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satindregs · 1 year ago

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Cannibal Kratos???

I have another draft!!!!

ofc it’s GoW and it’s abt Kratos struggling with, uh, uhm, cannibalism. Anyway!! it’s only like 2k and again a DRAFT so when I eventually post it it may look different(⺣◡⺣)♡

Anyway I'm proud of myself for writing this much cuz I went from 2-3 oneshots a month to 2-3 sentences...

Still thinking of a name! Either The Spartan General's homecooked meals OR The Bite Of '83 bc haha funny FNAF reference

Tell me how to improve if u read! (๑˘ ₃˘๑)

It has been a rough winter. The farmers were even beginning to struggle to feed their own households last Kratos checked. That does not make him feel better.

He attempts foraging, but the ever-falling snow does a good job of hiding what the god desperately tries to find, and for once, the rage heating his body does nothing to melt everything around him.

Faye pretends their bare cupboards do not fill her with worry or bitterness. (Kratos would not blame her for those feelings, as he feels them himself.) She feigns contentment, not showing her hunger.

“We’ll be okay, Kratos,” she mocks, voice too cheery for the somber occasion. “I’ve improved the snares,” The snares that Kratos himself had made. Had his been inadequate? “any rabbit or fox near won’t be able to resist!”

“They’re likely gone, Faye. It’s been weeks without any roaming game,”

“That’s why they’ll be out looking, you big grump,” she attempts to tease. Kratos does not answer her. It takes energy to keep himself calm, and he cannot afford to waste so much when he has so little. The god glues his gaze to his hands as if they hold the answers to his problems. It takes effort to not bury his head in them.

To think something as straightforward as hunger would be one of Kratos’s problems makes his palms itch. He does not take pleasure in what he is capable of, but he has long stopped trying to deny its benefits. One of the old, then new, benefits had been the ability to provide for his family. Whether he fought thieves in his mother’s home during the night, or fought to keep his wife out of lepers’ dirtied hands. When he slaughtered a mortal woman for attempting to run with Faye’s ill son (He has not yet told Faye of that incident, too ashamed of his frantic fear for the panting boy). Or even something as simple as being able to feed them.

He is proud of his ability to keep them safe from beings other than himself, but he cannot claim to be proud now, not when he can hear the boy’s hushed voice asking about the contents of their larders.

His mother responds in an equally quiet voice, offering exactly what her impotent husband begged her to. “Of course there’s enough, silly boy,” she ruffles his strip of hair as he giggles, vainly attempting to keep his voice down still. Maybe, in fear of what an angry Kratos might do.

“Though,” she continues, and this surprises Kratos. He lifts his head and finds himself staring into his wife’s eyes. He does not know what she will say and Kratos worries. “It’s just a snack. The rest will be saved for tomorrow, got it?” she whispers. Her son whines, as all kids do. But not all kids have suffered through the hunger pains he has, and is currently suffering through. Ultimately, the boy agrees.

Faye gives him their last strips of cooked venison and promises a more fulfilling meal later, “Perhaps tomorrow?” she smiles, conspiratorially. Kratos tries not to wilt into himself like a wildflower subjected to the strong winds of the north. His wife not only knew how incompetent he was, not being able to provide for his home, but so did her son. She even went so far as to set a deadline for the god. Has he been inadequate for so long?

Unable to appear completely unaffected, he winces, knowing he’s more behind than he’s ever been concerning food. If the gods here were anything like the ones in Greece, then they were laughing their asses off, surrounded by rich meats and cakes and drink. They’d laugh, while wiping the crumbs off their faces and onto the floor. He’d witnessed it many times during his stay with the pantheon.

Kratos loosens his fists and focuses on the fire’s embers. He should not bother them with his anger, not now. Not when he’s the cause for their own intense anger. Kratos drowns them out with thoughts and plans of how to keep his home alive. Plan after plan, all seem lacking when he considers what is at risk.

What will happen when his time is up? Will Faye leave? Oh, he hopes not; not into the biting winds. Atreus would not make the trip. So he thinks more, and more. He shakes, and shakes his head.

Wasn’t he clever, so long ago? Where is that general and his strategic plans? Then, Kratos remembers.

That man is long dead, perishing along with Sparta.

In his place is Kratos of Midgard. The god mourning the wife that will surely disappear into the night once she catches a stronger whiff of his limitations, and the boy so hungry he’d consider eating his own flesh if Faye would let him.

Kratos hears the snores of the boy. He relaxes, not feeling as watched.

Now that his body is slack, exhaustion slips through the cracks of the shield he had maintained throughout the day. Kratos looks away from the fire, only to see sunlight peeking through the hastily repaired roof. Kratos frowns at the beam and looks up further, meeting his wife’s eyes.

He wishes he didn’t. He wishes he’d kept his eyes where they were, but now it’s too late and his wife no longer has that smile on her face. Instead, it’s replaced with a nasty frown so deep it must hurt. “My love, do you feel alright? You have not eaten,”

“How could I?” he retorts, ignoring the snoring boy in her arms. He had to sleep on an empty stomach again.

“Kratos,” she continues, voice soft. “Do not push yourself,” she requests with a smile. Kratos has a feeling that if her arms were empty, she would’ve gathered him in them. It confuses him, but he does not dwell.

“I will check the snares”

Faye frowns once again. She seems to be doing it more often than not. “What? I only just set them out! You’ll mess with the scents I attached,”

“Then, I will hunt,” Kratos compromises. He cannot stay here, in this house. Not when he has a child to feed and a wife to please. Not when his wife cuts him deep with nasty looks veiled behind sweet buoying words.

She wishes to argue, he can tell. Kratos grabs a hatchet and one of the warmer furs they had (but still leaving the warmest) and leaves before Faye remembers how light her boy is.

As he leaves, he can hear his wife’s low and warm “Be safe, Kratos.”

He doesn’t know how long it’s been. In fact, he’s tried his hardest to lose track of where and when and why.

Kratos knows he is hungry. And he knows that in front of him is a rat feeding on a long-dead corpse. The rat is so plump Kratos can almost see it pop when it takes another bite of bruised flesh and chews slow. It seems to savor the taste; the flavor that, no doubt, is better than any scraps it’s had the fortune of ingesting.

It isn’t the first, and far from the last, time Kratos has seen flesh being gorged on. It also wouldn't be the first time he’d had the urge himself. Just seeing the rat have the privilege of such big bites has the god squeezing his fists and breathing heavier.

The noise is hard to miss, though the rat does not scurry back to its home. No, it cannot even risk it. It continues to eat, albeit faster; almost frantically so, as Kratos gets closer, like it knows this is the last time it’ll be granted such a delicacy. Soon, it is under his boot. It doesn’t squeak as it finally pops. Kratos briefly wonders if it had wanted to stop, but couldn’t find the strength. Had Kratos shown the rodent mercy by ending its life?

When he lifts his foot, it’s to a stain so large, made of only rat innards and bits of browned flesh. Kratos moves on but the image imprints itself in his mind.

As Kratos roams the ruins that make up the Wild Woods, he does not find any animals worth eating. Not even those unworthy of being consumed.

He does not find anything except rotting corpses turned dark from the chill. And draugr, who’ve long blackened and been reduced to almost completely soulless beings.

Kratos does not know much of Midgard’s gods, but to feed his son something so impure it oozes black blood should be a sin worthy of a fate worse than death.

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When overworked soldiers were finally given reprieve, they would gather round a small campfire. Not that the warmth was needed, the sandy shores were not known for being cold, they would gather to tell sweet tales or eat or sleep. Though, it was quite unusual to do anything but sit there.

If they told stories, they were distracted; if they slept, they could wake up as a lost soul. If they ate, the others would get nervous. They would start to count the heads present. But that was a dangerous game, especially during a war.

Some of the soldiers were innocent, the only thing filling their stomachs being stale bread. Unfortunately, not all were merciful.

It was common knowledge to not sleep next to a starving man.

When overworked soldiers were given reprieve, they would gather round a small campfire. They would gather to tell sweet tales or eat or sleep. They would sit tightly together to stop hungry claws from stripping their throats of meat, stopping them from screaming out as blunt nails stabbed and clawed into their still warm flesh.

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Kratos is covered in it. From his hands to under his fingernails, from the edges of his lips to between his teeth. It was everywhere. It stained him. If his poor boy ever found him like this, he wished he could say it was a mistake. He was out of his mind with hunger, he had no choice!

But he did, he realizes as he melts a hole through the thin layer of ice frozen over a winding stream. He slams his fists against the ice. Lightly at first, the thin morsels not enough to reawaken his strength. Then, angry, he cracks the ice to make a hole big enough for his head.

And he submerges his mouth and nose and ears into the hypothermic water. He forces himself to stay, even when, no, especially when his lungs start to burn.

In the end, he pulls his body up and out of the water. He cannot afford to lose his life, not yet.

The god can’t help but shiver at the gusts of chilling wind, the soaked fur doing nothing but aid the gods in punishing him. He staggers to his feet and continues his trek, not accomplishing what he wanted with the stream.

The yearning will continue because of his mistake. Kratos’s stomach rolls as he looks back to the desimates corpse stinking of burnt flesh. How much would it take? To make it stop.

His stomach is still full. His mind is clear, yet his conscience cannot say the same. But, it is too late to worry about that. Kratos must put his guilt behind him if he wants to focus, if he wants to sate his wife. If he wants to catch his prey.

