Tear Jerker / The PreDespair Kids

Warning! All spoilers below are unmarked.

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The Predespair Kids

• As in canon, many of the characters have had very rough lives.
  • Mukuro: ran away from her family at an early age to join Fenrir, where she basically became a Child Soldier and was even marked as property at one point. Now she just wants to live a quiet, peaceful life and not have to kill anyone.
  • Sayaka: admits to having done some terrible things in order to make it big as an idol, a position where she has to maintain a cutesy facade toward an audience that's often fetishistic toward her and where she can't even express her true sexuality. But she refuses to go back, on the grounds that everything she's done would've been All for Nothing.
  • Mondo: haunted by his brother's death, which he feels personally responsible for.
  • Mahiru: deeply remorseful over the deaths of her best friend Sato and Fuyuhiko's sister Natsumi.
  • Mikan: endured a lifetime of bullying and abuse before she arrived at Hope's Peak, which has left her with a perpetually low self-esteem. It's also heavily implied her first sexual experience was not consensual. When pressed about it by some anon, she breaks down crying and begs for them not to make her talk about it.
  • Kyoko: Whatever the story is behind the scars on her hands, it's a long and painful one. She hasn't even told Makoto.
• The entire situation with Taka's breakdown. During the truth or dare challenge of the Hope Games, Mukuro is challenged to "make someone throw up, get really fucking scared, make them go insane or something." What does she do? Goes up to Taka, brings up the fact that his father (a police officer) has probably been watching this whole time, including the part where he revealed to the entire world that he has feelings for Mondo (leader of the biggest biker gang in Japan). Taka, someone who's been nothing but a flawless honor student and who's never done anything to wrong anyone in his life, then absolutely loses it at the thought of his father not accepting him for his sexuality. Even Hiyoko says Mukuro went too far. The games are put on hold as the students do their best to help Taka recover.
  • Really, the truth or dare challenge goes from funny to depressing as the students are pressed into more and more humiliating situations, but none of them are willing to give up.
• When someone began asking questions about heaven, hell, and where the students think they might be going, most of them gave their honest answers. Chiaki, however, looked...contemplative.
  Chiaki: Would I even....?
• The Incident of Hope's Peak Academy initially started as one. Rogue finally decides to turn against Junko, who then promptly decides to kill her. Mukuro arrives to protect her, but Junko pulls out a silenced pistol and threatens to kill them and everyone else on the school roof. While Mukuro is ready to fight back, Junko tries to crush her resolve by bringing up Fenrir and insisting they're not so different, which sends Mukuro into a Heroic BSoD of her own. Then Mikan appears, revealing herself as the first of Junko's Remnants of Despair, and prepares to kill both Mukuro and Rogue. Of course, all of this turns into one massive Moment of Awesome for several of the students, especially Mikan.
  • It's also pretty sad if you think about it from Mikan's perspective. She successfully convinced Junko she'd switched sides while trying to find a way to stop her. When Junko calls for her assistance, she has no choice but to comply, which pretty much means destroying her reputation if she wants to keep up the act. During The Incident, the anons bombard with angry messages and say that they'll never forgive her for what she's done. It gets so bad that she actually freezes up until Kyoko and company arrive. Then Junko, having seen through her act, pretty much abandons her to her fate. And while the students forgive her for what she did, the faculty remains highly suspicious of her.
• Some of the original characters have pretty harsh origins as well.
  • Rogue: Lived in a household with two alcoholic, drug-addicted parents and her four younger siblings. Their parents physically abused them all on a regular basis. It was bad enough that her younger siblings all actually died, which prompted Rogue to kill her parents in retaliation. She got away with it, but this caused her to develop an extreme case of Dissociative Identity Disorder.
  • Karma: After her mother died giving birth to her, her father kept her locked in the basement without any outside contact until she was 13. He's also responsible for the large burn covering half her face. The reason she acts like a stereotypical 90's kid? That was all she had for entertainment for those years.
  • Rina: A victim of extreme childhood bullying, where her bullies actually refused to let her use her name. If she did, they'd destroy her things. They spread rumors about her, drilled into her head that she was just another mistake. This trend continued even after she was accepted by Hope's Peak, which is where she began referring to herself as "RAM" (Rina Another Mistake). She hated it but figured people would stop bullying her if she used it.
