originally posted at https://canmom.tumblr.com/post/163672...
So in the last post, it was made clear that Beatrice is very definitely dead and not the murderer. Now it’s time for Beatrice to murder everyone.
We begin with Kinzo. Once again, he displays some memory of the previous ‘games’. He makes a metaphor about clocks and plays with tarot cards. Apparently he likes to make repeated divinations until he gets a good one as a kind of magic ritual. The tarot cards, however, aren’t on his side today.
Kinzo calls up Genji on the phone.
Cut to Sayo, who has, as is standard, just accepted a marriage proposal from George in the gazebo. Genji and Kanon tell her to come meet Kinzo in the study. Kanon is annoyed at Kinzo’s selfishness over a bad premonition when he himself began this ‘ritual’. They all three sneak in the back door. The narration notes that Sayo is not very sneaky compared to Kanon and Genji.
On the way in, they get a ‘sixth sense’ perception of something - no doubt Beatrice. At the study, they discover…
…that Kinzo’s magic protection has been broken (not visible to the eye, but detectable by their magic abilities).
This time, they’re not keeping their powers secret. Genji orders Sayo to ‘protect their backs’ while Kanon investigates the study. It’s too quiet, says Kanon. (Sadly not “It’s quiet… too quiet” in true action movie cliché style, but close). Genji opens the door, and they find… Beatrice, sitting on Kinzo’s sofa.
Ronove is also there, and Genji, but not the other two, is able to detect him.
Ronove is apparently an ‘old friend’ of Genji, and known to Sayo, but not Kanon.
Kanon is very pissed off with Beatrice, and she picks up on it. But they move on quickly. Kinzo is there, playing chess with Beatrice.
It’s interesting that this time we’re witnessing the first sacrifice directly for the first time. Now, we know Kinzo is a sacrifice. If Kanon, Sayo and Genji are also killed, that leaves two more necessary sacrifices for the ‘six chosen by the key’.
Beatrice claims she didn’t choose this, but it was really chosen by the ‘roulette’. Kanon immediately accuses her of lying, but Sayo says shhh. Beatrice thanks Kinzo for a few non-boring decades, checkmates him.
Then Kinzo laughs, and uh, catches on fire?
The fire is animated and there is a sizzling soundclip that gets very repetitive when you’re cropping a screenshot.
If this is what happens when Kinzo dies (stored magical energy or something?), I guess that must by why Beatrice stuffed his body in the incinerator in episode 1…
Everyone gets on Kanon’s case for not being respectful to Beatrice. You tell her, Kanon.
Anyway, unfortunately Beatrice is going to murder them now.
Genji’s like, sure, I’m about as assertive as wet toilet paper, we’ll die. What honorable furniture, says Ronove.
Sayo agrees.
Beatrice needles her to try and get some kind of emotional reaction. Sayo doesn’t rise to it.
Beatrice declares Sayo is just boring now, but Kanon might entertain her. Kanon is pissed, but also knows she wants that reaction, and she’s unbeatable in a fight.
Beatrice also knows this. She summons Lucifer to fight Kanon. Lucifer is like, pff, this scrub?
Kanon won’t give her the satisfaction without an incentive, so Beatrice offers: if Kanon can beat Lucifer, [he] will have free choice of the five survivors who reach the Golden Land. She taunts Kanon, providing suggestions.
Kanon takes the bait.
Kanon’s fight/heroism theme kicks in. It’s pretty cool, but it didn’t go so well last time.
Kanon and Lucifer summon up their magic swords, and we get what passes for a fight animation, which is facial expressions and repeated ‘sword swipe’ clips in different colours. It looks like Lucifer is actually struggling.
Meta!Beatrice interrupts, talking to meta!Battler. Battler explicitly questions the narration/imagery.
What is Battler seeing? Is there like, a portal into the world of the story? Is he literally reading the narration? After all, he can see when something is written in red text. Is someone narrating this vocally?
