DANGANRONPA 1 ALTERNATE MASTERMINDS 

I love your idea for Naegi mastermind. It’s kinda a subversion of Junko, you think the master would be pure evil and then you find out their just trying to help their friends but through a really twisted way because he wanted them to feel ultimate hope. Then Naegi could sacrifice himself after he realised that he failed at his goal and how he just wanted his friends to be happy. An even more twisted Komaeda

Imagine an AU were all the characters were the mastermind but weren’t aware of each other’s plan 😂

I love the idea of Hiro being the mastermind but nothing about his personality changes “It was you! Yasuhiro!” “Oh yeah! That’s right guys, I totally remember! i am the mastermind. What a twist, am I right?” “So you set up this entire school, kidnapped us, and made us play a killing game?” “Yup.” “But why?” “I saw a message appear in my ramen bowl that said I was destined to do this.” “That’s it?” “Well it came true didn’t it?”

Cool, I like the idea of everybody in each role, like a Blackened or Mastermind because it's fun to imagine. Takes me back to being suspicious of Sonia & Akane and imagining Kiyo as any other personality. Keebo, Leon, Chihiro, Chiaki, Twogami, Gundham, Shuichi, and Himiko are probably my favorite "what if" masterminds.

MM Ishimaru has always been a favorite of mine. Especially because (if he decides to play the game with everyone) it provides for a cool twist on his talent and implies a corruption arch where he goes from ultra law-abiding to the complete opposite end of the morality grid. Sorta plays into the duality monokuma represents as well.

It would be so funny to see a killing game hosted by Togami Corp. In which they just put a bunch of Togamis in a room and make em fight. The winner gets to be the heir and the big "twist" is that the players are all related... which is obvious given their character design. If it was the sequel to Danganronpa THH it could be called Danganronpa Two:gami

They always pick the most innocent ones! Although, I'm equally surprised that Makoto got so few of the votes. I think part of the problem is that since Chihiro was on the poll, a lot of his thunder was stolen.

Out of all the characters, taka is probably the most underutilized. He quite literally has nagito-like ideals that the game BARELY covers

A mastermind AU that I always thought would be cool is mastermind Kaede. She's such a big pillar of emotional support for the group and especially Shuichi, so revealing that she was the mastermind all along would have made a huge impact. Shuichi already has a lot of emotional baggage, so it would be crazy seeing Kaede manipulate him. She could also have a really cool mastermind design, maybe something like Dracula or the phantom of the opera.

I was CONVINCED Hiro was gonna be the mastermind back during my first play through, and they were gonna make it a brilliant twist how Hiro always used his "studpitity" to completely derail the class trials and waste time... colour me disappointed when no... he was just dumb :(

Bruh Makoto is my absolute FAVORITE mastermind au, I just think the idea of the protag being the villain is such a good twist. And it being Makoto specifically makes it even better

Man it's really cool how it sets up the alternative mastermind concepts.

I’ve always liked the idea of a Mastermind who was slowly whittled down by the kindness and resolve of their fellow classmates throughout the game. Like, maybe they regret their actions but think that it’s too late to just stop things and admit their role in everything. It would at least be better than the Tsumugi reveal IMO.

In regards to SDR2 mastermind aus, Mastermind Kazuichi is a drug to me actually. He's so unassuming yet so capable. Like, imagine if Kazuichi's crush on Sonia was fake and he was doing it and taking it too far to mess with her? What if his constant descent and fear was meant to cause discord among the living characters?

Shuichi being the alternate mastermind is definitely the best one for V3. I especially the idea assuming Kaede lives; the potential for major conflict between the two of them is super interesting. Plus his detective skills could definitely make him the perfect criminal.

I'm really into you and the fans ideas for Kiyotaka being the mastermind. To add to the whole 'genius' thing I think it would be neat for a rivalry of sorts with him and Byakuya. I don't think it would be a stretch for Kiyotaka to see him as a genius (it's part of why I think he should've lived so that potential could be explored) and we know from his free time events that Byakuya is offended by the notion that he didn't work hard for his position. It would just be a fun dynamic and interesting dynamic. I can picture Mastermind Taka ecstatic as he reveals to Byakuya the fall of the Togami Corporation and rubbing it in his face and celebrating their fall so that true hard workers could excel.

I remember people being super-into the concept of Chihiro as the mastermind, precisely because it would logically make Chiaki the mastermind of Danganronpa 2. In terms of Danganronpa V3 Saihara is easily the most popular alternate mastermind.

Fun (unimportant) fact about myself: I did a randomizer of the character's talents, and had Chihiro selected as the ultimate fashionista/despair/mastermind. Though instead of calling them a Fashionista, I would label them as the "Ultimate Influencer." Makoto would be Chihiro's older brother...Mukuro would be the protagonist, and Junko the Ultimate Detective.

