I’ve had this udg theory for a while, and I guess it’s time to share it: what if part of the reason Monaca tried to get Nagisa killed was out of jealousy?
I mean, think about it. Hear me out:
Nagisa was considered an “elite” because of his academic achievements. He was widely recognised as being intelligent, despite that being learned rather than inherent.
On the other hand you have the naturally intelligent Monaca who was only known for being the sweet, friendly, “life of the party” girl. For all she had to offer, nobody truly recognised her achievements, or cared about her.
Now consider Monaca’s dialogue during the infamous kiss scene. No, not that part. I mean this:
“You have such a hard time, everyone has high expectations of you because you’re so smart. And you even have high expectations of yourself. And you’re always suffering from that, right?”
You can almost sense that there’s undertones of anger and sarcasm in there. It’s as if she’s saying: “Ohh wooow. You’re burdened by everyone’s high expectations of you because you’re sooooo smart. That must be soooo hard for you.” And then she follows it up with:
“But Monaca won’t expect anything of you. From the very start I never expected anything of you. That’s why I kept the Successor a secret. After all, you’re just a weak, weak little child that no one expects anything from. Maybe nobody ever expected anything if you in the first place. You probably just thought they did.”
There’s two ways to interpret this. One is that she’s taunting him out of boiling jealousy and rage, and the other is that she’s projecting her own trauma. Or both.
It’s kind of difficult to tell, because we never really see Monaca blatantly express anger (aside from her feigned tantrums, which don’t really count). Perhaps she’s so used to her feelings being dismissed that she only expresses it through passive aggression or quiet anger. Or maybe I’m thinking too deeply into this. Idk.