I came across this post by @ilovegontagokuhara and it made me think of an analysis because I can't be normal for a second so yeah. Keep in mind this is just my interpretation of the game and it's characters. And it’s ignoring the meta twist of the v3 ending
Intro
Trust is a very important thing within Danganronpa V3 it could quite literally be make or break within the life or death situation of a killing game but despite how much they preach about it the v3 cast don't have too much trust.
Underlying that virtue, I think there's something more dormant within every single V3 character insecurity this insecurity is why lies comfort them truth scares them and hypocrisy encompasses all of them the killing game doesn't just force violence it reshapes the V3 cast's dynamics into an ecosystem one powered by what they're afraid to admit.
The killing game as exposure
But before I begin explaining how that works we have to talk about the killing game the killing game plays a very important role within this ecosystem as it is the catalyst its turning the car keys but what's in the car is already so volatile instead of starting it down the road it blows up and what we see after is everyone scrambling to deal with that explosion and what the blast revealed
Because what is a motive if not a glorified reveal fest? What is a class trial if not a longer version of people cutting you open to see what’s inside? What is a flaw if not revealed? That’s what the mechanism of the killing game is yes having to kill your classmates is a horror situation in itself but the game is supposed to take those deep dark parts you try to keep hidden and put them on a platter for everyone to feast on and you keep eating until you realize it was your own innards in front of you the whole time.
With this you could argue that's why Kokichi pushed so hard to have people reveal stuff publicly so the killing game wouldn't have any ammo to use against them which would then by proxy mean that the killing game is only as strong as how weak you are and what you are and aren't willing to share which could of course be debated considering the survivors and how some of the at surface level strongest characters mentally were taken down by the game but I digress.
Because of this lies reduce the risk of being exposed truth is like standing on trial to the world and hypocrisy…
Selfless-selfishness
I have often claimed the V3 cast are relatively selfless people but it's never that simple is it?
The cast often behaves in the most caring way possible and it still doubles as a way to protect themselves a coping mechanism in a sense their selflessness isn't always pure it's tainted with whatever insecurity lies beneath the surface. (This is not to say they don’t do anything selflessly just that some of their selfless actions have the double benefit of helping them hide)
Even if we look at some of the big hitters:
Kaede was worried about her leadership after the Death Road of Despair she went to cry in her dorm because she felt she was failing everyone, and the Rube Goldberg machine was a desperate attempt to succeed in her goal of saving everyone to be the leader her classmates had placed on a pedestal
Similarly most of Kaito's heroic actions are because of his need to prove himself fuel his hero complex or hide and detract from his illness
Gonta does a lot of things to overcompensate for his self-perceived stupidity,
and the list could go on
Kirumi’s role in helping others as a maid is the signifier of her self-worth
Kiibo tries to help to prove he’s as human as the rest of the cast
Miu’s inventions are a way to prove she’s useful and shouldn’t be abandoned.
We can also use this with more complex cases Ryoma offers to sacrifice himself because it's what he believes he deserves as well as thinking there's no one left who cares about him Maki pushes people away because she knows everyone would panic with an assassin in the killing game but also because she believes anyone who gets close to her is fated to die and she deserves the isolation due to her murderous past Angie seeks belonging through Atua Kiyo commits murder in the name of loyalty because devotion was the only language he was taught
And even framing Kokichi's actions with his ultimate goal of ending the killing game it all shows the same pattern: Their outward care doubles as an inward regulation tool.
Hypocrisy
So hypocrisy… then is what they fall back upon to survive the exposure of the killing game
In a simple sense the V3 cast’s strategies to conceal/ help with their insecurities require some kind of mask or performance and then the killing game starts chipping away at these strategies and in response we get contradiction as a form of protection.
And when the shield is fully broken and we see the core they've been trying to hide that's when we see them at their lowest. (A hypocrite's biggest fear isn't guilt it's being exposed clearly enough their ideal of themself or others can't keep holding.)
Conclusion
But what does any of this mean anyway? I believe that the V3 cast's complex relationship with each other stems from their relationship with themselves and the killing game by proxy.
If we take our car example from the very beginning the insecurity is the gas the killing game is the key the hypocrisy is the smoke that comes out of the engine and the relationships are the movement of the car
Even though they don’t have the years of connection that the other two casts have I think this certain ecosystem makes their dynamic much more interesting. It's like instead of looking the person in their eyes they're instead looking directly at a mirror their relationship depends all on the difference between the perceived notion of themselves as people and how they want others to perceive them by contrast to make up for how they see themselves so it’s not a matter of "do I like you?" It’s more so "what do you make me feel about myself?”
So in V3 trust becomes a paradox blind faith is bad but complete distrust is equally as destructive the only way is selective vulnerability letting someone in carefully by choice reduces the pressure to defend on all fronts exposing oneself is scary and puts everything in the open but it also increases the chance that your identity can be rebuilt instead of constantly concealed by a mask
What truly distinguishes the V3 survivors is that once the game cuts them open the choice isn't as simple as tell the truth or keep hiding but rather whether they integrate what that exposure did to them surviving the killing game isn't just escaping punishment but rather escaping the skin of the identity where you constantly had to perform to survive in summary surviving isn't the elimination of insecurity but a change of how you let the insecurity control your life.
Ultimately, I think the V3 cast's whole dynamic is powered by the killing game's mechanism turning secrecy into a spectacle and once identity becomes something other people can read in real time trust turns from a virtue to a gamble lies feel comforting and hypocrisy shows up wherever exposure becomes inevitable and the only way to survive is for your relationships to stop being mirrors for self-image and become tools for transformation.
But yeah I think I’ve truly gone insane/ read too much into this so take with a heavy grain of salt
Ok guys I know you're probably tired of me talking about this but yeah Tenko and Kaito again. So Kaito as a character is a bit sexist the says stuff to Maki about gender roles such as him talking about how women shouldn't hold weapons and says stuff to Shuichi about "manliness" this isn't to hate on Kaito just acknowledge it and while this is just a thing of his character children aren't born with explicit biases we can probably assume it came from his upbringing with his grandparents who probably instilled him with the belief just through being around them you can also tie it to his need to be a hero and protect those he sees as in need or weaker but the point is no one questions Kaito's why for some it doesn't even come up in conversation but Tenko on the other hand does have a confirmed reason which is similar to Kaito's assumed one as coming from upbringing with an older person or people and people get so angry about the explanation you can argue that Tenko’s sexism to put it is worse but that still doesn't warrant the excessive reaction it's almost like people think Tenko needs to have something terrible to happen to her to validate anything she says while Kaito just needs to be... well Kaito (which may just be attributed to fandom misogyny) not to mention Tenko's vigilantism and any lasting effect that might have had on her.
Despite her comments Tenko’s pure heroism and extreme empathy she shows towards everyone including the men shines through much like Kaito who deeply cares about his sidekicks and tries to protect everyone despite his flaws.
But it's crazy to call the reasoning weird or not acceptable when that's a pretty common reason for people to develop beliefs through people they spend time around the most especially if they’re isolated from other viewpoints like Tenko was.
Maki’s character development isn’t just Kaito Maki’s character arc is not her getting a boyfriend and the result of Maki’s character development isn’t not becoming a saint overnight.
And saying so is a hit to Maki’s character and past
Don’t hit me don’t hit me
Disclaimer this is not to say that Kaimaki sucks you can’t ship Kaimaki Kaito isn’t an important person to Maki etc This is to say putting up blinders isn’t wrong in a sense but hurts the characters involved.
But first:
Shuichi Saihara starts as unsure and anxious he knows the answer but he’s waiting for others to take the lead he doesn’t have a lot of confidence in himself and his abilities and is afraid of finding the truth and its consequences Kaede helps him along with encouraging words and trying to build him up but after she dies he’s kind of thrust into this leadership role thankfully he has Kaito on his side who also helps build up his confidence encourages him to find the truth without worrying about consequences and become a leader throughout the game now if you said Shuichi’s character development is being more confident in himself and his abilities you would be right (to an extent) but missing a core part of the story and if you go back and you look at his relationship with Kaito and Kokichi it reframes itself as Shuichi being the bridge between to two extremes learning from both taking the good and bad to form his own beliefs about truth vs lies and logic and emotion which then along with his newly found confidence and leadership is what gives him the power to end the killing game. Now you could say something like well after everything Shuichi was still scared and unsure and that doesn’t take away from his development he still grew as a person from chapter one to chapter six.
Now if you were to ask what Maki’s character arc is some might say that it’s Kaito softening Maki’s tough assassin exterior or Kaito teaching her how to love or getting a boyfriend but like saying Shuichi’s arc is just getting confidence I feel this misses a lot of Maki’s character and backstory.
