#now I have to change his design guhhhhh

[cursezoroark]

GREEN IS IN HIS LATE 20s BY XY POKESPE ARC????????????

[commentaryvorg]

Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 1.4

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, we had all of chapter 1’s Free Time and hung out with Shuichi, who told Kaede about the caring kind of detectives that he and his uncle are, and with Kaito, who discussed communicating with aliens and why he’s an astronaut and how similar Kaede is to him. In the middle of all this, Kaede also grabbed a shot put ball and started plotting murder.

Today is the day the time limit runs out, so it’s time for Kaede and Shuichi to go and set up their plan.

Shuichi doesn’t answer his door for a minute, and then it turns out he was just using the bathroom. On my first time through I was briefly terrified he’d been murdered. That is almost certainly the only reason the (out-universe) writers had this happen.

They hear about a fight going on in the dining hall, so Shuichi goes alone to get the cameras from Miu while Kaede heads to stop the fight (this is how Shuichi ends up being the only one who learns about the camera intervals and forgets to tell Kaede). On the way there…

Kaede:  “If you know about the fight, why aren’t you stopping—”

Kokichi:  “Why should I? Something finally happened to break up all the boring tedium.”

Kokichi’s probably partly hoping that one of the people involved in the fight gets killed, and then he can survive without having to worry about being the victim.

Kokichi:  “If people feel like they need to take action to survive… who are you to stop them, Kaede?”

Kaede:  “…”

Kokichi has a reasonable point here for his standards, but it’s also extra ironic when you know that Kaede herself is the one planning to take drastic action. That’s probably what Kaede’s silence is trying to imply, too.

The “fight” in the dining hall, which is really more just a disagreement, is because Ryoma is suggesting someone should kill him so that everyone else can survive. As heartbreaking as it is that he’s so willing to give up his life, it’s actually quite a reasonable idea in this situation, from a logical standpoint. Assuming that nobody is going to be able to find a way around the time limit, having a single murder happen is better than everyone dying. The biggest problem with that is that it sucks for the one person who happens to end up the victim – but if that victim is a person who is willing to sacrifice their life for everyone else’s sake, then that’s not quite as bad.

Ryoma:  “I… don’t have a reason to live anymore. So if the rest of you want to live, I’ll hand my life over to you.”

And of course Ryoma would be the one to volunteer himself to die. But I also like how despite not having a reason to live, he doesn’t want to just die pointlessly – if he’s going to die, then he wants to use his death to help everyone else. Despite having given up on himself, he still cares so much about everyone else and their desire to live. Ryoma is really good.

Ryoma:  “I hoped it’d end that way. That’s why I waited so long to bring this up. But we’ve just been waiting for the deadline without doing anything to change it.”

Ryoma had already left the dining hall two mornings ago when Kaede announced that she and Shuichi had a plan and weren’t giving up. He’s doing this now specifically because he hasn’t seen anyone else try to take any action that won’t involve people dying.

Ryoma:  “Whoever murders me gets to leave without a trial. Everyone else survives the time limit… After that, the person who gets to escape can go for help and rescue everyone else.”

He could also potentially just kill himself so that nobody else has to dirty their hands – but having someone else do it does make more sense for this reason.

But then Rantaro makes up his mind and announces that he has a plan to end the game – and hearing that, Ryoma retracts his suggestion. He is quite happy to go along with a plan that doesn’t involve himself dying if it’s at all possible.

Also interesting to note is that, while she’s not saying much, Kirumi is witness to this conversation. She learns here just how willing Ryoma is to die if it will help save other people. No wonder she targets him.

Rantaro:  “Well, even if I *did* have an idea, I couldn’t tell you. Can’t risk anyone interfering.”

Guhhhhh the fact that he doesn’t tell Kaede his plan is precisely why she ends up interfering! But of course, Rantaro has no idea who the mastermind is and he’s saying this because he doesn’t want them to know his plan and try to stop him.

