doonalli

[doonalli]

Why the Dummies' Early Death's Matter (a semi-ramble session, semi-analysis)

So its 3-1B's anniversary today but unfortunately, I wasn't able to finish the post I actually wanted to post today (rest assured it's still coming though!!). So instead, I decided to revisit an idea I've had since the early stages of this blog, and talk about the deaths the Dummies can face before the Banquet, considering they are often overlooked.

This won't be as comprehensive as my usual analyses, instead it'll mostly be me just rambling about my thoughts surrounding the deaths and the details that come with, although analysing tends to be par for the course with that.

With that said, lets start with...

HAYASAKA

It was during my process of writing Hayasaka's analysis when I first thought of the idea to make a separate post about these pre-Banquet deaths, but that never came to be, so what better place to start then with him.

So let's talk about Hayasaka's early death. Failing the second obstructor causes Hayasaka to be torn apart and killed by the flying books.

Immediately the first thing that stands out is Gin's reaction to his death.

It's obvious Gin is relating Hayasaka's death here to Mishima's back in Chapter 1, and his thoughts of being helpless in general. And it makes his speech before the banquet hit all the harder.

Worst of all Sara isn't even able to support him like he did back in 2-2, unable to hug him because of the tag game Midori started. At least until it gets taken away from her and she's able to finally calm him down. Its a deeply tragic scene for Gin, one that many people would pretty much never see, but it goes to show the value of these early deaths and what good, in terms of writing, they can bring.

But its Hayasaka's death, so what about him? Well it's a bad ending for Hayasaka in every sense, not only was Gin not able to protect him, nor was he able to grow as a person and protect Gin, but he dies soon after we find out about his connection with Asunaro, in other words after we "prove" he was the villain we thought he was based on his victim video, without him ever even being given the chance to explain himself or prove himself better. When Hayasaka dies here, he doesn't really die as an ally, but more as someone on Asunaro's side. He doesn't even get to help us out in any meaningful way through him figuring out the gimmick security system, of by him showing us the backstories for Miley and Safalin, flipping the tables on giving our information to Asunaro to instead give us information ABOUT Asunaro.

In general it's the worst possible way everything could have gone for him

Next lets talk about someone who's death I touched on in their analysis.

MAI (and also Hinako?)

Obviously I don't have much more to say about Mai's death considering I talked about it in her analysis, at that point I figured I wasn't going to do this post anytime soon, unfortunately though at that point the only analyses left to do were Hinako and Midori, both of which can't die before the banquet lol.

Although speaking of Hinako, in the files she DOES have a switch like all the other dolls designating whether she died earlier in the chapter or not, I doubt it was ever planned to be used or anything, likely just done for the sake of it, but whatever the case it is pretty interesting.

It was even accidentally used as a requirement for the steam achievement "The Invincible Dummies" which made it impossible to obtain for a bit! But that was patched out quickly.

Back to Mai though, her dying to Maple 2.0 is truly tragic, because throughout the chapter Mai was by far the one who connected with Maple the most, whether it be during her first fight where she's the one who reads her letter, or during the Keiji POV section where Mai feels the most bad for her. She even sits by her corpse in the prebanquet. So, it's truly tragic Mai is stabbed by Maple because she was unable to resist Midori's commands, just like how she once couldn't when stabbed Q-taro herself, which at this point she knows was lethal but isn't able to say anything about due to Q-taro's plan with a doll. All she can leave with is an apology...

This scene in particular hits really different when you play it on a second playthrough and know what happened between Q-taro and Mai.

Next up,

RANMARU

Ranmaru is a special case, because his death scene feels very different depending on which route you are on.

Starting with the emotion route, his death occurs right before he tells Sara about what he tried to do with the Joe AI, but notably after Midori tells everyone that Ranmaru betrayed them. As Ranmaru dies he panics and scramble out an explanation, telling sara he'd never betray- before being cut off.

Here Ranmaru's feelings of worthlessness and not being enough for Sara which caused him to "betray" her in the first place end up making him look like a villain. He isn't even able to explain what he was trying to do with the Joe AI, and he dies off without any of the closure he gets from after this moment. Here Ranmaru's thoughts of worthlessness lead to his final moments just being another case of him failing to be enough for Sara.

Imagine being Ranmaru here. The last thing you are to this girl you were willing to give up your consciousness over, is a traitor, and you aren't even able to explain yourself before you die, feeling just as useless as always, maybe even more now that it seems like you only made everything worse for her.

Ranmaru dies here with basically no closure, just a sudden boom to finish him off and its honesty terrifying to think about.

and its not much better in logic route. After killing Yabusame in a not too dissimilar sudden death, his mask is off and Ranmaru's ego is through the roof. Now feeling the opposite of worthless to Sara, he sees himself as her only salvation. He makes an enemy out of everyone and overconfidently tries to make a deal with Midori using the ID card. However, if he failed earlier Midori will have different plans for him.

Immediately Ranmaru is pulled right down into reality. Midori tells him,

Reminding Ranmaru that he isn't as far above the others as he thinks he is, he is also a part of the dummies. His death playing out in a similar fashion, except with his last words being about how he has to win.

Both these deaths share the fact of Ranmaru never getting the closure he desired and never getting to be what he wanted to be for Sara. A tragedy, through and though.

Anzu Don't kill Anzu she doesn't deserve it.

Okay but actually Anzu's death is also really sad, the way her final words are always about her not wanting to die, because she's always so scared of her death is honestly heartbreaking. It's an incredibly real way for a person to face their death.

Also during the Banquet Midori has some unique dialogue with interesting implications if Anzu is dead.

This is specific to if Anzu is dead, which is interesting because it implies she could have been brought back from being destroyed by the obstructor. Something similar is said when Kurumada dies, but in that case it was more of a "hope" rather than something being told to us, as well as Kurumada being shown to be functioning after being damaged unlike Anzu who was fully dead.

Midori saying this implies there would be a way to "revive" a doll even after being destroyed or damaged, even if they cease to actually live. Something separate from just bringing them back with the AI-ciever, which would essentially reset the dummies back to whatever their original AIs knew, with no knowledge of 3-1

It reminds me a bit of Rio Ranger who similarly was also kept alive after being destroyed by being shot through the head, but then later came back during the Maple 2.0 fight, acting how he used to act, instead of how "Laizer" would act.

It's a distinct difference, one that makes it so that you can't really say the dummies are exactly replaceable, but maybe that's a conversation for another day. Back to my original point though, just like Rio, I wonder if the other dummies have "chips" or something inside them that could be salvaged from the corpse, that would get fully destroyed by a drill. It's the only way I see that dialogue making sense. That or Midori is lying lmao, wouldn't be the first time.

Got kinda ramble-y there but I did say I would just be giving my thoughts on the deaths and details, and that's what Anzu's death makes me think about.

Anyways, moving on with the discussion, lets talk about a small detail that's so miniscule I wonder why it was even included.

During the Banquet, when Anzu dies, the remaining dolls all react, which makes sense, but for Kurumada and only Kurumada he has a different line depending on if Anzu is alive or dead.

Did you notice? Its literally just 3 extra dots if Anzu was alive. Its really weird, no other doll has a different reaction like this, even Mai or Hayasaka if they are alive instead, its specifically a Kurumada thing.

I suppose it's to show he hesitated more if Anzu was alive, since he would have actually gotten to know her, and it makes sense considering they are probably the closest 2 dummies, but its weird it was shown in this small barely noticeable way. Even if you played both routes, I highly doubt someone would notice the difference naturally, the only reason I saw it was because I was looking directly at the code. Still I suppose its just one more way to show Anzu and Kurumada's bond.

Speaking of Kurumada though,

KURUMADA

Kurumada's death is very interesting, because at least in the emotion route, when all the other dummies survive, it's probably regarded as one of the best early deaths. So long as everyone else is alive, Kurumada tell Sara that he feels like listening to a song, Sara goes to Alice/Reko and they start singing, with Anzu, Hayasaka, and Kanna all joining in.

However, if the first fight with Maple was failed, Kurumada will die here, with a peaceful look on his face while listening to everyone sing.

Its probably the most heartwarming death of any of the dummies, but I think there's more to talk about it than just that.

Something that always stood out to me is what Sara thinks after realising he died.

in comparison to when he lives where he'll say,

Keep in mind, it was Kurumada himself who says,

it's a phrase that kinda has become synonymous with Kurumada at this point, and the fact that it only happens in Emotion route, just like the singing scene where causes those 2 lines of dialogue always was interesting to me. Perhaps it's not as perfect as it seems? Maybe Sara didn't fully internalise Kurumada's lesson? IDK what its implying or even if it is implying anything, but it does stand out.

Regardless the scene is highly regarded for a reason, but Kurumada has a different, much more common death.

If on the Sou route, or if any of the dummies died in the Kanna route, Kurumada will instead die right before he enters his coffin. I love how here he waits until all the other dolls are in their coffins before he dies off, its like he doesn't want them to see him die when it's not a peaceful moment, so he holds unto life until everyone is inside their coffins, and only then does his body give in, consciously or not.

well now we've talked about all the dummies, lets talk about The Deaths in General

Just as a concept I think the early deaths are such a cool idea and they are written really well. With each death we can expand a little on characters, whether we see it as the "bad endings" for everyone, or whether we get small titbits we wouldn't have before, it shows just how much effort was put into each of these dolls.

They also lend themselves so perfectly into the gameplay, which is something YTTD in general is amazing at, by using the fact its a game to its advantage YTTD does so much more than it could have otherwise, making you press the button as you watch Joe,

or by using its illusion of choice mixed with real choice to always keep you guessing in moments like the Final Attraction and the Banquet.

These "tricks" all are used to make you more invested, more guilty.

And these early deaths are just another example of that, once you find out you can really lose a doll in these minigames instead of just getting game overs, you start to care so much more about actually getting the puzzle right, because you want to save as many people as you can.

At the same time the dummies act as rewards for doing well in Minigames. Instead of just playing the games because if you don't you'll have to go to your last save, now the games have purpose, and by completing them you can get to learn more about these characters you wouldn't have otherwise.

I feel like it can be a common take that the early deaths take away from the dummies as characters, that because Anzu or Hayasaka can die so early, that their characters never get a chance to develop, and since they can be dead or alive they are written in a way that doesn't matter.

I've made it no secret what I think about Anzu or Hayasaka "not having arcs", but these early deaths don't only "not take away" from their arcs, but they actively add to them. My favourite example being the dummies convincing Kurumada to take his charger.

Here we have 1 scene expand on 3 whole character's arcs, despite them taking the place of each other, their words carry different meaning for each. Anzu shows her bond with her allies, Hayasaka shows off a less selfish side of him, and Hinako shows her affection and care for her allies albeit in her own special way.

The game was able to have 3 characters develop, with what basically amounts to the same shared lines, this is how YTTD uses these deaths to develop its characters. No matter what you'll get a version of this scene, but depending on who's alive, it evolves to fit your gameplay experience, and its done so masterfully, and it's how YTTD uses even these optional deaths to its fullest potential. The dummies matter, each and every one of them, dead or alive.

================================================================================================

Conclusion

Wow that went on long lmao. This was supposed to be quick to drop something for 3-1B's anniversary because its peak and it deserves it but it turned into a sort of part rant part analysis about why I love this aspect of the game so much. Its like last minute to the point of being overdue lmao so idk how well this will turn out but I hope you enjoyed it

YTTD is my favourite game and 3-1 may just be my favourite bit of fiction ever, so I just wanted to talk about it for its anniversary. I suppose what better way than to talk about something that's unique to it and done so well, I may have gotten a bit sidetracked though there is a LOT to talk about with this stuff, this chapter just has so much to it And yes, my next real analysis will be coming, I won't say soon because who knows how long it'll take but I am working on it. Although this was fun so maybe I'll do more "rants" or something of the sort in the future if people end up liking this Anyways again thanks again for reading this far, I hope you enjoyed my ramblings and happy (now belated) anniversary 3-1B!!!!

[doonalli]

The Point of Alice's Death in 3-1 (Mini-Analysis)

Gonna start trying a new thing where unlike my other analyses where instead of making a long post about specific characters i make shorter ones about particular scenes in the chapter.

So while it may not be as long I still hope I'm able to make you appreciate the chapter a little more bit by bit regardless With that said I want to talk about a specific (controversial?) moment, being the Yabusames death in 3-1

I'll be focusing particularly on Alice because I'm an Alice router lmao, but I'd love if any Reko'ers were able to add their own input too!! So a common criticism of the Yabusame's death is that it "comes from nowhere". Not in the sense that Ranmaru killing them came from nowhere (I've explain already why that's just not true in my Ranmaru analysis) but in the sense that it makes no sense why they specifically were targeted rather than anyone else.

At first glace it seems like it has nothing to do with their arcs at all and the easiest answer is to just say "they just so happened to be there" but this is a story and Nankidai could have chosen anyone to be there. Yet it was them specifically, so why is that? Disregarding the fact that it couldn't be anyone else REALLY for plot reasons, (Qtaro already being dead, Keiji being trapped, Gin being needed for the Banquet and Sou because it's likely he'll be necessary for 3-2) because that doesn't feel like a real answer to me, and because I feel like there is more to it than just that. One important note to call attention to is that Alice dies exactly in the same spot as Hinako did. Obviously, this already draws a connection as Alice was the one who doomed Hinako in the first place by leaving early and "betraying" her in the First Trial.

But this also leads into what in my eyes is the most important aspect of this death, which is the fact that Alice never found out that he killed Hinako in this route. Now that may seem like a point against this death, as it kills Alice before this moment in his arc, which should be important, but stay with me for a second. One of the major points of Alice's arc is the way his character asks the question of if your even better of knowing in the first place. This is shown in one of the first major changes in his route where he actually ends up using Safalin's machine where Reko didn't

Gin tells him that it doesn't seem right what he did while Safalin affirms that she still believes her machine is one way to achieve happiness.

