Board 8 > Arria played Umineko again (blind) (play/readthrough) SPOILERS WELCOME

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REMINDER THAT SPOILERS ARE OKAY AND WELCOME. YOU DO NOT NEED TO USE SPOILER TAGS UNLESS YOU SPOIL A DIFFERENT MEDIA. ALSO, I WILL SPOIL UMINEKO IN THIS VERY POST, SO DON'T EVEN RISK COMING IN THIS TOPIC IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED IT

First time sharing a Google Doc. Let me know if the link works or not

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_59jGjel11RPbTsaryatO8ROumfZEKxngJmgGcQSmlo/pub

I, Eerieka a.k.a. Kira (my real name is Erika but it'll just get confusing if I go by that in Umineko topics), am rereading this series after many years. My friend Arria is reading it for the first time and I'm recording her comments and reactions as we go. I'm also adding in my own commentary (the spoiler stuff I'm not sharing with her obviously).

I've been friends with Arria for a long time and she's always entertained me with the random crack-pot theories she comes up with for various games/TV shows/books. I figured she might just be insane enough to solve Umineko.

Day 2 of playing (4/12/17)

Arria is laughing at Battler asking Maria if he can touch her breasts when she’s older. “Jessica should beat him up, and Maria is not right in the head.” Later… “Maria broke George when saying she can’t break a promise.”

Maria giggled like a happy kitten. A: I’ve never heard a kitten giggle. She even made me look at the Japanese text to see if that was a direct translation or just translators having some fun. Sure enough, that was a literal translation.

Shannon enters the room and Battler is being pervy. A: “Her eyes are up here.” He goes to grab her breasts “You need to not. Actually, as far as I know, you’re not related, so it’s okay.” Then Battler salivates. A: “Even when my husband touched them for the first time, he didn’t salivate!”

“For the sake of justice and my personal honor” A: “Did I miss something?” Then a line about a made up disease. “So he… doesn’t have this made up disease? He comes with a disclaimer! I’ve only met two other people who have a disclaimer. To be fair, I’m one of them.” (I reminded her that the line about clawing out his neck is a reference to Higurashi). “Shannon’s gonna let him grab her breasts, isn’t she? The author is pitching underhand. ‘It would never happen!’ Of course it will…”

Then when Battler goes for it… A: “I’m glad you beat the mad groper by not caring if he groped you.” Jessica elbows his head A: “Good girl, Jessica.”

This scene was interesting to me because it says so much more that you don’t see on a first time playthrough. Arria here is a good example. All she sees is Battler being a dumb pervert and Shannon being a doormat. What I see is Battler goading a woman into standing up for herself (and maybe being a little bit of a dumb pervert) and Yasu waiting to see how his fate will be decided. What if Battler had touched his ‘breasts’ here? He would surely realize they were fake. Would Battler keep that a secret from the other cousins/family or would he have some kind of outburst (I’m thinking the latter). Suddenly it would be known that Shannon is male. Voila! Umineko solved!

Okay, so that actually brings up another issue I’d like to get straight: the issue of Yasu’s gender. Yes, there’s a lot of ambiguity here. He was born male, then injured in the fall and raised as a girl. He seems to prefer his ‘female’ aspects. I imagine if he were a real person in today’s society with the current topics and ideas of transgenderism going around, he would identify as female. That being said, I will probably refer to him as ‘he’ when discussing him as Kanon/Yasu/Lion and ‘she’ when referring to his Shannon/Beatrice personas.
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Then when Battler defends Shannon’s right to defend itself. A: “My time of taking this game serious has certainly come to a middle.” Then Shannon mentions being furniture. A: “You need to spend a lot less time with Kanon.”

We then discussed how Shannon and Kanon are probably fucking each other and use furniture euphemisms. A: “Want to go stack some chairs on beds? Hyuck hyuck.”

When Battler gets dizzy. A: “No! The thought that’s causing blood to leave your head… don’t have it.”

She’s starting to think that Shannon might be a Mimic and told the classic Mimic joke. “DnD party enters a bar. Bartender asks ‘Why do you have swords?’ Party replies: ‘Mimics.’ The party laughed, the bartender laughed, the bar laughed. The bar was a Mimic. Party killed the Mimic.”

