lιe or dιe

Okay, without keeping this too long, this answer might disappoint you a little since it’s not based on a crazy theory or whatever, but I think it was placed there intentionally, but it didn’t have much to do with Ouma. I’m gonna give you a few theories I think are the most plausible answers. 

First of all, let’s start with Ouma’s lab, which is hidden until the very last chapter. It’s the very last ultimate lab we uncover, minus Amami’s lab, but Amami’s lab would have opened at an earlier point in time if Amami had stayed alive. Ouma’s however was unintentionally uncovered by Kiibo when the entire school was wrecked, and it’s likely to assume that if Kiibo hadn’t started destroying things we would have gotten another treasure from Monokuma to unlock Ouma’s lab as the final area. 

Now as to why Ouma of all people was meant to have their lab revealed after everyone else… there’s no right answer to that. My theory is that it has to do with Ouma’s character and what he was meant to be, as it is very clear that Ouma was always meant to be set up as some kind of villain. With set up I mean, intended by Shirogane and the rest of Danganronpa, which is why Ouma eventually did what he did, as things got more complicated and the group was more and more manipulated by the circumstances presented to them. Ouma, as he acknowledges himself, was going up against forces he had no control over. Nobody was truly able to trust him, and so began to work on his own to stop the mastermind and the killing game, which eventually led to the events of Chapter 4 and 5. However, while I feel like things were intentionally set up to make Ouma a suspicious person (as his personality as a liar was also a set up, and liars are generally hard to trust) what went beyond their planning was that Ouma claimed to be the mastermind in order to stop the real mastermind. It’s a big vague and up to interpretation to what kind of extend personalities and plotlines were set up, but it’s very obvious that Ouma, at some point, went against what Team Danganronpa wanted out of his character, as even the real mastermind, Shirogane, couldn’t see through his trick in Chapter 5. 

So in short, Ouma was meant to be a suspicious person, perhaps even meant to be some sort of fake mastermind, but Shirogane was always meant to be the true mastermind and I do believe that it was also intended for her to reveal the stuff about “everything is fiction” at some point, since it was her main argument to drive everyone into despair in the final trial. What went wrong however was Kiibo blowing the entire place up, since his “inner voice” was cut off, and Ouma and Momota working together to stop the true mastermind in Chapter 5. 

That’s what I assume, so with that in mind I’d like to look at how the game was supposed to go down if none of this would have happened. Let’s say Ouma had survived Chapter 5 because he didn’t try to stop the mastermind, and an entirely different murder took place with an entirely different culprit, motive and victim. Let’s pretend Ouma wasn’t involved in any of these events and Kiibo hadn’t taken damage from Momota’s failed execution.In that case the remaining survivors (now including Ouma) would have likely gotten another item to explore the academy and perhaps found an item to unlock the pathway to Ouma’s lab. 

Let’s say at that point, even if Ouma wasn’t involved in the events of Chapter 5, people were still suspicious of him. And then they found that lab. First of all, it raises questions as to the extend of Ouma’s talent, as obviously the silly wigs and toys and cartoon villain-esque set up would have perhaps given the impression that Ouma wasn’t as evil as he seemed. Perhaps that was meant to be another plottwist? The suspicious guy is actually just a silly little clown boy! But we can’t be sure about it, as even when we discover the lab in the game as it is, it’s not until Saihara checks Ouma’s motive video, we get a 100% confirmation that Ouma’s talent is not what it seems. 

I’m talking a lot, but it boils down to the fact that I think the History of Hope’s Peak Academy was placed in that room at the very beginning, much like Amami’s survivor’s perk video was placed in his lab before the game even started. So let’s talk about Amami for a quick second.

Amami is the survivor of V2 and was allowed to send himself a message he unfortunately never got since he never reached his lab. Monokuma mentions however that since Amami died, his lab has been closed off for everyone so it’s unlikely someone went inside while the game was running. The laptop with the video was placed there with the intention that Amami would eventually watch it, while also letting him know that he himself failed. Amami, before his memories were manipulated at the start of V3, entered another Danganronpa game with the intention to stop Danganronpa. As Amami in the video mentions however, that if he’s able to watch this message, it means he already failed (as the game has been going on already and many people died already) I feel like the video was meant for Amami alone. Giving him the full message and a general idea of who he was and what his intention was before entering the killing game, but placing this message in a place unaccessable until a few killings happened is cruel. It’s like saying “You finally got it, but it’s too late now!” And would have probably gotten to poor Amami. 

Besides, we have to remember what it means for Team Danganronpa, that their survivor from V2 has the intention to stop Danganronpa in general. They wanna keep going with Danganronpa for another 50 seasons and this teenage boy wants to stop them? Of course they’d set it up in a way that the circumstances made it basically impossible for him to succeed. Even if he saw that message, people had already died. Poor Amami man I love that dude. 

Okay, back to Ouma then. So if Amami’s video was placed there intentionally for him to see it if he survives this long, just to let him know his original intention failed, then I can assume that the History of Hope’s Peak Academy was placed intentionally in Ouma’s lab too. Though… I don’t think this book was placed for Ouma in particular, but rather for everyone else besides Ouma. I’m gonna explain.

