Report Ch1
My thoughts on chapter 1
Before i start, I played Higurashi before Umineko, so I'm gonna be constantly comparing between both series and most of my theories are made with Higurashi in mind, so, please don't read this if you haven't played Higurashi, believe me, my report is not good enough to kill the Higurashi experience.
Just as Onikakushi, TLOTGW starts slow. We get the introduction of characters and their personalities, they arrive to Rokkenjima, etc.
I really don't have to much to say about this chapter, I'm not the kind of person who tries to solve the mistery, but, I'll give some points that I liked about the history and curious things.
The BGM is more sober in Umi, We don't get the 'Unique songs' in loop, but we get more loopable songs? Idk how to describe it, the soundtrack is more professional.
I really liked the adult characters, Specially Krauss during the negotiations, he really is a total ass.
As for who i doubt... Mmm... I don't know. I'm kinda naive, but everyone seems "innocent". At least, there aren't clear indications that neither of them are behind the disaster. The obvious option would be Kinzou, but just because the old man is crazy (apparently). I don't know how any of the crimes would be orchestrated by humans, but my gut is telling me that Beatrice is not the orchestrator.
Tea Party 1
A paradigm identical to Higurashi's is established here: Do we believe in the witch or not? Oyashiro-sama or humans? Unlike in Higurashi, I think our protagonist is going to have a fierce determination to deny, deny, and deny. Because of that, I believe Chapter 2 will try to break ME. If I learned anything from Higurashi, it's that the answer won't be easy. The easy guess would be to praise Beatrice and paint her in my room (lol), but that is TOO convenient. Beatrice exists? Possibly, but there is something more to it. Maria raises some doubts for me: why accept the witch but leave a letter asking for help with the mystery? My instinct tells me that Maria is some sort of Rika, but honestly, that's too simple.
From a literary standpoint, I think Battler as the main character is going to serve as the series' logical anchor—he is the ultimate atheist who denies everything ("logical anchor" in the human sense, since up until now, the "logical" thing to do is accept Beatrice). I don't know what Chapter 2 has in guard for me, I can see that Chapter 1 was literally just setting up the game's dynamics. I found Onikakushi to be more open and interpretive than TLOTGW.
???? 1
Ooookay. So, is Bernkastel actually Rika? I think so, absolutely. They mention that she defeated someone named Lambdadelta, who I assume is Takano, or at least Takano was her racing horse. They tell us several relevant things. First of all, Rika's power is being able to pull off a miracle even if it's statistically nearly impossible, which goes hand in hand with Higurashi (the miracle only happens if everyone believes in it). I find it curious because we are precisely being incited to believe in Beatrice—does that mean embracing Beatrice's existence is the same as denying the miracle? If the story progresses the way I think it will, we are going to see repeated fragments. My question here is, what exactly are these fragments? In fact, Rika helps us; she reminds us of the rules she HERSELF was told in Minagoroshi. Yes, an entity we don't know told them to her, so... is Rika that entity now? Meaning, we are a Rika, one could naturally conclude, though it feels like a very rigid chain of thought and I might be walking right into a trap...
Be that as it may, there are two other things I find intriguing. Lambdadelta's power is to kill someone with an almost 100% probability. "To kill" is mentioned, but the concept of killing is very earthly, so I'll make a hypothesis: Lambdadelta's power is being able to make something happen almost indefinitely with almost 100% certainty. And we are told that Beatrice's power is to make something happen INFINITELY. In that case, we are dealing with a situation where Beatrice controls certainty, and we know Rika is going to help us but won't directly ally with us. In fact, she mentions it herself—their compatibility is terrible. But does that imply it's impossible to beat Beatrice? If it's not 100% impossible, then we have to believe in the miracle, and... Could it be that the miracle is, precisely, not embracing Beatrice's existence? Look at how she gives us the exact same clue they gave her: Beatrice is not a witch or an entity as such; Beatrice is the representation of the world, of the rules. Whatever that means, I think it's crucial to pay close attention to what she can and cannot do.
The fragments in Higurashi were viewed from the characters' perspectives, whereas in TLOTGW we had an omniscient narrator—but not just any omniscient narrator; we had a Don Quixote-style omniscient narrator, not a Crime and Punishment-style one. And what am I getting at with this? That the narrator might not be perfect, even though everything seems to indicate I shouldn't think that way. That conclusion is natural after playing Higurashi, but it puts me in a tougher spot. If an omniscient narrator isn't fully revealing the truth to me, then there's a problem—it wouldn't make sense. Why would I even be reading this if they are straight lying at my face? Which inclines me to believe that the facts themselves are true, but they are being presented to us from a specific angle. What angle? Who knows. At times, the narrator is fully, completely omniscient, but at others, he seems contextualized—revealing only as much information as the context itself seems willing to disclose. Therefore, I contend that the narrator isn't lying to me; the narrator reveals what they want to reveal. And right there is where I see the true nature of the mystery: From what perspective am I viewing this story? The end of Chapter 1 seems to tell me that I just read Maria's plea for help, which, I repeat, seems to indicate that Maria is some sort of Rika. But then again, how much can I really trust Maria anyway?
I'm making these hypotheses before starting Turn of the Golden Witch, knowing that 70% of them will be disproved and replaced with more theories, thank you if you read this.
