can we go see tomori. can we be kind. she did the best she could.
-iris
Maeda, narrating - …Jesus, Tomori.
Maeda - I mean- the whole trial.
Maeda - While we were laying into Tsurugi and Uehara- she just stood there, and said nothing. And she knew.
Maeda - God…
Maeda - But… for her friends? Seriously? I mean- I know how hard this has to have been on her… all for them?
~*~
Maeda - …Hey.
Tomori - …
//She startles, but doesn’t look at Maeda- actually, she turns away from him.
Maeda - …
Maeda - I… don’t actually think she’ll talk to me.
Maeda - But I don’t know when else I’ll get to talk with them.
Maeda - …
Maeda - You and Tsurugi woke up together, right?
Maeda - …Did he remind you of someone you knew back home, or…?
Tomori - …
//One faint sob chokes out.
Tomori - …It was so stupid.
Tomori - He felt safe. I didn’t know what was happening, and he didn’t either, but he didn’t seem scared at all.
Tomori - Usually, I take charge, and I felt fine to do that here, too- so it was nice.
Tomori - I didn’t feel like I had to drag him along, or anything. No- assuaging his fears.
Maeda - …Right. You’re captain of your hometown’s cheer squad, right?
Tomori - Co-captain. But yeah, the others all listened to me, mostly.
Tomori - …
Tomori - Maeda, I-
//Her voice catches, as she finally turns her head- though she stays angled away from him, looking back over her shoulder.
Tomori - …I don’t feel bad.
Tomori - I don’t… I didn’t like what Hatano was saying.
Tomori - I can make my own choices. And I stand with Tsurugi and Uehara.
Tomori - I…
//Her gaze turns down.
Tomori - …I want the group to stay together. But I’m not going to compromise my morals for that.
Tomori - I’m choosing my friends. I was right to choose Tsurugi and Uehara to be closest to. I… honestly?
Tomori - If I was in the situation they were in, I’d have done the exact same thing.
Maeda - …
Maeda - Are you saying this because you think I’m upset with them?
Tomori - …I think you’re upset with them, yeah- and me.
Tomori - I’ll let them decide what they want to share. It isn’t my- my problem to deal with.
Tomori - But I want to make it clear.
Tomori - I’m here for a reason. I was scouted for a reason. I recruited half of my teammates. I came up with the idea to hang out in the rec room.
Tomori - Honestly, I really… don’t care that Uehara killed Higa.
Tomori - You kind of felt the same, right? You didn’t disagree when people made the point about how we should try to solve Iranami’s death.
Tomori - You’re upset because of the trial, and how it played out.
Tomori - But Uehara’s- about to die, Maeda.
Tomori - Do you- do you remember, when the three of us were in Tsurugi’s dorm room?
Maeda - I don’t like this conversation.
Maeda - …Vaguely?
Tomori - …When I got upset, and started to cry. Because I was thinking about the execution.
Tomori - The difference between me and Tsurugi is that I didn’t believe Tsurugi could find a way out of this- do not tell him I said that.
Tomori - But, like-
Tomori - Maeda, I was thinking about Uehara. I was upset over his execution.
Tomori - And Uehara was the one who comforted me. Uehara told me not to be scared.
Tomori - He told me- that I was safe, that he didn’t think anything would happen to me, and he- he talked about the choices that we make, and how to cope when things were decided for us.
Tomori - And we talked about inevitability, and- and being powerless.
Tomori - He acted like everything was okay, because we made good choices where we could.
Tomori - But what does that matter, Maeda. He’s still going to die.
Tomori - If Tsurugi hadn’t played, if he’d let Uehara confess- would things have been different? Would Uehara not be about to die?
Maeda - …I-
Tomori - No. They’d be exactly the same.
Tomori - Maeda, what… what does it matter?
Maeda - …What?
Tomori - …Maeda.
Tomori - Uehara is going to die.
