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catgirl-catboy · 1 year

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Danganronpa Blackened plans from best to worst:

(disclaimer: I'm including attempted murders on here, and counting certain double murders separately because it makes sense) I'd love to talk about how you would rank these, so please give your thoughts!

Sakura- since this one is a suicide, I'm not sure it counts. But if Monokuma has to actively interfere to get a case to go to trial, then you did a good job. I can't think of a mistake she made at the top of my head. She wanted to make things as easy as possible for everyone, and she succeeded.

Nagito chapter 5- He didn't plan for the traitor to give herself up, which is a reasonable mistake to make considering the only thing he knew about the traitor was that she WASN'T an ult. despair.

Tsumugi- when you have someone actively confessing to a murder that you committed, you are pretty much scot free. That being said, taking Kaede to the location of your secret passage, even if there weren't any consequences, was needlessly risky. I'd say this is one of those cases where it'd be better to have no alibi at all, since Kiibo and Ryoma didn't have one either.

Gundam- when halfway through the trial you still don't know how the victim died, the murderer did a pretty decent job. His main mistake was that he heard the commotion when he shouldn't have, and that was a calculated risk. He could have easily pushed the "Nagito = lying" agenda more then he did to combat that. He totally gave himself up.

Kiyo's murder of Angie: The locked room murder was a good trick that brought suspicion on the student council. I think that if he stopped here, he likely would have gotten away with it. Even with the duct tape, that doesn't bring suspicion on Kiyo specifically. Since it was nighttime, nobody had an alibi. There is no evidence that incriminates him at all.

Kaito and Kokichi- for attempting to create an unsolvable murder, showing that tape of Kaito being crushed sure did create a lot of problems. I don't think Shuichi would have solved it had that evidence not been handed over by the blackened in the beginning of the trial.

Junko- She made no mistakes during her murder itself. If she took herself to trial in chapter one, there's a 0% chance of her getting caught. Having the victim be impersonating herself means everyone would come to the conclusion it's a suicide. She gets points for trying to destroy the body too, thats not a strategy we see killers use often. She makes a few small mistakes in the body disposal, namely not covering her hand when she attacks Makoto and removing Mukuro's fake nails before placing the bomb. However, her biggest glaring mistake was revealing the true number of students in the first place.

Teruteru- For a rushed plan, this was pretty well thought out. His mistake was trying to attack when the rest of the group were together while he could have attacked someone before the party. That being said, attacking from the floorboards during a blackout he knew would happen is a good plan. I also think he should have destroyed or hid the list of kitchen items, so nobody would notice an iron skewer was missing. He could have easily flushed it down the toilet.

Mondo- in terms of plan he had no plan. However, he didn't make any glaring mistakes at the crime scene. There's not much he could have done about the protein coffee stain and the blood spatter. If you add on Togami's interference, there is no way he would have been caught if he had just kept his mouth shut. For the broken monopad, Taka is equally suspicious. Kyoko was the only one that suspected him, and in chapter two she may not have enough influence over the group to single handedly get him eliminated. The fact that a guy who killed in the heat of the moment places decently shows how little brain cells some of them have.

Gonta and Kokichi- this one is very hard to rank because 90% of the reason Gonta was suspected is Kokichi's testimony, and can you really call the memory error a mistake since it was before Gonta was plotting murder? Either way, I'm putting it here. Gonta made a mistake by being seen in the same area as the toilet paper when he could have easily hidden it on him like Miu did with the phone. However, Kokichi made the majority of mistakes in this case by turning on Gonta for denying he even entered the virtual world. (my dude, its Gonta. This is probably the level of lies you would have gotten had there not been a memory error.)

Kirumi- She made one very big mistake: moving the body. If she had just left Ryoma in his lab, this crime would be near impossible to trace back to her. Depending on if she removed the handcuffs and the severity of his head wound, this could be argued to be a suicide. She couldn't have known that Kokichi or Gonta wouldn't have gone into Ryoma's lab looking for him, but even so that could have been traced back to a lot of different people.

Peko- I think her biggest mistake was agreeing to meet up with the rest of the girls if she suspected Fuyuhiko was going to try something. With a cast this large, not having an alibi is more suspicious than something being weird about your alibi. Her mistake with the gummies is understandable, since we don't know how recently she last say Hiyoko eating them. However, why did she get sparkling justice involved? Fuyuhiko was more suspicious than her throughout most of the case, so people would have likely voted for him. If she wanted him to survive the trial, she should have confessed! Her motives in this case confuse me tbh.

