Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru - 7 - Requiem of the Golden Witch recap part 2

The culprit, a Beatrice-like figure with white hair starts to speak.

Let it be heard. I am one yet many. What I speak is our tale. However, this is a small world, sealed by glass and cork, with no one to hear. None shall lay eyes upon it, and my entire tale shall be sealed away, set adrift in the sea of my heart until it disappears along with the seaweed.

The two love demons are among her as well.

For us... Where and who we are hardly matters!!

Then the culprit tells about the first time she arrived at Rokkenjima in 1976, as a servant from Fukuin house, who was just starting elementary school along with Jessica...

wtf? It isn't Shannon? It shows Shannon there talking to this new servant, and that Shannon looks the same age as the Shannon from 1986?
Oh, so this servant is Lion. She wasn't killed, she was just raised by the Fukuin house and brought to Rokkenjima by Genji (who knew this girl's true origin) to work as a servant, since Natsuhi didn't accept her as a daughter. She was given the nickname Yasu by the other servants (some of which looked a lot like the 7 sisters of purgatory).

Kumasawa talks about those ghost stories again. The seal on the shrine, and how Beatrice has become a ghost, wandering around in search of a body, and how she dwells in the VIP room on the second floor... Yasu also heard about these stories from Kumasawa, and had blamed Beatrice whenever she lost a broom or something.
The witch was playing a prank on her, moving the broom to different places so she couldn't find it.

I know that turning around won't help, since she has no form. I can try to look, but I musn't look with my eyes. Once my eyes tell me there's nothing there, I won't be able to "see" anymore.

I learned that from the director of the Fukuin house. You mus'nt try to see with your eyes... you must see with the eyes of your heart.

The whole world is filled with god's love. In the many blessings of everyday life, one can see god, and angels, and the holy ghost. If you try to look at them with your eyes, you cannot see them, so you won't be able to "see" them. You won't be able to feel them or understand them. With the eyes of the
heart, you will quietly understand. You don't look at them. You "see", and draw them with your heart. In this way, I learned how to recognize beings not of this world at the Fukuin house.

This is why all of the Fukuin servants were able to see Beatrice.

It won't work. I've now understood and perceived you. No matter how many unpleasant things you say, you'll just expose the ugliness of your heart.

Without turning around, I slowly let her entire range of vision fill the entire chapel. It was as though the viewpoint of my soul was floating out from the shell of my head.

Yasu captured the demon, Gaap, who was playing pranks on her.
The Fukuin director also told Yasu not to try and "see" evil beings... By seeing this witch that Yasu thought to be Beatrice at that time, they had formed a pact.

Kumasawa teaches Yasu a charm to prevent her from forgetting things (and the witch from making them disappear). Yasu starts getting into mystery novels because of her.
A mystery novel with a solution at the end is a tale about humans. one that doesn't reveal the answer is a tale about witches/demons. The mystery genre is a fight between witches and humans.

After the old servants quit, some new servants (more of the 7 sisters of purgatory) arrived. They didn't believe Yasu's stories about the witch Beatrice hiding things at first.
Gaap wanted to make these people believe in the witch, so she possessed Yasu's body and used magic to make one of the keys on a servant's keyring disappear and move to her locker.
Yasu experience magic through her body first-hand... she could feel the sensation of magic flowing through her fingers as she made the key dance and turn into a gold butterfly before flying away...

Later, Yasu declares to Shannon that she wants to quit being a servant, and become a witch instead.

I'm modifying the world so that Beato is me.

Oh, I am one yet many. I've had enough of playing the servant. I've had enough of being human! From this night forth, I am Beatrice! The Golden Witch Beatrice, who has lived for a thousand years!

In the world of witches, the only limits to your fun are the limits of your imagination! My imagination shall become the source of my magical power!

The night before a family conference, Beatrice invites Shannon into her newly created Golden Land served her tea and tells her all about how she used to be Shannon's roomate, then became a witch and erased her memory. She wants Shannon to stay in this paradise with her, but Shannon refuses, stating that the human world contains something that even an endless witch like Beatrice cannot give her.
Beatrice:

I want to know. I believed I had everything, so tell me what it is I lack...!

Shannon:

I think... that you already know. Isn't that why you invited me here...?

Later it shows Shannon playing with all the cousins at the conference, and talking about mystery novels with Battler... Battler promises to come back to see Shannon in a year and take her away on a white horse.

None of us humans can live on our own. And yet, we have no way of peeking into the hearts of others. That's why every meeting between people... is a mystery of the heart. Finding those, reasoning about them, and understanding each other is the key to interactions between people and hearts.

Beatrice understands that this emotion that Shannon feels from being with George can't be given by her endless magic.

