DRDT Chapter 2 Episode 13: First Impressions
Woo! DRDT! It is time! Time for despair! Let’s go! My excitement has not faded in the slightest from last week; if anything, it’s stronger than before. Here are my first impressions of this week’s episode!!!
Spoilers for CH2 EP13
CW Suicide, violent murder, mafia mention, suicide, hanging, self-harm.
It’s starting! Levi’s got some explaining to do. Will someone (say, Eden) have an interesting reaction?
Alright, J’s not the one I expected to have first reaction, but cool.
“You…” Is Ace okay?
“Ah. I didn’t expect that.” Rose’s legendary reaction.
YOU CANNOT “THAT’S WACK” THIS SITUATION WHIT
Oh, so people know, but the court struck it. Interesting.
Ah, there’s the Ace reaction. Also, “no way Hope’s Peak scouted a murderer” but you have a poisoner on another secret and an art forger, at least. Not the same level maybe, but still.
“Don’t make the mistake of switching cause and effect.” Of course Hope’s Peak is responsible, that was my first gut instinct. God, it’s so shady in this universe.
Woo, Levi backstory! Three “old enemies?”
… Bro??? I don’t think any of us actually expected more than one murder, but I might be wrong on that. Self-defense, then two first degrees, huh?
“Were you in the mafia or something?” Thanks J.
“I don’t think I need to elaborate” No, you do. You really should elaborate. Please? For me?
“Who did you even kill?” And… Levi!Accomplice is looking rougher by the second. Then again, maybe she didn’t know.
Levi tracked two of them down, but doesn’t know who they were? How?
“That car I blew up once?” HUH???
“That’s… kind of a lot to admit all of the sudden.” True, Rose. I’m trying to see what he’s cooking, but I can’t tell.
How do you forget this? Jeez.
“How could you forget?” You know, Arturo, I was kinda irrationally worried Charles was about to throw in his secret phrase, but it’s cool that you avoided that. Thanks.
[For the uninformed; it’s theorized the characters will, at some point in the series, say the quotes hidden in the source code of their dedicated pages out loud, since Min and Arei both said theirs, and Xander’s could be in a flashback. That means that if a character says their secret quotes, their chances of dying go up drastically.]
“If you don’t care about murder, you could be the murderer.” (Paraphrased) Yes thanks Veronika not the point.
“Almost as if you don’t care…” Great. I didn’t know where Levi was going with this, now I don’t know where Veronika is going with her schtick.
I’m surprised Ace is taking it relatively well [as in, not outwardly terrified]. I guess near death does that to someone.
Woo! Time frame! Junior high school!
Interesting, so he didn’t start fashion because of the murder. That’s kinda what I was thinking, but I was wrong.
We’re getting our first crumbs of Hope’s Peak being ultra shady in main series! After Rose’s backstory ig. Unfortunately the “pretentious revolutionaries” aren’t here to “hand out tickets of lead” ← LGI brainrot
“It could also refer to the time I murdered my father.”
…
???????????????????????????
You didn’t lead with that?! Also, what?! I laughed out loud at the fucking absurdity of the statement, but what?!
“It’s a bit of a bother.” The bothersome part is that they’re phrased vaguely and not that they reveal you’re a murderer, got it.
“Go back!” Thank you J.
What do you mean I think. Bro how many people have you killed? What in the name of Kirisaki Shidou [/ref]?
“Not even the police cared about a man like him.” ??? Also, wasn’t your dad a bad influence? You’ve mentioned him before, it didn’t sound that bad- Wait, is he lying? No way he’s lying. Hold on, let me watch more.
[In retrospect, I doubt he’s lying, but his story is certainly weird]
“I see no reason to remain hung up-” Then why are you bringing it up. I still can’t fucking tell what you’re trying to accomplish here.
Eden’s reaction is… neutral, I guess? Makes sense either way?
Eden!Culprit has always been hard to maintain during the trial, huh… Still took the tape though. And I guess it’s potentially interesting she’s getting this much dialogue about Levi’s thing. Teruko’s yet to speak this episode.
“I wonder if I should really tell the truth…” Bro what do you mean there’s more truth to tell?
Oh, hey, speaking of Teruko. And it seems she and I share a mind.
“I don’t care about people at all.” Ooooh, I like this. Some kind of condition?
I feel a little bit like Veronika, interested in hearing his experience with this. Feeling like Veronika is probably a bad thing.
“You’re still a stranger to me.” Levi’s quickly climbing the ranks of fave characters, btw. This is super interesting.
