Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2018-06-16 06:20 pm
rionaleonhart) wrote2018-06-16 06:20 pm
Entry tags:
Crawling In My Skin.
The first time, I would try harder to avoid
the inevitable tragedy.
The second time, I would be disgusted with
the inevitable tragedy.
The third time, my disgust would turn into anguish.
The seventh time, I'd be laughing by then.
The sixth instalment of Higurashi: When They Cry, Tsumihoroboshi, is out at last! It introduces a character called Rina to this series that already contains a Rena and a Rika, in what I can only assume is a deliberate effort to confuse me.
Congratulations to this game for using a 'jangling bells' sound effect to make a friendly leaflet from the forestry commission absolutely terrifying. (The first instalment in the series had a really scary Cup Noodles shopping trip.)
I'm about halfway through, I think. Shortly past the Watanagashi festival, but the spoilers in this entry don't extend that far.
Somehow I had the impression that only the first three Higurashi instalments were from Keiichi's perspective. I'm delighted to be wrong! It's good to be back in your head, Keiichi. I've missed it here.
Keiichi is so happy with life in Hinamizawa and he loves his friends so much and I'm so sorry about all your suffering, Keiichi. I mean, I enjoy your suffering, but I'm sorry about it. This poor kid.
The perspective of Tsumihoroboshi actually switches back and forth between Keiichi and Rena. It's interesting to get a look inside Rena's head. When she was first introduced, she didn't entirely feel like a person. She's a collection of traits; she's a cheerful, scatterbrained girl, she has odd speech habits and catchphrases, she goes wild around cute things. She feels a lot more real to me now that I've spent time with her thoughts and seen how much of her persona is consciously constructed.
Rena thinking 'my dad is getting rid of the old furniture that reminds him of my mother; I presumably remind him of my mother; would he be happier without me around?' breaks my heart.
I was a little sad to realise that Rina actually was bad news. 'There's nothing wrong with her; Rena just finds it hard to accept her intrusion into her life' would be an interesting story in itself.
Not that what happened next wasn't interesting.
I'm strangely amused by Rena thinking 'well, at least that was a spur-of-the-moment murder, because if I'd been planning a murder I would have been under a lot of stress.' I also like her thinking 'hmm, working out how to hide her body is a lot easier than working out how to make her break up with my dad.'
Teppei is Satoko's uncle, right? I hope at some point Keiichi and Rena somehow bond over both having murdered him.
I really like that Rena thinks of the murders as something that cleanses her of sin. In her head, she made her father vulnerable by failing to prevent his divorce, and now she's making up for her mistake. By murdering his girlfriend. That's how it works.
Rena's relationship with her father is really cute. It's going to get awkward if he finds out about all the murders.
I love Keiichi feeling guilty for finding out what happened. Rena's body-disposal plan was going smoothly! Nobody would have known! Why did he have to find out about it? He's ruined all her hard work.
HE FEELS BETRAYED THAT SHE DIDN'T ASK THEM FOR HELP. Friends are always on your side! Are we really friends if you won't make us complicit in your murders? (Okay, yes, he probably means that he wanted her to ask them for help before going down the murder route.)
Oh, it turns out that 'he's not actually offering to be complicit in murders' is Rena's problem with his argument. Friends are fun, but they won't murder people for you, will they? So what good are they, really?
Keiichi's offended by this suggestion. How dare you not think he'd murder for you, Rena? She tells him, 'You don't know the the determination you need to kill another person,' and his response is 'I don't know that, and I don't need to know that, either! You know why? Because it's an obligation to help your friends!'
This series is so weird.
Keiichi thinks that 'for some reason' he can easily imagine a world in which he does something evil to protect his friends. Is he remembering the timeline in which he killed Satoko's uncle?
My heart... probably shouldn't be so warmed by Keiichi pledging to help her hide the bodies.
'...There's a memory in the back of my mind, but it's not supposed to exist.' ALTERNATE-TIMELINE MEMORIES, I'M SO EXCITED.
This is definitely the weirdest power-of-friendship scene I've ever seen, but I'm bizarrely touched by it anyway.
I don't know whether I made a crucial mistake today, or if I had the happiest day of my life, Rena thinks, coming home after burying two dismembered corpses with her friends.
...I don't know how to express what I felt when my friends and I held shoulders together in a circle earlier. But... the feeling was the only thing I knew to be real.
It's increasingly hard to tell whether this is a game I'm playing or a fic I'm writing. I'm so strangely invested in this group of friends and their determination to prevent one of their number from going down for murder.
Someone please help these kids.
the inevitable tragedy.
The second time, I would be disgusted with
the inevitable tragedy.
The third time, my disgust would turn into anguish.
The seventh time, I'd be laughing by then.
