#Natsuhi cool

[colourful-void]

umineko sliding scale as of rn for me to how sympathetic i find each character (not necessarily how much i like, just like. i get where they're coming from) as of right now bcs theres like a bunch more of the story so its bound to change.

"i was born to understand your visions" -> maria and shannon "i really feel for you here" -> natsuhi and kanon "yeah, i get it" -> kumasawa, jessica, kirie "parts of you i cannot resonate with, but others i am either compelled by or can understand" -> battler and rosa "no paticular thoughts" -> genji, the doctor i forgot his name, "more of you i dont sympathize with than i do, but there's still elements" -> eva, hideyoshi "you're gonna have to show me something more for me to understand where you're coming from" -> gohda, krauss, rudolf "i dont sympathize with you (as i understand you now.) -> george and kinzo

beatrice exists outside the scale bcs i dont understand anything shes got going on but i am compelled. maybe once let sjust let her win i wanna see where this goes

[finelyagedlemons]

i feel like i have too many umineko pieces w vertical comp but my favorite characters won't stop falling from heights

[pochapal]

favorite part of this is how natsuhi's pride makes her reactions to these tasteless talks about kinzo dying/being dead so easily capable of feeding into eva's suspicions.

[nyaagolor]

Thinking about a Natsuhi-Beatrice concept. Some assorted notes under the cut

One of my hcs is that all the witches are the age when their irl counterparts "gave up". Beatrice is 19 because that's when Sayo decided for sure to commit the massacre, Eva-Beatrice is in middle school because that's when Eva gave up on becoming the family head, and so Natsutrice is 15, mentally stuck in her wedding day when she realized she would not longer be Natsuhi, but a borrowed womb and wife for the Ushiromiya family's successor and not much else

Her outfit is based off 1950s Italian wedding dresses with elements of Lolita fashion (the layers and roses, mostly) but also tinged with red both to show her sins as well as her Shinto background (red features on many shinto wedding kimonos underneath the white). I specifically wanted to have the darkest red on her hands (representing the whole baby cliff thing), her innermost layer of clothing around her legs (fertility issues / womanhood related trauma) and the trail of her dress (always dragging the past forward). Because blood is used as a representation for sin, I wanted to use the red to show both Natsuhi's own actions / philosophies as well as mix it through the western and eastern influences on this design to call back to the ideas of forced assimilation and conquest that Natsuhi represents within the broader narrative. Also bc it looks cool

As for how she would actually act within the narrative I have not thought about that much, but I think because of her obsession with cleanliness and her constantly requesting to cover the deceased's faces during the Episodes there would be at least some aspect of Shinto funeral customs involved. I like to think all the bodies would be laying down + facing north, their faces covered and with piles of salt by the door instead of the magic circles. It's less gory, but deeply unsettling either way

[ggren-mainz]

Umineko - question arcs playthrough -> ep 2 - 2

last part - All parts and episodes - next part

To be honest i am genuinely so curious over what's Ryukishi's religion, or if he has any at all. Because both of his works include lots of Christianity references, and while in Higurashi it was more sparse here it's way more obvious. So I'm really curious if he is actually Christian or if he's just very into the religion/thinks the imagery works better.

My point exactly. They're talking about how Shannon and George got separate rooms when they went to their trip, and Jessica was outraged. Like unless I'm wrong, this is purely a Christian idea, especially with the wording and all that. Very intrigued.

Anyways Jessica has a little moment of sadness related to how she apparently cant get a bf and also wishes to fall in love. Which to my knowledge she did already fall in love with Kanon.

Later Beatrice shows herself to Shannon and they start talking about her gift of love. Shannon acts nicely with Beato and she starts opening up a bit.

this one seems interesting, because it does tie into the Ghost beatrice theory, or maybe just dead beatrice theory i had at one point.

She continues by saying that only her and Kanon have the magical affinity to see her, and that Krauss and Natsuhi have none and cannot sense her at all. But also

as sillly as this is, it makes me think, is this one of the reasons for Natsuhi's headaches? She doesn't see or feel them, but yet some magical being (not necessarily Beatrice) hits her head and her headache gets worse.

This is...interesting. So this implies that Beatrice existed at one point, or something big happened for him to see her.

oookay well doesn't disprove my earlier idea because he got into magic after meeting her. But also, what type of magic did he do? What does this actually mean?

oookaaay i was wrong sorry, well still interesting. What does she mean by luck ran out? What did Kinzo do? I do not trust that man. Perhaps i shoud read more and talk less though lol.

