#moi rambles

This of course occured to me because of the part about "save data" being loaded into Milgram. To me that reads as if these 10 prisoners we have been observing and judging for 5 years now are in fact just digital copies of people that exist outside of Milgram.

And I do think these copied people outside of the prison just continued living their life from that point on. In a sense you could say that anything that happens inside of Milgram has absolutely no consequences on the people that have "commited these murders" (or in Yunos case have just ... lived their life, really).

Which is both somewhat uplifting, but also depressing in other ways. It could also be that at the end of Milgram the experiences of these digital copies somehow get loaded into the original people, which might be a benefit for some of them, but for others? They will just get the knowledge of torture and an actual death experience, great. But I feel them getting these memories is the more unlikely story progression anyway.

So why not take a look at these 10 characters and speculate how life continued for them in the (in canon) real world?

Haruka: Talk about being doomed in the narrative both outside and inside of Milgram, truly my luck in picking my fav ... well, he will still be in his absolutely atrocious family situation, that the body of the girl that he killed hasn't been found is close to a miracle, and the guilt about it is so immense that he might have attempted suicide, depending on the interpretation of "the second child". In any case, it is obvious that this will just lead to more tragedy, either by Haruka lashing out against other living things in his desperation or by him taking his life. Truly depressing.

Yuno: She will ... most likely just go on like she had before. I would hope that she manages to heal from her obvious depression and that her self-destructive behaviour is not leading her down an even darker path. I worry a lot for her.

Fuuta: He will struggle a bit with blame and guilt for a while, but i think he will be just fine, honestly. He might take a good, long online hiatus, but I think he will be okay after a while.

Muu: Definitely will go to actual prison for this. Depending on how well her parents will let the money speak things might be a bit more lenient for her than they should. I don't think she will handle all of this well in her future though.

Shidou: Might or might not resume his job after losing his family. All of this clearly has made him depressed and suicidal, so I just hope he will heal and move on at some point.

Mahiru: Depending on if this was a double suicide or not there might be no living Mahiru anymore, but let just assume that only her boyfriend killed himself. Honestly ... I think she will bounce back relatively quickly. Might she find a new love and hopefully this time things will work out better.

Kazui: I think ... he will struggle. I don't think he can overcome this on his own. Best case would be him actually seeking out therapy, sadly this is not overly common in Japan. But he has at least the chance to heal and at some point live true to himself.

Amane: Another one who is pretty doomed by the narrative. In a best case scenario she will be taken in some sort of custody and will given the chance to get deprogrammed and receive help. Worst case she might end up getting punished by her father and if that goes too far she might also lose her life in the process.

Mikoto: Unless he will somehow not get caught for these murder/s he probably will be looking forward to a lifetime in prison. If he does manage to stay free ... not the best life, we could just hope that he isn't dying from overwork or that it doesn't lead to more killings.

Kotoko: She will probably just continue to do what she does. With that dangerous lifestyle that might get her killed or in prison pretty quickly as well.

So yeah ... honestly, if this proves to be true (and I feel like 95% certain with this), it will all feel a bit ... hollow? I guess the whole point of Milgram will be that it was indeed an experiment on Es/us and not strictly about the prisoners. They really were just tools, Jackalope has implied such often enough. Sure, these characters exist as real people in the series canon, but the versions that we grew attached to over the years are just fake copies. At least their personalities are a copy of their real counterparts, but it still all feels senseless. It lessens the blow about having been involved in killing my fav in one of the worst ways possible, but still.

This theory also just lets so many things make sense. A magical song prison that could change layout and rules by the will of the warden? No problem if it is just digital. We know the Jackalopes are just normal people outside if Milgram. Of course they would, that is just their avatar in the simulation. Wounds not healing properly and people not aging? Yeah, that is just how the settings are or how it got programmed. It also makes sense that we have healthy and restored looking sprites for the dead prisoners. They just had to reboot a fresh copy. The people in front of the computer probably would only need to press a single button and they could regain conciousness just fine. But that is not the point of that whole experiment, isn't it. To have the raw emotion and data from Es/us these losses need to permanent, huh.

Let's start that it is brilliant that they went with a funeral theme for the 4th anni and to top it off they released it on the 4th of April. As a lot of you might know, 4 stands for death in Japanese (and various other asian countries), as it is pronounced the same.

My initial prediction for the art was, that it would be the funeral of the prisoners themselves and that we would see them lying on the frame of flowers (chrysanthemum, white lilies and white roses, all traditional funeral flowers). But as it turns out, we have the prisoners attending the funeral of their victims, so to speak.

So of course we have everybody in classic funeral attire, and sadly that doesn’t make for a lot of variety for the guys, sans the shoes, some buttons and different seams and pockets, but they all look splendid in it (and it stops Fuuta from combining it with some ridiculous fashion choices), so I can vibe with it.

For the girls we have of course a bit more to look at in terms of different clothes, the ones who are still visiting school in their respective uniforms, although in dark tones to fit in the whole composition, and Mappi with a simple dress as well as Kotoko with a chic blazer and trousers combo.

The wardens take the role of the priest who would attend a traditional Japanese funeral, how very fitting. Everybody is very pretty. I do still prefer akka’s art, but kee did a very good job capturing everybody as well.

