#monakoto

[danggirlronpa]

If it's not too much trouble, do you have headcanons for Kotoko/Monaka? I like to imagine post-canon they work out their issues with each other and get to a much healthier place, like, when they're teenagers. I related a lot to Kokoto's toxic relationship with Monaka, I definitely had relationships like that when I was in elementary school too. It's kind of nice to imagine a world where - whether romantically or platonically - they work out their issues and work out, even if that might not be exactly realistic, aha...

Oh MAN do I have post-canon Warriors of Hope headcanons. I really do love imagining these kids and the lives they lead when they come of age.

I try not to use read mores, but this one got way longer than the usual headcanon posts, and it very much is less "Kotoko/Monaca headcanons" and more "elaborate set-up for how Kotoko and Monaca feel about their crimes as teenagers." So more under the cut I guess!

Firstly, some setup. I love adoptive family relationships, and especially mother/child adoptive relationships. So of course I love daydreaming about Aoi "Bleeding Heart" Asahina adopting Kotoko, and it becoming a Kyoko (or Miaya!)/Hina-parenting-Kotoko, friends-to-moms slowburn. SOMEONE'S adopting these children, and it's not Komaru "I Just Spent A Full Year In Solitary Isolation (:" or the "We Taser Ourselves To Decide Whether The Serial Killer Fronts (:" Fukawas. Hina's upbeat, she keeps it light, and unlike Makoto "Spotless" Naegi, she understands the guilt of attempting/committing mass murder. Kyoko isn't quite any of that but deep in my heart. Through The Power Of Love And Elaborate Metaphors About Her Relationship To Her Father

And I mean. I'm going to be honest. Monaca's, like, 10. She spends three days in space before she goes 1. Wow this sucks 2. I did not in fact prepare enough materials to live like this indefinitely. I'm like 10. I packed enough for about 13 hours and thought I was good Forever. I need more marshmallows.

So it takes Monaca all of half a week to admit her failures and crash land somewhere on earth. The island with the Remnants? Misaki and Takumi? In-universe versions of the V3 students as adults? Personally I'm a fan of Yasuhiro and Kanon adopting her in the world's absolute weirdest fantasy. What matters is SOMEONE finds her. And we get Mod Loves Sappy Adoptive Relationships V2: Now With The Green One.

Because listen. Listen. These are kids. They have committed heinous, unforgivable crimes of extreme ethical concern, and they are also ten years old. Their only frame of ethical reference is a manipulator and abuser so good at what she does that she ended the world. People generally remember this with the other Warriors, but they almost always set it aside for Monaca, so I want to be clear: Monaca Towa is redeemable. Because she was 10 years old, and the moment she was out from under the thumb of the people who taught her how to do these cruel and unusual things, her first plan was Run Away To Space To Escape The Things That Have Happened Here. They're children.

THAT MEANS A LOT OF GUILT. NO ONE HAS EVER NOT BECOME A PUDDLE OF REGRET ABOUT SOMETHING THEY DID IN MIDDLE SCHOOL.

In general, I actually think Kotoko struggles with guilt the least amongst the Warriors. Firstly, I think having a parent who understands and can help her come to grips with what she's done from a very personal place really helps her work through it. But I also think Kotoko is low-empathy in general. I think eventually, she comes to understand intellectually what she's done wrong, but I don't think she ever struggles with the idea that she shouldn't have done it. I think she would be very practical about the circumstances that she was in, and in her mind, well. What else was she supposed to do? She'd been abused all her life. She was up against Junko Enoshima. Obviously what she did was wrong, but any other kid in that situation would've, in Kotoko's mind, done the same.

On the other hand, I believe Monaca would get hit with guilt very intensely once she finally processed everything she'd been through at high-school age, but that she would absolutely keep that under wraps and act as though it was meaningless to her.

Monaca is, in my opinion, a compulsive liar. You can see that in a lot of canonical ways, but I choose to extend it a bit to headcanons - it's not that she Doesn't need a wheelchair, it's that she has days when she needs it and days when she doesn't, and pretending she never needed it at all gives people a huge shock. She didn't plan to not kill herself with the rest of the Warriors as a prank; she really planned to do it, but people look at her when she says that. It's a defensive mechanism, and a method of feeling in control. At least I can choose for them to hate me by lying and being terrible, instead of being hated when I haven't done anything.

So I think, when she is finally faced with the enormity of what she has done, Monaca does what her first instinct is always to do: runs away from it and lies herself into culpability. Of course I killed all those terrible adults, and now that I'm almost their age, I'll just die instead of becoming one of them! That sort of thing. I think she traps herself into her own persona, no matter how hard she tries to improve, because Monaca is a child who internalizes until she breaks.

