#addendums

What counts as "obscure?"

i have a pretty simple system for this. i rate it by "do i think the average tumblr user has heard of it," and "do i think the average mom has heard of it" (mom stands for middle-aged offline m-person. i tried.) if the answer to both is no, she gets in! if the answer to both is yes, she doesn't!

if the answer to the tumblr question is yes, she will most likely be disqualified. however, if the answer to the mom question is yes, i'll still consider her.

Is there a limit on contestants?

nope!

What's your policy on contestants from last season?

if they lost in round 1, they're automatically re-entered. if they lost in round 2, they need a submission to be entered again. however, if they reached round 3 (linked for your convenience) they are disqualified.

Who the hell is that in your icon?

the mother of ants from cultist simulator, aka the character that inspired me to make this blog. i will probably change it in the coming days.

Despite his difficulties to begin with, Shuichi was absolutely the hero of the trial just now, figuring out Kaede’s crime when nobody else had a clue and finding the courage to reveal it in order to keep everyone safe. Kaede herself – who’d pretty much been the group’s biggest hero until the murder – saw that strength in Shuichi, passing the baton onto him and trusting him to continue to lead everyone to victory in her stead.

So, if Shuichi’s meant to be the biggest hero in the room now, why isn’t he acting like one? Why is he being weak!? Heroes aren’t supposed to do that! A hero like him should be larger than life, standing up to Monokuma, fiercely declaring their intent to never give in to him, not shutting down and not even saying a single damn word to that asshole! What kinda pathetic excuse for a hero even is this!?

(Kaito says “you call yourself a man!?” to Shuichi here, but perhaps what he really means with the word “man” in this instance is actually something a lot closer to his definition of “hero”.)

This is the one time in the story that Kaito’s harshness towards someone he sees as a failing hero gets directed not at himself, or at Ryoma, but at Shuichi.

This only happens here because it’s in the heat of the moment. Overcome with his own unbearable pain (and likely also his own vague sense of failure and inadequacy as a hero himself), Kaito isn’t thinking clearly enough to remember all of Shuichi’s previous indications of weakness and appreciate that he’s not quite yet the hero he has the potential to be, that of course he’d be struggling with this right now. After a night to calm down and think it over more clearly, Kaito acknowledges that weakness Shuichi still has and starts thinking of him as a potential sidekick, as he should.

Yet it still frustrates Kaito, in a way that’s subconscious enough that he can’t even properly articulate it to himself but that subtly comes out in the conversation when he starts training Shuichi. Shuichi’s weak and needs support from him like any sidekick does, and yet he’s somehow also an amazing hero whom Kaede entrusted her wish to and who’s strong enough to solve the cases and save everyone despite the pain it should bring. How can he be both at once? That’s not how any of this works!

But if Shuichi is Kaito’s sidekick now, then it’s fine. He’s allowed to be weak, that just makes sense for a sidekick (right?), and so Kaito is there to support him through it like he always does, not lash out and punch him in the face for it like the worst kind of hero.

(Remember how Kaito seemed almost hesitant at Shuichi so readily accepting his apology for the punch the next morning? That’s probably because, having had that night to flip things around in his head and come to see Shuichi as the potential sidekick here, Kaito realised that he’d been a really shitty hero to do what he did to someone who clearly just needed some support. And so, shouldn’t Shuichi be more mad at him than this for failing such a simple hero’s responsibility as that?)

Then, of course, trial 2 happens, including that delightful moment of Kaito seeing Shuichi as a hero entirely without his support. That’s when Kaito’s subconscious stops being confusedly torn on this subject and concludes that, nope, those indications of weakness he thought he could sometimes see obviously don’t count somehow, and Shuichi really is just a perfectly strong invincible hero who doesn’t need him after all.

Not that Kaito was ever going to be harsh on Shuichi for failing that heroism again after that point. Not when Shuichi doesn’t even show any more significant weakness for Kaito to see at all. And even if he had, since chapter 3 onwards is around when Kaito begins to direct his failed-hero harshness at himself, he’d probably no longer have felt like he had the right to hypothetically attack Shuichi for failing – not when Kaito himself has been failing so much worse.