[Oliver]

Originally Posted by Kaisos Erranon

So, uh, what are you trying to say here? I don't quite get it, because I'm not very smart.

Originally Posted by Judoh

So are you saying if the readers eliminate the wrong people from the equation they'll all end up being hanged?

I am trying to say that:

• Beatrice's proof of witches hinges on everyone else being proven or assumed innocent. Which is what Battler is doing most of the time to the best of his incompetence.
• But a mystery is supposed to be a surprise.
• The number of possible single culprits is limited to 17. Some of them have been eliminated in red over time already, starting with Battler who is the detective, which brings us closer to being surprised.
• It is likely that 'Beatrice'/'Ryukishi' expects us to further eliminate those who remain one by one and end up with one most likely singular culprit.
• It will be a great surprise if in Ep7 we will get a complete denial of this person being a singular culprit or a culprit at all. In red. That would be fully in keeping with Beatrice's long treatise on culprits and candy. He can do this multiple times.
• But if we assume that whichever singular culprit is not one because they're the most likely one and we know Ryukishi wants to surprise us, we risk stepping into the unexpected hanging trap -- i.e we will be surprised because someone we eliminated ourselves is the culprit.
• Nevertheless, a large portion of the audience will end up being correct purely through randomness if any single culprit is assumed. That is not in Ryukishi's interest.
• But unlike the surprised prisoner, we can be 'hanged', i.e. surprised, at multiple days of the week simultaneously, because our 'days of the week' - suspects - are not arranged in any consecutive order!

It is therefore very likely that every episode features more than one culprit. They either have to all be innocent of murder and it's all a giant magic trick, or many of them have to be guilty at the same time. That's the only practical way to keep the surprise up while we're working with single culprit theories because this way no single elimination will remove the surprise in the end.