random rant, but do q-taro fans exist yet or is it just me šš ? i really like yttd but havenāt been active in fandom since 2019-2020-ish. i started liking him after 2-1 when he finally took the last poison dart for gin in alice lives route and the main game solidified my love for his character. but back in those days, mfs HATED him to death istg š
like, no matter how much character development or redemption he got, people (especially on tiktok) only harped on him wanting to vote on the kids/nao in chapter one. fair reason to dislike him, but as reko saidā¦manās just a realist.
i always felt like it was unrealistic that people didnāt vote the kids off earlier (not that i wanted that). side tangent, but i feel likeā in a way, keiji agreed with qtaro on that fact, but gets way less hate for it. despite being adamant about killing shin, he votes for kanna. i donāt know if he was moved by her desire to die for the betterment of the group and for both sara and shin or what his logic behind the vote was, but i could see it going two possible ways: either he casted the vote seeing losing kanna as a āpunishmentā for shin, or he just found her the least useful.
i thoroughly enjoyed q-taroās character despite his flaws though. he is not a morally great person, but most of the people in the higher percentiles of survival arenāt. sara, in many circumstances/simulatuons, was the most ruthless out of all of themā hence her survival rate. keiji is cunning and manipulative, even willing to let others die simply to take burdens off his moral conscious. q-taro ranks just below the two.
i feel like some of (not all) the best plot twists in the game relied on q-taro. the token bad ending, the 2-2 card trades, the card placement in chapter 1, the end of the banquet.
and this may be a hot take, but his death was one of the most shattering to me. as soon as he had begun to trust his allies, let his guard down, and shed off some of that willingness to betray and sacrifice others⦠he was betrayed. and he couldnāt even find it in his heart to resent the person who stabbed him in the back.
and in the end, the man who was willing to sacrifice others willingly let himself be burned alive to save his allies. i think heās one of the best characters in terms of development.
also, even his ai feeling he would be willing to die for gin :((
speaking of, gin, nao, and kanna really went through so much as the most vulnerable of the group. the shit those three have went through woulda turned any other character into a villian bro.
yttd voice headcannons ^@^
most headcannons have nothing to do with personality between the two characters. ESPECIALLY IN KAIāS CASE!! (im so sorry)
for sara, i really like the naturally calm inflection. sheās way too put together in almost every situation, but the scream really sold me on this voice. it has a truly anguished sound while also still fitting to an adolescent character. if i saw one more kaede akamatsu headcannon, i would flip. usually when i see voice claims, theyāre all danganronpa voices, and i really just wanna leave comparing the two back in 2020.
joe, i donāt believe would say any of those things, but i really like the voice given because it truly does sound adolescent.
iāve always imagined shin with more of a naturally monotone voice, rather than the bryce papenbrook nagito laugh i see most people use. i feel like its good for his snarky lines. i feel like people forget that heās not some evil mastermind. heās literally just some 20 year old.
kannaās voice feels sweet mixed with timid, to me. i also really liked the ātrue loveā line for her. she fantasizes about romance often, so she was one of the few that i felt the lines spoken also lined up with her character.
reko reminds me a lot of ymir. theyād probably get along really wellā or despise one another. thatās just how similar personalities go.
i also wanted to give nao a really youthful voice. i thought the voice cracks were fitting. (maybe im just projecting because i still had voice cracks at 19)
keiji and reiner are literally the same archetype to me, i dunno. jaded, traumatized, depressed, buff, blondes.
alice and kenpatchi have literally nothing in common, but ive always liked to imagine him with an extremely gravelly voice because it makes the fact that he has an effeminate scream funnier to me.
gin and tony tony chopper just have the same energy to me. i considered alphones elric as well, but i didnāt like the whole⦠empty armor echoā¦
ranmaru just seems generally awkward to me. heās slightly younger than sara in cannon, so i gave him a voice that sounded younger.
ranger⦠i canāt explain why⦠but i just KNOW jerma would have the perfect voice for him if he ever played yttd. jerma has a knack for that.
miley feels self explanatory to me. just felt right š¤·āāļø
midori, iāve always felt has an uncanny vibe from the robotic experimentation done on his body. the dummies/dolls are all meant to replicate humanity, but midori seems like the kind of person that wants to STRAY from his humanity, so i feel he would intentionally make himself more and more like a machine.
