Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2019-03-23 11:12 am
rionaleonhart) wrote2019-03-23 11:12 am
Entry tags:
Don't Accept It.
I've now finished playing the seventh instalment of Umineko: When They Cry, which lulled me into a false sense of security by focusing on backstory and clearing things up, and then got wild as hell in the tea party. (Also, I possibly actually managed to deduce some things at the last minute!)
'This is my child, Lion' excuse me what
'Lion spoke with a bright smile after pinching Will's butt' exCUSE ME
Maybe this is a universe where Natsuhi didn't murder the baby? Is Lion that baby? I'll be interested to see what his relationship with Natsuhi is like.
IS SHANNON DLANOR, I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THIS
Oh, no, she's capitalising randomly, rather than consistently at the end of a sentence. More Final Fantasy VIII's zombie president than Dlanor.
The most unsettling 'I'll go and fetch the person you want to speak to, if you're sure' ever spoken.
I enjoy Lion politely being a bit of a shit. But I miss Battler!
Kinzo says that Beatrice died in his arms twice. When she fell from the cliff, she wouldn't have died in his arms, would she? Or is there more to that story?
Please tell me you didn't fuck your daughter, Kinzo.
Young Kinzo has Battler's face and I don't like it. I really don't want Kinzo to turn out to be time-travelling Battler.
SEEING BATTLER'S EXPRESSIONS ON SOMEONE ELSE IS REALLY UPSETTING.
It's interesting and strange to see how World War II is written about in a Japanese work of fiction.
Furniture cannot ****. So, they try to become Human because they want the right to ****.
I like that Will's direct and a little rude at times, but he's also compassionate and says some very sincere, kind things. I also love that he goes 'huh, Jessica's greeting me in a very old-fashioned way, I guess I should respond in an old-fashioned way as well' and kisses her hand absolutely sincerely and is then confused by how flustered she gets.
(They've only just met, and Jessica/Will is already more interesting than Jessica/Kanon.)
Lion... is Beatrice? Is the point of divergence that splits the universe whether Attempted Murder Baby is male or female? A male child grows up to be Lion, a female child grows up to be Beatrice? (Is Beatrice a trans woman?) Or is Attempted Murder Baby always Lion, with the question just being whether it's Attempted Murder Baby or Actual Murder Baby?
ATTEMPTED MURDER FILIAL INCEST BABY, OH WOW. This casts an extremely troubling light on Battler going 'DON'T CALL ME FATHER' and then getting married to New Beatrice in the sixth game. All these Battler-and-Kinzo parallels desperately need to stop.
Oh, wait, has Lion's gender never been disclosed? I noticed that Krauss said 'my child' rather than 'my son', but, if gendered pronouns haven't appeared anywhere for Lion, I didn't notice. I just saw the sprite and went 'no ludicrous tits, evidently male.'
Lion doesn't want to disclose their gender - 'does it really matter?' - so I'm inclined to read them as nonbinary.
If Beatrice was 'born' six years ago, should we conclude that she must have been one of the people on the island at that time, or should we conclude that she must only have come to the island later? (In the latter case, I suppose Beatrice is either Kanon or... Gohda. Gohda Beatrice would be a twist.)
If the witch Beatrice was born as someone imitating Beatrice for Maria's sake, can it not be any of the characters we've seen meeting Beatrice? We probably can't impose rules based on apparent meetings with Beatrice; we've seen Natsuhi taking tea with Beatrice outside the family conference, but we can't necessarily conclude that Beatrice is one of the people on the island in the rest of the year, because that Beatrice could just have been a daydream, rather than a person actually pretending to be her.
That said, Maria (although she claims not to remember it) apparently phoned the VIP room, expecting to speak to Beatrice, after the family conference was over. So perhaps the person imitating Beatrice is one of the people who might have been on the island at that time: Krauss, Natsuhi, Jessica, Genji, Kumasawa, Shannon, Kanon, Nanjo, Gohda?
