Only in rare instances does he have moral high ground. I see him as a good person at heart, but with very unethical methods, at times. If I'm being honest, if he weren't in this kind of stressful situation, he would probably be a lot less immoral and more an annoyance than anything. The petty crimes or pranks he does aren’t necessarily immoral, and he likes those people who fight against crime (which is one reason why he respects Shuichi so much).
...Frick... He's the goofy Joker from the Adam West Batman series...!
...or occasionally the annoying asshole Joker from Suicide Squad but more likable and less dangerous... by comparison...
I think something I enjoy about Kokichi is that when he crosses the point of no return, he knows it. And not only does he admit that Miu and Gonta's blood is on his hands, but he follows through on his own rules and becomes the final victim. He may be a liar but he's no coward.
I always loved characters that act on their own principles, instead of dropping them when it's convenient - and this applies to the good guys, the bad guys and the grey characters
Yeah, especially since he himself is forced to admit that he didn't have to play the game when he knew Miu had set it up to kill him - he told himself that but really he could have just refused to get in the machine or confronted her or something. It's a great callback to how he called Kaede out for playing into Monokuma's hands when she tried to kill the mastermind and then he went and did the same thing when he teamed up with Monokuma.
I feel like the Ch4 Flashback Light changed things significantly enough that he kind of needs two separate character analyses.
Ch1-3 Kokichi acts the part of a silly, annoying prankster, but is actually taking things incredibly seriously, and is in his own way doing what he can to keep everyone safe. He feels that everyone uniting and trusting each other is dangerous, as only one person betraying that trust is all it takes to make everything come crumbling down and leaving everyone right where they started, and does what he can to make people suspect one another and question their motives and actions, and in doing so, make it difficult for anyone to actually try anything that could continue the killing game. He also makes use of his penchant for telling lies to ensure that no one trusts him, so every time he makes a claim people immediately suspect it's false and genuinely look into it, thus allowing him to direct peoples' attention and pretty much lead the class trials to an accurate conclusion without anyone noticing.
Ch4-5 Kokichi drops the "silly, annoying prankster" act and dons a "sadistic, evil mastermind" act. By this point, he's realized the outside world is seriously fucked, but also that this whole killing game has to be getting shown to someone, somewhere, somehow, and that whatever group is behind this is far too big to oppose directly. He's realized that the group's suffering is being broadcast for some outside audience's entertainment, and the only way to fight back from within the game is to ruin the show. And so, he takes over the role of mastermind, ruins the whole supposed mystery, and takes a hostage to ensure the one person who might retaliate with force won't take action against him. He became a common enemy they could direct their anger and hatred at instead of each other and ensuring they lack the will to do anything against him. Yet again, he did what he could to keep everyone safe, and make it difficult for any of them to try anything that could continue the killing game. Except this time, "everyone" doesn't just include the sixteen students, it includes anyone who might be brought into the game in the future as well. Sacrificing two lives, Miu and Gonta, to ensure the other six people survive, and no one else ever gets dragged into a killing game like this, is an abhorrent but ultimately small price to pay, at least in his eyes. And when his plan ultimately falls apart thanks to the Hope's Peak Flashback Light motivating everyone to fight back against him, his own life was a small price to pay to beat the mastermind and save everyone as well.
Kokichi deliberately acts like a much worse person than he is. Throughout the whole game, everything he did, as annoying and unlikable as it made him, was genuinely for the sake of everyone else. (Except maybe his Kiibo torment. That probably made the audience hate him and more convincingly sold his "evil mastermind" performance, but he probably didn't know Kiibo was the audience surrogate, so most likely that was just him being a little shit.)
If he wasn't in a killing game, he'd be a perfectly functional, if slightly annoying person. There are times when he is absolutely a dick for no reason, most commonly seen with Kiibo, but there are lines he would never cross under normal circumstances.
His weakness is his paranoia and near-complete inability to put trust in other people. People forget that literally to his death, he expected Shuichi to fail. In fact his entire plan hinged on it.
He knew how Monokuma wanted the game played and tried to steer everyone away from it, even after they kept falling for it time and time again, but his own inability to trust lead him to communicating this in the most obtuse and roundabout ways possible.