Kratos waits, patient, on the balls of his feet, crouched behind vegetation to hide his figure. The animal senses his gaze, nostrils flared and braying, its ears pinned back.

The god tenses his thighs, ready to give chase. The animal rears high and makes enough noise to garner his prey’s attention. His prey lays a heavy hand on the donkey’s neck, trying its best to soothe the animal. It whispers words of encouragement, distracting itself from the rustling undergrowth.

The animal steps back, bringing his prey to full attention. “Who is there?” it shouts. Kratos readies his hatchet.

“I have nothing! Spare me!” it yelps into the trees. Kratos does not, in the moment, recognize the difference between the desperate Spartan soldier he once was and Kratos of Midgard.

The donkey’s incessant noise rises in volume as fresh gore splatters near its front legs. Kratos rises to his feet and steps over the shrubbery. The animal pulls and pulls at the rope attaching it to Kratos’s prey. Thankfully, the limp fingers do not give. He does not yet have the energy to chase after such an animal.

Its meat shall be a gift. It will provide Faye and her son the strength they need to make an escape from their disappointment and hunger.

The animal quiets down, but will not let Kratos approach it. The god pays it no mind, his attention instead focused on the steadily growing pond of red soaking into the dirt he stands on. He tries to hold himself back. He tries to stay on his feet, not letting his knees burrow into the dirt as his weight becomes too much. Instead of rushing forward, digging his claws into the dampness, he takes slow and steady steps toward the man. He doesn’t mean to lower himself as fast and desperate as he does, but it happens anyway. Kratos will realize this later and shame will overcome his body and mind, but now, nothing has ever mattered less.

He drags his heavy body toward the still warm man. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. The tang in the air makes his stomach churn and his palms sweat. Kratos digs his fingers into the dirt to stop them from doing the inevitable.

It is inescapable, this hunger. Kratos thinks, somberly. He is reverting.

His stomach is full and his mind fog is gone. The trek back takes less time than it has in many moons. The god was no longer forced to take breaks from the extra weight of game, or his own insolence, mounted on his back. Now, the only weight comes from the meaty animal draped over his shoulder.

Faye will be pleased and the boy will be fed. He could not ask for more.

Ever since the flood, Faye has been acting strange– twitchy. Though, when it is mentioned, his sweet wife will do all she can to avoid it. ‘I’m tired, Kratos,’ she will say. ‘You’re still thinking of that?’ She’ll question with a curl of her lip. Kratos does not like to bother his wife, but this seems important.

She lays down the fabrics she was attempting, and failing, to mend. “You’re like a kit, Kratos. Hell, If a vixen heard your yapping, I'm sure she’d swoop in and rescue you from my depraved clutches!” Kratos ignores the jabs.

“Kratos,” Faye lays a light hand on his shoulder, “Are you alright? You’re- you look exhausted.” Kratos wants to lay a hand atop hers; he wants to savor the affection and burn the touch into his skin, but he cannot. He cannot touch her with his sullied hands.

He twists his body out of her hold. “I have brought meat. Enough to keep us fed,”

Faye pulls her hand away but keeps it suspended in the air. The shock is evident on her face. Kratos does not look into her eyes. He can practically hear Faye holding her words back. So she does not worry the boy, Kratos reasons to himself.

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1moreff-creator · 1 year ago

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Hey again! It's me! Haha... blame the David MV and FNAF RUIN for this taking so long. Like the song from the (now vanished) character playlist, "we're asymptotic, we're on it, 'till the end of linear time!"

I have to commend your dedication to your theory. This is a lot, geez. I respect it. Especially when I'm aware a lot of people would dismiss it out of hand due to its complexity and a few somewhat outlandish claims. As for me? I mentioned in another post, I come from the FNAF theorizing fandom. I'm a seasoned veteran in this. I've seen a lot more far-fetched than your theory, trust me. Unless you start calling everyone a robot, I'll always take your theory seriously.

Still, seeing as you put up with my thread for a while now, it's only fair I come back to the counter-counter-arguments you raised in this post. 26 issues? Damn, that's a lot. Guess I shouldn't stall longer.

Issue #1: Eden couldn't have stolen the turpentine

After that, Rose falls asleep on a table for who knows how long, and Nico has their chat with Hu, David and Teruko about being nonbinary. So it would be the perfect opportunity. [...] Rose probably thought Nico stole it after running away when they were being forced to reveal their secret.

Yeah, see, the problem is this line.

Rose: [Nico] even lied to and stole from me to commit murder. Out of everyone here, they're the least innocent.

The issue never was the physical aspect: Eden could have taken the turpentine from a lot of different places at a lot of different times, as you stated. The problem is that Rose believes Nico lied to her to steal the turpentine. I don't know about you, but to me, this line implies Rose believes Nico only asked for that painting lesson to steal her turpentine. Now, Rose is absentminded, but she's still pretty smart when she focuses. If she believes this, it must mean she has reason to. And the only reason she would have to believe this is if the turpentine went missing during the painting session, right?

It's also important to note, Nico doesn't deny this. Their response to this is "I--! I didn't kill Arei! I swear!" They never deny lying or stealing from Rose. You could argue they're just focused on the more pressing issue, but it's still odd they don't even begin to deny it, no?

Still, this is by no means conclusive. As much as I believe these lines pretty much confirm Nico took the turpentine, or at least that it disappeared during the painting session, it's sorta up for interpretation, so your theory still stands. It's just a bit shakier in my eyes, is all.

Issue #2: The color of the theorized wire doesn't match the crime scene

To make sure the wire is long enough, Eden used wire from a grandfather clock that she may have in her dorm : brass wire.

You brought up other possibilities, but I like this one the best, even though it sorta relies on... what'd you call it? Devil's Proof? Cool name. The others I find more unlikely, but this one at least makes quite a bit of sense. If Eden had any clocks in her room, they're definitely her best bet for getting wires, since a missing clock in any other room would be suspicious. Since this is not the only possibility, despite me finding it the most believable, I'll consider issue #2 solved. Though I'm not sure how you prove any of this in the trial, but I don't think that's too important.

Issue #3: Ace working out in the gym

Ace was knocked out when he was outside the fitness room, close by the doorway of the relax room instead.

Yeah, so, this one's my fault for assuming things. However, my assumptions weren't unfounded.

You see, in your post about the Ace murder method, you claimed Ace moved [the weight rack] during the evening, when he was working out. The reason why he did it is most likely to get it closer to the bench press, making it more convenient to swap around weight plates. He basically did it to match his preferences.

Now, here's the issue. That explains why the weight rack is near the bench, but not why it's toppled over. I originally assumed the rack was toppled over in a struggle, when the killer went to knock Ace unconcious with the turpentine.

However, on a second read, I realized I missed something. You claim "the person who moved and toppled the weight rack was Ace himself." When I first read that, I assumed you meant in a struggle because there's no reason for Ace to topple it over himself if he was training. You mentioned in another post this was just his preference, but that makes no sense, at least to me.

After all, after it toppled, the weight rack is facing away from the bench. If Ace was working out with it, he would have kept the rack upright, facing the bench, right? Toppling it over intentionally doesn't make any sense, in my opinion. It would just get the smaller weight plates further away from him without bringing the bigger ones any closer.

Essentially, because I didn't understand why Ace would topple the weight rack on his own, I assumed you meant it was knocked over in a struggle (which would also explain why the bench seems to be at a different angle to the door than usual).

I guess you think Ace was working out with the weight rack on the floor, though. But I don't fully understand how that would help him, and while you say it's just his workout preference... I don't see how it would help him. Essentially, you solved one issue, but you caused another one, though I recognize you don't seem to consider it a problem.

Issues #4-5: Ace is absolutely sure Nico tried to kill him - The murder method applied to Ace

So, here's the thing. Your method has changed pretty significantly since the time you reblogged this, and it has both solved some issues and caused new ones. However, this post is going to get obnoxiously long if I have to both explain and refute your method. So, instead, I'll link to this, my full refute to the reblog where you explain your new method. I hope you don't mind me sort of splitting the threads like this (and that it doesn't come off as egocentric to redirect to a thread I technically started), but I feel doing this is going to make it easier... maybe. If it causes more confusion, I'm sorry.

I'll still give a summary of your new method, and all the problems I have with it.

The summary: The method is similar all the way until Eden leaves the gym, with the only differences being a better expanation of how the weights were used to keep Ace up, and that Eden dragged Ace closer to the middle of the gym after setting up the wire. The big changes begin with Nico going down to the gym. First, they're not wearing their cloak because they're expecting a fight with Ace and it could get in the way... or it's a split personality situation or something, the exact reason isn't important. When they get to the gym, they turn off the fans wanting to kill Ace themselves by turning it back on. However, they hear Teruko and Eden talking, so they wait. While they wait, Ace wakes up, grabs the wire around his neck (explaining blood on Ace's fingers not addressed in the first post), and he pulls back in an attempt to get it off. However, the wire snaps, the fan breaks, and Ace falls back on the wall, where the wounds on the back of his neck cause the bloodstain we see. He's then either knocked out by the impact or pretends to be unconscious as Nico inspects the wire, beffudled. Teruko and Eden get in the gym, scene plays.

