Gave into temptation and read two of Umineko's extra stories, and I wanna use this thread to talk about them, "The Witches' Tanabata Isn't Sweet" and "Memoirs of the ΛΔ." Full series spoilers ahead...

I read the VN versions for both, as well as the manga adaptation for the Tanabata one. Yeesh, there’s a lot to tackle here though. I’ve always been genuinely super interested in the meta lore behind Umineko, which is also why I’m so excited for SOTSU, despite low-key

shitting on Gou besides its meta elements lol. There’s a ton of potential here, and I love that being more and more explored, and how the exploration of those elements is incorporated in the overall larger narrative through the When They Cry series.

Let’s start with the easier one though, The Witches' Tanabata Isn't Sweet. Most of this explores what it means to for people to use magic in different ways. It starts out with exploring Maria’s Tanabata wish about Rosa coming home every day, and how in her dreams,

Beatrice meets with Maria and discusses that wish of hers and how that alone isn’t enough, cause Maria would want Rosa to be in a good mood as well for example, and so on. It’s a pretty good example of how, if used right, magic can be used in a positive way.

It doesn’t have to end the way it did with, well, most of the characters in the series who used it as an inappropriate coping mechanism. Bern kinda comments on this tho, from a different perspective, by saying that Beatrice didn’t really end up granting Maria’s wish at all.

Which, is kind of true, but Maria did get a more holistic perspective of what approach she should take in order to achieve that wish of hers. For example, she starts by giving a glass of vegetable juice to Rosa in order to cheer her up, which obviously isn’t enough to solve

everything. Maria wouldn’t be able to do it all alone, she doesn’t have that kind of power to fix Rosa’s issues, but it’s also not her responsibility. It’s not her fault, and as Rosa confirms in Cage of Obligations, it’s her own fault, and that Maria did nothing wrong.

But, it’s a good first step, and it’s very likely that Rosa will appreciate the gesture. And it’s much better than the alternative, sulking and not trying to do anything about it either way. There are limits I think, to how much Maria should do, and what’s just best for her to

not involve herself in and let Rosa have full responsibility for, but you kinda have to take each situation individually and judge for that, but I think the general attitude is something worth striving for and can help Maria to a good extent.

Lambda agrees with Beatrice that there’s no actual need for witches here really, a person with a strong enough will, will grant their own wish regardless.Lambda is a fascinating character btw. Both lore and characterization wise.

One aspect to her that we see highlighted often throughout the series is that she’s quite sympathetic to humans, and it’s pretty obvious that Beatrice agreeing so much with Lambda’s thinking on this topic is one of the reasons that culminated in Lambda making Beatrice a witch in

the very first place, but more on that later. Then, Bernkastel goes to child Ange. This is where it gets iffy for me. Bern, in a very clever way, twists Lambda’s words here about determination in order for a wish to be granted, and uses it to trick Ange into rejecting Eva.

It’s interesting in the sense that Beatrice taught Maria good magic and Bern taught Ange dark magic, but I don’t like the idea of Bern being the one behind the rift in Ange’s and Eva’s relationship. There are obviously more factors to this than that, but I liked it much more when

it happened naturally between Ange and Eva without a third party’s influence. I think this extra story is interesting in terms of a bit of characterization for the witches and how magic can be used in different ways, but I don’t like this aspect of Ange’s relationship with Eva

being kinda sacrificed for that, especially when this extra doesn’t offer THAT much. Of course, you could always interpret Bern visit Ange from an anti-meta perspective, and that she’s just a symbolic representation

but that doesn’t quite fit with my view on the story and I don’t like making an exception in this case just cause I don’t like it very much. Hmmm… So yeah, mixed thoughts on this one, but interesting overall. The real meat is in the next one though, Memoirs of the ΛΔ.

This one is interesting in many ways, cause it characterizes Lambda in several ways, gives us insight into the nature of witches in regards to Umineko’s cosmology and the extra basically acts as an extension of Beato dialogue with Lambda in Confessions.

