Le feu de l'âme.

In a previous post, I predicted that Ouma has a severe mental disorder because his outfit looks like a straitjacket.

Basically to summarize the post, Ouma’s behavior does not resemble the SHSL Leader. He’s rude and mean to other students, which would make people not like him. He also claims that he’s a bad person and a liar, which makes it very difficult for anyone to trust him. Plus, if he really were SHSL Leader, he should easily be able to take the leadership position away from Kaede if he wanted to, but he doesn’t. Overall, his behavior is opposite of how leaders should act. The best leaders are polite and charismatic, enabling them to win over the trust and respect of people. At first, I thought Ouma’s odd behavior is because he is purposely trying to distance himself from other students because he doesn’t want to hurt them due to his mental illness. That still might be the case. However, I’m going to revise my theory with some new information from a discussion I had with @powtripfalldieyay.

When I was writing the first theory, I realized that Ouma Kokichi in my theory sounds a lot like Nagito Komaeda, a mentally ill student who antagonized other students and distanced himself so that his luck wouldn’t hurt them. I kind of dismissed the similarity because I assumed Ouma would be less of an antagonist, have a different background, and a different mental illness. (I thought Ouma would be way more emotional than Nagito. In fact, I still think that.) However, there was one thing that I didn’t notice.

I’ve always wondered what Ouma’s scarf was about. I originally thought that his scarf is covering a neck injury or it is a treasured memento. However, the scarf may actually be hiding a chain on his neck, similar to the chain Nagito is wearing above. Now, why would Ouma have a metal chain around his neck? Well, why was Nagito wearing that chain around his neck? He was wearing a chain on his neck because he was a servant to the Warriors of Hope. Although, servant wouldn’t be the right word since people who wear these chains are meant to be restrained. Individuals who wear these chains aren’t just servants, they’re slaves, forced against their will to perform services and live a certain way.

If Ouma has this chain around his neck, then it probably means he was a slave to somebody. The reason he’s so mentally ill is because he was abused and lived in harsh conditions due to his slavery. That would explain why Ouma is so pale, even paler than Nagito. He may not have gotten enough sunlight or proper nutrition. Because Ouma still has the chain on his neck, Gifted Inmates Academy must have taken him directly from where he was enslaved to the academy. At some point between leaving enslavement and entering Gifted Inmates Academy, Ouma had to be restrained in a straitjacket because he was a threat to hurt himself or others. When Ouma was freed from the confines of his straitjacket, he fashioned what he was wearing to make it look like a white military uniform rather than an outfit for a mental hospital patient and covered the chain that’s still around his neck with a bandanna. In fact, the reason his outfit is torn is probably because it’s an old outfit he was wearing when he left enslavement and the only clothing he has. 

When he meets the other students, Ouma makes up a fake backstory and persona for himself as this leader of an evil secret society of 10,000 members. He does this for a few reasons. First of all, Ouma is probably too ashamed to admit he was a slave and is severely mentally ill. More importantly though, now that Ouma is free, he is no longer powerless. He has the freedom to lie and pretend to be what he wants. In his mind, being a powerful leader is the most appealing position. Ouma can be the tyrannical one instead of the powerless one. In fact, Ouma may be specifically pretending to be the person who enslaved him. To Ouma, this person is evil and lies. Ouma’s portrayal of his former abuser is probably exaggerated and satirical because Ouma has such a hatred for his person, but he is still pretending to be his former slave master. When Ouma is mean to the students, he’s treating them the way he thinks his former abuser treats other people. He’s probably also taking out the anger from his enslavement on to the other students. It’s not uncommon for victims of physical abuse to become aggressive in the future and become abusers themselves. In addition, Ouma may be claiming to be SHSL Leader so that he can take control of the students and everything around him. Before entering the prison, Ouma had no control over anything. Now that he’s free, he can try to control his environment. One of the reasons he decided to become SHSL Leader is so he can be the one in control for once. It’s also likely Ouma has feelings of inferiority due to being a slave, so he’s overcompensating that by acting like a leader who is superior to others. There’s nobody more supreme to Ouma than a leader. Unfortunately, he may develop pathological narcissism as compensatory defense against these his painful wounds and inferiority feelings.  

If my theory is true, then Ouma probably isn’t the SHSL Leader. If he is and this theory still holds, then he was some sort of leader before being enslaved, which is still possible. However, it’s odd that he is not displaying the warm charisma a leader should have. Plus, he has many reasons to lie about his talent. Regardless of whether he’s lying about his talent or not, Ouma must have some sort of talent that allows him to enroll into the academy. Since he was a slave, it’d probably be difficult to hone whatever talent he has through training and display his talent to others so that somebody discovers him. Although, it’s possible his former slave master enslaved him because of his talent and forced him to perfect the talent he has. Whatever the case is, Ouma was discovered, freed from his slavery, and sent to prison.

It’s scary to think about when you consider this: the theory I just explained is very similar to what happened to Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler was severely abused by his father and became very psychologically disturbed because of it. He became dictator to get the control he never had and projected his hatred for his father on to the Jews. Fortunately, this doesn’t mean that Ouma’s entire character arc is going to be a complete parallel to Hitler, with it ending in suicide. For one thing, Ouma is still young, so he can change. Ouma is still growing, so he can still develop a healthier psyche if the right people help him out. He’s also not showing the charisma Hitler had to gain followers and power. In other words, Ouma is probably not going to be the tyrannical ruler over the students he wants to be, and, as a result, is not going to develop Hitler’s narcissism and the same personality disorder. Kaede says that she wants all the students to be friends; this includes Ouma. If Ouma can develop healthy relationships with other students, then coping with his severe mental illness should be easier. Ouma probably will be difficult to handle and hard to understand because of his severe mental disorder, but he, like many severely mentally ill individuals, can live happy and healthy life eventually.

There are also clues, like this picture down below, pointing towards Amami Rantarou being the SHSL Psychologist. I’m not going to go into detail now about why Amami might be the SHSL Psychologist. @powtripfalldieyay has a good theory on that matter if you’re interested. If Amami is the SHSL Psychologist, then Ouma is going to be an interesting patient for him. Plus, if anyone can help Ouma, it would be a psychologist.

SOMEONE IS TALKING ABOUT MY FAVORITE ANIME

Your words in my head, knives in my heart You build me up and then I fall apart Cause I’m only human (x)