#bern liveblogs

[annebrontesrequiem]

Brennan Lee Mulligan you cannot have me feeling empathy for every villain in this story. You cannot have me feeling emotional over a being trying to consume the world wanting to erase their own story and the love they obviously felt for their once children. You cannot have me understand the desperate fear of powerful beings afraid of those even more powerful. You gotta stop man, I'm experiencing too many emotions

[dicekilling]

Oooohhhh my fucking god ... natsuhi... anguish....

[adamshallperish]

weekly media summary

reading

essays

gothic incest: gender, sexuality and transgression by jenny diplacidi

salò, lolita, and the aesthetics of hegemony by ave wiseman

books

summer by edith wharton (finished)

universal harvester by john darnielle

child of god by cormac mccarthy

watching

tv

continuing my supernatural liveblog with season three (kind of. i've taken a bit of a break. i'm still putting this here.)

film

rebecca dir alfred hitchcock

shadow of a doubt dir alfred hitchcock

suspiria dir luca guadiginino

why didn't they ask evans dir hugh laurie

listening

albums

born to run by bruce springsteen

unreal, unearth by hozier

songs

meeting across the river by bruce springsteen

tiger woods by dan bern

radio nowhere by bruce springsteen

blow up the outside world by soundgarden

belfast by brain finnegan

blood brothers by nicole dollanganger

pink cadillac by bruce springsteen

the dear irish boy by kevin crawford

[kassandra-the-witch]

Glad to see more umi liveblogs around here! Btw, how much do you know about it since you mentioned Lambda and Bern in one of your posts?

Hello there! Excellent question. I try not to know anything about Umineko before it is revealed in the story itself and try to avoid all additional spoilers because I do like the idea of solving this story as is as fast as possible. I do know about Lambdadelta and Bernkastel from @siphonophorus sharing no-context memes with me that suggest some sort of dadaistic unhinged lesbian tension between Bernkastel and Lambdadelta

[jasperlion]

[ I was also liveblogging the fb to bern as i did it bc he doesn't play anymore lol ]

[siena-sevenwits]

So I am reading The Saga of Didrik of Bern, a late Medieval German/Scandinavian legendarium about knights and champions' exploits, translated from a Swedish version by Ian Cumpstsey. It is... a ride. I may have to start liveblogging some of the more outrageous happenings before I get too far in.

And I thought Arthuriana could get a little weird...

[disquiet-dream]

well, i've been sitting around bored enough to fall asleep a lot the past couple days

so i think it's probably time to continue umineko, if i'm just going to do nothing instead

amusingly, one of the reasons i stalled is... kind of appropriate, i suppose

because like, the main thing stalling me a while ago was burnout

and losing the entire rest of my liveblog sure don't help

but also... i've given it ehough thought (and also not been too careful about spoilers after finishing episode 6, i admit) that i'm pretty sure the piece of speculation i was least sure about and most hopeful for is wrong lmao

(that being the offhand thought i gave of "I think Tohya might be Sayo? and the guy mentioned being with her might be Battler")

and like, i do still think the guy is Battler (and that he wrote at least Episode 6), but...

look.

i read the beginning of episode 7, this whole thing's at a fucking funeral for Beato

i've seen people talk about the story also being about loved ones dying too

i can figure it out.

but

if i don't read more i don't have to confirm it's true ^_^

(similar thing with like...

i get how Bern's stuff works better by now, knowing who Erika was (i.e. some girl who happened to die nearby, but we can pretend she miraculously floated to Rokkenjima)

even if episode didn't literally say directly Ange died in 1998

i get it, and I get how

the reason it doesn't seem possible for her to have miraculously survived jumping off a building is because she y'know. didn't.)

but anyway, yeah. i do think that kind of stopping me from reading for a while is... probably appropriate for this story

but i do have to finish eventually.

