Quote:
Originally Posted by DaBackpack
I think the problem is that Umineko is marketed as a murder-mystery series, not a love series, from the very start. It's fine and dandy if you actually meant to form it into a love series (and do so tastefully) as long as you deliver on what you 'promise'. Especially with EP5, we are given hardcore mystery rules so we are led to believe that Ryukishi will satisfy the mystery component of the story. It's not okay if (even if this was planned from the start) Ryukishi constructs several mysteries that all tie into a love story, if he expects us to go out of our way to solve them but does not deliver with some semblance of an answer.
It's like false advertising. It's one thing if he meant it to truly be a love story (which I think is very plausible and likely) and held us to a high regard to solve his puzzles if he had an answer in mind. It's a completely other thing if he doesn't satisfy the people that were drawn to the work based on what he advertised it as.
However, I personally felt that there was a 'satisfying answer' (or at least several interesting possibilities) so I am not particularly disturbed. This is just the gist I get from the people that aren't satisfied.
I forgot about that part. I can see why it'd be a problem. But, if he admitted before EP8 that he messed up along the way, I think that would make people lose faith in the story and that would discredit the series as a whole. The decision is like
"What is the point of reading the conclusion if Ryukishi admitted that there wouldn't be a satisfying conclusion?" versus "Ryukishi's being a dick waving 'a solution' in front of our eyes but not telling us anything about it, so we have a hard time taking the series serious as a result."
From what I can tell the split between 'pleased' and 'unpleased' is 50/50. If he had told us that we had been wasting our time, then there probably would have been a bigger reaction against him. Even though he may be willfully deceiving us, he probably did it to protect the previous Episodes.
And it's not like his response is unreasonable given the themes of the story (after all, he really does want us to 'think for ourselves'). It just seems like a big coverup.
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Well as far as audiance reaction goes you seem to be underestimating fandom quite a bit. Do you really think fans would abandon Ryukishi so easily just because of one screw up? Of course not. They may get mad for a while but as soon as Ryukishi releases another series they'd be first in line to buy it. THAT is fandom! Honestly I think dangling the answer right in front of people is more of a reason for people to be pissed off at them. I mean lets face it every author has their screw ups at some point but that's not gonna keep people from following everything they create, but dangling a steak in the faces of hungry lions? You best be sure you don't end up in the same cage with them.
Personally I'd rather be all "I MAD!" For a while and then move on to Ryukishi's next work instead of feeling like a crocodile that keeps getting poked with a stick by idiot rednecks.