#tsumugi often downplays himself and his importance and such | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

oumakokichi · 7 years

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Since you've talked a lot about "why Ouma is not Komaeda", would it be okay if I asked you what your take is on Saihara's differences with Hinata?

This is a really fun question, actually! I’vetalked about how Saihara is his own character, as well as his differences fromNaegi and Hinata on a more general level, but I don’t think I’ve ever gone intoexplicit detail about how different he is from Hinata.

I’ve seen a lot of people raisecomplaints about Saihara’s similarities with both previous protagonists. WithNaegi, the accusations are that both of them are “weak” or “ordinary,” but withHinata the accusations are generally more directed towards the fact that bothof them as protagonists are far more depressed than someone optimistic likeNaegi, and both of them struggle with issues like their own self-image.However, the reasons for why they grapple with these things are quitedifferent.

The most important point ofdifference that I would note is that while Hinata certainly “is depressed” overhis own lack of talent, Saihara “has depression.” There’s a world of differencebetween “being depressed” and “having depression,” in my opinion, at least.

At heart, Hinata is not someonewho gets depressed often or easily. Prior to attending Hope’s Peak, we knowthat Hinata was relatively self-assured. He was far more confident than Saiharaever was or has been; his use of “ore” as a pronoun and his lack of honorificsamong his classmates suggests that in a situation removed from Hope’s Peak andtalent, he’s relatively confident and considers himself on equal footing withmost people his own age.

As we see in sdr2, wiped of hismemories and unaware of his own lack of talent, Hinata is able to performadmirably when under strain or duress. He gets much more annoyed and fed upwith his classmates than Naegi or Saihara tend to, but he also holds himselftogether relatively well, confident in his reasoning and common sense. Even asearly as the first investigation in sdr2, he notes that he’s “doing a prettygood job investigating all by himself,” despite the fact that he has noparticular talent for detective work.

These small glimpses of self-assuranceand confidence show that Hinata doesn’t “have depression,” much less theanxiety that Saihara struggles with. Instead, Hinata was someone shaped by thetalent-based society around him. Hope’s Peak Academy and its rules andregulations forced him to feel worthless and inadequate for arbitrary reasons,like not having a specific talent at which he excelled.

Despite all that, Hinata feltas though he very much deserved achance to attend Hope’s Peak. He admired the school more than anyone, and hewanted to attend it more than anyone—and for that reason, he couldn’t acceptthat not being naturally talented was reason enough to refuse him access tothose opportunities. The constant societal pressure and the implication that “talent”was equivalent with “self-worth” eventually made him willing to throw awayeverything, even his own sense of self, in order to obtain that “talent.” Butthe point still stands that he wouldn’t have made that decision if he hadn’thonestly thought that he deserved to have a chance at attending Hope’s Peak.

Hinata’s self-loathing is aresult of societal pressure and the dissonance caused by knowing that he hasworth as a human being but being told otherwise by Hope’s Peak and the worldaround him. When thrust into unreasonable or dangerous situations that he can’tdo anything about, his instinct isn’t to lie down or give up—quite thecontrary, he gets angry. Even in Chapter 1 of sdr2, there are several occasionswhere he simply screams by himself in his cottage, unable to accept thesituation they’ve all been put into.

There are many, many issuesthat Hinata struggles with—but those issues are caused by society itself. Sdr2is a story largely about how Hinata and the other characters are products of thesociety in which they’ve grown up, products of Hope’s Peak, and how others arestill trying to mold them to their own purposes even now. Were it not for Hope’sPeak existing and perpetuating the notion that “talent” is the only “real way”to achieve anything in life, Hinata might very well have lived a perfectly normal,happy life.

By contrast, Saihara is adepressed person by nature. Again, he “has depression”—I don’t think anyonecould go through ndrv3 and argue that he doesn’t have textbook symptoms ofdepression and anxiety, in any case. As Tsumugi says in Chapter 6, and as hehimself says, he’s a “weak person” by nature. His instinct when things gettough is to pretty much lie down and give up, which is a pretty understandableand human reaction. Depression by definition is a disorder which makes it feelas though everything, even the mostbasic tasks, is completely impossible, so it would be better to not even tryanyway.

