originally posted at https://canmom.tumblr.com/post/163142...
@o3ds has a couple of comments:
it wasnt a translation error. it was mentioned in episode 1 that kyrie was battler’s step mom (rudolf cheated on battler’s mom and married kyrie, (probably because she got pregnant?) which was why battler didnt visit his paternal family for years until the family conference) and she has a daughter that couldnt attend due to feeling sick.
Oh whoops! I forgot about Battler’s (nameless?) half-sister (also, I just had to look up the difference between ‘half’ and ‘step’ sisters because English is needlessly confusing). I wonder if we’ll ever see her.
on another note: beatrice’s fashion made me gay. ruffled skirt and striped thigh-highs with a golden tattoo + pre-teen me? hmmmm
extremely homosexual tbh
OK, so this chapter is called ‘The Witch’s Move’ so uh, probably a murder coming.
This time, rather than moving about in secret, Beatrice has openly taken up residence in the VIP room. Kanon brings her lunch. Her room is pretty posh.
Beatrice would probably be the kind of person to use the word ‘foodie’.
From the dialogue it’s been longer since Beatrice disappeared than I assumed.
Beatrice explains her purpose: as before, collecting the gold ‘with interest’.
In an interesting twist, the narration - from Kanon’s POV - says something (’this witch never had anything good to say’) and Beatrice responds directly, giving a direct illustration of her ‘thought-reading’ ability. She says Kinzo has incorporated her ‘collection of interest’ into his own ritual, so perhaps we’ll get some elaboration on what these two are playing at here.
Kanon gets an inkling that Beatrice is here to fucking murder everyone. Beatrice recites the ‘riddle’ again. She basically explains to Kanon that she’s going to murder [him] and [he] should be grateful because furniture.
I don’t know if I should say she’s suicide-baiting Kanon exactly since she’s going to do the murdering, but it’s definitely that sort of tone.
She explains that, to escape boredom, she does her best to make peoples’ lives miserable and watches the fireworks.
I am quite angry with this fictional character. [2022 update: I am quite entertained by this fictional character.]
Beatrice mentions other witches sometimes come to watch.
She’s a real piece of work, isn’t she?
She gets Kanon to kiss her shoes (she really does have a fucking foot fetish doesn’t she) to prevent her from leaving, with the implication of suffering forever if she doesn’t.
Kanon manages to resist a bit. Beatrice changes tactics, threatening to kill Shannon and George as the ‘two who are close’ this time. The narration spells out explicitly: trying to play ‘furniture’, Kanon has rejected attachments with anyone else, but still has love and solidarity with Shannon.
So Kanon kneels to Beatrice. :( There’s blood and a crash of thunder so she might have killed Kanon? But it’s not narrated explicitly.
I’m not at all sure how Battler is supposed to be ‘playing’ against Beatrice in this ‘game’ here. Is it just a matter of interpretation from outside the story?
Next scene: family hanging out times. Battler’s a sleepy boy. Sleeping is pro speedrun strats actually. Battler makes a strange sort of comment about how it’s “not his turn”. Perhaps Battler here does have some inkling of the meta-narrative after all?
Or not. We go back to Battler outside the story. He’s pissed off. He doesn’t like the way the narrative is going, complaining that Beatrice is just doing ‘whatever she wants’. Maybe he can only talk in the ‘outside’ when he’s asleep in-narrative?
Beatrice says she’s making this to demolish the 18 vs 19 people argument, by revealing herself openly.
There is some very cryptic discussion. Battler says it’s ridiculous to have a witch walk right in the entrance hall, Beatrice says she’s just ‘playing to match his moves’.
After some needling from Beatrice, Battler’s like, fine, come at me bro.
He makes the same argument I did about Beatrice using stage magic (’fancy showmanship’) to switch Maria’s candy with an intact one. He insists Rosa’s perception of butterflies was a hallucination or a trick or a mistake. Beatrice calls him on throwing out the part he can’t explain as ‘trivial’, and says her turn isn’t yet over.
Not sure exactly where the turn boundaries are. The rules of this game aren’t all that clear. I guess that’s the point.
Explaining the ‘butterflies’ visual effect - when Beatrice appears/disappears, and when she uses magic - is the biggest sticking point in any theory for sure. That and, prior to the start of this story, not being visible to anyone except Kanon and Shannon. Otherwise, all she’s done so far is cruel but mundane emotional manipulation.
The adults - specifically Kyrie, Rudolf, Eva and Hideyoshi - discuss Kyrie’s perception of Beatrice walking in the entrance hall. They’re worried she’ll name herself as ‘Beatrice’ and declare herself manager of Kinzo’s assets, or say she’s an illegitimate daughter, or otherwise try to take some of the money.
Suddenly appearing at the dinner table. Imagine that.
Kyrie is alive again, so she can do some strategic thinking. The narrative mentions “chessboard thinking” so…
Let’s go!
In short, they expect Beatrice will try to surprise them with something. Oh, you don’t know the half of it.
