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

(+) Yeah! (+)

Ah yeah, Umineko really is a tricky VN to get into due to what it's about and I know some people are turned off it because of its nature, and you are the one who knows her, so do go on and thanks for clarifying.
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I don't know I would specifically call Sayo male. It's hard to say. Born male, yeah, but clearly lost sex organs and grew up with no testosterone in their system (not that Lion has much either lol), raised thinking they were female.

I'd actually be more inclined to say they're female, but lacking the sexual organs.

Of course this all depends on how one views gender identities and regardless Sayo themself was confused on the matter.

It's a shame Sayo dies at the end. Sex change surgeries are a thing even by the time the story starts, though not widely known. Probably, with the amount of money Sayo had access to, could have gotten something like one even before Anges time period, no matter what was settled on gender wise.

I don't know if the relationship with George would work out in the end if he knew the truth, though I do think he wouldn't outright dump her or anything. George can be kind of a jerk sometimes but he's not that insensitive or shallow. The initial shock would probably cause a knee jerk reaction though... who knows.

It's just kind of sad to think about all around.

Putting aside gender politics for a moment, I say that Sayo/Yasu is male because it was born with XY chromosomes.

Bringing gender politics back for a moment, I say Sayo/Yasu can be whatever he wants to be. Of course that's a big part of Umineko: Yasu exploring what it means to be what he is and how he can 'love' another person.

I think I discussed my thoughts in the last topic I made, but I'll reiterate it here. Knowing the kind of character George is, I think he would be shocked to find out about Shannon of course, but I think he would come to accept it. This is a man who chose to sacrifice the entire family to save himself and Shannon. That's devotion. That's the kind of love Kinzo would be proud of. And you're right about sex change surgeries. I hadn't thought about it, but they did exist in some form in that year. Plus there's no reason Shannon would have to do it right away. She could easily wait until 2000 or later.

I shudder to think of what would happen if Eva found out, though. She nearly blew a gasket when her son wanted to marry a servant. Think of the hysterics if she knew it was a servant incapable of providing children.
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I told her how I’ve heard that certain scenes in episode 2 are more meaningful on a second reading, and it’s certainly true. If George actually touched Shannon’s breasts? The gig would be up. Then again, I feel like this is happening entirely in Shannon’s imagination. Is she ‘practicing/imagining’ what it means to be a woman on a date?

K: You don’t see the things I see.
A: I see two awkward but cute people almost getting the courage to say (squeaky voice): ‘touch my breasts?’ (wimpy male voice): ‘only if you really want me to.’”

Oh lord. I can’t comment. I can’t do it.

Then they eat cake. “You could kiss it into him!” George then is happy with Shannon feeding it to him. “You have strange fetishes, George. Then again, look at your parents…”
K: “I’m sure Eva and Hideyoshi have done everything you imagine they’ve done. Eva is probably a dominatrix.”

I am paying careful attention here as Shannon talks about magic and love. Praise starts to play, and Arria really liked it. She said it was very soothing.

Arria is trying to make this scene as dirty as she can. “A punishment game, huh? With George’s glasses all fogged up, he looks like a villain. I hope he’s planning something fun.” Then they talk about their names and what they’re gonna call each other. “And if you get it wrong, I get to spank you!”
K: “But George is so innocent. He wouldn’t do something like that!”
A: “I get the feeling George walked in one his parents at some point when he was a kid. Hideyoshi was in a gimp suit. Eva with a whip and stilettos. Then George slowly closed the door and went to lay on the couch in a fetal position and forget everything he’d seen.”
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Shannon smashes the mirror and this scene means so much more to me than it does for her. At one point she asked if this was Shannon or Kanon and I was really tempted to say “yes” as my response lol. She freaks out that breaking the mirror is what releases Beatrice from being imprisoned and this is what causes her to haunt the island.

Oh man the opening is still as spoilery as before. This time Arria noticed the stakes. “A bunch of women.” Then she said something about “I like how it just went full Magical Girl.”

Jessica put on some makeup and Eva noticed, saying she looks nice, but that it was sad Natsuhi didn’t notice. Jessica says a subtle line about how “I had wished that person would notice” and it’s pretty clear to us that she’s actually talking about Kanon.