“But you’re a good person-” DO NOT “good person” right now, Eden! That’s a point to Levi!Accomplice, maybe? Maybe not? I don’t know what’s happening. And I still don’t get what Levi is trying to do here.
Double “good person?” Bro what is happening.
“I don’t personally care what happens to Ace.” Mood (that’s a joke I like Ace).
PFT- Ace’s reaction lol.
“But it is “good” to make sure someone else doesn’t die-” Goodbye Levi!Accomplice! I liked you, but I’m probably gonna go try to find other theories after this episode :p (This is a joke, btw; if I didn’t discount theories like Hu!Culprit when the new alibis came up, I’m not going to completely abandon Levi!Accomplice over this. But, just saying, there might be a few revisions to be made)
“Haha. You…” Ace breakdown! Breakdown! (I'm absolutely acting like Veronika now).
“I was right all along.” Yeah, Ace ‘can tell a hawk from a handsaw’ Markey, nice one. (Does anyone even know/remember why I’m referencing that line or is LGI too far in the past for that?)
New Ace sprite! Cool one too. Clutching his heart, Acevi shippers eating ig.
“Good thing I didn’t fall for it. Not one bit.” Oh they’re eating GOOD good!
“There’s only one person in my whole life who I’ve ever been able to call my friend-” IS THAT A FUCKING TAYLOR REFERENCE?!?!?! Holy shit, I don’t know how many people are even gonna remember we have a canon name for that dude. I hope someone still has the screenshot of the deleted answer from the CH2 Part 1 Q&A.
“I really hope you fucking die.” We are active in Trial 2 Part 2, huh? Between Arturo telling him to “shut his whore mouth” and this, Levi’s getting verbally jumped!
“You’re quite the interesting person, Levi” Please Veronika, give me the psychoanalysis.
Dude, that’s three “good person” drops all on Levi. Chat the importance of this phrase may have been slightly overexaggerated by me (then again, the list of “good person” people has yet to grow from last chapter).
“You act like a big pushover because-” This is the psychoanalysis I came to see!
I don’t know if I’d call it “intuitive understanding” but I guess Levi’s not fully wrong about Veronika.
Four “good person.” And that’s not counting Veronika’s “good people.”
Five. Also, this continues to be interesting. Why did Levi bring this up again?
“After looking at David, I thought being honest-” Okay that’s hilarious.
“Try looking in a mirror…” First David line of the episode, right? And it’s a nice one of course.
That’s six cases of “good person” in this chapter alone holy shit. At least it’s David, who still had counts.
“I apologize for this tangent” Then can you please explain why the tangent exists in the first place? Or is it really just because being honest is "good"?
[Spoilers. It really was because of that. What]
“I can’t believe there was a time I liked you.” Yeah Acevi is still eating good. I doubt the hostility is gonna drive the shippers away; that’s what they’re here for, right?
And of course Whit’s first line makes him look suspicious. Bro you have an alibi for the time of disappearance of fish and you didn’t take the tape from the gym, stop pretending to be the killer.
“Let’s not jump to conclusions.” Thank you Hu, but let me jump to a conclusion. Is Levi not gonna explain why he revealed his secret beyond the honesty thing?
Okay J’s response is good too.
“No, [Arei] didn’t [talk to Levi about the secret]” Bro what the fuck are we even talking about anymore.
“I don’t have a defense” (Paraphrased) No but seriously what. I’m this close to ripping out my hair. What is he doing.
“We don’t have evidence [Levi is the murderer]” Thank you Teruko Tawaki for being one of three competent people in the building. This is affectionate, one of my favorite parts of the DRDT cast is that they all suck at class trials lol :p
Bro Whit is trying REALLY HARD to look like the murderer rn. I’m still not letting him convince me. Yet.
“I realized that motives alone are not concrete evidence.” Yayyyy! Progress!
“I feel a sneeze coming on…” Dude David and Teruko need to get into comedy, they’re fucking hilarious.
“One second please.” Hu I trusted you. Why. You’re revealing your secret, right?
“...I didn’t want you all to think less of me.” Aww, poor Hu. No one’s gonna think less of you, you’re doing awesome (I am assuming she has hopeless child btw).
“I wanted to believe the past never happened” Butterfly motif and “water as rebirth” symbolism go brrr.
“I’ve always been a selfish person, haven’t I?” Hu please, you’re really nice, even if you go overboard at times.
