robin!!!! 🎉

they/them + fictkin profile picture by @washbearzz

[washbearzz]

hi! I found your album art for NAPCAST's "Help Desk" adorable. are you open for commissions? I would love to commission you ^^

hi hello, and thank you for the interest!! :-D i'm realizing i never shared it here, but i do have a few options open on my kofi!

[wifegideonnav]

“bits to use in everyday conversations”

[sgt-cookie-2]

Me (A time traveler visiting 20-year old Mozart): OK, so, this is called an electric guitar, basically instead of the body functioning as a resonance chamber, it produces music by harnessing the power of lightning. Do you have any other questions?

Mozart (Currently shredding Violin Concerto No. 1 on the guitar, having figured it out within 30 seconds): What other music can be made from harnessed lightning?

Me (Loading up some heavy dubstep): Oh, we're just getting started.

[detectivenyx]

Out of curiosity, any thoughts on Danganronpa Despair Time since you referenced it in your Edens Garden post?

it's impressive they made something so thorough on their own and kept a digestible scope, but as someone whose background is in writing it is startlingly clear that the DTDev's background is not (iirc, they even admitted such after the release of chapter 2). if i had to pick between them, i would choose despair time, but to me it's like asking which leg i'd like broken.

it was much longer than i expected so uh, here's a break. also obvious spoilers and negative opinions inbound so if that's a sensitivity maybe scroll past this one:

quite frankly teruko is one of the most insufferable protagonists i've ever fucking seen in anything period. until she gets shanked by whatshisface (i'm legitimately blanking on his name. was it michael? the british dude with one eye) she has legitimately no real character outside of complaining about her bad luck and once she is shanked she becomes an extremely generic edgelord, complete with getting a black-coat makeover to show how deep dark and edgy she is now. i don't really enjoy throwing around the term since it's one steeped in so much misogyny it really isn't funny, but i genuinely cannot find any other words to describe teruko other than 'mary sue'. she repeatedly fucks over the people around her both through accidents and deliberate actions yet though she goes on and on about how she's more punished than her peers, she never really suffers a single consequence for being a shithead, the others are still willing to throw their safety on the line for her where they don't for other characters.

at best, the rest of the characters are bland copy-pastes of canon DR tropes (arei? the blue-haired bowling girl? yeah that's just hiyoko saionji, but she did a 180 on the colour wheel. she's one of the better characters) and at worst they seem like they're just lab-engineered for the single purpose of generating moments. i mean no exaggeration when i say every single character with the exception of maybe eden fucking sucks as a person. and that's fine beyond the fact it creates the opposite effect to canon danganronpa: whereas i dreaded finding dead bodies in danganronpa, i'm relieved to find a dead body with despair time. and it does not seem like that's the intended effect, which indicates something's gone horribly wrong somewhere. they also just do not react appropriately to revelations and even just speed through them if the revelation isn't "so-and-so was actually a lunatic all along" - like, the revelation that everyone lost SEVERAL YEARS OF THEIR LIVES was kind of just an 'eh', never really focused on.

its tonally kind of shitty. as indicated by the last dotpoint, revelations are kind of jumped over, important moments with setting the tone are kind of just treated like formalities to get to the REAL meat (joss whedon-style quipping, racist jokes, and anime humour that was funny in 2009-2012 and is not so much funny anymore). it's focused more on its moments, but it only has one moment: [Character Does The Yandere Thing], where a character begins to act insane regardless of buildup, and it's always the same insanity where they grin a little too wide and start saying that nobody understands them and they get a little Unhinged as the kids say yadda yadda the influence from Yandere Simulator of all things is on full display, particularly with the first murder. like that is LITERALLY one of the elimination methods from yandere simulator. and if that blonde twink doesn't shut his stupid fucking mouth i'm going to kill him myself. and it was always jarring whenever it tried to explain a complicated issue because the actual pacing and style of the story would screech to a fucking steel-wall HALT so a character could read off the wikipedia entry for Panic Attack or Nonbinary. and it was just as weird when people said this was a good way to address that. obviously drawing attention to these issues is in fact good, but not just having a character break character to quickly read one of the first Google results for it. how'd puss in boots: the last wish, a CHILDREN'S FILM, manage a more nuanced and subtle depiction of a panic attack than this media intended for young adults.

