History WMG / DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony

[[WMG: The series takes place after a "bad ending" to ''Anime/Danganronpa3TheEndOfHopesPeakHighSchool''.]]

* The player will discover this fact, figure out who hacked Kiibo, and execute them, since unlike with [[VisualNovel/SuperDanganronpa2 Peko,]] Kiibo would only be seen as the murder weapon, not the murderer. After helping Kiibo, Kaede will help him out of some Herioc BSOD and they'll join forces to discover the mastermind

[[WMG: Every student has a DarkAndTroubledPast, on a similar scale to the cast of VisualNovel/SuperDanganRonpa2]]

Just a wild mass guess, but she looks similar to him (Tall and thin, with the same shade of hair).

[[spoiler:Incidentally, if this theory is true, and Munakata doesn't survive the end of DR3, this person would be a good candidate for a potential mastermind. While Despair probably isn't hereditary, it's possible the despair-ified Chisa left behind something that would make her child think that Naegi had killed her parents to take over the Future Foundation, and thus manipulates her into becoming the next mastermind.]]

** Alternately, she's a descendant of Junko. Would explain the voice actress, and the Japanese version of SDR2 did mention that one of the Remnants implanted Junko's womb into herself to try and have her kid.

** Adding onto this, the game will be HotterAndSexier too; the {{fanservice}} was amped considerably between SDR2 and V3. Expect this and the above to intersect significantly, creating nasty FanDisservice.

* This is more of a hope than anything else. But Super Dangan Ronpa really enticed the fans with the increased LGBT tease. The series has been pretty open so far, having Nagito, Junko, Mikan and Teruteru as [[BiTheWay bisexual]](or at the very least AmbiguouslyBi) characters, so maybe on a Dangan Prison mode they'll be more straight forward in case a same-sex relationship is possible.

[[spoiler:Coming off of the last one... What Tsumugi claims happened in the Prologue and what we see in the Prologue... There's a huge contradiction there that heavily implicates that what she's saying is a lie. In the Playable Prologue, the order of events go: Characters get Ultimate Clothes > Seem confused when they're told they look like Ultimates > Get hit Flashback Lights. In the Prologue as Tsumugi tells it, the order of events go: Characters get Ultimate Clothes > Characters seem confused then happy they got into the game > then get hit by the Flashback Lights. These two things directly contradict each other, like the "Happy we got in" part was just ungracefully shoved into the events of what actually happened, not to mention that Tsumugi is conveniently leaving out, "Yeah, you guys only started acting like that after getting hit with the Flashback Lights... Except, no, I literally just said the Flashback Lights are what helped you remember you were in the Killing Game... Except, no, you didn't need them to remember... And what you remembered was fake all along." Yeah, which one is it Tsumugi? Because these statements directly contradict each other. Either the characters were given their ultimate clothes then immediately hit with the Flashback Lights (as we see in the actual Prologue) or they got their clothes, THEN got happy they got into the game THEN got hit with the Flashback Lights... Either they got hit twice with the Flashback Lights in short succession for some reason (and Tsumugi conveniently left this out and made it seem like the Flashback Lights weren't used at that point yet), which also means they got their "first memory" twice somehow or Tsumugi's lying about when they got hit with the Flashback Lights (has to be one or the other, and I think I'll trust the portion we play as over the recollections of a liar who has plenty of holes in her story). Even more, the way she's phrasing it makes it very uncertain if the "Ultimate Talents" part is what she meant by remembering or "You got into the game" part is what she's referring to, and this whole segment becomes an incomprehensible mess, almost like it's being hastily thrown together at the last possible moment and makes no sense when placed under scrutiny...]]\\\

