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Nagito Komaeda and Makoto Naegi

So, we all know that part of the concept behind Nagito's character is the idea of a Makoto on the wrong path, as per the official setting book (crudely translated):

[Another concept is "a Naegi who took the wrong step". It serves as the catalyst to the idea that "extreme hope becomes despair" which is the main theme of this work. Much like the Mobius strip and how both front and back are connected, Komaeda and Naegi are complete opposites but very similar. In order to clearly convey these kinds of themes, he exists. The reason why the two look similar is the natural conclusion to the thought that those who think similarly would have a similar appearance, too. By the way, as for his purposeful-looking name, it coincidentally turned out an anagram of you-know-who while trying to think of a "cool and suspicious name". (Kodaka)]

Now, I don't normally rummage for things like side interviews and the like so if there's actually more that was dug up on the relationship between Makoto and Nagito, it could be somewhere outside of my scope of research, but this above is essentially all the facts we have on how Nagito was based off of Makoto conceptually. Since we know this to be true, it stands to reason that there will be parts of Nagito reminiscent of Makoto, but which would those be? What does that mean for Nagito?

Well... That's up to us to figure out, since there's no official statement on which exact things were taken from Makoto. This means that whatever I'll be saying here isn't complete fact, and just the result of interpretation of the facts I showed above. However, the reason I believe the sharing of these dastardly headcanons is important lies in trying to reach for Nagito characterization that goes beyond surface level, taking inspiration from what supposedly would be the source: Makoto Naegi and his own insecurities.

Though, one may protest, "Nagito is his own blorbo! Even if based off of Makoto, it shouldn't be mandatory to understand Makoto in the process of researching Nagito!"

And I understand the sentiment. Long ago, I used to think that, before I was forced by circumstance to research Makoto. Still, the difference between Makotoful and Makotoless is night and day to me in terms of how to accept the nuance of Nagito, even it'll end up being based on my utterly devilish headcanons. Nagito is someone who is made mysterious throughout Danganronpa 2 so that figuring out what he's thinking is difficult on a first playthrough, let alone even multiple, especially considering the different things at play happening in real time as you advance. Thus, when it comes to research, it's preferable to have anchoring factors that don't distract one's perception from what's being shown in the source material. Considering it's a central aspect of the themes of the game, I think that even if Makoto isn't Nagito, that looking through Makoto could shorten the steps required to reach conclusions about Nagito and the themes he represents.

As for how that's gonna be done, we first need to talk about Makoto.

1

Makoto Naegi

Makoto is the protagonist of Danganronpa 1, and was designed to be a reflection of the player, someone who we can project ourselves into. I see sometimes people having a big aversion to this notion, but this is a fact that's stated in the same official book:

(Representation of the Player's Self-Insertion) (In games, protagonist=the player, so at first I was aiming for a "normal high schooler" with a strong lack of individuality so that everyone could insert themselves in him. I think I also put the order for the character designer Komatsuzaki to "just make him normal". But as I wrote him, he kept growing and coupled with Miss Megumi Ogata's acting, he became a much more appealing character than I imagined. It was a very wondrous thing to experience, like life was literally being breathed into him.)

Basically, the initial plan was for a main character from which the player could be inserted into the story, and the more unique aspects came in later. Of course, this does also mean that there's more to Makoto than just a self-insert for the player, but we all already know this. My point is just that the aspect where Makoto was also meant to be a protagonist for the player to feel themselves in can still be observed from the script of Danganronpa 1, from how little we get to know about him to how interactions primarily focus on getting to know and reacting to other characters, etc. Makoto is also angled as the single ordinary person in the middle of extraordinary people, seemingly to become the common sense perspective to look at the events of the game.

However, this supposed everyman origin is also the starting point of Makoto's individuality and nuance as a character. The bits we see of Makoto's perspective on himself reflects on how average he finds himself to be:

As well as what he finds to be his only strong point, the fact that he's more optimistic than average:

Naturally, the breakdown of all aspects of Makoto's personality, in particular how Makoto's optimism reflects on his actions in the game could be worth its entire text wall post, so I'm not going to spam everything that makes up his character. Instead, I'll offer an example of the parallels between Nagito and Makoto from my perception already based on Makoto's introduction and Nagito's experience entering Hope's Peak Academy to ease into our actual main topic:

Bonus:

Both parties feel out-of-place and undeserving to be in Hope's Peak Academy, as both believe themselves to be completely average in comparison to the Ultimates. However, Makoto ends up accepting to go to Hope's Peak because of the promise of guaranteed success, whereas Nagito refuses them at first, leading them to insist based on the contributions research of his talent would have to the school. Essentially, both have the same self-perception, but whereas Makoto saw the potential in the future based off of being able to attend Hope's Peak Academy, Nagito didn't consider that potential and rejected out of principle. This shows that the same basis is reaching different results on a matter of perspective: Makoto had hope for what would become of himself from attending the academy because of his optimistic nature, while Nagito immediately figured he didn't deserve to be there, focusing on how out-of-place he is because of his pessimistic nature. This puts them in a position where indeed they oppose each other and yet are very similar.

