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ellendiere · 18 days

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Umineko & Gender Expression

I recently played through all of Umineko no Naku Koro ni, and I was honestly taken away with the themes it explored in Chiru. It's not a topic I would have expected to see from Ryukishi07 after Higurashi, but then again I guess he has always played with identity issues, albeit in a different light.

I knew that Ryukishi was always very knowledgable in psychology, but given the nature of Higurashi and even earlier parts of Umineko, I couldn't have expected the series to become such a stellar example of gender identity issues.

The catbox that is Yasuda Sayo may be hands down the most interesting and intricate thing he's created.

And because it's so fascinating and complex--it boggles my mind that I see a large chunk of the community lean towards only one interpretation of Yasu. Or feel they need a direct answer.

One of the biggest themes surrounding Yasu as a whole is indecision. Interestingly, the fragment meant to represent their hope is in the form of Lion, who takes on an ambiguously gendered identity. I can't see this as a mere coincidence.

I ruminated on the topic for quite a while after I finished the game, and came to the realization that no matter which answer I tried to choose, none felt quite right. And that's when I realized--an answer isn't needed. Yasu doesn't require a label to be understood. What Yasu was born as, what their gender is or their current genitals--just does not matter. As Will said, it's an answer that lies outside the catbox (of the game). We don't need to know it to understand Yasu as a character and the struggles they go through.

I think ultimately, what Yasu was born as is irrelevant. Yasu's birth genitals existed for a very short amount of time, and there is a strange importance placed on something that may not have even existed for a year and did not impact their gender. Damaged or removed sex organs leads to a hormonal deficiency, and affects the development (or non-development) of sex organs and whether or not your body goes through puberty. Yasu was raised female and believed to be so, until their body failed to show signs of puberty. Dysphoria can be caused by a number of factors, and not all have the exact same symptoms. Yasu's dysphoria appears to be a symptom of lacking those organs entirely, rather than due to a gender assignment given to them. However, we do not have enough information to determine if that is the sole factor.

Due to Lion's existence, we can surmise that regardless of the incident, Yasu would have issues with their identity to some extent. Hence, the cliff incident is irrelevant in the overall picture--and thus to the story at hand.

The key factor here is ambiguity and indecision. Yasu was unable to choose whether to pursue their lifelong view as what they considered to be a normal girl in the form of Shannon, or to find a new life and happiness in the form of Kanon. Kanon was not necessarily born out of want; but as a means to cope with the reality of their body and lack of expected development. Despite Kanon initially being a persona that Yasu shoved all their ugly and negative feelings on, Kanon eventually gained importance as a person due to Jessica, thus leading to further identity struggles.

I think that to label Yasu is to take away their struggles. The fact that they hadn't decided what kind of life to lead. That they were unstable, swaying between sides, unable to choose just one identity to go forward with.

Not everyone in this world fits cleanly into a box, into one single label. Many reject it outright for their own idea of freedom. So who are we, to label Yasu, who was still in the midst of figuring out who they were? To deny their indecision and decide it must be one way? There is a lot of discussion about agency regarding LGBT+ characters, yet all the talk of interpreting what one must be, to have one, true labeled identity, erases that very agency.

Yasu is interesting and complex because there is no answer. There are many works of LGBT+ characters coming to terms with their identities, but not very many where one dies in the midst of that journey.

Many themes in Umineko are left up to interpretation--including many things regarding Yasu--so while it's not necessarily wrong to think on it, I also want to present the avenue that not coming to a clear answer can be an answer in and of itself.

#umineko no naku koro ni #yasuda sayo #yasu

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the-apocalypse-is-upon-us · 11 months

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assigning umineko characters a place in the prince-princess-witch trichotomy:part 2

Battler: the prince (that wasn't there).Battler is very interesting in the way that he is both Utena and Dios coded. Utena because he has good intentions and tries to be chivalrous (the scene where he helps Kanon in EP 1 comes to mind ,"I'm not the kinda guy to let the waitress pick up the fork for me" also extremely Anthy/Rose Bride coded moment for Kanon) but he is also extremely dumb. He might have lived away from the family for six years but he still has a rich boy attitude when it comes to certain matters(like the comment of turning Rokkenjima into a golf course), seemingly being unaware of the severity of certain things that are allowed in the family (shrugging off the sitting order as a "remnant" of male chauvinism when it still affects the Ushiromiya women, the whole scene with Shannon) . There is also the infamous small bombs comment. But even so, Battler has the best intentions in mind, even if he executes them horribly and hurts people along the way just like Utena. In the same way that rgu is the story of how Utena comes to understand Anthy despite that, so is umineko for Battler and "Beatrice"/Sayo respectively. Unfortunately it is also the lackluster execution of good intentions that contribute to his Dios coding. His promise to Sayo to get her away from Rokkenjima on a white horse and the princely imagery it inspires is reminiscent of the (similarly empty) promise Dios is initially thought to have made to little Utena. In the end, both men are illusions of the idea of the prince with the difference lying in the people the made the promise to; Utena chased after the illusion and it didn't break until the end of the show with an open ended but overall positive conclusion while Sayo held onto it for a time that she thought was a thousand years and eventually was crushed but in a way that created the witch, Beatrice.

Jessica: the prince. She is a masculine girl with a similar outgoing and chivalrous personality as Utena. Her relationship to Kanon is extremely similar to that of Utena and Anthy. She loves him and wants the best for him but the class difference between them skews the dynamic in a way where she doesn't actually know him (the scene with her refuting his claims to being furniture is similar to the scene where Utena doesn't understand why Anthy doesn't fight against her bullies: well meaning but ignorant). He does love her too and he himself tries to be a "prince" for her, which is mostly a result of him seeing himself as disposable furniture due to his self-loathing and conditioning (also very Anthy-like).

George: the (model?) prince. Mature, level-headed, polite, from a good family and with a fiancee he wants to start a family with, he is seemingly the archetype of the upstanding prince. Things are more complicated though: a marriage to Shannon, a servant, would be unacceptable and he states that he would fight and break off from his own family to marry her, something definitely prince-like.After that is said and done though, he and Shannon will fit into a typical family life and he will have a job while Shannon will stay home to take care of their kids, taking a similar position of servitude like that in Rokkenjima. In addition, he has a crippling inferiority complex, putting his marriage and Shannon's happiness on hold untill he builds "his own kingdom" even if he must already have enough money to support them and being jealous of 12 year old Battler for being more popular with 10 year old Shannon when he was 17 due to his own crippling fear of women at time, which he still tries to make up for with a fake bravado attitude (especially in his marriage proposal to Shannon).With that reveal, a lot of "joking" remarks towards Battler have a much more insidious tone. He presents himself as a prince but that in reality is an illusion to hide his own personal failings. Even if he goes against his family and saves Shannon from Rokkenjima, he will still fit himself into a similar comfortable position of power in another hierarchy while Shannon will have to do in a similar position of servitude below him. After all, she is a princess. What more could she want?

Maria: the witch. Even if her mother tries to fit her in clothes reminiscent of a princess gown, crown and all, she'd still prefer to be a witch. By an early age she was marked as different from other kids due to her lack of a father and peculiar mannerisms. Any attempt to fit in was a failure and additional neglect and shunning from her mother turned her towards the world of occult and magic, where she befriended a multitude of creatures including the witch Beatrice, which helped her learn a lot of things pertaining to magic. Turning the world of witches from one filled with darkness to one filled with rainbows, she declares herself one. After all, since she couldn't be accepted as a princess, maybe she could be accepted as a witch.

#umineko #rgu #umineko spoilers #rgu spoilers #apoca.log

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construingseacats · 7 months

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Umireread: Turn of the Golden Witch - Chapter 1: 'Furniture'

The following contains spoilers for the entirety of Umineko. Please do not read if you are yet to finish it.

And so Episode 2 starts… With a flashback inside of a flashback! Umineko is my favourite slice of life story.

That’s a very loaded statement when the broader implications are considered. On the one hand, there’s the gender identity angle, with Yasu considering herself a normal girl (to which we say, hell yeah), but it’s also batting away the notion of furniture which we know to be abnormal (in the sense of being non-human). Either way, considering what she’s been through, Yasu being able to view herself as “normal”, even if it has to be through the lens of Shannon, is pretty heartwarming.

Oh, and sure enough, the notions of furniture are mentioned 5 seconds later. I’m always relatively pleased when a line of thinking I have is immediately reinforced by the plot once I continue.

So there was a pretty rapid succession of thoughts here - the immediate reaction was “here we go, Yasu’s at it again”, but then I took into account that this isn’t necessarily in the realm of the message bottle, so this could just be a scene that was entirely reality. But then I realised that we’re in Shannon’s POV, so yeah this is entirely Yasu exacerbating Natsuhi’s pain once again.