Krauss the type of guy to say "a smile would be good".

manner of our birth?? Bitch did a drawer birth you??? Kanon you're so not #woke, nowadays furniture can also become human *rolls eyes*. You too can become a real boy Kanon!

Also, you know what takes up too much of my mind? One out of context spoiler i saw, which said that in the answers arc there will be a trans girl. AGHHH I NEED TO READ THAGT WHO IS IT UGHHH.

For context this is haunting my mind recently because i remembered about the trans girl Battler fic and i need to read it, i need it, i need it pumped in my blood stream its ughhhhhh.... yeah I'm normal.

I wonder what happened to give him such an inferiority complex. Also i was thinking, but do any other servants say this? Gohda and kumasawa definitely no but i think Genji does. Is it like a requirement to get the one winged eagle? You have to pander to Kinzo's weird fetish? Or what? I assume they raised these kids in the orphanage like this so yeah. Wtf.

Is this how Jessica falls in love with Kanon?? Because he has the brooch??

what does this mean what does this mean??? What can't be seen, whose love?? Kinzo's love towards her? Towards someone else? Why is the seen in ' ', while in jp it isn't???

I love you ryukishi but this face sucks ass. Why are the eyes so up?? Why does only she have this issue?

Shannon is teasing Jessica about her obvious crush on Kanon. The idea is for her to pretend that Kanon is her bf and take him to the school's cultural festival. Also more atrocious Jessica faces (a bit more bearable this time tho)

Taking the big jacket to make sure he looks even smaller in comparison.

Song and reference so cool, my laptop crashed again.

I do not get why it keeps crashing, like ffs it's a vn, its like the easiest thing to run ever.

this is getting too meta!!

hmmm i have a feeling this whole creating a new self thing will be important later on. But I'm still thinking about his death, and how he said he's no longer furniture, and also the most important part -> "wait another 100 years in hell for your next summoner". How did he summon Beatrice? Wouldn't that be Shannon if we take it like this? Did he do the things Shannon did in that timeline? Does he summon Beatrice before she talks with Shannon, and that's why he doesn't trust her? It's kindof unrelated to the photo but i keep thinking about that.

*points a finger* These people do not know that the magic of love is not the fact that it's forever, but the happiness it brings to oneself. Even though a relationship might be doomed to fail, and they will eventually break up, that doesn't not mean the love was in vain and that the pain that follows is hell. Life is full of little moments, and be this moment for weeks, month or years, as long as it brings you happiness/teaches you something it was not in vain. The only way a lover will not suffer by a departure is if they both die at the same time. If they don't one will still suffer, although they lived their whole life together. So pain and love are interwined, but denying the latter for fear of experiencing the first one is purely dumb. That is life, and the truth is that the greater the love, the greater the happiness, the greater the pain that will follow. But that's ok. This isn't a tragedy, it's just how life is, so that's why you should enjoy each and every moment of happiness. It will just make you enjoy life more. Tune in next time for more life lessons with ggren.

aaaaaa this makes so much sense. So that's why they're taught to say they're furniture.

wait huh 3? Who's the third one? Kinzo? But i wouldn't say that Shannon's and George's relationship was sown this day.

Also what's the deal with Kumasawa sometimes acting like a sort of narrator? Does she just like speaking like that or.... its weird that's for sure.

next part

[whenthechickencry]

Our Confession

I actually have read both this one and Last Note Before, it was a long while ago though... so I know the general gist but I don't quite remember all the details

The way Beatrice is doing her dead inside sprite before she realizes others were in the room and then she plays up her hamminess a bunch is really sad, aaa.

Dlanor constantly tells Beatrice she's a good writer and she's so excited but a little sad she won't get to see it as a full-blown game first, and Beatrice is like you don't need to flatter me but she's right Beato you should accept her compliments.

Iirc what the Booklet did for this was having the pages be sealed after this and you had to unseal them, which is actually extremely cool. They did their best here but a simple choice prompt just can't match that, I think.

Haha, the complaining about how Natsuhi is hard to make an accomplice... she's like the only person that cares about the headship as much as the gold, Eva as well but Eva isn't getting that without Sayo's help anyways, thinking about it even in Episode 4 she was one of the first to go,, so I can imagine getting her to cooperate is kind of hard. Granted, once you bring up Jessica to the equation you can probably get her to relent.