On several occasions, Saiharatries to simply hole himself up in his room. Right after Kaede’s death inChapter 1, he stays in his room and doesn’t exhibit much interest in eating or eatingwith others; Momota has to come and get him in order to make him join everyoneelse at breakfast. Lethargy, apathy, and lack of sleep and appetite are allabout as textbook as it gets when it comes to symptoms of depression, andSaihara establishes very, very early on that he tends to react this way a lot.

He also panics and loses hiscool extremely easily compared to someone like Hinata, who is noticeably moreconfident and self-assured. Saihara’s anxiety largely stems from his fear ofexposing the truth. Because he feels that he “ruined a man’s life” by exposingthe truth and sending him to jail, he’s absolutely terrified of repeating thosesame mistakes.

This means that he has far lessconfidence in his own judgment, and that situations which pull him out of hiscomfort zone often disorient and scare him. Constantly throughout the game,Saihara displays a fear of the truth, fear of the unknown, and fear of hurtingthose around him. He trusts himself very little, because he knows that he’sweak and insecure, and doesn’t want to “drag down” anyone else.

In Chapter 5 especially, we seeSaihara’s depression and anxiety reach an all-time high. After Ouma shows thewhole group “the truth of the outside world” in order to grind the killing gameto a halt by removing their desire to leave, Saihara’s suicidal nature isreally shown in full, without being glossed over or downplayed at all.

Prior to Chapter 5, there wereplenty of indications that Saihara had suicidal urges—but he often dismissedthem quickly, as though trying not to think about them. After using theremember light in Chapter 2, he remembers thinking “I don’t want to liveanymore. I want to die together with everyone else.” And again, just before theChapter 2 trial, when trying to motivate himself in order to solve the mysteryand survive with everyone else, he tries thinking about reasons he might wantto live, only to come back to the same thoughts about wanting to die again.

He tries fervently denyingthose thoughts, claiming that he does want to live, that there’s no way hewants to just give up and die, but in Chapter 5 we see for the very first timejust how hard it truly is for someone like Saihara to keep living. After beingtold that none of his friends or loved ones are alive anymore, and that theearth itself is completely decimated and ruined, Saihara simply goes back tohis room without even remembering how he got there, lies on his bed, and thinksaimlessly to himself “there’s no reason to live.” And he repeats that thought,over and over again.

He stays in his room for atleast two days without eating, sleeping, or showering. It’s highly implied thatif he had actually had the energy to do so, he would’ve simply killed himself—becausedying seemed like the “nicer alternative” to living with the knowledge that hehad. Himiko exhibits similar traits; when Maki rounds them all up to talk aboutthe remember light she found in the cafeteria, she asks Maki point-blank if she’lljust kill her and put her out of her misery. Maki agrees that she’ll killanyone who wants to be killed, but only if they use the remember light first, andSaihara and the others don’t disagree with this plan at all.

As someone who has dealt withdepression for years now, I can vouch that these sorts of depressive episodes mostdefinitely happen. There have been times myself when I couldn’t leave my room,eat, or sleep. Seeing such a thing presented in such a realistic, raw way withSaihara really hit close to home for me. It’s a horrible kind of feeling, onethat I’m not sure most people could understand unless they’ve experienced itthemselves.

In Chapter 6 as well, afterbeing repeatedly hit with Tsumugi’s “reveals” about the state of their memoriesand the fact that they’re little more than fictional characters designed forthe killing game show, Saihara gives up completely.He’s simply not the kind of person who can motivate himself or inspire hope oroptimism in others.

The reason Kiibo had to take onthe protagonist role from him was because Saihara simply cannot fulfill therole of “inspirational protagonist” in the first place. Being told that hismemories, his backstory, even his feelings were all “lies” made Saihara feelcompletely, 100% defeated. And were it not for Kiibo’s willingness to sacrificehimself and his speeches about hope and optimism (even though that “hope” wasthe wrong choice), Saihara himself says that he would’ve simply given up. Theonly reason he was able to return to his senses and realized the trap inTsumugi’s “hope vs. despair” choice was because Kiibo gave him a reason to keepgoing.

