WARNING: As this is a WMG for Zero Time Dilemma speculation, there will be spoilers for the first two games here. Additionally, all Wild Mass Guessing pages are Spoilers Off, so spoilers for this game are unmarked as well.
- Akane is evil all along. Putting this here because I'm hoping it's NOT true.
- Jossed. Akane is genuinely well-meaning and not even as manipulative as Uchikoshi painted her to be.
- Confirmed. Albeit it's called The Decision Game and works markedly different than previous Nonary Games.
- And then technically jossed. By nature of its name, the Nonary Game works around having nine participants, and the Decision Game has 10.
- Confirmed. At least 4 characters will return, being Akane, Sigma, Junpei, and Phi.
- Also, we will know what happened to Lotus, Seven and Snake.
- Two out of three. No word on Snake, but Lotus is still out there raising her kids, and Seven continues his detective life. Still don't know his name, though...
- Also, we will know what happened to Lotus, Seven and Snake.
- There's a problem with the timeline of this theory: you find out in this game that Gentarou Hongou and Cradle Pharmaceutical were funded by Free The Soul, which means that they were active while Akane and Aoi were still alive and playing the second Nonary Game.
- Jossed. Brother and Akane are not related by blood.
- Confirmed. Brother "Mind Hacked" other espers who foresaw a nuclear war that wiped out humanity.
The second part lies in another note from K's ending, where Akane recounts how Dr. Klim (well, younger Sigma) had fallen in love. While K prefers to believe that the person was her, there is a lot of implication that Sigma and Phi will get more character development together. On the same stream of thought, Sigma's missing arms and eye were to protect Phi in an incident.
- The second part has been Jossed. Word of God is that Sigma and Phi will never become a couple, and that the woman Sigma saves is someone he met and bonded with at the test site, and that he later based Luna off of her.
- Jossed. Sigma fell in love with Diana and had twins, one of whom was Phi. He lost his arms and eye trying to disarm a bomb to save Q, Mira and Eric. Junpei proposes to Akane, whether she has to face law enforcement is unknown.
As for the amnesia, it has showed up in the first two games and could serve to cast doubt on how cooperative one of the cast members will be towards the player, since an ally with amnesia may distrust you and be more interested in looking out for themselves. In the timeline where Kyle and '?' switched, the former had not been participating in the Nonary Game and would thus not have recovered from his dose of Soporil, so it is possible that whomever his mind is occupying is amnesiac.
- Specifically, Akane tells Clover and Alice that she can send them back in time using "Schrodinger's Cat". The most likely way this can work is for someone to create a timeline in which they *didn't* spend all those years in cold sleep - if nobody opens the treatment pod, who's to say that Clover's still inside it? So Zero Escape 3 will include a version of Clover who has no memory of what happened in Virtue's Last Reward because she hasn't lived through it (yet, or ever) - no need for amnesia.
- The only character (that we know of) that has amnesia is a child. Eric does accuse him of doing... something, but other than that, he seems harmless. In fact, he seems the only sane person on team Q. Not to mention he is the playable character.
- Confirmed. Players are hit with an amnesia-inducing drug every 90 minutes. Q's amnesia is sort of real, he's a newborn android similar to a Gaulem from the previous game, naturally having a blank-slate memory. Brother's esper ability is mind-reading and short-term possession.
- One possibility that comes to mind: Santa was at the Mars Test Site, and he was one of the ones who didn't make it out alive. This would explain his absence in VLR, and give Akane yet another reason to try to avert the Bad Future. Plus, if he's at the test site, then it would enable possible plot twists where he gets confused for Phi, or the other way around, due to their resemblance.
- It's very possible he was at the Mars test site and lived but then died along with the billions of other people in the aftermath. Virtue's Last Reward takes place like sixty years after 999 so his absence isn't really that suspicious. He could have just had a heart attack at some point either. What I mean is that the large timeskip means they're free to do whatever they want with Aoi without having to worry about canon.
- As it turns out, Aoi is working with Akane, but did not join the Dcom project. He's completely irrelevant to the plot and is never actually seen.
- Furthermore, Alice and Clover both mention that bodies can be sent back in time as well, so Phi could have actually been born and lived in that successful timeline, though it isn't strictly necessary for anything in the game to happen.
- Largely Jossed. The Golden Ending specifically says that it was older!Phi who went to Alice to be frozen — as in, the Phi who had already experienced the AB Project.
- Sort of confirmed. Phi is born during the events of the game, during a timeline where there's no Radical-6 outbreak. She's sent back by a transporter to 2008.
- More accurately, she's sent forward to 2008 after previously being sent back all the way to 1904. Due to the way transporting works in this series, however (it merely creates a clone in the target timeline), her adoptive mother in 2008 is none other than her 104-year-old self.
- Sort of confirmed. Phi is born during the events of the game, during a timeline where there's no Radical-6 outbreak. She's sent back by a transporter to 2008.
- Jossed.
Perhaps one of the big twists in the third game will be that there are two (or more) identical Nonary Games going on at different times and places(one at the test site in Nevada, plus another). The protagonist of that game will end up jumping between the two games at random (maybe without even realizing it at first), allowing for surprise twists when characters act differently than they should because they're actually different people.
- That does seem pretty interesting. Given the evidence we have for now, the most likely locationss for the Nonary Games would be the Mars Mission Test Site, natch, as well as the Chemical Plant that Alice & the SOIS was planning to attack on Christmas Day.
- It's been hinted that Kyle can swap consciousnesses with Sigma, as he was originally created to be a spare if something happened to Sigma. So this may be possible.
- Maybe, maybe not. There's a dog in ZE 3. The characters will use him to pass messages between sections of the facility, via the vents. What this means is unclear.
- Jossed. There's only one location to the Decision Game.
Of course, Gordain is said to have died back in the 1930's, while Brother is still alive in the 2020s. Of course, Brother was said to be ancient enough to be virtually immobile, and only top members of FTS had ever seen him in person. Plus, Word of God suggests that he'd survived into the Bad Future of 2074 through some sort of psychic shenanigans. Perhaps this means he faked his death at some point, and kept his body alive through suspended animation (maybe with Ice-9) while directing the cult through his psychic abilities.
- Left either died before or after the sinking of the Titanic in this case; the body was found by police elsewhere. Other than that, Gordain being Brother does make for an interesting theory. Perhaps he used the field to jump into someone else's body in the future (which creates some Nightmare Fuel in that someone else, most likely an innocent, died in Gordain's decrepit old body) or used "Schrodinger's Cat" to transport his body through the field.