Beatrice getting a gun sprite is kind of uncanny, haha, really bringing it home was an early draft before Sayo had the chance to embellish the story with magic.

Kinzo being willing to explain to his children that he would blow them up if he felt like it worked in Sayo's favor when getting accomplices, I suppose.

You know, the fact Genji was like "hey! you are a product of incest. we rewrote your entire life for your incestuous grandfather. All your lovers are your cousins. Everything in your life is a lie. By the way, you have a bomb to blow everything up!" like okaayyy what were you expecting at that point Genji.

It's kind of interesting Beatrice tells accomplices that Kuwadorian is safe - technically Rosa could have probably survived Episode 2 with Maria if she just checked Shannon's corpses and realized she really was dead and just tried to make a mad dash to Kuwadorian, maybe.

Krauss is like yeah sure, sure, why not I guess. The fact that Natsuhi is the one more hesitant about this when she's the one thrust into solving all their problems, figuring out what to do, and she never had the option to not do her part...

This episode really does feel like tearing up the guts of Umineko... you can tell a lot of the accomplices act a little weird around Battler so you can guess Sayo probably told them vaguely of her plan, but it's the sort of thing you don't expect to be explicitly confirmed.

Kumasawa is grinning here, haha, she really does think she's a prank up to the very end.... it's kind of sad. She probably can't even imagine Sayo as someone who would do what she did, but I guess that also shows the way she didn't reach out to try and understand her enough...

It's kind of funny how sometimes you see the story going, ah, shit, sorry I have to embellish this more, right.

While thinking on how to properly kill 5 people she gets distracted by the fact she wants to draw a cute girl instead of a man, haha.

It's kind of funny because she does absolutely think they also did something wrong, but I guess talking to herself like this also makes it easier for her to justify herself to her...

Huh... now that I think about it most magic circles were indeed in places that people don't usually go to, ie the shed or Kinzo's rooms... I did think Sayo did the drawings in between murders, haha

The fact Sayo writes some of her tales while thinking about how the argument with Battler is going to go is kind of funny, haha. I wonder what the Japanese version said for metaworld here... it's not a sentence the translation has used so far and the side arcs don't have the greatest translation, so I am curious...

Beatrice is making fun of Battler for reading so many mystery novels but not being able to figure out the mystery, but also praises the person able to see the fantasy aspect of it...

The fact that so many of the mysteries in Umineko rely on several characters thinking that Shannon/Kanon wouldn't do X is very sad... like Sayo is writing these stories with the assumptions that no one in the family actually understands her and won't care to try to, so her mysteries are safe.

It's kind of interesting how in the episodes Sayo does this they mix up whether a Sayo actor is doing it or whether it's an actual conclusion the characters reached, in order to have more difficulty seeing the pattern. For ex: in Ep1 Eva, the accomplice, and Natsuhi both brought up this argument. Eva was an accomplice but Natsuhi isn't.

It's brought up that Gohda and Kumasawa don't know its actual murder, I knew about Kumasawa but didn't know about Gohda, actually... I think the roulette accomplices always know or at least figure it out early enough. Kumasawa's the one who is always clueless. Not really sure about Gohda in ep2, though. I think a lot of people were probably clueless in ep4.

This scene always fucks me up.... the way one of the few light conversations we see between Sayo and Kumasawa is here, the fact Sayo is crying after what she does before resuming the mocking Beatrice act. The use of "End of a Daydream" as the song...

In general this episode really highlights how? Disassociative? Sayo was during all of this. She constantly switches from doing the cruel witch that laughs at everyone's misfortune, to passing the blame on to Battler for what happened, to being fucked up about what is happening. None of these are Sayo on their own but all of them together make up Sayo. I think an episode like this really helps you see how all of the Sayos are one Sayo. Its role as a post-Umineko arc is interesting too. Even people sympathetic to Sayo occasionally role her as ie the innocent victim who did nothing wrong or flatten her into her relationship with Battler. Sayo is so much more than that and this episode forces you to confront that.

