#and that's about what's going to happen IN milgram. as for what will happen outside.... yeah

[linagram]

post-t3 stuff announcement post! (i guess)

HIIIIII so we're done with the main part of trial 3. yay yay. all verdicts are here and now we can move on to post-t3 voice dramas.

i just wanted to explain how exactly the trial will end and what post-t3 things to expect.

there's gonna be a lot of stuff so i hope it's not too confusing...

(no exact dates bc i'd rather not make promises that i can't keep ^^'' im finally done with all the vds tho!!)

so here's the post-t3 vds list! honestly there's so much i think this can be counted as linagram season 4 😭😭

[ Post-T3 Voice Drama #01 ] Came For The Reward, Stayed For The Punishment

a first voice drama about a conversation between a certain guard and a certain prisoner. pretty short compared to. the rest of the vds, but still kinda important.

2. [ Post-T3 Voice Drama #02 ] The Recollection of Everyone's Sins (Part 1)

discussing the first five prisoners' crimes (akio, aimi, shun, naomi, kei) and what is going to happen to them.

3. [ Post-T3 Voice Drama #02 ] The Recollection of Everyone's Sins (Part 2)

discussing the other five prisoners' crimes (eiko, asahi, yurika, riku, reina) and what is going to happen to them.

4. [ Post-T3 Voice Drama #03 ] The Judge Becomes The Judged (Part 1)

the guards' trial. yikes.

5. [ Post-T3 Voice Drama #03 ] The Judge Becomes The Judged (Part 2)

discussing the guards' crimes before coming to milgram. YIKES.

6. [ Post-T3 Voice Drama #04 ] No Justice In This Place

punishments. we're really doing this.

7. [ Post-T3 Voice Drama #05 ] Accept This Punishment Called Life

the very last vd. kind of a short one but it's. very emotional. at least to me.

andddd that's it! i really meant it when i've said there's going to be. a lot of stuff

tysm for your support guys and hopefully the ending will not be disappointing (or too dark haha) shjdjsksk!!

[blueepink07]

Since we will get Kotoko's album in one day, which includes her VD from which most probably we will find more information about her motivations and her plans in Milgram, I decided to look a bit into her attacks during prison and how I imagine things happened! (I'm fully aware that I will most probably be proved wrong when the album drops, but I'm really curious if I can actually figure out most of what happened!)

Starting off, Jackalope informs us that the order in which Kotoko attacked is: Mikoto, Mahiru, Fuuta.

Which makes sense, considering that she attacked, in order, who is closer to her cell.

(Also fun fact! The prisoners are distorted according to how many injuries they have!)

What I want to answer, however, is how she managed to attack two people without being stopped.

Mikoto vs Kotoko

From Mikoto's VD, we find out that Kotoko has attacked, while John was distracted, giving herself a slight advantage.

"Es: Like you didn’t get beaten by Kotoko…! John: Hah. That was just because she caught me off guard. We went at it again while you were asleep, and it’s not like I lost there."

Considering that they fought some time and where evenly matched, there must have been a lot of noise, which should have alerted the others. In this attack, Kotoko didn't care much about how much attention she would attract. Why? Because the prisoners were already used with John's restlessness and they wouldn't dare to go near him. Hearing those noises didn't alert them much, because they maybe were too scared and didn't want to approach or thought it was just the usual.

As seen in many timeline posts, Mikoto is avoided. The only one who wished him Happy birthday was Haruka, whom we know that is currently isolating himself and didn't wish Mikoto a happy birthday this year too...

"Mikoto: The others told me about it. How I got into a fistfight with Koto-chan and whatnot. "Es: Seems like it, yeah. Mikoto: I wonder if it’s like… some kind of sleepwalking…? After all, I’ve been losing sleep more and more often recently… Man… It’s really troublesome, isn’t it? Es: Mikoto… Mikoto: The others are all scared of me. I can tell by looking at the way they act. Because I read the room."

Mahiru and Kotoko

From Shidou's VD, it is given the information that Mahiru suffered head injuries, more exactly head lacerations.

"Shidou: Shiina-kun’s is even worse. Head lacerations. Bruising all over her body. Left anterior compression fracture. A sprained neck. Fractured ribs. Further fracturing to the left arm. And furthermore… this may be outside of my profession, but her mental health is deteriorating as well."

These injuries are the aftermath of being hit by Kotoko.

Mahiru says some interesting things in her VD:

"Mahiru: … Ah, but this is… I think Kotoko-chan is the one who did it, so… you know? It’s not like it’s your fault. Um, so…! I’m not holding a grudge towards Kotoko-chan either. I’m sure she just thought it couldn’t be helped…"

This "I think" was always interesting to me. It implies that she is uncertain of the events that happened, like she wasn't there... Like she just a heard rumour from someone else...

However, she also tells this:

"Mahiru: … Ah– I– I—I’m sorry…! If– If you touch me so suddenly, it makes me remember… how it hurt… and I get scared…"

She remembers the pain, but not the person who hurt her. Keeping in mind that she also suffered from head trauma, I have thought that Mahiru must have lost consciousness, shortly after being hit, but not fully.

There are actually some levels of impaired consciousness, that can explain my assumption!

Confusion

Confusion is marked by the absence of clear thinking and may result in poor decision-making.

Disorientation

Disorientation is the inability to understand how you relate to people, places, objects, and time. The first stage of disorientation is usually around awareness of your current surroundings

Loss of short-term memory follows disorientation with respect to place.

Delirium

If you’re delirious, your thoughts are confused and illogical. People who are delirious are often disoriented. Their emotional responses range from fear to anger. People who are delirious are often highly agitated as well.

Lethargy

Lethargy is a state of decreased consciousness that resembles drowsiness. If you’re lethargic, you may not respond to stimulants such as the sound of an alarm clock or the presence of fire.

Stupor

"Stupor is a deeper level of impaired consciousness in which it’s very difficult for you to respond to any stimuli, except for pain."

Coma

Coma is the deepest level of impaired consciousness. If you’re in a coma, you can’t respond to any stimulus, not even pain.

From all of these, stupor seems to be what Mahiru experienced after being hit.

Stupor -> caused by head injuries, such as concussion or bleeding in or around the brain

"Stupor is characterised by impaired reaction to external stimuli. Those in a stuporous state are rigid, mute and only appear to be conscious, as the eyes are open and follow surrounding objects. If not stimulated externally, a patient with stupor will appear to be in a sleepy state most of the time."

If Kotoko hit Mahiru and caused her to have a stupor, Mahiru wouldn't even have the chance to yell or cry for help. She couldn't respond to any stimulus (sight, sound, smell, taste and touch), the only thing that she could feel was the pain.

It would make sense, in this case, for the other prisoners to be unaware of what was happening to Mahiru. Kotoko most probably made a surprise attack (as in John's situation), left Mahiru is a state of stupor and did further damage to her body.

"Kazui: I wonder. Maybe it’s because I’m used to violence. Even so… I couldn’t make it for Shiina-chan. I feel responsible for [what happened to] her."

Fuuta and Kotoko

Fuuta seems to have been fully conscious when he was being beaten up by Kotoko. He remembers every detail, unfortunately to him: the way he had been stepped on with the safety boot-like shoes, the beatings which made him think that he'll die. He even remembers Kotoko's motivations and beliefs! It's pretty likely that he was still conscious when Kazui protected him.

"Fuuta: Hey. Look at me. My right eye. It looks awful, doesn’t it? This is what happens when you get stepped on with those safety boot-like shoes. – Don’t recoil like that, that’s hurtful. According to Shidou, it’s likely that I won’t ever be able to see [with this eye] again. Sucks, huh."

"Fuuta: It hurt… It hurt so bad, I thought I was going to die. I was scared!"

"Fuuta: I mean, you forgave Kotoko, right? You affirmed her, right? Her belief that “it’s fine to do whatever to people who have done something wrong”. Es: How do you know about that…? Fuuta: She told me while she was beating me up. How she thinks it’s okay for her to do anything she wants to people who have done wrong, no matter the severity of their crime. And she left the judgment of that up to you."

What are your thoughts about Kotoko's attacks?

If Fuuta was conscious the whole time, his cries of pain or help surely must have been what alerted the other prisoners, who stopped Kotoko from doing further damage...

And so this is me trying to explain why the other prisoners noticed too late Kotoko's attacks!

I'm prepared to be proved wrong, but it was fun to write anyway!

[milk-ly]

Kotoko and her connection to Dante’s Inferno’s Satan

Disclaimer: This is just about symbolism and I know how it sounds but I promise I’m not trying to imply anything or demonize her! I love Kotoko! Ive just been repeatedly noticing details about the parallel for several months now and I just really want to bring it up! This is just an analysis of the details MILGRAM has provided for it. I’m incredibly sorry if I make a mistake!

