We’re 5 friends who think about Milgram kind of way too much.
We’ll be referring to ourselves as:
Admin Mercury (art and comic translations)
Admin Venus (me and also the one doing most of the theories)
Admin Saturn (Futa simp and memer 😎)
Admin Neptune (never really active but absolutely WILD when she is)
Admin Pluto (general chaos and mikoto simp) *inactive
Check out the Master List for all the important things we post and the Best of the Admins for our favorite posts!
Additionally, here’s our one month anniversary post which gives some more fun info on us!
We also did a fun Halloween post, which you can see here!
Below, we have our main theories on the prisoner(s)’ votes and murders who are actively being voted on! If you want to see our opinions on the characters currently up for trial, check it out!
You got pranked! There’s nothing to see here folks.
Hello everyone! I'm back not even 24 hours later with my actually current reaction! And god, what a video to come back to. This has been by far my favorite of the Third Trial so far, both because I love the arc Mu has gone on and because it contained the most new information and perspective that genuinely surprised me and changed how I felt about one of the prisoners.
As always, spoilers for Milgram through Mu Trial 3. I'll be using @maausmt's audio drama English translation to refer to throughout this post! I'll be going through all of my points to discuss through the MV, including a lot of my interpretation of Mu's character. Let's get into it!
Pain takes place basically between It's Not My Fault and After Pain.
This is mostly a timeline question, but I feel fairly confident in this based on the staging of the MVs and comparing it to both the hourglass and the end of Pain character summary.
In It's Not My Fault, Muu spends the vast majority at the top of the hourglass as she sets it that way at the beginning of the MV. (Rei only flips it back at the very end.)
In Pain, we actively see the moment that the hourglass runs out.
And in After Pain, we only really see Mu at the bottom of the hourglass, after she's fallen from grace.
As for the actual story of Mu, we also see that follow this roughly three MV arc:
In It's Not My Fault, Mu spends most of the time as queen bee and is just generally slaying throughout. She's in control, and she's loving life.
Then, Rei shows up, and everyone in Mu's entourage (and she) immediately notice her general disinterest/disapproval of Mu, and they immediately turn on her.
(I also really love how this scene paints Rei as the transfer student coming into this wild scenario. She's just squinting like, what the fuck is going on at this school? Why are they all worshipping Mu? And they're like, whoops, you weren't supposed to ask that question, get pranked.)
Right at the end of the It's Not My Fault MV, we see Rei flip the hourglass, accompanied by this image of her, on the ground, gripping the leg of a chair in the classroom. We can now assume that this is the moment in which Rei flips out and hits Mu with the chair, as we see in Pain.
We now know this is the pivotal point at which the social dynamics shift to favor Rei over Mu.
This leads into Mu being bullied within the mid-ending (before she talks about Haruka) part of Pain and when she kils Rei. This is the same timeline as in After Pain, with the staging of the kill scene in Pain being a direct reference.
So, that's our timeline! I honestly think it's really funny that they were like, "well, we told the end of Mu's story in a song called After Pain, so maybe we should make that song chronologically after the song Pain." But, y'know, it works.
The Pain MV shows Mu comparing two sets of "villains" and "heroes"-- Es and Haruka, and herself and Rei.
The lyrics of the song are written such that they, in large part, can refer to Mu and Rei's situation in addition to Es and Haruka's. Although, generally speaking, I'd say that the lyrics lean more towards Mu telling Es how she feels, whereas the MV depicts what was happening with Mu and Rei. Still, there's undeniably crossover based on how the lyrics are distributed across the MV.
No really, if only you judged me INNOCENT
He wouldn’t have had to die, poor baby
I mean after all, it’s not my fault
This lyric is most clearly directed at Es about Haruka; Haruka directly stated that he'd only kill himself if we voted Mu guilty, and we did. Therefore, Haruka's death was preventable if Es had found Mu innocent.
However, it also applies closely to Rei about herself. If Rei had judged Mu innocent (giving her "proper" respect and worship upon arrival), she wouldn't have had to die, because the bullying wouldn't have started in the first place. Mu could have continued being the beloved spoiled princess, and Rei wouldn't have lost her life.
I'm... not sure if that's the right interpretation, though? After all, Mu is pretty harsh towards herself in the way she's portrayed in the Pain MV.
She depicts herself as childishly taunting a lot of the time, and the consistent "it's not my fault"s feel more like they're used to chastise her previous self who actually believed that.
This line, similarly, would be used to say "it's lame that Es is alive and Haruka isn't, when his death is their fault." But, when you apply it to Mu and Rei, especially with the staging, the undeniable interpretation is "it's lame that I, Mu, the villain, am still the one who's alive [when it's my fault."
Though Mu taunts Es for being a murderer, she, too, is a murderer. That's even something they connect over in the audio drama.
Mu: I’m so sorry for killing a person! Rei too…! I’m sorry! hic… *cries* Warden-san… you too… you…
Es: …
Mu: When Haruka died… Mahiru too… and Shidou too… you were also having it rough…
Es: …
Mu: Hey.. It’s okay to cry…
Es: …ah…
They both cry.