Tomori - He has two sisters, and two brothers. He’s in the middle of his siblings. He’s homeless, and he has a rosary, and a bible.
Tomori - When we were at the pool, he mentioned that he’s worried his made to fade tattoos are going to scar. There’s flowers on his boots that he painted on himself.
Tomori - Uehara has a really good singing voice. He has stretch marks all over, but they’re the worst behind his knees, and at the joints between his arms and his torso.
Tomori - He had plans for when he was an adult. He had hobbies, and interests. He brought Tsurugi an apple this morning, and cut pieces off for everyone. He wanted to be friends with you, and he’s had a headache all day.
//For a moment, it seemed like Tomori was going to cry. But before she finished speaking, the tears in her eyes went away.
Tomori, firmly - I don’t care about the other deaths. I cared about those people, and about everyone living- but oh my god.
Tomori - I kind of hope they don’t tell you what happened. I don’t think you need to know.
Tomori - Nobody needs to know. It doesn’t matter.
Tomori - Uehara’s going to die. I’ll have Tsurugi, and he’ll have me, and we’ll be stuck in here together.
Tomori - We could escape tomorrow. Someone could explode the school open.
Maeda - What am I supposed to do with this information? I don’t- I don’t think Tomori’s going to kill anyone, but-
Tomori - …There isn’t a point, Maeda.
Tomori - I hope you’re doing well.
Tomori - I hope you didn’t get- especially traumatized. I hope you’re holding on okay.
Tomori - I can’t say anything that’d make you feel better, if not. You aren’t going to see me the same.
Tomori - …
//She never turned to face him.
Tomori - …I shouldn’t act like I have any power here.
Tomori - If I had the ability to save us all, I’d have done that by now. But I can’t. So why act like it? Why try to help?
Maeda - …
Tomori - …
Tomori - And, I hope this isn’t affecting you. Really.
Tomori - Come to your own conclusions. You didn’t get close to Uehara. If you can stay happy, then that’s great. If you don’t care about what I’ve had to say, then that’s great.
Tomori - …Really. It doesn’t matter.
Maeda - …
Maeda - …I’m sorry, Tomori.
Tomori - Don’t be.
Tomori - There’s nothing you could say.
Tomori - …A situation like this is unnatural. Life shouldn’t… be like this.
Tomori - I don’t think humans are meant to understand a world where this could happen. I mean-
Tomori - All I really care about is Tsurugi and Uehara.
Tomori - And, like… I want to go home. I want to see my mom, and my sister again. I would do anything.
Tomori - But this is so… directly cruel. I can’t even wrap my head around it. Kidnapping us? Torturing us? Taking fifteen people, and treating them like this?
Tomori - Who even cares what happens. Life shouldn’t ever be like this.
Tomori - So… I guess the things that happen here just don’t matter.
Maeda - …
Maeda - How do you feel… about what Uehara said? Do you think… you could get out of here okay?
Tomori - …
//She turns, facing him. Her head is tilted down, but her gaze meets his eye, as she looks out from under her bangs.
Tomori - No.
Tomori - Honestly, Maeda. I don’t think either of us are going to.
Tomori - I could make my guesses about the others, but I don’t think my thoughts on them matter, at all. We’re the only two in this conversation, so it’s only about our fates.
Tomori - You and I are both going to die.
Maeda - …
Tomori - …
Tomori - Hey- could you do something for me though?
Maeda - Please. Don’t ask me to kill someone don’t ask me to kill you don’t ask me to kill myself. Please.
Maeda, prompting - ?
Tomori - …If I’m wrong… let’s act like this didn’t happen.
Tomori - Don’t keep me from going home. Let me be like this here, and let me be someone else outside.
Tomori - …Maybe that’s why I feel so hopeless. Maybe… I can’t feel like this, and be outside. If I escaped, I’d feel differently…
Tomori - …
Tomori - Do you think you’ve grown, Maeda? As a person- since you got here?