Kaede:  (I don’t have time to worry about things I don’t understand… I just need to do what I can.)

And if Kaede just did spend more time trying to understand Rantaro, then…

Kaede:  (Or else… I won’t be able to protect everyone.)

I like how this is a subtle hint at her true intentions – she’s not only really sure that she can protect everyone so long as she doesn’t get distracted, but she phrases it as being just herself who will do this, and not herself and Shuichi together.

Tsumugi:  “The time limit’s up tonight anyway. After going through so much… it’s strange, but I feel like I’ve come to accept it.”

Other than Kiyo and Angie, who are weird and amoral about things like this, Tsumugi is the only other character who appears to have accepted their inevitable death. Which makes sense, since she knows they’re not actually going to die. Apparently she can’t be bothered to fake being believably nervous about it.

Plan time!

Shuichi:  “She also modified them so that they’ll be completely silent, to not attract attention.”

Kaede:  “They’re completely silent… This is perfect.”

Shuichi:  “It needs to be… These are absolutely essential to our plan.”

Kaede:  “And do these cameras have flashes?”

Notice how Kaede specifically asks about the flashes right after Shuichi has explained that the cameras are designed to not attract attention. It’s almost like she’s fishing for a way that they can be made to attract attention or something.

(Then again, she doesn’t know about the vent at this point, so maybe that’s a coincidence.)

Kaede:  (I’m getting nervous… Ngh, my heart is racing.)

Plotting a murder right in front of someone who wholeheartedly trusts you: Not relaxing.

It really is pretty questionable how Shuichi says they should just leave the vent be because they’ll be watching it from the classroom but Kaede insists that she does something about it from the library anyway.

Kaede:  “This will work… This will definitely work!”

Shuichi:  “…Huh?”

Kaede:  “I think this plan might actually protect everyone! Yeah, it definitely will! This plan is perfectly composed like Chopin’s ballades! I actually really lilke complicated contraptions, like Rube Goldberg machines and stuff. So I’m positive this will work! This setup is perfect!”

And here’s the moment Kaede comes up with the specifics of her trap. On a first time through, this seems plausibly enough like she’s just talking about Shuichi’s plan with the cameras, but even with that it’s a little strange that she’d suddenly have this outburst after going up the ladder to look at the vent, of all times.

(Also, I wonder why she has a fondness for Rube Goldberg machines, hm? I wouldn’t be surprised if literally every character here was written with more of an interest in overly complicated setups than an average group of sixteen people would be likely to have.)

It’s lucky for Kaede that Shuichi is so passive and she’s so assertive, otherwise Shuichi would probably have argued harder that there’s no way she could put a camera on top of the bookshelves, like she was using as her excuse to be up there, before she finished arranging the books.

Kaede:  “Geez… these books are so heavy! What is this, an encyclopedia?” (I flipped open the book.)

“…” “…”

Shuichi:  “Ah, Kaede? Is this really the time to be reading a book?”

Kaede:  “Sorry… I get distracted easily when I’m organizing things.” (After I made that excuse, I rushed to reorganize the heavy books, but…)

This part’s also pretty clever. It’s obvious that something fishy is going on here with Kaede’s suspicious silence and internally admitting she’s making an excuse, but on my first time through I assumed it was that she’d read something plot-relevant in the book which she didn’t want to talk about right now and would bring up later. It didn’t remotely occur to me that the mere fact that she opened a book was the suspicious part.

Also, her excuse of getting distracted easily when organising things is pretty believable – she seems like exactly the kind of person to get way too enthusiastic about things, even potentially mundane things like this. This helps a first-time player gloss over the weirdness of her bookcase arranging by assuming this is just one of her character quirks.

Kaede:  (This plan will probably work. No… not just probably. It’ll *definitely* work!)

If she’d just allowed herself to doubt her plan a little more than this, then maybe…!

(But also, even aside from targeting the wrong person, the plan actually doesn’t work in the end, since the shot put ball misses.)