Mu clearly understands Es' guilt over the Haruka situation by the end of the audio drama, and she clearly sees it as similar to the guilt she feels over the Rei situation. So, interestingly, I think the more accurate to Mu interpretation of the earlier lyric--
No really, if only you judged me INNOCENT
He wouldn’t have had to die, poor baby
--is "if only [I] had judged [Rei] innocent, [she] wouldn't have had to die, poor baby."
While Rei did kinda die as a result of not worshipping Mu, I guess, the bigger issue was the bullying. While the file asserted that Mu wasn't the one who prompted the bullying directly, she "understood that anyone who rebels against her must fall, and that she was undoubtedly the center of the universe."
That means that Mu is finally acknowledging her role in starting this. While she insisted heavily in her second audio drama that she didn't play a hand in the bullying, she's now acknowledged to herself that, by not stopping her followers and believing she was in the right, she condoned the violence and let it continue.
Mu has finally realized she doesn't understand or think of how others feel.
This is explicitly stated in the audio drama in regards to Haruka:
Mu: I’m sorry for not understanding Haruka’s feelings..! Mu is an idiot.. so even now Mu still doesn’t get it…
It's also basically directly stated in the lyrics.
(While this is partially targeted at Es, as all lyrics are, I believe it applies to herself as well.)
But is also seemingly a trend with her. She's never been good at understanding others, because historically in her life, she hasn't had to. That's something she's finally started to self reflect on:
While this lyric could be read as Es-coded, I think it's more accurately Mu blaming herself for never thinking about what others are thinking. In the Pain MV, this happens right before she starts sobbing from Rei hitting her with the chair-- the display of "unsightliness" that tore down her throne. She's blaming herself for not understanding that her status hinged around her perception of being beautiful, not reading the room.
Before, she didn't see any reason to think of anyone else-- she was, after all, the center of the universe. But now that Haruka is gone and Mu still doesn't completely understand why he killed himself, she's left at a loss that only understanding Haruka would have been able to fill. She doesn't have a chance to get to know him better now, because he's already gone.
It's only by realizing that she doesn't understand others that Mu was able to grow and gain awareness of herself.
I was shocked to see how (in my opinion) accurately Mu portrayed herself in Pain. She showed herself as the villain at the beginning, then showed herself breaking down in a moment of weakness, followed by her stubbornly trying to hold onto her pride despite her world becoming hell once the bullying turned towards her. It shows her snapping and killing as a way to try to regain control. It's all accurate to how I've read the story, and unlike After Pain (where she's pitying herself as the victim) or It's Not My Fault (where she presents her meanness as a virtue), it shows her in both her understandable parts and her flaws.
I don't think Mu would have ever been able to have this much nuanced understanding of herself if she hadn't started to understand how other people feel in response to her. This is something that I believe is directly brought on by mourning Haruka, and she has NO idea how to handle it.
Mu wants to blame Es because it's the only way she can repent.
I'm not sure I phrased it exactly right there, but basically, Mu knows there's not anything she can do to save Haruka or Rei anymore. They're dead and gone; their fates have been sealed.
Not doing anything to honor their memory or atone just leaves Mu feeling guilty though, and while she's got a better pulse on the situation now, Mu has never been good at just taking negative emotion as it comes. It's all still foreign to her. Typically when this happens, she lashes out to try to turn the tables of the pain. She's not quite at that level of self servingness anymore, so she turns to Es.
The best way she can find to appropriately atone while also punishing herself and acknowledging blame is to compare herself to Es-- to acknowledge her own faults while bringing Es to the same painful conclusion she's come to realize-- that whether she intended it or not, she murdered someone who, at the beginning of the story, was innocent.
She's vengeful on Haruka's behalf, upset as his death, but she's a murderer, too. Mu is judging both of them as murderers and as villains. She wants Es to go down the same path of acknowledging that they have blood on their hands that she has. And, like, honestly? Pop off, queen.
Anyways, some final scattered thoughts:
Mu having so much of her social status/"worth" being tied to her beauty makes the Cinderella cover make a TON of sense.
I was initially thinking this cover would go to Mu just because it's a popular song that someone would cover, and I thought it fit her best stylistically and lyrics wise out of the options, but uh, yeah, checks.
So irritating!! Hello to the unfortunate me
I’m confused, I hate it, I hate it
me when the hourglass fits
No no no, It’s not okay
I’ll go back to a cocoon and try again
Bonus points for cocoon!
What exactly is Mu wearing at the end?
It's giving religious-- I heard some people say Mother Mary vibes? That could make sense with Haruka's weird mom complex stuff.
(Which, by the way, it's so unfortunate for Mu that she really just wanted a genuine friend and Haruka came with a lot of his own issues, too. Would be nice for her to have a solid, dependable friend who just likes her for her and doesn't die instantly. My bad Haruka.)
