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borkthemork · 2 days ago

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One of the things about Kirigiri and Naegi's dynamic that breaks my heart a bit is how confused Kirigiri gets over Naegi wanting to talk to her and being able to hangout with her.

She's a very lonely person. She has lived her life having guardian figures who left her at a young age or worked her to the bone to become a detective rather than a person. The people she did care about either betrayed her at some point, or used her for their own goals due to how intense her field of work is. So when Naegi hangs out with her or tries to reach out, she finds him an enigma she is trying really hard to understand, because the idea of being unconditionally loved in this way is still a new concept to her.

And she doesn't realize how much she wants this goofball by her side whenever he does ask for her time.

Some of her beginning dialogue before the FTEs start is her trying to give him an out to leave while giving him the option to stay to hang out. It's subtle, since we know Kirigiri can decline this guy at any time and seems to be more focused on the mystery than making friends, but even when she is silent or she talks with him akin to an information exchange, she lets him in through indirect language.

In her second FTE, she even gave Naegi a quiz to see if he is as trusting and loving as he seems, because she's so hyper vigilant over getting close to someone who might have ulterior motives. They're in a Killing Game, it makes sense, but there's this personal wariness of wanting to be close and yet being so hurt from past experiences that she has to test the waters bit by bit.

At some point in her fourth FTE, even when she admits that she isn't the kind to get emotionally involved with people and tried to rudely ask if they can finish the convo, she still makes a transition into talking about her gloves anyway.

She is continually testing how far and loyal Makoto is to being her friend that she indirectly tries to reach out about her own experiences.

She hasn't had someone to confide in about her worries and struggles at all in this school, after all. She doesn't even know how to make small talk or conversation without it being related to stuff such as the investigations or the mystery. Her social skills are very bad, she is serious all the time, and her sense of trust is continuously changing out of fear of getting hurt. Most of her and Naegi's hanging out during FTEs is them walking through the school in silence while she looks around, drinking tea, or doing nothing in particular. She doesn't know what to do with some guy who is okay with being in her presence for the sake of just...being there.

So when Naegi talks to her, it leaves her in this weird liminal space of wanting him close and yet far away. She tells him to go away, and yet comes to him for assistance. She uses him and breaks his trust, and then gets upset when he doesn't trust her back. She says she doesn't want to tell him about herself, and then quizzes him so that he can learn more about her.

She lets him into her space in small different ways, and it adds context as to how much more open Kirigiri is to talking to him in Chapter Six.

She has been wanting to tell someone about what she found for so long, and when Naegi showed how much he trusted her due to the Chapter Five trial, the dam opens. The moment they are away from cameras, she shows how emotional and vulnerable she can get. She had him in the room where her father's bones are, she tried to remain calm while asking Naegi to give her space to mourn her father, she talked to him about how uncertain her feelings are now, and basically everything that has been on her mind.

She's like an abused cat who befriended an emotional support dog, trying to get used to the fact that someone unconditionally cares for her

#danganronpa #naegiri #makoto naegi #kyoko kirigiri #trigger happy havoc #analysis #bork speaks #And don't even get me started on how Naegi does the same thing and how these two are both really similar in different ways #There's something that makes me go insane about how they both get very confused over why people want to get to learn more about themselves #Also another thing is her saying she finds herself getting intrigued by him more and more #And man the bar is low but like the moment you give an emotionally constipated character unconditional love #They start to lose their minds and bite at the walls from how good it feels to be loved

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ilikepenguinz · 1 day ago

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I'll admit, I kinda forgot about Taeko. While I was writing my little essay, I focused more on Celestia, the fake persona Taeko put on. Guess she successfully fooled me lmao

I don't think Byakuya can be fully called Makoto's opposite, because they are a bit too similar in the end (and only get more similar post-DR1). They're content in who they are, they're headstrong, they wish to go against the mastermind, and so on. And, as I pointed out, they share their determination in the end, but there's one thing Byakuya and Makoto are that Celestia and even Taeko aren't: honest.

Celestia, as a whole, is a fake person, while Makoto is as genuine as one can be. While Taeko and him are quite similar, with her being a dark reflection of him like basically all of his dead classmates sans Junko, Celestia, the fake personality, is anything but similar to Makoto, even down to the fact that she isn't real.