I think my fav mastermind AU has to be Mastermind Ishimaru

If you decide to make a Danganronpa 2 version, here's my AU : Sonia could work well as a mastermind for the second game. Since almost every character in the game are remnants of despair(they just didn't have their memories during the killing game), it makes sense for the mastermind to know their true identities. Since Sonia is a princess, she could instruct several remnants of despair to make all the preparations and exclude her out from wiping her memories. When the class enters the game world, everybody except Sonia would had forgotten about each other, their identities and the outside world. Sonia would act as a kind and considerate classmate throughout the entire game to make the others trust in her, making the reveal more devastating. Her main motive would be her love for dark things(she's a fan of the occult and likes to watch Friday the 3rd. She also is into serial killers). Sonia can be looking at her classmates slowly becoming serial killers in desperation. While she acts sorrowfully for her deaths of her classmates, she would be giggling with joy and satisfaction in her heart. I also thought Sonia would be a good mastermind because you do not have to alter her personality(since she would be faking it). I apologize if there are any holes in my AU, I'm not very good at making up stories :"D

This was a fun video! I wasn’t expecting to be the most invested in the Kiyotaka AU. Talent is such a big part of Danganronpa’s world, so I feel that the conflict between talent and hard work would be a really interesting concept to explore

I think an interesting Chihiro AU mastermind would be tgat he wanted to test the limits of his own strength in programing. Knowing that he was likely never going to be physically strong, he opted to show the world just how powerful his talent could be, he wanted the world that deemed men need to be strong to suffer with dispair. And each motive would show that his AI creations are supperior as they do not suffer from the flaws people have. As for Monokuma and Alter ego in this scenario I think that they could be Chihiro's own test to himself and his skills. Having an AI based on his kind self vs the one that represents his more evil self in Monokuma. Untilmately, with not only Alter ego's sacrifice and eventual help from beyond the grave could have several impacts. Such as Chihiro recognizing his kind self was much stronger than he thought and deciding to reveal himself as the mastermind or he realizes even his kind self was unable to reach the end, as such he attempts to end it all.

I would like to think that if Chihiro was the mastermind in the first game, Chiaki should be the mastermind in DR2.

Most overlooked mastermind material is *Mukuro Ikusaba* . Like, imagine Junko living till the end, orchestring all game... But being OUTSMARTED by seemingly 'despairingly stupid older sister'. She could even do it out of her 'true love' for Junko, as she 'wanted her to taste TRUEST despair'... But also partly having enough of her. Like her having some BPD type if disorder, that will make her jump between absolute puppy love and then HATE for her imoto... 🤔 And for SDR2, I will see: Komaeda (pretty obvious motive, like with Naegi), true Izuru Kamukura(shock, he is still alive)... But one idea I came with and like THE MOST, is: *Imposter Togami* (what if THIS was True Togami), who made revenge on Junko for destroying TOGAMI name? 🤔 If he pretended to be his own importer, to not stood out too much, even make himself ugly, so 'no another Fukawa jump him'. His superiority issues making him create *best of all surviving game* . It was even mentioned, how Togami surviving game let only one surviour out( and how it made him 'strong enough', but he needs more people now, BUT they are 'too stupid', so he thought he will clone himself... Verbing only 'One True Genius', who is 'worthy of being part of Togami rebirth' - *Izuru Kamukura* . But as he lost memories, he needs strong shock to get out of 'Hajime shell'... And THEN PROVE HIMSELF. 🤔 This was my fav idea I came out with. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I don't get why people find themselves so confused as to Chihiros character. His arc is pretty clearly explained to just be about him wanting to move past his weakness and become stronger. Idk why it's a debate to begin with?

"You're just repeating my own words back at me. Bo-ring." Damnnnnn

i always thought taka would make a great mastermind even from a visual perspective, hes got an all white outfit and his talent is basically ultimate good boy, he has the red eyes with eyebrows resembling monokumas red eye, just make half of him black once u realize hes the mastermind and hes visually perfect, and his talent would make the twist even greater

Makoto's my favorite so I find his Mastermind AUs super painful but super interesting. I feel like instead of motives, Makoto would give out "challenges" for everyone to overcome, like how Nagito would keep trying to incite incidents to set up stepping stones for hope.

This is gonna be a bit of a wildcard but my pick for an SDR alternative mastermind is Kazuichi. From having the technical skill for building executions to being able to repair Monokuma (if SDR took place outside of a simulation), his ultimate would be super interesting to incorporate. Also, Soda is cannonically one of the most intelligent students academically, he just struggles with logical thinking and social intelligence. On top of this, he wouldn't necessarily be a mastermind driven by despair. His motive could be he wants everyone to feel the fear and mistrust he feels on a daily basis, driving them against each other to cause fights and betrayal. Thats why it's a game as opposed to an outright killing. It would also be a fun reveal like with Hagakure as Soda isn't taken seriously by even his classmates.

My favorites among these are Ishimaru and "the Togami Corp". They are all fun ideas, but I feel that all of them could run the risk of falling into the trap of being predictable to some extent, with two of them being "your partner is the mastermind!", one of them being "you're the mastermind!" and one of them being "the most innocent looking one is the mastermind!". Danganronpa 1 really threw us for a loop with the revelation of who the mastermind really was, because it wasn't anyone you would suspect, and it involved diving into that person's motivations and uncovering the answers to an intricate mystery, personally I feel that Ishimaru being the mastermind would achieve a similar impact. I also really like the Togami Corp idea, because it would redeem Togami and set up an interesting story for him, when he decides that he actually isn't going to kill anyone, screw that, screw his family, and their business, and their legacy, screw it all, he is a better person than that. Interestingly, he would still be an arrogant ass, but he would reject the killing game, because he would be disappointed on his family and the corporation, he would have had an entirely different idea of who they were, holding them up to higher standards, expecting them to be virtuous people with integrity, when in reality they were a bunch of psychos who did some pretty shady things, and who wanted him to kill his classmates, an insane idea. His goals would be to survive the killing game with his remaining colleagues (not friends), to take down the Togami Corp in a sequel, and then create the organization he envisioned (maybe he creates the Future Foundation of this alternate universe).

I honestly really love the Hiro idea. Imagine how shocking it would be to see the most dimwitted and lighthearted character instantly change into a cold intelligent tyrant pulling the strings.

Why has nobody mentioned the chickens. I think the best Alternate Mastermind would be one of the chickens in the chicken coop in the gardens.

