hi ues its me after a long time of inactivity hi hello. here are soooomeeee of my thoughts about the latest ep :D contains theories maybe? but deffo a lot more questions instead of answers to our prior questions before s2 hihihoho
⚠️ spoilers ahead for those who haven't started (or completed) reading yet!
I think we can ALL agree that we absolutely did not expect something so... happy, after S1's ending. Like?? Sure, I had an expectation that things weren't going to be a full-blown carnage like what the S1 ending suggested, but I certainly did not expect the boys to be the one time i got reborn into a boy band™ Nonetheless, it is a pretty good episode as always—I just hope that the story didn't just. Yknow. Had a complete 360° turn as if the majority of the players still aren't traumatized from seeing their favorite blondie dork fucking die last month.
(your friendly daily reminder in case youve forgotten!!! <3)
Out of all the many things in the episode that's been bugging me, the timeline is taking me tf out. I opened the discussions tab when I finished reading, and boy oh boy. As expected, everyone was talking about that one popular theory. Yup you guessed it, it's the time loop one.
Sooo... Does this confirm, or at least imply, the time loop theory? Well, I'm not sure myself. To be honest with you, I didn't believe in the theory before, given the lack of so much lore/deets (and only started "believing it" solely to play into the shitload of copium that befell upon the tragedy-struck fandom after S1's finale). But like, with this new episode, it's starting to seem plausible???
One teeny tiny smaaaall detail that irked me though, which adds more credit to the time loop theory, was the fact that the Dionysia students were already mentioned to MC by Ritsu before (no citation, unfortunately. I can't remember the specific episode and chapter + I'm too lazy to search for it).
So here's where my series of questions start. If 1) Ritsu telling MC the Dionysia students' names happened before this episode, then MC should've shown recognition when Ritsu told her about them some time later. 2) If this episode did happen after Ritsu told MC about them, then MC shouldn't have seemed clueless about their identity at all. As shown in the chapter where she met Mio, she didn't show any sign of being familiar with him at all despite Elias telling her Mio's full name.
Adding to this, Elias already introduced himself to MC in S1! Isn't it weird for him to introduce himself to her twice?
There's also the fact that in S2, only a little after Samhain festival, it was announced that the Dionysia ghouls' are able to do missions again (with monitoring and restrictions??). Now, here's where it gets confusing. In S1, Mio's return had already been mentioned by Elias (to Taiga) during the gala. Yes, during the gala. Specifically only Mio's too, with no (explicit) mention of the other Dionysia ghouls at all.
A little but very much needed detour: The Samhain festival, iirc, happened waaaay back—approx. before the City of Ill Omens (someone said the festival already passed in Episode 9, though I haven't fact-checked it yet). Meanwhile, the Gala happened after the festival (nearing the end of the academic year).
The given info in both timelines heavily contradicts the other. Again, why will Elias mention "Oh, Mio's back" during the gala IF he already did return (alongside the other Dionysia ghouls) after the festival?? Not to mention the funny detail that Elias didn't have a reason to do janitor work anymore (which is consistent all throughout S1) if he's already back as a ghoul student. Unless he loves cleaning so much then what the freakery fuck, sure.
And hey, let's say that if the Dionysia ghouls did return after the Samhain festival—then why were they absent in literally the entirety of S1 besides a few mentions of their mere names? Even then, it was said in S1 that Mio only returned to have the clockwork anomalies fixed up, implying that he probably only got allowed to return because he was needed—which was not what happened in S2 at all.
A lot of questions and mindless rambling ues... brainworms ou... Anyways, one last take is that this could be not a time loop at all! A lot of people were theorizing about an alternate/(multiple?) timeline (whichithinkismorebelievable), and I can totally see that happening too!
