Umineko FanFiction Discussion

[Thunder Book]

Honestly I think I need to watch through all of Redaction again anyways. It's a good story that I had trouble understanding the ultimate point of, but even still it has stuck with me this entire time.

[Golden Bug-Hunter]

Well, let me say that as sinister malevolent conspiracies go, the world would be well served by evil geniuses that stumble upon the idea of 'I will take talented ORPHANS and SPONSOR THEIR RISE TO PROSPERITY! Then, they shall be my FRIENDS and occasionally do me FAVORS! BWA HAH HAH HA!...'

Now that is what I call a better class of criminal.

[AuraTwilight]

Originally Posted by Leafsnail

That was certainly interesting. I may be on completely the wrong track but I think I get Redaction a lot more now.

Spoiler:

So the idea is that "Mrs Marion" may hold a lot of responsibility for the Rokkenjima incident in Sarah's fragment, even though she wasn't there and never planned any murders. It is thus analogous to Sarah's feelings about the 1996 incident, in which she allowed three young people to head off to a dangerous island together.

Rather,

Spoiler for response:

It's not so much Marion holds 'responsibility' so much that she's doing exactly the same thing as Beatrice; she's taking the blame for other people's crimes. She became interested in Beatrice's story in the first place due to how similar, and different, they are.

Honestly I think I need to watch through all of Redaction again anyways. It's a good story that I had trouble understanding the ultimate point of, but even still it has stuck with me this entire time.

To phrase it as non-spoilery as possible....could the Rokkenjima incident have been avoided? Who was at fault for it?

How you answer these questions are largely due in part to how one sees the world, and THAT is what Redaction addresses. Do you see the world as an inherently corrupt world where goodness is struggling against a status quo of wickedness, or do you see the world as a place where the world is good by default and wickedness is an active force?

What is the difference between feeling guilt and being responsible? What breaks a person, and how can you help those sorts of people?

[Renall]

An important general-purposes hint:

Spoiler:

Redaction is a story framed and told mainly from Sarah's perspective. It draws upon her knowledge as a storyteller in-universe, her status as a foreigner and someone without direct connection to or knowledge of the crime but with her own connection to the movement that spun up around the incident, and someone with her own history to confront that shapes her morality and attitude toward the characters in the story.

The TIPs are framed and told from someone else's perspective, and draw on that person's knowledge and history. There isn't a lot said about that specifically right now, but there is one very, very important aspect of their whole personality that changes everything about how they relate to the Rokkenjima Incident.

Spoiler:

They were not yet born in 1986.

Just a thought.

With that in mind, pay Shouon just as much attention as Mrs. Marion. He isn't the narrator for nothing.

Originally Posted by Thunder Book

Honestly I think I need to watch through all of Redaction again anyways. It's a good story that I had trouble understanding the ultimate point of, but even still it has stuck with me this entire time.

You can download it. It would be much, much faster than trying to watch it all again.

[Thunder Book]

Yeah, looking back over the video lengths, that probably is the better idea...

Though there was a certain appeal in the fact that the last batch of videos were a good 2 to 3 hours long a piece.

[Captain Bluebeard]

Originally Posted by GoldenLand

Thanks for posting those, they look great!

I'm really glad you like them ^^

I'm surprised that you hadn't had any comments about the CGs before.

Well the main reason for that may be that I didn't realize Willard's hand in the first one was drawn in an awkward, anatomically impossible way until recently....

No well, I'm aware they aren't anything too grand, their making started as something like a joke bewtween the making of the episodes, but I'm genuinely happy somebody likes them.

[battle22]

Originally Posted by GoldenLand

And now that I've finished playing Total Seacat Island, I really ought to review it. It was a fun, entertaining game. Thanks for making it, Battle22! I'll certainly continue to read it if it gets continued/re-made.

