Carter Franklin

"*Um, my… my name is **Carter Franklin**. I'm the **Ultimate Opinion Columnist**. W-Which means I write for the newspaper regarding specific topics and my thoughts on them.”*

― Danganronpa: Corrupted Hope
**Carter Franklin** was a prisoner at **St. Esther's Institution for Talented Juveniles** and a participant in the **St. Esther Killing Game** featured in Danganronpa: Corrupted Hope. His title was the **Ultimate Opinion Columnist**.

He was created by *armadas*.

## Appearance

Carter is described to be about 5'6 and having a thin, scrawny figure. Being half white and half African, he had warm, medium toned skin with a small smattering of freckles on his face. His dark brown hair was very thick and wavy and was just about… four or so inches in length. His hair was rather hard to tame, and thus, had strands going in all different directions.

His face was shaped like an oval. His cheekbones and forehead were wide, while his chin was more narrow. He had slightly bigger hazel eyes which peek out through his hair and wore black, trapezoid framed glasses. Carter also had a slightly wider nose, and medium sized lips.

He also didn't really have any muscle mass on him.

#### Casual Outfit

For Carter’s everyday attire throughout the story he wears an olive green, sleeveless sweater vest over a light gray button up with thin dark gray vertical stripes. The button up's collar is folded, and its tails go past the sweatervest's hem. One of his cuff sleeves is folded and the other is not. In the sweater vest's pocket is a small black covered notebook, a pen, and a pen and pencil used for quick notes. Carter also had slightly baggy blue jeans and brown loafers with gray socks.

#### Swimwear

In **Chapter 2: The Solace of Hate and Envy**, Carter attends a pool party where he wore simple dark blue swim trunks. He kept a dark gray sweatshirt to cover up his upper body, but later explained he would take it off for the pool. (Disappointingly he was not hiding a six pack under there.)

## Personality

Carter Franklin has often been referenced as a “nerd” throughout the story due to his talent as a sheepish writer, and the label fits to a tee given he’s one of the more timid and antsy types in the Corrupted Hope cast. He often stutters over his words in conversation and seems to get overwhelmed by dominating characters like Haruto and Barracuda who make him incredibly jittery or anxious.

This isn’t to say Carter is a by the books nerd, in fact, there are times when he’s outspoken due to his talent as an **Opinion Columnist**. Throughout the story he often asks questions others would be afraid to ask, leading him to be a key figure in trials to dissect points or conflicting statements like in Chapter 1: Silence of the Sacrificial Lamb's trial. He's also very observant in conversation and is able to pinpoint key details of someone's life, like when talking to Barracuda, Maggie or Jared.

For other things of note, his encounters with Lawson the Lamb in Chapter 1 shows how jumpy Carter can be sometimes.

Although he is often timid and described as a “mouse”, Carter truly loves his talent and being an opinion columnist, to the point of passionately rambling about it to multiple people and also seeing it as a way to express the “honest” or “brutal” truths that he often isn’t able to do, which he discusses with Haruto in **Chapter 2: The Solace of Hate and Envy**.

He seems to be the sentimental type when thinking back to his teacher, and often hold grudges such as with his sister Holly Franklin who he actually enacts revenge on and curses out after he publishes his paper. Despite that he's a very depressed person because of his sister's influence, and therefore doubts himself and others. It's why in Chapter 3: Sums for our Fallen Grace he confesses to Barracuda that he is unable to believe the betrayals will stop, since his whole life has been filled with constant negativity.

Carter overall is a someone who struggles to express himself given these qualities.

## History

### *Danganronpa: Corrupted Hope*

#### Prior to the Killing Game

Cater was born into a run of the mill family of four (including himself), which consisted of his parents of Eloise Franklin and Ryan Franklin, and his older sister Holly Franklin.

What should’ve been a stable family for Carter was cursed for him the moment he was born as the younger brother to Holly Franklin. He was tormented daily by his older sister, who suffered from mental problems that caused her to have an aggressive temperament. It started off with verbal attacks, before growing increasingly violent to the point of emotionally damaging Carter.

All the while Holly tormented Carter, he had no one to turn to, not even his parents who Holly had wrapped around her finger and made indifferent to her torture of the boy. It’s possible during this time that his parents had sent Holly to a therapist to work out her mental issues, but the damage had been done and continued to grow for Carter, causing his anxieties and insecurities to grow to an alarming extent.

Carter’s only refugee from the abuse came in the form of his high school teacher Mr. Rowan, who saw potential in the meek boy who had been ridiculed so often by his sister. The two had small sessions where they talked to one another, with Carter at first being too shy to say anything. However Mr. Rowan noted how happy Carter was when he was writing, and thus put his focus into helping Carter find his voice through said writing by introducing his name to a few newspapers.

Given the support from his teacher, Carter later turned to being an opinion writer. . People started paying attention to the subjects Carter wrote about, allowing him to finally be heard even though his family didn’t support his work.

With his newfound confidence as a writer and Mr. Rowan’s support, Carter made his big break at fifteen years old by posting his first opinionated essay on the national scale. His essay detailed a topic about problems with mental health, specifically about therapy and how it should be accessible to all and not those with a lot of cash. (It’s possible this essay was what got him into Hope’s Peak, but this hasn’t been confirmed yet.)