So far we’re getting a healthy amount of suggestion that, romantically, George was just “there”; that Shannon’s feelings for him didn’t particularly develop due to his character, but rather for just being an eligible option in the right place at the right time (similar to how Jessica saw Kanon).

Do they, though? My mind wanders to the many tales of how fake sommeliers can convince wine tasters of unusual methods of appreciating the wine; how people just assume a several hundred dollar bottle of wine must taste nicer than a cheaper vintage, when the difference could be entirely miniscule. Your perception is muddied by what you inherently believe must be the truth. It seems like an odd thing to focus in on - a rich family having expensive tastes - but when Umineko is so concerned about reevaluating your axioms, questioning why you believe the things you do, this does feel like another microcosm of the plot.

Meanwhile, Krauss joins in with Eva to bully Natsuhi regarding her headaches. An indication that the Ushiromiya blood is closer with each other than the borrowed wombs they parlay with? Or another case of Yasu inflicting as much misery onto Natsuhi via the narrative as possible?

“Pretty sure” is a funny phrase to use here - it’s meaningless at a glance, but once again, it’s hammering through the themes of glossing over reality with a layer of fantasy. Did he? Who knows. But we can believe he did to improve our view of him, can we not?

As someone who doesn’t remember the intricacies here particularly well, does JESSICA implant the ideas of romance into Shannon? That’s VERY interesting if so.

I suspect a good majority of early Episode 2 is going to be Ryukishi intentionally wounding anyone who is here for a re-read. The Furniture connotations hit hard.

And so the true villain of Umineko shows itself! Heteronormativity!

I’m using that term a little loosely - in truth, I should really be using the broader sense of “societal expectations”, since that’s the crux of what’s going on here. Shannon mentioned being a “normal” girl, but what does that mean, exactly? What is “normal”? Generally, a concept decided by the wider views of the society that surrounds us, rather than something derived from within. However, heteronormativity is a huge factor in the dangers of social expectations that Umineko highlights, as the expectation for people to enter a monogamous (straight) relationship, rampant in your teen years, can greatly shape and warp how you grow as a person.

You may think I’m talking from my own experiences there. You’d be right. You may be inclined to believe that heteronormativity greatly warped my sense of self, growing up as an asexual teenager who (at the time) thought they were strictly a cisgender male. You would also be right - I won’t be getting specifically into the personal issues I faced because of this, but you’ll definitely see a hard bias against the concept on my end (which, fortunately, Umineko also ensures to chastise).

This was a lot of words to say that “Jessica growing up believing she had to be a girly girl who likes boys warped her as a person and was the first domino in this ensuing tragedy”.

“If George were to appear at a time like that, she’d have no chance of keeping her cool.”

Anyway, here’s George.

Did they, eh? The start of Episode 2 is fairly ambiguous when it comes to the place in the timeline, so it’s interesting getting details that can help pin it down. I’m hesitant to say that this is fabricated - there’s no way Eva would go along with a fake Kinzo appearance, so surely we’re at least 2 years back?

After mentioning generational trauma and the cyclical nature of abuse in the Episode 1 Wake, it definitely stands out more whenever the mentions of abuse crop up. Thanks Kinzo.

And here we are - THE moment that the feelings take root.

One thing which I think is important to address before we progress is the nature of Shannon’s feelings - I, personally, don’t like the Shannon-George dynamic, and a big part of it is this sense that she’s only pursuing him because she wants a “normal” romance in her life, and that the walking definition of milquetoast finds himself as the most eligible option in her position. She doesn’t love George, she loves the idea of George - and of course, that can develop over time, but that’s a questionable foundation.

But here’s the thing - does that matter?

There’s an excellent video from Philosophy Tube centred around Brexit (of all things), which raises a great point about people voting when they have been misled or deceived - while they have made an “incorrect” judgement based on what they knew, does that necessarily mean that vote is invalid? Are those feelings invalid?

In my personal opinion, yes - I’d say so. But as with most philosophical questions, a personal answer is not a true answer; my thoughts are not reflective of a greater truth of the universe. You can argue that, if someone is fed lies, and they make a vote based on those lies, then that vote is still perfectly legitimate. I might not agree with you, but the argument is there to be made.

I bring this up because it’s reflective of Shannon’s situation - because I think her feelings for George developed in the “wrong” way, I’m not supportive of the relationship. But does that matter? Shannon still has those feelings, regardless of how they developed. My preconceived notions cannot override that. As before, going forward, I’m likely to be critical of George and Shannon - but my distaste does not override their legitimacy. Anyway, moving forward.

Very funny to see the narrative also writing George off as “average”.

I think it’s worth mentioning heteronormativity again here in terms of George being influenced by it. Again, the choice word is “unfortunately” - completely telling of the expectations that George has thrust upon himself. He, too, is weighed down by society demanding that he enters a normal relationship; and that’s before any of the Ushiromiya expectations factor into it.

Highlighting the use of “Irresponsibly” here.

Honestly, this scene is actually kind of phenomenal on a reread - fueled by society at large, Jessica’s desire for romance causes her to ship George and Shannon together - pushing them close even when they may not have been otherwise - which in turn causes her to spiral and doom her away from Kanon. I am a sucker for tragedy and we are delivering right now.

And here we juxtapose societal expectations with familial. Not only is George expected to marry and start a family, he’s expected to enter a political arrangement, with him being used as a vessel for the Ushiromiya that cares not for the human behind his position. The former expectations twist and warp the human; the latter ignores it entirely. Which is worse?

Eva’s discussion about how she grew to love Hideyoshi rather than marrying because of it is an interesting parallel to the discussion we’ve just had regarding Shannon falling for George for just being there. It might just be my interpretation of it, but it feels like Umineko wants to paint that Eva-Hideyoshi dynamic as a negative thing, which is an interesting reflection of how it doesn’t seem to do the same for Shannon-George. But again, maybe that’s my preconceived notions tainting the scene - it very well might just be alluding to it while passing no judgement.

Not content to dehumanise just her own son, Eva has it out for the servant girl as well.

There’s a line here about George being in college and getting “wonderful grades”, so that probably places him at about 20-21? He was born in March, so that would have made him one of the youngest when he started school in April, so he’d have entered university at 18 and graduated at 21 or 22 depending on whether he went for a Bachelors or a Masters. So with Kinzo alive, we’re probably 2-3 years in the past?

I probably shouldn’t care about this too much - Ryukishi tends to play fast and loose with the span of time in his works (fall of the Soviet Union, anyone?) so trying to pin hard numbers on this is likely an exercise in futility.

Interesting - engraving into your heart conjures the same phrasing that “Kinzo” gave Natsuhi during her study scene in Episode 1. A sly hint that such an exchange was fabricated by Natsuhi, given her use of the term here?

It’s interesting how the POV bounces back between “I” and a third person “Shannon”. Possibly Yasu taking time to distinguish or dehumanise herself?

It’s interesting how Kanon is used as a way for Yasu to express the internal emotions that she’s not allowed to paint onto Shannon. There’s quite a few scenes where Shannon isn’t allowed to react and Kanon does it for her.

And so Yasu was so perturbed by Eva and Natsuhi’s words that she added a new voice to her internal dialogue.

Did you know that the answer is love? I wonder what happens if you extrapolate that idea to the plot as a whole. I’m sure there’s no relation.

So what’s the implication here? Yasu is giving herself a pep talk into using the bombs to destroy the shrine? But if that’s the case, that narrows the window significantly, since Kinzo died pretty much immediately after Yasu solved the Epitaph, right? So either this takes place at a very specific moment in time 2 years ago, they somehow faked Kinzo coming down to get George to leave but somehow Eva didn’t become suspicious, or the timeline isn’t consistent.

Ah, so it’s about conformity - an amusing sister topic to our previous discussion on societal expectations. It’s about Yasu needing to do something drastic, to ensure that something will change; that the life of furniture does not continue forever. Blowing up the shrine, and the eventual Epitaph Murders, are a chance for her to wrestle back control of her life; to have a say in what happens, rather than be a lower life form working around others. Eva and Natsuhi were the tipping point; the moment she starts to think more of herself, they both try and rip it from her, and she’s no longer willing to sit back and let that happen.

There’s a time limit on this as well, which almost certainly contributes to this being the inciting incident for the birth of Beatrice inside of Yasu. A perfect storm of pressure on all sides.

Kanon’s arrival here is fun to think about - after all, scenes with all 3 of them are still just a raging internal monologue. These should be very interesting to think about going forward.

I wonder how much of this is reflective of reality - of course, none of this could have happened, as it was a mutable mark that healed in a few days regardless; but it’s more interesting to think of fantasy adorning reality rather than replacing it. Perhaps Yasu burnt herself with cleaning chemicals - as an act reflective of willpower. To injure oneself and feel the pain; after all, furniture cannot feel pain, so it’s a pledge to herself to be human.