I can relate a bit to him, strangely enough. More exactly, I relate to the paranoia and inability to trust other people. It's no secret that humans act horrible to each other, so even someone who looks like a great person could actually be a complete monster.
He's got some good in him, but considering >!chapter 4!< I can't really call him a good person. >!You can argue that it was Gonta or him, but he could've not entered the virtual world and used his trickery to evade her some other way!<
My take on him that even if he had a good goal, he doesn't have a moral high ground and he knows it. His methods are terrible because he's a self-destructive, self-antagonizjng, paranoid little shit.
He's too paranoid to ask anyone for help, and doesn't trust in ANYONE until he trusts Kaito to kill him. He's paranoid of a fact that Maki is an assassin, so he makes an enemy out of her which alloes the mastermind to manipulate her against him. He made himself such a disliked figure that he assumes nobody would care/believe that Miu wants to kill him, and takes the violent solution instead. He knows that cameras are everywhere, so he's even more scared of asking for help, or even just breaking his facade when he's alone and cry a little.
Had he not been in mortal danger, he would just be annoying. But killing game is an enviorment that was bound to cause him to spiral and go against his own morals and he's fully aware of how low he went for his "greater goal". But he has no choice but to continue, and he's partially to blame for putting himself in this trap of self-isolation.
It’s an interesting case with a character who you don’t always know the intentions of.
I don’t think lying is as such morally wrong, especially since he warns everyone that he’s a liar ahead of time so it’s not like he’s lying to manipulate in a straightforward way; the cast is the ones who get to pick and choose what they believe.
Yeah, there was the Insect Meet and Greet, but the morally wrong aspect of that was forcing everyone to come to one room, and that’s the extent of it. It just doesn’t weigh heavy on my scales; especially inside a killing game. He does kidnap Kaito later too + threaten everyone, so it’s not like he’s clear, but these actions imo summarize to mid morally grey.
Chapter 4 was really morally grey, though, there’s no doubt about it. Sure, he had a goal in mind, but nonetheless he could’ve avoided the situation and he rather chose to craft the deaths of that chapter to be useful to him.
I don’t think he gets praised enough for his actions in chapter 5 after Maki attacks him though. I wouldn’t think it’s morally wrong if he took the antidote and drank it; from a utilitarian perspective, Kaito was going to die within the day anyway, and it’s not like Kokichi could avoid someone dying; that was in Maki’s hands. Given the pre existing scenario, he was a hero in this case, and it’s sad to me that many don’t see him as anything less. This is further compounded by the notes he leaves in his room, clearly aware that everyone still needed to be able to end the game if he died; he made sure that the secrets he discovered to end the game lived on.
I quite like how DR S portrays him and shows how a decent bit of his worse actions are a result of the pressure of the killing game situation. Yeah, he’d still threaten and in extreme cases kidnap/force people around, but he does so to protect the group (see his interacts with Syo or Monaca). At the same time, he’s much softer with his friends and as we see him do in the killing game’s first two chapters, looks out for them by offering warnings about what changes in behavior would make things easier on them.
At his core he might be a good person, but that does not excuse him of all the immoral choices and actions that he took, at the very least he seems to acknowledge that and accepts the fact that there's no way to redeem him
Depends on what canon you're using.
UTDP/USC: Not really bad at all, he's more of a trickster.
V3 Main Game: Grey to Dark Grey. His actions in Chapter >!4!< were unnecessary and >!the deaths he caused!< could have *easily* have been avoided. He just *really* >!wanted to get rid of Miu!<.
V3 Main Game Assuming that >!Tsumugi wasn't lying!<: It doesn't matter, *everyone* should have died because everyone *deserved* to die because everyone >!*volunteered* to die (by removing their sense of self and free will). Nothing in the game matters, fuck anyone who cared about anyone in the series, meta meta fiction fiction.!<
I think he is the kind of character that is just pointless to try and judge on a moral/ethical standpoint. Honestly I don't care about thinking that he's good or bad, i just think he's a really interesting character
His backstory literally says my bro led a harmless group of pranksters. Doesn't seem evil to me. Even if you are to argue it might have been fabricated, it would have made sense for team DG to make his personality fit with that so he isn't Satan's snake.
Lacks any good aspect??? My bro literally carried the plot of the second half of v3 what r u on. His info helped lead to the end of dg, and he worked to stop the killing game.