So, as said, let’s assume Ouma made it through Chapter 5 and his lab opened up normally, however it was intentioned to open up. That means everyone, Ouma, Saihara, and everyone else, has access to it now and can explore it. Unless idk, Ouma was the first one to see it and took the book and hid it somewhere, it’s likely that everyone else got to see it too. Everyone else was already working together at that point too, so if something this suspicious showed up, surely they would have shared it. 

And this is where things get a bit messy because there are multiple possibilities in my opinion.

So all of the flashback lights people got until that point didn’t talk about Hope’s Peak at all. Perhaps for the 53rd game of Danganronpa, they really intentioned the whole weird Gopher Project backstory, but I have my doubts. We see the flashback room in Chapter 6 and get a general idea as to how flashback lights are made. We also get to know that the memories have been made up the entire time, the Gopher Project memories as much as the Hope’s Peak Academy memories. As a quick reminder: They only got the Hope’s Peak Academy memories AS A RESULT of what Ouma did in Chapter 5. Everyone was basically stuck in depression hell because Ouma was revealed to be the “mastermind”, the outside world is dead, etc. The reason they got a new flashback light with Hope’s Peak Academy memories was to motivate the cast and keep going. Basically, because the show must go on. So it makes me wonder if they had gotten that particular flasbhack light without all of these reveals too. Or of they had stuck with the Gopher Project story, as these two clearly don’t mix. We don’t know, but we can assume that Shirogane was desperate for the group to go on after what happened, and that’s why they got the flasbhack light at all. If the contents would have been the same if Ouma hadn’t done what he did? We don’t really know.

We do know however that it’s a possibility either way, as the flashback lights could create basically everything. Whatever kind of memory was convenient at that moment, they could make it. So in the end there’s no real way to tell as to what extend everything was planned and what was improvised because of Ouma’s plan to rebel against the mastermind. As with a lot of things with V3, we just don’t know what’s the truth for sure. 

Another possibility I considered is that there was some sort of way for Shirogane to access Ouma’s lab and put the book there AS A RESPONSE to what happened in Chapter 5. Since you know, it was her flashback light who led everyone to believe Ouma worships Junko Enoshima, and Ouma and Momota both didn’t even know who she was lmao. So if we assume Shirogane only mentioned Hope’s Peak Academy at all out of desperation because everyone was just laying in bed and dying, then perhaps she planted this “evidence” to further present Ouma as a worshipper of Junko Enoshima. 

Lastly, if we put those two ideas together, there’s also the idea that Shirogane planned to mention Hope’s Peak Academy at some point right at the beginning. As I mentioned above, I do believe the whole “Everything is just a story and all of your memories are fake!” was supposed to be the big plottwist in the end. It was always meant to be that way, it’s just that the way that led up to it wasn’t entirely how Shirogane planned. 

So if we assume that, then this was how the game was likely going to be run, according to Shirogane’s plansThe killing game starts, Amami might or might not make it until he can see his own lab and see that he was the survivor of the previous game, everyone keeps getting memories of the Gopher Project, Ouma is set up to be a suspicious person and people start to assume he is the mastermind but he is not, everyone eventually finds Ouma’s lab and the History of Hope’s Peak Academy and perhaps gets a flashback light of it to further “prove” that Ouma is a remnant of despair, the whole Ouma being a remnant of despair being revealed to be a lie by the true mastermind Shirogane and it’s revealed that every memory has been fake and they were part of a show all along.

Something like that. It makes sense in my opinion that the whole plottwist was always meant to be “we’re all in a show” because of Amami’s survivor’s perk and also Kiibo’s entire existence. It also makes them feel very hopeless and powerless but I mean we all know that best boy Saihara didn’t take any of that shit in the end (which also went against Shirogane’s plans, obviously) 

Also, if things really went according to the plan I mentioned above, then Ouma himself would have gotten the flashback light about Hope’s Peak Academy too. We all know that flashback lights are able to change entire personalities, so I do believe Ouma could have ACTUALLY become a remnant of despair if he was hit by that flashback light. And everyone else would have likely believed he’d been a remnant of despair since the beginning, since Ouma was intentionally set up to be at the very least suspicious.

Okay then, long answer short: 

I think it’s possible that the History of Hope’s Peak Academy was placed in Ouma’s lab at the beginning of the game. If that’s the case, I think it was with the possible plottwist in mind that they could make Ouma out to be a remnant of despair, as he himself would have believed so too if he was exposed to a flashback light that made him a Junko worshipper. However we do know the Hope’s Peak Academy memories don’t line up with the Gopher Project story and don’t line up with the History of Hope’s Peak entirely. I think even these “errors” were intended however, to give them a hint to the ACTUAL real plottwist, that ALL memories they’ve been getting were fake. 

So Ouma was meant to be set up as a fake villain, everyone would have been focused on him for a while until it was revealed neither the memories of Hope’s Peak nor the memories of the Gopher Project were real. Shirogane is the real mastermind, not Ouma, and this was all part of a show. 

The other (unlikely imo) possibility is that Shirogane put the book there as a response to Ouma’s actions in Chapter 5 and it was more spontaneously put there than anything else. I believe the other possibility is more likely though. Ouma was meant to be a fake villain, a fake mastermind, and that’s why the memories and the book were placed where they were placed.