You Know What I Really Would’ve Liked To See In Dr3?

Lil happy boy ⭐️

Recently I bought game pass for pc and finally got to play Psychonauts 2. I’m still very far from the ending, but I’m really liking the game so far. The only bummer is that I feel like every character is either dismissive or completely rude towards the protagonist, which makes me not like very much any of the new characters. So I thought, “Raz surely deserved a better group of friends… What if I draw other psychic characters in Psychonauts style?” It was challenging trying to emulate the game style, I don’t know if I nailed it, but it was a great learning experience.

I would like to hear the essay about how hope peak is bad!

In order to understand why Hope's Peak is intrinsically bad, you have to look at the reason it was founded first off. Not for the betterment of talented students, but for researching them for the Kamukura Project which can basically be summed up as, to quote @prompt-master, who helped me with this, "unethical hidden experimentation of a minor with the interest of erasing his identity and turning him into a human tool." Pretty fucked up, enough to make the statement that Hope's Peak irreparably sucks on its own. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.

We also see in DR3, SDR2, and in THH that Hope's Peak actively covers up murders for its students. This includes both Syo and the whole situation with the Twilight Syndrome Murder Case in DR3 and SDR2, wherein quite a few murders were just...brushed under the rug by HPA. (There's also the student council KG, but IIRC they never figured out who did it.

Also, there's all the failed Kamakura Project test subjects. All in all, there's quite a few deaths that Hope's Peak has under its belt.

We haven't even mentioned the psychological effects of HPA yet, especially on the world around them.

First up, the normal complex. to quote Prom once more, “the normal complex is a term...to explain the phenomenon of how EVERY SINGLE nontalented character in the series shows some form of low self esteem regarding how normal they are. Hinata, Naegi, and Komaru are the biggest examples of this. It doesnt matter how special they are, they will always see themselves as normal and lesser because they were raised on the belief that talent=worth”. In a society where Hope’s Peak exists, this is just...how things are.

There’s also the exploitation of the Reserve Course students. Yes, Komaeda’s view of them might be an extreme example, but it’s very indicative of the climate towards them--someone in the reserve course will never be a talented student, no matter how hard they try. However, they can still graduate from HPA, which is still an honor--so people keep funnelling INSANE amounts of money into the program. And then they can use the reserve course students as guinea pigs--because who cares if someone untalented goes missing?

And they don’t even TEACH there. In DR3 it shows how the only real requirement is that they prove their talent at the end of the year. In fact, quite a few students just skip most of their classes. 

Also there’s the fact that Kirigiri is the daughter of the principal and it’s HER class that was given shelter. That’s like, nothing compared to everything else in here, but it’s still incredibly suspicious just knowing about Hope’s Peak in general.

Tl;dr: From its inception, Hope’s Peak Academy was not meant to help its students, only to conduct unethical research on them and exploit those it deems “untalented” to further said research. This is only, like, ONE reason it’s super fucked up.

not sure how much it counts as controversial, but the bit at the end of DR3 where the Remnants take the blame for the killing game has always rubbed me the wrong way. Not just because of personal beliefs about information, but also because in that very same anime, we see Junko blackmailing people and HPA trying to cover up their mistakes. If anyone finds out the truth about the kg, they’re screwed. Felt like it went against the theme a bit.

Yeah actually I would say this is the opposite of controversial simply because I don't think I've ever met or seen a danganronpa fan who thinks dr3 was incredible. I don't hate dr3 nearly as much as I've seen other hate it, but I have a very strong love-hate relationship with it. Especially for Future.

But I can totally understand having beef with that particular ending. (In fact I have issues with most of the Hope arc) All three of the main games, even the pessimistic one, have a theme of facing the truth no matter how awful. So it is a bit strange for danganronpa to hide the truth when the core theme has always been to expose it. I can understand the world not being ready but...it felt unnecessary. Because The Future Foundation needs to be completely rebuilt anyway. All but three leaders of the FF are dead, and one of them just kinda walked away to do who knows what. The FF is also incredibly corrupt and terribly built. There IS no need to save it by taking the blame because it's already dead by the end of the anime.

