Quote:
Originally Posted by Renall
I'm not sure I'd be fond of that portrayal regardless (even though I would find it better) because it implies that you have to abandon decorum and compassion to seek Truth. If Battler's counterpoint to that had been "No, you can seek Truth without going that far," then fine, that's a pretty good conflict to set up for the end. But it... wasn't that.
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I agree with you partially on that one. EP8 Battler was not developed enough to actually solidify the stance I see him personifying there, which is "If only one would be hurt by truth it is to be hidden." Thus I see him and Bernkastel as the two sides of "If there is love things become visible, but there are also things that become incomprehensible if there is love", him being the former, her being the latter.
In a way, for 'Absolute Truth' you have to abandon decorum and compassion. As a prosecutor, don't you sometimes have to push emotion aside? Sure, Bernkastel is taking it to the other extreme of the Beato/Battler party, who are like "why take a painful truth if you can party with your murdered relatives in a dream world," but in a way she represents a notion that is not completely wrong.
I could also make an argument that, due to the representation of a moral discourse on truth in Japan being slightly different from the Euro-centric/American one that most of us follow, some part of the Japanese audience might be more inclined to follow the idea that hiding the truth to protect some is morally more positive than revealing it to appease some. Going by what Ryukishi has put out so far it's hard to say if he belongs to that portion or if he simply portrays Japan as existing within that paradigm.
In that sense I would have much preferred a third ending to EP8, making the one we got as the "magic ending" to be the "acceptance ending" and a true "magic ending" where Ange succumbs to the positive fantasy and goes equally (though less dangerously) insane as in the "trick ending".
One of the problems is that Umineko makes a clear distinction between "not telling the truth" and "lying", which is a concept that I found people who have been brought up in the West to have a larger problem with grasping.
Being part of a not fully accepted minority in Japan, I have to make that distinction on a daily basis and I am not rarely confronted by friends from Europe or America who have trouble understanding that.