History Fanfic / Dominoes

* ChekhovsGun: [[spoiler:During the False Kidnapping Incident, the structral damage Ran causes to the building in response to KID's taunting ends up ruining KID's and Shinichi's plan later when the building collapses seconds away from KID achieving his goal]].

*** [[spoiler:This adds further implications to Shinichi's exclusion, because Hakuba's choosing between Yuusaku and Shinichi implies innate recognition that Shinichi ''is'' a natural leader despite Yuusaku's attempts to minimize Shinichi's influence and isolate him--Shinichi is independent-minded and unable to be cowed into toeing someone else's line against his own principles, quick and thorough in creating plans to manage problems, willing to advocate for his own ideas in an even and fair manner, confident in creating and enacting his plans with the resources available while being sensitive of the ethical issues of exploiting people, and even the characters that cooperate with Yuusaku's abuse discuss Shinichi's solid moral and factual integrity and accuracy of perceptions (though never to his face). Despite confronting infinitely more road blocks and everyone expressing nothing but shame and reprimands, the bare, obvious fact remains that Shinichi still ran circles around Hakuba in every facet of Hakuba's job throughout the entirety of Part 1. It hints ''again'' that the reasons for excluding Shinichi ''aren't'' that he's "useless," because he appears to honestly be a ''far'' better leader in a crisis than Hakuba despite his lack of training]].

** The entirety of the Irregulars by the end of Part One have sacrificed so much for the sake of being "good heroes" as judged by ISHA's parameters, and what comes of that is ''brutal,'' especially for Ran. [[spoiler:She spent over a year neglecting and {{Gaslighting}} someone she considers to be the love of her life and constantly sacrificing the quality of her relationship with him for the benefit of her secret training with his father, thinking that complying with this abusive policy was just a normal, necessary thing on the path to becoming a noble, heroic member of ISHA. Even when faced with the fact that she's aiding an abuser (and even replicating the abuser's abusive rhetoric) and her and Shinichi's romantic relationship has broken beyond repair from this, she still claims she's "good at being a hero." By the close of part one, it's almost as if the world answered her claims of heroism by rubbing her face in how ''ignoble'' her chosen career truly is under the propaganda: she (and the others) are left faced with the fact that the Irregulars are actually the minions of a police state that extrajudiciously murders people whose lives they consider incongruous or threatening to public order, ''including innocent children,'' and the Irregulars have actually committed at least one of those murders themselves. Their boss is a murderer, and now ''they'' are ''child'' murderers. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Ran's also newly single]].]]

* {{Dystopia}}: When the world's authorities gaslight witnesses and use supernaturally emotion manipulating spokespeople to manage public opinion, child murder can and has been considered a tragic necessity, the world's "good guys" either support the use of or ''are'' [[ChildSoldier Child Soldiers]] and no one even remotely questions the morality of this, and a prominent reoccuring conflict for most of the cast inside the "good guy" authority structure is just how much ForTheGreaterGood can really excuse hurting people, you know your story takes place in one.

* {{Dystopia}}: When the world's authorities gaslight witnesses and use supernaturally emotion manipulating spokespeople to manage public opinion, child murder can and has been considered a tragic necessity, the world's "good guys" either support the use of or ''are'' [[ChildSoldier Child Soldiers]] and no one even remotely questions the morality of this, and a prominent reoccuring conflict for most of the cast is just how much ForTheGreaterGood can really excuse hurting people, you know your story takes place in one.

** [[spoiler:This moment becomes this even more with hindsight; aside from a brief glimpse in the distance a couple hours later, this is the last time Ran sees Shinichi before the riot in downtown Tokyo, afterwhich Shinichi becomes one of the many missing persons that result from that disaster]].

* DysfunctionJunction: [[spoiler:Until chapter 11,]] the most healthy relationship given significant focus in the story is the still-distant acquaintanceship between a friendless reporter and a supervillain thief who seeks a blood debt on the reporter's father and is the enemy of everyone else in said reporter's life. It's the most healthy because despite the difference and conflict, both always show a default level of respect to each other as intelligent fellow human beings. Yes, the relationships in this story are ''that screwed up.'' [[spoiler:This changes once the very supportive Professor Agasa takes prominence in the plot, but this doesn't improve any of the other relationships]].