My Cinnamon roll Izuku Midoriya aesthetic

The "You're all secretly war criminals" thing is a pretty epic twist the first time playing. But like...it's an absolute mess when you really think about the sheer number of logistical issues Junko should have faced if we go with the fandom idea that "brainwashing was just a retcon" and that she successfully manipulated each of them with pure charisma. To begin with, people severely underestimate how much work it would actually take to turn a relatively normal (if a little eccentric in the case of Class 77) person into a monster on the level of the Remnants of Despair. Like this is WAY beyond anything Junko was doing in DR1's Killing Game. Manipulating someone to commit a murder is one thing. I'm not denying that it's entirely possible for Junko to have done that to them. Manipulating them into having a complete breakdown and killing their families? Trickier, but not entirely outside the realm of possibility. Manipulating them to keep on killing over and over again, become addicted to the sensation, carry out all sorts of other depraved acts, and wage a forever war on humanity, with the determination of a literal machine? That's gonna take a LOT of work. Like years of work. To put things into perspective, the Nazi gas chambers were implemented as a more efficient extermination method, because it was discovered that quite a few guards found it difficult to pull the trigger on Jewish prisoners themselves. That was with an entire decade's worth of anti-Semitic propaganda building up to the Holocaust. Junko meanwhile did not have a decade. She had a year. Less than a year actually. On top of getting things ready for the Class 78 Killing Game, manipulating Kamukura, Matsuda, and the Warriors of Hope, and keeping up appearances as a regular class member, we're expected to believe that she was able to corrupt all of Class 77-B to that degree as a FUCKING SIDE PROJECT within about 9-10 months? Not just doing it to one person, but to 14 people altogether. And all the while this was done without Kyoko or Makoto or Matsuda or Jin Kirigiri noticing ANY unusual shifts in those students' behavior. Which would require the Remnant versions of people like Teruteru, Ibuki, Akane, etc. to have insane acting skills up until the Reserve Course destroyed most of the school. I get that the Despair Video thing felt kind of lazy. I personally would have gone with a brainwashing methods that was less OP and slower acting. But like...literal mind control really is the most straightforward explanation. The "charismatic Junko" interpretation is completely inconsistent with the level of competence she displayed in DR1. Someone brilliant enough to create the Remnants of Despair with a silver tongue alone would not have their Killing Game derailed by something like Sakura's sacrifice. And it requires some ridiculous characterization for Class 77-B. We have real life examples of attempted spree shooters who gave up and turned themselves in after killing family members, because they realized they didn't actually have the guts to become a mass-murderer. There would have to be at least one such "failed Remnant" who crashed and burned like that among those 14 if they behaved like actual human beings and not goddamn robots. People try to chalk this up to the SDR2 cast coming from broken homes and shit. But I mean come on. So did a good chunk of the DR1 cast, and they spent an entire year in isolation with Junko. They would have gone insane just by being in proximity to her for so long if she was that charismatic.

goddd you get it. you literally understand it all. it was cool when it was first revealed but it's just so. Weird. when you think about it. like this is just some teenager. some random teenager created a cult and basically ended the world in the span of less than a year .i get what they were going for but it feels like a lot of the time the characters bend to fit whatever's going on in the plot... it aint consistent 💀

Ecosocialist praxis

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?)

Post Game AU where ppl wake up to consequences

Misc Notes

The survivors wake up with all their memories. They wake up on Jabberwock island. Same building structures but it's clearly been abandoned. The only building not in a state of disrepair is the lab they were hosted in.

Sonia immediately has a mental breakdown and sequesters herself in her room.

Akane is too frail to move but mentally she's doing as well as you can hope. Kazuichi cries for couple of days but throws himself into making the island suitable for living.

Fuyuhiko and Hajime compartmentalizes the fastest and leads the group.

After months, Hajime is able to wake up the first person: Gundham. He then wakes them up in term of who's been dead the shortest time in the NWP. Nagito and Peko's mind been shattered from the physical/mental trauma so Hajime leaves them for last.

Sonia avoids Gundham because he wakes up without memories from the tragedy. He reminds her of good days she doesn't deserve anymore.

Kazuichi help Sonia a lot. It's ironic because this is technically what he wanted but now he's hates it. He convinces Sonia not to avoid Gundham.

alright my kings queens and peeps in between, here be the first infodump of the student council au characters ! before we get into the read more, allow me to note that nami and akira’s gang are @suspectunderinvestigation’s ‼️ pls hit them up w a follow and check out their fics bc honestly this au wouldn’t be possible w/out them ‼️‼️

i also want to note that while these characters do be in existence, I’m gonna try not to hyperfixate on them haha. The focus of the story is still Akechi, Adachi, Akira, and some choice p4 characters who I won’t say anything abt yet so if that’s something that worried u,,, do not worry (and trust me you’ll love these guys anyway <3)

and now let’s get right into the news

starting off, here are some general notes

This takes place during Akechi’s third year at Yasogami, making Akira a second year. Everyone else in the council is a third year. In the gang, Toura is a second year and Shiro is a first year.

The student council race is an important plot point in of itself so I won’t go into too much detail. Besides Akira who was added on late term, any members who aren’t committee heads ran for student council and lost to Akechi.

Akira’s gang is called the Black Masks for irony purposes. They existed before Akira came in, but Akira asserted his dominance almost immediately. Akira has certainly upped the ante for crime (petty thievery, grand thievery, traffic violations, intimidation and general violence, yknow , the usual)

Any crimes Akechi commits are typically swept under the rug by the rest of the student council under the guise of “for the greater good” (the greater good is, stealing tamagotchis for student council appreciation day which he totally did not make up just now)

The student council does not solely rely on Akechi for intimidation, although he’s a big driving force. The main goal of the student council is to stomp out all crime (i.e., Black Masks), improve the student body, and protect the school from shadows.

