ill have peace when people realize that theres barely any romantic implications beyond waifubait with hajime & chiaki in sdr2 (hajime is even like “what is up with this girl” multiple times because she cant hold convo, love her) meanwhile there’s immediately romantic implications between hajime & nagito
hajime and chiaki’s relationship is not inherently romantic beyond it being a boy and a girl who care about each other, and people thinking that needs to be romantic. it makes more sense as an important friendship. because chiaki is important to and cares about ALL of her classmates in the same way.
but ultimately chiaki COULDN’T save hajime. not in dr3. it’s true that a vision of her manages to talk hajime out of his despair in chapter 6. but the REAL chiaki could NOT save him from himself, because she has a fundamental mismatch and doesn’t truly understand his feelings on worthlessness and lack of talent. she has a talent, she even says to him that it’s “harder” to be talented than not, and she’d prefer it. that’s completely ignoring his feelings on the matter.
while it can be argued that dr3 shows more romantic implications between them, it’s also where she’s least compatible and helpful for him. she can’t understand why he’s so upset about talent, so she can’t talk him out of his mindset and prevent him from doing the project. even if she doesn’t know that’s what her words are doing, she still fails.
i won’t say komaeda would talk him out of it, because i don’t think many people could. hajime hates himself deeply enough to become another person, it’s hard to talk anyone out of that mindset. but komaeda understands hajime in a way no one else does - because everyone else in sdr2 is talented, and doesn’t really ride or die for the whole “talented vs untalented” dichotomy, but they don’t not participate in it.
komaeda isn’t really talented on the other hand, and he even wishes he wasn’t, and treats himself like he isn’t. because he believes he doesn’t deserve the title. just like hinata, he believes strongly in the worth of ultimates and the worthlessness in comparison of those beneath them - like himself and hinata.
komaeda’s worldview is nearly the exact same as hinata’s, just pushed a bit further and a bit more twisted. hinata’s worldview isn’t any more healthy than komaeda’s, either - a healthy worldview doesn’t lead to you lobotomizing yourself. they understand each other in a way no one else in sdr2 can because they both have this inferiority/superiority complex about talent.
that’s why the narrative revolves around them so much. their stories begin and end with each other.
chiaki is important to hajime, yes, but not in any romantic sense. they’re friends. and that’s fine. a male and a female character don’t have to be romantic to be deeply important to each other. danganronpa is not above putting an m/f ship as endgame, this is obvious with naegiri, and if that was ever the intention with hajime and chiaki they would’ve. but instead we see a literal scene where hajime leaves his memory of chiaki behind and moves on from her, as he needs to, as they all need to, carrying her memory with him but not living in the past, and as he leaves her he joins nagito instead.
and this is the FINAL shot of them. to end the series. i think it’s pretty clear what they intended with this.
essentially, nagito and hajime complete each other. they are soulmates. end of ramble
ellievsbear
blakekathryn
tangentwithtanner
turnnoffyourmind
