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commentaryvorg · 4 years

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Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 6.6

Be aware that this is not a blind playthrough! This will contain spoilers for the entire game, regardless of the part of the game I’m commenting on. A major focus of this commentary is to talk about all of the hints and foreshadowing of events that are going to happen and facts that are going to be revealed in the future of the story. It is emphatically not intended for someone experiencing the game for their first time.

Last time as trial 6 began (and no, this trial is not getting any exclamation marks), we retried Rantaro’s murder, Rantaro’s Survivor Perk note was not a video, Kaede still did meaningfully bear responsibility for his death but her execution was not justified even by the game’s rules, Kaede’s twin was a ridiculous and very telling red herring, Himiko continued to be a little bit Kaito (though only on a surface level) in her desperation to keep believing in Tsumugi, Shuichi still hated accusing his friends of murder but managed it anyway, and Junko Enoshima waaaas…

Tsumugi: “Junko… Enoshima is…”

“Junko”: “Right the fuck here!”

…Not actually even remotely here at all, of course.

“Junko”: “Even if nobody was waiting, even if it makes you go, ‘What, again?’… The diva of despair takes the stage once more! Junko Enoshima the 53rd!”

So… are we seriously to believe that in every single in-universe Danganronpa series up until this point, they’ve always found some excuse for it to be Junko each time? That this really is literally the 53rd time she’s appeared? Damn, no wonder she’s lampshading the repetitiveness and how bored everyone must be of that.

That’s difficult enough to believe that I’d rather assume she’s only saying 53rd to give them a hint, and really Junko has appeared more than enough times for people to be tired of it but still not nearly every time.

(This also reads like a dig by the out-universe writers at themselves for this, even though she only returned once and that was pretty believable because of the situation they were in. Unless she also somehow returned from the dead in the anime or UDG. Geez, I hope not.)

Monokuma: “Bwah-hahahaha! There you have it! Once again, the mastermind is Junko Enoshima!”

Monokuma has apparently just become like a sports commentator, now that the mastermind herself can play the role he usually has. This is after all the first time Monokuma’s still been around once the mastermind takes the stage, because he’s not a literal puppet this time.

Himiko: “Tsumugi… wh-what’s the matter? Aren’t you… Tsumugi Shirogane? Our friend who survived with us?”

“Junko”: “Hahaha, sorry about that. You can go ahead and forget about Tsumugi Shirogane.”

Tsumugi: “Cuz I’m just a character! Y’know, a lie!”

This is, in a certain sense, not wrong. The Tsumugi they thought they knew and were friends with never existed – it was just an act being put on by the real Tsumugi who was cruelly making this fiction for entertainment and enjoying every second of it. It may have been somewhat based in reality in that Tsumugi based that lie off herself and just did what would come naturally to her if she wasn’t a fucking terrible person, but it was still ultimately not a person who really exists. “Tsumugi” was the only one of the students here who really truly was just fictional.

“Junko”: “Sorry to all her fans out there. If any of you even exist, that is.”

And now joining Monokuma in the Not Remotely Subtle club: Tsumugi! Not that she probably cares because she’s intending for Shuichi to figure out the real truth soon enough.

“Junko”: “Tsumugi Shirogane was nothing more than a cover for me, the mastermind.”

However, here she’s trying to imply that there never even was anyone called Tsumugi Shirogane in the first place and she was just Junko in disguise the whole time. And for some reason, the students seem to kind of buy this (as did several of the blind LPers I’ve watched), when nobody should? Tsumugi is a cosplayer. It is still perfectly possible that this is just Tsumugi cosplaying Junko rather than the other way around, and especially since Junko is supposed to be super super dead, that should be what everyone immediately jumps to rather than believing this.

“Junko”: “As you can see, I am a perfect reproduction of Junko Enoshima.”

Maki: “So… you’re just a freak pretending to be Junko Enoshima, huh!?”

“Junko”: “No, a perfect reproduction!”

Tsumugi: “Perfect reproductions are exactly the same as the original.”

She’s clearly talking about cosplay here, guys! At least Maki seems to get it, but nobody quite zeroes in on the fact that beneath the mask she still is Tsumugi the Ultimate Cosplayer and it’s just that the Tsumugi we thought we knew was mostly an act.

Maki: “So if we kill you, then that’ll be the end, correct?”

Maki Roll, no! Didn’t you decide back in the investigation that you weren’t actually going to kill the mastermind?

Shuichi: “You killed Kaede, and Monokuma covered it up with a false narrative!”

Hah, I like how he calls it a narrative. Way more appropriate than he realises.

“Junko”: “I knew of Hope’s Peak Academy’s Gofer Project, and my inner Junko told me…”

…

Tsumugi: “And then I took the name ‘Tsumugi Shirogane’ and sneaked in among them.”

She can’t even keep her own narrative straight! “Junko” is implying she’s not really Junko and just wanted to be, and Tsumugi is saying she’s not really Tsumugi! Which one is she even trying to go with here!? Apparently she’s just trying to confuse everyone as much as possible.

Maki: “Did… Kokichi know about this? Wasn’t he a Remnant of Despair?”

Maki, you were with Shuichi when he saw Kokichi’s motive video, you should know now that he wasn’t! It seems she was so fixated on her belief that he’s a Remnant (for reasons we will get into soon) that she told herself the motive video must have been some kind of hoax.

Himiko: “Who’s this killing game being shown to!? Where are the survivors of humanity!?”

Tsumugi: “There’s nobody watching.”

You literally just talked about your “fans” like five minutes ago, Tsumugi, I don’t know why you expect this to work on anyone.

Shuichi finally brings up with the notion that their memories might not be true. He let Tsumugi ramble on for far longer than he needed to about things he had every reason to think were most likely lies before coming out with this, but.

Shuichi: “This book contains years of research about Hope’s Peak Academy. Nothing would indicate this book is a prop. I believe this information here is accurate.”

Oh, no, Shuichi, this book is very much a prop and everything written in here is also a lie. I guess he’s saying this because, for the out-universe audience, they already know that everything written in that book is the real truth about the Hope’s Peak story. But it’s still pretty flimsy the way Shuichi just takes this book as the truth at this point in the trial in order to argue that their memories are the part that’s wrong. Especially when he now has plenty of other ways to prove that anyway.

Monokuma: “Alright! Time to play some Danganronpa trivia!”

…Apparently this is why the narrative is doing this and is about to make us go through three Nonstop Debates just about this: because they really did just want to make us play Danganronpa trivia. Anyone playing this game who hadn’t played or seen the other games can just use the book to be able to do this, but man, surely they’d feel so bored and left out and questioning why they should care about all this.

(Also, the students are probably wondering why the hell Monokuma just started talking about Bullet Rebuttals like that’s supposed to mean anything. …Or maybe they’re not, because Monokuma was always full of non-sequiturs anyway and this is probably just another one, right.)

Maki: “Wasn’t Junko the Ultimate Despair?”

Keebo: “…That’s what I recall as well. That label should only apply to her.”

Apparently they don’t think that the Remnants of Despair count as being called the Ultimate Despair in any capacity. In DR2, a certain group of people who were referred to as “Ultimate Despair” were definitely also called “Remnants of Despair” in at least one or two lines. However, that’s the part of the story that everyone’s fake memories seem to be missing out, so I suppose that explains why they see the Remnants of Despair as a totally separate thing.

“Junko”: “Ugh, does it even matter? I’m bored already.”

Really? Because you don’t seem that bored. This “Junko” we’re seeing here is only really showing one personality, the “base” Junko so to speak, rather than switching between multiple different ones like the real Junko would do because she kept getting bored. Of course Tsumugi isn’t going to get bored like that – how could she ever be bored of being one of her favourite characters?

Keebo: “…because Junko had prepared countless ways of spreading despair.”

“She did no such thing!”

“Oh, maybe she did…”

Is Tsumugi switching characters mid-debate in order to disagree with herself? Boo, only Kaito was allowed to do that. (Or maybe she’s just arguing with Monokuma.)

“Junko”: “It just means those documents were written all half-assed. There’s no need to worry about it. Your memories are all correct.”

Shuichi: “What you’ve been saying isn’t consistent! First you said it was just ‘coincidence’.”

I appreciate Shuichi picking up on how inconsistent her narrative is and calling her out on that. The previous time he’s talking about was her claiming that everyone coincidentally misremembered the same thing, which is the complete opposite of her claim here that the book is wrong and not their memories.

Keebo: “And with that… recruitment of talented students resumed.”

This is supposed to be Keebo remembering that they all applied to Hope’s Peak when the “truth” is that the school didn’t accept applications and scouted all its students. But the phrasing “recruitment of students” definitely sounds like Keebo is saying that they were scouted. Probably a localisation error, but way to mess that one up, localisers.

Shuichi: “Me too. I *chose* to come to Hope’s Peak.”

And if you think about it, that really isn’t in character for you, is it, Shuichi? Until you met Kaede and Kaito, you hated your talent and didn’t think you deserved to be called the Ultimate Detective. You were scared of revealing the truth and certainly wouldn’t have decided on your own to apply to make that something you had to do even more of.

On that same note, why in the world would Maki have applied to be recognised as the Ultimate Assassin and have that become well-known?

Shuichi then goes on to mention the other evidence of this all being bullshit, specifically that they have no memory of the killing game Rantaro participated in, and that Kokichi wasn’t a Remnant of Despair. It’s almost like we didn’t need to do all of this business with Shuichi inexplicably insisting the book must definitely be the truth in order to prove this.

Maki: “He wasn’t… a Remnant of Despair?”

Maki in particular looks very shocked to hear this. If he wasn’t, then it means she had no good justification for trying to kill Kokichi – not only was he not actually the mastermind, but she had no genuine, non-fabricated reason to even assume he was. It means she was just being manipulated into doing what others wanted of her and killing who others wanted her to kill on an even greater level than she was already aware of. She’d thought at the time that it was her own decision and her own desire, but all of it was just manipulation, just someone else using her as a puppet to kill, like always.

Shuichi: “An organization centered around petty crimes, one that forbids murder.”

Whoops, there’s a remnant (no pun intended) of the original Japanese line in Kokichi’s motive video that mentioned their explicit motto about not killing people. Apparently Shuichi’s localiser is not the same one who localised the video and did not get the memo.

Maki: “You mean… he wasn’t a Remnant of Despair? That’s… not possible…”

Because if it is possible, if it is true, then why did she try to kill him? Was she really just killing for someone else’s whims yet again? Is she not allowed to have any of her own agency at all?

Shuichi: “Kokichi didn’t tell us because he wasn’t exposed to that Flashback Light. And… neither was Kaito.”

…

Exisal Kaito: “… Junko?”

I like that it calls back to this and allows the players to very explicitly realise how utterly fucking confused Kaito must have been during those bits. (Even though it’s technically wrong for the text box be calling him “Exisal Kaito”; sure, we know now it was Kaito, but he was pretending to be Kokichi at the time and that makes him “Exisal Kokichi”. The name “Exisal Kokichi” never referred to the real Kokichi at all.)

Shuichi finally gets to the point and starts talking about how the Flashback Lights were fake. Since he has pretty concrete proof of this, I really don’t know why he couldn’t have brought this up sooner. (Because clearly we all really needed to play some Danganronpa Trivia, I guess.)

Keebo: “So the memories we recovered with the Flashback Lights were…”

Shuichi: “Not real. They were all false memories. They were all lies!”

One thing to note is that nobody remembers the very first Flashback Light at the beginning where they “remembered” their talents – understandably, since it created their entire characters and overwrote everything that came before. So, even though Shuichi now knows that the entire backstory about the Gofer Project was all a lie, he’s not yet able to think this through to its conclusion of just how bad this is.

