#enquire rambles

There's several ways I refer to these two, but I'm not sure about this one anymore.

Side note, use whatever you want, be free. I'd personally like to avoid introducing more confusion to the Maeda situation so I'm overthinking things as usual haha.

I, 17M, have a best friend who we'll call Tsu(16M). Ever since I met him, it's been kind of obvious to me that he's a little... 🫳, yknow? Just a bit fruity.

When I asked him, though, he made a really disgusted expression and proclaimed that he was only attracted to women, as homosexuality was "disgusting." That was really offputting.

Despite that, my sister(17F) and I made a bet. I bet that, at some point during the year, he'd admit he was into dudes. However, she countered with the bet that he'd stay in the closet the entire year.

Needless to say, I won. Last week, Tsu and another classmate of ours, who we'll call Mae(16M), admitted to the class that they were dating and had been for roughly a month and a half.

This is how Tsu found out about the bet. :(

I threw my hands into the air and cheered before demanding that my sister fork over the money, which really upset Tsu because we were betting on him + his sexuality. A few of my classmates agree that it's an asshole move, but I don't see the problem? It's harmless and, ultimately, very funny.

So, AITA?

I don't know, OP. I'm not sure you're the asshole, but I can't quite say you're NTA either. If I were in their shoes, I wouldn't be too happy about my identity being the target of a bet, even if it did seem obvious to you and funny to you two. I can understand why Tsu would be upset about it.

I get that these kinds of games can be fun though, and I'm sure you two didn't mean to hurt anyone's feelings.

What labels do you use for them? DRA1 Yuki Maeda and SDRA2 Yuki Maeda can be a bit long to type over and over, (coughs in this post.. I'll do it here for clarity though) and though using the correct game title for each of them respectively works fine for tagging, I think it'd be fun if there were more of them being used or if it caught on more to differentiate them.

I know there's a lot of people in the fandom who see them as interchangeable or even the same character, so for those folks it may seem silly even to ask this kinda question but this is the hill I will die on okay /silly

And no I can't unpack all of that or this post would triple in length, and it is long enough already.

some old art that seemed fitting to throw in here... Honestly it's still kinda cute even if it is.

When it comes to nicknames and actual names the possibilities are pretty much endless. I like giving DRA1 Maeda the nicknames, since he's the one whose name is stolen, after all.

Some of the ones I've seen and/or used are Yuko and Yu (it's kinda neat that they have some phonetic overlap with Utsuro, with an O being added or having a name that sounds like the first letter of Utsuro's name.) I've never seen anyone use it, but there's also Yuku and Yukuto, both of which can be written with 空 which is neat. But I'm sure there's more of them out there.

I'm also a big fan personally of having DRA1 Yuki drop the last name Maeda, with the idea being that he'd not want to keep using a stolen name after realizing it wasn't his. Then he can go by just Yuki, or use a surname that belongs to Utsuro. My go to rn is Yoshida 吉田 - 吉 yoshi meaning good luck and 田 ta meaning field, rice paddy (just like in Maeda's name)

It's fun coming up with names like this. Don't ask me about Utsuro's real name (or dead name) or I will ramble forever about the options I've come up with in the past. (Just kidding, you can, but be warned /silly)

As for tags and labels for sorting them right on places like AO3 and Tumblr... Here's a few I've used or come across:

danmaeda & sumaeda (from Danganronpa and Super Danganronpa, this is one I started using after seeing someone use them on postype)

Yuki & Maeda (Only using Maeda to refer to the SDRA2 since the last name really only belongs to him) (I fear this one is also a little confusing though, cause given the localization differences between the two games, iirc SDRA2 Maeda is referred to as Yuki much more often and DRA1 Yuki is mostly called Maeda...)

Maeda Yuki (Danganronpa Another) & Maeda Yuki (Super Danganronpa Another 2) (Sadly these tags both go into "Maeda Yuki (Danganronpa Another)" on AO3, so sadly you can't sort for either character alone.. this kinda thing makes perfect sense in most cases. (ex. The same character appearing in multiple titles in the series) But I still really wish they had actual separate tags so you could search for fics with that specific Yuki and differentiate the ships as well... But! You can at least indicate to readers before they click if your fic has one or the other or both, which I try to do)

When it comes to Tumblr, there's several different combinations of the names and games you can go with that have been used before and it's kinda a lot lol.

I guess you can also go 'Yuki 1' and 'Yuki 2' (or Maeda) or call one fake and one real... The former is kinda silly like they're just clones of each other, and the latter makes me feel sad for dra1 Yuki... He's a real boy don't bully him /j /j

There's also Yuki 2ki...

(feel free to skip this bit if you want, there's probably like 2 people who even know or care what I'm yapping about here lol /hj)

If anyone has thoughts or other options I've not listed or forgotten I'd be curious to hear.

another series spoilers ahead

Revisited this moment today and it really just has the same vibe as that one meme...

This kind of reaction is just one of many reasons I can't take the idea that the two Maedas are interchangeable seriously lol.

Like look me straight in the eye and tell me sumaeda wouldn't also be cying and/or throwing up in the bathroom right now. In what world would that Maeda ever stand here a few feet away from Kiyoka's dead body just after they've found her and tell Teruya to stop whining.

Obviously like, yeah, logically, it is in Teruya's best interest to find some way to go forward, and in danmaeda's defense, he does start this interaction by asking Teruya if he's okay, (and when he comes back later he makes Teruya feel a bit better while talking about the antique store stuff) but like... the way he says it lol... it kills me. Like dra1 yuki does scream and shout and does feel fear and grief for sure, but he also has cowards/cowardice as a dislike... Plus, he sometimes has an overly harsh or judgemental reaction to someone showing a very normal emotional response to the situation for a teenager to have lol. (And he seemingly struggles to fully empathize with the very anxious and homesick Otori during their first ftes) I have my own interpretations on that, and it's fun to build off or imagine the whole divine luck/utsuro of it all influencing things...

I'm sorry, I can't help picturing sumaeda here in this situation, and danmaeda seeing him crying and pulling the same damn thing lmao. (putting the whole same face and name identity crisis of it all aside for this hypothetical scenario lol)