- This isn't the most sound theory: It's said that whoever killed Left bribed the police not to investigate. Gordain was a multi-millionaire, not to mention a LORD. It's unlikely that the police could be bribed off such a high profile murder case.
- This scenario would occur back when Gordain was young, presumably before he became rich or gained his title.
- Jossed. Lord Gordain is not mentioned in the game, while Brother's identity is clearly revealed. It is highly unlikely that "Lord Gordain" was an alias of his either, as Brother was only 10 years old when the Titanic sank.
- This isn't the most sound theory: It's said that whoever killed Left bribed the police not to investigate. Gordain was a multi-millionaire, not to mention a LORD. It's unlikely that the police could be bribed off such a high profile murder case.
- Partially Jossed, Left was mentioned being found dead & covered in bruises. Hard to be examined by the police when Gordain's games ended with the losers being incinerated.
- Jossed.
- In-game, he is said to be a supporter of Free the Soul. More importantly, the Myrmidons all share a face, which might be a little jarring to some, but not someone with prosopagnosia who can't differentiate between them anyway. Brother is also the mastermind behind the first Nonary Game.
- Jossed.
- Not possible. Brother had already established Free The Soul by the time of the First Nonary Game. It's highly unlikely that Hongou would have allowed his messiah be in any danger aboard the sinking ship of the Gigantic. Now, a first generation clone of Left on the other hand...
- Jossed. Brother is male.
- Jossed. Brother isn't mentioned to have a direct involvement with Radical-6's discovery or development.
If Sigma and Phi succeed in stopping the Radical 6 outbreak, then where would their consciousness go when the second time jump happened? One theory springs to mind: in the "good future" where the disaster is averted, Sigma and Akane reinact the AB Game to perform the time jump, in order to prevent a time paradox. Of course, to do that, they'd have to create the illusion that the apocalypse had happened. This brings things back to the whole Schrodinger's Cat theme: the disaster both happened and didn't happen.
The "red earth" could have been staged through a few methods, such as a red lens between the earth and moon. Plus, most of our information about the outbreak and disaster comes from Tenmyouji. Given his true identity, it's very plausible that Junpei could have been working with Akane the whole time. Of course, the wild card in this theory is Dio: if the disaster had already been averted, then why would Brother send Dio to prevent the disaster from being averted?
- Unless Dio's true purpose wasn't to sabotage the AB Project, but to hijack it by time-jumping into another Left clone at the test site to ensure the outbreak did occur.
- Jossed. The D Com building and the underground bomb shelter are clearly distinct from Building Q.
- According to Word of God, the letter 'Y' represents the Eye of Horus.
- Zig-Zagged. Phi is Brother's sister, while Left is his adopted brother.
The Phi we see in 2074 is actually not the same one from 2028 who was cryogenically frozen, but an entirely different person. The story about cryogenic freezing was actually a ruse set up by Akane to make us believe that they were the same person so that their minds would be able to switch places. After all, K was able to send his mind back to 2028, even though he wasn't born yet. Maybe that revelation was foreshadowing that other people can swap minds.
A couple more points that could be seen as evidence in favor of this theory:
1. In the scene where Sigma returns to 2028, we never actually see Phi in person, since she's already in the cryo chamber. Perhaps this was done to hide the fact that 2028 Phi doesn't look like 2074 Phi.
2. At one point, Phi mentions that she's twenty years old, though Sigma thinks she looks younger. That, along with the C-cup joke, could be hints that Phi is in the same boat as Sigma, in that what she thinks she looks like and her actual appearance are very different. After all, Sigma didn't notice his mechanical eye until it was pointed out to him.
- Jossed. There are multiple Phis, but not for that reason. Every time you use the transporter, it sends a copy of you through spacetime but doesn't affect the original. Since Phi transports multiple times, there are multiple copies of her. They're all the "same person," though.
After all, the recording of the Mars Test Mission we found suggests that only three people survived. Sigma and Phi have to survive the mission in order for the mind jump to work, and it's heavily implied that Tenmyouji/Junpei was there as well. Word of God also suggests that Diana is supposed to survive the mission, since she and Present Sigma have to meet after the mission in order for him to build Luna. That leaves four people.
There's two possible explanations for this: either the recording was made at a time when Sigma was believed to be dead(he did lose his arms and eye in an accident at the test site), or Phi and Diana are in fact the same person, and the developer's comments on Luna being based on Diana are intended as misdirection.
Of course, there is one hole in this theory - Phi doesn't seem to have any special reaction to seeing Luna, the way Sigma does when he sees K's true face.
- Jossed. Diana and Phi are both in this game as two separate people.
- Doesn't disprove this theory, but they can be compatible - if everyone had the same face, then everyone would have the same impairments Ace had - instead of giving himself abilities he doesn't, he'd be making everyone else's abilities useless, putting them on equal footing anyway. However, Word of God said that Gentarou didn't believe in Free the Soul anyway and was just feigning it to get their support in his projects, so he's already not really "with" them.
- Jossed. Ace is never seen.
- At a point early in VLR, Sigma is wondering "Why me?" And lists a bunch of things that he might have done, including the above three things, as well as "Start a fight with a frightening and Mysterious new religion." Well, we know he's doing that, He kind of already has... so maybe the other things are things he'll do too.
- Except Sigma has already done all those things. He claims to have already had a one night stand with a mistress of a prominent politician during that monologue. He 'hacked' into the Crash Key's servers using Luna's password and username, accessing their database. And he witnessed Dio nearly assassinate Akane.
- The woman (Diana?) who Sigma fell in love with as a young man is Phi's mother.
- Shortly after Phi's birth, she either died in the Radical-6 pandemic, or she didn't die at all, but only disappeared as a result of something to do with the events at the test site.
- Phi's esper abilities were inherited from Sigma.
- Her name is a result of Family Theme Naming.
- Word of God says she and Sigma will never be romantically involved, and aside from some general lechery on Sigma's part, they haven't really had any Ship Tease. This explains why.
- The exact statement referenced above (in Answer #24 of VLR's Answers) was "No, they won't be a couple… I can't tell you any more without it being spoilers, so please look forward to the 3rd game." This makes the theory much more plausible.