So when Kotoko and Monaca meet coincidentally at high-school age. Ho boy. Kotoko who still sort-of blames Monaca who blames herself, and neither of them completely aware of how to comfort a person or how to hate a person in a way that isn't lethal...oh the GROWTH. The Strawberry Wine by Deana Carter of it all

[77ngiez-archive]

girlboss

[the-warriors-of-dope]

Do you ship any of the Warriors of Hope together?

i feel like i may have answered this already but uhh since i cant remember ill do it kjdshrh

fave: Nagisa/Masaru (NagiMasa), Monaca/Kotoko (MonaKoto), Masaru/Jataro (MasaTaro)

like: Jataro/Kotoko (JatOko), Nagisa/Monaca (MonaGisa) Jataro/Monaca (MonaTaro)

(idk the ship names besides nagimasa, so i just winged it lol)

[danggirlronpa]

Monaca?

Monaca age 43 sits straight up in bed at 3 AM and goes oh my god. Junko Enoshima was my awakening. I had a childhood crush on Junko. And Kotoko half asleep next to her goes Yes Dear, Obviously, We All Did, We Have To Wake Up Early To Take The Kids To School. Why Do You Always Have These Realizations At 3 AM (it's the adhd) (she never actually picks a label she just sees Kotoko as 19-year-olds post-Redemption TM and goes Neat! I guess thats something I'll have to deal with)

[danggirlronpa]

Seed B1 Masterpost

Monaca/Kotoko art by jolee

Toko/Kyoko art by kianamaiart

Monaca/Kotoko

This is another one that. Um. People will understandably have hang-ups about. These characters are not…how you say…Good For Each Other. And they’re also, like, 10. And there’s a lot going on UDG that is questionable writing At Best. So as always. No shame in just backing out on this one fullsale. This is not a judgment call on this ship.

That said, it would be a huge disservice to the complexity of these chars to ignore how strongly they are coded as childhood romance. Kotoko and Monaca’s relationship is like what happened if little girls who had their Barbies fight in the Death Pits were given the power and reign to do whatever the hell they wanted. They are cruel and lash out and intentionally hurt each other in unforgivable ways. Because they’re 10, and they don’t have a developed sense of morality yet, and they were influenced by a very evil abuser. This is part of Danganronpa’s fundamental message of cult tactics and how they prey on the vulnerable.

The real value in Monaca/Kotoko – and in every Warrior of Hope ship, I’d argue – is the decision to change. It’s the decision to mature, despite how scary and horrifying adults are. Learning to regret and take responsibility for the horrors they’ve done, and to recognize that what happened to them was still wrong, and ultimately, that they were used.

The interesting thing here is that Monaca, specifically, is on a much slower track to maturity than the rest of the Warriors. It’d be very possibility for an adult Kotoko to meet an adult Monaca as hero and villain, or as antihero and antihero, or as two different versions of villain. But their actions as children fundamentally drove them apart. And would either of them regret it? See themselves in each other? See the things they’ve done in each other? Could they, in any world at all, find a happy ending together?

Toko/Kyoko

This ship is decidedly less controversial. (further bullets sent in by @danganwlw!)

obligatory Survivor Gfs and also Purple Gfs, but wait, there’s more!

They both have trust issues, but do different things to keep others away. Kyoko is Dodgy and Cryptic and willing to sacrifice anyone and anything if she feels the end goal is worth it, but rarely considers if anyone else is willing to sacrifice the same. Toko is blunt and aggressive and puts herself down before anyone else can, not actually letting other people have opinions before she projects her own. I think they could help each other Grow, willingly or not.

Toko is in desperate need of someone who will be blunt about their opinions, but also won’t instantly bend under her hostile attempts to push them away or otherwise insult them. Kyoko is similarly in need of someone who won’t just lay down and let it happen when she decides she knows better than everyone else.

※To avoid spamming artists, I will only @ them the first time their work shows up unless told otherwise. If you want to check all the art I used, check here!

[danggirlronpa]

I've been thinking about an AU where the Warriors of Hope are teenagers and in a "classic" DR killing game alongside a bunch of OCs. My main thought: Protag!Kotoko x Best Friend Who Is Actually The Mastermind!Monaca. Yuritastic if I do say so myself

Toxic shoujo ai, the rarest of content out there, can, we enough love and care, do a Pokemon evolution into toxic yuri. Nature is beautiful

Personally, I think teen Kotoko would be a fantastic "rival" character rather than a protagonist. They could have a Sakura-Hina style relationship until all of a sudden they don't, with the protagonist slowly discovering that Kotoko's abrasiveness is in part because Monaca is manipulating her, until the surviving group is finally faced with the reality of Monaca as the mastermind. And then Kotoko goes from kissing Monaca to kissing the protag! A win/win really.

[the-warriors-of-dope]

WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO CALL THE MONAKA/KOTOKO SHIP???? I was thinking either strawberry kiwi or watermelon but IDK (I call nagisa/kotoko Cotton candy and monaka/nagisa mint but ???)

Man I wish I gave things creative names but I just put two names together and I’m like “ship”

I call Kotoko/Monaca Kotoka, but my friend calls it Monakoto so idk

I call Monaca/Nagisa Monagisa (it’s like Mona Lisa lol)

The only ship I associate with something other than two names shoved together is Masaru/Jataro because they remind me of Autumn colors