Honestly I prefer the idea of Makoto being Nagito (keeping nagtio's appearance, his hair just turned kiyondo white from hope) as opposed to mastermind Makoto. Anyway, I still feel like Junko is the best mastermind because she's super unexpected, though you could change the motive.

A Mastermind AU i came up with is for the Danganronpa 3 Anime. Who exactly? Someone who actually has a genuine reason to target the Future Foundation - Taichi Fujisaki (Chihiro's Father) After being attacked by a Beast Monokuma, he finds out Chihiro is dead and snaps, targeting the Future Foundation and the DR1 Survivors because he blames them all for Chihiro's death - the FF for failing to rescue Class 78 from the killing game and the Survivors for being terrible friends to Chihiro and 'letting him get killed'. His face is scarred from the beast Monokuma attack - his face resembles Monokuma himself, with half of his face covered in scars like Harvey Dent and missing his eye.

For Dr 2 Masterminds my top 5 would be 1/2. Akane 1/2. Sonia 3. Mikan 4. Chiaki 5. Nagito Special mentions Fuyuhiko Mahiro

I think my favorite mastermind AU for dangan2 would be either Mastermind Sonia or Kazuichi For Sonia I imagine her manipulating Kaz (bc she know he would do anything for her) to the point of maybe framing him for a murder he didn't commit or was forced to commit because Sonia wanted so. Because she has a lot of power as a princess, in dangan3 the end of hopepeak anime we see her manipulating a whole contry when she is on the despair mode... stuff ? , and some of the dark thing she is interested to made me realize how cool of a twist it would be for her to be the mastermind. For Kazuichi, I think he would be the type to play the idiot on purpose so no one could suspect him and he would actually be super intelligent. Him loving Sonia would be fake so him playing the idiot would make more sense, he would actually hate her to death. Seing his backstory, it wouldn't be suprised if he just like... snaped ? Maybe thinking that if he suffer that much, making the other people suffer more ? It's kinda hard to find a motive for him honestly but idk I just love the ideas of that one big dumb idiot of the group being actually super intelligent and being the bad guy My writing and ideas are kinda meh and badly written, I hope that I explained everything correctly, I'm not fluent in english ^^'

Mastermind Ishimaru would've been amazing

One of my favourite Mastermind aus for sdr2 is probably Chiaki or Mikan Lol-

For some reason when I think about the Sayaka mastermind AU I think it would be "funny" of how the whole dealio with her seeing Makoto nurse an injured crane back to health can be re-contextualized as an extension of that attention seeking idea you had. As in, it still resonates with her but she has this weird fixation on Makoto under some faulty assumption that Makoto has some secret factor to him that can pull even the likes of her. The idea of why, to joke a bit, that small moment of Makoto helping the crane is "living rent free" in her head. Probably not the best way to convey that idea, but that's what came too mind. Maybe one can even play into her madness with her subtly and not so subtly getting irked, to say the least, that Makoto is developing into some sort Ultimate Hope figure to everyone, playing into that idea of wanting the attention on her and her actions and whatnot.

This video was extremely interesting and honestly made me even more disappointed with DR1 ending. I would LOVE a part two.

In danganronpa 2 I think Kazuichi could be, a cool mastermind. In canon he has a trust issues. Because of them he always preferred simple-minded people due to them being a easier to judge. Sadly seeing his classmates and colleagues having some darker side to them or secrets made him feel even worse than before. After Junko creating a world wide despair Kazuichi realised he loved despair because it made people more straight forward, after all showing the darkest side of man kind makes makes them having nothing else to hide. He might be responsible for equipping Junko for her despair game, by building all execution devices and weapons that were attached to school walls. Before entire class is locked in a simulation, Kazuichi predict it an for example makes a implant for himself to prevent memory loss. At first he would want to bring his classmates back as remnants of despair. During the killing game everyone sees each others true side which slowly changes Kazuichi and makes him less and less wiling to continue it. My points for that are mostly based on things from the game. He spends a lot of time with Hajime and pretending to be just a simp for Sonia is the easiest way to make him not look like a traitor for others. His friendship events are the only one that can be locked by him during chapter 3. And him being a mechanic in a place where our biggest enemies (manokuma and monobeasts) are robots can make him look suspicious. My las argument it that he hates violence (known from final event) so creating a game where nobody dies might be a interesting way to awake everyone's evil side without harming anyone.

I really liked the Togami family idea. Another cool idea, adding onto that, would be that all of the other students were ALSO competing for the heir to the Togami wealth and title. Byakuya did say this was usually done between half-siblings, but i think it would be cool to have some other outliers, both for romance purposes and just diversity in character backgrounds. A good explanation for WHY the Togami family would allow for non-Togami students to compete would be that, if there really is someone better and stronger and smarter than all of the other Togami heirs, of course they'd be eager to have this student join their bloodline, perhaps by marrying into it. (This could leave room for TWO winners instead of one being a possibility; the blood-related Togami, and the non-related student who will be married into the family with the Togami who wins). Maybe some of the non-Togami student competitors could be a 'random winner' of some contest or lottery for a chance at the title, or there could be 'plus ones' for every competitor (which would match up perfectly with the idea of marrying the two winners together), or anyone in line for the 'throne' including cousins, children, adoptees, etc just anyone blood-related or legally related to the Togamis, OR it could even include rival families' kids. Another interesting thing to think about would be whether or not they would still have their memories erased. Doing so would level the playing field and keep some mystery for the plot & the TV viewers (and it would keep everyone in earnest so they wouldn't solely be motivated by pride and money, guaranteeing that they are really in it just for self- (or family)-preservation). However, it would be just as interesting to see everyone fully aware of what they were competing for, so the real cut-throat winner was the one who actually won (because the Togamis seem to want the survivor to be the most relentless and cold hearted winner, so either way this would work; if they DO erase their memories, they're motivated to win not for money but purely for survival of their own legacy/life, and if they DON'T erase their memories, they are winning as their true selves, despite the possible 'weakness' that comes from their memories- AKA empathy/compassion for their high school friends). It would also be interesting if they had still all gone to Hope's Peak, because then they'd all still be ultimates, (which would allow for a plot point where the 'plus ones' that I mentioned earlier would have to be from the school AND they'd have to be an ultimate). Another reason to include their history of Hope's Peak is that this 'competition' for the Togami empire could have been a secret that they were not aware of for all of their school careers and lives in general, and now they suddenly are being forced to compete with or kill all of their closest school companions for a title.