Kaede- her murder is overcomplicated, but in a way that makes sense because she didn't know who she was killing. It also would have been quite difficult to test beforehand due to all of the moving parts and the mastermind possibly being in the library at any time. From a tactical level, her mistake was not taking the first blood perk, but thats due to moral reasons. Since this murder failed, I don't think I can rank it any higher.

Mikan- She shouldn't have tried to record that video for Hajime. She also shouldn't have strangled Ibuki when she just could have hanged her. Why obscure the cause of death? That being said, I think killing Hiyoko was the right choice and was done decently. Still the smartest chapter three killer by a longshot.

Chapter 1 Nagito- Bad plan, which makes sense since he was likely trying to get caught. The bad part of causing a blackout is that whoever was closest to the body would be suspected, since it takes the smallest leap in logic for him to be accused. In the trial, he also caved way too quickly.

Sayaka- Makoto would realistically suspect her, but she was counting on being more charismatic than him for it not to matter. That being said, she made quite a lot of mistakes. She took the murder weapon even though she knew Hina and Sakura were watching and it could be traced back to her. In the au where Makoto gets blamed for killing Leon, that would have been incredibly fishy. She also didn't remove potential weapons from the area before attacking Leon, which is a huge oversight considering he's physically stronger than her. The note she sent was also traced back to her. If she actually made it to the class trial, she would have been caught quite easily.

Miu: The moment Shuichi notices the poison doesn't match the symptoms of the death, she's suspect number one. Her strange behavior before that would have definitely been a clue.

Celeste- Where do I even start. Using Hifumi at all made things needlessly complicated, and he made the majority of mistakes in the murder case. If Hifumi can kill Taka and she can kill Hifumi, than she could have killed Taka easily, especially considering his mental state at the time. I'd go farther and saying having Hifumi alive in the class trial would be an asset, since he'd believe everything she says.

Leon- He removed all of the hair from the crime scene, but didn't bother to... I don't know, go back and look at the body once during that? Did he not bother to clean the bathroom. He also took risks with disposing of the evidence when he could have just as easily hidden it in his room, where nobody would think to look for it.

Kiyo's murder of Tenko- Not only did he make a fuckton of mistakes, this murder was completely pointless. The whole murder was a mistake. I understand he wanted to bolster his kill count, but doing nothing was the best option. If he wanted to axe off someone useful to the group, like Shuichi or Kaito, then this murder might make sense from a strategic perspective. He made horrible choices for seance members, arguably choosing the two smartest in the group to help him. I also think he could have likely found his way to the center of the room based off muscle memory, and those lines he added were unnecessary.

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thatstroubling · 1 year

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I compilled my Post-V3 Headcanons into one block of text because I'm so not normal about it.

And so time passes.

You call Maki every day. She moved back to her hometown so you usually only get to see each other through the screen. At some point, you decided to pretend to be normal teenagers. It's what the three of you have been encouraged to do by your therapists. So most of the time you don't talk about anything relevant. Just movies, TV, books. Maki mentions to you the massive collection of unfamiliar YA novels decorating the shelves of her old room. You make a joke that at least she gets to experience reading them for the first time again. She only huffs. You can tell she’s trying to come out of her shell and make friends at the new school, to stay open and generous, because that’s what he would have wanted her to do, but it’s still hard on her. And so you call her every day and she never misses a call.

Himiko seems to be doing OK, surprisingly. Her mother was apparently the super strict and demanding type. She never approved of her spending so much of her valuable time watching Danganronpa and now that Himiko can't handle nearly as much work as she used to, you assumed her mother would be even harder on her. But she somehow came around over time. Himiko tells her about Tenko and Angie constantly and explains her spells and potions (and magic tricks) to her in great detail. And her mother listens because she likes seeing her daughter being truly passionate about something again. You and Maki agree that if your previous lives were truly all just fiction, there’s no reason why Himiko couldn’t have been a real mage once. Sometimes lies can be helpful.

