[HolyCow]

Originally Posted by quigonkenny

Spoiler for Lots of details from Vol 7 and MoAM, and a possible "Eureka!" moment:

Regarding #2, I've got my own little theory about that. I think that, to a certain degree, all events that have future repercussions are predetermined events. However, there is free will for those living among those events. What this means is that while Sneering Bastard (SB) and Mikuru can't directly alter the outcomes of events that affect their personal futures (due to the obvious paradoxes that would result), Kyon, the Evil Organization (EO). and anyone else native to that timeline (even the data entities) can do what they wish. Where the area gets a bit gray is that passage of certain information from the future is perfectly allowed (as it could conceivably come from anywhere).

While he was involved with them by the end of Vol 7, there is no evidence that SB was with the EO during the events of Melancholy of Asahina Mikuru; however, the EO members were obviously aware of who exactly it was they were trying to run over. An obvious source of that information was SB, whether he actually told them to run Bespectaled Boy (BB) over or not. However, SB doesn't attempt to do anything regarding the memory chip beyond give Kyon a hard time.

Notice how all the events Mikuru (big) had Kyon do throughout Vol 7 were things he either did or could have done (as he himself stated later) entirely on his own? "Michiru's" involvement was purely so she would be around him later to be kidnapped—again, by the EO, residents of the current time (Kyon never sees SB until after the van stops, meaning SB didn't personally grab "Michiru," and could conceivably have not even been in the van at the time)—and to give him the information that he sent her back in time and would need to send her forward. Note that they even make a big deal about how Kyon has to tell Mikuru exactly when to travel to.

Mikuru (small) actually explains a bit of this to him in MoAM (that he was the one who had to save BB), and Mikuru (big) fills in a lot of the gaps at the end of Vol 7 (regarding the "Good" Time Travelers' job of ensuring things happen the way they are "predetermined" to).

This puts an interesting spin on the "Classified Information" that Mikuru (both versions) can't tell Kyon about. The reason why they can give him only certain information is because he is able to act on it, possibly destroying their future ("...If you chose the other side, then it......um......it wouldn't be good for our future..."), and they can't do a damn thing to correct it...

Spoiler for More thoughts:

I agree to a certain extent, but it is still puzzling to me as to why didn't SB tell the EO to dispose of the chip. One might think for a moment that SB needed to preserve the chip in order for time travel to be possible (or he wouldn't have been there anyway) but if so why did the EO try to run down BB? It's a question I'd like to see answered in one of the future volumes.