There are other similar parallels such as how Makoto's idea that nobody could have been the killer only to pivot to considering that the real killer is the despair caused by the killing game is sincere from his part, while Nagito used the idea that there is no killer and that the real culprit is the mastermind as a way to distract from the fact that he truthfully knows the culprit and if anything sees their agency in killing as an important part of their hope. Makoto refuses to take the deaths of his classmates as meaningless and makes a point never to just get over them, while Nagito makes a point to talk about moving on from the deaths that occur while saying that each ordeal makes them strong because they are overcoming these deaths. I'll run into the iconic image limit by naming each thing that essentially references Makoto out of Nagito's dialogue and what opposes him in turn, so I'm going to skip to juicier parts to make my point.

Namely, the extent of Makoto's inferiority complex. It shows itself in the game proper, particularly in Chapter 1:

Where he's cheered up by Sayaka, who sees him as much more reliable than the rest of her peers. However, I find Makoto at his most exposed and consequently interesting in free time event content, in particular Chihiro's. Chihiro is a very rare instance of someone actually wanting to know more about Makoto personally, mostly because Chihiro is interested in finding reference points to become manlier. In the process, it's asked of Makoto about whether he has an inferiority complex, and he answers the following:

By feeling inferior over the fact that he's average and talentless, Makoto is implying the desire to have been as impressive as his peers in the academy. Rather, this principle is sensible to assume because the context hinges on Chihiro feeling weak and trying to understand how to be strong. The same way Chihiro truthfully wants to be strong, Makoto wants to be special. In expressing himself for himself in the game, he basically admits that he doesn't like how forgettable he is. In other words, he would have wanted to be remembered and appreciated as impressive.

However, he sees this as an unsolvable concern that he has to distract himself from by taking action in life:

So in the end, while he does feel inferior, he brushes that aside in a fittingly optimistic fashion, simply trying to make do with what he has (will now be taking from Byakuya's free time events):

And also feels like if it isn't him achieving things in life, that there's no point:

There's a lot to unpack here, so I'll try to synthesize it before we move on:

Makoto has an inferiority complex where he believes himself insignificant in comparison to the Ultimates who have talent;

Makoto however has accepted that he really is ordinary and decided to make do with his own circumstances;

In so doing, Makoto strives to find happiness within his own means and has the hope that the effort he puts towards this will bring that happiness.

We yet again see the same starting point reaching opposing conclusions altogether. After all, Nagito feels completely differently about his own prospects. However, like I said, the starting point is the exact same: the idea of being worthless and ordinary, unable to make any impressive accomplishments in life compared to the Ultimates.

2

Nagito Komaeda

One thing that's easily noticeable from how Makoto spoke about himself is that he not even once mentioned his own luck. Rather, Makoto doesn't acknowledge that he has luck as a talent to begin with. He believes he has no talent to speak of, and that his enrollment into Hope's Peak Academy was true pure coincidence:

Basically, Makoto does not rely on his luck, and always tries to do things with his own power as he doesn't believe he has a talent like luck to begin with. This is part of the reason why Makoto simply makes do with what he has, instead of lamenting his standing in life.

The same however cannot be said of one Nagito Komaeda and his luck, as well as how he perceives being the lucky student:

Nagito acknowledges luck as his talent to begin with, and while he here talks about how it doesn't make him do anything impressive and can't come from hard work, that's just how it stands compared to the talents of the Ultimates. By barring him from making actual achievements, Nagito perceives it as unremarkable, but it also just so happens to be the central reference point for how Nagito navigates his life:

In other words, to him, even if that thing is unremarkable, it's still the one thing he's good at, to the point looking towards something else doesn't matter. By being the one thing that stands out, it's essentially his identity altogether and the one thing he's good for.

It stands as the complete opposite of what Makoto would think, since he would never leave his life to chance or find that luck would determine his value as he's interested in working for his own achievements. Nagito however seems to see that as the most value he can squeeze out of himself, and relies on outcomes produced by luck for the success of his plans on every instance he's applied any in Danganronpa 2. I feel like to Nagito, the fact that random chance granted him something makes it much more certain that he got it than if he attempted to just get it fully from his own power, because he knows he'll always get good luck at the end. Luck appears to serve as his life line:

Without being able to depend upon the principle that good luck will always come, Nagito would see no reason to live. In other words, he doesn't see hope for what he can do with his own power, only finding eventual luck to be certain. It's the hope he clings to which in the end actually implies a deep despair, and is emblematic of the contradictions that define his character.