They’re talking about tea. I noticed they mention black tea, which Beatrice likes. I suppose George liking black tea = Shannon’s ideal woman should like black tea? Also Hope is playing in this scene and then we look up bergamot because she’s familiar with the flower, but not the fruit. Then I look up pictures of orange blossoms with their fruit and it just struck a chord with me. I can’t explain it. Something about Hope makes pretty things imprint on my memory. Thanks, amygdala and hippocampus.
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And that was all I had for our last playthrough. We had to stop suddenly due to an interruption. Normally I'd suggest letting the topic die and I'll renew it later, BUT Arria and I made plans to hang out on Sunday and read a bit more. :) Therefore, I'll try to keep the topic bumped until then.
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Keepin' this bad boy bumped.

I rewatched the scene featuring the riddle where the answer is 'there is no roof'. I know that's a long way away (Ep 8) but I have this odd feeling that Arria will solve it. It's just the kind of insane logic she'll understand.
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Small bombs!
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I was thinking that in certain riddles, such as the 'there is no roof' if she gets it right, I'll eat my shoe. I will also eat my shoe if she uses the words 'small bombs' at any time.

I told her about that (exact words: "there are some riddles that if you get right, I'll eat my shoe.")

To which she responded: "I need to step up my 'throwing shit at the wall' game"
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XD

That's a sound approach to Umineko!

Also, how do you think she'll react to the gory first twilight of Episode 2 ?
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I think she'll enjoy it, but it will shock her. She is always surprised by the level of creepiness in the gory scenes. It might actually gross her out, now that I think about it. She's got a good stomach for gore, but the juxtaposition of gore and candy might bother her more than other similar scenes.

Ep 2 twilight is my favorite 'gore porn' scene so I know I'll enjoy reading it again :D
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Alright, we got through the foreplay/pre October 1986 parts of ep 2. Got to the scene of Rosa and Maria on the train. I'll upload the play by play over the coming days. Overall it was interesting for me because all those Shannon/Kanon/Beatrice scenes have a whole new meaning on a second readthrough.
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Day 5
5/28/17

VERY FIRST LINE WE READ TODAY: “She was furniture, while George was an honored guest and a member of the Ushiromiya family.”
A: “This sounds like Shakespeare. (mimicking Romeo?, throwing her arm out like she’s speaking up to an imaginary balcony): “She was the furniture, and he was the sun!”

Game: (summarized): “Shannon hadn’t imagined she could even fantasize about romancing George”
Arria: “But she realized it must be okay if the master was romancing a walrus.”

There’s a line about Kinzo looking like he was kissed by the angel of death. Arria wondered if the original line was shinigami or something like that. We looked up the original Japanese line out of curiosity. I had to look up one of the kanji. It was comprised of three: yoku, byou, gami. I knew byou as sickness and gami as god. Apparently a yokubyougami is a pestilence/disease god. Cool.

George and Jessica talking about their parents’ business. A: “This would be a dick move that I could see Kinzo and/or Krauss do. I could see them purchasing Hideyoshi’s stock to take over. Didn’t the last episode say his stockholders had bought a large percentage of the business to kick out Hideyoshi?”

Shannon gets distracted by George. A: (pretending to be Shannon): “pay no attention. My vagina was talking.”
K: (thinking) lel

A: “My goal for today is to get them to the fucking airport”
Just before she said ‘airport’ I thought she was going to say something like ‘get them to the fucking zone’ as in a place in their relationship where they will fuck. It told her as much. She laughed like a hyena and said “I’m not always perverted, apparently.”
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A: “How long until Jessica throws them both in a closet with a condom and an instruction manual?”

Jessica: “Why don’t you practice with Shannon?”
A: Well that escalated quickly.
Jessica: (something about going on a date)
A: Okay, maybe not THAT quickly, but she’s trying!

A: “I don’t know if you’re cunning or just trying too hard to push them in that closet.”

Eva appears. A: “God damn it, Eva! You have your own male. Go play with him.”

Jessica: “Tell us how you met Uncle Hideyoshi!”
A: (pretending to talk for Eva): Uhh, we met in a place. After doing a thing… uhh… (pretends to pull a key out between her breasts) I bought this and he came with.

