Let’s read Umineko! - episode 3 - part 2

originally posted at https://canmom.tumblr.com/post/163534...

People had a few corrections for the last post:

@nattinessy commented:

I believe the purgatory reference was to the character Beatrice from The Divine Comedy, not sure if that means anything significant :s . Also the images in the video are fan art, the original art looked… Very different :p

Ah whoops! Thanks for correction on fanart.

@alchymistryandcoldsteel mentioned that the Beatrice of the Divine Comedy is based on a historical person.

Last time, we had the stage set for the next ‘game’, and we were introduced to another Beatrice.

The new narrative begins with Rudolf and Hideyoshi on the boat to Rokkenjima, discussing Eva, and in particular, Gender and how the misogynist pressures of her family affected Eva.

Rudolf, on a boat: “………Aneki regretted being born a woman. …She probably couldn’t forgive Aniki forgetting to succeed the head just because he was a man. …So she’d always take every opportunity to boast to dad that she was superior. Narration: ‘It was a time when women were looked down upon, and it aws said that when a woman is born, she is to obey her parents; when she gets married, she is to obey her husband; and when she gets old, she is to obey her children.”

This segues into a flashback sequence where a young Krauss is very misogynist to a young Eva.

A pencil sketch of a young Krauss facing a young Eva. Krauss is saying “I wouldn’t go that far. Unschooled women are tiring just to talk to. …However, women who are too smart are even more tiring. I think that woman like you, who vehemently asserts herself, would cause her future husband a lot of trouble.”

Eva calls him on being full of shit, but Krauss just pushes harder and harder.

Krauss continues his rant: “It isn’t elegant to admit that, but in order to correct your mistake, I think that a few unpleasant words are necesary. So let me say it plainly. Women exist to serve men. And men exist to cultivate women. A woman’s job is to protect a man’s back, to protect their house and raise their children.

It’s definitely going along with the overall theme of trauma replicating itself, abuse in the present being shaped by abuse in the past. We’ve seen Eva’s petty spitefulness, and now we see some of the background to it.

So Krauss antagonises Eva, she gets upset, and then Kinzo gets involved. This won’t be good.

He actually lays into Krauss, not Eva, laying into him for a lack of dignity and maturity. Krauss still takes the opportunity to needle Eva about not being the head. So Eva makes an appeal to Kinzo…

Eva: “Please, tell me, in what way am I inferior…?! How can I improve myself so that you will accept me…!!”

His response is as on-the-nose misogynist as Krauss.

A sketch of a younger Kinzo’s chin. He is shouting. “Are you still talking about that?!! How many times do I have to tell you? I have no expectations for you whatosever! A woman should just learn cooking and sewing, like a woman!! You have none of the necessary attitude of a woman! I can’t sense any of the disposition needed to serve a husband, the heart to devote yourself to a man!!

He really has a go at her, abruptly declaring that she is disinherited for disobeying him and can no longer be an Ushiromiya. Take this opportunity and get out, Eva. Anyway, Kinzo has a coughing fit and Krauss attends to him.

Kinzo rants: “Why are my children so incompetent?! Krauss is lacking in dignity, Eva never moves on from beinga stubborn tomboy!! I have no manly son, not even a womanly daughter!”

Gender is bad, everyone.

Eva leaves and has a crisis over whether they’re right. She wonders if she was studying just out of rivalry with Krauss.

We finally see a proper sprite of Young Eva.

A young Eva in a blue sailor fuku (Japanese school uniform). She’s saying — to herself — “That’s not it. You vowed to me that I would become the successor to the Ushiromiya family.”

She looks younger than she did in the pencil sketches. Who’s she talking to? Well, who would make a vow like that? It’s gotta be Beatrice.

Haha, no I’m completely wrong. The ‘young Eva’ is… literally a younger Eva, ‘born into her heart the day she made that vow’.

Narration by the older Eva: ‘Whenever I found myself with my head in my hands, stumbling over difficult problems, she would always appear and support me.

Eva seems to be drawing a curiously sharp line between herself and this imaginary younger self, as if this younger self has an independent existence.

Young Eva reminds Eva how she decided to get revenge on Krauss by becoming the head in his stead.

Young Eva: “Then let’s use that anger and learn from it. ……Changing anger into power is my magic. I’e saved you from several predicaments with that power, and allowed you to achieve things that should have been impossible for you. As long as you have my magic, there’s nothing you can’t do.”

Given all the witchcraft about, these references to ‘magic’ may be more literal than they seem.

Young Eva encourages Eva to go back to studying and continue to show up Krauss, and wishes that he’d get on and die. Eva retorts that as a woman, she’ll never be accepted, no matter what. Young Eva says, right, they should die. And she says that Kinzo could easily reverse the ‘male succession only’ rule.

Young Eva says that day will ‘surely’ come, and when asked how she knows, says it’s her magic. ‘Surely’, huh. Where have we heard that before? Well, not that exact words, but it sounds similar to Lambdadelta and Bernkastel’s deals.

“If you’ll just believe, this magic will surely create a miracle. ……The basis of my magic is nothing more than your believing heart.”

Her ‘believing heart’, huh.

A still from the anime ‘Little Witch Academia’, with the character Shiny Chariot saying “A believing heart is your magic.” during a magic show.

I guess we can add Shiny Chariot to the list of witches alongside Beatrice, Bernkastel and Lambdadelta.

Eva, however, has an alternative idea. If she can have a child before Krauss, that child could jump the succession, an alternative path to revenge.

Eva: “Y-…yes. I’m serious. …… will indeed be quite sad to throw away the determination from my years as a young girl. …It will pain my heart to betray you, my younger self. ……But this way is the most realistic…!

Now talking directly not to the past Eva in this memory/dream but the present Eva who is recalling it, young Eva is not happy.

Young Eva: “That’s right. You’ve already become an adult. You’ve even forgotten how to use magic. ……You are now the mother of a child. You’ve forgotten the magic that can grant your own dreams, and are now pushing those dreams onto your son.

Young Eva calls present Eva out on treating George like Krauss and Kinzo treated her. Present Eva… retorts aggressively, but after a moment, accepts this. She says the extortion plan against the embezzling Krauss is a better way to get revenge, but young Eva says that’s boring and demands that present Eva believe in her magic to become the head.

I’m pretty sure young Eva is Lambdadelta now.

Young Eva continues: “Yes. My magic can grant any wish without fail.”

I’m absolutely certain young Eva is Lambdadelta now.

This suggests that Lambdadelta, like Beatrice, has some sort of ‘avatar’ within the narrative.

Young Eva/Lambdadelta encourages Eva to solve the riddle as a path to becoming the head.

Next: Eva wakes up.

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