hooboi13

Latest Posts by hooboi13

The V3 version of Danganronpa relies on the prison-industrial complex for victims volunteers, specifically juvenile detention centers. Adolescents are offered lightened sentences for participation and full pardons for winning, thus ensuring the sign-up process is (technically) voluntary. DICE is an activist organization - the acronym is Danganronpa Is (a) Criminal Enterprise - that protests the profiteering off of the vulnerable and works to challenge the draconian laws concerning mild, petty crimes that exist primarily to feed the system.

Concept:

My favourite flavour of mastermind Makoto Naegi is him being the one behind the 2nd killing game.

That he leaves Hopes Peak carrying the hopes and dreams of all his fallen friends. Learning of the horrors of the outside world.

And in the midst of all that he’s made aware that Junko’s minions are still around.

It hits him that everyone he’s fought for. Everyone he’s lost. Everyone he’s saved. They will never know peace as long as her people are still here.

But in this it’s the Future Foundation who want to rehabilitate the Remnants.

They’ve all seen the events of the killing game, seen his Makoto bought hope to the hopeless. And decide that maybe the Remnants can also be saved.

Makoto disagrees.

And you know maybe he’s just a little bit mad. Maybe he’s angry and afraid and grieving. Why do they get a happy ending?! Why do they get peace?!

They killed my friends. They killed my family. They imprisoned my sister. They tried to kill me.

And I’m going to make them pay.

Makoto steals the Neo World Programme from the Future Foundation. He traps everyone of them inside and forces them to undergo the horrors he did.

Erasing their memories to give them that illusion of hope just so he can drag them into despair when when see what they’ve become.

No matter how much he makes them hurt. It will never bring his friends back. But he hopes that it grants them peace.

yuma in the last defents

i haven't been outside in 2 months

my mood whenever a new trial starts

Someone at some point called Surge Sonic's Wario and I was like "what?", but also went made this...

Junko’s great and all but for me Hopes Peak Academy is the main antagonist of Danganronpa.

You’ve got the whole oh being part of the elite is actually really fucking stressful. And wow I wish I could do other things but my worth is entirely tied to this one thing I do.

Like we saw with Leon.

Then you’ve got them being a dick to everyone else. Like it’s one thing for them to be like oh you don’t have a talent our one school recognises as important?

I guess you’re nothing then.

But then they take it even further by creating the Reserve course. Ah yes let us give these peasants the privilege of being near us while also reminding them they’re nothing compared to us.

But also you know human experimentation.

It really hit home watching Danganronpa 3 and realising oh..any of these kids could’ve become Izuru Kamakura.

It’s just that they picked Hajime. Oh they frame it as a choice but no that kids fate was already decided the moment he was enrolled.

It would’ve been interesting if that ever got out. That Izuru Kamakura, was a Reserve Course student. That this beacon of terror was someone they all view as inherently worthless for being talentless.

Despite the fact that metric is one that only Hopes Peak uses and cares about.

I don’t blame any of the Reserve Course for wanting to burn the place down. The way they were instantly vilified the second they decided to rebel against the school.

Not only did they cover up the murder of a student but if this got out too…Yikes.

Honestly had the tragedy been less…colossal I genuinely believe Hopes Peak would be relieved by it. Sure they get some bad press but it’s one student, maybe one class.

In the grand scheme of things it changes nothing and they can all be discredited it.

Hell I can absolutely imagine a concept where Hopes Peak reveals Izuru Kamakura’s real identity and paints a narrative about this disillusioned Reserve Course student lost to jealously.

And despite the aid of the prestigious academy trying to help him, he turned into a monster. Even going so far as to bastardise our glorious founder with his name.

I can see them trying to wipe their hands clean of everything. Also I refuse to believe Jin Kirigiri was some unknowing man caught in the middle of this.

When he was the one running the place. And frankly I prefer the concept that he absolutely knew but tried to make amends with saving his remaining students.

With saving his daughter.

And being killed after refusing to give them up. Hoping that maybe just maybe he would be able to atone for the monsters he helped to create.

Junko’s also a monster that’s a fact but none of what she did would’ve happened if not for Hopes Peak.

And unfortunately only one of them got destroyed.

Tengan's skeletons in his closet

(Part 1)

*Flips through pages*

Is it really wise to stay here and waste precious time? I can’t see the benefit in reading that file?

Why do you have that file anyway?

What do you mean? It’s a record of every branch leader of the Foundation. Why wouldn’t I have something like that?

I meant have it here. Wouldn’t that be too good information for anyone to have? Especially, if it’s as personal as I’m suspecting it is…

It’s not that, it’s-

A last will in testament.

Hmm?

Or that’s how I’m personally perceiving it with your phrasing here in some of these notes sections. If someone were to find this and read these sections about what you had to say about them, it would fill them with a sense of remorse.