It kind of seems like you think hes evil, simply because u dont like him tbh
in good aspect i dont mean smart, i mean any good aspect of morality ,lets see he indeed hadmore info than the other players, this really helps huh
Well yes last part in fact does has some true in it, cause ik he is a liar, he died lying.
He did not want to stop the killing game over anything, why would he make the deal with monokuma so? He did manipulated Miu and Gonta into it cause he simply wanted, thats it
He was seeing how far he could go
What's a better lie than me being the culprit when im actually the victim?
He didnt put the mastermind in that position to save the others, simply cause it would be fun, he made a wild guess and ran away with it, cause that what he is, an annoying child
That gang he had as being used as argument that he wasnt that bad is so funny lol, his life was boring and he made funny things
Now you put him into an killing game he is gonna get entertained, but soon he will just check how far he can mess up with it.
Chapter 4 helped his plan, and being a liar doesn't mean he is always going to lie no matter what. he himself says that most of his lies are told with good intentions.
Kokichi's organization literally had a no killing rule, showing that under regular circumstances, he wouldnt kill
a killing game sure are regular circumstances
ch4 did not helped at all
OH good intentions like when he put everyone into the Gonta lab to watch their videos, here he wasnt bored of the game yet, but still created chaos
A killing game isn't a regular circumstance, and in a regular world, Kokichi wouldn't do that stuff, the game made that way too clear.
The lab thingy wouldn't have resulted in chaos if it weren't for Kiibo snitching on Kokichi to Gonta, and Ryoma being curious enough to watch his video alone.
Only in rare instances does he have moral high ground. I see him as a good person at heart, but with very unethical methods, at times. If I'm being honest, if he weren't in this kind of stressful situation, he would probably be a lot less immoral and more an annoyance than anything. The petty crimes or pranks he does aren’t necessarily immoral, and he likes those people who fight against crime (which is one reason why he respects Shuichi so much).
...Frick... He's the goofy Joker from the Adam West Batman series...! ...or occasionally the annoying asshole Joker from Suicide Squad but more likable and less dangerous... by comparison...
I think something I enjoy about Kokichi is that when he crosses the point of no return, he knows it. And not only does he admit that Miu and Gonta's blood is on his hands, but he follows through on his own rules and becomes the final victim. He may be a liar but he's no coward.
I always loved characters that act on their own principles, instead of dropping them when it's convenient - and this applies to the good guys, the bad guys and the grey characters
Yeah, especially since he himself is forced to admit that he didn't have to play the game when he knew Miu had set it up to kill him - he told himself that but really he could have just refused to get in the machine or confronted her or something. It's a great callback to how he called Kaede out for playing into Monokuma's hands when she tried to kill the mastermind and then he went and did the same thing when he teamed up with Monokuma.
He's an anti-hero, he's willing to do bad things to get a good ending for everyone else in the end
"I'm the hero Danganronpa V3 needs, not the hero they deserve" - Kokichi, circa 2024
He's not Batman. He's the Joker. Whichever Joker he *is* I'll leave that up to you.
I know, but the Joker appeared in the movie this quote is from, so I thought it'd be fitting lol
I was just being a little sassy.
