#there are about 4 years between udg and sdr2

[a-student-out-of-time]

//anow I was pretty bored, so I'm going to theorize when the Tragedy Timeline's Killing Games (Besides the Tragedy of Hope's Peak, because it already has a fixed date in the ASOOT-verse) happen:

1) The DRA Killing Game, I think, it could happen around the end of 2014 (Because it happened soon after the Tragedy started)

2) The Killing School Life, probably happened in the end of March-beginning of April (Because, in After School Lesson, the blackboard says "April 1", but it's hard to say if that is the real date of the event) of 2015

3) The Killing School Trip (And the events of DR3 Side Future/Hope) could happen around the end of 2015.

(Because canonically, the events of UDG's "Demon Hunting" happened between THH and SDR2 (Bc the Class 79's survivors are part of the Future Foundation, but some of the Renmants of Despair are still out), probably it happens at mid-2015)

4) Finally, the events of the Utsuroshima Killing Game would happen in 2016 (Because Sora was born in April of that year)

//Yeah, I think it’s because I didn’t know too much about SDRA2 chapter 6 when I wrote the original timeline, but it’s confirmed that the entirety of the Utsuroshima Killing Game, while it lasted for about a month in the simulation, took place over a single day in the real world

//So yeah, Sora was effectively born and ‘died’ on the same day ^^;

[blackjacketmuses]

hc; team dr and the show

DRV3 headcanons for the actual Danganronpa TV show and other pertinent things!

Under a cut for length, whew!

DR Seasons

Previous: two main games + anime + UDG + light novels etc; the Hope’s Peak Arc

Year 1 - s1-6

Year 2 - s7-12

Year 3 - s13-18

Year 4 - s19-24

Year 5 - s25-30

Year 6 - s31-36

Year 7 - s37-42

Year 8 - s43-48

Year 9 (final) s49-53

Recent History / The Fall of DR

In between years 6 and 7, the team switched the full writing team out from professionals to megafans -- there was a pretty big recruitment drive on the forums. The new team started writing on season 37.

From that point on, some fans noticed a slow downturn in the writing of the series. The fanwriters would pull from previous seasons -- especially the Hope’s Peak Saga -- for much of their plot elements and backstory, and even in victim/culprit/motives. A lot of things became derivative as the fanwriters only focused on feeding their nostalgia and repeating what they loved about the show, and some complaints were made on forums of how tropey, cliche, and sterotypical the plot and characters got at points, especially with the slow increase in pop culture references. Not only that, but things kept getting more brutal.

But despite a chunk of the fandom disliking the way the show was going, most fans didn’t care -- the dissatisfied fans were outnumbered by those who loved the show still. To them, it was the repeated elements that kept them coming back. The murders, the death, the familiar and beloved plot elements and the characters that fought despair to make sure hope always won, that was what they wanted. Maybe for some of them it was cathartic, but it blinded them to how the series was going downhill. All they wanted was their fix.

In season 49, the newest in-game Mastermind was introduced: a cosplayer and megafan named Tsumugi Shirogane, who had been on the writing staff since season 42. It was then that a larger portion of the fans became disillusioned, as Tsumugi slowly began the worst run of the show’s history: as the seasons ticked by, it was clear that the woman was obsessed with the Hope’s Peak Arc and the series was her life -- to unhealthy levels. And in the five seasons she ran, she visibly treated the whole thing like her personal dollhouse, living out her fantasy of being the next Junko gleefully with no consideration for anything but her own personal enjoyment.

Four seasons went by relatively calmly -- even if they were increasingly erratic and increasingly full of pop culture references and tropes and stereotypes -- and then...no one is sure what the catalyst was for Tsumugi Shirogane’s complete psychotic break, but it happened on live TV at the climax of season 53 after one of the most plot-hole-filled and ridiculous season’s in the show’s history. It and the protagonist’s -- Shuichi Saihara -- speech to the fandom at large finally struck a chord with even the diehards in the RoboChat, and the season was shut down with a non-ending.

In the wake of this, a lawsuit has been filed -- Rantaro Amami, Kaede Akamatsu, Shuichi Saihara, et al. vs. Team Danganronpa -- in which the participants of Season 53, as well as others from previous seasons, are seeking reparations. The charges filed are, among other things, Endangerment of Minors, Criminal Negligence, Copyright Infringement, Defamation, Improper Medical Care, and a whole hell of a lot of damages thanks to psychological trauma.

The show has been suspended pending a thorough investigation into the studio -- there have been hints that the show has been operating without proper paperwork or inspections.

