You bring up a lot of good points. I’m also playing with the idea that maybe it wasn’t the bullet exactly, but maybe Hanyuu in general being involved which causes the logic error. If you were to add an extra pawn to a chess board, that one piece alone might be enough to give an advantage to the game.

As for the time discrepancy, Im playing with the insane theory (that I’ve heard other people mention as well) that what we’re seeing is a codependent time loop that has no clear beginning and end point and is somewhat paradoxical in nature. I only believe this because the parallels between Takano and Satako are too noticeable for me to write off. Essentially, Lambda grants Takano her wish which jumpstarts the events of original Higurashi, which eventually leads to Rika surviving the events of June, which leads to Satoko creating the hell timeline, which causes her to become a witch, which causes her to grant the wish to Takano to ensure that Rika ends up where she is in the current point of Sotsu. I’m starting to believe that there’s this timeline knot happening because of the Satoko/Takano connection that was always sus to me.

As for the Umineko connection to logic errors, I don’t think it strictly follows the same rules, especially because I believe this chronologically happens before Umineko. If all the rules of Umineko were to be followed, we’d find other things like red truths, hard rules, etc. Its more of a similarity than a hard follow of everything in Umineko. And anyways, Rika is in a way “stuck” in a hell where she has to figure out the logic error for herself with no interference/help.

I will admit Ciconia is definitely connected to all of this. I’m of the belief that the Ciconiaverse is at a higher meta level than Higurashi and Umineko, but still within a simulation. I like to think of Higurashi and Umineko as “test” simulations for training the AI (Featherine) for determining who was the cause of the apocalypse, and Ciconia is the application, the real simulation as a result of featherines endless tests (think back to the featherines library/mention of endless gameboards in Umineko) So you might be onto something g with satoko, I think she’s extremely important in that context, and maybe she did become a witch at an earlier point. The one thing Eua said to Satoko that still chills me is: “You have been here so long that you have forgotten your purpose” and I can’t shake off the feeling it’s related to brain in a jar fuckery. There’s just too many unknowns with Ciconia right now so it’s all just theories.

TLDR:

There was a logic error in the original higurashi, which was Rika avoiding the bullet (which was essentially magic) at the end of mitsuribayashi, which directly came from Hanyuu being physically involved in Rikas loops the last time. The game being played in Sotsu/gou is between Eua/Featherine and Hanyuu to “correct” the bullet logic error. Rika is Hanyuus “piece” and Satoko is Euas. Basically Rika has to survive getting shot, no Hanyuu, no magic. Also lines up with Bern and Lambdas backstories perfectly, so we’re seeing the origin story basically.

Not necessarily. Remember Eua/Featherine is at a different level than any of the other characters, only overpowered by ryukishi himself. I agree that they are the same person, but Hanyuu is simply a “piece” of Eua that exists on another plane of reality. In the latest episode of Sotsu, Eua DIRECTLY talked to Hanyuu, so even if they are the same person, they can still exist in separate bodies at the same time as we were shown. We have also seen Satako, albeit probably metaphorically, kill her self in the sea of fragments so it’s really not that unlikely that that Eua would do something like create a game and play against herself. As for the horn, I’m not sure about that yet, but remember that Eua and Featherine are essentially the Masters of the game board and people/things placed on it can be the constants for the game, not literally that Hanyuu died of something

I could go even deeper into proving how it might not be that unlikely because I think Eua/Featherine is a computer program, but that’s a story for another day.

Oooh I actually really like that idea of that being the “logic error” I’m sorry I didn’t realize the theory had a name! But now that I know that I will be thoroughly looking into it!

But I guess it was vague to me how much Eua was involved with the first higurashi in the first place, and only noticed way after the game was “completed”, but it does have quite a bit of holes and vagueness, so I kind of do favor the codependent timeline theory!

The implications for that are quite sad though. I would imagine, seeing as we witnessed Satoko go through it several times, that if Rika survives June, she will ALWAYS want to go to St Lucia, and Satoko will ALWAYS want her to stay. That would imply that Rika surviving = Entering Satokos hell dimension. That means she has two options 1. Live in loops and suffer or 2. Win, then go to Satokos loops and suffer more. I guess the only way out for Rika is really to find a way to transcend past the gameboards or to somehow fix the knot in the timeline. I’m honestly leaning towards an ego-death ending though with the way things are going.