[[spoiler:Coming off of the last one... What Tsumugi claims happened in the Prologue and what we see in the Prologue... There's a huge contradiction there that heavily implicates that what she's saying is a lie. In the Playable Prologue, the order of events go: Characters get Ultimate Clothes > Seem confused when they're told they look like Ultimates > Get hit Flashback Lights. In the Prologue as Tsumugi tells it, the order of events go: Characters get Ultimate Clothes > Characters seem confused then happy they got into the game > then get hit by the Flashback Lights. These two things directly contradict each other, like the "Happy we got in" part was just ungracefully shoved into the events of what actually happened, not to mention that Tsumugi is conveniently leaving out, "Yeah, you guys only started acting like that after getting hit with the Flashback Lights... Except, no, I literally just said the Flashback Lights are what helped you remember you were in the Killing Game... Except, no, you didn't need them to remember... And what you remembered was fake all along." Yeah, which one is it Tsumugi? Because these statements directly contradict each other. Either the characters were given their ultimate clothes then immediately hit with the Flashback Lights (as we see in the actual Prologue) or they got their clothes, THEN got happy they got into the game THEN got hit with the Flashback Lights... Either they got hit twice with the Flashback Lights in short succession (and we don't see it in the Prologue we play as) for some reason (and Tsumugi conveniently left this out and made it seem like the Flashback Lights weren't used at that point yet), or Tsumugi's lying about when they got hit with the Flashback Lights (has to be one or the other, and I think I'll trust the portion we play as over the recollections of a liar who has plenty of holes in her story). Even more, the way she's phrasing it makes it very uncertain if the "Ultimate Talents" part is what she meant by remembering or "You got into the game" part is what she's referring to, and this whole segment becomes an incomprehensible mess, almost like it's being hastily thrown together at the last possible moment and makes no sense when placed under scrutiny...]]\\\

[[spoiler:Rantaro almost certainly wasn’t in any previous Killing Games. Yes, that video was compelling… But there’s a slight issue there. The Ultimate Clothes we see reflect the talents of the Ultimate wearing them (Shuichi looks like a detective, Kaede’s musical notes related clothing, Himiko looking like a witch/magician…), but the Rantaro we see in the video is wearing the exact same Ultimate Clothes that we see him in in the game. So… Rantaro was the Ultimate Survivor twice in a row…? Because of his attire, I believe this is genuinely his first Killing Game, and being exposed to the Flashback Light gave him false memories and he made that video while being brainwashed. There’s also the fact that if this were the truth, and Danganronpa is a fictional series, none of the “huge fans” didn’t recognize Rantaro immediately as being a previous character on the show. There’s also the implication that the audition tapes we see were recorded inside the school (Tsumugi’s Ultimate Lab has a floor panel that pretty closely resembles the floor of what we see from the audition tapes…), and going with this and the above… They were tapes the characters recorded while brainwashed into thinking they got into their favorite show, which doesn’t exist.]] \\\

[[spoiler:Coming off of the last one... What Tsumugi claims happened in the Prologue and what we see in the Prologue... There's a huge contradiction there that heavily implicates that what she's saying is a lie. In the Playable Prologue, the order of events go: Characters get Ultimate Clothes > Seem confused when they're told they look like Ultimates > Get hit Flashback Lights. In the Prologue as Tsumugi tells it, the order of events go: Characters get Ultimate Clothes > Characters seem confused then happy they got into the game > then get hit by the Flashback Lights. These two things directly contradict each other, like the "Happy we got in" part was just ungracefully shoved into the events of what actually happened, not to mention that Tsumugi is conveniently leaving out, "Yeah, you guys only started acting like that after getting hit with the Flashback Lights... Except, no, I literally just said the Flashback Lights are what helped you remember you were in the Killing Game... Except, no, you didn't need them to remember... And what you remembered was fake all along." Yeah, which one is it Tsumugi? Because these statements directly contradict each other. Even more, the way she's phrasing it makes it very uncertain if the "Ultimate Talents" part is what she meant by remembering or "You got into the game" part is what she's referring to, and this whole segment becomes an incomprehensible mess, almost like it's being hastily thrown together at the last possible moment and makes no sense when placed under scrutiny...]]\\\