Maeda - I… I don’t know, I…-
//Tomori smiles.
Tomori - I think I’ve been changed for the better.
Tomori - I think I’ve grown a lot.
Tomori - I’m just never gonna get the chance to show it.
Tomori - …
Tomori - I wanna go sit with my friends now.
Tomori - Maybe I’ll talk with you later, Maeda. I… kind of don’t want to talk with you if Tsurugi’s around, though. And I don’t know if I’ll want to be away from him.
Tomori - So, we’ll see.
Tomori - Bye, Maeda.
~*~
Maeda, narrating - Holy fuckkkkk.
Maeda - Uhm? Uhm? Uhm???
Maeda - …Okay.
Maeda - I don’t. …Okay.
Maeda - …Uhm.
Maeda - I’d really rather remember the- the conversation with Uehara and Tomori. The one she mentioned…
Maeda - …
Maeda - Actually, thinking back to investigation makes me feel really sick.
Maeda - Uehara’s… changed so much, hasn’t he?
Maeda - …Oh.
Maeda - I…don’t think there’s anything else for me to do now, actually…
Be aware that this is not a blind playthrough! This will contain spoilers for the entire game, regardless of the part of the game I’m commenting on. A major focus of this commentary is to talk about all of the hints and foreshadowing of events that are going to happen and facts that are going to be revealed in the future of the story. It is emphatically not intended for someone experiencing the game for their first time.
Last time in chapter 6’s investigation, one of Shuichi’s flashbacks contained fake memories of real people and was therefore genuinely inspiring for once, Tsumugi rather tellingly pointed us to a ridiculous red herring about Kaede’s twin instead of anything actually helpful, Himiko was being just a little bit Kaito to compensate for how useless she feels in this investigation, and the hidden room contained a bunch of clues about the real mastermind’s identity and the truth of Kaede’s case.
Now, we’re headed to the Flashback Light classroom.
This very heavy rubble in the way which requires all 4 Friendship Power to move happens to be the shelves of music CDs and the entire piano from Kaede’s lab, which is through the wall to the left. It’s kind of neat how they thought about what rooms the rubble would have come from and made it match, even if this sadly means that Kaede’s lab is totally ruined now.
We can see the full moon outside the hole in the wall of this classroom. We could also see the full moon outside of Kaede’s lab during that scene where Shuichi was mourning her… and that was weeks ago, but only something like two weeks, not four. Yep, that’s a projection, isn’t it. (Or probably just a developer oversight. After all, you’d think Kaito or Gonta or anyone at all would have noticed, hey, the moon’s been full for over a week now, something’s up with that.)
The Flashback Light setup computer has all kinds of tantalising options available that it’d be fun to look through… but unfortunately Shuichi’s inner monologue funnels you into picking only the options you’re meant to pick, and you can’t see anything else. Boo, game designers, not writing optional text for this; it would have been interesting! Buuuut it would have been a lot of branches of text for something entirely optional, so fair enough.
- The survivors on a different planet
- Other survivors in the Ark
- There are no survivors
Note how there’s no option for them to remember that actually there were some survivors on Earth and it wasn’t quite as devastating as they’d been led to believe. So apparently the memory of the apocalypse really did involve them remembering that literally everyone on Earth must be dead, with such certainty that future memories weren’t allowed to contradict that. Meaning no possibility of an audience, not even a small one. Meaning that, once Kokichi saw the Flashback Light in the Virtual World containing the memory of this apocalypse, he had to have known Flashback Lights were fake, if he hadn’t already figured that out when he saw the outside world in the first place.
Shuichi: (And these categories… there are several inconsistencies about the survivors. Do I… have to select the correct one?)
Come on, Shuichi, you must know that doesn’t make any sense. You’re going to be quizzed about this thing you don’t remember, and you have to get it right before you’re allowed to remember it! That seems incredibly silly and unnecessary. The real implication of this should be immediately obvious.
