ramblingsofthegoldenwitch

[ramblingsofthegoldenwitch]

Answers to ask I received in the past (part 3)

As promised I’ll try to answer to the ask I received in the past. This is the third group of Ask at which I replied. Please don’t send new asks. I won’t reply to them.

By the way, these are all Anon asks.

I love your answers and I admit I liked umineko more thanks to you

I have a question, if it doesn't bother you, how do you arrange intelligence between the characters? And by that, I mean the characters from the family, not the witches

And I want to arrange you for adults only and then arrange for cousins ​​in addition to Kinzo and Sayo, I think Rosa is one of the most underrated characters in her intelligence ,Maybe even smarter than Eva , am I wrong?

Thank you for letting me know, it makes me really happy!

To be honest, I don’t really arrange it, each of them has things in which they’re smart and things in which they’re not and we don’t really have a good method for measuring their intelligence.

Ryukishi07 himself, comparing Kyrie and Asumu, said they were smart in different things. This means that, according to what we’re ‘testing’ them, the results would change.

Rosa wasn’t good at academic, business, love and raising a child, though to me she seems better at business than Krauss and, I think, she can be the most diplomatic of all the siblings due to her role as the youngest, and she knows when she has the upper hand on them. She’s good at presenting a façade of a friendly, nice and polite persona, but can’t maintain it when she gets angry. She can see the weak spots of the others and can jab at them.

As you can see she has things in which she’s smart and things in which she’s not. The same applies to all the others. If I were to say ‘character X is smarter than the others’ or ‘character X is dumber than the others’ it would probably be solely in relation to the smarts that are needed in that particular situation in which the cast is in that moment… and often it would be hard to judge all of them simply because we don’t really see all of them in that same particular setting.

So sorry, but I can’t really help you here.

Could Sayo be seen as a trans woman & a bisexual? Like, she was AMAB but she identified as a woman later on, and she was romantically attracted to Battler & Goerge as Sayo/Shannon/Beato and to Jessica as her Kanon persona :0

It’s a possible way to see her, yes.

Her situation is complicate because, although her sex is male she lived unaware of it for years, believing to be female and with a strong pressure to conform to this role. Ultimately she also experimented being a male, apparently partly because she wanted the freedom a male can experience, partly because her body refused developing female secondary traits, making her look like a boy. Kanon though is always considered as the one on which she dumps all her ugliness, so I would say she had a strong reluctance to identify herself as a male and probably, prior to learning the truth, she was just confused and unsatisfied on why her body would look like a male, more than identifying as a male.

On the opposite side Lion doesn’t seem to have problems identifying himself as a male even though he claims to be good at what are considered female works because he believes in gender parity. Lion though is more a dream, a wish fulfillment creation than a real person so it’s possible he was created as satisfied with his own sex exactly for this reason.

Long story short, I tend to think she preferred to identify herself as a female but since she is still young, uneducated on those topics, in a very peculiar situation and, after she learns the truth, she falls into depression that will ultimately make her suicidal, it’s also possible to assume she just needed more time spent in a serene and accepting setting, before she could truly decide what she identifies with, maybe in that case Sayo would identify as bigender for example, or would stop seeing the idea of being male as something ugly and embrace such gender identity or decide in the end none of those gender identities fit and identify as agender.

In the end it’s up to how you decide to interpret her situation.

The same goes with her love interests. I think seeing her as bisexual is valid but she’s so starved of love that I think that more than being interested to the sex of her partner, she was interested if said partner would love her. She knows Jessica by childhood but she doesn’t look at her as a potential partner until Jessica claims she’s crushing on Kanon. So we could even argue she’s asexual but biromantic.

I think it really depends on interpretation so, in the end it’s up to you and to how you see her. The story insists on how her feelings of love for Battler, George and Jessica were genuine so what we know for sure is she wanted to be with them…

Do you think reading whole VN and then reading only last two episodes is a good idea? I don't really feel like reading whole manga after VN (or reading them both at the same time).

It’s a possible idea, yes. I would suggest also reading episode 5 manga version as I think it improved the novel tremendously but it’s not mandatory. What’s truly mandatory to have all the solution is reading Episode 7 and 8 manga version, especially episode 8 as it changed plenty of things to make the story better and more understandable.

Hi again! Another question... I see you don't seem to like George very much, since you describe the way he treats Battler as almost bullying. It seemed to me, though, that Ryukishi wrote George as almost perfect: he solved his porblems, is working dilligently towards his goals, and has won Shannon's love (which you describe as "stealing Battler's girlfriend", but both he and Shannon are adamant that it is much more than that). Is there something about George that rubs you the wrong way?

I don’t know which post you’ve read and which you didn’t, but I think the best way to read in details why I think George is bullying Battler, which is something that definitely rubs me in the wrong way, is to read my VN ramblings for Legend. You might find also my comments about how he handles Shannon, which really, isn’t the best and I’m sorry I didn’t manage to cover Turn as in it he’s even worse.

George: (When I was in elementary school, I was always the kid that got bullied. When everyone teased me, I grew nervous and speechless, to the delight of the bullies. Back then, I wondered why everyone teased me. But now, teasing Shannon like this, I understand why. This is so much fun. I can play with her emotions however I please, ...and I can have them all to myself. Right now, I can't think of any higher pleasure.) [Turn of the Golden Witch]

As you can see is George himself who compares how he’s acting with Shannon to how he was bullied and admits he has a lot of fun in doing so.

