#jk ill probably miss that deadline too

[zooone]

me asf realizing i missed out on the wilbur christmas fic deadline

[serahne]

What do you think on Korekiyo Shinguuji? Awesome and underrated villain or mess of writing and a waste of good concept for cheap shock value? Or maybe just a misunderstood little boy who had been sexually used by his own sister and had been scarred for life because of it?

Ah… there is a lot to unpack about Korekiyo. My general stance is that he is a good and unique character but that the third trial/murder is really bad in some ways, and it screwed him over, like, big time.

This is very subjective, but I love Kiyo’s brand of character, and I thought it was refreshing to see him in a Danganronpa game. First, he is book-smart, which is usually not a thing in these games because, guess what, if you write a character who is specialized in a field, then you better research this field thoroughly. It’s not fun, and that’s why the only ‘specialists’ in DR are characters like Chiaki or Tsumugi ( or even Hifumi ), who are specialized in stuff that the writers themselves are into. Because it’s easier. I wouldn’t be surprised if the writers had put more work into Kiyo’s character than into anyone else because his entire personality depends on his talents.

As a writer, this is very impressive to me, haha.

Even when it comes to the most… er… controversial parts of his character, they did research their stuff ! The rituals surrounding death and mourning is one of the most famous subject in anthropology, and so is the incest taboo. These are subjects that a lot of people don’t consider as rooted in culture but ‘natural’, almost written in one’s DNA, but are actually 100% cultural.

More than that, I thought Kiyo’s personality was very cool. Sure, he is painted as a weirdo from the start, but he is also smart, calm, level-headed. A character savy enough to protect himself from harm, but also unempathetic enough to create uneasiness with the others. I love characters who just see the world differently than most people, and Kiyo is exactly that. How can I not be interested in a character like that ?

The problem with his role in chapter 3 doesn’t lie - in my opinion - in his character, but in the way it’s portrayed. It really comes from nowhere The game could have convinced me that Korekiyo being a mass murderer made sense, or that his incestuous relationship with his sister was well-written. As it is… it didn’t.

To begin with, there is little to no setup to Kiyo being revealed as a “crazy mass murderer”. One trope I’ve always hated is the ‘ohoho, I was the bad guy all alone, and no one could ever suspect me before the truth blew up in your faces’. Sure, his case is less frustrating than Tsumugi’s… but still. Hell, beside his FTE, he only mentions his sister once. As for the ‘murderer’ part, once could wonder why he even waited until chapter 3 to act. He didn’t make a move in the first chapter, even though the deadline was coming, for example.

What I mean is that this is different from Tsumiki’s case, who just fell ill and immediately acted upon it in sdr2. Kiyo from chapter 3 just doesn’t match who we knew until then, and this is… the worst result you could aim for when you write a murder story. When you write a murder story, you need to reach the truth and be like ‘oh, of course ! How did I miss that ?’ “But he was pretending to be normal”, one could say. No offense, but considering how unstable Kiyo is in chapter 3, there is. no. way. he was pretending.

Also, if we really have to compare his character’s derailement with Tsumiki’s, it’s interesting to note that Tsumiki’s has a purpose. She regains her memory, giving informations and hints about the ending to the player and the rest of the cast. Kiyo’s is ultimately pointless. I don’t know is ‘shock value’ is the right word but… kinda, to be honest. Maybe in a way it could be seen as so unexpected that it would look too extra to be real - thus, necessarily scripted. But that’s very a reach, haha.

And even brushing that aside, his plan is dumb. If Kiyo’s goal is to kill as many girls as possible while inside, then he should have gone on a killing spree as soon as possible. If he wanted to leave the Academy and kept on killing outside, then why did he set up a plan that put such ridiculous target on him ? After killing Angie, he should have just rolled with it and adapted.

Everything about the third murder is about twisting Kiyo’s character to make him fit a pre-determined plot. Why does he have to kill two people ? Because third chapter. Why does he plot such stupid plan ? Because the writers probably thought about this murder and really wanted to put him into the game. If Kiyo didn’t care about dying why did he denied it ? ( the game flips flop so much on the topic, I don’t even know ) Because we obviously can’t have the murderer confess. And if that doesn’t fit Kiyo’s character, then who cares, anyway, right ?

Kiyo is a very original character that the writers bent to fit an uncreative mold, and it’s so frustrating. So many possibilities are thrown around in chapter 3, including the possibility that Kiyo could have gotten away with Tenko’s murder, and at the last second the game is like ‘lol, jk, let’s go back to our usual program, bye’, and I think that’s a waste.