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haunt3dd0lly · 2 days ago

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I was talking with a friend of mine ( @nightangel0402 ) about DR3 and specifically Ryota and I really liked the analysis I did of it. So like… here's the convo between us adapted into a Tumblr post under the cut. Some of the fat is cut off of the convo to specificly focus in on Ryota, but I also left the context you needed to understand the conversation. It's also very messy/disorganized because it's not a proper post.

Me: The thing about DR3 is that it had so many interesting ideas, themes, concepts, characters... and executed none of them to satisfaction. There was so much potential there. Like there was good stuff in it!! They just butchered that good stuff!!! And didn't execute it properly!!!

Them: Exactly that's why I get miffed when people just throw it all away

Like come on we can save it!

Me: I KNOW!!! I get why people do that (it's simpler/easier) BUT ALSO!!!

It also annoys me when people shit on the characters from it specifically. Thinking about Ryota specifically because I saw a post that was basically saying that Ryota was an unnecessary character and only was there for the brainwashing video and they should have cut him and the brainwashing stuff and actually shown proper manipulation on Junko's end.

And I was like. HEY????

I agree about cutting the brainwashing but also??? Don't cut my boy Ryota out??? He has so much to him??? I know he's entwined with the Brainwashing video but you can unentwine him!!! You can separate them!!! You can do surgery!!! I CAN FIX HIM!!! I CAN FIX DANGANRONPA 3!!! WE DONT HAVE TO THROW THE BABY OUT WITH THE BATH WATER!!!

Like ryota being manipulated by Junko was great. Why cut it. Don't we want MORE of Junko manipulating and taking advantage of people and pulling them into despair without brainwashing in this anime, not LESS???

Them: I mean ngl I'm not a big ryouta fan either but he can still be in future arc

I suppose he’s meant to represent the commonish guy that isn’t able to stand up to evil and instead runs away from it which hey lots of people are like that

Me: I am such a big fan of ryota but that's because I can (narratively) fix him. Actually I think I can talk people around to Ryota because there's so much that you can do with him (and arguably so much that's already done with him) in the anime.

No no no there's waaay more to him than that. That's part of it but not everything!!! Ryota gets infinitely more interesting if you consider how he foils/parallels others in the series. Hold on I'm going to write up everything I like about him

Ryota's relationship to Mikan Tsumiki (part one: the foils/parallels/meta element):

Ryota, in my view of him, parallels Mikan. They were both bullied and abused, and from that, they both developed a want for "forgiveness."

But where Mikan is passive in this, Ryota is proactive. He wants to make the hope anime because he wants to prove that he's worthy of existing (or at least that's a part of it). If he can do something great with his anime, then that means he can prove he's worthy of living. That he's done something good with his life. That's why he's so defensive of his anime; it's an extention of his self worth. If his anime can save someone, then it's worthwhile. HES worth while. (You notice this mentality also mirrors Nagito, WHICH WE WILL GET THERE.)

That's why he's vulnerable to Junko; she validates him. (Theortically.) She loves his anime and wants him to produce more for her, validates his reason for living, his existence. His self worth is tied directly into how his talent is viewed, which also shows that Ryota is a victim of HPA and their ideology (which we will get more into later too).

Just like she (theoretically) did for Mikan, Junko basically forgives Ryota's existence through valuing his anime. Which at his core is all he wanted, and why he was vulnerable to her.

He wants to be USEFUL. He wants to HELP. And he'll say perhaps that it's for the sake of helping, but it's all to be forgiven by the world...

Which leads into:

His parallels/foils with Nagito Komaeda. Think about it. He's JUST LIKE Nagito; he's trying to be useful to the world so that his existence is meaningful. It's just that while Nagito does this by trying to become a stepping stone, Ryota does this by trying to become a savior. They both also have 100% faith in hope. To them hope is never bad, even if you kill for it (nagito), even if it's from brainwashing (ryota) (WHICH WE WILL GET TO). His self worth being tied to his talent shows how much he's swallowed HPA's ideology; how he seeks to bring hope is through talent too. There's a reason why Ryota is Tengan's protégé (even if I'd rather it be Chisa): Ryota is essentially the right hand man of the founder of the organization that continued/was founded on the corpse of HPA and their ideals.

