#either way it would've been nice to see a fictional character so influenced by fictional relationships realize she wasn't ready for one yet

[fastrainbowdas]

Adding onto your recent meta about the Pregames, one line stuck out to me. Where you said for the pregames that are supposed to be 'real people' they sure feel a lot more like caricatures. I'm really glad you brought up this point, especially considering the Pregames are supposed to represent the Danganronpa fandom, which is us. I feel like the understand the Pregames better, you need to world-build a little bit as to what their 'outside world' is like. It's heavily dubious what Tsumugi said about the outside world being peaceful and non-violet. With how people people were willing to sign away their lives so easily, the pregames feel more like su//c//dal teens that need a fuck ton of therapy. Many people in the 'real' DR fandom (at least from whom I met) have many personal issues that cripple their mental health and make them turn to fiction as a escape from their harsh life. I mean.........who hasn't thought "I wish I could live in that fictional world?" before?

The Pregames are really supposed to represent us, the Danganronpa fandom. So it actually makes me greatly concerned that people would 'self-project' the 'accepted fanon' of Pregame Shuichi being a sadistic yandere, Pregame Kaede being a nihilistic bully, Pregame Kokichi being a uwu femboy cinnamon bun, etc. It really does come to show that people would put shipping characters into a trope rather than using these pregames as their self-projection canvases

And while everyone in the Danganronpa fandom isn't the same, no version of the pregames have to be either. There's many pregame stories on Ao3, which has probably influenced and encouraged the misconceptualizing of the pregames. I understand that none of them have a canon personality, and since Ingame Saimatsu and Saiouma can never happen canonically, people will turn to the pregame AU to make it happen the way they want it. Then again, it is totally okay to write whatever an author wants, but it does take away good character discussion when the Pregames are boiled down to *insert name's* love intersted

Anyways, sorry for rambling. But yeah, here is my two cents about your essay. Great thoughts and I appreciated reading that very much as a pregame V3 enthusiast

I'm so sorry but you sent this to the wrong person SNGJFDNSZFDJVFGNJDNVJS

@hello-kitty-shuichi-saihara This is for you

But ya I do agree that the pregame characters are supposed to represent us. And deciding the characters' personalities based on tropes and shipping only is really funny when you can just Go Replay The Prologue and see the character is Nothing Like That Trope

Like, in the prologue Kokichi asks reasonable questions very clearly which is very different from uwu stuttering "pwease dont huwt me" fanon pregame Kokichi (Who probably would've been silent tbh). Kaede has a bit of a temper (and so does ingame Kaede) but is still nice to people around her (Shuichi is the obvious one) which. Y'know, if she was the popular bully girl like in fanon she probably would've insulted absolutely everyone without hesitation right? But she doesn't. Yandere Shuichi (Like, unironically) straight up squicks me? Because the way I see it, people decided he's like that because of his audition tape. Like, good job guys, you took a guy ranting about his kinda fucked up interest and decided he's a homicidal maniac who obsesses over Danganronpa and his uwu soft boyfwiend who needs pwotection at all costs. I'm flabbergasted that people don't realize what picture they're painting of themselves, since they're also Danganronpa fans, but aside from that... As someone who also rants abt their interests like that it just. I hate it DJKSANKJDSNFANFDJS

These characters are a lot more similar to their ingame selves than people give them credit for haha

#DRV3 #Thats it for my opinion no one asked for #I think the pregames are Neat #even if I don't think abt them all that often

[timeandspacelord]

Broke: Cress and Thorne's canon great, epic romance

Woke: Cress taking a step back and realizing she's not necessarily ready for a great, epic romance like she thought (maybe especially not with him when she's still working on getting him down from that pedestal in her mind) and they stay friends until whatever the future holds

Bespoke: Cress realizing she's aro/aro-spec and liked the idea of a great, epic romance the way it was presented in media, liked the concept of being loved and loving someone else in that way, more than the practicalities of actually being a part of one, that maybe she thought it would be the thing to fulfill her and make her happy, when in reality it was familial and platonic love that she was missing and she found it in the Rampion crew

#no shade to canon cresswell btw I think they're adorable #but ik a lot of people think the age gap is a bit much considering she's 16 #and I do think the 'woke' option would've been a good and natural continuation of her character arc & related themes #option three also feels like a pretty natural continuation of her story had there been more post-series explorations of the characters #it also just plays in more to the found family dynamic of the RC which I love & is maybe me working through some of my own stuff #either way it would've been nice to see a fictional character so influenced by fictional relationships realize she wasn't ready for one yet #or didn't want one at all bc the idea of a romantic relationship + its associated perks was more appealing than the reality of being in one #which again fits her character arc of realizing that 'great epic romances don't just happen' & Thorne isn't a paragon fantasy hero #seeing that specifically probably could've saved me personally a lot of agonizing over things bc writing this has made me Realize things #like for instance that I've probably been in denial about things for a w h i l e #anyway not gonna get into my personal identity crisis here just gonna say aro Cress rights #the lunar chronicles #tlc #cress darnel #cresswell #cress #cresswell speculation