source: angeban93[x.com]

Rosatrice illustrates its (supposed) superiority by comparing itself to the official explanation (Shkanontrice). At the time, the manga wasn't finished, so Shkanontrice was derived from Ryukishi07's interviews and Our Confession. I'll update these comparisons by just using the manga, instead.

As there's already plenty of discussion about the merits of Shkanontrice elsewhere, I'll focus on Rosatrice's solutions, but I'd be remiss to not touch on its core argument against Shkanontrice:

Umineko is a game. One of the rules of the game is the red truth. Shkanontrice makes the red regarding "human" inconsistent, which would break the rules. As it breaks the game's rules, it can't be the correct solution.

Note: Translations alternate between "person" vs "human". It's the same word in Japanese (人間), I'll just use "human" for consistency.

KnownNoMore didn't look at Umineko as a work of art, but rather as a video game to beat. One of Umineko's thematic points is about how multiple truths can co-exist when there's a lack of information. This includes when there's a lack of information of how someone giving the red is using a term, and Beatrice rarely defined her terms. "Human" is itself a catbox. The only time it was defined was specifically for a closed room in EP 6.

This means some reds can be taken metaphorically instead of literally. In fact, there's some reds where that has to be the case. The obvious example are the 18 humans vs 17 humans reds from EP 6, but I'll set them aside and look at another one:

Beatrice: "Ushiromiya Battler. I will now...kill you. And right now, there is no one other than you on this island. The only one alive on this island is you. Nothing outside the island can interfere. You are all alone on this island. And of course, I am not you. Yet I am here, now, and am about to kill you.......Who...aaam I...?"

Of course, this is impossible to take literally. It's a riddle about the bomb, after all. There's probably a cultural difference at play, as Japanese murder mysteries are more willing to be philosophical and experimental. The most popular of these offbeat mysteries are known as "The Great Occult Books."[ho-lingnojikenbo.blogspot.com] Ryukishi07 has discussed similarities between Umineko and one of the Great Occult Books. More specifically, Offerings to Nothingness. An interesting snippet from one of these discussions:

Ryukishi07: I think that after the appearance of things like Knox's Ten Commandments, mysteries became rigid and "must be, must be." Japanese people love rules, don't they? I think that by placing too much importance on rules, people started worrying more than necessary about whether they followed them or not.

Interviewer: Even in Offerings to Nothingness, there is a scene where a mystery fanatic condemns a trick, saying, "This trick is no good according to Knox, so it should never actually happen" (laughs).

Ryukishi07: It makes you laugh, doesn't it? Of course, that's the scene you're supposed to laugh at.

source: https://sai-zen-sen.jp/works/sessions/umineko-interview/01/01.html

The complaints about people following the rules too much is a bit funny, considering Rosatrice's main argument against Shkanontrice.

As an aside, Ryukishi07 said the anime (and the manga) was made under his supervision and "acceptable" for reasoning. The anime sometimes contradicts Shkanontrice, giving Rosatrice ammo. Of course, there's no reason to cite the anime but not the manga, and Rosatrice does cite the manga a couple times.

Clair's story in EP 7 makes it seemingly obvious Shannon is the culprit. However, Bernkastel says Clair's story was "done so that people who didn't understand wouldn't find the answers." Furthermore, the story was told as a fantasy. What's the point of this, if not to indicate readers should search for a deeper truth?

Here's Bern's line in context:

Bernkastel: "...Even in Beato's game, you've tried to tear the guts out."

Hachijo: "I just wanted to check my answers. I did try to do it in a way that respected Beatrice, the weaver of this tale."

Bernkastel: "...Yeah. I think it was pretty well Read, all done so that people who didn't understand wouldn't find the answers."

Hachijo wanted Clair's story to respect Yasu. As Yasu hates her appearance, it makes sense that the story would disguise it using Fantasy. While the story is explicit about who the culprit is, it doesn't give all the answers. Indeed, Rosatrice is uncertain on how to interpret some things, eg if Yasu created Shannon or if Yasu always had Shannon's name and appearance.

