#like okay sure i KNOW the game doesn't have a “true protagonist” but honestly. the dark urge feels too important to be left out

[veilblight]

they said not to play as the dark urge for your first campaign because literally how am i supposed to do a custom origin run after this

[aparticularbandit]

thoughts on enogiri ?

Yeah, yeah!

Honestly, I really love imagining them pre-Killing Game.

I love the idea of Kyoko Kirigiri who has no idea about anything regarding love or relationships and who is always and only detective and who doesn't intentionally keep herself closed off or separate from her classmates but just naturally is those things - like, let's be real, Kyoko has never really had a childhood. Jin tried up until he abandoned her, and even then, she was going on constant trips with her grandfather, she was never really staying in one location for very long, Kyoko has no idea how to actually have a friend at all and has been taught that friendships and family and all that other stuff MUST be seen as LESS THAN being a detective - and, yes, Yui tried, but the entirety of Danganronpa Kirigiri is Kyoko having a moment and then closing back up again because hey, look, this hurt, and I screwed up by trying, and I'm never gonna forget that I screwed up and I can't do this again - that's what the gloves are for!

So like. Kyoko who is this bundle of trauma and training and doesn't know how to people even if she wanted to people and isn't sure that she does want to people because the one time she did people it literally, quite literally blew up in her face--

Being literally adopted by Junko Enoshima who does not know how to keep her mouth shut and cannot take no for an answer and it does not matter how much Kyoko goes off by herself, Junko is going to chase after her because no, you are my friend now, and you don't get to escape this, I'm choosing you, and I don't care, and you're MINE.

Because let's be real. Junko preys on the vulnerable. And when it comes to interpersonal relationships, Kyoko is vulnerable. Kyoko is very strong in who and what she is, although she occasionally has doubts over the whole being a detective is more important than the people you care for thing, but she's very secure in who and what she is.

And Junko says, look, here is this entire world you are shutting yourself off from, and I want you to be part of it, and I'm not taking no for an answer. You don't have to be with anyone else, but you have to be with me, and you're going to like it, and you're going to like me, you're going to love me, even if you don't want to, even if you're scared and vulnerable. Even if no one else wants you, I want you.

Choose me.

Kyoko being warmed by that. Because she really, truly is alone. And she doesn't want to be. And when someone as insistent as Junko reaches out and says you don't have to be alone, eventually Kyoko will say okay and cling to the one person that she has. Because she's all she has.

And that's what Junko wants.

Abusers take lengths to separate their victims from their support system, but if we're honest here? Kyoko never had a support system. Her dad abandoned her. Her grandfather thinks she's just fine on her own. Yui is dead. Her mom is dead. Her other grandfather is dead. Kyoko has Kyoko.

....

And, in this case, Junko.

Who is exactly not the person you want her to have.

(Junko doesn't have to convince Kyoko she's alone. Kyoko already knows that. Junko just has to convince her that she's the only one who will push through her barriers and stick with her no matter what. And that's not hard.)

Semi-Related, someone made a comment early on with OAEI (that's...the fic I've been posting; I'll link to it) that the first game feels very much like it's Junko and Kyoko's story, like Kyoko is meant to be the protagonist and Makoto's...there and not really a concern until after Kyoko goes to bring him back, and like. (They did a much better job explaining this than my overview.) That rings so true to me. So much of THH is so personal to Kyoko, from the murder of her dad to the tidbits that are left for her, specifically, to find (and are absolutely NOT meant for Makoto, which is why he gets knocked out and has the relevant secret information stolen from him), to the endgame investigations revealing that Kyoko was still her dad's password (which means, yes, he did still care about her) and the present of her dad's bones wrapped up just for her to find--

Makoto's the protagonist, sure, and he becomes the Ultimate Hope, sure, but the Killing Game is so much about the relationship between Junko and Kyoko.

The whole thing is a murder mystery.

A present.

Wrapped up for her girlfriend.

Because she loves her.

With the end driving her into despair just the same as Junko is.

(Except for Makoto getting in the way.)

I just.

I love the dynamic of them so much. I love exploring them.

They're cute.

[morallygreyvigilante]

Someone messaged me about my thoughts on the three Daganronpa characters in my banner, so I'm answering here.

