goatsreadingseacats

[goatsreadingseacats]

EP5, “A Proper Mystery”

A quiet fantasy with Beato and Natsuhi leaves Battler re-evaluating the value of the red truth.

- Next time we open up, we're at thefollowing year's family conference: October 5, 1985. Kanon, "Kinzo," and Natsuhi are in the rose garden discussing their plans. ...which, in retrospect, maybe should have been thought of as a clue that Kanon is an equivalent existence to Kinzo, haha - though at the time it could also have been read just as Kanon being in on the plot. But then, were there direct scenes with Fake Kinzo with anyone besides Kanon? Hmm...

- Beato shows up after a bit, discussing the threat of the magic-resisting toxin. I always did find it fun to see the way Yasu finangles her rules and jargon around things like the simple principle of "don't get caught in the lie." Anyway, Kinzo is represented as shuffling off to the study, as per the agreed upon story by the conspirators.

- Before he goes, though, Kinzo takes another moment to praise Natsuhi in comparison to Krauss, and refer to Krauss as "hopeless." Delusion Kinzo really is acting as a pressure valve for Natsuhi to get out the things she can't say herself, even directly to herself. "Kinzo" saying them provides a nice psychological cover for her to maintain her self-image while venting.

- And true to form, Natsuhi puts herself in the role of "defending Krauss against Kinzo." See? She gets to play the loyal, dutiful, loving wife while getting to hear someone affirm that she's much more capable than him.

- Natsuhi instructs Kanon to take Kinzo to the study, and have Genji bring him some tea later, to keep up the charade.

- Beato mentions that Natsuhi currently posses a "sense of dignity similar to Kinzo's deceased wife." I have to admit my ears perk up a bit whenever we hear anything about Kinzo's wife, even if it's as small as that... she goes on to warn Natsuhi, again, that the "magic" is fragile and will be completely destroyed in an instant if something goes wrong.

- Beato mentions that Natsuhi has talent as a witch - that she still understands magic in spite of having so much toxin. In other words, Natsuhi also has impressive powers of mental gymnastics and coping mechanisms! Hooray!

- Meta takes over, and Lambda shows up to begin commenting. And we hit on probably one of the structural issues with EP5 that I would say likely came as a result of Ryukishi tipping his hand about Kinzo early than he planned, in EP4 - Lambda reminds us that it's already confirmed in red that Kinzo is dead. But she asks Bern to explain the portrayal of Kinzo still being around - in other words, a roundabout explanation for the mechanics of the gameboard.

- She didn't even bring up Beato's name at all, Battler! Touchy, touchy...

- I have to say, though, I really appreciate Ryukishi's characterization of Battler and the fact that it's indirect - he doesn't feel the need to have the narrative state for us that Battler is hung up on Beatrice, worried about her, has her status and dignity as her priority. Instead, we're left to infer it from his actual actions by noticing the fact that he's always bringing her up, and the way he talks about her. It's a strength of Ryukishi's in general that I really do enjoy, especially compared to other writers, sometimes.

- Anyway, Lambda pokes fun at Battler for the way he would used to react to things like Kinzo - crying and holding his head, it's all useless, etc.

- And then she mocks Higurashi! Oh Lambda.

- Battler is calm, though, in explaining it's just a visualization of Natsuhi's lie, and that the gameboard can display it that way because of the catbox mechanic. Kinzo is allowed to be shown walking around until the 'Braun tube' is opened.

- Bern applauds sarcastically for Battler, noting that he's much calmer without Beato. Battler snaps at her to shut up. I will say I love Battler every other note if I have to, dammit!

- Battler also explains, at Lambda's probing, that Kanon could be shown as also being there because he's playing along with Natsuhi's story. By doing that, Kanon "can see Grandfather." WITHOUT ORDERS FROM THE WIFE OF THE USHIROMIYA HEAD, IT CANNOT BE SEEN, CLEARLY.

- Battler lays out the explanation again in blue text (with yet another "shut up" directed at the witches), and points out for the reader how it's consistent with the past games, with Battler never seeing Kinzo directly, and only having witness testimony to rely on how he's been behaving. Therefore, we saw the corroborated scenes of Kinzo on those boards.

- When Lambda complains about the lack of ridiculousness, Bern brings up that proposing a mysterious drug and such is considered "just as bad as surrendering to the fantasy genre" and invokes Knox's commandments to reinforce it. Yes, yes, Ryukishi, we understand Higurashi was fantasy...

- Battler asks for clarification on Knox. When Bern provides it, Battler gets a little disgruntled, as those laws take away his best cheap weapons in the game, unknown device X's. In other words, Ryukishi is telling us it's about to step up our game and get real.

- Bern frames this as: Battler hasn't actually been fighting in opposition with Beato, he's been more or less fighting alongside her by using such ridiculous ideas. In order to truly kill Beato, the story has to be interpreted as a "proper mystery" - and therefore, spending a lot of time and energy checking for things like hidden passages is just a waste since a "proper mystery" wouldn't resort to such things in the first place.

- Everything is fiction, kids! All the stories have been constructs, regardless of if they're fantasy or mystery! The core of Beato's boards haven't necessarily been concrete "reality" about what happened on Rokkenjima - they're messages using a genre as a medium.

- This was a hard transition for me, and I think a lot of other people to make, at the time - partially because of baggage from Higurashi where all of the "fragments" were meant to be varying realities, and partially because it can be a very hard pill to swallow if the author isn't careful about the stories you've become emotionally invested in, and fallen under suspension of disbelief for, are constructs even in-universe. It's a tough balance to walk, and I think Ryukishi succeeds sometimes with it, but other times he definitely doesn't. That’ll be more relevant to discuss in EP6 and EP7, though, I think.

- Battler says he "thinks he's heard about it somewhere." Ryukishi does kind of seem like he played a little loose with how well-read and a mystery expert Battler is supposed to be, unless we're supposed to interpret him as playing dumb here - which I don't really get the feeling of, but oh well.

- Lambda jumps in, framing the ten laws as the weapons of the PEERLESS ARCHBISHOP OF WITCHUNTING, KNOX! I do love the inquisitors, gotta say! I would have liked to have heard more about your father (before you killed him), Dlanor!

- Battler, though, points out that to him, writing off the existence of hidden doors without even investigating sounds even more like fantasy, but he's still on the wrong premise for what the gameboards are. Bern responds by saying that Lambda is arguing for fantasy while Bern is arguing for mystery, whereas on that spectrum Battler doesn't seem to have a clear side.

- In her speech, though, she manages to work in a Ryukishi jab at some of his readership! "You're opposed to absolutely everything, but you can make no counter-proposals. You're like a politician from some country." In other words, readers, try to actually build theories, not get obsessed with being burnt if you're wrong and just shooting down everything - and try and form your theories around a central principle of your reading of the story.

- Meanwhile, as they're breaking down the mechanics of her board, Beato is having a hard time behind them. When Battler expresses concern, Lambda points out that he's acting strangely considering he was fighting to kill her, at which Battler just looks despondent.

- Lambda explains that in the real game, not the one they're replaying for Battler, Bern has the advantage as the advocate for mystery, which is why Beato is suffering. Bern, being Bern, feels the need to chime in that Battler helped hurt Beato too by denying Kinzo's existence! Thanks, Battler! Then Battler's expression turns to anger--but he doesn't argue back, instead opting to try and ease Beato's suffering by wiping her face with a handkerchief.

- Battler still wrestling with denial that this isn't actually what he wants to do at all, and continuing to try to rationalize - all the way till the end of this episode, where he goes fuck it and goes full witch to defend the continued existence of Beatrice's heart. Oh Battler! Lambda and Bern also laugh at his distress.

- Back ont he board, the conference is concluding in 1985, with everyone getting ready to leave. So far, the other siblings seem to be buying into the lie, as apparently the story Natsuhi is running with now is that Kinzo overheard Eva yapping about the inheritance and was so offended he shut himself up in the study. N-not a bad play, really, Nappi.

- Natsuhi looks exhausted in the garden, but quickly takes up back her dignified mask when Kanon and Kumasawa. approach. We hear that Krauss is currently resting, and that he spend most of the conference "overwhelmed with anxiety" - though he managed to keep up the facade until the others had left. Kumasawa giggles over how well the ruse went, and that their panic over Kinzo overhearing them was "priceless."

- At that, Natsuhi smiles at what a good actress Kumasawa is. HmmmMmMMMMMmmmMM...

- Kanon then pipes in: "............Kumasawa-san is quite talented at that sort of thing." I-is that so, Yasu...

- I do find it sort of interesting that Kanon seems to be the go-to persona when it comes to Yasu's face when playing along with the scheming happening here. 

- Natsuhi praises them all for doing a good job, and promises them, as well as Genji and Shannon, all t heir bribe money - I mean, a month plus five day's worth of vacation pay. She tells them to "talk with Genji to collect the pay so the other servants don't find out." Thanks, Nappi!

- Afterwards, Natsuhi shares some black tea with Beatrice, as they had agreed to do right before the conference started. It's pretty cute as they share snacks, and feels very, very reminiscent of the tea party that Shannon and Beato had on the beach back in EP2 - hint hint, hint hint.

- They get to talking about Natsuhi and Krauss's early married life together, where apparently Krauss took her to many different countries. She references her old family, before the Ushiromiyas, as "strict, but they gave me a wonderful upbringing." That... is pretty sad, Nappi.

- The narration speculates on Krauss's probably motives for taking Natsuhi around the world to that extent, but combining bits of them together, it was probably a combination of guilt for the position the Ushiromiyas put Natsuhi in as well as pity, and wanting to impress her.

- Beato "secretly peeks into Natsuhi's heart," which gives us a direct flashback of Krauss dragging Natsuhi around and showing off everything he can. Krauss is smug in that kind of annoying-cute way as Natsuhi tries to bite into the food he offers, but he pulls it away from her while smirking so he can keep explaining things to her.

- At the mess Krauss makes and his explanation of the nut, young Natsuhi gets into a tizzy and refuses to eat it. It's pretty cute, not gonna lie.

- Natsuhi, when she's calmed down, also taps into the joy of her husband's moeblobbery. She describes how he sulked childishly when she kept refusing to eat it. Natsuhi overhears that the nut was "known as a symbol for couples," and realizes Krauss is blushing. Beato kyaa-kyaa's all over the place and Natsuhi puffs up, embarrassed.

- An imaginary friend like Beato can also be a release for letting yourself be nostalgic about things like this - in Natushi's current circumstances, there probably aren't really many people or ways she can express these warm things with, even Krauss, with all the stress that they're often under. And sure enough, Natsuhi deflates from the cuteness of the moment when she brings up that that was back when they were newlyweds, and she's currently basically a bird in the cage of Rokkenjima.

- Beato relates to her and says she's the same. They commisserate a bit. Beato praises Natsuhi enthusiastically for her performance during the conference - which honestly is a little funny in retrospect since we know it didn't go quite as well as Natsuhi hoped, and the siblings did all suspect strongly what was going on, but uh... let Natsuhi have this moment, I guess! She worked hard, dammit!

- Regardless, Beato compares Natsuhi's elaborate, careful lie, without any contradictions, to a "high-level magic circle."

- And she shamelessly references Lambda, even though this is on one level obviously supposed to represent a delusion of Natsuhi's. Oh Umineko meta, never change! Natsuhi laughs, though, and takes the chance to remind us that if this is magic then Kumasawa is also a witch! (of feigned illnesses.)

- "Oh no, Kumasawa is completely different. She's a witch of a much, much higher level. If you knew what she really was, it'd shock you!"

- Meta breaks in again. Battler is watching the scene, and smiling warmly--having tea with Beato.

- Y-yeah, totally fighting to kill her, just peacefully or something, right Battler!? When Beato continues to struggle, he helps lift the cup to her lips. Battler continues smiling and making conversation, asking how she likes it.

- When Beato doesn't answer, Battler crumples a little and puts forth - probably a little hopefully - that maybe this is another ruse, like EP3. A lot of readers suspected that her "tragic end" at the end of Ep4 was a repeat of EP3, too.

- Battler gets more and more desperate, outright asking her to start laughing at him and call him a dumbass and to cut out the joke. His face screws up in frustration as he asks her to laugh. Bern cuts off the moment by breaking in and gloating about how that will never happen again! Bern gonna Bern. Battler, however, immediately gets pissy at that declaration.

- "Quit trying to steal away Beato's right to laugh." Y-yes, Battler, it's about Beato's rights...

- Bern rubs salt into Battler's wounds as she says "congratulations" to him in reference to reducing Beato to this state as a result of his victory at the end of EP4. Bern explains that Battler won the "torture game" between them and killed Beato's soul.

- Battler is a little slow on the uptake as he processes the accusation that, yes, he is the one who did this to Beatrice. Bern snorts a little at the conclusion of Battler and Beato's happening without Battler even realizing it. Battler asks, then, why the game is still continuing--and Bern explains it's because of Lambda shackling Beato to the game - refusing to let her resign.

- While trying to explain what Lambda is doing, Bern gets a little insistent that Battler show her proper appreciation for her previous support and tips. "Remember? Remember how I saved you?" You are a little needy and pathetic in your own way, huh, Bern...

- It's a bit obtuse, but Battler realizes that the only way to make this end is to completely win--but he hates the idea of prolonging Beato's suffering. His recollection of the end of EP4 is still hilariously misguided, though, as he frames it as "we confronted each other head on with all our strength" - uh, not really, Battler. She threw that game to you--but he is at least stuck on the idea that Beato "entrusted everything to me."

- I do like Battler in this sort of half-grown stage where he's attitude is shifting and he's starting to catch onto what's going on, but is still in the process of working through things and still operating off of some misguided assumptions. It was a nice portrayal of someone still trying to digest a lot of difficult things. Battler does end up repeating himself a lot, but to me, at least, it conveyed the way he was really trying to wrap his head around where he is now, emotionally - and it felt like there did need to be some emphasis on it after four games of going in one direction, and now basically switching tracks.

- And in case you haven't gotten it yet, yes, Battler's prime motivation now is to end Beatrice's suffering, not Ange or anything regarding his family or the principles of mystery:

- "I have to give her a perfect checkmate, and end this game in the truest sense... and give Beato a peaceful sleep... For that reason, I'll keep fighting."

- But he does feel anguish that continuing to fight will still cause Beato pain. "It felt as though I could only let her sleep by slowly strangling her to death." I loved the visual portrayal the EP5 manga gave to this line in particular, and Battler's obvious pain at the thought. I would encourage everyone to check out the EP5 manga if you have the time and inclination - it's a great visualization of this episode, and at some points I think the direction of the scenes probably surpasses even the VN, honestly!

- Welp, it really begins.

- At that, Bern tries to invoke Ange on Battler again - she really was banking on that trump card she set up, huh. Battler of course gives lip service to the idea that yes, he needs to go back for Ange, too, but there's no fire behind it. Bern encourages him to kill Beatrice all at once, since that would be more merciful. Battler goes ahead and flares up at that - telling her to back off, it's not up to her how her last rites will be handled, it's him!

- although that's wrong too, battler. willard waves from the corner!

- Bern brings up that Lambda wants this game to go on forever, so her goal would be for Battler and Beato to both be reduced to living dolls chained to the game. Lambda just wants to play around with an eternity of AUs, neverending! It's like she works in the comic book industry or something, okay.

