#UmiEpisode1

[whenthechickencry]

Umineko Ch1. Replay 1

Decided to replay Umineko again after playing a bunch of Persona games again before this!

When I first played the game I remember thinking the introduction scenes around the airport being very boring, but I have actually been very impressed with them this time! Lots of foreshadowing, and a lot of conversations have clever double meaning

Think the way Battler is just WRONG about everyone is very amusing too, the lines implying Rosa is the one with the most 'common sense', the ones where he says he looks up to George and seemingly has no fucking clue whats George's opinions about him, thinking Kyries decision to enforce some distance is because "he's too old to consider her familly now" and not because she fucking hates him, etc.

George constantly flipping betwwen his need to rub Battler's flaws in his face and him putting in the mature older cousing act is pretty striking on replay (Also I think his fear of vehicles apparently being inherited from Asumu is pretty interesting, wonder if Battler feels getting over his fear is letting go of his connection to asumu)

I think the decision to have Battlers first real monologue be about how being rich is kind of hard is a very interesting way to make it clear he kind of has issues looking outside his perspective without being very overt about it.

Oh Battler you really have no idea what's going on in other people's heads

The immediate dissapointment at not being recognized by Battler :(

Yeah, you sure understand what's going on, huh battler?

Can't help but fawn a little at Battler offering help like that lol

yeah

[whenthechickencry]

Umineko Ch1. Replay 4

The fact she calls out to her mom when she is the one person who isn't gonna figure out a calm way to deal with this hurts, ouch. Even amongst all the hatred she has for her mom she still trusts her.

This line always stuck with me because of how insane it reads on the outside. She's 9! A whole 9! She's an infant what do you mean old! I guess it shows her toxic environment meant she was never allowed to act like a child and is bitter about it.

Hurts to read this. Clearly, they want to stop Rosa's abuse but don't know how. It's easy to judge them as cowards but realistically what can they do? Yell at Rosa who will then take it out on Maria more?

Honestly living on that island seems like abuser heaven so at least Jessica's parents aren't the worst, comparatively speaking. She has very limited contact with the outside world and every exit is very tightly controlled.

Setting up the "who gave Maria the umbrella" mystery I see Kanon!

It's really hard to not read Maria as autistic me, with her taking orders very literally, her word repetition, and her hyper fixation on magic stuff. Just makes the way Rosa blames her for getting bullied and not having friends even more horrific.

Kumasawa laughing at the prank she helped pull, lol

idk battler It could be the worst day of my life but if I'm getting a 5-star meal I'm mowing that down happily

It's a bit sad how clearly Battler holds Kyrie in high regard and obviously does kind of consider her family even if he denies it considering that Kyrie fucking hates him

I am using the Umineko Project version of Umineko, and you know, the console sprites for Umineko are a lot more varied than the 07th mod would led you to believe (not that I am criticizing them, I am sure there were technical reasons as to why they had to be removed) there are some with Eva holding her unfolded fan that I didn't screen earlier too)

Nanjo going along with the script and getting jumped on by everyone lol

Wow, way to talk about your child Rosa

Oh here is the portrait I was talking about earlier, also everyone's tune immediately flip flops about the letter when they realized its beneficial to getting money lmfao

It's kinda cute how much Jessica tries to prove she really is the one who hates her parents the most when she probably has the best relationship with her parents out of the cousins

Yeah yaeh you are so mature and understanding than your cousins George, not like you are the one most willing to cut off your parents when their money or status obsession gets in the way of your goals or anything

Doesn't work as well for a game where the opponent isn't really trying to win and doesn't always do the most logical moves, does it?

Kyrie's correct though, if they had simply asked her on her terms who Beatrice is from the start (Something along the lines of who was Beatrice possessing) she probably would have answered!

Well, it's more like she realized you were the best one to get the information she wanted, but you do love her too much to consider that.

He's so fucking scared of Kyrie and he should be, to be honest! Though it's partly your fault she's like this.

This is also probably R07's way of telling you to look at the heart and not just the murder mystery!