[livecharliereaction]

That went by so fast i havent even processed i already read the whole episode after parties included. What the fuck i need to read my own liveblogs

ange didnt actually do shit but its still perfect because just her PRESENCE is so great i just like having her around making her comments. i recall mentioning it at some point but a Sarcastic character as a personality trait is a little hard to pull off because its so easy to make it so unfunny and annoying even... but she is so witty somehow... and shes not really MEAN she is a great talker i do think this she gets along with people GREAT... Yet she has only enemies in this world. How cruel. Ange if i was in your time i would be crying in my bed at night over the fact we woudlnt be friends.

erikas another one whose screentime i aaaalways enjoy now that i got to know her last game shes sooo much fun seriously

i somehow understand beato even less now didnt know thats possible. not sure if i like the dual personality thing she has going on id have to know more

The way she looks just like you is what I really can't get over...! I can't stand it...

kanon n shannon are so Nice. Not mind blowing not life breaking but i did cry over them that one time in the other episode i think theyre very NICE. And maybe im wrong but i cant recall kanon smiling and laughing ever before like he did this episode... Theyre nice both of thme

THEY MADE HER SAY THAT TOO? the au au (i dont know what to make of it but they obviously want me to think of hanyuu with the last convo with bern but i dont know if its like. Crazy direct in that that IS hanyuu or less tangible of a connection u know. Remains to be seen)

again i dont understand beato at all how did she weave herself up just from kanons words they seemed quite normal to me... is it the additional part about observing the trial and all maybe she understood something when it was said that shannon and kanon have less than a whole human soul But beato its ok because i TRUST you to have an explanation for everything in the end...

Somehow very happy that georges past was explained up it feels like the story knows hes a total loser and leaves it up to me to decide if i think he ha somehow redeemed himself through the power of love or not (me i dont think so because his and shannons love doesnt speak to me aside from the scene where she breaks a mirror - and even that i mostly like from the perspective of shannons character and her trying to become human more than As a scene for the couple...) (but now i feel like the storys giving me room to think that instead of me having to actively hate it something something multiple truths yeah)

lol i was probab imagining some vague epilogue stuff nuh uh they married right on my screen just now in the tea party (this was about george n shannon but well battler n beato did too) (I dont know how to feel about it yet though it was just golden land so it might not carry over i mean it should in case battler n beato but it might now i dont really get the time physics still)

ange is so amazings

that EVA appearance... the womb stuff yeah that will get to me it will oh eva...

I did trust erika to deliver last episode too but this one stabilized it that girl is an ACTOR and a DETECTIVE and a NEAR PERFECT PLAYER IN THE GAME an ENTERTAINER and has a cute dress too. wow how amazing It feels too early to do some kind of rankings but i will say if she is someones favorite i Will understand

the tea party w the unions and all i do have to wonder if thatll carry over to the next game... Human kanon?.......But maybe probably not since bern game master

HONORARY SCENE MENTIONS: the intro with the wedding and closed room flashforwards (havent had a foreshadowing scene with unknown narrator for a while - higurashi loved to do that) + kanon admitting his feelings for jessica both first to shannon n then jessica aww + erika fiercely fights miss maria age 9 over nothing + battler showing up to the love trial yayyy + the little scene with dlanor where erika goes I love you. and dlanor goes What did you say? cos its so ooc. crumble of erika lore #cheating + doll jessica how cool will probably never happen again + erikas PERFORMANCE to get the packing tape ...I... Furudo Erika... haev packing tape...!! + beato erika duel near the end i forgot how fun her playstyle is that beato

AND THEN THE TOP 3

BATTLER REJECTS BEATOS COOKIES AND TALKS TO HIMSELF ABOUT IT! How heartbreaking! Wheres beato i was grieving TOO! Woww

Erika seals battler to the closed room special shoutout to the part where she reveals she "re-killed" everyone severed their heads and shit. Who does that? She is just so crazy crazy girl i loooove her.

