The Mattress

[ferocioustrout]

media literacy is very important because a lot of people in fandoms nowadays seem to think that there is no such thing as implying something in a piece of media. if the character does not look you dead in the eyes and tell you that they were abused then actually they couldn’t possibly have been abused and you’re a bad person for thinking that they could

[sulfuricacidc0nsmr]

Hi

Throws her at you

First ever danganronpa art lesgo

[zigota667]

NO THAT'S WRONG

[hopeymchope]

How do you think the plot of Trigger Happy Havoc would have changed if, instead of Leon killing Sayaka, Mukuro killed Kyoko in Chapter One?

I struggled with this for almost a week because I hit a block near the end my mind's "Chapter 2." But here's what I do have:

Danganronpa 1 AU Scenario: Mukuro commits the first murder on Kyoko > START!

Ironically, although such an action would most likely be driven by a desire by Junko to eliminate someone she sees as the most obvious threat, I think this would probably cause the killing game to collapse faster. Which I suppose would probably give Junko a nice feeling of despair?

Unless Mukuro perceives an imminent threat to Junko's well-being, I don't think she's going to go off on her own and kill someone during the game without Junko's orders. So if this happens, it's happening because Junko requested it. And if we go by Danganronpa IF, Mukuro will need to be "tricked" into self-destructive actions... but as shown in both IF and in Danganronpa S, Mukuro isn't above turning against Junko's plans if she thinks that betrayal will better bring her sister the delicious despair she so longs for.

Basically, I'm thinking this is going to be a scenario where:

Junko asks Mukuro to eliminate Kyoko, who represents their biggest immediate threat as the Ultimate Detective. In order to get her on-board, Junko will try to engineer a scenario where they can believably frame another member of the cast...

...however, Junko will secretly be planning to throw Mukuro under the bus just like she did with the Spears of Gungnir. She's going to let there be evidence that can lead the smarter survivors (i.e. Byakuya and Makoto) to realize that "Junkuro" is the real culprit. (Because if she already betrayed Mukuro and killed her once to cause herself Despair in the canon timeline, she will logically do it again here.)

Upon realizing what's happening and before she can be executed, I wager Mukuro will start to tell the entire truth like she does to Kyoko in IF. This is the moment when she can realize that Junko is trying bring herself despair by killing her twin, so instead Mukuro will decide to bring Junko despair by betraying her ala IF and her ending in S. Junko-via-Monokuma can try to jump over and shut her up once she starts — maybe cartoonishly slapping tape across her mouth or something — but probably not until AFTER she's gotten out some pretty important information. And definitely not until after she's lost her disguise... which is already a pretty major hint for the others.

In short: I think Mukuro is going to kill Kyoko, get executed for it, and then wind up leaving enough evidence on her way out that Byakuya and Makoto and the like (I can see Celeste, Chihiro, and Sakura being useful as well) will be able to start piecing together the reality of the school and their time together much faster. The first game's canon events take place across 22-23 days. So, even if most don't believe Mukuro initially, she's going to plant enough seeds of doubt and roots for an investigation that I think the cast will be out there at least a week sooner.

Of course, there's a decent chance we'll still lose some more people along the way... so the question is: who would be next to fall after Mukuro and Kyoko, if someone else dies? Will anyone else die... ?

Chapter 2

Here's one possible aftermath of the first Chapter that I think is logical:

With the trial's seeming reveals planting strong seeds of doubt in her even sooner, Sakura's plot development is getting accelerated. At some point in Chapter 2, Sakura will opt to begin resisting Monokuma promptly and comes forth to the others about her own role as spy/monitor two chapters sooner than she does in canon. (As it is in the mainline canon, Hina is completely forgiving but Togami is... less than accepting of her confession/apology. And for those who are now around to hear this but weren't there when it occurred in canon, I think Chihiro, Leon, Sayaka, and Taka will take it the best [in descending order from 'most accepting' to 'least accepting but still reasonably forgiving/tolerant']. But Hifumi and Celeste will land more on the Byakuya / Hagakure / Toko side of distrust.)

