#skull analysis

Starting off with the fact it's written on the back of a piece of sheet music, which is later established to be because he had written a piece in her name for her on the front of it. From here, I will bring up each section of the text I specifically am referring to.

This is the first we hear about Andrea. As she is a new introduction, she is not mentioned in any prior lore-- the only other women we know that Antonio is involved with is any of the one night stands alluded to in Deduction 2 and the Princess to the royal family he was priorly imprisoned by. We assume one of two things of Andrea:

The deduction ‘Seductive Tune’ is not actually about him having one night stands with different women and instead is an early iteration of his time with Andrea. I find this to be unlikely of the two options because the description of Seductive Tune makes a mention of “joy that was missing,” which aligns with his history of being partial to indulgent behaviors in order to obtain immediate satisfaction in the way his talent could not.

Or, the more likely of the answers, he found Andrea after his time with the royal family. He makes a mention that she is different from the other people he’s met, both upper and lower classes. She understands him like nobody else we’ve seen within his story, which must mean an awful lot to him as we know Antonio’s story tends to play with Toys/Puppet + Caged Bird motifs with how the world around him perceives him. This one is more probable than the first option.

He starts off mentioning there’s been some time they've last seen one another, which we will touch upon later down the line. Carrying onwards, we also learn that Andrea does not hear things the same as other people-- very likely that she is some degree of hard of hearing, given “grateful that the aria managed to overcome the barrier in your ears” and “unlike those with normal hearing.”

Andrea means a whole lot to Antonio, this is clear. Not only by how he starts off with “My dearest” and how he asks how she’s been during their time apart, but additionally in the lyrics he relays back to her in this letter. These lyrics show how much he truly adores her, whether he wrote them himself for her or if these were lyrics she sang to him once that he remembers. This is very reminiscent of Crescent Knight to me, in the way there is someone dear to him in his life that is now unobtainable to him. But that’s neither here nor there!

It’s incredibly important to note that Antonio here is not excusing himself. He is explaining things, being honest about himself and his past. It’s additionally important to know that Antonio has spoken about this to Andrea before, as he notes twice “as you know.” Which leads me to point out that Andrea had begged and pleaded for him to play the song he repeatedly told her he feared (“No matter how much … I would never…”); and that the song itself had already left them somewhere rocky ( “... or even threatened to break up with me, …”). He makes it expressly clear that he does not want to play the song, no matter how she pushes him to do it, because he knows that he should never. 

We can assume that he has only played this song twice, as it’s instance is recorded twice in canon: once when he first made it in his desperate attempt to escape the royal family (to which it was the only thing he could turn to) and once more when he was forced to play it at the concert we see in his introduction video.  However… he eventually gives in and plays it for her, but not without her having to ask him after he makes it clear he feared it. This is by no means to blame Andrea for anything that may have happened beyond this point. However, to properly understand everything that has happened we need to be aware that she had been asking him to play a piece he had repeatedly refused. He brings up indulgence because he is expressing that he has indulged by indulging himself in her wishes because of his love for her– not because he has relapsed back to any of his prior habits.

Now, I go back to bringing back the mention of the prior times Antonio has played the piece. The first time (seen in Antonio’s Letter #1), we are aware that he goes into a puppet-like state-- where the violin plays before him and he is pulled against the wall like a puppet. Nothing happens to the servant in question, nothing happens to the Court Maestro writing the letter. We can see something similar happen in Antonio’s Introduction video, where he just plays before the crowd whilst becoming the puppet for the devil his soul is tied to. Those two instances are helpful for Antonio– one to get him out of the royal family (who had practically kidnapped him) and the other to push forward and continue playing in concert to save his pride. There’s no reason to believe that something would have happened between the two of them, there’s no way either of them could have guessed. 

While Andrea does not know, we as the viewers are very aware that Antonio is being truthful when he says that he was not himself. There are several canonical accounts in Antonio's lore that tells us that the devil in his backstory is real (and IDV did not write off all of it’s supernatural-- Luchino’s Professor to Reptilian’s existence is proof alone, alongside the other Eldritch Beings), and to refute it in order to “blame” him is absurd when there's nothing in canon that would even imply to us that the devil isn’t real. There is nothing in canon that would point to Antonio lying about the devil, and if you think so I recommend you read his deductions and first letter again to refresh yourself. The text is set in stone that he does have supernatural/demonic involvement.

