natsuhi-did-nothing-wrong

[natsuhi-did-nothing-wrong]

nightmare blunt rotation

[natsuhi-did-nothing-wrong]

A scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to carry it across the river. “Do I look like a fool?” said the frog. “You’d sting me if I let you on my back!”

“Be logical,” said the scorpion. “If I stung you I’d certainly drown myself.”

“That’s true,” the frog acknowledged. “Climb aboard, then!” But no sooner than they were halfway across the river, the scorpion stung the frog, and they both began to thrash and drown. “Why on earth did you do that?” the frog said morosely. “Now we’re both going to die.” 

“I can’t help it,” said the scorpion. “It’s my nature.”

___

…But no sooner than they were halfway across the river, the frog felt a subtle motion on its back, and in a panic dived deep beneath the rushing waters, leaving the scorpion to drown.

“It was going to sting me anyway,” muttered the frog, emerging on the other side of the river. “It was inevitable. You all knew it. Everyone knows what those scorpions are like. It was self-defense.”

___

…But no sooner had they cast off from the bank, the frog felt the tip of a stinger pressed lightly against the back of its neck. “What do you think you’re doing?” said the frog.

“Just a precaution,” said the scorpion. “I cannot sting you without drowning. And now, you cannot drown me without being stung. Fair’s fair, isn’t it?”

They swam in silence to the other end of the river, where the scorpion climbed off, leaving the frog fuming.

“After the kindness I showed you!” said the frog. “And you threatened to kill me in return?”

“Kindness?” said the scorpion. “To only invite me on your back after you knew I was defenseless, unable to use my tail without killing myself? My dear frog, I only treated you as I was treated. Your kindness was as poisoned as a scorpion’s sting.”

___

…“Just a precaution,” said the scorpion. “I cannot sting you without drowning. And now, you cannot drown me without being stung. Fair’s fair, isn’t it?”

“You have a point,” the frog acknowledged. “But once we get to dry land, couldn’t you sting me then without repercussion?”

“All I want is to cross the river safely,” said the scorpion. “Once I’m on the other side I would gladly let you be.”

“But I would have to trust you on that,” said the frog. “While you’re pressing a stinger to my neck. By ferrying you to land I’d be be giving up the one deterrent I hold over you.”

“But by the same logic, I can’t possibly withdraw my stinger while we’re still over water,” the scorpion protested.

The frog paused in the middle of the river, treading water. “So, I suppose we’re at an impasse.”

The river rushed around them. The scorpion’s stinger twitched against the frog’s unbroken skin. “I suppose so,” the scorpion said.

___

A scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to carry it across the river. “Absolutely not!” said the frog, and dived beneath the waters, and so none of them learned anything.

___

A scorpion, being unable to swim, asked a turtle (as in the original Persian version of the fable) to carry it across the river. The turtle readily agreed, and allowed the scorpion aboard its shell. Halfway across, the scorpion gave in to its nature and stung, but failed to penetrate the turtle’s thick shell. The turtle, swimming placidly, failed to notice.

They reached the other side of the river, and parted ways as friends.

___

…Halfway across, the scorpion gave in to its nature and stung, but failed to penetrate the turtle’s thick shell.

The turtle, hearing the tap of the scorpion’s sting, was offended at the scorpion’s ungratefulness. Thankfully, having been granted the powers to both defend itself and to punish evil, the turtle sank beneath the waters and drowned the scorpion out of principle.

___

A scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to carry it across the river. “Do I look like a fool?” sneered the frog. “You’d sting me if I let you on my back.”

The scorpion pleaded earnestly. “Do you think so little of me? Please, I must cross the river. What would I gain from stinging you? I would only end up drowning myself!”

“That’s true,” the frog acknowledged. “Even a scorpion knows to look out for its own skin. Climb aboard, then!”

But as they forged through the rushing waters, the scorpion grew worried. This frog thinks me a ruthless killer, it thought. Would it not be justified in throwing me off now and ridding the world of me? Why else would it agree to this? Every jostle made the scorpion more and more anxious, until the frog surged forward with a particularly large splash, and in panic the scorpion lashed out with its stinger.

“I knew it,” snarled the frog, as they both thrashed and drowned. “A scorpion cannot change its nature.”

___

A scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to carry it across the river. The frog agreed, but no sooner than they were halfway across the scorpion stung the frog, and they both began to thrash and drown.

“I’ve only myself to blame,” sighed the frog, as they both sank beneath the waters. “You, you’re a scorpion, I couldn’t have expected anything better. But I knew better, and yet I went against my judgement! And now I’ve doomed us both!”