Kotoko has a lot of parallels to Dante’s Inferno Satan, especially in relation to Es.

To make sure we’re all on the same page, Dante’s Inferno is a Christian poem that outlines the 9 circles of hell. MILGRAM directly references Dante’s Inferno by quoting it in all the t2 door arts.

“Abandon all hope, ye who enter.” A quote derived from a sign at the gate of hell in the poem.

Each ring of Hell contains sinners with different levels of sins, and each ring’s sin was meant to be worse the further inside you go. Ive seen a couple theories that each prisoner correlates with a specific ring of hell. (Ex: Haruka is ring 1, Limbo; Yuno is ring 2, lust; etc)

But Dante’s Inferno only outlines 9 rings, what about our 10th prisoner, Kotoko?

While it could be that she’s again the “outsider” to the other prisoners, the last section of the 9th ring of Hell is significant because it is the center of Hell, containing Satan. So it could be reasonably argued that Kotoko correlates with it.

MILGRAM already has a TON of religious references. One that I’ve seen pointed out is how it seems the cover art of each novel is a reference to a famous Christian art piece.

The Es in each novel seems to be where Jesus relatively is. Remember that Jesus is both the son of God AND God. God gives sinners their judgements which sounds very similar to Es and how they're giving the prisoners (the human sinners) their verdicts.

Plus, the quote Milgram quotes is on the doors the prisoners are entering, and in Dante’s inferno, it’s on the gate of hell so you can compare or theorize that MILGRAM is a parallel to (or straight up is) purgatory. And Es, being the one who decides the verdict, parallels God.

Also, her t2 VD is named “YONAH,” which is the masculine version of the name Jonah. Not only does this relate to her themes of masculinity again, Jonah is a name that originates from Hebrew origins which means “dove.”

It is also a reference to the book of Jonah. A main theme of this book is “Jonah wants God to operate on his timeline [...] He wanted God to dole out punishment on his clock instead of according to God's plan. Yet God showed Jonah that in his infinite wisdom, he can't and will not be rushed.” Which is pretty much exactly what happens in YONAH, and also once again compares Es to God.

Dante’s Inferno’s Satan was an angel, a splendid being, apparently the most perfect of God's creatures… an “Angel of light.” We/Es deemed Kotoko innocent in t1. She had the highest innocent percentage in t1 too because a lot of people thought her murder was justified. You know, the most perfect of God’s creatures. The most perfect out of the prisoners.

“We really can work together.”

But then Satan tried to usurp God.

“If you don’t have the strength on your own, let me take care of it. Es! I can do it in MILGRAM!”

Kotoko wants to be the prison guard because Es isn’t capable in her eyes.

Satan was ultimately sent to Hell and punished as "the ultimate sinner" for his betrayal of trying to usurp God.

We are now punishing Kotoko for her attempts to judge the prisoners herself and “usurp” Es. It works even better now that she has the highest guilty percentage in all of MILGRAM so far as the “ultimate sinner.”

As a lot know, Fuuta also has tons of religious references too. (Ex. His VD is titled Baptism by Fire) By him also passing judgements onto people, you could say that he was trying to play God.

What is that saying about us, the audience, then? And our parallel/foil to Fuuta/Kotoko?

Dante’s Inferno as a whole is very much based around the idea of “evil will be punished,” which not only encapsulates Kotoko’s ideals but MILGRAM’s as well. It makes sense that MILGRAM says that Kotoko is a perfect parallel to the facility.

(I also wanna mention that there's something that could be said about the holy trinity in relation to Es + the audience + jackalope. For example, how Jesus is God in the flesh and Es is the audience "in the flesh," by acting as a personified version of us to interact with the "human sinnners" but I feel like I might be going into tinfoil hat territory.)

[archivalofsins]

What's your least favourite scenes/section in each Milgram song?

My least? This has been really hard to answer. If I had to go off the top of my head. I'm going do this counting down.

Harrow

I don't think I should say it's my least favorite scene for suck a nitpicky reasons but I hate in Harrow when Kotoko rushes in the door. It was always obvious that she'd changed clothes to me which made it appear like she left and came back. Which annoyed me because it implies she saw that happened did nothing and came back later.

Which is meant to be the implication more than likely. But she could have called someone or helped immediately. Which always kind of bothered me.

Deep Cover

Is it rude to say I don't like the vulnerable parts of Deep Cover? Like the façade slip and the breaks in the voice. Near the end especially. They sound pretty human and disquieting. So, it's a bit nerve wracking especially since they happen when you can't really see much of what's going on.

So it gives off this scary feeling of knowing something has gone wrong but not what yet. It's really unsettling and the exact opposite sound wise of how Cat ends.

She always sounds so panicked and stressed it makes me feel bad. Especially on the last line.

Then I remember the clothes things from Harrow and was like girl just missed her good shoes too much. Sorry trying to lighten the mood after that.

MeMe

Now you would think I have no complaints about MeMe. Which they are very little but I still have them. I know it's meant to obscure things but the jump cuts are a bit jarring and the texts on the tarot cards isn't fitted correctly. Which is a design flaw on Mikoto's part that I hold against him every day. Like the words are fucking covered by the border of the card and it's sooo fucking annoying to me.

The text great the two stars on the border itself amazing. The tilt on the text fantastic. Where this text is fucking positioned is obnoxious.

Fuck him for this on some real shit. Like I know what they are but still. Also while I'm here I don't like that his shirt is tucked in here either.

Like you're wearing jogging pants I see the strings why are you like this. What is the shirt tucked in here it's a t-shirt. Who asked you to do this. This can't feel nice. Like I know it was probably to keep mess off or soemthing. But damn man it just looks uncomfortable for some reason I can feel it.

I feel like a lot of what I'm going to say here is going to speak volumes about me- But another thing. Using the red bull can as an ashtray- God, I hated having to throw away cans that are already sticky that have cigarettes in them and that is right on your tub.

He put some of the cigarettes out on the tile- nightmares hell. I know he's tired but I'll clean it just let me in to get rid of it- Why? Why are you like this?! I can't harp on him too much because his actual living space is immaculate outside of these few things but it was always like ah why it burns us-

IT'S STILL TUCKED IN HERE IS THIS JUST HOW YOU WEAR THIS?

Sir, sir please? You didn't have a tucked in shirt when you got her why are you making this choice please. Do you really like the feeling of fabric on fabric as you move??

Double

Oh thank god... I can be normal again... Thank fuck I've escaped the tucked in shirt hell.

Just large overcoat wearing two shirt a nice pair of slacks with those unquestionably immaculate fucking boots. I need to say neither of his outfits are bad but like the way they're on in MeMe makes me go aww shit that looks like it feels bad please now. My favorite scene in MeMe is the shower one because got damn does he have a nice bathroom. Like sometimes I just go tile from wall to wall really.

My apartment bathroom has paint on the walls and ceiling I can't take hot showers. Sometimes I look at this scene and go man has your landlord relisted your place for rent. I'll take it. He's got a deep tub too. I'd definitely take it. I'm sorry for him but finders keepers losers weepers my flat now.

Sorry went on a tangent. Least favorite scene in double is the start and the phone call with his mom. I'm a petty bitch tell me where that glass and those children voices are from first then we can talk.

Magic

I don't like Magic all that much in general. People will be surprised to be reminded I voted Amane Guilty trial one in fact she's the first character in this series I voted on. It was simply due to the mindset she espoused in her voice drama. Of teaching her religion in the prison. Not because I thought she would change her mind or anything.

So I don't even regret that decision. Her first music video didn't help with this problem I showed it to my dad and he literally said "She reminds me of you at that age innocent." me sitting there that's exactly why I voted her guilty. Not on some I hate my child self way or anything but because I was pretty certain she wouldn't change her mind so the only thing to be done was go yeah no I'm not agreeing to that thing in the voice drama.

Then Kotoko's deal was agreed to when I was still not really voting like that and I thought well fuck it. Since we're just letting people do anything here anyhow. People tend to misjudge and think I switched my verdict because of the abuse but it was pretty clear Amane was abused from her first song to me.

As someone who has experienced childhood abuse and neglect I was pretty certain it was a fucked either way situation. Still am they said she wouldn't be dangerous not that she still wouldn't be teaching her religion. I mean she literally said that was her plan in her first voice drama and never moved away from that.

As soon as she was like well I fucking did it anyway already I was like whelp um that was my only complaint. Didn't want to agree with that but since you're doing it anyway I'll just judge based on the crime. You do you little lady.

But yeah no all of Magic is rather ahn. It's just nice I'm not particularly passionate about it any which way. Definitely not enough to say what a least favorite scene would be.

I guess I'd have to say the end because it's never really followed up on in Purge March. Because it cuts and shows Amane watching a television. It's implied that she's watching a tv show probably the one with the mascots she likes. But we never get to see where the tv is or her room in Purge March. So I was kind of disappointed by that.

