Quote:
Originally Posted by Jan-Poo
The point is that the regardless of the existence of a real culprit there is still a genius mastermind that orchestrated an incredible plan. So you won't be betrayed on that, you'd still have your "culprit" except the culprit never killed or intended to kill anyone. Unless he was aware of the final explosion which in that case you could consider him a "culprit" in a certain way.
Of course in this case the culprit would be simply Yasu.
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It's sort of difficult to agree on the definition of "culprit". In Umineko, there are two things we refer to as culprit: first is the person, or group, responsible for the murders, second is whoever is responsible for the magic theme of the happenings. They could be the same, but it's not guaranteed (EP7 seems to imply Yasu is the latter, but might not be the former). If I have it right, what you are saying is basically, there exists only a type two culprit. The deaths happened as a result of some coincidence; perhaps, due to unfortunate natural causes, the bomb exploded and killed everyone that day. Or perhaps someone accidentally did something that caused it to explode.
I have a problem with this. I think it's an interesting, fresh answer, but it's also one that would've been better suited to a work of smaller scope. For Umineko, it would be a half-assed solution. It is just awkward that, after spending perhaps over 80 hours reading, and so much more hypothesizing, we suddenly are told that the vast majority of the work has been a pointless red herring, and that it isn't a mystery or a fantasy at all. I suppose you could say that you felt it was implied from the very beginning, which it could well have been, but it is not the impression I get from this work, and I consider it carelessness on the author's part if two readers could have such different conclusions at this point.
My conclusion is the exact opposite: the implication is that this is both a mystery and a fantasy. If you think about it it really makes a lot of sense. The locked rooms, the murders, what really happened; these all have a consistent, logical explanation and a (direct) human cause. However, the theme; the fantastical volumes from authors; and perhaps the real motive behind the crime, all involve witches and magic. And even if both these solutions are equally probable, I would still take mine over yours, because otherwise it would feel like I am deriding the work.