- It also explains the "connection" that Phi and K feel with each other. Neither can define it, but they describe it as a feeling that they're "similar" somehow. In fact, they're both Sigma's children. Note that this comes up on Luna's route, and Luna was created to act as Kyle's mother, while the woman she was based on was actually Phi's mother.
- As Phi tells Sigma in what will turn out to have been a nice bit of dramatic irony, she has no idea who her father is or what he looks like, or whether he's alive or dead. Also, she lost her mother very young and doesn't have anything of hers except that brooch, which suggests that she doesn't know what her mother looked like. That's why she doesn't recognize Luna, Sigma, or Kyle.
- The fact that Phi is only a little younger than Sigma at Point A on the timeline might not be an issue. She could be inhabiting another person's body - we know that time traveling espers can jump into other bodies. She could be a clone of herself, created in the past - we know that cloning technology has existed long enough for the fourth generation of Lefts to be adults in 2074, plus this would be another reason for her to feel a connection with K. And there's undoubtedly a lot we still don't know.
- The woman at the test site will have the brooch.
- As far as physical appearances are concerned, Phi has red/ginger eyebrows (indicating that her white hair is dyed) and blue eyes, the same as Diana.
- C-O-N-F-I-R-M-E-D-! Phi is born during the events of the game, and is sent back via a transporter to 2008. The bit about Diana having the brooch, however, is Jossed; she actually gets the brooch from Phi.
- His name isn't actually "Light": it's "Right." As in, the brother of Left. Any resemblance to other characters in Japanese media, living or dead, are purely coincidental
- Jossed.
- We know from both previous games that the chances of a baseline human manifesting psychic abilities increase if other espers are nearby or sharing a similar situation (For example, Junpei manifested because of the Power of Love, but Snake and Clover's close proximity likely helped. Sigma and Phi are in the game with Tenmyouji and Clover so they can manifest in the same way). The test site will presumably have a lot of normal humans and a lot of the cast's espers there, so why shouldn't there be a self-perpetuating chain reaction?
- Also, a lot of the philosophical monlogues, especially in the first game, seem to be about humanity's collective potential for tapping into the morphogenetic field. It's odd that in the second game its more focused on individual espers - so it makes sense that those themes will be explored in full.
- Zig-zagged. It's mentioned that more espers are being born than before, and in the end, two distinctly non-esper characters gain esper-like abilities due to resonance, but not on an all-of-humanity scale.
- Think about it. They have a common enemy now: Free the Soul. I can definitely see Akane putting aside her hatred for the man to work towards saving the world.
- Hm. What could Hongou contribute to the plan that Akane can't?
- Pharmacology, knowledge of FTS and its organization, maybe his inability to recognize faces can function as a Disability Superpower?
- Hm. What could Hongou contribute to the plan that Akane can't?
- Jossed. Ace is never seen.
- The first game featured time travel save scumming,so the second used it too,without ever an attempt to hide it(for those who played the first game anyway).Considering the large number of people we believe will participate (Diana,Sigma,Phi,Kyle,Brother,?,other members?(according to other speculations:Akane,Junpei,Clover,Alice,Dio,Hongou,Santa,etc.))it is not too unlikely that scroodiver's mechanics will make an appearance so that new characters can appear (if only because,even with overlaping characters (? and perhaps Kyle will probably overlap with someone)Brother and/or zero will become too obvious.So based on some choices prior to meeting all of the cast (or even after that,if masking gear/clones are involved)the cast will change.
- Jossed. While the game does have its screwy moments and twists, it never follows up on what Akane said in VLR and thus never reaches that higher level of incomprehensibility.
- Confirmed for the announcement! Zero Escape 3 will be released in Summer 2016.
- Confirmed. For Brother's plan to succeed, old Sigma has to be sent back in time to the events of ZTD. To do that, Dio has to be there and fail.
But what if this plan was actually a Kansas City Shuffle designed to distract us from the real plan: to have Dio hijack the time jump and jump into a Left clone at the test site to ensure that the Radical 6 outbreak happened as planned? After all, we've seen that Sigma and Phi weren't the only ones to go back in time; K apparently jumped back into the past as well.
- Jossed. Dio is never even mentioned in ZTD.
- I think Radical-6 (the main focus) won't be so related to All-ice(Ice-9), would it?
- Or maybe the creators can get around it.
- Jossed.
- Jossed.
- Confirmed in VLR's answers.
- Confirmed, but with a twist. The amnesiac is indeed the strongest member of the cast, but he's a robot based on a small child and is therefore also the smallest.
- This could be corroborated by the fact that "the game will focus on choices that force players to choose between gaining their freedom or retaining their moral integrity" and how "your way of thinking, values, and virtues will be intensely shaken during this game".
- Zig-zagged. In the ending that leads to VLR, Diana has the option to take a heavily injured Sigma to the surface, leading to a Radical-6 outbreak. The player has no choice in the matter and she goes through with it anyway.
- Yeah, obviously it's Sigma. Confirmed.
- #9◊ : Clearly appears to be Sigma.
- Confirmed
- #6◊: Could be Diana, it's hard to tell due to the image being black and white. Could also be Nona, Akane, or a new character. Could also be Phi, as the facial structure seems to match up a bit, but her hair appears to be dark rather than light.
- #6 confirmed to be Akane.
- The second half is jossed. #3 is very likely Phi.
- #2◊: Could be Junpei or this game's Left clone(he does look a bit like Dio in facial features).
- Jossed on it being Junpei
- #7: Very likely to be Diana, as she appears to be wearing the same clothing as the woman in the torture photo, who is Diana.
- Confirmed
- #1◊: The Left clone, or a new character.
- #3◊: Either Phi or Santa. Seems too obvious not to be one of them.
- Phi confirmed.
- #5◊: Looks like Junpei.
- Confirmed
- #8◊: Could be Lotus, Nona/Ennea, or a new character.
- Confirmed new character
- #4: A child with amnesia wearing a mask. New character? Left clone? He wouldn't be wearing a mask if his identity wasn't a plot point.
- It's less who he is that's important, and more what he is.
- Unless Junpei is the protagonist again, this might be jossed.
- The playable characters are 1, 4, and Diana.
But what if the big twist is that there are ten people at the test site, and not nine as we were led to believe? One of the participants is not supposed to be there. Is it Sigma? Akane? Brother?
If there's ten people, then that explains why more than three people could survive the disaster if six people died. Of course, it brings into question why Diana was hiding the existence of the tenth person (since she said there were three survivors including her).