^note for the above. It’s in reference to a ‘dirty comic’ in which a dominatrix purchases a key to a submissive man’s chains/manacles.

Eva: “come into the house, George.”
A: (mimicking Eva): “Stop fucking the furniture, George! You are not a dog! Get your leg off the couch!”
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Arria is having a field day with this and I’m not sure I can catch it all. Various things she’s said. When George asks Shannon if she has a boyfriend and she stammers: “You’ve broke Shannon!” When they mention that Kinzo and his children were talking about marriages: “Does Kinzo know how that works?” When Eva mentions an arranged marriage: “Damn it, Eva! Stop saying what I’m thinking. George needs a cock cage.”

Jessica: (something about do you really love Hideyoshi, Aunt Eva?)
Eva: “I love that man. I want to always be with him, and to live my life by his side.”
A: After the last episode, I feel this is a bit of gallows humor by the author, and I appreciate it.

A: “This is my headcanon. If Eva is ever the murderer, Shannon dies first.”
Welp

Eva mentions Battler leaving the family registry and I quickly remind her that this is taking place before he comes back. She wonders if that has something to do with why Beatrice will kill him last (I didn’t explicitly tell her that Beatrice will kill him last in every episode. This is an assumption she came up on her own.) I guess she might technically be correct in her assumption. Battler died in the first twilight of Ep 6, but that was a game where he was the game master.

Eva: and you Shannon. I’m sure you’ll find someone suitable
A: In the Golden Land, after I kill you
Eva: (something about remembering you place, worthless servant)
A: I love how I can think something, then Eva will say it. I don't know if this is better or worse than I imagined though
Eva: unworthy, unqualified, etc. etc. servaaaant?
Arria just stares at me with a look of horror. “Yeah, she’s going to use any opportunity to kill her.”

I think this must really grate on Yasu to hear something like that. Eva said something along the lines of “George is Father’s oldest grandson and will bear the burden of the Ushiromiya name.” If I remember, George IS older, right? But Yasu/Lion would have been the heir on account of being male.
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Oh yeah, and pics of sushi. It turned out that the pics we took last time were on Arria's old phone which had gone caput shortly afterward. So we did the only thing we could think of.... go back and get more sushi!

http://imgur.com/a/m8oHQ
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Well, Yasu is Kinzo's child, giving them higher status than George. But Eva's obsession with lines of succession really has no basis in reality regardless. I guess she just assumed that Kinzo would use some sort of logic in picking his successor rather than making them solve his dumb riddle. Kind of makes her and Natsuhi's rivalry a bit pathetic.
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I just realized I implied George was not a male. XD I meant to say that Lion/Yasu would have had inheritance rights before George on account of being male AND being the eldest son (Krauss's) son (which we know he's not, but the other siblings don't).

It's kinda sad imo how many loopholes Eva tried to jump through to make George the heir. Gotta applaud the woman for her tenacity at least.
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nat"sushi"
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“You’ve broke Shannon!”

Ha, and this is waaay before Episode 7 where Shannon/Kannon malfunctioned so bad.

And it's great that Arria thinks a lot like Eva hahaha, I love Eva's character.
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A: “Go fuck Genji. He’s attractive! I’d say Kanon, but you’re like siblings, so it’s sorta incest.”
K: (thinking) I think that would be called masturbation actually

Lunon is mentioned as existing. I remember the name being Runon initially because lol Japanese R/Ls. With their names being Lunon and Lenon, I think it’s a bit more obvious that there’s something ‘more’ to their names. When I first read Umineko I didn’t catch the connection between Runon/Renon and Lucifer/Leviathan. I think if the R’s had been L’s, I would have caught on earlier. No idea if Arria will catch on since she doesn’t know a lot of Japanese, but she’ll probably realize the ‘L’ thing is weird and assume there’s something more to their names than meets the eye.

Yasu talks to himself for a little bit. Natsuhi made Shannon do a bunch of work and said she couldn’t eat until she finished. Poor Shannon.

And Shannon sees Beatrice’s portrait. I assume this is somewhere around the time she started to embody the personality of Beatrice.

