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#writing archetypes
transcendragon · 2 months
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In light of figuring out what to do with the announcement of tumblr and Wordpress selling content for AI generation, there will not be art today.
HOWEVER. I did make a UQuiz for the first time. It took longer than I expected, but I had a lot of fun with it. Check it out!
https://uquiz.com/uSdebr
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to be honest, i don't mind damsel characters.
you just gotta not make them only a damsel.
what do they like? what do they dislike? do they have friends, family, a love interest? why or why not? what's their morality?
are they a damsel because they want to be one? are they a damsel because they're brave, but don't know how to fight very well? are they a damsel because they like messing with people?
you gotta make them interesting, man.
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It's annoying enough that Harry can't make a decision without Ron and Hermione sitting on his shoulders giving either extreme on the matter. What makes it worse is that on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is too impulsive and 10 is too overthought, Harry's decisions are always around a 3, so Ron gets pushed all the way to a 1 and Hermione has to stay close to 5 to balance it out. What that means is that Hermione ends up always being right. This isn't how you play your know-it-all supporting character--like Donatello or Lisa Simpson, she's supposed to frequently miss the forest for the trees to illustrate that her counterpart (in this case Ron) is occasionally closer to the mark. So the trio is completely unbalanced, with the id being constantly useless and the superego being constantly correct. (Maybe this is why Harry/Hermione shippers are so damn puritan.)
via this contemporary review of Deathly Hallows, 2007; credit jim-smith.livejournal.com
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ahb-writes · 7 months
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Writing Problem: The Villains Are Cartoonish, Evil-for-the-Sake-of-Evil
Problem: The Villains Are Cartoonish, Evil-for-the-Sake-of-Evil
Solution: Villains require just as much character development as the novel's heroes, protagonists, and perspective characters. Effective villainy incorporates consequential decision making, relatable character motivations, believable perspectives and experiences, and most important, intention. When a writer diversifies these facets of a so-named villain's free will, humanity, personal interests, and relationship with the story's main conflict, one is better-positioned to craft a more diverse and more engaging villain.
Writing Resources:
How Your Character's Failures Can Map A Route To Self-Growth (Writers Helping Writers)
Good Character Flaws: Create Complex Antagonists (Now Novel)
50 Questions to Ask Your Antagonist (Alyssa Hollingsworth)
Antagonist Starts Good, Becomes Drunk With Power (related, master list) (Writing Questions Answered; ahbwrites)
16 Villain Archetypes (Chosen by the Planet; ahbwrites)
How to Give Your Antagonist a Little Humanity (Fiction Writing Tips; ahbwrites)
How to Write the Perfect Villain (Jericho Writers)
How to Build an Antagonist (How to Fight Write)
Negative Trait Thesaurus (Evil) (One Stop for Writers)
Theme and Symbolism Thesaurus (Evil) (One Stop for Writers)
❯ ❯ Adapted from the writing masterpost series: 19 Things That Are Wrong With Your Novel (and How to Fix Them)
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kittimau · 2 years
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don't get me wrong I love unhinged feral disaster characters but may I submit: the calm, collected, master of resting nothing-fazes-me bitchface character gradually being pushed to their breaking point, slowly and agonizingly becoming more deranged as the foundation they've built their worldview, their entire identity, upon crumbles to pieces beneath them, until all that's left is blood and ash and the beast that's lied dormant within the darkest depths of their soul finally, gleefully awakens to unleash absolute fucking hell, mmm yeah that's the good stuff
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novlr · 11 months
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The idea of the twelve character archetypes was suggested by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. His theory on basic human personalities suggests that each human is led predominantly by one of four motivations during their lifespan, split into three separate character traits. These archetypes are now often used by writers as a basis for their characters.
The "Provide Structure" trait includes:
The Caregiver
The Creator
The Ruler
The "Spiritual Journey" trait includes:
The Innocent
The Explorer
The Sage
The "Leave a Mark" trait includes:
The Hero
The Outlaw
The Magician
The "Connect With Others" trait includes:
The Everyman
The Lover
The Jester
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ghosts-and-glory · 22 days
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Every time I try and draw Bora (my stupid oc) I can’t get it out of my head that his ass looks like a (modern-ish) human Narinder.
