the way people are theorising a million ways it could possibly not be ace.... guys i think its over.... ace confessed already... the glove may still be missing and the scuffs may not be directly explained but teruko said that not everything has to be completely known (maybe it'll be like the note and be relevant in the future idk).... i already accepted that i have to see ace die next week dont feed my delusions drdt fandom /j
yeahhhhhh... i agree. i don't really think that there's any way to get out of Ace being the killer here-- not after that huge confession after the end of last episode, at least. i know that some people have been citing the fact that there wasn't a vote or execution last episode as "evidence" that Ace might not be the culprit, but ending the episode on a closing argument -> immediately starting the next episode on a vote is exactly what happened in Min's case.
i suspect that next episode (which is very likely both the episode of Ace's execution and the last of the chapter) may be a lot longer than Min's final episode due to whatever plan Teruko said that Veronika would see after the next person was murdered, but that it will kick off the post trial.
if someone else were to be the culprit at this point, i think it would basically have to be someone else who was blackmailing/otherwise coercing Ace to do it. otherwise, why the hell would he give up and confess? that would also open up other options of people who could have gotten their hands on the tape, but more importantly, the fitness band, which currently has no other substitute in terms of launching the ball over the rafters. however, we have no idea what could have caused someone else to have such power over Ace, which renders this idea very implausible.
you could also argue that Eden did it, but switching the target to her last minute would involve needing to either reveal someone else who saw the body before Teruko/Eden/Whit did or explain the see no evil concept, AND explain how the hell Eden would have gotten her hands on the fish. at the pace this trial has been running at, both of those things might take up an entire episode. possibly more than that if the answer was "she had an accomplice" (which I guess would probably be Ace, to explain his confession???) because then we would need to determine who that is and why. if there were that many changes to the murder coming up, i don't think that DRDTdev would make a closing argument for the Ace part. not for the sole sake of faking people out into thinking it's Ace, especially when the DRDT team was already working overtime to put the episodes out now.
so, y'know, i probably could have cut this ask off after "yeah i agree" and called it a day, but that's never been my style. but now, this post-- just like Ace's chances at being innocent-- is over.
I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to share a few small thoughts on the matter.
You say all of that as if you've never read my theories. I've given a perfect explanation as to how Eden could've carried out the crime. Let's not simply disregard that, ya?
Besides, there's still plenty unexplained mysteries this chapter and I seriously doubt that the dev would just end it with Ace as the correct blackened.
Since this is a murder case, we were most likely supposed to be able to figure out this murder mystery before the trial. But here's the thing... Teruko claimed that aside from a broken neck and red marks on her wrists, there was nothing else noteworthy about her body.
So tell me, how the heck were we supposed to deduce that Ace did it and solve the murder? Short answer : we can't solve it without some kinda of information that would indicate some form of strangulation. It just doesn't make sense.
so, just so that everyone is on the same page, you made this response before this...
(a thumbnail that highly implies that someone will be dying next episode) or this...
(a tweet which confirms that the reason for any "unused" elements was due to burnout and that the next episode will be the last of the chapter) came out.
while this alone essentially mandates that only Ace can be the culprit at this point, i won't use this to rebut against you, because you didn't have this information at the point that you responded to me. however, even without it, i still disagree with your claim that "it doesn't make sense."
i have, in fact, read your theories, Joe. and while i don't agree that the explanation is "perfect," i agree that it is a strong, solid theory, with a lot of good explanations and points of intrigue. similarly, i believe that you are a smart and capable theorist. however, just because you made a good theory does not mean that you have the correct theory.
i've made an analogy similar to this before, but let's bring it back in honor of our favorite jockey: imagine that solving the Chapter 2 Trial is a horse race. before the race begins, you can bet on any one of the horses in the race due to their physical traits, the personalities of the riders, or just your gut instinct. before the race begins-- AKA, before Chapter 2 restarted-- it is not a dumb idea to bet on any of the horses. because any of them have a chance of winning! you might perceive some as the favorites to win, but because the race hasn't happened yet, any horse has a possibility to win. there's no losing in making a theory.
however, once the race kicks off, you have to start taking into account the actual reality of the race. if one horse gets spooked and veers off course, there is no longer a chance that that horse will win, no matter how promising they seemed pre-season.
you concocted a very compelling story of the race in which the Eden horse won. in some reality, it could very easily have been correct. however, in our reality, we've made it to the finish line, and Ace was the one to break that ribbon. just because your theory was a possibility doesn't mean that it's the possibility DRDTdev chose.
furthermore, i don't believe that your theories are as "perfect" as you claim them to be.
