#tokyo debunker theory

[localgirlbecomesobsessed]

THEYRE BROTHERS

[labulemon]

Observation: MC and the Prophesized New Moon

Just something fun I noticed.

The prophecy at the start of the game goes, “The ghouls who have been gathered here by the new moon’s whisper shall save the world from profound tragedy.” The translation seems more or less accurate to the original, or at least the part about the new moon.

While I was scrolling back through the game's introduction scenes, I found the group chat that MC was in before her life immediately blew up and went downhill.

As people might already know, the sickle moon is another term for the crescent moon. Plus, in the lunar cycle, there are two different kinds of crescent moons.

The waxing crescent grows into the full moon. The waning crescent disappears into the new moon, a phase which isn't visible to us.

You could say that, right before everything occurred, we got a scene where the crescent moon left the MC. That would imply that she had entered into the new moon phase in the groupchat/real life?! I don't think this has any particular bearing on the story, and I don't know if SickleMoon will come back into play at all ever (seems very unlikely) but I just thought it was interesting.

MC, your life is really hard...

[zomboivex]

Have some Rui thoughts <3

Wow I haven’t posted THOUGHTS in a while

So- as much as I love the idea of Rui originally being from Ultio.

I was thinking about it and I think he MAY have originally been in Mortkranken.

And here’s why;

Rui and Nicholas have a sort of relationship with one another that seems more positive in light. Not only does Nicholas go to Rui’s bar as a regular customer, but he also knows how Rui’s stigma works. But

Now, you could argue that Nicholas may have treated Rui at Darkwick General. But I’ll argue that could be unlikely because of the following;

Nicholas seems to be the type to fret over being ‘indecent’ around students of the school. I don’t find it hard to imagine he would feel similar towards former patients.

Then again, it’s more likely he said this because he’s aware that MC’s curse will turn her into an anomaly and possibly feels uncomfortable with the idea of her being lied to. Or- if he doesn’t know that, he could just be uncomfortable with the idea of being around someone who he can’t cure and is fated to die. But I digress-

Additionally, Rui seems to have quite the opinion against Darkwick General.

Granted, this entire interaction has me ITCHING to know more about the dynamics between Tohma, Rui, and Haku. But specifically Tohma and Rui because they seem to butt heads in a campus hangout, too. But that’s a discussion for another day.

Either way, Rui was rather (cheerfully) scathing towards Darkwick General. Yet, he still seems to have a good relationship with Nicholas.

Then, there’s the fact that Rui also seems to be on friendly terms with Jiro (who he calls Big J- which is stupidly cute, okay?)

Rui is familiar with anomalous plants. Enough so that he knows which ones Jiro would need for medicine. And sure, that could come with time (especially if Jiro is going there frequently enough to collect said herbs).

But ya know what? Listen- I just wanna pretend for a second I’m smart, okay?

Anyways—-

Whatever house Rui was in before Obscuary was likely for a very short time. He was cursed during a mission and said mission more than likely happened on his first year since he spoke to Haku regularly and Haku was in Clementia his first year (before transferring to Frostheim then to Hotarubi).

Collecting those lapels like infinity stones.

So, if Rui spent a lot of time talking to Haku after he was cursed (and Haku was in Clementia his first year) it only makes sense to me that Rui was cursed pretty early on. He’s also very removed from the other students and hasn’t attended classes in a long enough time that he forgot what the class schedules look like. I doubt that’s something you would forget if it was only even a year ago. It’s probably due to him just- not being in classes since his curse took effect and already being probably new to Darkwick, in general.

So- there ya have it!

Rui was probably not in Mortkranken for a very very brief time!

Alright back to uhhh doing whatever it is I do.

[mairos-comet]

So me and a friend where going over the tarot cards and well so far they been pretty on the nose for the three we got and that got me thinking about how they(zigzag) maybe created these characters. I know I might be wrong, but it’s just my opinion, theory, whatever, as someone who loves character building.

But what if they based the main traits of the Tokyo debunker guys from tarot cards what demon works and then just looked into what zodiac works for each guy, or how does this character fit into the trope.