- Battler finally agrees he intends to kill Beato after a long moment of hesitation after putting forth he doesn't intend to run from his responsibility. He immediately hesitates again, and his internal narration follows up with this:

- The obvious super attentiveness and "softness" really does a lot for the feeling of these two and conveying the way Battler's attitude has shifted, I think. Battler then takes a moment to reflect that on the fact that he has no way of knowing for sure how Beato feels, and wonders if that mean that if his believing she was hurt or not hurt is the same as that being true. Uh, no, Battler. That’s not how it works, actually.

- Bern draws Battler back to Natsuhi and Beato's tea party, and without any particular enthusiasm, he draws out that the Beato with Natsuhi is imaginary, like Kinzo, and that for Natsuhi, "borrowing a witch's power" is a trick of belief that empowers his aunt. It can be portrayed on the board like that because Lambda, as the Game Master, is telling the story and interprets it that way.

- Bern invokes the series' tagline: "If you stare without a fragment of love for Natsuhi, you won't see illusions like that." The way the series plays with the question of what you can see and can't see "with love" depends on the type of truth you're looking for - a factual account of events that took place, or the capacity to understand another person's heart and mindset. Umineko obviously chooses to put more weight on the latter, which while it's not like going at that uncritically lacks problems - far from it - I do still find it refreshing overall.

- Beato moans in pain again as they shatter the illusion. Battler reacts quickly, saying that while the theory is right, he doesn't want them to say it in front of Beato. I keep reiterating it, but I just love how Battler's reactions speak more to how attentive he is towards Beato and how much he cares about her pain far more than any exposition just stating that's how he feels outright could get across.

- Battler lets some of his inner tsundere out too: "Also, it's not like I'm protecting Beato, but..." and puts forth a whacky alternate theory that Natsuhi could theoretically be having tea with someone just calling themselves Beatrice. He gets more into it as Bern essentially shrugs at that, pumping up at coming up with a way to fight that "truth" via the catbox, but--

- Thanks Bern!

- There's a shattering sound, the narration lets us know that the warm scene with Natsuhi bonding with Beato and reminiscing about her newlywed memories has been erased--and all that's left in its place is a lonely, tired, isolated Natsuhi. Battler, once again, gets caught up in Beato's agony. He cringes at the fact that he's in a position where he has to cause her more pain, regardless of whether he does it slowly or quickly.

- He also adds: "And at the same time... I realized what a merciless thing the red truth was."

- Even when I first played EP5 and didn't know the truth or anything, I found myself really liking this sequence--just for the way it undercut the assumptions you brought to the game in terms of "seeking out the truth" and the ways the red text can be wielded. If you were invited to think of it in previous episodes as a game mechanic, where the "win condition" was wielding red text in order to ascertain the truth, now a different level of complexity and ambiguity is being thrown at you--asking you to see the red truth as, yes, a tool, but also a potentially violent weapon that can really hurt people if used carelessly.

- In other words, seeking out the truth sounds good on a general level, but what isn't good is forgetting that you're dealing with actual people, complicated and trying to make it through life in their own ways. Sometimes people aren't always equipped to hear a version of truth that's framed as absolute "red text" - no room or agency to interpret their own lives for themselves. And sometimes more than truth, people need that sense of agency and self-empowerment, to determine the meaning of their own lives, in order to cope with something and keep going. The idea of "agency" has always been, for me, one of the most important things you can capture in both life and in stories.

- "The red truth is like a blade. . . Don't use it without reason."

- "This isn't about the Illusion of the Witch. ...It's about Natsuhi oba-san's privacy. How could anyone have the right to expose that?"

- A lot of times, yes, truth is important and necessary, especially in order to engage with other people and the outside world in a compassionate and responsible way way. On the other hand, as someone who's always valued her right as an individual to a very private world very much, Umineko starting to explore the "other side" of the truth-seeking the first four games flashily celebrated really intrigued and sort of touched me, even years back. So I sort of do appreciate Umineko’s dual messages about how to interact with the world a lot on a personal level, even if it’s not always perfect in delivering them or balancing them against each other - absolutely, one’s right to their own private world, but also the responsibility to look at other people, and try to understand them, their perspectives, and how your actions and words impact them.

- Bern challenges Battler on what he's doing, reminding him that he was supposedly fighting to deny the existence of witches. But Battler continues finding his footing on his exact stance on that as he clarifies that yes, he will deny witches, but only on the two days of October 4 and October 5, 1986. The question of witches existing beyond that doesn't have anything to do with him, and he has nothing to say about it--plus, he adds, it's impossible to fully deny witches to begin with considering the Devil's Proof and the rules of the game.

- Bern snorts a little in response and mutters that Lambda is doing a good job paralyzing Battler between his human culprit theories and softening towards the idea of witches existing. "She really excels at controlling a human's heart." I am a little bemused and Bern insistently bringing up Lambda multiple times now when she wasn't really involved with the conversation at all... you two girlfriends are a bit hung up on each other, aren't you?

- Boy, how many times have we had some variation of this screencap now? Battler has no time for your lesbian witch shenanigans, dammit!

- Bern outright refuses and breaks out her troll face, laughing as she disappears, leaving Beato and Battler behind. Battler weakly tries to joke about how Beato should choose her friends more carefully, but then falls back into that despondent silence with her. After a moment, he helps her take another sip of tea.

- Back on the board, the narration mourns the loss of Natsuhi's private moment of respite joking with Beato, and the chapter ends.

[goatsreadingseacats]

Ep5, Part 02

In times of crisis, sometimes the only thing that will get you through it is a lie.

- Man, I love Occultics no Majo.

- We open with Kinzo's death.  I love the little detail of Natsuhi berating herself for wincing whenever she smells the study as the door opens.  Well, considering what's happening next, it's going to get a lot worse, Natsuhi!

- "He died peacefully.  I don't think Kinzo-san had any regrets."  Why it's almost like I was here when he was reunited with the child he made into a symbol of his "Beatrice" or something like that!

- Natsuhi sobs against Kinzo's chest as Kumasawa consoles her.  There's something terribly sad about mourning like this over someone that disliked you at best, but perhaps it's like what happened when a friend's mother died--part of her grief was over the fact that she now never had the chance to win her over.

- Nanjo watches Krauss, who is more worried about the arrangements and how things will look to outsiders than mourning the death of his father, like Natsuhi.  Supposedly, he remembers when Kinzo was chosen as the family head, but his first meeting with Kinzo was supposedly afterwards, when he escaped with Bice.

- Nanjo and Genji offer to take care of the arrangements, while Natsuhi finally dries her eyes and comes over to support her husband, telling him that she's prepared to be at his side until both of them are dead and buried.

- Natsuhi continues trying to comfort her husband and he looks up at the ceiling and sighs.  The disconnect here is sort of both sad and amusing.  Natsuhi wants so badly for the world to be a certain way that she'll run herself ragged trying to fit square pegs into round holes.  It leaves her with a particular sort of blindness.

- It is fun to see Natsuhi sort of take over as Krauss drags his feet.  She tells Genji to make sure Kinzo's funeral reflects his "dignity" and then discusses the matter of the autopsy with Nanjo, then tells Krauss she will contact the relatives for him.  In a way, in a structured environment like this, where there are certain standards to adhere to and "right ways to do things", Natsuhi is truly in her element.  It's when subtlety and guile are needed that she comes up totally short.  It's why she's so sympathetic in this episode.

- Natsuhi decides that what Krauss needs is time alone to say goodbye to Kinzo and tries to usher everyone out, but Krauss demands that they all stop in their tracks.

- Oops, and now it comes out!  Krauss has been sticking his hand into the cookie jar of Kinzo's funds, and now that he's dead, it's all going to come out.

- As Natsuhi and Krauss argue, it becomes more and more obvious that Krauss is a gullible, sad shell of a business man that hides behind things like personal honor in his quest to try to be like his father.  Of course, his father actually had a ton of gold backing him up, but I can't help but imagine those moments when Kinzo was forced to lock himself in the bomb room that his state of mind wasn't entirely dissimilar to Krauss's right now.

- MOON TOURISM.

- Moon tourism is great because it pushes Krauss so far off the edge that he becomes oddly adorable.  It's a term I like to call "failmoe", where someone tries hard but is just so pathetic and horrible at what they're trying to accomplish that in the end you can't help but like them.

- When Natsuhi keeps on pushing, the ugly side of Krauss comes out, where he accuses "a woman like her" of being unable to see into the future.  I do like that Natsuhi doesn't hesitate in shooting back that maybe that's true, but at least she can recognize a fraud for a fraud.

- I mean, seriously, Krauss, it is pretty pathetic when Natsuhi has her feet more firmly on the ground than you do.  This is the woman that will delude herself into believing that Kinzo and Beatrice are on her side and totally dig her crazy plan to reinact "Weekend at Bernies" for a couple years.

- "Shut your mouth!  You don't understand anything about money or business or economics!  Don't try to butt in on your husband's job! A wife should be satisfied with doing housework! Don't speak!"

- Just as Krauss hopes, that tirade silences Natsuhi, and the narration describes her as being "beyond anger and sadness."  Even Natsuhi is aware--and pities her husband because of it--that he clings so hard to the idea of male superiority because he feels like it's the only thing that connects him to his father.  But she knows that talent isn't really something genetic.

- After things calm down a little, Krauss admits to Natsuhi they're so far in debt that their own home could be yanked out from under them.  Krauss blusters and tries to put forth that the situation isn't as dire as it sounds, that he and the lenders are bound by trust, but Natsuhi knows they could lose everything at any second.  Likewise, it's not just a matter of losing face to his siblings if all of this comes out, Krauss has actually done illegal things and could be brought to court on criminal charges.

This is part of the reason I love this section of the Ushiromiya family so much.  Who hasn't felt that resentment and pity when someone you love let's you down so much, even moreso when it's family.  But through it all, the love is still there, in fact, it makes everything feel even worse, in a way...

- In his desperation, Krauss hits upon the idea of solving the epitath and finding the gold.  That will solve all his problems in one fell swoop!  Come on, Natsuhi, grab your pen and let's get to working!

- But you know, even though we know the gold exists, of course Natsuhi rejects her husband's "plan" to solve all the problems through the epitaph.  At this point in time, all it seems like is that Krauss is once again running away into delusion.  Instead of trying to realistically reassure her and work through their problems, he's falling back onto "moon tourism" as a sure thing again.

- Natsuhi runs into Genji as she flees into the hallway, and borrows his key to go into Kinzo's study, where she sobs at his bedside and begs him to save them, even knowing that he's dead.  It really shows the power Kinzo has had over this family.  This power that has crushed his children in its wake and that someone as powerless as Natsuhi can't help but respect and long for.

- And then Natsuhi hears Kinzo's voice.

This is incredibly sad.  Kinzo's entire tone here is soft.  Though he's scolding her, he's doing it as a loving parent would do to his child, someone who is looking out for their best interests because they care about them.

- Natsuhi imagines Kinzo telling her that their problems are small compared to what he inheireted as the Head, and that in a time of crisis a miracle occurred which blessed him with the business sense he had until his death.  These are all things that Natsuhi would want to hear--she and her husband aren't the worst stain on the family name to have ever existed, and there's a possibility that they could gain what changed Kinzo so completely in order to solve the problems they currently face.

- And then "Kinzo" tells Natsuhi that the headship isn't a matter of "blood", it's all about who has the right spirit and conviction.  It's funny how these are the same sorts of things Eva told herself as she was growing up, and how we know that Kinzo was a crotchety old misogynist that would have rather had the headship go to Krauss instead of Eva regardless of "worth."

- Beatrice introduces herself as someone "free" in a way that Natsuhi isn't.  Only someone with the right qualifications can possibily control her and use her to their own advantage--and those qualifications have nothing to do with "gender" or "being born into the family."

- Instead, it's all about "pride", which is another way of defining "belief."  Belief in one's abilities and that there is a way to overcome any hardship.  When Beatrice questions Natsuhi on whether or not she knows how to repay Krauss's debts, Natsuhi sees it as a test of her own resolve and tells her that she doesn't know how, but that she WILL accomplish it.

- This is about the positive power of magic.  Yes, it's wrapping Natsuhi's determination to commit fraud in a very soft blanket, but it's also about Natsuhi empowering herself and looking for solutions instead of giving up.  Natsuhi doesn't have any place she can turn to for support, so instead she'll build an illusion of support so that she can keep on moving and doing what she has to do at this time.

- Natsuhi imagines Kinzo and Beatrice going back and forth, with Kinzo having to convince her to follow what he wants.  It's not hard to see this as Natsuhi's ideal "husband and wife bond", where a "husband" derives power from the woman at his side, instead of treating her like a lead weight around his leg.

- Natsuhi correctly pinpoints that time is the element they need the most of right now, and so she calls the servants and her husband into the room and puts forth a plan.  "Kinzo" hasn't died yet.  She even puts forth that they all need to play this part in order to make it work.

- "Beatrice" uses her magic to bring Kinzo back to life, which makes me wonder if the will to go along with Natsuhi's farce actually predicated on Yasu's willingness to go along with her.  Beatrice, while acting free spirited, also warns Natsuhi that she does not listen to requests, only orders.

- It's just something to keep in mind, even with the obvious warmth laid over the scene as Natsuhi and Beatrice introduce themselves to one another...

[goatsreadingseacats]

EP5, "Magic of Miracles"

- Moving from the prologue to the episode proper, we open up with Natsuhi, two years ago, meeting Krauss inside Kinzo's study shortly after they've discovered his death. Krauss looks mostly just grim, but Natsuhi seems legitimately distressed over "Father."

- Genji, Kumasawa, and Nanjo are there, too. I wonder exactly how long this "discovery" was made after Kinzo finally met Yasu for the last time. Genji at least set Kinzo up to be lying in his bed, it seems, anyway!

- Nanjo's diagnosis of Kinzo's death, predictably, hides a casual clue - "He died peacefully. ...I don't think Kinzo-san had any regrets." Well, every depiction we've seen of Kinzo suggests that he should have had a multitude of regrets and lingering wishes he was still looking to fulfill, so this ends up being a veiled nod to the fact that, in the end, he achieved his wish of reuniting with "Beatrice."

- Natsuhi breaks down sobbing, falling at Kinzo's chest. The reaction feels a little surreal, given how terribly Kinzo has always treated Natsuhi, but Natsuhi is very dedicated to her mental gymnastics about being a part of the Ushiromiya family filled with respect for the Head.

- Krauss slumps down into Kinzo's chair, mumbling about how he wishes Kinzo had the grace to die after a year or so when "proper arrangements could have been made." It's pretty hard for him to be concerned with grief over a father who never actually loved him when his head are filled with the dire financial consequences this has for his family, I suppose.

- Krauss is also immediately occupied with more "practical" matters like the inevitable exorbitant cost of the funeral, and the expectations he as the successor is going to have to carry out in public to continue presenting the Ushiromiya brand as reliable and stable. I'm still always struck by the odd, sad sincerity of the true lack of feeling between Kinzo and his children, without (until EP8, which is a sort of different issue to me) much wishy-washiness at all about how deep down they did love each other in a way, etc. Nah, Kinzo dying, to Krauss is just more stress because of how much fucking trouble this is going to be for him.

- Nanjo, watching Krauss, though, sympathizes with him in a way - although I wonder if this is an inconsistency of sorts in the writing? - it makes him recall the time when Kinzo had suddenly become the Head himself, and been "lost and confused." I might be remembering wrong, but doesn't EP7 portray it that Kinzo met Nanjo long after he became successor, when he escaped Rokkenjima with Bice? Hmmm.

