#kassandra plays umineko ep2 for the first time

[kassandra-the-witch]

Some would argue that a good piece of literature has to put its thesis statement in its opening. While I would disagree with such structural determinism, let me zero in on these first lines of conversation in Umineko Ep2 because, and bear with me here please, I think there is something interesting going on here on two distinct levels.

All content notes for Umineko apply to the following short analysis.

In these six lines, the player-reader is confronted with an almost superficially idyllic scene of a couple going to an aquarium. Sayo, in almost child-like wonder, is amazed by the sharks. George comments that he would eat them if he could. Sayo voices sympathy for the sharks and remarks that this was a very Japanese sentiment for George to express. George counters that members of specific other national identity groups would likely do the same. Sayo does not know how to react to that.

This is not the first time a member of the Ushiromiya family has reacted to a large and fascinating set of animals with the suggestion to consume them. In Ep1, when the visitors first arrive on the island, people remark on the absence of the seagulls. Battler jokes to Maria that Jessica might have grilled and eaten them. While I interpret that moment in Ep1 to moreso demonstrate one of Battler’s useless and strange attempts at making a joke while employing misogyny and fatphobia, there is something else going on. The usage of animals and animal products is a complex subject that requires a broader awareness of material conditions, modes of production, and the ordering of relationships between nature and humanity and I do not wish to suggest to say the important point of these moments is the suggestion to eat an animal. Rather, it is the rather totalizing gaze that designates everything, in this case living creatures, as something yet-to-be-consumed that sticks out to me. I have spoken in length about the Ushiromiya relationship to the ecology in underchapter 2.3 of my essay on Ep1. Here, I see a repetition of what happened between Maria and the singular wilting rose – the ability to empathize with other living beings around oneself is attributed to childishness, whereas the consumptive perspective is elevated as normalized and sensible. This ordering of the relationship between nature and humanity is then attributed to not only one specific national identity, but also attributed to the United States and Italy. Japan, the United States, and Italy have all been – and continue to be – imperialist actors. As I suggest in underchapter 2.4 of my essay on Ep1, it is the historical situation of convergence between US imperialism, Japanese fascism, and European fascism(s), that gave Kinzo the ability to resurrect the Ushiromiya family as significant profiteers of imperialism and fascism. Furthermore, the entirety of underchapter 3 my essay on Ep1 explores another Italian connection, this time intertextually, in the form of the (anti-)Dantian references and Beatrices of Ep1. As innocent as this exchange is, it is still mired and enwebbed by the violence that is the Ushiromiya family. I am still of the firm conviction that there is an unadressed and undeniably coercive element to George’s relationship with Sayo given that his grandfather forced Sayo into servitude as a literal child without support network. Dating the much younger disenfranchised woman who your grandfather de-facto materially controls and has emotionally abused for most of her life is not the beautiful romance you think it is, George. Disregarding this interpersonal relationship, the consumptive urge of the Ushiromiya family is once again taking the centre stage. Given how the cycle of violence this family operates on, I would not be surprised about this topos of consumption repeating at several points. And, in the same vein and given the gore and grotesque so central to Umineko, I would not in the slightest bit be surprised to see either symbolic or actual cannibalism at some point of the story. To quote what @siphonophorus once said about the Ushiromiyas: “theyre an ouroboros”.

