#hints of maria/rosa

[yingfelis]

Killer love

Angel x Reader

“You’re really weird y’know.”

You looked up, your eyes meeting Angel’s as you gave her a curious look.

“Care to elaborate?” Angel just giggled as you just stared cluelessly at her.

“Look at what you’ve doing right now and tell me you’re normal with a straight face.” Angel’s voice teasing with a hint of fondness as you remembered what exactly what you were doing.

You looked back down as you rubbed a damp towel into the palm of her hand, getting rid of the blood that had previously covered her skin. “Wasn’t saying I was normal, just wondering what finally got you to say something.”

Angel chuckled as she moved her (now clean) hand to grab your wrist, and brought your hand (holding the towel) to her cheek. Said cheek which was spattered in blood you immediately started to wipe off.

“Well for one, normal people don’t gently wipe off the blood on a serial killer’s face after they’ve just killed someone.”

“Normal people don’t tend to knowingly date serial killers” you retorted as you finished cleaning the blood off her face, leaving a small kiss on the corner of the blonde’s mouth to solidify your point.

Angel’s cheeks sparked a light pink as the sudden affection, “You don’t go easy on the heart… but touché”

Angel shifted and rested her head on your shoulder, letting out a deep sigh. It wasn’t done out of annoyance or anything, it was as if she just finally let herself relax.

“Are you sure you’re not secretly a murder?”

“I’m not.”

“Not even the tiny bit murderous?”

“That…” you had to take a pause as you thought back to the first night you saw Angel in person. Covered in the blood of her previous asshole of a manager, the manager you encouraged her to kill.

“That’s… debatable. But I still haven’t technically killed anyone.”

The girl beside you let out a laugh as she seemed to lean her body on you more. “I’m not sure whether to call you incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. I mean sure accidentally getting onto a serial killer is one thing… but staying for as long as you have now is another.”

It’s true. You could have left at anytime. You thought about leaving many times. You should have left a long time ago. Before you involved yourself so much with these people.

But you never could for some reason.

You blamed it on your book, your whole obsession with writing to the point of throwing your life away. Going as far as you view your life as nothing but secret story waiting to be transferred onto a page. A viewpoint that was probably nowhere near healthy and basically what got you into this mess in the first place.

But you knew it wasn’t only that.

It hasn’t been that reason for a long time.

You turned to face the girl next to you. She looked back at you with expecting eyes and the most relaxed expression on her face you knew you were one of the only few to have the privilege of seeing.

Angel, The Heartsick Angel, Maria De La Rosa

You muttered something under your breath. Barely audible that just escaped comprehension but was there nonetheless. And as Angel’s— no… not in this instance. Not right now with you you cut your own thoughts off, as Maria’s lips parted to ask what you said, you already silenced her with your own.

Right the reason you stayed…

You leaned back, your hand gently cradling Maria’s cheek as you looked into her light blue eyes. She truly looked so angelic in this moment, you couldn’t help the words stumbling out of your mouth

“My muse…”

You whispered on her lips before she pulled you back in for another kiss.

[knaveumineko]

Umineko Episode 3 Blog: Glass Slippers

When I watch Rosa abuse a kid, I call her a monster. When I watch Eva abuse a kid, I just think she's iconic.

Episode 3 spent a long time exploring the lore behind witches. The whole ceremony offered me even more of that peak Eva content, and the question of what exactly a witch is on a mundane level is interesting to me.

Being a witch is obviously a pretty childish endeavour, in the sense that becoming an adult means accepting things as they are and not believing in miracles, which is why Eva and EVA are different people in the magic narrative, with only one of them ascending, but witches also have that self-centeredness that comes with immaturity. Every witch we've ever met seems hyperfocused on some obsession of theirs, with no regard for others nor interest in mortal affairs. Most of the witches we've seen were literal children.

Umineko has enjoyed exploring the gap between the mature front the siblings put on for the kids and the weakness that's really inside them. Eva's endless taunting of Natsuhi is on some level the same impulse that had her killing spiders as a child, and the same impulse that has EVA killing over and over. The traits that make for a good witch are the same ones that make for a good culprit, it seems. Is there some insight I could get by applying this to the Sayo theory? If nothing else, she outwardly appears to have held on to her superstitions for quite a long time, and she's stagnated in her role as a servant for years after most people leave. Does she just have no interest in the outside world?

There's a neat callback in Ange's big scene, where her fellow classmates scapegoat her for anything that goes wrong the same way the servants do with Beatrice (is that even true, actually? It would be pretty messed up if Kumasawa is just going around spreading ghost stories about the dead kid she helped raise.)

For Ange and Eva, being a witch is at least partially something extrinsic. It's more about the way other people perceive you. If we put it together, being a witch is being a hated scapegoat, isolated from your peers, failing to mature as a result, and becoming consumed by spite, self-interest, and your niche fixations. It's pretty worrying that Maria wants to be one. Seems like she's already most of the way there, albeit less deliberately cruel and more oblivious to the feelings of others.

It was pretty rude of Ryukishi to write Umineko in Japanese just to stop me from solving the epitaph. Eva had to use an atlas, so there's some kind of place name involved, and there's something about reading a word with a different number of characters to how you normally would. The "gouge the X and kill" being a clue involving removing certain characters from a string of text was kind of clever. Didn't I say something back in Episode 1 about how the murders seem like someone is trying to retrofit them to the riddle without always understanding what those parts of the poem was supposed to be about? I'm probably not going to think about it much. The atlas thing made me think maybe we're doing a twist where we have to read Kanji as if it was Hanzi or vice versa, or maybe taking the Kanji in a place name and looking at one of its alternative meanings, but that's more just me applying the one thing that I know about Kanji than an actual theory. Hopefully the game just tells me the answer at some point.

Besides the direct clues as to the solution to the epitaph, it doesn't escape my attention that Eva only solved the epitaph because she got hints from Kyrie and Rosa. Even with the hint, she beat Rosa by only a few minutes. We know gold was taken to the chapel in Episode 2, but not why. Did Rosa figure out the epitaph in that timeline, and use the gold to lure people to the chapel to get them killed? Seems like she would have gotten a witch in that case, so maybe she was just in the know on the real culprits' plans, rather than doing it herself. Seeing Kyrie make progress so fast makes me think the theory about her and Rudolph starting the killings off in Episode 1 could be plausible. I just like seeing more of Battler's parents in general. Unfortunately they keep having to die because Kyrie is too competent. Maybe next episode she'll be an accomplice instead so we'll get to see her gaslighting Battler.

I'd like to wrap this episode up fast so I can keep reading, so I'll talk a bit about the murder mysteries here. It's clear that there was to be a killer separate from Eva, since people die in contexts where Eva wouldn't or couldn't kill them.

Sayo had to be a bit clever about carrying out the murders this time. Since the servants who would usually help her out all got selected for the initial 6 sacrifices and she was up against all the siblings working together, she had to operate indirectly. That's why she went out of her way to underline the importance of the epitaph in her letters this time: it was absolutely vital that at least one person solves the epitaph and finds the gold, so that Sayo can play on their greed to get them to carry out the murders on their own.

At least one of Shannon or Kanon faked their deaths, with Nanjo providing fake autopsies as usual. This is sufficient to explain the loop of 6 closed rooms. Everyone else was killed by Eva as Battler described, except for George and Nanjo (and maybe Jessica, since we didn't see how she died). George was killed because he snuck out to check on the bodies in the mansion and discovered that one of them was faked (probably Shannon). Nanjo being killed by Sayo explains how Eva, Battler and Jessica didn't kill him.

The obvious objection to this is EVA's red truths, which seem to paradoxically state that Nanjo was killed by no-one, since everyone still alive was innocent. However, this trick was already used in Episode 2, when Kanon-but-not-Kanon killed a bunch of people and then vanished. My speculation was that Beatrice is being creative with her definition of "dead" in her red truths. My guess is that Kanon "died" in Episode 2 in the sense that he abandoned his identity as Kanon. I think the same thing has happened in Episode 3, which is how Kanon or Shannon can kill Nanjo despite being "dead".

After seeing the depths they'd stoop to in Episode 3, I'm thinking Eva and Hideyoshi were probably accomplices in Episode 1. The only testimony backing up that they left the conference early that night is Genji, who was definitely in on it. They can fake Shannon's death since she's in an out of the way spot and only Hideyoshi and Kanon can vouch for the state of the corpse, which explains why she's alive at the end. They holed themselves up in their room because they were planning on meeting with Sayo, so the mystery of why they let the killer in is solved.

Eva is a terrible liar. Why did she even do the receipt thing? It literally makes no sense unless she already knows murders are happening. She just can't help but lord any advantage she has over others, no matter how suspicious it makes her look. That's why we love her.

Anyway, that's going to be it for 3. I've heard Episode 4 is really slow, but I'm intrigued by Ange's deal. Her misfortune is amusing in a way, and I'm really curious about how she's going to tie into the plot when she's so far in the future.

[lazy-sushi]

Liv x ronin

Restless love - Ronin x Liv (killer chat)

Authors note: Little request done because why not? It was hard writing a bit less serious and more silly but here ya go!

Warning: Ronin's route (last name), gore, death, slightest oh so slight mention of gluttony gods, sleep deprived Liv, that one joke that I was forced to keep because requested told me to, silly

3 am.

Not an unusual time for the devil to be lurking. It's claws lurking in the dark, nails ripping through the stone, waiting, hunting. Screams running through the streets. Blood painting the walls and ground in red, the devil's color. The smell of rotting flesh dragging through the air. This was his life. The devil’s only; Ronin Beaufort. The night drew out the living, only haunting who would dare to stay outside. And those victims were now the devil’s feast. Guts spilling through their rotten flesh, pinned on the walls like some form of art. He had recently been nailing down some intestines to form a star. Of course not just any star, but Satan’s star. The blood ran down his arms, soaking his clothes further into its red color. He enjoyed this. Every last bit of this grotesqueness felt like a bliss, like home. He was the devil after all. And this devil needed his little helper. His partner in crime. His apprentice. He needed someone just as deranged as him.

That’s what he at least always thought. Ther, Maria de la Rosa and now his newest muse, Liv.

Liv was everything. Everything but what he had expected to want. She was the opposite of him. Blood? Disgusting. Corpses? Even worse. It surprised him that Liv even considered him as something more than a filthy wretched being. It was a surprise Liv hadn’t just cut the line, called the cops and put an end to the tragedy that was The Butcher. She had also given him a lack of power. Only words yet touch? Oh how much he had to watch out on that part.

Liv had a tough spot on that topic. All those couples and their physical share of love. Like it was some proof, some sort of dignified rule. For her she counted, ain’t no one breaking her space. It was already hard for her to find any form of “romance” or whatever they had called it. But even when, it always stopped the same. The proof. The hand holding, the kissing, the cuddling. Liv didn't need this proof.

Weren’t her words enough sometimes?

It wasn’t like she hated it. If she gave her own consent then she could actually properly enjoy some sort of physical interaction. It was just that not many understood it. Not at least, as well as Ronin did. He had left her space whenever she needed it, even apologized. It was like in those moments Ronin forgot that he is supposed to be the devil. Like just for once he dropped himself, allowing to have normal human interactions. It made him sick to think that he was getting soft. Soft for some person. But then again, Liv wasn’t just someone. She barked back when he snarled. She stood up against him. It made her perfect for him. Who else would stand against the devil? No one but Liv.

4 am

He packed his crowbar away, proud of his work. His bloody hand picked up his phone, slowly typing in each number to unlock it. Immediately he went to take pictures. Each more gruesome than the last. On one corpse he even used his knife to carve a bit of skin out of the stomach. ‘Liv’; rotten and pure. He had to cut it away after taking the picture. A shame, but he wouldn’t even try to leave any hints by accident. He knew she would hate it. Not the carving but rather on ‘what’ it exactly was on. However he knew she was appreciating it in some way, even if it was usually followed by gagging.

Phone in his pocket, he walked down the streets, following the dead trails that were unwatched. His hands dragging the bag filled with his ‘tools’. The moon slowly started to disappear by now, leaving the sky to slowly turn brighter. Soon he’d reach his destination. Home. His key fumbled in his hands as he unlocked the door quietly, not wanting to disturb Liv in her beauty sleep. At least, that’s what he expected. But as he opened the door his muse sat there, staring at the wall, eyes tired. She just giggled, like she was a little kid having her first crush. It confused him more than anything if he had to be honest. The way she just seemed out of her mind. Ronin remembers Misaki mentioning something to it but he couldn’t lay his finger on it.

He dropped the bag aside, letting it clank loudly on the floor. It made Liv jump high like a cat. Her eyes wide as she stared at the noisemaker. Although having lost part of her sight due to the lack of sleep, she could immediately tell who it was by his hair. Those wine colored strands only came from one man she knew. She stood up, stumbling over to him and giving him a hug only making Ronin more confused. He wrapped his soaked arms around her back, making sure to avoid her neck on purpose. He knew she hated that and he respected it.

“Darling, shouldn’t you be asleep? Mortals aren’t that immortal as far as I heard.”

His typical smirk formed, avoiding the weird feeling he had in his chest. He saw the time again at his clock. 4:33 am. It was far too late for Liv to be awake. In fact, he didn’t think he ever saw her like this. Has this happened before? He couldn’t tell. But what he knew was that Liv sure as hell wasn’t fine right now. Starting first by the fact that Liv was ignoring the blood on him.

Liv looked up at him, grinning so wide that it almost scared the devil himself.

“You know what I thought about?”

Her voice was almost silent and Ronin was unsure if he could even understand her words or if his brain just made them up. It

“What if I just randomly hit someone with a crowbar. Wouldn't it be like funny? I mean no one expects it from me. And then I just laugh….no wait, I think the smell of blood would be too bad? Actually how do you even do that?”

Liv kept on talking further without any stop and the taller guy didn't even know if she had even actually thought about it, or if she just let her intrusive thoughts out. He felt her hands gripping him, fingers shaking slightly. Her legs were weak, practically clinging on his jacket even with the blood. A stranger stood there, not Liv. Ronin should live that idea of murder and blood and all the edgy shit. But right now? Right now it worries him. Nothing he would admit to her, but just a thought he kept secretly locked in his head.

Soon he heard her quiet down, yawning. Her eyes dropped heavily on him. He could feel her whole body relaxing which made him in return tense up. This normalcy, he didn’t have it since- He needed to focus. His hands reached to push her off gently, still holding her as if he was afraid that letting go would make her fall down.

“Darling, how about you call it quits for today? Guts n’ blood will still be screaming tomorrow.”

Ronin let her go after his request. His voice calmer and softer than he’d usually sounded. Before Ronin could even continue, his hands immediately reached back out to catch Liv. He hadn’t expected her to actually drop today, but here he was, helping the sleep deprived girl standing on two functioning legs. She stared back up at him, making those wide eyes that Ronin knew too well. He shook his head multiple times, excusing himself over and over again until-

5 am

Here he was, giving Liv a piggyback ride to her bed. Her legs secured tightly around his arms as she kept on bugging him about the weirdest things. He had sworn to Satan he heard her say something between the lines of “eat blood” even. Ronin wasn’t sure if he was impressed or unsure about her mumblings, nor did he try to listen to them too much. His focus was fully laid on getting the sleepy girl to bed. Hands wrapped around his head as Liv tried to hold on, body leaned fully on it as she started to giggle again.

Ronin remembered what Misaki had said. The lack of sleep makes you sleep deprived, which is as equal as getting drunk. He had hardly believed that, especially with his own sleep routine. Here he was though, caring what appeared to him as the most drunken behaviour he ever saw. Slowly he sat down on the bed before letting go of her legs, resuming to pull her arms away as well. From the side of his view he saw the screen of his computer lit up. From the looks of it he could tell that Liv had drawn something late at night, leaving it now open for the empty souls of this room to see. The Devil had liked her art, becoming quite fond of it even. Sometimes he would just rest to watch her draw in the evening. It was like a parable to his art. Instead of being gruesome and bloody, in a quiet literal context, her art seemed to be lighter and full of colors. He liked it, the normality, the less rotten core. He liked it and there was no way out of denying it. But admitting? Yeah there was a way out of that for him.

As his thoughts spiraled something gripped at his jacket, small, soft. Immediately he sighed, turning to face her.

“Come on Rooooo, I’m coooold.”

By now she could barely bring out her words, a challenge for Ronin to understand, but for her fortune the Devil was able to tell her body language. It made him feel warm in his rotten heart, the thought of cuddling her. A moment of peace to make his brain pause, to make all the murder stop, to forget about his job. Just him and her, sharing warmth in their own inclosed space. In his thoughts he was already there, but his body moved on his own, standing up. It knew better than his mind that Liv would kill him if he even thought about sleeping there with the smell of death. His fingers ran over to grab the blanket instead, pulling it over Liv.

“Christ alright, just let me shower the blood off, will ya?”

Judging by her stare to his question, Liv practically didn’t understand what he was talking about, but it didn’t matter. The safety of his balls were important too.

It felt like forever for Liv, but she could hear the water turning off soon and only just a moment later Ronin would come out of the bathroom. The clothes changed from his big jacket to a simple shirt with the cover of a hardcore-punk band called “Big brains” from his late 90’ years. Liv heard him mentioning it once in a big conversation about the hardcore dc scene, something about punk that she barely remembers right now. The beanie he wore was gone, possibly being in the sink right now, bathing in milk. The bracelets dangled down from his wrists, the tattoo visible from his now freed arm. His steps made small noises as he got closer, soon reaching his destiny. Ronin knew exactly what Liv wanted.

He grabbed the blanket up, settling down with his back against her before wrapping the sweet warmth of the fabric back around the two. This was followed by the warmth of Liv’s body pressed against his back along with her arms wrapping around him. Face nuzzled neatly against him like her life depended on him. At this very moment, her exhaustion had won, making her fall asleep right away. It made Ronin sigh, although he couldn’t hold himself back to grab her hand, entwining their fingers as he dozed off slowly himself.

She was the opposite of a serial killer and he loved it.

[anawkwardlady]

I think one of the most subtle yet obvious hint at Rosa's suicidality is how she talks about her debts and money as something vague and Maria’s father coming back as something tangible. Like the deadline doesn't really matter itself but what it represents emotionally does. sure the debts are important and a great source of stress but theres something so weird about the "If I pay it all, will he come back" "If I pay it all I would have closure" narrative because its supposed to be the other way around. The loan is urgent because theres actual real world consequences to not paying it, yet it doesn't seem important, almost like she could escape or accepted it already anyway. It always gives me a feeling of weirdness anytime that subject was mentioned. "What if he comes/never comes back".... What will happen after the deadline when you do not pay? Why is that question never brought up? Why is the future never in your thoughts? What is the deadline actually for?

[dr-lizortecho]

like to say that season three had it flaws is definitely true, but it also brought virtually every character through to developmental mile stones that had been pre-setup from the start of the series

it saw Liz confronting how difficult it was even with a miracle to separate trauma from reality, to trust in people, to relinquish control of everything so she could hold onto what matters, it saw her stop running away under guise of running towards something, it allowed her to finally feel settled in her bones in her hometown, to build something and trust that it wouldn’t crumble under her feet, all things presented in season one (in the first four episodes to be exact- if not all summarized and hinted towards in the pilot) bringing her character fully into self realization, obviously she has a long stretch ahead of her come the end of 3x13 but she’s made the choice to work towards that, directed her path, and if Liz Ortecho is anything it’s an overachiever, a hardworking dedicated woman

Max Evans is starting his journey of self love and acceptance (specifically of his alien powers/heritage) in the season finale, he’s shown grappling with what being an alien and whatever the savior was and becoming sure that in his discovery of who he wanted to be his loved ones would be at his side no matter his choice, he’s shown having worked through a lot of his aimless anger and literally sits in the dark with his childhood self and a priest (like come onnnnn show??? heavy handed much), he also is faced with the ugly truth of himself, everything he hates, and has to choose to live, to fight back, and he wins, his hand is held by his family who give him the tools and he kills the part of him that has always wanted kill and destroy and also symbolically his desire to die (forget the fact that this is symbolism I specifically pulled out to be a happier person)

Isobel Evans is shown not as a girl boss or a victim, but a complicated woman on a healing journey that makes her want to help others heal- a woman who turned her pain into healing who is wise enough to know that that doesn’t make the pain go away, she trusts again- enough to share her secret with a man she barely knows so he can feel safe and loved, welcomed like she never got as a child, she starts pursuing a romantic relationship with someone she picked- someone who represents everything she should be afraid of, but she trusts herself, knows her own strength, and she’s propped up by her family and friends and told just how well she will do at her calling of teaching and maybe just maybe starting to work towards that dream

Michael Guerin is depicted as having healed his familial relationships (obviously this was worked Ian by all parties) and in that started a journey of healing himself from feeling unloved to his relationship journey with Maria and Alex, he vocally says (and isn’t shown having anymore drunken benders or bar fights) that he is gonna cut back on his drinking and focus on the people who matter, he also grapples with his sense of belonging on Earth and in his family

Kyle Valenti is perfect as always, and also gets to face his fathers legacy head on and refuse to take it up, all while championing the very people his father failed in faux attempts to protect them

Rosa Ortecho gets to be on a healing journey and make art for the joy of it, and escape the little town she was always too big for, also, gets to fight back against the little boxes they tried to put her in

Maria DeLuca gets to fully realize her powers and start towards understanding her family history and be accepted into the alien family they’re building on Earth, she also gets the story arc started that Liz has been working in a study to help combat her and Mimi’s brain deterioration

Alex Manes gives his dead abuser the middle finger and starts healing his relationship with his brother

[disventure-rewrite-takes]

i would have put more emphasis on lakes sexuality in her original season. We only know she’s a lesbian because of a pride post. It would have been cool to see her talking about it with Rosa maria or maggy. About how she doesn’t want to get married to this guy because she isn’t attracted to men, but doesn’t have the words to describe it. Maybe Rosa and maggy help her realize that being same sex attracted is normal and nothing wrong with it. (Maggy autocorrected to maggot like 4 times wtf)

fr like i think besides jaiden, season 2 had no mention/hint of queerness and then BAM half the cast shows up in the pride post. uhhh thanks for the half-assed representation from unbearable/boring characters that we will never see again i guess! you’re so progressive ONC!