“You couldn’t help it,” said the scorpion mildly. “It’s your nature.” 

___

…“Why on earth did you do that?” the frog said morosely. “Now we’re both going to die.”

“Alas, I was of two natures,” said the scorpion. “One said to gratefully ride your back across the river, and the other said to sting you where you stood. And so both fought, and neither won.” It smiled wistfully. “Ah, it would be nice to be just one thing, wouldn’t it? Unadulterated in nature. Without the capacity for conflict or regret.”

___

“By the way,” said the frog, as they swam, “I’ve been meaning to ask: What’s on the other side of the river?”

“It’s the journey,” said the scorpion. “Not the destination.”

___

…“What’s on the other side of anything?” said the scorpion. “A new beginning.”

___

…”Another scorpion to mate with,” said the scorpion. “And more prey to kill, and more living bodies to poison, and a forthcoming lineage of cruelties that you will be culpable in.”

___

…”Nothing we will live to see, I fear,” said the scorpion. “Already the currents are growing stronger, and the river seems like it shall swallow us both. We surge forward, and the shoreline recedes. But does that mean our striving was in vain?”

___

“I love you,” said the scorpion.

The frog glanced upward. “Do you?”

“Absolutely. Can you imagine the fear of drowning? Of course not. You’re a frog. Might as well be scared of breathing air. And yet here I am, clinging to your back, as the waters rage around us. Isn’t that love? Isn’t that trust? Isn’t that necessity? I could not kill you without killing myself. Are we not inseparable in this?”

The frog swam on, the both of them silent.

___

“I’m so tired,” murmured the frog eventually. “How much further to the other side? I don’t know how long we’ve been swimming. I’ve been treading water. And it’s getting so very dark.”

“Shh,” the scorpion said. “Don’t be afraid.”

The frog’s legs kicked out weakly. “How long has it been? We’re lost. We’re lost! We’re doomed to be cast about the waters forever. There is no land. There’s nothing on the other side, don’t you see!”

“Shh, shh,” said the scorpion. “My venom is a hallucinogenic. Beneath its surface, the river is endlessly deep, its currents carrying many things.” 

“You - You’ve killed us both,” said the frog, and began to laugh deliriously. “Is this - is this what it’s like to drown?” 

“We’ve killed each other,” said the scorpion soothingly. “My venom in my glands now pulsing through your veins, the waters of your birthing pool suffusing my lungs. We are engulfing each other now, drowning in each other. I am breathless. Do you feel it? Do you feel my sting pierced through your heart?”

“What a foolish thing to do,” murmured the frog. “No logic. No logic to it at all.”

“We couldn’t help it,” whispered the scorpion. “It’s our natures. Why else does anything in the world happen? Because we were made for this from birth, darling, every moment inexplicable and inevitable. What a crazy thing it is to fall in love, and yet - It’s all our fault! We are both blameless. We’re together now, darling. It couldn’t have happened any other way.”

___

“It’s funny,” said the frog. “I can’t say that I trust you, really. Or that I even think very much of you and that nasty little stinger of yours to begin with. But I’m doing this for you regardless. It’s strange, isn’t it? It’s strange. Why would I do this? I want to help you, want to go out of my way to help you. I let you climb right onto my back! Now, whyever would I go and do a foolish thing like that?”

___

A scorpion, not knowing how to swim, asked a frog to carry it across the river. “Do I look like a fool?” said the frog. “You’d sting me if I let you on my back!”

“Be logical,” said the scorpion. “If I stung you I’d certainly drown myself.”  

“That’s true,” the frog acknowledged. “Come aboard, then!” But no sooner had the scorpion mounted the frog’s back than it began to sting, repeatedly, while still safely on the river’s bank.

The frog groaned, thrashing weakly as the venom coursed through its veins, beginning to liquefy its flesh. “Ah,” it muttered. “For some reason I never considered this possibility.”

“Because you were never scared of me,” the scorpion whispered in its ear. “You were never scared of dying. In a past life you wore a shell and sat in judgement. And then you were reborn: soft-skinned, swift, unburdened, as new and vulnerable as a child, moving anew through a world of children. How could anyone ever be cruel, you thought, seeing the precariousness of it all?” The scorpion bowed its head and drank. “How could anyone kill you without killing themselves?”

