Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
- But that wouldn't explain the errors in Island mode (i.e Characters talking about deaths that happened in the original).
- Izuru was bored with the world and did end up killing people before being corrupted by Junko, but Junko has been planing The Biggest, Most Despair-Inducing Incident in All of Human History before they meet. You can infer this by her small background story in Chapter 6 of Dangan Ronpa Trigger Happy Havoc, where she says she and her sister has felt despair since they were born.
- Confirmed by Danganronpa 3.
- The IF novel states that Junko "possessed despair-inducing abilities that surpass the capabilities of any normal human", which along with her insane durability, implies that she has several if not all Ultimate talents like Izuru. Her going through similar surgery isn't so farfetched.
- is an Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette
- has an intellectual talent
- has a tendency to overreact to things
- has been scorned by every boy she's fallen in love with
- has killed many of the men she's fallen in love with
- wants a romantic relationship with Byakuya, but is ignored, except as a tool
- survives the whole game
- reveals she is actually Genocider Syo after being pushed to do so
- is has white hair
- has an athletic talent
- is consistently unemotional
- has had a single-minded loyalty towards one boy since childhood, who adores her in return
- tries to kill 12 other people (and succeeded in killing one) so that her beloved could escape being subject to Monokuma's whims
- is content to just be a tool. Fuyuhiko disagrees, though, and wants her to stand by his side as an equal.
- is executed in Chapter 2
- pretends to be the mad vigilante Sparkling Justice of her own accord
- Well, obviously. That's the whole point of his character. This isn't any more WMG than saying "Garfield is a cat".
- Jossed Dangan Island reveals that the red eye is a contact, so both of his eyes are naturally gray. While on the subject, Fuyuhiko would be the most likely candidate. If this troper remembers correctly, the silhouette of the person who cut out their eye shows that it was the right eye, the same eye Fuyuhiko lost when Peko cut him. Knowing Monokuma, he could have planned for Peko to cut Fuyuhiko in that specific place in order to mock what he did to himself in reality.
- However as the whole point of Dangan Island was to replace the cast's memories, we can't be fully sure if that's true or if that's the program covering it up (see Nagito's left hand).
- We can be reasonably sure. While the point of the school trip was to eventually replace the students' memories with their new ones upon graduating, their avatars were constructed from their memories at the time they joined the academy, which is why they look different from their current selves outside the program. Nagito's left hand is still normal because he hadn't yet replaced it with Junko's at that point in time. Likewise, Gundam's scar and contact being present in the program means they were already present back then, so the point still stands. Their behavior is completely unaltered beyond also being reset to how everyone acted when they joined the academy, so he can't be lying as a result of that either. In addition, the silhouette of the person who replaced his eye somewhat resembles Fuyuhiko (his hair style is practically identical), which probably makes him the more likely candidate as mentioned above.
- Jossed by Danganronpa 3. Fuyuhiko was the one who cut his eye out.
- Alternatively Radical 6 is a mutated form of the Despair Disease, where the crushing despair leads to the victim committing suicide as opposed to death from other symptoms.
- More specifically, the body they found might have been Mukuro's (who was still dressed up as Junko). The Despair crew weren't exactly in the most stable frame of mind, so it's believable if they couldn't tell the difference.
- Mukuro's head was pretty much destroyed by that bomb. How would Ultimate Despair recognize her as Junko?
- Clothes? Hair? Boobs?
- Mukuro's head was pretty much destroyed by that bomb. How would Ultimate Despair recognize her as Junko?
- That wouldn't explain how one of the remnants of Despair was able to get Junko's eye, since the face was blown off. The Killing game was also broadcasted, so there's a good chance they saw Junko's death.
- However this is explicitly Jossed by the Impostor themselves in one of their Island mode bad endings seen here (with the context leading up to this here) as they make it clear they would have preferred being one of those siblings than being "merely" an impostor. Driving the point in as we don't even know if the Impostor is biologically male Hajime phrased his bad guess as being "a relative" so them being one of Byakuya's sisters or a cousin are also jossed.
- While it does make it unlikely that this WMG is true, there is a possibility that they simply took their disowning to heart, and no longer considered themself a member of the Togami family, meaning they wouldn't consider themself a relative of Byakuya. This may just be me looking at this through rose-colored glasses, since I quite like this theory, but it's still food for thought.