[missbadideas]

An angel’s grief

—

" Hey, you're fine." Their voice is as smooth and comforting as it always has been. Steady, like a rock she could lean on before picking herself back up. " Focus on your work, I know that's important to you. Just don't push yourself, and make sure you take breaks, yeah? "

Her shoulders relaxed, and a hint of a smile was on her face.

" Thank you, you take care too. Next week?"

" Next week."

And then one week passed.

One week, two days, six hours, fifty minutes.

Being away from her lover wasn't new, Maria de la Rosa was someone whose life intermingled with her job, but she tried to make up for all the time they spent apart whenever they met up. Dinner dates with just the two of them, watching movies that she would dissect while they listened and held her close. They'd talk about their writing, ask her how she's been, look at her as their muse- it was perfect, it was theirs.

It's just, they've been unreachable for the past week.

<Goreboy>

they haven't Been online Either.

She feels the urge to pick at her skin rise. Her head's aching, and she wants nothing more than to get into contact with her partner. Her partner who wasn't answering calls, wasn't responding to texts, wasn't online anywhere Ronin's checked. Was she being obsessive ? Maybe they just need their space, and she's overthinking things, but they'd usually at least leave a message, or something.

<Angelic>

i tried texting them they didnt reply

also they dindnt respond to my voice mail

this is myt fault i messed up i messed up i messed up

Her vision was blurry and she choked on a sob as she deleted the last few messages after sending them.

What if they realized how horrible she's been to them? focusing on her work, neglecting them- Did they feel neglected? did they feel as if she didn't care? She should've done better, she could've taken a break on Christmas to spend time with them or even just had longer calls to make up for when they couldn't be together.

It's her fault.

Her phone keeps ringing. She doesn't want to answer. She does anyway, after wiping her tears.

" Hey." Her voice is tired, but only has a slight waver to it. She doesn't want to show that she's been crying, but she has a feeling Ronin knows anyway.

"Can hear the self-deprecation from here, de la Rosa. " His voice had an edge to it. Ronin was tense, her mind supplied to her.

The words are caught up in her throat. " I don't know what to do, Ro." Her voice breaks when she utters his name. She had thought romance died with Ronin, but then they showed up, accepting and loving, taking her as she is.

And now, that person is out of reach.

" Stop blaming yourself, for one? Not your fuckin' fault they- " He let out a groan of frustration.

He went silent for minute. She knew it was a minute because she felt every second in it.

" Look, breathe in and let it out, okay?"

In, hold, then out.

In, hold, then out.

They stayed on the phone for the rest of the day. Angel didn't feel any calmer by the end of the call.

One week, four days, eight hours, fifty minutes.

That was how long it took for their body to be found, and for them to be declared dead. A hopeless case, some said. Angel wasn't the person who found the body, she wasn't anywhere near the crime scene. It was Ronin who sent her an article describing the scene, and then-

He told her who it was.

The group chat was silent. No one's said anything yet, out of respect for Angel or to process their own grief she doesn't know.

She put her phone down, because if she didn't then she would end up chucking it at the wall and screaming. Then, she began to check her fanmail.

There were pictures.

It was rotting, their body.

Their limbs were strung and sewn together in some grotesque piece of art. Their organs, their heart, were gone from their body. Their mouth was cut, and Angel had to wonder if that was done before or after their death.

She felt numb.

'Poor thing, but really it's their fault-' 'Oh poor Maria, did you hear what happened to her lover?' Disgusting commentary, disrespectful of them even when they died. Angel was sick and tired of hearing the same things over and over again.

It was hard to reason what was going on, she didn't understand. Why? How? Who took them from her? What bastard hurt them so much?

She doesn't know.

All she can do is stare at their body while gripping those pictures.

She wanted to burn them. She wanted to burn those pictures and any

Maria de la Rosa wasn't needed right now. She wanted to bury herself alongside her lover who was so horribly violated and brutalized, their innocence marred on the street like some sick vile piece of meat to be ogled at. She wanted to pick at her own skin until it bled and she could finally join her lover robbed of her too soon.

One week, five days, ten hours, fifty minutes.

Found you. She thought as she readied up her shotgun, aiming it to the man’s neck. She wanted this man to suffer, to die afraid and alone.

Maria Del La Rosa wasn't needed, but the heartsick angel was.

Bang

—

Lmao this was rushed as hell bc I have an exam today, but I’m not mad with how it turned out? I think I could’ve stretched it out and maybe added reactions for other KC characters, but aaaa it’s okay. This is okay for a first work in this fandom lmao. I’ll post on my ao3 account later MAYBE

[sepyana]

My Explanations for Umineko Episodes 1 Through 5

I have finished Episode 5 and this is my final answer. You can look up this post about Beatrice first for additional context and my thought process.

Explanations are under the cut (SPOILERS for the first 5 episodes):

The First Game

Maria's letter can be explained by a Beatrice cosplay. Really, this wouldn't be an issue if if literary anyone tried to see things from her perspective. Kinzo is, of course, dead by this point. So getting one's hand on his ring isn't difficult for anyone who knew this. The Beatrice that Battler sights at the end of the game works the same way.

I reasoned that Beatrice guaranteeing the identities of the unidentified corpses in red just puts more suspicion on the corpses with half their faces smashed. The only people who saw Shannon's corpse were Hideyoshi and Kanon so we can't be sure if the "corpse" was actually hers. Hideyoshi might have misidentified the corpse or he might have been bribed, the specifics don't matter to me that much. Another thing that points to him and Eva working with the culprit is that they claimed to go to bed early, but were shown arguing about the inheritance topic that continued well into the night. As for Natsuhi's door, Shannon saw Maria give Jessica the scorpion charm as protection from the witch. She intentionally avoided killing her to aid the illusion of the witch.

Kinzo's study is not even a closed room as his "disappearance" is just him being dead. God bless.

The second twilight was Eva and Hideyoshi's deaths. This "closed room" could be easily be solved if it was Kanon that killed them and Nanjo along with the other surviving servants were accomplices. I delved into the reason for this in another post but TL; DR, Genji, Nanjo and Kumasawa felt guilt for Sayo's and her mother's situations as they were all aware of the existence of Kuwadorian. The only ones that we know besides Kinzo, in fact. While we are on topic, the letter that showed up inside the study after everyone holed themselves there was left by one of those three.

Kanon's "death" is the most interesting from this episode. My theory for Kanon is that he stopped using the name Kanon. "I will not be furniture anymore" style. That's why Beato refused to repeat that his death was a homicide, but she could repeat all the ways he didn't die.

The rest of the deaths are pretty easy, Sayo entered the parlor by using her master key and killed everyone besides Maria. Natsuhi's death is the least magical out of all of them. There are multiples of the Winchester rifle she uses. After Sayo shot her, she replaced her gun with Natsuhi's to make it seem like she was killed by her own bullet.

The Second Game

Maria and Rosa meeting Beatrice gives us some information about Rosa. Normally, when someone sees magic, they usually die after that. The fact that she goes away unscathed makes me thing she has a reason to buy into that "magic" and aid the illusion of the witch. Mainly, working for the culprit. Normally this wouldn't be enough to actually suspect Rosa but there are multiple other hints as well. She is shown with the siblings in the Chapel, even though this is a magic scene her being shown must mean something. The third strike for her is repeatedly splitting the group apart and getting them killed. Not to mention she claims to have talked the Kinzo to confirm the Shannon and Genji's alibis. I could go on but you get the point…

"Only one key to the chapel exists. It is impossible to unlock the lock to the chapel with anything but the chapel’s key. When the door to the chapel is locked, it prevents any and all methods of entry or exit." Here it is said that the door of the Chapel can only be unlocked with the Chapel’s key, but nowhere does it say that a key is needed to lock the Church's door. The culprit unlocked the Chapel door, then gave the key to Maria. Since there was no Auto-Lock, the Chapel could have been entered and exited freely. She summoned everyone and killed them, and locked the door with some other method on the way out. It makes sense that a lock would be harder to unlock with lock picking than the other way around right? For the door inside teh mansion, we were given clear confirmation that they couldn't be locked without a key. But chapel's door works differently from them. Still, if this is too much of a stretch there is another possible explanation...

Alternatively, you could argue the door was never locked to begin with. Everyone there besides Gohda were accomplices. If Sayo could convince Gohda as well, then they could work together to create that illusion.

Jessica's room is a lot easier to solve compared to the chapel thankfully. Beatrice confirms that the only master keys are the ones held by the servants, one key each. Later confirming the number of master keys to be five as well. What this actually means is that Sayo has two master keys: the one left in the room by "Kanon" and the other she is holding right now. Shannon's alibi means nothing when the only people to confirm it are either working with her or are dead.

The red truth proclaiming "Kanon was killed in this room." of course referring to his identity as furniture. This is what happens basically every time he is claimed to be dead. I'll have to explain this if I'm claiming Shannon and Kanon are the same person. Just assume this is the argument against red truths regarding either of them as dead (Unless the red specifies a cause of death, of course).

The scenes with the servants finding the injured Kanon and taking him to the servants are weirddd. So many things happen that I'm not sure what these scenes are trying to tell us. My read is that Sayo outs herself and her accomplices to Gohda and threatens him to cooperate. This is why he jumps to confirm what everyone else is saying all the time. In regards to the deaths, it's impossible to confirm if this is actually the moment when Nanjo and Kumasawa died. I highly doubt it. Since everyone at the scene asserts that to be true, that is what we see. Of course, the servants' room is not a closed room if the bodies were never moved to begin with.

Gohda, Shannon and George is the one that I still haven't figured out fully yet. Shannon standing in front of the broken mirror makes me thing she took her own life after killing Gohda and George. In that case, who killed all the other people (Rosa, Maria, Battler, Genji)? When I finished episode four, I assumed she was alive. Rosa put the key inside George's pocket and merely pretended she found it there. This is probably why Rosa got mad at Battler for checking out her corpse, it wasn't actually because of preserving the crime scene or whatever. Unfortunately, in ep5 there is a red that basically makes all fake body double corpse tricks impossible. "Know that no corpses exist except those of characters who have appeared in the story.". I think we can assume this to be true for all of the games, since if they wanted it to apply only to ep5 five, they would have said something like "in this game" instead. It's a bit of a Knox's commandments situation. Even before episode 5, a lot of us instinctually understood culprit X and trap X theories were off the table. This is something similar to that. I think Ryukishi07 wants us to know body doubles are out of the question. When Battler looked at Shannon's wound, he saw the insides. It's safe to say she is dead for reals this time. How did the rest after the epitaph murders get killed then? The description of the goats' attack as rumbles and tremors + the description of smoke makes me think of booombs?? I hope there is something I am missing here because that idea sounds very stupid. I am ouıt of my depth here.

Now we get to the elephant in the room. or the goat. What the hell happened at the end there? This scene goes against pretty much everything we know. Battler shouldn't be able to see magic in the first four games. Or "have a subjective view" as Dlanor puts it. Not to mention Kinzo being alive. Well, this isn't an ironclad explanation but... Battler was hammered before going to the study, so you can argue his view wasn't reliable anymore, which let Beato sneak in the magical scenes there. This is a deviation from the theory that Battler just hallucinated the whole thing. Since alcohol doesn't actually make you hallucinate, that didn't make much sense to me. The proceeding scene was probably an extended tea party scene as Bernkastel was there and it happened after the credits. I briefly considered the possibility that Battler was dead before this scene happened and the Battler we saw was just an illusion, since we didn't see what Meta Battler thought of this. However, the narration was from Battler's perspective the entire time, which makes this theory pretty unlikely. If that person wasn't Battler, we would have gotten hints about that during the scene.

The Third Game

The red truth "When the five other than Kinzo were killed, the killer was definitely in the same room as them." doesn't actually specify that the victims died inside the rooms they were in. Also shows that the place Kumasawa was killed in was inside, not outside like the magical scene makes it seem. My guess is that after killing all the servants, Sayo put their corpses in their respective rooms and pretended to be dead at the parlor. After the adults found her and left for the second floor guest room. During this time, she collected Kanon's master key from some predetermined place and pretended to be dead as Kanon in the chapel. She locked the chapel door via some other method like lock picking, as mentioned in the second game before. Shannon was the first person found and the Kanon was the last, giving Sayo enough time to do this.

You could say, "Hey, doesn't this violate Knox's 8th? We weren't given any clues that point to her pretending to be dead." We were shown in ep5 that it is possible for characters to fake their deaths no matter how realistic their "corpses" look. I know it sounds like bs, I don't particularly like it, but it is shown in the story already. Besides, Nanjo was the one who checked all the corpses. He could have lied about Shannon an Kanon so the parents don't check thoroughly themselves.

That part was easy, now we get to the more difficult murders. I first want to talk about EVA-Beatrice's role in all of this. This whole think about her being the new Beatrice signifies to me that she was not only working with the culprit, she also killed some of the victims herself. Otherwise this whole succession plotline doesn't make sense to me. However, the idea of Eva killing Hideyoshi and George doesn't make much sense to me either. EVA-Beatrice represents the fact that she could kill her siblings over money. She is a part of Eva after all, no matter how much she denies that. She also almost kills Jessica because of a supposed "misfire" and literary shoots Battler dead a short time later.

You can say it's a bit difficult to parse who committed which murders. It's been a while since I've watched ep3 as well…

Both Eva and Sayo could be the one to murder Rosa and Maria. I'm leaning towards Eva because it seems like Sayo tries to avoid killing Maria if she can. Which makes sense when you consider that she is the only person Sayo doesn't have a reason to take revenge on. Also, she is 9.

As for Kyrie, Rudolf and Hideyoshi, I think it went like this: Hideyoshi knew Kyrie and Rudolf were suspecting him and Eva and decided to go outside so him and Eva can kill them. The disembodied gun is very interesting to me. I think after the murders, Sayo intended to betray them like in ep1, and Hideyoshi took the bullet for Eva. …oorr Sayo just killed the three of them regular style. Idk anymore.

And then there is George. He was likely planning to check on Shannon's corpse and he probably did jump out of the window like Battler said. Of course, Sayo couldn't let this happen as the was no corpse to begin with.

Nanjo's death was a huge thing in ep3 but it is entirely based on a single trick. A trick which we figured out in ep1. He is killed by Sayo as well.

Fourth Game

This is the one game where I give up… okay that's not really true. It's just that the sheer amount of fantastical scenes and the lack of red truths make it hard to give a satisfying answer. I will still try… Let's go over what we know:

It seems that the main theme with this episode is obscuring the when and where of the deaths, as there aren't any closed rooms to be solved and no alibis to account for. Jessica's phone call especially points to this, I think.

I don't think the killer has a gun that can blow off half the faces of the victims. Rudolf's character entry mentions most of his head is gone as well. I think they died by getting shot and the culprit smashed their faces later. It was post mortem.

There are also the phone calls. There is a non-zero chance that no one was actually dead by this point or Jessica and Kyrie didn't know they were dead and these calls were just them working with the culprit at least somewhat willingly, as an elaborate plan. This is the only explanation that makes sense to me as there is no other way to look at what they say as anything other than a declaration that magic exists. The calls don't really seem like they were done under threat either. If Sayo was with Kyrie during that moment then she'd have enough time to kill her, take her phone to talk to Battler and run for the place of the test.

So… when and where did everyone get killed? It's hard to give a concrete answer but we can guess. My belief is that Kyrie and the gang were never in the Kuwadorian. Of the 3 fights we see their group is the only that wins. That's because they have to. They cannot get killed inside Kuwadorian or the hidden tunnel, because they were never there to begin with.

I don't think this needs mentioning, but the Beatrice figure Battler meets is of course Sayo. That's not the problem. The problem is Battler confirms half of Shannon's face was gone when he is going around the island confirming everyone's deaths. I'm breaking out the white text here: "All of the corpses were atrocious, but having to look directly at Shannon-chan's lovely face, half of which was blown off, was very painful…" Battler also points out a stake was lying next to her head, but wasn't stuck in. If we go forward with the assumption that there were no fake corpses, then we'd need a way to explain how she committed suicide. Don't laugh but It could be a bomb. It could have blown half of her face off. The residue would be washed away by the rain and the parts of it that are left would be hidden inside the grass. It is reasonable to ask how the bomb destroyed only half of her face and nothing else, but Umineko has had more extreme solutions than this, and besides, this explanation doesn't violate any of the Knox's commandments.

What I wonder is, why would she go out of her way to complete the murder mystery even though she was so disheartened after Battler's test?

Fifth Game

This game is unique in various ways, but the answer seems actually rather simple? A lot of the confusion comes from the POV of characters. We never see things from Erika's -our detective's- perspective like we did with Battler in earlier episodes. This episode mostly focuses on Battler and Natsuhi's perspective, both of which are not only subjective but also oppose each other. It looks like everyone is in some kind of scheme to get Natsuhi to confess about Kinzo's death. Battler straight up just says it. There is plenty of evidence that he didn't mention as well. Like how Erika never sees Hideyoshi's corpse either or how the impossible knock could have happened if everyone was in on it. There is also the fact that Battler acknowledges Shannon and Kanon as separate people. It's possible we were completely misled about what happened during the family conference. What likely happened is that Sayo convinced everyone to join her plan then, which she has been cooking for a while. The letter and the headship ring was probably she herself giving it to Battler, as she found the gold first. It's possible she was gatekeeping information from the family, like the person from 19 years ago and instead just told them where Natsuhi would go and they planned accordingly.

All of this makes the way everyone treated Natsuhi just way waaay shittier than it was before. Eva basically beat her up over nothing. That being said, I don't think they expected the adultery accusations from Erika. I understand why they'd be mad at her for hiding their father's death but it's not her responsibility to bear alone. Krauss was also lying!

The last point about this game is the ending. If I'm understanding things correctly, even though Erika suspended the game, the reds we are given are from the end of it. So, based on how things would go if she hadn't suspended it. So, even if we couldn't see it, Sayo did kill them for real at some point.

[misspjsuperior]

Etymology of “Virgin Mary” 🌹

By now you’ve probably heard/read that the word “virgin” was not always what it has meant in the English tongue for centuries now. Perhaps you’ve been told that the word meant things like “free” or even a term for “goddess”. But were you also told where those definitions came from? I find most folks just say these things and leave it at that but I’m here and nerd enough to give some historical hints. 

First of all, virgin is not a term synonymous with “goddess”. Many Greco-Roman goddesses were given this title when they were not married, retaining their great powers by virtue of this virginity as self sovereignty. Considering how Queer ancient Greece and subsequently Rome was, the contemporary postulations (finally releasing from that suffocating leftover Victorian culture grip) that virgin goddesses, such as the lunar huntress Artemis, were lesbian goddesses isn’t so far out there. This manlessness condition of virginity morphed to meaning unmarried, even among males, in Hellenistic culture such as is in the case of Mary of the Gospels, which were first written in Greek btw. It is only centuries after the contemporary time of the New Testament’s original recording that the term “virgin” was firmly cemented in the context of sexual inexperience in order to attach the idea of spiritual purity to chastity. This is clearly traceable. No need to speculate. Obviously a political move by the Church who gained control of all European monarchies during the medieval period, decimating local indigenous pagan cultures. Still the original Latin root of “virgin”, despite as much as is known about the term applied to Hellenistic deities, is debatable and mysterious. The Latin use likely arose by analogy with “vireo”, meaning "fresh or flourishing", typically in a botanical sense, specifically in the sense of growing WILD and FREE, and not having been tilled and planted agriculturally by man, yet fertile all the same. 🌱🍎

But what about Mary herself? 

The etymology of “Mary” is vastly more mysterious than her “virgin” title…

Read more via 🪄 Pat re: on 🪄 PJ Superior

🌹 Maria Rosa tapestry by PJsuperior

[semi-imaginary-place]

umineko ep 4

Yup time travel/witch time outside of reality hypothesis is a go after all ange should be 6 not 18. Paranoid eva. Only family? Doesn't ange have kyrie's side of the family? Really says how miserable eva is that she thinks the ushiromiya fortune is the worst fate possible. Huh so eva did keep the witch title. You're beatrice and youre beateice and you're beatrice are there any other beatrice's i should know about? 4 beatrices so far. There's probably more. Ange is soooooo special isnt she. Why do ange and battler have red hair no one else has red hair and ange's parents are kyrie (silver) and rudolph (black)

Ep 4. love the implication that both battler and beatrice don't want their game to end. Landedelta suspects beato isn't taking this seriously. And ange accuses battler of playing around having tea and snacks and making friends with beatrice

Ange queen of hallucinations. Ange's like is like a movie least grounded character yet. Bullied rich girl left alone with fabulous fortune and targeted by shady organization oh and she has magic power and a witch mentor and her dead cousin as a companion i've heard this before this feels like some lonely middle school girl's self insert power fantasy. Soul maria so i guess she's in the meta game now too. Ange main character setup.