There are many, many times inwhich Hinata becomes angry, upset, or depressed over the realizations that hehas in sdr2, and in which he struggles to find his own path or what he shoulddo after being constantly pulled in all directions by other people for hisentire life. But he never once gave up completely. Hinata’s story has alwaysbeen one of trying to find his own path, of making a place for himself in theworld no matter what the cost, even if it means becoming a different personentirely.

Saihara, on the other hand(along with pretty much all the other ndrv3 characters), is highly implied to haveonly signed up for the killing game in the first place because he was socompletely willing and ready to die. Regardless of how much Tsumugi may havebeen lying about, the outside world in ndrv3 definitely doesn’t seem to be in agood state. I’ve talked in other pieces of meta about why I believe the virus,at least, was real—and the existence of the virus would imply that the meteorcrashes were also real.

There are so many hints andimplications that the world itself is so awful, boring, and ruined in ndrv3that most people are simply desensitized by now. The idea of dying in a waythat’s “interesting” or “entertaining” seems preferable to simply living outone’s life the same way, day after day.

There are several MonokumaTheaters that imply this throughout the course of the game (including one whereMonokuma talks about how he thinks the ones who die in the killing game are the“truly happy ones”), as well as the boy named Makoto, who we get a glimpse ofat the beginning of Chapter 6. Tsumugi’s comments about how she and the othercharacters are people who can “only live within the world of Danganronpa” alsoseem to imply as much. Again and again in ndrv3, we’re presented with the ideathat the outside world is horrible, harsh, and cruel, and that throwing oneselfentirely into fiction is the preferable alternative, even if it means dying.

Saihara, for all hisimprovement, development, and growth, is still anxious and depressed at hiscore. His anxiety and depression remain with him for the course of the entiregame, and are never magically “fixed” or “cured,” because those things are aninherent part of who he is. Unlike Hinata, who was made to feel worthless andunsatisfied with himself because of societal pressure, Saihara is simply adepressed and anxious person by nature—even the fact that he still seemsextremely nervous and on-edge in the prologue, prior to “getting his memories,”implies as much.

He and Hinata might strugglewith similar issues, but their personalities are vastly different, as are thereasons why they struggle in the first place. Were it not for externalcircumstances like Hope’s Peak, I think Hinata would’ve developed into arelatively confident, self-assured person, capable of leading others and makinga name for himself wherever he goes. He’s ambitious, keeps his cool underpressure, and has an abundance of qualities that would make him perform well injust about any circumstance.

But I can’t say the same forSaihara. Saihara is not someone who naturally leads others, nor does he wantto; rather, he’s dragged into the protagonist role due to factors beyond hiscontrol. But he can only truly shine when following someone else’s lead, be itKaede, Momota, Ouma, or Kiibo. He needs support and encouragement in order tokeep going, because otherwise the weight of his own depression and anxietywould be too much to bear.

He is really, truly suicidaldeep down. Not only does he not trust in his own judgment, but he honestly can’tthink of any reason why he should still be alive, because he doesn’t think hedeserves to live, on some level. This is what makes it all the more poignantthat he does survive at the end, despite his absolute willingness to lay downhis life if it meant ending the killing game. Despite his weakness, hisinsecurities, and his willingness to throw his own life away, Saihara at theend of ndrv3 is presented with the opportunity to gradually find his ownmeaning in life, even if that life is “fictional” or “a lie.”

This has gotten quite long, soI’ll stop, but this was really an enjoyable question, anon. Thank you so muchfor giving me the opportunity to answer it! I love Hinata and Saihara both somuch; they’re both fantastic characters, and I’m glad I could talk at lengthabout what makes them so different and enjoyable in their own way. Thanks forasking, anon!

#ndrv3 #new danganronpa v3 #sdr2 #shuuichi saihara #hajime hinata #ndrv3 spoilers //#my meta #okay to reblog #anonymous

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