Beatrice says some stuff about love and the man who explained the world with that single element. This absolutely goes over Arria’s head. Really, sometimes she gets things right away, sometimes you have to slap it with her face with a mackerel. A: “Is she talking about Kinzo?”
K: “Uhh…. Jesus?”
A: “Oh yeah! He existed!”
She cackles at herself for not getting it right away. “I swear, this isn’t my brightest moment.”

A: “I don’t know if Beatrice views Shannon as an adorable kitten to be protected, or a fragile doll to be broken. Maybe both.”

Beatrice offers to bring Shannon and George together. A: “My time reading novels with magic and love tells me this is a bad idea. Never take this deal! Or any deal with a powerful entity! Even if you win, you lose. Beatrice works on a length of centuries, so even if she’s not fucking with you, she’s fucking with your kids. She’s the Rumplestiltskin of Umineko. ‘All magic has a price, dearie!’”
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MariaTaylor posted...

nat"sushi"

I feel like 90% of people who aren't Japanese/reading it in Japanese initially see/read her name as this. I confess that I am one of them.

Raka_Putra posted...

And it's great that Arria thinks a lot like Eva hahaha, I love Eva's character.

Arria has said that the four mothers are consistently her favorite 'group' of characters. Good taste, Arria.
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Eerieka posted...

I assume this is somewhere around the time she started to embody the personality of Beatrice.

It's well after, actually.

Ep7 shows she was acting as Beatrice well before the portrait was put up, which was only 2 years before 1986. When she first saw the portrait is when she changed her image of Beatrice/herself from Clair to the Beatrice we know now (but with the suit instead).

Ah, right. Ep 7 is a big blur to me. I'm glad you mentioned that actually, because I couldn't remember what Clair's 'purpose' was or why she looked different. So it was a situation where Sayo/Yasu didn't have an idea what Beatrice was supposed to look like, so Clair was his initial 'mental image' until the portrait was put up?

Also while I'm thinking about it, what was the meaning behind Clair's name? I've seen her name written various ways - Clairvaux Bernardus, Clair vaux of Bernard, Clair vauxof Bernard. Probably some others.
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I don't even remember Clair at all

sounds like something I probably erased from my memory
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Eerieka posted...

Also while I'm thinking about it, what was the meaning behind Clair's name? I've seen her name written various ways - Clairvaux Bernardus, Clair vaux of Bernard, Clair vauxof Bernard. Probably some others.

It's another Dante's Inferno reference. Bernard of Clairvaux was Dante's final guide.

And yeah basically to the rest of your post. Though I'm actually going to correct myself that she changed her image because of Battler, not the portrait, but it was around the same time ("I'll give you the blonde hair he likes" etc).

All I remember of Clair is that she was a silver-haired Beato and she got eviscerated by Bern as some sort of symbolism for destroying Lion/Beato/I don't even know who else

And I shouldn't be surprised it's another Divine Comedy reference. I read parts of The Inferno in my edgy teen years, but only the "cool" parts of torture and torment. I had no idea who the fuck any of the people were that Dante was visiting, so all the 14th century political commentary was boring to me. Never touched Purgatorio or Paradisio because there was no blood and guts to appease my inner edgelord.
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Shannon isn’t explicitly saying George’s name. A: “Honey, the thing you need to specify is ‘George’. You need this written down in a 10 page contract written by a lawyer. You might end up with Genji if you aren’t careful. Or Kanon. Or a dog. You could love a dog and Beatrice’s spell will make the dog love you back. That is how open ended this is! Never work with generalizations.”

Umineko literally calls Beatrice a fairy tale creature and Arria points at it and laughs. “Called that one.”

Beatrice: (something about joining Shannon to her man)
A: “Again, we need to specify the word ‘join’! It could mean they have sex. Could mean they get married! Could mean Beatrice gets her needle and thread and fucking sews them together!”
Her saying that reminded me of a Junji Ito short story about, well… that. Sewing people together. Wish I could remember the name of it. I know she’s read some Ito… Uzumaki and Gyo, I know, since I have them as physical releases. She actually bought me the complete hardback edition of Uzumaki. If I can find the name of it, I’ll see if she’s read it.

