u/Mental-Ad6108

I found this list I made and had to guess for a few minutes before I remembered what it was about 🥲

It's debatable but >!related to Milgram story events!<. IDK how guessable this is, as I didn't originally make it with the intention but I'm curious

Edit to explain: >! I meant story events in MILGRAM, realized the wording may be confusing !<

Edit 2: Another hint about placements, based on interpretation >! Kazui !< can be higher and >! Amane !< lower

A bigger hint is that >! it's also considering other routes !<

• I haven't seen this here yet, but Jackalope is back! I expected him to return but he is very casual about it. And not bothered by what Kotoko figured out

• This also confirms Kotoko getting discouraged and more co-operative because of that

• The last interrogation..

We (and Es) aren’t informed of what will happen at the end as it could affect the decisions, but the guesses affect it anyway. Two possibilities that are canonically discussed are that they could get killed as punishment, or that they are already dead.

(Yuno also brought up the possibility of it being an afterlife, but later remembered surviving. There were interrogation questions about being reborn as themselves in T2)

So I think it’s fine to believe that they can be killed for added pressure about the judgement, you can also believe that not forgiving them is necessary to challenge their views, or that it doesn’t matter and we should just decide what we want individually! Just noting that these theories don’t come from nowhere, we are supposed to think about it IMO. It could also be an attempt to make the voters lean into all-inno.

AFAIK in manga/novels, >!death penalty and already being dead are both possible, yet this is a different scenario so it may not apply!<

This sounds strange considering the actual murders, but I have been trying to understand some of the intent and choices with the story so this is more of a narrative analysis !

John is the part directly responsible for the murders, and his motive was to relieve stress from Mikoto, without considering the consequences. Mikoto's role in this was apparently the motive or source of stress, pushing himself to work without seeing help or leaving, sacrificing his physical and mental health in hopes of achieving his dreams.

Mikoto and John had this "long term" and "short term" view respectively.. both end up leading to the murders! However, it seems like we are specifically asked to judge "Mikoto" because "John" is unaffected. This is called a system error, but it also seems like the larger question behind Mikoto's story is about supporting John's existence itself..

This is supported by lyrics:

MeMe:

> If I could lose it, If I could choose Is this selfish? This isn’t too much is it?

>Maybe it’s ok to try to keep on living Split in half, Make that heart beat

Double:

>All I did was dream, and for that I was unforgiven, it seems?

>I don’t remember, it couldn’t be helped, since I’m a double It’s painful, I worked so hard for it Why? Why? If only I hadn’t been born like this Why? Why? I’m sorry

Requiem:

>This train carrying my dreams, disembarking partway means GUILTY

>Just so I can make Me into Me Oh my Me, please stay the same Here’s to Me, just so I can make Me into Me No one’s here, just forget about Me

>How is it that I can sing it About the Me that I don’t know about Who should be the one that carries this sin

Es and Kotoko phrase it as "What you have given birth to may be considered a sin", "Your existence itself is a crime"

By necessity they have to share the same legal responsibility, it would be detrimental to the function of law and society otherwise. In MILGRAM itself, they are so separate in mental state that John is not registered by the system. Though it may have also changed by T3 with lower barriers between them. That led to a lot of debate on what logic is followed by the setting..

I wonder how the T2 judgement affected the development here.. perhaps it meant that the audience already accepted Mikoto's weakness, but not John. So how does T3 change things? Maybe Mikoto's acceptance of John means that we now need to think about whether his acceptance is "correct" or not? Or just judge him as a whole?

Killing humans is generally considered to be worse of course, but the animal cruelty is also a big point for many people in discussions of Haruka’s crime. I compared times when animals are shown in the cases (literal ones):

• Haruka killed many pets as we know. Because they were weaker and more loved..
• No one really cares about Mahiru killing rats to eat AFAIK? Because it’s for survival I assume.. Or is it also because they are wild and not pets?
• Amane was initially believed to have harmed the cat and that it possibly represented a child, but it was later revealed that she helped it! However, it became a victim of the cult. The cat's disappearance may have made her lose hope and become further indoctrinated, but it meant a lot to me at least. I felt that if she could go against the doctrine out of kindness, she could also change..
• One of the victim reports in Requiem seems to draw attention to the way that the dog was left unharmed and barking loudly while the victim (Natsuko) was beaten to death, this could be intentional or the dog was just able to evade when the leash was dropped. Although horrifying as it is, I am curious why that dog was included and the report made a point of not killing it, perhaps to contrast with Haruka’s case or add to the dog metaphor for John?

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We tried to work out what choices would lead to less deaths, but imagine if we made even worse choices! For example if Kotoko was the only one forgiven in T1 and T2, she would attack others and Shidou and Kazui would not be able to help as they did in T1 this route.

The Undercover opening seems to promise that the ending will be satisfying no matter what choices we make, so I wonder if we can actually get a bad ending and not just a bittersweet one. There seems to be some story mechanisms to prevent accidentally causing too much damage, like Kotoko only attacking three people at a time. Maybe Es would intervene in the final judgement if we voted everyone Guilty?

