The most fascinating angle there was to the V3 ending is how the characters signed onto this thing by themselves and how people crave for meaning and narrative in their lives, to be protagonist of their own stories with the life arc that makes sense. So audition tapes being real is essential. I've been MEANING to write a long-ass essay about how I love Tsumugi and why she is best girl and what sort of themes she could represent, so give me ENERGY to do this please...
Yeah, I absolutely agree. The entire ending only works due to the fiction twist, and specifically the fact that the characters signed up for the show of their own free will. I seriously hate the epilogue for encouraging all the constant “IT’S A LIE!!!” theories cuz it would just cause so many MORE writing issues for V3 if that was the case. Why do people want that to be the case?
The characters being super fans of Danganronpa who made a stupid decision due to their escapist tendencies builds a personal connection to the entire outside world for the cast - that at one point they were exactly like the audience watching and enjoying their suffering. They were part of this desensitized society that led to real-life killing games in the first place. It makes the worldbuilding much more effective/relevant.
Therefore, it makes the fact that they’d chose to kill their fictional, dream selves in order to end the series forever and prevent anymore people suffering that much more poignant, they’d be actively rejecting their past decisions and unhealthy escapism and want to grow beyond the V3 audience, who are stuck in the past and refuse to realize how sick and twisted they’ve become.
If audition tapes aren’t real, and they WERE just randoms who were kidnapped and forced to become fictional killing game participants…. then there’s literally no real dilemma? No purpose to the entire narrative? Nothing was truly their fault in that case, there’s absolutely no personal connection to the entire theme of the ending, about having to end Danganronpa and shut down Tsumugi and the audience for good. It’s just a really boring conflict honestly? DR1 and DR2 worked so well cuz in some way or another the cast WERE in some way ultimately responsible for their fates. They killed of their own volition. They joined the game willingly. That’s an interesting and painful conflict/realization.
Tsumugi is absolutely fascinating as the main symbol of the fiction reveal and the outside world’s mindset, and I think there’s so many more layers to her character and her role in the ending that a lot of people ignore quite frankly. She can be interepreted as so many roles… the remorseless creator who doesn’t view her creations with any respect, the awestruck fangirl who just wants to watch the action of her favourite series happen right in front of her, the completely ordinary plain girl who clearly hates her life and wants to escape from it all using fiction, the producer who needs to make sure her show stays interesting and generates ratings… I just find her so utterly fascinating in all these aspects. Please share all your Tsumugi essays with me, friend. They are most welcome here!