Now the really interesting part is of course how everybody is holding their bouquets. I think the general consensus is that they stands for the victims, or in a wider sense the emotional stance that each prisoner has in regards to their murder. Let’s go in order from left to right.

Mikoto: Very prim and proper. I am in the camp that thinks that Mikoto committed the murder, not John, but also that he genuinely doesn’t remember anymore (due to stress-induced amnesia etc.). So it makes a lot of sense that he holds it in the most neutral and normal way possible. He doesn’t know the victim, he doesn’t have any particular feelings regarding it that he can remember.

Kazui: Holding it very lightly, but not as careless as if you would have to fear it falling to the ground. Maybe symbolic for the lack of emotional commitment in his marriage, due to being homosexual? Somewhat fitting to the lyrics of Cat, “let’s keep it simple”, keep it casual, these feelings are not real and very fleeting.

Shidou: Oh, he is interesting. He is holding the flowers exactly like you would a young baby, proper head and body support with both his hands and arm, while being very gentle with it. Further evidence that his murder ended up being one of his sons. As I assume ending up braindead after an accident and Shidou having to give the okay to use him as an organ donor.

Fuuta: My angry little ginger. And his anger shines through, what are you gripping your flowers so tightly for, little man? He is holding it almost like a weapon, very much the hero of justice with his sword ready to strike. I find it interesting that he is the only prisoner not smiling. I thought maybe because he is the one who is the most terrified about what his actions have led to? He was deeply riddled by remorse from the beginning after all, as much as he didn't want to admit that.

Haruka: Oh Haruka, what are you doing? His is … interesting. My theory is still that the murder he is actually is in Milgram for is a suicide, and the way he is holding the flowers does a good job in supporting that thought. He is holding the bouquet upside down, with not much apparent care for its state, some petals falling on the floor, and more importantly, on himself. I think this might represent how he has little to none self-worth and care for himself. Another thing I did see a japanese fan on Twt talk about was the meaning of an upside down bouquet. Apparently there is a superstition about holding flowers upside down, so that they … absorb water faster. This is both a good way to show Haruka’s innocence about the world as he would possibly believe such a thing as well as … very grim, as I think he drowned himself.

Yuno: Similar to Shidou she is holding her flowers a lot like you would an infant, and … well, that speaks for itself I would say. There is no ill feeling or disrespect towards the unborn life, is what just not meant to be with her.

Muu: Holding her bouquet behind her back, just like she does not want the fact that it might in fact have been her fault behind her victim act. Could also go very well with how she most likely did hide the box cutter out of sight until she struck.

Mahiru: She is holding her flowers very gently, delicately, with a lot of love, of course, it’s Mappi after all. Maybe almost a bit too close to her, if she is not careful she could crush or squish them easily. As it is in line with how destructive her relationship ended up being.

Amane: Oh Amane, the disrespect, haha. Carelessly discarded behind her. Sinners are worthless and need to be punished, right? Nothing wrong with quite literally stepping over dead bodies. The little girl is quite savage, I have to give her that much.

Alright, so let's assume that the restrictions of the guilty prisoners don't work the way we imagine. For context, I always assumed that they are not physically bound (after all they still have to eat, use the bathroom etc), but it's more of a emotional barrier that keeps them from inflicting violence or defending themselves. But we never got a confirmation on that, this is just what I combined by observation, but it might as well just be that they consider the longer straps (and in some cases sleeves) as restriction, which is ... well, that is not something that is stopping someone with the intent to kill, that is for sure.

So I would say we are all terribly aware about Haruka's threat of suicide. But I think his plan might have changed a bit, he had a long time to ruminate about it after all. And he clearly does not want to die (AKAA even has the lyrics "I don't want to die" translated as "Don't wipe me out", but we are all aware how scuffed the translation for that song is). His conversation with Kotoko on her birthday already made me rise an eyebrow. My first assumption was that he is planning a murder-suicide with Muu, in a way to safe her both from being scared in Milgram and from being alone when he is gone.

But what if he came up with a third option? An option that would show he is serious without destroying the time with his mother. (I still think Muu won't want to hang out with him anymore in t3, but that is beside the question here.) Our blue boy once stated that "he can kill anything that is smaller and weaker than him", and who fits that description the most in the prison and also has a bit of an overlap with his presumed victim? Amane.

An important detail is, that Amane is a prisoner that Haruka had no interaction with whatsoever. He does mention her, in his t1 VD explaining that he is not good with children of her age and in the t2 VD that he apparently does not have problems with her anymore. Still, he seemed to (understandably) always keep his distance from her.

So why of all things does he get a line in this collab addressing her directly? It doesn't feel like a "sorry I'm not interacting with you" kinda line, it's very pained, you can feel the tears in his voice there.

And this lead me to think that Haruka will attempt to attack Amane, which ... oh boy, it will be all kinds of messy. We know Amane is armed, even with the overwhelming strength disadvantage she could easily stab him with her scissors in a death-struggle. Not to mention the conflicts that will bring among the prisoners (I don't even want to think about how that could sour how Fuuta thinks about Haruka tremendously).

And it would be a very interesting turn story wise, instead of going the way too obvious and telegraphed path of Haruka attempting to kill himself and Amane planning an attack on Shidou etc.