Okay, this time I'm actually organized. Episode 3 kicked ass. Let's talk. Obviously spoilers for all of Umineko Episode 3 beyond here. I'm assuming those reading it know what happens because it's ordered in topics rather than chronological events and jumps around a bit in time within those topics.
also. it's very long again. sorry. I'm thinking very hard is the thing.
all right, so the biggest thing about ep3 is that I feel like I've had the nature of the game significantly more clarified for me so let's just lead there:
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Rokkenjima as Schrodinger's Cat's Box
So as Virgilia makes clear to Battler this time, Rokkenjima is essentially a massive version of Schrodinger's Cat -- Until it's actually looked at after the fact in objective reality, anything could have happened during these two days. We're looking through different alternate universes where anything could have happened, meaning that there could be different killers each loop. I've SORT OF been running with the assumption that anything not told to me directly from Battler's perspective should be treated as untrustworthy, and here we are: all of the fantasy situations like energy sword battles and magic fights, cool as they are, are a distraction to keep the player (and Battler) from thinking about what the actuality could be. This also means that the killer does not necessarily have to be the same each episode, which I did previously write off as being a stupid idea but with the rules further clarified I'm actually fine with, I think -- Especially given we actually unmasked the killer this time, so that future episodes can continue to mix things up! It also seems like my wild stab from Episode 1 that magic is "gaining power" when logical solutions can't be found wasn't actually that far off the mark! Neat! -
Beatrice's Past
We got a LOT of backstory for Beatrice this time. I am still under the impression that basically anything we see from before the family conference is something that more or less holds true across all variations of the Rokkenjima Murders, so I'm going to assume that this is something to take at face value, particularly the red we've received here.
So, at an unspecified time, Beatrice was a child and was looked after by Virgilia (the original Beatrice), who taught her magic and passed her name on to her. She was trapped on Rokkenjima by Kinzo, who was madly in love with her. According to Beatrice, she rejected him on all fronts -- he was simply obsessed, she was not his mistress. At some point, she threw her original body away, but was trapped in a replica body forged by Kinzo, resulting in her losing her memory. Eventually, she met Rosa Ushiromiya and begged her to free her from her gilded cage, which resulted in her death by accident. (honestly I can 100% believe some of Rosa's bad parenting stems from this event scarring her. I also immediately believed at face value that Rosa had killed someone before we got details) Beatrice's soul was then set free, she regained her memory of being a 1000 year old witch, and haunted Rokkenjima until Shannon kickstarted her revival by shattering the shrine's mirror (see Ep2).
Looking at these events logically: the woman Kinzo was in love with must have been carrying a child at some point. There's a possibility it was Kinzo's, but there's also a possibility it was someone else's, from before Kinzo brought her to Rokkenjima. That woman (I guess I'll call her Beatrice's Mother? Even though she herself is also a Beatrice, but we just have too many of those) died in childbirth, and Kinzo, in his madness, was convinced this child was the reincarnation of the mother. Both Battler and I got to this same place from the story Ronove told, basically. Given that the opening scene of the Episode where Virgilia (as then-Beatrice) teaches Beatrice the mending spell both implies Beatrice is quite young and seems to take place on the hidden mansion on Rokkenjima, I'm going to take a stab that it takes place here, in Beatrice's youth. I'm withholding judgement about whether or not Virgilia actually is Kumasawa or if that was a fun fantasy thing, though right now I would say that yeah, Kumasawa might indeed be the servant looking after her in the logical interpretation of events given she's been with the family for seemingly ages at this point and knows a lot.
From here we have a problem: Rosa states that she killed Beatrice two decades ago, and Ronove states the conversation between Kinzo and Beatrice we were shown, where she is asking who she really is, did indeed take place on Rokkenjima in 1967. That's a year less than 20! I think Rosa does clarify to "19 years" at some point and yes, Rosa rounding is always an option, but I'm still suspicious about this whole thing, especially because when laughing about her own death to Battler, Beatrice states: "It's definitely dead" -- not "I definitely died". Yeah, she is claiming the body was just a prison she was in, but the fact that she doesn't have to say "I died" or anything like that is significant. This implies to me there is ANOTHER Beatrice among all of the 10,000 other Beatrices we already have. It could be that Beatrice's mother had two children, and our Beatrice (let's just call her Beato) is a secret second sibling, who didn't die before Rosa's eyes, or it could also be that Beato is a completely unrelated party who learned of these events after the fact (I decline to explain how) and took on the identity of the dead girl. Either way, Beato is not the one who died.
