#me when i play drv3: plays only the beginning part of chapter 1 before Anything Terrible Happens

[hildannette]

i currently have no wifi (killing and maiming) but i might redownload drv3 tomorrow to play through the kaede-tenko and kaede-kirumi supports. just to feel something……. my favorite girl, her beloved girlfriend, and her best friendin the world (this is canon btw it’s not just my opinion it’s basically precisely exactly what happened)………. i know i mever bring up tenkaede anymore but i am so serious when i say they will always have a special place in my heart

[elyvorg]

Remember that analysis post of mine debunking the ridiculous myth perpetrated in this fandom that Kaito never apologises, in which I discuss how he actually apologises way more than he should? Well, while thinking about and writing that post, I also got curious. What’s the cold, hard data on that? What if I just straight-up counted every single instance of each character apologising throughout the main story of DRV3, in order to be able to indisputably prove at a glance that Kaito is actually one of the most apologetic characters in this game?

…I wasn’t willing to go so far as to play through the entire game again just for the purpose of counting every time a character apologised, mind you. But several months ago, I began watching yet another V3 Let’s Play – and since I was already committed to watching said LP all the way through, I figured I could count all the apologies as it went along and collect that data with minimal extra effort on my part. So here’s the full dataset, at last!

There we go. It is objective and indisputable that Kaito apologises the third-most out of any character in this game, behind only the incredibly insecure Gonta and the still-rather-insecure-and-has-the-most-lines Shuichi. And pretty close behind them, at that!

I noticed a bunch of interesting things while doing this, though, so I can’t resist the chance to break this down and talk about it in some more detail.

Data collection criteria

For the sake of Scientific Thoroughness, I should explain my exact criteria for counting these. Every way of phrasing an apology, be it “sorry”, “my apologies”, “my bad”, etc, was counted. I also decided to count statements along the lines of "I need to apologise for this", because that itself is essentially already expressing the apology, too.

If a character apologises multiple times for the same thing, each of those times counts separately. This isn’t a measure of how many individual things each character apologises for, but rather of how inclined they are to apologise. Even if multiple apologies are grouped together, such as “Sorry… I’m so sorry…” or “sorry, my bad”, those still count as two, because that’s essentially a double-strength apology.

I did not count optional dialogue that was mutually exclusive with other optional dialogue. Which is to say, I didn’t count any FTEs, since you can’t get all of them in a single playthrough, and as much as I might like to insist that Kaito’s and Maki’s FTEs with Shuichi should definitely be considered canon, I’m trying to be unbiased here. I also didn’t count any FTE invitation dialogue, even though you technically can get all of the first parts of those (the lines before you actually make the choice to invite someone) in a single playthrough, mostly because it’d have taken forever to go through them for absolutely everyone.

However, I did count optional dialogue in those bits where you’re free to talk to everyone in the room before advancing the plot by talking to a specific person, because that can all be assumed to be canon. The bonus item scenes also count, because they should be assumed to be canon, too. There may have been some apologies that I missed here, because the LP I was watching occasionally missed these bits of dialogue, and while I tried to check myself for these missed bits, I may have overlooked a few. But if so, it was definitely only a few and not enough to significantly affect the overall picture of the data.

I only counted Shuichi’s and Kaede’s apologies when they were spoken out loud. It’d be unfair to count their inner-monologue apologies as well when we have no idea how much any other character might also be apologising in their head.

The pregame characters’ apologies were not counted, because they are not the same people. I would have counted Tsumugi’s and Rantaro’s apologies prior to the “reset” if they’d had any, since they are already themselves from the very beginning.

Obviously there’s still a lot of inherent bias here towards the characters who get more screentime and more lines, such as especially Shuichi. There isn’t much I can do about that, short of counting the exact number of dialogue boxes that every single character has throughout the whole game and using that to normalise things. As you can imagine, I don’t want to do that. (Though, on the extreme off-chance that someone does somehow happen to have data for that lying around somewhere that they can access with minimal effort, I’d love for them to send it my way.)

Characters who totally never do anything wrong

I was not at all surprised to see that Kiyo and Angie never apologise for anything at all, sincere or not, warranted or not. Psh, what do you mean they might have done something wrong, of course they never do anything wrong ever.

Miu almost ended up on the zero-apologies list, too. Interestingly, the four times she does apologise in canon dialogue are all during the Virtual World trip. Three of them happen when people are frustrated that she isn’t telling them stuff about the Virtual World sooner, and one is for being about to murder Kokichi in the flashback to that. Since she never apologises at all the entire rest of the time, this is a neat sign that she actually does feel pretty guilty about deceiving everyone and plotting to get them all killed.

In another effort to be as objective as possible, I also counted every apology regardless of how sincere it was. However, in Kokichi’s case, I did keep a track of how many of his apologies were actually sincere, out of curiosity. (Other characters may have a few insincere ones here and there, but it only felt worth my time keeping track of that with Kokichi, because he’s obviously the biggest offender for this.) I included this information on Kokichi’s bar of the graph, because I feel that the implication otherwise given of him being the fifth most apologetic character in this game is deeply misleading. If you discount all of Kokichi’s screamingly insincere apologies, suddenly his apology count is just unremarkable background noise on par with most of the others.

It is notable – and also very unsurprising to me – that Kokichi’s five actual sincere apologies are all for things that, according to Kaito’s principles on this, he doesn’t really need to be apologising for at all. They are all within chapters 1 to 3. He never sincerely apologises for any of the many things he actually does wrong that really do warrant being apologised for, because Kokichi is totally never in the wrong about anything, you guys, and he definitely doesn’t ever murder anyone.

Three of those five sincere apologies happen when he’s hit his head during investigation 3 and is dazed and disoriented. Apparently Kokichi needs to be literally injured in order to be made to feel like anything is his fault for more than a brief moment. …That said, that evidently only works for accidental slip-ups that aren’t really his fault at all. Kokichi’s totally-never-in-the-wrong-about-anything defence mechanisms work full time to protect him from ever having to acknowledge and feel remorse for any of his many very real and deliberate misdeeds, even when he’s painfully poisoned and dying.

Kaede

Kaede’s apology count is very notably high for someone who was only alive for one chapter. If she’d stayed alive for longer, she’d almost certainly have rivalled Shuichi for total apologies. (So, technically, Kaito is probably only the fourth most apologetic character in this game. Still, though.)

You might assume that Kaede’s high count here is because of the murder she does, but actually only like two or three of them are related to that. Most of her apologies are evenly spread throughout the entire chapter. Some of it’s just general politeness, but an awful lot of it comes from her being too inclined to feel bad over not being as good a leader as she wishes she was, when she really hasn’t done anything wrong at all. Kaito is right to try and encourage her not to apologise when things aren’t her fault! She of all people needs to hear that!

Chapter-by-chapter

The majority of the rest of the characters aren’t that interesting to talk about. For the most part their low counts are basically just, like, background noise politeness, a vague measure of how polite that character is and nothing more. Very little of those counts has anything to do with how insecure that character is, or any actual things they do wrong that genuinely warrant apologising.

But for the other three of our most-apologetic characters, since they’re alive for several chapters, it’s kind of interesting to look at how their counts fluctuate from chapter to chapter. So here’s another graph, to help me break their huge counts down a bit more.

Shuichi

Despite him obviously having the most lines, I was pretty surprised that Shuichi ended up with the highest apology count overall. I wasn’t even expecting him to top Kaito’s count, let alone Gonta’s.

This conclusion did, however, seem a lot more likely once I’d made it through chapter 1 and seen just how much he apologised during that time. Geez, is that one hell of a headstart for even Gonta and Kaito to catch up to. My surprise over this was probably because, when I think about Shuichi, I usually think about the post-Kaede protagonist-Shuichi (perhaps especially because I usually think about him in a Kaito-centric context, whoops). So it’s easy to forget just how incredibly insecure – and also apologetic – he was in the very beginning.

Shuichi apologises exactly as horribly much as Kaede during chapter 1. Again, this is partly politeness, but also far too much of him having an inclination to feel bad over things that aren’t his fault because of how insecure he is. Kaede and Shuichi basically spend most of chapter 1 constantly apologising to each other for existing, and it’s heartbreaking. Every time I had to add another of theirs to my spreadsheet, I was all, “No! Stop it!”

What I find really fascinating about Shuichi’s count, though, is that he pretty much loses this bad habit entirely after Kaede’s death. Despite him still kind of moping around and struggling to know what to do until Kaito steps in to help, it seems like Shuichi’s resolve to carry on Kaede’s wish and believe in himself more really had already had a tangible positive effect on his confidence!

This also means that Kaito never has any reason to give Shuichi advice telling him not to apologise if he hasn’t done anything wrong, which he absolutely would have done if he’d spent more time with Shuichi in chapter 1 when he was apologising so much. As I mentioned in my original post about this topic, this fact is important.

Shuichi’s counts in chapters 2 and 3 are especially low. This is what background noise politeness from a character tends to look like – and it also pretty clearly proves that his and Kaede’s huge apology counts in chapter 1 are down to way more than them just being generally polite people who are getting the most screentime.

It might look like Shuichi gradually gets more insecure again as the killing game goes on, but that’s not actually quite why his count goes up again like that. Instead, it’s that, when something particular does go wrong, Shuichi still feels inclined to apologise for it a lot more than most people would. Turns out, most of his excess apologies in chapters 4 and 5 are spurred by very specific incidents involving Kaito.

