i find this part of danganronpa: togami to be SO INTERESTING vis a vis byakuya's philosophy, ESPECIALLY the highlighted parts. for one, he's very cognizant of AND OPEN ABOUT the fact that "the game" of life is inherently unfair, something that can be gleamed by how he talks in his free time events but is made explicit here, which is interesting considering pretty much every rich person ever.... does not talk like this. we've all heard the platitudes of "we all have the same time in the day," the myth of amazon and such being started in garages without mentioning the MAASIVE loans the founders' parents gave them, and the general touting of meritocracy. byakuya as an affluent person aknowleding, on ANY level, that the game is inherently unfair and rigged, is strikingly countercultural to the culture of affluence he belongs to and is supposed to EMBODY, even
and on top of that: he also dislikes when people use the unfairness of The Game to avoid playing at all. but, crucially, he says "it's not like i don't understand where they're coming from." it's more complicated than simple superiority-- his dislike of this behavior comes from a place of understanding. he, too, has been at a disadvantage as the youngest member of his family and being of such low pedigree that he was hierarchially worthless. but his point seems to be that, just as there are no guaranteed win conditions, there are also no guaranteed losing conditions. like he said, someone at the bottom rung can turn it around very late in life. and some people try and can't succeed at all, yes, but i get the sense that he would at least respect their efforts. they TRIED to play The Game instead of looking at the insurmountable odds and going "well, my chances are slim, so might as well not try." because THAT is the most surefire way to ensure that nothing happens. once you believe you have no agency, you really won't have any agency at all
and of course he's saying all this to spur people on to save his ass. but i do think it's a very interesting look on his philosophy, especially contrasted with impostor's world domination proclimation that started the novel, which highlights this disparity as well HOWEVER actively mocks and derides those disenfranchised by it
the proclimation is honestly written in a way people would think is "byakuyaesque" wrt that surface level way he's seen most of the time... however, the real byakuya gets mad when blue ink says it sounds like him!
because that's not how he thinks at all, and the person closest to him should know better