published on January 3rd, 2018
For more and more recent Shinguuji essays and meta, please consult my korekiyo shinguji tag on tumblr.
For more and more recent Shinguuji essays and meta, please consult my korekiyo shinguji tag on tumblr.
I am still shaken by Chapter 3 but I am now ready to write my theory about Korekiyo Shinguuji.
So as I explained earlier here, I used to think that Shinguuji was crazy and there was nothing else about it, but the idea has started to grow on me that he might actually be possessed by his dead sister.
I apologize that I sometimes do not have any screenshot to illustrate my point, it’s just that since it’s the first time I’m playing NDRV3 for myself, I often get really into the action and forget to screenshot interesting statements. Don’t worry though, for I think my memory’s good enough. Also please don’t forget that my statement is most likely very flawed, as my ideas might get confused and I discovered this theory extremely recently. I simply figured some elements I thought of might be interesting.
I hung out with Shinguuji four times before his death – three times he only talked about anthropology, as he seems to be passionate about it, and one time he mentioned his sister. That much tells us that he was already conscious of his sister’s presence, but that was already obvious, since he explains at the end of the third trial that he has already killed many for her and she “entered” him prior to the killing game. I earlier theorized that when he mentions death it’s his sister talking instead of him, but I think that might not be exactly the case. His relation with death has obviously been completely fucked-up by the fact that his sister – unfairly, and he does agree with Monokuma that death is never fair – passed away, while he was extremely attached to her (it is highly possible that he was already in love with her prior to her death but not 100% sure, and I will explain why later). Shinguuji is not necessarily the gullible type; he does not believe in reviving the dead and is never really easily influenced by the others, such as Angie or Ouma who are the most likely to make one rethink things, but he strongly believes in the presence of the deceased souls, which could be odd knowing how he doesn’t believe in the occult in general.
A possible reason for that could be that his sister did possess him. When she died he was in denial, and might have turned to things he would normally not have believed in, such as talking with the dead (and I think it would be very much like him to not believe in such a thing in the beginning, since he is so aware of how cultures function and people make things up to cope with their problems).
And surprisingly enough… it worked. His sister’s soul did come to him and she convinced him to be sort of her vessel – to let her live through him.
My theory is that Shinguuji’s sister manipulated him.
I will simply put it out there that this is absolutely not the first appearance of a ghost in the Danganronpa series – or altogether, the proof of life after death in the Danganronpa universe. The first one, if I am not mistaken, was in Ultra Despair Girls: Another Episode, when Komaru Naegi converses with Whatshisname Towa.
It even shows that some humans can talk to the deceased.
The second one, you might know it; it’s in Danganronpa 3, when Chisa and Junko watch the world as in a movie theatre, in the afterlife. If my memory is correct, Chisa even introduces us to the concept by commenting “Oops, I died” after we discover her corpse.
If you think it’s debatable whether or not NDRV3 takes place in the DR universe, you will have to agree that it’s a common theme in the series; I will add to that Shinguuji is a fictional character anyway, and that unbelievable things are more likely to apply to him.
Now then, back to what I was saying…
Why can we see his sister as an angry spirit? Simply, it’s because as they both believe, her death was unfair – but also because since she was so sick, she did not have any friends. Her life in itself was unfair, and she wants revenge. She wants to “take back from life” the friends she thinks she should have had, and that’s why she wants to kill people that she wants to be her friends. I do not think Korekiyo had this idea himself; I did not screenshot it, but he said that it’s only when during a séance his sister joined his body that he made up this goal for his life.
Why can we see her as manipulative? Well, there are multiple elements to support this. First of all, take a look at this (disgusting) screenshot:
“No physical connection.” One could think that this was some kind of censorship, a way to show that Danganronpa is not that gross, amirite? That they didn’t have sex. But that would be forgetting the cruel and awful executions, and if we’re going to talk about “physical connection”, the fact that Kotoko in DRAE, a child, was raped and no one is trying to hide that fact. Because I want to believe that Kodaka is not someone who thinks child rape is better than incest, I think that this precision might have a little more meaning.