- This seems possible, since aside from her Master, she has nothing to lose. The other members of Ultimate Despair all destroyed the things that mattered to them, but what matters more to Peko than Fuyuhiko?
- It could also be the Impostor, which would mean their body is thin in the present while their past form was obese. This could be used to facilitate a number of twists in the Another Episode spinoff, such as having Junko seemingly come Back from the Dead only to turn out to be the Impostor impersonating her to keep the Despair cause alive.
- Jossed; the third game is going to be setting up an entirely new storyline, and they've explicitly said that the only returning character in DR3 will be Monokuma.
- I'm just going to accept this as canon for making that much sense.
- No one knows what Alter Ego and Hifumi were talking about since both are dead/destroyed.
- Likely jossed, Danganronpa 3 shows that Miaya has an Usami avatar, so the Usami AI was probably based off her.
- Highly unlikely. That would only work if:
- Mikan knew Izuru used to be a reserve student named Hinata Hajime, which he was unlikely to share with anyone since he would view information like that as useless trivia.
- It doesn't line up with the fact the Ultimate Despair are Junko's cult of personality. While the information Junko gave may be unreliable her statement that all of the Ultimate Despair either loved or hated her beyond compare seems true based on Nagito and Izuru's interactions and Mikan specifically said she murdered for the sake of her beloved's "Despair" which fits the original Ultimate Despair more than the former Ultimate Hope.
- Izuru would see no reason to ever give anyone as "boring" as Mikan the sort of attention needed to make her this obsessive unless Junko told him to, since he already has her talent she is redundant at best from his perspective but Mikan clearly believed her "love" actually loved her back, while we know Junko already did something similar to this with her sister Mukuro so doing this herself makes more sense.
- Also Mikan fell asleep on Hajime due to exhaustion because of how hard she was working and catching the fever respectively so those incidents were already explained pretty well.
- Point #1 can actually be easily explained; Mikan just had to do a little bit of process of elimination the same way she figured out who the traitor was. Essentially, once she got her memories back, she looked around and realized, "There are two people here whose names I don't recognize: Chiaki Nanami and Hajime Hinata." Since she likely knew of everyone that had been put in the program, she would've easily been able to connect Hajime and Izuru (because, you know, Izuru's a guy). Point #3 could be explained as Izuru "forgiving" her in the sense that she's every bit as useless as everyone else is, therefore making her equal to everyone but him. Given that we know that she wasn't exactly stable mentally, that might've been all it took for her to become obsessive, and perhaps convinced herself that he loved her back out of desperation despite him not giving any indication of such.
- Post-Danganronpa 3 edit: the process of elimination was even easier for Tsumiki to do to determine Kamukura's identity, as she actually did recognize the name Chiaki Nanami since the real person who went by that name was her friend and died right in front of her eyes. Her beloved could've also been the Imposter or Mitarai, as they were the first people to be nice to her.
- Also, it's entirely possibly Mikan does know Izuru is Hajime instead of having to guess. Makoto, Kyoko, and Byakuya are all very surprised to learn Hajime is Izuru Kamukura. Why would that be? Most likely, before/when he and the Remnants were captured, he instructed them to only call him "Hajime Hinata" and introduced himself as such. That way, he could keep Makoto, Kyoko, and Byakuya from watching him too closely, as they surely would if they knew he was Ultimate Everything.
- Gundham knew the spell wouldn't work, because he knew there's no such thing as magic. His final act of defiance was intended simply to maintain, to the last possible second, his mystique.
- Gundham's spell, which may have worked, was intended to protect his hamsters. His first act after the collision is to check that they're all right.
- To counter the idea of the spell protecting his hamsters, Gundham is shown putting them away from where the execution will take place at the start of the execution. Why cast a spell to protect them when he's already taken action to protect them and they're nowhere near the danger zone? Also, Gundham cares for them, so he would want to check if they were alright regardless.
- Judging from the first batch of trailers and other information, this one isn't looking likely.
- Jossed. V3's theme is "killing school semester".
- Only one thing needs to be amended; from what we've learned from Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, there's basically zero chance of Junko ever being the villain again, barring a prequel.
- For what it's worth, the Future Arc of Danganronpa 3 anime had fans drawing a lot of parallels between it and Zero Time Dilemma.