In particular she says "If all you have is burdens, that isn't life..."

And it's this question that seems to loom over Alice over his arc for the next chapters.

Later Alice is face to face with Midori, someone who is responsible for ruining his life, right after finding out he didn't really kill him at all, and earlier in a similar situation he acted very aggressive towards Gashu

and you'd expect him to be way more mad because he has more reason to fight with Midori. Yet when he fights...

Alice is awfully calm, something he even notices himself, and it just goes to show the change between the before and after of his choice.

Even Reko, when faced with the same choice, was fully ready to fight.

And this leads Sara to question something important

So why am I even bringing this up? Well, it's because Alice's death brings up the most extreme form of this question. When he dies here, he dies not knowing he killed Hinako, but he DOES know he didn't really kill Midori

At this point Alice is in a state where he is fully oblivious to the murder he committed, thinking that he didn't kill anyone. In a way you could call this Alice's happiest state, dying not as a "real murderer", but as an "innocent person".

But is that really a happy ending? He IS dead after all; sure he isn't a murderer anymore but still. And that's what I think his death wants to ask; Is that happiness a good thing?

Maybe once 3-2 drops we'll be able to actually get an answer to the question in Kanna's route but for now it's interesting that the possibility could even happen in the first place, and I think that will make whatever the answer is end up being, hit all the harder knowing that this was a real possibility.

But another part to death in YTTD is the effect it has on the people alive, and Alice's death does this too.

After the death Sara will think about who Alice was and what he meant as a person (and Reko too, maybe even more for her)

And their death is what finally pushes Sara to swear not to be who Midori says she is.

This scene genuinely means something to everyone in the cast, it shows Sou refusing his emotions, Gin and Sara's relationship and calling attention to his sin, showing us that YTTD won't just write him off as a kid and respects his agency in the situation, and a major moment for all the dummies (which I've talked about in each of their respective analyses).

On a more sentimental level the Yabusame's were also the ones who consistently helped Ranmaru with accepting his humanity and self-confidence, so by having him kill them specifically it shows how Ranmaru ignores those words they said representing how he denies his humanity.

And most importantly it leads us to a very important scene from Q-taro where he talks about how we are all carrying sin.

And who better as a backdrop for this moment then Alice Yabusame. Someone who spent so much of his life burdened by his sin and being unable to forgive himself for it. Reko fits in a way too with her past actions and her regretting not forgiving/believing in Alice when she had the chance. Thematically it just makes sense for them to be there, just to really hit home the message Q-taro presents.

So ultimately, I think it just makes sense for the Yabusames to have been the ones who died there and that it isn't indicative of "bad" or "lazy" writing but instead actually really well done and clever in the way it adds to their arcs while also acting as a good full stop to it too.

Through how it brings together many other characters to add a note into quite literally everyone who is present's arc, and through how it completes Alice's arc in a truly poetic way, I think not only is it not a bad choice to kill them there but actually one of the best examples of YTTD using one of its most unique strengths in its split routes for its character writing.

And I hope I was able to express just why I think that is here.

================================================================================================ AFTERWORD: So yeah, I think there is more to Yabusame's death than it can seem at first and maybe I've helped you see that too or maybe you think there is something more to add or you just think I'm insane and there isn't actually anything to it idk lol

I also understand that some people like the Yabusames and are simply mad that the route they chose ended up killing them for something they felt was out of their control, but at the end of the day this is a story and characters dying is a part of it, you can feel saddened by their death, its expected even, a death SHOULD affect you in that way, but I hope you can see how this death is so much more than that and the way its masterfully woven into the themes of their characters.

It's pretty common to see criticism of this death as "pointless" or "just for shock value" and it saddens me because there is far more to it and to Alice and Reko as characters then that and so I wanted to write this in an effort to show off just how much thought is put into them even in CH3 when it's possible they aren't even there. either way I hope you enjoyed reading this mini analysis and that I got you to think about it even a little bit more!!! See you next time for a bigger analysis more akin to what you'd usually see here.

[doonalli]

The Dummies, Midori, The Banquet, and what it truly means to "be human"

And here we are at the finale. if you haven't seen my previous analyses on the Dummies I recommend you read them before reading this one since i am going in assuming you have. But if not here they are in order; Why Anzu is Important Hayasaka and how humans change Kurumada and trust in your allies Ranmaru: Doubts in Humanity, and Humanity in Doubts Mai and Humanity in Autonomy Hinako; Humanity in Affection and Connection

With that said, let's start talking about the Banquet, Midori and what that says about the dummies' humanity.

At first the Banquet seems like a strange choice for the finale of the chapter, after all, we just went through a whole chapter about proving the humanity of the dummies, yet here they are all killed of one after the other here for the sake of Gin, a human. It comes off as a bit jarring, even seeming like YTTD is going back on its message a bit.

But I’m here to argue that isn’t the case, that the Banquet not only doesn’t conflict with the messaging of the chapter and the game as a whole, but instead works to push it even further to culminate in a perfect ending.

And to start with that, let's talk about one of the key players in the banquet, Midori. In a way Midori is everything it means to not be human, and he himself revels in this inhumanity. Midori has thrown away his own humanity, and this is shown to us in so many different ways, but the main one is the way he treats his own body.

What's particularly interesting about Midori is how unclear the line between what's real and what's fake is when it comes to him, from his relationships with the participants during their pasts, to the constant lies and half truths the tells over the chapter, to his death itself, it's hard to get a grasp on the reality of the situation when it comes to him.

And this of course extends to Midori himself, as he is presented as a mystery ever since Alice told Keiji about his murder, and in the way we don’t quite know if he is human or not until the banquet itself, and even then we don’t know exactly how much of his body is human.

During the Banquet Midori reveals that he has slowly been replacing parts of his body with doll parts, 

And to Midori this is equal to no longer being human, this mentality can only be achieved if you equate humanity to what you physically are, and it's through this that Midori acts as the opposite of what the dummies all stand for,

Where the dummies stand for Humanity not being tied to the physical truth, Midori stands for the opposite notion, that the physical truth stands above all. In his eyes humanity is a weakness, and we see that in how he treats them and the traits that prove humanity.

And so Midori tries to escape it, to escape his own humanity, no need for allies or connections or doubts or fears, all those "human" traits when you can just stand above it all, as some unstoppable force.

Midori is the perfect example of this because he constantly rubs it in your face just how inhuman he is, he does so when he starts spinning his head and when he rocket punches Yabusame and literally asks

And he furthers this mentality with his actions too, because Midori is denying his own humanity, he denies his fear of death, he constantly berates and betrays his allies like Maple or Hinako, he denies others of their choices and autonomy, laughing at their despair and refusing to connect, and even his “affection” for Sou is a twisted, messed up version of what affection is. All of it to dehumanise himself and others.

It's honestly hard to call Midori human after it all, and that's just what Midori wants. That's why Maple’s last act of defiance near the end of the chapter was so important, because it shows us and to Midori that that's all it is, a facade.

Just one small moment where Midori wasn’t in control and that's all it took to show us that he isn’t invincible, and with that the image of a fearless unstoppable force is shattered, and it shows us that he isn’t as above humanity as he thinks he is.

It's important that this happens here because it allows the cast to fight back during the next section, both himself and his ideals.

Midori’s mentality of humanity being defined by what you physically are goes head to head with the Dummies in the banquet, and that's what it's about, it's a battle between Midori, and the Dummies, who are trying to prove their own humanity, with all the ups and downs that come with it.

The banquet itself plays into this too, the hint system draws a straight, clear cut answer on who is a doll and who is a human, using exclusively what they are physically.

And the cast isn’t exempt from doing this too, with many of the first discussions being centred around “who is human?”, whether it be figuring out what the lights mean, questioning whether Midori himself is human, or questioning who among the Dummies is a human.

And it's only when Mai’s hands are revealed to be Midori’s human hands, that the lines start to blur. 

Does Mai having human hands make her "more human"? What if they aren't even hers? Plenty of people use body parts from others in real life too right? It gets you thinking about the line between human and doll and just how fragile and unclear it can be.

And sure we designate Midori as the human here, but later we find out we were wrong, because trying to designate a human through physical traits is wrong. But before that…

After picking a coffin and killing either Hayasaka or Kurumada the next hint reveals a human, Sara tells Midori that he must be afraid as hypothetically there is a 50% chance he dies, but Midori denies he is afraid of dying and picks the coffin anyways, revealing it to be Hinako

This just blurs the lines even more, since up to this point we thought all the dummies were dolls, yet a human was able to sneak in there entirely undetected. Can you really say they're that different if you didn't even realise it at first?

And importantly, as we discuss who Hinako really was, we confirm her humanity, but not through any physical traits like many people tried to do during the banquet, but through a painting and the connection between Alice and the real Hinako.

During the next section we figure out the truth about Midori, and about how he has more doll parts than human, spinning his head all the way around to prove it. Obviously this isn’t something that any human could do, but more importantly it shows us Midori’s inhumanity in an undeniable way, it's so flashy, bold and in your face, that you’d be hard pressed to call him human.

When Sara then stands firm and states that this proves Midori is a doll and Gin is a human she is agreeing to the line that Midori drew and separates Humans and Dolls even further. This goes as far as to picking a red coffin, picking a doll, just to keep Gin the human safe, Midori even calls Sara out on it if she is really alright with picking one of the dummies, and notably Sara’s internal monologue doesn’t question that fact, but instead wondering why Midori is so confident, and why he doesn’t seem to be scared.

Sara is being pushed even further into believing Midori isn’t really human anymore at this point, Questioning if their logic was even correct. Until…

The surviving dummies inspire Sara through their words, and with that, prove their own humanities in their own separate ways, showing Sara and the player that their lives have purpose, have value, and that they are truly human.

On the surface it seems like Sara is simply making a choice to sacrifice the dolls for the sake of a human, and the tragedy of that is the fact these scenes show the truest form of their humanity. There is a reason these scenes are such a focal point in my analysis of each of those characters (Mai, Kurumada, and Hayasaka) and it's because it shows that they are able to make their own choices, for the sake of their allies, despite their contradictory emotions, and that's something that's inherently human. 

We see this when characters like Mishima, Kai, and Kanna all do something similar, and it all just works to prove that fact the dummies aren’t separate from the humans.

So why does this happen? Well to me it shows that despite their efforts, Sara still couldn’t shake her bias, playing right into what the Banquet and Midori want, by dehumanising the dummies.

But it isn’t over and the dummies still have a chance to show their humanity.

Tragically, Sara misses, not knowing at this point that Midori isn’t even in one of the glowing coffins, and Midori now has a free shot that's basically guaranteed to hit Gin, but Midori gives her a chance to talk to Gin, and that confidence ends up being his undoing.

While talking to Gin he mentions Keiji, reminding Sara of her wish she got from signing the consent form. She demands Midori to change it, and after some arguing, he does. Only he picks the #2 coffin, killing Anzu, and it's here where we reach our lowest point, where Sara herself admits that she undeniably sacrificed a doll for the sake of a human.

However it's always darkest before the dawn, and that's true here too, this is the Dummies’ last chance to prove themselves, and they won’t go down without a fight.

Through a discussion the cast figures out that Hinako swapped coffins with Midori before the banquet even began, meaning he is actually in a non-glowing coffin, and through this they are given an actual chance to fight back, because, as Sara rightfully called out, this proves Midori is afraid of death.

Despite his claims otherwise, Midori is scared of death, and because of that he swapped coffins with Hinako out of a fear he’d die outwise.

Midori claims that this doesn’t matter though as no matter what all 3 of the non glowing coffins have dolls inside, meaning the hit will be red no matter what. 

Regardless Sara presses the hint and it ends up blue, meaning that there is a human inside, much to everyone’s surprise.

The fact that Midori believed so strongly that the coffins would end up red only for it to be blue just blurs the lines between these two options even more. The fact that the contents in this coffin are unknown is just the first step in this counterattack.

Before that however, Ranmaru’s coffin is picked, sending Sara to give up, but Q-taro tells her that it's not what she thinks, as Midori is revealed to be struggling with his next choice.

This goes into the war of words against Midori, and the thing about this one is that compared to the other war of words our goal here is to confuse Midori as much as possible. First we refute his claim that Keiji isn’t in the coffin, despite it being blue. Then when he brings up the victim videos we tell him that the Hinako in the video isn’t even the Hinako of the dummies. He reasons out Maple must have told Keiji about the Banquet, and reveals that the coffins designate between human and doll through the collars, as both dolls and humans would be ashes after being cremated.

All these contradictions are designed to blur the lines between red and blue, real and fake, human and doll.

The way Midori doubts a human is in the blue coffin, or the way we bring up how not all the dummies are dolls of people who died, or how he admits that the coffins don’t even tell the content apart by physical traits but instead by the collar put on them.

And by the end we’ve blurred the lines so much that Midori thinks the coffin contains his collar, despite his own claim that he himself would be counted as a doll. All due to Q-taro's trick.

As if Hinako being a Human among the dolls wasn't enough, there has been a doll among the humans the whole time, and no one could tell, not even Midori, who dies before he ever learns the truth.

The fact that a doll of someone could so easily fit in just shows how vague the lines really are. We see just how much a doll can seem like a human, how they can feel and learn and grow like any human, how they laugh and cry and shout like any human. And at that point... was there ever really even a line at all? And this all culminates in the final act of the Banquet, Midori and Sara’s last choices. Midori is now doubting himself,

struggling between the 2 options he has to target, struggling with his conflicting feelings,

 and Sara thinks to herself that Midori has no allies to rely on now,

because he denied that connection, and killed them all himself.

She tells him to choose, to make his own choices now,

and he does, he picks the non glowing coffin… Missing Gin and ultimately dooming himself.

Sara ends up making her choice, choosing Midori’s coffin, and as the drill goes through Midori, he realises just how scared of death he is, but it's too late for him.