To analyze Maki’s character arc you can’t start from the killing game with Kaito you have to start from the orphanage with Maki’s childhood friend.
I believe Maki’s character arc is about learning to be loved and love again in return. It starts with her childhood friend is reawakened by Kaito and is ultimately defined by her own choices.
We don’t get a lot about Maki’s childhood friend when she was alive but we know they were very close and about the same age. They had fun together wearing matching outfits baking sweets talking late into the night and playing house with the friend as the mom and Maki as the dad and Maki describes this part of her life as like a dream.
Then Maki took her friends place when the holy salvation society came because she knew the assassin life would destroy her friend and after going through all the torture she comes back and her childhood friend has died saving someone in a car crash but Maki believed her childhood friend died happy and decides to continue being an assassin being motivated by the memories of her childhood friend and to keep the orphanage funded.
And the finally point of reference we have about the child hood friend is during the love hotel (where whoever is the participant gets to live out their ideal fantasy) Shuichi plays the role of Maki’s childhood friend as they build their life together much like when they were playing house at the orphanage (yes I know the love hotels aren’t canon)
All this to say Maki’s childhood friend is someone very important to her you can’t separate the two and I believe whoever Maki would be in a future “relationship” with in the killing game her friend would still have an important place in her mind and heart. Now whether you believe Maki’s relationship with her childhood friend was platonic or something more I would say the experiences at the orphanage encapsulated Maki’s first deep connection or “love” we know there had to be something there for her to sacrifice herself for her not once but twice and for her to be the main motivator throughout her assassin journey.
But after assassin training and actual assassinations Maki was trained to be numb emotionless to not get too attached to shove her wants and her feelings deep down for the sake of getting the mission done and in the killing game we see the result of that Maki is closed off not making any attempt to get close to anyone being very stoic and cold but everything changes after her talent is revealed in chapter 2 the whole group knows she’s an assassin a person trained to kill in a game about killing Maki’s ready to close everyone off to just lock herself in her lab and wait the game out she expects everyone to be angry fearful disgusted even what she doesn’t expect is Kaito Momota.
Someone who meets her where she is someone who looks at her scars and all and just asks if she wants to train someone who just brushes off her assassin talent like it was revealed Maki doesn’t like chocolate chip cookies he trusts and he cares and he stays and it’s like a blazing wildfire burning her walls down.
And so for the first time since her childhood friend died Maki feels a semblance of that feeling in her chest again maybe less maybe different depending on her relationship with her childhood friend and Kaito platonic or romantic for either regardless Maki feels that deep connection that emotion but just like her friend of the past Maki again Maki loses Kaito (to the killing game).
(And when Maki reverts back to her assassin instincts in chapter five it’s not her being a villain or regressing it’s the result of trying to be a protector again after years of only being a weapon Maki’s arc isn’t about her hands magically becoming clean overnight it’s about choosing to lead with her heart to protect event when her hands are itching to kill.)
But unlike after the loss of her friend she doesn’t clam back up she doesn’t become emotionless her childhood friend and Kaito already taught her a valuable lesson how to be loved what that deep connection means and how to get that feeling in your chest her childhood friend was the catalyst and Kaito reinvoked the feeling and the memories after the assassin arc.
And so we see after losing Kaito after losing her childhood friend Maki builds a new path she becomes the lover the protector a title of which she already was in her past one that was just torn and scratched and broken by her years of assassin work and she uses this “new” side to give the same to Himiko and Shuichi and the three form a tight knit protective bond.
So what does all this mean Maki Harukawa is a protector she is a person who cares for others and her child caregiver talent being stripped away to reveal her assassin one isn’t just a cool twist but a cruel representation of Maki’s life Maki’s childhood friend taught her love and that she was a protector by nature and Kaito reminded her of that after her assassin work and allowed her to love and be loved again culminating in her relationship with Himiko and Shuichi.
So no Maki’s arc is not about getting a boyfriend and no I’m not saying Kaito didn’t matter to maki’s arc. Both Kaito and her childhood friend were very important figures that allowed Maki to have this arc to come full circle after her trauma and to finally reveal who she actually is who she started at as the beginning (not fully though) Maki Harukawa the ultimate protector.
I actually was afraid to talk about Maki cause the first time I talked about her on my blog paragraphs in my comments about how she sucked I didn’t want the confrontation I got some things wrong in my reply but I was afraid to talk about Maki but you know I’ve learned I’ve grown I don’t think I’m have a little more of the it’s my blog I can post what I want confidence so Maki woohoo.
Danganronpa a franchise focused on death and killing is about life.
And somehow that contradiction is exactly the point.
Danganronpa a game featuring fictional characters killing each other to escape is about the human experience everyone goes through regardless of who they are and what they came from living.
And who said fiction didn’t have the power to change reality.
It’s strangely poetic in a way a death game that came out 15 years ago tries to tackle the scariest and most existential topic.
What does it mean to live at all?
This one might be a bit more of a stretch than my identity one.
Setting
Let’s start with setting at first the absurdity of the main backdrop being hopes peak academy and the main focus being teenagers is odd of course you could say Hopes Peak and ultimate talents are an interesting concept by nature that sets Danganronpa apart and there’s something more traumatizing about watching kids snap and kill each other sure but there’s something else.
School you uh you probably hate/hated it but it’s a formative experience in a lot of people’s life especially highschool which is what our main characters are in.
High school what people will constantly repeat to you you can’t miss out on because it’s the best years of your life all the while you just want to die and can’t wait for it to be over so you can leave and do…. Um do… Something?
The nature of ultimate talents are interesting because while in highschool 16 year olds are constantly asked what they want to do for the rest of their life the ultimates already have that decided for them highschool is not a place to help decide but a point of finality once they exit it’s just their career they are the best of the best the future of humanity and once they exit they are going to be valuable to society.
They are all different people with different personalities and backstories yet they are all slapped with the same your name here sticker with their talent written on it and told they’re special.
Most of them being forced into their talent by birth or inconvenience and end up completely hating it but they do it anyway.
What are you going to do not have a talent that’s what most of your worth is derived from and you see how the reserve course students are treated so you endure and graduate and get out to the real world and hate it.
This talent you were forced into is nothing but a golden cage.
If you couldn’t tell I love talking about the double sided nature of talents and i will never stop talking about it but while very stylized and over exaggerated it’s familiar.
High schools churning out some students into careers they hate because what am I going to do everyone’s pressuring me to know I have to know and if I do something I like that won’t be as successful…
Talent is this “meaningless” concept in a sense though the people who come out of the elite school are praised as the future of humanity and expected to carry the future of mankind.
and in the killing game section the point is survival survival by any means necessary. (the survival in Danganronpa is coined graduation for a reason)
And when the structure of a school starts to mimic Danganronpa in which there are unquestionable rules you will get punished for not adhering to and graduation by any means necessary to come out alive as a winner it starts to become more like the game about winning or losing rather than a place of growth.
Much like the academy not the shining place of hope that builds up students on the outside but a research facility dedicated to maximizing the perceived hope of talent at any cost.
Okay so what does all this have to do with the killing game and life that leads us to our next point
The structure of the killing game (daily life )
You are trapped in a school where the only way to escape is killing and getting away with it and if you don’t kill you will eventually die just slower and probably more torturous.
It’s a situation where you could die at any moment where the people you get close to could die at anytime so the question is what’s the point?
What’s the point in getting out of bed to meet everyone in the dining hall what’s to point in letting a Kaito or Kaede pull you into the light when they could be dead tomorrow what’s the point of forming a “manly” bond a relationship romantic or not what’s the point of any of it at all?
Well because you can.
Credits roll
In all seriousness the point in the killing game is not rotting in your bed it’s taking the agency that even if you’re trapped in this impossible situation you’re going to live and love despite.
It’s the human connections that make you try even in a situation where death seems inevitable.
And that’s why daily life is given as much importance as deadly life not just to meet the characters yes the characters are awesome and amazing and really cool and I love all of them.
But because in this situation the only thing to do is to live to make bonds to form connections to love and lose and grow and love again.
“The unexamined life is not worth living” -Socrates
A life devoid of doing anything meaningful or examining one’s actions is pointless.
We are going to take a detour and talk about:
Themes
The themes of all three mainline games are the backbone of their respective story tethering everyone to a certain meaning but they also emulate this idea.
THH (hope vs despair) finding the will to move on even when the world is ending and the walls are closing in.
Sdr2 (past vs future) choosing who you want to be regardless of the mistakes and existence of your past.
