With Friends Like These....

......who needs enemies?

Danganronpa: Another Episode OST – Like I Would Become a Monster - www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYNVjE…

Seen as I'm a fan of Danganronpa and Undertale, I've seen similarities between not only the absolutely HORRIBLE demonspawns in it, Monaca Towa and Chara, but also between the children in it I feel the most sympathy towards - Asriel and Nagisa Shingetsu.

Asriel and Nagisa both try to bend over backwards to prove themselves to the one who they think truly cares about them, unaware of the fact that those horrible little brats have been manipulating them this whole time for their own selfish ends. Asriel thought of Chara as a close friend after Chara fell into the monster underground, while Nagisa tried his best as vice leader and eventually leader of the Warriors of Hope to create a paradise for children for Monaca.

Sadly, Monaca and Chara had been manipulating their supposed 'friends' from the very beginning. I’m not sure who gets off worse, Asriel or Nagisa, but despite what they do in the game, I feel legitimately sorry for these poor boys and what these two DEMONSPAWNS put them through.

Monaca had been taking advantage of Nagisa's feelings for her to get him to keep going with his plan and then revealed she wanted nothing to do with creating paradise for children and was simply using him to kill all the adults to spread despair. Nagisa eventually discovered that Monaca had tricked him, and was about to call her out on it, but just like when Kotoko began questioning Monaca’s true motives, Monaca silenced him by psychologically tormenting him…. Through perhaps the scariest moment in all of media for me. I mean it, that scene where Monaca told Nagisa he had no reason to live and no-one ever expected anything of him in the first place, and then she breaks his mind by TONGUE-KISSING HIM (It’s the only moment in a Let’s Play I’ve watched where I legitimately feel PHYSICALLY ILL while watching it, and whenever I watch that scene, I have to pause every so often because the scene terrifies me so much ) is just…. HELLISH. Through this, she tricks him into doing what she wants until he is presumed dead after being beaten by Komaru and Toko. He is shown to survive in the end credits, but still…. Nagisa will most likely need SERIOUS counselling after the mental hell he’s put through in Chapter 4 of Another Episode. True, Nagisa may have inspired other children to murder adults, but he was doing it because he wanted to protect his fellow children from any further abuse – and because Monaca had inspired him to do so – all to her own selfish ends.

Chara repeatedly bullied Asriel into doing what they wanted under the guise of ‘friendship’, all for the sole purpose of gaining power. He eventually made Asriel go forward with the means of receiving power - Chara would kill themselves, Asriel would absorb the soul, and they'd have enough power to go to the surface, get more souls, and then come back and break the barrier. At least, that’s what Asriel would have wanted. But Chara's plan was different. With that power, they could absorb more human souls, get stronger and stronger, and reduce everything to dust….. so, in a similar vein to Monaca, Chara ended up tricking Asriel into going forward with the plan to a completely different and much worse end result. YES - they commit suicide in their plan to destroy humanity, they planned to not only force Asgore, Toriel, and Asriel watch him die, but also take their biological son away from them to turn themselves into a god. They are the reason Toriel is so overprotective and Asgore is constantly trying to bring hope and determination. Asriel had to watch his adopted sibling commit suicide in front of him and pretend to not doubt Chara as they died. Luckily, Asriel managed to fight Chara’s control of his body and come back from the human village after being mortally wounded by the humans, but lost his own life as a result. But it wasn’t over for Asriel’s pain, as Chara’s actions had condemned him to be reborn as Flowey – in fact, thinking about it – seen as Chara’s soul was inside Asriel, and considering how Flowey tends to flip-flop between voices, I think the more pleasant voice is Asriel, and the satanic one is Chara. And Chara is also the reason Asriel adopted the ‘kill or be killed’ philosophy – most likely from discovering how hostile the humans in the village were…. And the fact that his own best friend practically sent him to his death. And in the Bad Ending of Undertale, Chara even KILLS their own supposed friend even though he tried to help them…. Regardless of how horrible Chara is, Asriel still tries his hardest to stop Frisk from beating him, mistaking him for Chara, in the hopes that he can feel ANYTHING from it. Thanks to Chara, Asriel died, became a literal soulless husk, lived countless timelines and kills people in an attempt to feel ANYTHING, and only wants to beat you because he doesn't want you to leave him alone, like how he's been for lord knows how long. And the icing on the cake? He is still a kid inside. His attacks are just Anime styled colourful rainbow bursts of childish imagination. He never wanted to hurt anyone… but the actions of a certain little demonlord ruined everything for him.

In fact, I can imagine a scene where Chara and Asriel would undergo a similar scenario to Monaca and Nagisa – while picking the buttercups for Chara’s suicide, Chara could reveal that they never wanted anything to do with freeing the monsters, and if Asriel would doubt them, Chara would mentally break him like Monaca did to Nagisa…. Except with probably threatening him with a knife and harming his parents rather than the…. Tongue kiss technique.

Monaca and Chara are holding their true weapons here in addition to daggers. Monaca is holding the controller she tries to trick Komaru into breaking which would turn Komaru into Junko Enoshima 2.0 and throw the world into despair, and Chara is holding Flowey – the outcome of their betrayal, and in technical terms, their trump card to try and get the power they always wanted by stealing the six souls from Asgore and turning into Omega Flowey (seen as it’s hinted human souls are thousands of times more potent than monster souls, I still agree with people who say Flowey is composed of both Asriel and Chara’s souls, and it isn’t until a True Pacifist ending where Asriel’s soul is the one that breaks free and Frisk breaks Chara’s control over him.)

For fans of Danganronpa and Undertale, which one of these two cases of a supposed friend betraying the other would you personally say is worse? I find them both equally heartbreaking, which is another reason why Monaca and Chara tie on the number one spot on my Least Favourite Characters List.