You know, all that stuff after the main stuff was settled.

As someone who like character building that makes perfect sense, and also for a game like this not a bad starting point because I don’t think many have used tarot to base a character off of in such a game way

and if there are then please tell and show me I love seeing who matches what.

Im sorry these are too spot on to their characters it’s crazy.

Maybe I’m giving this gaming company tooo much credit 🤷

[easybeezy]

Ummm. Sorry. WHAT?

[kittygrimm88]

I have a theory about who MC shouldn't trust as Taiga told her.

Instead of anyone from the ghouls, the ones she shouldn't trust are the professors like Hyde. The theory that goes with this one would also be that she isn't actually cursed but something completely different. After seeing how the academy was doing with Lyca, it would make a lot of sense.

[tenkohibari]

A crazy theory about the traitor of Tokyo Debunker

°°°

I have a theory about who the traitor ghoul could be.

[This is all translated with the translator, I'm sorry for any possible lexical or spelling mistakes, I hope you enjoy my theory]

[Spoilers for everything up to chapter 7]

Okay, I think that they really told us the truth from the beginning.

No, don't go, listen to me--

I think that, in the preface, before the story itself, where they give you to choose a ghoul to supposedly save, that's where the truth lies. Who is the traitor. And that's why I've been studying each of the statements of the 19 ghouls (except for Ed and Lyca) and GUYS I HAVE FOUND SOMETHING.

Before I tell you who I think the traitor is, I'll give you a little introduction: I've studied each of the ways ghouls throw themselves off the terrace and I've found 5 different base drawings, because they are bases that are repeated within the ghouls when they throw themselves off.

For example, base 1 (that's how I called it) is used by Jiro, Alan, Jin, Luca, Leo and Ritsu. I've been looking for ways to relate them to each other, but I haven't found any. Neither between their statements, nor their names, nor their ways of acting in front of MC. I mean, these guys seem to apologize to MC (each in their own way) except for Leo... That said, Leo's statement seemed hopelessly interesting to me, but I'll talk about it in a few paragraphs later. I thought that maybe the Kanji of their initials in Japanese, or maybe the pronunciation of their names in another language give rise to a secret message of why they chose these characters for this pose, or maybe I'm just thinking too much.

Well, the next position, position 2 (according to me, again) is occupied by Yuri, Rui, Taiga and Towa. Here I think the position fits with the boys and their statements, because none of them seem to really want to let you go. That's why they are trying to reach out their hand towards the MC, although perhaps timidly, because they are really accepting their fate.

Position 3, occupied by Tohma, Haku, Haru and Zenji, in their posture they don't try to get close to you in the least. They know they are going to die and they have accepted it. Again, I don't know how to fit it or link them together, but I know that they haven't been chosen at random. In this game nothing is a coincidence.

Position 4, the last one shared between ghouls, is occupied by Kaito, Sho, Romeo and Subaru. Again I don't know how to link them together. Oh well Subaru's statement made me very intrigued, I'll also discuss it later.

Well, and there is ONE LAST POSITION THAT ONLY HAS ONE CHARACTER

That character is Ren. And I think he is the traitor.

WAIT DON'T GO, LET ME EXPLAIN

Now is when you will say "why do you think Ren is the traitor just because of his falling position?" well, WELL. To start with I don't think there are "coincidences" in this game, that is, if they have made an effort to make only one drawing for Ren, there must be a reason, right?

Well, let's analyze his line now step by step:

~~ "This is exactly the reason I didn't want to do this! I knew this was how it would end! What am I doing here? This is all your fault..."

'This is the reason I didn't want to do this'? What does he mean by 'this'? It could be anything, but what if he's talking about betraying MC? Because Taiga never said who the traitor works for. What if he works for Darkwick...?

