me sowing (battler being placed into actual real peril, and finally getting some really fucking good psych horror): Haha fuck yeah!!! Yes!!

me reaping (battler being barely present in the back third, which is taken up by boring magic shit): Well this fucking sucks. What the fuck.

at least the ending was good, but this was a pretty mixed bag. some parts are great (all the logic error stuff) but some are shockingly just okay-ish especially this far into the story (the romance stuff just isnt interesting this time around, most of the magic people (the seven sisters, the chiesters, etc) continue to be just kind of annoying, and the ange fourth-wall breaking feels a little pointless as of now). im gonna keep reading of course but im not as confident in the vision as i was walking out of episode 5

alternatively: not me thinking i'd get answers and that the status quo would be finally broken for the second game in a row 😭

the main thing this episode reminded me of is the mountain goats song "love love love" and specifically this quote from john darnielle on its meaning:
"The point of the song is, you know, that we are fairly well damaged by the legacy of the Romantic poets–that we think of love as this, you know, thing that is accompanied by strings and it’s a force for good, and if something bad happens then that’s not love. And the therapeutic tradition that I come from–I used to work in therapy–you know, also says that it’s not love if it feels bad. I don’t know so much about that. I don’t know that the Greeks weren’t right. I think they were–that love can eat a path through everything–that it will destroy a lot of things on the way to its own objective, which is just its expression of itself, you know. I mean, my stepfather loved his family, right? Now he mistreated us terribly quite often, but he loved us. And, you know, well, that to me is something worth commenting on in the hopes of undoing a lot of what I perceive as terrible damage in the way people talk about this–love is this benign, comfortable force. It’s not that. It’s wild, you know?"

having finished umineko it'd obviously be a stretch to say that ryukishi is this cynical. even within this episode the character who says a similar sentiment is the hateable erika. but i think this episode (and ryukishi's work as a whole) shows that love is not INHERENTLY good, or at the very least that an individualistic love isn't. the primary failure of the characters in umineko and higurashi is their inability to understand the other, and it's only through understanding and connection that they can save themselves from tragedy. i think this episode follows on from higurashi chapter 3 in suggesting the consequences of love when it comes from someone who does not understand the other. umineko's large cast is used to great effect to show different varieties of these consequences. battler's neglectful response to the chick beatrice emerges out of his love for the past beatrice - a love that consumes him so much that he fails to recognise and respect the chick beatrice as an other. when george kills the eva piece it's out of a belief that his love matters more than anything. kyrie's monologue sees rudolf as someone to be claimed rather than someone human, and it seems that rudolf treats women in the same way. this possessiveness turns love into a self-imposed prison. rosa is trying to reunite maria with her father, but as we saw in episode 4 she also neglected her while trying to do that. i like this moment because it's not used as a handwave to justify rosa's abuse, it's just another moment of someone doing something out of love, or at least what rosa thinks is love. but when your act of love leads to you neglecting your daughter does it mean anything? and finally the love trial as a whole is driven by the lovers' failure to understand sayo and sayo's inability to understand herself. neither george nor jessica can see sayo as a whole, no matter how much they love the part they see. and for sayo the fear of not being loved as a whole is too much. the love trial is so cruel because there's no real winning result. can you truly be loved when you have to kill a part of yourself to feel accepted? can you truly love when you don't understand who you love?

Liveblog: https://anilist.co/activity/661741922
Rating: https://anilist.co/activity/661756633

Despite EP5's big cliffhanger, a majority of EP6 takes a slow and methodical approach introducing the Lovers' Duel, Battler struggling to cope with Beatrice's reset while explicitly resembling Kinzo in the process more characterization and expansion on the layers of meta, furthering back to Ange & Featherine, etc etc. The confrontations between Battler and Beato that I've missed came to life anew through his clash with Erika. I already loved Erika in Episode 5 but now she's 100% a favorite after this episode. Her departure is bittersweet, yet her final introduction at the end felt poignantly apt.

This Episode offered deeper insight into the nature of the gameboard and the mechanics governing its pieces. The blurred lines between reality and fiction leave me pondering - do the perpetual revivals of the family imply an ongoing state of existence for everyone? Was the reality depicted in the 1st Episode authentic/real? With subsequent events being products of imagination? And how does Ange's future intersect with this intricate web? It seems her timeline holds more credibility, perhaps making EP3 the pivotal, canon segment where only Eva survives. Featherine is a whole can of worms but I'll get on that later. Despite her role as observer, she's clearly a pivotal character in this series and of Ryukishi verse at large. Admittedly, I feel somewhat gullible for taking the events of EP 2-4 at face value. The Ange we see (with Hachijou; not Featherine) seems to not have experienced the conclusion of EP4.

