Fanfic / SMPRonpa

Due to the nature of this work, all spoilers outside of Chapter 6 and both endings will be unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

"'Til death do us part."^note Artwork by CloudSorcerer28

SMPRonpa: Survival of the Fittest is an infamous formerly lost, now found SMPLive / Danganronpa crossover fanfiction written by nivisons in late 2019. It was removed after CallMeCarson mentioned taking issue with it on his "serious stream", leading to harassment towards the author. No other featured creator would ever publicly take issue with the fic.

The fic is about the members of the SMP waking up in a convention center with a moth robot named Gure-ga, only to find that they are now at the center of a Deadly Game organized by an unknown mastermind. In order to leave, they must kill one of their peers and get away with it — but if they're found out, they will be executed. The fic follows Cooper, the protagonist, who forms friendships with his new peers and slowly tries to piece together the mystery behind how they've all ended up here.

Information on the fic and its controversy can be found on its Fanlore page. On January 5, 2024, the fic was found in full and made available to read once again, which can be found here.

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SMPRonpa contains examples of:

Tropes A-G

• Alas, Poor Villain: Wilbur and Travis's executions are portrayed as particularly sympathetic towards them, with the former tearfully confessing, and the latter being outright manipulated into believing he was doing something good.
• The Alibi: Given the fic revolves around murder investigations, alibis are nearly omnipresent, with almost every killer having some excuse they attempt to use to throw off the investigation.
• Always Murder: All the deaths in the game are murders, with the only real exception being Carson's death in both endings, since as the mastermind of the game, he's technically bringing this on himself.
• Amnesiac Dissonance: Cooper is horrified to learn that the death game was his creation all along.
• Anyone Can Die: Given the plot of the work centering on a deadly game, any character can be killed off at any point.
• Arc Words: "'Til death do us part", from Joko in Cooper's nightmare, becomes a recurring line throughout the entire story.
• Armor-Piercing Question: There are several throughout the trials, usually preceded by "[BREAK!]".
  • In Chapter 1: "What do you mean, there was blood under his fingernails?"
  • In Chapter 2: "Wilbur, what do you mean, where?"
  • In Chapter 3: "Altrive, why don't you roll your sleeves up for us?"
• Audience Participation: The audience votes on whether Cooper dies alongside Carson or not.
• Big Bad: The mastermind behind the game, whose presence hangs over the cast for the entirety of the fic. It turns out to be Carson.
• Big Guy Fatality Syndrome: In Chapter 5, Techno is killed. The others remark about how they thought he'd be the most likely to make it given he's a hitman.
• Bludgeoned to Death: The murder weapon used against Charlie is a guitar, bashing his head in.
• Break the Cutie: Travis starts off as Cooper's optimistic and well-meaning tagalong, not even knowing his own Ultimate talent. As the fic continues, he grows more paranoid as people are picked off, and Schlatt singles him out to use as a pawn. He is subjected to a particularly gruesome demise.
• Bullying the Dragon: After Joko reveals himself to be the "mastermind", Poke begins to mock him.
  Poke: What the hell kind of a name is Gure-ga, you fucking weeb? That's scuffed as shit!
• Card-Carrying Villain: Schlatt openly admits to manipulating Travis to kill Connor, bragging about how he's "at the top of the totem pole" for getting away with it.
• Cassandra Truth: When the computer begins to interrogate Cooper, he freaks out, yelling at it to get out of his head, and the others are confused, because they can't see what he's scared of. When he tells Travis about it later, Travis isn't entirely convinced either:
  Travis: Oh, Cooper… Coop, I- I’m sorry. I think that was just someone messing with you. ‘m sorry that it freaked you out that bad.
