So I was speaking with @soggysadboi and @Seraphitic earlier to help try to refresh my knowledge on Umineko episode 3. I haven’t really had a decent block of free time and focus to properly refresh my knowledge on it since I read it some number of weeks back… but thanks to these guys and the manga (which was @Aspirety’s suggestion – thanks!) I’ve managed to restore at least some of my memories.
As a result, we’ll now have this vaguely large and terribly incoherent text wall! (I’ve started writing this at 1AM, so we’ll see where this takes us.) Anyway, let’s start.
As is customary with my posts, I’ll note a “few” of the points of interest.
Definitions
These are all definitions that Beatrice gave.
Beatrice’s Closed Room Definition
Refers to a room where the inside and outside are completely separated such that it would be impossible for all types of direct or indirect intervention beyond that boundary, as well as an all-inclusive denial of the existence of hidden doors. Fishing wire, radio waves, and so on are included in this definition.
However, transmission of intent is specifically not ruled out by her definition, despite being a closed room.
Traps
Some mechanism that activates when a victim triggers it on their own, including things which activate remotely or by timer.
Red Truths
General
Rokkenjima
- “Of all the doors that exist on Rokkenjima, none has a crack through which a key can slip.”
- “A hidden mansion called Kuwadorian does exist in the forest of Rokkenjima.”
- “There are no more than 18 humans on this Rokkenjima!” (Stated prior to any murders taking place.)
“There are no more than 18 humans on this Rokkenjima” -> this Rokenjima. Peculiar. Doesn’t that seem like a convenient way to word things? “This” implies that at least one other “Rokkenjima” exists. Perhaps it’s referring to the Rokkenjima of 1967, or perhaps it’s referring to the current state of Rokkenjima, or the state of Rokkenjima in a past gameboard… Or maybe it’s just a red herring. I’m not sure, but that’s definitely suspicious wording. (Then again, what isn’t here?)
(@EisenKoubu’s post also mentions this point!)
Refused:
- “On this island, there are only 18 people.”
- “There are 19 people or more on this island.”
Beatrice
- The Beatrice of 1967 did exist as a human and had a conversation with Kinzo “like” the one Battler was shown.
- Regarding Beatrice’s death in her memories “How does that look alive to you? It’s definitely dead!” (“It.”)
Refused:
- Ronove was unable to answer whether Beatrice was born through something like a homunculus because it would cause a “stalemate.”
Incidents
Twilight 1
- There are five master keys, one for each servant.
- No doors or windows exist in those six rooms which can be locked without a key.
- The six victims of this twilight, Kinzo, Genji, Shannon, Kanon, Gohda, and Kumasawa, are dead.
- Nobody is hiding in any of those six rooms. “Only the victims are inside the rooms, and no other people exist inside the rooms.”
- “The six died instantly! By ‘died instantly’, I mean the targets instantly became incapable of action after being attacked. […] it was completely impossible for them to take any actions of their own will.”
- The six were not killed by traps, nor did any of them commit suicide.
Refused:
- The six deaths are all homicides.
Twilight 2
- Rosa and Maria died (homicides), just as Nanjo diagnosed. (Rosa was stabbed in the medula oblongata with the pointed gate of the fence, and Maria was strangled with bare hands.)
Refused:
- Battler makes a claim that Eva and Hideyoshi worked together to create an alibi, placing Eva as the main attacker, forcing Ronove to resign.
Twilight 4
- long series of red truths regarding Kyrie and food
Refused:
- Battler: “Repeat it!! ‘At that time, Ushiromiya Eva did not take a step outside her room’!!” (This wasn’t specifically refused, but Evatrice didn’t answer either.)
Twilight n
- After Jessica was injured, Eva was constantly under Battler’s supervision. Battler is neither the culprit nor an accomplice.
- There are no more than 18 humans on this island.
- No life forms other than humans have any connection to this game.
- The following people are dead: Kinzo, Krauss, Natsuhi, Hideyoshi, George, Rudolf, Kyrie, Rosa, Maria, Genji, Shannon, Kanon, Gohda, Kumasawa, Nanjo.
- The following people are alive: Battler, Eva, Jessica.
- The culprit who killed Nanjo, who died was directly killed by a human standing with both feet on the ground as the two stared into each other’s faces, was neither Battler nor Eva nor Jessica. Committing a crime is impossible for Jessica at this point, nor was she involved, and Battler isn’t the culprit.