A forced remorse though… From only reading your personal thoughts in this file, instead of from your own mouth.

Almost as if you’re expecting to die soon.

…….

…I have no idea what you could be referring too…

Fine then. Take this section about me for instance. You write,

“Kyoko Kirigiri is a smart, confident, and capable detective. Being the one to solve most of the mysteries surrounding the Hope’s Peak Killing Game even under a stronger memory loss influence than the other students proves she is a prodigy worthy of her family name. It almost gives me no doubt in my mind that she can solve all of the mysteries remaining about Hope’s Peak Academy. But whether I should be worried about that is still uncertain”

…….

……

….Well? I’m right here. What do you want me to potentially uncover?

…….

I’m….not sure what you could be referring to…

You wrote it, my man. Is your memory failing that much already?

…………….

……..

Very well. I’ve already figured it out anyway. 

You have?

Yes. It has something to do… *Click*

*whiiiirrrrr* *Kyoko hits a button under Tengan’s desk. And one of the paintings on the wall splits open to reveal a compartment hidden in the wall with another type of file inside*

…with this.

W-Woah! That’s some serious spy-type stuff right there…!

And what is that exactly?

*Kyoko takes the file from the compartment* This…appears to be about the Izuru Kamukura Project.

Have you thought that. The sdr2 characters gave up their talent bc they use it for despair while they were brainwashed? Kaz gave up his love of machines

*ending theme of digital circus starts playing*

bruh that would be so sad

Like imagine Teruteru gave up cooking because he also lost his biggest driving force that made him want to to cook in the first place (his mom).

Or Mikan starts to doubt any and all of her medical knowledge because she doesn't trust herself as she did before in treating other peoples wounds and is afraid she'll only hurt them further.

Or Fuyu giving up being a yakuza.

Wait well....actually no that might be a good thing for him. That might be an improvement actually.

Re:Tozu

I just wanted to make a post detailing what I find the most interesting about this character.

In Danganronpa, there is always some form of screwing around with the agency of the contestants in a Killing Game. In DR1, Junko had to wipe the contestants' memories first because if they remembered their friendship and the state of the outside world they would not be able to kill one another for any reason. In DR2, AI Junko was able to take advantage of the nature of the Neo World Program (which included memory wiping and things that would appear supernatural in real life) to twist it against its original purpose. In DR3, brainwashing anime was used to make contestants aggressive and ultimately kill themselves. And in DRV3, the Flashback Lights completely fucked with the contestants' memories to the point of altering their very identities. In every case, sci-fi means are used to turn people into murderers.

But things appear to be different in Project: Eden's Garden. Tozu does not seem to have access to any such sci-fi means. Instead, he lives up to his thematic purpose by being incredibly Luciferian in how he operates: rather than interfere with a victim's agency, he prods and tempts; he makes insinuations and emotionally manipulates. His blackmail motive is similar to Monokuma's motive videos, especially the V3 version where everyone's are mixed up. The difference is that where the motive videos were explicit threats to get someone to act upon them, the blackmails are a lot more varied: several of them are so harmless that they are immediately shared, while others are so vaguely worded that a potential blackmailer may not even have enough to work with. So there's no direct threat to anyone...but there is paranoia, as contestants can think "What if my blackmail is something serious?" or "What if the person who has my blackmail is smart enough to figure out what the vague wording actually means?" or "We all agreed not to use the blackmails for murder, but what if...?"

Then there's how he deals with Eva. When she unlocks the traitor perk, he doesn't force her to choose to use it, only tempts her by playing off her negative emotional state regarding Wolfgang and how he humiliated her. Then once she does choose to use it, he tells her she has a limited time to make a kill with it or else she'll die. But what struck me is that he never said he would kill her, or that Mara would: he just said "she'll die". He allowed her to infer that without ever actually confirming it. She herself confirms he never even told her the number of days she had before dying. There is zero doubt in my mind that he was pulling a Rango; he meant "if you don't use it, you will die...someday, somehow, without ever having made good on its potential." He didn't lie, he just spoke in a way that ignited Eva's own fear and paranoia.

Eva still made a choice to kill Wolfgang and frame Diana. Wolfgang still made a choice to listen to the letter he received and bring a knife. Diana still made a choice to listen to the letter she received and not help a drugged Wolfgang out of the water. All without their memories or state of being having been forcibly altered in any way...only their emotions being manipulated by Tozu's machinations, done with nothing but words and suggestions.

In that sense, Tozu is an even more sinister Mastermind than Junko Enoshima ever was!

I've been on a bit of a Danganronpa kick lately, and I wanted to share some thoughts I remembered (originally from 2022).