He's also sickly just like Nagito, and both are sick because of their talents: Ryota from overworking on his anime and Nagito from his luck. They both sought to bring hope, yet ended up spreading despair.

Which is similar to...

Hajime Hinata:

This is admittedly one of the weaker segments imo. But both Hajime and Ryota wanted to become hope, only for those attempts to make them spread despair. I feel like I'd repeat a lot of what was in the Nagito section if I linger too long, but Hajime and Ryota both wanted to become hope.

Which leads me into...

Chiaki Nanami and Ryota's relationship. Ryota wants a death like Chiaki Nanami's, but better. I don't know how else to put it. Chiaki was unwillingly made into a martyr by Junko, kick starting this whole thing, but Ryota WANTS to be a martyr. I do think that after everything Junko put him through, Ryota is some flavor of suicidal - but this intermingles with his want to be a savior. He wants a death will make up for what he caused (which is an extention of his tendency to run away), but also simultaneously martyr him. Just like Chiaki was martyred; Chiaki: the unwilling martyr who's death started this all, and Ryota: the willing martyr who's death will end it. I do think there's a level of egotism in his suicidal tendencies. The idea that his death would end anything is riculous and speaks of arrogance; similar to how Hajime has a complex similar, Ryota thinks the worst of himself while also being very egotistic about it.

Ryota also blames himself for Chiaki's death. He ran, and that got her killed. He didn't do enough. He basically let Junko kill her in his mind. When in reality, he thinks it should have been him.

He's jealous. Jealous of a dead girl being someone's hope. In some ways, jealous that she died.

How he feels about Chiaki is somewhat similar to how he feels about...

Makoto Naegi:

Ryota resents Makoto directly because he admires him. In a way, he hates Makoto Naegi. Because he's not Makoto Naegi. Whereas Nagito admires Makoto and their differences, Ryota resents him. He's bitter. He's envious. He's seething with it.

Makoto never ran. He faced everything head on. Makoto never lost hope. Makoto never fell for Junko. Makoto is everything Ryota is not, and Ryita hates him because he reminds him how much he hates himself.

He hates him BECAUSE he admires him so much.

Makoto is who he could never be, but always wanted to be.

And Kyouko...

Kyouko loves Makoto. Ryota gets close to Kyouko in Side:Future because they're both, at heart, cynical. But Kyouko has found hope in Makoto, whereas Makoto is just another wound to Ryota. The fact that Kyouko "chooses" Makoto over him just hurts all the more; not to say that Ryota felt romantically about Kyouko, but it still feels like a betrayal to Ryota in a way. And Ryota's been betrayed a lot; part of why he wanted to brainwash the world is because of all the betrayals he's endured. (Which is part of why his mentor is the mastermind; its the final betrayal that breaks him.)

Imposter:

I can't fully crack why Imposter is so closely tied to Ryota from a meta perspective. They both really want identity, I suppose, but the tragedy is that they're not really good for each other in a lot of ways. Imposter impersonates Ryota because they met; they're only honest to him and can only be themselves in front of him. In the text, Ryota asking them to impersonate him is him enabling them pretending to not be themselves in front of everyone but him. It's isolating. But at the same time, him asking them to impersonate him also let's Ryota into the Imposters bubble where no one ever was before: its, in some ways, an acceptance of them. It's implied in SDR2 that whenever anyone learned of Imposters identity as an Imposter, they rejected and mistrusted them, but Ryota accepts that they're an Imposter with ease. Because to him, that's just them doing their talent, which is a part of them. (Though not the whole.) This also leads to the Imposter opening up in turn to others; letting Mikan in on the secret and eventually the class to help Ryota. On Ryota's side, the Imposter takes care of Ryota a lot, getting him treatment when sick, cooking for him, reminding him to take breaks... which is good for him! But they also enable his isolation by impersonating him so he doesn't have to go to school; so he never has to see anyone except them and his anime. Which is not healthy for him. Imposter never pushes him out of his comfort zone, which is a double edged sword; because of it, he never bonds with anyone but Imposter, Mikan, and Junko. In actuality, it leaves him vulnerable to Junko directly; the class has each other, and specifically Chiaki, but Ryota is nearly alone, which is why he's the perfect prey for Junko.

