That kind of thing applies to most art 
You shouldn’t overanalyze it.
I think we’re looking at a schizophrenia spectrum disorder here. Time to breakout the DSM-V; should I put the post here or diagnosis?
But it’s so much FUN ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
HELLO TWINTAILS.
Are you saying she cut one off and the little extra sidetail grew in it’s place?
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Actually that does sort of fit her. Because Apparently she really has long hair, as you can see in one of her bad endings, and Futaki can pass off as her, so if she had twin tail that’d make more sense. Because I don’t see how all that hair can be in the tiny sidetail ^^’
If you want to speak specifically to her illness/diagnosis and only to that, go ahead and post it in the other thread. If you want to discuss how that affects her and her route, your welcome post here, as well as in the other thread. Its really whatever you feel like, as long as the discussion fits the topic.
This is my thoughts on the character and route before reading Refrain. My opinion is subject to change.
Mio starts out as a typical kuudere, soft-spoken, polite, and bookish. She sounds a lot like Kotomi at first, but the truth is that her personality and motivations are far from the beloved(?) CLANNAD character. She is capable of emotion, although it is rare enough that it feels so rewarding when she smiles. Despite her uninviting, anti-social demeanor, she does have her good points, as she is intelligent, helpful on occasion and does take consideration of her peers at times. She is not completely introverted, but not completely social either. She’s like a flower you want to reach out and touch, but cannot because you are afraid it might have thorns.
Before I talk about the route, I would like to talk briefly about Mio’s theme, ‘Approaching the Light’. This was my first exposure to the Little Busters! soundtrack, and even now, it is still my favorite character theme in the entire game. It fits Mio very well, but it also stands on its own as a theme of serenity and peace, a kind of peace that can only be found away from the liveliness of social gatherings. It is a song of finding beauty in solitude, and I enjoy both very much.
Her route is one of the more intelligently-written ones, and by intelligent, I mean two things:
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It is not only a retrospective on the previous Little Busters routes and characters, but it also dives into the psychological aspects of introversion and the mental processes behind Mio’s decision to ‘disappear out of existence’, which is something I enjoy immensely, because of my own introverted nature.
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There are way too many long-winded speeches and lectures in this route. It’s like Leo Kashida is the Christopher Nolan of visual novels. Every prominent character in this route, even Masato, who should not be able to even have the brainpower come up with thoughtful conversations, goes on at least one long-winded speech that, while not very interesting to listen to, does at least have something to do with the plot.
The character of Midori in this story has a similar role to Kanata in Haruka’s route. She is there to discourage the main character from completing his goal, so the player has to feel some sort of hatred for her in order to empathize with the main character. The main problem with this, however, is that while Kanata was clearly adamant in standing against Riki in order to not get anyone involved in her or her sister’s affairs and was stubborn enough to not be easily swayed by either him or her sister, Midori acts more as a temptress to test if Riki is strong and capable enough to help Mio return to reality. As a result, she comes off as a somewhat weaker conflicting character than Kanata, because it was never her intention to bar Riki from what he wanted. It could also be the fact that she is really nothing more than a figment of Mio’s imagination, and her thoughts and actions are influenced by Mio’s. That is not to say that she is a bad character, however. On the contrary, I almost expected the route to end the same way as Haruka’s, which I would have been completely happy with, but since it is apparent that Midori and Mio cannot exist together, it seems like that would not be possible. 
Still, I am very happy with how the route ended: with the confession. Most of the routes have the confession as the midpoint of the story, but Kashida decided to make it part of the resolution, which is a welcome change to the usual formula. I have my qualms about this route, as with all the other routes, but I can safely say this one is one of my favorites, possibly even top-three material.
kazamatsuri.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/original/2X/c/cc6f238934b936bc46eaf525abae4ab09b48dcb9.jpg
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That sums it up quite nicely. She’s introverted, but isn’t antisocial, and her nature just causes people to stray away from her more often, which is kind of sad
I guess we could look at Midori as something like Mio’s overprotective older sister who wants to test Riki’s faithfulness. Midori knows Mio more than anyone (which is ironic because it’s like saying you know yourself better than anyone else) and she knows how vulnerable she can be to friendship. Since she is introverted, a strong friendship is ten times more important than a weak one, whereas a weak one would be something that she wouldn’t see much worth in. Which kind of gives emphasis to the whole glasses issue.