Beatrice tells Shannon to break the mirror and torii. Arria makes some ideas on the magical/fantasy side, but I’m just sorta bored by it because I feel this isn’t important. >_>

A: “There’s a Japanese myth about how a man’s soul is in a sword and a woman’s is in a mirror. I wonder if Kinzo captured her soul in the mirror, and when Shannon breaks it, that frees her. Or breaks Shannon’s soul.”
I’m not familiar with the legend she’s talking about so I can’t add anything else. Googling only brings up stuff about the Yata no Kagami, but with mentions that mirrors are all throughout Japanese stories.
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Ha. It's funny about specifying the contract since Beatrice knows what Shannon wants more than anybody else, even without the specifics.
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Eerieka posted...

Beatrice tells Shannon to break the mirror and torii. Arria makes some ideas on the magical/fantasy side, but I’m just sorta bored by it because I feel this isn’t important. >_>

It's actually relatively important because breaking the mirror is symbolism for Sayo snapping and the gender identity crisis beginning (as by this point, Kinzo should already be dead and Sayo knows the truth).

In fact, thinking about it, Shannon probably rushed into the relationship with George specifically because of denial and that's what the whole magic brooch thing is about.

I hadn't thought of it that way. Maybe Arria was onto something then, when she talked about a mirror holding a woman's soul. Breaking the mirror = breaking the 'woman's soul' = gaining a male soul? All just random things floating in my head. Would love to hear other people's thoughts on that matter. And for that matter, is anyone else familiar with the myth she's thinking about? I might have to ask her about it.
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I think it's more just to do with the 'not wanting to look at herself' thing that is one of Beato's weaknesses (mirrors).

But otherwise no, I'm not familiar with that myth.


EDIT: In fact, if she really did go to the shrine, I wonder if she went there to pray or something, saw herself in the mirror, and broke it? That would actually make some kind of sense.

Yeah, I might be looking too far into it, but hey, that's part of the fun.

Arria said that she read about it in a book of Japanese fairy tales that she read as a kid. I did find another story about another mirror - the Matsuyama. In that story, a woman acquires a mirror from her husband. It's the first time she's seen a mirror and is charmed to see herself in it. She decides that it is precious and keeps it hidden away. She has a daughter later, but she doesn't tell the daughter about the mirror so that she won't grow up to be vain. Then as the mother is dying, she tells her daughter about the mirror and says to look at it every day. The daughter does so, but doesn't realize her reflection is herself. She thinks it's her mother as she was when she was young and healthy. The story then goes on about step-mothers and the girl being accused of performing black magic, yadda yadda.

In any case, I think this is the story Arria is thinking about because the husband says this line when giving the mirror to his wife: "As the sword is the soul of a samurai, so is the mirror the soul of a woman"
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A: “She’s going to send you into a groundhog day loop!” after Beatrice says something about every day being the same.

A: “The ticking of the clock is a fucking Pavlov’s experiment! It’s always when bad things happen! Someday I’ll be walking through a store and the clock ticks and I’ll think someone wants to kill me!”

Organ Short #600 Million starts playing. She liked it, and I told her my interpretation of the title. K: “I think it’s supposed to imply that Beatrice has lived for so long that she’s written over 600 million musical pieces.”

Beatrice leaves a mark on Shannon and Kanon. Did Yasu burn himself? I don’t remember the significance of the mark.

Shannon tells Jessica about the Okinawa trip and Jessica gets mad at their ‘pace’. A: “I think Jessica wants to be in their bedroom telling them what to do. Okay, so rub it until it gets harder. Not hard to do. Okay, now sit on it. No, not like that! Sit like this.”

Jessica gets mad that she doesn’t have a boyfriend yet.
A: “It’s fine. Natsuhi and Krauss will marry you off yet, you little Palomino broodmare.”

Then Jessica talks about how she doesn’t have a boyfriend to go to the school fair
A: “And Shannon has an idea now.”
K: “Go ahead and say it.”
A: (imitating Shannon) “There’s Kanon! No one has to know you aren’t really dating!”
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Eerieka posted...

A: “The ticking of the clock is a fucking Pavlov’s experiment! It’s always when bad things happen! Someday I’ll be walking through a store and the clock ticks and I’ll think someone wants to kill me!”

