Ultra Despair Girls Is Honestly Probably The Best Kodaka Has Ever Gotten At Writing Traumatized Characters.

Thank you! Yeah, it's been bothering me for a while now that people in this fandom became so attached to the idea that the Remnants were all voluntary mass-murderers acting of their own free will. To start with, it basically means that Makoto and co. are complete assholes for trying to redeem such people through amnesia. To do that to terrorists who acted entirely of their own free will instead of putting them on trial would be an insult to all of their victims (both living and dead). Yet the writers were clearly wanting the players to sympathize with Makoto's cause, and don't treat what he's doing as reprehensible. And the very existence of the Neo-World Program implies that it's made with the intent to deprogram brainwashing. Then there's the fact that "someone preyed on my insecurities and made me depressed, so now I'm gonna blow up the world"...is just not a believable fucking heel turn at all. Human beings just don't work like that. I'm not saying that you couldn't tell a story where a moral person like say Mahiru Koizumi gradually becomes a complete monster. But it would take a hundred extra steps and need way more time. Class 77-B are all flawed people, but Jesus wept they're not THAT flawed. And something I forgot to bring up in the previous ask is another big logistical issue for Junko. They're not even in the same class. The SDR2 cast a year above her. Thus meaning the amount of time she could spend with them is even more limited. If anything it would have actually made more sense for her to pick Class 78 as her Remnants, since she at least has more time to work with them. One of the explanation I've heard is she did an evil variant of the FTEs during school lunch breaks or in the afternoon. Like...how even the fuck do you corrupt someone to that level over the course of a few private conversations? And to have it work perfectly with zero subjects acting conspicuously too early, or going on a bender, or just committing suicide? That is not a cunning manipulator you're writing. That is one of the worst examples of a Villain Sue I've ever seen, as you've just given her the most nonsensical winniest win that's ever been won.

LITERALLY. LIKEA CTUALLY. junko is a flat piece of cardboard to me

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!

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?)

Isn't the world of Danganronpa basically what happens when The Gifted Kids are put up on a pedestal of pressure and praise whereas those who aren't hyper-productive or don't have an exact goal in life get put down constantly and are set aside as "average" or "slackers"?

Just saying cus the way they treat people who don't exhibit any special type of "talent" is almost oppressive. Makoto and Komaru were in frigging high school and apparently they've been disregarded by society just because they haven't done anything super duper talented.

I feel like maybe their world was headed towards dystopia even before Junko did anything.

I’m physically incapable of taking my time on anything but i hope this looks nice enough to satisfy u

Looking back at DR talent development there's really some interesting introduction between some characters, my favorite one so far is makoto and tsumugi, i never thought this two will some interesting dialogs here

And the funniest thing here is that tsumugi is the one who noticed that makoto is the ultimate hope and not nagito, you know the one who keeps yapping about hope😭

Terry understands if you feel sad

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.

never not on my bullshit

i’ve found that i’ve drawn quite a bit of them in bed