#game really was an umineko questions arc

[h-a-unted]

I'm still owed the game in which we chase after Adler, not knowing if he is the mole or not. Also, the game in which we get more answers as to Panamá and Menéndez... Activ.ision when I get you...

[medakakurokami]

I finished over 100 visual novels, here’s a long post with some recommendations

Last month I hit 100 Finished VN’s over on the VNDB and I thought I’d shoot out some recommendations while the Steam Summer Sale is going on (even though some of these aren’t going to be on Steam)

I already have finished up some stragglers and caught some shorter titles so it’s up to 104 Finished, but all the better. I have been reading some VN’s since 2015, but it really became a hobby and a genre I was invested in during Covid lockdown in 2020. I had trouble getting into some of the popular titles, but a couple of games that were lesser known at that time really blew me away that year and I started digging more into the medium. I still have a lot to try out and other classics I’m still interested in trying, but here’s a top 10 I’m confident in recommending to most people, at least the kinda people that would follow this blog. A few of these recommendations are actually multi-part series, but hopefully accessible all around.

Planetarian ($10 on Steam and Switch, ~$5 on sale)

This is a very late entry onto this list but I think it’s an easy recommendation. This is a very short 2-4 hour visual novel that got a well received 2 hour movie adaptation in 2016, but it was strong enough that even while knowing the plot everything still hit hard. It is a story set 30 years after an apocalyptic event destroys most of the world, as a human junk-trader comes across a planetarium with a somehow-still-functional robot named Hoshino still performing her daily duties after 30 years without customers or coworkers. It can come across as a bit saccharine, but it is a quick, well made, and effective tearjerker.

Narcissu 1st & 2nd (Free on Steam)

Narcissu’s first two parts are pretty compelling stories to do with suicidal ideation within the scope of the terminally ill. Which is to say they’re also real tear jerkers, and pretty open about some harsh self-reflective emotions. They both have stellar endings, and can be quite immersive despite the very limited artwork (if the screencap looks weird, the game’s art exists within a narrow strip on the screen, with a sentence or two reading out the story underneath it). Maybe the least accessible on this list, but a $0 price tag makes it easier in some sense to get into.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni / When The Seagulls Cry (~$50 on Steam, $30 on sale)

Umineko you’ve probably already heard of, and here’s me recommending it. Umineko comes in two parts, on Steam referred to as the Questions Arc and the Answers Arc. Despite the split, the overall story follows the events of a certain day on Rokkenjima Island in 1986 as a family meets to discuss their inheritance and their family’s mysteries. Unbeknownst to them they are soon haunted, over and over again, by the revenant of the Golden Witch said to live in the woods of their family’s island.

I’m in the minority of preferring the Questions Arc, where well written and deeply human characters find themselves in deeply inhumane and nonsensical scenarios. The Answers Arc back seats some of that to start delving into an esoteric explosion of clues and backstories, and was still very entertaining even if I was more invested in the episodic stories than the overarching mystery. This may also be seen as inaccessible, $30-50 for a slightly older title and over 140 hours long on average playthroughs, but it is deeply absorbing.

Witch on the Holy Night a.k.a. Mahoyo ($40 on PS4 and Switch)

Mahoyo is me and Nasu’s marriage counselor, it really made me see the good in him. It follows a young witch co-habitating with her magic colleague and the puppy-like boy that unwittingly steps into their world at risk to his own life, just as unexplained apparent murders are witnessed in their town.

This could possibly be a higher level recommendation, though it was apparently intended to have sequels and you can somewhat feel that in the isolated feeling of its main conflict. Despite this, the game is definitely worth experiencing for its classy charm and extremely well made action sequences that at times make you forget you’re not watching a full anime film. It’s also a showcase of Nasu’s strengths in writing character interactions and comedy, and he finally lets Show take over and stops Telling you piles of mage society worldbuilding quite so often. It is also has some of the highest quality production value I’ve ever seen, second maybe to...

Marco and the Galaxy Dragon ($20 on Steam/Switch, less than $10 on sale)

Marco and the Galaxy Dragon is an explosive opera of art, energy, color, and of course music. It follows the orphaned Marco and her dragon compatriot Arco as they hunt for treasure across the cosmos, finding their way to Earth on the hunt for Marco’s mother.

If Umineko’s 140 hours seems steep, Marco has you covered with a quick 6 hour rundown of a rebellious orphan fighting back against her space alien menace to find her own sense of place and identity in the universe, along with ALL the friends she made along the way. If Mahoyo feels like an anime film sometimes, Marco actually just has fully animated FMV cutscenes that are fun as hell and have their own unique artstyle to the VN itself. Thousands of pieces of artwork and a 52-track OST fill the game’s short runtime with no cut corners and and overflow of passion from the devs. Honestly even if you don’t want to read it go buy it, it’s cheap and they earned it.

White Album 2 (You’ll have to be creative to find this one)

This is the only recommendation that’s currently only available in an adults only 18+ Rating for the English translation. That being said, it’s one of the few erotic VN’s that felt justified in its pornographic scenes. The story is split into two releases: Opening Chapter and Closing Chapter.

Opening is a short and powerfully delivered love triangle narrative following Haruki, Setsuna, and Touma as their hastily formed 3-man light music band falls into itself with feelings. It’s charming but gut wrenching and sweeps you into its drama very effectively before kicking you on your ass in the end.

Closing Chapter is a long and drawn out disassembling of their lives as they fail to heal from the wounds of the relationships seen in Opening. It, to great effect, takes the readers own experience with how fun and passionate the Opening Chapter was, and shows how trying to cling to halcyon days can make us so dispassionate about our present lives. Painful stuff! Good music, too.

The Princess, The Stray Cat, and Matters of the Heart 1 & 2

a.k.a. Noratoto ($40 on Steam for both, ~$15 for both on sale)

This is a very personal recommendation, and maybe one more easy to make on this blog where many of my followers might be receptive to sincere but slapstick ecchi comedy as art. Every route is highly different however and to me, some are pretty average for galge, while others stand out as amazing. The comedy writing as well feels like it was written by someone with actual comic writing experience, and not just regurgitating the usual ecchi manga jokes.

The general premise of Noratoto is the protagonist Nora, being transformed into a cat by Patricia the princess of the Netherworld, and he must reverse this curse via a kiss before it becomes permanent. A benign fairy tale premise, but one that somehow gives way to underlying stories about existence and finding purpose in families and where that leaves those without families or with abusive or divided families (it is from the same developers as Marco and the Galaxy Dragon, and the themes of finding identity without family match up very closely). Uniquely it is a visual novel written somewhat in 3rd person, narrated by a motherly voice as if the VN was being read to you as a bedtime story.

Like I said, it is dependent on route and some come across as your usual ecchi gal-game schtick, but some stick out, and if every route was as high quality as Nobuchina’s in the 2nd game, it would probably be my favorite visual novel.

The Original Ace Attorney Trilogy ($30 on most platforms, $10 on sale)

You’ve almost certainly heard of Ace Attorney already and have most likely played it. This is me telling any Ace Attorney fans reading that the original trilogy still reigns supreme (regardless of Turnabout Big Top). This is also me telling anyone who has held out on trying Ace Attorney to try it, and to start with the original trilogy.

Obviously this trilogy follows the Meme Man Himself, Phoenix Wright, as he defends the innocent and brings the guilty to justice acting as both lawyer and his own main investigator. While each case presents a unique mystery, the original trilogy has an underlying arc that reaches from beginning to end with a massive conspiracy that Phoenix has to breach to bring justice to the perpetrators and resolve the memory and regrets of his beloved mentor.

These games have some speedbumps as you may be banging your head against the wall trying to find the right evidence, but the experience that breaks through does so with gusto, succeeding on what it sets out to be: games that make you feel like you’ve brought justice to the world.

Utawarerumono Trilogy ($40/60 each on Steam, trilogy bundle $62 on sale)

Utawarerumono was my first proper visual novel, and it set the standards pretty high. I’ve posted about it several times in the last few years, and it remains one of my favorites. It is a labor of love on the part of the developers (the same developers as White Album 2), who developed the latter two games over the course of several years and have made this the spearhead of their company for the time being. Which makes sense, since it is about war.

The first game follows a masked man who is given the name Hakuoro waking up in a rural village with amnesia, confused about the strange population of beast-men living there. Despite not understanding his situation, his ingenuity brings the village prosperity. When the local lords try to put the village under their thumb, Hakuoro and the villagers are able to turn the tides against them. Their village grows into a kingdom as Hakuoro seeks the mysteries of himself and the world around him.

The latter two games pick up some twenty years after the conclusion of the first, and follow a man who is given the name Haku, waking up in the woods with amnesia confused about the... you get it. He is met by Kuon, a young girl on her way traveling to the capital of their nation of Yamato. Haku graciously accepts her help getting out of the cold woods, and decides to join her to the capital. As events play out, Haku finds himself under the direct command of the nation’s leader the Mikado, and carries out missions on his behalf as the nation continues to drag itself into war and conflict and Haku also seeks the truth of his identity.

These games are expansive in scope while still putting a large focus on the day-to-day lives of its characters. Around 100 hours across all three games it is impressive how much story it manages to fit in, but the pacing does bounce around between sweeping conflict and sleepy conversations. It is also in part, a strategy RPG game with the battles in the war being controlled by the player. These are decently made, especially well in the third game, but don’t ask too much of the player and the story remains the main focus and biggest portion of the runtime.

The House In Fata Morgana a.k.a. Fatamoru

($40 complete version on PS4/Switch, ~$40 main game + expansion on Steam)

I’ve gushed about this enough on this tumblr, I’ll keep it brief.

You are a formless soul who is led by the hand of a mysterious maid through the doors of a mansion on an unknown plane of existence. Through each door lies a story of the house in a different era, all following people bound together in ways that leave them cruelly and violently undone by the end of their stories. The connection between these stories, the mystery of the house and the supposed witch that resides within, and the mystery of You the wandering soul all slowly unravel in a bloody show of catharsis and soul. The game is dripping with traumatic poetic text, grating beautiful music, and all of its atmosphere geared toward being oppressive yet enticing. One of the best things I’ve read.

Honorable mentions:

Va-11 Hall-A and Endless Mondays get shout outs as some of the best Original English Language VN’s I’ve read, with cool artstyles and a mature cast they manage to be fun and relatable. Va-11 Hall-A delivers a great arc for its protagonist and Endless Mondays has great dialogue on the threat of automation of creative industries.

Grisaia Trilogy and Hatsumira are both absolutely raucous trilogies that are a lot of fun. Not wholly recommendable to all, Grisaia has some strong moments and a hilarious unique cast but is a mess overall (but we love Michiru). Hatsumira is a bit more consistent, a more stable and fantasy-oriented Grisaia.