(this first line is actually a little shaky by the way)

That's one of the reasons why I think the ending of Island Mode has so much meaning: by saying he found hope in his heart, he is implying he had none to begin with. Instead of making the attempt to make do with his life by his own power, he seeks out hope from the outside, and when he eventually found himself in the island, he thought that would be his resting place. From the beginning, Nagito did not hold hope for himself.

And as we can see, Nagito doesn't care for the hard work of people who aren't worthy.

So, the effort he can make is useless to him. He doesn't believe his accomplishments mean anything even if he attempted. It's very interesting because the speech Nagito has in the beginning of Chapter 2 is technically another case of same starting point:

Because like we addressed before, Makoto truthfully believes the same thing: that he can never become special, because he's not talented and there's absolutely nothing he can do about it. In other words, even without the same words, Makoto's inferiority complex involves inherently believing himself less valuable than those with talent, and that he can never get the same success they do. However, the difference in nuance is as clear as day: where Makoto believed the effort he put in for the life he could have in his own standing was worthwhile, Nagito finds the entire attempt to still be meaningless because the unworthy are unworthy no matter what they do. So, Makoto has an optimistic view about the same premise, while Nagito has a pessimistic view on it.

It serves to contrast with the points made about Makoto before:

Nagito has an inferiority complex in which he feels himself insignificant in comparison to the Ultimates who have talent;

Nagito however clings to his only stand-out trait to find a modicum of meaning to life, since his own efforts are worthless;

In so doing, Nagito takes to searching for a strong hope outside of himself unable to realize that it won't give him the meaning he's searching for, since he remains in despair at himself.

This sheds a lot of light into Nagito's character, in my personal opinion. Discourse about Nagito tends to focus on the tragedy behind his chaotic environment and his self-esteem, and while these are two important things, I find that this inferiority complex, and how Nagito is someone who is essentially in despair at himself is a crucial part to his character in how he acts throughout the games. His hope is a desperate one, because he doesn't think he can do the things he wants to do. He wants the world to feel hopeful around him, and for himself to feel that hope. And more than that...

3

Nagito Komaeda and Being Special

Makoto Naegi is someone who never expected to become special, despite having wanted to feel like that deep down. At the end of game, he becomes the pillar of support for his friends and Kyoko deems him Ultimate Hope. Thus, when Danganronpa 1 ends, Makoto achieves being valued by other people more than what his average standing would have had him believe, and this burden is something that he has to come to terms with in the anime.

In the end, this is something that happened because Makoto was as optimistic as he was. He pushed people forward sincerely, and wanted nothing but to push back on the despair in front of him regardless of what could be waiting for him outside. He could simply believe that he could try his best to live out life even if the outside world was a wasteland, and this makes him suitable as the protagonist of the story in how he resolves the conflict and themes of Danganronpa 1.

The same doesn't happen for Nagito Komaeda. No one ends up warming up to him at all (excluding free time event content because it technically isn't canon to the timeline), especially since he spends most of his time disregarding their feelings for the sake of a greater good that involved making them face despair. By Chapter 4, the information he gains compels him to believe he can erase despair and become Ultimate Hope, but that vision results in his own death. Though his final message accounts for both sides, his actions were tragic in the end regardless, and he wasn't able to see the resolution of the game all the way through. In other words, Nagito wasn't able to be valued in the same way as Makoto despite wanting to.

Of course, these are just the diabolical headcanon words of one arch simp, but it's the reading I have based on the idea that Nagito had the same complex as Makoto: that in the end, Nagito wanted to be special. However, what is to be special? Makoto didn't enjoy being ordinary because it made him forgettable, essentially implying a desire to be remembered. For someone to remember another, they would have to leave an impression, so it's never based off of indifference. It means that following this logic, Makoto would have deep down wanted to have been valued by people, rather than just being a nobody. And this, likely in his view, sounded most achievable through having talent.

From his words in Chapter 5, my thought is that the same applies to Nagito.

This is the note that Nagito ends his final message with, which would intuitively mean to me that it's that important. And that something is to ask for recognition for his contributions to hope. It's a plea to be a target of respect and admiration the same way he felt the Ultimates were, shedding light to the fact that it's what he would have wanted to be if he had the chance, and at the end of Chapter 4, he perceived he had that chance. It stands as the opposite of Makoto, who never acted in the game for the sake of this recognition for the results he got, as in his mind, he was just doing his best to escape the killing game. Nagito, however, had from the start clung to the idea of contributing to hope whenever possible.