“No physical connection” definitely sounds like it’s about sex, but it can be about kissing too, for instance. If they loved each other, why on Earth would they keep themselves from having sex? They look old enough, and usually if you’re okay with being in love with your sibling the way Korekiyo says they both are, having physical contact with them is not really a problem for you. Even if it was, they could have kissed and cuddled, these kinds of things.
I think maybe they weren’t in love when she was alive. It’s a possibility that Korekiyo loved her already, since he was really attached to her anyway, but there is no certainty of that – what I think happened is that she took advantage of his despair and convinced him that their bond was so much more important than a brotherly one, to the point that she might have convinced him that his attachment to her was love (and of course, telling him she loves him back would not be a problem for someone as messed-up as her). That would explain why there wasn’t any physical connection, but is also supported by other ways in which she is manipulative.
You may remember that Shinguuji admits to having murdered Tenko extremely easily.
He doesn’t care much if he’s seen as a murderer. He doesn’t care that Yumeno will never forgive him. But he also doesn’t care about death – as he says when the trial’s over, he is glad to be able to join his sister and he only sounds mildly disappointed that he didn’t manage to find her 100 friends. In this case, why does he get so upset that he is being accused of Angie’s murder? I do not need to show you a screenshot to remind you that he actively fought against Saihara’s accusation. In the third trial in particular, it’s very obvious who the killer is, and there are no flaws in Saihara’s reasoning. Why fight it then, if he doesn’t care about being killed and announcing he’s a murderer?
Because he didn’t do it.
His sister did. And she is the one to tell him to simply accept the punishment like it’s true.
He is not ready to admit to something he did not do… But when he realizes his sister did it, he accepts it. He is easily convinced, it is true, but that might only prove that she pretty much brainwashed him a while ago already. We also see after the trial that he is then completely open about having murdered Angie, in an unbelievable way seeing how confused he was that he was being accused. I recall him asking “Why are they accusing me and why does it sound true?” during the debate.
And last but not least… When Korekiyo’s sister talks, she often thanks him and congratulates him for what he did (though she accuses him of having been greedy for murdering both – which as I said, might be a lie, since he himself only killed the one he intended to kill. She was greedy but accuses her brother instead) but in the end, as we all saw…
… after pretending to lovingly welcome him, she murders him, smiling.
And more than anything else, that illustrates how she lied about loving him, how much she doesn’t care about him… and how crazy she is. ‘cause we all know what it looks like when someone straight up murders someone with a smile on their face.
So in the end, Korekiyo’s sister did not care about him at all and only used him to do what she wanted. That is why I firmly believe it is actually her possessing him, and not just him having developed some kind of double-identity disorder or schizophrenia. She didn’t care so much that she pushed him to accept punishment for something she did.
And that does not keep him from being crazy. It’s because he went mad that he turned to the occult, it’s because he went mad that he was so easily fooled and developed feelings for his deceased sister, it’s because he went mad that he did not care if he had to kill 100 innocent women. She took advantage of his sadness and madness over her death… In the end, despair in two different forms turned them both insane and made them cold-blooded murderers.
That is, I believe, how Shinguuji links so well to Danganronpa in general and NDRV3 in particular. Danganronpa because he gave in to despair in his belief to have found a new hope, and NDRV3 because of all the lies – his sister’s lies, and the fact that he hid his secret from all the others.
And there it is. There is why Korekiyo Shinguuji is not “just gross” for no reason.
If you read all of this, thank you, and sorry it is so long. I know a lot of things might only make senase to me, but I think this vision of the character is very interesting. I love Danganronpa because of how interesting all characters are in the series, and it’s because it looks harder to notice in NDRV3 that I interest myself so much in little details.
If you have any element or comment to add, please do so! Same goes if you found something illogical in my theory. I’d be glad to discuss it.