What's im mostly surprised with is that reality outside of the typhoon is malleable. I got a hint with george and shannon's or jessica and kanon's inconsistent relationship between episodes. But kinzo already being dead before the conference is on a much bigger scale.

rosa should really not be in charge of a child. She's abusive first of all and she's so busy as a working single parent that she's neglectful. But in the 1980s the family doesn't really have options. Japans foster system is already pretty bad today and it was worse 40 years ago. The other ushiromiyas all have issues. Eva would be the worst, tormenting her. Kraus and natsuhi would look down on her. Rudolph would too. There's no where for maria to go. And of course maria's loneliness is exacerbated by her social isolation. Rosa doesn't have good family relations, dating is hard enough as a working adult let alone the single parent of a special needs kid and the stigma. Maria is bullied at school and has no friends. So outside of rosa maria has no one in her daily life and she barely has rosa. Japanese work place culture is brutal as is but add in the patriarchy and it's crushing for women and worse in the 80s. Maria's pretty strong. Rosa does deserve a life outside of work and maria but yeah the trials of a single mom and in the end i'd say it's vastly harder on maria who is the kid. Rosa is an adult sooner or later people have to grow up and take responsibility for their actions yeah yeah your miserable and in pain and your life is hard but maria's is much harder. Rosa really shouldn't be a parent. Also that social worker saw rosa throw a tantrum and didnt do anything afterwards.

Umineko really is for the girlies. Nourish your inner girl and believe in your own magic power. You can be a witch and you can be a witch and you can be a witch as long as you believe. And thats why so many witches look young. It was the middle school version of eva that became a witch not the adult one. Maria was preserved as a child. Ange gains power by reconnecting with her girlhood. The power of romance. Also all the women peg so hard you can't tell me Beatrice, eva, kyrie, etc dont top.

So lamda and maybe battler beatrice and ange want an eternal stalemate. But why did lamda threaten beatrice that she better win.

Such a prestigious school but the staff are useless. Take a knife and carve up their faces what's the worst that could happen expulsion? If you want something done gotta do it yourself.

I miss battler he looks so fun to mess with. Poor battler it hasn't been brought up but asumu tied down rudolph who loved kyrie so battler was born in a loveless marriage where his dad was blatantly cheating on his wife. And then his mom dies.

Rosa really shouldn't be a parent. Don't have kids if you don't want them and aren't willing to take responsibility. Like you dont just ditch the kid to go on vacation behind their back constantly you tell them you'll be gone one time and get a babysitter and spend more time with the kid. Rosa is just trying to hide her child neglect and abuse. Ah good child welfare showed up let's see if they actually do anything

i wonder how much of ep 3 was true. Kumasawa is still around and virgilia is in the same scene. What about that scene with baby beatrice and virgilia was that faked? Or what about beatrice killing virgilia. If the whole true witch thing was a lie how did Beatrice regain her power as endless and golden witch. Or did she never give it up the titles and there are multiple golden witches at once i mean ange's there at the same time. The events can be faked but there was a lot of magic mechanics in ep3 and now i doubt all of it.

Everyone needs therapy

And now they're talking about dungeon play why the hell is this series so kinky

wait the letters with the bank safes... Did kyrie get one days early or something? This scene draws a sharp contrast between the magic characters and the human ones. The magic ones are mostly girls magical powerful childish violent extreme cartoonish they seem like just that fictional characters. The human world ones tend to be adult subdued dull by comparison and more realistic. I prefer the human side the demons and stakes are too anime girl for me. And ange is right at the border of worlds maybe a bit more of the magic side to battlers slightly more on the human side maybe.this really drives home some of the main themes of perspective and girlhood magic

For 2 of the 72 whatever demons arent gaap and ronove kinda weak. This episode especially with the witch's alliance and the bunny band and last ep's reveal with hideyoshi's cigarette, and all the witches and magic this story is increasingly starting to sound like maria's delusion world written in her diary.

Beato's taunting battler this time to force her into submission, just like kinzo. And this is setting off like 15 alarms. 1 kinzo continues to be the worst ever. 2 beatrice has issues i remember earlier ep2? When she talked about love and i was like damn girl who hurt you. But the whole you can own all of me my face my soul my body my power or whatever what is up with that. Ok now they're just blatantly flirting. Aw battler feels unwanted.

Ok so there's some sort of family thing. But why is beato ao hurt by battler not remembering? Also "the study was empty" beatrice burned kinzo but maria survived. Actually in terms of being kinzo's grandchild who battler's mom is doen't matter since kinzo's bloodline is through rudolph. Although now i wonder if battler is another magic summon like sakutaro or witch eva like someone wished wished so hard he became a real boy.

Welp battler's gone o7 ange real main character. Generational trauma the girls are fighting! Oh ange you were 6 it was not your job to fix your aunt. Ange learning sympathy and compassion for all the terrible women she meets. Black vs white magic curses vs healing hatred love generational abuse. Gonna stab kinzo. Of course despite all this black white magic talk ange and the stakes on white magics side brutally murder a bunch of people.

Of course bernkastel is as crazy as the rest, she's a witch. Kinzo being dead the whole time is wild what is up with the kinzos seen ep 1-4. I'm starting to think the episodes are all interpretations of the rokenjima incident but only ep3? Had eva survive and multiple bottle letters were found. Actually what even happened at the end with battler stabbing Beatrice with blue truths and begging him to kill her. But then he stays in the golden land/hell and is flund dead.

Bern sabotaged any chance of ange and eva healing and becoming family, tricked a 6 year old.

Kinzo's hair is naturally white? Why do all his kids have brown hair.

[rosatricelibrarian]

Rosatrice Chapter 8: Explaining the First 4 Games (How-Dunnit)

If you've stumbled across this post and don't know what this is, just click my blog. Transcription under the read more:

The first game:

Before the first twilight Maria receives the letter and the umbrella from Beatrice. This was done by Rosa acting as Beatrice. I have already demonstrated that Rosa is Beatrice so all that is required is for her to have had the opportunity to give Maria the umbrella and the letter.

Rosa is found sleeping on the couch by Genji. However, before that she has no alibi at all. A lot of time has passed since Rosa left Maria behind in the garden. So just because Rosa was lying on the couch, that tells us nothing about how long she had been there. For all we know, Rosa had been there on the couch only for about 5 minutes and could even have pretended to be asleep and pretended to wake up when Genji laid a blanket over her.  In other words, Rosa had lots of time to go back to Maria and give her the envelope and the umbrella as Beatrice.

So now we can move on the first murder scenario:

The first murder scenario: the garden shed

Six people are found in the garden shed, namely Ghoda, Rudolf, Kyrie, Krauss, Rosa and Shannon. The people standing outside can only see 5 bodies, but Nanjo, Kanon and Hideyoshi are inside the garden shed. Shannon’s corpse is lying outside of Battler and George’s sight.

So what is Will’s solution regarding the first twilight of the first game:

Illusions to illusions, the corpse that cannot return to earth returns to illusions.

So what would be the explanation of the first twilight from the perspective of the official explanation? It would be as follows:

There are only 5 corpses in the garden shed. Shannon is actually standing there in her Kanon disguise. Hideyoshi and Nanjo are Shannon’s accomplices. In other words, Hideyoshi simply lied to George about Shannon being there. So “the corpse that cannot return to earth returns to illusions” refers to Shannon’s corpse being the illusion. Shannon wasn’t dead to begin with.

This would be the official explanation. At the end of Will’s solutions to the first game, it is pretty suggested that Shannon indeed wasn’t lying there and that if George would have walked into the garden shed, he would have seen that there was no corpse.

Furthermore, the author even claims this to be so in an interview. This is what I believe to be an example of the author lying in an interview.

However, I have a superior explanation to this murder scenario. Furthermore, the official explanation is demonstrably implausible and unacceptable.

First let me explain why the official explanation is unacceptable. I will counter the official explanation with two blue truths:

-          It is impossible for Shannon and Kanon to be same individual (I proved this in chapter 3)

-          There is not a shred of evidence that Hideyoshi is the culprit’s accomplice. Any theory involving accomplices form whom there is no evidence that points to their involvement should never be accepted

So all I need to do is provide an alternative explanation and show that all factors that are needed for it are in fact hinted at, at some part in the story. Contrary to the official explanation that relies on an accomplice for which there is no evidence.

So this is what I believed happened that night:

George and Rosa and probably Nanjo as well took everyone to the garden shed. Whether they were living or dead at this moment cannot be established. Rosa and George probably killed Ghoda, Kyrie, Rudolf and Krauss together and then tore their faces apart using garden tools. The plan then was to fake both Shannon’s and Rosa’s death using the fake death drugs. George had probably knocked Shannon unconscious using the fake death drugs before they killed the rest since I doubt he wanted her to even know that he was a murderer since she may very well not want to be with him anymore if she knew that. So George probably carried her to the garden shed and covered her head in fake blood, which would lead people to believe that she would be in the same state as Kyrie, Rudolf, Krauss and Ghoda. They also faked Rosa’s wounds and after closing the shutter, she would then take the fake death drug. In the morning, Dr. Nanjo would lie about Rosa being death. That way she could later on carry out murders when everyone was believed to have an alibi. So “the corpse that cannot return to earth” doesn’t refer to a corpse that is merely believed to be there, but refers to a living person pretending to be a corpse.

In other words, my blue truths concerning the first twilight is as follows:

Rosa faked her death in the garden shed using a fake death drug. Her wounds were faked as well. Therefore she can be the culprit of the other twilights.   

Dr. Nanjo lied about Rosa being dead.

However, this alone cannot be the solution to the first twilight. I can already hear believers in the official explanation object to my solution. However, I’m not done yet. So let’s use what I suspect would be those objections to further explain my solution:

Objection 1: Will’s solution involves only 1 fake corpse. But in your solution both Rosa’s and Shannon’s death were faked. So your solution contradicts Will’s solution. Moreover, how do you account for Will saying that Beatrice would have been found out if George had walked into the garden shed? Doesn’t that prove that Shannon’s corpse was never there to begin with?

Response: I can fully explain this through my betrayal theory. Remember that I said that Rosa wanted everyone dead while George wanted Shannon to survive and therefore would fake her death? But in this scenario, Rosa and Shannon were locked inside the garden shed for the entire night together. So what the issue of it being a dangerous game right from the start, is the fact that George left Shannon behind in a state of fake death when he locked the garden shed that night, so when the crime was discovered the next morning he believed that Shannon was lying there still unconscious. However, Rosa never intended to leave Shannon alive. So…

That night, after the shutter was locked and George left and before Rosa used the fake death drug on herself, Rosa killed Shannon and smashed her face apart. Therefore, the next morning, there indeed were 5 corpses and 1 fake corpse inside the shed. If George would have walked into the garden shed he would have noticed that Shannon now truly was dead and that Rosa had betrayed him.

Shannon was really present in the garden shed and she was truly dead. Hideyoshi and Kanon did not lie about what they saw. Hideyoshi simply prevented his son from going into the shed to protect him from the trauma of having the look at Shannon’s mutilated face.

So what Will and Clair are referring has nothing to do with Shannon being and Kanon and therefore there was no 6th corpse. They were referring to the fact the Shannon WAS really lying there dead and if George had gone into the garden shed, Rosa’s betrayal would have been discovered. That’s what abandoning oneself to fate is about. Rosa took a tremendous risk by killing Shannon when this could easily have been discovered. An alternative would be that Rosa used the poison to mess with the fake death drug that George used on Shannon, meaning that instead of getting her in a state of fake death, George truly killed Shannon without even realizing it. However, I prefer the direct method of killing by Rosa. Yet both are possible.

But there are probably more objections to my theory. So let’s move on to the second objection

Objection 2: Rosa was lying in view of Battler and the others, so how can she have been playing dead?

Response: I advice you all to re-read the scene where the garden shed victims are discovered. Battler never even mentions Rosa’s wounds ever in that scene, only that she is among the people lying there. But even though Battler talks about his parents wounds in detail and then mentions Krauss' wounds as well; he never even mentions Rosa’s wounds or even Ghoda's wounds for that matter. In the anime version, Dr Nanjo is kneeled in front on Rosa performing an autopsy. This suggest that Battler never even had a good view of Rosa in the first place. The detective’s authority only implies that when the detective actually examines a corpse he would not mistake a living person for a dead person, but Battler never examined Rosa’s corpse at all. It’s not even shown that he had a good view of her in general, so invoking the detective’s authority to claim that Rosa had to have been dead will not work.

Saying that the detective would notice that someone is dead just at a glance is not what the objective perspective is about. The point is that if the detective specifically searches for something, like a person hiding in a room, he would at least find clues about it. Or if the detective examines a corpse up close he would not be fooled into believing that person was merely pretending. But Battler doesn't examine Rosa's and Ghoda's corpse up close and doesn't specify their wounds. Therefore both of them at least could have been faking their deaths. Now obviously I don't believe that Ghoda was faking his death, but the point is that Battler only confirmed with certainty that Kyrie, Rudolf and Krauss were dead. Rosa and Ghoda were merely visible to Battler but not examined up closely. Therefore their deaths were not guaranteed through detective's authority. After all, there are other instances that even the people believing in the official explanation accept in which Battler is fooled by something that is in full view but not discovered by Battler because he never examined it up close. In the boiler room scenario in this game, the official explanation would be that Kanon faked his death including a fake wound on his chest. Kanon is also in full view of Battler but he never saw Kanon's wound up close. So that's basically a similar situation. Therefore there is no problem with Rosa faking her death.

Objection 3: After the crime was discovered the garden shed was locked by Genji and Natsuhi was holding on to the key. Therefore even if Rosa was alive she could not have escaped from the garden shed afterwards to commit any crimes.

Response: this, I believe, was specifically put in the story by Ryukishi to deceive his readers into believing the official explanation. Because the garden shed was locked it is suggested that the culprit must not have been present inside the shed which would be the case if the Shkanon theory was true. However, this objection fails because not only can I explain how Rosa could have escaped from the garden shed after it was locked. And unlike the official explanation which invokes Hideyoshi’s involvement without evidence, I can actually prove that it was possible for Rosa to escape the garden shed.

In the 4th game, Battler uses a tool to destroy the shutter of the garden shed to gain entry after discovering Ghoda and Kumasawa’s corpses. Since the garden shed is full of such tools, Rosa could have used one of those tools to destroy the shutter after it was locked and everyone had left. Since Battler never went to the garden shed afterwards, we have no objective evidence that the shutter was intact after it was locked by Genji

I even have an alternative way for Rosa to escape the garden shed, namely by escaping through the window. We know the window is small but in none of the novels is it shown how small the window is. So we have no proof that it isn’t just big enough to let a person through. In fact, in the anime version the window is definitely big enough to let a person through.

In other words:

There is no evidence that the window in the garden shed was too small for Rosa to escape through and we at least have a hint that it would be big enough. Therefore it would be possible for Rosa to escape from the garden shed even if the shutter was locked.

I could even have a third possible solution that I don’t believe and don’t prefer but if in the official explanation it is allowed to invoke extra people, I could just as well claim that Genji did not actually properly lock the shutter but merely pretended to seal the lock shut. So in that way Rosa could simply open the shutter without any problems. And given Genji’s extreme loyalty to the family head, invoking his involvement is at least not without evidence, contrary to Hideyoshi’s involvement. So even by using an extra accomplice, my theory is superior to the official explanation. But having said that, I don’t believe Genji was involved in the first place. I personally prefer the solution that Rosa broke the shutter by using one of the tools inside the garden shed since that is specifically hinted at in the 4th novel. However escaping through the window is also a workable solution. Either of those will do.

Therefore, my theory can account for everything regarding the first twilight of the first game. So let’s summarize the factors that my theory relies on how contrary to the official explanation all these factors are hinted at somewhere in the story.

-          Fake death: hinted at in the 5th novel. Erika specifies that fake death drugs don’t violate knox’s 4th.

-          Fake wounds: hinted at the 5th novel. And Rosa’s supposed wounds were never examined by Battler in the first place; not even mentioned.

-          Shutter destroyed by a tool: Battler also does this in the 4th novel. The garden shed is in fact the place where tools are stored.

-          (Alternative) escape through window: hinted at in the anime that the window is big enough for a person to escape through. In the novel it is never mentioned that the window is too small to let a person through

-          (alternative 2) Genji pretending to seal the lock on the shutter: Genji’s extremely loyalty to the family head is hinted at in multiple novels.

-          Alternative way for Shannon to die; by poison: hinted at in the 4th novel regarding Maria’s death showing that the culprit has access to poison.

So that takes care of the first twilight. George is among the rest of the family and Rosa has escaped from the garden shed and has access to Ghoda’s and Shannon’s masterkey. So now let’s move on to the second twilight.

Second murder scenario: the guestroom with the chain

In the second murder scenario Eva and Hideyoshi are found in the guest room both with stakes through their heads. Eva is dead on the bed and Hideyoshi is dead in the bathtub. Genji and Kanon first discover the room locked and chained shut with one of the witch’s letters under the door. Genji then orders Kanon to get a wire cutter with Kumasawa to cut through the chain. When they return the door suddenly has a magic circle painted on it. After Kanon cuts through the chain they find the corpses.

Will’s solution to this scenario is as follows:

Illusions to illusions, a chain of illusions can only hold back illusions.

So what would be the official explanation’s solution to this scenario? The first impression would be that:

Kanon, Genji and Kumasawa simply lied about the chain being set; meaning that it never was set in the first place.

Or:

Kanon killed Eva and Hideyoshi after he cut through the chain. So he didn’t discover the corpse, he produced them after the closed room was destroyed.

That solution is also what the author basically says, or as I believe lied about, in an interview.

However, even though these solutions don’t have such terrible inconsistencies as the previous scenario. There are still some implausibility factors:

When it comes to Genji, Kanon and Kumasawa lying about the chain being set I can already invoke my disprove of the Shkanon theory to make the official explanation have to invoke both Shannon and Kanon as culprits, but I guess some believers in the official explanation would at least be willing to accept that. But if the “chain of illusions” refers to the chain never having been set then we would have to assume that Hideyoshi and Eva would leave themselves exposed in their room without setting a chain. Even if you assume that Hideyoshi and Eva were bribed by Shannon (meaning that you also have to invoke Eva as an accomplice) then would probably still be extremely careful to not randomly trust a murderer. It’s only natural for them to suspect that they could be killed as well. So I see it as very implausible that Eva and Hideyoshi would not protect themselves by setting the chain.

Also since the chain was found severed on the ground, you still need Kanon to have really cut the chain, but only from the inside rather than from the outside.

So in that case it would be much easier to go for the explanation that Kanon destroyed the chain first and then committed the crime. But in what sense can we speak about a chain of illusions then?

We also have to consider that Hideyoshi was murdered while taking a bath, meaning that he never saw the murderer coming. If the murderer didn’t just burst inside after cutting the chain, what I think this suggest is that the murderer was someone who both trusted and would have had no problem with being in the room while he was in the bathroom part of that room taking a bath. And since it would be expected that they would in fact set the chain to be save. They would probably only unset it themselves if a person they would never expect to be the culprit wanted to enter the room. Only George really fits this description since he is their son.

So here is my theory:

George went to his parent’s room and asked them to let him in. Given that it was their son whom they trusted Eva had no problem letting him in while Hideyoshi was taking a bath. Then George quickly killed them both.

But this only explains their deaths, not why the chain was set when Genji and Kanon went to the room. After all, George could not have been hiding inside the room since he was among the people that discovered the corpses after Kanon and Kumasawa. So this is where Rosa comes in who would have been hiding somewhere inside the mansion and had just placed Kinzo’s corpse inside the furnace in the boiler room.

Rosa was hiding somewhere in the mansion and met up with George at a prearranged location. After George killed his parents he left the room and joined up with the others in the parlor. Then Rosa entered the room and planted the stakes in the corpses. She then set the chain and placed the letter under the door. Then she hid herself underneath the bed. After Genji and Kanon discovered the room chained shut and left again. Rosa went unset the chain, painted the magic circle on the door, set the chain again and hid under the bed again.

Then, Kanon and Kumasawa broke the chain and discovered the corpses and the rest of the family followed in. Here, George made a very smart move to make sure Rosa would not be discovered. He threw himself on the bed crying over his dead mother. This would divert everyone’s attention away from the bed since no one would disturb someone crying over his dead mother. So the room was never properly checked, meaning that there is no problem with someone hiding inside.

There are only two possible objections I can think of concerning my theory:

Objection 1: how does this theory fit in with Will’s solution? In what sense are dealing with a chain of illusions here?

Response: it’s not merely “a chain of illusions”. Will says “a chain of illusions can only hold back illusions”. The second part of that sentence is important as well. After all, it is only assumed that a chain of illusions refers to the chain not being set. But that’s merely an assumption; it doesn’t have to refer to that. First of all, a chain of illusions doesn’t mean that there was no chain in the first place since whether it’s set or not, the chain is at the very least there. So what is basically the function of a chain lock? Well it is to keep people from entering the room even if they have a key. So what I believe the sentence “a chain of illusions can only hold back illusions” refers to that a set chain makes it seems like it acts like a lock to keep people from the outside coming in, but the culprit coming from the outside was the illusion. The person who set up this scenario was hiding inside the room. In other words, the chain that made it seem like it prevented anyone from entering, only could hold back the illusion of a culprit coming from the inside, but instead the culprit (at least as far as setting up the scenario) was hiding on the inside and had full control over the chain, which can be set and unset from the inside. Given that interpretation Will’s solution can basically be rephrased like this:

A chain that seems like a lock preventing a culprit from entering can only hold back the illusion of a culprit entering from the outside.

The illusions here are that the chain would prevent the culprit from entering, and the other illusion is that the culprit DID enter from the outside. I think that interpretation fits perfectly with Will’s solution

So what about the other objection?

Objection 2: George was in the parlor with Battler the whole time, so he was not in the position to kill his parents

Response: We don’t see what happens for several hours. So we have no objective evidence that George indeed was in the parlor for that whole time without leaving once. Also if he acted quickly enough he could have gone to his parent’s room, commit the crime and return to the parlor in a couple of minutes. So for example during a bathroom break he could have committed the crime. Since several hours had passed, it is not strange for George to have gone to the bathroom at least once. Also, already before Eva and Hideyoshi left, it is specifically mentioned that people left the parlor and later came back. 

But even if you don’t like that, then I can provide an alternative explanation in which George is not even involved in this murder scenario, namely as follows.

