rewrittenyura

characters: IGNITE (Kanade-centric, Ichika, Kohane, Akito, Len) words: 1677 rating: G, sickfic They'd be there when she wakes up, and they'd continue to be there when she heals and returns to write music for them to bring to life.

little oneshot my brain cooked up from this ask! found family ignite has my whole heart

a late april fools joke

Happy second anniversary, everyone! Today, Mercury and I are going to be talking about Es, our beloved prison guard.

Es’s theory is going to be formatted in more or less the same way as the prisoner theories, but obviously without the vote and explanation at the end. So, I’ll be listing out claims, providing evidence for each, and at the end, there’ll be a summary.

I’ll also be referencing audio dramas a lot, so if you want to see translations of them, I’ll try to link them along the way!

Let’s get started! For Es, I want to start here:

Es has no memory of anything besides Milgram.

This is pretty much a given, because they’ve said that they have amnesia. However, I think that this is perhaps more intense than at a first glance. Obviously, Es lacks knowledge of their own biographical information. They say that they think they’re 15, and in their character introduction, they repeat that their name is Es and that they’re a prison guard as though looking for an answer of some kind. In Mu’s Audio Drama, they also indicate that they’re not sure about their surname, or if they’re even Japanese.

However, I think that Es’s amnesia goes past simply forgetting biographical information. In Shidou’s Audio Drama, he implies that Es doesn’t know about the real world outside of Milgram. However, this seems odd, because Es is in charge of the supply list and gets things the prisoners request. To me, it almost feels like this is saying that Es has never known the real world, even in their forgotten memories. 

In Amane’s Audio Drama, there’s a moment where Es even seems to doubt if they’re human.

Es wakes up in Milgram in the video, “Jackalope’s ‘This is the Milgram.’” Jackalope says all they need to know is that they’re a prison guard, and that they’re here to judge the prisoners. Es takes to this very well. However, Jackalope says some suspicious things too.

There have been other Milgram experiments.

In Es’s Audio Drama, when Es says that they don’t really have memories, Jackalope says “that’s always the case.” Obviously, this implies that Jackalope has worked with other prison guards, and in that case, Milgram has likely happened multiple times in the past. I believe that this may be touched on in the novel, but unfortunately, I can’t read it, so I can’t say much more on that.

However, related to this is the existence of an eleventh prison cell. In the panopticon, Es notices that there’s an extra room. You can see it in the layout Jackalope presents in “This is Milgram”:

There’s very clearly a prison cell labeled “000.” In Es’s Audio Drama, they note that it looks very rusty, and that unlike the other cells, there’s no lock on the outside. So, what is this prison cell used for? 

Es is Prisoner 000. 

It makes a lot of sense. In the order, which goes in order of prisoner numbers, we get Es first: their MV, their introduction, everything. Their intro is a bit different than everyone else’s, because it doesn’t have the glitched out line at the end–but their image does still get glitchy for a fraction of a second at 0:38.

Plus, if the 000 cell is intended for wardens, it makes sense that it wouldn’t have an outside lock, because the warden would be able to let themself out as they please. 

Furthemore, there’s a key part of Undercover that makes it really seem like Es is prisoner 000. After the Milgram text pops up, it shows them holding a box, which they then open.

After they open this box, which is labeled 000, in the same way that the prison cell is, it launches into the whole series of visuals of prisoners and of Milgram in general. At the very end of the video, Es closes the box while Jackalope watches. I think that this is meant to indicate to us that Es is Prisoner 000; their prison is Milgram as a whole, rather than a specific cell.

But, if Es is a prisoner, then what is their crime? Before I answer that question, I want to address something else important.

Es is us–mostly.

This one also seems pretty obvious, but it’s important to establish what this means. Es being “us” goes beyond us being able to control Es through their verdicts. Es quite literally is us. 

In the “This is Milgram” video, Jackalope talks about the voting system to Es, even though in-universe, I strongly doubt that Es would place a vote every day and then total it up at the end. There are other indicators as well.

In the “Report on the End of the First Trial” video, Jackalope talks to Es about their votes. Jackalope tracks how the fandom waffled over certain votes, as well as some of their rationale behind it. It seems like Es used the same logic; voting Shidou innocent to get a greater impact on him, voting Kazui innocent but believing we’re missing some of the story, or voting Amane guilty because we want to change her mind. Es uses the same logic as us in voting, and has the same deliberations of the collective fanbase.

However, there are even more clear signs that Es is us as a collective. Towards the end of the Report video, we get this visual:

For a bit, instead of seeing Jackalope and the screen he projects images on in real life, we see this, the audience view. Jackalope does this when addressing fears about the next trial. It’s like he’s talking to us in this moment, not Es. We are the audience inside of Es’s head, seeing through Es’s eyes.