[[spoiler:The big one… The Mastermind probably isn’t who she thinks she is. Yes, Tsumugi is supposedly the Mastermind… Except, no, there’s actually a lot of clues hinting that she’s not aware of everything that happened in the Prologue as well. [[https://imgur.com/a/jQwDRGt First, the Normal!Tsumugi we see in the Prologue screams much more genuinely (“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”) while Ultimate!Tsumugi’s screams seem less genuine (“Kyaaaaa!”) when they both see the Exisals for the first time… If this were an act, why would she choose to scream differently?]] During the Prologue, she at no point tells the Monokubs, “You’re off script! The Exisals aren’t supposed to come in yet!” when she supposedly wrote the script? Why wasn’t she already dressed for her part as the Ultimate Cosplayer, and instead came to work dressed as a regular student and chose to act the part of one for no reason? Why was she asking questions like the other students when there was supposedly no reason for her to hide her true self at that point in time? And if she’s such a huge fan of Danganronpa and wrote out everything… Why did she make such basic mistakes in regards to the lore of the series...? Her being the Mastermind at that point in time makes no sense, especially the issues with her pretending to be a regular high school student one minute then going all Team Danganronpa the next to tell everyone, “Yeah, you got into the show.” With this in mind, and factoring in that she only began acting as a Team Danganronpa employee AFTER getting hit with the Flashback Lights, her role as the Mastermind was something fabricated as well. She probably really is the Ultimate Cosplayer (much like Shuichi is the Ultimate Detective), but she’s just been brainwashed into thinking she’s a member of a team that isn’t real and to be part of a TV Show that doesn’t exist. “But Tsumugi wrote out all of the plotlines!” Keep in mind that it’s heavily implied Tsumugi was looking into the (memory altering) Flashback Lights too throughout the game with the rest of the cast, so her “writing out the plots” could very well be her just being brainwashed into thinking that’s what actually happened.]] \\\

[[spoiler:Coming off of the last one... What Tsumugi claims happened in the Prologue and what we see in the Prologue... There's a huge contradiction there that heavily implicates that what she's saying is a lie. In the Playable Prologue, the order of events go: Characters get Ultimate Clothes > Seem confused when they're told they look like Ultimates > Get hit Flashback Lights. In the Prologue as Tsumugi tells it, the order of events go: Characters get Ultimate Clothes > Characters seem confused then happy they got into the game > then get hit by the Flashback Lights. These two things directly contradict each other, like the "Happy we got in" part was just ungracefully shoved into the events of what actually happened, not to mention that Tsumugi is conveniently leaving out, "Yeah, you guys only started acting like that after getting hit with the Flashback Lights... Except, no, I literally just said the Flashback Lights are what helped you remember you were in the Killing Game... Except, no, you didn't need them to remember... And what you remembered was fake all along." Yeah, which one is it Tsumugi? Because these statements directly contradict each other. Even more, the way she's phrasing it makes it very uncertain if the "Ultimate Talents" part is what she meant by remembering or "You got into the game" part is what she's referring to, and this whole segment becomes an incomprehensible mess, almost like it's being hastily thrown together at the last possible moment and makes no sense when placed under scrutiny...]]

[[spoiler:The flashback about being accepted into the killing game also directly contradicts what happened in the Prologue. Tsumugi tells the survivors, “You were so happy to get accepted in!” Except… This makes no sense and honestly comes across as pointlessly contrived, as though this “fictional” set up makes no sense. For one, the V3 characters we see in the beginning of the Prologue are their “true selves” but Tsumugi says the Flashback Lights also helped them remember their “true selves” so… Which one of these two (or three, since apparently Tsumugi can't count... Another clue that what she's saying isn't adding up, as apparently the ones we see in the Prologue are their true selves but the ones that "suddenly remembered they were contestants" are also their true selves? Which one is it Tsumugi?) are their true personalities? Even then, it’s unclear (if we take Tsumugi's words as truth) if the “bloodthirsty” Shuichi is his true personality, the meek, talentless Shuichi we see is the true personality, or the Ultimate Shuichia we play as in the majority of the game is the one that’s the true self (I'd have to lean towards the Ultimate version being the true one, as I've explained above and will below)… This seems needlessly convoluted, and almost like it’s something being made up on the spot… Note, Tsumugi’s saying this AFTER the characters just got hit with brain altering flashlights that can change someone’s personality… That casts serious doubt on how genuine the “happy reactions” were to them getting into their favorite show was (especially with how the Monokubs outright say that everything before the Flashback Lights appear wasn’t supposed to happen to begin with).]] \\\

