Did you ever notice how she always put two fingers on her left arm whenever she crosses her arms? This could be a habit of hers (or I'm just probably delusional).

Further information here and also here.

made by me

DISCLAIMER: i would greatly appreciate it if you read the whole post before stating your opinion on the topics. i'm gonna try to explain how i see them, and why, and would prefer you see where im coming from to better explain how you see them and where you're coming from

i wanna preface this with saying that everything in this post is how i understand the game and will try to back up my statements with facts from the game itself (base game by default, but will use Plus when specified) as a few things based on irl (when we get to that, you'll know why). but with that out of the way...

Monika

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one thing i have really noticed in regards to how Monika is viewed is generally one extreme or the other... "Monika is evil and is the worst because of it" or "Monika is a saint and did absolutely nothing wrong"... i will address these 1 at a time...

i believe that Monika, despite all that she did, is not a bad person. she's really just your normal everyday highschool girl going about her life... the issue arises when she gets the epiphany and is aware that she's in the game. she realizes that nothing in her world is real... nothing that she remembers is real... not even her friends are real... and to make it worse, whenever the system her world resides on shuts off the game (your computer in the base game and the virtual desktop in Plus), everything stays normal... for a few seconds. after a few seconds, she starts getting bombarded with painful lights and sounds that would be beyond painful. she even says this in Act 3... "I see static and rapid flashes of color while hearing all kinds of weird screaming noises. At that point, I can't even form my own thoughts anymore. I'm just endlessly hammered by the flashing and screaming, unable to move or even think." i would never wish that even on someone i deeply dislike, and Monika has to deal with that everytime the game is closed... so of course she would be desparate to try to get that to stop. but another issue arises... she cant code... or at the very least, knows next to nothing about coding. but she has to do it anyways if she wants to get to you to keep the game running for as long as possible. since she has no route in the game, she has to go to different measures to try to get to you... and since she knows next to nothing about coding, she has to tinker with things on the go. with the first thing to try being file editing... and she starts with Sayori. you see, we know Sayori has depression... and since she doesnt think the others are real, she thinks that if she raises Sayori's depression, the player would be less likely to focus on Sayori and focus on Monika instead. but the script backfires this by having MC focus more on Sayori due to her depression getting worse by that Friday (the day the player has to choose who to help with for the festival and the day that Sayori goes home early). this ultimately comes crashing down when Sayori ultimately confesses her depression to MC and then offs herself the day of the festival. Monika then tries to fix things... but due to everything going wrong and still being new to coding, she resorts to "deleting" Sayori instead (more on deletion later) and restart the game. then in Act 2, she tries to raise Yuri's obsessiveness in hopes that she would creep the player out and want to spend less time with Yuri and more with Monika... the issue with that, is that Yuri instead forces you to spend time with her instead of the others. not fully realizing this yet, Monika continues to steadily raise her stat while trying other things (que the making Yuri and Natsuki say stuff and the poem that caused a false crash). this ultimately causes Yuri to be so obsessed with the player that she kills herself in front of the MC so that he'd be the last thing she saw before she died. when Monika sees this, she is caught off-guard and apologizes that the player had to witness it before "deleting" Yuri and Natsuki and transitioning into Act 3, where she finally achieved her goal of being as close to the player as she can... and because she has a plethora of topics to talk about, there'd be no reason to shut down the game... right? (obviously not, bc we need to delete her file to continue the game) one of these topics touches on the whole thing with Sayori... and in this topic, not only does she state that she wishes that she handled the whole thing more tactfully (tact: "a keen sense of what to do or say in order to maintain good relations with others"), but when she asks if we're still not hung up over it, she immediately recoils from that, saying she couldnt believe she said that and that it wasnt intentional. this one bit of dialogue leads me to believe that the only other time she made a dark joke like that ("you kinda left her hanging this morning") to not be one of ill intent, but moreso a coping mechanism... because here's the thing... even if everything was fabricated in her reality, Sayori... Yuri... Natsuki... they were all still her friends... she even says so after you delete her file: "I know I said that I deleted everyone else. But...that was kind of an exaggeration. I couldn't find it in myself to do it. Even though I knew they weren't real... They were still my friends." not to mention, she even touches on memories like as if they were still real memories (see Yuri bringing in bottles of wine for the club). another thing that leads me to believe that she didnt show anything in regards to what she did throughout the previous 2 acts is when she talks about confidence. when she brings it up, she says "I think the most important skill in life is being able to fake confidence... ...I think I got pretty good at that over the years. I don't show my weaknesses very often." why would she be able to fake her confidence, but not hide her true feelings? (again, see above where she admitted to being unable to truly delete the others) then there comes Plus with the side stories. while the side stories and base game are separate in their canonicity... some things are shared between the 2... and the one attribute crucial to this is the fact that Side Stories Monika and base game Monika both have elevated access and both technically have access to the console for the simulation they reside in... the only difference is, SS Monika doesnt have awareness, unlike Base Monika, who does. this, paired with the fact that normal ending Sayori does the same thing that Monika does, but more swiftly, ALSO leads me to believe that Monika is and was never a bad person at all... only that the epiphany itself is what corrupts the person who is aware, causing them to do things they wouldnt normally do (Monika with attempting to make the others less likable and Sayori with outright deleting Yuri and Natsuki). then when you delete Monika, she realizes that she's just as not real like the others and can be "deleted" just like the others and realizes the mistakes of her actions and restarts everything while keeping herself out out of guilt.

