umineko notes

on the topic of battler's sin: why does battler not know?
1. he forgot
2. he didn't realise it
3. wrong battler entirely

as far as I can tell, 3 is unlikely - beatrice would likely be able to tell if battler was a different person, and battler has memories of being on the island before 6 years ago. as for the other two...it seems like it's 1, but functionally this doesn't make very much difference to the reader. the point is to confirm that something actually happened then, and beatrice didn't like it (understatement of the year).

the only event mentioned 6 years ago was battler leaving the family...I think when asumu died?
his return is directly linked to the cause of the murders (more or less confirmed)
this does not have anything to do with human beatrice - said by beatrice herself, specifying that she was dead during that period of time (since 20 years ago) and hadn't been revived yet
this shouldn't have anything to do with the total headcount on the island either, since he would've been interchangeable with ange in that case
aside from a resemblance to young kinzo, battler doesn't take a special place in the family - not its successor, nor even kinzo's eldest male grandchild
was it because he left and was accepted back into the family so easily? was this a position that was desired by someone who couldn't become part of the family even if they were related? did he replace someone?
I feel there's some sort of conflict here between her wishing that battler hadn't returned vs. wanting him to solve the epitaph (supposedly to stop the murders). why are the murders inevitable to begin with? this sounds like she has no control of the murders happening despite claiming to be the person carrying them out.

beatrices

the distinction between human beatrice and beato is required - beato exists in the meta world and (without love) cannot exist in the real world to influence real events.
present day human beatrice exists, but is not the same person. this is someone unknown acting under the name of beatrice. their acts (not necessarily the murders themselves, but the incident in general) are obscured by beato's magic. their true voice doesn't show often, but suggests they come from a place of trauma and pain. battler declaring the identity of this person will shatter the mystery of beatrice and destroy beato. or will it?
past human beatrice existed around 20 years ago as a young woman, but is dead. she is also a mystery. her appearance matches the portrait in the hallway.
witch beatrice, whom kinzo met and received the gold from, existed when he was younger, and is not the same person as past human beatrice. it is unknown if she looks like the portrait as well.
child witch beatrice, who really only appeared in one scene where she decided to be a witch. cared for by virgilia (who still held the title of BEATRICE) and taught about the difficulty of bringing back something that has been broken. had a strict upbringing under her grandfather in a rich household with servants. this beatrice might actually be another beatrice on this list, but I can't place her on the timeline yet.
baby beatrice, would be approx 19 years old at present. recording this as a beatrice, as kinzo exclaimed that beatrice would go through such lengths to escape him when the baby he handed to natsuhi died in an accident - implying that he meant for that child to be a representation of beatrice. if this memory is true, this strengthens the idea that kinzo is willing to "create" beatrice by raising a child named as such (demonstrated by the existence of beatrice of 20 years ago). also, natsuhi didn't check the baby and thus didn't find it strange - knowing kinzo, if he wanted an heir, he would've wanted a boy, but if he called the baby beatrice, it must've been a girl. or...you don't know! they could be trans! the man from 19 years ago...could've been the girl baby kinzo chose for real!

they may be the same person as present day human beatrice, but have yet to show direct connection with beatrice in the current chapter (chapter 5). I think it would make sense, actually. (an unwanted child, chosen to be the next beatrice in a line of beatrices, thought to have died, raised in unknown conditions, back for revenge?)

piece beatrice, beato's avatar, differs in every game and is akin to a self-insert ttrpg character. her will (when roleplayed by beato) is the same as beato's, so this is more or less just a technicality for understanding the game board. interestingly, this is similar to battler who is the same person inside and out, and differs from bernkastel who treats erika as a completely different person...which makes sense, I suppose, given that she has identical stakes in her game.
beato is a meta entity. I use this name to refer to the witch on the higher plane who plays against battler - the split off occurs when eva ascends to EVA BEATRICE. she plays against battler, seemingly to win, but often chooses moves that don't benefit herself. her real motive is related to having battler solve the epitaph, but not just solve the epitaph - I think it's reasonable to conclude that solving the epitaph is just the first step, and battler has more to act on afterwards.

magically speaking, her witch status was inherited from virgilia and recommended by lambdadelta. she is chained to her game by lambdadelta. virgilia, as her mentor, still expresses genuine care for her and often provides support.
I don't know who she is, but I think she is the amalgamation of all beatrices into a single person, as perceived by everyone over the years, with present day human beatrice being the "main" element. she could just be an entity that arises from there being many beatrices...but the story implies there is a central identity. at present, she is all beatrices, and takes all of their stories as her backstory...which is probably why the reader has to strip away all other beatrices to find out who she really is.
while she appears to be cruel and totally unhinged at the start, it slowly comes to light that that is something she's been doing to rile battler up and make him want to solve the mystery seriously.

the smoking room

this is the higher place beato plays the game with battler.
most of the question arc happens here. it probably isn't modelled after a part of the mansion/guest house, as human guests invited here don't recognise the place.