Shannon mentions being a servant for 10 years. A: “I feel this is relevant.”
She also suspects Shannon is either a bastard or Kinzo ‘bought a child off the black market.’

Maria mentions she gets called unsociable. A: “That’s cuz you’re weird as fuck.” Coming from Arria, this is impressive. We were both unsociable when we were kids. To be fair, we weren’t as weird as Maria.

Then they go to get lunch and Battler is excited. A: “He’s such a typical male. Food and breasts. It’s all he needs in life.” That reminded me of the line Battler says to Beatrice later about “slice up them cow tits and make me a sandwich.” Being women, we sometimes poke fun at men, but it’s all in good humor. No need to take offense at us (yet).

The game says the house was built after the war, and she asked if they meant WWII. I confirmed that it was.

She said Genji might be a homunculus. A: “Or a long lost brother, because I’m expecting some soap opera shit here.”

And now we get to see Beatrice’s portrait. “Ah, the portrait I remember from the anime. And she’s wearing the bird, too.” When it mentions that this woman is not their grandmother, A: “No, he does not love his unnamed wife.” Everyone knows Beatrice. A: “Oh, so the whole family knows the grandfather’s crazy.” She takes the story of the witch of the forest in stride. “Got it. Forest is scary.”

Battler senses danger. A: “You should remember that feeling. This is how you survive.” Arria and I both like to make fun of characters in horror movies/games when they aren’t genre savvy. I like to quote that Geico commercial: “When you’re in a horror movie, you make poor decisions. It’s what you do.”

They mention Kinzo isn’t here at lunch, and Battler suggests that he’s gonna show up last for dramatic effect. A: “Or he’s forgotten you exist.”

Then the discussion of who sits where. She asked if they were sitting there when the tea was served and how awkward it would have been for them to be yelling from across the table. I said that I thought that scene was in a parlor room or something else where they could be seated closer together.

She also mentioned that she thinks it’s odd that each parent had only one kid. I reminded her that Ange exists.
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i
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A: “So Natsuhi and Krauss live here with grandfather, but Natsuhi runs things with the servants?” That sounded correct, so I confirmed it. She later mentioned that for her cosplay, she’d want to wear a chatelaine (keys kept by the female head of household), but I told her that the issue of keys comes up later once we get into the closed room mysteries. I think it’s odd that all the servants have master keys, but the actual ‘masters’ only have keys to their rooms. Of course, I think it’s odd they have keys for anything considering they’re on their own private island, but what do I know about rich people and their quirks?

Kinzo is officially introduced. A: “I like that the game’s like ‘well he’s not going to appear, so we’ll do it here!” Then Kinzo talks about crucifying people. A: “This is some crazy.” Then Kinzo talks about killing everyone. A: “Sounds like me at work.” Kinzo goes even more insane. A: “I love this crazy fuck.”

Krauss just straight up said Kinzo is already dead lol. ‘Nothing but a phantom in there.’ Welp. Arria didn’t say anything; probably assumed it was just Krauss speaking figuratively.

A: “Poor Genji. He is walking into the shark tank.”

Mention of Kinzo’s locked room. A: “So if you die in here, what happens? How do we get you out? ‘Well children, you’re great-great-great-grandfather killed himself in there and we can’t get him out!’”

Description of his room with occult stuff. A: “This is not a good plan! Best case scenario: magic is not real and you look like a crazy fuck. Worst case scenario, this is real and it’s either ‘off with his head’ or ‘get eaten by demons.’” Yep, that’s pretty much it right there.

When Genji mentions that he learned how to make alcohol with Kinzo’s guidance. A: (mimicking Genji) “I had to figure it out or you threw things at me.”

A: “You’re talking as if today is the end of all things! Dear God…”

Kinzo goes crazy and mentions wanting to put Beatrice in a birdcage. A: “Well I think I know what happened to Beatrice. She went to the police and there’s a restraining order.”

She then pretended that the study is close enough for the diners to hear. “Hey pass the mutton.” “BEATORIICHEE!” “Just ignore that, kids. Grandpa’s having a moment.” “Did a squirrel get up in the attic again?”
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Tag!
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Tag, this is hilarious so far.