Obviously, Natsuhi doesn't believe this because she knows Kinzo is dead, though I wonder if she thinks this was s will he left to the servants or something?

i wanna punt this man

I think Natsuhi and Jessica is probably the only parent/child relationship in the game that probably would heal itself with time... they both understand what is going wrong but aren't sure how to fix it, and I think with Jessica going out of her parent's house soon she probably would have been able to understand her mother more and makeup once they saw each other again... it makes me a bit sad to think about how the tragedy made it impossible for that to happen.

I'm already crying fuck. They are both extending their hand to the other. They are making steps towards repairing their relationship! And it's all getting destroyed!

I wonder how many times conversations like this happened in reality. Genji trying to convince Yasu to allow themselves to live their life normally but Yasu thinking that they aren't worthy of that, and feeling deeply guilty when they did interact with others...

I wonder if George has ever really tried to engage with Shannon's own interests, knowledge, and likes, instead of just assuming because she is a servant that everything he tells her is new and exciting to her

[whenthechickencry]

Umineko Ch1. Replay 3

That is correct George, it is kind of interesting how a lot of games are scared of having the characters say the right answer but Umineko has people guess the correct course of events constantly, and used that in order to make those theories seem "less likely"

Of course, while the actual explanations are not really correct, I think these conversations are here to train you to try to translate magic. Of course, Beatrice isn't an actual witch but they are guessing how Beatrice was a witch from Kinzo's perspective.

Opposite cause and effect here George! The names are western because of Beatrice.

You almost did like an hour earlier!

I'm surprised there's never been any side manga or anything dealing with Kinzo's wife... her life seems pretty miserable all things considered

The way the cousins are talking about how to divide and share the gold between themselves is obviously meant the contrast how the siblings instead go crazy over it... though I wonder if they would actually be this friendly about the gold if it was in front of them or if it's just their naivete, but they were raised in extremely different environments to their parents so it is possible.

The way Rosa has learned how to answer the questions from her siblings in a way that states her opinion while seeming neutral is pretty sad, wonder how many times she got abused by her siblings for not agreeing with them before she learned to avoid directly giving her opinion

In other words, give us 2.5 billion yen each and we will not reveal the fact you stole our dead dad's money. Admittedly not the worst deal for Krauss if he could afford it tbh.

He probably would, Eva!

Lol I guess with him knowing it is real he's now betting on finding it

Kyrie didn't even know? Ouch

It's kind of funny how with how much talk about status and whatnot the only one who actually cares about her status is Eva, the other siblings just want money

Your wife is one of the most calculating characters in the game maybe you should trust her!

That's what you did! And everyone died due to it. Yasu probably tied some of their self-confidence to the Epitaph being impossibly hard to solve, her stores have it as as something they wouldn't ever solve. In actuality, they solved it in 5 mins.

This is probably a conversation that actually happened when Kinzo suspected that they might be Yasu and wanted them to solve the riddle, huh? Obviously a couple years back.

wonder how she feels about the fact they are already misguided at step one

She's trying to help them solve it! In the end, she really wants to fail via battler so it makes sense.

While Kanon's role is the negative emotions and the one that is unhappy and bitter about their treatment in contrast with Shannon who passively takes all the abuse, the role of Kanon is the one who doesn't believe in the witch, who isn't okay with dying, who thought there was more to life, etc is pretty interesting. Yasu probably saw all those traits as negatives and so pushed them on to Kanon

[whenthechickencry]

Umineko Ch1. Replay 2

I've always wondered whether Jessica knows Kinzo is dead? I guess she has to and the answer she gives is weirdly evasive, kinda wish we got some info on what her thoughts about the whole situation were.

Ok yeah she definitely knows, implies she has seen him leave.