And from that moment on, Shannon was tormented, doomed to suffer the curse we know as being human.

#umireread #umineko #umineko spoilers

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misarem · 1 month

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umineko episode 2 impressions

......thoughts? im like 30 hours into this its kinda not impressions time anymore but idk.

This episode really was so much crazier than the last and while i thought the first was pretty well done, everything in this from the new twists and beatrices cruelty had me together in just the right way and it feels like the games really clicking for me now. feel like im getting a bit more into the mysteries too and im excited to keep going but i have to organize my thoughts first. obv spoilers

right off the bat i like the different approach in showing the two days, contextualizing them with moments between different parts of the family beforehand. i really liked the stuff with Jessica performing (love parts of vns like this, reminded me of ibuki mioda in sdr2) and i thought her thing with Kanon, while im not a huge fan of it, i find it more palatable with them being a lot closer in age than the other cousin maid pairing and i just think its sweet in general the way they care for each other despite getting shit from their respective families/groups. on the other hand, i had forgotten this in the first episode and i still like George but ok wow his relationship with Shannon is creepy. I can get over that kinda thing in a game when its addressed meaningfully but im wondering if its just gonna like be taken as a given like battler making advances to his cousins or if its gonna be addressed cuz like. i think they do have sort of a nice affection for each other and i want Shannon to be happy with a partner but i forgot shes like 6 or 7 years younger than him and him like half seriously ordering her as his servant to be with him is like yeesh dude. it does make an interesting contrast with George being the more mature cousin and playing along with their power dynamic just to make things smoother while Jessica is younger and more aspirational, wanting Kanon to be on the same level as her. well see what happens later on ig.

speaking of forgetting how bad some characters could be WOW this was a major chapter for Rosa. we immediately see how cruel she is to Maria and, ig fitting for episode 2, its almost like two sides to Rosa are established. but its so obvious the demure side of Rosa is influenced by the same upbringing that created her abusive side and as hard as it is to watch her hit maria its also just like so immediately painfully real how Rosa got to this point. not to get too personal and i think lots of people have this parental baggage nowadays but having spent years coping with verbal and emotional abuse from my own mother and having to face the harsh reality that shes not simply a shitty person and having to live with her own family and husband made her that way, and having to learn how to worry for and pity someone that you have, almost hard coded resentment for at this point. yea Rosa in this chapter just hits incredibly hard, and i gleamed from chapter 1 that a youngest child who isnt taken as seriously having abuse tendencies would be a lot to watch, i really had no idea how severe it would be. her ending with Maria this chapter was insane, just a perfect encapsulation of how bittersweet their feelings were, and the "only one mama/maria" line was a crazy moment of maturity for Maria too. im really wondering about her still cuz after the murders start its kinda easy to like write her off as a presence similar to the witches but she keeps showing different facets of herself in the briefest moments. i do think she and Battler will make it to the tenth twilight every episode tho no matter what happens to everyone else. also for Rosa, the tea party was just sick thats all ill say.

as for other predictions, just by pattern recognition the easiest guess for me is that one set of parents will be spared every first twilight just to see more of them during the 5th. so far it was George's parents (and natsuhi) surviving the first episode and Maria's parent surviving ep2, so im wondering if Battler and Jessica's parents will concurrently follow. also wondering if, following Natsuhi and Rosa, Kyrie and Eva will make it close to the end next. maybe one ep will be an inverse of the first and Eva survives along with Jessica's parents while Hideyoshi dies first. Eva and Hideyoshi seem to have a nice relationship and it would be interesting to see one without the other, and I can definitely see Eva going crazy without her husband. I mainly just hope Kyrie makes it far and gives us more insight and character cuz shes just so cool. Altho maybe she's just meant to die every time, imparting her wisdom on Battler who uses it to poetically avenge her. considering Battler himself has some Phoenix Wright dna in his writing, it wouldnt be surprising if Kyrie ended up being his Mia Fey (ig that kinda makes Maria like Pearl).

Other than that I'm not sure how things will shake out. for the murders themselves, while I dont have the other locked rooms figured out, the idea that someone took the chapel key and then placed it back into Maria's bag after resealing the envelope danced around in my mind before Battler and Beato even started arguing, since I thought if Rosa could do it and the means to make a wax seal were on the island, anyone could. I almost feel like I dont have enough info for the others but I could be seeing it wrong. Either way I love the argument style that Battler and Beato take up midway thru this chapter, with the red text rule constantly evolving as Battler and Beato take turns seizing it for their own advantage, and I cant wait for them to debate even more. Also. cannot stress this enough. absolutely next level voice acting from Sayaka Ohara. Every witch cackle and comeback and "USHIROMIYA BAAATTLEEEEEEER" is just unbelievable and i never ever get tired of hearing her line reads. Hell Ive gone to the log several times just to hear her again cuz I tend to have an itchy text advance finger. Just incredible.

Back to the story tho, I'm also kinda confused with the order of murders vs the order of twilights, with Nanjo and Kumasawa dying before George, Shannon and Gohda but having the 7th and 8th twilights, while the latter trio had 4, 5 and 6 (not in that order but you know). Wonder what the significance is and how itll come up, of course you can gouge a knee and leg of a dead body but it seems weird esp if the command "gouge the _ and kill" is meant to be taken literally in that order. i think that they werent marked as dead in the character page until their bodies were discovered too even tho their throats were cut on screen which is also kinda suspicious even tho I think Kanon and Jessica mightve been the same? Its actually hard to check that since my set up for Umineko Project on steam deck is kinda finnicky and the mouse doesnt always register like it should so i have a hard time clicking things. Still something to keep an eye on. Regardless i thought the death order was a lot more interesting with Rosa having to take the lead and the family and servants factioning off, even at the end where among the surviving family group, Rosa still found a way to make things hard for Battler and im wondering if smth like this would happen again like George taking Shannon and going against him or smth.

before i wrap up heres how my tier list shifted. since more witches are being introduced ill find a bigger one next episode but not much has changed. i still like George but hes going down in the fucked up category. and Genji and Gohda didnt have a huge impression on me previously but they rlly grew on me with Genji showing his devotion and Gohda not being as much as an asshole and growing closer to Kanon and Shannon. I have a butler bias and a big dude bias so that along with how pathetic and desperate he comes off kinda pulled me to him more even tho hes a lot of side character comic relief. And Shannon was just really nice this episode.

Last thing is the ??? segment which is basically just the witches segment. I knew Bernkastel (and Erika Furudo) clearly had something to do with Rika Furude but after posting the first episode impressions I realized Lambdadelta resembles Satoko Hojo a bit, and with what I know watching sparse clips of the Higurashi series from 2020 that had a lot of time loop fuckery, and with Bern and Lambda having a rivalry and recent conflict, it makes me wonder if Higurashi and Umineko are connected that way. The thing is tho I havent seen Higurashi in full at all. I do wanna play it at some point after this but Umineko just appealed to me way more and I couldnt help myself. Still i think its interesting. I've already seen more abt Beato from the peek I took of episode 3 and i cant wait to not only jump in but to see how my opinions and predictions keep changing

#umineko when they cry #umineko no naku koro ni #uwtc #umineko episode 2 #turn of the golden witch

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knoxs2nd · 10 months

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in the ep2 tea party, the narrator (yasu) talks about how becoming an adult means being able to overcome your childhood trauma, and thus rosa couldn't become an adult. this assumption that becoming an adult = good tells us a lot about yasu's mindset!

child yasu was desperately lonely and felt like an incompetent and unlovable person. the only people who were kind to her were, you guessed it, adults (shannon, kumasawa, genji, nanjo, even kinzo). so all yasu had to comfort herself was "when i grow up and become just like shannon, then i will be lovable, and i'll also be capable of being kind to and loving others."

but, well, you get where i'm going here: yasu cannot physically go through puberty. she gets incredibly distressed when she realizes she's not developing into the adult that she so wanted to become, who'd be beautiful and loved, and could be gracious, kind, and love in return.

the only way she can become happy is through magic - by tricking people into believing the illusion that she's an adult - because to yasu, being an adult means you are capable of love (in this case sex. capable of sex. let's not be flowery as this is a massive part of her trauma.)

for her, she can never escape her childhood trauma of feeling unlovable both figuratively and literally, because she can never become an adult, or...let's phrase it in umineko terms, become a "Human."

for characters with human and witch forms, like eva, the human is the adult while the witch is a child. it's an ongoing theme in the series - also see: ep1 where they discuss how young girls create witchsonas, and it's an important part of childhood, but they grow out of it.

a lot of rereading umineko is translating fantasy language into reality, so you can read "furniture" as yasu, in mystery terms, describing an eternal childhood without any hope of becoming an adult. yasu, in fantasy terms, might call that being the "endless witch."