- Also the twist that Hajime being Izuru is similar to Sigma, the protagonist of Virtue's Last Reward being Zero
- Adding to this, the Take That! could extend to the series up til then since Hajime/Izuru was indirectly responsible for the "Killing School Life" of the previous game and all the atrocities spurred by the incident. So in a way, the moment you started playing the first game, almost a requirement to play this game, you doomed almost every character to despair...
- We know that DR3 will be a completely new storyline for the series, and the game appears to be very futuristic. Either it's a separate continuity, in which case this WMG is Jossed, or it's in the very far-flung future to the point where the events of the series thus far have little to no impact, in which case it's technically true.
- Confirmed, but none of the Warriors of Hope show up in V3.
- So, back to Izuru: his plan could have been an attempt at mass suicide, killing himself, the other members of Ultimate Despair, and "Junko", or at least part of her. The problem is that, according to ADG's epilogue, Izuru knew about Junko's plans; in turn, Junko knew what Izuru was attempting, and manipulated him, maybe "suggesting" to him the idea of suicide. So what should have been a mass suicide was turned by Junko into yet another plan to spread despair: destroy the Future Foundation's attempt at saving Ultimate Despair, and possibly kill off some of the Foundation's members if they enter the program and attempt a "Forced Shutdown".
- Jossed by Danganronpa 3; he was testing if hope could beat despair.
- Starving to despair: Likely Akane based on how much she wants/loves eating. Her constant eating may even be a side effect of her brain still registering her physical body recovering from a state of skeletal starvation. The depiction is a person with darker and longer hair than Sonia.
- Mass murder: Kazuichi. Similar hat style and it is done with a machine.
- Eye transplant: Lost the same eye as Fuyuhiko. Wouldn't be out of Monokuma's/Junko's personality/humor to lead Fuyuhiko down a path to end up with an ironic injury to match his real physical injury.
- Necrophilia: Almost certainly Hajime as depiction is a male mounting. Of the five he's the last male and his alternate personality is depicted as equal to Junko in despair.
- Parent murderer: Sonia is the likely candidate as she is focused/worried about becoming queen. How will that happen? When her parents die.
- AI Junko was bound by her rules even more so than her live self, so executing anyone other than the culprit was out of the question.
- Partially jossed, partially confirmed by Danganronpa 3. AI Chiaki is based off the students' memories of a real Chiaki, who did have leadership abilities, but the real Chiaki was never part of the student council nor killed by Izuru.
The protagonist is the first victim.
The real protagonist will likely be the character introduced as the "assistant" like Sayaka or Nagito, and is likely to receive a whole lot of death flags to try to trick us into thinking they'll die first. Bonus points if it turns out that the supposed protagonist was actually a villain acting as an Unreliable Narrator.
- I, for one, would love it if the next game had a Switching P.O.V. or Rotating Protagonists in general. That instance where you play as Nagito was pretty cool. I want more of that.
- Confirmed with a twist: the Decoy Protagonist is the first killer. The "assistant" character becomes the protagonist for the rest of the game.
Yet also consider that he got the other 5 survivors to go along with his plan. This includes Togami, who put himself at risk in the final trial to make sure the remaining despairs made it out of the game alive, despite his demonstrating in his own School Life of Mutual Killing his quickness to write people off as being beneath himself or treat them as obstacles on his path to victory. Going from that kind of judgmental disposition to wanting to help the group that killed his family seems like an uncanny growth in personal character. So I purport that there's a certain amount of pragmatism to Naegi's plan: he wants to show the entire world that the worst, most evil, most despairing people can still be redeemed, and thus give people still teetering on the edge of despair a symbol to guide them towards hope (which lead to the Future Foundation eventually going along with his plan as well). In a sense, he tried to create a game of hope instead of a game of despair.
- Considering that DR3 will be starting a completely new storyline unrelated to the current one, it's very possible that we won't have any SHSL/SDHS/Ultimate titles any more.
- It's implied that the Ultimate Archer was Sato (Girl E).
- As of Danganronpa 3, we've learned she was probably a reserve course student.
- Jossed, but V3 does have a female warrior: Tenko Chabashira, the Ultimate Aikido Practitioner.
Oh yes. You read that correctly. Komaeda was just pulling the same hope crap he normally does, crazy suicide plan and all. Allow me to explain, but first, let me ask you something: What's the one thing Komaeda fundamentally believes?
That a great despair will yield an even greater hope.
