So... I fell off of this a couple arcs in, not due to disliking it but just my brain being very bad about keeping up with things as they air (and, frankly, knowing fucking Teppei returning was what I was going to be watching next made it harder to feel in the mood to get back to it). I at least got myself to start catching up when I thought it was ending. During all that, I was catching up on the thread's discussion episode-by-episode too, since the speculation was something I really enjoyed before I fell behind. And I actually spent a significant amount of time writing a long post of my thoughts here to post when I was fully caught up. Then when I learned it wasn't ending, I kinda... accidentally didn't finish catching up on the last few episodes, and didn't post it.
...so now I came back due to it being bumped, and discovered the post I was writing is all gone due to how long it's been, welp. The one time I purely leave it in drafts and don't remember to write it in a text file like I usually do, this happens! Ugh.
I guess my tl;dr for what I remember is - I was enjoying the ride a lot more than some of you it seemed, hah. Part of that is likely not having to wait for new episodes - though I wasn't outright binging them, usually I was watching them days apart still - and part of that is only playing the games last summer (though I did play Umineko a decade ago). But I think there's just some things I was more willing to accept. This existing can't tarnish the originals in for me, it's its own separate thing, so that helped to begin with. I also think I was more sympathetic to Satoko than most; she's a severely traumatized child with no real context for what Rika went though, so of course she's going to react poorly when her friend pushes her into such a harsh life again. And then again when she learns her friend didn't really exist to begin with, because Rika is not really that child, no matter how much she can slip into that mode. But on the other hand, I still find Rika's whole "I'm just going to go off to fancy lady school and Satoko will totally fit in there and enjoy it too" as being very awkwardly handled... I get her wanting this selfish wish to be free of the town and to still have Satoko with her, but... she had to have known that Satoko would not enjoy that, at all? Since Satoko's behavior is part of what kept her sane to begin with? I was pleasantly surprised when Satoko tried to confront her about that, but then they were both in denial about it instead... And so on.
in any case, I guess I need to get myself to go watch those last few episodes fiiiiinally, so I can be ready for the next part and actually keep up with it and the discussion this time...