[[spoiler:The first part of the Prologue wasn’t them being accepted into the Killing Game. The Monokubs more or less outright say, “This isn’t in the script.” The students were supposed to have their Ultimate Talents, the Exisals weren’t supposed to show up at that point in time, and… This directly contradicts the “flashback” in the final trial where it was all just revealed to be an audition. So which was it? Were the students happy to get onto the show, or were the Monokubs lying for no reason in particular to people that were about to get their memories erased? That “happy reaction” we see is being told to us by a psychopath who has been lying the entire game… And speaking of Tsumugi, if this were them being accepted into the show like she claimed, there was no reasoning behind her putting on a scared front (she has noticeably different screams before and after getting her Ultimate Clothes when seeing the Exisals for the first time), not being in her Ultimate Clothes (the rest were “contestants” so… Why wouldn’t the employee just show up dressed for the part? This makes no sense...) and not bothering to tell the Monokubs, “You’re way off script! The Exisals aren’t supposed to show up yet!” The Monokubs outright say, “You guys weren’t supposed to be like this by the time you woke up.” Based on all of this… The “you got into the show” part wasn’t them being accepted into the show, as the Monokubs were clearly already “on script” and reading their lines before the show even started… And then turn around and basically say, “Just kidding! We knew you weren’t in your roles yet… Ignore everything else we said to signal we thought you were in your roles… That was a joke? You could tell…?” Even Tsumugi was asking questions, almost as though she were genuinely confused as well when this was all part of a “You got into the show!” bit… Whatever was going on in that part, it wasn't meant to be what Tsumugi claimed it was.]] \\\

This contains spoilers for the ending, so read at your own risk… [[spoiler: But the Mastermind was lying about the cast being fake Ultimates, Danganronpa being a fictional series and even being the Mastermind. [[https://www.reddit.com/r/danganronpa/comments/f0tmnk/my_thoughts_on_v3s_ending_and_what_i_believe_is/ This thread]] I started on Reddit goes into detail, but I’d like to add onto it here because the trope pages for the character profiles seem to agree that the Mastermind was telling the truth, while there’s actually a few glaring things to indicate that’s not the case… Note, some of what I say here is somewhat different from the Reddit thread, as I’ve been replaying through the game again and re-watching things, so this version is more updated than the thread. This is a long read, but if you believe that Tsumugi was telling the truth, I have things that I think might persuade you that that isn’t the case… Tl;dr at the bottom. \\\

The level of technology in V3 matches up with the level of technology from the previous games. The Flashback Lights seem to replicate the ability to alter memories that were seen in 1 and 2 (along with being able to give people talents like the Izuru Kamukura Project). Keebo is confirmed to be a sentient AI while the Monokubs, Motherkuma and Monokuma are all heavily implied to be sentient AI like Alter Ego, Alter Ego Junko, Shirokuma and Kurokuma. This seems to indicate that the level of technology in V3 is on a similar level (and possibly more advanced with the inclusion of Nanokuma, the Monokubs being so easily recreated and being able to mass produce possibly sentient Monokuma through Motherkuma) as the ones from the “fictional universe.”\\\

The beginning Prologue of V3 heavily implies Ultimate Talents are a real thing in the “real world”. When asked if the characters have an Ultimate Talent when the characters are their “real, talentless selves”, the characters say, “I don’t have an Ultimate Talent.” Strange that the characters don’t say, “Ultimate Talents don’t exist” or “Those are just fiction”, instead they make it seem as if Ultimate Talents are a real thing, they just lack them in particular. This is a very odd choice of words to use if Danganronpa is a fictional story in the real world…\\\

The first part of the Prologue wasn’t them being accepted into the Killing Game. The Monokubs more or less outright say, “This isn’t in the script.” The students were supposed to have their Ultimate Talents, the Exisals weren’t supposed to show up at that point in time, and… This directly contradicts the “flashback” in the final trial where it was all just revealed to be an audition. So which was it? Were the students happy to get onto the show, or were the Monokubs lying for no reason in particular to people that were about to get their memories erased? That “happy reaction” we see is being told to us by a psychopath who has been lying the entire game… And speaking of Tsumugi, if this were them being accepted into the show like she claimed, there was no reasoning behind her putting on a scared front (she has noticeably different screams before and after getting her Ultimate Clothes when seeing the Exisals for the first time), not being in her Ultimate Clothes (the rest were “contestants” so… Why wouldn’t the employee just show up dressed for the part? This makes no sense...) and not bothering to tell the Monokubs, “You’re way off script! The Exisals aren’t supposed to show up yet!” The Monokubs outright say, “You guys weren’t supposed to be like this by the time you woke up.” Based on all of this… The “you got into the show” part wasn’t them being accepted into the show, as the Monokubs were clearly already “on script” and reading their lines before the show even started… And then turn around and basically say, “Just kidding! We knew you weren’t in your roles yet… Ignore everything else we said to signal we thought you were in your roles… That was a joke? You could tell…?” Even Tsumugi was asking questions, almost as though she were genuinely confused as well when this was all part of a “You got into the show!” bit… Whatever was going on in that part, it wasn't meant to be what Tsumugi claimed it was.\\\