  • Kyoji: From what we know about him, his life hasn't been too pleasant. He was bullied in school for being part-Korean, he feels extreme guilt over not stopping Mikan's bullying when they were both in elementary school, his mother died of Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) and he couldn't save her, he was manipulated by the Steering Committee into becoming partially involved with the Izuru Kamukura project without even knowing it, and dropping out of Hope's Peak also earned him the Embarrassing Nickname "Ultimate Dropout."
• The entirety of "The Thing That Makes Her Break" and the situation it brings. Mahiru, Ibuki, and Mikan all receive mysterious letters telling them to come to the gym. When they arrive, there's no one there to greet them. However, Mikan notices something sticking out from beneath the bleachers. Ibuki goes to check, reeling back in horror and telling Mikan to get help. It's revealed to be our very first casualty: Hiyoko Saionji, whose crumpled body lay face-down in a pool of her own blood. Mahiru, now having lost two of her friends, utterly breaks down.
  • And not long after that, Leon and Oceanis discover our second victim, Yasuke Matsuda, floating face-down in the pool.
  • During the investigation, Gundham is left completely speechless for the longest time, but he tries to play it off like nothing is wrong. When Sonia, Kazuichi, and Mage confront him about it in his room, he admits that he's actually scared. The only deaths he's had to deal with up until now are those of animals; it's much different when it's human lives, especially people he probably considers his first real friends. The fear of losing them plus the fear of being alone again. He even begins tearing up as he asks them not to tell anyone else what happened, which they agree to.
  • And then Leon is found unconscious in his room with a faint pulse. Kyoko only barely arrives in time with some of Seiko's antidote and emergency CPR. All while Sayaka, Kazuichi, Makoto, and Fuyuhiko can only watch helplessly. Thankfully, he manages to recover.
• After Celeste is revealed to be both the killer and a Remnant of Despair, and then sniped by some of the others while trying to escape, poor Hifumi is left speechless.
  • Chihiro ends up locking himself in his room, crying his eyes out and not wanting to see anyone. After the timeskip, the poor kid has temporarily left town.
• When Rina runs into Peko, who is suffering from Laser-Guided Amnesia, Peko shoots down every single statement that the two of them are friends or that they'd even met before. And this is right after Rina finally manages to accept herself and actually start using her real name. Made even worse by the fact that she secretly has a crush Peko. Thankfully, two manage to reconcile with no hard feelings.
• Mod J has made it clear that, no matter what anyone does, five students are going to end up dead before the blog ends. After spending almost a year with them through all their quirky adventures, through all their ups and downs, we can do nothing but watch as some of our favorite students are murdered and Hope's Peak falls into despair. And this time around, aside from a select few, nobody is safe. There's a good reason one anon compared the entire situation to the song When It Falls, the theme for volume 3 of RWBY.
• Ryouko was hit so hard by Yasuke's murder that she actually remembers that it happened. When someone asks if she thinks she'll ever find love again, she admits she doesn't even remember what it was that made her love Matsuda in the first place. So how is she supposed to find it with someone else?
• Overlapping with Heartwarming Moments, for her practical exam, Mage made a gingerbread replica of Hope's Peak, complete with edible figures of all the students, including angel-like figures of Hiyoko, Yasuke, and even Celeste.
• Someone sent Ryoko this picture.
• Mahiru's collage for the practical exam. We don't get to see it, but the way it's described is heartwrenching. It also raises a death flag for her.
• Fuyuhiko believing he's useless and that he'll lose Peko to someone. It also results in him raising a death flag.
• "A final attempt" is Kyoji's, well, final attempt at dissuading Junpei from going through with his despair plan. He asks if he can really go through with it, to which Junpei replies that he's come to far to give up now. Kyoji replies that he had the exact same mindset back when he was experimenting on people under order of the Steering Committee. He elaborates (in gruesome detail) about what he considers the worst thing he's ever done: lobotomizing a crying boy while dissecting him, just so he could get some peace of mind. And he was just one of countless other victims of human experimentation. And then he goes on to say that Junpei is the only one in control of his destiny, that he can stop and should stop if he isn't prepared to live with the consequences of his actions. But he ultimately fails to convince Junpei not to go through with it and walks away, stating that it's his decision and Kyoji silently hopes everything works out for him.
  • Given the things we've learned about Kyoji and the way he talks about people being killed, lives ruined, the evil of passive acceptance, and how we all have control over our own fates, this doesn't sound like the same guy who gave Junpei an Implied Death Threat. This sounds like someone trying in vain to convince a misguided youth not to make the same mistakes he made.
