Fridge / A New Hope (Danganronpa)

Fridge Brilliance

• Why is it that there is so much more friendships and Character Development than in the Danganronpa canon? Since the Ultimates from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, and Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony are all in the same reality, all of the mediators and nice people are able to preserve the peace and help each other overcome their flaws. In the case of the sequel's cast, they recieve some adaptational niceness since the real Chiaki never died and therefore Class 77 were never corrupted into Ultimate Despair, with the Future Foundation heads taking that role instead. As for the V3 cast, since Word of God confirmed that the "Truman Show" Plot of the original V3 is not in place in A New Hope, this means that the participants' personalities are real and are therefore capable of showing much more character.
  • This explains why Class 77 is nicer and more supportive than in canon, since they are their true selves. Hajime acts like a supportive Team Dad for his group, Mikan goes from a Shrinking Violet to one of the nicest participants of the game, Mahiru expresses her disdain for Hiyoko's bullying (even within the simulation) rather than defending her, and Nagito was able to show some Adaptational Heroism.
• Kokichi seems to have less of a major role in A New Hope than in V3's canon. Since his descent into villainy was caused by being directly threatened (and then undergoing a Sanity Slippage from the guilt of what he did), the fact that in the fanfic he was with 40+ other students gave him the chance to work on his schemes without any attention being drawn towards him.
  • Plus, it's harder to act overtly evil around 45 other people as opposed to 15.
• Himiko's hemophilia (a condition where blood doesn't clot normally) makes sense, as she acts like an Eastern RPG mage by calling herself the Ultimate Mage and referring to mana, a meter used for mages to use their abilities. Of course, the mage class is often depicted as being weak when it comes to physical attacks.
• As usual, the executions all tie in to the characters, with the arguable exception of Tsumugi's. Her execution, cut into six pieces by saw blades in the casino was noted by many to be more apt for Celestia. Just before her execution, she had tried to play herself off as the real Taeko Yasuhiro, which was Celestia's real name. Her execution of being diced meant that she died if she really was Taeko Yasuhiro.
  • Leon's execution has some Fridge Brilliance too. The execution itself is similar to his canon execution in the first game, except Leon is Forced to Watch as Kanon gets murdered with a metal bat before he also gets hit by bats when he's tied up. It can be seen as Monokuma taunting Leon after Ibuki's murder, then rubbing Kanon's death in his face to fill him with despair before his own death.
  • Why did the Mastermind make an execution for Makoto which he could have a chance to survive? It not only represents how he killed Kokichi within the virtual realm, but not in the real world, but the Mastermind, Despair!Makoto, expected his clone to either survive due to his luck, or die as revenge for taking his place.
• The Reveal of Mikan, Kaito and Kokichi being siblings may sound like a fanfic-added Ass Pull at first, since they had no relations in the canon series and they barely resemble each other. It's explained in Chapter 33 that Mikan's mother had lots of boyfriends, presumably including Kaito and Kokichi's respective fathers. This might explain why they have different surnames.
  • Except it's clearly indicated it's the father they all have in common, Jibo Momota. Clearly, he just didn't bother with any kids besides the Astronaut getting his last name.
• It's never explained why Ryoko was able to remember (and get a crush on) Shuichi before remembering anyone else. Except he shares a lot of (passing) similarities (intelligent, kinda pale, dark hair with an ahoge) to Yasuke Matsuda ... who was also the only person Ryoko could remember in canon.
• In Chapter 6, Tsumugi does a impersonation of Usagi Tsukino aka Sailor Moon. As an enthusiast in anime and manga, she's bound to know popular Japanese seiyuu such as Kotono Mitsuishi, who was known for being the voice of Sailor Moon. Mitsuishi also voiced Peko within the Danganronpa franchise, so if Tsumugi is aware of her, no wonder she was able to pull off a Peko disguise so convincingly.
• The first and last murders of 'A New Hope' are Book Ends, since they both involved the murderer being brainwashed into murder via Flashback Light. The respective culprits were Rantaro and Kaede, the first victim and culprit of the canonical Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, where the Killing Game participants were brainwashed with the Flashback Lights to become completely different people.
• Ringo Takagami's first name means "apple", which sounds quite mild for a killer like him. While it does refer to his talent as the Ultimate Marksman (shooting an apple on top of someone's head requires a marksman's aiming skills), it also refers to how he's the most evil out of all of the Original Characters until Dylan came along; in other words, Ringo is the bad apple of the bunch.
• In Sea of Tranquility, the Trials have a more 'realistic'/'adult' vibe to them, given that the culprit can get away and an innocent could get accused instead. Fitting, since the Mastermind is likely someone who was already an adult (old enough to have high-school aged kids, even) before Junko started spreading Despair.
