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*** It's much simpler than that. In the timeline where Junpei and Carlos never even play the AB Game, Carlos clearly remembers ''both'' timelines, the one where Junpei killed him with his vote ''and'' the one where he killed Junpei, and this was completely necessary because it was Carlos's memory of both timelines that delayed the vote long enough for Akane to wake up. [=SHIFTing=] requires your life to be at risk. So why did he shift away from the timeline where he'd "won"? Because Akane was beating him to death. The part about mindhacking isn't necessarily something to rule out, either, because this starts a chain of events that leads to Carlos visiting ''every'' timeline other than the Golden Ending in which he still had a body to SHIFT into come midnight [[spoiler:other than the one in which he was an agent in his own death, namely when he agreed to sacrifice himself to save Akane in "Monty Hall"]], and this was required to give him the information needed to get Akane and Junpei into the VLR timeline [[spoiler:since that occurs in a timeline where C-Team died as a result of the 13:30 vote]]. The way the [=SHIFTs=] through time work in VLR, Sigma's consciousness follows a ''single'' unbroken thread. Thus, it was ''always'' Old Sigma who was one of the participants in the DCOM experiment--the Sigma that had planned the Nonary Game of 2074 would have no memory of it, because it hadn't happened to him yet. His body had already been replaced with its age-appropriate consciousness. And Young Sigma has no reason to join DCOM; only Old Sigma does. Ergo, the VLR timeline is crucial to ensuring Delta's birth since, in true StableTimeLoop fashion, it's what led to Sigma and Diana meeting in the first place. (Remember that from Sigma's personal timeline, he first met Diana ''after'' the DCOM experiment, after he'd already experienced the events of VLR in his older self's body--but from her perspective, she already knew him; it wasn't a chance encounter.) But, on the other hand, there are some implications that Akane was working together with Delta when it came to setting up the events of the 2074 Nonary Game. Which leads me to a question of my own...
* In the True Ending, when Delta gives the snail speech for the last time, he says that that one little snail changed every one of their lives. And for the most part, he's right. Mira killed Eric's mother, which led to Akane getting caught up in the Nonary Game of 2018, and as a result Junpei getting caught up in the Nonary Game of 2027. It also led to Sean's death and the creation of Sean 729. And of course, D-Team is entirely comprised of Delta's family members, two of whom were only even in DCOM because of the StableTimeLoop that the events of DCOM created. Which leaves just one wild card. What's Carlos's connection to all this? He is, by virtue of what I stated above, as much of an architect of the VLR timeline as any of them, as Akane literally ''couldn't have been there'' without him, and yet he had no prior connections to any of the people in the snail incident. He just happened to be there because his esper instincts told him to. Wouldn't that make him the de facto genesis point of the StableTimeLoop, if there is such a thing? Unless the DCOM experiment itself wouldn't have existed without Delta, it can be theorized that with his motive being the money for Maria's treatment, he'd have been there regardless, unlike at least half the participants.
* In the True Ending, when Delta gives the snail speech for the last time, he says that that one little snail changed every one of their lives. And for the most part, he's right. Mira killed Eric's mother, which led to Akane getting caught up in the Nonary Game of 2018, and as a result Junpei getting caught up in the Nonary Game of 2027. It also led to Sean's death and the creation of Sean 729. And of course, D-Team is entirely comprised of Delta's family members, two of whom were only even in DCOM because of the StableTimeLoop that the events of DCOM created. Which leaves just one wild card. What's Carlos's connection to all this? He is, by virtue of what I stated above, as much of an architect of the VLR timeline as any of them, as Akane literally ''couldn't have been there'' without him, and yet he had no prior connections to any of the people in the snail incident. He just happened to be there because his esper instincts told him to. Wouldn't that make him the de facto genesis point of the StableTimeLoop, if there is such a thing? Unless the DCOM experiment itself wouldn't have existed without Delta, it can be theorized that with his motive being the money for Maria's treatment, he'd have been there regardless, unlike at least half the participants.
*** More simply: it's "unavoidable" because [[YouAlreadyChangedThePast it had already happened.]] And needed to have happened, since the Sigma that went back in time--the one that the events of VLR existed in order to send back in time--is the one that fathered Delta in the first place.
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* How does D-Team learn the passcode to the Door of Truth? As the omniscient player, we find out that it's the twins' birthday via Q-Team reading the hint from the other side of the door. However, even with timeline jumping powers, D-Team wouldn't have access to this information since they never directly experienced the hint. Nor could they have overheard Q-Team since they arrive at the door after Q-Team has fallen asleep. Lucky guess using knowledge from the "trapped for ten months" timeline? Sigma using Akane's "experiencing events through the eyes of another" power from Nine Doors? The omniscient player mind-hacking Sigma?
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* How does D-Team learn the passcode to the Door of Truth? As the omniscient player, we find out that it's the twins' birthday via Q-Team reading the hint from the other side of the door. However, even with timeline jumping powers, D-Team wouldn't have access to this information since they never directly experienced the hint. Nor could they have overheard Q-Team since they arrive at the door after Q-Team has fallen asleep. Lucky guess using knowledge from the "trapped for ten months" timeline? Sigma using Akane's "experiencing events through the eyes of another" power from Nine Doors? The omniscient player mind-hacking Sigma?Sigma?
* Delta says that not one of the [=SHIFTers=] took a linear path to the Force Quit ending. While this appears to be true--Carlos's knowledge of the alien cards suggests that this was still the same Carlos that made a tour of every other timeline, and all of D-Team remembers their familial relationship--what caused them to SHIFT into that timeline? For that matter, when would Phi have learned that information?
* Delta says that not one of the [=SHIFTers=] took a linear path to the Force Quit ending. While this appears to be true--Carlos's knowledge of the alien cards suggests that this was still the same Carlos that made a tour of every other timeline, and all of D-Team remembers their familial relationship--what caused them to SHIFT into that timeline? For that matter, when would Phi have learned that information?