“Want to go stack some chairs on beds? Hyuck hyuck.”
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Genji mimickry is a life goal fulfilled
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She mentions the weirdness of “hour of the ox” but she’d read something else featuring it. She said in another story, it featured a eunuch that would announce the hours in a way like that. I guess this is some East Asian ‘thing’

We took a quick break because she wanted to see if the way Genji made the absinthe was legit. We watched some Youtube videos and sure enough, it worked the way Ryukishi described. Neat. Arria said that she wanted to check if that’s how absinthe works because otherwise she’d assume that Genji was poisoning Kinzo.

Back to the family at the dining table, and Krauss says that grandfather is sad that he couldn’t make it down here. She points at the screen. A: “Horseshit. Everything you just said is pure horseshit.”

She also continues to think Nanjo is a walrus and the family is just entertaining Kinzo’s insanity to keep a pet walrus. “(walrus noise) ‘Just eat your fish, Nanjo.’”

While the demon is not around, everyone can relax. A: “Sounds like my workplace.”

Official introduction to Nanjo. A: “He’s been playing chess with a walrus for years.”

I explained what Kinzo’s name meant since the new translation didn’t (I thought the old one did?). I knew kin was gold and I thought the zo part was ‘storage’. It amused her. A: “Because he’s literally storing the gold away from these fucks.”

We talked for a moment about the jobs of the servants, namely that Gohda is doing a footman’s job. She’s watched Downton Abbey and got triggered when these servants weren’t doing their ‘proper’ jobs. We figured that Kinzo is just doing his own ‘thing’ in regards to what the servants do. Besides, there’s only ever a handful on the island at one time.

Arria figures that Maria is autistic when she takes the mackerel joke literally. She also said that mackerel is really good. I’ve never had it myself. And then we have to look up panna cotta and she’s getting hungry lol. And now we’re looking at pictures of mackerel after Kumasawa mentioned it. She REALLY likes mackerel, Jesus Chirst. She says the next time we play Umineko we have to go to our local sushi bar. We have the game running in the background while looking up mackerel dishes, and I pointed out that this background music is perfect for looking up food lol.

The scene with the adults. Eva says something that on first glance, sounds innocent and nice enough. But the combination of reading between the lines and Miki Itou’s voice acting shows that Eva is, in fact, being a ****.
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Ugh now I want mackerel sushi too

Or just sushi in general really

But I'm the only one I know that likes it that lives near me and I'm too much of a wuss to go get sushi by myself

Come on, tcaz. Get that Guts stat up! I often eat out by myself during breaks from school and I know people who work sometimes do that too. If you need an excuse, you could say that you're on break
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Hahhahaha. Walrus Nanjo is so i precious.
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Kyrie mentions her husband being a child, and Arria agreed. “A creepy, perverted child.”

Rosa says that she doesn’t know the distinction between child and adult. A: “You should be past that point when you’ve had a child of your own!” Then Krauss expresses those same sentiments. A: “Damn it, I’m becoming like Krauss. That can’t be good.”

The ticking of the clock is freaking her out lol. She thinks there’s some Wonderland shit going on. “We got ticking, a girl dressed as the red queen… if Maria says ‘off with their head’ I have some new theories.” Well, I won’t mention the bunny girls…

A: “The only thing separating this from an episode of Criminal Minds is the fact they’re rich as fuck.”

She got angry that Rudolf hushed Kyrie, and thought it might be because she’s not a part of the family, but then Natsuhi and Hideyoshi spoke without any interruptions.

She feels Kinzo isn’t as paranoid now that she knows the family tried to get him to a hospital last year.

The game mentions that Kinzo hates doctors. “Hence why he likes Nanjo. He’s just a walrus.” We then look up what kind of noises walruses make.

One idea she has is that Kinzo isn’t actually wealthy, but he spent it all on his occult bullshit.

Talk about cutting a birthday cake A: “I’m not sure if you’re discussing money, cakes, or murder.”

Natsuhi’s sprite makes it look like her hair is angry and we spend a moment talking about the silliness of anime/cartoon hair. I have long hair, so I mentioned it would be very bad if my hair had a mind of its own.