We prove his mentality of humanity being decided by physical traits is wrong in this moment, because here, in his final moments, Midori is undeniably human, and even he can’t run away from that.

"I'm a human. Which is why I don't wanna die..."

Unlike somebody such as Rio, who also spent his last moments as a human, Midori doesn’t deserve any sympathy, because he did that to himself. Just like how he denied that connection to his allies like Hinako, and killed them, Midori essentially killed his humanity, or at least tried to, so when he’s backed into a corner he doesn’t get to rely on his allies, and while we’ve proven that his mentality of humanity isn’t right, Midori himself he only realises this right as he is about to die, when it's far too late to go back now.

Through the Banquet and its final choice we prove to not only Midori, but to the cast and ourselves that humanity can’t be defined with just the physical truth, and that's what victory means for the dummies, because if someone who actively threw away his own humanity, with all his rocket punches and spinning head can still struggle with contradictory feelings, can try to rely on his allies, can still be forced to make his own choice, and can truly fear death, then humanity  just can’t be defined by something as simple as how much of your body is a doll, and the lines that seemed to divide that, ceases to exist at all.

================================================================================================ Afterword: So that's it. This set of analyses is finally done. Some of you all might have noticed that this is being released exactly one year after my first Anzu analysis, and I just wanted to thank everyone for reading this with me, the fact that there are people who like and agree with what I have to say is still unbelieveable.

I started this series because I thought the dummies were an underappreciated part of YTTD and 3-1 was underappreciated in general. To me this chapter is just incredible, my favourite bit of fiction ever, and I just wanted to put it into words why I love it so much, and as I wrote this series I only grew to love it more!

I hope I was able to share that love to whoever took the time to read any of my posts, its been an incredible time, thank you so much! and i hope you're able to love it a bit more too.

Sorry this one took so long to come out, I've been working on a few projects that i'll hopefully be able to drop soon, and if you're a fan of the dummies I think you'll like what I have in store.

Lastly I want to thank Crazy Sunshine for being such an incredible friend and for helping me so much with the latter half of these analyses, they were improved so much with their help!!!!

And I'll try to be more consistent with these posts but uhh i said that before and that hasn't exactly worked out, regardless this isn't the end, i have a few asks to catch up on still and i am not even remotely close to saying all there is to say about this incredible chapter, so I hope you'll be there when it drops. I hope you've enjoyed this era of my blog and moreso I hope you look forward to the future.

Thank you for reading!!! I hope you enjoyed! and I hope I got you thinking about this incredible chapter even just a little bit more.

[doonalli]

hi !!! i lauv ur analysis’ of yttd !!! would you consider doing one for maple :)?

Woah my first ask!!! Thank you!!!!! Maple is such an awesome character there is so much that I could say about her, I even went a bit into it with Mai's analysis Maple's character is such a tragic one honestly, and there is a lot I could talk about, but writing this on the spot I obviously won't be going as in depth as usual, although I really do want to write a full analysis on Maple sometime, but 3-2 seems just around the corner so idk if I'll get the time....

Regardless, for right now, I'll talk a bit about the way Maple is presented, how that plays into stereotypes, and most importantly how she subverts them too

Maple is immediately presented as a very girly girl, right as we enter her room we are hit with loads of pink fluffy furniture, and she particularly has a keen interest in tea, all things that are traditionally feminine

Even her fight follows this with its emotions gimmick, playing into how women are seen as hysteric by the people who don't respect them

and further playing into that girly stereotype Maple has a deep love for Midori. It's a common trope for women in media to be nothing more than the love interest for the men around them, or for them to fall head over heels for the men they love.

But for Maple this is revealed to be much more sinister, with it actually being something programmed into her, rather than her own true feelings

let's not beat around the bush here, Midori is by no means a good person, AT ALL, but compared to Maple's love, Midori's affection is incredibly twisted, with the prime example being how he talks about Shin

In Kanna's route Midori talks about how unfortunate it is that Sou had to die, as he wanted to kill him himself.

And with that context I find it interesting how when Maple ends up powering down and "dying" Midori takes her and goes to "revive" he with "the power of his love"

It's just peculiar to me the difference between them and how Midori treats them. On that point though, another thing to note with Maple is hands.

To even enter the discussion room a pair needs to hold hands. People holding hands can often be used as a sign of affection, or intimacy, even Ranmaru himself falling into this.

But when Midori decides takes her to get "upgraded" he notably grabs ahold of her wrists, rather than her hands.

Grabbing someone's wrists is usually done because it exerts more power over them, compared to holding hands where it's a mutual act from both parties, and can be let go when either party desires it.

He could have grabbed her by the hand, or any other place honestly, or nankidai could have simply chosen not to show it at all, yet a specific focus was put on Midori grabbing Maple's wrists.

It's clear Midori doesn't treat Maple with care like the green books suggest

Nor does he make any attempt to understand her emotions or sympathise with her like the manual says

I mean he literally gave her the manual in place of a love letter to her, clearly not caring enough to actually write something for her. It doesn't get more ironic than that.

And it doesn't stop there for Maple, as when she is upgraded into Maple 2.0 she is forced into fighting her friends, in particular Mai

And this leads to partway through the fight where she fully cuts off her last remaining hand, which with the context of everything I've said also cuts off her chance of simply holding someone's hand...

But its not all bad for Maple, after all if Anzu survived the way she'll reconcile with Maple is by holding and shaking hands

(fun fact: Nankidai showed an old version of the sprite where Sara reconciles with Maple on stream once and in that sprite she also held Maple's hand, but that was changed before release)

And by the end of her story, Maple is able to fight back against Midori and put the first crack in his facade, even pushing through his "I love you"s and outright stating that she won't believe him. She pushes back on this idea of being defined by her love and is able to truly show herself as a strong person able to stand up the abuser in her life.

And Q-taro will even call Midori out on his mistake here, on how he underestimated Maple, because of his prior expectations,

And coinciding with that, this happens after Maple's monitors all break, monitors that were all linked to emotions, and put them neatly into boxes. It's not like Maple suddenly becomes emotionless either, she still hesitates when Midori says he loves her after all, but it isn't as easy as just reading it on her face, because she isn't defined by her emotions either.

Maple is more than the stereotypes that can be pushed onto her by the people in charge, (or the people who program her,) and the way she is able to fight for her own power says a lot, and proves that she is so much more than what it may seem on the surface, after all, she is human too.

================================================

Thank you again anon for the question, this IS shorter than the others i've written due to me writing it on the spot but i really hope i was able to fufill ur expectations even just a bit I'd love to revisit Maple someday, hopefully we'll be able to see more of her in 3-2 too (or YTTS or a minisode or a page in the updated artbook or SOMETHING) but for now I really enjoy her place in the story and her portrayal and maybe i've been to do her some justice and was able to show some others that too!!!

[doonalli]

Hinako, Sei and The Effects of Asu-Naro

So hopefully with my previous analysis I’ve been able to convince you of Hinako’s character that was all already been there in the base game. If you haven't read it, you should as this is essentially a part 2 that which I couldn't fit in because of the image limit on Tumblr. Generally I've avoided talking about content from the past episodes because I want to make the point that the dummies’ characters have all been there from the start, but I do want to talk about it here a bit more just to add a little more and further prove the points I made.

In the last analysis I said Kai’s character is one that relates most to Hinako, but I LIED!!! I AM A LIAR!!! There is one character who parallels a lot more closely to Hinako, that being Sei from Kai’s past episode. Like Hinako he was raised in Asunaro as a child, and like Hinako he was given a small taste of affection before being killed off anyways. And both their mindsets are reflective of this too.

Both talking about being used and being "pawn", a specific word choice that only shows up 3 times throughout the whole game, being here and during Keiji's discussion about Kai, all related to people from Asu-naro.

Sei also mentions being a tool, and with that context Sara’s claim that she doesn’t think of the dummies as tools holds a lot more meaning

And to add to one of the major points in my analysis, being the affection Hinako doesn't seem to get, the lack of affection Asu-naro shows is something directly called out during the minisode.

Asu-naro's mindset of “value” which Hinako follows closely is shown through Sei yet again when he says,

And if that wasn’t enough, their humanity is called into question just the same as how the dummies were in 3-1, being treated as gimmicks.

In a way, the way Sei was brought in as a rival to bring Kai up also mirrors the way Hinako was an agent placed into the dummies assumedly to push the death game forward (as she claims Mai may have done, which could be seen as projection)

The parallels are clear between Sei and Hinako, and these connections continue onto the doll Rio Ranger as well.

Obviously Rio watched as the real Hinako died, beating her corpse out of jealousy upon realising she didn’t value her life, and specifically refusing to wear any clothes from her corpse.

Meanwhile our pink haired Hinako obviously did wear her clothes.

Already this puts some connection between them, but Rio also backs up the connection between affection and humanity with his death.

And Gashu’s denial of this (along with the Asunaro executive in the Past Episode) shows that the lack of humanity through affection in Asu-naro is a consistent thing, especially in the younger members. 

Considering all that the fact Hinako was finally able to find that affection means even more, and the fact that she was able to break out of this bubble for a moment, only to be dragged back in just adds to her tragedy, especially since we’ve seen Kai be able to escape Asu-naro’s grasps even in his final moments. The fact Hinako was denied that by Midori even after coming so far shows the dark core of Asu-naro at full force and tells us so much about Hinako herself to be able to grow from there.

[doonalli]

Hinako; Humanity in Affection and Connection (Hinako Character Analysis)

Hinako was probably the character analysis I wanted to write the most after Anzu, She is such an amazing character to me, but i just don't see any discussion on her at all, most of the time all I see is people just claiming she is only a plot device and not much of a character, or otherwise underutilised, which to me couldn’t be further from the truth. So I want to write an analysis on who Hinako is, and how she plays a part in YTTD.

To me all the dummies represent different aspects of humanity, Anzu represents it through her fear of death, Hayasaka represents it through his contradictory emotions, Kurumada represents it through his connection to others, Ranmaru represents it through his doubts, Mai represents it through her own autonomy, and I would argue that Hinako represents the physical aspect of humanity.

But over the course of the previous 5 analyses on the 5 other dummies one point that comes up again and again is that humanity isn't about the physical truth and it never was, and Hinako is no exception. Being an agent of Asu-naro her mindset is informed by theirs, you can see this is the way she talks about being used and the emphasis she places on "value" in general. Almost more like a tool than a person

And it's clear through her actions and reactions too, for example when Q-taro was stabbed and all the dummies went out of their way to help even though there was no benefit in this for them and Hinako just didn't get why, or a little beforehand when Ranmaru takes the tag from Sara (during the logic route). 

Hinako in those moments doesn't get why they would do these things for no real reason, when these actions don’t bring any value to them. 

Even from first meeting Hinako talks about information she can't share on account of using it as a safety net for herself: 

Right from our first meeting we can see glimpses into her ideology and it's easy to see where this mindset could have come from.

And later when finding about the secret information everyone has she claims that it gave them all new unique value, which no matter the choice, Sara denies as they have value anyways.

It's clear Hinako's mindset comes from Asu-naro, Kai, who's the character most similar to Hinako in this regard also shows this mentality off in how he pleads for his life with his “vital information for escape” during the first Main Game,

However, unlike Hinako, he was actually lucky enough to be able to escape the Asu-naro bubble. And we see the effects of that in his note to Sara on his laptop. 

The only chance Hinako gets is during the sub-game on the 4th and 5th floors, the Murderer Game, where she is placed along with the Dummies after she taking the place of the real Hinako. And while at first she seems to play into Asu-naro’s mindset, over the course of the chapter these beliefs are broken down for her, starting with Q-taro’s words after he got stabbed.

When Q-taro asks the dummies to work with them, Hinako is the most reluctant at first, asking him if he heard the rules, reiterating that one or the other has to die before she is cut off by Q-taro asking her an important question.

Hinako is shaken by this response, and as all the dummies start to help Q-taro 1 by 1 she is left behind with her protests. This acts as the first step to Hinako’s eventual willingness to connect however as of yet she isn’t convinced and that's shown during Keiji’s fight with Midori and its aftermath. 

During the fight she is the most actively detrimental to the humans, stopping Keiji from shooting the gun and grabbing Gin’s shovel to stop him from attacking midori, stating that:

And after Keiji is pushed into the coffin Hinako stubbornly states “Hmph… It's not our fault…” and after Ranmaru rips up the consent form that would have saved him Hinako reminds everyone that the dummies would have died if Keiji won and he still decided to fight despite that fact.

However once Ranmaru actually makes his intentions to save Keiji themselves clear Hinako immediately refutes it, asking:

And sticks to her sentiment by stating:

This mindset of hers is reinforced when the cast tries to move to the security office where Hinako tells them:

She physically can’t help Keiji even if she wanted to due to the red string of fate and she likens this to being a slave robbed of her freedom, something all too similar to what Asunaro’s mindset has been shown to us to be before.

However this mindset is proven wrong to Hinako once the collar pairings are turned off and she is freed from them. Still in disbelief, Mai then asks her to make up with everyone which she tries to fight back against by asking:

She is shut down once Anzu Hayasaka or Mai ask if she could really kill them. Anzu and Hayasaka specifically callsout their kindness while Mai fights back against it by claiming she’ll stop them herself.

Hinako still struggling to connect claims that:

Before finally breaking down and helping the cast by telling them about Midori’s ID card, giving up that “one or the other has to die” mentality from before and now starting to actually help find a new option. She agrees when Ranmaru asks her to come along and it is from this point forth Hinako starts to truly connect with the rest of the group.

And this is in a way shown off during the Maple fight where she can try to strike up a conversation with her:

Once Maple starts chasing after the group Kurumada gets injured, Hinako tells everyone to run to the 5th floor, and when Qtaro struggles to keep up she actually shows concern saying:

Rather than the refusal to care she showed before as the dummies all went to help Qtaro and when he just got stabbed on the monitor she shows him concern.

