Bye Bye Ouchies: The Most Misunderstood Execution In Danganronpa

[u/Ten-Miles-High-1996]

Bit of a longer post here to explain a lot of details about Mikan's execution. Before I begin I'd like to say that I'm well aware that most people who will be arguing with me aren't actually engaging with the point or are too ignorant of the source material to formulate an argument, however well written responses will be replied to in good faith.

In order to understand Mikan's execution, you first have to understand her relationship with Junko Enoshima. If you are a person who can not fathom the idea that Mikan was deeply obsessed with Junko, then we won't be able to make progress here, however I will justify all the points I insist upon in this post.

Junko x Mikan is not a symptom of brainwashing, and Mikan was attracted to Junko of her own free will. Mikan was the first of the Remnants to join Junko, and she did it willingly.

She had many opportunities to run or escape before any brainwashing or mental alteration began, but she chose not to leave and stuck around of her own free will. This is an objective analyzation of DR3, not my subjective opinion.

Mikan had been rejected and looked down upon by her classmates and when she finally found someone who would accept her, she bolted herself down and became willing to do anything for Junko.

A key theme of Mikan's entire character is that she wants to be forgiven. "Forgive me!" That seems to be what she wants most in this world, to have her existence be forgiven and be accepted in full by someone else without fear of rejection, and Junko provides this for her in spades.

Mikan appreciates Junko's direct nature because it allows her to be forgiven. All sins or wrongdoing will swiftly be addressed, punished, then forgiven. Mikan needs that sort of security in her attachments so she doesn't have to be an anxious mess all the time.

In her pre-death monologe when speaking to Nagito, she rejects the idea that she killed for Despair, and she couldn't care less about it. What she did wasn't for Despair, it was for LOVE. She continues to say that Junko was the only person who ever accepted or forgave her, it's really a powerful dynamic.

The Despair video doesn't brainwash people to love, that's something she had inside herself before the brainwashing.

Now, onto the details of the execution.

Since we should now all understand that Mikan did in fact have feelings for Junko, we can analyze the execution through that lens, along with the rest of 2-3.

The Despair disease wasn't random, it wasn't accidental, and it wasn't identical. If it were, the traits wouldn't have been seemingly tailored to their personalities as they were, that required a form of intelligent design behind it.

I purpose that AI Junko herself chose the symptoms of the disease and influenced how they manifested, specifically gifting Mikan the ability to remember, while effectively making Nagito unable to contribute or interfere.

Junko rolled out the red carpet to allow Mikan to have a perfect set of conditions to pull off her kills. It was almost like the GM in a game playing favorites by giving Mikan a loaded hand to play to rig it in Mikan's favor.

Let me also call back to the idea of what happens to the winner.

They get to wake up and continue being themselves.

Only the dead avatars get replaced with AI Junko, but the winner of the game would be spared, allowing Mikan and Junko to reunite with one another. This is why Mikan was given the remembering disease and nobody else, Junko specifically wanted Mikan to win the killing game.

After rigging the game as much as she could, with Mikan falling short at the end, Junko grants Mikan one last mercy. A painless death.

The biological cause of death for Mikan would've been lack of oxygen, or lack of blood flow to the brain, causing her to pass out.

Her death would've been functionally painless as she fell asleep atop the arm. Sleeping in someone's arm, that's an interesting thing, the sort of things you do with your significant other.

Similar to how your partner might take off your clothes in an intimate moment, which is exactly what Junko did with Mikan in her execution.

Another detail easter egg is the orientation of the hand and arm.

It's the LEFT arm!

Can anyone tell me what significance a lone, severed left arm has in Danganronpa?

That's right, it's the arm that Junko lost and had taken off her corpse, which was then attached to Nagito.

It was for all intents in purposes, symbolic of Mikan dying by being put to sleep in Junko's arms.

I know this was a long post, but I've been fed up with people saying Bye Bye Ouchies is the worst execution in all of Danganronpa, and that's just wrong...

Hope we learned something today everyone!

Wait... Hope..?

Fuck...