* AnAesop: Loved ones aren't tools or objects, and the moment you're prepared to treat them like ones is the moment you should also be prepared for that loving relationship to end, because you will have compromised it.

* InsaneTrollLogic: Ran has a moment in chapter 8. In it, Ran expresses a disturbingly condescending view towards Shinichi's capabilities at handling his own independence, outright calling him "fragile" and "weak" (though to be fair, she also calls herself weak for being unable to emotionally handle the possibility of him being in danger). She rationalizes her support of the secrecy and control policy used against Shinichi by making clear that she considers the limitations on his agency and knowledge acceptable, preferable, and necessary so as to keep him safe, even if it costs him his happiness. The insane part is that [[spoiler:Ran internally proclaims this ''while under the impression that still-ignorant Shinichi has been kidnapped due to his relationship with the Irregulars]],'' proving that the secrecy and control policy used towards Shinichi has done none of what she's insisting it does. Despite her rationalizations, [[ImplausibleDeniability the basic reality of her situation while asserting said rationalizations proves them to be completely and utterly delusional.]]

* ChekovsGun: [[spoiler:During the False Kidnapping Incident, the structral damage Ran causes to the building in response to KID's taunting ends up ruining KID's and Shinichi's plan later when the building collapses seconds away from KID achieving his goal]].

*** This is demonstrated pretty clearly by [[spoiler:Hakuba's choosing between whether to follow Shinichi or Yuusaku on the Black Hole Crisis. On one level, it's presented as a choice between Shinichi's refusal to compromise over the worth of human life vs. Yuusaku's idea of [[ForTheGreaterGood The Greater Good]]. On a more subtle level, however, the fact that Hakuba chose a side to follow rather than taking the primary leadership position himself gives away how ineffective Hakuba is as a leader in the overarching story of Part 1; for all his supposed insider knowledge, he ultimately knew the least about the situation at hand and how to handle it, let alone lead others through it. Shinichi, despite everything against him, is still able to completely re-route the Irregulars' mission to fall in line with his plan based solely on his word that his solution to the situation is possible and preferable, but he's only able to do so because, rather than leading the Irregulars' plans himself, the Irregulars' leader, Hakuba, chose between Yuusaku and Shinichi taking charge.]] When given the opportunity to choose between taking the leadership role in a group or following another, Hakuba is a ChildSoldier at heart, not a general: despite knowing that he's supposed to be in charge of his team, he still tends to default to following orders and replicates the behavior of whoever is leading ''him'' when he ''does'' have to try to lead. Which makes sense, because Hakuba ''is'' a ChildSoldier, and has been raised to trust his superiors and follow orders since he was in elementary school. All of this is not to say that it was wrong to follow Shinichi's lead, because Shinichi actually had a plan and the confidence and integrity to unify support through the conviction of its validity, but it is to say that it puts in sharp contrast that Hakuba ''didn't'' have a plan and is, in this moment, less adequate for the role than an untrained outsider.

*** This is demonstrated pretty clearly by [[spoiler:Hakuba's choosing between whether to follow Shinichi or Yuusaku on the Black Hole Crisis. On one level, it's presented as a choice between Shinichi's refusal to compromise over the worth of human life vs. Yuusaku's idea of [[ForTheGreaterGood The Greater Good]]. On a more subtle level, however, the fact that Hakuba chose a side to follow rather than taking the primary leadership position himself gives away how ineffective Hakuba is as a leader in the overarching story of Part 1; for all his supposed insider knowledge, he ultimately knew the least about the situation at hand and how to handle it, let alone lead others through it. Shinichi, despite everything against him, is still able to completely re-route the Irregulars' mission to fall in line with his plan based solely on his word that his solution to the situation is possible and preferable, but he's only able to do so because, rather than leading the Irregulars' plans himself, the Irregulars' leader, Hakuba, chose between Yuusaku and Shinichi taking charge.]] When given the opportunity to choose between taking the leadership role in a group or following another, Hakuba is a ChildSoldier at heart, not a general: despite knowing that he's supposed to be in charge of his team, he still tends to default to following orders and replicates the behavior of whoever is leading ''him'' when he ''does'' have to try to lead. Which makes sense, because Hakuba ''is'' a ChildSoldier, and has been raised to trust his superiors and follow orders since he was in elementary school.

