Thanks very much for taking the time to answer. I'm glad I'm not totally crazy and my thinking is OK.
1: I don't think anyone there, except maybe Clover, had already realized that dead people's bracelets work. If I remember right, Junpei doesn't figure it out if you pass by the 9th man's corpse at the start of the game, so I don't think it's a given that everyone knows that.
Okay, but even if you sidestep the 9th Man dead bracelet thing, you're still left with a situation where everyone is standing in the Chapel, they need a 2 bracelet, and Junpei and Clover know that Snake is still alive--but don't know where he is--and that the corpse is not Snake's. At the rate these guys do mental math for the digital roots, and given the propensity for everyone to experiment with the bracelets and doors, it seemed like a major omission in the scene. I find it hard to believe the conclusion would be "welp, we're screwed, let's have an extended riff about sacrifices culminating in Santa throwing his fake hostage scenario" rather than "Okay everybody, let's take ten minutes to try something--I wonder if the dead people bracelets work" or either Clover/Junpei outing Snake's non-death. It just seemed very conspicuous for an otherwise meticulously planned thing. It's not that it's a contradiction in terms, just an apparent lapse of reason for the characters who otherwise seem preternaturally good at doing this stuff.
5. The answers don't just say that Seven had false memories, they say that was going to be the explanation until Uchikoshi figured that was lame and dropped it from the game. I think Seven figures it would be easier for him to just deny his involvement (since no one involved who might have worked out what he was doing) and go back to his life than it would be to actually join up with Aoi and Akane. Although this is just speculation, I bet he only agreed to cooperate with Akane because he would be able to take down Ace, so I would think he had some kind of explanation for how he was able to arrest him prepared. I agree that Snake being involved is pretty unsatisfying, though.
Okay, so we accept that Seven is in on it and that the fake memory thing is bogus. He's a willing participant, and he just lies about the amnesia for the whole game (until... he pretends to re-remember and exposes some details? In one of the endings--sub, maybe--he tells the beginning of the cop story but not the end, so obviously he has discretion in terms of his orders to disclose this information to Junpei, so why doesn't he choose to tell the whole story in that ending rather than just the first half?). Fine. But I can't see any scenario where he is able to turn Ace in, have enough proof to put him on trial and convict him, but not expose his own role in the scenario or result in June/Santa being charged equally.
If he had just shot Ace in the head, his role would make much more sense... or if he had tried to take Ace down at any earlier point in the game. Hell, if he's just there to capture Ace, why take chances? Why even participate in the formal game? Why not just capture Ace and walk out? Was he being threatened to play the specific role?
6. The answers say that Akane is running away because she can't bear to face Junpei after putting him through the Nonary Game. I don't think they're just trying to avoid being captured.
This seems to be a very thin explanation. She owes him an immense debt of gratitude, and so whether or not he hates her, he deserves to see her. Moreover, she knows, based on the mental connection, that he feels the way he does about her DESPITE knowing she is Zero. He forgives her. Plus, running away runs the chance that he does forgive her, but begins to hate her because she ran away. The math doesn't add up--the scenario most likely to lead to the most happiness for everyone is if she at least speaks to him once after the game ends.
9. Even if Junpei had tried to keep in touch with her, I don't think it's ridiculous that she would have tried to avoid contact with him after the first Nonary Game.
Again, it's not impossible, it's just exceedingly thin. They didn't text each other or Facebook or call each other, yet he clearly cared deeply for her--the game asks you to IMMEDIATELY interpret his feelings in a romantic context, right from the first time he saw her. If she shut him out, wouldn't we expect him to make some sort of note of this? "I kept calling her, but she never called me back. I wonder why we lost touch." rather than having a pleasant and benign nostalgia about their earlier friendship?
One other thing:
- The door at the end chapel was a q, not a 9.
- The players fall for this, because a 9 in some fonts looks like a q. It's ambiguous, anyway. It's a witty play on words by Zero. At no point does Zero deceive anyone, justs perhaps misdirects. I mean, Zero could say "look for a door that has a 9" and the incinerator could have said "LOL U SCREWED SON" and the game would have been fine. But it didn't. It said "q". And that's significant. The game makes a huge deal about how Zero is fair, and none of the rules are unfair, and it's all doable, and everything is all OK, and there's no actual lies.
- Snake does not know that the 9 is a q.
- A q in braille looks like
this. A "9" in braille uses the same symbol as an I,
this. Therefor, Snake, who clearly read the entire letter, would have either had to be lied to (Zero uses the 9 symbol instead of the q symbol) or aware that the door was supposed to be a Q.
- Why does Zero, thus, outright lie to Snake, but only play a misdirecting joke on everyone else? If Zero is willing to lie, why bring up the 9/Q thing at all, rather than just have the final door be a mystery door?
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