• Clothing-Concealed Injury: In Chapter 3, when Ryan rolls up his sleeves, it turns out he was covering up several cuts and bruises, and a large wound covered by three bandages.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Most of the executions end up being bizarre and gruesome.
  • Carson's execution has him telling jokes while robots pelt tomato bombs at him.
  • Wilbur is drowned and stabbed in the neck by a swordfish.
  • Travis is mauled to death by robot monkeys.
• Darker and Edgier: The fanfic was infamous for being violent, due to it involving streamers who mostly made light-hearted content.
• Deadly Game: The characters are trapped in a convention hall with no escape and must kill and get away with it to leave.
• Deal with the Devil: Charlie makes a deal with Carson to survive the freezer, but still loses his hands from frostbite.
• Death Equals Redemption: In the black ending, Schlatt redeems himself by allowing himself to be dragged down to his death alongside Carson.
• Death Is the Only Option: The only way to leave the convention center is to kill and get away with it.
• Deus ex Machina: Sneeg is about to kill Schlatt when he's suddenly shot and killed by Joko, who conveniently reveals himself as the alleged mastermind.
• Deuteragonist: Travis, the optimistic underdog who doesn't know what his "talent" is, serves as the deuteragonist of the fic.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Travis dies in Cooper's arms during his execution.
• Dramatic Stutter: Dramatic stuttering is heavily utilized by the fic, with Travis in particular often doing it.
• The Dreaded: Technoblade, due to him being a hitman. He doesn't actually do anything to warrant this treatment outside of this.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Joko's grand entrance as the supposed mastermind is cut short when he's shot and killed by the real mastermind.
• Dwindling Party: Since it's a Deadly Game, characters are slowly picked off one by one.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Schlatt goes out alongside Carson to save everyone else, and has a badass monologue, too.
• Empty Chair Memorial: Deceased players are represented during the trials with a memorial picture that's crossed out atop their podium.
• The Ending Changes Everything: Chapter 6 drops two bombshells on the audience:
  • Every character's "ultimate" was a false personality implanted in them after a memory wipe. They were streamers before the game, and the mastermind wanted to see what would happen if they were implanted with a warped version of themselves that fans saw them as.
  • Our protagonist, Cooper, was the one who designed the game to begin with — being backstabbed by Carson at the last second and being made a victim of his own game, having his own memory wiped despite him begging Carson not to.
• Evidence Scavenger Hunt: Cooper usually spends the time between a body discovery and the trial hunting for evidence.
• Expy: Gure-ga, to Danganronpa's Monokuma — he's a robot animal running a death game, with a black and white color scheme.
• Face Death with Despair: Carson's execution in the beginning has him crying and begging, saying that he doesn't want to die.
• Face Death with Dignity: Lampshaded in the black ending with Schlatt's death.
  Schlatt shuts his eyes again and straightens his posture, sighing. Dignity. He goes out with dignity.
• "Facing the Bullets" One-Liner:
  • Schlatt's "If you're going to kill me, take me out in one shot. Overkill is for cowards."
  • Sneeg's "See you in hell, you slimy motherfucker."
• Failed Execution, No Sentence: Played with in regards to Ryan in Chapter 3. The other players are made to vote on if he lives or dies since he only assisted in a murder rather than committing it himself. He ultimately gets to live, but not without severe, potentially permanent injuries that leave him wheelchair-bound for the rest of the fic.
• Flashback Cut: Cooper's tape and nightmares serve as flashbacks, introducing the reader to the character of Joko, who Cooper doesn't recognize but continues to pop up in his dreams.
• Forced into Evil: Travis kills Connor not out of his own desire, but because Schlatt convinced him it would let them all go home.
• Gamer Chick: Angel is the "Ultimate Gamer Girl".