that being said... she may not be a bad person, but what she's done is not good either. you see, she may be aware that her reality is fake, but that doesnt mean she's suddenly real either. she's still in the same level of reality as the others, she just can know things the others dont... and when she's no longer president, the vice president dons the role of presidency, which gives the epiphany... and who is next to be president other than sweet girl Sayori. but after becoming aware, she's no longer the sweet and innocent girl she once was in the first act of the game. once Yuri and Natsuki leave at the end of the day, depending on what you've done throughout the previous 3 acts, Sayori can do one of 2 things. the normal ending, which is achieved by only going down 1-2 routes, has Sayori going straight-up psycho and deleting Yuri and Natsuki right off the bat and bringing the player to the space room... only for Monika to stop Sayori last-second and delete the game after realizing that Sayori was doing what Monika did... and if Sayori was just deleted, Yuri would be next in line to don the epiphany... and to spare everyone else the pain that is the epiphany, Monika just deletes the game outright. and in the good ending (little side thing... but while i like the good ending more, i think the normal ending fits DDLC as a whole more than the good ending), Sayori thanks the player for spending time with all 4 girls and making everyone happy, before letting the game come to a close. the point im getting at with bringing up both act 4 endings is... how is Monika doing what she did in any way justifiable or right when they're just as sentient as Monika and can become aware if they are able to become president? i mean, she did have a reason for doing what she did, but having a clear-cut reason to do something doesnt mean it's right or good. if, one day, Dan Salvato suddenly gained knowledge about our world that no one else could ever know or believe, and he had the ability to anything he wanted, and used that knowledge to manipulate other people to achieve a specific goal... would that be a good thing because he'd be trying to escape the confines of our world? of course not! (didnt know who to use as an example without being controversial or having people be like "who's that person?" lol) likewise, Monika, before her epiphany, was just like the other girls... normal and human. "but Burrito, they're just video game characters... video game characters arent the same as human life"... i get that... but when analyzing the story of something, if the characters are in the same reality, then they should be treated as such... Sayori, Yuri, and Natsuki may not have been real... but neither was Monika. she just simply had more knowledge and power given only to those in presidency. (if you include Plus, then Monika would have awareness regardless due to her name literally being "MONIter Kernal Access"... but whether or not you accept that as true is up to you... it's a bonus point, but not as important) (and Sayori, Yuri, and Natsuki [and MC for the most part] are sentient... they may have been following the script, but they stray off the script... Sayori straight up offs herself after confessing her depression and love to the MC, regardless of whether you say you love her or see her as your dearest friend [plus, she gains Monika's awareness in act 4], Yuri exclaims multiple times in Act 2 that she knows something is wrong with her after her obsessive episodes, Natsuki begs the player to help Yuri because she knows something's wrong with her... only for Monika to quickly hijack Natsuki to tell the player everything is ok despite things clearly not being ok, and MC's whole mental breakdown after witnessing what happened to Sayori) yes, she didnt intend for Sayori to become a pinata... yes, she didnt mean for Yuri to become swiss cheese... but she still manipulated them to make them less desirable... and that is still a really bad thing to do. deleting her in act 3 brings her to her senses and realize that what she did was wrong. she realizes that she, too, can be deleted just like the others. what's done is done and she might not be able to undo completely what she did... but she tried to make it up by restoring the game (supposedly... as she didnt know Sayori would become aware) and staying out of the game bc she felt bad. her repentance of her actions and want to make it up to the player and her friends is why i like Monika so much. she did what she thought she had to do, realized her mistakes, learned from them, and tried to make amends the best she could.

my point in ALL of this is that Monika is not evil because of the epiphany being forced upon her beyond her control and its effects tormenting her beyond human comprehension... and her actions are understandable... but can not be justifiable. there is no justifying manipulating others... especially those who are sentient like you. (sentience: Sentience is the ability to experience feelings and sensations. as mention above, the others express these abilities outside of the script)

after saying all that i wanted to touch upon for Monika, now i'm gonna move on to...