A.I. The Somnium Files duology are detective games with highly divisive endings, but great comedy and characters that make them very easy to get through and enjoy the whole way to the end. It’s just a toss-up whether you’ll like that ending.

Sakura Wars games are finally being translated, and they are a great showing for anyone who wants to try some classic dating sim stuff but with some pizazz thrown in with the setting and mecha combat.

The Tears to Tiara duology by the same developers of Utawarerumono and White Album is also one to keep an eye out for. The first game's definitive version isn't available in English and the second game is stuck on the PS3 and no longer available digitally, but if they ever come out on Steam they are worth your time.

Nanairo Reincarnation and Kinkoi: Golden Loveriche are also two solid ecchi comedy galge. Both have surprisingly deep and genuinely heartbreaking underlying mysteries and conclusions.

I still have a lot I wanna read, Planetarian is the only Key novel I’ve read. On the docket are Labyrinth of Galleria, Little Busters, the 9 -nine- series, and Kara no Shoujo and White Album 1 releasing on Steam this year. Some classics I didn’t mention are Fate/Stay Night, Muv Luv, Steins Gate. Muv Luv I read Extra and enjoyed it, but never pulled the trigger on reading the rest, I may at some point on a whim. Steins;Gate I played through half of on PS3 and now my PS3 is in the closet, the VN is really good and has a unique atmosphere to the anime, buuuuuuut knowing the plot has made it hard to want to restart on PC or another console. Steins;Gate is good, if anyone is reading this far and hasn’t seen the anime or read the VN, do it.

[felonytaxevasion]

Arc 1 - Bonds

My assorted commentary on the first chapter of Pact for my mutuals who were interested in my thoughts. Testing out formatting this might be mess thank you for your patience.

As always no spoilers please thank you <333

This is technically my second time reading this but I wasn't paying attention the first time so I wanted to start over

1.1

“My children are useless,” she said. She was so dismissive and casual about it.

First of all. Icon. I absolutely love wretched old women and I love having the foresight of knowing practitioners cant lie meaning that this is presumably an objective evaluation of her children's capabilities. I'm also gonna watch out for Blake's mom and Aunt Stephanie though. They aren't included in that statement so maybe we can have an evil magic milf era. Like in Umineko. I love Umineko.

If anything I’d said had an impact, it was that. I could see the faint amusement drop away from her. “Are you accusing me of being a liar, Master Blake?”

aHA BECAUSE PRACTITIONER RULES

It was well after dark when someone stepped outside to talk to me. I closed out of the puzzle game I was playing on my phone. The brightness of the screen made for a dark patch that lingered in my vision as I looked up. Eleven-fifty at night.

This is an interesting writing choice because it's clear that a lot of time has passed but not exactly how much. Which adds mystery to the question of "was Rose planned all along or did Rose Sr. make an impulse choice after talking with Blake.

Also I really wanna know. When Rose met Ivy did her parents bring her in and talk or did they just set the baby on the bed and leave.

“Molly! Don’t be rash!” Aunt Irene admonished her. “I don’t want it,” Molly said, again. She grabbed the footboard of the bed. “No.“ “Molly, don’t be silly.”

Molly is one of the biggest reasons I don't want spoilers. Everything about her is so interesting. She was the first choice but she died very quickly. But not THAT quickly. Was Rose 2 always the plan and Molly was the sacrificial lamb to pave the way or was Molly just genuinely the best choice to become heiress. She survived for four months which is, if Pact is paced similarly to Worm, long enough to survive Leviathan, The Slaughterhouse Nine, Coil, and Echidna or whatever their equivalent in Pact land is. And that is no small feat. Like obviously I'm assuming here but I can't imagine the combined forces of Jacobs Bell were just letting her chill. I have so many questions about her and I want answers to none of them.

The blonde woman opposite him folded her hands in front of her. “That was… noteworthy in scale. Kind of her to point the way, but she was never crude. We’ll need to know what she did before we move on.”

THIS SHIT RIGHT HERE. Noteworthy in scale. Rose is not a small feat. Why are she and Blake positioned as the backup plan. Thinking so hard

“Funny thing, Maggie,” Padraic said, and when he smiled, the expression extended further than it should have. The smile too wide, the eyes too long and narrow. “When something momentous occurs, it can be the equivalent of lighting up the night sky, scattering fog and clouds to the horizons. You can see more clearly… but when you look, they can look back, too.”

Maggie and Padraic are some of my favorite characters based on vibes alone. I just know they're going to die so horribly so early on. At least Maggie.

“Mm,” the man in the throne said. “‘Lo, stranger. Listen, I don’t think you should believe what any of them say about me. If you need help, I can offer it.” “For a price,” the dog added.

Now see Johannes I would love to give you the benefit of the doubt however I know for a fact (a pact fact!) I have not seen any fanart of you making out sloppy style with Blake Thorburn and as such I find it hard to believe you are his ally. The wildbow ecosystem is too yaoi deprived to not jump on that pairing unless you're some type of fucked up.

“Run,” she said. “Get to the house, now.” “Which house? Who-” “Molly’s dead,” she said. “You’re next.”

HAI ROSE

1.2

I actually don't have much commentary on this chapter other than RIP to BlakeRose but I would happily take the deal to become a creepy bird monster. That's the ideal living situation actually.

1.3

The first sheet had only a simple message, penned in a curling script I almost envied. ‘Birth date’. I tried the year I’d been born. It didn’t work. Day, month? One-eight-oh-one.

...

“Molly!” I hollered, loud enough I should have been audible throughout the house. “Anyone!?” No response. Somewhere, in my general confusion and the mess of stuff I didn’t know or understand, I’d hoped that Molly being alive would be one of those things that caught me off guard.

Not to needle at his grieving process but I'm pretty sure the fact that it was His Birthday Not Molly's that opened the door was a pretty clear sign

I shook my head. “No clue. Something to keep in mind. After stipulations, there’s a section on stipend, with a regular allowance, notes on how often the lawyers can be called without incurring a debt. Oh, right here. A mention of the bird-skull monsters.” “What?” I could see Rose move, standing from her seat. “I’m joking,” I said, with zero humor in my voice.

I think Wildbow should do what visual novels franchises do and make a non canon crossover beach themed spinoff episode with all his characters. I want to see Blake and Lisa be cunty together

My friends were artists and artistic types. I had the unfortunate distinction of being a less than stellar artist. But I’d owed them for the help and support they’d given me, and in helping them with their jobs, I’d stumbled onto a bit of work. Setting up their work, installations, as well as all the other grunt jobs. Sure, they could go to a carpenter to get something put together in the way of a display stand, but that carpenter wouldn’t necessarily know what was at play with the art. Along the way, I’d settled into being a go-to handyman and delivery guy in the local art community. I knew the gallery owners, I knew who was who, and if I couldn’t do a job myself, I knew who to call. Not so glamorous or fancy, not exactly stellar pay, but I had stupid little skills that I could use here. In a pinch, I could use my stride or my arm length to help me figure out measurements, thirty three and a half and thirty-two and a half inches, respectively.

So fun fact I was a gallery tech assistant for about three or four years in high school and I would just like the record to state. A. Wildbow you captured the gallery tech mentality exactly. Tired, sassy, and overall filled with peculiar useful skills. 100% accuracy rate.

Also Blake please call your friends sooner rather than later. The blond gallery tech who works for cheap going suddenly missing is going to DEVASTATE that community. Blake you are a protected species under the wildlife conservation act and the human equivalent of catnip for bisexuals with an art history degree you are the foundation of that community and they are going to be CONCERNED

1.4

She looked a little agitated, nervous. “I think we can go this route. Avoid getting into the ugliest stuff, the books on demons and whatever else. If witch hunters and inquisitors can survive this sort of thing, maybe we can too.” “Borrowing power instead of using it?”

I'm trying to figure out if Rose II is in on it. Because like. She should be right? But then she says things like this that make it sound like she really is just as lost as Blake

“In case you haven’t noticed, I’m kind of attached to you, metaphysically. You die, I’m going to be a goner too.” “You think. Either way, I’m the one who got injured,” I said. “I’m the one who has stitches in my hand and a cut on my face.” “At least you’re alive,” she retorted.

They've so immediately become siblings.

Which by the way. If Blake and Rose are fucked up twins of a sort. I have questions about Paige and Peter. Especially seeing as Paige is considered a non starter for Rose Senior

“In this scenario, we’ve got a situation involving a number of countries. If you will, there’s America. I’m rather interested in America for the purpose of this discussion, but that’s just me. Powerful, perhaps overly proud, large, keepers of the peace.” I glanced at his uniform. “Sure.”

Close enough. Welcome Back Victoria Dallon!!

1.5

“It smells like a rose,” a man announced, “It’s as beautiful as a rose. I dare say it’s as fragile as a rose, once you get past the thorns. But is it really our Rose?” I turned. Three twenty-somethings, if I went by appearances, were approaching me from behind. I might have been off. Each had alcohol in brown bags.

I want to be one of them so bad. I want to join the fucked up Fairie gang.

“No,” I said. I grabbed one of the books from the coffee table. “Anger is good.” “Good?” “It keeps us moving. You read the book on implements, I’ll read up on familiars when I’m done Essentials.”

True gallery tech mindset <3

1.6

“Blake!” Rose’s voice, from the living room. “You have to help him!”

This is one of those passages that makes me think Rosie is in on it. You've read more than Blake how has this being an other trap not occurred to you

1.7

Should another practitioner need to bait him again, know that this author used: a pile of festering boar carcasses, six feet high, each carved with his name when well into their state of decay, the decay timed using refrigeration to be roughly parallel; seven jars of burning hair, resupplied keep the flames perpetually alight

Yea who hasn't been here at one point

“To everyone and everything that’s listening,” I said. I heard Rose start speaking behind me, but my words drowned hers out. “To me, and to nobody in particular, I’ve gotta say, I didn’t choose this. I’m doing this for family, to respect them as they were in the past, when my cousins were also my friends, so the others don’t face what Molly did. I’m doing it to respect stuff in the present, because even if I dislike my cousins, I don’t want them to have to face this situation and get killed off. I’m doing this for the family that comes in the future, so my kids and all our descendants don’t have this debt hanging over our heads. Above all, I think I’m doing this for my real family. For the friends I made who gave me support when I needed it most, so I can demonstrate what they taught me. Past, present, future, and�� more abstract.”

Guy who can only hate his family this much because of how much he loves them Augh Augh

I could hear Rose behind me, still talking, as if she were very distant. “-than a vestige.”