Tropes H-Q

• Heel–Face Brainwashing: Cooper was the one to initially propose the idea of this entire death game, and yet once his own memory is wiped, he instead becomes the driving force keeping the group together and trying to get them out alive.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Schlatt. He snaps when Ty dies and manipulates Travis into killing Connor for no real reason, but in the black ending, he votes against Carson, taking him down with him.
• Hitman with a Heart: Despite being a hitman in a killing game, Techno doesn't want to hurt anyone, and instead tends to act as a voice of reason or someone to keep watch.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Travis's execution leaves Cooper feeling hollow and guilty, and he spends the rest of the fic standoff-ish and hostile as a result.
• Indirect Serial Killer: The mastermind traps a bunch of people in a convention hall and forces them to kill each other.
• Informed Ability: Most of the characters don't get to show off their ultimates as they have no practical use in the game. This is, at the very least, averted with Wilbur, who gets to perform a concert for the others.
• Involuntary Battle to the Death: The characters are all trapped in a convention hall together, and the only way for them to escape is to kill someone and get away with it.
• Just One Little Mistake: Carson arrives to the trial in Chapter 1 without his signature jacket, and Cooper had noticed beforehand that there was polyester fabric discarded in the furnace — something that is used to figure out that Carson killed Gold and burned his jacket because he couldn't get the blood out.
• Killed Off for Real: When characters die, they're dead for good. Subverted in the black ending's epilogue, as it turns out Charlie didn't actually die in the freezer.
• Kill the Cutie:
  • Ty is the youngest player of the game at only 16, and is found dead in a particularly heartbreaking manner, with his bosses Schlatt and Connor taking it particularly badly.
  • Travis, who is set up throughout as the well-intentioned and optimistic sidekick to our protagonist, ends up having his desire to do something helpful exploited as he's manipulated into committing a murder, and then is executed rather brutally, dying in Cooper's arms.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: None of the characters can seem to remember anything about themselves other than their names and "talents". Cooper has this particularly bad, dealing with constant mind fog and headaches, thinking he must have "got a larger dose of kidnapping juice". It turns out that their memories had all been wiped prior to the game, and instead, they had been implanted with false memories.
• Law Procedural: The trials have elements of a law procedural, focusing on the drama that ubfolds from the investigations.
• Lights Off, Somebody Dies: Just before the body discovery in Chapter 2, the lights go out while everyone is gathered for Wilbur's concert.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • Schlatt is spared execution because he only planned the murder rather than actually committing it.
  • Ryan, on the other hand, is subject to a painful deconstruction of this — he may get to live, since he didn't technically kill Ty, but he does get severely injured and has to live with the trauma and guilt of his actions.
• Malicious Misnaming: When being antagonized by Schlatt & Co. in Chapter 4, Cooper responds by hitting Schlatt with:
  Cooper: Listen, Gay Slut...
• Mechanical Animals: Robot monkeys kill Travis during his execution.
• Medium Blending:
  • Each chapter is accompanied by an illustration, though not all of them have survived.
  • The mastermind is revealed through a short animation.
• Metafiction: The ending twist of the fic makes it into a commentary on how streamers are viewed by fans.
• Mood Whiplash: The tone of the fic swings between silly and dark very quickly, with characters often cracking jokes in the middle of serious scenes.
• Motive Rant: The mastermind goes on a particularly long one in Chapter 6.
  Carson: I decided to do something big. To do something nobody will ever forget. What if these warped versions of yourself… Were yourself? I spiraled, trying to figure this out myself. Well, I had done it, after months of planning. What better way to put a personality in someone's head then to take what's been given by fans and put it in your head? It took a while to perfect, but I had managed to wipe almost any traces of your former self, and instead twist yourself around to a point where you're almost someone else entirely! The fans love you!
• Multiple Endings: There are two endings, that the readers got to vote on.
  • The black ending is the "true/good ending", where everyone votes against Carson and the survivors get to leave.
  • The white ending is the alternate "bad ending", where Carson convinces everyone to vote against Cooper. Both of them are dragged off and are executed together, and Travis tells Cooper that this wasn't supposed to happen.
• murder.com: The game is being broadcast over the Internet by the mastermind for fans to observe.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Travis is horrified when he realizes that Schlatt lied to him about Connor being the mastermind and realizes that he had killed Connor for no reason.
  Travis: You l-lied to me? I- I thought- I thought that- that he was the mastermind-
• No Mercy for Murderers: The murderers are always executed brutally.
• Non-Fatal Explosions: Carson's "execution" doesn't actually kill him, despite the giant tomato bomb explosion. He is, however, left with a huge scar.
• Offscreen Villainy: Despite being a hitman that Schlatt is terrifed of, Techno doesn't ever kill anyone on-screen.
• Once an Episode: Every chapter, barring Chapter 6, includes a body discovery, a trial, and an execution.
• Ontological Mystery: The characters have no idea who they are or how they ended up in the convention hall.
• Plot Armor: Schlatt gets away with planning a murder due to his plot importance, though it's justified by him working with the mastermind behind the scenes. The fic lampshades this:
  Schlatt: But I'm not getting punished. I'm a special case, unlike poor Ryan.
• Public Bathhouse Scene: The shower scene in Chapter 2, where Cooper is awkwardly cornered by Schlatt & Co. after showering and has to deal with them trying to make a business deal with him while he's still in only a towel.
• Public Execution: Any character who kills and fails to get away with it ends up facing this fate, being killed while the others watch.
• Pyrrhic Victory: In the black ending, the survivors beat Carson's game and make it out alive, though it hardly counts as a victory given the grief and trauma they'll now have to live with.
• Properly Paranoid: Cooper deals with heavy amounts of paranoia that only get worse as the game goes on, but it's completely justified — he woke up with no memories and was told anyone he knows could kill him at any moment, he keeps having weird dreams about some dead guy he's never met, and computers seem to talk to him directly.