Rosa was hiding inside the guestroom from before Hideyoshi and Eva entered. When none of them were expecting anything, Rosa went out of hiding and killed them before they even realized what was going on. Then she hid herself again.

This way, the chain is not an issue at all anymore. Since Rosa was inside the room the entire time.

I still prefer my explanation that George killed his parents, but my alternative explanation works as well and might even fit better with my interpretation of Will’s solution; but my solution that George killed his parents and then let Rosa into the room makes it easier to explain Kinzo’s corpse getting burned in the boiler room so that’s why I prefer the first one. In any case, my theories can account perfectly well for the second twilight.

The third murder scenario: the boiler room

In the third scenario, Kanon is found wounded in the boiler room in a puddle of blood with a stake next to him, after discovering Kinzo’s burned corpse. Nanjo then takes care of Kanon in the servants’ room and is joined by a concerned Jessica. When they return he claims that he was unable to save Kanon’s life and Jessica breaks down in tears.

The red statements concerning this scenario are as follows:

All of the survivors have alibis! Let us include the dead as well!! In short, no kind of human or dead person on the island could have killed Kanon!

Kanon did not commit suicide

Kanon did not die in an accident!

So what it basically comes down to is that Kanon was never killed in the first place. In fact he didn’t even die. In other words:

No one could have killed Kanon, since Kanon isn’t dead.

Will’s solution to this scenario is as follows:

Illusions to illusions; the witch and stake of illusions can pierce naught but illusions.

The official explanation of this scenario would basically be like this:

Kanon faked his death in the boiler room. He is one of Shannon’s personas and therefore the culprit. Nanjo is an accomplice and pretended that Kanon had died.

Again I invoke the fact that I have already demonstrated that it is impossible for Shannon and Kanon to be the same person, so you at least have to say that both Shannon and Kanon are culprits. But if you are willing to do this, there is no problem with this explanation.

However, I can explain this scenario as well given my own theory in two different ways. The first way is the same solution as in my original Umineko explained video. However, I don’t believe this solution anymore and I needed to adapt it a bit because of Will’s solution. So eventhough this is not what I believe to be the real solution, I will still explain what it is because there is also no evidence against it.

This explanation goes as follows.

Kanon was confronted by Rosa in the boiler room who wanted to make him the next victim. However, Kanon wanted to go against Rosa’s plan and actually sacrificed himself; meaning that he tried to take his own life to not give Rosa the satisfaction of including him in her ceremony…

Kanon failed to kill himself however and merely was wounded. Since Kumasawa and the rest came to the boiler room, Rosa quickly threw the stake into Kanon’s blood and then escaped through the unlocked door leading to the yard…

Afterwards, Nanjo gave Kanon the fake death drug to fool Jessica into believing that Kanon had died. This way Kanon would not be able to reveal anything about Rosa.

So basically, Nanjo would have assumed that Rosa had failed to finish Kanon off so now he had a still living victim on his hands. Nanjo himself is not a killer after all, so even though he agreed to help Rosa he would not go so far to actually kill someone himself. However, leaving Kanon be would be too great a risk. So Nanjo simply used the fake death drug to have Kanon be unconscious as long as necessary. If Rosa then wanted to finish the job, she would have to do it herself. But at least Kanon would no longer be a threat.

To connect this to Will's solution. The stake of illusions applies to the fact that the stake was stained with blood which gave the illusion that it was the weapon that pierced Kanon. The witch of illusions would not refer to Kanon being alone in the boiler room, but to the culprit being a person who was believed to be dead. In other words, Rosa was believed to be dead yet she was still roaming the mansion as the murdering Beatrice, making her the witch of illusions.

But as I said, this wasn't my only solution to the boiler room scenario. Because even if Kanon was all alone in the boiler room and did in fact fake his death like in the official explanation; then even in my theory in which he is neither a culprit nor an accomplice I can still very much make sense of that. So I truly believe that Kanon did really fake his death in the boiler room even though he is neither the culprit nor an accomplice.

Now some of you may probably be very confused by that. But remember what I said in the previous chapter about Shannon and Kanon probably being aware of what is going on? Suspecting that Rosa indeed is carrying out the witch's epitaph. In the 2d novel it is suggested that Shannon is simply accepting her fate meaning that she allows to happen what will happen. But Kanon is not like that. He is defying Beatrice as he is shown fighting back from the magical perspective in both the 2d and 3d novels.

So what actually happens in the boiler room from the magical perspective? What is Kanon trying to achieve in the boiler room?

Basically Kanon is trying to against Beatrice's ceremony by being the zero on her roulette. He also said that if Shannon would die before him, he decided to sacrifice himself to bring down Beatrice's ritual. Basically is he taking control of his own fate.

So let's summarize what we know about Kanon:

- Kanon already acknowledges the existence of Beatrice (shown by Maria's testimony in the 7th novel. The servants and Nanjo acknowledge the new family head as Beatrice)

- From the magical perspective Kanon and Shannon are shown to know about Beatrice's resurrection ceremony (2d and 3d novel in particular)

- Kanon witnessed Rosa in the garden shed and the fact that two people were killed in a closed room sealed by a chain that he had to cut himself. (meaning that everyone had an alibi apart from the six in the garden shed if one of them wasn't truly dead)

- From the magical perspective, Kanon is show to wanting to bring down Beatrice's roulette by sacrificing himself by being the zero on her roulette.

In other words, Kanon would have been in to position to realize that Rosa was in fact very much alive and was acting out Beatrice's resurrection ceremony. Since his beloved sister Shannon was killed, he decided to take his fate into his own hands and make himself into the victim of one of the twilights. By this I don't mean he was trying to kill himself. What I mean is the exact opposite. He was trying to escape getting killed. By faking his death he basically made himself in a fake version of the 5th twilight. That way the 5th twilight of the ceremony would have been completed yet without being killed by Rosa. This is what I believe is meant by him saying that he'll be the zero on Beatrice's roulette. Unfortunately Kanon took a gamble and lost, because Nanjo noticed that Kanon's wound was fake and knock him unconscious using the fake death drug.

So my blue truth is:

Kanon faked his death in the boiler room, sacrificing himself rather than being killed by Rosa. Afterwards he was sedated by Dr. Nanjo. Kanon probably died in the explosion at midnight.

This way, Kanon faking his death fits in with my theory as well. In fact, I think the magical perspective scene fits better with my theory than with the official explanation. After all, in the official explanation Kanon is the culprit, while from the magical perspective is trying to go against Beatrice's ceremony. Basically in my theory the magical perspective scene is symbolical of what really happens and in the official explanation it contradicts what really happens. So I think my interpretation makes more sense. And as I have said before, I think that Shannon's and Kanon's entire behavior makes more sense in my theory.

So given this explanation, Will's solution would be very clear. There was no witch and no culprit in the boiler room and the stake never pierced Kanon's chest in the first place. It was all faked.

The only objection I can think of here would be the following:

Objection: where did Kanon get the stake from?

Response: the locations of the stakes is an unknowable factor since we don't even know where the culprit is hiding them. Nor do we know where the culprit hides the weapons. But we do know that the stakes are part of Kinzo's collection and that Kanon served as Kinzo's personal servant for about a year and for two more years after his death. Where the stakes are usually stored or where they are throughout the duration of the games before being find in the victims' wounds. So I acknowledge that I simply have to assume that Kanon somehow got his hands on one of the stakes. This is a weak point in my theory, but I don't think it is a very severe one since there are too many unknowable factors here.

When it comes to Kinzo's burned corpse, I believe that Rosa burned his corpse before the second twilight. It takes a long time from the smell to go from the boiler room throughout the mansion. So it is no problem that it was only noticed after the second twilight.

Fourth murder scenario: the parlor

Then the survivors lock themselves in Kinzo's room. Rosa expected this to happen however since it would be the safest room in the mansion. Since it would have been impossible for Rosa to kill anyone when they were locked inside Kinzo's study she prepared a letter to cause them to split up which she had given to Dr. Nanjo. When nobody was looking Nanjo quickly the the envelope on the table which led to Natsuhi forcing him, Kumasawa, Genji and Maria out of the room.

I can be very quick about the parlor murder scenario. It isn't really a closed room scenario to begin with as 2 of the master keys are available to the culprit. In other words my blue truth regarding this scenario is as follows:

Rosa stepped into the parlor carrying a gun. She told her daughter to face the wall and sing a song. She then shot Genji, Kumasawa and Nanjo. Afterwards she dialed the number of Kinzo's study, left the phone of the hook, left the parlor and locked it with Shannon's or Ghoda's masterkey

So basically, even though Nanjo was an accomplice, Rosa still needed him to die for the ceremony. She was not willing to blast her own daughter's face off however. She and Maria would die together in the explosion. She acted as Beatrice towards her daughter explaining why Maria claimed that Beatrice entered the room.

The official explanation would basically be the same but with Shannon/Kanon being the culprit.

When it comes to Will’s solution, the answer is very simple. It was through Maria’s testimony that it was believed that Genji locked the parlor and that Beatrice entered afterwards. However, Rosa simply entered and left the parlor using either Shannon’s or Ghoda’s master key. Maria was facing the wall and therefore didn’t see her mother leaving using the key.

5th murder scenario: Natsuh's “suicide”

The final murder scenario of the first game is when Natsuhi is found dead with a bullet in her head. It is shown in red that this was a real shooting murder and not a suicide.

The simplest solution is simply that Rosa was hiding somewhere near the parlor and shot Natsuhi. And the official explanation's version would be the same but with Shannon/Kanon as the culprit.

There is however a problem with one of the red statements here that might actually have to do with terminology.

There are no unidentified corpses, and all of the survivors have alibis!

Here is says that all survivors have alibis. So that would seem to include anyone who had faked their death as well, whether it be Shannon or Kanon or Rosa. However, I myself and most other readers I know of as well tend to interpret the term "all survivors to refer to Battler's group". In other words, Battler, George, Jessica and Maria. So better said, everyone who is believed to be alive.

So I basically assume it to mean that as most people do. However, I do have an alternative explanation ready that at least is possible, although I want to emphasize that I don't think this is what really happens. But at least it solves the problem if this red truly prevents anyone who is alive from being Natsuhi's murderer.

So my alternative theory is like this.

Kanon awoke after he had been sedated by Nanjo earlier. He got his hands on one of the guns and was going around the mansion trying to find Rosa to kill her. However, he bumped into Natsuhi who assumed Kanon to be the culprit since she actually thought he was dead and aimed her gun at him. Kanon and Natsuhi then shot each other resulting in Natsuhi's instant death and Kanon bleeding to death. Because Kanon didn't die at the location where he was shot, the survivors never saw him which made Natsuhi's death appear like a suicide.

Again, I don't think this really is what happened. But at least it gets around the problem of the red. However, I suspect that the issue of the red has to do with terminology. But if it doesn't then I at least have an alternative explanation.

Now you might wonder why I chose Kanon as Natsuhi's murderer instead of Rosa. Why not claim that Natsuhi and Rosa killed each other? Well the reason for that is because it seems like Rosa appears to the survivors wearing the Beatrice dress just before the bomb went off. This doesn't happen in the anime version but it does in the original novel. Just before the clock strikes 12, they see a female figure and Maria ran towards her saying that it is Beatrice. Then the bomb went off killing anyone left alive.

If I claimed that Rosa and Natsuhi killed each other, I could no longer account for Rosa appearing at the very end as Beatrice. But if Kanon and Natsuhi killed each other, then I can.

Funny thing is that if this simultaneous murder explanation really is necessary, then Beatrice's appearance right before midnight becomes inexplicable from the perspective of the official explanation. Unless you are willing to discard the Shkanon theory part of it and have Shannon solely as Beatrice and that Kanon and Natsuhi killed each other right before that.

When it comes to the letter Natsuhi was reading not being next to her corpse there can be multiple explanations. She could have put it in her pocket, threw it down somewhere out of sight or there may never have been a letter to begin with and Maria was either lying or mistaken.

Now there are some small issues regarding the first game that I need to address.

-          What about Rudolf’s statement that he fears that he is going to be killed that night

Rudolf is not being literal here. This statement only seems significant because he does literally get murdered that night. However, as we know from the 8th game, Rudolf was going to come clean to Kyrie that she really was Battler’s biological mother after all. In fact, Rudolf makes this statement after saying that he wants to tell Battler and Kyrie something later that night. So what he was referring to is that Kyrie and Battler would get incredibly angry at him. In other words, Rudolf was saying in a manner of speaking: “You and Kyrie are going to kill me tonight because of what I am going to confess”. He is not being literal. It’s simply an expression.

-          What about the blood stains on Natsuhi’s door in the morning before the first twilight is discovered?

Rosa planned to have Natsuhi as one of the victims of the first twilight. However when she snuck into Natsuhi’s room using Ghoda’s or Shannon’s masterkey (I assume Shannon’s masterkey as George would probably have knocked her out with the fake death drug before the murders because he wouldn’t want her to witness those murders) but when Rosa came in, she noticed the scorpion medallion on the doorknob, and given the “rules of magic” Beatrice would not be allowed to enter the room. So she chose another victim. Oh and for believers in the official explanation who would object to Rosa sneaking into Natsuhi’s room; this is actually what Ryukishi said in an interview regarding the blood stains on Natsuhi’s door. Only difference of course that he said it was Shannon, obviously.

-          What about the gold that Krauss shows to Natsuhi.

Some people use the scene in which Krauss shows Natsuhi that he is in possession of one of the gold bars, as evidence that they were accomplices in the first game. However, I don’t see how you can make sense of the first game with Natsuhi and Krauss as accomplices given that Krauss’ face was torn apart in the first twilight, which would rule out Natsuhi’s cooperation; and of course the simple fact that their involvement isn’t required in any way shape or form.

It’s very well possible that Krauss is in possession of this gold bar in all of the games. I think it simply serves a way to let the reader know, early on in the story that the gold in fact really exists. After all, the scene doesn’t suggest that Krauss was given this gold bar by anyone in the first place. So I don’t think this scene has more significance than showing the gold is real.

So that takes care of the first game. As you can see, I can explain the entire first game with Rosa and George as culprits and only Nanjo as an accomplice. And my theory accounts much better for the how-dunnit of the first game than the official explanation does, in my opinion; especially if you consider the impossibility of the Shkanon theory. Basically the only weakness in my explanation was regarding how Kanon got his hands on one of the stakes. But that is not really a severe weakness as it is not inexplicable.

So now let’s move on to the second game.

The second game:

The first murder scenario: The chapel

I can be extremely short about this murder scenario since I have explained it already. It is both Rosa who claims that the door is locked and who supposedly unlocks it. The servants simply assumed that it was locked since it is always locked and the key was missing. Only Rosa actually tries to open the door and then claims that it is locked. She is the one who retrieved the chapel key from the envelope in Maria's handbag and then pretended to unlock the chapel door with it.

Will's solution was: the gold truth locks the lock of illusions. This is what I explained before; everyone believed that the door was locked due to Rosa's illusion which therefore made it a gold truth.

However, I think that Ryukishi was very clever with how he phrased Will's solutions. After all, if the official explanation is indeed a lie and if Will knows the real truth, then he had to phrase Will's solutions in such a way that it would seem to point towards the official explanation when it in fact doesn't. In other words, that if a person who believed the official explanation would mistakenly see confirmation in Will's solutions.

This is especially true for the next twilight but this is also the case with his usage of "the gold truth". After all, as I explained before, you cannot get around Rosa being involved in the second game. So what would believers in the official explanation tend to assume? Probably that Shannon bribed Rosa with the gold in order to get her support. So when believers in the official explanation would see the term "the gold truth" appear in Will's solutions for the 2d and 4th game, they would believe that it referred to accomplices having been bribed with the money. Especially after reading “Umineko our confession” in which Krauss and Natsuhi are made into accomplices this way.

But Will's solution to the second twilight of the second game is especially phrased in such a way that it would seem to imply the Shkanon theory. So let's move on to the second twilight

Second murder scenario: Jessica's room

In the second murder scenario Jessica is found dead in her room with a stake in her back and Kanon is missing. Will solution here is as follows:

Illusions to Illusions. Illusions who have fulfilled their role don't leave a corpse.

The official explanation here would be something like this:

Shannon killed Jessica as Kanon and then erased her Kanon personality. She used her own key to lock the door as she was holding two masterkeys to begin with.

Given this explanation, the meaning of Will's solution would be obvious. However, I have already demonstrated that it is impossible for Shannon and Kanon to be the same person. So the solution to the second twilight CANNOT entail the Shkanon theory.

So can we actually make sense of this scenario with Rosa as the culprit but which also makes sense of Will's solution and the fact that Kanon's corpse is missing?

First of all, did Rosa have the opportunity to commit this crime? Yes she did. Rosa had send Genji and Shannon to Kinzo's study earlier on and then later she followed to borrow Kinzo's gun. So this means that Rosa had the opportunity to go to Jessica's room and kill Jessica and Kanon there.

But if that's the case, how did Rosa lock Jessica's room and where did Kanon's corpse go? And how does this fit in with Will's solution?

First let me explain how Rosa locked Jessica's room.

Rosa locked Jessica's room with Kanon's masterkey.

But as we know, When Battler asked Nanjo to look if Jessica still had Kanon's masterkey in her pocket, Nanjo did in fact pull it out of her pocket? So that would seem tio imply that Kanon's master key was locked inside Jessica's room.

However, this is an extremely simple trick. Basically, it's like when a magician says "hey there is a coin behin your ear". So here is my second blue truth:

When Rosa joined up with the others she secretly gave Nanjo Kanon's masterkey. Then when searching Jessica's corpse, Nanjo pretended to find the key in her pocket.

So that explains how the room was locked. But what about Kanon and Will's solution?

Since Kanon in a sense appears in the next scenario, I believe that it was part of Rosa's plan to make Kanon disappear in order to set up the murdering demon version of Kanon scenario. After all, she is trying to make things seem magical. So basically she is trying to make it seems like Kanon killed Jessica and later appeared as a demon who can move in and out of locked rooms without using a key.

So the illusion her is that seems like Kanon killed Jessica and then disappeared. But in fact, Kanon is innocent and Rosa simply hid his body in another room.

So to connect this to Will's solution: Illusions who have fulfilled their role do not leave a corpse. Refers to the role Rosa have Kanon to serve as the illusion of being the murderer and hiding away his corpse made it seem like magic. After all, when the crime is discovered and they discuss how it might have happened Rosa is trying to make it seem like Kanon is the culprit. Her purpose is to make it seem later on that Kanon was behind the murder of Nanjo and Kumasawa, but not in a mystery way, but in fantasy way. She probably counted on Battler thinking of Kanon’s masterkey being in Jessica’s pocket. If not at that time, then later on.

This way the second twilight can be explained as well. I actually have yet another reason to believe that Rosa was behind this murder and a lot of you probably will know what I am referring to. But I will leave that for the chapter on whistle blowing.

The third murder scenario: the servants' room

This murder scenario is actually the most difficult to explain in detail because there are no hints about what actually happened in the servants' room. Will's solutions don't even include this scenario. So what actually happened here cannot be proven and there are multiple possible versions available. So I will simply gave an example of what could have happened. The only thing that I am certain of is the following:

The servants were forced to lie about what happened in the servants' room

First of all, there is no good reason to believe that Nanjo and Kumasawa were actually killed inside the servants’ room. So let me give a possible version of what could have happened. First of all, Rosa made sure all the servants to the kitchen. Then she took Nanjo to the side and had a short conversation with him at enough distance from Battler that he couldn't hear what they were talking about. As we can see here:

Narration: The servants put the utensils and empty cans on the serving cart and started to head out into the corridor. Behind them, Aunt Rosa was talking to Doctor Nanjo about something in a small voice.

Nanjo: "…Understood. I will go."

Rosa: "Yes, I am counting on you."

Then at some point, Nanjo drew a gun and held it against Kumasawa's head to get them all to cooperate. Fake blood was poured in the servants room and Kanon's and Kumasawa's master key were placed in the envelope. Then Ghoda had to lock the door. Then Nanjo ordered them to tell that a demon version of Kanon appeared and killed him and Kumasawa. And they'd better cooperate because if they wouldn't, Kumasawa would die. Moreover he would probably tell them that he an accomplice among Battler's group or even up front told them that Rosa was the murderer and that he was working for them, since Rosa was carrying a gun and Nanjo held Kumasawa hostage, they had no choice but to pay along. Nanjo then took Kumasawa and hid somewhere in the mansion.

So Genji, Shannon and Ghoda returned in shock to the parlor and gave their incomprehensible testimony of Kanon who wasn’t really Kanon anymore killing Nanjo and Kumasawa. It all went according to Rosa's plan. But not only was it her intention to make it seem like a demon was behind this murder. This was also a way for her to get her hands on all the master keys. After all, she could now place doubt on the servants reliability and had them hand over their masterkeys. This would be vital for the rest of the game. When you read this scene with this explanation in mind, it really is disturbing to see how cruel Rosa is. I mean, re-read this scenario with this explanation in mind and you really see how cruel Rosa can be.

After she collected all 5 masterkeys, George went with the servants and Rosa, Maria and Battler returned to the parlor.  

So from this point onwards George takes control of the murder scenarios. He is now supposed to create a perfect closed room which 3 corpses inside it, at least to make it seem that way. So he takes Ghoda and Shannon to Natsuhi's room. Problem is, at this point he has no option but to reveal his involvement to Shannon and hope that he could convince her of his purpose and fake their deaths together so that they could later escape the island. Unfortunately, things don't go as he planned.

Fourth murder scenario: Natsuhi's room

Now we arrived at what would be probably be considered the biggest defense of the official explanation apart from the boiler room scenario in the first game. The murder scene in Natsuhi’s room is probably the best hint that Shannon is the culprit. Not only that, but this scenario is actually in detail explained by the author himself. So not only do we have the official explanation in general in the sense that Shannon is the culprit and therefore we can deduce what would have had to happen in Natsuhi’s room; but we also have an explanation from the author himself. But first let me give Will’s solution:

Earth to Earth. No one would dispute that a coffin is a closed room.