Your mom never calls you anything other than her son. She says she loves you no matter what but sometimes you see the hint of hesitation in her eyes when she remembers what you’ve been through. After all, she watched the game transpire live. You talk together about it. She can never understand but she tries. You tell her that you’re sorry, for what it's worth. Sorry for going out and almost getting yourself killed. She says that she thought she lost you forever but you came back. "Different, but you did!" She cries with you on the couch, gripping you tightly in a hug. She bought you a new hat because you started wearing them again.

It gets hard. Seeing the billboard signs about the premiere. Hearing the theme music on the radio. Facebook shows you ads for Kaede figurines. You notice cosplayers congregating in front of your house every couple of weeks. You dyed your hair back to black, Himiko too, to not stand out. Your mom doesn't know what name to use for you and you can't help her choose. She calls you by your previous name sometimes, the name plastered on all of the Danganronpa fan accounts you still have access to. The one on all the black-and-white notebooks that Maki helped you pack into boxes and move to the basement. You don't want to throw them away for your mom's sake. Most of the time she just calls you honey.

You have wild dreams. There’s three kinds. The first ones are those that your therapist encourages you to talk through. In them, you see red everywhere (not magenta). There is the crunch of Kirumi’s torn body hitting the ground, the swoosh of Kaede's body in the air as it is dragged around on the piano keys, the cracking of fire coming at Gonta from the flamethrower. And everyone’s screams, anguish, pain: the tragedy of the lost lives and the destroyed minds. And so many people are watching and nobody comes to help you. You beg to be let out again and again and they just laugh. Those dreams have you wake up in cold sweat, terrified, barely catching a breath.

Then there's the other kind of dreams. Nothing violent happens in those. There’s just a white room, two chairs and a boy that looks exactly like you. He mumbles, giggles, cries, exclaims, monologues, serenades you and he simply never stops talking about Danganronpa. He says he misses his shows, his online friends, says he's bored and he begs you to talk to him, to stay there with him, to help him out, but whenever you see him stand hunched in front of you with that delirious smile, your voice disappears. Those dreams leave you shaking and crying, not knowing what is real anymore. The only feeling you are sure of in those moments is the regret in knowing that you will never be given a chance to understand the person you once were. Maybe there is nothing to understand but it still feels like another loss.

And of course, you dream about your friends. Sweet dreams that break your heart anew each time you wake up. Kaito, Kokichi, her. In spite of that, these dreams are your favorite. You rewatch scenes from the show over and over while subconsciously trying to memorize every sentence they uttered in the game. At one point, Himiko has to stop you from ordering a copy of the original script, containing unused lines. Sometimes lies can hurt. You alternate between wishing they could be here with you, wishing they had another chance at life, and being glad they didn't have to go through this.

You listen to Kaito’s voice lines the most. His grandma was reported to have died recently. The news was announced as a little tidbit in the same article in which they ranked Top 10 Heroic Kaito Moments. You did the complimentary “Which Danganronpa Character Are You?” quiz and you got someone called Chihiro. In a V3 quiz, you were assigned Kaede. You’d like to think that the outside world could never know your friend like you did but their description of her personality is so spot on it makes your heart ache. Even those figurines look more life-like than Angie’s sculptures. (Maybe you should look up what people thought of Kokichi, maybe it would help you understand him better. At least retroactively.)

You've discovered that you can apparently draw pretty well. Team Danganronpa must have left that skill intact from your fandom days. You had thrown away all the promotional materials for V3 pilling in your room. The only pictures of your friends you still have left are those that you drew yourself from memory. (You don't want to look at official character art for reference.) Your therapist advises you to maybe take those drawings down from your bedroom walls, says it's not healthy. You explain to her that Himiko, Maki and you are the only three people in the whole world that remember these people as real people, with real lives, so it’s important to not forget. The therapist doesn’t say anything to that.

You've heard that the final season’s head writer (and Tsumugi's actress) is working on her own stuff now. In spite of the mixed reviews for the finale, she got applauded for her writing in the season as a whole, especially for the underlying motives, intricate character interactions and of course, audience participation that V3 brought to the franchise. She is supposedly sitting in a director’s chair somewhere now, developing her own anime on the other side of the country. They won’t let you see her or let you know her real name for safety reasons. ‘She simply did her part in the show, she just did her job!’ they say.