- Natsuhi is still in a bad state, but she's calmed down and become rather steely in preparation for what this means - that they'll have to make a big show of Krauss's readiness to succeed Kinzo to the world - and that as his wife, she's prepared to serve him in that capacity until the end. But Krauss's response is lukewarm, at best. Confused, Natsuhi continues to try to encourage him and warn him that tough times are going to be ahead.

- Nanjo and Genji tried talking to Krauss with suggestions of how to go about things, but Natsuhi is the one who takes over while Krauss remains in his daze, firmly beginning to hand out orders. In spite of all the problems it causes, Natsuhi's stubbornness and pride does lend itself to a certain kind of being cool in its own way at times, I think...

- Nanjo alludes to an autopsy probably being necessary, in spite of Natsuhi's discomfort with the idea, because it's likely the other relatives might try and pull something like Krauss and Natsuhi being responsible for the death in some fashion. The most loving of families!

- Krauss is still zoning out, which just hardens Natsuhi's determination to be strong in his place. Of course, she's completely misunderstanding the issue (right down to supposing that Krauss needs time to grieve for his father, lololol), but her intentions are good? In a way?

- As the others prepare to move out to begin preparations for the funeral, Krauss finally tells them to stop. Natsuhi begins to dismiss the servants to talk to Krauss in private, and Krauss snaps and starts yelling at her - Natsuhi is startled, apologizing if she did anything wrong, and Krauss mumbles that "that's not it," looking sheepish, but distracted.

- Natsuhi still continues to completely misunderstand - assuming that Krauss is playing the part of proper son and successor to Kinzo, the same way that she's so devoted to her own part of wife of the successor and proud member of the Ushiromiya family. I think partially because Natsuhi's devotion is an elaborate coping device, it almost saps her ability to properly filter the actions of others in ways that don't match the setup she has in her own head - uh, which I guess is a wordvomit way of saying that she projects a lot. It's very difficult for her to connect to other peoples' perspectives and values, which also obviously gets her in trouble with her daughter.

- Pulling Natsuhi aside, Krauss finally begins to try to tell her what the real problem is - something a lot more vulgar and base than all of Natsuhi's presumptions about Krauss being overwhelmed with sadness and pressure from finally accepting the headship.

- "Sorry, dear, I've been embezzling Father's money, and it's all going to come out in the upcoming inheritance disputes!"

- I think there's something kind of fun about how Ryukishi plays with this setup - the question of Krauss being a scumbag and embezzling away all of Kinzo's money and the others' inheritance has been floating around in the question arcs for a long time, but here when it finally gets confirmed, that Krauss is a "bad person" in that sense - it's done in an episode the reveals him and spins it to make him both sympathetic and also pathetic - almost oddly pure and naive about it.

- It's something EP5 plays with a lot of, especially with Natsuhi, although obviously that's dived into a lot more depth later. But that general sense of confirming that Natsuhi and Krauss are, indeed, guilty of some extremely terrible sins - but then putting the reader in the position of wanting to defend and protect them for it regardless.

- Natsuhi starts flipping her lid, asking for details, and Krauss looks more and more sheepish as he gives her some examples - Natsuhi pointing out every time that she had asked Krauss in those cases to break ties with the shady people in question.

- Krauss is a giant dope, and he's just as concerned with Natsuhi with appearances and pride - just in a somewhat different way. His obsession with being worthy of Kinzo and being seen as a True Man with the threat of Eva lurking behind him fuels his sexist acts, of course, but it also leads him to fuck himself up and egging himself on in stupid ways in cases like this, too.

- Natsuhi thinks to herself, too, that Krauss uses "honor" as an excuse for when he's put in a bad situation he can't get out of - which is sort of hilarious for Natsuhi, of all people, to understand clearly about her husband.

- Krauss rants about how he had tried to get all of his investments set up perfectly, but it was "just a bit of bad luck" - Natsuhi yells right back at him about how Krauss was just tricked. Of course, Krauss being Krauss, this wounds him, so he ends up digging his heels in further and defending his "friends" - and his own trust in them - vehemently.

- Obligatory screenshot of moon tourism, etc etc etc

- It is fun to remember Eva and Krauss's problems with Eva obviously being more capable in terms of ability to perform as the Head, and so much of Krauss's complexes stemming from that - and here, even Natsuhi obviously has a far better idea of what's going on than Krauss does.

- And predictably, just like Eva, pushed more into a corner of how stupid he was by his wife, Krauss starts falling back into sexism - the only defense he has, that he's a man and somehow women are just incapable of understanding and are inherently inferior - at her.

- "Shut your mouth!! You don't understand anything about money or business or economics!! Don't try to butt in on your husband's job!! A wife should be satisfied with doing housework! Don't speak!!!" Krauss, I swear to god...

- Natsuhi forcefully goes silent at his direct request, and the narration discusses how Krauss's mentality was affected by his fear and admiration of his father - and the constant thirst for validation that was born in him as a result. In other words, Krauss's insane investment tactics amount to a stupid attempt to imitate Kinzo, who was also famous for taking extremely risky ventures but somehow turning them around into huge successes as a "mad genius." There's no way Krauss could really live up to that.

- Natsuhi finally succeeds in dismissing the servants with an order to not tell anyone about Kinzo's death. Boy, one wonders how the report to Yasu had to have gone after that, hahaha...

- Natsuhi notes, as she and Krauss continue to talk alone, that she had tried not to tread too much on Krauss's financial affairs, as that "wasn't a wife's place," but it ended up blowing up in their faces like this - "that might also have meant that she had abandoned her duty as a wife to protect her family."

- I think Umineko is really compelling in a lot of ways from a feminist viewpoint in general (though of course, it's not perfect - nothing really is) - many of the issues in the story are entrenched with various forms of sexism and how the women involved try to deal with it - but I also think it's fun to think about in terms of feminist storytelling, if that makes any sense. Natsuhi, in her own way, is incredibly sexist and buys fully into traditional gender roles and this whole idea of "a wife's place" - but it's made clear through her characterization the struggles and unhappiness she endures as a part of that, and that we're also meant to sympathize and admire her for those in certain ways as well. It creates an interesting picture without the feeling of any one character being used as a ridiculous mouthpiece, or the reader being put in a place of being lectured at completely uncritically.

- Basically, to me, one of the most precious things Umineko does in regards to its women is simply allowing them to be flawed and complicated. If there's a "feminist" message carried through Umineko, it's communicated moreso through a tapesty of understanding different women and the different ways they struggle with their shitty situations and the expectations thrown on them and asking the reader to consider them, as opposed to thinking it can reduce a really complex issue into An Important Message To Be Bestowed Onto Society By An Enlightened Person.

- For example, even here, Natsuhi is framing her failure in adhering to those traditional gender roles as being a way she screwed up "as a wife" - I personally have issues with babble about "a wife's place" in general, but it's obvious that this is a piece of Natsuhi's mindset, that she's developed her life around because of the circumstances she was placed in. But the writing also doesn't feel condescending towards Natsuhi as a human being for it - feeling the need to basically lecture the reader outright about how Natsuhi Is Obviously Wrong in her mental framework but it stems from the Tragedy of being mistreated and abducted from her own family. Natsuhi still stands as a person you can watch carefully, and through your own power and without degrading her from being a complicated person into a device to communicate a "message," understand where she's coming from and why it's pretty messed up and sad - and yet at the same time, has moments of strength that can be derived from it.

- Anyway, the long and short of what Natsuhi learns from her husband are that he's completely destroyed their fortune, and they no longer have rights even to the mansion that they're living in now, all behind Kinzo and the rest of the family's back. He's even signed away their deed and power of attorney.

- Natsuhi sums the situation up as them being completely under the power and whims of the moneylenders. If they decided to sell the mansion tomorrow, there would be nothing they could do - they've have to pack their bags and leave. Krauss continues insisting things will be okay because of the "trust between men" - Krauss's weird ideas and complexes that he developed about masculinity sure run deep, don't they.

- But it really comes down to insecurity, as always, as he devolves into wailing about how hesitating now would show that even he doesn't have confidence in himself and his own business. Natsuhi bites back a sharp retort and tries to bring them back onto an actual course of action for them to take at this point.

- Krauss continues to insist his investments will definitely pay off and everything will be fine if he just had time - but Kinzo is already dead, so time is up.

- It's pretty direct in this case, but I've always thought that the way Ryukishi gets across the swirling, mixed, mess of feelings people have towards situations like this has always rung very true to me.

- And then we get a visceral look at the impressive gymnasium in Natsuhi's head as she moves from there about how she by all rights should be fed up with Krauss's nonsense, and that it was hopeless, but transforms it into an even more pressing need to support him as a wife instead.

- But when Krauss, in his desperation for money immediately, brings up the idea of solving the epitaph for the hidden gold, even Natsuhi is pushed to the breaking point. It's too delusional even for her! She shoves him aside and begins to cry, finally. Natsuhi returns to Kinzo and breaks down in earnest, apologizing to him for what she and Krauss (really, only Krauss though, Natsuhi...) have done.

- In her sadness, she starts imagining Kinzo offering her advice and comforting her - and then Kinzo appears in a fantasy filter of Natsuhi hitting on the idea of hiding Kinzo's death - but in a way that communicates important depictions of Natsuhi's heart.

- Hahaha, it's really sadly hilarious that the first meaningful thing "Kinzo" says after appearing is validating that Krauss was treating her badly (just like Kinzo did to his wife) and that that's a shameful thing. Natsuhi, you're really hurting a lot, aren't you?

- Natsuhi is aware that this is all in her imagination, but she forces herself to believe it's really Kinzo's soul, really and truly, so that she can more readily take strength from it. With "Kinzo" giving her room to start parsing things on her own terms without being suffocated by the need to "support Krauss," Natsuhi begins calming herself down, with "Kinzo" pointing out the the Ushiromiya family has been pulled from the brink from an even worse situation in the past.

- Kinzo also talks about going to war after succeeding the headship and was basically carrying on with a listless death witsh, but then suddenly "reached a state of enlightenment" when he met the Golden Witch, Beatrice. It's sort of fun because yes, it's important clues that all make sense in hindsight, but it also makes sense that Natsuhi would have had access to this information through the general "rumors" floating around about Kinzo's history.

- Kinzo was apparently so different after meeting Beatrice during the war that the elders speculated he bumped his head and came back with a different personality altogether.

- Natsuhi's interpretation of the story is that Kinzo, through his war experiences, had probably basically given him enough of a near-death experience or mentality to reach that "enlightenment," and if you wanted to frame that as a mystical experience where he met a witch, well okay.

- But she plays along with Kinzo's "narrative" with that understanding with a smile. Kinzo goes on to talk about how he was just a puppet until he gained the support of the "Golden Witch," and Natsuhi wonders if that witch would help she and Krauss instead - well, I don't think you two also want to put yourselves through war to imitate what you think that all means, Natsuhi, but...

- Kinzo continues playing mouthpiece for Natsuhi's mentality, wishes, and values, by expressing that the witch will definitely help if Krauss is a worthy successor in terms of "pride, spirit, and conviction," putting forth that - just as Natsuhi would want - blood is irrelevant in the face of those things. We also manage to sneak in some foreshadowing as Kinzo mentions that if someone with those things appeared who wasn't Krauss, they would easily succeed the Headship, and gain Beatrice's support.

- And Beatrice appears, lololol.

- You sure are doing a job of picking yourself up here, Natsuhi! But again, when you read this, it's pretty much just a reinforcement of the values Natsuhi already has. But hearing it from "someone else" allows her to place more value in the words than if they just came from "herself," and use them to steel her own determination again.

- The idea of a monarch succeeding because of their will and determination to not falter or show any lapse in their ability to triumph also speaks to how "magic" helps in that - magic enabling someone to trick themselves into that confidence, basically, even when the signs are against them.

- Speaking with Kinzo and Beatrice (under the framework of Beatrice "testing her resolve"), Natsuhi calmly reviews what she knows about the situation in a way she couldn't before.

- this wish fulfillment honestly hurts a little to watch sometimes, natsuhi

- When you take a step back, it is funny how this inspiring, warm scene, amounts to "overcome your husband's criminal embezzlement and figure out a way to hide it, Natsuhi! You can do it!" But it's really effective in that sense.

- Beatrice says she can't just make gold appear again for Natsuhi like she did for Kinzo - after all, Natsuhi can't figure out how to solve the epitaph, and magic can't do anything that couldn't be done without magic to begin with, right?

- With that fantasy put aside, Natsuhi instead considers what Krauss said about how he just needed more time - so what she should be focusing on is buying time. Kinzo nods approvingly at her train of thought. Beatrice points out that her own actions in informing the family about Kinzo's death would be cutting off any "time" they had by her own hands - and Natsuhi hits upon it.

- In general, I think the revelation here that Natsuhi really is the brains of this entire operation, and it was her plotting that lead to both the act and the method of concealing Kinzo's death - and not Krauss - is a cool one.

- Natsuhi asks Krauss to reinforce that he just needs a little bit of time to recuperate his losses, and Krauss shakily promises in that "a year, no, just half a year!" it will all come back. Oh dear, hindsight...

- Natsuhi then states that Kinzo isn't dead, and is as healthy as ever. The servants jump as everyone else immediately understands what she's saying - except Krauss, of course, hahaha. Natsuhi prompts Genji, and he agrees to play along. Kumasawa and Nanjo seem far more uncomfortable, but I guess money won them over in the end!

- They outline how once the debts are taken care of, they'll just have Kinzo "disappear," and that Rokkenjima is a very convenient site to make that happen.

- We move to another fantasy scene with Beatrice, Kinzo, and Natsuhi - with Beatrice's "magic" restoring Kinzo to life - and, again, to serve Natsuhi's heart in particular, Kinzo basically takes responsibility for this plan, putting forth that he was the one who "coaxed Natsuhi into doing this." Beatrice also gives a warning that this won't last forever, and the illusion will collapse under the strain of the magic-resisting toxin - so Natsuhi has to understand the rules and work to reinforce the magic constantly. (Keep up the lie, in other words, of course.)

- "I can show you a miracle, but it is your role to grasp it and hold it." Kind of flashbacks of the Maria and Beatrice segment of the Witch's Tanabata, huh?

- Beatrice agrees to serve Natsuhi, and Natsuhi swears to "protect the honor of the Ushiromiya family" - another nice bit of magic that has always allowed Natsuhi to frame her criminal acts that way - and the chapter ends. 

[goatsreadingseacats]

EP5, Part 01

Battler comes to some slow realizations about how he wants to proceed now that everything has changed.