Spoiler for Total Seacat Island up to ep 5:

It was interesting to hear what are presumably non-Umineko BGM/BGM clips mixed in with the Umineko ones. Some of them were really nice and ones that maybe I should track down sometime, and some were well used to match to the jokes. (It is always time for the macarena. And for Super Sonic Racing.)

The custom art and graphics were very impressive. It was very nice to have the map and character profiles made to fit the game. The new backgrounds were nice, and the custom art was funny and well-drawn. My favourites were the art for the chain and bath scene with Will and for Beatrice and the spiders. I was also impressed by the inclusion of the choice options with Lambadelta. (And that they could lead to bad ends.)

It was fun to see some of the sprites from the fighting game there, and they were integrated well. I particularly liked them in the cliff climbing scene with Kanon and Shannon. I could tell that a lot of work must have gone into some of the edited animated scenes using art from the PS3 port and the special moves of the fighting game. Speaking of the PS3 port, it was also nice to see the sprites from that game in action. I do prefer the original art on account of Ryukishi's glorious expressions, but the more polished stuff from the port does have good things about it too. Especially Erika's pirate hat and tape graphics!

There were a lot of funny jokes, and I liked the spirit of fun and absurdity that the game had, and the references to the Umineko games in general.

I took a bunch of notes as I watched, so I know that jokes I liked in particular included:

- Rudolf's "I think...I'm gonna get voted off tonight." and "I think...I'm going to drown today." jokes.

- "I'm sorry, I am Captain Erika." "Arr!" And the other pirate things. Erika's stalking was great too.

- You really worried me at the point where Rosa is instructing Maria in how to use a gun, and Kinzo shows up saying "What the hell are you teaching her!"but my faith was restored when he added "You have to aim for the head, that's a guaranteed kill."

- I loved Will's solution to Gaap's riddle.

- Ahahahaha Gertrude's sudden "Let it be known that I fucking love this!" face, so scary.

- Rudolf's make-up face!

- Dlanor vs the Goats and Lion and Rosa vs the Zombies were great.

In terms of negatives, there were several spelling mistakes throughout the game, although they didn't detract from enjoying reading. I also had a bit of trouble with some of the sound effects sounding louder than the music, so esp. at points where there were screaming sound clips or I thought there might be some, I did turn the sound basically off, lest people run in worried about me, heh. Also, I found that when I was spending a relatively long session reading Seacats, the comic effect of all the swearing wore off a lot more than when I just read a shorter bit at a time. And some of the special effects seemed to repeat for a while too long.

So in short, I think the game was funny and creative. Nice stuff.

Thank you very much for your wonderful review. Captain and I are very happy to hear that there is somebody out there who liked it :d

[ErenselTheJester]

Hey guys, this is a rough draft of an experimental fanfiction I'm working on.

Spoiler:

-------------------AT THE CHURCH-------------------

Is it ironic that there are churches for witches? Here I am in this grand building, a white light shining through the stained glass with a long series of large pews. However, you can't sense that anybody has been here. Instead, all you feel is emptiness as if this church had been abandoned not only by its members but by its god as well. Of course, that's because its god is dead in a coffin in front of the lectern. Sad, really, I remember during those old witch hunts and trials, the last thing a witch would want is a church since those were the places where hatred for them would fester. Then again, maybe this was a church for a cult. Maybe the members here revered and loved their god, who was now deceased? Maybe they wept at her lost and screamed for life to return to her? However, this isn't a proper burial, at least not for a witch. After all, witches are usually burned by the stake but she didn't do anything to deserve that of course. I shall simply light a match and watch as it overwhelms her coffin and finally puts her in her proper rest. This is the least I can do since the last guy just made her into a doll for that weird cat witch to slice up and the guy before him basically stabbed her, not to death, but to a mental coma only for her to get killed by someone else. I want to promise her that now she can rest without any worry but, she's already dead and her corpse has been abused to the point where the only thing her coffin is protecting me from is the disgust of seeing her be reduced to nothing but a heaping mass of decay.

