Umineko and the chain of hate & abuse
An interesting part in Umineko is ‘the chain of hate & abuse’.
If we give Umineko a superficial look we catch only the last ring of it Maria being abused by Rosa right under everyone’s eyes. Technically we also heard of Ange being abused by Eva but it doesn’t make such a strong impression as Maria’s abuse is present right from the beginning and more than once while Ange’s is mostly spoken of and came up later. Maria’s abuse is really what hit the viewer.
As the story seems to say we’ve to be sympathetic toward all the characters we face the unpleasant feeling the story is attempting to justify Rosa’s actions, as if what she does to Rosa wasn’t horrible.
In truth, maybe poorly, the story tries to show us the consequences of abuse as it becomes a chain reaction that ruins the lives of everyone that touches.
It starts with Kinzo, who’s forced by the elders to marry a woman he doesn’t love and to live his life as a puppet in their hands. Kinzo HATES this, SUFFERS and what he does?
He doesn’t care for his children, is abusive in behavior and words and betrays his wife with Beatrice.
In short, because he perceived himself as being mistreated, he mistreated.
What happens then?
His children in some sort of domino effect become abusive as well among them.
Krauss verbally vents his anger on his younger siblings and, although he loves Natsuhi and Jessica and is much nicer with them, has problems expressing correctly his feelings so that Natsuhi feels unappreciated and Jessica unappreciated and not understood. Krauss knows he did the wrong thing with his siblings but… he can’t stop making the wrong thing with them and although he tries to get along with Natsuhi he keeps on making mistakes here and there.
Eva vents her anger on Rosa and possibly on Rudolf. She manages to marry with Hideyoshi whom loves her very much and manages to soothe her a bit so that her abusive behaviour changes although he also admits when they return to Rokkenjima she tends to slip. We see on the boat how she yelled at him, we see how she threat Natsuhi, how deep down she belittle Jessica for being a woman, how she’s horrible with Shannon, how she forced her dream on George even though she loves him a lot and was a lot nicer with him that what she’ll be with Ange, with whom she’ll interact when she’ll lose her husband and emotional support. Eva knows she shouldn’t vent on Hideyoshi, that she had forced George on a path that might have not been his own, that she’s acting wrong toward Jessica (she doesn’t care about Natsuhi, Shannon or Rosa though) but… can’t stop. She tries and, as long as Hideyoshi is around and she’s far from Rokkenjima, she’s a better person.
Rudolf will be abusive on Rosa as well and is… abusive with his family in a different way as he’s more the person who doesn’t care of the consequences his actions have on others. He sleeps around, gets two women pregnant, switch Kyrie’s baby with Asumu because between the two women chooses the one that’s nicer to him, keeps on sleeping with Kyrie until he gets her pregnant again and might have ended up killing some of his family members for money. He doesn’t beat Battler or Ange but he’s not good at expressing his feelings for them (with Battler at least, with Ange we can’t really tell) who seemed to have not been that much fond of his father prior to his mother’s death and seems also be responsible for Battler’s fear of planes and boats.
Rosa, missing a younger sibling on whom to vent and a companion whom would support her, having witnessed Beatrice’s death and having been traumatized by it, ends up being as bad as all the people who abused her, his parents and her siblings, in regards to poor Maria. She knows it’s wrong but… can’t stop.
How the chain continues?
Jessica feels she’s looked down and not appreciated for herself but she more or less know she’s loved. She’s also popular at school and this probably helped her not to have so many issues. She’s unsatisfied with her life but tries to compensate by ‘creating another identity for herself’. If we look deep down at her though if angered she can be abusive and violent and can end up venting this to Maria. As a child it’s also said she bullied Battler who was smaller in size than her… though he took it well, apparently. Jessica though realizes she’s unfair toward Maria and she’s sorry about it.
George seems mostly fine but again if we look deep we see as a teenager he had plenty of complexes. He looked down on whoever didn’t appreciate him, was jealous of his 12 years old cousin for being the love interest of a 10 years old maid and even want to ‘avenge himself’ by having said maid look only at him. He was bullied over at school and not really appreciated and when he dates Shannon he admits to himself he enjoys bullying her a little. He’s self centred, focusing a lot on himself in his talks with Shannon and caring little for her dreams whom he humours in the same way he humours Maria’s dream. He basically looks down at everyone. He however realized many of his mistakes and weakness and tried hard to improve himself. In the end he honestly loves Shannon and with his light bullying doesn’t mean to hurt her. Although sometimes takes advantage of his position in the things that matter he’s really gentlemanly with her.