People who aren't talented can only serve as stepping stones for talented people to become stronger, and Nagito actively wants to be that stepping stone. He acknowledges Hajime to be "the same stepladder" as him in Chapter 4, but while it's not said explicitly, it certainly would be his understanding that instead of acting as one, Hajime feels that he could be an equal to them, meaning thus that not all people who can be said stepladders necessarily want to be. Nagito, however, wants to become part of the reason why true hope is born, making him trigger the killing game as soon as he got the chance. Nagito says his goals are selfless, but the idea is rooted in the contradiction that he truthfully wants his life to be used meaningfully. The interpretation here is that by being part of something valuable, Nagito can get the closest to having been worth something.

This is why I also personally consider the concept of value to be very important to Nagito. Nagito focuses on value in how he perceives other people and himself, and has concluded that he doesn't have value by default, so he resigns to methods that from the beginning imply no hope for himself. However, just like Makoto, part of his insecurities lie in the idea of being forgotten. The final message has him wanting a statue erected of him, and for his accomplishments to be spoken of so that he can remain in the memories of others. In his final free time event (if we consider any of it true), he laments the fact that no one will "inherit his soul":

It implies the same concept that he doesn't want to be forgotten. He'd want someone to validate his existence, and finds it lonely that there isn't anyone who would care about him specifically. This breaks down the idea of being special to a very primal component: the idea of being loved. Being extraordinary is basically the means to be appreciated by other people. This inferiority complex thus is about having nothing to be appreciated for, and that resulting in a meaningless and lonely life. This is being compensated by the idea of success, that those who succeed at life and do great things would be accompanied by recognition and be valued for their accomplishments.

I don't wanna go into huge detail about the nuances of Nagito's desire to be loved since I feel like that'll be part of another installment of these text walls but the clarification I want to make when it comes to how I interpret it is that just because he says he wants to be recognized in the sense of being famous, doesn't mean that this is his primary goal and what he wanted deep down. To me, the idea is that this type of appreciation is the most he could muster from his standing to have meaning to someone (which to me is the core desire here but that itself is its own journey), and to be remembered. But being remembered doesn't necessarily mean to be famous, so we can have a reading that takes these goals as misguided, that from the perspective of someone who believes his core self is entirely worthless, that appreciation for contribution to something greater would be the most he could imagine out of it. That surely he wouldn't be appreciated for himself.

However, this is a slope from which people can slip in many ways, so while this thesis in particular is already basically in the realm of devious headcanons, I can't in good faith guide people to the idea that there can only be one interpretation to the things laid out here. What I believe is likely is that Nagito does share in Makoto's desire to be remembered, but that Nagito manifested it in a misguided and self-sabotaging way. And this is the main point of this part: the fact that by reading into Makoto's insecurities, we can have more nuance in the discussion of Nagito's own because they seem to have a clear commonality, and lead to understanding that Nagito's actions are probably rooted in how inferior he feels compared to people born with talent, and how that makes him feel like he will never be in someone's mind.

4

Conclusion

Like I said before, there are actually multiple parallels between Nagito and Makoto scattered throughout Danganronpa 2. However, going on a goose hunt about all of them would not only have me run into the image limit and bloat this post, but it would also miss the point I truthfully wanted to make while constructing this. Of course, the more one can know about where Makoto begins and ends, the better, but calling attention to it in this post isn't so much to get the cool trivia parallels but for the sake of further broadening discussion on Nagito based on the feelings of inferiority, which to me are the most interesting about him.

While researching Nagito, I took a long time contemplating concepts like absolute hope, value, and exactly what's packed into his feelings of not wanting to be forgotten. Researching Makoto led me to see Nagito's shadow in where Makoto was acting, and this helped me have a bit of a guiding light on how to potentially view Nagito. Naturally, because there's no clear indication of what is a conscious parallel to Makoto and what isn't, I can't state absolute facts here, but I do believe that there is a clear effort to make Makoto be a way to expand on the nuances of Nagito's character by exploring the duality between hope and despair, where Nagito's extreme faith in hope is also something based off of a deep despair. I believe there are multiple paths you can take these parallels, so the point of this post is to basically show a take. For anyone who has their own take, I would be happy to see it and consolidate.

However, I think I did rest my case in how looking at Makoto can help in trying to understand Nagito. It's not a mandatory endeavor, but seemingly does make the process faster. If it could serve to broaden discussion about Nagito and Makoto, I would be happy. I felt like this was something I needed to post also because I'll eventually have to move on to other posts of a similar hellish headcanon nature where I have to offer my two cents of concepts about Nagito that I derived from research, where this background knowledge would probably help. Thank you again for reading ilyyyyy and while my opinion isn't holy you can ask me anything!!

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