#and it's not like battler's wrong for that i just think this is a different flavor of tension

[whensomethingelsecries]

the thing is. the thesis of what makes protag jessi so good. is she was always so close to figuring it out anyway. she would get there so fast and then, when she did, she would be furious that yasuda has made her the protagonist of what should have been yasuda's story. she would HATE being the lens through which someone else has to be viewed. like she was so taken aback by battler's "it's not my turn to go on stage" comment there's no WAY she would be content to play a leading role so that someone she cares deeply about can hide away like that

[anim-ttrpgs]

All TTRPGs are "Narrative-Focused."

I feel like I have got to remind TTRPG players (and even worse, remind TTRPG designers) that “story” and “narrative” are happening the entire time they’re playing no matter what.

There is no such thing as "Roleplay vs Rollplay," it's always roleplay and it's always narrative, whether you are rolling the dice or not.

“Crunch” and "combat' is not “when there’s no story or narrative just a bunch of boring numbers” and “fluff” is not “the time that the boring numbers step aside and let there be an actual narrative.”

“Crunch” is when the rules and/or the dice influence the story or narrative in some way, and “fluff” is when a player (including the game master) has to come up with a part of the story or narrative without any mechanical scaffolding supporting its emergence.

This isn’t a factor of just combat, but combat tends to be what people say this about the most. It’s not “combat vs roleplay”, or "roleplay vs rollplay", combat is roleplay, combat is part of the story.

There is no-such thing as a "more narratively focused TTRPG", all TTRPGs are equally narrative-focused, you just might not be recognizing the narrative because it isn't the narrative you're trying to tell. Even combat-focused games like D&D5e are telling a narrative story, it's just a narrative story about larger-than-life heroes who get into lots and lots of fights. All of those crunchy numbers on the character sheet are "roleplay mechanics." The Fighter's role is to engage the enemy head-on, the Rogue's role is to sneak around an attack the enemy from behind. That is their role in battle and that is their role in the story, because the story is about a group of battling battlers and the battles they battle. What a character is good at and what they are bad at is part of their characterization, and their characterization is part of the narrative. You're playing a game that is meant to tell the same type of story as a Marvel movie.

In fact if you’re playing a game like any edition of D&D, that is based around combat, then combat is actually the most important part of the story, because that is the time that a protagonist can fail in their goals and/or die.

If you’re playing an RPG, and you’re finding that the rules and dice are constantly getting in the way of the story you’re trying to tell—well first of all let me remind you that TTRPG stories are supposed to be emergent, if the DM keeps faking dice rolls to keep the story "on track", you aren't really telling an emergent story—and secondly then that is a glaring sign that you are playing the game wrong, and you are playing the wrong game. And when you search for the right game, you don’t necessarily need a system with less rules, you could be very happy with a system with a lot of rules as long as you play a system with rules that support the kind of narrative you’re trying to tell.

I've said it in another post before, that for TTRPGs, rules are like wind, and the narrative is like a sailboat. You might be having to push your boat up-wind, and feel frustrated with all the wind pushing back against you as you try to make a combat-focused game like any edition of D&D be all about characters calmly working out their differences. You might think then that you need less rules/less wind, and that crunch, dice-rolling, and/or combat are the opposite of storytelling and roleplaying, but it isn't. You need to find some wind/rules that are blowing in the direction you want the story to go. You need to find a different game. No, you really can't just homebrew combat out of the game.

If you don't like combat, you need to find an RPG that isn't focused on combat. If you do like combat, well, still find a different game than D&D5e becuase its combat is pretty bad compared to like every other edition of D&D and every other combat-focused fantasy RPG. If you don't like D&D5e combat you might even find that you really enjoy some other game's combat if you give it a shot.

Here is a post about escaping from WotC, D&D5e, and the legitimately harmful effects it has. It also has a great many more resources for that than this post does.

I'm listing one resource here because it's my post. The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club can a good starting point for where to find a game that better suits your needs. It’s a discord server that treats playing TTRPGs like a book club, with the goal of introducing members to a wide variety of games other than D&D5e. RPGs are nominated by members, then we hold a vote to decide what to read and play for a short campaign, then we repeat. There is no financial, time, or schedule investment required to join this book club, I promise it is very schedule-friendly, because we assign people to different groups based of schedule compatibility. You don’t have to play each campaign, or any campaign, you can just read along and participate in discussion that way. And if you can’t afford to buy the rulebook we’re going to be reading, we will make sure you get a PDF of it for free. That is how committed we are to getting non-D&D5e RPGs into people’s hands. Here is an invite link.

if you want to support me and my team specifically Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, our debut TTRPG, is going to launch on Kickstarter on April 10th and we need all the help we can get. Set a reminder from the Kickstarter page through this link.

If you’re interested in a more updated and improved version of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy than the free demo you got from our website, there’s plenty of ways to get one!

Subscribe to our Patreon where we frequently roll our new updates for the prerelease version!

Donate to our ko-fi and send us an email with proof that you did, and we’ll email you back with the full Eureka prerelease package with the most updated version at the time of responding! (The email address can be found if you scroll down to the bottom of our website.)

We also have merchanise.

[nyctophiliq]

AHHHH can you do arcane milfs and reader with age gap? Like maybe something that explores how they feel about being older than reader. Thanks<3

✮ — 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐑 𝐎𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐆𝐄 𝐆𝐀𝐏 ; cassandra kiramman, ambessa medarda, enforcer grayson, renata glasc, sevika

content warning. afab! reader, sfw ! — lowercase writing intended, age gap, mention of suggestive themes(?), characters are worried, and the reader is a bit oblivious to it

moss' notes. this is such an amazing idea, moss wants to kiss the anonie on the lips (only if anonie lets moss ofc) another note, moss doesn't think they did justice so they might just come back to this later :)

— CASSANDRA...

it wasn't uncommon between her peers to fool around with a much younger partner, to crave the companion of a young person so they themselves can feel a little younger. she sees it as a normal thing in the world, back then in the older days there were teenagers marrying men in their fifties and up, nowadays that doesn't happen but it's somehow still there in a much healthier way.

it doesn't bother her but the ill talks about your relationship fuel her anger. those nights she has a hard time going to sleep, rambling about how it doesn't matter, that they are lies, and that the two of you will never end up like all her comrades do.

x "no matter the gossip, no matter the looks, i love you with all my heart my darling, nothing can change that."

— AMBESSA...

at first, she wouldn't be too worried about the age gap between the two of you, giving no special thought to it because she had plenty of girls as young as her own daughter or even younger before. but when she thinks about having a family, a long life with you the fearless warlord can't help but be scared of what is to come. she had never really thought about her own mortality, she decided if death is to take her to battler then she will be pleased, but with you in the picture, she is not sure if she would like that either.

x "i live in great fear now with you by myself, but i don't dread it, i just hope it will ease. i love you, my dearest y/n."

— GRAYSON...

she can't, she faces so many dirty people on her job, people who take advantage of younger people and call them stupid just because of the age gap is just unacceptable in her opinion. she has a hard time accepting her feelings for you, struggling every step of the way and even now that you have been together for a while she still feels that she needs to apologize if she has ever made you feel like you were just a pretty young thing, a toy that she could use as she pleased. she begged for your forgiveness if she made you feel like that, crawling on her knees in front of you. it is a heartbreaking sight to see someone like her be in such a wrong space of mind.

x "i hope you know that i would never treat you differently just because you are younger, that i don't see you as something to play with, but i see you as my life... i'm sorry."