V3 (truth vs lies) acknowledging that even when your life is fictional and you’re told and even made to believe it’s meaningless the emotions you felt were real and that’s what matters that’s what makes it real despite.
Hope and despair are not these ideas in the sky but forces.
Despair as this crushing dread that your classmates are all dying the world is ending and your probably going to die and hope as the will to get out of bed despite and face that feeling head on.
Of course it gets more nuanced with despair giving rise to hope and hope giving rise to despair and both being bad in too much amounts but important nonetheless.
Which leads us back to
The structure of the killing game (deadly life.)
In the killing game there are no rules when it comes to murder technically.
Yes there are rules but I mean like the we all wag our finger at murder and it’s bad to kill someone.
Without society breathing down our necks we would probably all succumb to the same pressure as these highschoolers.
But there’s a reason why the games are put into this class trial format yes to invoke more despair but to make people question morality.
Murder is encouraged and constantly being displayed.
So when someone kills it should be fine.
They are actively leaning in to the barbaric nature being developed for an appealing motive we would probably all do the same.
But it’s the strings attached if you don’t condemn them you die instead.
It actively forces you to confront the right or wrongness of the situation it if was just kill or be killed battle royale there would be no question after a certain point.
But the structured setting forces us to grapple with oh one of us killed our own it forces processing and determining motive and placing guilt rather than death move on.
Then comes the other side of that coin.
Why do we care when we point our fingers and condemn someone to death.
A murderer murdered and is getting punished.
But it’s more deep than that.
It’s staring a human in the face even if they’re fictional they look like a person so you get a sense of empathy of relatability because you can see yourself it’s a tactic used by lawyers when they’re defending a client humanize them as much as possible.
And most killers in Danganronpa aren’t evil they’re kids pushed to their limits by a motive.
But they still killed.
There’s a reason motive is gone over in a trial it’s to frame that morality is not so black and white.
Yes they killed but it’s harder to condemn someone to a worse fate when they are just like you a victim warped by the situation.
At the end of the day they’re all just kids pushed by terrible situations who cling to their talents as a semblance of identity.
Gundham and Nekomaru fighting for life instead of wasting away believing giving up on life was a mockery to the concept itself.
Peko killing because she believed her life was to complete one purpose
Mondo killing out of jealousy and deep seated insecurity.
The fact of condemning someone to death is weighing lives and the absurdity of execution isn’t just for spectacle nor to make it despair inducing for the killer but in my opinion to make you question whether that person deserved to die.
As dark as it is if a character killed someone and was just shot in the head there would be less of a damn did they really deserve that it would probably still be there but it’s the torture of it all that really tugs at your heart strings .
It’s crazy but a death game wants you the grapple with your morality shining symbols of hope forced into shells of themselves when faced with their past their insecurities or greed but at end of the day they’re still human. just kids.
And the value of a life. When talking about killing and condemning this obviously comes up and Danganronpa does something weird it doesn’t really answer yes or no to whether lives have different values.
The mastermind argues that life can be weighed forcing the characters to kill each other.
The fourth trial in all the games grappling with the idea of the willingness to sacrifice one life for many.
While hope argues that life can’t be measured and that all people’s lives are equal regardless of the despair surrounding them.
Makoto arguing the remnants deserved a change to rehabilitate even after their crimes against humanity.
Instead it asserts that someone’s life is defined by connections and the future one chooses not talent or utility.
Hajime’s life is not determined by whether he has all talent or no talent but the choice he made at the end of the killing game to accept his existence as both and face and uncertain future rather than maintaining in the past and succumbing to despair.
And Shuichi’s life is not defined by his existence as a fictional character but the bonds he made over the course of the game and the emotions he and the other survivors felt.
Is it over?
So in conclusion Danganronpa for all its killings execution and death game plot points is actually about life itself.
Which makes sense when you consider its legacy of course pieces of media can just give people brain worms and latch on to them and never let go.
But Danganronpa is a franchise that can grow up with you in a sense.
As a player around the same age as the characters you may agree with the satire on the education system and as an older fan you may resonate with the existential themes and critique of media and fan culture as a whole.
Or it’s just the characters and I’m insane.
Regardless Danganronpa is a story with something to important to tell and while some may argue it’s hidden under the more questionable inclusions it’s still there waiting to give you existential dread and question your existence for years to come.
So whether you’re trapped in a killing game or sitting at home staring at your phone just live because there’s air in your lungs because you woke up another day because you’re here make connections and feel things and love and lose and grieve and then do it all over again not because there’s a big reason waiting for you.
You know the fandom brain is bad when you see a tier list and it’s for something crazy that isn’t and wouldn’t be mapped out by canon and you’re like yeah that fits
Like someone’s like hey guys I did a tier list on what type of cheese the v3 cast would like
And you’re like that’s weird but then you look at it.
And you’re like you know what yeah I fucking agree with that.
Kokichi would unironically love spray cheese
Himiko would like string cheese
And Kirumi is a cheese purist and firmly believes spray and string cheese to not count as real cheese
Don’t hit me don’t hit me but I think the v3 survivors are going to show up at the end of 2x2 and I bet 80$ on it I know you love your Danganronpa 2 but I think it could happen.
The Transfer Student from Beyond the Grave the chapter that never was
Introduction
Third cases in Danganronpa have a bit of a reputation in a bad way so much so a phrase has been coined to describe it third case syndrome where the other chapters can be great, but something just happens to that darn third chapter and ruins it for everyone.
Now I bring up third cases and chapters in general for a reason for I would say most to all of my time as a member of this fandom I have claimed to love The Transfer Student from Beyond the Grave now I’ve realized I don’t love it as much as I believed so I wanted to do a full essay on chapter three again for a long time using my new beliefs.
Danganronpa V3 in my opinion is a heartbreaking case study about what happens when a chapter has such good ideas but doesn’t have a true thematic focus so instead of complimenting each other the ideas trample over one another chapter three isn’t an example of poor individual ideas but rather bloat and lack of focus which just caused its best ideas to be hindered and buried rather than shine. Of course, the ideas I present in this argument won’t one hundred percent save the chapter and make it this amazing ten out of ten masterpiece, nor do I think that my ideas are the best good or achievable so take what I say with a grain of salt.
This is not to prove that the writers are dumb or that everyone who is pounding this chapter into the dirt is right or even that the chapter is perfect and without flaws but rather to prove the chapter had so much potential that wasn’t realized analyzing it through a lens of what could have been not complaining about what happened.
So this is:
Why The Transfer Student from Beyond the Grave had really really good potential and all the pieces to make a great chapter focused on rich character arcs grief and morality or belief and religion and could have been cool and interesting but lacked thematic focus (and instead ended up being known for memes.)
This argument will be structured as followed
me listing out all the thematic arcs I believe are in the chapter
talking about the consequences of overcrowding and not focusing on said arcs
separating all the arcs into separate what could have been scenarios to show the potential of said arcs and that the chapter isn't inherently as bad as people would make it out to be
a conclusion wrapping it all together.
Oops all thematic arcs!
At its core chapter three contains multiple thematic arcs all trying to carry the weight of the chapter.
1. Himiko’s arc which you could argue is what this chapter is about this arc is started in chapter two and continued here chapter three is where the exposition of this arc is ending, and we are moving into Himiko getting over the hump of her emotional suppression thanks to the help of her friends and experiences in chapter three
2. Religious subtext technically not an arc but a major focus starting from the third floor then the Necronomicon the seance the student council talks about the afterlife and the characters this chapter is focusing on in general.
3. The motive of the Necromomicon itself
4. a bonus one the culprits and victims themselves
so what went wrong how we go from all this to see saw.
How much is too much?
I think where the problem lies is in the overcrowding of it all chapter three had such good potential concepts but the fact all of them were being fleshed out at once dulled all of them and made them compete for breathing room because of this every part of a specific arc has to serve multiple purposes so that it can sort of make sense in all the arcs.
That is a convoluted explanation so let me explain it in more depth.
If the chapter is about Himiko’s arc inherently the cult and the séance don’t need to be here as Tenko and Angie already fill the role of friend trying to give Himiko more walls to hide behind through religion and friend trying to break down Himiko’s walls without these tools but if the chapter is focusing on theology and religious subtext it makes sense why they’re there and this makes it seem like the writers didn’t want to pick so they made sure the cult and the séance could fill dual roles.
If we just focus on the religious subtext without giving anything to ground it to it just being events in the chapter that happen to all connect to this abstract concept that separates Tenko from Angie and Kiyo as she is not inherently connected to these themes making her death feel like it was just tacked on the reach that magic number of two.
