History Characters / DanganronpaByakuyaTogami

* ^ He crucified Chihiro's body and placed the blame for the murder on Genocide Jack, just to make a bigger spectacle out of the second trial. Byakuya also had a secondary objective to find out who would be most likely to catch him if he decided to murder someone, but it remains a fact that his primary motivation was making it harder for the class to catch the Blackened purely because he could. And if they got it wrong, then they would have all died, Byakuya included.

* FreudianExcuse: Part of the reason he's so fixated on the game as a competition between the students (instead of the students ultimately having to work together to solve the mystery of ''Monokuma'' in order to escape) is because of how he was set up against his half-siblings during his childhood and was never given the option of allying with ''them'' to get out of the game. It did what it was designed to do, and Byakuya deeply internalized the mindset that he'd never get anywhere in life without stepping on and crushing other people underfoot, and the best due he could give them is living his best life in their place; that maybe they ''didn't'' need to be crushed at all doesn't even occur to him in the present day.

* EvenEvilHasStandards:

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Thanks to his LackOfEmpathy, he dismisses emotional ties as petty and unimportant. So when they're a major factor in someone's motivation, he's completely blindsided by it. Kyoko [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech spells this out to him]] when he's bewildered at how he failed to solve the mystery of the fourth trial.

* ForTheEvulz: He crucified Chihiro's body and placed the blame for the murder on Genocide Jack, just to make a bigger spectacle out of the second trial. Byakuya also had a secondary objective to find out who would be most likely to catch him if he decided to murder someone, but it remains a fact that his primary motivation was making it harder for the class to catch the Blackened purely because he could. And if they got it wrong, then they would have all died, Byakuya included.

* ItAmusedMe: He {{troll}}s Makoto during some of his free time events for no reason except to be a jerk.

* VillainousBreakdown: He completely loses his cool in the Chapter 4 trial as it becomes increasingly clear that Aoi, [[TheDitz of all people]], managed to completely outwit him due to his cold-hearted LackOfEmpathy blinding him to the truth, whereas Makoto and Kyoko were able to see that truth and solve the mystery. The idea that he might have gotten everyone, himself included, killed over a result [[SmugSnake he had felt so completely confident in]] clearly upsets him. He [[HeelFaceTurn revokes his "villainous" status soon afterward.]]

* FreudianExcuse: Part of the reason he's so fixated on the game as a competition between the students (instead of the students ultimately having to work together to solve the mystery of ''Monokuma'' in order to escape) is because of how he was set up against his half-siblings during his childhood and was never given the option of allying with ''them'' to get out of the game.

* TheProudElite: His capacity for kindness is ''extremely'' hard to find, but it's there. Becomes far more obvious in later installments.

* JerkassHasAPoint: He may be an asshole, but he can also be [[WebVideo/DanganronpaAbridgedThing an asshole with a point.]]
** He makes it clear to the group that even though Makoto claims no one would kill someone else to graduate, they can't be ''sure'' of it, and letting their guard down would be a disastrously bad thing to do.
** His main instance of this is in regard to the dark secrets motive. When Makoto (whose secret is quite mundane) and Aoi downplay the secrets' severity and insist no one would kill just to avoid being embarrassed, he points out that this is an extremely flawed line of reasoning, since they don't know how bad the others' secrets ''are''; sure, ''they'' might have nothing important to hide, but that doesn't mean the others don't. Sure enough, it turns out that the consequences of Mondo's dark secret (the circumstances of his brother's death, which Mondo fears will cause the Crazy Diamonds to break up and break his final promise to Daiya) are stressful enough to drive him to kill in a fit of rage.
** In Chapter 4, after Sakura is revealed as the traitor, he claims that regardless of how kind she presented herself, it's generally not a good idea to trust a spy. Makoto begrudgingly admits that Byakuya may have been onto something there.
** He is wary of Makoto trying to rehabilitate the Remnants of Despair. Not just because of how dangerous they were at the time, but also so Makoto doesn't face any ramifications from the higher-ups of the Future Foundation. Naturally, Makoto is tried for treason at the beginning of ''3''.

* JerkassHasAPoint: While it's certainly assholish to accuse his classmates of being ready to murder someone and openly declare his desire to kill one of ''them'', but he has a point in that he doesn't know any of them, the game is set up as a competition, and it's quite reasonable to believe that somebody is going to play the game to escape.

** He isn't exactly pleased to find out the other students have been hiding Alter Ego from him. Hagakure points out that due to his cold behavior and making it clear he sees them all as competitors, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome no one has any reason to cooperate with him]].

* BerserkButton: Being called simply an 'Affluent Progeny', with the implication that he was just fortunate to be ''born'' into wealth, seriously ticks him off. Spending time with him reveals his title of heir comes from proving himself by winning a [[SiblingRivalry competition]] against his [[SuperBreedingProgram half-siblings]] as a [[TheSocialDarwinist Togami family tradition]] to choose the fittest to lead their corporate group. The losers don't get any of the inheritance, being expected to [[ImpoverishedPatrician join the "plebeians"]]. While Byakuya admits that his family was the catalyst for success, saying that he's just a RichIdiotWithNoDayJob [[PetTheDog disrespects his siblings]] by implying that they ''lost'' to said RichIdiotWithNoDayJob. [[YoungestChildWins It's worth noting he is the youngest sibling]].