We can't trust Darkwick, that's become clear throughout the chapters. Also, the ghouls are aware that they're trapped inside the academy, and that's not counting what he did to Lyca. So I don't rule out the possibility that Darkwick was the one who 'hired' our spy, so to speak. Also, from the beginning it's clear that Ren doesn't fit in at Jabberwock, where he was assigned... What is he doing there? What if the academy put him there by rigging the entrance ceremony? Because we all know that Jabberwock is home to a hundred anomalies... And if a student in charge of taking care of them deals with them, it won't look weird. That's why Darkwick brought Ren into Jabberwock and somehow bought him to work there. Because, do you remember the mermaid named by Hyde in chapter 7? The one that's not in Morktranken? The one under Haru's custody? Ren is from Jabberwock, he might know something about it... And have gotten hold of it to give to the patient... Although this deduction leads me to another question: why would the academy do this? Or is Ren working for someone inside the academy, like an independent body...? Like that janitor who appears four times throughout the story, that very suspicious one about whom we know nothing.

Guys, I repeat that in this game COINCIDENCES DO NOT EXIST

'I knew this was how it was going to end!' Ren knew there was something wrong from the beginning? Not even Taiga knew, in his statement he asked us what we had done wrong... And now Ren comes and tells us that he had a bad feeling from the beginning... This causes a lot of doubts. Because what is Ren doing telling us that if he lives always locked in his phone? That only means that he knows more than he says.

'What am I doing here? This is all your fault' To begin with, why does he blame us? Not even Leo (u, damnit bitch) talks to us like Ren does. Also, speaking of Leo, his statement tells us that "I will make those assholes pay for this" IN PLURAL which indicates that the traitor works for someone else and does not do it for his own ideals... With Leo's statement I completely rule out that he is the spy, to tell the truth. But I could be wrong.

Returning to the subject of Ren blaming us, I can only wonder what leads him to that. Why does he blame us? What leads us to the hell in which the game begins...? And why is Ren the only one who blames us while the rest of the ghouls either blame themselves or don't name it. I mean, not even Leo does! This just makes me think more and more that Ren isn't hiding anything good... And I also wonder why Subaru is the only one who blames himself directly. I know his personality is like that... But I can only think of Subaru and his misleading statement... Maybe the company wants us to think badly of him? After all, Professor Moby told us that the Hotarubi ghouls are hiding something. And we don't know if we've really discovered what they're hiding or if we've only seen the tip of the iceberg. And Haku seems pretty suspicious to me too, after telling the principal "have I ever hidden something from you?" BUT WE'RE NOT TALKING ABOUT HAKU RIGHT NOW. I know he's hiding something, but I don't think he's the traitor.

Now let's talk about Ren's position.

He's the only one who, when he jumps off the balcony, really seems like he doesn't want to do it. He's the one who stretches his hand out more emphatically towards MC, as if he were regretting what he's doing, or as if he's doing this because he has no other choice or... I don't know. His very stiff posture towards you just seems suspicious to me.

But that's because I think he's the traitor, right? Maybe I'm thinking too much, right?

Remember guys that this here is JUST A THEORY because there are still many chapters and many tests left to be able to refute what we've seen so far. I'm also a follower of several theories that I will be publishing and outlining in the future.

And I'm not an expert in making theories so if you see holes in this one, DON'T HESITATE TO DEBATE WITH ME IN A RESPECTFUL WAY. I'll be reading you ^^

[yuri-is-online]

... so what do we know about the Clash? (pt. 1)

The answer is still not a whole lot! But we did get some extra context surrounding the very first mystery we all caught on to surrounding the missing houses. I did some re-reading for this and noticed some stuff about the MC's curse I'll probably put into another post. Tumblr is being a bitch about word/text count so, I'll have to divide this into a few parts, but for now, here is part one of just the facts as stated in game.

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS THROUGH EPISODE 5: HOTARUBI. PLEASE INTERACT WITH DUE CAUTION.

The Facts

The Clash is first mentioned by name in Chapter 10 of the Prologue after Professor Nicholas takes MC away from the Chancellor's Office to be treated in Mortkranken. Cornelius starts talking to himself having noticed that all of this is happening on the day of the entrance ceremony: "General student house reassignments today, prophecy research and Clash clean up ASAP..." We learn at the start of Hotarubi's Episode that there are three defunct dormitories: Dionysia, Ultio, and Clementia leaving seven intact dormitories. Kaito tells us that the general admissions students are sorted "during their orientation." He also tells us ghouls are very rare, and that where they go affects the power balance between houses.