Shannon's words here hit so hard... Sayo here is affirming she was an incomprehensible being that was impossible to understand in the first place. In general, Shannon seems to be the persona most resigned to giving up... Beatrice might think its a long shot but her game and the meta arguments show that she does have a hope that she can be understood. Kanon might not think better is possible, but still yearns for it and isn't satisfied with what they have; as opposed to Shannon who seems completely resigned to the fact no one will understand them and that there is no hope for the future. Ofc all of these are the same person, so it's not useful to see them as totally different perspectives. But I think trying to understand each persona on their own is useful to analyzing Sayo. Like, why is the persona that has completely given up tied to George? Why is the persona that wants better but doesn't think its possible tied to Jessica? I think answering those kinds of questions can help you understand what was going on in Sayo's head during a lot of moments as well as help you contextualize their relationships more.

It's kind of funny how they do the missing corpse trick with Kanon constantly but never with Shannon, when Shannon's corpse appears its either after Sayo is dead or they hide the corpse another way entirely. R07 probably didn't want you to figure out they were the only corpses allowed to do this.

Dlanor points out that Beatrice surely wants to be understood by more than one person, Beatrice doesn't really answer to that remark and just says it's fine for her to just hope that one person understands her.

Of course, Dlanor did end up guiding Battler to Beatrice... and thankfully he didn't have to release her guts in order to do it, but... Battler still didn't understand her with just Beatrice's own words and actions. He needed to be guided and prompted by others to be able to get there, and it was still too late. This is still very sad.

Beatrice gets a shocked expression once Dlanor points out that said prince needs to have love for her or otherwise they won't get to her, and Beatrice relents in giving her the manuscript as long as Dlanor agrees to not release it before she is dead.

Now, on to the present.

Of course, Sayo didn't *just* want Battler to understand her. She wanted others to be able to see her heart. She wanted others to stop painting over her for the benefit of others. She wanted everyone to see her for the full person that she was. But that seems like such an impossible, naive dream that she won't even accept to having it.

There's just so much going on here... Dlanor begging for you to understand her, the reuse of the episode 4 red truth. Dlanor points out that just understanding what went on in the gameboards isn't enough to understand Sayo, there is still so much more for you to understand.

This is the first of all the side arcs I would say is completely required reading, Umineko's Saikoroshi basically. The writing here was excellent, allowing you to see the gameboard from a different perspective helps you understand Sayo much more. Being post-ep8 also lets them be so much more explicit with things they didn't have as much of liberty in the main arcs. There are so many heartbreaking scenes in this episode. If anyone reading this hasn't read this arc, I really beg you to do so.

[lizardrosen]

early-ish into umineko i had a half-joking theory that twelve year old battler had ideals of being a socialist man of the people and tried to stir the servants into striking against kinzo and their living conditions, but because he was, y'know, twelve, his plans were too simplistic and <cool> to really work and it ended up backfiring, especially on shannon, who was treated worse by natsuhi because of it.

i really wanted this kid to be laertes.

[rose-reads-visualnovels]

ARGHGHHHHHHHH

MISCOMMUNICATION TROPE. MY NEMESIS.

Natsuhi was so blind to all the double speak happening in the room that she really thought Krauss wasn't fighting his siblings and thus became more and more aggressive so she could "pick up his slack". Fighting for both of them at once like when you're pregnant and have to eat for two.

She didn't notice any of the times her husband manipulated the conversation away from her interruptions. When he put the spotlight on himself so she wouldn't get burned.

When Krauss tells her to leave so she can "cool off" she sees it as "not coming to her aid" when it's the kindest thing he could do at the moment. Taking her out of Awakened Misogynist Eva's war path so her heart wouldn't be trampled further because anything outside of complete situation removal would just make things worse.

This is so painful to watch. He can't comfort her because to do so would "weaken" him. To do anything but coldly remove her would be the same as softening up. Krauss Ushiromiya is not allowed to be soft. His care is only present in an absence of harm. He has nothing else to offer his wife.

[istherewifiinhell]

[Game descriptions (not terribly detailed) of disfigured corpses]

Aunt Natsuhi caught Jessica in her arms and aunt Eva caught George-aniki... so I was the only one who could approach the entrance to the storehouse. Aah... if only there had been someone there to catch me too, I wouldn't have needed to have this horrible, evil scene burned into my eyes...

...No, that's not it. It isn't that there's no one here to catch me... The people who should catch me, they're right there, aren't they!!

"Dead people are supposed to have faces that look like they're sleeping peacefully, right?! There's no face, my dad and Kyrie-san have no faces!! I don't even know what kind of faces they were wearing when they died!! What's wrong with me!! Will I have to see these faces, smashed up like they're monsters, every time I remember Dad and the rest?! That's just great, I don't even want to remember that old bastard's smug face, just great, just great!!"