Lion is listening to this Beatrice's tale as well, and trying to understand why an alternate version of her would become a witch and carry out those murders in the previous games... Beatrice says that at this point in the tale, even she could not have expected herself to eventually carry out those crimes.
Will:

Probably... your misfortune probably came... when you solved the epitaph's riddle ...reviving as the Golden Witch in the truest sense.

Beatrice:

However, as long as Battler returns in 1986... some sort of tragedy would certainly have occured.

Lion just wants to know why Beatrice carried out those murders... the "why dunnit", the most important part. In the tale of the Golden Witch, the answers to all the riddles are hidden there.

1981
Shannon is shocked that Battler left the family, and won't be coming to the conferences anymore. It makes her rethink her decision to quit being a servant. Beatrice tries to get Shannon to go through with it anyway... (wow, I remember that stuff about the white horse in the 1st game, never would've thought THAT would be a clue to Beatrice's motive)
1982
Jessica is talking with all the other girl servants about love. Shannon is mostly quiet. one of the servants goes on about how guys usually say things for no reason in particular, and girls have a bad habit of searching for hidden meanings behind those words...
George was telling Shannon not to worry about Battler, that he's probably got his own life now and forgot all about the Ushiromiya family.
1983
Battler still didn't come back, but Kyrie mentioned meeting with him at his grandparents. And just after Shannon prayed for a message to show that Battler would come see her again, Kyrie brought out a letter that Battler had written for the cousins. Although... Shannon was just a servant, so of course she wouldn't get a letter. she should've known that.
Shannon still persists, saying to herself that these letters are just trials from god.

Love is an illusion. However, if both sides are seeing the same illusion, the love becomes true.

Beatrice realizes that she's partly to blame for Shannon's pain. She offers to bring Shannon's little brother (Kanon, I guess?) from the Fukuin house to Rokkenjima, so she won't be alone, and to take the bud of love that she has for Battler into her own heart, so Shannon won't have to suffer anymore.
By doing this, Beatrice will also learn about the single element she does not possess, love. she wanted to feel what Shannon feels.

And, if Battler ever does return, if the bud still has not withered and you still desire it, I shall return it to you.

Modify this world... Let the bud of love travel from Shannon to Beatrice.

Beatrice also changes her form to be more to Battler's liking...
1984

ok so, at this point I think it's pretty obvious what Beatrice's motive was. She still had Shannon's bud of love for Battler inside her when Battler returned in 1986... and by then, Beatrice had waited 7 years for him. Battler didn't even remember what he said about taking Shannon away on a white horse... and worse still, Beatrice shared Shannon's desire to discuss mystery novels with Battler again like they did 7 years ago.
Beatrice enacted all of those impossible crimes so that she could get Battler to try and solve the mystery of how they happened, hoping that he would solve it and learn the truth about her motive. Their battles with the red and blue truth were just like how they used to discuss mystery novels with each other back then...
But for the whole 4 games, Battler was ignoring the heart when he tried to solve Beatrice's riddles. He focused only on the "who dunnit" and the "how dunnit" and disregarded the "why dunnit", which was actually the most important part that Beatrice wanted him to figure out. It wasn't until the end of the 5th game when he finally learned the truth... but by then, that Beatrice who nurtured Shannon's love had already died.

The epitaph... Beatrice realizes it is meant for her resurrection to become the true Golden Witch Beatrice... but she doesn't know that she is actually just being strung along by fate.
Maria also knows what the epitaph means as soon as she reads it. She learns about Beatrice's friend, and reveals that demon's name as Gaap. She also names Ronove, the demon who is a family member of Genji Ronoue.
Virgilia, the one who guides travelers to Beatrice, is there with them too.

It is very important to have a form for a vessel, but a name is just as important.

Here in Mariage Sorciere, we have learned how to expand our worlds and create new minions.

Beatrice uses Maria's magic to create the Siesta sisters, and the 7 sisters of purgatory.
But... no matter how much Beatrice nurtures her world together with Maria, the roots of love still leave gaps. Beatrice's golden paradise is incomplete. She wants to make it complete again. Maria tells Beato that solving the epitaph will surely make her complete, and they will reach the true Golden Land where all wishes come true.

Will and Beatrice explain how the epitaph is solved, starting from the clue Genji gave about Taiwan being Kinzo's hometown... then leading to a certain railroad as the hidden meaning of "sweetfish river"... then a whole bunch of wordplay involving english and japanese characters to eventually arrive at the word "Qilian" as the key, and "Quadrillion" as the 11-character phrase that it is referring to with the 10 twilights to reach the Golden Land... which is also a word that is written in the chapel, where there's a device that unlocks the door to the hidden gold...

You will be blessed only at a probability of a quadrillion to one.