A surprise twist as the mastermind, wouldn’t that be interesting! I actually recently read an amazing fanfic made by TellThemNaegi on A03 called Layers. And they write an incredible antagonistic/evil Makoto, where he isn’t obsessed with Hope or even despair but rather making others happy no matter what, to the point where he actually hurts others. Really great fic and I’d really recommend it!

Makoto as the Mastermind would have been wild

Regarding Chihiro there is no debate, he is canonically written as a boy and should be referred to as such. Anything else is fanfiction, which is fine, but shouldn't be pushed as fact.

My AU for Mastermind Chihiro is that he wanted to be strong , so he's proving it , by showing his power in the game , like while the mastermind is revealed he's like ''Who's weak now?''

I know this is an unpopular opinion but I actually never quite cared for Mastermind! Kirigiri… mostly because although you warm up to her in the end, she’s extremely suspicious the whole game (saying she forgot her talent, disappearing and reappearing at random, throwing you under the bus in case 5 pt 1, being willing to leave her door open during a death game, etc etc.) and I think it would have disappointing if the stalwart girl who seemingly has it all together and keeps her cards close to her chest was the mastermind. It would be like if Komaeda were the true mastermind, the person is so very clearly suspicious, it’d be a little disappointing

I prefer Alter Ego as mastermind to Chihiro, at least with the motive given. If the other characters were his bullies, they'd probably be suspicious of him from the start.

About Chiiro as the mastermind, I feel like if his motivation was getting back at the students for their bullying, he would have killed them himself rather than force them to kill each other. Even then, he wouldn't have the resources to take over the school. However, Alter Ego could be an interesting mastermind. Imagine it is just an AI that is evil for some reason, and it uses the face of Chiiro to pretend to be Alter Ego. After all, Chiiro shouldn't have been able to write so much code in a single night, no matter how good he is at programming. And Monokuma should have confiscated the laptop if he saw him coding a virus. In any case, Alter Ego could work as a mastermind while giving false hopes to the students. If Chiiro didn't die in chapter 2, Alter Ego could have pretended to be something Fujisaki already created. Maybe Chiiro could be the chapter 5 victim when the AI kills him for suspecting him of being an impostor. In any case, this scenarios make Junko look like a bad mastermind AU. Out of them, I think Ishimaru is the most interesting. The others, except maybe Kirigiri, feel like pure shock value, no offense. edit: Oh, I just finished the video and realized my alter ego idea was kinda mentioned already.

Weeby one of the most interesting masterminds for Danganronpa 2 could've been Sonia! In my version with her as a Mastermind toying with the characters would be her speciality, as she is a manipulative person. Sonia with her innocent mind, actually is quite sinister. Sometimes making seemingly innocent remarks with a dark context. I think her character could be used in such a great way! Her persona is so caring, yet they could've made her manipulate Soda (which she did successfully), but then deciding to aim her targets on Gundham, Gundham would catch on. I think it could have a whole thing with a cold hearted individual with a pureheart as a disguise. It would've shocked the characters to the core. Her motives perhaps could be wanting to find a participant to take the role of a emperor/empress of death or despair. She could've been obsessed with it. Numerous times in the game she says dark things really casually, I just feel like it was a missed opportunity. Also everything could've been different about Gundham and Sonia's relationship, what if Sonia was trying to investigate some of the students personally, and the one who catched her eye was Gundham, but Gundham caught on to her act, please I just think they could've so many cool things with Sonia's character

Watching this video made me think. Yo know how it seems that everyone thinks Nagito is an older Naegi when they first start playing SDR2? What if that was actually true? I wonder how the game and story would change for him to end up like that and stuff, would give a really intresting video if well made too

I don't see why people are arguing Chihiro's gender identity, he wants to be a boy, that's why he got killed, he's born a male and wants to be one, stop trying the "pronouns" bs

Mastermind Makoto would be an infinitely superior execution of Nagito's concept than Nagito. The game would ruin and criticize its own concepts of hope at the *very first game* and by the hands of its poster child instead of by the hands of a fringe lunatic. If they were smart about it, it could have the potential to turn into a metacommentary on fiction and rooting for the protagonists like they tried in V3. Basically, they could pack three games into one. Though I think I personally prefer Mastermind Kyoko. It was a pretty major moment of THH when the Ultimate Detective *lied* to implicate *the Protagonist* and I think that concept has potential. Chapter 5 was a really weak trial, clearly intended to frame Kyoko. If Kyoko wanted to frame Makoto instead, that could have been one of the best trials in the series, in line with Danganronpa 2's Chapter 5.

Sonia being the mastermind in SDR2 would be so cool, when playing SDR2 I was dead set on Sonia being the mastermind tbh.

