It is done. Just over 2 hours 40 minutes, but it’s done. A full analysis of the David Literature Girl Insane MV.
Some important clarifications under the cut, for before you watch.
>CW for suicide, depression, self-loathing, murder and death, fictional blood, self-harm, manipulation, among other heavy topics. It’s not easy to remember everything I covered over the span of just under three hours, but those are the biggest things which appear throughout the video.
>Since I use clips from the MV, there are flashing lights and disorienting camera angles, but I always made sure to include a warning right before they happen. You can also use those warnings to skip the music if Yoppei’s cover is annoying to you, I’ve heard some people say it is.
>The video should be available in up to 720p eventually, but keep in mind it may take a few hours for that to show up as a possibility. I kinda forgot about that when I uploaded it oops.
>Please ignore the tangent at the start about FNAF. I uploaded this to a channel where I had already uploaded a few FNAF videos, so that’s for the viewers who where there from before.
>Also, the audio is not great. It’s especially bad at the beginning, but it eventually gets good enough. I apologize, I hope it’s bearable.
>Obviously, a lot of this video is very subjective readings of David’s character, the lyrics, and the excerpts in the background. Different opinions are valid.
So I know I’m a little late to the party on this one, but I wanna talk about the David MV.
I finally decided to watch that nearly three hour video on the Literature Girl Insane MV, (by @/1moreff-creator) and HOLY SHIT IT’S SO GOOD. I wish I watched it sooner and wonder why I didn’t, I watch almost exclusively 1+ hour videos about random topics I know nothing about, and now there’s one for something I care a lot about! Why didn’t I watch immediately?!?
But my lapse in sanity aside, it finally got me motivated enough to talk about the David MV!
…Except only the part about Ace because of course that’s all I want to talk about. 9 out of 10 of my posts are either about him or have him involved somehow.
Anyways! Here’s the part I find very interesting!
This is arguably where Ace is most relevant, and therefore it makes sense I want to talk about it today.
Now, first things first, the Roman numeral. V (five) is Ace’s Roman numeral, as assigned by the crossword. The line attached is:
“Right now, why do you go insane?”
Which definitely fits. Ace could easily be framed as going insane, because he has mental breakdowns at a worryingly high frequency. Him and Veronika (who this might also be referring to if color theory is to be believed) are basically assigned the role of being seen as mentally unhinged within the class.
(…Ever think about how weird it is that the title is Literature Girl Insane, implying the star of the MV, David, is going insane, yet Ace is the one getting called insane, possibly by David? I think that’s interesting. But let’s get back on track.)
As established by other Roman numerals, the words in the background when a numeral shows itself also apply the character attached to said numeral. This is most obviously shown in the line near the top of the photo.
“A cat has 9 additional lives”
This is also easily applicable to Ace, since he survived Nico’s murder attempt against all odds. If Eden and Teruko hadn’t just so happened to be on the 2nd floor and walked into the gym when they did, he would’ve died. While the actual methodology of Nico’s murder attempt is unknown, it’s also possible that him even surviving long enough for Teruko and Eden to find them was a miracle. Either way, it fits.
The last quote on-screen intrigues me the most. It’s a quote from Hamlet.
“I am but mad north-northwest. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a hand saw.”
Now, first let’s look at just those words, without further context. It’s important we know what the words themselves mean before we do anything else. Let’s start with the definition of north-northwest, since that word is pretty important to the quote.
I’m sure most are familiar with north, east, south, and west. The four main directions on a compass. As well as Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and Northwest. That splits the compass into eight directions, splitting the sections of north, east, south, and west in half.
Similarly, north-northwest is a direction that comes from splitting the compass into sixteen parts. It’s the half of the northwest section that’s closer to north.
Next, what the hell does “I know a hawk from a handsaw” mean? It’s almost half the quote, so it’s important we know.
Well…*extremely loud sigh* Shakespeare, as you know, was alive a very long time ago. As such, he writes in old-time-y English that’s hard to understand. And this quote has the misfortune of being something people argue over the translation of, at least as far as I could tell while researching.
Some people think Shakespeare meant a heronsaw, a type of bird, not a handsaw. Others think that no, he meant handsaw, but heron, in his time period, was also a common word for a tool that holds plaster/mortar/etc..