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* Nearly all of Zero's Decision Games exist for a specific purpose. They either set up the necessary conditions for a desired timeline — Delta's birth, the Radical-6 outbreak, Carlos uses the transporter — or reveal a vital clue for the "Force Quit" outcome. There is one, however, that makes absolutely no sense: the big blue "do not press" button. One of two outcomes is "everybody dies, the end", effectively the same as the "Force Quit" outcome sans the participants mind-swapping themselves to the true ending. The other outcome would have happened by default. It may have prompted Sigma to explain his powers to Diana, but this is a moot point since both are promptly murdered and this conversation would inevitably happen in the "Sigma and Diana are trapped for ten months" timeline.
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* Nearly all of Zero's Decision Games exist for a specific purpose. They either set up the necessary conditions for a desired timeline — Delta's birth, the Radical-6 outbreak, Carlos uses the transporter — or reveal a vital clue for the "Force Quit" outcome. There is one, however, that makes absolutely no sense: the big blue "do not press" button. One of two outcomes is "everybody dies, the end", effectively the same as the "Force Quit" outcome sans the participants mind-swapping themselves to the true ending. The other outcome would have happened by default. It may have prompted Sigma to explain his powers to Diana, but this is a moot point since both are promptly murdered and this conversation would inevitably happen in the "Sigma and Diana are trapped for ten months" timeline.timeline regardless.
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* Nearly all of Zero's Decision Games exist for a specific purpose. They either set up the necessary conditions for a desired timeline — Delta's birth, the Radical-6 outbreak, Carlos uses the transporter — or reveal a vital clue for the "Force Quit" outcome. There is one, however, that makes absolutely no sense: the big blue "do not press" button. One of two outcomes is "everybody dies, the end", effectively the same as the "Force Quit" outcome sans the participants mind-swapping themselves to the true ending. The other outcome would have happened by default. It may have prompted Sigma to explain his powers to Diana, but this is a moot point since both are promptly murdered and this conversation would inevitably happen in the "Sigma and Diana are trapped for ten months" timeline.
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* Nearly all of Zero's Decision Games exist for a specific purpose. They either set up the necessary conditions for a desired timeline — Delta's birth, the Radical-6 outbreak, Carlos uses the transporter — or reveal a vital clue for the "Force Quit" outcome. There is one, however, that makes absolutely no sense: the big blue "do not press" button. One of two outcomes is "everybody dies, the end", effectively the same as the "Force Quit" outcome sans the participants mind-swapping themselves to the true ending. The other outcome would have happened by default. It may have prompted Sigma to explain his powers to Diana, but this is a moot point since both are promptly murdered and this conversation would inevitably happen in the "Sigma and Diana are trapped for ten months" timeline.timeline.
* How does D-Team learn the passcode to the Door of Truth? As the omniscient player, we find out that it's the twins' birthday via Q-Team reading the hint from the other side of the door. However, even with timeline jumping powers, D-Team wouldn't have access to this information since they never directly experienced the hint. Nor could they have overheard Q-Team since they arrive at the door after Q-Team has fallen asleep. Lucky guess using knowledge from the "trapped for ten months" timeline? Sigma using Akane's "experiencing events through the eyes of another" power from Nine Doors? The omniscient player mind-hacking Sigma?
* How does D-Team learn the passcode to the Door of Truth? As the omniscient player, we find out that it's the twins' birthday via Q-Team reading the hint from the other side of the door. However, even with timeline jumping powers, D-Team wouldn't have access to this information since they never directly experienced the hint. Nor could they have overheard Q-Team since they arrive at the door after Q-Team has fallen asleep. Lucky guess using knowledge from the "trapped for ten months" timeline? Sigma using Akane's "experiencing events through the eyes of another" power from Nine Doors? The omniscient player mind-hacking Sigma?
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** [[spoiler:He doesn't. The director originally wanted to end VLR on Sigma vowing to change the future while looking at the antimatter reactor explosion. But then the 2011 earthquake happened, and he got cold feet thinking that would make things feel [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents too close to home]], so he put in an additional epilogue that would keep the game from ending too depressing. He intended it for it to be mostly non-canonical, as it wasn't voiced in the original Japanese dialogue. But with it being voiced in the English dub, as well as his past writing as you pointed out, people thought that what was non-canon was real, when it only served to partially explain what ''might have'' happened after VLR's end]].
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** [[spoiler:He doesn't. The director originally wanted to end VLR on Sigma vowing to change the future while looking at the antimatter reactor explosion. But then the 2011 earthquake happened, and he got cold feet thinking that would make things feel [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents too close to home]], so he put in an additional epilogue that would keep the game from ending too depressing. He intended it for it to be mostly non-canonical, as it wasn't voiced in the original Japanese dialogue. But with it being voiced in the English dub, as well as his past writing as you pointed out, people thought that what was non-canon was real, when it only served to partially explain what ''might have'' happened after VLR's end]].end]].
* Nearly all of Zero's Decision Games exist for a specific purpose. They either set up the necessary conditions for a desired timeline — Delta's birth, the Radical-6 outbreak, Carlos uses the transporter — or reveal a vital clue for the "Force Quit" outcome. There is one, however, that makes absolutely no sense: the big blue "do not press" button. One of two outcomes is "everybody dies, the end", effectively the same as the "Force Quit" outcome sans the participants mind-swapping themselves to the true ending. The other outcome would have happened by default. It may have prompted Sigma to explain his powers to Diana, but this is a moot point since both are promptly murdered and this conversation would inevitably happen in the "Sigma and Diana are trapped for ten months" timeline.
* Nearly all of Zero's Decision Games exist for a specific purpose. They either set up the necessary conditions for a desired timeline — Delta's birth, the Radical-6 outbreak, Carlos uses the transporter — or reveal a vital clue for the "Force Quit" outcome. There is one, however, that makes absolutely no sense: the big blue "do not press" button. One of two outcomes is "everybody dies, the end", effectively the same as the "Force Quit" outcome sans the participants mind-swapping themselves to the true ending. The other outcome would have happened by default. It may have prompted Sigma to explain his powers to Diana, but this is a moot point since both are promptly murdered and this conversation would inevitably happen in the "Sigma and Diana are trapped for ten months" timeline.