SUSPICIOUS

“It doesn’t matter,” she said, quiet, “because it’s not blood. I’m not offering anything worth taking, and there aren’t any spirits here to listen and obey, are there?” “There are other options, maybe?” “It doesn’t matter,” she said, again. “I don’t care anymore.”

But then this is the opposite of suspicious because she can't lie but she's saying it didn't work and she wants to give up hhhhhhh Rose you are so slippery to understand

Gathered Pages

I didn't highlight any particular passages but Rose Senior I love youuuuuuuu

[whensomethingelsecries]

umineko: how often they cry

some data on the number of crying sprites each character has in umineko, obtained from looking through the game files. obviously has nothing to do with how frequently the sprites appear in-game, i just thought that would be a funny title

i'm including results for both question arcs and answer arcs this time, because the variation between them (and the upsets) felt much more notable than for the akuwaria data

a "crying" sprite is defined here as any sprite with clearly visible tears coming from one or both eyes. this includes teary-eyed sprites and excludes sprites where a character is visibly wailing but producing no tears. "unique" expressions are changes to the facial expression itself - two sprites where a character is making the exact same face but they're holding up a gun in one of them is considered one unique expression under "unique crying", but two sprites under the "all crying" and "total sprites" categories

mercifully, i will readmore this one.

so, top 5 (including 5th-place ties) highest number of unique crying sprites:

standard beato, for reasons that are probably obvious, gains a handful of crying sprites in the answer arcs that no other outfit/variation of hers receives, landing her with a clear lead in the answer arcs.

i was surprised to see ange rank so high since she has relatively few sprites overall. also surprising to me was how few crying sprites battler actually has! you'd expect it to be more proportionate to how often any given character cries, but battler manages to cover all the necessary nuances with just 4 (and 4 that are the same expression but pointing)

i do also think it's funny that the youngest 3 stakes all have extra crying sprites compared to the eldest 4 - it is interesting to note that while the sisters do share pretty much all their sprites with at least a few of the others, they don't all have the same complete "set" like i would have expected to see

top 5 most crying sprites, including posing/prop variations:

beato clears pretty comfortably due to her pipe/no pipe variations really stacking her deck. eva and question arcs natsuhi also get a huge bump in their totals from having three sprites per expression: one standard, one holding the gun, and one aiming the gun.

top 5 highest percentages of crying sprites:

the only category to see no real upset between question and answer arcs! the only change is eva gaining one (1) additional sprite somewhere along the line, impacting her final percentage very slightly. the top 3 here all pretty clearly won out due to their very small number of sprites, relatively speaking, meaning even just 2 or 3 gives them a pretty significant edge here. congratulations to sakutarou for being umineko's biggest crybaby by volume

also, here's the bottom 5s for question and answer arcs, respectively (highest number of total sprites with 0 crying sprites):

rudolf exits the bottom 5 in the answer arcs by gaining 3 unique/5 total crying sprites, shooting him all the way up to #17 out of the 70 included characters! congratulations on learning to express your emotions, bud. EVA beatrice slipping into the bottom 5 is just the expected result of this - she was one spot above krauss in the question arcs.

i was kind of surprised to realize that rosa never cries? from how many sprites she has and the type of character she is, you might expect it. it's interesting to see that, despite her tendency for outbursts, we never see her cry, of all things. maybe that's the one way she is good at keeping it together.

i remain surprised in general by battler's poor performance, especially compared to characters with a lot less screentime than him. i was pretty convinced he'd be a clear winner in both of the quantity-based categories, but he's fighting pretty hard just for his spot in the top handful, it would seem. honestly very interesting data

[not-too-many-eyes]

5, 8, 13?

(For this ask game)

5. A female villain you love?

This question is strangely hard cause I have to debate with myself if morally complicated conservative women count or not, because a lot of the complicated women I like AREN'T placed in an explicitly adversarial position to "the heroes" (nor do the things I like tend to create that explicitly dichotomy of "hero" and "villain") and I still haven't been able to determine the answer to that-

But like- Plutomon Digimon Survive is a villain no matter how you slice it so uh- her. I can't say too much on her for Spoiler Reasons but Plutomon Digimon Survive is a Character of All Time can I get an Amen!

(I Mean I'd Love to put a character like Natushi here but I'm really hung up on the definitions here as you might notice.)

8. A minor female character you love anyway?

I was going to jokingly say that none of the things I like have women as Just minor characters but then I was thinking about it and I was like "Wait.....what media do I like (That I think about often) that has women in minor roles?" so I settled on Reverse 1999 Eagle since she is a minor character in story and has Very Little Going On outside of her ancedote focus:

I bet anon was asking for a character with actual like- 2 minutes of screentime but the truth is I simply just don't think too much about characters like that in general. If I do I tend to turn them into OCs since like...at some point they do just become my OC and I''m not going to be like "Oh this is the actual canon version of the character" when I've just written them as OCs. Plus my memory is shit so I really do need something to latch onto.

Keiko RGU might count though?

I find her really fun and interesting in the Black Rose arc since she's coming right after the most emotionally involved of the Black Rose Duelists (Wakaba) so you have a really nice duality there of Wakaba being Utena's best friend while Utena doesn't even know Keiko's name.

Oh and Rei!

She's great as well! I love whatever horrific situationship she had with Muu and how Muu thinks of her as like- a beautiful hero and puts her on a pedestal while simultaneously hating her for "not saving her." Okay maybe I do have more options for this than I thought-

13. An interesting femslash ship? (Canon or otherwise)

I was going to put a Yuri is my Job ship here and then I realized that I don't....consider any of those "romantic" ships like- to me Sumika and Kanako is a QPR, same with Yano and Hime- like those are complicated and nuanced relationships and I love them but Sumika and Kanako are textually Not Romance.

While for Yano and Hime it seems like Hime doesn't feel romantic attraction but a genuine sensual and sexual attraction towards Yano like- aro but not ace. Does that count for the purposes of this discussion?

The definition rests unclear, and I generally just ship situationships forever, but I do have one that isn't horrifically complicated- which is my friend keeps on telling me that apparently Eva and Natushi from Umineko have toxic yuri going on and Im like-

THESE TWO???

THESE TWO HAVE TOXIC YURI?????? THEIR IN LOVE???? THEY DONT JUST HATE EACH OTHER????

So now I need to know what's going on there. I want to know whatever the fuck is going on there. I'm still in Episode 2 and I'm like "Okay. What is their deal"

Alien Nine Yuri and Kumi are also good:

Same with BiY Touko and Yuu (I have not finished this either):

(EDIT) I went to edit this again not just for formatting reasons but because I needed to include my beloved We Know the Devil and Heaven Will be Mine Polycules:

And we also have!

Utenanthy! (I made this a month or so ago and dont want to fix it up at all)

Redraw of this:

[ggren-mainz]

Umineko - question arcs playthrough -> ep 2 - 1

last part - All parts and episodes - next part

Welcome back after an almost 2-week break, it's time for the next chapter ;P. Also i decided I'll introduce my gf and family to umineko via the stageplay, as i have heard that it's pretty good. Only up to ep 3 (soon 4) now, but anyways.

edit 2 days later as this sat in drafts : Watched it with my sis (my mom deemed it too tiring) and she loved it. Her favorite is George (both the character and the actor ;P), and she had some very interesting theories, one of them being that genji is kinzo's child, which damn. Age-wise i don't think it works but at least she's thinking. Also the outro was very confusing but i think it might've revealed some stuff. I'm not sure, but I'll keep it in mind. Anyways amazing watch.

She also did the tierlist and it's so funny

Anyways

I want to start this by saying that the culprit actually showed to me in a dream. That's right, i had a premonition. Basically the dream was me and some friends running in a destroyed world from Shannon with a gun. So what I'm getting to is that I now solved the mystery, and will now just laugh for the following 7 chapters. Ha ha ha.

(pls if shannon actually has any relation with the culprit/is the culprit, do not tell me or make any jokes/imply it. I am simply fooling around because of this quite funny dream i had)

rocking that victorian newspaper boy inspired fit.

and the hippie look. Perfect case of underdressed x overdressed. Also Tomitake Flash?????

this reads like some insane foreshadowing. Or at least it's definitely related to our little characters as well. You could say that they're like fish from the perspective of the witches. anyways, I'll put s mental pin to this line and perhaps rethink it later.

glad to see she's included in the credits now.

Anyways what's with this aquarium date?? When is it happening? Basically George and Shannon are on a date, and are just having fun, being very cute.

can't really figure out if this line should mean more or not. Cause like it's not that weird, but also it could turn into something more sinister later. I'll see.

And they say romance is dead.

Oh also another thing we (me and my sis) noticed yesterday while watching the play, but George is 23 and Shannon is 16.... raises one eyebrow. Ok george...ok...

....what magic? Hey shannon i think George will understand it very well why not explain it to us?

OOooohhh so this happens before the first game time wise. ok ok makes sense.

woah woah woah this is a bit of a change of atmosphere.

so from how much i'm getting this is Shannon talking about breaking free from her fate as 'furniture'. She is on the shrine's rock (the one that was destroyed at the beginning of ch 1) and wants to break some mirror that was offered as a sacrifice. I wonder, does that mean that because she broke this mirror, the shrine broke down and as such somehow started this entire tragedy?

is the key here metaphorical, or could it be referring to the key in the ephitath?

what promise? what wish? so many questions....question arc moment....

We then have a long scene of George and his family visiting the main house, and Shannon realising her crush on him, and some discussions between the George Jessica and her. These 2 are very cute, unfortunately it seems that Eva wants to marry George with someone who would benefit them financially/bussiness wise.

and as such it leads me to the question. Did she marry like this? Was her marriage with Hideyoshi like this oooorrr....

(before this she says that she loves her husband a lot), ah i see. I mean it's not like this doesn't happen nowadays too, except instead of getting married and then falling in love it's more like getting together and then falling in love. Which is fine, but idk if in this world this is ideal, as i doubt divorce is that accepted lol. And also ofc cause we know George loves Sayo.

anyways Eva continues talking and then takes George away and then tells the girls they'll also find men they love but then leans in and whispers something so vile and malicious in Shannon's ear, that my computer crashed and i had to restart the game lmao.

after a lot of ctrl-ing this is what she says. Bad but i think my computer overexaggerated.

So Shannon feels like shit and is caught with her head in the clouds by Natsuhi who punishes her to clean the entire reception.

mayhaps i shouldn't have wondered so far lmao. (for context i was curious if Lanon was an actual character or was just gonna remain a name and then i kept seeing yasu and here i am lol)

this is what detroit become human and what i also assume nier automata (idk i only played the prologue) wished they could be.

huuuuuh??? So again this brings me back to my question, does magic actually exist? i think so. But maybe Shannon is imagining this and all those flashy bunny rabbits I see online are Kinzo's personal strippers, idk.