The characters I can rule out with confidence are Battler, who hasn't visited the island in the last six years, and Rosa, who would never indulge her daughter like that. Also, if Maria first met Beatrice on Rokkenjima six years ago (I'm not sure of the exact timeline), that rules out Kanon and Gohda. Alas, my beloved Gohda-is-Beatrice theory falls by the wayside.
Here's the problem with the 'someone is imitating Beatrice' theory: where does Attempted Murder Incest Baby come into it? In a world where the baby grows up to be Lion, the witch Beatrice is never born. Is Shannon the Attempted Murder Incest Baby in a wig?
Come to think of it, Shannon and Kanon have no recollection of Lion, and vice versa. Does this mean that there's no universe in which both Lion and Shannon-and-Kanon exist? Is Shannon the Attempted Murder Baby? Is Kanon? ARE BOTH SHANNON AND KANON SOMEHOW THE SAME BABY? DO WE EVER SEE SHANNON AND KANON IN A ROOM AT THE SAME TIME?
I MEAN, YES, WE DO, BUT DO WE SEE THEM WHEN THERE ARE OTHER WITNESSES?
...I'm pretty sure we do, but we do know that unreliable narration is a thing in this game. Does Battler - the piece Battler - ever see Shannon and Kanon in the same place at the same time?
My theories are getting Battler levels of wild, but I like the feel of this one and I'm sticking to it. It'd explain how Erika is only the seventeenth person on the island; it'd explain why Will hasn't been able to meet both Shannon and Kanon together. Shannon and Kanon are the same person, and that person is Attempted Murder Baby, and that baby is Beatrice. I'm taking a stand here.
(Advantage of this theory: maybe George/Shannon and Jessica/Kanon can become interesting at last?
HOLY SHIT, THIS WOULD EXPLAIN WHY SHANNON AND KANON AND BEATRICE HAD TO FIGHT BECAUSE ONLY ONE OF THEM COULD HAVE THEIR LOVE FULFILLED. I think I've somehow actually hit on the truth here.)
WAIT A SECOND, BUT WHERE DO SHANNON'S COLOSSAL TITS GO? (Was the 'REAL BREASTS DO NOT LOOK LIKE THAT' aspect of the sprites a clue all along?)
'Why's Yasu the only one who isn't in a three-person room?' They say 'the only one' - there's no mention of Shannon - whereas Yasu claims to share a room with Shannon. And nobody comments on Shannon's age, despite the fact she'd be as young as Yasu, if not younger. Definitely the same person. You can't fool me, Umineko! I mean, you can and you have, but you can't fool me on this occasion.
Genji concealed the baby's survival because he didn't trust Kinzo not to fuck his child/grandchild, and frankly that makes sense. Good work, Genji.
'IN KINZO'S DEFENCE, HE FELT PRETTY BAD ABOUT IMPREGNATING HIS DAUGHTER' OH WELL I GUESS THAT'S FINE THEN
(Please don't be Kinzo, Battler.)
'Hey, Lion, wanna see if there's a universe where your grandfather fucks you?' Bernkastel asks, because she's the worst, or possibly just a fanfiction writer.
I'm pretty sure this is a Shannon/Battler scene. No sprites yet, and we're possibly supposed to assume she's interacting with George, but we know Battler is the big reader. (Maybe we're not expected to make that assumption; he refers to George as 'Aniki' later on, making it very clear he's not George.) So Shannon fell in love with Battler and George and Jessica and coped by becoming three people. And then a bunch of murders happened for... some reason...?
I feel I've worked a lot of this out, but the reason behind all the murders escapes me!
'The kid is completely guiltless.' I'm glad Battler never resented Ange for being born of his father's adultery.
We're told that the tragedy might not have occurred if Battler's return had been a year earlier or later. I'm trying to think of what's special about 1986, and all I can think is that it's when George proposes to Shannon. Maybe seeing Battler again on the day of George's proposal was so emotionally disconcerting that she... killed... everyone...?
Every line Teen George says is very funny, in a slightly awful way, now that I know he subscribed to incel philosophy.
I think there are lessons to be learnt on both sides here. Don't flippantly make romantic promises that someone else might take to heart. And, if someone else makes a romantic promise and doesn't keep it, don't murder his entire family.