the story keeps making fucking visits to chekhov's arsenal but never fires any of the weapons it gets from there, with my main complaint being ace's neck wound - there's no point to it BEING a neck wound. does it factor into how he conducts himself at the trial? nope. does it factor into a character arc? nope. does it even factor into his execution? nope! the story does not change in any way if ace gets a different injury, actually he had already murdered arei by this point - the story wouldn't change if he was uninjured (and if he is injured it's stupid the way he killed arei because a slit throat, if you're lucky enough to survive, will in fact put you at a major disadvantage if it doesn't put you in the hospital outright). it also feels like ideas get picked up and dropped faster than diving sticks in a pool.

the non-WASP names range from 'ehhhh' to 'total nonsense'. teruko's name, while it has legal kanji (well, one legal reading), translates approximately to "Superior Child" "Rice Field Armpit". hu's name is the wrong way around, if they're writing Firstname Lastname, it's Jing Hu according to the hànzì that translates to it. min jeung only has a first name but her first name is given the gravitas of being her full name for some reason. charles and j's last names are nouns, which isn't how hispanic last names work. and veronika's last name is total fucking nonsense. her first name's a german first name, and then her last name starts serbian and ends russian while ignoring both of their naming conventions. the author iirc justified this with 'well they're american immigrants' but that's not how immigrant names work.

the fangan, like pretty much all others, just fucking hates women. for one, teruko's the only female character who gets any amount of fleshing out - the dudes get fleshing out and half the women get lucky if they're even acknowledged in a scene that's not the introductions or a trial. the women in despair time are also majority nurturing types whereas in danganronpa you had a fairly wide variety. (they also make the only remotely chubby woman "motherly", and then give her clothes that literally slim down her actual sprite itself). it also, however, extends to the roles that female characters can actually take in despair time - the men are permitted to be the worst of the worst, to be active monsters within their stories, to commit horrible things against the other characters, and they're generally rewarded for committing those acts. the girls on the other hand are barred off from it - they're defined by self-harm. they harm their own lives, themselves, they hurt themselves. with two exceptions: min and arei, who die one after the other. they're punished for hurting others in ways their male counterparts are not. additionally, min gets absolutely brutalized by an execution equivalent to a SAW trap, limbs broken, cut off, and then eaten alive and whimpering by wolves - and ace gets... sent into cardiac arrest. the women get brutalised and the men get relatively chill deaths. men get to be active and horrible, but if a woman does the same, she is punished with a brutal death. unless she's teruko who is Not Like Other Girls.

[citrusircus]

ts pmo so I wrote my own response/opinion on each of the points that were made lol. If anything in my own statements are inaccurate or if y'all have a different view on the matter, I'd love to hear it bc I don't doubt that some of my points were proooobably over-defensive of DRDT since it's my personal favorite fangan <33 Long post incoming, bear with me. --

1. While I agree that Teruko's characterization in Chapter 1 Daily wasn't the most engaging or concrete, if you actually paid attention to her character arc you would know that that was the entire point of Chapter 1 Daily. This critique is blatantly ignoring all the defining aspects of Teruko's character, and confuses personal character personality preference with bad & inconsistent writing. It is not. Chapter 1 Daily was a means to build up the audience's expectations of Teruko as another bland Danganronpa protagonist, as well as give Teruko herself a false sense of security in order to immediately tear it down in front of her. Teruko is a naturally distrusting person, but tried giving Xander & Min the benefit of the doubt. It backfired, and she reverted to her old ways. Her being "edgy" is not a flaw, it is a trait. Her not receiving any repercussions for her actions is both a blatant lie, and directly explained in-universe. When she isolates herself in the start of Chapter 2, Charles calls her out for it. When she pulls out a knife on J she proceeds to be berated for it in the trial. When she breaks the rules she's about to be gunned down, but can't because she cannot die. Levi saving her wasn't an instance of "cast members protecting her and no one else," it was an instance of Levi's specific characterization in trying to act empathetically. Hu constantly defends Nico. Ace gave up postponing his death for Levi. Whit was ready to lie for both Charles AND fuckass David. All of these details are obvious to the average viewer, unless of course you're watching the series through a hate-lens and refuse to see past the perspective of an unconventional protagonist.