Literally five of Shuichi’s apologies in chapter 4 are over the cell phone incident with Kaito during the investigation. That genuinely did warrant an apology – he should have thought to warn Kaito that he’d be logged out beforehand so he wouldn’t be so startled – but even then, apologising that many times was still rather excessive. Shuichi evidently felt really bad about startling his friend like that in the first place. But it also doesn’t help that Kaito reacted more strongly to it than he should have done, for reasons rooted in his own issues that Shuichi was completely oblivious to, which is probably a lot of why Shuichi felt he had to keep apologising.

Three of Shuichi’s apologies in chapter 5 are over the awkward situation between him and Kaito, albeit directed at Maki and not Kaito. This is despite Shuichi himself asserting that he doesn’t believe he should apologise for his actions in trial 4. Even then, he’s still feeling insecure enough about the whole thing that some unintentional apologies slip out of him anyway, not precisely about Gonta’s trial, but about not being able to fix the rift between him and Kaito. He seems to feel like that’s meant to be his responsibility, when he should be able to realise himself that it isn’t. The real responsibility to fix this is on Kaito. Once again, it’s Kaito’s issues – and Kaito not talking about his issues – that causes Shuichi to apologise for something more than he ought to.

Another three of Shuichi’s apologies in chapter 5 are over lying to his friends at the end of the trial in a desperate attempt to protect Kaito. (…Well, technically all of these apologies are part of the lie and therefore not really him apologising for lying – but his inner monologue confirms that he really is sorry for lying, which is almost certainly why he ends up fake-apologising so much within the lie. More on this principle in a bit when I talk about all of Kaito’s apologies in trial 5.) Again, this is another thing that does genuinely warrant an apology, but probably not three times? And while this one isn’t related to Kaito’s issues, it is still because of Kaito that Shuichi needed to try and lie to everyone in the first place.

(One more of Shuichi’s apologies at the end of chapter 5 is for Kaito’s death, because in his grief he’s hurting enough to have slipped back into feeling like everything is his fault. At least this is just the one, and Maki manages to talk him out of blaming himself any more than that.)

Without these specific incidents that he’s still a bit too inclined to feel bad about, Shuichi’s count would be three in chapter 4 and five in chapter 5. So, basically just background noise politeness again. Maybe he’s being slightly more generally insecure in chapter 5 than usual, perhaps due to Kaito not quite being there for him, and/or the whole despair thing. But he’s no longer constantly apologising for existing to nearly as much of an extent as he was in chapter 1.

Delightfully, in chapter 6, with Kaito’s death spurring Shuichi’s determination into overdrive, Shuichi’s count goes right back down to insignificant background noise politeness. Nothing at all happens to make him feel like he needs to apologise way too much.

This is exactly how I hoped it would end! He is being a hero and none of his actions here are anything for him to make himself feel bad about. Kaito would be proud.

Gonta

Gonta’s background-noise politeness in the earlier chapters is noticeably higher than everyone else’s, because there’s also quite a bit of insecurity and apologising-for-existing going on with him. But it’s still not, like, super high on its own. It might not even be quite as bad as Kaede, even accounting for him getting way fewer lines than her?

His somewhat higher count in chapter 2 could be because of the Insect Meet and Greet, but it could also be because the way Ryoma’s body was discovered made Gonta feel especially strongly that he should have been able to prevent Ryoma’s death.

But then, of course, there’s chapter 4. As you’d imagine, almost all of those are in the trial, and almost all towards the end of it. Poor Gonta. It also doesn’t help that there’s two Gontas in the room for the trial conclusion, and naturally I included Alter Ego Gonta’s apologies in Gonta’s count, too.

Kaito

For the first two chapters, when he doesn’t have any sidekicks and therefore no expectations to live up to as their hero, and/or when he’s not struggling with weakness and worrying that he’s failing those expectations, Kaito’s apology level is just unremarkable background noise like most other characters.

(Well, one of them is actually not background noise and is a meaningful, warranted apology for punching Shuichi at the end of trial 1. But because he correctly doesn’t apologise for this any more than he needs to, it kinda blends in with the background noise.)

Then chapter 3 happens, and, predictably, his count shoots way up. All but one of Kaito’s apologies in this chapter are over being sick due to his phobia. (And if I’d been counting the free time invitation dialogues, there would be another four added on here, again for being too sick to hang out with Shuichi.)

Of his five in chapter 4, one is genuinely warranted (for laughing at Maki’s katana story), and two are over being physically sick, goddammit, Kaito. The other two in this chapter are for letting Kokichi’s taunts get to him, which is also not quite a thing he should be apologising for. Kaito can’t help it if his emotions react in a certain way to Kokichi making him out to be worthless. He can control how he responds to it, but not how he feels over it.

Then there’s chapter 5, which somehow manages to even eclipse Kaito’s chapter 3 count – but most of this is about the trial. Only three of his apologies in this chapter are from the Daily Life. (Naturally, two of them are still over being sick. No, Kaito, stop it.)

Literally half of Kaito’s fourteen apologies in the trial boil down to being sorry for tricking and deceiving his friends. This is something that warrants an apology, according to Kaito’s principles, even though he’s doing this deliberately for the purpose of hopefully saving everyone. He is still choosing to hurt them as part of that, and that hurt deserves to be apologised for.

What’s interesting about most of Kaito’s apologies for this, though, is that they’re technically insincere. He’s apologising for tricking everybody while he’s still tricking them, which sure makes it sound like he doesn’t mean it. This even applies to the majority of these apologies that happen during the bits where he’s speaking in his own voice. Because “Exisal Kaito” is a fake and overexaggerated version of himself that he wants everyone to conclude was really just Kokichi pretending to be him, anything he says during those moments is never going to come across as genuine.

But obviously, there’s not a shred of doubt that Kaito really is sorry for tricking everyone the entire time he’s doing this. It says a lot that during those bits where he’s being himself, Kaito just so happens to have a particularly high density of apologies-per-line. He feels awful for being this insincere and deceptive towards his friends, and he really wishes he could just communicate to them how genuinely sorry he is for all of this. But because he can’t, the next best thing to try and scratch that itch is to just apologise anyway even though he needs them to assume it’s all fake.

Kaito even apologises a couple of times as Exisal Kokichi for lying to them! This is absolutely categorically not something Kokichi wrote into his script, because Kokichi never apologised for lying, not even in a blatantly-insincere-sounding way. Kaito’s desperate desire to express how awful he felt about this was just so strong that it even accidentally slipped into a couple of his ad-libs as Kokichi.

However, while Kaito apologises so many times for this, it’s not because he’s blaming himself a bit too excessively much for his wrongdoing like Shuichi was still liable to do at this point in the story. The only reason Kaito apologises this much for tricking everyone is due to how insincere he was forced to sound almost every time. He kept apologising again and again because each insincere apology never felt like enough, and he desperately needed them to know that he meant it.

When Kaito reveals himself at the end of the trial, he pretty much immediately apologises again for tricking them – once, and that’s it. This time, they know he means it, and that’s all he needs. He’s not going to wallow in his bad feelings any more than that.

This is also the case for the other genuine wrongdoings he goes on to apologise for in the conclusion. Kaito gives a double-sized but still concise apology to Shuichi for lashing out in trial 4 like he’d needed to give this whole time, and then one single apology to his friends for lying to them about his illness. He gets those apologies out like he should, but once he’s done so, he doesn’t linger on them and mope any more than he needs to.

Which is good! Look at Kaito finally following his own advice again and being emotionally healthy about this!

…Except for the part where he then goes on to apologise twice for dying on them. That one is still not his fault.

[quixotic-dragon]

Kokichi Oma’s Crocodile Tears   (MAJOR DRV3 SPOILERS)

Ah, good ol’ Kokichi Oma. The Ultimate Little Shit- and a controversial little shit at that! I’ve recently played v3, and Kokichi is the one character who always seems to be on my mind (aside from my fav, Keebo, of course) because he’s such a mystery. We never get to know what’s going on in his head, at least not openly, and many players are led to assume that he is a malicious troublemaker, or even an outright sadist. 

I’m going to take a moment to analyze Kokichi specifically during that infamous scene at the end of Chapter 4 because that is all that’s been on my mind as of late. 

Underneath the Keep reading, there WILL be major spoilers for the entirety of v3. There will also be a very long essay, but I will do my best to break it up so it is easier to read. Read at your own risk.

So without further ado, here is my analysis of and my thoughts on Kokichi, his actions, and his character circa Chapter 4:

INITIAL REACTION:

Before I go into how I feel about Kokichi now, I’m going to have a discussion about my thoughts on him while this scene was playing out. (I know my exact feelings because I was liveposting in a discord server as I played, haha)

At this point in the game, the player does not yet know that Kokichi is not the true mastermind, nor do they understand what Kokichi means by “winning” the game. 

I had personally been spoiled of who the v3 mastermind was (thanks a lot danganronpa wiki), so I recognized that Kokichi wasn’t the mastermind, however I did not recognize that he was trying to win the killing game via unconventional methods. So from my point of view, Kokichi had just intentionally murdered Gonta (and Miu) just to increase his chances of winning and had the nerve to shed fake tears over it. I was furious! (behold, my fury!)

Kokichi sobs over Gonta’s death, and I interpreted this as entirely fake tears. One of my friends suggested, “i feel like there was a difference between like his / crocodile tears and this.” 

I was enraged at this suggestion and stood beside my initial reaction because I felt that there were no signs that Kokichi never cared for Gonta as anything more than an asset, so I could not trust Kokichi to have any real remorse for his death with such a manipulative relationship having existed. (Massive disclaimer that this is my interpretation of their relationship; if you have a different interpretation, that is totally fine and valid!)