Purge March

I don't like what happened to the cat. Even though it's just alluded to. Also for as much as I like Amane this video features my dreaded nemesis balloons and a lot of them. So those always kind of bother me. Girl has big socks-

Half

Can I just say I don't like this whole video aesthetically. I actually like this song. Yet Kazui's movement are so overemphasized and dramatic looking back on it now. Most of the exaggeration is done for misdirection purposes but ultimately I feel like Half gives a very reduced version of events. It's the story made for the stage straight forward, clear cut, simple.

A lot of the best parts of Half don't lie in the visuals but the sound.

Cat

I don't like when his victim falls off the balcony. Look I know some of these are like very on the nose. Yet, she learned something really upsetting then she died. I think that kind of sucks. Also someone else watched her die. So someone is literally implied to have seen her fall.

Which is most definitely a thing to witness. Sucks to be those two people.

This Is How To Be In Love With You

Least favorite part... It's all really good I'm sorry. Despite how critical I can be in analysis and how much I dislike some of her actions. i really like how earnest Mahiru is with her feelings and her first trial song really highlights that. It's just really fun and cute all the way up to the end.

I Love You

I think there's a running pattern of me just not liking to see people suffering. Because even though when her significant other is begging on the ground still gets a emotional response from even now just as much as it did the day it came out. It's still very oh no that's bad.

Know what's worse the useless fucking carousel scene that's just there to obscure other information or pad out the visuals. If it was other information we'll probably never see it now.

Best scene sound wise is Mahiru saying "Die" in straight English and how they worked all the lyrics to lead up to that having the hardest emphasis it could.

Throw Down

Least favorite in throw down the eating of the pomegranate. ultimately it wasn't followed up on yet and probably won't be followed up on now.

Though given it is the fruit of the underworld I would hazard a guess and say he was eating a fresh one in Throw Down that eventually dried up in reference to his family. It's also shown broken up into three pieces later when it's dried.

Wife and two children. Pomegranate is also one of the man things he eats with his family so ultimately this could just be alluding to them being dead. This is followed up on with more wilting flowers and cut up fruit in Triage.

Representing his incessant taking and wastefulness to fulfill a goal long impossible. One he knew was fruitless and admitted was such.

Which was probably why he wrote his family structure as wife and two children than crossed it out and before he died started talking like he still had a family to Kazui and Mahiru. Since the last scene of Triage is literally them alive.

So, honestly asking,

Whose lives was he saying needed safeguarding again?

"That’s right, there are lives that need safeguarding."

Many people gave him the benefit of the doubt and asserted it was the prisoners. Even though they show up visually in other songs or are directly referenced in lyrics. But that wasn't done with Shidou for any of the victims of the attacks. I mean he made a reference to Kotoko the attacker. With the,

"In that case, give me the chance to make amends. To extract that fang, now."

In fact the main lives that he was shown trying to save over and over throughout Triage was that of his family. He only pulls the gloves on again after seeing them there not vanishing. After convincing himself like maybe this time it will be possible.

So I guess that's not my least favorite now since it makes some sense when thought on a little more. Then yeah no problems here either.

Triage

The two Shidou's. Like what was up with that? We'll probably never know now.

There is no explanation for this I hate it. It could be symbolic we see this scene happen like he gets up from a sitting positioning to do this. I don't know why it would be laid out like this. Like this scene happens in sequential order. It's just played straight.

So like I don't even know.

After Pain

It's a bit whiny and self-pitying. At least that was my first thought watching it. It still sort of is and feels more performative now. I think the scene that annoys me the most in hindsight is the bathroom one where Mu is being bullied and there's water all around her but she is bone dry. Because it's just soo in the audiences faces about it but just gets overlooked.

It's Not My Fault

It's very self-congratulatory like for seemingly no reason. It's very dystopian too. Like seeing Mu and her friends prance and dance around on the shattered remains of the other members of their group is very chilling but then there's this peppy song in the back.

I don't have any least favorite scenes here this one just always gets to me. The song and it's video were very Mu and I liked it a lot. Falls under the category of This Is How To Be in Love With You she was being so honestly herself I enjoyed it a lot.

Bring It On

Hmmm I don't really like most of the complaints Futa had about school and the arcade. It was all rather uppity. He seems like someone who talks a lot but does very little. Either because he doesn't know where to start or because he's worried about being just as bad. The atmosphere for Bring It On is boisterous and self-congratulatory even though nothing has really been fixed or saved at all.

It's a lot of fun.

Backdraft

Mmmm I don't have many least favoirtie scene options for this. It was rather solid. I'd complain about the two Futa's thing but we may get an answer for that at least. Plus there was more foreshadowing for that than like with Shidou. That shit was kind of out of nowhere there. I hope more prisoners get bold enough to just put Es in their videos visually like what was done here.

I guess I wish Futa's music videos had a bit more dynamic movement. They can meander a bit and his motions are usually stiffer than other prisoners. Like he's always a bit rigid. Though it's cool how all the character move in ways unique to them.

Umbilical

I still don't like balloons. One was popped right next to my ear on a car ride while I was asleep. By someone who is honestly a bit of a jerk. Though I like the designs of the balloons here a bit more it's still a bit of an issue. The bigger one is Yuno's job looks like a lot of emotional labor. Seems tiring. Still she presents as very professional.

I have no problem with this scene I just think it's really neat attention to detail that they showed the balloon Yuno was aiming for had a red ribbon not yellow.

Tear Drop

Ha, ha she's very pretty and incredibly mean. My favorite combination. I liked Yuno in Umbilical because everything she sung was so multifaceted. But in Tear Drop she's drop the pretenses and has just decided to say things straight. It is very fun. She's completely over this. Least favorite scene is when she is getting really upset before throwing the glasses.

Repeating the chorus in a whipser,

"Don’t weigh me measure me against your morality. Just shut it will you, you know it all. Feeling magnanimous? INNOCENT? I’m so not that Just shut it will you, you know it all."

Because it reminds me that no matter how responsibile or put together any woman young adult or pretty deep into adulthood. There are still a lot of people who won't take what they say about their own lives seriously if it doesn't align with what the listener wants to hear. And the infantilization woman face that is usually dressed up as concern for them.

It's really upsetting because I can understand the frustration.

Weakness

Puppy no, girl no, other child with a distinct shadow from the girl and blood on the floor-

HUH???

This is either foreshadowing Haruka's possible death within Milgram or just literally a different kill. Don't know which. But like what the fuck? Because we see in Weakness there's no blood near the girl and she is in fact shown to killed outside through strangulation.

Yet for some reason Weakness tries to act like the inside door opening being caught scene involves here here too. Then later just shows a completely different person who looks like Haruka being killed.

But he also says,

Q.07  Tell us your family structure.

Haruka: My father and my mother and me.

So I kind of doubt he has a sibling and he said he was right to kill her in his second voice drama. There was no mention of a him.

"But it turns out I wasn't wrong after all! It wasn't wrong of me to kill her!"

So really don't know what this is about here. But he also goes from looking like his child hold self to himself now in All Knowing All Agony. So, I'm willing to say he is just like this.

All-knowing All-agony

Hey Haruka buddy if that girl died outside what the fuck is in your house? Like there is grass beneath her. This is happening in the woods...

What did your mom see when she entered?

[purgemarchlockdown]

How Magic Depicts Pain

(also known as: I told myself to hold back on Amaneposting but the new process shots have made me think)

So in-universe, Magic is a watered down and sanitized version of what actually happened in the cult that switches between from Milgram's usual anime artstyle to a papercut/felt-like storybook one. The general tone of Magic is very high energy and happy. It's a very colorful MV all around.

This doesn't stop the darkness from seeping in of course, most notably in the lyrics and at the end of the MV which involves a stylized depiction of abuse.

I'll get to that part, but before the ending of the song we get two showcases of pain.

The game show scene:

And the stage light scene:

We will get to the stage light in a bit but let's talk about the game show first! The metaphor isn't subtle. Amane messed up, she said the wrong thing, made a mistake, and so, she gets punished.

It's not treated as anything too serious though, Amane makes silly cartoonish facial expressions, her movements are over exaggerated and silly. It's comedic, it's nothing to be taken too seriously.

Even afterwards Amane gets helped up by (presumably) Yuri, you don't Have to worry. It's all fine and good and not that serious, and even if it, was the two of them help her up! It's a perfectly fine situation with nothing dark lurking under the surface that might suggest otherwise.

Now since the Milgram MVs are taken from the person's mind, most likely, Amane is downplaying the severity of the abuse done to her. Not only that but she's portraying her own pain as an exaggerated and comedic reaction to it. It's not that serious, she's just overreacting.

Amane does this a lot throughout the song and in outside material, she tends to downplay to abuse or explain why it's actually a good thing.