About David
in your theory, you say that because David must have seen the body (due to saying that he did so in bold and gold text), the only way for this to have been possible is for the conversation between David and Arei to have happened on an earlier day. however, i'm much more inclined to believe that David used a shiny yellow effect to promote his lie than that everything we've been told physically about the circumstances of both Arei and David's conversation and the morning of the Body Discovery Announcement are wrong.
your theory claims that Arei was killed on the night of Day 7 such that she wouldn't be alive at that day's lunch. this would mean that Arei bullying Eden, Arturo threatening Eden, Eden witnessing Ace almost dying, and Eden deciding to kill Arei would all happen within the same 24 hour window. for Eden, that's an insane emotional turnaround.
i think you're still claiming that Ace lied about the day on which he overheard the conversation so that people would think he's brave for going back to the Gym the day after Nico attempted to kill him in there? if so, when his back is up against the wall to the degree that Teruko has Closing Argument-ed his ass, why would he not at least try to tell the truth?
if the conversation that David and Arei had was a day earlier, don't you think that David would have been more likely to go looking for Arei on Day 7, on which, in your theory, she would already be dead? i find it much more likely that everyone would more or less ignore Arei on Day 7 when they all think she's just a mean bitch than that David would ignore Arei after she just made that huge promise with him.
those are just the first semi-flaws that i thought of, but the general gist of the idea is that you can't call David having seen the body before 8:00 AM on Day 8 "evidence" when him having seen the body at all is just something that you determined to be true to support your theory.
Eden Dressing Up As Arei
you say all of this as if you haven't read my theories. i've given a perfect explanation as to why there are too many holes to reasonably believe that anyone could have dressed up as Arei. let's not simply disregard that, ya?
anyways, if you're encouraging people to believe that DRDT is a work of fiction, so as long as there's plenty of evidence to suggest something, that means it's possible, then i would think that same logic should extend back you believing that Ace can be the culprit as well. there's an entire episode's worth of evidence that suggests that he committed the crime, including a literal confession. any "holes" in the crime would be explained away using that same "fiction" rationale.
The Turpentine
once again, i feel you're submitting hypotheticals that are personally convenient to you as "evidence" just because it's believable that it could have happened. to be clear, there's nothing wrong with that in the abstract-- sometimes solving a mystery might require a leap of faith, or putting together background details that might not otherwise seem linked.
however, i also hope that pointing this out can help you understand how "it is possible that Nico left the bottle of turpentine in the Dress-Up Room to frame Hu (and then lied about keeping it in their room), and then, through an incredible coincidence, Eden managed to find it on the same night that she would crucially need it for her murder plan" doesn't sound particularly convincing to most people. especially after we've already seen the "Trial Close" graphic.
Class Trial Pacing
this is another point on the level of assessing the Trial where it is now as opposed to where it could have gone back when we were still in hiatus land. for your theory to be the truth, here are some of the things that we would still have to go over and update for a new blackened:
Nico lying about leaving the turpentine in the Dressing Room
The timing of Arei and David talking in the Relaxation Room with Ace listening in -> Nico attacking Ace -> Arei and David leaving the second floor without seeing Ace getting attacked or running into Eden or Teruko -> finding Ace's body in the Gym -> everyone leaving the Gym and going down to the dorms (including Eden), also confirming that Levi is potentially awake -> Eden going back to the Dress-Up Room to grab the turpentine after passing on it the first time (and also Teruko didn't see it there either); or otherwise going there for no particular reason only to find that the turpentine is magically there -> She also puts the ball of clothes in the Relaxation Room somewhere in there. the entire "Ace in the Gym" segment happens after MonoTV declares it to be 10 PM, btw. (note the time stamps)
AKA, Arei and David must have been talking in the Relaxation Room before it closed, AKA, before 10:00 PM. Ace, therefore, under your theory, was attacked by Nico with the turpentine before 10:00 PM. however, unless Nico put the turpentine back in the Dress-Up Room, like, before attempting the actual kill on Ace (???), Eden must have taken the turpentine after 10:00 PM. however, she would have needed to put the clothes in the Relaxation Room before 10. so, she put the clothes in the Relaxation Room to starch them before she even knew that she would have turpentine??? why would she possibly be thinking about "ways to not scratch up the ground that much" when she was still missing the piece of "how i'm going to knock Arei out"???
