"Feel bad? You want me to feel bad? Haha, that's a good one! They can suck on their silver spoons for all I care!"
Basic info
Name: Normalwords
Pronouns: she/her
Mainly posts about Fanganronpas
Corrupt Asuga truther
DISCLAIMER: DUE TO THE UPDATE SPEED OF DR ANTEBELLUM LOCKDOWN, MANY OF MY OLD POSTS CONTAIN TAKES THAT HAVE BEEN DEBUNKED OR AREN'T ENDORSED BY ME ANYMORE.
Fav Fangans unordered:
Shattered Hope/DRFSH
SHOWDOWN
Rejected Zer0/DR!R0
The After (dropped as of 2026 due to the creator's unfortunate decision to resort to AI SFX)
Remembrance
RebeL/DR_RL
Weeping Rebellion
Other interests I'm following:
Persona (mainly oldsona)
Higurashi
Typology (mainly Classic Jungian/Naranjo's Enneagram/Syntax of Love)
In case this isn't well known on Tumblr yet, a prominent figure in the Twitter sector of the fangan community (aka fangantwt) named Marcy was exposed as a groomer about a week ago. They also have a Tumblr account - @/yabusamez - please block them asap.
Over on twitter, while reaffirming that the video on the faza situation is still being worked on, Aji (Toshiko's VA) is asking everyone to sign this petition in order to get Faza blacklisted from one of the biggest international studios, so I'm sharing it on here for more reach. Go read and go sign, if you can.
Post-CH2 Deadly & Third Judgement Update: The Fairytales in the Library
Ch2 Deadly spoilers ahead.
Triggers: Suicide, child death, workplace abuse, real-world bigotry, real-world politics, unethical experimentation (humans and animals), mistreatment of the terminally ill, child manipulation, child abuse.
Zeke
Speculated Crime: Incitement to Violence
Actual Crime: Incitement to Violence
Confirmed Parts of my Theory
As stated above, my prediction for the legal term for his crime was correct.
The reason Zeke's victims didn't succeed in performing stunts indeed involves his Ultimate.
Zeke's crime did cause many deaths.
Debunked Parts of my Theory
Zeke's crime segment revealed that he specifically incited new members of the stunt performing industry rather than young boys in general or his fanbase. This slightly changes the meaning of the lemmings in the fairytale; wannabe stunt performers being represented by lemmings is a very simple allegory to the self-destructive nature of the industry. With this in mind, another recurring pattern within the fairytales has emerged; characters sharing a species with each other indicates that they share an Ultimate or a potential Ultimate. Said motif is reinforced by Maiko's fairytale (Yui and other potential Ultimate idols being represented by deer) and Asuga's (Asuga and her employees being represented by frogs and tadpoles alludes to her belief that the circus shares their Ultimate).
Differences between Crime Segment & Fairytale
Zeke's crime segment didn't mention the role his patriarchal beliefs had in influencing his crime, which was hinted at by the fairytale's line about the main lemming believing those who wouldn't jump off cliffs were cowards. However, this doesn't mean it doesn't exist. To remind you once again, Zeke's belief that wannabe stunt performers who can't perform on his level aren't cut out for his line of work parallels his constant statements about people not being "man enough". Furthermore, the lemmings specifically representing up and coming stunt performers does not mean they can't simultaneously represent young boys who conform with patriarchal values.
Zeke's fairytale mentioned nothing of him committing his crime specifically to maintain his status as the most skilled stunt performer, instead framing it as a pure display of his values.
Other
Nothing of his time in boarding school, the first time period in which he incited violence, was mentioned in his crime segment.
Verdict
Expected Verdict: Corrupt
Actual Verdict: Worthy of Redemption by a somewhat slim margin (56%)
Disclaimer: This is based solely on my own experiences. This does not pertain to every single voter.
The unpredictability of Zeke's verdict extends to the reasoning behind it. Many people, especially those on Youtube, hand-waved the severity of his crime; some claimed he didn't commit a crime, seemingly refusing to look into any possible legal terms for it; some repeated the mantra of "his crime was being too good at his job"; some cited reasons unrelated to his crime such as Lyra's dependence on him; one of his Youtube apologists even tried to gaslight me into believing his crime didn't quality as incitement to violence 😭. The only part of this I anticipated was his victims being victim blamed.
Another surprise to come from this is his sexuality not impacting his verdict in any way, at least not consciously. This is a departure from Lyra fans joking about voting her as redeemable just so she can have a romance plot with Ismene.
The reasoning for Corrupt, however, mostly matches my predictions and my own reasons to vote him that way. The only exception is a small amount of people pointing out the ties between his crime and sexism because frankly, I have low expectations of the fandom's ability to analyze the crimes in that manner.
Something else of note is Zeke landing a higher Worthy percentage than Taka despite the parallels between both the nature of their crime and their backgrounds. One of the most potent factors behind this is the amount of familiarity the audience has with each character now compared to when Taka's crime was revealed. During the prologue, we only had surface level impressions of the characters, knowledge of a beta version which ended up not being referenced as much as expected and crumbs of subtext that were largely ignored to base our votes on. As a result, many seemed to find themselves under the impression that Taka was one-dimensionally evil and didn't even start to think about the background of his crime. Zeke, on the other hand, had his crime revealed after 2 chapters depicting his character arc and his FTEs dropped, causing fans to be more lenient towards him. The fandom's increase in size is also a major contributing factor but I will address this in further detail at the bottom of the page.
Another factor behind this is that Zeke's crime conveys the heavily normalized "frat boy mindset" (see: DeigenVG's comments in DRATcord) while Taka's crime is deemed taboo in every social circle other than his own. This is analogous to IRL attitudes towards misogyny; old-school misogyny like Taka's (calling women "hoochie mamas" according to DRATcord) is shunned while modern misogyny like Zeke's is ignored or downplayed.
Alora
Speculated Crime: Unethical Animal Experimentation
Actual Crime: Unethical Human Experimentation
Confirmed Part of my Theory
Alora did perform some kind of unethical experimentation for Lillith's sake.
Debunked Parts of my Theory
I assumed her victims were animals, not just because of circumstantial hints such as the vat in her cell labelled "Spot" but also because I thought the term "animals" being used to refer to humans in her fairytale would be too clichéd. Instead, they specifically represent the terminally ill, with the symbolic significance of them being represented by "animals" being that they are almost functionally on par with domesticated pets. Perhaps I should've seen this coming, considering that Lyra & Takiko's fairytales also included boomer analogies.
The line about the animal friends becoming 'very different' refers to Alora's patients being given other disorders for research purposes, not them developing physical deformities.
Alora did not defy her employers. In fact, she actually used her following their orders as an excuse.
Differences between Crime Segment & Fairytale
The fairytale didn't mention that the witch's "special friend" was also experimented on nor that said experiments were less painful than the others.
The fairytale didn't allude to Alora lying about testing experimental treatments on her patients.
Alora's crime segment demonizes her by only presenting the torture she subjected her patients to and her lying about intending to treat their illnesses, not mentioning that she also intended to save their lives in the long run by finding immortality (only alluded to as her using "the greater good" as an excuse).
The fairytale disguised the torturous nature of Alora's experiments by referring to them as "magical cues", symbolizing Alora's idealization of it.
The fairytale brings attention to Alora's extreme attachment to life while her crime segment refers to her patients as "disposable" framing her to be less caring in this regard than she really is.
Traitor Theory Reconsideration
The Lillith revelations being starkly different to what was expected provides a seemingly strong counter-argument against the Unwilling Traitor!Alora theory. However, the events of Ch2 Deadly only clear up the nature of Lillith's existence and Alora's initial crime, and the full truth behind the notes in the prison still hasn't been addressed yet. Therefore, the theory hasn't been fully debunked, simply challenged.
Other considerations:
Taking into account the revelations about Lillith's nature, it's now impossible for her to be controlling Mononeko. However, it's not impossible for them to have been created using the same AI. This would explain the parallels between them (e.g. both believing Taka only sought to redeem himself in order to regain Asuga's attention).
Alora made a deal with Emilia in exchange for recordings, presumably to feed her AI bots, as per her interrogation. Knowing that both were initially imprisoned at the same time, this is eyebrow-raising.
Interrogation Notes
These would've been edited into the previous post but I couldn't be bothered to do it back then.
She implies that she believes countless people will suffer in the future if she doesn't perform her experiments. This is a more specific meaning behind the phrase "greater good" than those provided in the fairytale and the crime segment.
She dismisses Lillith's desires in favor of what she thinks is best.
She reveals that her twin's name is Ester. Further backstory parallels between Ester and Lyra are also introduced (running away from home, feeling powerless in the face of her parents).
