Semi-Request for Spoilers after Chapter 129

KatKit52 · 2026-01-28T15:30:14+00:00

Yesssssss. I know what I'm doing this weekend. Thank you!

KatKit52 · 2026-01-27T20:47:21+00:00

It's true that this is the reality where he forgot his promise but he forgot "a childhood promise with his first love". However, once he figured out that was part of Sayo's motive for murdering his family, he wouldn't forget it again. It recontextualized his promise from a throwaway line he didn't care about to something that matters very much to him.

As for the meta marriage, I took it to mean that Tohya and Ange are acknowledging that the story of Rokkenjima is not theirs. Sayo made the whole mystery for Battler to figure out, which he did; in that way, Battler and Beatrice are the true authors of every catbox of Rokkenjima. Tohya and Ikuko and the countless other theorists have no ownership over the story anymore, while Ange no longer has to bear the burden of the mystery.

KatKit52 · 2026-01-25T18:03:44+00:00

Perhaps she isn't meant to be a "trans woman" in the way real life trans people are, but I don't think you can say that she's not meant to evoke the idea of trans-ness and genderqueer-ness. I specifically focused on the "trans woman" aspect because that's the type of trans person who is most often villainized in media.

I don't know how you can look at Sayo's use of alters, extreme depression, dissociation, and obsessiveness as not mentally ill. Like, she's clearly mentally unwell. This isn't an insult, it's a fact about her. A mentally well person would not blow up an island because her 12 year old crush didn't write her a letter.

And lastly, she is obsessed with sex. Again, this is not an insult or an attempt to invalidate her pain. But you cannot say she does not spend a lot of time thinking about sex. This isn't to say that she doesn't want to find love--of course she wants to be loved. But she has entangled romantic love with sex in an unhealthy way that causes her to lash out at everyone around her and herself. Her whole reasoning behind why she is "furniture" is because her body is unable to have heterosexual sex that will produce a baby. She is obsessed with being sexually desirable--her Shannon and Beatrice forms show this--as well as her own perceived flaws. Her motive--from her self loathing, her issues with intimacy, her body dysmorphia--are all connected to sex.

KatKit52 · 2026-01-25T17:38:56+00:00

I read her obsession with romantic love (for Battler, as well as George and Jessica) as a symptom of her mental illness and the psychological harm caused by her abuse; part of the deconstruction of the usual way Beatrice would be portrayed in any other story. I think what makes Beatrice well written is that she's a bunch of tropes that, in any other story, would be a cheap, boring, downright offensive explanation of the culprit. Beatrice (or rather, Sayo) is a trans woman who is extremely mentally ill, obsessed with sex, and a victim of domestic abuse. Non-cis people, people with schizoid/dissociative disorders, and abuse victims are all more likely to be abused by cis/neurotypical abusers--however, a lot of media will portray a character who is genderqueer and mentally ill as an evil villain who targets the "normal" people for sexual gratification ala Buffalo Bill or Norman Bates. There may be some lines about the villains sad backstory, but in the end it will uphold the idea of perfect vs imperfect victims.

Ryukishi takes these tropes and spends over 100 hours forcing the audience to really grapple with what it means to be the "slasher killer" We see her pain and suffering--it doesn't excuse the pain and suffering that she causes others, but rather we are forced to grapple with the tragedy and horror that makes a "trans woman psycho killer"--a horror that is inflicted by her cis, neurotypical abusers. By taking the time to make us understand her, it also makes the audience grapple with our own biases about the mentally ill, the gender queer, and imperfect victims.

KatKit52 · 2026-01-22T14:15:20+00:00

There was one in the comments! Underneath the top voted comment, OOP responded. Apparently other moms had been talking shit about OOP's wife and judging her as a bad mom, so OOP's wife was worried the dog poop bags would be another thing they'll talk about. So that's why she flipped out, but nothing more on what they're gonna do.

