[AuraTwilight]

I think I can explain the love part, tell me what you think: Shannon is in grief for Kanon's death. She wants him to "come back to life" (Kinzo parallel here, by the way), and has a difficult time accepting he is dead. She grows too attached to his fictional version, however, and finds she is consumed by her writing of him. The character's own likes and desires begins to overcome hers. Shannon sees his love for Jessica as a defining quality of him, and feels guilt that "Kanon" could not realize his love for her while Shannon, who lives on, is free to love as she will (by the way, you could very well mix her own love conflicts to this. No problem with Shannon being bisexual). She is starting to realize fictional Kanon inside herself. The "we should have done it sooner" refers to how she should not have stood "in between" her character and her herself. That way she hurts herself and her memory of Kanon. She should've torn herself away from him, or given herself completely to the character, much sooner.

But he's still just a fictional character; is she starting to become his personality? Is Fictional Shkanon fighting the urge to become Literal Shkanon (which would be pretty lol)?

This can be used to understand some scenes. For example, remember the Will-Shannon chessmaster scene in EP7? Here's one explanation. Kanon being an actual person, able to be confirmed alive in red, is a complete contradiction to the mystery. Revealing this to Will would cause a logic error, as Will, having solved the mystery from the perspective of the first four gameboards, understands Kanon's limitations as a fictional character, in part that he is not allowed to live or die.

But Will wasn't asking to confirm Kanon's life in red or anything of the sort, he just wanted to talk to him and Shannon; he did so before, just not at the same time, and Will sees witches and magic and crap so it's not like he has a viewpoint similar to Erika's.

How's this? If we're going for this explanation, it's actually very in-line with Shkannon. Actually, it is Shkannon, except the distinction is drawn between author and character (I am not saying real-world Shannon has a different personality, or that she is literally acting like Kanon. The Love Duel is intended as a metaphor for a very secretive, inner conflict she has, as well as a ritual for overcoming her grief). I simply think this is a more human explanation than Shannon literally acting out an imaginary servant's role.

Alright, and how does Kanon's backstory come into this? Clair and Shannon apparently designed him before he showed up, and even in flashbacks, Genji and others sort of treat them as a collective that can be swapped out for Beatrice whenever convenient. When exactly did Kanon die?

I was under the impression you were asking me to also explain the motive, but I probably misread! You can replace motive here with "character study of Shannon and Kanon". I mean there doesn't have to be one explanation for the Love Duel or anything, and I'm just offering one possible theory.

Alright, for a second I thought you were complaining that Shkanon doesn't solve the whydunnit of the murders and I'm like "what?!" Lol, thanks for clearing that up. So basically you're identifying Shkanon as effectively the same thing but only for the fictions as an internal symbolism?

I completely agree that real-world Yasu doesn't have it in her to be a murderer. At the same time, I don't like saying Shannon and Kanon are entirely fictional characters. I can see how this works for Shannon (if we simply assume she is an idealized version of Yasu), but I don't like that there is a distinction between Shannon and Kanon at the gameboard level, if we assume them to be the same at the meta level. I don't like the "slipperiness" of using the red to proclaim Shannon and Kanon's death interchangeably, but separately. Most of all, that we allow discussion of the life and death of unrealized (in the real world) fictional characters and figments of imagination is, in my opinion, an enormous flaw in a mystery that is, in my opinion, intended to reveal the truth of R-Prime. I'm not saying Umineko as a whole is a mystery - but I want to believe the stories are, in part, intended to be one. But only in part - the assumption here is that they mean much more.

I honestly don't see why this is a big deal. Everyone on the island accepts Shannon and Kanon as real, separate people, even if they aren't. This includes most of the meta-characters. This is exactly the premise Beatrice establishes as magic: A lie everyone believes in becomes the truth. She proposed this as early as episode one. What is a fiction? A lie you're letting yourself believe in for the purpose of reading it.

Kanon and Shannon both being accepted as real is a premise of the Gameboard. The Red Truth is "absolutely true", but it's a premise that has to be accepted; there's nothing really prevented text from being colored red, because it's not actually a magical phenomena.

If we were discussing Shkanon here (and not the plausibility of my theory), at this point I would've asked for more detail on this. Like I said, I disagree that it is the one consistent theory, but I very much understand this is a matter of taste. Not to derail the subject, however, I would prefer if we keep "which is the better theory" contests to a minimum.

I didn't mean to say it was "the one consistent theory", I'm not that arrogant. I'm just stating that I still personally think it's the best we got, and that's my personal opinion. I apologize if I gave the wrong idea.

I have no idea myself, to be honest. I (mistakenly) assumed that you were asking me for a motive to the crime, so I figured you were able to offer one for Shkannon. By this line of reasoning, the only motive I've heard for the Shkannon Whydunnit is some polyamory thing, which I am not satisfied with.

The polyamory thing would merely be a motive to continue it; it's clear it didn't start because of this love mess. I think the fact that servants have reported seeing Beatrice running around is enough evidence to suggest that Yasu insists on costume play and taking up her roles, in order for them to be accepted as real. Hell, it's pretty much all Beatrice ever fucking talks about.

I will if you insist, but is this relevant? I think it's best we keep this theory the subject here, rather than get into yet another argument about Shkannon. I don't want to get into an argument of whether my criticisms of Shkannon are justified, for example, since that's an entirely different matter.

Fine :P