In Episode 6 George himself says he desired revenge on Battler and Shannon, because, as a kid, he believed Shannon liked him but then was forced to acknowledge Shannon never felt that way and liked and was liked back by Battler and, as a result, wanted to steal her back. Only later he truly fell in love with her, at the beginning it was all stealing her from Battler because he believed he felt entitled to her love.

There’s to say both the anime and manga cut George’s unpleasant behavior and, as the VN progresses, it also cut it or labels it as a thing of the past, so it can be Ryukishi07 kind of meant to subtly retcon it and paint George in a better light.

Said so, if you like George and think he’s almost perfect, that’s fine. De gustibus non disputandum est. For me, the way Ryukishi07 described his behavior in the first novel just caused a strong impression I didn’t manage to shake.

Hi! One question about your ramblings: You mention several times how it irks you that everybody (Jessica, George, the adults) makes fun of Battler or even bullies him all the time. But considering the medium (anime/VNs), isn't this to be expected? I get your points about this meaning something about the Ushiromiya, but isn't it a frequent trope in animes/VN that the protagonist gets bullied by friends and family? I almost take this to just mean that Battler IS the protagonist...

Hum… not really? There’s plenty of manga and anime in which characters don’t deliberately make fun of other characters, be they the main character or a secondary character. I guess it also really depends on the circumstances when this happens.

In Battler’s case he was in panic and needed reassurance and support and everyone instead was laughing at his distress. I guess I would have minded it a lot less if they had laughed at how big he grew and joked on how if he were to keep that up he would end up hitting his head on the door frame because in that case they wouldn’t have been laughing at Battler’s distress.

Also, even if this were to be a trope (same as, for example, Battler’s harassment of Shannon which is a recurring trope in manga/anime and that Battler does in an even tamer way than other manga characters) this doesn’t mean everyone should like it or not be irked by it.

People react to things differently, and generally I think that excusing something causes it to remain in media while criticizing it tends to discourage authors from presenting it again.

Of course the awareness that some things are a recurring trope in manga is important in order to understand sometimes the author don’t even think what he’s representing is a problem because it’s a trope that so popular and apparently appreciated he doesn’t even question it.

Said so, if you don’t mind it, it’s fine. As said before we aren’t all the same.

Why do you think Kinzo raped Bice?

I’m pretty confident Kinzo raped his daughter, Kuwadorian Beatrice as the solution of episode 7 showed Beatrice rejecting Kinzo’s feelings.

I’m not sure if Kinzo raped Bice or if she decided to sleep with him willingly. It’s a possibility, considering we know the story Kinzo told us in Episode 7 was very biased toward Kinzo (it turned out it was HIM and not Yamamoto the one who wanted to steal the gold from the Italians) and episode 4 implied Kinzo killed everyone (Italians and Japanese) to get monopoly over Beatrice, something episode 8 ‘confession of the golden witch’ also implied.

As a result of all this Bice ended up being an unregistered foreign in a foreigner land completely dependent on Kinzo, traumatized by being the sole survivor and probably unaware he was also a married man. She doesn’t look thrilled when Kinzo’s men came to take her from Nanjo… but yes, she could have slept with Kinzo willingly. Or not. As Kinzo raped his own daughter we know he wouldn’t have cared if she was unwilling. In theory, as Umineko didn’t use this against Kinzo, I would say the chances Kinzo raped Bice are low. We’ll probably never know the truth so multiple truths can exist in the catbox and your theory is as good as mine.

Hello, Ramblingsofthegoldenwitch! First of all, let me say you have an amazing blog, and I've loved reading your thoughts on Umineko. So, going for my question: In your opinion, why George ended so hated by the fandom? Of course, he does have his fair share of defects: His "teasing" of Shannon; his willingness to take advantage of their power differences to advance his objectives; his lack of interest of hearing Shannon's emotions; his passive-aggresiveness towards Battler; andhis overall lack of social tact. But, in a series with child abusers; older family members being also very nasty towards each other; people abusing their power for way less noble reasons; and, finally, outright cold-blooded murder, I fail to see how George would be especially bad. As an exemple, Kyrie and Rudolf are generally enjoyed by the fandom, despite (while having their psychological reasons, but still) commiting a massacre in cold blood. I imagine there are two reasons for this: the first one, is the "Jerks are Worse than Villains" audience reaction. Between a garden-variety asshole and an outright villain, most of the public tends to like the latter better than the former, even if his actions are objectively worse, because there's a good possibility he'll be cool and entertaining, while the garden-variety asshole is, well, just an ass (besides potentially remembering assoles in their own lives). The other reason I imagine, is that a good deal of George's personal problems and worldview are echoed in the current neo-misogynistic movements (Red Pill, incel & co.), what ends making him even more unpalatable, on our current cultural momentum.

Thank you for liking it!

Oh, I think Kinzo is probably the one who would win the Most Hated Character of the series, unless something has seriously changed from when I was deep into the story. Rosa is also someone who is pretty high in the list of disliked characters… even if, in Episode 2, she seemed to redeem herself a little. And the other adults would probably not win a popularity prize either.

George is likely only the most disliked among the children.

Also this remind me of how the Harry Potter fandom was said to hate more Dolores Umbridge than Voldemort even if the latter is objectively worse. Dolores Umbridge is the type of Villain you can meet in your daily life and have experience with… but it’s pretty unlikely you’ll meet up someone like Voldemort.

This produces an emotional reaction due to which Umbridge feels worse to a reader because they can feel a connection between her and some REAL person haunting their life where Voldermort remains just a fictional bad guy.

George is undoubtedly the type of person you might have interacted with, while it’s unlikely you’ll have chance to interact with someone like Kinzo.

