This might be redundant because of continued discussion past this point, but I figured I’d chip in my 2c. It was a really good break point for reading.
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Leading into this Sophie specifically warned Kakeru that keeping someone motivated with a twisted mental state like that is extremely difficult. Rational thoughts don’t always work when someone is emotionally unstable and basically crazy. They both already saw that her feelings were excessive after her powers went wild, in that sense I think Sophie knew there was a good chance Sora would ask something unreasonable of Kakeru that he might not handle well. Her warning was to make the right choice, but when you look at their relationship everything Kakeru did was to maintain the status quo. He played the good brother, avoided her when he became conscious of her, moved out when he found the album, always acting responsibly when she would push his buttons… He never tried to address or deal with the problem.
So when we he accepts her feelings (and especially with how the kiss scene progressed) Sora already knew he was doing things because he had to, not because he wanted to. She specifically says he doesn’t have to love her, but wants them to be lovers, but in the end I think chasing that bit of fake happiness backfired on her. It forced to realize that Kakeru couldn’t respond to her feelings and that in a sense her dream would never truly come true. He was maintaining the status quo. That’s where I think the bad end was more less set in stone. As soon as that finishes her powers flare to the point that Kakeru even mentions the stigma and she ends up sleeping all day; Sora had given up.
I think can sympathize with her. Her powers are not only out of control, but have taken away her friendships, family, even her basic ability to survive in society (no mechanical objects, not be recognized by people, etc). She exists, but has been isolated and the last thing keeping her out of complete despair is her brother… who has shown signs of losing and forgetting her like in the arcade. To make it worse, not only is she making her own existence fade, but she’s done it to the person she loves the most. It was already a depressing situation and then guilt probably sank in from that.
I’m not sure why Sophie and Kakeru brought that up. Outside of the arcade scene where Sora was attentive to his spying I don’t remember anything explicitly showing another lapse. Given how her powers kind of worked with line of sight I think her intent to was to quietly disappear alone where other people wouldn’t be affected. It was something of the one chance she had left to make sure Kakeru wouldn’t vanish too because Sora had already given up on making it to the medicine. She was unintentionally erasing the most important person to her and in the one moment where anything goes, the most desperate please a person could probably make, she is forced to realize she’ll never get what she wants. She apologizes for troubling him, almost erasing him, and thanks him before sneaking out.
Or maybe it has something to do with his pants mysteriously vanishing in the night. Sora, consent is important. Or maybe there was a bit of hidden material in the r18 verison. I’m pretty sure Adam already pointed out there wasn’t any significant plot points there though. Despite all of this not really feeling like r18 came into play I’m pretty sure I saw a few more adult vocab terms crop up on JPDB… so I’m actually not sure how I feel about how the bad end would have worked if that was the case. At the least my interpretation would be completely wrong.
Everything I said was dependent on Kakeru fundamentaly rejecting her even if he outwardly said yes and because of that I actually liked this bad end. It wasn’t amazing, but it wasn’t a generic someone gets stabbed in the back and dies thing. There was something of a bittersweet dance of two kids struggling with their emotions under unreasonable ending and I appreciate that. I just don’t appreciate how the writers keep retconning stuff into the story as soon as things become relevant. That whole “kujou didn’t text me thing” was just… lame and unnecessary.