Depending on when in the usual Chapter 1 the first murder occurred, Sayaka may have already seen her motive video — and then been plotting out her strikes against Leon and Makoto. But once again taking a cue from IF, the stark reality of seeing blood and death in front of her shakes Sayaka out of her spiral and makes her far less inclined to make a move on anyone... but she's not exactly prepared to admit she was already plotting something, either.

I think seeing Mukuro's attempted confession AND Sakura's successful confession is going to inspire the courage in Chihiro to tell the rest of the group... something. They want to show that they have strength of will like Sakura's. They might be waffling on whether to tell them about Alter Ego's existence, which could potentially help the group, or whether to instead admit their sex/gender identity... and certainly, Chihiro's still not feeling ready to talk about both at once. But when Monokuma whips out the Chapter 2 motive, the decision is made. Chihiro comes forward with their gender/sex identity to the group as a whole, not just Mondo (although I can see Chihiro waiting for Byakuya to not be around in light of how well he in particular didn't take Sakura's admission... )

We should probably assume that Mondo and Taka are still going to bond via a sauna showdown. Which, in turn, means that Mondo's e-handbook is still going to break. No telling at this point whether this will turn out to be important at some point, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

With the "secrets" motive in play, Mondo is still on edge as he stews with dread over the idea of everyone hearing about his part in his brother's death.

...but I've mentally reviewed what I think would be the "Secret" in each envelope to the best of my knowledge, and I think there are still two other characters who might be high-strung as a result of the current motive. First up is Sayaka, whose previous admissions of having to "do things she's not proud of" to get to her level of fame is likely coming back to haunt her when Monokuma hands her an envelope threatening to reveal exactly WHAT she did.

And the other one is Hagakure; he's got crippling debt, including a hefty amount that he owes to the Yakuza. The details of that are most likely inside the envelope. Most everyone can see that he's deeply overcharging for his "predictions" and foolishly purchasing pricey items, but I don't know that he realizes how incredibly obvious his gouging is OR how futile his attempts to escape debt are in light of his deeply poor self-control. He might think he can save his reputation and still make his way out of debt if he can just somehow prevent the exact details of his debt from coming out. But... look. Hiro's just not the kind of guy who easily kills someone. No matter how high-strung he may be right now? I don't see him being driven that far. Especially given the promised fallout of "everyone else dies" even if he succeeds. Besides, even if he DID kill someone... he's gonna suck at the "getting away with it" part. :P

....and THIS is the point where I hit a block. I've given two possible suspects (and a third maybe-suspect) for a second murder after Mukuro->Kyoko, but I don't honestly know which—if any!—would make a move. Do I really think Sayaka will be down to plot a murder at this stage, given everything revealed to her? Is there any remaining event that could trigger Mondo snapping now that Chihiro's secret is already out? I don't know for sure. I'd be willing to go along with either of those given the proper framework, but I don't know which one I'd find most believable. As for murder victims, though?

If Sayaka is still going to pick a target, I think she picks Leon again OR Hiro. Because Hiro's desperation for money is easy for a rich-and-famous person like herself to exploit.

If Mondo is going to be triggered into a violent blackout-style murder by someone's words at this stage, it's probably Leon who'll do it. I can see his manner of speech and choice of words accidentally triggering something that sends him flying off the handle.

If, by some utterly bizarre course of events, it's Hiro who goes through with a murder plot? I think he targets Hifumi because he doesn't relate to him or Celeste because he doesn't like her much. Obviously, Celeste is the harder target, but it's not impossible that she might underestimate Hiro to her own detriment...

So, sadly? I think that despite him making it past the first death without going down, Leon is still in the most danger here. He's a potential victim to both of the more-likely culprits.

