#r07 what the fuck

[meear]

umineko fans are the original "if you don't like it you just didn't understand it" people. I genuinely cannot think of anyone more annoying and obnoxious, except SNK fans, except not even them, because in Umineko's case that behavior is enabled by the author himself. It's crazy how a story that spent hundreds of hours discussing the value in several coexisting interpetations will have both characters and fans turning around and tell you that actually you're completely wrong for thinking a certain way

The crazy part is they don't even realise how their smug attitude about being part of R07's very special club of people who "have love" and the superior way they act about holding the true answer are EXACTLY the Erika traits they criticise in readers who don't think like them. "He spells it out but you still cannot see it? Lol" "are there still people who can't accept the literal canon answer? lmfao" "you know you're exactly the goats r07 wrote about right?" (Because r07 is a god who cannot possibly be contradicted, this is supposed to be the worst insult somehow) (these fans cannot seem to decide who the goats are an analogy for, considering they'll scramble to say they only represent the story's witch hunters as a criticism of true crime fans when you call out r07's arrogance, yet they'll smugly tell you you're just a goat when you question the story itself. Thank you, it's nice to know that Ryukishi wrote about me, but that doesn't answer the fucking question, Brian)

It's incredibly ironic. How did a story like Umineko create and encourage so many people to sanctify one "official answer" and taking any other attempt as an insult?? Like is anyone feeling how ryu07 completely fucked up at what he was trying to do?

"So I won't open the catbox and reveal what actually happened on the island." oh, that's cool, I actually really like that! I agree that ultimately the true events of that day are a pretty trivial part of the story, and it's way more interesting not to know - "anyway it's Rudolf and Kyrie and it happened exactly like so and so, and Shkanontrice did this and that".

... Okay, well I really wish that had remained a mystery forever, since the point was that any truth would've been anticlimatic, and the choice to reveal that genuinely kills a lot of what made Umineko's appeal to me, but I guess we can still have fun with EP1-4 and try several alternative theories for the sequence of events- "here's the manga explaining everything in detail and if you didn't get it have you tried maybe having some more love? It would be sooo clear if you had love lmfao. you literally cannot comprehend my work unless you have"

... I really wish that guy would stop making assumptions about the inner mind of complete strangers who read his work, but I do enjoy getting to choose an ending! it really fits in with Umineko's theme of choosing the truth for yourself and making your own path that you can be happy with, as long as you keep thinking- "the Magic ending is meant to be the true end btw. if you prefer the other one you pretty much have no heart lol, it's obviously framed like a bad ending and there's only one acceptable choice and one way ange can find happiness"

... man, I'm so bored. Why write a game like that and then make it so that some choices are better than others instead of letting people think for themselves? Why would you force an interpretation on people/Ange when I've been led to believe that the narrative was against that sort of things? You want to highlight the value in your vision of "magic", fine, but why am I the heartless bitch for disliking that perspective and even trying to see things differently?

Why would you write a whole game around the really fun concept of several tales happening at the same time and the existence of endless truths inside the same catbox only to open the catbox and tell me "NO, you need to think a certain way, and if you don't like my answer FUCK YOU"

I understand that maybe he just had a specific answer in mind but I'm sorry the way he write the ending simply does not match the vision he seemed to have in the earlier chapters.

I genuinely respect Umineko as a work, I think it's one of the most ambitious stories I've seen and there is some amazing writing in there, but if Ryukishi wanted to allow for people to keep thinking and discussing what it means, he has failed miserably and I'm not talking about confession of the golden witch, I'm talking about the way he and his minions have shut down any possible discussion under the guise of "you just don't get it" (rephrased to "you don't have love" to make it sound more enlightened) and it's soured my enjoyment of something that should've been an amazing story. What is even left to discuss here when everyone has pretty much already made up their mind?

[whenthechickencry]

Umineko Ch1. Replay 4

The fact she calls out to her mom when she is the one person who isn't gonna figure out a calm way to deal with this hurts, ouch. Even amongst all the hatred she has for her mom she still trusts her.

This line always stuck with me because of how insane it reads on the outside. She's 9! A whole 9! She's an infant what do you mean old! I guess it shows her toxic environment meant she was never allowed to act like a child and is bitter about it.

Hurts to read this. Clearly, they want to stop Rosa's abuse but don't know how. It's easy to judge them as cowards but realistically what can they do? Yell at Rosa who will then take it out on Maria more?

Honestly living on that island seems like abuser heaven so at least Jessica's parents aren't the worst, comparatively speaking. She has very limited contact with the outside world and every exit is very tightly controlled.

Setting up the "who gave Maria the umbrella" mystery I see Kanon!

It's really hard to not read Maria as autistic me, with her taking orders very literally, her word repetition, and her hyper fixation on magic stuff. Just makes the way Rosa blames her for getting bullied and not having friends even more horrific.

Kumasawa laughing at the prank she helped pull, lol

idk battler It could be the worst day of my life but if I'm getting a 5-star meal I'm mowing that down happily

It's a bit sad how clearly Battler holds Kyrie in high regard and obviously does kind of consider her family even if he denies it considering that Kyrie fucking hates him

I am using the Umineko Project version of Umineko, and you know, the console sprites for Umineko are a lot more varied than the 07th mod would led you to believe (not that I am criticizing them, I am sure there were technical reasons as to why they had to be removed) there are some with Eva holding her unfolded fan that I didn't screen earlier too)

Nanjo going along with the script and getting jumped on by everyone lol

Wow, way to talk about your child Rosa

Oh here is the portrait I was talking about earlier, also everyone's tune immediately flip flops about the letter when they realized its beneficial to getting money lmfao

It's kinda cute how much Jessica tries to prove she really is the one who hates her parents the most when she probably has the best relationship with her parents out of the cousins

Yeah yaeh you are so mature and understanding than your cousins George, not like you are the one most willing to cut off your parents when their money or status obsession gets in the way of your goals or anything

Doesn't work as well for a game where the opponent isn't really trying to win and doesn't always do the most logical moves, does it?

Kyrie's correct though, if they had simply asked her on her terms who Beatrice is from the start (Something along the lines of who was Beatrice possessing) she probably would have answered!

Well, it's more like she realized you were the best one to get the information she wanted, but you do love her too much to consider that.

He's so fucking scared of Kyrie and he should be, to be honest! Though it's partly your fault she's like this.

This is also probably R07's way of telling you to look at the heart and not just the murder mystery!

Obviously, Natsuhi doesn't believe this because she knows Kinzo is dead, though I wonder if she thinks this was s will he left to the servants or something?

i wanna punt this man

I think Natsuhi and Jessica is probably the only parent/child relationship in the game that probably would heal itself with time... they both understand what is going wrong but aren't sure how to fix it, and I think with Jessica going out of her parent's house soon she probably would have been able to understand her mother more and makeup once they saw each other again... it makes me a bit sad to think about how the tragedy made it impossible for that to happen.

I'm already crying fuck. They are both extending their hand to the other. They are making steps towards repairing their relationship! And it's all getting destroyed!

I wonder how many times conversations like this happened in reality. Genji trying to convince Yasu to allow themselves to live their life normally but Yasu thinking that they aren't worthy of that, and feeling deeply guilty when they did interact with others...

I wonder if George has ever really tried to engage with Shannon's own interests, knowledge, and likes, instead of just assuming because she is a servant that everything he tells her is new and exciting to her

[villapaitapeli]

I'm afraid all my Kaleidoscope knowledge is secondhand as well, but what I've seen go around as the Big Issue is a scene where the main character talks to a disembodied voice implied to be God, who tells them that gender lies in the soul and is unchanging, so even if the main character were to occupy the body of a woman, their soul would still be male

Which is, of course, transphobic as fuck. Though I do feel as though this too is from ignorance more than malice, as has happened with r07 more often imo, i still think this totally fuckin sucks

Yeah, that does sound pretty... oof 😬 Weird to see his writing go in this direction after Umineko and especially Ciconia, which despite some issues seemed to have a completely different view.

[anchorshots]

i will be the first to admit i haven’t read kotohogushi yet but was the onigari-no-ryuuou supposed to grant its wielders the ability to go super saiyan??? is that how ouka defeated hanyuu back in the day? hello????

...it was a cool episode to watch (thank god it was new content), but the more i think about it now the more i just go huh??? the fight scenes and transitions were pretty cool, and the dbz fight was gorgeously animated but like........... huh?

really annoyed that they condensed satoko’s side of the argument down to “i don’t want to study” when we know it’s more nuanced than that what with the lingering trauma and abandonment issues she’s still dealing with among other things. i know rika assumes that studying’s the problem and that’s why she’s trying to ask about it specifically, so satoko’s responding to her, but like. the fandom at large is gonna take that as the sole reason all of this is happening and... h

satoko’s 100% in the wrong here but like, man. maaaaaan. some Choices were made with this show and there was an opportunity for this fanservice laden fight scene to actually let them talk about the real issue instead of “STUDYING BAD, YOUR NEW FRIENDS SUCK” and i... sighs

why even bother bringing up the losing condition or show the club with different outfits if they weren’t gonna do anything with it.

also could we have let hanyuu at least try to do something before getting curbstomped? like, let her do the thing before it fails? i was so excited for her... i get featherine eua is op as hell but like... :(

k1 going “...this isn’t part of the dance, right?” as rika and satoko were literally trying to kill each other made me laugh. god i wish the other club members were relevant. keiichi, mion, shion, rena, my beloveds, i miss you :(

whatever, we’re almost done. just give me bern and lambda and announce a new umineko project already, i guess. why hecking not at this point. 

maybe i will write up that sotsugyou fixes post next week. we’ll see how this ends. but for now i’m just gonna sit here and be like “not my matsuribayashi fragment, i dunno what’s going on here but it’s not the canon matsuribayashi, BYE”

[fragmentwitch]

While it's nice to see the girls get their proper Witch form here (yes I think the miko attire is this universe's witch attire, an opposite to European witch concepts) for me the whole magic DBZ scene sticks out like a sore thumb. The narrative comes to a complete halt while we're treated to a spectacle, but overall Higurashi's magic concepts are very low fantasy. As far as magic went we've only seen it be portrayed as time loops via local deity and no flashy effects.

Umineko builds up an expectation from the start to see flashy magic spectacles. The VN sets up the legend of a witch that is an alchemical advisor and while not seen herself by the family, they see her as a real threat.