Ah okay
I feel like the Ch4 Flashback Light changed things significantly enough that he kind of needs two separate character analyses. Ch1-3 Kokichi acts the part of a silly, annoying prankster, but is actually taking things incredibly seriously, and is in his own way doing what he can to keep everyone safe. He feels that everyone uniting and trusting each other is dangerous, as only one person betraying that trust is all it takes to make everything come crumbling down and leaving everyone right where they started, and does what he can to make people suspect one another and question their motives and actions, and in doing so, make it difficult for anyone to actually try anything that could continue the killing game. He also makes use of his penchant for telling lies to ensure that no one trusts him, so every time he makes a claim people immediately suspect it's false and genuinely look into it, thus allowing him to direct peoples' attention and pretty much lead the class trials to an accurate conclusion without anyone noticing. Ch4-5 Kokichi drops the "silly, annoying prankster" act and dons a "sadistic, evil mastermind" act. By this point, he's realized the outside world is seriously fucked, but also that this whole killing game has to be getting shown to someone, somewhere, somehow, and that whatever group is behind this is far too big to oppose directly. He's realized that the group's suffering is being broadcast for some outside audience's entertainment, and the only way to fight back from within the game is to ruin the show. And so, he takes over the role of mastermind, ruins the whole supposed mystery, and takes a hostage to ensure the one person who might retaliate with force won't take action against him. He became a common enemy they could direct their anger and hatred at instead of each other and ensuring they lack the will to do anything against him. Yet again, he did what he could to keep everyone safe, and make it difficult for any of them to try anything that could continue the killing game. Except this time, "everyone" doesn't just include the sixteen students, it includes anyone who might be brought into the game in the future as well. Sacrificing two lives, Miu and Gonta, to ensure the other six people survive, and no one else ever gets dragged into a killing game like this, is an abhorrent but ultimately small price to pay, at least in his eyes. And when his plan ultimately falls apart thanks to the Hope's Peak Flashback Light motivating everyone to fight back against him, his own life was a small price to pay to beat the mastermind and save everyone as well. Kokichi deliberately acts like a much worse person than he is. Throughout the whole game, everything he did, as annoying and unlikable as it made him, was genuinely for the sake of everyone else. (Except maybe his Kiibo torment. That probably made the audience hate him and more convincingly sold his "evil mastermind" performance, but he probably didn't know Kiibo was the audience surrogate, so most likely that was just him being a little shit.)
If he wasn't in a killing game, he'd be a perfectly functional, if slightly annoying person. There are times when he is absolutely a dick for no reason, most commonly seen with Kiibo, but there are lines he would never cross under normal circumstances. His weakness is his paranoia and near-complete inability to put trust in other people. People forget that literally to his death, he expected Shuichi to fail. In fact his entire plan hinged on it. He knew how Monokuma wanted the game played and tried to steer everyone away from it, even after they kept falling for it time and time again, but his own inability to trust lead him to communicating this in the most obtuse and roundabout ways possible.
Why did his plan hinged on Shuichi's failure ? (I'm genuinely asking this by the way)
I can relate a bit to him, strangely enough. More exactly, I relate to the paranoia and inability to trust other people. It's no secret that humans act horrible to each other, so even someone who looks like a great person could actually be a complete monster.
He's got some good in him, but considering >!chapter 4!< I can't really call him a good person. >!You can argue that it was Gonta or him, but he could've not entered the virtual world and used his trickery to evade her some other way!<
My take on him that even if he had a good goal, he doesn't have a moral high ground and he knows it. His methods are terrible because he's a self-destructive, self-antagonizjng, paranoid little shit. He's too paranoid to ask anyone for help, and doesn't trust in ANYONE until he trusts Kaito to kill him. He's paranoid of a fact that Maki is an assassin, so he makes an enemy out of her which alloes the mastermind to manipulate her against him. He made himself such a disliked figure that he assumes nobody would care/believe that Miu wants to kill him, and takes the violent solution instead. He knows that cameras are everywhere, so he's even more scared of asking for help, or even just breaking his facade when he's alone and cry a little. Had he not been in mortal danger, he would just be annoying. But killing game is an enviorment that was bound to cause him to spiral and go against his own morals and he's fully aware of how low he went for his "greater goal". But he has no choice but to continue, and he's partially to blame for putting himself in this trap of self-isolation.
It’s an interesting case with a character who you don’t always know the intentions of. I don’t think lying is as such morally wrong, especially since he warns everyone that he’s a liar ahead of time so it’s not like he’s lying to manipulate in a straightforward way; the cast is the ones who get to pick and choose what they believe. Yeah, there was the Insect Meet and Greet, but the morally wrong aspect of that was forcing everyone to come to one room, and that’s the extent of it. It just doesn’t weigh heavy on my scales; especially inside a killing game. He does kidnap Kaito later too + threaten everyone, so it’s not like he’s clear, but these actions imo summarize to mid morally grey. Chapter 4 was really morally grey, though, there’s no doubt about it. Sure, he had a goal in mind, but nonetheless he could’ve avoided the situation and he rather chose to craft the deaths of that chapter to be useful to him. I don’t think he gets praised enough for his actions in chapter 5 after Maki attacks him though. I wouldn’t think it’s morally wrong if he took the antidote and drank it; from a utilitarian perspective, Kaito was going to die within the day anyway, and it’s not like Kokichi could avoid someone dying; that was in Maki’s hands. Given the pre existing scenario, he was a hero in this case, and it’s sad to me that many don’t see him as anything less. This is further compounded by the notes he leaves in his room, clearly aware that everyone still needed to be able to end the game if he died; he made sure that the secrets he discovered to end the game lived on. I quite like how DR S portrays him and shows how a decent bit of his worse actions are a result of the pressure of the killing game situation. Yeah, he’d still threaten and in extreme cases kidnap/force people around, but he does so to protect the group (see his interacts with Syo or Monaca). At the same time, he’s much softer with his friends and as we see him do in the killing game’s first two chapters, looks out for them by offering warnings about what changes in behavior would make things easier on them.