Kaede:  (Upon entering the classroom, a wave of anxiety suddenly overwhelmed me. My heart felt like it would beat out of my chest at any moment.)

Plotting a murder: still not relaxing.

Shuichi:  “About the… security sensor receiver… Could you hold on to it, please? I just feel like… you’d be better suited for that than me.”

Shuichi. All whoever has the receiver needs to do is hold it and not accidentally turn it off! That doesn’t require any kind of skill that Kaede supposedly has more of than you!

Also, the fact that Shuichi wanted Kaede to have the receiver serves as a clue to the player – even though it’s quite easy to forget about it by the trial – that Shuichi probably didn’t do it, because his supposed murder plot required him to have the receiver, so he wouldn’t have wanted to give it away.

Shuichi:  “My uncle runs a detective business… I would sometimes help out, as an apprentice.”

…Little awkward having this line as though he’s never told Kaede this before, after having done Shuichi’s FTEs where he talked about this at length.

Shuichi:  “…I’m not a real detective, Kaede. What kind of stupid detective is afraid of finding the truth?”

Kaede:  (Right then, I noticed Shuichi’s hands were trembling.)

Shuichi is adorable. It’s so refreshing to have a Danganronpa protagonist (even though he’s not the protagonist yet) with actual issues and weaknesses to work through, and it’s also really nice to have a character whose issues are explicitly relevant to the actual story and not just something you only find out if you do their FTEs but can be left out of the story altogether. I did Shuichi’s FTEs in this chapter because I feel like Kaede would have done, and because he’s a very important character, but they honestly didn’t go that far towards really explaining what makes Shuichi tick. This does, this story about that one murder case that made him terrified of finding the truth, and it’s here and not in an FTE because it’s so important that the writers can’t afford to make it optional.

Kaede is wishing she could play Clair de Lune for Shuichi guhhhhh.

Kaede:  “You noticed, huh? Yeah… I’m shaking, too. But… I’d be a mess if you weren’t here. I wouldn’t have been able to do anything… I would’ve been so lost… I’m glad you’re here with me, Shuichi. With you by my side, I feel like I can stand up to anything. You give me the courage I need to take on the mastermind. So please… be more confident. I believe in you, so you should definitely believe in yourself!”

THEY’RE FRIENDS. It’s been really clear how much Shuichi has gained courage from being around Kaede, but I love that, despite Kaede’s greater confidence and assertiveness, she still gets a lot of courage from being around Shuichi too and feels like she would have been a mess without him.

They’re two people stuck in an awful, terrifying situation, gaining courage from each other’s company and forming a bond to help them deal with this fear because that’s what human beings do. It’s the sort of thing that Danganronpa should always have been full of but never really did until now. There’s been other friendships, but none of them felt quite as much like they formed specifically because of the terrifying situation naturally bringing them closer together. I love fictional friendships, and Danganronpa has always had the potential for some really interesting and adorable friendships due to its premise, but it never really used that potential to its fullest until THIS GAME CAME ALONG.

I also think this is almost entirely down to the simple fact that Shuichi and Kaede happened to start out in the same room, and therefore explored together and quickly came to see each other as a familiar, comforting presence in the midst of all the confusion and anxiety. If the locker next to Shuichi’s had instead contained, for example, Kaito, Shuichi might have only barely interacted with Kaede, but instead he’d probably already be Kaito’s sidekick by now and it’d be Kaito helping him set up this plan. Or if it had contained someone that Shuichi didn’t automatically feel like he could trust, then he’d probably have just separated from them and wandered around lost, not telling anyone his deductions and not having the confidence to carry out this plan at all.

Kaede:  “Also, I think you would look way cooler if you didn’t wear that hat.”

Shuichi:  “Wh-What are you talking about?”

Kaede:  “What? I’m serious here. Once we’re out of here, I want you to show me what you look like without the hat, okay?”

