Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru - 7 - Requiem of the Golden Witch recap part 1

A dream is something drawn in the sand between the coming and receding waves. Something so fragile that it is wiped blank each time the waves draw back.

Battler created a tale only for Beatrice to read, and nobody else... This way, nobody will be able to defile her tale. A certain truth, between the two them. No matter how some witch or theatregoer tries to spin the tale, the golden truth between Battler and Beatrice will remain in tact.

There's some scene with an unknown protaganist maid, who gets fingered as the culprit by some inquisitors of heresy... Then some guy shows up and says they got the wrong culprit. He starts going off about Van Dine's rule #11. It is forbidden for a servant to be the culprit.

That's right, we are inquisitors of heresy. Felling evil witches is our job. However, we must not risk hurting the innocent.

All humans have their own personal truths. Those should only be exposed when they commit crimes. We've been given the right to expose them.
But no one, not even god, has the right to expose the innocent truths of those who have not sinned!!

He says that detectives must not forget to find the motive... the heart... without heart, a detective is just an intellectual rapist. heh...

This guy's name is Will, but that's not what everyone used to call him... Head inquisitor of heresy in SSVD... Wizard-hunting Wright.
So that whole scene was unrelated to the witch's game, and was just to introduce Will.

Later, Will arrived at Beatrice's funeral. to meet with one of the family members. on Beatrice's coffin, there was a book with words printed on the cover:

To my beloved Beatrice. October 5th, 1986

...what th... Krauss introduces himself and... his daughter, Ushiromiya Lion. Now I'm officially confused.
Will is confused by this as well, saying Kraus's child is supposed to be Jessica.

Jessica's my little sister

Will called out...

I'm here. isn't it about time you showed your face?

Bern shows up in front of Will. Lion is able to see her too, but doesn't know who she is. Bern just made the catbox bigger by adding Lion, one of the pieces who has a possibility of appearing in the game.

Bern asked Will to solve the murder of Beatrice. He brings up Van Dine's twenty rules again.

Rule #1. It is forbidden to have a crime without all
clues presented.

Bern:

Don't worry. Everything is gathered here.

Will is unable to refuse.

After Bern leaves, Will explains to Lion that this funeral is currently trapped in a concentrated loop of time. when he throws a rose outside, the rose stops in midair, and crumbles. He explains that they are stuck there and have to go along with the witch's game.

Lion is the successor to the head now, instead of Kraus. Says she often talks with Kinzo, so she's used to dealing with unreasonable people.

Everyone knows Beatrice. And yet, no one knows her. Kinzo's the only one who's ever met her.

Rosa tells her story about her leading Beatrice out of the hidden mansion, and then Beatrice falling to her death... Will says that it was an accident and it's not her fault.

They theorize that this Beatrice that Rosa met, must have been the child of the Beatrice that gave Kinzo the gold, due to the difference in age.
Will claims that he won't get any farther without talking to Kinzo. Bern gives will a status even higher than detective's authority, Theatregoing authority.
apparently Shannon doesn't even know this Lion person, and neither does Kanon... This is a special fragment, sewn from several different fragments by the game master... even Kinzo is still alive in this world.

There are 3 Beatrices. The first is the Beatrice who gave Kinzo the gold 30 years ago. The 2nd is the Beatrice that fell off the cliff 20 years ago. The 3rd is the ghost Beatrice who is rumored to be the master of the night on Rokkenjima.

It started out as the legend of the evil spirits on Akujikishima. Later, elements such as Kinzo's occult hobbies and Beatrice's epitaph got mixed in and formed the Legend of the Golden Witch.

Will tries to use his authority to get Shannon and Kanon together to talk to them, but Shannon gets all weird and says in all caps, that she and kanon are "ordered" to take turns at the reception desk, and they can not both be at the reception together... Shkanontrice is blatantly obvious by now if it wasn't already in ep6. It seemed like Will would've put himself into checkmate by using his authority here, so he gave up.

Lion doesn't know Shannon either, even though Shannon has been working as a servant for the last 10 years. Finally, she takes Will to meet Kinzo. Will tells Kinzo, if he dies without telling anything about Beatrice, then his children will adorn Beatrice with whatever tale they like, and write that into their memories.

Beatrice is mine alone. No matter what anyone says, no one can defile me and that tale. What they say is of no consequence!

Kinzo does not like to anticipate anything in relation to his death.

Will doesn't seem to care about casually mentioning all stuff that he knows about this family from reading the other fragments.
Will theorizes that Kinzo thought of Beatrice's daughter as the old Beatrice reincarnated... The Beatrice who was locked up in Kuwadorian had the feeling that Beatrice wasn't her real name. She asked both Rosa and Virgilia what her real name was.

I simply have the soul of that witch sealed inside my body.

Kinzo's magical ceremonies were trying to help the new Beatrice regain old Beatrice's memories... This is what the information in all the games up until now has lead Will to figuring out.