VOTE: INNOCENT
This one is really easy in my eyes. Mu has acknowledged what she's done wrong and grown from the situation. I think she's unlikely to do it again. I think it's even possible that she'll try to seek help to establish a more "normal" life with people reacting to her in a normal way after this is all over. While she's definitely made mistakes, I don't think she's a threat to society at this point or anything, which means my mind is easily made up. At least if I didn't get to finish Shidou's change in mindset arc, we got Mu's :')
I'm really happy with how her story concluded, this was a really fantastic MV overall and made me really excited to analyze again. I hope you all enjoyed it as well, and hopefully enjoyed this analysis! If you read through this all the way, thank you, and I'll see you at, uh... Shidou's death video...??
okay soooooo I did not end up getting these out when I was supposed to
Basically, I forgot that I hadn't done these, and then I was like, oh, I'll do them before Mu's MV dropped, but I was thinking "Wednesday" and forgot the "at 3 AM" part. So, you guys are getting the spark notes version of my Appare March thoughts!
Here's what I got:
Bangers only
I love Futa rookie
I already knew about the situation with the girl and the hat with more specificity due to reading translations of the twitter exchanges in BRING IT ON, so no surprises there. I am surprised she's his neighbor, though, especially considering he doxxed her. You'd think that if her being his neighbor reality checked him, he'd have noticed at this point. This could signal that Futa was signficantly wrapped up in the fantasy, which we more or less knew, but it's a concrete example.
The cult stuff honestly seems way overblown to me in the video? In the audio drama, Futa is able to acknowledge points at which he doesn't agree with the church (ex. medical stuff); he makes it clear that Amane's religion is just the only way he has to cope with the immense pressure he's under. Obviously stuff like agreeing with killing Shidou because he's so emotionally indebted to Amane is... bad, but his logic seems intact, at least. The weird captions and overall vibe would argue the opposite, but I'm glad that he's actually sane. On the counterpoint, he could just be outwardly seeming to be chill, whereas the MV is taken from his mind. I'm kinda under the impression that the devs moreso thought it would be fun to lean into the cult craziness aesthetic and the audio drama is more accurate, but I don't blame anyone for interpreting it a different way.
I'm curious to know how Futa would react going back to the real world. I'm not sure if he's aware enough to like, go home and get therapy, or if he'd, like, full-on join the cult when he gets back. That's a pretty significant question, but I don't think we really have any way to know the answer. Relevantly, it might depend on other verdicts.
I think that by far the least stable part about Futa returning to the world is dependent on Amane's verdict. If she's found innocent, he might take that normally and be relieved, or he might take it as our approval of the cult and abandon all hesitations. If she gets guilty and presumably dies, he could return to the world without allegiance and distressed and seek help, or he could be enraged by our decision and decide to try to carry on the cult in her name. It's very hard to say. However:
VERDICT: INNOCENT
In general, I don't think Futa's crime is that bad comparatively, and I think that he's unlikely to repeat it. The largest concern is if he joins the cult and carries out harm in that way, but that's unknown enough that I wouldn't jeopardize the innocent verdict for it. I'm hoping he'll continue to keep up being actually sane in the post-Trial 3 times... good luck everyone!
By the way, as a heads up for people, I (Admin Venus) am not going to get to the Futa MV until I wake up in PST because I'm between traveling for different vacations so I can't stay up until 3 AM this time :/
I should still be posting my theory within the day though!
What's up gang! I'm here to talk about Yuno's third and final MV, Life! I'll preface this by saying that I have a lot fewer thoughts about this than usual, but, whatever! I'll still say what thoughts I do have. Spoilers for the new MV before the cut!
I'll be using @moussekoto's translation of Yuno's third audio drama for the sake of this post. As usual, I'll be bolding headings where I talk about various topics throughout the post!
T/W: Abortion, loss of a child, paid dating, depression, suicide
Life mostly showcases current Yuno reflecting on her past self and caring about her in a way she didn't at the time.
Yuno's trial 3 design appears ghost like in a lot of the shots, a silent bystander. She directly interacts with the Yuno we see moving through her daily life, and most of the time seems to be deeply sad for her and sympathetic to her struggles.
Because of this bystander perspective, I think I'd feel comfortable saying that the lyrics of this song are meant to be from current Yuno's perspective. She's basically entrusting us with the whole story (as she now remembers it) and is reliving the experiences of her realizing she was pregnant to her losing her child along with us.
While this ghost of current Yuno obviously didn't impact anything as it happened in the real world, her catching past Yuno several times can probably be interpreted as her holding onto her past self and trying to comfort her, as well as sort of symbolically showing Yuno looking out for herself, as she seems to believe she did. Yuno believes she was too self centered with her baby's death; herself catching herself and therefore preventing her from dying alongside her baby is a good way to visually represent that.
Yuno either wishes or wished she died alongside her baby.
This is basically entirely a lyrical and vibe check, given that Yuno is like, "how am I the only one who survived?" That could obviously be portrayed as her being upset her baby died, but I definitely think some of it is being upset to an extent that she's still alive without anyone else, alone and cold again.
The lyrics about being the lone survivor also reflect both her dead baby and Mahiru; the audio drama especially takes time to parallel these two as situations where she loses a life she didn't want to lose and couldn't/didn't do anything about it. Both times, the harm came to the person through no intention of her own, and once the damage was done, Yuno could only wait for the grim results. I definitely think Yuno is dealing with some survivor's guilt among other things, which is totally understandable given everything she's gone through. Especially now, after going through the hell that is Milgram.