- Fun fact, this will be my very first time playing this episode in English.  I read through it so many times in Japanese when it first came out, I never felt the need to read  the English patch. - So we start off with a few of Beato's greatest hits, reminding us of just why we were rooting for Battler to kick her ass so hard on our initial playthrough. - But that quickly changes with the sound of shattering glass as we move to present day, in a Golden Land that's lost all luster for Battler with its master a shell of her former self. - When the narrative tells us that if Beato had been complaining while Virgilia did her hair, it would be clear she was the usual Beato, it's not only a charming mental image, but it also shows us how carefully Battler has really been observing her.  He's never spent quiet time like this with her before, but he still knows that this isn't right for her. - As Battler plays with the chess pieces, he takes his first small step into Beato's mind by simply taking her black pieces as his own as he tries to reconstruct her games from memories.  This is the same guy that was so proud of his own inflexibility in the previous game, loudly proclaiming that even if she stained the board black, the space underneath his feet will remain white. - Heh, and now he's reduced to talking to himself, wishing she would respond.  I know akatokuro already pointed it out, but it really was interesting to see the fandom reaction to this episode and how differently it played out compared to expectations.  Umineko isn't always a very kind series to the type of reader who is inclined to take things at face value until told otherwise. - In a way, this part of the series is sort of difficult to get through.  I remember the first time I read this, I was sort of sad, but expecting things to eventually go back the way they were.  "Sure, Battler asking her these things is too little, too late, but he can fix it in the end, right?" Nope.  The biggest lie fiction tells us is that it's never too late. - Once both Virgilia and Battler realize that Beato isn't going to snap out of this, Battler finally tells her that in reconstructing her game, he can tell that she wasn't playing to win.  He admits it's tough, but he's not going to give up, because he promised to give Beato a peaceful death. - Even though it's framed in those terms, this is the first clear indication that Battler feels possessive of Beato in an unusual way, because he directly puts forth that he's the only one that can put her to rest peacefully.  Canon later makes it clear that isn't the case for Yasu herself, but it's important to Battler that he's important to her. - It's interesting that the shackle around Beato's ankle symbolizes her inability to rest peacefully.  In a very literal sense, the core of the original Beato has already faded.  Yasu is dead.  All that's left is her regrets and anguish.  Nothing Battler can do will change the fact that she's dead, but he will feel better if he feels like he understands her, like there was a chance things COULD have been different. - Battler then rejects any games without Beato as the gamemaster.  On the one hand, doing so shows how much he valued and loved Beato as an individual--it doesn't feel "right" doing the things they used to do together with someone else.  On the other hand, one way to understand a situation is to look at it from as many angles as possible. What Battler is doing here is actually valuing his personal experiences with Beato over coming to an understanding of her. - After the events of the last Tea Party, Bern, Lambda, and Battler discuss how to continue the game, or if it should even be continued in the first place.  Battler makes a token protest as Lambda declares control of the board, and Lambda tries to mollify him by pointing out he might get several hints because the gamemaster has changed.  While this may certainly be true, we're seeing it's just as I said above, the gameboards themselves have sentimental value to Battler.

Never has it been more obvious that Battler's ends have become his means.  Even the thought of getting "more hints" is much less important than rejecting the idea of playing the game without Beato across from him. - Even when Bern throws cold water in his face by telling him to "wake Beato up" if he wants to play against her, he can only stutter that Beato won't be getting up "for a while".  Yes, yes, Battler, she's only sleeping, right? - When Battler refuses to accept either of the witches' interference, Bern finally pulls out the trump card: Ange.  Instantly, Battler's demeanor changes.  But isn't it interesting that his objection is that she shouldn't be brought up at all?  Yes, let's not remind him of his actual obligations to his family, he might feel bad about spending all his time with the woman he loves instead. - Bern shows him Ange sacrificing herself, and Battler gets furious, but ultimately not even that is enough to force him to dance the way Bern and Lambda want him to.  He tells Bern she can play in his stead and goes out into the garden. - As an aside, I do love Lambda's short pause when she realizes Battler's walking away, until Bern prompts her by wondering if Lambda doesn't want to play with her.  You're a good girlfriend, Lambda. - These hints of the sort of game this episode is are fun in hindsight--using the board in ways you shouldn't--but I will confess to having no idea what that actually meant the first time I was going through the game. - I'd like to remark upon Battler's progression as far as the gameboard goes.  At first he tries to use the excuse of the game being between him and Beato.  When that doesn't get a response, he switches to the idea that he's Beato's chosen opponent. (And therefore the board is made for him.)  Finally, here pretenses are laid bare when he finally says he "won't let anyone else profane [the board]".  Not because they're enemies, rivals, or opponents, but because it's theirs and theirs alone, no matter what their relationship is. - This is also the first time Battler has admitted to both himself and the audience that he enjoys his and Beato's games. - And when he hears from Ronove himself that the game is dishonorable, Battler can't allow himself to hide away any more, wallowing in his memories of his and Beato's time together.

It's scenes like this that make me love Battler so much.  Sure, he's slow and "incompetent", but when it comes to this, I feel like I can understand why Yasu pinned all her most secret hopes on him in the end.  It might take him ages, but he'll get there eventually.  He will understand, no matter how long it takes. - "I'm counting on you two to look after this golden sleeping princess."  Ahh, yeah, I love this episode so much.  Even now, the echoes of the first time I played it come bubbling up in my chest, when just seeing Battler say these words was enough to give me chills of happiness. - But, in the end, when Battler finally gets his motivation to wrest back the board from the hijackers, both inform him that the game has entered its final stage and that there's probably nothing left for him to do at this point...

- We enter the board and see everyone has gathered. Everyone is pointing the finger at Natsuhi, including Eva who is sobbing about the murder of her husband and son.

- And then enter Erika...

[goatsreadingseacats]

EP5, "Prologue"

- We open up with exactly what a lot of people, coming off of EP4, were probably expecting to see: mirage coordinator playing in the background as Beato shows up with a vicious grin - recounting certain moments from the past episodes, but giving us a flash of the Beato we've known until now, with the emotional implication that of course she's being her usual trolling self.

- The flashbacks are even capped off with the memory of Beato revealing the EP3 ruse as a ruse - before the whole thing shatters and we return to the reality: the somber, melancholy scene that's left after Battler skewered Beatrice and left her with an agonized promise to finish her off properly. It's an interesting sort of immediate bait-and-switch on reader expectations.

- The narrative immediately establishes a sense of hollowness and emptiness - things are different now. The wind is "lonely," and the golden butterflies that existed before in the rose garden are absent. There's no sound of Beatrice's laughter. If you were hoping for a return to the trolling Beatrice of your memories, another reveal that she was just tricking you and really was the evil villain Lambda was promising in the ??? Tea Party of EP4, it's not going to happen.

- We're introduced to Beatrice anew - a lifeless doll, sitting in a deck chair. Virgilia combs her hair, but she doesn't speak or react to anything. She's essentially dead, and only keeps existing as this shell because of Lambda's interference and unwillingness to let the game just end.

- Across from her, Battler stares at the records of the past games - the flashbacks we saw at the beginning - attempting to puzzle together what on earth Beatrice was trying to do. All of his anger and fury, which drained at the end of the EP4 Tea Party anyway - is completely gone now, and he's focused on a new priority that he's never touched on meaningfully before: actually trying to follow Beatrice's thought patterns.

- Battler tries to reconstruct and see things from Beato's side, what drove her moves the way that they did. It's a frustrating process for him, but he keeps at it.

- As bittersweet and sad as a lot of Umineko's resolutions can be, I always did appreciate what's put forth by Battler's journey and evolution: that Battler really is capable of changing from being as self-absorbed as he's been, and learning to be considerate of other people, and also - that people are capable of understanding on another. It's still a pretty hopeful thing to me in the end, even if in Umineko it's underscored by a sense of Battler "not making it in time."

- Even knowing the state Beato is in, Battler keeps talking to her, hoping that she might wake up and start talking back to her. She gives no response, though, having completely given up - though it's noted once in a while she's capable of glancing at him, though Battler can't decipher anything beyond the gesture itself.

- Battler keeps urging her to go back to the way she used to, missing her laughter and energy. Virgilia ends up speaking in Beato's stead. Virgilia's portrayal in Chiru is sort of interesting, as she remains sort of Battler's "accomplice" and at his side to serve his purpose, even in EP7 - although her player/creator, Yasu, is dead. Meta gonna meta, I suppose.

- Battler is finally noticing that Beato did a lot of strange things that were at complete odds with her supposed victory condition, and it's boggling his mind - but he swears he won't give up, because he promised Beatrice.

- I remember a lot of irritation in the community about Battler's motives switching from "saving Ange" to "understanding Beato," but I always liked it as a counter-intuitive reveal of the truth of Battler's heart that he's been trying to deny all of this time. I tend to think that it's usually a given in these kinds of stories that innocent family, especially one who is framed like Ange was, is put first, not the "pitiful, twisted villain," no matter how much sympathy might be given to them by the "good protagonist" - the idea of that supposed villain actually and explicitly being the one who is "chosen," even over family, really doesn't... happen?

- Which was a part of the backlash, I guess, but it makes Battler into a much more interesting character for me, even if you could say his choosing Beatrice is in some ways selfish - and Battler and Beato's relationship a lot more compelling, and frankly, Battler made the truth of his heart pretty clear in the finale of EP4. The expectations for these kinds of narratives can get really deeply ingrained in readers, though, I think, so Battler basically putting aside Ange in favor of the woman he loves was probably sort of incomprehensible to a lot of people.

- Battler's underlying possessiveness of Beatrice comes into play, as he punctuates reinforcing his promise to Beatrice with that he's "the only one" who can grant her wish of death.

- The narrative describes Beato's leg being restrained by a steel shackle, symbolic of Lambda's imprisonment. Lambda has basically made her into a zombie. Appropriate for the episode that is also going to explore evil zombie Lion, I guess!

- Virgilia notes that the fifth game, run by Lambda and Bern, has started, but Battler states that he doesn't give a shit about it.

- "Why should I take part in any game without Beato as an opponent...?" Oh, Battler...

- I do think Ryukishi did a nice job in making the depth of Battler's feelings clear to the reader without necessarily making them clear to Battler himself, through "slips" like this and things like "my golden witch" from the Tea Party, which isn't always the easiest thing to do.

- We get a flashback with Lambda and Bern kicking off the new gameboard, Lambda twists some logic to justify the game continuing even with Beato essentially dead. Lambda assumes the place of the new game master, since Yasu is no longer capable.

- Battler is unamused.

- Battler crying about how Beato is all his and that the gameboard belongs to them and them alone and everyone else can fuck off is one of my favorite things, still, not gonna lie. (I may or may not be willing to kill for meaningful Battler and Willard interaction in this regard, but thaaaaat's another story!)

- Lambda tries to reassure him that she's going to leave lots of big clues for him in her gameboard, too, knowing the truth, but Battler, of course, doesn't actually give a shit about hints to the mystery at this point so much as the violation as something he sees as representation of the bond between he and the woman he's fallen in love with. He screams "who cares" right back at her. Bern tries to back Lambda up in that Battler could get a lot of help from the game, but he continues stomping and yelling.

- As Bern rolls her eyes, Battler starts getting actively defensive of Beato, justifying that no games are needed expect the ones she's made! Beato's games are the best! Shut up, everyone back off! Bawww!

- Meta gonna meta as Battler alludes to that he vaguely feels like he's encountered them before, but seems to lack solid memory about it - an allusion to the ambiguity of the previous Tea Parties where Bern and Lambda were simultaneously speaking to Battler and the reader.

- Battler continues speaking in terms of "we" as he objects to Bern and Lambda - uniting he and Beato. It's pretty sweet, in a way. Lambda promises to play along the lines of how Beato would, and Battler slams his hands down in anger and refuses to play with them, period.

- At his refusal, Bern finally invokes Ange's name, telling him that if he refuses to fight, he condemns Ange for all eternity. Battler loses his fire, and Bern questions if Battler has already forgotten his righteous anger when she was killed.

- (Yes, he has. Oops!)

- In retaliation, Bern makes him relive the experience, emotionally shackling Battler to this game in spite of his unwillingness to play, just as Beatrice has, though the method is different.

- Bern says something interesting: "If you step down from the game, this will become not just a Fragment, but a definite reality." There's a lot of ways you can read the precise relationship between the meta narrative and its impact on reality - or vice-versa - but this is probably the "meta" view of it - the fights in this conceptual space determine what plays out in reality, versus the "reality" view where meta functions as an interpretation of whatever happens in reality. I think it also might be one of the earliest instances we get to an allusion of a "definite reality" to begin with?

- Lambda puts forth clearly that to she and Bern, Battler and Beatrice are just pieces to keep them from boredom - enterainment for them to consume. Bern repeats, with an eerie smile on her face, that she's Battler's "ally" and is there to help him "win."

- Battler finally goes ahead and tells them to start the fifth game if they want, but then turns and walks away, saying that Bern can function as his substitute, figuring out a way he can still refuse to play in respect to Beatrice's absence. I'm a little proud of him!

- Back to the "present," Battler wonders if they can really understand Beato's game. Virgilia gives him the famous line that they can't do anything Beato can't, but they can do things that Beato "wouldn't." We know now that this refers to the prioritization of Yasu's motives on one level - making the primary antagonist not Beatrice, but "the man from nineteen years ago" - but also piece-Battler's role in the game - Beato herself would never have made him an accomplice.

- Battler keeps cursing out those damn witches for "profaning" he and Beato's board game. He sure has it bad...

- Ronove shows up to serve some tea, but questions if it's okay if Battler flat-out ignores Bern and Lambda's game. He describes it as "lacking love," or in another way, "lacking honor". Yasu in this game is not looking to be caught, and she lacks an opponent - instead striving fairly straightforwardly for cruel revenge and vindication for the pain she (or he, rather, on this board) has suffered.

- Ronove states that their game follows the rules very well, but the foundation is very different. That's a pretty good way to describe it! This, however, makes Battler finally decide to go ahead and check out what they're up to, determined to take back Beato's game board.

- Battler finally realizes that "Beato must have created this game board for me." So it's his responsibility to take it back and make sure outsider witches aren't shitting all over it, for her sake. He takes a moment to reassure Beato directly. Virgilia urges him to search for Beato within this new game, even if Beato isn't functioning directly as a player...

- The pacing does feel a little weird in terms of bouncing back and forth between Battler refusing to play and then changing his mind based on something he probably should have already figured out from the start - that Lambda and Bern weren't going to do what he considers justice to Beato's gameboard - but I do like his motivations and such.

- Bern and Lambda have already progressed considerably into the game, and are on the second day. Battler demands that he be allowed to join in now. Lambda unveils her game as "End of the Golden Witch!" and we're introduced to the profile screen with a bunch of people already dead.

- We're brought straight to the "climactic scene," of the detective cornering the culprit, and the witnesses realizing the evidence against the suspect is decisive, to build up suspense - and Erika unveils herself, proclaiming that Natsuhi is the murderer.

- The Chiru OP for EP5 and EP6 is pretty cool... man, I remember poring over this stuff and what it could mean when it first came out, before the actual episode was released. Too nostalgic! Battler and Beato reaching out for each other and then in the flower field certainly got my head buzzing!  

[goatsreadingseacats]

oh boy end of the golden witch

i hope you're all as excited for EVIL ZOMBIE LION and BEST SHIPPER LAMBDA as we are!!!

[goatsreadingseacats]

TIP: "The Witch's Tanabata"

- Oh boy, Witch's Tanabata! Man, I feel rusty...

- A lot of the extra TIPs amount to silly fluff, so I don't really feel a strong urge to revisit them (no matter how much I love the White Day TIP) but this one actually ended up being pretty vital to the plot and characterization. The end of EP7 and EP8 pretty much outright assume that you've read this one. It's also a good bridge between the characterization of Bernkastel from the question arcs, and the Bern we're going to see in Chiru.

- The TIP's first half covers Maria's single Tanabata wish about "Rosa coming home every day." It also quickly mentioned that the "witch" (Beatrice) who would grant Maria's Tanabata wish, so to speak, is "closer to her than her own mother."

- So in her dreams, after making that wish, Maria meets Beatrice. I've always thought that it was this TIP, actually, that makes the clearest case/example for Umineko's magic as a force for good and positivity - in terms of actually using certain frameworks of thinking to make your desires concrete, lay out a clearer path as to how to seek them out, and empower yourself to actually be a force for change in your own life, as opposed to wallowing in passivity and hopelessness. Magic in this sense is legitmately a force that can change things within you, and therefore around you.