Not like you care anymore. The only part of the Danganronpa world you still care about are the people who came from it. Ironically, Maki and Himiko feel like the only real people in your life right now and you suppose that is right for the time being, at least until you learn to be a part of the world that wanted you to die. In spite of that, you made it out. Again, it's not easy and it may never be. But just as before, you depend on each other, you cry together, you laugh together. The days are quiet and time passes slowly, but it does pass. Everything passes in the end. The three of you stand outside holding hands and remember those who gave their lives so you could be here now, basking in the warm spring sun, free of the fate you were created for. And together, for your friends and yourselves, you live on.

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ask-postgame-v3 · 3 years

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Keade? Kinda sweet

Shuichi? Kinda emo

Himiko? Kinda good at magic tricks

Kaito? Kinda weird (my friend said his hair looks like a horse cooch and no? It doesn't?)

Kirumi? Kinda helpful (very helpful)

Korekiyo? Kinda creepy

Tenko? Kinda loud

Gonta? child. baby. perfect bug boy.

Tsumugi? Kinda bland tbh. Nice cosplays tho ig

K1-B0? Kinda cool

Angie? Kinda good at worshiping gods

Kokichi? Kinda good at being an annoying little shit

Miu? Kinda annoying

Ryoma? I love you. You are amazing. You are the best one.

Maki? Kinda badass

Rantaro? Kinda pretty

"H-HORSE COOCH?!"

Tsumugi sighs.

"I plain know I'm very bland. Originally, that was the point to draw suspicion off of me being the mastermind, but now I can't step out of character."

Congratulations! You started World War Z now that you've called Kaito's hair horse cooch. It does look like it, by the way- 😭��

When World War Z starts, you can thank this person- ^

"Pretty, huh? Well, thanks! I'm glad you think so. I don't remember if I ever saw that in myself, but eh, everybody has their own opinions on things, I suppose."

"That is Angie! The best at worshipping Atua and treating Him the way a god deserves their humble followers to treat them!"

"Thanks. Can't say I share the sentiment, but whatever. I definitely don't know what you see in me, though. I mean, you do know that I'm a former death row inmate, right?"

"No, Gonta not baby! Gonta teenager, and almost adult! Gonta too big to be baby! It's okay, though! Asker just confused, maybe?"

My innocent child, no- 😭

"It's necessary to be loud! It keeps all the degenerate males away, and shows them that Tenko Chabashira is not to be messed with!"

"Thank you, Dear. I try my best to help everyone before myself. Sure, it can get exhausting at times, but the smiles on their faces after it's over is very worth it."

"I assume that's a compliment?"

She chuckles softly before returning to type a new message.

"Thank you, though."

"What can I say? I'm annoying until I get someone to give me what I want, and all you perverts know exaaaaaactly what I want, don't you?"

She giggles softly.

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dangan-meme-palace · 3 years

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Honestly, the only V3 survivor ship that I think has any chance at not failing would be Shuichi x Himiko. Himiko and Maki have even less chemistry than Maki and Shuichi (I can barely remember the few times there was a conversation between Himiko and Maki) and, as far as I remember, Himiko and Shuichi don't need a third party to be friends. Additionally, I found some of their interactions quite cute (e.g. when they train in the dojo and their FTE's in general). What do you think about it?

I looked through everything and honestly Shuichi and Himiko have absolutely no common interests whatsoever.

I think the player aspect of the game is what caused Shuichi to reach out to her, I don't think he would have done it on his own. He tends to stay away when not wanted, and Himiko's "talking to people is a pain" routine would likely signal to Shuichi that she doesn't want to hang out and cause him to leave.

Post-arc this attitude goes away, but their relationship still doesn't improve much beyond the typical "let's bond over our issues" that happens in every FTE. They still don't find anything in common and Shuichi looks less than enthused while doing poses during the Dojo event. Seriously, it's kinda telling that Gonta is the one who's the most enthusiastic despite Shuichi being the one who initially brought this up and offered to do this with her.

They don't have anything to really bond over; Shuichi still isn't interested in Himiko's magic tricks and Himiko doesn't look interested in Shuichi at all... she literally only talks about herself the entire time. It makes me think that their FTEs are one of the ones where the player's influence on Shuichi is what's carrying the whole thing, instead of an actual possibility for friendship/even more between their characters.

When I saw their FTEs my first thought was that Shuichi got suckered into babysitting a kid he doesn't like, and oddly enough their time together reflects that. Shuichi seems like he's just putting up with her and having to go out of his way to do shit he doesn't want to for the player's sake. He doesn't seem interested in anything that Himiko would want him to be interested in (magic) and Himiko spends their time together more focused on herself than anything and isn't interested in Shuichi at all.