And if we focus on the Necromomicon and the conflict and themes it creates as a motive why is the religious subtext here at all?
So, it seems like not matter what way you slice it in chapter three one thing is always going to be out of place sticking out like a sore thumb the only thing connecting Tenko and Angie’s death being a blood stain on the floorboard.
This isn’t to say there was no thought put into these themes but the way they are portrayed makes it seem like they wanted to have their cake and eat it too.
Fans perceive elements as sucking, but the reality is the ideas are too ambitious to coexist perfectly they aren’t inherently bad just trying to carry too much weight.
Lets compare this to chapter one and two of the same game in chapter one everything is culminating to the time limit the major plot points include Kaede trying and failing and getting more and more desperate to try and save the group ending in her last resort attempting to kill the mastermind killing the wrong person and sucking the hope out of the group that there is a chance to escape starting the killing game physically and symbolically.
Chapter two I would say the thematic focus comes from the motive videos, but a lot of narrative heavy things also take place in the chapter all the survivors arcs start in Shuichi’s training Himiko’s magic show and Maki’s talent reveal respectively along with the bug meet and greet setting up Kokichi and Gonta’s possibly dangerous friendship. But these events don’t hinder the main theme or focus of the chapter they coexist not being completely new ideas that happen to use the same elements but their own character arcs that continue into other chapters and the whole game.
In chapter three everything is culminating to the ritual using the Necromomicon which is what I would say if it mattered to the chapter as importantly as the time limit did to chapter one and there are multiple arcs coexisting at once but its not A plot B plot C plot its like we’re all the A plot look at all of us at the same time.
So how do I know it’s the lack of focus and not that the individual pieces are bad? And how can I even claim there are three or four arcs to begin with?
Well… technically there isn’t four separate thematic arcs in chapter three there’s really only one overarching focus but within that one arc you can carve out three equally compelling threads that could each carry their own chapter or main arc if given the space and attention that were swallowed.
Now we leave strict analysis and enter the what if zone where I ask what if each arc was allowed to breathe on its own what could have emerged just using the pieces given to us in chapter three.
This is where the chapter’s true potential lives not in what it became but rather what it could have been to prove that chapter three wasn’t ruined by sister or seesaw or Himiko and of course even though it is based off canon information it will get very narrative and some might describe fanfic-y.
Chapter three truths and a lie
The Religious Triangle
The first and probably largest one I would like to talk about is the religious subtext of the chapter by itself these are just locations items and concepts but when you analyze the past of them you circle around the same theological lens
The Necromomicon is a mix of both Kiyo’s and Angie’s and kind of Himiko’s beliefs while the Necronomicon is a fictional book bringing people back from the dead using rituals itself is seen in mythology and folklore as well as some religions as well as relating to Shamanism and magic.
The student council which many have called similar to a cult However, I would say Angie’s council is a bit more similar to a high control group as they have charismatic leaders use coercion and manipulation specifically target people who are outcasts or have insecurities restrict outside information limit freedom think the leader’s judgement is superior and discourage the questioning of the group and its doctrine but they don’t necessarily commit the crimes physical violence or financial control commonly seen in cults.
Seances are from spiritualism the specific type of seance Kiyo does mimicking a leader assisted séance which are conducted by small groups of people with participants seated around a table in a dark room with the leader being a medium who goes into a trance to allow the spirits to communicate through their body conveying those messages to the other participants.
The problem is that even tying these things to religion and theology they are still separate from each other and you could have religion as a theme itself however as I mentioned this ostracizes Tenko making her death seem removed and not connected to the themes and chapter like Angie and Kiyo’s are the way to fix this being to connect the characters under a similar theme and lens like the other chapters using the religious subtext shown in the major pieces of the third chapter in a meaningful way that doesn’t make the religious subtext feel like a useless edition nor make the characters death’s feel tacked on to reach a certain quota which is where archetypes come in.
The martyr the false prophet/ prophet and the executioner represent reoccurring themes in history and theology.
A martyr testifies to the truth of their faith by refusing to renounce their belief even unto death their death represents ultimate nonnegotiable faith showing they value their belief system more than their own life.
The prophet is a messenger who calls people to faithfulness they represent the voice of the faith demanding change or representing devotion one the other hand the false prophet is an individual who falsely claims to speak on behalf of God or twists scripture to peruse personal agendas.
An executioner is someone who carries out killing typically to a martyr or false prophet as told by a higher power they viewed their work as a religious or spiritual duty conducted within a framework of moral legal and theological righteousness. They ensured the soul could move onto the afterlife and despite the spiritual aspect many executioners were ostracized for their proximity to blood and death.
Traditionally the triad forms a morality play where the prophet speaks a radical truth the executioner attempts to quell it through authority and the martyr transforms that violence into a lasting testimony.
But one I would like to add is the believer.
The believer is the foundational core that gives meaning to the others they balance the triad.
They validate the prophet/false prophet by believing in them and using their messages to change their life.
They sustain the martyr memory: the martyr dies so that the believer can live differently without the believer to emulate them the martyr’s death is just victimization rather than a testimony.
They resist the executioner: while the executioner can kill a person to end a movement the believer can use faith and persistence so that the message doesn’t not die with them if the believers remain to inherit it.
In a sense the believer is the connection of the archetype they are the audience of the prophet the legacy of the martyr and the ultimate target and survivor of the executioner.
Traffic Lights?? I love Tenkaemaki!
I would like to ascribe these roles to Tenko Angie Kiyo and Himiko with Tenko as the martyr Angie as the prophet or false prophet Kiyo as the executioner and Himiko as the believer.
Of course these archetypes are hard to perfectly slot these characters into but I believe Angie claiming to speak to god trying to help/manipulate people using said god and trying to spark change/pursue a personal agenda depending on how you see her fits so does Tenko having unshakeable faith and valuing her belief system before her life Kiyo killing a martyr and/or a false prophet due to a higher power and spiritual duty and Himiko connecting all three being quite literally as I described in my last chapter the audience of the prophet the legacy of the martyr and the survivor of the executioner.
Now if we connect this with the religious subtext, we could say that chapter three of NDRV3 the transfer student from beyond the grave is not about bringing dead students back to life as the chapter title might describe but rather a morality play.
Now what is a morality play?
A morality play is type of drama that uses personified characters to represent abstract qualities like virtues vices or even death to teach a lesson about the human soul.
It involves a protagonist. The forces which are the virtues trying to guide the protagonist to a good path and vices trying to tempt the protagonist toward a bad path. The conflict which is the struggle for the protagonist’s soul or emotional state. And finally, the transformation in which the protagonist learns and hard lesson and changes their behavior preparing them for a “new” life.
Himiko would fill in as the protagonist the virtue or martyr Tenko is trying to get her to express her emotions the vices or prophet/false prophet Angie is using religion to give her more walls to hide behind the chapter is a struggle for Himiko’s emotional state Angie vs Tenko the cult vs the rest of group and the transformation the hard lesson Tenko and Angie both being killed by Kiyo the executioner afterwards Himiko changes her behavior starting to express her emotions as Tenko wanted her to preparing her for the following chapters.
The martyr prophet and executioner: continued
The problem with using those archetypes to connect the characters is that you have to use the archetypes to connect the characters I suppose having Tenko Angie and Kiyo as concepts and then the religious subtext in the same chapter could allow for people to connect the dots themselves but seeing as there’s not as many analyses comparing them to these archetypes as there are talking about other events in the third chapter I would say that it’s not enough.
Now I know leaning into this would be similar to “The Wizard of Monomi” in chapter three of SDR2 when Monokuma showed the students a story and the events came to fruition in the subsequent murder serving as a foreshadowing tool as well as a red herring (and this chapter is similar enough to SDR2 chapter 3 already) but they aren’t against reusing concepts nor motives they do so in the same game in the previous chapter with the motive videos especially since we have Kiyo’s talent as an anthropologist his lab that was just opened and his view that all human behavior even the ugly parts such as murder is beautiful and something to be studied.
To differ it from Monokuma showing the students the story say Kiyo or Angie told the group a story about the martyr prophet and executioner early chapter three during breakfast or something. So that hypothetically anyone could have been inspired.
During the chapter Kiyo and the player sees the roles naturally being filled by Angie Tenko (and possibly Himiko) respectively and then he maps the roles onto his victims adhering to the fable turning his murder into performance and a display rather than a murder of opportunity and convenience he kills Tenko and Angie like in the original game you can even keep the spaced out approach.