Oh did I mention shadows? Yes well :)

Due to Adachi never getting caught, the fog never dispersed and the “game” kept going. Except, well, after Souji’s departure, the game wasn’t very fun anymore. So things calmed down.

Not only that, but due to the threat of the encroaching fog, life for Adachi and Akechi mostly became defending themselves for some time.

After Akechi’s ascendancy to student council president, shadows begin to flock around the school. The rest of the student council notices this and decides to investigate. Their investigation leads them to the conclusion that they need Personas.

Everyone’s Persona is based on a Japanese myth and I apologize in advance if there’s anything offensive in the design or anything. I will work to redesign or change the Personas entirely as needed.

(and I also recognize that some of these are already in SMT but I’m using the Loki excuse since none of them are the Personas of major characters or anything lmao)

And in terms of plot notes that’s where I’m stopping for now ;)

So with all that being said, here’s some more specific notes,

Momotaro is a fake Persona much like Robin Hood. Since Robin Hood falls more in line with Persona 5’s trickster theme, Momotaro is meant to blend in with the Japanese mythology of Persona 4.

Akechi is gunning to take over Inaba. The game might have stopped for Adachi, but Akechi is very certain that with the right moves, he could rule the small town, and not just Yasogami.

The double-staff is just a reworked UV light, stolen from Junes. Hitoshi, who works at Junes, watched him break it out of the ceiling it in awed silence.

Hitomi and Hitoshi are twins and had been planning to run for student council president and vice president since they were kids. So. Losing was a pretty big blow to their egos, especially Hitomi’s.

Being extremely anal about losing to Akechi, Hitomi typically doesn’t agree with him on anything at all, being contrarian for the sake of being contrarian.

Hitoshi doesn’t really take the same attitude as Hitomi, but he doesn’t particularly like Akechi. Unfortunately for Hitoshi, Akechi typically hangs around him at his job in order to cover up thefts, and so Akechi subconsciously sees him as a friend necessary ally.

Cho ran for student council solely because she has a crush on Hitomi. She was already promised position of secretary, so she doesn’t particularly mind how the race went and holds no grudge against Akechi.

Eika and Kenzo are childhood best friends. They run their committees without a lot of interference from the council.

Yuugo on the other hand is often consulted by the council to dish out discipline on the student body. Yuugo pretends he doesn’t like to dole out punishment, but having been in a gang in the past, for whatever reason, it brings back good feelings. Thus, Akechi and Yuugo have a pretty solid relationship compared to the other committee heads.

Yuugo was once a Black Mask himself but quit after he started working at Tatsumi Textiles, which, he only started doing because he thought he could get some tips/mentoring from Kanji. Unfortunately, the tips and mentoring he got were square in the opposite direction of how to get away with gang activity.

Nami is an enigma. She’s the new kid who transferred to Yasogami in her third year, so nobody knows a whole lot about her. She makes fast friends with Akechi though, and starts working night shift at Moel Gas Station.

She’s a big fan of Jack Frost. Some of those shadows seem to… flock to her…

Akira is pretty much your baseline Akira, except for the fact that without that initial Metaverse intervention, he had no other way to vent his frustration with getting sent to Inaba, so he just. Joins a gang.

Also, under his probation, he lives with Naoto. Although Naoto is aware of Akira being in the Black Masks, he assumes they’re more lowkey than what they are because under Akira’s leadership, they’re a lot better at covering their tracks. (Being friends with the student council president/nephew of a detective/best friend of the daughter of the head detective helps quite a bit!)

Morgana also exists here but as far as anyone knows he’s just a cat. Just a cat ;)

Sumitomo is Akira’s second in command and his muscle. When their scooters need repaired, Sumitomo’s the one on it. The gang as a whole are saving up money for actual motorcycles, but for now, most of the money they steal goes to repairs.

Sumitomo and Akira have a pretty close relationship and thus far this has been my favorite thing of the AU:

Also, Sumitomo can’t keep a pair of clothing free of tatters to save his life, hence his nickname.

Toura was at Yasogami before Akira, but people often mistake her for his sister. As if she could ever be related to that dweeb tho lmao. She calls herself Ace anyway in reference to this because, well, she might not be his sister by blood but 🥺. Also, she is the brains of the operation.

Shiro is sort of the baby of the gang and keeps a baseball bat with him even in school for protection and also because he thinks it will make him fit in more.

He has a soft spot for animals, which leads him to decisions like

Others often tease Shiro for his hair, having gone prematurely white, but he finds solace from this in the gang. They call him “Snow” (affectionate) and would kill for him given the chance.

And that’s all we’ve got for right now! Hopefully this clears some things up and also helps paves a road for a comic/fic in the future !! If you have any questions hit up the inbox !! Happy to provide any elaborations ;) ‼️

(and any chance for doodles is very very welcome :3 !!)