I'm sad that Piece Battler isn't in the cathedral to listen to this story and go '?????? what the fuck????????? also whoops I'm really sorry'
Oh, Shannon makes a conscious decision to transfer her feelings for Battler over to her Beatrice persona! That explains a lot. I was wondering how Beatrice ended up bitterly in love with Battler, when emotions otherwise seem pretty compartmentalised across the personas; we never get any suggestion that Kanon is in love with George.
I originally assumed that 'furniture' referred to servants, but I don't think anyone ever uses the term of any human servants other than Shannon and Kanon, and Sakotarou isn't Maria's servant. It's probably more accurate to say that 'furniture' refers to imaginary friends. So of course romance between furniture and humans isn't possible; furniture doesn't exist, or only exists for as long as its creator is prepared to stay in its guise. For a relationship to work, you need the 'miracle' of the original human permanently adopting that invented persona. (Even Shannon is an invention: the competent, kind servant Yasu aspired to be.)
...oh, of course the Chiester Sisters are Maria's ceramic rabbits. Of course the lost member was MURDERED BY ROSA.
'To counter my ignorance, I shall need a crystallisation of knowledge. That which is smoothed out and pressed into many sheets, what is called a book.' You know, maybe I should have caught on earlier that Beatrice is just a big nerd roleplaying.
So did Beatrice end up dying because, while Battler struggled to grasp the truth, the Attempted Murder Baby Collective eventually decided to settle as Shannon and set Beatrice aside as an identity? I'm going to be even more resentful of the Shannon/George pairing if it ultimately killed off Beatrice.
'Now, I exist only to love you,' Shannon says to George, which is a) unsettling and b) possibly literally true.
someone please turn off the kill-everyone-at-midnight switch, I can't concentrate on this conversation when I know it's on
Oh, she was turning it off? That wasn't clear. It shouldn't have been on; everyone was supposed to get blown up tomorrow night!
EVERYONE STOP SHOOTING EACH OTHER GODDAMMIT USHIROMIYAS ARE THE WORST
I was a little disappointed that we weren't getting a proper game in episode seven, but surprise: it was hiding in the tea party!
KYRIE
KYRIE, YOU SEEMED LIKE THE SENSIBLE ONE AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS SERIES
oh, man, poor Ange having to watch this
Kyrie and Rudolf LURING THE COUSINS OUT ONE BY ONE TO MURDER THEM, THIS IS HORRIFYING
Battler, please escape from your TERRIBLE PARENTS and raise Ange by yourself.
If Eva's still alive, is it possible this is the timeline 'our' Ange came from?
STOP DOING MURDERS, I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU GUYS
I retract all Krauss/Kyrie and Rudolf/Natsuhi talk. Krauss/Natsuhi has always been the best sibling marriage anyway, and Rudolf and Kyrie exclusively deserve each other.
Battler has no idea that everyone's been murdered, and it kind of breaks my heart to see him complaining about Kinzo to himself like everything's normal.
Holy shit, Kyrie, you are the absolute worst person in the Ushiromiya family. You're worse than Rosa. You're worse than the guy who impregnated his own daughter. I'm impressed. (At some point I should rank the members of the Ushiromiya family by how awful they are.)
Battler's still alive, right? Does he die in the explosion? Or is there a possibility he survived? (But why wouldn't he go to Ange, in that case?)
When Battler reached the truth, did he reach the whole truth: that Beatrice repeatedly 'murdering his family' was creating alternative explanations to obfuscate what actually happened, protecting Battler and Ange from the knowledge of what terrible shitbags their parents were? That would explain why he seems to have forgiven Beatrice all the murders. (Although he seemed to be warming to her even before he realised she wasn't the true culprit.)
(EDIT: It has only just occurred to me, several hours later, that Beatrice is simultaneously Battler's aunt and cousin. This in no way prevents me from shipping it.)
One instalment to go! It's going to be strange to finish this huge, ridiculous tale of magic and murder.
'This is my child, Lion' excuse me what
'Lion spoke with a bright smile after pinching Will's butt' exCUSE ME
Maybe this is a universe where Natsuhi didn't murder the baby? Is Lion that baby? I'll be interested to see what his relationship with Natsuhi is like.