Simple answer? They're my favourites from the main three games.

Long answer? Well...

Trigger Happy Havoc - Makoto Naegi

Okay, so to start off with, my initial introduction to Danganronpa was through the anime so I only really knew about the THH cast (and later, the SDR2 cast, but I'll get to that in a bit) and it wasn't until later on that I got into the games themselves.

Honestly one of the things that struck me about Makoto is how underrated he is. A lot of people tend to prefer Hajime or the protagonists from V3 which, y'know, fair enough. We all have our preferences.

Makoto is honestly pretty impressive, and I know some people might say that he's kind of generic as far as protagonists go. And maybe that's true, but if you look at him from the context of the setting he's in and not what his character role is? There's definitely something interesting there.

Makoto himself points out time and time again that he's fairly average, but he really isn't, or at least not in the way he seems to think he is. You throw an average person in a killing game and chances are they're gonna break, they're gonna give up, especially when you consider the kinds of people he's trapped with. But he doesn't, Makoto doesn't give up.

Sure he gets close to breaking a couple of times but nothing ever really pushes him over that edge (at least, not in the killing game itself). Hell, the guy got framed twice and almost executed once, and he still didn't break. He's had to vote classmates guilty, knowing that they'll die, and he still didn't break.

Also he cares so much about his classmates, people who (as far as he's aware) he's only ever known as participants in the killing game. The one person he does have any memory of tried to frame him, and he never really seems to hold any kind of grudge over it. He mentions that he'll carry their deaths with him, which is a pretty heavy thing for anyone to do, especially in an environment where your life is constantly on the line. But he does it.

Then he becomes the Ultimate Hope, and people don't really talk about it as much as they should. In this setting they're in hope is kind of a big thing, Makoto goes from being completely average - a "nobody" - and becomes this revered figure. And not many people talk about how difficult that must've been to deal with, and Makoto himself never really seems to mention it either.

And then there's that scene in the Future Arc of the anime, and Makoto finally does break. He finds out that Kyoko died, and that in some twisted way he was partially responsible for it, and he breaks. Which, honestly? It felt right.

Makoto is the Ultimate Hope, yes. But he's still human, not some ideal. And when that video starts playing, we finally see just how difficult things were for him.

He gets thrown into another killing game after he'd already escaped one, he sees one of the people he's come to care for die and because of the twisted rules they're playing by he thinks it's his fault. Then there's the video. And what does Makoto see? He sees his fallen classmates and what do they tell him? That he should've died instead of them.

Makoto's been dealing with survivor's guilt since the first game, he's had to see someone else he cared about die, one of the people he'd helped save during that first game. And now he was being told, by the people he couldn't save, that he should've died. Makoto breaks.

It would've been easy to claim that the whole Ultimate Hope thing makes him immune to despair, but it doesn't. Makoto isn't superhuman, he's fallible just like everyone else and that's what I like about his character. Even after becoming the Ultimate Hope, even after he became this kind of 'saviour' figure, he's still just a normal person. Even when everything's said and done, he's still that average dude who's probably a touch too optimistic for his own good.

Goodbye Despair - Chiaki Nanami

Oh boy, Chiaki gives me so many feels. A lot of characters in this series are pretty tragic, but Chiaki in particular really highlights just how unfair this entire thing was.

We see during the Despair Arc just how much Chiaki brought her classmates together, we see how all these eccentric personalities started to mesh together just because she was willing to put in the effort.

We know these characters are talented, but don't really share their talents with each other all that much because a lot of the time their talents aren't really things that they can share that easily. But then we see Chiaki including her classmates, we see them playing games with her despite knowing that they'll probably lose, something which they're probably not used to at this point. And they enjoy it.

What makes it so tragic, is that that closeness is exactly what made it so easy for them to fall into despair. We see the class unite when they thought Chiaki was in danger, we them work together to try to save her. And then they don't. They fail and they have to watch her die a gruesome death, one that they couldn't prevent. And it breaks them.

Chiaki is such a tragic character, because her efforts to bring them together only made their fall that much easier. And the worst part? There wasn't even anything she could do about it.

Then, there was the killing game. And Chiaki's there.