- Sigma is #9, and Akane is a different participant. So it wouldn't be either of them. Brother, on the other hand, is a possibility.
- Unlikely. Diana said "Six of us are... dead. Including myself, there are only three left". There could only be 9 participants for the numbers to add up.
- Diana doesn't have to know if there was a secret tenth participant. Besides, the first game already had more than 9 participants.
- Confirmed - there is a 10th participant in Q team.
- This troper believes the game to come out on June 21st, and not just because it's his birthday. First off, neither June 5th, 6th, or 9th are Tuesdays, the release date of games in America. June 21st, however, is a Tuesday. And when you take the date in number form, 6-21, and find its digital root, it equals 9 (6+2+1), the arc number. It is also the only Tuesday during the summer of 2016 where that is possible. So then we have the game coming out in Akane's month, on a day that has a digital root of the arc number. If Uchikoshi doesn't take advantage of this, then I have lost a little faith in his grand schemes. Will still play the game, however.
- Jossed. The game will be released on June 28th, 2016.
- Jossed. The returning characters all have secrets we haven't heard before, but none of those is related to their identity.
- In the trailer, we saw a pig fetus. Normally cloning is associated with sheep but pigs may have been cloned too. Q is wearing a pig mask.
Granted we know that Dio supposedly helped Luna because had an affair with a girl that looked like her; but that doesnt mean that she was the only girl that looked like Luna he has met
- Q has the appearance of a child in 2028. Dio has the appearance of a man in his 20s-30s in 2074. That makes this theory unlikely.
- Jossed. Q is an android and Left is not in the game.
On the flip side, when we're not playing as a character, they might not act the way we expect them to, since their actual character may be different from what we were led to believe.
- Unlikely. Not only would this hurt the characterization of three different characters who are all (most likely) completely new characters, this would also be incredibly poor writing, especially compared to Uchikoshi's standards.
- And precisely how will this be considered poor writing, or hurt the three characters' characterisation? The three different characters still have their own individual personalities and backgrounds, but ? has the ability to take over any of their bodies at any point to influence their decisions - ? is a completely separate character from the three playable characters. Like one of the theories below, I believe that ? is a standalone character on his own, but has the ability to possess any of the characters we play as, meaning that ? is us, the player. I also believe that ? was in Junpei/Young Akane's body in 999 and Sigma's body in VLR to control their actions and steer them towards the best ending - thus, the true protagonist of the whole series is actually ?.
- Because he COMPLETELY took over Kyle's body, effectively kicking Kyle himself out. That is what's being used as a basis for why it would not only hurt characterization, but also why it's poor writing. It's an assumption based on current knowledge, that for all we know there is no way for ? to jump into someone's body without completely booting them out and sending them to whatever body he was just in prior. If this assumption is correct, it would mean a majority of the interactions between the three team leaders and everyone else would be Kyle, instead of the individual characters, which would mean it would hurt characterization on their part, since they'd have little to no character outside of the slim interactions when the characters are all together.
- And precisely how will this be considered poor writing, or hurt the three characters' characterisation? The three different characters still have their own individual personalities and backgrounds, but ? has the ability to take over any of their bodies at any point to influence their decisions - ? is a completely separate character from the three playable characters. Like one of the theories below, I believe that ? is a standalone character on his own, but has the ability to possess any of the characters we play as, meaning that ? is us, the player. I also believe that ? was in Junpei/Young Akane's body in 999 and Sigma's body in VLR to control their actions and steer them towards the best ending - thus, the true protagonist of the whole series is actually ?.
- Jossed. The question of ? is never addressed, or even acknowledged.
Since the preview mentioned the dog's ability to pass through air vents and deliver messages, we can extrapolate that the three groups will have limited contact with each other. Plus, there's the paradox where six people were said to have died, yet five out of nine are shown or implied to have survived. In addition, Akane's presence at the test site contradicts her assertion that she doesn't know what happened there.
It's possible that she's lying, but it's also possible that Akane actually wasn't at the test site; Team C is in a re-enactment of the Mars Test Mission. If this is true, then it's possible that only Sigma, Phi, and Diana were at the actual test mission, and thus the contradiction in the recording is solved.
Though that just leaves the question of why the re-enactment is needed. To allow someone to mind-jump into the test mission by tricking them into believing they're at the test mission? And which mission is Team Q at? The real mission, the fake, or a third duplicate of the mission?
- There's one problem with this theory: the 9 participants were originally housed in Dcom all together for 6 days, then sent to the underground shelter and split up on December 31, 2028. From this we can infer that all 9 of them are from the same time period.
- Also, we know that the characters in the different teams meet up at some point, since we see Sigma alongside Q and Eric in the first trailer.
- Zig-zagged. They are at the same location, but not awake at the same time. The 3 wards of the base are actually one and the same.
I think at this point Akane and Junpei won't get together in any scenario. Akane is supposed to be fairly sociopathic and heartless really, even if she does have some feelings for him I don't think they will be acted upon, further Junpei has already given up on her in another timeline. Given everything we've seen between the two of them since 999, I think its been pretty well telegraphed that they won't be together. I imagine they will address their feelings then abandon the idea after deciding its for the best.
- Jossed. Akane is revealed to be a more idealistic person than most players expected, and Junpei proposes to her during the game.
From everything Tenmyouji told us in VLR, it seemed clear that Junpei did not catch up to Akane again until they met on the moon. Yet the previews for Zero Time Dilemma show that not only are both of them at the test site, but they're in the same group. This makes me question why Jumpy neglected to mention this before. It's possible that Participant 6 isn't actually Akane, but it's also possible that Junpei and Akane are playing the long con, and are actually working together to stop the outbreak.
If Junpei is actually part of Crash Keys, that throws a lot of what he said during VLR into question.
- However Uchikoshi himself stated that Junpei went on to spend the rest of his life searching for her. He has never directly lied in the Answers. He has always either told the complete truth or dodged the question entirely. That makes this theory improbable.
- Jossed. In the VLR timeline, Akane wipes his memories with the amnesia drug. The Golden Ending changes history so VLR never happens.
- Also, come the release of ZTD, Uchikoshi has indeed lied in the answers; a lot of things he said would be revealed in ZTD were not.
- That could very well be due to budget constraints not allowing him to do so.
- Also, come the release of ZTD, Uchikoshi has indeed lied in the answers; a lot of things he said would be revealed in ZTD were not.