I am having a hard time believing that the whole world outside of Japan also suffered from the same total societal collapse (+ brainwashing?) that Japan fell to. Yes, I can imagine that countries with particularly close ties to Japan could suffer greatly, some perhaps even falling to civil conflict, but I'm not sure if I buy the totality of it, especially in the countries more isolated from the outside world (eg. Cuba), or ones with draconian censorship regimes (eg. China). The developing countries in particular I imagine would be spared most of the brainwashing, instead taking the brunt of the damage from the worldwide economic crisis, which yes it would also end in blood, but -- if I allow myself to be cynical for a moment -- nothing that particularly exceeds the scale of the wars and genocides we've seen there in the late 20th century. Really, the less culturally connected a country is to Japan, the less brainwashed its populace should probably be, given how Japanese Hope's Peak student body is. And, especially in the developed countries, this is probably where the effects of the Tragedy are the lightest, allowing them to gather themselves relatively quickly and act as starting points for rebuilding the world. Which honestly provides interesting story material on its own, as many of these governments could have visions of the post-Tragedy world that conflict with the Future Foundation's and each other's...

This is going to be a direct criticism of the Future Foundation now: of their 14 divisions, none of them are tasked with rebuilding of governments, local and national institutions of power. Almost as if they planned on ruling the world indefinitely after defeating Despair. And the fact that they don't seem to have a plan for handing over power makes me fear for how the world would actually look after their victory at the end of DR3. And when people start demanding a say in how they're governed, how will they respond? Will they respond to these protests like Hope's Peak did to the Parade, and set up another Tragedy as a result? Will they hastily restore status quo ante, with all its systemic failures that allowed Despair to fester and set up a Tragedy reprise, just further down the line than the first option? Because fixing these systemic problems is a work that should be started Day 1 of the Foundation's operations, to have a proper plan that adequately addresses them. And, like I said, they don't seem to have any kind of team dedicated to making such a plan.

I know this is a long ask, but I needed to get all of this off my chest. Thank you for your time, and have a nice day.

I agree with u. DR3 has so many issues

The Post-Tragedy Horrors of Despair Time

Hello everyone, Mod Bubbles here!

This Halloween, I decided to do something a little different. Rather than a dedicated post or song parody, I've decided to share a worldbuilding analysis. A pretty fortuitous one, since we've recently completed Chapter 2 of Despair Time.

I'm sure it's no exaggeration to say that DT is a pretty dark fangan, especially within its own context. I wouldn't say it's as grimdark and nihilistic as some people are convinced it is, but there's some elements to it that I feel are worth analyzing going forward.

See, it's been established that DT is set within the Hope's Peak continuity. This would mean that the canon games sans V3 (and if you want to have fun with it, other fangans like the Another series) have all happened here.

According to a Q&A, DT is set around 70-80 years after the end of the Tragedy, so if you wanted to estimate based on in-universe dates (such as Makoto's Hope's Peak brochure saying 2010 in the earliest version of the game but 2014 in a re-release), that would put it sometime around 2080 to the mid-2090s. Veronika backs this up in Chapter 2, when she mentions the Tragedy happened "almost a century ago."

Why do I bring all this up? Because if you looked at DT, you'd probably never guess it was that deep in the future. I know I didn't at first. And this is all by design, but it goes beyond simple cosmetic details. Allow me to explain to you why this is probably the darkest timeline that could've happened after Class 78's victory over Ultimate Despair.

___________________________________________________

Modern Stagnancy

So if we look at the obvious, the world of DT looks pretty much identical to our own, which should be a good thing. When you consider that this is set after The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History- an event that saw societal collapse, wars happen for the sake of destruction, massive pollution, rampant murder, and countless killing games- then it almost seems utopian.

Cities have long since been rebuilt, the skies are clear, there are functional trains, movies, celebrities, schools, music, art, Ted-Talks, the internet, all the trappings of normality. And that's really the problem.

Once the recovery efforts were underway, the goal of those in power was to rebuild things exactly as they used to be. Bear in mind, the world looks like our modern day, yet this is set deep into the late 21st century. In that context, the world almost seems stunted in its growth or even that it's regressed, given that CDs and DVDs are used rather than USBs or digital downloads.

Not only that, but this extends to societal attitudes as well. Nico was the victim of bullying over their status as an enby by everyone who knew, including their own father. It's almost the 22nd century and anti-LGBTQ bigotry like this still exists.

In that context, it feels less like the world is recovering and more that it's been stuck in its pre-Tragedy status quo, right down to continuing the Ultimates program that contributed to The Tragedy in the first place. And who would be motivated to do that?

2. Hope's Peak And Their Kin Are Stronger Than Ever

Probably one of the most contentious aspects of DR3's ending is that, after everything the people in charge of it were responsible for- exploiting their students, covering up crimes, human experimentation- Hope's Peak Academy was rebuilt by the survivors, now with Makoto as headmaster.

