The Survivor Perk Monopad... Doesn’t Really Make Sense
[at least, the way we’re expected to believe Rantaro used it doesn’t make sense]
The story that we’re told is that Rantaro, using the information found in this Monopad, went to the library to ‘expose the mastermind’ around the time Monokuma said he would make his army of spares. In doing so, he was inadvertently lured into Shuichi and Kaede’s trap and was, in some way or another, killed.
Problem #1: There were two instances in Chapter 1 in which Monokuma needed a spare.
The first instance was when Monokuma was squashed and destroyed by the red exisal.
This was long before Monokuma revived and announced his ‘army of spares’ motive, which was when Rantaro actually went to the library.
So if he really wanted to end the game so badly, wouldn’t it have been better for him to go to the library when Monokuma was first destroyed?
Problem #2: There was no reason to open the hidden bookcase.
Rantaro was photographed opening the library door even though he had no reason to.
Rantaro seems like a smart guy. If he truly believed the info in the Monopad, he surely would’ve investigated the bookcase door beforehand. So he should know that he had no way to get inside.
Unless, of course, he had the keycard or something.
But even if he he did... What the hell was his plan? Go inside the hidden room and have a nice little chat with the mastermind? Or maybe he was planning an ambush? Did he really think that would work?
Surely, the smarter way of exposing the mastermind would have been to monitor the door somehow—similar to what Kaede and Shuichi did.
Problem #3: Rantaro really had no reason to trust the information on this Monopad.
Rantaro knows a lot more than he lets on. It’s unclear how much, but at the very least, he seems to have a pretty solid idea of how the “game” works. He even talks about what it takes to be a “winner.”
So clearly he knows a bit more than the others.
But even if he didn’t...
Rantaro was incredibly skeptical and even questioning whether he could trust himself.
Would this guy really be the type to easily believe something written in a sketchy Monopad? To the point where he’d walk into the library to “expose the mastermind” with no proof of its validity?
I really don’t think so.
Problem #4: He had no reason to bring the Survivor Perk Monopad with him to the library.
This is a nitpicky point, but I really don’t understand why he’d need to bring it with him. It’s not like he needed the map—surely he’d know where the hidden room was by that point.
~~
But anyway... All this being said, instead of looking at the story we were told to believe, let’s look at Rantaro’s actual actions and how they could relate to the info inside the Survivor Perk Monopad.
“Your best chance of exposing them is when Monokuma needs a spare. At that time, the mastermind will go to the library’s hidden room.”
Again, there were two instances in Ch. 1 where Monokuma was destroyed. I said earlier that it was silly for Rantaro to not go down to the library the first time Monokuma needed a spare, so let’s look at what he was doing instead.
Right after Monokuma was destroyed, Rantaro can be found...
...Right at the entrance of the stairs to the basement. As if watching and waiting to see who may go down to the library.
And who are the first people he sees head down to the library after Monokuma was destroyed? A time when the mastermind was supposed to go to the hidden room?
Shuichi and Kaede.
They did exactly what the Monopad foretold the mastermind would do—they went to the library’s hidden room. Note that the Monopad does not say that the mastermind would go inside the hidden room, or that they would use the room to make more Monokumas, the Monopad only said that they would go to the room. And that’s exactly what those two did.
“The first thing you will remember is the Ultimate Hunt.”
From the last point, Rantaro could probably gather that Shuichi and Kaede are suspicious. Even if he wasn’t completely trusting the info in the Monopad, such a strong lead would still be worth looking into.
So he tries “fishing”—using the info he has available as a sort of lure to see who would grab on strongest.
...And Shuichi takes the bait.
I don’t exactly know why Rantaro figured this info would be of interest to the mastermind, but perhaps he thought that the mastermind would be concerned he “knew too much,” and would question him to know exactly what he remembers.
So now, Rantaro could gather that the most likely candidate for the ‘mastermind’ is Shuichi—contingent on whether the info in the Monopad is true or not, or course. But the one Rantaro would be looking out for most would definitely be Shuichi.
But him suspecting that Shuichi is the mastermind makes his choice to just wander into the library and get caught by the camera trap even more odd. Since Shuichi had been frequenting the library, it should’ve made him even more cautious of the area.
The Survivor Perk Monopad explains some of his actions, and can resolve the first problem I listed, but the rest still persist...
How did Rantaro die exactly? Why did he go to the library? What was his plan? What was he doing? Why did he open the bookcase door?
And just what was the Survivor Perk Monopad, exactly? Was it possibly just something designed to pit Shuichi and Rantaro against one another, as a sort of motive?
Everything about his case is super sketchy...
