[jjblue1]

Originally Posted by GreyZone

"brain damage" sounds like something physical. And yes, I know the wheelchair came later on, and that it was either an "aftereffect of the accident" (does this refer to the "car accident" or to the "rokkenjima accident"?) or the brain surgery.

Well, the brain can be damaged even without involving a physical incident, for example if it stays for a long time without air, if the person abuses in drugs, in some cases even a psychological trauma caused the brain to react as if the trauma was physical.

I guess the test is deliberately vague... though the doctor have an excuse.
If he thinks Tohya was involved in a car incident he's automatically going to blame it for Tohya's damage even if the cause was... let's say someone slamming some gold from Kinzo's collection on his head.

As for the wheelchair:

`"But...nothing worked. ......I am me, ...Hachijo Tohya. ......No matter how much Ushiromiya Battler's memories flow into my mind. ......To me, they're the memories of another person. .........I couldn't accept Ushiromiya Battler........."`\
`......As 'Ushiromiya Battler' said this, ......he hung his head as his eyes turned red.`\
`".........Then, one day, when he was caught between himself and the other self he couldn't accept, he had a fit............"`
`"........................"`\
`"Fortunately, his life was spared, but the aftereffects forced him to spend his life in a wheelchair..."`

So no, the Rokkenjima incident wasn't involved. Battler got himself in another 'incident' later on (that or he tried committing suicide, maybe tossing himself down of a building which would match why he was so worried Ange would jump off of one)

Originally Posted by GreyZone

After looking through the script i saw that Battler was "sleeping on the public highway". How did he get there? It sounds strange that the place he passed out on is a highway...

I think Tohya's backstory is so fuzzy it allows way too many speculations. We can assume:

- Tohya was confuse or delirious so actually his whole meeting with Ikuko was different and Ikuko lied over it.
- Battler was trying to reach some place to ask for help but it was raining and maybe was late and he didn't realize a car was coming. He was hit by a car and later he's found by Ikuko.
- Battler was under shock so he walked without aim and ended up there where a car hit him. Later he's found by Ikuko.
- He was actually hit by Ikuko. She however was afraid of consequences and that's why she bribed the doctor to keep silent. Since she still feel guilty she also helped Battler. Also she had her car repaired so when Battler looked at it he couldn't see any damage.
- Battler was never hit by a car. He managed to escape from Rokkenjima but he was injuried and ended up fainting. When Ikuko found him on the highway she assumed he'd been run over by a car because it seemed the easier explanation.
- Battler escaped by Rokkenjima just fine but when he reached land and tried to ask for help he was attacked by street tugs and injured or forced to escape until he got hit by a car...

and we can go on and on.

We can even assume that actually the incident happened years later the Rokkenjima incident and that prior to it Battler was hiding for unknown reasons (he believed Eva was the killer, he was afraid since his parents were the killers he would be considered an accomplice as well, the whole thing shocked him so much it nearly drove him to madness so he began living on the streets, Yasu really kidnapped him and began living as Ikuko then, when he tried to escape he was so lucky he ended up being hit by a car/her car and lose his memory and so on) as he says he believed to be 18 yet this didn't sit well with him as he didn't feel 18 (which can of course be a mere feeling and not the truth... but it allows us to speculate if it's supposed to be a hint).

Originally Posted by GreyZone

So if Battler really escaped alone:
He would have to be in a state where he has no bigger problems to move around but was about to collapse any moment. And he would also have gotten, either by the car incident or by something that happened on Rokkenjima, a "brain damage".

Yes and no. It depends by the type of injury and also by how much adrenaline he had in his body (I guess a lot).
People can even walk away from an incident apparently just fine then die hours later because actually there was brain damage and it became fatal with time.

It really depends on the damage he reported. Also, if the damage was psychological the body would have been just fine but the brain might have been unable to realize where he was heading or that a car was about to hit him.

Really, it's all too vague to make assumptions about what was Battler doing on a highway in a rainy day/night (maybe night as Battler at first was able to see only Ikuko's car's lights)...

Originally Posted by GreyZone

The more I think about it, the more I get the feeling, that aside from which theory may be right after all, that R07 was just lazy and didn't take his time for the Tohya/Battler backstory at all.

Personally, more than being lazy, I think Ryukishi simply didn't want to write it.
There were ways to make his backstory look more like the truth than something so... blurry but he purposely let it blurry.

My feeling is that, like what happened in Rokkenjima Prime, he simply didn't want to give us a clear idea of what had happened to Battler.

Originally Posted by Renall

Um clearly Battler suffered a brain injury in 1986 which gave him chronic narcolepsy, which is why he keeps passing out in dangerous or inopportune places and also explains why Featherine enjoys sleeping so much (because Tohya can't stay awake if he isn't being physically or mentally active).

LOL, as fun as picturing this can be this is also a theory that work and could even count on hints.

Really, the whole Rokkenjima Prime is too vague. It allows us to endless speculations.