He really did basically entirely forget, ouch

corner kumasawa jumpscare

Oh my god I definitely wasn't expecting Kumasawa to drop hints about the baby yasu plot point so early

yeah ahah her ruse would be broken if he did indeed grope her but also the way George always feeds into her complex (without even bothering to understand what 'furniture' means to her!) always struck me in such a bad way, I don't think this relationship would be very healthy even under better circumstances for Yasu

haha Maria Yasu moments are cute

There's a full line of people to go through before Kinzo even considered his wife, huh

boo natsuhi is the best battler

he sure is

I can't tell if Kinzo's disdain for Maria is something that actually happened? I remember Rosa saying Kinzo didn't like her naming her child Maria, so I guess it's possible he was grumpy when she was born and it's something that got exaggerated by everyone's already negative opinion of Kinzo?

Very interesting to try and untangle which parts of the fantasy Kinzo scenes are an accurate portrayal of Kinzo, what other characters saw as Kinzo, or even a stand-in for Yasu

Kind of interesting to interpret lines like this instead as support for her parents, like, if even Jessica, someone who considers herself completely separated from the inheritance problem, acts so hard like Kinzo is alive then it lends a lot of credence to her parents claims that he's alive

oh battler

oh that's his magic name or whatever isn't it

idk battler of all the things i could say about kinzo moving like others wanted him to isn't how id think of him

You can sorta see how Battler struggles to try to understand people on their terms and not his own even in small interactions like this. That is probably the exact kind of compliment Gohda was fishing for here!

nice save kumasawa

While Kumasawa was also a bit of an enabler wrt Kinzo, it still makes me sad to think of all the times she died at the hands of someone she had warm feelings for while having no idea what was going on .

You wasted all your money on moon expeditions I wouldn't try to hold those words against anyone Krauss!

Team Natsuhi getting into formation for defense

Man, Kyrie and Natsuhi have it tough. Being both the main brains behind the team but also the ones their husbands constantly work against because of misogyny. Kinda fascinating to see the contrast between them and Eva and Hideyoshi - Hideyoshi mostly being the one to smooth things over when Eva goes too far, they are actually working as a team.

Krauss still trying to prepare for repeating the Kinzo is alive play next year as well, surely 3 years in a row is trying your luck? Especially since everyone knows by now lol.

I wanna read about Krauss Natsuhi and Jessica in Disney Land that seems like an amusing story

Kinda interesting how much worse Rosa's financial situation seems to be than the other siblings. I guess they had the benefits of being able to get bailed by Kinzo of any mistakes for longer (or in Krauss' current state, just embezzling the funds lol)

Natsuhi really is trying so hard. And she's alone at that - It seems Krauss' plan isn't as much deceiving everyone as much as making them okay with his shit for a while. You could communicate better with your wife!

Eva's vitriol towards Natsuhi is of course very interesting. She uses her as a punching bag to launch all the misogyny she has received in her life back to someone while also being deeply bitter and envious of her: She got the position she always wanted as head of the Ushiromiya family and not only that she got it *because* she is a woman (Krauss' wife) which is the exact reason she was being denied it her entire time! Of course, she also got basically sold off from her family because she is a woman and treated as a baby maker for the same reason but. I can't really blame her for being extremely bitter, even if you know the correct answer would be to help each other and kiss and Also, with Eva having George as a mad ploy to usurp the head from Krauss, I wonder what she would have done had George been born a boy? Would she finally give up on her dreams now that they were certainly crushed? Would she put her child through a completely futile quest to become the head? Idk I would probably read a story based on this premise!

Seeing Natsuhi trying so hard for a family who has never really respected her but she has deluded herself into thinking they (Or at least Kinzo) have is very sad

[whenthechickencry]

Umineko Ch1. Replay 7

Switched to the Switch version, so that's why everything looks different.

This is the first time Battler steps in to argue and it's funny how he pushes the direction in a wronger direction.

Though yeah he's entirely right at this point, considering you know, she can't explain that because she was in fact aiding the murderer.

And this unwillingness is what's going to lead to 4 episodes of Battler struggling to understand anything until it's too late

Guess she can't keep pushing without drawing suspicion to herself, even if she wants to.

Eva felt a little bit too safe just because she's an accomplice and it definitely bit her in the ass later, Rosa's a bit more careful about this next chapter.