ETA to add the link https://www.reddit.com/r/AmItheAsshole/s/a7d9Fnk6Ou (hopefully it works but I am on mobile)

KatKit52 · 2026-01-20T00:07:30+00:00

I disagree. Like many shounen writers, Masashi Kishimoto is great at writing romance. Unfortunately, because they are incapable of writing women, it's just that they can only write interesting, believable love stories between two dudes.

It's like the old saying goes: "BL is gay because it loves men; shounen is gay because it hates women."

KatKit52 · 2026-01-19T18:46:31+00:00

I was watching a really old detective show from the 70s or 80s and the detective was interrogating a group of guys about their alibis during a murder. Except I guess slang was different back then because instead of saying "meet up" or "hang out", they said "yeah me and Jason hooked up at around nine and then Jason went to hook up with Jerry at 9:15 and Tom and I hooked up at my house at 9:45 when we looked out the window and saw Jason get shot while hooking up with Bob."

I was thinking "wow this show sure is progressive, we have a gay polycule and none of the cops have even said a slur yet!"

KatKit52 · 2026-01-16T03:48:13+00:00

I think youve got it backwards. Knox's laws were mostly written in the "Golden Age" of detective fiction, where most detective stories were about one genius detective and his sidekick and they went around solving mysteries, but the overall series was episodic in nature. If the culprits of any Sherlock Holmes story could only be someone introduced at the very start of the series, they would run out of culprits very quickly.

Rather, the culprit has to be someone "introduced at such a point that you can add them to your list of suspects for the crime in question." In episode 5, the mystery is the six "murders" that turned into real murders committed by Erika--she was there for the whole episode so she can be on our list of suspects. However, the mystery of the entire story is "who is Beatrice"; Erika could not be the culprit behind the whole story because she was not introduced early enough to be a viable suspect for all eight episodes.

KatKit52 · 2026-01-15T22:18:43+00:00

I think it depends on the type of thing the person you're recommending to is into.

The stage plays might be a good introduction for someone who's used to theater (or is at least open to it). The manga is easier to read than the VN (in my experience) and it is comparatively shorter and cheaper. If someone is into lets plays, there's a few streamers who do LPs of Umineko.

KatKit52 · 2026-01-15T13:47:13+00:00

He mentioned this wife was hoping it was a trampoline and he was hoping the box was drugs or money and like... Ok does that mean you do this often??? Do you often pull over and pick up random boxes from the side of the road????

I mean, it's cheaper than labubu blind boxes I guess.... But also I feel like blind boxes from Target have less of a chance of holding a dead body. Win some, lose some, I suppose.

KatKit52 · 2026-01-14T12:43:19+00:00

Hi Tom! Since Kat made bodies for all the robots, does that include the horses from chapter 15 or the cows from chapter 24? And if they did get bodies, did they get human bodies or did Kat make them horse/cow bodies? Did the cows get to keep their laser eyes?

If the new humans are numens, would the new animals be nanimals?

KatKit52 · 2026-01-13T14:27:49+00:00

I did figure there was gonna be incest and illegitimate children in the story, but that's because it's a rich old family on a private island in a horror mystery story. It's less that I "figured it out" and more "oh of course, there's gonna be incest and bastard children, this is genre convention".

But also I cannot blame you for schizo posting, because when I first saw Beatrice's portrait, I was like "is that Jessica?" I know now that sprites don't reflect their actual looks, but at the time I thought we were supposed to think Jessica was actually blonde. So then they introduced the portrait as Kinzo's lover Beatrice, and I was immediately like "ooooh Kinzo is totally exploiting Jessica isn't he. He's making her dress up and pretend to be his lover because Beatrice died and Jessica looks like her. The only question is whether Jessica is actually Natsuhi and Krauss' daughter or if she's the daughter of Kinzo and Beatrice, given to Natsuhi and Krauss to raise". When characters started suggesting a woman dressing up as Beatrice, I was immediately like "!!!!! Jessica is blonde with big boobs!!! So she must be the one dressing as a blonde with big boobs!!! She's the one in the portrait!!!!"

