Kirigiri Was Justified

Everyone here likely knows of trial 5 in Trigger Happy Havoc. A good number of you probably got the bad ending on the first try, thinking that Kirigiri must be the culprit due to the fact that she had the master key. Many criticise her choice of saving herself and leaving Naegi to die. And that's understandable, sure.

But was she really at blame with her choice? Can we justify her choice? Is there a legitimate reason for what she did? Well, that's what I'm going to try and do now.

Check out Cookie's blog debating the opposite side - Kyoko isn't justified

#TTDV3

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IN GAME

Art

Before we even get to what she did, we have to examine who she is. A large part of that comes from her previous actions during the game. There's one specific thing I want to analyse - her trust. Or rather, her problems with trust.

The first motive we are introduced with when we meet with Kirigiri is exactly that. Her whole character is built around how she learns to truly allow herself the feel and trust. But at the beginning, she shows no desire to share anything. She meets Naegi with silence, not even mentioning her amnesia when interrogated by Naegi.

Her development continues with her keeping being reserved while simultaneously slowly revealing things about herself to Naegi, and the rest of the class when necessary.

So, why exactly is she so distrustful?

It starts with her father, mother and grand fathet. With her mother's death, her father ends up abandoning her, leaving her to live uncle. That easily plants the first seeds of her distrust.

Then comes the time when she has burnt her hand. As I haven't read Danganronpa: Kirigiri, I don't know if it mentioned what happened there, but we do know enough to determine how that affected her.

“Simply put, there was a time when I grew attached to someone, and I made a bad decision. I was forced to learn a very powerful lesson, and these gloves are a daily reminder of that. So on these gloves, I swore to never make the same mistake again.”

From those words we can deduce that one, Kirigiri has allowed herself to trust someone, and two, that trust had stabbed her in the back, giving her pain in return. Whatever had happened had forced her into losing the ability to connect with someone else, to the point where one might call it a fear.

During the game, Kirigiri doesn't have her memories and, therefore, can't what happened back then. Even in this situation she has no reason to trust anyone as she literally re nothing. It's an understandable reaction to her surroundings.

Danganronpa introduces us to her opposite, in that sense. Naegi Makoto, the one who trusts the most from the group. Ironically or not, he is the only person Kirigiri allows herself to trust as well. As she slowly re her memories, she will grow more sure, yet more sceptical of her trust in Naegi.

So, what exactly does all this play in the 5th trial?

As we all know, the fifth trial is pretty much a trial created by Junko Enoshima to eliminate both Kirigiri and Naegi, originally by attempting to kill Naegi and putting the blame on Kirigiri. And though it was unsuccessful, there is no way anyone would have known then.

Originally Kirigiri is away for a long time during the investigation, a fact that already puts a lot of suspicion on her. Due to that, Kirigiri knows nothing about who had died, nor does she know any evidence. Even so, she allows herself to trust Naegi and tell him about the master key. Due to his nature, she doesn't believe it will end up being him.

However, soon enough Kirigiri realises the nature of the trial. It's a very obvious trap, set up so either she or Naegi will turn out to be the blackened. And here is where the controversial part of the trial and her whole characterization comes in. She acts against Naegi, forcing the blame on him.

Many people would say that she was wrong about this action of hers, that it was immoral and wrong. Some say that she ‘threw Naegi under the bus’ and ultimately betrayed him. To all of those I reply - what would you do?

Kirigiri reacted like many humans would. She realises the danger that would come in being voted the blackened - she will die. This isn't some game where no one will be injured and everyone will come at happy and safe no matter who loses. People die and she understands that.

By instinct people are driven to fight for survival. It's what helped us evolve into the modern human and it still exists. Ultimately, Kirigiri had been fighting for her own survival. And let's be honest - how many people wouldn't do that?

However, that isn't the only reason Kirigiri has to betray Naegi. There is one more reason.

Stated multiple time, Kirigiri is trying to find out who the mastermind is. From the fourth trial forward she ignores the game, focusing on finding out the truth of what is going on. She has now discovered the key that can open any door and has the chance to finally succeed in finishing the game.

The trap from the mastermind is because of her actions. Junko doesn't want her plan to fail and at that moment Kirigiri is her biggest threat. Because Kirigiri allowed herself to trust Naegi, he is also a threat but along he doesn't have that big of a chance. The whole reason why she erased Kirigiri’s memory was to try and stop her from knowing she is a detective, so she doesn't end up doing… what she is doing.

Kirigiri has realised at least enough of the above to make a choice. She knows the mastermind wants her dead and she knows why. She doesn't want to stay alive solely due to some instinct - Kirigiri is highly logical, after all, she will always try to not be influenced by emotions.

In the end, she is the one who has the biggest chance of defeating the mastermind alone. If she dies, everything she had managed to find until that moment would be lost, leaving Naegi with whatever she had shared with him. And by then Naegi won't be able to do anything. The mastermind will probably take away the master key before he could even think of retrieving it, leaving whoever is left with no means to finish what Kirigiri had started.

And considering the ‘bad ending’, that wasn't a wrong deduction.

Weighing down what will likely happen, Kirigiri realises she has to act against what could possibly happen. She has to fight so she can live because she is the person who can actually do something.

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OUTSIDE THE GAME

There is one more reason why what Kirigiri did was the right thing. Now, this isn't exactly justifying her actions in game. I'd like to justify the reason why they would overall go with this route.

Like I mentioned in the beginning, Kirigiri has problems with trust. Her whole character is built around that, in a sense. You don't know who she is until she allows herself to trust Naegi more and more, revealing who she is.

The fifth trial is a clear contradiction to the trust she has allowed herself to show to Naegi. She is put in a position where she has to either trust Naegi or not. From a writer's piece of view, it is vital that she ends up not trusting him.

Kirigiri not trusting Naegi is important so that she grows as a character. The reason for that is simple and a bit counterintuitive. Kirigiri needs to betray Naegi so that she can finally learn to trust again.

Kirigiri had stopped trusting people when she got injured due to being betrayed. Her hand bears the burn and reminds her to be wary of others. Then comes the trial where she has to betray Naegi. In those actions, she herself burns Naegi’s hand, at least in her head.

Caution! The next paragraph has a slight spoiler from the Danganronpa 3 anime.

She's learning from two different places. First, she sees her own thought process and what happens due to that mistake. Second, she learns from Naegi himself. This lesson builds her as a character, even leading us to her forbidden action in Danganronpa 3.

The trial is made to act as a character development for Kirigiri, creating the culmination of when she realises that it's not a bad thing if she trusts someone.

The trial also builds a contrast between her and Naegi, showing Naegi as her opposite. He trusts people, a lot. Just like Kirigiri’s character arc finished with her realising that she needed to trust more, Naegi’s just started. However, his is more centred around showing that he is to become the Ultimate Hope. For him to start his arc, however, Kirigiri has to betray him, otherwise his actions wouldn't speak as loudly.

Whether you look at it from the side of Kirigiri having no other choice but to betray Naegi, or you look at what she did from a writer’s perspective, I truly think Kirigiri was justified in what she did. Was her reasoning good? Debatable, obviously. But even so being justified doesn't always mean ‘good’. Like Cookies mentioned in his own blog - justified means something being done for morally comprehensible reason and I believe that is was done for such a reason.

Thanks for reading!

Saryana