So I must begin, but from where? The beginning? Or maybe the middle where the hints started appearing in masses? But maybe I would be taking the lazy way out?So it must be the beginning but how should I tackle it? Is it to be criticized or solved? No, I'm a detective, solving should be my priority and I have the notes to do it, so I must solve it properly.

But should I do it here just staring at her coffin...? No, in fact, this church isn't a good place to do it at all. I'll take her to the court but I must do so with secrecy. The last thing I want is the attention of her abusers.

-----------------AT THE COURT----------------

Indeed, this seems more appropriate but I'll look like a fool convicting a corpse. However, witches weren't tried in churches and I won't be the one to start doing so. But does it really seem right with just the two of us? Not really a court case with no judge or jury but maybe it's better this way? She's been playing murder for all her life, blaming herself for the fiction that she writes as if they were real. Is she really a criminal? Does simply the thought of murder make one a murderer? I don't know but maybe my job isn't to find out. After all, I am trying to burn her and maybe her "crimes" are just matches for me to use. So, at least for this occasion, her crimes are true crimes. Whether real or fictional, she has killed less than 20 people countless times and, for now, she is to blame for her death. I have to believe that. I have to if I want to rid her of the state she's in yet, somehow, I can't force myself to feel that that's true.

As for this case, all crimes mentioned are regarded as having been done by Beatrice the Golden. Despite any innocence testified, she has committed an endless series of murders for her amusement. With this, her cremation begins as we observe, solve, and finally conclude these murders with her final erasion.

There, no matter what I believe, it is written in stone. She is a criminal and I, her executioner. However, Detectives were meant to be saviors. When did our jobs become so... depressing? Whatever I am as a detective, I must waste no more time.

Let me observe her first crime, the murder of the six corpses found in the garden shed...

The summary of this concept is that another meta- detective is secretly trying to cremate Beatrice's corpse. The experiment is the existence of a meta- detective since a detective can't possibly exist in the meta- world where magic exists as well as him having a first person perspective which posits the question of whether anyone can have a reliable perspective when reality can shift at one's whim.

[AuraTwilight]

The experiment is the existence of a meta- detective since a detective can't possibly exist in the meta- world where magic exists as well as him having a first person perspective which posits the question of whether anyone can have a reliable perspective when reality can shift at one's whim.

What about Battler, Erika, Williard...?

[ALPHA-Beatrice]

Originally Posted by Renall

An important general-purposes hint:

Spoiler:

Redaction is a story framed and told mainly from Sarah's perspective. It draws upon her knowledge as a storyteller in-universe, her status as a foreigner and someone without direct connection to or knowledge of the crime but with her own connection to the movement that spun up around the incident, and someone with her own history to confront that shapes her morality and attitude toward the characters in the story.

The TIPs are framed and told from someone else's perspective, and draw on that person's knowledge and history. There isn't a lot said about that specifically right now, but there is one very, very important aspect of their whole personality that changes everything about how they relate to the Rokkenjima Incident.

Spoiler:

They were not yet born in 1986.

Just a thought.

With that in mind, pay Shouon just as much attention as Mrs. Marion. He isn't the narrator for nothing.
You can download it. It would be much, much faster than trying to watch it all again.

I have a Redaction Theory. Andy is the meta-physical representation of Sarah's brother. The manifestation of her guilt for their forced separation.

(I watched the link you gave. I was always interested in Redaction, but it felt overly long. And I didn't want to go through a long intro. At least with Umineko, it felt like you could skip the unnecessary scenes.) I'm about to watch the Tip for confirmation or denial of my theory of Andy's nature.

[Drifloon]

You do realise that there's a VN version of Redaction on Renall's site, right? It's only a bit longer than the average Umineko episode, I don't think it's all that much to read.

And your theory is pretty much the same thing that I (and several others apparently) thought when I first finished Redaction, but it's already been denied, sorry.

