#also the weird little bear thing from danganronpa but I’ve never actually played the games so I don’t know how accurate my read on him is

[clottedscream]

my Mary Sue oc :) she’s gods most specialest Angel and the most perfect girl on earth. she’s also a reality warping demon who hosts sadistic death games to find the most interesting person on earth to be her boyfriend (gender neutral). She wastes most of her magic putting a constant scrolling rainbow filter on herself (and yes, her eyes do change color when she’s mad). Her name is Missy Princess Celestine Sunrise but you can just call her missy she’s not fussy :)

[detectivesplotslies]

SPEAKING OF MUSICALS what’re some songs that fit some v3 ships or moments in the game? Atleast In your opinion

Oh boy. Some of these are gonna be dumb and biased as a warning. I don’t know how many will be ships but I definitely have some moments from the game/character thought ones. This is gonna be a long post cause I like throwing in lyrics SORRY! Anon I hope you don’t regret this lmaoThis is getting…. very long so I think I’m gonna put them under the cut! :’DThere’s some Wicked, Chicago, Avenue Q, Scarlet Pimpernel, Hamilton, Into the Woods, RENT, The Greatest Showman, Little Shop of Horrors, The Producers, Come From Away and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along BlogThere’s some Oumota, Saimatsu, Saiibo, and loose Saiouma in here, but also a few more general ones!

As most of you know, I have a Oumota Wicked AU, but there’s one song I’d like to point out that’s not for the ship that I quite like for the character in question, and that’s Wonderful, for Tsumugi. This one I found to be a great one for comparing what she does there in that au with some actual stuff in the game.Have some lyrics! I guess I just - wanted to give the citizens of Oz everything.

So you lied to them.

Elphaba, where I’m from, we believe all sorts ofthings that aren’t true. We call it“history.”A man’s called a traitor or liberatorA rich man’s a thief or philanthropistIs one a crusader or ruthless invader?It’s all in which labelIs able to persistThere are precious few at easeWith moral ambiguitiesSo we act as though they don’t exist 

—Another song, this one I discussed in a discord server with some awesome friends so not taking full credit for it, is We Both Reached For the Gun from Chicago for Kokichi and Gonta. The interview plays like the setup trial and while not exact is DEFINITELY an awesome play on the vibe and how it was done. Puppetry and motives running the entire show~! Also has some of the best choreography! And when the reporter starts agreeing that there is Shuichi proving it all.

Then describe it.He came toward me.With the pistol?From my bureau.Did you fight him?Like a tiger.He had strength and she had none.And yet we both reached for the gunOh yes, oh yes, oh yes we bothOh yes we bothOh yes, we both reached forThe gun, the gun, the gun, the gunOh yes, we both reached for the gunFor the gun.

—

The next one might be a weird one, and the dramatic delivery might not suit her as much, but I associate Falcon in the Dive from The Scarlet Pimpernel with Maki in chapter 5. It’s about a manhunt, hunting down an enemy, and how your own morals are already done and it’s up to you. There’s a bit of conflict in it about being bitter about it too and it fits some characterization I wish they had shown there there. It plays in with the memories they barely have as well. Have some lyrics!

There was a dream - a dying ember.There was a dream - I don’t remember …but I will resurrect that dream,though rivers stream and hills grow steeper.For here in hell, where life gets cheaper -oh, here in hell, the blood runs deeper.And when the final duel is near,I’ll lift my spear and fly.Piercing into the sky, and higher!And the strong will thrive!Yes, the weak will cower,while the fittest will survive!If we wait for the darkest hour‘til we spring alive,then with claws of fire,we devour like a falcon in the dive. —In a lighter tone, There is Life Outside Your Apartment from Avenue Q is a Kaito drags sidekicks to training song, I dare you to prove me otherwise.  When I say “everyone”, that includes you!There is life outside your apartmentI know it’s hard to conceive,but there’s life outside your apartment,and you’re only gonna see it if you leave.There is cool shit to do,but it can’t come to you.And who knows, dude,you might even score!There is life outside your apartment,but you’ve got to open the door!No, thanks, I’m staying in.Don’t tell me I gotta force you.Sorry!All right everyone! He’s resisting! —OKAY so if you follow me by now you know I really enjoy Kokichi. When I was looking for songs, @dykeenvy reminded me of this one and it fits Chapter 5 Kokichi so well, so shoutout to them! Last Midnight from Into the Woods for Kokichi. It’s the point where everyone’s arguments and blame (from the song Your Fault! which is ALSO a good V3 song, it’s like… every trial) turns to the witch and she’s done with them and it’s great, specifically this lyrical sequence! You’re so nice You’re not good You’re not bad You’re just nice I’m not good I’m not nice I’m just right I’m the witch You’re the world  I’m a hitch I’m what no one believes I’m the witch You’re all liars and thieves Like his father Like his son will be, too Oh, why bother? You’ll just do what you do

—

OKAY now onto some more dialogue heavy stuff! Non-Stop from Hamilton for Kokichi & Shuichi! Let me explain. Kokichi I find is very like Hamilton, making himself the center of it all, writing, not stopping, going at it all, making enemies but overall doing more and more ambitious. Meanwhile Shuichi is a lot more like Burr, says less, but knows what he’s doing, and bewildered by Hamilton’s methods. Keeps his cards close to his chest until he needs them. Kokichi writing like he’s running out of time is so very very in character. It just fits him SO WELL. It could even represent Kokichi’s attempt to partner with him in chapter 4 and being turned down. Some lyrics! Why do you always say what you believe?Why do you always say what you believe?Ev'ry proclamation guarantees free ammunition for your enemiesWhy do you write like it’sGoing out of style?Write day and night like it’sGoing out of style?Ev'ry day you fight like it’sGoing out of style—On a more somber note, I think The Story of Tonight from Hamilton has great post game VR AU feels for the survivors and maybe Rantaro too in the midst of causing Team Danganronpa some disastrous reactions to their forced ending. I love aus where they are getting legal repercussions and the cast is being held, the dead maybe even still under, until it’s worked out and I think this fits here

