So, I was giving my amazing wonderful friend advice on how to write/roleplay Ruruka Ando, and had the thought that I should share the advice I gave her to help all you Danganronpa writer and role players with your struggles. Maybe I'll do a series of this where I help teach you guys how to write other characters or certain plot elements or other stuff. Would you guys like that?

Anyway, there three basic types of ways to write Ruruka. There's how she was in Despair Arc during her time at Hope's Peak, well call this Hope's Peak Ruruka. Then there's how she is in Future Arc at Future Foundation, which we'll sub Future Foundation Ruruka. There is also a third type of style for Ruruka, which I use for my texting book. We'll call this style Alternate Future Foundation Ruruka. This style is basically a healthy medium between the other two styles, where Ruruka is still friends with Seiko at Future Foundation. This style is best used for roleplaying and scenarios where the events of Despair Arc have not taken place, but Seiko and other characters from DR are present.

The main differences between the styles is that Future Foundation Ruruka is a bit more mature and grown up. She's also more untrusting and cynical. Hope's Peak is more trusting, friendly, open, less insecure about betrayal. There's also Alternate Future Foundation, where Ruruka and Sonosuke Izayoi are friends with Seiko Kimura, but is still mature and cynical, kind of like Hajime. This knowledge is good to determine which style to use for the situation you wish to write Ruruka in.

Now, let's begin by going over Hope's Peak Ruruka.

Ruruka only appears in a single episode of Despair Arc, Episode 4 to be exact. We also see flashbacks of her younger life throughout several episodes of Future Arc. An illusion of her appears in Super Danganronpa 2.5, but this illusion was created from Nagito Komaeda's views and thoughts on her, so her behavior in the OVA does not give us information about how she herself acts and behaves, but instead about Nagito himself. This means the only evidence we can gather about Hope's Peak Ruruka is from Episode 4 and the flashbacks from Future Arc.

To begin, Ruruka is a friendly, bubbly person. She loves it when people eat her sweets, and this is how she gets along with others. If someone eats her sweets, she'll take an immediate liking to them. If they don't, this won't be an immediate deal breaker, provided there is an excuse, and even if there isn't, she won't immediately hate them. She'll frequently offer sweets to her friends, acting very friendly towards them. If she fascinated by their talents, like how Ruruka was so fascinated that Seiko could create such amazing drugs, she'll often comment on how incredible she thinks it is, similar to how Mikan Tsumiki and Nagito compliment people on their talents, also notably asking for demonstrations or examples, like how she got drugs from Seiko, for example, Kazuichi Souda to fix things for her or Mikan to treat small injuries or infections that she, or perhaps Sonosuke or even her friends, have sustained.

To people who she doesn't have any specific hatred towards, such as strangers or other students she'll pass or encounter in the school, she'll act rather neutral. She won't outright hate or dislike anyone unless they creep her out, like Daisaku Bandai's voice, Teruteru Hanamura's extremely perverted behavior, Hifumi Yamada's perverted comments, and other things like that. She'd only really hate someone if they hated her sweets and also had some sort of reason for her to dislike them, like treating her badly or badmouthing her. She'd be a tad bit wary over strange personalities like Gundam Tanaka, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Sonia Nevermind and such, but she'd still try her best to be friendly. Intimidating appearances like Sakura Ogami and Nekomaru Nidai would also cause her to exercise caution, but once she gets a feel of their personalities, she will decide how to act around them and treat them.

As for her relationship with Sonosuke, we'll get to that later. For now, let's discuss Future Foundation Ruruka.

Ruruka appeared in the first 6 episodes of Future Arc. She was not seen in Episode 7, but she appeared again in Epiosdes 8 and 9, where she died. She was also briefly seen again in a flashback in Epsiode 11 when Makoto Naegi explains that Kyoko Kirigiri figured out that she, like Seiko, Chisa Yukizome, and Great Gozu, the poor guy, committed suicide after watching the Suicide Video. She is not mentioned again because Kodaka is a dick and apparently the survivors of Future Arc did not give a shit about their coworkers.

During her time alive in the Future Foundation, Ruruka acts cold and cynical towards the other members, having developed self-loathing issues, evident from her brutal brainwashed suicide, and having developed insecurities about betrayal from the misunderstanding that occurred in Episode 4 of Despair Arc. She is more blunt and honest about her opinions than her past self and has trust issues. She is also shown to be unforgiving and calculating.

Ruruka will not treat others with much respect, due to having trust issues and not having the emotional ability to handle the possible betrayal. Deep down though, she is shown to care about others, or at least Seiko, when Seiko is attempting to break the windows to reach her and she reflects on their past friendship. This could mean that she cares deeply for the other members of Future Foundation, but does not show it in order to keep herself distanced from them and to not handle the betrayal that could possibly happen in her mind. Ruruka is also shown to display paranoia over things she loves, most likely coming from her trust issues. Her paranoia makes her actually believe that something physically possible, for example Sonosuke betraying her, could actually happen, which could be the source of her insecurities.