They wonder if Krauss is involved. In any case, their strategy is to doubt anything ‘Beatrice’ shows them and stall for time.
Privately, Kyrie starts to feel like nothing can be believed, and wonders if Beatrice really is a witch who can’t be analysed in terms of human motives.
Rosa and Maria are in front of the portrait. Maria says she sees Beatrice every year at the family conference, where Beatrice teaches her to draw magic circles. Maria assents that Beatrice is a resident of Rokkenjima.
Rosa decides to open and read Beatrice’s letter now, instead of opening it at dinner. But Maria stops her. Rosa realises Maria will tell Beatrice if she opens the letter, so agrees not to. She asks to speak to Beatrice, but Maria says she has no way to know when Beatrice might show up, just that she is always invisibly watching.
Then Rosa hits her again for doing that creepy laugh, because Rosa does that in every scene :(
The next chapter is called ‘“Furniture” and “People”’.
Jessica, George and Shannon/Sayo have retreated to the guest house. Jessica encourages a distinction between ‘Shannon’ and ‘Sayo’ much as she did with Kanon, as they both encourage Sayo to cut loose a bit.
They talk about relationships. Jessica expresses why she felt things went wrong with Kanon, while George and Sayo seem to be getting along well. George describes his dream of a comfortably bourgeois nuclear family life. Eventually Shannon is called away.
Another scene with Gohda and Genji. There’s a plate for Beatrice this time. As Kumasawa elaborates, Gohda is upset he’s not allowed to serve food to Kinzo and Beatrice without the One-Winged Eagle. Once again Kumasawa says it’s heartrending but she can only watch from the shadows. Compared to what has gone before, this is not very heartrending tbh?
Anyway, it’s Shannon who’s been given the job of serving Beatrice, so Gohda has a right go at her. Fortunately Kanon is there to warn her about Beatrice. They know what ‘opening the Golden Land’ entails.
Kanon has bought completely into the whole ‘you are furniture who should be glad to die’ thing and tells Shannon off for believing otherwise :(
Kanon tells her what Beatrice said about tempting her to sacrifice her on the second twilight, and that if she refuses the engagement ring, she’s got a chance not to be sacrificed. Oh no. Kanon expresses determination to reach the Golden Land, together with Sayo, and become human.
Sayo refuses and insists on accepting the ring from George. Kanon pushes again for a sort of survival pact, realising feelings for Jessica in the process.
Anyway, Shannon goes off to serve Beatrice.
Krauss wants Kinzo to come downstairs. Kinzo disagrees.
Inside, Kinzo is playing chess with Nanjo. The narration says he is unusually focussing on defence - a metaphor!
Nanjo’s like, hey, chess should be fun, it’s not all about winning. Kinjo’s like, stfu scrublord. No, Kinzo takes the point. He still won’t go downstairs, because ‘the ritual has begun’ and he needs the safety of the study. But he thanks Nanjo for the fun game anyway, and says they’ll continue in the Golden Land.
This time, Kinzo is less blasé about whether he’ll survive the roulette, trusting in the numerous ‘rigorous barriers’ he’s placed around his study to protect him even if the roulette chooses him.
Shannon goes to serve Beatrice. Beatrice is Beatrice.
I’m not sure what Beatrice’s purpose is in telling this to Shannon and Kanon again now. Perhaps she just wants to make them miserable?
Shannon is defiant in her own way, telling Beatrice she’s still grateful for the ‘magic of love’. Beatrice calls her furniture and Shannon - Sayo - is like nah, human now. Beatrice is like, if you were human, you’d be more upset about the murder thing.
Fuck yeah, Sayo!
But this just leads to Beatrice deciding she’s interesting after all.
The ‘I won’t sacrifice you if you don’t get engaged’ thing comes up.
Go Sayo! Go Sayo! *sings the Internationale*
Beatrice gloats about humiliating Kanon in various unspecified ways. Given Beatrice is an adult and Kanon is a child… I don’t want to go there.
Sayo announces her resolution to simply have nothing to do with Beatrice, and carry on with her ‘fate as it has been given’. i.e., we will not negotiate with witches. This really ticks Beatrice off in a way that nothing else has.
Sayo goes on to say she doesn’t actually think Beatrice is actually in control here.
Beatrice says Sayo’s lack of fear - despite now no longer being ‘furniture’ - just makes her more interesting, not less.
Sayo’s like, this is frustrating, things would be fine if you didn’t get involved you big wanker. Beatrice is like, that’s what we do, witches are a higher order being, kek. (She doesn’t say kek but I’m sure she would a few decades later).
Sayo’s like, whatever, not gonna feed the troll and leaves. Beatrice is all, cool, but I’m going to murder you over and over again forever. Sayo goes back to cold professionalism, not rising to Beatrice’s taunts. Beatrice desperately tries to get the last word. But I think the flighty broads and their snarky horseshit-o-meter is firmly on Sayo’s side in this exchange.
Dinnertime at last. Time for Beatrice’s letter, and shit to hit the fan.
Comments