So, Akane....what Problems And Such Do You Want To Get Off Your Back Right Now? Or At Least, Feel Ready

Akane: The box says "four servings" but my heart says one.

Source: Tumblr

Ultra Despair Girls is honestly probably the best Kodaka has ever gotten at writing traumatized characters.

Why do you think Makoto using the NWP was the wrong thing to do? The despair states class 77-b were in was objectively bad and self destructive and removing them so they back to normal should be a good thing. Also I wouldn’t say what Makoto is doing with the NWP isn’t more brainwashing, it’s deprogramming.

I've talked a bit about my hatred for NWP and how it is used in DR2 here, but it really comes down to this:

Forcibly removing people's memories to make them better people is not the correct answer.

Forcibly removing people's memories and reverting them back to a previous state and then rewriting over those memories with new ones is not the right answer.

Especially when you take DR3 into account and that Makoto etc. didn't know about the brainwashing video or when the Remnants fell to despair, they're just making best guess scenarios and wiping out all of their time at Hope's Peak, which effectively means they are wiping out their memories of real Chiaki and replacing them with DR2!therapybot!Chiaki, which is NOT the correct answer, no matter how you slice it.

The end of DR3 is very good about this - you don't make people better by removing the bad thing. You don't make things better by removing the memories of your past, even if they're memories you regret or hate or don't want to ever address again ever. Those memories are still there. They're still important.

Removing memories is not an effective or even good way of deprogramming people who are brainwashed.

Makoto's luck kicked into full gear with all the stuff that happened in DR2 and the shutdown and getting the Remnants as we see them in DR3, which is not a result of them having their memories removed. They still have their memories and are able to recover.

And yeah. Brainwashing is maybe a stretch (it's Junko's word for it, after all) - but they are reaching into a group of people's heads and mucking around with their brains and making choices for who they want them to be and how they want them to be that way (no, no, you can't be Remnants, so we will remove everything that led to that development and make you into someone we want by meddling with your brain)....

Sounds a bit like brainwashing.

Not the way Junko did it, for sure.

Still sounds a bit like brainwashing.

Girl's got a point.

DR: Ultra despair girls / Earthbound crossover

i find the dehumanization of makoto to be so fascinating especially when compared to the dehumanization of junko

bc they both get reduced to the ideal they represent (hope and despair) only that for junko it happens after her death, which is what happens to martyrs. she becomes this symbol of despair for which people like monaca and the remnants strive for, specifically after she dies. her death is what cements her as this symbol

but for makoto, it happens whilst he's alive. he has to deal with the weight of being a symbol of hope, the weight of a world that desperately needs healing from the tragedy. he has to do that! he isn't given junko's luxury of being dead. he's alive and has to deal with the pain it inflicts on his deteriorating mental state

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!)

@drawing-cookie UGLY_BARNACLE.psd

those misspellings tho check em out B’))

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.

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 !!)

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.