Basically, the deal with Natsuhi’s room is that this is a perfect closed room. The original key is locked inside the room itself. All the master keys are under Battler’s surveillance since they are in Rosa’s possession and Rosa and Battler are together in the parlor the whole time until they discover the corpses. And it is Battler who unlocks the door, meaning that we know that the door truly was locked. The red also proves that the master keys were indeed in Rosa’s possession the whole time.

Natsuhi's own key was in George's pocket, and the inside of the room was closed off

Only the five master keys were left, and 'Rosa' was holding all of them

After the master keys came into Rosa's control, never did any of them leave her hands!  Except for the time when she lent it to Battler to unlock Natsuhi's room.

So basically, this is a perfect closed room. This is not about tricks anymore. The only possibility is that the culprit is inside the room. Since there is no possibility of anyone hiding since everyone else is confirmed dead, one of the three people inside this room is the culprit, or at least one of the culprits.

In other words: Ghoda, Shannon or George must be either the sole culprit or one of the culprits in any possible theory. We have Shannon in the official explanation and we have George in mine. Ghoda is basically the most innocent person on the island so he was never really an option to begin with in my opinion.

The official explanation here is as follows:

Shannon killed George and Ghoda, and then she committed suicide. This is the reason why she is the only person in the room without a stake in her body.

Let’s take a look at a detailed explanation by the author of how this went about:

K Still, the locked room in Natsuhi’s chamber is a special case. If Shannon actually committed suicide, there is nobody who can get rid of the weapon. If you think of Genji finalizing that, then it just happens smoothly, but…hmm *laugh*.

R Because we have come so far, I think I can give you an answer, though it is basically the same trick as with the well. Shannon died face down, slumped over the makeup cabinet. It’s a really simple trick. You tie the weapon to a heavy object with a string, then you throw the heavy object behind the cabinet. And then it’s the classic trick, when you commit suicide, the gun is pulled behind the cabinet towards the heavy object.

K So that’s how it went?!

R I thought, because you solved the riddle of the well as well, that you would get this trick without any problem. I especially wrote that she was „slumped over, face down, over the makeup cabinet“. And while the other two in the room were actually pierced by the stakes, Shannon was not. That is why you can imagine her being the last to die in that room, because there was nobody left to insert the stake into the gunwound. There was never a full inspection of that special room, so that means that the weapon was left within it.

K Ah, now I see. I never thought of that.

R And during EP4 the same trick was used to drop the weapon into the well in the end. Because of the image of well=trashcan, I imagined that everybody would find it easy to get that trick. And because in EP2, even before the incident in Natsuhi’s room happened, there was the atmosphere of „Let’s preserve the crime scene until the police arrives.“, it could have been behind the cabinet or even in the space under the bed. Even if you cast only a little shadow over it, it will already be out of view.

People familiar with mystery novels will recognize this method of suicide since it is basically taken from “and then there were none” by Agatha Christie, in which the culprit commits suicide using the same kind of trick.

People who haven’t heard of this explanation by the author before might notice that something is not right here. There’s a discrepancy. But for the moment, I will not challenge the official explanation here and merely focus on an alternative explanation. I will come back to the official explanation of this scenario in the chapter on whistleblowing. But for now, is Shannon’s suicide the only possible explanation here? Or can it be explained with my theory as well?

And yes I can. In fact I can think of two possible explanations. First give the one that I don’t actually believe is true, but which is at the very least possible, so therefore it deserves to be included. Although I think it is less plausible then my primary solution. So here is that alternative possibility:

First of all what would be true in both my explanations and in the official explanation is that, Ghoda probably died first in the room since Ghoda died in the door opening. So it’s all about Shannon and George. But one other thing that we need to take into account is the following. It is specifically stated that Natsuhi’s room was a terrible mess with stuff all over the place. This could arbitrarily have been set up by the culprit but to me it indicates that a struggle went on. Two people had been fighting and both died either as a result or through another method like Shannon committing suicide in the official explanation. So here is a possibility that I don’t believe, but could have happened:

Shannon and George killed each other. In other words, it was a simultaneous murder.

Now I do believe that George and Shannon had a struggle in Natsuhi’s room. But what I am suggesting here is that the stakes themselves were the actual murder weapons. During the struggle Shannon took one of the stakes George had with him and stabbed it into George stomach. George then in a rage took the other stake and jammed it as hard as he could in Shannon’s skull. Given the fact that it is almost not humanly possible to jab a stake in someone’s skull as deep as they were in the second twilight of the first game, meaning that the stakes were jammed into bullet wounds, in this instance the stake only penetrated Shannon’s frontal lobe which resulted in immediate death, but the stake did not go deep enough to remain stuck in Shannon’s skull and therefore fell out after she hit the floor, resulting in the stake lying next to her in a puddle of blood rather than being stuck in her head. George however was lethally wounded as well and dropped on the floor. Defeated over his inability to convince Shannon to join him in their new future and being forced to kill her, George simply accepted his fate and bled to death.

I don’t think it can be denied that this is a possible explanation to this murder scenario. However, I don’t think this is what happened. I do think there was struggle, but I don’t think that a weak little girl like Shannon would be able to stand up against a young male adult like George who is trained in martial arts. In other words, if George would get into a fight with Shannon, Shannon would not stand a chance. Of course there is the factor that George didn’t want to kill Shannon that needs to be taken into consideration.  

But I do think that George was forced to kill Shannon. After all, in other games, Shannon would not have known about George’s plan and especially not about him being a murderer. But in this game, there would have been no way around of revealing that fact to Shannon and instead of tricking her into believing that they survived some accident or whatever excuse George would have come up with, he had to come clean and convince her of completing his plan and fake both of their deaths and escape the island later on. However, Shannon wouldn’t be convinced, especially after George killed Ghoda in front of her. So a struggle was the result in which George in a fit of rage stabbed Shannon in the head with the stake and pushed her against the cabinet. Shannon fell face down on top of the cabinet with the stake next to her on the floor.

George’s plan had failed and the woman he loved was dead by his own hand. However, he was at the point of no return. So he could now either kill himself or go on living without Shannon but at least with a lot of money. Give his personality and his determination he choose the second option. So even though he planned to fake both his and Shannon’s death, he now had no choice but to merely fake his own. So George put something under his clothes to jam the stake into so that it would look like the stake was in his body.  He could have used a piece of wood or some rolled up cloth or whatever. Faking such a wound would be pretty easy.

Now you may say that there is no hint of George having a fake wound. Well if that really bugs you then I could claim that George was such a tough guy that he genuinely stuck the stake in his stomach. The stomach is not a very lethal spot so if placed correctly, the stake would not even have to leave any permanent damage. Now I am not saying that I believe that happened, But anyway, if you accept the gun trick of the official explanation which Ryukishi admits was barely hinted at, so then there is no reason why my trick would not be allowed. At least faking wounds is hinted at and even necessitated in other parts of the story. Even better, you do not even have the option to object to George having the stake in his body by his own doing. People who have paid attention would know why that is, but I will come back to this in the chapter on whistle blowing.

But there is still something missing in my explanation, namely Will’s solution. Will’s solution suggest that everyone truly was dead in Natsuhi’s room and I just suggested that George faked his death. But here is where my betrayal theory comes into play and the fact that Rosa doesn’t want to leave anyone alive. So what my theory regarding Natushi’s room comes down to is that

George killed Ghoda and Shannon in Natsuhi’s room and then used the fake death drug to fake his death. However, Rosa had poisoned the fake death drug resulting in George unknowingly killing himself, leaving the room behind as a perfectly sealed coffin with 3 corpses inside it.

Now people may object to this solution that the poison would leave traces behind like it did on Maria. But that’s exactly the reason  why when Battler, Maria and Rosa enter the room and Battler confirmed both Ghoda’s and Shannon’s death, Rosa prevents him from investigating any further.

Battler did examine Ghoda’s and Shannon’s corpses up front and in the novel version Battler even discusses both of those corpses in detail, but Battler never had the chance to examine George’s corpse. He only sees him from a distance. Rosa is the only one who examined George up close; I mean, just re-read this scene if you want to make sure. Therefore, whatever hints there would be of a faked stake wound or little traces of foam on George’s mouth from the poison; those would not be have been seen by Battler. Again, just re-read this scene and you’ll see how everything fits.

So by preventing Battler from examining George, this closed room murder became complete. So now all that’s left for the second game are the deaths of Nanjo and Kumasawa.

[Editor's note: This isn't in the transcript, but there's an addendum of Rosa possibly doing this murder by drugging Battler and doing it while he sleeps. I'm guessing this got left out because it's directly contradicted by one of the reds: “The door and the windows were locked from the inside.”]

The fifth murder scenario:

Even though Dr. Nanjo and Kumasawa are the 7th and 8th twilight, I believe that this murder scenario occurred BEFORE the murder scenario in Natsuhi’s room. There is no trick to use scenario. George simply sliced their necks open by using some blade like a large kitchen knife or something. Dr. Nanjo believed that only Kumasawa would be killed, but George didn’t want to leave Nanjo behind as a witness and killed him as well.

Basically that’s all there is to it. I already explained the rest of the second game in previous chapters, so let’s move on to the third game.

The third game:

I have already explained the majority of the third game in previous chapter. So let’s move on to the first scenario, the six linked closed rooms’ scenario:

First scenario: the six linked closed rooms

Before I begin with my explanation of this scenario, I first want to say that I don’t see any reasonable way that this scenario can be explained given the official explanation.

As I explained way back in Chapter 3; the red statement concerning the deaths of the 6 people

6 people: Kinzo, Genji, Shannon, Kanon, Gohda, and Kumasawa are dead!

both proves that Shannon and Kanon are separate people and therefore have separate bodies. And it also proves that all 6 of their bodies are dead. So no room for word play around personalities or stuff like that. The six people have to be truly dead no matter what word play.

In Umineko Our confession there is a similar closed room chain made in which Shannon commits suicide in the chapel using the same trick as how she supposedly killed herself in Natsuhi’s room. However, that trick cannot be used to explain away the closed room chain in the 3d novel. Since there is the red that none of the six committed suicide:

None of the six people committed suicide!

Now if you want to say something like that it technically wasn’t a suicide since it was the Beatrice persona killing the Shannon persona or some crap like that; then it is simply just end of discussion. Because as I have said before, then there is no point to even having red statements. If the red truth is that ambiguous then you can justify absolutely ANYTHING.

Furthermore, what is the logic behind such a solution to this scenario anyway? In Umineko our confession, it is the final murder scenario, so that at least makes sense that the culprit would commit suicide. But this is merely the first twilight.

I guess what believers in the official explanation would want to say is that Shannon did just play dead and that this is allowed by the red since it revolves around death of a personality (whatever that’s supposed to mean in the first place). But the red both specifies that 6 people are dead, meaning that 6 human bodies are dead; not 6 personalities as is shown in the 6th novel. But anyway, I have covered this issue already.

So I guess the only thing you could say is that Shannon was playing dead but this was discovered and she was killed by the family members. Of course, one would need to wonder what the evidence is for that theory. Is this ever shown in the actions of the family members? IS there even a hint suggesting that this happened? In fact, even if they discovered that Shannon wasn’t really dead, wouldn’t they expect that the whole thing was a joke or something? Just like in Umineko our confession things begin as a game but end in tragedy?  So if you want to go for this explanation, fine but I don’t really see how it helps you explaining the rest of the game. Shannon would still be dead and therefore cannot be the culprit of the rest of the game.

You could suppose that Eva is the culprit for the rest of the game, but then you cannot explain the murder on Dr. Nanjo. Basically, you are making an incoherent mess of the third game. There simply is no way for the official explanation to work here.

So can I do better and explain it with Rosa, George and Nanjo? And yes I can. Again I have two possible solutions to the first scenario. But let’s take a look at Will’s solution first.

Illusions to Illusions; in a closed room ring, the beginning and end overlap

People believing in the official explanation would see this as a confirmation of the Shkanon theory, namely that Shannon and Kanon who are in the first and the last room are in fact the same person. Ryukishi even alludes to this in the interview:

K That’s true. I despaired about the mystery of the linked locked rooms until the very end. Will said that „The end and the beginning overlap“, but…

R It’s a metaphor, so even the people who understood the hint, seem to have done so only barely. But because I wrote it that way to distract the people who did not understand, I won’t explain it further now.

However, in this particular place in the interview, I don’t think Ryukishi is lying at all. After all, he doesn’t literally confirm the Shkanon theory even though that theory should already be clear by now and Keiya obviously believes in it; so why is he so ambiguous here?

Actually, Keiya is wrong about what Will says. Will doesn’t say that the end and the beginning overlap in this scenario. He said that in a closed room ring, the end and beginning overlap, which is always the case in a circle.

But that I believe is exactly the point and the solution to this scenario. That’s the illusion. The illusion is that we are dealing with a closed room ring, while in fact we are not. In closed room ring the end and the beginning overlap, but in this scenario the end and beginning merely seem to overlap while in actuality they don’t. This scenario is not a ring at all, but a line.

In other words, this scenario was already solved by Battler at the end of the 4th novel. So the answer to this scenario was already given in the 4th novel. All of the adults were in the parlor all night so Rosa was not involved in setting up this scenario. Rosa herself was not involved in this scenario since she was keeping the rest of the family members in the dining hall for the night (the family began to focus on solving the epitaph after Rosa confirmed that Beatrice indeed existed). So George killed all servants apart from Shannon and Rosa had given him the location of Kinzo’s corpse which he then burned in the boiler room. Nanjo probably helped him carry the corpses since it would be quite a pain to set up this scenario. Then George gave Nanjo Shannon’s masterkey making it a closed room line instead of a circle. Then when Shannon was discovered, Nanjo was the one who said that no one should touch her and examined her body and just like in Jessica’s room in the 2d game he placed the final masterkey on her body. Whoever then found her masterkey would have assumed that it had been there from before they broke into the room, giving the illusion of a closed room ring.

That is what Will meant with his solution. In a closed room ring, the end and the beginning overlap like in any circle. But that’s what the illusion was, that we were indeed dealing with a circle in which the end and beginning overlap rather than a line.

But then we should wonder why Shannon died. After all, George would have faked Shannon’s death instead of killing her. But the red proves that Shannon was dead.

Well before I can go into that we first need to consider another red statement, namely the following

All of them had wounds resembling gunshot wounds which became fatal!

Now on my original Umineko explained video, somebody told me that I read this sentence the wrong way. I was told that I read this statement wrong. Namely that it means that the victims had wound which resembled fake gunshot wounds.

 To me it seemed that it meant that the victims had wounds that resembled gunshot wounds, and those wounds were what killed them.

But regardless, I can explain this scenario in both cases. Since I am not sure which of the two is supposed to be the right reading, I will give two explanations.  

So here is the solution if the wounds were not necessarily what killed the victims:

1.       George faked a wound on Shannon which would appear like a fatal gunshot wound. He then used the fake death drug on her; however Rosa had poisoned the fake death drug. Therefore George unknowingly killed Shannon.

And here is the second solution if all the victims did indeed all have fatal gunshot wounds.

2.       The death proclamation was made some time after the victims were discovered. So there is no problem with one of them dying after the closed room was destroyed. Rosa was not present among the people who went inside the parlor was Shannon was. That means that all she had to do was to enter the parlor herself after the rest left and shoot Shannon. As long as this happened before the death proclamation was made there is no contradiction.

Now you will all of course demand of me to prove that assertion that Rosa stayed behind when the rest of the group went into the room. We know that Rosa was among the discoverers but where did I get this notion from that Rosa did not actually enter the parlor while the others did. This may sound strange but just re-read the chapter called “Virgilia” in the 3d novel. It specifically says that only Rudolf, Krauss, Natsuhi, Eva, Hideyoshi and Nanjo went into the parlor after Rudolf broke the window as you can see in this screenshot. That means that Rosa was no longer under surveillance. So after the masterkey was picked up they would probably have left through the door and later met up with Rosa. After all we never see what exactly happened since right after Shannon is discovered we skip over to the meta-world. So there is no problem in saying that Rosa went through the broken window after the rest left through the door. And once Rosa was inside, she took a gun she was hiding on her body or even somewhere in the room, and shot and killed Shannon. Then she met up with the rest again.

Now you may possibly object that Rosa could not have shot Shannon without anyone else hearing it. But according to Umineko our confession, the rifle can be muffled so that it makes hardly any sound. This is specified in the scene were Beatrice shoots Kumasawa in her leg to put the stake inside the wound.

Also, the red only says that it’s a wound resembling a gunshot wound. So Rosa didn’t necessarily had to use a gun.

So it doesn’t matter how the red about the wounds is interpreted, in both cases I can account for Shannon’s death even though George intended to fake her death. Either he unknowingly poisoned her or Rosa killed her after the closed room was destroyed.

The only that I find strange is how the red is phrased just before Battler gives his solution. Since it seem to suggest that all the keys were locked up inside the closed rooms, as you can see in this screenshot. But I think we have another problem with terminology here just like with the red concerning the survivors in Natsuhi’s murder in the first game. After all, Battler gives his blue truth that one of the keys was planted on one of the corpse directly in response to Beatrice’s red truth.  So apparently the red should not be red to make a proclamation that all keys were locked inside the rooms, but as a conclusion based on that they were found inside the envelopes and on the bodies of the servants. So this red might have been translated a bit of an awkward way.

But I don’t want people to go complaining that I said that the red should be taken at face value and not be worked around in order to fit your theory. So I will give a third solution in which all keys indeed were locked inside the rooms.

Namely the following theory:

George either tricked Shannon into believing that they were pulling a prank or convinced her of his goal. He then faked her wound and had Shannon lock the room from the inside and take the fake death drug herself. Then she died either because the fake death drug was poisoned or because Rosa shot her after the closed room was destroyed.

Now, I don’t think this theory is necessary, because I do think that it’s a problem with how the red was phrased exactly because Battler made his theory in direct response to it. But by including this, my position is safe regardless of how the red is interpreted. And believers in the official explanation are hardly in the position to object to this last solution since the closed room ring in “Umineko our confession” was set up by convincing the servants that they were pulling a prank as well.

So that takes care of the first scenario.

 I have already explained the second twilight in a previous chapter, namely that Rosa wanted to stop the murders because Eva solved the epitaph. However George didn’t care about Rosa’s absurd ceremony and in the resulting fight Rosa was thrown on the fence and then George had to strangle Maria on the spot since she was a witness.

 Will’s solution simply refers to the fact that there are no illusions or mysteries surrounding this murder. There is no closed room or anything else out of the ordinary. It’s simply two people who are murdered and nothing that even remotely would suggest magic.

The only difficulty here is the same one I have regarding the third murder scenario, so let’s move on that one first:

The third murder scenario: the entrance hall

The third murder scenario is when Hideyoshi, Kyrie and Rudolf are killed in the entrance hall of the mansion. You already know what my view is regarding the notion of Shannon still being alive despite the red. We already know that to be impossible, but it is what many people believe and it even seems to be what Keiya, the guy who interviews Ryukishi, believes.

But also a lot of people believe that Eva was behind this murder and the previous one on Rosa as well. However, I see no reason to believe that, especially if you consider that the stakes were used on the corpses. Why would Eva stick a stake in her own husband’s body even if you suppose that he was killed by Kyrie for example and Eva then killed Kyrie and Rudolf? I really don’t think that this scenario makes sense with Eva as the culprit. Neither do I think that Eva killing Rosa and Maria makes sense. Why would she do that? I don’t think that Eva would kill for the gold, nor would the rosa garden scenario follow logically from Eva wanting Rosa dead given that no weapons were used. Anyway, it is actually true that Eva was probably not in her room since Hideyoshi had been smoking in that same room. But Eva’s absence can be explained in other ways then going to Rosa to kill her. Remember if Rosa is indeed Beatrice then Eva would know now the truth behind what has been going on, on the island. So given all the new information she now has like knowing that Kinzo truly was dead for 2 years already and such, I think Eva slipped out of the room to make certain preparations. After all, she has discovered the gold and now she must find a way to get it off the island and especially to make the rest of the family except this. But also, Eva would know that she could still be in danger, because even though Rosa had come clean to her, Eva would also know that Rosa herself wasn’t the one who killed the servants. After all Rosa was with Eva the whole night in the dining hall. So just because she could have killed Rosa and Maria, doesn’t mean that she did do it. I think Eva slipped out of her room for different reasons and would have been extremely surprised when Rosa and Maria were brought in dead. In fact this would have been a disaster for her since Rosa was the only who could confirm that Eva really discovered the gold.

But anyway, even though it was possible for Eva to not be in her room, that still doesn’t prove in the end that she indeed did leave her room, or at least not that she had left the guesthouse. After all, Hideyoshi could simply have been smoking while his wife was asleep or something or what would be more probable is that Eva spend a long time on the bathroom given that she was sick. Now it is probably true that Kyrie BELIEVED that Eva had left her room because of the cigarette and therefore proposed that she, Rudolf and Hideyoshi would go the mansion for food. But that doesn’t mean that Kyrie was correct in her deduction.

So what I am trying to say is that all this stuff around Eva during Rosa’s murder and the murder in the entrance hall is extremely ambiguous and even unknowable. My point is that we can only speculate about what Eva was doing at that time. But we simply have no concrete evidence to base any theory regarding Eva’s actual whereabouts on.

But In any case, even IF you want to believe that Eva was behind these murders, then it’s not somehow the case that this is compatible with the official explanation and incompatible with my theory. I think it’s simply somewhat out of place regardless of what you believe. All I am saying is that there are simply too many unknowable factors here for us to draw reliable conclusions upon. And I at least don’t need Eva to be the culprit in these two scenarios. But even if she is, it is not like it’s incompatible with my theory. It just fits less well than George being the culprit. But to be honest, even given the official explanation, if Shannon really could have been alive after the first twilight (which I would accept as even remotely possible no matter how you look at it) than having Shannon as the culprit makes a lot more sense than Eva.