Anywho. A lot more where those came from but tumblr's unexplainable beef w my drafts is making me so unmotivated to yap a lot. My first draft didn't save and I had to repeat the 3 last paragraphs??? Didn't save again so I repeated.... Yes, AGAIN (w less rambling bc i forgot some of them). This happened way too many times before w 2 of my drafts that I was cooking up. Decided against repeating them a shit ton of times and discarded them in the end. FIX THIS TUMBLR.
Bonus:
that little twitch in jiro's face bro... dude you're not slick
Since this post is very popular now, I will edit to add a little more information! This bug is Calyptocephala attenuata, a species of tortoise beetle. It lives in Central and South America.
Further reading: Wikipedia , iNaturalist , and ResearchGate
Is2g sometimes seeing people say cornelius doesn't care about the students is so fuckin frustrating like
Tl;dr the institute and jin's dad are your enemies, not the underfunded, understaffed school and its staff. Things would be even worse if they got caught up in all of the emotion and tragedy of lives lost when their job is to keep shit running and keep the living people surviving and keep the dangerous anomalies contained and keep progress on missions going and they're barely able to do that because the Darkwick higher-ups and Institute staff above them and President Kamurai and his daughter won't give them the resources to do so, but if they don't try it will probably result in them losing even more resources Like Every School Ever.
ONTO ME RANTING BECAUSE I WOKE UP WITH A COLD AND A BAD MOOD AND SAW SOMEBODY SAYING CORNELIUS/DARKWICK DOESN'T CARE AGAIN LOL
"the staff don't mourn them when something bad happens!!" This is a school of nearly 1000 people that experienced what was essentially a civil war a year ago where a lot of people died and a lot of things were destroyed. On a Normal Day the students are sent on to missions that could possibly harm them, as the facility is a research facility for supernatural occurrences. They reduce student fatalities by making it so regular human students aren't allowed to take on the most dangerous work. But shit happens because anomalies don't play fair, so even harmless seeming missions can suddenly become life or death beyond their control
They are also DEEPLY UNDERFUNDED AND UNDERSTAFFED, as has been acknowledged MULTIPLE TIMES. These same people probably think Darkwick and the Japan branch of the Anomalous Investigation Institute are the same entity and not, y'know, one being just one part of the other, and they think Cornelius is at the very top of Darkwick with no one above him despite several mentions of higher-ups who make decisions--
But sure. Okay. Let's spend time mourning every single lost life, every time in the 100+ years Darkwick has been running.
Wow, would you look at that! Even Less Is Getting Done! Because the very limited time and resources are not being thoroughly allotted to, y'know, keeping the facility running.
If you've ever lost someone or something and you spent time mourning, you must understand how time consuming it can be to do that. You probably couldn't take much time from work or school in the name of it because, hey, you need to get an education and you need to make money.
Imagine an entire facility mourning, dwelling in the emotional pain, everytime a staff member or student loses their life. Mind you there are 1000 other living people that need to be minded. Do you know how much that would slow everything down? Cornelius is the Chancellor of Darkwick, his job is to keep things running. Keep the research going. Keep the anomalies in their care alive. Keep the students in their care alive and educated. Keep the missions going so that people in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area are hopefully safe from anomalies.
Think about every time we see Cornelius, every time we talk to him, every time we see him talking to someone else. What is he doing? Working! Talking about working! Talking about how fucking BUSY he is. Hell in the prologue after mc leaves the room he immediately goes "i have all these other things to get done asap, running this place is like herding cats!"
Again. Darkwick is understaffed. They're underfunded. Half the staff are hyperintelligent and highly dexterous supernatural cats, who get diverted from the work they're supposed to be doing because the students bribe them with drugs catnip. The rest of the staff are mostly researchers and teachers and medical staff.
Remember when Subaru and Elias said that without Dionysis and especially without Mio there's no one to maintain the clockwork anomalies that keep things in order around Darkwick? Mio is a ghoul student. He'd only been there for like two years and they were so heavily reliant on basically this ONE GUY for maintenance that when he was detained and the house that kept the clockwork running was made defunct there was nobody to keep the place running smoothly and keep things fixed! ONE STUDENT. WHO HAS BEEN THERE FOR LIKE TWO YEARS. The sudden loss of that cog in the machine and it's like that joke about how if a bunch of furries died in a plane crash the internet would collapse because of how many furries are a major part of technological industry on the whole planet.