  • Unless it turns out that isn't who's running the moon game.
• Zalicka is a snake charmer, and she is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. Her personality is just like the motifs of a snake; cold and intimidating on the outside, yet docile when people get to know her like a pet snake. Her bonds with her snakes reflect her bonds with the other Ultimates; they begin to see less of her snakelike outer layer and more of the person within.
• When Sierra puts on Lupin's mask after Mirielle's death, she is taken to the afterlife of all of the incarnations of Lupin throughout history. It is then revealed that the Split Personality of Lupin stems from the spirits of all of the Phantom Thieves within the mask's afterlife, so in a way, Lupin is a literal Phantom Thief.
• Laris Nevermind turning out to be a girl came out of the blue at first, until you realise that s/he was the writer Scorpio's Author Avatar. Laris would be considered her protagonist, and there has been a Recurring Element in the Danganronpa franchise of the male protagonist being voiced by a woman in Japan.
• In a sense Yushikuma could be considered the culprit of Kanade's murder, as Maddie only fired blindly and hit the composer because Yushi was chasing the mathematician around the maze. At the end of the trial/death game, who's the only one to actually (seemingly permanently) die?
• The death of Nagito's clone involves his heart being ripped out. Quite fitting for someone known to be heartless.
• Why were Sayaka and Sonia the first two characters to be resurrected from death? In A New Hope, they were both killed at the same time by Korekiyo because he wanted to send them to the afterlife to befriend his sister's soul. Since afterlives and spirits exist in this universe, then Korekiyo's beliefs may not have been so crazy after all. However, Korekiyo's sister must've felt uncomfortable with Sayaka and Sonia's sudden arrival because they were unjustly murdered by her depraved brother, so she gave them a second chance at life and took them somewhere else to find peace until then.
  • When they are revived, Sonia is turned into an angel while Sayaka's appearance is her regular self with the scars she had during her death. Their resurrected forms reflect the states of their first lives within the killing game at Hope's Peak; Sonia spent most of her time in Hope's Peak keeping her team unified and stopping arguments, while Sayaka had done lots of bad things in her life but Makoto was able to redeem her. Sayaka's second and final death is reminiscent of Ryoko's; even though they were able to overcome their guilt from their past crimes and receive their classmates' forgiveness, it was never meant to last.
• Had the voted ending in Sea of Tranquility be different, then it would have tonally matched that of the canonical games. A New Hope fits the tone of Trigger Happy Havoc, being on the slightly more idealistic side with a slightly happier ending. This even matches with the survivors as well. In canon, Kyoko, who fits the female Deuteragonist mold, is the only one who survives compared to Chiaki and Kaede. Here, all three of them survive with the bonus of Mukuro surviving (due to technically replacing Kyoko as the primary Deuteragonist). Should the voted ending be Despair, then Shiori would have technically filled in Chiaki's niche. This tonal comparison is, however, more evident with Kuma Kuma Land, House of Horrors, and Railway of Despair, matching V3's darker tone.

Fridge Horror

• The Four Dark Devas of Destruction having to cope with the death their master Gundham, and eventually their other caretakers; Sonia, Ryoma and Gonta. They seem to have gone absent for a long time. Could it be...?
  • Hopefully not. They have been confirmed alive in House of Horrors (thank goodness).
• In Chapter 85, the students' secrets are revealed. Some of the secrets are obvious to long-time fans of the series; such as Kazuichi and Mikan being bullied, Korekiyo being a Serial Killer, Chihiro wearing women's clothes and Makoto wetting his bed. However, some of the secrets have only been mentioned in the fanfic and yet they have lots of disturbing implications, such as Byakuya being birthed illegitimately, Tenko resenting her father for abusing her mother (which would probably serve as a better explanation for her hatred towards men) and Sayaka, of all people, being responsible for causing a girl to commit suicide. What Sayaka did was never explained. Think of the implications.
  • Fortunately, it's explained in Final Horizon.
  • Also with regards to Sayaka...was Makoto's next scene in the chapter after her death. In it, he dreams of what seems to be Sayaka and Makoto...doing something. Cut to him, and he wakes up in the bed. It's never implied, but the fact that it was one of the few dreams he had...in the bed...
• Before Leon is executed, Monokuma has Kanon killed as she's no longer useful as a hostage. Now remember that Toko, Hagakure, Ishimaru and Sayaka are dead too. Who's to say their hostages haven't been killed as well for the same reason?
  • Monokuma later says he'll kill another hostage at random if a sacrificed student (like Tsumugi) has no hostage of their own. Korekiyo likely didn't have a hostage. Think it out.