So, this method has quite a few advantages. It perfectly explains issue 4 of Ace believing it was Nico who attempted to kill him, gives decent explanations to previously unexplained evidence such as Nico's missing cloak and the blood on Ace's fingers, and at first glance seems quite solid-

The outcome's yet to be written! (Rebuttal Showdown)

(Hey, if you get to say "no that's wrong", I get to do Rebuttal Showdowns. I don't make the- okay, yeah, I make the rules, but still)

+Issue 5.1: The tape on the broken right fan is facing the ceiling, meaning it was likely always stuck to the upperside of the blade. According to your theory, Eden used the stool to tape the wire to the blade. But then, wouldn't it be easier to tape it to the underside of the blade?

+Issue 5.2: The tape which was always on the pull up bar is missing, and I’m my opinion, your theory doesn’t give a satisfactory answer to that. You say Eden just grabbed it to make the roll of tape because it was the only tape available. However, it most likely isn’t, since this roll of tape was later used for the spinny thing in Arei’s murder, and that definitely has more tape than the pull-up bar ever had.

+Issue 5.3: Ace’s wounds seem to be slightly thinner in some points than others, which wouldn’t make too much sense with your method. This isn’t too big an issue, since the wounds are just really hard to interpret.

+Issue 5.4: The final position of the benches, the broom and the isolated weights doesn’t make too much sense with this method. The benches are too far apart, and the other things should be closer to where the mechanism was set up, no?

+Issue 5.5: If Eden moved Ace to under the fan after setting up the mechanism, wouldn’t it be easier to set it up under the fan in the first place? Why go to the wall? This is a problem because the position of the benches require the mechanism to be set up next to the wall.

+Issue 5.6: It’s odd for Nico to turn off the fans and simply want to turn them back on to kill Ace. They told Veronika they hadn’t thought of the trial, so this wasn’t just to be the blackened; and if this was a crime of passion, just turning some fans off and on doesn’t feel brutal enough to satisfy Nico’s frustration. Additionally, Nico did at some point make an attempt on Ace’s life, but under your method, they never really started. This isn’t too big of an issue because Nico is hard to read in general regarding this situation.

+Issue 5.7: A pretty large issue is the blood on the wires, because of course that’s an issue. It’d be essentially impossible to completely wipe off the blood on the wires just by grabbing them, and even then, the pattern doesn’t make much sense. I explained in more detail in the other post.

+Issue 5.8: I can’t fully understand what you think Ace did to break the wire and fans, but I don’t see any way it one, gets the fan to fall with the fan-wire facing to the left of the gym; and two, it gets Ace sitting on the wall without staining the wall higher up or just sliding down on impact.

+Issue 5.9: Even if the other two things come from a misunderstanding, the final position of the lone wire would be a problem no matter what, I feel. If it was wrapped so many times around Ace’s neck, it should have moved with him, and shouldn’t have ended up on the other side of the gym.

There we go. Issue #4 solved, #5 still a problem.

Issue #6 : The supposed contradiction about Ace

The culprit knocked Ace unconscious when he was listening to [Arei and David], not when he was exercising.

Again, yeah, my fault for assuming things. This issue is solved indeed... though it still comes with the assumption that Eden decided to kidnap Ace right next to those two, and that she was actually able to get away with it. Considering you've talked at length about how non-soundproof the rooms are, I imagine you see how that's an issue.

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This is a break to remind anyone else reading that the Ace murder method is important for the Arei murder under thebajoe's theory, since Eden being the culprit is the explanation for Arei being in the relax room that night and dying in the morning of day three. I know you know this, just wanted to add a reminder since I think some people are still paying attention to these posts.

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Issue #7 : David's comments about Ace. Was it a lie?

...this is where we practically come at a stalemate.

That's definitely true. Unfortunately, with David, we just have no way of definitively confirming or denying each others interpretations. Especially not with the little time we've seen him on his "evil" persona. However, I can still explain my own position.

Let me start by explaining why I don't believe your interpretation. There are essentially four stages to David's actions in your theory:

-First, he tries to get a murder to happen so his secret isn't revealed.

-Once it actually happens, he manipulates evidence to guide the group into what he believes is the right answer.

-When his secret is revealed in the trial, he initially tries to argue normally, trying to defend himself because he knows he's not the killer. He doesn't call out Ace because he knows when it's his word against Ace's, the latter will have more credibility, and will just make David look like a bigger liar.

-Eventually, he realizes he can't argue to defend himself regularly, so he makes a fake admission. Since people distrust him, he's banking on this admission making the group realize something's off, and essentially argue on his behalf. He's pulling a Kyoko, but meaner, essentially. Letting the others figure it out themselves, because he knows they'll trust their own judgement more than anything David says.

Am I getting this right? Because while I find this interpretation fascinating and quite plausible, that last point I find quite shaky. Mainly, because of:

Teruko: You're lying, David. You're lying about everything. I don't think you killed Arei at all.

David: [Rebuttal] As if I believe that shit!

In this famous cliffhanger moment, Teruko is doing exactly what you think David is trying to get her to do. She's doubting he's the killer, she's looking for reasons to distrust that. At this point, a few people have already called for voting time. And yet, David cuts her off. Not in a cheeky, smug way or anything that indicates she's doing what he wants. He isn't encouraging Teruko to continue her reasoning, he's trying to get her to stop it.

Of course, maybe that's part of the act. But the last five minutes of the video are filled with times where David seems to actively push back against speculation he didn't kill Arei.

David: First you don't believe that I didn't kill her, now you don't believe that I did kill her. You're so inconsistent, it really pisses me off.

David: I already admittedd to killing her. Why are you trying to prove me wrong?

There's another one. I know you probably think he's acting here, but I don't see how being upset people are trying to prove he's not the killer would help his case. Wouldn't it run the risk of heavily discouraging them?

But of course, why would he insist he's the killer if he's not? Does he want to die alongside everyone? Or... does he actually think he is Arei's killer?

(Context: Right after Eden's story about her encounter with Arturo and Arei, talking about how the killer took advantage of Arei's lack of understanding of friendship)

David: For someone to take advantage of Arei like that... It's absolutely unforgivable. All she wanted was to change. What a reprehensible person this killer is. I look forward to seeing their painful execution.

This little breakdown (which, by the way, actually starts a few lines back, I just don't want to post three hundred screenshots) is very strange. It's obviously off character for his "cheery" persona, which he's still acting out in the line, but it also feels too... empathetic, for his "asshole" persona. Like, is this really the guy who claimed, with a smile, "Arei had about as much impact on our lives as a temporary weather spell, but no one cries when the sun comes out again"?

No. What many, including me, interpret from this little breakdown is that his "asshole" persona is just that, a persona. His real feelings are something else. And this is a small display of those real feelings: he cared about Arei, and/or he hates her killer.

But, even then, doesn't this feel too vitriolic? He didn't even act so hateful towards Teruko when he thought she had killed Xander, and now he's saying these things about a killer he doesn't know the identity of?

Well, what's important is the context. As I said, he was talking about how the killer took advantage of Arei's lack of understanding of friendship. How they used that to kill her. But, didn't Arei see David as a friend, too?

Let's say Arei actually killed herself after her chat with David. This would actually make David the blackened, as implied by MonoTV's wording here:

MonoTV: Yup! Whether Arei was complicit in her own death doesn't matter. All that matters is that there's a surviving participant that we can still blame her death on.

If David's words caused her to commit suicide, then her death can be "blamed on him", right? In that case, it was David who took advantage of Arei's lack of experience with friendship to become the blackened, which is exactly what he calls out the killer for doing. Basically, the reason David seems to despise the blackened so much, is because he thinks he's the blackened, and he just hates himself that much.

Take note of this line:

David: People who are born lazy, useless and stupid will stay that way until they die. If you were able to "improve" yourself into a better person, then it only means you were a better person to begin with.

Now, there is no real reason for David to be lying here, seeing as this doesn't help literally any of his possible objectives. It really wouldn't help him survive, hide his secret, and especially not keep his career. Which means he says it because he genuinely believes it. And yet, you see how he leads with "lazy", instead of any other adjective? I believe that's because he's essentially talking about himself, and he considers himself lazy.

David: Damn, why'd I even come to this ridiculous school? I hate talking to people anyway... I wish I were in bed...

This is practically the only time we can be 100% sure David is speaking honestly, since he's talking to himself and doesn't think anyone's listening. The "I wish I were in bed" is the important part. This isn't the only time David seems to be... uh, fatigue-prone, I guess. There are several times over the course of the series where he shows up late to meals because he took too long to get out of bed, for example. This would all make him believe he's lazy, which, if the order of words he chose in the above quote is to be believed, he considers worse than being useless or stupid.

I wrote that little analysis before the MV came out, but parts of it are supported by it. In particular, his self-hatred. I don't want to deep dive into that mess here, but some takeaways are that David doesn't see himself as fully human, and there are constant references to the famous "To be or not to be" speech from Hamlet, which is related to suicide. Not to mention the "democratic-ly" scene where a large X of blood appears over David right before there's a representation of someone being unanimously voted out of a class trial.

The blue text in the background of the first image is the explanation of class trial rules.

And footnote 12, the one on the unanimous vote? [“Majority rule” is known to be the fairest method of making decisions for a group. That’s why murderers never complained when we voted for them to die]. If this really is David being voted out, he considers himself the blackened killer.

Yes, that final scene says everyone will be executed, but that doesn't necessarily mean the wrong blackened was chosen; keep in mind "everyone" would include the blackened. What that really means is that David thinks there's no hope of survival even if they do pick the right blackened. Which actually would go against your interpretation, since he really doesn't seem to have that much of a will to live.

So, under my interpretation, we have the following truths about David's character:

+He hates himself, possibly more than any one person in the killing game.