But there’s shock why would someone kill two people we move to the class trial everyone is trying to figure out why both Tenko and Angie were killed and are stuck on Angie they do the oh yeah guys lets talk about Tenko too and in discussing Tenko’s death like with the blood stain on the floorboard they realize the connection between the two Maki or Shuichi or somebody brings up the story Angie or Kiyo told them at the beginning of the chapter they do the flashback thing and are able to match Tenko up to the martyr and in doing so match Angie to the prophet/false prophet and by mixing physically evidence with theology they are able to pin Korekiyo as the culprit or executioner.
But then Shuichi is like wait something doesn’t make sense an executioner usually acts on the accord of a higher power and there’s no state here calling for the death of Tenko and Angie unless you count the killing game itself but that doesn’t really make sense then they remember or are told that executioner’s ensure that the people they kill can go to the afterlife and act as out of spiritual duty and then Kiyo’s like ah yes you remembered my state is my long lost sister who I’m trying to send 100 friends to etc. etc.
Of course, this isn’t perfect I wouldn’t even call it good, but you can at least see the connective tissue and meaning behind it all starting to form or at least become clearer than in the original game it connects all three characters deaths as they are in the chapter before and after it while also roping in the religious messaging and all while still pertaining to Himiko’s character development arc.
The potential of the necromomicon
I know a lot of people have problems with the Necromomicon being the motive as it felt like it came out of left field and it’s truly the Chekhov’s gun that was never fired aspect of it all that’s hard to ignore.
Now I can’t speak for everyone but the chapter focusing on this topic of bringing a dead classmate back from the dead so much so its what’s the chapter is named after so much so it’s one of the potential culprits the surviving students bring up only for it to really not go anywhere is strange I guess you can say it gets the ball rolling on Angie’s arc and even though Kiyo didn’t use the motive explicitly it does connect to his ultimate motive just backwards in a sense.
But like for all the other chapters in this game maybe most would be a better word there’s a clear through line especially involving the culprits’ victims and motives.
Time limit motive and the desperation to find a way to save everyone with two differing means connects Kaede and Rantaro.
Giving the cast a reason to escape with the motive videos connects Kirumi and Ryoma with the value of a life.
The card key and the outside world connects Miu and Gonta with two opposing reactions to the truth of the outside world Miu fueled with paranoia and fear desperately wanting to escape and Gonta wanting to mercy kill everyone so they wouldn’t have to face the despair of the outside world the contrast between scared selfishness and misguided kindness.
And then Kaito and Kokichi who for the whole game were on opposite sides rivals foils even are connected by their motive wanting to create an unsolvable murder to end the killing game not only emotionally but thematically showing they’re more similar than they would like to admit or initially thought.
However, the criticisms and problems just comes from how its utilized as a motive in the game once you think about it removed from how its used in chapter three the Necromomicon isn’t that bad.
I feel as if the Necromomicon is an interesting motive I don’t hate the concept contrary to what my previous statements may seem I think it has the potential to be interesting now on one hand I believe that with the Danganronpa “magic” the Necromomicon could work and actually bring a dead classmate back to life however odd I perceive the concept to be in a killing game (I guess it could work but it strange to me) but on the other hand I believe the Necromomicon as a motive is not meant to be used let me explain.
A motive such as the videos are obvious Monokuma is showing you videos about people you care about and telling you that you have to escape and the only one percent guaranteed way to escape is by killing and secrets is the same if you don’t kill someone your deepest darkest secrets will be revealed.
I feel the Necromomicon is a device used to create infighting (which I guess you can say it does because the cult created an us vs them mentality) but not in a who should we bring back based on who would be the most useful to add back to the team way that’s too strategic rather in a I need to bring this person back against all odds I don’t care what the group may have said about it being a trap from Monokuma way.
The Necromomicon is so interesting because you basically create the motive yourself all Monokuma has to do is place the book in front of you and you start thinking about own personal connections and fears which is interesting in concept the book could mean different things to every single person for one bringing back someone they lost for another making amends and for someone else confronting an enemy.
It's a psychological accelerant its supposed to ask what would grief make you do its not supposed to be hey guys we should bring Rantaro back because he’s the most useful its supposed to be I have to bring Rantaro back and nobody is stopping me from bringing him back it’s supposed to turn you into this obsessed person to invoke these feelings of grief and longing and desperation.
But there’s two things that hinder its potential number one I’m going to keep saying this but the v3 cast for the most part in my opinion are very insecure and/or selfless/putting things before themselves and this doesn’t have to be individual it could be overall for the cast and you don’t have to agree but I think that’s the throughline that connects these characters and if you’re iffy saying that you can just say sacrifice in general and since that’s who they are as people you want your motives to reflect those types of things so that they can be motives and I would say that the motives in this game follow that structure you could argue that the outside world was a hope and motivation drainer more than anything but Miu and Gonta’s motivations for murder still stemmed from those two themes.
And two the Necromomicon is just pick one of your dead classmates to revive and supposedly there would have been a drawback or trap because it’s still Monokuma but that was never elaborated on and without stating a catch people are obviously going to think that it’s a trap and because of that the psychological combustion never happens so the motive never becomes social chaos and it becomes a background prop which makes it feel like a misplaced Chekhov’s Gun.
I think an eye for an eye deal would have been interesting and relate to the themes but then that would impede on chapter two’s what’s the cost of a life and can lives really be weighed but regardless you have to set up the implications for an equal and opposite reaction to occur if you say you can bring your friends back.
Also there’s no one the cast really wanted to bring back from a personal standpoint you could argue Kaede but with the way it was framed none of the people who would want to bring Kaede back would do it.
Along with the grief spiral there’s another question the Necromomicon is setting up. A who deserves to be revived conversation, about usefulness to the group yes but also whether someone’s past actions make them underserving of a second chance the Necromomicon is inherently playing god picking who out of your dead classmates should re-join the group.
Someone could argue no of them deserved to die as all were victims of the killing game.
Others could argue that Kirumi and Kaede shouldn’t be revived as the killed our classmates.
You could also say Ryoma is a liability because his lack of a reason to live makes him an easy target but that’s not fair either and you’d basically be making the same argument as Kirumi.
Or you could say Kaede should be allowed to be revived because her motivations were pure despite the fact that she killed someone but that would mean you would have to forgive anybody for killing as along as their ultimate motivations were pure (*cough cough* Kokichi).
Then you could argue if it’s morally right to bring someone back from the dead to begin with just for emotional reasons would that person want to come back especially if there was some consequence for their revival.
And you may say these themes are coming out of left field but at the end of chapter two we just had Maki’s ultimate talent reveal which brings up this question and the first come first serve rule implications also pair well with this because if there’s two murderers you’re going to have to live with one of them and if this were to happen the question from the start of the chapter would get brought back up again at the end a full thematic arc if you will.
But we all know this didn’t happen so what could have been one of the most interesting motives turned into a gun that was on the table in the first act and the second act but by the third its “oh yeah, the gun someone misplaced it or something.”
An Aikido master an Anthropologist and a cult leader walk into a séance
The bonus fourth arc the characters and how they connect
There are multiple themes that connect these three characters one of which is belief more specifically a rigid guiding philosophy or belief system they filter their worldview through and are alienated from the group because of.
For Korekiyo it’s his anthropology and his sister
For Angie it’s the god of her island.
And For Tenko is Neo Aikido.
Its also however them utilizing belief to either help or hinder.
Angie utilizes the fear of the killing game preying on people who are outcasts or have insecurities to sway the students to join the student council and it’s Himiko’s belief in her that helps her put up more walls, so she doesn’t have to confront her negative emotions and harmful truths of the killing game.
Kiyo utilizes the belief in his talent for the séance as well as Tenko’s belief to get her to become the medium for said séance.
It’s Tenko’s belief that Angie brainwashed the other members of the student council most notably Himiko to fight for Himiko and try to get her to truly express her emotions as well as reach out to Shuichi and Maki to try to stop Angie from doing the ritual.
And It’s Himiko’s belief in Tenko’s final words that allows her to start her character development and start living life facing forward and expressing her emotions as Tenko wanted to.
However, I believe that belief itself is a through line throughout the game rather than just pertaining to chapter three and I believe all the chapters have the theme of belief how it shapes your views and the concept being used as a weapon good or evil depending on who’s using it as well as another individual theme.
Ok so what else is there?
They also all have a skewed perception of their backstory seeing it through a rose-tinted lens.
Tenko and her crime fighting / vigilantism and in my opinion her parents Korekiyo and his relationship with his sister and Angie and the experiences (I guess would be the way to describe it) on her island and Himiko made up a story about her master fighting an arch mage to hide from herself and others that he truly just abandoned her embarrassed that she had to save him during his own show
Now we have something, we can connect this theme of having a rose tinted view of something looking from the outside is dark and depressing and mix it with a theme from Himiko escapism it might be better to describe it as detachment, so it fits the four characters better and now we have a clear theme of this chapter (these characters).