- To that end, Beato starts pointing out the problems with Maria's wish - that she hasn't properly thought out the implications of just wishing for Rosa's return at face value. Simplying everything into that sort of framework doesn't hit on the underlying issues that are really fueling Maria's desire at all, so without thinking things through, even if it came true, it would probably just make things worse, or easily misunderstood.

- Beato's example is that if you took Maria's wish at face value, you could grant it by bringing ruin to Rosa's company, taking away her need to go to work in the first place. Which, of course, isn't what Maria actually wants at all.

- So through this sequence, Beato and her "proper use of magic" gives Maria space and prompting to think things through properly, both in terms of self-realization and the realistic steps she can make when she actually has that understanding. "The wish she truly desired was something that must not remain abstract."

- Maria goes into further detail on what she really wants, packaged as a part of "Rosa coming home" - all the little things like spending time together, talking together, and making dinner together. Eventually, Maria ends up spinning a complete picture of a lifestyle for herself and Rosa.

- Once she's accomplished that, as she wakes up, with a clearer sense of the future she wants, Maria can easily start conjuring up some basic steps she can take to make it a reality - because by detailing things further in her own mind, she's created spaces where she can empower herself and sees what she's capable of doing towards working for that goal, as opposed to the passive powerlessness of "if only Rosa would come home" - which, taken as is, is of course nothing Maria can actually do about.

- Well, personally, I think there are naturally limitations to that, as well, that need to be taken into account - my constant wariness with this kind of magic is the suggestion that "if only you think about things the right way, you can figure out how to make changes for yourself" - which can easily be irresponsibly turned into "your life being miserable is your own fault because you're not thinking of things in the correct manner" which is an incredibly dangerous thing to start generalizing about. But at the same time, not sinking into apathy and the ability to visualize empowerment for yourself is incredibly important.

- In Maria's case, she starts out with taking a glass of vegetable juice to Rosa in order to cheer her up. That's not something I'd want to dismiss, as I'm sure it meant something to both Rosa and Maria as it happened, and once again, "there are things that I can do" is an important step for someone like Maria to be able to take that hopefully would continue to expand as she grows up - but at the same time, giving Rosa some juice in the morning isn't going to be enough to actually solve any of Rosa's issues that are preventing her from being the mother Maria wants.

- And I can't help but also think that creating the expectation, both for Maria herself and the outsiders who might be observing her, that this is the step to "making it a reality", is something that can easily become abused, but...

- It's something that has to be taken as a case by case basis, I suppose.

- Meanwhile, in meta, Bernkastel thinks this entire affair was stupid as it came down to Beatrice not actually granting anything, but both Beatrice and Lambdadelta disagree. Beatrice puts forth that she supported Maria in visualizing the world that she wanted - "Beatrice" in this case amounting to a mental trick that allowed Maria to start thinking of things in a different way.

- Bern still scoffs, saying it's all still Maria, but (I believe?) Lambda puts forth that a strong-willed person will grant the wish themselves regardless of any witches. "There is no room for witches." Oops!

- It's always sort of fun seeing Lambda framed sympathetically, and as a big supporter of humans in cases like this - Lambda's "support" ends up being basically villainous in Higurashi, the same as Bern's ended up being portrayed heroically, so it's fun seeing how easy it is to turn those things on their heads and that the actual concepts they represent can easily be spun the other way.

- After all, Lambda essentially represents human determination and willpower. As she puts herself for, she's just nondiscriminate - "I just fairly and equally encourage everyone to give it their all." Even if that human determination and the strength of wishes involves slaughtering a village of two thousand people, but hey! As long as a person possesses that strength of will, she has a soft spot for them, regardless of their moral character. She also mentions that she "watches over the children."

- "Good" magic in a nutshell - "What Lambdadelta bestows is not the fulfillment of the wish, but the power needed to achieve it."

- Direct reference to Takano as they discuss Lambda's powers, dohohoho.

- Lambda puts forth that Bern's powers mean that wishes are granted to people who don't work for their ambitions, but Bern, as usual, puts forth that miracles are miracles because they don't happen, and gets irritated that both Lambda and Beato are being so soft. They insist she go ahead and grant at least one wish for Tanabata.

- She refuses to their faces, but laughs to herself and visits Ange instead - and speaks directly to the reader, insinuating that they're wanting the same thing that she does. Thanks, Bern!

- Wishing for her family to come home, and not being sure what to make of Eva's invitation for them to support each other and become each other's new family, Bern gleefully visits her and twists Lambda's words, informing her that it won't come true if she doesn't work hard for it, and if she does, it'll definitely come true, though there's no guarantee as to when. That's a pretty mean thing to do to your girlfriendo, Bern (though I doubt she would mind.)

- After coming off of the question arcs and Episode 4, the revelation that Eva initially wanted to be kind to Ange and establish a loving mother-daughter relationship with her comes as a shock - because of Ange's perspective filtering Eva to be one-sidedly abusive and hateful, although she comes to terms that Eva had her own human pain fueling those actions at the end.

- And, of course, regardless, finding out that Eva initially had good intentions doesn't change how horrifying Eva's response was when Ange rejected her - but it still sets the tone that there's probably more aspects and nuances to the "truth" behind what happened to be sought than we might initially think.

- What Bern does here is obviously the flip side of the "magic" that Beato used to push Maria into a hopefully positive direction - if magic is a mental trick you use on yourself to concretely visualize the desired outcome of your life, then it's simultaneously a trick that you can use to push yourself towards taking steps towards self-destruction, or taking a blind eye towards things that are trying to help you, as well.

- Because Ange unconsciously becomes fixated on a promised outcome that her family's deaths will be sealed forever if she lets Eva "replace" them at all - allowing herself to move on and accept that they're dead - she empowers herself to destroy any chance she and her aunt have of healing together. As always, magic itself turns out to be basically morally neutral - it's a tool to be used that can push you in either a positive or negative direction, like the exploration and description of Lambda herself. Again, no wonder she and Beato are so compatible!

- I guess you could say the flip side of digging your heels in and empowering your determination towards a certain goal is the act of, in a way, emotionally and mentally freezing yourself until you either meet that goal, or you destroy yourself. Ange never moved on in a lot of ways from being this grief-ridden child lashing out and irrationally hoping her life could go back to the way it was. Eva herself was portrayed in a similar way in EP3 - her mind being lost because her "determination" that made Lambda bless her in the meta meant that she was never able to actually move on from her grief and rage from being mistreated when she was younger, too.

- As for Maria, you can only really speculate if her patterns of thinking might have lead her to a dangerous place even as she was older where she would have been unable to distance herself from Rosa, even if that would be the healthiest thing to do, but...

- Bern also lets loose a misleading spoiler in the midst of this, confirming gleefully to Ange that Eva is definitely the one directly responsible for her family's deaths. Well, she sure was the one who actually put the bullets into Kyrie and Rudolf, but, uh... welp?

- It's still sort of fun foreshadowing for what's coming up, and another drop in the bucket for the weird buildup that has already started with Ange's parents.  

[goatsreadingseacats]

Thank you so much for your patience during the hiatus; both of us feel much refreshed after recharging. 

We discussed a good day to return as we were working on retooling the look of the blog and ultimately decided that 11/29 would be ideal.

Happy birthday, Lion and Beatrice.  We're looking forward to continuing our journey to understand your hearts.

[goatsreadingseacats]

It's hard to believe it's been two years since we started this project! Thank you so much to everyone who has been following and reading thus far! All the support you've given us have definitely helped us steam through this emotionally dense piece of work that Ryukishi has given us.   Now that the question arcs are behind us, we're taking the chance to go on a short hiatus – both to recharge, and to do some much-needed cleaning up for the blog itself. We'll be making our triumphant return into Natsuhi's house of phone horror in two months.   Many thanks to all of our fellow goats again for keeping up with us through all the nonsense!

[goatsreadingseacats]

EP4, Overall Thoughts and Solvability

If EP1-3 are a narrative, then EP4 is more like a dictionary, helping to define Yasu's personal language and what it must have meant to her and the people she drew into her world.

[goatsreadingseacats]

EP4, ????

- Meanwhile, in Kakera #5610984236153928423602349852639...

- (I'm sort of entertained at the idea of Ryukishi just keyboard mashing until he got to that number, by the way.)

- Everyone's favorite witch girlfriends lounge around together on the bed, pretenses of being ~dramatic enemies~ dropped. In their own ways, Bern and Lambda have been play-acting as much as Beato in order to set up the drama of the previous stage - but unlike Beato, their goal actually was that drama in and of itself.

- I do like the description of Bern and Lambda's room as being childish and filled with both candies and the evidene of having played around with the flavors of candy and soda. It sort of brings to mind the description of Maria's lonely pajama parties with Sakutaro and how they were also described.

- Lambda and Bern speaks as consumers - Lambda voices similary anxiety I've felt when I've wondered if a piece of content I'd become invested in might not reach a satisfying conclusion. But of course, Beato is now dead, Battler is reeling, and Lambda is lounging around on her bed with her girlfriend relaxedly talking about it.

- They go into talk evaluating Ange's worth as a piece, from an outside strategist's position. It's a fairly deep and jarring contrast, even though Ange was definitely functioning as a "piece" to Beato and Battler's conflict, to how she was treated with those two.

- Ange stated outright as she died that she understood that this was her function, and Beato and Battler also understood in varying degrees that that was ultimately what Ange was there for, but the framing and the tone towards that for all people touching upon it is so wildly different. Ange internally spun it as something approaching empowerment for herself. To Beato and Battler, she became an anguished tool for emotional manipulation towards a result that neither of them actually wanted. Meanwhile, Bern is horrifying in how utterly clinical he is.

- And of course, Bern also explicitly puts forth the idea, again, of Battler's compassion being the enemy, and that he'd take the game in a "weird direction" - Battler's compassion is the foe that has to be suppressed at all costs to create the destructive, "triumphant" ending that a spectator witch like Bernkastel would want.

- There are problems with Battler's sense of compassion as he started out in the series - he's immature, not self aware, and therefore his softer feelings towards people gets mixed into what he, personally, wants to see and believe and not question - but the complaints about the story going in a "weird direction" because he ultimately chooses to not hate Beatrice, to respond to her pain, and to try to understand things from her perspective, sure feels a lot like a direct foreshadowing to criticism of Chiru, hahaha!

- But I have to say, one of the things I treasure a lot about how Umineko ultimately turned out in a broader sense was, again, Battler's ultimate refusal to see through the narrative and roles he, the woman he loves, and his little sister were pushed into. Ange came to terms with it in a certain way in EP4, but the final word we continue getting about her is, yes, she functioned as a "piece" to be used and thrown away to push Battler - so it means a lot to me that that entire trope of the fridged little sister, so to speak, falls completely to pieces.

- Bern continues complaining bitterly about what a waste Ange was.

- And she starts finally openly showing her true colors! True Neutral Bern is a miracle of the universe, indeed. But yes, the entire scenario that just played out becomes explicitly about really unsettling emotional manipulation on a number of levels - and it should be making the reader pause and wonder and re-reflect, if they got genuinely caught up in the tragedy and pathos of Ange's Noble Sacrifice, or the hotblooded, exciting final fight between Protagonist Battler and the Antagonist Witch. Bern and Lambda and making it explicit that you were being played, and you were being played to suit their agenda of entertainment and their agenda of reasserting their power to influence the game as they want. And Yasu died in hopeless agony as a result.

- Obligatory Ange hamburger joke, etc etc. Man, I do love Lambda, though, in all her vicious, callous cruelty, but also the side of her that genuinely has humanity. She's such a great character.

- Man, I just got done talking about this, but I really can't overstate how much it meant to me that EP5 makes crystal clear that no, Battler will not fucking do this. And it was interesting, on the other hand, to see the reactions of almost personal betrayal towards it, from some portions of the readership.

- Anyway, Lambda also goes onto explain that almost all of Battler's answers sucked, and were full of shit, supplementing some additional red to prove her point.

- Lambda leaves zero doubt, in case you didn't pick up from it from Beato shrugging and accepting nonsense like SMALL BOMBS as the answer to the mystery of her heart, that Beato rolled over and just let Battler win, when she could have easily countered him. The only question is... why?

- Well, in pursuing why, the question becomes that of who you'll listen to, because Yasu's voice rang out clearly, more than once, during that entire sequence. Because she's trapped. Because there's no way out. Because she's lost in such despair and hopelessness of being "seen" and acknowledged as a human being that she sees nothing left to do but hand over victory to Battler and die.

- So as you read this and realize that there are huge holes in Battler's supposed victory, are you going to remember that, when Yasu's voice appealed to you in silent misery in the midst of the fight... or are you going to listen to Lambda, gleefully separated from the action and talking about the effectiveness and entertainment value of pieces, as she puts forth it's probably so she can stab Battler in the back and reveal herself as the trolling, wicked witch she wants, that she "knows" we all want?

- As for her red, for the actual mystery portion, Lambda also gives some vital clues about Kanon, Yasu as the sole culprit, and her actual use of a gun to kill Natsuhi, and the impossibility of anyone claiming Kanon's name but Kanon.

- Bern and Lambda flirt for a while in their very special way, until Lambda points out that as she's rooting for a tie, and Bern is rooting for Battler, no one is on Beato's side - which, again, is something that Yasu herself realized to devastating effect in the finale of the last episode when even Maria left her side for what she truly wanted. But will the reader remember that?

- But as that's pointed out, Ryukishi starts setting up his appeal for the reader, we as the spectator witches, to be the ones on Beato's side - counter-intuitively, bafflingly - as Bern and Lambda start crowing about how Beato's chances to win are zero, and how pitiful she is. They point out that to Beato, both of them are her enemies, mocking her as their doll and their toy - and it's hard not to root for an underdog facing against the likes of Bern and Lambda both, isn't it?

- So the reader is left in an interesting emotional place by this commentary between the "outsider witches" who are determined to assert that they're the ones with the real power to inject themselves into a personal, important game between two people, and manipulate the outcome and meaning to their liking - there was surely a sense of shock and betrayal when they started going off about how Beato was totally acting, was totally pulling another version of North Wind and Sun, but now what do we do about this?

- "Beato certainly cannot win. And a miracle certainly will not occur."

- Leaving us on that note - on that challenge - with a cackle, with Bern revealing her sadistic grin for the first time, the credits roll.

[goatsreadingseacats]

EP4 - ???

Bern and Lambda's post episode discussion will probably sound pretty familiar to those of us in the audience.

Bern and Lambda wear many different hats throughout the series.  Sometimes they symbolize the two extremes of possible outcomes, other times they're a symbol of Touya's conflicting motivations.  But I sort of think I like them best when they are what they are here: a symbolic readership that comments and judges the stories the Gamemaster weaves. - I say that because no where else is that quite as clear as in this Tea Party.  Is there a person among us who hasn't loaded up on junk food and spent time discussing a piece of media we've consumed with a like-minded person? - And part of the fun of this is how cold and clinical they come across, especially after that gut-wrenching finale Beato and Battler just went through.  But, because they are the consumers of the media, in a very real case, Battler and Beato's struggle exist to entertain them, and that is the axis on which they are judged by Bern and Lambda. - I do it, too.  And I'm sure I'd sound just as harsh and gross if a fictional character could somehow listen in on me talking about their "scenes" and "that motivation doesn't work" or "that death scene was pretty good!"