At this point, I considered why Kokichi might be crying so intensely even if it was an act, and came to the conclusion that if there was any sort of truth in those tears that Kokichi would be upset for a different reason than Gonta. He would be upset because he was truly alone. Not a single living person wanted to spare him the time of day besides Gonta. And now that Gonta is dead, nobody wants Kokichi. Even though I was fully convinced he was a sadistic, evil bastard at this point, I still figured that he must’ve felt some sort of sudden and crippling loneliness realizing that the only person who cared about him in the slightest was dead.

This interpretation of Kokichi I had really didn’t change much until after I had finished the entire game and stopped to think about Kokichi a bit more; his heartfelt final words to Kaito felt like lies to convince him to play along (blackmailing Maki certainly didn’t help with that much either), and his whole trick felt less like him trying to help and more like him just trying to cause chaos for the hell of it in my mind.

So, in conclusion, my initial reaction to the Kokichi scene? I thought Kokichi was a heartless bastard whose only remorse could be crippling loneliness. Although my initial analysis while I was still playing was quite interesting, I have some different opinions on it now that I’ve taken a step back and viewed the game as a whole.

KOKICHI ONLY WANTS YOU TO THINK HE’S EVIL:

Surprise! Kokichi isn’t a sadistic fuck! Crazy right? 

Well, not really if you’ve watched/read any Kokichi analysis ever. However, Kokichi’s act seems to be a common thing that many casual players of v3 fall for. I certainly fell for it when I played, as you saw above!

It isn’t until far later in the game that it is revealed that Kokichi is the “supreme leader” of a pacifist prankster club (DICE), and it isn’t revealed until the end of Chapter 5 that Kokichi actually had good intentions in setting up his mastermind persona (although, as seen above, those good intentions are still very easily interpreted in a bad light).

So why does he bother to so obviously cry wolf at Gonta’s death just to double back on his persona ten-fold as soon as he’s called out on it? Because he’s just trying to sell his mastermind persona, not only to the other characters and the mastermind, but to the player themself. This is intended by both Kokichi and the writers themselves, made obvious by the fact that we get no real evidence of Kokichi being a benevolent person until long after this scene. (There are many moments in earlier chapters where Kokichi is trying to be helpful to the group or to a specific character, however every time he attempts this, it is painted in a negative light because he is either going against the protagonist’s will or achieving things in a more underhanded manner via lies or provocation). 

When I saw Kokichi crying for Gonta, my first thoughts were, “I am going to THROTTLE this fucking BASTARD.” Because even if those tears were real, Kokichi was still the one fully responsible for Gonta’s death, so I felt that he had no right to shed tears over it. If it weren’t for Kokichi’s crying during this scene, I would have been very suspicious of how suddenly his evil villain act amped up. If he hadn’t shed tears that were so obviously fake, I would not have been nearly as enraged with him, and therefore not nearly as willing to just accept the fact: “Well. Guess he’s evil now.”

Whereas I would’ve chalked the scene without crying to bad writing, the viewers of the killing game, and by extent the mastermind, would garner suspicion towards his actions. Although Kokichi was not aware that Keebo had direct contact with the outside world, he was very aware that the killing game had to have been broadcasted to somewhere. He had to ensure that he was as convincing as possible; that meant no “bad writing” mistakes could be left anywhere.

I stand by what I said before in that Kokichi’s crying in this scene is just a bunch of crocodile tears. However, with new context and information surrounding the situation, they probably weren’t devoid of emotion. Kokichi only allowed himself to cry here in order to properly double back on his new mastermind persona, however, unlike what I believed before, he most likely did feel remorse at the deaths of Gonta and Miu. He just broke his last standing moral code: don’t murder people. And he broke it by indirectly causing the deaths of two people he may have considered to be his friends. That’s heavy stuff! 

Kokichi is faking these reactions to the trial because he has to if he wants to deceive everybody. But... the best acting comes from the heart.

LONELINESS AND GUILT:

As I covered in my initial reaction to Kokichi’s breakdown, I felt as though he couldn’t possibly have any remorse for his actions, so he must have been devastated knowing that he would now be truly alone. This view was heavily influenced by Shuichi’s words after the trial... because they were true. 

After Kokichi criticizes the group for coming to Kaito’s aid, Shuichi turns around and tells Kokichi that he is the pathetic one because he will always be alone. There are no lies to these words. Now that Gonta is dead, and now that Kokichi has gone so far into his persona, not a single person wants to even be near him.

Now that I’ve established that Kokichi’s actions post-trial were most definitely an act and not representative of his true feelings, we can discuss what his true feelings may have been. I come back to the idea of Kokichi fearing being alone because, hey! My past ignorant self was actually onto something!

The acknowledgement that Kokichi feels remorse for his actions just makes this situation even sadder for him; not only did he just indirectly murder two people and has to put up with the guilt of that, but now, nobody cares about him either. Not that anybody in the cast cared for him all that much in the first place (aside from Gonta), but Shuichi’s words to him here seal his fate as the permanent outcast and assigned villain of the group. He had already been struggling with loneliness throughout the beginning chapters of the game, and now Shuichi - the only person he finds truly trustworthy (according to his little whiteboard, at least) - is confirming to him that nobody wants him. Ouch.

I am personally led to believe that a large part of the reason that Kokichi ends up sacrificing himself in Chapter 5 has a lot to do with the broken feelings he would’ve had under the combined guilt of his actions and the crushing reality of loneliness.

Would Kokichi have offered to sacrifice himself anyways given the circumstances? Probably, yeah. However, the way he was so accepting of his death reminded me a lot of Kaede in Chapter 1; she couldn’t allow herself to take the First Blood Perk because she felt that she had to atone for her sins, or she could never live with herself. Kokichi seems, in the moment, to be more than willing to die, perhaps for the same reasons. Not only would be feel like he has to make up for the deaths he caused, but he would also feel like he had nothing left to live for, at least not within the academy anyway.

Or maybe he was just tired from the poison, not from life. But who’s to say? We can’t see inside of his head.

FINAL THOUGHTS / CONCLUSION:

OK, so some final thoughts before wrapping this up: Holy shit, Kokichi is an asshole.

Even knowing the emotional turmoil Kokichi must have been going through, it was still infuriating to see him treat Gonta so poorly in Trial 4. Perhaps it was just a part of his act as well? Regardless, it really just did not sit with me well. Under no circumstance should Kokichi be continulessly yelling at Gonta while he’s crying from the insults, for real. But hey, at least if it was just another act from Kokichi, then he can rest easy knowing he certainly had me fooled.

...

So, in my opinion, Kokichi’s infamous breakdown was entirely fabricated. He had to fake both his tears and his sadism in order to fully convince the world that he was a force of pure malice in order to get away with what he had planned. However, despite his apparent change in personality, he never really was sadistic, and may have even cared for the people around him till the very end.

That’s all I guess  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[natsumiheart]

100 reasons why I (personally) OTP Oumasai:

Warning: this is an extremely long post.

1. In the beginning of the game Shuichi normally didn't talk much during introductions, let alone be the one to start talking without being addressed to, but when Kokichi revealed his ultimate, he actually got curious and jumped in asking about his organization.

2. It is proven that he really was interested in it as he asks about it later in Kokichi's free time events.

3. Kokichi was interested in Shuichi at first because he was a detective and he wanted to see if he can see through his lies, but then got attached to him because "he couldn't figure him out".

4. Kokichi was probably amused by how nice he was to him (by actually approaching him and hanging out with him) compared to the others.

5. In chapter 2 Shuichi woke up to find Kokichi above him, saying that he's glad he's finally awake (makes me wonder if he got worried when Gonta came in with an unconscious Shuichi, and if he stayed by his side the whole time).

6. At multiple points in the game, Shuichi actually comments on how innocent Kokichi looks compared to his words, saying he can't get mad at him because he looks like he means no malice, then says "but that might just be another lie..."

7. During the free time events, Kokichi literally plays 100 rounds of Rock Paper Scissors with Shuichi because he wants to show him that he actually does not want him to die or to hurt him in general.

8. And probably because he genuinely has fun hanging out with him, even if it means playing the same game 100 times and getting the same result on purpose (and Shuichi did not stop either!)

9. The freaking fact that he hurt himself on purpose to lose and let Shuichi "win".

10. THE FREAKIN FACT SHUICHI IMMEDIATELY GOT WORRIED AND WENT TO TEND HIM FRANTICALLY.

11. The fact Kokichi was laughing "like he was having the time of his life" (as Shuichi said) the whole time Shuichi was taking care of him.

12. "I stole your heart so now I'm satisfied!"

13. The persona freakin vibes, the detective Conan freakin vibes. THE PHANTOM THIEF AU.

14. THEIR FREAKING DYNAMIC.

15. The fact that Kokichi's free time events were one big scheme to make Shuichi think about him.

16. When Kaede hung out with Kokichi, she got pissed in the end and the FTE ended with a warning from Kokichi. But with Shuichi, it ended with such a heartwarming note because Shuichi was patient with him and actually cared for him and worried about him.

17. Kokichi called Kaede and Rantaro his beloved once in chapter 1 after they were dead, but called Shuichi his beloved from chapter 2 onwards in front of him.

18. PROBABLY TO MAKE SURE THAT SHUICHI NEVER REALISES THAT HE MEANS IT CAUSE HE WILL THINK EVERYTHING HE SAYS IS A LIE.

19. Shuichi is the only one, and I repeat the only one who thinks twice about Kokichi's lies. And I quote him saying multiple times "he's lying about lying..."

20. Whenever Kokichi has evidence the one he always reaches out to is Shuichi. During trials and investigations.

21. Shuichi is onto him during the trials and acknowledges how much of a help he is. One time he said "maybe I should thank him later" but then backtracked.

