firemtn

i gotta be honest I'm already at 0:00 on Episode 3 right now. i was going to write a big post for umineko episode 2 sooner but, uh, i lost it in an internet fire. Here's some overall thoughts for episode 2 (with no consideration of ep3) regardless:

• George and Shannon
  the George and Shannon romance is unbearable. It's so placidly nothing saccharine hetero garbage at best and creepy on George's end at worst. That passage about him understanding his bullies from his school days when he teases Shannon is SUCH a huge red flag, what's wrong with this boy! Shannon you deserve better than the first man to treat you with any kind of dignity!!
  Alternately, it's predictable, but all the Shannon and Beatrice stuff was candy to me. Even when Beatrice turns and reveals she's just using Shannon for laughs the relationship between them is so compelling! I loved seeing Confident Shannon completely ice Beato out just as much as I loved seeing them laugh and eat cookies on the beach. It is amazing how completely No I'm Not Owned You're Owned Beatrice was by Shannon at the end and George feels soooo ancillary to that. Which rules, btw.

• Jessica and Kanon
  Jessica and Kanon was a lot more fun. Jessie is such a good kid, i was cringing in the best way at her fake boyfriend situation, and man, unlike George and Shannon I actually want to see her and Kanon make it work! Kanon's combination "don't look at me" and "i'm very edgy and cool" outfit was utterly amazing, the whole little school festival bit ruled. I already posted about Touhou being real in 1986 but like, yeah that was awesome. And again, uh. I said it before but. Man, Kanon has some real egg vibes! This is a repressing trans character! It's so hard for me to read Jessica pleading with him to find a way to create a self he likes being and Kanon's feeling of it being impossible and shutting down any other way? There's a lot of other little things too.
  Another thing that comes up for me about these two couples is that nobody really comments on the age gap between George and Shannon but everybody comments on the much smaller and normal age gap between Jessica and Kanon. hooray for societal double standards!

• jfc, Rosa
  Rosa is practically the main character this time, and man, the story is dead set on making sure you understand the depths to which Rosa is fucked. The relationship between her and Maria is absolutely miserable. The entire bit of Maria being like "yay mom is back i love you mom" after Rosa stops beating her and hugs her is like. unbearably depressing. Especially once it's revealed Maria never actually thought there was a bad witch and a good mommy, she was just saying that to put her mother at ease. (I suppose that should have been obvious, Maria would never believe a witch could be bad) As much as it's made clear this all comes from an abusive cycle, Rosa also seems to think she has absolutely no agency, no choice but to continue the cycle! And once Rosa is in charge it becomes fully clear this is simply who she is. She plays nice and meek when she feels has to but once she doesn't her true colors show, positively reveling in being the absolute authoritarian -- She's a shocking contrast to Natsuhi, who felt like she was, if nothing else, honest. It very much felt the whole time like Rosa seriously wanted anyone to just give her a reason to start shooting people.
  And of course in the end, she does start shooting. At least it's only demon goat men and not the family... The metaphor of her being unwilling to let go of the gold or gun to take Maria's hand is, very on the nose, but maybe sometimes we need an on the nose metaphor for a character like Rosa. It really is sad Maria has a mother like her! She realizes she needs to care for her daughter too late. And Beatrice rubs in the extent to which she blames everyone else for her own choices in uh. quite an extreme way. Fascinating, awful woman, that Rosa.

• Murders
  okay I'm going to be fully honest: the first big murder discovery scene in Ep1 got me flinching some but I actually found the initial murder discovery in Ep2 quite fun! It's a halloween party it was great! But that! did not last! boy wow the whole rest of the episode was even more graphic, especially the end, wow!
  I harped on this a bit last time but it is WILD the extent to which the murders and twilights were completely out of sync with each other. People die way before their twilights get counted, and it doesn't even line up with when the bodies get found either anymore. This more than anything, for some reason, is what makes me most suspicious that magic isn't real. You can't just, do ritual sacrifices with the deaths totally out of order with the epitaph!! Magic has rules! I don't believe the stakings make it work! That's bullshit!
  One thing I was wondering about if the murders are just fully locked in as 6-2-2-3. Like obviously the first half has to be that way, but does the second half?
  I've been continuing to run off the idea that there is at least a 19th person who is the mastermind for these two episodes. The only people who have lasted to the end of both loops (and frankly, I kind of believe they're going to last every loop) have been Battler and Maria, neither of who I believe would orchestrate these murders -- If Battler is actually the murderer, what the fuck are we even doing here, and I just honestly don't believe Maria could carry all of this out. She's nine. Rosa certainly seems like she has opportunity to have committed some of these murders, and the letter from Beatrice could have even been left among the Halloween party by her... but she's dead from the start in Episode 1. I suppose Kanon's death is suspcious in both loops, but iirc Beatrice did state in red that Kanon died in Jessica's room? Unless multiple people were planning these killings separately and thus it doesnt have to always be the same killer(s), which feels kind of stupid for the story to do, I don't really have a good idea at the moment outside of "there is a 19th human".

