[haguruma]

Originally Posted by GuestSpeaker

Beato ep 8 is somewhat unreliable by the mere fact she is saying she wrote ep 3 and 4 (as examples of losing, examples of Battler not remembering).

I still wonder what that was actually implying, because on the one hand EP8 manga Beato says that she imagined all these possible events that could occur between her and Battler, among them EP3 and 4, but in the end EP5's end of him understanding her and her magic apparently happened. Yet at the same time she admits that only two message bottles ever reached the shore.

The only thing that I could think of and kind of always thought is, that Beato is more of a concept governing the message board, a governor of the magical side who has been put into place by the original author and kind of works like an automatic clock.
It would explain why she "dies" once Battler understands what and who she is, because he understands that he was playing against somebody who is not even alive anymore.

With ep 7 being the last ep as far as the public is concerned (assumedly the last one Tohya had involvement in), does that mean that ep 8 was possibly sent directly to Ange? Or more likely just her internal thoughts

I would assume that, if we tried to explain it rationally, it would be more of Ange's own doubts and questions driven to an extreme. I always assumed that she was already subconsciously aware of the chance of Hachijo Tohya being Battler, but was imagining what that would actually imply.
The central question is, why would my brother protect this illusion? Why doesn't he tell me the truth?

But Ryukishi said as well, the story changes depending on the angle it is read from.

Originally Posted by GuestSpeaker

Also, thought of the day:

Considering all of the things that Yasu was torn about, apparently dating her cousins was not one of them?

Well, cousin marriage is only outlawed in China, most American states and some Eastern European countries. Middle Europe, South America, Canada, and even Japan allows cousin marriage.
In 1983 the number of cousin marriages in Japan was apparently as high as 1.6% (about 200.000 couples).

Also, Yasu didn't even know till 1985 that they were her cousins. Who knows, couldn't it be that this fueled her desperation even more?