#the sukkiri tidbit is making me laugh btw I love that for them asdfghjkl

[red-moon-at-night]

you are not losing your mind by yourself about this. we are losing our minds together. 🤝. i went through the drama cds and made a list. es has hit every single male prisoner except, ironically, fuuta. (which is interesting, because fuuta tried to attack them twice in the first interrogation. instead of responding with violence, they just make fun of him.) that being said, here’s my Es Violence Compilation:

1. Haruka: Slapped “with all [their] might” for his self-deprecating comments. (Es got mad that he said they would abandon him.) First trial.

2. Haruka (again): Slapped for attempting to attack them and “being an idiot”. Second trial.

3. Shidou: Kicked in the shin (hard) for treating Es like a child and patting their head. First trial.

4. Mikoto: Smacked to wake him up after being knocked unconscious by Kotoko.

5. Kazui: Slapped in the face to prove a point after Kazui speculated that since they couldn’t attack Es, Es couldn’t attack them, either. (Understandable, given the initial panic caused by Kazui’s little stunt at the beginning.) First trial.

6. Kazui (again): Punched in the face (hard) for being condescending and staring at them. Second trial.

7. Amane: Held in place briefly to prove a point about her “God complex” or something.

8. Muu: Shoved away when she tried to shake them while they were having a breakdown over their identity and free will.

My main takeaway from this is that they don’t like to be touched. For starters, their reaction to Shidou patting their head is… genuinely worrying. Like… man (horse). Part of it is Es being mad about Shidou treating them like a child, but the shaken voice and shaky deep breaths following the little head pat are backstory crumbs, I can feel it. Probably. Also, after punching Kazui in the second trial, they say “it was an instinctive reaction.” The common denominator between these two events is Es saying “[Relieved sigh] I feel much better now.” (I compared the actual audio to double-check the translations I was reading. Es says “sukkiri” in both instances, which translates to “refreshing” or “I feel better”. It’s the kind of thing you say when you get a nice glass of water after being out in the sun for a while, or something. Very funny detail to me.) The other obvious instance that leads me to this conclusion is that time Es was having a breakdown during Muu’s first trial interrogation. Muu shakes them when they don’t respond, and they shove her away and shout, “Shut up! Don’t touch me!” (There’s a sound effect here that implies they gave her another shove or smacked her away from them, too.) Of course, the clearest problem presented by this incident is the fact that Es has a mental breakdown when asked if their decisions are made with their own free will, but I’m not focusing on that right now. I don’t know why I suddenly switched to proper capitalization and punctuation in this. I am filled with both dread and excitement at the prospect of learning more about Es’s backstory. There’s Something Going On There.

anon I want you to know that when I received this ask I practically exploded into fireworks out of sheer joy and delight. thank you for this addition!! thank you!! 💜

I dont have anything to add at this point in time because I think you did such a great job of succinctly putting this together... I completely agree with your analysis!

There's definitely Something Going On Here and I think we're slowly gonna be drip-fed crumbs of their backstory and it's our job to pay attention and piece it together. Unless of course they give us a huge infodump at the end of t3 and then I shall simply go feral on sight

You are so super cool by the way for going back and checking all the voice dramas!! I'm really grateful for this list it's a good reference so thanks again!! you're a legend ilu