just like how rosa talks about how she feels like she's been pretending to be an adult her whole life because that's what she has to be, so does yasu know she can't become an "adult", mentally, by overcoming her childhood trauma, or physically, by going through puberty.

but she still has to keep up the illusion that she is human/an adult in order to be allowed to exist in society (conformity and hammering out any rebellion or undesirable bits is also a marker of adulthood, like how eva admits she got over her dream of being a female head when she grew up.)

an interesting point about shannon and kanon is they're both supposed to be 16, however, shannon isn't referred to as a kid, but kanon constantly is.

and well, we know it's because shannon has gigantic boobs, marking her as an Adult Woman, while kanon is a frail boy who doesn't have any muscle at all...so he's just a boy. in ep2, shannon even gets the marriage subplot, because that's a TANGIBLE marker of adulthood, right? to get married? meanwhile, kanon gets to...go to the high school's school festival.

way to show the contrast for Mature Adult Shannon (who is only seen that way because yasu uses magic and pads her chest) versus Small Immature Child Kanon (where yasu DOESN'T use magic to change her body and perception of her "adulthood")

shannon's subplot with george is all about their future and devotion to each other (let's ignore any trauma about being furniture that'd prevent that here! power of magic!) meanwhile, kanon's subplot with jessica is A L L about his trauma of being furniture.

also, in a cruel twist of irony, when shannon calls herself furniture using magic, george doesn't take it seriously. but letting that get to you would be childish/furniture-like so shannon acts like she doesn't care. while jessica insists kanon is Human, and kanon flips because he's allowed to be childish and touchy about his trauma about being furniture and he CAN'T BECOME HUMAN BECAUSE HE'S NEVER BECOMING AN ADULT, STOP RUBBING IT IN HIS FACE.

so, talking about shannon/george vs kanon/jessica

shannon/george is the expected pairing for yasu. shannon's an Adult Human Woman who's socially acceptable in her femininity and doesn't show her childhood trauma.

while kanon wasn't meant to be lovable - he's the boy who barely had any time to live! he's her furniture self who has accepted he can never grow up into an Adult Human. he's her child self who will always retain her childhood traumas: being incompetent, unlovable, unable TO love.

so, jessica upending all of yasu's expectations by showing interest in him is like...she cracked the glass of yasu's small, confined world. jessica couldn't break the glass, but even that little bit was enough for yasu to do something she usually tried to avoid: take HUGE risks by starting to pursue a relationship with jessica as kanon.

love between furniture and humans is forbidden: in yasu-speak it's like a relationship between an adult and a child. it's that level of forbidden. not just forbidden, in fact, but reprehensible. so of course human-furniture romance is doomed to fail.

according to yasu, any normal human would, and SHOULD, on a moral level, reject furniture if they know the truth, and it's wrong for furniture to lie to humans while knowing the truth that's why beatrice the evil witch has to tempt shannon into using magic and lying so that she could pursue love.

#character: yasu #character: shannon #character: kanon #favorite

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leminhthinking · 10 months

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just some Yasu thoughts idk

full spoilers ahead and somewhere along the way i also... talked a bit about my own condition. not really ready to be very open about it here haha

what are Shannon, Kanon and the witch (Beatrice) to Yasu? just, what are they to her, and what is their relationship with her, her view of self and her view of life? in different corners of the Umineko fandom, there are many different interpretations. some might say that this is DID or another unknown form of plurality, while some other would argue they are Yasu's imaginary friends, or original characters even. while these explanations are all valid and can work in their own ways, an explanation i find works best is to view Shannon, Kanon and Beatrice as Yasu's personas and another way for her to view reality, being as lonely as she is.

the DID explanation does not work for me, because all of them seem to be created with a purpose beforehand, for Yasu to do something she wanted to: Shannon for Yasu to be a perfect maid, Kanon for Yasu to be a guy and (for Shannon) to have a brother - someone to protect her and be with her, and the witch for her to perform tricks on others and be as free as she can be. of course, these purposes changed as time went by. another reason why this explanation does not work for me is how Shannon's love for Battler was shifted to the witch, how it is (seen to be) done very voluntarily, contrary to what would usually happen in DID systems.

nevertheless, a lot of Shannon - Kanon - the witch Beatrice's narratives could be very relatable to systems. of course id know that idhjfiajsdfh theyre why i knew i was a system in the first place.

the imaginary friends/original characters explanation, however, took a very opposite approach. instead of explaining Shannon, Kanon and the witch's existence by something Yasu could not control, this interpretation placed that control entirely in her hands. which is cool, actually, but in this way, Yasu's existence in them is often ignored. because, why not? following this explanation, Yasu and these three are very *different* people, and different people can only influence each other, not becoming one another. in a way, for me, this interpretation neglects the true nature of Yasu and Shannon - Kanon - the witch's relationship, and therefore neglects the heart.

and that left me with the persona explanation, which puts Yasu and her needs in the center, while still gives her control of everything Shannon - Kanon - the witch do and whatever happens between them. in this way, Yasu is each and everyone of them, and they are all her, and thats what clicks for me. Shannon, Kanon and the witch existed in Yasu's viewpoint as various forms of her, and everything they do, everything they encounter, is a sort of rewritten reality. its like looking back to something you did and labeling it as being done by another version of yourself.

an easier to digest example of how this could be done is the story about the broken vase in Banquet. here, the vase was broken by young Beato/Yasu from the start, but by rewriting that reality - lying, as some might call, the blame shifted from her to a random cat. that cat is the manifestation of her action's result, only in another form. the only difference here is that Yasu does not see herself as that cat, and i think thats also why its easier to understand too? lol

so what happened to Yasu that made it possible for her to *be* all Shannon, Kanon and the witch at the same time, to me, is that she first (consciously) divided her selves into parts, then gave these parts forms and names, and lastly did things while deciding which parts did it. it can works in reverse too: Yasu could be doing one specific thing and later on label it as a Kanon's action for example. in her point of view, in her altered reality, these parts- these *people* all have free will (which is also her free will. because they are her), can act accordingly, can have their own emotions.

with this interpretation, the truth behind the three's interaction to each other can be very different from what is portrayed. Kanon reassuring Shannon and being angry on her behalf could be an inner monologue where Yasu felt sorry for herself, needed reassurance and tried to give herself just that. and then that one part in Confession of the golden witch where all three of them - Shannon, Kanon and the witch Beatrice - got into a fight because they have different desires, different love interests could be Yasu punishing herself for loving many different people at once, for wanting to reach different futures at once. and so on and so on...

when their actions, specifically, their interactions between each other, are viewed and translated into reality like this, it brings about a whole other meaning, as a whole new depth to Yasu's character. we now have more insight on how Yasu viewed herself - shattered, like pieces of mirror, with different needs assigned onto different selves; on how she must have truly felt in different situations, and how she actually coped with it, and how in the end, she was always really really lonely...

#leminhthinking in paragraphs #umineko #umineko spoilers #confession of the golden witch spoilers #beatrice the golden witch #shannon umineko #kanon umineko

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whenthechickencry · 4 months

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Umineko EP7. Replay Part 1

The contrast between the somber, funeral, scenes of Battler with Beatrice's corpse and the inquisitor scenes with LiberatedLiberator playing are very funny.... also the battler scenes are very tender. "Then, he kissed (The book), ...and laid it gently in the casket" The game is making me sad already lol. Wonder if people who had figured that S = K but not Sayo were stumped by this... I mean it would be short-lived since the episode reveals what happened but. R07 does like testing even the readers that did get the answer.

Will is obviously the ideal Battler that Battler hoped Sayo would be, the one who would look for the heart of her mystery, and he's very dashing in this scene lol, sadly the reality is different than the ideal.... This episode has a pretty good opening, actually, I like it a lot. The funeral scene where everyone has their own reaction to the death of Beatrice is interesting, it really highlights how many different things and people 'Beatrice' is. Speaking of people 'Beatrice' is....

This episode has a bunch of new songs, I forgot how many songs were unique to or introduced in this episode, it adds to the unique vibe this episode has, also they are all really good so.... Lion is so "mild-mannered" (as the game puts it) that he just straight up ignores that there's a flying girl in front of him and just tells her to step off the altar, lol.

Bernkastel introduces the mystery of "Who Killed Beatrice?" along with the side-mystery of who is Lion. Lion is extremely annoyed by all this.

Lion having no memory of Kanon is the first hint introduced, besides being Natsuhi's child. Lion mentions being used to unreasonable situations due to being forced to deal with Kinzo.... which is kind of ironic when you think about how that is true for Sayo in a completely different way. Will didn't seem to see Lion as much more than just a clueless, curious, piece at first but his demeanor forced him to acknowledge a piece as an equal. It is a pretty endearing relationship that was definitely pulled off nicely in the short time they had. Eva is uh, definitely not happy about the existence of Lion....