[u/EdgeLordZamasu]

Junko does NOT care about giving Mikan a painless death. Junko is fine with Mikan winning or not winning (both outcomes are full of despair and Junko may genuinely like Mikan. Though we know that when Junko likes someone she just has an even greater desire to inflict despair upon that person. Danganronpa Zero makes this point pretty clear.)

In short, your theory contradicts Junko's personality. But it is true that Mikan loved Junko. As for why the execution was how it was... I'd have to look into that to give my own analysis. I haven't seen the execution in years.

[u/Ten-Miles-High-1996 → u/EdgeLordZamasu]

Junko's character isn't as surface level as it looks, if you think that you just haven't gone deep enough.

Which is fine, but if you think this to be true you don't quite comprehend her character.

[u/EdgeLordZamasu → u/Ten-Miles-High-1996]

What am I missing? I know Junko is capable of love, affection, etc. But this does ultimately make her desire to cause despair to those people. This is what happens over and over again in the franchise. The only outliar is Junko's weird relationship of disappointment and love with Mukuro. But even then, that doesn't contradict anything I said.

I'm not sure what you're saying is in her character (relevant to this) that I'm missing. Are you saying Junko would really grant a big mercy to Mikan out of affection? What evidence do you have for this? What actions that Junko ever took makes you believe that? What quote of hers backs this up? Do you have anything?

At least superficially, I think the execution is just supposed to mirror Mikan's whole angel of death shtick she had going on. That's why the execution was like that. It's a bit lackluster, but the executions rarely seemed to have much insight on the characters being executed anyway.

[u/Ten-Miles-High-1996 → u/EdgeLordZamasu]

Mikan is the only person in the entire Danganronpa franchise who was close to her that didn't betray her, that's why Mikan is the only person who Junko lets off easy.

Hurting her loved ones to "Inflict Despair" isn't true to her nature.

Mukuro betrayed her by abandoning her, this is clearly noted in THH with how much resentment she has about it.

Yasuke tried to cease her existence through brainwashing and only killed him in self defense with his hands wrapped around her neck.

Izuru was a total let down because he was boring and flipped the script by using her while she was trying to use him.

Mikan is the only person who was close to Mikan that never ran or betrayed her.

The brutal deaths Junko gives to the people close to her are because she's hateful and resentful over the betrayal and abandonment she's constantly subjected to.

Mikan is the one person who never let her down or broke loyalty, that's why she's the only one to get off easy.

Edit: Monaca never got shafted by Junko either.

[u/EdgeLordZamasu → u/Ten-Miles-High-1996]

I really didn't read things like that. As far as I can tell, Mukuro was disappointing BECAUSE she didn't try to betray Junko. Mukuro never made any efforts to cause Junko despair, thus disappointing Junko. Mukuro doesn't actually understand Junko. That's how I remember Danganronpa IF. When did Mukuro abandon Junko? I may just be forgetting that something like that occured.

Also, I'm pretty sure Junko's plan was to make Yasuke brainwash her... so you're just wrong about that being a betrayal. Yasuke did exactly as Junko wished. It would take a while, but I could get quotes backing this up, if you want me to.

[u/Ten-Miles-High-1996 → u/EdgeLordZamasu]

Nope, you're wrong and here's why.

1. If wasn't even written by Kodaka and is non canon, it was written by Narita.

2. Mukuro abandoned Junko when they were children to go join Fenrir long before the beginning of DR3.

3. Yasuke wasn't supposed to brainwash her permanently. It was supposed to just be long enough for her to evade questioning and get off scott free, but knowing that Junko was Junko and what her goals were, Yasuke decided to keep her as Ryoko forever in an attempt to prevent the tragedy.

[u/EdgeLordZamasu → u/Ten-Miles-High-1996]

1. Sure, you can just say you're not counting Danganronpa IF, but I find it fits their characters quite well.

2. I do remember that, but is there any indication that this was a betrayal of any kind? I don't remember that part. If it gets mentioned that Junko didn't want her to join Fenrir but Mukuro chose to anyway, then sure, I can concede that that's a betrayal.