Your theories are also valid. In the end I think everyone who dislikes George has his own reasons and there isn’t a specific, singular reason on which we all agree. We’re all different after all and I’ve no idea why people think one way or the other. Sorry if I can’t be of much help.

I hope you're doing okay!

I am, I’m just very, very busy. Still thank you for worrying!

I just want you to know that I love, love, LOVE your Umineko manga edits (the ones where you remove Sayo’s wig)!!

Thanks! I’m really happy you do!

Thank you for sharing your passion for Umineko this blog is a lot of fun to read through! We have similar ideas about the meta world. I hope you’re doing well and enjoying the references in Higurashi Gou :)

Thank you for letting me know you enjoy my posts! I’m not really that much into the new Higurashi but they’re not bad either. Thank you for worrying about me!

[ramblingsofthegoldenwitch]

Answers to ask I received in the past (part 2)

As promised I'll try to answer to the ask I received in the past. This is the second group of Ask at which I replied. Please don't send new asks. I won't reply to them.

By the way, these are all Anon asks.

What is the connection between Featherine and Eua?

also

As Featherine under name Eua, which have a form that similiar to Auau aka Hanyuu. Isn't make sense that Featherine is Hanyuu? What do you think?

Sorry, I placed your asks together because they're similar.

You both are talking about the Featherine from “Higurashi Gou” and “Higurashi Sotsu”? Honestly even though I saw the two anime I didn’t look if those Higurashi are ‘official’ as in Ryukishi07 recognized them as part of their canon and I’ve no interest in speculating about it. She might as well be an alternate version of Featherine or Featherine herself when she was younger or whatever you can theorize about. If there was an official answer I didn’t see it.

In “Higurashi Sotsu” Featherine acknowledge Hanyuu as a part of herself. If this is meant to be true in Umineko too or not is something I don't know and that honestly I'm not invested in discovering. Sorry about it.

Why did Ange Ushiromiya Laughed maniacally after learning the thrush about her Aunt?

Laughing is a coping mechanism and when you're overwhelmed or feeling anxiety about something, laughing helps you shed some of that stress and anxiety even if it’s inappropriate. It’s not voluntary, it’s similar to why some people cry when they’re overwhelmingly happy.

It doesn’t mean Ange is evil, just that she’s desperate and on the border of snapping. The manga depicts her as also crying and implies she tosses herself off the building in desperation.

Also tales like inappropriate reactions like this one for the sake of the drama so you might find various tales who use inappropriate laughter as a character response to bad news.

Hey, what is your least favorite character in umineko, mine is kinzo

They’re all well written to me, but I guess you mean which character I think is worse morally and I wouldn’t have him get close to me in real life?

There’s so many to choose since Umineko has plenty of what we could call unrepentant criminals. I probably would feel much safer if none of the adults in Umineko were to get in my own city. They’re all horrible. Traumatized but horrible.

Do you think that Ikuko Hachijo developed romantic feelings for Tohya Hachijo (Battler) throughout spending her time with him?

I would say yes, if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m a strong Battler/Sayo shipper and so I prefer to think they just like each other as friends. Likely though the idea is that they love each other, if they do in a platonic way or if they merely didn’t marry because Touya has no real identity to speak of is up to speculation.

This may be an odd question, but it's there any panels in the Umineko manga of Ange showing the buttons on the shirt she wears under her jacket?

I have no idea but you can find the manga on manga scanlation sites and check it yourself if you’re really that curious. The manga is good and worth reading so I recommend giving it a look.

Is Bernkastel an actual complex character? Or just a one dimensional monster? Also would you call her edgy?/Is Bern an actual complex character? Or is she just a sadistic heartless monster created by Rika's pain? I was hoping she could have been like a grey character, rather than pitch black, but i guess i had wrong assumptions on her

I put those two asks together because they seem the same. Bernkastel likes to play the part of one dimensional monster but she’s a complex character and I’ve plenty of post discussing her if you’re interested. Also consider that the meta world has different ethic values compared to the real world so things are a lot more complex than what they look like on the surface.

Is there ever a reason given in the series for why Yasu was raised female even though they were AMAB? It's not like the older servants just guessed their gender, they all knew Kinzo had a secret son. I know they lowered Yasu's age to hide their identity but I don't know why changing their gender would help, especially since it's such a huge problem for them later

No, there’s not a reason given in the series. I’ve been told though that in Japan this was a thing that was done in the past to kids with ruined genitalia. Take it with a grain of salt though as I don’t really know exactly how this worked.

Hey, I just saw your post about other selfs in Umineko and I gotta say, it has helped me a lot lol, im not the same person who asked you, hell i dont even know english that well but as someone who has gone through many identity crisis due to my gender and other stuff and the only way to cope is creating this self on the internet to feel accepted is, yeah i can see i was just like Sayo and I was just running from reality, hell ive been running ever since my best friend left me, so, yeah thanks (?

I’m really happy if my post was of some help! Thank you for letting me know!

Has anyone asked about Kinzo’s test in episode 4? We know Maria solved it somehow, but then what is the solution? What could she have said to earn such favor?

We know the solution Kinzo chose when he met Beatrice was to kill everyone else to obtain his own life and the one of Beatrice (his loved one). We can see it implied in Episode 4 Volume 4 Chapter 16 of the manga and we see it being shown in Episode 7. Maria likely chose the same, to kill everyone else to save the person she loved. If said person was Rosa or Sakutarou (in episode 4 Maria had a bad break up with Rosa) that’s up to speculation.

Can you recommend more visual novels like Umineko?

Sorry, I’ve only read Umineko and Rose Guns Days so I’m not the right person to ask about this but people say Higurashi is good too.