22. In chapter 4 Kokichi referred to Shuichi with the phrase "Suki ni natta hito" "the person I fell in love with" while alone. and it's not even a bonus scene or event, the line is 100% canon and the player will come across it no matter what.

23.The👏angst👏starts👏in👏chapter👏four👏where👏kokichi👏decides👏to👏cut👏his👏ties👏with👏everyone👏including👏his👏beloved👏

24. But how does he do that? By trash talking the hell out of Shuichi's best friend in front of him, because he knows what pisses Shuichi off. Kokichi is not stupid, if he truly wanted Shuichi to trust him he wouldn't trash talk his friend. A part of him must have wanted Shuichi to be his ally, but it wasn’t possible after he told him to stop hanging around Kaito.

25.  His clinginess in chapter 4 was probably him trying to make use of the time he has left with Shuichi before it all crashes down. That’s why he talked to him after the murder has happened. He realized he didn’t want Shuichi questioning his actions.

26.  His worried face when he said he would cry if something happened to his Saihara chan.

27. The fact that their relationship wouldn’t be so pure because of the love hotel-

28. Kokichi was constantly worried about Kaito influencing Shuichi negatively and tried to drop him hints multiple times that sometimes believing in each other and working together might get them all killed.

29. The fact Kokichi freaking called Shuichi the Japanese sweet "Shumai" just like Kaito calls Maki "Harumaki" IS REALLY HECKIN ADORABLE AND VALID.

30. It just seems like they are both very interested in each other. Like they are each other's puzzle. They want to know more about each other.

31. And honestly, their relationship is just so very cute.

32. Kokichi's interest in Shuichi, says a lot about him.

33. And let's talk about something... Kokichi has always been treated like shit in the killing game by his friends. No one trusted him, everyone turned on him when Rantaro accused him of wanting to play the killing game because he suggested not doing the death road of despair. And he took all the blame to stop Kaede from basically torturing everyone by forcing them to try again and again. And he always brushed it off whenever they said anything mean to him. So why do you think he had such a strong reaction (for someone like Kokichi) when Shuichi said "you're alone and you always will be"?

34. Kokichi had planned to make Shuichi hate him cause he was planning to impersonate the mastermind, he needed to cut his ties with everyone. So when he did so with Shuichi, and with his best friend and probably the only person he can trust in the killing game getting killed. It became too much for him so he booked it out. Ah the angst.

35. Later in the game, Shuichi calls Kokichi his friend. And want do friends do? Stay by each other's side.

36. And then the salmon team ending comes along and wraps it all by making the ending theme "staying by each other's side"

37. "you want to know more about me right? Then you should stay by my side." "Kokichi's right... I want to know more about him."

38. In the ending of the FTE's Shuichi says "I reach out my hand to Kokichi, but he doesn't take it" but then at the end of the salmon team ending he says "I reach out and grasp the hand reached out to me"

39. "Kokichi can lie about a lot of things, but he can't lie about the warmth of his hand."

40. THE DATES ARE ADORABLE THEIR INTERACTIONS ARE ADORABLE THE FTES ARE ADORABLE THE SALMON TEAM ENDING IS ADORABLE.

41. "Maybe you and I were lovers in a past life!"

42. Pregame👏oumasai👏is👏beautiful👏 (when people don't make it abusive holy shit yall need Jesus)

43. "SAIHARA CHAN!" "SAIHARA CHAN!" "SASUGA SAIHARA CHAN!!!!" 😂

44. Kokichi saw Shuichi as himself in the love hotel, his ideal version of Shuichi is Shuichi himself, NO CHANGES.

45. And the game makes it pretty clear that he saw HIS beloved, by all the connections between stuff he said in the hotel and stuff he said out of the hotel.

46. In chapter 3 if you decide to talk to Kokichi before checking in on Kaito, There is a really interesting conversation between them. Kokichi saying he would rather have Kaede come back to life because it would make Shuichi happy.

47. He also says that he loves Shuichi and is always thinking about him, but then he says its a lie. But the funny thing is, in the love hotel he actually says the exact same thing- and he has no control over the love hotel, everything there is g e n u i n e.

48. Kokichi's love hotel scene had the most voiced lines, I wonder why? 👀

49. Kokichi literally pushed Shuichi onto a bed, in a freaking love hotel.

50. "that means, you can do anything you want to me, and that's the truth"

51. The thing that makes Kokichi's love hotel the most interesting isn't only because he literally was with the person he was in love with, but it's also because it is implied that Kokichi is playing Shuichi's ideal instead.

52. KOKICHI FREAKIN GOT OVERWHELMED OVER HIS OWN FEELINGS BECAUSE HE HAS A HARD TIME TRUSTING PEOPLE AND RAN AWAY FROM HIS OWN FANTASY OMFG.

53. "I caught myself wishing he would stay before I smothered the thought"

54. Kokichi has a hard time trusting people but had Shuichi labeled as "trustworthy?" on the whiteboard in his room.

55. His "will" was literally directed towards Shuichi, even Maki knew because she went to Shuichi and gave it to him saying "I think this is for you".

56. Shuichi was the one to clear Kokichi's name from ultimate despair.

57. He seemed really interested in what was going through Kokichi's head the entire game.

58. The fact that Kokichi helped Shuichi so much, with literally ending the game even after he's dead.

59. They would make an amazing investigation team together....

60. Their interactions in the drv3 comic anthology are really freaking precious.

61. They feel valid but not forced at the same time. Just showing that they get along really well, without any repetition.

62. The fact that the comic anthology confirmed that Shuichi tries to calm Kokichi down whenever he's fake crying even though he knows it's fake...

63. It reminds me of how in the game he stated multiple times "maybe I should make sure he's alright"

64. And that one section that focused on Shuichi and Kokichi, where Shuichi was trying to use a lie detector that Miu made to know when Kokichi is lying.

65. Kokichi let him use it on him for a while until Shuichi asked about the organization to get information XD

66. That just shows again how Shuichi is interested in Kokichi and his organization and wants to figure him out. The same way Kokichi finds him tricky and wants to figure HIM out.

67. They look really good together! The height difference for example! Its legit perfect, not too much and not too low.

68.  Kokichi wearing mostly white while Shuichi wears mostly black. and that’s a bit interesting cause normally white is given to represent the pure and helpful characters while black is normally given to represent the dark “evil” characters. but here Kokichi who is trusted by no one and paints himself as the bad guy is wearing white, and Shuichi who everyone blindly believes in and trust is wearing black, makes you think, doesn’t it?

69.  The dark blue and purple aesthetic...

70. Their characters are meant to parallel each other with the truth and lies theme, and the game makes that very clear to the player. but sometimes they step in each others territory, where Shuichi has to lie at least once in every trial to progress, and Kokichi hiding a lot of truths in his lies to make everyone confused and not trust him. to me this dynamic between them is very interesting.

71. The fanfictions and fanart are adorable fight me, some people can write their relationship so freakin well? What are you people???? Gods?? Because it sure seems like it.

72. It has the right amount of angst and fluff for a ship, it has everything I've wanted in a ship, I love it.

73. The thief and the detective... Lies and truths... Good shit.

74. Kokichi looks really freaking adorable in Shuichi's hat y'all.

75. Just imagine dice getting in trouble with the police and Shuichi finding a way to bail them out, since they trust the detective.

76. Kokichi, the embodiment of lying, CONSIDERED TO STOP WITH LYING BECAUSE HE WANTED TO GET CLOSER TO SHUICHI. WHY DOES NOBODY TALK ABOUT THIS.

77. "What should I do... If I wanna become closer to Shuichi... I probably shouldn't lie so much..."

78. When Shuichi said he will get to tolerate his lying Kokichi felt guilty at first with his despair sprite being shown.

79. But then got happy when he realized that meant that Shuichi will accept him for who he is. And when he saw that Shuichi understands him and can see through his lies anyway.

80. "Maybe I was born into this world just to meet you, Shuichi."

81. During Kokichi's FTE's they were playing games and spending time together right? Like the time they drank tea XD well during the love hotel Kokichi says "come, play with me, let's do a lot more together" and "I'll think of a better game for next time, so make sure you excite me too". Aka: Kokichi just told us his true feelings.

82. "I'm so glad I met someone who can truly understand me"

83. The fact that Kokichi is like a cat that constantly wants attention and keeps flirting with his beloved, notice me Saihara chan.

84. THEIR JP VOICES GO ALONG REALLY WELL TOGETHER WTF. I’ve also come to appreciate how Kokichi has the deeper voice in jp with Shuichi with the feminine lighter voice. but it’s the opposite in English.

85. It's kinda funny how Shuichi keeps trying to figure him out while Kokichi just keeps flirting with him ���� probably making him even more confused.

86. To Kokichi who could predict everything, Shuichi's unpredictability fascinated him to the point he fell in love with him.

87. Unlike everyone, Shuichi is patient with Kokichi, but not too patient. He is the exact person Kokichi needs.

88. And it makes total sense why a trickster fell in love with a sweet detective.

89. "and I wanted your eyes to be on me..."

90. Kokichi deserves someone who would love him for being himself and its shown that Shuichi did fall for him in the salmon team.

91. SHUICHI'S BLUSH WHEN KOKICHI TOLD HIM THAT HE KNOWS HIS LIES NEVER BORED HIM.

92. Shuichi👏wants👏to👏know👏more👏about👏Kokichi👏

93. Kokichi👏wants👏to👏be👏Shuichi's👏everything👏

94. this is completely personal but I started off the game being confused about the ship, and became a hardcore supporter by the end of it. Which means its a heckin good ship if you ask me.

