And so begins the Episode 3 Tea Party. I hope y’all have a big-ass thermos of tea because this is going to be a long one.
Let’s begin with a few things that have been knocking around in my brain for a little while. I’ll try and be as organized as possible but as any of you who’ve read my posts before know, I’m very prone to rambling and not finishing a thought very well. Well, here goes nothing.
General Musings and Interpretation Methods
I’d like to begin by suggesting something that I hinted at before. That is, I’d like to suggest that the magical scenes are, at least partially, metaphorical in nature. I feel like a number of us started off with the theory that the magical scenes were actually what someone was seeing but that they were being fooled by a bunch of flashy magic tricks. In other words, we were interpreting the magical scenes through that lens. Then, when Virgilia and Battler talked about the idea that the magical scenes were like a way of explaining how something happened we all jumped on that bandwagon. In other words, our method of interpretation was no longer, ‘find out how the magic trick was done’ and became ‘ignore magical scenes since they are just the witches lies’. However, I’d like to suggest the third lens of interpretation, that the magical scenes contain subtle metaphors and that certain people, words or things are analogous to what is actually happening.
What evidence do I have for this idea? We actually had this evidence all along and just never really thought about it too hard, I think. The Seven Stakes of Purgatory have been with us for quite a while and we never really thought about them. However, they are a perfect example of the kind of thing that I am talking about. The Stakes (as characters) are metaphorical for the stakes (as objects). In fact, you could even go a little deeper (though this is probably me just getting ridiculous) and say that even the physical objects are metaphorical for people’s sins. The Siesta Sisters are similar to this. In my view I would probably interpret them as guns. After all, we get that kind of language from them all the time. There is the issue of them, in the magical scene, killing Natsuhi and Krauss by strangling them. However, you could say that instead Krauss and Natsuhi were forced out of the house at gunpoint and then killed. All of this seems, to me, to be enough evidence to at least make the theory plausible.
The question then becomes, if this is the case, what does everything else mean? And do things always mean the same thing? Do loci always mean the same thing and does Beatrice always stand for the same person. After all, we are told by Bern at the end of the first Ura Tea Party that “She does have the name Beatrice, but that does not necessarily mean that she is ‘one individual woman.’ … In other words, she’s not some human. Her existence is a personification of the rules of this world.” Now, can we trust Bernkastel? Some might argue yes, some might argue no. Personally, I’m just as happy to get information from her either way. After all, we were just fine with getting help from Virgilia earlier in episode 3. I still think that Virgilia’s help was invaluable so I’m fine with Bern’s help here. From what I can glean from Bern, Beatrice isn’t necessarily our culprit (though she might be). Bern says that ‘she’s not some human’ so she might stand for something else. What else? Love? Please stop laughing… ok… no really… I mean it guys stop laughing. It seems entirely possible that, given what Beatrice said in the second episode and what seems to be a lot of Beatrice’s motivations (emphasis on seems to be) Beatrice could stand for a motive rather than a sigular person. She might stand for a person who is motivated by that motive but I think that the unifying thing about her appearance is that she could just stand for love. Go ahead and laugh now.
Ok so there are a bunch of other things that we could sit here and try and interpret but I’m not so sure that I will be able to yet. Lets worry about those as we go on in the tea party. For future posters: if you could weigh in on the weirdness of the fact that Kanon keeps coming back when he is supposed to be dead, Ronove’s identity, Virgilia’s identity, EVA-Beatrice’s identity, any of the magical battles and so on I would love to hear it. I’d like to briefly touch on something, though. What is the Meta? I mean, we are supposing that the magical things stand for something, correct? What if the Meta stands for something? What could be more magical than the Meta? So surely, if we are going by this theory, the Meta must be full of various metaphors and analogies, right? I think that there is something about the Meta, Bern, Lambda, Beato and even possibly Battler that makes the Meta more than just a higher plane of existence. Lambda herself seems to hint that she had something to do with Beatrice gaining her powers. Could Lambda stand for something? These are questions I don’t have an answer too but I thought would be a good idea to bring up.
To sort of cap off the general musings section I figured I would take a quick look (heh, yeah right) at @Aspirety’s suggestion[quote=“Aspirety, post:29, topic:29, full:true”]
Another thing that might aid your thinking is to look at the scenes which are repeated every episode. The start of all three gameboards are very similar, but since it’s repeating, the story has a tendancy to skip over some of the less relevant aspects as we move forward to the main event. But despite this, there are some scenes which are repeated every single episode. One of them, as Seraphitic has noted, is Maria meeting Beatrice in the rose garden.
What other scenes or events are repeated each episode, and why do you think this might be the case?