[ramblingsofthegoldenwitch]

Answers to ask I received in the past (part 1)

As promised I'll try to answer to the ask I received in the past. This is the first group of Ask at which I replied. Please don't send new asks. I won't reply to them.

By the way, these are all Anon asks.

YOUR ALIVE?????

Yes but I’m very, very busy. Sorry about it.

Who do you think Ange cared about more? Kyrie or Rudolf?

I don’t think she had a favorite parent. If anything she seems to favor her brother over her parents as for her it would have been enough if Battler were to come home, instead than if let’s say her mother, or let’s say her father were to come home.

this is a long shot, but i saw on twitter someone posted some edited screencaps from EP2 when Beatrice appears on the gameboard, but edited to have Sayo’s hair and expressions, by chance would you have seen them? I’ve been looking for weeks and haven’t been able to find them again ;-;

Sorry, no, I didn’t see them.

How do you think Yukari would interact with a innate psychopath who wronged her recently

I’ve not the slightest idea. Your guess is as good as mine.

I'm loosing my mind trying to see if you made a post about Genjitrice and I remember the post had the edited sprite at the bottom to show a friend and I can't find it. Please tell me I didn't dream this

Sorry, I didn’t see it.

What happened to the music that played on your blog?

As it came from a youtube video, probably the youtube video was removed and I didn’t notice. If you’re curious the music was “Non mi avete fatto niente” by Ermal Meta, Fabrizio Moro and you can hear it here.

Hello I absolutely love your blog! I have a question regarding about Ange. Do you believe Ange is the type of person to feel more easily for her own gender or both genders are the same to her and that she only looks at what they experience and what type of personality they have? I'm referring to Ange from how she is in ep 6 then ep 8 respectively. Sorry if it's a rather out there or simple question but would love to hear your thoughts!

Thank you! I think Ange is portrayed a bit like Sayo, she falls for who shows her some sympathy, care and attention, hence she’s weak for Mammon but also might have some feelings for Amakusa (and ironically kills both when they fail her). In short neither relation is about physical attraction but about Ange’s need for someone who would care about her. It’s hard to say for which gender she would feel a physical attraction. In theory it’s even possible she’s asexual since neither relationship is based on physical attraction… or that she’s just really immature due to her trauma. Hard to say.

Why do people asume amaksa killed ange in the end of ep4?I felt like he got killed by"greed" as depicted by mammon kiling him.The ghost of eva surely was amakusa following orders by money, but his greed was so great that he ended up getting killed, not sure what the gun exploding means though, maybe it is litterally what happened.Also,the fact ange was shown to die in 1998 in credits is not confirmation that he killed her necessarily, bcs we all know"ange" changes personality and "dies" in 1998

While it’s possible to theorize Ange survived and just disappeared as she did in Prime, it would be really hard for her to do so since she would be hunted and have no support. Amakusa wanting to kill her means Okonogi is against her now, and the same would be true for Okonogi. And if the captain too was bribed she would have also either to kill him or to have him as an enemy.

Assuming Amakusa succeeded in killing Ange just seems more likely, but yes, in Umineko plenty of unlikely things happen so your theory isn’t necessarily wrong.

technically, didn't ryukishi07 violate Knox's 10th commandment? a character has disguised as another, without any foreshadowing or possible clues. What do you think?

For Ryukishi07 the clue was the detective never saw Shannon and Kanon together, which in golden age mysteries can be considered a clue. Since Knox’s Decalogue is one for golden age mysteries and this is an acceptable clue for that kind of mystery no, Ryukishi07 didn’t violate it. If you however mean to say that it’s pretty horrid how NO ONE noticed Kanon and Shannon have the same face, not even Erika with her photographic memory, Ryukishi07 excused it with Erika herself claiming it was due to make up. If you want more info I recommend reading the manga version Episode 8, Volume4 chapter 20.

Hello im not sure if you are still active but I remember Erika saying it is possible to create a fake state of death using pharmaceuticals, do you have any idea what are the examples?

No, sorry, I’m not really well versed in medicine and I never looked it up. I know in the far past it was really popular in romance novels in which the heroine would risk to be buried alive and then saved last minute and I think it was mentioned in some mystery but honestly I don’t remember what they used. I suggest you to look it up in the net.

[ramblingsofthegoldenwitch]

Regarding the asks

So this is a message to let everyone who read this blog know that I won't be replying to new asks. I'll try to answer to the old ones who had piled up, but I've little time due to real life issues and, as you might have noticed if you tried to send an ask in the past years, I just can't keep up with the ask.

In future things might change but for now that's it.

By the way, I'm very sorry about it but I won't reply to ask which aren't in English. Not only this is an English blog but beyond my native tongue and English I do not talk other languages. sorry about it.

Sorry everyone, I hope you'll understand.

Also, since Tumblr doesn't let me edit anymore the tag bar on the left (apparently I'm well above the limits of characters I should use) here is the correct version since the links of the old one didn't work anymore.

My ramblings

Visual Novel Manga Anime LN Pachinko Ougon Musou Kyoku Tips and grimoire Legend of the Golden Witch (Ramblings) Turn of the Golden Witch (Ramblings) Banquet of the Golden Witch (Ramblings) Alliance of the Golden Witch (Ramblings) End of the Golden Witch (Ramblings) Dawn of the Golden Witch (Ramblings) Requiem of the Golden Witch (Ramblings) Twilight of the Golden Witch (Ramblings) Tips (Tsubasa/Hane/Our confession) (Ramblings)

Umineko Cast (Ramblings) Places Battler and Sayo's moments Mystery Solutions Parallels Headcanons AU Worlds Merchandise Official Pictures Recolours Edits Birthdays & Calendars Video

[ramblingsofthegoldenwitch]

i found you via a completely unrelated google search that led me to one of your blog posts... I am an oldtime umineko fan (read it when it was ongoing... which was tremendously slow), so I took notice of teh topic.