What Kaede’s really saying is that she wants Shuichi to grow stronger and face his fear of looking people in the eye. But she probably thinks he’d be extra-awkward if she was that direct about it, so instead she just pretends that the only reason she wants him to take off the hat is because he’d look cooler without it. If she really just wanted to see what he looked like without it, she could just ask him to take it off briefly right now, but that’s not the point.

Kaede:  “Geez… I just wanna see everyone smile. I love seeing the expressions people make when they’re enjoying themselves. That’s why I play piano… To see the smiles on everyone’s faces. And that’s why we need to expose the mastermind and end this dumb killing game! So we can smile with everyone else!”

She is about to turn herself into a murderer because she wants to make everyone smile. Kaede is the best most adorable murderer ever. (Except for the multiple other adorable selfless murderers in this game.)

And now it’s Let’s Start the Killing Game time! The music that plays for the creepy promotional video is, weirdly enough, one of my favourite pieces on the soundtrack. It somehow perfectly manages to capture the mood of “oh god we’re all going to die if we don’t turn into crazed murderers ourselves”, which is quite a mood to be captured in a piece of music.

Kaito’s strategy meeting is on its way to the basement! Even though Kaito believed in Kaede and Shuichi mentioning that they had a plan, he still couldn’t just sit idle himself, not when everyone’s about to die. He promised he’d “do something about it”, and here he is, delivering on that promise. It’s not the best plan, because Kaito is really terrible at coming up with plans, but he’s doing something – which is more than can be said for anyone else other than Kaede, Shuichi or Rantaro.

Shuichi running off on his own to check out the basement works perfectly both as making you terrified that he might get murdered while he’s down there, and then giving him a possible chance to have been the murderer when he comes back alive, even though all it is is a genuinely innocent trip to check where Kaito’s group was going.

Kaede:  (Realizing I was alone, all the fear and anxiety I was trying to hide rushed back into me.) “Ah, geez!” (I couldn’t keep still, so I grabbed the broom from the corner of the classroom… I started cleaning for no reason at all. I had to move my body. The anxiety was getting to me.)

I love this. It’s such a bizarre but really human reaction to this kind of looming terror and anxiety. Especially when you realise that the real reason she’s anxious is that she knows she’s moments away from killing someone.

That said, I think the out-universe writers had her pick up the broom for a very specific reason we’ll see in a minute. But even so, it makes perfectly good sense for her to do something like this in this moment.

“In one hour… everyone dies.”

Monokuma sure is going out of his way to terrify them as much as possible. I wonder if it was specifically this that made Rantaro decide to ditch the strategy meeting and head to the library – there doesn’t seem to be quite enough time between this and the receiver going off, but it’s possible there was a slightly longer gap of time there than the game implied.

Kaede:  (Shuichi sprinted out of the classroom with the determination of a true Ultimate Detective.)

Aww, look at her believing in him! And look at him genuinely getting so wrapped up in his detective-ness that he rushes to confront the culprit and doesn’t keep an eye on Kaede. Not that he would feel like he needs to, after all, since he trusts her.

Kaede:  (I dropped everything I was holding and ran after Shuichi.)

…She was holding a broom, right? Right, yeah, that’s probably what she dropped, then. Nothing suspicious here at all.

Kaede:  (I could feel my heart beating faster and faster. I was so nervous, my head felt like it was pounding with every heartbeat.)

BECOMING A MURDERER WITH NO TURNING BACK REALLY ISN’T RELAXING

Kaede:  (Bracing myself to confront the mastermind, I had balled my hands into fists without realising it. It’ll be fine. Everything will work out.)

Because they’ll be dead and nobody will realise she did it and she’s not going to think too hard about the fact that she just killed someone and she’s an awful person, nope, so long as she saves everyone it’ll all be worth it.

Aaaand then they run into Kaito and Tenko and because of that they’re going to enter the library too late to see Tsumugi actually killing Rantaro in there. Oops.