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I do think it’s incredibly fun when people say my oc looks like “insert character from something else” but I am an outlier. Don’t tell this to other artists who aren’t me.
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andhumanslovedstories · 8 months
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Columbo season three episode eight “A Friend in Deed” is a great episode in terms of leaning into one of my favorite facets of Columbo: trickster figure serving comeuppance. I love episodes where Columbo seems very very small in the face of the murderer’s sheer power, like a fable where, through trickery, a mouse squirms its way out from under the paws of the cat and tricks the cat into punishing itself at the same time.
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wealmostaneckbeard · 6 months
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About Mech Pilots:
There are many different kinds of mech pilots. But they can be arranged into a spectrum with monotask on one side and multitask on the other.
Multitask pilots have a life and skill sets outside of their combat vehicle. They can still be dangerous without their ride because of their tactical and political acumen. Examples of such pilots can be found in Titanfall, Lancer, and Battletech/Mechwarrior.
Monotask pilots are essentially organic control devices mounted inside the mech. They have slightly more personality and agency than other system components like an autoloader or jet thrusters. But the pilot is just as useless as those things if removed from the greater whole. Examples of these pilots can be found in Armored Core and Warhammer 40,000.
There are pilots that can fall between these extremes such as conscripted civilians, venerated sacrifices, or artificial intelligences. Examples of these beings can be found in Mobile Suit Gundam, Gen:Lock, or, again, Warhammer 40k.
There's no wrong way to portray pilots. That being said, I'd love to read stories where pilots from across the spectrum interact with each other.
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thefiresofpompeii · 27 days
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i hope ruby gets a well-that’s-alright-then-style notdeath. on the one hand it will make haters mad because oh no not another companion with an impermanent end (and i like to see haters mad) on the other it would require creativity to depict this in a new way + i love all the implications i love the dark fairytale quality of these companion exits i love my un-undead schrodinger’s women
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with the way the legend of ruby sunday is titled… legends aren’t usually told about living people. legends are stories of the bygone past, of an age long since over, fictionalised and overgrown with folklore like barnacles sticking to an abandoned shell. there is such a thing as a living legend, but they’re exceedingly rare. the unmistakeable raven’s call in the 73 yards teaser, the trailer’s cut to fifteen crying alone after promising to cherry he’d protect her daughter… the foreshadowing is clear as day…
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and yet. there’s one massive HOWEVER. ruby appears in s15: millie’s been spotted on set filming it. which leads me to believe — the doctor isn’t one to take the time travel route and revisit companions that in his future are genuinely dead. that would hurt too much, it would cause unnecessary trauma and could break the timeline. that must mean ruby stays alive in some way. ish. she’s alive and a legend and a mystery. girl-ballad girl-song girl-paradox
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here she is, fading out.
p.s.: thesis statement on moffatgirls from the tags i left on somebody else’s post about charley pollard.. well it belongs here since it’s basically the semiotic hurricane swirling around ruby at the moment :)
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#on a personal level what interests me about these characters is precisely what gets them labeled as being subject to#misogynistic writing by pop-feminist video-essayists. as an autistic girl* (*ish) however; i find female characters that#aren’t quite ‘normal people’; women who represent an idea or concept or are a puzzle to be solved or a manic pixie dream girl to be#more and in a way far more interesting than a girl-next-door-type universally relatable protagonist#they make for more nuanced stories with more symbolism and more layers of interpretation usually. why should there be realism in a#fantastical narrative? similarly i like characters that are haunting the narrative or dead before it began (big locked tomb fan if you#didn’t know) and like. not to be tvtropes but the lost lenore archetype. dead woman who spurs the hero on to recklessness or revenge.#i identify with that dead girl. the laura palmers of the world. set the story in motion without#necessarily having agency. maybe it’s something to do with my#constant background radiation of passive suicidality. in a fun whimsical way :) i would never kill myself but i don’t want to be a real#person. i want to be objectified but not necessarily in a k*nky s*xual way (that too) in a princess in a tower way#the ultimate femme fantasy innit? there’s something about it. hashtag problematic hashtag conforming to gender roles#10000 tags be upon ye#ruby sunday#millie gibson#doctor who#dw#steven moffat#clara oswald#fifteen#fifteenth doctor#twelveclara#amy pond#charley pollard#river song#donna noble#ncuti gatwa#doctor who meta#jamie.txt#haunting
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This system does not require faith — only accordance.