Monokuma: “Then everything was a lie! All the suspense and foreshadowing was for nothing! Can you believe it? It’s like everything that happened didn’t matter at all.”

You’re giving yourself and your in-universe writer friends way too much credit, Monokuma. It’s not like the backstory ever actually really mattered. The things that mattered most in this story were the deaths that happened in this killing game and the efforts everyone went to to avoid letting more happen, all of which was very, very real. All this changes is that a few of the murders – Kirumi’s and Gonta’s, and Maki’s attempted one – were done for a reason that was based on a lie. But that doesn’t make it not matter, that just makes it more tragic in hindsight to know that they were manipulated.

Tsumugi: “Lies are just like snowballs. The more you roll them, the bigger they get. The bigger they are, the more fun and shocking it is when they’re revealed.”

“Junko”: “That’s why everything up till now has been lies! That’s the truth!”

Not even remotely “everything”. Tsumugi is right to say that a bigger lie being revealed makes for a better plot twist, but doing so to too great an extent does run the risk of making the entire story seem pointless. I think the out-universe writers struck a good balance here, though, because not everything has been lies. Everyone still formed bonds and fought and struggled and died, and all of that has been real. Everything which really mattered still matters. And most of the actual meaningful foreshadowing and suspense we’ve had has been very much on an out-universe level, because the in-universe writers couldn’t have predicted what would happen in future, especially not for cases 4 and 5 which were all “written” for them by Kokichi.

Himiko: “We’re not students from Hope’s Peak?”

Himiko is the only one who even seems to be particularly upset about this part of the relevation, probably because she’s the only one of them who’s truly proud of her talent and would have been happy to think she’d been part of a huge legacy of talented people.

“Junko”: “Looking back, it was a mistake to have you remember Hope’s Peak.”

Tsumugi: “I didn’t originally plan on giving you those memories, but… I was in a rush and overlooked all those inconsistencies, so you figured it all out…”

It wasn’t only a mistake because it let them figure everything out, Tsumugi. It was also just bad writing.

There’s no reason to doubt this claim that she didn’t plan this from the start. Everything about the Hope’s Peak part of the backstory was clearly shoehorned in and not truly connected to everything that had come before it; nothing about it was foreshadowed in the previous memories. That book in Kokichi’s lab was thrown in there in a hurry and had nothing to do with the rest of the room.

(It would have been perfectly possible to foreshadow Hope’s Peak in their memories. They could have all vaguely remembered growing up in a world that was slowly recovering from some apocalyptic event, even if they were unclear on what that event was. Instead of remembering being at ordinary schools and just having their talents recognised by a separate Ultimate Initiative, they could have remembered being at some fairly prestigious kind of school and just forgotten the name of the school and that it was the same one for all of them. And they maybe could have had it so they didn’t remember why they knew of their Ultimate titles, only for it to turn out that that’s because Hope’s Peak bestowed those titles and they forgot the specifics about Hope’s Peak. But nope – none of that was in their memories, because none of this was planned.)

Shuichi: “So that’s why Kokichi had to die?”

I mean, really, Kokichi was planning on getting himself killed for his grand plan anyway whether the mastermind had any say in it or not.

Shuichi: “He usurped the mastermind’s role, but in doing so, became a thorn in their side. So to get rid of that hindrance, the mastermind played along with the lie.”

However, the mastermind was probably hoping to get Kokichi killed before he could pull off whatever grand plan was going to be the endpoint of all his scheming and possibly make things even worse for them. Too bad that didn’t work out – all thanks to Kaito jumping in the way of Maki’s arrow, which is emphatically not something that was part of the writers’ script.

Tsumugi: “At the same time, having everyone remember Hope’s Peak Academy… made you guys target him because you thought he was a Remnant of Despair.”

Yep, she’s straight-up admitting it. It wasn’t just believing he was a Remnant, but also the fact that they believed they themselves were these symbols of hope whose duty was to “defeat” anything associated with “despair”. Hope’s Peak was very much a part of the manipulation.

Maki: “Then the reason I tried to kill Kokichi was…”

Monokuma: “You were being controlled by false memories, like putty in the mastermind’s hands.”

I’m afraid so, Maki.

Monokuma also goes on to confirm that the Hope’s Peak memory was also to artificially make them recover from the despair they were in. Really they should have been able to figure this out themselves at the time, but hey.

“Junko”: “New mysteries and truths turn to motivation. Motivation drives a story. Everything from the Flashback Lights was just motivation to move you forward. But… I guess it was fake motivation.”

Monokuma: “You idiots kept getting jerked around by meaningless lies!”

I mean, yes, she’s right, they needed motivation to make the story interesting and that was a lot of the point of the Flashback Lights. But it really wasn’t to the extent that she’s claiming. Most of their motivation was just wanting to get the hell out of here and not die, which was entirely the truth and nothing to do with the Flashback Lights. The only fake motivation that actually drove the story was some of the motives for murder – but then everyone’s reactions and further motivations in the wake of those murders were very real.

“Junko”: “This class trial was like that too, wasn’t it? Why was it you were so motivated to do it? Because you got a memory from one of the Flashback Lights, right?”

Haha, no, stop giving yourself credit you don’t deserve. She goes on to talk about all of the flashbacks they had during the investigation and how that supposedly filled them with the hope to fight back, but no, that had nothing to do with why Shuichi and his friends were determined to do this. This trial would still be happening exactly like it is now if they’d never had those flashbacks. Shuichi is doing this because of his determination to end the killing game, thanks to the promises he made to Kaede and Kaito and everyone else, because he doesn’t want their deaths to be in vain. All of that is completely real and had nothing to do with the pointless flashbacks that were entirely irrelevant to anything that’s actually been happening here.

“Junko”: “Remembering the weight of that hope should’ve made you feel stronger.”

Eh, that depends. That could also have just put too much pressure on them and made them hesitant to act for fear of messing up and letting down everyone who’d supposedly been relying on them – especially for someone like Shuichi.

Tsumugi: “Even though Kaito and Kokichi were gone, and Keebo started to go berserk… You guys didn’t give up hope.”

Oh, you can fuck right off with your implication that now that Kaito’s gone he has absolutely nothing to do with them holding onto hope. Kaito’s death is precisely why Shuichi is so determined now! And if you didn’t think that was going to happen when Kaito died, why in the everliving hell did you even *kill him*!? Am I seriously going to have to accept here that Tsumugi didn’t have any kind of meaningful narrative in mind for Kaito’s death? That she killed him not even for the sake of at least Shuichi’s arc in her story, but purely for the hell of it?

I can try and tell myself that she doesn’t quite mean this and is only saying it in a pathetic attempt to sell the importance of her pointless backstory and even more pointless flashbacks, but geez.

It also sounds awkwardly like she could be saying that Kokichi ever inspired anyone with hope, but I presume what she means there is that he was providing an obvious enemy whom they could be inspired to fight against.

Maki: “You were controlling our emotions? Even our resolve to defeat the mastermind?”

Maki’s voice sounds very distressed here. She is not at all happy to realise that she’s still just being controlled and used by a higher power that doesn’t care about her, even now after she’d begun to feel like she’d started to make her own decisions and break free of that. Her desires matter? No, actually, her desires were never really hers in the first place.

I really enjoy how, even though it’s never explained why Maki’s so distressed over this and over learning that Kokichi wasn’t a Remnant of Despair earlier, it’s still very much there in her voice. This is hitting her right in the issues in a way that’s going to continue to be very relevant as this trial continues.

Himiko: “A-All the memories… were fake? Then… what was everything till now?”

Still real, Himiko! Angie and Tenko still really died, you know! This doesn’t change that much!

Himiko: “If they were all fake memories, then… Where… are we? Why are we in this killing game?”

She’s acting like the memories of the Gofer Project and everything somehow justified that they were being put through this killing game, but… they really didn’t. The killing game part of that was unrelated to the actual backstory and was supposedly because one single evil asshole suddenly decided “hey wouldn’t it be fun if the survivors of humanity all killed each other”. Which is the only reason a game like this would ever happen: because some asshole thought it would be fun. The wider context of it really isn’t that relevant – it only served to make it more tragic that they were killing each other despite how important their lives were to humanity – so it really doesn’t matter now that it’s all been revealed as fake.

Shuichi: “But we have nothing to do with Hope’s Peak, so you can’t be Junko. So who the hell are you!?”

I… don’t know why this is only just occurring to you now, Shuichi. It should have been obvious from the start that she’s not really Junko. Why is it so hard for you to think that she could just be Tsumugi, albeit a different “Tsumugi” to the one you thought you were friends with?

“Hajime”: “I’m me. No one else.”

Shuichi: (…What?)

Keebo: “What… is this?”

Tsumugi: “Huh? You know him, don’t you? He was in the Jabberwock Island killing game.”

The general public in the Hope’s Peak universe didn’t watch that killing game, though. Shuichi and friends shouldn’t have fake memories of Hajime or anyone else from DR2. At most, they should vaguely remember a list of names and faces of the people who were involved in that conflict that the general public maybe learned about afterwards, but they shouldn’t be familiar with them.

Tsumugi: “What am I doing? I’m just cosplaying.”

Shuichi: “Cosplaying?”

I would say “come on, Shuichi, this isn’t hard to grasp”, but, to be fair… at this point, it becomes less cosplay and more shapeshifting. I can just about stretch my disbelief to buy that she can change clothes ridiculously fast – sure, whatever, this is an anime-style universe, let’s go with that. But now, she’s not only cosplaying Junko, she’s cosplaying several characters who have completely different body types to her. To some extent cosplayers can copy body types by using binding or padding, but not to this degree! Some of these characters are significantly shorter than her, and there’s no way you can do that!

So, everyone else’s talents are faked, but Tsumugi is so talented at cosplay that she can just do what has to be literal shapeshifting. Sure, sure, I guess we’ve just got to go with that. Tsumugi is a shapeshifter, okay then.

“Kazuichi”: “Check it out! Even my voice sounds exactly the same!”

(Haha, hi, Kaito’s voice actor. The English dub had all of the V3 characters voiced by someone who did one of the DR1 or 2 cast in order to spend less money on this. Apparently the Japanese dub didn’t and yet still managed to get all the old VAs back anyway.)

We’re also supposed to believe that Tsumugi can just perfectly mimic all the voices, even the deepest male ones. I guess the Ultimate Imposter could do that kind of thing (even though they couldn’t change their body type), so sure, whatever, even though this is not supposed to be a universe where some people are born with talents that are practically superpowers, I guess Tsumugi can do that too.

I suppose her being able to do this does make it slightly more justifiable why the Exisals randomly have a voice changer that can perfectly mimic anyone’s voice, right? That’s a plus to this, isn’t it??

This is the moment at which Tsumugi’s magical cosplay aura is meant to appear… but there’s a well-known glitch where if you save and quit and then resume at any point before this while “Junko” is here, the aura will show up before it should and somewhat spoil the reveal. I write this commentary in sessions that don’t necessarily correlate with the post breaks, so this happened to me too this time. Whoooops, game devs.

Shuichi: “How can she cosplay as students of Hope’s Peak Academy!? Because Tsumugi told us…”

Shuichi, that stupid cospox claim should not be taken as any kind of evidence for anything! You have no proof she was even telling the truth about that!

Tsumugi: “Ah, you remembered! Yes, that’s exactly right.”

“Makoto”: “So then… what does this mean?”

The cospox nonsense is supposedly used to “prove” that the characters she’s cosplaying are all actually fictional. But that really is not necessary, because Tsumugi is clearly ready to have Shuichi figure that out and would have therefore been quite happy to just tell him if he couldn’t figure it out himself. This entire stupid cospox plot point was just 1000% Not Needed. Even if they wanted Shuichi to be the one to figure this out to give the players a game to play, they could have just used the fact that Tsumugi always very strongly argued that it was wrong to cosplay real people and seems to still be agreeing with that philosophy even as Shuichi brings it up now.

