First Rant/Analysis/Essay, bear with me
(Trigger Happy Havoc Spoilers Below)
Woah a Danganronpa rant in 2026? Crazy work. I don't know how I skipped this phase when I was younger, but that goddamn Kyoko meme peer pressured me and now its my new favorite thing.
I've only been into Danganronpa for a month, and I've only played Trigger Happy Havoc, but I wanna rant about something. Leon & Sayaka are so fucking interesting to me as far as characters go.
Everyone knows about the first trial, Sayaka tried to murder Leon and Leon retaliated by killing her in self defense (Albeit taken too far, hence Celeste's comment she made; "You had plenty of time to think about what you were doing, yet you still decided to kill her.") But I mean, even down to their character design its clear they're made to contrast & compliment each other.
Those who are deeper in knowledge know that Sayaka & Leon were the first characters created for the game, originally called Distrust. Their original designs were obviously different, blonde Leon lives in my nightmares….
But their final designs tell a story in my eyes.
Look at Sayaka. She is very soft in design, I mean that in she uses rounder shapes. You can also assume because of her idol outfit she's very girly, lots and lots of pink and frills and ribbons. Not to mention, she's a POP star. Keep that in mind, she preforms and obviously enjoys pop music.
She's shoved in our faces a little, but she's a kind person who seems well meaning and was just driven to a breaking point. Thats how I see her anyways, I understand people who think she's a snake, I even playfully call her a hoe lmfao.
Leon on the other hand is very rough and edgy, something I ADORE about his design personally. The faces in Danganronpa are all pretty much the same so face shape can't be discussed, but his hair and piercings make him like sharper, his clothing is very masculine with a punk aesthetic.
He is the Ultimate Baseball Star which is a very 'boy' sport, although those who remember know he actually HATES baseball and wanted to be a musician. Specifically, a PUNK star. If you remember his FTE's, he's also a pretty chill and sweet person.
Albeit, he is a little shallow, since he only stayed in baseball for female attention AND made a comment about the girl at the hair salon having, and I quote; "An okay face but a smoking hot body" But I don't see this as a devastating character flaw, its just him being a teenage/young adult boy. (I'm not saying, oh boys will be boys. It's still not right, but it's fitting for his age. I'd assume had he got the chance, he'd learn when he got older.)
Also, Orange and Blue are complimentary colors, so along with the 'very masculine seeming boy' and 'very feminine seeming girl' qualities, the soft shapes versus the sharp shapes, they have their color palletes that contrast each other.
Also pop music and punk music are very different last time I checked, but its a cool similarity that both of them have a passion for music. And even their birthdays contrast each other. Leon's being in the middle of winter (January 3rd), and Sayaka's being in the middle of summer. (July 7th)
Leon & Sayaka are both strangely human in how they handled the killing game. Both of them were scared out of their minds and were the first ones to snap, although Sayaka caused more of a domino effect in Leon being forced to kill her.
Even that entire situation I love to think about. Sayaka isn't a perfect angel, she did things that she's not proud of to be in the position she was, if I were her, I would snap too. Seeing something awful happen to the people I worked so hard to be on stage with, I'd attempt to take a life too.
But the thing that people miss is that its clear that neither of them wanted to kill each other. This is proven in the fact that the whole scuffle was very messy and unplanned. The stark opposite of Celeste's trial is how I like to see it.
Sayaka's only thought was just, "If I kill him, I can leave." ANOTHER thing is, she didn't know that if she got caught, she'd be killed. And if she got away with it, the others would be killed. That information was deliberately withheld by Monokuma until after Sayaka was dead.
When she attacked Leon, and after he broke her wrist he had the same thought. "I have a chance to kill her. If I kill her, I can leave." Granted, a few people like to say he was also thinking of the others when he decided to kill her.
Although she'd have a broken wrist, she'd still probably try and kill someone later AND since she'd have the information that he attacked her and could control the context, she could have ensured NOBODY would trust Leon during the rest of the game. So his only option was to kill her if you think about it.
Lots of people in the fandom like to debate about who was right and who was wrong, who the real victim is and I think its neither of them. I view them as 2 prey animals, no one's the wolf.
Both of them were scared, and they handled their situation in ways I think any sane person reading this would. If you wouldn't, good for you. Neither of them wanted to kill, but they were forced into it.
Lots of people say that Leon had the most human reaction to being discovered as the Blackened which I agree with, but I don't see people talk about how Sayaka had the most human reaction to being put in that situation in the first place.
Even Byakuya said the only thing I agree with that came out of his mouth that wasn't a case fact; "It was neither Leon or Sayaka's fault. The real killer is HIM." And pointing at Monokuma.
Anyway, I really like these two and I think given the circumstances, they responded the only way they knew how. I think if they had been given more time, they would have become good friends.
I don't know how many people know this, but Sayaka & Leon were killed first because they were base characters and the devs were sick of them. Which is REALLY funny but its also kinda sad since I think they both had potential, especially Leon but thats because of my favoritism towards him as my honorary 4th favorite character.
I would have liked to see a Mondo-Taka or Hina-Sakura situation where they bonded overtime but one of them, probably Sayaka, killed someone or was killed and the other was kinda catatonic afterwards. I don't know, I just really like both of them.
All of this is combined with the fact that in almost all the official side art I see that has the THH cast, they're together/next to each other. Could be the whole murder reason, but I like to think its cause they were good friends before the amnesia thing.
Thank you for coming to my ted talk, have a cookie, you earned it for reading my insanity :) 🍪
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