“I will share my secret if you promise to immediately move on.” (Paraphrased) Good idea. It would probably be good to talk about it if she wants, but this is kinda not the time.
“I have Veronika’s secret, and she has mine.” Okay I did NOT expect her to reveal she had Veronika’s, but alright! That’s two more on the board, and two more most of us got right! At least the theorists are doing well on the secrets.
[Veronika agreeing to the pact] Bro what pact, how did you communicate that? Also, “I have such little interest in both of our secrets” is wild, but it makes sense given her personality. Recap foils go brr, I’ll sit down and think about this later.
“My own so-called secret isn’t even the worst thing I’ve done.” Uh…??? It’s just bombshell after bombshell, these episodes!
Oh, we are questioning the pact. I kinda thought they’d managed to do that in the trial, now I’m really curious. Please tell me we aren’t gonna have to ignore that question because of what Hu asked of them.
Shit.
“We’re not gonna talk about me?” Oh, Vero, I would love for them to talk about you, but I don’t think it’s gonna happen.
“Arei– Achoo!” WHEN I TELL YOU I CACKLED LIKE A MADPERSON HOLY SHIT
“Bless me! Also, excuse me! Wow, thank you for your support everyone!” WAIT IT GOT FUNNIER.
“I have another interruption–” Either it just got even funnier or he’s about to reveal Teruko’s secret and shit got serious, let’s see.
Oh, right. But, dude, I’m relatively sure the last two unclaimed secrets can’t be hers. Maybe the survivor’s guilt one, even though that felt like Xander’s? Are you absolutely certain you don’t have her secret?
“My family.” Figured she’d try that one. [She probably feels it's true to some extent].
Oh, now THAT’S a David sprite alright. Pretty sure that settles it, the most common theories for secrets during hiatus were all correct.
I’m guessing David’s still not gonna reveal it. We still need to see a Teruko teacher CG, and I don’t think we’re gonna have time for that if he brings it up.
“We did it!” Yeah he ain’t revealing shit.
“Sir Light Pollution” is actually crazy. Do his eyes really emit light like a flashlight? That’d be really fucking funny actually.
Oh, it was actually funny because Whit is a boyfailure. Alright, joke understood. I smiled.
“I am truly impressed… by how bad that was.” And there I laughed!
“I’ve started to detect this trial isn’t about me.” Iconic of you, Sir Attention Whore /affectionate
Thank you J.
Eden bro can we please let Teruko speak. Also you are not helping the culprit allegations miss Tobisa.
“What happened between you and Arei?” Jesus, we really cannot get to the fucking murder, huh? Fair, though, I’m really curious about this too, though I feel we’re gonna skip past it without an answer or David’s just not gonna respond seriously.
“I know that she’s dead and that she’s never coming back.” We’re getting worryingly close to your secret quote wording here, Eden. You sure you wanna go this route?
What are we, on seven “good person”s now?
Oh shit are we actually getting an answer?
YES! YES! YES! LET’S GO! I wasn’t expecting this!
Eight. Though I think this one’s repeated, though I might be wrong.
Yeah, this is old dialogue.
Man, Arei’s and Eden’s VAs did amazing work this episode!
“That makes me feel really relieved.” Lie. She didn’t say that. That’s my gut reaction, anyways, I could be wrong.
“I was pissed at you for a bit.” Oh shit chat David’s not getting cut off. This might actually be true. What the fuck?
Oh, also. Nine. David again.
“There’s not even anything positive…” Okay this hurts a fucking ton. If David’s lying, I want him dead. If this is true, holy shit this is sad.
“A metamorphosis like that…” Jeez this is actually getting sad sad. Auch.
“I’ll never be a good person.” Ten, and the tenth hurts a LOT. I don’t think David’s lying, members of the jury. Holy shit this is sad.
“It turns out that you might be a total piece of shit…” Holy shit I miss Arei already.
Eleven.
“Like Santa Claus…” Didn’t Charles bring up something like that talking with Teruko in the computer room? Interesting connection. I guess not “all that glitters,” yeah.
“It’s okay that I’ll never be a good person, because no one else can be either.” Okay, first; twelve. Second, ouch.
[I know my commentary's not exactly thrilling. Forgive me, I'm suffering]
“Even Eden.” And what does that mean?
[Eden with blood on her hands CG]
…
HUH????????????????????????????????????????
I can’t- Words- Not working. Hold on, I gotta see what the fuck is happening here.