But it’s not scary at all, because it’s love I can really think it’s great. See isn’t it a great thing?

Amane Momose Does Not Consider Her Own Pain as Something Serious, or at least when it's pain caused by her abusers.

Moving out of the gameshow and into the stage light, the cat's pain is treated in a similar way at first. The scene even directly parallels the game show scene:

Like with the game show, the reaction to the pain is depicted as something childish, a tantrum over a small scrape, nothing that really needs to be fret over.

Until we switch over to Amane's View:

The camera is shaky, the cat isn't crying but hyperventilating. It's still a scrape but instead of the exaggerated criss cross, its a row of scratches on the cat's face, there's even a few on the cat's cheek. It's depicted seriously, there's actually weight to the injury here.

Now, what does Big Sister Amane do? Big Sister Amane who Yuri (after Gachata hurt her) helped just a few moments ago? Big Sister Amane who wants everyone to be happy? She helps.

She grabs a first aid kit, I don't know How she got it but she does and she does the best she can to to fix the cat up. She's hiding away as she does this, she knows she isn't supposed to but she does it anyway because it helps someone!

And it works! You can see how happy the cat looks in the image. It's not just a vague "we will support you" gesture like the hand Yuri gives Amane. It's an actual tactile action that Helps Someone.

And they can't have that. They can't have Amane help someone out like this.That's against their rules, that's against their beliefs, that's a threat to their control.

So they punish her.

Let's talk about the ending scenes, and the possible torture that Amane went through.

I'm not going to show all of them as that's a whole other post on it's on really, but it's notable that, the most egregious acts of violence and abuse in the entire MV, are sanitized. There turned into storybook images, Amane has exaggerated and cartoony expressions, the mentor figures are far away from Amane and are standing to the side as she's getting hurt.

We know from the process shots that a taser was involved and yet in Magic it's depicted as this:

It's...still bad, it's still depicting electrocution, however instead of a taser being used against her it's an abstract electrical burst. Even now there's a distance between what actually happened and what it shows.

And yet the pain still comes through, even with the storybook visuals, it's not the same as the Game Show where it was turned into a finger flick. It's still depicted as something Painful, just distanced from reality.

It transitions back to the regular art style after Amane prays, or more accurately, begs, that she can be better. She's given a wand (pipe) and wings and is told that yeah she Can be a better girl!

Not that she's already a good girl, only that she can be, eventually.

And, after all, aren't good girls supposed to have hope no matter what?

(End Notes: I hope people like the way I formatted the screenshots lol, I had a lot of fun with it so I hope it flows well!)

[onigiriico]

Shidou audio drama (t2) - English TL

[ links: Spotify / Youtube ]

Thank you Shidou for going on a deep dive into both medicine and law in one drama. I have not learned this much new vocabulary in a while lmao (Jokes aside though, I do hope that I managed to get through this without any major errors! As always, if you find any mistakes anyway or just have questions, feel free to bring them to my ask box or my Twitter ✨)

Also, there's a direct quote from the Japanese criminal law at one point in this vd - the translation of that line is based on this translation of Japanese law.

⬇️ full voice drama translation under the cut ⬇️

(door opens)

E: It’s been a while, Shidou.

S: Orbital floor fracture on the right. Traumatic retinal detachment. Bruising. Lacerations. Partial fracture of the thorax. This is Kajiyama-kun’s present condition.

E: I know that. I didn’t anticipate Kotoko’s behavior, either. For now, I’ll be taking the opportunity of this second trial to judge–

E: Fuuta’s…

S: Shiina-kun’s is even worse. Head lacerations. Bruising all over her body. Left anterior compression fracture. A sprained neck. Fractured ribs. Further fracturing to the left arm. And furthermore… this may be outside of my profession, but her mental health is deteriorating as well.

E: Mahiru…

S: Both their minds and bodies are at their limits. Let’s stop this already, Es-kun. A lot has happened while you were gone. At this rate, someone might end up dead.

S: That’s not what I mean! I think we should put an end to Milgram as a whole. Both for our sake and for yours.

E: …That’s impossible.

S: Why?

E: I can’t think of any method of stopping it… or any way to get out.

S: …!

E: Milgram won’t end just because I want it to. That’s all I know. It won’t end until your judgment is complete. That’s the core of it.

S: You’re… the same as us, aren’t you? You just got caught up in a bigger picture.

E: Don’t lump me in with you! You’re an inmate, I’m the Warden. Now that I’ve started this, I intend to see it through until the end.

S: Es-kun…

E: Anyways, your eyes sure have gained some life since we last saw each other. Back then, you always wore an expression that made it hard to tell whether you were alive or dead, but…

S: Is that so?

E: Is it because you’ve received the result of the first trial…?

S: About that… I’ve been thinking that I would like to hear your thoughts. Why did you forgive me? Even though I asked not to be forgiven.

E: Why would the Warden listen to what a prisoner tells them? I decide based on my own standards.

S: You saw my true self, didn’t you? There ought to be very few people who have killed more than I have. In comparison to me, the prisoners who weren’t forgiven have also hardly done anything wrong.

E: You’re a doctor. I’ve deduced that your murders happened in the context of medical procedures.

S: …

E: Organ transplants… in other words, the act of removing organs from braindead patients. That’s what your murder is. Am I wrong?

S: I see. So that’s what was shown in the footage?

E: Not that straight-forward, of course. But from the information given, we came to the conclusion that this is the most likely scenario.

S: Hm? ‘We’...?

E: …

S: You said ‘we’ just now...

E: …Did I… say that…?

S: Yes.

E: …Fine. Don’t worry about it. Let’s get back to the topic. The topic of what I deduced, that is.

S: It’s impressive, isn’t it… Milgram… After all this time, I won’t try to deny it being a top class prison, but it really is the real thing.

E: Is that your way of saying I was right?

S: Well… About halfway, I would say.

E: Hmph. Either way, I judged that murders as the result of medical practices could be forgiven. Without regard to what you were hoping for.

S: …

E: I intend to investigate in my own way. Whether or not it’s okay to regard braindead patients entirely as dead… it seems that this has become an increasingly controversial topic in recent years.

S: You’ve done your research.

E: I don’t care about the discussions of your world, though. I decided that you could be forgiven. That’s enough.

S: … Why is that?

E: In the first place, getting involved with organ transplants is part of your job as a doctor. I doubt it’s something that you did out of your own free will.

S: I… I took a lot of pride in my work. I considered it a good deed. I wouldn’t say I didn’t do it out of my own will.

E: Well, you did it to save people, didn’t you? In truth, there must have been a fair amount of people whom you did save with it.

S: I thought so, too. Doing it for a good cause without a single doubt.

E: In exchange for the life of a person who has no option left but to await death, you can save a person who has the chance to live on, right? In that case, you shouldn’t even have to think twice.

S: I thought so, too… arrogant as I was.

E: Is that to say that you don’t think that way anymore?

S: Yes, that’s right. You know, I… continuously tried to persuade the relatives of a braindead patient who were against organ transplants. Giving them reasons like the ones you just mentioned, Es-kun. “In order to save the life of someone you don’t know, please let me kill your family,” I told them. It doesn’t even take much thinking to realize how cruel that is, but… I didn’t realize it until the very end.

E: … Isn’t that just a placebo? I would think that family ties play no role in that context.

S: Do you still feel that way if it’s your own family?

E: …

S: Es-kun, is your family alive and well?

E: I don’t know… I don’t remember.

S: Is that so? I’m sorry about that.

E: It’s fine. It’s not like I feel any particular way about something I don’t even remember. Besides, I don’t think my judgment would change even if it involved my own family.

S: There’s no way.

E: Even if my family happened to end up imprisoned in Milgram, I would see my job through to the end.

S: Family is… special.

E: Huh?

S: Let’s digress for a moment. Have you studied criminal law?

E: Well, the most important parts at least. I’ve been learning about it since I started working as the Warden.

S: Excellent. So, for example, if someone harbors a criminal or tampers with evidence in order to protect that criminal, that is a crime in itself, right?

E: That’s articles 103 and 104.

S: You remembered well. Can you recall article 105 as well?

E: No… Are you familiar with it?

S: It’s not my area of expertise, but I remember it because it left a big impression on me. Article 105 states that, “when a crime prescribed under the preceding two Articles is committed for the benefit of the criminal or fugitive by a relative of such person, the relative may be exempted.”

E: So essentially, even if someone covered for a criminal or helped them out, they won’t be held legally responsible for it if the criminal is part of their family?

S: That’s right. For me, no matter whether it’s according to the law or in any other context, it’s only normal to help each other in a family.

E: That’s a very fascinating story. But even with all this, I still don’t get what you’re trying to say.

S: (chuckles) I wonder. Maybe I just wanted you to listen to it.

E: … As always, I can’t entirely wrap my head around you.