For Naegi I would have it be that he with his ultimate lucky students accidentally figures out junkos plan after the school was sealed and becomes her ally before just before the brain wipe modified the machine to only partly wipe his memories so that he can bring hope to everyone with his twisted goal of hope

Hagakure would be a perfect mastermind. A man who can predict every future bored of everything but despair.

With Chihiro, I honestly think "being seen as weak and sensitive" could be enough of a motive itself, you might not even have to make the other classmates worse, though it could add some social commentary about gender norms and even queerness if they explore that/you think that could add to Chihiro's character (though maybe don't make the only definite queer character a villain lol). Instead of continuing to be kind despite a cruel world, the toxic masculinity they face breaks them, and they simply try to outdo everyone, though in a tragic twist they could end up falling into their own patterns of toxic masculinity, just it now less being about men being physically strong and more about men being super smart and logical. But yeah, I really like these ideas, honestly I wish you tried to cover the whole class. :P The Taka and Kirigiri ones especially hit me, the former because I feel it would be an interesting and sympathetic motive, and the latter because I feel like despite being cold and ruthless there would still be a sadness to Kirigiri (TBH same with Sayaka, the both of them trying to fill voids in their hearts kinda gets me, also Kyoko's just my fave XD). Also weirdly into the idea of Taka's killing game basically being an over the top and overly violent proletarian revolution (guess he took a few too many ideas from the Bolsheviks :v).

Whenever I see Makoto, I can't help but think, 'Dang, he would've been such a cool mastermind if he wasn't such a great protagonist!'.

This might be a little weird but I would love to see a mastermind Celeste. I think her motivation for doing the killing game would be based off of a severe gambling addiction. Like a back story could be that as she gained more and more she became bored with low stakes, so in order to get her next high she would go for the highest stakes. So she wanted to see others make the ultimate wager along with her in the biggest wager someone can make, betting on their lives. I think it would make a very interesting story but that's just me.

I'd love to see Taka and Chihiro as the mastermind, I think I'm gonna read some fanfiction about that

I kinda think that chiaki would be a really amazing mastermind, since she seems so chill, and not someone who you would ever think would be a mastermind, and ik that she's technically an AI in SDR2 but still a cool idea. If not her then ibikui, since she seems like such an airhead so the others wouldn't really fully believe her at first, and with her death, since the monitors cut of right before and since it's a virtual game, ibuki could have hacked in a fake body to take her place, or implanted a code that lets her fake her death or something of the sort. (Also i adore chihiro and he's one of my top 3 favorites cause who doesn't love the "sunshine baby" turns into the evil killer trope)

My fav is straight up Hajime, I mean think about it, the player doesn't know but Hajime himself does, and the twist would be just 👌

One of the interesting things you can do with Chihiro/AE is to make it so that Chihiro participates "honestly," wiping his memory as well with all the others and letting Alter Ego handle all the organization. [Doubly so if this still results in Chihiro dying in chapter 2, so that by the end of the game there *is* no mastermind left alive.]

For Ishimaru to work as a mastermind, they'd have to change his ultimate ability. I know it's a translation, but "Ultimate Moral Compass" is not going to fall to despair or kill anyone.

i think one of the most interesting things about these AUs is what happens with Junko in them. Most of the time the fans just make her just the ultimate fashionista and get rid of her love of despair , but what if she was till despair crazed. What would Junko do in the killing game if someone sort of beat her to the punch or took over her plans of making a killing game? Would she try to kill someone, or would she just manipulate the others to do it for her.

When I first went through Danganronpa 2 I actually thought that Mikan was the mastermind because in her execution she isn't actually shown dead so I was convinced that she was just hiding away for the last chapter.

Dude I would love a video on sdr2 and ndrv3 Alternate Masterminds. I gotta say that my favorite Alternate Masterminds for both would be Nagito who is infected with the Remembrance disease from the beginning, because he's definitely obsessed enough with Junko and Hope to try to create another killing game where Hope wins out. Mastermind Shuichi would also be great, especially if it's in an AU where Kokichi, Kaede, and Kaito are some of the survivors, or at least live until the end, because he's the person that all of them put their faith in despite their vastly different personalities.

For SDR2, as cliche a choice as it may be, I always come back to Nagito. His motivation would be similar to what you said about Makoto, which ironically, you pulled from Nagito. See, it all comes back to Nagito. He would create the Neo World Program to train people to embody hope, by creating increasingly worse despairs. This would also explain his luck as being a fail safe by the Neo World to keep him from dying. This could also explain stuff like why Nekomaru gets killed, but then revived as a robot: to give them despair, then raising hope before plunging it into even deeper despair. I’d keep most of the stuff the same, apart from the final two chapters. The whole remnants of despair thing, Kamakura stuff, and AI Junko shtick would be a fake out, just to give them hope, before plummeting them into despair; rinse and repeat until they’re primed or combat any despair imaginable. I’d like to imagine this insane cycle would start out tame, like telling them everyones alive, but then that Chiaki’s an AI, but then that her real body is still alive (since the whole remnants of despair stuff never happened), but then that the worlds destroyed. It would eventually get so nonsensical and insane, like telling everyone they’re the last survivors on earth, or that they’re apart of a tv show (cuz that would NEVERRR happen), or that like, idk, crab people have enslaved humanity. I’d like to imagine a moment where Nagito is telling them to keep fighting with his twisted smiling sprite, as everyone’s in turmoil over the events of the game. I’d also like to imagine he’s done this before, many times in fact, with the other classes of Hopes Peak, showing everyone the corpses of all the “failed” experiments. It would end with them rejecting hope and despair, and could have an ambiguous ending where you wonder just how much of what Nagito said is true…..

