Fridge / Disgaea

Fridge Brilliance

• In Disgaea 3, Raspberyl, Kyoko and Asuka are established as being the biggest delinquents in Evil Academy. But if they’re such big delinquents, then how come the staff of Evil Academy hasn’t tried to suspend or expel them for their "bad" behavior? Or at least directly try to discipline them? Sure, there’s that whole thing with the PTA, but apart from that, not much else has been done up until now to stop Beryl and co. from basically doing whatever they want, so what gives? Well, think about it: The netherworld has reversed standards of morality, right? So if the Evil Academy staff actually got off their asses and did their jobs by punishing Beryl and her friends, it would be the exact opposite of what they’re supposed to do, because by the warped moral standards of Evil Academy, the teachers are supposed to be incompetent and terrible at their jobs, so punishing Beryl would actually be a "bad" thing from their point of view!
• Disgaea 3 is set in Evil Academy, a school for demons that celebrates troublemakers and people who ditch class as honour students and labels diligent and polite demons as delinquents. It's a funny little backwards logic world that fits right at home in the wacky Disgaea universe, but how such a world could possibly function was beyond me. I dismissed it as Rule of Funny until a random NPC commented on how nobody ever passed the end of semester exams. Since everyone always failed, everyone always had to repeat the year. So what about their tuition fee??? Suddenly it made sense! The Academy encourages students to slack off and not work so they can never leave the school (or even want to leave), thus making them pay tuition for eternity.
  • Wouldn't they just get sent to other schools? Why would they ever be sent there in the first place?
    • So demon parents can get the brats out of their hair for a few centuries. You know, just like the real world.
  • That's the thing. There isn't any other school — the entire Netherworld is the Academy!
    • In fact, one of the creatable characters in the game, the male healer, referred to as Clergy, does mention this in class if you talk to him a few times.
  Clergy: Being an Honor Student means flunking, which means you have to keep paying tuition forever...
  • The only question this doesn't answer is why the students bother paying their tuition fees if Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad. Of course, the most likely answer to this would be the fact that it's run by an Overlord, but still: Why would a demon pay tuition fees at all, let alone anything resembling on time or with real money instead of counterfeit? (In fact, Rutile being cited as an even bigger delinquent than Raspberyl due to paying her fees implies that not even the Ultimate Delinquent pays her tuition!)
• Speaking of Disgaea, let's talk about the angels. Two major characters, Flonne and Lamington, in particular. Many people probably know Lamington is the name of a volcano. But I recently discovered that it's also the name of a sponge cake from Australia. Suddenly, Flonne's name made sense: It's supposed to be "Flan"! Whereas the demons have their volcano Theme Naming, the angels are instead named after desserts (except Vulcanus, but that's because he acts more like a demon than most actual demons in the game do) and the name Lamington is just a huge pun on both! It may also explain his Sweet Tooth in the manga, as well.
  • The thing is that her name sounds like "Flan" only in English. In Japanese, it sounds more like "Flown" (Furon).
• In games 2 and 3, there are 'Cell Phone' items with various functions — one of which is 'Call Zenisky Financial Services'. This either grants you some free cash, or steals a chunk of it away. The brilliance is actually in the name, a joke lost in translation. In the original, 'Zenisky' would be spelled 'Zenisuki'...Zeni (One reading for the Japanese kanji for 'money') + Suki (the verb, 'to like'). In other words, the name of the financial company is, "I like money"!
  • Extra brilliance when you figure out who's running the business in the first place. It's Hoggmeiser from Hour of Darkness, whose Japanese name is Zenisuki.
• Here's one that's easy to miss. Remember the Prism Rangers? It might seem like a withering deconstruction of Super Sentai. But as of the revelations of Z.H.P., it actually becomes obvious why they're so weak. Their hearts aren't set on the passion for Justice and Love that makes a Hero's powers work! In the first game, they're only in it to make friends. In the second game, they actually target a bad guy...but willingly consider attacking women and children who may or may not be evil demons. Aside from that, they regularly demonstrate a cowardice that not even the Main Character of Z.H.P. ever shows, despite him being a literal Heroic Bystander who may have had The Call forced on him.