— RENATA GLASC...

renata might be even more worried about the years between the two of you than anyone else. she hates to think that you might feel that she is too old for you or you are too young for her, that because she is already successful in her line of work she will never appreciate the small things you achieve before the big ones roll in. she wants you to feel equal next to her, to not think that at any given time she is trying to use that horrible line that mothers use, the "i am older than you, i know better, i know what's right for you and me" - she might know more than you, but isn't to say that you are not smarter than her in other topics.

x "we are equal, regardless of our age or knowledge, i love you despite anything they say. i want you for who you are, not because of what you are, my sweetheart."

— SEVIKA...

sevika isn't immune to the worry that comes with the age gap between the two of you, but she takes it less seriously than the others. she has accepted the fact that she has little control over who she falls in love with, who makes her heart flutter and make her realize that she doesn't need to be a god for someone to love her, that she can be human and you would find her nothing but lovely. she thinks very little of how the years between the two of you would affect your relationship.

x "you and i are a team, nobody can take us on, they just have to deal with it."

tag list ; @roguescarlett @mxyx-rx444 @darlingmisa @einrosa @sevikasangel @nopealoupe @pixiegirlz @gonegonethankyouuu @xthescarletbitch @orang3-ish @bigboobslilheart

[nyaagolor]

Umineko Chapter 2 Theory Posting

Well uh. To be honest with you I have very few ideas about this chapter, so actually laying out the "answers to the mystery" would be fruitless because I don't have any. Currently my only thought is that everything after the parlor scene is a hallucination or straight up didn't happen-- I think Rosa blew her nephew's brains out the second she thought him suspicious. Instead, I figured it'd be more fun to talk about the more macro stuff: to lay out what I think I know about the "rules" of the story so far. I'm not sure if these are right, but I imagine it'll at least help me start solving the mystery

The omniscient narrator is a lying little bastard. Every instance of raw "magic" and unexplainable things has occurred when we're in the omniscient narrator POV. While I do think there are more specific tells, for now I'm treating the omniscient narrator as a "what-if" rather than an unbiased reporter. To add onto this, I believe that each character's narration is giving us their version of the truth-- they're not lying, per say, as I think every character sincerely believes what they're saying is accurate, but I also don't think they're all correct. Thus, most of my theories are based on character POVs and not the limited narrator

We're outside the catbox, but the cat is still dead. Magic cannot and does not change the end result of something, only how it happened. We as the audience are exploring possibilities, but they're just that-- the only thing we know for sure is what happened when the box was opened. Thus, any event of magic can be explained retroactively by the end result, and anything that doesn't appear in the end result can be discarded. (For example, in the boiler room scene, we can ignore anything and everything that isn't "Kanon got stabbed" because that's the only thing that remains once the catbox is "opened")

Magic can only do what is accomplished by human hands. I'll admit that because I finished Chapter 2 earlier in my streaming session than I expected, my friend and I decided to go through to the first few scenes of chapter 3 and that's where I got this idea. We see here exactly how Beatrice "revives" the rose-- the explanation being that she just wrapped some gold lace around a different rose (since the one Maria was looking after was taken by Gohda to be their little dessert) and lied to Maria that it was her rose. This kind of smoke and mirrors is what I imagine magic is: it is impossible in a literal sense, but the outcome is only something that can be done by humans, and thus can actually be explained by human tricks

To sum it all up: I think that the entire story is in essence a catbox: We opened it up to find the cat dead inside, and Beatrice and Battler are basically just arguing about HOW the cat died, since everything happened before we opened the box. Since magic is just human tricks with a little more flourish, neither can be technically "wrong" at this point, but I can at least use these rules to make myself a framework for how to solve these mysteries

Unfortunately I'm even slower on the uptake than Battler so the likelihood I'll actually solve anything is. Questionable

PS: My answer to the ultimate mystery of "what the fuck is up with Beatrice" is that she's Kinzo's bastard child groomed to be like her mother for Kinzo's own fucked up romantic machinations, and the whole reason she's "like that" is because she's the child of divorce. Send tweet.

[phxntomhives]

"The parade of battlers" analysis

SINCE NO ONE IS DOING THIS??? WHY??? I WILL DO IT

Hopefully my wrong takes will trigger someone and you all will get a decent analysis

Eng lyrics because I don't know japanese are from the official music video! Also warning, English isn't my mother tongue.

Lost in an unacceptable tragedy

An unfading warmth quivers blue in the depth of my eyes

Stifling impurities leave keloid scars and

Even now, still mourn for days gone by, never to come back

Staking my life, spitting blood and vomit

All I want to do is lead a beautiful life

But why can't you hear

Me telling you not to stumble

Love turning on its head, fiction caught in a tangle

Say bye bye to mundane concepts

See how the compensated formless stand imposingly

Their presence is a sight to behold

Rip apart, drag and reveal

Throw away all inferiorities

Even the raw emotions of cursing someone

Take them in like an offering

Just skilled at pretending to be human

Searching for those other than monsters

Like the blue shimmer of

A star of the first magnitude

Far from having enough faith

This utterly ridiculous destiny won't retreat

Fill the air with the echo of the marching boots

Let the parade of the lonely ones begin now

Everything in this world, there isn't much

Difference between the atrocious or noble as you think

Somewhere up in the sky, someone is making selections

To ensure the cycle of birth and passing is upheld

Though we have prayed and knelt down

Our prayers have been cremated

And ignored with a "So what?"

So kind

A colorless encounter, pupils of glass

Thought they may shatter to pieces,

You laugh your head off, saying, "you must be kidding"

You give the finger as you spew poison and let it all out

Scorched, boiling and trembling

A blazing fire from the past still smolders

That remorse still within me

I'll burn and retaliate in full

There is no such thing as eternity, so

There is no ending until all turns to ash

Then why not play

With fire in a refined manner?

No more need for empty rhetorics

Such hollow, scathing criticism

Burn this ceaseless stone-throwing

The parade of the lonely ones has just begun

There's no love, no love, there's no love there

There's nothing, there's nothing, there's no truth

There's just one, just one

In this world, just one person, one person

Question fanatically and

Live the shit out of this world

ANALYSIS UNDER THE CUT BECAUSE THIS BITCH IS LONG

ALSO MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE MANGA!!!

Yana, dear, are you sure this is the intro for the Weston college arc??? And not the blue cult??? LIKE, REALLY REALLY SURE??? My comprehension of text can be lacking in more than one way and I just followed the vibe but... I don't think I am that wrong on some points? You are seeing it too, right?

I feel like the song has a mix of present, past and future along with different POVs and I hope I have been able to separate them well.

The colors are just to show the lyrics and i changed it because pretty.

What I can actually connect to Weston Arc

"Then why not play with fire in a refined manner? / No more need for empty rhetorics Such hollow, scathing criticism. / Burn this ceaseless stone-throwing" Which could very much be related to O!Ciel's pyromaniac episode lol. He didn't forget

"The parade of the lonely ones has just begun" : at this point the "parade of the lonely" could very much be the parade of the bizzare dolls considering the amount of reference there is to them. And it would be nice considering in this case the sentence is right after the stone-throwing Purple house, since the students were "transfered" in the there.

If the previous point is correct then also here, we are talking of the bizzare dolls: "This utterly ridiculous destiny won't retreat / Fill the air with the echo of the marching boots / Let the parade of the lonely ones begin now". I guess the "echo of the marching boots" could be the sound the dolls made before getting free during the midnight tea party? As for why they don't retreat well, we have seen they aren't exactly rational for now.

"Scorched, boiling and trembling / A blazing fire from the past still smolders / That remorse still within me /I'll burn and retaliate in full": this could be a description of what O!Ciel is feeling in general. His determination coming from everything that happened is still going strong.

Onestly, these are the only thing I can see strictly related to the present and this arc in particular lol. Everything else goes deeper.

