have u ever thought about how talents consume the characters in dr, renderimg them non-human in the eyes of thr academy and the narrative structure and how junko suffers from this curse. i will NEVER NEVER NEVER shut up about how one of the best lines we have in dr0 is this one :
" He anticipated my question and responded matter-of-factly.
"It's the same thing as asking a swimmer, 'Why are you still swimming if it hurts so much?'... It's only natural to be so fixated on it. After all, that's all I have." "
After all thats i have..nagito and junko both only having despair and hope to cling onto as their coping mechanisms for the sheer isolation/loneliness and pain they feel.
OMG YEAH. HELL YEAH I DO.
Okay this is such an underepresented part of Danganronpa's themes, maybe because it's truly analysis of japan brutal work culture that may be lost in our english speaking spaces, but its so heart breaking to me specifically to me because it isolating nature.
The high standards of Hope's Peak and just society as a whole is so high that you often have to live two lives. Saving face for the hopes of humanity is an everyday job and eventually who you really are separates from what you must be. Not to make everything about sayaka but this is why her arch hurts me so bad. Her whole thing with being psychic, or when she's feeling intense fear and makato watches her school her face back into something more pleasant. Sayaka isn't allowed to be smart and introspective, she isn't allowed to be scared or unpleasant to be around because she's an idol and an idol has to fight for that everyday. She needs to be hope for girls like her watching the tv alone in their room, she meticulously picks away at herself to be reborn as this doll pure virginal angel thing so she could finally not be alone.
But that's the thing about talent or embodiments in Danganronpa, they never make you any less alone. Sayaka still is truly alone because nobody knows her beyond this mask. Same with junko, and nagito, and the plethora of other characters trying to hold on to ideals to fix themsleves.
Junko herself is particularly tragic to me she's alone in the truest sense of the word is born alone and dies alone. I don't know, I can picture a world where Sayaka gets to live a little longer, graduates from being an idol and begins to realize living for fame isn't worth it. Same for nagito, I think if he was given the time to realize he doesn't need to be worthy or stepping stone for beacons of hope to deserve love and connection, he would stop clinging on to it. However junko really only had despair to rely on.
Junko's intense intelligence and the boredom with life that follows it I think is comparable to a depression that makes the world's beauty hollow and plastic and it's ugliness the only thing that makes you feel, if only by making your heart beat faster. Maybe Junko could mostly be happy by distracting herself with fame, fashion, love, and other pro-social activities, but everyday when she goes home, she'll still be herself. The problem with her life wasn't that it was devoid of love or hope, it was just that all that love couldn't fufill her.
I think junko knew this, and that's why she ultimately decided to dedicate her life to despair. I don't like to say characters met their downfall because of something that couldn't be fixed, but I think Junko had this hole inside her that she knew could never quite be filled with love or care, so she decided to completely destroy herself because at least she wouldn't have to be empty.
Anyway...this was kind of a big ramble...thank you for this ask and yes danganronpa is about lonely people becoming dehumanized by what supposed to save them...yes I ponder this often. How did you know lol?