Adjusting to match other memories.
Haha, yeah, that’s also not a thing that real memories should need to do. Though it’s neat that the computer has a built-in system to keep track of everything that’s already been decided as the “truth” for them and make everything else consistent with it. That could cause issues otherwise.
Shuichi: “… Is there more than one truth…?”
There is something beyond the “truth”, just like Kaito knew you could reach, Shuichi!
Himiko suddenly shows up, despite having been trapped behind rubble in the hidden room last time.
Himiko: “Be happier that I survived! I was able to make a spectacular escape from that sealed room!”
Yes, the Amazing Himiko’s Spectacular Sealed Room Escape Act, never performed before and improvised on the spot!
Himiko: “Nyeh? You don’t understand how I escaped from there?”
Shuichi: “…No?”
Himiko: “Hmhmhm, I see… you don’t get it… You don’t know how I escaped… Then I shall tell you! I escaped from that sealed room with my magic!”
I love how gleeful she is about having done something he can’t figure out even though it wasn’t a prepared and practiced magic trick. She’s finally got something that she can claim really was her using her magic, rather than having to constantly make excuses about why she can’t use it!
With a bit of prodding, Shuichi convinces her to actually tell him.
Himiko: “G-Got it. I’ll tell you… I definitely used my magic, but another thing that helped me escape that sealed room… was the girls bathroom on the 1st floor of the school building.”
It’s okay, Himiko, that still used your magic. Finding secret passageways is definitely something mages are good at (and obviously not because they use hidden passageways a lot in their acts), right? Like, with some kind of Detect Hidden Things spell? Totally.
Himiko: “Nyeeeh!? That’s a Flashback Light!”
Shuichi: “Y-Yes, but we shouldn’t use it…”
Heh. Shuichi has finally started to realise that maybe they shouldn’t really have been using any Flashback Lights at all this whole time.
Shuichi: “… This is an emergency. Nothing I can do about that. Ah, now’s not the time to be thinking about boys and girls bathrooms… Alright, I’ll do it.” (I repeated several excuses in my mind as I stepped into the girls bathroom.)
This kind of (perfectly understandable and gentlemanly) mindset is why Shuichi didn’t find this hidden passageway in chapter 1 and save everyone except possibly Rantaro. Kyoko had no such qualms, but she was a very different kind of detective than him.
Himiko: “Geez… Caught up on past killing games… That’s typical of a Remnant of Despair.”
It’s also even more typical of a Danganronpa fan.
Motherkuma: “I can’t birth Monokumas unless the designated person specifically says the word ‘birth’…”
One might wonder why Motherkuma was set up so that he even needed to be given an order from the mastermind to be able to make another Monokuma and couldn’t just make them on his own, but it does make sense if you think about it. Monokuma is a psychopathic AI programmed to cause suffering for entertainment – they’d want to have failsafes in place in case he decided to go rogue and carry out that purpose of his on some “real” people beyond what he was meant to do. So they limited the physical power he had, first by having the Exisals only able to be controlled by the relatively harmless Monokubs and not Monokuma himself, and then also by making it so that Motherkuma can only clone Monokumas when the mastermind deems it necessary and not just on his own whims. That way there’s no risk of a sudden Monokuma robot uprising because he’s decided it’ll make good entertainment.
Himiko: “Even I, the wise and powerful Himiko, panicked a little bit when I saw I was trapped in here.”
I really like this new Himiko who’s trying to put up a bit of a façade of false confidence, even if it’s obvious to everyone else that it’s a façade. It’s so Kaito of her!
And the more I think about it, the more I realise that Himiko never really did this kind of thing before this chapter. She was pushing herself to act positive, but not showing overblown confidence in her ability like this. Which makes it all the more likely that she is deliberately trying to imitate Kaito in his honour, and that’s adorable.
Himiko: “W-Well? Was I… useful?”
Of course you were, Himiko! This hidden passageway you just found is a vital clue!
