#chick beato

[peachducy]

Umitober Day 19 - Magic (spoilers)

"D-does this count... as magic...?"

"*cackle* *cackle* *cackle*... Yes, it does. You used magic to create a golden flower petal inside an overturned cup. It was a splendid bit of magic."

[mutyatelier]

more beatos

[eevee-hime]

Being a game master isn’t easy when it involves being privy to your whole family’s trauma huh

Also I SWEAR I started drawing that ‘sicko’ meme as soon as I saw that scene in the novel and before I started listening to ‘The Golden Truths’ podcast it’s just what the lovers’ duel made me think of

[lunatic-harness]

beatrice 🤝 church

"actually the character died fr and now this is an alternate version who has all their memories. functionally the same character anyways"

[cershiv]

I HAVE NEVER BEEN THIS HAPPY LISTENING TO A LAUGH BEFORE

[umineko-blog]

Beato Sisters!!!!!

[kraniumet]

“what if beato was a [real] witch?” that, my friend, is called yu gi oh

[nyaagolor]

Now that you’ve played through all the episodes, how would you rank them?

Oooo this is tough, in part bc I like all of them a LOT. The designations between a few of them, especially in the middle category, are gonna be kinda arbitrary, but I'll do my best :)

Also this got stupid long so I put it under a readmore! Spoilers abound, as one might expect

8. Dawn of the Golden Witch (Episode 6)

I have some... mixed feelings on this one. I understand what Ryukishi was going for in using chick-Beato and Battler's interactions to parallel Battler with Kinzo and show Kinzo's dynamic with Kuwadorian Beatrice via analogy, but I also think it kinda fumbles a bit. There are points (cookie scene being a big one) where I feel like the characters take a backseat to the themes and the whole narrative feels off. Chapters 5 and 6 are supposed to be a perversion of the original story that Beatrice has lost control over, but there are points during 6 especially where I think it kinda loses itself. The rest of it is great (Erika's VA is a goddamn champion) but the very beginning of this chapter is easily my least favorite part of the series

7. Requiem of the Golden Witch (Episode 7)

I don't really have strong feelings on this episode. It would have been the high point in just about any other VN, but Umineko is so consistently fantastic that Episode 7 didn't really hit me as hard as the others. It did make me wish we got more Kyrie though, even if I know exactly why she wasn't as prominent as many of the others. Kind of insane that my second least-favorite arc is something I would rank like an 8 or 9 out of 10, Umineko is just that goated (get it???)

6. Turn of the Golden Witch (Episode 2)

While I do love watching the worst woman ever conceived have a 48 hour progressive mental breakdown, Alliance hits every point I like about the Rosa / Maria dynamic but does it better. It's still an arc I absolutely adore, so it feels weird to rank it so low, but I think about it a lot less than the other arcs so down here it goes. Shoutout to this arc for making me laugh to the point I could no longer speak not once, but twice. Kanon chuuni jacket and leashed Battler you will always be famous

5. Twilight of the Golden Witch (Episode 8)

I know that ranking episode 8 in the bottom half sounds like sacrilege but this arc had so much Kinzo and while I understand his narrative importance I Do Not Like Him. The fact that Kinzo is in the Golden Land but Kuwadorian Beatrice isn't makes me want to throw bricks at things. Other than that though, absolutely stellar. I bawled at the ending. The next day I thought about it more, misinterpreted it, and cried more, then I thought about it more deeply and talked with friends, really started to understand the core messages, and sobbed even harder. As these things tend to go. This episode ruined my life. Would recommend.

4. Legend of the Golden Witch (Episode 1)

note: 4 and 3 are interchangeable I like them both a lot for different reasons

The first time I read this episode, I thought it was great. The further I got into Umineko, the better it got. Now, with a full understanding of the plot and knowing how this chapter serves as self-reflection through the other (Sayo via Natsuhi) it serves as probably the most raw glimpse into Sayo's mindset we get. This episode ruins me and I'm pretty sure when I inevitably reread it I am going to dissolve into a puddle of goo. Also Natsuhi is there and she's my favorite of the matriarchs so I'm a little bit biased :)

3. Banquet of the Golden Witch (Episode 3)

This is one of the funniest pieces of literature I have ever read in my life. EVA-Beatrice, the entire sob story (that I, like Battler, fell for completely), the two towers fight scene... 10/10 no notes. I don't even have the words for how much I adored this one. I wish I could read it again for the first time.

2. Alliance of the Golden Witch (Episode 4)

Ok so fun fact I thought this arc was kinda boring at first, and was a little miffed I had to constantly go through Ange's little side quests when I just wanted to see Beatrice and Battler again. Fortunately, Ryukishi has a beautiful way of changing my mind very very quickly and the more I think about this Episode the more I love it. It has some of the most powerful emotional moments, a really good rehashing of the themes, and is a lot tighter and more condensed than I gave it credit for. There's a LOT that happens in this chapter, and it's been growing on me a lot-- while it doesn't take the number one spot in terms of my favorites, I do think it's the best written of the 8 episodes. As a bonus it focuses a lot on Maria who is one of the best characters ever and my darling baby angel.

End of the Golden Witch (Episode 5)

This is the platonic ideal of Umineko to me. The layers of metanarrative, the perversion of a formula to reiterate its structure, the use of genre conventions as a dual-use in-universe and metanarrative element, Erika. End of the Golden Witch is when I changed from someone who loved Umineko to someone who was obsessed with Umineko. The ending is one of the most visceral parts of the VN and I will fully admit I cried. There is so much happening in this episode I could talk about it all day. Also Natsuhi is there. Hey girlie <3

[anawkwardlady]

Low key how it felt to see Battler aggressively refuse Chick!Beato cookies... And a happy holiday!