+He hates the killer more than he hated Teruko when he believed she had killed Xander.

+He doesn't actually know who the killer is.

So, what do you get when you put this together? Well, he needs a proper reason to hate Arei's killer so much, and the only person he hates enough to consider that is himself...

So, he believes he killed Arei. That's why he's so nervous in that "I killed Arei line", it's one of the only times after his magical girl transformation where he's truthful.

And he's pretty hard-headed (see: how long it took to convince him Xander tried to kill Teruko), so he won't easily be convinced; that's why he still refuses to hear evidence he's innocent, and comes up with bullshit explanations for things like the fish. The "asshole" act he's putting on under this interpretation is a mix of catharsis (letting all the things he always believed to be true out into the sunlight) and a sort of defense mechanism. "Let's get this over with quickly so I don't have to deal with my guilt for much longer" and "I deserve to die, look at how horrible I'm being to everyone else", basically is what's running through his mind IMO.

This is the explanation I believe best fits all his lines, from the beginning of the series to now, so it's the one I believe. Needless to say, if he thinks he's the one who killed Arei, then your theory of him screwing around the crime scene to help the others find the killer doesn't quite work. He wants to survive, right?

But anyways. This post isn't to discuss David, as again, we have very little to go off of for him. Just wanted to explain my position since you explained yours. This was never too big of an issue with the theory, more an issue for me to believe it.

Issue #8: Ace's confusion

Up until episode 9, this murder case is meant to be solvable, as difficult as it may be. Episode 10 and 11 are there to mess with our deduction work while also giving us additional hints. Since DRDT is practically a mystery novel, it's not really out of the question to think that the creator probably used the element of the unreliable narrator, especially since we've been going through different characters' POV.

[...] The main issue however is that it's a bit difficult to claim that Ace was simply confused since he appeared to be lucid this whole chapter. Maybe it's done on purpose by the creator. There are a few other possibilities however. Ace could just simply be lying for whatever reason or he's just simply dumb. Whichever it is, there's something off about Ace's account.

I do understand your idea, but I still think this is a pretty huge stretch. You see, there's a difference between having an unreliable narrator and just straight up lying to the audience. One is an actual narrative tactic, the other is just cheap and frankly stupid.

Take the Flashback Lights from V3. In a way, these things serve the same function as an unreliable narrator; they give the audience incorrect or heavily biased information. Now, say what you want about their actual service to V3's narrative, their issue is not that they lie to the audience. That's because the audience is never given a reason to actually think they're reliable. Like, yes, most people will assume they are on a first playthrough, but when you think back on it, the only evidence to their reliability is Monokuma's word, which is obviously untrustworthy in hindsight. Thus, no matter how you feel about them, you can't say the story lies; the story only has an unreliable "narrator".

Contrast that to Ace. While it's impossible to point to a single point in the series and say "this proves Ace is reliable on this", you can vaguely gesture to the way he acts after the attempted murder to say "he's lucid enough that he shouldn't fuck up this badly". His behavior is lucid enough that, if he turns out to be wrong about this, the audience will look back and feel cheated, because the evidence that he's telling the truth (vague as it is) heavily outweighs the evidence that he's getting this wrong, at least, IMO. After all, he has no actual reason to lie conciously, and he's dumb, but not that dumb.

I almost want to ask: if you had gone into episode 11 without the preconceived idea that Arei died before the noon of the third day, would you have actually suspected Ace may have gotten the day wrong?

But still, this is sorta just a narrative argument, which isn't good enough for my books. This issue can be "solved", but it's still a large assumption to make.

Issue #9: The ball of clothes

Charles [made the ball of clothes] to be able to carry it more easily or David did it because he messed with the crime scene to help himself from being suspected, exposed and hopefully find the real culprit before then.

Like you mentioned, this was more something to do with the black string than your actual theory. This (kind of an) issue is solved.

Issue #10: Body decomposition

From 24 to 72 hours postmortem, it shows very little changes to the body.

... Damn. Fiction's taught me wrong. Even if Arei's decomposition was sped up by the humidity of the Relax Room, the cast is so bad at autopsies there's no way they'd actually notice any changes. I concede this point, even without taking into account the whole "they may be underground" thing you mentioned because frankly you kinda lost me there.

I also had thought of the incense for the smell, but I didn't bring it up because I feel it'd be a bit suspicious for the killer to constantly go to the Relax Room to make sure the incense is still going. But it's not the biggest risk Eden's taking, so I guess it's acceptable.

All in all, this issue is completely solved.

Issue #11: Arei would have woken up

...as long as there's a difference between two bodies that may have been knocked off by the same product [Ace's neck wounds], you can't guarantee that the wake up time should be the same.

I guess this is technically right, seeing as turpentine is pretty much a fictional sedative anyways. However, if anything, I feel like Ace would be knocked out for longer than Arei. The wounds on his neck could hinder the flow of blood to his brain (not a medical professional), which would mean it gets less oxygen and "works slower", or something. People pass out from blood loss, right? But you don't see people waking up from unconciousness just because they're really hurt. It's possible from what I found, but I could only find confirmation for head injuries, which isn't Ace's issue.

But even if you're right, and Ace's injuries made him wake up earlier... that many hours?! Like I implied, I can't imagine Ace woke up anytime after 12 AM, but Eden's going to the Relax Room a whole eight hours later. 8-10 hours of difference between two people knocked out in the same way, with the same product? Not only that, but Eden needs to be certain it will work like that. I'm sorry, I just can't believe it, and my suspension of disbelief usually goes pretty far.

Unfortunately, I don't have any conclusive counterarguments, but I still feel it's quite a large assumption to make.

Issue #12: MonoTV's rule about the Relax Room

Why wouldn't it be "let them break the rule"? There's no guarantee that it means no one's allowed to stay inside, but even if it was, wouldn't it make more sense to think monoTV would allow it for the sake of murder?

So, for starters, there is reason to believe the exact rule is "no one's allowed to stay inside". That's because MonoTV has claimed the reason for this rule's existance in the first place is so that the turf doesn't stick to anyone's clothes and later gets everywhere. That would be a problem regardless of when the person entered, and if anything, locking someone in overnight would only make the problem worse. Of course, there's a chance MonoTV is lying about it, but it seems like an odd thing to lie about.

Additionally, there is also reason to believe the rule wouldn't be waived for murder. Especially when Eden could have just put Arei... somewhere else. As far as we know, the only rule which can be waived for murder is the property damage one, while all the other ones are set in stone. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a point to specifically call out the property damage rule as one which can be waived.

Still, I guess I can't be sure either way, but I still feel it's a pretty large assumption to make.

Issue #13: Why the Relax Room?

Let's think about what would've been the plan if Ace actually died and Eden was the culprit. According to my theory, Arei would've woken at some point next morning and come out of the elevator and at least 1 person would've noticed. Then people will realise that someone is missing, then they'll find the body, then Arei would become the prime suspect.

And Arei can't just tell people she was kidnapped? She would have the clothes covered in starch as evidence, as well as the fact she has no grudge against Ace specifically. Even if she doesn't find the corpse, she wouldn't just skip out of the elevator all cheerily, she would probably shout about her kidnapping to anyone she can find. Sure, maybe they wouldn't believe her at first, but like you pointed out, Teruko in particular would be careful because the same thing essentially happened to her before. Even David points it out: "If we voted based on who was at the crime scene and who's the biggest asshole here, we should have voted out Teruko last trial". Maybe you could claim Eden would make up something like spotting Arei during the night, but that's obviously insanely risky. Or are you going to claim Eden originally made the disguise in hopes of being spotted as Arei outside the Relax Room before 8 AM, thus supposedly debunking her claim? Crap, I may actually be making your theory stronger, wait-

Well, in any case, it's still pretty risky, since seeing someone so early would probably necessitate talking to them, so I'm calling it a small assumption for now.

However, what I cannot accept is your idea for what happens if the body is found before morning.

The investigation would happen at night, so eventually, the trial would also happen at night. If Arei was in the relax room instead, the group would begin suspecting her, they wouldn't be able to find where she is. So eventually, before the investigation ends, monoTV would probably unlock the relaxation room begrudgingly, disable the plant misting somehow and retrieve Arei. Then the group would come at the shocking realisation that she was probably hiding in here to pull out some kind of trick. That's really suspicious!

I may be misunderstanding something, because this is, like, demonstrably false. MonoTV didn't start the first trial until Teruko woke up and investigated, so he would also need to wait for Arei to wake up and investigate. And because that would confirm she was unconcious for hours, as there is no other reason MonoTV would delay the trial, she would most likely be immediately ruled out as a suspect, especially if she was in the Relax Room, as everyone would realize she must have been put there by the killer. I think you're imagining Eden knows Arei would be asleep until morning? As otherwise there'd be no point to making the disguise and trying to kill her if she was awake. Thus, whatever it was, Eden's plan completely relied on Arei waking up before the body was found. And therefore, it relied on the body being found in the morning.

Except, now we come at the same question. If Eden wanted the body to be found only after Arei woke up, wouldn't it make more sense to put her somewhere else? Somewhere which doesn't require leaving behind physical evidence of where she was in the form of those clothes? You could argue the clothes themselves don't prove much since they could have just been left alone, but they would validate Arei's claim somewhat anyways. It would be far safer (especially considering MonoTV's rule could conceivably get in the way) to put her in the playground for example, as it wouldn't leave the clothes as evidence. Eden knows she'll still be asleep by the time morning comes, so it's not like it changes when Arei will leave the second floor.

