little things in v3 that make me appreciate the game slightly more (spoilers)
the fact that the two incest plotlines can directly be traced back to tsumugi, whose fantasy in her love hotel event deals with her and shuuichi being stepsiblings. the fact that brother-sister incest happens twice within this killing game (with korekiyo & miyadera, and monotaro & monophanie) could be just tsumugi trying to extend her incest fetish to the public.
tsumugi probably named monophanie that way because she knew that she wanted to make kaede the protagonist (at least for the first trial). monophanie sounds like monophony, a term in music that refers to a unified, completely homogenous sound, such as a single instrument in a piece, or every instrument playing the same exact melody.
tsumugi's place in the trial room is exactly where junko's was, right in front of monokuma. she wanted to copy junko's killing game so much that she wanted to take the role of being in her position.
because it's so ambiguous whether tsumugi ever says the truth at all during her entire confrontation, it's almost to the point where she doesn't even have her own identity, and tsumugi shirogane could just be another fictional character she made up for herself. she could have deliberately chosen to raise her voice and have blue hair to pay homage to sayaka, who technically started the killing game in the first place.
the monokubs all have different homages to various former contestants in the killing games. monokid is a guitar player like ibuki and has syo & junko's long tongue. monodam is a robot much like mechamaru, and his name could be a reference to gundam, while his attitude seems pretty similar to twogami's (wanting everyone to get along regardless of whether it's possible or not). monosuke has a gruff attitude similar to mondo, enjoys baseball like leon, and is associated with money like celes and togami. monophanie is sweet and shy but still obedient and cruel, like mikan and touko, and her color scheme brings monomi and chiaki to mind. monotaro has a scarf like gundam, uses throwing stars that bring to mind izayoi from dr3, and has a leadership quality to him like kiyotaka and twogami.
the monokubs have similar color schemes to the warriors of hope, with a few of them having similar traits to them. monotaro and masaru are both the "leaders" and hotheaded, and are orange-red. monophanie and kotoko are both submissive yet still scary, and are pink. monodam and monaca both control their friends and associates and become power hungry because of it, and are both green. monokid and nagisa don't have much at all in common, but are both blue. monosuke and jataro also don't have much in common, but are both associated with neutral tan colors.
tsumugi and the ultimate impostor both show up in this game, but tsumugi is impersonating them, which would probably be her dream -- she's essentially cosplaying a cosplayer who's cosplaying as someone with no identity.
tsumugi doesn't end up contributing a lot because she's an intern for team danganronpa -- she's not used to having a say in major decisions and big meetings, since she's low on the chain of employees.
you never actually see tsumugi's face in the shot of everyone after kaede's execution, probably because she was either smiling or just completely expressionless. she got away with murder by killing another person, and as such would probably be incredulous or ecstatic about the result of the first trial.
when kaede asks tsumugi about her favorite anime, she mentions hers, and her favorite episode of said anime is episode 53. she probably was lying here, and just said that number in a panic. she hadn't probably thought that far into her backstory as tsumugi.
tsumugi probably planned for shuuichi, maki, and himiko to still survive the school being destroyed, since she gave them some of the most emotional moments in the game, killing the people closest to them. shuuichi had the deaths of both kaede and kaito, maki had her breakdown after kaito's death, and himiko lost both angie and tenko within the same trial. it would make sense that she had planned for them to survive through the whole thing, even if kiibo kind of sidestepped her plan a bit.
at the end, before her execution, tsumugi seems actually pretty neutral about her plan failing, even saying that she's proud to have made a perfect copy of the original killing game's plan. this could mean that she intended for the entire thing to fall apart, bringing an audience surrogate, a masterful liar and criminal, and a gifted detective into the same season all together.
kaito's illness was either planned from the beginning, or implemented after tsumugi realized how close he and shuuichi had gotten, and how helpful kaito's been to him. kaede was an easier target because there was a believable reason to execute her in everyone else's eyes. kaito probably would have never killed if he hadn't been battling his illness, since he agrees to help ouma in chapter 5's plan knowing that his time is limited. tsumugi probably instilled a handicap on him, knowing that he was the most hopeful and optimistic of the characters besides kiibo, who she could easily manipulate since he was essentially just a standin for the audience itself.
the inclusion of the remnants of despair as a plot point for part of the game makes sense when tsumugi is revealed to have created the entire season. she's a huge fangirl and wanted to have a nod to the second game. it also would make sense as something that she would just randomly throw in as a means of fanservice to the audience.
the demo's whole gimmick of makoto, hajime, and hagakure being part of the game alongside the new characters is put in a new light after the reveal that the original games were just works of fiction in v3's universe. plus, it's implied that makoto and hajime are actors, which would make sense. technically speaking, everyone in v3 is an actor as well, and with tsumugi cosplaying as a bunch of previous characters in the final trial, chances are that the makoto and hajime actors aren't the original characters, merely portraying them.
tsumugi being the mastermind makes so much sense, and the theme of truth vs. lies makes sense in terms of her constant denial that fiction can't influence reality. as a big fan of danganronpa before becoming part of the games themselves, she's more than likely well aware of the effects that fiction can have on real life, and probably agrees with shuuichi deep down.
the parallels between tsumugi and junko are interesting, but the ways in which they die are the most. they're both crushed to death, and while junko's smiling the entire time (save for the very end, when the crusher stops momentarily, allowing her a bit of confusion as to why it isn't working before she dies), tsumugi is just blank the entire time. it goes to show how even though she got to live her dream and become her idol, she just didn't have the same dedication and devotion to the cause that junko did.
also, kokichi and tsumugi are both crushed, and both were suspected of being the masterminds, also being the representatives of two criminal groups. they're very good antitheses to one another when you start to compare and contrast the two.
i could keep going but honestly we'd be here for a while
