okokok i donāt know if iām on something with this or onto something, but i wanna talk about how humanity is a big overarching theme in yttd.
ofc thereās the dummies. they are perfect replicas of the participants in the killing game. thereās the real reko vs. fake reko in chapter 2. fake reko doesnāt even know sheās fake, and it takes a great deal of debating to decide that she is fake. itās also notable that she dies because she is not the real reko. while the doll kills real reko (depending on the route), i canāt help but pity her. she fully and truly believed she was human, but she was treated as more disposable because she was a dummy.
then when it comes to the dummies in chapter 3, theyāre also treated as disposable, particularly by midori. he uses them as tools to attack the human participants for his own amusement. the thing is, no matter what midori promised them, they were never going to survive. ofc, 3-c isnāt out yet, but it seems like no matter which dummy survives the banquet, nothing changes. the only substantial story differences come from the death of humans. ranmarus reaction when he removes his hand is also notable. the realization that he isnāt a āreal personā hits him hard.
the dummies in yttd remind me of the book āklara and the sunā, which is a really good book. that book explores what makes someone human in a way thatās similar to how the dummies in yttd operate.
the last thing i have to say about the dummies is that i think itās interesting how the banquet revolves around who is human and who is not, as well as sacrificing the dummies to save gin. they arenāt human, so theyāre more disposable. though iād sacrifice any yttd character for gin.
now, i wanna talk about humanity when it comes to sara, shin, and midori.
sara is a very kind, smart, and confident teenager. though she is pushed into the role, she is able to gain trust from almost the entire group. but, her survival percentage and what we hear about the test runs without joe from shin and midori show a different side to her. more than any other character, sara is desperate to survive. without joe, she can detach herself from her humanity and use people in order to survive. she doesnāt know these people, itās fine. she can win. she canāt do that with her best friend present, with his life on the line. she also canāt do that after becoming attached to the other participants. thatās why she doesnāt go full emotionally detached killer mode after forgetting joe in the logic route.
as for shin, i think him and sara are two sides of the same coin. 15.5% and 0.0%. the highest chance of survival and the lowest. because the death game was made to be even, sara got joe as a debuff, and shin got to see the trial runs and survival percentages as a buff. just like sara, he is determined to survive. he takes on the name and the personality (or at least he tries to lol) of the person who he fears most, someone he believes would survive this situation: sou hiyori, midoris real name. the thing is, shin isnāt sou. he isnāt completely inhumane. he doesnāt enjoy hurting people. he lies and manipulates, but he still cares for others, particularly kanna. shin tries to not let the facade slip, but his efforts trying to keep kanna alive show that he cares, deeply, about what happens to her. the fact that he is willing to give up on surviving, the reason he did all of his bullshit in the first place, just for kanna to live shows that he is unable to actually discard his humanity and become sou hiyori.
as for midori. he has a particular fascination with humans, in a very detached way. he wants to understand what makes them work, physically and mentally. he mimics emotions like he doesnāt have them himself. the only genuine emotion we see from him is fear. midori is completely detached from a fundamental part of what makes us human.
i donāt know if the idea of āwhat makes us humanā is really a main theme or question in yttd, but itās just a pattern i noticed. sorry if this is long and rambly lol. i just had to get the ideas out.
