Kokichi did not fully manipulate Gonta into killing - but he’s not entirely innocent in Chapter 4 either.
There’s so much controversy surrounding whether or not Gonta was manipulated into killing Miu by Kokichi. I’m here to explain what happened and how it doesn’t really count as manipulation, but more of a dimmed down version of manipulation.
So reviewing the events of CH4 regarding the murder. In the Virtual World Kokichi takes Gonta off to the side somewhere in the forest and shows Gonta the “flashback light”. He originally wants to tell the others about it, but Kokichi stops him- claiming something about Gonta shouldn’t just believe a liar like him without checking it first. So, Gonta takes a look inside said flashback light. And obviously he sees.. that whole malarkey. Gonta, who struggles to understand whether something is a trick or otherwise, begins to freak out as he doesn’t want his friends to enter an apocalyptic world when and if they ended up surviving.
Kokichi tricks Gonta into believing that being dead and unaware of what’s going on behind the dome is a much better fate than surviving and seeing the dreadful truth of the real world. He tells Gonta that his best bet is to Kill Miu now, make it impossible for the others to guess him during the trial, and have them all killed off there instead. Gonta in his state of despair, agrees- with the idea that no matter where his friends go, pain is inescapable.
As we can tell, what Kokichi did doesn’t really count as FULL manipulation. Manipulation, or to manipulate, is “to control people/situations in a clever, unfair, or dishonest way for personal advantage.” I like to consider it half manipulation- or at the very least, a large nudge and push.
Kokichi DID plant the idea in Gonta’s head to kill Miu for his own personal gain. That personal gain being not being killed himself, as Miu was going to murder HIM. Hence why he told Gonta to kill Miu specifically- with the idea he couldn’t die yet, as that would destroy his long term plan.
But at the same time, Gonta agreed to it on his own terms. He obviously didn’t WANT to kill, he didn’t want to hurt anybody- he loves everyone in his class. But he was shoved into the direction and ideology that killing Miu, and in turn the others, was the best and safest idea for THEM, as he just wanted to keep them safe, even if it meant unfortunately taking their own lives. Kokichi knew that, so he used that to his advantage.
We have to remember that during the murder too, Gonta did some things he thought of himself. The most notable being the fact that he had the idea on how to hide the body when he saw Miu go through the wall only objects can go through. He thought of some things on his own, and obviously committed the murder in itself, which does in fact dub him a guilty. But as stated, with what Kokichi did regarding Gotnas mental state, his hands aren’t entirely clean either. They’re just not bloody unlike Gonta’s, so only Gonta could get executed. Not to mention in a legal sense since Kokichi was TECHNICALLY the distraction when Gonta snuck up behind Miu he would legally be guilty of murder like Gonta. But Danganronpa works a little differently- the only person to get executed, once again, is the one who committed the murder in itself and took somebody’s life physically. It happened with Fuyuhiko and Peko too.
(The bloody hand thing is a metaphor I know no blood was spilled I just thought it was clever ok? ok)
It’s why I personally don’t ship them because this whole chapter just makes them very very toxic to me and in turn incompatible. I also worry Kokichi would use Gonta’s Naivety for things like pranks or whatever- overall I just think it doesn’t work. But this isn’t a rant about how much I dislike the ship, I wrote that rant a year and a half ago and got JUMPED by the shippers- so I digress.
So is it manipulation? …ssssorta. A mix of both yes and no. Gonta still willingly did it, but he was pushed and nudged into the direction of it all and his mental state was also toyed with to get him to that murderous state.
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