She is very insecure and clingy, constantly asking Sonosuke for constant assurance that he will not betray her and to promise not to betray her. When Sonosuke finds the "hidden exit", Ruruka's insecurities, paranoia, and trust issues overpower her love for Sonosuke and force her to kill him so she does not have to think about the heart-wrenching thought of him possibly betraying her, to which Sonosuke understands, showcasing how much he cares about her and how much he knows about her insecurities and trust issues. Ruruka's self-loathing issues may also have helped force her to do this, making her think that Sonosuke is too good for someone willing to kill him and killed him to not only free him from her, but also to punish herself by making her live, albeit not for very long, with the fact that she killing the love of her life.

Having to live with the guilt of killing Sonosuke, Ruruka's mental state only worsened as Future Arc progressed. Still paranoid that her life is in danger from the "hidden exit", she attempts to kill Kyoko utilizing Sonosuke's traps in order to stay alive.

It is most likely that Ruruka's cold and calculating barrier that she set up to prevent herself from dealing with the possible betrayal of the Future Foundation combined with her insecurities and paranoia to resort to attempted murder and brainwashing Juzo to attempt murder. Having lost her true love, having her conscience being weighed down by guilt and self-loathing, Ruruka's insecurities force her to try to cling to life as hard as she can for as long as she could. Even when she knows that she will be the next victim, that attempting to barricade herself with rocks is futile, she still tells herself that she doesn't need Sonosuke and that she will live on. In actuality, she did need Sonosuke. Not only did she love him, he was a way for her conscience to cling to hope, security, and humanity and not force her to do the extreme actions she displayed after losing him. She put on a brave face, but inside, she was completely destroyed after having lost him.

As you can see, Ruruka is an extremely complex, unique, and relatable individual, especially if you also suffer from self-loathing issues, self-esteem issues, insecurities, or trust issues. Now, let's discuss her relationship with Sonosuke.

Ruruka deeply loves Sonosuke, to the point where the two dated for several years and even kissed. Ruruka is often shown displaying much affection, love, and care about Sonosuke. She smiles very often with him and blushes sometimes, too. To Ruruka, her entire world is Sonosuke, and she cannot live without him. The idea of someone that meant this much to her possibly betraying and killing her horrified Ruruka to the point where her insecurities made her kill him. She openly cries and apologizes to him as she does so, not wanting to do what her emotions are forcing her to do.

Sonosuke loves her sweets, and Ruruka loves feeding them to him. As previously mentioned, Ruruka's sweets attribute part of her method of trusting others. Ruruka's sweets represent trust to her. She loves baking them and offered them to other frequently when she was younger. This was Ruruka's way of seeing if the other person trusted her enough to eat something she made without question. If they did, Ruruka would know that she could trust them and therefore had no reason to doubt them. Sonosuke, who cared for not only Ruruka but also her sweets with extreme passion, is a key example of this. The two loved each other for much of their lives, developing the trust they have. It's possible that Ruruka came up with the idea of using her sweets to test if she could trust others from the way Sonosuke ate her sweets. Ruruka's sweets are also used as a way of offering her friendship to others.

Ruruka will openly display her affection for Sonosuke. Letting him rest his head in her lap, feeding him sweets, calling him by the nickname "Yoi", and staying very close to him. Ruruka trusts Sonosuke very much, not showing the slightest sign of discomfort or worry when being carried by him.

Now, finally, we get to Alternate Future Foundation Ruruka.

She will have naturally matured, but she still will offer her sweets to others as a means of testing trust and offering friendship. She will be friendly with others, mostly Seiko, and not treat them as cold. Since the events of Despair Arc Episode 4 would not have happened, Ruruka will have no, or at least less, insecurities and trust issues. She could possibly also have less paranoia and self-loathing issues. She will basically act as her Hope's Peak self, but with more maturity, being more cynical, and having a serious side for when things get serious, similar to Hajime.

Ruruka's relationship with Sonosuke will not change much. She will still love him deeply and that will not change. She would be perhaps less clingy and insecure about the idea of him betraying her and not need constant assurance.

So, I guess that's all I can say about Ruruka. This turned out to be a How To Write/Character Analysis now that I think about it, but that's not so bad, right? That way, even if you aren't a writer and are an avid fan of DR, you can learn a few things about Confectioner Waifu! If there's anything I missed, you think is inaccurate, or have any questions, please leave a comment and I'll update the chapter.

Also, who should I do next? Well, I guess I should ask if you guys want this as a series first. Do you? If you do, tell me who I should do next. Or WHAT I should do next even. How to write a mystery novel, a relationship between two people, I can do characters OR elements of fiction. Just tell me whatever!

Anyway, it is 3 am and I have school tomorrow. So I should go to sleep. I should've gone to sleep hours ago, but I got really into this.

This is Emmy, signing out! Peace!