This is not a matter of a relapse of addiction, this is a matter of possession by a supernatural being and the fact that Antonio is not himself. While he does bring up “seduced by the long-lost joy and pleasure of gambling in the Casino,” he does not mean this literally. As this letter takes place to recount one instance in time, I believe Antonio is speaking poetically and is comparing the way the possession feels to his prior experience gambling. He took the risk of playing the song for her, and that in itself is the gamble. There would be no reason for him to play the song and then just fuck off in the middle of it to go to a Casino, since this is recounting one set instance in time.

I previously brought up that in Antonio’s possession he has never really done anything directly to people, instead he just plays while the demon takes over him. As I have also (repeatedly) previously brought up, we as the viewer are aware that Antonio was Not Himself and anything happening under this moment was the devil. That being said, there’s two things that may have happened here:

In his possession, he frightens her-- it’s a horrifying thing to see someone you love become an almost entirely different person (because he, in this case, WAS an entirely different person) and she is too fear stricken to leave until he is out of possession. Antonio mentions “distant crying,” which implies that she was across the room from him rather than directly near him. He also describes the bow gradually swung down with inertia, rather than by his (or the devil using his) force. This would make sense as an option, given his prior behavior upon playing that song on the violin. When I first read the letter, I did genuinely think it was that he ended the song as he heard her cry and the slow fall (“gradually” , “inertia”) was him coming out of the possession and thus the bow hitting the ground in front of him. 

However I cannot deny another possibility that aligns with the described behavior, which is the one most people have chosen to believe, that while under possession the devil may have used Antonio to strike Andrea. If this is the case, I do not believe he had done anything more than one strike. I do not believe he beat her as some people may have claimed, as the word beat over hit has severely different connotations– and it would have been detailed in the text instead of a vague horror. There is nothing that would imply further than that. However, I am more inclined to believe the first option over the second-- but again I will not and cannot deny this possibility.

However, there is no way to tell exactly what has happened, as Antonio was not conscious enough during the event to tell us. We simply know that he played the song, wound up possessed, and in the process Andrea ends up crying in a mess on the floor and it takes him out of the possession. Looking at it, after rereading the letter, to me it seems that Antonio has no idea what actually happened and is in horror at himself at the possibility of different things that could have happened. This is a one off instance rather than an occurring instance given his prior possessions have never hurt anybody. Once again, he could not have known any better. We cannot say for sure what he did or did not do, and this will likely stay this way. Identity V likes to be incredibly vague, and when they want something to be obvious they will be obvious about it. It's why the media is so full of unreliable narration... because they want us to do the work and piece it together. We're the detectives after all!

Now, it is important to note that: even though his actions were not his own, this still has an effect on Andrea. It is equally important that I state, again, that I am not blaming Andrea for anything that has happened. We as the viewer know it is not him, but she does not– and Antonio is aware that she does not, which is why he takes the time to explain it. What happens between them is still understandably hurtful and terrifying, but through the lens of the viewer we need to be aware that Antonio shows remorse and regret. The second he recognizes what has happened, he is terrified in what his image had been used to do, whether if it was to strike her or if it was just him scaring her. This carries on in the next set of lines.

He calls back to “the sunlight, the moonlight, the starlight” as a way to prove how much he cares for her and how much she means to him. Additionally, he is aware that he cannot fix what has been done, and he is aware that in her mind it is him who had scared her off/hurt her. It is important to note: he is not asking for forgiveness, he is apologizing. He is acknowledging how this has affected her.

Calling back to the beginning of the document, it has been months since they have last spoken. He is looking for her, not just for closure and to apologize but because she has gone missing.

Given how we know he becomes a hunter, whoever speaks to him about getting rid of his possession was lying to him. <3 But it’s important to note that Antonio arrives at the manor in order to find Andrea again and he is aware he is taking a risk. He writes her this note, in the hopes that she will see it, as a way to prove to her that he is changing for the better and as a way to go out of his way to change for her likely so he cannot bring her, or anyone else, harm again.

Basically, the most we need to point out here is that he is still in love with her+ he feels remorse+ he’s going out of his way to risk everything just to change and reverse his errors + this will fail him.