SotsuGou's tension is kind of the opposite... Rika just takes it so easy and never really seems anxious about her predicaments until after ep 16. So much time wasted for such an avalanche of a payoff that isn't very impressive after the "wtf" feeling passes. I have a feeling that in a year or so after hype wears off, SotsuGou will not age gracefully.

Really wish either character didn't come off so flanderized during the battle as well. It was the opposite of nuanced, and really nobody expected it to turn out like this.

The rest of the cast are just NPCs (cool, thanks love it /s) so they do fuck all. Bummer that we got teased over a world without Rika for nothing. It probably won't happen, and almost every theory I've read using visuals from the OP won't come true (most anime OPs are just artsy anyway). I cant tell if r07 is trolling or we're trolling ourselves for overthinking about things that simply aren't there and thus giving it too much credit for what it is. Doesnt mean I wont keep tuning in to see how much more contrived this trainwreck can get though

[charaznablescanontoyota]

i'm still fucking thinking about the most recent episode of higurashi sotsu r07 really will be like 'here's a scene that is an explicit metaphor for this traumatized character's hardened and ruthless 'witch' self fighting against her more compassionate 'human' self who is trying to understand where she went wrong and when she stopped being 'human' in her pursuit of what she considers the ideal future' and i'll be like [screams]

[rosetower]

[ciconia spoilers]

so i finished phase 1 of ciconia no naku koro ni and heres some background on me: 

higurashi/umineko was my grooming material so while it’s nostalgic for me its also very painful in a way to go through r07′s material  since so much of his content involved things that groomed me so lets preface with that. i have trauma with the series

I used to run a um a big fucking fanblog dedicated to higurashi meta analysis and then after a bout of 2 years of amnesia no longer ran it and I think I deleted it or had a friend mod delete it. a lot of the writing on there wasn’t as good as it could be imo. I was young so please forgive me if you know what I’m talking about and yes it was on tumblr 

I never read Umineko EP7 but I know what happens and I never fully read it because I was pissed off that it was true and I hated when R07 used DID as his plot device

I have DID and at the time I was reading Umineko and Higurashi my condition hadn’t been severe enough for anyone to notice symptoms (not even me) so when I got diagnosed later I was ALSO mad because I felt like exploited 

so with that background in place my overall enjoyment of Ciconia was actually really high. 

Here’s some things I enjoyed

the actual humanization of those who have dissociative identities and the reasonable separation of those who were ‘congenitally parallel’ (have parallel identities) to those who suffered trauma and developed DID

but as a side note, it does feel belittling to be used as a plot device again

and then as another side note the depiction this time was VERY REALISTIC, but ... some of the things are magicalized... I think this is probably the healthiest depiction of DID in popular media to my knowledge since it’s actually normalized in this setting

the consistent insistence that sex and gender are not only separate but are topics to be treated with care and respect 

I wish Jayden was real i want to be cared for like that

every single last callback to Higurashi’s political atmosphere 

let me put it this way: sometimes I feel like R07 is spiritually connected to me, or reads my blog or something. obviously that’s not true but I think one day I’d wish to have an honest conversation with him about how his works impacted me. 

I was a big fan in Higurashi moreso of the political turmoil happening on the inside; I was really excited to see the big mess it created amongst the Irie Institution. I loved seeing Takano do everything she could. I think Takano’s character really stuck out to me in a certain way and seeing the legacy of ‘34′ continue on into Umineko thru Lambdadelta was also exciting. 

So seeing TWO!!!! 34s here is driving me fucking insane. 

I haven’t finished the TIPs yet, but my current sort of interpretation is that “this is the alternate universe where Takano Miyo and Tomitake Jirou are unabashedly evil or at the least morally gray, and where they got what they wanted successfully in Hinamizawa, destroyed it, let it get destroyed again, and god knows what else.” 

Seeing the Jestress who is obviously a 34 callback design-wise and even tell Jirou “Isn’t that technically cheating” is hilarious to me; she’s like a perfect mix of Lambdadelta and Miyo Takano. You know the shenanigans going on with Furude Rika -> Furuderika -> Furederika -> Frederica -> Frederica Bernkastel -> Frederica & Bernkastel [two separate existences] that happened between Higurashi and Umineko? 

You get that certain characters all have a core existence; Bernkastel comes from Frederica Bernkastel, who came from Furude Rika. But you can all still arguably qualify all three of these as separate existences. 

That’s what I think is going on here in Ciconia with Vier Dreissig, the Jestress, and Lambdadelta and Miyo Takano. Depending on whether the Jestress is truly a “34″, you’ve got 3-to-4 “34s” running around right now. Vier is the German word for ‘4′, Drei is the German word for ‘3′, ssig is just a suffix. It’s 34. It’s always 34. 

I think I screamed when I figured out “Toujirou Mitake” -> “Tou Jirou Mitake” -> “Toumitake Jirou” because I was so flustered by the sudden sdfjksdgsdjfsdf Tomitake’s glow up though... he became a total chad I hate him so much jsdgdkfsdf

Reading Ciconia was so much fun. I think definitively I’m interested in the interactions between Toujirou (who I really just call Tomitake) and Vier or the Jestress the most. I wanna know what kind of bullshit 34′s getting into this time. I’m absolutely in love with it. A weapon to potentially initiate global war was an  endgoal of the Hinamizawa Syndrome research and the reason they got additional funding from Nomura in Tokyo. They were a pro-war nationalist faction of Japan’s internal government. 

God I just could scream for like 10 days straight I can’t even put all my thoughts into words because I just want to scream like this is just extended Higurashi Politics and that’s all I ever wanted in life 

ALSO NAIMA, IF ANYONE HURTS NAIMA ILL KILL THEM 

[horrible-monstrosity]

poor sad fool still has some amount of faith in the quality of the story

Seriously the solutions for each arc, based on the wiki pages at least, are fucking depressing. “Sayo” waltzes into Natsuhi’s room, notices the charm and leaves entirely without being noticed for no reason except for... uh, reasons. No evidence in the slightest that what we’re being told and shown is entirely a lie, which of course means that the writer can just present the most surface-level version of the event without having to put work into including the details, and in moderating those details to hint at the truth but not give away the answer immediately. It’s all just Yasu going around doing arbitrary improbable shit that needs to be absolutely perfectly executed or else the entire plan falls apart.

The answers also contain real cool shit like Sayo lugging around Kinzo’s fat dead stanking corpse effortlessly and entirely without being noticed (and without anyone wondering why “Shannon” smells like old formaldehyde afterwards), oh and you know the cool little detail of some of the red text literally being outright wrong. Which is such an amazing detail that I’m not sure if R07 just wrote shit without an answer in mind and made things up afterwards, or if there was an answer that was changed later, or what. Like the phone calls in that one arc where Natsuhi was being trolled. The red text denies Battler (and everyone in the mansion, which is then lying with being selective with how dumbass alternate personalities work rather than directly) making the call, but the solution is “well the fiiiirst call was Battler, then...” Utter nonsense.

For contrast, let’s look at this old theorized solution:

https://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?p=2847555#post2847555

It’s certainly not perfect at explaining things and is somewhat disorganized, but DEAR GOD is it better from a narrative standpoint. And I’m not just saying this because I’m biased towards a story with Kanon as the hero- in this, the characters’ traits actually affect the course of events in a way that helps develop them. Eva flips out over George marrying Shannon, starts killing, Kanon bites back and a bunch of people get caught in the crossfire. With this sort of answer, you could even still have an overarching culprit, they’d just need to be directing people subtly, setting the right people off at the right time for the right reasons, then maybe go through the crime scenes and touch things up a little to make it look like the summoning ritual. So to solve all the murders the viewer needs to come to understand the neuroses of all the members of the family, not just the one crazy incest castrato maid who’s somehow running the whole show. Isn’t that so much better?

[gulescamisade]

Alaska:  Day 4

ARANEA: -hovering over everyone in the group, eyeballing them before she moves onto the next person. she keeps prodding about how people are feeling, which seems a little strange... after all this is ARANEA...-

MITUNA: -He's...existing. That's about it.-

ARANEA: -👁️👁️ x4 -

MITUNA: WH47 7H3 FUCK 4R3 Y0U G4WK1NG 47

ARANEA: Nothing! I apologize. I just wanted to make sure everyone is feeling well...

MITUNA: 81NCH WHY W0ULD 4NY0N3 83 F33L1NG W3LL L00K 47 7H15 5H17 W3R3 FR33Z1NG 0UR 8ULG35 0FF(edited)

LATULA: y34h b4b3z 1dk wh4t your3 scop1n but 1tz m4k1n m3 n3rvous.(edited)

ARANEA: There's no need to get hostile or suspicious a8out it. ::::/

MITUNA: -scowls at her-

LATULA: soz 1t l1k3 4 n3rv3z th1ng or do you gott4 p33 or wh4t????

ARANEA: That's rude!

ARANEA: It's only that... If someone is feeling ill, or if they hurt themselves... I would like to help.

MITUNA: 1M G0DD4MN FUCK1NG P34CHY

LATULA: th4t 41nt rud3 th4t qu3st1on 1s l3g1t 4s FUCK dud3 1 wouldnt w4n4 poty 1n th3 snow f1rst off 1tz gonn4 fr33z3 4ND TH4N som3 wolv3z 4r3 gonn4 b1t3 your 4ss c4us3 th4tz how th3y m4rk t3rr1tory.

LATULA: not 3v3n ONC3 dog.

LATULA: -She rubs her hands together a second.- pffffuck 1 dunno wh4t s1ck would 3v3n f33l l1k3 1m 4LR34DY sh1v3r1ng 4ND my thro4tz r4w from 4ll th1s br34th1ng 4nd sh1t????

LATULA: fuck th4t whol3 3nt1r3 no1s3.

[[ Distant, ominous awoos ]]

ARANEA: -gets a chill- ... Right. That makes sense...

KARKAT: =He will sneeze on a wolf and punch it in the ass, but he's sleeping forever=

MITUNA: -Basically drapes over Latula-

[[ Even further away is the sound of a predatory screech, much like the sounds from the first night. ]]

DAELOS: -He was snoozing. He opens one eye- There is no need for-

DAELOS: Uh -DID ANYONE ELSE HEAR THAT-

MITUNA: 1 H0P3 17 3475 M3 F1R57

ARANEA: -scoots back over to daelos...-

[[ At least the snow and sky has stopped being a douchbag, amirite? ]]

KARKAT: =Alright he can't sleep through that, he cracks his eyes open. Feeling like considerable garbage but its congestion and body ache. Fuck the entire sky=

LATULA: bruh!!!