(it might be modelled after a part of kuwadorian, I don't know yet)

human guests are occasionally invited here, including maria and rosa. can't recall if the first tea time took place here.

the golden land

this is beato's safe space.
this is the rose garden of the mansion, but with golden roses. perhaps the part of beatrice that exists in the real world has a particular attachment to the rose garden.
the weather reflects her mood, and after she loses her will, it's always raining.
she invites friends here, and anyone she doesn't welcome will not be able to visit.
after bernkastel and lambdadelta hijack the game board, battler retreats here during breaks. this is probably because beato's here, but maybe...he no longer feels the smoking room is a welcome place as well.
interestingly, ange was able to reach the golden land, even though beato outwardly didn't want her there. perhaps on the inside she hadn't given up on battler, and allowed ange in to force her to return to the game board.
dlanor was able to arrive after beato lost her will. this suggests that beato recognised this as a step towards whatever she's trying to do, or that dlanor had words of support for battler, or just that dlanor's a friend of her mentor.

the game board
ok the concept of the game board, the various planes, and timelines took a while to properly grasp so it's worth writing a few notes on.

the game is between beato and battler on a meta level. beato specifies this to be kinzo's grandchild (hence confirming that battler is kinzo's grandchild).
the game board is rokkenjima, across the 2 days allocated for the annual ushiromiya family conference.
the game pieces are every character involved in those 2 days. this is left vague, as new characters are constantly being brought in...but includes the ushiromiya family, their servants, various magical entities, and of course beatrice. most of the pieces, including the family members and servants, are controlled by the gm, but the player can bring in other pieces...well, in battler's case, he doesn't have the power nor the knowhow to do so, but bernkastel demonstrates that this is possible.
the setup is similar to a ttrpg - one gm, one player. the witch side (beato) is the gm, who tells the story from a magical point of view. the human side (battler) is the player, who must recognise what he sees from his non-magical point of view, and explain various strange occurrences without using magic.
"magic" is a convenient explanation for a mystery, as it can ignore physical limitations. (in this definition I'm not considering "love".) accepting magic = stop thinking. this is the initial basis for why battler's so staunchly against magic, but it gradually changes as he understands his family and the nature of magic.
in order to make arguments for and against magic, the red and blue truths are used as tools to establish statements.
the red truth is always absolutely true. it's impossible to fully speak a non-truth in red*. attempting to speak a non-truth in red will choke the speaker and prevent them from finishing the sentence. this is often wielded as a weapon of the witch, to set conditions on a mystery that would make it look impossible without magic. this may seem extremely powerful, but the witch may refuse to give out information immediately as a way to mislead the player/prevent them from making another mystery too easy to solve.

this, however, sets some basic conditions for (probably) all mysteries, that help to close off several irrelevant possibilities. a number of knox's commandments have been declared in red, which establishes some baseline truths for deduction.

the blue truth is a statement and/or counterargument that expresses doubt. it's a formal move that must be addressed and countered by the opposing side. this tool was defined by ange to give the human side a weapon of equal power to the red truth, as a human argument would be too easy to brush aside otherwise. usage is not limited to humans, however - it's possible for magical entities to use it to cast doubt (as in the first case of dlanor vs battler). BUT it's implicitly in service of a human explanation, as there is no need to back up a magic claim.
beato's win condition (for the game, but not necessarily herself) is to make battler accept that witches exist, hence solidifying her existence. lambdadelta is supporting her. however, lambdadelta's goal is an eternal draw, seeing as beato cannot possibly win.
battler's win condition is to deny that witches exist by providing a non-magic explanation for mysteries. bernkastel is supporting him, and sometimes pulls in pieces from outside.
beato's stakes are part of the mystery to be solved. officially, this is her entire existence as a witch, as the denial of her involvement in the murders appears to be somehow equivalent to denial of her existence (coming to be a little odd, as battler is holding off on denying magic outside of the 2 days now). however, she has some other motive. the connection between this and the epitaph is not entirely clear (solving the epitaph does not solve the mystery of the witch, and it being solved does not directly impact the game board).
battler's stakes are his entire family - supposedly, if he wins and the witch is eliminated, he can go back and his family will be safe and sound. This is for the battler of 1986, however, and the ange of 1998's fate will not be changed.
the game will be played for eternity until one side gives in. however, the human side has an advantage as they can continue to make moves until they win. in fact, battler DID give in at one point...but he was able to return to the game. if beato loses...she will probably be deleted forever.