Kinzo refused to let Beatrice's soul escape even after death.
Then when Rosa let the 2nd Beatrice out, and she fell to her death...Kinzo couldn't cope with that, and he descended into madness... creating the witch's epitaph. Kumasawa/Virgilia comes to Genji and says they should tell everything about the story of Kuwadorian's Beatrice.
Kinzo lead a secret 2nd life in the Kuwadorian mansion to be with the his daughter who he thought of as his lover Beatrice.

Whoa... this is crazy... because of Will's authority, Kinzo has now decided to spill the beans about everything involving him and Beatrice. Lion is there too listening, stunned.

I met Beatrice... Beatrice Castiglioni... just before the end of the war.

The war caused members of the Ushiromiya family to start dying off, and this allowed Kinzo to break away from their puppet strings. He then went to fight in the war in an attempt to end his life. He was on duty on this Rokkenjima island, a top secret submarine base that was later abandoned, so they were now guarding an empty island for no reason.

And then, an Italian submarine full of sick people arrived at the island. one person on it, a woman with golden hair, could speak English. And Kinzo, the interpreter, met her for the first time.

Two mansions, two families... The Ushiromiya family mansion, and the mansion for Kinzo, released from the shackles of the Ushiromiya family.

Oh... and inside that italian submarine... was a mountain of gold ingots... These Italians are enemies with their current government, and with their submarine busted, there is no way for them to move the gold. They had to hide it in Rokkenjima.
The Italian and Japanese soldiers tried bargaining with each other to embezzle the gold... and before their negotiations had finished they started fighting each other. they had been entranced by demons.
Yamamoto, Kinzo, Beatrice, and an Italian soldier were the only ones left. After killing the last Italian soldier, Yamamoto tried to kill Beatrice, but Kinzo stopped him. Beatrice was injured and needed to be taken to a hospital on another island... but she didn't want that. If she went to a hospital, she'd be found out, and taken back to her country.

Just like Kinzo, Beatrice considered herself dead, and wanted to die on this mission, but after meeting each other, Bice and Kinzo found reason to live. She'd rather wait with Kinzo, because going to the hospital and then back to her country, would mean she would be dead again.
Kinzo won't accept Beatrice not getting to a hospital. He can only grant half of her wish, to kidnap her and be with her... he can't grant the part about staying with her on the island until the boat comes. Nanjo treated Beatrice... then they lived together in Kinzo's hometown, until Beatrice died while giving birth... Kinzo then bought Rokkenjima and set up the 2 mansions, using the Italian gold stash that nobody but him knows about.

The one-winged eagle... came from the markings on the gold ingots... this marking was supposed to be the symbol of the Salo Republic, but was warn out and only one wing was visible...
Kinzo had started to truly believe in Beatrice's magic, and used the one-winged eagle seal on the gold was his magical crest. Although he changed the design slightly, and had all the gold re-pressed, in order to prevent people from finding out the true origin of the gold was actually from a government.

... so, that's the story of 2 of the 3 Beatrices... and neither of them were 'killed', only died on accident.
That leaves the 3rd Beatrice, the one that is considered the ruler of Rokkenjima's night. Will goes to question Maria.. and wonders why Battler isn't attending the funeral. Will's theatregoing power affects Maria, and Maria shows her witch form to him... she explains that the doesn't have a father, and that her name "Maria" is connected to the virgin Mary or something... Since her mom refused to talk to her about her father, Maria came up with her own answer that her mom gave birth to her with magic. and that became her truth...

Beato said that the minimum number of people needed to create a world was two. I thought she meant you needed two parents to create a child... That's when I thought of it. Beato may be a witch, but she's a witch born of a human. She isn't a child a of the Holy Ghost. But I'm different. I was born from Mama alone. I was born of the Holy Ghost! ...Beato can't create a universe without me. But I have god by my side, I can make a universe all by myself, along with the Holy Ghost!

Beato called me the Witch of Origins.

All by myself, I can create something out of nothing! Beato can take that and make it expand infinitely! Ange was the witches' apostle, who would spread the word far and wide! And that was Mariage Sorciere.

There's a huge difference between one and infinity. That's why Beato is so great. However, compared to the difference between existence and non-existence, one and infinite are nearly the same thing. I am a child destined to become the best witch... no... The greatest creator in the world...!

Maria sure does think highly of herself...

If we liken Maria's sense of identity to a universe... then this endless stream of words coming from her might be like the Big Bang.

She spent so long tormented over how to interpret her lack of a father... Then, by chance, she saw a line in the bible that looked like it secretly referred to her, and she finally formed an understanding for herself.

... Then, later on, she went to Rokkenjima, met the Endless Witch who called herself Beatrice, and the clump of energy exploded in a Big Bang, giving birth to their magical compendium.

Witches and spirits always exist right beside us. They just choose not to show themselves... and when the do show themselves, it's always sudden, as though they've been there the whole time.

Beatrice asks Maria to show her magic.

When one knows of magic and can speak of it, they finally reach the rank of apprentice... One is only a witch if they can put such knowledge into practice and use magic, correct?

Maria asks Beatrice to show her magic for the first time, so she can learn to become a true witch.

Very well. However, I must ask you for your assistance. As I have already told you, no matter how pure your soul might be, all humans are tainted and filled with the toxin that resists magic.