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*** I have to disagree with this explanation. Consider the following: a researcher places an apple behind the right door of a two-door cabinet and asks a test subject, who did not observe the apple being placed, to pick the correct door. From the perspective of the test subject, there is a 50-50 chance of the apple behind the right door. For the researcher, however, there is absolutely a 100% chance of the apple being behind the right door. If the test subject selected the right door and there was no apple behind it, it would be a contradiction to the researcher and blatant violation of object permanence, which everyone over the age of two recognizes as an immutable law of the universe. Although Delta may not be alive for or witness every probability-based decision, keep in mind that he knows what happens in every single timeline through mind hijacking.
** Continuing on from the above point, the "ton of virtually-identical timelines" explanation actually makes the most sense. The timelines branch whenever someone makes a decision. Each probability-based outcome ultimately depends on some degree of decision-making. "Which locker do I place the gas mask in?" "Which box does the antidote go in?" "Which of the six bullets sitting in front of me do I load into the first chamber of the revolver?" "How hard do I toss this coin/die, and at what angle?" Each of these result in the creation of slightly different timelines on a common trajectory until they reach a branching point dependent on the original choice, then split off to their common outcomes. SHIFTers probably lack the fine-grained control to jump to specific threads ("I chose a box and the mask was in box 4") rather than the common branch ("I chose a box"). The "Who killed Mira?" branch is an example of this. Sean can suggest a variety of culprits leading to slightly different responses, but they all lead to a single outcome, his death.
** Continuing on from the above point, the "ton of virtually-identical timelines" explanation actually makes the most sense. The timelines branch whenever someone makes a decision. Each probability-based outcome ultimately depends on some degree of decision-making. "Which locker do I place the gas mask in?" "Which box does the antidote go in?" "Which of the six bullets sitting in front of me do I load into the first chamber of the revolver?" "How hard do I toss this coin/die, and at what angle?" Each of these result in the creation of slightly different timelines on a common trajectory until they reach a branching point dependent on the original choice, then split off to their common outcomes. SHIFTers probably lack the fine-grained control to jump to specific threads ("I chose a box and the mask was in box 4") rather than the common branch ("I chose a box"). The "Who killed Mira?" branch is an example of this. Sean can suggest a variety of culprits leading to slightly different responses, but they all lead to a single outcome, his death.
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*** I have to disagree with this explanation. Consider the following: a researcher places an apple behind the right door of a two-door cabinet and asks a test subject, who did not observe the apple being placed, to pick the correct door. From the perspective of the test subject, there is a 50-50 chance of the apple being behind the right door. For the researcher, however, there is absolutely a 100% chance of the apple being is absolutely, 100% behind the right door. If the test subject selected the right door and there was no apple behind it, it would be a contradiction to the researcher and blatant violation of object permanence, a concept which everyone over the age of two recognizes as an immutable law of the universe. Although Delta may not be alive for or witness every probability-based decision, keep in mind that he knows what happens in every single possible timeline through mind hijacking.
hijacking. The gas mask has to be in the locker he placed it in.
** Continuing on from the above point, the "ton of virtually-identical timelines" explanationactually makes the most sense. The timelines branch whenever someone makes a decision. Each probability-based outcome ultimately depends on some degree of decision-making. "Which locker do I place the gas mask in?" "Which box does the antidote go in?" "Which of the six bullets sitting in front of me do I load into the first chamber of the revolver?" "How hard do I toss this coin/die, and at what angle?" Each of these result in the creation of slightly different timelines on a common trajectory until they reach a branching point dependent on the original choice, then split off to their common outcomes. SHIFTers probably lack the fine-grained control to jump to specific threads ("I chose a box and the mask was in box 4") rather than the common branch ("I chose a box"). The "Who killed Mira?" branch is an example of this. Sean can suggest a variety of culprits leading to slightly different responses, but they all lead to a single outcome, his death.
** Continuing on from the above point, the "ton of virtually-identical timelines" explanation
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*** I have to disagree with this explanation. Consider the following: a researcher places an apple behind the right door of a two-door cabinet and asks a test subject, who did not observe the apple being placed, to pick the correct door. From the perspective of the test subject, there is a 50-50 chance of the apple behind the right door. For the researcher, however, there is absolutely a 100% chance of the apple being behind the right door. If the test subject selected the right door and there was no apple behind it, it would be a contradiction to the researcher and blatant violation of object permanence, which everyone over the age of two recognizes as an immutable law of the universe. Although Delta may not be alive for or witness every probability-based decision, keep in mind that he knows what happens in every single timeline through mind hijacking.
** Continuing on from the above point, the "ton of virtually-identical timelines" explanation actually makes the most sense. The timelines branch whenever someone makes a decision. Each probability-based outcome ultimately depends on some degree of decision-making. "Which locker do I place the gas mask in?" "Which box does the antidote go in?" "Which of the six bullets sitting in front of me do I load into the first chamber of the revolver?" "How hard do I toss this coin/die, and at what angle?" Each of these result in the creation of slightly different timelines on a common trajectory until they reach a branching point dependent on the original choice, then split off to their common outcomes. SHIFTers probably lack the fine-grained control to jump to specific threads ("I chose a box and the mask was in box 4") rather than the common branch ("I chose a box"). The "Who killed Mira?" branch is an example of this. Sean can suggest a variety of culprits leading to slightly different responses, but they all lead to a single outcome, his death.