‘I told you this is fantasy’ - Beatrice seems to explicitly refer to the genre of the story here. Interestingly, listening closely to the voice acting, she uses the English word ‘fantasy’. She encourages Battler to stop ‘playing detective’ and accept he’s in a fantasy story.
Battler’s counterargument is ‘shut up’. He really wants to be in a mystery story, huh.
Back in the narrative, Kanon is fighting Lucifer to a standstill - much better than the previous battle against Satan. Beatrice and Ronove notice the improvement.
And, after some more ‘bwaan bwaan, ka-shing ka-shing’, Kanon… wins! Nice. Imagine how powerful Kanon would be on estrogen.
Beatrice and Ronove turn their mockery on Lucifer instead of Kanon. Lucifer is so embarassed she turns back into a stake and goes on a massive rant before going for Kanon. Kanon can’t block her in that state, but does manage to protect [his] heart with [his] left hand.
Ronove and Beatrice comment that this is proof of Kinzo‘s ‘research’ into the power of the human heart.
Kanon brings up the promise. Beatrice says she will honour it. Lucifer protests that she hasn’t won yet, and Beatrice reverses gravity for just her to ‘drop’ her head-first onto the ceiling. (This is animated by flipping her sprite and the background upside down).
Anyway, says Beatrice, it’s not actually over.
How fucking cheap.
Anyway, here’s the rest of the gang:
I’m not sorry. But seriously…
They taunt the defeated Lucifer mercilessly for a bit. Eventually Beatrice tells them to get on with killing Kanon already. They still make Lucifer - the Prideful - beg for help and self-deprecate until she cries.
The track with the Latin chanting kicks in. I don’t think Kanon’s going to make it this time…
But first, the Seven Sisters have to have another argument about who gets which bit of Kanon.
They finally turn into stakes, and start toying with Kanon with close shaves. But then…
Worker solidarity, yessss!
The Sisters are hardly deterred. They ask Beatrice to let them kill Sayo as well, and she’s all sure, whatever.
They start chipping away at Sayo’s barrier. Beatrice and Ronove ask why she’d expose herself to a worse death for no gain.
I suppose it’s fitting that Sayo express the central tenet of Satanism when she’s literally fighting Satan. OK, ‘do as thou wilt’ is apparently Thelema, not Satanism, shows what I know lol.
Beatrice declares that a woman who’s achieved love is no longer interesting to her, like a salmon that laid its eggs (seriously? what a thing to believe!). Sayo is like, that’s just what I was hoping for. Beatrice is like, fine, I’ll get some entertainment from the Seven Sisters brutally murdering the shit out of you!
It’s interesting that Sayo explicitly equates being a woman with being a heterosexual partner. But still, I like her character and find her and her subtle defiance, contra Beatrice, very interesting.
Especially since it absolutely infuriates Beatrice.
Beatrice calls herself human. The thing she’s spent the whole story trying to prove she isn’t. Different senses, perhaps..
Get rekt, Beatrice.
As Beatrice promises brutal torture, Genji somehow steps into the red barrier, and with permission, painlessly kills Sayo by doing something at her collarbone. Just how powerful is Genji? He does the same to Kanon while a mournful lullaby-like song begins to play.
Beatrice is not pleased.
Not pleased at all.
But then, unexpectedly, the obedient, even sycophantic Ronove… takes charge.
He snaps his fingers and Genji collapses ‘like a puppet with its strings cut’. The narration makes it clear that Beatrice has no power to resurrect him.
Ronove tells Beatrice this is beneath her, and she leaves in a huff. He dismisses the Sisters. The narration points out there are two sacrifices left for the first twilight.
What an interesting chapter! I don’t think Beatrice has ever been shown up that thoroughly before. Of course, the three servants still died, but she was denied every kind of pleasure and satisfaction. Let’s hope she won’t take it out on everyone else.
The next chapter is called Madam Beatrice.
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