What strikes me about Chiaki's part in the killing game, is what happens towards the end. Yet again, Chiaki ends up dying, and yet again her death was something that she couldn't do anything about. She was the blackened yes, but she didn't set out with the intention of killing anyone. She was the blackened in a case where the murder was set up by the victim themselves, and she was the one who took the fall.

The whole thing was a bit more complicated than that, but that's a topic for another day. But the thing that struck me the most about that trial wasn't what happened during it, but what happened at the end. Chiaki didn't try to plead she was innocent, she didn't fight what was about to happen, instead she chose to reassure her classmates. She chose to comfort them, to make them know they made the right choice.

And then there's the actual ending. The ending of SDR2 was so bittersweet. Because on the one hand, it was a simulation, no one had actually died. But the Chiaki in the killing game wasn't real, the Chiaki in the killing game wouldn't wake up with them. The real Chiaki died at the start of the tragedy, the real Chiaki died probably thinking she'd failed them, the real Chiaki was gone.

Honestly it would probably be more accurate to refer to Despair Arc Chiaki and SDR2 Chiaki as two separate characters. But they're both equally tragic for very different yet similar reasons so I feel it's appropriate for this post to talk about them both.

Killing Harmony - Kokichi Ouma

And now for the gremlin. I've already talked about Kokichi a lot on this blog so I probably won't go too in depth here since I've already shared a lot of the thoughts I have about him.

But, generally speaking? Kokichi is really intriguing. There's so much we don't really know about him (well, about his game persona, since we don't really know anything about the pre-game V3 cast) and what we do know is pretty suspect simply because it's Kokichi.

This guy is a walking mystery to begin with, but then we find out later on about his plan to masquerade as the mastermind and it adds a whole new layer to pretty much everything that he said or did previously. There's just so many different ways to interpret a lot of his actions and motives, and I don't think anyone other than Kokichi himself truly knows what the correct answer is.

At an initial glance Kokichi looks a lot the villain of the story (at least up until the end of chapter 5) but he's so much more than that. I won't go as far as to say to say he was a hero, but I feel like just brushing him off as being 'evil' doesn't do his character justice.

Like I said, I'm not going to go too in-depth because I've already done that a lot for Kokichi and I don't really want to repeat myself too much.

But, if I had to pick out what really stuck with me in regards to Kokichi? It's how alone he really was. Kokichi was such a paranoid character, arguably the most paranoid to be introduced in this series so far. Sure there were characters he was probably close to, and we see how one death in particular affected him - how genuine that response was is open to interpretation - but he never really seemed to form connection like the other characters did. And when you consider his plan to masquerade as the mastermind, you understand why.

But for a character who seemed so determined to push everyone away, his plan wouldn't have worked at all if he didn't have the cooperation of at least one person. And sure, the plan didn't end up working, but it came pretty close and he wasn't even there to see it.

I've said in a previous post that trust is a pretty significant theme when it comes to Kokichi, more specifically that he doesn't trust anyone (at least at the start). But when it came to enacting his plan? He needed to trust someone.

There's more that I could say about Kokichi, but I've said a lot of it already so I won't.

[scalproie]

One of the things I don’t understand about the pmd fandom is that people legit hate dusknoir even after getting both sides (kinda) of the story yet are chill with gengar who as far as I remember was a dick just because. I’m lukewarm on the chonky (purple) ghost but I WILL fight someone for dusknoir. I mean have you seen him? Friend shaped and equipped with spine snapping huggy arms. And he looks very polite.

I can’t fault anyone for wanting to survive no matter what because they’re afraid. That’s such a human concept and it wouldn’t make sense to not empathize or at least sympathize with it. Not saying what he did was okay, but before he tried to kill you and your partner, he saved your life out of instinct. He was already hailed as a great guy before that and honestly wouldn’t have been blamed if he didn’t save the protagonists. So it was all a good deed just to be good.

Dusknoir is a complex character and it’s okay to dislike him, but you can’t ignore that boiled down he’s one of the more real characters in this 2D Pokémon spinoff.

Sorry for the long post! I just had to go of, and reading your tags fueled that fire. 🐈

For starters I'm gonna say that I very much agree and overall feel the same way.