Again! Darkwick is funded by The Japan Branch Of The Institute. The Japan Branch Of The Anomalous Investigation Institute is run by JIN'S FATHER, whom we've had implied a couple of times is a corrupt piece of shit anyway. And between President Kamurai and Chancellor Cornelius there are a bunch of other bureaucrats making decisions that they have to get shit through. Darkwick is allegedly their most important facility--but they barely have enough funding or employees to keep the place standing.
Cornelius is not the problem. The staff aren't the problem.
(Hyde might be part of the problem because, while he's been implied to be very capable at getting the higher-ups to relent and cooperate to some degree, he does use this to fund Sinostra's interests in particular. But he is throwing his weight around for the sake of the school anyway, so it's not like he's pocketing the money--he and Romeo run illicit auctions with anomalies they basically steal and he pockets some of that money, but the funds he encourages the higher-ups to give do seem to go to Darkwick. He just spoils his favorite ghoul that isn't his brother lol.)
The ones who don't care are the higher-ups. The ones who don't care are the Institute. The ones who don't care are Institute President And Cabinet Secretary Of Japan Kamurai and his daughter/Jin's older sister who, if she is allowed to succeed him, will continue his work instead of making positive change to the Institute that would reach Darkwick.
Darkwick is an underfunded, understaffed supernatural research, supernatural containment, and educational facility. So, y'know. Like a regular ass school in much of the world lmao. They're making do with what they have which, as worse and worse things happen, seems to be less and less, despite their alleged importance to the Institute and despite that their graduates primarily go on to work for the Institute.
Your ire is misdirected. The principal of a school isn't the guy with all the power at the school!
And that's not even addressing people saying they treat mc awfully. Especially the people who say they don't pay her when Cornelius literally said they'll pay for all of her expenses and mc has never expressed having any financial difficulties while at Darkwick--hell, she's able to say she can ask Darkwick to help her pay for the tickets at Sinostra's stall so they could get the grand prize.
Everyone's always saying they aren't doing anything to help her--why would they keep her updated on their progress if it isn't bearing fruit? Remember when Dante said that Yoshitaka was being researched as a way to develop something that could more elaborately modify or erase memories--so, y'know, something very relevant to her curse? But she only became aware of him when there was an issue at his containment facility, because they hadn't gotten a cure yet. Even if you look at the missions they've been on most of them have a loose connection to or teach them about something related to the Kyklos! Anomalies that change form, curses, plant anomalies, anomalies that impact memory and reality, anomalies that create or access other planes of existence, entities that could, in theory, cure her curse all of their own accord, an anomaly that could track down the Kyklos--everything teaches something!
And the thing is! And it sucks to think about if you put yourself in mc's shoes but it's reality! Darkwick is about 1000 people! Tokyo is more than fourteen million people! Japan is even more!! So, yes, one civilian with a nasty curse isn't going to be the "stop everything and focus on this" priority of Darkwick, let alone the entire Institute, unless she's able to give them a good reason to want to prioritize her life over the many lives at stake from anomalies. Yes, Cornelius told her this in a very blunt way, that she needs to prove her worth to the Institute. That's because it's the truth and it's a life or death situation for her and because there is so much other shit going on that he can't just sugarcoat it for no reason. She is one person. They are trying to keep an innumerable amount of anomalies from impacting the lives of millions of people. Yes if you project yourself onto mc too much it's "my life or many lives" but the fact of the matter is it's one life or many lives and chances are the most responsible call is going to be many lives.
Just. It's not that serious or anything it's just a game it's just a story. But for me sometimes it's wild seeing people talk about characters or a story like they haven't actually paid attention to it lmao.