[quigonkenny]

Originally Posted by HolyCow

Here are my thoughts of Vol 7 and Melancholy of Mikuru:

Spoiler for Thoughts:

1- There are things that CANNOT be changed in the future, or predetermined events, as they are called. Why didn't Sneering Bastard destroy the memory chip? He could have easily thrown it into the river (they were at a footbridge after all) and prevented Kyon from getting it, but he instead chose to give it to Kyon, stating that it was a predetermined event, and no matter what he did, the results would be the same - the recipient would receive the chip anyway. That's why he chooses to first taunt Kyon being handing him the said chip. Of course, you might think that he did that because he needed time travel to be there in the first place, but ...

2- There are things that CAN be changed in the future. One example would be the possibility of time travel. The rival faction tried to run down the little kid just to prevent him from formulating the basic principles of time travel. Now if time travel was already a predetermined event, why did Asahina-san (Big) go so far as to instruct Mikuru to bring Kyon to the area where the boy was about to be run down? But more importantly, what was the purpose of trying to run him down? To prevent time travel? Sneering Bastard could have easily gotten rid of the chip to accomplish that. My idea is that there are events that can and cannot be changed. Kyon (or the mysterious recipient) getting the chip is something that cannot be changed, while the boy's fate, however, is something that can be changed.

3- All three rival factions have been introduced. I speculated earlier on that we would be having a sort of "Anti-SOS" and now they are fully assembled. All that's left is to see a final showdown between them ;P

4- I hope the next book will be a long story, and that it will feature Koizumi. After reading volume 7, I'm kinda interested to know more about him, and his 'Organization'.

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...