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EP. REVIEW: Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School: Despair Arc

Man the whole 'brainwashing is a retcon' thing is getting quite old. There are a ton of examples all throughout DR0 and DR2 that brainwashing was always going to Junko's main tool to bring about her plans. In DR0, which came out before DR2, shows the reserve course students being forced to watch the student council killing video and being brainwashed by it just like we see in DR3. In DR2 the neo world program was said to be specifically created to deal with brainwashing. Also, Makoto says in DR2 that everyone in the class has just been brainwashed and once they exit the program it will be undone. This was always the plan.

I think most people are just referring to the DR2 cast's fall to despair specifically when they say that, not suggesting that introducing the concept of brainwashing at all is breaking canon. Because everything you said is true, but you know how everyone is always complaining about how Junko didn't break the DR2 cast individually in a more personal way?

justsomeaccount wrote:

but plot-wise, the show hasn't still answered how the hell was she turned into an AI! I guess they're hinting that Izuru may have something to do, but how and why? Wasn't this developed by other Ultimates and knowing exactly who Chiaki (and Usami) was and their purpose? I checked Chiaki's wikia to see if I was missing something, but according to the game's dialogues it seems to notice that Chiaki's father is Chihiro and her big brother Alter Ego, which we have no link of knowing each other, so what the hell! THIS is the biggest plothole out of all, the one question that pondered in my head since we knew real-life Chiaki and it's left unanswered.

First off, you said turned into an AI. If you mean that in the same way Junko turned herself into an AI, I don't think that's what happened. I think AI Chiaki is separate from the real one and just based on her, kind of like what Alter Ego is to Chihiro, only AI Chiaki resembles her counterpart more in terms of personality.

For why she was in the program at all, I don't think that's something meant to be answered by the show. I think the answer is still something you're supposed to look at DR2 and be able to fill in the blanks yourself. I believe the AI Chiaki is considered to be created by both Chihiro and Alter Ego. However, Alter Ego is considered her big brother, not a parent, plus I'm pretty sure Alter Ego was something Chihiro made up during the first game's events and not before the Tragedy. So what I interpret is this:

AI Chiaki's base role, one of the observers, was created by Chihiro when developing the program. That makes Chihiro its father, but at that period it was only a base AI with no distinct or set character. Maybe consider it a yet to be born fetus or something. When the program was later used by Makoto and the others for helping the Remnants of Despair, Alter Ego was uploaded to help set it up, and part of setting it up required creating a character for the observer. They probably had to have some info on the class (Monokuma did have a class roster) so the observer AI was probably given the data on Chiaki by Alter Ego to give it a character, since the real Chiaki wasn't going to be part of the program so might as well take advantage of her absence. This would be when AI Chiaki would really be born as she was, so since Alter Ego had an established character beforehand that would make him in a way her big brother. Besides him not thinking he was an actual parent since he didn't help create her, just modified her, I think the game just didn't want to deal with the idea of programming incest where Chihiro and Alter Ego would both be considered parents to AI Chiaki when Alter Ego is also Chihiro's child and therefore AI Chiaki's sibling as well.

And it probably didn't need to involve some actual connection or meeting between the real Chiaki and Chihiro, Gekkogahara, or Matsuda, since I don't think the character of Chiaki would've been used at all in their program on a normal basis. The Hope Restoration Program seemed like it was meant for general use, not for a specific group of people. They would've had no reason to use her in their program since the only people she had any connection with was class 77, and no one knew about 77 becoming despair until some time after the Tragedy, when Matsuda would've already been dead and Chihiro barricaded in the school building so they themselves wouldn't have been able to put in AI Chiaki. So she could've only been put in later on.

Well I was partly right. Chihiro did create the program and base AI. However Chiaki's characteristics didn't come from him or Alter Ego. Now we know that the program based the AI's character on who the Remnants all wanted to see again.

Also, that gives the ending credits for this series a new meaning. It's symbolic of how piece by piece, their memories together recreated Chiaki.