danganronpa 3rd IMPRESSIONS

"DANGAN WRITEUP" part 3

So case 2 is over. After Mondo got turned into butter and eaten on pancakes by Monokuma we go to our next scene which features a girl laid out on a bed in her underpants, before deciding to head out into the corridors, presumably to her untimely death. I stopped playing here cause I'd just finished the trial and wasn't in the mood to watch yet another girl get sexualised and then die. I'd been playing for like, a whole hour. (Also I've already written at length about the tastelessness of this game, I don't like it, but no point repeating myself. I'm probably going to leave it frozen at this point because it really skeevs me out sometimes.)

Anyway, regardless of what happens next, let's take a look back at case 2's trial:

The trials have a very good "shit hits the fan" feel- lots of loud noises and shit flying across the screen and heart-pounding music. It's madness. Overly-stylish madness, but still.

Anyway, I'm trans so I'm going to focus on something else:

So Chihiro (The victim) turns out to be trans (or "a boy" as they put it) and they discover this by leaving the courtroom mid-trial on a hunch, and running their hands across her corpse.

After learning this, the trial continues, but her pronouns are switched to "he", by every single character. I don't have a problem with misgendering in fiction if it's a fictional character doing it (because fictional characters don't represent the opininons of their writers) but it was the fact that every character (and the menus) switched the pronouns around, that pretty much confirmed this was what the writers considered was the correct thing to do upon learning someone was transgender.

During the trial I couldn't help but feel really sympathetic to this poor, dead fictional character, as everyone she knew misgendered her constantly for ages. I was like "Well, I'M on your side, Chihiro, even if no-one else is"

Another observation: I get the weird sense that the game tries to reel tragedy in a little bit by making the victims seem more "deserving" of their deaths. (Eg. Sayaka was the first person to try and kill somebody, (which doesn't seem unforgivable either, given the circumstances)) And it felt like Chihiro being trans was supposed to justify hers. When it's found out, a lot of characters lose sympathy and get a little disgusted. One guy says he should've killed 'him' himself (same guy also turns out to be the murderer, if it means anything)

And, lastly, the trial closes with a story (told by monokuma) about Mondo and Chihiro (the murderer and victim, respectively) describing them as "two boys", both with a tragic past. Chihiro's story contains an explaination for her crossdressing: She dressed as a girl because she was so ashamed of her weakness as a boy, that changing gender presentation was the only way to stop being bullied for it. Her desire to be stronger ends up being her undoing, for some reason. This story also casts doubt on her trans status, suggesting she wants to be a strong man, and only dresses as a girl because she has no choice.

To me, at least, the story makes no sense. If you're a weak man, you don't just slowly get weaker and weaker until you magically put on a dress. And secondly- the way she wanted to be stronger and looked up to Mondo reminds me of the way a lot of trans women give masculinity one last shot- still operating under the assumption they SHOULD act masculine but are somehow just not trying hard enough- I did this too. Chihiro's story reminded me of that, and for a while I assumed that would be an explaination. But it wasn't-

The closing story seemed less like it was offering an explaination for Chihiro's crossdressing specifically, and more an explaination for crossdressing/trans-ness in general- like the game's writers literally couldn't think of a reason a boy would willingly crossdress unless forced into it. So I chose not to buy it, and just keep referring to Chihiro with the pronouns she presented with-

This whole scene made me tweet "ok fuck this game"- It's hard to read and this scene's actual meaning was obscured under several levels of me reading into what the writers were going for, rather than reading into the actual events "as presented".


...Anyway, a guy got turned into butter?! While his best friend was forced to watch?! How about that? It's sorta hard to tell when this game's trying to be funny, shocking, or serious, or a combination of all three.

Mondo kinda willingly gave up his life to Monokuma- it's weird that he didn't at least try to make a run for it. I mean what have you got to lose? OTHER POSSIBLE STRATEGIES: Kill yourself right before you get executed, so as to die in a less humiliating manner. What??? Is that really such a weird thing to suggest?!?!?!? Okay, fine...

I've been thinking of lots of alternate strategies as I play. ONE SUCH STRATEGY: You could break a window. You have plenty of weapons- if you could team up and break a window with several others, you could do it fast enough to get it all done before Monokuma shows up. ANOTHER STRATEGY: Get metaphorically into bed with Monokuma to the point he likes you so much he lets you go. ANOTHER STRATEGY: do everything within the rules you can to sabotage everything. Keep doing it in the hope you can eventually open up some new avenues. I haven't thought this one through entirely. But it seems like a step in the right direction.

The standout character keeps changing (because the standout character keeps dying) right now it's Byakuya, because he is a freak. He'll probably die in a bit. Ifumi is the most annoying, ensuring he'll probably live forever.

Anyway, I have no interest in playing any longer- mind, I said that about 3 times already, so I'll probably play all the way to the end, so stay tuned...