Memories of the past

This part will likely make the least sense, because I am still sobbing over the whole past ok.

"Lost in an unacceptable tragedy Even now, still mourn for days gone by, never to come back": We all know the past. The safest bet is that O!Ciel is mourning, but is he? He never had the time to mourn, he moved immediately to revenge and working for the queen. So either this is just to hit us in the feeling, or maybe it's my favourite victim of this analysis: Undertaker. Could it be him? Possibly, but this being O!Ciel breaks my heart more. I am excluing R!Ciel because at the moment of Weston arc his version should not be that complex. And Sebastian is Sebastian.

"Staking my life, spitting blood and vomit /All I want to do is lead a beautiful life / But why can't you hear / Me telling you not to stumble": I feel like this either O!Ciel talking to himself, admitting that he would like to just be happy but still forcing himself to be strong and act to revenge his family. Or, high on copium, the first part is O!Ciel's wishes and the second part is O!CIel using the R!Ciel allucination make himself stronger (I doubt it, but it adds to the sadness).

"Rip apart, drag and reveal / Throw away all inferiorities /Even the raw emotions of cursing someone /Take them in like an offering": I got the epiphany after several times of reading this and yes it's about revenge hatred yadda yadda yadda. But what if, in particular, it's related to the moment when O!Ciel summoned Sebastian? I think it's the only time I remember "offering" being mentioned/relevant in the manga. O!Ciel is throwing everything away for revenge, assuming a new identity. So this could be either O!Ciel talking to himself during that desperate time. Or, just to hurt myself more, him allucinating again a conversation with R!Ciel where R!Ciel is the one that is saying all this. I will go cry now, brb.

"Everything in this world, there isn't much /Difference between the atrocious or noble as you think / Though we have prayed and knelt down / Our prayers have been cremated /And ignored with a "So what?" " : God, this section is killing me. Memories of when the twins were captured, For them and all the other children, it was an atrocious experience, while the nobles were truly thinking they were in the right, that there was nothing wrong in what they were doing. They believed to be noble enough to be above everything and ignored absolutely everything in regards to the children.

Undertarker is not being subtle. Like at all.

Somewhere up in the sky, someone is making selections/To ensure the cycle of birth and passing is upheld: here I am conflicted. Undertaker is sure making selections when he is creating the bizzare dolls "you get to be revived. you don't". But at the same time he is not uphelding anything. He is doing the opposite infact. Unless this is supposed to just describe the Shinigami's role to show how Undertaker is going in the opposite direction.

There's just one, just one/In this world, just one person, one person/Question fanatically and/Live the shit out of this world: we only really see two characters question stuff: O!Ciel with the murder of his family and Undertaker with the Cinematic record ways of working. Now, i don't really see O!Ciel "question fanatically" and "live the shit out of this world", while we can debate about how "fanatically" he is searching for the culprits, how are you telling me he is living his best life? He is surronded by trauma, has to go on a mission for the queen every other day, has to live as his dead twin and in this specific arc he has to act all cutesy and adorable when he hates it. He is far from any best life I am more surprised he didn't become histerical yet honestly. The one that IS living his best life is Undertaker (well... more or less). In the Weston Arc he did say he was enjoying being the headmaster. Plus he could make some more esperiments on Derek&co which, on top of that, were mostly successful! Do you know how much serotonin a succesful experiment gives you? A LOT. TRUST ME.

Bizzare Dolls (BD for short because I am lazy)

Well, ofc they are the protagonist of the animation, they are everywhere in the song too.

"An unfading warmth quivers blue in the depth of my eyes / Stifling impurities leave keloid scars and": Are the BD warm? Idk, but I don't think so? A body is warm when the blood is running because the heart is pumping it. Do BD have a working heart tho? I doubt the original version do, but what about the new and improved versions? Agares could have probably be our best bet but he always wore gloves (even when he was alive) so we don't really know.

Warmth aside, what I am quite confident IS a reference to the BD is the keloid scars. I did a reseach and a keloid scar is a "scar keeps growing and becomes bigger than the original wound. They are developed after a skin injury". The scars we have seen are O!Ciel's scar from when they marked him, or the BD's "surgery" scars?

Ofc it could be just metaphorical about the trauma just keep on growing in O!Ciel. Maybe it's more this one but again, I am take things directly

"Love turning on its head, fiction caught in a tangle/Say bye bye to mundane concepts/See how the compensated formless stand imposingly/Their presence is a sight to behold": cambridge dictionary say that "turn something on its head means to cause something to be the opposite of what it was before". Apparently, there are many things that are the opposite of love, depending on your source: hatred, fear, indifference. I think in this case, since we are talking of the BD, we can use indifference. They aren't moved by real emotions at this moment (Weston arc) and even later, they are probably fake emotions based on fake memories (from the orphanage children but I will not elaborate, other theories have done it better). Fear could also work since well, most people are rightfully terrified of them. Being far away from mundane concepts? I would say they fill this box. And they sure are a sight to behold, nothing against it. What confuses me is the "compensated formless" I don't have any idea of what it could mean

"Just skilled at pretending to be human / Searching for those other than monsters + Like the blue shimmer of / A star of the first magnitude / Far from having enough faith": We are looking at the current arcs here in the first lines. The one skilled at pretending to be human and searching for things is Sebastian (it can't be O!Ciel because he isn't pretending to be human). What he is searching is the headmaster, that we know being Undertaker and it ends up bringing with him, again, the BD. In particular, it specifically mentions R!Ciel. You know what is the name of the biggest star of first magnitude that is currently known? Yeah, you are correct, it's Sirius. And we have known Ciel is Sirius for a while now. As to why the star does not have lot's of faith, do I have to remind you "Dear God, why are you smiling?".

"So kind /A colorless encounter, pupils of glass /Thought they may shatter to pieces,/ You laugh your head off, saying, "you must be kidding"": Listen, I have seen a couple of people mentioning "oh it's a reference to monochrome no kiss". But I don't think that's the case, not completely at least. I think this is a parallel of O!Ciel and Sebastian's meeting to R!Ciel and Undertaker. First because one of the people involved is laughing, and Sebastian smirks but has never really laughed out loud, the one that spends his time laughing is Undertaker. Second is the pupils of glass that can shatter to pieces. I wonder if it means that R!Ciel could be using glass balls for his eyes? When we have seen his not-completed form they look pretty empty and they are made of soft tissue, so maybe Undertaker changed the "real eyes" with glass? Idk. The shattering could also indicate the fragility of the BD that are still far from perfect.

There is no such thing as eternity, so /There is no ending until all turns to ash this made me scream Undertaker's BD because we know he needs a full budy for the creation of his dolls and bringing back to life his loved ones. And we know he can't bring back Vincent because his body was too ruined by the fire. So fire IS the only ending in which a person can just die with no possible interference from a Shinigami with resurrection intent.

Tragedy twins

I had no idea of these lines other than, it just fits the vibes. Until I remembered how much Yana likes to mirror the twins.

There's no love, no love, there's no love there: this one is R!Ciel singing. Undertaker may have started to work on the BD out of grief for his loved ones, but it feels like it turned into an obsession.

There's nothing, there's nothing, there's no truth: let's add some angst because this one was not enough. O!Ciel never gets to discover the truth behind the murder of his family before he dies. Maybe we, as readers, can see it. Maybe from Sebastian's eyes. But yeah, we don't have a guarantee that O!Ciel will ever know anything, he could just die with Sebastian being unable to prevent it (either because it happened due to a Shinigami, or maybe an angel or god knows what).

