An impromptu analysis of William's Seventh Letter, what it reveals, what it implies, and what it means for the story.
Trying to get back into writing a few of these per month so I don't have an inevitable backlog. It'll still be rougher than my usual essays.
This letter is an exploration of Williams days at the Rugby School, his infamous incident where another student's leg was broken, and what actually happened that.
Alice goes to Rugby School after talking to William's brother to learn about William's brief career, and she has to attend in-person to see the records.
What the hullabaloo about the leg injury left out was William's own injuries. Before the incident, William already had old injuries to his ankle and to his back, tied to his childhood.
Mr. Smith (from William's Sixth Letter), who doesn't know about this, attributes these injuries to William's "recklessness" on the field. He saw William as being over competitive, headstrong, and willing to do anything to win. He is the one to bring up the infamous leg incident, where a tackle from William fractured the tibia of another student, and in the photograph of the incident afterward, he seem transfixed on the crowd, rather than helping the student. He sees William as reckless, bullheaded, and callous, but recommends Alice meets Clement, a fellow student who was close to William.
Clement is now the owner of a sporting goods store, but keeps a photo of his old team, William included. The picture Clement paints of William is vastly different than that of Mr. Smith's. He is disappointed, but unsurprised at Mr. Smith's hostility towards William.
Clement instead highlights William was erased from his own story, from the Father of Rugby to merely "a student."
William was bold, yes, and competitive, Clement explains. But that boldness is necessary to pioneer. But others viewed William as having an unfair advantage, a cheater, rather than an inventor. The subtext of William's race hangs heavy.
The real reason why William didn't help the other player was because of his ankle. It was already damaged from his childhood and when he did that tackle, it had torn. He couldn't move either. Merely stand and stare at the crowd.
Clement then discusses how rugby, as it increased in popularity, was claimed by the spirit of amateurism, which caused its abandonment by anyone without the generational wealth, including Clement. Except William, who, even without the support of his family, continued to play against the odds. These were the pressures that lead to William charging so recklessly. It was not a game to him.
Clement recalled how he tried to aid William after his ankle had torn, but William assured he was fine. Clement muses on how William is both a single-minded and naive young man, who would charge any barrier, no matter the odds, in the hopes it would someday break. We saw how Willam became this way, sacrificing his own perception to protect his younger brother, and we see at how it lead him to be the innocent survivor of Oletus.
Here, we see more exploration of the great contradiction between William's character, and part of why he is suspected for an Identity Swap. William, externally, is always seen as a reckless, bold, and intimidating man. Internally, William is the closest both in and outside of story to a Survivor not being a horrible person, one whose inclusion in Game Nine marks the point where Orpheus' clinging onto the Manor Games as a coping mechanism had lost their original intention of vengeance. He is naive, altruistic, and trusting. He is a character defined by innocence.
We learn here, that William's great "mistake," one that implicitly was cause for his inclusion in the Manor Games, wasn't even foul play. It was an accident, much like Luca Balsa's explosion. William himself was injured in it and that his inability to help was due to said injuries. Not that anyone else, barring Clement, cared. From both those in charge of the school, to the press, all positive qualities of William were removed, including his name and identity. Even when looked at from a neutral lens, William couldn't be blamed for the injury. Accidents happen. But not when it's William.
I was surprised to see the discussion of amateurism versus compensation in sports. For those curious, the concept of "amateurism" and playing sport for the sake of sport, and the obsession with being a "good sport," is heavily tied to class, colonialism, and race. Upper/upper-middle class white Englishmen in the 19th century encouraged "sport for the sake of sport" as an expression of gentleman etiquette, and the idea of seeing sport as a means of gain, which was more likely in disadvantaged communities, was dishonorable.
This extended to attempts to "civilize" colonial subjects such as with cricket in India (hello, Ganji). The only right way to play sports was the amateur way. William's struggle to cling onto his sport he pioneered was an attempt to swim against the current of 19th/20th-century politics, one that consumed many sports before it, and one that still affects sport to this day.
That leads to the subject of race in William's Seventh Letter. In context, all of William's actions during his career were understandable. He was struggling to obtain recognition in a sport, after protecting his brother (who was notably, lighter-skinned than William and is seen as more respectable by others) for years from a father who expressed tough love through physical punishment. He was constantly seen as a problem, as a player who was unfairly advantaged, and a risk to other, more "respectable" players who played for the sake of sport. We're not given descriptors as to what Clement and Mr. Smith looked like, but I will note that in previous artwork, such as the Manor Scary Story event, we've seen William was one of the only Black members of his team.
Considering IDV has grown more afraid to confront race as its popularity has grown (compare William's First Letter to any of his later ones), and there haven't been a character of color since Qi Shiyi, seeing some subtext is a bittersweet moment. Bitter in it is a reminder of how much it has been lost, but sweet, in a swan song way, to see it glimmer faintly. After all, it's impossible to talk about Game Nine with it.
If you're curious as to some reasons why: Idv grew in increasing popularity in a post-pandemic world that's trended towards increased conservatism and nationalism, China included. At the same time, China-USA tensions have worsened so, combined with nationalism, there's the idea that being worried about said subjects is catering to foreigners (Chinese women married to Black men have had awful things said about them), and there is a significant issue on Weibo where racist posts aren't moderated. Combine all of this with gacha gamers in East Asia being more like Gamers™ in western gaming communities (while in western gaming communities, barring harem games, gacha gamers are usually seen as a separate group), and you get a significant portion of the audience who will lash out at a game they perceive as being concerned about racial justice.
You can see how NIKKE self-censored with its dark-skinned characters and Joker Studios growing more and more subtextual with racial problems as an example of this (or ceasing rectification of whitewashing, which they used to do such as with the horoscope avatars), while other games like R1999 and Dislyte have braved the gamer blowback, or Arknights loopholed by making some dark-skinned characters meta to make them impossible to complain about. All of this considered, I am not generous towards Joker Studios' increasingly frustrating handling of race starting in 2023-24, especially when I have witnessed them do better in earlier years.
**As to why I'm including Shiyi, even though IDV is created by a Chinese studio and aimed primarily at Chinese (and East Asian) audiences: there is pressure for Chinese characters to represent China well, which leads to tension in how these characters can be depicted. Qi is subject to these pressures. Given current political circumstances, it's unlikely we'll get another East Asian, and even less likely other Asian characters either.
I'm very curious as to where we're going from here. We've covered both William's childhood and school years, and we also discussed his career after school, so the letters are running out of subjects to cover. I'm curious if we're going to meet other players from William's career instead. Ones who may have different views on William himself.
Alternatively, will we seek out the brief moment between William being excised from rugby and accepting his invitation to Oletus Manor, as seen in William's First Letter.
We could also see Alice seeking out the former Mrs. Ellis, who was divorced after the deaths of the elder Ellis children when Mrs. Ellis took them outside to play. Given Thomas' age, he was likely not the best expositor on the subject, and it would be interesting to hear her own perspective of what happened.
William, being one of the oldest IDV characters, is a mess of lore contradictions, but the theme of innocence has remained strong from the moment his lore started taking shape, and I'm curious to see where it goes next, in spite my bitterness.
i like this event so much (yeah no of course its not because murro is the protagonist whaaaat) THEIR DYNAMICS ARE SO FUN AND WHOESOME!!! cant wait to see what will detective club be up to next
i really hope we will see more hullabaloo characters in the next part i love them very much.....
and also i hope they will show more of characters outside detective club idk sorry for ranting they are just so dear to me