"But you know, why even Kyrie-san's face...? Kyrie-san wasn't a bastard..... I sometimes got a little sick of her, but..., she was a little cool, just like a big sister to me....

and then.... and then this......!! At least Krauss oji-san's better, isn't he!!? It's not his whole face, just the side!! He at least has half of his face left, doesn't he!! That's still better, that's still better!!"

Disregarding age and appearance, I fell to my knees, clinging to Aniki's waist and sobbing. It was as if I was crying on behalf of everyone there... Representing the feelings of everyone there, I screamed over and over...

[knoxs2nd]

thinking about shannon/kanon and how much they love each other and how all of their interactions are always so positive and healing

thinking of the implications and crying

DO YOU EVER THINK ABOUT HOW YASU WANTED A FAMILY SO BADLY THAT IN RESPONSE TO HER TRAUMA SHE JUST WENT I'LL MAKE MY OWN! LIKE, THINK OF THE SHITTY SHITTY FAMILY DYNAMICS SHE SAW ON THE DAILY BUT BEST SIBS KANON AND SHANNON WERE ALWAYS, ALWAYS TOGETHER AND SUPPORTIVE!!!

beatrice wasn't related to kanon and shannon so she gets used to bully the other yasusonas. even when kanon and shannon disagreed with each other it was always with unconditional love and trust.

THINKING ABOUT HOW BEATRICE ONLY STARTS SHOWING UP TO INTERACT WITH KANON AND SHANNON WHEN SHANNON STARTS PURSUING A RELATIONSHIP WITH GEORGE CAUSE YASU GOES "YOU KNOW WHAT. I NEED TO REALLY REALLY BULLY AND HATE MYSELF RIGHT NOW AND KANON AND SHANNON WONT DO THAT TO EACH OTHER"

it's extra cool thinking about how lion also has a sibling. lion and jessica are very, very different! lion gets to tease and bully jessica but they still love and care about each other!!

it's fun that in the "ideal" world with ideal relationships for lion with natsuhi, kinzo, etc. lion and jessica feel much more like regular siblings! compared to yasu's world with all these broken relationships, and yasu created the "ideal" sibling relationship with shkanon...

[stemmmm]

part 5 (+?) thread

ep1 ep2 ep3 ep4

erika furudo is bern's fucking self-insert oc................ i knew they had to be the same person because they Look Like That and also. Name. but. oh my god this is funny. she's managed to say a single line btw, this is just spoiler knowledge and inference running

ah! ok so we are doing answer arc-ass answer arcs. cool i'm fine with that! makes things a lot easier to follow especially since more inane bullshit's gonna get thrown in

hate haaaaate seeing beato like this tho :(((( this is miserable, she makes me so sad, and battler saying over and over again "dw boo i'm gonna kill u for sure" also makes me so sad. get well soon queen!!!!!!!!

i may be wrong but i get the impression that this was kind of the same as the evolution of the real life beato's situation/personality.... and in that sense i can't imagine any of this ending well but i want it to so baddd because i love herrrrr she deserves the worllldddddddd

it's nice of them to rewind things for battler's sake but uh. erika's a bit of a fucking cunt huh. no love in this game, indeed. we are bringing out peoples worst and making sure battler has as miserable of a time as possible. it's interesting to see that the epitaph is solved before any murder but know that people still die in the end tho.

also love that we're saying kinzo's dead for real, none of this with natsuhi is happening. open your eyes battler, look. nothing's there. really good moment.

battler's been confronting the epitaph in terms of why it exists rather than solving it, and there's definitely been much spoken of miracles, added onto by lambda saying there'd be no point in the riddle if it wasn't hard which would add ammunition for a miracle to happen, though there's still the insistence that beato has nothing to gain from the riddle existing... at least materially. and she doesn't kill for pleasure. so there's the obvious point that she made the epitaph because she wanted to play with someone, specifically battler since he always lives, and battler himself mentioned the play aspect though I dont know how serious he was about that. beato's very obviously just wanted to play with him from the beginning, even though her kidnapping and torturing of him in the first place pretty heavily obscured that. if we accept play as her reason for it existing and doing the murder games, that still leaves the miracle up in the air. does the chance of a miracle occurring not count as a potential material gain? is doing something purposely to try and create a miracle not... a reason for doing it? is the miracle that beato could Actually be revived in some way or is there something else?