Then, when Gin tries to run back she reminds him that he will die, him and Qtaro both, and if Sara hesitates to close the elevator doors she will force them closed herself.

While Hinako isn’t outright showing affection in the same way others would, (likely as a result of how Asu-naro raises their agents without it according to Kai’s letter,) she still is concerned for others and that's an important difference to the Hinako from earlier who rarely did so.

This also shows again with her interactions with Kurumada. In the Logic Route, Hinako stays outside of the locker room during the puzzle alongside Kurumada, similar to how she stayed outside the lava puzzle in the boxing room earlier in the chapter. 

This could imply that she purposely protected Kurumada from entering, as her staying out isn’t mentioned in the emotion route, where Kurumada is staying behind with Kanna.

And when Kurumada attempts to deny the charger, if Anzu and Hayasaka died earlier in the chapter the action of telling Kurumada to use it on himself goes to Hinako:

Here Hinako is telling Kurumada to live, notably however, the way she goes about it is different to Anzu or Hayasaka who argue that they’re “allies”, instead Hinako argues from a more logical angle, telling him to just give it up and finally asking him a simple “...Why not live?”. It's clear that she does care for Kurumada and wants him to live, even if it's expressed differently to the others.

Hinako makes fun of him as he berates the dummies for not thinking things through by asking “Should the guy who got himself injured like this be saying that?”, a fun parallel to how Hinako protested against the dummies helping Q-taro by calling them idiots where Kurumada made fun of her instead.

Originally Hinako refuted when the dummies were helping Q-taro and now Kurumada attempts to refuse help from the dummies himself.

Kurumada then goes on to tell Sara his secret info, in his eyes removing the last of his value, a mindset Hinako herself operated under earlier when first finding out about the secret info, but Sara proves her words from back then with how she makes a promise with Kurumada to protect everyone, dummies included.

The next scene I want to talk about is a very important one, not only is it a major example of Hinako truly opening up and connecting with her allies, but it's also the first example of Midori taking that away from her, in a small way at least.

When Ranmaru stands over Kurumada thinking about possibly tagging him Hinako walks in stating

She reveals a collar reset device, specifically with the intention of protecting her allies.

It's also interesting that the device she reveals is specifically one that needs cooperation, just another note to add to Hinako’s newfound willingness to connect.

However after Hinako turns on the device and is about to explain how it works Midori walks in to take that from her and explain it instead, even using her (and Kanna/Sou) as an example for the shocking system, almost like a tool…

It's just a small example but nonetheless it is an example of Midori dehumanising Hinako in a way, by taking away her spotlight from helping the others for himself and using her. And this will eventually lead to a much bigger example later…

On a totally and completely unrelated note, once the cast gets back down to the 4th floor and are searching for answers as to where Keiji could be they find Mai alone instead, after giving her the ID card they all decide to follow her into a new room. Here Hinako takes the chance to use the hot drinks machine to carry a bunch of hot cocoa, and soon after asks if she can go to search the cemetery, when told it would be dangerous to go alone she decides to take Ranmaru along with her, further showing her affection for Ranmaru in some form.

Later we find out her goal here was to actually spill the hot cocoa on her coffin to protect herself during the banquet,

While it's unclear how much she knew about the banquet, she still seems to have done it for that purpose, not knowing she would later swap with Midori.

But its still important to add how she also spilt cocoa on Ranmaru’s coffin. At first it’s thought to be done as a distraction but if Hinako knew that unglowing her coffin with cocoa would save her then she would have had to know what spilling cocoa onto Ranmaru’s coffin would do too.

Ranmaru then leaves to “check up on Kurumada”, leaving Hinako alone, and an announcement from “Keiji” is heard, leading Sara to go into the classroom alone and get stunned.

Once Sara regains consciousness in the Kanna lives route Hinako will return without Ranmaru, and once the topic changes to Kurumada’s whereabouts Hinako makes a joke about Kurumada possibly being dead, however her expression quickly changes to a worried one once she realises no one actually checked, showing her concern for him yet again.

This joke is also similar to the types of dark jokes Kai, the other Asu-naro member of the cast, would make, furthering that connection.

The Logic route however has a much less… lighthearted scene… Instead Ranmaru ends up killing the remaining Yabusame and Hinako reacts to this with a hatred for Ranmaru, one only beaten by Kurumada’s. She calls him out for wanting to save himself and Ranmaru berates her, asking when she decided to switch sides, to which she can’t respond.

This bitterness continues to the pre-banquet where Hinako asks Sara if it's alright to leave Ranmaru free, something awfully similar to how she talked earlier in the chapter about being not being free, she goes on to state her want for revenge against him before playing it off as a joke. Finally she remarks that they could just leave Ranmaru powerless once the banquet is over, asking Sara if she really is going to forgive him for killing Yabusame and ending with the notion that there isn’t any point taking it out on her with a dour expression.

If Ranmaru died she is less vengeful on account of there being no one to take revenge against, instead she remarks that if it weren’t for Ranmaru’s “stupid betrayal” she could have been a bit happier with everyone alive, then she tells Sara is a shame about Yabusame, before telling her to keep her head up with the banquet ahead.

It's important that she yet again shows her newfound concerns for others, even admitting that she would be happier if more people were alive, but it's also important that it was Ranmaru who betrayed everyone as Hinako was shown to be close to Ranmaru when she saved him and she explored with him, so to have him do this and sort of act like a tool for Sara goes against everything she’s learnt.

In the Emotion Route though Hinako is much happier, even admitting as much when Sara asks, remarking how amazing it is they were all able to make it in one piece if all the dolls survived then playing it off as “better than being torn to pieces”, she then makes Sara swear to bring the dummies back after the banquet.

If all the dummies survived Kurumada will request for a song, Hinako listening in will confess that it's pretty nice even at a time like this. The song itself is named “Tunagu” literally meaning “to connect”, and its here is the truest form of connection between everyone in the cast and with Hinako. In this moment, Hinako can truly say she is human… but it doesn’t last long.

When entering the coffins for the banquet she is always first or second to enter, likely as she believes she will be safe due to her coffin no longer glowing after being hot cocoa’ed, but as the coffins are buried under the ground Midori calls for Hinako, and while it’s unknown the exact circumstances they end up swapping coffins, and this choice ends up dooming Hinako, as she is later betrayed by Midori and killed, seemingly unexpectedly.

This action ends up dehumanising Hinako, relegating her to just a tool for Midori, despite all the growth she displayed, it's all taken away from her at this moment. She dies, not even having her own choice in the matter, unlike the others (excluding Anzu) and in turn she dies, still under Asunaro's grasp. Midori being in a non glowing coffin also puts Ranmaru back in danger, when he should have been safe, taking even that part away from Hinako.

Hinako’s relationship with Midori also works as a dark parallel to Sou and Kanna’s, Kanna’s claims of not being useful matching Hinako using her usefulness as a safety net, the care Sou inevitably has for Kanna versus the lack of care Midori has as he kills off his allies. It's what Sou and Kanna would’ve been without the affection they had for each other.

The effects of that are seen throughout the rest of the Banquet, Hinako ends up being presented as possibly an enemy when Q-taro claims everyone who's died so far has been an ally, however, Hinako’s last words end up exposing Midori and give the participants another fighting chance.

Despite Hinako physically being a human she isn’t treated as such because that's not what humanity is about, and that's the tragedy of Hinako, but even so, for those few moments where she truly connected with the dummies and the survivors she was really “alive”, and she was able to, in some small ways, truly be free from Asunaro.

And in a way it was all because of the connection the real Hinako Mishuku and Alice shared, which gave our Hinako the chance to connect with others too, and with that, just like Kai did before her, she finally learnt one aspect of what it meant to be a human, to connect with others and to show affection and have that same affection given back to you.

================================================

Hinako undergoes a drastic change from the Hinako we saw at the start of the chapter, but recounting what she has done over the course of the chapter you can see the natural progression she takes to get here. It can be easy to disregard this aspect of her when we find out about her connection to Asunaro after she died, but I think that's a disservice to Hinako, and I think she is so much more than the banquet twists.

There is plenty to Hinako, from her growth as a person and her learning to connect, to showing the effects Midori and Asunaro have over her, to simply showing off another aspect to what makes a human, and it's why I think Hinako is genuinely such a great character that i can’t wait to see more of. Not to “fix” her or give her something but to expand on what's already there, because she is a character like any other.

I don’t think Hinako’s character is over yet of course, i’m certain there will be more from her in 3-2 and in her Minisode but I do think that Hinako is already a full character, albeit a tragic one, I don’t think she was misused or killed off to early. Hinako’s character exists for reasons and those reasons were genuinely fulfilled, she shows the effect Asunaro and their mindset have on their agents, and just how trapped they are, in a way no other character really could, and she adds yet another layer to the themes of 3-1 and humanity as a whole.

I think calling Hinako a waste of a character or to simply write her off as a plot device is unfair to who Hinako is and her purpose in the story, I think that there is a lot to here already in game that people don’t see because they insist Hinako exists solely for the twists during the Banquet and thats sad :( So hopefully at least this post will get you to appreciate Hinako a bit more and see her as more than just a tool, in universe and out of it too.

Short part 2 type thing -> Here!!!!

but this has gone on long enough, I hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading!!

[doonalli]

Mai and Humanity in Autonomy (Mai Character Analysis)

I think Mai Tsurugi is a character who has a lot to her and while I know she is talked about a bit I think she should be talked about more because she is a truly fantastic character and I hope this post gets you to start thinking about how and why!!

To understand Mai’s character I think it's important to talk about a major theme in 3-1. Obviously at its core Chapter 3 Part 1 is about what makes something human, and its shown through each of the dummies, each encompassing a different aspect of humanity, and for Mai this is the humanity of being able to make your own choices.

And this is made extremely clear during one major point in 3-1 where Ranmaru gives a speech about how humanity is about making your own choices after Keiji gets locked in a coffin. 

And throughout the chapter Mai ends up emboding everything that Ranmaru and this scene is trying to say.

In this speech Ranmaru states that being human is about making your own choices, something that's a constant struggle for Mai’s character, but also something she ends up learning throughout the chapter and finally proving her humanity through it.

and Mai is the one who by far encapsulates this the most throughout 3-1, ironic considering how she is also the only one who didn’t get to hear the speech on account of being unconscious.

When we first meet Mai it’s as a doll during the Murderer Game, the subgame in which the survivors must kill Midori in order to proceed however the dolls instead have a different objective. As a doll Mai is told she must kill her partner (in this case being Q-taro) if she wants to survive. Here she starts off as someone unable to make her own choices and that's shown off almost immediately when Mai ends up being the first doll to play into Midori's hands and try to kill their partner, it's a choice that was set up for her, not something she chose herself but rather it's just her playing along with Midori's puppet show. However, after she wakes from being knocked out by Qtaro we see the first signs of her breaking from that.

When she wakes up, we see the aftermath of her choice from her perspective, and she regrets it, not from a regret of her betrayal but because of her failure.

If Sara tells her “you’re awake…” she’ll say

Its only when Qtaro decides to forgive that she finally regrets her actions

And Qtaro tells her that this doesn’t mean anything, as he claims he would have done the same, and the only thing that stopped him was that he was never given the opportunity. The only thing stopping him was the lack of a choice in the matter, mirroring how the only thing pushing Mai is the looming threat that if she doesn’t kill she dies. Both given only having one real choice presented to them. 

Q-taro even said as much right after Mai stabbed him.

Q-taro calls out the lack of choice the dummies have in the matter, and makes it clear that its Midori who has control over them. Forcing them to play along with his puppet show.

Once Mai is awake it's from this point forward where we see more of who she really is, rather than the cutesy persona she put on before, and that's shown through her actions. 

As a first step towards reconciliation Mai steps up to take Qtaro off Yabusame’s hands and let him lean on her instead. (and if Anzu died Gin will tell Mai that they can take turns if she gets tired, to which she thanks Gin)

The next scene I want to talk about is when Hinako asks the dummies how they plan on surviving with both the humans and the dummies intact. If Anzu and Hayasaka both died earlier Mai will step up to fight back against Hinako and Kurumada’s reluctance.

Rather than speaking from a reluctance to kill such kind people like Anzu or Hayasaka, she argues from experience. She can’t say she couldn’t kill them, but she still doesn’t want her allies to feel the same feeling she did, even if she would have to stop them herself

Finally when Maple starts going on a rampage she decides to risk her life to stay behind and protect Qtaro. Interestingly she also is required to beat the Maple fight as she is the one who reads Maple’s instruction manual and figures out what must be done, which leads into the connection Mai and Maple have in their arcs.

Speaking of, during Keiji’s POV section, Mai and Qtaro hide in the coffins to get away from Maple until they’re unlocked and they are able to save Keiji. Qtaro gets the idea to shut off the elevators to stop Maple from being able to get to the 5th floor after the others. Maple then stumbles in and collapses, starting another scene which highlights the connection Mai and Maple have.

And she explains that her goal as an obstructor was to kill Midori, however there was something that stood in the way of that.

Maple regrets the terrible things she did to everyone but Mai tells her it's because the cast took the ID card from her. Maple tells her that it was because she was programmed into loving Midori, that even this love wasn’t her choice and ultimately relegates her to a “gimmick”, robbing her of her autonomy, a similar situation as to what happened with Mai. During the Murderer game Mai alongside the rest of the dummies are reduced to gimmicks, to the point that unlocking the first level of “gimmick security” lets you see information on the dummies and their collars,

and unlocking the second level causes the victim videos of the dummies to play, ending with a video of what happened as they woke up. Its clear that, to Midori and Asunaro at least, the dummies are simply gimmicks for the Murderer Game.

