Here we go again.
So, last time on ‘Jokrono flounders about in Umineko’, I tried to solve every closed room, and then prove that Battler was still alive and writing us some cool stories. That went well for me. Truth be told though, I think I’m going to play this in a bit of an Erika way. I think there’s a way to make all of this work without having to necessarily change anything I’ve said. I already pointed out that there is still room for Battler to be the author, but I also don’t think this means we need to deny Hachijo as the author. But first we have a gameboard to deal with.
The Sanity; Episode 6 Edition
Clearly, as we discussed in the Ep5 Podcast, the gameboards seem to be less of a focus of Chiru, as the solutions are fairly clear, if not outright told to us. Thus, for episode 6; The first twilight was staged and nobody died until Erika killed them, but Battler was left alone and was saved by Sayo, taking the personality of Kanon until the deed had been done, before abandoning that personality. I’d like to congratulate @VyseGolbez on a hard fought battle, but Episode 6 truly left him with no options. There are of course still many other questions that are posed, but no longer, it seems, are the plotline serial murders the real tough questions.
Instead we are left with many, many more questions about the various meta-worlds, or as Vyse nicely put it in to Layers. There are so many more characters whose battles play out in the Meta than we have seen previously. All of the Meta scenes, through the whole tale seem to have hinted at some aspect of the truth as well as something different, and I think that Episode 6 really crams in a bunch more information than we have in previous episodes. Take for example Battler’s treatment of Chick Beatrice at the beginning of the episode; it neatly matches Kinzo’s maddened delusions in keeping Beatrice of 1967 in Kuwadorian, further emphasised by the fact that Battler’s office in these scenes is Kinzo’s, and Virgilia and BRonove are replaced in these moments by Kumasawa and Genji. Not only are we exploring Battler’s struggle to resurrect his lost love, we are being shown how Kinzo made exactly the same mistakes for his. Another fine example of this is how we are shown the personalities of Sayo battling over who to love, and Beatrice creating the perfect man for Battler, all supposedly in 1986, when really these things would have been part of the leadup to Battler’s return to the family. It’s really exciting to think that maybe it is actually the magical scenes that contain the greatest elements of the truth (or Layer X, as Vyse puts it), though indirectly.
The existence of more layers is also a really fun question to tackle; I do, as I say, really like the way Vyse has separated the layers. I’d mostly agree with the hierarchy too, but I do think that it is intentionally more vague than the divisions Vyse has set out, with characters swapping around between them more in this episode than we’ve seen previously, especially with Beatrice visiting the library of Featherine to try discover who she was. I do think that when we see a character other than Featherine in the library it isn’t quite as indicative of the character themselves, but more at how Hachijo/Featherine looks at them to try and understand them. Despite Featherine’s touting of her knowledge of the answer, we are told that this is a draft, and thus clearly there are some questions that the author would have before calling it finished.
The Logic Error
I think it was pretty damned apparent that it was going to happen during this episode, but it took me a long while to realise that the nightmare scenes of Battler in the room had anything to do with it. I particularly like taking the perspective that, like episode 5, all of episode 6 was a flashback on how we got to the first moment, as though Battler, in the Logic Error, was trying to look at everything he’d done to figure out what moves he had left. It really neatly ties in to the similar authorship style of Episode 5 and how that began the same way with Erika’s announcement (but more on that later). @MagusVerborum also posed the idea to me that maybe BATTLER made the Logic Error on purpose, since he felt that it would push Beatrice to becoming herself again, since if he did discover the truth at the end of episode 5, then surely he also realises what option he has left. Maybe he refused to use that one final move to make Chick Beatrice realise what needed to be done. This also led to a fantastic moment where, once Beatrice has become herself again, she walks up to BATTLER, and greets him in the same innocent voice she has been speaking in all episode. It both cemented the fact that this Beatrice would never be exactly the same, but perhaps also showed that the original Beatrice had this soft side too, and I think that is a brilliant touch.