Am I the only one who doesn’t get why people call Chihiro a girl? Like he dressed that way to stop being bullied. He never wanted to be seen as one, just wanted to stop the bullying. Even before he died he was planning on trying to become more masculine with Mondo. Can someone please explain to me why people call him a girl? I just don’t get it. Please and thank you

Honestly I’m surprised I don’t see more stories about a yandere Sayaka or Mukuro, they both fit the mold for a yandere. I mean Sayaka got really hung up on Makoto for 3 full years before she ever even spoke to him. And Mukuro…..poor girl had literally only 1 good thing in her life. And that is a memory of Makoto smiling at her, no fear or distrust an honest kind hearted smile.

I never really looked into or thought about Taka and Makoto as masterminds before and now I am questioning how I ever picked Chihiro in the poll over those two.

If you think about it, if someone other than junko was the mastermind, then would we actually know Mukuro Ikusaba in her true form and personality?

Considering the fact kirgiri was actually originally gonna be the mastermind in the original 2009/2008 beta and junko was gonna be the first victim based on the concept art we got but I wonder how the game would've turned out if kirgiri was actually the mastermind it's actually a really good twist to see someone you wouldn't think to be the mastermind.

As I mentioned during my reply on twitter, I've not looked into the Mastermind AU all that much,, However I think it's such an interesting concept that I've definitely got to look into sometime! Edit: corrected some typos

The emotional devastation of a Makoto mastermind reveal (assuming he has the same relationships with everyone) would be incredible. Especially with everyone's reactions. There's a Babooshka animatic by Cranappleradio that does a great job illustrating a concept of that final scene. Though it is unrepentant despair Makoto rather than delusional hope Makoto. Something about him being the normal one and slipping under the radar of everyone to the point of becoming pretty much everyone's closest friend only to have been the mastermind all along is just *chef kiss*.

For Makoto, I like the alternate universe called "Thanks for watching, everyone" where while in Hopes peak, Makoto dates Mukuro, and because Junko and Mukuro were tied at the hip, Junko saw the opportunity to turn Makoto into despair. She tortures Makoto into insanity, while Mukuro who was still who was still loyal to Junko, was unable to watch the torture, and somewhat cowardly left Makoto to Junko's mercy. After that, it continues like canon, until the killing game, where Makoto and Mukuro convince Junko to participate in the killing game instead of Mukuro, where Makoto uses the opportunity to kill Junko just like Mukuro in canon. There's more to it, but I highly recommend reading it. It's by Chamalier on AO3.

Imagine if the V3 mastermind ends up being Kiibo, and the twist being that he’s basically a human Monokuma. When he’s discovered by the other heroes, Kiibo does a 260 degree turn and his whole personality switches to that of a sadistic stereotypical game show host, utilizing game show slangs to complete his sentences like spamton

Even though it isn't my favorite AU I've seen Taka mastermind AUs and it sparked my ishimondo craving brain to think up another one of those AUs but in the 2nd trial everyone votes for Byakuya even though he isn't the killer despite his tampering. So Mondo survives and since Taka's the mastermind he also survives and yeh

From the mastermind Hiro comment at the beginning, it'd be really interesting if he was still the ultimate clairvoyant, but it allowed him to predict how people would act in the killing game, or even predict how people react to certain ideas so he could manipulate them into working for him. Maybe his 99% accuracy (obviously changed) gave him a great delusion of grandeur and he believed he was superior to all the other "ultimates" in his class. I think he should stay as a survivor and only get reveal when A. He predicts the game becoming boring or B. Makoto's luck overrides Hiro's talent and he is forced to be "average" and not rely on his powers to win

Makoto as the mastermind idea has always been one my favorites. Like the main character the one person not even the player would except the beacon of hope being the mastermind, of course if he was the mastermind I think they would have changed one important thing that making Junko just a normal student who actually participates in the game along with Mukuro. Sense Makoto would be the symbol of hope and despair in scenario or maybe more fittingly the symbol of equilibrium and here's my idea Makoto knew about alter ego as he got really close to Chihiro and when making the game he messed with alter ego making it work for him. Also sense Makoto is the mastermind he'd probably excuse accidentally killings just to make it fair but of course they'd have to prove killing was an accident, the reason I said that is because I was thinking Junko would accidentally kill Mukuro and that would be the twist of the whole chapter and then they'd be proven innocent. Then I was thinking that we'd switch Junko being the protagonist once Makoto goes to sleep which would have thrown everyone off and instead Makoto getting framed it's Junko and Makoto has alter ego save her. Then when Junko wakes up she hears Makoto fall down and they help her back up where Kirigiri would open the hatch at the top of the ladder stating their plan to find Junko was a success and of course the big reveal of Makoto and alter ego being the master mind would be a shock to them all and then the 2 ways I see it ending is well of course both ways Makoto realizes he failed at his mission, and then first ending is he sacrifices himself unlocking the door telling then to fix his mess and that he's sorry for everything. Then the other ending involves you having to spend a lot of time with Makoto during the final investigation which would activate the ending where Junko convinces him not to kill himself and instead come leave with them and fix the mess he made and bring the world the hope he wished to see. And all of this would circle to multiple other plot points like in this AU Junko didn't really like fashion and actually had a good relationship with Mukuro and even went to therapy a lot and you see in the accident killing case the others would discover that Mukuro was really the ultimate fashinista and Junko just pretend to be the ultimate fashinista as Mukuro was too shy and this all ties in to the cannon secret ending of this AU where it's revealed Junko's ultimate talent is that she's the ultimate empath and that along with the bond you formed with her during the game helps her convince Makoto to live. Or I have a better idea depending on who you had a bigger bond with it will effect the story so certain characters may not die etc... but Junko would have the most points and Kirigiri would have the second most points and Sayaka having the 3rd most kinda like a FF7 bond point system. I just wanted the bonds to be more relevant. Of course this would change multiple things of the ending I described would still be the cannon route just FF7 has clerith as the cannon route but you could like transfer you data to the other dangan games and follow a world based in whatever routes you took. (Side note mastermind Makoto is essentially a more sane Nagito dang autocorrect.)