** Continuing on from the above point, the "ton of virtually-identical timelines" explanation actually makes the most sense. The timelines branch whenever someone makes a decision. Each probability-based outcome ultimately depends on some degree of decision-making. "Which locker do I place the gas mask in?" "Which box does the antidote go in?" "Which of the six bullets sitting in front of me do I load into the first chamber of the revolver?" "How hard do I toss this coin/die, and at what angle?" Each of these result in the creation of slightly different timelines on a common trajectory until they reach a branching point dependent on the original choice, then split off to their common outcomes. SHIFTers probably lack the fine-grained control to jump to specific threads ("I chose a box and the mask was in box 4") rather than the common branch ("I chose a box"). The "Who killed Mira?" branch is an example of this. Sean can suggest a variety of culprits leading to slightly different responses, but they all lead to a single outcome, his death.
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*** Furthermore, their so-called "kidnapper" was one of the people who was always meant to be there. Legally, all that happened was that one of the people involved in the experiment took control of the proceedings for a little bit.
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* Why does Akane activate the reactor and force the three of them to SHIFT? There was, at that point, no reason to abandon the timeline they were in; she even explicitly notes that after the experience they'd just had, it was highly probable that both Carlos and Junpei would choose Ally.
** Presumably Delta mind hacked her because it was necessary for his plan. Count how many times Carlos SHIFTs: from whichever of "Carlos betrays Junpei" and "Junpei betrays Carlos" you chose first, to the other one, to the one where Akane detonates the bomb before they can even play the AB Game, to the one where they get gunned down in the rec room, to the one where they ''survive'' the rec room, to the one where Akane chops off his arm with a chainsaw before he kills her with an axe, ''back'' to the one where they survived the rec room, and finally to the one where he pushed the yellow button. That's literally every timeline in which he still had a body to go to at that point with the exception of the one that leads to Force Quit, and he followed up the last shift by using the transporter to get to a timeline where he was executed as a result of the 13:30 vote, specifically the one that led to VLR. Given the fact that he needed four of the nine participants in the Decision Game to be alive in 2074, too many for them to have escaped the correct way, these shenanigans were necessary.
** Presumably Delta mind hacked her because it was necessary for his plan. Count how many times Carlos SHIFTs: from whichever of "Carlos betrays Junpei" and "Junpei betrays Carlos" you chose first, to the other one, to the one where Akane detonates the bomb before they can even play the AB Game, to the one where they get gunned down in the rec room, to the one where they ''survive'' the rec room, to the one where Akane chops off his arm with a chainsaw before he kills her with an axe, ''back'' to the one where they survived the rec room, and finally to the one where he pushed the yellow button. That's literally every timeline in which he still had a body to go to at that point with the exception of the one that leads to Force Quit, and he followed up the last shift by using the transporter to get to a timeline where he was executed as a result of the 13:30 vote, specifically the one that led to VLR. Given the fact that he needed four of the nine participants in the Decision Game to be alive in 2074, too many for them to have escaped the correct way, these shenanigans were necessary.
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** Given [[spoiler:the angle of the MexicanStandoff, and the slightly wonky angle Eric was aiming, it's probable that he was actually aiming at Q (off-screen)]].
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*** He wanted to sink that ship ''in VLR'', where Junpei wastes his life without meeting her only to finally realize he was LovingAShadow and leaves even though she's alive and they had a chance to meet. By ZTD it's clear Uchikoshi changed his mind; that's why ZTD gives Akane her personality from the bulk of 999, which 999's ending and every bit of previous material implied was an act - she needs to be 10-years-before-999 and not hard-edged AMillionIsAStatistic Akane in personality for Junpei to stay with her. Hence, retcon.
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*** He wanted to sink that ship ''in VLR'', where Junpei wastes his life without meeting her only to finally realize he was LovingAShadow and leaves even though she's alive and they had a chance to meet. By ZTD it's clear Uchikoshi changed his mind; that's why ZTD gives Akane her personality from the bulk of 999, which 999's ending and every bit of previous material implied was an act - she needs to be innocent 10-years-before-999 Akane and not hard-edged AMillionIsAStatistic Akane in personality for Junpei to stay with her. Hence, retcon.
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*** He wanted to sink that ship ''in VLR'', where Junpei wastes his life without meeting her only to finally realize he was LovingAShadow and leaves even though she's alive and they had a chance to meet. By ZTD it's clear Uchikoshi changed his mind; that's why ZTD gives Akane her personality from the bulk of 999, which 999's ending and every bit of previous material implied was an act. Hence, retcon.
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*** He wanted to sink that ship ''in VLR'', where Junpei wastes his life without meeting her only to finally realize he was LovingAShadow and leaves even though she's alive and they had a chance to meet. By ZTD it's clear Uchikoshi changed his mind; that's why ZTD gives Akane her personality from the bulk of 999, which 999's ending and every bit of previous material implied was an act.act - she needs to be 10-years-before-999 and not hard-edged AMillionIsAStatistic Akane in personality for Junpei to stay with her. Hence, retcon.
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*** He wanted to sink that ship ''in VLR'', where Junpei wastes his life without meeting her only to finally realize he was LovingAShadow and leave even though she's alive and they had a chance to meet. By ZTD it's clear Uchikoshi changed his mind; that's why ZTD gives Akane her personality from the bulk of 999, which 999's ending and every bit of previous material implied was an act. Hence, retcon.
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*** He wanted to sink that ship ''in VLR'', where Junpei wastes his life without meeting her only to finally realize he was LovingAShadow and leave leaves even though she's alive and they had a chance to meet. By ZTD it's clear Uchikoshi changed his mind; that's why ZTD gives Akane her personality from the bulk of 999, which 999's ending and every bit of previous material implied was an act. Hence, retcon.
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*** He wanted to sink that ship ''in VLR'', where Junpei wastes his life without meeting her only to finally realize he was LovingAShadow and leave even though she's alive and they had a chance to meet. By ZTD it's clear he's changed his mind; that's why ZTD gives Akane her personality from the bulk of 999, which 999's ending and every bit of previous material implied was an act. Hence, retcon.
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*** He wanted to sink that ship ''in VLR'', where Junpei wastes his life without meeting her only to finally realize he was LovingAShadow and leave even though she's alive and they had a chance to meet. By ZTD it's clear he's Uchikoshi changed his mind; that's why ZTD gives Akane her personality from the bulk of 999, which 999's ending and every bit of previous material implied was an act. Hence, retcon.