Tropes R-Z

• Red Herring:
  • Techno's talent could be considered this, since most people would probably suspect a hitman first in a murder trial.
  • Joko being the false mastermind and his entire character in general is a walking red herring throughout the story.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: In the black ending, it turns out that Charlie survived the freezer incident, by making a deal with the mastermind.
• Revealing Cover-Up: Carson burns his jacket due to the blood he got on it, but this ends up being the key factor that gets him caught.
• Running Gag: Schlatt's fear of Techno being "out to get him" is played for laughs throughout.
• Sadistic Choice:
  • The players get to decide if Ryan lives or dies during Altrive's execution.
    Ryan: O-Oh my god, oh- oh fuck… Guys- Guys, please, I- I didn’t kill Ty. I didn’t! I- I just he-helped Altrive, please-
  • In Chapter 6, the (both in-universe and out-of-universe) audience has to vote on whether to kill Cooper or let him live despite unknowingly having designed the death game.
    Carson: Yeah! I figured 'cause they adore you and all, they would love to decide who gets to die! Isn’t that something?
• A Scar to Remember: Cooper is left with pretty big clawmark scars across his face from the monkeys in Travis's execution after he runs in after him.
• Scars Are Ugly: Poke ridicules Carson for the burn scars left over by his false execution.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: This trope lets Schlatt get away with planning a murder, due to making a deal with the mastermind behind the scenes.
• Shear Menace: Travis uses scissors to kill Connor.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: In the white ending, Cooper is executed alongside Carson. He "wakes up" in a black and white room, where Travis tells him that he wasn't supposed to die.
• The Smurfette Principle: Angel is the only female character in the fic.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: With Travis, Cooper is generally kind and friendly. With everyone else, he's standoff-ish, skittish and distant, and even outright hostile at moments.
• Survivor's Guilt: Ryan has a serious case of survivor's guilt after he survives his and Altrive's dual execution.
• Sympathetic Murderer:
  • Subverted with Carson, who cries and says that he just wanted to go home. It turns out he was behind the whole game all along.
  • Ryan doesn't have sympathetic reasons, but his punishment, and especially his later treatment by other characters, makes the reader feel bad for him.
  • Travis is manipulated by Schlatt into thinking Connor is the mastermind and that killing him would let them go home.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Unknowingly early on, with Cooper thinking about how Carson just wanted to go home. He of course, has no idea that Carson is the mastermind.
• Taking You with Me: In both endings, Carson drags someone to their death alongside him. In the black ending, it's Schlatt. In the white ending, it's Cooper.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: All the executions are over the top and bizarre — for example, just drowning Wilbur isn't enough — he has to be stabbed through the neck by a swordfish, too.
• Those Two Guys: Poke and Sneeg spend most of the fic making snarky comments about the happenings and are usually seen together.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Ryan is prone to constant mistreatment by both the narrative and the other characters, however, he manages to make it out alive in the end.
• Tomato in the Mirror: Cooper ends up being the original mastermind behind the killing game, only to have the rug pulled out from under him when Carson betrays him and forcibly wipes his memory.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: After Travis's execution, Cooper becomes much more confrontational and aggressive, even attempting to strangle Ryan at one point.
• "Truman Show" Plot: The deadly game is being broadcast online for fans to see, as it turns out the characters were streamers all along.
• Two Dun It:
  • Ryan and Altrive work together to kill Ty.
  • Schlatt is the mastermind behind Connor's murder, and manipulates Travis into doing the dirty work.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Gold dies first, and the audience barely got to know anything about him.
• Would Hurt a Child: Ryan and Altrive kill Ty, who is only 16. Schlatt makes a point out of this.

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