In fact, this entire episode does its absolute best to hammer home that Beato is not Beatrice. The audience is repeatedly tantalized with the idea of who Beato was before she was Beatrice, with Virgilia suggesting an entire previous name and appearance, her "shabby true form" comes up a number of times, and the narration even goes as far as to completely superfluously mention that Beato is surprised to still look like Beatrice when she and Battler revive in the "Golden Land" during Beato's Trick. There's no reason to put that there other than as a hint that Beato is someone else taking on Beatrice's guise. It doesnt fit into Beato's Trick at all because Battler doesn't think she's anything other than Beatrice. Like, he denies the existence of witches, but he has never at any point suggested he believes Beatrice herself is one of the 18, only that she's a human. But that's all she could be, in the end. Because... -
There are no more than 18 people on Rokkenjima
My theory for the past two episodes of "There is a 19th person, who is Beatrice, but she is human" has finally been picked up by Battler and it's been instantly crushed! So she has to be one of the 18. And I don't freaking know who she is! There are so many characters that don't make sense as Beato, and you'd think that would leave me with obvious candidates, but my absolute best guess is literally Kanon (for a number of reasons), which honestly I do not really actually believe in as anything other than a completely insane longshot! (Like, for one thing, it kind of requires all the "Kanon is trans" stuff to be intentional which I don't reeeeally think it is right now)
I know there's the wrinkle of "This Rokkenjima" but I'm assuming that refers primarily to the extra Beatrice from the previous episode. That said, I also assume she has to have been one of the 18 as well...
Beatrice, as a whole, remains a mystery. But there's still five episodes to figure her out, at least... -
Virgilia & Ronove
We had new characters this episode! Virgilia and Ronove are both very fun additions to the Meta World cast, with both of them here it allows for a lot more interesting interplay during the Meta sections than just Battler and Beatrice yelling at each other. Ronove is a lot of fun, the gay shit with him and Battler is good, I love a henchperson who is overall kind of not particularly reverent of their boss and even sometimes works against them but is in the end, still a professional henchperson. When the initial shock of "who the fuck is that that's not Beatrice" wore off, I got really into Virgilia as well. Definitely helped that we got Kumasawa badass moments through her, too. The witch battle was, very silly, but I definitely got really upset we wouldn't get more of Virgilia afterwards, and was quite happy to see she stuck around in the Meta World. I really liked her as Battler's mentor of sorts, and the four of them work together so well during the Witch Trials. of course, the end of the episode seems to imply Virgilia's personality is entirely a facade, but I'm excited to see what Sicko Virgilia is like as well. -
EVA Beatrice
Eva takes center stage this time. There is a lot of really fascinating stuff to her character, both subjected to the brutal sexism of Kinzo and Krauss, while also being immensely self centered -- probably also something that was kicked into high gear because of how the men in her family treated her. Eva's whole deal in previous episodes of wielding misogyny against other women is explicated remarkably well, and man, she fucking tears into Rosa as much as ever here. The scene where she talks to the self inside herself, Eva Beatrice (before she becomes Eva Beatrice), about her ambitions and what she can actually do in her life is beautiful, the way the years pass with each sentence hits so well, it's one of the most memorable parts of the episode to me.
So from the moment it was clear Eva was the central Ushiromiya this time, I also kind of knew this would be the episode we finally dug into the Epitaph some, because she's the one who would obviously be most motivated by it. What I didn't expect, though, was for her to actually solve it. (nor did I expect Rosa to solve it a step late, either!) I'm quite scared of the prospect of needing to solve the epitaph myself tbh, because I feel like I don't really have the info to do so and I've gotten worried it might require an understanding of japanese, but we'll see how that goes. Either way, this allows the other self within her to become Eva Beatrice -- I noticed from the start she'd mentioned her magic is "certainty" so I thought she might actually Just Be Lambda, but at the very least it does seem like Lambda lent her a hand. She's fucked up. Actually some of the most joyful cruelty we've seen yet, and really... I can see it in Eva. Hideyoshi believes that she's outgrown that kind of cruelty, but has she? Look at how she interacts with Natsuhi or Rosa. Eva loves hurting people, and she doesn't care. It's not a wrath like Rosa's that she later finds herself ashamed of, but a joyful thing where she kicks people down and puts herself at the top, because she deserves it and they're in the way. She might honestly be the most awful Ushiromiya at her core -- Even Rosa had a moment of realization too late, but Eva is unrepentant. Of anyone, she also seems the most prepared to actually kill others. Ironically, she's probably also the least competent killer yet. She doesn't care about constructing crimes that don't seem possible, and every single one she performs, including Nanjo's (which she only got off from with the barrage of red truth), I quickly identified as achievable by human hands. She gives Beato so much crap for how she does things, but each death had an obvious non-magical solution. You can't make witches real with killings like these, Eva! I honestly thought a couple times I was getting faked out, that it was too obvious for Eva to be the true killer, but no. The difficulty was equal the whole time. -
The Web of Red
Battler's showdown with Eva Beatrice was really awesome, I was marking out the whole time. But the issue of Nanjo's death is kind of huge, and I don't really have any obvious answers for it. I'm still convinced there must be some kind of trick with the Red Truth that we don't understand yet that creates an opening here, because Eva truly did weave an impossible scenario otherwise. For a moment I considered the possibility that Nanjo had somehow killed himself while looking at a reflection of himself, but I don't think that flies with what Eva states here at all. I was immediately reminded of how at the start of the episode Beatrice had also tried to completely lock off all possible logical interpretations until Ronove stopped her from saying that nobody had suffered an accidental death in red. There must be some kind of blind spot or weakness to creating a perfectly unexplainable crime, but what it is, I really can't tell you. The only idea I have is that maybe the red could be limited by the knowledge the speaker has (this feels unlikely, as it's meant to be absolute truth), OR that somebody was dead the whole time and was replaced by a fake at some point, meaning technically one of the red deaths that was proclaimed was applying to "the real one" and not the version of that person on Rokkenjima during the incident. Battler would actually be the best pick for this but he's the protagonist, so... that kind of leads me back to the servants again, if someone got replaced? But I really don't know.
