u/Reintroductionplans

feel like with all the doom and gloom around the current fate of the project, people are forgetting just how great it really is writing wise. To highlight this, I want to talk about one little thing I've never seen mentioned but it almost certainly intentional and that is the narrative foils to each other that Wenona and Cassidy are. More specifically, how the represent the two sides of the Cold War in the form of the Soviet Union and the United States. Now I know you might think I am crazy, but here me out. First, let's just go over their character design in general, which is the first thing I noticed to make this connection. Cassidy is at least implied to have Russian heritage, if by nothing else from the Ushanka she wears, a traditional Russian hat (while it is in use across eastern Europe it is most often associated with the Russians in pop culture). This hat was specifically in common use within the Soviet military and the nations of the Warsaw Pact, although it has since gone on to be used in winter military uniforms globally. While this isn't enough to say she is Russian, alongside everything else I am going to mention later it was likely the intention. Meanwhile, Wenona is clearly designed as an Indigenous American character, likely Sioux, an indigenous group from the northern Great Plains. This immediately ties her to the Americas, and by extension the United States.

Now, we have established that Wenona is a native American and Cassidy is likely Russian, but it doesn't end there. Firstly, it's pretty clear that Cassidy believes in Communism. Firstly, she calls you fanbase "comrades" a word that in modern culture is deeply tied to the communist ideology of the Soviet Union. She also has a clear disdain to the idea of billionaires, with her literally saying and I quote "In fact, I can detect the rancid stench of a morally bankrupt billionaire in this very academy... I bet they're planning to profit off our suffering as we speak", she also literally talks about wanting to redistribute wealth to the masses. If you need any more evidence than that, her logo is the classic hammer and sickle, just with the hammer replaced as a gaming console. It is clear that she is intended to be a communist, so now let's look at Wenona. Wenona is literally the ultimate entrepreneur and is labeled as one of the youngest billionaires in the country. While not explicit, the idea of billionaires and the entrepreneur are largely capitalist ideas, largely connected with the United States. So, we have a likely Russian communist and a Native American capitalist. They are literally the perfect narrative foils for each other, representing the too classic enemies, and even in the tiny bit of the game we have they already butt heads. I also think I should note that Wenona privately owns much of the agricultural industry, when one of the first things the Soviet Union did upon establishment was ending private ownership of agriculture, bringing another connection to the two of them.

This is genuinely such amazing writing which I rarely, if every see mentioned, and I think that is a shame. I truly believe that there would have been/will be a trial where one of them murders the other, as it is just too perfect. If I was to guess, perhaps Wenona killing Cassidy to represent the Soviet Union's collapse, but that is just speculation. This is the most creative thing I have ever seen in a fangan, and honestly in most media I've consumed, and I think it's a shame more people don't know about it.

I think most people agree that the mastermind reveal is one of, if not the most important and impactful part of any fangan, however because of this importance, I feel it is really hard to set up properly. What I mean by this is, especially in a fangan that releases in installments over a longer time frame, it is often easy to figure out the mastermind before the proper reveal. The main problem I often see with masterminds is that they go somewhat unutilized for most of the game up until the twist. What I mean is say its chapter 4 in a fangan, by then a lot has happened, and following traditional plot structure 7 people are dead. By this point, most of the people alive have a reason to still be alive, be it they are important to the story like say Byakuya or Nagito, or they lost someone they care about like Himiko or Fuyuhiko. Sure, there are exceptions like Miu or Kazuichi, but for the most part everyone has a reason to be there even by chapter 4. This is where it starts being pretty easy to often find a mastermind. Usually, people who are too important to the story will not be the mastermind as it is kind of obvious, and people who are recovering from a loss won't be because they already have a big character moment. This usually only leaves a few people who could possibly be the mastermind. Then, it's pretty easy to look at the remaining characters and figure out amongst them who it is based on plot significance. By the time you get to chapter 6, its usually even easier, as likely everyone but one will be a survivor.

I am going to use V3 as an example. Out of the remaining 5 students, it was pretty clear Tsumugi was the mastermind. Himiko grew from losing Tenko and Angie, Maki grew from losing Kaito, Shuichi is the protagonist and grew from losing Kaede and Kaito, and Keebo just had his big freak out and character development. The only person there who made any logical sense was Tsumugi, and this is why so many people said the twist felt predictable. This is an easy trap to fall down as a writer. The characters you want as survivors are ones you put a lot of depth into, after all, they are likely your favorites. However, you also don't want to draw too much attention to the mastermind so you kind of push them to the side, leading to them actually being more suspicious. I know I sure made this mistake when I first started writing the overall plot structure of my Fangan.

