(spoilers) theory about the betrayer

[Luna Estrella]

I'm not super confident in this theory, but it's the best I can come up with after thinking about it a bunch. At first, I thought the betrayer might be Haru, but Haru found out and got coma'd too fast for her to have done anything on the outside. So I thought about it some more, then I realized that out of all the characters we know about, Narhan fits the profile for the betrayer the most. I had suspected him a little earlier but forgot when it didn't come up at all during his friendship scenes.

Here are the main reasons I think it's most likely to be him:

- His interest in psychology means he would know how to manipulate people to get the outcome he wanted, which matches with the betrayer manipulating Phoenix and knowing how to push for Azar to become the Program Master.
- When the miners became trapped in the tunnel, Narhan's interest was piqued, even if it was a horrible situation for the miners to experience. This is similar to how the betrayer expressed interest in how people would react to retaining their memories in the loop, despite clearly knowing that they might suffer because of it.
- Narhan doesn't seem overly concerned about finding out the truth about the virtual world. This would make sense if he already knew and had retained his memories through the loops, giving him enough time to process his virtual existence and possibly come to terms with his death upon the ending of the project.

So yeah, I think Narhan was the betrayer, but over his 400 years in the loop and Lucy's friendship, he grew more empathetic to the others which is why when the "real" Narhan gained those memories, he helped Trisha find which country Beatrix was in.

[Velorien]

That is the most popular theory. However, the developers decided, partway through development, that the betrayer wasn't going to be one of the known characters (originally, they were), so I'm afraid the quest is ultimately futile.

[Luna Estrella]

Oh. That's a little disappointing. I had hoped we would've learned a bit more about the betrayer since they're such an important character, so theory-crafting was my way of approximating that. It's a shame to hear that it was just dropped entirely, but maybe if they make a sequel/new game connected to the lore, we might see an expansion on that point.

[TOMATAZO]

halfway through the story rn, just finished the solo azar and lucy run (trying not to spoil) and yeah, i was thinking it could be ilya, but yeah, kinda disapointing that the betrayer got left out of the cast

[Majo ☆ Ellen]

They just don't reveal who it is; the betrayer is someone in the party.

Illya was just a "thief", so likely an unwilling accomplice.

Also it's a point I reiterate, but Narhan's text in the Crimson Wilderness was changed after the beta to be less 'obvious' by making him ".............." instead.

Though, it looks like the new DLC brought back that side of his nature.....

His motivation is psychotic; but the reason he put the Ark at high risk is because he wanted to see if he could get away doing something interesting: putting the world at the brink of destruction.

There is a reason that Clyne, while doing his detectivework, hinted at the possibility that the betrayer does not necessarily have to be someone among the Researchers. It's a hint to the players, not to exclude characters like Narhan, Trisha, Bebe(Ironheart), Pressel. The only thing the Betrayer needed to do was tweak the pods from the outside before slipping in to the Ark project.

When Azar became the master, barely half of the people were even alive for it. So the betrayer undoubtedly pulled the strings to have some incidents occur to half of the contestants. I also don't think he got his own hands dirty, using his manipulation to coax some of the players to commit murders: a la Danganronpa style.

I suspect (given some context) that the manipulated pieces were among Bebe, Illia, and Pressel. Bebe seems guilt ridden about a lot of things, Illia is dumb, and Pressel is a zealot who really really hates the traitor. (These are just theories! And that still leaves a whole half of a cast .. to worry about..) as for who their victims were, it's hard to say.

--------------------

Now, this all mentioned: there is one last, meta narrative thing I want to say to push this. Buuuuut, the developer, Dochi, has admitted to being a DanganRonpa fan, and, when you look at it; Narhan is just a male Junko Enoshima. Someone with super-analytical prowess that is bored with life being so predictable that they'd endanger the world just to feel some form of stimulation.

"To live without Stimulation is not a life I aspire for." - Narhan (Chrono Ark: Fate Demo.)

[月暈]

Originally posted by Velorien:

That is the most popular theory. However, the developers decided, partway through development, that the betrayer wasn't going to be one of the known characters (originally, they were), so I'm afraid the quest is ultimately futile.

wtf? it's been confirmed for sure the betrayer isn't a character we know?

[Velorien]

Originally posted by 月暈:

Originally posted by Velorien:

That is the most popular theory. However, the developers decided, partway through development, that the betrayer wasn't going to be one of the known characters (originally, they were), so I'm afraid the quest is ultimately futile.

wtf? it's been confirmed for sure the betrayer isn't a character we know?

To the best of my understanding. There's no formal statement that I know of, but if you look around these forums, you'll see the same evidence I did.

[Thiridian]

Check update for a new possible candidate.
Name in yellow, Judas. And says about how much he wants Ark to fail.

[HeraldOfOpera]

Originally posted by Thiridian:

Check update for a new possible candidate.
Name in yellow, Judas. And says about how much he wants Ark to fail.

Anyone who knows the history of the name "Judas" should suspect him immediately, to the point where I'm not even spoiler-tagging it.

[Thiridian]

Originally posted by HeraldOfOpera:

Originally posted by Thiridian:

Check update for a new possible candidate.
Name in yellow, Judas. And says about how much he wants Ark to fail.

Anyone who knows the history of the name "Judas" should suspect him immediately, to the point where I'm not even spoiler-tagging it.

Of course. I forgot this thread already had spoiler in the title. My bad.

[thateclipse]

Just finished the new arc and I'm left with more questions than answers.

[Luna Estrella]

Originally posted by Thiridian:

Check update for a new possible candidate.
Name in yellow, Judas. And says about how much he wants Ark to fail.

If it is, that's kind of disappointingly obvious with the name reference. That might just be because I'm from the UK so even with declining religious control, Christianity still has a lot of influence on media and culture here. Perhaps it's a less obvious reference to people from Korea? I wouldn't know.

[thateclipse]

Someone on the dev team is familiar with Christianity. One of Pressel's lines is straight from the Bible.

[HeraldOfOpera]

Originally posted by Luna Estrella:

Originally posted by Thiridian:

Check update for a new possible candidate.
Name in yellow, Judas. And says about how much he wants Ark to fail.

If it is, that's kind of disappointingly obvious with the name reference. That might just be because I'm from the UK so even with declining religious control, Christianity still has a lot of influence on media and culture here. Perhaps it's a less obvious reference to people from Korea? I wouldn't know.

It's almost certainly less obvious to the average viewer, but anyone who bothers to look into things will almost cringe at how on the nose it is.