DAELOS: -Wraps his arms around her.- >:I -He will punch you in the face if you come near his girlfriend, nature-

TEREZI: =walks up and adds more branches to their firewood collection, shivering.=

MITUNA: JU57 3ND 17 DUD3 1M U53L355 4NYW4Y

TEREZI: H3Y NOW, TH4TS QU1TT3R T4LK

MITUNA: 7H475 M3 N00K7007H

LATULA: BRUH YOU 4R3 NOT!!!!

KARKAT: FINE THEN IT'S A HEAP OF BULLSHIT. LOOK AT ALL THIS BACKLASH YOU'RE GETTING FROM TALKING YOURSELF DOWN, FUCKWIT. ROLL IN IT.

MITUNA: -Grooooooooaaaaaaaans-

KARKAT: THAT'S FUCKING RIGHT.

ARANEA: -leans into daelos... why did they have to get stuck with so many loud people???-

DAELOS: -He was just thinking the same thing. Just listening to them gives him a head ache-

LATULA: dud3 cmon 1 dont m34n l1k3--

LATULA: FUCK

LATULA: you 41nt us3l3ss c4us3 1 sur3 4s fuck n33d you h3r3.

LATULA: th4t 41nt som3 fuck1n cullfuck t4lk. -She squeezes him pretty tightly, still kinda shivering.-

MITUNA: C4R3551NG Y0U G3N7LY W17H MY H3478UN5

LATULA: uh Y34H? you th1nk 1m4 l3t 4ny of th3s3 chuckl3fuckz do th4t????

DAELOS: -He feels sort of uneasy.- What sort of wild life lives in this part of Earth

REDGLARE: H1rsut3 m4mm4ls. -She approaches the fire from the NEARBY SHADOWS, wings folded down. They look like they've been in better shape. Not a cold weather appendage...-

TEREZI: =flips through the internets. It sure is weird they still have communications all the way out here.=

TEREZI: THR33 SP3C13S OF B34RS, C4R1BOU, MOOS3...M33S3?, WOLV3S, S3V3R4L B1RDS...WOW

TEREZI: FOR B31NG 4N 1C1CL3 H4NG1NG OFF 4 G14NTS BUTTH41RS, TH3 W1LDL1F3 1S PR3TTY D1V3RS3

KARKAT: DOES THAT THING SAY SHIT ABOUT CIVILIZATIONS AND THINGS WE CAN FUCKING GET OUR HANDS ON? =sniffs wetly and grossly through the nose and the gills=

TEREZI: =turns to him= H3Y, YOU DONT SOUND SO GOOD >:[

ARANEA: ... -HOVERS over him now-

KARKAT: WHEN HAVE I EVER SOUNDED ANY TYPE OF PLEASANT--HOLY FUCK.

KARKAT: =EYEBALLS=

DAELOS: 👀

ARANEA: Hello... Is it possi8le you've caught a cold from ah... Fishing?

TEREZI: =holds up a kleenex to his face= TEREZI: H3R3, BLOW

KARKAT: REALLY? WELL HERE I THOUGHT BLOWING FLUIDS OUT MY NOSE AND ASS WAS A PART OF MY WEIRD FISH THING. =I mean... he isn't about to argue with her but the blowing is pretty gross and there's just a lotta mucus in his body, man. Good thing he's wearing a jacket, saves everyone's eyes some trouble=

TEREZI: > :[ =look of intense concern=

KARKAT: DON'T MAKE ME TOUCH YOU WITH MY FILTHY HANDS TEREZI, IT'S FINE.

TEREZI: =moving to open his jacket to check out those gills= TEREZI: =they're by the fire, it'll be fine=

KARKAT: =Okay no, he puts his hand on her face= OH MY GOD PISS OFF IT'S OKAY.

TEREZI: =muffled= NO YOUR3 NOT TEREZI: YOU SOUND L1K3 YOUR3 UND3RW4T3R

KARKAT: DROWNING UNDER THE WEIGHT OF MY MISTAKES PROBABLY.

TEREZI: 4LMOST...TH3R3....

KARKAT: NO, FUCK OFF, KEEP YOUR MITTS TO YOURSELF. =bats at her hands with his other hand, it's gross in there=

TEREZI: =the world needs to see these glorious abs!=

ARANEA: ... -glances around. then casually plarps karkat's shoulder from behind. in a matter of seconds, a warmth starts to travel through him from that spot, like its searching for the source of his ailment... and then it collects in his chest and throat and head, slowly clearing out of the congestion.-

DAELOS: 👀

MITUNA: WH47 7H3 GL0835

KARKAT: =Not if they're covered in weird fish snot. Also he jumps at the plarp, about to gripe when a weird warm shiver trails through him. It doesn't do anything for the nasty little collection of jelly in his shirt but he can breathe.... HE CAN FIGHT........ TURNS to Aranea, talking clear as a bell... well aside from his usual voice scruff= ......WHAT THE FRESH FUCKING SHITBASKET?

MITUNA: 7H47 700

DAELOS: Tone down the l00dness, please

DAELOS: She did you a favor

DAELOS: -HAUGHTY HORSE SNORT-

KARKAT: DON'T TELL ME HOW TO LIVE MY LIFE.

MITUNA: Y34H G0 FUCK Y0UR53LF

MITUNA: G3N7LY

TEREZI: NO W41T GUYS S3R1OUSLY

ARANEA: ::::)

ARANEA: Do you feel 8etter, then?

TEREZI: JUST...H34R H3R OUT FOR 4 M1NUT3

KARKAT: ASIDE FROM THE SLIME IN MY SHIRT YES.

KARKAT: SO. THAT'S NEW. AND I'D RATHER HEAR WHAT THE ENTIRE DEAL IS WITH ALL OF THAT.

MITUNA: WH47 7H3 8L1573R1NG 5H178R15K37

DAELOS: Hmph -he would argue more, but he doesn't want to steal Aranea's limelight, so he'll hold his tongue-

ARANEA: -she's pleased just knowing it works! clasps her hands together.- It isn't so unusual, is it?

ARANEA: These a8ilities came to me when we were on LOMAT... I had a theory that I used them to help Terezi, 8ut I haven't had much opportunity to test them since.

MITUNA: -Squints-

TEREZI: =she cleared her throat and shrugged awkwardly= 1TS TRU3

MITUNA: -SQUINTS MORE-

KARKAT: SO IT'S ALL AROUND SHIT... OKAY WELL. LET'S NOT USE THIS AS AN EXCUSE TO BE STUPID AND GET HURT BUT.... THANKS.

DAELOS: -Yes, good. Praise her.-

TEREZI: =nods= TH4NK YOU

TEREZI: TH1S...TH1S 1S 4 GOOD TH1NG

TEREZI: 1TS 1NCR34S3D OUR CH4NC3S FOR SURV1V4L

MITUNA: 0K4Y 8U7 WH47 3L53 C4N 5H3 F1X

ARANEA: -looks at him curiously- What do you mean?

KARKAT: =He's here for this he's also just..... gonna slip away to clean his torso but keep in earshot=

TEREZI: =goes to help him=

TEREZI: =she has all the tissues, even the ones imbued with lotion=

MITUNA: 175 4 PR377Y 345Y QU35710N

MITUNA: Y0U CUR3D K4RK47 0F 5N07 R07

MITUNA: 15 7H47 17 0R C4N Y0U F1X 4NYM47H1NG

ARANEA: ... -ah yes, she sees- Hypothetically I could. ARANEA: As I said, I haven't had much opportunity to test my limits. -starts to approach him-

MITUNA: -Still hanging on Latula. She approaches.- UMMM

ARANEA: -she won't hurt you 8888) -

MITUNA: -SHE DOESN'T KNOW THAT- WH47 1F Y0UR L1M17 15 N1N3 7H0U54ND

ARANEA: Hm? Nine thousand what? -is this a meme... squints-

MITUNA: -....maybe-

MITUNA: UM

MITUNA: 8U775

ARANEA: -rolls eyes, but otherwise ignores it... instead she holds out her hand- Mituna, would you like me to help you?

MITUNA: MNNNNNNNNGGGGGGG

ARANEA: -just smiling... yes, it must be unsettling-

MITUNA: -So anyone gonna interject or is he just her new project now? Mituna glances around- 1 GU355

TEREZI: =thumbs up= >:]

MITUNA: -Excalibur no....-

DAELOS: -He thinks this is an excellent idea. He has poor judgement-

KARKAT: =He can't really say shit= JUST DO WHAT YOU'RE COMFORTABLE WITH. =At both of them. Squinting while Terezi helps him de-snot=

MITUNA: -That's his secret Karkat. He's never comfortable-

KARKAT: =Gdi Mituna=

MITUNA: G0 F0R 17 1 GU355 WH475 7H3 W0R57 7H47 C0ULD H4PP3N

TEREZI: =Being as gentle as possible=

TEREZI: =she might be asking him to expel air from his gill slits. Dont worry, she can catch the snot with her hands=

MITUNA: -Gross-

ARANEA: -what's the worst that could happen INDEED... she draws in nearer to him, extending her hand further till she's touching the side of his fluffy head.- It's alright.

ARANEA: -she recalls that day -- when mituna made such a great sacrifice for the crew. yes, she was preoccupied with her own... life changing decisions... at the time, but who doesn't know the story of what mituna did to keep them out of harms way? she owes him so much. they all do, really, and she hopes this is an opportunity for her to give back.-

ARANEA: -he'll remember it too. for a moment, perhaps too vividly, and the light pulsing from her fingertips won't help the wash of aches in his head. but it passes soon enough when warmth replaces it -- not only physically, but the knowledge that what he had done changed so many lives for the better. but that wasn't the end of his story. there's much more for him.-

KARKAT: =This is true love, but he's also watching this=

MITUNA: -He's reliving it again. Everything far too vivid, and far too correct. There's so many details he'd lost in the muddle of his brain over the past perigees. But he'd saved everyone. He'd helped. Still, he wanted to help more, feeling like nothing more than a burden recently. Warmth flooded his body, something comforting as light came to his pan. Things were getting clearer, he remembered everything, but it was easier to. Faintly, hints of crimson and cerulean started coursing across his scars.-

TEREZI: >:o

ARANEA: -there's a light in her eyes watching this unfold, watching the change happen. and after another moment, she draws her hand back.-

ARANEA: How do you feel?