[/quote]
So, there are a few things that I’m not too sure whether they occur or not. For one thing there seems to be, in episode 2, a 19th person that looks and awful lot like Beatrice. Now, interpretations vary as to whether there actually was a 19th person or not but perhaps, whatever is going on in those scenes between ‘Beatrice’ and Maria as well as ‘Beatrice’ and the servants happens each time. Previously I gave a brief list of things that I saw as repetitions. Namely: Maria’s rose, the shrine, George’s proposal, the lone Ushiromiya with a gun, and the letter of challenge.
There are a few other things that I would like to point out (some credit goes to other people for pointing them out; @pictoshark and @NotKyon, thanks). For one thing, Battler never sees Kanon’s dead body. This is a bit of an oddity as Kanon, supposedly dies in each and every one of the episodes so far. Battler never actually sees Kanon’s dead body in the first one and we all just assume that Kanon is actually dead. However, it’s unclear as to whether anyone other than Nanjo was with Kanon, even Jessica. Battler assumes that Jessica was with Kanon but that is never actually confirmed by anyone. In other words, Kanon’s dead-ness is never confirmed by Battler and always is confirmed by an outside source. @pictoshark and I put our heads together a little bit and came up with the idea that, if Kanon had some way to avoid the red, then we would never have any confirmation that he was dead. We thought that, as I suggested in episode 2, if only Kanon’s identity as ‘Kanon’ was killed then he could still be alive, though no longer as Kanon. It’s a bit of a… well to be honest a bit of a cop out. I feel like there might be a more elegant solution. For now, though, let us consider the idea that Kanon may not be as dead as we might like (possible evidence would be the magical scenes where Kanon appears with an alarming frequency). Should this be the case then we might very well ask the question of why Kanon might want to fake his death. Also, why would Nanjo want to play along? What is in it for Nanjo if he co-operates?
There’s another thing that I would like to add to my previous list of things that happen each time. I’d like to add the fact that Kinzo throws his ring out of the window. We saw it in episode one and three but not in episode 2. However, I feel like we are meant to assume this is the case in episode 2. What effect could this have. Well, if Kinzo throws it out and somebody wants it, they have to go out and get it. Therefore someone has to go out in the storm and look for the ring. So, probably our killer is out there in the rain looking around for a ring.
There are a number of minor things that might repeat but that we are never told whether or not they do. For one thing, whether or not the servant’s shifts change each time. In episode 1 we see a scene where Genji gets a call, apparently from Krauss. He tells Kanon and Shanon that there has been a change in the servant’s shift schedule. In particular he especially mentions that Shannon is to stay put (which Shannon promptly ignores). I always found this scene and its implications interesting. The fact that it is never mentioned again seems strange to me.
Another event that might be happening each time is the whole issue of the head ring. It seems to happen at least twice; once each in episodes 1 and 3. I don’t recall it happening in episode 2. This event seems to provide the reader with a possible way that someone could get the head ring and seal the envelope. However, the question of whether it is used or not is never really discussed. We aren’t really sure of whether the head ring is used or if the seal is forged. There are, undoubtedly more scenes that we are only shown once, but which occur in each episode. I’ll continue to think and update this post as other events come to mind.
The Mysteries Thus Far
So, one of the things that I thought might be useful for us in our endeavor was a nice big list of things that we need to solve. I think that we are trying to put puzzle pieces together without a clear picture of what the puzzle has to look like in the end. We should probably try and see what the mysteries are that our theories have to explain.
I’m going to try and introduce a convention (credit for this idea goes to @pictoshark who thought this would help). I will use lime to denote mysteries. It’s more just for eye-catching purposes and so that people can see at a glance what mysteries there are. However, it might be useful for us to at least keep track of things. Meh, use it or don’t use it, I’m just doing it for my own organizational purposes.
Episode 1:
- Who gave Maria the umbrella and letter?: This is one that we’ll have to answer in every episode, really. I’m only going to put it here but it’s one of those repeating mysteries that @Aspirety was talking about before. This is probably one of the more important things to try and answer. Did Rosa do it? A 19th person? Is Maria making it up? There are many possible answers at this point, I think.
- Who wrote the letter of challenge?: Similar to the above mystery but possibly having a different answer. It is possible that one person gave the letter to Maria, not knowing what was in the letter and so the letter itself was authored by the true mastermind (cliche enough?)