Verdict
Expected Verdict: Swing Vote
Actual Verdict: Corrupt by a very slim margin (50.6%)
Disclaimer: This is based solely on my own experiences. This does not pertain to every single voter.
The public's rationale in favor of Corrupt!Alora more or less matched my expectations of them scrutinizing the surface-level morality of her crime and her egotistical belief that she knows what's best for others. However, the same cannot be said for the Worthy!Alora campaign that primarily ensued on Twitter and in DRATcord. From my observations, said campaign can be summarized as an attentiveness to and sympathy for Alora's background (or, in other words, comparable rationale to the Worthy!Zeke voters) and a belief that Alora's worldview was already challenged by the events of Ch2 Deadly.
Supporters of both sides were even distracted by unrelated circumstances such as Asuga's stab wound, other medical issues and the chances of her earpiece being taken away if she is voted Corrupt. To be frank, not only are unrelated circumstances insufficient reasons to vote for any verdict for any prisoner, but the last of these was outright disproven by her verdict art, which depicts her coping by further withdrawing into a fantasy of her past with Lillith.
Alora's verdict also debunks one aspect of the "Two Sides of the Same Coin" theory (i.e. that prisoners who's crimes were similar to each other would land different verdicts because one seemed more deserving of a Worthy verdict than the other). In this context, Alora and Maiko landing the same verdict indicates a bias against socially awkward women who harm others to help the one person they're closest to and retain trapped in the past after said companion leaves their life. With that being said, it's still worth noting that Alora's Corrupt percentage may be a lot lower because she has a more sensible image than Maiko, which may have been mistaken for genuine sensibility and therefore a larger capacity for change.
Asuga
DISCLAIMER: Some parts of this section have been paraphrased from my Part 2/Updates thread for the Corrupt Asuga Manifesto on Twitter.
Speculated Crimes: Child Labor, Business Fraud, Workplace Manipulation
Actual Crimes: Embezzlement, Charity Fraud. Also implicated minors in her crime, though there aren't any specific laws against this under any country's legal code as far as I've researched.
Confirmed Parts of my Theory
Asuga did indeed manipulate minors.
Asuga does have a hidden superiority complex that has gone over most fans' heads.
Asuga does have a need for absolute control that she disguises to others and herself as democracy.
Debunked Parts of my Theory
Instead of simply believing her employees are complicit, she quite literally forced responsibility onto them.
My 1st interpretation of her VA trailer was the correct one (i.e. that it depicted a young Asuga reaffirming her beliefs to herself before committing her first count of fraud).
Instead of representing Asuga telling her employees to lie to their customers, the tadpoles swimming in spirals more likely represents Asuga reaching their hearts and making them idealizing her, bringing it vaguely closer to the biological reason tadpoles swim in spirals. The meaning behind this line has always been difficult to figure out because of its grammatical errors and seeming inconsistency with the rest of Asuga's fairytale.
Differences between Crime Segment & Fairytale
The crime segment omitted the reasons Asuga turned to manipulation in the first place (i.e. to obtain the freedom, familial love and recognition for things other than her race that she never had as a child).
The fairytale merged Asuga's claims about supporting charity and her desire for love into one symbol, obfuscating the exact nature of Asuga's crime. Said obfuscation symbolizes Asuga's rationalization of her formal crime and draws more attention to her "real" crime.
Other Symbolism Updates
Asuga is "little": The crime segment has provided a more specific meaning for the frog being "little" but not the moth than generally feigned naïveté; it represents Asuga's feigned ignorance to the circus' problems. The real Asuga being "little" has also been confirmed by her naïve belief that she will remain united with the circus if they're ever caught. (Note: Directly copied from "The Corrupt Asuga Manifesto; Updates.")
Asuga's employees are tadpoles: Aside from their age and the pseudo-family dynamic they have with Asuga, each party secretly having a different species also represents Asuga's intentions secretly being less pure than the others.
The (self-)image a good person is a light: This works similarly to my previous interpretation (fraternal love); Asuga's desire to be a good person in her own eyes is one of her main aspirations yet it has ironically corrupted her instead. (Note: Directly copied from "The Corrupt Asuga Manifesto; Updates.")
Both Asuga's crime segment and Mononeko's preamble before it were noticeably longer than the other two. This seems to have a symbolic significance because Zeke and Alora's crime segments could've just as easily been padded out by their other crimes (Zeke's incitement beginning during boarding school, the notes around the prison implying Alora murdered someone else during her initial imprisonment) yet they weren't. However, said meaning is ambiguous as of now.
Just like Maiko, Asuga was referred to as "you" instead of "she" or "they" in her crime segment. However, its symbolic meaning is the polar opposite in this context; instead of representing poor self-esteem, it represents delusional self-confidence.
Other
Rippilie mentioned in DRATcord that the method in which Asuga obtained underage employees in the first place technically counts as child abduction. Although it would've been cool if this was mentioned in the crime segment in the first place, this is ultimately a red herring compared to the crimes revealed in her segment.
The line about "punishments" in her Olympian summary still has an ambiguous meaning. The only hint as to what this could be is Mononeko's claim that Asuga believes anyone other than herself taking control of the circus would ruin everything.
Verdict
It isn't officially out yet but based on comments I've seen…
Disclaimer: This is based solely on my own experiences. This does not pertain to every single voter.
Unfortunately, even in spite of the revelations of what she had done to minors, many fans (especially those on Youtube) continued to interpret Asuga's crimes and character alike in superficial and sometimes even completely incorrect ways. Just like with Zeke, many disregarded the severity of her crime and ignored the latter half of it; some found themselves blindly agreeing with Asuga's rationalization of her actions; some even voted her as Worthy based entirely on sympathy post-Takiko's death.
On the other hand, Corrupt voters primarily used the same rationale as myself. Some scrutinized her hypocrisy for bashing Taka's crime despite the bourgeois nature of her own; some pointed out that given Asuga's progressive image, she likely stolen from and damaged the reputations of progressive charities that truly needed the money; some just wanted her moral narcissism to be challenged for once; some Corrupt voters even claimed they were influenced by The Corrupt Asuga Manifesto.
The overwhelming pro-Worthy!Asuga sentiment on social media compared with the divided response to Lyra's crime further proves that fans tend to take characters' images at face value.
Shinku
Recap: Shinku wrote a novel, which he has referred to in narration as "It", containing subtext advocating for neutrality between the Ultimate Talent Program and the Anti-Ultimate Movement, and each side's supporters. What he didn't foresee is that each side would handle the subtext badly, with said backlash leading to an unspecified event that killed members of the AUM including Akari. His actions qualify as Propaganda and (unintentional) Incitement to Violence.
As shown by the CG above, Ch2 Deadly has confirmed that Shinku drove Akari to suicide. Some have been misled to believe this is unrelated to his crime but as evidenced by Zeke's 3rd secret foreshadowing his Incitement to Violence, Akari's suicide is actually most likely to make up a fraction of Shinku's crime. Furthermore, the suicide hints at a more concrete interpretation of the birds' deaths in Shinku's fairytale; they represent AUM members committing mass suicide, perhaps out of hopelessness in the face of Shinku's centrist propaganda.
Speaking of Shinku's propaganda, some DRATcord users believe that his book solely advocated for the UTP. However, I must remind you that the subtext in his fairytale (the fox making a dish for both the birds and the bugs instead of just one) combined with his general people-pleasing behaviour actually indicates that he wrote propaganda in favor of both sides instead.
A few symbolism updates:
Shinku keeping his incineration of Dracul's pin a secret as well as other demonstrations of his tendency to keep things a secret for the sake of people pleasing parallel the fox from the perspectives of both the fairytale and popular symbolic interpretations of foxes (it can be seen as a form of manipulation/cunning).
Takiko's death debatably contributes to the significance of Apollo's lovers facing terrible fates being pointed out by his summary if one interprets that Shinku's treatment of her as a pseudo-Akari makes her qualify as a 'lover'. Said terrible fates can also refer to her reaction to her verdict.
Verdict Prediction: Swing Vote -> Corrupt
Contrary to my expectations, the audience hasn't given his naïveté as much of a pass as Zeke's or Asuga's. In the former's case, this also applies to his misogyny compared with Shinku's, possibly because his is presented in a less serious manner. Taking his parallels with Taka's crime into account, Shinku's inevitable Corrupt verdict also reveals that the fandom has a bias against approval-seeking members of the bourgeois with a tendency to romanticize others' suffering, even when they are products of their environment.
New Summary: Shinku wrote a novel, which he has referred to in narration as "It", containing subtext advocating for neutrality between the Ultimate Talent Program and the Anti-Ultimate Movement, and each side's supporters. What he didn't foresee is that each side would handle the subtext badly, with said backlash leading many AUM members to commit mass suicide, including Akari. His actions qualify as Propaganda and (unintentional) Incitement to Suicide.