I may not live to see our glory! (I may not live to see our glory!)But I will gladly join the fight! (But I will gladly join the fight!)And when our children tell our story… (And when our children tell our story…)They’ll tell the story of tonightLet’s have another round tonight (Let’s have another round tonight)Let’s have another round tonightRaise a glass to freedomSomething they can never take awayNo matter what they tell youRaise a glass to the four of us Tomorrow there’ll be more of usTelling the story of tonightThey’ll tell the story of tonight —

Okay, another shoutout to @dykeenvy and the Yeehonk! server for this one since we chatted about it in there BUT - Take Me or Leave Me from Rent is an Oumota song. The energy, the stances, the stubborness. It is ALL THERE. A tiger in a cageCan never see the sunThis diva needs her stage, babyLets have funYou are the one I chooseFolks will kill to fill your shoesYou love the lime light to now babySo be mine but don’t waste my timeCryin’, “Oh, honey bear are you still my, my, my baby?”Take me for what I amWho I was meant to beAnd if you give a damnTake me baby or leave me —

I’d be remiss to not do another Tsumugi song, given who I am. So I’m bringing up Opening Night from The Producers for Tsumugi. For her ending disaster and the audience complaints during the PTA segment! I just… really like to think it was a all blamed on her sometimes hahah. Sorry mugi.He’s done it againHe’s done it againMax Bialystock has done it againWe can’t believe itYou can’t conceive itHow’d he achieve it?It’s the worst show in town!We sat there sighingGroaning and cryingThere’s no denyingIt’s the worst show in townOh, we wanted to stand up and hissWe’ve seen shit, but never like this

—

Okay for this one just… hear me out. The Other Side from The Greatest Showman for Oumota. A circus ringleader and a respectable patron of the arts walk into a bar, argue about their reputations a bit, make a deal and talk about living a little. Clowns are even mentioned. I mean come on! Don’t you know that I’m okay with this uptown part I get to play‘Cause I got what I need and I don’t want to take the rideI don’t need to see the other sideSo go and do like you doI’m good to do like meAin’t in a cage, so I don’t need to take the keyOh, damn! Can’t you see I’m doing fineI don’t need to see the other side

Now is this really how you like to spend your days?Whiskey and misery, and parties and plays

If I were mixed up with you, I’d be the talk of the townDisgraced and disowned, another one of the clowns

But you would finally live a little, finally laugh a littleJust let me give you the freedom to dream And it’ll wake you up and cure your achingTake your walls and start ‘em breakingNow that’s a deal that seems worth takingBut I guess I’ll leave that up to you —

Kokichi in ships is always a troublesome thing, as he’s got a lot of issues with himself too, so I think Leave from Once is very Kokichi. Oof. Sorry this one is mostly angst fodder. I can’t wait forever is all that you saidBefore you stood upAnd you won’t disappoint meI can do that myselfBut I’m glad that you’ve comeNow if you don’t mindLeave, leave,And free yourself at the same timeLeave, leave,I don’t understand, you’ve already goneAnd I hope you feel betterNow that it’s outWhat took you so longAnd the truth has a habitOf falling out of your mouthBut now that it’s comeIf you don’t mindLeave, leave,And please yourself at the same time

—

Now for something completely different! Meek Shall Inherit from Little Shop of Horrors for Shuichi! Moral dilemmas, biases and making terrible decisions for the sake of people liking him after his ‘success’ starts building. Oof. Sorry Shuichi, I know Seymour’s not the most moral character but the comparison is there a bit. My future’s startingI’ve got to let itStick with that plantAnd gee my bank account will thriveWhat am I saying?No way, forget itIt’s much too dangerous to keep that plant aliveI take these offersThat means more killingWho knew success would come with messy nasty strings?I sign these contractsThat means I’m willingTo keep on doing bloody, awful, evil things

—

Now for a different ship! My Freeze Ray from Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog for Saimtasu. I think it outlines Shuichi’s anxiety when trying to get close to Kaede pretty well, and also how little he knows about her at the start, but is still cute! With my freeze ray I will stop the worldWith my freeze ray I willFind the time to find the words to

Tell you howHow you makeMake me feelWhat’s the phrase?Like a foolKinda sickSpecial needsAnyways —

One more. This ship’s just one of my comfort ones and of course I’m giving it angst. Stop the World from Come From Away for Saiibo. Specifically at the end of trial 6, where they know everything;s coming down, shuichi and the survivors made their choice, and Kiibo’s going to self destruct, and everything;s going to end, but they all get one more goodbye. Agh Kiibo didn’t need to go then and it makes me sad.  Stop the worldSeize the momentBut the minute he goes you’re alone, and it’s through pinch yourselfTell yourself:“You’re just dreaming, that means he’ll forget about you”

But here we areWhere the continents once crashed togetherBefore they went their separate ways forever, so stop the world

—Sorry for rambling so very LONG anon. Hope you enjoy these, maybe you’ll find a new song today :’D

[commentaryvorg]

Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 6.1

Be aware that this is not a blind playthrough! This will contain spoilers for the entire game, regardless of the part of the game I’m commenting on. A major focus of this commentary is to talk about all of the hints and foreshadowing of events that are going to happen and facts that are going to be revealed in the future of the story. It is emphatically not intended for someone experiencing the game for their first time.

Last time…

…Kaito went to space. That’s all. He was in space, and he was happy.

Now to start chapter 6, which I am not quite as excited to get into – can’t possibly imagine why. There’s still definitely a lot I want to talk about, though.