Maria had to cover her eyes while Beatrice did the candy cup trick, in order to prevent the toxin from ruining the magic. This is all Beatrice can do at her current strength.
By 1986, Beatrice was able to show herself in front of 4 of the servants and Nanjo as well as Maria. The day she made all the humans acknowledge her would be the day of her resurrection. The last person for Beatrice to appear in front of... would be Battler, the one said to have the strongest anti-magic resistance.

The Beatrice of 1986 is different from the Italian Beatrice or the Kuwadorian Beatrice... she can not exist unless people first acknowledge her.
What does it mean to 'kill' the Beatrice who has no existence?
The minimum number of people required to create a universe is two. However, Maria had said that even a single person could give birth to a universe. And yet, Maria had desired a second person to nurture the world she had given birth to alone. Because if it was born and not nurtured, it would die and disappear?
...replace the word "universe" with "Beatrice"
A single person could give birth to Beatrice, however the minimum number of people required to nurture and keep her alive is two.
When a single person creates her, it is no more than a delusion. she only appears when a 2nd person acknowledges her. Maria was the 2nd one to acknowledge the witch Beatrice.
Beatrice is just an egg when created by the first person... when the 2nd person acknowledges her, the egg hatches and she becomes Beatrice the elder, who has lived for a thousand years.
The younger, chick Beatrice from the 6th game was created out of love for Battler.

Next... Will used his theatregoing power on Jessica... she told him about the portrait, and how she eventually got used to it, but the other family members who only came a few times a year were still weirded out by it.

Everyone has something they really want to become. But they never do it... the restrictions on their everyday life are what made them who they are today, so they have no way of changing themselves.

Jessica told Will about how her fight with Maria made her go into the VIP room at night to confirm that Beatrice wasn't really there... she found a doll, then Maria phoned her and started singing... then the lights turned off, she heard a witch's cackling and someone leaving the room, and when the lights went back on the doll disappeared. Jessica refused to believe it was the witch's curse, but found it even scarier to imagine that the servants and Maria went through all that trouble just to scare her out of the VIP room.

Also Will is interested about how the seating arrangements described by Maria, Jessica, and Lion... and apparently Lion doesn't know anything about the witch Beatrice. the portrait doesn't have an epitaph (even though Jessica just described that exact thing)... wtf is going on... Lion only knows about the italian Beatrice and the Kuwadorian Beatrice.

Will is now catching on, getting closer to figuring out who killed the witch Beatrice.
Someone played the part of the witch Beatrice for Maria's sake, to encourage her interest in the occult.Maria views people differently based on their behavior. when Rosa acts violently, Maria thinks of her as the 'black witch', a different person from her mother... So even though this person didn't look like Beatrice, by changing her behaviour, she convinced Maria that she was Beatrice.
... and Maria said she could only meet with Beatrice when she was at Rokkenjima.
So the witch Beatrice is an entity that can 'possess' people.
Like Mariage Sorciere... one person would be the creator, and the other person would acknowledge those creations, thereby nurturing the illusion.
The Golden Witch Beatrice was created by one person, and acknowledged by Maria. So killing 'Beatrice' doesn't mean killing the kind person who played the part of Beatrice... It means the person who played the part of Beatrice killing that character.

Two culprits... the human who can create and kill Beatrice, and the human who never gave birth to Beatrice in the first place, who can kill the entire concept of Beatrice.
That latter one... is Lion. her world is the only one where the witch Beatrice doesn't exist.
He uses some brilliant puzzle solving work to determine that the seating arrangements described by Lion are different from those described by Maria and Jessica, and that Lion didn't exist in the world where they were talking about the witch Beatrice.
If Lion exists, then the witch Beatrice doesnt...
Will theorizes that Lion, the person who is one year older than Jessica, isn't Natsuhi's child. That silver ring that Lion wears to prove she is the successor to the head... that doesn't exist in the witch Beatrice's world either. That means Lion is actually the child of Kinzo.

Bernkastel then appears to congratulate Will.
Lion = the child of Kinzo and the Kuwadorian Beatrice = the baby from 19 years ago, in a world where Natsuhi accepted her and didn't cause her to fall off a cliff.
Lion is... both Kinzo's child and his grandchild.
Bern says that there is only a tiny fraction (one out of 2 and a half million) of a chance of Natsuhi accepting Lion as her daughter.

However... Lion has nothing to do with the serial murders... the identity of that Beatrice, the one that uses Lion's ghost to take the form of the golden witch... has yet to be determined.
Also... Lion is treated as a boy in the 5th game...? Oh yeah, that 19 year old who called Natsuhi, claiming to be her son.
And in the 5th game, two demons of different genders appeared, but they both looked like girls.
Lion prefers not to say what her gender is.

Will is now declaring to Bernkastel that he has solved the 'who dunnit', and the 'why dunnit'... he summons the true culprit, the one who played the role of the ghost Beatrice of 1986... He claims that this person's 4 games contained enough hints to solve it... while the other 3 games with different masters were just extra hints. At the end of the 5th game, Battler finally understood. However, he didn't make it in time. that's why he isn't here at Beatrice's funeral.