That's not even going to ahaha.wav yet lol. It somehow still can catch me off guard even after the 100th time I hear it.
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Oh man Arria's reaction to the first ahaha.wav was so good. It was also joined with the sound effect of pots and pans (the sound that plays when the stakes are doing their thing). That was when she made a little Venn diagram with her fingers, but didn't touch them. "This is everything that's 'okay' and this was the last five seconds."

I know everyone goes on about the music, but Umineko has some fun sound effects too.
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She asked if the pre-story stuff is canon for every ‘story’. I think it is up until Oct. 3rd? She pointed out that this makes Shannon’s story on the beach more interesting when the cousins were asking if Beatrice was real. A: (imitating Shannon): ‘w-well, there are legends and stories…’ versus ‘yeah, Beatrice is mah gurl.’”

Shannon bought Beatrice a souvenir from Okinawa. A: “Oh Shannon, you’re too sweet and good for this sinful world. And I think Beatrice feels the same way.”

She laughs like a god damn maniac at the line about Beatrice chomping away like a squirrel.

Beatrice talks about giving Shannon some “rose dulce vita” and google doesn’t help. We have no idea wtf this is. Google imagine those words gives us shoes, perfume, movies, and everything but food. When we add “food” to the search, we gets all sorts of various sweets.

Krauss and Natsuhi have no magical talent/incompatible wavelength. A: “I feel like this is relevant.”

Game: “Madness can sometimes substitute for magical ability.”
A: “So he succeeded because he’s batshit crazy.”

Beatrice: “I was a horrible person in the past. I’ve gotten soft.”
A: “I can believe that! Also, I’m starting to see the biblical connection. It’s like God in the Old vs. New Testament.”
K: Oh so earlier you didn’t catch the obvious Jesus reference, but now you’re seeing biblical metaphors where they aren’t supposed to be.
A: *laughs* I’m an idiot sometimes. What do you want from me?

Shannon does good work as a servant. A: “Aww, she’s like the pet dog. It’s so cute!”
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Eerieka posted...

She asked if the pre-story stuff is canon for every ‘story’. I think it is up until Oct. 3rd?

October 4th yeah

With the one exception of Ange coming to the island in Ep8

Eerieka posted...

She laughs like a god damn maniac at the line about Beatrice chomping away like a squirrel.

Eerieka posted...

When we add “food” to the search, we gets all sorts of various sweets.

Pretty sure its just some kind of rose flavored candy. Which is pretty common in Europe.

The line was originally something else pre-steam version I think.

If Shannon is like a dog, saying Kanon is like a cat wouldn't be too inaccurate. He's more solitary and arrogant in a way.
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Bah yeah, the 4th. For some reason I can never remember if Umineko is Oct 3-4 or 4-5.

I saved that pic of squirrel-trice too. Arria will love it. XD

You're right, Raka. Kanon is like a stereotypical cat. I'll have to share that with Arria. Who knows, maybe she'll take it to heart and interpret the jedi-Kanon scene as a cat showing its claws.
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A dog, a cat, a walrus, and a mackerel. Only Gohda and Genji left.
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what animal will you think of next AAARRRIIAAAAAA

*cackle* *cackle*
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Hehe, Arria will love this once she really starts to see Beatrice's mannerisms. I don't know if I mentioned it yet, but Arria really loves horses. I wouldn't be surprised if somehow she found a way to incorporate one of these characters into a horse. Actually, she already called Jessica a Palomino broodmare, but that was more in sympathy than humor. It was reflecting how her parents will probably arrange a marriage for her i.e. like a well-bred horse that serves just to make colts. And for those of you who don't know much about horses (I didn't know much until I met Arria) a Palomino is just a yellowish horse, which Arria used in reference to Jessica's hair color.
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that three sentences is absolutely more horse knowledge than I've ever had in my life
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Game: (something about furniture being reborn as human)
A: “I have this weird mental image of a baby crawling out between couch cushions.”

Kanon catches Beatrice’s spoon that she flings at him while he’s hiding in a bush. A: “He’s like some kind of fucking ninja. If he says ‘dattebayo’ I’ll say ‘I told you so’… though he’s more Sasuke than Naruto.”

Kanon: “That thing isn’t human! Don’t trust her!”
A: “Dude, you’re genre savvy enough to have these thoughts. You’re not genre savvy enough to keep them to yourself.”

