bernkastel

Instructions

the anatomy in this is kinda horrendous, i suppose this is what i get for not studying anatomy in months.. ive always liked how bernkastel appeared at the end of higurashi kai. in the final few minutes of the anime, this adult version of rika showed up 30 years in the past to change takanos life, and prevent the chain of events that led her to becoming a villain. she did that all with this enigmatic smile... it was very weird, but kinda a perfect way to end the anime. as for why she helped takano out here? im not sure. given bernkastels personality it wasnt for any benevolent reason lol. back when i first watched the anime. i thought this bernkastel was just an older version of rika, who somehow became able to travel through time freely. but a really good way ive heard it explained was this: "" You can think of Furude Rika as containing two personalities. After every iteration of the Higurashi timeline, Rika "goes back in time" so to speak, which means she retains her memories of what happened in the previous timeline. However, at the same time, they can't be called her "normal" memories. There's also the memories and experiences of the Rika growing up just as a relatively normal girl in each timeline. So every time things reset, the normal girl Rika's memories are invaded by the sudden influx of tragic memories that are carried over from repeating the time loop. If it's just the first or second time, then you would have a bit of a hold of yourself. You'd realize that you're being shown a vision of the future and try to act accordingly to act against it. But repeated the countless, countless number of times that Rika went through the same events over and over again before getting killed, Rika can't possibly act or hold the same personality as that normal girl anymore. And yet, the normal girl's memories still exist. With each time loop this disconnect gets larger and larger, until instead of "a you from the future" sending back a message, it's a thousand year-old witch sharing your mind and body. In order to keep a proper grip on her sense of self, Rika decided to isolate this entity as someone other than herself. So Frederica Bernkastel is "Born", as a culmination of memories from every one of Rika's Bad Ends. After the events of the last Higurashi arc shown in the anime, Bernkastel finally escapes her "hell" of an endless loop, thus leaving behind Rika completely and transcending as a witch and completely separate entity. So despite originating from the same mind essentially, they are different people now. "" and that all leads to umineko, where she is the witch of miracles. it all makes sense, esp because a big theme in higurashi was miracles. she was only able to escape her loop because of a miracle, so it makes sense that she would become a witch capable of granting miracles. given how cruel miracles are in umineko and to a lesser extent higurashi, it also makes sense she has the sadistic personality she does