(og video)

[it-came-autumnally]

Continuing with my Umineko reread*:

(EP6 and vaguely implied EP7 spoilers under the cut)

Shoutout to these Chick!Beato panels from EP6 where she’s acting incredibly similar to how we’ve seen Natsuhi act in previous episodes. I definitely did not notice this the first time around, but it’s so interesting that her behavior is invokes Natsuhi's, of all people -- Beato is in a position where she cannot really help outright, and even when she does try to offer Battler advice (like when she tries to tell him to back down regarding the closed room fight with Erika), she gets dismissed.

Despite that, she still tries her best to defend Battler's honor, and is constantly upset at Erika's antagonizing. This is... remarkably similar to how Natsuhi reacts to Eva's slights against Krauss. While of course it's not a 1:1 comparison, the two of them are acting out of duty towards their respective husbands**, even though they know it's a losing battle.

This is especially obvious if you go through EP6 while EP5 is fresh in your mind, but it's also really interesting how this is almost a reversal of the Kinzo situation: Battler is trying to preserve the illusion of his piece's "death," while Krauss and Natsuhi attempt to keep the family members from finding out that Kinzo has already passed on. Neither attempt goes particularly well; if anything, their respective illusions are weaponized against them by Erika (Battler gets tricked into a logic error; Natsuhi gets framed for murder). I'm sure other people have already talked about how EP6 as a whole is almost a retelling of the thematic parts of the entire story (especially with the Kanon/Shannon duel and the love trial), but there are so many other fun parallels that are also worth digging into.

It's so interesting that out of every character she could emulate, it's Natsuhi! Natsuhi, the woman who threw (the human vessel) her off the cliff all those years ago; the woman who arguably has had the most influence in her life out of all the Ushiromiyas aside from Kinzo and the cousins. Putting it like that, it makes sense that it’s Natsuhi that the chick!Beato is reminiscent of, as it’s also yet another example of the cycles of abuse and how the behaviors of the Ushiromiya family are passed down.

*it’s a reread in the sense that I’ve already read the VN in its entirety but this is the first time I’m reading the manga.

**yes I know that Beatrice and Battler aren't fully declared married until the end of EP6 when they both finally remember everything but I used that wording for the sake of being succinct. Using "people they love" would technically work in this context but that phrasing includes other people, like Jessica. While it's true that Natsuhi is motivated by her love for her daughter, the way it manifests is different.

[lizardrosen]

the really awful thing about the Episode 6 parallels between chick beato and battler vs kuwadorian beato and kinzo is that battler is actively trying to avoid that controlling behavior and it makes him uncomfortable to be called Father, but the only way he can think to combat that dynamic is to... order beato to stop.

he wants her to become the beatrice he remembers and loves, but the thing he loved was her (apparent) independence and superiority over everyone else, and he has an entire conversation with her piece on the board that this is an interaction he's scripting and voicing himself. and what he only partially understands is that to become what he wants, she has to go through the same thousand years that made her in the first place. would he want her to suffer just so he can recreate the past, if he knew that was the choice?

[revindicatedbyhistory]

god tier detail that at the end of ep 6 beatrice sometimes switches to chick beato´s tone of voice

[whensomethingelsecries]

additional notes

different outfits have their own folders in the game files, and thus were counted as separate entries here only if their data was different from the default outfit. for example, shannon's regular outfit and date outfit both have 18 total sprites and 0 akuwarai sprites in the question arcs, so they were not counted separately - both are represented by "shannon." on the other hand, kanon's regular outfit has 50 total sprites while his date outfit has only 12, so "kanon" and "coat kanon" are two separate entries in the question arcs data. although neither have any akuwarai sprites anyway

on the other hand, various poses and props would be lumped into the same folder. variations with and without beatrice's pipe, the guns, the energy swords, etc. are considered part of the totals for each character due to being organized within the same folders. these account for almost all of the differences between the "unique akuwarai" and "all akuwarai" numbers

for how the beatrices were split up, i really just went by the game file folders. obviously there's nuance there but it would have been unreasonable to further divide them up. in case you're curious, here's how i've organized them in the data, with the folder paths: bea/1 is "beato" (black dress, hair up. includes variations with and without her pipe) bea/2 is "business casual beato" (suit jacket outfit, hair up) bea/3 is "bice" (self explanatory) be2/1 is "chick beatrice" (black dress, hair down) be2/2 is "elder beatrice" (suit jacket outfit, hair down)

it's really funny when characters wind up with different statistics in different outfits due to sprite count differences. erika, for instance, is more Evil By Volume in the wedding dress than in her regular outfit, due to her wedding dress outfit having fewer overall sprites:

dlanor is also mathematically nearly twice as evil when she puts the glasses on, for the same reason:

krauss doesn't have any sprites labeled "warai" (smile) which is a little unusual for a character who has as many sprites as he does. the majority of his smiles are considered akuwarai lol

bice not having any of beatrice's akuwarai expressions, which are some of her most iconic faces, is the sort of thing you could write an essay about, in terms of the fact that the "golden witch beatrice" is well known for a personality the actual original beatrice straight up did not have

[swallowtail-ageha]

Hey do you think that one of the reasons why battler "the one who resembles kinzo the most" treated chick beato so badly was because after learning about what kinzo did to beatrice ushiromiya and noticing that chick beato almost perfectly resembles her in personality he didn't want to repeat the story. Yeah i think about it a lot

[snailmailmp3]

but like actually i do think it's interesting that Canonical Umineko Reader john gaius pretty much treats alecto the same way that battler treats chick beato in ep6. and when battler does that it's very clearly supposed to mirror how kinzo treated kuwadorian beatrice. hmmmm