We open the chapter with… Makoto. Not the Makoto we knew (he doesn’t exist), but a kid who’s called Makoto nonetheless. That’s almost certainly the most popular thing to name your kid in this universe, even probably for cultures that aren’t Japanese.

We also have some bizarrely cheerful music. Originally my feelings about this was just that it gave a very weird mood whiplash from everything else that had been going on. But now all it makes me think of is this game’s bonus board game/RPG mode that this music is actually taken from, which I may have got rather addicted to played an inordinate amount of one point. Hearing this now just makes me want to roll some dice and optimise my characters’ stat spreads, dammit! (And by “my characters”, obviously I mean Kaede, Shuichi, Kaito and Maki, who else.)

Makoto:  “I don’t have any talents or anything. I’m just a regular teenager…”

…

Makoto:  “Getting into an elite school like this was just the start of my bad luck.”

The writers (entirely out-universe here, of course) really just wanted to drop all these similarities to Makoto Naegi here just to mess with us and make us wonder if this kid really is him despite looking different, didn’t they.

Makoto:  “I want to run away from my daily life… I want to run away and just forget all this…”

This is considerably less like Makoto Naegi, though. He may have been ordinary, and a little daunted at getting into an elite school, but he was ultimately pretty chill with it and didn’t really want anything to change.

Makoto:  “But I’m okay! I have a reason to live!”

Remember the Monokuma Theater last chapter where Monokuma said he’d be thrilled if Danganronpa was people’s reason to live? Apparently it really is, for probably way more people than just Makoto here.

Makoto:  “I’ve got something to look forward to! That’s why I’m gonna be okay! Thanks for the courage! Thanks for giving me something to get totally obsessed with! Thanks for the strength to keep going!”

This is extremely relatable to me! This is what genuinely loving and caring about a work of fiction looks like! I can’t tell you how many times in my own life I’ve felt like things are going great for me almost entirely because there’s a work of fiction that I absolutely love that makes me happy just to think about.

Makoto:  “I’ll keep on rooting for you, so please keep trying your best!”

And look, he cares about the characters! Obviously, somewhere inside him he is hoping to see bad things happen to them, but that’s because he wants to see them overcome those trials! On the level on which he is actually engaging with the characters as if they’re people, by cheering them on like this, he just wants them to succeed.

It’s kind of like the way I’ve been doing this commentary. On the one hand I’ve been very unabashedly appreciating all the horrible suffering everyone’s gone through and the ways in which it’s been emphasised because that’s what makes this fiction so enjoyable. But when I talk about that, I take the more detached, third-person-pronouns approach, like they’re elements in a well-crafted work of art. Whenever I use second-person pronouns as if I’m engaging with the characters myself, imaging that they’re real people I could talk to, I almost never say anything about how I appreciate their suffering. I’m not engaging with them because I want them to suffer. I want them to suffer so that I’ll end up caring about them even more and therefore will want to engage with them more. Which would all still be thoroughly fucked-up if they really were real, but this is how engaging with fiction works.

(I am making a big point to stress all of this about Makoto here because, oh boy, the next time we see the in-universe audience, things are not going to be remotely this way and that is my biggest issue with this chapter.)

Makoto:  “And—! One day, I’ll also—!”

…audition for Danganronpa and hopefully probably get myself killed in one, is what he’s about to say.

No, Makoto. You were doing great at being a healthy, wholesome appreciater of fiction (aside from the part where it’s not really fiction and you’re watching real people die) until now. Genuinely wanting to be a part of your favourite works of fiction is usually quite an understandable sentiment… but not when it’s Danganronpa, what the actual hell.

We have suddenly jumped from Makoto being a reasonable example of someone enjoying a work of “fiction”, into him being an example of how utterly fucked-up this outside world actually is. People – specifically, teenagers – will apparently willingly throw their lives away to be on Danganronpa if they don’t think their life has much else going for them. That’s why this Makoto hates his life, to make him someone who’d want to do this. If Danganronpa really is his only reason to live, then it does make some kind of twisted sense that it’d also give him a reason to die.

Something important to note about this scene is simply the fact that we’re seeing it. This is in a context entirely removed from anything happening right now in the Academy and is for our eyes, the out-universe audience, only. So there is no reason to doubt that what we’re seeing here is the truth. This Makoto kid really is watching “Danganronpa V3” unfold like it’s basically a work of fiction and having a great time.

I’ve seen some people propose the idea that sure, the killing game was put on as a “fiction” for people’s entertainment, but only for a shady illegal underground audience of people who should know they’re being shitty, probably hidden away somewhere in the deepest darkest corners of the internet. On some level, I might like to believe that, because it’s nicer and easier to buy than thinking the entire world is this obliviously twisted. But Makoto here is a completely ordinary teenager who would be very unlikely to have any idea how to access something like that, and he doesn’t seem to have any conception of the fact that what he’s watching and enjoying so much is illegal and frowned upon and he needs to keep it secret. So I don’t think that can reasonably be the truth here.

Anyway, back at the Academy, Keebo is busy destroying everything. He’d better leave the training spot alone, though – that place contains precious memories of Kaito and deserves to remain undamaged.

Also bear in mind that this is still the same evening after Kaito’s trial. They are not getting any time to rest here.

Keebo:  “Did you call for me? Please keep it brief. I have other matters I must attend to.”

Geez, Keebo. “Keep it brief, because I’m busy getting all of us killed”? Yeah, maybe that’s why they won’t want to keep this brief.

Maki:  “What’s with that weapon and the jet pack?”

Keebo:  “I obtained this equipment from my lab.”

Maki:  “You had equipment like that… in your lab?”

Implicit in Maki’s words here is the sentiment of: then why the fuck didn’t you use it *sooner*? Which, yes. Very much.