KARKAT: =Peeps also=

MITUNA: -He's quiet still. Little pops of psionic energy emanating off of him. He feels...right. That's only way to describe it. Things work the way he remembers. Then there's this dull roar starting in his head, a familiar and not missed ache coming to sound like a soft roar of jet turbine. He squint-

MITUNA: grea7 7hank5

MITUNA: 7hank5 a lo7

MITUNA: mmmmnnnnnnn

KARKAT: IS THAT SARDONIC OR NOT? =But he's not yelling to the world but also.... the squint and mms=

ARANEA: -SIDE EYES. she's wondering the same...-

MITUNA: -Rubs his head-

MITUNA: no i75 cool really 7hank you

KARKAT: =Well shit.... this is a game changer. He's glad for it though, Mituna seems okay=(edited)

LATULA: -WELL SHIT IS SURE RIGHT???-

ARANEA: -smiles, satisfied with that response- You're welcome.

MITUNA: i 7hink i need 7o lay down

KARKAT: OKAY MAN...... TAKE IT EASY.

MITUNA: -Lays face down in the snow-

KARKAT: YOU FUCK. THAT'S NOT TAKING IT EASY.

MITUNA: -First use of psionic powers: Constructing a snow middle finger while laying face down in the snow. 🖕 for you Karkat-

KARKAT: =SNRK, he'll take it=

TEREZI: TUN4

TEREZI: W4V3

TEREZI: PO'S 4SK1NG 1F YOUR3 OK4Y

MITUNA: -Turns his head and fashions his hand into a V, poking his tongue through the middle-

TEREZI: 4CTU4LLY WHY DONT YOU S1T UP? 4LL TH4T SNOW C4NT B3 GOOD FOR TH3 F4C3 >:\

TEREZI: =begins construction of a smallish snowtroll=

[[ While most of the campers lay sleeping, the predatory cries return, echoing across the vast terrain. The calls seem closer tonight, driving in a cold dagger of restless unease. ]]

[whenthechickencry]

Last Note of the Golden Witch Part 2

Piece gives away more of her heart, she starts talking about how of course she didn't know who Ange is, how she had so many lovely conversations with Sayo and Battler. Battler starts crying and bawling from not having it figured it out earlier, I was going to give him shit if he didn't realize it after all her hints, I am not going to lie, so I am glad he did... it seems Asumu was at the end of her patience as well as that monologue seems to be flipping between Asumu and Battler (I assume since Battler wouldn't say do you not know who I am, so I assume statement 3 and 5 are made by Asumu)

Ange wants to be able to understand everyone in the Ushiromiya family as part of her role as the witch of the future, haha...

I figured Ange was brought here in order to be mean to her, I mean, she's a complete stranger to Asumu otherwise... It's interesting how we are both seeing the good and the bad simultaneously, from a character we were usually only allowed to see the perspective of people who think she's all good or all bad.

The act this arc allowed Ange to understand and love someone who wasn't a part of her life at all, and if she was she probably would have hated her, anyways, is really cute.

I have noted the translation seemed kind of... not great at times but this line made 100% it was a cleaned-up machine translation, so I looked up who was the translator and, lmfao?

Of course, Kinzo wouldn't approve of cheating, he is an upstanding man of good values.

Of course, this is a bit of a self-important fantasy, reality wouldn't have been that simple even if she had stayed alive. But she wanted to write a tale where her being part of the family left to a far better future than when Kyrie did, affirming that she was a better person than the person who (she blamed) for making her life shitty (it was actually Rudolf really, but).

The fact Ange was brought in the first place in order to hurt her and then she's frantically trying to make it NOT hurt her is very interesting. Makes me kind of imagine Asumu as someone who heavily tries to suppress her bad sides, which would line up with Battler and Rudolf thinking she's an innocent, naive, innocent flower.

Battler doesn't want to accept that her mother wanted to hurt Ange but also like, Battler how happy do you think Asumu would be about being replaced in her family by someone who literally had plans to murder her? Of course, Ange doesn't have anything to do with it, but Asumu knows that too! She hates herself for feeling like that, too! Even though it's perfectly understandable.

"Spit on and forget about me"... I don't know Piece, I think Ange can acknowledge your existence and your pain while not having to do that.

Asumu solves this whole thing by literally erasing herself, by erasing memories of her, by eating herself alive in order to ensure the happiness of Battler and Ange, and... I can't help but find this ending extremely tragic. Piece erased herself, thinking she was an evil monster for the thoughts she had, even as she was fighting those thoughts the entire time and before they were even revealed she was trying to make sure they wouldn't hurt Ange...

Battler is grumpy about the fact he didn't get the fun the Higurashi cast had, haha. Unfortunately, I don't think those kinds of tea parties would fit the atmosphere of Umineko, really. I wonder if what Battler is saying is implying that r07 originally planned for something like that.

Erika is fucking DEAD.

I remember Virgilius but they mentioned they are 3 and I don't remember the other 2, actually..

No. 1

Oh that's the original form of the goat servants, haha. Making them headless is kind of interesting...

Bernkastel and Beatrice make fun of Battler for being too horny, but it's kind of funny to imagine making characters just having a fuck golf club-sized crotch, haha.

I can see Natsuhi fitting the image of a mistress, but it's a little hard to think of her as a witch roaming the halls, haha.

Lambda agrees! Haha.

I think you are your own witch with your own magic already, Natsuhi.

That line huh.... I guess it is a line that is extremely significant to Beatrice as a character, so it makes sense to make someone trying to play the role of Beatrice to try it out.

Virgilius is the other one, though Beato mentions she actually hadn't designed anything more than a couple sketches.

Virgilia does the opposite of this, funnily enough... you can tell why R07 rewrote having a character meant to mislead you to be introduced in ep3 when a lot of people gave up on ep2, it's kind of unfortunate, but Virgilia is cool as well.

That's what Erika does in EP5, mostly, but in further episodes her role and character drifted in other directions, I feel.

It's kind of funny because like. I think EP1 is a harder Episode than Ep2 to solve? Eva's involvement is a lot less obvious than Rosa's, and Kanon is more obviously suspicious in ep2 than Shannon's death was in Ep1

Wow, that's rude Lambda, I think Erika's post-5 character is actually more and more interesting every ep.

I am not really sure what exactly they were referring to here, from all the post-Umineko WTC projects, I haven't read any so ...

Anyway, I really liked Last Note. The mystery was a little simple, but I did enjoy having to revisit another character Battler had written off as more simple than they were. The ending felt a little rushed, I would have liked it if the episode had been a little longer. All the characters had really strong moments so I would definitely recommend to read this one! Asumu was an interesting character to explore in more detail, especially since all the information we get from her in the main story are from very biased sources. This also served as a showcase for how Battler, Ange, and Beatrice would act after their EP8 development which is very neat to see. Overall I really enjoyed it. I wish the translation was better, hope to finish learning Japanese at some point to read it like that.

[whenthechickencry]

Umineko Ch1. Replay 5

You know I am kind of surprised how, uh, no one in the family realizes having an eternal supply of servant children is kind of fucked up, though I guess with Higurashi already exploring the themes of a fucked up orphanage R07 might not have wanted to rethread on that too much

or, more accurately, Genji basically adopted her into the family in order to force her to do some kind of redemption story for Kinzo

you might not believe her but she does have some murders to commit George! shannon is a busy person. I'll probably talk more about this scene in general when I get to the contrasting scene where she does put on the ring immediately, think the contrasts between the 2 scenes are where you can get more interesting conclusions.

While obviously the out-of-universe explanation for Gohda disappearing out of the narrative almost entirely by episode 3 was definitely r07 wanting to focus on more relevant characters once out of the introductory phase, it's kind of fun to think about who the only person who cared to write about Gohda was Yasu since they kind of hated him, Tohya/Ikuko I doubt have any opinion on him lmfao

While I am on the subject of Episode authorship, I don't think the stories we read are literally 100% the ones that Yasu/Tohya wrote... I think some stuff is unlikely the characters knew, I don't think it's very likely that Yasu knew about, say, Rudolf's baby switch. I guess they could have known from Genji but I also think that might be something Genji wouldn't know since that is not something he would be bringing up in family conferences considering the chances of Asumu or Kyrie overhearing, but I guess it's possible. Still, I think the stories are a bit more omnipresent about what they would know than any of these characters would realistically be.

I wonder what Yasu's motivation for this was, was she planning to kill Natsuhi but decided not to in order to elevate the witch symbolism? Or did she never have any plan to kill her but did this to fuck with her? I kinda lean towards the first but wrt latter one, in the manga of ep8 Beato mentions fucking with Natsuhi intentionally in early chapters because of her resentment towards her, so it wouldn't be OOC either

I don't think that's the kind of joke Eva would pull, tbh, Natsuhi.

Forgot for a second until reading these lines that Eva is already an accomplice by this point.

Also, guess they were told about Kinzo's status definitively, both her and Hideyoshi immediately jump to the point

Natsuhi's good at magic herself, weaving absolutely into her self-perception something that absolutely did not happen. Think it was mentioned in episode 5 how she "had the propensity for magic" or something along those lines!

You can see here how Natsuh reframes the life she had gone through in a way to give herself more agency she *decided* to throw away her old family in order to better serve the Ushiromiya, nevermind that she was basically kidnapped out of her old family with no way to go back. If she didn't reframe her situation like that she would be forced to confront the bitterness she has towards Krauss and the Ushiromiya in general, and she's desperately trying to move on from that so that she can be happy there.

She's also using Kinzo in a similar way to how Yasu uses Kinzo here, she can't allow herself to think bad things like that her husband is incompetent because that would go against the ideal wife she's trying to be, but if "Kinzo" is the one to say it...

Hurts to see how much she had to lie to herself in order to feel appreciated by a family that has fucked her over so many times yet she dedicates so much effort towards

Yeah I guess Eva had to be really fucking confused as to where Natsuhi got this much self-confidence from talking to a ghost lmfao

Guess it's time for a team meeting with team culprits here!

Hmm notice how Shannon is the one conveniently not directly seen by Battler

"Stop looking or else you would notice Shannon isn't actually here!"

He really does love Kyrie, hurts a bit considering how doomed that relationship is

Also the whole half/fully blown off face is a smart way to misdirect what you *should* be looking for, namely the vagueness about Shannon's death.

Honestly, I think this was one of the bigger gambles Yasu took, I think there was a solid chance George would have wanted to see Shannon despite it all

Hahahah, fuck you narration

"You might ruin the plan by getting angry right now Eva, It doesn't matter anyway anymore!" Also, I have seen some theories that maybe Eva was one of the accomplices who thought there were no murders, but honestly with the state these corpses are in I doubt anyone would think they were painted or whatever, There's a reason Kumasawa isn't here, I think. There's a lot you could convince Eva to do by promising her her family's safety, cancelling of George and Shannon's relationship and headship + money anyways.