But of course, we can also swap them! O!Ciel was so confident people wouldn't have liked him coming back alive and so started the whole identity swap, so he could still feel like the love he is receiving now is fake, since it's built on a lie. While R!Ciel's truth could now be either the murder or the family again, or the fact that he isn't "real" now. He is a BD, his action and thoughts are based on memories that are likely not his own. He has become a fake, a lie. "There is no truth" because that is a BD similar to him, and not necessary him.

I am exhausted I haven't thought about something this much since my thesis. Yes some of them are quite the stretch, hopefully I will trigger a smart person and finally we get a good analysis. Meanwhile you have to deal with me. Feel free to add your opinions pls, I love hearing theories.

PSA: I have formatted this half on computer and half of phone so idk how weird the formatting is I will check again tomorrow, now I'm tired of rereading it.

[batbeato]

Sharing some Umineko stageplay EP4 thoughts/impressions. To comply with theater restrictions this will be text-only.

I really enjoyed the stageplay and you can watch the stream archive online for about a week here. You'll need to have a (international?) credit card:

The stageplay this time, instead of being one big performance split into two acts, is split into two separate stageplays: Untruth and End Me.

Untruth is slightly shorter than End Me, and is primarily about Ange (her time at St. Lucia, the first section of her 1998 journey) and also deals with the first section of the gameboard, pre-twilights/murders. End Me deals with the rest of Episode 4, including the Tea Party.

What stands out to me most in the cuts are:

No depiction of young Ange / Eva interactions

1998 Ange summons the stakes again while on a boat (iirc) to Nijima, rather than in a hotel room

Shortens the conversations with Nanjo's son / Kumasawa's son

Cuts out the conversation with the Witch Hunter

Sakutarou doesn't appear in front of Rosa during the fantasy sequences with MARIA killing Rosa

The 'loser flags' extended fight/joke is cut, though Krauss still beats up some goats

The Beatrice/Battler phone conversation is shortened

Battler's "test" is shortened to just remembering his sin (no "I love you, Beatrice", etc.)

Something of note about this stageplay is that it takes a lot from the manga version of Episode 4. This is notable because the manga version of Episode 4 is decently different from the visual novel, both in its ordering of things and in the emphasis it places on certain aspects of Ange's story.

The stageplay also lifts directly from the manga for inspiration: Battler with a blank face, child Battler holding Asumu's hand (Rudolf not included, with Battler to Battler conversation), the cubes with the episode numbers (I think they look silly but they did their best to make it work).

I feel like a lot of the complexity of Ange and Eva's relationship was lost in the stageplay, with much more focus on Ange's experience at St. Lucia, especially with regards to making the bullying there much more overt and physically violent. I don't particularly enjoy this change and appreciate how the visual novel primarily keeps the bullying non-physical and verbal.

However, they did add an extended Amakusa-Ange chase/fight sequence. Amakusa even princess carried Ange and used her feet to kick someone, haha. He also did a jump kick at one point. I also really liked this section of the chase where they went behind a panel, and they had the classic gag of coming out with the wrong person (one of the people chasing them). Amakusa had to go back for Ange and she slapped him. Adorable little interaction.

They even added a moment where Okonogi showed up in disguise (hat, glasses, even a coat...) to help out.

Since they didn't have a child Ange actor, they depicted one or two childhood Ange sequences with these tiny little puppets. They did have a child actor for Sakutarou, though, and he and Maria were so cute together... (They break my heart.)

Another really cute addition for Untruth was that for the 'Beato thinks Battler is super down and comes to cheer him up' sequence, they had the ensemble actors and Beato do this dance with golden pompoms. It was adorable.

For End Me, since they used One-Winged Bird for the opening sequence in Untruth, they actually used the original Umineko VN opening for End Me. It was incredible.

They also had more of Lambda and Bern showing up here and there and being really cute - the Lambdadelta actress absolutely embodies Lambda's pop-cute energy but can still be menacing when need be, and in the stageplay(s) they put more focus on Ange debating whether or not to accept Lambda's offer of remaining in an eternal game with Battler, which was a really nice touch.

Speaking of acting: both Ange and Beatrice's actresses are incredibly talented. I really love Beatrice's acting during the 'sin' sequence; she plays the Beatrice on the board, while they have a body double in the meta with her face turned away (not sure if lines are delivered by the Beatrice actress and played over the speakers, or prerecorded). On the board, you can tell she's completely heartbroken and desperate for Battler to remember. It's really incredible delivery.

Maria's actor also did an amazing job!! She had a lot of screentime this episode and some really intense and emotional scenes with Rosa (which made me tear up), but she pulled them all off beautifully. She also seemed happy about becoming a witch this episode, ahaha.

I believe the current Beatrice actress is leaving, so the curtain call/remarks were very emotional. The Beatrice and Battler actors even came out again (unscripted, I believe?) to say one last goodbye...

Battler also did a princess carry with Beato during the curtain call, it was really cute~

Overall though I had some criticisms of how they adapted the material, the actors were all incredible and it was wonderful to watch them act out this episode. I also found that with live actors, the Stakes were super lively and fun to watch, especially Mammon's dynamic with Ange. And the finale with Beatrice and Battler broke my heart.

[feroluce]

Extremely in love with the idea of a time loop scenario for submas, because PLA made it just so PERFECT for them. ♡♡♡

I love thinking of it from Ingo's POV because that would be so confusing. Like he goes to bed with Emmet totally normal and fine one night, and the next morning, the change is just so. STARK.

Emmet looks exhausted, in a way that Ingo has no idea how to deal with, because it doesn't look as simple as Emmet not having slept well. He's tired in a way that sleep won't fix, he's listless, he's quiet, all of his energy and chipper attitude that Emmet usually displays even in the early hours of the morning has been completely sucked away and left him looking hollow and empty.

Emmet seems resigned to something, and Ingo has no idea what it is or what to do about it.

Ingo himself has had a strange anxiety lately, something he's left unspoken so as not to worry his darling brother, an odd ominous sensation that haunts him constantly, but all of it goes on the back burner immediately. It's probably nothing. It's certainly not his main concern anymore.

His day only gets weirder as it goes. Not only does Emmet evade Ingo's questions trying to figure out what's wrong with him, he also refuses to explain odd things that he shouldn't have or know. Ingo finds a pokeball that doesn't match any of their team, it's one he's never seen or even heard of before, gold on one side and silver on the other-

Emmet lays his hand over Ingo's, carefully takes the pokeball from him, quietly tells him not to worry about it. Everything will be ok. Emmet will explain everything, he promises. But later...ok?

Ingo doesn't push. Emmet goes back to cooking breakfast. He somehow manages to make exactly what Ingo's craving.

÷÷÷

When they get to Gear Station, Emmet asks to do the multi train instead of running their own separate lines, and Ingo is so distressed about Emmet's behavior so far that he doesn't have it in him to refuse. Ingo would do just about anything right then to see Emmet actually smile, not the crestfallen, stitched-on expression that's been fooling everyone else all day.

Emmet goes on to correctly predict every single pair of trainers they face that day, to the point that it becomes uncanny. He's always been an extremely able battler, Emmet has excellent intuition and he can quickly adapt to almost anything thrown his way. Ingo has always admired and been so, so proud of him.

But that's a little different from Emmet adjusting to a trainer's attack pattern before they even toss out their pokeball.

Over their lunchbreak, Emmet doesn't leave Ingo's side for even a moment, much as he's done for the entire day. They normally stick pretty close together, they prefer to function as a pair after all, but there's a strange desperation to it today. Emmet pulls out the lunches he'd made that morning; it's all of their favorites.

Ingo watches Emmet savor it like a last meal.

