Backlog Dialogues

We've reached the end of another tale, so it's time for more TIPS, Adaptation Discussion, and special spoiler discussions! We make sense of where we go from here, and also John celebrates finally being free of the hell that is watching When They Cry anime!

At last, we have reached the end of the games. Of the Questions.

At long last, in a fierce storm of red and blue, Fantasy and Mystery clash.

Only one can win.

But what fate awaits the one that began this tragic tale?

The end is here. But the story is just beginning.

Welcome to Rokkenjima.

Do you have an answer yet?

It's time for part two of the Question Arc finale, with the emotional resolution of the story of Ushiromiya Ange! In 1998, Ange arrives at Rokkenjima, where she confronts the Black Witch that creates the cycle of hatred consuming the world. Then, she heads to the Golden Land to start the game back up and return Sakutaro to Maria. But what will she sacrifice to see this story reach its conclusion?

It's time for the action packed first part of the finale of the question arcs! The surviving humans mount a resistance against Beatrice, but will they be able to leverage their magic-like powers and the rules of narrative irony well enough to defeat the demons consuming the island? And what is with this test that Beatrice is putting the cousins through? And most importantly, is Battler even Battler?

Finally, FINALLY the game has begun, and it has begun with a bang! Kinzo reveals himself to the family conference and immediately things go off the rails. We also get to see just what Beatrice has been teaching Maria about coping with sadness, a glimpse of what Shannon and Kanon think about the golden land, and Ange being frustratingly vague about seeing something that spooks her!

But why hasn't Battler really done anything yet?

It's time to get sad in two of the saddest chapters in all of Umineko! First, Ange kills her imaginary friends and everything that can possibly bring her joy in her high school life. Then, Rosa goes to unthinkable new lows in her treatment of Maria. It's time for another scene heavy episode, so get some tissues ready!

On the board, Kyrie proposes a stunning theory - Kinzo is already dead! But Battler is not able to fully capitalize on that, as Beatrice has changed her strategies and is refusing to use the red, meaning it's time to introduce a new rule!

But enough about those losers, it's time for even more of Ange's sad life and how she views Maria! At least there are stuffed animals. Oh, and Lambdadelta wants to make her a better offer than Bern! Fun times all around.

It's almost time to start a new game, but before we can do any of that, we need to learn all about Ange! Her story is one of the most complex of any Ryukishi has written, taking place along a winding path through narrative time weaving between the space above the game board, her life at St Lucia Academy, and her life in 1998 after miraculously surviving her leap off a skyscraper. Let's try to make sense of it all! Let's also try to make sense of why the fuck Okonogi is here!

It's the belated Backlog Dialogues holiday minilog, covering Terry Pratchett's Hogfather novel. Our first but probably not last peek at the Discworld covers the time the titular jolly fat man got inhumed by a deranged assassin, and so Death has to step in to fill his job while Death's granddaughter Susan tries to figure out what happened to the Hogfather and why all these other innocuous gods keep appearing. An immensely quotable and thoughtful adventure, just a few months late for the holiday season!

Happy (Belated) Hogswatch, everyone!

God dammit we got got again! Join us as we discuss everything that happened on the last episode, as well as adaptations and our usual special black tea for those who have seen to the end.