And this is shown again when Maple explains the true meaning of the “Murderer game”, and how they were pushed into thinking that killing the survivors was their only choice, despite that not being the case.

However Mai doubts it at first, saying

She wonders if Asunaro would even charge them if their battery runs out, she then insists Asunaro was planning on disposing of them from the start, and that they were just watching them struggle helplessly.

Until Qtaro speaks up to make a promise to Mai,

Through the Banquet and Qtaro’s promise a new path opens up, one paved through the bonds between the humans and the dolls. A new choice was created, a choice they made themselves, separate from the “the human lives or the doll lives” dichotomy they were fed before. And with Mai’s help, alongside Qtaro and Keiji, this choice became an actual possibility. 

Once Keiji leaves to charge the Midori doll’s head Mai and Qtaro stay behind and they end up enacting their own plan to help everyone during the banquet. Qtaro lays down in Keiji’s coffin, taking his death into his own hands, in a way alleviating the blame from Mai for her actions, and opening up a new possibility for the dummies with the banquet. Mai still cries out that it's her fault. However the death now has a purpose, has a reason past Mai’s mistake, and it changes the death from one done by a lack of choice, to one that opens up new choices from a lot more people.

From here Mai is alone, with Keiji on the 5th floor and Qtaro gone, she is the only one who is left that knows about the plan, and the only one at all who knows about Qtaro. From here she walks her own path, obtains the ID card from Sara and starts to boot up the Qtaro AI into the doll. Soon an announcement from “Keiji” calling for Sara occurs and Mai tries to push everyone to go with her, likely to make sure Keiji isn’t spotted on the way down, but Sara charges on alone regardless, leaving Mai alongside the rest of the others, and with no Keiji in sight.

She then later meets up with Sara alongside the others and a new Q-taro doll in the classroom after Sara awakens from being stunned.

Very quickly I want to call attention to a scene in the Logic route after Ranmaru kills Yabusame.

After Ranmaru claims that this is the only way left to save Sara, Hinako calls him out on wanting to save himself, causing him to retaliate by asking when she decided to side with them. Hinako, shocked, doesn't manage to reply, but Mai steps in to tell Ranmaru that no one would side with him.

In a way Ranmaru in the Logic Route is the exact opposite of what Mai is striving for. Just the same as her, he killed someone to survive, and while she wouldn’t know that Ranmaru was pushed into this choice by Sara’s words, similar to what Midori did to Mai, there is a large difference in the fact that Ranmaru’s goal includes killing everyone to save himself and Sara but even past that he revels in what he did as the right choice, mirroring Mai’s almost immediate regret at her actions. Even the way she specifically kills her partner while Ranmaru's goal is to kill everyone EXCEPT his partner adds to this.

Right afterwards the fight against Maple 2.0 happens, and there are a couple moments I want to discuss on how they pertain to this theme of making your own choices shared between the two. Firstly, Maple’s first attack.

But, despite her own thoughts…

Here Maple is stuck following orders, and Mai understands that, she tries to tell her to be strong. However this doesn’t end up working out and Maple throws her first attack of the fight, regardless of what she truly thinks.

Next, Mai’s early death.

Mai ends up dying due to Maple’s lack of autonomy in her own actions, and Midori mocks her in that, asking her “You fine with that Maple…?” despite knowing he has her wrapped around his finger. The way Mai dies is in a way she personally could relate to, and relates to her final apology to Q-taro.

In both examples Maple is trapped by her programming in the same way Mai was trapped by the knowledge that she must kill to survive, but Maple shows something important with her final moments.

As she is about to die she breaks from Midori’s control on her and uses this chance to die alongside him, thanking everyone and saying she has “finally woken up” if Mai lived or denying Midori’s reward if she died instead. 

When she finally catches up to him Midori in a last ditch effort tells Maple that he loves her, trying to abuse the programming placed into her, and Sara has 3 possible responses she can give. “He’s lying” and “Hurry up and finish him” both leading him to restate the sentiment that he loves her, but this time Maple isn’t led astray and affirms that she won’t believe him. And if Sara says “Don’t kill him” she continues to lead her own decision stating that she will herself.

However despite this her body fails and she isn’t able to kill him. In the Logic Route, if Ranmaru is still alive, this is specifically caused by Ranmaru shocking her with his stun gun finger, adding another layer to my earlier point on how he is the opposite of Mai with him denying Maple’s own final action. Notably Mai sits down next to Maple’s corpse during the pre-banquet.

Despite this However Maple’s attack showed us cracks in Midori’s facade, cracks that will eventually break him. Maple’s actions here are the first step to breaking Midori and truly winning.

And this is shown in full force during the banquet with Mai’s decision, but before that I want to talk about a scene that occurs beforehand.

When the possibility of a human being a part of the dummies is brought into question, the realisation that Mai isn’t the exact same as her doll comes to light. Eventually this leads to the horrible truth that Mai’s hands aren’t actually her hands at all, but rather Midori’s human hands. In a way this is the physical manifestation that Mai’s actions weren’t by her own hands, but rather she was a tool for Midori, playing along with his puppet show. (and yet another mirror to Ranmaru who also had a scene focusing on his hands earlier in the chapter.)

Upon this reveal Mai swears she’ll kill Midori, something missing from Qtaro’s words if she died, instead his resolve is shaken, wondering if they’ll even be able to beat a guy like him. And this leads to the epitome of her arc, the third hint.

When Sara is forced to pick a red coffin she is afraid to make the choice in fear that her logic isn’t even correct. This is where Mai steps in to tell her to pick a red coffin so she can win.

Mai encompasses Ranmaru’s words from the start of the chapter, no longer too scared to die that she can’t even resist Midori’s hold on her, but proving her humanity by taking her life into her own hands to stand up against Midori, to claim her autonomy, because that's what separates a human from a tool. She quite literally made her own choice with the Banquet, allowing both the humans and the dolls an opportunity to make it through together, a possibility opened through the bonds between the humans and dolls, Qtaro and Mai being at the forefront of that.

Now Mai is willingly telling Sara to choose a coffin, even if its at the cost of her life. She isn’t going to allow Midori control over anyone again. The Mai we see before us here is so different from the at the start of the chapter, one who was too afraid to fight back and make and descision for herself. And even as far back as her victim video where she couldn’t even make a choice between which gun she needs to pick,and died as a result of her panicked state, where she shot the wrong gun. The through line of guns being present in both scenarios also adds to this aspect.

Mai proves humanity through actions, because being human means being able to make your own choices, something both Mai and Maple struggled with at first, but also something they ended up demonstrating over the chapter. They proved their humanity by not letting their actions be decided by another, to not be treated like a tool. Because being human means being able to have autonomy in your actions and Mai proved without a doubt that she is human, despite the physical aspect of being a doll. Because while a doll can’t move, talk or feel without someone forcing it, it's nothing but expected for a human.

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WOOO MAI ANALYSIS DONE!!! only one dummie left!!! hopefully soon???

Also kinda a Maple analysis by mistake LOL hopefully that's okay lmao, the characters are majorly linked to each other so it didn't feel right to just omit her

But yeah hopefully you enjoyed this and it got you to think about Mai and Maple a bit more as characters, if you liked this and its the first one you've seen then I've got more analyses like these on my blog

and of course its not lost on me the fact that its the 2 women dolls that have an arc about their autonomy, and I love how it falls into YTTD's themes of gendered power as a whole

And as of the day I'm releasing this HAPPY ANNIVERSARY 3-1B!!! The best chapter! I hope this counts as a good enough anniversary post lol, the dummies are a major part of 3-1 after all! I'm happy to give more 3-1 content to the world!

As for now though, I hope you enjoyed and see you next time for my Hinako analysis!!!

[doonalli]

Ranmaru: Doubts in Humanity, and Humanity in Doubts (Ranmaru Character Analysis)

Ranmaru is a character who is already talked about lots in the community so I am not too sure how much I can add to the discussion, but I am sure gonna try.

Ranmaru's character is one that slowly doubts his humanity more and more as the chapter goes on, but even with that he shows an aspect of humanity like all the dummies do. He shows it though his doubts, and his doubt in his own humanity is one major component of that. 

His doubts start off small when we first meet him, not being very confident in his first conversations, and during the obstructor fight he is surprised when his plan ends up working out, and this lack of confidence continues throughout the chapter. When first entering the discussion room Ranmaru asks Sara an important question, he asks

and he adds that

however anyone who has played the game can tell you that this mentality doesn't last for long, because by the time the truth of the consent form is revealed, Ranmaru IS willing to kill. He even says as much 

So what changed? Why is Ranmaru now willing to kill? I'd argue it's because he has had doubts placed in him, since the scene in the discussion room played out it has been proven to Ranmaru that he IS in fact a doll, and he's become aware of the time limit placed on him through his battery and saw Kurumada get heavily injured, causing him to realise he doesn’t want to die.

Beyond that he also has a reason now, a goal, right before the fight with Maple she tells Sara and Ranmaru about the final round rule and Ranmaru finds out that there is a way he can leave alongside Sara, Ranmaru makes it clear that when he is with Sara, he feels more and more of a strive to live,

This moment shows just how much of Ranmaru’s own self value is tied to Sara. Her power to inspire is now put into a negative context, by inspiring Ranmaru, who at first didn’t even care for life, (shown in his victim video,) to want to live, it pushed him into a corner where there is only one way out. A way marked with murder. 

It recontextualises all the previous moments in the game where it was up to Sara to inspire the others like with Kanna or Nao or during the second Main Game by showing how it can just as much affect someone in a much more negative way. In the way Sara can inspire Nao to “overcome any difficulty” she can just as much push someone like Ranmaru into a situation where this want to live can lead to the worst scenario.

and this will to live is shown even before this moment. 

When Kurumada is injured and attached to the charger he tells everyone that the charger would be better used to extend the lives of the dummies, Ranmaru ends up being the only one present who doesn't speak up against it no matter what, Anzu does it by default, Hayasaka takes her place if she is dead and if they both ended up dying its Hinako who steps in, but Ranmaru always stays silent, even literally having a dialogue box in the logic route where he just goes

in place of where Kanna spoke against Kurumada in her route, right after he tries to give up the charger. It makes sense considering just how close we are to the scene where he outright tells Sara he is afraid to die.

When he brings up the idea of winning Sara at first refutes the idea, claiming she wants everyone to escape together, and Ranmaru agrees... until his doubts start to set in again, asking

He cites that the more he is with Sara the more and more he wants to live and the more afraid he gets to die. Sara responds by telling him that everyone feels the same, he says that that's exactly why they need to win, claiming that while he can't imagine killing Sara, he is sure he could kill anyone else pleading Sara to win for him. From this point on Ranmaru's actions and arc are defined by Sara's response. Starting with the Emotion route Sara tells Ranmaru that they are all allies and they overcome hardship together she makes it clear that Reko/Alice Qtaro Kanna and Gin would never do anything like that, and Ranmaru simply responds with

to Ranmaru Sara just compared him to all the humans, to her allies, and told him, while he is still struggling with his sense of humanity, that the HUMANS would never do what he tried to do, and Ranmaru takes it that way, claiming that he has no right to be her "friend", or "ally". while it was definitely not her intention as shown by the scene afterwards where she realizes that she was the one who gave him hope, even after he already gave up, and promises that while she can't make a choice like that, she won't abandon anyone, including Ranmaru, nonetheless the damage was already dealt and the effects of that are shown going forward...

We continue to see Ranmaru's doubts when he is faced with the choice to tag Kurumada, in the end however despite getting permission from Kurumada he decides what he is doing is wrong but that he lost the will to fight back against Midori, still unsure and doubting what he should do Hinako walks in to help.

After beating the charge collar game Ranmaru apologizes to everyone, or at least he tries to before Yabusame steps in and tells him that that's not what he says here, he then thanks everyone instead.

Later when interacting with Keiji's coffin and Sara thinks Keiji might have died Ranmaru is the one to step up in this route and tells Sara to not give up hope, while he isn't sure HOW Keiji got out, he is confident in his assertion that Keiji is alive, shutting down the doubts others have now instead of being the one who doubts.

The next major scene is Ranmaru's confrontation with Keiji. By calling Keiji through a fake announcement using his voice he confronts him in the classroom, hearing he killed Kurumada (or so he thought) he calls Keiji out for supposedly being a part of Asu-naro. He tells him Sara trusted him even signing the form for his sake, and in the end, he still brought Sara into the death game. Keiji calls him out for his jealousy claiming that he just wants to be the one to protect Sara, the one closest to her, even if he isn't in the right, but on this route Ranmaru denies it saying he doesn't matter in this and that he just wants to help Sara. Keiji responds that he can't be that person, and on this route only, specifically saying

Ranmaru responds in shocked silence, before saying of course he knows that and asking him to hand over Midori's head. Again, Ranmaru is told to his face that he is a doll and again he is told that he can't be close to Sara because of that, and he just accepts it now, feeding into that lack of humanity he felt and into his doubts from the previous time he was in the classroom, with Sara instead of Keiji. 

Having all these doubts pile on him, from Keiji, from Sara, from himself, he shocks both Sara and Keiji and takes Keiji away from there, making sure to take the ID card in the process, he makes his way to the AI-ciever and attempts to upload the Joe AI into him. He claims that he couldn't be anything after all, as if this thing, this inherently inhuman thing, was the only value he could give to Sara at this point as a doll. After all, leading up to this point he already has been useful to Sara through the use of his steam spray upgrade part. Throughout the chapter again and again Ranmaru is told that he can’t be Sara’s ally, that he can’t be the one closest to her, all things that Joe is. Ranmaru, in an effort to provide value to Sara and actually become that person, he literally almost loses himself in that process by giving up his own consciousness and replacing it with Joe’s, someone who was Sara’s friend, someone who can be the closest to her.

During the pre-Banquet Sara can ask Ranmaru 3 things, 2 of them directly being related to him as a doll, being his battery and asking him if he wants to change upgrade parts, even afterwards Ranmaru asks a simple question.