If this one makes sense to at least some of you, I might do it again with another character. Or maybe will I do it even it doesn’t make sense to anyone, and just try to make it better this time…
Add to all of that the fact that Shinguuji grows boobs…*
The link to a gif, created by another user, comparing Korekiyo's sprite to his sister's, is currently defunct.
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So as I explained earlier here, I used to think that Shinguuji was crazy and there was nothing else about it, but the idea has started to grow on me that he might actually be possessed by his dead sister.
I apologize that I sometimes do not have any screenshot to illustrate my point, it’s just that since it’s the first time I’m playing NDRV3 for myself, I often get really into the action and forget to screenshot interesting statements. Don’t worry though, for I think my memory’s good enough. Also please don’t forget that my statement is most likely very flawed, as my ideas might get confused and I discovered this theory extremely recently. I simply figured some elements I thought of might be interesting.
I hung out with Shinguuji four times before his death – three times he only talked about anthropology, as he seems to be passionate about it, and one time he mentioned his sister. That much tells us that he was already conscious of his sister’s presence, but that was already obvious, since he explains at the end of the third trial that he has already killed many for her and she “entered” him prior to the killing game. I earlier theorized that when he mentions death it’s his sister talking instead of him, but I think that might not be exactly the case. His relation with death has obviously been completely fucked-up by the fact that his sister – unfairly, and he does agree with Monokuma that death is never fair – passed away, while he was extremely attached to her (it is highly possible that he was already in love with her prior to her death but not 100% sure, and I will explain why later). Shinguuji is not necessarily the gullible type; he does not believe in reviving the dead and is never really easily influenced by the others, such as Angie or Ouma who are the most likely to make one rethink things, but he strongly believes in the presence of the deceased souls, which could be odd knowing how he doesn’t believe in the occult in general.
A possible reason for that could be that his sister did possess him. When she died he was in denial, and might have turned to things he would normally not have believed in, such as talking with the dead (and I think it would be very much like him to not believe in such a thing in the beginning, since he is so aware of how cultures function and people make things up to cope with their problems).
And surprisingly enough… it worked. His sister’s soul did come to him and she convinced him to be sort of her vessel – to let her live through him.
My theory is that Shinguuji’s sister manipulated him.
I will simply put it out there that this is absolutely not the first appearance of a ghost in the Danganronpa series – or altogether, the proof of life after death in the Danganronpa universe. The first one, if I am not mistaken, was in Ultra Despair Girls: Another Episode, when Komaru Naegi converses with Whatshisname Towa.
It even shows that some humans can talk to the deceased.
The second one, you might know it; it’s in Danganronpa 3, when Chisa and Junko watch the world as in a movie theatre, in the afterlife. If my memory is correct, Chisa even introduces us to the concept by commenting “Oops, I died” after we discover her corpse.
If you think it’s debatable whether or not NDRV3 takes place in the DR universe, you will have to agree that it’s a common theme in the series; I will add to that Shinguuji is a fictional character anyway, and that unbelievable things are more likely to apply to him.
Now then, back to what I was saying…
Why can we see his sister as an angry spirit? Simply, it’s because as they both believe, her death was unfair – but also because since she was so sick, she did not have any friends. Her life in itself was unfair, and she wants revenge. She wants to “take back from life” the friends she thinks she should have had, and that’s why she wants to kill people that she wants to be her friends. I do not think Korekiyo had this idea himself; I did not screenshot it, but he said that it’s only when during a séance his sister joined his body that he made up this goal for his life.
Why can we see her as manipulative? Well, there are multiple elements to support this. First of all, take a look at this (disgusting) screenshot:
“No physical connection.” One could think that this was some kind of censorship, a way to show that Danganronpa is not that gross, amirite? That they didn’t have sex. But that would be forgetting the cruel and awful executions, and if we’re going to talk about “physical connection”, the fact that Kotoko in DRAE, a child, was raped and no one is trying to hide that fact. Because I want to believe that Kodaka is not someone who thinks child rape is better than incest, I think that this precision might have a little more meaning.