[AuraTwilight]

Originally Posted by ALPHA-Beatrice

I have a Redaction Theory. Andy is the meta-physical representation of Sarah's brother. The manifestation of her guilt for their forced separation.

(I watched the link you gave. I was always interested in Redaction, but it felt overly long. And I didn't want to go through a long intro. At least with Umineko, it felt like you could skip the unnecessary scenes.) I'm about to watch the Tip for confirmation or denial of my theory of Andy's nature.

Your blue was already sort of addressed in Redaction.

Spoiler for Hint towards Andy's nature.:

He has no vessel that existed in 1986, so Sarah's brother is not who he represents.

In the final scene with those two, Sarah apologizes for neglecting the people she still had by trying to do right by the people she's lost, putting Andy in the former category. Her brother is in the latter.

And finally, Andy is younger than her. Sarah was the younger sibling.

[Renall]

No, she's older than her brother (her entire backstory wouldn't make any sense otherwise).

Spoiler:

But she's also way, way older than Andy. Like 30+ years older. There is a sort of surrogacy undercurrent there but the relationship is entirely different. Sarah believes that she has failed at being a sister and at being a friend, but there is another kind of relationship that she hadn't screwed up yet.

The VN download is a lot better of an idea than trying to watch 30+ hours of videos at this point, I'd reckon.

[ALPHA-Beatrice]

Originally Posted by Renall

No, she's older than her brother (her entire backstory wouldn't make any sense otherwise).

Spoiler:

But she's also way, way older than Andy. Like 30+ years older. There is a sort of surrogacy undercurrent there but the relationship is entirely different. Sarah believes that she has failed at being a sister and at being a friend, but there is another kind of relationship that she hadn't screwed up yet.

The VN download is a lot better of an idea than trying to watch 30+ hours of videos at this point, I'd reckon.

Thank you ^^ I look forward to playing it. Mainly because that vid you gave out. I'm far more sympathetic to Sarah than Yasu. I can understand why she feels like she's a screw-up, how life is screwed up and yet at the same time wanting to believe in the world.

Actually, mostly because I feel that way myself. She's a totally relatable person.

[battle22]

Ah, if the VN version is out, allow me to download it as well ^_^

[AuraTwilight]

No, she's older than her brother (her entire backstory wouldn't make any sense otherwise).

Bah, my bad memory. Either way, the other points are valid. >_<

[GoldenLand]

I enjoyed reading the new Redaction Tip! It's good stuff, as always.

[Renall]

For those who haven't seen it, there's a new thing going on as mentioned with a new Redaction TIP. The first part can be found here:

Spoiler:

And I just finished the second part! That's here:

Spoiler:

The quality on this one may be a little bit lower than before. I don't think anyone really watched it in 1080p before and YouTube only seems to be encoding it for 720p, so I recorded it as such. Don't know if anyone can tell the difference exactly; I tried to go for the best possible encode, which was easier with the lower file size and resolution.

[GoldenLand]

Excellent, I'll enjoy reading the second part of the TIP!

With image thread closures and things, this is probably the most appropriate thread to put the following thing in. I mentioned a while back in the spoilers and speculation thread that because I found I absolutely needed maps to use for the fan-game I'm working on, I'm having to draw ones up, trying to make them as faithful to the VNs as possible. Minor tweaking aside, I'm mostly done with the maps now unless I find out something's badly wrong that I've overlooked. But the designs have left me with a couple of gaps on the top two floors where there's a space and I don't know what to fill it in with.

Does anyone have suggestions for what the areas marked with ??? could be used for? The only things I've thought of so far are "old schoolroom", which is a little dry and perhaps uneccessary, or "Kinzo's abandoned Wild West memorabilia museum" which is perhaps a little too far fetched.

Spoiler for Maps:

[Jaden]

There's a gun cabinet somewhere in the second floor. I could imagine it being in a room full of Kinzo's stuff. Since Natsuhi lives on the first floor, maybe she's set up a Shinto shrine.