I definitely also think that there's a reading to be made about her feelings of coldness and apathy towards life in her past just being, like... depression. If she feels she can't make actual connections/self-isolates, doesn't have goals and can't find enjoyment in anything, that's just genuinely depression. Being a sugar baby and finding connection/emotion that way was just her way of coping with that. It makes a lot of sense, although it does make me even more sad for her. I hope she figures things out :(
Yuno is, like, 16.
This is a small note, but it says Yuno was born in 2004. I'm pretty sure Milgram is set to start in 2020? She said she was 18 at the beginning, but I think that was more her trying to be like "I'm 18+ :)" and concealing her age. So, she's doing all of this at an even younger age than we thought. I wonder if she also lied and said she was 18 on her dating apps and such?
Milgram does not have dead people as prisoners.
This is, in my opinion, confirmed by Yuno's files. As of right now, I don't think we have any reason to doubt the contents of the case files, and Yuno's directly state that while her baby was lost in the fall, she (the mother) survived. That means she isn't dead. In fact, we even learn that Yuno woke up later in the hospital and started recovery, returning to school.
While that cancels out that possibility, we unlock whatever is cooking with this thing:
"Save data from the point where the subject resumes normal life post regaining consciousness to MILGRAM." This sentence is really bothering me-- because it's missing a verb.
What is happening with this save data. What are we doing to MILGRAM. We are losing context by the word and I want to KNOW!!
I think there are two main options here. They are:
This sentence is indicating that Yuno's consciousness from post-waking up has now been uploaded to MILGRAM, which is why Yuno now remembers what happened after she woke up.
The Yuno that was uploaded to MILGRAM was taken from her unconscious state after falling down the stairs.
These could also both be true, for the record.
I don't really know what this means! I'll see if there are more clues next MV that I can piece together to make it make more sense.
The devs are trying to give us the most conclusive/satisfactory end to the mysteries possible this trial.
I say this not only because of the file-- which clearly indicates the base premise of the character as well as their crime, which puts an end to the majority of the theorizing-- and because, in the audio drama, Es literally asks Yuno "what were we supposed to do to succeed on your route?" She basically says she'd be mad no matter what we voted, which... yeah, checks out.
Still, I think the fact that the devs are trying to address the "we want to know what happened" as well as catering to some of the "what-ifs" shows that the third trial is, narratively, a wrap-up trial to them, and they want the audience to feel they have all the information in hand when going to click the vote buttons for the last time. Speaking of...
VOTE: INNOCENT
Duh. Why would I vote her guilty. Es and Yuno are being besties towards the end of the audio drama and Es takes off the warden hat because why would we even pretend like we're policing Yuno here. She is a girl who has gone through it and is still struggling with the mental consequences of both her actions and life itself, but that in no way makes her guilty of murder.
Anyways, what a start to the third trial! Since I was in theory mode, I didn't mention it much, but I thought the song and MV were really cool and wistful in a way that wrapped up Yuno's character really nicely. I'll be excited to see what comes next :)
Hello everyone! Sorry for the massive delay in making this post; I've been very busy as of late. All of this account's admins are now graduated! But, of course, here on the eve of Yuno song 3, "Life," I still want to address something very exciting-- the official start of the third and final Milgram trial!!!
I'm going to format this similarly to my Response to the Beginning of the Second Trial post, but a bit more serious and a bit more ramble-y, because uh... this round is a lot more serious than that one, and there's a lot to talk about. I'll be using reddit user I-wonder-who-I-am's translations of each character's new Trial 3 website voice lines.
This is probably obvious, but please know that this will have extreme spoilers for the entirety of Milgram leading up to the third trial (no MVs have dropped yet).
Let's get into it!
T/W: Suicide, murder and all that, stalking, DID portrayals/Milgram's representation of DID, vigilantism, cults, internalized homophobia, abortion, bullying, physical restraints, character death
PRISONER 001: HARUKA SAKURAI
Status: Deceased
Developments: Refused to eat food that Mu brought to him and died of starvation. Received character file.
Vote Prediction: N/A, would have leaned guilty
I'm not going to go super in-depth into Haruka's character file here, because I kind of want to analyze all 3 dead characters' files in one big post analyzing the files themselves (and the video that goes with them) once they're all out. That probably won't be TOO-too long from now; Yuno, Futa and Mu are the only ones who are before Shidou and Mahiru in the order, so it'll probably just be a handful of months.
I'm sad to see Haruka go, but it does make it easier. Haruka was the character I was always most confused about how to proceed with, because he's extremely sympathetic while also clearly having issues that would lead to repeated violence were he to return to the real world. It's a very difficult situation to judge properly, and it's not really clear-cut what would cause the least harm to everyone.
On that note, I want to discuss about the verdicts a little bit, because I think there's a relevant question to ask.
INTERLUDE: SHOULD WE INNO SWEEP?
I think a lot of people are at least strongly considering trying to push 100% innocent verdicts in Trial 3 in order to try to get every character to live/have a happy ending. Deco and Yamanaka have said something along the lines of "if you vote everyone innocent, we'll show you hell." But, at the same time, have we not established that voting guilty harms the prisoners on its own?
It's a really difficult situation to decipher. I could see inno sweeping being really good and being a way to sort of "solve" Milgram, as described in this theory by @accirax. If Milgram is based on the Milgram experiments and is thus a look at whether or not we as a voting base will vote to stop the cycle of violence, voting all innocent could be the "correct" answer in a meta sense.