The possibility of Yasu accepting love and life past 1986 did die with Shanon

Eva and Nanjo quickly figuring out a way to get Natsuhi to not stay in the storehouse any further

Maria asking "oh did the plan start already?"

That's how they feel about themselves, too

"Quick, make up something, fuck!"

Yasu probably told Eva to give Battler a "Start thinking about how to catch me" beginners course, lol

"Can't give you any more hints battler, figure it out!"

Oh huh, the first hint Battler is into mystery novels

Unless getting caught is the culprit's win goal, in which case flipping the gameboard like this is useless!

I will end off here for today I think, I covered less of the game than I usually do I think but it was a part with lots of things to say and unfortunately I have to wake up earlier on my off day due to personal stuff sadly so I really should get to bed.

[whenthechickencry]

Umineko EP7. Replay Part 1

The contrast between the somber, funeral, scenes of Battler with Beatrice's corpse and the inquisitor scenes with LiberatedLiberator playing are very funny.... also the battler scenes are very tender. "Then, he kissed (The book), ...and laid it gently in the casket" The game is making me sad already lol. Wonder if people who had figured that S = K but not Sayo were stumped by this... I mean it would be short-lived since the episode reveals what happened but. R07 does like testing even the readers that did get the answer.

Will is obviously the ideal Battler that Battler hoped Sayo would be, the one who would look for the heart of her mystery, and he's very dashing in this scene lol, sadly the reality is different than the ideal.... This episode has a pretty good opening, actually, I like it a lot. The funeral scene where everyone has their own reaction to the death of Beatrice is interesting, it really highlights how many different things and people 'Beatrice' is. Speaking of people 'Beatrice' is....

This episode has a bunch of new songs, I forgot how many songs were unique to or introduced in this episode, it adds to the unique vibe this episode has, also they are all really good so.... Lion is so "mild-mannered" (as the game puts it) that he just straight up ignores that there's a flying girl in front of him and just tells her to step off the altar, lol.

Bernkastel introduces the mystery of "Who Killed Beatrice?" along with the side-mystery of who is Lion. Lion is extremely annoyed by all this.

Lion having no memory of Kanon is the first hint introduced, besides being Natsuhi's child. Lion mentions being used to unreasonable situations due to being forced to deal with Kinzo.... which is kind of ironic when you think about how that is true for Sayo in a completely different way. Will didn't seem to see Lion as much more than just a clueless, curious, piece at first but his demeanor forced him to acknowledge a piece as an equal. It is a pretty endearing relationship that was definitely pulled off nicely in the short time they had. Eva is uh, definitely not happy about the existence of Lion....

Everyone's really comfortable calling Beatrice his mistress here - in main worlds, it seemed to be a more taboo topic.... the fact that the witch legend didn't exist in this world probably lead to people talking about Beatrice-as-a-Person more in this fragment I suppose.

I wouldn't put it that confidently but.... it's not like ignoring her and letting her be locked in a cage where she is under Kinzo's control is a good place to be either.

Non-voiced dialogue.... right yeah this episode was censored a lot during the console version.

Bernkastel gets the theatergoing ability from Bernkastel in order to force Kinzo to talk. Shannon reveals she struggles to remember Lion, and Will catches this. They talk, and he orders her to bring Kanon, she hints at Sayo and Shannon.exe starts breaking down from conflicting instructions. She starts referring to Sayo as "The one who orders us"

This scene's pretty interesting... because if you think about it the one would get checkmate is Beato and not Will right? But Will is the one getting warned. I have been kind of rocking my head at this for a bit - but I can see a couple interpretations. I could see it as a commentary on how S = K isn't the full answer and you need to keep thinking above that to reach a real answer - on a meta-level maybe Will would have been fucked by forcing an illegal move idk. Interesting scene to think about lol.

Kinzo: Beatrice is mine alone. No matter what anyone says, no one can defile our story. Ugh, gross to think about. You yourself already defiled your own story with Beatrice, Kinzo. Genji starts being pushy about Beatrice II being Beatrice reborn.... no wonder Sayo can't get herself to have positive feelings toward Genji. I can find myself as having more sympathy towards Kumasawa, though.... I think the way making pranks passed from one to the other is cute and in general seems to have less power and willingness to enable Kinzo... still, though, the fact the person is basically your mother hiding your dad's abuse and having you play along with a dumb riddle game for the sake of said abuser.... The images of Kumasawa thinking she's playing dead and slowly realizing she is in fact being killed makes me sad, though.

Kumasawa: "You could sometimes catch a glimpse of his great love for the late Beatrice-sama, and it was a heart-warming thing."... Kumasawa's way of saying Kinzo is a groomer without saying it directly, and Will catches on to what she actually means. Oh Lion starts crying right now when the only thing he knows is that he did some grooming.... your day is about to get so much worse Lion. "Everything was decided by someone other than me".... and Kinzo eventually ended up putting that burden on several Beatrices, the one who ironically broke him free of that hell.

We get a bunch of introductions to the overall setting, Kinzo talking about how he's waiting to die and about how he hates pretty much everyone else on the island. Then Kinzo meets Beatrice and they immediately hit it off. I forgot the first talk they had with each other after meeting each other was about how they both feel controlled and defined by their families.... it makes sense they can relate to each other in that way. It is sad to think that instead of breaking that chain Kizno instead furthered it to about 10 different people.

Ah, hahaha, it's kind of sad to think about how Kinzo's wife was definitely bothered about the cheating... it'd be one thing if they both didn't give a fuck about the relationship but.... Natsuhi mentions relating to her once I think so I can't imagine her situation was happy, whatever it was.

The reveal of the tens of gold comes from the Italians no longer being able to hide it due to their ship sinking slowly.

Weird tangent but it's kind of fascinating to see Kinzo as an interpreter because I work as a professional Spanish-english interpreter... Kinzo does sooooo many things that would get me fired haha. Of course, he's not a professional interpreter and I am certainly not a wartime interpreter. Kinzo is a liar in his retelling of the events, of course, in actuality he was the one who first recommended shooting the Italians first. The choice is framed as letting everyone but you and the person you love die but uh, it is closer to risking her life and hoping she's fine.

It was certainly not his intention to let her die but.... it's certainly a risk he should have considered more thoroughly before deciding to blow the Italians up.

Kinzo: "Can't you see that you caused all this because you were blinded by gold." Yeah, sure Kinzo, they did.

Part of what drove even Beatrice 1 to wanting to die is the fact that Kinzo's planning got everyone close to her killed....

Kinzo took Beatrice to Nanjo who kept the secret for him, and then Beatrice died during childbirth.

And then he's also bribed by Sayo, haha, I mean he isn't very good at lying in hindsight but also no one figured anything out *due* to him so....

Will talks about how Battler might have been removed as a way to make the puzzle harder which is interesting. Bernkastel DOES believe Battler remembers his promise to some extent even as a piece... Jessica probably feels less pressure in this world if anything... I can imagine not bearing the brunt of Natsuhi's expectations and allowed to be herself probably helps everyone in that relationship a little bit.

Maria corrects Will on his bible knowledge haha that's very cute. This line always struck to me and I always remember it... it's a way to connect why people use magic to a situation we all know. Obviously, this is not what the Bible meant but it did give her the power to love herself as is.

Maria mentions she told to everyone about how she wanted to meet the witch and then Beatrice appeared in front of her, in other words Sayo indulged her and they became good friends after that, hahaha. This is so cute I am crying.

Will gets into the non-existence of Lion with the chair arrangement and into the number of accomplices with the number of people able to see Beatrice.... Maria sure is a good witness when you bother to talk to her on her terms. Will reasons this was after Beatrice started existing but before it had anything to do with Battler. Will tells Jessica that he approves of her living her life like she wants to and keeping her hobbies in spite of it all... narrative points out this is probably the first time someone approved of how Jessica lived her life. Ouch. Jessica talks about how she doesn't gaf too much about Beatrice and how she thinks Maria is a bit freaky about being too into Maria and it was too vivid... which it quite literally was because she did meet Beatrice. Jessica is extremely classy about it.

Will chides her for being like this by pointing out her motto is creating another self how you want to be and that's exactly what Maria is doing.

Jessica coughing a ton in order to change the subject is brought up here. I think she probably does actually have asthma, though, just uses that to her advantage sometimes. Jessica is still gloomy about the argument a day later, she talks to Kumasawa about it and she dares her to curse her for that and uh, THEN she goes to Shannon and Gohda and denies it AGAIN... man Jessica you had like 4 chances to back down out of it. Jessica knows exactly what happened but is too scared to admit it to herself... I imagine that might be what is going on with Kinzo and Shkannon as well.

Will breaks Jessica's reality by pointing out the sitting arrangement issue, but I guess she'll probably just rationalize it anyway so it is fine.

Kinzo probably did his best to quit the rumors since they were rude and since his mental state was probably a bit better in this world and there was no Sayo to build the legend of the witch, well....

Will starts his description of who killed Beatrice by revealing that Maria can tell people apart not by their appearance but by their actions. "She believed the power of witches could change her unfulfilling and incomplete life".... I mean not wrong, but ouch...Lion makes the connection that Beatrice is kind of a character Sayo is playing. It's cool how the tension you feel in this scene as Will slowly edges to the conclusion.

Lion: Are you trying to say Beatrice and I are two sides of the same coin? Lion's 100% correct here lol. Lion starts getting pissed when he starts revealing Lion's backstory, which is understandable.... he can tell Kinzo DID have favoritism towards him so he keeps hearing though. This is kind of sad just itself.... Natsuhi and Lion have a good parent-child relationship if they are allowed to exist together it's just the circumstances that allow them to be together are too harsh for that to happen...

The choice of whether Lion will see Beatrice or not is interesting to me.... I mean, it won't be pretty and will add a bunch of trauma that he was saved from in this life, but.... Beatrice being seen and accepted by Lion would probably mean a lot to her, I think... I don't know what Lion would think of Beatrice but the idea of Lion denying her makes me very sad. It would probably be very hard to process though. Think there's kind of an implicit "Do you have the right to judge 'bad' people when they could have been you had you been born in different circumstances" kind of argument going on here. They start discussing Lion's gender, and we start talking about how that was a constant point of contention in the games, which is about the one thing that hasn't been spelled out yet by now...