Alt text: Screenshots from Revolutionary Girl Utena with overlaid text. 1: Dios on a white horse, standing up high on a broken bridge. Text: An innocence is infallible.
2: Dios and young Utena looking at young Anthy, suspended in the air on the swords of hate. Text: The decisions made by one are not decisions.
3: Anthy's silhouette against a pink background, pierced by many blades, hair flying. Text: They are inevitabilities —
4: Touga looking out the tower window at the stars. His shirt is open and he holds a potted cactus. Text: what would have happened anyway,
5: An apple with a slice cut out, pierced by many forks. Text: only accelerated.
6: B-ko the shadow girl in Prince costume, taking a heroic stance. Text: An Innocence is a continuous, compressed event, a sacred human being.
7: Akio, dressed as End of the World, holds Utena, dressed as a rose bride. Text: It is an honor and a glory to live when one is in office.
8: Closeup on young Utena and Dios's feet, standing at the edge of a sheer drop. Text: YOU — Is one in office now?
9: A dark, empty stage with a rose design on the lowered curtain. Text: No.
10: Young Utena standing alone under a spotlight. She is staring at the spot where young Anthy disappeared. There are cracks in the wall resembling the shape of the swords coming out of Anthy's body. Text: We are alone.
#revolutionary girl utena#disco elysium#shoujo kakumei utena#dios#akio#utena#anthy#touga#kanae#csa tw#for clarity in case this doesn’t read the way im intending for it to read#the comparison between akio and the innocentic system is the idea of like. why they’re called innocences to begin with#the idea that they are ‘’innocent’’ in that everything they do is 1) inevitable 2) a reflection of the will of the world and everyone in it#akio and the prince archetype both have echoes of that idea#the prince as someone who is infallible and sacred and a necessary part of the world#and akio as someone who uses that rhetoric of infallibility and of only being a reflection of the way the world works#to write off his heinous crimes a la the innocenses and their war crimes#and ‘’we are alone’’ is utena recognizing the death of the prince. she is alone. she has to do this herself#in sacred and terrible air miro says something like ‘’be at peace. i am innocent and so you all are as well’’#in the same breath as he launches a nuke#i feel part of utena’s arc is about rejecting the idea that something is acceptable just bc everyone else around her seems to accept it#bc the truth is more that her peers have resigned themselves to their fates… it’s not truly what they want. they just cant imagine smth else#and so rather than say ‘’i am innocent and so we all are innocent’’#she learns to say ‘’i am guilty of many things but i can change. and so can you. and so can the world’’
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Wholeness is not achieved by cutting off a portion of one's being, but by integration of the contraries.
Carl G. Jung
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coldshare · 10 months
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A word To build a scenario around... Steam
thank you for the prompt, anon! ♡ here it is (with some gratuitous references to contagion... you know me)
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a character who's the type to prioritize self care over everything... who lives luxuriously, the type to resort to everything from expensive spa days to unwind, the type who's familiar with every natural remedy in the book, because really, even the slightest ailment is a perfect excuse to take it easy and even pamper themselves a little bit
the same character who feels themselves coming down with a terrible, incredibly contagious cold. but for whatever reason - maybe their boss urges them to come in (it's just a small cold, after all, and so much work still needs to get done), or maybe because they're just so confident in their home remedies to do the trick - they head to work anyways.
their desk becomes a mini pharmacy for the day - soft lotion tissues, three different tins of tea specifically meant to relieve cold and flu symptoms, herbal cough drops, a few cooling salves for their red, irritated nose, hot packs for their sinuses, a humidifier for the congestion. after all... if they're going to have to work with this cold, why not make their time here as comfortable as possible?