man i was realy hoping leon would get a mention atleast but oh well i still think he would be a amazing mastermind i can see his motive being that he hates ultimates beceuse having a ultimate makes people imidiatly think they will persue that career as adults wich he hates beceuse of his dream of becoming a muzision and beceuse of the presuer people around them give him to become a baseballstar he snaps

I know I’m late but I think mukuro’s motive in an au is just for her sister. Basically switch who dies the why being because Junko would have a despair filled death. Mukuro’s reveal would be more sad than scared

Thank you so much for featuring my comments!! I really do love Mastermind Taka as a concept just because I feel like there's so much that you can do with him! Sometimes I feel like he could've been even more interesting than Junko depending on what direction you decide to steer him in!

I can only come up with these few as alternate mastermind that I would really like to see in dr2: Hiyoko, Mahiru, and Gundham.

Kiyotaka MM is my favorite. I would’ve LOVED to have seen a MM Taka

I know this video was back in November, but I actually have something for Kyoko's story that I could've mentioned earlier if I knew this was happening. (A lot of personal stuff was going on for me at the time.) I like how you interpreted Kyoko's Mastermind motives thus far, but I shoukd still have a Kyoko Mastermind AU story on the Danganronpa Amino for an Antagonist Challenge. Spoiler warnings in advance before moving on. Essentially, Kyoko despised her family for being born detectives and saw it as confinement. In her view, she was only allowed in her father's school because he left her with nothing else to turn to but her family work. The horrors that came with it slowly ate away at her, especially a particular "missing" persons case (those who read/translated Danganronpa Kirigiri know what I'm talking about), and wanted nothing more than to break her family bloodline. You could say she decided to take her skills she was "forced" to develop and make them useful to her wanting to become an Empress of Freedom. One inspiration to seeking "Freedom" was Sonia Nevermind, who's title of Ultimate Princess meant that she was defined by her title no matter where she went and was never to be treated as an ordinary girl, or as ordinary as her peers can be. My story does switch Monokuma and Monomi's roles, but the majority of DR1 remains the same until the reveal, except for a few major differences. 1.) It's Toko who retains her memories after she was knocked her out while Genocide Jack's memories were wiped, and she lies to everyone to ensure she doesn't arouse suspicion by faking her hatred towards all but Byakuya, and was hiding Jack so she doesn't kill anyone Toko was trying to protect. Kyoko doesn't realize this until Toko's true motives were revealed. (I don't go over this part in my posts, but Toko was able to communicate with Jack through a private journal. This plus Toko and Jack's emotional link helps calm Jack's killing tendencies down to the level shown in canon.) 2.) There is no Junko Enoshima all killing game, unless you count Mukuro's disguise. After the real Junko escapes from lockdown, Kyoko initially thought that Mukuro would be too dangerous and an obvious suspect in any killing game, but found out that Mukuro was also confined as a Soldier, having run away from home and endured the harsh training while she and her sister were never around each other during that. Mukuro longed to see her sister Junko again, even after the Tragedy. So Kyoko freed Mukuro from her sorrow and made her think she *was* Junko. (I actually just now expanded on this, and have Persona 5 Royal to thank for it.) But even after all that, since Junko was the answer Makoto and the others gave before the reveal, Kyoko wins and sends Makoto, Toko, Byakuya, Hina, and Hiro down to their execution: a deadly maze consisting of all the student's Ultimate Talents. There, the group of 5 have a chance at freedom and escaping the maze, or die within the confinement of their failure to stop the Empress of Freedom, Kyoko Kirigiri.

My favourite one from the video was actually the one about Togami. It would kind of parallel his self centred attitude, since he was technically the root of the killing game. Having the entire game be a test for him, and him failing it, would have been a great ending. I personally think that the final execution would be his, since the company no longer sees Togami as a worthy successor to it. I also would've loved to see the rest of the survivors just GO at the Togami Co. because it would've shown how much they've all grown to care for eachother. I also love the motive you gave Kiyotaka, as it makes genuine sense. It would also show how he's not entirely evil: he wants a world where everyone becomes good at something by working for it. Personally, that mindset would have been SO much better than just "oH i DiD iT fOr ThE sAkE oF dEsAiR~" motive. Same thing with Makoto!

chihiro mm au: what if everyone at hope's peak was transphobic 🤔🤔🤔

Not me just now realizing I was featured in your video, really living up to my name! Anyway, I’m so glad you talked about the MM aus!! They’re always so interesting! Not surprised Hiro didn’t make the cut, but I’m glad you went ahead and mentioned him!

I personally think that a clever alter mastermind au would be: Taka(dictactorship) Sonia(monarchy) Angie(religious cult) In other words, fire emblem 3 houses

No doubt, it would been interesting if Sonia was the mastermind of DR2, it just the way how she acts and how she so interested into killers and such just made me think of her secretly being the mastermind.

