Without Love, It Cannot Be Seen.

[rionaleonhart]

I've now finished the fourth instalment of Umineko: When They Cry: the last of the question arcs.



I lost my early notes on instalment four of Umineko, alas, but I think they were roughly as follows:


- Things are kicking off straight away this time!

- I loved it when I thought Battler was too emotionally devastated by Beatrice's betrayal to function, and I also loved it when it turned out he was actually doing fine and play-fighting with one of the girls who tortured him in the past. Battler has many moods, and I enjoy most of them a lot.

- Ange spending her lunch breaks pretending she's having a conversation with her dead cousin is heartrending.

- The absolute sincerity of Maria's friendship with her soft toy lion is also doing a number on my emotions.

- Maria and Rosa's relationship is always so hard to watch.

- The theory that Kinzo's been dead since the beginning is a fascinating one! It would explain why his body is always burnt; it makes it hard to know how long he's been dead for.


'Being happy isn't the same thing as accepting your current misfortune. It means creating a new happiness out of your current misfortune.' You're a pretty wise nine-year-old, Maria.

Ootsuki, the occultist Ange consults, has the original art, only rescaled! Did they forget to redraw him?

THIS ART MISMATCH IS REALLY DISTRACTING.

Umineko out of context: '...Doing four people at the same time... is pretty... tough...'

Awww, Ange summoning Mammon and being surprised by how good it feels to have a friend around to complain to!

I'm fascinated by the dilemma Ange's faced with. If she helps her brother win the game, he'll survive and go home. But she, the Ange who lost her family twelve years ago, will cease to exist; she won't be the Ange who benefits from her family's return. The alternative: let the game keep looping forever, and at least she can be with her brother.

ANGE, DON'T DESTROY ALL YOUR IMAGINARY FRIENDS BECAUSE THEY WON'T MURDER YOUR CLASSMATES.

I'm enjoying this unexpected tale about the value of imaginary friends. The power of fiction!

I can't believe Maria's soft toy lion was brutally murdered.

All the other Ushiromiya siblings are desperately praising their kids, and the best Battler's father can say about him is 'he's a super idiot worth the equivalent of ten billion normal idiots'.

'Dad's free to start up any weird ceremony he wants to revive the witch he loves. That's his hobby. But getting wrapped up in that... ahaha... and being made into a human sacrifice is a little more than I can handle.' That's fair, Rudolf.

Pairings I have literally no reason to be considering: Rudolf/Natsuhi. Where did this come from? 'Rudolf looks at his sister-in-law in shock after she gets her head broken open and then gets his head broken open himself' is not a basis for a relationship.

Battler observes that the new characters have increasingly stupid outfits. 'If even more weird people appear, just what in the world will they be wearing? It's so scary I can't imagine.'

GOD, ROSA, YOU'RE THE WORST. What a terrible, terrible mother.

And now I'm thinking about Kyrie/Krauss. Rudolf, Kyrie, Krauss and Natsuhi need to arrange some sort of spousal exchange. Krauss really seems to respect her.

Krauss and Kyrie laughed together uh-oh.

WAIT, DON'T GET TOO CLOSE OR YOU'LL BE THE SACRIFICES FOR THE SECOND TWILIGHT

Shannon and Kanon are talking about things happening differently 'this time'. Are they aware of the time loop?

Apparently they are! Interesting.

Battler's voice carries loudly enough down the phone to reach Kinzo, but Kinzo's voice doesn't reach Battler. Because Kinzo isn't really there? If Kinzo isn't really there, forcing Krauss and Kyrie to make these calls, why are the calls being made?

(A note from later on: if Battler's theory that someone else took on the name 'Kinzo' is true, does this mean the new Kinzo is neither Krauss nor Kyrie? I suppose it's possible that they're feigning being coerced.)

'You are Rudolf's son. No, you are my son,' Kyrie says, and Battler calls her 'Mom' in return!

Battler and Kyrie are pretty similar in their rejection of magic, actually. Kyrie is constantly looking for a scientific explanation for the magic she sees.

The sacrifices of the first twilight happened a while ago, but the deaths haven't yet been confirmed on the status screen. What are the criteria for confirmation of a death? The game seems very precise about this. If we're shown a magical murder, the death still isn't confirmed on the status screen until the body is found and Dr Nanjo declares, or it becomes clear from the body's condition, that the victim is dead. (There's been one case where a character was declared dead before a body was found: when Beatrice said that Kanon was dead in red.) In this case, several still-living characters witnessed the magical murders, but the deaths still aren't confirmed. Is a death confirmed once Meta-Battler believes a character is dead? That would explain why magical death scenes don't count as deaths; he doesn't believe in magic, so he refuses to accept the death until the body is found.

