Regarding Ruruka Ando

Surprise, surprise, it’s a Danganronpa post! Let’s get started with some backstory for those not familiar with the anime “Danganronpa 3 The End of Kibougamine Gakuen (Mirai Hen).” The story takes place amongst the Future Foundation who have been called to a meeting by their president, former Headmaster of Hopes Peak Academy, Kazuo Tengan. Once all the members are there, the building is attacked and all the security guards in the building are dead. After some initial investigation, the meeting room everyone is in is filled with sleeping gas and knocks everyone out. Once everyone wakes up, they discover they have these bracelets on their hand and may be in more trouble than they realize. The monitor turns on, showing our favorite des-bear, Monokuma, who goes on to tell them they’re in a final killing game, however is different from the ones that Makoto Naegi, Aoi Asahina, and Kyoko Kirigiri are use to. Realizing someone is missing, one Kyosuke Munakata notices that his high school friend, Chisa Yukizome, is hanging from the chandelier, dead.

The rules of the killing game are as follows:

-Time Limit: the bracelets on their arms display a timer, that, when it runs out, will induce a sleeping serum that will knock everyone out, but one will wake up before the others. This person is known as the attacker, who will have enough time to kill one of the remaining participants. If the remaining members manage to pass a time limit without anyone dying, they all win.

-NG Codes: The bracelets not only display a timer but also display an action the wearer cannot perform. If performer, a lethal injection of poison claims their lives. If the wearer attempts to tamper or take the bracelet off, they will be injected with the poison as well, so they’re stuck with the bracelets.

Now we can get to the point I was trying to make involving the Ultimate Baker, Ruruka Ando. It isn’t revealed until much later in the show that her NG Code is allowing someone to leave the playing field. Essentially, until the game is over, she cannot allow anyone to leave, even if a way out is discovered, so she has plenty to worry about on top of someone attempting to kill them one by one. Throughout the series, we see that Ruruka only seems to know how to make pastries and give them to people as a sign of gratitude. However, an old classmate of hers, Seiko Kimura (R.I.P.), cannot eat her sweets as they affect the medicine she takes and could potentially kill her. Ruruka has been told this numerous times and still suspects that Seiko does not want her sweets and is only pretending to be her friend, and the same is said about what Seiko thinks of Ruruka. They both eventually get expelled from Hopes Peak and join the Future Foundation afterwards. Both blame the other for their expulsion when it was actually Nagito Komaeda who was responsible for the incident. Ruruka is very suspicious of everyone in the building, especially of Seiko, but puts all of her trust in her boyfriend, Sonosuke Izayoi, however betrays him shortly before the third time limit (Which claims Seiko) by putting food in his mouth, which is his forbidden action. So she has nobody else to trust at this point and is on the lookout for anyone she deems dangerous. She has no redemption at this point, so when the fourth time limit rolls around and her body is found all cut up and her candies in her mouth, you can imagine that I’m extremely excited by this turn of events. All she did was bully Seiko, became part of a group that wanted to oppose the Future Foundation from the inside, and was an overall nasty person. Can anyone defend Ruruka Ando in her actions?