the voice itself is kinda whatever, but i really like that robotic/uncanny effect to it.
okay, JUST HEAR ME OUT ON KAI. heās NOTHING like shou tucker, but he had such an unsettling vibe in chapter one that i canāt think of any other voice for him. i feel like it would perfectly mesh with the general mysterious vibe of both the chapter he was featured in, and his characterization as a possible stalker at the time.
imagining yttd characters with a partner pokemon and the image in my head is too cutee.
shin with an espeon because he canonically likes cats. he probably wanted an umbreon to match the cat plush in souās room but eevee followed him to work on a day shift and evolved, but he loves his partner anyways :)
sara with umbreon because she wanted a black cat in the manga. the type matchups make sense to me with shin having the weaker matchup.
gin with a growlithe and q-taro with an arcanine would be so cuteee. theyāre father and son to me idc š
joe with a rockruff omlll. his uniform would always be a little roughed up because he can never resist playing with his partner!!
a zorua would go so well with rekoās color scheme aaaaa. maybe having it use rain dance during live venues to preform with her!!
nao with an altaria because the artbook said she likes fluffy thingss. i could totally see her napping with an altaria. little bit angsty here, but maybe a mishimaās smergle she raises after his death
alice with a zebstrika or furret because he likes striped things. i like to imagine his pokemon would occasionally bicker with rekoās zorua, but get their ass beat every time š
kai would have a ghost time to freak the yabusames out like he did in ytts. maybe a sableye or a yamask, but i feel like he would look so cunty with a froslass!!
i have no reason for this one but keiji with a gible makes sense in my head. idk⦠i can just see him doing his best to calm down a rambunctious gible thatās chasing the other participants around.
anzu with a blacephalon because its clownlike and not as off-putting as mr mime. i donāt like mr. mime, and i also feel like itād be an uncreative cop-out to give her.
kuramada with a primape or hitmonlee that he spars with from time to time. they have specially tailored boxing gloves :ā)
mai with a fidough. no explanation needed. your honor, they have matching bread hats!! she lets her partner help in the kitchen and just prays the fda doesnāt swing by.
i imagine kanna with a sweets themed pokemon bc of her pudding bucket in ytts. maybe a milcery or alcremie. i imagine shinās espeon has a timid nature and she has to let it slowly warm up to her and her partner pokemon.
i feel like hinako would have a giant terrifying ass pokemon, slightly due to the fact that sheās intimidating and mysterious herself. mostly due to the fact that i think it would be really funny for the shortest character to have a giant scary pokemon lurking behind them.
ranmaru is kinda gloomy, so i feel like he would empathize well with a mimikyu and they would bond in no time. his partner is terrified of saraās umbreon and every time he tries to approach her, mimikyu panics and he gives up. poor guy :(
hayasaka with a really mischievous rotom that he cannot control is a really cute image in my head, so iām giving him that
also, following this up but way darkerā i was talking w my bf and we realized somehow all 3 of them got groomed in some way. lord, help this mess of a family.
spoilers under the cut: trigger warnings for subjects like abuse, and grooming (the action of attempting to form a relationship with a child or young person, with the intention of sexually assaulting them or inducing them to commit an illegal act such as selling drugs or joining a terrorist organization.)
kanna reveals that kugie was being romanced by a āmature/adultā woman in the original japanese version of your time to shine. sara is still called āunderageā by mishima when keiji thinks about drinking with her, so i assume the simulation takes place with everyone at their same ages as in the death game.
shin was groomed by sou, whether you see their relationship as romantic or not. i personally see it with slight āromanticā undertones due to the excess of photos of shin being placed around souās house (possibly one sided as shin, at his most affectionate points with sou, states he viewed him as a sibling or an anti-hero) but either way⦠it was definitely abusive. shinās ai reveals that sou was not even a student at his school, just a random grown ass man attending.
