//Alright, first off, does this Joss my theory about Arei and J switching places? Nope, I’m still convinced
//In fact, I’m even more convinced than I was last week, but for that, I wanna take you on a deep dive through everything that’s happened
(Just a heads up, this involves discussions about suicide, self-harm, eating disorders and murder)
//First of all, let’s address the elephant in the room here: everyone’s secrets. MonoTV arranged them by order of who received them, not whose they are:
//If you have trouble reading this, here’s all of them written out:
Arei: 'You're a murderer, and you hold no remorse.'
Whit: 'You exist to manipulate others. Everyone else exist to be taken advantage of.'
Nico: 'Your body is falling apart, but you'll still refuse to eat.'
Charles: 'Ever since you kissed her, you were afraid your sexuality would ruin your friendships.'
Arturo: 'You hide your name and birthright to pretend that you aren't the daughter of Mariabella Rosales.'
Levi: 'Blackmail, rumors, lying, stealing, slander. You did everything you could to ruin your sisters' lives.'
Xander: 'You always treated the competition with ruthlessness, but poisoning them to win was a bit too far, wasn't it?'
Min: 'You're constantly blaming yourself for the death of your parents and siblings. It doesn't matter that it's not your fault, just that you didn't go with them.'
Rose: 'Your mother is dead. You always omit the truth.'
J: 'Your older brother died, but you don't remember him at all.'
Eden: 'Your younger sister killed herself because of you. You should have never left.'
Hu: 'You only took on your talent to distract from your incessant need to harm yourself for fun.'
Veronika: 'You were quite the hopeless child. Dying once wasn't enough, so you attempted suicide three times.'
Teruko: 'You took on your talent to earn money for your family. But you've since put them in a lifetime of debt.'
Ace: 'No one accepted you because of your identity. You were constantly mocked by your family, your peers, and everyone else.'
David: 'How could I even select what secret to be your motive? Just about everything you've done in your life is worth killing for. The killing game is all your fault.'
//There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s go one by one with what we know, and we can extrapolate who the rest are.
//Easy ones: J is the daughter of Mariabella Rosales, Nico is Nonbinary and was mocked for it, Rose accidentally buried her family under a mountain of debt, Charles’ brother is dead and Arei got her sisters sent to reform school through all those tactics. We can also assume that, because they’re not around, Xander’s and Min’s secrets were flipped
//That’s already seven down. Now we can eliminate the obvious ones:
Arei: 'You're a murderer, and you hold no remorse.'
Whit: 'You exist to manipulate others. Everyone else exist to be taken advantage of.'
Nico:'Your body is falling apart, but you'll still refuse to eat.'
Charles: 'Ever since you kissed her, you were afraid your sexuality would ruin your friendships.'
Rose:'Your mother is dead. You always omit the truth.'
Eden: 'Your younger sister killed herself because of you. You should have never left.'
Hu: 'You only took on your talent to distract from your incessant need to harm yourself for fun.'
Veronika: 'You were quite the hopeless child. Dying once wasn't enough, so you attempted suicide three times.'
David: 'How could I even select what secret to be your motive? Just about everything you've done in your life is worth killing for. The killing game is all your fault.'
//For that, I must draw your attention to everyone’s hidden quotes, which are hidden in the HTML code of DT’s tumblr site, arranged into this master post here courtesy of @despairing-disaster all are relevant here:
//To me, along with my previous theories about Ace attempting to hang himself, leads me to believe his is that he’s already attempted suicide three times. Which...really puts a new perspective on his not wanting to be the butt monkey
//The fact that Whit seems to think very highly of his mother, dyed his hair to look like hers, and has this weirdly cavalier attitude toward death leads me to believe that his mother is actually dead. The fact that he always omits the truth makes me think he’s also really broken up by it all
//This, plus Levi’s scene with Eden at the start of this chapter, lead me to believe that he’s the one whose sister committed suicide. Likely because he cut ties with them and left her with, as he described, a horribly toxic family.
//The self-harming one doesn’t even need a hidden quote, because I’m certain that’s Veronika. She’s not only weird things, she also gets bored easily and longs for stimulation, as she made clear to Teruko last episode. The title of Ultimate Horror Fanatic is very odd as well. Plus, look at her design:
//Both her arms, legs and her entire body are covered. Chances are she’s hiding a ton of self-harm scars under there, given the nature of that secret
//That’s another four down
Arei: 'You're a murderer, and you hold no remorse.'
