Umineko - Post-Question Arc Solving

Okay. So. I'm completely fucking brainfried. But that's okay. I've been stuck on most of this stuff for the best part of a month or so? But. I have semblances of an idea now. Some things are coming together. I don't think any of these theories are 100% correct, but I like what I have.

Special shoutout of a "FUCK YOU" for the Episode 3 First Twilight. I fucking HATE LOCKED ROOMS FOREVER now.

Premise

There is always a 2 day storm.

The telephone lines are always cut.

There are 17 people on the island.

Kinzo is always dead from the start, with several people knowing and concealing this.

The murders are always being done in order to seem fantastical in nature - either through impossibilies, or through occult symbolism being displayed.

They always try and follow Beatrice's Epitaph.

Maria always gets left alone in the rain.

Maria always gets a letter from "Beatrice" (or Kinzo that one time).

Episode 1

Maria - Kanon - ?????

First Twilight

Someone could have just done it.

Thoughts are that Maria is an evil little chud who's evil.

Second Twilight

Someone was able to break in and kill both of them, then leave the room after not fully locking it. This is also when they could have dropped the letter on the ground.

Genji may have lied about the room being close in the first place/the door was not fully locked (the door was not)

Genji and Kanon went back to the kitchen to grab Nanjo and Kumasawa. (The kitchen is supposed to be close to the parlor)

Genji and Nanjo then painted on the red paint after Kanon and Kumasawa left. Since the parlor is close to the kitchen, they should have been back before Kanon, but came back after. This suggests that Genji and Nanjo were collaborating for an alibi for them to paint on the red paint.

OR. They just climb through the window and do it.

Chain might be a lie too, if Kanon is in on it.

Kanon Death

Red text means that it's either a trap or didn't die.

Either Stake Launcher 5000 or Fake Blood and Fake Injuries so bad that Jess (his lover) was willing to say that he had no hope.

Maria sets the letter down in Kinzo's room.

Genji, Nanjo, Kumasawa deaths

Kinda lowkey has to be Kanon.

Maria didn't kill.

Neither did the 3 of them.

They were all homicides.

He's the only one who could fake his death.

OR. There's a trap that kills 3 people.

Ninth Twilight

Kanon.

Homicide. All of the survivors have alibis.

Bullet not from her own gun.

Someone had to kill her. Must have been Kanon.

Beatrice's Nature

"You grasp the method to kill me in your hands."

Why does Rudolf think he's gonna die?

What's up with red paint?

Why does Natsuhi larp meeting Kinzo?

Episode 2

Gohda - Shannon - Genji - Maria

Who is the Beatrice that Rosa and Kyrie saw?

Shannon OR THE EVIL ABUSING ISLAND LIMIT RULES TO ALLOW ANOTHER PERSON IN

First Twilight

Biggest problem here is the fact that Lambda says that the killer was inside the Chapel.

Maria's key passed through no-one else's hands.

Therefore, I think the door was unlocked beforehand. The 6 walked into the room with the killer. Then, the killer murdered them inside the room. They set up the crime, then Maria herself locked the door. It doesn't mean she did the murder, but she locked the door herself.

Otherwise, the red text only specified UNLOCKING the door without a key being impossible - locking is still fine. Can be done themselves.

Why did people actually follow them in, is the question? I am assuming that it is Shannon pretending to be Beatrice again? Lured them into the Chapel then killed them.

What was the scene with "you've proved the Devil's Proof!" about? Was that just made up? I have to assume it is, considering the fact that Rosa is there and she has no recollection of the Chapel in the morning.

Second Twilight

The time of death does not neccessarily have to be true.

Shannon, Genji, and Kanon could have colluded on this murder.

At this point, not a single servant has an alibi. Gohda is supposed to be on his way back. Shannon and Genji are in a fake Kinzo's room fabricating an alibi. Kumasawa is ????. All 5 are possible to kill Jess.

Gohda is lowkey not likely in my mind. Genji/Kanon/Shannon are the most.

Master key means its pretty simple to create a locked room.

HOWEVER. I SHOULD THINK OF A WAY IT ISNT A SERVANT. Chessboard theory suggests that by making it possible for a servant to do it, the culprit is likely not a servant.

Immediate thought is that the red text does not have the line "Everyone had their keys at all times". Nor is the red text saying "the key in the room is Jess's key for certain". Nor is it saying "Jess's key is completely out of the game and is never used again".