** The entirety of the Irregulars by the end of Part One have sacrificed so much for the sake of being "good heroes" as judged by ISHA's parameters, and what comes of that is ''brutal,'' especially for Ran. [[spoiler:She spent over a year neglecting and {{Gaslighting}} someone she considers to be the love of her life and constantly sacrificing the quality of her relationship with him for the benefit of her secret training with his father, thinking that complying with this abusive policy was just a normal, necessary thing on the path to becoming a noble, heroic member of ISHA. Even when faced with the fact that she's aiding an abuser (and even replicating the abuser's abusive rhetoric) and her and Shinichi's romantic relationship has broken beyond repair from this, she still claims she's "good at being a hero." By the close of part one, it's almost as if the world answered her claims of heroism by rubbing her face in how ''ignoble'' her chosen career truly is under the propaganda: she (and the others) are left faced with the fact that the Irregulars are actually the minions of a police state that extrajudiciously murders people whose lives they consider incongruous or threatening to public order, ''including innocent children,'' and the Irregulars have actually committed at least one of those murders themselves. Their boss is a murderer, and now ''they'' are ''child'' muderers. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Ran's also newly single]].]]

** The entirety of the Irregulars by the end of Part One have sacrificed so much for the sake of being "good heroes" as judged by ISHA's parameters, and what comes of that is ''brutal,'' especially for Ran. [[spoiler:She spent over a year emotionally abusing and {{Gaslighting}} someone she considers to be the love of her life and constantly sacrificing the quality of her relationship with him for the benefit of her secret training with his father, thinking that complying with this abusive policy was just a normal, necessary thing on the path to becoming a noble, heroic member of ISHA. Even when faced with the fact that she's aiding an abuser (and even replicating the abuser's abusive rhetoric) and her and Shinichi's romantic relationship has broken beyond repair from this, she still claims she's "good at being a hero." By the close of part one, it's almost as if the world answered her claims of heroism by rubbing her face in how ''ignoble'' her chosen career truly is under the propaganda: she (and the others) are left faced with the fact that the Irregulars are actually the minions of a police state that extrajudiciously murders people whose lives they consider incongruous or threatening to public order, ''including innocent children,'' and the Irregulars have actually committed at least one of those murders themselves. Their boss is a murderer, and now ''they'' are ''child'' muderers. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking Ran's also newly single]].]]

* IRejectYourReality: Aoko's BlackAndWhiteInsanity is beginning to descend into this territory. By chapter 10 the story has completely illegitimized the "good" reasons Aoko has used throughout the earlier chapters to justify her moral judgement towards others, and she does ''not'' react well. Her supposed motivations of "justice for Kaito's father and protecting other children from loss of family" is challenged by the revelation that she's joined the side that [[spoiler:not only killed Kaito's father and left Kaito to suffer but also lied about it and denied his family closure]]. As Aoko had previously snidely referred to the forty-some injuries and four deaths that occurred during the Night Baron and KID conflict as "numerous counts of manslaughter" and used this to help justify her [[TheScapegoat scapegoating]] KID for all of her problems, Aoko struggles to even handle this new information, as by that logic [[spoiler: the Overseers she's idolized and joined are the true guilty party in those charges now, a guilty party that also deliberately framed one of the victims for the deaths and got away with it]]. On top of this revelation, Yuusaku simultaneously demonstrates his FauxAffablyEvil AbusiveParent status ''right in front of the Irregulars,'' [[MindControl Mind Controlling]] Shinichi [[AllForNothing to hand over his evidence]] and give up his autonomy while telling Shinichi that he's functionally useless and doesn't deserve the respect or care Yuusaku gives to others in the room. By chapter 10, Aoko's left pinwheeling desperately for reasons why Shinichi (and, by his proxy, Kaito) are the bad guys but unwilling to abandon or reflect on her reasons for feeling this way, deliberately dodging valid criticisms against her stance on the issue by firing off barely-related redirections and ad hominems. On the whole, Aoko so far demonstrates a tendency to seek refuge in a deliberately simplistic view of the world around her and [[TheScapegoat scapegoating]] and [[StrawmanFallacy strawmaning]] the antagonists in her life that may upset this view, with the implication being that this is because she doesn't want to face the more complicated and emotionally challenging reality. The resulting rejection of the reality of moral nuance appears to be her way of protecting herself from painful self-reflection.

