open/close all folders
Prologue: A Taste of Despairadise
Fridge Brilliance
- Why is "Despair's Final Challenge" the subtitle to the fanfiction "Ultimate Danganronpa 3"? Though Hope and Despair are important themes to the story, the big highlight is the newest theme that gets introduced in the story, "Nothingness". So why is the subtitle focusing on "Despair" rather than "Nothingness"? It doesn't make sense until you realize the "Despair" in the subtitle is referring to a person, or even multiple people. It is a "final challenge" to someone that is labeled as someone of Despair. Here are a number of candidates:
- The Mastermind - They are a member of the Ultimate Despair because they have been brainwashed by the Despair Anime. However, despite being an Ultimate Despair, they are still able to hold strong hatred towards Junko & the Ultimate Despair for ruining their life (the same with Future Foundation). That's why they created the Despairiside Killing Game: to get revenge at everyone who ruined their lives. It isn't just a vengeful "final challenge" from an ex-member of the Ultimate Despair to everyone they hated, it is a "final challenge" to themselves to see if they can overcome Hope and Despair as well as accomplish their revenge.
- Akira Maita - It is suggested in Chapter 25 (Chapter 1, Part 9: So long once again, Academy of Despair) and Chapter 31 (Chapter 1, Part 15: Internal Struggle) that Akira has been brainwashed by the Despair Anime into becoming an Ultimate Despair/Remnant of Despair. So if this is the case, then is makes sense that, as the Protagonist, this story is all about his "final challenge" as an Ultimate Despair/Remnant of Despair.
- The Entire Extracurricular Course Students - Junko Enoshima revealed that a number of the students in the cast have been brainwashed into becoming members of the Ultimate Despair. Furthermore, it is possible that all the students who are participating in the game are connected to either the suffering of the Mastermind or the cause of the Tragedy. So, this story is the "final challenge" to the entire main cast composed of Ultimate Despair members and possible culprits responsible for the Tragedy (directly or indirectly).
- Jonathan's over-the-top fear towards germs and bacteria is only naturally when you realize this is a result from being an Ultimate Procrastinator. The thing about procrastinators is that their talent allowing them to be aware of everything around them by looking away from the things right in front of him, so they can focus on anything else except the most important thing that concerns them. So, what would be considered insignificant to the general people's eyes, yet can be found everywhere? The ever microscopic germs and bacteria that can be found everywhere! Poor Jonathan can't ignored these guys to the point he develops mysophobia from the thought of them causing sicknesses and epidemics... all because they are both insignificant and literally everywhere! Jonathan pretty much confirmed this vaguely in "Prologue, Part 8"!Jonathan: "Messes always give me bad procrastination habits, the only way I can stop thinking about it is by cleaning it up."
- Why would the Mastermind mess up the order of the books in the library? Remember when the Mastermind revealed they were getting revenge on everyone? Apparently a good way of getting a minor dose of revenge on a book-loving Jose is by making it impossible for him to find what book he was looking for in a library!
- So why didn't the Mastermind also mess with the order of the files in the Archive Room? Because there was a piece of evidence there and everyone was in the middle of a time-limited investigation to find evidence for the first Class Trial. If the Mastermind wasn't too careful, they could even up making it too hard for anyone to find the evidence from the Archive Room, forcing people to waste too much of their time for the instigation just for one piece of evidence! And it would ruin the Mastermind's plans for revenge if all the students get executed for losing in the first Class Trial just because they made the evidences too hard to find.
Chapter 1: Love Hurts
Fridge Brilliance
- Considering everything from the Prologue and Chapter 1, it makes a lot of sense why Junko Enoshima got demoted to a Warm-Up Boss for the Prologue's Class Trial.
- The Mastermind hated Junko Enoshima. Their lives were completely ruined and their love ones are all gone because of this person. So, what better why to get payback on this son of a bitch than turning an almighty and powerful psychopath into a tutorial boss that will be beaten by the newest cast (composed of mostly newbies to investigations and trials) to the Killing Game. Not only is Junko's pride and status get cut down by being treated from a Final Boss to being treated to a Warm-Up Boss, the Mastermind gets the opportunity to execute her with their own hands! It's not surprising that the Mastermind made use of that chance to execute her in "over twenty different ways" before finally ending her life!
- Connected to the first reason. The Mastermind wants to make something VERY clear to both the Extracurricular Course Students and everyone who is watching this Killing Game: this Killing Game isn't being orchestrated by Junko Enoshima this time, what so ever. Unlike all those other Killing Games from the Hope's Peak Academy Saga, where Junko Enoshima is revealed in the end to be the one pulling everyone's strings, the Despairadise Killing Game is the Mastermind's game and their game 'alone'. And what better way to get that point across everyone's head than to degraded Junko Enoshima's status in the game in public and than proceed to kill her off at the start of the game.
- It also acts as a Laser-Guided Karma scenario. Throughout the canon Hope's Peak Academy Saga, Junko Enoshima has always been the main source for everyone's big pain in the butt (both the players/viewers and the story's characters). Even dead, she somehow is able to become The Man Behind the Man in every installment by manipulating the events and the people (including the supposed Mastermind) before her death. So... this Prologue Class Trial, where Junko is just a tutorial boss who gets killed off at the start of the story, is basically both the Masterminds's and the writer's (Maestro Infinite) way of saying, "Fuck you! Who's laughing now?!" to her face.
- While Cam and Connie going Squee over the Monobeasts and their transformation into "Monobeast King Fighter Supreme" is obviously Played for Laughs, there is some Fridge Brilliance to it. Back in "Prologue, Part 3", Cam mentions that techies from all kinds different backgrounds united by their love of technology. Sure enough, both Cam and Connie were the only once from the Extracurricular Course fangirling over gigantic killer robots because they were techies.
- But what about Chihiro? Chihiro is also a techie, yet he wasn't shown fangirling over the robots like Cam and Connie. But remember, Chihiro is a meek and timid guy. So he would be more scared than excited from seeing a bunch of huge robots with the ability to kill people. In addition, Chihiro admits that people found him weird for going on about computers so much (since he is pretending to be a girl). So, even if Chihiro is more excited than scared from seeing the robots, he wouldn't want openly show himself fangirling over them like Cam and Connie because there are people watching them. At best, he would be secretly fangirling over the robots inside his head.
- Upon finding out that Nodaka's memories are mostly fabricated and her talent as the Ultimate Maid is a lie, one has to wonder why the Mastermind decided to make Nodaka her fake talent as a maid of all things. It could be out of simple spite towards her mean and fool-tempered nature, making it funny how a Tsundere ends up as a maid. But then, after reading the end of "Chapter 1: Part 16", you realize that it can also be the Mastermind trolling with Akira because the latter is in love with Nodaka. And what is one of the dreams of a typical high school guy? It's seeing his love interest in a maid's uniform!