I’m a bit late, but my suggestion for a mastermind in the sequel video for DR2 Goodbye Despair if you make one is Sonia. In this scenario, Sonia orchestrated a way to recover her memories beforehand(perhaps triggering a memory through an object she has on her or a topic like the cult or sparkling justice) and throughout the game pretends to be naive about the situation. Then at the end she reveals herself to be the mastermind and was able to hack the virtual world thanks to her fellow remnants Izuru and Soda(Izuru being able to hack the system and Soda being able to create a computer to hack FF’s computer). Sonia took it upon herself to become the next mastermind to achieve her goal of becoming Junko’s heir(kinda like Monaca) of becoming the Queen of Despair. Though I can imagine she could be redeemed at the end thanks to Hajime and even Soda still believing in her that she can change(also it be cool to have a mastermind that doesn’t actually die at the end).

I love these AUs and this video does it justice

12:02 I can imagine the finale she walks into the trial room wearing a bloody rain coat as she forces Jin into the rocket as everyone is forced to watch

I honestly think that Mikan (SDR2) would be a good mastermind and have a very good motive for doing so It was said in her free time period that she was bullied to a harsh degree. The bullies get her hair, cut parts of her dress and even gave bruises or harsh injuries to her physical body and even abused by her family and even-- y'know, body abuse? Yeah??? Maybe it was like how she killed for affection from her "beloved" aka Junko but instead it was to show she was still able to do dirty work even as a weak person She killed Hiyoko and Ibuki (maybe switched) to show what she could do but of course it wasn't taken seriously as she didn't do much other then killing two people at once, but in the end she became the mastermind to show what was hiding under her pale and fragile appearance to show what she was actually capable of. I've seen many different AUs of Mikan becoming the mastermind to be given affection by Junko so she can be loved like she wanted, but to summarize my AU, I believe that because of her being harshly bullied by others, she believed that if she can show something more like killing a person or starting a killing game, she would be recognized as a equal if not more then the people who bullied her before. She would first be the killer of one of the chapters, most likely the same one as the official game but with a different motive, the same as why she's the mastermind but instead of killing Hiyoko to be loved, she killed Hiyoko after all she has done to her, calling her a fat pig, a slut and so on, she'd most likely kill her the same way in the game but probably more harshly. How does Ibuki come in the picture? I don't know. After she get's caught she'd react the same but with different dialog and her execution would start playing. When she appears again as the mastermind, she'd explain her motive and such to everyone, not caring since they're probably gonna die here anyways, her motive doesn't contain despair to her or anyone but to show what she's truly capable of but of course, mixing some despair because "Super Danganronpa 2 - Goodbye *Despair*" That's all that I think would happen since I don't have money for the actually game but I am I hardcore fan and watched a lot of people's reactions and gameplay so, why not? SDR2 is my favorite anyways

What if the neo world program was the mastermind, this would also mean that Chiaki and Usami are the masterminds as well. I think that what would happen is that when the remnants of despair get put in the program, something malfunctions and Chiaki and Usami's program messes up so Usami watches from the side while monokuma hosts the killing game. When the mastermind is revealed, Chiaki will appear and Usami replaces monokuma. Chiaki will explain everything Junko explained. I think this would make the group more ingulfed in despair to see that one of their trusted friends betrayed them. I imagine Chiaki will tell them "I find it hilarious that one of your closest friends lead your guy's peak of despair!"

Hmm a personal mastermind from me though?... Toko. But I guess you can say Toko AND Genocidal Jack! This could make Genocidal Jack more of an uncontrollable force for Toko, but it could make sense as a Mastermind. I think it would be interesting if Toko's guilt as genocidal Jack got to them and they hosted a sure fire way where SHE'LL DIE! The problem is that she has told basically all her friends-err classmates and the great Togami and they just decided to control her the best they can and not let her harm any cute boys again, even Togami seems interested in the idea of Toko being able to harm him with the some good security money can buy! Toko finds Jack takes over before she can do... Anything drastic, so she'll need someone else to do the part! She decides to begin planning out the idea of the killing game, but it was originally meant to just trap her friends in some abandoned mansion Kyoko knew about, but Jack... Made things a lot more interesting. Jack found her way into the school and started to cause some issues there, she managed to track down the rest of her classmates family, and somehow she acquired Junko's bear (hey if she isn't the mastermind, she likely still made Monokuma at some point) and Chihiro laptop and made a new creation! Things just got worst from there! Toko was unable to stop anything after every time she took control as she knew she would suffer a fate worst then death if she did. Least it was nice to plan the executions for her classmates and herself, as that got her frustration at the event out. The last thing she did was destroy the Togami Corporation, before passing out. Toko would then find herself in the locked down school with her classmates. The thing is, she wonders how she got here just like them!? Jack wiped her memory as well. She also hid everything about her existence in the library. Let's just say when it was time for the mastermind to reveal herself, Genocidal Jack said it was her and Toko. Jack did it because she wanted to be the best killer there was, and tells of how Toko wanted her classmates to kill her. Jack reveals that their final vote will be to either kill Toko or have everyone else get killed (if Togami is around, it is instead, watch her beloved Togami get killed)! She causes herself to sneeze and the Toko who knows little of this is left to watch as the survivors have no ideas what to do...

WEEBY YOU SHOULD MAKE THIS A SERIES HAHA 😍😍 (me when mastermind sonia and chiaki 😩)

Danganrompa 2 au Nagito komaeda finds danganrompa because of his luck and join as a servant then gets put on the island to not only give them motavation but to watch hajime/izuru his motive is that he becomes the villain to see hopes true potential on how to defeat true despair

I think Kyoko as the mastermind would be the most interesting since she is by far the smartest of the cast and it would have been interesting to see how the game would go. Especially if she played the same role that she does in the actual game up until the reveal