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Originally Posted by ErenselTheJester

As for my thought on Chiru Battler's differences with his Original, I was under the impression that he was always capable of having such intelligence but it was never utilized because of the fact that he was incompetent.

Well, Battler's incompetence in EP 1 is weird in a fashion. He says all that had happened should be a trick and, if they were to look into mystery books they would find it, however we'll later find out he's a avid mystery reader but he can't offer a single decent solution. So either he forgot the mystery books he had read or searching through mystery books wouldn't help us to get the solution to the tricks or he has no other choice but being incompetent.

(and I really wonder who provided the clue about Kinzo's hometown. In Ep 1 they are thinking to the wrong location while in EP 5 there's no such problem and in EP 7 is even said the siblings all know to which city the epitaph referred... so maybe people was supposed to have troubles figuring it out due to the storyline purpose?)

Originally Posted by ErenselTheJester

-Beatrice announces herself as Kinzo's illegitimate child and heir to the family fortune, who disquised herself as a servant to Ushiromiya family. Naturally the adults were suspicious but Nanjo, Genji, and Kumasawa assured them that it was the truth and told them of Kinzo's affairs with the other two Beatrices.

I don't know if she announced herself as Kinzo's child but I'll say in Prime she should have announced herself as the gold owner at least... and that people might have realized/been told by Genji & Co who she was...

Originally Posted by ErenselTheJester

-Despite the initial stir, the family decides to host a halloween party to inaugurate Beatrice as an addition to the family. Beatrice decides to make murder mystery game out of it and everyone fakes their death with Battler, George, and Jessica as the detectives and herself as the culprit (and Maria as her accomplice).

Hum... I'm not sure if things could have gone so smoothly. I mean, it would be natural for the Ushiromiya to be wary of a maid who out of the blue says she's Kinzo's heir. Even Genji & Co's support to her declaration might have been viewed as them being bribed into confirming her story.

Even though the Ushiromiya might have been nicer then what one can assume they still were a wealthy family and Shannon might have been viewed as someone who was trying to trick them for money.

Honestly I've various theories about how things could have gone but none of them is 'perfect'. I guess there are still too many missing pieces.

Originally Posted by RandomAvatarFan

We're all sure a mystery game happened. I seriously wonder why.

Well, if they were celebrating halloween it could have been a nice halloween activity. Also it could have give Shannon a chance to 'bond' with Battler or check if he was still the same boy she remembered.

It's sort of saying: me and my childhood crush used to play cards together as a kids so now that we meet again after 6 years let's play cards again.

In a fashion that's kind of depressing because it drives home that after 6 years all we might have in common are memories and the same love for card games... though at the same time, working with what we know we still have in common we can find other things we've in common and rebuild our relation... or we can realize we're really grown too far apart so well, it was nice to see each other again (or maybe it wasn't even that) but well, it's not an experience we'll look forward to repeat.

So I think Shannon was searching a way to see if she could connect with Battler again as she did when they were kids... through for the others the game was likely merely a way to amuse themselves.

Originally Posted by RandomAvatarFan

As far as we know they could all have just been asleep when the bomb went off.

Theres really little known about the bomb. For all we know it could even be that the storm caused something to shortcircuit and the bomb exploded while Eva was in Kuwadorian for random reasons.

Originally Posted by RandomAvatarFan

This ignores more or less everything that was said in EP7. I think with Yasu's emotional state, that it's probable that s/he may have prepared for the bomb to go off as Claire confessed. Even though almost everything is fictional, and EP8 everyone seems out of character... having Beato/Yasu use the epitaph "for fun" is really out of her character. I don't believe that the murder game was just Yasu wanting fun for a night.

Well, people do crazy things for 'fun' though I think the key point is she was feeling in a bad situation and wanted a way out. It's as if she thought: 'now everything is going bad but it would be nice if things could change and I could return having fun with Battler'. I don't really think she went as overboard as to blackmail people to take part to her game or using the bomb as there were better ways to handle things but yes, she could have looked at the game as if it was her chance to find back her happiness.

Originally Posted by RandomAvatarFan

I'm also unsure about the time Yasu's bottles were written. I still believe that they contain almost exactly what we see as the Episodes (I know this is a discussion of its own), and if I believe that I would conclude that the bottles were written afterwards. How can this tie into an accident theory I wonder...

There's something interesting Battler says in Ep 5.

A crime carried out without any particular intention just happens to look similar to the epitaph, and the witnesses mistakenly think it's a plotline murder. Humans try to find cause and effect in everything they see. ......If we think we know what something is, then that's how it looks to us.

If Yasu tossed the bottles in the sea without any particular intent and then the Rokkenjima tragedy happened we would see a connection through the facts.
If the Rokkenjima tragedy hadn't happened people who were to find the bottles might have wondered about them, maybe someone could have even reported them to the police or the Ushiromiya in fear someone WAS planning a murder but the things would end here.

Originally Posted by RandomAvatarFan

Maybe despite Yasu's existence as Shkanontrice, his/her bottles were just a way to deal with the pain, similar to Tohya's reasons for the forgeries. The bottles weren't Yasu's "plans" at all, but a way for Beatrice to get her message out to somebody. It can tie in with the Ikuko = Yasu theory which I'm not a fan of though but whatever...

Yes, it's a possibility.

Originally Posted by Wanderer

I'm beginning to think that the fake murders were as much for messing with Erika (like in EP6) as they were for messing with Natsuhi. The conspirators may not all have had the same agenda. An example scenario would be: there are people (say Jessica, Battler, Krauss etc.) participating for the sake of screwing with Erika; then there are people (say Eva, Rudolf, Kyrie etc.) who play along with the anti-Erika game, but actually intend to somehow use the game to corner Natsuhi; meanwhile someone (say Yasu) is secretly real-killing the people who were hiding somewhere for the sake of the murder ruse.

Something like that.

Yes, I've the same feeling as well. Note that Jessica had been offended by Erika's words previously so she might have been trying to get back at her (as they do in EP 6) and George and Maria might have played along. The adults however could have been using the murder game to get back at Natsuhi while yasu supported it for her own agenda...