However, our Milgram prison dynamic is far more complicated than the actual Milgram experiments were. We know that voting all innocent is not always safe. For example, Amane was only able to kill Shidou this round because we voted her innocent, and she only wanted to kill Shidou this round because we voted him innocent, not holding him responsible for his crimes in her eyes. We already know that innocent verdicts can leave people open to commit violence that they wouldn't have been able to if we'd stopped them-- and it's extremely plausible that guilty verdicts could protect people in the "real" world in the same way that the restraints do.
I think a lot of the fundamental question of "to inno sweep or to not" comes down to how much you care about the characters in the world that our Milgram characters come from who aren't in the prison itself. Is it worth saving Mu's life if she goes back and murders the rest of her friend group because they rejected her for killing Rei? Is it worth voting Amane innocent if it means she'll go back and indoctrinate hundreds of more children in the same way she was indoctrinated, causing them lots of trauma and perpetuating the cycle? These questions are largely dependent on if you care about the impact your faves have on the world they return to or if you just care about their own personal safety and happiness. Neither way of thinking is wrong, but it's fundamentally different.
Personally, I'm open to the concept of an inno sweep, but I'm not yet completely sold on it. I'd like to see how the Trial starts first and see what the vibes are (and what the voting base seems to look like); this is made much easier by the fact that our first vote will be on Yuno!
PRISONER 002: YUNO KASHIKI
Status: Alive
Developments: Watched Mahiru die after trying to take on healing her after Shidou's death. Seems confused by the concept of innocent verdicts and what we mean when we forgive her.
Vote Prediction: Innocent, very confident
Yuno still did nothing wrong in my eyes, and I'm definitely voting her innocent this Trial. I still think it's interesting how solidly she seems to believe she did something wrong by getting an abortion; my interpretation is that she has a lot of regrets surrounding the situation, and hasn't forgiven herself. As such, she can't understand what we mean when we forgive her.
I also think that us saying "we don't believe you did anything wrong" probably confuses her more with that, because we aren't actually "forgiving" her "crime," we're just accepting that it happened without blaming her, but... I mean, I don't consider her at all guilty, and there's no point in saying anything else.
I definitely get the sense that Yuno's going to be interacting with the other prisoners again this Trial. Her comment about everyone having grown too used to each other indicates that she's grown attached to the others here, and she doesn't seem one to tolerate death no matter whose it is.
I think the best thing we can do for Yuno is to just try to lessen the damage across the board, which is what we would be trying to do anyways, presumably. I'm curious to know what her third trial is going to reveal. I'd love it if we got to actually see the person who got her pregnant and/or see some more of her past lovers; she's really been the only person in all of her MVs, and especially with her seemingly more willing to have attachments to the other prisoners, it'd make sense thematically to reveal that now. We'll see, in just... SEVEN HOURS???
[edit: it has now been many hours since i first wrote that. instead, i offer: Yuno rabbit hole is peak as expected let's fucking go]
I'm going to preface this section by saying that I personally am not a fan of how Futa's cultification has gone so far, and I'm going to explain the reasons why. If you'd like to leave things in this post as exciting and/or positive for upcoming content, I'd recommend skipping ahead to Mu's segment.
In short, I'm upset by how much I feel Amane's storyline has dwarfed Futa's. I'll acknowledge I'm biased as (controversial take) Amane is actually one of my less favorite characters, but I feel like the level that her story has overpowered his, rather than intersecting, feels unbalanced. Even before when, say, Kotoko severely damaged prisoners, the primary focus of their characterization has centered around their own crime and/or mental state. Futa feels as though his vulnerable mental state has been converted over to a total lack of defining will or personality during the between-trial period in a way I find quite frustrating.
We know Futa is strong willed and believes in morals and justice. We know that Futa was first to point us out as hypocrites for voting him guilty and Kotoko innocent. We know he likes feeling like the hero and getting swept up into a fantasy scenario in which he can be righteous and all-conquering. These are all traits that very believably could send him cultwards: he could believe (or be convinced to believe) that Amane's way is correct, and by aligning himself with her, he's siding with the correct side, getting caught up in her theology to ignore the problems he's facing in reality.
However, this doesn't account for a couple of things that I feel should be obstacles to this shift in worldview. Theoretically, Futa is switching over to Amane's side in large part due to the mental torment he received from his guilty verdict. However, we voted Futa innocent; by complying with us, he would theoretically be safe from this. Furthermore, he's siding with Amane, who, just like him, received a guilty verdict into an innocent verdict. What makes him think she's so much better equipped to handle the situation? And, most pressingly, Amane just killed Shidou, who, on top of being someone who got double innocent verdicts, literally JUST healed Futa's eye and the crippling injuries he received from Kotoko! Shouldn't he have any amount of loyalty to Shidou, or at least have enough grounding in reality to question if that guy is really the villain here?
All of these concerns could theoretically be explained away by tight enough logic from Futa. I'm still holding out hope for Futa's audio drama clearing up some of these points, and/or that his own story will come into the spotlight more when we return to his MV, thus lessening my concerns about his story arc disappearing into the more popular Amane void. However, his song being called "The Appare March" (modeled after Purge March) certainly doesn't make me feel any better. More than anything, I just wish that, with how relevant it's become, Futa and Amane's relationship was foreshadowed literally anywhere easily accessible to non-Japanese fans.