If I could sum it up with one sentence, it’d be “Midori knows that Mio doesn’t need to value a friendship where said friend can’t even remember if she wore glasses or not.”
Well, I guess in the VN, it had a more romantic flair, so you can replace “friendship” with “relationship” in the above paragraph and still be okay 
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This is why I love it so much. Every little thing has meaning when it happens, and then further meaning later on:
Riki talks about deja vu with her and Rin -> Riki goes crazy over remembering and not remembering, feeling like he’s seen it all before but hasn’t.
Long psychological discussion about what reality really is (including Masato) -> Turns out the whole route is about what is real, and what is really real, and what was all just your imagination(?)
And then there’s the poem. The poem has like 5 different meaning, developing, morphing as the route goes on. It refers to Mio, it refers to Midori, it refers to Riki, and it sure as hell felt like it referred to me.
I don’t think anyone else has mentioned it, but I also noticed a huge color motif with white and blue. Though I don’t actually remember the details very well, so I’ll have to come back to that after I reread at some point.
Actually, I think friendship might be the stronger term here. While the VN did use it as a romance (as thats what VNs do), taking into consideration the whole VN, the entire point of the story, I’d say friendship - the support, the desire to strengthen, especially the “stretching out the hand”, especially to the nth degree the “stretching out the hand,” - is so important. (Refrain)Another good reason why this is a great route to do last
And I will stress this over and over and over again, love is just the most perfect form of friendship.
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My interpretation differs a bit from yours. The way I see it, Mio’s route ended by integration of Midori and Mio’s personas. Originally, Mio wanted to disappear from the world, but with Riki’s help she was able to realise that she could become both Mio and Midori. It’s as if Midori was the pro-social side of Mio, and Mio as the anti-social side. She can have fun with friends and still retain her sense of self as Mio. You don’t have to sacrifice one for the other! That’s what I got from it.
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In that case, which is the side of Mio that likes BL? 
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I’m… Not sure XP
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I actually think that is a better interpretation of what I meant to say. Still, I did see her as sort of a temptress character. I mean, she flaunts her sexuality at him in order to test his faithfulness. It’s kind of similar to some Arthurian legends, which makes sense since Mio liked reading fairy tales in her youth.
The clear water becoming blue sea, the white clouds in the blue sky, a white seagull (or paper airplane) flying between the sea and the sky…Yeah, I noticed it.
I have no reason to disagree with you, but I do see it a little differently. Mio does become more open to her friends and especially to Riki, but I think that is because she really has nothing to hide anymore. She has her shadow back, Riki understands her now, and she does not have to worry about Midori anymore. The ending also shows that while she has changed over the course of the route, she is still largely the same Mio we saw in the common route. All of the social events that have occurred have made her tired, which is understandable because most introverts cannot stand so much social interaction within a long period of time. (I know I can’t, anyways.)
Most likely Mio. Midori never mentions it once.
It feels strange that Mio is the character out of everyone else that I have the most thoughts on. Maybe Rin or Refrain will change that, but who knows? 
Well, I think what you’re missing is my theory of the route. My idea is that Mio has some form of magical Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personalities), with Midori as her second persona, the “Ideal self”, and Mio as her original persona, the “Hated Self”. The whole route is about trying to abandon her old self in favour of her other persona, and to disappear forever. But what Riki helps teach her is that she doesn’t need to abandon one or the other, and that he can integrate both halves of herself together to form a complete person. She can still be her old self while being more active and social like Midori. So at the very end, instead of choosing Mio over Midori, Midori became a PART of Mio. “We will always be together.” It’s the opposite of her childhood where her doctors tried to erase Midori. This time, they’re integrated as one and the same.
That’s my spin on it.
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Both of your theories make a lot of sense and I don’t know which one seems more what Leo Kashida wanted to portray. I guess the only qualm I have with Aspi’s theory is:
This might be my memory failing me as usual, but I don’t remember Mio ever saying or giving off this aura that she hates herself. What I got from it is that she loves Midori as a friend, one that she could never seem to make. And when the psychiatrists took that away from her, she lost a part of herself (which the shadow represents)
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So I guess Midori can be seen as Mio’s defense mechanism too? I think she’s that part in Mio who tries to protect herself from intimate relationships, especially when she’s starting to realize that Riki loves her.
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Well, she does hate herself for forgetting about Midori. But I wouldnt say she hates her own personality.
