That reminds me of some V3 fanart I saw on tumblr where at least 4 characters are arguing, each claiming they are the mastermind while Kokichi laughs in a corner.
Makoto: I AM THE MASTERMIND! Taka: no i am? Sayaka: i am! Sakura: why is everyone the mastermind? Yasuhiro: i think we all are the masterminds and we all have our own plans? Leon: oh
So I found the piece, tried to link it but don't think that worked properly. The Tumblr artist is onebizarrekai, though the piece is over a month old now so you have to dive a little deep to find it, though it is fairly high up in the mastermind AU tag currently. If this and the original comment managed to pass though, this is going to look silly.
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?”
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
@@allknighter5791 I'd love that honestly. Imagine the main character was the mastermind the whole time but due to erasing his own memories he didn't even realise it! I love that angst!
@@PaintSplashProductions I mean the second he had the flashback or internal monologue talking about how they need to stay there that’s exactly what I thought
Also another thing to think about…Monokuma in one of his theater segments from the first game talks about how his life “is just another copy paste of someone else.” Makoto is the only one who, not only talks about how ordinary he is, but references it time and time again throughout the entire game.
@@eric7798 I didn't say he was like nagito, I just said his ideals seem 0retty important. That's what I meant by nagito-like, because they relate to talent
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
I'd love to see something like this happen, just a bunch of Togamis fighting over who's the best while pushing up their glasses in a anime know-it-all fashion.
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
For real man. At the same time though, I don’t want that because it’s Makoto man. 😭 I do wonder how that would’ve gone if he picked him to be the mastermind tbh. 👀
@@acyannamedkitkat7188 Eh...kinda but not really. For one, Izuru and Hajime are different people. For another, Hajime didn't know it was him. When I say "the protagonist is the mastermind" I mean they know they are, and their inner dialougue is cleverly crafted so that it's hard for the player to figure that out.
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.
Plus it could give him a chapter 1-3 Celeste moment of "well if they'd abided by my suggested nightime rule, they wouldn't have died :D" Edit: and his design literally looks like human Monokuma
@@Marigold11037 I would imagine that's when we would start getting suspicious of him? Since that would be OOC for normal Ishimaru and I would imagine this one would act the same through the game lol.
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 thought she was the mastermind for a second when the game said she had a twin. I thought tsumgi was going to be revealed as kaede or kaede's twin. Weird how the game would mention that fact and do nothing with it. I was disappointed when I saw junko lol. It was surprising in d2 imo but d3? I.just yawned. Quite a boring end tor such an intriguing game. I wish Makoto was the mastermind for d1 too. It would've made it so much more interesting. It was surprising to find out junko, the first one to die, was the mastermind but i think finding out Makoto was the mastermind would be more impactful.
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 :(
Ill admit i had the same idea, given how he seemed to be involved in every trial pretty majorly (ch1- crystal ball used) (ch3- used by hifumi and celeste to set him up) (ch4- was the first to hurt sakura) Wouldve been such a great twist
Honestly… yeah that would’ve been brilliant. But now as I’m looking back at Danganronpa, I realize that Kodaka had the most fun writing Trigger Happy Havoc. Of course he probably had fun writing Goodbye Despair and Killing Harmony (or at least I hope he had fun writing killing harmony because it took like 1.5 years to write). But I think with the lower expectations, he can have characters that are less polished. Sure there were funny scenes in the other series but bruh, he seemed to have so much fun messing with Toko and Hagakure 😂. I do appreciate the growth and added character to Toko’s character but he’s literally like “let’s explode this character but her murderous alter ego makes her invincible”. Or “let’s talk about that one time I hallucinated after eating a cheeseburger” 😃🤭 those moments were a little annoying when I first went through them but now I’m like “BWAHAHA GIMME MORE”
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.
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.
Leon is interesting, I have heard of the others (well, except Gundham and Imposter but I can see reasons why, Gundham's personality/color scheme and Imposter maybe just loathing how some people are just born lucky and talented while they literally have nothing) but not him, not even any writing of how he would work. I guess because he didn't like his talent, so maybe a mastermind version would bloat that trait into hating talent in general (like 2.5 Nagito) and so wanted to wipe it from the world and show even those talented are heavily flawed and possibly overreliant on their talent (or the average person relying too much on the talented to survive). Typing that out, I just realized why I probably guessed that, because that is the primary motive of my mastermind in a big (as in all 3 main games) class swap AU thing I have wrote to myself for fun.