Everyone's really comfortable calling Beatrice his mistress here - in main worlds, it seemed to be a more taboo topic.... the fact that the witch legend didn't exist in this world probably lead to people talking about Beatrice-as-a-Person more in this fragment I suppose.

I wouldn't put it that confidently but.... it's not like ignoring her and letting her be locked in a cage where she is under Kinzo's control is a good place to be either.

Non-voiced dialogue.... right yeah this episode was censored a lot during the console version.

Bernkastel gets the theatergoing ability from Bernkastel in order to force Kinzo to talk. Shannon reveals she struggles to remember Lion, and Will catches this. They talk, and he orders her to bring Kanon, she hints at Sayo and Shannon.exe starts breaking down from conflicting instructions. She starts referring to Sayo as "The one who orders us"

This scene's pretty interesting... because if you think about it the one would get checkmate is Beato and not Will right? But Will is the one getting warned. I have been kind of rocking my head at this for a bit - but I can see a couple interpretations. I could see it as a commentary on how S = K isn't the full answer and you need to keep thinking above that to reach a real answer - on a meta-level maybe Will would have been fucked by forcing an illegal move idk. Interesting scene to think about lol.

Kinzo: Beatrice is mine alone. No matter what anyone says, no one can defile our story. Ugh, gross to think about. You yourself already defiled your own story with Beatrice, Kinzo. Genji starts being pushy about Beatrice II being Beatrice reborn.... no wonder Sayo can't get herself to have positive feelings toward Genji. I can find myself as having more sympathy towards Kumasawa, though.... I think the way making pranks passed from one to the other is cute and in general seems to have less power and willingness to enable Kinzo... still, though, the fact the person is basically your mother hiding your dad's abuse and having you play along with a dumb riddle game for the sake of said abuser.... The images of Kumasawa thinking she's playing dead and slowly realizing she is in fact being killed makes me sad, though.

Kumasawa: "You could sometimes catch a glimpse of his great love for the late Beatrice-sama, and it was a heart-warming thing."... Kumasawa's way of saying Kinzo is a groomer without saying it directly, and Will catches on to what she actually means. Oh Lion starts crying right now when the only thing he knows is that he did some grooming.... your day is about to get so much worse Lion. "Everything was decided by someone other than me".... and Kinzo eventually ended up putting that burden on several Beatrices, the one who ironically broke him free of that hell.

We get a bunch of introductions to the overall setting, Kinzo talking about how he's waiting to die and about how he hates pretty much everyone else on the island. Then Kinzo meets Beatrice and they immediately hit it off. I forgot the first talk they had with each other after meeting each other was about how they both feel controlled and defined by their families.... it makes sense they can relate to each other in that way. It is sad to think that instead of breaking that chain Kizno instead furthered it to about 10 different people.

Ah, hahaha, it's kind of sad to think about how Kinzo's wife was definitely bothered about the cheating... it'd be one thing if they both didn't give a fuck about the relationship but.... Natsuhi mentions relating to her once I think so I can't imagine her situation was happy, whatever it was.

The reveal of the tens of gold comes from the Italians no longer being able to hide it due to their ship sinking slowly.

Weird tangent but it's kind of fascinating to see Kinzo as an interpreter because I work as a professional Spanish-english interpreter... Kinzo does sooooo many things that would get me fired haha. Of course, he's not a professional interpreter and I am certainly not a wartime interpreter. Kinzo is a liar in his retelling of the events, of course, in actuality he was the one who first recommended shooting the Italians first. The choice is framed as letting everyone but you and the person you love die but uh, it is closer to risking her life and hoping she's fine.

It was certainly not his intention to let her die but.... it's certainly a risk he should have considered more thoroughly before deciding to blow the Italians up.

Kinzo: "Can't you see that you caused all this because you were blinded by gold." Yeah, sure Kinzo, they did.

Part of what drove even Beatrice 1 to wanting to die is the fact that Kinzo's planning got everyone close to her killed....

Kinzo took Beatrice to Nanjo who kept the secret for him, and then Beatrice died during childbirth.

And then he's also bribed by Sayo, haha, I mean he isn't very good at lying in hindsight but also no one figured anything out *due* to him so....

Will talks about how Battler might have been removed as a way to make the puzzle harder which is interesting. Bernkastel DOES believe Battler remembers his promise to some extent even as a piece... Jessica probably feels less pressure in this world if anything... I can imagine not bearing the brunt of Natsuhi's expectations and allowed to be herself probably helps everyone in that relationship a little bit.

Maria corrects Will on his bible knowledge haha that's very cute. This line always struck to me and I always remember it... it's a way to connect why people use magic to a situation we all know. Obviously, this is not what the Bible meant but it did give her the power to love herself as is.

Maria mentions she told to everyone about how she wanted to meet the witch and then Beatrice appeared in front of her, in other words Sayo indulged her and they became good friends after that, hahaha. This is so cute I am crying.

Will gets into the non-existence of Lion with the chair arrangement and into the number of accomplices with the number of people able to see Beatrice.... Maria sure is a good witness when you bother to talk to her on her terms. Will reasons this was after Beatrice started existing but before it had anything to do with Battler. Will tells Jessica that he approves of her living her life like she wants to and keeping her hobbies in spite of it all... narrative points out this is probably the first time someone approved of how Jessica lived her life. Ouch. Jessica talks about how she doesn't gaf too much about Beatrice and how she thinks Maria is a bit freaky about being too into Maria and it was too vivid... which it quite literally was because she did meet Beatrice. Jessica is extremely classy about it.

Will chides her for being like this by pointing out her motto is creating another self how you want to be and that's exactly what Maria is doing.

Jessica coughing a ton in order to change the subject is brought up here. I think she probably does actually have asthma, though, just uses that to her advantage sometimes. Jessica is still gloomy about the argument a day later, she talks to Kumasawa about it and she dares her to curse her for that and uh, THEN she goes to Shannon and Gohda and denies it AGAIN... man Jessica you had like 4 chances to back down out of it. Jessica knows exactly what happened but is too scared to admit it to herself... I imagine that might be what is going on with Kinzo and Shkannon as well.

Will breaks Jessica's reality by pointing out the sitting arrangement issue, but I guess she'll probably just rationalize it anyway so it is fine.

Kinzo probably did his best to quit the rumors since they were rude and since his mental state was probably a bit better in this world and there was no Sayo to build the legend of the witch, well....

Will starts his description of who killed Beatrice by revealing that Maria can tell people apart not by their appearance but by their actions. "She believed the power of witches could change her unfulfilling and incomplete life".... I mean not wrong, but ouch...Lion makes the connection that Beatrice is kind of a character Sayo is playing. It's cool how the tension you feel in this scene as Will slowly edges to the conclusion.

Lion: Are you trying to say Beatrice and I are two sides of the same coin? Lion's 100% correct here lol. Lion starts getting pissed when he starts revealing Lion's backstory, which is understandable.... he can tell Kinzo DID have favoritism towards him so he keeps hearing though. This is kind of sad just itself.... Natsuhi and Lion have a good parent-child relationship if they are allowed to exist together it's just the circumstances that allow them to be together are too harsh for that to happen...

The choice of whether Lion will see Beatrice or not is interesting to me.... I mean, it won't be pretty and will add a bunch of trauma that he was saved from in this life, but.... Beatrice being seen and accepted by Lion would probably mean a lot to her, I think... I don't know what Lion would think of Beatrice but the idea of Lion denying her makes me very sad. It would probably be very hard to process though. Think there's kind of an implicit "Do you have the right to judge 'bad' people when they could have been you had you been born in different circumstances" kind of argument going on here. They start discussing Lion's gender, and we start talking about how that was a constant point of contention in the games, which is about the one thing that hasn't been spelled out yet by now...

R07 starts beating you over the head with how all the answers are available in ep1-4 and the next games were just answers lol. Probably a little frustrated by people at people having I'll wait until i get more hints approach. She's right though.... like Lambdadelta dropped soooo many hints and it was still not enough. Battler definitely deserves some shit.

Sayo is confused about why they were brought to Ushiromiya's family when they don't have any relevant skills. It's certainly not the beginning of it but it's probably the first time Sayo felt that her fate was being chosen by someone for reasons unknown to her.... Sayo was just in elementary school.... she really wasn't allowed much of any life before Genji started dragging her around for his plans. I wonder what Genji told Natsuhi to make an excuse for Sayo to get there. If you just tell her Kinzo said so she probably can't object too much though. They did what? Jesus christ, I forgot how bad her life was even pre-rokkenjima....