but still, despite every remedy, their cold turns out to be annoyingly persistent - they're just so congested they can hardly breathe through their nose, plagued with a tickle (not severe enough to catalyze a sneeze, in most cases, but present enough to be very distracting) in their nose which won't leave them alone no matter what. even worse, every sneeze is irritatingly unproductive; it does nothing to relieve the tickle - in fact, it almost seems to make it worse...
they make it to halfway through the afternoon where they decide they can't stand it anymore - they're not feeling too terrible, but this is certainly annoying, and that's enough of a reason for them to put an end to it once and for good. breathing in steam can be therapeutic, and even better, it's supposed to relieve congestion, right?
after a few moments consideration, they swipe the small vial of lavender essential oil off their desk. they've never been fond of this particular vial compared to the other essential oils they own - it always leaves them sniffly and teary eyed - but perhaps that would be a welcome side effect, just this once.
from there, they head into the break room and boil some water using the coffee machine (so what if they end up sneezing a few times, all over the coffee machine, misting the company countertops? it's not like they can control when they sneeze... with this cold, every sneeze just sneaks up on them; it's not their fault that they're not always able to cover.) they pour the boiling water out into a large bowl, drop a few drops of the lavender essential oil inside, and take a seat at one of the tables in the break room, which - aside from them - is thankfully empty.
the first breath of hot, fragrant steam does wonders for their congestion, which they can feel start to loosen for the first time, making their nose run. they haven't brought any tissues with them... perhaps that was an oversight, but the steam is just so relieving, they can't just stop now...!
the next few breaths, they can really start to smell the lavender, and... oh, the tickle in their nose sharpens with such intensity it takes them off guard.
"heh... hEhh... HIH-! hheh-Hhehh... heh... hehH..."
god, their nose tickles so badly; it's practically begging for relief. they lean their head down, taking another deep breath in through their nose.
"hehH... hehh-HEH-!" fuck, so close, just a little more... "hheh... HehhH.... hh-heh-Hehh-HEHh-!! HEHH'IIHHSHIEEEW!"
it's as if that first sneeze completely opens up the floodgates, snapping them forward - only for them to inhale a huge breath of hot steam. they wipe their nose on one palm, but even the slightest pressure against their nose seems to increase the tickle tenfold. everything smells like so strongly of lavender, it's - HEHh-! making them - heh-HEHh - h-have to -
"HEHH'ISSSHHIEw! hHAH'IITSHuUH! heh... heh-hEhh-HEHh-hHEH'TCHIIIEEEW! hH... hHIh! hahh-HAh-AHH.... AHH'IIIITTSCHHUueE!"
every sneeze absolutely drenches the table beneath them. they lift their hands to halfheartedly shield the first couple of sneezes, but with the number of particles that escape through their fingertips regardless, does it really even matter? it's not like anyone else is in the break room, after all. they turn their head aside to keep from spraying the table (even if all that accomplishes is spread their cold in the other direction.)
besides... don't they deserve to sneeze after having not been able to sneeze all morning, aside from the few terribly unsatisfying sneezes they'd had to put up with? isn't it only right that they get relief from this annoying cold as soon as possible? they need to get all the viruses out of their system to get rid of this cold... each messy, spraying sneeze sets them closer on the path to recovery. the tickle in their nose is really just there to help them sneeze out their cold as soon as possible, so why not coax it even further, make this process a little faster? really, they're doing their body a favor as they breathe in more steam, as they give in to the tickle in their nose, as they sneeze and sneeze and sneeze...
(maybe that's what they think, but they've left the air so utterly saturated with their cold viruses that it's no wonder that half the office comes down with the same miserable, messy cold in the weeks following, leading to more than a few dirty looks... after all, they brought their cold to work, and they hadn't exactly been subtle about it)
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nathaniacolver · 7 months
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lena luthor is asami-sato-coded: a venn diagram
hi everyone it's me the girl who made the korrasami x caitvi x avatrice venn diagrams before.
i am currently on s04 e04 of supergirl so i apologize for any falsehoods ab lena bc i don't know everything yet (BUT 168 bookmarked fanfics should have served me enough, right?)
behold, the two pale af, rich af, genius af, social status af, villain-coded, black-haired, green-eyed engineer/inventor/CEO wives of the protagonist:
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if anyone has anything else they can think of for the overlap (or the sides!), i am more than happy to add it! i gave this all my brainpower for 2 hours but that was me alone, just 1 humanpower. always down for a group project
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novlr · 7 months
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accirax · 3 months
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New Evidence Regarding DRDT's Chapter 2 Killer?