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.
There’s a one-shot DRV3 fanfic where Shuichi is the Mastermind, and he has has this attitude. It’s called Open Your Eyes to this Twisted Play of Lies, and it’s on Archive of Our Own.
I’m making a fangan with this idea. The mastermind’s ideology being “the world is so evil and corrupt that it would be better if everyone died” slowly gets a weaker and weaker argument for what they are doing throughout the game and decides to execute themselves.
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.
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 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.
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'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.
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 is what I wish could’ve happened as I love the idea of Sonia being the mastermind. Man not going to lie, Sonia would’ve been a way cooler successor to Junko. I mean Monaca great, but I imagine Sonia being the Ultimate Princess wanted to take Junko’s title of the despair queen for herself and continue as her heir(also it could’ve cause a trend of masterminds being blonde and I can see many people thinking Miu would’ve been the mastermind in V3 because of that).
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. 🤷🏻♀️
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.
Same here. I love this type of AU with him but at the same time, it kinda hurts to read?? Like I contemplate if I actually like it or not 😭 I do love these fics though. Even if I have to take a break from reading it lol. But it does make you think about the what if’s.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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 ^^'
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.
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?''
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
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!
@@shadesteel9247 of course! I’ve read pretty much all of TellThemNaegi’s fics. They’re all so good! I’ve read Riposa in Pace, and can’t wait for the next chapter!
That fanfic is really good tbh. Though I’m gonna be honest, that one messed me up 😭 it’s such a roller coaster that i was wondering if I was going insane throughout the fic lol. Made me glad for our current Makoto 😂
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.
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
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?
Yeah I don't get it ether. His story is about how gender norms and bullying are terrible things, and wanting to improve yourself and be yourself are good things. Chihiro was a guy who didn't fit overly strict gender norms. Because of this he was bullied to an extreme degree. It got so bad he thought cross-dressing to pass off as a girl was better than face continued harassment. This still was an unsatisfactory situation for him, so when push came to shove, he resolved to improve himself so he could show his true self. He started as a he and then died wanting to be a he.
@@TonyRedgrave exactly, its just the eastern fandom thinks all the world spins around them, and self proyected, when Chihiro was never representing trans comm (he was representing Cross dresser which is a super famous thing in japan) and the reason why he cross dressed
Sadly when characters like Chihiro come around everyone desperately wants to see LGBT representation and completely misrepresents the character. Look at Kanji from Persona 4. To this day people insist he's gay (spoilers for Persona 4 incoming) where his story is about liking feminine things and people acting like he's less of a man for it.
@@AgentZ46 wait, i though people thought he was gay (or more like bi) because he had attraction to naoto but was conflicted because he (kanji) though naoto was a guy.
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.
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)
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*.
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.
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.
Since I haven't seen any comments talking about this one, I wanted to mention MM!Mondo because it's my guilty pleasure alt. mastermind au. Obviously some characters make a lot more sense for the role of mastermind, but at the same time that just makes it better because you wouldn't expect it as much. Mondo arguably could've had a chance at winning his trial if he didn't mention the color of the tracksuit, so that could've been a "way out" for him. And imagine Daiya's death caused Mondo despair to the point where he wanted everyone to feel the despair he felt and take his anger out on the world. I dunno, I just thought it was a fun one to consider because I've seen basically every other character mentioned in the comments and wanted to give Mondo his moment
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.
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
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.]
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.
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.)
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 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.
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.
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
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
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!
Second thing, in my first playthrough of the first game a part of me also suspected Hagakure to be the mastermind. My main reason was that I thought that his goofy nature was a facade and I was surprised he was still alive.
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.
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.
I think an interesting addition to your idea for the Chihiro mastermind AU would be that most of the characters weren't actively antagonistic to them but didn't intervene to stop the bullying they went through. This doesn't change the characters' personalities drastically, just makes them bystanders to the bullying that other people put them through. Like Chihiro's bullies could have been other members of Mondo's gang or his friends and Mondo, despite being the gang's leader, did nothing to stop them from bullying Chihiro so they put Mondo in the killing game.