[Pan to fork]
I’M EVEN MORE CONFUSED THAN BEFORE! WHAT THE FUCK?!
It has four prongs, which matches the Xander one. Did Eden take out Xander’s eye? How in the actual fuck? No chance, right? I’m just going insane?
“I’m sure even Eden has hurt someone” (Paraphrased). Brain is still not working. Sorry.
“Even someone like her must have made a mistake she couldn’t take back” WE ARE GETTING DANGEROUSLY CLOSE TO SECRET QUOTE WORDING!
We’re just moving on? That shit didn’t happen? I’m fucking sorry?
I can’t even- Does this imply fucking MM!Eden? I don’t think so, she doesn’t look like she wanted to- WAS it Xander she stabbed? Again, how? What? I’m so confused. YOU CAN’T DO THIS TO US DEV! I NEED ANSWERS!!!
“Second ever friend…” Ouch ouch ouch-
Another “good people” btw.
[Arei CG] That’s the fucking- THAT LOOKS LIKE THE FUCKING GIRL FROM LGI?!?!?!
Like, obviously they look different, but that’s the same pose, with the hand and everything- WHAT?!
Is Arei/David a ship? It’ll probably be one after this.
“Nothing-” You absolute piece of shit. Holy shit David, when I get my hands on you David…
“Nothing else happened between us, I promise.” Wow. Who would’ve thunk this is how I come to fucking despise a man so much while he simultaneously rises in my fave characters ranking, huh? Holy hell.
“One hundred percent promise-” I get more mad every line. That’s good character writing, folks. Jesus.
I can’t read Eden this episode. Still think she’s the culprit lol.
“Finally.” Yeah, Teruko. Same.
[By the way, the next section has a lot of me rambling about my own theories, so if you don't know them, here's a link to the latest, now likely outdated version]
“From that low of height…” I like where we’re going.
“I’m starting to realize how long it's taken to get here.” (Paraphrased) Yeah, Whit. Yeah.
“Some people had to wait one year and five months-” PFFFT- Also Whit’s reaction means he’s not fully fourth wall aware, which is cool.
NON-STOP DEBATE! LET’S DO IT!
[Sees truth bullet] Yes! The jugs were used as weights! Tell me I’m right about this!
YEAH! I GOT IT RIGHT! Also Veronika’s “consent” animation is… uuh… very ‘Ronika if you catch my drift. I love it!
“Those jugs ended up breaking…” You know it! I wonder if maybe they didn’t have time to clean the fish? But they could have gotten water literally elsewhere, so they clearly did use them for alibi.
“The jugs alone aren’t enough…” (Paraphrased). Yeah, we gotta go higher. Like, the girders at the top…?
“... rafters on the ceiling.” Yeah!!! Wrong name but I also got this right!
“It must have been one long rope…” Or two, because you need the stopper.
“Oh, wait, you’re agreeing with me. Yes.” Funny, laughed.
“The rafters were way too high…” Ball of clothes, come on.
“...something like a pulley…” Yeah, Whit knows what I’m talking about! The fact he’s being helpful makes him less suspicious. Finally, he managed to open his mouth without incriminating himself of something!
“High location…” Are we actually doing stopper rope? My guess is that that’s when we’ll get teacher Teruko.
“In drop hanging…” Okay, first, love the monologue. Second, is there a reason you know so much about drop hanging? Did your mother…? I guess it’s not necessary. I also came to the same conclusions and I don’t have any history with the stuff.
“We also know she didn’t hit the ground-” Does anyone have a counter of tasteless Whit jokes? Just checking.
“Aren’t I so smart…” And we’re back to kinda incriminating ourselves, because you're denying pulley method. Fantastic.
WOO! ANOTHER NON-STOP! Let me guess, “spinny thing” is the truth bullet?
“Tape on carousel.” Close enough. Although, hold on, are we actually gonna go “stopped with hands?” No chance, right?
Also am I stupid or does Arturo’s VA sound different in the debates?
Yeah btw Levi!Accomplice is dead and buried, I need to find other ways for Eden to have done this.
I like that Teruko still calls it a spinny thing :p
Wow, everyone’s correcting her, huh? I guess I’m the only one that appreciates her smh.
“...when I need to correct the killer’s grammar.” Funny comeback, but you know, the letter does actually have quite a few spelling errors.
Yay! Teacher Teruko! She looks so cute with glasses!
Also I cannot believe it. These Microsoft-Paint ass diagrams remind me of when I did them too lol.