Holly shit guys, look! it's the witch!!

Also is this story very related to love? I didn't expect that, interesting. Maybe it's just this chapter or a sub-genre but idk ill see. Also she already has the ring on.

hmm is it really that simple? You know how they say, don't make a deal with the devil, this is how this feels.

Huh i can't believe all my questions have been answered. So this is why she broke the mirror, this is the wish and also the promise and also the magic. Makes sense.

Also wait i just had a thought. Does Shannon break the mirror each loop, or did by any chance Kanon break it last time. Because you remember he said before he died that she should wait "another 100 years in hell for the next summoner" and assuming this summons the witch...

*shakes* who is it????

hmmm this sounds...suspiciously similar to Eva. Is she saying this because she wants to intimidate her and convince her to break the mirror or is Eva somehow behind this?

and this is just the exact quote. Why is she quoting her? Just to remind her? And if she doesn't just wanna remind her and she just thinks this then why call Kinzo Father? Is she related to him? Me and my sis have talked about the possibility of her being somehow related to Kinzo, like a daughter thingy. I'm not sure, and i definitely don't have enough clues to figure it out rn but anyways. Kinda hard to fake all of this tbh.

Immediatly after this line Kanon comes in to save Shannon, and after some more talking Beatrice gives both of them a butterfly shaped burn/bruise mark on their left palms. She does that by controlling their hands, which immediately remembered me of the ending scene in the stageplay, where Shannon and Kanon "shoot" each other with their hands in the shape of a pistol. who knows. I obviously dont.

these things are getting longer and longer...

next part

[batbeato]

How unbiased do you think the Battler we see in Umineko is?

We know that pieces can not act out of character compared to the person they come from. So, however they are written, it must be some action that is feasible for them to make.

Specifically though, I’m wondering how - based on who is writing the person - how exaggerated/how much emphasis a certain part of their character gets.

Best way I can describe it is “In-Character” and “Bias” being separate aspects?

I’m looking at three ‘layers’ of Battler, I guess?

We have ‘Piece’ Battler in the Question Arcs, specifically in Legend and Turn, who was written by Sayo/Beatrice.

We then have ‘Piece’ Battler in the rest of the episodes, written by Tohya (?).

We have Meta Battler (and I’m actually unsure in Meta is actually included in the forgeries, or if the forgeries are specifically the gameboards/influences on the gameboard alone).

From what I understand the first two game boards that Battler plays with Beatrice are the message bottles Sayo cast into the ocean, or they are derived from those tales.

Therefore the ‘piece’ that Battler uses in either game (or, really, just Turn, because I’m unsure of when Ep1’s tea party is compared to the rest of Legend).

Sayo last saw Battler six years ago, when he was twelve. Furthermore, she only saw him once a year, most likely (if she was always on rotation during the family conferences?).

In writing the message bottles/gameboards, she’d be working off the memories of Battler from six years ago, and more, from one or two days out of the whole year.

In the Meta, she’d also likely be working off the memories of Battler from the day of the actual family conference in 1986, on top of general events that would have happened (middle school, high school, puberty, etc, which is why he’s so vague about the six years away in Legend, I think?).

So, the day of October 4th from 10:00(?) onwards, to the entirety of October 5th up to midnight on the 6th, (and I’m unsure of how much either Shannon or Kanon interacted with him in reality?), and an unknown amount of time in the early morning on the 6th as it was sunny when she and Battler got into the boat and left the secret harbor.

(and it’s really fucked up to think they were on the island the whole day with everyone else’s bodies laying around, in the guesthouse or mansion or in the rain, since the massacre kickstarted somewhere after midnight, and Sayo regained consciousness around an hour and twenty later, maybe less).

So, Piece Battler’s line of thoughts and actions, though ‘in-character’ to how Battler would actually behave in some situations, is influenced by Sayo’s memories of twelve-year old Battler? Even when (Meta) Battler instructs his piece to move, it’s influenced by that bias?

If the rest of the gameboards were written up by Tohya, then Battler’s “piece” would be maybe less biased than Sayo’s, considering Tohya might have a better grasp on what went on in Battler’s life day in and out after leaving the family?

but it would also be…influenced by his fear of Battler’s killing him, and his lack of memory about the incident itself, plus his guilt in regards to Sayo (and maybe even Ikuko’s own bias, because I think you mentioned once that we don’t know how much Tohya wrote himself, vs Ikuko, because they were joint writers for the forgeries?).

The concept of Meta and The Golden Land itself spins my head, so I’m not even sure what category Meta Battler would be placed into.

If he’s literally Battler’s soul, the part of him that is separate from Tohya, then as the ‘real’ Battler - not just a piece - he would have aspects of both the biased pieces -

Unless Meta is literally part of the forgeries? Example being Erika? Sorry if this doesn’t make any sense.

Sorry it took me a bit to get to this ask!

I think it's complicated, and it... really depends on someone's interpretation of the intersection between reality and fantasy. For example, subscribing completely to reality, of course Battler, in every iteration/appearance, is written in a biased way. Sayo hadn't seen him for six years, and then Tohya is completely dissociated from Battler and is terrified of becoming him, so he would naturally have incredible bias in writing him.

And then, delving more into fantasy, we have to determine whether the fantasy sections are also present in the bottles/forgeries, and if the written works have any impact on fantasy at all. For me, I vacillate between the idea that the fantasy sections are completely present, and the idea that while they are not present in full, they are there in the written works in some way, or else deeply influenced by the written works/authors.

As you mentioned, we also have to decide whether Meta-Battler is Battler's "soul" or not, though this is really just part of a general thing in Umineko, which is whether or not we accept the pieces/characters on Rokkenjima as the people themselves, or as pieces/fictional constructs that resemble those people. We have this same problem of bias with everyone, really - can we trust Sayo to write Rosa without bias, given Rosa's abuse of Maria? Can we trust Tohya to write Eva without bias, given Eva's abuse of Ange?

For me, I think the answer is that there is bias in how Sayo and Tohya write Battler - there's a clear shift in how he behaves and speaks starting in Episode 3, so for me it seems certain that the shift in writer had some impact on Battler's portrayal. However, that bias does not mean that Battler is out of character, or incorrect. Everyone has different aspects of themselves that present more at certain times. A coworker relating a story from work would portray a very different person than a romantic partner relating a story from domestic life, for example. So for me that bias is more like that: a different lens, but not a wholly inaccurate one. I think it must still be in-line with the real Battler, whether it's Sayo or Tohya (or Ikuko?) writing, because we have the author-given guarantee that pieces cannot act out of character.

The Battler we see in Umineko might not be the entire picture of who Battler was as a person, but he was still undeniably Ushiromiya Battler, in my opinion.

[davekat-sucks]

The new update is majorly pissing me off. Why the hell do they write Davepeta like that? I mean, I don't like the character. But the writing is so OOC. It's weird. And all the cutesy talksprites are not it. The cashgrab aspect of the whole project is showing itself yet again. Davekat and Davepeta, the fan favorites despite their questionable narrative relevance. I have my money on the whole Meenkat arc being a setup for Dave to save Karkat from the terrible abuse of Meenah. The Knight saves the Knight and they ride off into the sunset to set the example of moral and healthy endgame yaois. Whatever makes the money.

And fine, I know running projects is hard or whatever. But typos in the dialogue? Come on, get a proofreader. The game itself is shitty too. I had to reload a couple of times because I tapped something and it took me to some inner workings screen. Annoying.

Just, eurgh. The Vriska and Tavros bit was pretty okay, though. And the art was nice.

Davepeta is only here for representation of gender neutral non-binary. Nobody gives a shit about Davesprite or Nepeta as individuals as they try to work together in mind, body, and soul to figure shit out. Instead, they are here just to say HEY LOOK! NEPETA IS ALIVE AND FUSED WITH A DEPRESSED SPRITE WHO IS NOT DEPRESSED SPRITE ANYMORE BECAUSE OF HER GENKINESS HELPING HIM BOTTLE IT UP AGAIN! SO IT'S ALL OKAY NOW!!!! Plus they continue to exaggerate on Nepeta's playfulness despite there is times she can be serious. Would they really go to say the MEENAH is the one abusive? Or are they going to say this because she tried to groom him years back? It ain't escaping the fact that according to Patreon posts, THEY FUCKED. Plus, nothing on screen or even in Patreon posts had shown Meenah abuse. At best, it is trying to set up that Karkat will move on from Meenah to go be with Dave and Meenah will support him because they are besties. That kind of cliche crap. And yeah, I noticed the typos there. They really had to rush this in. No doubt since the flash game is a VISUAL NOVEL. Not an actual game. Japanese players may have accepted this as a genre, but they should know Westerners don't accept it. Even a walking simulator is more of a game because it involves actual movement and exploration. Not many of these guys who sit down to read shit like Higurashi, Umineko, Fate/Stay Night, CLANNAD, or any other long visual novels. Which is unironic considering they had managed to tolerate Homestuck of all things. And watching the anime adaptation of said visual novel does not count. I'm still shocked people are still giving them any money. None of the stuff here in Beyond Canon is worth one damn cent.

[pochapal]

beagremlin is not kidding! steamed hams umineko is peak content but it’s extremely spoilery about the true mystery of umineko. I wouldn’t say you need to finish the game to play steamed hands though. the same way the question arc should be enough to solve the epitaph, the question arc should be enough to solve steamed hands. just finish episode 4 and you can play it

"peak umineko content" being Literally Just Steamed Hams. i really do have so many questions that none of you can even begin to answer for the longest time

[thought-bubble-doodly-doo]

Just out of curiosity, what is it about the Umineko ending that you don't like?

Oh @fedyaplushie, thank you so much for giving me an excuse to talk about this. Spoiler warnings for Umineko and Higurashi obviously. Very long post ahead! <3 I love talking about this game.

I would like to start by saying that a lot of my distaste for the ending comes from pretty subjective reasons. I don't really think I can make the argument that the ending is OBJECTIVELY bad, but simply that I do not care for it. There are undoubtedly areas where I think the visual novel could be improved, but ultimately what ruins it for me is the revelation of the "truth."

For instance, Kinzo, from the Question Arcs, is one of my favorite characters in ALL of media. He is undoubtedly an awful person, but a WONDERFUL villain. He's introduced to us as a supernaturally lucky businessman who revived the family from destitution due to a devil bargain with a witch. He's a man of mystery, of obsession, of supposed black magic. Maybe he's doing human experiments with the orphans from the Funkin House. Maybe he has a mistress. Maybe he sold his soul. Who knows? It's fascinating!

