Danganronpa Despair Time - Blog Posts

idk how i didn't figure this out sooner

I was today years old when I learned that Hu Jing's VA is Molly Zhang.

HOW DID I JUST NOW LEARN THIS??

hbd

happy belated birthday to second best girl eden (meant to say this sooner but i was busy on new years eve)

and happy birthday to best girl teruko!

my favorite drdt girls :)

TIERLIST TIIIIMMEEE!!!!

Okay so here are some tierlists from my favorite fangans :)

I'll label which fangan they're from below the tierlist.

Danganronpa Despair Time

Project: Eden's Garden

Tetro Danganronpa Pink

If you haven't checked out all three of these fangans, please do! Both Despair Time and Tetro DR Pink are on YouTube, and there are walkthroughs of Project: Eden's Garden on YouTube, or you can download the game on itch.io.

These were fun :)

hbd

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ROSE!!!

We love Black Girl Magic

caught red handed

I might make a bigger post about this later, but remember that whole bit in episode 14 of the second chapter where David was lying about the BDA thing, and then said that there was no way to verify whether he was lying or not? Yeah, well, Teruko, Whit, and Eden could verify whether he was lying or not (though they didn't realize it), and it's all because of the elevator.

If Teruko, Whit, and Eden were able to verify that the elevator was immediately available when they went to search for Arei on the second floor, then there's no way that David is telling the truth.

Also when the cast asked why David did what he did in Episode 12, he literally says he didn't look at the crime scene.

that mv was peak despite it being short

happy halloween y'all (and happy birthday ace!!)

also xander in the drhd artstyle is PEAK

Here it is finally....

Okay, so I've been debating on whether or not I should make this post debunking one of TheBadJoe's theories, and I'm finally making it (yay!) If you haven't read the post, here is a link to the theory post I'm mentioning. You should also go to Episode 15's YouTube comment section to find his comment too.

The reason why I'm debunking this theory in the first place is because it sucks. A lot.

Disclaimer: This post is not hating or discrediting TheBadJoe and all his hard work. I'm just debunking his claims/shaky line of reasoning. I'm also aware that this post was made after episode 15 was released and before episode 16 was released.

Now, on to the theory debunking. This is probably the longest post I've ever written. (spoilers)

Let's start by summarizing the post in question. Basically, TheBadJoe is saying this:

"Charles mentioned the use of barehanded strangulation, meaning strangling without a weapon. But, Arei has no marks on her body other than her wrists, and Charles couldn't have known that if he didn't see the body. Therefore, that is a huge contradiction/discrepancy, and that means Ace isn't the culprit."

Well. I'm not sure how he reached that conclusion. Here's what I think.

This is NOT a discrepancy/contradition, for 2 main reasons.

I will explain these in detail below.

How did TheBadJoe misinterpret Charles's statement?

Mixing up terms and definitions.

TheBadJoe incorrectly assumed that barehanded strangulation meant not using a weapon. If you're wondering how I got that from the Tumblr post, I didn't. I initially found this theory in the YouTube comment section of episode 15, where I argued with him about this not being a discrepancy.

What he didn't realize is that barehanded strangulation isn't actually a strangulation term (and he proceeded to correct me while being loud and wrong lmao). What he's talking about is manual strangulation, which is defined as, "applying pressure to the neck using hands, arms, or legs." (If you want more info I read this article.) Why is this a mistake? I'll get to that, bear with me.

2. Misinterpreting Charles's character.

You're probably wondering, "What does Charles have to do with this, besides not seeing the body?" Well, he's the one who made the comment in the first place (ignore my sloppy highlighting lmao)

Charles is a character that prides himself on being pragmatic, logical and specific (heavy emphasis on specific.) If Charles were talking about Ace strangling Arei without the use of a weapon, he would actually say "manual strangulation". But he doesn't. He says barehanded specifically, which can be taken at face value. Charles is talking about Ace using his hands specifically. A little bit before this, Charles directly mentions Ace using his hands.

Charles is only talking about the usage of hands to knock Arei out, so why would he imply otherwise later? If another character had said this, that line of reasoning could work, but it's Charles. He's doesn't give vague descriptors, ever. Also, the cast has been mentioning that Arei didn't have marks on her body other than her neck, so Charles definitely knew about the evidence previously.

Okay. Now that we've covered how TheBadJoe misinterpreted the quote, let's move on to why what he pointed out is not, in fact, a discrepancy/contradiction. The reason is really simple, actually.

Ace used his forearm, not his hands, to strangle Arei.

I brought this up when making this claim to TheBadJoe, and he pointed out that this was an assumption made by Teruko.

Is is true that Teruko made an assumption? Yes. However, this is a very valid assumption, for quite a few reasons. I will list them below.

There's no evidence that Ace strangled Arei with his hands.