The Transfer Student from Beyond the Grave could have also been an interesting chapter about belief religion how it shapes your views how it can be utilized for good an evil depending on who’s using it and how it leads people to lie as well as suppression detachment and escapism- And how these themes shape people.
Train your heart by laughing crying and having thematic consistency Himiko.
In conclusion The Transfer Student from Beyond the Grave isn’t a bad chapter while yes I could argue that some choices are questionable it felt like they tried to add new concepts to distract from the formulaic nature of third cases and that they copied the wrong things from sdr2’s chapter three it’s potential ideas are all strong and compelling the problem isn’t inherently these ideas by themselves separate from the game its that the chapter tries to do too much at once by forcing multiple arcs and thematic focuses to coexist simultaneously none of them get the space they need to fully develop leaving the chapter feeling overcrowded and uneven.
Had the chapter been allowed to function as its own microcosm giving one idea the space to breathe and a clear focus the potential for a rich thematically layered experience was there (though it wouldn’t automatically fix the chapter as there are still issues) what we got instead was a chapter that was hindered by it’s own scope being reduced to memes and criticisms about unfinished arcs and we can spend all day changing motives death order or culprits but the problem will never fully be fixed until the chapter finds out it’s soul and gets rid of or minimizes anything that doesn’t support that.
I started this argument with the sentiment that I love chapter three and I don’t think that has changed the reason might have switched and I’m definitely not purposely ignoring its flaws anymore but I love this chapter so much that I want it to be better because I see it’s potential and I know it can get better.
You could argue that it wouldn’t help at all that chapter threes are doomed to fail from the start with a double kill but I believe if they stuck to one thing if they found their theme like all the other chapters chapter three of Danganronpa V3 would have been a really interesting chapter not amazing not harder to figure out not the best but interesting whether it be the morality play of religious archetypes the moral questions raised by the Necromomicon or the character driven themes of suppression escapism and belief but all of that starts with choosing what direction to go in.
So no I don’t think gets ruined by Korekiyo’s motive or Tenko’s death and I certainly don’t think everything needs to be changed for it to be good ultimately The Transfer Student from Beyond the Grave may look like a mess but it’s really just a crowded stage of ideas trying to shine all at once (and there’s not enough spotlight for all of them.)
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Bonus whiteboard planning. Some of this is from an older version where it was more critical than hypothetical.
A take that is common among people who dislike the V3 ending is that they don’t like what it says about them as players they say that they’ve been in the fandom from the very beginning engaged with all the content only to have Kodaka spit in their faces and tell them they’re sadists who only want to see violence and death but is that true.
I don’t think so.
I believe the V3 ending is a critique of the entertainment culture a look into the audience as enablers a look into the power of fiction for both sides a question what truly is entertainment and ultimately a plead for the audience to ponder their relationship with media.
V3 is a commentary on what happens when franchises are stretched to their limit absurd plot exaggerated characters shock for the sake of shock not because there’s something new to say or a new story to tell but because the audience will keep watching as long as there’s more content.
Crazy plot lines character arcs and twists that make no sense except to add shock value.
Choosing not to let a franchise go in some cases is an active decision choosing profit over thematic integrity and love for the craft a shift to money over meaning we see this a lot now with big corporations such as Disney which started as an animation studio focused on the magic of creation and telling innovative heart felt stories to pumping out soulless remakes and allowing people to use ai to create content on Disney +.
V3 however does also acknowledge the viewers role in this mass consumption of these franchises especially when they have wearing beloved franchises thin or straying away from their original meaning only enables them to keep mass producing more content.
This responsibility between fan and creator is shared.
the ending explicitly shows that when the viewers listen to Shuichi and stop watching Team DR looses their power and the game ends this is not a story about condemning the audience it’s about exposing a feedback loop between creator and consumer.
Kodaka isn’t berating the viewer he’s asking a much more uncomfortable question.
Because even though not to the same extent as the audience we still engage with suffering as entertainment we still crave for more we love tension we love despair arcs and even when we’re critical we still have love for the series and V3 asks us to pause and consider something deeper:
Why is suffering even fictional entertainment?
Characters like Maki Tenko and Shuichi aren’t real but the emotions they experience grief desperation fear are fiction packages pain into something consumable that makes us feel deeply while still creating distance and that distance creates safety and that safety is what causes the suffering to be entertainment rather than questioned and confronted.
V3 isn’t saying this makes us bad people or sadists it’s just pointing it out as a structural feature of entertainment.
Conflict drives narrative stakes keep us watching despair makes hope feel earned we’re not evil for liking the suffering of characters we love seeing our favorite characters suffer because it makes their stories deeper, more emotional, and more relatable. Their pain makes them feel more real, their growth makes them more compelling, and their happiness—when they finally get it—feels earned.
We engage with suffering from a place of love.
But V3 asks what happened when that dynamic gets pushed too far what happens when escalation replaces intent and when suffering stops serving the story and instead serves consumption.
This is where Shuichi and Tsumugi come in two sides of the same coin.
Shuichi uses fiction to break away from reality regain his humanity and end the killing game while tsumugi uses fiction to escape from her boring reality and life and this obbession has become so bad she sees danganronpa as an extension of herself.
That’s the real meaning.
Kodaka is not calling his viewers evil for liking the games or saying they’re like the audience now it’s a caution against using escapism so much that it leads to self erasure and emotional numbness and consuming anything as long as it distracts us and stops the bad thoughts in our head even for a moment.
Shuichi doesn’t reject fiction he actually uses it to end the game he rejects this system the endless continuation the exploitation of suffering the refusal to let a story end.
And that’s the question v3 leaves us with.
Not whether we’re like the audience in the game but what we want from the pieces of media we love and if we’re willing to let them end when and maybe before meaning is replaced with consumption.
Pt. 2: Execution, Ambition, and Balance
Now this isn’t to say that everything in V3 is obvious on first watch or that casual fans should immediately pick up on all of this I don’t fault anyone for that but I do want to play devil’s advocate a bit and not just treat this analysis like the V3 ending is brilliant and if you hate it you’re stupid and wrong.
V3 works as a show that’s been going on too long they can’t just say V3 is one and expect you to suspend disbelief without anything feeling weird or odd but that same idea is also what makes some people feel its quality is hindered in universe V3 isn’t supposed to be “high quality” It’s just more Danganronpa serotonin in the real world though we still hold Danganronpa to a certain standard.
Digging deeper Kodaka and his team do a decent job of balancing this the plot is absurdist but we can suspend our disbelief enough to follow it the characters might seem like repeated archetypes with one-liners but there’s more depth there than it first appears.
The issue stems from over ambition and v3 trying to play both sides at once.
On the ambitious side I think the idea of the v3 outside world is interesting a society that craves for stimulation so much they have to get it out of watching teenagers kill each other on tv and if they did sign up what compelled these teenagers to throw their lives away and if they were kidnapped there had to be something special about them and the idea of v3 survivors having to carve out their little safe haven in this world that foamed at the mouth at the sight of their and their friend’s suffering knowing they aren’t the same people before or during the killing game.
But it’s hard to implement in the last few hours along with the other bombshells dropped and I think there definitely could have been an alternative universe where it’s hopes peak arc then new separate storyline of (v3 —> v2 —> epilogue of v3). Or at least if there was a continuation after V3 that’s what I would have wanted.
V3 is trying to do two things at once: act as an in universe reality show and as a game for us the real-world audience it’s not just the fact that V3 is a reality show criticizing the practice that’s been done before it’s the fact V3 keeps trying to balance both and that balance isn’t always smooth.
Infodumping the whole series lore and how we got to 53 games makes sense for us but the fans already know this they’re apart of it right now but at the same time dumping the lore about how the characters and their friends are fictional makes sense for the in game audience breaking down the characters moral to get them to continue the games running but it’s weird for us.
Tsumugi cheating the game to keep it going is interesting for the game but weird for the tv show.
An ending with the previous casts coming back to tell the v3 cast that they’re fictional and nothing they went through matters is an amazing call back for the outside audience but just seems like they’re dangling characters we know in front of our face in the real world (and you know trying to prove that they’re fictional because Tsumugi can cosplay them but I digress.)
Some people like the idea that the ending might have been better if the connections they made in the game their friends try to convince them to stay in the game with them/ just manipulate them (the outside world cold harsh friends warm and soft.) but that would probably make less sense for the reality tv show and crazy fans aspect of it.