I imagine red flags blaring on her head as soon as Eva heard that

To be fair that is indeed mostly correct! Even if you are really grasping at straws here

Getting second thoughts about becoming an accomplice and your motives behind that decision, Eva?

You are definitely a big enabler of the worst of Eva's impulses, Hideyoshi, though you can definitely see how much Eva appreciated her family despite her faults and how that grief will end up destroying her post-1986

A bit of foreshadowing at how much Maria is ignored by her mom

You already did that Battler!

I remember this mystery seeming so impossible for me when I first played... but the answer really was as easy as the door was never locked at all. Of course, I didn't get the hint that the narrative lied to me at the time, so, it felt a lot harder than it was!

Interesting how the only 2 people to see the butterflies in this episode were Shannon and Kanon - and how this one happened right after the scene where Kanon discovers a "locked room" - I think you are supposed to look at how this scene couldn't possibly have happened in reality and look at previous scenes with Kanon

This monologue being given by Kanon is very interesting, Kanon defeating Beatrice seems to represent a 'defeat' in Yasu's mind of what Kanon is saying, that they ARE furniture and the death of the last bit of resistance they had in carrying out the plan.

Yeah I bet she's laughing her ass off at how she's gonna prank everyone

He definitely tries to, at least!

Aw, wouldn't have minded seeing these 2 bond a bit more

Jessica tagging along was probably a bit annoying for Yasu!

Seems Natsuhi is a little bit relieved they will be able to pin Kinzo's death on something else, though also alarm bells should be ringing in her head about how the culprit is probably a servant here...

Yes! Follow that line of thought Battler, whose corpse wasn't seen very well?

It's more like dying is what she's looking for Battler...

Also, this scene plays a new song for the Saku version of the game now and it's really good!

If Yasu is hearing this, they are probably very split between both the love and hate Jessica is showing them, huh? Though they might just see it as further proof they can't be loved for who they are as a whole - only parts of them can be.

Maria's probably right, though, even if at this point Maria told George who Beatrice is, they won't believe her.

Maria....

Huh, the gang locking themselves up in Kinzo's room was part of Yasu's plan... I guess Yasu was hopeful doing the risky play would force Battler to finally figure out what's going on

This is gonna be a recurring theme Battler, for a loooong while.

Battler actually gets the right idea a surprising amount of times in this chapter, it's just that he's unable to commit to any theory.

Seems Nanjo Genji and Kumasawa are all feeling guilty and remember their role in enabling Kinzo with regards to Beatrice 2

We are pretty close to the end now so I'll probably finish this up tomorrow or so, though the tea party might take me another day even if I don't remember it being very long.

[whenthechickencry]

Umineko Ch1. Replay 5

You know I am kind of surprised how, uh, no one in the family realizes having an eternal supply of servant children is kind of fucked up, though I guess with Higurashi already exploring the themes of a fucked up orphanage R07 might not have wanted to rethread on that too much

or, more accurately, Genji basically adopted her into the family in order to force her to do some kind of redemption story for Kinzo

you might not believe her but she does have some murders to commit George! shannon is a busy person. I'll probably talk more about this scene in general when I get to the contrasting scene where she does put on the ring immediately, think the contrasts between the 2 scenes are where you can get more interesting conclusions.

While obviously the out-of-universe explanation for Gohda disappearing out of the narrative almost entirely by episode 3 was definitely r07 wanting to focus on more relevant characters once out of the introductory phase, it's kind of fun to think about who the only person who cared to write about Gohda was Yasu since they kind of hated him, Tohya/Ikuko I doubt have any opinion on him lmfao

While I am on the subject of Episode authorship, I don't think the stories we read are literally 100% the ones that Yasu/Tohya wrote... I think some stuff is unlikely the characters knew, I don't think it's very likely that Yasu knew about, say, Rudolf's baby switch. I guess they could have known from Genji but I also think that might be something Genji wouldn't know since that is not something he would be bringing up in family conferences considering the chances of Asumu or Kyrie overhearing, but I guess it's possible. Still, I think the stories are a bit more omnipresent about what they would know than any of these characters would realistically be.