But it doesn’t stop there. In Kotoko’s Audio Drama, while Kotoko is listing her observations of Milgram and theorizing as to Es’s involvement, Es seems to have a bit of a crisis. During this time, they refer to themself as “us” instead of “me” at one point. While this could refer to Es talking about Milgram as a whole and them aligning with Jackalope, Mu’s Audio Drama is much more clear cut.

Mu voices confusion over Es and why they act like their thoughts aren’t their own. Es had said that they didn’t know how they felt about Mu, like they weren’t the one to decide their own opinions (we are). Then, Mu very directly asks who Es is talking about when they say “I,” and Es has a full-on mental breakdown. Jackalope has to come in to set them straight. 

However, we don’t actually hear what Jackalope has to say. When Mu points out how Es is talking to a rabbit, Es then reminds us that only they can hear Jackalope.

But, that’s not true, is it? We can hear Jackalope. Except here, in this moment in the audio drama, we couldn’t hear Jackalope.

I think that we can usually hear Jackalope because we are usually Es. We exist in their mind; we are their mind. Therefore, as Es, we can hear what Jackalope has to say. But in this audio drama, when Es is questioning who they really are, we can’t hear Jackalope. I think that this signifies Es temporarily breaking free and being their own person.

It doesn’t last. We go back to asking questions in the interrogation and voting on Mu immediately after. But, I think that it’s important to keep in mind that Es has shown that they’re their own person separate from us, even if we’re usually inhabiting their mind.

Es’s sin is voting in Milgram.

This is what I gather from Es’s MV. It’s not completely clear where, in universe, Es’s MV comes from. For the other prisoners, it’s clear that the MV extraction machine was used in order to get a song, but did this happen to Es as well?

In any case, the only thing that we see within Es’s MV is them going over the prisoners. The lyrics of the chorus ask the question of if we can really judge the prisoners for their sins. That’s the crime Es will commit: judging people for their sins.

That leads me into what I think will happen:

Those voted guilty in the end will die.

It’s the only thing that really makes sense to me. We’re dealing with murders directly, and so death seems like the obvious punishment. In Shidou’s Audio Drama, he even says that Milgram smells like death, implying that death occurs here, and given his track record, I’m inclined to believe him. Additionally, it makes Es’s involvement as Prisoner 000 in Milgram make sense. We can’t vote on them yet, because they’re not yet involved in a murder. However, assuming we vote at least one prisoner guilty in the end, Es will be responsible for a death, just like all the other prisoners.

Futa hints at this in his audio drama, too. He says that Es imprisoning them is a crime, too. I believe that this is meant to be a hint to the audience, that Es is, too, responsible for their actions.

After the Third Trial, I believe we will vote on Es.

This is largely based on conjecture and a path of logic from my earlier points, but I think that, at the end of the Third Trial, we’ll see the results of our votes. Those who were voted guilty will die, and if I had to guess, those who were voted innocent will be launched back into society as they are, for better or worse. Then, after seeing the results of our actions, Jackalope will be there to ask us, the audience: did we do a good job? Did we have the right to assign these judgments to these people?

I think that that’s the real question Milgram is getting at, because it’s very tied into the Milgram Experiments in real life. The real-life Milgram Experiments sought to see how far people would be willing to inflict pain if someone told them to; with our votes, we are telling Es how to inflict their judgment, and they comply without question. 

And now, a summary of my theory.

Es doesn’t remember anything about the world outside of Milgram; they only know that they’re a prison guard. They don’t even seem to have a sense of self, and freak out when people ask them existential questions about who they are.

This is a very good point because I didn’t explain it at all! In terms of moral culpability, I agree, I don’t think Es should really be held accountable for voting for the prisoners. However, whether they should be or not is a key moral question that Milgram probably wants to address.

I believe this so strongly because the real Milgram experiments, like the ones put on by Stanley Milgram, had to do with this idea. They were testing the willingness of random people to do cruel things to others because they were told to do so. It was following World War II where a lot of war criminals were using the “just following orders” excuse.

The outcome of the experiment was that yes, people will administer tons of pain to others if they’re told to by an authority. One theory of this is obedience; another relates to the concept of “ingroups,” arguing that the test subjects were willing to administer so much harm because they identified more with the experimenter than the person who was being harmed. By making Es a prison guard, just like Jackalope, I think this ingroup theory is being addressed, and the fact that Jackalope told Es to vote indicates the obedience angle.

So, basically, I think that Es will be facing judgment over the harm they cause, even if they’re told what to do, because that’s the very moral question that the real, actual Milgram experiments were based on.