But Shuichi just kind of brushes her off at first and doesn’t tell her that. This is unfortunately not the first time he’s been so in detective-tunnel-vision that he’s been unintentionally dismissive towards his friend who really wants to know that they’re being helpful to him.
Himiko: “…”
Shuichi: “Hm? Something wrong?”
Himiko: “J-Just tell it to me straight… like a man.”
Himiko’s even correctly invoking Kaito’s concept of manliness! Don’t beat around the bush, just be open and honest about how you feel about things! Even if the truth is that she wasn’t useful, Shuichi should just come out and say it instead of trying to hide it.
Himiko: “I-I want to be useful for my friends. But I can’t help much in investigations, can I? I couldn’t find the mastermind…”
She’s also doing a little bit better at actually applying that manliness herself than Kaito was when he was having similar issues, because Kaito never directly admitted to how badly he wanted to be useful and how useless he was feeling.
Shuichi: “Himiko, not only were you *useful*, you may have cracked the case wide open.”
Himiko: “Really!? If I found such an amazing clue, that’s proof I’m no ordinary person! Hiii hee hee hee! I’m terrified of my own magical power!”
This is so adorably like the kind of immediate bouncing back that Kaito would have done if Shuichi had ever told him something like this. All in a day’s work for the Luminary of the Stars! Himiko being like this too is lovely.
Kaito’s continued insistence on presenting himself like a hero when he no longer truly felt like one and when everyone else was sure he was still sick was essentially him showing them a fiction in the hopes of inspiring them and keeping their spirits up. Himiko’s constant commitment to her act even when she’s not on stage and even when everyone’s perfectly aware it’s not real magic really is a lot like Kaito in some ways. Her doing her best to fill Kaito’s shoes like this is going to be a great help for boosting Shuichi and Maki’s mood once the three of them are living outside and trying to cope with all this. And the fact that Himiko has her own issues that she’ll need help with too outside of this fiction she presents isn’t going to dampen that, despite what Kaito thought on that front. Kaito was afraid his fiction was only a lie, that everyone believed it was true and it’d stop working on them if they knew it wasn’t, but that was never the case.
While Shuichi and Maki’s talents are necessary for their arcs and for the overall plot, it might seem like an arbitrary choice for the third survivor to be a magician, and that Himiko’s talent really could have been anything else. But I think this was still probably chosen on purpose, because Himiko presents fictions that are meant to cheer people up and make them smile, and that’s wonderfully relevant to the overall theme.
Maki: “What… were you doing? Why were you in the girls bathroom?”
It’s pretty awkward writing that Maki has this immediate scandalised reaction to this. She’s supposed to have lost the instinctive sense for gendered bathroom taboos, based on the time she casually offered to check on Kaito in the bathroom without realising it’d be the boys’. Also, like, come on, Maki knows Shuichi, she’d know he’d never do that unless there was a reason that was actually important and relevant to the case. Danganronpa writing, please stop shoving this annoying talk of pervertnedness into everything, it’s chapter 6, now is especially not the time.
Anyway, Maki has the photo of Rantaro.
Shuichi: (With this… I can fight. I can fight the mastermind behind this killing game. …And I believe I can end it all.)
Look at Shuichi believing in himself! He’s got so much more genuine confidence now than he ever used to, without anyone else needing to encourage him to feel that way! Kaito would be so proud of him. And it’s thanks to Kaito that Shuichi’s come this far.
Shuichi: “Monokuma… you’re the one who calls these class trials… But not this time! This time, *we* choose to call a class trial! One to end them all!”
He’s become such a protagonist and such a hero! Look how far he’s come! Kaito would be so proud of him! Of course, Kaito already saw Shuichi as this much of a hero in the first place, but now Shuichi’s really started to realise and embody that image Kaito had of him, so that everyone can see him the way Kaito did!