I wonder what Yasu's motivation for this was, was she planning to kill Natsuhi but decided not to in order to elevate the witch symbolism? Or did she never have any plan to kill her but did this to fuck with her? I kinda lean towards the first but wrt latter one, in the manga of ep8 Beato mentions fucking with Natsuhi intentionally in early chapters because of her resentment towards her, so it wouldn't be OOC either

I don't think that's the kind of joke Eva would pull, tbh, Natsuhi.

Forgot for a second until reading these lines that Eva is already an accomplice by this point.

Also, guess they were told about Kinzo's status definitively, both her and Hideyoshi immediately jump to the point

Natsuhi's good at magic herself, weaving absolutely into her self-perception something that absolutely did not happen. Think it was mentioned in episode 5 how she "had the propensity for magic" or something along those lines!

You can see here how Natsuh reframes the life she had gone through in a way to give herself more agency she *decided* to throw away her old family in order to better serve the Ushiromiya, nevermind that she was basically kidnapped out of her old family with no way to go back. If she didn't reframe her situation like that she would be forced to confront the bitterness she has towards Krauss and the Ushiromiya in general, and she's desperately trying to move on from that so that she can be happy there.

She's also using Kinzo in a similar way to how Yasu uses Kinzo here, she can't allow herself to think bad things like that her husband is incompetent because that would go against the ideal wife she's trying to be, but if "Kinzo" is the one to say it...

Hurts to see how much she had to lie to herself in order to feel appreciated by a family that has fucked her over so many times yet she dedicates so much effort towards

Yeah I guess Eva had to be really fucking confused as to where Natsuhi got this much self-confidence from talking to a ghost lmfao

Guess it's time for a team meeting with team culprits here!

Hmm notice how Shannon is the one conveniently not directly seen by Battler

"Stop looking or else you would notice Shannon isn't actually here!"

He really does love Kyrie, hurts a bit considering how doomed that relationship is

Also the whole half/fully blown off face is a smart way to misdirect what you *should* be looking for, namely the vagueness about Shannon's death.

Honestly, I think this was one of the bigger gambles Yasu took, I think there was a solid chance George would have wanted to see Shannon despite it all

Hahahah, fuck you narration

"You might ruin the plan by getting angry right now Eva, It doesn't matter anyway anymore!" Also, I have seen some theories that maybe Eva was one of the accomplices who thought there were no murders, but honestly with the state these corpses are in I doubt anyone would think they were painted or whatever, There's a reason Kumasawa isn't here, I think. There's a lot you could convince Eva to do by promising her her family's safety, cancelling of George and Shannon's relationship and headship + money anyways.

The possibility of Yasu accepting love and life past 1986 did die with Shanon

Eva and Nanjo quickly figuring out a way to get Natsuhi to not stay in the storehouse any further

Maria asking "oh did the plan start already?"

That's how they feel about themselves, too

"Quick, make up something, fuck!"

Yasu probably told Eva to give Battler a "Start thinking about how to catch me" beginners course, lol

"Can't give you any more hints battler, figure it out!"

Oh huh, the first hint Battler is into mystery novels

Unless getting caught is the culprit's win goal, in which case flipping the gameboard like this is useless!

I will end off here for today I think, I covered less of the game than I usually do I think but it was a part with lots of things to say and unfortunately I have to wake up earlier on my off day due to personal stuff sadly so I really should get to bed.

[whenthechickencry]

Umineko Ch1. Replay 8 (Ch1 end)

You got it Battler

You aren't wrong in that they enabled him far more than what is acceptable in other ways, though, Jessica

It's fun how they use terms such as "Head" "Master" etc to switch the subject from Kinzo to Yasu without changing the word in the sentence

Feel like George is the most Kinzo-like of the family, honestly think Yasu might have ended up feeling trapped if they stayed with George

They are spelling out a lot of things you should keep in mind for the rest of the game here

Took a rather long time for Genji to downright lie about stuff here, huh?

Huh, was he delusional enough to think picking kids at random would eventually bring baby Yasu back? I mean, it did, but that's clearly not a logical course of action. Or did he just see that as some weird kind of atonement?