sorry, got distracted on that one. anyways:
why Ace was lying about the timing of the conversation, and why he didn't bring it up until now
why David went along with this lie (probably to throw the Trial off the rails, but they still have to discuss that)
your entire alternative murder method
how starch can be used on plants and how Eden pulled that off
reminding everyone that Arei was quiet at breakfast
how Eden could have donned this disguise using skills she has never been hinted to have (makeup, hair, possibly vocal impressions)
Eden's alibi and the benefits of making it seem like Arei was alive during the afternoon
David's reasoning for hanging Arei's body and laying out the fish
there might be other stuff, but i'm getting kind of lost in the sauce. at any rate, these are all things that we would need to explain post closing argument and confession in order for this theory to be correct and make sense for the viewing audience who may have never heard this logic before.
according to this playlist, the average Class Trial length in THH was 99.6 minutes, or 1 hour and 39 minutes. (all calculations are made not including Trial 6.) the average Class Trial length in SDR2 was 159.4 minutes, or 2 hours and 39 minutes. the average Class Trial length in v3 was 190 minutes, or 3 hours and 10 minutes.
and, hell, let's compare to some other fangans. the average SDRA2 trial was 158 minutes, or 2 hours and 38 minutes (Chapter 3 is a outlier at 275 minutes by over 100 minutes). the average Redemptionronpa deadly life (including investigation and post-trial) was 77.2 minutes, or 1 hour and 17 minutes. DR: Blowback, though it only had two trials, comes in at an average of 141.5 minutes, or 2 hours and 21 minutes. DRDT Chapter 1 itself had a trial length of 99 minutes, or 1 hour and 39 minutes.
DRDT Chapter 2's Trial has already elapsed 233 minutes, or 3 hours and 53 minutes. this makes it longer than the average Class Trial from any of those 6 games, and, in fact, longer than EVERY non-Chapter 6 Class Trial from these games other than SDRA2 Case 3. therefore, it was unreasonable at this point to think that the Trial would continue on for long enough to go through all of the points that i listed above, even before DRDTdev's admission that next episode will be the last of the chapter.
Signs of Strangulation
But here's the thing... Teruko claimed that aside from a broken neck and red marks on her wrists, there was nothing else noteworthy about her body. So tell me, how the heck were we supposed to deduce that Ace did it and solve the murder? Short answer : we can't solve it without some kinda of information that would indicate some form of strangulation.
this is what Arturo said (before Teruko made her claims) upon Veronika's prompting.
from the way he phrases this, it makes it sound like he can't be sure if there's strangulation or not, because the broken neck supersedes that.
neither he nor Teruko ever directly says "there are no signs of strangulation." at least in this scene. if you were referring to another point in time, please provide a link or screenshot to what you meant.
i get what you're saying about wanting to see more evidence about the strangulation in order to pin Ace. however, i would say that "Ace strangled Arei and no marks were left behind because they were covered up by the hanging" and "Eden used the turpentine which Nico happened to leave behind (and did not tell us before the Trial began) and she happened to find" are about equal levels of "guessable before the Trial." your Eden theory, as you currently have it, doesn't really explain the situation any better, so i don't believe this argument holds much weight.
look, i get it's disappointing to be wrong. but at some point, you have to accept the reality of the situation, and realize that the train has veered too far off the tracks for even any perfectly plausible theories about Eden being the culprit to be correct at this point. i hope this mini-rebuttal communicated that point well.
please remember that, just because i disagree with you, i'm not looking down on your abilities or saying that you never had a leg to stand on. i just want to explain where i and many others are coming from, and give you an honest response regarding your critiques of what i said.
thank you for theorizing with us throughout this hiatus, badjoe, and i hope that whenever the next chapter comes out, we'll be able to discuss it together.(/gen)
see ya Friday! :)
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...Of course I know that you've read my theories (well, almost all of them), I sometimes take a look at who liked my posts and whatnot and I recall seeing your name a couple times.