95. Pretty sure Shuichi is one of the only reasons for Kokichi to genuinely smile in a killing game.

96. This ship can make me cry from sadness because of the sad videos, or from happiness from fluffy fanfictions and fanart.

97. Kokichi is completely in love and is enamored by Shuichi it hurts. His love for Shuichi is valid, so freaking valid, 100% valid, more valid than my existence.

98. I love the bonus interactions between them hidden throughout the chapters, like the one where Kokichi tells Shuichi that everything he does is for everyone. It seems that he is only honest with Shuichi, but of course hides it as a lie.

99. Kokichi wanted Shuichi to join his organization, and called him interesting multiple times. Which is really important coming from someone like Kokichi who wasn't fond of most of the people in the killing game. 

100. Their relationship is very realistic, it is focused on how two characters try their best to understand each other, how even someone like Kokichi can come to trust in someone and want someone to trust in him, how he wants that someone to be able to understand him. Kokichi went from being interested in Shuichi to falling in love with him (literally referring to him as the person he fell in love with, using the same phrase that Maki says to Kaito later on), in a freaking killing game. he forced himself to cut their ties and died thinking the only person he cared about hated him. while Shuichi started off interested but wary of Kokichi, tried reaching out to him but failed due to Kokichi pushing him away, to getting mad from him for making Gonta a murderer and trash talking Kaito when he seemed in a really bad condition (after getting punched by Kokichi too) to hitting cold hard realization to what Kokichi has been trying to do the whole game after his death. and then appreciating his help, using the clues he left behind for him, clearing his name, calling him a friend, and grieving his death with the rest of his friends who died in the killing game. He then uses everything Kokichi gave to him and taught him, ends up understanding Kokichi and his lies, and uses the tactic he taught him where he said “sometimes you win a game by not playing it” to end danganronpa. then you’re left wondering how things could’ve been different if Shuichi didn’t already have so much on his back and tried harder to reach out to Kokichi. you start wondering what could’ve happened if Kokichi didn’t push him away, you start thinking about all these possibilities. and then salmon team comes along and wraps everything up with a ribbon. putting direct throwbacks to what happened in the killing game and the free time events, Kokichi BEING the one to reach out to Shuichi, asking him to stay by his side. Their relationship is like one huge arc that starts the moment they met to their graduation in salmon team, and it leaves you with the fact that after they graduate they will stay together and learn more about each other, just like both of them wanted but couldn’t do in the killing game. if this isn’t a beautiful realistic relationship, I don’t know what is. Honestly, everything about this ship is so very beautiful, and I will support it with my life.

[ryouverua]

Trial 6 - Flashfiction (4)

FLIP THAT CHESSBOARD, SWEETCHEEKS!

Trial: 1 / 2 / 3

it’s what kokichi would have wanted

DRV3 HOW DARE YOU HOLD OUT ON THE CUTEST DAMN TSUMUGI SPRITE OF THE ENTIRE GAME

how can mirrors be real if our eyes aren’t real

And we found it in Kokichi’s lab of all places. Why? Had he been able to get access to it ater all? Why was it just lying there so awkwardly - not hidden or neatly put away at all, but just tossed on the floor like an afterthought?

...... thinks about the state of Kokichi’s dorm room

yeah the chance that he left it on the floor like a bored 12 year old or me is not 0%

Wait.... is there??? The only one that stands out to me is the method of applying vs being scouted...

So we go over the events again, or as the game would probably put it, comb over The Longest, Most Ridiculous, Most Despairing Backstory to look for discrepancies.

Don’t look so pleased with yourself!

YES THANK YOU SHUICHI THANK YOU FOR STOPPING HER BEFORE SHE GOT STARTED AGAIN

It.... it doesn’t???

as;dflksdjf

U-Uuuuh Monokuma??? Are you just allowed to namedrop the title like that???

A-Anyway, this one was sort of vague - not sure if the game did too good a job of hiding it or not, but I certainly didn’t clue into this immediately because, well, I’d argue that Junko was ultimately the cause of this? And she was the original Ultimate Despair, even if Mukuro got roped into it with her? This felt a bit like being at a multiple choice exam where there are a few answers that are sort of right but not exactly right and then I cry

AND MUKURO!!! I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS MUKURO ERASURE, DAMN IT!!! can you tell she was one of my favourites in the first game if not my favourite

“And that’s why, even though you are technically right, you are also wrong, and therefore will not get any points for your answer to this question.” sweetcheeks you sonuvab -

despite the mukuro erasure, consider me team maki

“Can it, nerd.”

It would have been really nice to have Maki in the first game.

We really are going over this piece by piece.

Okay, so now we’re reviewing the first game. They were forced to kill each other, then Junko was found out and killed herself in the end, which led to the eventual end of the Despair side....

Shuichi is clearly onto something that I haven’t quite latched onto yet. 8′D

This makes me think of how cool it would have been to have this text style in the previous games. Have I mentioned enough about how much I like the typography in drv3? Because I don’t know if that’s possible.

OOOH that’s right - I forgot! Or, well, I didn’t forget, but it didn’t really occur to me that we were remembering that they were literally trapped in the school by Ultimate Despair, I guess.

I guess the gist of it is that they’re remembering - well, not witnessing the events, but being told things were one way vs another. They would have been too young to have been alive at the time though, right? It seems to me that, though the game clearly wants us to take it a different way, we can also interpret this as them just being told the wrong thing within the memories themselves as opposed to the actual memories being entirely falsified. What if the reports at the time or the commonly-known story was that they had been locked in by Ultimate Despair, and it’s only the properly researched books like this that have the correct accounts? It’s not exactly an uncommon phenomenon for there to be widely-held mistaken knowledge/generalizations of famous events, unfortunately... 8′D

Anyway, I’m getting distracted because like I said, this is really not the angle the game is going with at all.

BULLSHIT

AND ALSO

WHY WOULD A BOOK EXIST THAT DIRECTLY CONTRADICTS THE MEMORIES YOU GAVE THEM

LIKE

WHY DOES IT EVEN EXIST IN THIS PLACE AT ALL

I’m seriously fixated on this book!

also

I love Shuichi just casually ignoring Junko!Tsumugi lmao

I’m calling her Junko!Tsumugi I refuse to call her Tsumugi!Junko I REFUSE TO GIVE UP ON TSUMUGI’S AUTONOMY

This.... this one has to be it, right? This was the one thing I remember getting really confused by when they talked about applying! In fact, I had thought the whole reason Shuichi was considered the Ultimate Detective was because of the homicide case and if that resulted in him being at Hope’s Peak, it was because word of that had traveled - but then if it was an application, that means either his parents or his uncle would have applied on his behalf, right?

this was a detail I remember remarking on and loving btw I got really sad when in Chapter 5 it started looking like they were all in the same class

I think more than the others, this is the big one. All that other stuff can be attributed to mistaken hearsay - but this? This is something they would have ‘directly experienced’.

Oh apparently he chose to come... despite feeling awkward about his title.

I wonder if he was pressured into it by his family....?

Or, uh. Let me correct myself. I wonder if, in this mistaken memory, he remembers being pressured into it by his family?

I-I feel like I would trust the book over you guys especially considering the whole ‘we remembered Kokichi Ouma as a Remnant of Despair and got him killed as the fake mastermind’ situation tbh.

well technically ultra despair girls is

That is a good point. I mean, it could quite possibly happen underground, but I suppose the same could be said of the Jabberwock Island one - there’s no reason that should be public knowledge.

“I mean, I know it’s nothing new, but bear with me here.”

H A L L E L U J A H

REALLY

REALLY

MAKI, REALLY

YOU OF ALL PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW BETTER

FUFCKFUCKING HELL GUYS YOU’RE KILLING ME HERE

sdfkdslfj fukging

noOOONONO

aND YOU! YOU SHUT UP TOO!!!!

“Also have you seen their outfits? Do you realize how terribly they would clash? ‘Oh Saihara, why would that matter what do uniforms have to do with anything surely Kokichi and his uniformed clown posse could just be a branch under the Remnants’ NO THAT WILL NOT FLY WHEN THE HEAD OF THE ENTIRE ORGANIZATION LITERALLY DOUBLES AS THE ULTIMATE FASHIONISTA!!!”

this level of reasoning is possible for saihara shuichi

.... what do you think, everyone?

And he still has the Supreme Leader title, even if these aren’t really their talents... there has to be something to that, right?

Shu -

Shuichi

The words DICE were written in big words over his giant hella awesome throne

He has a checkered scarf which brings about a certain ‘game’ feeling

he literally challenged you to card games

I’m.... I’m just gonna throw it out there, but there’s a pretty good chance the group he led was called ‘DICE’.

YOU SAW THE VIDEO YOU SAW IT DAMN YOU MAKI I KNOW YOU’RE BETTER THAN THIS YOU ARE SMARTER THAN THIS!!!!

“Maki also said he literally said he didn’t know what she was talking about when she interrogated him with a crossbow literally aimed directly at him but surely that’s unrelated -”

s o b s

I 100% bet Tsumugi was not counting on them finding this room. So.... beginning the trial, she tried to do a Kaede/Kaede’s twin mastermind thing. Then she switched tactics to being solely ‘Junko’ and her lackey Kokichi setting up the game with the last survivors of humanity as... revenge for Hope’s Peak, I guess? Or something.

So where are we going from here? Are we about to discover this was all a simulated scenario then?