IS SHANNON DLANOR, I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THIS
Oh, no, she's capitalising randomly, rather than consistently at the end of a sentence. More Final Fantasy VIII's zombie president than Dlanor.
The most unsettling 'I'll go and fetch the person you want to speak to, if you're sure' ever spoken.
I enjoy Lion politely being a bit of a shit. But I miss Battler!
Kinzo says that Beatrice died in his arms twice. When she fell from the cliff, she wouldn't have died in his arms, would she? Or is there more to that story?
Please tell me you didn't fuck your daughter, Kinzo.
Young Kinzo has Battler's face and I don't like it. I really don't want Kinzo to turn out to be time-travelling Battler.
SEEING BATTLER'S EXPRESSIONS ON SOMEONE ELSE IS REALLY UPSETTING.
It's interesting and strange to see how World War II is written about in a Japanese work of fiction.
Furniture cannot ****. So, they try to become Human because they want the right to ****.
I like that Will's direct and a little rude at times, but he's also compassionate and says some very sincere, kind things. I also love that he goes 'huh, Jessica's greeting me in a very old-fashioned way, I guess I should respond in an old-fashioned way as well' and kisses her hand absolutely sincerely and is then confused by how flustered she gets.
(They've only just met, and Jessica/Will is already more interesting than Jessica/Kanon.)
Lion... is Beatrice? Is the point of divergence that splits the universe whether Attempted Murder Baby is male or female? A male child grows up to be Lion, a female child grows up to be Beatrice? (Is Beatrice a trans woman?) Or is Attempted Murder Baby always Lion, with the question just being whether it's Attempted Murder Baby or Actual Murder Baby?
ATTEMPTED MURDER FILIAL INCEST BABY, OH WOW. This casts an extremely troubling light on Battler going 'DON'T CALL ME FATHER' and then getting married to New Beatrice in the sixth game. All these Battler-and-Kinzo parallels desperately need to stop.
Oh, wait, has Lion's gender never been disclosed? I noticed that Krauss said 'my child' rather than 'my son', but, if gendered pronouns haven't appeared anywhere for Lion, I didn't notice. I just saw the sprite and went 'no ludicrous tits, evidently male.'
Lion doesn't want to disclose their gender - 'does it really matter?' - so I'm inclined to read them as nonbinary.
If Beatrice was 'born' six years ago, should we conclude that she must have been one of the people on the island at that time, or should we conclude that she must only have come to the island later? (In the latter case, I suppose Beatrice is either Kanon or... Gohda. Gohda Beatrice would be a twist.)
If the witch Beatrice was born as someone imitating Beatrice for Maria's sake, can it not be any of the characters we've seen meeting Beatrice? We probably can't impose rules based on apparent meetings with Beatrice; we've seen Natsuhi taking tea with Beatrice outside the family conference, but we can't necessarily conclude that Beatrice is one of the people on the island in the rest of the year, because that Beatrice could just have been a daydream, rather than a person actually pretending to be her.
That said, Maria (although she claims not to remember it) apparently phoned the VIP room, expecting to speak to Beatrice, after the family conference was over. So perhaps the person imitating Beatrice is one of the people who might have been on the island at that time: Krauss, Natsuhi, Jessica, Genji, Kumasawa, Shannon, Kanon, Nanjo, Gohda?
The characters I can rule out with confidence are Battler, who hasn't visited the island in the last six years, and Rosa, who would never indulge her daughter like that. Also, if Maria first met Beatrice on Rokkenjima six years ago (I'm not sure of the exact timeline), that rules out Kanon and Gohda. Alas, my beloved Gohda-is-Beatrice theory falls by the wayside.
Here's the problem with the 'someone is imitating Beatrice' theory: where does Attempted Murder Incest Baby come into it? In a world where the baby grows up to be Lion, the witch Beatrice is never born. Is Shannon the Attempted Murder Incest Baby in a wig?