I would add stuff like Kokichi and Kaito going against the script but still being int the script but I don’t believe Tsumugi was telling the truth about writing absolutely everything herself.
Which is also why I think fan-fictions of the ending are better because they either balance this better or don’t try to balance this at all.
Does this make the ending bad not inherently it means the execution could have been better that’s true for a lot of things about V3 but I still love the ending I still love what it’s trying to say and I still love this game.
This is my first time talking about Angie by herself so we’ll see how it goes
Obligatory secondary antagonist appreciation post.
I think Angie Yonaga should have had more of a role or at least a better role as a secondary antagonist in V3.
In Danganronpa I believe antagonists are often the foils to the protags Byakuya highlights Makoto’s kindness and humility by being arrogant and dismissive Both Hajime and Nagito are obsessed with Hopes Peak and talents but Nagito takes it to the next extreme highlighting Hajime’s insecurities and talentless self by showing a dark twisted version of what happens when someone values talent over humanity.
When Kaede was the protagonist Kokichi was the antagonist which made sense he was one of the people to oppose her toxic optimism and stubbornness that was hurting the group especially in the death road of despair and he definitely acted as an antithesis to her and her beliefs.
But when we get to Shuichi this pattern recieves a twist as Shuichi’s antagonist wouldn’t just be someone that highlights his strengths and flaws but also challenges his personal approach to truth itself as Shuichi’s arc is about developing his own understanding of truth vs lies.
Kokichi is obvious in this regard: he represents lies and believes lies are better than the truth because they can lead you to the true answer. He also weaponizes truth to dismantle the game itself.
However Angie is also a candidate as she is religious in a sense which commonly conflicts with the empirical truth Shuichi believes in at the beginning of the game rather than the subjective and dependent on context truth he develops at the end that’s especially important during the 6th trial. And she also uses truth to replace people’s reality with her divine order.
They are both on the opposite sides of the spectrum with Shuichi in the middle.
And this stays the same whether you believe Angie is a true prophet or an expert manipulator.
Kokichi acts like a major antagonist to not only both the two protags but also the group while Angie is the lesser focused on secondary antagonist. (To Shuichi specifically I think Maki would be the secondary antagonist to Kaede)
And she’s very similar to Kokichi in both role and character and I’m going to cheat and use my analysis comparing and contrasting the v3 cast here:
Both characters function as antagonists, using manipulation and deceit to further their goals.
They both want to stop the killing game even though their methods are questionable.
They are both cunning and intelligent, using logic over emotion.
They both have deceptive personas. Angie is acting seemingly innocent, while Kokichi has his villainous façade.
Both characters find themselves at odds with their classmates being perceived as weird or threats.
They are both leaders in some sense, Angie with the student council and Kokichi with Dice.
Finally both resort to extreme measures to achieve their goals.
But the thing I think is interesting about Angie is while she has strong beliefs like Kaito’s in his friends unlike Kaito she’s still a logic first thinker using her beliefs to manipulate and deceive so that she can lead the group instead of Kaito who uses it to not condemn his classmates to certain death.
And because of this mix Angie’s arc in chapter three while small was very dangerous.
She blocked off the manhole and destroyed the flashback lights which you can argue were ultimately traps so it was a good thing however this also blocked off the other students ways of discovering another truth.
She targeted the students that were outcasts or had insecurities bringing them into Atua’s protection effectively “brainwashing” them.
By making all decisions come from Atua (herself) it removed the members of the council’s need to think for themselves shown in extreme cases like Himiko.
And the student council ultimately made a us vs them mentality that further isolated and divided the group rather than unifying them.
This highlights how Angie’s control actively limits critically thinking making her role thematically significant.
Not searching for or recognizing truth because you believe there is only one source is particularly dangerous in a killing game especially in the structure Danganronpa relies on.
And while I do like chapter three I do think they could have done so many cool things.
The three people who died all had strong beliefs or faiths in something there was heavy religious subtext all the way through and it fits perfectly into the main theme of truth vs lies.
But that’s not what I’m talking about today.
I will constantly talk about this but I wish more people played a bigger role in this plot so the cult’s arc wouldn’t just be it was created Angie died it ended
Three people specifically:
Maki- because her past with the Holy Salvation Society and experience in what Angie is recreating in the killing game— a life where identity and personal thought is erased for divine purpose.
Kokichi- because of his beliefs that truth comes from lies doubt and questioning and that blind belief leads to complacency directly clashes with Angie’s student council inhibiting doubt and individual freedom.
Shuichi- because the type of truth he peruses at this point in the game exposes Angie’s words as subjective but could also easily lead to more conflict instead of breaking her social control over the group leading to Shuichi having to use/ learn a different approach.
And this isn’t to say they don’t play a role within the cult arc we almost get something in a favorite interaction of mine when maki Shuichi and Tenko talk in chapter three showing the potential of what could have been dynamic wise and teaming up against the council.
So just in one arc alone Angie could act as an antagonistic force to three of the main characters one of whom is the game’s main antagonist.
She bends the themes using her lens of divine truth which would allow Shuichi to develop new beliefs such as the weight between doubt and certainty the idea that subjective truth can be real and that lies can sometimes lead to good outcomes.
People oftentimes talk about the dynamic between Kaito Kokichi and Shuichi:
Shuichi’s support character and friend Kaito who means well but whose strong beliefs hurt the group.
Meanwhile Shuichi’s antagonist Kokichi seems to be trying to harm the group but his beliefs are ultimately good in some sense.
Shuichi having to learning from them both using their good and bad to form his own beliefs.
But it would be interesting to have to antagonists be in that dynamic where Shuichi potentially has to work with the enemy to take down the bigger enemy.
And if she had a bigger role as an antagonist like Kokichi she could have acted as an obstacle Shuichi has to overcome on his journey to create his understanding of truth and lies and to accomplish Kaede’s wish instead of a short arc that left us wanting more.
German philosopher Nietzsche argued "convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.”
Someone who believes they are right and believes they have a good reason to change others is more dangerous than a liar as they are unswayed by evidence and feel justified in their actions
They don’t just form a false reality but actively destroy the mechanisms needed for recognizing the truth such as critical inquiry doubt and evidence based reasoning. The opposite of this being skepticism which is necessary to find the truth.
So we go back to our spectrum Angie and Kokichi at complete opposite ends despite ultimately having the same goal while Shuichi’s stuck in the middle not wanting to lean too far in either way.
So I guess in that sense Angie isn’t really a secondary antagonist at all more better described as complementary being not only an antagonist to Shuichi but a foil to Kokichi together the two of them being two sides of the same coin for Shuichi Angie showing the danger of truth as control and Kokichi showing the power of lies as a tool for liberation.
In conclusion Angie is really interesting and would serve as a great complementary antagonist along with Kokichi to Shuichi and should have played a bigger role as an antagonist in the original game.
You guys are probably tired of me talking about this but it infuriates me enough that I feel like I have to I don’t even see this take on Tumblr which makes me feel like I’m yelling at people who aren’t even here.
Some people genuinely believe that if Tenko were a guy everyone would hate him and the entire franchise would be hated too.
Why? Because he’d be a misogynist.
Which is crazy coming from this fandom.
But these people were saying Kodaka would have to make Komahina canon to keep the fandom that male Tenko would threaten to beat up women that no one would like him and that Tenko fans only like her antics because she’s a woman and she’s pretty.
To which I say: yes.
She is pretty.
But that’s not why I love Tenko.
Nevertheless at the end of the day this is about more than a hypothetical male Tenko.
This argument while not only being a terrible point of criticism that makes no sense also ironically says more about how fandom treats characters than about Tenko herself
So this is I don’t get the if Tenko was a guy everyone would hate him because he wouldn’t hate women argument— one year later.
First addressing the obvious point.
This argument doesn’t come from a place of insight (I think that’s obvious).
But to fully understand why I don’t like it we have to look at how this argument is normally used.
Typically this is used when there is a female character who does something wrong I.e sexual harassment of a male character but the fans brush it off or even encourage it and a critic will say well if the roles were switched you guys would hate it in order to make the fans confront their hypocrisy and bias/ favoritism towards said female character.
In contrast this argument against Tenko was probably just made to make people confront that one trait about Tenko in a different more inflammatory lens to make you say oh no I do actually hate that and it only makes sense if you believe man hating is Tenko’s only trait.
And saying it in the first place is the same thing as me saying oh you guys only like Kaito because of his bromance with Shuichi and his implied ship with Maki so if he was a girl everyone would hate her or you only like Kokichi because you guys think he’s hot and like the yaoi ship with Shuichi so if he was a girl you guys would hate her.