Mikan again:

Ryota is sick and Mikan tends to him; very wholesome and sweet, except when you remember Mikan's FTEs. But Ryota and Mikan are similar in more ways than just forgiveness: they also aim to hold power/control over people. I think Ryota would genuinely forgive Mikan for wanting power over people because in a way, he does too. What do you think the brainwashing is about? It's partially because he wants to control people. So they can't hurt him again.

Ryota fundamentally doesn't believe that people are good. He thinks that people will always hurt each other. That's why he seeks to control them; if everyone loved and acted on hope, then they wouldn't hurt each other anymore. He doesn't trust them to ever reach that without literally being brainwashed into it. His brainwashing is a way to protect himself so no one will ever hurt him again, because no one will ever hurt anyone. He wants to be a savior, yes, but it's also a means to protect himself. He wants to bring hope with his anime, save people with his anime like anime once saved him... which is another way of saying ryota Has no hope in anything BUT his anime. He doesn't have hope in the world- why do you think he was so vulnerable to Junko? He doesn't believe that hope is achievable unless you brainwash people into it. Not believing there's hope... that's familiar, isn’t it? Making you believe there's no hope is first step Junko takes to break people and twist them to her whims. Is it any wonder Ryota fell so easily?

Them: Damn that’s impressive like serious you know this guy so well

Me: I HAVE PUT SO MUCH THOUGHT INTO RYOTA MITARAI. I rotate him around in my mind all the time

This is a meme I made like... three years ago now. It is still applicable lol. Like sometimes I think a lot of what I like about him was written accidently 😭😭😭

Them: To be fair that’s true for all the dr3 cast

Me: That's true, a lot of DR3's charm is hard to tell if its accidental. Honestly I didn't even talk about how I'd tweak Ryota to make him better in a universe without the brainwashing video….

Them: How would you tweak Ryouta?

Me: I kind of just wrote about him as he is in DR3, since I felt like I had to start with what was already great about what was there to sell his character.

Realistically what I normally do is axe the brainwashing video but keep the hope and suicide ones. That way you keep him wanting to brainwash people (it's important to his character/characterization, it's baked into his character, and I like what it says about him, so I keep it) and you can keep the final conflict in the hope arc.

To go backwards, for the hope arc, I'd have Mikan and Imposter talk him down, not Hajime. Ryota doesn't really... know Hajime? He's close with Imposter and Mikan. Imposter moreso than Mikan but the meta elements of Mikan and his relationship makes it worth keeping. It can even be good character development for Mikan, where she talks about forgiving themselves/not needing to prove themselves to the world. Maybe keep Hajime interfering a little; he did have meta text as a parallel for Ryota, and he can talk about how much he regrets trying to become hope through talent. But definitely keep it Imposter and Mikan centered.

I understand to some degree why they had Tengan be Ryota's mentor; he founded FF and FF is a successor to HPA. It emphasizes how Ryota has also swallowed HPA ideology. And Tengan being the mastermind is what breaks Ryota: a final betrayal that makes him fully decide that people really DO need to be brainwashed into hope.

(I forgot to mention, but I think Ryota hates despair because he identifies it as the reason people hurt each other, because his own despair makes him lash out and hurt people; which is sort of correct but he misses the point with it.)

The problem with this is... I hate Tengan as the mastermind. It undercuts what I liked about his character, and I'd rather Chisa be the mastermind.

Which leads to my second tweak- make Chisa the mastermind, but to keep that final betrayal, have Ryota be HER protégé.

