#I'm not that good at explaining why I think an innocent verdict is the best choice

[iris-drawing-stuff]

Amane's voting percentage has been falling fast. :(

I know it's to protect the others, but still...

[endlessame]

Actually, thinking more about it, the more I start to realize that... it makes sense. If we believe Kotoko with what she said about not having a sad or traumatic childhood... maybe something happened in her young adult years that made her into what she is today. I'm gonna keep pushing my agenda of regretful Kotoko, because I really, really think that even if we voted Kotoko innocent again (which I sadly doubt) she would not do the same thing again. Because we voted her innocent. We told her "hey, we approve of your ideas. Your morals are correct." And yet, look at Deep Cover. Is that the song of someone actually prideful? Not at fucking all! This is not a "It's Not My Fault". Actually, I think this is more of a "Backdraft" type song! Like. Let's analyze some parts of the lyrics which I think are. Genuinely really interesting.

At first, I think we should remember something important. The whole concept of Milgram. These are Kotoko's feelings. And I see it as a layered thing. You can stay with the obvious surface layer! Kotoko beat everyone up, she's evil. In her MV she sees herself as a guard, in control of the prison. She doesn't regret anything, we're voting her guilty.

And, you know? That is a completely fair way to see it! I just have this really personal belief about MILGRAM and forgiveness. I believe Kotoko represents the most brutal part of Milgram's whole moral system, but I'll explain that later on.

The thing with Milgram is, you can choose to stay in the upper level. And no one will judge you for that. But... also you can try to look at the motives. Look, analyze, understand… and forgive. I think what this is all about. And looking at Deep Cover, I don't see a person saying that they've got full control over the prison. I see an scared, regretful person trying to convince herself that she has even the slightest bit of control left in her situation.

Now I want to draw some attention into some lines I've seen... not a lot of people say anything about?

god she's so pretty

Who don't we want? Give me the verdicts of GUILTY. That's why I became your fangs, as the long awaited hero.

And,

So make yourselves my reason. Just choose the only choice, GUILTY. Say that sympathy is useless. Hate evil as the evil that is.

Damn, girl, ok!

Again, layered thing. We could say "Oh, this is just Kotoko telling us to vote everyone guilty because they are guilty except her...!" Do y'all really think she means that? Do you all really think she THINKS that? Because I really don't. I really believe Kotoko is pushing us to vote her guilty. She wants that. Why? Because as I said earlier, not only she's regretful, at least to some extent... but also she represents the worst parts of the Milgram ideology. Milgram tries to make us look at this prisoners as people with problems and struggles who drove them to murder. Milgram is asking us to understand, while Kotoko represents the hatred and the desire for revenge that Milgram, specially Jackalope, is trying to make us do so much. "You can vote based on whatever you want!" Yeah, we can, but that is not the right thing. If it's not clear by now, I'm a firm believer in the All-Inno theory. I believe every single prisoner should be voted innocent, and that doesn't mean that they will all end up as murderers believing that they're right. I just believe that that is what Milgram is trying to do, as in the end, this is THE Milgram experiment! We're being told to understand, reject the authoritarian voice and forgive. Maybe it's not the easy route. It is not, actually. But I believe is the correct one.

And now, I want to talk a bit about the girl. The girl who Kotoko killed to save. At first they had a good relationship, or so it seems? Kotoko took care of her, and they apparently met each other regularly? Until the thing we see at the end of the MV happened. What happened, really? Something happened between HARROW and Deep Cover.

So I translated this.

I'm not the best at japanese, but it roughly says:

The murder incident that ocurred in Minato, Tokyo, is currently shaking Japan. The victim is Ado Kaneshiro (24). The fact that he is the only son of Kenyu Kaneshiro (68), the representative of Akebono Shimbun, and that the person who comitted it was a 20 year old female college student enrolled in a famous university in Tokyo also helps the topic of conversation. At a press conference, Mr. Kaneshiro appeared in front of countless cameras with tears in his eyes and criticized the brutal behavior of the female student. The judicial decision is this case is "legitimate defense". According to her, she had no choice but to kill the victim after getting into a scuffle while trying to stop the victim, who was caught kidnapping a minor. The defense argued that an elementary school girl who was present at the scene gave similar testimony, and that this constituted self-defense. However, Mr. Kaneshiro claimed at a press conference that a subsequent independent investigation revealed that the body had multiple bruises and wounds, indicating that he had been subjected to more violence than necessary. Furthermore, Mr. Kaneshiro announced that the elementary school student who was saved by the college student has retracted her testimony. In addition to the possibility that the elementary student had received some sort of threat. [...] This refers to the rumors about Mr. Kaneshiro. The female college student in question was hailed as a hero by [???] who said, ``An unidentified rumor of multiple murders has surfaced, and it is a legendary internet meme that leaves doubts about itself.'' It is said that there is Mr. Kaneshiro strongly condemned both.

Okay, so... this is a Really rough translation of what it says, I specially want you all to take the red part with a grain of salt. I don't think it's quite right, because Kotoko's finger makes them hard to read and translate. But there are some really interesting things. Hat girl retracted her testimony? Was this what upset Kotoko?