Sayo is helped by "Shannon", which is mentioned was her friend in the Gospel House as well... sad to think her life has sucked so much to this point that they had to make an imaginary friend before she even got to Rokkenjima. Ok yeah Natsuhi confirms she was told Kinzo just did this lol. I wonder what Kinzo thought but at this point I imagine he was too busy feeling guilty about Beatrice to care too much about the house going ons. Lion wakes up and says he doesn't regret finding out but he wants to forget which is a fair, probably. They start discussing how this was Genji's plan. Bernkastel starts taunting Lion about not being biological and everyone just kind of ignores her, which fair enough she doesn't even believe what she's saying. We go back to Clair's home life being kind of fucky. worsened by Genji's machinations.

I've kind of been avoiding the subject because it's really obvious but the Gospel House is really fucked. Stripping children of their names, sending them to work after middle school... Haha, I wonder why no one talks behind her back or why she can't pick up your tasks.

Natsuhi tells Sayo to not to be Jessica's friend, because of course she does. Sayo has every right to fucking hate Natsuhi. If only Genji chose to separate Kinzo from Sayo fully instead of making her entire life a redemption play for her mother's rapist.... They bring up the age difference and how it was necessary to have Natsuhi and Kinzo be fooled, which is another way in which Sayo's entire identity was denied for others. Sayo recounting the way she loses things sounds just like ADHD haha, anyways that's how Beatrice-Gaap is born. Sayo mentions how the reason she can 'see' things even when they are not there is due to the way she has been taught God is everywhere even though you can't see him. That's definitely interesting to me.... it's always interesting to hear about how children interpret religious superstitions, you definitely see a lot of children interpreting stuff like imaginary friends, mental illness, etc. Like that. Being perceived and understood is to be saved.

Sayo gives up and realizes the broom was outside and picks it up, in the meta she has become friends with the broom-stealing Beatrice. Kumasawa starts teaching her how to not lose stuff but filters it through magic talk, which becomes the basis for her entire system of magic.... Kumasawa.... again I think that Kumasawa is probably the most healthy relationship Sayo had for most of her life.

Sayo realizes when people who are cruel to her make the same mistake as the ones they mock her for it feels good... that's true even if she causes the mistake herself. Natsuhi really fucked Sayo's life in sooo many ways... I really like Sayo I am not meaning to demonize her but god damn I don't think anyone can give Sayo shit for hating her.

Mystery novels are also a hands-me-down from Kumasawa... there's a reason why Virgilia is the original Beatrice!

Interesting how the whole concept of the game was born out of Sayo just wanting to make reading mystery novels funner for her, haha, I mean it is funnier to figure things out if you imagine there's an opponent you have to beat, I suppose!

#umineko #umiepisode7

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rose-reads-visualnovels · 1 year

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reply sent to me by homa from @goldenwolfwitch

So I've been thinking on how to address this for a while, because I can see this is a topic very close to your heart. It's not my intention to be callous or victim blaming when dealing with abuse, and it's also not my intention to say being forgetful is an intentional act by people who just want to be punished.

However, I must stand both with my reading of Shannon as a blind liveblogger and with my liveblogging method itself. I show my genuine interpretation of the characters and their dynamics, but I also think about what it all means beyond the characters themselves.

Shannon has been working as a child servant for the Ushiromiyas since she was 6 years old. She's 16 now. 10 years of her life spent in that island where nothing happens and time stands still as she cleans and serves while being abused by those in a position of power over her. (emotionally by Natsuhi and who knows how by Kinzo). Kanon helps her now, but he's only been working here for about 2 years.

When discussing the character, Shannon is someone who appears to be completely broken in spirit. She has her pride, when she doesn't let Kanon snitch to Genji about what happened between her and Eva, but her resistance towards abuse thrown at her is at zero. She has no boundaries she won't allow her masters to cross. She has completely given up on the idea of not being disrespected at every turn. Battler can molest her in front of her maybe boyfriend George, the family heiress Jessica and Maria a 9 year old. Shannon's mind is far, far away from her body.

If we talk about her place in the narrative, she's shown in contrast to Kanon in a very particular way. It's not a furniture vs furniture dynamic. It's the "real" vs "unreal". Even when she self identifies as furniture, Shannon is real. She represents the reality of being a child in servitude to a family of unstable power hungry adult children. Everything that could go wrong in such a dynamic does go wrong. Shannon is always being scolded, and teased and harassed because being completely powerless and surrounded by abusive people opens you up to abuse. Kanon only gets scolded by a fellow servant for not smiling enough and then all the Ushiromiya adults jump in to defend his honor from that old mean Gohda. He lives a fantasy. He represents a fantasy world, a magic world where masters are good towards their servants, where "going through puberty" is justification for not punishing bad behavior.

The family conference happens once every year at the same time every year. With that whole timeframe to prepare herself, be familiar with what's inside the kitchen and what tea Natsuhi usually wants served, why didn't she? Why must Shannon forget about the flavor of the tea when everything about her background (10 years working in Rokkenjima) says there's no way it can even be possible?

The Watsonian explanation is that the nervousness made her mind blank. This is what you took from the scene because you're also a forgetful person, according to your own words. But the Doylist explanation says Shannon must be punished. The narrative threads around Shannon would never allow her to escape an interaction with Eva with a simple answer and smile. Shannon must forget and she will forget in the future again, she won't be allowed to ask Kumasawa or Gohda beforehand for more information on the things she's supposed to do because Shannon has to suffer.

Shannon is doing her best to be the target of abuse, because there are no other ways her character can go. I'm not saying she - the character we're watching - is intentionally throwing herself at situations unprepared out of a desire for punishment. I'm saying she's the first victim in a horror movie who's making all the terrible obvious mistakes that will get her killed that make audiences groan in frustration.

Shannon is walking towards her doom every time she enters a room. This is not her fault, the script is obviously against her. Shannon's forgetfulness doesn't reflect her inner feelings and heart in the same way a group of friends splitting up to investigate an abandoned house doesn't mean every individual in the group is a low IQ worm.

Shannon is a lynchpin of human suffering, and thus she is furniture.

-- Rose, the Revolutionary Witch

#umineko liveblog #umineko #shannon #shannon the rose furniture #kanon #kanon the rose furniture #goldenwolfwitch

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pochapal · 1 year

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battler the reader surrogate going on the same emotional journey as the reader. if you take a metatextual reading of everything then you could argue there are Implications to this

#umineko liveblog #the intended order is the order we the reader see aka the best presentation of information to create a solvable mystery #the narrative is arranged for the reader just as the crime scenes are arranged for the family #that does then beg the question that if this is to be treated as 'the beatrice narrative' who is the intended audience?#battler? kinzo? kanon? the family as a whole? someone else? i'm not sure #but further than that i have to wonder if in-universe this is meant to be presented as a kind of challenge to solve for the survivors #this is one of those things that i think can't be answered until we get a hint of a metatextual element #since there are glaring contradictions in that line of thought that do not marry with the physical reality of the story at all

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insomniac-jay · 2 years

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BNHA Next Gen Revamped: Electric Boogaloo

Yukiana Midoriya/Snowbelle: The eldest daughter of Izuku and Shoto Midoriya. Yukiana is definitely the golden child and is the smartest, most powerful, and arguably the prettiest. She's a recent college graduate and is planning on heading overseas with her boyfriend Gakudan.

Quirk: Snow - By lowering the temperature of her body, Yukiana has the power to create and manipulate snow, snowflakes, and ice. One of her favorite things to do is use snowflakes as throwing weapons.

Hisao Midoriya/Hephaestus: The second eldest child and first son of Shoto and Izuku. He is autistic and his special interest is engineering. Because of this and the fact that he might be insane, he has chosen to become a support hero. He is just as smart as his older sister.

Quirk: Pyro Breath - By increasing his body temperature, Hisao can breathe and control flames as well as their intensity. He mainly uses this when he makes support items in the school forge.

Kasumi Midoriya: Middle child. Kasumi has no interest in heroics, instead turning to becoming a doctor. So far, she is working towards a scholarship for Japan's best medical school.

Quirk: Mist - Kasumi has the power to create and manipulate mist and fog. She rarely uses her Quirk, but when she does its for certain purposes.

Toshi & Kiichi Midoriya: The two youngest children. Despite not really being twins (though they do share a birthday), they act the part. Kiichi was adopted by Shoto and Izuku after his mother died in childbirth and his father refused him.

Quirk(s): Water (Toshi) - Toshi has the power to control water. He can pull water from external sources towards him.

Spatial (Kiichi) - Kiichi can alter reality on small levels.

Kanon Kirishima/Red Demoness: The eldest child of the disgraced Bakugo and Kirishima. She was born Quirkless, something that has brought her the ire and vitriol of her estranged father Katsuki. But what she lacks in power, she makes up for in other skills such as swordsmanship, martial arts, and dance.

At night, she is known as the vigilante Red Demoness.