Keebo:  “I made some modifications to drastically improve their power output and functionality.”

Tsumugi:  “Since when have you been able to do that? You didn’t level up or anything, right? Did… something happen?”

The fact that it’s Tsumugi asking him this suggests that he really wasn’t supposed to be able to do that at all. It would be pretty stupid of Team Danganronpa to have someone that potentially dangerous here. Obviously they figured he’d never do anything drastic because his inner voice had him on a leash, but the suggestion from Tsumugi’s words here is that he shouldn’t even have been able to make those modifications, inner voice or not, and he just figured it out himself somehow by being a smarter person than she’d written him to be. Maybe he learned a thing or two from his time with Miu?

Keebo:  “I wanted to be treated like a real human. A creature of flesh and blood like you all. But I no longer have the luxury of clinging to that wish anymore!”

You never had that luxury, not while abandoning that wish (and only temporarily, mind you) would have saved your friends’ lives!

The writing is trying to present this like it’s some kind of character development, but there’s been absolutely no build-up to Keebo realising something like this. And there’s no reason that the seven people who’d died before his lab opened up wouldn’t have been enough, such that he somehow needed to see four more deaths before finally making this decision. The only actual change now is the lack of his inner voice – but that never had anything to do with the part of his character that felt awkward about not being human and shouldn’t be making a difference to this supposed character development.

Tsumugi:  “If you do something like that… we’ll all die too, y’know!? There’s no oxygen in the outside world… There are no living things…”

Tsumugi would like to remind us all that there is definitely 100% not anyone alive out there, even though Kaito's efforts just proved that there almost certainly somehow is.

Shuichi:  “Our hope is… everyone here. Our friends who are still alive.”

Shuichi is good. He’s not going to forget the last thing Kaito said to him!

Keebo:  “We simply do not have the power to change the outside world on our own.”

Well that’s very foreshadowy of you, Keebo. He’s only talking about making it less uninhabitable, but.

Keebo:  “All we can do now is refuse to submit to despair!”

Shuichi:  “And you would be willing to let all of us die to accomplish that?”

Yeah, doesn’t sound very not-despairing, does it, Shuichi? Keebo’s just gunning for a different type of despair right now.

Keebo:  “Kaito and Kokichi gave their lives to end this killing game… We should follow their example! We should be willing to give our lives to end this killing game!”

Okay, so to be fair, this might sort of count as following Kokichi’s example, since he wanted to ruin the audience’s experience (even though he went about it in literally the worst way possible by giving them two incredibly entertaining trials). Killing ourselves to give them a boring ending is actually along the lines of what Kokichi at least should have been trying to do, and is in fact what everyone will attempt in the end once they realise what’s going on.

But fuck off with your implication that Kaito would have wanted this, Keebo. Kaito gave his life so that everyone else could survive and escape, not so that they’d all do the same as him! Kaito’s sacrifice was only ever about “ending” the killing game so long as doing so would save everyone!

Maki:  “…Is that what your inner voice is telling you to do?”

It’s interesting that Maki considers this possibility. I wonder what she thinks his inner voice is, since she’s pragmatic enough to not believe in hearing voices, especially not for a robot.

Keebo:  “We can never submit to despair! Because we are students of Hope’s Peak Academy!”

Keebo may have lost his inner voice, but he’s clearly still very much a thrall to the other kind of brainwashing that’s been going on here.

Shuichi:  “Because there might still be hope. There might still be a place to call home.”

Keebo:  “And what are you basing that claim on?”

Shuichi:  “…Nothing. I just have a feeling.”

Shuichi just has a hunch! He’s doing a Kaito and he knows it and it’s so lovely that he’s able to say that with a smile!

Maki:  “Just a feeling…? You sound like that idiot right now.”

Maki knows it just as well, of course. She’s smiling, too! I love how her calling him an idiot has become a thing of affection now. They really are his sidekicks.

(I am going to bring up and be delighted by every single moment in this chapter of them fondly remembering Kaito like this and you can’t stop me.)

Shuichi:  “…Kaito said so. […] There can be no killing game without an audience.”

…So actually, Shuichi was basing his claim on something after all and just wanted to act very Kaito about it anyway, and that is adorable. Well, maybe he felt like it was appropriate because this still isn’t very concrete evidence, but.

Look at him being really sure of this argument, though! Kaito gave everything to prove that and he succeeded, and Shuichi is not going to let his efforts go to waste.

Shuichi:  “There’s still a possibility!”

Keebo:  “True, we cannot say there is absolutely no possibility. But even a mere possibility—”

Shuichi:  “That possibility is our hope!”

Finally, someone gets it! The actual meaning of the damn word! They don’t know for sure that it’s true, but so long as they can keep believing that it’s possible there’s a home for them out there, that is hope.

Monokuma finally shows up with his Exisals in tow. (I wonder what Monotaro makes of the small mountain of screwed-up bloodstained toilet paper in the recesses of his cockpit.)

Monokuma:  “Huh? Is the robot malfunctioning? He must be – why else would he try to defy me?”

Haha, yeah, Keebo is very much meant to be part of the workings of this killing game and not someone who should try and fight against that, isn’t he?

Goodbye Danganronpa

Wow, geez, that was late for a title card. I forgot we hadn’t even had that yet. Of course, this title is pretty straightforward, yet a lot more literal than anyone would be expecting it to be on their first time through.

Maki:  “But why did Monokuma leave a weapon like that in the research lab? He’s… pretty careless, isn’t he?”

Good question! The way Maki’s actively asking this suggests it’s something that actually has an answer, but I’m still not convinced it’s anything but lazy writing.

Maki:  “If the outside world is destroyed, then the mastermind must be in this school, right?”

