I’m not certain how much to read into him saying George would accept Shannon, not that he would accept Sayo. From what I recall from reading the interviews, Ryukushi uses Shannon and Sayo pretty interchangeably most of the time. I could be wrong though.
This is a pretty good essay about George and his relationship to Shannon/Yasu, definitely worth a read: http://akatokuro.tumblr.com/post/5719742886/the-big-ridiculously-long-yasu-essay-part-36
@EternalMagician Oh I love her blog. When I finished Umineko, I read through so many of her posts. It’s been a few years since then though so it was fun reading through it again. Although it makes me feel like my own observations are so trite in comparison, she understands the characters so very well. Thanks for the link (:
@EternalMagician yeah, i’m with @thesorceress on this. personally i read it as ryukishi just using shannon & sayo interchangeably, but i see what you mean. &, well, i think that whether or not sayo would have committed suicide no matter what is a matter of how much “love” you have, as ryukishi would say. but i’m not saying i’m totally right or anything, your viewpoint makes sense too. & thanks for the link! i basically agree with everything there.
@BunnyAdvocate yeah, you’re right that it’s probably not possible to separate his desire for children with social image… after all, the ideal of the nuclear family is intrinsically tied to patriarchal norms & class.
anyway, i feel like i came off as defending george a lot in this thread but i really don’t care much for him lol. i guess it’s more like i want to believe in sayo & her tentative trust in george? but, of course, their relationship is far from ideal.
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I mean, Ryukishi himself has stated that George would have accepted Sayo (he’s stated that all three of her love interests would have in spite of their flaws), and we have Golden Fantasia’s George/Jessica end where George is willing to accept Beatrice’s real identity and protect her, and since it’s an official game, we can take it as a possibility in the catbox. Does George have his issues? Yes, but so do Battler and Jessica, they aren’t perfect angels either (what with Jessica ignoring her best friend’s issues and as accepting as Battler can be, if he’s too close to a situation, his emotions get in the way and he can’t see the bigger picture). And it’s been stated that the Ushiromiya family isn’t above adoption (Hideyoshi was technically adopted into the family, there was Lion), and IF George and Sayo were the heads of the family, it wouldn’t matter what the rest of the family said about the children (and as we can see from EP4 and EP6, we know George wouldn’t be afraid of using lethal force to make the family accept his and Sayo’s relationship).
I always thought it was more George being like “WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK YOU JUST KILLED THE CHEF SAYO, THIS IS NOT THE RIGHT MOMENT FOR YOUR ISSUES, I’M SORRY, I LOVE YOU BUT YOU JUST KILLED SOMEBODY IN FRONT OF ME.” Because I don’t know about you, but most people wouldn’t be able to handle a heavy confession like that after watching said confessor murder the other person in the same room as you.
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I just recently got done rereading EP2 and it is still as good as I remembered it being. The first time through, it seems like a mess of fantasy, but after being done with the series and knowing about Yasu’s internal conflict, so many things about how the Shannon and Kanon scenes and the way the narrative treats them both inside and outside the game as furniture that can be used however the witch wants just pop. This Episode had Beatrice at her most vicious and cruel and the first time through really makes you hate her. In a good way of course. On reread, the way Beatrice represents the temptation to end everything using the bomb is so well written that it both functions as a Black and White fantasy narrative where Shannon and Kanon resist the whims of the evil witch and the sad narrative where Yasu slowly gives in to using the bomb work so well I just… ugh…
I love the way the Ryukushi emotionally manipulates the reader by basically handing them the answer, and then proceeds to have Battler and the narrative resist it so hard.Jessica’s murder is a perfect example of that. It really brought to the forefront Battler main flaw as a Detective, being as hes willing to make it anyone’s fault, as long as it isn’t a family member he loves.
That being said, the thing I love the most about EP2 is reading in between the lines in practically every scene. Yasu definitely existed in the Question Arcs, and this Episode shows it the most. If this Episode isn’t my favorite in the whole series, then it’s for sure my favorite Question Arc, period. That being said, I’m still very much looking forward to my reread of Banquet of the Golden Witch and I’ll enjoy making a final thoughts on that when the time comes.
I’m a little late to the (tea) party but I’m wondering where those lyrics at the end come from, I definitely feel like I’ve read them before. Is it from a vocal version of one of the songs from Ep6?
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Today I just came to a silly realisation: “Tsurupettan” is probably one of the the greatest hints in the whole episode, if not in the entire game. Just commenting this because I searched a lot around the web and didn’t find anything about it. Makes you realise how well-thought the game is.
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