Maria, who’s in the worst situation, lives half disconnected from reality, in a fantasy world of her own creation whom she expands meeting Beatrice. To boost her poor self extremes she tells herself she’s special, she’s the daughter of the holy spirit, she’s the most powerful witch, trying her best to look down at others and hide the truth she’s actually a pitiful child. When she’ll snap, unable to bear it any longer, her fantasies will turn violent. There’s the chance if she hadn’t died and nobody had stopped her that she might have ended up the same way as Rosa, turning those fantasies into reality.
Ange isn’t in a good situation either. She tries getting verbally violent with Eva but doesn’t work, she tries disconnecting from reality but doesn’t work, she feeds herself on hate but can’t get violent with her classmates although she’d like to kill them all. In the end she turns her rage on the only person she can hurt, herself. She knows she shouldn’t have fought with Eva, she had realized disconnecting herself wasn’t going to help, she likely knows killing herself isn’t the right solution but doesn’t care. That’s the damage Ange has.
Battler is the… lucky one. Though his father might have not been great his mother showered him in love as long as she was alive so, if his portray in the games is faithful to how he is in Prime, he ends up being the more… well balanced. He doesn’t rely on fantasy nor tries to search for another self (Tohya is another matter entirely as he’s… abused by his experience on Rokkenjima) he has plenty of friends, he cares for others, if he hurts someone it’s due to the fact he’s impulsive, naïve and a bit dense, not because he’s deliberately having fun in bullying someone, he trusts in people’s inner goodness, he apologizes directly when he makes a mistake or hurts someone, he cares for everyone’s feelings even the people he doesn’t know well, he’s the only one who tries to protect Maria from Rosa, he tries not to hold grudges, tries not to be jealous, tries to respect others and, although he has moments in which he sinks into despair, he always tries to get out of it and restart again. He’s not perfect, of course, but his flaws and his insecurities are mostly the result of him being young and therefore prone to being prideful, egocentric, brash, too confident in some of his ideas and principles than of some possible damage he had received. If we want the only crack in Battler might be his lack of interest for a companion, probably due to his father’s infidelity. Differently by Rudolf who witnessed Kinzo’s infidelity and decided to do the same, Battler was deeply disgusted by his father’s behaviour so differently by Rudolf won’t end up mimicking it but might have ended up in losing heart in relationships. Another possible crack could have been about his childhood height and weakness against Jessica, as we’re told he trained madly and even took suspicious drugs, a weakness he probably overcome when he actually managed to get taller and stronger.
If we want the chain of hate is portrayed in Beatrice as well. Beatrice, who waits a thousand years for Battler to return feeling neglected, forgotten, abandoned and so on and nursing in herself all the negative feelings Yasu has in answer to his mistreating is abusive toward Battler, hurts him, claims she feels pleasure in making him cry and… wants to be killed by him.
The newborn chick Beato is the opposite, pure, gentle and sweet and Battler is told that basically, to turn her into the previous Beato, she’ll have to suffer the same as her. However… in the end he has not the heart to hurt her the same way. He tries and fails and… breaks the chain of hate by being gentle with her, accepting her for who she is, by trusting her to remember, by supporting her. As a result she’ll remain sweet.
It’s an interesting, yet uncommon way to present abuse.
Normally we’ve the abuser who’s just a monster with no background. He’s born this way or he woke up one day this way and this is very convenient because it frees everyone else from responsibility. There was nothing society could do to stop him into becoming a rotten person so… let’s hate and despise him and be done with him.
If instead we’re forced to accept that all the people who entered in contact with him and helped to push him toward this way by turning his eyes away when he was beaten or by beating him were… accomplices of some sort… well, the thought gets really unpleasant.
It doesn’t spare the abuser from being blamed as he’s old enough to answer of his own actions but… asks us to answer of our actions as well. We’ve… ‘helped’ turning into a monster a normal person. Aren’t we also to blame?
So in the end I think one of the messages Umineko wanted to deliver, along with giving in to hate is wrong, is also that hurting someone or just watching while he’s being hurt is wrong. Only… it got lost in the way of witches, spells, blue and red truth and what else.
In short… if you hate Rosa for what he does… don’t turn a blind eye when someone is being mistreated, help him or her… don’t let him suffer like Maria or he’ll might break and grow into another Rosa.