- First, six passwords are needed to open said door. Diana confirms there are six dead bodies, the number of the people needed to be killed to obtain the passwords. However, there are five survivors- Sigma, Junpei, Akane, Phi, and potentially Diana. This means that the Operator we hear on the tape may be some sort of emissary for Zero. He puts up a face of potential rescue. Zero would expect Diana to be presumably scared out of her mind, and grab any sort of Hope Spot. Obviously, she would be honest, right? As such, Zero gives up the passwords to escape. However, the Radical-6 is still released.
- It's possible she thinks Akane and Junpei are dead, as it's mentioned that they are split into different sections of the facility.
- Zero wouldn't be that stupid. He would confirm that they were dead, without a doubt, before giving up a password.
- Jossed. They transport themselves from another timeline after their original selves perished in that timeline.
- Their bracelets deactivate traps throughout the facility (it's mentioned Sigma lost an eye and his arms in the facility, and the trailer shows a knight with a minigun on it.). They also activate the ventilation, which removes the virus from parts of the facility. If a dead character's bracelet is used, it still opens, but does not deactivate traps. Sigma would likely be forced with this choice. Also, as such, the game is, like before, designed to make sure the nine escape the facility. They will, instead of exiting through the X-door, be forced to venture through the entire facility, reactivating the Test Site's ventilation, which has been damaged by FTS. They will find an X-door which requires all participants to use all 9 bracelets from people that are still alive to open, and escape.
- Jossed. The bracelets are still a drug-injection device, and also serve as wristwatches. The X-door is opened with passwords, not the bracelets.
As some people have already pointed out, in VLR, Tenmyouji said that he searched for Akane for years, and Uchikose stated in his interview that he never caught up to her (until the end of VLR, anyway). Some people are pointing out that this game seems to contradict that, with Junpei being present in the game working in Akane's team. But it might not actually be Junpei... his consciousness, anyway. While we don't know the true extent of Junpei's esper abilities, it seems to me that he is not a very strong esper, as the only thing we ever witness him do is send a puzzle answer to Akane in the past. It's possible that his presence in this game is not to be himself, but to be a vessel to another consciousness.
Young!Akane was able to watch Junpei's actions in the future so closely that she was able to narrate the entire game from his perspective. It's possible that Junpei's strengths as an esper are the ability to connect easily to other people and/or be a "viewpoint" for other people. (Similar to how the first game stated that some people are better "senders" and some are better "receivers.") It's possible that Junpei, with the presence of other espers (Akane, Sigma, and Phi) boosting his strength, is able to actually house another consciousness that isn't his. We don't actually have any proof that Kyle can directly inhabit Sigma in the past, just speculation at this point. Kyle (or, if not Kyle, then '?') can occupy Junpei and still leave Tenmyouji telling the truth in the future - that HE never met up with Akane, because he was someone else at the time.
- Unlikely. Junpei knows what happened at the test facility. If he was K or ?, then how would he know this?
- Jossed. Junpei is Junpei. In fact, all returning characters are exactly who they claim to be.
The simplest answer as to why Junpei doesn't remember meeting Akane at the test site, and why Akane doesn't know what happened there despite being at the place, may simply be a result of the amnesia drugs in the bracelets. Maybe they escaped and separated from each other, but got hit by another dose of the drugs before they could remove the bracelets. So neither of them remembers the events at the test site (though Tenmyouji vaguely remembers being involved with the project), or meeting each other there.
- Zig-zagged. The VLR timeline is completely averted in the final ending, so there's nothing to explain. In the ending leading to the VLR timeline, this is basically true, though Akane specifically gives Junpei an additional dose so he won't remember her at all.
Eric is seen flipping out in several scenes in the trailer. My guess is that he'll be filling the Clover role in the cast. In the last two games, two of the nine players are shown to be in a close relationship early on, one of them gets killed, and the other snaps, accusing the other players of killing their partner.
Eric and Mira are shown to be in a relationship, so it's plausible that the same pattern may apply here. Mira might be one of the first participants to buy it in many of the timelines, and Eric's unstable state is due to her death.
- Confirmed. In multiple pathways it's a plot point to defuse his anger by revealing who did it before he kills someone.
- Zig-zagged. Sadistic choices abound, and the morality of swapping places with alternative timelines, throwing their selves from that timeline under the bus, is brought up, but not once is saving lives a "wrong" option.
- In the trailer, Zero looks down on the protagonists through bars. However, this is from first person, which means it's also from OUR view.
- In Virtue's Last Reward, ? is mentioned to be necessary for the Mars Mission Test Site. So he might be Zero, in a roundabout way.
- This could explain the mystery of the sixth death as it could be Zero himself. Also note how this is the first time that Zero appears in the cover art separate of any other character(aside from the 999 rerelease).
- Confirmed. Zero is Brother, and we see things mostly from his viewpoint via security cameras.
- As a theory below states, Q could be short for Question Mark.
- Jossed. Q is an android.
We assume that because Phi appears in VLR, that means she obviously survived the test mission, but... what if she didn't?
Maybe her appearance in VLR is like Akane's in 999, in the timelines where Akane died in the incinerator. Because of quantum uncertainty about her existence, she's still able to appear despite being dead. Akane just made up the whole thing about the cryogenic pod so Sigma (and ?) wouldn't learn the truth.
- Jossed. Phi survives in that timeline — in fact, she's Patient Zero for Radical-6, so her survival creates that timeline.
- Jossed, although at one point Carlos loses his perfectly fleshy arm and his bracelet with it.
Not necessarily. Maybe the bracelets can be tricked into giving away a password if a bracelet is disconnected from a participant in some other way, such as losing an arm. Sigma might end up discovering this after that accident where he loses his arms. It might also explain the survivor paradox; maybe Diana thought Sigma was dead because the bracelet displayed his password.
Having a participant try to cut off their own hand to get rid of the bracelet and display a password would be perfectly in line with the Darker and Edgier feel of this game.
- It's unlikely that Zero would make this big of a mistake. Zero would likely check Sigma to assure that he's dead before giving them a password. Or, as a WMG below says, Zero may need to approve the password, so he would most likely make certain that Sigma is dead by checking his pulse.
- Partially confirmed. Carlos loses an arm, and his bracelet with it, but he isn't declared dead.
- Jossed. Zero is Brother.
- Confirmed. Team C tries to pull that trick, and the passwords are rejected, notably declaring that alternate histories' passwords don't work.