No longer really valuing himself as a human, but talking about himself as though he is a tool.

If all the dummies survived and Yabusame starts singing their song Ranmaru will have a moment of true happiness not stuck to his usefulness, He doesn’t feel the need to take something on himself, but instead he just tries to sit back, listening to the others, and he genuinely enjoys it.

However, if all the dummies survived and Yabusame starts singing their song Ranmaru will have a moment of true happiness not stuck to his usefulness, He doesn’t feel the need to take something on himself, but instead he just tries to sit back, listening to the others, and he genuinely enjoys it.

and if Kurumada dies he claims

Resolving himself, and when entering the coffins he either goes in with no complaints or he is actively the one telling everyone to enter, specifically if Kurumada is the only dummy to die he will say

Before going into the Banquet however, I think it's time to talk about the other route. In this route, when Ranmaru asks about winning, Sara instead of denying him like in the Emotion route, incites him into doing it himself, albeit implicitly. She tells Ranmaru SHE could never kill an ally causing Ranmaru to say he could do it himself, acting as a dark mirror to Sara's claim that they are all allies and that they wouldn't ever kill each other, she continues to tell Ranmaru that she wouldn't want to make Ranmaru do such a thing, but at this point Ranmaru has already decided to do it on his "own" so Sara isn't really fighting his remarks, finally Sara tells Ranmaru that she wouldn't want to hurt him, and that he is her precious friend. From the other route we could tell how much Ranmaru places value on his "friendship" and the same goes here, ultimately Sara breaks out of her mindset after Ranmaru brings up Keiji, but the damage is already done and Ranmaru got enough encouragement to start thinking of his plan.

In the way the Emotion Route shows the negative aspects of Sara inspiring everyone the Logic route shows the negative outcome of placing all this pressure on Sara through the overreliance on her, in a moment of weakness where she wants to be relieved of the pressure of her allies she ends up manipulating Ranmaru into taking that responsibility to have the two of them escape together on himself and relieve her of the pressure from her allies.

Until then though, the next time a big split between the routes happens is when Keiji is thought to be killed in his coffin. Instead of comforting Sara here Ranmaru does the exact opposite, despite Sou telling Sara he can't believe Keiji died Ranmaru doubts it, telling Sou that Keiji must be here since the shutter is still closed, using the same excuse he fought against in the other route, and he tells Sou to not give Sara half-hearted hope, Sou asks Ranmaru is he doesn't want Sara to have hope, which he denies before reluctantly agreeing to search for Keiji.

Finally, during his confrontation with Keiji, once he calls him out for wanting to be the one closest to Sara instead of denying it he asks his

which Keiji responds with by simply saying he can't, this time not even calling him a doll, or himself a murderer, just a

Ranmaru tells him to shut up and the rest of the interaction continues as normal with Sara being stunned alongside Keiji (although now Ranmaru claims he is going to save Keiji for last).

When Sara awakes Ranmaru shows up to reveal Kurumada "died" however this is proven false once Kurumada barges in and punches Ranmaru, he shouts at everyone to hurry to the lower floor locker room, and everyone does... Once entering Sara sees something horrible...

Yabusame dead, hanged by the ceiling trap in the room. Kurumada calls Ranmaru out for being the one who killed them, as he heard him over the transceiver saying something about winning, finally Ranmaru drops his facade and outright tells everyone he did it, much to the dismay of all the dummies, Midori enters and Ranmaru gives him back his ID card, asking him to get rid of the dummies in the process, which he obliges to by bringing Maple 2.0 to fight the survivors. After the fight, when Maple tries to kill Midori, Ranmaru will stun her causing her to fall and explode. Seeing how Ranmaru changes makes so much sense when considering things from his point of view, waking up as a doll the first thing he sees is a video of him dying, and in it all he can say to himself is 

something so tired, something so uncaring of whether you lived or died right until the end, having to see something like that coming from yourself would be so horrible to experience, and right after that he is told he can have another chance at life, as long as he can kill Sara. However when he meets Sara she ends up being someone who Ranmaru in his own words, makes him feel more and more like he wants to live, Ranmaru placed and his life's value on Sara but isn't able to live alongside her until Maple gives him an option that lets him escape alongside her and actually live. Sara's answer, whether it's encouragement or rejection, affects Ranmaru so deeply because of how much value he places on Sara.

It sort of plays into his whole speech about "making your own choices'', because despite his words of THAT being what defines a human, when he later takes off his hand, he still takes it as confirmation he isn't human, but even past that he continues to not make his own choices, now the choices are Sara's to make, or when he thinks about tagging Kurumada he never actually makes any choice, he just hesitates and doubts himself. Even going forward his confrontation with Keiji and what he does with the Joe AI is all for Sara's sake, not for his own, and him killing Yabusame, while partially for his own survival as called out by Hinako

is under the notion of protecting Sara and them BOTH escaping together. Even being instigated by Sara in the first place.

This lack of humanity continues into the Banquet where Ranmaru out right states it himself, even reveling in it on the Logic route.

However there is one moment in particular that shows a bit of growth on Ranmaru’s behalf, specifically in the emotion route.

When Anzu’s coffin is about to be picked Ranmaru will ask Midori to change his choice, telling him

and even when the other dummies express their doubts, saying that they could be picked instead, Ranmaru stands firm on his belief, not from a lack of value in himself, but from a belief Keiji’s coffin could be hit instead. Expanding his view from exclusively being about Sara to actually try and protect someone else, making good on his promise to not complain anymore and learning from the determination of the dummies.

Ultimately he still dies, dispelling Sara’s doubts in the emotion route, and asking for someone to save both Sara and Gin, or regretting not being able to get his “happy ending” he believed in during the logic route.

Ranmaru's character ends up so far removed from "humanity", but at the same time so different from where he started. Despite starting off by claiming to not be able to kill anyone, after seeing Kurumada injured, seeing his own battery was running out, and accepting he isn't human, Ranmaru brings up the idea and even possibly goes through with it, all due to his doubts of there being any other way of making it out with Sara. 

Despite this however I still think Ranmaru is human, because it's human to doubt your worth to the others around you, it's human to want more from your life, and it's human to doubt in yourself. Even if time and time again Ranmaru is shown to physically be a doll, and even if he thinks that proves his inhumanity, Ranmaru is still human, and his doubts are the very thing that proves it.

In a way I love how Ranmaru’s relationship with Sara evolves into something romantic, from Maple's words to the symbolism of the red string of fate to the very concept of the final round rule. It acts as an opposite to Joe’s platonic relationship with Sara in how he tries to be who Joe was, being the one closest to her, who protects her, despite never being able to, but I also love it because love is commonly portrayed as the most human emotion, the highest form of connection with someone, or else the best thing that could happen to someone, a “happy ending”.

But that isn’t the case with YTTD and following this “happy ending” ends up sending Ranmaru into a downwards spiral, but in a way that also prove his humanity, because YTTD makes it clear again and again through characters like Q-taro, like Sou, and of course, like Ranmaru, since humanity isn’t just about the best aspects of someone, but also the worst.

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Wow I finally finished this lmao, took long enough. HOPEFULLY Mai and Hinako's will come out quicker but no more promises from me lol.

I was worried I wouldn't be able to add too much to the discussion around Ranmaru since he is obviously probably the MOST discussed when it comes to the Dummies or just 3-1 in general ngl (except Midori maybe lol) but I hope I managed to actually do it well in the end. If you did enjoy this though I would recommend checking out my posts on Anzu, Hayasaka, and Kuruamada too! I think I had more to say with them personally.

also you might have noticed a lack of me talking about the whole entire Yabusame death scene and the aftermath of that, I'm planning to make a whole post just about it because ITS SO GOOD ISTG and yet at the same time I see it so slandered, but I want to finish this series of posts first.

I also want to thank Crazy Sunshine for helping me with proof reading!!

and that's all! so thank you for reading!! hope you enjoyed!!!!

[doonalli]

Kurumada and trust in your allies (Kurumada character analysis)

The doll of the day today is the boxer himself, Naomichi Kurumada, and in specific I want to talk about his arc in learning to trust in his allies, and how he is changed by his allies and how his allies are changed by him. Kurumada's arc is such an important one to the themes of the entire game, much like all the Dummies from 3-1, and hopefully I'll be able to show that as we go through this analysis. Kurumada is the type of character who wears who he is on his sleeve, at least at first, even from just our first meeting with him we can clearly see how he thinks especially in regard to his thoughts on allies

if sara tells him she only made it this far thanks to her allies he will question it before claiming that it must have been the right call if she made it this far, and if she instead talks about the sacrifices she made along the way Kurumada responds in a pretty cut throat manner,

Its pretty clear kurumada isn't the type to buddy up and ally with people at this point, even when talking about defeating the "monsters" on the floor he seems surprised when sara says

Kurumada's thoughts on "allyship" is shown again when after finding the blue book Kanna realises it's about Sou, and she then asks if she can see it because

this moment of Kanna claiming Sou sacrificed himself for her sake prompts Kurumada to jump in with his considerably bleaker outlook

to kurumada there isn't any nuance to death, at this point he doesn't get that someone would willingly sacrifice their lives for the sake of someone else, and he assumes that its just them "making it out as some heartwarming story", Q-taro steps in to tell him to stop but Kanna tells him its fine, that even after thinking it would be better if she just died, Sou taught her that she "shouldn't lose" to that urge leading to a very important line from Kurumada,

"Not losing" and "winning" are completely different things. Its good advice to Kanna but also to Kurumada himself, even if now he thinks he has it all figured out, that couldn't be further from the truth and it's going to be shown to him in full force,

after the fight with Maple Kurumada rushes in and is heavily injured, marking a huge turning point to his character,

Here Qtaro essentially sacrifices himself to get Kurumada out safely, as said before Kurumada doesn't get why he would do this but is forced along anyway. When he reaches the 5th floor security office he tells everyone to leave him behind as there isn't much he can do anymore and depending on who survived the 2nd main game they have different reactions. If Sou survived, he will agree that they should leave him behind as there is no point trying to help, when we come back later Kurumada will tell us to leave because he doesn't want everyone to see him before he then assumes he is in the way, as though he is a burden on the others.

If instead Kanna survives she insists on staying behind, if that happens Kurumada attempts to try and get back down to Maple and sacrifice himself. He tries to go down the elevator and despite everyone's pleas he denies any help and insists that he "isn't going to stand for being a loser" and finally says that he is free to do what he wants. This causes Kanna to slap him and tell him to cut it out and she brings up the similarities between Kurumada now and Sou's sacrifice, the very same sacrifice Kurumada disregarded earlier, she claims that Kurumada is just trying to die to stop Maple's rampage and help the Dummies, to which Kurumada just tells her to not make wild assumptions. Whether or not he is doing it consciously that is what he ended up trying to do. Kanna then finally tells him

and that's what finally gets Kurumada to stop, it was Kanna telling him that he shouldn't think it's better to just die, and she makes it clear that there are people who want him to live.

When we finally get him to the charger Kurumada in a last ditch effort still tries to make it clear he would be better off dead. He says that the charger would be better used to extend the lives of the other dolls but Anzu (or Hayasaka) tells him that they don't need that and specifically saying that they are all allies, and then all the Dummies help Kurumada by attaching him to the charger.

It's here Kurumada is forced to rely on the Dummies, on his allies, in his lowest moment, and still not getting it, he tells sara his hidden information, in his eyes removing the last of his value, and Sara instead asks him if he wants them to protect the Dummies, and here the 2 of them make an unspoken promise to "protect everybody, Dummies included". Here we get the first instances of Kurumada learning to trust in his allies, he starts off assuming he would be better off dead, as though he is a burden, and we see how shocked he is when Qtaro risks his life to make sure he can get out, or when Kanna tells him outright that he should try to live, or when Anzu/Hayasaka/Hinako denies the charger and tells him to use it on himself and it's the first step to Kurumada understanding dying with a purpose, dying to win, rather than dying just for the sake of "not losing". When earlier he claims that Kanna "forsook that Sou guy" and that's all there is, that there is no sense in trying to make a heartwarming story by claiming he was trying to protect her, in his mind it doesn't make sense that anyone would sacrifice so much for their "allies" for essentially nothing in return and we saw that when we first met him, but now it's happening directly to him, and he can't deny it anymore, time and time again people show they don't want something from him, all they want to do is protect their allies, and the effects of that are present going forward. When the tag game starts again and Ranmaru is "it" he goes to Kurumada and thinks about tagging him, and it's here where Kurumada yet again tells tries to get himself killed for the others.

He tells Ranmaru to tag him, specifically stating that he wants to live, claiming that while he doesn't see a future for himself, he can see one for Ranmaru. Again, Kurumada is in the position to sacrifice his life for another's, but Ranmaru denies it, claiming that he knows this is wrong before Hinako comes in with another solution. Its just driving home the point that Kurumada is willing to die for the sake of his allies, but like before with Maple he is doing it for the wrong reasons. Kurumada tells Ranmaru that even if he kills Midori they'll just die anyways, and that's the problem, it's from not seeing a future in himself and not from seeing a way to defeat Midori, just like before where he wanted to fight Maple because he "didn't want to lose", here its a sacrifice that does nothing but help Ranmaru "not lose".