In fact, all the episodes thus far have been recorded as fictional stories IN-UNIVERSE (THAT ANGE HAS READ HERSELF). WHAT IS RYUKISHI COOKING, that's actually really fucking rad. So basically, there are multiple layers of meta going on for a lack of better words. What we see on-screen as magical & fantastical is different in another layer of reality for Ange. The occurrences inside the catbox persist as an enigma and myster. My misconception that each new game merely represented another narrative fragment, unfolding autonomously like an alternate reality, has been challenged.

Despite the last episode ending on a deus ex machina kinda: of Battler using Golden Truth to ward off Erika...this ep also ends with a deux ex machina of Beatrice having to save Battler by sacrificing Kanon, using magic to deflate Erika's truth, and bringing back Kanon anyway.

I just thought the final confrontation between Erika & Battler would be more fulfilling than just Beato steamrolling her, what seemed like finally some agency and catharsis for the main character (who I've found to be heavily overshadowed by other stronger characters in the question arcs) is once again shifted towards Beato.

It just feels perplexing to me on multiple levels. There's a constant confirmation that the original Beato won't come back (Confirmed Dead EP5). So, the resurrection of Beato seems somewhat strange, at least from my perspective. Embracing Beato's revival feels like embracing the magic of the Golden Land, doesn't it? While I can appreciate that might be the intended point, it's not ultimately very fulfilling because the original Beato, who initiated everything, remains deceased and will never know that Battler has solved her mystery. It doesn't feel like a happy ending, especially considering that even Beato herself rejected the Golden Land ending in Episode 3.

Kanon also makes a big sacrifice but it just doesn't have the same weight after you know he just gets brought back anyway.

Despite being an answer arc, shit tons of exposition, setup, and mysteries are still being built.
This is fine and all given the series's clear intent of blurring the line between reality & fiction, while paying homage to mystery novels & having mystery inherently at its core, it does get pretty tiring and monotonous after hundreds of hours with only select moments of payoff.

Also....was Battler's failure deliberate? Some ppl said that Battler intentionally fell into Erika's trap to convey a message to New Beatrice and resurrect his beloved. The argument is that according to the mechanics of the pieces' function, it must have been an intentional act.

Upon Battler's entrapment within the logic error, the game was expected to conclude. Yet, contrary to expectations, the game persisted. The dramatic showdown between the lovers persisted, culminating in Kanon....or should I say YOSHIYA's sacrifice to free Battler and assist New Beato in recovering Sayo's memories. These actions seemingly contradict the scenario of Battler's confinement. Furthermore, Erika's subsequent actions, including further killings and the use of duct tape retroactively, should have been impossible without Battler's awareness. This raises doubts about Battler's actual entrapment. If his plan was to resurrect Beatrice, the fluidity of the pieces' movements would align with his intentions. Even the provision of duct tape to Erika appears peculiar in this context.

Battler designed the board with the objective of proving his understanding of the truth. Battler's logic error placed him in a position necessitating a competent Beato to rescue him and compelled Beato to contemplate closed-room scenarios, an avenue that required an understanding of her authentic identity.
Even overlooking the incongruous movements of the pieces, Battler's motivations, and his lack of insight into Erika's actions, one inconsistency remains: the solution devised by Beato. Battler already grasped the truth, making it an easily attainable answer for him. The game seemed designed to hint at the closed-room trick, a possibility that Battler couldn't have been oblivious to. He remained in that room by choice, anticipating Beato's return through her own agency.

While my enjoyment of this episode was unfortunately the lowest among all the episodes so far, I still look forward to Episode 7. I've already finished the prologue of EP7 as of writing this and I'm pretty pumped on continuing it. Some brand new characters & focus turned on a new MC & the main antagonists (?) Seems like a ballsy move for the penultimate episode of the entire series but I have high hopes I'll enjoy it more than my experience with 6 due to already loving Willard.

EDIT After Manga Adaptation Read:
Well...this was certainly an eye-opener. I was definitely too harsh on this last month.
Originally upon finishing EP6 in the VN - I felt that this was the least engaging ep that I'll experience in the series and while that does still stand true, I think I let my lack of hindsight & frustration towards some of the issues I found - cloud my judgment of what this episode did right.
My attention span was all over the place on the first read but now that I'm attentive with my preferred medium + the sound manga (which plays Umi tracks while I'm reading) + knowledge of the entire story - I think alot of the dialogue surrounding love, truths, and interpretations here with more choreographed scenes certainly gave me a newfound appreciation of what Ryukishi was going for. This is definitely an episode you need to go over twice for. Just like Erika, I realized there was more than just one pre-conceived truth.