Taka
Recap: Taka's portrayal in his crime segment as the sole abusive party at his workplace was disingenuous because his FTEs and subtext revealed that he was manipulated into believing such behaviour was expected from a celebrity.
Entry 7 is a letter from his mother taking place about a year after he moved to Japan during Christmas. This may make it sound irrelevant at first but the letter actually has vague connections to his crime.
Taka's mother mentions many suspicious aspects of Taka's dynamic with his workplace. This includes him being spoiled by his producers, him wearing a new custom suit every day, his divisive reputation, his manager claiming he has many friends and him not speaking to her for a year because he was too busy. However, she turns a blind eye to all of this, suggesting that she is just as naïve and gullible as Taka is. Ms Takahiro's idealization of Taka and his lifestyle combined with the aforementioned personality traits Taka inherited from her explain and enable the mindset behind his crime.
Ismene
Recap: Ismene's crime segment portrayed her crime and mindset in a demonized manner, glossing over the harm her professor had done to her friends and framing her sympathy as a lack of empathy. However, it also omitted another downside to her crime; she specifically got her friends involved as an attempt to traumabond with them.
Entry 8 is an essay written by 13 year old Ismene arguing that Oedipus' character development and its link to the theme of fate is the most important aspect of the play Oedipus the King. Just like Taka's entry, it has subtle allusions to Ismene's characterization and crime.
The essay discusses hamartia (a mistake leading to the downfall of an overconfident hero) and its inherent link to hubris. This parallels Ismene's mistake of getting her friends involved in her crime, which enhanced the moral dubiousness of her actions in spite of her initial good intentions, and her moral superiority complex. Oedipus also shares some personality traits with Ismene (intellectually oriented yet emotionally charged, overconfident) though she's likely unaware of this, especially considering the age she was when she wrote the essay.
To close off, I'm compelled to point out that 13 year old Ismene's grammar and sentence writing skills are atrocious. No wonder her parents had to pay for her Ultimate.
Fu
Recap: Fu has a long history of arranging Ghost Marriages, a Chinese tradition in which 2 dead people are married to prevent their spirits from haunting their families. However, he deviated from tradition by murdering innocent young women to turn them into brides and possibly kept this a secret from his clients. The reason this of all crimes is significant for him is that it's the reason he has an Ultimate.
Nothing new about his crime itself has been revealed but a certain other revelation needs to addressed because contrary to what the game is trying to make us believe, it doesn't change things at all.
Many fans believe Fu's self-outing as the 'mastermind' is 100% a LARP and for once, I completely agree with them. The existence of all this subtext — his fairytale, his Olympian summary, the VA trailer, his FTEs, his interrogation, references in the main game — indicates that he is just like the other prisoners and his verdict will absolutely be voted on.
There is some evidence of the game trying to convince us that he's not just LARPing, though these are almost certainly red herrings. The game has a history of doing this as evidenced by Maiko's suicide attempt being framed as an off-screen death.
His Olympian summary becomes recontextualized if he is indeed the mastermind. The term 'King of the Gods' can refer to the literal role of a mastermind and the line "can avoid justice on account of being emblematic of justice in itself" can be interpreted as him marketing the killing game as a way to achieve justice against crooked Ultimates despite being a crooked Ultimate himself.
Entry 9 not being added to the game files in Ch2 Deadly breaks the pattern of 3 entries being added per release since Ch1 Deadly, with Fu conveniently filling the last slot in the latest trio. The game wants us to see this as a sign that he will never have an entry of his own, but through the lens of LARPer!Fu, this can mean that either the entries are divided into pairs instead of trios from Ch2 Deadly onwards or it'll be released alongside the other 3 remaining entries.
Updates to Analysis Of Fandom
For the past year or so, I've been trying to find a general pattern to define the mindset of the average DR Antebellum fan. However, with the recent growth of the fandom, said search may be futile because a once small fandom's increase in size inevitably begets the superficiality of a mainstream fandom. Said shallow-mindedness has manifested itself through the apparent change in mindset between the Prologue and Ch2 Deadly.
To demonstrate this difference, let's recall Taka's initial fandom backlash. In the live comments of one of Mira's streams, Rippilie claimed they expected Taka to land a Worthy verdict because of his pre-emptive popularity with Betabellum fans. However, this ended up backfiring partially because Lockdown wasn't as mainstream back when his crime was revealed and therefore, shallow mainstream fandom types weren't as rampant in verdict discussions (the other reason, as stated in Zeke's section, is that the subtext implying he simultaneously a perpetrator and victim of psychological abuse was extremely subtle and largely ignored). Had Taka's crime been revealed today, he would've likely scored more Worthy votes and discussions about his sympathetic side in a similar vein to Zeke.
Speaking of Rippilie's perception of fandom culture versus mine, during the first 6 months of releases, they seemed to base their expectations of Lockdown's fandom on their experience with empty-headed, misogynistic mainstream media fans. From my own observations at the time, fans seemed to defy said expectations by assessing the potential circumstances behind Ismene, Mint, Lyra and Takiko's crimes (albeit Youtube fans tended to be a bit more superficial). However, with recent events such as feral Takiko haters flooding the Ch2 Deadly premiere live chat on Youtube and fans (mostly male ones as I've observed) underestimating the severity of Zeke and Asuga's crimes, their fears have started to come true.
More on the relationship between Takiko and fandom culture in the paragraph below. Note that it's not an attempt to disparage the writing of Takiko's scapegoat status within the prison in-universe. What I'm trying to say is that the fandom commentary aspect of her writing would've been more effective if she was widely hated outside of Youtube Live's mental bubble.
Takiko's writing seemed to be an attempt to comment on the "Fandom's Scapegoat" archetype that's common to both Danganronpa (see: @/accirax's Danganronpa archetypes post) and other large fandoms (Skyler White comes to mind). However, even though many fans would be offended by me saying this, this backfired to a degree because Takiko is actually one of the most popular characters on Discord (specifically the second most popular there if we go by the amount of reacts she has in the self-roles channel), Twitter and Tiktok, with her haters being a vocal minority. Even Youtube fans who didn't whinge in the Ch2 Deadly live chat praised her writing. In other words, contrary to what her fans believe, Takiko's reception is more comparable with Tsumiki's than Saionji's. I would argue that Ch2!Shinku and Ch1!Ismene are the real fandom's scapegoats but I digress.
In spite of all of this, the two constants that remains within the Worthy verdicts are the fandom's blind valuation of moralism and their tendency to underestimate the mendaciousness of those who seem more honest than they really are.
New Parallel Pairs
Aside from the parallels used as a basis for the "Two Sides of the Same Coin" theory, a new pattern has emerged from the order of Ch2's crime segments. Although the parallels between these pairs aren't as strong as the main pairs, they can still be used to predict the order of the last 3 segments.
Taka - Zeke: Chauvinistic, attention whoring, dishonest idiots with sensitive sides who physically and mentally abused members of their workplace to maintain their status, yet are still products of their environments.
Mint - Alora: Reserved medicinal workers who have claimed they know what's best for others and poisoned others using false "treatments" in an attempt to help the women they were closest to escape their predicaments, only exacerbating them in the process.
Ismene - Asuga: Self-righteous, ambitious narcissists with strong political views who manipulated their mentally vulnerable comrades into complicity for statements against corrupt authorities in an attempt to form permanent bonds with them after previously having lonely childhoods in which they were raised in competitive environments.
Lyra - Fu: Blatantly untrustworthy, conventionally attractive manipulators who entered shady industries at young ages to escape poverty and deem themselves unable to break free from their vices even after attempting to live normal lives.
Takiko - Dracul: Image-oriented, secretly insecure, somewhat manipulative, caregiving protectors of girl children who enacted vigilante justice against people with poor morals using social media in an attempt to alleviate their insecurities about their strength.
Maiko - Shinku: Self-loathing, lonely, naïve, somewhat bigoted, manipulative people pleasers who spread lies and harmed many young people with a strained relationship with the Ultimate system in an attempt to earn the love of jaded teenage girls they were close with who were also affected by the system.
can I ask you what you think about Zeke having given 0 Volts of pain in the tutorial when he was locked and instructed to hurt someone?
Like... He was specifically both really brave, and virtuous and he went against the status quo and proven he wouldn't have hurt someone physically
I know he grabbed Shinku, and I know he fought verbally with Ismene when super drunk and he's agressive and quick to starting up a fight, but he seems to not want to hurt other people?
