This review contains spoilers
Finally finished my EP2 reread! Please click off of this if you have not ALREADY READ ALL OF UMINEKO as these are the thoughts of someone rereading the series and already knows everything.
EP2 has quite an odd beginning. I remember just how confounded I was by it--yearning for the mystery and the murder and the question of who Beatrice is. The novel knows this too, never stopping to make fun of Battler to the point that he quite literally falls asleep on the gameboard until the murders happen.
EP2 is one of the episodes that really skyrocketed for me after I finished my initial read and came to understand the core of Umineko's story. At first it seems strange to learn so much about George and Shannon's relationship, why Kanon insists on the sea being grey--why we are even being shown all these events so long before the murders occurred. But once you understand how Sayo factors into everything and just exactly what love means to her and why George and Jessica are important to Shannon and Kanon respectively, the story takes on a whole new meaning.
Shannon insists to Kanon that the sea is blue even though, in actuality, it is grey. Episode 2 then tells you the world is made of love. Shannon chides Kanon, "you can't see the color of the sea because you have no xxxx." Deliberately changing the truth to make your life bearable--making the sea blue when you are happy and in love because you want it to be a precious memory no matter what everyone else says--this is magic. Magic exists all around you when you are in love, and thus love must always be searched for, so one can always be happy. The story never relents with this plot beat in the pre-murder portions and it really, really makes EP2 stand out once you understand the nature of Shkanontrice. Kanon and Shannon duke it out over the nature of love, and Beatrice sets them up to fail and succeed and fail again, promising them love but reminding them that they are furniture because they share one body that surely cannot ever be loved, and a witch must exist on that belief in love before tearing it apart.
Beatrice also talks predominantly of promises and especially the kind that lovers keep. This is the cruelest Beato we see as well, her screaming at Shannon that love cannot and doesn't exist and that worthless furniture shouldn't speak to her about it is something that doesn't really happen again. And it fits perfectly when you know this is the last message bottle anyone found. It really reads like Sayo going sort of stream-of-consciousness with her writing.
EP2 feels like the sort of "ultimate" bad end in all of Umineko. Kinzo lives and gets to be reunited with Beatrice and apologize and presumably be forgiven by her. Battler doesn't make any meaningful progress in the epitaph, and at the very end Beatrice literally just straight up tells him everything. It's the ultimate play to make Battler surrender--if he'd just been told everything about why Beatrice exists, of course he'd immediately accept her and give into fantasy. He's too kindhearted for that. But in this case, blind acceptance is not what Beatrice wants. She wants him to puzzle it out, pick her apart, and then accept her anyway. She doesn't want to just tell him.
I also like the ending where Rosa 1v1s the goats. A very satisfying and cool ending, even though Rosa is my second most hated character (only beaten out by Kinzo) in the whole VN. But Worldenddominator is probably my favorite song. Overall Rosa is very compelling in EP2, being posed as a sort of "witch who does not believe she is a witch," as well as being an accomplice to Sayo on the gameboard. Even Beatrice treats her like a witch with the banquet she offers her in the Tea Party, only to be denied by Rosa again and again. Perhaps Sayo, writing the story, does not believe that Rosa could ever be as "cool" as a witch because she seems incapable of love. Or maybe Sayo ultimately feels a strange pity for Rosa and doesn't want her to actually be a witch because it means never being human. Who knows? I think both insights are interesting.
Once again, there are lots of hints about the nature of Umineko's story, and it's amusing how much of those are presented pretty obviously to the reader in all the slice-of-life sections, but because we are so Battler-pilled we just tell ourselves that it's not the mystery section and not important to solving the question about who Beatrice is. Ryukishi was very patient to write all this out knowing that readers would just disregard it because no one was killing each other. I like EP2 more every time I revisit it because of how much it tells us about the person writing the story...and Beatrice wouldn't let this exist in her tale were it not important in the first place. A clever reminder that writing is an intentional story crafted together from things the writer is always thinking about to best communicate their intentions, and it is up to you, the reader, to always pick it apart, even if you find it dull/incomprehensible/a pain. A metatextual ode to the relationship shared between author (RYU07/Sayo/Beatrice) and reader (us/the people who find the message bottle/Battler).
