#hypnotic despair

[jacksmusesdrv3]

So I was curious about something, and it seems the ‘ugly bitch’ (busu) line was roughly the same in both versions, both times it shows up. Seems Monokuma was saying it to no one in particular, and it does sound like an utterly out-of-nowhere line with an unnecessary new sprite.

But it uh. Bothers me a little-

-because Monokuma would also describe himself as some variation of ‘cute’, and the context of the ‘busu’ line was Monokuma being ‘overwhelmed by cute’.

Dubious if this bear is just talking about... bears- that is, the Monokubs and his bear-self. But if in this latter case, he’s actually talking about someone behind the bear who is adorable, even childlike, this might just be an obscure sort of hint to that person’s background.

Because if Ouma’s case is anything to go by, odd things reflecting the Warriors of Hope’s backstories is a bit concerning, to say the least.

[jacksmusesdrv3]

Because of my rerun through DR:AE, I had to imagine the twins in the Warriors’ age group as well- tweaked faces and hair to make a bit more young-ish ;w; Not sure if I want to keep the hair quite that short though

The ‘wilted flower’ (Ouma) doesn’t know how to smile yet, so he’s mostly got that poker-face squiggle if he isn’t otherwise blank-faced or crying. The swirl-eyes that ‘Monokichi’ has will make you dizzy if you stare at them too hard- actually just don’t lock eyes with this kid, whatever you do, ever. Also he smiles a lot but it tends to be quite unsettling when he does

and- yes I also imagine ‘pre-DICE’ DICE uniforms with the logo stitched on the front of some plain old T-shirts. I’m not sure where that goes but I like the idea of a ‘DICE’ existing that actually was a simple clown troupe, or at least nothing more complicated, and the later one its apocalyptic reprisal. Just something about Ouma bringing back a motif as a reminder of a - I must emphasise: relatively - better time feels like it would work for him, especially since his childishness is a heavily ingrained mechanism that’s very personal to him

I’ll have to come back to this if I actually figure out any lore (and thus, design), but until then let me share this as a WIP so I can commit to the bit haha

[jacksmusesdrv3]

Fun things about Ouma’s birthday! 

Besides the obvious (it’s right on the summer solstice- almost opposite of Junko/Mukuro’s around the winter solstice), let’s take the numbers 6 from the month, and 21 from the day.

There’s a 6 sided die. Add up the sides: 1+2+3+4+5+6. You get 21.

Now imagine there’s a twin, a sibling with the same birthday. You have not one ‘die’, but two ‘dice’. Like the group, ‘DICE’. 

Now we add all the sides of the two dice. Here’s a nifty number: 42.

A few things about the number 42 which are really cool! First of all, it’s ‘The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life the Universe and Everything’, in reference to The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, another sci-fi oriented piece. Second, it’s a number that can be associated to ‘God’ and the ‘Universe’ (according to Kabbalah, ‘42′ is the number with which God creates the universe). 

Third... well. Taking from what I’d said before about Ouma and Shuichi having ‘opposite numbers’ associated to them - Ouma having ‘Ni shi (shi)’ as a 2 and 4, with Shuichi’s ‘shini(gami detective)’... ahem, ‘god of death’ thing being 4 and 2 - this cosmic and godly number 42 is associated to both of them as well.

Now for something wild: take Ouma’s birth month: 6. Shuichi’s birth month: 9.

6 times 9 is 42 when done in Base 13, as said in Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. For extra fun- the digital root of 13 is 4. BAD LUCK.

...Well. That’s something to chew on for the next seven and a half (million) years I guess-

[jacksmusesdrv3]

That night

I had come to the fatal crossroads

and from these agonies of death

and birth

I had come forth an angel

instead of a fiend 

(x)

[jacksmusesdrv3]

Do you think that if nobody killed anyone in the first chapter Monokichi would act on his time limit threat? He was rather nervous about no one killing and there is a rule saying he can't hurt anyone outside of executions after all so I imagine he has to follow Team Danganropa's rules (even if he did cheat with Kaede's execution) at least in some capacity.