I think people are more chill with Gengar because there was no real "betrayal" in rescue team, like you said, Gengar was an antagonistic force since the very beginning as you met him, so him being a snitch was almost... expected? And yeah you hate him but it doesn't have the same impact, when he get a "reveal" as the human who left Gardevoir you're more like "of course he is that son of a-". He does get... well I can't excatly called it a redemption, but he gets character development at the end of the game if you read the subtext and far into the post game. I know Gengar gets thrown with the four others of the "betrayal gang" (and its true!), but if if we draw a direct comparaison, Skuntank is the Gengar of eot/d/s (could you IMAGINE THO, If SKUNTANK was the agent sent by Primal Dialga? I'm losing it just thinking about it)

Dusknoir on other hand. They did a wonderful job at mixing the formula this time around because YEAH. Like you said, he does help you at Amp Plains just because and I'll never shut up about it.

(Even if we do consider the alternative, that he only did it to keep a good image, like yeah he's probably like 25 levels too high for Amp Plais and co to be worrying for him but still, he's already super respected and when you look at his dialogue when he remember what happens at this time of year in Amp Plains, it reads as 100% genuine.)

Anyway, I can't speak for everyone, but I feel that Dusknoir is so well remembered and lowkey hated because there's this deep sense of betrayal, that other games have tried to replicate ever since? As the og, He IS the reason "pmd makes you have trust issues" is a meme. He was your ally for 3 or 4 whole chapters? And then does a 180° and is responsible (not really but when you first play you don't put two and two together) for one of the darkest part of the game you experience, I mean he's the one who takes you there, and the whole Future Of Darkness deal was really heavy on me as a kid. The betrayal doesn't really come out of nowhere but the "smirk" scene was a pretty long time ago, and some people say it's obvious he's a bad guy cause "just look at him" but I personally didn't saw it then.

He also was really easy to hate in time and darkness, I know I sure did, when you didn't have the whole story, and if you played those games before, the special episode you experience some years later comes off as a nice reveal, but I personally only started to think about his character years after in my second playthrough when I was capable of thinking about it more deeply. And now at this point it's genuine fondness and nostalgia for one of the first complex villain/character of my childhood.

But also he's really easy to make fun of.

[kotekie]

Colress and redemption

A ramble by me here we mc go.

Key point that needs to be made really clear.

I am not talking about whether colress deserves to be redeemed. That is a different topic and I'm just focusing on how I find a colress redemption arc to be so gosh darn fascinating.

Secondly, this is focusing upon game Colress. Anime and manga not included.

Thirdly, I have not completed bw2 or sun and moon but I did do my best to research everything and I reread all his dialogue on bulbapedia before doing this ramble.

All clear? Okay let's go.

In my honest opinion Colress is an absolutely fascinating character to have a redemption arc and honestly skipping over it I find to be a crime.

Colress is a grey character. That's kinda his whole deal but let's be honest his shade of grey... is a bit darker considering bw2 events. Then again it is... difficult to write a purely grey character. Overall. He is a grey character.

He's not the typical character you would want to see a redemption arc for. Typically those types of characters have some kind of tragic element, I.e good character turned bad due to traumatic event. Usually they have someone to pull them back or try to help them become better.

Colress has no one.

The closest bond Colress has to anyone is Ghetsis and I'll get to him later.

Sure Colress works with people but he never really has any friends. Nor any family from what we see.

He is alone.

This is important because Colress is very influenced by certain people. Mainly, people whom he holds some kind of respect for.

No more is this evident then in Bw2. It's by his interactions with Ghetsis the plasma frigate incident happens. It's by his interactions with the bw2 protagonist that he starts to change and eventually disbands team plasma.

We even see the influence of the bw2 protagonist in alola. He referers to 'that trainer he once met' and he mentions that its bonds between humans and pokemon that draws out the full power between humans and pokemon as he had learnt in BW2. Yet even in Alola he is still doing pokemon fusion. Which is. Well. Not the best thing to put simply. Which, is a remnant of Ghetsis's influence.

Speaking of which.

I am not suggesting Colress and Ghetsis are friends. At all. What I am saying... is that Ghetsis is likely the closest thing Colress had to a friend.