Sort of like they’re trying to test different outcomes and scenarios - with different talents, maybe? Is there the selected 16 (15? 14?) talents that can be switched around at will, or is there a larger database of students’ talents? That’s what I really want to know.

But “there are an endless possibilities for lies,” a certain person may say.

why are you all ganging up on me also how when two of you are literally the same person and the other one is an AI acting as an extension of you -

It sort of hit me but this is a weird echo of Korekiyo’s trial, with Junko and Tsumugi switching back and forth with each other the way Korekiyo and his sister did. I wonder if there’s something to that, or if it says something about Tsumugi in general...

(one hangman’s gambit later...)

TALENTS ARE NOT THEIRS AND POSSIBLY ARBITRARY CONFIRMED

I WOULD KILL FOR KOKICHI TO POP OUT OF THE GRAVE TO SHOUT IT’S A LIE RIGHT NOW

FUCK YOU BEAR

ghggkhgkh

that is a dangerous precedent to set

But you weren’t planning on revealing this, right??? Right???? Your hand was totally forced! Don’t play this off like it wasn’t!

I swear I had a similar idea when I was coming up with how they could see themselves in photos/pictures if the students weren’t actually who they thought they were - about how their brain filled in the gaps and placed their own faces where they’d expect to see them (like in the funeral scene with the portraits, etc). Glad to know I was kinda right on that regard!

I really like it when they combine Junko and Tsumugi here. There’s probably something to that - when it’s Tsumugi herself acting as the mastermind, as opposed to just being ‘Junko’.

T-Those are some pretty big inconsistencies though? Why would there be incorrect options in those flashback lights in the first place? What was there to gain for their being options where ‘Ultimate Despair trapped the first class in’ and ‘Junko is the end-all of Ultimate Despair’? At least Kokichi’s made sense to have on standby, but the other stuff? Isn’t their existence a bit weird?

It’s... nice to see Shuichi focusing on Kokichi. Being posthumous and all it’s a bit late, but it’s still nice - especially after all that talk of ‘not understanding him’ and ‘the embodiment of a lie’, having him finally clue in to Kokichi’s real place in all of this - a victim of the mastermind - is good. It’s the perfect example of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ and Kaito figured that out last chapter, so it’s long past due for Shuichi to drag himself and everyone else to that conclusion, kicking and screaming if he must.

(he was jealous of Angie)

because he was trying to stop the game!!!!!

Which, honestly, was pretty clever on her part. I think overall Kokichi will come out of this looking the best - he had so little going for him and almost succeeded in his coup - but the fact that Tsumugi was able to counter his surprise attack still says a lot about her own intelligence and her ability to adapt, because in that moment she also had limited options.

THANK

YOU

LORD

WE HAVE GATHERED HERE TODAY TO SAY FAREWELL TO REMNANT!OUMA THEORY

REST IN PIECES AND NEVER COME BACK

Pretty damn successfully, too.

While the fact that her first inclination was to straight-up murder Kokichi was very Not Good, it’s at least good to know that it took the extra nudge of the flashback lights to push her over the precipice. Basically, it took turning Kokichi into a complete monster in her eyes - Despair with a capital D - to strip away his humanity entirely. I do wonder if she still would’ve staged a rescue mission of sorts to rescue Kaito? For that matter, I wonder if Kaito had been on the outside (with the Flashback Light used on him and everything) and it was someone else being held hostage like Shuichi, would he have been able to talk Maki down?

It’s interesting how they’re turning hope itself into a weapon here. I think Junko talked about this in the first game, the idea of giving hope out to maximize despair, so it’s not the first time the mastermind has actively used hope as a weapon - but it’s never felt quite as dirty as it does here.

!!! We’re seeing her as herself in the room!!! I guess it’s the flashback light classroom, but still!

That is so unfair considering they were all being threatened with death, you were straight up messing with their brains and also that airlock exists??? And they straight-up collapsed after being exposed to the outside??? I’m 

I think Shuichi managed to break away from that a bit at the end... maybe. He seems more motivated by righting the wrong in Kaede’s case at this point, and of avenging everyone who died - but the same can’t be said of the others.

Man I even wondered what it would be like without Kaito and Kokichi there considering they’ve been the strongest ‘movers’ on both sides - and the answer ended up being ‘I’ll give you artificial motivation to act’.

SHE’S.... REALLY A KILLING GAME FAN GIRL AFTER ALL..........

Oh, this does feel dirty. She’s lusting after them in an abstract way - like pieces on a chessboard. Kokichi was able to compartmentalize and make people take certain actions to an extent, but even he had attachments that he wasn’t able to shake. I knew it felt like she had managed to keep herself from getting too close to them, with the sole exception of the protectiveness she felt for Gonta (which?? I want to know if we’ll hear anything about that specifically???) but this is... wow.

Actually, this is very Komaeda-esque isn’t it? She wants to see them succeed in their battles against each other in a similar way...

Junko only gets that look when she’s actually mad. So if Tsumugi is sporting that... well, she must be smarting a bit underneath all the gloating she’s doing. She was happily spouting off ‘hints’ before, right?

Oh??

me too tbh

OH THE TURNABOUT MUSIC IS HERE

THAT TRANSITION WAS SO GOOD AND SMART WHAT A GREAT WAY TO USE THE PORTRAIT STAND

oooh! OOOOH! OH WHAT A FANTASTIC POINT!

SHUICHI MY BOY YOU’RE ON A ROLL NOW! GET HYPED GET HYPED GET HYP -

AAAAAAAAAAH

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hajimemed

[marisexmas]

!!immediate warning: thoughtpost containing very heavy drv3 spoilers will commence below!!

after looking through a lot of fanart and theory/thought posts about drv3 now that I've beaten the game myself, I see a Whole Lot of people who seem to believe the implication in trial 6 that all of the ndrv3 cast had vastly different personalities before they entered the killing game.

and this isn't a post attempting to say "you're 100% wrong" or anything, but there's several strong pieces of canon evidence which convince me that this is Not the case? more specifically, I'm convinced that none of the characters' "personalities" were actually altered, or if so only very minimally, despite what the mastermind claimed.

I'm not great at analytical posts like this, but I just wanna try and look at those points one by one, to help explain my reasoning better. readmored for length and spoilers. also it’s kind of picture heavy

1. the Intro Scene

we get two "versions" of the intro scene where kaede first finds herself in the academy and meets shuichi. one at the very beginning where they're "normal" students:

and one not long afterward where they're "Ultimate" students:

one very noticeable thing about both of these versions is that other than the updated outfits, they play out nearly identically. in fact, throughout the entire scene where kaede meets shuichi and right up until just before the monokubs first appear, much of the dialogue, descriptive text, and voice clips for both of them are exactly the same. almost to the letter.

even the things that aren’t exactly the same are still very, very similar.

(this one also strongly supports that the students’ names are their real ones and not false ones fabricated for the killing game despite tsumugi’s suggestion to the contrary)

things only begin to truly deviate when kaede "remembers" a piano melody she thinks will help shuichi calm down. but even then, her attitude and her way of speaking are still very much the same as before. in fact, it was so eerily similar that when I first saw them, going into the game totally blind, it made me extremely suspicious that some kind of trickery/manipulation was up regarding everyone’s “talent”.

2. The "Meeting Everyone" Scene

this is the only scene in the entire game where we ever get a chance to look at the "real" (with heavy quotation marks) characters before their memories are altered, and everything happens so quickly that most of them aren't given any real focus. most of the spotlight in this scene goes to kaede, shuichi, and the monokubs. the rest of the students either don't speak at all or speak so little and so sporadically that we can't get any real grasp on what kind of people they actually are.

except for miu.

3. Just Miu.

it seriously deserves its own bulletpoint because one single line is all it takes to see that normal schoolgirl miu

is not the Least Bit Different from legendary inventor miu.

4. the audition videos, and the ambiguous nature of Danganronpa itself in-universe

tsumugi presents these audition videos to make the remaining students believe that their current feelings, personalities, and entire sense of “self” are all a lie.

but I think there are two important things to consider with these auditions...

numero uno: the fact that they are just that, auditions.

all of the characters wanted to be part of Danganronpa, so they came before the judges and put on a performance for them.

when people audition for things, they exaggerate the truth, play themselves up, even tell outright lies if they think it will get them accepted. the same way you would lie or tell half-truths on a resume or in a job interview to get a good job.

numero dos: the emphasis on the fictional nature of Danganronpa.

the Danganronpas of the past were implied to be fictional, so the applicants to this “ultimate real fiction” may well have believed that this would be the same. Fiction. an Act. a Mock-up, if you will. in other words, it’s possible that the people auditioning did not believe they or anyone else would be in danger of actually dying.

this puts many of the “depraved” things they said in their audition videos in an entirely different light, doesn’t it?

and finally...

5. some particular lines from Tsumugi

in chapter 6 tsumugi (as chiaki) says these lines to you that I feel are important:

this may seem like another form of cruel deceit at first, but if you take some time to think about these lines.

if these were the talents assigned to everyone, and if these were the talents that best “suited” them... then isn’t it reasonable to believe that their “normal” selves were the same, or at least similar to, their “exaggerated” Ultimate selves?

this is further driven home by one particular line from kaede, as far back as the prologue:

it’s such a brief, easily forgettable line, but at the same time it feels so important.

the “real” kaede may not have been the Ultimate Pianist, but who is to say she wasn’t still passionate about the piano?

and it’s the same for the other “Ultimate” students. they may not have truly been the “Ultimate” at their talent, but who is to say that they weren’t still devoted to that talent? that they weren’t still Passionate about it? and that it wasn’t still Important to their overall identity?