R07 starts beating you over the head with how all the answers are available in ep1-4 and the next games were just answers lol. Probably a little frustrated by people at people having I'll wait until i get more hints approach. She's right though.... like Lambdadelta dropped soooo many hints and it was still not enough. Battler definitely deserves some shit.

Sayo is confused about why they were brought to Ushiromiya's family when they don't have any relevant skills. It's certainly not the beginning of it but it's probably the first time Sayo felt that her fate was being chosen by someone for reasons unknown to her.... Sayo was just in elementary school.... she really wasn't allowed much of any life before Genji started dragging her around for his plans. I wonder what Genji told Natsuhi to make an excuse for Sayo to get there. If you just tell her Kinzo said so she probably can't object too much though. They did what? Jesus christ, I forgot how bad her life was even pre-rokkenjima....

Sayo is helped by "Shannon", which is mentioned was her friend in the Gospel House as well... sad to think her life has sucked so much to this point that they had to make an imaginary friend before she even got to Rokkenjima. Ok yeah Natsuhi confirms she was told Kinzo just did this lol. I wonder what Kinzo thought but at this point I imagine he was too busy feeling guilty about Beatrice to care too much about the house going ons. Lion wakes up and says he doesn't regret finding out but he wants to forget which is a fair, probably. They start discussing how this was Genji's plan. Bernkastel starts taunting Lion about not being biological and everyone just kind of ignores her, which fair enough she doesn't even believe what she's saying. We go back to Clair's home life being kind of fucky. worsened by Genji's machinations.

I've kind of been avoiding the subject because it's really obvious but the Gospel House is really fucked. Stripping children of their names, sending them to work after middle school... Haha, I wonder why no one talks behind her back or why she can't pick up your tasks.

Natsuhi tells Sayo to not to be Jessica's friend, because of course she does. Sayo has every right to fucking hate Natsuhi. If only Genji chose to separate Kinzo from Sayo fully instead of making her entire life a redemption play for her mother's rapist.... They bring up the age difference and how it was necessary to have Natsuhi and Kinzo be fooled, which is another way in which Sayo's entire identity was denied for others. Sayo recounting the way she loses things sounds just like ADHD haha, anyways that's how Beatrice-Gaap is born. Sayo mentions how the reason she can 'see' things even when they are not there is due to the way she has been taught God is everywhere even though you can't see him. That's definitely interesting to me.... it's always interesting to hear about how children interpret religious superstitions, you definitely see a lot of children interpreting stuff like imaginary friends, mental illness, etc. Like that. Being perceived and understood is to be saved.

Sayo gives up and realizes the broom was outside and picks it up, in the meta she has become friends with the broom-stealing Beatrice. Kumasawa starts teaching her how to not lose stuff but filters it through magic talk, which becomes the basis for her entire system of magic.... Kumasawa.... again I think that Kumasawa is probably the most healthy relationship Sayo had for most of her life.

Sayo realizes when people who are cruel to her make the same mistake as the ones they mock her for it feels good... that's true even if she causes the mistake herself. Natsuhi really fucked Sayo's life in sooo many ways... I really like Sayo I am not meaning to demonize her but god damn I don't think anyone can give Sayo shit for hating her.

Mystery novels are also a hands-me-down from Kumasawa... there's a reason why Virgilia is the original Beatrice!

Interesting how the whole concept of the game was born out of Sayo just wanting to make reading mystery novels funner for her, haha, I mean it is funnier to figure things out if you imagine there's an opponent you have to beat, I suppose!

[whenthechickencry]

Umineko EP6. Replay Part 1

It is very interesting how much the dialogue in the wedding scene seems to put Battler in the role of what is usually considered the Bride's role in misogynistic society - Erola downright calls him his property, actually. With how Natsuhi was literally sold in a way like this and this is revenge for winning against Natsuhi I can imagine this being some kind of twisted humor on Erika or Bernkastel's side. I forgot Hachijo published theories online and not like, on books and stuff. The idea of her just spending all her day arguing online and getting heated about the truth of Rokkenjima is extremely funny to me.

Ange's sense of time is really fucked here with remembering stuff from the future, honestly a lot of the stuff wrt Ange's time kind of flew over my head the first time so I should pay more attention this time.

We go back to lambda etc, and uh, it's very clear Bernkastel doesn't like Erika at all anymore and Erika is desperate to prove herself to Bern. ....Battler and Beatrice's relationship in the meta is obviously set in a way to kind of mirror the story of Beato and Kinzo, and now we are in the "Beatrice 1 died and Kinzo is desperate to bring her back stage" aka the grooming your daughter stage so this episode sometimes get a little bit uncomfortable, probably intentionally so, since they are serving as hints to the actual truth, and even on first read you can tell the language of Battler's Piece-Beato is mirroring Kuwadorian-Beatrice. honestly, it would probably be more disrespectful to not have it be uncomfortable since otherwise

The fact that Lambdadelta is on Battler's side is pointed out! Of course, Ange refutes it, but it will be pretty relevant on ep8 especially.

Battler begins thinking about the role of a game master and how it's much harder than it looks, and the logic error gets some setup.... Battler smiling and blushing with excitement when he thinks he can show Beato his game is really cute, though, haha.... if a little sad, with full context.

Here is r07, through Featherine, telling us that just because something was as mall sin for Battler doesn't mean that it wasn't a big deal for Sayo.... and to please not dismiss her heart as we have seen that even Battler has accepted it by now. This is making me emotional.

While this is obviously paralleling Kinzo-Beatrice, they are obviously also referring to how Sayo-Beatrice was originally created as a way for her to kind of... compartmentalize away her feelings for Battler. She was literally created for Battler, as the game keeps pointing out.

Battler throws a tantrum and literally breaks the plates and all the food Beatrice had made for her, good one Battler, great way to do an apology. Genji reprimands him by asserting that they are truly Beatrice.

The whole discussion about 'scents' is interesting, because when i think of works that don't carry the same scent as the original work.... it's several of Higurashi's side arcs. But several others do too, so the fact that an endless amount of 'correct' forgeries can be made isn't wrong.

Kanon and Shannon have their usual discussion on loving vs not loving for 'furniture'.... it's been at least a while actually, ep5 was ironically the one ep that didn't really focus on either of them despite being an answer arc, it's really sad when Kanon jumps at her like "you are only pretending to be a human, George won't love you when he finds out more" and her just kind of giving weak affirmations that it is not true. I don't really have a lot to say that Kanon didn't say here haha - he confesses his feeling of being trapped, his disgust at himself, and both envy and admiration for Jessica.... it is kind of nice to be able to see the things come out of their own mouth instead of subtext, though also really sad. The scene ends with both of them agreeing they are nothing more than furniture.

Kanon talks about how if Shannon ever quit he would stop working and Jessica says she knows about that already.... kind of shows how at least at some point Sayo was making plans to leave the island entirely and giving excuses as to why both Shannon and Kanon would have to disappear.

This scene is really cute but the part about Jessica confessing she's mainly into Kanon because she was jealous of George and Shannon is always a bit sad to me.... I still think they are cute though.

Chick-Beato starts thinking about the meaning of names a bit depressed and Ange talks about how she feels bad for her - I am glad someone's pointing out how fucked up it is to do this to Chick-Beato. Featherine and Ange begin pointing out that Beatrice was created for Battler and eventually became the Witch-Beato we see in previous games, so the question right now is why (being abandoned after being promised help in your worst moment and then coming back at the worst possible time... Featherine explicitly points out 6 years = a thousand years. Erika tries to do a threatening badass entrance.... and starts coughing horribly. I am team Erika I feel bad for her.

Erika solves all of Maria's puzzles and makes everyone uncomfortable by trying to show off to everyone by solving literally children's puzzles.... haha Erika is so fucking funny on replay man it's so obvious she's just kind of struggling really hard to seem like a genius and to prove herself to Bernkastel.... I feel really bad for her like I know she's kind of evil but like.... i want the best for her. In Erika's perspective, this is like, they think they are surprised at her intelligence. but it's so obvious their reaction is more like "You are overthinking it, idiot, that answer doesn't make any logical sense you literally had to invent magic cheese for the answer"

Erika prompts conversation about the Witch portrait, Jessica points out a bit confusedly that the butterflies and scorpions are carry-overs from the Akujikima spirit stories. They point out that Kinzo started the Beatrice mentions way before the portrait. Feels like a Beatrice-Timeline refresher. This is when Beato and Beato meet btw. They start talking about how 'Beatrice' existed before the mission to serve Battler and before the portrait even. Again, more Beatrice-Timeline/History refresher.

Shannon points out Beatrice stole her stuff haha - shows Beatrice is both the excuse for Sayo's mistakes and also her power fantasy and excuse when playing pranks on others.

Ange talks about how Sakutarou is mass-produced here and how there's good magic and bad magic... Featherine kind of chides her for having a simplistic view of magic. Oh narration haha..... yeah Erika can own 1000 kids in an argument I am sure hahahaa.

Erika who is Definitely a Serious and Scary Threat then proceeds to be so proud of herself for owning a literal 9-year-old child and preventing anyone from butting in. Dlanor is like "are you serious rn" godddd..... Erika is so good.

There's something kind of sad about Erika saying she knows detectives won't be accepted anywhere and afterwards Shannon and George trying to understand her, I think.

George reveals he is an incel and the one to remember Battler's sin is.... George. Shannon gets obviously flustered at the fact he of all people remembered that.... Ange talks about how she finds guys like George creepy and deluded about women, hahaaha. The dagger that him changing the subject to children must have been for her....

Sayo immediately begins not saying much and just saying yes. over and over.... feels like she is basically disassociating away from this conversation honestly.

"...Erika thought she felt touch of pity in his gaze, and she averted her eyes uncomfortably" when talking about love, Battler starts pitying Erika in this chapter as opposed to last chapter where she was just kind of demonized by him, I think it shows how his perspective towards other people has changed... I do think Erika is a very pitiable person.

Everyone just kind of shrugs and accepts what Erika says haha. Like yeah, obviously ghost stories mix up together, Erika, a bit rude to mention it, though. And no one wants to be the one to tell her "Duh?"

The Beatrices talk about what each other was missing, kind of funny that the answer is "Sayo's decaying mental health and being given a bunch of money and bombs" but. Battler struggles some more with the Logic Error, and you get hints of future reds here.... reading these scenes makes me think about how Rika's time loops must have felt for her, just the feeling of nothing ever working and everytime you figure out something you get 20 other obstacles. This line is so sad jesus.... and the way Jessica affirms it makes me want to cry.

All the Ange interjections where it is shown Ange has the skill of Literacy are kind of funny.