• After performing the roulette for the students who will die, Mod J said that his followers are likely going to want to kill him after this. This Is Gonna Suck.
• Both parts of "The Truth of a Girl" are not kind to Ryouko. She's not only revealed to be an imperfect clone of Junko created by Kyoji and the Future Foundation, she's torn to hear that her Single-Target Sexuality, Yasuke, did not care for her at all. And then he kills her.
  • Though the part about him not caring turns out to be one final lie from Junko. He admits that, even if he didn't show it, he does care and even admits that he loves her...which is why he kills her in the first place, sparing her from a much crueler death at Junko's hands. He's not the least bit happy about it.
  • In "Reminiscing," we see how the other members of the Future Foundation really pushed Kyoji into creating her, even citing that he was the one who showed them how dangerous Junko is. Yasuke refused to act as her caretaker and when Ruruka suggests she could go rogue, Munakata says they'll simply exterminate her.
• As a rescue helicopter comes in to pick up the students, Peko refuses to leave without Fuyuhiko and Rina. Kyoko makes the good point that if the two aren't on the roof, they've probably made it off campus, and that Fuyuhiko would want her to escape. Ultimately, she decides to go, but not before wishing a silent prayer for her two closest friends.
  Fuyuhiko….Rina…you must be safe….
• Right after Mukuro arrives on the roof to save Junpei from Junko, she gets hit in the back with a stun device from Monaca. It'll keep her paralyzed for 15 minutes, long enough for the students claimed by the death flag system to die.
• After Nagito and Ibuki are separated from Mahiru, he confronts her about how she keeps calling the robots "Monokumas" when she couldn't possibly know that fact. Turns out Ibuki is one of the despairs. And she uses the opportunity to stab Nagito in the heart, telling him that his luck's run out. As he lays dying, Nagito ultimate chooses to see it as a chance to finally become a stepping stone for hope and silently laments how he never got the chance to tell Hajime how he felt.
• The second death flag death is Kazuichi... who is a Remnant of Despair himself. He's alone with Sonia when he reveals it, and it looks like he's going to kill her... until:
  Souda: So...a worthless piece of shit like me... Should follow his death flag and die!!! *Slices his stomach open*
  • And in his final moments, he wishes for Sonia and Gundham make it out alive.
• Rock confronting Ibuki after she kills Nagito.
• Chiaki makes it out of the school alive... and she hopes that Hajime and Nagito are OK. Nagito most definitely is not.
• Guess who the victims are in "The Imposter and the Doujin Artist."
• In "The Chef and The Fortune Teller," the group, stuck between the Monokumas and the rioters across town, ultimately decides they have to run.
  Fuyuhiko: Crap….looks like we gotta go.
  Akane: Nekomaru’s still in there though! And the others!
  Fuyuhiko: What? You think I want to leave Peko behind?! If we stay here the rioters will tear through us! We gotta go, now!
  Sonia: Yes….of course….(Gundam….)
  Chiaki: …..Hope’s Peak was our home……
  Mahiru: ……and now it feels like we’re being kicked out, right…..?
  Fuyuhiko: ………we’ll be back one day…..but for now, we gotta leave….Let’s go, everyone
• The final death? Sakura. The final killer? CHIHIRO
• This image Vesper Lord made to honor the fallen students.
• In "A Farewell to the Foundation," Yasuke not only reveals he's still alive to rooftop evacuees, but that he's decided to resign from the Future Foundation to walk a neutral path in the conflict. Junko stole his hope by forcing him to kill Ryouko, but he's decided to try and help the innocents caught up in the mess he's helped create. While he may not be the nicest person around, it's hard not to feel bad for him.
• "Goodbye, Academy of Despair" has the remaining students flee the school on-board the Future Foundation's rescue helicopter. They're all horrified by what's happened and left wondering where their friends could be, but ultimately they have no choice but to leave.
• The Fall of Hope's Peak is equally hard on Ethos. Not only does he find out his best friend and girlfriend are members of Ultimate Despair, but he ends up losing his arm because of said best friend, and later Yuuko sends him a video of Hope's Peak being demolished, killing 2,379 people still trapped inside. She tells him it was all thanks to the information she gave him. He can't help but feel responsible.

The Despair Kids

• Everyone is naturally quite worried about their friends and mourning the ones they've lost.
• Even after everything she's done to help protect her friends, the Future Foundation members don't trust Mukuro.