- What happened on the first twilight?: In other words, the who, what, when, where, why, how of the first twilight. The first twilights always seem like the harder ones to narrow down seeing as nobody really tends to have alibis. At least in the first episode we notice that most of the people in the mansion were killed. The only ones who weren’t were Natsuhi and Kinzo (and we could debate Kinzo depending on what you think of Natsuhi saying that she saw Kinzo earlier that morning). We also assume that the people were killed in the dinning room and taken to the shed since there was a lot of what looked like blood
- What happened on the second twilight?: I’ve proposed a solution on the first episode thread so take a look at that if you wish. I’m not sure if it’s right and there are other possible solutions but I’m not going to say too much about this one
- What happened to Kinzo?/How did Kinzo get out of the room?: This refers to how Kinzo might have managed to get out of the study without disturbing the receipt. Quite a number of possibilities exist such as Kinzo never really being in the study, Natsuhi moved him out of the study, Kinzo hid and exited later etc. Related to this might be the question of whether or not the body found in the furnace really is Kinzo.
- What happened to Kanon in the boiler room?: Was Kanon really stabbed? Did he stab himself? Did he really die from the wound? After all, it seems that we are going just off of what Nanjo told us. Nobody except him sees the body (we are meant to assume that Jessica sees him too but we are never told that; Battler just assumes it is the case)
- How did the letter get onto the table?: Again, we seemingly have only a couple options. There very well could be someway to get the device onto the table from the outside but I feel like anyway that we could work out to do that would require too many machinations that we just don’t have evidence for. It seems more likely and more simple if someone just places the letter on the table. If that was the case, who would do it and why?
- What happened to Nanjo, Genji and Kumasawa? Also, why was Maria left alive?: Again, we have a couple of murders but this time we have a witness. She says Beatrice did it. Ok, sure Maria. Whatever you say. This bunch of murders seems particularly interesting. I definitely seems to point to the fact that somebody faked their death at some point in this game
- What happened to Natsuhi and what did the children see at the end?: I gave a possible solution to Natsuhi’s ‘suicide’ earlier in this thread. There is another aspect of this mystery though, what happened to the letter that she had been supposedly reading? Who wrote that and what did they say?
Episode 2:
-
What happened to the shrine/What was that whole thing with the mirror?: This is the first time that we hear about anything in particular regarding that shrine that we first see is destroyed. We aren’t sure when the shrine is destroyed but we do know that it contained that mirror which we are told that Shannon destroyed. Why might this be important and is the destruction of the shrine related to the destruction of the mirror?
*What happened with the first twilight?: This one seems pretty well wrapped up but I feel like it might be dangerous to move on without a little bit of thought. There was that one scene where it shows all of the siblings (including Rosa who, in theory, shouldn’t have been there) admitting that Beatrice is a witch. We also don’t really have any idea of who did it or why? Why was “Happy Halloween Maria.” written on the door? Why were the people arranged that way? It seems like stopping our thinking on this mystery just because we know how the siblings might have been brought into the chapel is really premature. - Who or what do Rosa, Maria, Kyrie and Genji see?: Basically, who is the person who looks an awful lot like Beatrice? Is it someone dressing up as Beatrice? Is it someone that they know or someone they don’t know? Is there an actual person? This one seems to violate what we thought we knew earlier about there only being 18 people.
- What happened in the servant’s room?: This was one of the mysteries that stumped us a bit in the last episode. What exactly happened here? How did the bodies get taken out? Was it Kanon in there? If not who was it? To be frank it seems like we have a lot more questions than answers on this section of the episode. I’d like to say I have an idea but I’m still pretty bad with getting this mystery a satisfying solution.
- What happened in Natsuhi’s room?: I suggested two different solutions to this in the episode 2 tea party. Episode 3 brings up a third possibility. The first possibility is that the red simply means that the door was locked from the inside at some point but was not locked from the inside when the bodies were found. A second interpretation is that the person who killed the three people was among the three. In other words a murder-suicide happened. A third option brought up by the third episode is that the three might have been fatally injured but managed to escape to Natsuhi’s room and lock the door before dying. But then we must wonder why they would go to Natsuhi’s room in the first place. Was it just nearby? Were they in there prior, got attacked and managed to get the attacker out before dying?
- What happened in the parlor?: This is in reference to the letter that is found in the parlor that Rosa kicks Battler out for. Did Rosa, herself place it? Did they just not notice it? Was it placed there by some other means? Actually, we should ask the bigger question, where do all these damn letters come from in the first place? Who keeps writing them? Where are they getting all these envelopes? Are they all the work of one person?
- What is with that end scene?: Probably one of the harder questions, honestly. Also probably one of the ones most open for interpretation. Is it the real life or just fantasy? (No, I will not continue that joke.) I’m more interested in whether or not Genji and Kinzo truly survive to the end and if Battler actually sees Beatrice but Rosa’s scene is also pretty dang interesting.
