LogFAQs > #951046218

#32: Byakuya Togami
Main Cast (Male) Ranking: 12/16
Survivor Ranking: 9/11
Ultimate Ability: Ultimate Affluent Prodigy
Actual Ultimate Ability: Ultimate Affluent Asshole

Welcome to part two of my three part series characters Suprak hates that you like and will get you to stop reading my rankings because of my terrible opinions. I apologize in advance. Well, not really advance, anymore. I apologize halfway through. I actually thought placing Byakuya this low was more controversial than Fuyuhiko, but based on some recent responses I might actually be wrong about that and more people hate Byakuya than I thought. Well, ok, I dont totally hate him. This tier is really for characters I more have a notable dislike for even though they do some good stuff every once in a while. That happens to pretty much perfectly describe how I feel about Byakuya, so in a way he is the perfect embodiment of this tier.

I mightve been a bit unfair with my clue, as Byakuya is probably not the guy that stands out when you think of really stupid characters. There are some painfully dumb characters that make it out of these games alive, and Byakuya at least isnt accusing people of being ghosts or drooling in the corner while everyone is investigating. I will stand by my accusation though, as I think Byakuya does some of the dumbest things of any character in either game. And what is annoying is how the game keeps insisting he is smart, when his every action is serving as evidence to the contrary. Maybe it would be safer to say he is less dumb and more so egotistical that he cannot fathom how other people think and it leads him to doing a series of really dumb actions throughout the course of the game but it still leads to so many dumb things.

Byakuya is positioned as the villain early in the game, which could be sort of fun. Some upcoming spoilers, but I did like how they did this with Nagito in the second game. But Byakuya doesnt work nearly as well because Byakuya, despite loudly announcing every chance he gets that he and he alone understands how this game works, has no fucking clue how this game works. He keeps announcing how he will kill someone and how it will be glorious, and it ranks up with the dumbest action taken by any character in either game. When Fuyuhiko does this in the second game, I got more of the impression that he was bluffing. Hey guys Im a big tough yukuza and I do big tough things because Im a big tough guy and not two toddlers sitting on each others shoulders in an expensive suit. With Byakuya though, it is pretty clear he means it. He talks about it in his free time events, he brings it up multiple times throughout the course of the game, and he loudly proclaims it every chance he gets in a group setting. The game wants you to know that Byakuya is out to kill someone and is meant to be that element of danger (and the constant red herring) in the back of your mind. Oh shoot someone is dead well Byakuya said he wanted to murder someone by drowning them in his Scrooge McDuck money binmaybe it was him sort of thing. By doing this though, they make Byakuya look like an idiot.

I could not stop thinking that the absolute DUMBEST way to pull this off is to tell everyone you were going to do it before you do it. It serves no purpose. If youre not an idiot, you do it like Celeste. You tell everyone how great it is and how we need to get used to living here even if you hate living here. Thats devious mastermind stuff right there. Byakuya saying Im going to win this game by murdering someone is like going up to someone and saying Im going to throw a surprise party for you two weeks before your birthday so you're surprised. Now, part of this isnt his fault as a character. Part of this is on the writers for not thinking how to add in that element of danger. Nagito is great because hes insane and doesnt care if people know hes up to crazy stuff. Byakuya, who at least outwardly says he wants to win the game, hampers his chances of doing so by telling everyone. Now, of course he keeps telling everyone so chapter 4 can be more dramatic when he gets mad at tells Monokuma hes bowing out of the game and is going to fight him and him alone. His whole character was set up for that late game face turn, but the way they set him up as a heel comes off clumsy. He can be a rich jerk and a snob and an elitist asshole (and he is, even later in the game). Fine! Great! Perfect! What he cant do is be the super smart character and the character loudly telling everyone how he is going to murder when the plan needs to be to get away with murder. Part of this can be explained away by the fact he is an egotistic bastard that thinks he is so much smarter than everyone else he doesnt care that hes tipping his hand. But it is precisely because of his ego that he is so 1) annoying and 2) dumb.

Oh, and speaking of dumb, what I really want to talk about with Byakuya is the single dumbest red herring in either game. Dumber than Hiro passed out in a robot costume. Dumber than whatever the hell Peko was trying to do in case 2. Dumber than anything else you can think of. Byakuyas plot to implicate Toko and then himself to figure out who the smart characters were and who he needed to watch out for was one of the most eye-rolling moments for me in either game. Not because I thought the writing was bad or because it didnt fit Byakuyas character, but because it did fit his character and really cemented my thoughts of him being an egotistic idiot. He frames Toko and himself for a crime after seeing Mondo walk away from Chihiros corpse. He lazily implicates Toko, which he assumes will then implicate himself, and he does this all because otherwise the case would be too easy and he wouldnt know who his true worthy opponents were in this game. Im just going to go out on a limb here and say framing yourself for a murder when the punishment is death is shockingly stupid when you have no reasonable escape plan.

I meanwhat exactly was his plan here if someone didnt figure it out?

condescending Byakuya voice Of course you fools would think it was me. You and your commoner brains. But now is when I pull back the curtain so even your ant sized brains can understand
Mondo Nah, were ready to vote now.
Makoto Yeah Monokuma lets vote
Byakuya, surprised pose Wait, hold on. See, the truth is Mondo committed the murder! I saw him walking away from the body.
Makoto But how would he know about the Genocide Jack stuff?
Byakuya Ah, ok. I see how that might be an issue. Heres the thing though. I did all that stuff. All the set up and finding a paint brush so I could make BLOODLUST look like it came out of a typewriter and then I took Chihiros corpse and I posed it so you would THINK it was Toko and then would THINK it was me but it wasnt really.
Makoto ok, yeah were ready to vote now.

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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."