Genji was a vessel for Ronove? And Kumasawa was apparently a vessel for Virgilia in the last game. Are the other demons also servants? (Is someone secretly Beatrice? If so, can we discount Genji and Kumasawa?)

The test to determine who is fit to be the Ushiromiya successor is 'do you sacrifice yourself, the person you're in love with, or everyone else?' I was initially going to say the 'correct' answer, the one that would make you a suitable successor, is 'the person you're in love with' - you can't sacrifice yourself, because you can't succeed if you're dead, and you obviously can't sacrifice everyone else. But perhaps you should sacrifice everyone else, so you and your partner can produce children to carry on the direct line? If so, it's particularly cruel; the promise was 'the sacrifices will stop if a suitable successor is found', but can a suitable successor only be found if everyone else is sacrificed anyway?

But George doesn't go down that line of reasoning; he just flat-out chooses to sacrifice everyone so he and Shannon can be together. Wow. 'I was already prepared to become estranged from my family by marrying a servant, and killing them all is pretty much the same as becoming estranged, right?' he reasons. He's already lost both of his parents, of course, but still, George, you never struck me as the 'kill eight people' type!

Are you actually going to murder your cousins so you and Shannon can live, George? I didn't much care for George/Shannon, but I can get slightly more behind it if it's horrifying.

Jessica answering the question by straight-up punching a demon in the face is great.

It's been really cool to see the humans starting to fight back over the last couple of episodes.

'You really are a good wife,' Krauss says to Kyrie, as the two of them battle goat monsters together. I'm definitely shipping this. (Disappointingly, there is no Krauss/Kyrie tag on AO3. Why don't you want to write about Kyrie and her brother-in-law getting inappropriately close, fandom?)

There's a number counting up in the corner and I'm unsettled that I don't know what it means.

Is it... is it counting up every time Virgilia disparages Krauss's chances of victory? Is it some sort of magical damage multiplier, based on the fact that, if someone in a work of fiction goes THERE'S ONLY A ONE IN TEN THOUSAND CHANCE THIS WILL WORK, it's overwhelmingly likely to work? Does the act of saying 'YOU DON'T HAVE A CHANCE' canonically give someone a chance?

Oh, wow, it is definitely a 'Krauss's narrative likelihood of success' multiplier, because it ticked up when the goat he's fighting thought 'I'm planning to retire after this battle.'

GEORGE AND JESSICA ARE TRICKED INTO KILLING EACH OTHER, THAT'S AWFUL

Oh, are George and Jessica the two who are close? I thought for a moment that this was the first game in which the two weren't romantically close, but, come to think of it, I think the two were Rosa and Maria in game three.

George's body is magically repaired and the blood is magically cleaned up, which we should probably interpret as 'in reality, despite the supposed magical battle we've just watched, he died a non-magical, less bloody death'.

I like that Ronove seems to respect Jessica.

Noooooo, Jessica calling Battler on the phone and Battler not understanding what's going on, only knowing she's dying and he can't help.

Oh, goddammit, Krauss is down. I guess he and Kyrie won't be inappropriately banging, then!

There was so much backstory (or... frontstory?) in this chapter, and suddenly everyone died at once!

By this point I think the only characters still living are Battler, Maria, Gohda, Kumasawa, Kinzo (possibly?) and Kyrie, and yet we haven't had any deaths confirmed on the character list.

Battler's in tears! I love that our male protagonist is allowed to cry.

Jessica told Battler 'hey, you need to accept that there's actually magic going on here,' and now Kyrie is telling him the same thing. Are the characters actually speaking, or is this Beatrice somehow?

I love that Beatrice is just flirting with Battler non-stop.

Huh. Battler sees Gohda and Kumasawa's bodies, but the deaths still aren't confirmed.

George's death is confirmed when Battler sees the body, though. Perhaps the fact he couldn't get into the storehouse to check Gohda and Kumasawa's bodies prevented confirmation.

He thinks there had been a faint chance that Gohda and Kumasawa had been playing a bad joke, so, yes, the confirmation seems to come once he's certain that someone has died.

I laughed aloud at Beatrice trying to present Battler with the 'sacrifice yourself, the person you're in love with or everyone else' test. She goes, 'I don't know who the person you're in love with is, though,' and Battler goes, 'That's perfect. I love you, Beatrice.'

'Lies, you breast sommelier!' is a hell of a line.

'Six years ago, no person called Beatrice existed for me,' Battler narrates... in red. How can he use red text? Is he gaining some level of magical power?

Battler is told that something he did six years ago is part of the reason so many people die tonight, but he doesn't know what, and he's so upset and confused and furious.