But in the end, my theory simply is the following:

George snuck out of the guesthouse and killed Kyrie, Rudolf and Hideyoshi in the entrance hall.

I think there can only be three possible objections against George being the culprit in Rosa’s murder and the murder in the entrance hall. Namely the following:

Objection 1: As far as we know George was in the cousins’ room with Battler and Jessica. If he was with Battler the whole time, how could he have been behind the deaths of Rosa, Maria, Hideyoshi, Kyrie and Rudolf?

Response: I think this is a fair objection, but just like in the case of Natsuhi’s room being locked before the phone call in the 5th novel, it’s an unprovable objection. After all, we don’t really see what happens in the cousins’ room much. So we don’t know if George was under the constant surveillance of Battler. Also consider that it’s not that strange for George to ask to be left alone for a moment since he had just lost Shannon. In fact he does so before he escapes out the window of the guesthouse later on in the game. Also Battler mentions at one point that they were all taking a nap in the cousins’ room. Also George could have said that he went to his parents’ room. So even though it is a fair objection, it is not one that can be proven to be true. And there are all kinds of ways to get George out of the cousins’ room without being really suspicious. So basically all I need to assume is that:

George was not under Battler’s constant surveillance around the time Rosa, Maria, Hideyoshi, Rudolf and Kyrie were murdered.

I do acknowledge that this is an assumption. But the contrary position that he was under the constant surveillance of Battler is an assumption as well. So in my opinion, this is the only weak point in my explanation of the 3d game and just like in the 5th game, it’s not really a severe one.

The second objection would this:

Objection 2: you just said that it would be strange for Eva to use the stakes on the corpses. But since George would no longer be following Rosa’s plan, it would not make sense for him to use the stakes as well.  

Response: First of all, George doesn’t go around anymore setting up closed room scenario because he doesn’t care about Rosa’s scheme. So he just kills whenever he has the opportunity. However, given that the first murder scenario was still according to Rosa’s plan and therefore seemed magical and had black magical symbols on all the doors, using the stakes would at least provide more confusion and fear. And since George was a culprit from the beginning, he would have known about the stakes. Eva would specifically have been told by Rosa after finding the gold. After all, no stakes had yet been used. So I think this at least fits better with George as the culprit than Eva. But I understand that this is all a bit subjective. I just personally think that this fits better with George than it does with Eva.

The final objection has to do with Will’s solution. Some people may interpret this to affirms that Eva was the culprit.Since it implies that we should take these scenarios at face value. However, I think that’s a very shallow approach. After all, if you take that literally you would have to believe that they truly were killed by a witch version of Eva rather than Eva herself. Furthermore, in the next scenario Will specifically mentions “the obvious culprit” which he doesn’t do in these two scenarios. So why wouldn’t the solution to the next scenario also be “no falsehoods in their final moments as told” if all three scenario’s have Eva as the culprit?

What I get from Will’s solution is that there are simply no tricks behind these two murder scenarios. There are no closed rooms or anything else suspicious. There are simply people found dead and that’s it. I think that’s all what Will’s solution refers to. It has nothing to do with who the culprit is.

So In conclusion, what I believe happened is the following: George followed Kyrie, Rudolf and Hideyoshi from the guesthouse and then shot Kyrie and Rudolf first since they were carrying the guns, then he shot his father as well and planted the stakes in their bodies and went back to the guesthouse. There basically is nothing more to this scenario.

By the way, just something I wanted to add; this is not about proving anything but I just wanted to give my thoughts on what happened after these corpses were discovered. Namely the scene where Battler is crying over his parents and George said that he has it the worst having lost both his parents, but then Battler said that George having it the worst since Battler had separated from his parents already and that George would not have separated from his parents due to his position in the family and that now he had lost Shannon as well, the person who wanted to share his life with; at which point George breaks down into tears as well. When they return to the guesthouse George looks through his photo album at the pictures he made when he was with Shannon in Okinawa. To me this looks like George had to remind himself of what he was doing all of this for, because even though George is a vicious murderer he is still a human being; so having just killed his father and see Battler cry over his parents, must still be tough for George; so he is looking at the photographs of him and Shannon to give himself an emotional boost. To remind himself that he is doing it to be with her. After all, George believes that Shannon is lying unconscious in the parlor, he doesn’t know yet that she is actually dead.

Again, I am not trying to prove anything here; I just wanted to give my interpretation of that scene. So now let’s move on to the next murder scenario.

The fourth murder scenario: Natsuhi and Krauss:

When it comes to Will’s solution to the murder on Natsuhi and Krauss, the people who haven’t seen my original Umineko explained video, will probably think that it goes against my theory, since Will’s solution implies that Krauss and Natsuhi were killed by Eva. However, the people who have seen my original video that I already believed this to be so before I read any of the Chiru novels. So Will’s solution actually confirms what I said way back in the original video. My theory was that George never intended to kill Krauss and Natsuhi at that specific point in time, instead he went out of the window in order to get to the mansion undetected and had Nanjo lock the window behind him. Eva then went to make coffee for Krauss and Natsuhi and put poison in it. And this is exactly what Will’s solution implies, which is as follows:

Earth to Earth. The obvious culprit wields a mutable blade

The obvious culprit almost certainly refers to Eva and a mutable blade would suggest a weapon that can change form or melt or something like that. So it seems to me that it implies that Eva used poison to kill Krauss and Natsuhi. Which is what I already stated in my original video.

So why did I think this murder scenario was done by Eva even though I have George, Rosa as the culprits for all other murder scenarios? And contrary to what most people believe, I don’t have Eva as the culprit for the earlier murders. So what makes this scenario so different?

Basically for two reasons:

1.       George was most likely not the one who killed Krauss and Natsuhi since he escaped through the window without going to the first floor of the guesthouse. And apart from George there was no one left to kill Krauss and Natsuhi. After all, Battler, Jessica and Nanjo are all confirmed in red to not having murdered anyone.

2.       Eva actually has a motive in this case.

And by now I can add in a third reason, namely that Will specifically mentions the obvious culprit in this scenario which he didn’t do in the previous 2 scenarios.

However, I still believe that Eva probably had not set up the scenario in which Krauss and Natsuhi lay under the arbor with strangulation marks on their necks and stakes in their legs. She did kill them, but she probably was really surprised herself to find them in such a state and at a different location from where she had killed them.

But I’ll come back to that in a minute. So first, why would Eva kill Krauss and Natsuhi?

To understand this, you have to look at it from her perspective. Let’s forget belief in magic and some unknown person hiding on the island; if Eva would have ruled out those options who would be the main suspects for being the culprit in Eva’s eyes? The only survivors besides her were Krauss, Natsuhi, Nanjo, Jessica, George and Battler. Even though George is the true culprit, she would probably rule out her own son, especially given that Hideyoshi was killed. Battler had lost his parents as well, so he would be an unlikely suspect. Nanjo would be a possible suspect but he was an old man for whom money would probably have less value than to Krauss and Natsuhi. But most importantly, Krauss’ immediate family was still completely intact.  Battler had lost his parents, Rosa and Maria were both killed and she and George had lost Hideyoshi. But Krauss and Natsuhi were both alive as well as their daughter. Their little family was still complete. Moreover, all the siblings apart from her and Krauss were dead. In other words, if she also would be killed, then no one would be entitled to the gold anymore. Krauss would be the only remaining child of Kinzo. Also if Eva would reveal that she solved the epitaph she no longer would have had any support from the other siblings. Kinzo was dead as well. So even if she told them that she solved the epitaph there would be no way that Krauss and Natsuhi would allow her to keep the gold.

In other words, I believe Eva began to fear for her and George’s lives. I think she believed to have found the culprits so she decided to poison their coffee. Then she would go and arm the bomb to make the evidence disappear, hoping that nobody would go down to the first floor in the mean time.

But why were the corpses found under the arbor with stakes in their legs and fake strangulation wounds on their necks?

Well, let’s now try to look at things from Dr. Nanjo’s perspective. What if Nanjo did go down to the first floor and found Natsuhi and Krauss dead even though he had helped George escape from the guesthouse earlier on? So a murder occurred that had not been part of their plan in the first place and Eva would be missing. Therefore, Nanjo would have realized that Eva must have done this. However, she was the one holding a gun so if he had to defend himself to her he would be in the weakest position. He probably also realized that he had been quite foolish to help George escape from the guesthouse, since he and Eva would have been the only suspects to have locked the window. Also, Nanjo would probably be able to see that Krauss and Natsuhi were poisoned and that would put the suspicion even more on him as he is a doctor and Eva was carrying a gun so how would he be able to defend himself against Eva?

So Nanjo had to think of a plan. He decided to stage Krauss’ and Natsuhi’s corpses under the arbor away from the guesthouse. He had been the one holding on the two of the stakes which Eva of course wouldn’t have known. And in order to make it not seem like they were poisoned he used a rope to make it look like they were strangled. In that case a martial artist like Eva would be more suspicious than an old guy like him. But he wasn’t just trying to put suspicion on Eva. After all, it would be smarter to not make her look too suspicious either. After all, if setting up this scenario would be beneficial for her as well, then that would be a lot safer for him. So in the end his goal was to make it seem, as if Natsuhi and Krauss had disappeared from the locked guesthouse and became part of the witch’s ceremony. This is why when Battler questions him on George’s disappearance and Battler figured out that someone must have had locked the window behind George, for the first time he began blaming the witch. He knew he was in a dangerous spot right now. So Nanjo had placed Natsuhi and Krauss under the arbor and jammed the stakes into their legs. When Eva came back she would be really surprised, but she wouldn’t be in the position to say anything about it obviously. In fact it would be beneficial for her.

 So now let’s move to when George’s supposed corpse is found in the parlor

9th Twilight: the parlor

Some time earlier, George had escaped from the guesthouse by using the window on the 2d floor and had Nanjo lock it behind him. The reason he did this was so that he could go to the mansion undetected. After all, his mother and Krauss and Natsuhi were on the first floor, so he couldn’t just walk out of the front door. 

Now here there are two possibilities. Either George was going to revive Shannon whom he believed to be alive after all since he had faked her death earlier; this would explain the magical perspective scene in which Beatrice and George go to resurrect Shannon. After Nanjo had displayed Natsuhi and Krauss under the arbor he would go to George in the mansion to inform him of what happened. However, here is where things really went wrong, he found George next to Shannon’s corpse in the parlor and George had just found out that Shannon really was dead. Especially if this was because of the poisoned fake death drug, Nanjo would have noticed that Shannon truly had been dead when they first discovered her, but had kept this a secret for George. So now Nanjo had to deal with an enraged George. Given that Nanjo probably had one of the rifles now (remember that Krauss and Natsuhi were both carrying rifles) he saw no other option than to shoot George who now wanted to kill him. However, since this wasn’t planned, Nanjo quickly ran out of the parlor in shock (after all he had never killed anyone before and never intented on killing anyone) and then locked the door behind him. So he never checked to see if George really was dead.

So now, Nanjo was all alone without allies and with another murderer somewhere on the island, namely Eva. So in case he wouldn’t survive Nanjo left behind the most important information he had, namely the pin number to the safe with the money he was promised by Rosa. So that even if he died, he hoped that his relatives would understand what this number was about would be able to access the money for the sick granddaughter. He then returned to the guesthouse and later on Eva returned and to her surprise, Krauss and Natsuhi were missing. But to her even greater surprise, so was George. Now, Eva would probably suspect that there was in fact an extra person hiding someone on the island.

 The whole group then went to look for the missing people and they found Krauss and Natsuhi under the arbor. Then in the parlor they found George. Nanjo checked George’s pulse and realized that he was merely unconscious.

From this point onwards I have already explained what happened in chapter 5. Basically Nanjo left Jessica behind in the servants’ room to finish George of, but George had regained consciousness and took his revenge on Nanjo when he stepped into the hallway. Eva was then forced to kill her own son and shot Battler. She then escaped to Kuwadorian and had the bomb destroy all evidence to create a cat box so that the world would never know that her son was behind the murders that occurred that day.

Of course, an alternative to Nanjo shooting George would be that it was George’s plan all along to fake his death at that point. But I personally prefer the first option.

So that is my explanation of the third game. In my opinion, the third game was the most difficult game to explain, basically because there is almost nothing to go on for the entire middle section of the game. My theory makes a lot of sense and ties a lot together, but even so, my theory and any other theory for that matter is simply impossible to prove because we are just missing so much information. You have to assume a lot of things and there is hardly any evidence to support any theory at all. Even if you believe that Eva was behind everything apart from Nanjo’s murder, it still is difficult to prove how and why she did it. Especially George’s death and Hideyoshi’s death. In any case you will simply have to assume a lot of things. And that makes the third game difficult.

In the end, multiple theories are possible for the third game because most of it is shrouded in darkness as far as evidence and hints are concerned. Basically, you can suppose a lot but you can prove very little. But I think my explanation does account for anything that needs to be accounted for in the third game. We can never be sure about the exact details anyway.

So now there is one more game to go. If I can explain the 4th game with Rosa and George as culprits then I have successfully demonstrated that the entire story can be explained with just Rosa and George as the culprits and Nanjo as the only accomplice (and of course Eva for the third game). So let’s move on to the 4th game.

The fourth game:

In my opinion, the 4th game is the easiest of Beatrice’s games to explain since there is very little to explain in the first place. Basically I can summarize almost the entire 4th game in the following way:

The culprits keep most of the family members and servants hostage, call out the kids using the “Kinzo-has-a-test-for-you” trick and then systematically murder everyone.

There are actually only a couple of things that need to be accounted for:

1.       The appearance of Kinzo at the first twilight

2.       The mysterious calls to the guesthouse by Krauss, Jessica, Kyrie and eventually Beatrice herself.

3.       The appearance of Beatrice to battler (already explained)

4.       The closed room murder of Ghoda and Kumasawa in the garden shed

5.       The absence of Kanon’s corpse

6.       Why everyone including the culprits are dead apart from Battler at the end of the game.

Let’s begin with the first twilight:

The first twilight: the dining hall

The appearance of Kinzo was basically already solved by Battler at the end of the 4th game. The new head of the family is the new Kinzo. In other words, Rosa is the new Kinzo. Now some people may object that there are also the red statements concerning people only being able to use their own names in the 6th game. However, if we regard the inheritance of Kinzo’s name as a title instead of a replacement for one’s name then there is no contradiction. Kinzo means something like goldsmith or gold storehouse. Basically you should regard it along the lines of “president” or “king”. It’s not a replacement for you own name or even a second name. So that resolves any apparent conflict. After all, titles are allowed since some people already have titles. For example, Rosa is the president of her own corporation and so is Rudolf.

So basically what happened at the family conference was that everyone acknowledged Rosa as the new Kinzo.

But what led up to this? This doesn’t happen in any other games and also the murder method is quite different.

What I believe happened in the 4th game is that Rosa had to use her own contingency plan. Just like George has a plan B which he had to use in the 5th game, Rosa had a backup plan as well; at least to some extent since the 4th game comes a bit across as being improvised. So this is what I think happened:

Krauss and Natsuhi were no longer capable of hiding the fact that Kinzo was already dead; the other family members were on to them and would not rest until their father would show himself or that Krauss and Natsuhi would admit that they had been hiding Kinzo’s death. Since this would inevitably disrupt Rosa’s plans to sneakily set up murder scenarios as she had planned; she decided to come clean herself and reveal that Kinzo had made her the new family head before he died and probably used Kinzo’s ring as proof. Of course she had no intention of breaking of her ceremony; only the epitaph could prevent that from happening. So she and Nanjo both drew a gun. Rosa probably did kill some people at this point so that no one would retaliate. However, whether she killed all 5 people who died in the dining hall cannot be determined but she may have. I do think that especially Eva would have been one of her first targets since Eva is trained in martial arts and therefore a threat.

Then Rosa and Nanjo took everyone into the tunnel system under the island and kept them locked up there. But before that, Rosa had to give the appearance of magic to Battler and get them out of them guesthouse. So she forced Kumasawa and Ghoda into making up a story of a magical shootout in the dining hall acted out by Kinzo. She would probably inform them that she had an accomplice in the guest house as well so that they would not come clean after they were out of her sight. Moreover, the lives of the other family members and servants were in their hands so they had no choice but to cooperate.

This is what Will’s solution refers to:

Illusions to illusions; tales woven by the gold truth return to illusions.

It’s pressed on Battler to believe that something happened that actually didn’t happen. Contrary to the other games where magic is merely implied by circumstances, in this game Rosa has it done by witnesses that tell Battler that they saw magic. This is not merely done by Ghoda and Kumasawa, but later in the game by forcing Jessica and Kyrie to lie on the phone to Battler about magic.

Second twilight: Jessica and George

So at the second twilight Jessica and George both leave the guesthouse and I believe it is George who then forces Jessica to call Battler in the guesthouse. That’s how Jessica “knows about George having been killed”. Afterwards George kills Jessica.

At what exact point George himself gets killed I am not sure of, but I do believe that he is the one who killed Ghoda and Kumasawa in the garden shed, but let’s move on to the third murder scenario first.

 Third murder scenario: escape from the tunnels

The answer to this scenario is very simple as well although there multiple possibilities of what instigated the escape. Either this was planned and Rosa simply killed Nanjo as well, or Nanjo actually had problems with his conscience (probably after being convinced by the people he was holding captive to release them) and tried to escape collectively. Rosa then chased after them and shot all of them.

As I said before, the reason Kanon’s corpse was missing had nothing to do with him being a personality of Shannon but due to the simple fact his corpse was at the bottom of the well where Battler was unable to find him. After all, the red proves that he was the first in Kyrie’s group to die.

Kanon is dead.

Among the five people in Kyrie's group, he was the first to die.

In short, he was the 9th victim.

So no incoherent Shkanon crap is required for this scenario and the red just means what it says.

So basically, Rosa went on a killing spree and killed everyone apart from Kyrie who had locked herself in a room. Unfortunately for her, Rosa had the key. Rosa then threatened Kyrie to make the phone call to Battler where she told him to doubt the existence of witches. You can basically see that Kyrie was forced to do this as there are bullet holes all around her in the floor, suggesting that Rosa shot close to her feet a couple of times to get her to cooperate.

The fourth murder scenario: the garden shed

Now we are at the final closed room scenario and the only one in the 4th game. Ghoda and Kumasawa are shot through their heads and hanged in the garden shed. The only key to the garden shed is inside Ghoda’s pocket making it a perfect closed room. Battler actually has to cut through the shutter in order to enter the garden shed. There he discovers the garden shed key. At this point he had already confirmed everyone else’s death so there was no possibility of anyone hiding anymore.

Will solution is as follows:

Illusions to illusions, Earth to earth. When fiction is shut up inside a cat box it becomes truth.

This confirms in my opinion the solution I had in my original Umineko explained video, and also proofs that George involvement becomes necessary to explain this scenario. Here is that solution:

Jessica, George and Battler were told to lock up Ghoda and Kumasawa in the garden shed. Then George threw the key through the open window which Ghoda then picked up.

This is the fiction part. In other words, the culprit needed the garden shed key to later kill Ghoda and Kumasawa yet he had to leave it behind in the shed as well to create a closed room murder.

So this is my blue theory:

George didn’t throw the actual garden shed key through the window; instead he threw in another random key with the labels switched. He later returned with the real key to kill Ghoda and Kumasawa.

Now there is a difficulty here with whether or not the actual garden shed key was found by Battler when he forced his way into the shed when he discovered Ghoda and Kumasawa’s corpses. Because Will’s solution seems to suggest that fiction was placed inside the shed but that it becomes truth due to it being a cat box (namely is the key real or false) But it is pretty difficult to explain how George could have left the genuine key behind in Ghoda’s pocket. In my original Umineko explained video I made a false assumption namely that the shutter was an electric shutter so that when you use the key to set it to lock, it takes some time to close and if George had acted fast he could have quickly slipped the key into Ghoda’s pocket and then roll out under the closing shutter.

However, this is not the case at all. The way the shutter functions is that you manually put it down completely and then lock it from the outside.

So the only thing I can think of is the window. After all Battler never actually checked the window to see if it was locked. It’s a general theme that windows cannot be locked from the outside but that doesn’t mean that they cannot be closed from the outside. So the window could have been closed but left unlocked. In case the window would not be big enough for George to squeeze through, he could have used a wire to place it in Ghoda’s pocket and then close the window, but leave it unlocked.

But if it’s ok if the key Battler discovered was not the real garden shed key but the key with the switched label, then there would no problem at all of course. However, Will’s solution does seem to imply that the key that Battler found was the real one.

Another thing I want to add here is the following: was it ever likely that Shkanon could have committed this murder? Could she really have hung Ghoda from the ceiling, someone who is constantly referred to as big and heavy, when Kanon couldn’t even carry bags of fertilizer in the first novel? But it would be a different story for a martial artist like George. I also don’t see how you can explain this scenario without George’s involvement since he was the one who threw the key through the window. And Ghoda throwing the key back out for the killer is also not that likely. Moreover, in what sense are we then dealing with “fiction shut up inside a catbox”?

So now all that is left to explain are the deaths of George, Maria and Rosa herself.

George’s death

In case of George’s death, I think it is simply that he was supposed to meet up with Rosa under the arbor and there Rosa shot him in the head. And that’s where Battler found him before his big confrontation with Beatrice on the balcony of the mansion. If she was a good shot, she could have shot him from a distance while staying out of George’s sight. That would have been a lot safer at least. But there really isn’t much more to it than this.