One of the main questions I’m left with about the Logic Error is whether the fact that the gameboard continues, such that BATTLER can be saved, indicates that it wasn’t a real error. Of course, for the Logic Error to be possible to fix, just as Bern and Lambda supposedly did, it would mean that some things would still have to be possible to move, but this seems to be something of a contradiction to how significant the implications of a Logic Error are made out to be. In Layer 5/X, I think it’s plausible that the Logic Error simply represents exactly what it sounds like; a Logic Error in the writing that the author will have to solve before publishing, but I don’t think that we should pin the implications of any moment to any particular layer alone (I say whilst being utterly guilty of doing exactly that on many occasions). I think the main question I have is this; is the Logic Error actually that Battler cannot be saved, or is it that BATTLER is unwilling to let Beatrice’s ‘heart’ be revealed. This premise is definitely presented to us, so I think it’s possible, that once again the Game Master has put a restriction on the game, just like the window problem in Kinzo’s study in Episode 5. By forcing BATTLER in to this Logic Error, maybe Featherine was finally able to force an answer out of the story, thus Featherine’s almost morbid curiosity with ‘looking at the answers’, as we see in the Ura Tea Party.
BATTLER as a parallel for Kinzo
So let’s get back to the first issue I mentioned; the parallels between Battler (or more specifically BATTLER), and Kinzo. I’ve been editing Episode 3 alongside reading Episode 5 and 6, and I think this has been a pretty great pairing. There are, of course, many tie ins between every episode we’ve had so far, but particularly in relation to this topic, there is a near-perfect match between the beginnings of Episodes 3 and 6. Both episodes start with a look at some important relationships; the connection between BATTLER/Kinzo, Beatrice and Virgilia/Kumasawa. The name ‘Chick’ for the young Beatrice actually first appeared in Episode 3 back when we first learned about Kuwadorian. We also had several lines between Kinzo and Beatrice back in Episode 3 in which that Beatrice said to Kinzo that he felt like a father, much the same as Chick Beatrice does to BATTLER in Episode 6. I think that the similar behaviour of Beatrice of 1967 and Chick Beatrice are meant to both show how the circumstances are similar, and also provide a red herring to push away from the truth that [color=“red”]Six years ago for me, no person called Beatrice existed[/color]. Through this comparison we both get to see how BATTLER’s love is driving him insane, much the same as it did Kinzo, and that what these two Beatrices went through was similar, presenting more of the motivation for the culprit in 1986. The other interesting thing to me is that we see that Beatrice changed herself to suit BATTLER’s perfect image, and I have to wonder if 1967 Beatrice did the same for Kinzo. I also wonder if part of 1967 Beatrice is reflected in Elder Beatrice, an ‘older sister’.
Of course, the other thing I mentioned is the relationship between Chick Beatrice and Kumasawa, reflecting Beatrice with Virgilia at the beginning of Episode 3. Much in line with Erika’s claim that Beatrice is an amalgamation of local mythology, in Episode 3 we see that Beatrice (the culprit of 1986) took on the name of Beatrice from another source. In both Episode 3 and 6, we see that Kumasawa/Virgilia is the mentor for the young Beatrice. Especially given that Kumasawa has been pinned as an accomplice in a few of my theories, it might make sense that Kumasawa was aware of the earlier life of the culprit. I particularly like the detail that Genji and Kumasawa appear for BATTLER in Layer 2, further cementing the relation to Kinzo. There’s a heap of neat possibilities about why this was the choice, but it also goes to show that despite being the loyal servants they pose to most of the rest of the family, they still questioned Kinzo/BATTLER on the choices they make. It also seems like this part of the redeeming, more personal features of their characters we see here are also where the exaggerated components of Virgilia and BRonove come from, with Virgilia being the perfect, kind teacher and BRonove being the sass-master that he is.