While most fantasy characters are ignored, Will and Clair are seen as trustworthy, since they have no purpose if they don't know the truth. They make it clear that the baby from 19 years ago (Lion), Yasu, and Beatrice are all tied together. Here's how it works:

Lion actually died when they fell off the cliff. Rosa learns this, blaming herself for their death, since if she didn't "kill" Beatrice II then they wouldn't have been given to Natsuhi. Rosa creates Yasu as a fictional character to cope with her guilt. Yasu ≠ Shannon ≠ Kanon.

The segments with Yasu's PoV imply Shannon is Yasu's imagination, as no one else but Yasu acknowledges Shannon. Rosatrice takes the opposite interpretation (Yasu is the imagination) and runs with it. Some clarification going forward:

Yasu = The subject of Clair's story in EP 7, interpreted by Rosatrice as Rosa's creation
Yasuda = Sayo Yasuda, the official culprit

Anyway, Rosa likely doesn't know about Lion:

[Natsuhi] My husband had been on a business trip. Rosa-san, who had still lived on the island at the time, had been traveling with her friends. Father and I were the only ones on Rokkenjima!! And before anyone except Father and I knew, a baby had appeared out of nowhere... and then disappeared again!!

Rosa creates Yasu as she goes through life, using the servants' lives as well as Kumasawa's "magical" teachings as inspiration. Yasu can be decoded to discover Rosa's life. A couple of examples: Yasu's servitude symbolizes Rosa's self-hatred and isolation from the family, while Yasu's transformation into Beatrice symbolizes Rosa learning about magic.

So this is a mimicry of how Yasuda creates fictional characters, but that's just her creating imaginary friends and ideal versions of herself. It's what a child may do, she just keeps doing it as an adult. It's weird, but Rosa is even weirder, creating a fictional character from a dead baby she's never met. A bit morbid, but it's like those "Aborted GF" memes.[knowyourmeme.com]

Rosa befriends Shannon. Rosa learns about Battler's promise, and encourages Shannon to keep loving Battler. But when he breaks Shannon's heart, Rosa helps her get over Battler by getting her with George instead, getting Kanon hired as a "little brother", and "inheriting the bud of love for Battler." Rosa incorporates Shannon's love for Battler into Yasu/Beatrice, but Rosa only platonically loves him.

Some people (understandably) think Rosatrice argues Rosa's love is romantic, but that's untrue. Still, this all paints a very peculiar image, if you really think about it. In essence, this is what's happening:

Rosa (single mother in her mid-to-late 20s) has tea parties with Shannon (age 10). When she gets hurt over puppy love, Rosa encourages Shannon (now 11) to tough it out. When the pain becomes too much, Rosa instead hooks Shannon (now 13) up with George (20), despite the socially unacceptable differences in age and social status. Rosa then starts role-playing a character based off her teenage nephew's porn fantasies, but in a platonic way.

No, there's no proof that Rosa and Shannon are close, it's just working backwards from Rosa = Yasu.

Rosa solves the epitaph and is granted headship from Kinzo, who then dies. This leads to Rosa becoming Beatrice, acknowledged by all the servants (except for Gohda who isn't there). She keeps her headship secret from the family because she's already planning out her crime.

Rosa carries out the crime to revive Beatrice II and usher everyone into the Golden Land. Magic requires risk, so she needs a "detective" who can challenge her. Battler is chosen for this. His return causes the crime because it ignites George's insecurities, allowing Rosa to recruit him as a co-culprit.

While there's talk of Rosa loving Battler, it ultimately comes off as him only being relevant because it allows Rosa to recruit George. Emphasis is placed on the value of George's martial arts skills, even though most murders are done with guns anyway. How do these two even learn to shoot so well?

Anyhow, Rosa is basically turned into EP 1-4 Kinzo. I'm generally gonna avoid bringing up reds, as you can wordplay around them, but this one makes the proposed motive unlikely: "Beato wanted me [Battler] to solve it, so she made the riddles of this game solvable."