“No physical connection” definitely sounds like it’s about sex, but it can be about kissing too, for instance. If they loved each other, why on Earth would they keep themselves from having sex? They look old enough, and usually if you’re okay with being in love with your sibling the way Korekiyo says they both are, having physical contact with them is not really a problem for you. Even if it was, they could have kissed and cuddled, these kinds of things.
I think maybe they weren’t in love when she was alive. It’s a possibility that Korekiyo loved her already, since he was really attached to her anyway, but there is no certainty of that – what I think happened is that she took advantage of his despair and convinced him that their bond was so much more important than a brotherly one, to the point that she might have convinced him that his attachment to her was love (and of course, telling him she loves him back would not be a problem for someone as messed-up as her). That would explain why there wasn’t any physical connection, but is also supported by other ways in which she is manipulative.
You may remember that Shinguuji admits to having murdered Tenko extremely easily.
He doesn’t care much if he’s seen as a murderer. He doesn’t care that Yumeno will never forgive him. But he also doesn’t care about death – as he says when the trial’s over, he is glad to be able to join his sister and he only sounds mildly disappointed that he didn’t manage to find her 100 friends. In this case, why does he get so upset that he is being accused of Angie’s murder? I do not need to show you a screenshot to remind you that he actively fought against Saihara’s accusation. In the third trial in particular, it’s very obvious who the killer is, and there are no flaws in Saihara’s reasoning. Why fight it then, if he doesn’t care about being killed and announcing he’s a murderer?
Because he didn’t do it.
His sister did. And she is the one to tell him to simply accept the punishment like it’s true.
He is not ready to admit to something he did not do… But when he realizes his sister did it, he accepts it. He is easily convinced, it is true, but that might only prove that she pretty much brainwashed him a while ago already. We also see after the trial that he is then completely open about having murdered Angie, in an unbelievable way seeing how confused he was that he was being accused. I recall him asking “Why are they accusing me and why does it sound true?” during the debate.
And last but not least… When Korekiyo’s sister talks, she often thanks him and congratulates him for what he did (though she accuses him of having been greedy for murdering both – which as I said, might be a lie, since he himself only killed the one he intended to kill. She was greedy but accuses her brother instead) but in the end, as we all saw…
… after pretending to lovingly welcome him, she murders him, smiling.
And more than anything else, that illustrates how she lied about loving him, how much she doesn’t care about him… and how crazy she is. ‘cause we all know what it looks like when someone straight up murders someone with a smile on their face.
So in the end, Korekiyo’s sister did not care about him at all and only used him to do what she wanted. That is why I firmly believe it is actually her possessing him, and not just him having developed some kind of double-identity disorder or schizophrenia. She didn’t care so much that she pushed him to accept punishment for something she did.
And that does not keep him from being crazy. It’s because he went mad that he turned to the occult, it’s because he went mad that he was so easily fooled and developed feelings for his deceased sister, it’s because he went mad that he did not care if he had to kill 100 innocent women. She took advantage of his sadness and madness over her death… In the end, despair in two different forms turned them both insane and made them cold-blooded murderers.
That is, I believe, how Shinguuji links so well to Danganronpa in general and NDRV3 in particular. Danganronpa because he gave in to despair in his belief to have found a new hope, and NDRV3 because of all the lies – his sister’s lies, and the fact that he hid his secret from all the others.
And there it is. There is why Korekiyo Shinguuji is not “just gross” for no reason.
If you read all of this, thank you, and sorry it is so long. I know a lot of things might only make senase to me, but I think this vision of the character is very interesting. I love Danganronpa because of how interesting all characters are in the series, and it’s because it looks harder to notice in NDRV3 that I interest myself so much in little details.
If you have any element or comment to add, please do so! Same goes if you found something illogical in my theory. I’d be glad to discuss it.