The reason why I brought up that counterpoint is because you sort of implied that Eden couldn't possibly be the culprit since we'd need to explain how "someone else" would discover the body first before the trio and how Eden could've gotten her hands on the fish (since it's impossible), which really surprised me.
Both of these points... I've given a very fair reasoning to explain how to solve eitheir of these problems in at least one of my theories that I've posted more than a year ago.
So forgive me if I may have sounded rude, but from my point of view, it pretty much seemed like you completly disregarded my whole theory whatsoever, to some extent. Whether you believe it or not, whether you believe there's flaws in here or not, it doesn't matter. What matters is that I've given fair and reasonable answers to these problems.
Of course, I can imagine that you were trying to find ways to explain that there's no time left to possibly explain all of this and make a turnabout this late into the chapter (which we sort of got a confirmation by the DRDT dev themselves, but that's besides the point), but the implications were still there.
Also, for your information, from what I recall, I never claimed that my theory was perfect nor did I claim that my theory was correct. I said that I've given a perfect explanation to my theory, which sounds like an exaggeration at first, but I said this mainly because my theory was able to stay connected between a vast amount of information given throughout this chapter while also giving this odd feeling that my theory was perfectly in sync with the whole chain of events. To me, it was more like puzzle pieces that would perfectly fit. But still, I suppose I could've worded it differently, so my bad.
I admit, there's still a few small flaws here and there (that can be easily brushed off under certain conditions), so my theory is not perfect by any means. So forgive me for sounding like a selfish asshole, but based on everything I've read thus far, my theory appears to make the most sense.
Speaking of theory making sense, why don't we talk about the turpentine issue first?
The Turpentine
So, from what I'm gathering, you're trying to say that I was following this belief :
"it is possible that Nico left the bottle of turpentine in the Dress-Up Room to frame Hu (and then lied about keeping it in their room), and then, through an incredible coincidence, Eden managed to find it on the same night that she would crucially need it for her murder plan"
Unfortunately for you, that is incorrect. It is true that I made a theory somewhat similar to this after episode 14 was released, when Nico confessed that they used the turpentine and attempted murder. However, ever since episode 15 aired, when Nico admitted that they kept the turpentine with them this whole time, ain't no way I was gonna stick to that coincidental turpentine theory. I may be crazy, but I'm not delusional!
Which is why I made another post after episode 15 aired to fix this major issue in particular, a post that I believe you did not have the chance to read it yet, based on what I'm seeing.
Here's the post that I'm referring to!
For those who don't wanna open another tab though, that's fine, I'll explain (copy paste) it to you all readers here.
To solve this major issue, we just gotta think outside the box and look back at the turpentine's properties. With the way they described the turpentine this whole chapter, it was heavily implied that this worked very similarly like chloroform, right?
So... what if the thing that Eden used to knock her out was actually chloroform?
Think about it. What are the two main ingredients that are usually found at home that can be used to make chloroform? Bleach and rubbing alcohol! It is a known scientific fact that mixing bleach and rubbing alcohol together makes chloroform. Feel free to look it up.
You can easily find bleach in the laundry room and find the rubbing alcohol in the infirmary, so there's nothing wrong on that end. And don't you dare say that it's far fetched eitheir because we have decisive evidence that the creator used this exact same method.
"If you heavily starch it with laundry starch[...]"
As far as I'm aware, there was not a single mention of laundry starch anywhere throughout this fangan, meaning that this is based on the idea that we should know that we'd find such item in the appropriate room, being the laundry room.
Meaning that if they used such method to explain the starch on the ball of clothes, then I can do exactly the same thing to explain how Eden could've crafted her own chloroform.
Therefore, I've just given you a perfect explanation to solve the inaccessible turpentine problem involving Eden as the culprit and this is an irrefutable fact.