Sometimes the talk shifts more into a writer territory, and then I start to think about how much fun it is for readers to have a work of media they feel like they can influence from the outside.  The closest thing, I think, would be fanfiction, but even meta works.  Sometimes, for fun, akatokuro and I will "rebuild" a series, and it tends to sound a lot like this--giving the characters credit for agency, while still talking about elements to influence them, or nudge them on to the path we want them to take. - There's also a third element to all of this--two people talking about a wager they made on a sports game, something inpersonal to them, but of vital importantance to the people that play the game.  Viewers might dissect a pass or play, but they aren't the ones making their livelihood doing it, and they aren't the ones who will face the consequences of their performance. - But, make no mistake, Bern and Lambda are monsters, not just readers.  They laugh and chortle over making Ange into hamburgers (or gyoza) now that she's served their purposes. - Lambda finally lets it slip to us viewers that almost everything Battler said was wrong.  She gives us more reds, but is mainly focusing on Battler's assertation that there were traps, and muddling the Kanon situation even more.  I remember hearing this for the first time was a little bit exciting, but it never occured to me that I should be looking at Beato's possible motivations for so easily giving Battler the win, and the parts of his "logic" that upset her the most. (Aka, when he tended to brush over the Kanon/Shannon situation.)

This is an evil trap, Ryukishi.  Because Lambda has been so helpful to us as readers here, it's easy to assume that she's correct about Beato's motivation too (she sure is about Bern's!) - As Bern and Lambda snuggle, they talk about punishment games, and how to motivate Battler and Beato to do what they want, in order to keep this entertainment going.  After all, it's not every day you find a world and story so fun to play with, right? - Even though Lambda has put forth the idea that Beato is just acting, Ryukishi is also careful to bring out our more sympathetic side when he has Bern and Lambda laughing about how she'll never win, and if it ever seems like she's getting the upper hand, they'll unite to stand against her.  That's a pretty clear reflection of Yasu's despairing mindset as she took the first step on her path, isn't it?  Fate and miracles weren't on her side, so all she had left was to gamble on Battler's words. - "A miracle certainly won't occur!"  But, both as readers, and as people, that's when we want the miracle the most...

[goatsreadingseacats]

EP4 - Tea Party, Part 3

"Who am I?"

- As Beato stands up, all her wounds heal.  She cackles and falls even deeper into the part of the evil witch, telling Battler he'll regret not compromising. - It does say something about Battler, that even though he's justifying his actions as beating down evil to get back to his little sister, he just can't let it end without at least feeling like he's faced off against Beato as her true self.  What Battler is really trying to do is provide himself closure, even as he grasps any straw to keep on facing against Beato a little more. - Beato's resistance right now isn't much more than it was before. She adds a few reds to scenes, but accepts Battler's answer afterwards whether it's right or wrong.  I remember reading this sequence and thinking Battler was doing a really good job.  Now I just shake my head and sigh. - Man, Beato's line about how Battler, having borrowed the power of the devil, is without peer practically drips derisive bitterness. Nowhere is Battler's disinterest in actually interacting with the text more obvious than how he brushes past Yasu's heart in Kanon's boiler room death.  Kanon's death wasn't suicide, but Beato refuses to repeat that's it's homicide?  Well, that just means it was an accident, moving right along! - Battler continues dodging and skirting the red text, putting forth the idea that Nanjo, Genji, and Kumasawa all stood in a circle and shot one another.  If Beato was serious, she would have challenged him on what their motive for doing that would have been, but her faith in Battler has been crushed long past repair.  The fact that she's even facing off against him here, providing that cardboard illusion of evil for him to vanquish, speaks so much of her love for him. - As akatokuro pointed out, Battler is the one that begins to point out Beato's agony here, even as he builds himself up and tries to use Ange to steel himself. - It's interesting to me how, as much as Battler gets infuriated when Beato uses Ange's name to goad him on, Battler does it to himself.  How many times does he use variations on how lonely Ange is, how miserable she is, in order to keep himself going. - That's because Battler is actually pretty naturally empathetic when you get to his heart.  When Battler loves you, his tendency is to try to see the good in you, and see things from your perspective.  It's part of the reason why he couldn't keep on villainizing his dad forever. - As Battler and Beato quibble over the chapel in the second game, Battler once again notices that Beato is struggling.  He's hyper-aware of her agony, even as he goads himself on and lies about WHY he's aware of it. - Ah yes, good old Small Bombs.  If there was ever something to show you Beato wasn't playing to win, that would be it! - Battler hits on some reasoning that isn't too far off the mark when he mentions that the fake Kanon must have been someone inheriting the name of "Kanon", but Battler refuses to press on. - Battler makes the mistake here that a lot of people did when they theorized about Umineko, and that was looking for ways to explain each individual mystery instead of looking at the works as a whole.  He never stops to think about what it means for Kanon's name to be taken by another person, even though Kanon couldn't have been mistaken for anyone else.  He just regurgitates a lot of "riddle answers" and moves on to the next one.   - When Beato gives up during the second game, once again Battler pays careful attention to her.  Not only that she's wounded, but where she's wounded and how excruciating her pain must be.  Almost despite himself, he stops and asks her if she's hurt.  And, of course, Beato can't let him show mercy, so she goads him on by invoking Ange's pain once again. - In a way, the saddest thing about this sequence to me is the fact that the trust between Beato and Battler has eroded so far that NEITHER of them can be honest.  It's not just Battler who refuses to allow himself to acknowledge that he's fallen in love with Beato.  It's also Beato shoving Battler away whenever that wall he's built between himself and his feelings begins to show cracks.   - Battler was the most invested in Beato's game when both she and he allowed himself to begin to love her.  Even at the very end, it isn't anger and hatred that motivates Battler to take this seriously and see it through the way Yasu always dreamed, it's his love for her.  Yasu's tragic flaw here is that she never even entertains the notion of appealing to Battler's better side. - I love how Beato reacts to Battler pointing the finger at his own parents in order to explain her closed room, that he would want to bring parents like that back to her.  Battler refusing to believe anyone would do it crippled his and Beato's game, but him using characters like contorted chess pieces, making them do whatever is possible, instead of probable is equally as useless. - "Yeah, this isn't playing," Battler thinks to himself as he and Beato fight over the Eva culprit theory.  No, it's not the flirtatious skirmishes they've had in the past, but it's not because Battler is completely motivated to kill her.  Again, he's the one that stretched out the game.   - Finally, Battler comes to the last mystery of Dr. Nanjo.  He asks Beato if she has something else up her sleeve, practically begging her to knock over the shoddy tower he's built so they can start all over once again.  At this point he'd break every bone in Beato's body, starting with her toes, if it meant spending just a little longer with her. - "I've started to think that having this life ended by a rival like you who I met at the very end, might not be so bad," Beato says to Battler, blatantly appealing to his pride.  That's a narrative Battler would like, isn't it?  Beato being vanquished by him as a rival after having put up a good fight, not as a victim where she's standing in agony while he doesn't have a scratch on him. - But then Beato starts to beg, hidden by only the thinnest layer of bravado.  She begs him to kill her, wrapped up in the flimsy mantle of "I've never been the one to die" while she simultaneously reminds him of how she's murdered his family over and over again. - I wonder how many people read Battler's lines about pure evil and nodded their heads.  It didn't even make a blip on my own personal screen when I read through the first time. - The generalities of Battler's theory about Nanjo's death are pretty much dead on.  I remember discussing with akatokuro, trying to figure out who could have faked their death. - Finally, the pain rips the mask of the witch away, and all we have left is the truth as Beato cries and begs Battler to end her torment and kill her.  Even after all this, he still hasn't pierced her heart and she can't die. - And this is what Battler can't help but respond to, this honest depiction of her suffering, and her calling out to him for help.  She's been doing this all along, but it took getting to this point for her to say it in a way that actually reached his ears. - So, Ange is put aside, finally allowed to retire from the board where she's been used as a bludgeon in this fight between two people that didn't really want to hurt one another in the first place.  Battler asks what he can do to help Beato.  Beato tries to invoke her specter once more, but Battler makes it clear: he's not doing this to go back to Ange, he's doing this to ease the pain of the woman he loves. - Beato gathers her strength and exposes her heart to Battler, the core of Yasu inside of her mixed with the ability to murder given by the bomb. - Yasu uses the red to invoke the bomb, imbuing it with her motivation even after her body has died. - But her final riddle, the deepest part of her, is a question in black and white: "Who am I?"

[goatsreadingseacats]

EP4, Tea Party, Part 3

- Starting round two, Yasu repeats the same old lie, but with a weighty, dramatic enough conviction that it's easy to fall into the idea that this really is The Final Battle. Which is something that Battler, at this point, desperately needs to believe. He's really put Yasu in a tight spot - in the situation they're in, Battler has made it clear that he won't accept victory over Yasu unless she's sufficiently convinced him that it's genuine, something he's actually triumphed over her in. So Yasu is left in a position to redouble her act, over and over again, as we've seen play out from the end of the episode itself and already through this Tea Party.

- They begin working through the games all over again, with Beato adding additional red truths for Battler to work around. Battler is quickly back to smirking, caught up in the flow of his enjoyment of the game. As we know, his answers are still complete bullshit, but Yasu lets them pass.

- It's a little hard not to cringe when they hit on Kanon's death in EP1. Because Battler is focused on "denying the witch at all costs," he's tackling each closed room one-by-one without any sight on the larger picture, and there's no continuity in his thinking from one puzzle to the next. Whatever beats the witch. Whatever lets him be right.

- Which is overwhelmingly clear in his gleeful use of the Devil's Proof, a deflection from actually having to put the responsibility of puzzling out the truth onto yourself.

- Yasu gawks in disbelief when Battler, still grinning, throws out his "they all shot each other at the same time" theory for Nanjo, Kumasawa, and Genji's EP1 murder, but quickly moves on while reeling it back into another witch-like grin. To anyone paying attention, Beato's reaction gives away that Battler is a million miles away from the truth (as though that wasn't already obvious from how ridiculous that argument really is.) But Beato lets it pass out of resignation and hopelessness, and Battler lets her let it pass.

- Smiling and trying to reframe her "are you fucking kidding me" into "your reckless arguments even feel pleasant now," Yasu hands Battler, still using Trap X nonsense to "explain" Natsuhi's death, victory for the first game, and is instantly pierced by the blue truth stakes.

- And we switch to Battler's POV, as he describes the suffering that they cause her. The subtext of his thoughts is fairly obvious. Battler is a very, very well-written character in terms of his reactions to Beatrice, in capturing that ability to convey something about himself that he isn't aware of, but that the audience is.

- He lingers on her physical suffering, even framing things in a way that emphasizes how much she must be hurt, rather than trying to rationalize it away. To him, as he takes in the sight of what he's doing to her, it becomes about her "torment." And he literally has to take a moment to talk himself out of feeling compassion for her, and make a conscious effort to push it back, remind himself of why he has to hate her and destroy her. 

- The language he's adopted in order to make himself cruel enough to destroy this person whose suffering jumps out at him so viscerally is very painful, as well, taking into account Yasu's own complexes. "Just by her existing." Yeah, it's not like Yasu's self-hatred is tied up in thoughts about how everything would be better if she didn't exist and how much suffering she brings just by being alive, Battler!

- The period post-EP4 in the fandom was a little frustrating for yumetabibito and I, because the way Battler's emotions and mind were working, and how he was struggling against himself to hurt Beato, and what that reflected about the truth of his heart, stood out very clearly to us - but there was a sense of a number of people who took the idea that "he has to avenge his sister against the evil witch" at face value. But again, if you don't pick up on what's really going on with Battler and solve that, what continues to organically develop from him into Chiru isn't going to make any sense to you. I remember a definite sense in Japanese fandom, as well, at confusion as to why Battler was suddenly being so nice to Beato, and apparently having "forgotten Ange." Well... it's all here, to be honest.

- Yasu also understands what's going with Battler. I can only imagine how his face must give away the way he's fighting against at this moment, causing her to step in like this - and remind him that yes, she's just a monster that he needs to throw away any compassion for and just destroy. Yeah, I don't really know how to underscore enough how fucked up and tragic this whole situation is for everyone involved.

- It works, at least for now. But as we'll see, Yasu will have to continue reinforcing over and over to Battler just how evil she is and how she must be killed by him - because his anger against her continues to falter, again and again.

- Beato and Battler go back and forth about the first twilight of the second game. And speaking of what I just mentioned, abruptly in the middle of the exchange...

- Battler once again can't help but stop and subconsciously take notice of how much she must be suffering, what great strain she must be under, and then has to stop and shake his head and remind himself that he has to kill her.

- Battler hits on his legendary small bombs theory, which Beato can't help but scream with incredulous laughter at. But, tellingly, she lets it pass - because hell, if things have gotten to this point, what's even the point anymore? She moves on, letting Small Bombs stand - and they continue on through game two.

- "A sound like a watermelon beind squashed rang out, and a blue wedge was buried deep into Beato's left flank... Perhaps because the positioning was bad, it looked like it was very effective. After leaning over and moaning for a while, ...she laughed it off as though trying to make it seem like no big deal. Yeah, I get it. That must have hurt a lot...!"

- Battler's true feelings for Beato coming out once again aside, this happened in response to Battler carelessly swatting aside the key question of Fake Kanon from EP2. Yes, Battler, that would have devastated her especially, particularly when she's still vaguely trying to drop hints on you about nobody mistaking anyone else for Kanon.

- But once again, Beato throws her hands up and lets it go, because Why Fucking Not.

- Seriously, poor Yasu. She doesn't even bother fighting with him over the rest of the second game after that.

- This sure is an impressive, and impressively painful, bit of magic going on here, isn't it.

- I sort of want to mention how much I appreciate and respect the fact that Ryukishi let this whole sequence, this whole dynamic, stand the way it was, though. It's clear what's really happening here, what Battler doesn't realize, but the writing doesn't feel the need to parse it through and explain it blow by blow - he trusts the reader to be able to pick up on the emotional nuances. If not now, then in hindsight. And even after Battler understands, there is no sequence of flashback to the EP4 Tea Party that recounts for readers exactly the fact that killing Beato is also killing Battler inside, because he loves her so much - that it's beyond his power to keep doing it on his own. That therefore, Beato on some level recognizes at least his softness, and that she has to actively manipulate him and egg him, to her own continued torture, on every step of the way to reinflame his hatred against her. And that even as that happens, Battler's response always involves tears.

- At no point in the narrative is the reader going to be sat down and explained to that this is what's happening, and what it means in terms of the character's true motivations. And because no one will explain it, it feels all the more genuine to me - all the more devastating when it clicks into place that that is what is happening. Because the way it's presented is the truth of the situation - Yasu was thoroughly cornered in a place where she couldn't explain herself, had no one there to explain it to Battler, and Battler himself unwilling and incapable of comprehending it at this point. And the reader themselves is wrapped up in the tragedy of that situation and the tragedy of her cornered silence.

- Trusting his readers to pick up on the emotional subtext, and building a work that centered around that - to understand Yasu, you have to be willing to read behind lines, pick up the subtext that no one is going to walk you though, and how perfectly it rewards you with the silent, powerless punch in the gut when you process scenes in hindsight - is really a huge part of what makes Umineko special to me. Because, as a different friend put it once, that's how real people really work. People like Yasu are in a place, psychologically, where they can't explain themselves on their own behalf - and that's part of the reality of their situation that needs to be understood, without explicit explanation. You have to put in the effort. And it's an effort worth making.

