#sdr2 meta

Rambly analysis incoming:

The setting is of course, the Neo-World Program, which takes the form of an island paradise named Jabberwock Island, which is a real place within the universe of Danganronpa outside of the NWP, but has a different function there, being a base of sorts for some Future Foundation members.

In the Neo-World Program, Jabberwock Island is designed to be uninhabited by anyone except Usami, the people put into the program, and the occasional creature here and there. This is very purposeful. When the three creators (Fujisaki, Matsuda, and Gekkogahara) of the Neo-World Program were designing it, they, being students of the ultra-pressurised and toxic environment of Hope's Peak Academy would have likely known that some of their fellow students could have used this kind of intense, all consuming therapy to help them overcome their trauma.

Enter the 77th Class, aka the Ultimate/Super High School Level Despair. What do these guys all have in common? Trauma. From various things that are incompatible with an intense school life and an imploding social environment. Stuff like bullying, struggling to fit in, lack of self confidence, terminal illness, bereavement, social awkwardness, abuse, and even more. Not only were these folks traumatised upon entering the Academy, but these traumas and weaknesses were exploited and used to manipulate them into being part of Junko Enoshima's despair-fulled, mindless, murderous cult, because they felt they had simply nowhere else to turn.

So what does the NWP and it's version of Jabberwock island have to do with this? Well, they are two things that traumatised teenagers and young people use to escape reality and soothe themselves rolled into one: a holiday paradise with plenty of wide open space and things to do, and a simulation/game world where even more things are possible. And to keep things in order, there's also the two programmed observers: Usami, the designated "teacher" who guides and instructs the group in gathering the hope fragments by working through things together and bonding with each other, and Nanami, another student, the gamer and game character within a game, who's presence is intended to gently encourage and support the others. This is all temporary by design, as they must then take these lessons learned and confidence gained into the outside world, whereby having their memories newly replaced, they'll no longer be Ultimate Despair and instead be the humans they were meant to be.

So in short: it's giving flawed and traumatised teenagers a chance to play and be themselves where the outside world wouldn't help them, in order to heal and rehabilitate them so that when they get out, they are better people and prepared to face life's challenges.

However, as we all know, Izuru Kamukura managed to implant an AI of Enoshima into the NWP, messing things up and forcing the students into a killing game instead. Worse yet, it is revealed during the 6th trial that the rest of Ultimate Despair willingly put themselves into the program, almost definitely knowing that the Enoshima AI would be present and things would get violent. Why did they do this? Well it could mainly be due to the desire to inflict more despair upon themselves, and/or to see Enoshima again. But also, due to the repeat function in the core of the program, they could abuse that function to repeat the killing school trip over and over again, refusing to leave this place behind and defeating the purpose of the NWP being a temporary program.

A metaphor for how traumatised people can get stuck in toxic patterns or escapism or both, and how these dangerous habits can loop over and over and over again.

One of my favorite scenes in this game. Finally got around to it again.

What a conversation to have under the portrait of the founder (Izuru Kamukura) himself. “Wanted to become hope?” And “Were you really willing to sacrifice your body and soul?” Is so on the nose.

Did he really know about it? This scene is so ambiguous due to foreshadowing, and what he says later on before the trial where he references the twist of DR0 is not helping with figuring out how much he knew.

You might as well just say he knew.

I really doubt Komaeda would like the idea of the Kamukura project in practice, or at least have mixed feelings about it. It also seems like something Komaeda would like to be apart of if he ever has the chance, even if it isn’t anything that praise worthy. Komaeda is a bit of a hypocrite in this regard.

Saying Komaeda would have positive feelings about the Kamukura project is a mixed bag to indulge in. There’s something different about his potential feelings about the project and Kamukura himself in my mind. The Idea Vs Practice Dilemma, if you will.

It’s part of the problem of Komaeda ideology regarding the talented, as Hajime remarks on when he learns about Izuru Kamukura during Chapter 6. What Komaeda truly wants cannot be from the talented and he cannot recognize that. Komaeda’s belief that the talented are innately the good of the world is… definitely a belief.

Komaeda would not have very good things to say about the person who accepts the project, but I also think he would not shame them out of the malice for what they’re trying to do as anyone would love the opportunity being given. Komaeda acts the way he does about the reserve course students because they’re just normal people who bought their way into the realm of superhuman in his eyes.

Now imagine what he would say about the idea of becoming talented through this operation. It’s almost blasphemous to his ideals, and crosses the borders of the talentless and talented, when the whole point of these talented students being put on this pedal stool is that they're untouchable beings.

It would push his standards, but I don't think he would have a problem with it entirely with more thought and convincing since his actions in chapter 5 and his ideas around Komaru in UDG do have that “worthless people can become hope” notion around it.

So would be hate it or not? Well, Kamukura himself as a result would not gain his ire if he does not know where he came from. If he did know, I just think he'd be disappointed or confused on how to treat him internally. He'd maybe still treat him like he would typically, but it might eat at him on the inside and grow into something negative against something so artificial.

This also depends on when and where in the timeline. Do you mean in an isolated setting like Dr S, Post-Game, or Pre-Game?

Re:

F: "If ever have to feel that way again, I'll make sure I'll stop it even if it costs me my life..."

F: "It's just a little life that Peko gave me, it's not precious anyway."

N: "You stupid idiot, that's all the more reason you need to take care of it!"

F: "Huh?"

Basically, Fuyuhiko was so depressed about not being able to remember that his sister was dead and getting so blinded by revenge that it cost him the person closest to him (and he couldn't even save her when he tried) that he didn't care if he ended up dying, because he knows it should have been him to die anyway. The way I interpreted those lines make me believe that he wanted to die.