Beatrice remembers how Genji was always the one who polished that relief above the chapel... none of the other servants ever did.
Each of the letters in "quadrillion" were keys that you could pull out... with 5 characters remaining, all spread apart by two spaces each...
"Those who remain shall praise my noble name", meant you had to arrange the keys to make " l o r d u " - Lord Ushiromiya

Outside the chapel, one of the lion statues had changed direction.. it was facing toward another lion statue facing another direction... Beatrice has now found the hidden gold... the witch who could once only play pranks around the mansion, has now awakened as the true Golden Witch.
Genji arrives in the room with the gold just after Beatrice, and applauds her. He tells her that Kinzo believed that the one who solved the riddle would contain Beatrice's soul. He showed her the italian dress that the original Beatrice wore... the one in the portrait.
Beatrice thinks to herself... how she isn't the real Beatrice, but a different witch, stealing the name of the witch from Kinzo's delusions... and now she has become the real Beatrice.

In the past, I believed that I could create my own fate with my magic. How ironic that fate should guide me to this place...

For some reason, Beatrice now isn't affected by Genji and Kumasawa's anti-magic toxin... they take her to see Kinzo. As Beatrice walks in... Kinzo sobs on the ground... and begs the old Beatrice for forgiveness. Shen he finished his bawling, he stood up, and started talking to the real/current Beatrice.

... So, I see that you are alive... I'm glad...

However, there can be no doubt that today's miracle is a true one. By her own power, without anyone's help, she solved the epitaph before anyone else.

They tell Beatrice that her true parents are Kinzo and the old Beatrice. Kinzo starts calling her by her real name.

Lion... I will now return to you everything that Beatrice gave me. I return to you the gold, as well as everything of the Ushiromiya family, which was created by it.

He gave Beatrice the ring of the Ushiromiya family head, asked Lion to call him father one last time... and then he laughed like a maniac as he fell to the floor and died.

It may be... that the master died long before now. It was only his magic and tenacity that kept him here so long.

Lion/Beatrice tells Genji, Kumasawa, and Nanjo that she doesn't want anyone else to know about her. She wants to remain the same witch of the island, waiting here for Battler... and she wants Krauss to take the role of Ushiromiya head. They agree to pretend that Kraus is the head, but Lion will keep the only key to the gold and will remain as the secret true head.

If I think about it, not much has actually changed. After all, I've always been the Golden Witch... I've just had a few more people acknowledge that.

November 29th, 1984, the day I became a true witch.
Oh, I am one yet many. I am the Golden Witch, Beatrice.
The true ruler of Rokkenjima... and the possessor of endless gold.
And yet, I was in no way complete.

...And that ends Beatrice's tale... but wait, what about the next 2 years?
The inner conflict of the furniture with incomplete souls... there was a duel. The result had almost been decided... but since it was 1986... that happened. If it had been a year earlier or a year later, it would have happened differently...

Beatrice abandoned herself to the choice of roulette.
Humans will carelessly say that people have infinite possibilities. However, the Endless Witch... knows how limited those possibilities really are.
So out of her limited fate, she tried to create the infinite... she spun the roulette of fate with an unshakable and certain will. A certain fate, where absolutely no one could escape if the epitaph was not solved. And all of it sealed up on the island. October 4th and 5th, 1986, were sealed away by an absolute and certain will... and she abandoned herself to that short span of time and the many fates that could be chosen on that island.

To conclude her funeral, Beatrice offers her heart to Will, the one who could finally understand her heart.

In the mystery genre, there can be no death unless the detective performs the last rites.

Slowly... Will drew it out. Its pitch-black tip, which could neatly slice apart truth from fiction, swung once, leaving a black trail, and then again, leaving a white trail.

I'll cut the truth out from the fiction.

He explains all of the murder mysteries in all of the games with "Illusions to illusions" and "Earth to earth"

Tales woven by the gold truth return to illusions

When fiction is shut up inside a cat box, it becomes truth

One final question... "Who... aaam I...?"...

Illusions to illusions. The promised reaper lowers the curtains on the tale regardless of the witch's will.

People are riddles. They want someone else to solve their riddle. They live life wanting someone to solve the riddle of who they are... the most difficult riddle in the world.

The illusion of the witch has been spectacularly crushed, and Bern's little bit of revenge is complete.
This tale of intertwined loves ends thanks to an absolute and certain willpower... Out of respect for that certain willpower, the Witch of Certainty made that kid a witch for just two days.
What was the truth behind those endless tales? We can't say for sure. That's what makes it a cat box. When you open the cat box, you get a tale where no trace of the mansion remains, and no one except Eva survives.

Lion:

Now that I think about it, maybe the whole island where she lived and died was the Golden Land.

By the way, Battler has written the most fun tale imaginable of the inside of that cat box... that is the happiest possible tale for Beatrice other than the one where Lion is Natsuhi's child.