If this one makes sense to at least some of you, I might do it again with another character. Or maybe will I do it even it doesn’t make sense to anyone, and just try to make it better this time…
Add to all of that the fact that Shinguuji grows boobs…*
The link to a gif, created by another user, comparing Korekiyo's sprite to his sister's, is currently defunct.
published on April 5th, 2023
I don’t know if I can even say that One Post about Shinguuji is written embarrassingly because it’s kind of hard to write long posts in an Entertaining Way while still being Serious and doing that thing where I over-explain everything out of fear of misunderstandings (but it actually causes people to overthink it, which causes misunderstandings). Whatever way I went about it in 2018 (holy shit) was probably fine to me at the time. And tumblr posts should NOT be perfect.
[content warnings: references to incest, abuse, sexual abuse, sexual assault]
Anyway, I still stand strongly by my theory that we’re meant to understand that Korekiyo’s sister is the one who killed Angie. Unfortunately, I think for some reason, a shitton of Korekiyo’s characterisation was buried very deep between the lines, in tiny characters. I haven’t played DRV3 in a long while, but I feel like he’s possibly the worst example of that writing flaw.
At this point in time, I really can’t view Korekiyo’s situation of incest as anything but a case of him being a victim. I was just thinking about his Love Suite Event… (rewatches it for reference…) … HOLY SHIT IT’S FORWARD.
…I was just thinking about his Love Suite Event, and the possibility that he, himself, hasn’t known anything but this. If I recall, his Free Time Events (or Bonus Mode, you’ll understand that this is my brainrot archiving Korekiyo memories, and not that I played the game recently) implied that he had experienced being bound himself.
(Screenshot from the Danganronpa Wiki on Fandom.)
…Right. (I am not a fan of Shuuichi but “I feel like that door should remain closed.” is an objectively funny line.)
The rest is about being reunited with, assumedly, his sister, and the entire event is him describing things very vaguely. It’s completely unclear - to me at least - what the practice he’s referring to is. Obviously, this is on purpose.
But my reading of Korekiyo (she’s writing another Korekiyo post right now isn’t she) is that of a victim of abuse who has not realised it’s abuse. Personally, I view his insistence on the beauty of both the “beautiful and ugly” of humanity as something he’s saying to reassure himself - a world-view he made himself adopt because the truth is much scarier.
In his fantasy, Korekiyo is the one in control. And I can’t help but view his description of the other person’s feelings - something ugly, that he cannot love, only toy with (“responding to out of simple curiosity”) as a projection of how he views his own feelings, or has been made to think them as. Though of course this could be doubly, or solely read as a reference to him already considering his heart taken.
…And with my reading of it, of course the fact that he sees it as normal to stop Shuuichi from running away, might just be what has been hammered as normal to him.
(That does not make it right. The rest of the event puts it as though Shuuichi does fall under his charm, because it’s not trying to be that dark, but the entire event is a horrible, inappropriate way to approach BDSM. My point is exactly this: this isn’t healthy. It’s a torturous reality that victims of abuse might turn out to be abusers themselves for lack of knowledge of anything else, or of where the boundaries between “abuse” and “normalcy” lie - and I don’t shy away from reading Korekiyo’s writing as such because I know Kodaka hasn’t shied away from writing a grimmer version of this in a previous instalment.)
His final FTE, in which he describes being bound and whipped, contributes to my reading that he refuses to acknowledge he’s being abused. Being in control in his fantasy could be an attempt to reclaim control over BDSM acts - but because it’s not described as him consenting to a clear act with Shuuichi, and rather just a fantasy that lies in his mind, I mostly view it as… he doesn’t have any other reference for how it’s done.
