Damon will be a Villain Protagonist
- Damon's tie has a snake symbol and his name is another spelling for the word "demon". Fitting the theme of Eden's Garden being a reference to the paradise of Christian lore, Damon will be revealed as an antagonistic figure who will cause harm to his classmates.
Wolfgang will be one of the first victims
- He's the Ultimate Lawyer and he has strong convictions about trusting his fellow classmates. Getting rid of him would ensure that the class trial will be much harder for the group and that trust could be exploited by a potential killer.
Wolfgang is more fanatical than he looks.
- During the prologue's trial, Wolfgang suddenly displayed a much less stoic, more passionate personality and insisted on getting "justice" for Cara's murder. While it's possible he was just horrified by the Cruel and Unusual Death, she was merely a dummy. It's likely he will become even more unbalanced when an actual murder takes place. Given his sheep motif, him being A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing isn't out of the question, with his love of justice quickly deteriorating to Knight Templar or even Tautological Templar levels as the game goes on.
The Jett Dawson we see is a Dead Person Impersonation
- While nothing about his behaviour within the Prologue itself seems all that bad, his bio mentioning that since the accident a year ago nobody has seen his true face in public and he hasn't raced at all both suggest the possibility that the real Jett Dawson actually died from the accident in question, with somebody else (another racer who survived the same accident perhaps?) using the idea of him being horribly scarred underneath his suit as an excuse to take his place and pretend to be him in the public eye ever since.
The apocalypse will be a potential plot point
- Every character, including the mastermind and his enforcer, all share an animal motif. One of the most famous Biblical stories was Noah's Story Arc where two of every animal was brought into a large boat to protect them from a global flooding. With each Ultimate embodying a single animal, their kidnapping could have been related to them being "protected" from a great world ending disaster.
Tozu will have some connection to Team Danganronpa
- The references to V3 may not just be references, but subtle hints. There've been suggestions that they might be on a reality show, and the promotional material has an emphasis on history repeating and breaking the cycle. Maybe Tozu, like Shirogane, is a host of one of the iterations of the in-universe Danganronpa show?
- Jossed. It's already confirmed that Project: Eden's Garden takes place in its own separate universe and has no connection to canon Danganronpa. Danganronpa isn't even in the title.
Each of the masked paintings represents a player in the game.
- The portraits in the first building have animal masks that correspond to some of the participants' theme animals, i.e. a bunny for Grace, a crow for Eva and a coyote for Jett. Perhaps they represent their tied character, and when they are eliminated their portrait will be removed or vandalized to reflect this.
Tozu, Mara or Jett is Cara's killer.
- Cara scratched at her killer's face while she was being attacked and it is likely that she left scars. It is possible that one of these character's masks are hiding the scars.
Cara & Mara are the same person
- Aside from having pretty similar names, it's notable that Damon describes the stab wounds to the dummy's chest as being not particularly deep, something that seems oddly specific considering it never actually comes up during the Prologue trial. This combined with the fact that it's entirely possible that Mara's panther mask could be covering the chemical burns Cara would have received from the bleach trap, and the gun she carries appearing similar to the one that Cara was carrying just before her death, makes it possible that Tozu simply lied about Cara having died during the incident and that she instead having took up the position of enforcer of the killing game for whatever reason since the incident; especially when taking into account that Cara's Ultimate talent was the Ultimate Teacher's Aide, a position that calls to mind Mara's own role in assisting the man currently in a position of authority over the students.
Wolfgang knew Cara personally in some way
- While it's possible that his emotional outburst during the trial over the brutality of Cara's death is simply due to his Crusading Lawyer tendencies, it's still surprising just how personally Wolfgang seems to take the rest of the cast's somewhat lackadaisical attitude towards the investigation upon hearing that some of them didn't even bother to read enough of the file to learn Cara's name, and how insistent he is that the culprit isn't a Sympathetic Murderer or Cara an Asshole Victim despite seemingly knowing nothing about the surrounding circumstances behind her death. This, in additon to his Visible Silence when Damon talks about him being emotionally invested in a murder case he'd "never seen before" if the player uses the Pathos mechanic when prompted, suggests that Wolfgang's interest in bringing Cara's killer to justice may be a lot more personal for him than he's letting on.
There will be a secret character named "Adam"
- Since the name of the game is Eden's Garden, the Biblical Motifs will likely be very pronounced. Since the deuteragonist's name, Eva, is only one letter off from "Eve", who resided in the Garden of Eden before biting into the apple of knowledge, it would make total sense for another plot-important character to go by "Adam". It could be the name of Cara's killer, a code name of some sort, or something else— the important bit is the name itself.
One of the case villains will actually be an Outlaw Couple plotting to escape together.
- Tozu explicitly says that if only two students are alive, they both escape - over the course of the game, two of the students will fall in love and become desperate, trying to unleash a scheme to murder everyone else in one fell swoop so they can get out, or commit mass homicide as double blackened. Tozu will love every second of it, especially if one is convicted but the other survives to nurse a grudge against Daimon.
Damon and Wolfgang are a reversal of the usual Danganronpa character set up
- Basically, they're what would've happened if we followed Byakuya/Nagito/Kokichi instead of Makoto/Hajime/Kaede.
The Animal Motifs of the characters will be significant to the turn out of the story by religious meaning.