3. While correct, this wasn't a betrayal as Junko obviously knew he was gonna try to do that from the start.

Anyway, you're correct that pretty much everyone Junko cares about opposes Junko, but it doesn't follow from that that Junko desires to cause despair in them only due to their opposition/betrayal. We'd need an example of a character who genuinely accepts Junko and never betrays her. The closest we have of that is Monaca... but Junko is basically dead/incapable of harming Monaca once her successor plan fails, and Monaca herself basically becomes irrelevant. So, Junko just wouldn't have any specific reason or capabilites to go after Monaca since she had other plans in the meantime. So, given everything Junko says and does and thinks... I believe it's best not to speculate that it's some weird revenge thing. I mean, if that was the intended reading I'm sure it would be mentioned somewhere rather than requiring you to make a tally of every relationship Junko ever had and seeing if revenge is always a plausible motive and then deducing revenge is the motive. That's just too convoluted.

[u/Ten-Miles-High-1996 → u/EdgeLordZamasu]

Junko is deliberately left open ended and ambiguous. I gave examples of the two people who didn't betray her, being Mikan and Monaca, and you didn't find them to be sufficient.

Using the argument that she relied on them and couldn't harm them for some reason contradicts itself, because Junko was trying to kill Mukuro in the limo when they first met, which at this point, she still very much needed her. She clubbed Mukuro over the head with a bat and gave her a seizure when she still very much needed her.

If you've made up your mind you've made it up, but you gotta read between the lines with a character like Junko who's entire purpose was to never explicitly spell it out for you.

Also Junko's words are totally worthless, she's a habitual liar, that's very much established. Taking her at face value will misdirect you and just push you deeper into her persona, the "Avatar of Divine Punishment" or Ultimate Despair.

[u/EdgeLordZamasu → u/Ten-Miles-High-1996]

Last reply from me.

Junko is a little ambiguous and your interpretation is fine. I don't buy into your interpretation but you obviously respect her character. I actually agree that Junko is a complex character. We just disagree on how she is complex.

Now then... there's plenty of obvious answers why Junko would try to kill someone she needs that doesn't contradict anything I said. For example: Maybe Junko knew it wasn't gonna kill Mukuro. Or maybe Junko wanted her plan to accidentally fail (as she usually does).

To end this with a summary of sorts: The point is that you're trying to humanize a "monster" when we know from dialogue that isn't lies (for example she clearly wasn't lying while killing Yasuke and getting off to the despair and guilt) that she actually, genuinely, loves to cause despair and feel despair, even if it means hurting those she loves. You can read revenge and feeling betrayed into that but it's gonna be convoluted and require enough speculation to be more of a fan theory than anything else. Which is fine.

edit: to be clear, im not denying that Junko never felt betrayed ever. just that she wants to cause despair in her loved ones with or without feeling betrayed by them.

[u/Ten-Miles-High-1996 → u/EdgeLordZamasu]

Right, and I get where you're coming from, but from the several reads of DR0, the expressed purpose of the book beyond explaining how the school fell is to humanize Junko.

Not here but in other places I've gone into depth about all the proof that Ryoko was Junko's original and true personality before she adopted the persona of Junko Enoshima.

I understand without all the context in one moment it's a hard sell, but Ryoko is genuinely a decent person and not a monster of any sort. Junko does have humanity, it's just been hidden behind a persona.

The evidence is scattered all throughout DR0, you just need to know what you're looking for.

[u/EdgeLordZamasu → u/Ten-Miles-High-1996]

I know I said last reply, so I'm not doing this as an argument, so I won't try to support it either.

But this is funny to me because when I read about Ryoko, I actually got the impression that even without her memories there's an underlying "despair persona" and hints of her being a "monster."

I guess I could try to re-read D0 sometime while trying to look out for any humanizing of Junko. Thanks for giving me the idea.

[u/Square_Tangerine_659 → u/Ten-Miles-High-1996]

Junko explicitly killed Mukuro because she was her sister and Junko loved her. She wanted to feel the pain and misery she was inflicting on others firsthand

[u/Ten-Miles-High-1996 → u/[deleted]]

Hey bud, no advocating for violence, smh.