I'm wondering if we will be able to get new answers tbh..

Original image: https://x.com/reactjpg/status/1337302831527706625?s=20

Smoking is brought up enough times in Mikoto's MVs, timelines, and interrogation that this might be something to think about.. As far as Mikoto knows, he used to smoke regular cigarettes but switched to vaping after getting his job. We also see that in Requiem, confirming this.

So the ones in MeMe and Double are probably imaginary? Based on the past? He could be hiding it or just forgot that he went back to cigarettes? Is there any significance to this 😓

I was looking at the times but just wanted to point out the phone being charged at the end of Requiem, because I would be tempted to throw it instead if it was so frustrating (I thought he had thrown it in Double but I guess not). He moved on to doing property damage instead of murder in Milgram at least.. I think the Requiem MV was directed that way so that the beginning and ending parallel each other.

It's 06:35 wake up, 0:35 in Double, and 13:30 at the end of the long nap

They have a lot of interactions, so I wanted to add timelines and relevant bits for discussion. Some miscellaneous thoughts :

• It is notable that Mikoto consistently keeps approaching Kotoko and she consistently pushes him away. He has to be aware that Kotoko doesn't like him, she made it obvious enough.

• Mikoto is also aware of her strength, and she is the one person that he says could be a murderer in T1 because she's scary. He also *asks* if she is stronger than Kazui, while Fuuta assumes of course not. So it’s not like Kotoko is considered safe or harmless enough to approach.

• Mikoto was against the idea of the others being murderers, but along with Kotoko he was also unsure about Kazui and Shidou. This is strange, considering he actively spends more time with them. Maybe it is partly BECAUSE they seem dangerous, so it’s like a preemptive defense?

• Or he just admires people like that, considering John. Kotoko is clearly someone who stands up for herself and others. Kazui and Shidou are “successful adults”. So it’s aspirational..

• He also just puts a high value on “getting along with others” and avoiding conflict, that comes up very often.

• Their first convo has Mikoto comparing their names to siblings. It’s not that concrete, don’t attack shippers with it, but I think it can be significant.

• Related to above, Mikoto has a younger sister and Kotoko has an older brother, which I felt could be an indication that they're projecting their siblings on each other. (That would imply Kotoko doesn't have a good bond with her brother perhaps, he hasn’t been talked about)

• Kotoko became hostile to everyone, but also specified Mikoto in T1. This could be because of ableism, his attempts at interaction annoyed her, maybe also because he disturbed her sleep by breaking things.

• Kotoko is also the one who framed the situation with his DID in terms of responsibility. Even though she brought up the possibility, it seems like she doesn’t actually think he’s faking it, and also rejected the idea that Mikoto had no responsibility for John committing murder. ( Did that also push Mikoto towards accepting responsibility in The One? She dehumanized John though, which could make him harder to accept.)

ETA link: https://milgram.miraheze.org/wiki/Timeline/2026

In Muu's bday timeline, Kotoko mentioned that she knows about her sin, and Muu is surprised (showing that she didn't tell her). Some guesses:

1. Observation and eavesdropping, as we have seen before (in John Doe VD at least). Unclear if she's still doing that in T3 because of the restraints but its most likely for now. She would have heard Es and Muu crying together too!

2. If Kotoko's year of entry is 2018 link to discussion, a year after Muu's crime, she could have actually heard about it irl. Did Kotoko think Muu evaded justice with her family's help or was she seen as a victim of circumstances? It's an interesting thought. Kotoko didn't show signs of knowing about it before, but she could have been hiding it or Muu's identity was not revealed.

3. Kotoko has some other access to info from MILGRAM, like reports or other victim reports? I don't know how but imagine if other victim reports showed up in her MV to make us regret forgiving the others..

4. She doesn't know, she's just bluffing.

(In terms of plausibility, she probably just overheard it! Just needed to mention all these)

They have different methods so I'm not entirely sure on the levels !

I was thinking since Mikoto's report that even though a lot of his focus is on socializing, he is not actually the best at it since it's forced and others can tell. Maybe he should be lower, or maybe Yuno is just an unfair comparison :D

• Trains / station
• Mirror
• Time is shown (also the uterus is faintly shown on the watch while the Hanged Man is blurred on the phone screen)
• Stairs
• Looking at the sky
• bonus scenes from Umbilical and Double as people pointed out a guy with the same haircut and the unexplained “three” imagery
• Door opening with a bright light, added in comments

It was surprising to see all the shared imagery, though the context is different. Or maybe not, the story is comparing John’s new existence to a newborn (metaphorically), so that might be intentional? It doesn’t seem like the best comparison especially in context of his victims, but it is there..

There’s also Yuno feeling depressed and suicidal at the station and the stairs while looking at the sky, while it seems like Mikoto regained hope while looking at the sky instead. That part was really striking for both imo

Trains are also more literal for Yuno and more symbolic for Mikoto (some of the explanations I read is that it’s symbolic of the daily grind, future, being on a fixed path).

Is it just about daily life, and the similarities are coincidental? The actual shots look significantly different, and some are just motifs from previous MVs