Nanjo excuses himself. A: “Yes, go back to your rock.”

“Dear God I think Natsuhi’s about to beat Eva with the ashtray.” I hadn’t realized that there was an ashtray in the background art.

Eva laughs like a maniac while yelling at Natsuhi. “Good job by the voice actress.” Then when there’s a background of Eva smiling like a demon, Arria just says “Holy fuck.”

Back to the kids looking at Beatrice’s portrait. I told her before not to worry about solving the riddle. She also wonders what the deal is with the background of the portrait. It looks like Beatrice is sitting in front of a mountain or something. She later mentioned that it looks like Beatrice is about to be consumed by darkness. I think she doesn’t realize that Beatrice is supposed to be ‘evil/scary’ at this point. Maybe my judgment was clouded as I went into Umineko knowing that Beatrice was, at the very least in ep 1, an ‘antagonistic’ force.

Battler mentions wanting to fondle Beatrice’s breasts. A: “Honey, if you’re confronted with the woman who gave your family 10 tons of gold, your blood should be somewhere above your waist.”

George calms Maria down. A: “This boy’s ready to be a father.”

Maria starts flipping out. A: “She’s supposed to be nine?” Me (thinking): She’s gonna get a kick out of scene where Rosa slaps her…
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Now the adults are arguing. On Eva’s third condition “the successor gets 50%” she assumes this means they’ll try to remove Krauss from succession. I asked her how they would do that. A: “Methods: proof of embezzling. Or murder. Eva plans to murder him. Or poison Kinzo and make it look like Krauss did it. OH! Or get rid of Jessica, because then the succession becomes Krauss -> Eva.”

Eva sounding sarcastic and fake as hell. A: “Does Eva ever say anything genuine?”

She feels like Rosa was dragged into this. A: “She didn’t think ‘let’s fuck over Krauss’. It’s more like Rudolf and Eva were like (evil voice): ‘have a seat, dear sister.’ Alternatively, she’s the mastermind.”

She doesn’t think Kinzo would write a will (fifth condition), but I mentioned that Krauss could fabricate one and she conceded that point.

Krauss then turns the tables. A: “And now he’s planning to kill ALL of you.”

A: “The siblings are working together. Did they start with this plan before they came to the island or was it something they quietly worked on while on the plane, or before the fiasco even started? How long have they been sitting on this cunning plan to fuck their brother?”

She liked the sound of the wind in the background. It’s a cold wind. It goes well with the scene.

I don’t really know a lot about economics or how this shit works, so I can’t comment much on this. All I really got out of the scene is that they need a lot of money right now. She knew of a real-life example of what happened to Hideyoshi, so she understood that part.

She jokes that Rudolf’s 'niche business' is pornography.

A: “Krauss is a cunning bastard, isn’t he?”

Kanon is talking to Kinzo while Shannon is with the kids. In other words, this whole scene is false/happened a long time ago.

A: “I’m gonna laugh my ass off if Shannon or Kanon is a powerful wizard and they’re laughing at this idiot.”

Nanjo suggests that Kinzo wanted to watch the family solve it before an outside. A: “No, I’m pretty sure he wants them to burn alive.”

She figures that the servants that wear the bird are ‘broken’ because they’re the ones who call themselves furniture.

The cousins start talking about the riddle. I ask her if she has any thoughts on it. “Kinzo got his gold from Korea. Is Korea involved? And he loves American and European stuff. Could it have to do with the Midwest? The “Golden Land” of wheat. Gouge is a very strange word. What is it in Japanese? (We checked the Japanese text. ‘eburu’ meant just ‘farming implement’ according to wwwjdic.) “Almost seems like a children’s game, like those nursery rhymes that are actually about death and the plague.”
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Krauss is so awesome

this is one of the early on scenes that always stuck with me
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I agree.