S: I’m talking about how, unlike you, I can no longer claim that I’m doing my work for a good cause. I’ve lost the right to.

E: And something happened that changed your mind?

S: That’s… right. Although you’ll probably be finding out about that once you watch the extracted footage.

E: Yeah. Let’s have a look.

S: Es-kun. I’ve killed a lot of people. Like I previously told you in the interrogation, I’ve killed for selfish reasons as well. So…

E: Are you about to beg me not to forgive you again? Even though I’ve already told you it’s no use?

S: That’s right. Please don’t forgive me… is what I would like to ask.

E: …

S: I… “I don’t want to be forgiven”. That feeling of mine remains the same. I need to be punished. I need to atone for my sins. I don’t think Milgram is in the right, but…! There is no better place than this to atone for my crimes. But… as long as Milgram continues like this… we won’t be able to save those who get injured if I don’t get forgiven!

E: …!

S: Even now, Shiina-kun is still in a condition where any digression could be fatal. She can’t live without my treatment. If I’m not forgiven, she will end up dying!

E: That’s… true, I suppose.

S: From now on, conflicts between the prisoners will probably become more frequent. If I’m not there… they will be in even more danger.

E: Shidou…

(machinery whirrs, bell rings)

S: I need to be punished… but I need to stay alive, or young lives will be lost. I… I don’t know what to wish for anymore. I’m starting to think… that I want to live. That I want to be forgiven. Despite being so riddled with sins…!

E: … Shidou. Do you remember what I told you?

S: …

E: Back when you were still fine with dying at any moment, I told you to desperately want to live. “Because we have an attachment to life, punishments for sins exist in the first place. Your existence in itself is a sacrilege to Milgram and myself,” I said.

S: Yes… I remember.

E: And now, finally, you’ve gotten attached to life and become a real prisoner of Milgram. That’s what I believe. You wanting to be forgiven, and your wish… those are the steps that now represent you.

S: … That won’t do… I mustn’t be forgiven. Otherwise… the countless lives I’ve taken will never be paid back. 

E: Heh. If you’re really trying to give your life as compensation for the people you’ve killed, then there’s no reason to stay alive that will hold up, anyway.

S: …

E: Don’t face them with a life that you’re easily willing to throw away.

S: Es-kun, you’re a… strict… person, aren’t you?

E: I told you before, didn’t I? Because you’re the type of person I dislike the most.

S: (chuckles) It’s a pity. Since coming to Milgram, I’m being hated by children left and right. Even though I do like them.

E: Hmph. Like I care. But… but, you know…

S: Hm?

E: Thank you for saving Fuuta and Mahiru. I’m glad you’re here in Milgram, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart.

S: Es…kun…

E: That’s all. Prisoner no.5, Shidou – sing your sins.

[shiraoyagi]

how tf is Fuuta responsible for Haruka's death even remotely??? Do you just pin whatever on the dude? Please tell me your schizo-theories, you seem so delusional its amusing to read lol

i would appreciate it if you didn't insult my mental state for having an opinion you can't understand... regardless,

i say fuuta is partially responsible because of this conversation in the timeline (translation available here) and how haruka is uhm. gone after that (and he's only alive after that point if you believe muu is telling the truth about him being alive)

this was the last time we ever heard haruka speak, and the conversation obviously is talking about haruka killing himself. the only other person tmk who knew about haruka's plans to kill himself was kotoko, which you can read that interaction here, so it's not like it's entirely his fault (and i said it was something he was partially responsible for, not something wholly his fault)

basically, fuuta says pretty much some of the worst shit you could say to someone who's suicidal. having implied to have been fully indoctrinated by amane's cult atp according to hints in other timelines, it really comes across here— one of the main principles of amane's cult is that people shouldn't avoid their "trials" set up by them in their life by God. presumably, killing yourself would therefore be a sin, and it's reflected in how fuuta treats haruka here.

fuuta does care about haruka. it's really obvious he does because he flat out asks haruka if he can be saved with him— i.e. becoming a part of the cult and finding salvation instead of killing himself. he wouldn't do that if he didn't care about haruka's sake.

HOWEVER, when haruka refuses, fuuta calls him an idiot and says he "won't be saved" which is just a roundabout way of saying that haruka is going to go to hell (or whatever equivalent exists in the cult). he then does nothing to stop haruka later on despite knowing haruka is going to kill himself.

it shows just how far he's regressed; he went from understanding and realizing how fucked up his own actions were outside of milgram to actually just being worse than how he originally was because he was vulnerable and easily susceptible to joining a cult that would validate at least some of his past actions and give him a shot at "salvation" and being a good person (things fuuta seems to really want)— which would, in a sense, free him from his pain.

he's basically committed the same mistake of negligence through following an extreme ideology as he did before, except this time, he KNEW what was going to happen (and the ideology is obviously Different)

if you know someone is going to kill theirself and they tell you their plan to do it and you do nothing to really stop them (especially since a non-indoctrinated fuuta would've actually Done something given that he has literal trauma over that kind of thing) i feel like that makes you at least partially responsible for their death. that's just how i view it, so in my eyes, fuuta is partially responsible for what happened to haruka

thank you

[sonobeunitsarecool]

Why Sakurai Haruka makes So Much Sense, really.

Right, sorry it took so long, but I think this is it? Anyways. Here I'm just putting much of Haruka's behaviour in the context of "past of admissions to a psych ward", linking it all together in a way that may not be so immediately obvious to some. Interrogation answers: T1 Q.12 - Tell us your hobby - "Talking with the other prisoners" What else is there to do? Yuno answers with something about shopping, and drama club, something she can do outside of Milgram, but Haruka wants to talk, and he's getting better at it. It's something he's wanted to do for a while, talk to others, so he probably gets a good deal of enjoyment or satisfaction doing so. You could say it's a bit odd, to be a hobby, but it's an activity he knows he has consistent access to, unlike something like drawing which would require a request. Q.14 - What's an event that stuck in your memory? - "Fireworks" Fireworks, or some kind of crayon rendering of them, seem to feature prominently in Weakness. Something bright, colourful, loud, and pretty full sensory immersion, plus it seems to have been a fond memory of sorts. Besides, what else could stand out, as a childhood memory? Anything in recent years would just be... the dull droning on of the days. Q.20 - What's the most expensive thing you've ever bought? - "Candy floss" Okay. Candy floss isn't very expensive. What likely happened, is that he didn't handle money except for when he was once given some at a fair of sorts, and allowed to buy something for himself. As a teen, he's had no need to buy anything, and if there was something he wanted or needed to buy, then it'd be provided by whomever was looking after him at the time. (Not necessarily something about not trusting Haruka, but he wouldn't have had any way of getting a job, being in-and-out of mental health care) Now, something a little interesting would be that this, alongside some other small things, loosely implies that Haruka was a spoiled or otherwise coddled child from his birth, growing more distant from his family as he got older. Japanese children are given quite a lot of autonomy, just go watch "Hajimete no otsukai", or "Old enough", an entire television programme where kids go out and do errands. Most Japanese kids would have bought things like groceries, or train tickets, or whatever, even before leaving primary school. Sending them on the train alone at age 8 is common. It's unusual for the most expensive thing that Haruka ever bought to be candy floss, surely he'd have been asked to go out and buy something, at some point? If not, why not? Q.22 - What do you think of the prison outfits? - "They're kind of relaxing" Kind of already went over this. Haruka is accustomed to wearing the same kind of thing every day, and everyone else is also wearing something similar, so he's part of the group. Not distinct in clothes. It's probably a small comfort. Q.23 - Is there anything you want (item requests)? - "Not really" He's got everything, for the most part. In a psych ward, you're unlikely to get anything just by asking, and whatever you can bring onto the ward is restricted. Of course Haruka's got lots of crayon drawing in Weakness. Crayons are pretty much the safe art medium. Cheap, easily replaced, logistically an obvious choice to use. What else could he have used? Pencils? Those would require a pencil sharpener, and that's a weapon. Q.24 - What's your dream for the future? - "I want to live normally" ...It's not normal to spend so much time on a psych ward. It's a restrictive lifestyle, even if it's his comfort zone. This is pretty much the obvious thing to wish for, to live a "normal" life where he's not just a patient, someone who's "broken". Besides, Haruka can't afford high standards like Yuno's "It'd be nice if I can find a job I can really lose myself in", because he doesn't have many avaliable job prospects at the moment. He's set back in education by at least 3 years. Q.25 - When you get out of here, where do you want to go? - "I can't think of anywhere"

Based on what can be guessed about Haruka's story, home is an unlikely prospect. And he's not had much opportunity to think about or find a place to go, unlike Yuno's answer of "Karaoke, maybe", something she's done in the past and enjoys. There are either no places that stand out to him, or too many places he's not had the chance to go to. ...auto-save isn't working anymore. I'm just going to say that this is long enough and continue another day. Moving onto T2 int. questions, then onto his voice lines, his profile, his VDs, probably even more of the MVs as a part of all that... is this even a theory? The next time I say I'm going to post something "small", I'm probably lying to myself.