The second level of reading this initial exchange is metatextual. From my short adventure into Ep2 before I wrote my essay on Ep1, I know that this day at the aquarium is an isolated and idealized event, an unlikely scenario in the course the Ushiromiya family takes. The player-reader observing Sayo and George in their mundane couple interactions takes a similar relationship to them as they do towards the sharks. In other words, the sharks are in an isolated, idealized environment meant to demonstrate some typical, mundane shark activities. Outside of this isolated, idealized environment, in their natural habitat, those sharks, like most species, would be subjected to the systemic collapse caused by the colonial-capitalist world system. Outside of this superficially cute date visiting the aquarium, in their more common home of the mansion of Rokkenjima, George and Sayo would be subject to the corroding social forces of the colonial-capitalist world system that props up the Ushiromiya family. Is me writing this analysis not like tapping against the glass and wondering if they will react? (This is a metaphor. Please do not tap against the glasses of actual aquariums.) Interpreting this relationship between play-reader and characters in that way also brings up one of my questions from my essay on Ep1; namely, how I am supposed to read the witches. Perhaps I am not supposed to read the witches in the first place. Perhaps the witches read me. When Bernkastel turns her gaze towards the player-reader in the second-order frame narrative of Ep1, a.k.a. the witches’ tea party, she establishes knowledge of the player-reader, furthermore designating them as merely a figure in her game. This inversion of the fourth (glass) wall, is this her tapping against the glass of the aquarium that the player-reader inhabits? Are the witches looking at the player-readers with the same consumptive yearning that underlies George’s remarks in these opening lines? Is there an order of being observed ongoing that goes from fish to George to the player-reader to the witches? Is me reacting to the story also just a story to Beato? Is the goal of Umineko then to break free from being read by the witches? But is that even possible?[1] Just some thoughts I have here before going into Ep2 proper. I am looking forward to it. I have been told Battler dies many deaths in this Episode and I hate that man.

[1] Of course, and I stress this here because such metatextual games toying with elements of unreality can wreak havoc on people that have a difficult connection to reality, the witches are not real in the actual real world. But I could easily imagine that Umineko as a text might try to frame the player-reader in a certain way, to implicate them in the actions of the story, to create a fictional suppersession and reordering of the reader-character relationship inherent to most stories.

[kassandra-the-witch]

You know, I did anticipate the semi-symbolic cannibalization of an Ushiromiya by another Ushiromiya. It was gruesome but far from surprising or even shocking.

But this:

This was the closest of a jumpscare this game provided since the rock performance. This is above my paygrade. I do not even know what this means.

[kassandra-the-witch]

Me, in home office, trying to sanitize data points in the database I am supposed to be working on:

A thought who has just been born in my brain: The scene in the tea party where Rosa is forcefully subjected to cannibalism is a metaphor for living under white supremacist patriarchal capitalism.

Me, spraying it with water, as if it were a cat misbehaving: Hush, little culver. Your mother needs to work now because that's how we get the money that can be exchanged for the goods and services we need to survive.

The thought, untouched by my attempts to supress it: Beatrice's violence is just a way more overt realization of the actual, but obscured violence of the Ushiromiya family, right? In capitalism, you can barely and only with great difficulty opt out of consuming goods that were created from the repeated violent exploitation of others. Beatrice simply shows that on a much more graphic, interpersonal setting where it matters. The disgust, rage, fear, terror that Rosa feels in that moment is that of any consumer under capitalism that realizes the scope of the violence necessary that this food ends up on the table, ready to be eaten.

Me, pushing the thought out of the mental door: Darling, there are ten thousand similar thoughts to you around here saying that Umineko is about capitalism. We know. That is an open and shut secret. What I need is to compensate for the area I have so far neglected: The inner workings of the characters. Why is Beatrice doing this? What crimes did Kinzo do, what kind of fate did she suffer? Is she repeating cycles of violence and suffering because that exonerates her own abuser, because it is easier for her to be violent than to accept a person she trusted had voluntarily decided in favor of hurting her? At the end of the day, must she accept that Kinzo has been violent by choice rather by the overwhelming inescapability of violence, before she can move on? And who will be the one to demonstrate to her that violence is, despite everything, a choice?

The thought, screaming louder: You see, this is about the homecoming of capitalism! Behind the polished and seemingly safe walls of Rokkenjima, secluded from the outside world exploited to maintain their lavish luxuries, a magical, inevitable force arrives, unperturbed by the social walls erected around them, to expose them to the very violence they propagate! Beatrice is the Mask Of The Red Death! Kinzo is not only a parody of Shakespeare's Prospero but a rather faithful nod to Poe's Prospero!