Kanon's Appearance

Only way Kanon could show up again is if either someone else was dressing up as him, or if he never died in the first place. Red text says that nobody would mistake someone for Kanon.

My theory is that the identity of "Kanon" died in that room due to Jess's last words to him. He likely felt upset or regretful and decided to never again take the name Kanon.

Third option - Kanon DID die in that room. Everyone just lied about him showing up later. This means that Genji, Shannon and Gohda are in on it. The chapter when Kanon shows up again is called Wolf and Sheep Puzzle. This could be alluding to the fact that it is a 3v2 situation.

Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Twilight

If Shannon and Gohda are in on it, there is a murder/suicide in this room.

Otherwise, Kanon/Genji walk in, kill 2 of them, leave George alive but dying, and then George locks the door of his own accord (or is coerced to) and then he dies.

Parlor Letter

Either Maria did it, or Rosa lied about it to force Battler out of the room and save face with her daughter.

Episode 3

First Twilight

I think it's still technically fine with the red text to have someone slip and fall in the 6th

But it's probably not a valid answer to me.

Big issues here are like. There's no way that someone died in an accident after just perfectly setting up the locked rooms.

I need to come up with a reason why someone set up the locked rooms (if it was from inside), and how the murders carried on past the servants (and Maria) dying.

Like how the fuck is the killer inside the room and still gets out.

They were in the room to kill everyone.

They locked the door and put the key in the envelope.

There should be no way that you can kill someone from within the room, and also leave it after locking. You could do all but one of the final servant locked rooms using this.

Kinzo seems to be the only one that's different, and I assume is gonna be the weak point of this mystery. Like, his room only needs the normal key to be in the envelope, but it can be locked with the master keys.

So inside his room, he has the key to the chapel in it. Kanon is in there, with a master key and parlor key. So. I basically need to figure out which room could possibly be last.

I'm so fucking baffled.

There's an easy way to explain all this, but it feels like such a fucking copout.

"Nowhere is it stated that all doors in all six rooms are locked".

This is the case for every other time they set up a locked room, but the closest we get is a "all keys related to the linked closed rooms were locked inside the linked closed rooms". Which doesn't state that like. Kinzo's room just had a backdoor open or something. But it feels so disengenous to engage with the mystery as such. For all the discussion of "this is locked, these are six locked rooms", to use the bullet of "nuh uh you didn't say it in red" is so fucking lame. It's my last case scenario, but I'm not happy about it.

I don't actually care about how these people died. The only thing magical in nature is the construction of the locked rooms.

I can write off the methods of killing because "Murdering them from outside the room would have been impossible".

I think for now, I'll settle on the answer of "The status of the locked rooms are not fully defined in red".

There is wiggle room for one or more of these rooms to be tampered with from outside, as Beatrice never fully states that "all doors and windows are locked".

Either, a door/window may not have been fully locked and the killer could have snuck out through it, or snuck the envelope into the room after the locks have been established.

I think this is most possible with the upstairs rooms/Kinzo's room. Kinzo's room is doubtable that the people would check both doors for it. And they absolutely did not check the windows being locked for the upstairs rooms.

To further support this idea, during explaining the locked rooms, Beatrice very explicitly suggests that "This was a locked room" (not in red), about the first three rooms, then convenient omits saying this, and letting Battler assume this about the others, never confirming it in red. To this end, it's most likely that it's one of Genji, Kinzo, or Kanon who's rooms are not locked. Genji's room is on the second floor, Kinzo's room has a second door, and people are not familiar with the chapel. It could be any of the three, but I think it's absolutely possible.

If this isn't the answer, well. fuck me. But I've been stuck here for 2 weeks. I kinda actually gotta carry on at some point. I'll be constantly thinking about this one though.

Thoughts on who did it - all the parents have an alibi for the entire time, so that leaves the kids and Nanjo. Most likely to me is Maria + a servant working together. The servant kills all but one, then Maria kills the servant she's working together with. They can work together to draw the circles, and do whatever else they need to do at that point.

I am not entirely happy with this theory, but. it's better than nothing, i guess.

Second Twilight

Maria and Rosa dying.

Uhhhhh. Well fuck. I thought this was pretty neatly wrapped up but. um.

