Straight men genuinely do not know what it means to fuck with someone for the plot. Like, they’re not out here hooking up with a specific person purely for the fantasy, the absurdity, the experience of it all and honestly, it’s a shame they’re that sexually repressed.
For example, I hooked up with a Guardia Civil officer once because it felt so wildly out of character for me that I thought, why not? I was in the arse-end of Europe, it doesn’t count, does it? And to be fair, it wasn’t bad. The man knew what he was doing. A straight man would never do that. But then again, straight men don’t really choose in the same way.
And women should understand this more: men are not the ones choosing you. You are choosing them. Learn how to use that power properly, and don’t let them mess you about.
"My hands are only strong enough to play piano!" -Kaede Akamatsu
[Facebook] [Instagram] [Twitter] [Blogger] [Kofi]
-Frustrations & Spoilers under the cut-
If it wasn’t clear before, Kaede is my favorite character in v3 (the fact that I frequently draw her lol)... or at least, her potential as a protagonist is something I continue to hang on to. This isn’t the fact that she’s a girl, although the allure of playing a female protagonist in a DR main entry would’ve been exciting and fresh.
Before anything else, I’m not shitting on Shuichi for being the true protagonist coz he’s certainly a good one in his own right.
Kaede’s already this charismatic, self-assured, headstrong girl, and I was willing to pay money to see that strong personality broken down as chapters progressed. Sure, she’s hella annoying at first, with her blind faith, naivety and bossiness being grating at times, her spiraling down to cynicism all the while becoming wiser and clever would have made for a compelling character arc.
Some would argue that Kaede would have remained a flat character (as Kodaka tends to write ‘positive’ characters like that eg Makoto) but there were hints that she couldn’t have remained that way. The way she downplayed herself as merely a pianist, or how she felt guilty for unintentionally pushing her classmates to the limit without taking their feelings into consideration after being called out by Kokichi-- there’s insecurity there, that she’s not really as confident as she projected herself to be. She’s also willing to lie (for the good??) which speaks a lot about how devious she could be lol oh kayayday
Another argument would be that Shuichi’s more pessimistic personality was suited to fit the game’s meta ending, but who’s to say that Kaede wouldn’t have achieved the character development to suit that endgame. While Shuichi overcame his fear of pursuing the truth, Kaede would’ve learned to fear revealing it, as her world views would have been constantly tested and her role as the one to hammer the final nail on the culprit’s coffin would’ve greatly affected her in the long run. (Case in point: I’d Trade My Life For Yours by grayimperia perfectly portrays a cynical Kaede)
Additionally, this would’ve subverted the usual Danganronpa protagonist trope and would serve as a criticism of Makoto’s infallible Hope Jesus role in DR3... since they criticized the fandom with the meta ending anyway.
And a detective attempting to pull off the perfect murder would’ve been wonderful to see (love you Shu, but really, I kept wondering why no one went after the detective when he was the most logical one to take out first lol)
Still, Kaede’s role as a tragic heroine was still dreadfully beautiful and really left a mark as being one of the pivotal moments in the game. And I understand why they had to make the switch with Shuichi, so that it remained consistent with previously established character tropes to simulate the usual feel of a danganronpa game, playing it straight with predictability until the disorienting meta endgame.
And with that, hopefully v3 remains the last entry to the danganronpa franchise coz the ending, while annoyingly dragging, was truly genius (if a bit too depressing).