If we give Umineko a superficial look we catch only the last ring of it Maria being abused by Rosa right under everyone’s eyes. Technically we also heard of Ange being abused by Eva but it doesn’t make such a strong impression as Maria’s abuse is present right from the beginning and more than once while Ange’s is mostly spoken of and came up later. Maria’s abuse is really what hit the viewer.
As the story seems to say we’ve to be sympathetic toward all the characters we face the unpleasant feeling the story is attempting to justify Rosa’s actions, as if what she does to Rosa wasn’t horrible.
In truth, maybe poorly, the story tries to show us the consequences of abuse as it becomes a chain reaction that ruins the lives of everyone that touches.
It starts with Kinzo, who’s forced by the elders to marry a woman he doesn’t love and to live his life as a puppet in their hands. Kinzo HATES this, SUFFERS and what he does?
He doesn’t care for his children, is abusive in behavior and words and betrays his wife with Beatrice.
In short, because he perceived himself as being mistreated, he mistreated.
What happens then?
His children in some sort of domino effect become abusive as well among them.
Krauss verbally vents his anger on his younger siblings and, although he loves Natsuhi and Jessica and is much nicer with them, has problems expressing correctly his feelings so that Natsuhi feels unappreciated and Jessica unappreciated and not understood. Krauss knows he did the wrong thing with his siblings but… he can’t stop making the wrong thing with them and although he tries to get along with Natsuhi he keeps on making mistakes here and there.
Eva vents her anger on Rosa and possibly on Rudolf. She manages to marry with Hideyoshi whom loves her very much and manages to soothe her a bit so that her abusive behaviour changes although he also admits when they return to Rokkenjima she tends to slip. We see on the boat how she yelled at him, we see how she threat Natsuhi, how deep down she belittle Jessica for being a woman, how she’s horrible with Shannon, how she forced her dream on George even though she loves him a lot and was a lot nicer with him that what she’ll be with Ange, with whom she’ll interact when she’ll lose her husband and emotional support. Eva knows she shouldn’t vent on Hideyoshi, that she had forced George on a path that might have not been his own, that she’s acting wrong toward Jessica (she doesn’t care about Natsuhi, Shannon or Rosa though) but… can’t stop. She tries and, as long as Hideyoshi is around and she’s far from Rokkenjima, she’s a better person.
Rudolf will be abusive on Rosa as well and is… abusive with his family in a different way as he’s more the person who doesn’t care of the consequences his actions have on others. He sleeps around, gets two women pregnant, switch Kyrie’s baby with Asumu because between the two women chooses the one that’s nicer to him, keeps on sleeping with Kyrie until he gets her pregnant again and might have ended up killing some of his family members for money. He doesn’t beat Battler or Ange but he’s not good at expressing his feelings for them (with Battler at least, with Ange we can’t really tell) who seemed to have not been that much fond of his father prior to his mother’s death and seems also be responsible for Battler’s fear of planes and boats.
Rosa, missing a younger sibling on whom to vent and a companion whom would support her, having witnessed Beatrice’s death and having been traumatized by it, ends up being as bad as all the people who abused her, his parents and her siblings, in regards to poor Maria. She knows it’s wrong but… can’t stop.
How the chain continues?
Jessica feels she’s looked down and not appreciated for herself but she more or less know she’s loved. She’s also popular at school and this probably helped her not to have so many issues. She’s unsatisfied with her life but tries to compensate by ‘creating another identity for herself’. If we look deep down at her though if angered she can be abusive and violent and can end up venting this to Maria. As a child it’s also said she bullied Battler who was smaller in size than her… though he took it well, apparently. Jessica though realizes she’s unfair toward Maria and she’s sorry about it.
George seems mostly fine but again if we look deep we see as a teenager he had plenty of complexes. He looked down on whoever didn’t appreciate him, was jealous of his 12 years old cousin for being the love interest of a 10 years old maid and even want to ‘avenge himself’ by having said maid look only at him. He was bullied over at school and not really appreciated and when he dates Shannon he admits to himself he enjoys bullying her a little. He’s self centred, focusing a lot on himself in his talks with Shannon and caring little for her dreams whom he humours in the same way he humours Maria’s dream. He basically looks down at everyone. He however realized many of his mistakes and weakness and tried hard to improve himself. In the end he honestly loves Shannon and with his light bullying doesn’t mean to hurt her. Although sometimes takes advantage of his position in the things that matter he’s really gentlemanly with her.