Come to think of it, Shannon and Kanon have no recollection of Lion, and vice versa. Does this mean that there's no universe in which both Lion and Shannon-and-Kanon exist? Is Shannon the Attempted Murder Baby? Is Kanon? ARE BOTH SHANNON AND KANON SOMEHOW THE SAME BABY? DO WE EVER SEE SHANNON AND KANON IN A ROOM AT THE SAME TIME?
I MEAN, YES, WE DO, BUT DO WE SEE THEM WHEN THERE ARE OTHER WITNESSES?
...I'm pretty sure we do, but we do know that unreliable narration is a thing in this game. Does Battler - the piece Battler - ever see Shannon and Kanon in the same place at the same time?
My theories are getting Battler levels of wild, but I like the feel of this one and I'm sticking to it. It'd explain how Erika is only the seventeenth person on the island; it'd explain why Will hasn't been able to meet both Shannon and Kanon together. Shannon and Kanon are the same person, and that person is Attempted Murder Baby, and that baby is Beatrice. I'm taking a stand here.
(Advantage of this theory: maybe George/Shannon and Jessica/Kanon can become interesting at last?
HOLY SHIT, THIS WOULD EXPLAIN WHY SHANNON AND KANON AND BEATRICE HAD TO FIGHT BECAUSE ONLY ONE OF THEM COULD HAVE THEIR LOVE FULFILLED. I think I've somehow actually hit on the truth here.)
WAIT A SECOND, BUT WHERE DO SHANNON'S COLOSSAL TITS GO? (Was the 'REAL BREASTS DO NOT LOOK LIKE THAT' aspect of the sprites a clue all along?)
'Why's Yasu the only one who isn't in a three-person room?' They say 'the only one' - there's no mention of Shannon - whereas Yasu claims to share a room with Shannon. And nobody comments on Shannon's age, despite the fact she'd be as young as Yasu, if not younger. Definitely the same person. You can't fool me, Umineko! I mean, you can and you have, but you can't fool me on this occasion.
Genji concealed the baby's survival because he didn't trust Kinzo not to fuck his child/grandchild, and frankly that makes sense. Good work, Genji.
'IN KINZO'S DEFENCE, HE FELT PRETTY BAD ABOUT IMPREGNATING HIS DAUGHTER' OH WELL I GUESS THAT'S FINE THEN
(Please don't be Kinzo, Battler.)
'Hey, Lion, wanna see if there's a universe where your grandfather fucks you?' Bernkastel asks, because she's the worst, or possibly just a fanfiction writer.
I'm pretty sure this is a Shannon/Battler scene. No sprites yet, and we're possibly supposed to assume she's interacting with George, but we know Battler is the big reader. (Maybe we're not expected to make that assumption; he refers to George as 'Aniki' later on, making it very clear he's not George.) So Shannon fell in love with Battler and George and Jessica and coped by becoming three people. And then a bunch of murders happened for... some reason...?
I feel I've worked a lot of this out, but the reason behind all the murders escapes me!
'The kid is completely guiltless.' I'm glad Battler never resented Ange for being born of his father's adultery.
We're told that the tragedy might not have occurred if Battler's return had been a year earlier or later. I'm trying to think of what's special about 1986, and all I can think is that it's when George proposes to Shannon. Maybe seeing Battler again on the day of George's proposal was so emotionally disconcerting that she... killed... everyone...?
Every line Teen George says is very funny, in a slightly awful way, now that I know he subscribed to incel philosophy.
I think there are lessons to be learnt on both sides here. Don't flippantly make romantic promises that someone else might take to heart. And, if someone else makes a romantic promise and doesn't keep it, don't murder his entire family.
I'm sad that Piece Battler isn't in the cathedral to listen to this story and go '?????? what the fuck????????? also whoops I'm really sorry'
Oh, Shannon makes a conscious decision to transfer her feelings for Battler over to her Beatrice persona! That explains a lot. I was wondering how Beatrice ended up bitterly in love with Battler, when emotions otherwise seem pretty compartmentalised across the personas; we never get any suggestion that Kanon is in love with George.