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**** He wanted to sink that ship ''in VLR'', where Junpei wastes his life without meeting her only to finally realize he was LovingAShadow and leave even though she's alive and they had a chance to meet. By ZTD it's clear he's changed his mind; that's why ZTD gives Akane her personality from the bulk of 999, which 999's ending and every bit of previous material implied was an act. Hence, retcon.
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**** Given the unstated implications that 1. Akane worked with Delta/Brother for a time before Sigma went to the moon, and 2. Delta/Brother used the transporters to make a copy of himself in the VLR future, odds are extremely high that Delta/Brother was well in the know about future events long before the Decision Game started.
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*** Actually, you can assume that she might not have even been '''re'''-infected at all; she might have still had the same infection that Mira gave her.
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* StupidEvil:
** [[spoiler: So hang on, if Delta's been trying to save 8 billion people this whole time, why didn't he just ''ask for Akane's help'' when he has somehow found out what she'll go through to save 6 billion?]]
*** He says one of the reasons for making the Decision Game is because he likes seeing the different timelines that result. So, ForTheLulz.
** A common complaint from fans after the PlotTwist is [[spoiler:it is never explained why Zero/Delta gained any benefit from being in the room with the players in Q-Team, given that he is impersonating a blind and deaf man in a wheelchair and so doing literally anything will give him away. It's not to be able to Mind Hack them, because he can Mind Hack the other teams too without being with them. Given that being with them also requires him to [[StupidSacrifice arrange his own death]] multiple times, it seems awkward that it isn't explained.]]
*** [[spoiler: This is so that he doesn't draw suspicion. Remember how Carlos figured out who Zero is in CQD Ending 1? That's because Delta — or as the others knew him, Q — wasn't jailed with the rest of the participants. Since all of the participants bar Sean were also part of the Dcom experiment, if Delta wasn't with them then the players would immediately figure out that he's Zero.]]
*** [[spoiler: In which case, it's doubly stupid. They can't get to him or harm him and he can erase their memories whenever he wants, so what would it matter if they knew who he was? Certainly nothing worth dissolving yourself in acid about.]]
*** [[spoiler: It wouldn't have exactly worked if they kept working out every time they woke up that Q is Zero. One of the main reasons for their suspicion towards each other was the fact that Zero could have been among them.]]
*** It still isn't necessary. [[spoiler:If you try to tell Eric that Q killed Mira, he'll just dismiss it as an impossibility. He wouldn't have suspected Q even if he was absent -- and keep in mind only Q-Team would even know he wasn't there, because Delta is totally capable of, you know, ''lying'' and saying Q's in Q-Team even though he isn't. "He's the mastermind!" is also not the only, or even most logical, reason for why a blind, deaf, paraplegic old man might be missing from a death game -- they could easily conclude the mastermind deemed him useless and killed him earlier. Carlos' epiphany always struck me as a BatDeduction -- but even so, Eric is clearly not the sharpest tool in the shed, so it's very likely he wouldn't figure it out even if Carlos did. And his suspicion is the only reason for doing this in the first place, so why bother?]]
*** If he wasn't with the players, he wouldn't have died in the timeline when Akane finds the Transporter. Akane transported to the timeline when Radical-6 was released because she needed to get answers from him, but she wouldn't have to do it if he was alive. And if she didn't transport herself, she wouldn't have pushed Dr. Klim to create the AB Project and Sigma wouldn't be in that shelter to impregnate Diana.
** [[spoiler: So hang on, if Delta's been trying to save 8 billion people this whole time, why didn't he just ''ask for Akane's help'' when he has somehow found out what she'll go through to save 6 billion?]]
*** He says one of the reasons for making the Decision Game is because he likes seeing the different timelines that result. So, ForTheLulz.
** A common complaint from fans after the PlotTwist is [[spoiler:it is never explained why Zero/Delta gained any benefit from being in the room with the players in Q-Team, given that he is impersonating a blind and deaf man in a wheelchair and so doing literally anything will give him away. It's not to be able to Mind Hack them, because he can Mind Hack the other teams too without being with them. Given that being with them also requires him to [[StupidSacrifice arrange his own death]] multiple times, it seems awkward that it isn't explained.]]
*** [[spoiler: This is so that he doesn't draw suspicion. Remember how Carlos figured out who Zero is in CQD Ending 1? That's because Delta — or as the others knew him, Q — wasn't jailed with the rest of the participants. Since all of the participants bar Sean were also part of the Dcom experiment, if Delta wasn't with them then the players would immediately figure out that he's Zero.]]
*** [[spoiler: In which case, it's doubly stupid. They can't get to him or harm him and he can erase their memories whenever he wants, so what would it matter if they knew who he was? Certainly nothing worth dissolving yourself in acid about.]]
*** [[spoiler: It wouldn't have exactly worked if they kept working out every time they woke up that Q is Zero. One of the main reasons for their suspicion towards each other was the fact that Zero could have been among them.]]
*** It still isn't necessary. [[spoiler:If you try to tell Eric that Q killed Mira, he'll just dismiss it as an impossibility. He wouldn't have suspected Q even if he was absent -- and keep in mind only Q-Team would even know he wasn't there, because Delta is totally capable of, you know, ''lying'' and saying Q's in Q-Team even though he isn't. "He's the mastermind!" is also not the only, or even most logical, reason for why a blind, deaf, paraplegic old man might be missing from a death game -- they could easily conclude the mastermind deemed him useless and killed him earlier. Carlos' epiphany always struck me as a BatDeduction -- but even so, Eric is clearly not the sharpest tool in the shed, so it's very likely he wouldn't figure it out even if Carlos did. And his suspicion is the only reason for doing this in the first place, so why bother?]]