The sixth instalment of Higurashi: When They Cry, Tsumihoroboshi, is out at last! It introduces a character called Rina to this series that already contains a Rena and a Rika, in what I can only assume is a deliberate effort to confuse me.
Congratulations to this game for using a 'jangling bells' sound effect to make a friendly leaflet from the forestry commission absolutely terrifying. (The first instalment in the series had a really scary Cup Noodles shopping trip.)
I'm about halfway through, I think. Shortly past the Watanagashi festival, but the spoilers in this entry don't extend that far.
Somehow I had the impression that only the first three Higurashi instalments were from Keiichi's perspective. I'm delighted to be wrong! It's good to be back in your head, Keiichi. I've missed it here.
Keiichi is so happy with life in Hinamizawa and he loves his friends so much and I'm so sorry about all your suffering, Keiichi. I mean, I enjoy your suffering, but I'm sorry about it. This poor kid.
The perspective of Tsumihoroboshi actually switches back and forth between Keiichi and Rena. It's interesting to get a look inside Rena's head. When she was first introduced, she didn't entirely feel like a person. She's a collection of traits; she's a cheerful, scatterbrained girl, she has odd speech habits and catchphrases, she goes wild around cute things. She feels a lot more real to me now that I've spent time with her thoughts and seen how much of her persona is consciously constructed.
Rena thinking 'my dad is getting rid of the old furniture that reminds him of my mother; I presumably remind him of my mother; would he be happier without me around?' breaks my heart.
I was a little sad to realise that Rina actually was bad news. 'There's nothing wrong with her; Rena just finds it hard to accept her intrusion into her life' would be an interesting story in itself.
Not that what happened next wasn't interesting.
I'm strangely amused by Rena thinking 'well, at least that was a spur-of-the-moment murder, because if I'd been planning a murder I would have been under a lot of stress.' I also like her thinking 'hmm, working out how to hide her body is a lot easier than working out how to make her break up with my dad.'
Teppei is Satoko's uncle, right? I hope at some point Keiichi and Rena somehow bond over both having murdered him.
I really like that Rena thinks of the murders as something that cleanses her of sin. In her head, she made her father vulnerable by failing to prevent his divorce, and now she's making up for her mistake. By murdering his girlfriend. That's how it works.
Rena's relationship with her father is really cute. It's going to get awkward if he finds out about all the murders.
I love Keiichi feeling guilty for finding out what happened. Rena's body-disposal plan was going smoothly! Nobody would have known! Why did he have to find out about it? He's ruined all her hard work.
HE FEELS BETRAYED THAT SHE DIDN'T ASK THEM FOR HELP. Friends are always on your side! Are we really friends if you won't make us complicit in your murders? (Okay, yes, he probably means that he wanted her to ask them for help before going down the murder route.)
Oh, it turns out that 'he's not actually offering to be complicit in murders' is Rena's problem with his argument. Friends are fun, but they won't murder people for you, will they? So what good are they, really?
Keiichi's offended by this suggestion. How dare you not think he'd murder for you, Rena? She tells him, 'You don't know the the determination you need to kill another person,' and his response is 'I don't know that, and I don't need to know that, either! You know why? Because it's an obligation to help your friends!'
This series is so weird.
Keiichi thinks that 'for some reason' he can easily imagine a world in which he does something evil to protect his friends. Is he remembering the timeline in which he killed Satoko's uncle?
My heart... probably shouldn't be so warmed by Keiichi pledging to help her hide the bodies.
'...There's a memory in the back of my mind, but it's not supposed to exist.' ALTERNATE-TIMELINE MEMORIES, I'M SO EXCITED.
This is definitely the weirdest power-of-friendship scene I've ever seen, but I'm bizarrely touched by it anyway.
I don't know whether I made a crucial mistake today, or if I had the happiest day of my life, Rena thinks, coming home after burying two dismembered corpses with her friends.
...I don't know how to express what I felt when my friends and I held shoulders together in a circle earlier. But... the feeling was the only thing I knew to be real.
It's increasingly hard to tell whether this is a game I'm playing or a fic I'm writing. I'm so strangely invested in this group of friends and their determination to prevent one of their number from going down for murder.
Someone please help these kids.
no subject
no subject
Yes, '1500 seconds' definitely felt familiar, and I was trying to remember whether it was from Keiichi murdering her uncle! Memories from different timelines: my favourite thing. I've written no fewer than five Zero Escape fics about being screwed up by memories from other timelines over the last few weeks, and I'm delighted to have another fandom in which that's canonically possible.
no subject
I also like how precise Keiichi is about how he would do it too. I swear, Satoshi's baseball bat is really the MVP of the game. (I can't wait until you finish this chapter!)