Chapter 3

Regardless of whether or which murder might occur in Chapter 2, I think Chapter 3's general events are basically the endgame. Whether Monokuma gives up on the second motive or simply progresses beyond it, certain events are absolutely going to happen here.

The first is that everyone finds out about Alter Ego. With Chihiro still alive, Alter Ego will become an even more powerful tool in the investigation and unveiling of the truth.

Monokuma's third motive, the money? Though it previously triggered Celeste into murder, that ain't happening this time. Her suspicions about Monokuma and what's really going on have been raised far too much by now; she is too highly skeptical of him, I feel. And she's going to be a more key player in investigating the school's secrets as we wind down now, as well. The only person who is going to realistically be tempted by this is Hiro.

Hiro never committed any murder in DR1, but we don't really know how he felt about the third motive. It's possible that he was sorely tempted, yet Celeste just acted first. However, I think the same conclusion I came to previously in Chapter 2 still rings true here: he's not willing to cause the entire group to die, so it's not worth it for him to pursue this avenue. Besides; do we really think this guy would be able to maintain a straight-faced lie very long... ?

Once Junko/Monokuma realizes that the motives aren't working anymore, the Makoto/Byakuya/Celeste/Chihiro/Alter Ego brain trust is either about to or already has discovered that they've had their memories of the past couple years erased, and there's no spy left to manipulate into another kill, Junko going to head into triggering the endgame. Unlock the whole school, dole out the photos where her face is blocked, make them try to suss out the full truth of everything in a final showdown — ALL of that happens now, earlier than before.

[themattress]

I'm impressed! If I were presented with a "Kyoko dies at the start" scenario, I'd be all:

[hopeymchope]

A quick overview of my current hyperfixation, the "A Certain Magical/Scientific" franchise

I've been hyperfixated on the "To Aru" or "A Certain" universe for the past couple of months. It started with just rewatching all the animes and then reading some of the manga that those animes were adapted from, then I was playing various PSP/Vita video games based in the franchise and reading some side novels, and now I'm about to move on and start reading the various light novels/manga that go beyond the timeline of the animated stuff.

Mikoto Misaka, Touma Kamijo, and Accelerator. And that's not even all of the eventual focal protagonists in the franchise, but... it's a start.

For the uninitiated, here's a quick rundown of how this whole universe "works":

A Certain Magical Index is the original series that started it all. It began as a series of light novels back in 2004; by the end of the year, the series was up to four novels, and Japanese readership was already devouring it.

The core conceit is the struggle between magic/sorcerers who mostly work for various powerful churches around the globe vs the scientific community centered in the fictional nation-state of "Academy City," which now makes up 2/3 of the land that used to be Tokyo. Academy City is primarily made up of tons of students and researches focused on the study and development of "Esper" or "Psychic" abilities that manifest in so many different ways that... look, they're basically like the mutants from the X-Men. As the stories go on, there are tons of competing factions vying for power in both the magic and scientific spaces, conspiracies within Academy City

The series has gone on to inspire tons of spinoffs, including numerous manga centered on Academy City espers (A Certain Scientific Railgun, A Certain Scientific Accelerator, A Certain Scientific Dark Matter, A Certain Scientific Mental Out), and most recently, a series of spinoff light novels focused on a criminal "underworld" organization within Academy City called A Certain Dark Side ITEM.

In addition to both Magical Index and Dark Side ITEM getting manga adaptions of their novels, three branches of the franchise have gotten adapted into anime: three seasons of A Certain Magical Index, three seasons (so far) of A Certain Scientific Railgun, and one season of A Certain Scientific Accelerator. An anime based on A Certain Dark Side ITEM is schedule to premiere this fall (2026), and a fourth season of the Railgun anime is coming in 2027. (And it's worth noting that the Index anime only covers the first 22 of what is — as of this writing — 59 light novels to date).