(I feel like he talked about his boys getting hurt and brushed it off and was like "hell ya that was cool" somewhere in chapt 2 which ngl shocked me, but it shouldn't have. or getting into a fight?)
also how does what Asuga did affect charities public look?
If anything--- I'd say it discourages donating to people who say they're going to donate to certain charities rather than discouraging donations to charities themselves?
can I ask you what you think about Zeke having given 0 Volts of pain in the tutorial when he was locked and instructed to hurt someone?
You've misunderstood the purpose of the Milgram test. Mononeko lied when they said it indicated capacity to murder; it actually indicates obedience to authority. Therefore Zeke's low score does not mean he wouldn't hurt anyone. (proof) They're also not an indicator of morality either way because neither obedience nor resistance to authority have any inherent moral value.
also how does what Asuga did affect charities public look?
If anything--- I'd say it discourages donating to people who say they're going to donate to certain charities rather than discouraging donations to charities themselves?
Because some people will associate those who claim to endorse a charity with the charity itself, even if they aren't really connected.
I've become so much like Taka Takahiro, it's scary. I wear red vests, verbally assault women, and give my employees physical illnesses. When I look in the mirror, I can't help but say "asterisk-gasp-asterisk" (which means gasp in belgian.) I gave my hair antennae because I care so now I have to wear it with antennae and I do care what people think so shut fuck up Dr Alenius! I always leave a burn on my right arm, and go out of my way to show it to everyone so they are reminded that I can cook. When I see dogs being taken on walks I get mad at them for not being fish. I can't have sex with my girlfriend anymore without forcing her to dress up as Asuga, who reminds me of Man the Fish. When I order fast food, I refuse to call them hamburgers and insist on calling them evilburgers. I just keep moving forward, until people are watching.
Post-CH2 Deadly & Third Judgement Update: The Fairytales in the Library
Ch2 Deadly spoilers ahead.
Triggers: Suicide, child death, workplace abuse, real-world bigotry, real-world politics, unethical experimentation (humans and animals), mistreatment of the terminally ill, child manipulation, child abuse.
Zeke
Speculated Crime: Incitement to Violence
Actual Crime: Incitement to Violence
Confirmed Parts of my Theory
As stated above, my prediction for the legal term for his crime was correct.
The reason Zeke's victims didn't succeed in performing stunts indeed involves his Ultimate.
Zeke's crime did cause many deaths.
Debunked Parts of my Theory
Zeke's crime segment revealed that he specifically incited new members of the stunt performing industry rather than young boys in general or his fanbase. This slightly changes the meaning of the lemmings in the fairytale; wannabe stunt performers being represented by lemmings is a very simple allegory to the self-destructive nature of the industry. With this in mind, another recurring pattern within the fairytales has emerged; characters sharing a species with each other indicates that they share an Ultimate or a potential Ultimate. Said motif is reinforced by Maiko's fairytale (Yui and other potential Ultimate idols being represented by deer) and Asuga's (Asuga and her employees being represented by frogs and tadpoles alludes to her belief that the circus shares their Ultimate).
Differences between Crime Segment & Fairytale
Zeke's crime segment didn't mention the role his patriarchal beliefs had in influencing his crime, which was hinted at by the fairytale's line about the main lemming believing those who wouldn't jump off cliffs were cowards. However, this doesn't mean it doesn't exist. To remind you once again, Zeke's belief that wannabe stunt performers who can't perform on his level aren't cut out for his line of work parallels his constant statements about people not being "man enough". Furthermore, the lemmings specifically representing up and coming stunt performers does not mean they can't simultaneously represent young boys who conform with patriarchal values.
Zeke's fairytale mentioned nothing of him committing his crime specifically to maintain his status as the most skilled stunt performer, instead framing it as a pure display of his values.
Other
Nothing of his time in boarding school, the first time period in which he incited violence, was mentioned in his crime segment.
Verdict
Expected Verdict: Corrupt
Actual Verdict: Worthy of Redemption by a somewhat slim margin (56%)
Disclaimer: This is based solely on my own experiences. This does not pertain to every single voter.
The unpredictability of Zeke's verdict extends to the reasoning behind it. Many people, especially those on Youtube, hand-waved the severity of his crime; some claimed he didn't commit a crime, seemingly refusing to look into any possible legal terms for it; some repeated the mantra of "his crime was being too good at his job"; some cited reasons unrelated to his crime such as Lyra's dependence on him; one of his Youtube apologists even tried to gaslight me into believing his crime didn't quality as incitement to violence 😭. The only part of this I anticipated was his victims being victim blamed.
Another surprise to come from this is his sexuality not impacting his verdict in any way, at least not consciously. This is a departure from Lyra fans joking about voting her as redeemable just so she can have a romance plot with Ismene.
The reasoning for Corrupt, however, mostly matches my predictions and my own reasons to vote him that way. The only exception is a small amount of people pointing out the ties between his crime and sexism because frankly, I have low expectations of the fandom's ability to analyze the crimes in that manner.
Something else of note is Zeke landing a higher Worthy percentage than Taka despite the parallels between both the nature of their crime and their backgrounds. One of the most potent factors behind this is the amount of familiarity the audience has with each character now compared to when Taka's crime was revealed. During the prologue, we only had surface level impressions of the characters, knowledge of a beta version which ended up not being referenced as much as expected and crumbs of subtext that were largely ignored to base our votes on. As a result, many seemed to find themselves under the impression that Taka was one-dimensionally evil and didn't even start to think about the background of his crime. Zeke, on the other hand, had his crime revealed after 2 chapters depicting his character arc and his FTEs dropped, causing fans to be more lenient towards him. The fandom's increase in size is also a major contributing factor but I will address this in further detail at the bottom of the page.
Another factor behind this is that Zeke's crime conveys the heavily normalized "frat boy mindset" (see: DeigenVG's comments in DRATcord) while Taka's crime is deemed taboo in every social circle other than his own. This is analogous to IRL attitudes towards misogyny; old-school misogyny like Taka's (calling women "hoochie mamas" according to DRATcord) is shunned while modern misogyny like Zeke's is ignored or downplayed.
Alora
Speculated Crime: Unethical Animal Experimentation
Actual Crime: Unethical Human Experimentation
Confirmed Part of my Theory
Alora did perform some kind of unethical experimentation for Lillith's sake.
Debunked Parts of my Theory
I assumed her victims were animals, not just because of circumstantial hints such as the vat in her cell labelled "Spot" but also because I thought the term "animals" being used to refer to humans in her fairytale would be too clichéd. Instead, they specifically represent the terminally ill, with the symbolic significance of them being represented by "animals" being that they are almost functionally on par with domesticated pets. Perhaps I should've seen this coming, considering that Lyra & Takiko's fairytales also included boomer analogies.
The line about the animal friends becoming 'very different' refers to Alora's patients being given other disorders for research purposes, not them developing physical deformities.
Alora did not defy her employers. In fact, she actually used her following their orders as an excuse.
Differences between Crime Segment & Fairytale
The fairytale didn't mention that the witch's "special friend" was also experimented on nor that said experiments were less painful than the others.
The fairytale didn't allude to Alora lying about testing experimental treatments on her patients.
Alora's crime segment demonizes her by only presenting the torture she subjected her patients to and her lying about intending to treat their illnesses, not mentioning that she also intended to save their lives in the long run by finding immortality (only alluded to as her using "the greater good" as an excuse).
The fairytale disguised the torturous nature of Alora's experiments by referring to them as "magical cues", symbolizing Alora's idealization of it.
The fairytale brings attention to Alora's extreme attachment to life while her crime segment refers to her patients as "disposable" framing her to be less caring in this regard than she really is.
Traitor Theory Reconsideration
The Lillith revelations being starkly different to what was expected provides a seemingly strong counter-argument against the Unwilling Traitor!Alora theory. However, the events of Ch2 Deadly only clear up the nature of Lillith's existence and Alora's initial crime, and the full truth behind the notes in the prison still hasn't been addressed yet. Therefore, the theory hasn't been fully debunked, simply challenged.
Other considerations:
Taking into account the revelations about Lillith's nature, it's now impossible for her to be controlling Mononeko. However, it's not impossible for them to have been created using the same AI. This would explain the parallels between them (e.g. both believing Taka only sought to redeem himself in order to regain Asuga's attention).
Alora made a deal with Emilia in exchange for recordings, presumably to feed her AI bots, as per her interrogation. Knowing that both were initially imprisoned at the same time, this is eyebrow-raising.
Interrogation Notes
These would've been edited into the previous post but I couldn't be bothered to do it back then.
She implies that she believes countless people will suffer in the future if she doesn't perform her experiments. This is a more specific meaning behind the phrase "greater good" than those provided in the fairytale and the crime segment.
