#dangblogging

@datsalmon submitted:

And so I continue my tradition of drawing things I remember from your feed from memory

ouma made this and slid it under saihara’s door

the whole chapter. the Whole chapter ouma’s just running the show through saihara. like he knows exactly what’s going to happen from the second they step foot in the computer lab (i do not remember the correct term for the room so forgive me if i’m wrong) and everything he does from that point onward is just theatrics. he leads the investigation, he leads the trial, he continuously takes up the most space and gives himself the most prominent role he’s ever had in any previous trial...

... until saihara goes and totally and completely shuts ouma down and takes the show back toward the end of the trial. literally that’s what happens. ouma runs the trial with a manner of cruelty that actually hurts to watch (like how he keeps screaming at gonta after revealing that he’s the killer? that shit hurts to watch and i actually almost cried a little. gonta is such a well-meaning, sweet boy and ouma getting angry with him like that hurts my soul. i don’t even know how much of that was just theatrics and how much was actually genuine, like did ouma know that gonta fucked up his memories or was that actually just a “lucky break” that made the whole trial more interesting? he probably figured it out before saihara did but he kept pushing gonta for information he just didn’t have and it just hurts) but as soon as saihara takes the show back, he runs it with the sweetest, gentlest of touches and he’s so NICE to gonta at the end. like saihara acts with so much empathy and kindness it actually drives me to tears.

i’ve seen lots of people questioning what the hell ouma was actually trying to do throughout ch4, particularly the trial, but to me it’s just painfully obvious that throughout the show, he’s absolutely driving the trial toward the correct answer. like, ouma knows everything about iruma’s murder and he definitely planned to have, well, at least all the questions leading towards the murderer answered. he may have had to reveal more than he initially wanted to due to saihara taking the show back but he never intended the murder to pass unsolved because he Does Not Want To Die. he only masterminded iruma’s murder in order to have a chance at ending the killing game itself, because he knows, or believes, it won’t end unless he’s there to end it. he’s a bit self-centered like that, believing he’s the only one who could end the killing game, and like, he got really close in ch5 (although i still question a lot of things about ch5 and really should replay/rewatch it sometime?) but in the end probably still underestimated saihara

ouma just does so much stuff in ch4 that’s hard to watch? he tries to pull saihara aside from all the others (although i guess we can’t know if he ever expected saihara to join forces with him or not? it’s kind of hard to tell what exactly he was trying to accomplish, if he truly believed it was possible to get saihara on his side or not, but i do believe he at least wanted saihara to join forces with him even if his methods towards accomplishing that were, well, less than optimal), he tricks poor gonta to commit murder for all of their’s sake, he gets angry at gonta and spends a good solid minute screaming at him in the trial itself, and then at the end he pulls the whole “i don’t care about gonta at all! ‘twas all a ruse and i’m super evil for real” that i both love and hate for so many reasons. it’s so sad that ouma had to take on the role of villain, effectively isolating himself from the rest of the class, just for the sake of having the opportunity to end the killing game. just to hijack the game itself from under the mastermind’s nose. i feel so many emotions for all of ouma’s actions in ch4 and that’s why it will always, always be my favorite drv3 chapter, it just plays on your emotions so goddamn much and i love it forever

still, just the fact that ouma and saihara spend so much time cooperating and working side by side in that particular chapter is very dear to me, ouma leading saihara towards the clues by the hand and consistently praising him for his detective skills throughout the trial. i mean, yeah, he probably does that a bit bitterly, pointing out how absolutely useless the rest of his classmates are by confirming that saihara is the only one that actually manages to do shit, ever, but he still does praise saihara and it’s something that matters a lot to me ok

i will NEVER get over the “gonta fucked up and has no memory of the virtual world” reveal. i am so certain that that’s something kodaka’s been dying to write for ages, a murderer with no memory of ever committing a murder, and it hurts that it had to be gonta but i love it so so so much. one hundred percent my favorite case in drv3 and probably bordering on my favorite case in the entire series. i mean komaeda’s murder-suicide in sdr2 was amazing and diabolical but.....

my very favorite detail in the entire trial is still when ouma hijacks monokuma’s theme song and i’m still mad my brother didn’t even notice it. like git gud, bro

and i stand by my point that ch4 had The Best mandatory lie wherein you actually, genuinely grab ouma’s lie and throw it right the fuck back at him. it felt so satisfying twisting ouma’s own testimony against him by turning it into a lie (even if shirogane could have shut the whole lie down, but she didn’t!) and i just love love love ouma’s reaction to it. the whole “you’ve got some balls lying to me” spiel he pulls when he’s been lying the most out of every character in the game. ouma, i love you so much, but i will stand behind twisting your own lies against you any day of the goddamned week