And then, that night, at the end of their shift, well after dark when the hour is closing in on midnight. Ingo gets a message that a bright light was seen down in one of the abandoned subway tunnels. Must be a flashlight; a trespasser, probably. Ingo turns to tell Emmet to go home without him; Ingo is the night owl between them and Emmet has had an off day. He deserves to go home and rest, Ingo will be home as soon as he's done with some more work.

Ingo has no more opened his mouth when he realizes Emmet already has all his things gathered and is taking his hand. "I'm going down with you."

Ingo hadn't told him about the message yet. He shouldn't have known.

÷÷÷

The whole way down the tunnels, Emmet has a vice grip on Ingo's hand, fingers laced tight together. He barely even seems to investigate, he just kind of walks with Ingo, pace slower than usual, always watching their steps.

Ingo sticks his head around a corner to check for intruders, and hears a quiet intake of breath behind him before the hand in his suddenly redoubles its grip.

Ingo turns around. Emmet is looking down. Ingo follows his gaze.

There is light. Bright, searing, white light, that is not Emmet's flashlight, not Ingo's flashlight, but is wrapped around Ingo himself, coming up from the bottoms of his shoes.

Ingo tries to jump back but finds that he can't move, he's rooted to the spot, there is light pouring out of him and flooding the ground, spreading outwards, lapping at Emmet's ankles who is suddenly right up against Ingo and holding onto him like he might disappear.

"I am sorry. Ingo, I am so, so sorry." Ingo pushes at Emmet's arms, but he won't budge, he won't get out of the way- "I tried. I really did!" the light wants Ingo, just him, he can feel it, Emmet needs to get away from him- "Many, maaaaany times!" he has no idea what he's talking about but he can't let Emmet be collateral, he can't, he can't, Ingo shoves at him again, harder, Emmet stubbornly clings on, Ingo's panic is rising like the tide, like bile in his throat, only growing more desperate in the face of Emmet's disarming calm, the light is obscuring everything, warping it, twisting it- "But I could not keep you here with me."

Everything, all of it, his entire world turns violently on its head, and when the light finally lets him go, Ingo sees bright blue sky all around him. Emmet looks up at him, the force of the shift having put them at arm's length, but unable to break their grip on each other. He can see the entire expanse of the landscape sprawled behind his brother, far far below. Pinpricks of tears bubble up from Emmet's eyes and spatter against Ingo's cheeks as they hurtle like a comet towards the ground.

"So let's Fall together."

[queenoffishingandcookies]

Battler / Valor’s Name

Considering Battler’s name is meant to be understood as a person who fights, a fighter, I wanted his name as a girl - whether he is transgender or had been outright genderbent - to reflect the same or similar meaning.

Because yes, I’m one of the people who occasionally choose to change a character’s name.

(Feel free to punch me, it’s habit.)

Taken straight from my phone notes, and pieced together from a lot of googling, I ended up with this:

(I’d copy and paste it, but tumblr wont let me, so you get a screenshot, sorry!)

Wish I could tell you I put a lot of thought into this, but I looked at the meaning of Battler (which is, in fact, an actual word) and began thinking of synonyms to a person who fights, or things that mean something similar.

Considering Ushiromiya Family Typical Behavior, in a world where Battler is physically born with female parts, it’s a half-and-half to me on whether she would be named Battler, like in close-to-canon AU’s where she is assumed male because that’s what her physical body says (at least at that time).

I don’t think it would be considered outright to be masculine, since it’s a weird name in the first place, I don’t think people would care? But also. It’s not a lady’s name???

And woman in the Ushiromiya Family have…very specific roles, to say the least, and those born into the family probably have very certain expectations weighing on their shoulders (because Kinzo is an asshole, but I digress-)

I have conflicting feels on it, don’t really know how to explain them, and I’ll…leave it at that.

It was a toss up between Valor or Aster or Asteria. Valor, because pronounced in Japanese it would start with the same ‘Ba’ sound. Valor generally means courage/bravery, especially in battle. Aster/Asteria because that flower, in hanakotoba, means remembrance/memory (and please, correct me if I’m wrong).

Also, I really like the flower.

Once I decided on the name itself, it was…actually just a googling spree on which kanji made the necessary sound. I took the first syllable from the canonical spelling of Battler’s name.

Literally scrolling through lists of kanji for a kanji that had the ‘ro’ sound and appropriate meaning - the jitenon website and wikitionary are where exactly I got them from, so it might not be accurate.

The kanji for yuu means, translated to english, courage. Which is often used to spell the name Yuki, which generally means something similar to Valor. It’s also similar enough to the ru sound, so I decided why not? Almost like an inside joke, though that probably wouldn’t actually work in real life?

Put into Google translate (always the best, well-reputable, never makes an error source), it means:

(Those are alternate readings of the kanji, and let me tell you, that was hell to figure out).

I had so many tabs opened in this process, so much scrolling down. I honestly wish I’d taken note, because it was as interesting as it was frustrating to look at the kanji and how many different meanings they had…

Also, if you’re born into the Ushiromiya family, you kind of have to have some level of bravery or courage, if not cutting cunning or an unfaltering poker face, to survive.

So yeah.

Battler = Valor.

Also, I really like the idea of a transgender Battler coming out, at some point, and choosing her new name after discarding the old, and keeping to the original meaning because - well, her mom gave it to her. The heart of its meaning was…kind of good, she wasn’t a wimp, she knew how to fight and how to fight well. Even if the wacky kanji is from her Ushiromiya side.

(Also considering social expectations of women at the time to be feminine, maybe that would constitute some sort of pressure on trying to select the right name for a young lady? To not be known as aggressive, but strong? To be called a fighter could have different connotations between a girl and boy, and that might be a discussion for another time and way over my head).

Please don’t flame me, if anyone takes offense, please have mercy and tell me if and how I am offensive.

Also, Valor is the only name I’ve looked at in-depth in how it might change for a genderbent or transgender umineko character. Except for maybe George’s.

and let me tell you. Eva, in entirely Genderbent worlds, as a boy. Having a daughter. His only child is a daughter. Wanting to be family heir - and not being heir for a variety of reasons, one of which being to spite the family elders who were still alive when he was born…George’s name would either be Georgia, Georgiana, or…George.

Because Evan wanted a boy, but got a girl, and even if she’s a girl, he’ll make sure she’ll be brought up with as fine an education as a boy and find a wealthy spouse- (it’s…kind of similar to how Jessica in canon has so much pressure on her shoulders from Natsuhi, to be a reputable heiress of the family in her own right even as a girl-).

There’s So Much There to look at, to say the least, and this post will get a lot longer if I wrote it out here.

(I did have an entire sheet of the others names and the kanji that they had but I LOST IT, and now I only have the western names for them set in stone. I’m still upset about that.)

[pokemoncaretips]

Is it ethical to resurrect fossil pokemon?

The answer to that is a solid: It depends.

For the most part, I would argue that yes, it's fine to take a fossil to a lab. The biggest worry most people have is that "if it gets out, what about the eco-system?" but in truth, the fossil pokemon is the one most in trouble for the simple fact that.

Well.

The eco system has moved on and the old niche is filled by pokemon with millions of years of natural selection against the resurrected one. For an example, lets look at lileep. Back in its time period, where the diversity of the eco-systems was still a new thing, lileep colonies stretched for miles. They were the dominant life form. You can't stub your toe in Hoenn without turning over a lileep fossil. Because they were the first really successful grass type, the ocean beds were theirs. Nowadays, though, the sea floors they used to rule are crowded with corsola, sea weed, kelp, shellder beds, etc. There's no room for the fairly basic lileep to get a foot hold.

Sometimes even the basic environment itself is an issue. Anorith struggle in modern oceans due to changes to the ocean such as pH and salinity.