Anyway, I think by far the most interesting part about this is... the last part. That one about multiple murders, how Kotoko was hailed as a hero... and an internet meme? Did Kotoko by any chance become this kind of revered hero? Did she drown in the knowledge that she was right? I believe that Kotoko had a bit of a meltdown because not only she became what she hated the most, but also... everyone loved her for it? She's inviting us to vote her Guilty to continue the cycle. She wants us to keep punishing evil, and if that evil is her, so be it.

I honestly think this is an amazing way to end T2 because it leaves us with a question. Kotoko... will you forgive her? Will you understand what she did? Not only Kotoko, but everyone?

Or will you just say they're murderers and continue the cycle of guilt?

Because, a 100%, this is the look of a heartless murderer. Not someone full of trauma and regret. Kotoko Yuzuriha regrets what she has done. I'm not saying that she's entirely putting up a façade, but she is not the vigilante murderer we all took her as.

Also, she refers to Es as another prisoner here. 11, Inept. Just something to note.

They're still here, still here, it grates me.

Who's here, Kotoko...? Who are they? Finally, the symbol of the wolf again. I'm gonna repeat myself with my last post, but a lot of people have wrongly associated the wolf symbol with Kotoko, when in fact she was (or is) never depicted as such. She's always surrounded by them, she's part of the pack. But she's not a wolf. She's only going with them.

In HARROW, we see her surrounded by a pack of wolves, then the pack grows smaller and smaller until it ends with her alone and the skin of a wolf in her chair. And now, again, we don't see a wolf. We see a werewolf, a monstrous version of Kotoko.

What does this mean, genuinely? I'm sure Kotoko has a reason to act the way she acts. I really don't believe it's a traumatic childhood thing, I believe it's something a bit more recent.

Here's my final theory.

I believe Kotoko at first acted in a group, either in an official thing, such as the police, or just a group of vigilantes. But something happened, probably their views weren't lining properly, which caused her to quit. Where they too violent? Or the opposite, were they too tame for what Kotoko wanted?

Anyhow, I believe this last shot symbolizes that Kotoko doesn't really want to have much to do with her old group. But something has made her remember them. And made her be just like them.

I guess only time will tell.

[thinkin-bout-milgram]

Can you explain to me why people are voting Amane innocent? Cause personally I don’t get it, she killed her abusers not to escape the cult but because they seemingly messed up and she “punished” them for it. That’s not really a forgivable reason to me, even though I’m glad she killed them lol

Hi! I'll do my best, though there are obviously many viewpoints and factors that go into voting that I don't know about, so this is just my view of things.

Most people, I think, are voting Amane innocent simply because they forgive her. Gulity/innocent can also be Unforgiven/forgiven, so when people look at it in the forgiveness way, they find her very easy to forgive. Due to cult indoctrination from a very young age, it's hard to say that anything that she does for the cult's benefit is really her "fault."

I do think some people lose sight of the fact that Amane likely didn't kill her abusers because they abused her, but rather because of cult doctrine. However, they believe that her killing her abusers is entirely forgivable, and I don't disagree with that.

There are definitely people who are voting her innocent because they believe that voting a child guilty is wrong, given that the guilty verdict can result in psychological and/or physical torture for the characters. This sentiment is heightened by Amane's storyline; the cult leaders were wrong for torturing Amane into their beliefs. Why would it be better for us to torture her into our beliefs, just because we believe our beliefs are correct? They probably did, too.

A lot of people wanted Amane innocent in Trial 1 in the first place. Those people may see Trial 2 as a way to "right the wrongs" of Trial 1. There are also more people in the fandom since then who might have voted innocent if they were here in Trial 1, so they want to give her that verdict in Trial 2.

Some people think it's actually safer to vote Amane innocent from a meta standpoint given that she'll likely be more hostile in general if we get another guilty verdict for her. I actually disagree with this interpretation given that I think that the restraints guilty prisoners receive would make it harder for her to actually kill, but some people certainly think it. Here's my logic on that if you're curious.

There are also always voters who simply like the prisoner and want them to be forgiven. I'm under the impression that most Amane innocent voters are voting for actual forgiveness or meta based reasons, but that's always a factor you can't completely discount.

With all of these reasons being said, there are also definite reasons to go guilty, the main ones being in my opinion 1) to try to deemphasize cult beliefs to her and, most of all, 2) to protect the other prisoners from her. We already know that she armed herself to try to attack Es. That would be bad against other prisoners.

However, I am personally under the belief that there is still good in Amane, and Amane doesn't want the cult's beliefs to be her beliefs. In Trial 1, I thought the best way to help her realize this was with a guilty verdict, and I stand by that. However, in the second Trial, I think that an innocent verdict is probably more likely to properly convey that message. If I were voting for the sake of other prisoners, I'd go guilty, but for the sake of Amane, I think she should be forgiven. That's why I'm voting innocent.

Hope this made sense! Let me know if you still have any questions :)

[gunsli-01]

Hey, so something's been bothering me since Yuno's second trial, and i've yet to see anyone point it out, i'm not sure if this is relevant or anything, but...

