Nein is so funny I know he is in that damn closet. Doubly sure if the person he had an affair with was Noemi. Too bad his yandere fiancée killed him for cheating before he could figure out he was gay... not that he could do much with that information.

Thoughts on Mujou no Erasmus is that it's fine, a bit subpar. I don't think I would have read it if it weren't for the novelty of it using fatamoru characters as "actors", though. I will say that unlike Seventh Lair, there isn't any parallels between it and the main series. No spoiler sprites are used either. So, someone who hasn't read fatamoru can safely read this one. Just watch out for the content warnings.

I wonder if there is someone out there who read Erasmus first, then thfim. Must have been a wild experience.

What the fuck, first of all. Don't say that. Second of all she is also definitely "exchanged" by Michel.

They're doing some truman show shit to Mell's clone (?) Or perhaps a lobotomy situation

I don't trust pauline one bit I bet she brought so much because she was the one who got the costumes, maybe some other fucked up shit too I bet.

He asked for no pickles!!!

Michel is always saying this shit to Mell and everyone seeing it is like "wow you two get along so well 😊". Peak running bit

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Yeah pretty much. It also helps that he is a lot more friendly than the other two (or a suck-up if you want to be mean about it). I joke but they do actually get along, despite Michel's insistance that they're incompatible. Besides his family, Michel has only interacted with people who had rough lives like him (also both were women) so he can't really relate to Mell who has lived a mostly kushy life. I imagine that's why he thinks that way, and why he has easier time befriending Nellie, besides the fact that she is very eager to have any sort of positive interaction.

Funnily enough Backstage content points at Michel's relative immaturity as a reason, too.

As for Nellie n Michel interactions, they are one of my favourite things from this game and deserve their own post. But I agree with u. The short story A Slow-Killing Poison really makes the parallels even more obvious.

You know, it is kind of weird how Michel's idea of masculinity being tied to racism and violence isn't acknowledged much. You could argue him getting killed by what he idolizes is that, but Michel is still a Bollinger at the end of the day. He can speak the language etc. Him being persecuted isn't the same as a "savage" being persecuted.

Seventh Lair proves to be superior once again

Getting the lolcow treatment :(

It's impressive how likeable Michel is in Seventh Lair considering the short lenght of the story. I am very endeared to him in a way different from who he is in THiFT proper. He and his nerd friends mean a lot to me.

Seventh lair is such an insane thing to release on april fools. I am glad that I read it even though I storngly disagree with it in some aspects. This is my no spoiler thoughts on it ^_^

Please please please do not ignore the content warnings about graphic self harm and suicide if you do decide to read it. They're not a passing mention, to say the least... Also, the translation for the game is kind of atrocious. Keep that in mind.

Before we talk about anything else, I must mention that this sotry comes with a fake forum site that you vcan read through. Remaid of dreams has a link to it. I recommend going thorugh it before reading the vn, or ideally, after finishing the introduction. The names might look familiar to you. Speaking of that...

Seventh Lair is described by people as a distinct story that happens to use fatamoru characters as its vehicle and that's a pretty apt description, I think. You can either explain it as the same characters playing different roles (to quote Ryukishi07) if you want to be generous, or as reusing assets to save costs if you want to be mean. I'd say that the characters are a lot more like their fatamoru counterparts than they initially appear. That combined with use of big spoiler assets makes this hard to recommend to people who haven't read fatamoru, despite the steam description saying otherwise. It's not proper fatamoru content either though, likely to leave some fans unsatisfied. You can think of it as a good but ooc fanfiction. It makes you want to ask why they didn't just release this as an original story.

It's a pretty bold move to release something that's only really accessible to the fans of the game only to make it unrelated to the story. Still, I think Seventh Lair does a great job of misdirecting the viewer by using the assumptions they have from the game proper. THiFM is really good at hiding important hints at plain sight this way in general. A lot of things I have attributed to bad writing that wouldn't be out of place in an april fools release turned out to be wholly intentional.