I'm also glossing over the finer details because a lot of it is stapling Rosa onto Yasu by going "well that scene is actually a metaphor." Like so:



And in other cases, certain details are just ignored, like Will and Clair saying Battler returning is Beatrice's motive, not her opportunity.

Some of Rosatrice's appeal is doing more with Rosa's Beatrice trauma, but making it her defining trait is missing the point. A reoccurring theme in When They Cry is how our environment changes us. Rosa's Beatrice trauma isn't emphasized because it's been overshadowed by more immediate concerns. She's a struggling single mom and business owner, after all. Not to mention, she does come to terms with it (as much as she can considering Umineko's structure) in EP 7.

Rosatrice advertises Rosa as only having one co-culprit and one accomplice for all games. But the truth is a bit more complex than that:

Rosa and George both plan on eventually betraying each other. She tells him about the bomb, but lies about when it'll go off. On the flip side, if she surrenders because the epitaph is solved, then he'll betray her and keep the murders going (EP 3/5). This conflict is what the Love Trial represents. Jessica and Kanon represent an outcome where no one dies.

Rosatrice started out as a George culprit theory, back when Umineko was still in development. Things changed when it became clear the culprit is a woman, but George still does most of the twilights.

There's a perception that Rosatrice ignores all Fantasy/Meta-World scenes, but in reality it cherry-picks them. The main proof for George culprit theory is in his fight scenes, but even those has him fighting with Shannon's approval, which doesn't line up with him doing the crimes behind his lover's back and manipulating her like he's Walter White. He doesn't even like killing Eva-Beatrice in EP 6. The betrayal theory runs deeper than that, though:

Rosa and George take "Fake Death Drugs" to play dead, but Rosa poisons his drugs. The proof for this is Erika mentions fake death drugs in EP 6.

Here's the scene:

Erika: "This time, I don't have the detective's authority, so there's a chance I messed up when examining the corpses. S, so, if we suppose that a drug which mimics death was used to fool my examination, um..."

Lambdadelta: "You mean Purupurupikopuyo?"

Erika: "N, no, not that...! It's not impossible for certain well-known drugs, such as insulin, to bring about a temporary state that mimics death."

This is referring to how overdosing on insulin can put you in a coma. It's not something that's actually feasible. Erika knew the "victims" were faking the entire time, she was just pretending to be stupid so Battler will pity her and give her tape.

I've never read a murder mystery where the culprit takes drugs to fake their death, as that isn't very practical. Even the more sane idea of using sleeping pills still has problems, as you risk snoring or fidgeting in your sleep, or waking up past schedule. This idea is likely just here because Rosa poisoning George is the easiest way of solving Natsuhi's closed room in EP 2.

As an aside, Rosatrice misses that most of the people who help Yasuda don't think (at least initially) that the murders are real, which is strange because Rosatrice discusses Our Confession where that info is heavily implied.

Rosatrice claims to solve the mystery more elegantly and logically than Shkanontrice. For many twilights, Rosatrice gives multiple solutions, but for ease of comparison I'll pick only one. Picking which one is easy since most alternatives rely on anime-only evidence, fake death drugs, or are just plain contradicted by the red.


Six corpses in the garden shed.


This has everything wrong with the Rosatrice howdunit:

1. Inconsistent characterization: George is cautious, and loves Shannon, but he directly involves her in the murders, and never personally checks on her when she's trapped in the shed, drugged out, and surrounded by a bunch of corpses. Rosa is alleged to be Shannon's close friend and needs George as a co-culprit, but immediately kills Shannon and risks George's betrayal. These contradictory behaviors aren't explained, characterization is just molded like putty to fit the needs of the howdunit.

2. Breaks Knox's 8th: "It is forbidden for the case to be resolved with clues that are not presented." Battler sees Rosa and there's no indication her wounds are fake. After all, the explicit point of these wounds is they can't be faked. He's a little less detailed about describing her wounds, but he's also like that about Gohda.

