“The ‘horse twins’ clue was just an arbitrary thing placed by Monokuma that the devs threw in for fun. There’s no way it connects to Ouma since it bears no actual context relevance. You can’t draw out any meaning from it anyway, it’s not even meant for him in the first place, much less placed by him."

Okay. Let’s get to grips with the 'horse (a) twins (b)’ clue then: what’s it doing there, and why is it brushed over in the narrative if it’s actually important and not just a background detail? Why should you care at all?



Well, I’ll tell you. But be warned, this is long, and very image heavy. I’m going to break this down as best as I can, so take a seat.

First thing’s first, it’s established that Monokuma placed the split clue horse a, twins b. There’s no question about that, at all. But it’s also no coincidence that it signifies Ouma’s name and star sign, both. So the issue becomes 'how is the clue relevant to Ouma, besides this’?

If it’s not taken into the context, it does appear to be background noise. No more than an asset. That is, unless it has a connecting point.

The question is though, are we really given enough reason to believe that it does not?

I think in this case, it helps to turn your thinking around when approaching the detail. Instead of asking 'how can this possibly be relevant to Ouma when it’s not even meant for him, or something he placed?’, consider: 'how is something significant to Ouma also significant to Monokuma, who placed it?’



With that in mind, if you look to Ouma’s lab, you see not one, but two clues significant to Monokuma.

One, a bunch of monitors identical to the control panel in DR1, which… evidently, didn’t get a clear examination by Shuichi, thus were not verified…



And two, the Complete History of Hope’s Peak Academy, from which distorted information was peppered into a Flashback Light scene. What’s more, the book is even something noted in context of the narrative as strange for being in Ouma’s lab, and yet, another thing which wasn’t fully verified.



So we can see by the protagonist’s fault, by lack of attention to detail and follow-up, that makes not one, not two, but *THREE* major clues that were canonically not properly verified, rather than simply… one throwaway asset that could mean anything. No one in their right mind would consider the Complete History of Hope’s Peak to be unimportant to the plot given the circumstances of the game, but if you take even that on its own, you don’t have the ammo to draw out the implications of it being in Ouma’s lab.

Combined with a specific control panel, and a clue denoting Ouma placed on the vault however, it’s an entirely different matter. But that’s not all.

With these in place, there are even more curious implications of a script bearing the Danganronpa V3 logo, especially when it’s supposed to be the ringleader who has that kind of a script. Why… is such a thing in Ouma’s possession? On top of that, why gather evidence in his room, as well as use a whiteboard to display events in sequence…? Yet more vitally important things not verified!

In any event, with the how of the rather dire and recurring decontextualisation issue established, now there’s the matter of how the star sign Gemini could possibly be significant to Monokuma, as well as Ouma.

The answer of course, lies in Ouma’s report card.

What we see here, is what we believe to be our ingame Ouma, however Mukuro’s report card was also riddled with a critical lie, and report cards are not strictly speaking verifiable. After all, Maki’s own did end up changing during the course of this story.



Basically, the idea is that this boy here is the real Kokichi Ouma, while the ingame one is an imposter posing as him, same as Mukuro-Junko, but indistinguishable from one another, i.e identical. (Appropriately, the theme is ‘truth and lies’, and you can’t tell which is which on the surface!)

Now again, on its own this doesn’t really amount to much, but once again, that’s not all!

So let’s have a look at a few other things: namely, ‘This world is mine. Kokichi Ouma’.

What’s interesting about this, is it’s an extension of the clue that Monokuma initially gave, what we are led to see as a ‘diversion’. But what’s more…

…Monokuma himself said something very similar, in Chapter 2. He talks a bit about how he is ‘the ruler of this world’, that nothing is beyond his power. It was taken as a ridiculous, even arrogant declaration, by those who seem to be in denial over the implications.

Strangely, this precise detail even extends to Ouma’s talk in the Salmon mode - a canon-world based, alternative route mode at that - in which he says he took out the country. Shuichi’s remarks are that he could be lying about lying, suggesting he might be telling some form of hidden truth.

This throws the ‘mere diversion’ suggestion into a fair bit of scrutiny, to say the least. But still, I’m not just taking this detail on its own.

When Ouma meets with Monokuma in Chapter 4, he says that he would ‘commit evil’ on the world, seemingly out of nowhere for the situation. So, there’s a fair bit of talk of the Supreme Leader wreaking havoc on the world, and Ouma makes a point of dragging this up to Monokuma personally, who declared such a wish earlier in the game.

Let’s contextualise it a bit more. What kind of power for evil do we know that Monokuma has?

Judging from the Love Hotel, he has a powerful hypnosis with which he brainwashes students. Something that with a broadcast - that we know is inherent to this game - could accomplish exactly what Ouma is suggesting in his persona.

With that in mind, it’s time for more on Ouma’s comments.

Ouma notes in his FTE a piece of his history, that of a brother. The bottom line being (setting aside that this is a ‘bonus mode’ for all intents and purposes, it’s still suggesting relevant history and therefore viable, at the very least), a certain other connected to him does exist, which gives that much more weight to his relationship with Monokuma - besides the temporary cooperation in Chapter 4, of course - and what’s more, the personal agenda he has with him in Chapter 5.

It also gives weight to an Ouma connected to a truly grand, evil organisation, rather than a ‘mild one characterised by humourous exploits’ (of… which we don’t actually get much information, on its situation or its overall goals besides a couple of rules and their eventual capture, but this isn’t the time for that). Before you get into the ‘yeah well, what if he’s just lying about the brother shtick’, hold your horses. I’m getting to more reasons why you should care, first.