Now, one could make the argument that Makoto is a better example of hope and thus better suited to lead the school to follow its stated ideals than the Steering Committee ever was. That very well may be true, but as they also proved, nobody stays in charge forever. And now, because of his decision, Hope's Peak isn't contained to Japan.

There now exist Hope's Peak branches in every major country on Earth, with two in the United States. Teruko and co. are students of the East Coast Division's 27th class, meaning that one opened almost thirty years ago. This would also mean that Japan's Hope's Peak would have seen over 150 classes since its inception.

I bring all this up because, as has been made very clear by canon, Hope's Peak is a terrible place even in concept. When you remove the idyllic aspect of fostering talent and guaranteeing its students are set for life, the truth is that ultimates are stunted in their development. They're only encouraged to excel in their particular field, whether they really want to or not.

In addition, Hope's Peak has always quietly held this belief that only people with talent hold any worth; those without talent are just "ticks" who leech off the success of their betters. Characters like Byakuya and Nagito echo those very same sentiments, this extreme elitism that encourages people to view the "99%" as inherently inferior.

Even if you wanted to say Makoto managed to undo that idea, can we really say this divide would never come up again? No matter how many years pass or how many divisions of Hope's Peak are set up across the world? That seems really far-fetched to me.

Consider Min's bonus video. As she explains, she was never scouted by the school. Instead, America's Hope's Peak announced something called the Ultimate Contest for Eminent Students, where eligible high school students would be allowed to take a test, the best of whom would be admitted to the school when they graduated. The catch is that they had 12 years to prepare. Min, who was only 5 at the time, wasn't initially going to participate, but then the founder of a company called XF-Ture Tech approached her family- who was quite poor- and wanted to sponsor her in exchange for her participation.

She spent her entire life preparing for that test. And when she passed, she realized it was all really just an experiment to create their ideal version of the Ultimate Student. She even doubted that she was the best in terms of raw score, just that she met their desired expectations by cutting out everything else in her life for that test.

It also extends beyond just Hope's Peak itself. Those with power and influence now hold a strangle hold over the most vulnerable people out there, as we can see with the Lacroix family.

Rose wanted to help her family out of their financial limitations using her painting skills and her photographic memory, which lead to her becoming an art forger. However, at 15, she was found out and her family faced tens of millions in fines. This would've been the end, but then they were bailed out by a billionaire named Richard Spurling, founder of the Spurling Foundation. In exchange for clearing her charges, Rose had to sign a contract that meant she doesn't own the rights to anything she paints.

She hates what her life has become, where she can only ever really paint things at the whims of the Foundation because it was the only way her family could survive that mountain of debt. The exploitation there is undeniable.

No matter where you look, there's still exploitation and experiment abound with the school, corporations and the wealthy. And if you think the Spurling Foundation sounds bad here, they're implied to be responsible for something much worse.

Which is also brings us to Xander. See, there's a curious detail when we first meet him in the prologue:

And I agree. Xander being the Ultimate Rebel really doesn't fit him, as he's better described as the "Ultimate Revolutionary." Except there's no chance Hope's Peak would call him that, instead paying lip service to the idea in a digestible format to still support the status quo.

Xander is an activist who works to oppose corruption, but the ones who benefit from corruption wouldn't want him to flaunt that. It's a subtle but very clever detail that shows those in power still maintain a hold even over their beloved Ultimates.

They probably had no issue throwing the obviously corrupt under the bus to save their own hides, and raised Xander up with a quasi-supportive title. It gives them a chance to look like they're supporting what he's doing while still tying an element of a "rebellious child" to his image with the name.

Had Xander survived, he had a good reason to want to bring them down, especially the Spurlings.

3. Illness and Poverty

Xander's bonus video clued us in on what I believe is one of the most important parts of DT's continuity: the fate of the town of Chariton, implied to be where he lived. It seemed to be a small town, home to a couple hundred or a couple thousand people, where the only hospital for miles was "dinky, understaffed" and barely able to handle a minor flu outbreak. They were completely unprepared for what became known as the Chariton Incident.

When he was around 14, the town was hit by a disease that caused those infected to decay from the outside in; their limbs would stop working before their organs did, meaning they would just lay there and feel themselves slowly dying. So many died that nobody was left to move the bodies, so they were left where they fell, rotting in the summer heat.

The cause of this outbreak? A contaminated river that served as the town's water source. Chariton was an impoverished community, where people had no money to treat their water, get medicine from a nearby city or to even move out. It's also implied, based on Xander's anger, that Duke Spurling was partially responsible and that he got off the hook, which may be what drove Xander to become the Ultimate Rebel. Especially when you consider he's the only surviving member of his family.

Duke Spurling is, as the named implies and Dev has confirmed, the younger brother of Richard Spurling. The money and influence needed to get his brother off the hook is the very same that has the Lacroix family under his thumb.