(I mean, I suppose since Tsumugi is a literal shapeshifter maybe I shouldn’t be considering it such a ridiculous leap compared to that that her superpowers come with the caveat of only being able to do it with fictional people. But still. (And when she “demonstrated” it to Kaede, she did not attempt to shapeshift into her, just put on her clothes, so.))

Shuichi: (Hope’s Peak Academy is…) “It’s fictional… It’s all fictional!?”

Shuichi looks incredibly shellshocked at this realisation… but I’m not sure why it’s getting to him so much now. As soon as he realised that their memories from the Hope’s Peak Flashback Light were all fake, it follows that not only were they not Hope’s Peak students, but also that the school and all the backstory surrounding it may well have never existed in the first place.

Shuichi: “Dangan… ronpa…?”

I love how bewildered Shuichi sounds at hearing this name for the world he thought he was a part of. Okay, sure, maybe rebuttals are kind of relevant to these class trials, but what do bullets have to do with anything???

Himiko: “S-So… this was all fake? Everything was made up? And the whole time… we thought it was real?”

What do you even mean, the whole time? You guys started thinking Hope’s Peak was real literally only two days ago! Again, this should not be the point at which everyone’s being the most shocked about this – that should have happened simply when they realised their memories from the Flashback Lights were all fake. I think the out-universe writers are slipping a bit too much into having them react like the audience would to such a revelation, because obviously Hope’s Peak is totally the most important thing, right? Not to these characters, it shouldn’t be. The last time they reacted more like a fan than they should have done regarding Hope’s Peak revelations, that was probably in-universely deliberate brainwashing from that Flashback Light, making them super excited for the sake of artificial “hope”. But this time there’s not that excuse.

I’ve also seen one or two blind LPers get kind of upset at this revelation that DR1 and 2 were “all fictional”, as if it callously retconned things so that nothing in those games ever mattered – but this is completely misunderstanding how fiction works. Of course Danganronpa 1 and 2 were fictional. We ourselves consumed them as works of fiction. But within that fictional universe, it all really happened and really mattered. All this is saying here is that Danganronpa V3 does not take place within that universe after all – instead, it takes place in a universe similar to our own where DR1 and 2 were works of fiction. That does not make the events of the Hope’s Peak storyline any less meaningful to itself – it just means that those events aren’t a part of this story like we’d been led to believe.

(And like I mentioned back in chapter 5, this is a good thing, because it means that those surviving characters we cared about in the Hope’s Peak universe weren’t randomly, meaninglessly killed off by meteorites! They did still live somewhat-happily ever after!)

While Himiko’s saying this, we also get a bunch of flashback images from both DR1 and 2… and again, she shouldn’t be remembering any of the specifics of Danganronpa 2, because the general public didn’t watch that killing game.

Tsumugi: “Did you think the Ultimate Cosplayer’s talent was only limited to characters?”

“Junko”: “It’d be kinda lame if that was all the big bad mastermind could do…”

I guess that’s our reason for why she’s a straight-up shapeshifter. Because she’s the big bad mastermind, so she’s got to be able to do something over-the-top like that. Sure.

Tsumugi: “I can do far more than that… I can cosplay the world itself!”

…No, not really? Shoving memories of that world into people’s heads and making them think it’s the truth isn’t “cosplaying” it and has nothing to do with your superpower and everything to do with Flashback Lights.

Shuichi: “B-But… why? Why would you do this? Why make us think it’s real—”

“Hina”: “Well, duh! It’s so you’d all play the killing game!”

That’s really not why. They were all playing the killing game just fine long before they thought any of the previous Danganronpas were real. You don’t need to know about the previous ones to be forced to do what the bear tells you to. The only reason she made them think it was real was to pander to the in-universe audience when they were mad at her after Kokichi had made things temporarily boring.

“Nekomaru”: “In other words, it’s Ultimate Real Fiction!!!”

In other words, you’re still killing real people for this killing game, regardless of how fictional the backstory is.

Maki: “But… if it’s fiction… If everything… isn’t real… Then… the world being in ruins is also fiction, right? The world outside… is fine, right?”

It would be a little surprising that it took so long for someone to mention this part, the thing that would be good news about all this… but I suppose they didn’t only get the “truth” about the outside world from the Flashback Light. It’d be harder to find a reason to doubt what they also saw with their own eyes until reaching this point.

Unless, of course, you’re Kokichi and are already certain there’s an audience and using that as your base premise, resulting in a thought process of, “there’s definitely an audience, so what do you mean the world’s been destroyed?”. But since everyone else only learned there was probably an audience after seeing the outside world, they had the destroyed outside world as their base premise instead, and so they were faced with a mystery of, “the world’s been destroyed, so I’m not sure how there can be an audience even though the evidence suggests there is one”.

---

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#danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #drv3 #ndrv3 #chapter 6 #class trial #commentary

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theprodigypenguin · 6 years

Text

Make Peace: Part 2/4

Ratings: violence, blood, angst, mention of death, fan headcanons, fluff

Pairings: James Griffin/Keith Kogane (slight sheith)

Notes: part 2, again a repost because I suck at using tumblr, enjoy

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4(final)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He used to be small, really small. All the clothes he would wear hung on him, as if they weren't his, and his eyes always looked... faded, like a graying sunset that used to be purple. They were always lowered, he never looked anyone in the eye, and if he did, it was with a glare of distrust. James never really understood the kid, but back then he didn't really care. Keith was just that extra child in the background who never looked at the camera during class photos, he was the one who didn't exist until he accidentally walked past the wrong people; and James used to be one of those people.

There were times he'd overhear the teachers talking in hushed voices about Keith, but when he was younger none of what they talked about made any sense to him. He wasn't able to comprehend the looks of pity, the way one would set a hand on their chest and sigh in somewhat exaggerated sadness.

"Such a shame, such a good man."

"Just an idiot if you ask me."

"What a selfish, selfish man."

"He left such an unruly child behind, how are we supposed to deal with his attitude?"

"Maybe it's just a phase."

Even when his sister picked him up after school that one day, smiling when she spotted James but frowning when Keith left the school at a slower pace, "Oh, that's him," James remembered her muttering, hand near her lips, "What a cute kid, he... looks so sad."

James just pouted as he stared at her before smiling, "Only cuz he's got no friends!"

His sister hadn't looked very happy about that statement, hands planting on her hips as she looked down at him, "Well someone needs to change that. Everyone needs friends. Can't you imagine how lonely he is?"

James just looked over at where Keith sat on the bottom of the steps leading to the school, noting the way he scooted to the side as a group of kids rushed out of the doors.

"Hey, maybe I'm pushing you a bit," James looked back as his sister crouched, a brilliant smile on her lips as she reached out to tussle the cowlick at the front of his hair, "If you were lonely, wouldn't you want friends?"

"I have friends though."

She sighed, "I guess you're still too little to understand then. That's okay. Just one thing," she framed his face with both hands, squeezing his cheeks, "You never know what someone is going through, so be kind. That boy," she looked over at Keith, so did James, "he's a kid and already understands suffering."

"Why...?"

"You'll figure it out one day," she stood up then, fixing the front of the uniform she wore, grinning down at him, "Let's go home."

Was this what she meant when she said Keith already understood suffering? It didn't really make sense. Even now. This guy... he was the best pilot in class, he excelled in everything, he even had the approval of Takashi Shirogane, maybe the greatest pilot of the century. James remembered his sister idolized him, and James ended up following in her footsteps. Meeting Shiro at school that day, showing up to test possibly Garrison recruits, all James could think of was that he could fly with his sister.

He was good on the simulator. Then Keith just had to take a seat and blow everyone away with no effort at all. It... wasn't fair. James managed to get a spot as a cadet, but he was still bitter about it. Stupidly bitter, he realized that now. He just wanted to make his sister proud, but this short ass mullet was getting in the way. She would rave about the cadets of course, including James, but he also tasted something bitter when she brought up Keith.

Keith was the only cadet in class that met the standards of a perfect pilot aside from James. Maybe it was more of a one sided rivalry. Back then Keith didn't seem to care about a damn thing. He yawned during lectures and slept through class, while still getting perfect scores, as if he taught himself through the night because he didn't like the teachers. There were only two classes he didn't sleep through and actually seemed to care about, both classes they shared as they were both classed as candidates for future fighter pilots.

The first class was directly based about the fighter class, taught by the best fighter pilot the Garrison had produced in years. The second, of course, had been a course taught by Shiro. Keith always paid attention in Shiro's class. He was on his way to becoming the next best pilot of the Garrison, the teachers all called him the best pilot of his generation, and it made James... so fucking mad, because he'd gotten this title without even trying.

Then the prick had to go and get himself expelled like an idiot, disappearing for seven years at least, and when he comes back? He's the leader of Voltron, pilots one of the most miraculous war ships James had ever come across, battle hardened and much more level headed than he used to be. Now this, throwing himself in front of James as a human shield during a mission that was supposed to last less than half the day.

Why? Was it some stupid Paladin quirk to sacrifice themselves for no reason?

James could hardly see the oddly skinned Galra standing across the street, holding what had to be some kind of hand canon that shot the same ion blasts as their cruisers. Just from feeling the force beating against the air around him, he knew the blue shield Keith held wasn't going to last, and when it shattered all James knew was that Keith was going to get hit and there was nothing he could do to help.

He grabbed the Paladin when he staggered back and started to fall, catching him around the shoulders before he could hit the ground and crouching down to get a better grip with his right arm as his left hand hovered. Keith seemed to lose consciousness instantaneously from the hit, the left side of the black shirt he wore beneath his red accented armor was torn, the edges charred, showing a deep gaping wound that poured blood. The gauntlet he'd been using on his left arm had been destroyed, the glove burned off and leaving bits melted to Keith's skin, the sleeve torn at his elbow.

"Oh man," James breathed out, head turning abruptly when he heard footsteps, gaping with teeth clenched as the Galra paced into the street.

"What's this, a Paladin of Voltron? Must be my lucky day," he lifted a hand, heavily bandaged, and it was the sight of those bandages that had James thinking the alien had been here since the last fight with Sendak.

He'd probably crashed here and had been stuck for the past few months.

"Who the hell are you?" James asked, reaching back for his gun and aiming it towards the Galra, "What do you want? Are you the one powering the robots?"

"With a limited power source, I'm afraid," the alien answered, "My fighter was damaged in the crash, and the range of my distress signal can only reach so far. I'm lucky, you humans haven't replaced those primitive satellites yet. Makes it easier to not get caught."

"That's why we can't contact the Garrison here," James murmured to himself, raising his voice to add, "Your signal interferes with our comms!"

"Took you a bit. I've been stuck here for months, trying to get a message to any cruiser close-by, but I don't have the power!" he held his hands up, grinning widely, yellow eyes glinting, "But if I could re-purpose the Altean tech in that Paladin's suit... not only could I return to the Fire of Purification, but I would be promoted the instant I drop his mangled body at Sendak's feet!"

"Sendak is dead!" James yelled, "You've been out of touch with the war for a while, because it's been over for months!"

The Galra's smile was gone now, replaced by a wild expression James couldn't really pick out through the pure yellow of his eyes.

"And one more newsflash, you're not getting close enough for the Altean tech," James added the final part on impulse, lifting his gun higher and shooting towards one of the buildings the Galra was standing beside.

It was already tilting on axis, with a single shot, it started to crumble, and the Galra turned sharply with a gasp. Thankfully distracted, James swung his gun onto his back where it hung by the strap across his chest, snatching both the broken gauntlet and Keith's helmet before dragging Keith to his feet. Still unconscious, the most James could do was drag him across the street as the hostile creature behind him screamed in frustration, doing his best to avoid the collapsing building.