Now, I'm not so naive as to suggest that Komaeda thought his death would lead to a great despair. Nobody believes that, not even Komaeda believes that. At this point Komaeda knows that nobody really likes him, and he himself doesn't even like him, so naturally he wouldn't believe his death would bring a great despair. He knows it won't. Hell, most of the island at this point would prefer he was dead already.
Regardless, he kills himself. (Yes it was technically not a suicide but I'm going to treat it like one for simplicity's sake).
Now, as stated previously, many people believe that naturally Komaeda was trying to kill everyone except for the traitor, as everyone but the traitor is Ultimate Despair. And what does Komaeda hate more than despair? Besides, with the way his luck worked out with the traitor conveniently killing him, and the odds of everyone but the traitor were slim to none, you can understand exactly where people got that idea from however... you've got that wrong!First of all, if Komaeda's plan was to wipe out despair, he would have wiped out despair. I mean, they would all definitely be dead except for Nanami, no questions asked. He would have been much more thorough in his plan, specifically the part of evidence destroying, and he wouldn't have made that video.
Now, the evidence I'm talking about specifically is all the evidence in Komaeda's room. You know, the critical evidence that Komaeda made no attempt of hiding, or destroying. Let's go through the evidence piece by piece:
- The gas mask, rubber gloves, and the blue aluminum seal were all left under the bed. Anybody who is above five years old could probably tell you that under the bed is the first place anybody checks when looking for something someone else might be hiding. Now, you might ask: but how would he dispose of any of this evidence? To which I say, the rules only ban littering and destroying the environment. So, he could just throw it out conceivably anywhere indoors that wasn't his room, and no one would check.
- Up next we have the bottle of poison in the extremely obvious fridge. You know where would have been a better place to hide poison that needed refrigerating? The pharmacy. Or the market. Anywhere else that came with a fridge, instead of going out of his way to drag a fridge into his room. All he would need to do is just bury it somewhere in the back of one of the refrigerators hiding behind all these other items so no one could see it, and the likelihood of anyone finding it EVER would be slim to none.
- The file? In the bookshelf? Now granted this evidence proved to be unhelpful in the end, but putting it on the bookshelf? A case of hiding it in plain sight? Or maybe he just put it there because he knew they would check it, especially since they KNEW about his prize from the final dead room. And it doesn't matter anyway since he tore out the important parts of that file anyway. And he clearly destroyed those, so he could have conceivably have destroyed anything else.
- Finally, the most damning evidence, is the shiny pink box with the journal on the table. You know, the most obvious thing you could have left in the most obvious place ever. No attempt was made there. None. This evidence is important, as this is the evidence that's used to out the traitor. Even if Nanami didn't out herself, they still stood a chance at learning it was her because of the diary entry she wrote. He didn't know who the traitor was, but he knew upon reading that diary that Hinata would know. And yes, obviously Komaeda would know Monomi can't write. He would have asked the same questions everyone else did upon finding it, and obviously Monokuma would have told him.
Now, if you're going to tell me this was the best Komaeda could do I downright don't believe you. Komaeda has already proven himself to be highly intelligent, and in all likelihood, the most intelligent person on the island, and if you really think that would be the best HE could do, then you're clearly forgetting his abilities. You can't even say by the time he'd be able to do anything about all this evidence he'd be dead because he could have actually taken care of all this the day before, or the day he swapped out the poison etc. There's no excuse for this pitiful attempt at destroying the evidence, if you can even call it that. You also can't say he didn't think people would search his room. Komaeda’s the one who even started the whole “search the victim’s room” trend, so of course he knew they would. It’s an insult to his intelligence to suggest otherwise. After pulling the crazy stunt he's been pulling for the few days there's no reason they wouldn’t try to search his room.
Which is why I say he didn't try to hide that evidence. It makes more sense to explain the incredibly obvious crucial evidence as Komaeda intentionally leaving it in those places so everyone else stood a chance to find it. That evidence was key in solving what Komaeda had truly done. It was even essential in revealing the traitor. In other words, it gave the other side, Ultimate Despair, a chance.
Now, the video message however, used to be the bane of my existence, however if Komaeda had genuinely planned for the traitor to be the only survivor, the likelihood he would have made that video is slim to none. Komaeda probably believed the traitor already knew the information contained in Nezumi Castle, after all why wouldn't they? However even if they didn't know that information, Komaeda had other motives for making that video: deceiving Monokuma.
I'll get to why that's important in a bit. I promise, but I'd like to go back to his intentions for a bit.