I don't have any question but I find it fun sometimes to imagine completely unrelated topics can make hearts cross, never to know another, and to just recognize that for a moment..

Don't let anyone change you

Thank you. This is probably the best message I received. Thanks a lot for making my day and please, don't change as well.

[ramblingsofthegoldenwitch]

Title: Dolls of Rokkenjima 2.0

Music: Melanie Martinez - Dollhouse

Anime: Umineko no naku koro ni

Why is it good?: Good editing, lyrics matching with what we're shown and well serving the story that the video tells, pacing fitting with the music. In short it's not only very pleasant to watch but it's also a good way to get a feeling of the Umineko story.

[ramblingsofthegoldenwitch]

Hello! I remember love reading your blog about Umineko, because there is really nothing more enjoyable to find other people who like Umineko! I noticed you haven't updated things for a while, but I hope you are around to read this ask. I was interested in asking you come on as a guest to When We Cry podcast, we are a 07th expansion fan podcast group. Since I always liked your analysis, I thought you might be interested. - Mushroom

Thank you for loving to read my blog.

Due to lack of time and other issues I hadn’t had the time to update this blog anymore.

I thank you for the invitation but my mother tongue isn’t English. I can write it decently enough so that people can understand it, but when we’re talking about speaking it I’m really not up to the task.

So really, thank you so much for the invitation, I’m honoured you remembered my blog and thought to invite me, but I’ll have to decline.

Sorry about it.

[ramblingsofthegoldenwitch]

[MMV] Umineko no Naku Koro ni - Welcome to Rokkenjima (ItaSub)

Continua a leggere

[ramblingsofthegoldenwitch]

Sad new years news

So this new year starts with a friend of mine warning me she was looking through my post and found this.

For who’s not aware adult content for Tumblr means photo depicting nudity, sex or genitals.

So today I had to go through all my posts 1239 posts (this one will be the 1240 one) to check what they saw that contained nudity, sex or genitals because sure as hell I don’t remember posting anything as such.

So searching I discovered they flagged:

- Umineko Voice Drama Vol 11-20 [which has covers of the voice dramas in which the Umineko cast is dressed and not engaging in sex though yes, in some covers they also wear swimsuits but Tumblr didn’t ban suimsuits from their guidelines]

- Umineko Voice Drama Vol 21-24 + Extra [which has covers of the voice dramas in which the Umineko cast is dressed and not engaging in sex though yes, in some covers they also wear swimsuits but Tumblr didn’t ban suimsuits from their guidelines]

- Yasuda Sayo (Shannon) - Coloured manga versions from Ep 1 to 8 + Tsubasa (+ 2 B&W versions as there are not coloured version for Ep 4 & 5) [9 colour pics of Shannon’s face from the various manga]

- Character comparison in their various incarnations through the various media. [basically faces of the cousins as they look in the various manga, anime, novels and such]

This is all I could find and I’ve already sent appeals but, if you reblogged them from me, they’ll appear as flagged on your blog too. For this I apologize but really, I couldn’t guess characters face would look as porn to Tumblr... -_-

Please, everyone, warn me if you find a content you reblogged from me as flagged so that I can send an appeal. I apologize again for bothing you all and I wish you good new year.

[ramblingsofthegoldenwitch]

I have a theory about homosexual mannerisms of Ronove: He is based in Genji and really look like young Genji in ep8, that means Sayo probably saw an old Genji's picture, maybe one where young Kinzo was too. All her life Sayo has watch how Genji is absolutely loyal and dedicate to Kinzo Maybe Sayo thinks Genji is really gay and is in love with Kinzo! So she created Ronove like a man more openly homosexual and like Battler really look like young Kinzo, obviously Ronove is very interesed in him

Well,

I’m a supporter as well of the idea Genji might have been in love with Kinzo, whcih would make his situation really sad as Kinzo was completely lost for Beatrice... but would also make mure understandable why he’s acts in such a way with him and how, once Kinzo died, he’s longing for death, pardon, repose in the Golden Land, as well.

Sayo might have caught up on this and she might have believed if young Genji had met Battler he would have pursued him as well... possibly subconsciously trying to reproduce the dynamics between Beatrice, Kinzo and Genji with herself, Battler and Ronove.

Just my speculation though.

I’m not really fond of how Ronove seems to try to force himself on Battler...

...but I guess the story is again going for contrappasso more as Battler tried to harrass the female cast as well (which is another thing I’m not fond of).

I guess I don’t find harrassment as funny but maybe that's just me.

[ramblingsofthegoldenwitch]

This is a funny question but, what do you think about the Ange and Virgilia declaration about Battler is an uke? Do you think he the uke between Sayo/Beatrice and he? I really love "Angel of 17 years" I really wish someone adapt it to manga -w-

Hum...

I guess my opinion on the whole story might be a bit unusual from the rest of the fandom so feel free to skip it.

Although it’s presented as a funny AU in a way I view this little story as a subtle way to point out how we (and Ange) actually are no better than the Witch Hunter who were writing stories about Ange’s family.

Ange and Virgilia decide to write yaoi tales about who, for them, is real people, like Ange’s brother and they do it for their own amusement, sharing it with other people, actually selling them for other people’s amusement as well.

But what is really meaningful is how the story describes them as forcing the pieces into it.