Katsura Kirishima/Bombshell: Katsura is next child after Kanon. She has a disdain for Katsuki as he often used her to try and pit the rest of his children against their elder sister. She has a lot of trauma from her upbringing and has changed her appearance (plus her personality) numerous times to try and get away from it.

Quirk: Bombshell - She can cover herself in a tough, durable armor that she can discharge in the form of an explosion with enough energy.

Katsuo Kirishima: The middle child. Katsuo has a disdain for heroics because it reminds him too much of Katsuki. Instead, his career path is a technician. He finds the sounds of pressing buttons and flicking switches comforting.

Quirk: Ignite - He can harden parts of or his whole body and release explosive shards when heated up enough.

Hibana/Boom & Hanabi/Pop Kirishima: The youngest children and two of Hisao's classmates. Both of them are very much opposites: Hibana is the adventurous, wildchild twin meanwhile Hanabi is more reserved, somewhat motherly twin who keeps her sister out of trouble.

Quirks: Spark (Hibana) - Hibana has the ability to harden her skin and when there is enough heat, it can create sparks that she has control over the intensity of.

Firework (Hanabi) - Hanabi has the ability to harden her skin and shoot out colorful fireworks that explode upon contact with a target.

Gakudan Yaoyorozu/Musicmaster: Eldest son of Momo and Kyoka. He is an extremely gifted and talented hero. While he may have most of the Momo traits, there are times where his Jirou side comes out. Another recent college graduate making plans to do heroics overseas with his girlfriend Yukiana.

Quirk: Music Constructs - Gakudan has the power to create multicolored constructs made entirely out of music or sound in general.

Otoko Yaoyorozu/Melody: 2nd eldest and one of Hisao's classmates. She's definitely a lot more girly than people expect, but don't let that fool you. She's is most definitely a threat.

Quirk: Musicbox - Otoko has the power to produce different types of music based on her emotions. For example, happiness creates pop music, anger creates rock, etc. She can also use the music she produces to affect the emotions of others.

Anastasia "Anna" Yaoyorozu: The youngest child. Anna was adopted by Momo and Kyoka while the pair were on a trip to Europe. She since then has taken a liking to her new home and family.

Quirk: Imagiworld - Anna has the power to open portals to imaginary worlds that she can create. With a bit more training, she might have the power to trap others in these worlds.

Daishin Sero/Hotwire: Eldest of Denki and Sero's two children. He's a pretty chill guy and an avid skateboarder. Like Sero, Daishin is highly acrobatic and even partook in the Olympics during his teenage years. He's in a relationship with Makoto Tetsutetsu.

Quirk: Livewire - Daishin can produce electrical wires from either his elbows or his hands.

Teiko Sero/Black Shock: Teiko is one of Hisao's classmates. She's very goth and unironically reads Twilight. She's always wearing the harshest makeup imaginable simply because she can and no one can stop her.

Quirk: Cable - Teiko can create cables from her body (mainly fingertips) that can shock people upon contact and be plugged into devices.

Makoto/Iron Maiden & Tetsuka Tetsutetsu/Mercurina: Twin daughters of Tetsutetsu and Kendo. Makoto is the sporty and loud one while Tetsuka is the girly and quiet one. Despite their differences, they care about each other very much. Makoto is dating Daishin while Tetsuka is dating a college grad named Amanda.

Quirk(s): Metalmorph (Makoto) - Much like Tetsutetsu, Makoto can cover parts of or her entire body in an iron armor. Unlike him, however, she can reform/reshape this form to make different items such as tools and weapons.

Mercury (Tetsuka) - Tetsuka can transform into a non-toxic mercury armor that allows her to change both her shape, form, and size.

Kin Tetsutetsu: He's a fighter who's got a lot of spirit and is the world's smartest dumbass (affectionate). Kin is not interested in heroics, his passion is boxing.

Quirk: Heavy Metal Giant - Kin can transform into a durable and malleable iron form that he can increase or decrease the size of his limbs in.

Akiko Iida/Machina: Tenya, Yuga, and Mei's first baby. Genius girlboss supreme and is 100% built different since she's doing what no heroes done before: being a support hero (Mei is obviously proud). She has several degrees.

Quirk: Construct - Akiko can transform into a mecha suit at will. These suits can vary in size from large ones (think the ones from Pacific Rim) to ones her size (think the Iron Man suits) with different arsenals/weaponry, support, and defense capabilities. She also inherited Mei's eyes which is fun.

Kira Iida/Starflash: Akiko's younger sister. She sorta feels like an outcast due to the whole Aoyama situation and tends to keep to herself as a result, but acknowledges that it wasn't fair to them or their grandparents.

Quirk: Lightspeed - Kira has the power to run at the speed of light.

Hiromi Tokage/Miss Zilla: Yui and Setsuna's only child. Resident punk but a total sweetheart. She's in a relationship with Mizumi Uraraka and Akiko Iida.

Quirk: Modibody - Hiromi can separate and split parts of her body then change their size and numbers at will.

Mizumi Uraraka/Aquana: The eldest of Ochako, Mina, Tsuyu, and Toga. She's a girl next door type: kind hearted, approachable, dependable. She is especially close with Toga because of her personality being similar to Ochako's. She's dating Hiromi and Akiko.

Quirk: Mizumi has the power to create and lift any type of liquid. From water to blood to acid.

Uten Uraraka/Rainfrog: Mizumi's younger brother and another one of Hisao's classmates. Uten is a more nicer version of Tsuyu mixed in with Toga's hyper energetic nature.

Quirk: Poison Dart Frog - Uten has all the abilities of a poison dart frog including poison and acid production, camouflage, and powerful legs.

Akana Uraraka/Blood Witch: Another member of Class 2-A. Akana is really protective of herself and her emotions given the events of her past so don't expect to make any good impressions on her at first.

Quirk: Blood - Akana can control and lift blood. She also has Toga's shapeshifting.

Amefuri Uraraka: Youngest child. Amefuri is not sure what she wants to be, but has plenty of time to decide. For now, all she wants is to have fun with her friends.

Quirk: Acid Rain - Amefuri can produce clouds that rain acid. This can corrode anything or anyone it touches.

Himeka Shinso/Ruler: The only child of Shinso and Monoma. As you can expect, she is as bossy, bratty, and spoiled as they come. Currently, she is forcing her boyfriend Shinpachi to serve a month's worth of servitude to her as punishment for losing against her in Mario Kart.

Quirk: Simon Says - Himeka can make others either copy her or order them to do what she commands them to.

Korina Sato/Sweet Tooth: The only child of Sato and Naomi. Has a constant resting bitch face and is not easily fazed by things (like her mom lol). She's a tough girl and can hold her own in any fight.

Quirk: Sugar, Spice, & Everything Nice - Kori can access a different power based on what she consumes. Mixed consumption results in a fusion of two powers.

Yoruna Shoji: One of Tokoyami and Shoji's two children. She's works as a private investigator and specializes in organized crimes. Even though she's a great detective, she's painfully oblivious to Masamune Awase's affections towards her.

Quirk: Shadow Puppets - Yoruna can reshape shadows to form objects, animals, and people. The shadows needed for this reside inside her, similar to how Dark Shadow resides within Tokoyami.

Kagenori Shoji/Nevermore: A student in Class 2-A and Yoruna's younger sister. As you can expect, he is a goth and neck deep in the culture. He is in a relationship with Chiko Shiozaki.

Quirk: Darkest Depths - Kagenori can summon a shadowy octopus that can multiply in numbers at his will.

@calciumcryptid @pizzolisnacks @peachyblkdemonslayer

#bnha next gen #mha next gen

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happyfanofeverything · 1 year

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“love” in umineko chapter 2

[just finished umineko chapter 2]

i maintain that the “love”s “granted by magic” of shannon & george and kanon & jessica are falsehood in that they won’t free any of them from the ushiromiya family’s power structures, as per my current Magic As Concealment To Uphold Abusive Power Structures theory.