Beatrice wants to abandon the game, and that would let Ange be with her brother forever. But Ange tries to keep the game going. It's more important to her that Battler survives and escapes, even if in ensuring that she writes herself out of existence.

!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BATTLER

IS NOT

THE ORIGINAL

BATTLER USHIROMIYA

WHAT

HE CAN SAY 'IT WAS FROM USHIROMIYA ASUMU THAT USHIROMIYA BATTLER WAS BORN' IN RED

BUT HE CAN'T SAY 'IT WAS FROM USHIROMIYA ASUMU THAT I WAS BORN'

WHAT

Battler, it's not over yet! You may not be Asumu's child, but you're still Kinzo's grandchild if your father was Rudolf! Try saying that!

'But then... who... am I...? Am I... not Dad and Mom's kid...?!' Battler is having so many different breakdowns over the course of this series and it's great.

EXCUSE ME, BATTLER, DON'T ERASE YOURSELF, THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. You have to stay around and suffer for my entertainment.

I think Beatrice is going to realise she misses sparring with Battler, even if he's not Kinzo's grandchild. A beautiful tale of the blossoming feelings between this ridiculous young man and the witch who repeatedly murdered his entire family.

I unexpectedly broke into sobs when Ange returned alone to the island, seeking some answers or some sort of connection with the family she lost there twelve years ago. 'Hope' playing in the background didn't help.

Ange starts to wonder whether her relationship with Eva could have been different, if she'd recognised that the two of them were the only people who could understand each other; they'd both lost their families. I'm fascinated by the way Umineko's cast contains plenty of awful people, but the game really wants to look at them with some degree of empathy and understanding. It never stops at 'this person is awful'; it always wants to know why.

Ange doing Sakutarou's voice for Maria is really touching.

Ange begs Battler to say in red that she's his little sister, because their parentage doesn't make a difference to that, and he's scared that he won't be able to, but he can do it, and then she hugs him, and these siblings are going to destroy me.

ARE YOU SERIOUS

IS ANGE DYING BECAUSE SHE REVEALED HER IDENTITY TO BATTLER

NO, ABSOLUTELY NOT, I REFUSE TO ACCEPT THIS DEVELOPMENT

nooooooooo, I was so excited for the siblings to battle side by side in the next game

Huh, no 'recapping everyone's fate' scrolling text at the end?

Battler, the sole survivor, wandering alone on the island full of corpses for over a day. Poor kid.

Interesting; the deaths are getting confirmed in this segment as Battler discovers the bodies, and I think there's actually a particular 'death confirmed' sound effect.

Battler can't find Kanon's corpse. Someone 'outside the board' confirms Kanon's death in red, but there's no sprite. Beatrice? Or someone else?

Beatrice really wanted us to believe, in this game, that Kinzo was still alive. And yet he was still burnt to death, leaving an unidentifiable corpse. I think the 'Kinzo died long before the game began' theory is a solid one. (A note for the record, in case I look back through my entries in efforts to theorise: this is later confirmed!)

'...Ange... was a good piece.'
'Don't you... speak Ange's name.'

Look, Beatrice, if you're slightly in love with Battler and you wish you had a better relationship with him, perhaps you should have considered NOT REPEATEDLY MURDERING HIS FAMILY.

'My enemy, my Golden Witch, Beatrice!' I love that Battler refers to her as 'my Golden Witch'. Their dynamic is so weird and so interesting.

I love Battler declaring 'Kanon died due to an accident. I refuse to explain what kind of blunder could've led to an accidental death where a stake was driven into his chest.'

I also love him getting so desperate with his theories that he starts going 'THEY ACCIDENTALLY ATE BOMBS.'

If Kinzo being dead doesn't allow for a mystery additional person on the island, perhaps there's some trickery going on with another character? For example, we've been told that Shannon and Kanon are 'servant names' they've been given, so there could presumably be multiple Shannons and Kanons, and being told 'Shannon is dead' doesn't necessarily mean that the Shannon we know is dead.

('No one else can go by Kanon's name; a different person can't claim that as their name,' we're later told in red in the second tea party. Whoops. Still, there's Shannon!)

Beatrice begs Battler to kill her, and Battler, despite his resolution not to feel sympathy for her when so much is at stake and she's already betrayed him, just can't help it.

She tells him to kill her and go back to Ange, and he says, 'I'll listen to your request. Not so I can go back... but to end your pain.' He cares about Ange, but he wants Beatrice to know that, in some strange way, he cares about her as well.

Beatrice and Battler embrace, and then Beatrice kills him. Their relationship is so fascinatingly fucked up.



And that's the end of the first half of Umineko! It has taken fifty-five hours, and it has been a deeply weird experience. I look forward to things presumably getting even weirder.