The flashback about being accepted into the killing game also directly contradicts what happened in the Prologue. Tsumugi tells the survivors, “You were so happy to get accepted in!” Except… This makes no sense and honestly comes across as pointlessly contrived, as though this “fictional” set up makes no sense. For one, the V3 characters we see in the beginning of the Prologue are their “true selves” but Tsumugi says the Flashback Lights also helped them remember their “true selves” so… Which one of these two (or three, since apparently Tsumugi can't count... Another clue that what she's saying isn't adding up) are their true personalities? Even then, it’s unclear (if we take Tsumugi's words as truth) if the “bloodthirsty” Shuichi is his true personality, the meek, talentless Shuichi we see is the true personality, or the Ultimate Shuichia we play as in the majority of the game is the one that’s the true self (I'd have to lean towards the Ultimate version being the true one, as I've explained above and will below)… This seems needlessly convoluted, and almost like it’s something being made up on the spot… Note, Tsumugi’s saying this AFTER the characters just got hit with brain altering flashlights that can change someone’s personality… That casts serious doubt on how genuine the “happy reactions” were to them getting into their favorite show was (especially with how the Monokubs outright say that everything before the Flashback Lights appear wasn’t supposed to happen to begin with).\\\

The Monokubs more or less state, “You WERE Ultimates.” Even before they get their “false memories.” Keep in mind, this is before anyone gets hit with the Flashback Lights…

* Monosuke: Youse all forgotten your talents and become generic high school students.
* Monotaro: The first thing we need you guys to do is remember your true selves.
* Monophanie: Yeah! You guys need to reclaim your sealed talents by regaining your memories!
* Monotaro: Now then, after the Flashback Lights help you remember your amazing talents.

Now… This part right here is really intriguing. The Monokubs are outright saying that the characters had Ultimate Talents before the Prologue. The Monokubs have no reason to lie at this point… And I’m failing to see how they could become “generic high schoolers” when Ultimate Students apparently don’t exist, how they could forget their “true selves” and “reclaim” talents they supposedly never had to begin with and unsealing something that was apparently never there to begin with... Notably, Monotaro says that the Flashback Lights will help them "remember your amazing talents" which more or less confirms they had Ultimate Talents at some point before the game started. The Monokubs have no reason to lie here, as the characters will have their memories tampered with shortly after, and they genuinely seem to be probing to figure out what went wrong (and frustrated that they didn't have their talents yet because Monophanie didn't restore them like she was supposed to). Keep in mind that Tsumugi seems genuinely confused here as well, which she has no reason to be doing if she’s the Mastermind. My take? The cast of V3 are really Ultimates (the Monokubs outright saying they weren’t always generic high school students, that they had their amazing talents at some point before the game started and remembering their amazing talents/true selves), they just had their memories erased to keep them safe from the people in the Prologue that abducted the (memory wiped) Ultimates... It didn’t work, and it looks like they got dragged into a Killing Game run by crazy people/homicidal AI.\\\

Were the character's personalities all fictional? No, not really. If you pay attention to the Prologue (before their memories were altered by the Flashback Lights), you'll notice... Shuichi acts the same as he does in the game (even keeping on his hat), Kaede acts the same (if slightly more cynical), Rantaro (from what little we see) acts the same, Maki is still as cool as a normal person as when she's the Ultimate Assasin, Miu's still rude and swears in the brief moments we see her, Tenko still has her panicking sprites, and notably Korekiyo is wearing his mask BEFORE seeing the Flashback Light and pretty much everyone else (except Tsumugi) seem to act the same (or not wildly different compared to) the ones we see in the game. I'd say the depictions we see in the game are how they naturally behave (sans maybe Tsumugi, which I'll cover down below... But I suspect her personality (minus the mastermind bit) is how she naturally acts as well).\\\

Were the characters given fake names? No, they did not have fake names. Shuichi and Kaede both have the same names in the Prologue, and the Japanese audio of the final trial strongly sounds like the "real" Shuichi in the audition tape is saying his name is "S-(Static) S-(Static)", making me believe Shuichi Saihara is his true name. For more evidence that they have the same names as the "fictional characters" they're playing... Rantaro Amami is supposedly a fictional character with a fake name, yet the "real one" we see in the beginning of the Prologue is also named Rantaro Amami...? With all this in mind... Kaede, Shuichi and Rantaro are all using their real names, not the names of fictional characters they were given. With the audio from the Japanese version, I'd even say it's likely the Shuichi we see there is using the name Shuichi Saihara as well.\\\