She dismisses Lillith's desires in favor of what she thinks is best.
She reveals that her twin's name is Ester. Further backstory parallels between Ester and Lyra are also introduced (running away from home, feeling powerless in the face of her parents).
Verdict
Expected Verdict: Swing Vote
Actual Verdict: Corrupt by a very slim margin (50.6%)
Disclaimer: This is based solely on my own experiences. This does not pertain to every single voter.
The public's rationale in favor of Corrupt!Alora more or less matched my expectations of them scrutinizing the surface-level morality of her crime and her egotistical belief that she knows what's best for others. However, the same cannot be said for the Worthy!Alora campaign that primarily ensued on Twitter and in DRATcord. From my observations, said campaign can be summarized as an attentiveness to and sympathy for Alora's background (or, in other words, comparable rationale to the Worthy!Zeke voters) and a belief that Alora's worldview was already challenged by the events of Ch2 Deadly.
Supporters of both sides were even distracted by unrelated circumstances such as Asuga's stab wound, other medical issues and the chances of her earpiece being taken away if she is voted Corrupt. To be frank, not only are unrelated circumstances insufficient reasons to vote for any verdict for any prisoner, but the last of these was outright disproven by her verdict art, which depicts her coping by further withdrawing into a fantasy of her past with Lillith.
Alora's verdict also debunks one aspect of the "Two Sides of the Same Coin" theory (i.e. that prisoners who's crimes were similar to each other would land different verdicts because one seemed more deserving of a Worthy verdict than the other). In this context, Alora and Maiko landing the same verdict indicates a bias against socially awkward women who harm others to help the one person they're closest to and retain trapped in the past after said companion leaves their life. With that being said, it's still worth noting that Alora's Corrupt percentage may be a lot lower because she has a more sensible image than Maiko, which may have been mistaken for genuine sensibility and therefore a larger capacity for change.
Asuga
DISCLAIMER: Some parts of this section have been paraphrased from my Part 2/Updates thread for the Corrupt Asuga Manifesto on Twitter.
Speculated Crimes: Child Labor, Business Fraud, Workplace Manipulation
Actual Crimes: Embezzlement, Charity Fraud. Also implicated minors in her crime, though there aren't any specific laws against this under any country's legal code as far as I've researched.
Confirmed Parts of my Theory
Asuga did indeed manipulate minors.
Asuga does have a hidden superiority complex that has gone over most fans' heads.
Asuga does have a need for absolute control that she disguises to others and herself as democracy.
Debunked Parts of my Theory
Instead of simply believing her employees are complicit, she quite literally forced responsibility onto them.
My 1st interpretation of her VA trailer was the correct one (i.e. that it depicted a young Asuga reaffirming her beliefs to herself before committing her first count of fraud).
Instead of representing Asuga telling her employees to lie to their customers, the tadpoles swimming in spirals more likely represents Asuga reaching their hearts and making them idealizing her, bringing it vaguely closer to the biological reason tadpoles swim in spirals. The meaning behind this line has always been difficult to figure out because of its grammatical errors and seeming inconsistency with the rest of Asuga's fairytale.
Differences between Crime Segment & Fairytale
The crime segment omitted the reasons Asuga turned to manipulation in the first place (i.e. to obtain the freedom, familial love and recognition for things other than her race that she never had as a child).
The fairytale merged Asuga's claims about supporting charity and her desire for love into one symbol, obfuscating the exact nature of Asuga's crime. Said obfuscation symbolizes Asuga's rationalization of her formal crime and draws more attention to her "real" crime.
Other Symbolism Updates
Asuga is "little": The crime segment has provided a more specific meaning for the frog being "little" but not the moth than generally feigned naïveté; it represents Asuga's feigned ignorance to the circus' problems. The real Asuga being "little" has also been confirmed by her naïve belief that she will remain united with the circus if they're ever caught. (Note: Directly copied from "The Corrupt Asuga Manifesto; Updates.")
Asuga's employees are tadpoles: Aside from their age and the pseudo-family dynamic they have with Asuga, each party secretly having a different species also represents Asuga's intentions secretly being less pure than the others.
The (self-)image a good person is a light: This works similarly to my previous interpretation (fraternal love); Asuga's desire to be a good person in her own eyes is one of her main aspirations yet it has ironically corrupted her instead. (Note: Directly copied from "The Corrupt Asuga Manifesto; Updates.")
Both Asuga's crime segment and Mononeko's preamble before it were noticeably longer than the other two. This seems to have a symbolic significance because Zeke and Alora's crime segments could've just as easily been padded out by their other crimes (Zeke's incitement beginning during boarding school, the notes around the prison implying Alora murdered someone else during her initial imprisonment) yet they weren't. However, said meaning is ambiguous as of now.
Just like Maiko, Asuga was referred to as "you" instead of "she" or "they" in her crime segment. However, its symbolic meaning is the polar opposite in this context; instead of representing poor self-esteem, it represents delusional self-confidence.
Other
Rippilie mentioned in DRATcord that the method in which Asuga obtained underage employees in the first place technically counts as child abduction. Although it would've been cool if this was mentioned in the crime segment in the first place, this is ultimately a red herring compared to the crimes revealed in her segment.
The line about "punishments" in her Olympian summary still has an ambiguous meaning. The only hint as to what this could be is Mononeko's claim that Asuga believes anyone other than herself taking control of the circus would ruin everything.
Verdict
It isn't officially out yet but based on comments I've seen…
Disclaimer: This is based solely on my own experiences. This does not pertain to every single voter.
Unfortunately, even in spite of the revelations of what she had done to minors, many fans (especially those on Youtube) continued to interpret Asuga's crimes and character alike in superficial and sometimes even completely incorrect ways. Just like with Zeke, many disregarded the severity of her crime and ignored the latter half of it; some found themselves blindly agreeing with Asuga's rationalization of her actions; some even voted her as Worthy based entirely on sympathy post-Takiko's death.
On the other hand, Corrupt voters primarily used the same rationale as myself. Some scrutinized her hypocrisy for bashing Taka's crime despite the bourgeois nature of her own; some pointed out that given Asuga's progressive image, she likely stolen from and damaged the reputations of progressive charities that truly needed the money; some just wanted her moral narcissism to be challenged for once; some Corrupt voters even claimed they were influenced by The Corrupt Asuga Manifesto.
The overwhelming pro-Worthy!Asuga sentiment on social media compared with the divided response to Lyra's crime further proves that fans tend to take characters' images at face value.
Shinku
Recap: Shinku wrote a novel, which he has referred to in narration as "It", containing subtext advocating for neutrality between the Ultimate Talent Program and the Anti-Ultimate Movement, and each side's supporters. What he didn't foresee is that each side would handle the subtext badly, with said backlash leading to an unspecified event that killed members of the AUM including Akari. His actions qualify as Propaganda and (unintentional) Incitement to Violence.
As shown by the CG above, Ch2 Deadly has confirmed that Shinku drove Akari to suicide. Some have been misled to believe this is unrelated to his crime but as evidenced by Zeke's 3rd secret foreshadowing his Incitement to Violence, Akari's suicide is actually most likely to make up a fraction of Shinku's crime. Furthermore, the suicide hints at a more concrete interpretation of the birds' deaths in Shinku's fairytale; they represent AUM members committing mass suicide, perhaps out of hopelessness in the face of Shinku's centrist propaganda.
Speaking of Shinku's propaganda, some DRATcord users believe that his book solely advocated for the UTP. However, I must remind you that the subtext in his fairytale (the fox making a dish for both the birds and the bugs instead of just one) combined with his general people-pleasing behaviour actually indicates that he wrote propaganda in favor of both sides instead.
A few symbolism updates:
Shinku keeping his incineration of Dracul's pin a secret as well as other demonstrations of his tendency to keep things a secret for the sake of people pleasing parallel the fox from the perspectives of both the fairytale and popular symbolic interpretations of foxes (it can be seen as a form of manipulation/cunning).
Takiko's death debatably contributes to the significance of Apollo's lovers facing terrible fates being pointed out by his summary if one interprets that Shinku's treatment of her as a pseudo-Akari makes her qualify as a 'lover'. Said terrible fates can also refer to her reaction to her verdict.
Verdict Prediction: Swing Vote -> Corrupt
Contrary to my expectations, the audience hasn't given his naïveté as much of a pass as Zeke's or Asuga's. In the former's case, this also applies to his misogyny compared with Shinku's, possibly because his is presented in a less serious manner. Taking his parallels with Taka's crime into account, Shinku's inevitable Corrupt verdict also reveals that the fandom has a bias against approval-seeking members of the bourgeois with a tendency to romanticize others' suffering, even when they are products of their environment.