Class trial pace
Since this is related to your misconception about what you believed I was theorizing till the end (turpentine), I may as well tackle this topic now.
Disregarding for a minute the fact that it was unfair to point out that there was not much time left to explain all of my solution especially since we got confirmation that this friday is the last episode of chapter (I'll get back to it later), I feel like I gotta make some corrections regarding your chain of events.
I don't just say this because of the turpentine misunderstanding, but rather because I wasn't sure if I understood correctly what you were saying regarding the timing of this whole murder scheme. So I may as well do the clarifications.
Ah! Actually... I suppose there was something that I totally forgot to bring it up across all posts to explain the timing as to when Nico would attempt to knock Ace out according to my theory, so my mistake on that end!
Anyways, for reference, I will be giving a rough pretend estimate of which time certain events are happening during the day of the attempted murder just to give ourselves a better picture of what went down according to my theory.
Day of the attempted murder of Ace
8:00 PM : Ace goes to the second floor and spends time in the gym to work out. 8:15 PM : David goes to the second floor and enters the relaxation room. 8:18 PM : Arei goes to the second floor and finds David in the relaxation room and they start talking. 8:19 PM : Ace overhears the conversation and decides to sneak in closer to listen more carefully. 8:25 PM : After the whole conversation is over, Ace returns to the gym. 8:28 PM : David and Arei return to the first floor and go to their separate ways. 9:25 PM : Ace is still in the gym, probably taking breaks everynow and then. 9:26 PM : Nico enters the second floor and proceeds to knock Ace unconscious inside the gym. 9:30 PM : They close the door of the gym and returns to the first floor. They need to gather the necessary materials to set up the murder mechanism. (For the sake of simplicity, we'll pretend that Nico brought all the materials in one go, but it can also work with multiple back and forths) 9:45 PM : Eden goes to the second floor and heads straight to the dress up room. 9:50 PM : Eden picks up the old uniforms and brings it to the relaxation room, each piece properly laid out so that one side is probably covered in starch. 9:55 PM : Eden is about to enter the gym (to grab the tape) but then she hears the sound of the elevator. She decides to hide in the dress-up room. 9:56 PM : Nico comes back to the second floor with the required materials for the murder mechanism and enters the gym. 9:57 PM : Eden is stuck waiting in the dress up room because she really needed that tape, but she cannot retrieve it without raising any suspicions as long as someone is in the gym, especially this late at night. 10:00 PM : Teruko notices that her spare uniforms are not in her dorm and needs to retrieve them in the dress-up room. 10:05 PM : Teruko enters the second floor and runs into Eden. 10:10 PM : Both Eden and Teruko finish their conversation and are about to go back to the first floor, up until they hear a loud noise. So as you can see, this order of events can totally work without any issues alongside everything else that happened according to my theory : Eden discreetly asking Arei to meet up in the playground next morning, Eden setting up the chloroform, Eden setting up the murder mechanism, the murder, hiding the body, the disguise trick and so on and so on.
But of course, that raises the following question : "How the hell were they supposed to explain all of it this late into the chapter?". Well, to be fair, I was just simply under the impression that we'd get an additional episode, or perhaps even another one on top of it, but alas, that's not gonna happen that way.
Anyways, to answer to some of your questions where the cast would require plenty explaining... (even though it doesn't matter in the long run)
why Ace was lying about the timing of the conversation, and why he didn't bring it up until now
To make himself look tough because of the "woah, he went to the gym even though he almost died?! woah!" vibes. That plan didn't work though because literally no one cares about him. And the reason why he didn't bring it up could've simply been because it didn't really seem that important to him anyways. He had no reason to suspect Arei wasn't alive on the next day. After all, what could telling it a different time matter as long as the blame can be pushed to David? As to why he didn't bring it up when he was being suspected? Easy, no one would really believe him, he's a main suspect, after all! (He probably forgot about it too, there's many possibilities)
why David went along with this lie (probably to throw the Trial off the rails, but they still have to discuss that)
You pretty much already explained it. It's just David being David.
how starch can be used on plants and how Eden pulled that off
Teruko asks MonoTV for confirmation. MonoTV gives simple answer. Then Teruko links it back to finding Eden this late at night in the dress-up room and makes the connection with the clothes that would be close by.
how Eden could have donned this disguise using skills she has never been hinted to have (makeup, hair, possibly vocal impressions)
The skills could've been an argument of sort, but Teruko could've reminded everyone that she had plenty time to pull that off. Also, there's no vocal impressions involved, you know that. Eden simply needed to visit the cafeteria during lunch time for a few minutes and stay quiet and then return to her dorm.