Were the character’s backstories all fictional? Well... There’s a lot of things pointing to the characters we see in the game being their true selves (in addition to what the Monokubs state), besides the planet being uninhabitable part of course. Gonta claims he’s from a respectable family… The [[https://i.imgur.com/MhU9uhM.png visual dictionary]] for V3 states that the clothes we see him in in the Prologue before they get their Ultimate Clothes looks like something from a “respectable family.” Shuichi (the Ultimate Detective) heard of Ryoma killing mafia with a steel ball, which makes sense for a detective to have heard of a criminal organization being destroyed. Shuichi also has a thing about not removing his hat in the Prologue as well... Which doesn't make sense if that was just something added to the character. Kaede mentions that her friends used Miu’s eye drop contact lenses invention, but never heard of Miu herself (the product can be well known, but the inventor might be unknown). These little details make me think that the characters we see in V3 are their “true selves” and their backstories are really what happened.\\\


Building off of the last one, but deserving its own paragraph. Of special note is Keebo and if he was just created to be a character on Danganronpa… There’s a lot of evidence that he wasn’t created to be the Audience Surrogate. For one, he’s first seen wearing regular clothing, instead of just showing up in his Ultimate Robot attire (why bother putting him in regular clothing, then changing his clothes, then erasing his memories instead of just having him come with those clothes from the beginning?). Two, his antenna… It’s usually pointing up or at a 45 degree angle, but in the Prologue, he’s wearing a hat that would be flattening it (and likely affecting reception for the audience). Three, the [[https://i.imgur.com/MhU9uhM.png visual dictionary]] confirms he was trying to hide his metal body with the “normal” clothing we see in the beginning of the game (implying he had a life before the Killing Game started, which also makes no sense if he were created to just be the Audience Surrogate)… Based on all of this, I’d have to say he really is the Ultimate Robot and trying to blend in as a regular human being after having his memories tampered with, but was repurposed into being the Audience Surrogate (the antenna was likely placed on his body when everyone got their Ultimate Clothes).\\\

Rantaro almost certainly wasn’t in any previous Killing Games. Yes, that video was compelling… But there’s a slight issue there. The Ultimate Clothes we see reflect the talents of the Ultimate wearing them (Shuichi looks like a detective, Kaede’s musical notes related clothing, Himiko looking like a witch/magician…), but the Rantaro we see in the video is wearing the exact same Ultimate Clothes that we see him in in the game. So… Rantaro was the Ultimate Survivor twice in a row…? Because of his attire, I believe this is genuinely his first Killing Game, and being exposed to the Flashback Light gave him false memories and he made that video while being brainwashed. There’s also the fact that if this were the truth, and Danganronpa is a fictional series, none of the “huge fans” didn’t recognize Rantaro immediately as being a previous character on the show. There’s also the implication that the audition tapes we see were recorded inside the school (Tsumugi’s Ultimate Lab has a floor panel that pretty closely resembles the floor of what we see from the audition tapes…), and going with this and the above… They were tapes the characters recorded while brainwashed into thinking they got into their favorite show, which doesn’t exist.\\\

The big one… The Mastermind probably isn’t who she thinks she is. Yes, Tsumugi is supposedly the Mastermind… Except, no, there’s actually a lot of clues hinting that she’s not aware of everything that happened in the Prologue as well. [[https://imgur.com/a/jQwDRGt First, the Normal!Tsumugi we see in the Prologue screams much more genuinely (“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”) while Ultimate!Tsumugi’s screams seem less genuine (“Kyaaaaa!”) when they both see the Exisals for the first time… If this were an act, why would she choose to scream differently?]] During the Prologue, she at no point tells the Monokubs, “You’re off script! The Exisals aren’t supposed to come in yet!” when she supposedly wrote the script? Why wasn’t she already dressed for her part as the Ultimate Cosplayer, and instead came to work dressed as a regular student and chose to act the part of one for no reason? Why was she asking questions like the other students when there was supposedly no reason for her to hide her true self at that point in time? And if she’s such a huge fan of Danganronpa and wrote out everything… Why did she make such basic mistakes in regards to the lore of the series...? Her being the Mastermind at that point in time makes no sense, especially the issues with her pretending to be a regular high school student one minute then going all Team Danganronpa the next to tell everyone, “Yeah, you got into the show.” With this in mind, and factoring in that she only began acting as a Team Danganronpa employee AFTER getting hit with the Flashback Lights, her role as the Mastermind was something fabricated as well. She probably really is the Ultimate Cosplayer (much like Shuichi is the Ultimate Detective), but she’s just been brainwashed into thinking she’s a member of a team that isn’t real and to be part of a TV Show that doesn’t exist. “But Tsumugi wrote out all of the plotlines!” Keep in mind that it’s heavily implied Tsumugi was looking into the (memory altering) Flashback Lights too throughout the game with the rest of the cast, so her “writing out the plots” could very well be her just being brainwashed into thinking that’s what actually happened.\\\