This is kinda backed up by canon, because outside of their FTEs and the bonus event when do we ever see Shuichi and Himiko get along despite both surviving until the end?

Pre-arc in the main game he constantly mentions not being able to keep up with her antics and looks annoyed by them a lot, seeming surprised that Tsumugi can even manage to have a simple conversation with her. That's how badly Shuichi himself views their own chemistry, to the point of being genuinely baffled at someone managing to actually talk to her about something she really enjoys. Not good.

Even after her arc, where Himiko is forcing herself to put herself out there and make friends, still absolutely nothing changes between her and Shuichi. He still doesn't talk to her or even like her beyond the whole "everyone is my friend" shtick (that's not even true tbh) and he still seems confused and even irked by the things she says during the main game.

Idk maybe I'm off, but I'm not seeing the chemistry in this ship.

#asks #shuichi tag #himiko tag #ship discussion tag #all i see is a babysitter and a high maintenance child

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oumakokichi · 7 years

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I don't know if you already talked about it, or I just couldn't find it, but I heard that Gonta's translation/localization wasn't really accurate and he doesn't talked in "hulk speech" in the original, so I wonder how did he talked then? there it is much difference?

Gonta’s localization definitely wasn’t very accurate to theoriginal Japanese. It’s… oh boy, how to put it. From the moment that it wasrevealed in the first trailer NISA released for ndrv3, I and a lot of othertranslators felt that it was perhaps thesingle worst decision taken in the entire game. I believe toning down Gonta’sdialogue to be “Tarzan speech” or “Hulk speech” skewed many things about hischaracter.

After having finished the localization, I still stand bythat opinion. Of all the mistakes or errors in the localization, I feel thatGonta’s “Tarzan speech” is still the worst, even moreso because it wasdeliberate, rather than accidental. Intentionally choosing to omit or alterthings about his character in a way that makes him seem considerably differentfrom his original counterpart in the Japanese version of the game just doesn’tsit well with me. It feels to me as though Gonta’s translator simply wantedGonta to “match” what they perceived his character as, rather than translatingwhat was actually there directly.

The most important thing to note is that in the originalversion of the game, Gonta does not talk in any noticeably “stupider” fashionthan his classmates. He is certainly naïve and trusting, prone to fall forothers’ lies; he’s also unfamiliar with many terms related to technology orelectronic advancements, because he grew up in the forest removed from societyfor such a long time. But his Japanese is perfectly fine, very much in linewith what you would expect from a typical high schooler of his age. Thisreflects something very central to his character—that he’s not nearly asunintelligent or dumb as others, and even he himself, perceive him to be.

In the original, Gonta refers to himself exclusively in thethird-person, which I think is perhaps one reason the translator thought itwould be comparable to change his speech to “Tarzan/Hulk speech” (i.e. “Hulkangry!! Hulk smash!!”). But that’s hardly a fair decision, considering bothAngie and Tenko also exclusively refer to themselves using third-person. WhileTenko’s speech is perhaps a bit more polite than the other two, all three ofthem nonetheless talk in a generally similar fashion, so using the “third-person”excuse as a reason to change only Gonta’s dialogue makes no sense.

Referring to oneself in the third-person is, in fact, muchmore common in Japanese than it is in English. It’s even common for some peopleto switch between referring to themselves in the third-person, and byfirst-person pronouns. All in all, it’s far less strange of a practice thanmany English-speakers would think, and it typically has no bearing on acharacter’s intelligence.

Also worth noting is the fact that Gonta’s grammar, tense,and general vocabulary are all completely unaffected. He doesn’t talksimplistically, nor does he struggle to string his sentences together in theoriginal version of the game. If that had been the case, then I could’veunderstood deciding to localize his speech in a comparable way—but in fact,Gonta is pretty polite and well-spoken, which fits his overall image ofbecoming a “gentleman,” even if he feels his physical size and backstory don’t.

The localization of Gonta’s speech does his character a lotof harm for pretty much the entire game, but I feel like the chapter where itdid the most damage was the chapter where Gonta himself gets the mostscreentime: Chapter 4. Chapter 4 subverts both the players’ and othercharacters’ perception of Gonta as someone who was well-intentioned and sweetbut ultimately “not very useful.”

