Writing romantic fluff when you've never been in a relationship in your life is so awkward. Yes, I'm making my action figures smooch and call it literature, whacha gon do about it?
(edit: keeping this post up because it's maybe still relevant, but you can click here when i'm done with my Mikoto analysis – there were nuances lost in the English translation of the report and even within my system, we disagree on how to interpret it! [me when MILGRAM JP to EN translation sucks, and then we remember Warukunaimon/It's Not My Fault and its many problems..!])
the rest of the edit is from 20/07/26.
(the original post itself is from someone of the camp that Mikoto's writing should've been better, even if that means showing the audience a little more of his trauma, because his motives still appear fuzzy and unclear/underdeveloped, especially on the EN side of things.
before i finish writing it, i'll just say that the essence of it is that there are hints at childhood trauma surrounding his parents' divorce within the T3 report, and of course that would seem "generally" okay to Mikoto, especially if John had existed before this point as a trauma holder. my parents are divorced too. it seemed fine at the time, and i thought it didn't affect me, and then there were things that cropped up as a result of the divorce that led to me being as non-contact as i can with my dad and to my mum to becoming very verbally abusive. things have begun to get better, but there was a time where – maybe even two years ago – i wouldn't have been able to tell you (hypothetical) what bothered me so much at home. it's deceptively easy from the outside to say things like "just walk away." or "stand up for yourself!" because it's actually incredibly difficult to recognise abuse when you're tangled up in it, much less find it within yourself to do something about it.
abusers can also be decent people. i don't think i can ever explain to my mum how she's hurt me, because she won't accept it. she's a really good human being, aside from the abuse she's put me through. those things make it really difficult to be critical of a person, and so Mikoto being in the same position and then being unable to talk to his mother about those same feelings of stress that his own mother put him through? it really does make sense.
either way, i'm gonna do my best to retranslate the report myself and i'll come back with enough of a full breakdown of Mikoto's character and his portrayal in this series, as well as my opinion on it.
oh, and i still believe that they didn't do a good enough job at making his motives clear. killing 12 randoms is extreme, and didn't help his case in terms of audience interpretation, but other than falling back on a trope, it isn't completely impossible.)
GUYS WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE CHARACTER WITH DID, MIKOTO, HAD NO CHILDHOOD TRAUMA????? HOW DID THEY FUMBLE THE BAG SO HARD?????????
DID LITERALLY FORMS DUE TO CHILDHOOD TRAUMA???????????????? AND YET THERE'S NOTHING THERE ಠ︵ಠ HIS FAMILY ARE WELL OFF AND HE'S SMART AND HE HAD A LOT OF FRIENDS AND THERE'S NO TRAUMA PRIOR TO THE WORKPLACE? NONE????????
guys i have to be so honest i almost wanna vote him guilty/not forgiven/赦さない now purely out of the lack of sympathy i have for this unrealistic situation like. oh my goodness.
yeah sure, we can talk about the reports and how they only discuss everything objectively. we can talk about how he could maybe have childhood trauma that he doesn't know. the report is vague. "generally" isn't a definite term… but the writers needed to write the motives clearer than that. it's bad writing to make it make such little sense. we shouldn't have to stretch the truth to make it fit.
either way, i'm probably gonna vote Mikoto as inno/forgiven/赦す… i just wish his writing was better. he deserved better. and please, let's all make sure our fanworks give him a real motive (ー_ー゛)