Kinzo has this presence that just COMMANDS, if not respect, then awe. The mere thought of Kinzo sends half the family into survival mode. The sight of his seal sends the dinner party into a panic attack. Yes, he's constantly crying about Beatrice, but then he has these moments of lucidity where we see the Demon King of Rokkenjima. All of Kinzo's speeches about willpower and luck and magic are some of my favorite parts of the game! We get brief glances into a fascinating character, brought down by delusion.

Because Kinzo is so fascinating, because he's SO POWERFUL, yet he's so WEAK. His love/obsession for Beatrice has made the king into a fool. Kinzo, because of his wealth, can have basically anything he wants. But the one thing he wants is a witch's love that she's unwilling to give him. I mean, he trapped her soul on an island rather than accept that she's just not that into him. The contrast between the man his family sees and the man Beatrice makes him is so interesting!

But when the truth of who Kinzo and Beatrice are is revealed in Chapter 7, I feel like his character loses a lot of his dimensionality. Kinzo is a character defined by the strength of his will. I LOVE the scene where he's reading his own tarot fortune to himself over and over again until he gets the result he wants. THAT'S Kinzo to me. I mean, he built a church on the possibility he could resurrect a witch, because he's like super sure one day that's gonna happen! He's this commanding FORCE of a character, and then you learn he's not.

He's just a sad rich guy who got forced to be head of the family, got forced into a loveless marriage, and then signed up for WW2 in hope of dying in battle. Not even for some grand heroic reason or a sense of nationalism, just cuz he didn't want to live? KINZO?

You find out he betrayed his fellow armymen, he raped his daughter, and he spent like 40 years of his life crying over his mistress. It's pathetic. Everything cool about Kinzo is revealed to truly just be hearsay or rumor or a fact that's filtered through so many layers of telephone it might as well be a lie.

And I UNDERSTAND why his character took this route. I understand that it reinforces the larger narrative and Battler's inner conflict about wanting to believe in a Witch. Because ultimately the lie is prettier than the truth, just like Kinzo is cooler as a myth than he is as a man. However, I think when "truth" is revealed in a mystery, it should enhance the experience of a character rather than detract from it. Like I genuinely can't think of other mysteries where I found out what was really going on, and I was this disappointed in what was really going on.

Bernkastel was 100% correct when she warned about the idea of Truth. As knowledge is a one way street, and you cannot go back to ignorance after learning it. Really, you can boil all my gripes down to that sentiment. I regret learning what actually went on, because I liked it better when I didn't know.

Secondly, I don't like Battler's 180 in his character motivations. He begins the game against Magic and ends the game a sorcerer. In the bonus material of chapter 1, Berkastel tasks both Battler and the "Player" with figuring out the rules of the universe so the witch can be defeated. Battler's struggle is our struggle. As we play the games and Beatrice's cruelty is shown again and again and again, it only adds more fuel to the fire to want to see her defeated.

She toys with our relatives' corpses, she tortures, she revives only to kill again. She's a great villain but INCREDIBLY CRUEL. And Battler has to watch and suffer as his family is brutally demolished in an absurdly evil concoction of closed rooms and murder methods. The game instills us with a sense of JUSTICE, a fervent desire to see the Witch be revealed, so the culprit can pay for their crimes. Even if it hurts, even if it means a character we love is responsible, we and Battler have a DUTY to bring the criminal to light out of respect for the dead.

Even as Beatrice grows more likeable, I was still under the impression the game wanted us to want her dead? I thought her increasingly endearing nature was to again put us in Battler's shoes. If he disproves the witch, someone he loves is responsible. So of course there would be respect and endearment and even love between him and his opponent. It made sense to make us love the witch only to eventually (I thought) be tasked with having to deny her existence and face the fact she's just an evil human we thought we could trust. And then chapter four ends with Battler hearing his sister get pulled apart piece by piece as she BEGS HIM to defeat Beatrice and return to her! And then two chapters later, he's the master of the gameboard, and we're supposed to want to keep this facade up? We're supposed to DISCOURAGE ANGIE FROM FINDING THE TRUTH?!

And I'll admit, maybe, it's just a skill issue. Maybe I'm reading it wrong. Maybe I should have been undergoing a similar character arc to Battler as I continued to play through the chapters, but I do think it's a little much to ask an audience to completely change their motivation to finish a game. To work against their own interests, interests imparted to us by the game itself for the last… I don't know… 150 hours of playtime?!

And I understand that "Truth" in Umineko is a nebulous concept. I understand that Angie's desire for "Truth" is, in reality, a need for closure, and that this desire has kept her stagnated in that grief for over a decade and threatens to ruin her life if she cannot let go of it… But sometimes it feels like Umineko blue-balled me.

It says: Magic isn't real. Defeat the witch. Return to your sister, and I guess I just had the expectations that the game would deliver on these sentiments? I had my own theories of course as to what was going on and how it was all gonna wrap up. I thought maybe since Battler keeps dying last, we'd stumble upon a fragment where he was the sole suvivor and got to return to Ange. I thought maybe the idea that Beatrice's name was passed down was a metaphor that a grudge against the Ushiromiyas was passed down, and that culprit was in some way inspired by the OG Beatrice of the Devil's Deal but was not herself the "Witch of Legend." I thought maybe he'd pull a Higurashi and the characters would just foil the culprit's plans and everyone would get to live. I don't know.

But I never expected to have Battler just abandon his entire character motivation half way through the game.

Speaking of things changing, to my displeasure, halfway through the game, I do not like how the later chapters handled Bernkastel and Lambadelta. I know Ryukishi07 doesn't write every single word of the story before releasing his games. Sometimes during production, plans can change. Sometimes even for the better! Did you know Gohda was originally going to be having an affair with Natsuhi? I'm honestly glad that got cut. But I cannot say the same for Lambadelta and Berkastel.

I don't think it's controversial to say that it's REALLY OBVIOUS the original intent of Lambadelta was to have her be the amalgamation of loops for Takano. Bern talks about a great game she played against her with an overwhelming number of pieces, and it's clearly meant to allude to the original conflict in the Higurashi series.

But then for some reason??? They decided these two needed to be toxic yuri, and changed Lamdabelta to Satoko. And I know there was a lot of debate, and there still is some, about whether or not Lambadelta is some sort of hybrid between Satoko and Takano, but the recent Gou/Sotsu anime (which I also hate) pretty much confirms Lambadelta is 100% Satoko. I hate this for so many reasons.

Rika's best friend betrays her and keeps her in a looping torture.

Rika and her friends DON'T get a happily ever after, and are thrown into yet another cycle of tragedy.

Rika's relationship with Satoko is elevated so far beyond her relationships with everyone else, I honestly think it's a little insulting to the message of friendship the OG series perpetuated.

Also, I'm just not a big fan of Rika/Satoko as a ship

But that's why I hate Gou/Sotsu. Sorry for the mini-rant. Back to Umineko.

Because we as the audience as familiar with Rika, we're given an impression of the character of Bernkastel. She's our ally. She says as much. She says she takes pity and sympathizes with Battler, because she too was once thrown into a gameboard and forced to relive tragedy. But as the game progresses, Bernkastel becomes more and more of an antagonistic force, until eventually she's the ultimate villain of the game.

I'm sure this probably always was the original intention for her character. As Beatrice becomes more and more of an ally, Bernkastel simultaneously descends into villainy. But that doesn't mean I have to like it. I just don't like what her character became.

And I know, in reality Bernkastel is not a hero or a villain. She's an element of chaos, a witch so bored with eternity she has to force suffering onto others lest she remember her own traumas. I really do think that's very fascinating. Again, I just wish I hadn't been baited and switched and watched her go from an ally to an enemy.

Finally, we come to my biggest gripe. Which is arguably my pettiest complaint, so bear with me. But I think I could overlook all other issues I have with the ending if it weren't for this. I hate the fact that Beatrice, Shanon, and Kanon are all actually the same person: Sayo Yasuda. Because, personally, I feel like it undermines the core tenant of Umineko: Love. Love is to Umineko what Friendship is to Higurashi. "Without love, it cannot be seen," and frankly, I just think Ryukishi07 and I have fundamentally different philosophies on love.

In Chapter 6, there's this huge plot point about Shanon and Kanon's love for their respective partners, George and Jessica. Because we later learn they are the same person, they can only go on to live their life with one person, and there's this big deal made about how the love between these two "couples" is equal. They literally have a metaphysical duel about it, and even though it ends in George's favor, they reiterate again and again, that it really could have gone either way. Like a coin flip.

And I think what Ryukishi07 is trying to say is that Shanon and Kanon's love is "real." Although they are personas crafted by Sayo to survive her environment, the love they have for George and Jessica is 100% real. The person is a lie, but the feelings are not. However, I'm going to argue that the reason why Sayo's love for them is 100% equal is because she doesn't love either of them. She loves Battler! Battler is her Prince Charming, her gallant savior on a white horse. Battler is the person she crafts the mysteries for. Battler is the person whose return broke her psyche and caused a killing spree. Battler is her one, true love, and that fact negates the supposed love she has for the others.

Again, I just think this is where Ryukishi07 and I fundamentally differ. I don't think you can love more than one person at a time. I don't believe in having multiple "Best" Friends. I don't believe in polyamory. There is undoubtedly one of the cousins Sayo favors above the others, and that is Battler! And that fact RUINS the enjoyment I received from following these three relationships. Because that "love" that supposedly exists is a lie.

George may love Shanon with his entire heart, but Shanon merely sees him as a replacement for Battler. Jessica may love Kanon with her entire heart, but she too is a replacement for Battler. I'm not going to say that she doesn't feel affection for them. Of course she does! She cares very deeply for both of these people, but I don't think it's love. I think Sayo thinks it's love, but i just can't agree. I think we all know if Battler hadn't left, neither of these other relationships would have blossomed. And in Chapter one, she asks Battler if he remembers his promise to her. She's still seeking validation and love from that man while dating two other people!

Every time I remember a cute moment between Shanon and George or a romantic scene between Kanon and Jessica, I remember that deep down these two people are replacements for Battler. And it ruins the investment I had in these relationships. And because, again, love is the central theme of this novel, the growth and development of these relationships is a huge factor in the actual story. A factor I can't fully enjoy anymore.

And after the revelation of Sayo's existence, I don't really feel motivated to ship her with her one, true love Battler. Who is Sayo? We know a lot about her. She's a product of incest, she's the true heir of the Ushiromiya family, she's not cis, she's sad, traumatized, and loves mysteries novels. But we never get to see Sayo interact with Battler, genuinely. It is always filtered through the facade of one of her personas, either Shanon or Beatrice. The closest we get to seeing the real her is Lion, and I just don't think Lion and Battler have a lot of chemistry as characters. Even ignoring the fact they're cousins, I don't think they would work well romantically. For the great overarching romance of the novel, I am just not invested. I mean, Battler abandons her for six years and forgets his promise, but suddenly when he remembers he's willing to sink to the bottom of the ocean with her? I just don't buy it! I don't love this couple enough to see it!