"THEREFORE, MORE THAN ANYTHING ELSE, HE WANTED A LOT OF MONEY RIGHT NOW...!"
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I mention that the riddle also sets up how many will die. I asked her to predict who will die. “The second will be George and Maria. I feel they’re the only ones who are close.” I asked her to say who will die first. “The siblings. Not Rosa. Rudolf and Eva will kill Krauss, but he’ll kill someone first. Natsuhi will lose her shit and defend Krauss, then die. Hideyoshi will get involved to stop it, and get killed that way. And Gohda because I don’t like him anymore. Rosa will survive until they decide ‘we haven’t killed Rosa yet. Let’s kill her.’ Battler will die every time, but last.” I asked if the servants were safe, and she said “yes, unless he (Kinzo) uses the six of them…” pause. “I just realized there were six of them.” She then changed her idea to the servants will die, then Krauss and Jessica will be killed to remove them from succession. Then they’ll ‘praise Kinzo’ to get in his good graces. Then she expects Natsuhi (head = headaches), then Kinzo (chest = coughing), then Maria (stomach = likes sweets), Rosa (knee = process of elimination. No reason for knee, but someone’s gotta be here), Eva (leg = just look at those legs).”

A: “Is it bad I want Maria to die?” She mentions some pretty horrible deaths that she doesn’t want me to repeat on the internet because she doesn’t want you guys thinking that she condones child murder. “I would be okay with that! We wouldn’t have to listen to her anymore until episode 2.” I mentioned how Kinzo called Maria obscene to the eye. “The more I play, the more I agree with him! Maybe the old man isn’t crazy!”

A: “Oh wait, I made a miscalculation. He has five servants and a walrus. I don’t think a walrus has the same status as a human.” K: “What about furniture?” A: “They’re humans, and convinced they’re furniture.”

She noticed that they wore the bird on different parts of their body. She thinks this may be relevant to where they get gouged.

Maria listed the things Beatrice can do, and she said that she just violated at least 4 laws of magic according to the Dresden Files. A: “She’s probably violated all 7 and then a few more that the council are thinking ‘that should BE a law!’”

When the mention of the Master of Day and Night comes up, she says she imagines Kinzo puts on a blonde wig and runs around at night. A: “I don’t know if this makes things better or not.”

She mentions that she thinks it would be funny if this was in the Dresden Files universe. A: “There’s some poor Japanese warden that fucked up and sends a message ‘uh, there’s a family practicing black magic and a witch ghost that I forgot to mention…’”

When Dora*mon is mentioned, she says “changing one letter won’t save you from copyright!”

Then the scorpion charm is brought up, which is also a thing in the Dresden Files, but it turns into a massive evil scorpion, so she thinks that might happen here. The mention of the doorknob. A: “That seems like it might be relevant later.”

She wanted to remind the dumbasses that there was a typhoon warning and that this rain will definitely come even stronger.

The rose garden scene. She thinks the rose will show up in Maria’s room and then she’ll praise Beatrice for it, only for it to turn out to be Kanon or something, and they’ll be sad for not being acknowledged.
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That last paragraph is rather funny.
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Raka_Putra posted...

That last paragraph is rather funny.

Battler solves Umineko jokingly and dismisses it
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Oh boy, now for Rosa. I’m curious how Arria will react to this. Well, she straight up said “I agree with Rosa on this one. Stop making that noise you obnoxious child.” And when the slap came “good girl.” Then at the mention of Rosa hitting her in the head: “Maybe that’s why she can only say that noise. God gave kids an ass for a reason.” In other words, Arria approves of smacking Maria a little bit for being weird, but hitting a child on the head is going too far.

Jessica mentions that she wants to live in the city even if spears fall from the sky. A: “Why do I get the feeling this is foreshadowing?”

After the mention of calf steak, Battler makes a noise that sounds like mooing. We assume Daisuke Ono did this on purpose.

We talk about Autism and VARK for a little bit (Autism due to Maria, VARK because… I don’t even know how we got there.) I think we were talking about how people with Autism have difficulties learning unless it’s something they obsess over… in which case, they learn about it VERY well. In my university classes, we’ve been learning about synaptic plasticity and how Na+ ions bumping Mg+2 ions off NMDA is essentially what leads to long term memory. She then questioned if the method in which people learn best means that the neurons in those areas of the brain have ‘better’ synaptic plasticity. i.e. people who learn better from hearing information: do the neurons being activated in their auditory cortex serve to remove Mg+2 in memory centers quicker/easier than neurons being activated in visual or reading/writing centers of the brain? I don’t know the answer (and VARK is kinda wishy-washy in science anyway, but it’s still fun to think about).