Now, as I've stated before, I believe that this was another hope gambit, just in extreme mode. Now I have stated before, Komaeda didn't believe his death would be the great despair, so what DID he believe it was? The trial. His death is irrelevant; it only matters to kick-start the trial, the real despair. Or more accurately the vote.
This is Komaeda's final play, and what a better way for him to do it than to have the ultimate hope face-off? A contest of hopes: which hope is stronger, a hope that was never tarnished or the hope of those ravaged by despair overcoming themselves?Think about it: Ultimate Despair is despair in human form, or despair in it's purest form. To Komaeda, they are the embodiment of an absolute despair, the exact opposite of an absolute hope, which is what Komaeda wants to create. Except, what did I establish Komaeda fundamentally believes? The greater a despair the greater the hope that will result of it, and who better to create an absolute hope than the lowest of the low, Ultimate Despair themselves?
Now, some may say that Komaeda would find those who into despair absolutely irredeemable, as though they can never return, but that blatantly contradicts his beliefs. While Komaeda definitely holds those who fall into despair in contempt, but that doesn't mean he believes it's an inescapable void. In fact, if he did, then his beliefs wouldn't even be able to exist. How can you believe hope comes from despair if you believe those who fall to despair can never escape it?
This is not only his ultimate hope contest, but it's a test of his beliefs. Should Ultimate Despair win against the overwhelming odds stacked against them, then they are worthy of being representatives of absolute hope. If they don't, then absolute hope can only be represented by those who have never been corrupted at all. Komaeda technically can't lose this. If the traitor wins, then they are absolute hope, if Ultimate Despair wins, then they have become absolute hope. There's no losing for him.
Technically. Here's where things tricky.
As stated, the real despair to overcome is the vote. The real despair in this trial comes from voting for the traitor whether they want to or not, or being stuck at a standstill unable to figure out the truth and being forced to vote randomly, or that he killed himself.Once they realise it's technically not a suicide, against all odds the whole trial comes to a grinding halt. After all, if he didn't kill himself, who did? And so Komaeda's game really begins.
Now, the odds of the traitor surviving at this point is 5/6. Inversely, the odds of Ultimate Despair dying is also 5/6.
Now think about this: what was Komaeda's talent again? His luck, which he had an unyielding belief in even when planning his death, and his luck doesn't just die with him. So long as he's involved, so is his luck. It's a powerful weapon to have at your disposal, so long as you know how to use it, and Komaeda's proven multiple times he knows how to manipulate it to his favour.
Backtrack a second, because I've brought up those odds for a reason. Remember the Russian Roulette incident? It’s something that’s hard to forget, but it’s also rife with symbolism.Now many people think that the five bullets represent Ultimate Despair, with the blank representing the traitor. Since he survived, it was foreshadowing for the traitor being the one to kill him, as they are the only pure one in the group. The 1/6 chance he had in surviving also represented the 1/6 chance the traitor would kill him.
And while that's true, that's only half of it.
Think about it like this: as I've said before there's a five out of six chance that Ultimate Despair will lose, and die as a result. Russian Roulette is a similar life or death situation. Let's say the bullets in Komaeda's Russian Roulette don't just represent the chances of the traitor killing him, but the chances of Ultimate Despair dying.
Now, this isn't just some baseless claims I'm pulling from thin air; I have my reasons for thinking this. You see, Komaeda himself is also a member of Ultimate Despair, so in his game of Russian Roulette he represents Ultimate Despair as a whole during trial. The gun represents the trial itself, and the bullets represent the 5/6 possibility that Ultimate Despair will die. The blank, of course, is their survival. The possibility of Komaeda's death in that game is exactly the same as Ultimate Despair's during trial. Reversely, him getting the blank represents the unlikely event of Ultimate Despair's survival.
In other words, the Russian Roulette incident is not only symbolic of chapter five's murder, but of it's trial.
Komaeda plays Russian Roulette, and lives, not only because the plot demanded it, but because luck was on his side, but also because it represents his intended goal.
Komaeda might have set up a gambit he can't lose but that doesn't mean he didn't have a preferred outcome.
Yes that's right. I am implying that Komaeda's preferred outcome was Ultimate Despair's survival. Why? Because like I said before, them becoming absolute hope is the perfect embodiment of Komaeda's beliefs. By creating a situation where Ultimate Despair had a 1/6 chance of survival, he put his luck to the test again, and one again, he was counting on his good luck.