  • Here's a Fridge Brilliance to the Fridge Brilliance: Disgaea Infinite explains that the Prism Rangers are also part of a Show Within a Show that's shot live and that characters have a very good chance of dying. In the case of that happening, the producers start looking for replacements, either through scouting or kidnapping. So it makes sense why their hearts aren't in the right place for the hero powers to work — they were forced to do it.
  • Making this one come full circle is the new Prism Red, Piyori Nijino. Unlike the other Reds, she willingly took up the mantle after the Heroic Sacrifice of the previous Red, her older brother.
• Consider Krichevskoy for a moment. Ever notice how, if you gave him a shave and a haircut, he'd look a lot like Vyers?
  • Wasn't this outright stated in the first game?
    • The fridge is in the fact that he didn't change his appearance much at all.
    • Not really — rebirth is a mechanic in the game, just taking Krichevskoy to a barber wouldn't undo his facial features. You know what would? Being reborn. It's never stated that you lose anything in a rebirth; not even brainwashed Rozalyn could escape her prior persona.
• Fenrich's Ho Yay behaviour towards Valvatorez and his hatred for Artina takes on a different meaning to those who understand canine psychology. Canines can be quite clingy and jealous when it comes to their master. As such, they tend to hate any potential new mates their master might take up, seeing him/her as an infringment on its territory. Fenrich also happens to be a canine-like creature himself.
• The opening song to the second game, Sinful Rose. After much confusion over what the song was talking about, it hit this troper: It's from the true Overlord Zenon's POV. Switching between being about herself and her thoughts on everyone else (people being lying, corrupt bastards).
• At first, it may seem like Flonne took in Artina when she became an angel out of pity, but if you think about the circumstances surrounding Artina's final days as a human, it's actually much more than that. You have Artina, a citizen of a country opposing another country, yet she takes care of the sick and injured regardless of alignment. She also meets a demon who she takes pity on, which the demon finds strange. Eventually, her country labels her a traitor and has her executed. The demon she met is looking to avenge her, but she doesn't want that and he decides not to go through with it despite his anger towards her executioners. Now play the final episode of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. Suddenly, Flonne and Artina are not so different.
• Valvatorez manages to shrug off the effects of the A-Virus, apparently due to Heroic Willpower, though he of course attributes it to sardines. Very in character for him, as he attributes all his power to sardines. But think about the little speech he gave on their benefits in the opening scene; he mentions how good they are at purifying the blood of toxins, due to the presence of omega 3 fatty acids. And how it's Artina's angelic blood, which removes all impurities, that acts as a cure. With that in mind, it's just possible he was right this time, and his immunity to the virus does have something to do with his sardine consumption.
• So why, after pledging their allegiance to Laharl, does Laharl make the Krichevskoy Group Etna's vassals instead of his? It's their punishment for trying to rebel against him and putting him through everything throughout the game. First, making them Etna's vassals puts them in a very low position amongst those working for him while still allowing him to make use of their skills. It essentially puts them on the level of the Prinnies. Second, Etna has always been known for not being very nice to her vassals...
  • Plus, there's that whole "New Krichevskoy" thing...
• So in The Stinger of Dimension 2. Etna meets someone implied to be Xenolith and tells him that she'll get him pardoned in exchange for him having to serve her. How and why is this the case? Simple, by that point in the game, he'd A. Committed two huge sins of kidnapping angels and almost destroying the Netherworld and B. Got sucked into the Netherworld itself at the end of the game; being Buried Alive tends to be unsurvivable. What happens to dead souls who committed sins in this series? They become Prinnies!
  • Seeing as how Disgaea D2 takes place before Disgaea 2 and Disgaea Infinite, it's possible it also fits in before Prinny: Can I Really Be The Hero? — It is entirely possible that Xenolith is the titular Hero Prinny working to pay off his sins under his new Master Etna. It would explain why he's singled out.
  • There's one huge problem with that theory. Prinnies are the souls of human sinners, with the exception of Laharl (who is half-human anyway), Kira (who isn't even canon), and Makai Kingdom (where they're artificial demons). At no point in the narrative is it even hinted that regular demons get turned into Prinnies.
  • Also, Prinny is in a separate continuity from D2, what with Laharl being a Prinny and all.