Also, throughout the novel, this ideal of a one, true, undying love has been a net negative for this family. I mean, it was his undying love for Beatrice that caused Kinzo to rape his daughter. Kyrie was willing to kill a woman because of her undying love for Rudolph. I feel, continuously, the novel is framing undying love as a sickness that exists within this family, quickly turning to obsession and leading to ruin. I mean, Kinzo's young sprite is just Battler with grey hair, clearly paralleling his relationship to Beatrice and his grandson's relationship to Beatrice. And considering how that relationship worked out, I don't really want to support this relationship. (Of course, arguably the one who most inherited Kinzo's obsessive love was Sayo herself.) It's just so wierd to frame how undying love turned a man vile and evil, and then have us route for it at the end?

I just don't like how I invested so much time in those ships, only to be told that only one of them matters. And I know that's not the intended message of the visual novel, but I also can't get behind Ryukishi07's idea of what love is supposed to be.

Again, I LOVE UMINEKO. I think it is the greatest novel of all time. I just hate the ending for mostly subjective reasons, and you are free to disagree with them. I would NEVER say that Ryukishi07 is a bad writer or that he didn't handle his own story properly. Looking back, I can see the hints I missed the first time and how it all was inevitably leading to this. But that's the thing with a mystery. You go in, and you're given pieces of a puzzle, and sometimes you don't put it together correctly. The pieces were all there, but I just didn't see it right.

[c-orgiis]

was already interested vaguely in umineko but presence of a stageplay sort of makes me want to get into it more.. ehem. stageplay guy. i know theres like diff versions of the game w old or new sprites n i def want to play w the old ones from what i’ve seen but i was wondering where/how you played/read it? ik its on steam but like split up or something ? also all the yuri posting makes me v interested thanks for your hard work o7

HII ok so technically the different sprite styles arent different games per se its just that the steam release gives you the option to switch between two different sprite art styles (original ryukishi art vs art inspired by the. pachinko). theres also the console port of the game which is the third art style but in my humble opinion they lose a lot of the charm that the original sprites have so LOL

theres two games in the 'series' (the question arcs and the answer arcs) but they both count as a single linear thing its just that theyre split up into two games. so what youd want to do is play the question arcs first before getting to the answer arcs 🫡 i would also highly recommend playing with the voice mod which adds in the voice acting from the ps3 port of the game! even if youre a fast reader (like me lol) and are worried about reading too fast for them to finish speaking i still found that the voices really enhanced a lot of the scenes

in terms of how youd play the actual game its pretty much 99.99% reading with 0 gameplay but youd want to basically read the episodes and then the subsequent bonus chapters that unlock after you finish each episode (for some reason this isnt really something they tell you to do but the story does continue through the bonus chapters later on so itd be kind of bad if you skipped them or went out of order LOL)

i will also say this game does deal with a lot of heavy subjects so if you need a tw list id be happy to make one for you o7

[misarem]

Umineko Episode 5 Thoughts: The Part Where I Try To Lock In

I feel the need to just get this out while I have the chance to do this before I start episode 6. I think I finished this episode over a week ago at this point and have since been doing other stuff, been too busy with real life to pour over this vn, etc. My thoughts on the episode itself will be kinda minor but I'll compensate with my current theories on the overarching mystery and the murders. What I'm hoping to do is have preliminary theories ready for episode 6 so that I can develop them while reading it and be ready for endgame. I even started making a physical journal of my thoughts on each murder, character, and rule because after like 80% of my life in the education system this is all I know how to do to retain information, plus! itll be cute. but anyways

Doing what's easy for me and starting at the beginning and just working my way through. I'm still kinda burnt by Beato in episode 3 but I really do wanna believe she's like fully dejected now that Battler isn't matching her as an opponent the way she thought he would. Surreal to see her practically dead but I guess this is signaling that the game is becoming something much bigger than Battler vs Beatrice, to the point where Bern and Lambda are more active and Knox is now involved. Through some meta lens I almost wanna read this as like, an event within the world of detective fiction where a story spirals out of control and the foundations that do exist need to intervene. Feels like commentary on stories as a whole, what has been established as "good" and "reasonable" and what it means to subvert those paradigms, and how far you can reasonably go. And having these larger themes on fiction as a whole run parallel to the events of Rokkenjima, with the ideas of love and trust being established and broken between family mirroring the trust between an author and reader and the love for reading and storytelling, is very satisfying. And if you read the witches as authors and critics of mystery stories, or just stories in general, then the idea of fiction giving our lives fulfilment and meaning also operates on all these levels: the witches weave the narrative on Rokkenjima from a higher plane to stave off their boredom, those on Rokkenjima cope with the dire situation by blaming the murders on witches and demons, and outside of the murders, the people who struggle because of this family cope with fantasy, from Ange and Maria easing their loneliness with the sisters and Sakutaro, to, as we see later, Natsuhi finding refuge from her responsibilities in an imaginary Kinzo and his furniture.

Going off my ideas about black and white magic in the last episode, Natsuhi herself is beginning to resemble a white witch in the same way Maria did. Her and Jessica finally beginning to come to an understanding of one another only in the dire circumstances that were the murders of Rokkenjima was one of the first terrifyingly realo depictions of strained family relationships I latched onto in the game, and I was sorta sad to see her fall to the wayside in the rest of the Question Arcs (altho everyone else getting some focus was important). Very nice to see her in the forefront again here, this time focusing more on her self-sacrificing nature and her sense of duty to the image and wellbeing of the Ushiromiya family that feeds it.

Having THIS be the backdrop of her inner monologue is fitting considering the way everything she faces ends up spiraling into her own guilt and self-loathing, and how she needs to take everything on for her family. I can't even blame her at this point for imagining Kinzo recognizing her for her work cuz idk how else I would live like this. And when she tries to help her husband and he just keeps making the same types of decisions that fail his business ventures and she ends up just acquiescing every time. Wow its just harrowing. They can never make me hate Natsuhi. Also I forget if I addressed Maria's torture of Rosa in the last write up, I don't wanna say a whole lot besides the cycle of abuse within the Ushiromiya family is horrifying, and that it feels like this chapter, Maria's turn to inflicting harm on others to cope feels unaddressed in a concerning way. Like I'm scared

As for the new characters, I like Erika a decent amount so far, I'm mainly just waiting for her to fly off the handle because she was just so dominant here until the end of the episode. Her being an avatar of Bernkastel almost makes me think of her as like a joke on author insert characters in fiction, also makes me wonder just what Erika is, if she's supposed to be like a meta entity like the witches even tho she's meant to be a human? Does she just exist between reality and fiction as Berns fucked up creation? Its interesting to me. Also they keep namedropping Ange when talking abt Erika as a piece and its getting on my damn nerves keep my homegirls name out your mouth. I like Dlanor a lot too and how cordial and nice she can be. even tho formally she's usually an enemy.

Not much changed here besides moving Natsuhi up and Krauss down again lmao. I'll keep doing these just to track my opinions but it might be good to be more nuanced with it, add a few more tiers or find some other way to address the cast overall altho by this point, almost all of them in the okay tier or above are so well established and integrated into the story. If I take anything from this vn its gonna be the cast.

The murders themselves I was like fine with. I hope Jessica died painlessly she deserves a break. Obviously things went way differently but, I thought the way it worked was a little boring and I almost expect episode 6 to be some sort of do-over for it altho that feels unlikely at the same time. Altho I do understand it, this is supposed to be a breaking point for Battler, seeing someone actually be (wrongfully?) implicated but being powerless to fight against it before he has his epiphany moment so it's fine. The court scene also made up for it just in its style alone, the sound design, visual effects and transitions are such a treat and give this game such a strong identity among visual novels. The OST with tracks like patchwork chimera, ACI-L and totemblume is like incredible, -45 does such incredible work and I wish I could have them all on my vgm tag on this blog. I might need to liek stop being lazy and do my own vgm uploads and quit replying on other blogs to do it if i want them on my blog lmao. Still a good episode and it's obviously setting up for greater payoffs but it's hard for me to imagine that Bern and Lambda find this first game of theirs particularly interesting before the court scene.

What I'm interested about thought is Natsuhi's baby, if that will end up being a full-fledged piece of Lambda's, and if its the character who I think it is from the little snippets of him I've seen in the intro. It does kinda tickle me that the first twilight murders were all very deep, clean slices to the neck and there's just a Battler-aged, brown haired dude in the intro with a sword. Considering how hard he implicated Natsuhi by controlling her movements, his presence in the story is cooperative with Erika's sleuthing and I'm curious if they'll end up working together as, I guess meta entities in the story? We'll see.

Like I said before I go into ep 6 I wanted to just get down what I have as the solution so far. Nothing concrete still, and I know the how is super important even tho I kinda only have the who and sorta the why, but again I'm hoping episode 6 will help me develop that.

...

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...

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Anyways I really think it's Kyrie. PIOKJHGFHJKL:L I can't help it. I almost feel like I'm approaching it at the wrong angle and that she's a red herring or something, and I keep going back and forth, but at the same time, so much of the movement of the characters makes sense when you think of it as Kyrie manipulating things. Her face being completely smashed in the first twilight of episode 1. Her being the one to rile the other parents up by warning them about Beatrice in episode 2. The details she reveals about herself in episode 3 and the part of her and Hideyoshi's characters tab that alludes to her shooting him (maybe an accident but ???). And the way she positions herself slightly under Krauss when they're in the dungeon of episode 4, letting him take the reins but still having a lot of influence and command as well as watching them all die as they escape, being the only one to make it inside, being "missed" a bunch by the Chiesters and telling Battler in her own words to believe in magic while her version of the actual events as it is given to Battler is glossed over by the narration. The mystery of the code above the parlor in (i think) episode 3 and half of the numbers corresponding to Battler's birthday. And that, as Beatrice said, because of Battler's sin, people on the island die, that the sin feels like it could be connected to his unclear parentage and that the sin, by the fact that it occurred 6 years in the past, was close to Asumu's death, Rudolph's marriage to Kyrie and Ange's birth. Again I could be barking up the wrong tree cuz I really don't have the how or why down like, in a concrete way yet but I don't know it just feels so likely like I just feel it. And she at least has Genji or Shannon in cahoots too, not committing the murders but just helping with keys or acting as certain people. It would be easy to say they're acting on Kinzo's will but he's dead now so idk. But my vague guess is she wants revenge against the Ushiromiya family for how (like how it affects literally everyone elses like a huge trauma abuse machine) it affected her life, her relationship with Rudolph and the birth of her child. Maybe Battler really is hers but was taken at birth because Asumu's child had died or she has miscarriage and the family wanted to save face. And I think by manipulating the situation and her in-laws she managed to create a state of paranoia on the island, which facilitated most if not all of the murders even without her needing to act. Just because of some of the ways she dies, and some of the red truths restricting the possibilities, I don't know right now if it's possible for her to have killed everyone, but I think it's possible for her to have led people like Rosa and Eva to kill.