Makiii, Kaito proved to you guys that the outside world probably isn’t as destroyed as it seems! Don’t you believe that too? (I mean, yes, the mastermind is in fact in this school, but there’s no reason to necessarily think that right now.)

…Actually, Maki still buying the lie about the outside world despite Kaito’s efforts to discredit it might be down to her in particular being very subsceptible to the Flashback Light’s manipulation. There’ll be some more indications of that in this chapter.

Tsumugi:  “Someone… You mean a Remnant of Despair, right?”

Tsumugi is very quick to keep things on-script and remind everyone that this is definitely about Remnants of Despair.

Maki:  “If we can find them and kill them, then this killing game should end.”

Shuichi:  “Ah, I don’t know about *killing* them…”

Yes, Maki, listen to Shuichi! Remember that the last time you tried to kill the “mastermind”, you nearly got Kaito killed instead! Kaito risked his life because he didn’t want you to kill anyone else, even if it was the mastermind!

Maki:  “…Hope?”

Shuichi:  “Our home. Where we’re going to live after this killing game ends. I know there is hope out there. We have to find it before we leave.”

This is what Kaito was talking about when he said Shuichi could find “something beyond the truth” – something beyond that destroyed world they saw at the end of the tunnel. Kaito sacrificed everything for the plan to give them this hope!

(And again since I must nitpick: they wouldn’t be finding the “hope”. The fact that they’re even looking means they already have hope, thanks to Kaito.)

Himiko:  “This isn’t some fictional story, so I don’t think things’ll work out that well…”

Hoo boy. We’re in chapter 6 now, all gloves are off, hints are being dropped left and right and they do not care about being subtle.

Shuichi:  “But if we look for it, we just might find it. If we don’t try… we’ll never find anything.”

This is also quite Kaito of him! Kaito never specifically said anything with this wording, but he was always advocating the idea that you’ve got to put in the effort to be able to get anywhere.

Maki:  “No matter how impossible it seems, we’ll accomplish it.”

Speaking of Kaito! This… is awkward localisation. Maki’s phrasing here is a close match to the Japanese phrasing of Kaito’s “The impossible is possible, all you gotta do is make it so” catchphrase. Evidently, Maki’s localiser is a different one to Kaito’s, and they never got the memo about what Kaito’s catchphrase was changed to in English and just translated this directly.

This is still clearly reminiscent enough of Kaito to get across the point that she’s thinking of him anyway, but Maki is meant to have straight-up said that the impossible is possible, and, awwww! That’s adorable.

Shuichi:  (Maki…) “…Yes… that’s right!”

Shuichi agrees! He’s happy for the reminder! They are such good sidekicks.

Hope Searching time, again! This is still an appropriate title, because, like Shuichi just said, they are searching for proof that they have somewhere to return to, and that is hope.

A sudden tremor causes part of the entrance hall’s floor to collapse and reveal a staircase downwards that leads to Kokichi’s lab. Shuichi guesses that this was meant to open with a mysterious item, presumably if things had been proceeding as normal and Monokuma had happily given them their “presents” like at the beginning of any other chapter. But, awkwardly, there was never any mysterious object around here that looked like something that could have opened this. Yet again, anything which is not directly meant for the player to interact with simply doesn’t exist in the game world, even if it’s something that should exist as part of the story.

“Now it is time to test your bonds with your friends!”

DID YOU KNOW THIS DANGANRONPA GAME IS ABOUT FRIENDSHIP.

…Okay, this whole Friendship Power mechanic for this investigation is actually a very thinly-veiled way to force you to investigate places in a completely linear order by restricting where you have access to until you’ve reached a certain point in the story. But since they were going to have to do that one way or another, I love that they flavoured it to be about this.

“So work hard to end this killing game before dawn breaks!”

Oh, boy, this, though. This whole time limit mechanic is really badly-implemented.

The first thing is that it’s not a real-time time limit at all. I’m leaving my game running as I type this and it’s not going to make a difference. The timer just ticks forwards a small amount every time you examine something or talk to someone, as is appropriate for what is after all a visual novel and not an action game. I’ve seen several blind LPers assume it was a real-time time limit (because the game is very vague about it) and get instilled with a sense of urgency because of that, so I guess that was meant to be the point.

What the real, ahem, “challenge” of this time limit is is that you’re supposed to try not to examine anything nonessential. Which is really not an okay way for a mystery visual novel to be! Half the fun of these sorts of games is seeing what kind of silly bonus dialogue you get for checking things that don’t matter, to the point that many people’s approach when investigating a room is to figure out what object will progress the plot when they examine it and then examine that one last. But here, the developers are telling us we’re “failing” at playing the game properly… when we’re trying to play the game as much as possible. That’s quite frankly rude. They went to the trouble of writing a bunch of bonus dialogue for this investigation, and yet they apparently don’t want anyone to see it.

There’s also the fact that, from my experiments, there is extremely little leeway. You can examine at most two or three nonessential things while still remaining within the time limit, and anything more than that causes you to run out of time before the end. Even if someone is actually trying to examine only the essential objects, on a first run through they’re not going to know exactly what’s important, because sometimes the relevant thing is not that intuitive, and they’re almost certainly going to make more than just a few “mistakes”!

And the punishment for “failing”? I’m sure literally everybody has already seen this themselves, but all you get is Shuichi briefly going “Oh no, I took too long!”, a brief cutscene of the Academy exploding… and then it puts you back at the beginning of whatever room you were in with the timer wound back far enough that you can hypothetically finish from here. It’s the most petty of slaps on the wrist, but of course it shouldn’t be any more than that, because having to replay the entire chapter for the crime of not knowing exactly what was important, or, gasp, wanting to see more dialogue, would be incredibly obnoxious. So what’s the point in even having it be possible to fail in the first place?