General Admissions students are normal humans, all houses except for Obscuary and Jabberwock have general admissions students, but Kaito tells us that "The academy stopped general admissions for Jabberwock recently..." meaning that they did have General Admissions students at one point. We also know from both Cornelius's lines and the records MC finds at the beginning of Hotarubi's episode that general students were reassigned to different dorms at the beginning of the year. Kaito also tells us that Obscuary is not a dorm you get in via the weighing of souls even if you are a ghoul, and that there is a rumor about their Dorm Captain ("their captain is the one who-"). Obscuary is not referenced by anyone we speak to in the main story ever again, nor are the rumors about its Captain. I suspect this will be revisited in their Episode.

The MC is being housed in the Cathedrale Terminale. Cornelius tells us "It was vacated quite recently." The dormitory resembles a medieval church and is referenced as having statues, benches, and a pipe organ. Before the cats arrive to do repairs, MC remarks that it looks like "something went on a rampage in here" as a lot of the furniture is broken as are the statues. When Jiro and Yuri come to give MC her check up, Jiro tells Yuri that MC is staying "in the old Clementia dormitory." Clementia is mentioned in passing in Episode 2, when a Vagastrom student references needing them for exorcisms, and then again in Episode 5 when MC finds a list of defunct dormitories and reassigned General Admissions students. The dormitory's name is the same as the roman goddess of mercy and clemency. This is something of a theme with the three missing dormitories.

Dante is the advisor for Frostheim and Vagastrom. He is a new member of staff, just having been hired this year and assigned to the two most difficult dormitories in the school. During the Clash, Alan Mido, the Dorm Captain of Vagastrom believes that he killed him. Dante is aware of this but does not seem to hold a grudge against Alan. Leo seems to find this assignment suspicious and doubts that Dante is his real name.

Jin Kamurai is the Dorm Captain of Frostheim. He has not been seen by most professors, including the previous Frostheim advisor, for around half a year according to Hyde. Kaito tells us that the rumor is it has something to do with the Clash, he describes it as a skirmish that he was able to stay out of but "everyone ended up with some trauma after that... Until last year, that guy was the definition of a charismatic leader." It is revealed to us throughout Episode 1 that Jin has lost his ability to use his stigma without the MC's help.

His Vice Captain, Tohma Ishibashi, was in Vagastrom until the middle of last year, meaning that we can reasonably line up the events of the Clash, Tohma transferring to Frostheim, and Jin losing his stigma as happening around the same time. The relationship between Jin and Tohma reads as a bit more tense than initially thought to me, Tohma is playing a role and Jin is very aware that he's being used, though he does not seem aware to what end. We also know he is looking for a spy, and cooperating with Alan. He asks him to "not draw more attention to himself" before apologizing, I assume about Luca's actions at the start of Episode 2 when he barged into the pit. All of the dorms are eager to not rock the boat with Darkwick more than they already have. Tohma specifically has put in a lot of effort to maintaining a good relationship with Darkwick's staff, which allows him use of specific artifacts like the skeleton key he uses in Episode 1. We will see this same skeleton key used by Haku in Episode 5, implying the staff has the same level of trust in him.

Whatever happened during the Clash seems to have made Frostheim deeply unpopular, especially with Mortkranken and Vagastrom. Haru says that he specifically is unpopular with Frostheim, but it seems like he might have just meant he doesn't get along with Jin as no one seems to do that. Except for his sugar baby MC. Switching dormitories is something you need special permission for, but the Clash seems to have resulted in a wide scale shuffling of power as we have several references to dormitory swapping between the ghouls. Which brings us back to the topic of the missing dormitories.

In Episode 3 when Haru falls unconscious from not taking care of himself, Nicholas and Hyde discuss Jabberwock's active mission. Hyde asks Nicholas about using the Dionysia kids. Specifically he asks Nicholas if he "found" those kids, implying that they very much have been missing. It is not referenced again until Episode 5 when the MC finds the list of defunct dormitories, we do not know when it was disbanded, why its ghouls went missing, or why Nicholas would be unable to assign them missions. The dorm's name is a reference to a festival held in honor of the greek god Dionysus during which multiple theater performances and poetry competitions were held. It is also the name of a flowering plant.