Which is just as well for Zero/Brother, since Sigma's abilities would completely break the scenario with the passwords, since he'd be able to learn the passwords in alternate timelines and use them to escape without killing anyone.
- Jossed.
- Possible, though it should be noted that Free the Soul is trying to prevent human extinction (albeit at horrible cost) not cause it.
- Jossed. He remains composed throughout the entire game.
- She implied at the end of VLR to be aware of ?'s presence, as she mentions them being necessary to the Mars Mission's success. Since in the first game you were technically playing as Akane, that would mean that ? was in/with her during that game, too. So it's not too unlikely that ? is Akane in this game, too.
- Jossed. ? never comes up.
- Monty Hall Problem: Probability appears to a theme in ZTD.
- Confirmed. There is a trophy that you can get for "solving the Monty Hall Problem"
- Schrodinger's Cat: Appeared in the previous game, probably will be used again as a mindscrew.
- Confirmed. There's a trophy called Schrodinger's Cat, and it was discussed in VLR that Alice and Clover would return using it.
- Actually Jossed. Schrodinger's Cat is oddly never mentioned despite the trophy.
- While it's not mentioned, it's indeed present. Carlos plays an AB game against Junpei that goes exactly as it did in VLR.
- The Trolley Problem: You'll be choosing who to potentially kill often, it seems.
- Confirmed. It's only used once, however and never mentioned by name.
- Toxoplasmosis: We'll probably be learning more about the nature of Radical-6 and it will probably be compared to a rather nasty parasite called toxoplasmosis gondii.
- Confirmed. Akane says basically this in one of the timelines. Although it has nothing to do with Radical-6.
- That would be one way to bookend the Q room from VLR.
- Jossed.
After the test mission goes awry, Carlos/Left's body is found covered in bruises. Because of the chaos surrounding the Radical 6 outbreak, his killer is able to escape prosecution. The result is the ill sister he left behind developing psychic powers and becoming Brother, the very person who would later end up setting everything leading to her brother's death in motion.
Bonus irony points if it was Akane who ended up killing Carlos, since it would mean that her efforts to stop the Radical 6 outbreak ultimately ended up causing it. Even more irony points if it's Brother who kills Carlos, escaping justice through the clout of the Free the Soul cult, and turning everything into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
- Free The Soul was formed long before the Mars Mission Test Site. They gave Ace funding for the first Nonary Game. There is also supposedly a Left clone at the facility, which was alluded to by Dio, so this is unlikely.
- Brother also existed as an "old man" in both 2028 and 2074. It's highly likely that Brother is able to time-jump. If Brother jumped into the past to found Free the Soul and set up the Nonary Games (maybe Lord Gordain was one of Brother's hosts), then Brother could be from any point on the time-line.
- Then why would there be a Left clone at the facility?
- Brother also existed as an "old man" in both 2028 and 2074. It's highly likely that Brother is able to time-jump. If Brother jumped into the past to found Free the Soul and set up the Nonary Games (maybe Lord Gordain was one of Brother's hosts), then Brother could be from any point on the time-line.
- Jossed. We never learn Left's identity.
- Jossed.
Second, the Operator mentions the camera feed is hacked. Alice, as an infiltration and technological expert, would know how to hack cameras and other forms of security, and how to break into (a government owned) testing facility.
- Why does she need to share the identity of Zero with someone else? And Clover also mentioned that she would potentially return using Schrodinger's Cat.
- Jossed. Alice is never mentioned by name in the game.
- The ? plotline is never resolved, or indeed mentioned.
- Counterpoint: Just because she and Sigma aren't going to be a couple doesn't mean the line wasn't directed at him.
- It can be assumed that, because we know they won't be a couple, this means they don't have romantic feelings for one another. She used a word reserved for lovers.
- Unresolved. She shares some affectionate moments with Diana, but it's revealed Phi is her daughter.
- Jossed. FBR may or may not even exist. It's only if Q-Team does inject Radical-6 that things go to shit.
- Jossed. Q isn't short for anything and we never find out anything about ?.
- That wouldn't solve the "6 people are dead" contradiction. She says, soon after that, that only three are left.
- Diana is simply incorrect. It's possible to travel physically between timelines. The main timeline's Junpei and Akane die, then another timeline's Junpei and Akane arrive without Diana's knowledge.
- If Quark was already born by this point, he should be an adult in VLR.
- Unless he was cryogenically frozen like Clover, who didn't age much between 999 and VLR. Or there will be some sort of time travel thing introduced in this game.
- Unlikely. Tenmyouji found Quark when he was an infant. Q is too old to be Quark, even when cryogenically frozen.
- Q being Quark is still a possibility, because this game HAS been known to use 'unlikely' theories and seemingly contradictory facts as part of the plot. Say, someone made a theory that Tenmyoji is actually Junpei on the VLR WMG page before the game was released. Everyone would've been like 'impossible, VLR takes place two years after 999 since Clover is only 2 years older.' And they would've been wrong. Who's to say that they can't pull off a similar plot device in this game as well? This game IS about the unexpected!
- The only way I could see Q being Quark is if the "multiple Nonary Game" theory is true, and not all the perspectives are taking place in 2028. Then it's possible that one of the alternate perspectives is happening closer to 2074, and some of the other participants are actually clones or GAULEM duplicates (to maintain the illusion that the duplicate is happening in 2028 by hiding that some of the participants are already dead or visibly older). And that still leaves open the question as to who the 2028 Q was.
- Unless he was cryogenically frozen like Clover, who didn't age much between 999 and VLR. Or there will be some sort of time travel thing introduced in this game.
- Jossed. He's a robot.
- What does Q have to do with kill?
- Same pronunciation, specially considering the game's original language is Japanese. This pronunciation is also shared with 9 and that created a important wordplay in the first game.
- Kill is pronounced as "kiru" so I doubt it.
- And why does everything have to be based on the Japanese language? Just because the game is made in Japan doesn't mean all puns must be in Japanese. Surely the creators had considered that fact that the lowercase 'q' looked liked a '9' back in 999 so that the pun will work in English as well. Besides, they can use this pun even in the Japanese version by explaining the fact that 'Q' sounds like 'kill' in English.
- Same pronunciation, specially considering the game's original language is Japanese. This pronunciation is also shared with 9 and that created a important wordplay in the first game.