The next time we see him is when we play as Keiji and go up to the 5th floor to charge the Midori head. When Kurumada talks one of the first things he is worried about is Mai's wellbeing, and he is glad to hear she is safe, then when Keiji explains the banquet to Kurumada he says

showing his priorities in this moment which causes Keiji to ask when he became so considerate, or to claim that he has gotten kind, and we can see this in how he left half the charge still in the charger, however all this good faith between them disappears when Keiji attempts to charge the Midori head. Kurumada seeing the doll head getting charged by the battery he left for the other dolls, comes to the conclusion that Keiji must be trying to kill Midori through the doppelganger rule, and considering the last time he saw Keiji was during his fight with Midori where he disregarded the dolls lives for his own goal and its entirely understandable that he would come to this conclusion, and one line he specifically says is

its the same wording we saw him use when he claimed everyone forsook Sou earlier, and we see it again in his "final" words,

Kurumada in this moment is afraid Keiji is about to forsake the Dummies more than anything, and all he asks is that he doesn't do so, with tears in his eyes. To him, what Keiji is doing is exactly the same as what he thought happened with Kanna and Sou before, someone forsaking the goodwill of their allies for themselves, and it's what he expects from "allyship" before his experiences with the cast, something that holds you back, something that exists for some selfish reason, and where this goes depends on the route you chose.

Starting with the Logic route, Kurumada wakes up to hear Ranmaru kill Alice/Reko with the locker room trap and tries to find him, this is when Sara wakes up and when Ranmaru claims Kurumada has died, which causes him to enter and punch Ranmaru in a fury, exclaiming that everyone should get to the locker room on the lower floor as fast as they can, after everyone sees Reko/Alice's corpse Kurumada claims that Ranmaru did this. Out of everyone here Kurumada is the most furious at Ranmaru for his actions, and its shown clearly in the prebanquet.

Depending on the dialogue chosen Kurumada will either claim his own body isn't the problem, show his surprise that Ranmaru of all people was the one to do it, or shows his anger at him breaking the promise between himself and Sara. In that final discussion Sara will claim that

acting as though the Dummies and Humans are separate, to which Kurumada reinforces the fact they are still one group with his reply,

making it clear he still saw Alice (or Reko) as an ally, therefore breaking the promise between him and Sara, and he ends the discussion by wondering if he'll get to off Ranmaru himself. If Ranmaru instead died earlier due to not being able to remove the tag function from his collar Kurumada's discussions go slightly different, he doesn't call Ranmaru a weakling, but he also is angry that he had to kill someone and go and die anyways, and he ends the conversion on the note that

Then when the Dummies enter the coffins he claims that he doesn't want his pride to sink any lower if ranmaru is dead

or outright threatening him into the coffin if he is still alive.

Its clear that if Ranmaru dies, Kurumada is lacking a sense of closure, it all comes as a shock and he is mad but there isn't anyone he can directly be mad at, not being as mad at the corpse as he would have been at the person. But we can also see how spiteful he is if Ranmaru is still alive, after all Ranmaru broke that trust between allies, he forsook the others for his own goal, the same as what he thought Keiji was going to do, and the same as what he thought happened to Sou, except here it's one of the Dummies betraying the humans, one of the people he was trying to protect ended up being the one to do it, and its clear just how much it affects him. The Kanna route instead goes in the complete other direction, whereas before he felt betrayed by his own ally, here he is possibly able to make it with everyone intact. If this does happen Kurumada tells Sara,

and asks to listen to a song in order to soak in this moment of peace while he can. This song ends up as a moment of unity between everybody in the room, and it's the moment where everyone can safely say they are true allies, and it's shown when Sara asks Kurumada what he thinks of it, and he replies,

Here is the moment where Kurumada sees the value in others as allies, where we see how Kurumada has grown from "Don't go makin' allies, dumbass." to the "dumbass" who makes allies, and it's a nice feeling, it's not something that has strings attached, not a ploy to get something from you, and not a fake story made up to feel better about forsaking anyone, but a simple happiness gotten from feeling as though you belong and the want to protect the people around you and for them to feel the same way too.

In just the same way Kurumada is affected by his allies, his allies are shown to be affected by him as well. If the cast wasn't able to reconcile with Maple in time Kurumada will take more damage than otherwise, which results in him dying later in the chapter. If this was done while all the other Dummies survived, it will result in him dying during Yabusame's song instead of dying after all the Dummies have already entered the coffins, when this happens Kanna will wonder if he was enduring until this moment while Anzu will run up to him to try and get him to wake up despite Hayasaka telling her that his collar might explode, (playing into her concern for her allies I talked about in her analysis,) which incites Ranmaru to say

From here we can talk to everyone to get their thoughts on his death, Anzu will hide her face saying it's a mess while Hayasaka says "How strange... I feel like he was moving entirely by force of will...", if Alice survived, he will remark that Kurumada was "Wearing an expression as if he accomplished all he set out to do..." and Mai and Hinako will simply stay in silence. Of all the reactions, to me Ranmaru's is the most interesting, he says

and this is shown through his actions. Whether or not Kurumada died, if all the other Dummies were able to make it in the emotion route Ranmaru will be the one to take Kurumada's place in volunteering the Dummies for the banquet,

however if Kurumada died Ranmaru, instead of saying "yeah" will say

before getting into the coffin himself. All these scenes go to show just how much Kurumada has affected his allies, and in particular the Dummies, Ranmaru being the prime example. It in a way reflects how Sou's death affected Kanna, yet again showing how Kurumada fell into the very thing he dismissed earlier.

When during the banquet Sara is forced to choose a glowing coffin with a red hint to defeat Midori, she gets scared that she might be making the wrong choice, and is worried about why Midori isn't afraid to die. In this moment Mai tells Sara to pick it, and if Kurumada is still alive he will pitch in telling her

and if Mai is dead due to the Maple 2.0 fight, he will take the helm of boosting Sara's confidence by telling her

Its Kurumada finally understanding what Sou felt during the second main game, Its death with a purpose behind it, and this time its isn't coming from a place of "not losing" like when he tried to go back down to Maple, or when he doubted there was any way for Ranmaru to get out of his situation safely, but from a place of "winning" of finally being able to defeat Midori, and of being able to save the Dummies, even if it's just one. Here he understands that dying doesn't mean being forsaken because in this moment Kurumada trusts his allies so deeply that he is willing to give up his life for it.

Over the course of 3-1 Kurumada is shown again and again what being allies truly means, something the human Kurumada was never able to get due to his standoffish nature and unwillingness to trust, but after he is humbled by Maple and is forced to rely on his allies he finally is able to trust and through that he shows his humanity, because having trust in your fellow allies is something inherently humane, and its shown time and time again throughout YTTD, whether it be in the trust Joe gives everyone in the first main game and in Alice earlier, or the final moments of Kanna when she asks everyone to trust Sou, or the entirety of the Trust, Barter game from 2-1, time and time again trust is shown and trust is broken by things such as the Main Games, but every single time people's trust in each other is always what pulls through, the unwavering trust the Joe AI shows Sara, or Kanna's trust in Sou throughout the entire game and that being reflected when Sou finally decides to trust everyone in the second Main Game, because placing your trust in the others around you, it's just something that humans can't help but do. ================================================ OMG they just keep getting longer, huh. sorry guys, and I didn't even touch on his past episode and the whole "strong and weak" motif, maybe one day I'll get around to talking about his minisode alongside Anzu's I don't really talk about the early deaths in these analyses since I am thinking about talking about them all together in a single post about all their early deaths and what I think they are supposed to do but I decided to talk about his death during the song since its very different from the rest and it plays into what I was talking about. anyways until next post, Thank for reading!!

[doonalli]

Hayasaka and how humans change (Hayasaka character analysis)

In this post I want to talk about Hayasaka, and what I think his character proves to us in terms of humanity. At first he doesn't really seem to do much at all, in fact he seems like one of the most boring characters in the cast, but I think Hayasaka is so much more than just that. To me Hayasaka shows what it means to be human, and its shown through his contradictory feelings and his entire story of how by being willing to give your allies a chance they can prove that they really aren't as bad as they may first seem. Before talking about Hayasaka himself I want to bring to attention a scene that I think is probably the most important scene to understanding the point of Hayasaka's character. When the cast find out about upgrade parts, Ranmaru finds out he can take of his hand and realises that he isn't really "human", seeing this Reko (or Alice) try to cheer him up by claiming that being human doesn't have anything to do with the physical aspect but instead saying

while in the moment these words are meant for Ranmaru, I would argue its Hayasaka who encompasses these themes the most and its how Hayasaka proves his humanity throughout the whole chapter despite physically being a doll. Hayasaka dealing with "contradictory feelings" is a major part of his arc but in that same way Hayasaka's character is all about the contradictions between who he is as a doll and who he is as a human. When we first see Hayasaka in his victim video that we find on the monitor in Miley's room we see him in his final moments.

Our first impression of Hayasaka in the video is that he is somewhat selfish and very self-preserving, we see Hayasaka beg for his life, claiming that he doesn't know anything and pleading for someone to help him. He shows that he doesn't want conflict, and he tries to weasel his way out without any qualms, whether that be by claiming he doesn't know anything about what's going on, promising to keep a secret or attempting to come to some sort of understanding. But when he finally realises that isn't going to happen...

Realising he was put in this situation supposedly for Sara's sake he quickly switches to becoming much more spiteful and resentful to her, no longer working towards a comprise and instead saying he will kill all the organisation members and cursing Sara's name from hell. Clearly Hayasaka DID know something about what was happening and his earlier remark was just a lie he made in an attempt to get sympathy.

This victim video shows clearly the type of person Hayasaka is, right? He seems to be some someone who is very self-preserving and at times deceitful as he attempts to talk his way out of conflict, fitting for his profession as an office worker. But as we find out when we meet his doll that isn't necessarily the case. Keep in mind that Sara, Keiji, and Gin are the only people who see this video

When we actually get to meet Hayasaka as a doll in Chapter 3 he seems very different, he comes off as a very nervous and anxious person and when Sara confronts him about his victim video Hayasaka first tries to act dumb just like he did in his video which Sara doesn't believe for a second,

This is the first thing Sara does upon meeting Hayasaka, literally the only words exchanged before this was each other's names. Hayasaka acting ignorant is accurate to how he is in the victim video, trying to avoid conflict however he can. Then he claims that since he isn't the "real Hayasaka" he wouldn't be left any memories that could be a problem to the Organisation.

This again shows how Hayasaka tries to come to a comprise, but more importantly it makes it clear that he doesn't see himself as the "real" Hayasaka separating being a doll and being a human, implying that being a doll means he isn't "real" and lesser than a human would be. It's clear that this Hayasaka doesn't bear any ill will to Sara unlike his human counterpart, which is what I want to focus on now.

The Hayasaka before us isn't the same Hayasaka as the one in the victim video, and it goes past just him being a doll now, he doesn't antagonise Sara at all, he doesn't bear the same ill will his human self did. Regardless of being a doll or a human its clear this Hayasaka is different from the one who cursed Sara from hell, but either way it seems that the damage was already done,

Even if he doesn't think the same way he does in his video, even if the actions in his video weren't technically his own, Sara and Keiji both already don't trust him and they aren't willing to give him a chance.

Keiji shows his distrust a scene early into chapter 3 pretty clearly, not trusting Hayasaka with a weapon or any of the dolls for that matter.

With Keiji and Sara seeing his final moments as their first impressions Hayasaka is put in an interesting situation where his demonic actions seem to be the default to them, as the Mishima AI says back in 2-1

and that's exactly what happened with Hayasaka in his victim video, it would be like if we judged Nao or Joe based on what they did at the end of the main games when they attempted to get everyone killed to save themselves and Sara. The difference here is that this was Sara and Keiji's FIRST time seeing Hayasaka, they don't know who he is past this video and their impression on him is built on that one demonic action that he made in a desperate situation and because of this they are both unwilling to give him a chance, however, we can see that there is still one person who does.

Even when both Sara and Keiji distrust Hayasaka, Gin instead decides to trust Hayasaka despite also having seen the video and knowing what he did. Hayasaka and Gin fall into an "inverted relationship" very quickly where Gin acts as the leader who protects Hayasaka, which is shown clearly when Gin ends up getting himself in danger when he tries to protect Hayasaka from the locker room trap.

As a result of this Gin is knocked out and Keiji tells Hayasaka to carry him, and Hayasaka after a bit of hesitation, obliges,

Hayasaka and the rest of the group then go to the 5th floor and enter an office similar to the one Hayasaka used to work in, there the cast finds a physical exam on Sara. Hayasaka is immediately antagonised, after explaining his hand was forced by Asunaro and it wasn't by his own choice, despite this Kurumada realising the information that was gathered included everybody else too also antagonises him without giving him the chance to explain himself before Gin waking up puts a stop to this and "saves" Hayasaka yet again.

Following this Keiji remarks that Gin seems to be fond of him, they have a conversation about how Gin may be associating him with Mishima, and that being the reason he tries to him.

This comes as a shock to Hayasaka, why would Gin care about a doll? Someone he barely even knows? Earlier Hayasaka makes it clear that he doesn't see his doll self as "real" but here Gin shows that doesn't matter. Yes Hayasaka isn't the Hayasaka from the victim video, but he IS still himself and he isn't any less than he would be otherwise, and this realisation is what starts Hayasaka's growth.

And it's here where we can see the start of Hayasaka dealing with his contradictory feelings that I mentioned at the beginning and through that the start of his growth, we can see this in scenes like the one after Keiji's fight with Midori when he says

or after Ranmaru's speech when he says

We can see that Hayasaka DOES want to work with the survivors but at the same time he isn't so optimistic about it. Even so he ends up helping when he decides to help out with the coffin security system, (so long as Sou isn't present to do it himself,) which earns him slight judgement from Kurumada in the moment, however he continues on despite that, and he helps again when he mentions there possibly being a first aid kit to help Q-taro in his office. it all plays into those "contradictory feelings" that make him human

Other examples that are present if Anzu died earlier to the first obstructor (showing that he is at least more hesitant then her but still willing to speak up in the end) are when he tells Hinako

after Hinako claims there is no way for the dummies to survive without killing the survivors. And when Kurumada attempts to deny using the charger as it could be used to lengthen the lives of the other dummies, Hayasaka will instead step up and tell Kurumada

Both these scenes show that Hayasaka is VERY different from the one we see in the victim video, both in the way he can't hate the survivors when he had no problems cursing Sara from hell and in the selflessness he shows Kurumada being essentially the opposite to the self-preserving nature be shows in his victim video. It all plays into that whole contradiction between the human and doll Hayasaka and yet again just how drives home the point of how different they really are. Whether he realises it or not Hayasaka is growing as a person and is starting to value his allies, especially Gin.