But note that this is just me trying to cover up that I completely forgot about Taeko Yasuhiro somehow whoops my bad lmao

If you got to rewrite the Danganronpa series with the creative restriction that you can't change more than one survivor per game (as in, swapping one alive and one dead person) and freely move the deaths around (can you tell I didn't like Hiyoko's death?)

What changes would you make?

You've made good points of Kodaka completely lacking tact when handling serious subjects, like all the sexual stuff in these games about teenagers, or more personal issues with him like racism, but I'm curious how those kinda issues can be fixed

- Timeline Autism Anon

Oh, timeline anon. Sweet timeline anon. You have unleashed the beast.

So, you're specifying that the only change that can be made to the characters' order is that one dear and one living character can swap, no more shuffling beyond that. Intriguing. I've never worked under such constraints, but I welcome the challenge! And hell, for the fun of it, I'll even include UDG

TRIGGER HAPPY HAVOC- ONE SWAP

I'm saving Celeste here, 100%. While I did consider saving Taka at first, I think ultimately there's some foiling and narrative contrast to be has between his death and Hina's survival that I wouldn't want to go to waste but having them both live, and Celeste as the antagonist is just too tempting to pass up. It should come as no surprise, then, that the one I'm swapping in as the chapter 3 killer is Byakuya.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's break this down, chapter by chapter, on how I'd alter THH's overall story even with this being the only change to the roster order

CH 1

While I'm unable to save either Sayaka or Leon (or Mukuro) here, we can give a little more screentime to Leon, namely by giving him some more character scenes here and there. My first thought is to have him see Makoto and Sayaka in the hall on their way to the gym and offer to join them (safety in numbers) and ends up also being part of the "dream" conversation. There's some contrast to be has there between him and Sayaka as he insists on hating his talent and trying to find a new dream, and a couple different angles you could take with it. I think game leans towards him being shallow and lazy at first, but I'd much prefer an interpretation where he doesn't know what his dream is and supposes it's to find something he's passionate about.

CH 2

Step 1. Make Chihiro and Mondo trans (fem and masc respectively). Step 2. Really really push against gender norms and the idea of having to 'pass' and why that's harmful.

Bonus step! Jack is a fictive of a fictional murderer from one of Byakuya's fav mystery novels. Also she and Toko aren't the only alters. Also also they didn't continue to be in love with him after he outs them

CH 3

Ah, the meat of the changes. Having Byakuya as the ultimate killer is made even more difficult by the fact that Hifumi is both killer and victim, meaning that Byakuya can only be the killer of Hifumi and Hifumi must have a reason to kill Taka. So what do we do?

Byakuya has harped on the idea that you can't judge the motivations of others by your own experiences from the very beginning of the game. It stands to reason, then, that he could be inspired to take advantage of the money motive by knowing that no one in the class would suspect him, the ultimate Rich Guy, as killing for what's loose change to him, only for him to fall to his own logic. Makoto and Kyoko are smart enough to put together that he could take advantage of everyone else's assumptions, and Kyoko in particular doesn't make assumptions outright. So we have a reasonable and flawed-in-character motivation for him to act now.

So, why does Hifumi kill Taka? If Byakuya is the killer, does he end up being the one to steal Alter Ego? I think no. In this case, I think it's Hifumi himself who breaks, developing a connection to Alter Ego that turns to obsession when the rest of the class pointedly tells him no, and plots to escape with her. In his desperation, I think I'd like to play off of his almost-friendship with Toko to have her unknowingly play a part in his murder plan by swiping the laptop, appealing to her own hopeless romantic side to convince her to take it while he enacts his plan to kill Kiyondo. (Sidenote: give Kiyondo some FTEs, and have people actually mourn his death more. His death as a result of his isolation works much better if Makoto AT LEAST is aware that his death was preventable had they paid attention.)

Now, here's where things get interesting. Byakuya doesn't follow the nighttime rule, so assuming Hifumi goes through with killing Taka at night, he could find the body before anyone else. That let's him know another murder case is already taking place, and gives him the final push to act now. Hifumi is a sloppy killer, and Byakuya can take advantage of that. So he quickly retraces Hifumi's steps to find him attempting to pin the crime on Hiro, and does a bit of 'messing with the scene' again, only this time, he adds a corpse of his own.

