2012-06-08, 09:52 | Link #29081 | |
別にいいけど
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: forever lost inside a logic error
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But isn't a murder mystery a challenge between the reader and the writer?
I think it's kind of strange to think you can win without taking in account your opponent. The way I see it you win by predicting what the author will write. This kind of "game" exists in various contexts of storytelling, it is something you constantly see in many threads of this very forum. People read a story or watch a movie, anime, drama, they comment about it and then they say "I bet that in the next episode character x will do y" and so on. It isn't really a matter of "make sense", "it's logical", "it's a good idea" and so on, it's a matter of understanding the foreshadowing, the situation and the author in a way that you can predict what he would do next. Of course when the author is the kind of author that writes a story and thinks "for now I write, I'll decide who's the killer and his reason later, I'll come up with something!" then you can't really figure out what he didn't figure out himself! But I believe this is an example of bad storytelling and not something to be proud of. You can't really leave proper hints or foreshadowings of something that doesn't exist yet. Quote:
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2012-06-08, 11:48 | Link #29082 | |
BUY MY BOOK!!!
Join Date: May 2009
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Also, since a solipsist believes they alone exist, one can conclude from such a perspective that they also wrote Umineko, so they must have known the correct answer the whole time anyway.
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2012-06-08, 12:43 | Link #29084 |
阿賀野型3番艦、矢矧 Lv180
Graphic Designer
Moderator Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Belgium, Brussels
Age: 37
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You had to accept that part right from the get go, otherwise the arc system doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
Also, that "fantasy" element has nothing to do with the "mystery" part, heck, the story made even less "cookie cutter mystery plot" pretense than Umineko.
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2012-06-08, 20:34 | Link #29085 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2011
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Well, for Higurashi at least, there could have been some other way to introduce the Rika = center of mystery and then the fact that there are separate arcs wouldn't matter. It would just be a different turn of events that allows the player to get new info from different point of view.
Umineko, Battler even said in the first tea party that he was even going to deny the room that they were standing in. (Funny how some of his theories in EP1 TP were actually... correct in a sense) Even though Battler never did answer part about the Metaworld, even that along with the repeating of the two days were explained with human means.
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2012-06-09, 00:53 | Link #29086 | ||
Artist
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Yesterday!
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The main one is - in what does Umineko prevent you from guessing in advance what was going to be in the following arc - or even scene as you read a given arc? I agree coming up with answers mid-way is a bad way to make a story, but it's sadly more common then most people tend to believe (and sometimes made stories better then what one would expect from such a way to write). However for any given stories, "details" can be decided more or less along - things of lesser importance. Those can be very different from the POV of the writer and the pov of a reader tho. Btw, I don't think you need to think of Umineko as a mystery to solve it, because even fantasy has these foreshadowing rules. I'm not saying Umineko is a fantasy either, but I think it was generally meant to be solved using these very generic rules about most fictions, rather then a specific set concerning classical mysteries. I still haven't really seen anyone approaching things that way. For instance that Beato lied in red in arc 3 about FT is almost a given if you try to guess what'll happen based on the narration and themes of the arc. Quote:
Anyway to me, it makes perfect sense that science might be able to help relieving the symptoms of a curse but is never going to be able to cure it, which is the case. Edit : Also... I win anytime I read a story I enjoy, I lose every time I waste my time reading a story that annoys me... And I must admit from that pov it seems a large part of the regulars here "lost" badly at Umineko. I have to say that to me revealing the entire truth about Umineko would be a very bad thing. The only thing I really see coming out of this is people who had something right rubbing it in every people who disagreed with them's face. Then everyone who got it wrong would whine about the "real" answer being stupid and call Ryuukishi/Umineko names. Is this really what you're all after? Also it doesn't seem like it would change much from right now, doesn't it? I think Ryuukishi himself is actually very aware of this and this is what he was referring to in arc 5 about preventing a truth from crushing every others. Last edited by UsagiTenpura; 2012-06-09 at 01:16. |
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2012-06-09, 01:24 | Link #29087 | ||
The True Culprit
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The entire problem is that he took the coward's way out of not commiting to an answer at all. He wanted to have his cake and eat it too, and as a result he doesn't have either.
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2012-06-09, 11:18 | Link #29088 | ||||
別にいいけど
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: forever lost inside a logic error
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And I'm talking here not about the whole story in its entirity, because there's a lot of stuff that could be predicted, was predicted and was confirmed (more or less) but all that stuff (including the single twilights, shkanon and the rokkenjima prime incident) that are left inside the catbox. Arguing about the content of a catbox is absolutely pointless. By the assumption of the very concept of the schroedinger cat, the cat is neither alive nor dead, it's both. The only thing that it is worthwhile to discuss about is if whether at the time the catbox will be opened the cat will be alive or dead. However if the catbox will never get opened all those people who tried to predict the outcome of such event just wasted their time. Quote:
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It's like a game where you win by lack of skills rather than by possessing them. Quote:
At any rate in any kind of contest there is the risk that someone will act like an idiot after victory, but that doesn't necessarily imply everyone will act like that. Let's take OMK, for example, One wins, one loses, they both say "GG" at the end and that's it. There is no need for celebrations or anything.