• The subtitles for each game are subtle hints regarding the main plot twists, and, to an extent, the final bosses of each game.
  • Hour of Darkness: This one is probably pushing it, but messing around with the title a bit can give you Darkest Hour, possibly regarding Laharl going berserk on Lamington for turning Flonne into a flower.
  • Cursed Memories: Overlord Zenon reincarnated herself to escape her old life, rendering that life nothing but memories. The cursed part comes in when Fake Zenon's plan involves getting revenge on Zenon rather than Rozalin.
  • Absence of Justice: Turns out Super Hero Aurum fights for glory, not for good, and does whatever he can to obtain that glory.
  • A Promise Unforgotten: This one involves Valvatorez's promise to Artina, which is pretty obvious, but not so obvious is the fact that Valvatorez makes a lot of promises to the party throughout the game, and did his damndest to preserve them during the final four chapters, and ultimately made the promise to help Nemo pay for what he did, even if it took him a few thousand years.
  • Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness: The bright angels are being used to stabilize the dark netherworld. To an extent, it also references the fact that Xenolith is a grey villain instead of a white or black one.
  • Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance: While the Rebel Army mostly forms out of convenience to deal with Demon Emperor Void Dark and his forces, even after his defeat the Rebel Army ends up coming back together, growing into True Companions.
  • Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny: Super Sage Misual, after millions of failed attempts to save his lover, leans heavily into You Can't Fight Fate, eventually hitting the Despair Event Horizon. Zed, by contrast, decides to fight against this fate, and ends up able to Screw Destiny, which utterly baffles Misual.
• Vyers' role in the first game; Laharl decides to go after him after hearing that he's "bumping off competition for the throne", presumably to claim the title of Overlord for himself. With the revelation that he's actually Krichevskoy, it seems more likely he was eliminating threats to his son's rule.
• In Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness, the alterations to Etna, Laharl, and Flonne due to the mana imbalance are all related to things they are proud of or fear. Flonne took great pride in naturally rising to watch her favorite shows, so the imbalance made her a late sleeper. Etna dislikes taking orders from unworthy individuals (Krichevskoy was one of the few rulers she admired) and being seen as second banana, so she gets recolored to "look like Player 2". And since Laharl is known to fear busty women...
• In Disgaea 5, some might find it weird that the Prinnies of Toto Bunny got away with ending their sentences with "plip" while normal Prinnies will get penalized for not ending their sentences with "dood". Well, two things:
  • One: In the Japanese version, it's actually "pyon" that the Prinnies and Usalia use as their Verbal Tic. Pyon is the Japanese onomatopoeia for jump, which is what rabbits do...
  • And two: Remember that Prinnies must follow the orders of their masters no matter what... So they were probably ordered to use a different Verbal Tic to match the Netherworld they'd be staying in!
• Starting with Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness, Etna swapped out her miniskirt with shorts. This game was released after the Prinny games, the second of which has Etna sending the Prinnies out to catch a panty thief. After having one of her panties stolen^note from a clothesline and she has others, so no Going Commando for her, she probably considers miniskirts a bad idea.
  • A bit of Fridge Logic in that the chronological order of the games puts DD2 before other games where she still wears a miniskirt, and that the Prinny games are not part of the same continuity of the main series. Considering the lack of a fourth wall in the series, Etna is probably not going to let things like that get in the way of her "purity".

Fridge Horror

• In Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, the full fledged angels fought as enemies appear outright emotionless, acting almost like robots. One wonders if the game's events didn't happen, if Flonne could have ended up like that.
  • To add to this, when they return in later games under new Archangels (Archangel Virunga in Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness and Archangel Flonne in Disgaea 3), the angels are nowhere near as emotionless as they were under Vulcanus. What exactly was Vulcanus doing to the angels to get them that cold and emotionless?
  • It's not just Flonne. Sicily and Artina would have also became as emotionless as the D1 angels if Vulcanus's reign of terror had lasted longer than it did.
  • Speaking of Sicily, what would happen if Vulcanus knew that that she was half demon? This being Vulcanus, the answer would not be pretty.
    • Er, no. Vulcanus was never actually in charge. Lamington allowed to him to think he was calling the shots. If the events of the game don't happen, Vulcanus is irrelevant.