Monokuma: “And I think it’s pretty interesting that you guys are on board with holding a class trial. In fact, I welcome your initiative! This turn of events will make things very interesting!”
Unfortunately… that’s still exactly what the gamemakers wanted Shuichi to do. This was the plan for him all along. (That’s even exactly why they killed Kaito.)
To keep the stakes high, Monokuma threatens to kill them all if they can’t expose the truth and provide an interesting class trial, and he asks if everyone else has as much resolve as Shuichi does.
Maki: “I’ll trust you. But if you screw this up…” [she smiles] “…I’ll kill you before Monokuma can.”
Shuichi: “…Y-Yeah, I believe you.”
I love how this would seem on the surface to be an “I’ll be mad at you if you mess this up”, when what it really is, since Maki specialises in quick and painless deaths, is her saying, “If we fail, I won’t let Monokuma make you suffer.” Shuichi is smiling, too, because he understands that. This is the second time Maki has offered to help her friends by killing them painlessly if it becomes necessary to do that, and it’s weirdly adorable?
Himiko: “I have friends I can trust! There’s nothing to be scared of!”
Oh, Himiko. Most of them, at least.
Shuichi: “Our hope is going to end this game of despair!”
Shuichi, no, you’re now sounding far too much like a perfect scripted Danganronpa protagonist and not enough like your own person doing this for your own reasons that have nothing to do with that bullshit Flashback Light that brainwashed you all.
Keebo: “Do you really think that ending awaits us? It sounds too good to be true, honestly.”
Yeah, because obviously there’s only two options here, the hope ending and the despair ending, right? That’s definitely how this works. Even without his inner voice right now, Keebo still instinctively thinks that.
Shuichi: “That ending *is* hope for us. …And we can’t give up on hope.”
Shuichi is basically just tautologically saying “the hope ending is hope”. Come on, Shuichi, shake off that brainwashing, dammit.
What’s really going to happen in the end, though, is just an ending, a permanent one, for the whole killing game. And that really is something that they would all genuinely want to hope for.
Tsumugi: “Keebo… let’s trust Shuichi here.”
Tsumugi also wants this class trial rather than Keebo’s continued rampage, because of course she does.
Shuichi: “Our final battle! Our hope will defeat your despair!”
Monokuma: “Puhuhu… puhuhuhu… Ah-hahahahaha!”
Shuichi: “Why are you laughing…?”
Because you’re giving the audience exactly what they want, Shuichi! This isn’t supposed to be about a battle between hope and despair like it’s just good versus evil, but the audience sure wants it to be!
Tsumugi: “I-It’ll be okay! He’s probably just bluffing!”
And Tsumugi does not want them to think too hard about why Monokuma’s so happy about all this.
Shuichi: (But it was still much easier than I imagined it would be. …No sense worrying about that now.)
No, this is definitely something you should be worrying about, Shuichi! If Monokuma wants something to happen, it’s not a good thing! Remember last trial where you forgot until it was too late that Monokuma is always the real enemy?
Tsumugi: “The four of us, and Keebo… By combining the marks of our friendship… we can overcome this class trial!”
These words from Tsumugi sound way more trite than anything anyone else has ever said about friendship in this game. How do you even “combine the marks” of friendship?
Finally we can walk freely without a stupid time limit. The courtyard has a few half-hearted piles of rubble here and there but is otherwise looking remarkably intact for having been the battleground of a huge robot war all night. Methinks the developers were being a bit lazy here. (But at least the training spot is okay and that is good.)
Maki: “Up until now, we had to find the culprits among the people in our group during the class trials. That’s why we couldn’t work together even if we wanted to. But… this time, it’s different.”
Tsumugi: “Ah, since there isn’t a culprit among us, we can work together without any doubts.”
Himiko: “We’re all going to be working together this time… I already feel more at ease!”