It makes sense in other ways too. It would build the Chisa & Ryota relationship, where in canon she doesn't have a relationship with him outside of one meeting. Chisa is also trustworthy as a source of vouging for Ryota if she's the one who scouts and/or elevates his position in FF; that's her student, wouldn't she know if he was colluding with Junko? She knows that he never went to class and therefore she can honestly say that, when would he even meet her? Let's say Chisa is trusted because Kyosuke trusts her, and only Kyosuke, Juzo, and Kizakura know she was the remnants teacher; Juzo and Kyosuke trust her, so they don't suspect her, and agree to keep it from FF. Maybe they even tell HER to keep it from FF. So Chisa is trustworthy to everyone, and vogues for Ryota, which is why they think he's also trustworthy.

There's two things you can do with Chisa:

Proper despair!Chisa- she got lobotomized by Junko just like in canon, just minus the magic brainwashing element. You could maybe justify this without the lobotomy but it would be harder. Chisa likely realized what Junko was doing to her students and confronted her to protect her students, leading to Junko lobotomizing her. From there, Chisa helped killed Chiaki, and manipulated Kyosuke to be his worse self in ways that are only obvious in retrospect. Her goal with this killing game is to destroy Future Foundation in the name of despair, specifically Kyosuke (out of love). She subtly enforces Ryota's despair through the course of their mentorship.

Or the sympathetic Chisa- where she wasn't lobotomized, but manipulated by Junko just like her students, supporting the riots at HPA because she genuinely believes in reserve course rights, seeing Junko as a child to protect at first (with Junko positioning herself as this deliberately). Only for the remnants & Junko killing Chiaki to break her- how could her students do this? How could junko do this? Why is Chiaki dead now? Why the hell would they ever kill their beloved class rep, her baby? Junko betrayed her. Junko betrayed her! (This would make her narratively parallel Ryota; what pushes them over is a Betrayal; Chisa and Junko's betrayal of him and Junko and her classes betrayal for Chisa). From there the tragedy plays out, and Chisa joins future foundation with hope of fixing the world. She struggles with whether to inform everyone about the remnants identities as her students; because... they want to execute them. As time goes on Chisa sees more and more bad sides of FF, eventually coming to see it as just as corrupt as HPA. She becomes disillusioned with Kyosuke (He never saved her when she needed it, and he never will, will he? He's advocating for her students deaths), who hates the remnants for how they hurt Chisa (killing Chiaki, who was important to her). She does this killing game to prove that FF is hypocritical; will turn on each other on a drop of a hat; will betray each other. She directly makes Kyouko's forbidden action that to try and prove that even either Kyouko or Makoto will betray each other if they have to... only to get proven wrong with Kyouko sacrificing herself. All of this is also to prompt Ryota into broadcasting the hope video, because shes also lost faith in people being good. She kills herself at the start because she no longer believes she deserves the utopia she's trying to create. In this, Tengan's motivations are adapted to Chisa; she's doing this not for despair, but for hope. She's destroying future foundation in the name of hope in this iteration, not despair.

I think I prefer the second option tbh. It adds more parallels to the text, this time between Ryota and Chisa, and gives all the more reason for their mentorship.

I think I'll also keep the scene of Ryota alerting Chisa to the threat of Junko. Except here it's him running from Junko and the remnants plan to kill Chiaki, and I'll say Chisa is informed on this by him & she goes to stop it, only to be too late, seeing Chiaki dead by her students hands. Chisa comforts Ryota just like in the anime and Ryota knows she tried to stop it, which is why he trusts her too initially, and why her betrayal hits him so hard. After Junko, Chisa was the only one he trusted, because in his moment of need, she tried to help him. She failed, but it matters that she tried.

Now onto how I'd change Junko and Ryota's relationship...

I might keep Ryota and Junko meeting my chance/luck. I actually love that Junko aggressively grabs his scarf on first meeting and he blushes at it. I'd give her an actual reason for why he caught her eye though... not sure what. I like the idea of Junko's plan both coming to fruition by chance and being destroyed by chance. Luck gave rise to Junko Enoshima but it also destroyed her. I also think I'll keep Ryota first meeting Junko that way because it adapts an element of Ryota: Ryota in canon feels guilty for the whole death of the world. HE essentially made the remnants; HE ruined their lives. Without the brainwashing video, it's harder to keep this specific guilt. But! Having Ryota meet her first still fixes this. Because then you can have RYOTA INTRODUCE JUNKO TO MIKAN AND IMPOSTER, who in turn introduce her to the rest of the remnants. I'd even have it so like... the other remnants who don't know about Ryota think Mikan is the first one who met her, and they kind of low key blame her for introducing her to them. Which makes Ryota feel extra guilty because it was HIM. He blames himself for the remnants fall.