As much as I don't like Nellie in Reincarnation, looking back at the story proper, it isn't surprising they went that way with her. In the backstage section her core aspect is stated to be "excessive love for her brother" and not something like "crushing loneliness" like you would assume. In the writers' mind it seems that takes priority. So, her attachment to Mell isn't directly caused by her isolation due to not being seen as her own person because of her age and gender (as well as loneliness from being chronically ill in Morgana's time). They only exacerbate the problem, so to speak.

That's how you get to the "she has a crush on him but they learn they are blood related siblings wooooooo" plotline. That is the objectively worse way to go about Nellie's character. Instead of a story about dehumanization of girls and the codependent incestious relationships that can form and fester in families, you get a soap opera plot with some parental issues sprinkled in. It's not like Nellie wasn't in turmoil about her "wrong" feelings in door 1 but it was never just about that. Justice for Nellie!!

I am normally willing to look past improbable events in stories but it is geniunely really hard to suspend my disbelief about Morgana's life story at times. Like the story says that it is something that could have only happened in the era of spirituality but I am not sure if the era where people could easily die from a papercut is the best choice to tell this story in. You are telling me this girl was held as a captive in unsanitary conditions for years, with severe anemia and covered head to toe in wounds, and she doesn't die within a week from infection? If the story didn't acknowledge the possibility of disease at all I could look past this a bit easier but she dies from it during the festival. What is the point in watching this girl get tortured long, long after she should have passed away from sepsis?

Compare and contrast this to Michel's backstory. That has some issues too but in that, his suffering is caused by the actions of others. Is it unlikely to be born as intersex and albino? Yeah but like it happens. And given that one of the main themes of the story is about moving on from those who have hurt you, isn't this a better approach?

Is there a particular reason why sprites switch from being 3/4 view to front view from door 4 onwards? I guess it is because the player is in Michel pov for most of that instead of just observing

Big fan of Trish-Mista body switch situation Nellie and Yukimasa got going on here

I don't think I'll be reading Requiem of Innocence for now because I am not really interested in Jacopo pov, especially not more of what he has going on with Morgana.

I might try Reincarnation... I am hesitant due to the same reasons as above but also what they did with Mell and Nellie in the after credits scene baffles me. Honestly what was that. Why did they do that

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The crutch of Nellie and Mell's relationship is that they grew up together. That's the reason for Nellie's feelings, she doesn't have anybody else. And while Mell doesn't have feelings for her, he is also unhealthily attached to her, again, because they've known eachother for their whole lives. So if you remove that, it's not about Nellie and Mell anymore. Why should I read a story about them that isn't actually about them?

If you would allow me to compare Umineko and Fatamoru one time, I think the endings of both were dissapointing to me in some ways. However, in Umi's case, I knew what direction we were heading in. A lot of things people complain about in ep 8 are also present in earlier episodes, just not as much. Ryukishi ultimately believes the family unit to be a good thing, so is it any surprise that ep8 ends with Ange proudly adorning her family crest (a crest which was derived from actual ww2 fascists' insignia, by the way)? You could say that it didn't lower my opinion of Umi that much because i was already critical of it.

On the other hand everything concerning Jacopo in door 8 blind sided me so bad I actually don't know what to say. ...

Why did we go through all that hyping up the lord to be the ultimate challenge to overcome for Morgana only to be like sike it was a different guy. That is cowardice baby. Jacopo was soooo nice to her except the part about him being into her when she was 12 (don't give me that "it was a different time" excuse, Jacopo understands it to be wrong, and there is the scene with 14 yo Michel, who lived in a close time period. The first thing the slimy men did was ask his age, so they must have had some understanding that it mattered.) Oh, and also Jacopo was the person who engineered her suffering. Honestly that part is fine, it's not any different from door 3. It's just that the story expects her to be nice to him just because he was in love with her and was nice to her for a bit. Like, look at this bit when Morgana and Michel went to release his soul:

What the fuck do you expect her to say, Michel? He is usually the person who makes the most sense and the most critical of the boys for what they did yet he is surprised that Morgana didn't smile for Jacopo?

I am writing this a few hours after finishing the series so maybe if I look back I'll see that door 3 Jacopo was treated this way as well but I just don't know. I did not expect that they would do this at all.

is this going where I think is going?