The wedding of course... The penetrative description of her putting the cursed ring on him... the festivities... the erika dress... the knox crew argument about the windows with gaap... the overall feeling of a This is a cursed wedding. Someone is going to object and the fact that lambdabern was acknowledging this kinda too they were like Girl where is she... the letter addressed to lambdadelta... the beato gaming... Wowwww

IN CONCLUSION. Greatest episode ever did u notice i listed almost every scene literally. What the fuck. I hear it only gets better too. Ok goodnight. erika fan club

[spectershaped]

Finished Umineko part 7! Zoinks Scoob!! [complimentary]

OK so there’s a lot going on there since I last liveblogged

First there’s the Beato backstory. I think there’s a lot of really compelling stuff going on but I’m struggling to see how it all clicks into a cohesive whole. What did her connection with Gaap and her eventual witch-ification represent in the non-magic layer? What led her personality to undergo such a drastic shift under the sheen of “becoming a witch”? What did her absorption of Shannon’s feelings for Battler, which is such an important foundation to her behavior during the entire game, stand for diegetically? And why does she behave more like her old self during the end when she discovers the vault, and so devoted to Kinzo’s plan during the Truth? I feel like I’ve either missed some big stuff or I’m supposed to wait and see...

God damn, Bern is vicious. I almost thought she was being halfway decent towards Lion until the tea party... (Also it’s really cool to see Lion and Ange interact)

The big-T Truth presented by Bern to them (and us) is so fascinating. The massacre ending up happening despite no interference of Beato’s... Ange being exposed to extremely ugly sides of her parents, including Kyrie’s lack of love for her... Lion being shown their seemingly inevitable doom even in the sliver of possibility where they exist as themself... I think the game does a bang-up job of showing exactly the horrific yet very human tragedy that would lead one to lock it all up in the cat box and embellish it with a veneer of fantasy. It’s also interesting that, technically, the Truth seems to only be “canonical” to the third game’s cat box, since Eva was the one killed in various other ones...I wonder what it all means......

[coolstuffiseverywhere]

FASCISM

Umineko Spoilers Ahead, beware.

So, I was reading @pochapal (hope this doesn't send the whole thing to u somehow) liveblog of Umineko chapter 1, and coincidentally watched the video in the Alt Right Playbook about Fascism as Palingentic Ultranationalism, and it had me thinking.

Umineko, as the liveblog points out at multiple points, tries to get you caught up in the horror, fantasy, and occult to stop you from thinking logically, but also, if you reject it too harshly, you'll never understand the truth. This is really comparable to Fascism, as it relies on a nationalistic fervor to bypass logical arguments, but because of how utterly debased it's been(which is good, to be clear), it's become hard to actually address people being fucking fascists. Umineko gets you to actually address what is going on by getting past either viewpoint, which is kinda what we need to do to actually ADDRESS THE ISSUES OF PEOPLE BEING FASCISTS(not by getting the Fascists to realize, as should be clear). I don't think I have enough thoughts on this topic yet to actually make a thematic analysis, but I think the idea of Umineko as a commentary on how to address fascism, or just ideologies in general, is an interesting view to look at the story with.

(just for reference, I have an idea of future events but have only read just past Bern's game in ep8)

[volfoss]

If I were Erina I’d simply beat Dio up with a chair

LITERALLY AND SHE SHOULD AND WOULD IF THE AUTHOR WASNT A COWARD

[annebrontesrequiem]

Lou Wilson’s Pinocchio my beloved. The intricacies with which he understands his character. The combination of childish ridiculousness and the seriousness of a kid put in an awful situation. Aaaaaah

[the-moon-is-a-goddess]

also violet and bern keene deserve the best in life

[whentheychirp]

and a justification why Bernkastel is SO BORED

[prettycryptid]

btw i may or may not be liveblogging the dem debate in a bit so instead of just doing it with no heads up: here it is! black list #democratic debate if u dont want to see my shit posting abt politics

[bitchoftruth]

THIS IS ME