MeiTanteixX

I see, thanks.

Without telling me who, can you tell me how many plot characters we have in the cast for next chapter? (I think I already know three)

Rum Arc Discussion Series: The Kohji Case

true.

I will address my thoughts on that thoroughly soon, but the fact that Kouji was able to leave message to begin with is an interesting discussion topic in of itself.

The whole point with the missing letters was meant so that the culprit wouldn't notice the dying message immediately, so I think it's better that we focus on "U MASCARA" instead. That's a clever strategy and it makes sense, but that's beyond my reach of knowledge

Yeah. I have this strong gut-feeling he's bluffing though. It's a clever strategy because even if Vermouth caught on to that possibility, she definitely wouldn't wanna risk it by killing him anyway(since she's clearly afraid of its leakage).

If she can kill Kir without getting backlash from the BO, then yeah, that would have to be her move. Otherwise, she would need to explain herself as to why she thought Kir was a spy. Maybe that's when her first reason for suspecting her could work in her favor(unless it's intuition or acting-experience-based). Well, being an infiltrator, u do need to be able to act sufficiently, and with his intelligence and experience, I would assume that Bourbon knows what traps to avoid and what-not during conversations. But who knows...maybe Vermouth is already suspicious of him, but isn't certain enough to leave him be with her treasures. But if she simply had time to investigate everything surrounding that skeleton, then maybe she simply had a time advantage over Conan. I get your reasoning though, and going by that estimated probability, she does have a lower chance of being Vermouth. If she was Vermouth, I feel like that would be a big leap for him to orchestrate, but sure.

Bourbon arc definitely had that affect of confusion, but I'm actually seeing a road building up to all the scattered and unresolved plotlines in the current arc.

If Rumi is Vermouth, then Asaka would obviously be someone else. Who Asaka is would be a topic for later, since Rumi hasn't even been dismissed yet, but we could still get more suspects(not that it's likely), and Rum has obviously not been dismissed yet either. If it's Gosho's hint to us fans that "Whisky"/Rye is her objective, then she is most likely suspecting him to be Rye, since she's aware of Bourbon's hate for Rye, and he showed anger while staring at Subaru, which I would assume is rare to Vermouth(since he always acts arrogant and confident around her). What she does after is heavily influenced on how risky it would be for Conan. There's really no correlation between how clever Vermouth is at hinting to Conan and how good Rei plays his Bourbon role. They're two independent variables. Scotch most likely factored into why Akai got suspicious of Bourbon, since Scotch's death affected Bourbon's behavior towards Akai way more than he anticipated(which ended up making his tie to the dead spy more suspicious). Depends on what consequences she is worried about. She obviously doesn't want him to keep digging to the point that the BO notices, like they "did" with Kogoro. Happy to know that, but as you can see, I'm torn about this. The simpler way to put this is: - if Asaka is Rum, Rumi is Vermouth. - If Asaka is a woman, Rumi is Asaka. But this thinking-style doesn’t satisfy me either, since Asaka could still be someone Rumi-equivalent(or a man), while Rumi is Vermouth. So until Rumi meets Ran or visits the professor, I'm gonna stand comfortably in the middle and equally weigh both options.

Rum Arc Discussion Series: Wakasa Rumi

I'm joining in on the "trust" game. I see your point, and I agree to some degree. The rest of the degrees depends on the files leading up to/after 1000. "When Gin's not sitting in his Porsche"... That one made me giggle. Overall, I would never compare this current "gin threat" to the "cliffhanger" right after Kir's intro. The latter seemed more resolved compared to this current one.

Of course. We can't be clueless about everything Rum-related up until the final climax of the arc. Other than revealing the truth behind mysteries, the climaxes should also focus on moving the plot along with new events. I see.

That makes sense, since that part must have been foreshadowed for something. I figured she would have to be caught eventually, since she can't give them too much convinient information(since they will likely go through her client-history).

