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Banquet of the Golden Witch

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Banquet of the Golden Witch is the third arc in Umineko no Naku Koro ni. The story focuses largely on Eva Ushiromiya and her relationship with both herself and her family.

Banquet of the Golden Witch
Developer07th Expansion
Publisher07th Expansion
Arc TypeQuestion
ReleasedAugust 16, 2008 (C74)
Word Count151,131 (~504 pages)
Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chronology
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Alliance of the Golden Witch

Introduction

Plot

An unnamed female narrator accidentally breaks a vase in the Ushiromiya household. While lamenting their accident, a mysterious witch appears before them. The witch claims she can make the vase "remember its previous form" and demonstrates this with a show of magic. The vase repairs itself and the girl rejoices. However, shortly afterwards, the vase breaks again while a servant cleans nearby. The witch explains that, by having the vase "remember its previous form", she is not repairing it permanently as the vase's transition to a broken form is already determined. Thus, the best the witch can do is delay the time at which it breaks. The girl, enthralled by the show of magic, asks to become the witch's apprentice. The witch agrees to the request.

Beatrice wakes from a dream as the Seven Stakes of Purgatory come to her to complain that their "toy" is broken. They present Beatrice with an unrecognizable pile of gore and viscera. Beatrice uses her magic to have the pile "remember its previous form". Slowly, the pile reforms itself as Battler Ushiromiya. The stakes rejoice as they continue their play by repeatedly impaling Battler's body.

Eva Ushiromiya wakes from a dream wherein she was arguing with a younger version of herself who claimed to be a witch. Shortly afterward, Eva and the rest of the Ushiromiya family arrive on Rokkenjima for the annual conference. While the family is catching up, Beatrice decides to begin her next game with Battler. Beatrice confronts Maria Ushiromiya in the rose garden and, after helping her find a certain rose, provides Maria with a letter to deliver to the family.

After reading Beatrice's letter at dinner, the adults attempt to contact Kinzo to verify the authenticity of the letter. Receiving no response, Eva and Rudolf take this to mean that Kinzo's implicitly condones the content of the letter. However, the family remains suspicious regarding the true identity of the person who handed Maria the letter in the first place. Recognizing that each of the siblings had alibis, several come to the conclusion that a 19th person, a mistress Kinzo had kept, was responsible for the letter. Furthermore, the siblings reach the conclusion that, if Kinzo's mistress really was responsible, then she was already in possession of the gold and planned on exchanging it for headship of the Ushiromiya family.

That night, Beatrice appears before Kinzo and reveals that he was selected as the first sacrifice of the witch's ritual. Genji, Kanon, and Shannon enter Kinzo's chamber and witness Beatrice incinerating Kinzo. Beatrice tells the servants that they too have been selected as part of the first twilight. Kanon resists this fate and Beatrice offers to spare him and his loved ones if he can defeat the Seven Stakes of Purgatory. While he manages to defeat Lucifer in single combat, he is unable to defeat the rest of the sisters. Genji quietly kills both Kanon and Shannon in order to spare them from a painful death at Beatrice's hands. Beatrice's servant Ronove then kills Genji in the same manner.

Annoyed that Genji killed their prey, the Seven Stakes of Purgatory seek out and kill Gohda. They then attempt to kill Kumasawa but learn of Kumasawa's true form: that of Virgilia, the original Beatrice. Virgilia confronts Beatrice in the rose garden and the two fight each other using fantastical weapons. Beatrice easily overcomes Virgilia and kills her, killing Kumasawa in the process. Beatrice then asks Ronove to hide the bodies in preparation for the first twilight.

 
A diagram of the first twilight

In the Meta-World, Virgilia and Battler discuss how Beatrice intentionally had the most suspicious people die in the first twilight. Each of the dead servants were discovered alongside their master key and an envelope containing a key to a different room with another body. Battler forces Beatrice to reveal that none of the six committed suicide however not all six deaths were homicides. Battler uses this to infer that one of the servants was the culprit and died accidentally at the end of their killing spree. To avoid giving away too much information, Beatrice resigns the fight.

On the island, the adults arm themselves with Kinzo's Winchester rifles and move the family to the guest house to stay safe. To stave off boredom, they attempt to solve the witch's epitaph. While they make some headway, they are ultimately unable to reach an answer and retire to eat. During this time, Eva Ushiromiya sneaks away and uses books from Kinzo's archive to solve the epitaph. Shortly afterwards, Eva discovers Kinzo's gold in an ornate underground room. Soon after, Rosa Ushiromiya solves the epitaph and encounters Eva in the underground room.

After seeing the gold, Rosa reveals to Eva that she doesn't want the family headship and will gladly cooperate with Eva as long as she gets her portion of the gold as inheritance. Meanwhile, in the underground room, Beatrice confronts EVA, a manifestation of Eva Ushiromiya's personality. Beatrice concedes the ownership of the gold and the title of family head to EVA by giving her the head ring. Furthermore, Beatrice passes on her magical abilities and the title of Beatrice to EVA.

On the island, Maria Ushiromiya becomes concerned that the rose she marked in the rose garden was becoming damaged. In order to assuage her fears, Rosa takes Maria to the rose garden to check on the flower. While there, the new Beatrice, EVA, confronts the pair and tests her magic by repeatedly killing and reviving Rosa and Maria. In the meta-world, Battler is angered by Beatrice's enjoyment of EVA's actions and refuses to speak with her any further. Beatrice appears before EVA in an attempt to sate her cruelty. In a swift motion, Beatrice kills Rosa and Maria in a painless manner and has Ronove prepare them as sacrifices for the second twilight.

Characters

The Ushiromiya Family

Servants

Witches and Demons

Other

Deaths and Disappearances

All deaths and disappearances are listed only as they are told in Banquet of the Golden Witch and apply only for the individual arc, not the overall series.

Deaths

  • Kinzo Ushiromiya, incinerated on October 5, 1986 as part of the first twilight.
  • Shannon, pierced by a stake on October 5, 1986 as part of the first twilight.
  • Kanon, pierced by a stake on October 5, 1986 as part of the first twilight.
  • Genji Ronue, pierced by a stake on October 5, 1986 as part of the first twilight.
  • Toshiro Gohda, pierced by a stake on October 5, 1986 as part of the first twilight.
  • Chiyo Kumasawa, pierced by a stake on October 5, 1986 as part of the first twilight.

Disappearances

Endroll

Media

Chapters

Volumes

Episodes

See also

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