** This is the state of pretty much all of Shinichi's relationships. Yuusaku has used his influence to ensure every authority figure/potential in Shinichi's life is compromised by their equal or stronger allegiance to Yuusaku, which enables Yuusaku to enact the extreme control and abuse he does within the story without anyone standing in his way.

* BlackAndWhiteInsanity: Aoko, with an increasing removal from reality. Initially this manifests in what appears to be childish optimism, such as when she insists that "the world was good and innocent and only one heartless criminal (KID) was at fault for taking [Kaito's] father away." She also uses very childish phrases to describe moral conflicts, referring to ISHA's enemies as "bad guys with too much evil in their hearts." During the blowout with Kaito later in Chapter 5, Aoko's simplistic view gains an increasingly insidious subtext: when Aoko begins to rant about all of the pain KID has made everyone suffer (by which she means her and her family), Kaito asks about the pain her side caused ''his'' family, and her response ("You're a criminal! A supervillain! Just like he was!") is not only a dodge, but when added to her previous line, seems to imply the Kurobas deserved the pain of losing a family member because of Kaito and Toichi being KID. In chapter 10, Aoko demonstrates a similar complete inability to feel empathy for Shinichi's MistreatmentInducedBetrayal and suffering at Yuusaku's and the Irregulars' hands [[spoiler:because he "betrayed them" and "helped a criminal" (KID)]], and when Hattori bites back that Shinichi [[CorneredRattlesnake had good reasons]], Aoko dodges by exclaiming about the small amount of superficial damage Shinichi did to Ran during the conflict--the implication being that she sees Shinichi's victimhood as illegitimate because those who hurt him are ''her'' team, who are justified in what they did to him [[TautologicalTemplar simply by virtue of Aoko considering them the "good guys,"]] and since they're the good guys, any act Shinichi took against them, no matter what reason, makes him unquestionably the bad guy. [[spoiler:(Especially if that reason involves KID).]] At this point, all of her self-justifications for why she is the right and good one in these conflicts have descended into IRejectYourReality.

* AbusiveParents: After eight chapters of having all the warning signs, [[spoiler:Yuusaku openly proves he is this to Shinichi in chapter 9, rationalizing his years of power abuse over Shinichi by matter-of-factly explaining that he deems all his son is and cares about to be "useless" and inferior to everyone else in the room--except for his skills at soccer, something that Shinichi has long ago lost emotional investment in. He then puts on a faux fatherly act and verbally coerces Shinichi to retreat from who he is now back to the soccer player he no longer wants to be. It's heavily implied Yuusaku was using his powers on Shinichi while doing this to forcibly subdue Shinichi's mind, He does this all in front of the Irregulars, who are so shocked at Yuusaku's cruelty that they appear unable to fully process what they've just witnessed]].

* AbusiveParents: After eight chapters of having all the warning signs, [[spoiler:Yuusaku openly proves he is this to Shinichi in chapter 9, rationalizing his years of power abuse over Shinichi by matter-of-factly explaining that he deems all his son is and cares about to be "useless" and inferior to everyone else in the room--except for his skills at soccer, something that Shinichi has long ago lost emotional investment in. He then puts on a faux fatherly act and verbally coerces Shinichi to retreat from who he is now back to the soccer player he no longer wants to be. He does this all in front of the Irregulars, who are so shocked at Yuusaku's cruelty that they appear unable to fully process what they've just witnessed]].