2. Stating the cast members are copy-pastes of standard Danganronpa tropes and then proceeding to say that they are flawed characters and therefore annoying and irredeemable is terribly hypocritical. As a fanseries (actually advertised as a fanseries too, btw) of COURSE aspects of the game and characters are going to reflect things from the original series! That's the whole point!! But where DRDT's writing differs is that the dev made an active decision to give each and every character depth by ensuring they had both endearing traits, and flaws. Even if a character isn't a deliberately terrible person like David, they shouldn't be expected to only have redeeming qualities as a victim of circumstance in the same way canon Danganronpa writes some of its cast (see: Sonia, Akane, Himiko, etc.). There is no such thing as a perfect victim, and if you believe otherwise then you simply haven't had enough life experience to understand how trauma and grief affect people for the worse. The comment on the cast brushing over the time-skip revelation is one that I actually agree with! Both the Prologue and Chapter 1 suffer from very fast pacing, and didn't take the time to address or flesh out some of the points it touched upon. I'm sure we'll return to them eventually (see: David's character break), but otherwise I 100% agree that it's a weak aspect of the writing that needs serious revision. Hell. Characters like Veronika became entirely different people between the Prologue & Chapter 1, but considering DT Dev stated they wanted to re-write both the Prologue & Chapter 1 not too long ago, I don't doubt that these exact critiques are the ones they want to fix.

3. This is once again a point made about personal writing preference that was phrased like an objective truth. If you don't like the tone of the series then that is your opinion, but stating that character moments happen "without buildup" really just goes to show how shallow your own perception of good writing is. Each character deserves to have their own motivation outside of the media you are directly consuming, and this motivation does not need to be made known immediately. For a Danganronpa fanseries especially, character backstories are HUGE motivators for specific actions and situational responses. Levi's persona cracks in the Chapter 1 trial because Ace pushed too many buttons. Ace has a character regression in Chapter 2 because the reality of death finally sank in. Arturo, Hu, and Veronika got testy in the Chapter 2 trial because tensions were high so of COURSE they're going to act up. David. Then as we addressed earlier, Teruko's moments are directly in-line with her character arc through the game, even though we have yet to fully understand the breadth of her background. All of these instances had their reasonings and were understandable emotional outbursts. I don't know where this YanSim comparison is coming from, because deadass the only characters who smiled during their break were Levi, Nico, David, and Veronika, and it didn't feel out of place in any of these moments if you understood the core of their characters or have ever had a moment of emotional "catharsis" yourself (as David so eloquently puts it). 

The notes on having a panic attack or discussing gender identity are a bit more nuanced. While I don't believe it's fair to compare Charles' mental shutdown to the Puss in Boots panic attack because those are two very separate emotional reactions (I mean I can, but I won't for the sake of response length and relevancy), I do agree that the degree to which some of the characters psychoanalyze each other can be a bit much. Instead of just saying that "Charles had a mental shutdown after seeing blood," the cast (namely Veronika & Whit) proceeded to discuss potential reasons why (past trauma, triggers, etc.) directly in front of Charles himself. I don't think that this was done unintentionally however. Considering the main perpetrators were Veronika and Whit, both of whom have talents directly related to studying human nature and who have both been openly introspective in other moments of the series, I can understand why it happened. Ace goes out of his way at the end of the Chapter 2 trial to make a dig at everyone trying to psychoanalyze him, which indicates that the cast in-universe is just very focused on examining people's psyches. These are more than likely purposeful/in-character writing choices; not a flaw on part of DT Dev's writing. 

Similarly, instead of just saying "Nico is nyanbinary :3c" Hu took a moment to fully explain what the term meant and why it was important enough to Nico to warrant being their motive secret. While the modern and progressive era of youth pretty much already know what non-binary means and are able to readily accept it, this exploration of gender could be new to someone who comes from a different era or a different society. We don't actually know what year DRDT takes place in, nor do we know what the progressive political state of DRDT's worldbuilding has led it to be. While it does take place somewhere in the 21st century (based on Min's Bonus Episode), we also know that their history is incredibly different to ours. This could easily be a case of political stagnation in the face of a disaster, which would push the  mindset of the DRDT cast's generation back a few decades in comparison to where they would stand in the real-world modern age. So yes, while I agree that the manner in which these ideas were addressed would feel out-of-place in the real world, the in-universe state of the game allows me to give it the benefit of the doubt.

4. OP either doesn't understand the fundamentals of what makes a Chekhov's gun, or is refusing to acknowledge the instances where DRDT makes direct use of it within the example of Ace's neck wound. Ace received the neck wound because of Nico's murder attempt, and proceeded to re-use the murder method himself. Ace's attempted murder as a whole IS a Chekhov's gun, and it DID fire during the trial. The wound occurred for a reason, and that reason served its purpose in the grand scheme of things. The decision to make it a neck wound in specific isn't relevant, and doesn't require special symbolism when it was a direct result of a character's in-universe actions. Not to mention, saying Ace's injury didn't factor into his trial behavior is a BLATANT lie when he specifically received new trial sprites reaching for his neck in-show of how the wound is a physical manifestation of his fear of death. OP is also ignoring the fact that the wound occurred because Nico had been trying to saw Ace's neck with a wire. Like yeah no shit it didn't cut him deeply enough to kill him, it wasn't done with a sharp object.  