I think I could really poke out some more ideas of what all of these scenes mean but I’d love to hear some thoughts on this part in particular 
The Love Trials
Drew Carey was great fun this episode (and also a bit of a nightmare to perform). I think that, especially having gone in to Episode 6 with the existing Sayo-culprit theory, it was pretty easy to work out what the trials represented on the surface. Sayo can’t choose to live with all of the three siblings in her future, and has to choose which one to follow. I also find it interesting that Battler, by both his role as the game master and as a piece seems to be the ringleader of the prank that is played on Erika. To an extent this is disconnected from the love trials, but it definitely does factor in, since you have to wonder what part of Sayo’s internal conflict is represented by Battler’s forfeiting of the trials. In Episode 4, it was established by Battler meeting Beatrice that part of the goal of the game was for Battler to remember who Beatrice was; and in this game Battler is the one hiding amidst the crime that ends up bringing Beatrice back to her past self. Perhaps on the gameboard, Sayo in fact was not originally in on the setup, but Battler used the crimes in the same way that Sayo did in Episodes 1-4. Maybe the ‘on the board’ reason for the Logic Error was that Sayo actually had to figure out that Battler was in trouble to go and save him.
There is also something to be said for the dueling pistols and the emphasis that others must die for any of Sayo’s loves to come to fruition. Perhaps this ties in to the motive of Sayo in the original four games, that since their other personalities must die for the other personality to have love, so too must others on the outside. To an extent I do wonder if the Sayo actually became deluded by the wording of the epitaph in to this line of thinking. Regardless of what this chain of thought might have been, these scenes also help to illustrate just how significant of a choice it is; that shedding one of these personalities feels like shooting them straight to the head. This provides a strong understanding of how much this means to Sayo, and also goes to show just how the wording games in Episodes 1-4 are meant to be resolved. It is also interesting that Kanon as a personality is shown in the Meta as having died before his final action on the gameboard. The way that Kanon appears as a ghost also further parallels how he appeared to save Jessica at the end of episode 3, in that after the personality’s ‘death’, they can still affect the board in the Culprit’s mind. This also brings in to question what then is meant by Demon-Kanon appearing in Ep2. Perhaps the original author of the message bottles actually saw the use of a personality after their ‘death’ as a bad thing, whilst the author(s) of Ep3 onward see it as a good thing.
And then, alongside the Love Trials, we also have all of the victims of the first round, the victims of the first twilight. Going in to the notion that I mentioned, that perhaps Battler’s crime was meant to be a hint to Sayo, it would make sense that Battler chose victims that would remind Sayo of Battler and his sin. As a servant, Sayo would have heard many of the stories and rumours from around the mansion, and thus likely had the chance to notice the pattern of who the victims were in the first twilight. This does bring in to question if there are similar themes of victims in the previous games, but at a glance I can’t spot any (barring, of course, the servants in ep3). There is another implication of the victims that I will go in to later in the post, but I also think that to us as readers is meant to show clearly what the premise of the VN has been thus far. I remember that when coming in to Umineko I was told that love was a heavy theme of the game, and I think through this first twilight Ryukishi is showing us how love has connected to each of the characters in this story. In several of the episodes thus far, we have seen the same emotions from all of the characters that died in the first twilight, but now for the first time we have them directly tied together. The fact that Battler is also tied to this raises questions of its own too, but at least on the surface the implication clearly is that Battler is tied up in these trials too, and it will be interesting to see if that plays out as we go on. I do have to wonder if it implies that, despite Battler not remembering who Beatrice is at the end of Ep4, maybe he did actually feel guilt being away from love for so many years. I think that the implication has more to do with Layer X and authorship than anything else, but that’s not to say that we can’t make these connections elsewhere.
As something of a tangent to the love trials, I also love that this episode introduced dueling pistols as the magical weapon of choice. To me it almost feels like the author got bored of melee weapons. Despite this, though the tips say the opposite? So why on earth did Hachijo write the pistols in to the story?