[justzosiahere]

This little analysis post is gonna be slightly badly phrased, some pieces of info missing and a few misconceptions because it was 3:00 am in my time zone when I made it, please correct me if any information or anything about the characters is incorrect. This analysis is gonna go pretty off topic and very overboard. Feel free to add anything you want in the comments and quotes! ^^

I was rewatching Milgram and thinking about everything that could be happening outside of the prison and with the prisoners’ loved ones and families, and that got me thinking this, no one reported Amane missing when she got taken by Milgram and barely anyone or no one is looking for Haruka after he disappeared as well. We already know Amane was born into a cult and lived with her mother and father, but her dad was gone on trips for the cult most of the time so Amane was left alone with her abusive mom until Amane killed her and then was abducted into Milgram.

For Haruka, we already know his mother was neglectful, verbally and sometimes physically abusive towards Haruka. We know that she wanted a daughter and not a son so when Haruka was a boy and not a girl, she was disappointed when she didn’t have the daughter she wanted. When Mrs.Sakurai started to realize her son was disabled and in Haruka’s words, “Because I couldn’t do the same things others could do my mother gave up on me, and I stopped existing in her world!” She started to neglect him, verbally and sometimes physically abuse him, and deprived him of affection, love, and attention which caused Haruka’s mental state to decline. No matter what Haruka did he still wouldn’t be any of importance to her, and Haruka’s dad, Mr. Sakurai is not interested in Haruka either and didn’t seem to give a fuck about him either.

With Amane’s cult they likely didn’t report her missing at all because it would’ve probably lead to their crimes being uncovered by police and their downfall, so therefore it’s heavily possible no one is looking for her outside of milgram and noticed that she’s gone.

Haruka’s parents don’t give two shits about him and we don’t know what his school life was like and if he even had friends or anyone that was genuinely kind to him before he went into Milgram. For him his parents likely don’t care that he’s gone, or anything in that matter. It’s more difficult to determine for Haruka if anyone else noticed that he’s missing but however it’s a slight chance that Haruka’s school might’ve reported him as missing since we see him wearing a school uniform in AKAA, maybe Haruka’s teachers noticed that he wasn’t attending and when getting no word from his patents they probably reported him missing to the cops and some of Haruka’s classmates hear of his disappearance as well. But unfortunately the only people working on Haruka’s case and trying to find him are the few detectives on it, and his teachers probably brushed it off as he ran away or he’ll be found soon.

[waivyjellyfish]

How do the prisoners react to meeting the Dokuro family and finding out that Es isn’t human?

Sorry it took so long, real world catched me. And thank you for your question.

Well. Like a lot of normal people, I think. They was shocked. And it was difficult to understand it.

It’s kind of hard to react any other way, when right in front of your eyes a little girl(no) appears through a breach in the wall and easily blowing your 15-year-old warden's head. And then the warden recovers from that as if nothing had happened and drags you out of prison as if it were meant to, brushing questions aside like annoying flies with short "later".

I mean, yes, the Milgram prison is frankly strange, no windows, no doors, no calendar, and some strange thing in the form of a giant machine to extract memories, or strange, unpleasantly shrill mental walls that forbid physical aggression against the warden at first, and later against the other prisoners too. A strange warden with a mind of their own, who's always talking with a terribly clever horned rabbit. (Are these real horns or are they attached to the hat?) And with meaningful dialogue. But the only one side of the conversation can be heard, so who knows if they really hears the rabbit voice or they're got nuts long time ago. And the claim that this rabbit is the one who cooks all dish. Honestly, it sounds more like an excuse for not respecting kitchen hygiene than the truth.

All this is, undoubtedly, strange and resembles some sci-fi movie with elements of psychological horror. But not a fantasy.

And yeah. The warden themself is strange, but not so to suspect a monster in them. Everything can be explained, right?

Yeah, they're talking to the rabbit. It’s weird, but some people with pets do it too. The warden is obviously lonely. Don't you think?

Blood craving? Well, there are people who have a craving for blood, aren’t there?

Sharp teeth? Fuuta has that too.

Gender is unknown? Androgynes exist, dears.

Their bruises and wounds heals in an hour or two? Well the warden is 15, children are healing at a fairly rapid rate, and also there is a fairly balanced diet. So everything kind of fits together… (exept the fact that the swollen eye after Mikoto’s interrogation disappeared the next day. this is strange of course)

Sometimes they says with certainty something that people can’t do, like that it’s actually possible to cut something off for better regeneration or talking to the dead, or that metal is edible. Well, the kid has no memory of what happened with them before Milgram, only the prisoners, the talking rabbit and the books in their private room can connect them with outside world in some ways. They're very impressionable, poor child. And they seems to lack iron.

(As my friend jocked: -I thought you were neurodivergent. -Nah, I just isn't human)

So, of course, the prisoners were not prepared for it. Not for a very radical way of warden's regeneration, nor for a one-eyed(no) giant-girl with a tail, nor for a guy in his 30+ who looks like a 14-15-year-old girl. Not for the fact that a very small group who came after their child is going to smash the prison building brick by brick and catch everyone who was involved in it in less than two hours after they broke into the panopticon.

----

Talking about the future. Later, some of the prisoners even managed to integrate into the family, albeit a little voluntarily forced. But there is one thing. To join Dokuro, you have to take their crazy rhythm of life, which means a partial loss of human common sense. In addition, few people with a long connection with Dokuro remain ordinary people. Wanting to keep up with monsters is fraught with the fact that you can become a monster yourself, relative to your past self. And given their longevity and their work, it’s easier to change to not to die too quickly.

This family is stupid in everything, absolutely mad and at first glance has no brakes. The sense in their actions is very difficult to catch. The constant replenishment of the family by children picked up on worlds during work, the frequent reckless actions that would have led them to death, but not, hard training to go beyond. It’s exhausting. But it’s probably the most fascinating.

[harukapologist]

sometimes, I think about the fact that Haruka has NOTHING in his real life. His father is clearly out of the picture, his mother is... you know, his classmates probably ignore (or bully) him IF he is in school currently which is a big if, and if Mirai is a real person (I'm one of the "Mirai is Haruka/a symbolism of a part of himself" truthers... I have more than one theory about his murder ok), she appeared to be the only person in Haruka's life whom he had a good relationship with... but she's dead. At his own hands' doing. And that makes me think about how that probably makes Haruka feel 10x more remorseful for his murder; he didn't kill someone of the many people in his life who treated him like trash, he killed the only person who cared about him, the only person he really had. To make matters worse in AKAA Haruka is shown to be having kinda a whole mental breakdown, I believe that the murder was an impulse decision when he wasn't in his right mind, at that time. So I can't help but imagine, when he comes back to his senses and calms down, and sees Mirai's dead body, realizing that not only is she gone but his hands will also forever be stained with her blood... sorry, I'm having a lot of thoughts about their relationship in the case that Mirai is a real person....

Mirai aside, this also makes me wonder what will happen at the end of milgram. Will Haruka just, go back to his shitty mom and awful life? It made me reconsider whether I want him to be inno in T3 or not (currently I still do plan on voting him inno) because if the outcome of being inno is returning to the outside world with absolutely zero changes made I absolutely don't want that... You could think about this for other prisoners too. If Mikoto went back to his regular life, he'll start killing himself working again. If Amane went back to her regular life, she'll probably get punished and we know how inhumanely cruel her cult is when it comes to punishments (a fucking taser... on a child...) I'm just going to keep thinking about my half-joke AU where the prisoners live together as a found family after kidnapping Haruka and Amane from their households

[mayimkjs]

A List of General MILGRAM Theories

Taken from the FOOL's MATE research doc

Everyone is Going to Break Out at the End

Something happens to Es, whether they die or not, it doesn't matter. At the end of the series, they find out a way to escape or an uprising starts. 

MILGRAM is some sort of pocket dimension. 

MILGRAM has many magical things in it; talking animals, force fields, crosses that come out of the sky to impale prisoners and the whole concept. There is no way in or out and time doesn't pass normally. Prisoners seem to just appear in the prison than wake up when the first trial is about to start. 

The prison is stuck in time or time moves independently

This is something that feeds into the last theory. 

Some characters there are some visible changes like hair growth, they celebrate their birthdays and sometimes make references to how long they’ve been there. They don't age and the girls don’t have a menstrual cycle. As well as Fuuta and Mahiru seeming to not recover from their injuries. It also doesn't seem that people on the outside are looking for them or have found MILGRAM. If time passes normally, them all of the prisoners would be considered missing. 

Jackalope has also mentioned that “I guess that’s how it is in your era” when talking Yuno’s murder and “it was quite brilliant to choose our era”.