The final missing dormitory is Ultio, which is first mentioned in Episode 5 when MC finds the list of defunct dormitories. We learn later on in the Episode that they were tasked with running the prison in the middle of Hotarubi's lake. The dormitory's name is a reference to the roman goddess of vengeance. Both she and Clementia are considered abstract deities, and related to the reign of Julius Caesar. The roman emperor was thought to need to balance the vengeance of Ultio with the mercy of Clementia, as Ultio is very specifically tied to feelings of anger and Clementia acts of kindness. Whether or not this means anything to the actual story is unverifiable, but I thought it was interesting and since it is a fact it goes here.

We learn more about the spy from Taiga in Episode 4. He specifically says that this spy is out to make the ghouls look bad. he asks the MC if she "would rather stay ignorant and keep letting him fool" her. This could mean that the MC has already met the spy and Taiga is aware of this, but given the man's memory issues it's more likely this is a figure of speech meant to fire her up. Moby tells the MC in Episode 5 that the Hotarubi ghouls are hiding something, and to be wary of them but well. There's like three other things that could be referring to: Zenji (my beloved), Lyca (which I doubt since he and Cornelius seem content to let the poor boy rot), and Subaru's true stigma. It could refer to the spy too of course, but there's too much other stuff going on in there to know for sure.

It is never stated in game who this spy is spying for, or what the ghouls believe his motives to be. Just that he is out to make the ghouls look bad. In Episode 5 the concept of being "Pro-Anomaly" is mentioned for the first time in reference to Hotarubi, with the rumor being that Subaru is keeping a dangerous one as a pet. From this we can assume that part of the divide between ghouls and general admission students is their views on how the anomalies should be treated. This is further enforced by the explanation we are given of Article 78.

Tumblr is being fussy and cutting me off from my beloved bullet points, so I'll have to type up the stuff about the Laurel Crown, Ritsu's findings, and the Institute in the next post. But for the TL;DR of this one: The Clash likely happened during the middle of last year and it is unclear how long it went on for. At some point, three dormitories were disbanded and their students were transferred to other dorms. There is a spy amongst the ghouls who they believe is out to make them look bad, and at least Tohma, Alan, and Taiga are aware of this. And finally, there is a degree of distrust between the Ghouls and the School that seems to have been sparked by how they treat captured anomalies.

next post

[rottenzombrainz]

I was cooking up a crackpot "Jiro is an actual zombie" theory and long story short one thought led to another...

What if Haku is a shapeshifter?

I think the concept of one of the ghouls being a shapeshifter has been around for a while, but I first saw it in a post @istharoth made a few days ago.

I don't have any evidence for why it's Haku specifically other than that his stigma is unknown, he prefers not to use it, and he's theorized to be the spy among the ghouls.

I'm just throwing this idea out there in case it sparks anyone else's detective skills :P

[justseedee]

⚠️(Minor) Spoiler!⚠️ for episode 12

And a mini theory I've had

Yeah, that's not suspicious at all dude...

Towa that's even more suspicious! 🤔

He's been emphasizing the fact that he's totally 100% for sure human this entire episode. I've been thinking lately that if he's not the mermaid, he might be a minor diety of sorts?

Idk it's not like super thought out yet 🤷

Since Ed said the park would die without him around and since his meltdown happened around the same time, Haru and MC found the shrine alter(forgot what it's called) .

[str8upjorkinit]

Is there any storyline you want the game to dive into.Like I want Mc to find out Leo lied about her power not working.Not just affecting her relationship with Leo but with Sho as well.

Thank you for your doodles 🤗,Have a good day

Definitely gotta be the drama between sho leo and subaru, it was rlly interesting in the most recent chapter how we got to see the three of them interact with leo trying to put down subaru, sho trying to get him to stop, and subaru clapping back. I was lowkey embarrassed for leo in that moment but i need to see how this develops. How badly is the sho leo friendship gonna be affected? How badly is leo gonna be affected in general?