In short, the plan fails completely if Ace is found before morning time, so it had to assume Ace would go undiscovered through the night; however, if that was the case, it would be just as logical, if not more so, to put her in any other room. So, I still consider this a bit of a hole with your theory.

Issue #14: Eden's location to work on the disguise

There are 2 reasons for [Eden woring on it in the dress-up room].

Everyone's dorm is right next to each other and the walls are not soundproof as stated by Eden in episode 3. [...]

...it would be a lot more convenient to do it in the dress-up room.

You know what? Fair points. This issue is solved.

Issue #15: Disguise risk (The voice)

Eden probably presumed it would be fine because of how often there's arguments happening in the cafeteria and that not many people like Arei.

I mean, yeah. Eden never being asked a question is both a risk she assumed, as well as an assumption your theory makes. In other words, this issue is solved with a decently large assumption.

Issue #16: Disguise risk (Rose)

Rose is very absent-minded. Essentially, it's possible that she didn't pay that much attention to the disguised Arei. She could've been distracted by whatever else.

Okay, so this seems to be another issue of character reading, but this time I have more proper evidence. You see, I believe Rose is extremely sharp in seeing extremely minor differences without paying much attention.

Let me ask you a question. If you woke up in a completely unknown room, in a completely unknown location, how much attention would you pay to a mirror? Not much, I imagine, provided you don't notice anything extremely wrong with your body just by looking down. Especially if you're absentminded like Rose. And yet, in her introduction, only a few minutes after everyone woke up, Rose had noticed a sixteenth of an inch difference between her height before and after she "passed out while going to Hope's Peak". So, presumably without paying too much attention, she managed to confidently spot a difference so insanely small most people wouldn't realize even if you show them a "before" and "after" picture side by side.

And you're telling me this girl didn't see any difference in height, especially if she saw "Arei" before she had sat down? Any difference in skin tone if the makeup didn't match perfectly? Any difference in the hair? The body shape? Facial structure? Hand size? Eyes, if there aren't perfect contacts (which, by the way, contacts even existing in the first place is an assumption as they've never been established)? Clothes, if Eden didn't fix them perfectly? Because if she did notice something was off, she would start paying closer attention and notice everything which was wrong, before Eden could even react.

Not only is it a pretty big assumption Rose didn't see anything off, it's also pretty big to assume Eden either believed she would be able to fool Rose, or wouldn't run into her, or had a way to make sure she never saw her disguise. Essentially, I still think it's a notable assumption.

Issue #17: Disguise risk (Makeup)

Eden put on the disguise and make up AFTER killing Arei. By that, I mean that she went inside Arei's room (thanks to the handbook) without anyone else noticing, she has the ability to be stealthy.

So, looking back, this may have been me misreading things. You said it would take "a lot of time and effort" to put on the makeup right before talking about how Eden would have worked on the whole murder plan for hours, so I got a bit confused.

Still, this revised answer does fix the issue... almost in its entirety.

Because the makeup smudging would be a large risk even if Eden put on the disguise after killing Arei. The reason is because she would likely sweat nervously, at least enough to smudge part of her industrial quantities of makeup. Eden does have sprites which sorta imply she can get nervous and sweat easily, which is especially true for a situation where you're pretending to be a whole different person and anything going even slightly wrong means likely being called out for murder. And especially especially if your plan involves the makeup possibly fooling Rose if she ever goes into the dining room unnanounced.

But well, at the end of the day, it's just another risk to throw on a pile, so another assumption: the makeup never smudged noticeably.

Issue #18: The bowling ball pin

The bowling ball pin is part of the uniform, it is required to have a pin for each replica of the uniform. MonoTV probably messed up and forgot to make replicas of the glove. Eitheir that, or the glove in itself is something very precious to Arei, so there doesn't exist anything like it.

... Yeah, so this BDA really just causes issues for everyone, doesn't it? My downfall is the glove, yours is the pin. I guess we can call it even, then. Like you said, although you can't prove it, I can't really disprove it.

...

But I can point out how incredibly unlikely it is.

Charles: If you wear gloves, then you should be able to read safely without cutting yourself. I'll give you my spare gloves. Here--

So, Charles gets to have spares of his gloves, but Arei doesn't, despite having spares of her pin? That seems... inconsistent. And I don't really know how this is something MonoTV could get wrong, as the mastermind included things like that piece of tape on Whit's TV and the type of clothes Hu likes in the dress-up room.

Again, no definitive disproving here, but this is one of the largest assumptions yet.

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Quick "old method" break!

Once I started having a logic chess battle between both our theories, that's when I realised that there's a much better way for the murder mechanism to work.

I don't think I need to go on further on the topic of my old murder method since it clearly wouldn't work.

As someone who has radically changed murder method theories at least twice (once to make the Arei method work with Eden as the culprit, once to fix the Ace murder method), I understand how hard it is to come up with a sensible theory without someone else around to point out the issues with it or give alternate ideas about the evidence presented. So, yeah, old methods are always usually a bit silly.

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Non-Issue: The thrown object to break the light

...as long as the throw goes pretty fast and far and you're unlucky enough to reach the lights on the ceiling, [a roll of tape] could displace a light bulb. I guess it doesn't really matter in the end. What matters is that something lighter and smaller than a ball of clothes could be thrown for that step of the murder mechanism.

Alright. Like you said, this was never much of an issue. Just wanted to address it for completion's sake.

Issue #19: How the body was positioned in the playground - Issue #20: Maths and Physics - Issue #21: Scuffed Ground

(I'm lumping all these together to make it easier to talk about)

(Yes, I can make bad drawings)

*Gasp* Using my own techniques against me?! /j

[...] With that positioning, it would be able to explain how a certain part of the floor was scuffed according to my theory since there were no struggle involved.

Right, so here we have an issue. See, when I drew how I imagined the method, I put Arei in that position because of a reason. Putting Arei's body like you suggest would cause her to move. And that's something which is actually necessary for your method, since that's how you explain the scuffed ground.

Why is this an issue? Because the more Arei moves, the less the carousel will decelerate, and the less force will be applied to her neck.

Tension is a very tricky force, but to explain the issue in the simplest terms I can, in this case it's sort of like the result of the "struggle" between the objects, if that makes sense. It is directly proportional to the amount of speed the carousel loses in a given period of time, its deceleration. If you check the (again, extremely wrong) math I did, you'll notice most of the tension is "given" by the fact I assumed the spinny thing would completely stop in 0,1 seconds. However, if Arei moves a bit, the carousel would only slow down a bit, not come to a dead stop. And while I can't make any calculations about this, that's a massive loss of power, which could potentially mean breaking Arei's neck impossible.

However, the problem isn't actually whether or not it would work anymore.

Once the water jugs reach an adequate height (from the pulley system), Eden would then spin the carrousel the other way around as fast as possible. The shorter rope serving as a stopper would take care of the rest.

This explanation you gave? In my eyes, it can solve the issue of power. None of us are good enough at physics to figure out how much force would be lost from the spinny thing not stopping abruptly. I still think, when you factor in friction and account for the movement of Arei's body, the force may not be enough, but Eden spinning the carousel may just get it to work.

But because of the position of the body, there's actually another issue. At the heart of it, why is it that I'm still so unsure about how much speed would actually be required? It's because Arei's body is positioned ineffectively. And while that isn't an issue of power, it's now an issue of motive.

The question I'm trying to get at is this: Why did Eden position Arei there? She could have put her anywhere else around the seesaw, but she put her in arguably the worst position imaginable. When you have so little power to spare, you'd want to put Arei with her feet pointing to the spinny thing, so her body wouldn't move at all provided the tape on the seesaw holds. That would force the spinny thing to completely decelerate in an instant, providing the maximum tension possible. Maybe the angle wouldn't be perfect for the neck itself, but it's not like what you showed is much better. Alternatively, Arei could have been taped to the swingset bars, which would maybe give a better angle.

Regardless of what the optimal position is, it's not what you suggest was used. And Eden, someone who likely has at least some knowledge about forces and mechanics, should know that, and neglect to use that idea. So, even ignoring the potential force problem, why put Arei there? This is a pretty major issue IMO, since there's no reason I can think of other than "Eden didn't think much about it", but that contradicts everything else she's done in your theory.

Issue #22: The elaborate murder method

These complex mechanisms reminds the culprit of her talent, her passion!

I guess it's possible, but I imagine you're aware this isn't exactly solid proof. I mean, clocks do involve mechanisms, but I'm pretty sure they're quite different from the pulley systems we're talking about from the murder... I think. And it sounds like a pretty underwhelming reveal, right? "Why'd you do this?" "I like clocks :p".

I'm mostly joking, btw. The argument isn't great, but I have no real way to disprove it.

It needed to be something that most of the cast would jump to early conclusions with no proper clue on how the murder was carried out and it needed to be something complex enough where even Teruko would have troubles solving it.

Now this is a bit more solid, but it's still quite vague. There are many, way simpler ways to go about this. And doing something so lengthy comes with the danger of Arei waking up in the middle of the murder, which is an issue because your method breaks down if Arei just sits/stands up. Not to mention the inherent danger of moving around a body at any point past nighttime.

The problem isn't necessarily that the method is risky, we've jumped that ship with the disguise already. The problem is that it's unnecessarily risky. Killing her in this way doesn't grant much of a tangible advantage over simpler, faster methods.

But, that argument isn't exactly damning, so this issue is simply solved by making large assumptions.