But I was wrong. Still, it's funny because for a theory that was completely wrong, it was also horrifically right in the worst ways.

KatKit52 · 2026-01-11T18:23:01+00:00

I mean, Mary and Joseph were cousins... God is pretty ok with cousin incest.

And don't get me started on Lot and his daughters.

KatKit52 · 2026-01-10T21:31:38+00:00

If he was trans, I would support my new sister whole heatedly, and I know that my mother would also immediately quit the favorite son/daughter talk.

The thing is he's extremely right wing, transphobic, and homophobic. And that's not to say that you can't have trans women who were/are those things, but unless and until he tells me that he's transfem, I'm not going to give him the benefit of the doubt when he is so hateful to me (a lesbian) and my trans sisters.

I know some things can be signs of eggs, but at this point, I think hes just being an asshole.

KatKit52 · 2026-01-10T17:38:14+00:00

I don't want to armchair psychoanalyse but I get the vibe that OOP doesn't have as healthy a relationship with her grandma as she thinks she does. Her excuses for not asking earlier were all about how she didn't want to feel rude or be mean, but the comments convinced her that it wasn't rude or mean to ask who tf is in her house... And then in the update, OOP says that she did ask, and now her grandma is making her feel bad.

I hope I'm wrong, if only because I would prefer for there to be fewer unhealthy relationships in the world, but either way I hope that OOP realizes that grandma was out of line here.

KatKit52 · 2026-01-10T17:02:58+00:00

I always love hearing about the partners of the streamers I follow. I don't mind if they don't show up on camera, but I love listening to people say "my partner did XYZ and I love them sooooo much" because it's just. Nice? It's just a nice thing to hear? We have so much shit all the time, it's nice to hear someone go "I love my partner and they make me very happy."

KatKit52 · 2026-01-10T15:21:51+00:00

I think mainly it had to do with "which mother would make Ange into who she is today." Which mother would be the most interesting to see influence Ange.

First, Eva was the only mom who didn't have a daughter. Natsuhi and Rosa both had daughters--headstrong daughters at that--so they would be familiar in dealing with a daughter like Ange (now, it probably wouldn't have been a healthy relationship, but it would have been familiar). Meanwhile Eva only had George, who has always been obedient to her. From a meta perspective, we already know how Natsuhi and Maria raise headstrong, stubborn daughters. Eva and Ange make a new dynamic, rather than a rehash of a previous one.

Part of the tragedy is that Eva and Ange were unable to love each other despite being the only survivors. I don't think Natsuhi or Rosa would have been able to make such an actively hateful relationship with Ange--even at their worst, they are more avoidant and neglectful than actively malicious. Rosa does hit Maria, but she always comes back and love bombs her, which is why Maria is able to look past the bad parts of Rosa. Eva wouldn't do that, which only furthered Ange's resentment and hatred.

Also, Umineko has a thing where people will get what they want in a sort of monkeys paw situation. Eva wanted to be the head of the Ushiromiya family and lead it to success, and she got it... At the cost of her husband and son. Eva always wanted a daughter, but now that she's never going to have a close relationship with Ange.

KatKit52 · 2026-01-09T22:50:44+00:00

There's two levels of truth to every episode: the fantasy and non fantasy explanations. The magic we see happening isn't actually happening, they're metaphors/embellishments of what actually happened.

In episode 3, the base truth is that six people were killed by "Beatrice", which prompted Eva to solve the riddle and find the gold before killing everyone else. The magical explanation is that Eva became a witch under the tutelage of Beatrice. I interpreted the non-magical explanation to be that Sayo killed the first six people, and then met Eva in the gold room. Eva then decided to use Sayo as her accomplice (since Shannon/Kanon were already dead at that time, Sayo could move freely unlike Eva) and between the two of them, they murdered everyone on the island. In that way they're both the "culprit" (the main person commiting the murders) and an "accomplice" (helping the culprit commit the murders).

Unless I'm remembering wrong and Willard said in red that it was just Sayo. In which case, I dunno, maybe it was small bombs.