David's reasoning for hanging Arei's body and laying out the fish
Aside from David being David, his primary goal was to not get his darkest secret revealed to everyone else by hoping the group would solve the murder before they get to him. It was a flawed plan, but a plan nonetheless.
It was precisely because there was still so much explaining to do that I figured there should've been more than that. It is what it is.
One thing I'll say regarding your pacing topic however, I do find it rather unfair that you decided to compare the amount of time this current trial took with the trials of the dangans and fangans out there.
Like yeah, this trial is on the longer side of things, but it's also not a video game eitheir, so from my perspective, I thought that they wanted to show us as much screen time as possible. Which, don't get me wrong, they definitly did do that, but because it feels like there's still so many unexplained mysteries, I legitimately thought that there was something else around the corner.
I mean... think about it. Teruko literally suspected two people of potential culprit. Who wouldn't think that someone would try to convince her that we should now question Eden since it would be a fair trial. And it would've been fair, but that's not what happened.
Also, the scuffed marks on the ground were never explained in the trial eitheir... just saying...
So forgive me for seeming "demanding" when this whole chapter gave me the big impression that there would be a lot more to show about the murder mystery. But alas, we only got 26 minutes left roughly.
David and the disguise trick
your theory claims that Arei was killed on the night of Day 7 such that she wouldn't be alive at that day's lunch. this would mean that Arei bullying Eden, Arturo threatening Eden, Eden witnessing Ace almost dying, and Eden deciding to kill Arei would all happen within the same 24 hour window. for Eden, that's an insane emotional turnaround.
For your information, Eden decided on wanting to murder after she's been bullied by Arei, not after Ace almost dying. Eden having an insane emotional turnaround is definitly interesting, but I don't really see that as an issue whatsoever.
I mean, if Eden's indeed the culprit, then who knows what's actually behind her mind? Maybe she's trying to keep a positive attitude as much as possible, maybe she's just really manipulative, maybe the times where she is crying is mostly fake, who knows?
Just because it seems like it's a lot of emotional pressure doesn't mean that we shouldn't suspect her. She's one of the only two people who could've taken the tape, after all.
And to be fair, Ace also had an insane emotional turnaround. I mean, he literally confessed that he couldn't sleep, he couldn't stop thinking that he would die, especially since he's been nearly killed.
i think you're still claiming that Ace lied about the day on which he overheard the conversation so that people would think he's brave for going back to the Gym the day after Nico attempted to kill him in there? if so, when his back is up against the wall to the degree that Teruko has Closing Argument-ed his ass, why would he not at least try to tell the truth?
Two reasons. First one being that why the heck would anyone believe in his truth now that he's been cornered as the most likely culprit to their eyes? Second reason is because he didn't want to tell them after all. Ace gave up on trying to defend himself, not like he would know how to properly defend himself, after all. From his perspective, everyone hates him and no one is there to save him.
if the conversation that David and Arei had was a day earlier, don't you think that David would have been more likely to go looking for Arei on Day 7, on which, in your theory, she would already be dead? i find it much more likely that everyone would more or less ignore Arei on Day 7 when they all think she's just a mean bitch than that David would ignore Arei after she just made that huge promise with him.
I'm not sure which promise you're referring to as I don't recall Arei making any promises to David. David did promise to Arei that things will be better (episode 5), but... you know... that's just David being David.
