The second pairing of mother and daughter.
By the way, Natsuhi was my first love in umineko
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I have finally finished the first part of the second episode and have reached the actual family conference. I have a lot of thoughts about George/Shannon and Jessica/Kanon.
I cannot really bring myself to ship either couple. They do have cute moments together, but I feel like their romantic feelings are mostly due to the fact that the other is fulfilling a need or resolving an insecurity rather than an actual connection.
George loves Shannon, but his feelings seem to be mostly helped by the fact that her fawning over him and her being formerly interested in Battler helps his insecurities and his feelings of inferiority. In a perhaps even worse way, Jessica's feelings for Kanon seem to be mostly due to him being one of the few men her age she has around (even the narration acknowledges it). As for Shannon and Kanon, and by extensions Sayo, her feelings are a complicated mess between being envious of them, admiring them, being grateful for the attention and interest and looking for a way to escape their place as "furniture". Overall, neither character seems to have genuine appreciation for their love interest as an actual person.
Another thing that bothers me is that George and Jessica come from a place of immense privilege and are, in many although different ways, incredibly self-absorbed (yes Jessica, please tell the orphan who was raised as a charity case, cannot go to high school and works his ass off as sixteen that YOU were born under an unlucky star).
While the story shows us how they are negatively impacted by this position in terms of familial pressure, they are still in a place where, in one hand, they have some measure of freedom to determine the person they want to be or present themselves as, and on the other hand, they have never suffered any amount of actual grave consequences and trauma. Because of this, their speeches of love and their protests against Shannon and Kanon calling themselves furniture ring very hollow. They do not understand Sayo's trauma and are in no way equipped to handle it and while this is certainly not their faults, their reactions really show how much they do not have the proper tools and insight to get to the actual core of the problem.
Furthermore, the cynical part of myself wonders how much their feelings will last when faced with the backlash from their choice of partners. Sure, George talks about how he does not care about what anyone will say, but will he say the same thing when his parents refuse to support him financially and he has to work a difficult or boring job to support his family? When his wife is used to humiliate him ? When he constantly faces comments and jokes about his partners? When he has to handle Sayo's trauma and the way it impacts her and her self-esteem? Hell, when he has to handle that he will never have any biological children? It is easy to say "I don't care what anyone says, I am marrying you" but the biggest obstacle is not the actual opposition, it is the length of time and the constant little annoying things that happen every day.
However what I find most interesting in this romantic nonsense is that some of these criticisms can be applied to Battler and Beatrice. By understanding the weaknesses in George/Shannon and Jessica/Kanon, we are prepared to see where Battler messes up with Beatrice and where she messes up with him. Battler can also be pretty self-involved, engaging more in the how done it that the why done it (which will eventually cause Beatrice's death). Beatrice also seems to be using Battler as a mean to an end. However, where George/Shannon and Jessica/Kanon never had the chance to overcome these flaws, Beatrice and Battler eventually were forced to face these flaws and grow up.
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August 25: Happy Birthday Jessica Ushiromiya (07th Expansion)!!!!
She was born in 1968, which would make her 55 years old today!
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