Ange
And then there’s Ange. What am I to do? Last time I posed so many theories about what might have happened to Ange, as part of the Meta Theory, but it’s just become so hard to tell. I think, along with most things, I doubt we’ll get a concrete answer on any of it, but the nature of her last appearance, which was already confusing as it was, just got even more confusing. To an extent it seems like the most likely case of Ange’s final fate at the end of Ep4 was that Amakusa did save her, but then because of Ange’s note that ‘my memories of the future are hazy’ it brings in to question the context under which the things we’ve seen of Ange have happened. As I brought up in the Ep5 thread, in regards to ‘Layer X’, there remains the question of how any author would have been able to know about what happened to Ange. Supposedly Ange, in Episode 4, did not visit Hachijo, but then in Episode 6 she did, and it was before her journey to Niijima. How do we line up these events from Layer 3 to 5 into Layer X? There are a heap of guesses that I could make, but I think the most likely thing is that Ange met with Hachijo before Niijima, and then Hachijo did not tell the author of Episode 4 (who I claim to be Battler) about the visit, instead choosing only to include what we saw in Episode 4. This does bring in to question what the actual story of Ange on Rokkenjima is, but I honestly can’t do much but speculate on that. Maybe Ange came back later after Amakusa saved her from the Sumadera family, or maybe it was just the author’s speculation, or maybe the story became public somehow. I also like the idea that Ange actually visited Hachijo after escaping the Sumaderas but Hachijo changed the date to mask the fact that she had survived. I think it is definitely less likely that Ange actually died, since I would assume that Ange surviving the Sumadera attack at the end of Episode 4 would line up with Okonogi’s comment about Amakusa not being willing to let Ange die. I do think that once again we’ve left Ange’s tale on a cliffhanger so that it can appear again (especially given that what we see seems to be a flashback).
Erika
Erika also had a fantastic arc this episode. I do have some meta applications of what Erika represents that I’ll bring up in the last section, but in Erika as a character it’s really important to see how much of a change she went through in the past two episodes. At the end of Episode 5, for the Sayo-culprit theory to work, it would have to be said that Erika ignored definitive evidence to have pinned the crime on Natsuhi. I hand-waved this by saying that this was intentional since that is how Bern was playing Erika. I still think this is valid, but also clearly at the end of Episode 6, Erika still hadn’t figured out what the fault in her perception was. If she had indeed noticed that there was a person missing in Episode 5, would she have been so defeated at the end of Episode 6? It’s a tough one to come to a theory on. Perhaps, like in Kinzo’s study in Episode 5, some of the truth was obscured by the game master to prevent the truth being revealed. This is also brought up in Episode 6 when it is said that BATTLER will have to reveal Beatrice’s heart to save himself. Perhaps Beatrice’s heart had been obscured even in part from the detective’s authority. Erika might have seen one body in Episode 5, but she still saw two ‘people’ because it was the whim of the game master. I told @Aspirety after the Episode 5 podcast that I didn’t think it was a problem that we’d glazed over the issue on the podcast because it was easy to resolve. I think if anything I’m glad we left it alone back then because there are so many more implications about it now that we’ve seen a resolution to Erika’s story.
Also, I don’t think anyone has pointed it out on this thread, but we got confirmation of something HUGE in the tips for this episode. @Seraphitic and I were right; Rokkenjima did explode. Go execute Erika in the tips window and you get this;
There are so many wonderful things about this being confirmed, both because it’s nice to be proven right :P, but also because it means we’re starting to get some direct answers. I was pretty set on the fact that we would remain almost completely masked from the truth by the guise of the gameboards and their riddles, but this is an answer. Maybe Bern really will actually show us some truth directly. I still doubt it’ll be quite that easy but it certainly is a nice precedent to go in with. The other thing we have to consider is; if we are trying to properly ‘solve’ Layer X, we will need to figure out what mechanism the island was destroyed with. Seraphitic suggested back at the end of Ep4 that the culprit was making explosives with Ammonium Nitrate, thus why the Rose Garden is not looking so good, whilst I’m arguing that there is old military ordnance in the bunker below the island. Part of me thinks that it would be both, since the sheer quantity of fertilizer that would have to have been taken to destroy an entire island is enormous, but also there is plenty of foreshadowing to establish at this point that what is below Rokkenjima is an old military base (likely for submarines, given the secret harbour for Kuwadorian).