Beatrice using the Golden Truth here is a pretty big hint into what it is. Something everyone agreed in the story to be true together.

Beato makes Battler cookies and he throws them away because of course. Denying this part of Beatrice is just as bad as denying any other part of Beatrice, Battler. Even Ange chastises him. Jesus christ I feel so bad for Beatrice. Ange wonders why Beatrice would "create a piece that loves Battler" instead of doing it herself.... well if you really liked someone and they harmed you in a way that you wanted to both keep your love and move on, what would you do? As much as I was mad at Battler this scene is really sad.... Battler really understands what she is doing now and is a crying mess when he thinks about it.

It is kind of interesting how Battler's relationship with Chick-Beato both mirrors and contrasts Kinzo-Beatrice. Kinzo was deluding himself into thinking his daughter was his lover, which ended up destroying her. Battler is deluding himself into thinking of her as his daughter and not a part of Beatrice, in order to be able to treat her better.

Zepar and Furfur give their introductions, I like them a lot, and they hammer down that only one of Kanon and Shannon can receive love. It's obvious everyone is playing the role of Sayo's internal thoughts rn. She thinks if anyone is to find out about her body the relationship will certainly, without a doubt, fail. Anything else is a miracle. She is completely trapped.

Jessica whinges a bit and finally kind of gets forced into the love duel and then Elder informs Chick that she is also part of the trial - haha considering this is probably representing a period of like 2 years before the trials, Sayo very much did not know Battler was going to come back and be included in here romance issues further! Erika's seal and room are rendered unusable by Battler and Erika... mentions wanting to have a smoke? Hahaha, that's kind of a cute visual. Dlanor mentions the emotion Erika seems to have from exposing magic isn't really a pleasure, Erika begins explaining about her past, and... haha that hit unexpectedly hard.... when you have found all the evidence that you are being lied to and gaslighted and you give the other person a chance to explain.... and they completely refuse and keep lying to you it really fucking hurts. I can't really blame Erika for thinking that loves causes you to see things that aren't there, there is a unique kind of fucked up harm that is suffered when you are lying to yourself for the sake of someone else and deep down, you know it.

Erika claims she is happy now that she's not tormented by nonred words, even though everything she does screens desperation and unhappiness....

Erika wishes she wasn't human, that she could use the red instead of having the blue gnaw at her heart, with no way to take them out.... but it's impossible to use the red, and so it's impossible to believe others. The fight between George and Eva starts right after and... Eva just asks George if he already fucked Shannon, jeez. And then she starts denigrating her parents which is.... ironic considering they are half sisters but anyway. George mentions how Eva only cares about what she wants for herself and Eva kind of goes apeshit, obviously being manipulative, but I do think Eva is doing what she thinks is best for George.... but her thinking of what is best is still fucked up, and it is based on what she thinks would be good, not considering anyone else's, especially not the person she's trying to control, opinions.

George is pretty ruthless (and correct) here about how his entire life has been controlled by Eva for her own ambitions and his own will crushed.... if he knew that I sure would love if he would stop hammering on Battler and Jessica how much They Nedd to Respect and Love Their Parents No Matter What... trying to quash others from reaching a necessary step into self-realization in order to appear as the Mature Wise ones. No wonder the symbolism used when describing this is a spider-web trapping George - his schedule sounds incredibly fucking hellish and crushes any opportunity for a kid to be a kid. It's not really a surprise he came out of it with weird ideas about socialization and women. The way Eva mentions having to see him while studying is really kind creepy and crushing. Not even when reading the damn book Eva wanted him to read was he allowed privacy.

"Both you and I.... need to leave our childhood days behind." It is interesting to acknowledge Eva's childhood trauma after this scene. George is probably aware since I doubt Eva wouldn't mention it.... I think it shows a kind of determination in George to both acknowledge the way his mother has been hurt while not letting that get in the way of looking out for himself. George takes the One-Winged Eagle staff, which represented Eva's dreams, and crushes it out of existence.

"He would intentionally spark jealously between women and revel in the harem, lapping up their flirting". It is kind of sad that this was probably one of the first times Kyrie experienced love, and that she already had an awful home life.... They were both in college and probably pretty young when they met, and Rudolf's antics are pretty much abusive. It's not really a surprise that after decades of having someone as volatile as Rudolf as a partner, she ends with murderous jealously.

....Kyrie says that Asumu acted as a total airhead who would NEVER talk about anything serious with Rudolf, but from the description Battler gives of her liking mystery and solving mysteries and stuff that's not really the impression I get. I think Kyrie's coping about the fact they had emotional intimacy.

Also, I uh, doubt she was afraid of vehicles as a lie as well. Asumu wasn't dumb like Kyrie perceived her at first but I doubt she was a huge mastermind as well, that's just Kyrie;s hatred and need to take away blame from Rudolf talking., Oh you are so wrong Kyrie, So wrong. It's really obvious how much resentment Kyrie has towards Rudolf by now. I can see why she saw his death as a way to start anew in EP7.

This is what Kyrie says to herself but it is absolutely not true, in reality, nothing changed, it was not fate, Kyrie's lack of ability to give birth nor Asumu's smarts that caused what happened to Kyrie; it was Rudolf and Rudolf's own actions alone that did that.

Kyrie's way of viewing love is so twisted and sad. She thinks any love that isn't constantly monitored and watched over 24/7 will always leave, it will be stolen. The only way to keep love alive is not let it have any room of escape.... it's not hard to see why she would think that after being stuck with a man who would betray her in any way possible if out of her sight for 5 minutes. It's so sad seeing this to me. How she doesn't only see any alternatives but thinks any alternatives don't EXIST anywhere in the world. It is not very different from how people who have been abused for many years assume all love must be as painful and fucked up as the one they have.

Kyrie is telling all of these to Jessica because she doesn't want Jessica to end up in the hell of regret she had for 18 years when Asumu was chosen over her - though truthfully her hell started when she met Rudolf and never ended.

There is something about how Jessica had to basically be couched into agreeing into this kind of destructive love, unlike George who agreed into it immediately. Sure it could just be because Jessica isn't as serious as George about their relationship.... but I do think Jessica probably has a healthier view of love than George does. Jessica does seem to believe that love is a mutual thing you can both grow from George uh, kind of doesn't seem to care much about Shannon's internal world and kind of sees her as just kind of a representation of his improvement and kind of as a conquest over Battler. Not that Jessica doesn't have a problem of thinking she has the answers to problems she has barely thought of, though. Haha, in magic Kyrie dies when Jessica acknowledges how fucked up her view of love is. I am glad she has the realization of how fucked up controlling love can be, and I will say that the fact life hasn't fucked up their view of things so much is something refreshing about the cousins compared to the adults....

[whenthechickencry]

Umineko EP4. Replay Part 6

She figured out the Epitaph all the way down to the church at least? Damn... Golden Witch Kumasawa. I wouldn't be surprised if she figured it out before Sayo and Genji was like. No.

This man's gonna be SO fucking traumatized from the Amakusa massacre damn.

I was kind of thinking re: trick ending if dude was actually involved but it really doesn't seem like he is. Amakusa is hearing all this and snickering in his heart I guess.

Ange starts freaking out about mass-produced Sakutarous. Forgot she realized here, tbh.

He sounds a lot more scared and is asking Sayo for more prompts here, so I think people have started dying by now.

Gaap gets added to the pantheon of characters that represent Sayo's stream of thoughts.

"I'm sure that one day, somebody will love us. Need us." Sayo....

Lol what Kyrie and 'Kinzo' said barely match up. Wrt to this challenge and Kyrie's odd words, you can definitely tell Kyrie is one of the accomplices. She uses this idea on her actual murder plan so I am pretty sure she is the one that gave this idea to Sayo. Having similar, but not exact, situations happen is how r07 gave answers to Higurashi, too, so I am pretty sure he was hinting at at Kyrie's extra involvement here. And Kyrie wouldn't say this to Battler because she doesn't believe that lol. So I think she's trying to market herself as a Good Accomplice to buy her survival.

YOU WILL FUCK UP OUR PLAN IF YOU GO TO THE DINING HALL. DON'T.

It's funny how George answers 'correctly' based on what Kinzo would choose but no one is spared. Almost like Kinzo is not the one in charge of this test!

Hmm? Jessica thinks the choices in her life would lead to eventual disappointment to everyone around them, especially their love, so the only option she can see where she ends satisfied is ending their own life? Getting a kick out of putting people in your situation, Sayo?

It's interesting to think of this as the perspective of Tohya writing it, too... This fragment is one where everyone asserts that Sayo is undoubtedly treasured in their lives, one where Jessica acknowledges the way she harmed her..., and one where the one who fails to do that is only Battler himself...

To be honest, I am sure that similarity to Kinzo is part of the reason Sayo was never able to truly trust George. Even in this scenario the word "Shannon" has barely escaped his mouth, he is just choosing what is better for him. He really likes the *idea* of Shannon but has barely bothered to know the real Shannon. Doesn't help his idea of her is based partly on something she physically can't do, ie birth his children.

Ok, I shat on George I will shit on Jessica a bit too, to be fair. Her kind of flip-flopping on answers and ending up choosing based on process of elimination is, I think, a reflection of how she chose to be in love with Kanon, at least from a pessimistic perspective. Jessica wanted to fall in love with a boy after seeing Shannon and Jessica together. Considering Kanon's boy status is debated on the first place, that's not something Sayo would be too keen on, I would imagine. It feels like she chose him from a process of elimination from Kanon being the one guy she constantly hangs with that isn't a relative (well) I think Jessica showed more interest in trying to understand who Sayo is, really, than Shannon did. But sometimes was quite forceful and gave advise without knowing the full situation and ended up hurting her all the same.

"She knew that her father, in order to protect his family, was even now bluffing and fighting a solitary fight"..... like, about Kinzo being alive?

Again, though, this whole section feels like a love letter towards Sayo, a posthumous love letter sadly, but.... Shannon begging to be forgotten because she isn't worth loving and George rebuking that feels like kindness being given to Sayo.

Man if you just stopped at You are not furniture....

The words reaching Shkannon and them affirming they are human gets a little sad once you think that the reality of what is happening rn.... This would be when Jessica and George get blackmailed and threatened by Sayo. It's not a coincidence that the part that was probably the hardest for Sayo to get herself to do is the one shown in the meta-narrative as Shannon and Kanon resisting against.

Hahaha.... are they Virgilia?

They even have fake flashbacks to the previous episodes of the goats life I forgot how funny this scene was.