Kaito:  “Well, never mind. Your timing’s perfect. You should join our strategy meeting.”

Kaito doesn’t know what’s going on and that their plan is in full swing, so of course he does this! He left them out of his strategy meeting presumably because he knew they had a plan of their own, but if they’re down here and seemingly not working on that plan then they might as well help everyone survive by helping with his plan, right?

Tenko:  “I-I don’t really understand, but you just need me to Aikido throw whoever’s inside, right!?”

Kaito:  “No, I’ll do it! I’ll be the one to take them down!”

I love how both of them are SO READY TO BEAT UP THE MASTERMIND, heh.

Kaede:  (As I walked in, I noticed the moving bookcase at the end of the room was slowly closing.)

That’s Tsumugi on her way out. Whoops.

Aaaaand Rantaro’s dead. I’m not going to be splitting up the Daily Life/Deadly Life between posts, because it’s always a continuation of the same scene, so that’s not really the best place to have a split.

Kaito:  “What in the world!? What the hell is going on!?”

I enjoy how freaked out Kaito’s voice sounds here. You don’t often get to hear him sounding like that.

I also appreciate the fact that Tenko freaks out too, like a decent human being who doesn’t care that the person who’s dead is male.

Gonta is the only one of the next four that run in after Tenko’s scream who actually reacts to the dead body like a normal person should. Himiko’s too depressed to respond properly, Angie’s Atua nonsense prevents her from truly caring, and Maki… well, she’s seen more than her fair share of corpses already.

Kaede:  (Shuichi examined Rantaro’s body and placed his hand close to his mouth to check for breathing.)

Shuichi, meanwhile, is showing some serious guts to just immediately examine the body to check he’s dead. He’s not a homicide detective – he only ever solved that one murder, and based on how he talked about solving it “accidentally”, he probably wasn’t even on the initial investigation at the scene for it or anything. This is most likely his first dead body he’s ever seen – if not, second at the most – and yet he’s able to do this. That’s impressive.

Kaede:  (My vision began to swirl… My legs wobbled beneath me… But out of sheer desperation, I kept my mind working.)

And this is how it feels to be a good person who is now a murderer.

Kaede:  (The monitor is off. It was no longer displaying Monokuma anymore. Does that mean… the mastermind is dead?)

That’s a pretty big leap she’s making there. If the mastermind were dead, the video would most likely still be playing – because no-one is there to stop it. The fact that it’s off means that someone did stop it, because the killing game has started and there’s no need for it anymore.

It is strange that the body discovery announcement didn’t play the moment the four of them first saw the body, though. Almost as if a certain someone is giving herself a couple of minutes to get back into the dining hall before letting it play so she doesn’t look so suspicious.

Regardless, it does make sense that Kaede would immediately jump to the assumption that the mastermind is dead and ignore all hints to the contrary. Killing the mastermind was supposed to be the result of this plan, and the possibility of it being otherwise is too awful to think about.

Monokuma:  “Everyone, please gather in the library!”

It’s nice of Monokuma to actually let everyone know where the body was found in this game. You’d think in the previous games when he didn’t do this there should have been a lot of people awkwardly running around going “shit, where is the body anyway???”

Monokuma:  “What a relief. A murder took place just before time ran out!”

Kaede:  “M-Monokuma!? But how!?”

Monokuma:  “I gotta admit, I was a little nervous there cuz the killing game hadn’t started yet. Geez… you guys really know how to keep me in suspense.”

Yeah, I bet you’re relieved, Monokuma. Although you’d probably be more relieved if Kaede’s shot put ball had done the job like it was meant to and Tsumugi hadn’t had to step in.

Monokuma:  “If the mastermind had died, this killing game would be over.”

It really doesn’t have to be, though, does it? Monokuma can run the game by himself. Cutting the game short if someone happened to kill the mastermind without that even being their intention would make for a boring story, wouldn’t it?

