/jp/ - Otaku Culture

>>44218843
I think Gou and Sotsu make Rika equal with everyone else. In the original story, Rika was above every other person. While they remained behind in a tragic world, Rika moved on to another reality and tried again with new versions of her friends. In Saikoroshi, Rika decided to stop playing witches and be a normal human. Her future has endless possibilities but she can only make one choice. She is on the same level as everyone else, a mere piece.

In Gou/Sotsu, Rika is now a normal human like she wanted. Her personality more fitting for her age and less off putting. But the most interesting part is that she's now just as much of a piece as any of her friends. During all the loops Satoko went through trying to convince her to stay in Hinamizawa, before giving her the ability to remember stuff, Rika was literally a piece. Multiple versions of Rika were left behind in worlds where Satoko killed herself, while Satoko moved in to the next world. Each of those Rikas is their own person and has to live with the tragedy in that world, so she's now in the same position as everyone else was in the VN.

"I'm not interested in this Furude Rika. I'm going to find the next Rika in the next Hinamizawa. But you only have 'this' Hinamizawa." It's like what she said to Rena in Tsumihoroboshi. Rika is now in the same position and can be discarded like a piece in favor of the next Rika.

So the Rika we follow in Gou is only one of the hundred of Rikas that resulted from her escaping the original loop in Matsuribayashi. From her perspective she's the same Rika, but every other Rika left behind by Satoko before she started her "game" is equally real. All of them had their happy future ruined by Satoko after Matsuribayashi, with no way to loop again to fix things. Now that Rika is a normal human, she's stuck with whatever happens to her in each fragment, no longer able to transport her consciousness to another one. So technically the Rika from Gou that becomes Umineko Bernkastel is only one of them, just like the Rena who ended up alone in Meakashi is only one of the possible Renas.