  Mukuro: My sister just caused the apocalypse so people don’t exactly want anything to do with me. Let’s be honest, I got placed in the second branch, not because I’m a soldier, but because Tengan-san can report directly to Chairman Munakata if I act out of line.
• Miaya didn't take Ryouko's death well.
• After watching Chihiro kill Sakura, learning Nagito also died, and that Chiaki is on the run somewhere and not even knowing if she's still alive, Hajime's not holding up too well.
  Hajime: Oh no, it could be a joke right?! Just a joke! No! It’s not a damn joke!
• Karma's breakdown. While having a conversation with Hajime, and not exactly speaking eloquently, she suddenly goes off into a tangent of things she could've done differently.
  Karma: I could have gone back and saved that guy. I could have not stolen alcohol from my higher ups. I could have stopped Junpei. I could have become better friends with everyone. I could have saved everyone. I could have stopped all this shit from happening. I COULD HAVE STOPPED IT! I COULD HAVE FUCKING SAVED THEM!
  • As a side note, Karma's creator has stated they've based a lot of Karma's backstory and personality on their own life experiences.
• Sly reading through Ryouko's notebook.
• Kin explains what she was doing in Tokyo. She and two of her old classmates, Mai and Hirotada, were hiding out on a ranch outside the city. Unfortunately, Maverick showed up and, in a bid to get them to show up, violently murdered all of Mai's horses. She went after him with a shotgun, but was apprehended by some of his followers. Maverick then proceeded to force-feed her the remains of her favorite horse until she choked to death. And while Kin was lucky enough to escape, Hirotada wasn't as fortunate.
  • What makes it even worse? Hirotada proposed to her just a few days after the Tragedy began, with a ring he made out of clay. And Maverick smashed it to pieces, breaking her hand in the process.
• Karma's guilt continues weighing down on her, especially after she shoots Akane in the knee thinking she might be a despair, and the revelation that she might be taking her aggression out on the rioters. And after being transported to FF HQ, she's worried Junpei and Orochi might already have died in Towa City.
• Sayaka doesn't take the news that many of her friends and classmates died well.
• When we finally get to meet the Towa City captives, we see they aren't exactly holding up well, apart from Yuta. Taichi is utterly baffled as to how or why Chihiro became a despair.
• When Kyoji goes to tell Mikan his plan for contacting Byakuya, Toko, and the captives, she's on the roof crying to herself and wondering why no one was kidnapped for her. Considering how many of the group had friends and family members who were taken, even Toko, whose only close friend is a stinkbug, it makes you realize just how lonely and unloving Mikan's life has been.
• Sonia personally blames herself for what happened to Kazuichi, even saying she should've died instead of him. And without Novoselic, she feels completely useless.
• While one would be very hard pressed to actually feel sympathy for Maverick, It's Not Me, It's Not You, It's Her does a pretty good job trying to get you to do so. A summary? Maverick visits his ex-girlfriend, and reveals that he found out they had a child together in the worst possible way- through Junko Enoshima sending him pictures of said child's corpse, after she'd brutally beaten them to death.
• In the midst of Yuuko's Deadly Game, Sly learns that Mahiru has apparently not only been a despair the whole time, but she was the one responsible for Hiyoko's murder. Thankfully, it turns out her NG code forces her to lie.
  • Of course, the reveal of the true despair isn't much better. It's Ryouko.
• Sadao's murder situation. The reactions from everyone say it all, especially Karma, who had grown to consider Sadao a close friend.
  • And it turns out Nakashima is the traitor, and partly responsible for his death. Miaya and Malcom don't want to believe it, but boy they do not take it well, especially the latter.
• The video left by Sadao that was found after his murder that told everyone to keep smiling and to not despair.
  Sadao: ……that’s really it for the apologies that are directed at specific people. So now all that’s left is to say sorry to all of you. For putting you through everything you went through. You didn’t deserve to be subjected to that…but..I did I had to do. The weakest must go…*Half-sings* the tiniest lifeboat, full of people I know…
  Sadao: Well..that’s all, I guess. Off to my execution. *Goes to turn the camera off, but retracts his arm and touches his cheek*…tears, huh…? G-guess even if I smile, I’m still gonna be scared of d-dying….I…I’m sorry I couldn’t keep smiling for you all…I love you all…k-keep moving forward for me. Don’t look back, you shouldn’t hold on for me…until we meet again…*he turns the camera off*