[Game] Umineko - Spoilers, Theories, Interpretations

[TwilightsCall]

Both of them are listed. The trap was a lie!

[Ayu-ayu]

Originally Posted by Thunder Book

It seems like most of the other fanservice serves some kind of point in the story, though. I can't really think of one for Featherine resembling Hanyuu.

To dig up the later-adjusted version of my old "Higurashi as gameboard" theory:

Higurashi was a game between Lambda (whose piece was Takano) and Featherine (whose piece was Hanyuu). Featherine got trapped by the "labyrinth" of Lambda's gameboard and grew bored with it, giving up on the game and leaving it to the piece Rika to eventually solve and give birth to Fredrika becoming acknowledged as the Witch of Miracles, serving out her role as Featherine's miko and reader.

Yeah, I know that's all meta-world justification though. How that ties with Ikuko in her world is probably the "authored the Higurashi novels" theory, I would guess...

[Drifloon]

Still, it said that Rika's role was to fix a logic error...that implies Featherine was the GM, not the player.

[Klashikari]

It is indeed logical that Hanyuu/Featherine is the GM, as it is because of her that Rika has to go through this endless. It was due to the power of the GM you have the possibility to go through several chessboards, except Hanyuu has nearly no control of the world Rika will get in.

Takano was basically Rika's opponent all the time, but Hanyuu was responsible for this to the very beginning. She only became a '"player" in Matsuribayashi.

[Renall]

I can't wait for the endless debates when Battler shows up in WTC5 and everybody debates whether he's the one from Umineko or not.

[Captain Bluebeard]

What are you talking about? It's going to be Brederica Fernkastel or something else with blue hair.

[Drifloon]

I can't wait for the endless debates when Battler shows up in WTC5 and everybody debates whether he's the one from Umineko or not.

That already happened with Roses Gun Days.

[Klashikari]

Well, until the real name was actually revealed so.

[Judoh]

Originally Posted by Klashikari

It is indeed logical that Hanyuu/Featherine is the GM, as it is because of her that Rika has to go through this endless. It was due to the power of the GM you have the possibility to go through several chessboards, except Hanyuu has nearly no control of the world Rika will get in.

Takano was basically Rika's opponent all the time, but Hanyuu was responsible for this to the very beginning. She only became a '"player" in Matsuribayashi.

Back when episode 6 and 7 were just getting translated I came across a type of Higurashi fan that really hated Hanyuu based on Fridge logic. Because they thought she could have told Rika about a lot of things that were preventing her from reaching her happy ending. Since she's a spirit and can see things Rika can't. And that she could have ended her problems sooner.

Because of that, back then, I interpreted Featherine as being a caricature of how fans that hated Hanyuu imagined her as an evil, manipulative person that could have alleviated a lot of Rika's problems by telling her things she knew, and they thought she was jerk because she didn't do that.

Spoiler for higurashi:

I also remember them talking about it being hinted that Hanyuu knew about Takano being the killer long before Rika did, which didn't help matters.

I find all that really funny now. But back then I really hated the idea of Hanyuu being Featherine because I thought of that fanbase whenever I thought about it.

[Kealym]

I tend to think of Higurashi as a "game" if you wanna call it that, between Bern and Lambda as players. It's like Lambda layed out a difficult chess problem to her blatant advantage and was all "Okay, stop me winning. Oh btw, I'll definitely be able to checkmate in like, four turns. AWWW, YOU LOST, would you like to try again, to even see if you CAN win?"

So I see Featherine as basically Ryukishi's self insert. With Umineko being so damn Meta, it only makes sense that Featherine's over-9000 abilities are parralel to Ryukishi really being the one in control of every damn thing that happens. The parallels to Hanyuu are the same - Ryukishi is essentially the god-like being that dropped his miko into having to figure shit out, and it was only with his blatant Deus Ex Machina intervention ("Oh hey, those para-dimensional memories. I somehow have them now. Time for friendship powered kung-fu!") that Rika was able to pull out a win.

It's like Ryukishi was the one who put Lambda up to forming the challenge, and eventually he felt so bad for Rika losing all the time he tricked Lambda into looking away and switched the pieces around against her at the last minute. Of the 100th retry.

Also, having not read the Higurashi VN's ... WAS there some kind of handwave on why Hanyuu didn't have more information? I kinda got that Rika lost her dying memories (or was just murdered by someone else, which wasn't exactly helpful), but it ... does seem like Hanyuu could've been "That bitch. THAT bitch, right there." from relatively earlier on in their journey.

[AuraTwilight]

Originally Posted by Drifloon

That already happened with Roses Gun Days.

Pardon? Is this a joke, or did I miss something huge?

[TwilightsCall]

Originally Posted by AuraTwilight

Pardon? Is this a joke, or did I miss something huge?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0dve...layer_embedded

At about 1:26

[Ayu-ayu]

Originally Posted by Kealym

Also, having not read the Higurashi VN's ... WAS there some kind of handwave on why Hanyuu didn't have more information? I kinda got that Rika lost her dying memories (or was just murdered by someone else, which wasn't exactly helpful), but it ... does seem like Hanyuu could've been "That bitch. THAT bitch, right there." from relatively earlier on in their journey.

I'm not sure (having also not played enough of the VNs) myself, but I always assumed that it had to do with Hanyuu and Rika's "shared experiences" effect--when Rika eats spicy food, gets drunk, etc. these things are felt by Hanyuu. So while Hanyuu has some handy powers, she possibly isn't conscious when Rika isn't (I'm sure someone can find something to disprove it now I've said that, though... ). It's still kind of dodgy though. I assume this has to do with Rika being the generation that Oyashiro-sama incarnates through, so they have to kind of share Rika's brain for processing power... But yeah, as a result, Hanyuu was only conscious herself to see Takano at the end of Minagoroshi-hen. All the other times, Rika was taken out with chloroform or whatever before they could see who it was.

[GoldenLand]

"Philip Butler", with red hair, blue eyes and Battler's haircut, eh. Interesting. That game looks like fun.

[AuraTwilight]

It's explained in both the VN and the anime that Hanyuu loses any memories that Rika doesn't keep either, since in the final loop they both remember Takano's identity at about the same time.

[Witch of Uncertainty]

Originally Posted by AuraTwilight

It's explained in both the VN and the anime that Hanyuu loses any memories that Rika doesn't keep either, since in the final loop they both remember Takano's identity at about the same time.

Not really. Hanyuu remembers when seeing Takano's face, and explains it to Rika later, who believes her. Rika had no idea at the time that Takano was the culprit when Hanyuu remembered.

[AuraTwilight]

Just because Hanyuu remembers first doesn't really contradict my statement. Especially since Rika remembers later on.

[Drifloon]

I'm 99% sure Rika never remembered. Not in the VN, at least. She just took Hanyu's word for it, but she kept saying it was hard to believe it since she had no memory of it herself.

[Klashikari]

She never remembered indeed.
Also, Hanyuu and Rika share the same "state" as in Hanyuu doesn't remain long after Rika dies, but by no means their memories are linked. Matsuribayashi is the proof of that.

[AuraTwilight]

I must be remembering wrong, then.