Kyrie is shown early on to be among the most shrewd and observant people on the island, at least concerning the battle for inheritance, and since her and the other siblings, besides Krauss and Natsuhi, are already in cooperation against Krauss, I don't find it hard to imagine that she could splinter the group further by influencing any one person in it on her own, away from the others, and I feel like that's how she got some things done in the first couple episodes, and maybe episode 3? Like for the first, I can imagine Kyrie taking Eva aside and using her competitiveness and resentment to convince her to go along with her plan to kill all the other siblings, blame Natsuhi to get her out of the way so the inheritance can be enjoyed by Eva and Hideyoshi with Kyrie taking a fraction while pretending to be dead. Eva goes along with it and after the murders, where Kyrie's whole face is obscured (and Shannon's half-face is hidden from George), and after they return to the parlor, Eva implicates Natsuhi heavily while stoking tensions even further by leaving with Hideyoshi and being very overt about setting the chain to their door and only coming out at precisely dinnertime. Going with the idea that Kyrie's still alive, she hides out in the designated guest room and kills the couple, escaping when Genji and Kanon discover it but leave to get help, escaping and resetting the chain from outside somehow, like with some sort of tool perhaps? and draws the magic circle and leaves, or if we believe Shannon is also alive, that her face was obscured for a reason and any confirmation that "Shannon is dead" can be bypassed with a loophole about her real name (Sayo I think I remember but if I google it I'll get spoiled), Shannon makes the circle and when Kanon and Kumasawa cut the chain, enter and move away from the door to one of the bodies, Kyrie slips out. I can't find any specific red text for this specific locked room other than the one for all locked rooms, so I'm guessing the instances where the entrances are unattended are deliberate. Kanon's death, from what I can find, isn't denied to have been with a trap like Natsuhi's is, so I'll guess that and then say the rest of the deaths were committed straightforwardly, with Shannon disguised as Beatrice for Maria and possibly Natsuhi as Kyrie kills them.

Episode 2 is weird cuz I don't feel like I can act like Kyrie can be proven to be alive atm but it feels like she could have been in contact with Rosa instead, potentially starting with the appearance of Beatrice at the "19th guest". Rosa witnesses her and while it isn't revealed in this episode, it's feels possible that this is likely Shannon in disguise having an effect on her because of how she watched Beatrice die as a kid. Kyrie is in the entrance when Beatrice "enters the mansion", and I think she likely pretended to see her to rile up the other siblings, saw Rosa as potentially weak and had her corroborate to seem more convincing. And later that night, at the chapel, Rosa kills the other siblings. No set motive for this, but when I read the red text which specifies that the key to the chapel didn't pass thru anyone else's hands before Rosa took it, it didn't, to my knowledge, specify that Rosa only took it once, so she could have grabbed the key around midnight and let them all in before killing them, forgetting or pretending she didn't, and then locking and leaving. I also think that the reason they were all at the chapel was over the gold, which we see three ingots after the discovery of the bodies. If the gold is real, I think Rosa could have solved the mystery here considering she solved it in episode 3, and brought some gold as proof, or Kyrie could have solved it and not said anything although that somehow seems less likely. Either way, over the fight about the gold, Rosa in a stupor or frenzy or something kills them and leaves. Since Shannon isn't shown here, maybe she pretends to be the Beatrice we see talking to them here and guts the corpses after, also placing the magic circle, but having Rosa return the key for her to find again. I don't know about the later deaths though I still have to work some of them out. Like what we see as Kanon being warped away and suddenly trudging around outside the kitchen might just be him being killed or gravely wounded and the body being taken and laid against that back door for Gohda to find. Stuff like that but I need to work it out.

Eva in episode 3 almost feels so obvious that it seems like a red herring. If Shannon and maybe Genji and mayyyyybe Kanon? are in kahoots then the six part locked room seems more doable. Eva killing the five after that feels really on the nose, I'm wondering if Beatrice losing some of the games to Battler's Eva culprit Hideyoshi accomplice theory was her playing her own game against him. Altho even with that there's still some mystery like the floating gun killing Hideyoshi which the character tips seem to imply was Kyrie's doing. Battler also proposes that Kyrie's idea about going to the mansion was to privately confront Hideyoshi, in his eyes to confirm that Eva was going out because Eva hated his smoke but a cigarette butt was found in an ashtray of the rom, and I think this is likely, but I also think that maybe, potentially like episode 1, Kyrie colluded with Eva and Hideyoshi and she wanted Hideyoshi to explain why Eva was acting suspicious, in the privacy of the mansion as the smaller guesthouse leaves more opportunity for conversation to be overheard. I also wonder if Kyrie knew that Eva found the gold. If Kyrie was with Rosa here the way she might have been in episode 2, Rosa might've told Kyrie that Eva found it, and besides that, I feel like Kyrie is the type of person to be able to deduce that Eva found it, but this is speculation. No clue what was happening as Kyrie's stomach was bleeding out in front of Eva though.

But this kind of is the best I got right now before I go into episode 6. All of this is assuming Kyrie's able to fake her death as a couple key points and that multiple murderers and servant accomplices are even permitted, I don't think I saw anything in red or any Knox rules against these things but that theory just makes things work better. Technically a lot of these murders can have anyone as the culprit with someone like Shannon as an accomplice but this is the most complete idea I can come up with. I don't even know about episode 5. Hopefully ep6 elucidates some things. Maybe Eva knew Kyrie was a killer and that's part of her resentment of Ange. Maybe there is some fucky true identity shit with Asumu and Kyrie. who knows! Also I had to text search and replace every time I called an episode a chapter because I'm barely cognizant of all the names of the individual chapters within the episodes and I'm just thinking of this like a big book god help me

[fujoreads]

Umineko: Episode 2 // Review & Thoughts

Heey it's Episode 2! I've just finished Episode 4, so I might as well catch up on these.

VNDB | Steam

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

CW: Murder (duh); non-explicit nudity; child abuse

P.S.: There are broken youtube previews due to my blog's theme, so they won't look as good, but I refuse not to show them.

If Episode 1 was crazy enough, this episode just gets crazier—and so on. I don't remember much of the details from this, but I do remember it focusing more on Shannon and Rosa this time.

There's even some cool foreshadowing I understand now after finishing Episode 4! I will only reference it in my EP4 review, though.

By the way, unlike EP1, I won't go into as much detail since we're all aware of who the characters are.

Let us begin!

PLOT

Different deaths, different order, different victims!

We get to know more about Shannon and her inner desires for a successful romantic relationship with George. They are very cute together, though I found the whole aquarium date a bit slow.

THEY SAID THE THING!!!

Hahaha, it's fun to see how this sentence can apply to so many different situations, meaning different things.

CHARACTERS

Ushiromiya Battler

This might be the most emotionally brutal episode to him. Well, to an extent they all are, but the way Beatrice made him submit so hard is something else.

This was a fantastic episode for femdom enjoyers such as myself kekw

Ushiromiya Eva

Eva plays a huge role in Shannon's view of herself (and her role in George's life) as an obstacle.

I don't have much to add—she'll have her time next episode.

Ushiromiya Jessica

I almost forgot this was the episode we discover Jessica has a crush on Kanon. I'm not going to lie, I hate this ship. Well, hate is a strong word, but I don't really feel any chemistry and it feels forced, so it's kinda funny how Kanon keeps rejecting her.

Ushiromiya Rosa

Her relationship with Maria is a continuous focus over the entire arc, but this episode focused a lot on how her relationship with her family shaped her into this well-meaning but abusive parent.

This dynamic will be better developed in Episode 4, but I really enjoyed these scenes, even if they hurt a lot to read through.

Rosa is the leader this time. It's fun how our reaction towards her with a gun is completely different from EP1, when Natsuhi was the surviving parent.

It's the eyes, I tell you. They have malice in them o_o"

Though I'll admit, the last scene with her and Maria was hella badass, and it was nice to see her trying to save her at all costs, even if she was a bit greedy as well.

Her Tea Party torture scene was... man, that was tough to read.

Shannon

Shannon had huge character development throughout this entire episode and I loved it. But to be completely honest, I can't remember a lot except for Rosa's paranoia.

The Stakes

Ooooh man, I wasn't expecting to see actual demons. I don't know why I wouldn't expect it, but I just didn't. I liked Asmodeus, she seems fun!

Atmosphere & Soundtrack

My favorite banger for the episode! It's such a great ending scene aaaa

Mechanics & Gameplay

We get introduced to the red truths. I finally understand the memes!!

I love how Ryukishi is always introducing new concepts even within the game. It keeps things fresh, especially considering how long this game is.

Final Thoughts

Well, this was it for me! I think the next episodes might be more detailed, I just forgot a lot about this episode. Of the Question Arc, this may be the least memorable, unfortunately.

It was still a great episode, and I finished wanting more! I'll give this a 7.5/10, aka 4 stars!

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

Thank you for reading it all to the end! I’m working full-time and looking for another job to make my life possible; would you be so kind and consider giving me a little tip? It can be as low as 3 bucks and it’d make a huuuuuge difference!! If you tip 10€ (or higher), you can dictate my next read and be credited (if you’d like) on that review! Have a nice day!!

[shslprince]

Finally beat All the question arcs for Umineko! While I’m waiting for the answer arc to boot up, I wanted to go over my thoughts so far, tho they’re probably a bit scattered and all over the place lol

Bro, the Ushiromiyas are so fucked up. It’s awesome. All of them are desperate, willing to stoop to disgusting lows. Their upbringing by Kinzo to be as coldblooded capitalists really fucked up their relationships growing up, but there’s also a side to them where they do want to be better. It’s.. a lot, they’re very multi-faceted.

Speaking of family, when people say Ryukishi07 used to be a social worker before working on his games, all the scenes with Maria and Rosa definitely prove this. Their scenes are very uncomfortable, and hit a little to close to home.  It’s incredibly tragic as well. Rosa really does love Maria, and wants to be a better mother for her. But she also despises Maria, with the stigma of being a single mother.

Along with that, it is intriguing that sexism is a rather blatant aspect within the writing. There is plenty of focus on Rosa, Eva and Natsuhi all being mistreated due to their status of being a woman. Eva in particular had to deal with the harsh misogyny from her brother and father, but as a result perpetrates that same cruelty to her sister and in-laws.