- If this is true, it's never mentioned in the game. No explanation is ever given for Q's name, though from a Watsonian perspective it's probably intended to remind you of Quark and reinforce a misconception among players.
- Jossed. There is no mention of ? in ZTD. The player is Zero, just like in 999.
Now, my guess as to how routes work is this - when a segment is completed and we see where it lies on the decision tree, we see the branching storyline from the scene where a random chance changes the story. In order to get the Golden Ending the player must watch the scene multiple times and see every version of the random event then act on the best scenario.
- Confirmed, though in two cases the game is gimmicked to automatically give you a specific outcome. You always win the initial coin toss on your first try, and you always win a later random event on the third try. The rest are legitimately random, and you may have to make several attempts to get every result.
- Saving Left seems like it'd make an ideal endgame. If Left doesn't die, then Brother never comes into being. Therefore, Free the Soul is never created, and none of the Nonary Games ever happen. Akane doesn't get stuck in the incinerator and doesn't become an esper, and the Radical-6 virus is never released.
- Phi does end up going all the way back to 1904, but that's not why.
- It was confirmed that Diana and Sigma met after the events of the game, and they both created Luna on the moon. He likely created Luna because he had Diana as a model at the time. He may still be romantically involved with her, but if they are, it would most likely not be the reason for Luna's creation.
- Confirmed. They even have children during the game and are confirmed to have been in love in the VLR timeline as well.
Plus, we have the survivor paradox, where it's said there were only three survivors, but five people ended up surviving.
So, what if the old woman at Rhizome-9 is actually Diana, who is assuming the role of Akane? The real Akane died at the test site, and Diana assumed her identity. This revelation would bring a new meaning to Tenmyouji's words in the epilogue of VLR, about how the Akane he knew no longer exists. While on the surface, it appears to be about how Akane's psychic powers have made her cold and inhuman, it acquires a new meaning if Akane is actually Diana. Junpei knew Akane better than the others, so he might have been able to realize that the "Akane" he was talking to was an imposter.
The only hole in this theory is the "Akane" that Sigma meets after he jumps back to the present. In this case, either Diana dyed her hair to look like Akane, or they swapped bodies through psychic shenanigans.
- If Diana dyed her hair, that wouldn't change how her face is exactly the same as Akane's. As for the psychic shenanigans, even if Diana is an esper, why would she jump into Akane's dead body, and pretend to be Akane to Sigma? Why pretend to be Akane at the facility? There would be no point. And why would she lie about not knowing what happened at the facility?
- Jossed. Diana was indeed at Rhizome-9, but she wasn't hiding her identity.
In VLR, Junpei says he never found Akane until the events of VLR, and Word of God says the same thing. Uchikoshi hasn't once lied in the Q&A's, so we can assume that this is the truth. Akane also says that she doesn't know what happened at the facility. The only possibility for all of these things to be the truth is if Akane is either K or ?.
- Or, those answers could only be canon with the VLR timeline. In a new timeline where Radical 6 was prevented, those answers would still be true.
- Nope. K makes no appearance, and the Golden Ending erases him from history. He still exists in his own timeline, of course.
- Zero could also be Brother, as his powerful esper abilities could give him that information.
- Confirmed. Zero is Brother, and his esper abilities are confirmed to work differently from the other espers in the series, making him a mind reader.
Is Zero intercepting the notes and altering them to further his own agenda? Do the characters act differently and send different notes when we're not controlling them? Are we in a different time fragment than we're led to think, and this is a different note we're getting? Or are the notes different because the perspectives take place in different times and places entirely?
- Jossed.
- Kinda confirmed; he is trying to close a Stable Time Loop that results in both his and her births. She's not the snail, though; the snail is an actual snail.
- Jossed. He basically gets everything he wanted in the end.
- This is a fringe theory created by a certain imageboard but it eerily makes too much sense.
- Phi is participant number 3. The same number Santa had in the first game.
- They both look similar which Uchikoshi gave contradictory explanations why: Nishimura preferred that or she was requested to make Phi look like a female Santa.
- Jossed.
- In that case, since Q is related to Schroedinger's Cat somehow he could be both a Left and Phi clone.
- Jossed.
- Problem with this is that it may over-saturate the game with returning characters and considering Diana and Q, it's most likely a brand new character that doesn't know what's going on.
- Jossed.
- Jossed. Zero directly calls Carlos the snail in the most recent trailer.
- Jossed. The snail is just that, a snail. The falsely accused man and his suicidal wife, are, however, Akane's parents, and the real culprit is Mira.
- Jossed. Zero directly calls Carlos the snail in the most recent trailer.
- Although Carlos is confirmed to be the snail, the part about the 6 people in the incident representing the 6 dead participants could still be true.
- In actuality, the snail was literally a snail that drove a woman to jog down a path where a budding Serial Killer was waiting, leading to... a whole host of problems.
- Jossed. Zero directly calls Carlos the snail in the most recent trailer.
- In actuality, the snail was literally a snail that drove a woman to jog down a path where a budding Serial Killer was waiting, leading to... a whole host of problems.
- In one image we see a blood-splattered Carlos next to a puddle of blood and an axe.
- In the trailer, we hear him screaming, similar to how Junpei did after his hand was cut off.
- In the same image, his left hand is hidden from view, which was the hand Clover cut off in the first game.
- Zig-zagged. Depending on how the scene plays out, he either commits suicide thinking he killed Junpei, or Akane cuts off his hand before he manages to subdue and kill her.
- Jossed.
- But we also know that Akane has to meet with Sigma before the reactors exploded, and that Phi has to go to Akane and get cryogenically frozen. How would they both live?
- Jossed.
- Jossed. Either Diana pulls the trigger or Phi burns.
There might be a Schrödinger's Cat component to the plan, as well: As long as the incinerator isn't opened after it activates, she will be able to escape because the possibility of her finding a way out still exists.
- However, there is a way to look into the incinerator, so Schrodinger's Cat probably wouldn't work unless she was right up against one of the walls that the door to the incinerator is also on. And even then, I'd expect the door to open after it's finished.
- Jossed. Phi is indeed killed by the incinerator.
- But there's gonna HAVE to be a way to let every player fill out the flowchart completely. Locking players out of certain RNG choices will make it impossible to complete the flowchart.
- Zig-zagged. Some random choices are rigged, some aren't.
- It's generally said Luna is based on Diana, but since Sigma experiences VLR and then sets up the base for VLR before switching places with his old body for ZTD, he had never met Diana by the time he met Luna on that timeline.