As far as I can tell, all of the warning that this would happen occurred within the timeline conversations, which are on an app only available in the Japanese app store. Things like Kotoko striking a deal with us, Shidou and Amane's complicated dynamic, and even other dynamics are foreshadowed in the previous voicelines, in the audio dramas, or even in the goddamn Minigrams. I wish I'd been able to read or hear literally anything about Futa's potential conversion to Amaneism from an official source before it happened so I could have developed my own feelings about it and stayed up to date with what was likely to happen and why.
I still want to be looking forward to Futa's MV, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high because I honestly feel like his Trial 3 moral question is going to be something along the lines of "can you blame someone who was manipulated in a time of weakness?" Which, while it's not an uninteresting question, it would once again signify that Futa's original story and moral questions have given way to Amane's. I've said before that I don't love how Milgram prioritizes moral questioning over satisfying narrative completion, and this feels like the biggest example of this yet.
In an ideal world, I'd love to see more of Futa's interactions with his friends, maybe mirroring that situation to the cult in order to tie it into his original storyline in a way that feels true to his personality and character. It might also be cool to see more of the fantasy worlds Futa enjoys, or to examine where his sense of morality comes from in the first place. I'm also really looking forward to Futa Rookie; that's one of my favorite Deco songs, and I think his hard-rock style and rougher singing voice will suit it really well!
PRISONER 004: MU KUSUNOKI
Status: Alive
Developments: Betrayed by us flipping our verdict from innocent to guilty. Upset about Haruka dying. Generally crashing out.
Vote Prediction: Innocent, fairly confident
I feel bad for Mu. She's really on her own now that Haruka is dead, and the flipped innocent verdict probably reminds her of the power between her and Rei constantly flipping back and forth. I don't regret the guilty verdict, necessarily, but it definitely feels bad. Plus, there's the severity of the restraints.
I think I saw the concept talked about on @the-sol-eater's blog, but the Trial 3 restraints are brutal in the way that they're not just restraints-- they're torture devices. In Mu's case, she's unable to get close to others, unable to use her hands, and her toes have been forced into point position, which would become extremely painful over time. I assume that this is meant to make her feel helpless, with an added bonus of maybe making fun of her for feeling like she's "above" others, given the tip toes? In any case, it's bad.
Which, like, I know, breaking: Milgram guilty verdicts are bad for the prisoners! But, it still feels really bad seeing it actually happen, and especially since I was on the fence about Mu's guilty verdict even while voting last time, it makes me sad to see her struggling :(
Perhaps relatedly, I think I'm fairly likely to vote Mu innocent. I don't think her crime (murder, specifically) is one she's likely to repeat, and I honestly think Mu is in a position where she's acknowledged the toll this has all had on her enough that I could actually believe she might, like, seek help back in the real world. That would be very cool for her. In any case, my rule of thumb for Trial 3 is that I'm definitely voting anyone that wouldn't cause repeat harm innocent, so that's what I'm planning to do with Mu.
In terms of her MV... I'd be really interested to see her friend group before the bullying started, if such a time existed. If not, I'd be curious to see what things were like at any other schools she attended? This is all of course assuming we can't see what follows the murder, because I'm assuming Mu appeared in Milgram after that.
For covers, I'd love to hear her cover, like, Zombies, even though I initially felt like that was more of a Mahiru song. I also think Cinderella is plausible; it's popular, and while I think the lyrics fit Haruka better, Mu is probably our best bet of those still alive. In a hilarious world I would honestly love to see, she could cover Telepathy. I'll be excited to see what it ends up being!
PRISONER 005: SHIDOU KIRISAKI
Status: Deceased
Developments: Killed by Amane for breaking one of the commandments (presumably related to medicine and saving Mahiru's life).
Vote Prediction: N/A, would have been innocent
As Admin Mercury would say, "I miss my wife, Tails. I miss her a lot."
Shidou was my favorite character, and I'm very sad he's dead. :(
I did end up voting Amane innocent last Trial, personally, and I do regret it. Not in the sense that I blame anyone for voting her innocent, or even that I necessarily think it was the wrong call. I just feel bad because I feel like I went against what I personally believed and wanted in voting. You can vote for any reason you want in Milgram, and I wish I'd voted to try to protect the guy I care most about. It probably wouldn't have changed anything, but it does make me sad.
Hopefully that also provides some context towards my hesitance with encouraging the inno sweep too strongly. I think that it's probably a good idea, like, objectively, but I don't reallywant to encourage specific verdict voting in the final Trial other than stuff like "definitely vote because the current status might be different from what you're expecting"! I think everyone should vote for what they think is going to get the ending they most want. If that means trying to outsmart the system and get the "good" ending, by all means vote all innocent. I might join you. I'll have to see how I feel after the MVs.