Rosa’s and Maria’s death

After Battler found George, he met up with Rosa in disguise at the mansion. Here Rosa tried to have Battler confess his sin against Shannon, but Battler couldn’t remember. Since Rosa carried the burden of Shannon’s love for Battler, he wanted Battler to understand, but he didn’t. Then everything was over for Rosa, she would leave Battler as the only living person on the island to die in the explosion. So she went to arm the bomb past midnight, so that it would explode in 24 hours. Then she went to get Maria at the chapel and took her to the dining hall.

There she poisoned Maria and afterwards shot herself in the head. Now when it comes to the fact that Battler didn’t find a gun, there is no reason that I couldn’t appeal to the same trick as Shannon supposedly used to kill herself in Natsuhi’s room. After all, it would be quite hypocritical for believers in the official explanation to believe that this is how Shannon killed herself but to object when I use the same trick to explain Rosa’s suicide.

Even so, there could be other reasons why the gun wasn’t found. Rosa could simply have fallen on top of it as she had been holding the gun under her chin. Remember that half her head was blown off.

And if you want to use a really horrific explanation then we could hypothesize that Maria actually died after Rosa. In other words, that Rosa gave Maria the poison to take and then told her to hide the gun somewhere after she had shot herself.  I think that goes a bit too far, but the point is that there are multiple ways to explain the absence of the gun.

As you could have seen in the quote from the interview that I showed when explaining the second game; the official explanation of Shannon’s death in the 4th game was that Shannon killed herself next to the well, meaning that the gun would have fell down the well. The clue to this again because there is no stake in her body; the stake is lying next to her body.

However, this is very inconsistent. Dr. Nanjo is also lying there and there is no stake in his body either. So did he also commit suicide in the same way as Shannon? Why on earth would he do that? One could even argue that the red truth about Genji, Kumasawa and Nanjo not being killers would even apply to killing themselves. So, saying that Dr. Nanjo killed himself is at least difficult to explain even if it is only about why he would do that.

And if he didn’t kill himself, then the fact of having no stake in your body shouldn’t be considered a clue in the first place.

In the case of Rosa and Maria, suicide makes sense. Rosa first gave her daughter an easy death instead of blowing her face apart. Then next to her daughter’s corpse she committed suicide. That makes a lot more sense in my opinion. Especially if you consider that you need to explain Maria being poisoned next to her mother’s corpse if you have Shannon as the culprit. But I already discussed this in the chapter on who is Beatrice.

And then finally, Battler remains as the only survivor on the island and when it is midnight, Battler dies as well in the explosion.

So now it’s over. Here ends my explanation of the murders of Umineko. I have explained all 3 factors: the who-dunnit, the how-dunnit and the why-dunnit. I have demonstrated at the very least that another explanation exists inside the cat box apart from the official explanation. But I think I did more than that. Given the impossibility of the Shkanon theory, the inconsistencies and even yet another conflicting red statement regarding Shannon as Beatrice, the problematic solutions to the murders given the official explanation, the arbitrary nature of randomly invoking accomplices without evidence; I am forced to conclude that the official explanation has never been option in the first place. If one would open the cat box, whatever one would find there inside, at the very least, the official explanation will not be it.

I started this video with a very bold assertion. That the official explanation is a lie. Now I have given you all the evidence against the official explanation and demonstrated that a consistent and plausible alternative explanation exists; you have to make a decision; either Ryukishi made a horrible blunder, screwing up his own story and going against his own rules without him realizing it… or he is very much aware that his official explanation is wrong and that it never was meant to be the truth behind the story to begin with…

But as you have noticed throughout this video, at certain points I had left certain things not discussed. I haven’t given you all the evidence against the official explanation and in favor of my explanation yet.  Because if I am right that Ryukishi is hiding the truth of the story behind the false Shkanontrice explanation, then certain hints should be found in both the story and in interviews. This is called whistle blowing.

So in the next chapter I am going to explain how you would have been able to know that the official explanation was never meant to be the truth in the first place.

So in the next chapter I am going to explain how you would have been able to know that the official explanation was never meant to be the truth in the first place.

[bossbutch]

actual umineko chapter 2 liveblog

last post was fanart. you clicked through to see it, right?

if beatrice wants me to believe she has magic she can't be saying "and then i summoned a goatman with a laser sword but kinzo's furniture pulled out HIS laser sword and killed the goatman and then i summoned the stake of lust and" ok beato sure

so what did happen to kanon and jessica? beato staked em both probably. or at least jessica, i'd like to see kanon's body before i call anything

i guess kinzo's fucked up Servant School that teaches them to be furniture is mimicking his idea of beatrice's familiars.

the chapel is a likely location for the gold at the moment? once again, battler didn't find any secrets but he's a dumbass. there's text on the chapel that they don't give us probably because it'd be too much of a hint? george says "i think it went 'm' 'b' 't' 'q'" and we get no info as to what that means. even if his last theory was "happy halloween maria" is referring to the virgin mary (lol) i'd like to know what he's referring to here

i finally got a proper "objection!" moment. the six dead parents *and rosa* met in the chapel at midnight but the text doesn't call attention to it. then the next day rosa is like "gee battler how'd beatrice get into the chapel without the key that you saw me taking from maria? it must've been magic"

battler gets his first proper objection moment right after me which is nice.

finally, red truth. the real umineko begins now

my theory for the kanon & jessica Locked Door is my theory for basically all the locked doors. the door is open, it is locked while open, Crimes happen, the key is placed inside the room, and then it is closed with beato outside the room. i wouldn't call this "locking it from the outside". this isn't possible with every kind of lock but they don't let us inspect the lock. the alternative is a servant's key being stolen and returned without noticing

battler is pretty foolish to be so certain that none of the 18 were involved in the murders. player-battler didn't see kanon and jessica's fight or the adults at the chapel, does he only see what piece-battler sees?

if battler was defeated and believed in beatrice but I, the player, didn't, would that still be game over? i'm seeing scenes he doesn't that are trying to convince me magic is real...

the pieces can't say "we saw (fake?) kanon use magic" in front of piece-battler but the instant he's not in the room they can. of course

piece-battler sees golden butterflies near the end of ch2 but it's after the witch has revived and by then the game is over, right? they really aren't suspicious of kinzo enough

shannon: "george would you still love me if i was a maggot"

WHODUNNIT SPECULATION ehh idk. i dont think kinzos died yet but i dont think he's directly responsible for any murders. his goal (revival of the witch) is furthered by the killings but it wouldn't be gambling if he did it himself. in a similar way maria thinks she benefits from the ritual but she has good alibis and her idea of beato wouldnt need much help from her genji may be doing Crimes for kinzo's sake without his knowledge. if there's multiple killers (and i think there is) he's the only one i think would be Willing to die in the ritual kanon is not on beato's side but if anyone is Interfering it's him i don't believe in a Servant Conspiracy, i don't see any motive for gohda, the doc, shannon or kumasawa yet of the family i don't suspect the kids or krauss+natsuhi. if eva and hideyoshi faked their deaths it was very impressive lol. rosa has the most to gain from the beato-ing, but if i take kanon's magic scenes as evidence he's against beatrice then i gotta assume rosa is against beatrice too even if she may be part of some crimes kyrie and rudolf have both been out-of-focus and (allegedly) die early

is people/the audience accepting magic a Goal in Itself for beato? it def makes her More Powerful in imaginationland. magic scenes could be lies, they could be maria's imagination, or even shannon/someone else's. it'd be really pissed if the truth is "it's not magic BUT multiple people hallucinated or went 'crazy' or whatever" i don't have any cosmological theories or commentary i don't really care how tea party land and the time loop work or fit together and relate to reality. it works because otherwise theres no story it's probably worth knowing what bernie and lambda Represent even if i don't consider them Real Characters. bernie maybe an anti-magic "fairplay whodunnit" perspective to oppose beato, but she is herself a witch. im sure she'll be clearer later she hasn't done much yet

beato is fantasy she's bullshitting she's a writer or gamemaster who doesn't trust the readers. she's playing chess but she controls how many pieces each side gets and what every piece does, but she still wants battler to say how much better and smarter she is. but ALSO she's maria's coping mechanism, so shes not meant to be purely a negative thing. opium of da masses. you could argue that beatrice is like the main thesis of umineko and you don't *really* need to speculate on anything other than her, but that'd be boring :P

i feel like my theories didn't develop/change much reading chapter 2 which is prob a failing on my part. ch3 is supposed to be The Fairest Game Yet so i'm looking forward to it

[whenthechickencry]

Umineko EP3. Replay Part 5

Well yeah Battler, you got it! How did the other Golden Witch get her powers then?

lmfao owned.

Man Virgilia and Ronove really spoil Battler with all the hints.

Rosa and Eva speaking in code is pretty good, neither wants to leave the room without the other....

The fact Rosa shakes a bottle in frustration in trying to find something that isn't there while being angry at Maria for being mad that something isn't where it should be is pretty ironic.

Obviously this scene didn't literally happen and something closer to what actually happens is something like Eva telling Hideyoshi about the gold and her plans and etc while being disgusted by her own greed, while at the same time going deeper into it....

Maria's random insistence at this to me seems like a sign that this is something Yasu and Maria had pre-planned. If there was a deadlock taking place, she would cry about her rose, similar to how she used the cards to break deadlocks in episode 1 and 2. Though I don't think it would work like they intended this time if Eva didn't like, fuck things up her own way.... I don't think Yasu would murder Rosa in front of Maria and I don't think she would like, shoot Maria either....

Well.... obviously the truth is something in between here. Eva may not be enjoying tutoring Rosa at this moment, but she is surely having a fight with her about keeping the secret with her, and pushing her into the fence in frustration.... and then murdering her daughter to leave no witness. Granted, I don't think Eva would just go on a murder spree normally.... I think of it as something kind of like Meakashi Shion. The murders wouldn't have happened if the first accident didn't.

I.... forgot Battler just tells her to kill herself omg.... this scene is kind of interesting. i am kind of interpreting it as what Yasu was scared Battler would think of her when she found out about her murder mystery plans... we know from episode 8 manga that he is all things considered pretty forgiving of it, in actuality. But I could see Yasu thinking this is how it would go down or even what went through his head at first before stopping himself and thinking of what led to it. Also Beato will get to get her wish of seeing what Battler cooks in episode 8!

Of course she is exaggerating for her trick strategy, but I don't think this is too far from what she thought about herself, either, and it's not like she wasn't cruel with her pranks and stuff so it isn't entirely unwarranted, but...

I imagine she probably did apologize to Maria something like here when she found her corpse and had to fix it up, too....

Obviously, though, you are supposed to be very sus of Beato here lol. I mean she turotred Kanon like, a couple hours ago lol.

It's really funny how it seems this specific act didn't really trick anyone lol - sorry Yasu I guess you kind of failed.

There is a clear difference in my view in how the family acts towards the murder in this episode and the last one. In this one they more or less figured out both this and the first murder - compared to how in the first 2 episodes everyone was clueless. I think in universe you can justify this with there being more servant deaths and therefore less culprits to worry about and also you can theorize that Yasu assumed her plan would go without a hitch - something Tohya knew wasn't true.

Eva's desperate to throw suspicion elsewhere lmfao.

tldr people don't believe in magic anymore so to make them believe it you have to make very obtuse murders.

It is kind of funny Hideyoshi doesn't realize what is going on even though it is decently obvious, lol. Also, Natsuhi is freaking out because their reasoning is stupid - and I mean it is if you take it at face value, maybe you should have thought about it Hideyoshi!

"Until that question could be dealt with, the only answer was[...] magic" Is an interesting line. The answer to this sequence of events is obvious, Kyrie and Rudolf are luring out Hideyoshi.... so if this is framed as magic, it tells you how magic is used in other situations, and to go back to other magical scenes and see what you can take from them.

I kind of wonder how Hideyoshi was able to kill both Rudolf and Kyrie, especially at such a disadvantage. I guess he didn't come unscathed, though, considering he died. So it could be as simple as a bullet missing. him or him attacking before Rudolf and Kyrie were ready.

Uh huh, Kyrie... you can tell both this was written by someone with love for Kyrie and Rudolf and that they are someone who knows Kyrie might uh, have some issues.

To be honest, I originally took this to mean Eva literally did show herself and caused the shootout where she was the one survivor when I first read it... I guess I was being too literal when I read this for the first time. It's more of a general representation on Eva's complicated feelings towards her family, the gold, etc coupled with her fucking up the board.

Kyrie is more or less wrong about everything she says here, Rudolf was not in any remote way cornered, in fact if anything he was cornered *towards* dating Kyrie and he still picked Asumu. Kyrie was never anything more than Rudolf's side and they only ever got together officially because Asumu happened to die. To be honest I can't exactly blame rudolf for thinking Kyrie would kill him for revealing the truth.... he would in fact kind of deserve it.

I kind of want to use this scene to springboard to talk about misogyny in Umineko in general - specifically the ones experienced by the mothers. This entire chapter is basically an essay on how Eva faces misogyny, Natsuhi was basically sold and used as a womb, Rosa was left by her husband and forced to deal with how society treats single mothers, Kyrie has shit with her family as well as Rudolf both depending on her while using her as a side piece and feeling emasculated by her, etc. really all the women in Umineko are greatly affected by misogyny. And since Umineko deals a lot with generational trauma and cycle of abuse that is also how misogyny is passed down in Umineko Eva yells at Natsuhi about how she is just a womb, tries to use the fact George is male and Jessica female to steal the headship from Jessica, and that's even before the awful way they treat Shannon. Natsuhi refuses to engage with her daughter as a full person with a variety of interesting and own personality and instead tries to mold her into a "proper" and "modest" woman. Rosa tells her own daughter she is the reason her father left and blames her for the people she is dating not wanting to deal with her. And finally, Kyrie throws endless shit to Asumu and basically has a headcanon about how Rudolf is blameless and Asumu was just a homewrecking whore who got in the way of her and Rudolf, when Rudolf is obviously the one at fault. I don't want to make it look like I am saying these are basically the same characters or anything like that, there is a lot of difference in motivations behind why they do this, in how they cope with it, etc, but I mostly discuss that in other posts so I don't want to go into that much details. I think Umineko overall deals with misogyny in a good way- it understands that misogyny isn't just a Big Bad Old Fashioned Man you have to defeat, and afterward misogyny is solved, it isn't something you can just defeat by just changing the way you think or whatever but a system built in favor of men that gets internalized by everyone, including women, and that those attitudes are internalized and passed to the next generation before they can so much as even talked. This is a little bit of a tangent but related to how all of the characters previously talked about are both victims and afterward abusers or otherwise people that harm others, I am happy that WTC works in general aren't shy of showing how abuse can be internalized in bad ways that cause harm to others while still holding sympathy and space for the victims. A lot of works are scared of this because if done wrong it can look like victim blaming or ignoring victims in favor of abusers, but I think works like this are really important for victims to understand that some imperfect behavior after being abused is normal and that they aren't irredeemable and can grow themselves if they ever fail and do bad things. holy shit I went on a huge tangent. I haven't played in like 2 days because I got the idea to write this 2 days ago and have been workshopping on my brain how to word it.

Anyways back on regularly scheduled Umineko, it is kind of funny how the first time humans really 'win' against magic it's not really presented in a positive light. They won because their vices were even worse than the vices of the stakes representing sloth and envy.

Beatrice struggles about dancing around the fact she just wants Battler to acknowledge her for her own sake, lol.

they have hinted like 10 times that the chiester sisters = gun in the last like 20 lines lmfao.

They are dropping a bunch of hints towards what Beatrice actually wants here. The awkward conversation with EVA meant the same thing more or less too.

This scene's interesting - I am sure Hideyoshi in actuality DID feel Eva was being changed by the gold into a crueler person but everything points towards him being pretty enabling overall. Also Hideyoshi hints towards magic and witchdom being about being unable to deal with the past. Also there is a line that says "The gun near rudolf killed Hideyoshi (paraphrasing) which is kind of interesting considering the manga says it was Kyrie instead.

The fact Eva is freaking out this much about Hideyoshi going outside - even before she knew that Rudolf and Kyrie followed him is a hint that she was recruited, I think. After all, when talking with Rosa she said she thought the original murders were a prank, and she was the one that killed Rosa and Maria so.... why is she freaking out now?

Ok yeah - she's using Yasu keywords like 'Golden witch" and witch in general on a nonfantasy scene. Definitely some hints towards that I think. i didn't catch that Eva was an accomplice in this episode until I read the manga, to be honest. Thought she'd just murdered people on her own. Definitely didn't trust Yasu at all though, didn't even tell her she found the gold.

[metaregress]

umineko noodling part 5

spoilers through the end of episode 3

Episode 3 down! My paranoia about Beatrice playing nice was justified. Though I think a friend had hinted at this long ago, so I had a glimmer of suspicion to light that fire. It was still fun to watch happen though. The ending was very intriguing too; had EVA Beatrice really concocted a foolproof mate, or was it only meant to seem that way so Beatrice could swoop in to save the day? Also given what happened after, I’m extremely dubious that Beatrice really denied witches in red - I think she probably explained to EVA Beatrice the true stakes of the game, and asked her to take the fall. Though that wouldn’t make sense if Battler really was in checkmate - any win should be good enough. Which suggests that there’s a yet further ulterior motive, perhaps even beyond what was discussed in her conversation with Lamda in the tea party about keeping Bernkastel imprisoned. Virgilia has hinted shadily at it a few times to be sure; it seems like somehow the game has become a decision on witches in their entirety, based on some of the stuff that’s been mentioned about Ange as “the last witch.”

I really enjoyed Kyrie and Rudolf’s showdowns against the stakes. Rudolf’s dirty trick was great, and something I was totally hoping he’d try to pull. It’s fun to see the game use the ‘magic perspective’ to deliver some fun over-the-top stuff while still having the mystery to fall back on at the end of the day.

I also enjoyed seeing the ‘full game’ play out between EVA Beatrice and Battler, going back and forth with various theories about a culprit who could explain it all. It’s also interesting because it makes everything people who aren’t Battler say on the board suspect - we were shown Eva and Hideyoshi in the room while Rosa and Maria were killed, but that turned out to not necessarily be true. So there’s a high degree of subjectivity.

Finished with Episode 4, it was a rollercoaster. Quite heavy early on with all the abuse Ange and Maria received, though I think they did a good job using it for real narrative/character purposes instead of just shock value. They even went an interesting step beyond just “Maria used magic to hide from her pain while Ange bravely faced the world as it was.” It also set up some very interesting ideas about Beatrice, given the point of the witches’ alliance was to acknowledge one another and at the end of the tea party the central question of the next arc seemed to be about finding out Beatrice’s identity.

My current impression is that she’s also using magic to cope in some way, and that her game has been structured to lead to the acknowledgement of her pain, which seems like it was hidden away - presumably by Kinzo. Though her talk of Battler’s sin makes me very curious. I assume it’s to do with denying her or refusing to acknowledge her in some way - like he had the opportunity to uncover the truth about what happened to her, but chose to look away. Which would explain why she could use the wordplay of “the sin has nothing to do with a relationship between the two of us” because the sin is precisely that lack of connection. Getting some big “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” vibes. I wonder if somehow the gold was created at her expense - like she somehow had to give up some part of herself to make it possible.

I was surprised they just shotgunned the whole game in the tea party, with theories flying back and forth at a fever pitch. When Beatrice abandoned the game I assumed that meant that the resolution of all the mysteries would be the focus for the Answer Arc - it would certainly fit the name. I guess that’s still mostly the case given that Lamda blew holes in Battler’s theories left and right at the last minute. So they got to drag a bunch of new facts out of Beatrice (eg Kinzo’s death, there only being 17 people on the island) thanks to Battler’s barrage, and a bunch of bonus facts from Lambda’s liberal use of the red.

I’ve enjoyed seeing yet another side of Beatrice towards the end here; it feels like she unintentionally hit her own nerve with Battler’s successor test. It could be a bit again, but it feels beneath her to go for the same trick twice, Lamda's compliments on her acting skill notwithstanding. I feel like she really has come to terms with not being able to win, but now wants to make sure that her defeat is complete and is able to bring satisfaction to Battler, and most importantly that it leads to the discovery of the truth she wants acknowledged but can't speak for some reason.

One interesting consideration that has been largely absent from Battler’s theorizing is motive. Only Eva in the third game has a remote motive for killing everyone; in pretty much every other case it’s been arbitrary people going on rampages, anything to explain the crimes. But this lack of coherent motive comes sharply into focus with Kinzo out of the picture, who has the most plausible fallback motive of being a crazy old dude obsessed with magic. But I assume that a clean idea of motive will help bring all the disparate problems together by looking at the problem from the correct perspective. And it's an intriguing chicken/egg problem; finding a motive might point to a culprit, but finding a motive without a probable culprit seems much more challenging.

It feels like they’ve gone through a lot of smoke and mirrors, dazzling with magic and other such things, but have held back on a lot of salient information. To be clear, I don’t think this is a fault of the storytelling; we’ve gotten a lot of things fleshed out and explained. But it does a good job of enforcing its pace and keeping you from noticing just how many blank spots are left on the canvas. I’m assuming the Answer Arc is primarily focused on filling in those gaps, which is very intriguing to me.

One interesting bit that hasn’t really been unpacked is - when did Kinzo actually die? I feel like the answer to that could have some interesting ramifications. It also seems like something unlikely to necessarily come up in the normal course of play - I wonder if that’s more information Ange can discover separately, or if she’s really out of the game completely.

Speaking of Ange, I did enjoy her story but it was a lot to juggle between the existing layers of the game and then having someone from a random timeline going about their investigation interspersed with Beatrice’s game. It makes sense why they did it that way, but adding another big layer makes for a lot to juggle.

It’s been a wild ride, but I think I’m gonna take a break to read one or two other things in the meantime since Umineko is a lot to get through. I haven’t really reckoned with reading in terms of ‘hours spent,’ but since Steam naturally captures that information it’s been an interesting lens to view it through. I guess my normal pace is probably around 30 minutes per night, so I feel like I’ve really been upping my intake with Umineko. But it’s hard to resist a big flashy mystery with so much going on, so I really got sucked in.