And what’s more, some evidence to show it.

See, you may note that the organisation is very similar to an organisation noted in DR1…

…and that even Ouma’s speech on common sense is strikingly similar to Byakuya’s. Something he persisted on telling Kaede and Shuichi, and for a reason. Something that may well be affecting their situation as they speak, as its shadowy presence was in Hope’s Peak from the start!

But what’s even more concerning…

…are these books that the Ultimate Detective doesn’t even glance at. Considering the library back room that Byakuya has is demonstrably connected to the secret council, and also the gravity of what Shuichi has overlooked, noted earlier, this is… strikingly suspicious.

At the very least, it’s difficult to make any sort of argument that the books have no relevance to anything, given that Shuichi’s talent is connected to the police.

It’s already enough that a whole bunch of cases are right there in front of his nose, with there also being files denoting the Hope’s Peak era, at that… but for now, let’s move along from the organisation, as the implications should more than speak for themselves at this point!

So as for the game, Ouma uses a very specific term early on in the game (sadly, lost in translation…) to denote Monokuma himself, the same term given on the Flashback Light panel, and exclusive to Monokuma, as opposed to ‘kuromaku’ (which while used for the one behind Monokuma, is also used by Tsumugi to denote er, ‘the audience’).

This is significant, given that Ouma will talk about Flashback Lights in rather knowing terms, such as ‘we probably need one more to connect everything’…

…even nudging Shuichi along to find a Flashback Light, working in-sync with Monokuma to this end. Popping up just ever so slightly suspiciously, after he finds it.

As for Monokuma himself, he happily denotes symbolism of Ouma’s lab on top of his Supreme Leader-like persona, hat included. What’s more, the face direction of the eagle’s head is a match, as well as the bold line.

Returning to the matter of Gemini’s relevance though, a hallmark of Castor and Pollux’s twinhood - two snakes (tongues) - is given on Ouma’s emblem, while the checkered scarf denotes the black and white theming of Monokuma and the duality of his role: the ‘double agent’. (Another curious detail of Gemini is that one of the twins, Castor, was killed, and the two were immortalised… while Monokuma refers to himself as a ‘god’)

What’s also interesting is that although checkered clothing is oft associated with clowns, and Ouma bears clown mask imagery on his motive video, it’s also associated with Danganronpa, and with games in general (a game board), while clown masks can double as incognito masks.

A symbolic detail though this is, it’s more like the icing on the cake, along with the straitjacket-like outfit denoting insanity. And since we’re on the topic of those outfits, let’s finally get a look at the organisation known as DICE.

Rather, a particularly weird detail of it.

Ouma’s mask, and the flipped D on the DICE logo. (Plus, a handy little Monokuma for comparison.) While that left eye is a plus and not a characteristic glare, the upturned grin and split face is concerning. As if the D possibly stands for Danganronpa.

The flame on the mask doesn’t look like a perfect match or anything, but for one, it’s symbolic enough of what it depicts, and for another, there’s an even more weird property that it has:

A nigh perfect match to the strange flamed masks in Danganronpa 1, worn by Mukuro and Junko! Of course, since even the basic connection of the flame on the mask wasn’t made outright in narrative, we don’t even get to analyse this in context. Just… a little concerning, considering there are a total of 11 members in DICE, with one of them being missing from the video.

It’s strange enough already that they have gas masks and handcuffs in the lab, what on earth were they actually doing? You can be sure from the rule Do Not Kill, that DICE weren’t up to evil organisation stuff, and they definitely had limits, but it doesn’t look too benign or safe, either.

But whatever the case, DICE were caught and slammed up eventually, and there’s much we are left in the lurch about regarding their activity. Not to mention, the missing member… and the consequences of DICE’s capture.

-

So to wrap this absurdly heavy spiel up, those are a few basic connecting points, their context, and how they were pointedly shoved out of the context, just the same as ‘horse twins’ was. The real question is, why is this the case? What does that have to do with us?

Naturally, it’s to make Ouma’s character and situation that much more difficult for you to understand.

Even though there is strange evidence and dialogue that connects Ouma and Monokuma in the context of the game itself, as long as the underlying connection is lost on account of uncertain clues…

… it’s easy to treat it as a mere misdirection instead. As ‘just another lie, in Ouma’s web of lies’.

At that point, you can no longer compartmentalise his odd behaviour and comments, or even any evidence connected to him, and are in fact, encouraged to paint it with a broad brush. This in turn, means it’s harder to justify even looking at him and his situation deeper than the surface. Doing so even carries risk, with disturbing imagery and a mixed overall understanding of his actions.

What’s more, as Shuichi’s faults result in important issues being carelessly dismissed - even setting aside the labs - this means we consider Ouma’s perspective to be less important than Shuichi’s. This results in losing the truth of Ouma, which results in the player feeling just as lost as the protagonist, when he is eventually bombarded by the psychological assault of the final trial. The loss of even the history you understood was real, loss of meaning, loss of reality.

“It’s all just a lie, anyway.”

But though it’s this way for Shuichi’s perspective, is it truly the same for us? After all, the implication of the ‘horse twins’ clue - and the others I mentioned since the beginning - is that there’s a truth hidden in plain sight, a basic core lost in a sea of lies, omissions, misdirection, resulting in the cumulative distortion of context.

Something that eventually becomes fiction.

And if Shuichi doesn’t follow up with the mystery to its fullest, then it’s up to those who really want the answers to do battle with this game.