Anyways, Shidou's crime is certainly not one he was going to replicate, and I think he underwent a lot of positive character development within Milgram, so he would've been an easy innocent verdict for me this round, were he still here. I was hoping we'd get to hear him cover Dilemma-- all the stuff about "heal it, heal it, the aftereffects of your "love"" would have made sense, and the style would've been fun for him. Alas. I hope you're reunited with your family in heaven, king :(
PRISONER 006: MAHIRU SHIINA
Status: Deceased
Developments: Died as a result of injuries from Kotoko after Amane killed Shidou.
Vote Prediction: N/A, would have been undecided
Another deceased queen :(
I'm really excited to see Mahiru's dead file on what her crime was, exactly, because I know my take on Mahiru's crime (delusional stalker who brought the guy to the suicide forest and trapped him there masked as the various dates towards the end of This is How to Be in Love With You) differs heavily from what seems to be the fandom consensus (genuinely in a relationship that was mutually toxic in which the guy eventually committed suicide with no involvement from her). One way or another, I'll finally know if I'm genuinely just going crazy or not, and everyone can be on more or less of the same page! :)
I was going to be really torn on Mahiru's verdict, because I have no idea what her continued threat level is to the general populace of the Milgram world. It probably would've depended a lot on the contents of her third video and audio drama and how that impacted my interpretation of both her crime and mental state.
I'm so sad that we don't get Mahiru Monitoring, which I think would be all but guaranteed were Mahiru alive. Give one last mmmwah to our final casualty.
PRISONER 007: KAZUI MUKUHARA
Status: Alive
Developments: Doesn't seem to be accepting our forgiveness. Feels bad for not stopping any of the deaths that occurred.
Vote Prediction: Innocent, pretty confident
I hope Kazui doesn't feel too bad for not saving the other prisoners. I know I was definitely someone pushing the narrative that he hopefully could, but I don't blame him for not doing so. There was a lot going on, and paying attention to Kotoko (as he says he was doing) makes total sense.
I'm still pretty 100% on Kazui is gay theory. I think the reason he's so hesitant to forgive himself is because he's got some internalized homophobia and still blames himself at least somewhat for his wife's death. I don't think he's done anything unforgivable in my eyes, so I plan to forgive him.
I know a lot of people think Kazui's crime might be hiding something more objectionable under the surface, but I feel like every theory like that I see fails to ask what Kazui's moral question is. Like, if Kazui is a serial rapist who shoved his wife off a balcony so he could cheat on her guilt-free, he's not going to convince anyone of an innocent verdict. I guess you could say it's just a challenge of seeing past his lies, but... ehhhh. I don't think that's what Milgram is shooting for.
In terms of his MV, I'd like to see more of what his daily life with his wife looked like, and maybe more of his life in general just to contextualize what happened. I'd also enjoy learning more about his wife's personality; I don't feel like I know much about her so far. For his cover... truly I have no idea. So, I'll get surprised by whatever :D
PRISONER 008: AMANE MOMOSE
Status: Alive
Developments: 100% all in on her faith, although broke off from her original cult to form her own (similar) set of beliefs. Doesn't believe she's doing anything wrong.
Vote Prediction: Undecided, leaning guilty
Oh Amane. I am going to get myself in so much trouble with your verdict, as usual.
I want to want to vote her innocent, but I just... don't see it? Like, I don't fault her for what happened to her, and I don't think she's necessarily old enough to be responsible/accountable for her actions. I think innocent is probably the correct verdict. But god, am I tired of just giving her a pass on everything because she's young. Like, yes, I know that's the entire point, but... hhhhhhh. I don't know. I'm probably just upset. I'll probably talk myself into an innocent verdict by the time the vote actually rolls around.
As for, like, analysis... I don't really know where we go from here? Like, Purge March was a really cool MV, but I honestly don't even feel like we learned that much. What I want to learn... I guess I'd like to know exactly who her victim(s) are and what her intended position in the church is. I'm not really sure how her moral question will evolve from "she's capable of atrocities but it's not her fault because she was raised that way and is still a young child." But, we'll see!
I would love to hear her cover (Not a) Devil. I think it would go crazy. I don't know if that's allowed because it's a Pino collab. I will stay hoping as always.
PRISONER 009: MIKOTO KAYANO
Status: Alive (but not John?)
Developments: Becoming aware of the concept of John and what happened, I think. Generally not coping super well.
Vote Prediction: Leaning innocent
Mikoto is processing the loss of John and the fact that "he" is a murderer all at the same time, which... isn't great for him, considering John's alter was created from him being overstressed in the first place. It does seem like John is intended to be gone, from a writing perspective, so I'm inclined to believe it? I'm kind of playing by Milgram's rules when it comes to Mikoto's DID because I'm not sure of how exactly they're treating it vs. how it would most commonly appear in real life, so I'm going off of what they've told us so far and assuming this is possible.
I'd like to lean innocent with Mikoto; he definitely seems remorseful, and I can't imagine he'd want to kill someone again. The issue is, without knowing how Milgram DID operates, I don't really know how to judge if he's still, like, a threat to others? If damage reduction is the main way I'm determining my votes now, that's, like, a pretty critical piece of information. I'll see how his third song goes, but I'm leaning innocent for now.