[misarem]

umineko ep 1 impressions

i liek never rlly successfully text post on here. but since i keep fan art and vgm on here i thought i might as well track my progress on this million word 100 hour visual novel JOURNEY to look back on later. obv spoilers for the first episode and its tea party and ??? segment.

for the most part, what drew me into umineko was atmosphere and that amazing ost and ive watched little out of context vids on the game just to get a taste cuz im just rlly into it. im so glad i chose Umineko Project over 07th mod for my first pt since just small things like the rain effects and the lip synching add so so much. the Experience of Umineko just has really nice levels to it. Ive listened to goldenslaughterer like a million times just from that one erika furudo clip and it didnt lose a bit of its power when i heard it for the first time in the scene at the garden shed and it made that whole scene just so exciting after literal hours of shifting from light playful scenes with the cousins and tense scenes with the ushiromiya siblings, building upon both heavily only for both sides of the family to just come crashing down in one morning.

speaking of the cousins i feel like theyre by far the most fun characters to hang out with outside of maybe eva and natsuhi reading the fuck out of each other. i have a long history of immediately gravitating to my cousins during family get togethers and its really nice to see they more or less keep their camaraderie through the events of the first episode except for maria but like. lmao. also seeing the cousin's varied reactions to their parents deaths hits kinda close as someone who has a really strained relationship with theirs. how grief manifests differently for each of them based on the trauma and issues they have with their parents is so interesting to see and i feel like a lot of games dont really explore this besides the kids feeling generally sad abt it, and im super excited to see the inner workings of this family laid bare.

that also includes the parents as siblings too cuz even tho theyre all kinda fuckheads in their own way, theres some real truth to how their upbringing kinda ruined all their relationships and potentially their outlooks on life. and even tho krauss is the most outwardly fucked up most of the time, rosa is Super sinister to me just being a character whos at the lower end of a power dynamic but still having responsibilities as a mother. of course we know how she mistreats maria and it would be nice to see rosa like admit that her issues with maria are somewhat her fault, but it would also be nice to see rosa begin the path of redemption and like ive seen clips of her with the rifle in one of the episodes so im sure itll be somewhere hopefully. at the very least i like the inlaws a lot too, hideyoshis nice, kyrie is super cool and the irony of her "flip the chessboard" outlook not being used before krauss could turn the tables on his other siblings earlier, because rudolf wouldnt let her talk, is not lost on me, and i was unsure abt natsuhi at first and she def still has issues but she really grew on me by the end after she had sorta made up with jessica, especially the scene where she accepted the charm from her daughter. again i gravitated toward jessica from the start and her experience feels like the richie rich version of how i was in high school, and her and her mother have a lot to sort out with each other, but the gesture and the fact that they both at least tried starting to make things better was just. so sweet. as for other characters, i rlly like kanon and shannon, the other servants besides like the chef guy are cool and kinzos funny as hell (love that in the UP translation he calls jessica fucking ILLITERATE for being a c student. like damn girl me too). again i cant wait to see how everything pans eventually pans out.

this is just a tentative ranking for the characters ive seen so far. i maybe coulda put george one rank lower idk, even tho ive seen hate for him, i just kinda like him. hes good with kids and the scenes where he lost his loved ones were touching. and like yea his relationship with shannon from a power dynamics perspective isnt great but i feel like it was kinda fraught to being with anyways.

for the plot i admittedly dont have a ton of ideas so far. ive never been one to make crazy predictions on stories as i was experiencing them. and im trying to here which is why im writing everything out. but, with my previous exposure to the game being crazy out of context clips, it makes the main conflict of the first episode being the issue of an 19th person and the reality of magic kinda weird considering. all the shit ive seen. with witches. and is anticipating crazy shit. i rlly didnt know what to think until the tea party and the ??? segment which did elucidate things. guessing that going forward, instead of having to reckon with the presence of magic, battler is gonna keep his strong stance against the "magical/fantastical/etc" and that he and beatrice will be diametrically opposed, considering i also know how they end up in debates later on and stuff like that. bernkastel in the ??? segment also explains how beatrice is more of a metaphor of an abstract concept rather than a person which also makes things kinda simpler in my head. and i know about the metanarrative aspects too (clocking all the detective literature references) so im prob gonna hold off until i see a bit more of it to make any crazy predictions. i mostly just wanna see new perspectives on some of the weirder happenings like the tool shed murders and the chain locked room, why natsuhi shot herself, how the key to the gold was even located so that the first six could be chosen and everything else. super excited to jump back in with episode 2, even tho the previous episode felt like it took eons to get thru, and i cant wait to see how everything changed over the course of this game.

also i swear to god if this girl is who i think she is-

[confusedbyinterface]

Wait wait wait - Umineko AU sounds very cool… how would it work?? Who’s who?