The reveals that Gonta is not only smarter and moreperceptive than anyone, even himself, gives him credit for, but also moredesperate to contribute to the overall group, are much harder to grasp in thelocalization, as pretty much all of his dialogue tones down how smart heactually is. In the end, most of the reason why the players are tricked intothinking that Gonta “isn’t very smart” is because the other characters andGonta sort of gradually lead you to that assumption, by calling him an “idiot”or asking why he’s “so dumb.”

But whereas there were plenty of hints in the originalJapanese proving that Gonta was, in fact, quite knowledgeable in his own areaof expertise and in practical, hands-on experience, the original plays up the “dumbTarzan-man who grew up in the woods” routine so much that it’s nearlyimpossible to discard it. It makes it very hard, in my opinion, to realize justhow much he actually contributes to the class trials or how perceptive heactually is, because the translation itself treats him as though he’s an idiot.By comparison, the original dialogue only ever has Gonta call himself stupid,rather than ever acting as such.

In hindsight, it’s easy to see what I mean about Gonta beingfairly perceptive. Due to his eyesight, he notices the “tiny bugs” around thecampus quicker than anyone. He also comments on the state of the stars outsideafter the Chapter 2 trial, noting that they must be “very far away” from hishome, since he doesn’t recognize any of the constellations. Clearly he’sfamiliar not only with entomology, but also has a firm grasp of astronomy and avariety of other skills, all due to his experiences.

He also arguably contributes more solutions to the classtrials than major characters like Momota or Himiko. In Chapter 2, for instance,Gonta was the first person to catch on to the way the ropeway could’ve beencreated; his suggestion about tying the two ropes together was perfectly on-point.In Chapter 3 again, he was incredibly knowledgeable about the state of thefloorboards in the empty rooms and the way in which the see-saw trick might’vebeen carried out. These things clearly show that he’s not stupid, but rather naïve and simply unfamiliar with some of thethings his classmates treat as normal (like technology).

In the localization, though, even these contributions to theclass trials are hard to take note of. Gonta’s speech is simplified so much tothe point that even when he’s talking about very rational, understandablethings that are easy to make sense of, he still comes across as unintelligent. Itjust feels like such a break from his original character, where there were somany signs that he was trying to participate in group discussions and beingleft out only because other characters’ perception of him, as well as his ownself-perception. His problem was never that he was actually an idiot, butrather that everyone, including himself, thought of him that way.

This is precisely why the other characters have so muchtrouble believing that Gonta could possibly have been the culprit in Chapter 4.Not only do they think he was too nice to ever hurt someone, but they also allemphasize that he “wasn’t smart enough.” But the Chapter 4 post-trial makes itemphatically clear that while Ouma led Gonta to the flashback light and showedhim “the truth of the outside world,” Gonta himself willingly went alongwith Ouma’s plan and made the conscious decisionto kill another person. It’s something the AI Gonta accepts full responsibilityfor, and it’s a pivotal point of his character—that despite the fact that therest of the group didn’t think him capable of it or smart enough to do so, hewas fully capable of making his own decisions.

The localization makes it much, much harder to come to termswith this reveal, though. In the original version of the game, it’s certainlydifficult to reconcile the idea that someone as kind and compassionate as Gontawould ever kill someone else, but it becomes evident through the sincerity andemotion in the post-trial (both with regular Gonta and with AI Gonta) that he’stelling the truth, especially about the “truth of the outside world.”

The localization’s “Tarzan-speech,” by contrast, takes almostall the sincerity and emotion out of those speeches. It’s very hard to takeGonta’s claims of responsibility in the localization seriously when histranslation makes it seem as though he’s barely even capable of takingaccountability for his own actions. It’s infantilizing, and in my opinion itcompletely misses the point of everything about his character that was used tosubvert people’s expectations in Chapter 4.

Gonta is as kind, caring, and generous as it gets. He’sperhaps not the brightest—but he’s certainly not dumb. His problems manifestfrom a lack of self-confidence, reinforced by how other people perceive him. Hedidn’t grow up in society like a normal person, so he’s unfamiliar with thingsthat everyone else takes for granted, and his eagerness to please means that he’snaïve and quick to fall for other people’s schemes. But in the original versionof the game, it was so much easier to pick up on the fact that he was neveractually “stupid” or “useless,” while the localization treats him… well, prettymuch like a pet.