What they should really do is have the timer tick forward only when you examine something plot-relevant. That way you’d get the illusion of being in a hurry to anyone who’s on a first time and hasn’t realised how it works, but none of the annoyance of meaninglessly “failing” or of it being incredibly inconvenient to actively go looking for bonus dialogue.

…Also. Uh. Turns out I was partially wrong about it not being a real time limit. I assumed that because the timer doesn’t seem to visibly move when you’re standing around, yet you can notice it tick forwards a small chunk whenever you finish examining something. Buuuut, as I left it running while typing this, with Shuichi just standing in the hallway, the timer has progressed a bunch. Some quick science, namely staring at the screen for a while, confirms that it does actually move in incredibly small pixel-by-pixel increments that are hard to notice unless you’re looking for it. So I guess also don’t go leaving your game running during this part either! Geez. …And, turns out it also ticks forward outside of dialogue if you’ve had the Monopad open for a while. It doesn’t even let you pause the game to pause the timer! Rude.

The timer does however completely vanish during actual dialogue, meaning that it is presumably actually paused then. …Yes; I did some more science to confirm this, this time sitting on a dialogue box for probably something like half an hour and seeing the timer still only tick forwards a little bit once I finally clicked through the dialogue. Talking (or thinking) is a free action, apparently, even though standing around without talking or thinking isn’t.

Anyway, here’s the method I used last time I played this chapter to be able to see all optional dialogue anyway while still technically not “failing” because fuck you too, game: Save as soon as you enter a new place. Go nuts examining everything you want to, while noting which ones seem to be necessary to progress and which ones aren’t. Before leaving for the next place, reset back to your save and this time go through the room while only examining the correct things (fastforwarding the dialogue if you want, not that it matters), so that the game thinks you did so in the minimum amount of “time”. Then head to the next place (as quickly as you can, apparently), save as soon as you enter it, and repeat. Doing this last time I played was how I learned that there was so ridiculously little leeway for “mistakes”, because even then I only just barely made it.

And of course I’m going to be doing that again on this playthrough to get all the optional dialogue, because that’s what this commentary is here for, dammit.

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[Next post]

[mesaprotector]

Completed NDRV3/Danganronpa V3! Going to ramble on for a few many paragraphs under the cut (spoilers for the whole franchise, obviously).

Overall I really, really liked this game. It made me really mad at times, some of which was the controls (first time playing the game myself vs. watching a no-commentary subbed playthrough - side note, I think the second is just as immersive). The ending, as for the last two main-line games, blew my mind. The only thing that makes me sad is that there most likely won’t be another.

Characters

Going to have to think about it, but I think I like the cast as much as I did that of DR1 and SDR2. Going to go in death order on my feelings (it’s easiest to remember).

Rantaro: Will have to watch his free-time events to decide more, since the past two games each had characters dying in the first chapter (Mukuro, the Imposter) who were really cool once you learned more about them. Despite being the SHSL Survivor he felt a bit bland. Moving on.

Kaede: Oh god where do I start. I’ve written two whole posts (one last week, one way back in April) about how much I fucking love this girl. How goddamn brave, charismatic, and honorable she was. I’ve heard that some people wish Shuichi had been the one to sacrifice himself instead of her, or that her case had come later, and while I with all my heart would have loved having more Kaede, the way things happened was the only way that would have made narrative sense. Monokuma’s always had the hardest time, in every single killing game, getting someone to commit the first murder. Hell, even Korekiyo and Kokichi didn’t try to kill anyone though they could have escaped scot-free; that’s a testament to Kaede’s leadership ability. Rest in fucking peace, girl.

Hoshi: Really like him. Thankful that the little dwarf guy was a really cool, stoic character and a good person, and man was his motive video sad. I know what it’s like to have nobody you really care about (not now, thankfully, but in the past). 

Kirumi: Not sure how I really feel about her. The whole “prime minister of Japan” thing felt contrived (yes, I know I’m not questioning the whole “robot teddy murder bear” and all the other crazy shit that this franchise pulls, but still). She’s supposed to be sympathetic but I don’t find myself having a lot of sympathy for her. Out of all the characters I’m probably least interested in playing her free time events. Mind, I don’t hate her.

Angie: It’s hard to tell with her if she’s just a selfish, manipulative person who used the circumstances of the killing game to give herself more power, or if she genuinely cared about her friends’ lives in her own ditzy, overly pious way. Her behavior in the second trial and trying to throw Himiko under the bus would point to the first one, but I’ll watch her free-time events to decide more. Not one of my favorite characters though.

Tenko: I ended up really, really liking her after the demo made me think she’d only be annoying, and spent more time with her than anyone else in the first two chapters. Her (initially) one-sided obsession with Himiko is better for me than Touko’s fixation on Byakuya, or Kazuichi’s on Sonia, because she actually goes out of her way to genuinely help her friend! And she dies because of it. One of my favorite characters despite her early death (man, is this getting to be a theme in this game).

Korekiyo: Okay, so... I’ll get this out of the way: I like Korekiyo. Yes, he’s a delusionally evil, twisted person who killed one of my favorite characters in Tenko. He has a really neat design though, and a really neat specialty that makes him one of the coolest characters to talk with in the series. He’s un-self-consciously a romantic (in the literary meaning of the word) which is rare in fiction and something I really appreciate. I wish he’d had a slightly different motive for his murder scheme - even something on the level of Celes’s banal evil would have been preferable - in part because part of the fun of the killing game is that the participants aren’t used to killing. Anyway, awful person, really cool character. Moving on.

Miu: This human disaster was one of my favorite characters early on, though she drifted down the list when she never ended up showing much depth. In the fourth trial I found myself wishing they’d touched on her reason for specifically targeting Kokichi in her plan, since she should have known he wouldn’t be an easy target - maybe I just want her to have had some altruistic reason, what with him seeming so evil? Anyway. Might watch her free-time events but I’m guessing they’re mostly her trying to get Kaede or Shuichi into BDSM.