I'm also interested in ed and towa's backstory and why towa hates him so much, I need towa lore actually. Like why does towa have deer eyes? How is he so powerful? Why does he only talk at night?

Omg and taiga memory loss, how he can't remember anyone except romeo. I heard a timeline theory about it once where taiga and romeo were probably romantically involved in one of the timelines and taiga keeps forgetting that it's not the correct timeline, but yeah I really wanna know what's with taiga memory loss and need for eating anomalies. Speaking of which I gotta know what hyde and romeo have got going on

I have a lot of questions in general but I think these are the major ones, for some reason I can't bring myself to care about the clash or one eyed sleeping beauty murder, I think it's bc of how vague it is that I don't care that much.

[labulemon]

Observations: Haru Secretly Hates Anomalies?! alt. Sagara Haru and the Clash ft. Sinostra, Kind of

Clickbait title?! A little, kind of. But I swear it's relevant. Random thoughts about Haru, what he potentially tells us about the Clash, and what that could mean for the houses at large. Bullet point list, not very organized

It looks like Haru was part of the pro-Darkwick faction, or at least on the same side as Frostheim. He has Jin's phone number and enough of relationship to consider calling him. Vagastrom, who was Frostheim's enemy, also dislikes him...

Haru is probably from Ultio, the place that treats anomalies very poorly. In the first place, it makes perfect sense for Frostheim and Ultio to have worked together. They are Darkwick's sponsor and the enforcer.

Narratively, it gives Haru a nice motive to be in Jabberwock. Maybe he's "someone who came to understand that Darkwick thinks of ghouls as nothing but anomalies," and "someone who realized the cruelty of their own actions"... Haru, who focuses everything that he is into "protecting" and "taking responsibility for" the animals, seems like he understands intimately what would happen if he fails.

Haru seems chained to Jabberwock, in a way. Not in the sense that he's forced to be there, but in that he is really the last thing standing between the anomalies and Darkwick. Doesn't it seem like Darkwick wants Haru to fail? A half-destroyed safari park, no general students, one vice-captain who couldn't care less what happens to the anomalies.

I think Darkwick always intended to shut Jabberwock down with Clementia, Ultio, and Dionysia. Haru can't keep going forever; as soon as he gives up, those anomalies will have nowhere to go. Darkwick can take full control of the animals after that.

Ritsu notes that there are way more animals in Jabberwock than was recorded in the missions. Could Haru have brought some of the more harmless anomalies with him when he moved from Ultio? Could he have smuggled them? Admittedly, some of his anomalies do sound pretty dangerous.

Relatedly, don't you think Haru's intrusive behavior fits that of a prison warden? Keeping careful track of your captives, deciding their schedule, removing barriers of privacy... He seems to have good intentions now, but the actions are the similar, right? Anyways, that's why I think he's from Ultio.

But that does bring up some interesting questions about house alleigances... Since Haru and Romeo are still close, and he doesn't have any problem with Taiga, it seems like they weren't fighting each other. I might have missed some information about the houses being what they were, but Romeo seems like the type to hold a grudge, right? Assuming Haru used to be pro-Darkwick, it could be that:

1. Sinostra was on Frostheim's side (feels kind of unlikely...) 2. Sinostra was a third-party faction that didn't necessarily have the same interests as the Frostheim/Hotarugastrom team (i.e. being neutral, being anti-Darkwick but also anti-anomaly, just wanting to profit off of the chaos, trying to deal with the spy... etc. etc.) 3. Haru has already solved all his beef with Sinostra offscreen (lol) 4. The Clash was actually every house for itself and there weren't alliances at all?

But Subaru asks MC about whether she goes to Sinostra often. Could it be old prejudices rising up..? Or maybe he's just concerned for her health while she's there (very reasonable). Or if he's the spy, it makes sense that he wants to know more about Taiga, who's onto him...

In general, Jabberwock feels like the true neutral party in this situation. It's just never mentioned anywhere.