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!
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.
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…..
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).
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
Mastermind Taka would be cool except for his choice of "geniuses" to play the killing game, especially considering the selection of Ultimates to choose from throughout the series. For example, why would he consider the Ultimate Gang Leader or Ultimate Swimmer to be geniuses over, say, Ultimate Mechanic or Ultimate Musician. However, the motive seems pretty solid, and the political connections through his family do make it possible to throw the whole world into chaos behind the scenes. Conversely, Mastermind Chihiro's motivation could easily be that, while trying to find a place to fit like most teenagers, he was bullied relentlessly by every group for his soft, frail body and geeky computer intellect. Being thrust into the pits of despair, he only found solace and acceptance by retreating into presenting as a meek, helpless female. Finding it unfair to be unable to live how he wanted, not just for him but for everyone like him, Chihiro decided to put to work his superior skills to exact revenge by forcing the "Alphas" of every group into a game of deception and murder, while the whole world feels the same helpless despair he felt by watching these presumably well-known celebrities turn on each other. Also, digging up dirt and money for the motives would prove to be easy enough for someone with top tier hacking skills like Chihiro Fujisaki, Ultimate Programmer. But I think the obvious choices for alternate masterminds are definitely Naegi and Kirigiri.
I would love a Sonia mastermind tbh. She's one of the beacons of hope on V2, being one of the most positive characters, her kinda naive persona could work well for the reveal and the fact that she's a princess with huge influence would make it easy for her to gain sponsors and even force some desperate students to participate
Hiro being the mastermind perfectly fits. also when monokuma stops functioning during chapter 3 , it explains perfectly that this happened due to hiro being locked up. I honestly thought it was hiro
I once saw a fanart of mastermind chihiro saying ' Wait you actually thought alter ego was helping you?! ' And that just made chills run up and down my spine
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 think that if fuyuhiko was the mastermind, it would be a god-like subversion of his character. kinda like how everyone trusted mikan when we first played the game. we saw mikan, and how innocent she seemed, then she murders someone and it's like damn, we were so stupid for trusting her. maybe it would've been like that where its like, "wow, you actually trusted the ultimate gangster to be a nice person?" another thing would be peko's death, what if it was a mukuro type thing where fuyuhiko had no intentions of getting peko through the class trial so he could feel despair, and that's the reason why he ran into her execution, so he could deliberately get injured for the despair. there's a lot you could do with this, like when did he fall into despair? it could've been when his sister died. but I think that it could tie in with his backstory, where he feels like he's not "tough enough" so he uses despair to feel like a gangster.
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
I could see a scenario of Byakuya setting up the killing game to find someone to serve as his right hand by eliminating the Ultimates until only one is left standing.
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
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.
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
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 think one of the most interesting parts of mastermind AUs could be Junko and Mukuro playing an active role in the killing game, instead of dying immediately and being a surprise pop-up out of nowhere
Hiro woud be the best master mind,wen monokuma is acting it woud be interesting that he was pre programmed to do that,and since the mastermind can see the future he woud make like he is acting in real time but is just him knowing what the other students were going to do/say with clarivoiance(idk how to write that)
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!
Makoto and Hajime being the masterminds would be a cool twist since both of them were the ultimate hope. The students in the game also trusted them and it would be some despairful moment when they found out.
Before I got into Danganronpa I actually thought Monokuma was behind everything because he was some silly billy entity like Korosensei. Now I am Junking 24/7 I love Junko Enoshima
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.
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
For Mastermind Ishimaru, you put the nail on the head because it fits perfectly. Another addition to that though could be that by participating in the killing game, Ishimaru pretending to like the others could naw away at him until it's noticeable in Chapter 4. Like he would start stuttering and Makoto would make thought remarks only seen by the player about how Ishimaru seems pissed off by something. This could last until Chapter 6 during the trial to find the mastermind that his pent-up hatred explodes in everyone's faces how much he loathes them. He could say out of character things because of how pissed he was. This could be an interesting way to reveal Mastermaru.
Imagine an AU were all the characters were the mastermind but weren’t aware of each other’s plan 😂
That reminds me of some V3 fanart I saw on tumblr where at least 4 characters are arguing, each claiming they are the mastermind while Kokichi laughs in a corner.