The plan is easy. Kill Hifumi, leave all the easily-torn-apart evidence of Hiro being framed, let the class connect the dots. Hiro found out he was being framed and tried to silence Hifumi, but was too stupid to clean up after himself. Even if they manage to prove Hiro's innocence somehow, Byakuya actually *knows* to pick up after himself. He can remove any implication that he was ever there.

His mistake was Toko. Toko still had the laptop. And when Hifumi never arrived, she went out, not to find Hifumi, but to find Byakuya. Because Toko isn't stupid. Because Toko learned firsthand mere days ago that Byakuya CANNOT be trusted. And she finds him somewhere he shouldn't be, using the trash room key he stole off of Hifumi to dispose of the evidence. And in the end, it's Toko's testimony that proves his undoing. See, he knew she saw him. He just assumed she wouldn't speak out against him. He assumed he knew her motivations, that he was better. He wasn't.

His other mistake was Hiro. Hiro, for everything his classmates see him as, isn't stupid, and giving Makoto the chance to stand up for him and help clear his name the way Kyoko did in chapter 1 would be really great and was literally entirely possible to do within the main game without changing anything, seriously, why were they allergic to giving Hiro character moments or positive connections outside of gags that punch down-

CH 4

This one is easy. If you've ever seen the stageplay, you probably have a good idea of what I'm adding here. Celeste takes advantage of Sakura's sacrifice by being the only one not to attack her, helping her lock the door and watching her drink the poison, only to then turn on her and begin attacking, turning the case into a 50/50 gamble. Hina watches her do it. And Celeste stays in the room, waiting for her to find the others and break in. They won't let Hina kill her, no matter how much she wants to. That would just make her the new blackened.

I think Hina's downward spiral would be elevated by having such a specific target at first, only for Kyoko and Makoto to discover even more wounds and have to find the source of the injuries. Pushing her to try and tank the trial and kill everyone who hurt Sakura at once would be an especially interesting angle, her betting on it being the poison not to save everyone, but to kill everyone, Celeste included. Of course, the majority would likely end up voting Sakura regardless, and that leaves Hina to try and pick up the pieces after hearing Sakura's letter, and leaves Celeste- Taeko- to live with the consequences of her actions, having lost the gamble and lost everything.

CH 5

I think this is a Hiro opportunity to have him act like the older brother figure he was meant to be, particularly for Hina. I mean, she went through the fucking ringer last chapter, she deserves some space to sit with it and come to forgive herself, and Hiro, who was first to attack Sakura, being the one to give her that time and genuinely apologize would be a great moment for both of them. Similarly, I think Toko and Jack getting more comfortable with the other members of the cast and being less of a nuisance would be awesome. Jack is literally a serial killer alter; who better than her to sympathize with Taeko's insatiable desires? She could get Taeko to be more comfortable as herself, and we'd actually get to see glimpses of that deep-seated insecurity she really has. Alternatively, the two of them being manga buddies would really work too.

Anyways, I think Taeko would have a looooooot of work to do to regain everyone's favor, and honestly, I'm fine with her not earning it back outright, instead making it clear she's given up on adaptation but wants to throw herself into escaping and uncovering the mastermind instead. And while there'd definitely be a divide within the cast, I think Makoto would be the one to convince them a truce for the sake of freedom is the best course of action.

Now, the whole Mukuro-corpse shenanigan would def still be happening, but having Taeko Yasuhiro, professional liar, here to identify the similarities between Mukuro's body and "Junko's" would certainly make for an interesting mix-up. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it could perhaps be Taeko who's now blamed and framed for the murder, and that the class' new apprehension for her working against her would make for a pretty damning verdict, especially when Kyoko is forced to protect herself.

(Taeko surviving the execution being a shining symbol of her gambler's luck would also go so hard if she has a character moment figuring out what's going on and places her bets on Kyoko, but maybe that's just the Celesgiri shipper in me talking who's to say lol)

CH 6

Mostly same, only Makoto and Kyoko work together to rescue Taeko while the others use Kyoko's secret tool to investigate without technically breaking rules. It'd give each character something unique to provide to the final trial, and maybe even a split POV style investigation amongst the entire cast? Hell, if we're going that far, switching into Taeko in chapter 5 could be a strong move as well.

This has honestly gotten. Very rambly. I should've anticipated how much I would have to say about this but oh well lol. I will do the other games Later someone remind me

#Makoto Naegi #Celestia Ludenberg #Byakuya Togami #Taeko Yasuhiro #Danganronpa

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