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Originally Posted by haguruma
Well, there is few evidence to prove that Hanyuu was or was not actually part of the plot that Ryuukishi had planned at the point of Onikakushi, her first mention came at the exact same point as Ikuko/Toya's appearance during Meakashi, the 6th entry in the series, so criticizing Ikuko in comparison to Hanyuu seems unfair to me. I think it is very much up to personal interpretation and liking. Medieval dimension-travelling ghost ancestor of a protagonist from (possibly) outer space or vastly rich shut-in mystery writer who was in the right place to save a protagonist, I had a harder time to swallow the first one.
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I'm not talking about realism here, I'm talking about their roles in their respective narratives.
If we aren't biased against magical explanations from the start, then there's no shortage of evidence of Hanyuu in early Higurashi (it's just that at that point we only know her as Oyashiro-sama and don't yet understand her motives very well). It wasn't the
character of Hanyuu that came out of nowhere sp much as it was magic itself being real. Ikuko, on the other hand, shows up late (with completely no foreshadowing) and serves more to further complicate things than provide answers for them.
My problem with Ikuko=random isn't that she was in the right place to save the protagonist (it's quite natural that our helpless amnesiac needs somebody to take care of him). It's that she's a lot more than that: I mean, what narrative purpose does it serve to have a person completely unrelated to the incident have her hands in writing about it? Battler doing it by himself would be fine. Why inject her as a factor?
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Originally Posted by jjblue1
Hum... I wouldn't confuse Featherine with Ikuko as Featherine is supposed to be Ikuko+Tohya, not just Ikuko.
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Why do you say that?
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Originally Posted by haguruma
not only would that mean that Yasu had accounted for everything on the island to happen exactly like this, which would make her not only a mass-murderer but insane beyond repair,
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This would only apply to a pre-incident authorship scenario.
Here's a general outline to a Ikuko=Yasu scenario I'd prefer:
- Yasu plans on leaving the island after the 1986 family conference, probably as Shannon living with George. Using the gold, she's already made arrangements including a mansion, and perhaps another identity. As a kind of goodbye celebration to her life on the island, and to Battler in particular, she orchestrates a murder game.
- Something goes wrong in the game. Someone hijacks it to try to obtain the gold, or someone takes it as too real. In any case, somehow the mansion blows up with only Battler, Yasu, and Eva surviving.
- Traumatized Battler loses his memory in the tragedy. Yasu takes him to the mansion she had arranged prior, and takes on the identity of Ikuko. Or perhaps they had been together for a while before Battler lost his memory.
- Finally, wanting to express her feelings of guilt for her part in the tragedy, and to express herself anonymously to Battler, she arranges a hoax suggesting Beatrice to be the culprit who killed everyone.
Something like that.
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And, since it's related to the current discussion and has been on my mind recently, I'm going to bring up the topic of how real the "magic" ending really is. Aside from it being a so-called "magic" ending and requiring a liberal amount of "Rule of Drama" to swallow, there's also the one conversation between Ange and 'Hachijou' at the end of EP6:
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Hachijou: As thanks for the considerable time you have given to me, .........I will someday write your tale.
Ange: Am I going to appear in another of your forgeries? ...I hope you kill me in a slightly better way this time.
Hachijou: ......Do you...like miracles?
Ange: Are you talking about opportunism? ......I used to hate it, but recently I've become a big fan. Still, I'm picky about what I'll accept, and falling from a skyscraper and ending up unharmed isn't what I'd call a miracle.
Hachijou: Then, one day, perhaps, I will write you a tale that you consider a miracle......
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Honestly, it fits really well as foreshadowing. I mean, here we have a promise from Hachijou to write "Ange's tale" with a miracle she could accept... It seems veeerrrry likely to me that this is a reference to the EP8 ????.
To me, it seems to suggest that the EP8 ???? is not Prime, or perhaps that there isn't even a Prime at all. What do you think, everyone?