Komaeda's luck has two conditions. The first is that after a great misfortune must come an equally great fortune, or at least Komaeda perceives it that way. This one is heavily emphasized throughout the game, especially his free time events. The second is the more likely Komaeda is to "fail", the greater his chances at "success". This best demonstrates itself in his Russian Roulette game, but there are other incidents in his life that prove this.
He had to do a few things to make it as difficult as possible for them to survive. First of all, he created an unsolvable murder that could only be solved by all the evidence he conveniently left in his room. The next is he needed to deceive Monokuma, meaning deceiving all the surveillance cameras and basically everyone watching, because if even Monokuma believed he was out to kill them all, it just further convinced the powers that be that Ultimate Despair is destined to die, activating his luck's hidden condition, guaranteeing their survival.
In other words, by making it as difficult as possible for Ultimate Despair to realistically survive, he guarantees it, as that's how his luck works. And, even if they do die, because his luck turns, then he still created an absolute hope from the survival of the traitor, who was never corrupted at all. And THAT is what I believe is the truth to Chapter five.
- I've seen this exact theory before, and I've also seen it debunked. In the interest of saving space, I'll cover the main points and link the article if anyone wants to check that out.
- On Nagito not throwing away trash and the evidence in his room: His cottage was the safest place to hide evidence, because it would be locked after his death. Moving things like the fridge, the poison, the file, Usami's box, would have meant walking around in daylight while everyone is running all over the islands looking for clues. Keeping the poison in a fridge in his room was also preferable than putting it in a public place, because he could transfer the poison to the grenade in the privacy of his cottage vs risk someone walking by in public. The risk factor of bumping into one of them (or Usami, who's specifically looking for her treasure chest) would have been higher than doing and keeping things in a cottage which would be locked after he died. And yes, Nagito knows people would get in if they just asked Monokuma—but a) his plan failing before it even started was worse, b) some of the clues would be hard to hide (The argument about Usami's box being obvious? It's a giant pink sparkly shiny box. There was nowhere he could have hidden it in his room that wouldn't have been obvious. Same for the fridge, those are hard to move) and c) some of the clues would be either really obscure or he wouldn't think of them as such.
- For example, the foil piece. Hajime and Chiaki both mistake it as trash when they see it; the only way to know what it was, was if someone happened to look under the fire grenades for no reason. And yes, Sonia did that, but...Nagito knowing about that would be very, very low since he was away from the group for so long. He also really tried to hide the foil piece; Hajime only saw it on a second search under the bed.
- He also would not have known the diary entry would point to the traitor, since there was exactly one entry that did, which covered an event only Hajime and Chiaki knew about. Only Hajime would have been able to work out the traitor's identity from it, and there's no way Nagito would know Hajime would be able to do that, because...he doesn't know anything about the event in question!
- On the video message: Leaving the message for the traitor would still have been useful, as he doesn't know how much they know (like if they know about 11037). He also expresses a desire to explain himself whether he wins or loses (as seen in Trial One, where he technically loses because he didn't get killed like he wanted), so leaving the message also allows him to do that.
- On Nagito's luck: his luck works in extreme cycles of good-bad, as we all know. For his plan to work out as well as it did, with Chiaki being the one to throw the poisoned grenade, that'd be good luck. So what follows that? Bad luck, wherein she confesses her identity and is executed. He doesn't know who the traitor is or if they'll come forward, and (as mentioned about the diary entry) doesn't know of any clues pointing to them. As far as he knows, there is literally no way for the students to find the traitor's identity on their own.
- On the Russian roulette symbolism: it's interesting, but symbolism can be gleaned from anything. That doesn't mean it was intended to be symbolic at all, and there's nothing in the game to really support that the game of Russian Roulette was anything more than just that.
- And finally: Nagito states very explicitly in his video message that he wants the traitor to live. If things worked out for the other students, hope could be born from it, but it would still be a loss to him. You can always argue he's lying...but what reason does he have to lie, at that point? Maybe he is trying to deceive Monokuma, but why would he care at all about that? Monokuma doesn't care about the outcomes of the trials, nor does he have any input in them; he's the executioner who also has to follow rules, not the powers that be. Him knowing about Nagito's desired goals wouldn't do a thing to affect his luck's outcome.
