask. (Nikei interview right in front of everyone where Hibiki talked about their synch, Hibiki complimenting Kanade skills in front of Sora).

I would also say her behavior in the first trial is consistent and that she, much like Kokoro, watches out while Sora leads them towards the right answers. And then, she doesn’t step up due to Kokoro doing so.

Third trial also does give credence to Kanade’s intelligence. Her plan may be convoluted as hell, but the crux of it, that is two people murdered someone at the same time, was intelligent and impossible to guess. The viewer might be genre aware due to knowledge of the canon-verse third trial, and guess what Kanade was aiming for, but a bunch of people who were used to the structure of 1 murderer 1 victim were very stuck on it. Even too, the clues that do point to the right conclusion are given previously by Hibiki and not Kanade.

Syobai, the person who had the most knowledge on murder also dismissed at first glance the possibility due to the perceived impossibility of that level of synchronization being possible. Mikado has to insert a fail-safe on Sora so that she refuses to end the trial with the wrong conclusion before the time arrives, and Divine Luck has to act, in order for Kanade’s plan to fail.

Kanade does starts to panic and snap more, alerting people something is off, when they start to get said clues but considering the high stakes situation, it did made sense. Her arrogance is also a clue in itself that something is off with the conclusion they were arriving, but that’s a character flaw that doesn’t negate that the plan was smart in shrouding what the true murder was.

And so, yes Kanade is smart and it is displayed consistently through the game for it to be a trait.

As for the second trial clue, given Kanade’s experience with murder, her clue seemingly comes from nowhere but serves as foreshadowing of Kanade character, as a cunning and smart person. It is the first time that Kanade blatantly breaks her facade of a meek person, by acting arrogant, insulting people and cleverly pointing out the murder’s twist, and getting rid of the roadblock of the trial. Notably, a lot of people were unsure of Kanade suggestion, but they did went with it due to finding themselves going into circles when trying to find an answer to the murder.

So yeah, due to the way it acts as a foreshadowing for chapter 3 + set up for Kanade character + people were already stuck might as well hear her out, I do think it is a valid clue.

(The thing in the trial that makes me go “my dude what” is the icicle whole deal tho.)

About Linuj.

*waves hands in a way to try to say what I mean* It is…. Hm. Eh.

TL;DR: 1 was the first fangame and so he was still getting used to doing a fangame and getting confident as he went, but still acting inside the constraints of the setting. 2 was Linuj’s more ambitious project (I mean this in a neutral observation) that diverted a lot from the common tropes and standard plot structure of a killing game.

Due to this, the games have very different vibes. It is not that he unlearned anything, but that he got more confident to tell the story he wanted to tell and the plots he had ideas for. (END TL;DR)

When I see Another1 and 2, it gives me the gut instinct that Another 1 was Linuj first dipping his toes in fangame and DR -

(Chapter 1 in particular is…feels… very safe in the sense that he followed the very very standard DR formula to the point where it feels it is DR/1 with the twist that it is played straight in that ass who murdered is an ass and saint victim is a saint. Sports guy murders girl but she wasn’t the intended victim, ball was a key point of the murder, confusion due to location etc etc)

--- And as such, even as Linuj started to get comfortable and experimenting with his writing (the following chapters) due to the set up, he still went with the common structure of the plot, that is: Despair VS Hope; standard killing order; 1 (2ish) mastermind; mastermind reveal at 6; Murders are caused by motives set up by Monokuma or blew out due to confrontation; everybody had been Hope’s Peak students and Ultimates before and had known each other.

(I mean the observation above in a neutral way (not negative or positive). I think the writing of the first game is incredibly good, a joy to watch, the twists original and gripping by their set up, but he goes with the usual structure)

In 2, Linuj gives the vibe of feeling more confident and had gotten more practice with the creation of the killing game, and so went with the vision he had and experimented with his ideas.

This caused a very different plot structure: Despair VS Hope is barely there and is a light curtain due to Mikado/Voids motive having nothing to do with it and the theming focusing more heavily on Outcomes VS Process; Murders are (mostly) pre-determined beforehand by chosen murderers; everybody are strangers actually; already revealed mastermind in 1 and technically near every chapter having one adjacent reveal.

About specifically the clue and testimonies writing

I think the clue that Kanade gives in within the story in that it serves very well its purpose of both setting up Kanade’s true character and threat and in introducing a new way to look around the murder.

Kokoro’s clue felt very in accordance with her character and her goal as well.

About testimonies…. I will be real with you chief, it has been a hot second since I saw all of the trials. I generally think that they were done ok, with shout outs to chapter 1 and 4 when it comes to it. Due to the structure of 2 (Somewhat everyone accounted for plus looking in reverse order) and 5 (3 people were all together leaving the options as: suicide, Alt Yuki possesses Yuki, Mikado did it or Iroha did it), I do understand why the testimonies were structured that way.

I think that the testimonies due to the structure of the murders between games as well as different motivations. I don’t know, they felt very natural to the trials of their respective games. Notably, I would point out that Mikako also does a testimony, not unlike Kokoro, in Chap 4, in which she sees Satsuki running away in tears out of the room and is taken as truthful.

The clues comes as character establishing moments for Kokoro and Kanade, which either impacted them in the future (Kokoro’s credibility3) or foreshadowed important points that were to come (Kanade’s true personality and threat as a clever cunning person).

So yeah.

#anon #asks #ANON I AM SO SORRY #IT WAS THE KIND OF ASK YOU KNOW YOU WILL WRITE A LOT SO I KEPT RE-WRITING IT AND GETTING UGHT HATS NOT QUITE RIGHT #I HOPE THIS 3K+ WORDS HELPS

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