Lolol the chaos that would bring
Makoto: I AM THE MASTERMIND!
Taka: no i am?
Sayaka: i am!
Sakura: why is everyone the mastermind?
Yasuhiro: i think we all are the masterminds and we all have our own plans?
Leon: oh
So I found the piece, tried to link it but don't think that worked properly. The Tumblr artist is onebizarrekai, though the piece is over a month old now so you have to dive a little deep to find it, though it is fairly high up in the mastermind AU tag currently.
If this and the original comment managed to pass though, this is going to look silly.
Fanfic writers, to your keyboards!!!
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?”
Heh
This is beautiful
where are the replies.
That last part killed me
"Really NOODLEMANCY? The worst of the mancies?"
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
And komeaeda is his number one fanboy
Ironically enough I thought Makoto was the true mastermind
@@allknighter5791 I'd love that honestly. Imagine the main character was the mastermind the whole time but due to erasing his own memories he didn't even realise it! I love that angst!
@@PaintSplashProductions I mean the second he had the flashback or internal monologue talking about how they need to stay there that’s exactly what I thought
Also another thing to think about…Monokuma in one of his theater segments from the first game talks about how his life “is just another copy paste of someone else.” Makoto is the only one who, not only talks about how ordinary he is, but references it time and time again throughout the entire game.
Out of all the characters, taka is probably the most underutilized. He quite literally has nagito-like ideals that the game BARELY covers
nope he doesn't. He wants rules to be followed, it's quite different from the hope boner Nagito constantly has.
@@eric7798 I didn't say he was like nagito, I just said his ideals seem 0retty important. That's what I meant by nagito-like, because they relate to talent
@@Wince_Media His views on talent are pretty much opposite of Nagito's, I'm guessing that's what you meant.
@@iceprism367 yeah
Except Taka is not obsessed with Hope to the point of preparing a murder solely for that reason.
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
Doesn’t togami basically imply something like that happened already tho
I'd love to see something like this happen, just a bunch of Togamis fighting over who's the best while pushing up their glasses in a anime know-it-all fashion.
@@1234tntom1234 It would probably be more of a killing game where no one is your ally except for alliances.
LMFAOOOO THE TITLE MADE ME WHEEZE
Ok but what if they’re all masked and if you take the mask off you die, so they don’t really know that
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
For real man. At the same time though, I don’t want that because it’s Makoto man. 😭
I do wonder how that would’ve gone if he picked him to be the mastermind tbh. 👀
Isn't that the twist in d2?
Protag Hajime is actually the villan izuru kamakura
@@acyannamedkitkat7188 Eh...kinda but not really. For one, Izuru and Hajime are different people. For another, Hajime didn't know it was him. When I say "the protagonist is the mastermind" I mean they know they are, and their inner dialougue is cleverly crafted so that it's hard for the player to figure that out.
@@carrotsshirley5792 oh I see
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.
He also has a pretty good motive considering his backstory and his hatred of geniuses
I mean, given how monokuma is also hyper rule focused (more or less) it would also still make sense with Ishimaru behind the helm,
Plus it could give him a chapter 1-3 Celeste moment of "well if they'd abided by my suggested nightime rule, they wouldn't have died :D"
Edit: and his design literally looks like human Monokuma
@@Marigold11037 I would imagine that's when we would start getting suspicious of him? Since that would be OOC for normal Ishimaru and I would imagine this one would act the same through the game lol.
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.
Oh, god.
Poor Shuichi.
It would be interesting. But, I would feel heartbroken for Shuichi.
I can already imagine how Shuichi would react, Poor Shuichi
I thought she was the mastermind for a second when the game said she had a twin. I thought tsumgi was going to be revealed as kaede or kaede's twin. Weird how the game would mention that fact and do nothing with it. I was disappointed when I saw junko lol. It was surprising in d2 imo but d3? I.just yawned. Quite a boring end tor such an intriguing game.
I wish Makoto was the mastermind for d1 too. It would've made it so much more interesting. It was surprising to find out junko, the first one to die, was the mastermind but i think finding out Makoto was the mastermind would be more impactful.
Plus kaede and Makoto look badass as the masterminds lol.
No no no, shuichi is best boy, no do that to sushi. Good idea but not good. Sushi is good bou.