5. This point is just straight up fucking insane and also directly outs OP as the whitest person known to mankind. Do you not think Teruko's name translating to "Superior Child" was intentional? Do you not think that Hu's name being spelled in correct Chinese order was intentional when she has an entire conversation about how she used to change her name to be more accessible to English-speakers? Did you know that Min can actually in fact be a single-syllable given first name in Korean and doesn't exclusively have to be a name part? Did you know the surnames "Cuevas" and "Rosales" are incredibly fucking common in Latin America and that I have personally known MULTIPLE individuals with these surnames as a person of Hispanic descent myself?? Did you know that a lot of American immigrants actually changed their legal surnames in order to fit-in with different communities and not ostracize themselves/risk expulsion due to association with one specific ethnic group, because that's EXACTLY what MY family did when they immigrated and is in fact how immigrant names work??? Fuck off, actually.

6. In a post-Tetro era of fangans you cannot in good conscience call DRDT misogynistic LMAO. Saying that the entire female cast of DRDT is the "nurturing type" when it's literally only limited to Hu and Eden who are DELIBERATELY nice characters and whose CHARACTER FLAW is that they are overly-kind is in and of itself a misogynistic statement. Teruko, Veronika and Arei are absolute assholes, while J, Rose and Min are much too focused on themselves to be selfless enough to consider a quote "nurturing type". And NO the men are not being rewarded any more than the women have had to face the brunt of their own actions, because Xander and Ace fucking died, everyone hates David and Arturo, and Levi is literally riddled with holes. Charles is the exception here because he has actually developed as a character and has begun to work more actively with the group, so of course he's going to be properly rewarded for that (for now, at least. the ever ominous "Charles Cuevas found dead at 3" looms ahead...). Also saying that the executions have been unfairly brutal in a gender-based comparison is pure sample bias and Nyx knows it. Not to mention the fact that saying Min's "SAW trap" execution (like canon DR executions aren't infinitely more brutal) is worse than Ace's when he was literally forced through multiple near-death experiences one right after the other and only DIED because the stress of it caught up to him is once again an act of ignorance in order to inaccurately bolster an opinion. 

[papierboa]

[skittercritter]

Headcanons really

[fuji-iri]

daily monotv is back.

also from the past two days:

[yuyu-finale]

STAR FOX MOVIE WHEN

[str8aura-no-not-that-one]

Shitty things about being isekaied #34; every time I use the restroom I automatically reach for my phone I left in my jacket pocket back on earth, and my hand goes exactly where I keep my knives on my belt, so I always walk out of the john with a fresh hand wound

[str8aura-no-not-that-one]

Shitty things about being isekaied #49: dog came with me but the magic field uplifted her into an anime girl and I'm realizing our personalities just don't click (plus her sitting on my lap is weird now)

[str8aura-no-not-that-one]

Shitty things about being isekaied #64: the town blacksmith is an elf named Gay Simpson and I couldnt explain why that made me laugh and now she won't fix my weapons anymore

[str8aura-no-not-that-one]

Shitty things about being isekaied #75: my degree in russian lit is useless now

[str8aura-no-not-that-one]

Shitty things about being isekaied #83: the four dark lords of this world look almost identical to abba which cant be intentional but when they line up on horseback its so uncanny i cant help but wonder if someones fucking with me

[str8aura-no-not-that-one]

Shitty things about being isekaied #94: they dont make my meds here and health potions dont do shit for bipolar

[taurzza]

[c4tspl4sh]

[alzertus]

Joseph

I still can't find the strength to go through to the end

[danganronpadespairtime]

Today is the 6th anniversary of DRDT!

I will write a minor update but I will be brief.

I sincerely apologize for the lack of content during the past few years. There are some reasons I am not working on DT as much, that I do not want to explain right now. But I am still working on it.

I believe I can finish the ch2 bonus episodes within the first half of the year. Here is a small preview...

Thank you for your continued support over the past 6 years.

[papierboa]

[mango-peach-strawberry]

Been messing around with some Pit designs. Featuring rare Mango traditional art scans

[joshlovesyou]

[femmedesyeuxnoirs]

One time i tried to explain this to someone at a party and i stopped in the middle of it because i realized how stupid i was sounding

[limbomitosis1]

Don’t know why I have a whole canvas of Kris n Susie dressing up as their inspos from Toby’s interviews but here we are. Anyways Happy early Halloween