"...I do play tricks. Of course, I also deceive people. I'm no different from humans in that regard. ...But not once have I disregarded a promise I've spoken. What about humans? Do you always keep your promises?"
EP2 has quite an odd beginning. I remember just how confounded I was by it--yearning for the mystery and the murder and the question of who Beatrice is. The novel knows this too, never stopping to make fun of Battler to the point that he quite literally falls asleep on the gameboard until the murders happen.
EP2 is one of the episodes that really skyrocketed for me after I finished my initial read and came to understand the core of Umineko's story. At first it seems strange to learn so much about George and Shannon's relationship, why Kanon insists on the sea being grey--why we are even being shown all these events so long before the murders occurred. But once you understand how Sayo factors into everything and just exactly what love means to her and why George and Jessica are important to Shannon and Kanon respectively, the story takes on a whole new meaning.
Shannon insists to Kanon that the sea is blue even though, in actuality, it is grey. Episode 2 then tells you the world is made of love. Shannon chides Kanon, "you can't see the color of the sea because you have no xxxx." Deliberately changing the truth to make your life bearable--making the sea blue when you are happy and in love because you want it to be a precious memory no matter what everyone else says--this is magic. Magic exists all around you when you are in love, and thus love must always be searched for, so one can always be happy. The story never relents with this plot beat in the pre-murder portions and it really, really makes EP2 stand out once you understand the nature of Shkanontrice. Kanon and Shannon duke it out over the nature of love, and Beatrice sets them up to fail and succeed and fail again, promising them love but reminding them that they are furniture because they share one body that surely cannot ever be loved, and a witch must exist on that belief in love before tearing it apart.
Beatrice also talks predominantly of promises and especially the kind that lovers keep. This is the cruelest Beato we see as well, her screaming at Shannon that love cannot and doesn't exist and that worthless furniture shouldn't speak to her about it is something that doesn't really happen again. And it fits perfectly when you know this is the last message bottle anyone found. It really reads like Sayo going sort of stream-of-consciousness with her writing.
EP2 feels like the sort of "ultimate" bad end in all of Umineko. Kinzo lives and gets to be reunited with Beatrice and apologize and presumably be forgiven by her. Battler doesn't make any meaningful progress in the epitaph, and at the very end Beatrice literally just straight up tells him everything. It's the ultimate play to make Battler surrender--if he'd just been told everything about why Beatrice exists, of course he'd immediately accept her and give into fantasy. He's too kindhearted for that. But in this case, blind acceptance is not what Beatrice wants. She wants him to puzzle it out, pick her apart, and then accept her anyway. She doesn't want to just tell him.
I also like the ending where Rosa 1v1s the goats. A very satisfying and cool ending, even though Rosa is my second most hated character (only beaten out by Kinzo) in the whole VN. But Worldenddominator is probably my favorite song. Overall Rosa is very compelling in EP2, being posed as a sort of "witch who does not believe she is a witch," as well as being an accomplice to Sayo on the gameboard. Even Beatrice treats her like a witch with the banquet she offers her in the Tea Party, only to be denied by Rosa again and again. Perhaps Sayo, writing the story, does not believe that Rosa could ever be as "cool" as a witch because she seems incapable of love. Or maybe Sayo ultimately feels a strange pity for Rosa and doesn't want her to actually be a witch because it means never being human. Who knows? I think both insights are interesting.
Once again, there are lots of hints about the nature of Umineko's story, and it's amusing how much of those are presented pretty obviously to the reader in all the slice-of-life sections, but because we are so Battler-pilled we just tell ourselves that it's not the mystery section and not important to solving the question about who Beatrice is. Ryukishi was very patient to write all this out knowing that readers would just disregard it because no one was killing each other. I like EP2 more every time I revisit it because of how much it tells us about the person writing the story...and Beatrice wouldn't let this exist in her tale were it not important in the first place. A clever reminder that writing is an intentional story crafted together from things the writer is always thinking about to best communicate their intentions, and it is up to you, the reader, to always pick it apart, even if you find it dull/incomprehensible/a pain. A metatextual ode to the relationship shared between author (RYU07/Sayo/Beatrice) and reader (us/the people who find the message bottle/Battler).
"...I do play tricks. Of course, I also deceive people. I'm no different from humans in that regard. ...But not once have I disregarded a promise I've spoken. What about humans? Do you always keep your promises?"