(this is going to a rather disordered essay-length ramble because i struggle a lot to structure my thoughts coherently even on a good day.)

during shannon and george’s interactions: george has near-complete control over not only what activities they do together and what long-term plans they make (!!) but also what framework of thinking they use to understand their interactions and relationship (notice how during their dates, he explains every action of shannon to suit his own desires, often to shannon herself, effectively manipulation). he enjoys their relationship so much because he enjoys having so much power and control over shannon, he literally narrates this etc etc but it’s more interesting to explore how shannon understands their relationship. she is so abused in the ushiromiya family that she thinks of their relationship as a miracle that she is so undeserving of that she can only earn/seize it using magic. that this love is what makes her human and gives her new life.

does this framework really help her towards freedom and agency? if we refuse the theoretical force of magic and solve the situation of this love from human reasoning, we can deduce the abusive power dynamics at play. the way george exploits shannon for the secure comfort of a home life he’ll have complete power over. the way his uncles and aunts are happy to support their relationship to lower george’s position, not caring to protect shannon whatsoever. the way jessica supports their relationship because she harms people she has power over by acting like they’re friends as if the isolated servant and wealthy master power dynamic isn’t there at all. the way kanon struggles to protect shannon from what he understands is dangerous and subjugation-all-the-same-as-before without having the theory grounded in material reality to argue why to shannon. and more. the rhetorical forces at play in the abusive ushiromiya family are so twisted from reality to uphold the abusive power structures that the ways characters understand or at least talk about shannon and george’s relationship hit very far off the truth.

getting into kanon and jessica:

jessica says she thinks of kanon and shannon as her childhood friends, a way of thinking that obscures and upholds the abusive power structures involved. notice i always call the power structure abusive, not jessica (or whomever else): the material power structure is what enables her to harm & exploit people she has power over, regardless of her awareness or intention.

jessica’s power over kanon enables her to use him to benefit her social life at school in a power-imbalanced date off the island both similar and different to george and shannon’s. when kanon is whisked off to the school festival, he accesses huge amounts of new information (particularly standing out is the new knowledge of jessica having huge fulfilling aspects to her life that he knew nothing about, while he has nothing like that for himself, and may be too late to ever have it), and kanon works to understand this into his theorization of his world, uncertain whether to accept magic as part of the answer.

when jessica calls kanon human and advises him to act more human, it’s not truly effective because his material situation does not actually change to treat him as human and enable him to treat himself as human. jessica talking at him without acting to improve his life conditions won’t do anything substantial. kanon talks about his material situation of being stuck abused with hardly any personal resources as a framework of himself having a permanent sub-human identity, which, though not really accurate, is a grounded justified theorization of his situation. he refutes jessica’s “you’re human like me” with “no, you can do almost anything, but i can’t. i’m trapped here with no future.” though he’s (probably) incorrect in saying it’s a totally permanent matter of his identity, his words are more grounded in the reality of the abusive power structures around them than jessica’s words.

ryukishi calling a story a “question arc” seems to mean that the frameworks it presents for thinking about its contents are all mostly inaccurate, and it’s up to the readers to deduce ways to think about what’s happening. umineko’s main theme seems to me to be about abuse, and ryukishi seems to be trying to discuss abuse to audiences across widely varying positions of power. idk if i even agree that this premise should have been acted on, i have many criticisms of umineko piled up already. i hope i will learn from his umineko answer arcs and that they won’t disappoint me

#umineko #umineko liveblog #shannon #kanon #george ushiromiya #ushiromiya george #jessica ushiromiya #ushiromiya jessica

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kob131 · 11 months

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So...Kanon and Shannon remember the previous games?

And it kind of seems like Kinzo does too.

Wouldn't they all remember that Battler is why they can't move on? And thus try to sell him out?

What are the boundaries between the games and 'reality'?

#KOB and Umineko

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construingseacats · 7 months

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Umireread: Turn of the Golden Witch - Chapter 5: Guest of Honor

Sat, Oct 4 1986 - 10:45AM

The following contains spoilers for the entirety of Umineko. Please do not read if you are yet to finish it.

I think there’s something to be said about how childlike wonder is torn away from us as we grow. The world is a wonderful place - there’s a fantastic tumblr post that makes the rounds occasionally about how something as mundane as going to a shopping mall can be an unending source of wonder, if you cast away the veneer of normality and complacency that usually clouds us when we go. Maria has been handed a cheap, mass-manufactured sweet that is utterly inconsequential to most people. And yet to her, in her fantasy - in the bliss of her youth - it is the greatest sort of treasure. And because she believes in that, it becomes her reality.

To talk about myself again for a second - with occasional exceptions, I tend to split up my working day by going out almost every time for lunch. Working in town centre, there’s no shortage of places to grab a sandwich or something slightly more exotic. Of course, this is an expensive vice; I argue that, as I don’t drink alcohol or smoke, this is an acceptable money sink that would be comparable to either of those. However, nonetheless, it is a money sink. I would save a fairly substantial amount of money by preparing my own lunches, or foregoing them entirely.

And yet… I hadn’t really thought about it until now, but reflecting on this scene in particular, there’s a sense of whimsy to it that hasn’t eluded me even as I approach 30. Perhaps it’s because eating out was a special treat when I was younger - growing up relatively poor, we could only really afford to treat ourselves to a restaurant once a month or so - but there’s a sense of joy and elation there that hasn’t been eroded by routine. It’s the wonder that you can feel by attending a shopping mall, but we choose not to. That’s something that I, personally, can’t put a price on. And I’d encourage anyone reading to also find their own way to obtain the greatest sort of treasure from the most regular of scenarios.

Eva Ushiromiya sees her chance to be a horrible person, and she takes it. Well, I suppose the entire family likes to deal with their own unresolved problems by taking it out on each other, at the end of the day.

Even if it’s only temporary, it’s nice seeing the adults being interested in Maria’s specific knowledge. Sure, maybe it’s insincere on their behalf, but to the kid who can’t distinguish the reality from the fantasy, that’s the absolute best feeling in the world. Being able to teach adults something that even they didn’t know feels great.

Criminy, Episode 2 is not letting up on this. I suppose that’s to be expected from the “Rosa” Episode, but still.

Rosa trampling on the hearts of everyone reading this Episode, old and new.

Hilarious subversion of the rose incident from Episode 1. Does it still count as dramatic irony if you’re lying about the truth by saying what happened in the previous game? I think it’s also worth highlighting this moment as another notch for suggesting that you should always be wary of what people say if it hasn’t been witnessed personally - we know that Rosa’s not telling the truth here, so what other falsehoods have we been fed thus far?

News just in: resident tragedy enjoyer loves how sad this scene is, and how much it hurts. More at 11.

Very funny moment where Kanon goes “wait a second, I know how I can fix this for you.”

I’m constantly amused by how much Nanjo just doesn’t want to be in this novel at all. Does not enjoy going along with the family’s nonsense, doesn’t want to talk to any of them, does not want to get involved with the murders. I know Gohda is a community favourite for not really having anything important to contribute to the story, but I’m kind of digging Nanjo for similar reasons.

“Worthless” male pride, you say? Interesting commentary.

It’s almost like the people you surround yourself with could cause you to perceive the sky as grey instead of blue.

I don’t have an awful lot to add to these Maria-Rosa moments, but I can’t not acknowledge them. It’d be a crime to skim over such potent writing, even if there’s little for me to add that I haven’t said already.

An island detached from common sense and reality, you say? Sounds like the perfect setting for a new generation of fanfiction.

I don’t necessarily think this is a “with hindsight” moment because it’s still fairly clear what is going on here - you tell a child to close their eyes and then swap out the candy while they’re not looking. One of the oldest tricks in the book. What I do find interesting is how this parallels the final choice in Episode 8 - how do you approach this scene? Is this just a trick, because of course it is, or is this magic? Whatever you choose here, will you still hold the same opinion 6 episodes from now?

Obviously, this scene is noteworthy since you can read Rosa’s reactions as being uncomfortable with the blackmail forced upon her (using the term blackmail tenuously since she could arguably have been bought out without much threatening). But, with that in mind, I wonder when exactly she was roped into this? The adults at the guest house did say that she had been gone for quite a long time - we just assumed this was due to her being stuck with Maria, but did she actually visit the secret room with Yasu during this time?

I’m sure she knows the inside of the mansion better than anyone.

The scene where Yasu as Beatrice meets Kyrie is really good, and I kind of wish we saw more of this in Umineko? I love the fantasy scenes a lot, but when you’re being presented with partial truths (that lean closer to fact than fiction) that are only slightly adorned with fantasy, they’re a lot more interesting to read than the ones that are drenched in outright fabrications.

Also, Yasu was born 30 years too early, she’d have made an absolute killing as an online voice actor with the way she can go between all these different personas without being found out.

Hey! New portrait!

One day I’ll be joining the hordes of Umineko fans by getting a giant framed picture of Beatrice for my house. I was kind of hoping that they would have been offered as rewards from the Umineko Gold Kickstarter… But we all know how that’s gone.

And so the reunion with Kinzo is delayed because he locked himself up in an anti-magic bunker. Of course, what we’re probably seeing here is Yasu considering the study as a base of operations, before realising that could cause some complications given Kinzo has been the opposite of alive for quite some time, and deciding to set up in the guest room instead where she doesn’t need to worry about dealing with matters arising from Krauss/Natsuhi/Jessica’s additional knowledge regarding Kinzo’s current status.

End of chapter! I kind of wish we had a meta section here for the moment when Beatrice’s piece arrived on the gameboard? It feels odd that Battler wouldn’t immediately jump on that with a “hey wait a second”. Alas!

#umireread #umineko #umineko spoilers

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