** In Chapter 2, he responds to everyone trying to underplay the severity of the Secrets Motive by telling them not to judge how severe the secret was based on their own standards, which he brings up again in regards to the money motive. Despite this, Byakuya ''constantly'' judges the others based on his own standards, viewing all of the other students, namely [[OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent Makoto]], as essentially worthless and like they'll never amount to anything simply because of his status as heir to the Togami Family, which he believes makes him vastly above them.

* {{Irony}}: He chastises Makoto for expecting everyone to share his own moral code, [[JerkassHasAPoint and not without merit.]] Later in Chapter 4, he's outsmarted by Aoi because he expects everyone to be as sociopathic as him.

* JerkassHasAPoint: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] since he forgets that people still have compassion, which bites him back in Chapter 4. Due to his past life of climbing to the top to achieve his goals through competition, he ''also'' believes the killing game itself is a competition too, [[NotSoDifferentRemark with Celestia agreeing to that mindset]]. Factually speaking, it ''is'' a competition as people have to win it by achieving a goal at the expense of other people's lives, and that is exactly how it works, but when Monokuma's manipulations of Sakura's suicide break away from those rules, he realizes that he was wrong to think this since the mastermind was never intending to play fairly either.

* BerserkButton: Being called simply an 'Affluent Progeny', with the implication that he was just fortunate to be ''born'' into wealth, seriously ticks him off. Spending time with him reveals his title of heir comes from proving himself by winning a [[SiblingRivalry competition]] against his [[SuperBreedingProgram half-siblings]] as a [[TheSocialDarwinist Togami family tradition]] to choose the fittest to lead their corporate group. The losers don't get any of the inheritance, being expected to [[ImpoverishedPatrician join the "plebeians"]]. [[YoungestChildWins It's worth noting he is the youngest sibling]].

* JerkJustifications: It's a flimsy justification, but a lot of his dialogue options in School Mode imply that a part of his reason for despising "commoners" so much is because (in his mind) of how contented they are with peace and how little effort they put into improving their own lives, while he, by contrast, [[NonIdleRich refuses to accept complacence or mediocrity]].

* UnclePennybags: In School Mode, he'll offer Makoto an invitation to the National Concert Hall upon hearing he's a fan of going to concerts... specifically so he can rub it in Makoto's face how little he'll be able to appreciate the performance (it's still one of his best dialogue options).

** While aware of the nature of the game, he quickly adapts and embraces the circumstances as [[ThisIsACompetition a competition]], believing he's invincible due to his pedigree and station, and that he is a natural, [[TheLeader Levelheaded Leader]]. Never mind how his behavior puts everyone off, and how [[PlayerCharacter Makoto]] and Kyoko keep upstaging him. In Chapter 4, all the students decide to band together against Monokuma, which eliminates the competitive aspect of the trials. So because no one will lie awake in fear of being murdered anymore, the game has lost its "thrill", and this causes Byakuya to withdraw from the game and unite with the other students against Monokuma. Lampshaded by Monokuma at the end of Chapter 2; after Byakuya dramatically states that he plans to kill Monokuma after graduation, Monokuma sneers and says "You almost sound like a protagonist! Too bad you're just a side character!"

* HardWorkFallacy: You'd assume his attitude makes him a believer in the fallacy, yet this is actually averted. In School Mode, he frequently tells Makoto to accept his position in life, because it's unreasonable to expect him to reach the level of a Togami (showing how many levels down his condescension goes). Interestingly, some of his best responses come from Makoto making it clear that he recognizes this, while still continuing to try (either to succeed or to be Byakuya's friend). [[{{Determinator}} This trait]] is implied to be what leads to Byakuya's eventual respect for him in his School Mode ending. Case in point, his words upon getting the best response in his Trigger Happy Heart event:

->'''Voiced by:''' Creator/AkiraIshida (Japanese), Jason Wishnov (game), Creator/JoshGrelle (anime) (English)

* {{Bishounen}}: It's noted by many people he's conventionally good-looking. Toko especially finds him attractive, and Genocide Jack mentions that Byakuya is the one good-looking pretty boy that she doesn't want to kill.
* BlueBlood: As a member of the Togami family.

* BeautyIsBad: Probably the most conventionally {{Bishounen}} of all the male students, and also the most cold-hearted by far.

'''''Characters/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair''''' | [[Characters/Danganronpa2MaleStudents Male Students]] ([[Characters/DanganronpaHajimeHinata Hajime Hinata]] | [[Characters/DanganronpaNagitoKomaeda Nagito Komaeda]]) | [[Characters/Danganronpa2FemaleStudents Female Students]]\\