Mad Theory for this Episode
I really enjoyed making the Meta Theory for Episode 5. That was an absolute blast. I’d twigged on the idea that there was a different author for Episode 3 onwards very early on, and then I just decided to hunt for ways to flesh that out as much as I could. I definitely cherry-picked some evidence that was in favour of my thinking but that was part of the fun. I had so much fun that I decided to do it again; pick a detail and take it to its absolute limits. Before you continue; there are some minor details about the original, scrapped Episode 3 in here. Not necessarily spoilers, and everything I know about it is only what has been re-distributed thus far, but a warning nonetheless. Now, you might remember the bit about how magic scenes contain elements of the truth. Well, here’s a stretch for you;
The Madness; Episode 6 Edition
Hachijo wants to marry Battler
Yes, you did read that correctly (probably). This sounds utterly absurd, and really it is, but I also think there’s a good foundation for it. As I read through the final chapters of episode 6, I was left wondering; what the hell was the point of the marriage scene with Erika? The two main purposes it seemed to serve; demonstrating the limits of Erika’s cruelty, and setting up the marriage of Battler and Beatrice, could have been done in so many other ways, and to an extent already had been. As mentioned earlier, when you execute Erika, you get some extra information about her truth; she disappeared and we learn it was the forgers wrote her in to Rokkenjima. This means that to an extent; Erika was a construct of Hachijo, and perhaps could be taken to be an insert. Could the theme of trials of love portrayed the whole way through the episode actually be an emotion of the author too? I damned well think it can.
Hachijo seems to be framed as a pretty secluded person; her house visually seems pretty cramped and cluttered, she uses various aliases and identities to spread their works, rather than appearing herself, but yet in this tale with such a hard-hammered theme about unrequited love, Hachijo makes herself appear for the first time, and also appears as a magical character. The two facts I think I’ve pretty heavily locked in to in my theories thus far are that magic always reflects the truth, and is used for those struggling to cope. Despite the confident and powerful mystique of Featherine and Hachijo, perhaps this story too, is a way for her to cope with the way that she is treated in real life.
The premise of this theory is that Hachijo is indeed the author, but not of all of the past four episodes, as is claimed at the start. I believe that the ‘male assistant’ and the ‘man that appeared at the convention’ are in fact the true author of Episodes 3 and 4, the future personality of Battler. I don’t think there’s much more groundwork I have to lay on this other than what was said in my Meta Theory on the Ep5 thread, but I think that the foreshadowing we have in this episode is enough to claim that I’ve not been disproven quite yet. If this is the case, there are probably some other hints that I’ve missed, but I’m willing to take this hint and roll with it. Besides, sticking with a theory that was supposedly disproved totally worked well for Erika, right 
? I think that Hachijo wrote Episodes 5 and 6, but more on that in a bit. So how are Battler and Hachijo connected? I think it is likely that he is working with Hachijo on writing and distributing these tales, as a way for him to cope with his memories. The reasons for why it’s Hachijo in particular are still in question, but I think the existence of that relationship is enough to work with, given the foreshadowing I think we have thus far. I think that their relationship in the real world is romantic to some extent, and maybe Hachijo views their relationship as one of the ‘trials of love’ that she writes of in this episode. Specifically, as I said on the Ep5 thread, I think it is a Battler under a different personality who is working to understand with his past life in the future. Despite this, the existence of his former love to Beatrice is somehow preventing him from loving Hachijo. Perhaps the ‘cheating boyfriend’ Erika mentioned to Dlanor parallels how Battler in Vyse’s ‘Layer X’ won’t ever truly love Hachijo whilst Beatrice exists. This matches nicely with the claim that Erika couldn’t find any evidence that her boyfriend ‘didn’t cheat’, in that really, Battler in 1998/Layer X hasn’t done anything wrong, but Hachijo perhaps cannot trust her love because of the lingering love from his past life.
