[ENDING SPOILER]! The entire basis of who the mastermind is, is flawed.

[Bitcoin Baron]

I'll keep this short and simple because this game has already wasted enough of my time. Do not read on if you do not want the ending spoilt!

At the eventual end of this game, the remaining characters use a whole lot of shaky ground and near impossible reasoning to work out that the mastermind is Junko. However, this isn't necessarily the case.

It is possible that both the 16th student and Junko are dead, there are no other people besides the students in the school, and monokuma does not lie. Although the rest of the contrived plot is built around the assumption that she is the mastermind, there is an alternative Supporting physical evidence exists in the game and is found in the garden shed. I am referring of course to Mondo Odawa.

I watched his punishment movie more than five times and I feel there is no hard evidence that he was actually killed. Sure he spins around the cage a lot, sure the cage lights up and everything goes white, sure some butter is served out of the weird machine after, but no actual footage shows what is definately a fatal injury.

Thus I feel that everything from the rather narrow way in which the narrative tries to convince us that Junko is still alive to the end of the game is all rather flimsy and may be false. If you were to ask me before the first trial who the likely mastermind is, if they were a student, I'd say definately either Byakuya or Mondo.

It almost seems like the devs changed their minds and went for Junko, but didnt erase out all the proof that pointed to Mondo maybe still being alive. Instead opting for a rediculously more complex and confusing ending due to the amount of dialogue they could then force the player to sit through to reach the end.

[Pikaman20008]

Actually, Mondo's execution was meant to imply that the motorcycle went so fast that the resulting G-Force liquified his body.

[Runa Silvertongue]

Byakuya was the only one of the two you mentioned who had enough money to set everything up well before The Tragedy, but to say that either he or Mondo was the true mastermind is nothing short of ridiculous. Byakuya's bottom line is his family name/inheritance, and Mondo cared more for his brother, Taka, and Chihiro than to have the stones/financial backing to pull something as elaborate as this off.

Monokuma DOES lie though, when it serves to make the game more interesting. There's plenty of evidence in other games that fully supports the fact that Junko wanted the entire world to experience just a fraction of her overwhelming despair.

[Kalikoded]

I don't think the devs changed their mind. Pretty early in the game Junko doesn't "match up". Believe it or not, I came to the conclusion that the body was "Junko's" weeeell before the trial because it really seemed like the wounds were an important clue. If she was by herself sneaking around the school the whole time, how would she just be all wounded for no reason? I also counted the lights in the morgue and saw the wrong number. You could have the wrong number of bodies with Mondo being alive, but not really have ANY of the context of the fake murder section. It didn't feel like shaky ground at all. It made sense.

Although I thought Byakuya was her partner. Mainly for the same reason as many others. He's the only one with the "resources" to set it up. That part still doesn't make sense, but I haven't played the sequels yet. For me it makes less sense to ignore her evidence and think it's mondo just because of the pickaxe.

[Pikaman20008]

Originally posted by Kalikoded:

Although I thought Byakuya was her partner. Mainly for the same reason as many others. He's the only one with the "resources" to set it up. That part still doesn't make sense, but I haven't played the sequels yet. For me it makes less sense to ignore her evidence and think it's mondo just because of the pickaxe.

The sequels explain it. I won't say much other than that Junko had a lot of help.

[Runa Silvertongue]

Originally posted by Pikaman20008:

The sequels explain it. I won't say much other than that Junko had a lot of help.

Yep, that's exactly correct.

[Spockus]

Mondo's pickaxe in the shed is just another hint that the cast all went to HPA together before the tragedy befell the world.

Idk why I spoiler tagged this lmao

[Runa Silvertongue]

Originally posted by Spockus:

Mondo's pickaxe in the shed is just another hint that the cast all went to HPA together before the tragedy befell the world.

Idk why I spoiler tagged this lmao

That's actually a really good point.

[Eanvohn1]

When the first comment says "near impossible reasoning" are you talking about the fact that Monokuma tried to hide Junko's face? As for the "monokuma does not lie" part, monokuma lied at least twice (thrice?): one about the fake motive for Sakura about commiting suicide (Monokuma said it was because of brutality, Sakura said it was to stop the conflict everyone was having), he lied about Makoto killing Mukuro, and I'm not sure if acting like Mukuro was Junko was a lie or deception.

[PopolaUNK]

If the game cheated you by making someone seem alive who isn't then that would ruin the despair, yes Junko was alive but someone died in her place