The other thing here is that if Eva didn't kill Nanjo, since we have red stating Battler was with Eva during Nanjo's death, (and that it was a Homicide) that means somebody else killed Nanjo for a reason. To be perfectly honest, when Jessica was left alone with Nanjo I immediately began worrying Eva Beatrice was a misdirection -- Nanjo is actually just as alibi-less throughout this entire episode as Eva, he just has seemingly no motive the way she does. I would completely believe that Nanjo himself could also have been intending to kill Jessica while she was defenseless for some reason or another, which then creates motive for someone else to kill him (to protect Jessica) ... of course then that just brings me back to Kanon again, which would line up a lot of things... But there's the issue of him being dead to deal with. And someone taking Kanon's place wouldn't necessarily have the same attachment to Jessica, unless we're talking about a "real" Kanon being long dead actually. As much as Umineko deals in convolution, this kind of explanation feels too convoluted to be realistic to me right now.
Another very strange thing about the web of red is that... doesn't Eva Beatrice technically deny the involvement of witches herself during it? In red, she says "no life forms other than humans have any connection to this game" and "absolutely no factors other than humans participated in this game board" which like, if we're saying witches aren't humans, like. I dunno!! maybe i'm nitpicking again! But I felt like she totally throws out the witch theory herself in her haste to corner Battler, the situation is just so intense nobody really notices. Either way, we know witches aren't involved because Beato supposedly denied their existence in red. We just don't know how... -
Beato's Trick?
Okay so the emotional crux of this episode comes when Beato has a little too much fun watching Eva Beatrice kill Rosa over and over, Battler tears into her for being twisted and not understanding the value of human life, and Beato becomes immensely depressed and wants Battler's respect back because she's never had a friend. It's very embarrassing for her but it's also very compelling and leads to a bunch of very emotional moments, like Eva Beatrice making Beato take out Maria, Beato helping George and Jessica have their moments with Shannon and Kanon, and Battler declaring he'll defend the honor of the Golden Witch, culminating in Beato stepping in to save Battler by denying witches in red (supposedly.) ... which basically obliterates the Meta World, I guess?? until battler says he believes in Beatrice. And then everyone gets to go to the golden land! everything is perfect and everyone is alive again! and all it took was saying witches were real and oh no it was all a trick!!! it was all a trick to say witches are real the whole time!!
Honestly. It ruled. It was awesome, I was laughing so hard the moment I realized what was up. But also?
I don't think it was all a trick, either. There's a lot in this episode about Beato not really being able to hide her emotions, and on top of that, Virgilia never mentions the north wind and the sun thing until after Beato is already depressed thinking Battler hates her (I THINK... maybe i mixed something up!!) ... I think Beato's Trick is an attempt to save face and put the games back on track after what could have been An Ending to everything, not an episode-spanning chessmaster gambit. -
Ange
After two offhand mentions in the previous episodes and more this episode, Ange Ushiromiya finally appears at the end. I have been waiting for her! She seems very interesting, especially since she's from the future of episode 3 specifically?? It seems that she's Bernkastel's addition to the game, but I wonder why exactly Bern wants her here...