3. Doesn't fit Will's solution: Rosatrice tries to make Will's solutions work, but in most cases they're a reach. What corpse "returns to illusions"? "Returns" implies this person came from illusions to begin with, which fits Shannon better than Rosa.

This might seem like I'm cherry-picking one bad solution, and there's a couple cases where Rosatrice does something better, but generally, it commits these sins much more often. I'm generally only gonna point out #1 because there's only so many ways I can say "um, you broke Knox's 8th 🤓".


Two corpses are close in a closed room protected by a chain.


Will's riddle directly debunks a "the culprit was locked inside in the room" solution:

Will: "Illusions to illusions. ...A chain of illusions can only trap illusions."

In Rosatrice's defense, this was mistranslated back in the day as "A chain of illusions can only hold back illusions", which is more vague.



The last moments of the sacrificed boy with a stake in his chest.


The reds say Kanon doesn't die this twilight, so we have this contrived solution. Usually in these stories, the doctor helps characters play dead. Kanon bucks tradition by trying to trick the doctor, and is so committed he lets himself either get poked with needles or have pills shoved down his throat. What a trooper! Where'd he even get the stake? The question is handwaved, but Rosa would presumably have them secured.

The other murders are straightforward.

The six with their stomachs split in the closed room chapel.

Kanon: "We tried to check, but..."

The two who are close cannot even be close as corpses.


These murders happen in Jessica's room. Rosa, George, Nanjo, and Battler were all in the chapel at the time. There also isn't an opportunity to give the key to Nanjo and tell him what to do. I suspect Rosatrice's solutions are made from the anime, which cuts a lot of details.



The two sliced to death by the red-eyed illusion.


The only chance for George to do these murders is when he accompanies the servants after they're exiled. Even then, why would Shannon let George be alone when a killer is on the loose? For the rest of EP 2, the servants know Kumasawa is being held hostage, but they evidentially don't try getting George's help since they all later end up dead in Natsuhi's room, except for Genji.

Some Rosatrice watchers cry foul on the manga, because of this red truth:

Lambdadelta: "For the next one, the murders of the three including Genji in the parlor, the thought that it was a simultaneous murder where they shot each other in a clockwise pattern at the same time is laughable. Genji, Kumasawa, and Nanjo were not killers!"

The old Witch Hunt translation, which Rosatrice uses because there wasn't anything else, rendered this as "are not killers", which suggests Genji can't kill in any game. All the modern translations use "were", which suggests it only applies to EP 1.


In Natsuhi's closed room, none are left alive.


While the room is messy, it's not in a way that suggests a fight happens:

[Battler] The inside of the room looked as though a robber had just broken in. Drawers were flung open, pulled out, with their contents thrown about, devastated so that it looked nothing like the room of the methodical Aunt Natsuhi.

Rosatrice treats the stakes as actual weapons, which is something the VN repeatedly states to be wrong:

Erika: "They [the stakes] still seriously believe that they were created by a great sorcerer over a thousand years ago. I'd like to confront them with perfect evidence and the truth right away and let them know that they're mere paperweights, worth less than 30 US dollars."

Battler even outright says this proposed solution for Shannon's death is unlikely:

[Battler] However, a human skull is very firm. No matter how much someone mustered their strength, could it really have been pierced so neatly...? No. By my reasoning, this stake wasn't the cause of death, but had just been used to damage the corpse after death.

Afterwards, Rosa places the letter to get away from Battler.




Teetotaler hands wrote this. Being drunk doesn't make you hallucinate. Though I wouldn't put it past Kinzo to put hallucinogens in his booze, so this one is valid.

Six corpses connected by the linked closed rooms.


The reds deny most Rosatrice solutions, so this one is begrudgingly offered up for last. The victims' death declarations are in red, so the proposed loophole is those declarations weren't given until after all the closed rooms were broken. Still, the reds were given during a debate over what's explicitly a reconstruction of the crime scene, so this is pushing it. Not to mention, if Rosa's goal was to kill Shannon, why didn't she accompany the adults to the mansion to begin with?