I am fully anticipating Mikoto to cover Crime and Punishment Reloaded. It fits him so well. What on earth is Deco doing ADDING the lyrics "Hey, the reason I survived was probably, no let's be real most definitely / Because of you, I'm your shadow, always by your side" if he didn't agree that this song already kinda had Mikoto coding. I'm gonna be very surprised if it's anything else. The song is pretty perfect for him.
For his video, I'd really like to meet, like, Mikoto's boss or his mom. I'm curious to see more of what Mikoto's normal life is like. I'd also be curious to know if anything particularly characterized John's victim(s) or if they were just people who unfortunately got got. I think I know the Vibes of Mikoto's crime very well but very few specifics, so I'd love anything that helps fill in those details.
PRISONER 010: KOTOKO YUZURIHA
Status: Alive
Developments: Mad. Clearly still believes removing people who have done wrong is the correct solution. Still seems to want to convince us to see things her way, even though we betrayed her?
Vote Prediction: Undecided, leaning guilty I think?? Pretty genuinely neutral.
I have no idea where to proceed with Kotoko, largely because I don't actually know how I stand exactly on her form of vigilanteism. I'm pretty confident I disagree with, at LEAST, the lengths she goes to, and I don't really love her skipping any kind of due process either. Like, can't she just become a detective or something...?
A guilty verdict feels really harsh, but like, I don't really want to condone her either, and she's obviously still a threat to the people she targets. I wish we knew more about how she finds her targets and who she's willing to kill in the real world. Because, within Milgram, it seems like she would've been willing to kill, like, Yuno or Kazui if we'd given her the go-ahead, and if she's going to start killing teenage girls who had abortions or closeted gay men in real life, that's obviously a problem. I really have no idea where she draws the line, and that makes it very difficult to properly estimate her verdict.
Speaking of, what I want from her third trial is definitely more info on her philosophy and what the bounds and limits of it are. Hopefully Es can press for this in the audio drama by, like, pointing out the differences between the two of them or something. I'd also be curious to know what Kotoko's life was like before she delved into being a vigilante.
For covers... man idk. I don't actually know enough Deco songs for this. She will cover a song and it will likely be a banger. Stay tuned for more awesome predictions!
CLOSING THOUGHTS
Well, uh... it's now like three hours to drop. If you were looking for something to read before the start of the trial, or maybe afterwards to check in on the other prisoners, I hope this was insightful! I'm excited to get back into the MVs to shake off the sadness that happened from the people dying. Good luck in your theorizing, remember to vote (!!!) and have fun out there!
Do I need to read the novels to understand the main plot?
Definitely not! I have not read the novels as they do not have official English translations. I think that stuff is more for fun/overall lore. You only need the MVs and the website to understand the main plot, although comments and posts also help to make sense of it.
How do we know that Mahiru and Shindou are dead? I see everyone talking about it but I don't know where that came from :<
In Your (Curtain) Call, the prisoners sing Undercover. However, Haruka, Shidou and Mahiru are missing from their slots. That, in addition to the fact that their images are grayed out on the website, have essentially served confirmation that they're dead. In the voice lines on the website, people also reference this (Amane talking about how she said what would happen to Shidou, Yuno saying she was by Mahiru's side when she died or something like that).
Some people are still being delusional holding out hope, but I think it's a pretty clear cut situation at this point.
hi!! sorry if this is a bother, but I was wondering if you could id which minigram this amane is from? I have a friend who wants to find it and I've struggled to find it. thanks!
I'm sorry, anon, I can't find it :( I asked Mercury and she thinks it's in one she didn't make the translated version of (so episode 49 or later), but I couldn't personally find it across any of the minigrams. This is the closest I got:
But it's obviously not the right screenshot, so I'm not sure. Maybe someone else who sees this post will recognize it...?
Y'all can't do this to me, I was confused by your last post about Mahiru so I went to check the YT account and saw the newest upload... they can't do this to my 2 faves 😭 (I was one of the people who hoped Haruka's guilty verdict might restrain him so I'm COPING)
I also found it strange how many people were surprised by the idea that Amane could kill Shidou. As early as the first trial's interrogation, he asked Es, who he saw as a child, to judge him guilty (to kill him), because he saw it as rightful punishment for what he had done. Even though he had regained his will to live, I don't think he could injure, much less kill Amane, even in self-defense. So if what everyone thinks happened, I think the reason is obvious...
godspeed fellow Milgram enjoyers, I'm not gonna last until Trial 3, this video are gonna take me tf down
Yeah, ngl I was always pretty bothered by the "Amane can't/wouldn't kill Shidou because she's a child." Like, that's kind of the point of her character? That even though she's just a child, she can and will do fucked up things? And she directly stated that she wanted to kill Shidou. (Mahiru dying is also related to Amane, but I'm betting that's more of a domino chain situation.)
Haruka I was 100% sure was dead personally, I kinda wanted to cope with the "guilty = restrained" thing but I decided I should probably emotionally prepare myself anyways. I'm also coping though, because over the gap I'd been coping with "Kazui will protect Shidou from Amane so it should be okay." It is not okay. :(
I'm super super excited for the website to update so we can hear more details about what actually happened though, I think it'll be really exciting!
I am so sad... I haven't like definitively ranked them but Haruka Shidou and Mahiru are like. My 3 favorites. Sad. (it's okay though bc i like all of them)