[natsuhi-did-nothing-wrong]

really embracing how fucking funny it is in tatarigoroshi that miyo picks keiichi up in her car when they're both like 20 minutes post committing first degree murder. perhaps even funnier that she's giving him advice on how to bury the body when her plan is to dump tomitake unconscious on the fucking side of the road and whatever happens happens

[natsuhi-did-nothing-wrong]

hate that i feel like i'm talking myself into irie being a good character or at the very least a good Concept for a character

[natsuhi-did-nothing-wrong]

i really like that ange was only a part of the dynamic for one episode but she's like an essential piece of so many posts mimicking the style of umineko arguments

[natsuhi-did-nothing-wrong]

he fucking performed illegal lobotomies?

[natsuhi-did-nothing-wrong]

This is where Irie gets interesting— he has this strong belief that any immoral behavior is caused by physical disorders or ailments, which leads exactly where you would expect it to lead. He never questions his view of what’s ‘immoral,’ because to him that’s something completely objective and observable within one’s physical body

There’s a degree to which it sounds nice. It sounds very similar to one of Higirashi’s overarching themes, it sounds like it’s about how you should reach out to people with compassion and how redemption is always possible, until you peel back the layers. At its core, its about deciding who is ill and who is not, and how those who are ill need to be ‘fixed,’ including barbaric methods like lobotomy.

He is a nice and kind and naive man. He’s also an evil doctor that has no respect for the autonomy of those he deems ill. This is seen in his views about lobotomy, but also in smaller things like not telling Satoko what’s going on with her own body and lying about her medicine being vitamins

he fucking performed illegal lobotomies?

[natsuhi-did-nothing-wrong]

really genuinely love that line because the reader is unlikely to know what dysautonomia is and will probably just assume it's as ~scary~ as ooishi is making it sound, until you spend five seconds googling it and realize that both ooishi and keiichi are being ridiculous. and then perhaps you go "yeah i guess any disorder will sound scary if you only ever talk about it in conjunction with violent events that probably don't even have anything to do with that" which just might be applicable in other situations in your life

[natsuhi-did-nothing-wrong]

"rena had a disorder...that normal people didn't" in reference to her dysautonomia is very funny to begin with, but really adds that it's later revealed she in fact Does have a second unrelated medical condition that would actually cause a violent outburst like that

[natsuhi-did-nothing-wrong]

imagining a world where there's a fringe rudolftrice theory based on getting most of the epitaph correct but thinking that "praise my noble name" involves rearranging the letters to spell RUDOL

[natsuhi-did-nothing-wrong]

i've been talking with my roommate lately about how deliberately higurashi chooses not to pull its punches, instead describing nearly everything in almost gratuitous detail, and how effective that is. so you can imagine how much worse it feels when suddenly higurashi starts self-censoring and leaving you to fill in the blanks

[natsuhi-did-nothing-wrong]

really like the numerical wordplay in 123 -> 34, because what comes next if she keeps following the pattern?

5, the stage marked "terminal."

[natsuhi-did-nothing-wrong]

i've been talking with my roommate lately about how deliberately higurashi chooses not to pull its punches, instead describing nearly everything in almost gratuitous detail, and how effective that is. so you can imagine how much worse it feels when suddenly higurashi starts self-censoring and leaving you to fill in the blanks

[natsuhi-did-nothing-wrong]

you know what i really loved (read: made me want to vomit blood) was in arc 6 ooishi came up with that trick so keiichi could speak openly over the phone in front of rena, "say yes if you mean yes, and say yeah if you mean no" and in arc 7 when the child consultation center was calling satoko, despite knowing that she was right next to teppei, they didn't even try anything like that

because ryukishi set up that he, as a writer, is aware of tricks like that. he knows that you can do things like that. just asking yes or no questions, and obscuring what your answers are to them, to safely have a conversation in front of someone who is a danger to you. and then when writing about the child consultation center, he did not have them use that trick or anything like it. there's all these ways they Could have approached satoko in ways that wouldn't endanger her so much, and yet, right up until the end, satoko was forced to make the choice to say "help me" right fucking in front of teppei because they weren't doing that. it's so. ugh

[natsuhi-did-nothing-wrong]

LITERALLY

The repetition of “we can’t help her unless she asks for help’ culminates in forcing her to say those words exactly while doing so actively puts her in danger. There was no subtle sign they would’ve accepted, no way for Sakoto to communicate what’s going on besides that, and no room for any evidence besides that. All of the responsibility was placed on her and no effort was made to make it easy for her or protect her by the child consultation center.

It’s REALLY interesting with his history as a social worker. It’s interesting to see Higirashi attempt to balance “things will get better if you talk to people” and “the systems meant to protect you are deeply flawed.”