Hello again, everybody! As I continue on my journey of rewatching DRDT via stream, I continue to pick up on more and different things than I noticed the first time. The subject of this theory post is the letter, signed by Eden (even if it wasn't necessarily written by her), that she, Rose, and Whit put together before the second Class Trial began-- I want to take another look at it.
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(CW for Despair Time spoilers through 2-10 and mentions of suicide as described in Arturo's secret)
This note is a highly important piece of evidence, and I would expect that anyone invested in trying to solve the case is pretty familiar with its contents. However, I want to highlight exactly what the killer had to know in order to put this note together.
There is someone in the cast who has a motive secret that someone was "responsible for the death of [his/her] sister."
Eden was the recipient of this person's secret.
Eden didn't mean to tell this person, but it slipped out.
This person threatened to do something to Eden.
Arei promised to be Eden's friend.
Like I said, shouldn't be too much of a shock to any of you. However, what I really want to draw attention to is the first bullet point: someone is responsible for the death of his or her sister.
Why am I drawing attention to it? Because the last time Eden or Arturo says anything even close to a family member dying is here... (11:31)
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...before Arei arrives. (12:44)
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(The last time anyone actually says "sister" is Eden at 11:13.)
But, why is the time of Arei's arrival such an important distinction?
The thing is, most killer theories I've seen for anyone other than Eden or Arturo account for the killer being able to write this note by listening in to the conversation through the door. What I'm trying to say is that there's a contradiction there that I, at least, didn't notice until just now:
If the killer, listening in through the door had to know that the secret Eden received was about Arturo being responsible for the death of his sister, they had to be listening in before Arei arrived, because that is the only time in which Arturo's secret is discussed in enough detail to mention a family member dying. However, when Arei arrived, she had to walk right past and through the door.
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This is what the door to the outside of the Infirmary looks like. There is no way in hell that Arei wouldn't have been able to see anyone who was walking by or listening in while she was doing the exact same.
So, what would this mean? Well, it would mean that only Arturo, Eden, and possibly Arei (depending on when she got into earshot of the door) knew enough about Arturo's motive secret before the murder to include all of those details in the note.
Or, at least, that's the boldest version of the claim. However, there are some counterarguments.
The first is that other people could have known if Arturo, Eden, or possibly Arei told somebody else about what happened and mentioned the detail about Arturo's secret. However, I don't believe that any of the three of them would have done that.
Arturo very clearly did not want his secret to get out, and seemingly didn't even want to believe that the death was his fault in the first place. Threatening Eden and making an enemy of Arei also make him look really bad. Both factors combined make it very unlikely that Arturo would want to tell anyone that this happened.
Eden also didn't want to tell anyone about what happened because she was afraid of Arturo finding out, as is clear in the Class Trial. Additionally, if she did want to tell someone so that they could help protect her from Arturo, it probably would have just been Arei. Thus, the information wouldn't have spread any farther than just Arei again.
Arei is definitely the iffiest option, but I still find it hard to believe that she would have told anyone about this occurrence. Firstly, it's already debatable whether Arei heard the specifics of Arturo's secret in the first place. Secondly, Arei probably would have had respect for her new friend and not wanted to share this traumatic event and put Eden in danger. I guess it's possible that Arei could have tried to tell someone about what happened to try to rally a larger movement against Arturo, and then that single person turned around and decided to kill Arei (thus leaving no innocent person who would want to bring up that Arei talked to them in the Class Trial). But, that's... a bit of a stretch. Plus, even if Arei did that, why include the specific details of what Arturo's secret was about?
The second option is that the killer could have planted some kind of bug or other listening device into the Infirmary so that they could overhear the conversation from afar. However, given that we have been given literally no advanced warning that a device like this can even be obtained within the set, much less that anyone actually used one in that location, I'm tossing this objection out, too.