I am not going to debate whether or not he actually despises Ghetsis but I will say that he does somewhat care for him. This comes from his line in ultra sun and moon where after yeeting RR Ghetsis back into his world he says "I can only hope that the taste of defeat will keep that Ghetsis out of trouble in his world" which if you think about it... That is a very odd thing to say about someone like Ghetsis unless on some level you care about them.

That's something sad I found about Colress. In game Ghetsis is probably the closest thing he has to a friend. Perhaps maybe the bw2 protag but it never seems to evolve into a friendship or develop to a deeper level then the one he has with Ghetsis and I'll explain why I think so later.

You could argue he cares about the ultra sumo protags and lillie but I would like to bring up the possibility that he only cares about them because they would be useful for his research. After all the protags can use z moves and gets a legendary. That would be useful to his research.

All in all... I think this leads to a key component about Colress. He doesn't understand bonds between people and pokemon beyond a very basic level. It's limited. No more is this clear then in his research.

He focuses in on power.

He says his theme of research is to draw out the true 'potential' in pokemon. Yet often he talks about drawing out a pokemons power.

You could argue that Colress is actually seeking to draw out the full power of pokemon not potential. I would like to bring up the possibility that he does mean potential but to him potential = power.

He has a narrow view on what potential means. Just like he has a narrow view on relationships.

He fails to see that a pokemons potential is not just power but the ability to change, grow, help others and so on.

With relationships, he thinks it about mutual trust. Trust is important but it's the groundwork. Work colleagues trust each other. Friendships go a bit beyond trust. Its loyalty, understanding and comfort, dedication and being able to be vulnerable around each other.

This also makes his bond between Ghetsis to me is quite sad.

We know that Colress prioritises his research above everything. It's kinda his whole thing. He works with people who will provide him with what he needs with his research.

Yet. He still Hope's that rr ghetsis doesn't get in trouble in his own world. A ghetsis that would provide no benefit to him yet he still doesn't want him to get into trouble. Colress cares about Ghetsis.

But as we know, Ghetsis is a manipulator and doesn't care about anyone but himself.

We know that Colress is influenced by the people he respects. Is it that far fetched that his warped views on pokemon potential and relationships came from his bond with Ghetsis? After all we do that Ghetsis's influence is still prevalent is sumo considering he willingly made a device for poke fusion. Again.

This is why I don't think he formed a friendship with the bw2 protag. If he did I don't think his views would be so narrow.

We see the potential. In bw2 he says when the player rebattles Colress that he is uncertain of where to go next but when he battles the protagonist the future seems clearer. If they had become friends he would have become better. He has the potential to become redeemed.

This is why I find the idea Colress having a redemption arc so fascinating. He has the potential to do so and surprisingly it easy.

He can become better. He just needs a better influence.

Yes I am saying the power of friendship can turn Colress its cheesy but there ya go.

I very much love the idea of a character learning to be good via the bonds they share with other people. Plus Colress's transformation wouldn't be quick it would be slow and take time. It's small acts that build up to make a massive change and personally I would love to read it tlajkssn.

But um ye.

Dats pretty much it.

Bonus: (abuse mention below)

I don't think Ghetsis abused Colress. Ghetsis is a tactical man. I agree he did likely abuse N but he would have done it in a way to brainwash N into thinking what he wanted him to think.

Ghetsis needs Colress's loyalty and it's really quite simple on how to do it. Fund his research.

However I do think that Ghetsis may want revenge. Colress is no longer useful so it's pretty much up in the air what he may do to him.

Also, Colress has never met N. N is the exact person Colress would want helping him in his research and Ghetsis would have known this. Having the two interact could prove disastrous to his plans as Colress would have told him that humans and pokemon can get along and N would've helped Colress in his research far more then Ghetsis ever could.

Also post bw N would have been the positive influence Colress would have needed to become redeemed just saying.

Sequel post:

Update post for story based on my analysis:

Edit: hey this is Koteki from the future just adding to a link to an analysis that helped fuel my own- I recommend you have a read through it cause it's very good. In these analysis I tried to keep it to my own thoughts but it was inspired by this analysis so here-

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13321335?view_adult=true