- At any rate, Beato and Battler continue on, working through the third game. Battler spews more bullshit, etc etc.

- Unfailingly, as Battler's thoughts keep trailing back to linger on Beato's wounds and her agony, Beato faithfully pulls him back by laughing in his face and making cruel taunts about Ange. Beato understands Battler so well, and her selflessness in this whole sequence will probably never not make me cry.

- But it's almost impressive how Battler's thoughts flit back again, as he needs to try to re-center himself, once again, just seconds later, trying to beat ANGE ANGE ANGE into his own head. Yasu continues shoving the stake to murder her with into Battler's hands, leaving nothing to emotional chance, going into graphic descriptions on how she'll continue tormenting Ange to ensure his rage ignites again.

- Just as Ange had predicted and understood, she truly has become a piece--a devstating emotional bludgeon that petrifies Battler from the idea of showing compassion, mercy, and understanding to another person. There's something horrifying when a situation is successfully framed that it becomes righteous and a moral obligation to destroy another person who is suffering, isn't there?

- The last mystery they hit on is the death of Nanjo in the third game. Battler asks Beato to confirm that solving Nanjo's death is all that's left, and Beato tells him specifically that if he pulls this off, "she will die." Battler responds with hesitation and asks, almost hopefully, if Beato still has some kind of "hidden pitch" up her sleeve.

- Beato breaks down into tears again even as a twisted grin takes over her face as she starts rambling in response about how much she wants to be killed, just for fun, really, begging Battler to do it.

- Sometimes people suggest that holding Battler so heavily accountable for the promise to Shannon, when he was twelve, is sort of excessive. Honestly, when I think or talk about how badly Battler has fucked up, I'm usually thinking moreso of his conduct through the games - culminating with this - where, deep down, he does know what's happening - but he won't allow himself to acknowledge it, because in this moment, he's at a point where he's lionized cruelty in his head.

- Battler's sin of six years ago is something he could have been forgiven for by just remembering and acknowledging how it must have hurt Shannon, as Yasu herself puts forth. But this, this right here - falling into this, this mode of thinking, and acting on it, is the mistake that he is never, ever going to be able to take back.

- Battler justifies his lack of pity by pointing out that Beato held no pity for them either - eye for an eye - which Yasu basically shrugs and agrees with, before her anguished tears well up again as she drives in the point by going on about how much fun killing people is, and unfailingly, once again, invoking Ange.

- It is fitting, I guess, how Nanjo's murder is the last one in this sequence, though, as it's probably the death that stands out the most that forces you to see Yasu. There is no answer other than Yasu--which is, of course, why Eva invoking it caused Beato such panic in EP3

- And, of course, Battler manages to continue not seeing it by coming up with a technically-valid loophole solution regarding times of deaths instead.

- As he puts it forth, Beato is thrust into the air by the blue truth, run through. The music cuts out as Battler stares up at her.

- Beato moans in agony. Battler says, haltingly, that she got what she deserved - but the narrative notes that despite his words, Battler's fire is disappearing yet again at the sight of her in such pain.

- And Yasu is finally at the point, after keeping up the act for that long, where she can't really bring herself to do anything except sob about how much it hurts. Battler slowly asks her what she's asking of him, his attitude changing... and the narrative notes that even though Battler had been tricked by Beatrice at one point, and there was probably a part of him still suspicious about being tricked again -

- "Battler... believed those tears. After all, those tears... had the red truth mixed in with them."

- And from this point on, this is going to become his number one motivation.

- Beato tries to push Battler forward by using Emotional Bludgeon Ange one last time, but Battler finally dispells its power. No, not for Ange. For Beato's sake. It's just that it's only in this moment, with her practically torn apart in front of him, that this starts dawning upon him, beneath all the self-delusions he and Yasu both have used to push him forward to this point.

- Beato prepares her last riddle for Battler: the riddle that hits on the key of both the nature of the catbox and her power as an Endless Witch, but also the essential question of Yasu's heart that's been driving the whole of her motivation.

- The symbolism of one of Beato's arms flopping down, and the other remaining upright and alit, is a little bit murky, but I wonder if it isn't meant to represent something like both Yasu giving up, and Yasu's mystery itself remaining fundamentally unsolved? Hmm...

- As discode fires up, Beato approaches Battler and embraces her. He embraces her back, mentally reassuring her. The bomb finishes exploding from that frozen point of time captured in the meta, as Battler notes that his piece-self leaves the gameboard.

- And in the aftermath, this TIP pretty much made me cry all over again! It sure brings to mind the final ending for these two, looking at it now, huh.

[goatsreadingseacats]

A distant recollection.

At the moment we met, it was as though the world had burst into gold.

This feeling...

What memory is this?

It is a dream, forever repeating. Endless life and death.

It is all... illusions shown by this pitiful witch.

But if it could be allowed... I want to have wings. And then, fly into the sky.

My soul carries no identity. I no longer need the name of Endless Witch.

I want to be freed from these wedges, and fly anywhere, freely.

To the end of the heavens... to the outskirts of time. To the shore.

I only have one wish.

I want you to remember me.

Until the next time we meet...

...as long as your time continues on.

Who... am I?

[goatsreadingseacats]

EP4 - Tea Party, Part 2

Yasu must face what it truly means to have no chance of winning, while Battler both drives her to the brink of despair and helps her just when she's about to jump.

- Now it's time for Battler to rip Beato's heart out!  Are you as excited as I am? - Beato opens with telling Battler she expects a lot from him, evoking Ange's name once again to goad him forward.  Battler, of course, rises to the occasion. - As dreamenddischarger starts in the background, the two smirk at one another, bantering over who will get to take the first move.  It's such a perfect, tiny example of why I love those two so much, and how unusual it is to have this sort of complex "rivalry" between a man and a woman in Japanese media.

I had forgotten this line.  Even now, Ryukishi is cautioning that what we're about to see and hear isn't the entire truth.  BTW, if you're interested, Ryukishi is lying in about the hanakotoba, too.  Forget-me-nots mean "true love" and "please don't forget me".  Oops. - Battler starts off his attack with Kinzo's death immediately, using his corpse as a way to sneak in a "Person X" on who to blame the murders. - What I find really interesting though is right off the bat, a lot is made of "the unbearable pain" Beato feels when Battler's truth stabs into her foot.  Even though Beato is acting as antagonist, Ryukishi is already laying the framework for our sympathies to be piqued as the duel goes on and Beato's suffering increases. - Beato points out that not all the mysteries can be explained by "Person X" and brings up Shannon, Gohda, and George in the locked room as proof.  That's really sad to me, because that specific example lies so close to the core of her truth, and it was such a painful death for her as Shannon.  But, Battler being a guy that doesn't neglect the heart, I'm sure his explanation will be sensitive and insightful! - Yep, good old Battler. "Nope, we'll just gloss over that and move right along!"  That hurts worse than seeing Beato get ripped apart by wedges made of ridiculous, careless truth, to be honest.  It isn't just ignoring her heart, it's a rejection of its significance. - But Beato protests, using the red about all the master keys being under Rosa's control.  Considering how much Battler wept and agonized over pointing the finger at the hired help, nevermind any of his relatives, it's sort of farcical to see his next blue be an almost casual condemnation of Rosa as assisting the culprit. - And that's just the beginning.  Battler also tosses Eva on the heap without hesitation for the third game, then glosses over Nanjo's death with "Person X" again. - What Battler's doing reminds me of how a lot of people treated Umineko as though it was some sort of logic puzzle.  Much of the fandom discourse around this point in time of the game's release was about what was POSSIBLE for suspects to do, as opposed to probable.  Likewise, this sort of mindset makes people become more invested in discovering "AN answer" rather than "THE answer".   - This isn't to say I don't think Ryukishi appreciated speculation about the answer, because I'm positive he did.  Ryukishi has always been one to be extremely clear that he's fine with people taking their own meaning and readings from his work. - By the same token, it's difficult to see Battler here dragging Beato's narratives through the mud.  It feels almost like cheating, you know?  He's not actually engaged in understanding and giving her an answer, instead he's treating it like an obstacle course.  "If you don't bump into anything (trigger any red), you win!" - Battler is mostly on target at this point in time, though.  He points out that someone closed the window behind George in the third game, and that guns were obviously used in the fourth.  He and Beato also bicker a bit over the status of Kinzo, talking about body doubles and whether Kinzo could be alive or dead depending on the individual game. - Once again, though, the thing she chooses to challenge him on is a piece close to her heart. Yes, everyone recognized Yasu as Kinzo, because Yasu was the next Head and demanded to be treated as Kinzo, just like in the second game where she demanded to be treated as a witch.  If Battler can figure out the truth here, he'll have picked up one of the many keys Beato has scattered to unlock the actual truth. - As Beato cuts down all of Battler's blue with red regarding Kinzo, Battler sees an image of Kinzo protecting Beato from him.  Kinzo then turns into a dragon (nope, not just in the anime!) and threatens to swallow Battler whole.  But Battler does actually figure out that Kinzo in this case is a title, and had been passed on to another person before his death. - It's strange to think about what a huge piece of information that is, but in theories after EP4, it was still almost entirely ignored.  People thought the important thing to get from the exchange was Kinzo's death, not that there was already a new family head (who would have had control over the servants, among other things).  "Kinzo" even dies when Battler demands that he state no one there had more than one name.  Really, if you just reread the series, the answer is staring you in the face. - With all this talk about Kinzo's preserved corpse, someone should write a fic where Gohda goes into the walk-in fridge, moves some boxes around, and accidentally stumbles across it. - Kinzo can't withstand Battler's barrage of blue, and he fades away.  As he leaves, Beato manages to hesitantly say "I will not forget...my time spent with you..."  That certainly is a loaded phrase when you know the truth, huh? - "Your love and madness are, without a doubt, the real thing!"  I've always been inclined to agree.  Though Kinzo's relationship with all the Beatrices was destructive and painful in the end, it started out of the only genuine love Kinzo had ever felt for anyone his entire life.  That's why I find it so fascinating. - Battler tells Beato that she's next in line to die, because he has a little sister waiting for him to come back home.  Battler has always been good at assuming all his actions stem from the correct premise, so he never delves in deep with them.

Has this entire fight seemed one-sided up until now?  This explains why.  Beato is letting Battler's wedges hit her, hoping that she'll just be able to die like this. - Beato asks Battler to explain all the instances she did magic, and he calmly tells her that no matter how many people witnessed magic, it didn't prove that magic existed. Here we come to one of the most important moments in the game.  In ALL the games.  This was the part of the game that made akatokuro and I aware of Yasu's existence.  This is the sequence that made us fall in love with her as a character, and prompted our search for her.  It's not far off to say that our absolute determination that someone like Yasu exists never wavered until we actually got to meet her face to face in EP7, because of these lines of text.  akatokuro and I have talked about Umineko almost every day for at least five years now.  Most of that was spent on trying to find Yasu where she was hidden through the text and puzzle out her motives. And, I have to say, no matter what problems I have with Umineko, or all its faults and mistakes...I will always, forever love it because Yasu was even better than akatokuro and I had dared to dream.  As a fan of the series, it was like being given a priceless treasure.  I'll never forget that. So, moving right along!

There have been several scenes from Yasu-Beato's perspective, but this is one of the few that actually talks about her motivation in depth.  This shot makes it clear that Yasu wasn't hoping for absolution or a happy ending.  She went into this "game" expecting to die one way or the other.

I feel like this shot is super important too, in large part because it contradicts so strongly with the first.  Yasu thought she could win, even though she started this game with the assumption of loss?  What does that even mean?  Well, to put it simply, it means that a CERTAIN TYPE OF LOSS was her goal.  Yasu has been so worn down, been made so heartsick, that a "happy" ending is an impossibility, but there is an ending that will at least allow her to die contented.

Battler has no motivation at this point to find the actual answer.  the game parameters have changed to include "any answer that doesn't contradict the red", something that Ange herself pointed out before.  All Battler has to do is put forth something that makes logical sense and leave her to her despair and demise, secure in the knowledge that not one single person ever saw her as she really was and sympathized with her.

This speaks to Battler's motivation again.  As long as Battler had HER as a focal point, she was certain she could break through to him eventually.  But if Battler's goal is to now end things as quickly as possible, then she doesn't factor into his motivation at all.

Yep.  Now all that's left for her is to play the bad witch and get Battler mad enough to actually attack her.  There's no appealing to his better nature, or reminding him of his words six years ago.

"ONLY to be killed by Battler".  It's the "only" part that makes her heart ache, you know.  Getting killed was the obvious answer.  Being slowly tortured to death as the person you wanted to lay you gently to rest pierces everything but your heart?  Not so much.  There's a reason why this sequence is brought to mind in EP7, when Will lays Clair to rest using only gentle words of white and black, instead of gouging her to death with color.

This is one of the sequences in which "watashi" is used instead of Beato's "warawa" and proved to be the key to beginning to notice Yasu when akatokuro and I played this sequence in Japanese.  But, more importantly, look at how miserable this is.  Here, you might be wondering, "how can you connect this to Yasu, isn't it Beato that Battler has been denying?" But just think back to how Battler has been approaching the games.  Battler has been obsessed with taking everything he sees at face value.  All the servants are kind and loyal.  All of his family has a few money issues, but they wouldn't actually HURT one another over them.  All of his cousins are good kids that couldn't ever actually hurt anyone either.   So if everyone is actually good, and no one (himself included) has ever actually hurt someone...where is the space for Yasu to exist?  Yasu who has been abused by servants, treated horribly by the adults, and hurt emotionally (however unintentionally) by the cousins? By refusing to challenge his assumptions about himself and the people around him, Battler has, quite literally, erased the existence of the child that cried herself to sleep when George laughingly told her that Battler wasn't coming back; the teenager that has to smile and sympathize when Jessica notices Kanon's problems, but not Shannon's; and the adult that discovers her entire family was lying to her this entire time. In his refusal to investigate, to question, to detect, Battler has literally been denying her and her experiences.

So desperate for understanding, Yasu looks back at EP3 wistfully.  Even though she was lying, it was the closest she came to feeling like Battler was responding to HER.

And now she's truly hit the bottom, telling herself that lying for all eternity would have been better than this result, where she doesn't even exist to Battler as a person, just a cardboard cut out for him to punch until he's satisfied.

But this is why I love Yasu so much.  Even when she's hit the bottom.  Even when she's facing the most miserable ending imaginable, something deep down at the bottom of her cries out and refuses to allow her to accept an existence like that. - The sequence comes to an end with Battler quietly asking Beato if this is checkmate. - When Beato attempts to put him off, Battler looks at her suffering form and tells her, "You aren't a woman who'll let things end with just this."  Even when Beato has lost all pride and motivation, Battler won't allow her to be anything but the woman he fell in love with. - Beato even begins to tell him to just say that witches don't exist in blue, to just put a stop to her heart once and for all.  Who cares about the truth?  Who cares about understanding?  Just let me die! - Battler's reply?  "It's useless."