It’s sad, really; Gonta doesn’t get a lot of time to shineoutside of Chapter 4 and what little time he did get was pretty hard to enjoydue to those bad localization decisions. There are plenty of other decisions inthe localization I don’t agree with or would’ve changed personally, but I stillfeel that Gonta’s is the worst simply because it ruins the point of his entirecharacter and it’s a decision that is used consistently throughout 4 out of 6chapters. No other decisions in the entire game ruined a character sothoroughly, so I really, really wish they had translated his speech properlyand shown more of what he was actually like rather than just trying to play upthe Tarzan tropes.

I hope I was able to clear up your questions, anon! I’vewanted to talk about Gonta’s localization for a while too, so thank you forgiving me a chance to do so.

#ndrv3 #drv3 #new danganronpa v3 #gonta gokuhara #gokuhara gonta #ndrv3 spoilers //#my meta #okay to reblog #anonymous

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oumakokichi · 7 years

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Sorry to bother, but I have a question to ask if you don't mind. Although before I do that, I wanted to say thank you because this blog have helped me understand and love the Danganronpa V3 characters more than I already have, and not just the characters, but the whole game as well. So once again, thank you very much! Now, about the question, so I've read the Chapter 4 pre-execution dialogue and I was wondering wether Ouma's emotional outburst was genuine or not?

Thank you so much! That’s really sweet of you to say, and I’mreally glad if the things I’ve written have helped provide any information orunderstanding about the game. It makes me super happy that people might be ableto enjoy the cast and the game overall a little bit more!

And of course I don’t mind! That’s a very interestingquestion, and it’s something a lot of people are probably still torn on. Butgiven all the evidence and what we know about Ouma, I’m still really inclinedto say that it was real.

Of course, I don’t think he meant literally everything hesaid during his emotional outburst. The parts about thinking the rest of thegroup would be “saved” from the outside world and from the hellish killing gameinside the school don’t mesh up with his behavior at all.

Ouma has had chances to mislead the group and get them allkilled from almost the first trial, and definitely from the second trial andonward, where they only even progressed with their guesses and theories most ofthe time because he was intentionally spoonfeeding them hints. Had he really, genuinely believed that theentire group dying there was “saving them,” as Gonta’s VR avatar believed, thenhe would’ve just let them all vote wrong in the trial and get executed.

But the thing is, these are lies that he had no incentive totell unless they were specifically being said for Gonta’s sake. Namely, forGonta’s avatar. Telling the rest of the group that the outside world wascompletely messed up and that they’d all be better off dead would do nothing toearn him any sympathy or brownie points; if anything, it only made theircuriosity to know what could possibly be so bad about the secret of the outsideworld even greater. The only one who could possibly be comforted by thislast-minute lie was Gonta’s avatar, by thinking that he and Ouma had still beenon the same page after all, and that even if killing Miu was horrible andpainful, it was something he did with a purpose in mind.

Lying to Gonta serves absolutely no purpose to Ouma if hisgoals are all truly rooted in sadism and the desire to see people suffer ordie. Lying to everyone else? Sure, that’s easy to get away with, and say thathe just likes to see the “stupid looks” on their faces, or that he just wantedto trick them and play with their emotions. But had he really, honestly wantedto cause the most suffering possible in those last moments before Gonta went tohis death, then his actions don’t make sense. They can only be explained byassuming his objective was actually to comfort Gonta, and to make his lastmoments at least even a tiny bit less miserable, because the guilt wasliterally killing both of them.

Had he instead pulled his 180-degree switch before Gonta wasexcuted, it would have been the ultimate way to screw Gonta over completely. Hecould easily have “come clean” about his “corrupted personality” before Gontadied, and told him that killing Miu was for absolutely nothing, and called himan idiot and a fool for honestly, truly believing that he wanted to save therest of the group. That would be howto pull off a full betrayal. Thatwould be the optimal way to inflict the most “despair,” and see the most painand suffering possible.

There’s literally no incentive to keep up a ruse in front ofa person who’s already going to die and can’t do anything about it unless youare keeping up that ruse to help them, not hurt them. And that’s why I do believe that he wasgenuinely upset about Gonta’s death, and that even though he knew he’d have toturn right back around and act like his entire outburst was fake and calculatedin front of the rest of the group, he at least wanted Gonta to be a little morereassured before going to his execution.