*** If he wasn't with the players, he wouldn't have died in the timeline when Akane finds the Transporter. Akane transported to the timeline when Radical-6 was released because she needed to get answers from him, but she wouldn't have to do it if he was alive. And if she didn't transport herself, she wouldn't have pushed Dr. Klim to create the AB Project and Sigma wouldn't be in that shelter to impregnate Diana.
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* StupidEvil:
**StupidEvil: [[spoiler: So hang on, if Delta's been trying to save 8 billion people this whole time, why didn't he just ''ask for Akane's help'' when he has somehow found out what she'll go through to save 6 billion?]]
*** ** He says one of the reasons for making the Decision Game is because he likes seeing the different timelines that result. So, ForTheLulz.
** * More StupidEvil: A common complaint from fans after the PlotTwist is [[spoiler:it is never explained why Zero/Delta gained any benefit from being in the room with the players in Q-Team, given that he is impersonating a blind and deaf man in a wheelchair and so doing literally anything will give him away. It's not to be able to Mind Hack them, because he can Mind Hack the other teams too without being with them. Given that being with them also requires him to [[StupidSacrifice arrange his own death]] multiple times, it seems awkward that it isn't explained.]]
*** ** [[spoiler: This is so that he doesn't draw suspicion. Remember how Carlos figured out who Zero is in CQD Ending 1? That's because Delta — or as the others knew him, Q — wasn't jailed with the rest of the participants. Since all of the participants bar Sean were also part of the Dcom experiment, if Delta wasn't with them then the players would immediately figure out that he's Zero.]]
*** ** [[spoiler: In which case, it's doubly stupid. They can't get to him or harm him and he can erase their memories whenever he wants, so what would it matter if they knew who he was? Certainly nothing worth dissolving yourself in acid about.]]
*** ** [[spoiler: It wouldn't have exactly worked if they kept working out every time they woke up that Q is Zero. One of the main reasons for their suspicion towards each other was the fact that Zero could have been among them.]]
*** ** It still isn't necessary. [[spoiler:If you try to tell Eric that Q killed Mira, he'll just dismiss it as an impossibility. He wouldn't have suspected Q even if he was absent -- and keep in mind only Q-Team would even know he wasn't there, because Delta is totally capable of, you know, ''lying'' and saying Q's in Q-Team even though he isn't. "He's the mastermind!" is also not the only, or even most logical, reason for why a blind, deaf, paraplegic old man might be missing from a death game -- they could easily conclude the mastermind deemed him useless and killed him earlier. Carlos' epiphany always struck me as a BatDeduction -- but even so, Eric is clearly not the sharpest tool in the shed, so it's very likely he wouldn't figure it out even if Carlos did. And his suspicion is the only reason for doing this in the first place, so why bother?]]
*** ** If he wasn't with the players, he wouldn't have died in the timeline when Akane finds the Transporter. Akane transported to the timeline when Radical-6 was released because she needed to get answers from him, but she wouldn't have to do it if he was alive. And if she didn't transport herself, she wouldn't have pushed Dr. Klim to create the AB Project and Sigma wouldn't be in that shelter to impregnate Diana.Diana.
** But he doesn't need to introduce himself into the Dcom experiment in the first place. And Akane only went back to that timeline because he left a message telling her she had to go there for answers; he could have just left the same general ultimatum message (insisting that he'll only answer her in timelines where group Q survived, or setting some other condition that requires she go to that timeline) without ''actually'' being part of group Q, since she needed answers from him regardless.
**
** But he doesn't need to introduce himself into the Dcom experiment in the first place. And Akane only went back to that timeline because he left a message telling her she had to go there for answers; he could have just left the same general ultimatum message (insisting that he'll only answer her in timelines where group Q survived, or setting some other condition that requires she go to that timeline) without ''actually'' being part of group Q, since she needed answers from him regardless.
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*** Another possibility is that the relatively brief imprisonment they were subjected to in the true ending could reasonably be explained as part of the experiment they signed up for, and could be covered by waivers they signed up to that point. Keep in mind that in that timeline they were in that cell for all of like 10 minutes; Delta said some very scary things to them, and injected them with a knockout / amnesia drug, but that could likewise be explained as part of the experiment and could reasonably be part of some waiver they signed when they joined (the ''appearance'' of danger would logically be part of the test, which could even extend to a very brief "phony kidnapping" or something.) Also remember that in the final timeline they were never taken to the shelter - they were at the Dcom facility the whole time, making it even easier to explain what happened as part of the Dcom experiment.
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*** Another possibility is that the relatively brief imprisonment they were subjected to in the true ending could reasonably be explained as part of the experiment they signed up for, and could be covered by waivers they signed up to that point. Keep in mind that in that timeline they were in that cell for all of like 10 minutes; Delta said some very scary things to them, and injected them with a knockout / amnesia drug, but that could likewise be explained as part of the experiment and could reasonably be part of some waiver they signed when they joined (the ''appearance'' of danger would logically be part of the test, which could even extend to a very brief "phony kidnapping" or something.) Also remember that in the final timeline they were never taken to the shelter - they were at the Dcom facility the whole time, making it even easier to explain what happened as part of the Dcom experiment. It would probably be a violation of modern experimental ethics, but (assuming the waivers they signed for it were reasonably encompassing) probably not to the point of being criminal, since they were never taken from the Dcom area and were released within minutes after demanding it. What are they going to say, "he flipped a coin first?"
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*** Another possibility is that the relatively brief imprisonment they were subjected to in the true ending could reasonably be explained as part of the experiment they signed up for, and could be covered by waivers they signed up to that point. Keep in mind that in that timeline they were in that cell for all of like 10 minutes; Delta said some very scary things to them, and injected them with a knockout / amnesia drug, but that could likewise be explained as part of the experiment and could reasonably be part of some waiver they signed when they joined (the ''appearance'' of danger would logically be part of the test, which could even extend to a very brief "phony kidnapping" or something.) Also remember that in the final timeline they were never taken to the shelter - they were at the Dcom facility the whole time, making it even easier to explain what happened as part of the Dcom experiment.