I might have to dig a bit into Higurashi spoilers, like endgame spoilers, but I’ll warn you if that’s the case, but it’ll mostly just be focused on Umineko. So, it opens with Lambda talking about how she goes around granting wishes to people she find to be interesting, to relieve

her of her boredom, but most of the wishes are really boring, basic and stupid. However, in her time, she’s met, at least, two really interesting people. The first one is Higurashi spoilers, so there’s your warning, as I’ll dig into that now.

The person Lambda’s referring to is Takano, and her goal ”to become a God” struck an interesting chord with Lambda, and how Takano’s determination, as her wish was just to have a guarantee that her efforts will be realized, resonated with Lambda as well.

As established by now, Lambda likes hard working, determined people, so she tends to like people who don’t wish for what they want themselves, but just the power to accomplish it themselves. So, Lambda granted Takano her wish.

As Lambda notes, in witch’s words, this was fate, in human words, Takano was simply extremely determined, and that if Takano lost this determination of hers, the fruits of her labors wouldn’t be accessible.

Of course, it doesn’t quite work out with Takano for a couple of reasons, some that Lambda touches upon, but hey, Bernkastel was born as a result, so Lambda isn’t too disappointed.

Now, back to #Umineko. I think I'll have to use a tag for this. The second person Lambda meets is, of course, Beatrice. A lot to think about here. The first thing you notice, is how incredibly determined Beatrice is, which obviously catches Lambda’s attention. But, Beato goes

even further than the person before her did, as she claims that she already is a witch, and that all she wants it for a being on a higher plane of existence, in this case Lambda, to acknowledge it, and she even claims that if Lambda won’t, she’ll make her acknowledge her #Umineko

as she already is a witch regardless. So, the immediate dilemma here then is, of course, if she’s already a witch, why bother with getting that acknowledgement from Lambda? And, I’m trying to think of explanations to that. #Umineko

My first thought was that the whole two people create a universe thing ties into this and is why she wanted approval from a higher being as well, so she can create her little golden truth. Maybe it's not required to become a witch, but it wouldn’t surprise me #Umineko

as Beato only had access to her meta games after the magic ending, then perhaps the reason for that is because of Lambda. So, she might’ve been a witch anyway, but could only use her meta games in Purgatorio thanks to Lambda. #Umineko

But then I also started thinking about the EP 3 tea party, where Lambda threatens Beato with turning her back into her shabby form. We see that Beato was able to take on her Beato look after the magic ending and not what she actually looked like #Umineko

and maybe that’s thanks to Lambda? She was given the power to look like her witch ideal, and Lambda can take away that right from her as well, if she so wishes to. But then, we have characters like, well in EP 8, Eva for example. #Umineko

She looks exactly like she did back in 1986, even though she only died later at old age. So, that gives me the impression that the souls in Purgatorio can just change their shape and form to fit whatever they want. Of course, that’s assuming that was Eva’s actual soul #Umineko

and not a piece on Battler’s game board. We don’t know. And if that’s the case, perhaps the reason Lambda can turn back Beato to her shabby form is simply because she knows the truth about her and as her guardian, can do that or something. #Umineko

Lambda is impressed by how Beato was able to create her own meta space on the human plane, which is her catbox magic. I guess that means it’s a rare occurrence that a human could access the meta while still alive or something. #Umineko

Lambda grants her wish, and smiles, thinking about how she wants to involve Bern into this and the theme of retaining your determination is incorporated here again. #Umineko

All in all, that’s a pretty great extra. I already found their little talk in Confessions to be incredibly interesting, and while the core is there, it’s nice to see it a bit more fleshed out here.

It digs into what constitutes a witch, and very cleverly, but quite direct, hints at Lambda’s and Beato’s motivations. Lambda is great. I like how she starts out as this just yandere chick for Bern, but then we reveal layer after layer to her,

and get to see how she has many motivations and interests outside Bern, how the logic error she once went through ties into her characterization, and what this hints about her true origins. Very much looking forward to SOTSU playing around with her more.