Perhaps these Animal Motifs will foreshadow the final result of the story - as in who gets murdered, who's a culprit, who survives, and even character progression. I've noticed that a good number of the animals are mentioned in the Bible.That being said, what does that entail for some of the characters? It could be all kinds of things. For instance, Damon's Animal Motif is the snake. In the book of Genesis, the snake was the animal who tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit of knowledge and then lead Adam to sin, which resulted in the two being cast out of the Garden of Eden. This could be interpreted in a number of things - Damon could be a Villain Protagonist, or he could be the one to instil chaos in Eden's Academy and be the one to turn it upside-down. As the story goes on, obviously, everyone's idealistic outlook of there being no murder will not happen, so Damon's words sound more reassuring and factual and others may choose to ally with him instead, so hence in-line following the snake's temptations or words. Also, that Damon could possibly leave Eden's Academy with someone else in the end (Damon's name is very similar to an anagram of Adom which is a variant spelling of Adam; inversely, "Damon" sounds similar to "demon").
This makes things even more interesting when you look at Wolfgang's Animal Motif, too. His is the sheep. In the Bible, Jesus was affiliated a lot with the image of the lamb, and called "the Lamb of God". What does this entail for Wolfgang? It could be interpreted in various ways - the most straightforward him being the obsenstential Big Good. Another could be that he'll die ala Heroic Sacrifice like how Jesus died for people's sins. Or even subvert or deconstruct him and make him a Wolf in Sheep's Clothing considering how he showed a more angered emotional side to him in the trial. However, there is also religious association of sheep being lost without a shepherd - people being lost without someone to guide and encourage their faith.
I do think though that the Animal Motif isn't just coincidental and does have significance to the story's overall outlook. It may share in plain sight who will live and who will die.
Instead of there being a "Mastermind"-type character from the Danganronpa series among the students...
There are "Successor" characters.That is, characters who haven't secretly organized the Killing Game, but have been chosen by The Mastermind (either Tozu or a Greater-Scope Villain he himself is working for) as their preferred candidates to win the Killing Game (whether or not either of them knows it), with the intention of making them the inheritors to the Villainous Legacy for the next round of Killing Games.
And I say characters, because This Troper believes there are **two** Successors - either as the intended Final Two to survive, or for one to kill the other to prove their superiority.
Those Successors being;
- Damon Maitsu - As the embodiment of the "Logos"/"Logic" arguments, who the cultists running Eden's Garden want to turn into a Straw Vulcan that both ruthlessly pursues logical power grabs for the cult, and callously dismisses the emotions of the cult's victims.
- Wolfgang Akire - As the embodiment of the "Pathos"/"Emotions" arguments, who the Eden cultists wish to warp his intense emotions from being a Wide-Eyed Idealist into a Tautological Templar that ruthlessly pursues those the cult convinces him are "sinners", and to dismiss the logical arguments as "heresy". For bonus points, him looking like Connor from Detroit: Become Human (and quoting the "Stabbed 28 Times" meme when observing the "tutorial" murder case) may indicate he's actually a Manchurian Agent that the Eden's Garden cult has sent to subtly influence the Killing Game, without even Wolfgang realizing it until it's too late.
Which leads into the next theory of...
There will be at least three different endings.
Each one being tied into which type of arguments are used the most often during the cases (with two being Downer Endings where the Eden's Garden cult has their Killing Game work as intended, and one being the Bittersweet Ending where the surviving students defeat Tozu - and possibly The Mastermind if one is yet to be revealed - and escape the cult);- Majority/Entirety "Logos" arguments - Damon, despite knowing the cult running Eden's Garden is full of bunk, comes to the "logical" conclusion that winning the Killing Game and becoming the Successor to the next Killing Game is the only way to survive - cue him ruthlessly organizing the deaths of the remaining students, beyond perhaps a single other survivor that the cult wants to induct into their ranks by... "enhanced indoctrination".
- Majority/Entirety "Pathos" arguments - Wolfgang, having been pushed over the Despair Event Horizon after seeing several of his fellow students murder each other (on top of possibly learning the Awful Truth that he was a Successor planted by the cult to manipulate the killings), is swayed by the cult into thinking that Humans Are the Real Monsters, and summarily "cleanses the heretics" from the surviving students (again, barring a possible Sole Survivor that the cult wishes to induct against their will).
- A possible variation to the above endings (whether for "just" a majority of "Logos"/"Pathos" arguments, or how the endings will actually play out compared to the outright victories of the Eden's Garden cult outlined earlier) - while the events largely play out the same (namely Damon or Wolfgang undergoing a full Face–Heel Turn due to the cult's manipulation), the actual ending has Damon or Wolfgang become the Final Boss of the Final Trial, and the survivors successfully defeat them... but are still trapped inside the academy, mirroring Danganronpa's 1 Bad Ending where the students are locked inside their Gilded Cage for the rest of their lives.
- Even mix between "Logos" and "Pathos" - Cassidy Amber (having taken a Protagonist Switch based on this theory video
which speculates that, if there is a Protag Switch, she'd be it due to a combination of having the trademark Ahoge of Danganronpa protagonists, and to milk Leaning on the Fourth Wall jokes about how the events are culminating like a video game's) forms a Freudian Trio with Damon and Wolfgang, convincing the former to start caring for the emotions and lives of his fellow students, and forcing the latter to realize the Insane Troll Logic being peddled by the Eden's Garden cult is a load of villainous hogwash.
The three characters and the surviving students then confront Tozu and Mara, and however the Final Trial is conducted, it results in Mara (whether she was originally Cara, or the "winner" of the last Killing Game that ended up murdering her) turning against Tozu, and inflicting the "Ultimate Punishment" upon him (with the final piece of the Execution either having Mara seek Redemption Equals Death by pulling a Taking You with Me on Tozu, or joining the Survivors in escaping the cult).