The image of Jessica being forced to read off Sayo's script before getting shot in the head mid call is very hard to think about.... I wonder if they had the gun to her head the entire time or if they convinced her this was all a game, either way....

You can tell how much this was Sayo;s script though, haha, DON'T THINK ABOUT WHO IS BEHIND THIS is one last attempt from Sayo to force him to think about exactly that.

Sayo probably can't get herself to exist without being drunk as shit anymore, she drops a millionth hints to Battler and he misses all of them.

She realizes she let her true feelings about being Kinzo's captive come through and immediately corrects herself.

Haha.... yeah she's very bitter and drunk.... This scene's kind of hard to read, Sayo is at her absolute worse and drunk as shit, it's kind of painful to see her like this. She also is showing she fucking hates Kinzo,

There's the faint chance, isn't there?

Jesus.... again this scene is just hard to watch.

She's really dropping hint after hint here for Battler.

This focus on Battler's lineage can seem a bit odd because it's not something Sayo cares about too much, per se. Obviously part of the reason is red herring, but once you think about how Sayo was a Ushiromiya who was never allowed that name until it was forced violently on her, and Battler was someone who threw that name on a whim... Of course the other, more immediate and obvious reason why she's bringing it up is because in doing that he also completely threw her away for years, and then forgot about her.

[horrible-monstrosity]

(ooold post)

I've been putting half a braincell into trying to decide if the Kanon retcon theory explains anything. That is, the theory that originally Yasu/Sayo was just Shannon (who is also just Sayo because Yasu can't be assed to come up with real fake names for his real fake personalities...), and Kanon was a separate person who Yasu just latched onto and added to his net of identities.

- Can this explain the inconsistencies in Kanon's character? Kanon's all over the place, at times sternly telling Shannon to get over herself and do her furniture job, at times crying about how boo hoo I'll never find love because muh furniture... only to multiple times just decide "I'm not furniture anymore because things got serious because reasons". Which makes you wonder how much the story would break if he'd just decided that a few months earlier and eloped with Jessica... putting that aside, this could be the result of, Kanon being one way (probably the stern one) in reality and Yasu projecting a second personality onto him that's more angsty like himself. Problem one is I'm pretty sure there's scenes where he wildly swings from one to the other within like two lines... could be that Yasu's Kanon tulpa has Kanon's actual personality but also his shitty projection personality. Problem two is that you get into this autistic rabbit hole of figuring out which scenes have actual Kanon and which have Yasu in drag, which I hate because I hate this entire thing Problem three is me remembering the thing about evil Irie and brain-in-jar Satoshi and realising this is all probably because R07 doesn't give a shit about writing anyone who isn't either a chad or a waifu. Sigh.

- The corpses? In like the first two arcs, Kanon's corpse is clearly shown, while Shannon is kept off to the side and only reported on by people who might be on Yasu's "side" ie servants. This makes it look like there's only one corpse of course (of corpse), but there being even one corpse should be impossible if Yasu's supposed to be still up and about as the culprit. (Unless your culprit fucking died first, which is retarded... maybe I shouldn't discount that, lol) But if Yasu is Shannon and Kanon is under Yasu's thumb or something, this is easy to explain- Yasu gets rid of Kanon to prevent interference, then fakes "Shannon"'s death so he can move about freely as Beatrice without having to account for Shannon's wereabouts anymore. Probably the weirdest part of this one is the one where the servants won't let George(is that the glasses guy's name? i forogr) see Shannon's corpse, but they do report which finger she has the ring on... that just seems weird. Like, it seems like a weird piece of information for them to bother faking, unless Yasu's being deliberately malicious. But then we get to... I think it was the third arc, where Kanon dies in a locked room with Jessica and Beatrice... makes Kanon's corpse disappear because OOO HE NEVER EXISTED IN THE FIRST PLACE REALLY OOOOOO. And then he shows up again but with spooky red eyes and he's a demon or some shit and Shannon "defeats" him with a fucking cobweb. Whut. This is what I mean about the "foreshadowing", there's no reason for Beatrice to vanish Kanon's corpse other than, what, showing off, and even then there's no reason for her to do that *specifically*. Basically there's no real reason for these events to have taken place other than to imply oh who one and who two are the same person ooooo spoookyyyy. Worst part is, you can still kind of explain this if you get really autistic- just have Yasu fail to kill Kanon, he just fucking leaves the room (Battler doesn't check the locks himself most of the time, does he? He just gets red text'd about it), wanders over to the group where Yasu is currently Shannon which ruins some part of the plot, so Yasu's like, oh no he's a demon clone made by the witch!! and then defeats him with a cobweb, somehow. Then since no one's going to be finding Kanon's corpse in the room he supposedly died in with the door locked, he backtracks to the moment it happened and is like "and then I made his corpse vanish for no reason because I'm so cool and shit!!"- this requires the event to be recounted later after Kanon shows up again rather than in real time but it's probably fine fuckit. This has the bonus effect of associating Kanon with Beatrice, so if Kanon goes against the "plan" again Yasu/Shannon can just be like "lol Beatrice servant Kanon bad". This also doesn't explain Kanon showing up again with the corny red eyes already on as a Beatrice summon but maybe Yasu was just using him because he'd set it up anyway so why not. The problem here is I'm not sure how well this holds up in later arcs, thanks both due to the summaries I found not being finished that far and due to events becoming even more muddled... this might not be a problem depending on when the retcon would have taken place, but if it was because of that one writer dying (he saved Satoshi from brain jar, bless his soul) it would have been arc 5 or later, so it needs to hold at least for four and maybe for five, which I don't think is the case. Unless it was actually retconned on his watch.

- Might explain why Shannon's fucking useless at her job (which in itself is a fucking useless plot point, there's this weird fucking conversation where she doesn't know some autistic details about... tea or sardines or whatever and someone else, I think Jessica, has to help her, which why the fuck does Jessica know this shit herself and why do the adults who would rag on Shannon for not doing her job either not notice or are fine with her being fed information... fuck) while Kanon is decently competent aside from being physically weak despite not having been there as long. If they're the same person, they should have the same knowledge, but Shannon doesn't learn jack shit while Kanon apparently does.

- Finally there's the odd description of why Yasu added Kanon to his stable of identities being because Beatrice "blessed" Shannon with a younger brother personality or whatever it was... that just makes no sense. I mean most of this plot makes no god damned sense, but this makes extra no sense. Why do you need someone else to "bless" you with a personality? Why do you need your own alternate personality to bless you with another personality? Why a little brother specifically (as I've said he barely seems like a little brother most of the time, more like a tard wrangler)? But of course this is obviously post-retcon so who knows if it has any bearing on pre-retcon or if it's just random author cope nonsense.

The final problem with this is that it just reduces to “someone in the 18 people is Beatrice/the culprit” (though that’s technically the case anyway), which seems like a really uninteresting way to conclude things, or to have things planned out from the beginning. Not that “these two people in the 18 are literally the same person any also five other personalities and nobody even noticed” is any better... also, you know, if Shannon and Kanon are the same then it’s actually 17 people, which is never acknowledged. The more I think about it the more this needs a 19th character as the culprit to have any impact, at least the way the story is now. Like, Shannon and Kanon never actually *do* anything that implies bla bla bla- the second arc starts with individual scenes of them with each of their love interests, but it sets up nothing beyond them weeping and wailing about how furniture can human and love is no no, baww. Never is it implied that Shannon, or Kanon for that matter, is still holding a torch for Battler despite currently being with George/Jessica; their angst is entirely focused on one person, and their reasons for refusing that person have nothing to do with being conflicted over another (ie there’s no indication of that). It’s just... generic wangst for a nearly boilerplate reason. All that time spent at the beginning of a fucking arc that could be telling the audience things they might need to consider later, and it’s wasted repeating shit that’s already been said and which will be said a thousand more times and which the audience could understand in a fucking second. What a failure of a story.

oh right there's shannon bringing up battler's silly promise to her... just... fucking..... why. yasu cares soo much about the promise, yasu is shannon, shannon doesn't give a damn about it and battler remembers the promise to her anyway and shannon knows this so why is yasu upsetti about battler forgetting the promise or whatever the fuck. This really makes no sense unless... Yasu wasn't even Shannon at all to begin with. The scene is even set up really awkwardly to establish kid Battler's "character trait" of making silly dramatic promises or something, like it's implying he made other promises at other times, like it's perhaps setting up another promise he made at another time to another person.

Here's some more autism: while I was skimming through the summaries again to try and find some of the things I referenced above to double check them (I didn't find them and stopped caring btw), I was reminded of this very blatant exchange in arc 2- Kanon tries to replace Maria's broken candy with one she gave him earlier and she whines, then says the witch would be able to fix the broken one. Then like two minutes later OOOO SPOOKY THE WITCH IS HERE AND SHE FIX CANDY WAOW KANON IS BEATRIC SO CLEVUR. Foreshadowing so blatant it seems like the only way for it to be even remotely interesting or clever is for it to be a red herring, which it isn't. But anyway, the thing here is that Beatrice's appearance this time is really fucking weird. Not only is her reason for physically appearing on the island out of nowhere when she was supposed to be some mysterious magical entity that needs to be summoned really flimsy, she's randomly wearing a different outfit. One could almost say a more masculine outfit, with the suit vest thing. Almost as though she's a "different" Beatrice... one "created" by Kanon because he couldn't comfort Maria as himself. Of course this falls apart quickly because suit Beatrice keeps fucking hanging around with these clothes (and there's that scene where she's talking to Kanon and Shannon, but that scene is retarded anyway even with the original explanation so who gives a shit), but it does highlight an idea- it would have been WAY more kino for Beatrice to have been an identity adopted by multiple people, in multiple forms, all for their own reasons. In other words the exact opposite of the retarded awkwardness of having a bunch of characters really be the same person and somehow no one fucking notices. But probably the real reason is that the drooling waifucentric pseud author knows that if he puts the cover waifu in a new sexy outfit the drooling waifucentric pseud audience will jump up and down and pant like dogs and think his writing is just oh so deep.

[horrible-monstrosity]

FUCK YEAH BASED HIGURASHI! WHERE EVEN THE LIFE OF THE MOST DEMENTED VILLAIN DESERVES RESPECT!! WHERE THERE’S NO HAPPY ENDING UNLESS EVERYONE, ABSOLUTELY EVERYONE LIVES!! YEAhey wait what’s this at the bottom-

it’s all so tiresome.

If I meet R07 on the streets I will fucking beat the shit out of him for this shit