    • Except then Word of Writer confirmed only Kanon has been killed out of the hostages. Sayaka's and Hagakure's hostages are shown to be alive in later chapters.
    • The hostages of the dead students are considered dead weight and are killed, save for a few that manage to escape.
• So, didn't Tsumugi technically rape Fuyuhiko when she slept with him while cosplaying as Peko?
  • And did Hiyoko do the same thing when 'helping' Raef with his fear of physical contact?
• At the final trial, The Mastermind reveals the clones of all of the students who died in the Killing Game. He blows them all up, but Kokichi and Usami tell everyone that the clones couldn't have been saved anyway as they were all brainwashed into Despair. Nagito's Despaired clone was the only one who survived the explosion, and his Establishing Character Moment in Kuma-Kuma Land was to trying to shoot Annabelle. So what would've happened if The Mastermind decided to spare the clones? Would the survivors realise too late that their real friends are gone and the clones are only Despairs?
• In Chapter 31, it's revealed that Dylan had fooled everyone once again and he was inside Ren's body the whole time, while Ren was in Evan's body and Evan was in his own. This gives lots of disturbing implications:
  • When everyone believed that Dylan was the one behind bars, it turns out that Ren was imprisoned the entire time, while the real Dylan was walking free with everyone believing that he was no longer a threat.
  • The two bodies present in the Body Horror execution were Evan and Ren, who were tricked into performing a Mutual Kill. This means that two innocent students ended up dying in agony twice, while their murderer was never convicted.
  • Not only did Jason confess his feelings towards the person within Ren's body, but it's implied he also had sex with him. Not only does that mean that Jason had unwittingly put himself Alone with the Psycho, but said psycho also knows about Jason's feelings toward Evan and has the knowledge to exploit him. Of course, Jason having sex with a murder victim's swapped body and Dylan using the body of said victim is already disturbing on its own, especially when you consider that Dylan is 14 years old and he raped someone a few years older than him.
  • The WMG has a theory about Yukiko being another Token Evil Teammate, and it's confirmed at the end of the chapter when Jason accuses her of working with Dylan, as well as setting up the trap to kill Dylan to "cut corners". As of now, Yukiko's motives are unclear, but why would she choose to assist Dylan even though he's dangerous? And did she set the trap to stop Dylan before he could go any further, or did she plan it from the start?
• At the start of Kuma Kuma Land, a hundred Ultimates enter the Killing Game via rollercoaster, but most of them are ejected from their seats and killed before the game even begins, with only a few survivors remaining. Assuming the ejections were chosen randomly, what if one of the Ultimates who survived to enter the present Killing Game had been ejected instead? As several characters have been major influences to the present timeline's story, their deaths would cause huge differences in the story.
  • If Tomoko had been ejected, she would never have been able to take charge during the death game and finish with no casualties (see the Fridge Horror below).
  • If Madison had been ejected, she wouldn't have escaped and realized that the Floating Island that the park is located on would eventually run out of fuel and collapse, and the apocalypse will eventually ensue when the island falls. There would be nobody to warn anyone, so the tragedy would be unavoidable.
  • Even if Otto was an asshole and you may believe that his early death was well-deserved, he still had an important role as the first victim. His unlikability made him expendable compared to the other characters, but if not for his death, anyone else would've been the first victim instead, especially the more important characters.
  • Sigmund's ejection would mean that there would be nobody to take care of his younger sisters, and they would most likely end up vulnerable to the Despairs.
  • Several characters are responsible for caring for other characters and helping them with their Character Development. Haruto is a Parental Substitute to Annabelle and gives Tiana comfort, Kaizoku and Shiho are very understanding friends and they would help Laris overcome her emotional baggage and Naruhiko was able to get Kanade to overcome her fears and begin her destiny. Without them, Tiana would struggle with caring for Anna all by herself, Laris would still be stuck with the burdening memories of her failures and Kanade would still remain a nervous wreck, enough to go insane from all of the trauma of the game, and her getting lucky and surviving the paintball game would just be Cruel Mercy.
  • Annabelle's ejection would already be unspeakably horrifying to think about, but she lived as long as she was able to because Tiana and Chloe saved her life (the former saved her from said ejection, and the latter fought off Nagito's clone as he was about to shoot her). If either of them had been ejected, the poor child's chances of survival would take a nosedive.
• The reason why Class 81-A survived Yushikuma's deadly chess game was because of Tomoko's quick thinking and leadership skills. However, if Yushikuma had been able to play dirty and gain the upper hand or Tomoko had been the one to get shot by the rigged paintball instead, there would have been a lot more blood spilled.
• Had Sayaka Maizono survived the Final Horizon Killing Game then she would have had to go through the Tranquility Base killing Game.