4 Yrs✓#
GreenStarfish
4 Yrs✓#
I thought it would be a fun idea to have a thread to share the theories you have after beating each chapter of Higurashi. The most recent one I've completed is Ch2: Wataganashi. This thread will have MAJOR SPOILERS so if you haven't finished/played Ch2 I would recommend you avoid this until you have. If you have played further chapters I would recommend being very careful with spoilers for those as being spoiled is the last thing I would want to happen. Without further ado here are my Ch2 theories:
For the most part, I thought that Ch2 wasn't as scary/creepy as Ch1, mostly because Keichi wasn't alone. He had Rena by his side. (I'll get back to that later.)
At one point I was questioning why this was part of the question arc because all the plot threads were getting explained unlike in Ch1, which naturally made it less scary. I liked that it explained why Hinamizawa has a mob mentality due to their debt to Mion's grandfather for saving the village.
Regarding the different Mion's mentioned throughout the story, I think she likely has multiple personality disorder. There's the regular Mion, the demon and maybe a third one that was the serious Mion that Keichi and Rena talked to while drinking tea at the Sonozaki house. Mion lost control of the "demon" personality due to Keichi not giving the doll to her and that set off a chain reaction. Keichi managed to save himself at the last minute by appealing to the real Mion right when the demon was about to kill him in prison. When Keichi is stabbed by the demon at his house, it makes sense that the demon is sweating because it's putting up the act of pretending to be Mion who has since then disappeared.
This theory made perfect sense until the game decided to throw a curveball and add a ton of WTF reveals in the last conversation with Ooishi. The main reveal was that Mion died while escaping from the underground complex. If we take what was said at face value, my best guess as to whatever was going on was that the demon is an actual demon and a supernatural being that can take the form of a person it has attached to or something like that. The newspaper also seemed to indicate that Shion died around the same time as Keichi was stabbed which would be possible if we're dealing with a supernatural being. Especially considering the ending where the demon appears to finish off Keichi.
However, these supernatural being shenanigans are just too much of a stretch considering that Oyashiro's curse ended up just being a Hinamizawa tradition and nothing supernatural. My crackpot out there theory is that the entire sequence after Keichi gets tased is him hallucinating and that him dying at the end is just him actually getting murdered by Mion. However the major problem with this theory which I just realized is that Mion promised to save him right before she tased him.
If we ignore the supernatural stuff, Ooishi's conversation with Keiichi, still brings up one interesting plot point, which is the syringe Rika was carrying. This is seemingly the only direct callback to Ch1 with the syringes that killed Tomitake and Keichi in that chapter. Knowing now that Satoko, Rika and Mion are all three part of important families it would make sense that they have a connection to the director and have access to these "death syringes". The fact that Rika had them on her, indicates that she was suspecting that Mion might try something, but wasn't able to pull it off. There's also a slim chance that Mion planted the syringe on Rika's body, but I don't really see the point in doing that, since her body was never meant to be found in the first place.
The one thing I can't wrap my head around is the difference in how Rena acts between chapters. In Ch1 she's working with Mion and the director to kill Keichi and she's involved in the disappearances in some way. However, in Ch2, she's Keichi's best supporter, helping him out during his toughest moments with not a hint of betrayal or other motives. She visits Mion with Keichi, does a whole load of detective work herself, and saves Keichi's life at the end by bringing Ooishi to the underground bunker. She's just against Mion's plot and with Keichi the entire way through. My best guess as to this drastic change in heart is that Rena turned against Mion's (The director's?) plot after Rika and Satoko were killed. She had enough and decided to help uncover the plot instead of helping it.
For the most part, I thought that Ch2 wasn't as scary/creepy as Ch1, mostly because Keichi wasn't alone. He had Rena by his side. (I'll get back to that later.)
At one point I was questioning why this was part of the question arc because all the plot threads were getting explained unlike in Ch1, which naturally made it less scary. I liked that it explained why Hinamizawa has a mob mentality due to their debt to Mion's grandfather for saving the village.
Regarding the different Mion's mentioned throughout the story, I think she likely has multiple personality disorder. There's the regular Mion, the demon and maybe a third one that was the serious Mion that Keichi and Rena talked to while drinking tea at the Sonozaki house. Mion lost control of the "demon" personality due to Keichi not giving the doll to her and that set off a chain reaction. Keichi managed to save himself at the last minute by appealing to the real Mion right when the demon was about to kill him in prison. When Keichi is stabbed by the demon at his house, it makes sense that the demon is sweating because it's putting up the act of pretending to be Mion who has since then disappeared.
This theory made perfect sense until the game decided to throw a curveball and add a ton of WTF reveals in the last conversation with Ooishi. The main reveal was that Mion died while escaping from the underground complex. If we take what was said at face value, my best guess as to whatever was going on was that the demon is an actual demon and a supernatural being that can take the form of a person it has attached to or something like that. The newspaper also seemed to indicate that Shion died around the same time as Keichi was stabbed which would be possible if we're dealing with a supernatural being. Especially considering the ending where the demon appears to finish off Keichi.
However, these supernatural being shenanigans are just too much of a stretch considering that Oyashiro's curse ended up just being a Hinamizawa tradition and nothing supernatural. My crackpot out there theory is that the entire sequence after Keichi gets tased is him hallucinating and that him dying at the end is just him actually getting murdered by Mion. However the major problem with this theory which I just realized is that Mion promised to save him right before she tased him.
If we ignore the supernatural stuff, Ooishi's conversation with Keiichi, still brings up one interesting plot point, which is the syringe Rika was carrying. This is seemingly the only direct callback to Ch1 with the syringes that killed Tomitake and Keichi in that chapter. Knowing now that Satoko, Rika and Mion are all three part of important families it would make sense that they have a connection to the director and have access to these "death syringes". The fact that Rika had them on her, indicates that she was suspecting that Mion might try something, but wasn't able to pull it off. There's also a slim chance that Mion planted the syringe on Rika's body, but I don't really see the point in doing that, since her body was never meant to be found in the first place.
The one thing I can't wrap my head around is the difference in how Rena acts between chapters. In Ch1 she's working with Mion and the director to kill Keichi and she's involved in the disappearances in some way. However, in Ch2, she's Keichi's best supporter, helping him out during his toughest moments with not a hint of betrayal or other motives. She visits Mion with Keichi, does a whole load of detective work herself, and saves Keichi's life at the end by bringing Ooishi to the underground bunker. She's just against Mion's plot and with Keichi the entire way through. My best guess as to this drastic change in heart is that Rena turned against Mion's (The director's?) plot after Rika and Satoko were killed. She had enough and decided to help uncover the plot instead of helping it.