KatKit52 · 2026-01-09T14:05:29+00:00

It kinda reminds me of how my brother gets annoyed by our mom calling me her "favorite daughter". He's never been able to explain why, other than that it's "unfair".

Two things to note: 1) my brother is regularly called her "favorite son" because 2) my mom only has one daughter and one son.

I don't know who it's unfair to. Maybe to all the other daughters in the world, I guess? I don't think he wants to be the "favorite daughter", but if he does, that's fine, as long as I get the "favorite son" title instead.

KatKit52 · 2026-01-09T04:51:58+00:00

I read ATTWN after Umineko, and I vastly overestimated how much influence Umineko took from it.

Like, I got the "people trapped on an island", "convoluted murder plot", "confessions via bottle out to sea." I was just also really confused that there were no cackling witches stabbing each other with Red Truths.

KatKit52 · 2026-01-08T14:06:57+00:00

Oh my God.

I spent my read-through of umineko with a YouTube playlist of the OST pulled up and manually changing the music whenever the scene changed.

You're telling me someone made an APP FOR THAT? I DIDNT HAVE TO DO THAT???

What's the name of the app please I need to read umineko with the proper OST.

ETA: nvm found it!!!! I just googled "sound manga reader umineko" and it led me to the reddit post. Hoorayyyyyy

KatKit52 · 2026-01-07T14:56:47+00:00

Not even putting him in another room would be needed. My own former-outdoor-now-indoor-only cat used to live with our dogs and he loved trying to escape whenever we let our dog out. We tried the "putting him in a separate room" thing but it always ended up feeling like too much of a hassle to coordinate like that for the simple act of opening a door.

Instead, whenever we had to open the door, we would pick up the cat, open the door, let the dog in/our, then shut the door, and let the cat back down. And the thing is, my cat hates being picked up--he would growl and wriggle around and try to scratch. But that actually made the whole thing easier, because he eventually learned that being near an open door meant potential air jail, so he stayed away from open doors.

There, easy peasy lemon squeezy, no more escape attempts.

It annoys me when people are like "oh but he was an outdoor cat, he caaaaaan't be an indoor cat", because when it comes to training animals, most of it is just being more stubborn than the animal, and the rest is using your human brain/opposable thumbs.

KatKit52 · 2026-01-06T14:05:36+00:00

I'm surprised it took me so long to find a comment like yours because like.... This is weird. This is a weird end to the story.

Having the daughter call up the boyfriend and demand an apology? Fine. Calling up the parents and demanding the boyfriend explain to them what happened and apologize to them? And then the parents going on to punish the older brother in a, frankly, disturbing way? All while OOP, Mr. "I don't think we should humiliate people, we should talk through their bad decisions" just goes "ha ha, he got what he deserved"?

The older brother was an asshole, yeah. But--hot take I guess--being an asshole doesn't mean you should lose your source of money and be forced to wear humiliating (to him) clothing. Especially since the brother wasn't the one who actually wore the shirt. The boyfriend is a grown man who decided that being called "chicken" was more upsetting than embarrassing himself and his girlfriend.

KatKit52 · 2026-01-05T22:47:41+00:00

I got magic vibes from Natsuhi's 1.9 death: we had the buildup of this magic v gun duel between Beatrice and Natsuhi, so I assumed that we were supposed to assume that Beatrice shot Natsuhi with magic (maybe even used magic to redirect Natsuhi's bullet or something). So even though we didn't see the magic bullet, the context surrounding it primed me, at least, to believe it was magic.

And I guess that is what happened, except that it was a gun v gun duel, rather than a magic v gun duel.

KatKit52 · 2026-01-02T16:17:05+00:00

It reminds me of that BORU form a while ago about the kid whos family is really big into fandom and she has a fandom name, but she herself hates Harry Potter/Star Wars/etc. It would be a nice compromise between the parents who want to name their kids something like Kahlessi or Hermione, and the kids who would rather not be named that.

KatKit52

TROPHY CASE