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And no, I don't think J's remote could have accomplished something like that, either. Not without an actual listening device already in the room.
The final possibility that I've thought of is that someone could have overheard the conversation from somewhere other than the doorway, which holds a lot more weight. Let's take a look at what's around the Infirmary.
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Based on the map, I think the only places that are possibly close enough to the door of the Infirmary are the doors of the Cafeteria or Bathroom (Wash Closet; WC). Recall that, given the private nature of the conversation and that Arei is shown pushing the doors open in the CG, the doors were probably closed. Thus, anyone listening in would have needed to hear the conversation from behind at least one set of closed doors.
Let's start by quickly ruling out the Bathroom. I'm operating on the assumption that, if you can hear something going on in the Infirmary from where you are, people in the Infirmary could hear what's going on in that location, too. If people could hear what's going on in the Bathroom all the way from the Infirmary... Well, that's some pretty shitty architectural design, pun intended.
The Cafeteria is a viable location, though. In fact, we've already confirmed that you can overhear a conversation going on in the Cafeteria from the Infirmary.
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So, using the same logic I described earlier, if Teruko could hear something in the Cafeteria from the Infirmary, it stands to reason that you could hear something in the Infirmary from the Cafeteria.
However, this argument still has its issues as well. The thing that Teruko (and Xander) overhear in this scene is, funnily enough, Arei arguing with Eden over not being invited to bake with her. It is described in multiple lines as a very loud event.
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While I don't deny that a panicked Eden, a shaken Arturo, and an infuriated Arei could have been quite loud, all of those things, once again, happened after the last time that Eden or Arturo said anything about a dead family member. It's impossible to tell for sure given that the prior part of the conversation isn't fully voice acted, but it's implied that everything Eden says about Arturo's secret is in a regular, or possibly even hushed, tone of voice. If someone only started listening in after things got loud, they would not have heard about Arturo's secret in detail.
Additionally, there are the logistics of who would be sitting in the Cafeteria. Given that nobody else has stepped forward and shared that they overheard this conversation as well (even under potential penalty of death), it seems reasonable to assume that no innocent student overheard what happened in the Infirmary. Therefore, conversely, if any student(s) did overhear the conversation, they were probably involved in the murder somehow. I'm sure you could argue some fringe cases, but this is the general rule.
Unfortunately for this argument, though, the majority of scenes in the Cafeteria have many people present in them, whether due to partaking in a meal or a fight. Overall, that makes it unlikely that someone would be in the Cafeteria by themselves or with only one or two other people. That's not always the case, though, so we can't rule out only a few people being in the Cafeteria!
Can we try to further pin down the time period when this confrontation occurs to try to figure out who could or could not have been in the Cafeteria?
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Eden tells us that this confrontation happened on "the day Nico tried to kill Ace" and "the day that Arei and [Eden] had a falling out," which, by my notes, is Day 6. Arturo never challenges this notion, and it also lines up with Eden being afraid that someone is following her on the night of Day 6, so I think that this is true. The canonical events that Teruko takes part in during Day 6 are:
Teruko plays with cacti and gets caught by Eden
J and Arturo, Nico and Ace, and Arei and MonoTV fight
Charles' secret is revealed
Eden tries to host a clock decorating event
Arei has her breakdown and David comforts her
Teruko confronts Rose about her secret
Nico threatens to kill Ace
Nico's secret is revealed and Hu and David comfort them
J drags Teruko into a closet to get away from Arturo
Teruko runs into Eden in the Dress Up Room
Ace is nearly murdered and tries to confront Nico afterward
The events highlighted in green are the only ones of the day that none of Arturo, Eden, or Arei are in. Given that all of them were present for the confrontation, it could not have happened simulataneously with any of the other events.
If the confrontation occurred while Teruko discussed Rose's secret with her (and Nico was there), the killer could really be anyone other than Teruko, Rose, or Nico. Anyone who we didn't have eyes on theoretically could have been in the Cafeteria at that time.