Issue #23: Rope on the corpse

So once the murder plan was executed, to make sure she would save time, Eden did the bare minimum to make sure no one would figure out what was the actual murder method. So she untied any ropes that was connected to the spinny thing, placed the longer rope under it, then brought the body back with the shorter rope still attached to her neck back to the relaxation room. Every second counts.

Yeah, the problem with this is that taking a noose off a neck shouldn't take much time at all. You don't even have to untie a knot, you just slide it off. You would still need to remove the knot from the spinny thing, but actually moving the rope to the relax room still attached to Arei's corpse would be much more awkward than just taking off the rope and hiding it under the spinny thing with the other piece of rope.

In fact, that longer piece of rope is also a problem to your argument. That's because when Teruko finds it, it's neatly rolled up under the spinny thing, which would take a decent bit of time to do. If Eden is in so much of a hurry so as to not spend half a second sliding off the noose from Arei's neck, then why is she spending presumably at least a whole minute or two rolling up the rope instead of just quickly shoving it under the spinny thing?

This isn't really a problem with your whole theory, but it is an issue with your argument. Thus, in my opinion, this issue wasn't properly solved.

Issue #24: The BDA

Eden would be able to set up the incense sticks and burn them up at the right time so that the smell would eventually dissipate at some point during the evening, she knew someone would eventually spend time in that room during the evening and they'd find the body because of eitheir a bad smell [...] or the lack of good odor...

The problem here is that Eden wouldn't think someone found the body until she sees the empty relax room, after Teruko already asked her to join her for the BDA. After all, since she doesn't have a clue about David's... silliness, her first assumption when nighttime comes and no one's announced the dead body should be "no one's found Arei".

Why is this a problem? Because she never objects to Teruko asking her to join, and she doesn't even seem nervous while that happens (though admittedly, we don't see much of her reaction). Hell, going to the relax room while thinking the body is there is practically suicide in this regard. If she pretends to find the body, Whit and Teruko see it, BDA doesn't play, she's fucked. If she pretends not to find it, and waits until someone else checks, she'll be instantly suspected for missing a whole ass corpse while actively looking for it.

Unless you're saying Eden had already checked the playground during nighttime for some reason? She couldn't check the relax room itself because it was closed, so if she knew where Arei was, it was because of that. Except, Arei wasn't moved to the playground until 7:30- yeah, I'm sorry, I don't think this works. This issue is still a problem, though admittedly not as large as some of the other ones.

Issue #25: David's persona

This one is similar to #7, as in, our views of David are just different and there's no definitive evidence either way. I still think his reaction to the fish is really weird under your theory, but that's just me. This issue depends on interpretation.

Issue #26: The note

The reason why it doesn't specify PM is because that specific part of the note was torn up.

Oh... yeah, you're right. I thought the ripped part next to the numbers wasn't big enough to cover "PM", but if it was written in lowercase, it could absolutely fit. Point conceded, issue solved.

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And there you go! Another response. I'm so tired. Here's a summary of what I think about your responses to the issues (highly subjective opinions incoming):

Completely solved: #2, 4, 9, 10, 14, 26

Character interpretation issues (debatable, but impossible to determine either way): #7, 25

Require small assumptions: #3, 6

Require big assumptions: #1, 15, 16, 17, 22

Require massive assumptions: #8, 11, 12, 18

Still an issue (small): #13, 23, 24

Still an issue (big): #5 (with all subpoints), 19/20/21

So, Occam's Razor states that the likeliest explanation is the one which makes the least egregious assumptions. With that in mind, is this really the likeliest explanation for the murder? I think not, but the amount of effort you've put into this is still extremely impressive!

Anyways, back to you, I guess. Take care!

BAD JOE'S DRDT CH.2 CRIME SOLVING THEORY PART 4

Heyo! It's me again! I'm here to solve a mystery regarding this chapter. AS USUAL, MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR DANGANRONPA DESPAIR TIME CHAPTER 2, SO BEWARE! (Click here to see my previous parts if needed)

The heck are you talking about?! You've already solved the case!

Not quite. There is one mystery that I never managed to solve... until now. So yeah, I'm going to share my ideas in regards to what happened during the failed murder attempt on Ace in chapter 2. On top of that, there's a few other discoveries that may help or hinder my theory that I also wanna share with you guys. So sit tight people, this may be the last ride to my crime solving theory (I hope...).

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Step #1 : What happened to Ace back then?

Let's bring up a picture of the crime scene, shall we? Actually, better than that, I'll bring 2 pictures!

The fitness room before the murder attempt (Picture A)

The fitness room after the murder attempt (Picture B)

As you can see, there is quite the major difference between the two. Yes... quite indeed! There is no mistaking it, there was no body before the murder attempt then poof! Ace's body appeared after the murder attempt!

...............................................

Alright, alright! I'm sorry! That was a bad joke. Let's get to business!

Let me give you a list of the relevant and noteworthy discoveries.

A fan that fell down (Ripped out according to Teruko)

A bloody wire broken in half (one half attached to the blade of the fan)

A stepstool

A broom

A roll of grippy tape (originally came from the bar by the wall)

2 weight plates on the ground next to the treadmills

Moved benches (Right bench toppled over)

Moved and toppled over weight plate rack

Traces of blood on the wall, behind Ace's neck

The fan on the left in Picture B isn't moving

So last time I talked about this crime scene, not knowing exactly how it went, I simply presumed that because there's a part of the wire taped up on the blade, it must've been some complex murder mechanism involved to make it work, kind of like the mechanism the culprit pulled for the murder of Arei (Part 1 for reference).

It is the logical way to think about this, after all. However, if you were to think that the culprit created a mechanism that works in a loop motion like a chainsaw, but in slowmotion, there are two issues with it.

There is no blood traces shown on any of the props.

Aside from the wall, the body and the wire, there are no other visible traces of blood, which is very problematic. If we want to make that looping mechanism work, the wire would probably need to be going around some prop so that the wire pattern would be more on Ace's neck height. But since there's missing blood traces, it's just simply impossible.

As long as one end of the wire is attached to the fan, the possibility of a looping mechanism doesn't exist.

Think about it. For the looping effect to work, the beginning part of the wire would also need to be moved so that it would do a lap, but once you stick the beginning of that wire to something, then that part of the wire can't move away from here.

Therefore, once the whole wire follows its intended path, it doesn't come back, it doesn't create a loop. It's yet again another impossibility.

Why does creating a looping effect mechanism matter anyway?

Because according to my theory, the culprit (Eden) created a mechanism that would work on its own while she's away from the crime scene for the sole purpose of playing around the killing game rules which would make her seem even less suspicious.

Not only that, but because of the wounds on Ace's neck, it seemed like the wire damaged his neck multiple times, so surely the mechanism must've gone back and forth to make that happen.

Yet, creating that kind of mechanism is just plain impossible.

Ha! Then your theory doesn't work! Someone else did it!

Nope, not quite. It just narrows down the list of possibilities as to how it could've been done by Eden. It's an impossible mechanism because there's no other traces of blood and it cannot be looped?! Sure, but I just gotta think outside the box.

How do I create a murder mechanism involving a wire attached to the blade that doesn't loop nor does it leave traces of blood on any of the props? There's only one possibility I can think of. Here goes!

The wire was wrapped around Ace's neck multiple times, somewhat tightly.

Huh? That can't be right! Wouldn't the wire simply leave the body after a short while, not damaging the neck enough?

That's what I thought initially at first, but then I decided to make some experiments. ....No! Not that kind of experiment! I did not wrap it there to test it out, I promise! Well... I tried out around my arm first, but took precautions.

There is a way to test it out without endangering ourselves. Find some kind of wire and use it to wrap around an object that doesn't take most of your wire to make a lap like a bottle or a deodorant and try pulling eitheir ends of the wire. You will notice that the wire just stays there, it remains tangled around the object, it even tries to kinda squeeze the object and that's precisely what happened to Ace's neck.

Because of how many times it was wrapped around Ace's neck and the type of wire it was used, with the pulling motion from the fan, it would make considerable damage to his neck which could've turned for the worst if the mechanism wasn't stopped early enough.

And that's how the culprit created a murder mechanism that can do the job without being around to see it, without creating a looping mechanism and leaving barely any blood traces on the props.

There are some issues with this idea however. But since this is the most logical sound conclusion for the murder mechanism, there's most likely an answer to each issue.

It would be very difficult to wrap the wire around Ace's neck without any kind of help.

Let me explain. First things first, they didn't wrap the wire while the body was sitting down against the wall, it would most likely be impossible. Reason why lies in the blood traces of the wire as shown in Picture B.

Only parts of it is bloody, but more importantly is the fact that a good portion of the wire starting from the part that's attached to the blade doesn't have any blood. The beginning part that's clean is obviously the length between the body and the blade of the fan. We can kinda guess from this that it shouldn't be able to reach his neck if it was sitting down.

Therefore, the body needed to be standing for the whole duration, even setting up the murder mechanism. And that's where the benches come in handy, by keeping him in place. The weight plates probably helped a bit too? In any case, there's still another problem.

The body would bend forward as there's simply nothing supporting the upper part of Ace's body.

You could say that the culprit tried to hold the body against the wall with one arm while she used the other arm to wrap the wire around the neck. However, that would be pretty difficult to pull it off as the body could problably move still (she's probably not that strong to begin with) and it would take a greater amount of physical efforts to pull it off.