I also don’t…think it was a lie when Ouma said that hewanted to die. As with everything else, I think it was one more huge, walkingcontradiction that constitutes Ouma as a character. He wanted to live, yes, buthe also wanted to die. He wanted to get back at the mastermind and put an endto the killing game, but the toll it was beginning to take on him was much toohigh. Hatred for the mastermind and for the killing game itself was all thatwas keeping him alive at some point, I think, and had Gonta’s avatar not toldhim that the “only thing he could do for him was to try and stay strong andunite the group,” I do think Ouma really might have tried to die with him.

We know for a fact that Ouma had seen the outside world. Notonly via a remember light, but actually, honestly seen the outside world itself, via the keycard he ran off with atthe beginning of the chapter. We know for a fact that the secret of the outsideworld is so horrible that just knowing it can immediately drive an optimistic,sweet, happy-go-lucky person like Gonta into a bout of existentialism anddepression, and completely change his mind about living to the point where hehonestly, truly believed they’d all be better off dead.

As Ouma is neither optimistic nor sweet nor happy-go-lucky,I can’t help but think the secret of the outside world had to hit him hard too,considering how jaded and cynical he was even before confirming things with thekeycard. The whole point about the state of the outside world and the truth oftheir existences within the killing game was that things were so horrible that knowingabout them could cause literally anyone to give up their will to live on thespot and want to just give up and die. To say that Ouma would be completelyimmune or unaffected by knowing these things doesn’t add up.

If anything, Ouma being imbued with “despair” in his talent mighthave helped prepare him for the worst-case scenario, but seeing it confirmeddirectly with his own two eyes can’t possibly have helped matters. The factthat he went from relatively ruthless and completely set on accomplishing hisplans by staying alive no matter what it took in the first few trials, to just…unhappily,reluctantly giving up his life for at least a shot at putting his plan againstthe mastermind into action in Chapter 5 suggests to me that he was tired. Really, really tired. Thedifficulties of living on in a game in which he’d actually turned everyoneagainst himself too successfully outweighed the risks of just ending it all andtrying to at least put an end to the killing game himself in his final moments.

However people want to read into Ouma is always up to them,but it is pretty much a fact that he hates killing. His DICE group is confirmedby Tsumugi to only have committed “laughable crimes” like pranks or petty theftback in the real world, and they had a cardinal rule about never killinganyone. The fact of the matter is that for all Tsumugi tried to completelytwist Ouma’s personality and make him into a despair-ridden liar for the sakeof entertainment value, not wanting to kill if he could possibly help it wassuch a core part of his personality that he stayed essentially the same becauseof that.

Even knowing that he was a character meant to embody ”despair,”even feeling “corrupted” and as though all he could do was lie and manipulatehis way around the gameboard, he played the game by his own rules and attemptedto only turn that despair back around on the mastermind themselves, because hehated the notion of the killing game itself so much.

And yet, he did lead two people to their deaths in Chapter4. Even though Miu initiated her plan of her own accord and it wasn’t somethingshe was forced into doing, and even though Gonta did willingly agree tomurdering a person with his own two hands and takes accountability for it, it’strue that it was a dirty tactic that Ouma relied on in the hopes of stayingalive, even when dying would have been infinitely easier. And I think he didhonestly blame himself, and that the emotional outburst we see with him cryingto Gonta and wanting to die with him is one of the few times he felt it wassafe enough to show his true feelings on the matter—after all, he’d either bedead, or he’d just go back to lying in order to fool the mastermind in aboutfive minutes (as he actually did, after the execution).

People can feel free to agree or disagree, and there’s ofcourse a lot of room for speculation and reading between the lines whereverOuma’s true intentions are involved, but I hope this has clarified matters alittle! I personally feel his actions and decisions throughout Chapter 5 andeven during earlier parts of the game don’t make sense unless I read them likethis, and that’s why ndrv3 Chapter 4 continues to hurt me more than almost anyother trial in a DR game.

#ndrv3 #drv3 #new danganronpa v3 #kokichi ouma #ouma kokichi #ndrv3 spoilers //#my meta #okay to reblog #i think the reason i feel it's easier to read into what ouma is doing is only because i've read umineko before #'without love ouma's true intentions cannot be seen' or something like that #anonymous

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