I read through Umineko...but I still have questions. (Part 1)

[Cloaked Drifter]

I was hoping to understand Umineko after carefully reading and even taking notes of the visual novels...but there are still things about the series I just don't get. I even read some of the manga, but there are still questions that still remain. After all of this though, I still do like the series, though sometimes I have a hard time coming to terms with what was said or how it was handled. But, maybe I missed something, which is why I came here to talk about it, so here we go. FYI, I am calling Sayo a he simply because Kinzo called him that in the manga of the 5th story.

1. According to the manga, Sayo killed both Eva and Hideyoshi after opening the door to their guest room. Why did he undress Hideyoshi and put him in the bathtub? Isn't that a bit excessive?

2. If Dr. Nanjo is a paid accomplice, shouldn't he be able to tell the difference between a real and fake wound, thereby exposing the murder-mystery act that he was told about was not an act?

3. Why is Genji helping Sayo commit the murders?

4. Why does finding Kinzo's gold convince Sayo to stop killing people?

5. Why does Rosa also use the term furniture in the second novel?

6. Why does Sayo plant stakes in the victims in the third novel instead of exposing Eva as a new culprit? Wouldn't he be worried about Battler and the others?

7. Why did Sayo kill Nanjo in the third novel?

8. Why does Genji count as furniture if he isn't one of Sayo's personas?

9. How does Sayo work with the red truth? Shouldn't he count as an extra person or name on the island? Shannon + Kanon + Sayo? How does this add up?

10. What is Sayo's motive exactly? There are two red truths that explain that he never killed out of revenge or pleasure, plus other red statements rule out the gold being the motive as well. I heard that Sayo made the mysteries for Battler to solve, but isn't that killing out of pleasure? What does this mean?

I think I will cut it here for now. I still have questions, but I'd rather not pile everything up all at once and overwhelm people. There might be one or two more parts that I might make after this. What are your thoughts?

[Battler Ushiromiya]

1. Hideyoshi was just taking a bath. She killed him in the bath.
2. Nanjo's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid ig idk
3. He feels obligated. He feels that he is to blame for her life and he believes he should do whatever she wants, even beyond just her being the family head.
4. Finding the gold is her self imposed loss. She wants to be stopped, and when people find the gold, that is what she considers a loss so she stops.
5. Accomplice and she doesn't give a ♥♥♥♥ about them
6. She didn't know about Eva. Or if she did, she didn't care that Eva was killing people. I don't remember exactly, I just know she didn't know Eva solved the epitaph until later
7. 🙍‍♀️
8. I don't actually know why Genji calls himself furniture. Probably related to feeling he is to blame for Yasu's lot in life
9. It's only counting the physical bodies, so there are only 16 people because two of those people are one person. Personality is irrelevant
10. A lot of self loathing and ♥♥♥♥ building up to lead her into wanting to kill all the Ushiromiyas. Manga goes into it more.

Also Yasu is a she.

[Cloaked Drifter]

1. I double checked both the manga of Requiem and the wiki, and the wiki implied that Eva and Hideyoshi undid the chain after hearing Kanon's voice since Sayo was the culprit and then stabbed both of them in the head. I didn't find anything in the manga that would go against that claim, but it still doesn't say why Kanon undressed Hideyoshi. Maybe Hideyoshi was wearing a robe or something? This still seems weird.

2. I still find it weird that Nanjo would be that stupid, but who knows? Maybe he is. I don't know what else to say about that question at this point.

3. I understand that Genji feels guilty about what happened to Sayo, but why would he go so far as to murder the Ushiromiya family? I understand that Kinzo despised his relatives, but does he share the same sentiment or something?

4. Why would Sayo do that though? I get that they wanted to be stopped, but why make finding Kinzo's gold a defeat condition? If they wished to be stopped, they could have just left vague clues that would eventually lead Battler or someone else to her if they were smart enough.

5. Hmmm, fair enough. I suppose the furniture line was nothing more than a rehearsed line.

6. That makes a lot of sense actually. Maybe Sayo didn't care about the people being killed since she didn't know that Eva solved the epitaph earlier. That explains why the stakes were put in the victims and I suppose that even explains Nanjo's death. I was a bit confused about George's death for a moment, but maybe Eva thought someone else killed George. I do know Eva would be furious if she knew that Sayo killed George, and would likely betray them if that was the case.

7. (answered)

8. Maybe.

9. Alright, I think I get it now.

10. Are you saying that Sayo kills the adults in the family because she thinks they're evil and that she only kills the four cousins out of pity? I suppose Sayo views Kumasawa and Nanjo the same way they view the adults in the family since they also share responsibility to some extent of what Sayo went through.

Since Sayo's gender is a rather debatable point in the fandom, I will be using the words "they" or "them" when addressing Sayo. I do however refuse to call Sayo by the name "Yasu" since that name was given to them by other servants that were rude to them and since they hated that name to begin with.

[Battler Ushiromiya]

1. Don't need two people to undo a chain lock. Hideyoshi could have been in the bath while Eva opened the door and got killed, and then she went and killed Hideyoshi.
3. It's because he doesn't feel that he has the right to object. He doesn't feel the same hatred, but he is going to do what he's ordered to without question because he feels he is to blame.
4. Why not. Solving the Epitaph and finding the gold is better than nothing. No reason not to really.
7. was actually supposed to be a shrug emote but it didn't work and idk why it came out like that lmfao
10. I'm saying that ♥♥♥♥ just built up and she basically just decided to burn it all down. There's a lot more to it, I just don't really know how to explain it properly.

[Cloaked Drifter]

1. Oh, you know what? That does make a lot of sense. I think I got confused on how the wiki worded things. Even if Eva made noise after being attacked, there was nothing to stop Kanon from maybe using a Winchester if things escalated with Hideyoshi. I guess that question is resolved now.

3. Interesting. So I suppose we can conclude that Genji was ashamed for not only how Sayo turned out, but also how the entire family turned out. I think I see now. Genji was a rather cryptic character, but to sum him up, he was a man to set out to clean up a mess in his eyes.

4. Maybe I should rephrase this question. Why did Sayo set finding Kinzo's gold as a defeat condition instead of just leaving subtle clues for others to solve to find out that Sayo was the one killing everyone? Or some other condition where the culprit was exposed or defeated? I only rephrased this since finding a treasure doesn't normally stop a culprit. Maybe Sayo was desperate? This is still so weird.

10. I guess I still find it baffling and hard to believe that Sayo would also plan on killing George, Jessica, Maria, and Battler considering the history they all had together, which is especially tragic. Also, I did forget to include Godha, but I figure Sayo killed him since he seemed like a slime ball.

[Battler Ushiromiya]

1. The wiki is kinda bad ngl so I wouldn't trust a ton of what it says
3. More like he feels like he doesn't have any right but to go along with what she says.
4. There is a lot of ways to figure out who the culprit is, its just that nobody does it. Finding the gold is just another defeat condition, thats all

[Cloaked Drifter]

Hmmm, I see. I still find questions 2, 3, 4, and 10 still perplexing, but I am not sure what else we can say about them. For now though, I think I will prepare making part 2 of this topic. Either the two of us or someone else can always try and answer these more later.