As for 34 and Eua, I think they’re from the same world but at different levels. I think the connection is pretty clear at this point that there’s a simulation and the brain in the jar we’ve seen is definitely related to Satoko. So think of like an “avatar” in the simulation, I’m not sure she would get any memory device but I could be wrong. I think of Euas memory device, and honestly a lot about her, from a computer standpoint. Before I get into my spiel, I think of the “memory device” as a something akin to a hard drive. I theorize the intent of the simulation is digital hell/heaven theory, and Eua is the AI/program/overseer that makes judgments on unknown events (to train itself for judging people in Ciconia world if they go to digital heaven or hell, since backtracking who caused the apocalypse is no easy feat) That’s why she would have a memory device, it’s essentially a backup of data for the thousands of simulations she went through. As a participant in the simulation, not a piece of the program itself, I don’t think 34 would need a memory device. In my opinion, I think the events of Higurashi and Umineko are either historical events or fictional stories that are “mysteries” that the AI (Featherine/Eua) runs through in order to essentially seamlessly predict the most likely course of unknown events, detect logic errors, and to eventually judge the culprits/guilty. So Satoko is just a brain existing in this experiment like the matrix. Or it could be that she is in the process of being judged for digital heaven/hell herself. It explains the pervasive biblical themes and a lot of other stuff being hinted at in Ciconia, as well as why Eua is omnipotent and is basically designed to watch over mysteries. Everything about Eua is so computer like. The way she runs things through strict rules, win/loss conditions, benchmark events happening, the whole concept of the catbox if an event is unknown... I sound absolutely nuts but that’s the theory I’m going with for now!

Oka and Hanyuus backstory is considered to be not canon, just a fun side story. I have a hard time believing that Eua is just an observer when the Lambda and Bern origin stories line up so perfectly and it directly tells you in Umineko that Lambda and Bern became a witch after a game between Featherine and Hanyuu. My bet is that Rika will likely kill herself with the horn and experience a splitting of the ego similar to what Satoko experienced, and she won’t be able to return back to reality after she killed the “Rika” part of herself, it will only be Bernkastel

I would say it’s possible except she shows up in the last arc and everyone acknowledges her existence. Unless you wanna use Umineko logic and say everyone collectively lied about it

“The game logic is something that was brought up in Umineko retroactively applying it to Higurashi...I think looking at things through Umineko's framework isn't always correct.” This. I think some things apply, but if we were having umineko logic battles then we’d see things like red truths. The only real constant is here is Eua/Featherine, so we have to work through her logic more than anything. The only Umineko points I’m clinging onto is the logic error, because it DIRECTLY points back to Higurashi. Lambda and Bern literally state that they became witches because of a logic error (which I’m beginning to lean towards it being the infinite time loop itself) so I’m hanging onto that one tidbit as if it was a red truth.

⁠”I don't see the logic error being brought up in the anime continuity since explaining what it means would have to go too deep into Umineko territory...” I’ve been thinking on this a lot because a lot of people being up good points. It’s a weird moment and I’m not sure how to write it off. You could say that “Takano just missed” or write it off as a metaphor for Rikas miracle, but if that was the case, I don’t see why there would be the very literal implications of her keeping the bullet afterward. I’ve altered my theory a bit and I think that the infinite time loop is likely the logic error itself, but the bullet scene is simply the deterministic point or the catalyst that caused the time knot to occur. Rika SHOULD have died at that moment, but instead survived by pulling the bullet from midair. And because Rika surviving= 100% going to St Lucias, it also = the time knot being created. I heard the argument asking why Eua would ignore such an egregious breaking of the rules..I don’t see why she wouldn’t let Rika survive if it’s to create an endless maze of torture for her entertainment.

“There's a bunch of graduations that could happen...” Yes, I agree with that. I think both of the titles are meant to take on several meaning that can be interpreted as you wish.

“Satokodelta has a bunch of problems in the timeline department...” In my theory this is a combination of infinite timeline fuckery, as well as Satoko most likely being a level above everyone else and more close to reality, something something Ciconia

“I've heard an interesting theory that Ciconia may be...” Yeah with ciconia in the mix, so many scary things are possible

Sorry I’m on mobile rn so my formatting is hot trash

Yeah, she’s called herself that before but it didn’t mean she actually WAS a witch yet. There’s a very clear distinction in Umineko between witches. There are just witches who are given brief moments of power for the sake of the gameboard...ex: Beatrice is the golden witch or endless witch but not the witch OF x, like how Bern is the Witch OF miracles, and Lambda is the Witch OF Certainty. Beatrice is given a certain amount of power WITHIN the game board for use during the game, but it can be taken away from her and it can’t be applied to other game boards. For example, in the chapter where Eva finds the gold, she becomes the golden witch. Those witches are contextual and only have power within their respective gameboards.

However, voyager witches are on another level and have the ability to “transcend” their original gameboard, and are more like concepts than a person. Again, Lambda, likely because of what she goes through as a result of the logic error in higurashi, becomes basically the CONCEPT of certainty personified. We can see that they are voyager witches in the fact that they’re able to get to the Uminekoverse in the first place. If you listen to the goal of Lambda in Umi, she literally states that her goal is to endlessly follow Bern and trap her into and endless game, and Berns goal is to get as far away from Lambda as possible. But yeah, I agree that to a lot of the characters it was a coping mechanism, especially in Umineko because that was really thematically prevalent. In a way, Satako kills her own ego as a coping mechanism so she can carry out her will without emotions getting in the way. Rika will probably have to do the same.

And how is it a bad message? Do you NEED it to have a happy ending? What if this is all a trippy thought experiment about reality that is there to make you think?