Gonta: Sweet, naive, adorable relationship with Himiko that ended way too soon, surprisingly sharp at times but again, naive. Not much else to say about him. 

Kokichi: I wrote a long paragraph about him in a post a few days ago - a very interesting villain and character, even if he’s not necessarily completely evil. He made me so damn mad from the end of the fourth trial until he’s cleared in the fifth one - laughing at Gonta’s death is a good way to do that though I guess. I see him as a foil to Nagito - Nagito cared a lot about his fellow students and that motivation led him to throw them all under the bus. Kokichi is only self-interested (at least in the simplest possible interpretation) but that motivation led him to nearly save them all. I don’t like him quite as much in part because I relate to Nagito’s morality in a very strange personal way - but he’s still really interesting, especially as a wannabe mastermind who feels safer being hated than being real.

Kaito: I goddamn love the guy. After Kaede’s gone he’s the heart of this group - charismatic, stubborn, illogical, and trusting unconditionally in his friends even after it screws him over. He’s also hilarious in the lengths he goes to just to be lazier. You’ve got Maki doing sit-ups at mach speed, Shuichi struggling just to get to ten, and Kaito staring up at the stars rambling about how great space is. I regret not finishing his free-time events, even it was in favor of Maki’s.

Tsugumi: I don’t even know what to say. Pre-sixth trial she was a somewhat bland but very likable character with a funny habit of calling the others out on their more ridiculous quirks. Afterwards she’s just the mastermind who I can’t even really pin down as having a personality (like the real Junko or Monaca had). Then again, the nature of this game makes her role less important. Like with Korekiyo, I think I have to evaluate her as two separate things for it to make sense.

K1-B0: I can’t say I was that crazy about our morally upright, easily-offended robot, but I definitely didn’t dislike him. (Her? They?) A little bland and the scene with him and Miu in the lab weirded me out. Maybe that’s just what happens when you spend too much time around Miu.

Maki: Now to the survivors. Yeah, she’s something of a Kyouko expy (there are worse characters to resemble), and her plot line and character development isn’t as subtle as it could be, but I still like her. She gets unfairly criticized for being overly violent and impetuous when the only person she was trying to kill was the mastermind (like Kaede); as much as I love Kaito’s optimism, her “less talk, more action” realism very much has its place. I’d want someone like her around in any killing game I got involved in.

Himiko: I’m fairly sure that if there’s anything absolutely every Danganronpa fan agrees on it’s that Himiko is fucking adorable. I honestly didn’t like her very much early on when she’s just being lazy, insisting magic is real, and ignoring Tenko. Then she loses the two people who she was closest to, decides to become a more energetic, honest person, loses another good friend in Gonta, and somehow, at the end of it all, is the most positive person to survive. I was one free-time period short of finishing her events, but she’s an amazing friend. Her dialogue in the second half of the game makes it clear how many funny observations she makes that she’s just not used to sharing with anybody. I wish her so, so much luck in her post-fiction life.

Shuichi: So... Shuichi is pretty bland. He’s the “worst” protagonist in the series, though that’s with only Kaede (amazing), Komaru (great), Naegi (good), and Hajime (good) to compare to. It’s because he’s bland that I ended up thinking more about the group and the overall outcome of the game, than just about my favorite characters surviving (had Kaede been alive near the end I probably wouldn’t have slept for days). So maybe that was intentional. Still, I wish he’d changed a bit more, and had figured out earlier on that solving trials wasn’t always a good thing. I’m not sure he even really learned that lesson. Despite all this, he would have been an okay side character and is okay as a protagonist - just no more than that.

The Ending

I don’t know what overall feeling is towards the ending, but I think nobody can say they expected it. I’ve played a couple of other games that focus on the player or audience forcing the characters to participate against their will (Save the Date! is amazing if you have a couple of hours), though there’s some weirdness in this version since the way I understood it... they had real people who voluntarily chose to have their memories erased to participate in a killing game in which people actually die. Which would be less about the moral responsibility of the player and more about what the self is. Do you have any right to choose what a person in your body, but with different memories and personality - will do? Danganronpa V3 takes the side of “no - this person is not you” and Tsumugi doesn’t even try to argue against that point. 

The series always had a lot of social commentary (more in the first game than in the second, especially if you watch Monokuma Theatre over again), and that becomes even more true in this installment. So... did I “like” the ending? You can interpret the ending as saying you aren’t supposed to like it. It met my expectations in being mind-blowing and pretty coherent, but I wouldn’t say it made me as happy as with the endings to the first two games. Still, the epilogue with Maki, Himiko and Shuichi staring out at clearest blue as a beautiful track plays - that came pretty close.

Aesthetics

Speaking of which, the soundtrack. I really liked... what is it, “Living in a Lazy Parallel World” that comes up often when plot twists are starting to happen? (Kinda like the memetic “New World Order” though that track is mostly for positive developments rather than negative ones.) 

There was also a cool track with a voiceover in English that came up whenever the Monokubs showed up. (To go on a tangent, I ended up actually liking them for the most part. Helped that the most annoying one got killed off first.) YOU’RE ON THE THRESHOLD OF AN AMAZING ADVENTURE -

Now, the art. I appreciated the game returning to a more claustrophobic closed environment like that of the first game (though nothing beats DR1 in atmosphere), and the design of many of the rooms, like Korekiyo’s, made me want to actually visit. I felt there were far more drawn cutscene panels than in previous games, which I definitely didn’t mind. 

Gameplay

I lied; I won’t talk that much about gameplay except to say the last Mass Panic debate with Keebo was actually impossible until I figured out you could access the casino from the menu. Also, the A and S keys switched around a lot but I dealt with it.