I have uncovered some text in Chapter 3 after it.

It is not red text. But Beatrice says to Ronove "Couldn't you have struck back in red that Eva and Hideyoshi were in the guest room at the time of the murder?"

So. Fuck.

The easy answer exists once again, and it is the fact that "Eva and Hideyoshi did it". But now this throws all sorts of scary shit into question. So. Who could have done this? Realistically, it could be anyone.

We can go for some simple options first off.

Step 1 - It cannot be the work of any of the six who died. Technically it could be someone who climbed onto the island after someone died, but that's an issue we will have to solve when we get to it.

Step 2 - VERY little red text to do with this one. We basically only have "they are dead from homicide and cause of death is correct" and "Hideyoshi was in their room".

A few theories immediately spring to mind on this.

First - Eva did it. This makes sense if we go with "Eva did everything and is evil and terrible and awful" and ignore the "possible red text" from Beatrice mentioning it.

Second - Rosa and Maria killed eachother. Maria pisses off Rosa, and gets strangled to death from her. Maria in her last moments pushes Rosa off her and she trips and falls on the fence.

Third - Someone else did one/both. I can imagine Maria getting killed, then Rosa getting caught by someone right after. This could be someone inside the house, or it could be a secret person on the island.

Fourth - Eva could have shot Rosa from the room with a silenced gun, causing her to stumble back and fall onto the fence and die to that.

There's some suspicious stuff, like how Maria stops crying unnaturally quick when Rosa offers to take her to the garden. I suspect this is something to do with Maria helping the true killer set up supernatural kills. She is baiting Rosa outside so she can get killed - it seems quite similar to What Remains Of Edith Finch, where Edie ends up setting up circumstances for a supernatural story to take place. Just a cute observations.

So this leads me a final line of reasoning - where Maria intentionally baits Rosa out of the house, and then either kills her/watches someone kill her. Then gives the new Beatrice/killer all of the stakes to pierce people with. Instructs them. And then lets them kill her by strangulation.

This could be Eva, one of the other adults, or someone who snuck onto the island.

Deaths in the Mansion (Hideyoshi, Kyrie, Rudolf)

Bit of a simple one, I'm a little more chill on this.

Kyrie uses the plan of getting Hideyoshi alone to talk.

She knows that Eva and him are suspicious, and wants to talk to him, two on one.

This happens, and might go wrong in some manner, possibly causing a fight between them.

Of the three, up to two of them die and have the stakes placed next to them.

This causes one (or more) people to appear dead, and can fake being dead when their "body" is discovered with the stakes.

The crux of this argument rests on the fact that they are not confirmed to be dead in red until way later by Eva Beatrice. Meaning one or more people could be walking around still alive.

I think most likely here is Kyrie. Battler saw Rudolf with a stake in his forehead, Hideyoshi's chest, and Kyrie's stomach. Kyrie is most likely to have survived this, and probably the kind of person who'd kill others out of spite in her dying moments.

George's Disappearance

I think the simplest way to suggest this happened is that Nanjo had a master key, talked with George. George goes "I really want to go see Shannon, but Eva won't let me", and Nanjo goes "I GUESS I can let you out, but you must hurry back here the moment you've done it"! And locks the window behind him.

Seventh and Eighth Twilights (Krauss and Natsuhi)

Makes most sense if Eva strangled them, took them outside (and put the stakes down near them), and then locked the door from inside. I genuinely struggle to figure out how the door could be locked from the inside otherwise. What, did Nanjo quickly run downstairs and lock it after?

The ultra stupid answer is that someone (like Hideyoshi or Kyrie) could have coaxed the two outside, then killed them, then ran in and locked the door from the inside and hid inside the guesthouse. Extremely doubtful on this, though. It kinda relies on that this person then snuck out after all of them to get to the guesthouse to go kill Nanjo later.

Nanjo's Murder

Should be pretty cut and dry here.

Someone from an earlier kill (either the three who were killed in the mansion, or Krauss/Natsuhi) were not confirmed in red to be dead until AFTER the Nanjo death.

Someone was still alive. They killed Nanjo.

My thought is that Kyrie lived, realised Eva and Nanjo were sus, and ended up killing George and Nanjo because of their relationship to Eva and Kinzo.

She then probably helped Jess walk to the parlor to keep her safe, before bleeding out somewhere herself.