New Summary: Shinku wrote a novel, which he has referred to in narration as "It", containing subtext advocating for neutrality between the Ultimate Talent Program and the Anti-Ultimate Movement, and each side's supporters. What he didn't foresee is that each side would handle the subtext badly, with said backlash leading many AUM members to commit mass suicide, including Akari. His actions qualify as Propaganda and (unintentional) Incitement to Suicide.
Taka
Recap: Taka's portrayal in his crime segment as the sole abusive party at his workplace was disingenuous because his FTEs and subtext revealed that he was manipulated into believing such behaviour was expected from a celebrity.
Entry 7 is a letter from his mother taking place about a year after he moved to Japan during Christmas. This may make it sound irrelevant at first but the letter actually has vague connections to his crime.
Taka's mother mentions many suspicious aspects of Taka's dynamic with his workplace. This includes him being spoiled by his producers, him wearing a new custom suit every day, his divisive reputation, his manager claiming he has many friends and him not speaking to her for a year because he was too busy. However, she turns a blind eye to all of this, suggesting that she is just as naïve and gullible as Taka is. Ms Takahiro's idealization of Taka and his lifestyle combined with the aforementioned personality traits Taka inherited from her explain and enable the mindset behind his crime.
Ismene
Recap: Ismene's crime segment portrayed her crime and mindset in a demonized manner, glossing over the harm her professor had done to her friends and framing her sympathy as a lack of empathy. However, it also omitted another downside to her crime; she specifically got her friends involved as an attempt to traumabond with them.
Entry 8 is an essay written by 13 year old Ismene arguing that Oedipus' character development and its link to the theme of fate is the most important aspect of the play Oedipus the King. Just like Taka's entry, it has subtle allusions to Ismene's characterization and crime.
The essay discusses hamartia (a mistake leading to the downfall of an overconfident hero) and its inherent link to hubris. This parallels Ismene's mistake of getting her friends involved in her crime, which enhanced the moral dubiousness of her actions in spite of her initial good intentions, and her moral superiority complex. Oedipus also shares some personality traits with Ismene (intellectually oriented yet emotionally charged, overconfident) though she's likely unaware of this, especially considering the age she was when she wrote the essay.
To close off, I'm compelled to point out that 13 year old Ismene's grammar and sentence writing skills are atrocious. No wonder her parents had to pay for her Ultimate.
Fu
Recap: Fu has a long history of arranging Ghost Marriages, a Chinese tradition in which 2 dead people are married to prevent their spirits from haunting their families. However, he deviated from tradition by murdering innocent young women to turn them into brides and possibly kept this a secret from his clients. The reason this of all crimes is significant for him is that it's the reason he has an Ultimate.
Nothing new about his crime itself has been revealed but a certain other revelation needs to addressed because contrary to what the game is trying to make us believe, it doesn't change things at all.
Many fans believe Fu's self-outing as the 'mastermind' is 100% a LARP and for once, I completely agree with them. The existence of all this subtext — his fairytale, his Olympian summary, the VA trailer, his FTEs, his interrogation, references in the main game — indicates that he is just like the other prisoners and his verdict will absolutely be voted on.
There is some evidence of the game trying to convince us that he's not just LARPing, though these are almost certainly red herrings. The game has a history of doing this as evidenced by Maiko's suicide attempt being framed as an off-screen death.
His Olympian summary becomes recontextualized if he is indeed the mastermind. The term 'King of the Gods' can refer to the literal role of a mastermind and the line "can avoid justice on account of being emblematic of justice in itself" can be interpreted as him marketing the killing game as a way to achieve justice against crooked Ultimates despite being a crooked Ultimate himself.
Entry 9 not being added to the game files in Ch2 Deadly breaks the pattern of 3 entries being added per release since Ch1 Deadly, with Fu conveniently filling the last slot in the latest trio. The game wants us to see this as a sign that he will never have an entry of his own, but through the lens of LARPer!Fu, this can mean that either the entries are divided into pairs instead of trios from Ch2 Deadly onwards or it'll be released alongside the other 3 remaining entries.
Updates to Analysis Of Fandom
For the past year or so, I've been trying to find a general pattern to define the mindset of the average DR Antebellum fan. However, with the recent growth of the fandom, said search may be futile because a once small fandom's increase in size inevitably begets the superficiality of a mainstream fandom. Said shallow-mindedness has manifested itself through the apparent change in mindset between the Prologue and Ch2 Deadly.
To demonstrate this difference, let's recall Taka's initial fandom backlash. In the live comments of one of Mira's streams, Rippilie claimed they expected Taka to land a Worthy verdict because of his pre-emptive popularity with Betabellum fans. However, this ended up backfiring partially because Lockdown wasn't as mainstream back when his crime was revealed and therefore, shallow mainstream fandom types weren't as rampant in verdict discussions (the other reason, as stated in Zeke's section, is that the subtext implying he simultaneously a perpetrator and victim of psychological abuse was extremely subtle and largely ignored). Had Taka's crime been revealed today, he would've likely scored more Worthy votes and discussions about his sympathetic side in a similar vein to Zeke.
Speaking of Rippilie's perception of fandom culture versus mine, during the first 6 months of releases, they seemed to base their expectations of Lockdown's fandom on their experience with empty-headed, misogynistic mainstream media fans. From my own observations at the time, fans seemed to defy said expectations by assessing the potential circumstances behind Ismene, Mint, Lyra and Takiko's crimes (albeit Youtube fans tended to be a bit more superficial). However, with recent events such as feral Takiko haters flooding the Ch2 Deadly premiere live chat on Youtube and fans (mostly male ones as I've observed) underestimating the severity of Zeke and Asuga's crimes, their fears have started to come true.
More on the relationship between Takiko and fandom culture in the paragraph below. Note that it's not an attempt to disparage the writing of Takiko's scapegoat status within the prison in-universe. What I'm trying to say is that the fandom commentary aspect of her writing would've been more effective if she was widely hated outside of Youtube Live's mental bubble.
Takiko's writing seemed to be an attempt to comment on the "Fandom's Scapegoat" archetype that's common to both Danganronpa (see: @/accirax's Danganronpa archetypes post) and other large fandoms (Skyler White comes to mind). However, even though many fans would be offended by me saying this, this backfired to a degree because Takiko is actually one of the most popular characters on Discord (specifically the second most popular there if we go by the amount of reacts she has in the self-roles channel), Twitter and Tiktok, with her haters being a vocal minority. Even Youtube fans who didn't whinge in the Ch2 Deadly live chat praised her writing. In other words, contrary to what her fans believe, Takiko's reception is more comparable with Tsumiki's than Saionji's. I would argue that Ch2!Shinku and Ch1!Ismene are the real fandom's scapegoats but I digress.
In spite of all of this, the two constants that remains within the Worthy verdicts are the fandom's blind valuation of moralism and their tendency to underestimate the mendaciousness of those who seem more honest than they really are.
New Parallel Pairs
Aside from the parallels used as a basis for the "Two Sides of the Same Coin" theory, a new pattern has emerged from the order of Ch2's crime segments. Although the parallels between these pairs aren't as strong as the main pairs, they can still be used to predict the order of the last 3 segments.
Taka - Zeke: Chauvinistic, attention whoring, dishonest idiots with sensitive sides who physically and mentally abused members of their workplace to maintain their status, yet are still products of their environments.
Mint - Alora: Reserved medicinal workers who have claimed they know what's best for others and poisoned others using false "treatments" in an attempt to help the women they were closest to escape their predicaments, only exacerbating them in the process.
Ismene - Asuga: Self-righteous, ambitious narcissists with strong political views who manipulated their mentally vulnerable comrades into complicity for statements against corrupt authorities in an attempt to form permanent bonds with them after previously having lonely childhoods in which they were raised in competitive environments.
Lyra - Fu: Blatantly untrustworthy, conventionally attractive manipulators who entered shady industries at young ages to escape poverty and deem themselves unable to break free from their vices even after attempting to live normal lives.
Takiko - Dracul: Image-oriented, secretly insecure, somewhat manipulative, caregiving protectors of girl children who enacted vigilante justice against people with poor morals using social media in an attempt to alleviate their insecurities about their strength.
Maiko - Shinku: Self-loathing, lonely, naïve, somewhat bigoted, manipulative people pleasers who spread lies and harmed many young people with a strained relationship with the Ultimate system in an attempt to earn the love of jaded teenage girls they were close with who were also affected by the system.
I sincerely apologize for the lack of content during the past few years. There are some reasons I am not working on DT as much, that I do not want to explain right now. But I am still working on it.
I believe I can finish the ch2 bonus episodes within the first half of the year. Here is a small preview...