She really wants to know what’s going on in Rosa’s life. A: “They are being deliberately vague.” She thinks Rosa may have been knocked up, then flipped between three or four ‘males not worthy of being called men.’ I mentioned that it would be hard to put up with all of Rosa’s baggage. A: “Poor woman’s never going to get a man.”

At the umbrella bit at dinner. Everyone claims they were doing something else. A: “There has to be another person on the island.”

A: “Gohda seems like the kind of man who would keep that creepy grin on his face even while he’s beating someone to death. Or raping someone. If you found out he was raping Shannon… or Kanon for that matter… you’d be like ‘I can see that.’”

I’m not sure where her intense hatred of Gohda suddenly came from.

A: “Beatrice is fickle… and a child obsessed with witches might amuse her.” The first time Beatrice was described as being fickle, I told her that I’ve come to associate that word with her. Now any time I hear the word fickle in real life or in other media, I think of Beatrice. I would like to blame Ryukishi for this, but I hesitate because obviously he had nothing to do with the English word. Makes me wonder if the same Japanese word is used every time ‘fickle’ is used, but I didn’t check to see what word he used.

Almost time for Fishy Aroma! When I got excited, Arria suggested Maria was about to pull out the family ring. She pulls out a note instead A: “Oh God!” She sounded genuinely horrified by this letter lol. Then when Maria opens it up A: “Nothing good will come of this.”

Fishy Aroma time. She thought it was interesting that Beatrice refers to herself as the family alchemist rather than the family witch.
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(At this point I wasn’t feeling well (was coming down with a cold) so I didn’t want to type any more. I said that I’d try to remember things and type them up later, but a few days and a cold later, and I just remember the big things).

Of course, she liked the rest of the Fishy Aroma scene and made plenty more comments about Maria being creepy. When I asked her who she thought gave Maria the umbrella/envelope, she felt that it was another person on the island. I didn’t dispute that. I figure I’ll let the red truth hit her with the island population when the time comes.

In the next Kinzo scene, he says something along the lines of ‘where will the ball land? Noir? Rouge? Or will the house take it all?’ A while back during my first attempt at college (long story, essentially I went to college from 2007-2010, took a year break, went to work between 2012-2015, and then went back to college in September 2015 to get my BS in Biology. I will graduate in June 2017). Anyway, during my first attempt at college, I took a creative writing class and wrote a poem more or less using roulette imagery to compare dreams and I only had the idea because of Kinzo’s rant. Noir was an old man hidden in shadows and he would chase me in my dreams and inflict horrible terror upon me. Rouge was a violent seductress who would chase me and torture me. But every once in a while I would hit Vert and my dreams would be peaceful and lucid. I would be in control, and I would give myself the ability to fly and be free and at peace. Anyway, my professor loved the poem and thought it was an allegory for drug addiction lol. I hadn’t even thought about it until she mentioned it.

Next is a scene with Kyrie and Arria loved it. She really likes Kyrie. Really wants her to ‘win.’ Oh boy is she going to be disappointed for a while. I can’t think of any really awesome Kyrie scenes. Even her duel in episode 3 against Leviathan was basically about her jealousy against Asumu.

When Stupefaction started playing, the low buzzing noise sorta freaked her out. She didn’t realize it was coming from the game at first and I had to ensure her it was just part of the background music.

She laughed at the interactions between Kyrie and Rudolf and how they keep mentioning ‘doing their make up.’ Her opinion of Rudolf is going up and I’m kinda surprised. I thought she would continue to dislike him. Also the line just before Rudolf says that he’s going to die, the screen goes black and he starts to sound worried. She had jokingly said ‘you’re going to die’, and then he said it. A: “Well I called that!”

Natsuhi has a flashback. This scene is a little confusing here. I don’t know if it was always like this or if it’s due to the new sprites/backgrounds. It looks like Natsuhi has a flashback to Krauss showing her something in a padlocked room, and then him doing it again in the present. I thought this might be Krauss showing her Kinzo dead (in the past) followed by Krauss showing her the gold ingot (in the present). But just now, I rewatched this scene on Youtube to refresh my memory, and it was a different version of the game and it seemed clearer that the only time Krauss took her into a padlocked room was in the present.