MILGRAM is actually a TV show

Mikoto was right all along and that the 10 prisoners and Es where all brought there against their will to be on a TV show. So think of something like The Truman Show.

MILGRAM is an Experiment 

This is similar to the last one. The only difference is that MILGRAM was meant to see what someone would do if they were thrown into this type of situation. The experiment ended up going haywire or the admins don't want to call it off even though it’s getting dangerous. 

Shidou is a Mole

This ties into the last 2 theories. Shidou is a paid actor who just so happens to have a medical background. He was hired in case anyone got hurt and has the ability to call the whole thing off. 

Everyone is Dead…

No, just no. Fuck off.

[wardenes-official]

pinned, click for info byi !! * rpgram’s masterlist!

“ — good day, prisoners. my name is es. i’m the prison guard. this place is milgram prison. it exists to judge your sins, the ten of you. ”

* mun / mod does semi-lit rp , crack sometimes. they might also apply their own hcs onto their muse.

muse can be in either t1 or t2 timelines, depends on the question/rp. mod is very neutral on rp plots, can follow!

꒰ RP REQS — open, go ahead and do tag me !

INBOX IS OPEN — go on and ask anything ! ꒱

៹ ៸៸ ABOUT MUSE __

﹒es, they / them pronouns

﹒warden of milgram

﹒15 years old ꒱

៹ ៸៸ ABOUT MUN / MOD __

﹒ALSO es or esmod/mun ! hello there :D

﹒he / they pronouns + trans demi-boy

﹒16 years old , suspected adhd

﹒modded by @eslover ꒱

៹ ៸៸ SHIPS __

﹒es x oc [within age range] , okay!

﹒es x haruka / muu , okay!

﹒platonic ships , okay!

﹒es x anyone else not mentioned [romantic] , no.

៹ ៸៸ DNIS __

﹒smut / nsfw, this is a sfw blog.

﹒basic dni + israel / any other neg supporters

﹒ irls unless i permit you to interact

﹒ inappropriate mlgrm ships

﹒ pro/comship etc

selective block, doubt itll happen here…

៹ ៸៸ TAGS __ [WILL UPDATE OCCASIONALLY]

# ​꒰ mlgrm breakout! ꒱ — OOC TAG HEHEHE

# ꒰ prison tour ꒱ — guide around my blog (generally)

# ​꒰ ahem— an announcement ! ꒱ — important posts

# ꒰ request l. ꒱ — asks from inbox

# ꒰ crack ꒱ — crack roleplays/interactions

# ꒰ semi-lit ꒱ — semi lit roleplays/interactions

# ꒰ (un/)forgiven. ꒱ — heavy / light genres tags !

# ꒰ i won’t acknowledge it. ꒱ — trigger warnings, you have been warned.

# ꒰ working as per usual. ꒱ — random es talking posts to allow others to trigger short roleplays/interactions.

# ꒰ oh ? you want to talk ? ꒱ — first interaction posts/rbs coming from other ocs/prisoners!

# ꒰ report has been scrapped. ꒱ — ooc rbs!

# ꒰ a report has been made ! ꒱ — rbs abt rps/rpers

# ​꒰ short interrogations ꒱ — short post/rb rps longer than the length of 3 reblogs! below that isn’t tagged.

# ꒰ long interrogations ꒱ — long post/rb rps, for those who wish to do long roleplays with es instead of just 1 time interactions! only used when longer than short interrogations, assuming 6/7 reblogs. [ tag to rp <3 ]

# ꒰ ??? ꒱ — interactions w/ anonies

# ꒰ !!! ꒱ — interactions w/ ooc blogs

# ꒰ 00? ꒱ — interactions w/ ocs

# ꒰ 011 ꒱ — es interacts outside of asks

# ꒰ 000 ꒱ — interactions / rps w/ (other) es

# ꒰ jklp ꒱ — interactions / rps w/ jackalope

# ꒰ 001 ꒱ - ꒰ 010 ꒱— interactions or roleplays w/ prisoners + 09system!

៹ ៸៸ SPECIAL TAGS __ ?

# ꒰ extraction failed ?! 💫 ꒱ — magic anon!

# ꒰ smart… fridge ? ꒱ — milgram smart fridge.

# ꒰ interrogating… the warden ? ꒱ — ask games

“ — i don’t know much about you lot. what i do know is that all of you are killers—that’s it. from now on, i’ll have you all enlighten me about yourselves.

once again, welcome to milgram. have a nice life in prison. ”

[archivalofsins]

I'm glad I don't look in the tag like the shit that passes my dash is like stuff I know, and then Mikoto being hypersexualized on a bimonthly basis with the implied impression that it's fine as long as it's a male being sexualized. I have no stake in it one way or the other. If that's fun to some, it's just fun, and I'm certain other characters are sexualized just as much in different circles. Maybe I'm just lucky enough not to have seen that.

Yet that again would be due to people recognizing subconsciously or not that hypersexualizing certain characters of the cast is problematic on some level. I don't see this sort of discussion as often around Yuno despite the content within her music videos. I don't see it around Mahiru or Kotoko as much either. This is excluding every other character that was a child when Milgram started all together.

This may sound like a complaint or a dig at this fandoms ethics, but it isn't because literally most fandoms treat male characters like this. This isn't something the Milgram fanbase created or anything it's quite common.

It's why Persona 5 wrote those story beats around Ryuji how they did- Because when sexual harrassment happens to a man in fiction it's comedy when it happens to a woman in fiction it's either horror or very notably a moral failing on the one doing it. Or maybe again I've just gotten lucky and haven't read a lot of egregious shit in that regard.

The way all fandom tends to hypersexualize men in general is a byproduct of how the sexual issues of men are discussed in media and ignorance. The same as it is when it comes to hypersexualization and caricaturing of female characters past and present as well. I don't want this to come off as me saying being overly sexualized is a male issue alone. Because it's not. This is a very reductionist explanation of sexualization in media, something that affects all genders differently.

There's much more to it than what I'm saying here. Plus, not everyone does this with the intent of demeaning a character or reducing them to their sexual appeal alone. Some people just find a design sexy or aesthetically appealing that's pretty reasonable. Displaying why that is- is reasonable as well.

However, when that is put alongside comments like "I'd never judge a female character like this, of course, I have some class." It starts to make me raise an eyebrow just a bit. Like, I end up wondering like um why not though?

Hate to be openly pansexual (no i don't this is hyperbole) but um, women are hot, lol. What does no one else think so? Is it bad to point out the features of the Milgram women too. I'm sorry but Mahiru is hot she dresses well and homely she has a decent figure and she is not lacking in the chest department.

It really comes down to preference at the end of the day. Am i going to sit here and say Mikoto looks average? No, like Mikoto, Kazui, Mahiru, and Shidou are all genuinely attractive and can be somewhat charismatic people. Ya know something that a good few murderers are. That's kind of the point of them being the adults of the group.

They are the end result of everyone here younger than them and are more than likely the best at what they do.

Outside of that, it would be weird of me to hold anybody to a certain standard when it comes to what they're attracted to in fiction. Unless they are romanticizing a criminal act or a child. Gotta make that really clear. Since that isn't really occurring here, it is kind of free game. Go nuts, really.

I just find it interesting that everything a person would ethically have an issue with someone doing to a character that's a woman has been done to Mikoto with reckless abandon.

From hyperfocusing on the measurements of his body, overtly sexualizing him regardless of how covered up he is, making assumptions about his romantic or sexual preferences. It's like everything that would make anyone rightfully a creep if they did it to a woman whether that be in real life or in fiction has been done to this one fictional dude to the point it technically happens in cycles. I can tell when a month has ended based on if this man's body is being talked about sometimes, and I shouldn't be able to do that at any time.

It's impressive. I need to note again that I'm not saying this because I'm a prude or to protect Mikoto's very nonexistent innocence. It's just a funny and interesting double standard to look into within any fandom, not just this one. I know it's all in good fun, and this isn't meant to call it out or anybody in any way.

It's just meant to be me going,

"Hey, this is a funny thing that hasn't really been questioned that much that actually ties into other writing tropes in media that are pretty bad. Let's talk about it."

Even if it is not that deep.

Personally, I've always found it interesting as daughter of a guy that suffered interpersonal partner violence and being raised in a community where the sexual assault of both men and women is prominently discussed to see how men and women are sexualized not only in media but by fanbases. Of course, I'm way more interested in this when it comes to black people. However, when a good example of the differences is sitting right in front of me, it's hard to overlook it.

Better excuse, though- Mahiru is hot, too! Maybe stop talking about how she's delusional and instead discuss how she had low confidence and rejection sensitivity. Causing her to not understand what she was doing was too much for the situation as well as made it difficult for her to let the fact that she was not accepted by someone she liked go. Similarly to Mu.