One of the few exceptions to this is omanyte, which is becoming quite prevalent. However, a number of fairly smart water type pokemon are working out how to get into that tough shell to get the meat inside, and so its likely the eco-system may eventually resettle once its position on the food chain is established. Until then, omanyte meat is very slowly picking up as a delicacy. (Though frankly, you'd have a better time eating an old boot.)

Another reason they pose little threat to the eco system: most of their food no longer exists naturally. Aurorus, for instance, can just barely hold its own against rivals like tropius, but their natural diet of large cycads and ferns are hard to find or just plain extinct. Combined with the warmer temperatures of today, and a large pokemon that could have been destructive of the eco-system is rendered incapable of doing so.

However, these pokemon often thrive in human care, as we can use science to make supplements that fill in the nutritional gaps and provide care and enrichment to help them enjoy their new life. A well loved and looked after fossil pokemon is a fascinating window into a past so different it may as well be another world.

However, there is one more thing I must address.

"Professor" Cara Liss is a hack who got her PhD from the back of a cereal box.

Those poor pokemon she resurrects are travesties of science. Though it is our responsibility to provide the current specimens living today with the medical care they deserve, it is DEEPLY morally wrong to create more of them. A dracovish might have a good reputation as a battler but it can barely function without a diet that is almost half medication by volume (I exaggerate, but only slightly).

Fossil pokemon do need some thought, as there are extra elements to their care, but if you want to bring your lucky fossil feather back from the dead as an arceops, go forth and do so if you think you're ready.

Just don't give it to that fraud in Galar.

[kushanna]

got crazy yesterday thinking about how i'm not doing umineko "right" cause i'm not even attempting to solve the mysteries yet (finishing episode 2 today) but tbh i don't think battler's wrong when he tells beatrice that there's not enough information like yeah?? there really isn't?? coming up with logical solutions for the locked rooms is possible of course it is but the question would still be why?? why would any of these people do any of that?? what's the motive?? it's not fun without a motive! is it even worth it to find logical solutions without a motive in mind? honestly i personally don't think i'll be able to think of "solutions" until i can have a clear idea of a "why" in my head, if there's not a "why" then well. magic witch shenanigans i guess! and also the epitaph stuff is so crazy cause i don't even comprehend what "solving the epitaph riddle" means at this point. what would a "solved" epitaph riddle look like? the location of the gold revealed?? how do you even begin to think about that? insane. and then i got very worried that i might not be paying enough attention to stuff but how do i even know if i'm paying attention to the right stuff jgdjsgfjdsjdfjdfbja and what does it even mean when people say you have to "solve the mystery"? WHICH MYSTERY? if every episode the events happen in a different way!! which mystery if it's a different one every time?? what are the "official" events that i have to solve?? is there an "official" one?? does it even make any difference to the actual solution?? <- none of what i just said makes any sense god bless i am so lost

[transbirdgirl]

Alright autism time :3. So I’m really into creature battlers of like a specific variety. Pokémon is a the typical example I give, though Cassette Beasts has also become a big one for me. The new Pokémon games however don’t scratch the same itch. I think a lot of it boils down to I don’t like the direction that they’re taking personally. Sword and shields story was unappealing and the wild area rubbed me the wrong way. I can see how the wild area could work though! I like the idea but the execution was lacking to me. Scarlet and Violet, which I haven’t played, look the same to me. My apprehension for getting and playing them lies in the fact that it’s open world! I love the Pokémon routes from earlier gens! I like how much life they have cause they’re confined! Do I think that the older games were perfect? No not at all! I like the ability to do whatever quests you want from Scarlet and Violet. I like the choice of being able to go from gym challenge to a different story line. I think that’s a great addition. While the linearity in early Pokémon is nice I wish I could do gyms in whatever order I wanted and they scaled. Or at least that the order has some variety to it. I like that the later games had the “big bad” group not be like a league of international villains. I don’t want a save the world every time to be honest. I like the idea of having a mundane Pokémon game where you just live a life. Doesn’t need to be a gym challenger and Pokémon champion.

Anyway Palworld also loses my interest for me because of it’s open worldness too. I don’t necessarily like the loop of it either. I’m not huge into base builders or management games (I’m very veeery particular about them).

All of this to say I need to find more non super open world creature battler games (cassette beasts is kinda open world. It’s just smaller and I like that. Nothing feels like super out of the way.)

[panomiels-box]

umineko chap 2 question arc rambles (not finished yet)

main ramble topic: kanon's and shannon's identities

alright first of all. kanon my guy ilysm

i already knew from the get-go i was going to like him and yes, yes i do no one can make me hate you kanon!!!! god that whole scene though, i just wish he could've had a bit more of a moment with jessica before they died (which by the way. all of that just to still kill them in the end??? not even a bit of bonus time?? come onnn beatrice these poor kids) i love these two they really grew on me so fast :,(

also, the suspense is killing me, i need to know kanon's real name!! it was teased way too much, i for sure thought we'd finally get it this time in his dying breath but they just had to be cruel. (please don't spoil it for me!! ty)

despite this part being really sad (and kind of bittersweet too) i have to admit i burst out laughing seeing that magic sword just ✨appear✨ on kanon's hand after a 10 sec silence lmao

but okay so then i finally get the whole "we're furniture" thing now, i think. definitely much better than before at least; they're (shannon and kanon) are kinzo's familiars/creations, aren't they? and probably all the other servants with names ending with 'non' are as well (reminds me of noragami.. iykyk) like that just had to be what this alluded to.

it would also give an actual explanation as to why they're allowed to wear the one-winged eagle symbol despite seeming super young and somewhat inexperienced and everything, it's because they're kinzo's familiars/creations!!! they're technically a part of him in a way. idk about genji though i guess he's just cool so he gets a pass to wear it

anyway, it was pretty obvious there was something up with shannon and kanon from the very start, and by extension all the other servants with the 'non' names, but i somehow really didn't expect that! to be fair i could still be totally wrong but i'm pretty confident in my familiar/creation theory (heh.. battler's confidence is rubbing off on me)

originally, i just thought they were kinzo's brainwashed human test subjects or something - that's the vibes i was getting from the whole sketchy orphanage thing that he's involved with. but i guess it's a bit different, but not completely off either.

aaaaah i can't wait to see how things progress!!! this chapter is sooo different from the first one and it was a bit jarring at first but i've really warmed up to it! unfortunately it's like 3am so i gotta go pass out now.... eeeeh this is so interesting!!!!

[ggren-mainz]

Umineko - question arcs playthrough -> ep 1 - 8

last part - All parts and episodes - next part

My gf started reading these, and she has no experience with umineko so like even if she doesn't read them all i decided i will start making them more explicit, as in summarising the scenes i don't screenshot. It's probably better for everyone since even if you did read the game, chances are you don't remember every detail/the exact order. Anyways.

So I have a feeling that Maria will be able to tell that this is the witch's epitaph in action. She knows better than these guys.

THAT"S WHAT I SAID! I LOVE YOU MARIAAAAAA.

After this she says what i assume is that they were sacrifices chosen by the key, which is what i said too, and then before clearing up, Natsuhi and Eva come down and announce that Kinzo is missing. Now i know for sure that old bastard isn't dead, but i wonder where he is. Also another thing i thought of, but how did Rudolf predict his death? If only he and his wife died then i could've said that it was the wrath of some sibling or something he said/did, but it was not, he was chosen as a sacrifice. So how did he know?

Battler king of not reading the room.

Gosh this is getting me tear up. Geez.... god....

Also new theory, but i do now think the time loop might apply here too. Maybe not necessarily the time loop but i think we'll relive these days again, at least that's what I'm assuming now. So this will be an eyeroll from my gf followed by a "Ryukishi really has only one trick now does he?" but i do not care. I love reading the exact same thing but different, genuinely one of my favorite parts of higurashi.