With all of this in mind… The reveals from the final trial don’t make too much sense, and it almost seems like things that were revealed don’t make much sense, and I strongly believe it was because Tsumugi was grasping at straws (and failing) to make a comprehensible narrative out of what was going on (not to mention, she herself probably wasn't entirely sure of what was real at the time either, as she might not even be the true Mastermind).\\\

TL;DR: There’s tons of evidence that V3 takes place in the same continuity as the rest of the series, the characters are all really Ultimates, Keebo, the Monokubs and V3!Monokuma are likely AI like Shirokuma, Kurokuma and Alter Ego Junko (which fits with the technology being the same as the supposedly "fictional universe's" technology) and Tsumugi is almost certainly brainwashed into believing she’s the Mastermind when she isn’t based on how she acts in the beginning of the game. ]] \\\

TL;DR: There’s tons of evidence that V3 takes place in the same continuity as the rest of the series, the characters are all really Ultimates, V3!Monokuma is likely an AI like Shirokuma and Kurokuma (which fits with the technology being the same as the "fictional universe") and Tsumugi is almost certainly brainwashed into believing she’s the Mastermind when she isn’t based on how she acts in the beginning of the game. ]] \\\

Were the characters given fake names? No, they did not have fake names. Shuichi and Kaede both have the same names in the Prologue, and the Japanese audio of the final trial strongly sounds like the "real" Shuichi is saying his name is "S-(Static) S-(Static)", making me believe Shuichi Saihara is his true name. For more evidence that they have the same names as the "fictional characters" they're playing... Rantaro Amami is supposedly a fictional character with a fake name, yet the "real one" we see in the beginning of the Prologue is also named Rantaro Amami...? With all this in mind... Kaede, Shuichi and Rantaro are all using their real names, not the names of fictional characters they were given. With the audio from the Japanese version, I'd even say it's likely the Shuichi we see there is using the name Shuichi Saihara as well.\\\

[[WMG: Nearly Everything Said At The End Of This Game Was a Lie]]\\\

[[WMG: Nearly Everything Said At The End Of This Game Was a Lie]]

The flashback about being accepted into the killing game also directly contradicts what happened in the Prologue. Tsumugi tells the survivors, “You were so happy to get accepted in!” Except… This makes no sense and honestly comes across as pointlessly contrived, as though this “fictional” set up makes no sense. For one, the V3 characters we see in the beginning of the Prologue are their “true selves” but Tsumugi says the Flashback Lights also helped them remember their “true selves” so… Which one of these two (or three, since apparently Tsumugi can't count... Another clue that what she's saying isn't adding up) are their true personalities? Even then, it’s unclear (if we take Tsumugi's words as truth) if the “bloodthirsty” Shuichi is his true personality, the meek, talentless Shuichi we see is the true personality, or the Ultimate Shuichia we play as in the majority of the game is the one that’s the true self (I'd have to lean towards the Ultimate version being the true one, as I'll explain below)… This seems needlessly convoluted, and almost like it’s something being made up on the spot… Note, Tsumugi’s saying this AFTER the characters just got hit with brain altering flashlights that can change someone’s personality… That casts serious doubt on how genuine the “happy reactions” were to them getting into their favorite show was (especially with how the Monokubs outright say that everything before the Flashback Lights appear wasn’t supposed to happen to begin with).\\\