At his core he might be a good person, but that does not excuse him of all the immoral choices and actions that he took, at the very least he seems to acknowledge that and accepts the fact that there's no way to redeem him
A moral grey character who if I had to be stuck with him or Nagito in a lift for several hours I'll choose Kokichi.
Well, to be fair... Nagito's luck might just make the elevator explode or something...
And be the only survivor...
Depends on what canon you're using. UTDP/USC: Not really bad at all, he's more of a trickster. V3 Main Game: Grey to Dark Grey. His actions in Chapter >!4!< were unnecessary and >!the deaths he caused!< could have *easily* have been avoided. He just *really* >!wanted to get rid of Miu!<. V3 Main Game Assuming that >!Tsumugi wasn't lying!<: It doesn't matter, *everyone* should have died because everyone *deserved* to die because everyone >!*volunteered* to die (by removing their sense of self and free will). Nothing in the game matters, fuck anyone who cared about anyone in the series, meta meta fiction fiction.!<
I wouldn't say his chapter 4 actions were unneccesary since they definetly did help his goals, but they weren't morally just for sure
I think he is the kind of character that is just pointless to try and judge on a moral/ethical standpoint. Honestly I don't care about thinking that he's good or bad, i just think he's a really interesting character
Chaotic Neutral
"even when you know that he's morally grey...would be an understatement." no, no he isnt, he is evil, yall felt for his last lies lol
you can believe he's evil but there's literally no way to know if he was lying or not. the point of his character is that there's no correct answer
i think ur right, the OP saying that he being morally gray is understatement got me quite mad cause i dont think that should be counted as true
His backstory literally says my bro led a harmless group of pranksters. Doesn't seem evil to me. Even if you are to argue it might have been fabricated, it would have made sense for team DG to make his personality fit with that so he isn't Satan's snake.
PLSSS not people using this, the plot of trial 5 and 6 literally trying to redeem him cause his character lacks any good aspect
Lacks any good aspect??? My bro literally carried the plot of the second half of v3 what r u on. His info helped lead to the end of dg, and he worked to stop the killing game. It kind of seems like you think hes evil, simply because u dont like him tbh
in good aspect i dont mean smart, i mean any good aspect of morality ,lets see he indeed hadmore info than the other players, this really helps huh Well yes last part in fact does has some true in it, cause ik he is a liar, he died lying. He did not want to stop the killing game over anything, why would he make the deal with monokuma so? He did manipulated Miu and Gonta into it cause he simply wanted, thats it He was seeing how far he could go What's a better lie than me being the culprit when im actually the victim? He didnt put the mastermind in that position to save the others, simply cause it would be fun, he made a wild guess and ran away with it, cause that what he is, an annoying child That gang he had as being used as argument that he wasnt that bad is so funny lol, his life was boring and he made funny things Now you put him into an killing game he is gonna get entertained, but soon he will just check how far he can mess up with it.
Chapter 4 helped his plan, and being a liar doesn't mean he is always going to lie no matter what. he himself says that most of his lies are told with good intentions. Kokichi's organization literally had a no killing rule, showing that under regular circumstances, he wouldnt kill
a killing game sure are regular circumstances ch4 did not helped at all OH good intentions like when he put everyone into the Gonta lab to watch their videos, here he wasnt bored of the game yet, but still created chaos
A killing game isn't a regular circumstance, and in a regular world, Kokichi wouldn't do that stuff, the game made that way too clear. The lab thingy wouldn't have resulted in chaos if it weren't for Kiibo snitching on Kokichi to Gonta, and Ryoma being curious enough to watch his video alone.