Either way, Shakespeare was probably referring to two types of birds, or two types of tools, which have key differences from one and other. I don’t think which one the DRDTdev thought was right really matters in this instance, since the quote makes sense either way. 15/16s of the time, Hamlet (the speaker of the quote) is sane and can tell two birds/tools apart.
The quote is, in summary, saying that Hamlet is mad only when it’s north-northwest, aka 1/16th of the time (I’m not sure if that somehow connects to there being 16 participants in the killing game, but I’m going to assume it doesn’t). The other 15/16s of the time, Hamlet is perfectly sane, thank you very much.
So, without context, this quote is saying that Ace is only insane 1/16th of the time. The rest of the time he’s sane.
Next, I think another important thing we have to do is take into account the whole screenshot as a whole. By that I mean we should not only look at each line individually, but how they relate to each other. In bold is the “why do you go insane?” Line, and to the left, in a font that blends more into the background, is the Hamlet line.
There is a contradiction of opinions here. One person says, “Why do you go insane?” while the other insists they’re only a little bit insane.
This could be referring to the opinions of David and Ace. After all, one could argue it was David underestimating Ace that led to his secret being revealed. David doesn’t bother being careful around Ace in the trial, despite Ace’s volatile nature. He piles suspicion onto Ace by saying it’s weird he didn’t see him on the second floor the night before the murder, even though it isn’t. After all:
Ace was in the gym. David was in the relaxation room. Those are on opposite sides of the floor, so of course David wouldn’t have seen Ace. He didn’t even have to walk anywhere close to the room Ace was in. But David saying this information like it’s weird and suspicious makes everyone else think it is.
David thinks: But what’s Ace gonna do about it? Somehow get the whole class on his side, even though almost everyone likes me more? Is everyone really going to trust the mentally unstable (one could say insane), dumb, cowardly jockey over me?
Yes, yes they will.
All this is to say, David, in the grand scheme of things, doesn’t really care about Ace throughout chapter two. He steals Nico’s secret from him, antagonizes him in the trial, and doesn’t care. Ace doesn’t matter. Ace, of all people, can’t be the one to ruin him. So who cares if Ace dislikes him? Ace is of no use to David, and Ace certainly isn’t smart enough to figure out David’s scheme. This is what David believes.
However, this leads to him not taking Ace’s volatile nature seriously enough, believing he is above the harm of someone like him. But hey, even a pawn can play a vital part in checkmating a king.
When David pisses off Ace, believing Ace can’t do anything besides get angry, yell, and make himself look more suspicious…That turns out to be a crucial mistake that ruins everything.
…Y’know, the irony of the class idiot being the one to beat the so-called master manipulator will never not be funny to me.
Anyways, we can sort of apply this to Hamlet, too. If Ace is Hamlet, since this is Hamlet’s line, and David is Claudius, his father-in-law, we do have a pretty good parallel.
Claudius, who secretly killed Hamlet’s father and then took his throne, is secretly not as righteous as he seems. However, Hamlet finds out about Claudius being the one who killed his father and seeks revenge. Claudius thinks Hamlet to be mad, but when Claudius isn’t around, Hamlet says, “But my uncle-father (Claudius) [is] deceived. I am but mad north-northwest. When the wind is southerly, I know a hawk from a hand saw.” Eventually, Hamlet kills Claudius. So in DRDT terms, Ace finds out about David’s manipulation, David is unaware of this, and Ace eventually kills David’s public persona. Obviously this is an extreme simplification of the plot, but still.
…Of course, there’s also a chance this contradiction of opinions isn’t about Ace and David specifically. After all, David isn’t the only one to boil Ace down to his core traits of “dumb, angry, overall not a well-adjusted individual”. The whole class does this, at least for the most part. This Hamlet quote could just be trying to say what Ace has been saying. That everyone sees him as a loudmouth, stupid, cowardly and nothing more, when in reality there’s more to him than that.
I might have gone a little overboard with this part…I got excited…Hopefully this all actually makes sense, I had to revise some of this post because it got ramble-y and overall pretty cluttered.