As an aside, the chapel being locked from the inside contradicts the literal meaning of one of the reds, but that's just how context-dependent they are. Debates over closed rooms revolve around how the culprit got in and out, so reds about locking doors only apply to doing so from the outside. Bern's game even notes this in red:

Bernkastel: "All doors can only be locked or unlocked with a master key. Of course, it is possible to lock or unlock the doors from inside the room even without a master key."

The corpses of mother and child lay together in the rose garden.


Eva meeting Rosa soon after solving the epitaph is cited as proof, but I see it as the nail in the coffin. Every scene with Eva and Rosa has to be a lie for Rosatrice to work, and why doesn't Rosa tell Eva who the killer is? Would Eva really just be like "Well shucks Rosa I guess that's your own business, I didn't like Shannon much anyway"? I also like Rosa bringing Maria when talking "business" with George.

You may notice Rosatrice whitewashes Eva. I suspect this is because Eva and Hideyoshi are some of Yasuda's more common "pieces", so it's in Rosatrice's interest to downplay their villainy.


Three corpses lying in the mansion.


For once, the manga is more convoluted than Rosatrice. It'd be simpler if only Yasuda or Eva do it.

As for Rosatrice, you'd think George would just quickly kill everyone instead of bothering with the witch illusion. You might be wondering about George's alibi in EP 3, since at face value it seems pretty tight. The answer is basically "well, maybe he had some alone time off-screen, who can say?"



The corpses of husband and wife lay exposed under the arbor.


Eva suspecting Jessica's parents is strange, since Eva knows they have alibis for the 2nd Twilight. It'd be understandable if they're shot in a moment of panic, but this is premeditated. How does Eva even get a deadly poison?



George's death isn't confirmed in red until shortly after Nanjo's death, when Eva-Beatrice spins her web of red while Battler and Eva are in the parlor. This gives George wiggle room to kill Nanjo. The problem is the web starts off with this red:

Eva-Beatrice: "After Jessica was injured, Eva was constantly under Battler's supervision. Battler is neither the culprit nor an accomplice. By this, we can establish a perfect alibi for Eva."

Eva can't kill George, depriving her of a motive to kill Battler, as well as the knowledge that George is a killer, which is actually important for Rosatrice 1998. Not to mention, Battler looks George in the eyes and judges him to be dead:

[Battler] George-aniki lay there crumpled alongside Shannon-chan's corpse. His chest was stained bright red. And judging by his still-opened eyes, I'd hate to say it to Aunt Eva, but I couldn't pick up any signs of life.

Yasuda cheats here too since Shannon is also there, but at least no details about her body are given. There are other problems, but I think "George survives a gunshot to the chest and keeps walking around and shooting people like an action hero" speaks for itself.

A massacring storm sweeps through the dining hall.


If you think of it as Yasuda role-playing Kinzo as part of the murder mystery game, then the "acknowledged the existence of Kinzo" stuff makes more sense. "Kinzo" isn't actually an inheritable title, or else Eva would've inherited it when she became head.


The two youths face their trials and pass away together.


Remember how in the EP 7 Tea Party, Jessica swats away a gun pointed right at her face and throws hands? Apparently Rosatrice forgot.

The twilights happen wildly out of order in Rosatrice, which is a big issue, since EP 4 doesn't give room for fussing with the order:

1. "Kanon was the 9th victim." He's the 7th in Rosatrice.
2. Jessica and Kyrie's testimony follows the manga's order.


None of the runaways are left alive.


The well can't be opened:

[Battler] But the cover was extremely firm and rigid, and no matter how much I pushed or pulled, I couldn't even get close to opening it. I couldn't find any obvious lock. It might be sealed by some mechanism. But no matter how much I investigated it, I couldn't find anything to release it.

Why even relocate all these hostages and risk their escape? Like with Jessica, Kyrie being intimidated into lying is also strange, since she's ex-yakuza and probably used to danger. I guess in Rosatrice, Rosa is the only woman allowed to be cool.


