Happy birthday to my favorite MC in fiction and second favorite Umineko character of all time! Ushiromiya Battler! A thread on why he's great and why I love him.

At first, Battler really doesn't seem like a character who would end up as your no. 1, he seems more like a typical, perverted visual novel MC, but as episode 1 goes on and on, he keeps becoming more and more likable, as the reader is able to connect with him because he's on-

-the same level of knowing the truth, and seeing him show so much emotion as he looses his family makes you empathize with him as well, and his investigation of the truth is super interesting, you just can't help but root for him as his goofy personality grows on you more & more.

In episode 2, when Beato enters the picture, his interactions with others and dynamics start to become enriched, his debates, relationship and dynamic with Beato is one of the best aspects of Umineko and what defines the Questions arc. And him getting mercilessly beaten down-

-and managing to come back makes you wanna root for him so hard. Same with EP3, despite the fact that he got tricked, it goes to show what a good natured person he is, albeit naive, to not doubt Beato like that, a lot of readers didn't catch on to Beato either so this makes-

-Battler even more relatable, you're able to feel a connection with him, same with his loss in EP4. One thing I really like about how Battler is handled, is that he very much gets the consequences for all of his mistakes, he never gets away with anything because he's the MC-

-if he fucks up, he's punished, hard, and has to learn from his mistakes. Now Chiru is where a true character arc for him begins. EP5 foreshadows a lot of parallels between Battler and Kinzo, and at the end of EP5, when he learns the truth but fails to do it in time, it's-

-reminiscent of Kinzo losing Beatrice, but the difference is how both of them handle this loss. At first, it seems like Battler will go down Kinzo's route with lots of heavy, uncomfortable parallels from the way he drowns in a depression and regret, his fixation on reincarnation-

-his treatment of Chick Beato, but Battler is a much better person than Kinzo, so eventually, instead of trying to treat Chick Beato as a replacement like Kinzo did, he accepts her for who she is & overcomes going down that same dark path, as a result, Beato regains her memories.

Battler is in the end, a really fun, likable, well written protagonist that you just can't help but love, I absolutely adore him and have since EP5, where he was even fighting for my no. 1 spot with Beato. He's great and I love him. Happy birthday Battler!