So she must've used something to help with that. Some kind of prop. It took me quite some time to think about it, but I think I found a pretty good answer to this riddle.

The culprit used the broom to increase the stability of Ace's body while setting up the murder mechanism.

Honestly, the broom confused me a lot when I was trying to figure out how this whole scheme worked on the murder attempt on Ace. To me, it made no sense as to why there was a broom laying around the fitness room. I couldn't understand it.

But now, I'm pretty sure I know why. The culprit placed the broom through Ace's shirt, in the back. Then, she placed the body against the wall and with the remaining support on the lower part of Ace's body (the benches), the body would barely move from its initial position.

Hah! I don't believe you! I'm calling bluff on that one!

Oh yeah? Then how about this? Why don't you test it out yourself? This one is a pretty simple and safe test to do (as you as you don't pull any stupid stunts).

Pick up a broom or a long wooden/plastic pole, place it through your shirt, from top to bottom, in the back. Lean against the wall or a door and try bending your upper body forward. I can guarantee you that it will be very difficult to do so.

That way, it would explain the purpose of most of the props found at the crime scene.

Not true! You still haven't explained why the weight rack was moved and toppled over!

Yeah... you're right. This toppled weight rack was probably the most challenging and annoying piece of the puzzle. No matter how much pondering I've made, even to this day, I can't find anything that relates the weight rack to the murder mechanism. Yet, it has been moved.

Considering who I believe the culprit is, I don't think she would be strong enough to move it wothout someone else's help. But according to my theory, she doesn't have an accomplice.

Then you admit it. Your theory doesn't work because of this.

No, that's wrong!

It's true that I can't make a connection between the weight rack and the murder mechanism, but why should I? We already know that most props aren't part of the murder mechanism as there's no traces of blood on them. Even though the broom was used to keep the body steady while setting up the murder, the culprit removed the broom afterwards.

Alright, but what about the culprit? You just said that she can't move it without someone's help, but you denied the possibility of an accomplice. So it's impossible!

Heh! It's impossible because we're looking at this from the wrong perspective. If it's not the culprit who did it, then it's clearly someone else who did, but I highly doubt it was Nico. Considering what we know, I propose the following possibility :

The person who moved and toppled the weight rack was Ace himself.

Huuuuuh?!!! Ace?! Why would the victim do that?! That doesn't make sense!

You say that because you think that this happened around the time of the murder setup. But that's where we got the wrong idea. In fact, the weight rack in itself has nothing to do with the attempted murder at all!

Ace moved it during the evening, when he was working out. The reason why he did it is most likely to get it closer to the bench press, making it more convenient to swap around weight plates. He basically did it to match his preferences.

Didn't he work out at evening, the day before the BDA?

Nope. I've proved last time that this actually happened the previous evening, before the night of the failed murder attempt. Not only that, but my proposition would actually prove that Ace was indeed working out that specific evening. Therefore, he didn't lie about working out.

So with this, that should explain the purpose of every single clue. The rest are pretty self explanatory.

The fan was stopped to set up the murder mechanism, then turned back on only to be turned off later again by Nico, who saved Ace unintentionally or not. Otherwise, it turned off automaticly as soon as it broke. The stepladder was used to reach the fan as she was setting up the murder mechanism and the roll of tape has already been explained in part 1 of my theory.

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Step #2 : One more clue in the trash

This is a discovery made by thefandomenchantress! (Thank you btw!). This discovery actually helps support my theory and I'll explain why.

So there is this one very subtle clue that can be found in the trash can as seen in the post. There's actually a needle with black string in that small hole. It must've been part of the murder scheme somehow cause I don't quite see why else it would be found here. I have 2 possibilities that could explain the use of that needle while also supporting my theory.

First one is that the culprit used it to do adjustments to her Arei costume. Remember, Eden's pretty small compared to most of the cast, so it's possible that Arei's outfit would've been a tad too tall for her. It would require some considerable amount of time to do it, but she could've easily done it during the night, while waiting for the relaxation room doors to open next morning to pull off her murder.

Second one is related to the ball of clothes. It's possible that she sew the old clothes together to make a bigger piece of cloth, like some kind of tarp to hide and preserve the unconscious body. It would'be been easier that way instead of trying to place multiple pieces of clothing and hope that it covers the whole body.

Heck, it's possible that the culprit used it for both possibilities instead of only one of them. And that, ladies and gentlemen, would explain why there was a needle with black string in the trash can.

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Step #3 : Arei, you look so different right now!

This has probably been mentioned a couple times in the past, but it definitly caught my attention when I read this subreddit thread. Let's take another look at Arei's corpse, shall we?

So according to OP in that subreddit thread, some observations about her indicate would indicate that these parts were done recently, like probably in the morning, a bit before 8:00 am and I'm sadly inclined to agreed on that.

Basically, there are two important things to note about the BDA : the red marks on her wrists and the fact that her body was swinging at the time. There's also the fact that the crime scene left out a lot of clues, like many of them weren't removed from the scene. The left out clues are explained in the 3rd part of my theory, so I'm not gonna dwelve on that.

Instead, I wanna talk about the red marks and the body swing. Initially, I thought the body swing was just a way to had some kind of mood to the BDA while I didn't bother thinking that deep about the red marks.

But I can't deny these two visible clues can't remain that way for a long time, especially the body swing. The red marks, I don't know how long it lasts, but it probably doesn't last that long. That's why the OP in this subreddit thread figured that this whole crime must've been carried out by 7:30 AM instead, but if you read all my theories so far, you should know that it's impossible (I also explained it in that thread's comment if you need a reminder).

It is conflicting my theory slightly however because the body hanging among a few other clues (like the dead fishes in the playground and the ball of clothes thrown in the dress up room) must've be done in the evening by David, before the day of the BDA. Yet he couldn't hang the body then otherwise the body would've stopped swinging a long time ago. So that's a contradiction. Yet, it feels like David is the only person who could've done it considering what I've told in my theory. So instead, I just need to fix my idea a bit to make it work.

When David found Arei's corpse, he figured out some kind of plan that would benefit him. First, he hid the body inside the changing room in the dress-up room. Then, he proceeded to grab the fishes with the old clothes to place them in the playground and once that's done, he rolled up the clothes into a ball and discarded it somewhere in the dress-up room. Then, next morning at 7:30 AM, he retrieved Arei's body and hung it at the swing set in the playground. He then removed the tape on her wrists and threw these in the trash before meeting up with the group in the movie screening room.

Why wouldn't David move the body to the playground much earlier, during the evening instead? He placed the fishes there already, so what gives?

About the fishes... you know what? I just made a quick realisation. Let me add something.

It's possible that he didn't place the fishes in the playground during the evening, but rather kept them inside the clothes, hidden in the dress-up room, waiting for next morning to "set up the crime scene in the playground".

Going back to the question previously, considering that it's possible he didn't move anything in the playground until next morning, I'm more inclined to believe that maybe he panicked. It was the evening, everyone else was still awake at the time, there was no telling when someone else would show up, so he neede to quickly hide the body somewhere else.

Why somewhere else? Remember the conversation that happened earlier that evening in the kitchen?

He knows damn well there were a few witnesses who knew that he headed to the relaxation room at the time. So if he left that corpse there and everyone else would find it the next day, he would've been the prime suspect almost instantly, no doubt about it.

So once he hid it somewhere else for the time being, went back to the first floor and took that time to think of a plan to solve the case while hopefully not having suspicions thrown at him and possibly even get his secret safe. Sadly, he really couldn't tell whodunnit (I mean, who could?), so the best thing he could do is investigate a bit.

So he goes back into the elevator next morning, probably around 7:30 AM and lo and behold, he finds clues in the playground. Those were clues that the real culprit left them there because she was in a hurry. So upon seeing this, he knew what he had to do. He needed to drag the remaining clues into the playground, thinking that it would make it a lot easier to pinpoint the culprit and solve the case.

But why the fishes? According to your theory, he grabbed and hid them quickly before even having a plan to set up the fake crime scene.

Well, since he couldn't grab the fishes before 8:00 AM nor would it have made sense to do so if he was able to, there's only one reason I could think of : he did it for the insurance.

Insurance? What do you mean?

That's because at the time, he didn't actually know much about the murder. He didn't actually know if that was the real place where she died or if that was a temporary hiding spot. So he must've figured that if someone else were to find the body hidden in the changing room, the fishes would indicate that the relaxation room is related to the murder somehow.

Like sure, he wanted to avoid having his secret revealed at all cost, but there's something else he wanted more than anything else : David wants to survive.

And since he's not the culprit, the best thing he can do is help the group solve the murder in his own way. If he left those fishes there, if he ever became a suspect and tried to tell everyone that he found the body in the relaxation room, it's very likely that no one would've believed him. So the fishes serve as proof in that scenario.

So there you have it. This should explain the meaning behind these clues discovered recently. While we're at it, it's been stated from others, but did you notice Arei's hair during the BDA? It looks pretty messy and I'm fairly it's because her hair was wet before, just like what some people suggested before.

And before you ask, no she was not drowned. It wouldn't make sense at all and I'm fairly sure it would've shown clear signs of drowning if that was the actual cause of death, so I'm gonna leave it at that.

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Step #4 : A big flaw in my theory

So... there is a discovery that I made on my own and it's not a good look on a certain aspect of my theory. Let me explain.

While I was finishing up my theory, making sure I didn't miss anything, I replayed in my mind how the crime happened according to me and I somehow managed to spot a major flaw in my own theory. It's such a big flaw, I'm actually surprised I didn't notice it for quite some time after making that post.