I originally assumed that 'furniture' referred to servants, but I don't think anyone ever uses the term of any human servants other than Shannon and Kanon, and Sakotarou isn't Maria's servant. It's probably more accurate to say that 'furniture' refers to imaginary friends. So of course romance between furniture and humans isn't possible; furniture doesn't exist, or only exists for as long as its creator is prepared to stay in its guise. For a relationship to work, you need the 'miracle' of the original human permanently adopting that invented persona. (Even Shannon is an invention: the competent, kind servant Yasu aspired to be.)
...oh, of course the Chiester Sisters are Maria's ceramic rabbits. Of course the lost member was MURDERED BY ROSA.
'To counter my ignorance, I shall need a crystallisation of knowledge. That which is smoothed out and pressed into many sheets, what is called a book.' You know, maybe I should have caught on earlier that Beatrice is just a big nerd roleplaying.
So did Beatrice end up dying because, while Battler struggled to grasp the truth, the Attempted Murder Baby Collective eventually decided to settle as Shannon and set Beatrice aside as an identity? I'm going to be even more resentful of the Shannon/George pairing if it ultimately killed off Beatrice.
'Now, I exist only to love you,' Shannon says to George, which is a) unsettling and b) possibly literally true.
someone please turn off the kill-everyone-at-midnight switch, I can't concentrate on this conversation when I know it's on
Oh, she was turning it off? That wasn't clear. It shouldn't have been on; everyone was supposed to get blown up tomorrow night!
EVERYONE STOP SHOOTING EACH OTHER GODDAMMIT USHIROMIYAS ARE THE WORST
I was a little disappointed that we weren't getting a proper game in episode seven, but surprise: it was hiding in the tea party!
KYRIE
KYRIE, YOU SEEMED LIKE THE SENSIBLE ONE AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS SERIES
oh, man, poor Ange having to watch this
Kyrie and Rudolf LURING THE COUSINS OUT ONE BY ONE TO MURDER THEM, THIS IS HORRIFYING
Battler, please escape from your TERRIBLE PARENTS and raise Ange by yourself.
If Eva's still alive, is it possible this is the timeline 'our' Ange came from?
STOP DOING MURDERS, I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU GUYS
I retract all Krauss/Kyrie and Rudolf/Natsuhi talk. Krauss/Natsuhi has always been the best sibling marriage anyway, and Rudolf and Kyrie exclusively deserve each other.
Battler has no idea that everyone's been murdered, and it kind of breaks my heart to see him complaining about Kinzo to himself like everything's normal.
Holy shit, Kyrie, you are the absolute worst person in the Ushiromiya family. You're worse than Rosa. You're worse than the guy who impregnated his own daughter. I'm impressed. (At some point I should rank the members of the Ushiromiya family by how awful they are.)
Battler's still alive, right? Does he die in the explosion? Or is there a possibility he survived? (But why wouldn't he go to Ange, in that case?)
When Battler reached the truth, did he reach the whole truth: that Beatrice repeatedly 'murdering his family' was creating alternative explanations to obfuscate what actually happened, protecting Battler and Ange from the knowledge of what terrible shitbags their parents were? That would explain why he seems to have forgiven Beatrice all the murders. (Although he seemed to be warming to her even before he realised she wasn't the true culprit.)
(EDIT: It has only just occurred to me, several hours later, that Beatrice is simultaneously Battler's aunt and cousin. This in no way prevents me from shipping it.)
One instalment to go! It's going to be strange to finish this huge, ridiculous tale of magic and murder.
no subject
(Anonymous) 2019-03-23 07:58 pm (UTC)(link)Every line Teen George says is very funny, in a slightly awful way, now that I know he subscribed to incel philosophy.
Oh, Teen George. He wants to prove he can be more interesting than just a seemingly nice guy (except the bit where he wanted to murder his entire family to save Shannon).
I think there are lessons to be learnt on both sides here. Don't flippantly make romantic promises that someone else might take to heart. And, if someone else makes a romantic promise and doesn't keep it, don't murder his entire family.
I guess this explains that bit of episode 4 where Beatrice insists Battler remember his sin of six years ago, and he is rather clueless.