This is the most obvious reason that TheBadJoe missed somehow. If Ace used his hands, there would be proof of that on Arei's neck, such as bruising or maybe some swelling. Like he pointed out, Arei has no other marks on her body besides the red marks on her wrists. (I used this article btw)

2. You don't strangle someone from behind using your hands.

Also a really obvious reason. Even Ace is smart enough not to do that. Smh.

3. Strangling someone with your hands is a lot harder and more time consuming than using your forearm.

Like I've mentioned before, Arei had no signs of struggle. If Ace used his hands, there would've been more evidence of that, not just on Arei's neck, but possibly on Ace as well. Arei isn't the type of person who would go down without a fight, as we all know, so it is highly likely that Arei would've injured Ace further if there was a scuffle. Plus, the dev would've written something like that in if that were the case.

4. It ruins the goal of stealth/element of surprise.

If Ace had strangled Arei with his hands, he would've had to do so from the front, which lowers his chances of being successful. Again, Ace isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he isn't that dumb.

Let's move on to one of the counterpoints that TheBadJoe mentioned.

He has a great point, and the turpentine is a great example.

Here's the thing though. The DRDT universe and the real world are pretty similar, so things that are different in the DRDT universe have to be established as different before applying it to something else. The turpentine is a great example of that (it works like chloroform in the DRDT universe, unlike the real world. That was established by Teruko in episode 7, as mentioned in the inital comment.) However, this does not apply to strangulation/Ace's strength. Why Ace's strength specifically? Simple. The only character that has been presented to have an abnormal amount of strength is Xander (and he's dead.) And even then, Xander's Hulk-strength (exaggerating) was established previously before being applied to the chapter 1 trial. Xander specifically could probably leave a mark, but Ace? It's safe to assume that's not the case. And before you go, "No it doesn't!" yes it absolutely does. Otherwise, it's bad writing, and DRDT is far from poorly written.

In other words, it's not a discrepancy because strangulation wasn't established as something that works different from the real world previously.

Okay, now to the final part of the debunking.

Most importantly, how does this prove Ace's innocence, and Eden guilty?

This is my biggest issue with this theory post. How did he intentionally leave out what actually ties Ace to the crime (the stretch band? His confession?) Even if this was a discrepancy, the evidence would still point to Ace! There also isn't a single piece of evidence that points to Eden and Eden alone. I'm super unsure about where his brain was going with that one.

Okay that's it! This totally didn't take me almost a month of procrastination! I hope y'all like it. If there's a discrepancy in my analysis please let me know so I can fix it.

Thanks for reading :)

i've been debating this for like 3 weeks so it's up to y'all now

ace being sus

spoilers (unless you're new to the fandom, atp you should've seen the trial)

Disclaimer: This is a stretch, but hear me out.

It was pointed out in the trial that Ace's behavior was suspicious because he kept blaming Nico for Arei's murder, as shown here.

Near the end of the trial, Teruko deduced that this behavior from Ace was very suspicious.

I don't know if anyone has pointed this out, but now that I have the benefit of hindsight, there's another reason Ace's behavior in the trial was incredibly suspicious, and it has everything to do with David's secret reveal.

Back in Episode 10 who was the first person to actually mention that David is a scumbag?

You guessed it. The culprit himself.

Though Charles and Whit were actually the ones who revealed David's secret, Ace was the first person to actually mention that.

Isn't it incredibly ironic that Ace, a shitty person, calls out David for being a shitty person? By revealing that David is in fact a scumbag (and David going along with this notion, theatre kid style), Ace redirected the trial. A lot of people, the cast included, blamed David for misleading the trial. Though David is mostly at fault for this, Ace is partially to blame as well. I'm not sure if he did that intentionally or not, but either way it's (mostly) smart, especially since David went along with the "I killed Arei" crap. I say mostly because this reveal did in fact prove that Ace can be quiet and sneak around places.

Again, this is probably a stretch, but these are my thoughts.

seth (ace's va) saying that ace's chapter 1 hairstyle made him look like chicken little is perfect lmao

(timestamp 56:33 if you wanna find it)

who's watching weeby's stream????

Backstory

Yeah I'm talking about Eden again :)

I wonder what her background/backstory is, and why she acts the way she does.

If i had to guess, her philosophy might have something to do with her identity as a mixed race person (I think the same about Whit also, but I think it's more prominent with Eden since she's blasian rather than waisan.)

IDK, just a hunch. Maybe I'll make a bigger post about this later.

MonoTV and fate

spoilers for episde 16

I was wondering what fate and MonoTV had to do with each other, especially since a robot can't really have a fate.

And then this line popped up.

How can a robot feel pain or guilt of any kind? That's not quite adding up.

I think it's possible that MonoTV is directly controlled by a human being, much like Monokuma was in the canon games. But, who could that person be, if there even is one?