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 :(
Ill admit i had the same idea, given how he seemed to be involved in every trial pretty majorly
(ch1- crystal ball used)
(ch3- used by hifumi and celeste to set him up)
(ch4- was the first to hurt sakura)
Wouldve been such a great twist
Hiro is basically Tsumugi in V3, but actually plainly plain
Honestly… yeah that would’ve been brilliant.
But now as I’m looking back at Danganronpa, I realize that Kodaka had the most fun writing Trigger Happy Havoc. Of course he probably had fun writing Goodbye Despair and Killing Harmony (or at least I hope he had fun writing killing harmony because it took like 1.5 years to write). But I think with the lower expectations, he can have characters that are less polished. Sure there were funny scenes in the other series but bruh, he seemed to have so much fun messing with Toko and Hagakure 😂. I do appreciate the growth and added character to Toko’s character but he’s literally like “let’s explode this character but her murderous alter ego makes her invincible”. Or “let’s talk about that one time I hallucinated after eating a cheeseburger” 😃🤭 those moments were a little annoying when I first went through them but now I’m like “BWAHAHA GIMME MORE”
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.
Makoto I feel could make maybe for a better story with all 16 students.
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.
Leon is interesting, I have heard of the others (well, except Gundham and Imposter but I can see reasons why, Gundham's personality/color scheme and Imposter maybe just loathing how some people are just born lucky and talented while they literally have nothing) but not him, not even any writing of how he would work.
I guess because he didn't like his talent, so maybe a mastermind version would bloat that trait into hating talent in general (like 2.5 Nagito) and so wanted to wipe it from the world and show even those talented are heavily flawed and possibly overreliant on their talent (or the average person relying too much on the talented to survive).
Typing that out, I just realized why I probably guessed that, because that is the primary motive of my mastermind in a big (as in all 3 main games) class swap AU thing I have wrote to myself for fun.
It's fun to imagine?
Fun🥵
@@DanDCool Well, this isn't the aspect of Dangan that puts quite that expression on my face. That'd be more along the lines of Alter Ego Junko.
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.
There’s a one-shot DRV3 fanfic where Shuichi is the Mastermind, and he has has this attitude. It’s called Open Your Eyes to this Twisted Play of Lies, and it’s on Archive of Our Own.
I've actually been thinking about a mastermind like that for my weird fanganronpa, I'm not even lying there-
I’m making a fangan with this idea. The mastermind’s ideology being “the world is so evil and corrupt that it would be better if everyone died” slowly gets a weaker and weaker argument for what they are doing throughout the game and decides to execute themselves.
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?
Well well well, *Looks like we’re both addicted to the drug that is Mastermind Kazuichi*
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.
Also pregame Shuichi wanted to be a blackened even coming up with a possible execution
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.
That’s…. Actually low-key a very interesting role swap.
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.
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'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.
"You're just repeating my own words back at me. Bo-ring."
Damnnnnn
I think my fav mastermind AU has to be Mastermind Ishimaru
He was the TRUE Mastermind of Danganronpa 3. Who else would make "no running in the halls" a Forbidden Action?
Velma is a danganronpa fan confirmation
@@acreforrest yesss
VELMA WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON A DANGANRONPA VID HELP
Same
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
Swear I thought thats where her character was going. She was way too important to just be there for sexytime jokes, so much missed potential 😔
This is what I wish could’ve happened as I love the idea of Sonia being the mastermind. Man not going to lie, Sonia would’ve been a way cooler successor to Junko. I mean Monaca great, but I imagine Sonia being the Ultimate Princess wanted to take Junko’s title of the despair queen for herself and continue as her heir(also it could’ve cause a trend of masterminds being blonde and I can see many people thinking Miu would’ve been the mastermind in V3 because of that).
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. 🤷🏻♀️
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.
Same here. I love this type of AU with him but at the same time, it kinda hurts to read?? Like I contemplate if I actually like it or not 😭
I do love these fics though. Even if I have to take a break from reading it lol. But it does make you think about the what if’s.
I would like to think that if Chihiro was the mastermind in the first game, Chiaki should be the mastermind in DR2.
yea
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.
I.love.this
Oml, yesssss
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
His clothes are white his hair is black his eyes are red the pieces are all there
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
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.