James managed to drag Keith behind a building before it started to get difficult to simply drag him, and he stopped so he could swing the gun off his back, shuffling around and struggling until he'd dragged Keith onto his back instead, the Paladin's arms hanging limply over his shoulders and head cushioned against the back of his neck. It took a bit of maneuvering to get a hold of the busted Paladin armor as well as his gun, but when he had everything, and a good hold on Keith, James started to walk again.

"Can't contact anyone, can't get to the MFE's," James narrated to himself, eyes panning the area quickly for something, anything that could be useful to them, gasping a little in relief when he caught sight of a building in the distance.

It was tall, maybe the tallest in the town, and looked to be in good shape, amazingly. James started to walk faster, running as much as he could manage, which wasn't easy while giving someone a piggyback ride.

"Damn you weigh a ton," James panted, skirting around the perimeter of the building to search for a way inside, "Hang on a bit more, fat-ass, I'll check your wounds when we're somewhere more secure.

It took longer than James wanted to find a way inside, and he had to put Keith down in order to kick the door down, dragging the still unconscious pilot into the building before setting the door back up and shoving a table in front of it for some sort of extra security. He didn't stop or even start to calm down until he'd walked almost ten flights of stairs, his legs aching under the extra weight.

When he was certain they weren't being tracked or followed, he found the closest room and pushed it open with a foot, shuffling inside and looking around to make sure it was decent before stepping inside, closing the door with a click and immediately setting Keith onto his feet, turning to hold him around the shoulders so he wouldn't just fall on his face and dragging him towards the window before lying him down.

"Can't believe this," James leaned forward on his hands once he;d gotten Keith settled, taking a moment to catch his breath with closed eyes, "This was an utter failure of a mission. It was supposed to be easy, why'd I get stuck with this kind of bullshit end game?"

He leaned back and sat on his heels, head tilting so he could look down at Keith, then looked down to check his own clothes, cringing when he noticed the large stain of blood on the left side of his suit.

"Right," he breathed, unzipping the front of the jumpsuit and tying it around his waist to keep it from falling off, leaving him in just a white t-shirt and the bottom half of his MFE suit, then began searching his pockets for anything he could use to help stem Keith's heavy bleeding.

Not finding anything, he stood up, stepping over Keith and rummaging through the room for supplies. It must have been a business building of some sort, the most James was able to find were some old shirts and a janitors uniform, but there was nothing else in the room. Unfortunately, James didn't think it was a good idea to leave Keith lying there as he went exploring, so he settled for what little he'd found and hurried back over.

A dusty cushion from a broken armchair was the best James could do to pillow Keith's head, taking a confusing moment to pull off the confusing armor covering Keith's chest and shoulders and setting it aside before folding up the old uniform and pressing it down against the wound in his stomach.

"Okay, you've trained for situation's like this," James muttered to himself, pulling the cloth away for a moment to check the wound before tearing at the fabric around it to widen the gap and see the wound better, cringing, "Step one, regulate and stabilize condition of the wounded. Check over supplies, test communications, get my bearings. This is no big deal, not the first time I've been in a sticky situation."

He pressed the cloth back against the ugly wound, lips evening into a tight line when Keith flinched unconsciously with a broken whine, "Haven't been stuck with a moron before, but no big deal."

It took a while to clean the wound. They had limited supplies, very little water, only a few protein bars for food, and the shirts James had found weren't exactly the cleanest most sanitary bandages, but he made do as he carefully got a tiny corner of the cloth wet so he could clean the blood from around the wound, then pressed the folded shirt against Keith's side before tying it in place with a second shirt that he tore into strips.

Keith's arm wasn't as bad as his side was, maybe because he'd had the gauntlet protecting most of him, but there were deep splotches of third degree burns covering the back of his hand and arm, and they couldn't have felt pleasant. Cold water would probably feel fantastic on the burns, but they couldn't afford to lose that much, so James settled on simply wrapping Keith's arm with torn strips of old shirt.

James was rummaging in one of the pouches on his suit when Keith began to stir, cringing as his head lolled to the side, a confused mumble on his lips as his indigo eyes peeled open, the pupil incredibly small and almost cat-like. James almost freaked out, but they changed so quickly that he sat there for a moment wondering if he was going insane.

"You conscious?" James asked, watching the way Keith was staring blearily across the room at the wall, blinking at the sudden question and rolling his head to make it easier to stare up at James.

He looked sleepily confused, eyes wavering away from James' face so he could stare up at the ceiling. James could see the wheels turning in his head, trying to remember what happened, before his eyes snapped wider and he bolted upright with a gasp that caught on a painful choke, hand flexing and grabbing at his side as he curled forward in on himself.

"Hey, easy, lie back down," James grabbed his shoulders, pulling his lip between his teeth upon feeling the shudder of Keith's entire body beneath his fingers, "Okay, take it slow, lie back."

Keith didn't protest much as James pushed him back, eyes pinched closed and teeth grit as his head fell back a little, and James curled his hand to the back of his neck to keep it up as he eased Keith back down to lie against the cushion. Keith still trembled, and James took another look at the sloppy bandaging he'd done.

The shirt had been soaked through with blood already, and they didn't have much in the ways of bandages. There was really nothing else to be done, so James reached over to brush aside Keith's hand, using his own to put pressure against his side. Keith protested that with a grunt, jolting against the ground and clawing the back of James' hand weakly.

"I said take it easy already, you're still bleeding, I'm trying to help."

"What... happened?" Keith asked in a cracking voice, and James exhaled heavily through his nose.

"There was an actual Galra here, he was the one powering the sentries and drones," Keith closed his eyes, free hand running over his face with a curse on his lips, "I think he's using his broken fighter to power sentries as a safety firewall. We were so distracted by the bots we didn't notice-."

"I noticed," Keith croaked, "I should have realized sooner. Quiznak... I should have pulled us after the first wave, Shiro and I should have realized. Damn it, damn it."

"Calm down, there's no way we could have predicted this."

"Yes there is."

"Okay fine, well you were the one too one distracted tracing blast marks in the sides of buildings to pay attention then!" James snapped, and Keith stared blankly at the ceiling like he was trying to remember when that happened, "Look, I think that freak beat you up enough for the both of you, so quit whining and try to fix it."

Keith's brow furrowed and he moved to sit up, only for James to push him back, "Not now, you idiot! Are you trying to kill yourself?!"

"What am I supposed to do then?"

"Let me handle it while you rest," James ordered sharply as Keith settled back, looking frustrated, "I pulled us out of the street and into this abandoned building, so far they haven't been able to find us. It's been quiet."

"Helmet," Keith rolled his head one side, then the other, cringing as he reached out for his red helmet, "I... need to contact Shiro, tell him what happened."

"Couldn't you call your space war ship... thing?"

Keith dragged his helmet over with a grunt, "My head... I can't think clearly. If we're lucky it'll just show up, but I can't... concentrate. I need Shiro."

James sighed and picked up the helmet to bring it closer to Keith, who attempted to push himself up again, wincing as he propped himself against the wall, taking the armor and pulling it over his head before lifting his left arm, cringing at the bandages and using the gauntlet on his right arm instead.

Keith managed to activate the visor over his eyes, which automatically scanned the room, zeroing in on James who was kneeling close to his side. Stats popped up automatically and Keith looked over them on instinct. Bruised ribs, likely from being thrown into a newspaper stand, but other than that no notable injuries. Keith was silently grateful for that bit of luck and turned his attention to activating the comm line in his helmet.

"Contacting the Galaxy Garrison, or Atlas, this is the MFE Aries Alpha team calling in. The mission's taken a wrong turn and backup is requested along with an extraction," white noise answered Keith, and he grit his teeth together, "Shiro, are you there? Lance? Pidge? Guys?"

More white noise, and Keith tugged the helmet off, dropping it before lying back down, running both hands over his face and into the fringe of his hair, "Damn it..."

"The canon blast probably interfered with the tech in your suit," James guessed, picking the helmet up again, "Your left gauntlet is shattered too. It's still working it looks like, but there's just not enough range because of the interference from the Galra distress signal. Our comms, and his, are cancelling each other out."

"So what do we do, brainiac?" Keith asked, eyes shut, and James seemed to consider it before his shoulders sagged.

"... I don't know. I'm a fighter, not a nerd. Numbers aren't really my forte. Maybe I can think of something given enough time to actually consider all our options, but right now we're sitting ducks," he set the helmet down and turned to lean against the wall next to Keith, pulling his knees close and crossing his arms over them, staring at the blotches of blood staining his fingers from his attempt at helping the Black Paladin.

"Fine...," Keith said softly, seemingly losing energy, and James glanced down at him, fingers curling towards his palms, to see his eyes drooping, "If you can't think of anything to get us out... we still have to finish the mission."

"What, how do you plan on doing that?"

"I might be able to trigger something in my suit to set off the tech," Keith mumbled, and James knitted his brow.

"You're gonna blow yourself up?"

Keith just shut his eyes, "I don't have the energy to get myself to the MFE out of town."

"I'll carry you."

"Sure, for how long?" he sighed, head rolling away from James, "It's fine, not like I haven't been in this kind of position before."

"A position where the only option is to be a martyr?" James demanded, and Keith's eyes slid open.

"I've been in a lot of shitty situations... some of my training up there, taught me that sometimes... the good of the mission is a lot more important than my own well-being."

"Bullshit, who the fuck trained you?!"

Keith laughed at the question. He had no intention of answering of course. Till now he and the others had managed to keep Keith's heritage a secret from the rest of the Garrison, and the world. If they were to learn that he shared blood with the aliens that took so much, killed so many... he'd only just found common ground with Allura again. The idea of his own home world turning on him made him feel sick.

James settled back when it was clear the Paladin was done talking, lying his head back against the wall and staring at the cracks in the ceiling, wires sticking out from broken light fixtures that had long since stopped sparking.

"Be as rebellious as you want, that's not how I do my job," he decided, "I'm not leaving anyone behind, ever," Keith just chuckled at that, and James turned to glare down at him.

Keith looked horrible. His face was pale, pasty, almost tinted purple and yellow, and there were dark rings under his eyes, lips chapped. He was just... just lying there, his hand against the bandages on his side, his breath uneven and probably painful. James just watched him, tensing when his eyes snapped closed and he started to cough.

"Hold on a second," James turned onto his knees and picked the small canteen of water from where he'd set it, curling his other hand to the back of Keith's head to help prop him up as he bit the top off the bottle, "Easy, drink slowly."

Keith's eyes were mostly closed, and he turned his head a tiny bit as if he wanted to protest any of the water, though in the end he accepted it, one hand lifting up and fingers curling weakly around James' wrist, releasing him when he pulled the water away.

"Better?"

"... yea..."

"You should try and get some sleep," James said, lying Keith back down, "I'll keep thinking of ways to get out of this, and I mean ways we both get out of this. We can try to contact the Garrison again a little later."

"Right." Keith agreed softly, eyes closing, "Thank you."

James stayed in place for a moment, hovering over Keith, until his breathing had evened out a bit, which relaxed him enough to sit back against the wall in the same position as before, arms crossed over his lifted knees and eyes on the ceiling. He felt helpless, the blood on his hands was heavy, and even though Keith didn't exactly sleep long, or peacefully, it was agonizing to sit there in silence, unsure of what to do.

Keith slept for maybe an hour, his breathing even but ragged, until he started to flinch and groan, eyes snapping open and jolting up like he'd done before, eyes wild as the bayard formed into his hand, startling James into falling sideways as the Paladin swung the weapon.

"Whoa! Hey!" James hurried over to grab Keith by the wrist, holding his shoulder, "Calm down, you're okay!"