Episode 4

Literally what am I meant to say about episode 4 man. Every single character says to Battler's face "this shit is crazy and actually happened"

Like there's a billion questions to be had. Like why did they not stake the correct parts this time, only the forehead?

Why is everyone's alibi the same?

They're gonna get me saying some dumb shit like "everyone was replaced" or "everyone was co-erced into saying the same thing to trick Battler" or something. This is so stupid.

We have like a few little bits of red text to consider. "Kanon is dead. Among the five people in Kyrie's group, he was the first to die. In short, he was the 9th victim." - This tells us that there were at least 9 murders, and that Kanon is definitely dead. And also "You are all alone on this island" at the end.

I think literally every person other than the kids were in the room together for the first twilight. So, we now need to say how the fuck this could have happened.

Everyone is saying that Kinzo is alive. The ways that this could happen, is a few.

I think, of all of these options, the first is impossible. Beatrice directly states that "Kinzo is already dead".

Two could be possible? Battler never meets Kinzo himself here. The red also says that everyone "acknowledged the presence of Kinzo" and "No person would mistake Ushiromiya Kinzo by sight". "By sight" is suspicious to me. The idea that he could be mistaken by voice lends credence to my third point, but this still doesn't explain everything. I don't think there is a way that we could get this happening with people saying "I saw Kinzo/Father and he was using magic" with the "someone else took on the name of Kinzo" idea the game is trying to push. Only seventeen can be alive still.

The third option, I believe is most likely. I think everyone who says that Kinzo is alive is lying about it.

This creates a bit of a confusing scenario, where every adult now seems to want to lie about Kinzo all of a sudden.

However, my theory hinges on the fact that Battler only meets two people that have seen Kinzo - Gohda, and Kumasawa.

My theory is that most of the mysteries in this chapter will be explainable by a few ideas - that almost everyone was killed in that initial room, and had their bodies moved after the fact. Gohda and Kumasawa are in on it. And the fact that "corpses" are not counted as "humans" for the purposes of Beatrice's 17.

I think that anyone on the phone cannot be trusted to be alive. They are an voice impersonator, either off the island, or on it. This includes Kyrie. This includes Kanon/Shannon. These people could be alive and helping set up this conspiracy, or they could be being replaced with a voice impersonator for while they are talking on the phone.

To note is that Maria is an easy person who feasibly could have committed suicide. And that Gohda and Kumasawa almost certainly couldn't have done it themselves. The thought is that Maria could have helped them along.

First Twilight

Every adult was in the room. They were either killed here, or work together as the culprits for the other kills.

Gohda and Kumasawa run away to where the children are and lie that they saw Kinzo.

Second Twilight

George and Jess are lured out of the guesthouse by various people's voices - especially Shannon and Kanon still being around. It was either the real servants, or a faker who can impersonate their voice.

They get told "hey come to X location" and were dispatched there by someone who is still alive.

Someone then telephones Battler using Jess's voice in order to trick him into thinking that she died in her room after "getting got".

Fourth to Eight Twilights (Dungeon Group)

Kanon is apparantly the first to die here of them.

Pretty simple though.

The people are either killed in the dining room already, or taken to a secondary location where they are killed after Kanon is able to call Jess, so he can be the first to die of these people while still phoning Jess. If he didn't phone Jess, then it was an impersonator and he is likely already dead.

Their bodies are then laid out where they were found, stakes planted as needed.

Kyrie's call to Battler is then also an impersonator, as it is unlikely that she'd lie about seeing anything magical if she was of sound mind.

Ninth Twilight (Gohda and Kumasawa)

They pass the key to Maria when she goes on her little trial, and Maria sets them up with the suicide setup, and takes the key after.

She sets up the master keys being by the chapel, then walks back with a key of her own, and kills herself by Rosa with a poison capsule when she needs to.

Beatrice's Final Riddle

"Ushiromiya Battler. I will now...kill you."

Uhhhhh fuck let me consider this once I think a bit more about who Beatrice is.

Misc

Who is Old Beatrice - She is someone who lent Kinzo money in the past, and he loved her. She had a child with him, then possibly moved into Kuwadorain as Virgilia(?).

