There are spoilers in here for Umineko episode 5, zomg.
I don’t have any real collected thoughts for this episode, because I don’t know what the hell is going on anymore, but whatever. As a sort of running thought process, this is how the episode went for me.
It took about 20 minutes for me to fall in love with Natsuhi again. She’s so noble, it’s wonderful. But as Bern-chan says (Oh how Bern-chan is cruel), Natsuhi was the only one having tea at that table. My theory was actually that Natsuhi was a drug addict, believe it or not. Constant headache, headache medicine, lonely on the island, I thought she had some sort of a drug problem. Oh well. The island being used to deal drugs would have been an interesting way to explain some stuff, but as drugs were not mentioned when they went through her stuff, I doubt she has a drug addiction. She’s just delusional. Which is pretty much just as sad. I still want it to be true that Kinzo let her wear the golden eagle on her heart, but Kinzo is dead…
Various shenanigans go on, and I knew the guy from 19 years ago would be used in the end. I actually thought he WAS a unique person on the island due to the statement 34-tan made to assure you of the amount of people on the island: one more than before. Was not useful, but it was curious.
Shannon is Kanon is 99% chance disproved btw, Shannon, Kanon, Erika, and Battler were all in the same room at once, with everybody else, which I feel should say something.
Stuff happened here and there until the Dlanor battle in the study. Let me assure you, after that battle, this episode secured its place as my favorite Umineko episode. I’m not kidding either. I fell in love instantly. As I said when I finished that, I had never read any piece of fiction which was more entertaining to me. Dlanor is my favorite new character since episode 4, since Virgilia is my favorite character. After her little tea party with Battler, Beato, and Virgilia, she made sure that she was my favorite there. Die The Death! Sentence to death! Great equalizer is The Death!
Speaking of Virgilia, I think I have decided what trollface was: 34-tan or Bern-chan (probably 34-tan) controlled her piece at that point. That simply isn’t something Virgilia would do, I am sure of that by now. Back then, the entire “magic should be used for good” was reasonable to be thought of as a farce, but I cannot believe that after this episode. Virgilia truly believes magic should be used for good.
I have no real theories as to what happened this episode. Battler being the murdered child could be interesting. As Edible posted on the forums, Rosa killed Beatrice 19 or so years ago, and Natsuhi’s incident was 19 years ago… Curious. I tried to fit that together myself but I didn’t realize the Rosa incident was 19 years ago, so it didn’t make sense, but Edible corrected the years for me, which is nice.
In the end, I am still saddened by the fact Natsuhi isn’t able to have her happiness with Kinzo and Beatrice, no matter how much I wanted her to. They are delusions after all…
The trial was dragging, but I think it had enough interesting things to keep it going for the amount of time it did. Still too long though, but I don’t know what could have been cut out while still recreating the same beautiful web of red, along with establishing how terrifying of a character Erika is.
Battler failing in his second fight against Dlanor came as no surprise to me. Ryukishi is developing Battler’s understanding of this puzzle quite interestingly, keeping it hidden from our view, how curious. Battler’s “don’t stop thinking” is very nice to follow. When he comes back, and Promise started playing, I almost started crying, it was unbearable how sad that scene was. The gold text was interesting. Somebody told me it’s something like “the author has said this to be true, so you must take it to be true, regardless of anything.” Curious. I loved this episode. Comment if there’s anything you’re curious about still from me. In the end, this episode with the scene with Promise and the like established how sad the end of the Epitaph is.
The witch will praise the wise, and should bestow four treasures.
One shall be, all the gold from the Golden Land.
One shall be, the resurrection of the souls of all the dead.
One shall be, even the resurrection of the lost love.
One shall be, to put the witch to sleep for all time.
Sleep peacefully, my most beloved witch, Beatrice.
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