#compare cognitive akechi's corresponding sprite

[vashtijoy]

11/20-21 akechi deep dive

The body language on Akechi’s model in the 11/21 Shido exposition cutscene is interesting.

When he walks in, he sees Joker’s death certificate on the desk...

... and folds his arms. That’s a defensive move. Maybe he’s in trouble.

As soon as they move on to the next topic—the much-deserved death of the creepy SIU director—his arms drop to their customary position at his side, where they stay for the rest of the scene. (Apart from an evil little dance when he talks about how he’s going to be viewed as a hero who took down monsters now—this is something he is genuinely into, and you can see it when he gets so worked up later on TV.)

Also, he keeps the puppy-dog eyes up all scene. That’s a bit of a tell too, because he does have a more interesting array of expressions he can use with his mask off—he actually seems to be quite consistent about the mask around Shido.

The fact that he’s using creepyfaces on the 20th and is back to his usual mask on the 21st is probably significant. Because there’s a pattern here of defensive behaviour around Joker’s murder.

[lots more images and flailing under the cut]

Let’s have a look at the phone call immediately after the murder:

Hello, hello. Straight out of the interrogation room and straight into a procedure fuckup. Something wrong, Akechi-kun? (He sounds different too—kind of robotic and stilted; compare him giggling about getting to kill the SIU Director at the end of this phone call.)

There’s only one other time Akechi lapses like this, and that is very near the end, when Shido tells him to bump off their customers and he understands the walls are falling down:

And, of course, that lapse, on top of questioning Shido for what seems an inexplicable decision, is what pulls down more Shido rage on him:

“Don’t use my fucking name on the phone!” Of course, Shido wants to get everyone he can dead ASAP, because the plan is actually to take Akechi out. It’s tempting to think this is what Akechi understands at the end of this scene, but it can’t be—he’s too shocked when Cognitive Akechi reveals it later.

back to the 11/20 post-interrogation room phone call

You can trace Akechi’s thought process here through the sprites:

Here’s the empty-faced sprite. “We don’t need to kill them. At least, not yet. Let’s put that on the back burner.” This is Akechi manipulating Shido.

Now here’s the smug sprite: Akechi is enjoying this bit. He genuinely has no liking or respect for the surviving Phantom Thieves, and likely means at least his sentiment here—but, again, he doesn’t seem to want them dead.

And we’re back to the empty-faced sprite, for the big lie to Shido. “I'll do that, when I find it. But really, it’s only a cat.” Another manipulation, because if he tells Shido about Morgana, that order—”Don’t forget to kill that weird cat”—is immediately going to become “Find it and kill it”.

And what happens next? We’re bringing Joker’s “suicide” back up. And Akechi drops back against the wall.

Lastly, here’s the smug sprite again. Killing the SIU Director is a totally different kettle of fish to killing the rest of the Phantom Thieves—it’s something Akechi can and will do immediately, with pleasure. Because by “After School”, the SIU Director is dead.

Something tells me the SIU Director’s shadow didn’t have a very good time.

what does all this mean?

Fucked if I know, y’all. Do what you like with it. What I find particularly interesting here is that there is an obvious range of motives and activities going on. Some of what Akechi is up to here is obviously evil, but some of it is not. There is a lot going on here.

Also, don’t lose sight in all of this that, probably before the day is out on the day of the “Um... Shido-san” phone call, Akechi will try to kill Joker and the rest of the Phantom Thieves, and he’ll put everything on the line to do so. But Joker returning from the dead appears to be the trigger that makes him not only bother with the rest of them, but view them as needing killing.

He’s not going to kill them because he dislikes them, or for fun. They are collateral damage in his war with Joker. Just like all the other people he’s murdered were collateral damage in his war with Shido.

Kids, eh?

omake

Here’s Futaba on how they found out Shido was the mastermind: Akechi gave it away on that 11/20 phone call after the murder. He got to be instrumental in taking down his father after all.