Yasu keeps talking to himself. He doesn’t have the parts to love. Shannon says something about ‘regaining the part so we can love.’ My literal mind: Sex change operation?
A: “Dear God, at what age do they start brainwashing these children?”

Shannon: “You can become a human, too.”
A: *opens mouth to speak*
K: “Go on, say the thought you’re having.”
A: “One moment” *pulls up video of Kiss The Girl from The Little Mermaid*
A: “Just kiss Jessica! She wants it! She wants it bad!”

There’s talk about the color of the sea. Then Kanon talks about how Japanese call a green street light ‘blue’. Arria didn’t know if this was true. I told her it was, and that in some languages, they don’t use the same categorization of colors as we do. So for instance ‘midori’ might be considered a shade of ‘ao'. At least I know it WAS back in the old days. Not sure how modern Japanese categorize their color words. Purely coincidentally I had watched a video on this concept the day before we read this, so I had her watch it again. Here's the video if anyone is interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMqZR3pqMjg

Shannon: Kanon, you have no ****
A: did they really censor the word ‘love’?
K: “It’s like that in Japanese. And remember, this game didn’t have voice acting originally. Rie Kugimiya wasn’t initially here to say ‘ai’.
I find it interesting that Arria didn’t even JOKE about it being the word ‘dick’ or some variant thereof. I thought she would jump on the opportunity.
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Alright, I asked Arria what animal Gohda or Genji would be and this is what she sent me:

"Gohda is some sort of pure bred bulldog, all smug confidence and poor breeding" (she later clarified that the 'poor breeding' part referred to how bulldogs were inbred. I don't think she's accusing Gohda of being an inbred, but I can't really tell you what she was going for there. I might ask her later to clarify)

"Genji is a tired gray muzzled draft horse who just keeps pulling the family carriage because it's all he knows. Boxer from Animal Farm is how I picture Genji. He is the strong loyal servant who isn't smart enough to question his loyalty to his family." Then later clarified: "I do think he's smarter than he appears. The line there is referring to a man that is significantly smarter than he appears."
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Those are apt choices!
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Kinzo flips out with the usual oooooh beatoriche~
A: “You are a grown ass man. Stop it.”

She is on a religious kick right now. So she looks a Kinzo’s sprite and has this thought. “What if his robe outfit-thing isn’t supposed to be ‘wizard’ but rather ‘priest’? Beatrice is Jesus, Kinzo is her pope, and Battler is the guy tied to a stake covered in gasoline saying ‘do your worst, bitch! I still won’t convert!’”

And here we have our first ‘without love it cannot be seen’. I told Arria that she better come to love that phrase because we’re gonna get a lot of it.

We get to the school scene with Jessica and Kanon. Arria is running out of patience. A: “I just want to get to the murders already!”
K: “You have to get endeared to the characters first!”
A: “I am endeared! To all you crazy fucks and your insane traits! Especially you, Kinzo.”

The girls in the school go nuts, the screen shakes. A: “I feel like I just got assaulted by my computer!”
K: “Umineko does that a lot.”

The screen goes to white.
A: “I expected the next scene to be Kanon with his hair blowing in the wind, with bishounen sparkles.”

Jessica: “I think Kanon-kun has to work the day of the festival!”
A: (imitating Jessica): “Because I’m gonna tell mom to change the schedule, because this bitch (Shannon) is crazy!”
Shannon: “I’ve already checked the schedule.”
A: (imitating Shannon): “I’m already ahead of you, bitch.”
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Man, it must be interesting to think what was going on in Yasu's mind with the whole Jessica and Kanon thing. Is she really into her, or is that just because it's fun and easy and Jessica is a warm person then it got intense, or because it's her way to cope with George and Battler, or what.
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Raka_Putra posted...

Man, it must be interesting to think what was going on in Yasu's mind with the whole Jessica and Kanon thing. Is she really into her, or is that just because it's fun and easy and Jessica is a warm person then it got intense, or because it's her way to cope with George and Battler, or what.

It is a strange situation. I think Yasu genuinely likes all the cousins and would be content to 'be with' any of them. It's like they say in ep 6 - Shannon will fight to win George and Kanon will fight to win Jessica. They'll both do their best to win, but whoever win, the other will accept it.
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