At the end of Chapter 5, after the trial, reality has gone to hell. Most notably, all of the dead students have returned and are interacting with the survivors as if nothing had happened. Now, as for why nobody thought this was strange, that's another discussion entirely, but there's another, perhaps more glaring question: why were the dead students there at all? It shouldn't have been possible.
Sure, you can call it A Glitch in the Matrix, but how did that glitch even happen? Supposedly, when a student dies, their avatar is deleted from the Neo World Program. So even if the program was bugging out, those avatars should not have appeared, because they were erased.
This can be explained by what actually happens when files are "deleted" from a hard drive: they're not actually gone, it's just that the space they occupy is marked as unused. That's why there's software that's able to recover files that have been deleted from the Windows Recycle Bin, files that should be "unrecoverable" but in reality can be recovered as long as other files haven't overwritten the space they occupy, which is now seen as blank space by the computer.
Now, connect the dots.
The "deleted" avatars in the Neo World Program are not completely erased. The glitches that were happening must have somehow dug them up from their "deleted" state, restoring them at least temporarily. Perhaps the Neo World Program itself has some sort of recovery function, and it was glitching out and recovering files at random. In any case, there's two things that may have resulted from this, though it can't be said for certain:
- 1) The real-world brains of the comatose students were aware of being "resurrected", and thus for a short while they actually were awake. If that's the case, it means that somehow Makoto, Kyoko and Byakuya didn't notice them temporarily coming out of their comatose state. You'd think they'd have stuff monitoring the deceased's brain activity, vitals, etc., but maybe not. Then again, if Makoto & Co. were watching everything that happened in the Neo World Program, then what exactly did they see when the dead students appeared at the end of Chapter 5? Did they see anything unusual, or was it only visible from the point of view of the survivors? But I digress.
OR
- 2) The avatars were still completely disconnected from their outside bodies as a result of their "death" and were just acting based on previously-established patterns of behavior still stored in the Neo World Program (alla Cleverbot) without any sort of conscious awareness on the part of their real world selves. Perhaps the avatars themselves had some level of awareness, but then that raises tons of theological conundrums.
Regardless, the implications of this are dramatic:
- 1) It should still be possible to recover the deleted avatars from the Neo World's hard drive, and resync them with the brains of the deceased, assuming the data is still intact and not overwritten by something else. In theory, this would bring the comatose students out of their braindead state, at which point their avatars can be reuploaded into their bodies, and voila! The dead have been resurrected at last!
- 2) Continuing from the "data recovery" theory, this idea extends to Chiaki and Usami as well. Chiaki was shown among the "dead men walking" at the end of Chapter 5. She also appeared at the climax of Chapter 6 during Hajime's Darkest Hour, seemingly as a Spirit Advisor of sorts (Which raises the question, do A.I.s have souls? ...But that's not the topic of discussion here). So there's already even more evidence than with any of the other students to support the idea that she's not entirely gone. And Usami appeared at the very end to destroy the Junko AI, so it's obvious that she was able to be recovered, at least momentarily. Finally, given that they're both A.I.s, there's no braindead bodies to worry about. You can just recover their data, stick it on a laptop alla Alter Ego, and there you go, Waifu and Bunny-Face are back in business!
...But of course, there's still some risk to the whole thing:
- 3) The Junko AI could probably be recovered through the same process. Sifting through the remains of the Neo World Program like that runs the risk of "digging up the wrong grave" so to speak, especially if the Neo World's data is poorly organized and you can't tell which avatar is which during the recovery process. By extension, uploading the wrong avatar to the wrong body would have horrible consequences. Imagine Nekomaru stuck in Mikan's body! Or the aforementioned Junko in any of them!
- 4) There's no guarantee that just restoring the avatars would be enough to re-activate the students' brains. Even if you can re-upload their avatars into their bodies, their brains need to actually wake up for it to do any good. As mentioned earlier, Chiaki and Usami wouldn't have this problem, but for the rest of the students, it's a crapshoot. Would just resyncing the comatose students to their avatars be enough to kickstart brain activity? Or do they need more medical intervention to get that outcome?