And isn't this the saddest reply?  Beato doesn't see it as Battler's refusal to accept anything than her best, she sees it as him wanting another go at her, he's not quite done punching the sandbag yet. - But Battler knows.  He tells her that he hasn't beaten her, she just gave up.  Beato replies that that's a good thing for Battler.  Now he can return to Ange even sooner. - Battler's reaction here is interesting too.  If he's serious about hating Beato and wanting to go back to his sister as soon as possible, he might as well take her offer, and yet he's hesitating and demanding more from her. - "What kind of person are you?  And what in the world is it that you want."  Ahhh, Battler, whispering words of love even as you stab her in the heart.  Things like this is why Yasu can't give up on Battler, why she chose him as the person who she wanted to understand her most of all, because even at Battler's worst, his ugliest, there will still be shining moments like this where he says precisely the right thing at the right time and Yasu starts to believe in that impossible miracle once again. - Battler begins to cry as he starts yelling about her inhumanity, and how he'll never be able to forgive her.  It is sad how obvious it is at this point he'll forgive Beato anything, even if he can't admit it to himself. - As Yasu-Beato despairs over him not just allowing her to sink to her death, she recalls that she was always promised a tragic end, since the first first time she decided on her path. - And so, as Battler demands that the master of Rokkenjima show dignity until the end, Beato stumbles to her metaphorical feet and howls in laughter, even as the tears gather in the corner of her eyes.

And as Battler calls her "my Golden Witch", for a moment we see her true face as she understands what Battler has inadvertently let slip.  Then, cementing her mask back in place, she slices through Battler's "person X" theory by lowering the count of people on the island to 17. - Battler grins as he realizes the battle is about to begin in earnest, not understanding what Beato has truly sacrificed to give him this ending.

[goatsreadingseacats]

EP4, Tea Party, Part 2

- Beatrice answers Battler's challenge, sneering as she orders Battler to chase her, to kill her, to "show me what your little sister gave you in her last moments...!!" Ange's death has become Beatrice's largest weapon for self-destruction in this fight, as well.

- With that, Battler and Beato are transported to the rose garden. For the first time in possibly ever, Battler declares that he'll take the first move, as dreamend discharger flares up.

- The narration wonders if the red of the roses suggests the battle taking place will provide proof for a single, red truth--but then notes that roses actually stand for passion. The flower for truth, it claims (putting aside the inherent tragic hilarity of it pushing the "forget-me-not" in this role) is a blue flower--symbolic of the direction Umineko will actually take from here on out, approaching the question of "truth" as having value as a subjective, personal thing.

- Battler kicks things off by declaring, in blue, that Kinzo is dead, thus opening up space in Beatrice's red truth for an unknown Person X to exist and be responsible for all crimes. The solution that Battler hit upon, self-admittedly, since the end of the third game, but that he's held off pushing until now - and probably would have continues holding off pushing for as long as he could get away with playing with and spending time with Beatrice.

- Beatrice holds off on denying that premise, instead encouraging Battler to keep going through the rest of the games. She points him towards the closed room coffin that involved Yasu's suicide in the second gameboard. Battler points out that Culprit X could have had a master key, but Beatrice responds in red that "all master keys were under Rosa's control." Battler answers quickly, spotting the tricky wordplay, that all this means is that Rosa would have been cooperating with Culprit X and would have let them borrow the key.

- From Yasu's perspective, it sort of breaks my heart that the closed room coffin where she committed suicide from despair, and came the closest in the fantasy narrative to revealing the truth of her heart, is the one she's still trying to nudge Battler towards, even now.

- From Battler's perspective, he's now fully willing to throw anyone and everyone under the bus - the family he refused to before - to smash Beatrice. As yumetabibito has noted, this is no longer about searching for any form of truth or understanding. It's about crushing the evil witch by whatever means possible, and doing it under a veil of outraged righteousness.

- ...and Yasu's soft, rueful reaction to Battler pushing aside the question of that closed room, still not even close to understanding anything, is telling. Afterwards, she lets out a cry of anguish from Battler's blue truth driving into her.

- Continuing with not giving a fuck, Battler throws out that the closed room chain from the third game, and in fact everything, can be explained with Eva as the culprit. Nanjo is explained with Unknown Person X. Beato points him, though, to George's escape, which can't be explained by either of those things. Battler counters easily, saying that George simply jumped out, and someone locked the window afterwards.

- Battler also lays the fourth game on Person X, and sidesteps the ricidulous stories that baffled his piece-self - hey, you know, maybe pitfalls were really there (even though his piece-self made a big deal about how he couldn't find anything at all suggesting they existed), or else the people were just knocked out with some kind of tranquilizer gun! SOUNDS LEGIT.

- Beato puts forth that everyone recognized Kinzo's existence, and Battler counters that the relatives could have simply mistook a different person for Kinzo. The one thing you could say Battler is getting a little better at is recognizing and being able to work around the "wordplay" element of the red truth, I suppose.

- Beato counters with red that no one would mistake Kinzo by sight, no matter what the disguise. Battler points out that Beato had proposed before that the possibility that the number of master keys across different games could be different, changing the base premise. Therefore, it's fine for him to reason that Kinzo could have been alive in game four, but been dead in the other games.

- This is actually pretty interesting, and gets easily brushed over in all the red-and-blue trading. It lays out that unless a red statement is accompanied by "this is true for all games," it doesn't necessarily apply to all, even if it's general-sounding or a definition check. Beato retaliates in red saying that Kinzo's life or death status is the same in all games, but doesn't counter his suggestion that the premise could change.

- "The premise could change" is also a reflection of all of the gameboards coming down to being fiction, too, of course, and opens the possibility for things like Lambda's Yasu-as-man-from-nineteen-years-ago, rather than Yasu-as-witch, scenario.

- Battler starts cursing at Kinzo, wondering if he's "putting himself on the line" to protect this concept of Beatrice. Kinzo's image appears in typical meta-dramatized way and starts taunting Battler. But at the last minute before Kinzo swallows him, Battler comes up with the theory - based on the third game where we learned about the title of Beatrice being passed on - that the name "Kinzo" also functions as a title that can be passed to another person, bypassing the red.

- Boy, it must suck for Yasu to see one of her biggest clues not being applied to what she was hoping it would be - understanding her riddle about Battler's "sin" and it not being tied to Beatrice - and instead twisted in this sort of hilarious way.

- Hahaha, fffuuuuckkkkk yyyyooouuuuu Battler!!!

- Of course, Kinzo can't counter it, and is destroyed by Battler's red truth. Beato quietly thanks Kinzo, asks him to rest in peace, and that she "won't forget the time spent with you." I'm inclined to read this more about the fictional constructs of Kinzo that Yasu, self-aware, has used for herself in various ways, although it's very very true that her feelings towards the real Kinzo were very complicated and painful - and it would be a convenient lie to paint them as 100% hatred, as much legitimate hatred was there.

- battler you're such a cool tough guy m i rite

- Battler reiterates that he needs to leave and take his family home for Ange, and Beato encourages him on. Battler declares everything else can be neatly explained by Culprit X, and the game seems to come to a close. The blue stakes drive into Beato, and... we switch, again, to Yasu's perspective.

- ...

- Even now, though she's basically been seeking her death all along by this point, a part of her continues to panic at the idea of dying. In desperation and sadness, she brings up one final question of magic to Battler: in the second game, when she fixed Maria's Halloween candy for her - an act of kindness, rather than malice, she was able to deliver through her magic.

- Naturally, Beato knows it's an easy question to knock aside, but that's why it comes across as sad and accentuating her desperation that she would fall back on something so small. She uses that to segue into the question of how so many people around Battler could have claimed to have witnessed magic, primarily in the fourth game - trying to fall back on the internal reasoning of her world about peoples' acknowledgment validying the things and selves that are important to her.

- Battler, though, brushes the argument off as invalid. "No matter who or how many people witnessed magic, that cannot become proof of magic's existence."

- Yasu reflects, "it might be impossible for me..." and reminds herself that "it was a game without victory from the beginning." She wonders if she's fought all this time just to lose to Battler, like this.

- And here we're hitting again on how Umineko is fundamentally a different kind of story from Higurashi and those like it: certain determination doesn't actually guarantee success. Beatrice understood that her goal was "impossible," but still was determined to try and repeat endlessly, armed with her determination, to attain a miracle for herself.

- And in the end, against that question of impossibility... well, it was impossible.

- There are ways that you could challenge that - things Battler could have done, things that Beatrice could have done, but to Beatrice at this point - and this is funny to say about the meta, but it's something Umineko remains firm about in terms of the tragedy that happened between Battler and Beatrice and neither of them breaking through to each other in time - but saying "it could have been different like this, maybe" only means so much when that chance has passed. In Beatrice's reality, right now, the chance for things to be different is over, and the end result turns out to be: it's impossible.

- And what gets me is that the portrayal of Yasu struggling with understanding that no, there isn't going to be a wondrous miracle for her, everything will be exactly as she was promised from the beginning, no matter how hard she's tried and how hard she fights - is how raw and human it feels. Sometimes you have stories with a character submitting to defeat where they go out nobly and it's still somehow inspirational and positive. Not so in Yasu's case, who, in spite of her outward acting, continues internally crying and screaming and trying to come to terms with it, that she gets nothing. It feels very raw and very real.

- Umineko is a story about stories. Yasu, with her catbox, tried to construct a space where stories couldn't be denied as not being real, because stories were the only way she could see to be fulfilled and anything close to happy and accepted. In the meta-space, Yasu as Beatrice held onto the vague romantic idea, informed by stories, that if she tried hard enough, everything might be okay after all, even at a one to quadrillion odds. And it turns out that, after all - those things are just stories.

- Instead, Beato recognizes, if there's a story at play here, it's Battler as the hero with the certain determination, the hero out to avenge his fallen sister against the evil witch. The way Battler has been consciously shaped, by this point, as that "righteous, avenging protagonist," is in his own way using the power of stories for his benefit, has driven her into a complete corner.

- I remember once reading a short story that hit me really hard. I don't remember where it was from, or what the title was, but it essentially came down to a person realizing that despite all of their dreams from childhood, it hit them at some point that they weren't functioning in life as a hero or protagonist. If anything, they were a minor, disposable background character.

- I've always thought of that as one of Yasu's fundamental struggles, along with everything else. The sense of being a tool in everyone else's story, with her own pain and confusion being irrelevant, something she has to swallow and smile and bear with for their sakes - George's, Kinzo's, etc - so it's heartbreaking, to me, to see that being "confirmed" to her at the end like this in such a painful way, grinding her into the dirt with it that "yes, you were right, your pain is worthless, your determination was worthless, what you wanted was worthless."

- This screencap is incredibly important in a way that unfortunately didn't translate to English at all - Beatrice switches to Yasu's "I" pronoun here, as she says this. It's not only the pure vulnerability of Yasu emerging, it reflects her fundamental wish, which Will states plainly in EP7, once everything is over: just to be seen by someone. Battler, in her heart if hearts, but by EP7 she's left so broken by what's happening right now that she's arrived at the point of "anyone at all would be a miracle."

- Just the framing of "reflection" is also interesting - because, yes, Battler is looking directly at her, at Beatrice. But he doesn't see her. He sees her as a vehicle, or an obstacle, to reaching his "real goals." That same old pattern for Yasu, etc, etc.

- There's also that self-reproach, always present in Yasu's voice, for wanting the things she wants. Of course Battler doesn't see her; of course what he prioritizes are his family and the little sister who just died in order to fuel his determination. It's "as expected," "obviously," and that's part of what's devastating, to be honest. Self-reproach for daring to hope for anything else other than the denial of your selfhood and being used as a tool.

- ...and following that sense of self-reproach, Yasu's thoughts turn to the third game, and how she ended up sabotaging herself when she could have claimed at least some form of victory. She reflects on how "interesting" it was when she and Battler felt like they understood each other, even for a little bit.

- Yasu continues berating herself for not just taking what she could have had and running, for daring to hope for something more - for actual understanding not based on a convenient act.

- But it also tells us, again, about what Yasu really wants, deep deep deep down, based on that denial - it's not to be loved as Shannon, really. Or as Kanon. Or even as "Beatrice." It's for someone to see her, the one who encompasses all of those things, all of those identities. The Golden Land was constructed out of a conviction that that was impossible, so it becomes "the best I can have."

- Back at the actual fight, Battler hesitantly asks if this is checkmate. In the face of Beato's obvious pain, as always, his resolve starts faltering a little...

- The narration notes describes Beato's pitiful state, skewered by the blue truth, even as it notes that this might be a "fitting end" for such a cruel witch.

- And this is Battler's face as, again, he asks if it's done.

- Beato basically says it's over, but Battler disagrees with her. Beato calls him ridiculous, and asks him to deliver the final blow already. Battler hesitates, and when Beato urges him again, tells her it's useless. Beato begins to cry.

- Battler says their fight isn't over, because he can tell Beato just gave up. Beato tries to remind him that even if it's just her giving up, it's better for Battler, since it hands him more easily and quickly what Battler has been saying he wants: to return right away to Ange, to get his family out of here...

- "Just throw me away, right here."

- In other words: "no, I won't."

- Battler may not understand it himself, but he just can't leave Beato alone - even as Yasu reflects bitterly about his inability to actually reach her.

- But in a way, that silent encouragement - and subsequently asking, tearfully, why Battler won't just let her escape and die, also represents her last shred of hope as Battler lets out the words, at least, she's been wanting to hear from him all this time.

- Hope which he quickly dashes against the rocks! Nope, no actual desire to understand who you are and what you want, just outrage and a desire to completely break you because you're such a Bad Person!

- What Battler is saying is true, in a lot of ways, is the thing. Yasu has been cruel, has been inhumane, has toyed with peoples' lives and planned to kill them, for her own sake. But she's still human. She's still in a great deal of suffering. And the series quietly, pushing us into her POV for this sequence, tells us she's still worth understanding and feeling empathy for. That playing Battler and fighting based on self-righteous, destructive outrage for the horrific things we attribute to her is going to lead to even more pain and tragedy.

- And Yasu confirms to herself, again, that there's no hope.

- What used to be an empowerment fantasy for Yasu has mostly led her to this end of even more self-hatred and despair. In a way, "Endless Witch" was probably the part of "Beatrice" that remained uniquely Yasu's, since Beatrice in general was taken from her by Kinzo and Genji - but even that has become something bitter and hateful for her, by this point.

- And there it is. And Yasu comes to the conclusion, then, that the only way to get out of being used as a "toy" is to embrace death, and be released. She reminds herself, yet again, that it was promised to her from the beginning the moment she chose to be a witch that she would not be saved.

- Battler shouts his challenge at her, and Beato starts letting out a crazed laugh and calls him a fool, as "Happiness of Marionette" flares up in the background. It's a pretty fitting musical choice, considering the connotations of that song have always been very much "a fake, farcical happiness" with emphasis on the "fake" to me!

- And Battler recognizes - and clues the readers in on - that Beato threw away the match and her facade deliberately when she could have claimed victory in the third game, even before Ange showed up. It's probably the single answer of value that Battler gives us as far as Beatrice's mystery throughout this entire sequence - even though he's still misunderstanding why Beato saved him at that point, and making it about them being "opponents."

- Battler, not noticing it himself, just slipping out in the heat of the moment, also gives us the definitive answer to the growing mystery of his own heart, in regards to Beatrice and his feelings for her. And that answer is that Beatrice is his. And even though she's reached the point where she understands that nothing will change because of it...

- ...Yasu still hears him.

- But she only allows herself a moment before the mask is shoved back on, as she resumes playing her part.

- A vicious smile on her face, Beato confirms in red Kinzo's dead status at the start of all games, but cuts out the ability for Battler's Culprit X to exist, as she lowers the official person count by one to accommodate the loss of Kinzo. A grin spreads over Battler's face in answer as he acknowledges this means they'll have to start the fight again from square one.

- Just as Battler had hoped for.