Considering how he couldn't even get a new one of himself while he was out for the count in Chapter 3, let alone handle multiple at once (since he had to take turns with Bald Monokuma and the fresh one that popped), yeeeah I'd say it's very unlikely. Though nervous as he was with it getting down to the wire, he was likely confident even earlier on, that Shuichi's work would set up a convenient plan to piggyback off of (particularly if he knows him so well, aha).

[jacksmusesdrv3]

/post/180037388499 Tho given the necronomicon it could have been less than that; just having many kids in nightmarish loop participating in various killing games over and over

(x) True- there was the bizarre situation of lifesize dolls left crushed in the big piano, which led a few of us to think that Kaede herself had gotten killed multiple times (which would give credence to Ouma's story where he said that she was 'swiftly killed', and again where he talked about this game being the 'afterlife' in main mode), and those dolls were her effigies. It's a bit of a concerning detail even if there are no (as far as I can see) such effigies in the later executions

That said, the matter is what purpose a game would have to resurrect students in the first place- I'd imagine if someone was behind Monokuma they'd have a perverse thrill at killing and resurrecting over and over particularly if the goal was revenge, but if the organisation connected to the academy was tracking down and collecting Ultimates for a mass murder they would want more in numbers to collect as many as they can. Though considering a Necronomicon could have been used in the past (if Ouma is in fact the risen dead) it could have factored in one of the past games somehow

[jacksmusesdrv3]

I've got a question about the Japanese version if you don't mind (saw you translate few lines while I don't understand anything of it); in chapter 5 when Monokuma confirmed Ouma wasn't the mastermind in English version did he confirm he wasn't mastermind or ringleader in Japanese one?

This one's no problem, though uh, heads up for future reference that I do not know Japanese very well and severely out of practice so the extent of it is picking out some interesting things and cross-referencing

With that said, let's get the original:

(And a crossref, here)

This little word here - 首謀者 - is the one meaning 'ringleader'. Taking this in context, he is saying ‘I’m not being controlled by Ouma-kun, which also means [I am assuming from this that だって can either be a ‘because’ or a ‘therefore’, two mildly different impressions there?], he’s not the ringleader’.

There are a couple of things wrong with his assertion, however:

Early on when Monokuma talks about ‘the mastermind controlling him’ (Chapter 1), he not only distinguishes this controller with a separate word, he also talks about the ringleader as separate to the controller, so per his own words the ringleader would not even be controlling him in that sense

Monokuma states afterward that Ouma’s scheme ‘began after learning the truth via the card key’ (from Chapter 4), neglecting the message in the courtyard which was first altered back in Chapter 3, and seen as altered again right before he even gave out the card key as a motive. At this point he’s either forgetting or... omitting something (possibly, about the nature of the message...), but either way his words now are not completely reliable

There’s also the issue that he wouldn’t outright confirm the identity of the ringleader if it didn’t suit him- his second statement that he ‘never once said anything about Ouma being the ringleader', doesn’t say anything about the validity of that because why would he tell them if that’s true or not? So yeah, he says what he says, but it’s a bit sketchy...

[jacksmusesdrv3]

jacksmusesdrv3(.)tumblr(.)com/post/659733131823398912 I'm also not saying that Gonta was part of the DICE but there is a member whose body type looks similiar to Gonta's (afro guy) and this one's mask is at the Supreme Leader's lab

Oh, my bad then- I was trying to clarify on behalf of myself too, so there wouldn’t be misunderstanding that I was trying to claim something as definite or anything. (A small clarification also when I say the group DICE are likely more akin to confidence tricksters I'm referring to The Great Pretender- in general conmen are associated not as virtuous so I'm unsure as to why TGP was referred by ‘con-artists’ in hindsight, but that was the kind of con group I had in mind. orz)

A slight aside but those masks are...

...bothersome in a number of ways, considering that there’s three of them while four (oh, the dreaded four) of a bunch of other things. I don’t quite know what to do with that information but it doesn’t seem right, huh? There’s only three, while there’s eleven members of DICE (Ouma’s buttons would suggest that much is not a mistake and there’s actually someone missing or rather, hidden)

(Following on from here)