They finally figured out that the murders were following the epitaph, took them long enough! First time I read it I was a bit annoyed at how long it took them lol.

Natsuhi getting off some good deductions! This scene is so exciting, honestly, the song definitely helps. As much as it is easy to give her shit for also throwing Maria to the wolves, she was ultimately right. And honestly, if there wasn't a bomb, this was probably the only way to guarantee her and Jessica's safety.

She hits right at the heart of Battler's action for much of the question arc here, too, though.

There are actually so many points here when the characters are right on... but the characters hitting the point just makes you want to deny that more, doesn't it?

It's really hard to judge Yasu's and Maria's relationship... it's simultaneously the only real relationship either feel like they have but also incredibly self-destructive, eventually leading to both of them choosing suicide together.

Again, the dangers of Chessboard thinking are shown here, if they were rational actors with the goal of not getting caught Battler's deduction would be correct... however, Genji and Maria don't care about getting suspected and Kumasawa hasn't realized it isn't a joke and Nanjo has a bomb threat on his head.

This is both very sweet and heartbreaking, but you can see more of Jessica's escapism here. I wouldn't be surprised if under more pressure she would have picked up 'magic' as well.

I think there's a contrasting scene with this on EP2 where Rosa forces Battler to open a door and that's interesting to me in showing the different mentalities between them

Well, more like, it's really fucking hard for Yasu to get herself to kill Maria, and the singing was so she didn't see the gruesome acts.

Well, because she tried to shoot it and the gun was pre=jammed. Also, I can't think of anything that would make Natsuhi run out like that other than the baby throwing being mentioned so it almost certainly has to do with that.

These are probably some of the first big hints at the bomb! Doesn't really make much sense otherwise.

Man, even just this chapter had so much foreshadowing and hidden meaning and I probably didn't scratch the surface because there are many people infinitely more knowledgeable about Umineko than me, I am so excited for the rest of the game.

[whenthechickencry]

Umineko Ch1. ???

I'm so excited for Bernkastel and Lambda! A lot about them flew over over my head when I first read Umineko due to no Higu knowledge so I am excited now!

In other words, she doesn't dare hope for a better future for herself.

That doesn't work for a game where the opponent doesn't have a set goal or where the board can be usurped by someone else and the rules changed, does it?

Here you are being hinted about the role of a witch as an audience parallel, though it can also mean author among other things depending on the context it is being said.

This ??? is still pretty basic, just introducing you to Bernkastel and the concept of witchdom and setting you up to think of Bernkastel as an ally, they get so much more complicated later on.

[whenthechickencry]

Umineko Ch1. Tea Party

It bothers me extremely that the game calls them Episodes but I mistakenly said chapter on the titles, too late to change it I guess.

They try tricking you into thinking this is a Higurashi-like story which didn't work on me because I read Higurashi after Umineko so it just made me REALLY confused

Almost like it was blown up

Oh wow they even tell you which death to look into closer

In other words, it was impossible for Kanon to die.

The words of Rika, used to signify that you aren't able to succeed if you don't give it your all even amongst an impossible fate, twisted to mean happiness is impossible without deluding yourself, ouch.

gun. not in your case ofc but. really big gun.

Oh Battler your strategy of throwing shit until something sticks does work occasionally but you never follow up on anything

woah woah you just showed up and you are already flirting with each other

Notice how she immediately goes for the theory of his that's entirely, 100% wrong!

The true beginning of Umineko starts now!

