Ryan: 4 - Mosquitoes: 10

...******* mosquitoes.

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Because I'm bored and feel like being a nerd I'm going to write about Umineko stuff. Spoilers for ep 4, although the only person who would care that I know of would want to read this anyway. >_>

- Alliance of the Golden Witch (title of ep 4 of the series) apparently is twice as long as episode 1 was. Episode 1 took me about a weekend to get through, and considering I've kinda been going at this for a while and haven't even reached the end of the currently available translation, which is at the 1/3 point, this looks to be a pretty long adventure. Even though a lot of it is background story info.

- So thus far the episode's focused mostly on Battler's sister, Ange, and her investigation of the events that led to the murder of her entire family minus Eva 12 years ago (so in other words, this takes place in the future of the ep 3 world where only Eva survives). Apparently ever since Eva escaped from Rokkenjima Island, she's been living a miserable life with the media harassing her about being the only survivor/successor to the family fortune and stuff. And she's really bitter about the fact that Ange is now the next successor since her son also got murdered (poor George), so she's forcibly making Ange's life as miserable as possible, in a Cinderella stepmother-like way. And she's not speaking up about anything that happened on the island just to torture Ange even more.

- So in the ep 3 epilogue where Ange jumped off of that skyscraper... she survived. Apparently there were like 50 things directly below her that successively helped break her fall, so she somehow got away without a scratch. Lucky her.

- Now that Eva is finally dead and Ange is now the last living successor to the Ushiromiyas, Ange's mom's family, the Sumaderas, are now out to kidnap her, since the Sumaderas are one of those long forgotten families that used to be rich and powerful but fell from grace somehow, so now they have to mooch off of the money of other families to thrive. Unfortunately when Kyrie married into the Ushiromiyas, she wasn't on good terms with her family to begin with... so neither is Ange. So in other words, the Sumaderas have to use force to take advantage of Ange, employing a full set of secret agents for the sole purpose of kidnapping her. Enter Kyrie's sister (Kasumi Sumadera) at the head of the effort, who is freaking creepy as heck. And she evidently hated Kyrie with a passion.

- So, Ange is trying to investigate the events of the Rokkenjima massacre while having to dodge black suited men and whatnot in the meanwhile. At the part where I'm at, she's interviewing this occultist professor who researched pretty heavily into the incident and found out about the supposed message in a bottle written by Maria that was found at the end of episode 1. (going by the logic that higurashi used, this means that in every universe involving the Rokkenjima murders, a message in a bottle from Maria is found afterwards). However, Maria's diary was also found in the mansion, and comparison of the handwriting showed that whoever wrote the notes in the bottle was not Maria. Also, the "message" in the bottle was actually a graphically detailed account of the murders that took place... and a second bottle was found that possessed contradictory details of how the murders happened. And in both of them, Eva was said to have died.

... Episode 1 and Episode 2, then? The suggestion was that the notes were so detailed, they were probably written before the murders took place rather than afterwards... which would suggest that the murders were, of course, preempted. But the fact the Eva survived then implies that things did not go as planned... as they obviously didn't in episode 3.

What I don't get is why bottles representing both episodes 1 and 2 appeared? Would this suggest that whenever the world resets, evidence of the previous worlds shows up in the current one?

- Ep 4 in general seems to suggest that magic does exist within the Ushiromiya family, but that Beatrice herself is not what we think she is. I think the general consensus is that she's just someone who's trying to take credit for whoever is actually doing the murders... and that whoever is actually doing the murders isn't using magic to begin with, but trying to make it look like magic. However, magic does exist in the fact that Ange is somehow able to communicate to Maria in the past via Maria's diary, and that Beatrice herself acknowledges Maria's potential magical superiority to her. Maria supposedly is able to create things from nothing (she endowed her stuffed animal, Sakutarou, with a soul created from nothing), and has the title of Witch of Origins (Beatrice herself is the Endless Witch). It's also implied that Kinzo has some form of magic power (which would then be passed down to Maria... and possibly the other family members as well).

- Speaking of Maria's diary... there's a page in it with a message supposedly written and signed by Beatrice herself. When Ange showed the page to the occultist professor, who said he'd memorized the handwriting of the messages in the bottles like the back of his hand, he looked shocked... Meaning the notes in the bottles that were left by "Maria" were actually left by whoever "Beatrice" is- "Beatrice" referring not to the Endless Witch (Beato) who we've been seeing torturing Battler in the meta-world, but the actual culprit who that woman is trying to take credit for.

- Meanwhile, on the game board, Battler's testing out a new theory that Kinzo was actually dead before the "game" started, meaning that Beatrice's claim that only 18 people were on the island throughout the last three episodes could be nullified by saying that the 18 does not include Kinzo - someone else sneaked in to take his place. Of course, Battler's trying to come up with every excuse possible not to accuse one of the other 17 people still on the island.

And the thing is, Battler himself is probably one of the most suspicious characters to begin with. Whenever Beatrice showed up in person in the real world in the previous episodes (as butterflies in episode 1 or as herself in episode 2/3), Battler was never there in person. This could fuel his need to denounce Beatrice as a witch, cause he's never there when "witch-like" events happen - but honestly, this could also affect his alibi. Oh wait, he did meet Beatrice in the real world once in episode 2 - after he'd been drinking. I think something's up.

And Battler/Kyrie/Rudolf have possibly the most suspicious backstory to begin with. So Battler leaves the family for 6 years because Rudolf decides to marry Kyrie immediately after Battler's mom (Asumu) dies- and then for some unexplained reason, he decides to rejoin the family now, just in time for the annual family conference where the murders start happening. That, and Kyrie's monologue in episode 3 about being jealous of Asumu for 17 years (Battler's age) because she was carrying Rudolf's baby at the same time, and then had a miscarriage, while Asumu's baby was born- forcing Rudolf to marry Asumu instead of Kyrie.

First off, what's up with Rudolf impregnating two women at around nearly the exact same time?

Secondly, knowing the episode 4 end spoiler (the Battler we see in the meta-world arguing with Beato is not Asumu's son) - it's likely/a possibility that Battler's real mom is Kyrie after all? I guess that would explain why he looks more related to Ange than a half-brother status would suggest.

bah, this series has too many mysteries and not enough answers. -_-