[screenwritinggym]

Actress Rosie Perez (born Rosa Maria Perez on September 6, 1964) - Watch this - Apocalypse EXPLAINED - READ the Synopsis - Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

This movie is a high-stakes sci-fi adventure that merges the worlds of Transformers with human characters. It kicks off with Unicron, a planet-consuming entity, attacking the Maximals’ homeworld. The Maximals, led by Optimus Primal, flee to Earth with a powerful Transwarp Key, pursued by Unicron’s heralds, the Terrorcons.

The story then shifts to Earth in 1994, focusing on Noah Diaz, who unwittingly encounters the Autobot Mirage disguised as a Porsche. Concurrently, museum intern Elena Wallace discovers the Transwarp Key hidden in an ancient statue. This discovery sets off a chain of events as the Autobots, led by Optimus Prime, and the Terrorcons arrive on Earth to retrieve the key.

The conflict escalates as battles ensue, leading to revelations about the key being split in two halves to prevent Unicron’s access. Elena and the Autobots embark on a mission to find the second half in Peru, facing the threat of Scourge corrupting their allies and attempting to unleash Unicron.

Noah, initially aiming to protect Earth by destroying the key, eventually allies with Optimus to prevent Unicron’s invasion. A massive battle unfolds between Autobots, Maximals, and the Terrorcons. Noah, aided by Bumblebee and using an exo-suit fashioned from Mirage’s damaged body, plays a crucial role in the conflict.

In a dramatic climax, Optimus sacrifices himself to stop Unicron, but Noah and Primal manage to save him and thwart Unicron’s plans, leaving the Autobots stranded on Earth. The conclusion sees the Autobots accepting Earth as their new home, Noah finding unexpected opportunities, and the promise of continued protection for Earth.

The mid-credits scene hints at Noah’s resourcefulness in repairing Mirage, showcasing his growing connection to the Autobots’ world.

Click on the wiki link:

[el-gilliath]

I Will Survive

Well damn, who would've thought something like this could happen at 4am (Norwegian time). So beware of any spelling errors, please and thank you.

As always, dedicated to my lovely @lsobelevans. I’m sorry it took me so damn long lol

BE AWARE of violence in this chapter. None graphic, but you do see aftermath

Ao3

He hasn’t stopped thinking about the kiss. Of Cowboy’s lips on his. Of his hands on his skin. Of the gorgeous hazel of his eyes. Of the face he can’t remember.

He realized quickly that Influence is probably the reason he can’t remember, it seems like something that is within her abilities. A part of him is glad, he doesn’t want to remember Cowboy’s face until he knows his name, and he does remember the feel of his gorgeous curls between his fingers. It felt good to run his hands through them, it’ll feel good when he gets to do it again.

After getting Cowboy out of the hands of the Russians, the bond, the connection, between them felt more profound. Kissing him made it even more so. Alex can feel it, in a way, the connection underneath his skin.

He also knows how dangerous it is, how many people who would love to use him as bait for Cowboy, should their tentative thing be known. Everyone and their mother has warned him about it, including Liz (who is very publicly dating Detective Max Evans and not Electrobuzz), Maria (who knows all the shit that happens in the vigilante world), and Kyle (that did not go over well). Even Arturo has given him the worried face and soft spanish proverbs, even though he doesn’t need them. None of them understands that being Jesse Manes’ youngest child has put him in the spotlight and kept him there for years.

No matter how much Jesse hates his son, he wouldn’t stand for anyone giving him the dishonor of taking his son. It’s the one thing he can count on more than anything when it comes to his dad, he doesn’t like dishonor. If nothing else, Alex will appreciate that about his dad, no matter how much shit he gets for it. It also means that he knows Jesse will come for him, even if it’s only for the glory of having rescued his son and not because of Alex himself.

Which is why he’s not afraid when he finds himself being dragged into a car as he leaves the Post on a Wednesday afternoon, Rosa screaming “No!” as his eyes meet hers when they take a hold of his arms and kick his legs out from under him so he can’t really resist. He just lets himself be dragged into the van, giving Rosa as much of a reassuring look as he can. He doesn’t want her to be afraid for him, even if he knows she probably will be.

He’s fairly sure he knows exactly where they’re taking him anyway.

The kidnappers throw him into the back of the way, screaming at him in broken english to sit down and shut up. They scream that if he makes any trouble they’ll kill him. Alex knows that they won’t, but he still nods, curling together like he’s frightened, like he’s cowering. He’s not, fear isn’t something he feels lightly anymore but he has to protect his leg. If they take that then he’s gonna have one hell of a harder time with everything. Thankfully the men only scowl at him behind ski-masks as they drive off. He closes his eyes, counting seconds and minutes to try to find out where they’re going, listening out for the murmuring that’s happening in the van with him.

He knows he’s right when the driver starts talking louder in russian, when they slow down after about 20minutes. They’re in the Russian compound. And he’s probably gonna meet Mr. Serkoff again, after getting the diamonds off of his hands. The diamonds he decidedly did not give his father.

He’s about to be in a bigger heap of trouble than he’s been in a while.

He’s roughly pulled from the car a few minutes after they stop, pushed ahead so quickly he barely has time to put his feet under him. His leg pulls in the wrong side of comfortable and he bites the inside of his cheek not to cry out. Instead he straightens himself, stands tall and walks into the lion's den. He ignores the pushing, he ignores the yelling. He’ll face this on his own terms, not on theirs.

He’s taken to a back office in the Diamond Storage and roughly shoved into a chair in front of a huge oak desk, where Serkoff is sitting watching his men’s rough handling with a bored look on his face. Anyone not good at reading faces wouldn’t see the underlying anger, the fury.

Alex Manes grew up with Jesse Manes. He’s seen more anger than he ever wants too.

“Mr. Manes.”

“Mr. Serkoff,” Alex replies. He makes sure his voice is calm, collected. He needs to stay strong. “I don’t think taking me right outside the Post was the smartest idea you ever had.”

“Perhaps not. But I doubt you are surprised to find yourself back here again.” The anger turns obvious, a snarl on the russians face. “You took my diamonds, Mr. Manes. And you did not deliver them to your father. He was not… pleased. And as a result, I am not pleased.”

Alex just looks at him. He hitches a brow slightly as if to say ‘get on with it’. He might not be the good little cop boy his father wants him to be, but that doesn’t mean he’s not capable. And right now he needs to be a Manes.

“He told me he never sent you to get the diamonds. That he would never.” The chilling grin is the first sign. “He told me to do whatever I wanted to you. He would rather find your corpse, than to find you alive.”

It breaks his heart, just a little, to hear that. But he also knows it’s not true.

“If you hadn’t taken me very publicly that would be true. But you did. My father might hate me, Mr. Serkoff, but he won’t stand for slights on his honor.” Alex’s top lip curls upwards in a parody of a smile. “Taking his son like that? His disabled son which the public thinks he loves? You can’t imagine the outrage.”

Something flickers in the burly Russians eyes. Almost like compassion. Almost like understanding. It disappears fast behind the mask of indifference.

“Give me my diamonds.”

“I don’t have them.”

Serkoff visibly bites his tongue, hard, most likely to stop himself from speaking too early. Alex understands him better than he wants to at that moment.

“Exactly how much does my father have on you, Mr. Serkoff,” Alex asks. The snort in response wasn’t what he expected.

“Your father has nothing on me, Mr. Manes. I deal with him because I want to, not because I have to.” Well shit. “And if you do not have my diamonds, I have no need of you.”

The knowledge that he means exactly what he’s saying churns inside Alex’s stomach. He has nothing to stop this, unless he gives up the diamonds. The problem is that he’s not lying, he doesn’t have them. But he does know where they are.

He also knows that giving them up would be the end.

“What if I could make you a deal?” Alex asks. Giving up the diamonds would be the end, but he can give him something different, something that might be worth more.

“And what kind of a deal would that be?”

“In exchange for me walking out of here, I could give you information. Information my dad probably doesn't want you to have.”

“And how would that benefit me?”

“When I take him down, I’ll keep your name out of it.” Alex takes a deep breath. “And in the end you’ll have your diamonds back.”

Serkoff looks at him in a way Alex is intimately familiar with, having grown up in the Manes household, like he’s a bug he wants to squash. But there’s also interest, a curiosity that Alex can’t help but feel hopeful about. If he can convince this burly russian that he can give him valuable information he might have a chance. It also means that his rig at the Pony will be brushing off the dust in a way he promised he wouldn’t do any more.

“Your offer is interesting,” Serkoff replies. “But you stole my diamonds, Mr. Manes. For that I cannot just let you leave.”

It’s the last thing he remembers as he’s hit in the head with a gun.

———

Pain. Harsh spoken russian words. The glint of a knife. Pain.

------

He wakes up, doesn’t know how much later, alone in a room. He’s on a bed, prosthetic still on. His head is pounding, his stomach is on fire, his hands filled with tiny cuts. It hurts, but he knew this was a possibility. It’s not like he hasn’t suffered worse before.

“Mr. Manes.”

He jumps, his heart hammering in his chest. His spatial awareness comes rushing back, recognizing the fact that the door’s been opened and that Serkoff is now in the room with him. He’s thankfully standing by the door, making no moves to come closer. It makes Alex’s heart settle a litte.

“Mr. Serkoff. Done beating me up?”

“Yes,” the russian replies, simple as that. Maybe it is. “Now tell me about the information you can give me.”

Alex swallows. “Will you let me go if I do?”

“I will. I could not let you go without some retaliation. My own people would think me weak if I did, but now I can. If you give me the information. From what my sources tell me, the youngest Manes is a very good hacker.” Serkoff grimaces. “I was also told hacking was how you lost your leg.”

“Yeah. It was. Doesn’t mean I’m not good at it.”

“On the contrary Mr. Manes, for you to have lost your leg you must have been very good, for someone to want to hurt you that much.”

“My dad is the reason I lost my leg, Mr. Serkoff.” Alex sighs, worn and tired. “Maybe now you understand why I want to stop him.”

Serkoff doesn’t say anything, but Alex recognizes the look in his eyes. It’s the look of someone who does understand, it makes the look in his eyes earlier make all the more sense. He knows exactly what Alex is talking about, probably better than Alex thinks he does.

“And you will keep me and my men out of it.”

“I will. I can’t keep the russian mob out of it completely, but I’ll try.”

“And I will get my diamonds?” Serkoff asks, and Alex just nods. His body is starting to shut down, in pain and aching. Talking is starting to become too much. “Good. I will get you a scapegoat, someone who should be taken down with your father. Now rest, your friend will be here soon.”

Alex opens his mouth to ask who said friend is, but he doesn’t have the chance before Serkoff nods sternly and walks out of the room, closing the door behind him and leaving Alex to his own thoughts. Alone, deep in the diamond storage with the russian mob. A friend coming soon.

He really hopes Cowboy or Influence didn’t get themselves involved.

Still he lays back down and rests. He probably doesn’t have to fight his way out but he still wants to get some strength back. Even if that strength is skin deep, allowing himself to rest so he can walk out on his own is enough. Serkoff and his men are not someone you want to appear weak in front of. Especially if he’s going to have somewhat of a working relationship with them.

He doesn’t know how much time passes as he rests, lost in his own thoughts of where he needs to move his rig (he can’t keep it at the Pony just in case someone traces it back to him), how he’s going to keep Arturo from finding out (he already knows how mad Arturo would be, after how frightened he was the last time) and who’s coming to get him (he’s going to kill whoever it is for walking voluntarily into the compound).

Which is why he startles (spatial awareness, come on) when the door bangs open.

“Hermano, you better be alive on that bed so that I can kill you myself.”

He huffs a laugh, of course it’s Rosa. A spitfire latina would be the only one crazy enough to come get him in the middle of the russian mob and threaten murder.

“I’m fine, Rosa. Just resting,” he answers, smiling in amusement as her glowering only increases. He’s still thankful for the way she stalks over and throws herself down on him, hugging him tightly.

“I was so scared when they took you,” she whispers as he hugs her back, mindful of his aches. “I even called Maria and you know I prefer when she comes to me.”

“I appreciate your sacrifice,” he whispers back. Even though they both know that Rosa’s burgeoning interest in Maria means they’ve called upon each other half a dozen times (if not more) since the night at the Pony. Though he’s pretty sure Rosa actually prefers it when Maria does come to her. And when she doesn’t have to call her to find someone else.

“You better. I’m in Maria’s debt now, I don’t like being in anyone's debt.”

“I know. But you can get a date out of it?”

“Vato, don’t you even-

“Okay! Okay” Alex interrupts her with a laugh that turns into a cough. “Thanks for coming.”

“When the Russian mob calls and tells you to come to their secret base to pick up your best friend, who they just kidnapped you kinda go,” Rosa answers, grumbling into his chest. Alex just holds her tighter, squeezing her in his version of a thanks. Something he knows she understands, none of them are big on talking about their feelings in high strung environments. “Speaking of the Russian mob…”

“Yeah, no, I’m not telling you here. Later, okay?

“Si,” Rosa replies. “But you better tell me.”

“I will. But we need to get going.”

Rosa nods and gets up, pulling Alex with her. Standing is painful, but he can put pressure on the prosthetic without problems, meaning Serkoss left it well enough alone. It helps him move out of his own power. He's grateful for that much at least.

They walk out of the compound easily after that. All the Russian men are gone, vanished from their vicinity. Alex knows, he uses all the tricks in his books to look for them, as they move out to where Rosa’s car is parked. He looks back one more time before he gets in, and catches Serkoff watching them. He nods, a gesture of respect Alex didn’t expect. Still, he nods back and gets into the car.

“Where too?”

He looks over at Rosa. “The Pony. I have some business to take care of.”

He’s never felt more relaxed putting his back to the bad man than he does when they drive out of the parking lot and set course for the Pony.

The car ride is quiet, something Alex is grateful for. It gives him a chance to rest some more, leaning back into the comfy seat of Rosa’s car and closing his eyes. He breathes deeply and evenly as he listens to Rosa’s ever present grumblings about traffic.

He nods off, just a little, waking again as he hears Rosa call Maria and tell them they’re coming. Good, he doesn’t need the hassle of scared Super’s today.

Which proves to be his famous last thought as they walk into the Pony and Cowboy is there. Frantic with worry. Alex watches him with a surprised look as he walks back and forth over the Pony floor, rambling to himself with his mask on, but hat off, not listening to a word Maria says. Maria meets his gaze with an exasperated look on her face, tilting her head slightly to where Influence, Electrobuzz and Kyle are arguing loudly amongst themselves. He watches them with an artificial detachment he wills into being. He can’t afford to care. Especially now that he has a job to do.

“Cowboy.” He speaks the word clearly, a bit louder than he usually would. He needs his attention.

He’s not expecting to get the attention of everyone. Even Liz appears from the back room, cursing up a storm when she sees his bruised face. And Liz cursing starts the rest of them, besides Maria who just watches him and Kyle who walks over to Alex and silently asks permission to check him out. Alex looks at him and Kyle backs away, knowing that it’ll have to wait. Their friendship might not be all good, but their communication still works perfectly.

“Stop!” Maria yells. Miraculously it works. “This is my bar, and this is Alex’s safe space. Let him fucking breathe.”

“DeLuca-”

“No,” Maria interrupts, sending a vicious look Cowboy’s way. Alex can’t help that a tiny particle of him appreciates the way she makes him flinch. “Alex, please let Kyle take you in the back and make sure you’re okay. Please.”

Alex watches her, the way they listen to her speak even as they shoot him glances and he’s so proud. So proud of her and the woman she’s become since her mother died, since she took over the Pony and started protecting the people that might need it the most and the least at the same time. Maria DeLuca is a savior, though he really hopes that one day she will let someone Rosa save her right back. No one deserves it more than her.

He nods at her, shooting Kyle a look as well before he walks towards the backroom. He can feel Cowboy watching him as he moves but he’ll worry about that later. Right now he needs to focus on something else.

“Does it hurt anywhere?” Kyle asks as he closes the door. Alex just shoots him a look. “I mean worse than anywhere else.”

“No.”

“How about your stomach?”

“No.”

“Your leg?”

“No.”

“Damnit, Alex!” Kyle yells, startling both of them. “Just… Just please answer me properly.”

Alex runs a hand through his hair, sighing deeply as he does. Time to treat Kyle like a doctor, and not an enemy. “My leg is fine, they didn’t touch it. Stomach is sore but seems fine. My head is killing me and my face is probably starting to get a real nice shiner. I’m fine, Kyle.”

“Only you would be kidnapped and beat up and say you’re fine,” Kyle mutters angrily and Alex can’t help but huff out a laugh. He has a point.

“You want me to apologize instead?”

“No. I just want you to stay safe.” Kyles gives him a look. “Within the range of safe at least.”

Alex rolls his eyes but doesn’t answer. Kyle knows him well enough to know that the Manes range of safety isn’t the same as everyone else's. Kyle snorts in derision at the eye roll but doesn’t say anything else either, preferring to finish looking Alex over in silence. Alex finds himself grateful for the familiarity and that they don’t need to talk. He might not have completely forgiven Kyle yet, but Kyle knowing what he needs and when to shut up helps. Maybe more than he thought it would, since it was Kyle opening his mouth that destroyed them the first time.

“Thank, Kyle,” he says, as Kyle moves back with a satisfied nod some minutes later.

“Any time,” Kyle replies as he packs away the nicely stocked first aid kit Maria has in the back room. “Want me to send in Cowboy?”

“No. I need to talk to Maria first.”

Kyle gives him a look of slight surprise, but nods before he goes through the door to the front of the pub. Alex waits until Maria joins him a minute later.

“You okay?” She asks, walking over to him and gently cupping his face in her hands. Her eyes are alight with worry, her frame tense in a way she usually isn’t.

“I’m fine, Maria. That was a necessary meeting.”

“Meeting? Alex, they kidnapped you!”

“Yeah,” he agrees. “But now I have an ally against my father.”

“Is that what this is about, your dad?” Maria asks.

“No. It’s about keeping them safe,” he answers, nodding towards the front of the bar. “Kyle, Liz, Rosa. Cowboy, your siblings. You.”

Maria huffs. “My secret siblings out there can take care of themselves, as can Cowboy, the rest of them and me. I’ve been the unofficial Super bar for years Alex, the police can’t take me down for shit.”

“They can if my rig is here. Especially if it’s in use.”

He sees it happen the second it dawns on her, the second she understands just why he’s calling it a meeting.

“You can’t do that. The last time you hacked you lost your leg,” she says with frightening calm. “If you do and your father finds out again you’ll lose your life!”

“I will. But this time I have the Russian mob at my back.”

She just stares at him, eyes wide and wild with indignation and a fair bit of the classical ‘are you crazy’ look. But there’s no question, she knows that he’s serious. She also knows she can’t talk him out of it, like she couldn’t the last time.

“You better be careful,” she says through clenched teeth when she finally does speak, marching over and laying a hard kiss on his forehead before she walks out without a word. Probably best, so neither of them starts to cry. Matia saw him at his worst after he lost his leg, he knows she has a right to be scared but he’ll be more careful this time. He has to be.

“Alex?” Cowboy asks as he walks through the door. He looks worried, scared even. “Can I come on?”

“Yeah, come in,” Alex replies. Cowboy comes in slowly. His hat and mask is on, but Alex doesn’t mind. He never minds, especially now that he has to do what he does.

“You okay?”

“I’m fine,” he replies. “The Russians are pretty pissed, but it’s nothing I can’t handle.

“Is this because-“

“No. It’s got nothing to do with you.”

Cowboy clearly doesn’t believe him, if the way he purses his lips is any indication. “Sure, I get stuck in their compound, you go in and use your name, and not two weeks later you get kidnapped and beaten up!”

“That was because-“

“And now you want to work with them? And hack for them when you lost your leg because of it the first time? How can you be so st-“

“Hey!” Alex interrupts. “You do not get to call me stupid, Cowboy. I got into trouble because of my dad, not because of you. It's my choice, not yours.”

He watches Cowboy bite his tongue, clenching his fists tightly in obvious annoyance. But he doesn’t say anything, breathing deeply for a few minutes before he relaxes his fists, his jaw following. Alex understands how he feels, he does, but Cowboy isn’t his keeper of any kind. He makes his own decisions.

“You don’t get to decide when you run around New York as a vigilante, protecting people left and right with no regards to yourself. You don’t get to tell me what to do.”

He doesn’t expect Cowboy to kiss him. He just walks over, takes Alex’s face in his hands and kisses him. It’s sloppy, this side of too hard and feral, just a little bit painful to Alex’s bruised face. It’s perfect.

“Shit, I’m sorry. You’re hurt,” Cowboy says, pulling away.

Alex shakes his head, keeping him in place. “It’s perfect, please don't stop.”

Cowboy seems sceptical, but Alex doesn’t care. He pulls him back in, though he softens the kiss so it won’t hurt. Instead of hard it’s soft, instead of hurried it’s languid, instead of feral it’s tender. Painful turns way to heat, lazily curling up his spine and settling everywhere from his neck to his stomach. He sighs softly into the kiss, pulling Cowboy infinitely closer.

“Alex. As much as I love having your lips on mine, you’re hurt,” Cowboy says as he pulls back again. “And we both know Maria will kill us if we do anything in this backroom.”

Alex groans. “You pick now to be sensible?”

“I pick now to be scared of your best friend. I’m just… breaking. Not saying no.”

Alex sighs, nodding because he knows Cowboy is right. He also does have to remember that he doesn’t actually know who Cowboy is, yet.

“I need help, moving my rig back home. Will you help me?”

Cowboy gives him a long, hard look. It feels soul searching in many ways, but Alex endures it. For him. He’s admittedly surprised when Cowboy nods, but grateful.

———

He find another piece of paper hidden under his keyboard the next day, with the letter A.