Hope vs Despair

Like, I dunno. I just feel like they would have been much more willing to work with him rather than fight against him like the V3 cast constantly does. In particular, one of the things that makes a notable difference between 77B and V3 is this:

Flexibility for Individuality and Willingness to Address Other Points of View

Class 77B are all much more understanding of one another’s neuroses and make room for each other in a way that the V3 cast just doesn’t. They communicate a lot more in a way that makes everyone feel included, and everyone has room to voice their concerns and have them taken seriously. V3 by contrast is almost always arguing in a way where everyone is fighting to be heard, but no one is actually listening.

Mahiru voices her complaint over Twogami appointing himself as leader, and discussion follows to why exactly Twogami would be the best fit for the position anyway, assuaging her concerns. There are misunderstandings between them, like with the intentions behind Hiyoko’s shrine being misconstrued as malicious due to her poor taste, but those feelings and intentions are discussed and everyone comes around fairly quickly. Fuyuhiko throws his weight around a lot in the beginning as a the Ultimate Yakuza, and even threatens to kill, but everyone at the very least recognizes this as posturing and leaves him alone until he’s able to come around. The only genuine threat is Nagito, who takes clear and focused action to cause harm in chapter 1, and even then he is simply tied up for a single chapter. He’s still taken care of and acknowledged as a member of the group by others in the class, and when he falls ill to the Despair Disease, he is given extra care due to his weak constitution.

In that sense, I feel like they would be a lot more willing to make room for and work with Kokichi’s particular ways of coping and engaging with others, because they understand that everyone in the class has their “thing” that makes them who they are. They’re going to work with those things to make sure everyone is on the same page and everything gets done.

Unlike the rest of his classmates, Kokichi himself is also flexible in this way. He bounces off of people in whatever way he thinks would work best with them, and is only met with resistance from the V3 cast specifically because of his own neuroses and coping mechanisms with regard to lying and making jokes and pranks to lighten the mood. You could argue a lot of his jokes are kind of mean-spirited, but they frankly pale in comparison to Hiyoko’s unprompted bullying and Fuyuhiko’s blatant grandstanding. He leads people around during class trials, but Nagito does that too, and is honestly a lot more condescending about it. Even so, everyone in the class is willing to hear him out and follow along if it means getting to the bottom of things. That’s the thing that separates them from the V3 cast, who go out of their way to try to shut Kokichi down simply because they think he’s just fucking with them. Class 77B understands that whatever the others are saying, there’s a reason behind it, and so are willing to pursue the issue to find out where it might go.

This is just a general overview of the of the vibe, but I have thoughts of lots of the classmates' individual dynamics with Kokichi as well in a sort of vague "SDR2 but Kokichi is Inexplicably There Also" AU—not quite a fanfic or rewrite, but more an exploration via meta posts. I have some posts already on Tumblr, but I want to crosspost them over here before continuing the series. This post is kind of an introductory post to the eventual series and the concept and for general thoughts if anyone wants to add anything.

Man, you ever think about how Ouma was probably super betrayed by Akamatsu’s actions in V3? You ever think about how, at least in canon, he probably had a lot of resentment towards her, not even just because she murdered someone, but on the grander scale of the fact she literally made the single worst mistake any leader possibly could?

That is, assuming you are unequivocally morally just because you want what’s best for everyone and thus know better than everybody else in the room.

You ever think about how that one thing was what led her to the conclusion that she could totally do whatever she wanted if she felt it would be in the group’s best interest, even if she KNEW they wouldn’t like it, evidenced by the fact she felt the need to sneak around behind Saihara’s back? You ever think about how she absolutely wasn’t prepared for the consequences of those actions when she inevitably was proven that she WAS fallible?

You ever think about how Ouma, with his own experiences in leadership, is intimately familiar with how DANGEROUS those types of leaders are? You ever think about how he put his trust in her to take a back seat and let her lead the group anyway? And then it blew up in both their faces.

You ever think about how even after the fact, he couldn’t bring himself to blame her for her inexperience? You ever think about he on record, in canon, blamed himself for being useless instead? You ever think about how being the true leader in the room just by Talent and knowing how dangerous it is for a leader to ignore their capacity for error and making bad decisions, he went through the entire rest of the killing game acutely aware of his responsibility for every single bad thing that happened from then on? You ever think about how Akamatsu and her mistake probably haunted him?

I think about it a lot.

Like, do you ever wonder how fucked up it was that Ouma ended up pushed into a role within the group where he had no choice but to do what Akamatsu did and make big mistakes for the good of the group? Because over the course of the game they kept writing him off and by the time things were getting really bad they wouldn’t have listened to him so he was forced to pull an Akamatsu about it?

You ever think about how he sets out to avoid Akamatsu’s mistake in chapter 2, by proposing the Motive Video Watch Party so that everyone was privy to the same information and no one would slip through the cracks again like Akamatsu did? You ever think about how it was Saihara, who was radicalized by Akamatsu’s tragedy in the opposite direction because he doesn’t have Ouma’s expertise of leadership and transparency, who thought that was a bad idea and shut Ouma out of this plan?

You ever think about how Ouma makes a point to be involved in as much as possible so that he can keep tabs on things (the Motive View Party, the seance, helping Miu set up the computer), but no one actually listens to his proposals so he ends up having to make decisions on his own the way Akamatsu did? You ever think about how this blockage in communication ended up putting Ouma in a corner where he couldn’t be upfront with anyone but a select few people?

You ever think about how this ultimately results in his hand being forced to stoop to Akamatsu’s level and scheme behind everyone’s backs, resulting in the deaths of not one but two more people?

You ever think that since he’s been acutely aware of the responsibility of a leader to shoulder the blame for bad things happening, that just as he blamed himself and his own inaction for Akamatsu’s mistake, he was very much of the idea that this whole outcome was entirely his own fault, due to his own failings as a leader, because if he had just been good enough, none of this would have happened?

You ever wonder if he thinks he’s worse than Akamatsu because of it?

Food for thought.

Has anyone ever noticed that? The Danganronpa fandom, at least publicly, seems to be so very, very quiet. I don't really know if that's something unique to Danganronpa itself or unique to this day and age, but it's so... difficult to facilitate extended discussion or community engagement in public spaces.

Now, the reason I put this here on Dreamwidth honestly isn't a dig, rather it's because this community and the inherent nature of Dreamwidth makes it much more likely to foster an actual discussion. If I were to post this on Tumblr, I doubt there would be much discussion to be had. The post may get some likes, maybe a single reblog, but other than that? No one would actually answer, I don't think.

Granted, talk of notes just kind of makes me sound like a whiner over engagement, doesn't it? But that's not really the issue here. The issue is nobody talks to anybody, for whatever reasons, and that's so weird to me. Fandom is about collaboration and building off of one another, isn't it? Why is it so quiet, then?