To come back to his relationship with his sister, as I’ve explored in past posts, I view it in a similar lens: she was the one controlling him, and at the time of his death, he hadn’t had the ability to get out of her control. (Most abusers disappear when they die, but she did not. See “I’m Glad My Mom Died” by Jennette McCurdy - in her very real experience, she struggled as a kid as she both loved and feared her mother, and as an adult, was able to put words on the fact that she’d been abused after her mom was gone. Obviously, Korekiyo’s very loose writing of such a situation is not a good reference to learn about this type of abuse and its survivors at all.) Her lack of love - despite pretending she cared - for him was hinted at in his execution, although again, this isn’t set in stone, as it could just be a case of Monokuma using her image to torture him.
All of this does nothing to change the crimes he committed - what it does is put his situation into perspective.
Of course, there’s the matter of… “how much of this is headcanon, rather than reading between the lines?” and you may judge me however you like. (The most harshly the most you disagree with my takes.) I personally identify this as my reading of canon, so I wouldn’t use the words “headcanon” or “theory”, but because canon gives us so little, I veer into theory territory. My main wish is that the writing of Trial 3 had been a lot more transparent about Korekiyo’s surprise to “how much their accusations [about Angie] sounded right”. Korekiyo was one of Danganronpa’s most obvious killers, and the trial could have done with some confusing or heart-tugging “wait, I really don’t think I did it”, before his sister gets here and convinces him to accept it. Similarly to the way Danganronpa 2’s Trial 2 blurred the lines about Peko’s culpability a bit, without making the player doubt it too much either… it’s just good characterisation. From that point on, I think it would have been a lot easier for many players to question the position his sister had towards him.
Something I haven’t mentioned here but that contributes to my assumptions is that the very reason incest isn’t accepted as a form of regular love in our society, is that it’s a high-risk situation for control imbalance, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse - or alternatively, it exists as a result of familial/child abuse. Real cases of incest have shown to exist with these reasons, rather than healthy love. It’s with this knowledge that doubt is immediately cast on Korekiyo having genuinely been loved by his sister.
Of course, one could read it the opposite way - that he had an unhealthy obsession with his sister and was the one to abuse her - but to me, this is disproven by her act of pretending to embrace him before laughing at him during his execution, and the fact that she was the one to possess him and during the trial, he responded to her control/wants/orders (there was nothing to show he was acting on her behalf without her consent or knowledge; even a theory that she killed Angie to cause him to get caught doesn’t hold water, since he was putting together Tenko’s murder at the time, and finally, she made the damn uniform for him - it all comes back to the uniform in the end!!!1!).
But uuuh don’t quote me on this or anything
[content warnings: references to incest, abuse, sexual abuse, sexual assault]
Anyway, I still stand strongly by my theory that we’re meant to understand that Korekiyo’s sister is the one who killed Angie. Unfortunately, I think for some reason, a shitton of Korekiyo’s characterisation was buried very deep between the lines, in tiny characters. I haven’t played DRV3 in a long while, but I feel like he’s possibly the worst example of that writing flaw.
At this point in time, I really can’t view Korekiyo’s situation of incest as anything but a case of him being a victim. I was just thinking about his Love Suite Event… (rewatches it for reference…) … HOLY SHIT IT’S FORWARD.
…I was just thinking about his Love Suite Event, and the possibility that he, himself, hasn’t known anything but this. If I recall, his Free Time Events (or Bonus Mode, you’ll understand that this is my brainrot archiving Korekiyo memories, and not that I played the game recently) implied that he had experienced being bound himself.
(Screenshot from the Danganronpa Wiki on Fandom.)
…Right. (I am not a fan of Shuuichi but “I feel like that door should remain closed.” is an objectively funny line.)
The rest is about being reunited with, assumedly, his sister, and the entire event is him describing things very vaguely. It’s completely unclear - to me at least - what the practice he’s referring to is. Obviously, this is on purpose.
But my reading of Korekiyo (she’s writing another Korekiyo post right now isn’t she) is that of a victim of abuse who has not realised it’s abuse. Personally, I view his insistence on the beauty of both the “beautiful and ugly” of humanity as something he’s saying to reassure himself - a world-view he made himself adopt because the truth is much scarier.
