in one of the post game extra modes in drv3 theres an event where Kokichi asks Izuru to join DICE, and I mean obviously Izuru says no, but god I cannot stop thinking about Izuru being in DICE. the idea is a Delight. Think about it
Random but I gotta ask since I’ve been lowkey obsessed with them lately but what do you think of Kokichi and gonta’s relationship? I honestly feel it’s super underrated and misinterpreted as abusive by most people
I have a lot of thoughts about Kokichi as a character and so before I even start to get rambly I’m putting this under a cut because I know it’ll get rambly
I don’t talk about my Kokichi thoughts Here, Much, because I know that My Interpretations Are Not Universal, but well, in this case, it’s been Asked For, and, who am I to not Talk,Â
Also this has spoilers for pretty much all of V3
For starters I think a big thing about Kokichi is that most of the way he acts during the game is an act; looking closely at lines of dialogue in the first chapter, he catches on very quickly to the Hope/Despair cycle that’s going on, realizing that If You Work Together With Other People, You Are Going To Pay For It. After all, look what happened to Kaede. But he also doesn’t want to do Nothing about the situation, and so what his solution is, is that he tries to Do Good Things But While Acting Like It’s For Not Good Reasons
An example of that is the second chapter where he pushes everyone to watch the motive videos together, and while at first that action seems “bad”, Kaito himself remarks later that maybe it Would have been better if they all watched the motive videos together, because 1. it could have helped them process it better, with each other’s support, and he didn’t mention this part but I think it makes sense in a practical way, 2. if they watch everyone’s motive videos, they know who they might need to keep an eye on, just in case they might try anythingÂ
As more time goes on, Kokichi develops the plan of pretending to be the mastermind in order to end the game, and so he acts more and more villainous to try and make it believableÂ
And all this doesn’t Address the question necessarily, but I’m Getting To It by elaborating my thoughts on him as a character first,Â
Because during the game, it... is somewhat fair to say that Kokichi doesn’t exactly treat Gonta well, in Chapters 2 and 4 especially,Â
However, I also believe that under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have treated Gonta that way- and I believe that, amongst a lot of the flaws that V3′s writing has (which I’m too tired to go all in on right now), a lot of the time it cares more about making Kokichi an antagonist than an actual character- by that I mean, while there are parts that give Kokichi some depth and understandability, it also feels like sometimes the narrative has him do things just because, well, He’s The Bad Guy. I’m not saying “he did nothing wrong”, because that’s counterproductive and takes away some depth with him as a morally gray character, but I think people always go too hard for one or the other with saying that he’s either Bad or Good, and the other characters in the game are definitely on the side of saying he’s just Bad
Another point, in Chapter 4 I (and I’m not saying this is 100% right, it’s just how I interpret the situation) don’t think that Kokichi specifically planned on using Gonta for his idea, more that Gonta just happened to be the one that chose to follow after him. I also think it was a very deliberate choice to wait until after the execution to go back to acting as the villain, because it probably would have hurt a lot more if Gonta thought he didn’t care
So all of this is to say-
I don’t think that the relationship they have In The Killing Game is all that great, but I also believe that under normal circumstances it never would have happened, and I think it would be interesting to explore their dynamic outside of thatÂ
One particular thing that sticks out to me about their dynamic is that Kokichi is naturally a person who has a hard time trusting people and is used to being distrusted (on the whiteboard in his room, the only person Kokichi even alludes to trusting is Shuichi, and even that has a “?” on it, and even taking into account that his trust must have been really strained by the killing game, the fact that he lies so frequently makes me think that maybe he doesn’t like being open about himself and his thoughts) (and as for Being Distrusted, he makes himself known as A Liar, and so of course that’s How People See Him),
and meanwhile Gonta is a very trusting person, and while a little socially uniformed (which makes sense given his backstory) he tries to be kind to people on instinct and help themÂ
I think that’s the kind of relationship that Kokichi might need; someone who will take the time to trust in him instead of leaving things at a surface level, and someone who he can be vulnerable withÂ
This is also a bit of a side tangent that comes from nowhere, but I feel like people tend to underestimate Gonta too. He’s not “just dumb”, it’s that he’s not used to what’s “normal” because he didn’t grow up in a “normal” environment, and nobody is willing to actually take the time and explain things to him; whenever he expresses confusion about something, everyone else just let’s it go instead of trying to explain. I think that’s another flaw in the writing of V3, and that Gonta really deserves to be treated better than that- for a game that seems to have been trying to press the idea that “you should believe in other people!”, it just seems awfully unfair that Gonta is treated as “too naive” for doing exactly that
Anyway, I’ve rambled a lot, but those are my thoughtsÂ
If you have thoughts about their dynamic that I haven’t mentioned, I would love to hear them! I’m open to hearing differing interpretationsÂ
(Image description: the original source tweet says "[clown college commencement] what you've accomplished here today... *hushed murmur* is no small feet *clowns go fuckin nuts*. The edited meme has Kokichi from Danganronpa V3 saying this to the members of D.I.C.E., his organization that has a vaguely clown aesthetic. End description)