I know about the theory that Haru is from Sinostra... But somehow, I feel in my heart that it's incorrect... Sinostra, who's relationships are always in turmoil, feels too distant to Haru for him to have been really been part of the house. I feel like they would've mentioned him moving back to Sinostra already if it was as simple as that. Haku gets tons of references to Frostheim and Clementia, right? Or maybe I just really want my Ultio theory to be right, since I've imagined his character arc that way...

Well, I do love the idea of Haru being a part of Sinostra as some type of 'conman', so I really can't complain.

[localgirlbecomesobsessed]

My crack theory is that Ren is secretly the other mermaid.

[easybeezy]

Just a thought someone else has probably already had but Yuri and jiro said the curse on the PC in the last EP was weakened because her own curse was protecting her so DOES THAT MEAN SHE CAN TOUCH RUI?!?!

like would her curse protect her from instantly dying? Maybe it's like how Ed is with rui?!?

[yuri-is-online]

... so what do we know about the Clash? (pt. 2)

moving right along from part 1

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS THROUGH EPISODE 5: HOTARUBI. PLEASE INTERACT WITH DUE CAUTION.

The Laurel Crown is first referenced by Ritsu in Episode 4. It is an award given to the best performing house of the year at an event called the Darkwick Gala. Kaito says it is held one week before graduation, Ritsu says there are a lot of rewards given out to graduating winners. He also very specifically says that it is "the shortest path to success and independence from Darkwick for us ghouls." That word independence strikes me as important, though it is not followed up on here or elsewhere unless you count the discussion surrounding Article 78 in Episode 5. Ritsu thinks that Taiga was interested in it once upon a time due to his impressive mission completion record in his first year. We know Zenji wanted to win the crown to obtain recognition as an author, while most of the other ghouls we've met show a degree of disinterest or lack of knowledge of it. Ren mentions at the end of this conversation that he didn't know about the Gala, and Ritsu points out that despite being canceled it was never removed from last years schedule. It is not not this year's though, and he implies that Cornelius is covering something up. Which really does seem to be the case...

The Crown system was discontinued as a direct result of the Clash... we think. It is never explicitly stated "yeah the Clash happened so we aren't doing this anymore" it's instead alluded to as something they can't do because there are too many ghouls to control. We know it had to be this as Haku tells Zenji that it was discontinued after he died, and Zenji died during the Clash. According to Haku, he was killed by a rogue anomaly. He adamantly discourages MC from looking into the Clash gee why would you do that HAKU and this seems to be a similar stance to what Cornelius would take if he knew you were curious. Cornelius and Moby are reluctant to let Lyca free because "what if we have another case of a ghoul-" We can assume he is going to say "killing" or something along those lines based off the concerns listed about Lyca, but that's not confirmed.

Ritsu finds documents about the Clash in the school's archives. he finds them alongside disciplinary documents, he says he either overlooked them or someone had them checked out as he has not read them before. The file is thick and is specifically titled "The Clash: An Overview of Civil Affairs Instigated by Darkwick Students." The term "civil affairs" is interesting. As best I can tell it is a military term that refers to small scale missions undertaken by small teams that focus on civil action? Like diplomacy stuff? Or organizing humanitarian aid? And in more sinister scenarios to assist in psychological warfare to condition a population to not fight against your military but I don't know if that's what the translation team was going for here exactly. I think it's just meant to imply things got really bad and really violent.

Lastly, this is less easy to prove than some of the other things as fact but I still think it is one: there are hints of a split in the student body over who is pro-anomaly and anti-anomaly. Subaru is obviously very pro-anomaly and thinks that capturing them is cruel, Taiga seems to be pro eating anomalies while Romeo is very comfortable with catching them and collecting bounties. A lot of this seems to be tied to how they view the school, the Institute that runs it, and their place in that hierarchy. The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that they are trapped at Darkwick and don't want to be. At least not forever.

