Umineko Episode 1 - Full Series Spoilers General

[Karifean]

Poisoned when and by whom? With what? And I presume you mean one person, since Kanon supposedly can’t even lift a bag of fertilizer? Or maybe zero people, given Genji’s age? Do you really expect me to believe five adult humans were that easy to transport? Eva herself thinks that’s a bit silly. Or were Eva and Hideyoshi drafted to do it?

More probable is, dead or not, they went there voluntarily.

I’d like to say they went there voluntarily, but the story deliberately points out the blood that was found in the dining hall, and I see no particular reason for that to be there if they weren’t murdered in that very same dining hall.

Poisoned through beverages, which Gohda surely brought them at some point. Krauss may have arranged things so that Yasu couldn’t bring them the poison herself, but Gohda would have no reason to suspect poison anyways so she could’ve just “made tea” herself and “allowed” Gohda to show off and bring them the poison himself. The possibility of poison is brought up in the story itself. And thanks for reminding me of the fertilizer, so I’ll just bring up the wheelbarrow he was carrying those on in response.

What hole? No reliable POV ever sees that. No reliable POV ever hears the shower. No one heard a gun, and there’s no proof another gun existed. The text of Legend makes unclear whether there even is another gun in play, and the text suggests that gunshots will be heard. I’m uncomfortable with you reaching for multiplicities of murder weapons that aren’t firmly justified. And no, “there are more guns in Banquet” isn’t proof of that being the case in Legend, particularly if they have different authors.

There’s also the unaddressed question of why Eva and Hideyoshi would wander off to become the obvious Second Twilight regardless of what they believed happened in the First, and if Hideyoshi got a good look at those bodies that were in there and didn’t think better of wandering off, well, he’s a real dummy.

George does witness stakes in their skulls, and if you know my stance you know I believe George to be a reliable POV. The shower may not have been heard by a reliable POV, but at the same time is there any reason at all to doubt it? I make it a point not to doubt scenes and details unless there’s a reason to.

I’m not uncomfortable with reaching for multiplicities myself, if there’s one gun it’s not hard to imagine there being more, especially considering Yasu surely left Natsuhi with a gun deliberately and probably wanted to keep one/some for herself for murders given that, as you yourself noted, she’s not exactly physically strong.

Eva and Hideyoshi do not believe there are actual murders going on, most likely they were fed a script by Yasu and don’t expect their turn to come up for a while. Either that or they’re actually preparing themselves for being made into fake second twilight victims which is also a perfectly plausible explanation. But I actually find it more likely that they just wanted some time away from Natsuhi & co. to be able to calm down.

So there were… how many gunshots again? How did nobody hear that? That’s some serious carnage. Also how long would this take, and how many people would it take to do it? Even if the victims were somehow perfectly willing to go along with it (which is itself absurd), that’s an awful lot of effort that would take hours upon hours. Maybe even longer than they had.

And Maria’s totally cool with all of this and not the least bit troubled by tons of gunfire and a bunch of mutilation? Even if she’s turned away the whole time that’s hard to swallow, particularly given how happy she is to see Beatrice later.

Genji would be perfectly willing to go along with it though. Kumasawa isn’t capable of fighting back in a way Yasu can’t handle and Genji can subdue Nanjo. Genji can assist Yasu with preparing the corpses of the other two before Yasu kills him as well. Trying to get around the red of Genji not being a killer is a little tricky but I can think of a few alternatives as well.

And yes Maria’s totally cool with it. She’s facing away and deliberately blocking out the sounds she hears. She trusts Beatrice, and after all the murders that have already happened nothing could possibly be further from her mind than doubting that magic.

He’s not standing that close, he doesn’t know what a dead body looks like, and none of those things he describes are improbable to fake.

Their faces were smashed, forced into expressions that normal people couldn’t make even after death. …I couldn’t tell where the eyes or the noses were, but I could find their mouths…because they were gaping wide, their gums exposed! But their front teeth were missing, and even the cheeks that should have covered all this were all torn up and laid bare! That trendy makeup you always spent so much time on even though you’re a man isn’t doing a thing now…!!

Well ok then. In response to the progression of the meta story, I’d rather leave that for the Episode 2 Tea Party.

The thing is, what you’re so casually dismissing is actually far more believable. 14 accomplices to a game is much easier than 2 accomplices to a prank, and especially to a real crime, and especially especially to a real crime that’s spun as a prank right up to the point where the accomplices could not possibly have failed to notice it wasn’t (if it wasn’t). More people involved means it’s easier to cover for situations, steer the intended target the right way, set up complex situations quickly, and convince other people to play along (i.e. once you have 8 people convinced it’s a lot easier to convince the 9th through 14th).

The problem is there’s more going on than just the mystery “game”. There’s Eva prodding Natsuhi about Kinzo being gone too, as a prime example. I find it very, very hard to believe that Eva would take advantage of the game to trip up Natsuhi and Natsuhi or Jessica not just outright exposing the game to defuse the situation. The demeanors of the characters also do not match up that well with being in a game, like Natsuhi bringing up the possibility of Beatrice being Kinzo’s concubine when she’d never even think of bringing up that possibility under different (normal) circumstances.

The special clause is emphasized because Battler is the one who is supposed to solve it. How is that a hard question?

But why would she want him to solve it then?