• The Red Truth
  this is something I knew about going in, and I was pretty excited to finally see it, as well as Battler and Beatrice actually arguing about what actually happened. It's an interesting mechanic for the story for sure. I like the arguments they get into -- not to be the girl who goes "getting a lot of ace attorney vibes here" but it's got some ace attorney vibes to it. But it also kind of ends up feeling like Battler and Beatrice are writing the story together, and getting into arguments over what kind of story it should be. That's fun.
  I do wonder how actually trustworthy the red truth is, because several statements that aren't inherently objective facts show up red. Battler is incompetent, but what about a statement like "Come, Ushiromiya Battler, and kneel"? That's a request! What makes that red? There has to be some kind of rule around it that we're not privy to yet. Of course there's also other stuff that should be red and isn't but isn't commented on particularly -- at one point, Beatrice jumps in to say she "keeps her promises" and then proceeds to state "If you solve the riddle of the epitaph, you should be able to reach the Golden Land. When you do, the ceremony will end. No more people will die." completely in white ... if Beatrice actually knows that to be true, it should be in red, plus there's that conspicuous "should" in there, which means to me that... she must know less than she lets on? Which is a very interesting possibility.
  ...And I just now realized if I'm right about that, it also implies Beatrice isn't actually involved in the murders at all, even if witches are real. Well, shit!! What the hell!!

• Energy Sword Sunday
  Like literally it's even a sunday in game isn't that great
  Okay but there was a lot of fantasy action in here with Kanon and Shannon doing cool magic bullshit and fighting goat head demons and stuff. Kanon literally Nothing Personnel Kid'ed a dude. The hilarious part is of course that Battler doesn't even have to think about any of this -- All he needs to do is solve logic puzzles for locked rooms and missing keys. It's all just off screen to him and Beatrice isn't bringing up! So if magic isn't real, then these scenes mainly just serve to distract the player (and be very fun and cool), I guess? To be honest, I really don't have very many ideas about what went on during these scenes. Gohda could have something to do with either of them, but I have a hard time believing he's working on his own. The fake Kanon certainly seems to have existed, maybe? Or it could be that was actually just Kanon... I do keep coming back to him, he feels like one of the most suspicious players in the game right now. I'm not really sure.

• You Are Incompetent
  I already referenced it but I have to say this entire segment was utterly fascinating. It's such an interesting choice to completely break Battler's will into little pieces in the second of eight episodes. He's so trapped between Denying Beatrice and not wanting to suspect his family members... I do appreciate how much Battler wants to believe the best in others, though... his family does kind of suck.
  it's odd, I've been suspecting a human Beatrice as the 19th person for these two episodes as the culprit, and I'm not sure why he doesn't bring up that Beatrice must be human. Of course, I did just more or less say Beatrice can't be the culprit so I'm lost now too.

• Other thoughts
  At one point Kinzo brings up a loss to Beatrice, which I kind of wondered if it was meant to imply he is also aware of the loops, but I think this is a backstory thing we haven't seen yet. Also what the hell happened with his will?? what did he write??
  I've been very sour about Gohda for a while but I was surprised to see him be a real one and stand up for Shannon, good for you dude
  I'm fascinated that the mirror Natsuhi gave Jessica in EP1 and never came up became important in this episode. no idea if that has any kind of significance...
  I love Lambdadelta so far, looking forward to seeing more of her in the tea parties.

I think that's all I got for ep2. I'm gonna go dig more into ep3 now.