And none shall be left alive.


The character profiles have an interesting implication:

[Gohda - Executed] They put ropes around their own necks. That can be a pretty interesting experience now and then.

Did George make them do it at gunpoint?

George is killed at the arbor, which makes sense for Yasuda as that's where he proposed to her, but is a bit random for Rosa.

In both solutions, Maria is poisoned and Beatrice kills herself, using a trick to posthumously hide the gun. One of the suggestions is Rosa poisons Maria, tells her to get ready to pick up the gun and hide it, and kills herself right in front of Maria.

Why doesn't Rosa come clean at this point? The implication is a "magical" letter would make the adults take Battler's headship seriously, even though the letter is dismissed as a prank in other episodes.

The idea behind tampering with the clocks is them being slightly wrong means the reds about the letter aren't actually timed at midnight, which gives more wiggle room. However, when Natsuhi hears the clock go off, she's with Genji and Krauss in the corridor on the second floor. A red corroborates this moment as truly being at midnight:

Bernkastel: "At 24:00, Natsuhi, Krauss, and Genji were in the corridor on the second floor of the mansion. The rest of them were in the dining hall on the first floor. "

Not to mention:

Lambdadelta: "No one in the mansion placed the letter in the hallway. This includes doing so by all concepts, such as directly, indirectly, intentionally, coincidentally, and unintentionally."

This red has no qualification about the time, implying no one in the mansion ever placed the letter.


Remember that Natsuhi got her first phone call before the conference even began. George really thought ahead!

You'd think this would be a red flag for Rosa, but I guess her magic trick was just that important. This is actually the alternative solution for George getting inside Natsuhi's room. The preferred solution is simply "well, who says the easily-anxious Natsuhi would lock her room on a day where she's warned of an incident occurring and there's a bunch of people over? Was it in red?"



These wounds can't be faked:

[Battler] I had been... forced to see all the way... into the depths of those gashes in everyone's throats... At worst, the wound might have been deep enough to stretch halfway through their necks. If you tried to open it up, you'd probably be able to see that the gash reached all the way to the bone.

[1st Twilight profiles] The wound was deep enough that anyone could easily confirm his/her death with absolute certainty.

I'm also not sure how George could fake it on himself, as makeup that detailed usually requires others to put it on you, but he had to do it alone, since Nanjo has an alibi. Again, this solution mostly speaks for itself, but I like the implication that George is trying to make people think Natsuhi is a real witch.

Later on, we have these reds:

Virgilia: "So, anyone looking at George, Jessica, Maria, Rosa, or Genji's corpses could confirm at a glance that they are dead."

Beatrice: "Hmm? Red? Well, there's no point in me holding out against you. That's right, at a glance, anyone could confirm that these corpses are dead, so it is absolutely impossible that they are just playing dead."

The straightforward reading is George is dead by this point. Since this is before Hideyoshi's murder, we have a logic error, right? The Rosatrice loophole is: since we experience EP 5 through a replay for Battler, these reds are actually timed after the game has ended. In other words, the replay is an embellishment and not 100% accurate.

And that's also the manga explanation for Erika apparently seeing both Shannon and Kanon in the same room: she actually doesn't. Only the detective's narration is reliable, not necessarily the scenes they're in. This is a trick unique to EP 5 since the previous games aren't replays and are GMed by Beatrice. Battler even learns the truth using EP 1-4 to assure readers they're not getting punked that hard.

How Erika "saw" Shannon and Kanon in the same room was rather unclear until the manga came out, so there were a lot of theories about that, to the point where KnownNoMore even made a bonus video analyzing some of them. Despite this, Rosatrice didn't predict the actual explanation. This is probably Shkanontrice's most obtuse moment.

Only fitting to talk about the Meta-World in the most meta episode.

The Meta-World isn't metafictional. All the murder scenarios (except for Bern's game which is a forgery) are actually "what-if" timelines branching off from the prime timeline, aka the Single Truth. The Meta-World is a framing device for this information.