- Diana went with Sigma to Rhizome 9. From Sigma's perspective, he met Diana for the first time when he jumped back to his younger body after the events of VLR, but she knew him already from the events of ZTD and knew that he would be going to the moon. This is true for every VLR timeline.
- I think the file said 1904!Phi lived to be nearly 100 years old or around 100 years old. Considering she'd be about 104 by the time our Phi showed up it seems pretty unlikely. Though such a massive time difference is now making me question they they sent her so far in the future in the first place. Seems like you'd be waiting a very long time before you can get any solid evidence on that experiment. Maybe they also sent Phis and Deltas twenty and fifty years into the future and there's really a whole bunch of them out there.
- The file explicitly says that 1904!Phi was researching the transporter in 2008, and very heavily implies she was indeed Phi's adoptive mother.
- We do play the game from Zero's perspective, but Zero is still a character in the game universe. The game screen shows what he's seeing or what images are being beamed to his vision from the security cameras. This is made clear in the ending where Zero's identity is revealed.
- It's implied in both 999 and ZTD that anybody can access the morphogenetic field under the right circumstances though. Could still be true that those with a greater affinity for it tend to be healthier.
- The 1904 Phi was also confirmed to live for a very long time. This does seem likely.
- Akane is an esper, and she's pretty fragile.
The morphogenetic field is shown to be like a terminal connecting with a server with the human brain acting as the transmitter. Its also implied that all humans have some connection to the morphgenetic field due to the way the brain works.
In 999, morphogenetic field theory is being researched by Ace to see if he can't cure his condition. The idea being that his mental condition was being caused by a weak connection to the morphgenetic field and could be repaired.
In the ending of ZTD, Mira's SHIF Ted which required a connection to the morphogenetic field. Perhaps, her mental condition of being unable to feel emotions was due to a misconnect between her and the morphogenetic field. SHIF Ting might have re-calibrated her brain and tuned it to the morphogenetic field.
The final SHIFT actually cured Mira. Thus her real smile and her love for Eric might have been true.
- Nitpick: Ace's plan was not to fix his brain, but to see people through others' eyes. But the bulk of your theory is sound.
- In that case, Eric is the best candidate for Brother. He is very much upset about his brother's death, enough to make him incredibly sensitive. Furthermore, he has been shown to act violently toward basically anyone who isn't Mira.
- But Delta is so old that he's had plenty of time to reconcile his brother's death. It's been decades.
- It could also be that other character who dedicated his life to his sick sibling.
- Word of God says that it stands for the Eye of Horus, but it could have a double meaning.
From VLR's diagram, we know that Sigma's consciousness isn't going to travel anymore, because he succeeded in preventing the release of Radical-6. So he's not going to the moon, nor are Diana and Phi. That said, Sigma will just sweep his college exams and tests with his knowledge about genetic engineering, get a job and marry Diana. He will also beat the crap out of Diana's ex if he dares to come back to harrass her again.
As for Phi, she will probably keep living separated from her parents, knowing her rough personality. But she will pay them a visit from time to time.
And Delta... that depends on Carlos's choice. If he didn't shoot him, then Delta will just keep commanding Free the Soul and do whatever FTS's goals are, because I don't know what their deal is anymore after this game.
- That would also explain why Eric's mother reminded Mira of her own mother.
- The Mars testing site was indeed hijacked by Ft S. Consider the fact that we saw blood in the medical room that hinted at a Radical-6 outbreak.
- Junpei and Akane weren't meant to be participants. They probably weren't meant to elope here as well since Uchikoshi intended for them to be a tragic romance.
This would turn the whole series into a massive Bootstrap Paradox, with Brother's actions being the result of premonitions of the event he would end up causing. It would also add an extra layer of irony to the ending, as the participants continue searching for a fanatic who they've already stopped.
- This would make sense as, in VLR, we're led to believe that Delta is a religious fanatic on a mission from God to cleanse the world.
- If there is a next game, which there probably won't be.
- Calling Jossed on this. I think if Sean saw his childhood self in a video game, as well as the events of HAPPY-END lining up with his childhood, it would be a pretty huge marker that something is up. Delta also said that the simulation is perfect, and Sean couldn't know that it's fake.
There's mention of the Resonance Effect right after Junpei's proposal to Akane.
As is known in VLR, usually, the presence of a strong SHIFTer suppresses the abilities of others around them. Sigma and Phi were co-strongest, to the point that Junpei (as Tenmyouji) couldn't access the morphogenetic field at all.
Perhaps the in-universe explanation of the Resonance Effect is that Carlos has subconsciously trained his abilities so much as a firefighter, that he has so much excess "bandwidth" when accessing the morphogenetic field, that it actually spills over and allows him to enhance the abilities of others near him. Which would make Carlos a stronger SHIFTer than Sigma and Phi, or at least that his years of firefighting (of which there would be crisis choices aplenty during rescues in burning buildings) was better training for him than the whole Ambidex Game was for them.
Maybe Carlos is right on that edge before being so powerful that one succumbs to Reverie Syndrome...like his sister...
- Or rather, he didn't succumb to Reverie Syndrome because he's so powerful. Remember, Reverie Syndrome is what happens when an esper is receiving so much data through the morphogenetic field that they can't handle it.
Payoff is the Golden Ending, where no one dies, but it's not the true one. The true one was in fact one in which six...five people were killed inside the DCOM facilitynote and a pandemic cause the death of six billion people. Life is unfair, isn't it?
Here’s the thing about extremists, they go for the vulnerable. And who’s more vulnerable than a teenager who’s beloved younger brother just got murdered by someone who bribed the police? Especially since Left was, according to Dio, a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, white male. Probably German too since, you know, he’s from Germany.
In 1930, he founded Free the Soul; that same year, the Nazis won 95 seats in the election. Religious organizations tend to tell their followers who to vote for, so maybe that played a part. We do not know where Free the Soul was founded, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he founded it in Germany, since that’s kinda where he lived for most of his life up to that point.
Finally, the actual beliefs of Free the Soul. It had a survival of fittest mentality to it, eliminating the weak for the strong to live. In other words, it had a social darwinist mentality. And Free the Soul’s goal is to make a “new race.” This “new race” will look like Dio. Which is to say, it will be like Left. Which is to say, the “new race” will be entirely blonde-haired, blue-eyed, white, possibly German, males.
Yikes.