So at this point, if only Battler, Eva, and Jessica are alive, and the killer of Nanjo was “definitely a human,” but none of those three had done it then that only leaves dead humans and unaccounted for humans, right? Well, and correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t the only humans on the island those eighteen? In that case then was the culprit a living human? There was the issue of Kanon apparently dying in episode two, but then disappearing. Is it the same sort of problem here?
Incidents
Incident 1
Beatrice resigned this one.
These are six closed rooms all tied together.
Nanjo confirmed that each of the discovered corpses were dead. (A red truth also confirmed that each of them were killed instantly.)
It’s claimed (without counter) that the culprit got into an accident and died that way.
1-1. Shannon
Beatrice’s Closed Room; “unlocked” by breaking into it.
Parlor.
One master key (on Shannon; exact location unspecified).
One Western envelope with the family crest; rather than a letter there was a key to a guest room on the second floor inside.
It’s stated, but not in red, that “apart from the five master keys, there will be only one key that can unlock certain rooms.” Note that this definition isn’t exactly the same as “for each room, there will be only one key apart from the master key that can unlock it, but nothing else.” For example, let’s say a key is able to unlock a certain combination of rooms. e.g., key 1 can unlock room A, key 2 can unlock room B, and key 3 can unlock rooms A and B. “Certain rooms” could refer to a set of rooms, hence my distinction. However I highly doubt this to be the case, and it would certainly be disappointing if so.
1-2. Kumasawa.
Beatrice’s Closed Room; unlocked with the key from 1-1.
Second floor guest room.
One master key (on Kumasawa; exact location unspecified).
One Western envelope (with the family crest?); had a key to the third floor waiting room.
1-3. Gohda.
Beatrice’s Closed Room; unlocked with the key from 1-2.
Third floor waiting room.
One master key (on Gohda; exact location unspecified).
One Western envelope (with the family crest); had a key to the second floor VIP room.
1-4. Genji.
It is not directly stated that this is a closed room.
Second floor VIP room.
One master key (location completely unspecified).
One key to the underground boiler room was discovered. (Inside an envelope, or… ?)
1-5. Kinzo.
It is not directly stated that this is a closed room.
Underground boiler room.
The key to the chapel was discovered. (Supposedly inside an envelope, along with a letter, which urged the relatives to solve the riddle of the epitaph.)
No master key discovered. (As would be expected, since Kinzo is not a servant.)
1-6. Kanon.
Chapel.
One master key (location completely unspecified).
The key to the first floor parlor was discovered. (Inside an envelope, or… ?)
Incident 2
Rose garden.
(Later, after the reconstruction in twilight 4…6.)
Virgilia: “After Rosa and Maria’s deaths, the remaining survivors rechecked all of the doors and windows in the mansion. They constructed a barricade. They re-confirmed that their defenses were solid.”
Battler: “Dad carried a portable cigarette butt holder with him. I’m finally starting to see why Kyrie-san went out of her way to put a cigarette butt in her own pocket. It was because that cigarette butt meant something. That cigarette butt was itself a message left by Kyrie-san for us…!!”
Battler: "It’s this. This cigarette butt. This was set in the ashtray of the guest room that Uncle Hideyoshi was in."
Battler: “Aunt Eva hated smoking!! There’s no way there’d be a cigarette butt there while Aunt Eva was sick and sleeping!!! However, there was a cigarette butt in the ashtray. When she saw that, Kyrie-san noticed immediately. …Uncle Hideyoshi was lying. She realized that Aunt Eva hadn’t really been sleeping, …and that she’d snuck out of the room!!”
2-1. Rosa.
Stabbed in the medulla oblongata with the pointed gate of the fence.
2-2. Maria.
Strangled.
(As an aside, Maria’s death is shown first by the predecessor Beatrice, rather than Rosa’s. That said, Rosa was first in the whole chain of events so this probably means nothing.)
Incident 4…6
Hall of the mansion.
“Three people: Rudolf, Kyrie, and Hideyoshi, went to the mansion and were killed there.”
4. Rudolf.
Forehead.
5. Kyrie.
Stomach.
“The disorder of the clothing on all three suggests that they were fighting or running away. Since the three corpses were not found right next to each other, it is hypothesized that after coming into contact with the culprit, they attempted some form of resistance.”
(Later, during the reconstruction of the scene.)
