The Despair in Our Stars
is an ongoing fanfiction story by SanityRequiem based on the Danganronpa universe. Shiro Amari, the Ultimate Composer, finds himself trapped with sixteen other students in a spaceship. They are forced into yet another Killing Game by the killer teddy bear Monokuma. And, to make things worse, there is only one way to escape, the singular escape pod saved for either a successful murderer or the mastermind, and they are six months away from crashing into a planet that does not support human life.
Is in the same universe as Forest of Despair and The Killing Games Serenade.
This Danganronpa fanfic contains examples of:
- Aborted Arc: The story of Lost Paradise of Our Despair was completely scrapped and replaced with the new Despair in Our Stars since Requiem and some members of her fanbase felt like she could do way better. Turns out she can.
- The Ace: Every student in their field of work.
- Broken Ace: Many of these students need therapy. Especially Shiro.
- After the End: Because it is the same universe as the canon games, the world is still recovering from the Tragedy.
- All for Nothing: The events of Lost Paradise. Literally nothing the students did matter since, no matter what, Monokuma would've executed most of them for not playing the game as intended.
- Ambiguous Gender: Yuu and Yuki, Hanane, Fubuki, and Suzunami.
- America Takes Over the World: Once again, the Committee, which is short for the American Restoration Committee, is in control of most of the world. Though it is heavily implied Despair in Our Stars happens slightly after the events of Forest of Despair, making the Committee's rule questionable.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: Emilynn narrates the last parts of Lost Paradise, with the extra chapter being in a presumed third-person perspective.
- Anyone Can Die: As per usual in the Danganronpa series. The author, Requiem, has already made it clear that she will kill anybody for the sake of the story. Nobody is safe.
- In Lost Paradise, literally almost half of the students are executed because of the game not going the way the Despairs wanted it to.
- Arc Words: Along with the common hope and despair, Shiro loves talking about his sweet logic and emotion.
- Asshole Victim: It is hard feeling sorry for Mei being the first victim when she is revealed to be the mastermind.
- Big Bad: Monokuma. He is the one who trapped all the students inside a spaceship.
- Big Brother Is Watching: The students are being filmed during the events of the game. Since this is a Danganronpa season, they are most likely being shown to the entire world.
- Bloodier and Gorier: Even compared to Forest of Despair. Requiem has warned readers that she was holding herself back in Forest of Despair and is no longer doing so. And poor Lost Paradise cast is the victims of that. Poor, poor Sachiko.
- Body Horror: The nightmare sequence Shiro has with Yuu and Yuki Akimoto. Their bodies are fusing with each other in unnatural ways in a way compared to sludge.
- Body of the Week: The premise of the game is to get away with murder. Dead bodies are bound to be found.
- Breaking Old Trends: Requiem enjoys doing this way too much. She could've just perfectly started Despair in Our Stars over but no...she had to murder everybody and screw with the audience instead.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: By this point, we can just all agree with Requiem is obsessed with doing this. In the extra chapter of Lost Paradise, named Hope, Hope directly addresses the audience and breaks the story so much that she breaks into the narration and twists it into her own desires of confusing the audience so much that they won't understand anything about what's truly going on.
- Central Theme: Hope vs Despair, Logic vs Emotion, Reality vs Fiction
- Characters Dropping Like Flies: The last chapter of Lost Paradise is mostly the girls and Shiro getting brutally executed. Six people get killed in one chapter.
- Crapsack World: Further explores the world of the Committee Saga. Shiro knows more about the Committee than the other protagonists combined, besides Kazuma. What he knows is disturbing as the Committee willingly allowed Kotori to get away with many war crimes such as experimenting on possibly hundreds, if not thousands, of people.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Although it is still unclear on how Mei died, only that Emilynn accidentally did it with a shotput ball, her death is still horrific. She died of blunt force trauma but somehow it looks like she was tortured before her death with all of her bruises, broken bones, and tears. Not to mention somebody somehow moved her body.
- Starting the mass execution, Sachiko gets slowly torn apart by Monokumas before getting her head cut off and then has her body parts used for toys.
- Natsuki actually survives her execution. Though she later just gets shot in the head.
- Mizore gets crushed by a roller coaster car.
- Asuka gets slowly stoned to death with heavy balls. After she dies, her body also gets exploded.
- Ichiko gets tortured in methods that are callouts to other deaths in Danganronpa. Ichiko successfully dodges all of these methods of deaths just for the ceiling to cave in. Shiro has no idea if Ichiko survives the cave-in, though points out it would have been unlikely. But that does not matter since everything gets set ablaze.
- Shiro gets almost cut into ribbons as he dances. The ceiling caves in again, but Shiro somehow survives that. But, before he can escape, Shiro gets beheaded by piano wire.
- Darkerand Edgier: Requiem says that she is no longer holding back and writing whatever she wants. She has been proven to do exactly that, causing the fandom to scream once again.
- Deadly Game: The cast is forced into one by Monokuma.
- Escape Pod: It's the prize for the successful murderer or the mastermind screws everyone over in six months. Oh yeah, there's only one.
- Everyone Went to School Together: Downplayed compared to Forest of Despair. Some of the students, however, do know each other.
- First-Name Basis: Due to the Committee making it more common and acceptable for people to call others by their first name, all of the students seem to do this.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: There are an equal amount of boys and girls.
- The Hero Dies: In Lost Paradise, Shiro dies. Though he is somehow back for Despair in Our Stars.
- Hope Is Scary: Hope is introduced in her own extra chapter in Lost Paradise. And she does this by mindfucking the audience. Turns out hope isn't entirely good in this version of Danganronpa.
- Hope Spot: Natsuki actually survives her execution. Though, right afterward, she just gets shot in the head.
- Idiot Hair: Like all of the protagonist before him, Shiro Amari indeed has this. This is ultimately played with however since it is clear that Shiro is not an idiot.
- I Just Write the Thing: Requiem always seems to have this kind of thinking with her stories.
- Lights Off, Somebody Dies: At this rate, they should just find a way to always keep the lights on. Mei is murdered when the lights are off.
- Mind Rape: Even without Kaneshiro being involved, this still happens. The Master and Hope are proven to use these methods. In Lost Paradise, the Master even brainwashes Shiro into despair.
- Nebulous Evil Organization: Guess what, the True Despairs and the Committee are still here to ruin the day.
- One-Steve Limit: Inverted. Again, this time by Emilynn McKay, the Ultimate Lucky Student. There's also Natsuki, whose name is Kitsu's surname.
- Series Mascot: Monokuma is back and still forcing students to kill each other.
- Ship Tease: Shiro gets this with almost everybody. Requiem is a big fan of shipping and it shows.
- Shrinking Violet: Sachiko Isobe, the Ultimate Miko.
- Sympathetic Murderer: This is Danganronpa and also part of the Committee Saga! Of course, the murderers are going to break your heart along with the victims.
- There Are No Therapists: Averted by Etsuko Abe, the Ultimate Psychologist.
- Title Drop: Hope uses the title Lost Paradise of Despair in her own chapter.
- Unreliable Narrator: Though Shiro is definitely more reliable than the other narrators in the series, something about him still seems...off. Despair in Our Stars further explores this, with his sanity now being highly questionable.
- Unwitting Test Subject: Once again, everybody that is stuck into becoming one of Kotori's experiences. Even though Kotori is proven dead, the results of her research still have a lasting impact on this story. Especially since it is proven at least one of the students is a personality experiment.
- Villain-Based Franchise: Monokuma is back! So, of course, he's a main character.
- Win Your Freedom: The goal of the Killing Game is to escape certain death.