This is where Another mastered this twist, with the reveal of Akane. While she was only one of the two masterminds, she is a perfect example of how to hide a mastermind. She was written as a character, not a mastermind. What I mean by that is not only was she prominent, but she preyed on everything you would think makes a survivor. This is all from that games chapter 2. In it Akane goes through the classic Danganronpa survivor moment of losing someone you care about, in this case being Ayame. Not only did she lose Ayame, but it was somewhat her fault, with her only killing to save Akane from becoming the blackened. This led to a character arc for her, one that cemented her as a survivor in most people's minds, and if she was, she would be a really well fleshed out one. When she grew from this point on, it seemed there was only two paths she could go down, the Taka or Hiyoko path where you get the arc just to die immediately, or the Himiko arc where you grow into a survivor. By the time we reach chapter 5, it's clear that Akane is the survivor role out of those two. This is why the mastermind reveal works so well. Even if subconsciously, you have likely ruled her out as a potential suspect simply because she was one of the most logical survivors. It's the same reason no one suspected Himiko in V3. There is no better way to hide a mastermind than to make them seem like a classic survivor. Another actually made finding a mastermind really hard since all the survivors at the point had a reason to be there, but of all of them Akane had the best reason to still be alive, which made her the least likely candidate, beside maybe Shinjo. This is what is so important, you need a reason besides being the mastermind for the mastermind to still be alive by the time of the reveal, otherwise it is too obvious.

However, there is a danger in this. If you have a mastermind who has an actual arc, even if likely fake, before the reveal, you risk people hating the character. While you may want to make your mastermind super unlikable, I'm sure most people want their viewers to love to hate there villains instead of just actually hating them. Imagine if at the end of Goodbye Despair Fuyuhiko revealed himself as the mastermind. Peko's sacrifice, his desperate need to atone for his crime, his character arc of growing to be a better person, all thrown out at once. Sure, it would be shocking, but it wouldn't really be good writing. People would likely have hated that twist. All of that build up just for it to be fake is not satisfying, it just feels like wasted time to an audience. People would hate Fuyuhiko if he was a mastermind because he as a character and as a part of a narrative would just be badly made. Peko's sacrifice being meaningless and his atonement being fake wouldn't make him an interesting antagonist, it would just make him a nothing character, as all that happened didn't matter and he had no real personality. This is another thing that Akane does right. She may be insane and overall evil too the end, but Ayame's death actually did impact her, with it even leading her to sacrificing herself to let the survivor's escape. This avoids making Ayame's death feel pointless and Akane's former arc feeling wasted, preventing her from becoming a flat character. While not every mastermind is going to have a change of heart, I do think it is important to make sure that what they did do over the game wasn't useless and affected them in some way, so the twist doesn't feel pointless. For example, still using Fuyuhiko as an example, say he started off the game not truly caring about anything or anyone, but he learned he really did care about Peko after she died, and this made him even more evil and relentless, as he now has internal hatred as well as he blames himself for killing Peko. Perhaps the executions after this point become more brutal or something to signal that something changed in the story. Perhaps in trial 6 the reason the survivors defeat him is by preying upon his regrets with Peko. This way, Peko's death was still important, and Fuyuhiko still has some form of character, even though he was the mastermind. This is a bad example simply because I have to work around actual Danganronpa 2 and didn't really work on it that much, but with the full creative freedom of a fangan, and more time you could make something a lot more interesting. A mastermind should be a full character, not just the final boss.

Ultimately, the best test I can give you is to think about if your mastermind was not the mastermind. Would they make logical sense as a survivor or are they not fleshed out enough. If not, then it's probably too obvious that they are the mastermind. You don't need to go as extreme as another, they don't need a full arc before the reveal like Akane, but they should have something that would make viewers logically think of them as a survivor. While I could sing Another's praises for ages, this is the thing that has always stuck out to me the most about it, and the part I have used in my own writing the most

Cassidy and Wenona represent the Cold War. No, I'm not crazy.

How to do a mastermind reveal right: Danganronpa Another

Take on early mastermind reveals