...

and that concludes my analysis.

maybe there are some errors or lines that I overlooked, but I hope others will still take these things into consideration once they complete the last trial. I hope it still offers them a light if they get too depressed by the ending of this game... y’know?

[ouma--kokichis]

Here is a theory I have been thinking of for a while regarding a possible "truth" of drv3. I have talked about it before, but this will be the entirety of it with added details.

 It's going to be long and will contain spoilers- **MASSIVE SPOILERS** so please proceed with caution!

I at first watched a playthrough of Danganronpa v3 after its release. Since I did not own a vita nor a ps4, I assumed I will not be able to play the game for myself. However, after around chapter 4, I made to decision to buy a playstation vita and a copy of drv3. Although I did run into vita problems within the first week that I bought it, I was able to playthrough the game...and a few sections multiple times.

 I initially believed in that the characters were indeed fictional characters, with their prologue selves as "true" selves and their SHSL to be fabricated. However, I then came around a Japanese blog which pointed out how terrifying and how strange it was that the "Remember Lights could implant SHSL skills at the level that Iruma, Saihara or Angie have shown to have." If Remember Lights truly were able to implant SHSL talents, then shouldn't "normies" not have to exist? This idea is what first made me doubt the fact the drv3 casts' talents were fabricated as Tsumugi says.

 What first made me believe in the fabricated "talents"? The audition videos. They are very short, but the characters shown in the videos show very different personalities from their prologue counterparts. Akamatsu seems to trust Saihara enough to run away with him in the prologue and is the first to initiate conversation with Amami. Momota doesn’t display any sort of violent behaviour in the prologue despite his audition video to emphasize it. And Saihara does not know what "Danganronpa" is in the prologue, despite showing off that he is a hardcore fan. It seems to be safe to conclude that the Prologue characters and the Audition characters are different people.

 I tried to remember the context in which the audition videos were used. Shirogane introduced them specifically to get Saihara Shuuichi to despair. All three videos were targeted at him- his own and the people that changed him's audition videos.  The same Japanese blogger  had pointed out the possibility that Shirogane could have cosplayed the characters in the audition tape. The audition characters were Shirogane Tsumugi's cosplay.

 In chapter 1, Shirogane proved that she was unable to cosplay Akamatsu, a real person. If Shirogane was able to cosplay the "normie" Saihara, Momota and Akamatsu, then it would mean that those characters were the ones who were fiction.

 The prologue is something that only the players (and Monokumarz) are aware of, so it is safe to assume what happened during this sequence was real. Since the epilogue (when Harukawa states that it is impossible for them to find out the truth of what they were like before(Here's the Epilogue. thank you @oumakokichi and @ne0dym for making this easily accessible!!) and Kodaka himself tells the players to replay this, I believe a key to figuring out the truth is here. The epilogue quote was also pointed out by this blogger here. )

 Saihara and then Akamatsu remember that they were kidnapped already in the very beginning. They also don't know why anyone would try to kidnap nobodies like themselves. When we see the rest of the cast everyone else seems as confused as they are...except for Amami Rantarou.

 Amami was one of the three characters to reveal their name in the first half of the prologue. He displays knowledge of the situation, knowledge of Danganronpa, yet seems to have his mind set to believe this is a copycat crime. No one else around him appeared to be a SHSL student. Just 16 high school students didnt make it Danganronpa, they needed talent.

 Despite not recognizing the situation as Danganronpa like Amami, the rest of the students seemed to remember Monokuma, reacting to the words "moving and talking plushies" and "Monokumarz" Though the immediate connection to killing games or talents are not made at all. If these students really did audition for this show, you'd think they would have figured it out. Which they did, but only in Shirogane's false flashback shown in Chapter 6. This "flashback" never occurred. The validity of the audition videos is very unlikely now.

 After the students are dressed appropriately, they are shined with the Remember Light and sent back to the start...but with talents. Akamatsu here has a small vision of herself wearing a weird device on her head. She quickly pushes that aside. But that device is actually seen later- in chapter 2. 

 In the form of the "first" Remember Light (since the characters do not remember the prologue one). Here Saihara states that they were running from the SHSL Hunt and decided that if they threw away their talents, they will no longer have reason to be hunted. What this device did was "seal away anything to do with SHSL talents". It wasn’t simply, forgetting talents, but hiding away things that would relate to talent. This would explain the lack of knowledge of Danganronpa in the prologue. SHSL talent is a staple of the franchise, and one can argue that Monokuma isn't as closely related to talent as Danganronpa is. Amami however, recognized the situation.

 Amami was revealed to be the SHSL Survivor- a student who has participated in the previous game and survived. He then now has to participate in the next Killing Game. The memory of the "weird device" most likely never happened to Amami, since he didn't have any reason to "seal away his talents". Which was why the SHSL Survivor was able to see that the situation was similar to Danganronpa, while his classmates did not.

 Akamatsu wasn't the only character to have a memory prior to the chapter 2 Remember Light, Amami had knowledge of the SHSL Hunt. Chapter 2 merely mentioned the SHSL Hunt and it was explained later on. (I belive around chapter 5?) The SHSL Hunt was performed by the protestors of the Gophel Plan. However, the Gophel Plan itself is something many Japanese players seem to agree is false.

 The Gophel Plan suggests that the students have been asleep for years in the large spaceship. Then the existence if the piranhas and doves in Yumeno's research lab and the bug eggs found in Gonta's research lab do not make sense. Its hard to believe those animals also were "put to sleep" like the students. This fact alone quickly made the Gophel plan unlikely. The Gophel plan also contradicts the entirety of the prologue- why would Akamatsu and Saihara wake up in the locker if they were asleep in the SHSL Astronaut research lab? But that doesn't necessarily mean we should disregard the SHSL Hunt, only what the game presents it as.

 In a DRV3 thread  a user brought up the idea that the SHSL Hunt was perhaps performed by the Team Danganronpa to gather the SHSL selected by the Gifted Program for their real fiction killing game. They did also admit they lacked any proof of this, but many points begin to connect with this idea. The reason the V3 students willingly sealed away their talents and the emphasis on "normal" in the prologue are something the Monokumarz hint at.

 Here is a quick paraphrase of the conversation with the Monokumarz in the prologue

Monokumarz start commenting how the students look and react way to "normally"

-their "first memories" are not completed - which should have been finished before they woke up.

 Akamatsu "if you guys are really the Monokumarz then..."

 Then Monokumarz demands "who are you guys??" "Do you have any amazing talents"

 Which the group responds with no. 

Kaede mentions she has something she likes to do and does a lot, but can't call it a "talent"

Saihara and Momota agree.

 Akamatsu continues try to ask about the Monokumarz but keeps getting cut off.

 "Forgotten your special talents and turned into a regular Mob Chara High schoolers" -Monosuke

 "According to setup, it was the "SHSL Hunt’s fault. The "SHSL Hunt" was what made you forget your memories and you became someone completely different" -Monotarou

 Tsumugi asks what Monotarou is talking about.

 "Telling you guys wouldn't do anything" -Monosuke

 "Anyways, you guys need to hurry up and remember you "true selves" -Monotarou

 "Get your memories back and grab hold of your "sealed talents" –Monofany

 Outfit change occurs.

 “An appearance fit for a SHSL” –Monofany

  Saihara notices the words "SHSL"

 And now for the awaited "memories" -Monosuke

 "Once the seal has been released you are off to the world of "Mutual Killing" -Monokid

 "Once we use the Remember Light to get your Wonderful Talents remembered, then the Wonderful story begins!" –Monotarou

 Bye Kuma~~~

 This ends the first part of the prologue. Its hard to believe the Monokumarz would lie here since it was something the students would forget anyways. The conversation amongst the Monokumarz themselves, sealed talents, don't forget your special talents "again" and according to the set up - it was the SHSL Hunt's fault. Its interesting that the concept of the SHSL Hunt was already there in the prologue but nothing on sleeping for years or the students being humanity's last hope. The idea that the SHSL Hunt did happen, but not the Gophel plan isn't as farfetched as initially thought. In fact, I believe it is very possible.

 In conclusion, my theory is this.

Danganronpa is a popular variety show which collects real SHSL students and puts them into a mutual killing game. The SHSL Hunt was how they found those SHSL students and forced them to participate. The drv3 cast willingly gave up their talents and anything to do with it, because it was what made them targets in the first place. The students became "normal high school students" this way. But in the end they were found out and abducted. (The students recall being kidnapped but forget this after the first half of the prologue) This is why they didn't appear to have talents in the prologue- they didn't remember them. Amami is an exception to this, which is why he was able to understand the situation more than his fellow classmates. The audition videos shown by Tsumugi in chapter 6 were not real and her “reveal” that the DRV3 casts’ talents and backstories were fiction was also not real.

 Thank you for reading this theory all the way to the end! This is merely a possibility since much of DRV3 is still left open ended. Any comments or discussion about anything regarding theories for this game is encouraged so please feel free to do so~!! I'd love to hear your thoughts through reply, comment or dm!

[blueseadespair]

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.

[ryouverua]

Finally, the alone time with Tsumugi that I’ve been desperately missing! minus the love hotel. we don’t talk about the love hotel

Excuse me, what? Another new room??? .... In Kaito’s.... lab?

is this the beginning of building a ‘what if Kaito was the mastermind’ AU because I am strangely intrigued -

Anyway more RUNNING AROUND THE SCHOOL oh dear lord I just realized we have to go all the way down to the first floor and then up again???? KAITO WHY IS YOUR LAB SO EXTRA

you know what made everything worth it though

BYE MONOKID S U C K   I T

Man that shouldn’t have been as satisfying as it was.