So as we can see, Chariton was a major event in DT's canon. Not only does it showcase corruption, it also showcases understated but still prominent problems in the post-Tragedy U.S. If you pay attention, you'll also notice Teruko, Min, and Rose mention poverty playing a role in their lives.

As we can see, poverty plays a major role in their lives, and that extends beyond a personal level. Chariton's poverty is why the incident happened at all, and a big reason is because it's also an example of a medical desert.

"Medical desert" is a term used to describe regions whose population has inadequate access to healthcare. This can be all healthcare in general or in specialties such as dental care or pharmaceuticals. This is an especially prominent problem in rural areas, but it can affect urban ones too.

If that sounds implausible to you, today it's believed that around 30 million Americans- over 1% of the population- live over an hour from a hospital. Can you imagine how bad the problem is in a world after The Tragedy? All the damage to infrastructure, established institutions, the economy, and the population? I doubt Chariton was the first to see something this bad.

Ace's execution gives us more clues. In the Death By Illness section, there are several newspaper clippings on the wall, most of which are readable. One flashes on screen saying "Unexplained Illness Kills Thousands," which I believe is another reference to Chariton (why else would it flash on screen?), but there's more as well:

"More people are dying of cancer than ever before"

"Flu season claims thousands of lives"

"Falling rates of survival for hospitalized patients"

"Antibiotic-resistant infections a growing threat in this hospital"

One is harder to read, but I believe it mentions Chronic Kidney Disease being tied to an early death

Now, the interesting thing is that most of these are modern headlines, and they can be pretty misleading. The cancer one is actually based on the fact that more people are living longer lives, thus are reaching ages where they develop cancer due to their cell infrastructure breaking down naturally. It doesn't mean there's more cancer cases overall across all ages.

The only one that's not true is the falling rates one. Which suggests that not only was it Chariton, but healthcare infrastructure in general after the Tragedy seems to be a mess.

See, I was assuming that these articles are identical to what we see today. But it's also possible that the cancer one is now literally true, and it could be because The Tragedy was rife with this kind of horror. We know that terrorism, coups and wars happened for no reason other than to spread despair across the world.

Could you imagine how many nuclear, chemical, biological and radiological weapons were used? How many diseases and hazardous materials were seeded into the environment? If it's unsafe to drink tap water after a serious hurricane or earthquake, how bad is the problem when contamination is the goal?

And this doesn't even touch on how disturbingly easy it would be to spread long-term illnesses such as HIV or CJD in contaminated food and medical supplies. Some diseases have latency periods that last decades, meaning they could still be killing people even by the time DRDT is set.

Antibiotic resistance is also a very real and serious problem. Even today, some strains have become immune to even the strongest antibiotics available. This has given rise to Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci or VREs, which are immune to basically every medication we can throw at them.

Now, it's still possible to deal with them, such as with naturally antimicrobial metals or experimental treatments such as CRISPR and Phage Therapy, but in a world that saw such a massive hit to everything? I'm certain antibiotic-resistance bacteria have become much more serious, potentially resulting in epidemics over the years.

And when these things happen, it's always the poor who suffer the most.

4. Lethal Repetition

Now we come to the most obvious example, something highlighted by the same reveal that DT is set nearly a century into the future:

Veronika, who provided us with information on the effects the Tragedy still has, apparently has never heard about The Killing School Life.

Now, it's important to keep in mind that most of the Killing Games in DR were pretty secluded and motivated. SDR2 was only broadcast to Future Foundation with the goal to allow Junko to escape into the real world, for example. However, DR1's Killing School Life was broadcast globally as a means to break humanity's hope by showing the Ultimates slaughtering each other. Instead, Makoto and co. managed to reinvigorate the world's hope and played a pivotal role in ending the Tragedy.

...And yet Veronika apparently hasn't heard any of it.

Now, there's two possibilities here, neither of which are good:

One is that the Mastermind has removed their knowledge of previous killing games, specifically. Now, I actually consider this an unlikely explanation because, not only does Teruko seem to vaguely remember the Killing School Life happened, but what's the goal in doing so for the participants?

The canon games all had solid reasons why the other masterminds erased the participants' memories: the revelation that they'd been killing their friends, the fact that their past identities were supposed to be undone to save them, even the fact that they weren't even who they were supposed to be in V3.

But what's the purpose of suppressing the memories of the Killing School Life in the participants themselves? Especially since this game is also apparently being broadcast to the outside world, although we only have MonoTV's word on that. Is it to undermine everything the survivors achieved or to get the participants not to consider the same strategies?

The other, more plausible explanation to me is that the mastermind isn't the one who erased their memories. The outside world did.