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2012-06-10, 01:31 | Link #29089 | ||
Goat
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Gnawing away at Rokkenjima
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Nah man, everyone here loves Umineko. That's why they're here. And if it seems as though some people here dislike it, I might have to explain Tsundere Theory. |
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2012-06-10, 01:34 | Link #29090 | ||
The True Culprit
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2012-06-10, 02:02 | Link #29091 | ||
Senior Member
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But I think that is something that just comes with him as a writer, he has done this in almost all his stories (as few as there may be). Even the very short Ôkamikakushi (which is basically a Higurashi rewrite if you ask me) has those problems. He creates all those characters and story arcs and possibilities for them to develop, but he doesn't really emphasize with his readers regarding what they can actually deduce and what they can't. At least that's the feeling I got by now. I still love Umineko as a concept, because looking at it raises some very interesting question not only about mysteries, but about narrative structures in general...but as a narrative it lacks the same points as always, it's just a little more to my liking due to setting, characters, etc. Quote:
Spoiler for Higurashi beyond Meakashi:
I'd prefer Umineko's way of an open solution to this retcon marathon any day. |
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2012-06-10, 04:02 | Link #29092 |
Detective, Witch, Pirate.
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Ruins of the Golden Land
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I don't think Onisarashi and Yoigoshi and all those shit were written by Ryukishi. Then again, I'm not really sure about that, I'll have to look it up. But I agree here, why do they insist releasing all sorts of sub-series they can pull out of their ass when Higurashi was just fine as it was? You've got all those sappy DS arcs, you've got the manga arcs, you've got a stupid mahjog game out of the blue, you've got an OVA, and don't get me started on Kira!
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2012-06-10, 06:35 | Link #29094 |
"Senior" "Member"
Join Date: Jan 2012
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Well there are some arugments about whether the forgeries include magic scenes or even meta scenes. If they are, then it could be a projection from Tohya, kind of like "writing down memories into a diary to get over with them", which was talked about in EP5.
Another thing is whether Ikuko is Yasu or a random Stranger. If Ikuko is Yasu, it would mean that the "battles" between Battler and Beatrice were not just fictional. But since this is a point, where opinions differ greatly, we cannot say anything for sure. But there has been more or less an agreement, that EP8 plays mostly in ANGE's head, and not in Tohya's. Also i don't think you have to use spoiler tags for EP8 here. It's the spoiler thread after all |
2012-06-10, 08:10 | Link #29096 |
別にいいけど
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: forever lost inside a logic error
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It's not clear what the metaworld actually is, but I think it's a mix between various perspectives the same way the narration jumps from character to character.
The metaworlds of the first four arcs are probably the result of Tohya's internal struggle, EP8 however is almost certainly in Ange's mind. It's hardly debatable when you can consider that in the end she gains godlike powers and that she can make Beatrice appear and disappear at will like turning off and on a light switch. There are then other clear events like the image of the library that mirrors the view of the city from the skyscraper Ange is in. Lastly Yukari seems to remember events that happened in the metaworld, which means she must have experienced them directly.
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2012-06-10, 08:50 | Link #29097 | |||
Goat
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Gnawing away at Rokkenjima
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Also, there's one more tidbit to Umineko for you to read: Our Confessions. Quote:
I, for one, am not so certain. From EP6: Ikuko: 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. Ikuko: ......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. Ikuko: Then, one day, perhaps, I will write you a tale that you consider a miracle...... Foreshadowing the EP8 ???? perhaps? Wait, she did? When? |
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2012-06-10, 08:55 | Link #29098 |
阿賀野型3番艦、矢矧 Lv180
Graphic Designer
Moderator Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Belgium, Brussels
Age: 37
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Yukari explicitely mentions that "the witch said that everyone died in red".
Basically, even her trusted the red to the very end, which make a certain involvement of the Meta World into the real world.
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2012-06-10, 09:49 | Link #29099 | |
別にいいけど
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: forever lost inside a logic error
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2012-06-10, 10:01 | Link #29100 |
Endless Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
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Ryu07 probably left whether the Meta World was real (As opposed to being some struggle in Tohya's mind) or not intentionally open to interpretation. I don't think there's one specific reading of it he had in mind for the story as a whole.
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