If the confrontation took place while Nico was threatening to kill Ace, however, I doubt that anyone would have been able to listen in on the Infirmary conversation over that cacophony. Therefore, for the sake of someone listening in, that option should also be eliminated. If it took place while Hu and David were comforting Nico, things would look bad for Levi and Rose, as they were both still in the Cafeteria after Teruko left. I know what I said about multiple students in the Cafeteria probably all needing to be collaborators in the murder, but if it was Levi and an asleep Rose, perhaps Levi could have gotten away with eavesdropping by himself?
Despite all of that, though, I think that Arturo's relatively calm and normal (for him) demeanor during the closet scene would speak to the notion that he hadn't just heard that Eden knew about his sister's suicide. Therefore, I believe that the confrontation likely occurred between Teruko's two trips to the Dress Up Room, when she "spent the rest of the day in her room resting." That would line up both with Arturo's claim that he was just "in the middle of something with Julia" (Teruko saw them together just beforehand), give Arei more time to cool down and reflect after her big afternoon, and put the time of the confrontation very close to when Eden is worried about someone following her. (Although, it does give Arturo less time to have "been following" her, assuming that comment was about him.)
That would also give pretty much anyone the chance to have been in the Cafeteria, because Teruko wasn't with anyone at that time. However, it may have been during a pretty dinner-y time, which decreases the odds that anyone would have been in the Cafeteria alone or nearly-alone.
If all that wasn't enough, here's one final wrinkle: whoever witnessed all of this happening would have overheard Arturo threatening Eden and decided not to get involved themselves. It's not a total nail in the coffin, given that I would assume most theories in which the killer overheard the conversation require them to have not attempted to help Eden for one reason or another. But, it is something to consider. Personally, I have a particularly hard time believing that J, #1 Arturo Hater, and Levi, adventurer on the quest of being a good person in the same vein as Eden, wouldn't have tried to stop what was going on if they'd heard.
So, in summary, if the person who wrote the note is not Arturo, Eden, Arei, or someone working very closely with them, they have to be someone who was in the Cafeteria probably alone at the time of the confrontation (assuming Eden's words were even loud enough to be overheard from across the hallway through probably closed metal doors), who decided not to step in to save Eden.
What does that mean? Well, I think that it means that it's very likely that Arturo or Eden is the killer, because having all of those dubiously possible clauses happen to fire off all at once seems implausible to me. But, I already thought that Eden was the killer, so it may just be confirmation bias. Otherwise, since we can't pin down the exact time of the confrontation, I don't think it actually helps us to fully eliminate anyone from the running-- other than, arguably, Teruko. I do urge everyone who thinks that someone other than Eden or Arturo is the culprit to consider this data when coming up with their theories, though.
However, I will end this on the note that all of this deductive reasoning is... incredibly nitpicky. At the end of the day, the crew behind DRDT is very small, and I would understand if the exact details of where and when what parts of Arturo's secret were said or what exactly the Infirmary door looked like were things that they didn't take into account when planning out the murder.
I've seen some critics say about recent YouTube indie animation shows that the long hiatuses between episodes give the shows an unfair disadvantage. That's because the long gaps allow fans to scrutinize every detail of the worldbuilding and characterization and find their holes for far longer than a network television show would between episodes. While DRDT is not exactly one of these indie animation pilots, it is a YouTube show created by a small team of independent creators. I can only imagine that they may be facing the same thing with having to take a break mid-trial. If that's the case, and what I've presented here contradicts what actually happened in Chapter 2, know that I don’t hold it against DRDTdev at all, and don’t think you should, either. I would apologize for pointing out this “mistake,” if you can even call something this minor that.
However, I also think that all of this might be possible, perhaps even on a coincidental/subconscious level, because Eden or Arturo is the killer, and DRDTdev didn't think too much about the logistics of how someone else would overhear the conversation. So for now, I'm considering all of this logic as reasonable theorywork.
If you have any rebuttals though, whether about a specific character or the premise in general, I'd love to hear them! Or, if I missed some detail in the story in general that blows this theory to smithereens entirely, I wouldn't love to hear that, but it would probably be good if I did.
Otherwise, thank you for reading, and have a lovely rest of your day! :D
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