History Fridge / Dominoes

* To pair with an entry down in FridgeHorror below, it's a bit of FridgeBrilliance in and of itself to use Ran, a character typically defined by her [[IncorruptiblePurePureness outstanding kindness, empathy, and understanding,]] to give the readers a mostly sympathetic view of the very subtle inherent supremacy ideology underpinning ISHA, rather than writing all of the members of ISHA off as simplistic SuperSupremacist [[StrawMan strawmen]]. Ran ''isn't'' an outright supremacist, and it's ''not'' that those we've seen so far in ISHA have eagerly adapted the leanings of super supremacy because they hate "normal" people, but in their very stressful job, it's temptingly easier to unconsciously think of the people they protect as beneath them; it helps simplify very difficult situations by giving those in power an excuse to rationalize discarding the inconvenient rights and opinions of what is often the largest and most complicated party involved in any issue. Unconscious supremacist leanings enables those in ISHA to rationalize and excuse questionably ethical power grabs that give them more control over a given situation and better perpetuate a StatusQuo that they prefer. Ran enacts this with her entirely one-sided idea of her relationship with Shinichi, making a power grab by restricting him to her terms on penalty of perpetual disappointment while giving him nothing in return and justifying that power grab with the idea that Shinichi's "fragile" and she believes she knows better than he does what he should be doing with his life. The brilliance of this extends to real-world commentary, as it mimics real-world human rights debates occurring ''now'' over the extent to which the various governments of the world, often staffed by people in far more privileged classes than those they make decisions for, should be allowed to violate and reduce citizens' freedoms and privacy in the name of furthering efforts towards public order and safety.

** Kaito, at least, isn't immune to ''all'' psychic interference--after all, Shinichi uses his {{Psychometry}} to view Kaito's memory of Toichi's death.
This still leaves the question of why Shinichi's power works on Kaito when Yuusaku's doesn't.

** As Yuusaku admits and tells Hakuba, both the current KID and the former KID had a way of completely blocking Yuusaku's psychic mental senses and attacks. Unless Pandora's presumed mental/emotional influence is ''much'' more overwhelmingly strong on each individual than Yuusaku's--and Yuusaku's is powerful enough to turn even those skilled at resisting intrusive mental influences into PeoplePuppets, while Pandora, if the riots ''are'' the Pandora Effect, seems more en masse and can be resisted by those of strong focus--[[SpotTheThread how could it have affected Kuroba Toichi in particular so badly?]] If anything is true of what Hakuba explains in the Interlude and it really was Toichi who went crazy and started killing people, why would he be ''more'' susceptible than others when he has a resistance to such influences that not even the Baron can breach? How could Hakuba resist what the more-resistant Kuroba Toichi could not? Either the Pandora Effect works very differently to what's currently implied or somebody's lied through their ''teeth'' to Hakuba.
** Maybe the reason both Toichi and Kaito have mental protection is because it's built into the KID suit. In which case, did something damage Toichi's protection measures? Were they not adequate? Or, again, is Hakuba's description of events composed of lies?

[[folder:Part 1]]

[[folder:Part 1]]

[[folder:Part 1]]

* Part 1 is called "The Will of Zeus," with the title deriving from a line in Hesiod's retelling of the myth of Pandora. In Greek mythology, Pandora was created at Zeus' bidding to punish man for receiving the gifts of Prometheus, which were acquired through Prometheus' deceit of the gods. Through Prometheus, mankind received its existence, the use of fire, the skills of metallurgy, civilization, and a way to petition the gods for favors without surrendering the useful parts of an animal sacrifice; in response, through Zeus, Prometheus' brother Epimetheus was wed to Pandora, "she of all gifts." With the creation of the first woman and wife came all the rest of the features associated with humanity--beauty, grace, cunning, intelligence, creativity, curiosity, and--through that curiosity and the infamous but inaccurately titled "Pandora's Box"--also illness, mortality, all misfortunes, and, at the very bottom of the container, Hope. As punishment for tricking the gods, Prometheus was sentenced by Zeus to eternal physical and emotional torment. Prometheus' story has long been interpreted as exemplifying the unforseen and tragic consequences that can arise from one's drive for achievement and good intentions, and Pandora's as exemplifying the inescapability of those consequences. These themes overlap heavily with those of Part 1.

** Even worse: During the riots it would be easy to pass off Shinichi's death as a result of the chaos, but given the two of them almost certainly already had a plan for killing Shinichi ''before'' the April 25th riots, what was that prior execution plan? Pre-riots, anything violent or unnatural would cause some level of scrutiny, and since they don't seem to have reported their suspicions about the Pandora Effect's cause to anyone else, they probably aren't going to want to have to try to explain their reasons for executing Shinichi or want to be linked in connection with his death. They could frame someone or something else, make it look like a random act of violence or a burglar or some dangerous figure Shinichi got involved in through his reporting, but that's so much extra work and the excess details inevitably won't perfectly line up if someone looks too hard. No, we've already seen the easiest way Yuusaku and Hakuba could kill Shinichi: MindRape him until he's little more than a puppet and then ''make him kill himself.'' Shinichi was already noticably troubled and lonely and miserable. After all, Hakuba and Yuusaku ''made'' him that way. Few if any could prove outside intent for his death. It'd be the perfect crime... at the cost of whatever remains of Yuusaku's and Hakuba's souls.

* Studies have shown that victims of emotional abuse in childhood are far more likely to enter into and/or accept other toxic relationships throughout their lives because they often don't know how healthy and balanced relationships work, and we see exactly this happen to Shinichi in his relationship with Ran. Despite the fact that Ran's very presence makes him feel terrible about himself, a vocal part of Shinichi during his internal debate argues that Shinichi should just accept the relationship as it is because Shinichi's feelings don't matter. Also, it is heavily implied in Part 1 that Shinichi had accepted this increasingly toxic relationship up until now because, typical of emotional abuse victims, he felt (and still feels) isolated and alone; Ran was his only remaining companion and everyone involved in the abuse knew it. It goes unsaid, but it's clear that, until Shinichi finds out their secret identities, tolerating Ran's hurtful behavior was still better than seemingly having no one at all. After discovering Ran's secret identity, Shinichi's self-respect is ''just'' enough for him to reject the relationship, but even then the deciding reason isn't that what she did to him was wrong: he breaks up with her because he doesn't want to be her "burden."

* Borders between FridgeBrilliance and FridgeHorror, but _of course_ violence and emotional instability would get worse in Tokyo, even if the "Pandora Effect" _wasn't_ getting any stronger. Trauma begets emotional instability, emotional instability begets irrational behavior, irrational behavior begets trauma. In real-life, hysteria can occur with no supernatural influences at all; just a whole lot of bad influences. The Pandora Effect isn't the only calamity happening to Tokyo, a city that has been near-constantly besieged by disasters and monster attacks for the last three years. Every single traumatic incident would chip away at the emotional stability of the first responders, the ISHA personell, the police, and the civilians. Just in Part 1 alone, which covers a span of three weeks, downtown Tokyo gets flattened by a fire giant, upended by gravity quakes, and missiled by international law enforcement. Second-hand PTSD is a ''real'' effect that can change the emotional climate of whole cultures; think 9/11. Then think that most in Tokyo would have some first hand experience with these catastrophes as well if they're as frequent as implied. The "Pandora Effect" didn't have to get stronger; with each disaster, Tokyo as a whole became weaker. An escalating increase in violence and crime in a city clearly going out of control isn't the unusual thing; the fact that an unspecified something about this escalating violence notably stopped after easily the most traumatic catastrophe of the lot ''is.''

[[/folder]