I really like how the anti-murder theme is enhanced by steelmanning the pro-murder position. What if you did what you were supposed to and went to the authorities, and they still didn’t help? What if no one would miss the person you killed, and his death would change the lives of your loved ones for the better?

I think Teppei’s characterization is really important here, because everyone else gets complexity (excluding Rina but this applies to her too). Even Oryou, who ordered her granddaughter’s nails to be ripped off, is shown to feel constrained by her role as the head. We get to understand her thought process, even though it doesn’t justify her actions. But with Teppei, we get to literally see his inner monologue in some tips and it’s like “I really want to abuse my niece, I sure love being abusive.”

It feels almost like the story is speaking directly to a hypothetical kid considering murder. “I know they deserve it,” it says. “I know it would feel good. I know that the people who were supposed to help you have failed, and I know how infuriating that is. There are still other ways to solve this problem. You’re not as trapped as you think.”

I can’t think of any other media that actually treats being anti-murder as a position that needs to be defended, or reaches out to people who have violent impulses the way Higirashi does. It’s just… so good

you know what i really loved (read: made me want to vomit blood) was in arc 6 ooishi came up with that trick so keiichi could speak openly over the phone in front of rena, "say yes if you mean yes, and say yeah if you mean no" and in arc 7 when the child consultation center was calling satoko, despite knowing that she was right next to teppei, they didn't even try anything like that

because ryukishi set up that he, as a writer, is aware of tricks like that. he knows that you can do things like that. just asking yes or no questions, and obscuring what your answers are to them, to safely have a conversation in front of someone who is a danger to you. and then when writing about the child consultation center, he did not have them use that trick or anything like it. there's all these ways they Could have approached satoko in ways that wouldn't endanger her so much, and yet, right up until the end, satoko was forced to make the choice to say "help me" right fucking in front of teppei because they weren't doing that. it's so. ugh

[natsuhi-did-nothing-wrong]

Do you have any thoughts on Keichii’s Dark Backstory? (From arc 6)

i don't think i have a tonnnn more to say about it than the game itself does, but it did really come out of nowhere - in hindsight keiichi does say quite early on "we moved here after some stuff happened, don't even worry about it" in narration and swiftly changes the subject

i think it's a great example of how good arc 6 is at turning arc 1 on its head - just like how ooishi told keiichi about the incident at rena's previous school and her dysautonomia diagnosis and that made him think of her as a scary, violent person, you see rena turning against keiichi because of his own past violent behavior

ryukishi spills a lot of ink in his works over how to deal with (various types of) violence, inviting readers to think about what "punishment" actually gets anyone. it feels good to punish someone who's hurt others. it feels good to kill your friend's abusive uncle. but i think a lot of his work takes great pains to illustrate that it rarely, if ever, really helps the people who need help

what worked for both keiichi and rena wasn't punishing them for lashing out - i mean, both had to apologize and more or less uproot their lives, but it was a change in circumstances that stopped the violent outbursts. they needed help and demanded it in what felt like the only way they could (keiichi notes being fairly socially isolated at the time. i don't think that's a coincidence). and when they got help, when they got the change in circumstances they needed, the violence stopped (...scifi disease that makes you kill people notwithstanding)

i mean large portions of higurashi are dedicated to how an otherwise normal kid can be pushed to absolute extremes that are explicitly preventable if their circumstances had been even slightly different. so it feels thematically appropriate, in that sense. i think it aims to kind of push the reader away from thinking of people as having, like, a trait of being inherently violent or criminal - that these actions are responses to someone's circumstances, and those circumstances can and should be changed.

higurashi has a lot to say about the question "what do you do when someone hurts someone else?" and i really like how much of it centers on addressing the root cause and the Needs people have that lead to violence. even if there's things i'm still kind of working through in terms of how much i agree with higurashi on specific things, i think keiichi's story is a really central piece of higurashi's thesis on forgiveness and bettering yourself

[natsuhi-did-nothing-wrong]

one really funny thing about hinamizawa syndrome being fully explained in arc 7 was that because both satoko and keiichi show symptoms of it by the end of arc 3, my roommate and i briefly had complete opposite conclusions about tatarigoroshi based on the new info

he went "oh so that explains teppei in arc 3 then"

i was like "yeah this clears up the questions i still had there"

"so keiichi didn't actually kill teppei, he hallucinated that, like tomitake waving around the piece of wood"

"...what? no, he absolutely killed teppei, satoko hallucinated him like she did this arc because she was off her medication"