But still, it is true that the real conversation between these two in the relax room ended on a good note. However, it was still a lot to take in for David. After all, he now knows that Arei knows his secret, which is probably something he wanted to avoid happening as much as possible, even if it's Arei. It's very possible that he really needed some time to think about it. Besides, David did say he was tired and not really in the mood to socialize when he met up with Charles, Whit and Teruko.
those are just the first semi-flaws that i thought of, but the general gist of the idea is that you can't call David having seen the body before 8:00 AM on Day 8 "evidence" when him having seen the body at all is just something that you determined to be true to support your theory.
Sure, but you do know that I didn't pull that reasoning out of nothing, right? I came up with such reasoning because there is a vast amount of oddities that could be easily explained if a very early death + disguise trick were at play here. Let me list them for you.
Teruko running into Eden in the dress up room this late at night.
Teruko oversleeping and being unable to know what happened between 8:00 AM and noon on Day 7.
Eden not found in the cafeteria during lunch time.
Arei not saying a single word during the lunch time scene.
Veronika pointing out that Teruko might be face blind.
David being the first person to point out that Arei is missing.
Multiple people claiming that the last time they saw Arei was at lunchtime across a few instances when that question was brought up.
Eden shouting : "Teruko, wait!" before she opens the door leading to the BDA.
Ace waiting until much later into the trial before revealing the conversation he overheard.
Hu wondering why we're keen on believing what Ace is saying (something among of those lines)
David claiming that he doesn't seem recall seeing Ace on the second floor on the evening of Day 7.
David claiming that Ace is a lying piece of shit. (Post transformation)
David admitting that he met with Arei in the evening of Day 7.
David refusing to reveal what they were talking about that evening.
David seeming surprised when Teruko brought up the fishes when trying to figure how David could've carried out the murder.
David claiming that he's the first person to find the body.
Nico and J claiming that he's lying because he couldn't have found the body shortly before Teruko, Eden and Whit triggered the BDA.
Eden starting to get really defensive when people were starting to figure out that it would be possibly for Eden to be the culprit. (Eden being quiet during the whole David found body first speech, Levi pointing out she's a very good candidate for faking the letter, Arturo pointing out that she's been closely involved with Arei)
That's eighteen oddities. Eighteen! You can go ahead and claim that most of these are just David lying all the way and that Ace was mostly telling the truth (disregarding the cut out conversation). You can claim that there's nothing strange or suspicious about Arei missing since David and Ace saw her again in the evening of Day 7 according to the majority of you.
But come on, surely you can see it too! Surely you can see how many of these oddities coincide very well with each other, almost as if this fangan is trying to tell us something. Why would all of that amount to nothing strange at all? That just doesn't make sense to me and it never will, even if I end up having the wrong culprit.
Even if this chapter is almost over, there is absolutely no denying that all of this is just very strange, even if you don't believe that it was an early death + disguise trick.
you say all of this as if you haven't read my theories. i've given a perfect explanation as to why there are too many holes to reasonably believe that anyone could have dressed up as Arei. let's not simply disregard that, ya?
Oh wow! An attempt at mocking me! How touching!
See, the thing is that I didn't really simply disregard it. I did read it a few times, I am very well aware of it. Which is precisely why I brought up the "this is a work of fiction" point.
It is true that you brought up decent points to debunk the disguise trick, but this is from a realism perspective. And I really don't think this is a fair way to judge it not only because it is a work of fiction, but also because we've been given instances where you absolutely cannot take realism at face value.
My best example for this is the turpentine's properties. Like I said before, it works exactly like chloroform. But from a real life perspective, it doesn't work that way, not at all. I'm not going to explain what it actually does, but I can guarantee that you will find out what I'm talking about if you look it up.
Which is precisely why I believe that we shouldn't limit ourselves too much with realism and be more open minded to crazy possibilities as long as there's plenty evidence suggesting it.
anyways, if you're encouraging people to believe that DRDT is a work of fiction, so as long as there's plenty of evidence to suggest something, that means it's possible, then i would think that same logic should extend back you believing that Ace can be the culprit as well. there's an entire episode's worth of evidence that suggests that he committed the crime, including a literal confession. any "holes" in the crime would be explained away using that same "fiction" rationale.
Ah! There it is! I was wondering when someone would bring up the "if this is fiction, then I can explain my issues with fiction too!" argument. I'm surprised no one else did until now. It is a pretty good point and I have actually nothing against it at all.