Whit: 'You exist to manipulate others. Everyone else exist to be taken advantage of.'
Nico: 'Your body is falling apart, but you'll still refuse to eat.'
Charles: 'Ever since you kissed her, you were afraid your sexuality would ruin your friendships.'
David: 'How could I even select what secret to be your motive? Just about everything you've done in your life is worth killing for. The killing game is all your fault.'
//Let’s be real, that last one can’t be anyone but Teruko ^^;
//That leaves us with the final four. But for a summary, here’s how all the motives we know and I’m sure of should’ve been arranged:
Arei: Blackmail, rumors, lying, stealing, slander. You did everything you could to ruin your sisters' lives.
Whit: Your mother is dead. You always omit the truth.
Nico: No one accepted you because of your identity. You were constantly mocked by your family, your peers, and everyone else.
Charles: Your older brother died, but you don't remember him at all.
Levi: Your younger sister killed herself because of you. You should have never left.
Xander: You're constantly blaming yourself for the death of your parents and siblings. It doesn't matter that it's not your fault, just that you didn't go with them.
Min: You always treated the competition with ruthlessness, but poisoning them to win was a bit too far, wasn't it?
Rose: You took on your talent to earn money for your family. But you've since put them in a lifetime of debt.
J: You hide your name and birthright to pretend that you aren't the daughter of Mariabella Rosales.
Veronika: You only took on your talent to distract from your incessant need to harm yourself for fun.
Teruko: How could I even select what secret to be your motive? Just about everything you've done in your life is worth killing for. The killing game is all your fault.
Ace: You were quite the hopeless child. Dying once wasn't enough, so you attempted suicide three times.
//That leaves just four secrets and four people to assign to them: David, Arturo, Hu and Eden. Our options are that these four are made up of a murderer, a manipulator, a closeted lesbian/bisexual and someone with an eating disorder/degenerative disease
//Let’s get the obvious out of the way first: whoever’s in the closet has to be a girl, given the phrasing. I’m gonna say it’s most likely Hu, given how quick she was to come to Nico’s defense and how she wanted it revealed as late as possible. I was worried she might be the murderer, but her hidden quote makes that unlikely:
//It was specified the murderer has no remorse. This is a clear demonstration of remorse, and likely for something else entirely.
//Maybe Eden is the killer or manipulator? To which I say, that’s ridiculous. Eden’s role in the story has been as the beacon of hope through all this, and was the one to move Teruko’s heart with her speech about optimism. Her being the killer would be surprising, sure, but would it actually be good writing? I don’t think so.
//Yes, it’s possible that she’s the manipulator, but I can’t see that simply because this chapter is very clearly leaning on the fact that Teruko’s inability to trust people is going to be a hindrance more than an advantage. Having the one person who’s always tried to befriend her be a liar and manipulator just feels wrong from a writing perspective.
//Instead, because she once said she spends over half a day working on clocks, I think it’s more likely that she’s the one who has the disorder/disease. Her body is falling apart on some level, and it might explain why she’s so short.
//One of the symptoms of chronic malnutrition is stunted growth. It also wouldn’t fit Hu, given that she’s pretty shapely. True, body mass doesn’t always equate with physical health, but the fact that it specifies “your body is falling apart” suggests that it’s someone smaller and thinner.
//So that leaves our last two: David and Arturo, and odds are that one’s a murder and one’s a manipulator. And at last, I can return to my theory about Arei and J.
//Yeah, no wonder she looks so horrified
//But here’s a the thing: Arturo and David are both good candidates either of these secrets. Their quotes don’t make it exceptionally clear either.
//Both of these are good candidates if you wanna look at them, and if you analyze their talent and behavior throughout these chapters, it could go either way.
//Arturo could be a murderer who killed ugly people, making him literally Dr. Steinman from Bioshock, or he could be a con artist who scams celebrities, hence why he only operates on them.
//Likewise, David could use his status as an inspirational speaker to either manipulate the hell out of people (which he’s done throughout this chapter) or he’s covering up the fact that he killed someone. Either way, the irony is that Xander’s idol is exactly the kind of person he’d take a stand against.
//But more to the point, no matter who it is, Arei knows who they are, since everyone’s names are on the motive secret letters. Arei went into the playground meeting with David knowing he’s either a liar or a murderer.