Keith blinked rapidly, lifting his other hand to rub his eyes before squinting at the area in front of him, bayard fading after a moment and sagging back so James had to wrap his arm around his shoulders.

"... sorry..."

"It's... fine," James said, though he wasn't really sure if it was fine at all, lying Keith back down, "How are you feeling?"

Keith seemed to consider the question, hand slipping over to feel the make-shift bandages wrapped around him, eyes narrowing a bit and lips evening into a tight line, "I'm fine," he lied, and it was so obviously a lie, but James just rolled his eyes and sat back against the wall.

"Sure you are," he huffed, arms folded as he stared up through the window beside them, at the graying sky and silver lined clouds, "It'll be night soon, go back to sleep."

"Can't."

"Why not?"

"Bad dreams."

James blinked and tore his gaze away from the sky to gape down at Keith, who looked even worse off than he had an hour ago. Even the tone of his voice sounded strange, and James reached out to feel his forehead, cringing as Keith rolled his eyes closed.

"You're burning up..."

"Sorry."

"What- don't apologize," James snapped, pulling his hand away, "Damn it all. We can't stay here much longer, not with you like this," he looked out the window, "Maybe we can make a run for it, I'll carry you back to the MFE-."

"No good," Keith breathed, "Too far away, there are still sentries, I can't help in a fight. We'll never make it."

"So you want to just lie here and die then?" Keith was silent as if he was actually considering the benefits of dying there, and James turned fully to glare at him, "For the last fucking time, I do not leave people behind. I don't care what it is you Paladin's do when one of you us hurt, I will never leave someone from my team behind."

"Course we help," Keith mumbled, eyes glassy, "Don't be stupid."

"You're the one who wants to die here! Who's stupid now?!"

"Loud."

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" James touched Keith's burning temple again, "Christ. At least you aren't being a total prick right now. Though I think I prefer that."

He reached for the water canteen, pulling the top off and setting it aside before propping Keith's head up so he could pour the water into his mouth, "Drink."

Keith reached a hand up to block the canteen, "How much water do we have? What supplies do we have?"

"Don't worry about that and drink."

"What about you?"

"I have some for myself," James lied, but Keith bought it, lowering his hand and staring blankly across the darkening room as he drank.

James didn't need water. He had food, that was enough, Keith was the one who needed the extra attention. At this point he was worried about letting Keith so much as sleep, worried that he might not wake up, so even if he wanted the idiot to rest, he'd have to try and keep him conscious, for a bit at least.

What was there to talk about though? James and Keith had never been friends, he was pretty sure they didn't even have much in common. What right did he have anyway? He blew Keith off just that morning when he was trying to start a conversation, and now he was the one wanting to talk? What a hypocrite.

"What's it like up there?" James asked, still kneeling, holding the canteen, one hand lingering against Keith's forehead, "In space I mean."

Keith opened his eyes, almost impossible to see through the dimming light, but James didn't want to risk trying to light the room in case that Galra was searching for them. The accents of Keith's armor glowed a dim blue, which gave light enough to still see his face, so that was good enough.

"It's... not like I expected it to be," Keith answered, "Lonely... big... but really... beautiful."

"Lonely, but weren't you with the other cadets, and those aliens?"

"For a bit," Keith sighed, "There were... complications. I wasn't always the Black Paladin."

"... explain."

"In the beginning, when we first came across the Blue Lion and found Allura and Coran, I was chosen to be the Red Paladin and fly the Red Lion. That's... the one Lance has now."

"I know what colors are, Keith. Why'd you change lions?"

Keith winced at the question, swallowing, "We lost Shiro."

"... what?"

"He... chose me to lead if anything were to happen to him. He disappeared, after a bad fight. We found him again, but by then I had already taken over for him as the Black Paladin. Allura was the Blue Paladin, Lance red... but... I wasn't ready to be a leader. I almost killed everyone because of how reckless I was. So I... left. I forced Shiro to rekindle his bond with the Black Lion, and when he'd taken his place again, I left to... train with some of our allies," James was stunned to say the least, even more surprised when Keith lifted a hand to cover his eyes, lips twisted up, "I didn't want to leave. I was lonely, but I didn't want anyone... to leave because of me. I didn't want to hurt anyone. It was better that way. I wasn't a leader, I wasn't what Shiro wanted, so I left."

"Keith..."

"After... I came back, and... I took over again, because this time I was ready... Shiro... stuff happened... almost lost him again. I'd rather die... and I was prepared to die, with him, but my bond with the Black Lion saved us. Somehow we managed to help Shiro, but he didn't even make a move to take over again. He seemed happy to just sit back, and I didn't want him pushing himself anymore as it was, so... I became the Paladin I am now, so he wouldn't have to push himself and hurt more."

"Keith... what happened up there?"

Keith was silent before pulling his hand down, revealing wet cheeks and un-shed tears rimming tired eyes, "Chaos. I'm not who I used to be."

"No, but... I mean, the new you doesn't suck as much as the old you. Old Keith would recklessly fuck around and get in trouble, cause problems for shits and giggles. New Keith, Black Paladin Keith, seems a lot more level headed."

Keith frowned at that, "Thanks."

James sighed, "Look, this situation sucks, but it's an excuse to... apologize to you, before I forget," Keith rolled his head to look at James, who sat back against the wall again, arms crossed over his knees, "Back then, I was kind of a mess, when we were kids I mean. There was a lot going on in my life that affected how I acted towards other people, and since I was just a dumb kid I couldn't even begin to comprehend the damage my words could have, or the consequences of how I acted, especially towards you. My older sister tried to get the message across to me more times than I can count, that I was acting like a prick, but I really didn't get it. I was a complete moron back then.

"It's just... lashing out seemed so normalized to me. My parents, they weren't exactly doting. Most of my life my sister was the one who raised me. My parents argued when they weren't ignoring each other, a few times my mom would lash out at my dad, my dad just completely neglected me... all I had was my sister. I figure since I grew up in that kind of environment, things like arguing and targeting people had become daily occurrences to me, necessary actions, which is even worse. Plus, I'll admit, I was threatened by you. That probably seems stupid, but...

"My sister, she was part of the Garrison. She was a fighter pilot, recruited straight from school like you and I were. It was her only chance to get away from our parents, and when she realized I might be able to get away and join her, she encouraged me to take the opportunity. I was just a kid so I didn't realize why she wanted me in the Garrison so badly, I just wanted to make her proud, but when you came along with this innate talent for flight, I panicked. I thought I'd never have a chance because of you, I'd never see my sister again, and when I was accepted into the Garrison I was honestly stunned.

"I was in, but I still lashed out at you, I said hurtful things, started fights with you, and it took me years to really comprehend the negativity of what I was doing. I realized how damaging my parents were as I got older, realized how my sister was trying to protect me from them, realized just how much of a monster I'd been towards you, and I regretted it. I've regretted it for a while, but you just had to get yourself kicked out of the Garrison before disappearing for four fucking years, so I lost the will to apologize at all."

James paused in his story, turning his hands up and rubbing a thumb over his right palm, "My sister... she was one of the best fighter pilots at the Garrison. When the Galra cruisers first showed up, Admiral Sanda sent out the fighters, including my sister... none of them made it back," Keith's eyes widened and James folded his arms across his knees, leaning forward, "I'm pretty sure my parents died sometime during the invasion, but I don't know, and frankly I don't care. I know... none of this excuses my actions, especially... what I said to you regarding your parents, but-."

"It's okay," Keith interrupted, and James glanced down to see he was staring at the ceiling, "My dad... he was, um... he was a fireman," the MFE pilot sat straighter, somewhat surprised, "He died in a fire, the roof collapsed on him... I had nowhere else to go so I ended up in a home, um... but it's really okay. I mean... before the Garrison, I didn't really think I was good at anything. My dad, he would always tell me I was special, that I was meant for great things, but when he died I stopped believing that. I thought I'd end up going down a road that would make him sad, that would disappoint him, but then Shiro came around, he... believed in me, gave me a second chance, and it's because of him that I'm the Black Paladin, that I'm not dead in a ditch somewhere. The Garrison... wasn't as much an escape for me as it was a haven. I wasn't running from something or hiding, I was searching... chasing something... chasing Shiro.

"I gave up... when he disappeared during the Kerberos mission. I fell back to how I used to be, acted out even more and got myself booted from the program. Shiro... when he came back and we reunited, he never asked about it, and he hasn't confronted me about getting expelled the way I had, but... I'm sure a part of him is disappointed in me. He stuck his neck out to get me a place in the Garrison after all, risked his own career to give me a chance at a future, and I just had to fuck it up."

"Man, you didn't fuck anything up," James argued, "So you weren't cut out for the Garrison's way of life and training, so what? Even without graduating, without full course training, despite getting expelled, look where you ended up."

Keith lifted his left hand to look at the thick blood staining his fingers, "Bleeding to death on the tenth floor of an abandoned building in the middle of nowhere with only my childhood bully for comfort?"

"No, punk ass, don't make me hit you. I meant in general. You're a good pilot, Keith, you're the best of our generation, you were always the best in our classes, you're a hundred times more skilled than I'll ever be... your dad was right. You were born for amazing things, and you're fulfilling a destiny beyond any normal human comprehension by piloting the Black Lion and leading Voltron. You're not just the savior of Earth, you're the defender of the universe, of all universes. You saved so many lives, you continue to save lives every day, and you call that a fuck up?!" Keith continued to stare blankly at the ceiling, though the tears that had been rimming his eyes had begun to flow over.

Making him cry was the last thing James wanted to do, frankly it was the last thing he ever expected to accomplish, and it certainly didn't feel like much of an accomplishment. Keith was probably feeling sensitive enough because of his injuries, his blood loss and especially his fever, it's likely whatever James said now would just make him cry more, but he had more to say, he couldn't just let it go unspoken. This, especially.

"Your father would be proud of you," James said, "and Shiro... he's definitely proud of you. All those years ago, he brought some rebellious kid into the Garrison out of pure assumption that it would work out, and you turned out to be a hero he probably could only dream about. You've got to be a million times what he ever guessed you could be. You met his expectations and more, Keith. That's not a fuck up."

Keith shut his eyes, "Why are you even talking like that?"

"I'm a leader," James answered, "It's my job to reassure the people on my team. You're a leader too, remember, shouldn't you already know that?"

That brought a short, painful laugh from Keith, which ended in a dry cough that had him cringing, "I'm still getting used to the whole... leadership concept."

James reached over without looking, setting a hand against Keith's forehead, thumb caressing across his temple, "You'll have plenty of time to really get used to it as soon as we get back to the Garrison. Till then, close your eyes again, rest. You'll need your strength. I'll keep thinking of how to contact the Garrison, but if I can't come up with anything by tomorrow, we're making a break for the MFE, and no, leaving you behind to go suicidal on the world is not an option."

Keith exhaled slowly, shutting his eyes as he seemed to relax even more into the cushion beneath his head, "I'll take your word for it. I've been through worse than this, so I guess it would be pretty embarrassing to just die here."

"Worse than this," James sighed, "You'll have to tell me a story or two when we get home."

"Depends on how long I'm going to be stuck in the infirmary ward at the Garrison. You might find it weird coming to visit me, considering our passionate rivalry against each other. People might think you're trying to kill you, and just a warning, my team can be protective," he chuckled gently, speaking next in a slow whisper, "Wait till you meet my mom."

James lifted his head and glanced down at Keith, who'd fallen asleep almost instantly, and just... stared at him. As far as he'd always understood, Keith was an orphan through and through. To even mention his mom, especially after describing his father's death? It... made James a bit suspicious, but at the same time he felt some kind of... electricity in his chest. Like pride.