Higurashi is leaking into Rosatrice. If you're wondering why Bern's game is left out, it's because it's explicit about Shannon = Kanon. Go figure. Oddly enough, the EP 7 Tea Party is designated as a what-if timeline, even though Rosa clearly isn't Beatrice there. There's one last thing to the Meta-World, but I'll save that for later.

EP 6 is a prank that the entire family (including Rosa and George) is in on. Erika decapitates the Ushiromiyas because she's just crazy. She has a gun when searching for Battler.

It's unexplained why Rosa and George are in on the prank, how Erika gets a gun, why Kanon locks himself in the room with Erika, etc.



This implies Erika has zero clue what her piece is doing. Not to mention, Beatrice defines person as "body" for this closed room::

Beatrice: "Three people--in other words, three bodies--went in or out. Only you and Kanon entered, and only Battler left. It has already been said in red that all people can only use their own names."

Meaning, a third person doesn't stop existing, only Kanon does. Rosatrice has to accept Shkanontrice's separation between names and bodies for this loophole to work.



Here's Battler's red:

Battler: "...Sorry, but...Even if you do join us-"
Battler & Beatrice: "That makes 17 humans."

Allegedly, the counts are different because Battler and Erika are actually describing different scenarios ([Erika is alive] vs [Erika is dead]). Pretty obvious why this loophole doesn't work. Battler is describing Erika as doing something ("you join us") which wouldn't make sense if he's supposedly describing a scenario in which she's dead.

The whole point of this scene is to demonstrate the flexibility of "human", there's no way around it.

Umineko is a video game. Like most video games, Umineko has different endings, depending on which difficulty you play:

Easy Difficulty Ending: A Witch Did It, Beatrice's Blue Truth
Medium Difficulty Ending: Shkanontrice's Gold Truth
Hardest Difficulty, and the True Ending: Rosatrice's Red Truth

This amuses me since Umineko actually does have multiple endings, even if no one ever picks the Trick ending. It probably wouldn't surprise you to know that KnownNoMore is now a gaming youtuber.

In Our Confession, Dlanor says Beatrice wrote three stories and hid one of them. These stories are the three different endings.

This implies Shkanontrice is also a product of Rosa's imagination. I guess Natsuhi was too obvious a scapegoat. Here's what Our Confession actually says:

[Dlanor] But if you can,
try to reach her feelings, buried in the deepest part of the story.
She said that she wrote two stories and revealed one.
However, that was also wrong.
She wrote three stories and revealed one.
By reading this incomplete manuscript, you will know two of those stories.

Beatrice doesn't actually write a third story, that's just a figure of speech. The "third story" is likely just why Yasuda would create multiple identities.

Anyway, what is the "ending" to Rosatrice?

The Single Truth is likely EP 2. Battler surrenders to Rosa-Beatrice, and she reveals all her plans. After this, she lets Battler go. While escaping, Battler either gets grazed by the explosion, or tries sailing away on a boat but capsizes, washing up on a beach severely brain-damaged. The Meta-World isn't just a framing device, but also a dream of Battler's before he dies. Tohya and Ikuko are just part of the red herring.

Rosatrice caps things off with a "Ash Ketchum is in a coma!" type of theory.[creepypasta.fandom.com] It's self-contradictory, as Shannon and George win the Love Trial in EP 6, implying George kills Rosa in the Single Truth. Not to mention, Will says Beatrice always dies without someone understanding her. You might wonder how Ange's story can be reconciled with EP 2:

Ange's story takes place in a what-if timeline where EP 3 happens. Eva hides the truth because her son is a killer and wants to protect his honor. Ange commits suicide after reading Eva's diary.

I'm not sure if this means Ange commits suicide in the Single Truth too, or if this is just about Ange in EP 3. The former would be strange since Eva's diary wouldn't even exist.

It's not explained why there's so much focus on a what-if timeline. It's implied its all part of the red herring, with Ange's rejection of the red truth being an attempt at manipulating readers to do the same. Fair enough, but that we never actually see anything past 1986 nullifies the motif of the future overwriting the past.