We’re told over and over the pieces are not moving out of their own free will, which means whatever sex scene is going on is forced and therefore the equivalent of rape and yet... since the whole thing is presented in a light mood, we’re amused by two characters being forced to have sex together and act in a certain way even if they aren’t doing it out of their own free will.

The story kept on telling us that the pieces aren’t consenting, that they’re forced to move or say things by the writers.

It’s basically rape over and over but... we don’t even realize it because the writing doesn’t dwell on the drama. It seems fun, comedic, as if we were joking with the characters.

And, I think, the whole thing is meant to parallel how all those people writing about the Rokkenjima tragedy felt.

In their stories they would force X or Y to act in ways that weren’t the ones in which they had acted without respect for those people... but I doubt they realized they were hurting someone.

It’s not just Tohya who did it to pin the blame on Eva (although Eva wasn’t the real culprit) without caring about Ange. Many, many writers were writing just for the fun of it, forgetting those people were real people with real relatives who might be affected by such representations.

It’s made clear in Ep 8 how Battler’s happy version of what happened that day was being rejected, even if possible.

Don’t this scene paralells how Ange insists for twists?

Ange: “Stop! The master servant relationship is okay and all, but isn' there any twist to it? If not, it's not exciting. Hey, you two, back to the start position!“

And the whole Battler is an uke that’s decided merely because it’s popular among the fans (like how Will shouldn’t be paired with anyone else but Lion) isn’t paralleling how the Battler culprit theory has plenty of followers even if it’s actually wrong?

Of course in Umineko the pieces are depicted as ‘less resisting’ because, conveniently, they’re sort of replaced with other pieces.

They didn’t have Battler do the murder they used ‘black Battler’ so as to spare us of the drama of seeing a piece Battler move against his wills to massacre his own family... though some pointed out how there are hints Black Battler isn’t actually having so much fun as he claims he’s having.

But really, I see no difference between the way Ange plays with the ‘Battler is an absolute uke’ theory and the way people played with the ‘Battler culprit’ theory.

I guess the whole tale is meant to be an experiement in the contrappasso, one in which it’s Ange who’s writing stories that torment her brother opposed to how Tohya tormented her with his tales, which is fitting as the contrappasso is used so much in Dante’s Divina Commedia... but it’s also meant to show us how prone we actually can be to undervalue the whole problem of writing tales on real people regardless of said people.

We might think bad of the witch hunters because Umineko put great emphasis on how harmful they were... but Ange’s actions, which are exactly the same as she too is playing with real people, slip past our radar because the thing is presented as humorous, funny. We mistake them for fictional characters when the story makes clear that the Battler Ange is talking about and using for her own stories is still HER BROTHER and therefore a real person and that the relationships she’s talking about aren’t ones his brother want to have.

‘Angel of 17 years’fundamentally feels like a story that’s meant to bring us the point of view of those who used the Ushiromiya family for their own amusement and gain and let us understand why no one felt that disgusted by them until Hachijo Tohya denounced it. It seemed a fun, harmless pasttime.

We know the characters involved don’t agree with how they’re being represented, we know they’re acting out of character but who cares? It’s fun... and we don’t really see them facing terrible consequences. We aren’t meant to think that there could be consequences.

But what if Ange and Virgilia were really allowed to write her HideyoshiXLion story and someone were to suspect Hideyoshi of harrassing his nephew? or Gohda to abuse of Kanon?

What if all of her ‘Battler is an absolute uke’ stories were to lead Battler to being bullied or harrassed? Or worse, if Kyrie were to read up a RudolfXBattler she might end up on killing him.

The whole KinzoXGenji would likely affect Kinzo’s business as those weren’t times in which people were okay with this.

Mind you, said this, I’ve no problems with REAL people playing with Umineko characters, writing yaoi stories with Battler being whatever they please because Battler, in the real world, is just a fictional character created for our own entertainment.

But ‘Angel of 17 years’ don’t talk of Ange playing with fictional characters but with real (in her universe) people, depicting them in situations against their will... and it’s written cleverly enough to let us forget it.

By siding with her actions we became all like the witch hunters, people who found okay to play with real people for their own entertaintment... and we don’t even realize.

Narrattively speaking to write such a sidestory in Umineko with Ange as the main character, after having her suffer so much for people doing exactly the same is rather clever. An amazing idea really.

In regard to Battler being an uke, as I’ve said, I think the story depicts Battler as an absolute uke in the same spirit as people loved the Battler culprit theory. Ange is just reporting the popular opinion, which she finds amusing.

There’s really plenty of yaoi with Battler being an Uke, going so far as having even Beatrice growing up a member to screw it (and those doujinshi were written PRIOR to people knowing Sayo was Beatrice or how she has XY chromosomes). Actually I think there are more yaoi doujinshi or porn doujinshi with Beatrice screwing Battler than the standard Ero doujinshi or normal doujinshi with Battler having a love story with Beatrice.

So... I don’t think ‘Angel of 17 years’ exists to support the idea that Battler canonly is an absolute uke, same as ‘Forgery n. XXX’ doesn’t exist to support the idea that Battler is canonly the culprit.

Skipping this do I think Battler could be an uke?

Personally I’m not that fond of the seme/uke stereotypes in male/male pairings so I’m not the right person to ask about this as I prefer male/male pairings that don’t use them. I don’t mind a male character having a favourite position, be it top or bottom, what I’m not fond of is the seme/uke stereotype, where the uke is the passive, weeping, weak character that’s often forced into having sex and the seme is the dominating cold active character who forces the uke to have sex with him.