Maria, who’s in the worst situation, lives half disconnected from reality, in a fantasy world of her own creation whom she expands meeting Beatrice. To boost her poor self extremes she tells herself she’s special, she’s the daughter of the holy spirit, she’s the most powerful witch, trying her best to look down at others and hide the truth she’s actually a pitiful child. When she’ll snap, unable to bear it any longer, her fantasies will turn violent. There’s the chance if she hadn’t died and nobody had stopped her that she might have ended up the same way as Rosa, turning those fantasies into reality.
Ange isn’t in a good situation either. She tries getting verbally violent with Eva but doesn’t work, she tries disconnecting from reality but doesn’t work, she feeds herself on hate but can’t get violent with her classmates although she’d like to kill them all. In the end she turns her rage on the only person she can hurt, herself. She knows she shouldn’t have fought with Eva, she had realized disconnecting herself wasn’t going to help, she likely knows killing herself isn’t the right solution but doesn’t care. That’s the damage Ange has.
Battler is the… lucky one. Though his father might have not been great his mother showered him in love as long as she was alive so, if his portray in the games is faithful to how he is in Prime, he ends up being the more… well balanced. He doesn’t rely on fantasy nor tries to search for another self (Tohya is another matter entirely as he’s… abused by his experience on Rokkenjima) he has plenty of friends, he cares for others, if he hurts someone it’s due to the fact he’s impulsive, naïve and a bit dense, not because he’s deliberately having fun in bullying someone, he trusts in people’s inner goodness, he apologizes directly when he makes a mistake or hurts someone, he cares for everyone’s feelings even the people he doesn’t know well, he’s the only one who tries to protect Maria from Rosa, he tries not to hold grudges, tries not to be jealous, tries to respect others and, although he has moments in which he sinks into despair, he always tries to get out of it and restart again. He’s not perfect, of course, but his flaws and his insecurities are mostly the result of him being young and therefore prone to being prideful, egocentric, brash, too confident in some of his ideas and principles than of some possible damage he had received. If we want the only crack in Battler might be his lack of interest for a companion, probably due to his father’s infidelity. Differently by Rudolf who witnessed Kinzo’s infidelity and decided to do the same, Battler was deeply disgusted by his father’s behaviour so differently by Rudolf won’t end up mimicking it but might have ended up in losing heart in relationships. Another possible crack could have been about his childhood height and weakness against Jessica, as we’re told he trained madly and even took suspicious drugs, a weakness he probably overcome when he actually managed to get taller and stronger.
If we want the chain of hate is portrayed in Beatrice as well. Beatrice, who waits a thousand years for Battler to return feeling neglected, forgotten, abandoned and so on and nursing in herself all the negative feelings Yasu has in answer to his mistreating is abusive toward Battler, hurts him, claims she feels pleasure in making him cry and… wants to be killed by him.
The newborn chick Beato is the opposite, pure, gentle and sweet and Battler is told that basically, to turn her into the previous Beato, she’ll have to suffer the same as her. However… in the end he has not the heart to hurt her the same way. He tries and fails and… breaks the chain of hate by being gentle with her, accepting her for who she is, by trusting her to remember, by supporting her. As a result she’ll remain sweet.
It’s an interesting, yet uncommon way to present abuse.
Normally we’ve the abuser who’s just a monster with no background. He’s born this way or he woke up one day this way and this is very convenient because it frees everyone else from responsibility. There was nothing society could do to stop him into becoming a rotten person so… let’s hate and despise him and be done with him.
If instead we’re forced to accept that all the people who entered in contact with him and helped to push him toward this way by turning his eyes away when he was beaten or by beating him were… accomplices of some sort… well, the thought gets really unpleasant.
It doesn’t spare the abuser from being blamed as he’s old enough to answer of his own actions but… asks us to answer of our actions as well. We’ve… ‘helped’ turning into a monster a normal person. Aren’t we also to blame?
So in the end I think one of the messages Umineko wanted to deliver, along with giving in to hate is wrong, is also that hurting someone or just watching while he’s being hurt is wrong. Only… it got lost in the way of witches, spells, blue and red truth and what else.
In short… if you hate Rosa for what he does… don’t turn a blind eye when someone is being mistreated, help him or her… don’t let him suffer like Maria or he’ll might break and grow into another Rosa.