I didn’t figure out how to use the Love Key, but maybe it’s for some bonus mode after the game. In one save I tried giving it to Maki (the only person I had five fragments with) and she really liked it but nothing happened. 

Tl;dr

I’ll have to think about how I end up feeling about the ending, but for now I’m putting this game a few notches below DR1, and a smidge above SDR2. At the very least it’s the main reason I’ve gotten four hours of sleep per night this whole WEEK. I have no idea how I’m still standing up. Maybe it’s the power of rejecting both hope and despair~

[fataziraphale]

Yooo I asked feederkurogane abt any shows, movies or books that involve feedism or chubby characters that arent in it solely for fat jokes but they didn't know of any and told me to ask you !! It's ok if you don't know any I'm just rly desperate for good content lmao. I've read Hoppe Ni Himawari and it was rly cute but then disappointing when he lost all the weight in the end :// but anyway i was just wondering?? thank you aha!

Hello!!! Nice to meet you! I always love talking to other feedists omfg. I’m so glad you came to me to ask this question! I’m also so, so, so sorry because… I can’t do brevity. At all.

First of all thank you for that warning about Hoppe Ni Himawari because I was pumped to read it but if he loses all the weight like… not sure I want to haha

Anyway, there is VERY little media out there that explicitly involves feedism, unfortunately, and what is out there tends to be either have a vibe of “feedists are evil” or “feedists so weird haha im fascinated by these freaks.” Like Homestuck has an explicitly feeder character, but he’s also a villain, a huge misogynist, and his interest in feedism is the butt of a joke, re: “wow this guy is weird.”

But!!! There’s a movie called City Island that actually handles feedism in a somewhat sensitive way! It’s about a family who all keep secrets from each other, and the son’s secret is that he’s a feeder. It’s not the greatest movie in the world, but like ? there’s a canon feedee and a canon feeder in it? amazing???

My favorite example of fat representation/feedist representation is the reason for my URL. In the vide game Super Danganronpa 2, there’s a fat character who explicitly says he gained all of his weight on purpose, adores food, and is as close to a canon feedee as I’ve seen in most media. Some other characters occasionally make fun of his weight, but he’s a really well-rounded (pun not intended) character that has a super interesting backstory/story arc that has nothing to do with his size, especially in the follow-up anime Danganronpa 3. I love him so much because I feel like there’s sometimes a dichotomy these days where fat characters either get depicted as “lmao fat slob look how much he eats that’s all there is to him” or “this character is fat but they don’t care about food at all!!!! look, they’re a good fatty!!!!!” And ideally what I want are fat characters who are allowed to love food and also have a rich other life, because, dammit, there is nothing wrong with loving food. Twogami is a wonderful, perfect character and I recommend him so highly. The only problem is that to understand SDR2 you really do have to play the original Danganronpa game, so even though I really do recommend that game too, it’s… a big time commitment lmao.

As for things that have more… feedist subtext? I don’t know if you’ve seen Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but it’s difficult for me to imagine a reading of Jacob and Queenie that wasn’t feedist. There’s literally like one fat joke about Jacob in the whole movie, and he’s just a wonderful chaarcter in general. Also, Steven Universe, of course, has wonderful body diversity. On the topic of Cartoon Network shows, We Bare Bears is about… bears lmao but they’re very round and love food so much? It’s just such a fun, food-positive show? It makes me so happy. also, Bob’s Burgers has a ton of fat characters and is usually very food-positive. Most of the main characters are at least a little chubby, but even though I would never say it’s an overall fatphobic show, they do make a fair amount of fat jokes, so be warned.

sorry for this long as shit as list, but idk if you’ve seen any of the movies in the Cornetto Trilogy? but The World’s End is my favorite movie, and one of the two main characters is played by Nick Frost, who is…. such a beautiful, large man. He loves food and it comes up a fair amount, but his real storyline is something entirely different and he’s such a good character. also, for something completely different, the TV show Fargo (not the movie) stars a fat woman in season 1 and a fat man in season 2, and their weight is barely ever brought up? It’s last on this list because Fargo isn’t very feedist, but it’s a very well-done crime thriller show with some great chubby characters.

also, idk if you’ve seen Hairspray, but that’s sort of a fat positivity classic (although I prefer the musical to the movie). Nikki Blonsky from that movie starred in a show called Huge about a fat camp, which I would recommend watching if all you want is media with fat characters, because it like… blew my mind every single episode that there was a whole cast of fat actors, and they were all characters who were interesting and taken seriously, and the show wasn’t trying to make fat jokes but instead humanize fat people and show that we need to be treated with respect. The ending was SUPER disappointing though, like basically it demonizes the one body positive character and makes her end up unhappy and alone, and pushes this stupid idea that all fat people are fat bc they stress eat to deal with their shitty lives. It’s very much a “fat people are worthy of respect if they’re good fatties and trying to lose the weight” narrative bUT I put it here bc it’s just amazing to watch a show with a mostly fat cast (and im gonna be 100% honest it’s like……. such eye candy oh my god? like do normal people have this experience when they watch hollywood shows where everyone is hot? everyone is so hot in this show?????).

I want to recommend you some books, but I… don’t read I’m literally the worst writer ever. Taft 2012 is a fucking hilarious book about US president Taft just appearing in the president in the most random-ass way and it’s feedist as shit but there are a ton of fat jokes. Tbh most feedist books I know are really fatphobic….. The book/musical Matilda has a child who eats a whole cake and is a hero for it???? Good times.

I feel like there are def other books I know with fat characters but I cannot think of them at the moment and anyway you probably already died while reading this list bc it’s so long so… enjoy, friend. Run free and find feedist media, and tell me if you find anything good.