Beato searched Kyrie’s corpse’s pockets, laying out whatever was inside on the floor. There were:
- Handkerchief
- Tissue
- Key to her house
- Stub of a boat ticket
- Lighter
- Cigarette butt
- One-hundred yen coin
Kyrie doesn’t smoke, apparently.
6. Hideyoshi.
Chest.
Incident 7…8
Rose garden arbor.
Nanjo: “…St-Strangulation, I believe. …Come, take a look at this. On their necks, there are distinct markings that something thin was used to strangle them.” (Emphasis my own.)
7. Krauss.
Strangled; stake in thigh.
8. Natsuhi.
Strangled; stake in calf.
Incident 9
Parlor.
9. George.
Eva opened the door; she seemed to feel the resistance of the lock.
Digits written in red:
- Dec: 07151129
- Hex: 6D 1E19
- Oct: 33 217 031
The leading zero indicates that this shouldn’t be treated as just a number. (And the narrative using the word “digits” rather than “number” implies this as well.)
Nanjo suggests that the number is a magic square. As a 3x3 square that’d be:
0 7 1
5 1 1
2 9 ?
0 + 5 + 2 = 7
7 + 1 + 9 = 16
1 + 1 + ? = 2 + ?
0 + 7 + 1 = 8
5 + 1 + 1 = 7
2 + 9 + ? = 11 + ?
(This doesn’t look like a magic square by itself so far.)
Battler wonders if it might be a date. “It might be a coincidence, but my birthday is July 15th (0715)” (Nobody is aware of anybody whose birthday is November 29th.)
Reunited with Shannon, but dies.
I wonder if this is a Mondegreen of some sort… Another thought was that these numbers could somehow be directions. If it is a date, then maybe the 11/29 is the Kyrie’s baby was actually due, or perhaps miscarried? Maybe it’s the birthday of one of the servants or the day that “the human Beatrice died.” Either way it doesn’t necessarily need to be the case that the 07/15 intentionally matches Battler’s birthday, right?
In any case the most likely possibilities for this number relate to Kyrie being related somehow, but she should be dead at this point. Even in the case of one of my last-minute-thoughts below I’m not sure how and why she would factor in.
Maybe the number is supposed to be pronounced in two-digit chunks. e.g., “07” would be just “seven.” So it’d be 07, 15, 11, 29.
Battler: "When Dad’s group was attacked, their master key was definitely stolen.
…But the doors and windows to the guesthouse were built so that you couldn’t lock them from the outside, no matter how hard you tried.
So that master key should have had nothing to do with the guesthouse closed room…"
Cool quotes
- “Watch what may be the final magic of a single butterfly who used to be called a witch…!” -Beato
- “I wish I could get hired to assassinate you. All I’d have to do is relax at home for a month and the job would take care of itself.” -Ange (savage)
Things that irked me
- During the game with “Evatrice” they bring up how Kyrie went to the mansion, stating in red that she couldn’t have gone there for food. It took several pages of dialogue just to reach the extremely obvious conclusion (and it’s extremely obvious without any hindsight mind you) that she went there with another goal in mind. The over-dramatization here is just terrible. When I was going through it I thought that I had missed something that made this obvious conclusion invalid, and yet it’s completely valid. I didn’t realize it was Keiichi who was playing against the witch.
- That scene where Kyrie fights with the power of jealousy. Far too “chuunibyou” for me. It was neat and all, and I definitely got the vibe that I was reading something that was intended to be pretty cool, but it just killed my immersion personally. In contrast, I really liked the scene where Rudolf had that gun duel. That was clever and badass. But anyway.
Some last minute thoughts
- Can we consider the possibility of a “witch” side and a “human” side? Let’s suppose you have a situation like in Maria’s puzzle book where there are n-wolves and m-sheep, but you don’t know who’s a wolf, and who’s a sheep. What then? It seems reasonable to me that something like that could be going on here. Something where we have two sides and everybody is figuring out which side they’re on. I’m not sure I’m really framing this well, but I had a very distinct realization and I’ve yet to figure out a reasonable way to express it…
- Are “zombies” a thing? Let’s suppose that as a “witch” you could actually kill somebody for a short period of time, then if enough time is remaining, bring them back (either directly by manual intervention or automatically by natural occurrence). (Similarly, there’s the well-known account of Clairvius Narcisse. Not that there’s any supporting evidence for that though.) I’m sure there’s a better way to explain things than “they were dead but not really, haha,” so I’m not very fond of this particular notion…
- Does Beatrice ever give a definition for “human,” or “person,” anyway? One would think that terms like those wouldn’t actually need a definition here… but considering her tendency toward tricks and mischief it seems like something that could have a “convenient meaning.” Though this is just the paranoia talking.