//Why is that relevant? Well, now that we can take a closer look at the body, consider this interesting detail that @tophats-tea was kind enough to point out in their own theory.
//This is Arei’s hair normally, from the start of the chapter. Notice how it comes to a stop halfway down her neck?
//Take a look at her hair in the victim reveal:
//Her hair hasn’t come undone, you can still see the braid on the other side. Even if it was, the hair on the right side still hands freely, and you can clearly see it comes down much further, even past her shoulders
//There were only four days between the motive reveal and the BDA. Nobody’s hair grows that fast. Not to mention there was no attention brought to this fact, nor to her face. The only details anyone specified were that her neck was broken and that her wrists had irritation marks on them from some kind of binding.
//And who was the only people who really examined the body in detail? Teruko, who we’ve learned may have prosopagnosia, and Arturo, one of our two potential murderers. That’s it. Nobody else looked closely at her face, just that they were looking for specific death details.
//And that brings me to J, who had some prominence in this episode as well. She was selected as one of the guards to make sure nobody tampers with evidence, and then she had these questions for Teruko.
//These are funny and all, but they’re colorful enough that I’d actually expect them from Arei instead of J.
//It’s curious too, because one could say that it was only possible that J could’ve known that Teruko pulled a knife on her, unless she told Arei or she heard that Teruko did the same with Charles. Either way, that news would get around.
//And for the record, take a look at J’s hair
//It’s so short that it seems easy to hide under a wig that long. Arturo and Teruko wouldn’t have thought to check under it, hence why they likely didn’t notice.
//There was also the interesting detail that J was the one who asked when it was the last time everyone saw Arei, and they all say it was at noon yesterday. But at no point does she specify if she saw her anywhere or not. Everyone glossed over that detail.
//And of course, if my theory is correct, that means Arei approached J knowing either the plastic surgeon that’s been hounding J or the person she just traumadumped to is actually a murderer, which suggests two possibilities:
//Either Arei was the one who offered to switch places with J to try and protect her, or J was the one who suggested it to Arei. And I’m starting to suspect it might be the latter.
//Because consider this: if Arturo were the murderer, why would he target Arei? While Arei likes J, I don’t know if I can consider them close enough for him to actually, for example, feel threatened by her presence.
//But David? He’s actually got a damn good reason to try and target Arei, having made up his secret about depression and was the one who encouraged her to be a kinder person. Which, if this is true, suggests that Arei knew he was full of shit and as a murder, or she saw right through him as a manipulator.
//While I still think what she said about her sister and Eden were all genuine, this is also Arei we’re talking about; a girl who’s motive was about lies and manipulation.
//And that suggests David was planning to target her, but instead, he captured and killed someone who was dressed as her.
//The other key player in all this is Eden, the person who apparently made up with Arei off screen, and was happy to elaborate, but Teruko didn’t care. And throughout these last few episodes, it seems like Eden has been trying to work with Teruko, maybe get her alone for just a couple minutes to talk, but Teruko’s blown her off every time
//You know what I think? Arei clued Eden on who the murder is, and she’s trying to let Teruko know. Why do I think that? Because of Arei’s quotes, both public and hidden:
//These two quotes have been at the forefront of all these theories, and with every episode, they feel more and more relevant.
//Not to mention, and this from a Doylist perspective, but the fact that Arei’s only really had two big scenes so far this chapter. She strangled MonoTV with the rope, she had that big emotional episode in the playground...and then she was basically off-screen until she died. That feels like a waste to me; even Hibiki got more development than that, and anyone who’s followed me for a while will know how much I hated how dirty she was done.
//I’m not simply wishing for Arei to be alive because I like her as a character. I’m saying it because she received so much narrative emphasis and there’s so much going on involving her this chapter that it feels like a waste for her just to be dead. Not unless they’re gearing up to a big reveal
//And with how things are seeming to play out, my initial theory that Arei wanted to protect J might actually be that J wanted to protect her instead.
//The final detail I want to discuss for this is the note Rose and Teruko found in the trash.
//The only details I could really get out of this were “friend” “than ever” and “7:30.″ A meeting definitely went on at some point, and odds are it involved Arei and either J or Eden.
//Rather than discrediting my theory, this episode has actually given me more ammo to suggest this is actually the reveal we’re gearing up toward. And I for one am excited.
//So yes, thank you for reading this long-ass rant, stick around for more theories if you wish ^^;
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