[Game] Umineko - Spoilers, Theories, Interpretations

[Kitsu]

Source? If this is true, then we really are going to get a Rika-hijack AGAIN.

Just because someone stops acting like bitch or who you describe her behaviour doesn't mean we get a Rika-hijack. Seriously and to be honest if Ryukishi wants that to happen I'm fine with it.

[Marion]

Originally Posted by Kaisos Erranon

Source? If this is true, then we really are going to get a Rika-hijack AGAIN.

right here

Spoiler for Major part concerning Erika:

--Tell me about the new characters.

Ryuukishi: Both Erika and Dlanor are holding a thought game from a very different position than the one Battler has been coming from before now. Their existence is not only a way to make this tale more dramatic, but also a large hint.

--It felt as though you had detectives in mystery novels very firmly in mind when you created Erika.

Ryuukishi: That's right. Her character shares many traits that were maliciously extracted from those held by great detectives. With sealing the doors and the like, she is unlike Battler in that she's a hard worker, or maybe you could say she puts a lot of effort into her plans...... People vary on whether they like or dislike Erika. While Battler's enemies before now have specialized in confusing him, Erika comes at him from the exact opposite direction, and I think this leads to a different kind of battle than the ones we've seen so far. I hope this becomes a new light to shine on the riddle-filled world of Umineko. It seems that some of our users have wondered "Did he use her as a representative of users who write malicious theories?", but I leave such interpretations up to you. Umineko's focus on battles every time is part of the world's layout, so we must have a character who stands in clear opposition to Battler. So, if Erika had been a normal person, perhaps the battle and the tale wouldn't have become so exciting. Though I think Erika herself is just bad at choosing her words and not really such a bad person.

Translation was done by Chrono but the translation page has had too many posts for me to go through

[Tyabann]

Originally Posted by Kitsu

Just because someone stops acting like bitch or who you describe her behaviour doesn't mean we get a Rika-hijack. Seriously and to be honest if Ryukishi wants that to happen I'm fine with it.

So you'd rather a character who for all intents and purposes didn't exist in the question arcs to suddenly become the main focus of the plot? Christ, that's even worse than the Rika-hijack.

I'm sorry if I sound a bit rude, but I've seen excellent works ruined by the author falling in love with a character that no one else likes, or that by all rights shouldn't be popular. I can only hope this doesn't happen to Umineko.

Originally Posted by Marion

*snip*

I haven't yet played Ep5, but... from what I've heard, Erika she is most definitely a bad person. Sympathetic, yes, but a bad person.

Ryukishi saying that gives me a distinct sense of dread. I'm very worried about how the series is going to turn out now...

This doesn't mean I don't want Erika to be redeemed in some way, but I don't want her to become the next Beatrice, either.

[Marion]

Again it's just a theory. Nothing confirms what Erika is or how she just appeared.

Spoiler for Erika, EP 5:

Basically she has a similar position as Ange does in EP 4. If she performs badly then Bern will discard her, thus ending her existence. So she has to be ruthless and has to win in order to secure her own lively hood. Although she seems to enjoy her position more than Ange or Beato, she still has some room for redemption.

[Tjfarmer]

I really doubt Erika will hi-jack the series. She may become the only detective on the gameboard (until Battler slowly kills her while ahaha.wav plays), but the meta-world stuff will probably all still be about Battler.


And I liked the Rika-hijack.

[Marion]

A joke when the game came out (and still is) is that Erika did technically hijack the game, along with Bern and Lambda. Like they literally take the game and do as they please the entire time. Thus she's compared to Rika, who sorta hijacked Higurashi in the answer arcs.

[Tyabann]

Originally Posted by Marion

A joke when the game came out (and still is) is that Erika did technically hijack the game, along with Bern and Lambda. Like they literally take the game and do as they please the entire time. Thus she's compared to Rika, who sorta hijacked Higurashi in the answer arcs.

Which seemed to be Ryukishi making fun of himself, yeah.

The problem is that he doesn't appear to be doing that intentionally.

[chronotrig]

Originally Posted by Kaisos Erranon

Which seemed to be Ryukishi making fun of himself, yeah.

The problem is that he doesn't appear to be doing that intentionally.

Please. please wait to read EP5 before you try and bash Ryuukishi on this. Erika is very much intentionally made to be a Mary Sue, and the game makes this obvious. She is a Mary Sue, but she's Bern's Mary Sue. This is Bernkastel writing herself into Beatrice's story, not Ryuukishi himself getting obsessed with a random character. It's almost like Bern's treating this game like her own fanfic ^^;

Also, as far as we know, Ryuukishi has never added something in an answer arc that wasn't hinted to in an earlier arc. I'd be willing to bet that Erika is somehow related to something we've already seen.

[Tyabann]

Originally Posted by chronotrig

Please. please wait to read EP5 before you try and bash Ryuukishi on this. Erika is very much intentionally made to be a Mary Sue, and the game makes this obvious. She is a Mary Sue, but she's Bern's Mary Sue. This is Bernkastel writing herself into Beatrice's story, not Ryuukishi himself getting obsessed with a random character.

...I'll probably understand better after I play the game, but... I'm just worried.

It's more the line in that interview that worries me, though, as I continue to say.