It's possible that, in the decades since the Tragedy and the drive to return things to the status quo, knowledge of the Killing School Life has been suppressed. It would be so easy to blame Makoto's decision to rebuild the school, but it's just as plausible that his attempts to genuinely reform the school were undone over the years.

Corporations and those that came after had a vested reason to improve their own reputations, and why would they allow their connection to the Tragedy to remain public knowledge? The entire thing began as a revolution of lower classes against the rich before it became a whirlwind of mindless violence.

So what does this mean for DT? This is more hypothesizing on my part, but I'd say this could tell us a lot about the potential motivations for this very killing game. Could it be someone trying to remind the world about this event and how we got here? Is it more retribution against the wealthy? Is it someone who was inspired by Junko to slaughter her friends? Or is it something else entirely? And what role does Teruko have if someone involved is so hellbent on trying to kill her?

For now, we can only speculate. But I can tell you that, based on what we've seen here, DT is probably the darkest future we could've gotten out of the canon series.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

This audio from Star vs the Forces of evil worked way too well in reference to how the Neo World Program works! It could have fit any character but I always associate Star with Sonia so I decided to use her!

Fun fact, within a day of posting this on tiktok it became my second highest viewed video ever and highest viewed animation I’ve done which is wild! (It’s currently at 163.0k views!!)

There was never a person named Tsumugi Shirogane.

Following the successful implementation of the Neo World Program against the Remnants of Despair, Future Foundation learned all of the wrong lessons. They tasked Alter Ego with incorporating Killing Game simulations into the Neo World rehabilitation protocols.

It was decided that Ryota Mitarai's ideas were valid, he simply went too far in attempting to brainwash the world. Not mind control, but a global broadcast to remind everyone around the world of Hope's supremacy? Future Foundation felt that would be a good antidote to the Despair that had reigned unchecked after the Tragedy.

So began the age of Ultimate Hope. Each year, fifteen students infested by despair would be selected and entered into the Neo World Program. Alter Ego would concoct a fictional scenario for them to undergo, appropriating the imagery of Monokuma and Junko Enoshima. Corrupting them as they once corrupted the Neo World Program.

All under the guidance of a subordinate program to Alter Ego, taking the role of Chiaki Nanami for each season; Someone who would monitor the students from within, report back to Alter Ego, and keep the game moving. Sometimes male, sometimes female, blonde, brunette, tall, short. A new name and new identity, a different guise for each new season that could be changed as easily as flicking a switch.

The events within the program would then be broadcast globally, so all the world could watch with bated breath as Hope triumphs over Despair again and again and again. Season after season, year after year, students living out a twisted mockery of Junko's games as a perpetual reminder of Despair's futility.

With little regard for the long-term effects that being used like this would have on the selected children's psyches. Traumatizing vulnerable children for someone's idea of the greater good.

I'm thinking about that one post that went "Amnesia but you're haunted by your scars" post, talking about how wiping someone's memory in fiction doesn't completely erase the trauma they went through, and I just immediately look to DR2's cast and go "... Yeah."

I think Makoto was well meaning in wanting to wipe their memories of being remnants and putting them in an island paradise, but like. That's not therapy. That's not healing. That's only covering the scars on their hearts with an ill-fitted bandaid.

Even without the KG for that game, I think the Remnants would have like, sensations of fear they can't explain, sensations of trauma they can't address.

I don't think it's cruel to want to erase someone's painful memories... but I don't think that's a solution, either.

In all honesty, i love hiyoko the same reason why i love Kokichi and is because they're total assholes.

Seeing that post you made just now actually reminded me of something. This post-SDR2 RP blog storyline. Which claimed to be about the whole cast healing, and would be even-handed to everyone. Yet the writer's biases against Nagito constantly crept in, as there were noticeable double standards in the way he was treated compared to the rest of the cast.

Like I realized something upon looking at it again. It's Nagito, and Nagito alone who has to actually face his victims from when he was an Ultimate Despair. He's the one who gets ragged in person on by cast members from UDG. The others meanwhile? They never actually have to meet someone they personally wronged. There are no survivors of Novoselic (which got completely genocided in their version of events) ever confronts Sonia for example.

This is actually the case in a lot of fan works. It is very easy to tell when the writer has a bias against Komaeda. Personally, a thing I noticed when reading is that it feels like they all tend to put the other remnants in a good light while he is just. Separated. Similarly to how the fandom treats him in general by acting like he is the worst of them all. There's always that subtle undertone that shows they only hold things against him, which, again, is often because of the rooted ableism in how the fandom portrays him.

Funny... Since his actions really are tame compared to the others, he never even directly hurt anyone, unlike them. It's weird how the fandom doesn't hold the characters accountable for actual murders in the first place, but can I just mention how Komaeda (including Hinata) was the only remnant who didn't do anything violent and messed up except cutting his arm off?