So to re cap all of the things we know to be fact: the Clash happened sometime last year, half a year ago at the absolute latest. The fight is thought to have been started by the ghouls, we do not know over what. The Laurel Crown system and the Darkwick Gala were both canceled after the fallout of the Clash, in which at least two named people are thought to have died: Zenji Kotodama who would have been a second year Hotarubi student and Dante whose former role is unknown. Zenji still resides in the school as a ghost, though this is unknown to Darkwick staff, and Dante has been brought on as a Professor. Also, all of the Inspectors seem to have quit at the end of the previous year due to the ghouls abusing mesmer matches on them. Three dormitories were disbanded at some point and one new one was created. We do not know if this was connected to the Clash or if it was an inciting incident for it, but at some point Clementia, one of those dormitories, was the scene of some sort of fight. Some of the students of Dionysia dorm went missing, presumably the ghouls. We know nothing about what happened to Ultio aside from the prison they were tasked with running now being run "by Darkwick." All general students from these dorms were re-assigned elsewhere, as were the general students previously assigned to Jabberwock who had general admissions halted. There is a spy amongst these ghouls who Taiga believes is intending to make them look bad; Alan and Tohma are attempting to isolate this spy. We do not know who this spy is spying for, or what Alan and Tohma want out of him exactly, nor do I really expect to find out anytime soon.

So. Now onto the Questions and Theories. As in things we can assume but cannot exactly prove:

Questions and Theories

Jiro and Zenji look extremely similar with a few noticeable differences, namely the piercings Jiro has and the glasses Zenji wears. My first thought was that maybe Jiro was made out of Zenji's corpse, but his birthday is listed as October 13th, which is not the middle of the year by any stretch. They also have different blood types; I think the most practical explanation comes from Zenji himself. When describing why he's so attached to the haunted doll you've found, he says it looks just like his brother did when he was a baby. I have some screenshots of Zenji following Jiro around in a campus event because he wants to help him find something he's looking for, so it does make a bit of sense. And make me even more sad.

The Institute that runs Darkwick seems to be deeply suspicious of ghouls and feel a need to keep them on a short leash. There is a great deal of distrust and resentment between the ghouls and the Institute, and the Clash seems to have been the result of that distrust. The thickness of the records Ritsu finds suggests to me that whatever the Clash was exactly, it took up most of the previous year and that it had something to do with Darkwick's treatment of anomalies.

On that point, I think that Clementia was likely destroyed by a rogue anomaly. The destruction MC sees is described as something going on a rampage, and not as a fight. The fight angle is still possible of course, and if that's the case I wonder if it has something to do with how Ultio was running the prison. I mentioned in the previous post that the goddesses these dorms are named after are meant to sort of balance each other out, so if there was going to be a clash of ideals between anyone on campus it'd probably be these guys.

I feel like Obscuary was set up as a result of the Clash? Or at the very least some time before it specifically so there would be some place for Rui and Ed to go. I think the dorm members will all be crossed with an anomaly in some way, Ed with a vampire, Rui with a reaper, and Lyca with a werewolf. Also, Ed is rumored to have done something. What? No fucking clue, don't even know if it's related to the Clash but still he has done something to get added into the rumor mill.

We don't know what Haku's stigma is as he didn't tell us. He also makes a point of saying that he thinks it's a good thing to get through a mission without using your stigma, if anything he seems to discourage the MC from using or relying on the ring to help the ghouls. You could see this as him trying to encourage her to value herself more, or maybe he thinks that there is a cost for using stigmas we don't know about just yet and they're not the blessings the ghouls think they are. Also he asks Cornelius if he has ever lied to him at the end of the chapter and if you think I didn't find that sus as all hell-

I need to sleep, but remind me to make a post about Haku sometime. Because I don't think he's evil exactly, but I do still think he's the spy.

[rottenzombrainz]

Something I've been thinking about for a while is the One-eyed Sleeping Beauty incident mentioned in tkdb

I'm too tired to get into the details, but I think it has something to do with the kyklos. Especially since Ed is a suspect and he knows the most about the kyklos.

I think maybe he or one of the other suspects (specifically Jiro or Rui) killed the victim to protect others.

actually the more I think about it the more I feel like it'd be Jiro. Especially if I'm right on my theory about his stigma.

Wait wait wait... what if he saw the kyklos's eye and voluntarily got his memory wiped???

I'm just throwing ideas around atp. I could be totally off