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.
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.
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 ^^'
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.
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.
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?''
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
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!
Omg I love TellThemNaegi! Have you read Riposa in Pace?
@@shadesteel9247 of course! I’ve read pretty much all of TellThemNaegi’s fics. They’re all so good!
I’ve read Riposa in Pace, and can’t wait for the next chapter!
That fanfic is really good tbh. Though I’m gonna be honest, that one messed me up 😭 it’s such a roller coaster that i was wondering if I was going insane throughout the fic lol. Made me glad for our current Makoto 😂
@@soomi5667 It really was a rollercoaster, but I can't lie to myself that I didn't enjoy it! I wish there was another installment after the epilogue!
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
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.
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
I really love this, especially how Sonia being cold yet acting sweet would heavily contrast Gundam who acts dark but is actually kind.
@@nellewoodruff6337 YES exactly what I was thinking too
its interesting
Mastermind Ishimaru would've been amazing
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?
The power of headcannons and self projecting sadly
Yeah I don't get it ether. His story is about how gender norms and bullying are terrible things, and wanting to improve yourself and be yourself are good things.
Chihiro was a guy who didn't fit overly strict gender norms. Because of this he was bullied to an extreme degree. It got so bad he thought cross-dressing to pass off as a girl was better than face continued harassment. This still was an unsatisfactory situation for him, so when push came to shove, he resolved to improve himself so he could show his true self.
He started as a he and then died wanting to be a he.
@@TonyRedgrave exactly, its just the eastern fandom thinks all the world spins around them, and self proyected, when Chihiro was never representing trans comm (he was representing Cross dresser which is a super famous thing in japan) and the reason why he cross dressed
Sadly when characters like Chihiro come around everyone desperately wants to see LGBT representation and completely misrepresents the character. Look at Kanji from Persona 4. To this day people insist he's gay (spoilers for Persona 4 incoming) where his story is about liking feminine things and people acting like he's less of a man for it.
@@AgentZ46 wait, i though people thought he was gay (or more like bi) because he had attraction to naoto but was conflicted because he (kanji) though naoto was a guy.
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.
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)
Hagakure would be a perfect mastermind. A man who can predict every future bored of everything but despair.
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*.
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.
Sonia being the mastermind in SDR2 would be so cool, when playing SDR2 I was dead set on Sonia being the mastermind tbh.
One of my favourite Mastermind aus for sdr2 is probably Chiaki or Mikan Lol-
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.
Since I haven't seen any comments talking about this one, I wanted to mention MM!Mondo because it's my guilty pleasure alt. mastermind au. Obviously some characters make a lot more sense for the role of mastermind, but at the same time that just makes it better because you wouldn't expect it as much. Mondo arguably could've had a chance at winning his trial if he didn't mention the color of the tracksuit, so that could've been a "way out" for him. And imagine Daiya's death caused Mondo despair to the point where he wanted everyone to feel the despair he felt and take his anger out on the world. I dunno, I just thought it was a fun one to consider because I've seen basically every other character mentioned in the comments and wanted to give Mondo his moment
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.
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
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.]
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.
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.)
Makoto as the Mastermind would have been wild
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 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.
Their memories were wiped bestie
@@thatmilk3655 Ah, dammit, of course! Thanks anyway.
I imagine Alter Ego betraying Chihiro like Junko did to Mukuro
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.
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
This video was extremely interesting and honestly made me even more disappointed with DR1 ending. I would LOVE a part two.
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 👌
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
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!
I'd love to see Taka and Chihiro as the mastermind, I think I'm gonna read some fanfiction about that
Second thing, in my first playthrough of the first game a part of me also suspected Hagakure to be the mastermind. My main reason was that I thought that his goofy nature was a facade and I was surprised he was still alive.
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.
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.
I think an interesting addition to your idea for the Chihiro mastermind AU would be that most of the characters weren't actively antagonistic to them but didn't intervene to stop the bullying they went through. This doesn't change the characters' personalities drastically, just makes them bystanders to the bullying that other people put them through. Like Chihiro's bullies could have been other members of Mondo's gang or his friends and Mondo, despite being the gang's leader, did nothing to stop them from bullying Chihiro so they put Mondo in the killing game.
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!
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.
I thought that Kirigiri was gonna be the original first victim?