Obviously I don’t believe that and saying that just boils down these characters to something that doesn’t define their personality and says the fans of those characters only like them for a thing they would lose if they were the opposite sex.
But this argument isn’t used with Kaito and Kokichi and when people gender-bend the two they just transfer major traits over instead of swapping them based on gender and this could be due to the fact that Kaito and Kokichi are well understood as more complex characters within the fandom but it could also be due to the fact fans don’t want to confront that what if and of course this isn’t all fans just ones choosing to ignore certain things.
But let’s pretend for a second their idealized gender-bend of Tenko exists.
Hypothetically If male Tenko was a misogynist (which I guess isn’t fair because Tenko isn’t a misandrist but I have to keep their argument to prove my point so we’re just going to say he has traditional or outdated views but isn’t a misogynist) and was treated with the same nuance as the rest of the v3 cast ex. we adapted Tenko’s original backstory so that it still said something plausible mixing word of mouth with lived experience just twisted to fit the scenario then we still gave him a semblance of Tenko’s original likable personality I don’t think he wouldn’t be hated by the whole fandom.
(You may say well that’s cheating they said explicitly he would be a misogynist yes but the way they were portraying him a guy who threatens to beat up women and hates women no/ not many characters are really ever just a terrible person who does terrible things without some nuance so I don’t think there would ever be just someone spewing misogyny without something else balancing it and I’m making him closer to how Tenko is in game not necessarily their OC.)
Just take a look at Kokichi and Kaito.
Kaito says stuff that could be construed as sexist or more harmful than good for his sidekicks and people will still love him sometimes painting over ignoring or denying his words and actions that point to this while magnifying Tenko’s ignoring the parts of her character that are good interesting and very similar to Kaito in both flaws and strengths.
Kokichi is kind of a jerk and he committed several bad or morally wrong acts during the game still some people will claim that Kokichi did nothing wrong because of his ultimate goal and reframe all his actions in a positive light while ripping apart Maki’s poor choices leaving no room for nuance then say maki’s worse because she got no punishment from the other characters when the biggest punishment comes from her consequences and her biggest criticisms stem internally.
This isn’t to say these characters aren’t good and it’s not the fact they committed these acts more or less that their counterparts are more commonly condemned by the fandom or the same people.
I believe based on the fandom’s tendency to forgive male flaws and give them more grace than the female characters if Tenko as a guy was this white night/ benevolent sexist/ hyper responsive traditionalist he might not actually be as hated nor receive the overwhelming criticism and scrutiny the original Tenko receives of course he would have some people who wouldn’t like him but I don’t think the whole fandom would hate him some people even liking him.
Of course this cannot be proven and could very well be wrong but it’s ironic that the Tenko they created as a parallel that Tenko’s “hatred” of men was annoying bad and a reason we should hate her could very well be a tell of the fandoms double standards.
And you could say they were in some ways aware of this some people saying that they might like this Tenko more than the original and found this concept funny.
So while I believe their argument makes no sense and is a bad point of contention I ultimately believe that it’s a useful lens to see how we treat characters differently depending on their gender.
So in conclusion this argument not only:
Doesn’t make sense
Is a terrible point of criticism
Says more about the people who believe this rather than Tenko and her fans
But is also probably wrong
And ultimately if Tenko was a guy he would transition to be a woman (joke not really tho)
the thing about post game aus that itches my brain and always makes me come back is that it’s two people fighting for control of your body but you don’t identify with any of those people anymore and which ever one wins you’ll still be losing.
There’s the you before the game the you that you barely remember that hangs onto you by a thread and that only truly exists in an audition tape a you that you don’t connect with anymore a you that feels like a different person a you that decided to sign your life away for whatever reason a completely different life that you can’t associate anymore people you don’t know places you don’t remember
And then there’s the you in the killing game the fictional character for all you know if Tsumugi was fully telling the truth is completely written everything about you your past your family your personality your connections even the way you look possibly all fake.
Yet you remember your persona in the killing game like it’s your real identity you can recall it better than your past self the real you the person you were before the killing game.
As some people cling to the memories and facts in the killing game as a sense of comfort something similar something concrete despite the fact that it’s fiction clutching at straws for identity for meaning.
But your not the person you were before the killing game nor the person you were in it you’re some amalgamation of both and neither at the same time.
A completely different person entirely built from barely stitched together memories traumas and personality traits
Either trying to hold onto who you used to be or trying to distance yourself from them completely-the pre game you or the in game you.
But neither one fits anymore.
Because that person no longer exists.
Surviving the killing game just means losing yourself.
I love the concept of toxic affection in post game aus.
And by toxic affection I mean unhealthy coping through intimacy.
Give me two characters going at it to try to feel something again.
Give me sloppy desperate kisses because for a moment they pretend the person they used to love is in front of them; mouths clinging to memory instead of reality.
Give me them dating the person they liked in the killing game because it tethers them to your past self even though they’re different people and the relationship just hurts them both more than helps but neither wants to admit it.
Give me shared I love yous because that’s just what you say right?
Not 100% healthy but not 100% bad messy but human just enough to make something feel real and to cope with the type of damage from the killing game.
Ok so with the release of 2x2 people have been talking about other additions and rewrites
And the question is also posed do we want those rewrites
I know a v3 rewrite probably isn’t coming but I’m not sure if I would want it anyway don’t get me wrong I love the v3 cast and I’m not one of those people like put this game I love to rest before it gets tainted anymore but I just wouldn’t want a rewrite maybe I’ll change my mind once 2x2 comes out but as a person who loves the v3 cast and has a terrible memory but can recite facts and lines off the top of my head I just want more content with these characters like v3 was definitely handed the short end of the stick on content and I don’t know…
Of course a rewrite would be nice I mean we’ll probably get the Kaede protagonist Maki and Kokichi antagonists and Tenko and Kaito supports where Kaede represents the line between the two groups and we get to see more of her toxic traits seep through her leadership and taint the whole group but it just feels weird I mean we’ll all know sdr2 was picked because it’s the fan favorite by a landslide and it’s the mostly likely to do the least amount of harm to the timeline and if needed to easily be slid in to the already existing universe and realistically if we say v3 is its own timeline it won’t do anything unless we’re establishing a whole new storyline line separate from the hopes peak saga into its own series (which I think would be cool)
If we put all that aside and assume a v3 is in the works they just announced it I don’t know if I would want it if you asked me when I had just got into the fandom I would have said yes hell if you asked me when 2x2 was just announced I would have said yes but now I’ve been thinking about it too much and I just want what’s best for the characters.
People already hate and misunderstand the v3 cast so much and I think adding more nuance on top isn’t going to help.
And I know I say what’s best for the characters like the characters themselves are adults now and they have the put back on their old uniforms and do the game again with fake smiles on their faces but I’m conflicted because on one hand I think they could do so many cool things but on the other hand my perception is skewed by fanfics and what makes those so good isn’t just oh this motive is sick this execution is sick it’s dynamics and characterization but they have the ability to explore that better.
I will reiterate that I fucking love the v3 cast I’m probably overthinking this and no one else is racking their heads over this and if a rewrite is the only choice to see the characters again then I’ll take it I’m not saying ban it it can’t happen I’m fine with it but I would kill for just full one character info and dynamics and I know the killing game if the pressure cooker to get that out so I don’t know why I’m so conflicted
Maybe I’m just a stupid nerd who just wants a series (as in one thing multiple parts) of just the v3 cast hanging out cause no matter what anyone says about their dynamics sucking I think without the killing game they would be the bestest of friends and is learning more about the characters as people but that’s just me and that’s just what I care about out of the V3 at this point in my hyper fixation.
Is that selfish? Maybe I know that’s not how most people engage with franchise and the killing game is the main thing but idk man that’s how I engage and that’s what important to me right now.
It’s really not about the rewrite at all it’s even if the v3 story could keep going (which it could) and it’s like everyone wants it after 2x2 I just don’t want other stuff to distract from the cast.
Which is fucking stupid to say because I know a main part of the Danganronpa killing game is the characters so either way they’re going to be focused on and it brings out the worst in everyone and forces them to connect and brings out those interesting traits and personalities and this is probably just me being an idiot and a downer but part of me just wants more content of the characters another part wants a rewrite and the other part wants a v3 series focusing on the outside world shown in the ending and they’re all fighting for dominance and none are winning at the moment
And it’s so frustrating. Cause I feel like I’m wrong not in an objective sense but like I don’t know how to get what I want and my stupid idea isn’t the right way.
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