...but the truth is that the one branch of the franchise that REALLY blew up, the one that is generally considered the best part of the whole thing? Is A Certain Scientific Railgun, the manga/anime focused on the adventures of esper Mikoto Misaka and her friends. And although I usually have minority opinions on a lot of fandom-related things... this is one common opinion where I tend to agree. Railgun is definitely the peak so far. There's a reason why there are so many viewers/readers who ONLY experience this one branch of the series and just choose to remain slightly confused whenever crossovers with the other branches occur.

"You don't know it yet, but I'm the reason you're here."

Somewhat surprisingly, ALL of the many stories in this universe are penned by the same insanely prolific author. Kazuma Kamachi is the pen name for the secretive author. He's done interviews via phone and has met with his manga artists and publishers/editors, but manages to remain largely anonymous despite that. (And in all fairness, the mangaka tend to expand on the storylines he provides quite a bit.) This guy writes so incessantly that my closest point of comparison is the speech and drive Taylor Swift puts into writing songs.

The in-universe timeline of all the various novels/manga/anime is complicated at first glance, but honestly? If you're interested, ignore the "chronological order" aspect. It's best to just experience the stories in the order they were released, in whichever medium you choose to consume them. The timeline will adequately reveal/explain itself as you go along.

When I first started watching season of A Certain Magical Index, I remember thinking I wasn't sure how I felt about it. By the third storyline, though, I was hooked and had found my favorite character. And then I found that character had their own spinoff, and there was no going back once I sampled THAT.

[themattress]

There's a reason why there are so many viewers/readers who ONLY experience this one branch of the series and just choose to remain slightly confused whenever crossovers with the other branches occur.

ME! That includes me!

Railgun, Astral Buddy, Mental Out....and yeah, that's it; I'm good. ^_^

[ultraericthered]

While on the subject of what might've been for Best Wishes and Team Plasma in it, I refer back to my revised vision of what the final year of Best Wishes!, and remainder of "Best Wishes! Season 2", might've looked like without any arbitary corporate interference cutting short the story's remaining time in Unova and forcing the writers to truncate their already reworked Dual Heroes / Team Plasma Myth Arc storyline into "Episode N". And just how fucking great it could've been.

It's covering what I covered in the link there but in more significant detail. The big blue triangle symbolizes episodes in this post-League quest that have connections to the larger Myth Arc storyline. The smaller blue triangle with the circle in it symbolizes episodes in which Team Plasma has a direct presence. And the small black triangle represents episodes that contain even the bare minimum of narrative continuity despite containing stories that function as standalone adventures.

BW111 - This version would change Team Rocket's role and have an added scene where Giovanni and Matori mention that Unova’s secret evil organization has stepped out from hiding unprovoked this time, so they hope the TRio can gather info about what their scheme to take over Unova is and derail it so that they have no competition. And at the end of the episode the White Ruins quest gets set up for Ash, Iris, and Cilan, and we see N appear in the very last shot(s).

BW112 - N's big debut. Team Plasma has a presence here since N is shown investigating their activity at the P2 Lab and briefly flashes back to when he saw Reshiram the night he was to be coronated as Team Plasma's king for their Pokemon Liberation movement.

BW113 and BW114 carry basic continuity because Aspertia City was where our heroes were headed to to start with, the Aspertia Gym was set up beforehand, and the quest through western Unova to reach the White Ruins is still mentioned in narration and dialogue. Plus, Cheren actually has another use later on down the line this time.

BW115 at first just carries basic continuity of the narrator referencing the recent outing in Aspertia City and the continuing journey to the White Ruins and the characters mentioning that they're headed towards Floccesy Town, but then at the very end we see N at a wild Pokemon habitat and can feel his friends suffering from having their hearts and minds penetrated, and he knows who must be behind it, which is what transitions directly into the first scene of BW116 where we see what Colress and Team Plasma are doing to Pokemon.

BW117 is still in Floccesy Town at the ranch that was mentioned in the previous one, gives some growth to Iris' Dragonite that will matter, and gives us the "Meowth counts Mareep" gag that he'll later reuse to try to keep his mind from succumbing to Colress' device.