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*** Eric and Mira ''don't'' care about Gab that much. If you rewatch it after knowing the twist, in the scene where they (apparently) worry about bringing Gab, they're actually discussing the real, wheelchair-bound Q. This is in-character for Eric (he's an awful person but isn't just going to leave a human being to die for no reason), and Mira generally makes at least a token effort to stay in character around him, so she's not going to sugguest callously and needlessly discarding a human life without making at least a basic effort to save him, either. Rewatching the scene with the understanding that they're talking about the life of a human and not a dog changes their level of concern from "above and beyond" to "doing the bare minimum to avoid being an obvious psychopath."
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*** Eric and Mira ''don't'' care about Gab that much. If you rewatch it after knowing the twist, in the scene where they (apparently) worry about bringing Gab, they're actually discussing the real, wheelchair-bound Q. This is in-character for Eric (he's an awful person but isn't just going to leave a human being to die for no reason), and Mira generally makes at least a token effort to stay in character around him, so she's not going to sugguest suggest callously and needlessly discarding a human life without making at least a basic effort to save him, either. Rewatching the scene with the understanding that they're talking about the life of a human and not a dog changes their level of concern from "above and beyond" to "doing the bare minimum to avoid being an obvious psychopath."
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*** Eric and Mira ''don't'' care about Gab that much. If you rewatch it after knowing the twist, in the scene where they (apparently) worry about bringing Gab, they're actually discussing the real, wheelchair-bound Q. This is in-character for Eric (he's an awful person but isn't just going to leave a human being to die for no reason), and Mira generally makes at least a token effort to stay in character around him, so she's not going to sugguest callously and needlessly discarding a human life without making at least a basic effort to save him, either. Rewatching the scene with the understanding that they're talking about the life of a human and not a dog changes their level of concern from "above and beyond" to "doing the bare minimum to avoid being an obvious psychopath."
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*** Excluding the "find a way out" interface that characters don't see, at no point are they told to solve puzzles, or given any indication that they are supposed to try and leave the rooms they're locked in. In fact, they could just as easily conclude that Zero ''wants'' them locked in a specific room for the 90-minute duration and that trying to leave is a violation; and they have no personal reason to want to leave before those 90 minutes are up because they're clearly being repositioned between wake periods and, therefore, will be in a different room the next time they wake up regardless.
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** He doesn't have to do anything fancy - he can just assign them based on the cause, time, and possibly location of death. Having the computer reject bad X-Passes with the "wrong timeline" spiel is just a way to taunt the shifters by letting them know he knows what they're doing; he doesn't actually have to do any timeline shenangians himself to ensure that they're all different, especially since he controls most of the likely causes of death to begin with (ie. it's easy for him to have a set of X-Passes for each choice intended to kill someone, plus another set of X-Passes for each person in each wake period in case they're killed in an unexpected way.)
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** The Doylist answer is that showing a nearly-identical event in each timeline (even if it differs slightly in terms of whether it's a choice or not) would just waste space on the tree and annoy the player by making them sit through it; if it's an issue the player can just assume that the other timeline resolved it offscreen more or less the same way the one they viewed it in did.
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** What gives you the idea that memory decay from [=SHIFTing=] doesn't happen in ZTD? The game unambiguously states that it's still a thing and that shifters usually don't remember anything. Yes, later in the game (after that point, more or less), anyone who is ''shown'' shifting remembers stuff, but that's an anthropic principle thing where only the points where people remember stuff after shifting can become "plot-relevant" shifts. Every time the player loads a different point in the timeline is still intended to be a shift. A bigger problem, of course, is that if memory decay is a thing, and assuming it completely erased their memory of shifting to retry the coin flip, then Zero can't tell whether it's the first or second coin flip himself because there's no memory of it to read. (Another issue is that it's not reasonable that a character would shift back to the coinflip ''after'' winning - the player does it because we want to see the entire game, but in-universe instinctive shifts happen in response to danger; obviously nobody is going to shift from a safe, happy outcome back to a point of extreme danger.)
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*** When? The reference to Quark is simple enough to add at any time, but the AB Game required significant setup that he didn't really get any chance to do. Sigma and Phi only came back from the future shortly before his game started, and he wouldn't have had any knowledge of the future ''at all'' (no knowledge that they exist or that anything happend there outside of his plans) until he read their minds. Since he didn't know they existed until he read their minds at DCom, this leaves him only a few days to add the AB game to his own game, and at that point he already had to maintain characters as Q, severely limiting his ability to change the game. In theory, sure, there are various ways he could have done it via extreme effort and expense, but ''why'' would he suddenly make a significant change to the intricate, carefully-planned game he set up just to add a reference to something he saw in Sigma and Phi's memories at the last minute?
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*** He could also just be programmed not to realize it, although this raises the question of why he was made with a bizarre suspicious orb instead of a head in the first place (was robot-face technology not ready yet?)
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**** Diana talked with Sigma and Phi before Dcom was taken over, and was WELL aware of the situation involving Radical-6 and how things they had said were coming true.
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*** My point being is that they talk of M2's events as if he's going backwards in his version of events and that all the events happened on their own, without M1's interference. The punch is the effect of M1 preventing his father be hit by the car, the cause, and not doing this will result in his erasure from existence. The only way M2 could wind up back in M1's timeline as Akane puts it is by simply preventing the cause in the first place. Since she decides to point at the punch it makes no sense in context unless somehow M2's literally travelling backwards through M1's line of events, which is more of a rewind than changing anything.
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*** My point being is that they talk of M2's events as if he's going backwards in his version of events and that all the events happened on their own, without M1's interference. The punch is the effect of M1 preventing his father be being hit by the car, the cause, and not doing this will result in his erasure from existence. The only way M2 could wind up back in M1's timeline as Akane puts it is by simply preventing the cause in the first place. Since she decides to point at the punch it makes no sense in context unless somehow M2's literally travelling backwards through M1's line of events, which is more of a rewind than changing anything.
