Naegi Makoto (苗木誠) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
saynotohalls) wrote2017-12-26 11:36 am
saynotohalls) wrote2017-12-26 11:36 am
Entry tags:
empatheias app
SPOILER WARNING: the following app contains spoilers for the endings of Dangan Ronpa, Super Dangan Ronpa 2, and the Dangan Ronpa 3 anime, so please proceed with caution!
Player: Yamadori
Contact:
Age: 24
Current Characters: N/A
Character: Makoto Naegi
Age: Uncomfirmed in canon, but based on guesstimation is probably around 19-20
Canon: Dangan Ronpa 3
Canon Point: Watching the boat leave at the end of the final episode
Background: Here!
Personality: (As a note: While I am pulling Naegi from DR3, I'll be referencing many events from the first and second Dangan Ronpa games since most of his defining character traits are showcased in them. And as addendum to that, the "Free Time Events" are optional talks with the characters that players have the ability to choose between, so some may not be seen during the course of regular gameplay. However, I'll be referencing a few of the things Naegi says within them since I feel they are important to his character.)
When we are first introduced to Naegi Makoto, we meet a young man who is kind and welcoming in his disposition, but is also average in just about every way. He doesn't have much in the way of outstanding skills, and when it comes to things he likes, Naegi tends to lean towards whatever happens to be popular at the time and not really have a preference of his own. The only thing that's really above average for Naegi is his luck, and it's not even until later on that he really comes to acknowledge it as being unusual. To everyone he meets - and even after recognizing his luck - Naegi always introduces himself as just a regular person. Through the insight we are given via Naegi's own thoughts, as well as conversations he has with his classmates, it's shown that being ordinary is actually a source of discomfort and insecurity for him. In a world where talent is prized above all else, Naegi finds it intimidating to be accepted into a school focused on cultivating it, to the point that he equates it with entering a lion's den. But in spite of how much it might bother him and even make him feel inferior besides his talented classmates, Naegi admits to Fujisaki during one of their conversations that this part of himself is something that he's accepted. Even if there are times he feels down about it, by acknowledging that everyone has their own internal struggles that they face and not brooding on those feelings, Naegi is able to go through his life without it holding him back.
As the Dangan Ronpa series progresses, there are a few things that change about Naegi, but many more things that stay the same. One thing he retains is being a pretty normal guy - and another is that he's a nice guy. Naegi's kindness appears especially predominate in his relationships with his friends, but it's definitely not exclusive to them. Even to people that he doesn't know personally, Naegi will readily show compassion. The prime example of this is when he saves the Remnants of Despair, who are former students of Hope's Peak Academy. Even Naegi himself doesn't truly know his reasons for helping them, and yet he does everything within his power to make sure the former students are put into a special therapeutic program to return them to their previous selves. And when the program is compromised by an AI, Naegi willingly enters the program himself to try and save them, even though it may very well cost him his life. Ultimately, more often than not, Naegi will help someone if there's a way for him to do so. And more than anyone else, Naegi cares about his friends and family. They hold a special place and his heart, and there's nothing that he wouldn't do for them.
'She... does mean well, doesn't she...?'
This niceness can be a bit of a double-edged sword, though. While being nice isn't an inherently bad thing, Naegi is also quite the push over. Seen especially during his days locked in Hope's Peak Academy, his classmates are often able to force him to do things that he'd rather not do. Togami especially tends to boss him around a lot, and once Asahina coerces him to open up a door instead of her "in case it explodes". Naegi might grumble a bit inwardly at times about being made to do things, but he still always does what they ask of him regardless.
"I won't mind... if they're wrong..."
However, in spite of what his classmates or others might do, Naegi's first instinct is always to trust and believe in people. It doesn't matter if he's certain of something else to be true, like in the case of Oowada murdering another of their classmates; Naegi still wanted to believe in him and be proved wrong, even though he was certain of the truth. And in the case of it being someone Naegi doesn't really know, like with the Remnants of Despair, he still believed that they could change for the better through the psycho-therapeutic Neo World Program. Even when it's someone who has hurt him or even attempted to kill him, as is the case with Munakata and Sakakura during the Final Killing Game, Naegi relentlessly believes in them and wants to work together with them. In short, even if there are plenty of logical reasons that someone else would not do so, Naegi will still choose to place his trust in the people around him.
Like with Oowada's case, as much as Naegi is willing to believe and trust in others, he also has a fairly strong sense of justice. He is definitely willing to give others a second chance, but if someone has done wrong, Naegi won't turn a blind eye to it. When the chips are down, he will still pursue the truth and what is right in favor of what he wishes to be the truth. Perhaps some of this is born out of circumstance, since the penalty of being wrong could have gotten him and his friends killed, but Naegi still ultimately wants to know what is reality and accept that to be true, no matter how difficult or painful that truth might be. His set of morals may not be intense as Ishimaru, his classmate who was considered the Moral Compass, but he still has his own distinct sense of what is right and wrong, and Naegi will stand by it even when forced into a corner.
'Once again with the "open book"... It's starting to get under my skin a bit...'