However he used his sister as a reference for his essay, detailing how her therapist had to cut her off due to the families lack of insurance. Due to Carter being an opinion writer, it was also a moment where he let his talent get to his head and vocalized his sister’s problems as a small form of revenge, showing off her story to the entire world to judge.

What he thought was a good thing quickly turned into the worst mistake of his life, contributing to his “sin”.

Everyone in the world twisted his opinion piece and focused on Holly Franklin as a ticking time bomb that her therapist had to drop in fear she was too extreme a case to handle. This completely shattered Holly’s reputation, and caused people to see her as a freak. Because of this Holly insulted Cater for his work, for being born, for everything he had tried to do.

But for Cater, the abuse had gone on long enough and he shouted back at his sister for the first time in his life. The fight they had that night was violent enough that Carter was forced to move away from his family and fend for himself, while Holly stayed behind and cursed Carter to hell, saying that he “owed” her.

Carter’s parents blamed Mr. Rowan for the whole incident, claiming the teacher helped Carter tarnish Holly’s reputation. However, with her life essentially ruined, Holly Franklin committed suicide by hanging, accusing her brother for being responsible in the suicide note that she left. Afterward, Carter felt in debt to his parents and worked to make up for the life he “stole” from his sister. Even though he hated his sister she was still family and the abuse Carter endured was all he knew for his entire nineteen years of being alive.

It should be noted after this Carter’s life is unknown for a **6 year period** after a video from White Collar shows a police detective talking to Mr. Rowan. His teacher confessed he hasn’t seen Carter since that time frame after his parents forced him to move. (It is unknown if Carter was attending Hope’s Peak at this time or independently writing opinion pieces.)

(??? - If more info pops up, write more)

## Relationships

### Prior to Game

#### Holly Franklin (Sister)

Carter’s sister and most hated person in his life. (Write more)

#### Eloise Franklin & Ryan Franklin (Parents)

Carter’s parents who were not that supportive in Carter’s life (Write more)

#### Mr. Rowan (Teacher)

Carter’s mentor figure and someone he greatly respects. Mr. Rowan was Carter’s most positive force in his life.

### Prisoners of S**t. Esther's Institution:**

#### Haruto Walker

(FTE’s: 1) (Semi-Positive?)

???

#### **Jared Caertas**

(FTE’s: 1) (Semi-Positive?)

???

#### Maggie LaDroubi

(FTE’s: 2) (Semi-Positive)

???

#### Barracuda

(FTE’s: 1) (Semi-Positive/Negative)

Carter initially shared the same goal of escaping St. Esther's Institution with Barracuda throughout the story, seeing him as an alley.

Carter at first appeared to be weary around Barracuda due to his overwhelmingly large presence and oblivious nature. However Carter did figure he could trust Barracuda considering the big guy was nice and voted trust with his pairing during round 1 of Prisoner’s Dilemma.

It wasn’t until the two were paired for the round 2 Prisoner’s Dilemma Minigame in **Chapter 2: The Solace of Hate and Envy,** that both Carter and Barracuda finally felt comfortable around each other given they both chose **Trust**.

After that game the two shared a FTE in **Chapter 3: Sums for our Fallen Grace** where Barracuda walked in on Carter trying to work out and get stronger in the Fitness Trainer’s Ultimate Cell. Carter was struggling with his lack of strength and genuinely wanted to defend himself for the killing game, so Barracuda helped with Carter’s training. Afterwards they rested and talked about reasons for why they were in the killing game, with Carter confessing his “sin” to the big guy. It’s possible he felt comfortable enough to tell Barracuda this sin after feeling vulnerable in the killing game and after the last mini-game results proving he could trust Barracuda.

After hearing Carter’s story about his abusive sister, Barracuda defended Carter, believing his sister shouldn’t have treated Carter the way she did and also not believing Carter should’ve been stuck in a killing game. Interestingly, when Carter in turn tried to ask Barracuda what “sin” he committed during the FTE, Barracuda almost spoke about it before round 3 of Prisoner’s Dilemma started, meaning that Barracuda almost trusted Carter enough to tell his story as well, which is something he hadn’t done for anyone in the game yet.

The two shared brief moments after, including trying to stop Jared’s attack on White Collar, and also both feeling guilty for Distrusting their respective pairs in the round 3 minigame of Prisoner’s Dilemma.

However things between the two turned sour as Barracuda later found Carter preparing to murder Maggie. Carter tried to convince Barracuda he was working on a science project in an attempt to push Barracuda away. However once Carter was confronted on the matter, he betrayed Barracuda by shooting a spear in his chest with the speargun. It should be noted during this attempt that Carter didn’t “want” to kill Barracuda at all and apologized over the incident over and over again as he explained himself. However he still tried to “silence” Barracuda, only to be killed in the heat of the moment by the big guy defending himself.

It’s possible Carter felt genuine remorse for shooting Barracuda, but the two ended things off on bad terms.

#### Ina Hamamura

(FTE’s: 1) (Semi-Negative)

Carter’s fellow cell mate in Cell #02 at the start of the game.

???

#### Zuri Auraline

(FTE’s: 0) (Semi-Negative)

???

## Trivia

* (Carter trivia goes here)
* Death Item: [Bloody Notebook, Pen, and Pencil] (can be deleted)