So yeah. Here’s my (very late) contribution to the David MV discussion. Here’s what I think Ace’s part means. If you want me to elaborate anywhere, feel free to tell me, or if you want to tell me your thoughts, I’d love to see that!
so, first off: i’m almost positive this is some sort of key to the tally5 code. mainly because of them both reference being “correct”:
typing stuff like “yes”, “no”, and “fuck you” in this box doesn’t work, and copy-pasting the message text doesn’t work either, so unfortunately we have to try harder to figure this one out.
looking in the source code of the page, we can find evidence that the tally5 password is not english, so trying to translate the secret message to english is most likely barking up the wrong tree.
that said, i’m slightly unreliable since the source code is javascript, which i’ve never written. let me walk you through my thought process for figuring this out:
whenever the “Enter” button on the page is clicked:
variable “input” stores whatever you typed in as a password.
the code then checks if the password is correct. if it is, the page displays the image from this tumblr image url:
notice the “input” inserted in the middle. basically, the code generates the full url from being given the correct password. therefore the password is the ending part of the image url (excluding .png).
now i’ve never seen a tumblr image url that’s coherent english, which unfortunately means this is going to be a massive pain in the ass to figure out. but on the bright side, you won’t be confused anymore wondering why the message seems impossible to translate to actual words! (note: if you have, in fact, found a way to translate the message to actual words, disregard this.)
now for the bad news: the secret text seems way too long for a direct mode of “deciphering” to the correct url piece, so most likely no using easy methods like rot13 (my very first thought, considering the number of the footnote). it’s still going to be a puzzle to figure out how to get the missing url piece from this.
so what’s next? i don’t know---search for more clues or just try whatever you can think of in the tally5 box, i guess. good luck!
diana chiem and her (non) existance and ms. naegi (a drdt theory)
okay so the title is insane but i have a theory about the new david mv (like most people)!!! it's regarding the character many assume to be diana chiem, who appears in the video (pictured below!)
the rest of my theory will be under the cut, let me know what you think!!!
it's all to do with this frame. the main roles states are david chiem (obviously, he's the star of the show here!!!), and xander matthews, who also appears. note the text on the right of the screen that says "(i.e. these are the only characters who make appearances)"
the supporting cast refers to the characters who Kinda appear. i have examples of what i mean
teruko tawaki: teruko appears in the picture frame visible for a lot of the video!
arei nageishi: arei appears as one of the clapping hands. notice the bowling glove on only her left hand!
hu jing: same deal, notice her zither playing ring thingies
mai akasaki: mai also appears on the picture frame visible for a lot of the video!
with all that said, there's still one more character on the list! my friend on discord (and co-admin of the drdt server! (you can find them here!) has deduced that it says "Ms. Naegi". i confirmed it here.
now, a lot of the fandom has been under the impression that the unnamed character at the beginning is diana chiem, david's sister. but, footnote 11 says... "[11] I admit to lying. There is no one named 〇〇〇〇〇 〇〇〇〇〇. I am, and always have been, an only child."
so diana chiem doesn't exist! meaning that the only person the woman pictured above can be is Ms. Naegi... whoever that is. i think it's safe to assume it's not komaru or anything due to the fact that this fangan takes place approximately 80 years in the future.
idk if this counts as spoilers (probably not but i'll tag it just in case) but when my brother and i were trying to figure out the tally5 code and were close to finally cracking it, our leading theory of what it could be was a fully rendered, close-up, highly detailed shot of david's buttcheeks and it has now become a running joke
sorry i’m posting what i think everyone has figured out already but the part about hythlodaeus and morus does not appear to refer to the final fantasy characters - it would make more sense that it refers to character’s from more’s ‘utopia’. some random reference i found on this is copy and pasted below:
“RAPHAEL HYTHLODAEUS is the protagonist in St. Thomas More's Utopia, and his discussions with More in this hard-to-place work fits in with the notion of Lyotard's notion of "differend." In Book 1 of More's Utopia, the groundwork is set for the philosophical discourse in Book 2. Book 1 is largely composed of a dialogue between Morus (the Latin name for "More") and his friend Peter Giles and a traveler named Raphael Hythlodaeus. The name Hythlodaeus is derived from Greek, from a combination of hythlos (idle talk or nonsense) and daiein (distributor). Hythlodaeus is therefore a sower of nonsense, a buffoon. Hythlodaeus' first name, Raphael, is obviously refers to the Biblical archangel, Raphael (רָפָאֵל), the meaning of which is "It is God (El) who heals." Raphael is "one of the seven, who stand before the Lord," Tobit 12:15, and he is regarded as the angelicus medicus, the healing angel. It is Raphael who, in the deuterocanonical book of Tobit, advises Tobias to catch a fish and use its liver to cure his father Tobit of his blindness.” - some ‘not secure’ blogspot page from lex christianorum apparently