Homunculus Beatrice - Secret Daughter of Old Beatrice and Kinzo(?). OR some random child from his orphanage. Brought up to act like Old Beatrice because Kinzo is insane and obsessed with the past and likes shrouding everything in mystery. Rosa meets her and helps her escape and then she dies.

Battler's Parentage - There's two options here. 1) is that Battler is actually the son of Kyrie and Rudolf, just like Ange. The red text argues that Battler's mother is Asamu, but not "biological mother". He can still have Asamu be his mother, but not be born from her. However, this falls apart when you look at "You are not Ushiromiya Asumu's son". This idea has to hinge on the "mother" in one truth meaning "oh yeah it doesn't have to be biological" but the second truth being "oh yeah i mean biological". I don't put it past Beatrice as a character to do something like that with the red, especially when she's trying to force her way, but I think this is probably not the most satisfying way for the narrative to unfold.

The other option I am thinking of is. Asamu had a son - Original Battler. Then Kyrie had a son - Our Battler. Our Battler is actually Sumadera Battler or some other name, and has forgotten that/it was obscured from him for some reason. He may have been swapped into the main family as part of an agreement with the Sumaderas, and that's why? I am not fully certain on this. It's fucked. If this is the case, then I need to reconsider like so so soooo much shit it's crazy. Will need to think. There could be Battler 2 running around.

SECRET STUPID IDEA - Battler is trans in some manner. Either FtM or MtF. Either way, he does not identify as male. Evidence supporting this, is all the red text being either gender-neutral, or not confirming that Battler is the SON specifically of Asumu.

Kinzo - The name "Kinzo" has either been passed onto someone who is present and acknowledged, or the word acknowledged is referring to how everyone goes "yep thats Kinzo, he's probably in his room".

Battler's Sin - Something to do with Beatrice being Battler's first love or something of the sort that causes a generation crashout/something to do with Battler being the secret child of the Sumadera's causing people to want the money that bad. Former makes Beatrice upset that he left, latter makes people upset they don't have money anymore so they kill. Not certain, but need to figure out why people die as a result.

Sakutarou - Rosa made the original for Maria's birthday, then submitted as a product for her company. It started as a 1 of 1 plush, made with love, and turned into a commercial product that anyone could find. This is what Ange saw in the future in the boatman's house. (Friend suggested Build-A-Bear which is fucking HILARIOUS)

Lack of Fantastical Elements - In 3 and 4, there is less of a tangible sense of mysticism, possibly due to Maria not being around to help with most the murders? Genji also dies very early in both of these too. We have less crazy things like locked rooms and magical runes in the tail end of 3 and 4. Some still exist, but it is not as prevelant as "most deaths have an evil sigil on the front of it". I want to believe this is the fault of Maria not being able to run around, but I cannot be certain.

17 Person Limit - An Idea that I've come across is that Beatrice's 17 Human Limit does not seem to include Kinzo's corpse. Therefore, as soon as a single person dies, another person can get onto the island without breaching the 17 limit (probably using scuba or a boat or the underground tunnels). This also leaves the possibility of someone leaving the island, possibly via scuba diving or a boat, where they can swap with someone else.

Who is Beatrice?

So. We have some red text about this.

Step one is the fact that "In 1967, in a hidden mansion on Rokkenjima, Beatrice-sama existed as a human" and that "[Beatrice and Kinzo] actually had a conversation like that in [Kuwadorain]".

Step one to this, is the fact that 19 years ago, there was a woman named Beatrice on the island.

This leads me to believe that this Beatrice of 19 years ago was not the same Beatrice as Nanjo claims to be his Mistress.

I believe that there was a first Beatrice. This is the one that Kinzo got a loan from/fell in love with/taught him about magic. This woman then died, or became ill, or lost the "magic" to her or something. (She may still have been staying at Kuwadorain as Virgilia.)

Then, Kinzo kidnaps a random child who looks like "Beatrice" from his orphange, and brings her up to act like a witch. Unfortunately, this child is hollow. Rosa then comes across her, and leads her out into the real world. Where she dies. And her body disappears???

This is, notably, before Battler is even alive, I think. Rosa is only, like, what? 11 to 13? She is the youngest, I suppose, but if she's 33 or something, then like. Battler isn't even that much younger than her lol.

Even so. This is around the time that Battler is born - it could always be some crazy stuff like "Homunculus Beatrice is a Sumadera kid that Asumu had to replace with our Battler when she died".