*I have some fun...questions...about what would happen if you try to speak a statement that no one knows the answer to...like the p versus np problem...but this is irrelevant

knox's commandments from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_Detective_Fiction

The criminal must be mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to know.
I need to reread for this lol. I know some characters have had their time in the limelight, but need to think over who has and hasn't been there.
All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.
this is the witch's argument.
Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable.
this has already been spent on kuwadorian/the secret passage to kuwadorian/the gold room, probably.
No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the end.
abused by the devil's proof in the early parts, but denied in chapter 5.
[irrelevant]
No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right.
well this certainly hasn't happened. battler does get swayed by emotions a lot, but isn't always correct. often isn't correct.
The detective himself must not commit the crime.
declared in red. battler is not the culprit and does not commit any murders in any scenario.
erika, declared to be the detective in red, also is not responsible for any murders.
The detective is bound to declare any clues which he may discover.
given we're viewing this from battler's viewpoint, we get all of his clues I suppose.
erika...I feel like she could get shot down by this commandment if she hides any clues only to pull them out later, having been declared as the detective under these rules.
The "sidekick" of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal from the reader any thoughts which pass through his mind: his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader.
there isn't a watson...but if you consider piece battler the watson to erika's sherlock, this is subverted as piece battler is sometimes smarter, or has a little more insight than the reader. (he's controlled by lambdadelta for this duration, however.)
meta battler, sort of fits this though. sometimes the reader notices something that he takes a while to realise.
Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.
this one's a very interesting rule because of the emphasis on name swapping and inheritance so far.
while a lot of the claims that maybe person x mistook person y for person z were denied, a lot of claims that maybe "person y" is a name for different people have been considered valid. it's also part of the central mystery surrounding beatrice's identity.

beatrice may not gain anything from the solving of the epitaph, but may lose a burden?
beatrice wants to pass the golden witch title to battler? knowing that if battler held the title he would not continue?
there are no more than 17 people on the island, but there can be fewer. this leads to a few possible solutions:

"no more than 17 people" is not a hard limit on the minimum number of people. if the servants are considered "furniture" rather than "humans", the number of people that are accounted for are far fewer than 17, which allows for several extra people to exist.
what if someone is creating the illusion that the entire family is here, but someone is acting as more than 1 person?

who is natsuhi's child? what if...........it's shannon. the male voice is to throw natsuhi off

overarching questions

who is beatrice?

witch beatrice

beatrice is the only person to hold the title of BEATRICE and not have an alternate, completely different name so far (the others are virgilia, eva and ange). aside from being the golden witch, we know very little about what place she holds in the world.
apparently met kinzo in his youth, however, and gave him a lot of gold. the gold is real and exists. this may warrant a split into another type of beatrice.

confined beatrice

beatrice existed as a real person, as depicted in her portrait, at some point when the ushiromiya parents were children. this was about 20 years before the main game boards. rosa stumbled across her in the hidden mansion in the forest, and caused the accident that killed her (think she confirmed that this beatrice did exist and died then).

until that point in time, supplies used to be ferried to the hidden harbour on the island.
this beatrice had a distinctly different personality from the main character beatrice, being sheltered from the world and apparently quite ignorant

her memories as a witch include being a child when virgilia, her mentor, was BEATRICE. this may have been something from when she was confined, possibly raised in the hidden mansion as a child.

current day beatrice

however, maria meets a physically present "beatrice" every year on the their rokkenjima trip. the proof is in someone else with significantly different handwriting writing in her book, signing off as beatrice. maria confirms that this beatrice's appearance matches the person illustrated in the hall portrait, I think?
this person wrote an unknown number of bottled messages that describe various different ways in which the murders pan out, diary style. these messages were signed "ushiromiya maria" and sent possibly before the date of the incident (and if not, they would likely have to have been written before the incident). the first question arc was in the first of two such bottles found.
something interesting is that kinzo once told rosa to name maria something else and got mad at her for going through with it anyway. possibility of a hidden family member also named maria, since people sharing names seems to be a common theme?

what are her motivations?

she's trapped as a player in an eternal game she can't win, forced to play a losing game at the whims of bernkastel and lambdadelta

it appears the only way out would be to lose (and die), but even this means that lambdadelta will exact punishment on her for making her lose the bet

based on her expressions, she seems to desire only friendship/wants to be wanted and loved, but is unable to relate to other people in a healthy way. she pushes battler with increasingly uncomfortable situations when he reacts emotionally to her challenges, enjoying that he responds to her, not initially realising that this makes him hate her. even when she realises she'd prefer him as a friend rather than an enemy, she continues to press him because the witch game setup demands it, and eventually leans hard into it by taunting him with ange's death because she's given up on winning the game and rather him destroy her. there's that moment of bitter joy from him declaring her as his enemy and golden witch. then of course, there's also the really weirdly sexually charged comments she makes around kinzo and battler especially after her "revival" (these are mostly related to being captured and taken against her will).