We also got a bit of Eva's future from this version of events, though we didn't get to see her (which i was kind of bummed by). Kind of a fitting end for her I suppose, paranoid and locked away. What happened to her though, like, she'd only be in her 50s or something I think in 98 (guessing very hard on Eva's age here) but they described her like she was in her 80s! Zeno suggested the gold is fucked up somehow and I'm sort of inclined to agree lacking any other explanations, though Kinzo seems to have fared way better... it can't just be like, the pressure of it all, can it? -
Lambdadelta
okay I wrote down a section for Lambda here but after everything else I'm not sure I have a lot to say about her. She's a funny yandere underneath her funny airhead tsundere schtick! That's great! She also made Beato a witch to lock Bernkastel in the game forever... and I'm not sure what to say from there. She's behind everything, in a way, I guess? Even Eva Beatrice. But I don't really know what making Beato a witch entails and how that relates to all of the other questions I have about her (in general, I feel kind of confused about Beato's status as a witch!). I assume I should continue functioning as if Bern and Lambda only exist in the meta world, but where does their meddling first come in to play in Rokkenjima?
also I'm glad she and Bern are like super gay for real that's great -
Fantasy vs Reality
Okay so, Beatrices aside, one of the biggest things I've been thinking about is the dichotomy between Fantasy and Reality which, like, the whole game is about right? We're looking for the reality here but actually we have mostly fantasy to go off of. And the fantasy is interesting too. It's great! That's so much of what the game's writing is so it's a huge part of how we understand the cast, too. It's in a way like... we get the absolute best and worst of the characters through fantasy, right? Even as awful as Eva is, Eva Beatrice is worse. George gets to be bold and brave through the fantasy segments instead of just sad. Jessica and Kanon get to confess their love in fantasy. Beato and Virgilia get to have an awesome magic battle in fantasy that's very funny and great to watch. And in the end Battler does have to ask himself, is believing in the fantasy really that bad, if it makes us happy? And of course the issue is like, fantasy can keep us from looking at actual reality. In this episode, Fantasy sort of mainly Enhances reality (this is a big simplification but, run with me okay), because Eva Beatrice is bad at her job and doesn't actually misdirect from Eva. But overall, witches serve to shut down thought, to make us look away from the truth. Beato isn't the killer, no matter how much she insists she is. At least, that's what I believe based on the information we've gotten the last few episodes. And blaming a witch means looking away from the actual problems at hand. To use a comparison the game itself makes, there is no witch controlling Rosa and making her beat her daughter -- she's doing it herself. Eva isn't being controlled to kill her family while she watches in horror, she did so gladly to support her own greed and need to be on top. We can't look away from that. Witches aren't real.
That said, Umineko also needs fantasy in order to function. There's no explaining The Meta World or Ange showing up from the future without fantasy. So like, we can't let ourselves get chained down by reality either??? I dunno. I'll keep working on this. -
Other Thoughts
I was pretty shocked Maria died this time, I genuinely thought she was going to be safe the whole game.
I had a moment where I thought maybe Maria's father might come up, when Kyrie suggests the killer is someone Rosa knew but shouldn't be on the island, but with Ange taking the final empty spot in the character list, I assume that guy is well and truly cemented as a red herring.
The Chiester Sisters suck. They're awful and I hate them. All of their gimmicks are annoying, they waste so much time whenever they do anything, the Stakes are way better!! I hope they either are one offs or they get better. ...That one bit about giving Beatrice piercings was cute at least, I guess...
Rudolf and Kyrie fighting the stakes was awesome. the backstory on their relationship was unexpected, and feels like it could be some potential seeds for the future. I'm at least expecting one of the two (Kyrie) or both to take center stage next episode with Natsuhi, Rosa, and Eva having already had starring roles in the previous episodes. Also I thought it was really funny that Rudolf thinks Eva and Rosa are definitely going to hell but he and Belphegor are going to heaven.
I literally dont know what Ryukishi is doing with how thick he pours on George and Shannon's relationship. Ignoring everything I think about Kanon, like, the way George and Shannon are depicted feels different enough from Jessica and Kanon, which actually is sweet, that I cannot tell if it's supposed to be eye-rollingly saccharine or if i'm actually supposed to see it as the most beautiful romance ever
hey wow we did the killings in 6-2-3-2 instead of 6-2-2-3 this time
Krauss had some shocking moments of decency this episode. Very funny he and Natsuhi just outright talk about how none of this would be happening if they werent Ushiromiyas and how that completely fucked up their relationships growing up. It all goes back to Kinzo in the end...
Also hey they're talking a lot about how solving the epitaph and shit and inheriting the gold means you're the next Beatrice, does that just not apply to Kinzo because he's a man? Or did Kinzo pull some other shit entirely to get his paws on the gold? Like, did he really just steal it by confining Beatrice, and never solved anything? I'm not really sure...
I am fucking stumped about the numbers. The only real info we get about them is that July 15th is Battler's birthday, November 29th isn't anyone else's birthday, and the tips text on George that says saying it aloud will open a mini golden land...
I was a little miffed when the answer to why Kyrie went to the mansion hinged so heavily on information I as the player didn't have, but it's also not exactly an unreasonable guess to make, either, so I can let it slide.
I 100% believe Beato writing her name in katakana is another hint she's one of the 18. She isn't an italian sorceress! She's someone here right now!
Cool vocal theme for Ange. I also appreciate that she called back Battler's english "See You Again" lol
okay thats all for this episode. I will continue to think. I will Never stop thinking.