Like maybe this line from This Is How To Be In Love With You deserves a bit more focus,

"What do you think? I know it's not the type of question you want to be asked."

A common question for one to ask their partner about the outfits they put on.

Or this one in I Love You,

"Sigh... No appetite, I can’t sleep, my hair’s a mess. What am I supposed to do now? If you won’t tell me, I can’t be me."

I'm not hungry, I can't sleep, and worst of all- I'm not even looking good right now. Yeah fuck it actually this is a Mahiru appreciation post now that woman served this community several different outfits and this bastard only gave two fuck Mikoto stop complimenting this man for his cycling body.

Yeah, he's fit. We know! The man bikes to work to stay in shape and practices swinging a bat when angry.

But guess what-

Mahiru jogs, and she even has a cute jogging outfit. We've never even seen this man on a bike. Let alone in a cycling outfit.

Q.04 Are you picky when it comes to fashion?

Mikoto: Of course I am. Nobody would want to ask for anything from an unfashionable designer, right?

Oh, you're picky huh. People wouldn't ask for anything from an unfashionable designer, yeah... So, why does Mahiru Shiina's first music video look like a fashion catalogue-

While all we see from you is you putting your clothes where they belong,

Sorry, I got heated there. It's not a fashion competition because we clearly know who would win that. Long story short, Mahiru has a cute design too.

[purgemarchlockdown]

I told myself not to interact too much with the voting discussion because of how much it bothers me, but due to how her votes are going I will talk about it. I know the idea is that to protect the other prisoners we need her to be voted guilty. That's the theory, I'd argue that not only would that not work out the way people expect it to and I'd also argue that voting innocent is the better option overall.

But let's talk a bit about a dichotomy first.

Something I've noticed in fandom when it comes to victims of abuse and trauma is that there's a want for easily digestible abuse victims. There's a want for victims of abuse that are easily infantilized and woobified. In other words, there's a want for a very sanitized depiction of abuse. One where the characters who are being abused did nothing wrong and are morally pure completely righteous characters.

On the flipside, once an abuse victim steps out of those bounds of sanitized digestibility the audience reactions shifts. You tend to find these characters demonized and portrayed in ways that showcase how horrible, toxic or...dangerous they are. If you are an abuse victim in fiction you have to be an incredibly idealized version of the perfect abuse victim who does nothing wrong because if you aren't people will find ways to demonize you and erase any sense of nuance from the story.

You can either be a good abuse victim, or a bad one.

Now of course not everyone voting Amane guilty is doing it because of this...like I've seen a lot of posts from people who just don't know what to do or people who just feel that the consequences of Guilty Vote Amane is worth it in the end or people who just vote her guilty cause they don't like her much. I'm biased in this regard because I love Amane Momose! I'm very much biased towards her.

However it is troubling to me that I see this sort of bias, a lot of people have talked about how this also happens with Mikoto and I'd argue there was a bit of this also involved in Haruka and his voting.

It's something In this fandom and it's something that troubles me personally because I care a lot about this stuff, stories like Amane's are important to me, and I don't like seeing people react like this to abuse victims in fiction just because they aren't palatable.

I doubt most people in real life would act the same way if Amane was real, but also I'm unfortunately very familiar with people ignore someone who is suffering just because they feel uncomfortable. So I do think it's important to mention.

And I think Amane doomed by Milgram! I think Milgram is exactly the kind of place that would trigger her trauma! But even so I don't think Amane is doomed completely. I think viewing her as someone who can never change, who's stuck forever as a devoted cult follower is frankly a disservice to her character.

The power of cults come a lot of factors, manipulation, isolation, perpetuation of abuse and abusive cycles and way more things that I can't even mention. It Does Not come from magic unbreakable brainwashing! We have accounts from former cult victims! They exist! You can google them! There are people with stories like this out there!

I'd argue that Milgram's guilty system emulates Amane's previous abusive situation. It emulates that system of rules and punishment and torture. I don't think voting guilty would help, because voting guilty means Amane has to deal with something that closely emulates her horrible abusive situation, it would drive her further into isolation and trauma. She'd be reliving the situation she just escaped.

"But the other prisoners are at risk-" They're still at risk even if Amane is voted guilty! I'd argue their more at risk because Amane would be driven further into her isolation! Cults tell people that the outside world is dangerous and out to get them! It's one of there methods of control!

If we prove that to Amane, if we prove that yes, the outside world is out to get her and there's no one out there that can actually help her, then we give her The most righteous reason to attack.

Amane from what I can tell usually attacks if she feels like she's justified, if she feels like she's in danger. It's a defense mechanism born out of the torture she experienced. It's not wild swinging at anyone and anything she hates as it seems like people think it is.

I think voting Amane Innocent actually has the better chance of really helping people out. I think Amane being innocent would help crack this image she has of the outside world which would be fantastic actually! Would she be fully deprogrammed? No, you can't deprogram someone with one choice, especially if you validated their beliefs beforehand but it certainly changes things.

I don't like the idea that Amane is completely hopeless, I Feel like it treats cults and the Real Harm they do to people as something that no one can come back from and makes it feel weirdly mystical. Like the cult gets their hands in ya and now their brainwashing is just unbreakable. There's Real Ex-Cult Survivors in the world! They Exist! They aren't an impossibility and I don't think we should treat Amane's growth as a person as an impossibility!

[blueepink07]

I really like how Yuno and Mahiru get along despite having opposing beliefs and traits.

Yuno is a realistic person, while Mahiru is more like the "romantic type", as Yuno names it.

"Yuno: Eh? Not really. I mean, Mahiru-san, you’re really the romantic type, right? Not that I have anything against that." ~ Mahiru's birthday 22/01/17

"What is the difference between you and someone else?"

Mahiru believes in fate, finding a meaning in every single aspect of life, while for Yuno things like this are just a mere coincidence!

"Yuno: "But isn’t it a bit much to think that everything in life has a meaning? If it makes you happy to think like that then go ahead, but if it doesn’t, then isn’t that in itself meaningless?

Mahiru:…you might be right. I’ve always just lived my life like this, so I don’t really know.

Yuno: We’ve all just gone through a bunch of things in life that happened to lead us here. It’s nothing more than a coincidence. Definitely not fate or anything. Probably. Even if there isn’t a meaning, you can still be happy that it’s your birthday. That sort of thing’s all you need in life really. So happy birthday, Mahiru-san." ~Mahiru's birthday 22/01/17

Mahiru seems to believe in the existence of God (which again, is a good way to represent her strong affiliations with fate), but, in contrast, Yuno is an atheist.

"What do you think happens after people die?"

"Do you think God exists?"

Also, what they want to achieve or is the main priority in the future is really different!

Yuno wants a job the she likes and, for Mahiru, her main priority is to find love and have a family. Yuno even calls her old-fashioned for these dreams for the future!

"Do you have any dreams for the future?"

"Do you like children?"

"Yuno: …mmm, the food here is actually pretty nice. I wonder if the guard made it…Oh yeah, Mahiru-san, do you cook?

Mahiru: Hm? I do~ Cooking, washing, cleaning, I love doing all those sorts of things~ Fufufu, I passed all my self-imposed training to become the perfect wife with flying colours!

Yuno: Wow, incredible…I don’t know whether to call that old-fashioned or what…isn’t it a pain?

Mahiru: Eh~? I don’t think it’s a pain at all~It’s fun~"

And as it seems, before second trial and during this one, they currently spend time with eachother more than ever!

"Are there any fellow prisoners you are on good terms with?"

So it's natural that they will end up influencing eachother, right?

Mahiru, especially, seems to have taken a possible advice from Yuno to heart!

In the frist trial, Mahiru was waiting for Es's judgement in order to find the answer for her question if she should still be allowed to love somebody.

She is uncertain of what she should do, considering the circumstances. She knows that she can't live without love, but, at the same time, thinks that her actions are a sin and doesn't want to repeat her crime.

However, in the second VD, she states that Es's judgement doesn't hold much importance anymore. She is willing to die for love, wanting to experience it all over again. She respects Es, but stops seeking approval from them.

"Mahiru: So I don’t blame her. Because I also think that I... that my love isn’t wrong. I don't want to be shamed for my love.

Es: ...

Mahiru: No matter what you think, it won't change things for me. That's what I've decided."

Who do we know that doesn't care about Es's judgement? Yuno, of course!

"Yuno: I said so at the start, didn’t I? That punishing people outside of the law is boundless. And so I had no interest in Milgram.

Es: Yes, I remember. You said that you would pay my judgement no mind and remain as you were."

It wouldn't be a surprise if Mahiru consulted herself with Yuno! Yuno might have told her about her views of Milgram and the votes, which might have influenced Mahiru in deciding that she will die for her love, no matter if she will be guilty or not!

Yuno, despite that you don't socialize as much anymore, you still managed to make some changes...!