Oh, shit, under the seesaw! That’s a good one, Teruko! I didn’t catch that. (Then again, I always thought the seesaw was in a different place, but oh well).
Is that dog ears Whit? My guy, you know Charles dislikes dogs, right? Then again, you do canonically have negative rizz, so :p
Oh, tying the rope! Not quite a stopper rope, but same concept. Yeah, would work. Good one Teruko!
“The carousel is made of smooth metal.” THAT’S WHAT THE TAPE WAS FOR! Clutch.
Oh shit, is the cliffhanger going to be the tape’s origin?
“I’ve seen this murder method before.” Okay, wait. One, no origin of tape. That’s big for Eden!Culprit: My current guess is that someone (ie Veronika) will want to discuss the Ace-Nico thing, which will lead to them discovering Eden took the tape. Two, what the fuck do you mean you’ve seen this before?!
“You have?” Looking kinda worried there, Eden…
“And so have you.” Okay am I forgetting something? Min’s execution wasn’t like this, what the hell…
“Me?” Eden, honey, the allegations…
“We’re going to talk about a different case…” Oh shit Teruko’s got the Ace method figured out? I would really love to hear that because I have no idea what the hell was happening with that one. Also, I called it! Didn’t expect it to be Teruko who brought us back to the Ace case, but still.
“Explain yourself, Nico.” YEAH!!!! I’m actually really excited. I’m gonna look into revising my theory on that case before the next episode, see if I can figure it out, since I think the old methods I’ve discussed with others don’t quite line up with what Teru’s describing.
What an episode!
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General Thoughts:
Holy shit. Just. So much happened. It’s too much peak.
The Eden CG is the first thing on my mind; that’s crazy. Did she really take out Xander’s eye? I have zero idea what else I would be looking at. Certainly not MM!Eden, too obvious, but I don’t know what’s happening there. No fucking idea. I might make a more detailed post when I get my thoughts in order, but all I’m saying; the possibility the girl she kissed was Mai? That Mai told her about Teruko, and Eden attacked Xander in the pre-prologue killing game to protect Teruko? Hmm…
The secrets are huge, too. Nothing wild, given like 75% of the fandom had assumed these secrets anyways, but still nice to get them all. The Levi explanation was fascinating, but I don’t know what the fuck it has to do with the trial. Was it really a pointless aside? I don’t know…
The Arei scene was fucking insane even outside the Eden CG. Stabbed through the heart, haven’t felt that sad since Min’s death, and, yeah…
Not to mention, the fucking “Ideal Country Woman from LGI” looking ass frame. At least I finally got my answer; it was a wrist bend, not a glove.
And David. David. Why are you like this. I genuinely can’t tell why he does anything anymore.
Finally, I love the Taylor mention, that’s insane. And Veronika has a darker secret? She really wants those MM allegations, huh? Jokes aside, I’m really curious about both those things. I kinda wonder if somehow the students will see the motive videos from Trial 1, since we’re hearing about Taylor and I’m hoping Alyssa later.
Just… Holy shit this episode was awesome. Cannot wait for next week.
First Impression Murder Theory Updates
It’s looking like Levi!Accomplice will end up being a nice AU and nothing more, although I’m not 100% ruling it out. That said, I’m still pretty confident in Eden!Culprit, especially with how we mentioned the tape on the spinny thing was easy to grip, but no one’s made the connection to the gym yet.
The big thing to solve in the Arei case, then, is how Eden got the fish. There’s a few other accomplices she could have, but those are looking rough unless she somehow got Arei to do it. That said, I’m considering the possibility that she took the minnows ultra early, before Nico started feeding them. That would explain how they didn’t notice there were a few missing the night before; they just never counted the ones in the jugs in the first place. That has issues too, but I’ll see about it.
That said, I’m pretty happy with myself! I got a lot of the major points of the pulley system right. The only thing is the “stopper rope vs tie a knot” thing, but the principle is similar enough. We’ll see about things like the ball of clothes to put the rope over the rafters. There’s still plenty of murder to discuss.
As for the Ace case… It’ll need a full review later. If it’s supposed to be similar to Arei’s case, I really have no clue what the hell was happening there. Though I guess the ridiculous wire circuit I made might actually have some merit, given we're doing some kind of pulley?
... Maybe not :p
I have no further insight; I just need to look at it again.
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Anyways, hope you enjoyed! Watching this episode took me like two hours and a half while writing this… this almost 4k word post… so… yeah. Gods save me if there actually is an hour long episode left. See ya’!
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