Higurashi has an EP 9, so there will probably one day be a Umineko EP 9 that'll confirm the official explanation to be false.

We actually did get a EP 9 in 2019, with Last Note of the Golden Witch. I won't spoil much, but it explicitly identifies Shannon as Kinzo's illegitimate daughter. Higurashi is interesting to bring up, because Ryukishi once used Higurashi to mock mock a proposal very similar to Rosatrice's:[07th-expansion.fandom.com]

Originally posted by Ryukishi:

As an outrageous example, let say in the future, I decide to release a truth exposing arc called "Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Shin", claiming that "the truth in Watanagashi-hen and Meakashi-hen are both disguises, and the real culprit is the unexpected character XX!", in addition to adding new information to the story. The new truth would obviously take over the old ones, and the truth in Meakashi-hen becomes false.

Ryukishi actually knows about Rosatrice:[07th-expansion.fandom.com]

"I then would go on to ask about the fan theory that the character of Rosa Ushiromiya and Beatrice in Umineko are, in fact, the same person. Ryukishi explained that he was aware of this particular theory, and would go on to admit that he sometimes showed references to false theories, such as this one, to throw off and trick his readers."

And there's even a reference to Rosatrice in Umineko: Golden Fantasia, during Rosa x Eva-Beatrice's story mode:

Eva-Beatrice: "You want to become Rosa-Beatrice? I didn't think you were such a maiden at heart."

As for KnownNoMore, he ended up denouncing Rosatrice in 2018. He deleted his Internet presence soon afterwards as part of a rebrand, so there's no record of this video left beyond responses on 4chan's /jp/ board, which have been slightly censored due to Steam's swear filter:

Originally posted by Anonymous:

KnownNoMore, arrogant and kekworthy, the legend is back denouncing his own theory! Eat that Rosatrice advocates!

Originally posted by Anonymous:

"If you liked this, then I'm glad I did something for you. It got people to rethink, examine, and discuss things in depth that they may not have even considered before. And that was the story was all about, right? Not just accepting how things were presented to you but really thinking everything through to the bitter end. And if you didn't, well, I would just regard it as 9 hours of trolling."

lol

Originally posted by Anonymous:

made me see him as a very reasonable guy nowadays

he seemed very full of himself at first

I can't even hate him after watching this video desu, I'll just leave it at that. Rosatrice theory finally dies, and I'll stop getting triggered about it, just considering it to be 9 hours long trolling much like the creator suggested me to.

seems like a heavy weight was lifted from the fanbase now, we shouldn't have treated so seriously, it WAS more or less a hit-or-miss game theory thing.

Originally posted by Anonymous:

About time. What took him soo long?

That might seem harsh, but even putting aside the quality of the arguments, Rosatrice has a "debate bro" tone, which when combined with the long-winded script, didn't leave a good first-impression. The Rosatrice videos got re-uploaded by third-parties anyway, so the only real loss are KnownNoMore's comments, where he elaborated more on his points.

I read Umineko after all this played out, so for me, Rosatrice is practically just a weird, old fan fic. Speaking of fan fics, it specifically reminds me of that one popular Harry Potter fan fic which added New Atheist and sci-fi themes. [en.wikipedia.org]

Fan interpretations that tried to make things more "logical" and "scientific", without any concern for the themes, were part of the 2010s zeitgeist. Which is what I think Rosatrice is going for. Religious Terrorist (Rosa) and Incel (George) are more digestible than Yasuda, I'll say that much. In that regard, Rosatrice is kind of a time capsule.

Rosatrice was most popular in the interim between the VN's conclusion and the manga's. The manga has basically replaced Rosatrice as a "guide" to Umineko. But Rosatrice is still one of the more popular Umineko videos on YouTube, being the second result for stuff like "Umineko explained" or "Umineko solution", so new Rosatricers still emerge every so often.

And that's okay: no matter how shabby this truth is, no one has the right to trample on it.