I really like the "making your own reality", "imaginary friends" themes of this one, it's a rather unique thing to have a take on. And then there's the point that refusal to accept reality in itself becomes a delusion (my reading of the Natsuhi situation: obviously she knows Kinzo is dead and comes up with the reason to say he's alive, but it reads more as her falling into that delusion and imagined conversations where she projected her own feelings rather than just going "if I say I saw father here, it looks like he's still alive".
I like to assume that Kyrie got annoyed by the fact that it's episode 7 and still no spotlight has been on her, so hijacked the tea party out of jealousy.
If Eva's still alive, is it possible this is the timeline 'our' Ange came from?
Would be particularly tragic if so, given the strained relationship between Ange and Eva. Although perhaps it would explain it more than anything else.
At some point I should rank the members of the Ushiromiya family by how awful they are.
The real difficulty is who tops the list as the least awful family member. ...Maybe Jessica? Her worst trait is having a bit of a bland romance, which is way down the pile.
When Battler reached the truth, did he reach the whole truth: that Beatrice repeatedly 'murdering his family' was creating alternative explanations to obfuscate what actually happened, protecting Battler and Ange from the knowledge of what terrible shitbags their parents were?
Interesting to think of, huh? An event where little events are known, so people theory craft around it. When you think of it that way, we really do this to a lot of events, don't we? I see Erika as another explorer of this point: she basically comes at the case very detached and from a theorycrafting point of view without caring about who it hurts/how it impacts others, just "wouldn't it be entertaining if..." A bit of an indictment of that idea if that really is how we're supposed to read it.
Incidentally, the fighting for the right to love between Beatrice/Shannon/Kanon is in Battler's game using his newfound knowledge, which I thought was rather interesting!
(EDIT: It has only just occurred to me, several hours later, that Beatrice is simultaneously Battler's aunt and cousin. This in no way prevents me from shipping it.)
This is so funny considering your reaction to Battler flirting with Rosa. xD Also, Umineko surely must be the series with the most canonical incest ships?
Do you still prefer Higurashi? How have your character perspectives changed?
-timydamonkey
no subject
The themes really are interesting and unusual. I think you're right about Natsuhi; I think that, to some extent, she did persuade herself that her father-in-law was still alive. When 'her' Kinzo offered her praise, she seemed genuinely affected by it.
I was a little surprised that Kyrie didn't get a spotlight after Natsuhi, Rosa and Eva were given focus in the first three episodes; evidently she was too important a character for us to get to know her!
It does seem to be the true history of Ange's reality, given what Bernkastel says. Poor Ange. (My phone wanted to say 'Poor Acne' there.)
I also reached the 'Jessica is probably least awful' conclusion!
Incidentally, the fighting for the right to love between Beatrice/Shannon/Kanon is in Battler's game using his newfound knowledge, which I thought was rather interesting!
I also picked up on that! He evidently really did grasp at least part of the truth.
This is so funny considering your reaction to Battler flirting with Rosa. xD Also, Umineko surely must be the series with the most canonical incest ships?
LOOK, BATTLER'S NOT ALLOWED TO BE INTO HIS TERRIBLE AUNT, BUT
(There really is a lot of canonical incest going on! Kinzo/Beatrice, Kanon/Jessica, Shannon/George, Beatrice/Battler. Still, I haven't yet finished reading the A Song of Ice and Fire series, which has its share of incest.)
The question of how it compares to Higurashi is an interesting one! I like them in different ways, I think; I'm more into the mysteries of Umineko but the psychological aspects of Higurashi. While I've been enjoying Umineko a lot, nothing's given me the 'holy shit this is perfect, this was written especially for me' feeling of Higurashi chapter six. (I can't remember: have you read Higurashi?)
Changing character perspectives: I like Maria more than I did at the start. I like George less; I've just been increasingly bored by him. I've liked Jessica and Natsuhi pretty solidly. Eva's always been fun. I like Krauss more; he's my favourite of the siblings (Natsuhi's my favourite of the older generation). Rudolf and Kyrie... well, they're the worst, but at least they're not boring. I love Battler but don't care for Kinzo, so I really hope they're not the same person.