In his fantasy, Korekiyo is the one in control. And I can’t help but view his description of the other person’s feelings - something ugly, that he cannot love, only toy with (“responding to out of simple curiosity”) as a projection of how he views his own feelings, or has been made to think them as. Though of course this could be doubly, or solely read as a reference to him already considering his heart taken.
…And with my reading of it, of course the fact that he sees it as normal to stop Shuuichi from running away, might just be what has been hammered as normal to him.
(That does not make it right. The rest of the event puts it as though Shuuichi does fall under his charm, because it’s not trying to be that dark, but the entire event is a horrible, inappropriate way to approach BDSM. My point is exactly this: this isn’t healthy. It’s a torturous reality that victims of abuse might turn out to be abusers themselves for lack of knowledge of anything else, or of where the boundaries between “abuse” and “normalcy” lie - and I don’t shy away from reading Korekiyo’s writing as such because I know Kodaka hasn’t shied away from writing a grimmer version of this in a previous instalment.)
His final FTE, in which he describes being bound and whipped, contributes to my reading that he refuses to acknowledge he’s being abused. Being in control in his fantasy could be an attempt to reclaim control over BDSM acts - but because it’s not described as him consenting to a clear act with Shuuichi, and rather just a fantasy that lies in his mind, I mostly view it as… he doesn’t have any other reference for how it’s done.
To come back to his relationship with his sister, as I’ve explored in past posts, I view it in a similar lens: she was the one controlling him, and at the time of his death, he hadn’t had the ability to get out of her control. (Most abusers disappear when they die, but she did not. See “I’m Glad My Mom Died” by Jennette McCurdy - in her very real experience, she struggled as a kid as she both loved and feared her mother, and as an adult, was able to put words on the fact that she’d been abused after her mom was gone. Obviously, Korekiyo’s very loose writing of such a situation is not a good reference to learn about this type of abuse and its survivors at all.) Her lack of love - despite pretending she cared - for him was hinted at in his execution, although again, this isn’t set in stone, as it could just be a case of Monokuma using her image to torture him.
All of this does nothing to change the crimes he committed - what it does is put his situation into perspective.
Of course, there’s the matter of… “how much of this is headcanon, rather than reading between the lines?” and you may judge me however you like. (The most harshly the most you disagree with my takes.) I personally identify this as my reading of canon, so I wouldn’t use the words “headcanon” or “theory”, but because canon gives us so little, I veer into theory territory. My main wish is that the writing of Trial 3 had been a lot more transparent about Korekiyo’s surprise to “how much their accusations [about Angie] sounded right”. Korekiyo was one of Danganronpa’s most obvious killers, and the trial could have done with some confusing or heart-tugging “wait, I really don’t think I did it”, before his sister gets here and convinces him to accept it. Similarly to the way Danganronpa 2’s Trial 2 blurred the lines about Peko’s culpability a bit, without making the player doubt it too much either… it’s just good characterisation. From that point on, I think it would have been a lot easier for many players to question the position his sister had towards him.
Something I haven’t mentioned here but that contributes to my assumptions is that the very reason incest isn’t accepted as a form of regular love in our society, is that it’s a high-risk situation for control imbalance, emotional abuse, and sexual abuse - or alternatively, it exists as a result of familial/child abuse. Real cases of incest have shown to exist with these reasons, rather than healthy love. It’s with this knowledge that doubt is immediately cast on Korekiyo having genuinely been loved by his sister.
Of course, one could read it the opposite way - that he had an unhealthy obsession with his sister and was the one to abuse her - but to me, this is disproven by her act of pretending to embrace him before laughing at him during his execution, and the fact that she was the one to possess him and during the trial, he responded to her control/wants/orders (there was nothing to show he was acting on her behalf without her consent or knowledge; even a theory that she killed Angie to cause him to get caught doesn’t hold water, since he was putting together Tenko’s murder at the time, and finally, she made the damn uniform for him - it all comes back to the uniform in the end!!!1!).
But uuuh don’t quote me on this or anything
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