Shuichi: “…”
Shuichi already knows what’s up. He’s realised the that the clues indicate the mastermind is one of the five of them. He should be able to realise exactly who it is, too, but in the trial he doesn’t seem to have figured that out until shortly before he tells everyone. Maybe he does know, though, and just doesn’t want to admit it to himself because he still hates accusing his friends.
Keebo comes back with all his weapons removed and his antenna replaced, meaning his inner voice is back.
Keebo: “I acted recklessly and put you all in serious danger… I’m sorry! I’m very, very sorry!”
As he should be, really. He was willing to kill all his friends, and now he’s realised that maybe that wasn’t the best idea.
Keebo: “I was wrong to try to destroy everything just to avoid losing to despair… Even if I had followed throough, there would have been no hope or future left afterward. In which case, my actions would have merely resulted in a different despair altogether.”
Yeah, that’s exactly what he would have done, and at least he finally realises this. The narrative is not doing a great job of hinting that Keebo’s inner voice is effectively mind-controlling him, because he’s being more rational and making more sense now that he’s mind-controlled again than he did when he wasn’t.
Granted, as it turns out, searching for the truth and holding this class trial is exactly the kind of thing the audience wants, and maybe it would have been better for everyone to just be randomly killed by Keebo’s rampage and give the audience a boring ending that might end Danganronpa for good. But since Keebo doesn’t know anything about the audience or what they want, then as far as he knew while he was doing it, his rampage was completely illogical and wouldn’t have achieved anything worthwhile.
Keebo: “But… will you allow me to fight alongside you!? I want to help you find the truth! Please!”
Shuichi: “Of course, Keebo. That’s what I’ve wanted from the start.”
Maki: “If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t have been able to do all this.”
Sure would have been nice if Keebo had realised that he could use his weapons to help them find the truth earlier. You know, like in chapter 4 when four more people were alive and could have also potentially been saved.
Tsumugi: “…”
Keebo: “Oh… You seem angry, Tsumugi. Would you prefer I not help…?”
Tsumugi: “I’m not mad… I’m just holding myself back.”
Tsumugi goes on to explain that she’s just “holding herself back” from making what sounds like some kind of reference to something that would ruin the mood. This moment would otherwise maybe seem like a hint that she’s the mastermind and is angry at what Keebo just did, but then that bit just makes it awkward because apparently she isn’t actually angry at all? Unless she made that excuse to try and cover up her genuine anger, but you’d think her acting skills would have prevented her from even showing it in the first place.
There’s also the fact that, although she definitely was mad at Keebo going off-script, she’d have been most angry about that while it was happening, and would just be relieved now that he’s got his inner voice back and is acting like he’s supposed to again.
Maki is still carrying the Bugvac, so Keebo offers to look at it with the zoom function he’s installed on himself. This is something that Kokichi also could have asked Keebo to do while he was alive. It’s possible, as I mentioned before, that Kokichi didn’t realise the Bugvac was finished until after trial 4, at which point it’d be basically impossible for him to ask Keebo for help… but it’s also entirely possible that it just didn’t even occur to Kokichi that Keebo could help here, because lol he’s just a thing he’s not a person it’s not like he could ever help with anything at all.
Keebo: “Because I’m a robot, I can evolve in ways that are simply not possible for a human. I’ve… finally accepted that. There are notable differences between us, but they’re nothing to be ashamed of. Because… with my talent, it’s possible that I can save you all.”
This is the most half-assed attempt at making it seem like Keebo has actually had a character arc here. There was no kind of build-up to this at all. The change that made him decide to put on all his weapons was his inner voice being gone and had nothing to do with character growth, so now that his inner voice is back, he should be back to how he was before, which was apparently not wanting anything sci-fi at all.
…I say apparently, because whenever Keebo did happen to make use of his other functions like his recording function and his flashlight, he was always quite proud of himself and happy to be making himself useful in ways nobody else could. And yet he also kept saying that he didn’t want to be sci-fi and adamantly refused to install far more useful functions until now, which seems rather contradictory. I suppose you could handwave that the previous functions are too basic for him to consider them “sci-fi” and be averse to them? But even then, his speech right here implies that it’s less about what counts as “sci-fi” and more simply being able to do things that set him apart from humans that (supposedly) made him uncomfortable.