Originally Posted by chronotrig

Also, as far as we know, Ryuukishi has never added something in an answer arc that wasn't hinted to in an earlier arc. I'd be willing to bet that Erika is somehow related to something we've already seen.

Er, wasn't there several pieces of red stating that she wasn't related to previous events? This is an actual question...

[chronotrig]

Originally Posted by Kaisos Erranon

...I'll probably understand better after I play the game, but... I'm just worried.

It's more the line in that interview that worries me, though, as I continue to say.



Er, wasn't there several pieces of red stating that she wasn't related to previous events?

It says she never influences previous games or "worlds".

It could be that she exists only before or after the actual game, either by witnessing something shortly before the tragedy or being somehow involved in the aftermath.
And if she has a vessel of some kind, that might appear in previous games without contradicting the red.

Plus, all this red only refers the the piece Erika. It might not refer to meta-Erika at all.

[LyricalAura]

Originally Posted by Kaisos Erranon

...I'll probably understand better after I play the game, but... I'm just worried.

It's more the line in that interview that worries me, though, as I continue to say.

Er, wasn't there several pieces of red stating that she wasn't related to previous events? This is an actual question...

Her arrival on the island might be a result of some underlying phenomenon that generated other events in the previous games. For instance, one of the characters could be running some kind of scheme, and Erika was hired to support it in Episode 5, but the schemer previously took different actions to support it that didn't involve Erika.

[Tyabann]

Originally Posted by chronotrig

It could be that she exists only before or after the actual game, either by witnessing something shortly before the tragedy or being somehow involved in the aftermath.

...You know, if she really does have a boat, she could have been the one to discover the incident and alert the police.

Originally Posted by LyricalAura

Her arrival on the island might be a result of some underlying phenomenon that generated other events in the previous games. For instance, one of the characters could be running some kind of scheme, and Erika was hired to support it in Episode 5, but the schemer previously took different actions to support it that didn't involve Erika.

Yeah, she's pretty obviously some kind of accomplice. Bern's powers notwithstanding, human beings cannot swim two miles in a hurricane.

[luckyssol]

Originally Posted by Kaisos Erranon

...You know, if she really does have a boat, she could have been the one to discover the incident and alert the police.

Yes, apparently she was on a boat somewhere near the island on October 4th. If this were true then it wouldn't change between the games.

Originally Posted by Kaisos Erranon

Yeah, she's pretty obviously some kind of accomplice.

I don't think she has any idea who did the murders or how they were done based on how the ???? Tea Party went.

Originally Posted by Kaisos Erranon

Bern's powers notwithstanding, human beings cannot swim two miles in a hurricane.

Yes, I agree.

[Tyabann]

Originally Posted by Ssol

I don't think she has any idea who did the murders or how they were done based on how the ???? Tea Party went.

Hence why I said "some kind" of accomplice.

She can't have killed anyone as per the red, but she can definitely be involved with the killings in some indirect way.

[blitz1/2]

Originally Posted by Kaisos Erranon

Hence why I said "some kind" of accomplice.

She can't have killed anyone as per the red, but she can definitely be involved with the killings in some indirect way.

But then couldn't the same thing be said about battler then?

[LyricalAura]

Originally Posted by blitz1/2

But then couldn't the same thing be said about battler then?

Absolutely. Battler is not the culprit. However, because of his sin, a great many people on Rokkenjima die.

[Marion]

I agree with Chrono. Erika is obviously made to both show the nasty side of the people who are completely anti-fantasy (if we can even use that term anymore) but is also an obvious copy of Bern herself as a human, which is why people theorize she's a bad end Rika.

Erika has a sin. Because of this sin people die.

but in all seriousness, Erika can be indirectly involved but it depends on what you see as indirect. She can't be a killer herself, but she can't be involved in murdering in any direct way either, which counts her out as an accomplice. I doubt her very presence causes death like with Battler, because she appears only in EP 5 on the gameboard, but it doesn't mean she couldn't have done something to help the culprit in some odd fashion or accidentally. Maybe one of her 'detective' checks could have given a doorway into the culprit's doings.

Spoiler for Major EP 5 spoiler:

Then again considering nobody in the guest room was actually dead because of the conflicting red truth presented at the end of the game that makes her entire testimony about going around the building and what not nearly irrelevant.

[Tyabann]

What says she can't be directly and knowing helping the murderer? She simply cannot be a culprit, a killer.

She has the status of detective, but that doesn't mean she's actively working for the forces of good. I'm pretty positive she's working with The Man From 19 Years Ago, from what I've heard on this board...

[MeoTwister5]

I for one enjoyed whenever Erika was in Ep5 because it gave me someone to really dislike inside the game board. I never felt that dislike for any character for either side. I never felt that much dislike for a meta-character either.

Actually, That Bitch comes off as a satire of the extremes of the anti-magic side, so much so that not only does it affect the players but Battler's side as well. In fact, one might say that this intention was not only by the author Ryukishi himself, but that Bern herself might have this intention.

[luckyssol]

Who would have thought that after all the insane magical characters Ryukishi introduced over the first four games that a normal human would be considered the most ridiculous character by far.

Did Lambdadelta create a false scene when Natsuhi got the first phone call from the man from 19 years ago? That happened before October 4th...