MikoGalatea (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mikogalatea) wrote2018-12-14 08:07 pm
mikogalatea) wrote2018-12-14 08:07 pm
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DR meta: On Mondo
Around three years ago, gaston26 asked me on Tumblr about my opinion on Mondo from Dangan Ronpa. Here's the response I gave him at the time.
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He's not one of my favourites, but I do quite like him. He might seem like a big jerk at first, but as Makoto himself notes, he's not really a bad person, and he's honourable in his own way. He's also got some charming quirks -- his love of fluffy little dogs, the way his shouting is sometimes just a nervous reflex, and on a more serious note, his worries about his future -- and I find him particularly interesting as a contrast to Chihiro.
As much as Chihiro is one of my favourite characters in the game, I never felt angry at Mondo for killing him. One of the big things about Dangan Ronpa is that most of the kids are not inherently awful, but are instead driven to breaking points by the toxic situation of the killing game -- and Mondo is no exception. He was put under a lot of strain by Monokuma threatening to reveal everyone's darkest secrets to the world, including the fact that Mondo caused his older brother's death, and then poor Chihiro happened to say the wrong thing at the wrong time (without knowing how badly Mondo would react to being told he was strong at that point, so he doesn't bear any blame at all) and that sent him over the edge. He was clearly ashamed of what he did, too, hence why he didn't even put up much of a fight when he was figured out to be the culprit towards the end of the trial.
I also want to say that Mondo is definitely not some transphobic monster like I've seen a couple of people claim he is. His murder of Chihiro -- which was done in the heat of the moment and not out of premeditated malice, don't forget -- had absolutely nothing to do with his gender and everything to do with his own complex and his jealousy towards Chihiro for being stronger than he was. Even his reaction to Chihiro telling him his secret wasn't nearly as exaggerated as, say, when Ishimaru found out post-mortem, and he got over that initial shock pretty quickly and instead worried about what would happen to Chihiro if his secret became more widely known.
Mondo then made his changes to the crime scene in an attempt to protect Chihiro's secret, out of respect for the kid -- and I really think he did respect Chihiro at the end of the day. His shock when everyone found Chihiro's corpse in the state that Byakuya put it in struck me as genuine, plus there was the way he still insisted that Chihiro was a human being when Byakuya was regarding his body as an inanimate object. (Speaking of Byakuya, he's the one I was angry at in this chapter, if anyone -- messing with the crime scene in such a way just so he could frame Touko for it and make the killing game more interesting for himself, plus his general attitude towards Makoto during the investigation.) There's probably more I could say, but for now, there you have my defence of a character who killed one of my favourites.
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Only a couple of days until the changeover in Tumblr's policies... I don't think my blog is in too much danger, but I still can't help worrying a little, so I'm feeling the pressure on getting my favourite old posts over here either way. >>;
gaston26 asked me on Tumblr about my opinion on Mondo from Dangan Ronpa. Here's the response I gave him at the time.-
He's not one of my favourites, but I do quite like him. He might seem like a big jerk at first, but as Makoto himself notes, he's not really a bad person, and he's honourable in his own way. He's also got some charming quirks -- his love of fluffy little dogs, the way his shouting is sometimes just a nervous reflex, and on a more serious note, his worries about his future -- and I find him particularly interesting as a contrast to Chihiro.
As much as Chihiro is one of my favourite characters in the game, I never felt angry at Mondo for killing him. One of the big things about Dangan Ronpa is that most of the kids are not inherently awful, but are instead driven to breaking points by the toxic situation of the killing game -- and Mondo is no exception. He was put under a lot of strain by Monokuma threatening to reveal everyone's darkest secrets to the world, including the fact that Mondo caused his older brother's death, and then poor Chihiro happened to say the wrong thing at the wrong time (without knowing how badly Mondo would react to being told he was strong at that point, so he doesn't bear any blame at all) and that sent him over the edge. He was clearly ashamed of what he did, too, hence why he didn't even put up much of a fight when he was figured out to be the culprit towards the end of the trial.
I also want to say that Mondo is definitely not some transphobic monster like I've seen a couple of people claim he is. His murder of Chihiro -- which was done in the heat of the moment and not out of premeditated malice, don't forget -- had absolutely nothing to do with his gender and everything to do with his own complex and his jealousy towards Chihiro for being stronger than he was. Even his reaction to Chihiro telling him his secret wasn't nearly as exaggerated as, say, when Ishimaru found out post-mortem, and he got over that initial shock pretty quickly and instead worried about what would happen to Chihiro if his secret became more widely known.
Mondo then made his changes to the crime scene in an attempt to protect Chihiro's secret, out of respect for the kid -- and I really think he did respect Chihiro at the end of the day. His shock when everyone found Chihiro's corpse in the state that Byakuya put it in struck me as genuine, plus there was the way he still insisted that Chihiro was a human being when Byakuya was regarding his body as an inanimate object. (Speaking of Byakuya, he's the one I was angry at in this chapter, if anyone -- messing with the crime scene in such a way just so he could frame Touko for it and make the killing game more interesting for himself, plus his general attitude towards Makoto during the investigation.) There's probably more I could say, but for now, there you have my defence of a character who killed one of my favourites.
-
Only a couple of days until the changeover in Tumblr's policies... I don't think my blog is in too much danger, but I still can't help worrying a little, so I'm feeling the pressure on getting my favourite old posts over here either way. >>;