(side tangent and personal head cannon : i wonder how much coke sou was snorting to be able to balance high school, being a āpsychologistā, āprison guardā, cashier at the ice cream shop, shinās āfriendā, a ānurseā, meeting with the yabusames, working for asunaro⦠like, half of their funding probably goes to his booger sugar because no way youāre doing all that without speed.)
but back to the main point, he specifically picked an emotionally vulnerable teenage boy with no friends, making it easy to groom him with the intention of forcing him into the death game. shin was very uncomfortable throughout the time they shared. during the lantern scene he says they spoke between computer monitors when at his house due to how uncomfortable he felt with him, and became even more disturbed upon seeing sou peek from between them.
when clicking photos of him he claims sara is āmaking him remember the bad partsā. he shows the most disdain in the chapter when upon inserting the fake id card into the control room several smiling photos of him appear.
i believe one of the most heartbreaking things shin has said is when confesses relief at the souās death despite the loneliness of losing his only friend.
i really hate the romanticization of their relationship. itās sad seeing a complex character have clear grooming overlooked by gooner-fans (chainsaw man fandom is rlly bad with this as well) and the āi love toxic yaoiā crowd. shin is a victim who deserved much better. he was, at best, a kid who was groomed into joining a death game due to the trust he put into his first āfriendā. at worst, thereās a possibility he was groomed romantically or sexually as well.
i do like their relationship. i find it incredibly interesting from a psychological perspectiveā but the romanticization of it genuinely takes away from a well-written character.
upon taking souās name, shin also took upon himself the manās personality. believing that a psychotic, sadistic, and morally dubious demeanor would save him. but upon doing soā he continued the cycle of violence (fortunately ending it out of genuine love for his victim in chapter 2.) he latched onto the weakest of the group, manipulating kanna to his will with the sacrifice card.
i frequently wonder if he did this because he saw some of himself in kanna. that same timid highschool boy that was manipulated by sou hiyori, the man he has ābecomeā.
regardless of his later intentions and affection, he originally sought to groom her into becoming someone he could use, bend to his will, make part of his plans.
but in chapter two, he broke the cycle. he found himself becoming affectionate towards kannaā and her self-sacrifice distressed him to the point that he was willing to die for her.
thatās one of the reasons i find his name reveal so perfectā we learn of shin tsukimi when we first see that true side of himself that he tried to ākillā. sou hiyori would never care for another human being the way shin tsukimi does. sou hioyri would never feel empathy for his playthings and feared death until the end, while shin tsukimi died at peace giving himself up for kanna.
tragically ā even if kanna had been the sacrifice, he was prepared to die. he knew she would choose sara to live alongside her as her surrogate sister.
shin tsukimi broke the cycle, and i find it so tragically beautiful.
favorite thing about kugie + greenblings is somehowā despite the biological siblings being separated and kugie not even being related to them⦠all three of them ended up gay.
shin and kugie are pretty self explanatory, but kanna gives me gay vibes as well. (this is NOT shipping in any way, just general observation) her blushing sprite is only used when sara says she smells nice in 2-2, if i remember correctly. and i donāt even know what to say about the hot springs scene⦠sheās visually checking her out and nobody knows wtf happens when the screen goes black. kanna in the hot tub cutscene photo always reminds me so much of the feeling of changing in locker rooms in middle school when you first start to question your sexualityā poor girl. also, either intentionally or unintentionally grabbing rekoās ass in the emotion route š
like, its not due to influence between them as kanna only recently found out about kugieās girlfriend pre-death game and neither of them knew shin. itās not genetics, since kanna and shin arenāt directly related to kugie.
just genuinely blows my mind how ALL OF THEM ended up gay.
ā¦honestly, that could be said for most of the cast though
little known yttd fact:
shin tsukimiās āfinal presentā to sara is very misleading. most believe his āgiftā to her was the joe ai⦠but that just happened to be there, tbh. in reality, he just passed down his fuckass posture. the minute she made contact with his lifeless body, the curse transferred to a new bearer, as seen when sheās speaking to the ai!
made the first meme and then my bf said that it should be joe instead of shin. original:
he's been on twitter for less than 24 hours and he's already been blocked by a yttd fan account because he threatened to hunt soushin shippers for sport lmfaoo š
saw these images back to back on my feed and immediately thought, āhow can i make this about naosara?ā as i usually do. i š«¶ toxic yuri :)
thinking about the time i made my bf play yttd a few months back
he voted shin EVERY TRIAL. he was trying to kill him from the trial ātestā run, all the way up to 2-2. outta nowhere, after clowning shin the ENTIRE trial, he voted kanna. i was really confused and i asked why. i figured maybe he sympathized with his character more after the trial or genuinely believed choosing logic route was betterā but i was SO FAR OFF. he just shrugs and said,
āheās my opp. if my opp dies, i have to open opplications.ā