When Jessica gives Natsuhi the scorpion charm, Arria said: “This will either save her life, or the scorpion will come to life and kill her.”
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Yeah, Kyries is really cool but she doesn't get a lot of scenes. Eh, the Episode 3 duel is cool enough, IMO, it doesn't matter that she did it out of her jealousy. Also...maybe Episode 7 Tea Party? That's a looong way to go.
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Yeah, ep 7 is far away, but Kyrie's scenes there are... well, I'm not sure how Arria will feel about that scene when it happens. If she were to watch it right now, she'd probably think Kyrie is awesome. But by the time it happens, she might grow to like all the characters that Kyrie fucks over. And regardless of when she were to theoretically watch it, she will side with Eva in the argument they have about children/husbands.

I think we both feel that jealously is ugly. I don't think Arria will continue to think highly of Kyrie after that scene.
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Arria sent me a text just now

"Fuck Natsuhi is my hero. I think her headaches are just suppressed emotion and killing urge. I think you called it when you said I should cosplay as her."

I know she's dealing with her in-laws today. No confirmation that it's related to her headaches, but it wouldn't surprise me lol.
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natsuhi love is good!
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The cousins invited Shannon to play cards with them. Later there’s a scene where Genji tells Kanon that he should also go and play with them, but he refuses on account of being furniture. Genji just sighs and makes Kanon some hot cocoa. Arria really liked Genji here and that alone bumped him up several steps on her ranking list. I kinda chuckled internally because I figure this scene never happened. It’s just giving us a reason why Battler didn’t see Yasu for the rest of that evening.

We’re at the scene where George proposes to Shannon. At first she thinks it’s weird that George has to ‘order’ Shannon to take the ring, but she starts to understand as the scene goes on. I’ve always thought it was a sweet scene, but knowing what I do about Shannon I realize there’s no way this could end well for her. George might love Shannon, but I wonder how he’d react to finding out about what’s underneath her apron. And obviously Eva’s bigger problem is the idea that her son is marrying a servant, but if she were to get over that… I think she’d want to have grandkids. She might get angry/suspicious when Shannon never becomes pregnant. And I couldn’t really see George pulling off what Rudolf did (knocking up other women) or what Kinzo did (knocking up another person and giving the baby to Shannon to pretend its hers). In the end, Arria thought it was a wonderfully cute scene, but then she remembered (and I quote) “I’m playing the wrong genre for cute.”

I don’t recall exactly when it happened, but at the mention of the ‘other servants’ from Fukuin, I took note of their names. I recall it was originally Manon and Renon, but that was before we knew they were the basis of the stakes. This translation called them Manon and Lenon, making it much easier to realize Lenon = Leviathan.

Then the final roll call, and on to murder time!

The scene where Genji gave Natsuhi the key to Kinzo’s room and then the talk about Natsuhi wearing the One Winged Eagle on her heart. First of all, Arria was pleased to see Genji give Natushi the key. She thought that was a nice action from him and something of a ‘social link up’ (we’ve both been playing Persona 5, so there might be more Persona jokes coming). In the scene afterward with Kinzo, she realized that he was acting differently. She questioned if he had a brain tumor or some other medical issue with his brain that would cause a personality change. She also wonders whether he’s being kind here because he genuinely believes that his kids are shit and Natsuhi would make a better daughter, or if he’s being kind as a way to ‘ease her upcoming death’. She then mentions a line from Game of Thrones where someone said something about calming and petting a lamb and then killing it without it being able to see the knife.

Of course, I see the scene as Natsuhi talking to herself and making herself feel important even though no one else likes her. We like you, Natsuhi!
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Glad to see other readers that appreciate Natsuhi!

There are a lot of people that really don't like her.

she's one of my favorite characters.
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I asked her to make a character ranking before the deaths happened and before she knew who would kick the bucket. I was surprised to see Rudolf so high.

Kyrie
Natsuhi
Rosa
Genji
Rudolf
Shannon
George
Nanjo
Kinzo
Eva
Jessica
Battler
Hideyoshi
Krauss
Kumasawa
Kanon
Gohda
Maria
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