COTE: Koenji What if

Analysis of Volume 1 so far

This chapter is more so an analysis of past events, and my justifications for the changes I made. It is mainly an Ayanokouji analysis. (~3600 words 0_o) Feel free to skip this if you want to enjoy the show-don't-tell experience I've been trying to do. I use justifications in future volumes in the original light novel, so if you haven't caught up to at least the whole of the 1st year series, feel free to skip this. 

There is a paragraph which is more of a spoiler for the future of Hirata's and Ichinose's characters in this fanfiction highlighted in bold, so skip it if you want to avoid such. All the other paragraphs should be safe to read if you have read the whole of the 1st year series. If not then I am wondering why you are on Wattpad, go read the original series please, or read this if you want to I guess.

I compare Hirata and Ichinose together as they appear to be quite similar as characters on the surface due to their utilitarianism ideology. See the link below, or look up Ichinose's character analysis on reddit by atlantisisablackhole. The link analyzing Ichinose's character does spoil events in the 2nd year up to year 2 volume 4.5 so read with caution.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ClassroomOfTheElite/comments/s3a46m/kiyotakas_keis_and_honamis_relationship_summary/

This is an analysis about both Kei and Ichinose's character analysis. Pretty much Ayanokouji wants to be defeated in such a way that his core beliefs instilled by the white room, by his father, is disproven/shown to be inferior. This would mean that Ayanokouji himself can change if his own core beliefs fail despite him trying to go all out using them. As it would give himself a reason to change his faulty beliefs, his trauma forces him to use these core beliefs as it has so far worked in protecting Ayanokouji as a defense mechanism, he wants to find justification at a core level. He hates his father due to what he did to Ayanokouji so he doesn't want to follow them, but is in a prison trapped by these beliefs due to the extreme trauma and is forced to use them anyways. It is like how Karuizawa is forced to act as the part of the bully despite being bullied a lot in the past and not enjoying playing the act as a bully, in order to avoid being bullied, as a defense mechanism from the trauma.

One way of doing that is by showing that nature wins in nature vs nurture. Koenji is the natural genius while Ayanokouji is the artificial genius. In the original series Sakayanagi was the natural genius challenging Ayanokouji but now it is Koenji, so there are parallels between the two. Pretty much it is saying that no matter how well Ayanokouji is nurtured in the white room, in the perfect environment, there is a ceiling that Ayanokouji simply can't surpass without genetics (that is what Ayanokouji hopes will be the case). This would mean that there would be no point in continuing to follow the faulty beliefs Ayanokouji's dad has believed in as in the end there will always be someone else who can defeat you. Hard work vs talent, Ayanokouji vs Koenji.

The other way is to show that Machiavellianism is inferior to Utilitarianism, in other words "The ends justify the means" which is also what Ayanokouji's core beliefs are vs what Hirata and Ichinose are advocating. Or in other words Ayanokouji protects himself and puts himself above everyone, his own safety is the number one priority. But Ichinose and Hirata are self sacrificing, choosing to instead focus on protecting the community first, putting everyone else above them first. Ayanokouji's views are the polar opposite to Hirata and Ichinose's views. So if Ichinose and Hirata's beliefs succeed, then Ayanokouji's beliefs fail and now they are faulty, meaning there is justification for Ayanokouji to change himself at a core level.

Ayanokouji now has a strong desire in wanting to be defeated earlier on in the series compared to how this desire only started with Sakayanagi at the end of volume 5, and now he sees Hirata as another way to potentially destroy his core beliefs for him to change. But he actually doesn't know that he has this desire to be defeated by Hirata. Of course this strong desire started with Koenji challenging Ayanokouji right at the start of this fanfiction.