Fridge Brilliance / Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls

• The Warriors of Hope's titles are all clearly a reference to Dragon Quest. Now remember, Junko's introduction line was a Shout-Out to the Final Boss of the original Dragon Quest. This is most definitely intentional, given that one of the art displays in-game shows the kids in full RPG garb gathered around Queen Junko.
• Shirokuma and Kurokuma are two halves of one whole: their colors are obvious, their personalities are a split of Monokuma's, and both are parts to the Junko AI. Their representative characters are Haiji and Monaca Towa, a pair of siblings.
• Why don't the Remnants of Despair show up? As it turns out, one of the Mastermind's main goals here is to attract the surviving supporters of Ultimate Despair to Towa City! In other words, the Mastermind wanted exactly the same thing fans were hoping for!
• Monaca's birthday is April Fools' Day. No real surprise; after all, she's fooling everyone with that chair of hers. April Fools' Day is often associated with pranks and lies. Monaca had to resort to lying and trickery in order to get people to like her; not only did she trick Haiji into thinking she was crippled in order for him to pity her, but she also tricked the other Warriors of Hope into thinking she was like them when in reality, she was their Token Evil Teammate. April Fool's pranks are often seen as fun and humorous to the ones setting up the pranks, but not so much for the ones on the receiving end. Similarly, Monaca's deceptions were funny to her, but definitely not to the rest of the Warriors (as demonstrated when she intended to watch the other four jump off the roof for her own amusement).
• Later in the game, Monaca whips out a multi-armed robot, which contrasts the humanoid robots of the other Warriors. It would be very hard to control it with the standard remote controls, which is probably why Kurokuma "fuses" with it and acts as its AI. The same could be said for the ginormous final boss, the Big Bang Monokuma controlled by Shirokuma.
• In the epilogue of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, during the discussion between the FF trio about the Remnants, Kyoko makes a comment about "someone" (Toko) waiting for Byakuya, to which he groans and asks her not to remind him. Taking this game's ending into account, this is probably referring to Makoto's plan to pick Komaru and Fukawa up from Towa City, as he promised he'd do after he gathered the Remnants of Despair up. Byakuya's response also makes sense given he said himself here that he owed Komaru and Toko for rescuing him.
• Why does Monaca want to make Komaru into Junko's successor? Well, what could be more despair-inducing for the Ultimate Hope than having his little sister completely turn against him?
• Even in UDG, the executions do have that despairingly delicious irony in everyone:
  • For Masaru, the kid wants to be seen as the Hero for all kids and a protector of the kids, and enjoys getting the praise from the Monokuma Kids when it's time for "demon hunting." His execution is basically a familiar trope in comics where the people turn, and in this case, 'murders' their protector when he fails.
  • Despite his standing as the 'Priest' Jataro was the complete opposite of what was expected, looking dirty and lacking the respect from both subordinates and his peers (not that he minds it). His execution has his mask ripped off, revealing a beautiful face completely unexpected from him... only for him to still get 'killed' by the Monokuma Kids in the end.
  • Despite being known as the 'Fighter' of the Warriors, Kotoko doesn't seem to fit the image and is the odd one out when it comes to the ordeal overall. In a complete twist of fate, she was the only one of the main four WoH to not be 'executed', which makes sense since fighters are known for being tough and resilient when it comes to these types of experiences (and considering her background... her being tough to these kinds of things wouldn't be out of place).
  • For Nagisa, as the Sage, he was considered the wisest of the quintet and the vice leader who basically anyone could rely on. Trying to use his robot before he is crushed, it could hint that his execution could be taken as a jab at how much pressure is placed on young prodigies like himself to the point they're barely able to hold it together mentally and how they are so focused on pushing themselves past their limits that they crash and burn soon after.
  • Monaca, the actual leader of the Warriors of Hope, was given the title of 'Mage'; she was able to create and control the Monokuma robots and brainwashed children, as well as being the 'mastermind' behind the events of UDG, manipulating both children and adults to her 'despairful' outcome and hiding her intentions behind a cute disabled girl. While not 'executed', the last chapter ended with her allies deserting her and her being crippled for real. So, in essence, her 'magic' failed her at the most important moment.
• Yuta Asahina tried to swim to get help from Future Foundation. His plans, literally, blew up in his face.
• It's strange that out of all of them, Kotoko seems to survive her 'execution'. However, once you remember her talent, Lil'Ultimate Drama, or to be precise, acting (and how she breaks down... only to reveal she was kidding), the fakeout scene makes more sense. Plus, it was also a jab at around how at that point in the first two games, the third culprit was thought to be going out in a peaceful/sensible way... only to go in the complete opposite direction. Here, Kotoko is expected to 'die' just like her friends... only for the complete opposite of that to happen.
• Why would Servant have Komaru’s path set up like a game? Other than the fact that this is in fact a video game or the Demon Hunting is set up this way from the start with his only addition being the dropping off of items from Monokuma Kids, another way you could view this is him honoring a certain former classmate of his. Honestly, this could be viewed as a twisted but still oddly sweet Heartwarming Moment if this is the case.
• Why does Nagito Komaeda keep messing up the food for the Warriors of Hope? Because they don't feed or give him anything to drink, and luckily they feed him the "messed up" food.
• Why are potty training seats the Save Point of the game? Because Komaru probably had several potty emergencies with all the crap she goes through. Sitting on a toilet, even a kiddie one, probably allowed her to relieve herself, even if she never actually does so onscreen
• If you pay attention to the Warrior of Hope's optional introduction scenes, you'll have an early hint about Monaca's true nature:
  For me, my skill isn't really about uniting people, it's about getting them all to help me.
• During the boss battle with Genocide Jack, being hit the first few times will cause Komaru to lose some of her clothes without losing health. Besides being an example of Anti-Frustration Feature,^note Jack is a very aggressive boss and her attacks are hard to dodge, therefore the game compensates by giving you a certain amount of "free hits" to help you survive. it's also Foreshadowing that Jack is holding back because she wants Komaru to win, but in a way that seems credible so that Nagito won't object to her leaving the town.
• After Masaru is defeated, it’s shown the other Warriors of Hope set up a portrait of him in the style of the death portraits from the mainline games. However, unlike the mainline games, where said pictures are monochrome and have the person’s face crossed out, Masaru’s picture is in full colour and has nothing obscuring his face. These alterations foreshadow that he isn’t really dead at all.

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