How The Show Works

Danganronpa is a virtual reality game show. The contestants -- 14 of them, plus the mastermind (a staff member who works with the crew from inside the game) and the AI audience camera “Robot” -- are all given the most basic of debriefs (their memories will temporarily be suppressed in favor of their in-game character’s persona, and they will believe the game is real), and are then all hooked up to the computer simulation via Virtual Reality Pods.

Once inside the ‘game’, as mentioned, their real selves are temporarily suppressed and replaced by their character’s persona -- they keep their name and appearance, but are otherwise turned into Ultimate students. The contestants all choose only the basics of their personas, the application form having a request section, but the final say on talent, backstory, and personality is the studio and writers’. They do not tell the contestants what their personas will contain beforehand. However, their personas cannot be far from their true selves: the simulation cannot rewrite personalities entirely, simply enhance certain traits or diminish other ones, or add a few odd quirks. Most contestants are similar to -- but not exact and certainly not as intense as, their in-game personas.

The contestants, once they are in the game, do no longer know that they are in a game, and believe the events of said game are completely real -- as such, the trauma and death feels completely and utterly real to them. Once a contestant dies in game, they are released from the simulation, and are taken to the medical room for a cursory physical examination in order to make sure their avatar’s ‘death’ did not leave any physical damage. This done, they are sent to the Contestant Lounge (a comfortable room with chairs, cots, a bathroom, a snackbar, and a huge TV showing the live stream) where they are to await the season’s end. They are allowed their phones back, but they are only allowed to call immediate family, and they are not allowed to leave until the season is over.

Fandom

While the fandom was almost entirely unified before the Writer Swap, afterwards it became more split. While roughly a quarter of the fandom became increasingly dissatisfied with the direction the show was taking under the new staff of fanwriters, most of them did not mind, and some didn’t even notice a change. Arguments broke out between Diehards and the rest, who collectively coined the term Reserves for themselves after the Reserve Course in SDR2, and though nothing came to real-world blows, there was definitely a schism.

The Reserves grew in number after season 49 onwards, and eventually even the Diehards had to admit the show wasn’t what it used to be, thus its shutdown after season 53.

Popular Knowledge

Unlike Tsumugi’s claims in the climax of season 53, the series is far from universally watched. It is a rather popular show, but it isn’t near top ten, or even top fifty. It isn’t even broadcast on TV itself: the episodes are released through the Team DR studio onto their streaming site, which also contains the link to the RoboStream and RoboChat, which is the live feed from their proxy’s cameras and the survey chat. It is reasonably popular, but far from universal pop culture. The games are far more known than the reality show itself.

Applications

Applications can be found through the Team DR website, and mostly only people who know about the show apply to be on it. It is not common knowledge -- at least a third of the fans believe the show to be entirely faked, with the characters completely fictional -- but the rest do know and do apply.

The application process is simply a form and a video, and requires only that the applicant submit proof of their attendance at a high school and that they be ages 15 to 17. It does not require any sort of parental permission (something they are getting hit for in the lawsuit), and does not do background checks (which is how underage kids have gotten into the show), but it does require at least a dozen or more pages of NDAs.

Survivor Perk

The Survivor Perk concept was introduced after the Writer Swap as incentives. A particularly selfless or MVP player in the game would be targeted in the final trial to “sacrifice themselves in the name of hope” -- and then would be given the option to play again in the next season. It was not used in every season, but came up sporadically as a concept.

RoboStream / RoboChat

The RoboStream was another concept introduced around the time of the Writer Swap as a way to bring the viewer base closer to the game itself: a live first-person stream from the POV of one of the contestants themselves, so the viewers could feel part of it. This concept was introduced in season 38 as M1-R41, an Ultimate Robot character whose appearance was slightly based on Chiaki Nanami from SDR2. She was immediately a favorite, and the RoboStream -- in its own section on the website -- was loved by the fandom as well. She would appear in every season afterwards as a staple alongside the mastermind until season 52.

As her repeated use in the show went on, however, M1-R41 -- pronounced and romanized by fans as Mirai -- who was in reality an AI, became increasingly self-aware, retaining memories of past seasons and realized what was going on and her real purpose, keeping it within the show itself. This manifested in season 52, where she and one of the contestants turned on the show in chapter 5 and were killed by the Exisals (who were as of then unmanned). She was decommissioned after that, and a new AI/Robot, as well as the new audience survey RoboChat system was introduced for what would end up being his one and only season -- K1-B0.