If we actually look at all of the issues of love that are explored in Episode 6, nearly every one of them could theoretically be extrapolated to fit Hachijo. I’ve already looked at Erika so let’s see the others;
- First of all, Hachijo could have the trial of Eva, in that by helping him cope with the memories of his past life is similar to how Eva raised George yet he yearns for a life she doesn’t see as fit. By trying to help Battler/George, Hachijo/Eva have had their hopes betrayed by the life that the one they love seeks to lead. From this you could also extrapolate the feeling that Hachijo might feel that she ‘gave birth’ to this problem, the same way that Eva wishes George would return to her protection.
- Hachijo could have the trial of Kyrie, in that by helping Battler remember and write these tales, she is constantly reminded of the love Battler holds for Beatrice, much how Kyrie is constantly reminded of her envy for Asumu. Kyrie perhaps could also represent the resolve that Hachijo holds in that she believes there is a far side to this problem she can reach.
- Hachijo could have the trial of Rosa, in that she had faith in the one she loves but feels now that he may never come back the same after the journey (writing) they left on. Perhaps Maria is a parallel for the writings in that Hachijo (in this theory) is writing Episode 5 and 6 alone, just like how Rosa tries to lead a life alone with Maria.
- Hachijo’s struggle could be like the trials of Zepar and Furfur, in that the two personalities of Battler (his former self and the new identity I claim he has formed) cannot ever truly give love to Beatrice of Hachijo without picking one or the other. Perhaps this is why BATTLER is the one who leaves the trial; Hachijo may have been portraying the hope that his love for Beatrice would lose, but then also in turn perhaps the ending reflects acceptance that this is not the case.
- Hachijo’s trials could be like Beatrice, where her love (Battler in both cases), has become trapped in this puzzle trying to sort out his life and she feels she needs to be the one to break him out of this struggle. There are a lot of possibilities on how this is resolved, since Beatrice (in this theory) is both the opponent to Hachijo and the victor in this particular trial, so does this represent the acceptance I mentioned earlier, or does this represent that Hachijo feels she has found a solution? Hopefully time will tell but I’m not quite willing to make a call on this one just yet.
Maybe the whole reason Hachijo wrote the two episodes in which ‘Battler discovers the truth’ is to demonstrate to Battler in Layer X that she was able to reach the truth, proving her worth to Battler in the same way that Erika tries to always prove that she can reach the truth. Hachijo also then kills of Erika, perhaps suggesting that she understands that the ‘fact’ of what the truth is, doesn’t really matter. There’s a whole bunch to pick apart with that particular aspect of Erika in relation to Hachijo, but truth be told I’d just be spitballing based on what we see Erika do. I do think that the connections continue without a doubt, such as how Erika is the one piece who is allowed to look at previous games to solve the epitaph; suggesting perhaps that Hachijo looking over previous tales is what allowed her to solve it. This could also explain the problem of Shannon and Kanon appearing together at the start of episode 5. The scene was from Battler’s perspective and as an accomplice it doesn’t really matter that we saw it, but Erika didn’t bring up that a person was missing, even in the second twilight when a missing person would easily have been the one responsible for Hideyoshi’s murder. I’ve already posed that this was because Bern was playing Erika with the set goal of tearing down Natsuhi, but maybe Hachijo, the writer, actually did not understand this, and thus why the two appeared together, though this changes in Episode 6 once Hachijo ‘understands’ the truth at the end of Episode 5. I think (as I mentioned before), it also makes a strong case for why Hachijo only authored Episodes 5 and 6, since there are so many similar beats to 5 and 6 (such as the openings being flash-forwards) that just don’t happen elsewhere.
If we take this further, and consider that it is Hachijo writing about Battler’s madness, which I have already compared it to Kinzo’s, perhaps through this, as well as the ‘eternal torture’ Battler finds himself in through the Logic Error, Hachijo is trying to show Battler on Layer X that his lost love will consume him the same way Kinzo’s did, if he is not careful; it also shows that by being the game master and understanding these tales, he could make sure his love is never forgotten by continuing to write about it; thus why even in her own tale Hachijo would let Battler ‘get the girl’ at the end. Perhaps also the fact that Episode 6 is supposedly a draft of Hachijo’s also demonstrates that she is still conflicted on how she wants to portray things like this. Maybe Erika’s moment of realisation about the truth towards the end reflects Hachijo understanding what really matters, rather than tryign to keep her own greed alive.