- 5) It's possible that the avatars were overwritten or corrupted. If the Neo World Program wrote any data to the space occupied by the deleted avatars, it would be... not good. You'd upload the avatars to the comatose students and they'd wake up, and promptly start spouting off "I see circles that are not circles. Billions of dead souls inside containment. Unravellers have eaten country's moral fabric, turning hearts into filth," while stumbling around like monkeys without tails. At best, sections of their memory would be replaced with incomprehensible gobbledegook that they go crazy trying to decipher. It's even more likely that the avatars were corrupted when you consider how the Junko virus was ripping apart the fabric of reality. Corrupting the avatars could easily have been collateral damage, or even worse, Junko could have overwritten the avatars on purpose, ensuring that they can never be recovered. Though you'd think she'd have done that with Usami and Chiaki, too.
In summary, because of the way computers work, it should still be possible to recover the deleted avatars of the comatose students (including Chiaki and Usami), and re-upload them to the brains of the deceased, which could possibly bring them out of their comas. However, there's a chance the avatars were overwritten and/or corrupted after being deleted, and the Junko AI could find its way back if the operation wasn't conducted properly. That's my theory of how the survivors of the killing school trip might eventually bring back their fallen friends.
- There exists one counter-argument, and one counter to that, that halts this development in its tracks. Late in the game, we are told that Junko is planning to overwrite everybody who died, and release these 'Jun-clones' into the real world to continue the wreaking of despair. She also hints that, thanks to all the data she gathered from them over the course of the 'game', she could imitate them almost flawlessly. With this in mind, what's to stop these digital ghosts from being the prototyped versions of the Jun-clones? To that, the answer is Chiaki. As an Observer herself, Chiaki would have had no body to possess in the real world, leaving Junko with a persona useless except for deception. Even then, we know that the Chiaki digital ghost is not controlled by Junko, as she is our key to exiting the final trial and overwhelming Junko's despair. This means that at least ONE digital ghost does exist, and we cannot explain it.
◊ She also has an inexplicably keen sense of smell.- Sure, why not ? Absolute Despair Girls had a part with a fucking ghost. At this point, I'm just gonna assume it's safe to say sky's the limit.
Either because he wants despair or sees their recovery as hope, his luck will lead them all to awakening at just the right time. Having all fifteen Remnants of Despair return is just too much not to happen for either side. Having all fifteen, maybe sixteen with Chiaki somehow, do a "big damned heroes/villains" moment would be a glorious moment of hope/despair depending on whose side you think they are on relative to you.
Question is the right time for what?
- Jossed, Danganronpa 3 reveals they woke up thanks to Hajime/Izuru.
In Episode 9 of the Despair Arc it was revealed that Chisa has been brainwashed by Junko as well. So what if she is still brainwashed and joined Future Foundation in order to help uploading the Junko AI?
Sorry, had to make this joke due to their similar designs. :P
- Jossed. Monokuma explicitly informs Hajime and Kazuichi in Chapter 6 that Hiyoko is the Saionji family's only daughter.
She has often shown a real fascination towards Serial Killers which is shown throughout the story and free time events. This is most likely because she was a Serial Killer as a Remmant of Despair.
Danganronpa's audience was convinced to have a need to save each character from death in the first game as they still understood their level of humanity no matter how much each participant was favoured. In the sequel, they're the resistance rehabilitating the cast and Hajime pursuing their goal to save the surviving characters they've bonded and connected with.
When Peko is explaining her backstory at the end of Chapter 2, she states that right after she was born, she was abandoned by her parents and was taken in by the Kuzuryu clan. Since they gave her a reason to live, she repays them by devoting herself to serving Fuyuhiko.
However, the description of the gift given as a reward for completing chapter 2 states that Peko's bamboo sword "has been passed down through each generation of Pekoyamas." If Peko really was abandoned by her parents, then how do the Kuzuryu Clan know her family name? A further piece of evidence for this is the way Peko's name is written in the Japanese version: her family name / surname is written in kanji (the script mainly used for writing Japanese names), whilst her first name is written in katakana (a script that is not used to write Japanese names), supporting the idea that Pekoyama is her actual family name (whilst 'Peko' was a name lazily given to her by the Kuzuryu Clan).
The most typical 'true backstory' that people who support this theory propose is that Peko was taken by the Kuzuryu Clan to pay off her family's debts. In turn, the Kuzuryu Clan raise the heir of a family of swordfighters to protect their own heir.
Peko is lied to as to make her feel more like she has to repay the generosity the Clan has showed her (as someone they willingly took on rather than someone they chose to take on), as well as ensuring that as little connections to her life outside of her duty remain. That is, with less human connections in her life, she'd be more willing to become a tool.