My next thought is that I should ignore Homunculus Beatrice for now.

I want to focus on the idea of "love" that's been haunting my brain for a while now.

One of my early thoughts on who Beatrice is was centered on the fact that the game talks so much about love. In this game, to love someone is to devote yourself to them. To learn every good, and bad part about them, and accept them fully.

I think that a really strong candidate for who Beatrice is, is Battler's first love, when he was like 12.

It might not even be Battler's love - maybe Beatrice was someone with an unrequited love towards Battler.

The game seems to put a heavy emphasis on the fact that Battler not having anyone he cares deeply for is something he should be ashamed of. He doesn't love Rudolf that much. He doesn't care for Kyrie. The whole family he didn't even see for 6 years, almost. He is almost completely bereft of any love for these people. Romantic, nor familial. He seems to have a love for human life, but this is completely detatched from his own self. He does nothing with this small shred of hope. He just mills from day to day, as he says.

I think that Battler's sin comes to do with not getting in a relationship with this unnamed girl, who ends up taking up the name Beatrice, for one reason or another.

My initial thoughts was, this was a girl that Battler just went to school with or something, and I had to figure it out from there.

Now, with some extra pieces of the puzzle, I think I can get something close to a theory. Not the answer, but a theory I am happy with.

I think Beatrice has a high likelyhood of being a Sumudera daughter.

This ties her back in to quite a few parts of the story, and has explicit ties to Battler this way. (Battler's sin can then tie into Kyrie and the Sumaderas - maybe he was supposed to be the link into the Ushiromiya's that the Sumaderas were hoping for.)

I think these two met when they were young, and either Battler forgot this girl, or has not connected the pieces between some random 12 year old from his memories, and now. Forgetting is similar to how Ange forgot all about being a witch over time.

My thoughts are that she is an important girl in the Sumadera family. This can link in to how she apparantly has all this money and power and everything that she needs.

She is likely the successor to the Sumadera family, or branch family of them, or something similar.

I think that she was probably someone relying on Battler for something. Likely to save her, from some sort of abuse from her family. Maybe pressure from having to become an important woman, just like Kasumi did.

Battler and her would end up seeing eachother around, because of his ties to both the Ushiromiyas and the Sumaderas.

I can imagine a younger Battler being friends, and going "don't worry about the fact that your family is abusing you and treating you like shit! I will become the true head of the Ushiromiya's when I'm older, and I'll rescue you and take you to the island mansion where you will be safe forever!"

A younger Beatrice might fall for him, expecting someone to save her.

Then, when Battler leaves the family 6 years later, he's too busy thinking about his own problems to remember his own promise to her. Beatrice finds out that he has disowned the family name, and gives up completely on him. He has crushed her heart, and that is her sin.

As a result, she would become closer to a position of power in the family after several years.

The Sumadera family would go "when Kinzo dies, we no longer have to help him out with whatever we were doing (probably homunculus shit). Let's go kill every Ushiromiya and get the money we know they have hiding over there."

Beatrice would be a part of this, and have the goal of saving Battler (if he remembers her), or getting people to find the gold in the epitaph.

I would also suggest that it is her idea to create a mystery in this way - I can imagine young Battler imparting his love for mysteries onto him, only taking the fantastical elements that she likes instead. This might have been suggested, in order to take blame off of the Sumaderas. It's just a weird killing, after all. Nobody would expect that an ex-Sumadera and her family could die in something planned by the Sumaderas.

They would have reason to structure it as a killing game, in order to actually get the family to try and solve the epitaph for them. They have the most information on Kinzo's past and life.

Her goal as a Sumadera is to extract information about the epitaph and gold. Her goal as a girl is to get Battler to remember and save her from her abusive fate.

She takes the name Beatrice in order to

The scene with the two Beatrices, and saying stuff like "are your regrets at an end" and "bury your face in your pillow" is Beatrice acknowledging that she isn't going to be able to get Battler to save her, and giving in to her professional Sumadera side.

The indifferent Beatrice we see would be her having to slip into her Family Persona instead of her true self. This echoes how Jess is an entirely different person at school. The playful Beatrice is her true personality, playing around and having fun.

In this scenario, Beatrice saying "please come and kill me" is tantamount to "Battler, please figure out that it's me. Either save me, or bust this mystery and lock me up.".