(also up and down 6 floors later, you know Shuichi is grateful for the training he was doing with Kaito)

U U U U U U M

We are suddenly leaning hard into those VLR vibes again??? Hello, pod room/treatment center. We aren’t going to find out thre are only 15 pods or something are we???

Looks like there are 16... wait, isn’t that strange too? Why does K1-b0 need one?

WE LITERALLY JUST GOT HERE

Oh, and interestingly enough, Tsumugi’s sprite changed to her scared/upset one. I guess Shuichi isn’t the only one so adversely affected by the flashback light after all!

STILL NOT SICK OF THE FLASHBACK ANIMATION

AAAAH NO EVERYONE IS HERE ALREADY MY HEART’S NOT READY

Wait... this is - this feels weird. Isn’t this the first time we’ve actually seen everyone together in a memory?

Ahoge-K1-b0 is back!

AAAH TENKO

oh god my heart really isn’t ready for this

Lmao my question was answered, and as usual it relates to robophobia.

RYOMA!!!! I MISSED YOU!!!

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sdfkljsdfkjl

good.... bye........... heart........ it’s literally just been a chapter but I missed that laugh so much

REMEMBER... WHEN THE CLASS WAS JUST TOGETHER.... SO CASUALLY.... LIKE THIS..............

!!!!!! KAEDE!!!!!!

LMAO “FRIENDS YOU SAY -”

pour one out for the potential that could have been a Kaede vs Kokichi rival relationship

Hell, maybe they would have a trust vs distrust along with lies vs truth -

anyway that’s what fanfics are for

FRIENDSHIP SPEECH! FRIENDSHIP SPEECH!!!

oooughgugh quiet broken sobbing

Oooh, it’s weird to see her properly poised after how things ended in Chapter 2.

WOW IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME, MR ULTIMATE SURVIVOR

IS IT BAD THAT I REALLY MISSED HER ‘NYAHAHAHA’

And eventually everyone agrees until...

I don’t know if it’s a minority opinion but I miss hat!Shuichi. He’s so cute, ffff - and he really does have a different vibe about him. Character design can be pretty powerful in that sense!

Also, it’s kind of amazing how quickly Kaede took charge the moment she stepped back in the spotlight. She’s very powerful like that, huh?

aaah yes, a little hint of that crush Kaito had on Kaede is back

...........

This back and forth along with their colour schemes matching really make me wish we got to see them together more? What’s the scoop on the fandom’s interpretation of a Rantaro / Tenko friendship, lads???

sssshshshhhhhut up K1-b0 don’t bring that ‘h’ word crap in a full class flashback

THERE IS..... SOMETHING.... IN CREDIBLY PAINFUL... ABOUT KAITO BEING THE LAST PERSON YOU SEE AT THE END OF THE MEMORY... AND HIM TELLING EVERYONE HE’LL SEE US LATER.... . GGGH

And just like that....

“GOD THESE MEMORIES ARE ALL DESIGNED TO MAKE ME MISS KAITO AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE CAN YOU NOT -”

So there didn’t seem to be an instructor or anyone to help them set up - was that maybe Kaito’s role? Why he was the last one we saw, and the one that directed everyone to go to sleep? other than just hitting home those saimota feels I mean -

So do they all have identical memories? I guess it can’t be that way with the friendship ones - also, was this one specifically triggered by entering this room?

................ I have thoughts on that.

Okay, that does explain why they’ve never been together in a memory before -

but. but. They had the funeral memory together, didn’t they? They all had that same funeral memory. So haven’t they met before?

..........

THEY ARE PROJECTED THEIR IMAGES OF THEMSELVES ONTO THE ACTUAL STUDENTS’ PORTRAITS IN THAT FUNERAL MEMORY THEY ARE MISREMEMBERING SOMETHING THEY ARE NOT WHO THEY THINK THEY ARE THEY ARE NOT WHO THEY THINK THEY ARE -

Aaaaw. 8′)

..................... I feel bad saying this after you said those heartwarming things but those feelings of suspicion towards you are growing Tsumugi I’M SORRY GIRL I STILL LOVE YOU EVEN IF YOU ARE EVIL I CAN’T HATE A GIRL WHO KNOWS AND APPRECIATES THE WONDERS OF EVA FOAM -

Okay just to explain this more now because big things happen below and I don’t want to wall-of-text too much, I.... just don’t think it’s a coincidence that this room just was discovered so conveniently. I mean, yeah, it’s in Kaito’s lab, but it just. You know. Appeared right now. And Tsumugi ‘found’ it. Tsumugi found it conveniently because holes were blown into it. Here’s my question.

Why was she in the position to find this room?

No, seriously. Kaito’s lab is so far out of the way of everything. It’s in an isolated area at the top of the building with a long spiraling staircase that spans what, six floors? And the holes blown into it came from above and through the lab.... and nowhere else. It’s not connected to any part of the building - there are no convenient K1-b0-created holes connecting it to the rest of the floor it’s on. Tsumugi had to have come here, specifically to Kaito’s lab, for the sake of investigation, when there are so many other areas of the school to look and there is no reason to find anything in Kaito’s lab, or Kaito, suspicious, especially in the face of him actively going against the mastermind. Why? Why other than the stuff that’s about to come up below, and for the sake of triggering that flashback?

Because here’s the thing - the moment we stepped in this room we got the flashback! The moment we got in here! All the other flashbacks happened randomly while we were investigating things, right? There didn’t seem to be any specific trigger words or anything - but this one happened with this room. I can’t... think of that as a coincidence. I just can’t. I’ll feel bad if it turns out it was though lmao

OKAY I GOT THAT OUT OF MY SYSTEM I FEEL BETTER NOW

Uuuuh that is way more than 16 people so I’m guessing it’s not literally just a list of names??? or???

whY WERE YOU IN HERE EARLIER TSUMUGI I KNOW YOU CAN’T HEAR ME BUT ADDRESS MY QUESTIONS DAMN IT

.........................

don’t you do this DRV3

Finally! No more Mukuro erasure - I MEAN WAIT THAT’S NOT THE ISSUE -

You’re not seriously trying to tell me at this late stage of the game (figuratively and literally) about this potential 17th party with no clues or foreshadowing, right. Right?

I wonder how familiar Shuichi is with Knox’s 10 commandments... I mean, it’s literally addressed here:

10. Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.

N-Not that anyone is obligated to stick to them, and it’s more of a guideline than a rule and good stories can break them or skirt around them (I do enjoy how Chapter 1 played with the “The detective himself must not commit the crime.” rule because while Kaede was technically acting as the reader stand-in/’detective’, we in fact had an actual detective... damn, maybe that should have been our first hint), but there’s a reason these are held in somewhat high regard. 8′D

I mean, even Shuichi is saying it - this is the first time he’s heard of Kaede having a twin. And yeah, we didn’t know about Junko and Mukuro being twins, but we did get hints of something being off (not looking like the magazines, Mukuro deflecting by saying it was just photoshopped, the 16th empty chair) early on.... and I can’t think of anything like that here. Like, at all. I’m going to continue these thoughts at the end, I think ~

“He has no understanding about structural integrity. His general interests include stand-up comedy and being a pop star, or in the care-giving field. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have the slightest clue about architecture and the importance of load-bearing walls and beams.”

“.....”

“.... Look, I’ve spent a decent amount of my free time with him okay???”

oh right that too

I’M SO EXCITED WE’RE FINALLY GOING THERE!!!

“I’ve got tons of evidence to hide!”

“Wait, what was that?”

“I can’t wait to see the inside!”

because she hates herself

Again I want to reiterate how happy I am that Maki chose to be the one to look through Kokichi’s things. It’s both a sign of distrust and trust - she believes Kokichi hid a lot from everyone, and also that he may have left more clues to help them. He would be proud. 8′) It’s small, but I’d like to think of it as a way to pay penance; I’m sure she hates doing it.

DOG TAG! DOG TAG! DOG TAG! or something else maybe

WHY ARE YOU SO FAR AWAY FROM EVERYONE ELSE TSUMUGI WHY ARE YOU IN SUCH A STRANGE LOCATION WHAT THOUGHT PROCESSES BROUGHT YOU HERE

I’d be more worried about Himiko than Maki.

.... So...... I said I’d continue that thought from earlier. Here it is.

To recap what we learned:

Kaito had a hidden room in his lab that he presumably didn’t know about

Tsumugi found it by ‘accident’

Entering the room triggered the flashback light, which showed everyone met here for the first time

In the room is the participant list that says Kaede has a twin which just so happens to line up with Junko’s situation

Anyway, tl;dr: I don’t believe Kaede has a twin.

The last room we went to ended with Shuichi thinking, “what is the truth and what are lies?” so I’m building off of that and my previous theory about Tsumugi not finding this place by accident and purposefully bringing Shuichi here to trigger that flashback. I’m not 100% sure why - maybe to bring Kaede back into focus, only to gut-punch him with the ‘twin sister’ bomb? Maybe this will be the start of her creating a ‘new truth’? Possibly? It would very much match the theme of the game. But anyway, the point is I just don’t believe Tsumugi ~stumbled~ across the room and just so happened to find this participant list/profiles that immediately makes Kaede look suspicious when we hadn’t had a single hint of that the entire game.

I.... wonder. If Tsumugi... is the mastermind.... is she trying to set up Kaede as the mastermind? Or this (probably fictional) ‘twin sister’ of hers? I guess there are ways to swing that too to relate to why Kaede killed Rantaro in Chapter 1 - “she was trying to protect her twin sister, the real mastermind, so she killed Rantaro who was drawing too close to the truth” or something.