[whenthechickencry]

Umineko Ch1. Replay 6

Not really Battler even if they weren't all in cahoots I don't think anyone likes him

when the kid's rambling and knowing every dinosaur fact everyone praises them but when it's human sacrifice and rituals everyone freaks out smh, more kids into archaic rituals please. Also Maria puilling her weighjt for team yasu! She helps a lot in setting up the Beatrice mythology, if it wasn't for her I can imagine the cast just going it's creepy but whatever people are dying

I think Maria's relationship with Christianity is pretty interesting and helps you translate and sympathize with "magic" by showing a very realistic way of how people can use it to improve their lives, with how it helped Maria translate her being raised by a single parent into something that made her feel bad into something that made it a point of pride for her, of course it's not all positive and both Yasu and Maria use it to self destroy in many ways, but

Guess you could interpret this as Yasu seeing her plan and ultimate suicide as an "escape" from the dead-end fate they see their life as

No, that's episode 2 Battler

Maybe if you weren't cheating on them and doing baby swaps! Wonder how Kyrie would have developed differently if the guy she became obsessed with and saw as an escape from her home situation wasn't the word partner on earth.

You were entirely right until you assumed that you getting pumped up and wanting to discover the killer was an unintended side effect and not the point!

Here you are completely off base, though, The magic circles are more or less just for Yasu herself, I think. Just to demonstrate her knowledge and complete the image of The Witch Beatrice she has for herself.

I don't have anything to say here other than I love all the gun portraits and I will be taking pictures of every character with a gun I can

Seems to imply they switch targets between Shannon and Natsuhi here, which would explain why they did such a risky play, but I don't know what Yasu would have tried in order to keep Shkannon out of the same room together otherwise. Also, with Battler overhearing that implies this scene is actually what is being talked about, guess they knew they were being overheard and tried to build up the mystery lol

Wonder how Yasu took this, wonder if they saw it as further confirmation Battler doesn't remember shit because if they had the slightest inkling of who they were he definitely wouldn't have done that

You can tell with a lot of her lines how Kumasawa thinks this really is a very big joke I feel pretty bad for her

Team Yasu has impeccable team coordination (other than Nanjo, he's a weak point for both Team Yasu and Team Natsuhi, man isn't very good at lying and he has to lie 2x)

Even if Maria maybe kind of deserves it in this scene this still feels really Erika-core

Though I guess he only lashed out like that because he was becoming actually scared of magic, not out of a desire to crush children's dreams

You sure were Battler, a significant part of the game is dedicated to that.

I don't think they are *wrong* here, Maria does clearly enjoy when she gets to lord over people with less knowledge than her, but that's more of a side bonus of her having picked up magic than the actual reason why

Jeez don't dunk on Rika George

Kinda funky for George to say isn't it? George's home life was filled with as many stressors as his school life, though I guess in his effort to try to look at things from a neutral, objective perspective he forgets his personal experiences aren't really unique. I am not really dunking on George here though, he is making a real effort to try to understand Maria in this scene and to try and get others to have empathy for her.

In Maria's case, her parent was the least tolerant towards it, which is pretty sad.

I think looking at it as personalities is a really big mistake Battler makes here though, they aren't completely different personalities but one whole that switches which part to show depending on circumstance.

The answer is all 3 of them in some way so not dismissing any of them is the correct thing to do here, Battler!

Jessica has a bit of an escapist streak like when it's implied she fakes Asthma attacks to get out of tough situations and the trick she gets played at by servants she mentions in Episode 7, it's kind of an interesting part of her character to me.

Well, you figured it out here exactly! Good job cousins.

Setting up here the mentality of "throwing shit at the wall until something works" that ended in the ep4 tragedy here

Both Eva and Natshi are like Are you stupid That can't be true in their own unique ways.

Kinda fascinating to see a conversation we will see repeated many times between Battler and Beatrice starting from Eva and Genji of all people

Jessica was the first to notice the noose tying around Natsuhi's neck from Team Natsuhi! Honestly it's kind off really exciting to see Eva pull out an elaborate trap like this even if I feel bad for Natsuhi

You are such a tryhard in all aspects Natsuhi, you are about to be very credibly accused of murder and you are worrying over your daughter saying hell. Of course Eva knows Natsuhi didn't do it and just wants to force her to cough up about Kinzo's death but

"We know you didn't do it we just want you to confess to hiding Kinzo's death"

When you first read this scene it's very easy to side with Natsuhi against the evil and mean Eva, but on replay Eva is both absolutely right and an accomplice so it's very exciting to read it from many angles. I really like this scene.