Beatrice is so fun. It’s surprising how naturally she went from a sneering, cruel and prideful woman that eagerly busts battlers balls at any given moment to a pathetic sopping beast by the end of Episode 4. Her dynamic with Battler is very fun, and I’m always having fun whenever they’re on screen together.

Finally, There’s the overall message of the series: Without love, it cannot be seen.

I’m not sure if Ryukishi was ever into true crime, but reading through the games during the current hype for the genre is fascinating, especially in episode 4. The bizarre murders of Rokkenjima becoming a focal point of rumors and gossip, constant theorizing as to what happened, in a way turning a tragedy to a plaything for armchair detectives. The survivor and their families are dehumanized, constantly being pestered for answers instead of being looked at sympathetically.

The element of love is important. Without love, or sympathy, finding the true nature and motives of the massacre will be impossible.

Very intrigued with how the answer arcs will play out. I was vaguely aware of how the question arcs went since I was first exposed to this series via the terrible DEEN anime, but from here on it’s all new territory. I’m very excited!

Entering the answer arcs, here are my theories so far;

Beato is definitely one of the servants. If I had to guess, probably Shannon with Kanon backing her up. Those two always felt off, especially during the third game where they somehow “came back” near the end. Plus, considering both of them are using pseudonyms the whole time, any declarations of their deaths in red can be moot if its not using their real names. With Virgilia being a possible stand-in for Kumasawa and Ronove for Genji, Shannon being a stand-in for Beato is possible.

Instead of 1 culprit behind all murders, it's likely there are multiple murders that are happening concurrently. All the siblings have a strong enough motive and quite a few have enough combat experience it's possible some of them really were trying to take others down for the inheritance/the epitaphs gold.

Anyways, onto new ground!

[whenthechickencry]

Umineko EP4. Replay Part 2

He, uh, did of course. Of Course, part of Ange's arc is learning to not assume the worst out of everyone, but.... I suppose the truth is more complicated than a simple he sold me out, though. I think you are

You can see Ange knows that the truth isn't really something definitive, something she goes back on during EP8, but I don't think you can really blame her considering the surrounding circumstances but more on that later.

In other words, Endless magic is writing an infinite amount of truths to a space where the truth can't be determined, you then have to start considering why someone would want that, and the answer is the depressing answer that someone thought an endless amount of lies was better than the truth of their life.

Considering we know the Rudolf/Kyrie murder theory is becoming popular at this time Ange is hard coping here considering that kind of theories strange superstitions.

Again, Nanjo is an awful liar. Which is funny bc he's the one that has to lie the most out of everyone.

It's Natsuhi who falls into the trap first, which makes sense, I don't think Natsuhi is dumb or anything but she wasn't raised in an environment where she had doubt about everyone around her like the others were, I think.

It's kind of interesting how in early chapters Rudolf would shut up Kyrie before she could say much but in these later chapters Kyrie is a very active participant in the events, she was the one who tries to bait Hideyoshi last chapter too. I wonder if Yasu kind of projected the Natsuhi Krauss dynamic to them, and Tohya maybe had a different view of it? But we do get information that Kyrie isn't completely aware of Rudolf's situation, so it's not entirely made up, but it seems Rudolf is fine with letting her talk once she starts. I guess it might be a thing of "Rudolf knows Kyriie is incredibly sharp but is embarrassed by it and can only sometimes swallow his pride

I thought it was Battler who figured this out, but uh I guess Kyrie and Krauss spell it out for him and he just takes credit afterward.

Still though, you can tell Battler has gotten rid of a lot of his ep2 and 1 naivete, he would have cried and said Krauss wouldn't do that at that time, I think.

Beatrice obviously had to do this eventually, a game where you ask the person with the answer enough questions until they give your the answer isn't exactly a game that proves anything.

Ange already caught on to how te catbox works, no Virgilia or braun tubes necessary!

If you argue like this you are just throwing shit at the wall though.... you aren't trying to understand what the other person is getting at at all. The contrast between the triumphant music that plays while this is being said and the knowledge that this will lead to the ep4 tragedy is interesting....

Everyone deciding how to team up against Krauss without even needing to discuss how they were going to corner him is pretty interesting, I think it shows that they have done this before from their awful childhood.

Hideyoshi here is taking the role of making sure Krauss doesn't just say fuck all of you and hole up in his room or whatever. Krauss doesn't really have an option but to take the deal but if he gets stubborn....

Forgot how hammy and insane Kinzo gets on this chapter.

He's really misogynist though so maybe it is a more accurate Kinzo than Natsuhi!Kinzo

Yeah George you are so fine and not affected by it at all we won't get a scene 2 episodes later about how not fine you really were with it, just rub it on Jessica's face her concerns are so small for someone as great and mature as you.

Ange's really angry at this fake display of Rosa and Maria's bond... it is mostly written in a way to satisfy Maria I am sure but still, I would probably not react that differently if one of my friends abuse was written out like this....

Maria is not like, wrong, that Ange tends to think what objectively happened = is what she wants to have happened. You can see this with how she refuses to believe Eva was not the killer, but still... She's obviously right in this situation but yelling at Maria for it is definitely not the answer.

The VA did a good job with Rosa here... you can tell Rosa knows that what she is doing fucked up. The fact Maria knows all the sites to hide her neglect from memory is really, really fucked up. Rosa knows she is fucking up. But that isn't enough to stop her...

I am crying again, I think what makes these so much worse is that I am pretty sure if Maria told Rosa any of these she would get really fucking angry...

Maria pretends so hard to not know what's going on but Sakutarou breaks the illusion "If she thought you were a pain or annoying" that's not what anyone so far has said!

Even when tries to force herself to think she is happy, she can't stop hoping and begging for her mother to come back.

I used to have really tough conversations not completely unlike this when I was getting abused... in the long run, I think it was very important that I heard these tough truths even if I rejected them at the time. But I think you can tell Ange isn't coming from it from the right place, she's mainly angry Maria isn't suffering like she did....

Imagine abandoning your child for many days and your first worry is if they were happy in the wrong way....

The real issue here is that Rosa felt embarrassed, if you think about it the chances of a 9-year-old connecting all the dots would be pretty hard, and even if she did she can dismiss it as a business trip or whatever, but Rosa feels deep embarrassment at herself and what she has done, so having Maria even be kind of aware of it causes her to lash out.

To be honest, it's hard to not feel like the bad guy here with Maria insisting she was happy and me pointing out that her abrupt mood changes and seeking consolation from her child are both also abusive.... but it's important to know that in the end Maria was so pained by all of this she chose suicide.

It's kind of funny Maria can't keep up considering how much she has mastered the terms by 1986, guess this is a year or 2 beforehand.

In other words, Kumasawa can get the other servants to play along with Sakutaro, lmfao.

The description of a diplomat in Sakutarous's profile is very funny to me.... I am just imagining him as a country representative at an embassy.

[construingseacats]

Umireread - Turn of the Golden Witch: Chapter 7: 'Furniture' and 'People'

Sat, Oct 4 1986 - 6:00PM

The following contains spoilers for the entirety of Umineko. Please do not read if you are yet to finish it.

Is the sky worsening? Or is the mood? With the talk of blue and grey skies, could the typhoon not just be a plot device to facilitate the classic setting of a murder mystery, but relevant to the deeper commentary of perception as a whole?

Poor Yasu. It must hurt a lot whenever she hears about George’s eventual dreams and desires and how they’re incompatible with her. The reality of the situation setting in, I suppose.

We’ve talked about finding joy in the mundane, and I do find myself wondering about the silly details of reality that don’t get addressed here. Who’s eating all the extra meals that get made? I presume whoever takes Kinzo’s meal to the study gets his, Yasu probably has to eat for both Kanon and Shannon whenever Gohda is cooking for everyone (since they can just cook a single meal and pretend both Kanon and Shannon has eaten when they do it themselves), but how are they handling Beatrice’s meal? Is Yasu eating all three? Are they throwing the food somewhere and hoping no-one finds it? This is one of those things that really doesn’t matter, but is fun to think about.

I do really love Gohda as an outsider to the servants - he adds a nice dynamic by not having everyone in the staff automatically being together on team Yasu. Thinking about it, I kind of wish we had more of a dynamic between Battler and Gohda, given they’re both “outsiders” to the family. I could see a natural bond happening there - and while the Ushiromiya tend to be naturally prideful and look down on the servants, we’ve already had scenes with George and Shannon falling for them, so there’s a precedent there for the new generation to look at them as humans rather than furniture.

And Kumasawa’s at it again. Still not quite sure what to make of this.

So this scene is interesting by itself - but it’s also another reflection on the absolute meaninglessness of tradition and seniority (even if it’s being done through Gohda’s tinted lens of desire). Is there something to be said about the western fascination detailed through the Ushiromiya being tied to a criticism of Japanese society unconditionally demanding respect for elders? This would be a pretty hot take for a fairly fundamental part of society, but I don’t think it’s inconceivable - we’ve already seen how Krauss, as the eldest, is easily the most incompetent of Kinzo’s children; and a good portion of the tale dwells in Kinzo’s sins as well. Perhaps, once again, Ryukishi’s past as a social worker has made him reconsider this axiom of society, given the amount of terrible elders he’s no doubt had the misfortune of encountering?

Another pretty heavy scene of Yasu questioning herself regarding the upcoming events of the night - although the phrasing of this “discreetly” taking place in the corner of the kitchen is rather amusing given how emotional Kanon is getting. Of course, if this was all taking place as an internal dialogue…

Yasu literally caught daydreaming, ha.

Can’t wait for the Nanjo black magic arc. I wonder if the book he picked up is one of the ones in a foreign language that he can’t read? Wouldn’t put it past him, if he’s sufficiently bored.

Interesting comment - is this reflective of Battler for this game?

I think there’s something to be said about all the times that Umineko is stating the central message in the early episodes, but you’re not going to pick up on it while your brain is focused on solving the mystery. Kinzo talking about how chess is about having fun isn’t going to tell you who the culprit is, why the murders are happening, or reveal any new information - but that’s exactly what’s happening on the meta level, isn’t it?

And we’re even literally talking about it going on in purgatory. It’s incredible how on the nose we can get at times.

It feels odd to ignore the Shannon-Beatrice scene here, but I’m withholding my thoughts on that. The inner monologue is inherently intensely complex, so it’ll be better suited to the Wake than a liveblog.

Another classic “Obvious” from Umineko.

Gee, Rosa is saying this like she’s under gunpoint. I wonder if she’s been coerced into something.

Well yeah, we have an entire Epitaph designed for that exact purpose.

There’s certainly something to be said about how the clock sound is the same one used for the guns being cocked. Quite a loaded concept, eh?