Not enough people are talking about how funny this is

David calling Ace "boo" is hilarious

VA appreciation

Honestly, hats off to all the VAs, especially Teruko and Ace's VAs. Well done.

HOLY SHIT

spoilers

-Teruko and Levi almost dying (again) was NOT on my 2024 bingo card

-Who voted for Teruko?????

-GO ACE!! TELL ARTURO!! HE CAN DO IT!!

-Ace dying of cardiac arrest is super ironic to me.

-Teruko is learning her lesson, thank goodness. Character development>>>>

Craziest post-trial ever. AND THIS IS CHAPTER 2!!! I don't even know what could happen now.

RIP Ace, you will be missed.

Black representation

Just wanna mention this.

As a Black person myself, it's great to see characters like Eden and Rose (though Eden is blasian.) Black characters in media are sometimes not represented well (as in they perpetuate stereotypes) but that's not the case with Eden and Rose.

Eden specifically is the sweet, nice, more docile character (though it's established that she's more than that) but that's a rarity to see Black characters in that way.

Rose being the ultra smart but innattentive character is also not something I see in Black characters often.

I love both of them partially because I can relate to them, as a nerdy Black girl myself. My point is that both Rose and Eden break stereotypes of what Black characters can be. I'm not sure if the dev intended on this, but thank you regardless.

Speaking of Black characters in fangans and diversity in fangans in general, I'd like to see a little more (racial) diversity in fangans in general. I'm not saying every fangan should be this way, but I'd just like to see more of it.

PEOPLE

spoilers obviously.

To those of you who still think the culprit is Eden....

Think about how that doesn't work for a second. Just because she's super sus doesn't make her the culprit.

Two reasons, obviously (update: three cuz i was gonna mention the confession when writing this post earlier but i got sidetracked so yay)

Eden's strength

The vast majority of you who made Eden culprit theory posts (that I've seen) either didn't factor in her strength at all or severely overestimated it. How is Eden going to strangle someone who is both taller and heavier than she is, and then drag her body around to set a trap, especially since she's the weakest character (physically) in the cast? I don't think so.

2. The stretch band.

The one thing that ties Ace specifically to the crime and not Eden. Not sure how y'all left this one out.

3. Ace's ENTIRE CONFESSION

Again, y'all are convieniently forgetting about this. Bro confessed. Why would he do that if it wasn't him???

I don't blame the Ace fandom for being upset (trust me, I'm upset about Ace being the culprit too), but to still say that Eden is the culprit despite the evidence is another thing.

CHAT

SPOILERS

IT'S SO ACEOVER

i'm honestly sad, despite that i'm not a big fan of ace. we're losing a good character again :(

WAITTTT

THE SCRUM DEBATE!!! IT'S GONNA BE OVER WHO AREI'S KILLER IS, ACE OR EDEN!

Y'ALL

spoilers

It has to be Eden at this point.

smartmusic before drdt

*cries in music major*

eyeballs

spoily spoilers for episode 12 (mild tho)

anyone else notice that david's eyes are noticably lighter during his whole "i'm a giant xander simp" speech? (or maybe i'm trippin idk)

that's definitely the real david talking and not some phony version.

Okay tiny theory

spoilers (obvi)

We've noticed so far that David seems to remember Xander, despite the memory wipe.

...which most of the cast kinda glazes over (at least the fandom catches this)

But do you remember who else remembers stuff from the past, despite the memory wipe?

....if you guessed Teruko, you'd be correct :)

Similar to how David remembers Xander, Teruko remembers that there were killing games happening during The Tragedy and not just mass murder.

Here's my theory: Each cast member has a specific detail that wasn't wiped from their memories.

This is probably not true, but it's just a thought.

more crazy stuff

spoilers (obvi, ch 2 pt. 2)

not me sitting here like (to david) "fuck you mean xander is a good person"

i have been baffled, hoodwinked, flabbergasted, and bamboozled.

Crazy stuff

spoilers (ch 2 pt 2

LEVI!! HE'S GOT THE MURDERER SECRET AFTER ALL

100%%%%%

GUYS WE'RE SO BACKKKK

nico angy

I see a lot of people talk about how Ace and Levi have difficulty managing their anger, but so does Nico.

Nico? Anger issues? Yes, obviously.

(I'm gonna make a bigger post about this later so stay tuned ig)

david's feewwings

guys do we know how david feels about teruko? cuz i can't seem to figure it out.

ace appreciation (character-writing-wise)

can we talk about how ace's character writing is top-notch? like everyone talks about how great teruko and david's writing is, for example, but i don't feel like enough people would also put ace in that category, when he definitely belongs there.

i may not like ace as a character, but damn he has some great character writing. i'll probably do a small analysis on him later, but idk yet.