The other fun detail about Hachijo I noticed right at the end of episode 6 was the name ‘Augustus Aurora’. I think this is actually a connection, through the divine comedy, to the Aeneid. Virgil, the guide of Dante through the Divine Comedy, is based of the historical author of the Roman Epic ‘The Aeneid’. There’s a whole bunch of detail to go in to there, but the important connection here is that the emperor Augustus is said to have contracted the great writers of Rome to create propaganda for his image, the greatest of which is the Aeneid. The Aeneid, through its portrayal of its main character (a supposed ancestor of Augustus), seeks to demonstrate the purity and greatness of the Roman blood Augustus supposedly carried. To bring that in to Umineko, I think that this demonstrates that ‘Augustus’, or Hachijo, is the benefactor of Virgil, or perhaps even that ‘her blood’ is present in the portrayal of Virgil. What I am using this to say, is that I think that Battler did still write episodes 3 and 4, and that Hachijo helped him to write those, resulting in the portrayal of Virgilia; the guide to Beatrice. I also know that originally episode 3 was meant to contain a character named ‘Virgilius’ who was later split in to Virgilia and Erika, and I think it makes a lot of sense that Virgilia represents the benefactor in Hachijo (perhaps thus also the use of ‘child (of man)’ for Hachijo and Virgilia), helping Battler to find Beatrice, whilst Erika is the other side of Hachijo, who wants Battler and the gameboard to herself.
Keeping this pain train going, I think the existing relationship between Bernkastel and Featherine further pushes this connection of Hachijo’s to the tale; initially Bern was the guardian of Battler, but later switched to fight against him with Erika. It almost feels like Bernkastel is the medium for Hachijo to appear in the story below what Vyse calls ‘Layer 4’. The other thought that I had initially had was that the cruelty of Battler’s past self was reflected by Bern, thus why she is indicative of what seems to be a Higurashi character (which I claimed Battler has read), and thus also why when Battler has switched to the human side he fights Bern.
The other interesting question is then what is implied by the ??? for episode 6. Where does Hachijo stand if Episodes 7 and 8 are going to be tearing the guts out of the story, demonstrating the answers to Hachijo? If Bern is indeed a medium for Hachijo, what is implied by the fact she is game master? If instead Bern does reflect aspects of past Battler, does this mean we will now get to see more of the truth? How can Hachijo write the answers, if it is her to write episodes 7 and 8? There are definitely a lot of questions I have going forth regarding the meta theory, but I don’t think I’ve been quite disproven yet. If we are indeed going to get ‘the answers’, I wouldn’t be surprised if it is Battler who is finally going to reveal aspects of the truth to Hachijo, now that (through Ep5 and Ep6) she has proven she understands. Alternatively, it’s also possible that with the death of Eva, some new information was released which we will soon become privy to. It sure will be exciting to find out.
So to wrap it all up;
- Battler wrote episodes 3 and 4 with the aid of Hachijo, who inserts herself in to Virgilia
- Hachijo wrote episodes 5 and 6 to try and prove herself to Battler’s new identity, using Erika’s fight against Battler to show that she understood
- Episodes 3-6 were released by the ‘shared identity’ of Hachijo Tohya, by Hachijo and Battler
- Hachijo loves Battler but can’t have that love reciprocated because of the existing love for Beatrice
- Episode 6 being a draft represents Hachijo’s conflict in her love for Battler’s new identity
- Episode 7 and 8 will likely reflect Battler unveiling parts of the truth, or new information that Hachijo has discovered.
I’m sure there are things I’ve forgotten and things that I’ll look back and think ‘oh damn, I didn’t explain that properly’, but I need to call this done at some point.
All aboard the Ep6 Podcast Hype Train!
If you enjoyed ‘DeadColour’ (my cover of DeadAngle and Discolor for the Ep5 Podcast), I’d be open to suggestions on another track to do from this episode. None of them quite bit me quite as much as Discolor did, but I’d be down to give it a shot