He turned his head away, choosing to let the topic slide for now and simply let Keith rest, for as long as he could. Later, when he was on the road to recovery, back at the Garrison, then James could bring that whole "mom" thing up again, because he'd be lying if he said he wasn't ridiculously curious. Even if Keith had only brought it up because of pained delusion from his fever, James wasn't going to let it slide. Especially since it brought such a soft smile to the loners face.

"Rest. Try not to have nightmares. We'll be home soon, you have my word."

#jeith #jaith #james griffin #keith kogane #takashi shirogane #sheith #james/keith #shiro/keith #voltron legendary defender #fanfiction #i dont know why the keep reading option isnt showing up im mad #is it because its too long cuz im still mad

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yerabearmum · 6 years

Text

Finally got around to watching season 7 and HOOOO BOY do I have a lot to say

“he’s the youngest pilot ever to lead a mission into space” I think you forgot to mention ‘professional gay disaster’

Shiro looking at Keith, who is staring morosely out the window: he so obviously needs a hug but he would also glare a hole through my face if I come within ten feet of him how can I show this child love

DO YOU SEE LANCE'S LITTLE SWOOPY HAIRCUT

why is Little Lance’s voice deeper than Big Lance’s

“the emo kid’s doing it!” of course he is what more would you expect from the kid who never talks and openly but silently hates your guts

how does this twelve-year-old know how to drive in the first place

Kieth:*steals a car*

Me: PROTECT HIM

shiro doesn’t even look upset he’s just concerned and impressed

lance is so done with science in general

hello my name is takashi shirogane and welcome to my ted talk

Romelle’s hand gestures fill my soul with warmth

Coran is literally just Space Steve Irwin

Coran’s intimidation methods are #fierce

if that’s seriously how you used to wrangle yelmores then is it really any wonder why Alfor is dead

“like you, lance” an hour of adoring silence for this sibling relationship

how much you wanna bet Shiro is aware of everything around him and his only thought is “listen baby bro I already came back from death once why do you fear that I can’t do it again”

Keith yawns like a gay queen

I aspire the be the same level of zen as the recorder guy in the background

just remember that keith was and still is just as much of a showoff as Lance

Hunk’s expression when James says the only reason Keith is there is Shiro ‘james srsly are you trying to die”

“is that what mommy and daddy told you before-” MY MOMMA NEVER TOLD ME SHIT

there is exactly -.0002% chance of me ever getting over the gorgeous indigo color of Keith’s eyes they’re like tiny emo galaxies

consider: Homelle is such a wholesome hufflepuff ship

Lance Saves All Our Asses Again and It Goes Completely Unmentioned Afterwards Again: a novel by nobody because Lance gets as much recognition as a piece of bra lint

Pidgeot shaking a water drop off her head like a tiny woodland nerd sprite is my new reason for existing

my smol children just got smoler

Shiro looks like some kind of Gaydiana Jones on that hover thing

it’s probably just the anime eyes but it seriously looks like Little Keith is wearing eyeliner

shiro zooming off the cliff is like me trying outrun the overwhelming weight of existence

bby keith in the sunset is Hiro Hamada minus the tooth gap and personal healt- oh no wait that would be Shiro. shiro is baymax. floofy boi= marshmallow bun. WHERE DO THE CONSPIRACIES END.

honey you’re like twenty-two and a very bad liar

Admiral Sonda is just Sam Holt as a woman

literally the gayest gay breakup they could get away with. I applaud you

how dare they use the most underappreciated character as literal bait

ah, i see rescuers down under made an appearance in the timespace of a single frame

why do the yelmores sound like Chewie

the phonotonium bubbles are bringin back memories of the Newtcase scene

that moment when you realize what he means by “you can’t do this to me again” and you feel your will to live crumble into Satan’s coffee grounds

the way that Lance says “ready to charge up the lions?” reminds me so much of that time in Eureka when Zane was like “ready to smash some unstable atoms together at the speed of light?”

I can’t remember a single time that Lance looked happier or more excited about life in general that he does in the intro and... oh, look, there goes my heart. falling to the floor. shattering on the concrete. again. look at it go.

Coran honey they are standing right next to each other does it look like Cosmo is eating her

road trip humor

darling child do you honestly believe that this lion is going to let some random-ass person sit down and drive it

HE'S LONELYYYYYY

What the everloving fuck is wrong with the Altean alphabet

Hunk's selfies are so precious

"No. Nope. Nuh-uh. No way. Can't do this." BIG MOOD OKAY

ALLURA HAS FUCKING SUPER STRENGTH

yes thank you for that recap Lance we had not yet noticed the difficulty of our situation

"super dangerous it's perfect" yeah me too hon me too

will the little PEW PEW sounds ever cease to amuse me? the answer is no

Kosmo+Krolia is the ultimate kickass mom team

WAIT WHAT I THOUGHT THE PROBLEM WAS THAT THE JAWS WOULDN’T OPEN

guys come on have a little faith in him

I, too, sometimes narrate my life inside my head

Kosmo: oh I’m sorry I’ve been a wee bit BUSY DYING

so apparently Kaltinecker is just a generic name for space cows? I don’t like this

“who are you?” *Mushu voice, unfurls wings* “your worst nightmare”

Axca is just “whoop I kicked your ass mY bAd”

“Indeed I was, but now I am your savior.”

why is Ezor so lovable

“we’re going to have to use a more extreme approach” *pulls out silly string threateningly* “start talking”

Hunk looks so offended when they’re picking who to torture

Ezor would be perfect for one of those Garnier Fructis commercials where they pick stuff up with their hair

Can we talk about Lance and Pidge's sibling relationship? I think as much as they complain, they both really miss having that close kind of relationship. Pidge has Matt, of course, but he's not exactly open to talk anytime they want. This leaves Pidge and Lance to fall back on each other. Lance grew up in a big family, and probably also a very tight-knit one. So whether he realizes it or not, he depends on those kinds of connections, with stupid little arguments and support. I think that sibling connection is the one thing that really keeps them grounded when nothing else can.

Oh! And the other thing: This first occurred to me during the "DON'T YOU TOUCH HER" scene, because Lance is the first one to react protectively. Sure, the other's are protective of Pidge, but it's different for Lance because he reacts in such a 'big brother' sort of way. Again, Lance comes from a really big family, so playing the big brother role is second nature to him, and I love that it's such a huge part of his character to be protective.

*S&M plays every time Axca is onscreen*

Coran doing the Office Look

Coran: the lions are weak, we’ll end up right back here

Axca: then perish

I think the guard is already overwhelmed enough, what with having his quiznack handed to him by a couple of mice

Takashi honey does he look okay

why does Zethrid just sound like a guy trying and failing to do a girly voice

so apparently Axca has a type and that type is guys with ‘flippity hair’

Pidge’s smolness is a weapon in and of itself

when did Lance become the right-hand man I like this arrangement

“Can we just fight?” is the pg equivalent of “I’M GAY BITCH”

Ezor’s... head thing makes her look like Space Rapunzel

she was *Star Wars voice* seduced by the dark side of the force

do they seriously expect us to believe that there’s just an alien named Bob

‘intergalactic goofballs” is the most accurate description yet

“c’mere keith” WIVEL WIVEL WHIRL

“I... uhhh” is the most artist thing I have ever heard

do the creators just stuff cookies in their mouths and say random stuff to come up with alien words

WHY DIDN’T THEY GUESS KOSMO IS LOOKS MORE LIKE KOSMO THAN A LION

princess Lance is playing this game the right way don’t you yell at him

Keith’s voice when he says “windy cave?”

”the dumb one” bitch you’re the one who’s dead so who’s really the dumb one here

Bob please stop hurting my son his self-esteem is already fragile enough

Is he beautiful? Absolutely. Is he dumb? ABSOLUTELY NOT STOP HURTING HIM

One of these days Lance will straight up dab and on that day I will die of joy

Allura is literally picking up Hunk and I love it

now Allura’s asking the really big questions. I mean, what are any of us doing here. We’re just specks of dirt floating on the vast tissue of time

Pidge is trying so hard to look like she couldn’t care less and I’ve never related to anything more

She looks so smug whacking the camera

KEITH HAS OFFICIALLY ADOPTED SHIRO’S PROUD SPACE DAD FACE

Lance’s face when he’s talking about his little crush on Keith

CAN YOU TWO GET ANY GAYER

I just want Coran to get to earth and be Dumbledore in a play

I like the end music it’s so dancey and disco but not cringy

In the course of two seconds Coran goes from the Lorax to a ginger version of the guy from Ratatouille

KoSmO ThE dElIvErY wOlF

was that for real an alien dick joke

I like how both my gay sons have marks on their faces. Shiro has a scar, Keith has a Galra mark. What’s next? Lance with airbender tattoos? I hope not.

that is legit just a watermelon with tusks

oh Merlin no that’s even worse please go back to the watermelon

zippity zap your neck goes snap

don’t you love it when female characters literally glow with power? because I do

that was such an Avengers moment

Chat Noir would be proud of you, Hunk

Shiro is a savage

THE FACT THAT KEITH THOUGHT HE HAD TO EXPLAIN WHAT FLIGHT FORMATION EXERCISES ARE

the paladins adopting ‘quiznack’ into their casual cussing vocabulary is what I live for

if “something will come to kill us any minute now” is a good thing, you have severely low standards

oh yes lovely they’re having group hallucinations of space bats

OHHHHHHHHHHH YES BRING ON THE QUESTIONING OF EXISTENCE I NEED THIS ANGST

Hunk stubbornly refusing to sound off is so relatable like my stubbornness also drives all those around me slowly insane

HUNK IS LITERALLY SHOOTING A GIANT RAY OF SUNSHINE BECAUSE HE IS ACTUALLY A GIANT RAY OF SUNSHINE

Hunk being shocked by being shown any form of value and appreciation crushes my heart this boy needs to be loved

that enthusiastic “YEAH!” is what sleep deprived happiness sounds like

I like to imagine the voice actors practicing dramatic anime screaming while they drive to work and now I can’t breathe cuz I’m laughing too hard

WAIT WHAT I THOUGHT THE ENTIRE PROBLEM HERE WAS THAT THE LIONS WEREN’T CHARGED ENOUGH TO FORM VOLTRON

Keith and Lance’s bayards make giant magic wings that’s some serious soulmate shit right there

really you’re not gonna shoot it first to check if it’s real? after that whole space monster thing? you’re just gonna zoom toward it? hon c’mon

and of course the creators had to ask themselves “How can we best ruin this moment of joy? THE GALRA INVASION”

Colleen Holt is a force of nature and the living embodiment of “don’t fuck with me I’ve got the power of God and anime on my side”

Iverson: here’s what we know

Me: YOU FOOL YOU KNOW NOTHING

Sammy’s not having none of your shit so shut it before he tapes it

DO YOU SEE COLLEEN’S FACE I DON’T WANT LIFE ANYMORE

oh jeez they’re lined up by height that’s adorable

I like how this clearly takes place in a fairly distant future, but robots aren’t doing everything like people seem to think they would. The evident majority of labor is still done by people, like engineers and flight directors.

BITCH IT’LL BE YOUR WAR WHEN THE GALRA ARE ON YOUR DOORSTEP DO YOU REALLY WANNA WAIT UNITL THEN

I’VE ONLY HAD COLLEEN FOR LIKE TEN MINUTES BUT IF ANYTHING HAPPENED TO HER THIS SHOW WOULD BE DEAD TO ME

If they’d shown Keith’s recording it would’ve been like “Hey, it’s me. *with Kosmo sprawled across his lap, panting loudly. Lance is snickering quietly behind the camera* I don’t exactly, uh... have family on earth. But I’m Keith, the Garrison’s number one discipline problem. I wear the title proudly, but I still just wanted to... apologize, kind of, to pretty much every authority figure at the Garrison for making your life living hell. Yeah.”