Thank you for your continued support over the past 6 years.
i'm skeptical of the culprit!lyra speculation. from what i've seen, arguments for it are mainly based on tangible evidence for taka's murder. the problem with this is that currently, the fandom only knows about a fraction of the crime as per the bda and what some people believe is foreshadowing. it's simply too early to try and piece things together with a certain amount of relevant info missing.
imo the best way to predict a danganronpa/fangan culprit without an investigation is by assessing the characters' roles in both the chapter and the story as a whole. using this method, lyra would be a strange pick because she has been consistently relevant across all chapters so far, suggesting further relevance in ch3. my personal pick (takiko), on the other hand, had her relevance increased in ch2 following her verdict and fits the theme of "shadow sashiko" perfectly. lyra also fits this theme but she only acts as a sashiko stitch in ch2 while takiko has taken on this role through her work as a rental sister for years.
sorry but the idea that characters were mischaracterized from ch3 onwards is a bad take (assuming it's more than a joke). considering how much of a degenerate von is, it's more likely that she planned for them to do unhinged shit from the beginning
A story about a little leapfrog who could bounce and play with their tadpole friends all day. This little leapfrog supported all the creatures of the pond. But they held a dark and terrible secret… The little leapfrog was actually a moth in disguise.
DEC 3RD 2025 UPDATE: Dracul's section has been updated.
Lyra
But when I was younger, first starting out on my own and all that… It was the easiest way to get a sense of security.
Recap: Lyra's crimes did involve illegal drug trade and negligence as suspected, they just weren't to as severe of a degree as anticipated. The fandom voted her corrupt by a very slim percentage, using disappointing reasoning to justify it. The crime segment omitted the circumstances that led to Lyra becoming a drug addict and leaving home in the first place and framed her survival tactics as nothing more than petty manipulation.
Confirmed parts of my theory:
Mononeko called her out for having a self-image based on others' perceptions of her, confirming that her self-image is copey to some degree.
The circumstances behind her drug addiction have been cleared up: she started doing drugs when she was peer pressured by someone at a party with weed & painkillers. How she got into a situation like that in the first place will be elaborated on a few sections below.
Debunked parts of my theory:
The bad girl image is more of a cope to avoid guilt than a cope resulting from it. She also views said image as a way to be genuine, conflating self-deprecation with authenticity.
She actually did repeat her cycle after becoming an Ultimate, just not completely literally. At some time during that period, she moved into an apartment with a friend group who were involved in clubbing/drug trade circles, exposing her to drugs once again, then left them and started room hopping with boyfriends again.
Other:
A partial motive for her Criminal Negligence was a need to re-empower herself from those she depended on control-wise.
She claimed she repeated her crime because it was easy, mirroring the maid; also did it for revenge on the world
Something not hinted at in either retelling is her molding herself into her partners' ideals. This is yet another parallel she has with Yuno, but the difference is that Lyra's demeanour is less conventionally feminine (in personality, not appearance).
She gave conflicting reasons for accepting the deal with Hope's Peak in her interrogation, including exhaustion, easiness and needing change. This contradicts her crime segment saying it was just for drugs, thus proving that its fixation on her drug addiction was a means of demonizing her, and parallels the maid's choice to room hop out of boredom.
She tried rehab once but it didn't work for a myriad of reasons (pessimism about chances of sobering, feeling alone, religious indoctrination attempts). The first two reasons highlight Lyra's skepticism in her potential to grow and her hidden neediness.
Semi-related to Lyra's crime (the maid's backstory): The Alora/Lyra siblings theory has a lot of new circumstantial evidence. It's even been revealed that if the theory is correct, then Lyra & Alora are specifically twins, meaning Lyra's birthday in her bio must be a lie. New evidence in favor of the theory includes the following:
Alora's mom not foreseeing that she'd have twins, forcing the Alenius family to assign the "control" role to the other twin in the Wonder Child experiment to prove it worked for Alora, thus rendering them as the unwanted child. The Alenius family gradually "limited contact" between the twins because the "control" child struggled academically and behaviourally, eventually covering up their existence altogether. Both the control child's personality and its experience with rejection align with what the audience knows about Lyra.
Lyra's aversion to reuniting with her family (those who bossed the maid around all day). If she was involved in the Wonder Child Project, it may explain why.
Lyra said she wanted to be an astrophysicist (a type of scientist) as a child.
Lyra was the first to have her reaction to Alora's account depicted on-screen. She was silent and had an uncomfortable expression on her face.
Closing off by discussing the verdict. After learning more about Lyra's crime, I still believe Worthy was the more appropriate punishment. Even though what the characters say would happen to themselves are just empty words, Lyra's belief that she'd have to reflect on her actions if voted Worthy aligns with my own beliefs anyway. Also, there would've been a lesser chance of her repeating her crime with Zeke because she wouldn't need to depend on anyone for survival.
As revealed at the beginning of Ch2, Judgement 2 actually started off with Worthy!Lyra and Emilia suspects Lyra's verdict was a product of troll votes. Ironically, I suspected this to be the case for Takiko instead because visible fandom activity was much more in her favor than Lyra's. This is either because of Emilia's bias against "traitor" Lyra influencing her thought process or the dev having a different perception of the fandom to me.
Takiko
At first I didn’t realise they’d take it *that* far… I swear!
Recap: Takiko's crime turned out to be incitement instead of defamation; she was actually making herself out to be less aware of the "witches", opposing the princess in her fairytale. She landed a corrupt verdict as anticipated, albeit with a lower percentage than previously thought. This contradicted the fandom's cries for a worthy judgement, meaning it isn't out of the question for trolls to have impacted her verdict. The crime segment didn't elaborate on the origin of the crime or Takiko's power tripping, creating the illusion of it being in Takiko's nature, and obscured the details about her victims.
(Partially) Confirmed parts of my theory:
Her crime actually did start off as an accident that spiralled out of control but not in the exact way I imagined. Instead of being something done on impulse, she had planned to simply call out her clients as a light warning and didn't anticipate the reaction of her fanbase. The wording of the princess' actions (frustration) makes it sound less careful than it really was, highlighting Takiko's initial belief that the harassment was too extreme of a reaction. It's also the reason she blames her followers for the suicides rather than herself.
Hidden insecurity did play a role in her activism transforming into power tripping (e.g. specifically targetting her clients' reputations because of her physical weakness) but this is only a fraction of the truth. Another catalyst behind it is her refusal to conform with the role of a Borgia (a stagnated woman).
(Side Note: In Psychosophy, Lucrezia Borgia is the namesake of FELV while Takiko's type is FEVL/Dumas. The most relevant difference here is Takiko's 3rd Will [3V] manifesting as consciousness of her place in hierarchies while Borgia's 4th Will [4V] manifested as being reduced to the family pawn.)
She actually did meet creeps before applying to an agency but it's unspecified what they did with her.
Debunked parts of my theory:
The crime segment's claim that Takiko targetted "any adult that disrespected her" couldn't've been a more misleading way to describe them. Her targets were specifically lolicons as indicated by Takiko saying they had posters of underage looking anime girls. I assume they bypassed the agency's background checks because the agency didn't qualify lolicon as pedophilia as lolis are fictional.
The reason she targetted the clients wasn't direct disrespect. Instead, she was paranoid about said lolicons eventually raping a real child.
She applied to an agency in the first place because it was a condition set after Sachiko discovered her career and it had no direct involvement with her Ultimate title.
The wording of "many witches seemed to show up in court" may refer to the altered perception of her followers rather than Takiko herself.
Other:
It seems like the game genuinely wants us to believe Takiko is smart rather than her showing off her easy-to-predict insights (e.g. Fu's dare being to conduct wedding vows) just being a product of a need to have a "smart" image. I'm betting on the canon answer being 50/50.
There's no direct confirmation as to whether or not Sachiko's abuse contributed to the stress that led to Takiko's crime.
Briefly addressing her collected evidence, Entry 4 contains Takiko's journal entries in which she recorded both her calorie intake and her pent-up negative thoughts. In particular, it revealed that she has the same judgemental thoughts about "losers" that detract from their actual wrongdoings as her fanbase. Anything else it contains pertaining to her crime has also been covered by the game.
Finally, not to sound like Shinku but Takiko's mindset is not as pro-feminist as she or the audience think it is; her so-called "feminism" is selective. Aside from being fatphobic, she somehow thinks only her vote represents the world's perception of women despite Ismene being voted Worthy & Lyra's vote almost being tied. She also jumped to the conclusion that Ismene's professor was not a creep, ironically mirroring what she believed the voters assumed about her victims. While she does have a point about her verdict being influenced by image, it's as though she thinks having a people-pleasing image is the main thing that makes her both a woman and a representative of all women, which is ironically a misogynistic way to think. Her cognitive dissonance also furthers her parallels with Ismene, who preaches feminist rhetoric in her interpretations of Greek mythology despite her character concept being based on Tories (British right-wingers).