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…..
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).
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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
Mastermind Taka would be cool except for his choice of "geniuses" to play the killing game, especially considering the selection of Ultimates to choose from throughout the series. For example, why would he consider the Ultimate Gang Leader or Ultimate Swimmer to be geniuses over, say, Ultimate Mechanic or Ultimate Musician. However, the motive seems pretty solid, and the political connections through his family do make it possible to throw the whole world into chaos behind the scenes.
Conversely, Mastermind Chihiro's motivation could easily be that, while trying to find a place to fit like most teenagers, he was bullied relentlessly by every group for his soft, frail body and geeky computer intellect. Being thrust into the pits of despair, he only found solace and acceptance by retreating into presenting as a meek, helpless female. Finding it unfair to be unable to live how he wanted, not just for him but for everyone like him, Chihiro decided to put to work his superior skills to exact revenge by forcing the "Alphas" of every group into a game of deception and murder, while the whole world feels the same helpless despair he felt by watching these presumably well-known celebrities turn on each other. Also, digging up dirt and money for the motives would prove to be easy enough for someone with top tier hacking skills like Chihiro Fujisaki, Ultimate Programmer.
But I think the obvious choices for alternate masterminds are definitely Naegi and Kirigiri.
I would love a Sonia mastermind tbh. She's one of the beacons of hope on V2, being one of the most positive characters, her kinda naive persona could work well for the reveal and the fact that she's a princess with huge influence would make it easy for her to gain sponsors and even force some desperate students to participate
Hiro being the mastermind perfectly fits. also when monokuma stops functioning during chapter 3 , it explains perfectly that this happened due to hiro being locked up. I honestly thought it was hiro
I once saw a fanart of mastermind chihiro saying ' Wait you actually thought alter ego was helping you?! ' And that just made chills run up and down my spine
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 think that if fuyuhiko was the mastermind, it would be a god-like subversion of his character. kinda like how everyone trusted mikan when we first played the game. we saw mikan, and how innocent she seemed, then she murders someone and it's like damn, we were so stupid for trusting her. maybe it would've been like that where its like, "wow, you actually trusted the ultimate gangster to be a nice person?" another thing would be peko's death, what if it was a mukuro type thing where fuyuhiko had no intentions of getting peko through the class trial so he could feel despair, and that's the reason why he ran into her execution, so he could deliberately get injured for the despair. there's a lot you could do with this, like when did he fall into despair? it could've been when his sister died. but I think that it could tie in with his backstory, where he feels like he's not "tough enough" so he uses despair to feel like a gangster.
I can only come up with these few as alternate mastermind that I would really like to see in dr2: Hiyoko, Mahiru, and Gundham.
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
I could see a scenario of Byakuya setting up the killing game to find someone to serve as his right hand by eliminating the Ultimates until only one is left standing.
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
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.
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
I love your pfp
@@disco_depression same
Kiyotaka MM is my favorite. I would’ve LOVED to have seen a MM Taka
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 think one of the most interesting parts of mastermind AUs could be Junko and Mukuro playing an active role in the killing game, instead of dying immediately and being a surprise pop-up out of nowhere
Hiro woud be the best master mind,wen monokuma is acting it woud be interesting that he was pre programmed to do that,and since the mastermind can see the future he woud make like he is acting in real time but is just him knowing what the other students were going to do/say with clarivoiance(idk how to write that)
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!
Makoto and Hajime being the masterminds would be a cool twist since both of them were the ultimate hope. The students in the game also trusted them and it would be some despairful moment when they found out.
Before I got into Danganronpa I actually thought Monokuma was behind everything because he was some silly billy entity like Korosensei.
Now I am Junking 24/7 I love Junko Enoshima
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.
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
For Mastermind Ishimaru, you put the nail on the head because it fits perfectly. Another addition to that though could be that by participating in the killing game, Ishimaru pretending to like the others could naw away at him until it's noticeable in Chapter 4. Like he would start stuttering and Makoto would make thought remarks only seen by the player about how Ishimaru seems pissed off by something. This could last until Chapter 6 during the trial to find the mastermind that his pent-up hatred explodes in everyone's faces how much he loathes them. He could say out of character things because of how pissed he was. This could be an interesting way to reveal Mastermaru.