I’m Physically Incapable Of Taking My Time On Anything But I Hope This Looks Nice Enough To Satisfy

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.

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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!

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.

Bada ba ba, bada ba!~ Ba ba ba, badum badum baaa!~

*Ibuki gets up from her pod, and starts singing to herself and also moves slowly as if she was dancing with her with her eyes closed…*

*Fuyuhiko and Hajime are both dumbfounded and nudge each other and make air noises to convey who should go check on her first…it’s decided that it’s Hajime who goes…*

I-Ibuki….?

Ba-di-di-da, da da da dum, dum duuum!~ Dum dum!~

*Ibuki motions as if she opens a door then continues walking a few feet…*

Ibuki…

La la laaa, la la la laaaa!~

*Then she stops and motions again as if reaching for something…then she grabs Hajime’s tie…*

Ibuki!

Huh-wha?

AAAAAAAHHHH!

AAAAAAAHHH!

AAAAAAHHH!

AAAAAAHHHH!

Wait, why are you screaming?!

You scared Ibuki!

Wait a sec, even more than that…

Peeping Hajime! Pevert! What are you doing in my room?! And-

Wait….what happened to my room….?

Hmmmm….Lot more of a sci-fi aesthic going on here…

But I dig it! I can totally dig all the way to America with this getup!

Ibuki, wait a second-

Also sweet contact Hajime. Going for a two-tone style?

Not bad, not bad at all! I’d like to see mow many contacts I can put on, then I’ll be able to see the full rainbow!

Uh, Ibuki, hold on-

Eh, Fuyuhiko and Nagito are in my new room too? Is this a panty raid? I didn’t expect this from….

………….

……… *She looks at Nagito’s arm…*

Sweet Eldwin Elric cosplay. Where’d you get it?

Oh wait, I get it now! There’s a costume party going on right now and you came here to get Ibuki! Why didn’t you say so?

I’ve decided I’m going to a combination of Frankenstein’s Wife, Frankenstine’s Monster, and Frankenstine himself!

Bwahahahaha! With all these Franken’s combined I’ll be the ultimate super monster that terrorises the village!

Ibuki wait! Just, stop for a minute please!

Eh? Wha-wha-what?

………Ibuki?

What’s the last thing you remember?

Hmmmmm….

Well I woke up, trying a find a jam for my new song, then I saw you and we had a quick screaming fit, then I yelled and I looked at my new room and-

Before that, obviously!

Well I went to my cottage, took a nice long bath, tried to come up with a new song, then I took a mean nasty shit, then I bathed again, ran around my room to release all the energy I had and-

The night you went to bed, what happened?!

Psssshhhh….uuuummmmm….

Oh yeeeeaaaahhhh! Akane tried to fight Monokuma but Nekomaru jumped in front of Monokuma’s MegaBlaster and he got took away!

Poor Akane…we should do something nice for her….

Wait. Only that far back?

You don’t remember…the next few days or so, or what?!

Silly Fuyuhiko, the day just started! These are the next few days!

! …………

I…..Ibuki…..

Do you remember Hope’s Peak Academy?

Now Hajime’s the silly one! Monokuma and Monomi took our memories, remember-

Humor me!

Uh, alright…Let’s see…..

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmm uuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh……

Nope, nothing.

Ibuki, try. Try very very hard.

Try to remember anything, anything at all, about Hope’s Peak Academy, your time there, what happened afterwards. Something, anything!

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmm-

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm-

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmnnnnnnnn-

Nope!

………….

Oh no…..

draw yomi and Monaca causing chaos bc theyre both terrible beings ☺️

Hehehehehe protag go boom boom

despair era mikan but make her creepy

yuma in the last defents

(WHATS THE HOPE RESTORATION PROJECT THINGY IDK)

A fangame called Hopes Restoration, hold on lemme copy paste

"The story of Hope's Peak, the tale of it's despair and the hope that overcame it, drew to a close with the creation of a new Hope's Peak Academy. A story displaying a series of worldwide conflicts, both caused and resolved by Ultimate students, ended on an uplifting note...but could the world really return to normal that easily? As it turns out, so such luck.

As society began to rebuild itself, talented young people were once again viewed as the hope of the future. To cultivate what remaining hope the world had to offer, the new Hope's Peak Academy, among other ultimate schools were established. However, not everybody was on board with the re-creation of these schools. Many people blamed ultimates for the tragedy occurring in the first place, and feared that history might one day repeat itself. To ease their tensions, the coalition of these prestigious schools devised a plan. A plan to positively influence the reputation of ultimate students in the media by broadcasting the daily lives of a few carefully selected students. They called it: The Hope Restoration Program....but this is Danganronpa isn't it?

When sixteen students come together, it's unlikely that things will go according to plan. Especially when someone else has already found their way into the school."

An aesthetic for Filia from Skullgirls with light colours! I hope this is alriht but please let me know if you’d like something changed! -Mod Berkut

Danganronpa AU idea: Ultra Hopeless Rockstars

A while ago, a game by the name of No Straight Roads (That you should play BTW) kept me thinking about a what if scenario. What if Leo Kuwata gets away with his murder and wins the killing game, causing the other students to be killed in the process and then kicked into a world ravaged by kids and despair?

Something important to point out is that on his travel on Towa city, Leo encounters none other than the Ultimate Despair Ibuki Kyoda who was performing one of her despair-inducing concerts live at Towa city. Somehow, Leo manages to free Ibuki from the brainwash and they become partners on to know what the hell is happening.

For their luck, the Future Foundation finds the 2 which surprises them and rather than providing them with Megaphone Hacking Guns, they gave the 2 Electric Guitars capable of hacking. But unfortunately, both of them got wrapped up by the Warriors of Hope’s Demon Hunting. Now is up to them to stop the Ultimate Despairs and Warriors of Hope and return Hope to Towa city with the power of rock and roll!

Important things to point out:

*Leon will carry a giant trauma over the death of his other classmates due to his fault and thus whenever he meets one of the other “demons”, he will get PTSD whenever they ask him about if he knows any of the other students. but through Ibuki’s help, he will overcome such despair.

*Komaru Naegi will still be there, but she will be most of a supporting character

*Since Leon won the Killing Game, Junko Enoshima will still be alive, thus preventing the mass suicide of Ultimate Despairs. Things will get darker with her around.

*Leon and Ibuki won’t be that much affiliated toward the resistance

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!)