When Gin tries to go back to Q-taro after he stays behind to stop Maple's rampage Hayasaka takes it upon himself to pick him up and stop him from doing so. Earlier Hayasaka was hesitant to carry Gin, even when Keiji actively asked him to do so, but here he is protecting him on his own volition, and in the very same room Gin tried to protect him earlier no less. Again he shows how he isn't the selfish person from the victim video but someone who genuinely starts to care for his allies including Gin.

During the Pre-Banquet in the Kanna route Hayasaka expresses gratitude to Sara

saying that if he does make it back, he wishes to live reflecting on what he's done and hopes the day can come where she can forgive him too.

different from his "I want to live in peace" remark from his video, now actually attempting to atone for what he has done. He also claims that

but we can clearly see he isn't a coward multiple times throughout the chapter, for example during the Pre-Banquet in the Logic route. Here Hayasaka is shocked by what Ranmaru has done and he states clearly that if Ranmaru were to something before the Banquet he would be willing to throw himself in the way to stop him if he must.

Here we can clearly see him be willing to directly put himself in danger for others, even though Hayasaka claims that it was his cowardice that stopped him from harming Gin we can see that's not the whole story, perhaps Hayasaka didn't harm Gin because he was scared, but Hayasaka isn't a coward, at least not anymore, and this moment proves it. He doesn't give himself the credit for the times he does actively attempt to save Gin, but we can see that it isn't his cowardice that saved Gin but rather his courage, and he shows this yet again during the banquet and the lead up to it. As Hayasaka enters a coffin in order to start the banquet he says,

the wording can be slightly different depending on who is alive but the general point stays the same. Hayasaka makes it clear that he no longer wants to be protected or "burden" anyone anymore.

All of this just goes to show that the Hayasaka we have gotten to know, the one who was actually given the chance to connect and grow is a far cry from the resentful and hateful Hayasaka who also didn't give Sara the chance before cursing her from hell out of spite. Being given a second chance at life Hayasaka decides to live it by making up for the mistakes he made at first and he does that by getting to actually know Sara and the others, and also with how he learns to protects others even at the risk of his own life, people like Gin, the one who gave him that chance in the first place.

When Sara is forced to pick a red glowing coffin in an attempt to beat Midori and he says Sara is likely to hit anyone other than Anzu or Ranmaru, saying she will surely pick an ally, Sara thinks that since Midori isn't scared, that maybe her logic isn't correct, and starts to doubt herself. In this moment Mai tells Sara with conviction to do it, and if his coffin wasn't picked Hayasaka will join in, claiming that

showing his conviction as well, but if Mai died earlier Hayasaka will instead take them helm of telling Sara to do it, giving his own speech instead.

It's the culmination of everything Hayasaka's character has been building up to and his growth throughout the chapter, here he shows that even as a doll, he isn't going to hide behind that anymore, where beforehand Hayasaka would have claimed that he wasn't really alive, here he confronts that fact claiming his body is still precious and seeing value in himself even as a doll, and while he is still afraid of dying, he works through his self-preserving nature and his cowardice to show his courage. Through it all Hayasaka is dealing with his contradictory feelings he WANTS to live but he also wants to protect Gin, unlike the other doll's speeches Hayasaka doesn't specify "the human" when he talks about Gin

he wants to protect Gin, himself, not just because he is human but because of the bond him and Gin share, he genuinely has found something he wants to protect more than himself and he shows that. And that's how Hayasaka proves his humanity, by facing those contradictory feelings and struggling on, and despite what the physical truth of who he is says, or what Hayasaka himself thinks, he IS truly human, and no red light or drill can take that away. All of the personal growth that led to this moment was due to Gin giving him the chance, without judging him based on his first impression. Interestingly to me the way Sara treats Hayasaka parallels the major problem that stopped Sara and Sou from being true allies, Sou's distrust on Sara, not even seeing her for who she truly is, and Sara's distrust of Sou, judging him based on incomplete information, and Gin trusting him anyways parallels how Kanna can see through both Sara and Sou and is willing to trust them both anyways. It's why Kanna and Gin ARE valuable people to the group, their ability to trust others and see them for who they truly are is something that is so important in a situation like this, and maybe if and when Sara and Sou finally do give each other the chance to change, whether that be in 2nd main game or in the final chapter on the logic route, they could finally be true allies, just like Hayasaka and Gin were able to do here. Hayasaka to me represents humanity through the fundamental contradictions in humans, not only in our feelings but in the ways we interact with each other and the ways we can even contradict ourselves. whether it be from expecting trust from someone even when you yourself can't trust them like Sou and Sara, or if it's in the ways we contradict ourselves as we grow in better people like Nao going from someone who couldn't accept Mishima's death to someone who could help her allies face death themselves, or even in the fundamental contradiction of the truth of humanity having nothing to do with physically being a human that is present with all the dummies and 3-1.

Hayasaka is so much more than he seems both to the characters in game but also to the players playing the game itself, Hayasaka isn't this boring character with nothing much going on, he is a full person like anyone else and I personally think that's amazing that someone who seems so boring on the surface can mean so much to the game and its themes, and it just speaks to the brilliant character writing present in this game.

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new post yippee, yes I will be doing one on all the dummies if it wasn't obvious already I edited this because I didn't like some of it before but I do not know how to write so uhhhh, I hope its at least better now. Also if you saw the old post, nuh uh, no you didn't, shhhhhhh. There was so much I wanted to talk about that I just didn't get to fit in anywhere so maybe in the future I'll make a post with that stuff alongside other stuff from the dummies but who knows. I'll keep this short because the post itself is already so long (sorry). so for now, Thanks for reading!!!

[doonalli]

Why Anzu Kinashi is important (Anzu Character Analysis)

Anzu is my favourite character in the entire game but looking around the fandom I see a major lack of any real discussion about her place in the story as a character, mainly boiling her down to comedic relief and not much more. And while I do think she has a place as a the comedic relief I also think that there is so much more to her that gets glossed over by the fandom and I want to talk about that and hopefully add more to what people think about when they talk about Anzu

So, the question is "what is the point of Anzu story wise?" and the answer, like most things in 3-1, is that she shows a facet about what it means to truly be human. Anzu's death is the tipping point for Sara, it's the moments she realised she valued a human's life over a doll's.

But why was it Anzu's death which caused this specifically, instead of the any of other dolls like Kurumada, Hayasaka or Mai, who were all directly chosen by Sara? In my eyes it's because Anzu is the most "human" of any of the dummies. throughout 3-1 we are shown many moments "proving" the dolls "aren't human", Ranmaru has his scene where he takes of his hand, Kurumada has the very obvious hole through his stomach, Mai is proven to be a doll when we check on her though the dummies control system after she is left behind with Qtaro and even Hayasaka says "he isn't human anymore" and that "he isn't the real Hayasaka" multiple times, but Anzu never gets a scene like this, even in their early deaths all the other dolls die in clear sight being ripped apart, pierced, or having their head explode, but Anzu dies away from sight in her coffin, still mostly intact. To me it's clear that this was done on purpose since after Ranmaru takes of his hands he uses Hayasaka's death as evidence for him knowing he was a doll

But there is no equivalent to this line of dialogue if Anzu is dead since her death doesn't help prove anything to Ranmaru. On top of that Anzu is the only doll to never really do anything morally reprehensible in any stretch of the imagination. Unlike Mai who stabbed Qtaro to live, unlike Ranmaru who ends up stunning Sara to lock Keiji up and considered killing everyone to escape with sara in a moment of weakness (even going through with it in the logic route), unlike Hayasaka who was forced to gather information on everyone for Asunaro, and unlike Kurumada who was the last doll to trust any of the survivors being the most antagonistic at first, Anzu doesn't ever do anything wrong and even claims

When sara's wish causes Anzu's death she is unable to run from the fact that the only reason Anzu died was because Sara was told she was a doll and that makes her less valuable than a Human, Anzu wasn't ever shown to physically be a doll like Kurumada or Ranmaru, she never did anything morally reprehensible like Mai or Hayasaka, and she is the only doll who wasn't prepared to die during the banquet.

Anzu's death itself even plays into this. Despite being the only doll to not tell Sara she is okay with her picking their coffin at any point unlike the rest of the dummies and by extension being the only doll to be unable to "make her own choice" (a major recurring theme throughout 3-1) in regard to her own death she instead has her "humanity" stripped away from her by Midori, instead Anzu shows her humanity in her final moments through her own fear of death. The fear of death is something that YTTD argues is inherently human throughout the whole game. Anzu even says it herself earlier,

on that note I want to also talk a bit about Anzu's character itself.

As mentioned Anzu fears her own death but interestingly, later when Kurumada refuses to use the charger claiming that it could instead be used to extend the others lives Anzu ends up being the first person to step in and tell Kurumada no, claiming that they're "allies"

she makes this choice knowing the battery could be used to extend her life and still she decides that it's still important her allies stay alive too. And later in the banquet Anzu is always the first person to react to everyone's death up until she ends up dying herself. In the emotion route during the pre-banquet she talks about how she isn't happy about the people who had to die along the way if any of the dummies died.

and in the logic route, if at least one of the dummies are dead alongside Alice/Reko, she says

which just reinforces that idea that Anzu's allies are something that is important to her. Another line that is important for her character that also occurs during the pre-banquet is in the emotion route, if all the dummies are still alive Anzu says

Its a line that really does explain how Anzu thinks about these things and its one that I personally see discussed in the fandom the most in relation to Anzu but I don't think people discuss the full story with this line, in the logic route Anzu instead says

Here Anzu IS thinking about the scary future just ahead of her, exactly the opposite of what her other dialogue would lead you to expect from her. She isn't just this clueless girl who doesn't know what's going on or a static character but someone who has the ability to think about and have her own thoughts and have those thoughts change based on the things around her. (Bonus: She is shown again to actually think about things and not be clueless in her minisode after she gets her outfit and thinks to herself

and later on when she asks Ryuu

it all just reinforces the fact that Anzu is actually capable despite what it may seem at first.)

Anzu is someone who is defined by her fear, she is scared of dying to the point of not even being able to resist, both in her first trial and during Keiji's fight with Midori, and she is just as afraid of the scary future just ahead of her, but she is also someone who shows that at times she is just as capable to work past her fears to help out an ally who is trying to protect others over themselves or think about what needs to be done in order to move forward. But she is still just human and as YTTD makes clear again and again,

When Anzu has to face her death head on she is afraid of it, whether it's during the first trial, during her first obstructor death, or during the banquet, Anzu is TERRIFIED of facing her death head on, just like Nao was when, even after accepting her death, she stops Sara from pressing the button and killing her early, just like Shin was when he first saw his win rate and he takes up the Sou identity, and just like Midori is later in his final moments during the banquet, because fearing death is something that is inherently human, it doesn't matter how far you try to run from it or how much you accept your death, after all

Anzu reminds us and Sara about the value the doll's lives truly have and about how superficial the difference between humans and dolls really are, despite everything, Anzu is still alive, she was never proven to be inhuman physically, she wasn't doesn't want to die just like any human, she never does anything selfish or morally wrong, she is someone who trusts her allies and who doesn't want to see them die just the same as any other human. It all proves that Anzu IS human despite the physical truth, and just adds onto the core themes of chapter 3 and YTTD in general. And that's why it's such a shock to Sara when she realised, she values a human's life over Anzu's and why it had to be Anzu specifically who died for it, at this point the only real justification Sara can bring herself to say is that Anzu is a doll and Gin is a human because past that Anzu is just as alive as everyone else.

To me Anzu is crucial part of YTTD, someone who adds onto the themes we already have in the game and elaborates on them, she is someone who plays an important role in the story, one that couldn't really be played to the same effect by any other character, and a character who feels genuine like everyone else in the game. I think relegating her to "just a comedic relief who doesn't really add anything to the story" or someone who "doesn't have a personality past funny clown girl" and glossing over the character moments that ARE present in game seems sort of unfair and disingenuous to me and I hope this post helps you see that there is more to one of the more overlooked characters in the cast and helps you appreciate her more as her own character. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yayay I did it, I made a real post, LET GOOOO!! people who know me knew this was going to be my first post lmao. Some final notes: Its my first time doing something like this (and I am not really good at putting my thoughts into text) so hopefully I still got my point across and hopefully as I do this more, I'll get better at it. There are a few extra points I could have made, like how in her minisode Anzu's friend specifically says "(She's a scaredy cat, so I bet she really is afraid...)" playing into Anzu's fear again or how her going and asking Ryuu about street preforming could be taken as her working past her fears even before the death game, or a few moments in YTTS but I didn't really know how to fit it in anywhere so I am just gonna put it here lmao.

Lastly I just want to be clear, since at times it seems like I am saying otherwise, I am not saying you can't like Anzu just because she is silly what I was trying to say was that there is more to Anzu and that boiling her down to just that and nothing else is kinda unfair, Anzu IS silly and she is so based for that and if you like her because of that then that's also based, I don't ever want to tell anyone they are wrong for enjoying Anzu for being silly because quite frankly, she is lmao, I just wanted to shed some light on why I love Anzu personally. and with that, Thanks for reading!!

[doonalli]

Intro post time!!

Hi! i'm doonalli. you can call me doon, you can call me alli, or you can call me doonalli I don't mind. I am a BIG fan of YTTD in general but especially 3-1 and the dummies and I will be talking about the extensively just try and stop me.

I'll be using this blog to talk about anything and everything YTTD with an emphasis on 3-1 and analyses.

hope you enjoy this blog!