By AU I mostly mean like all the AUs running through Harrow's head at the end of Harrow the Ninth, so it works about as well as a fever dreams brought on by brain surgery undoing itself, but:

Battler: Gideon (duh) Shannon and Kanon: Harrow, with the servant name Harron George and Jessica: Ianthe. Though unlike George she isn't going to propose secretly, she's doing it in front of everyone because she's a messy bitch who loves the drama. Beatrice: Alecto Kinzo: John Natsuhi: Pelleamena (which I guess makes Priamhark Krauss by default?)

The Cousins/Uncles/Aunts: All the Canaan House postulants, instead of a "Family Meeting" it's a Nine Houses Meeting.

G1deon, Mercymorn and Augustine would play similar roles Genji, Kumasawa and Nanjo, in the sense of being John's "inner circle" more than anything. Crux and Aiglamene are there too (or, Crux might be off sick and fuming about not being there). Pyrrha might be alive, and off the island.

So: Harrow is an orphan, the miraculous survivor of a deadly gas leak at Fukuin House (as far as she knows). Because she was the only child at the orphanage, she was brought into The Ninth House as a servant at a very young age, where she showed a startling necromantic aptitude. At some point a young Ianthe and Coronabeth are orphaned and adopted or fostered to the "childless" Ninth House. Coronabeth runs off to join BoE, or is kidnapped by them in an attack that kills Naberius, I'm not sure. Gideon is G1deon and Pyrrha's kid (as far as she knows) and after she ran off as a teenager to join the cohort (without bringing Harrow with her, as they'd agreed) Harrow kind of, lost her necromancy. It came back a few years ago, when the Body started appearing to her, but she's kept quiet about it.

I do have a vague outline of an actual full "game" with serial murders, where a whole bunch of stuff with Jod's revenant and embryo swapping and secret conspiracies comes out, but more likely it would just end up a Harrow the Ninth style AU in which, after Harrow tips over the wheelbarrow and Gideon helps her meetcute style, she sees Alecto the Golden Witch standing atop the rose arch asking "Is this how it happens?"

[fujoreads]

Umineko: Episode 2 // Review & Thoughts

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

VNDB | Steam

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

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

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

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

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

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

Let us begin!

PLOT

Different deaths, different order, different victims!

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

THEY SAID THE THING!!!

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

CHARACTERS

Ushiromiya Battler

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

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

Ushiromiya Eva

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

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

Ushiromiya Jessica

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

Ushiromiya Rosa

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shannon

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

The Stakes

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

Atmosphere & Soundtrack

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

Mechanics & Gameplay

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

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

Final Thoughts

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

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

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

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

[ggren-mainz]

Umineko - question arcs playthrough -> ep 1 - 11

last part - All parts and episodes - next part

Things are getting worse and worse

she's been telling y'all who the culprit was all along, y'all just don't want to listen.

Also I was looking on reddit at memes and one umineko one was like making fun of people who assume the answer arc will answer shit and that they finished ep 8 and still didn't know the culprit like ....that can.,,happen? God no wait i gotta lock in huh?? no more 'NONBELIVERS"???? well i think for now it's ok since i sincerely doubt you can solve anything with half of ch1 only, but still.... Ig ill have to think *disolves into a puddle and dies*

Wouldn't Kinzo's room be the closest to a safe one? I mean i remember them saying that only Genji had the key to his room, and in rest it's all done with an automated system.

Am i smart or am i smart ? (I think i'll become the queen of pointing out the obvious atp.)

Sooo true, save this here to keep it in mind, but yeah while something may seem like the most logical answer for the opponent, they might've not done it because perhaps they haven't thought of it. Variables variables...

they all go to hide in Kinzo's room, and at the entrance, Maria says how the door is built to not let magical entities in, having the same symbol drawn on it as the charms she gave to Jessica and Battler. So Beatrice couldn't have entered this room with her magic, and instead the theory that Kinzo left it of his own accord is probably right. That or Eva was right about Natsuhi or she lied about the receipt OR a secret door exists.

oookay this changes things quite a lot. Basically, he said that Beatrice existed but she died. So does this suddenly turn into a ghost story? No i don't think so.