The fiction rationale is precisely why I decided to stop debating against others' theories. If I see them as possibilities within the realm of fiction, then it's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. Nowadays, I mostly just debate when people claim that Eden couldn't have done it for x, y and z reasons when I've already provided answers to these reasons. These people eitheir don't know about my answers or they ignored them previously, willingly or not.
But that aside, even though there are certainly flaws with Ace as the culprit (even if it ends up being the correct answer) that can be reasoned with the fiction rationale (it's also because I'm too lazy to list all the issues with Ace as the culprit), it'd still be incredibly hard to explain Ace as the culprit with most of the oddities that I've mentioned previously.
Like, why go to such lengths to make it seem like that someone else (like Eden) did it when it'd turn out that there was "nothing strange" happening at all and that David was simply lying all the way? Seems pretty hard to believe, if you ask me.
Signs of strangulation
I guess I can see the confusion in this point that I made previously.
I wasn't really trying to imply that Teruko said : "There's a broken neck, red marks on her wrists and nothing else."
What I was trying to imply is that Teruko said something like : "There's a broken neck, red marks on her wrists." and nothing else, as in she didn't say anything else noteworthy about the dead body. My bad, I suppose.
Veronika : "That being said, do you see any signs of strangulation." Arturo : "Her neck is broken." from the way he phrases this, it makes it sound like he can't be sure if there's strangulation or not, because the broken neck supersedes that.
Doesn't really sound like that way to me, but to each their own.
From a murder mystery solving perspective, it just feels incredibly unfair to not mention a single tiny detail about that point regarding the neck. Like... if their intention was indeed that she's been knocked unconcious by strangulation, but not make it obvious, why not just go with Teruko thinking to herself : "I can't find anything else about the broken neck, I wonder if it's hiding something else."?
I'm pretty sure there could've been many ways to handle that type of clue, there's no doubt in my mind.
Even one of the quotes you posted seem to imply that there should be nothing else noteworthy about the neck.
Teruko : "I carefully checked her body. Like Arturo said, her neck was definitly broken, and I didn't find any abnormalities on her."
look, i get it's disappointing to be wrong. but at some point, you have to accept the reality of the situation[...]
Yet again, another misassumption. Sure, I was angry at first, but I couldn't give a damn about being wrong as long as the correct solution properly explained ALL the mysteries and oddities surrounding this chapter.
As it currently stands, the Ace!Culprit solution feels incomplete to me. There's still plenty to talk about. Not the gloves, of course (that's been debunked on twitter), but theres the scuffed marks on the ground which seemed like a pretty important evidence to bring to the trial and solve together.
There's also the oddities I've brought up previously that are very hard to explain with Ace as the culprit.
Something about all of this just feels wrong, I'm sorry, I just can't help it. That's how I see it. I know others are satisfied, but I'm not. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed this fangan and this chapter especially, but it feels like there's missing pieces to the puzzle that the majority simply disregard them as nothing too valuable and that just doesn't really sit right with me.
thank you for theorizing with us throughout this hiatus, badjoe, and i hope that whenever the next chapter comes out, we'll be able to discuss it together.
...Sure thing, but...
Honestly... after everything I've been through, after seeing how the community has been behaving on eitheir side of the argument since episode 14-15... whether I'm right or wrong... I...
I think I'm just gonna silently watch DRDT-Dev's future content in private and keep it all to myself in the future. I don't feel like going through something like this ever again. But before I end this post, let me add one final thing.
So, we know for a fact that this friday (october 4th) is the last episode of chapter 2. We also know that the trial is practically over already due to that. It would certainly seem like Ace is the only solution to this, that Ace is indeed the culprit.
There is however... one way to tie it all with the solution that I've proposed regarding the Eden!Culprit theory without having to explain everything that I've theorised with such a short amount of time. There is only one way to make it work in that scenario.
Man, can't believe I'm saying this, but for everyone's sake, I sure hope that I'm wrong about this one.
And what is it that I'm referring to, you may ask?
I'm not telling you. You guys can figure it out, I'm sure.
Thank you for taking the time to read all of this (I hope).