Maiko
NOTE: This section refers to her as Maiko for the sake of convenience.
I had nothing outside of her. All of the best parts of me were from her.
Recap: Maiko's crimes were assault, blackmail, stalking and possibly defamation. She earned a corrupt vote as expected but after her suicide attempt (which most of us thought was a legitimate suicide), people tried to justify that. Her crime segment neglected to address her identity issues, any ethical justifications for actions and the details of her dynamic with Yui, all of which were implied by her fairytale.
Every part of my previous theory that's been confirmed relates to Maiko's identity issues, which are symbolized by the dog-master dynamic between her and Yui. As primarily discussed in her new FTEs and briefly addressed in the main game, she revolved her entire identity around Yui, devaluing herself to the point of perceiving her actions as an extension of Yui's. Further mirroring the dog-master, her crime was also motivated by a feeling of indebtedness from Yui's attention.
Other factors behind her fractured identity, all of which relate to internalized racism (the reason behind her alias), include the following:
Kids at school making up rumors for the reason behind her VA work absences revolving around her weight, family situation & American background.
Her mom making her take tanning pills and trying to control her diet, which Maiko believed was motivated by a concern for Maiko's chances of getting married.
Not feeling at home in Japan or America (already mentioned in her crime segment).
Debunked parts of my theory:
Although she believed her intentions were good, she gave no reason for anyone other than herself to believe they were ethically justified.
The dog stalking the doe specifically to "ensure no one harms them" was not directly alluded to at all. Instead, the only reason stated was that Maiko was hopeful that Yui could forgive a "loser" like her. However, it may relate to Maiko's belief that it'd be easier for Yui to navigate the idol industry if Maiko shielded her from its racism by helping her career.
Other:
Yui told Maiko about behaviours that'd get her bullied, which is yet another contributing factor to Maiko's non-existent self esteem. Maiko believes Yui was protecting her but Maiko's perspective is unreliable, leaving the truth about whether or not Yui bullied Maiko to be ambiguous.
One of her secrets is that she used to be a lolcow farmer. It's possible that Lolcow/Kiwifarms/the in-universe equivalents are one of the platforms she used in relation to her cancellation attempts.
Her parallels to Aphrodite have strengthened. Not only was she the one experiencing love-induced mania like Aphrodite's suitors, she has also been the one to seduce others like Aphrodite herself (i.e. her effect on Shinku & her deliberate self-victimization after her 1st suicide attempt).
Adding onto the point above, Maiko's suicide fake-out and its consequences should be taken as a lesson to not try to force an outcome and to not trust Lillith, both in terms of what she spoils about future plot points and her verdict stances.
Shinku
Recap: Shinku wrote a novel, which he has referred to in narration as "It", containing subtext advocating for neutrality between the Ultimate Talent Program and the Anti-Ultimate Movement, and each side's supporters. What he didn't foresee is that each side would handle the subtext badly, with said backlash leading to an unspecified event that killed members of the AUM including Akari. His actions qualify as Propaganda and (unintentional) Incitement to Violence.
The first new piece of information is the implications of Akari being hanged or hanging herself in Shinku's new hallucination. This is presumably the result of "It".
The second is Maiko's actual death (which I presume is an assisted suicide). The fact that it happened after she got close to Shinku enhances the parallels between him and Apollo, who had all of his lovers face terrible fates.
Finally, his new fan reception in the wake of his morally grey and ignorant behaviour in both the main game and FTEs is looking to hurt his chances of being voted Worthy.
Zeke
Recap: Zeke incited numerous young boys into committing violent acts to prove their manhood, causing many injuries and deaths. This started when he was a schoolboy and continued as he became an Ultimate, all the while remaining unfettered by the consequences of his crime.
The only new evidence in Ch2 Daily is one of Zeke's Truths. He was confirmed to have beat up boys in high school to the point of hospitalization, tying in with Entry 3. This implies the impact of his incitement was more severe than hospitalization like I have speculated.
Dracul
Recap: Dracul responded to a cyberbully who belittled his disingenuous courage by impulsively inviting them to a DND match at his house. Upon arriving at his house, the cyberbully kidnapped Dracul's sisters and Dracul froze in terror instead of trying to fight back. He immediately gave up on finding them out of cowardice and lied to Daria about his sisters' whereabouts, claiming they had ran away instead.
Despite dying in the previous release, Ch2 Daily has still provided the audience with new evidence related to Dracul's crime. More specifically, Entry 5 is a vent post on his private account on an unspecified social media platform. It's worth noting that the internet is also where his crime initiated.
Dracul confessed to something we already know — the dissonance between his ego ideal (a protective figure) and reality (a coward), which causes him to put himself in dangerous situations to stroke his ego (e.g. his crime) — and something new — he has a history of manipulating his internet followers into sympathizing with him using methods such as fake hate posts. Because of the latter, Dracul has parallels with Takiko, except his manipulation is arguably worse because he doesn't strive to protect anyone other than himself. He also mentioned that someone suspected him of being involved with an unspecified incident but he "couldn't even start to tell them". Knowing the nature of the Collected Evidence file, this is definitely his crime.
Due to what has been mentioned above, Entry 5 has strengthened the argument for Corrupt!Dracul.
UPDATE: Nearly a month after I initially posted this, the Lillith/Taka account started sharing blatant spoilers about the crime segments again (which really shouldn't be done during the production of anything with multiple releases, let alone a mystery game, but I digress), one of them being Dracul's. More specifically, Taka's story about the Prince aligns with both the bridge goat's initial encounter with the wolf and my own speculation about Dracul's confrontation with a cyberbully.
It affirms what I already figured out about Dracul but reveals something new about the cyberbully: the Prince's declaration that he will turn the dragon into a Princess again indicates that the cyberbully had claimed to be a woman online. But knowing their nature, this doesn't mean they truly were one; it wouldn't be out of the question for them to pretend to be a woman to seem more vulnerable.
Alora
Recap: Alora performed Unethical Animal Experimentation on her pets in order to try and find Immortality to save Lillith's life. However, she kept the deformed pets alive anyway due to her fear of loss.
There isn't any new evidence for her crime in any part of the game. Not even her collected evidence is sufficient as someone (cough cough, Lillith) redacted the info from Entry 6. However, a certain suspicion I have about her may hurt her chances of earning a Worthy verdict. [Read More]
Fu
Recap: Fu has a long history of arranging Ghost Marriages, a Chinese tradition in which 2 dead people are married to prevent their spirits from haunting their families. However, he deviated from tradition by murdering innocent young women to turn them into brides and possibly kept this a secret from his clients. The reason this of all crimes is significant for him is that it's the reason he has an Ultimate.
The only new evidence is pretty minor. One of his dares was to coerce two prisoners into performing traditional Chinese wedding vows. Considering that the dares seem to be personalized according to the prisoners' psychological wounds, this is yet another hint at his crime involving marriage.
Also, a correction. If Fu did keep his murders a secret from his clients, his crimes would be Serial Killing and Business Fraud instead of Contract Killing.
Bonus
Chances of being Ch2 Culprit
Takiko is most likely to be Taka's killer from a meta perspective, primarily because of her relationship with Ch2's title, "Shadow Sashiko". I initially speculated that it was related to the concept of a shadow in Jungian psychology but Maiko spoonfed the audience the correct answer in one of her new FTEs:
…We’re just doing sashiko with shadows at this point, sewing up the holes left by others with different yarn.
In both the main game and Takiko's new FTEs, she got upset about people using her for replacement, tying in with both the events and themes of Ch2. Lyra's FTEs also seem like they could be exclusive to Ch2 but there are less circumstances in favor of her being Taka's culprit. To hammer this in, their thumbnail on Youtube depicts the accessories of those she "replaces" next to her and she's even dressed like Akari.
Other circumstantial evidence includes the following:
One of her FTE level up notifications in Ch1 was called "Sashiko Sister".
She had plenty of screentime & plot relevance in Ch2.
She had a particularly grave out-of-context secret revealed compared to most of the others and it hasn't been properly explained in the main game or her FTEs (i.e. being responsible for mother's death, which has been worded by Mononeko as "Takiko killed her mother").
Taka's BDA matches the frogs in boiling water analogy. Takiko also happened to be the one to bring it up earlier in the chapter.
Takiko's animosity towards Taka because of her friendship with (and idealization of) Asuga.
As for Maiko's killer, it seems incredibly obvious that Shinku set off a trap set by Maiko but won't be executed for it.