DEATH TO ALL THE NON BELIVERS! OUR WITCH BEATRICE WILL RISE AND YOU WILL ALL COWER IN FEAR AT HER BRILLIANCE!!

Also is Eva suggesting Kanon killed them? like ignoring the shutter part, I don't think he's physically strong enough to overpower all of these adults.

Ig but again, this would mean Genji and Kanon. I'd argue that's still not enough. These were at least 4 people that were all in one place, And I'd argue Krauss alone looks sturdy enough. I doubt they'd be able to kill all of them. And we're not taking kumasawa as a possible participant because she's definitely not strong enough to help.

Also i checked the tips and

all of the messages are interesting but this one strikes me as the most interesting because it implies the writer would be lonely without Rosa, and they also believe they will all be reincarnated, as also mentioned by Shannon's note. So is it wrong to assume that this might be Maria? She would be the only one who would feel lonely at Rosa's disappearance, or at least that's what i assume. Anyways someone related to Maria and Rosa for sure.

Yeah and as she's saying, having a mastermind is the only logical answer, because the servants would not benefit from the killings. I get what she's implying, she's saying that Natsuhi is the mastermind, and she killed all of these people so she could be the one to take the role of the leader of the family, as her husband is now dead. But again, would it really make that much sense to kill both Rudolf and Kirye, as opposed to Rudolf and Eva? I mean, killing all of the siblings would greatly destabilize the family, and there would no longer by any question over who takes over, as there would no longer be any blood related person. Perhaps George but it would make more sense for jessica to take over when she reaches adulthood. So yeah i don't believe Natsuhi is the culprit, if it wasn't obvious, and i also don't believe there's enough proof and that the crime is organized well enough to point towards her.

*points finger* I know that reference! Also exactly what I was thinking about too lmao.

This sounds very suspicious, it doesn't seem like Eva at all to just leave in the middle of such a discussion. I bet there's more going on here, but yeah i still don't know if suspect her. Really with our knowledge of the epitath, Maria is the most suspicious one lmfao.

Me when i'm a fish in a bowl op op op op op. But yeah if this is her evil than thank god heeell yeaaaa, if she's just super into this occult stuff the that's amazing, she'll be very useful to me, and also very entertaining. I was scared she'd be like evil or something.

I will be honest, i jumped a bit. But wait what was the figure reflecting in her eyes before, i gotta youtube this one.

I really can't tell, it looks like a woman with a hat, probably a character we haven't met yet, but I'll keep it here so i can come back to this later.

you guys do not understand how much i adore her, so cool.

It is quite interesting how many references Ryukishi makes towards the bible and Christianity as a whole, love me some religious symbolism. But also quite interesting also taking the fact that japan really isn't that religious especially not Christian. He sure is one interesting guy.

Anyways i love this Maria, love characters who know a shit ton about a more obscure subject, and who are also very eccentric.

Love her as well, yeah girl bring out the shotgun. But yeah i haven't thought about this before but the small wounds on their bodies sure would make sense when you think it was done with a gun. Yeah this changes the entire dynamic of the group, because now even Kumasawa could have committed the crime, albeit with a stronger will. So the power dynamic excuse no longer works. Everyone should be considered a culprit once again. Fun

Anyways finished the chapter, Youtube says i have 7 chapters left, but only 5 long ones, 2 are like under 10 mins. I hope i get to finish them before leaving on Sunday, because i only come back like 2 weeks later at worst and i don't wanna take such a long break :c.

next part

[pochapal]

hi!! im just barely starting umineko - im on chapter one so i dont think its a spoiler, but. i got to the scene with george and shannon in the gazebo, during the storm? and im having. a difficult time telling if im supposed to like george - it felt really like, Skeevy to me, and im curious if you had the same thoughts? im ofc wayyy earlier than you, so it might be hard 2 answer without like. thinking about what happens later than you know about - apologies!

talking as best i can about it without going further ahead than the proposal scene, i do think you're meant to be weirded out by it to some extent. i've thought a lot more about george and shannon and the nature of both of them and their relationship since then, but this is a screenshot from my very initial reaction to this part of the story:

i don't think the story is forcing you one way or another to like or dislike george, but the story does want you to be aware that there are multiple things wrong with this relationship. george is several years older than shannon. george is substantially richer than shannon. shannon is trapped in a subservient position to george where she can't easily refuse his requests, coming after a scene where she was shown to pliantly accept battler's attempted sexual assault of her because she is "furniture". it's really not good on any level!

i personally landed on the "can't stand george's ass" verdict (i understand him better now, but i still think he's a pathetic inept weirdo who's obsessed with trying to be someone he's not and he fills me with equal parts cringe and ick) but that doesn't necessarily mean my interpretation is correct. the george/shannon relationship is as much a skeevy predatory power imbalance as it is two kids trapped by circumstances in way over their heads (both are desperate for this relationship for different reasons). i think multiple things are true at once here, as is the case with a few morally complicated characters/situations in this story.

so long as you're making a sincere attempt to understand as many facets of these people as you can i think you'll be on the right track! but for what it's worth Yes i was immediately and viscerally grossed out by the proposal scene. i think that is the intended reaction haha.

[8bitsupervillain]

Higurashi When They Cry Ch. 1 Onikakushi Part 15

Some more screenshots I wanted to share from Chapter One: Onikakushi (the 07th Mod version)

I like Mion. She appears to be well in control of her emotions when she flips the switch into being evil compared to Rena's more emotional from the heart style. If that makes sense. Mion is more calculating evil/villainous versus Rena.

Mion trying the unconventional tactic of Just Talk. Unfortunately she didn't spend her points on her Speech stat.

Diplomacy failed unfortunately.

This particular screenshot gave me the willies when I got to this part. The piercing stare, the red rim around the black pupils. I don't want to give anyone the wrong idea when I call an effect "simple." Simple doesn't mean bad, it's just the black screen, piercing demonic eyes is a simple and effective unsettler.

The most outright villainous Rena has looked so far. Also I like the occasional use of just a red screenshot. There's nothing expressly violent about it, but there's just enough to imply the threat of incoming violence.

Big fan of those pictures of books where a character is screaming about whatever and the narration says "he exclaimed calmly."

Beatrice "exists" Battler!

Once more breaking out the thesaurus to use something else and not just repeat words for the millionth time. Guess Rena isn't solemn, so no land Keiichi soon.

I could see a scene like this working in a slightly different context. Instead of immediately leaping to the attempted murder of Keiichi Maebara, they use his attack at the dam site as part of a ploy to mentally manipulate him. In a completely different scenario, say he still encounters Rena but that confrontation plays out like the first time he yells at her and she shrinks away, but instead of just getting home safely he's then attacked by the cultists. He falls unconscious and then bam: Rena apparently saves him and brings him home.

Then, after a short time it comes to this scene and the rest plays out the way it does.

I'm not saying my way is better or anything like that. I'm just thinking of how it could potentially be more surreal and off-putting.

"It was at this time when Rena and Mion said they were going to murder me to death I began to realize that wait a second this situation is probably bad!" Keiichi, you dork.

[waffleweirdo]

Umineko starts with Battler complaining about his name, but wow did Battler battle.

I ramble about my thoughts on Umineko, this will probably contain spoilers so be warned

Well when I first started I didn’t think Umineko would be any longer than maybe 30 hours at most… oh how wrong I was… it ended up taking me 110 hours and 2 months to finish.