I prefer male/male couples which, regardless of the favourite sexual position, can stand on an equal ground and where one partner isn’t forced by the other into having sex.

That’s just me though. Everyone is entitled to prefer the narrative they like, after all, to us, it’s just fiction and there’s not a real Battler out there we’re making fun of.

Sorry, if this came as a disappointing answer but that’s just how I see the whole matter. Maybe I'm just too romance loving for this sort of things... -_-;;;

[ramblingsofthegoldenwitch]

(Adding to that question about social services and Maria, as a rule of thumb most social services will try to keep children with their parents or close raelatives whenever possible, which involves trying to work in cooperation with the guardians to have them improve their behavior and responsability and only taking a child away from them immediately in case of immediate life risk or very explicit abuse. It's likely that the worker who went to Rosa's house was only trying to have a friendly (cont

Yes...

those are also very good points on how many social services work.

Sadly doing the best for children in need of protection isn’t so easy... and often many mistakes are done even when people act in good faith.

Honestly I can’t remember any reference to Rosa bribing social services in canon, but it might just be my memory failing me. All I could find was the note in the manga I posted in the previous reply...

...but if someone remembers the bribing and can point the canon reference to me I’ll be happy to share it with everyone!

[ramblingsofthegoldenwitch]

Hello, sorry if i bother you. i´ve seen the question about Battler vs Superman, and i think that Battler, like Endless Witch have a very good opportunity to win against Superman, because Superman is very vulnerable against the magic (almost so much than the kryptonite). But depends about what types of abilities have Battler like Witch. Because his time like "Endless Witch" was very short, i´m not sure if he have the necessary powers for attack and protect himself at the same time against direct

As I’ve said I’m okay with letting people with more knowledge than me answer that question so don’t worry, you don’t bother me! I hope it’s okay if I share your reply!

To whoever else who has no idea of why this is being discussed @perlitha-bonita’s reply is in reference to this ask.

[ramblingsofthegoldenwitch]

Why the social service don´t take Maria away of Rosa? They have much evidence and many witnesses that Rosa leave Maria alone in home above many days. And Rosa attacked Maria in front of the social worker, So, Why she don´t take Maria away and file charges against Rosa for aggression, endangering a minor and child abuse?

Your question seems a good one...

...but as it seems Ryukishi worked for the civil services (and therefore is more knowledgeable in this department than I could hope to be) the answer is likely it’s not as simple as it can seem.

For now we know that there had been a suggestion to put Maria into a shelter but, so far, nothing had been done. Maybe the witnesses don’t want to testify in court.

The woman who drops a visit to Rosa is a ‘district welfare officer’ (which is the same woman who, in the novel drops a visit to Maria when she’s carried at the police department to spend the night there as her mother is in Sapporo) and, it seems, in Japan they aren’t the same as ‘children consueling officers’. In short it can very well be she has nowhere near the authority to take Maria from Rosa... especially considering she hadn’t done it when Maria had been left alone and carried to the police to sleep there.

Also in the manga Rosa pushed out the woman before ‘assaulting’ Maria, although the assault to Maria is only verbal and it seems this wouldn’t constitute ‘assault’ in Japan, even if it’s acknowledged Rosa is being cruel with her.

In the novel the thing is more developed.

We have one instance in which Rosa is hitting Maria:

After fiercely closing in on Maria, Rosa mercilessly slapped her on her small shoulders, ...and dropped her gaze towards the stuffed animal Maria was holding, Sakutaro.

Rosa then grows further enraged and we have this scene:

With every single word, she (Rosa) stamped her heel and banged furiously on the wall. ...Of course, she didn't make direct contact with Maria. However, the violence of the harsh sound certainly beat against Maria.

But here there’s no beating of Maria. There’s another scene but again it’s similar to the previous as in Rosa isn’t hitting Maria anymore.

...So she (Rosa) howled. She raged. The district welfare officer tried to cut between Rosa and Maria again, but she only met with Rosa's wrath again. Rosa once again threw the woman off with a face like a demon, and when even that failed to curb her anger, she stomped on the ground over and over again so forcefully that it seemed she might break through the floor.

Now, you might point out how, despite all this, Rosa had hit Maria in the beginning. I take from your words that in your country it would be easy to take Maria away... however let’s remember we are in Japan, 1986.

It seems (but I’m not expert so I might be wrong as I’m only reporting info I read) that in Japan corporal punishment in the home is customarily recognized, and childhood abuse started to be considered as a social problem only from the 1990s, therefore in present time people are still cautious in were a beating can be defined ‘educational meaningful corporal punishment’, or just parents being abusive.

Although the woman got scared would she report Rosa? Does she have any mean to prove that wasn’t an ‘educational meaningful corporal punishment’ but abuse? When it’s not even easy to prove it in present time?

Also it’s entirely possible since Rosa is from a rich family she’s afraid to challenge her and go in court and so are all the witnesses that have seen Maria alone.

I also recommend to read Higurashi Minagoroshi-hen to have an idea of how the ‘children consueling officer’ work in Japan.

Long story short no, it wasn’t so easy to rip Maria away from Rosa in the time and country in which Maria lived. We see it clearly in how even Maria’s relatives don’t think too much of how Maria is mistreated, defending it as if it merely were ‘educational meaningful corporal punishment’.

Before someone will ask me, no I don’t think it was ‘educational meaningful corporal punishment’ I think Maria was abused but I don’t make the rules and so my opinion amounts to nothing.

Maria lived in her own country and her own country didn’t judge necessary to immediately protect her. As sad as it is, it’s just that. Umineko (and Higurashi) did their best to denounce how wrong this idea is but they couldn’t change the rules and so Maria suffered abuse. And we can only hope this mindsetting will change (or had already) and no more children will go through that.