Naegi makes a lot of use of logic when he's solving things during the Killing Games, but at the end of the day, he's a person that leans heavily on his feelings. His range of emotions doesn't fluctuate very much - most of the time he's pretty cheerful but calm about things - but when it does, they shine through very strongly. Naegi isn't consistently cheery; he has moments of depression or grief, but he is always quick to bounce back since he considers it "a waste of time" to think negatively about about things when he can look at positively instead. And while he might be calm and slow to anger, it doesn't mean that he never feels rage. If someone is hurting the people he cares about, Naegi can become irate very quickly; most notably, striking a table and swearing when it seems his family might be in danger, and later nearly punching Monokuma when he makes light of Maizono's death. He is also a person that's easy to fluster and embarrass, particularly about girls (such is the case when Ikusaba disguised as Enoshima teases him about Enoshima, and later on when his classmates keep suggesting that he has feelings for Kirigiri), and he can otherwise be a little nervous around people that he considers higher than him (namely with his extremely talented classmates before he really gets to know them). He can have a little control over some of these things if it's a situation where it would be vital for him to stay calm, but for the most part Naegi feels things, and he feels them thoroughly. He's essentially an open book when it comes to his emotions, honest and genuine about them almost to the point of that it makes him vulnerable.
"I... I just wanted everyone to..."
Over the course of time that brings Naegi to the present moment - at least a year and a half, though possibly more - very little has changed about his personality. He is still questionably lucky, ordinary, kind, trusting, and foolishly honest. But the events that have led him to this point have had a noticeable effect in Naegi, almost to the point they could be called traumatic. When he first sees the recording of Monokuma at the start of the Final Killing Game (and not knowing that it's a recording), Naegi's first reaction is to freeze and stare at the screen in fear. But this isn't the only burden Naegi is holding, as shown when he risks himself to find out if the monitors placed throughout the Future Foundation building are truly causing its members to commit suicide. During the hallucination the video causes, Naegi is visited by his dead classmates saying that he should've been the one to die instead and to "join" them. Long before this, Naegi said that he would hold his friends memories forever, and he has - but it's been in a way that has clearly come to hurt him. Perhaps it could be described as something more specific like "survivor's guilt", but however it may be labeled, Naegi is haunted by the deaths of his classmates to the point of feeling some responsibility over it.
In spite of everything, above all else, Naegi's most defining characteristic is that he never gives up. He is the Hope to Enoshima Junko's Despair, contagious enough in his belief of it that he is able to rally his friends to fight against her when they are at their worst. No matter what the circumstances may be, even with his own or others' lives on the line, Naegi is always there with an encouraging word to help himself or his friends along. To him, being positive and optimistic is his one redeeming quality. Naegi might be selling himself a little short, but it's undeniable that this is his most important quality; it's what has kept both Naegi and his friends alive, and kept them going when all hope seemed to be lost. It's because of that Hope that he is able to continue on into the future, no matter how scary or uncertain it might seem at times.
'We must take one step at a time, into a future... where we don't know what will happen.'
'Thinking of those we love... we look up at the sky... and think to ourselves that tomorrow will surely be a good day.'
Abilities: Aside from having extraordinary luck (which varies from good to bad, but is most effective at saving him from death at the last second) and good investigative/deductive abilities, Naegi is just an ordinary human.
Alignment: Peromei. Naegi may say that Super High School Level Hope is "just what people call him", but it really is true in his case; even during the first Killing Game he and his classmates faced, his greatest skill was remaining optimistic and keeping his friends moving forward. Even if he has his moments where he feels despair, Naegi always holds onto hope and pushes towards the future.
Other:
General Sample: E- Eh?! [Naegi stares in shock at the hoop a few feet away, the swinging net a testament to what’s just occurred.] I… really got it in again?!
[Naegi sucks at sports. It doesn’t make any sort of sense that he’s sunk five out of five shots already.
However, any surprised delight quickly fades in the face of what he hears next - the sniffling of a few of the team members. Guilt pricks his stomach, because he knows not a single one of them has made any of their shots.
So, in complete contrast to what he’s been told he should do, Naegi turns and calls out as loudly as he can-]
Hey, don’t give up! It might not look good right now, but keep trying! If you all help each other and work together, I know you all can definitely find a way to beat me!
[.....Naegi.....]
Emotion Sample: [It'’s been such a long time since he was here, but... It's probably worth a try anyway, so Naegi takes a seat by a bed of grass and lets his hand hover over the small blades.]
I wonder...
[Trying to remember the exact way to do this is tricky. He knows that focusing on hope is necessary, but trying to find that balance in himself that he'd learned so long ago is... a lot more difficult.
It takes a good amount of time just waiting quietly, and he might appear a little strange to anyone who just happens to be walking by... But Naegi focuses on those feelings of hope, recalls what it had felt like to feel the air of freedom on his face... To know that tomorrow can be a better day, crafted by your own hands, if you just keep believing and not giving up on yourself or the ones around you.
Eventually, he opens his eyes as feels something different stir in his chest - and it's smaller in comparison to when he'd last tried, but a small white flower appears from the ground.]
Ah... Thank goodness. [He breathes out a sigh, a fond smile on his face.] I was worried, but... I haven't lost you, after all.
Questions: More than one actually, I'm sorry, and I apologize if answers to any of these can be found in the game info and I missed them:
1) Since Naegi was here previously, is it alright for him to retain a little control over his emotions like before, but still struggle a little bit with remembering everything? I'm fine with whatever the mods find appropriate, but it's been two years for him so I wasn't sure if it was right for him to have as much skill as he did before or less.
2) At the canon point I'm pulling him from, Naegi sustained a leg injury. The full extent of the damage isn't gone over aside from a little difficulty with movement at the time it happens, but will that be healed when he ends up in Empatheias? And if it is, will the blood stain still be there on his pants?
3) Several of Naegi's canonmates are currently in game, so during the time he was with them back home, would they have any memories of Empatheias? And in relation to that, would things that happened in-game have any effect on canon events/Naegi's thoughts during them, or would things just continue on as they do normally until he's pulled back into Empatheias?