I’m thinking that it probably was the case that 1967’s Virgilia was Kumasawa or perhaps related to her in some way, but I’m not sure how either.
Ah that’s pretty neat. I was thinking something similar (Kyrie rather than Hideyoshi) might have been the case but dismissed it.
I’m still wondering who killed George though. Maybe Shannon “under the spell of furniture” (or something) killed him… or maybe Eva really did, or even Hideyoshi (somehow) for that matter. Alibis become a lot harder to track as the incidents increase…
That’s also something that I’ve wondered and considered. My view on this is that the challenger and primary culprit, in episode three anyway, differ.
To expand on this, I’ve taken these gameboards that we’ve been seeing as variations of the same plot that took place in episode one with different “configurations” so to speak (I feel that was established early on in episode two). In the case with this gameboard, we’re seeing the configuration/variation that resulted in the condition of “a new Beatrice being selected” and the results of that. I’m taking “Beatrice” to be more of a concept (like @Aspirety postulated earlier), or a title of sorts, than a specific person. I see Beatrice as “what you would call a person, group, or phenomenon upon having reached some set of conditions” right now.
Oh wow, I didn’t notice that at all! Nice catch! Will definitely keep this in mind going forward into episode four.
I had a theory going that maybe Maria didn’t necessarily meet with Beatrice in the rose garden, since in episode one she never explicitly stated she had, just that Beatrice lent her the umbrella and letter. In episode two, the 19th person that we see could be explained (rather poorly) as either being a concept or as an example of “this is how I would have done it if a 19th person were there” (or more vaguely as “a special case of how episode two’s gameboard was configured”). However, if Maria did actually meet with Beatrice in the rose garden each time, around the time when everybody supposedly had an alibi, then… well, I guess this idea doesn’t really work after all.
It’s pretty excellent! I may or may not feel slightly betrayed by Beatrice’s shift from “nice kid that’s still learning and experiencing things that we take as givens” to “lol nope it was all an act, getrekt m8.” I do feel that there were real traces of some of her core personality in her act, but I’m not really sure what to make of it.
Overall this episode has definitely been my favorite so far, even with the few gripes I did have with it.
Ah that’s a good point, I hadn’t thought about it from the perspective of “innocent things” specifically. Maybe I had managed to accidentally touch on that with some loose thoughts on Rosa seeing “Beatrice” in the rose garden along with Maria in episode two… (I s’pose that’s one specific instance.)
One of the other defining scenes would be anything taking place in the study, since Battler is almost never there. More specifically, Kinzo is suspect. As @Seraphitic mentioned, we almost never see him from Battler’s perspective.
Regarding the events in Purgatorio / The Metarix or the tea parties, there are some really interesting developments that have taken place. So apparently Lambdadelta is some sort of mastermind(?) and controls Beatrice. I think I remember seeing Beatrice mentioning how she’s “stuck in a cage,” so that would make sense.
Beatrice also tears down Evatrice with red truths. That’s neat. I get the feeling that this will somehow be relevant later on, though I’ve not the slightest idea how.
There are a few things I’ve left out of this post simply because it’s taken too long to write. (It is now 5AM.) In particular, there are many things Seraphitic has posted that I’ve wanted to comment on. (It’s mostly agreement.) I’ll have to edit this post with some responses, or reply later!
Also, there were many things which I was prepared to post until I realized they didn’t actually work, or they were just vague ideas. For example, “Maybe Maria’s dad was Genji” (no…) or “Maybe there’s another Maria posing as this Maria” (why though?). Something Aspirety mentioned before has been stuck in my head still: Ange is the only surviving family member who was supposed to attend the family conference with them. (Though I might just not be remembering that correctly, and maybe it’s not even all that relevant.)
TL;DR: After reading episode three, I have some questions and feel like I might’ve been given the tools to answer them… but am still trying to figure out why I can’t hammer these rubber bands into the slot for screws. Everything’s suspicious. There are definitely things I’ve forgotten or glossed over in this post, though I’m not sure what they are.