[ramblingsofthegoldenwitch]

Battler vs Superman who wins?

I’ll let the answer to people who’re into both the Umineko and Superman fandom. I’m not in the Superman fandom so I’m not qualified to reply.

[ramblingsofthegoldenwitch]

What do you think the rules are about incomplete Reds? Do you think that what is said in red before being cut off still counts? I'm most specifically thinking about Beato's Red in Ep 4 about Sakutaro. She says in Red that it was made by Rosa for Maria, and it got cut off after that. Does that mean that everything she was saying up to that point was fact, or does the fact that it gets cut off make it all untrue?

It’s an interesting question and well,

truth is we don’t know.

I tend to assume that any complete sentence that’s said prior to the red being interrupted is true and whatever sentence that trails off is untrue.

However there’s something else we also don’t know unless we are Japanese speakers and that’s what Beatrice exactly said.

Translations don’t quite agree on the sentence.

Here there’s the VN version:

That is a special stuffed animal! Made by Rosa for her daughter's birthday, and in the entire world, the only-

Here there’s the manga scanlated version:

I don’t have the official English manga release so I can’t compare with it as well, sorry about it.

Now, why the different translations?

We’ve to keep in mind that when both translations came out we didn’t know the truth about Sakutarou, how Rosa store bought him:

and therefore there are dozens of ‘Sakutaro’ in the world...

(if you can’t spot them enjoy a closeup)

...so translators had to guess what exactly that sentence implied so that they could give a translation as close as possible to the original meaning in English.

What Ryukishi wanted us to work with was however the ORIGINAL JAPANESE SENTENCE.

or, if you prefer:

そのぬいぐるみは特別なぬいぐるみ！楼座が娘の誕生日のために作った世界でたった一つの-

Sono nuigurumi wa tokubetsuna nuigurumi! Rosa ga musume no tanjōbi no tame ni tsukutta sekai de tatta hitotsu no-

Now I fail at Japanese but I’ve been told by who knows it more than me that in this circumstance ‘tsukutta’ (作った“made”) can very well mean ‘handmade’ and therefore fit with the translation:

“(Hand)Made by Rosa for her daughter's birthday...”

but it can also imply that Rosa only ‘made a present’ something we would better translate as:

“Given by Rosa at her daughter for her birthday...”

In Japanese the sentence can take both meanings and therefore remains true regardless of Rosa handmaking Sakutaro or just handing him as a present. What can’t remain true is what Beato tries to say after, that Sakutarou is unique in the world, as there are more than one. Hence she can’t continue saying that sentence.

At this point Beato understands that, if Sakutaro isn’t unique in the world, Rosa didn’t handmake it and therefore it was storebrought.

It’s a wordtrick similar to how Battler could say all that red but got interrupted when he got more specific.

I guess this means as long as a sentence can be true according to a certain interpretation it can be said in red even if the specific meaning isn’t the one the one saying it is thinking (when Battler says ‘Ushiromiya Battler was born from Ushiromiya Asumu’ he was thinking at himself, not at his stepbrother he didn’t know he had... yet he could use red because technically an Ushiromiya Battler was born from Asumu... even though it wasn’t him) but when the language becomes more binding the red couldn’t be said anymore.

Still, the red usage and when it’s really not possible to say something in red or when one should be interrupted is really unclear and there are no written rules so this is just my current interpretation of it.

Take it with a grain of salt as I might be completely wrong.

[ramblingsofthegoldenwitch]

You know, I was here thinking about all of the problems that each interpretation of EP3's events bring (If Eva solved the epitaph and Sayo knew, why kill George and Nanjo? If Eva solved it and Sayo didn't know, why didn't she check the chapel when Eva started killing people? If Eva didn't solve it and was actually following Sayo's orders, what was the whole point of showing Eva's emotional struggle in the fantasy?), and I think I found a solution through yet another alternative for how (cont)

Well...

considering we’ve no official solution your solution is possible... but I’m still in the camp of Eva never solving the epitaph but being shown the gold (sort of like it was done in “Our confession” with Natsuhi and Krauss) and promised headship and gold if she were to carry on Sayo’s plan.

First of all because we need for the culprit/mastermind to be Sayo... and in your theory the role switch to Eva halfway. Then in Ep 7 manga version we’re told that Eva and Hideyoshi were BRIBED not that they managed to get in charge of the whole thing.

Also if we are to accept that Sayo would comply to the wishes of whoever managed to solve the epitaph, including accepting whatever punishment they might give her she can’t act in retaliation. That’s not really complying to Eva’s wishes or accepting a punishment, that’s rebelling to Eva’s wishes and administring punishment in retaliation.

I’ll also say that if she really were to decide to rebel she’ll act like she did in Prime but this might be just me.

The point of Eva's emotional struggle in the fantasymight be to prove that, although Eva had agreed, she’s having second thoughts.

Although she was bribed by Sayo, Rosa’s murder seems an unexpected incident (Eva pushed her but she couldn’t be sure this would prove to be fatal) and Maria’s strangulation something unplanned and done in the heat of the moment, not something Eva did in cold blood.

Sayo didn’t want Maria to be strangled, her body wasn’t meant to be disgraced.

Eva and Hideyoshi had been bribed in Ep 1 as well, but back there they didn’t have to kill anyone. It’s possible they weren’t meant to kill anyone here as well but things soon slipped out of control.

However, as I said, your theory can work as well as we really have little to work with in terms of official answers which is a pity. It would be nice if in the future we could discover the truth.