Discussion topic for Ronove, the butler serving Beatrice.
Feel free to discuss the entirety of Umineko without [spoiler] tags, but please tag references to outside works, providing adequate context in parenthesis. This topic will contain massive spoilers, so if you have not finished reading Umineko yourself proceed with caution.
Fun fact, I was browsing Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, a daemonology compendium first produced in 1583 (link here), and I found our friend Ronove –
Ronove [Roneve] a marquesse and an earle, he is resembled to a monster, he bringeth singular understanding in rhetorike, faithfull servants, knowledge of toongs, favour of freends and foes; and nineteene legions obeie him.
Which is pretty apt. It seems he shows up in the Goetia (link here), too.
The 27th spirit is called Ronove, he appeareth in ye forme of a Monster, he teacheth ye art of Rhetorick very well, and giveth good servants knowledge of Tongues, favouer of friends & foes; he is a Marquiz & a great Earle, and there obeieth him [he commandeth] 19 Legions of spirits his seal is this.
The Goetia has his seal, which is neat-looking. (I’m only on Episode 4, so I don’t know if he gets a cool monster form later … but I’ll still post this here since there isn’t, understandably, a spoiler-free thread for Ronove or for Gaap. Gaap’s in here, too!)
I didn’t find a Genji character discussion thread, so I hope this is good enough. Without meaning to overburden this already huge thread, I wanted to mention my Gaynji theory (amazing name, I know). According to it, Genji is gay. And not only that, he’s gay for Kinzo. It’s based on the following points:
Battler is, multiple times, said to look like a young Kinzo.
Ronove, Genji’s manifestation in the Meta World, flirts with Battler quite a bit, especially when they first met.
Genji’s loyalty to Kinzo, while being there to fulfill the silent, stoic, robot-like Butler archetype, suggests that he has forfeited his own life and freedom to serve his Master. Why? LOVE
Genji calls himself furniture, a term associated with impossible love. I can totally see Genji repressing his feelings and deciding to just live his life as Kinzo’s right-hand.
What do you guys think?
I agree completely. At the very least, I think we’ve got evidence that Sayp thinks Genji is gay and in love with Kinzo, given how she chose to write both Genji and Ronove (though Ronove as he appears in the story is in Battler’s chapters, Sayo did create Ronove). Given how close Sayo and Genji were in real life, I think she could probably pick up on his feelings for Kinzo.
Right, at least I think it’s pretty clear that Sayo saw it that way, but I don’t think there’s a difference between the characters as they’re portrayed in her stories and what they were like “in real life”, so I go that tiny step further.
My greatest shock in the entire series was finding out that ronove is how genji looked like when he was young.
Now I am shocked, 19 years made him change a lot lol
It was a very nice touch. It’s a manga thing, right? I assume it’s the same for Kumasawa and Virgilia.
Thats most definitely the case, also I like how you proposed your theory. It definitely makes me think that Genji did really love Kinzo, but I don’t think after what Kinzo did to his daughter that love was there any longer. Most likely he stayed because of Sayo.
Yeah, Genji’s loyalty absolutely shifted from Kinzo to Sayo, as evidenced by the fact that he hid her from him.