David Chiem! My beloved! I was not expecting to lose my mind this hard over a character in a fan project, but it turns out he's absolute catnip for me. Unfortunately, 'this seems like a pleasant young man - oh, no, something is very wrong with this boy' is a character type I have a huge weakness for. (See also my Death Note website, in which I ramble non-stop about how much I adore Light Yagami.)
I made notes while watching Danganronpa: Despair Time for the first time, and, partway through the second trial, I noted, 'David is a character I'm finding more interesting than I was expecting to. I'm not sure whether I like him, but I want to know what his deal is!' And then he cast his mask aside, and I fell in love immediately.
Anyway! Let's talk about David Chiem: Ultimate Inspirational Speaker, love of my life, and all-round terrible bastard.
The most crucial thing about David, and the reason I was doomed from the start, is that he has very strong Light Yagami vibes. The clean image - the perfect young man, so tidy and intelligent and put-together - and the malice hiding beneath, the manipulation, the spite. They both find it freeing to shed the image, I think, after living their lives so carefully.
As soon as I recognised the similarity, I was compelled to edit the caption of David's 'guilty as charged' declaration for a Tumblr post, and, to be honest, it's one of the best things I've ever done.
It's no wonder that this is the exact moment I fell in love with David.
The difference between the two is that Light is an idealist, at least at the start, whereas David is a cynic. (Not a pure cynic, though, now that I think about it; he believes that there are things worth dying for.) Light wants to persuade himself that his own actions are good; David is under no such illusion.
Actually, there's another significant difference. Although they both hold a default attitude of scorn towards other people, David has a greater capacity to form connections than Light. I think David was genuinely touched by Arei's 'I know your secret; we're the same; let's be friends.' That approach wouldn't have stood a chance with Light; his reaction, much as it was with Misa, would just be 'this person is an inconvenience and a danger; how can I kill her?'
There are two people in the cast David connects with, in fact: Xander and Arei. The person who loved his façade, and the person who saw through his façade and loved him for the piece of shit he was beneath it. Both dead, now.
(Was David as cynical before Xander died? He probably wasn't that far off; he was certainly living his false life and manipulating everyone around him well before the killing game began. But Xander's death can't have helped.)
David doesn't want anyone else to know that Arei offered him friendship, and I find that really interesting. That's something personal; that's for him, and him alone.
Does he hide that aspect of their conversation because he doesn't want anyone to know he was hurt by her death? That makes a lot of sense to me, come to think of it; I don't think he likes people knowing how things impact on him. He seemed to be having strong feelings after Xander's death - we'd catch glimpses of him with a dark expression - but he gave nothing away when he spoke. I wish we'd been able to see his reaction to Xander's body discovery, before he had time to compose himself.
(I originally said 'his reaction to both body discoveries', but I've just checked, and we do see his reaction to Arei's death! He's silent for a moment, his hand to his face, then says, 'Of course. Of course this would happen,' and I'm in agony over it. Of course this would happen. He let himself get close to another person. And now they're dead, too.
There's the hint of a tear at the corner of his eye. I can't handle this.
The nice characters being upset over Arei's death is sad, of course! But the horrible person being cut up over it absolutely wrecks me. Unlike the nice characters, it's not a given that he'd care about the death of one of their own! But this is a death he cares about.)
Once David is exposed, I think he wants to depict himself as caring less than he really does. Break this boy's mask, and there's just another mask underneath. The best-case scenario is that people think he's perfect, but the worst-case scenario is people seeing the real him; he'd rather be perceived as a monster than as a person.
I like that even David's decoy secret is barely something about himself at all. He says he has a family history of depression; he doesn't say he has depression. I'm sure his 'family history' claim is true, but he's not prepared to summon up the vulnerability to say a single thing that is both true and about himself.
What drives David to comfort Arei when she's crying? Is he trying to maintain his image? To ensure she likes him, as it's in his interest to be liked? I think his instinct might genuinely just be to comfort a person in distress; he's scornful and self-interested, but I don't think he's heartless.
Another aspect of David's behaviour that fascinates me: he genuinely cared about Xander, but he was still prepared to destroy whatever remained of Xander's image in the eyes of the others by pinning the secret he'd received on him. He gets pissed off if people speak ill of Xander, even! But he nonetheless allowed everyone to think that this killing game was Xander's fault. I desperately want to know more about this guy.
In the spirit of knowing more about this guy, here are a couple of fun little word-of-God details from this question-and-answer post on the official Despair Time Tumblr:
Sometimes I find myself thinking of David as I go about my day and smiling fondly. Terrible boy David. David 'The Worst' Chiem. Of course he was going to be my favourite. I'm so goddamn predictable.
At one point I just ended up looking through all of this stupid asshole twink's official sprites for twenty minutes. I am an absolute embarrassment.