another thing is that she shows overdependence on maria, who (even though she's beatrice's friend) is a literal child, when she wanted comfort and a safe space.
she probably just wants to be accepted as a person and have normal friendships with people, but has a skewed perception of human relationships and what she can do to make other people happy. this is, of course, extremely worrying to read knowing that a human beatrice was once confined by kinzo.

repeated themes

bird in a cage/being trapped - physically shackled, or forced to live in a mansion away from the rest of the world. kinzo's goal (in her explanation of events) is to perform the ritual to summon her and prevent her from escaping again.
humans/furniture - repeated denials of furniture being human. the concept of "furniture". no humans left alive. maybe a wild thought, but what if red statements that say "there are no humans left alive who can kill" does not include furniture? the disturbing idea that she may have been considered furniture, less than human, and thus doesn't include a possible human stand-in for beatrice in the count.
extremely low chance - magic power is inversely proportional to the chance required to produce it. the chapel that will only open with an extremely low probability. a marriage will take place? is this if/when beatrice returns?
people sharing names - names as titles (e.g. BEATRICE, possibly kinzo), multiple people with the same name (battler, possibly maria). starting to be used as a deduction tool...
love and magic - magic produces happiness. without love, it cannot be seen. without love we push our burdens on other people without understanding their burdens. seek to understand, but understanding doesn't necessarily mean forgiveness. by reaching out to each other we can create happiness.
why are the ritual murders happening? what is the actual order of events?
("who" is doing them appears to be a more incidental question - the underlying cause should be the same. however, who is doing murders when no one is left alive is a very big question.)
I think an important part of thinking about solutions is realising that only the things battler perceives directly can be taken as "truth" - the rest is narrated by beatrice to explain how the events pan out outside of his perception, to produce the murders that result. (this is probably also why the characters page doesn't update deaths until battler personally confirms the bodies.)
which story is truth? are any of them truth? the future that ange comes from appears to correspond to the chapter where eva finds the gold, but it's not explained why eva was found in the hidden mansion (likely, the gold was there, but not why she was hiding there when the story ended with her in the main mansion). coming from higurashi, I suppose it's possible all of them are true and ange just happens to come from the fragment that is the continuation of that story. battler, meanwhile, comes from an unconcluded fragment that has a minuscule chance of allowing everyone to return home, and the victory condition is that he solves the mystery and defeats the witch. can't explain the message bottles.

the reason for the ritual murders has something to do with "battler's sin" - what is this? who is battler?

battler's sin dates back to 6 years ago. this is not an act that was directed towards beatrice, but one that beatrice takes offence with.

beatrice is still considered dead at that point in time.

6 years ago coincides with the time that battler broke off his relations with the ushiromiya family I think.
he does not recall what happened. beatrice implies that this is her personal motivation for the game, and was hoping for the slightest chance that he would remember. however, the games hold no meaning for her now that she knows he does not.
this may or may not be related to battler not being asumu's son by blood. implied by proximity of context, but not necessarily linked.
kyrie mentions that rudolf married asumu because she got pregnant first, so asumu did have a child. this is not our battler, obviously - he's suggested to be a second child with the same name, still a grandchild of kinzo, that rudolf could use as leverage to negotiate his inheritance.
it is, however, really funny/weird that both battler and ange resemble each other, but both resemble none of their parents (not in hair colour, at least). they don't share a common mother. it's possible that this is due to kinzo's genes, but also possible this is some kind of a visual hint about a convoluted ancestry.

kinzo

it's also more or less confirmed that kinzo is dead at the start, and his body is always burnt.
this heavily implicates nanjo, krauss and natsuhi. genji should also be aware, the other servants probably not.
kinzo is a title that is passed to the current head of the family? (this is neither confirmed nor denied, but accepted as valid)
what is the significance of the epitaph and its solution?
it's known that solving the epitaph leads to the location of the gold
it's not know where exactly the gold is, only that it's underground. the only 2 people so far to have solved it are eva and rosa
solving the epitaph not only rewards the finder with the gold, but also the title of BEATRICE
(from the witch POV) this, however, apparently doesn't end the ritual; the ritual is continued for the ascendance of the new BEATRICE apparently. the new BEATRICE inherits the name and titles, as well as her summons. the old BEATRICE loses the extreme power granted by her titles, but is still a witch.