I think that she is probably friends with Shannon, who is friends with Maria. That's how she can work together with people on the island.

I am not certain in this theory, but I like it as something that ties into a lot of other aspects of the narrative, thematically too. A character who clings onto a tiny bit of herself, toying around with the island as a game, and keeping Battler alive each time. I think it works nicely.

My secret second theory has something to do with how Ryukishi and Umineko as a whole seems to be a meta story about storytelling and what it means to people. Escapism.

The story, and magic, is all about storytelling, escapism, suspending disbelief - I could imagine a version of this story where Battler and Beatrice are simply telling eachother the stories, and that's the meta framing.

However, I don't think that it makes much sense to discuss aspects of the story like this.

Ange's Future shows us that these people do all disappear. But it's still a possibility to me.

Just to recap

Old Beatrice - Kinzo's Mistress

Homunculus Beatrice - Either child from Kinzo's orphanage, or Sumaderas helped set up a child to act like a witch

Our Beatrice - Sumadera girl who loved Battler but he forgot her, and is part of this game in order to make the 17 solve the epitaph for the gold, and also to make Battler remember her and love and understand and save her

If I think about it a bit more, I might be able to get better answers, but I like this as it is. At least a little bit. There's a lot that's dodgy, but oh well.

Beatrice Final Riddle

"The only one alive on this island is you" is pretty cut and dry, man.

"I am here, now, and am about to kill you" is fucking with me so hard though. "I am here" is so evil.

So. "I am here" can mean.

I think most likely here is something like Battler is slowly dying, and she is telling him "I am about to kill you" in the sense that she is about to kill him in the stories she writes. She is writing him down as a dead person, and "killing" him.

As for who she is, I've answered above. But the answer is "the person who Ushiromiya Battler forgot to save, and the person who loved Ushiromiya Battler"

Why did this all happen?

Kinzo gets money from a random woman (Beatrice). Probably something to do with war crimes and the government.

Sumaderas want money.

Battler leaving the Ushiromiyas has now cut off a blood link for the Sumadera's to get into the Ushiromiyas.

The Sumaderas, after Kinzo dies, and their dealings expire, go "lets fucking kill them they know where the gold is".

They make the mystery up, in all these different ways, killing in specific manners so humans cannot solve it.

Beatrice is heading this operation, hoping that Battler remembers her and will love her again.

People on the island, like the servants, help.

They set up bottles, and bank accounts, in order to make things seem even more mysterious than it actually is. If it's a magical mystery, nobody will blame the Sumaderas.

If they then kill Ange, they get her right to the Ushiromiya fortune, as the only blood relative alive.

This was only done this year because Battler returned.

What's up with all the computer theming? (songs like "dir", "system zero", the Chiesters)

Probably just a coincidence lol

What's up with that bit with all the parents in the Chapel in Ep 2 before First Twilight?

I have to assume it's just nothing special. A lie, just like the rest. Rosa was there, so it doesn't make sense to be true.

Is the gold real?

Yes??? Maybe???? i dont fucking know man, people sure insist that it is.

Epitaph

I have NO FUCKING CLUE.

First thought is - this thing about Sweetfish going out from the river, to the ocean, then back to the river when they are big and large is seemingly important. It's like a child going out into the world, then returning once they've become something.

Once Eva realises that you can "forget the sweetfish", and she starts thinking about the River joining with the Ocean part, she starts locking in, and going "wait but that's just a faint memory, I should read a book."

Rosa states that the hint of "Golden Land" vs "Home of the Gold"/"ougon no sato (village)" is what actually let Eva figure it out.

Rosa said the sweetfish part didn't matter at all.

Eva says that the sweetfish part was a great hint. Or, at least, when she heard that they went to sea, she was able to figure it out.

I can see a village called Kishinosatou (Shore of Hometown) in a place called "Nishinari" in Osaka. Right next to a river. It's pissing me off lowkey I think I'm too dumb to figure out how to get a key from this. Because like. It's not the same key that selects sacrifices. Or like. Ugh.

Where you put the key, I also do not know. I have to assume it's either behind the painting, or like. In the Chapel or something. Eva and Rosa both found it, so maybe there's more hints for that? I think it's like. Kinda impossible without knowing JP with what everyone saying with their Furigana. I'm gonna let it ride, no clue what this could be.