[AuraTwilight]

Just because we can find justifications to Battler's absence doesn't make taking another approach worthless.
We can find thousands of reason why his absence was unrelated to the mystery, and all of them could be wrong.

I really don't see why we're discussing about this point to be honest, since both points are equally valid.

I'm just saying that trying to analyze why he's missing, when Ryukishi never addresses it as significant, means it's probably a case of overanalyzing.

That's assuming she hasn't got the full story directly from him.

She can't, because he can't tell her. He knows, but he needs to figure out what he knows.

Not necessarily so, and this brings another idea of mine. As you put it, EP6 could have been another novel written by Tōya, in which he depicted himself as a woman (namely Ikuko). One thing that most people realise about EP6's Tōya/Featherine, is that it screams of author's self-insert. So, EP6's Featherine could be as much of an R07's self-insert as Tōya's.

I think this makes sense considering Hachijō Tōya != Ushiromiya Battler. So, BATTLER could be there to represent his past self and Featherine to represent his current self. And well, the one writing the story is Tōya and not Battler.

Maybe in a figurative sense. I just like the idea that Toya is a mentally damaged recluse and Ikuko is his spokesperson, using his identity when talking to 'clients'.

Pretty much EP5, isn't it? Well, "solved the mystery" may be the wrong term, but it must be someone who knows the truth. EP1-4's GM was Beato, EP5's was Lambda and after reaching the truth, Battler gained the right to become a GM.

It also makes sense. How could you be a GM for Beato's game when you've got no idea how it works and even less its solution?

There's a difference, hwoever, between "knowing everything" and "knowing enough to construct a proper game." not even Featherine knows everything but you say she can authorize a Game. Battler became the Territory Lord, though, and THAT certainly requires knowing the truth. Also Gold truth.

Which part of it, though? The first one or the Tea Party?
And this is just assuming she said she wasn't the GM during the Tea Party simply to screw with Ange - which she admitted in EP8, but that could have been a lie.

All of it. Bern says "I haven't gotten to do any real gamemastering yet" When Featherine goes to sleep.

Is that so? By the end of EP6, Bern seemed extremely butthurt, and then Featherine came up with the idea of a new game which Bern took massive delight on, as we saw in EP7.

Had Bern been able to do it before, don't you think she'd have done it? It'd have given her the perfect chance to screw with Battler in EP6.

Assuming she even knew it was possible for her to do before then. You can very easily make an arc for Bern and Lambda becoming more and more self-aware of what's going on as their characters develop.

There's a minor problem here, though, and its that Tōya cannot simply retcon the events of the story as he pleases, because in the end, these are supposed to have been based on real events, which he cannot change. So, he cannot contradict Bern if she's stating facts. Furthermore, if we go by the idea that everything we saw in EP6 was written by Tōya, then so has to be the part in which Featherine had Bern host the new game.

Also, in terms of Copyright, that cannot go, since the first two novels were not done by him and the story is based on real events and real people. So, that's a big nope.

The copyright thing was tongue in cheek, you know. But point is, he's the Territory Lord. He is the absolute master and God of Rokkenjima. If he says Bern can't make a game (under a worldview where meta-beings can give and take this authority), then he should be able to do so.

She wasn't torturing Beato, since Will had already killed Clair. You could say, though, Bern was desecrating her corpse by exposing a bunch of truths. Well, not that he'd have liked that anyway, but in the end, who knows what he was doing during that time.

It seems implied that Beato's awareness can see things even through the corpse, and there's also Lion to consider. Point is, Bern is trampling on everything Beatrice held dear and stomping on everything Battler worked for. Her EP8 game didn't do this.