I'd also change the Ryota & Junko confrontation. He realizes she betrayed him with the reserve course mass suicide. He realizes she used his technology to make the suicide video, and now the reserve course is dead and he has blood on his hands. (Chiaki would have to die after the mass suicide; maybe Chisa is looking for her & her classmates BECAUSE of the chaos). He witnesses them killing themselves himself. It's raining. Junko holds a red umbrella over him, laughing, taunting him. Basically driving the despair in deeper. Maybe this is where she tells him about planning on killing Chiaki; about what his classmates have become. "Are you going to run, Ryota? I think you will. Because that is your despair.”

After he fails to save Chiaki, after he as good as killed the reserve course, after Junko has thrown him away, he finds himself at a river. Staring down at the lake with all this despair swirling around his head.

He takes off his blood stained shoes. He can feel the grass under his socks. They're getting wet with mud; it is still raining. He looks down at the cold, icy depths below.

And then he jumps.

Either Junko fishes him out of lake; "don't you know, even if you run, I will always catch you?" It used to be his hope; now it's his despair.

Ooor. Chisa fishes him out. "I am not losing another student today! Mitarai, you aren't alone!" And that's when she becomes his mentor, literally saving his life like an angel. They join FF together in this scenario.

I think those are the main changes I'd make to Ryota.

I have also in the past have had the opposite with Ryota & Mikan and/or Imposter; where they introduced Junko to him. But I do think the way described above works best for Ryota's character specifically.

Them: Yeah if he’s going to blame himself as the catalyst for the remnants it’d make more sense if junko met him first

Me: Yeah that's a whole other thing I didn't even mention in my analysis of him; he has a giant guilt complex. He blames himself for the remnants fall, for the reserve course mass suicide, chiaki's death, and basically the entire end of the world. All because in his mind he ran.

His theme of running is also an extention of his aversion to people. Like sure he physically runs from conflict, but he also metaphorically runs with the way he isolates himself- locks himself in his room and only works on anime, to hide from people and their inherent despair. Yet he also craves validation and connection with people, and so him hiding from the world, "running" is just another flavor of the despair he's trying to avoid. "Run, because that is your despair."

Clarification regarding Junko and the remnants killing Chiaki: this is a standard AU of mine so I didn't explain it in the messages, but I usually have Chiaki's death in a no brainwashing AU be a test Junko proposed and the Remnants went along with: since they were torn between Chiaki's hope and Junko's despair, why not test Chiaki against Junko? If Chiaki wins they follow her and if Junko wins they follow her. The test being the dungeon maze Junko set up- with her claiming there's multiple exits but only one leads to actual safety, and Chiaki has to guess/figure out which one. Of course in truth none of them led to safety; Junko lied, and this emphases how much of a threat Chiaki was- scoring an ideological defeat of Junko, since she couldn't get Chiaki to become Ultimate Despair and so spitefully killed her because she was a threat to her hold on the remnants. You could alternatively have her be telling the truth about the exit (which would also be in character; the chance of her plans coming undone is also despair) and Chiaki just failing on her own merit/because of a fluke of luck. I do a lot of stuff with Nagito agreeing because of wanting Chiaki to win and being all about testing Ultimates through despair, and it being a fluke of luck could be an extension of that: he was unlucky again and lost someone he loved because of it again. I very much like the idea of Nagito causing Chiaki's death twice because apparently I like to torment them. (Aruably, Izuru/Hajime also causes Chiaki's death twice; putting Junko's AI in the simulation caused all this and he aided Junko too, which led to all this.)

This all just pretty well established with me so I didn't explain in the messages since my friend was already in the know.

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