“but everything changed when the Galra invaded”

does Kinkade ever speak? I kinda want him to be mute. A disabled fighter pilot would be the coolest thing

Veronica is such a badass

aw man he spoke

I can’t wait for when Krolia comes back to earth everyone’s gonna be like “oh fUCK A GALRA SHOOT IT DOWN” and then Keith walks out with his arms up like “HOLD IT THEY’RE WITH US” *Krolia steps out* “everybody say hi to my mom”

“Don’t miss” oh yeah I just thought I’d let them go this would be a great way to let Sandac know we’re here

THE SMALLEST PIDGEOT

oh my Merlin they have a dog

oh what a soft moment

what was with that dramatic look between Keith and Griffin? I mean I know this is Keith we’re talking about but there’s no way they held a grudge that long over a disagreement when they were... what? Eleven?

Allura is rocking that Garrison uniform

“Allura, you’re a genius!” yeah sweetie I know

OH MY MERLIN MY TWO ANGELS ARE HUGGING DO YOU SEE KEITH’S FACE

that’s going to electrocute him

HOLY QUIZNACK SHE HAD A BALMERA CRYSTAL ON HER FOREHEAD THE WHOLE TIME

Shiro’s hair floof looks less like a bird now and more like a dead bush

WHERE THE FUCK IS THIS ALLURALANCE COMING FROM THE STARS GAVE NO WARNING OF THIS I DO NOT ACCEPT

Veronica is officially one of my faves

Kaltinecker is just like “oh this is happening now”

SMUSH

I still can’t believe they got the particle barrier up in the first place

PLEASE TAKE NOTICE OF THE FACT THAT LANCE IS THE FIRST PERSON KEITH CALLS FOR

ohhhh look it’s launching somethings going good- wait never mind WHY ALWAYS THIS

Leifstoder is adorable

CAN YOU ANIMATE SOMETHING ELSE

Griffin has the voice of an angel

Shiro’s floating arm kind of ruins the dramatic hero effect of the doors opening into the light of battle

should the beams from the zyphorge canons be that pretty

I know Sendac is an ass and he deserves to die but I have to admire his dedication

NOW I’M FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEFALLIN

my major problem here is that, a) how is Shiro alive? he has no helmet, no oxygen tank. all the air should be sucked right out of his lungs. He should be dead, and b) NO HUMAN BEING CAN JUST BARREL THROUGH EARTH’S ATMOSPHERE UNPROTECTED LIKE THAT THE THERMOSPHERE IS LIKE 5OO KELVIN SHIRO SHOULD BE A CHARRED PILE OF BONES

we will remember this as the Battle of the Floating Arms

“Victory or de-” *Keith, falling fiercely from the sky* DEATH

aaaaaaaaaand the victory is short-lived

oh I missed this when is the last time they dedicated an entire episode to just fighting a giant-ass robot

KAWAII ANIME PLANCE

so what is this now? Dark matter? Dark quintessence?

Coran: but Voltron!

Shiro: bitch we are voltron

SoMeBoDy’S gOnNa DiEeE

is there anything I hate more than watching my children accept that they are about to die? My burning hatred for Severus Snape comes very close but no there is not

MATT HAS... I DUNNO WHAT IS THAT? A BOYFRIEND? A GIRLFRIEND? HE’S HOLDING SOMEBODY’S HAND AND HE LOOKS FABULOUS

how much you wanna bet that when Haggar disappeared she took over Lotor’s little Altean colony and now she’s using them for the robots

#voltron #s7 #reactions #it gets angstier every season #i forgot i made a list of my reactions #and then naturally when i found it again my first thought was #oh yah my three followers would love this #jk i actually have like fifteen followers #this has been fun #its been long and painful #but its been fun #because thats how logic works #right #kitty speaks

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junkobears · 6 years

Text

Here Lies Dreaded V3 Discourse

So I have seemed to cause a huge kerfuffle in the hardcore Ouma conspiracy theorists standom, and a banal (if condescending, but seeing the response to it honestly justifies it more than anything now. “Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it”, you better believe I can take it and will now PROPERLY dish it out right back at you) comment about one of Tsumugi’s anime references has led to someone launching a hilariously personal attack at me for Daring To Disagree With A Theory That Was Posted On A Public Website. Someone who I wasn’t even initially responding too, at that. And has now blocked me before even allowing me to respond and clarify my original comments. Don’t want to deal with the consequences of being a repugnant, rude person I guess? Shock and surprise for Tumblr.

The link to the post is here, but I’ve taken the liberty to screenshot it just in case it gets deleted later, in hope that maybe there’ll be some reflection on this person’s part that this really is not an acceptable way to respond to people who have a dissenting opinion? Anyways, I will be responding to the personal attack post and that will be the last time I interact with this group, because clearly it’s not worth it to actually have a discussion about our respective ending theories. I ain’t got time beyond this for tedious insecure fucks these days.

Anyways, my response is under the cut to save my poor followers’ dashes. Sorry to drag drama onto my blog but I can’t really let this slide. I’m also tagging @jacks-plays-drv3 just because I assume the twin comes with the other with these two, and I want my response to have been seen.

Screenshot In This Link - This post is long enough without the image taking up more space, haha.

Let’s start with this mess, shall we? And I will go into painstaking detail.

Paragraph 1: So this already starts off with a whole lot of needless aggression and projection. So I’m not even going to attempt to be nice back. But: maybe I haven’t proven anything because I literally had not typed up a response to clarify my original comments @ Jacks yet before the rabid attack dog was unleashed? Like, there was literally no attempt from you to have a discussion that was a genuine offer from me, I was not out to get you actually. I also honestly just laughed at being called shallow, JUST LIKE THAT HORRIBLE CHARACTER TSUMUGI SHIROGANE right off the bat as well. That’s a compliment really, honey. Weirdly I don’t share the same opinions as you do. Tsumugi is my fave and unlike you I actually think about and HAVE analyzed/discussed her character in detail previously, which I would’ve been happy to share had you not immediately went into Blind Raging Idiot Mode. Guess we can’t have it all, huh?

As for needing proof that she makes the Flashback Lights... nevermind the CG that literally shows her making them during Chapter 6, but do you have proof that Monokuma is the person who makes the Lights instead of just placing them for the students? I doubt it, somehow. Cuz a lot of your theories don’t actually have any concrete proof. Quelle surprise. Probably why anyone not immediately on board with your headcanon gets you so goddamn angry, huh? Cuz it’s completely baseless and you know it at heart.

As for the Ouma comments, actually I have read the assorted creator comments regarding his character even if you like to believe I’m a slobbering moron who turned my brain off as soon as I finished V3, so yes I already know that his name was chosen to sound mastermind-like. Maybe this was to emphasize and make his fake mastermind reveal appear more legit on first read? JUST A THOUGHT, SWEETIE. You know the entire fucking point of Chapter 5? You’re so slavishly devoted to your theory that you actually are incapable of reading the basic fucking text from the actual game, but again. Not a surprise. Considering what I’ve read from your blog (really, who are you again? I only knew Jacks’ blog from before all this, so you taking such a personal offense at my comments is honestly hilarious but baffling at the same time. It ain’t all about you, babe.)

As for the lab door, here’s an simpler explanation (Occam’s Razor, look it up): The star sign constellation pattern was there as a hint for the player to connect Ouma’s messages from his dorm room to the vault in Amami’s lab once its opened and you can see the star signs in there. Or perhaps it was designed like that by TDR to make the students make that connection as well in the original script and think that Ouma was the mastermind cuz of the connection to Amami’s lab? Literally, there are a lot of possibilities, cuz it’s a NOTHING DETAIL THAT DOESN’T ACTUALLY MATTER IN THE BIG PICTURE. Considering Kodaka’s track record with writing these games I don’t actually believe it’s anything major, personally. He doesn’t really strike me as the type to hide this completely separate story underneath the actual story we got, and with such vague nothing “”””””””””””clues””””””””””””. You and Jacks do yourselves (well you already do cuz you love to jack yourselves off with how CLEVER AND BETTER you are than the rest of us plebs), sure, in believing otherwise (You have way too much faith in him as a writer. Or you’re desperately trying to pretend V3 wasn’t poorly written cuz you don’t like the Ch. 6 twist) but also realize that its nothing more than extrapolation on your part that it actually means anything beyond the.... SHALLOW (horror scream) connection given in-game.

And really, who the fuck cares if it doesn’t match the title of ‘Supreme Leader’? It’s already a ridiculous talent as it stands already. The entire point of his character is that everything about him, his motives and his talent is contradictory and weird. That’s why I like him, actually. He isn’t an abused martyr who never lies like you goons believe and he also isn’t the evil monstrous chessmaster some of the fandom thinks. It’s Complex Motives™ .

Anyways moving on. Pointing out an anime reference =/= DISREGARDING PEOPLE’S ANALYSIS. Pointing out that most of the plot leads up to and supports the fiction twist =/= uncritically agreeing with everything Tsumugi says. Actually, after examining the game’s story for myself I came to the conclusion that all the clues in it really only support her version of the story, really. There are a few things I think she lied about, but it is not CONCLUSIVELY proven she lied in my opinion and so I don’t really give a fucking toss until new canon comes out and reveals more of the V3 story. Oumatwin don’t real, gurl. If there was actually anything in-game beyond one obvious joke line in the NON-CANON!!!!!!! bonus mode supporting that he existed, maybe I’d respect your theory more. Even though you don’t deserve respect after your little tantrum.

Paragraph 2: Jesus I already am investing way too much time into this response at people who don’t actually deserve it, oh well. But laughing hard at the attempt to try and act as if you weren’t being a snobby asshole with your comments. Again, HUGE AMOUNTS OF PROJECTION at me about things I literally have never done and said. I have never interacted with you or Jacks prior to my initial comment. No fucking clue why you brought up the SaiOuma shit, cuz I don’t even LIKE Saihara as a character and don’t like that fujobait ship in the slightest? But I guess it’s easier to assume that all your critics are the exact same fucking person with the same opinions, so you can feel more persecuted, huh? You literally did not even wait for me to respond or check my blog that would’ve easily disproven these dumb-as-fuck assumptions. And get off the fucking high horse (pun completely intended), you lot are not the only people in this fandom who are capable of critical thought. How completely self-obsessed can you be?

For someone who claims to have a lot of critical thinking skills compared to this nasty fandom, you really are terrible at parsing other people’s words. You fucking know when I said “group of anime fans” that I was referring to Team Danganronpa, the organization literally mentioned in game as running the game. The group Tsumugi is part of. She literally has a company badge FFS. THEY ARE ANIME FANS. THEY ALL STARTED KILLING GAMES CUZ THEY ALL LOVE THIS SHITTY SERIES. I can’t believe this had to be explained. And the rest of this paragraph word salad is the most pedantic argument. It’s really not hard to believe an organization in this series would have access to all this tech. And yes, it’s a popular TV show in-universe, of course it’ll have funding. And the whole damn point of the ending is that the V3 world is consuming fiction the wrong way by having real-life killing games, missing the entire point of the DR series and fiction in general? What’s your actual point?

Paragraph 3: Again more assumptions, I wasn’t ‘crying’ about being called gullible. I was just pointing it out as part of your extremely unnecessary smug dismissal of my post. That you really haven’t disproved at all, btw. Honestly the childish response you both had to me just makes me laugh out of pity more than anything. And if I was really upset I wouldn’t have offered to have a discussion with you or even continued to reply after Jacks initial (vague) post about what I said. So don’t put words in my mouth. And yes my analysis was not completed in my initial comments. It’s Tumblr fucking replies, I can’t fit the entire fucking dissertation of Tsumugi opinions in there for you to jeer at in there. Again, I offered to share my opinions and got this as a response, so lol. You are your own worst enemy when it comes to trying to get people to take you and your theories seriously.