BW118 has the gang leaving Floccesy Town and then at the end, Tedesco gets a call from Looker, who's still on Team Plasma's trail.

BW119 sees the gang making their next stop at Liberty Garden, and Team Plasma's next in-person return, with the debut of Barret and some grunts he's leading around in "liberating" (read: stealing) various Pokemon from the Garden while also on the lookout for N, who we get another cameo by elsewhere. We'd see Ghetsis make another hologram check-in that comes with the reveal that he knows N and wants him found and detained, and there’s also a passing mention of the missing runaways from “Project G” and of Team Rocket, who have been blacklisted by Team Plasma for "derailing things for them last time." This would be the only time Ghetsis is featured without Colress being in the same episode.

BW122 has the gang meeting up with N again as he agrees to join up with them after saving Braviary from Schwartz and Weiss. This version features a brief video call cameo from Colress in the first scene since Schwartz and Weiss are charged with delivering cargo Pokemon to him for experiments. This would be the only time Colress is featured without Ghetsis being in the same episode.

BW123 furthers N's character development as he confronts different ways Pokemon and humans work together.

BW124 again furthers N's character development as he has to grapple with the fact that some of his friends enjoy participating in battle tournaments and fighting with trainers even if it hurts them.

In BW125, our heroes get lost in Zoroark's illusions, and N’s illusion shows a glimpse of his past where he’s tearfully listening the voices of hurt Pokemon, an obscured Anthea and Concordia at his side, and the enlarged, distorted shadow of Ghetsis looming over him.

In BW126, the Poke’ Pirates are revealed to be Pokemon who either let go or forcibly “liberated” from their trainers by agents of Team Plasma who've been doing this in isolated incidents all around Unova, and we see this happening in their flashbacks as Meowth and N relay the information. It very visibly strikes a chord with N.

In BW127, Ash has Professor Oak send Charizard to him, who gets into a fight with Iris' Dragonite. Both Pokemon will have important parts to play later, including learning to get along with each other.

In BW128, N once again has some character growth, this time by getting himself invested in Virgil and Team Eevee's treasure hunt because he finds he really likes seeing Pokemon working together in harmonious teamwork like this even if it's under human supervision. Despite their differences, he and Virgil part on respectful terms.

BW129 is Team Plasma's next in person appearance where we finally see Colress and Adlith in person again and the first time we see Ghetsis in the flesh, in his lair, in non-hologram form. Colress' unit is doing trial runs on the newly modified Pokemon Control Device that he plans to present to Ghetsis later (and for extra juicy continuity, we see Schwartz and Weiss getting attacked by their own Serviper and Zangoose that are used as guinea pigs for Colress' test), but when Colress learns of N’s presence with Ash's group from Aldith, he contacts Ghetsis about it. Ghetsis is seen reading a manuscript of the White Legend and authorizing another grunt unit to go join the hunt for N before telling his personal service grunt to send word to the unit in Eastern Unova that he wants “Project F” to be accelerated to completion, which actually holds meaning this time. Team Rocket intrudes upon Team Plasma once again, and we'd see TRio get back in contact with Dr. Zager via a Delibird to inform him about the dilemma with Team Plasma and the Control Device.

This comes back around in BW133, which starts a stretch of nonstop continuity and plot progression all the way to the series finale. We get action in Driftveil City where N and Colress meet face to face, followed by meeting Anthea and Concordia in the White Forest and learning N's backstory before dealing with Barrett and his squad. We get Meowth and Colress antics and N learning about the escaped Genesect Army. We get Cheren visiting Iccirus City where he meets Bianca and helps her decide where she wants to take her life, along with a scene of Aldith and Barret making calls to other Team Plasma grunts to prepare their big move while Ghetsis and Colress think of Reshiram, and TRio makes their own tactical plans with Dr. Zager.

And then of course we'd get a stronger climax at the White Ruins, the Reshiram VS Zekrom two-part event, a much better edition of Movie 16, and the final three episodes that give the series a proper farewell.