Kokichi:  “Wh-What? This is a lie, right? My dearest Rantaro is dea – Oh, I mean… was kiiiiiiiiiillled!!!”

Here’s Kokichi doing something he does often when he is probably genuinely at least a little distressed – massively overexaggerating his distress to make it seem obviously fake, so that when he turns around and starts acting like he doesn’t care, he can tell himself that all of his distress was a lie and he isn’t really bothered at all, right.

Monokuma:  “With that said… if you’re the blackened who killed Rantaro, raise your hand!”

Tsumugi:  “The one who… killed Rantaro?”

Yeah, Tsumugi, want to raise your hand like he’s asking you to?

Kaito:  “Tch… That dumbass! How dare he go and get himself killed!”

I don’t believe that Kaito even for a moment actually considers Rantaro an idiot for getting killed. He’s just lashing out irrationally because he’s upset and angry that this happened – perhaps that he let it happen, even. He’s probably thinking that he should have realised Rantaro leaving to go the bathroom was suspicious and done something to prevent this. Even something as simple as Kaito insisting on going with him just in case would have saved Rantaro’s life.

There’s a couple of text boxes of nothing but ellipses from Kaede’s “inner monologue” as nobody speaks up to claim the First Blood Perk. Most likely she is thinking something that’s being omitted to prevent spoilers – it’s a shame we’ll never know what it is. Even so, the fact that she’s thinking “nothing” is in and of itself suspicious; one would expect her to be wondering why nobody’s speaking up.

Kaede:  “Everyone besides the blackened… Everyone…”

You won’t let that happen, though. Will you, Kaede?

Her saying this as if in horrified realisation implies it’s only just now occurring to her that if she doesn’t manage to unmask the mastermind in the trial like she’s hoping to, she has to sacrifice herself because the alternative is completely unacceptable.

Tsumugi:  “But… is it true? Is one of us really the culprit?”

I don’t know, Tsumugi, you tell me.

Kokichi:  “Ah-haha, everyone’s competing to see who’s the most paranoid. Yeah, that’s not boring.”

Don’t worry, Kokichi, I’m pretty sure you win that competition hands down.

Shuichi:  “If we all lose our trust in one another because of this… it’s all over! We have to believe in each other and investigate this case.”

Miu:  “Investigating is the same thing as not trusting each other.”

Shuichi:  “No, it’s completely different from what Monokuma wants us to do. He wants us to throw accusations at one another, and lose all trust in each other. And we… can’t let him get what he wants. We need to investigate this murder. Not because we don’t trust each other, but because we *do*.”

Shuichi has such a good point! Sure, one of them is seemingly a horrible person who betrayed them and is lying to them right now, but the other fourteen of them should still be able to trust each other. So they should absolutely try and work together, because there’s still a fourteen-in-fifteen chance that any given person is genuinely trustworthy. The blackened would have a much easier time getting away with it if everyone investigating just did so on their own and didn’t co-operate or share their findings with each other at all. Believing in people, at least to some extent, is necessary to reach the truth!

(Also I appreciate that it’s Miu, the most paranoid person who is actually up-front about their paranoia, who questions Shuichi on this.)

Kaito:  “I agree with Shuichi. Actually, he just said exactly what I was gonna say!”

And again Kaito was beaten to the punch when it really mattered in terms of rallying everyone together and inspiring them. Of course he would have said something exactly like that himself if only Shuichi hadn’t said it first! But because he missed his chance, it just sounds yet again like he’s spouting empty words to save face. Despite all his efforts, Kaito has been so completely ineffective during this chapter, and that’s got to be eating away at him.

Kaede:  (I can’t change what has already happened. All I can do is what must be done. Otherwise… Rantaro died for nothing.)

She can’t take back that murder, but she can at least try and use his death to save everyone else.

Kaede:  (We’ll all escape from here! I’ll make sure of it!)

That “all” is pretty optimistic of her. But at the very least, she’s hoping for all but one.

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