The major flaw in question lies in my motive.

Your motive? Again?! You've been changing your motive practically every post! What's up with you?!

Sorry, sorry! I thought for sure that I was right on the money with my crazy motive theory, but it looks like I'm way off the mark. You know... motives can be pretty complicated sometimes, they're a real pain in the you know what!

So to give a little reminder as to what my proposed motive was, it has something to do with the secrets. I deduced that there must've been a possibility that Eden had the exact same secret as David (the manipulator one) and she thought that this was going to be the revealed secret if no one commits murder.

I figured it'd make sense considering her murder scheme. It practically requires a fair amount of lying and manipulation. And if she indeed had that dark secret, since David had the same secret, the host had to make a decision choosing which one of the two should inherit that secret as the public reveal. The host wouldn't want two people having the same exact secret revealed, it would seem really odd.

So the host chose David as the person who would get this secret revealed to the public (if the murder is not done on time) while Eden would have a different secret. Not a fake one, of course. Something that's still part of her, not as dark, but still embarassing enough.

I figured that since Eden's secret seemed so light compared to the others, there must've been more to it. So that's why I came up with this idea. But you know what? This actually can't work. It wouldn't make sense.

Why not?

To explain it properly, we're gonna have to go back a couple episodes and use our imagination to think of what-if scenarios. Trust me, it'll be worth it.

So Eden plans ahead for a murder because on the first episode of chapter 2, when the secrets were given, because of the unknown, she thought for sure she had a very dark secret that she didn't want anyone to know.

So what was the actual murder plan? Killing Arei? Nope! Her intended target was Ace, mostly because he happened to be at the right place at the right time while also dropping his guard. It was the perfect opportunity.

Then later on, she knocks Arei unconscious and locks her inside the relaxation room so that she'll become the prime suspect of the murder of Ace. So the culprit sets up the murder mechanism, she turns it on, then leaves the room. Then all of a sudden, Nico comes in and screws up her plan as the murder attempt failed.

And that, right there, is where we're jump into a what if scenario. Let's go back a bit and pretend that Nico never showed up to begin with. Let's do one better, let's pretend that the murder attempt on Ace actually succeeded and he actually dies. So what now? What would happen?

Well, for starters, monoTV wouldn't display the secrets on the monitor since the BDA would most likely be done much before the deadline. Then Arei would become the main suspect, as predicted by the culprit. Then after that, they would struggle a lot more to figure out who the culprit is and whatnot. So whether the groups solve it or not, at the end of that trial, they wouldn't be able to figure out Eden's dark secret (let's pretend that she actually had a very dark secret for now). So everything works out in the culprit's favor, right?

BZZZZZZZ! WRONG!

We would be forgetting a very important fact if we believe that it would go down that way in a what-if scenario. Because the secrets were mixed-up, everyone knew the secret of a different person. So in that case, Charles knows Eden's secret.

Let's keep moving with the what-if scenario. So say that they're investigating the murder of Ace, they would find a few clues, but probably not enough to solve the mystery.

So what would happen if they have to do everything they can to solve the case, but don't have a lot of information to go on? They would reveal the next best bit of information they have at their disposal : the secrets!

Considering Charles' personality, there's no way he wouldn't reveal Eden's secret. He would definitly let everyone know about her secret. Whether it was indeed a very dark secret or not and whether they find out Eden has something to do with the crime or not. He'd even ask Teruko to show it as proof since he gave the piece of paper to her.

Basically, if that was the actual motive, it would only lead to her doom. Her secret would've been exposed anyways. Therefore, Eden's motive of trying to protect her believed dark secret can't work.

While I'm at it. The same applies to any theories out there that uses something like "they want to protect their secret" as a murder motive. None of these work for any individuals... except for one. The only one that could get away with it is whoever Arei had as a secret.

I knew it! Levi did it! Levi has to be the person with the murderer secret. He killed her to retrieve the secret!

Yeah... no. While it would've been an interesting motive and plot, I very much doubt he's the culprit. The roll of tape disappearance from the first part of my theory narrows down the list of suspect by a lot.

This is another reason why my motive theory doesn't make sense. To make sure that she fulfills that "goal", she would need to find out who has her secret and kill that target. She did neitheir of those. Otherwise, Charles would've been the victim.

So now what? Are you gonna propose that there was no motive?

Not at all! There was definitly a motive for commiting murder. It took me some time to think about it, but I may have a more plausible theory for the motive.

Eden has someone she loves and cares about a lot outside this killing game. She misses her dearly.

She... killed someone because of love?! Are you kidding me?!

Nope. Well, it wasn't just love. It was more like a chain of events that led her to be done with this place and wanted a way out of here to meet her beloved ASAP. Once you start thinking about the narrative in Eden's pov, it'll start to make sense. Let's rewind back to the very beginning : the prologue.

After everyone's introductions, monoTV shows up to announce the killing game show, that they're here to kill each other and whatnot. Levi came close to dying because he broke a rule for rebelling against the mascot. Realising the gravity, most people were pretty concerned about this. Eden's reaction in that scene was the following :

Well, to be fair, I'm sure most people, even yourself if you were in their shoes, would react like this. This is pretty scary, after all. In any case, this shows that from the beginning that she wanted to get out of here.

Later on, the next day, they try to figure out any ways to escape this place which, interestingly enough, Eden is the first person to bring it up as a reminder.

And then fast forward during chapter 1, there's some wholesome friendship moments happening with the girls in the kitchen, then some other stuff happens, then there's the murder, the investigation, the trial.

Then once Teruko figures out that the culprit is Min. It becomes quite a big shock for Eden since Min was in the kitchen with Hu and Eden most of the time, but as you know, it wasn't an airtight alibi.

So, to say the least, this chapter was pretty dramatic for most of the ultimates. Even towards the end of that chapter, it was quite a shocker when Teruko pretty much pulled the middle finger on all of them, telling that she carried the trial to victory (which she honestly did). She then swore that she would never trust anyone else ever again, which set a pretty dark tone going forward. Then the screen fades to black, introducing the beginning of the chapter 2.

Right before the beginning of that chapter, we get the following quote : "I still miss you. I miss you so much that I wish I you had never been a part of my life. The worst part is, even though you left me like this, there's nothing I can blame you for."

Then once the chapter begins, we jump right into Eden's pov. So based on everything we know about both chapters and that her secret is : "Ever since you kissed her, you were afraid your sexuality would ruin your friendships," it feels like the quote we saw earlier was actually Eden's thoughts.

Anyways, despite how gloomy this atmosphere seemed to be, after monoTV revealed the motive, she says the following.

Once again, she's the first person to bring up the "escape the killing game plan". She's seems a tad keen on wanting to get out of here. She could've also been trying to lift the mood up because of everything awful that happened in chapter 1, who knows.

We all know that there's been a lot more arguing this chapter, especially that one time where there were 3 different groups bickering : Ace and Nico, Arturo and J, Arei and monoTV. Basically, not a single day goes by without a dramatic moment happening this chapter.

Despite all that, Eden tries to remain positive and try to make more friends despite how stressed out she must've felt deep down. And then this happens...

Yeah, Arei coming in the the very intense bullying on Eden, which broke her down real bad. By the way, do you remember in the first part of my theory, when I claimed that this whole scene was the spark that made Eden decide to commit murder? Then in the second part, I rejected that idea because of her flashback showing a very wholesome moment between Arei and Eden? Guess what? I'm changing my mind yet again : Arei's bullying is definitly what caused Eden to kill someone.

What the heck are you saying?! Arei apologized and they both made up afterwards. You're just contradicting yourself!

I could claim that the flashback was entirely made up, but I seriously believe that everything she told in that flashback was the truth. Yes, it's true that they made up and became friends, but that doesn't matter anymore. She had her sights on something a lot more important : get the heck out of here by any means necessary!

It's exactly because of that bullying that it made Eden realise that she really misses that certain someone outside the killing game. She misses her dearly. So to make sure that she could escape this hellish show, she needed to come up with a flawless murder plan. Hence why there's been so much efforts put into this. She's serious about this.

Becoming friends with Arei was a golden opportunity for her. She could use this to her advantage and betray her. Make Arei become the scapegoat in this case, which was the original intent in her plan. As for the murder victim, it seriously didn't matter, she only needed to sneak on someone that would drop off their guard (which in that case, it would be Ace when he was spying on David and Arei).

Of course, things sadly didn't go according to plan for Eden and she had no choice but to murder Arei if she wanted her plan to succeed. Well, she could've still made the choice, but her desire to meet her beloved out there was much much stronger than anything else. She had to.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the whole truth behind this case. Well... would be if I end up being right. It's possible I may have a few things wrong once we learn the actual truth. Let's be honest there though : everything I've told you guys so far, it makes sense, doesn't it?

If you combine all my ideas, they all seem to be connected, don't you think?

Well, it's still up to you to decide whether you believe in my culprit theory or not. There's probably a couple other possibilities out there, but it'd take as much work, if not more, to connect all the dots, so be mindful of that.

And with that, I'd like to thank you all again for reading my theory post. It's another big read, I know. I'm sorry. Maybe I could've word things better, make it much easier to read, but hey. We never truly learn or improve if we never try in the first place, right?

Alright! Next post will be a closing argument post, which should make things kinda easier to understand my whole theory. See you then!

#drdt #danganronpa despair time #drdt theory

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