Paragraph 4: Especially since you immediately jump to PULLING THINGS OUT OF YOUR ASS (seriously, fucking snorted at this part. I want this whole diatribe on my fucking gravestone. It’s by far the most hilariously petty thing ever said about me on this site.) instead of letting me explain my position. If you just want to be in the creepy cult Oumatwin echo chamber you should’ve just said and blocked me ASAP instead of word salading vague bullshit justifications for why actually people who disagree with you are just stupid crybabies who can never hope to understand your genius. Again, my initial comments didn’t whine about not being taken seriously at all, I was pointing out the hypocrisy/rudeness is all. And again, get off the high horse about critical thinking. I have thought about Tsumugi’s character and how she relates to the over-arching plot and how truthful it is, and the overall ‘mystery’ of V3 (spoiler: there is none. it was all solved by chapter 6). I have thought about this game. In fact I dedicate too much time to critical analysis of this series that doesn’t actually deserve it cuz lately I find Kodaka to be a hack writer. Your assumptions are flat-out wrong, dear. And AGAIN. I WOULD’VE. SHARED AND DISCUSSED IN MORE DETAIL HAD I BEEN GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY. But rude fucks gonna vomit shit out of their mouth cuz they have literally no self-control and have meltdowns at the slightest difference of opinion, I guess.

Your extreme hatred for Tsumugi as a character truly shines through. Clearly no thought has been put into her from your end, even though you and Jacks rage about people not taking Ouma seriously as a character. Double standards as always with fujos. Nothing I’m not used too, she is incredibly unpopular in this fandom. And everyone is entitled to their own opinions. So I’m not even mad at that. I have never said otherwise. Even you and Jacks are valid in having your own theories and thoughts. The ending of V3 is designed entirely so everyone can analyze the game for themselves and draw their own conclusions about the story and themes. That’s the whole point. Even though I personally dislike that as a writing decision on Kodaka’s part because I would prefer the story to be conclusively ended and the epilogue is a giant turd that misses the entire point of Chapter 6 and enables shit (anal pun intended, dumbass) like this to start spreading as “Analysis”. But hey, to each their own.

However I will not be interacting with either of you again after this post though, even though I was willing to discuss beforehand, because you both have shown yourselves to be incredibly vile with the way you approach other people in this fandom, and especially those who don’t share your conspiracy theory. Despite the absolutely ironic comments I’ve seen from Oumanous in their later, also terrible posts about how you need to understand your opponent before engaging, which they literally failed entirely to do before engaging the firing squad at me and other commentators who responded. So much for the sanctity of discussion, huh? Enjoy your circlejerk. Everyone else who follows me in this fandom though? Please consider blocking these two if you are also a sane human being who is capable of polite discussion/disagreements. They are not worth your time otherwise. They were really not worth my time writing this post, but I felt I had to say something.

In conclusion: Out with the both of you.

#fandom drama #V3 spoilers #long post #i cant believe i have ended up in dr fandom discourse #i have sunk so low lmfao #allowed to reblog this post also I dont mind #unless you are the two chucklefucks this post is about #out. with you.#but I will not be afraid to stand up for myself when I get shit like this #anyways its done bridge burned

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bluekitsune · 7 years

Text

Late NDRV3 Chapter 6 + Epilogue impressions

HOLY SHIT ITS SPY BOY ITS SPY BOY ITS SPY BOY???? DANGAN RONPA 0 IN MY V3/???????????????????.... No It couldn’t be. He’s long dead. Yuto Kamishiro can’t be this “Makoto”. Is Normal-chan our Spoiler-chan? Hmm. I just have a gut feeling he’s a Despair idk why And if he’s so normal, how was he on Kibougamine? Was it the first or the new school??????? HMMM????????

KIBO NO Don’t........ I don’t want him to die noooo >:C DONT TOUCHY THE ROBOT ....... He might be disconnected from Naegey but he’s still our pinnochio. Kibo wtf plz

Ouma the ultimate fanboy of Movie Vilains. I stg (dem funny glasses omg...... Afro wigs, batcar? He’s a total fanboy) What the fuck is up with the DICE thing?

Oh I knew the Remembering Light was delayed. But what was the point? Hinder them investigating the Mystery of the school? That’s fuckign cheap. Is that the same Makoto from the initial flashback? I’m gonna bet my ass it is.

Is he calling “them” heroes because the Future Foundation members survived a Killing Game, if Tenjou’s game could even be called that? Hmm Did FF fall or not?

OMFG OUMA GRABBED AMAMI’S DOLL........ That’s gay

That horse mask wtf He was a closeted clown all along wow...... Is he a Joker fan? Crimes with laughter and no killing? Color me confused. I guess the Panta should’ve been a massive giveaway. Did he fall into despair after his crew was taken prisioner? I....

Now he’s gonna pull us by the nose again? Wow. OK

“Ro is Twins”? rantaRO? ShiROgane? Is this pointing to the Mastermind again? Like when he said the first one to die is related to the mastermind? Is that why we werent allowed into Amami’s room?

OH MY GOD THAT throwback. The nostalgia bricked me in the face. FUCK.... So it definitely wasn’t Kibougamine that erased their talents. Then, who was it? Was it the “Remnants of Despair” aka the SDR2 crew? Who enabled them to erase their talent and hide from the SHSL Hunt?

CHARGE THE KIBO POWER

Omg Ro is twins...... The Gemini dial! Uma is HORSE????? Horse head?????? How far into this did Ouma know? This started being written in chapter 2 no?

Oh so the weird background was Amami’s room... And he was talking to his future, memoryless self? That’s nuts;; Uhm....... I cannot hold all these wtfs. Did he survive a killing game....... Done with these same students? Done with other students? Because if I was right about them actually being revived and Mastermind redoing it over and over, then he could have survived one of the “previous” “same” Killing Game. But maybe I’m getting ahead of myself @_@ Trying to piece all this shit together is always nuts without the final reveal. But if that were the case, wouldn’t he have had another talent, the talent that got him into the SHSL category in the first place?

NO....... How dare you show me everyone being friends? How dare you shove that in my face

Not this twin bullshit again. If you tell me her twin is Monaka i’m gonna murder myself

Catch ALL THE BUGS. It’s kinda cute that Ouma planned something like that, even if he was the cause for Gonta’s death....... I’m guessing there’s some nanomachine that they mistook for bugs

MONOKUMA PLANNED PARENTHOOD omfg. That tacky as fuck room. Of course it has to be a Junko fan. And HO look at the bullshit murder again. Is it just gonna be “Amami was very conveniently killed by the mastermind instead of by Bakamatsu’s trap and she was executed wrongly everyone cries” thing? It’s funny Amami had the cheat map version, kinda like if you start Castlevania with the hidden places.

ANOTHER hidden passage in the bathroom...... I’m not even surprised.

I KNEW IT. There WERE lies in the Remembering Light. The question is how to tell between them. Saihara why u not look through all the directories god dingit U friggin detective bitch

Kibo is so cool :C He’s just so damn Megaman cool. Fuse Megaman and Raiden and you have Kiboo

Ok so..... maybe instead of clones, there’s... the one that has some sort of Time travel would be? The mastermind? Kaede’s twin? Time for some 999 SteinsGate bullshit. But then why would they say they can bring back the dead? How would that even work?

Oh no .... I was just thinking Shirogane had very little spotlight moments and even less character development. Now everything points to the Mastermind being a student

:CCC WELL..... It’d make her switching clothes with Akamatsu even more ironic. Also again it’d be a twin with blonde hair and a twin with blue hair. What IS IT with this combination???

SMH..... The passage in the bathroom completely fucks over Shirogane. Because she’s the only one that was in the girl’s bathroom for a long time. I shouldve known better than to let myself like her......... Nooooooooooo

53 generation bullshit? What the dicks is this? Hmm. V3. 53 huh. They screwed us over a lot

Yeah so if the memories were indeed false now we proceed to question everything. Is this false too, is this false too? For all we know the world could still be fucked but not from asteroids. But what would be the point if they weren’t even from Kibougamine? That would just be lame.

Are they in a simulation again?????? Suddenly Hinata?????? What

Now that’s just shitposting. They’re gonna pull the “it’s fiction” card.

Well. This is extreme shitposting. Are they calling the fanbase sick sadistic fucks? “u guys watching these poor people kill each other” or something?

I cannot hold this level of meta. All these wall breaks

I CANT BREATHE, LOOK AT THE TITLE SHITPOSTING???? It’s exactly like series that go on too long

So is solving that one case what landed Saihara in this? Or are their talents actually fabricated as well? <_> Are the people dead or alive?????? TEll me gonta is alive plz Nope they’re dead. They’re all dead for the sake of Tsumugi’s OCs........... GHHGJHDSGJH

Yep we were played hardcore. All the first appearances were the real appearances.

I really REALLY missed the DR1/2 voices DAMN. Fujisaki :C Ishimaru..... Even Celeste FUCK. Was Sayaka’s voice always this amazing? I love how harsh Peko’s voice is,,,,,, I love the DR2 crew so much....... cries on hands

So many out of character sayings. I’m sure the characters would loathe seeing themselves say some of those things lmao god

I think they got a real point. How you can suffer and be in pain with a “lie”, a fiction, but also how you can feel joy and hope out of the same lie/fiction.The dillema of fiction, of experimenting with taboo topics, in this example the killing, and questioning how much it plays a part into the reality side.

But in this case, it’s going to another level. Like questioning human existence in SOMA. If you take a real human mind and place it in a robotic body, can it still be called a human existence? Can humans scanned and preserved in a “fiction” still be called human?

The ideas are very fucking smart. Kodaka trolled us hard while also questioning the entire fanbase and his series base. And dang, all those inside jokes. They really took a good long look at the fandom and how we think; But it’s still hilarious it’s all orchestrated by a greedy company, ran by a delirious cosplayer fangirl and feeding the masses that want both the negative and the positive points of the plot/characters

Kaito was in it for mundane reasons and ended up with the meaningful “protag” role huh. I wonder what bullshit Korekiyo said to earn himself such a shitty background story. I like his character. Just..... I wish his reasons were not bad writing. Tsumugi u done fucked up

Robot Bondage? I strangely approve of that

Shirogane waving goodbye with mascot,. throwback to Chiaki....... CRIES

:C Well I was right in not expecting Kibo to live. But still he’s the best survey processor ever. My favorite quiz boy. I will pretend you’re alive and well flying up the clouds cuz FUCK IT

In a sense, it’s like they’re blowing up a literal hole into ending the series and opening a path to direct the fans back to reality, or per say, the outside. “Go out there, do the thing, hope out there.”

In a world where your identity and truths and lies are uncertain, you have to pave a way for yourself taking the best out of it all? I’m sure someone will reason this game ending and the analogies way more eloquently, but anyway.

I really enjoyed the story. The extra effort they put on CGs really enrichened everything. I’m not sure how I feel about the big big big plot twist yet. I guess it’s something to slowly digest over time. Can’t say this is my favorite.

Was the time travel thing a misunderstanding by the fans or a prank by Kodaka? I kept expecting it and it was nowhere

I’d say in most to least fav, I’m still with SDR2, DR0, DR1, and last? DRAE. I still don’t know how to feel about Another Episode or the animes TBH

So this was me going through this rollercoaster. If you read this so far, then I hope you laughed at my stupid at least once. I’m gonna go and reblog a fuckton of fanart now. Bye

#drv3 #ndrv3 #ndrv3 spoilers #new danganronpa v3 #kitsune adventures #spoilers yadda etc bladibla

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