Me, locking the door behind me: Once again, you are missing the trees for the forest. Let us return to work post haste.

[kassandra-the-witch]

The fact that from my provincial university library database alone I am able to pick up on two academic works on Umineko in English (excluding biologist's works on, you know, the actual seagull species) and that I will not be able to read them for a long time (because avoiding spoilers) bugs me. Like there is certainly a niche academic interest in Umineko but I can't engage with it. * sigh *

[kassandra-the-witch]

There is something to be said about how mobilizing the idea of a witch allows Rosa to obscure her violence as an abusive parent and Kinzo to obscure his violence as a profiteer from imperialism... blaming supernatural forces is easier than confronting the actual violence at hand... until those supernatural forces you used as an excuse become real and demon murder everyone around you

[kassandra-the-witch]

EGG MOMENTS. SO EGG.

[kassandra-the-witch]

The sacrifices of the second twilight are about to be revealed...

[kassandra-the-witch]

Friends romans countrymen I really wish I had the energy to continue Umineko. I know Episode 3 is going to be my thing. Someone told me there's a, like, fusion of Eva and Beatrice in Ep3 and to fuse two evil unhinged women is the unethical narrative experiment of my dreams. Unfortunately work is kicking my ass still and Umineko costs a lot of energy to continue. Literally had an easier and more relaxing time getting into Elden Ring lately. Hope you will still be interested in my thoughts whenever I will manage to continue Umineko

[kassandra-the-witch]

I am still entertaining a "fifth child" theory, where Kinzo had a secret fifth child, and either that child or that child's child is one of the Beatrices. Kinzo's violent possessiveness of (one of the) Beatrice(s) always struck me as weirdly paternal, if not incestuous. But it would make one of the Beatrices ending up with Battler suspect, unless of course the Beatrice ending up with Battler is completely distinct from the Beatrice of Ushiromiya blood.

[kassandra-the-witch]

I have been spoiled by a YouTube thumbnail. There was a yet to be introduced character with a blue hat with crossed keys on it and apparently it's a screenshot from Ep6. Now, I am bad at heraldics, but two crossed keys can only mean one thing: the pope is sending in his personal elite team of anime girls to investigate the Rokkenjima murders

[kassandra-the-witch]

Firstly: This woman transitioned in absolutely the right way, 10/10 aesthetic, that is an amazing outfit composition

Secondly: The only other people wearing the one-winged eagle not on a piece of clothing but drawn (?) on the skin are Sayo and Eva, with Sayo being the only other one having it drawn (?) on the thigh. No idea what to do with that information but, you know

[kassandra-the-witch]

With all this painful heterosexuality going on in the Ushiromiya household I absolutely can not wait for Lambdadelta and Bernkastel's absolutely unhinged lesbian antics that I have been cryptically promised

[kassandra-the-witch]

You might be wondering what I am doing, and where I am in the story right now. Work is ramping up again, so my time for diversions does not that often provide the amount of energy I'd like to invest into Umineko.

Last thing I remember from the point in Ep2 where I am at is Tactical Advanced Minotaur and the Demonic Stakes being revealed to be mean anime girls. Rest assured that I was quite dumbfounded by the amount of lore dropped in just those handful of scenes.

("Satan actually works for Beatrice" and "Satan is an anime girl" are things I should have been mentally prepared for with how this story does things, but, no, I was actually staring at the screen making internet modem startup noises)

[kassandra-the-witch]

The fact of George's constant unawareness of the genre he is in... George, even if he ultimately was one of the final girls of Ep1, is more like a first girl. Someone who ominously speaks of happiness and bright futures, unaware of the intense violence lurking around the corner.

[kassandra-the-witch]

How often does this story want to turn one day around and around and around. The murders in 1986 don't interest me. I want, I need to know what happened between 1923 and 1950.

[kassandra-the-witch]

FROTHING AT MY MOUTH SCREECHING LIKE A PTERODACTYL