CHAPTER 1: I Am Thou, Thou Art I.

Redraw of something I made a while back.

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

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?)

Sonia... I know your trying to be nice here but I would leave Ruruka be; she clearly doesn't like you so maybe leave her be.

I do apologize if I have done something to offend you. I am merely trying to make conversation.

No, don't apologize Sonia! That bitch started it!

Yeah, we didn't do anything to you! So don't start shit with us for no reason!

"Didn't do anything"? "No reason", huh? *siiiiip*

Let's do a little role reversal here. Say that I was super destructive terrorist that ended the world.

And then one day, I came to all and was all, "Oowoowoo~ I'm sowwwwy~ I did a wittle fuckie-wuckie!~ I was bwainwashed you see? Pwease fogive me~ Oowoowoo~"

Knowing all the damage, crimes, and lives that I might have done then. Do you really think you would accept and forgive me so easily?

.............

Didn't think so. *Siiiiip*

I don't know where you get off and think everything is going to be just, oh-so-fine for you, even if that brainwashing excuse is true.

You're dead men walking. No one on EARTH is going to want anything to do with you. Your only "future" is to sit back, look up at the ceiling, and let that electric chair fry every single cell in your worthless brains.

And I for one, can't wait to watch.

So, *siiiiip*, laterrrrzzzz! Hahahaha!~

*Ruruka skips cheerfully out of the room with Sonosuke following her*

..........

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

Hehehehehe protag go boom boom

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.

my toxic trait is that I think it would’ve been better character development if Naruto realised he didn’t actually want to be Hokage (functionally a deskjob except in times of crisis) and left with Sasuke on his redemption roadtrip, after which they both became vigilantes protecting the underdogs of the world from the corrupt power structures enabled by the very existence of militaristic mercenary societies like Konoha who can hire out super-strong child soldiers to protect the rich, in this essay I will

I know it's cool to hate, but I really wish more Danganronpa protagonist posts included Komaru from UDG. Komaru and UDG does so much of the heavy lifting to make DR work as a narrative and Komaru is just left to the wayside after breaking her back.

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 💀

yuma in the last defents