MC/The Protagonist

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ah, the MC... the person whom we see the entire world of DDLC through... the one who's been debated about since the beginning of time itself (should probably clarify that that's a joke, lads).

MC's status as a character is one of hot debate... he was intended to not be a character, but just a vessel for the player to see the world through... but thanks to his personality, many people believe he is a character regardless. the lore says that he's not a character, that he was just created by one of the MES employees, and Dan expressed that him going silent throughout the second act was supposed to further indicate that he's not a character, unlike the 4 girls... but on DDLC's 3rd anniversary, Dan did a live stream, and in that live stream, he stated that, while he doesnt see MC as a character, he has no qualms with people treating him as one... and that leads me to believe that MC's status as a true character is not fully set in stone, but rather up for interpretation. there are people here who see him as a character, and there are also people here who dont see how he could be a character... and for the longest time, i used to think he was not a character because it wouldve gone against the lore and because i thought Dan had set in stone that MC wasnt a character... but as of a month or 2 ago (i think), i found out his status as a character could be up for interpretation, so now i'm more on the side of seeing him as one, because, after all... he's my third favorite character (with Monika and Sayori tied in first-... would that make MC take second spot? or third because of Monika and Sayori being ahead of him? ... that doesnt matter for this discussion lol). let's take at that word for a second... a character is "someone who appears in a book, movie, etc: a representation of an individual personality in a fictional or dramatic work." by that alone, MC is a character, no questions asked... BUT... using that, Natsuki's friends in the side stories and Natsuki's dad are characters themselves... Natsuki's friends appear in a few scenes of the side stories and are the main point of conflict for Natsuki, and her father, while not directly appearing in person, still is present and is the reason for her home problems... yet we dont consider them as characters, so we need to narrow things down a bit. Monika is a character because she's prominent in the game... Sayori is a character because she's prominent in the game... Yuri is a character because she's prominent in the game... and Natsuki is a character because she's prominent in the game... but so is the MC. unlike Dadsuki and Natsuki's friends, who are just there to cause conflicts for her, MC is there from when he walks to school after letting Sayori catch up to him, to Sayori keeping us captive in the space room/thanking us for playing the game. but at the same time, as act 2 progresses, he becomes less and less responsive, and in act 3, he's silent altogether (as well as when Sayori is thanking us/going act 3)... the intent was that it would show that he's not a real character, but it could also be seen has just simply amplifying his previous reclusiveness and being silent. as said before, it's really up for interpretation how you think things are (and if you've read this far, you get 3 chocolate chip cookies baked by Natsuki)

annd then there's the whole "MC is bad" ordeal... no he's not. he's not a bitch, he's not a pervert, he's not a loser or anything along those lines. he didnt join the club to get with one of the girls, he joined because he was guilt-tripped after saying he wasnt gonna join initially. at the end of that day, only THEN did he say that he was gonna "use this opportunity to get closer with one of the girls". with Sayori, he playfully jabbed at her, but only because she was his childhood friend and didnt know she had depression... with Yuri, he was calm and patient with her so that she would be more comfortable and be less anxious when interacting with him... and with Natsuki, he playfully teased her, but was accepting of her interests and was willing to try Parfait Girls even though he thought it would be moe... and with Monika, he may have thought she was out of his league, but he was still willing to join the club to help her and her club members out as needed. the ABSOLUTE worst thing MC ever did... was say "i feel betrayed as your best friend" when Sayori confessed her depression to him... but even then, it was dumped on him all at once, so ofc he'd be in shock... it may not have been a good thing to say, but he was in shock at the revelation.

with ALL of that being said... i wanna reiterate that this is how i see the events of the game and who Monika and MC are. if you dislike or hate Monika because of what she did? that's ok. if you think she's a good person? that's acceptable too. if you see MC as a character? that's great! if you dont? that's understandable too. just... dont be rude about it, 'kay? i dont want any arguments or insults being thrown simply for having disagreements with me or anyone else. we all have our own opinions and we all see things differently... it's what makes us who we are. and with that, hope you have a great day/night

TLDR: Monika is not evil because the epiphany that was forced upon her, broke and tormented her which caused her to do the things she did out of desperation, but it doesnt justify what she did, and MC is a character if you see him as such, but regardless of whether you do or not, the actions performed by him really indicate that he's not a bad person, unlike what some people may say

Twitter showed this to me

Im not paying $10000000 for sjipping just to wait 8 months, plus i cant get them before the pre order ends

Life is but a tunnel

Long and dark

Filled with despair

You can distract yourself

Laugh and joke around

Ignore it all you want

But no matter what you do

Time will come for you too

Repost cuz there was a typo

As seen on Twitter

Disclaimer: I’m posting the whole chapter because I don’t want anybody to think this is a lewd scene