As for Komaeda being the only one to face the people that he wronged, I saw that people even tend to make the remnants forgive each other immediately (or easily) or don't write any tension between them, making them friends. It's very confusing since they don't have normal relationships even in sdr2 and because they always make them target Komaeda with all the negativity... And because they literally killed each other. They would all be aware of how messed up they are and have to learn to accept it... They don't even have a reason to call Komaeda fucked up anymore because they've done worse, or rather he's fucked up too. They don't have to like him (they would realistically only tolerate everyone except the ones closer to them in the first place anyway), but it'd be way different, and they wouldn't be hostile. The fact that Komaeda would be peaceful makes that even more believable.

(Also do you mind sharing the name?)

This Post but for Hiyoko. Like i've seen ask blogs when she's treated horribly when everyone is equally as awful. In the end, that's one of my biggest gripes of post-sdr2 content. The lack of accountability the remnants often recieve by the narrative

Seeing that post you made just now actually reminded me of something. This post-SDR2 RP blog storyline. Which claimed to be about the whole cast healing, and would be even-handed to everyone. Yet the writer's biases against Nagito constantly crept in, as there were noticeable double standards in the way he was treated compared to the rest of the cast.

Like I realized something upon looking at it again. It's Nagito, and Nagito alone who has to actually face his victims from when he was an Ultimate Despair. He's the one who gets ragged in person on by cast members from UDG. The others meanwhile? They never actually have to meet someone they personally wronged. There are no survivors of Novoselic (which got completely genocided in their version of events) ever confronts Sonia for example.

This is actually the case in a lot of fan works. It is very easy to tell when the writer has a bias against Komaeda. Personally, a thing I noticed when reading is that it feels like they all tend to put the other remnants in a good light while he is just. Separated. Similarly to how the fandom treats him in general by acting like he is the worst of them all. There's always that subtle undertone that shows they only hold things against him, which, again, is often because of the rooted ableism in how the fandom portrays him.

Funny... Since his actions really are tame compared to the others, he never even directly hurt anyone, unlike them. It's weird how the fandom doesn't hold the characters accountable for actual murders in the first place, but can I just mention how Komaeda (including Hinata) was the only remnant who didn't do anything violent and messed up except cutting his arm off?

As for Komaeda being the only one to face the people that he wronged, I saw that people even tend to make the remnants forgive each other immediately (or easily) or don't write any tension between them, making them friends. It's very confusing since they don't have normal relationships even in sdr2 and because they always make them target Komaeda with all the negativity... And because they literally killed each other. They would all be aware of how messed up they are and have to learn to accept it... They don't even have a reason to call Komaeda fucked up anymore because they've done worse, or rather he's fucked up too. They don't have to like him (they would realistically only tolerate everyone except the ones closer to them in the first place anyway), but it'd be way different, and they wouldn't be hostile. The fact that Komaeda would be peaceful makes that even more believable.

(Also do you mind sharing the name?)

Seeing that post you made just now actually reminded me of something. This post-SDR2 RP blog storyline. Which claimed to be about the whole cast healing, and would be even-handed to everyone. Yet the writer's biases against Nagito constantly crept in, as there were noticeable double standards in the way he was treated compared to the rest of the cast.

Like I realized something upon looking at it again. It's Nagito, and Nagito alone who has to actually face his victims from when he was an Ultimate Despair. He's the one who gets ragged in person on by cast members from UDG. The others meanwhile? They never actually have to meet someone they personally wronged. There are no survivors of Novoselic (which got completely genocided in their version of events) ever confronts Sonia for example.

This is actually the case in a lot of fan works. It is very easy to tell when the writer has a bias against Komaeda. Personally, a thing I noticed when reading is that it feels like they all tend to put the other remnants in a good light while he is just. Separated. Similarly to how the fandom treats him in general by acting like he is the worst of them all. There's always that subtle undertone that shows they only hold things against him, which, again, is often because of the rooted ableism in how the fandom portrays him.

Funny... Since his actions really are tame compared to the others, he never even directly hurt anyone, unlike them. It's weird how the fandom doesn't hold the characters accountable for actual murders in the first place, but can I just mention how Komaeda (including Hinata) was the only remnant who didn't do anything violent and messed up except cutting his arm off?

As for Komaeda being the only one to face the people that he wronged, I saw that people even tend to make the remnants forgive each other immediately (or easily) or don't write any tension between them, making them friends. It's very confusing since they don't have normal relationships even in sdr2 and because they always make them target Komaeda with all the negativity... And because they literally killed each other. They would all be aware of how messed up they are and have to learn to accept it... They don't even have a reason to call Komaeda fucked up anymore because they've done worse, or rather he's fucked up too. They don't have to like him (they would realistically only tolerate everyone except the ones closer to them in the first place anyway), but it'd be way different, and they wouldn't be hostile. The fact that Komaeda would be peaceful makes that even more believable.