The writers, and I mean the out-universe ones here, really just did the absolute laziest job at what should be a vital piece of character work to justify why this killing game didn’t end in chapter 4 like it really should have. At least they did a pretty good job of justifying all of Kokichi’s terrible decisions that were vital to the plot having them be fairly plausibly linked to all of his issues, but man, they barely even tried with Keebo.
Clearly the Nanokumas need to be bear-shaped and just holding tiny little cameras, right. It couldn’t possibly be more efficient to just have their entire bodies be cameras with wings.
They talk about how these tiny cameras prove that Kokichi was right to use the Electrobomb in his plan.
Tsumugi: “Umm… the more I learn, the more I wish that Kokichi had just worked with us normally.”
Yup. That sure would have been fucking helpful of him, wouldn’t it!? And that’s definitely not exactly why you wrote him to be the kind of person who’d never be that helpful and would never want to trust or work together with anyone, not at all.
Tsumugi: “Gonta discovered it, Kokichi made a design, Miu built the device… It was because of all of them that Keebo was able to find the final clue. It’s almost like… everyone is cheering us on.”
Yeah, because Kokichi and Miu totally cared about helping us with this Bugvac, that’s definitely why they, you know, let us know they’d made it and didn’t just leave it for Maki to discover by chance through a lot of tedious effort, right.
Maki: “Relax. If we end up failing, and it comes time for me to kill you… I’ll make sure to end your life swiftly, so you won’t have to suffer.”
Shuichi: “…Th-Thank you?”
Aww! Though I’m sure Shuichi already knew that that was what she meant when she “threatened” to kill him earlier and she didn’t actually need to clarify. I also love Shuichi’s awkward thanks – he does appreciate the gesture, but this is an odd thing to be thanking anyone for.
Shuichi: (There’s no point in worrying anymore. Right now… we only need to think about getting out of here alive.)
Ahahaha. They’re still blissfully oblivious as to what the attempted end goal of this trial is going to end up being.
Shuichi: (I’m sure… this is the end of despair. And the beginning of hope.)
noooo Shuichi stop it
Shuichi: (The killing game of Hope’s Peak Academy… The killing game of Jabberwock Island… And the killing game of this Ultimate Academy. How much more until they’re satisfied?)
Yeah, definitely just these three, right? They definitely haven’t had way more than that and still aren’t at all satisfied.
Shuichi: (This is the end of it. I’m… tired of this. We’re going to end it. We’re going to end this cruel game.)
This is very, very true, though, more than he realises right now.
I once saw an LPer observe that this final trialground looks kind of like the set for a game show? Which is quite appropriate, really.
Monokuma: “Puhuhu, it’s not up to you or me to decide whether or not this is the end.”
Oh boy, it sure isn’t. But we’ll get to that problem (and I mean that as an out-universe problem and not just an in-universe one) in several more posts’ time.
Monokuma casually threatens to murder his cubs if they don’t help him out during the trial. (Yeah, they’re still here, in case you forgot. I’ve been sparing you from them.)
Shuichi: “…You really are the worst.”
Monokuma: “I’m the best at being the worst, don’tcha think so? Puhuhu… I tell ya, people can’t get enough of my crude antics!”
Yep, Monokuma knows exactly what he’s here for – to play the villain and make himself hateable in an entertaining way (not that anyone should hate him for wanting to kill the Monokubs, but, you know). This is yet another thing he and Kokichi had in common.
…And the part where Monokuma was furious at Kaito for dying his own way? He was probably kind of okay with that having happened, too, beneath it all. He’s the villain, after all. He knows that he’s really here to make you root for the good guys to beat him and feel triumphant when they do.