Episode 3:
- What is with Rosa’s story?: Is Rosa telling the truth in her story? Is there something she is leaving out or adding in? Did she change something? If so, what was it. Also, did Rosa tell the siblings this information in every episode or just this one? Why did Rosa wait until now to tell people about this? Why did she even say it now? How does the red truth interact with a retelling of a story? Who else works at Kuwadorian?
- What happened on the first twilight?: Did the siblings conspire to do it? Did Nanjo do it? How were all the rooms closed (if they even were all closed)? What was Beatrice about to say about the accidental deaths? Did everyone die from murder? Was there a natural death (my theory)?
- What’s up with the gold?: It seems like the gold exists, right? I suppose we could interpret this as a magical scene and say that it doesn’t exist but let’s go with the idea that it does indeed exist. Where did Kinzo get it? Where was it being kept? What’s the solution to the riddle? I imagine that we need a little bit of Japanese to get everything here but I think that the translators feel like they give us enough information to solve it. Possibly not but it’s hard to say for sure (at least for me.) What was the key? Was the gold ever found before and we just never knew about it?
- What happened to Rosa and Maria?: This one is super short since we might already know the answer but I also wonder why the gun was not taken and why they were unstaked. Always before the second twilight victims were staked. In that case, were they the second twilight victims? Perhaps we have miscounted. After all, the second episode seems to indicate that people don’t necessarily have to be killed in the order of the twilight that appears. Natsuhi also makes some comment about Rudolf and Kyrie being very close. Could they be the second twilight victims? Something to think about anyway.
- What happened with Kyrie, Rudolf, and Hideyoshi?: Basically, who killed them and why? Battler proposes Eva, but why would she kill Hideyoshi? Also, was there anything in the awesome fight scenes that gave a hint about anything? I feel like there was something pretty major that I missed but I’m not sure what yet.
- What went on with George?: The scene with George is kind of bizarre. Shannon comes back to life? While this is a magical scene, why would George even go to the mansion in the first place? Was it really to see Shannon, or was there another reason? How did he die? Who killed him? Did George write the numbers on the parlor door? What do the numbers mean anyway?
- The web of red truth.: … Need I say more?
Ok so that was a rough draft of the mysteries that need to be solved. Obviously, this is just a huge list of questions with very few possible answers scattered here and there. I’ll probably have to update this list at some point, but these strike me as the main mysteries. Obviously there is the mystery of what happened on the island before Beatrice died. There’s the question of who the real Beatrice was. There’s the question of what happened between Kinzo and Beatrice. I’ve tried to limit myself to, what seem to me to be, more immediate mysteries.
A Brief Inkling of a Theory
And now, time to thoroughly embarrass myself (too late). So, I’ve been mulling over the idea of Kanon somehow cheating the red and not being dead. How might one accomplish this? Well, it occurred to me that if there was someone else named Kanon who was, in fact, dead then you could circumvent the red very easily. But we don’t know of anyone else named Kanon, do we? Well true, we don’t know of anyone else named Kanon. However, there are other servants. Was there another servant who was killed? Well, we don’t know about killed but there was another servant who was, at least, injured on the job. In fact, we keep hearing about this servant. This past event keeps getting brought up. It happened before Shannon arrived and I’m not sure that we are told anymore than the fact that this servant apparently was disrespectful towards Beatrice and fell down some stairs.
Ok, speculation time. I put this idea before you: this unfortunate servant was named Kanon (a fitting name for one that repeats). He was killed on the island for some reason. He died in what is now Jessica’s room. He was acquainted with who we now call Kanon. The person we now call Kanon has gotten himself hired as a servant in order to exact revenge on the killer/s of his old friend Kanon. Confusing enough? Well possibly. However, not only does this give us a way to solve the web of red truth, it gives us a possible motive for Kanon do kill people that he might otherwise have no reason to kill (such as Nanjo or Kumasawa who would have both been around when the original Kanon was working at the Ushiromiya family). It also gives us a possible way to get through the red truth that Kanon was killed in Jessica’s room. As a bonus it also means that Kanon could actually really appear in those magical scenes because he is never really dead.
Ok, so there are obviously some tricky things about this theory. For starters, how do Eva and Hideyoshi die? Does Kanon kill them? Is there a second killer in other episodes? Who is on Kanon’s agenda of people to kill? Is he covering up the important people with less important people? Also, does Kanon write the letters? How does he put letters on tables in rooms that he isn’t in? Why would Nanjo lie for him if Kanon is Nanjo’s enemy? There are more fairly big questions but I’m thinking that I need to give it a bit more thought.
Ok, so I apologize for the delay. Schoolwork was getting out of control for a little bit and this post kept getting put off. Thanks to @Aspirety, @pictoshark, @Karifean and @NotKyon, again, for their contributions to this post. I’m really hoping that my next post isn’t this long (and I’ll bet you are too).