Was specifically leaning towards the last two arcs, but even with Vermouth, compared to Rum, she had more freedom and time to roam around,...assuming that Rum, as old as he should be, has less time and more business to tend to in his position,.... unless we find out that he's in the same aging situation as Vermouth(which in that case makes it a discussion for another day). Point is, we are dealing with someone who shares similar behavior to the boss(keeping himself hidden and only a few got a glimpse of him), so for someone like that, I would expect for their introduction and development to be handled way differently than the other "free-roaming" BO members(again, I'm assuming that Rum is not another "Vermouth"). It's not a drawback that makes it inferior to anything. At least for now, with the amount of chapters we are into the arc, and with the subplots that have gotten well developed, as well as the subplots we have in front of us to make us invested into Rum's haunting past(including the so-called "threat establishment" with Gin), we have the required plot-setup before we enter the next Rum case, around file 1000(which I hope will be comparable to file 500). If we don't get anything substantial about Rum or the plot after that, only then do I think we could start complaining about the arc's plot-structure(if we were to compare it with Vermouth/Kir arc). I'm honestly surprised that they would be this demanding, if they have gotten this far into the story(unless they recently caught up and are new to Gosho's old pacing-patterns). When I see clear improvements(not just compared to Bourbon arc), I can only appreciate it. Yes, it all depends on how the next "around-1000" case is handled. Only then do we, in my opinion have enough material to judge the first "act" as you put it.

Not saying that Rum won't have a main role in this new threat. After all, it's because of his old case that this mess has started. But my view on this is that, being the "big dog" that he is, he already creates this sense of threat in whatever new case that he has/had a part in(since it would imply that they take the problem at hand very seriously), and since it's supposed to be the arc of a high-positioned(authoritative) figure, we can't apply the same formula of the previous BO member arcs into the current one. Kir arc didn't exactly portray Kir as the threat either(because of it's unique premise), so we should wait until we know how this unique "Gin threat" premise develops and how Rum comes into the picture. As an arc, close to what could be the final, and that is re-awakening old plot points(Elena, research/drug, Ran/Vermouth, CIA(probably)), there's no damage or lack of quality if we revive Gin's old, but well-foreshadowed, suspicion and make it the plot that leads to Rum. It's definitely enough, and it's showing that Gosho isn't planning on dragging this like the Bourbon arc(probably because he knows that he has enough of important subplots to drag it with) and is trying to revive the plot that has been sleeping for so long, while creating/developing subplots for the current arc this early on(we already have 5 in total(3 new) in just 85 files).

What an interesting conversation to read through. took quite some time. Although it's vague, I would account the "the rat extermination plans" that Gin mentioned as something connected to Rum(since they were both addressed in the same chapter). Ofc, there's also the slight(horrible) off-chance that it was only supposed to serve as a teaser for movie 20. Either way, although it's true that Rum's activities/plans hasn't been addressed and developed, there's nothing that forces Gosho to make Rum the center-role in the potential-threat establishment. My point is that 55 files into the Rum arc, we already established a threat that most likely will develop on behind the scenes...File 953, Gin's clear intentions of wanting to find out if Kogoro is a "sleeping demon". I think that this is as straightforward as Gosho could get with threat establishment, and since Gosho is likely gonna make the Rum arc a bit more grandiose(compared to previous arcs), info-dumping and early setups/introductions is all welcomed by me. It's a huge step up from how he introduced the Bourbon arc characters and plot.

Before anything else, Sorry for the double post(although the former post is old by now)... So, I'll be doing a series of individual post for each Rum arc character and plot in which I go through everything worth noting about them and summarize my thoughts on it. Rum Arc Discussion Series: Wakita Kanenori

Everything I bolded is the ones I fully agree on!

Woow!!!! They look really good! I especially love the first... tells u a lot about Conan's love situation.

Keep in mind that the delivery is very important. In Ran's case, it was delivered with a very genuine and innocent intention. Without sound, it's hard to tell how the delivery was handled, but Ran's very embarrassed face reveals that she made an out-of-character(in terms of the way she did it) attempt to comfort her, which Kazuha obviously picked up. Not all reactions fall to your examples, since all relationships are different. To begin with, Kazuha wasn't really down because Heiji stood her up. She was mostly struggling with her nervousness of confessing to him and her insecurities of actually going through with it and be able to accept Heiji's "unpredictable" reply. Ran jumped in with the confession, to console, as well as reassure, her about Heiji's answer to Kazuha.

No proof that he(or Rum) even knows Conan/Kudo. Rather than that, if anything, I can see him using Momiji to try and get closer to the higher-up of her father's company, in order to gain something from them.

I'm still waiting xD (have seen it though)