(Also do you mind sharing the name?)

I'm thinking about that one post that went "Amnesia but you're haunted by your scars" post, talking about how wiping someone's memory in fiction doesn't completely erase the trauma they went through, and I just immediately look to DR2's cast and go "... Yeah."

I think Makoto was well meaning in wanting to wipe their memories of being remnants and putting them in an island paradise, but like. That's not therapy. That's not healing. That's only covering the scars on their hearts with an ill-fitted bandaid.

Even without the KG for that game, I think the Remnants would have like, sensations of fear they can't explain, sensations of trauma they can't address.

I don't think it's cruel to want to erase someone's painful memories... but I don't think that's a solution, either.

Is it weird that I actually prefer DR3’s explanation for how Chiaki was created over DR2 implying that Chihiro created Chiaki? It more sense to have the memories Class 77-B have for Chiaki, be used as basis for which an Observer can be built from.

And while Chihiro creating an Alter Ego ai for the NWP makes sense (a completely separate Alter Ego from the one he eventually makes in DR1) I don’t really buy Chihiro is able to create three separate ai’s with distinct personalities and roles for the NWP. Especially since Chiaki and Usami are therapy ai and Chihiro definitely doesn’t have any therapeutic knowledge.

Plus, making three ai’s a lot of work for just one person and this isn’t a project he owns, he’s only collaborating with the development along with many other people so I imagine Chihiro would only be here to develop the Alter Ego ai and the development of an Observer system would be handled by other people.

I personally believe "Alter Ego" is just multiple copies of a single A.I. program — once that we happen to see put to work in a variety of different situations/ways.

But other than that, I think I can generally agree with you. Maybe not for the exact same reasons, but I still agree with your concluesions.

I understand that we're supposed to believe Fujisaki, Gekkogahara, and Matsuda all worked together to develop the Neo World Program. That's why we see Gekkogahara's personal avatar, Usami, working as a therapeutic A.I. program within the NWP. But once you have Fujisaki developing Alter Ego (based on themselves) and then co-developing Usami (based on Gekkogahara), the thing about the Chiaki is: Why would Chihiro develop two separate therapy A.I.s for the same program? And then, despite basing their previous A.I.s on specific people, how and/or why would Chihiro create a third A.I. that somehow has its own completely unique, distinct personality that ISN'T based on anybody else?

For those reasons, I think the justification for Chiaki's uniqueness and distinct function given in DR3 is actually better than going without those explanations.

i realized it's been a while since i drew him in this fit 😌💖

also this is officially my last scheduled Wednesday post!! From now on I'll be posting whenever! :3

I've been in a bit of an art slump lately and I think I want to take some time to work on improving 🥹

Thank you for the 3ish years of weekly/biweekly posts! I'll see y'all in the next post that will quite possibly still be on Wednesday out of habit 😂🫡

Genius Invokation TCG across Teyvat 🎲

okay but also.

i hate the neo world program. i hate the idea of it so much. i hate that their way to save people is to just cut out two-three years of memories, download them into a video game, and then save over those memories once they're better people.

and maybe this is because i come at this from having n2n as one of my favorite musicals where part of let's fix the mentally ill person is by electroshock therapy that WHOOPS caused them to lose their memories and then her husband's like you know what let's not tell her about the thing that we think caused the mental illness and then everything will be good! and great! and wonderful!

and i hate it.

because makoto + co. are making the same assumption nagito does, which is that now that they're remnants they are beyond saving in their current form so we're just going to regress them and cut all of that out of them and give them a reboot so they become the people we want them to be.

and, like, yes, we learn that the remnants agreed to this so they could try to bring junko back in them, which. you know. (is actually really funny when you think about nagito like if we bring junko back, maybe i get to kill her this time and then he's one of the dead people she would be coming back in, like, sorry, nagito, you'd literally become the person you hate the most.)

but makoto + co. didn't know that. they just forced them into these machines and wiped their memories without their consent and just. went from there. and the game suggests this is a good thing. because that's therapy! and dealing with trauma! to forcibly remove years of memory from your life!

it just makes me so uncomfortable. so uncomfortable.

and makoto's oh, i added a fail safe because i knew something would probably go wrong doesn't make it any better because that doesn't address the core issue. i just. i don't understand how people didn't tell them that this was wrong - or that they didn't realize that this was wrong - especially after having their own memories torn from them. (memories that! they had help! recovering! by the way!)

Main character privileges transfered

Celestia Ludenberg, temporarily cured of being French

Ecosocialist praxis

maybe if that united healthcare shooter knocks out 33 more CEOs he'll be up to 34 felonies and he can run for president...

Thought I get in on this holy bandwagon, but Luce has a friend to tag along.

thank you horikoshi sensei.