I think the experience of reading Umineko was very interesting. It was my first time reading a visual (or maybe second, if you count Slay the Princess, which is far more interactive and far shorter than Umineko so they feel pretty different to me). That medium itself was interesting. Whenever I need to think of a really niche superpower I’d like to have I always say I wish that I could have the ability to play perfectly fitting music as I read a book, and in that sense Umineko delivered. I also played with a mod that adds voice acting as I saw that that was recommended and overall I thought the addition of sound was far more significant than the addition of visuals to me. I first thought that there would be a lot more interactivity, as in choices that decided branching story paths or outcomes, and was at first disappointed when I found out there was virtually no interactivity. However soon after I began to accept it as truly just a book that I was reading with added visuals and sounds than a game. Which made it hit even harder when 100 hours in it had interactivity!! Even though those riddles were all super simple they were some of the most I’ve been involved in gameplay in recent memory which was fascinating. (A similar effect to Bern’s mystery, which I think was just as well implemented, just lacking that same initial surprise). My largest takeaway from Umineko was that it was incredibly taxing to read- far more than reading a book, and I think even more than a game as well in many cases. I’d be interested to seeing if this was thanks to Umineko itself (as it was a very dense story that made me stop and think a lot) or a consequence of visual novels as a medium. Ultimately I’m honestly surprised I managed to finish it, there were some times it was a genuine struggle (I think in general I’ve noticed myself being less able to complete really long stories such as lengthy rpgs so this was really impressive). There were a few moments where it felt like the games were dragging on, even though ultimately I think it was all worth it, and in hindsight was all great there were some times where the pace dragged.

Ultimately Umineko as a visual novel was a fascinating new experience for me, and I’ll be interested to see what aspects of that differ based on the vn itself, or are inherent to the medium (I guess I’ll find out when I read El Dorado!)

Characters are often what stands out to me throughout a story, and I think what stuck out to me so much about Umineko’s cast is that I couldn’t hate any of them. Which is I think an immense compliment to the success of the writing, themes, and characterization. I think, generally, I shouldn’t be able to wholeheartedly hate a person, and while of course these aren’t real people Umineko does such a good job of fleshing them out that despite their greatest sins they are too ‘real’ for me to truly hate. Of course this is also a large part of Umineko’s thematic core as well, and the way that it communicates this, necessity for love and understanding through the characters over the course of the story as it builds up to the climax which cements those very same ideals is just excellently done.

Honestly I thought at many points that the cast was surely getting so large that I couldn’t possibly keep up, but by the end they all had such distinct personalities and made up an excellent ensemble. Even many of the smaller side characters are wonderful, and I’m having a genuinely hard time thinking of my favorite characters which is always an excellent sign.

In all honesty I don’t think I can talk about Battler, or Beato, or Ange at the moment. Don’t get me wrong I loved all of them, but their characters are too significant I just need to sit with them for a while longer and think about them while I let the impact of Umineko settle… I’m sure I’ll be thinking about Umineko a lot for the foreseeable future…

That being said some of my favorites from the side characters (I don’t say that to diminish their importance at all, just the way I think of the cast in my head):

Dlanor is wonderful. At first I wasn’t sure what to make of her as her first appearance was alongside Erika who at the time I had very tumultuous feelings about (oh I’ll get to her), but after Dlanor’s scene with Beato and Battler in the Golden Land was so sweet, and the realization that she is just always so excited to be involved in an actual mystery instead of being forced to stamp documents all day is so funny. She’s great!!

I liked all of the servants a lot, Shannon and Kanon are in a similar boat to Battler and the others that I don’t quite think I can properly talk about them at the moment, but in general they were all great! The more I learned about Gohda the more he changed from being annoying to somewhat silly, overzealous, but still a bit annoying (in a nice way this time) was sweet. Genji was probably my first favorite character, he was just cool, and juxtaposing him with Ronovoe was excellent. Kumasawa would probably be my pick for my favorite, her constant playful attitude combined with genuine care was so sweet, and her backstory with beato was, probably my favorite reveal besides beato’s backstory herself…

Furudo Erika huh. Fascinatingly she might’ve been the character that stood out the most to me. My first impression was genuine admiration that they had managed to craft a character so incredibly pitiful and simultaneously terrifying, but of course Umineko didn’t stick with such a simplistic character even if it was a fascinating characterization. Her growth isn’t quite right… largely she didn’t change a ton, but her narrative reframing was fascinating (that’s not to say she didn’t grow much that’s bad, narrative reframing is super cool). The scene that has stuck with me the most is her moment with Dlanor in the 6th game as she gives Dlanor a mystery to solve, “but you still haven’t disproved my five blue truths that I love you” is soooooooo. In a story such as Umineko that isn’t really about solving a mystery, but about love, Erika as an antagonistic force, especially a force similar to how I as a player likely went into the story with (wanting to find the culprit and solve the mystery) is so cool. Anyways Erika is great and I will likely have, “such reasoning is possible for Furudo Erika” stuck in my head permanently.

While I don’t have a lot to say about the entirety of the cast there are some notable witches I haven’t mentioned yet. Anyways I freaked out when Bern first appeared in the 1st tea party. I knew this was made by the same person/team who made Higurashi, but I had no idea they were so connected, but woooow were they connected. New my experience with Higurashi is a little bit wild… first and foremost I’ve only watched the tv show, and reading through this really did make me wonder how much I would’ve gained reading the Higurashi vns as well, and that’s still something I’m interested, but my god I do not have another vn that long in me for a while and certainly not until after el dorado so I might just go back and rewatch the show… but that’s all a tangent. When I first watched Higurashi I managed to start with Gou which I had no idea was the third season and due to the way that the fragments and Rika’s looping were depicted I just assumed ‘oh it’s nonlinear storytelling I’ll learn the context later (if I had a nickel for every time this happened to me I’d have an embarrassing like eight nickels…), but anyways that is to say that Higurashi was a crazy experience for me, but one that redefined how I thought of psychological horror completely. And when I did eventually go back to watch the original and Kai I loved the story even more. Heck even though I was sort of confused by and didn’t like Sotsu as much after reading Umineko I have a whole new appreciation for it. I’ll be honest I sort of forgot the point I was trying to get at here, but ultimately, I love Bern and Lambda and seeing their fun little proxy wars with Battler and Beato was a wild ride.

Though while the characters are certainly incredible what blew me away the most about Umineko was it’s themes. I entered into Umineko knowing basically nothing besides that it was made by the same people as Higurashi, and I had first watched Higurashi on a complete whim while clueless and I loved it, so I wanted to do the same here. In that respect my first impressions were largely a way, I wonder what this will be about, quickly turning into curiosity about the mystery of the murders during the first game. Which quickly shifted back to hoping Battler believes in the which rather than finding a culprit. Which is perhaps in broad strokes the ultimate emotional journey I had while reading. But. Umineko had me on a rollercoaster of that same dilemma over and over again. That exact switch of hoping to solve the murder, vs hoping for the fantasy of the witch to win and back forth happened many times. I cannot express how effectively and masterfully Umineko manipulated my emotions. It truly felt like a battle between mystery and fantasy… but just when I got comfortable thinking that way it was proven that was wrong too. Beato’s games weren’t a battle, the truth didn’t need to be ruthlessly exposed, without love it cannot be seen. I truly don’t think there is a way that I can describe Umineko’s themes better than the way it does itself. They hit a bullseye on my heart dozens of times, and really might genuinely change my world view. I mean it’s a beautiful story about love, and trust, and hope… it’s spectacular, and spectacularly conveyed. The constant manipulation of expectations that kept me on a rollercoaster while also walking the simple path that would lead to the thematic was so good. It is done so that throughout the whole story I felt clueless, yet when the reveals began to happen, and it was time to start understanding the story it felt crystal clear from the start.

So uh, that was a lot of words to say that Umineko is really good and I liked it