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** [[spoiler:He doesn't. The director originally wanted to end VLR on Sigma vowing to change the future while looking at the antimatter reactor explosion. But then the 2011 earthquake happened, and he got cold feet thinking that would make things feel [[TooSoon too close to home]], so he put in an additional epilogue that would keep the game from ending too depressing. He intended it for it to be mostly non-canonical, as it wasn't voiced in the original Japanese dialogue. But with it being voiced in the English dub, as well as his past writing as you pointed out, people thought that what was non-canon was real, when it only served to partially explain what ''might have'' happened after VLR's end]].
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** [[spoiler:He doesn't. The director originally wanted to end VLR on Sigma vowing to change the future while looking at the antimatter reactor explosion. But then the 2011 earthquake happened, and he got cold feet thinking that would make things feel [[TooSoon [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents too close to home]], so he put in an additional epilogue that would keep the game from ending too depressing. He intended it for it to be mostly non-canonical, as it wasn't voiced in the original Japanese dialogue. But with it being voiced in the English dub, as well as his past writing as you pointed out, people thought that what was non-canon was real, when it only served to partially explain what ''might have'' happened after VLR's end]].
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*** Being traumatized doesn't explain how specifically weird and ambiguous her message was. And what she did would hardly constitute as manslaughter, not by a long shot, but that's neither here nor there. I understand that she was feeling heavily responsible at the time, but the thing is, from Diana's POV, she really shouldn't be feeling ''so'' emotionally traumatised as to leave a message like that one. We, the players, only know precisely what Diana has done due to our meta-knowledge. Although Diana would be far from calm or emotionally distraught, the way that the game expects us to buy that she's instantly taken on the responsibility of 6 billion deaths that haven't happened yet and now see's herself as a genoicider, enough to leave the heavily ambiguous message she did, is absolutely ludicrous. From Diana's POV, there's absolutely nothing that would cause her to feel that way yet. She's been told about what's going to happen as a result of her actions, but that wouldn't instantly translate into emotional trauma. Especially not within literal minutes. The way Diana acts in that scene is as though the game is treating Diana like a pure player proxy--because we instantly have the emotional investment in what's going to happen in the next 40+ years, Diana does too. Which is really abysmal writing, to be frank. Even more so when it's so apparent that the only reason it was done this way was so that the scene could match up with the recording from VLR.
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*** Being traumatized doesn't explain how specifically weird and ambiguous her message was. And what she did would hardly constitute as manslaughter, not by a long shot, but that's neither here nor there. I understand that she was feeling heavily responsible at the time, but the thing is, from Diana's POV, she really shouldn't be feeling ''so'' emotionally traumatised as to leave a message like that one. This gets into a bigger issue that I have with that entire scene, in fact, that being how Diana becomes way too emotionally invested in the apocalypse she's apparently going to be causing way too quickly. We, the players, only know precisely what Diana has done due to our meta-knowledge. Although Diana would be far from calm or emotionally distraught, the way that the game expects us to buy that she's instantly taken on the responsibility of 6 billion deaths that haven't happened yet and now see's herself as a genoicider, enough to leave the heavily ambiguous message she did, is absolutely ludicrous. From Diana's POV, there's absolutely nothing that would cause her to feel that way yet. She's been told about what's going to happen as a result of her actions, but that wouldn't instantly translate into emotional trauma. Especially not within literal minutes. The way Diana acts in that scene is as though the game is treating Diana like a pure player proxy--because we instantly have the emotional investment in what's going to happen in the next 40+ years, Diana does too. Which is really abysmal writing, to be frank. Even more so when it's so apparent that the only reason it was done this way was so that the scene could match up with the recording from VLR.
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*** Being traumatized doesn't explain how specifically weird and ambiguous her message was. And what she did would hardly constitute as manslaughter, not by a long shot, but that's neither here nor there. I understand that she was feeling heavily responsible at the time, but the thing is, from Diana's POV, she really shouldn't be feeling ''so'' emotionally traumatised as to leave a message like that one. We, the players, only know precisely what Diana has done due to our meta-knowledge. Although Diana would be far from calm or emotionally distraught, the way that the game expects us to buy that she's instantly taken on the responsibility of 6 billion deaths that happened happened yet and now see's herself as a genoicider, enough to leave the heavily ambiguous message she did, is absolutely ludicrous. From Diana's POV, there's absolutely nothing that would cause that. She's been told about what's going to happen as a result of her actions, but that wouldn't instantly translate into emotional trauma. Especially not within literal minutes. The way Diana acts in that scene is as though the game is treating Diana like a pure player proxy--that because we instantly have the emotional investment in what's going to happen in the next 40+ years, that Diana does too. Which is really abysmal writing, to be frank. Even more so when it's so apparent that the only reason it was done this way was so that the scene could match up with the recording from VLR.
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*** Being traumatized doesn't explain how specifically weird and ambiguous her message was. And what she did would hardly constitute as manslaughter, not by a long shot, but that's neither here nor there. I understand that she was feeling heavily responsible at the time, but the thing is, from Diana's POV, she really shouldn't be feeling ''so'' emotionally traumatised as to leave a message like that one. We, the players, only know precisely what Diana has done due to our meta-knowledge. Although Diana would be far from calm or emotionally distraught, the way that the game expects us to buy that she's instantly taken on the responsibility of 6 billion deaths that happened haven't happened yet and now see's herself as a genoicider, enough to leave the heavily ambiguous message she did, is absolutely ludicrous. From Diana's POV, there's absolutely nothing that would cause that.her to feel that way yet. She's been told about what's going to happen as a result of her actions, but that wouldn't instantly translate into emotional trauma. Especially not within literal minutes. The way Diana acts in that scene is as though the game is treating Diana like a pure player proxy--that because proxy--because we instantly have the emotional investment in what's going to happen in the next 40+ years, that Diana does too. Which is really abysmal writing, to be frank. Even more so when it's so apparent that the only reason it was done this way was so that the scene could match up with the recording from VLR.