Who's the daddy?

Like, we've had two trials now, and almost no information on which client was the father. My best guess is Schoolgirl Yuno, and that's just because she actually seems to like that one? She's the only one that's never blue, she dissapears after the abortion is done, and the coat from t2 is hers

I love her, she's one of my faves, but i keep getting the sinking feeling that we missed something vital. And since the father is the only thing that hasn't been explained, i'm kind of fixating on it endlessly (contrary to her wishes, but we have a job to do babe, sorry)

I'm not sure where i was going with this, but... thoughts?

(sorry if this is a weird ask, honestly i'm just kind of losing it and i need someone to tell me if i'm focusing on the wrong thing. Also hi, this might actually be the first thing i've done on Tumblr. So, hi?)

Hi! It's definitely not a weird question to ask at all. I've discussed how a lot of things regarding Yuno were overlooked during her first and second trial. Mostly focusing on the very purposeful ignoring of her feelings regarding her crime and our verdict.

I feel like a lot of people neglected to look in the father of the child in favor of turning Yuno's case into a pro-choice vs anti-abortion debate. It was a politicization tactic that ended up working in Yuno's favor but something I very much believe she will dislike given her statements during her first interrogation,

In her first interrogation four minutes and thirty-four seconds into it she says this to Es after she says it's her belief Es won't be able to judge the prisoners.

"Ah! No that's not it. It's different from what you're thinking, prison guard."

"Then, could you let me hear about it in more detail."

"Well, this has been on mind ever since I first heard about the system... Prison guard, you decide who's guilty and innocent here, don't you?"

"That's right."

"Prison guard, that's nothing more than your likes and dislikes, right? I'm not super well read in it... But Japan's a nation where the rule of law prevails, right? Getting people to decide on what's good or bad outside of that will make them go all haywire, won't it?"

She then elaborates-

"For example, news outlets. They always make a big fuss about adultery, inappropriate comments, immodesty and so on... Right? Just to start criticizing the people who make appearances on there. Don't you think it's all so ridiculous? There's no end to how much people will punish one another outside of the law."

What happened during Yuno's second trial the reasoning people displayed fed into the same thing that Yuno herself admonishes during her first interrogation. The policization and scrutinizing of individuals lives outside the realm of the law. Something that rarely ever ends and extends the duration of pain that all parties may be experiencing.

This is in my opinion why the father of Yuno's child was conveniently overlooked. The political framing used to secure her innocent verdict isn't about the father but Yuno having the right to do whatever she chooses with her body. As it is her right and something she should be allowed to do regardless of anyone else's opinion.

Yet, it's not difficult for people to see how that framing conveniently ignores the fact that some random ass adult man may have gotten an eighteen-year-old pregnant. Or how that eighteen-year-old was to their own blatant admission a sex worker. Meaning that there were probably legal steps taken or put in place around all the work she'd been doing including contingencies in the case a pregnancy did occur. Something the new translation of Undercover alludes to-

"“UNDER” My cord’s being pulled but nothing’s ever enough Contractual desires, oh what to do, FUTURE."

Along with lyrics in Umbilical,

"Am I a bad girl? Please don’t answer What do you want to do? Please tell me."

"What type of girl do you like? I want to become like that, but that’s probably too hard for me."

I think a lot of people within the Milgram fandom are too young to understand sex work is work with legal restrictions and polices around it. Work that attracts many high-profile individuals as clientele. It can involve NDA's and contracts that the workers themselves have to sign. It can also lead to news scandals that can go on for months on end if those high value clientele are found to have met with sex workers at any point let alone are found out to have gotten one of those workers pregnant.

In Tear Drop it's alluded to that there are several possible options for the father of Yuno's child. The several different versions of her outside of the lingerie one being stand ins for her clientele. It seems to me that Yuno wanted this man to be the father given the lyrics that appear alongside these images,

"The wanted wanting the wanter. The overlap, isn’t that some sort of perfection? “Poor naive little girl”? So off the mark, what’s it to you? It’s just absurd."

So, chances are the father of the child was one of her clients and taking into consideration how sex work can be her getting pregnant at all could be considered a breach of contract. If one of her clients could prove that she did it on purpose.

Hence the repeated line of "I messed up. I found out." as Yuno giggling can also be heard. I've discussed the whole concept of pregnancy entrapment before when it comes to Yuno mostly in regards to getting her a 50/50 because it was apparent to me being voted overwhelmingly innocent for the reasons people were stating would more than likely piss her off more.

Because it conveniently overlooks every other thing, she's been saying since the beginning in favor of just keeping what looks the best. Ultimately, though the father of the kid was more than likely one of her several clients who she represents as the version of herself she was while with them. Basically, the outfits she wore to match with them while out.

Q.28   How do you decide what clothes to wear for the day?

Haruka: I wear what’s there

Yuno: I pick something to match with the person I’ll be with.

Though since the guy with the watch is all we see in the second video he's probably the one Yuno liked back and possibly wanted to be with.