Were the character’s backstories all fictional? Well... There’s a lot of things pointing to the characters we see in the game being their true selves (in addition to what the Monokubs state), besides the planet being uninhabitable part of course. Gonta claims he’s from a respectable family… The [[https://i.imgur.com/MhU9uhM.png visual dictionary]] for V3 states that the clothes we see him in in the Prologue before they get their Ultimate Clothes looks like something from a “respectable family.” Shuichi (the Ultimate Detective) heard of Ryoma killing mafia with a steel ball, which makes sense for a detective to have heard of a criminal organization being destroyed. Kaede mentions that her friends used Miu’s “eye drop contact lenses” invention, but never heard of Miu herself (the product can be well known, but the inventor might be unknown). These little details make me think that the characters we see in V3 are their “true selves” and their backstories are really what happened. Along with the fact that Shuichi and Kaede both have the same names in the Prologue, and the Japanese audio of the final trial strongly sounds like the "real" Shuichi is saying his name is "S-(Static) S-(Static)", making me believe Shuichi Saihara is his true name. For more evidence that they have the same names as the "fictional characters" they're playing... Rantaro Amami is supposedly a fictional character with a fake name, yet the "real one" we see in the beginning of the Prologue is also named Rantaro Amami...? With all this in mind... Kaede, Shuichi and Rantaro are all using their real names, not the names of fictional characters they were given. With the audio from the Japanese version, I'd even say it's likely the Shuichi we see there is using the name Shuichi Saihara as well.\\\

The Monokubs more or less state, “You ARE Ultimates.” Even before they get their “false memories.” Keep in mind, this is before anyone gets hit with the Flashback Lights…

Now… This part right here is really intriguing. The Monokubs are outright saying that the characters had Ultimate Talents before the Prologue. The Monokubs have no reason to lie at this point… And I’m failing to see how they could become “generic high schoolers” when Ultimate Students apparently don’t exist, how they could forget their “true selves” and “reclaim” talents they supposedly never had to begin with and unsealing something that was apparently never there to begin with... The Monokubs have no reason to lie here, as the characters will have their memories tampered with shortly after, and they genuinely seem to be probing to figure out what went wrong. Keep in mind that Tsumugi seems genuinely confused here as well, which she has no reason to be doing if she’s the Mastermind. My take? The cast of V3 are really Ultimates (the Monokubs outright saying they weren’t always generic high school students and remembering their true selves being the biggest reason why), they just had their memories erased to keep them safe from the people in the Prologue that abducted the (memory wiped) Ultimates... It didn’t work, and it looks like they got dragged into a Killing Game run by crazy people/homicidal AI.\\\

The flashback about being accepted into the killing game also directly contradicts what happened in the Prologue. Tsumugi tells the survivors, “You were so happy to get accepted in!” Except… This makes no sense and honestly comes across as pointlessly contrived, as though this “fictional” set up makes no sense. For one, the V3 characters we see in the beginning of the Prologue are their “true selves” but Tsumugi says the Flashback Lights also helped them remember their “true selves” so… Which one of these two (or three, since apparently Tsumugi can't count... Another clue that what she's saying isn't adding up) are their true personalities? Even then, it’s unclear (if we take Tsumugi's words as truth) if the “bloodthirsty” Shuichi is his true personality, the meek, talentless Shuichi we see is the true personality, or the Ultimate Shuichia we play as in the majority of the game is the one that’s remembering… This seems needlessly convoluted, and almost like it’s something being made up on the spot… Note, Tsumugi’s saying this AFTER the characters just got hit with brain altering flashlights that can change someone’s personality… That casts serious doubt on how genuine the “happy reactions” were to them getting into their favorite show was (especially with how the Monokubs outright say that everything before the Flashback Lights appear wasn’t supposed to happen to begin with).\\\

Now… This part right here is really intriguing. The Monokubs are outright saying that the characters had Ultimate Talents before the Prologue. The Monokubs have no reason to lie at this point… And I’m failing to see how they could become “generic high schoolers” when Ultimate Students apparently don’t exist, how they could forget their “true selves” and “reclaim” talents they supposedly never had to begin with. Keep in mind that Tsumugi seems genuinely confused here as well, which she has no reason to be doing if she’s the Mastermind. My take? The cast of V3 are really Ultimates (the Monokubs outright saying they weren’t always generic high school students and remembering their true selves being the biggest reason why), they just had their memories erased to keep them safe from the people in the Prologue that abducted the Ultimates... It didn’t work, and it looks like they got dragged into a Killing Game run by crazy people/homicidal AI.\\\