So in total, 22 out of 34 episodes hold Myth Arc relevance, we see Team Plasma in 15 out of 34 episodes, and 29 out of 34 episodes are tight on the continuity. Only BW120, BW121, BW130, BW131, and BW132 feel like total standalones, the former two meant for closing the book on Iris and Cilan developments that include their main rivals, and the latter three pure "what are some of the most fun little adventures we could put our heroes on before it's time for the home stretch?" ideas (repurposed from the three Capacia Island episodes, AKA the only three really good Decolore Islands episodes we were given.) Say the thing one more time, Peridot!

[ultraericthered]

Adding to this post the map that would be traveled in this arc.

[themattress]

It's always depressing to remember that, objectively speaking, Best Wishes had the worst final year in the entire Pokeani, since it's the only one that was pushed out of its main region and well past anything the show wanted to accomplish plot-wise. Even the current debacle with Horizons' last year has something cooking with the Navi character - the Decolore Islands arc was just utterly hollow. There never should have been an "And Beyond" in "Adventures in Unova", because adventures in Unova was what the director and writers were actually interested in doing. It's part of why the show was even named Best Wishes - beyond the B and W thing, it's pronounced "besutōisshu", with Isshu being the Japanese name for Unova.

[ultraericthered]

Number of the Beast appeared! Had to post this.

[Found on Istagram, don't know who it's by, seems inspired by that one panel from the climax of the PokeSpe B2/W2 Chapter.]

[roryyk]

celesgiri during pride month naaah

decided to play thh myself for the first time and for now getting catfished by them.. my 12 yo version remembered them as the peak yuri. meanwhile they have 0 in-game interactions so far 0 thematic parallels and 7 random lesbian official arts

[themattress]

@roryyk: Their interactions, and the thematic parallels between them, are pretty much entirely in Chapter 3, Celeste's last one. To the point where Kyoko is the last person Celeste interacts with at all and lets the mask slip for just before her execution. But yeah, there's nothing else beyond that. It's the anime that added a shit-ton more for them (including a novelization of said anime where we get official art of them bathing together). Kodaka didn't come up with this ship; others in official positions did, and thank God for those people. <3

[genoskissors]

Random Lesbian Ship for Pride #3

The yuri wheel says... Celeste x Ibuki

These two pretty much have nothing connecting them, but I see potential. Celeste and Ibuki are two characters who have a very strong sense of style, Celeste with gothic lolita and Ibuki with v-kei (I think). While Ibuki's music is far from Celeste's tastes, Ibuki sometimes makes songs for people, so she could make something Celeste enjoys if she wanted to. Ibuki also loves playing games so I'm sure she'd love card games, though she'd never win.

If you enjoy the opposites attract trope, one thing to consider about them is that Ibuki is completely true to herself while Celeste lies about who she is, both to others and herself. With names being a marker of identity, their introductions stand out a lot. Celeste introduces herself by another name, while Ibuki emphasizes every part of her full name.

Perhaps Ibuki could help Celeste accept her true feelings?

Unfortunately, they do not have any bonus mode event interactions. They both like the Hope's Peak Ring and Rose in Vitro. Both hate the Kokeshi Dynamo.

Final Thoughts:

2 <- | -> 4

[twin-tailed]

Source

[ageha-sds]

If you squint your eyes, you can imagine that Tifa's bikini is golden.

[artistoons-blog-thing]

source

[derekscorner]

[derekscorner]

[virtualgirladvance]

[garlickedbreadx3]

Forgot to post but instead of doing homework or anything productive I drew this:

It was just a quick sketch with no real effort put into it (for the funni)

Might update it later but for now this is it

[danganfixationronpa]

DRV3 Love Across the Universe

Angie Yonaga - Library

"Let's read a novel." (Good Option)

[hopeymchope]

Angie is even more toxic than I realized.

[themattress]