I honestly don’t see her as either. I think she’s just Mio’s best friend, something she’d never had without her until Riki came along. Midori only tries to push Riki away from Mio because its what Mio desires. But she herself doesn’t want that, and doesnt think that Mio disappearing in her place is what Mio truly wants anyway.
The reason it comes off as “testing” is because Midori only feels comfortable going against Mio’s will and having her live “not-alone” is if Mio will have someone who can be as true a friend to her as Midori is. Which is the point of the route: Mio is all alone and Riki lift her up and be her true friend, just as Riki was all alone and Kyousuke helped him up and became his true friend.
(Next 3 Para. are all Refrain Spoilers)Except because of the secret of the world, and the reason the world was created in the first place, I don’t think thats really necessary. Before: Midori is simply Mio’s imaginary friend. A friend that becomes extremely real to her because there is no one else who completely understands Mio, who is a true friend. Parents and doctors are worried about her not being able to survive in society while believing in her imaginary friend, and thus use their medical magic to make her forget about Midori.
When Mio remembers Midori, she hates herself for letting her only one true friend disappear. So her regret (at least what she on the outside believes is her regret) is that she allowed Midori to die, while she continued to live. I’d argue, though, that her real regret is that she had lost her one true friend, basically to the point where it was like she had never had a friend in the first place.
Enter the “World Where Nothing Happened.” Mio, being the extremely intelligent and observant girl that she is, realizes, maybe not the secret of the world per se, but the fact that she is able to “right the wrong” she did to Midori. Because “this is a world where wishes come true,” Midori can appear again, and Mio can disappear, supposedly fulfilling her regret. But Midori, and eventually Riki, and finally by the end of the route Mio, realizes that Mio really just regrets not being able to have a true friend.
So when Riki finally saves Mio, Midori both “leaves” and “becomes a part of Mio.” The being herself, Midori, leaves. But everything about Midori that Mio needed, remains in the person of Riki.
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I still prefer to think of Midori as a part of Mio’s mind, moreso than an imaginary friend, but a real part of her self. There’s no reason an alter can’t manifest itself as an imaginary friend in childhood. (Refrain spoilers) If my theory is correct, and she does have DID, then if Riki didn’t intervene in that world and save her, we might have seen a scenario where Mio literally disappears, and her alter, Midori, replaces her in the real world.
That’s just my theory, though. The evidence that she does have DID is limited, so I’m fine with people disagreeing with it.
They… mean the same thing, surely? Something that you imagine is part of your mind.
I think Midori was sort of the equivalent of a teddy bear that saves you from the monsters that attack while you are asleep! Something your mind creates to reassure you of something, or to make sure you feel safe.
The major flaw in saying she has multiple personalities is that even in childhood, her parents would have been able to see the dynamic change in her personality. I think Mio’s plight is closer to schizophrenia, similar to the symptoms John Nash had in the movie A Beautiful Mind. In the movie, John sees hallucinations of people and places he’s seen before, but are not really there. Midori appears as a figment of Mio’s imagination, a reflection of herself, but quickly overwrites Mio’s perception of her in order for her to accept that she is real. A schizophrenic patient can recognize that a person only they perceive is not real, but can have a difficult time trying to suppress it. It would also tie in to Mio’s introvertedness, because schizophrenia also causes a lack of emotion and of a desire to socialize, but I suspect that since she is probably prescribed on medicine for it, she is able to warm up to the Little Busters and to Riki, as well as feel a small degree of emotion. I do see where your theory may be right, but some things are just not explained well enough.
Mio hates herself for her ‘sin’, which was forgetting Midori. If she didn’t hate herself, why would she want to stop existing for the sake of atoning? That’s like saying that all suicidal and anti-existential people want to disappear because they’re too beautiful, exemplary and well-loved for the world to see. (Although I could see that happening… XD)
Oh yeah, I just remember something I noticed that was weird in Mio’s route: Kengo doesn’t have a sprite.
Like, you talk to him and Masato in the classroom, but only Masato’s sprite is shown.
At first I thought it might be (If you haven’t read more than one route spoilers) in case it is your first route, because in the first playthrough he wouldnt have a cast or the jumper, but in the all ones following he would. But in other routes (I think Yuiko was one) he appears with a sprite, just without the cast or jumper, in which you just have to assume his arm was healed.
Anyone have any thoughts? Ideas to why this is?