Yk what would be the funniest thing Beatrice could do rn? Appear lmao. But yeah no good resolution too bad it's almost definitely not the real one. Or at least not the entire story for sure.

Wait wait wait, will this imply that Kanon and/or Shannon were Kinzo's children?? Hmm i mean, maybe it could explain Kanon's words. Or maybe just someone in that orphanage. I don't know if I'm sold in any way but i'd argue it's something to keep in mind.

Ok they say he used the orphans as human sacrifices which we know isn't true cause Kanon kind of died of his own will...to some extent. Idk i don't believe it rn, but again, good to keep in mind.

FINALLY. Took them this long huh.

Huh so my earlier theory was wrong, the twilight doesn't literally mean twilight. Then i sure wonder what will happen at the end.

If this isn't magic and someone is doing all of this than props to them they sure are a good actor.

Look i get it these people are very worried and do not know what to do. I'm not gonna call them stupid or say they should've acted another way, but i hope next time loop/whatever going back in time will happen they will figure out that maybe they should take the "get my gold" threat more seriously.

She's so cool but at the same time she's so getting stabbed soon. I can just feel it.

They're dying.

:C poor Maria....She deserves better parents. Pls guys fix it fic with Maria found family,

so later they realize the whole purpose of the letter was to divide them, and bring fear. A phone call comes in which you can only hear Maria's distant singing, and the people in the room panic and go out as to find and help her.

Oh god...she'll be singing next to the corpses, won't she? Also, i wonder what she's singing.

ofc i was right. Also *points finger* I know this image! it's the one in the thumbnail of the "Answers to all Umineko crimes and murders" video that kept being recommended to me on youtube! I cannot wait to watch it tbh, i bet I'll be like"HUH??? NO WAY!? HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO GUESS THAT?!" the whole time.

So she is somehow blood related to Kinzo? I mean it being his wife would also work but I'd say daughter works better. Idk I'm saying bullshit, I'll just make a note of this.

ok so Natsuhi is invited to a duel with Beatrice and when the children find her, she has apparently shot herself. Maria then starts running towards the portrait where apparently Beatrice was, and we can hear her voice laughing. Then we cut to a sort of retelling of the events from the police's perspective, and apparently, they found the story about what happened on the island in a journal written by the one and only....*drum rolls* ....MARIA! now this wouldn't be that big of a surprise except we are also given the last line of the journal which says...

WHICH IS WEIRD ASF! because of obvious reasons. Why is she saying to find out the truth?? Does this mean she didn't actually believe in the witch? Or well maybe not that but did something else also happen? This doesn't sound like Maria at all. so ig another mystery to be discovered.

And this is it, the end of the chapter. The next part will be the tea party and my final thoughts and theories. Also just a thought but yeah, although i obviously wish to find the answers, this would be a metal way to end the game, and like not continue at all. Would be quite an end lol.

next part

[whenthechickencry]

Jessica's Mother's Day Present

Released between Episode 6 and 7. Jessica uses Kinzo's books to summon Zepar and Furfur in order to give Natsuhi the perfect Mother's Day gift. Zepar and Furfur seem to take this as a strategy from Jessica for Natsuhi to accept her love with Kanon but... I will agree with Jessica's objections that's probably not the case, haha, Kanon has shut down Jessica successfully after all. Oh no.

Woah, new sprite.

Jessica has headaches and Natsuhi doesn't, oh. Jessica is cool with that for now, though.

Jessica's love for her mother is sweet, I am kind of pumped to see more of it since I do like their interactions when they happen.

It's a nice exploration of magic from a character with whom we don't usually see it with - Jessica probably would have hated this day and found it awful and frustrating if magic didn't make her think of it as a way for her mother to have a good day.

Zepar and Furfur are confused about how if that's how it works at all.

Not really sure where this is going unless it's something to do with throwing away Lion.

The game's goading me to solve it and the hint they are giving to me is that it has to do with Jessica - so that can't be it. I suppose that, then, at some point, Natsuhi wished for all of Jessica's troubles to be transferred to her, and the carnation that stopped her troubles for a day meant they got transferred back to Jessica?

Got it! Ignore my awful first guess, please, haha.

This was a cute one, I really liked it, actually. Like I said before I enjoy this relationship and I enjoyed seeing more of it, and I liked seeing the exploration of magic from different characters.