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NOOOOOOOOO

Maybe it's because I am stupid but I do not understand the point of doing all this. Honestly if I was morgana i'd be thinking "ouugoughhh look at how michel and the rest are having fun while i'm stuck being tortured in the damn tower."

Honestly it feels less bad to not know. Because that way I could console myself by saying these people are evil nd I just happen to be the target of their ire. I was just dealt a really bad hand is all. Knowing that they have a guilty consience but that they decided to hurt me anyway would feel a lot worse. How could you do that to me?

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that's what i am saying man

OMG MARIA HIII

She doesn't have the gusto she usually has, does she? Michel seems to have forgotten that what he does in the 8th door doesn't effect anything either. He is there to set Morgana's soul free, and maybe the others'. He doesn't have to worry about the girls at least. As sweet as the interactions between him and Nellie are, she is "gone".

Anyway, I really do like the bit with morgana here. This is suppose to be her door, yet we can't even see her normally. Talking about the men who made her suffer instead...

Two dumbasses perfect for each other 🥰

MORGANA NOOOOOOOO

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AAAAAAAAAAA

:(((((

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He doesn't look convinced to me

Oh I am 100% in for Michel n Giselle let's play

LETS GOOO

Ok so... whg was not michel after all? ..??? Either that or divine intervention sex reassignment surgery

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That's for the best I think I feel bad enough for him as is. Can you imagine learning that you have dated Mell?? Willingly???

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Sorry... this isn't all that funny ... this door is really dark so I wanted to lighten the mood a little

To be serious, I think Michel is just albino and intersex. You don't get the "colourless" description about him like whg and he does blush a lot hehe. So not much supernatural there.

As for the intersexism, it makes sense doesn't it? His "curse" is a growth spurt. Aimeé also mentions some things that hint at this but honestly I don't even want to bring up any quotes, it feels horrible even though I know he is fictional, like I am hurting his heart and dignity.

The obvious problem here is that if he were intersex, whg should have been as well. Okay, who is whg then? She is clearly modeled after Michel. A bid from Morgana to hurt him? That can't be the main reason. Considering how much she sees herself in him, and the similarities between her and whg ("witches", referred to as "sinless" etc etc) whg could be made by her as someone to connect to. I am just spitballing.

Mell. Did you fucking poison Nellie. MELL!!!

MELLLLLL

if I had kept reading for 40 more minutes the game would have just told me huh. Oh well

Also I feel so bad for giselle... she shouldn't have talked to whg like that but I don't think anyone can blame her for it

when Michel said "There was never a white haired girl" and that he "looked like her, but was not her" I took that to mean WHG was created by Giselle so that she could distance herself from the events. Looking back, Michel was definitely referring to door 4 only. Anyway, there would be no point in drawing attention to her name. So when I half-jokingly mentioned that WHG was "pre-transition Michel" I was right in a way. I just though she was somewhat unreal like the Maid. Turns out she is in the exact same situation as everyone else. ...But there is more!

In door 4, there will sometimes be corruptions in the backlog that hide the text under x'es. They are always the same number as the number of letters in whatever they are censoring.

I didn't really believe WHG's name was Morgana, as it became abundantly clear in door 4. Well, more confirmation for that here. There is one extra letter. After this bit, Giselle says this:

This shit has been haunting me since I read it because I for the life of me figure about which names she was talking about. I even mentioned it offhandedly to a friend and of course he didn't say anything. Giselle seems to have lost her identity at this point (we'll get to that later I presume) so she thinks WHG is waiting for Michel.

WHG's name is censored, which means that her name would mean something to us, not spefically that it's a name that we know like I though before. With allll this in mind I can say that WHG's name is... "Michelle". It's the only feminine version of Micheal that fits. Unless I am missing one. They certainly are pronounced the same.

With only the existence of her censored name, this level of reasoning is possible for Sepyana. What do you think, everyone?

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Friend says I was right :3

I loveeeeee you gisellee

Nothing in the world can make me like jacopo sorry

Michel and Giselle's life in the mansion is so domestic it feels like a subpar romcom or fanfiction. Nothing bad about that in moderation

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ahbcasjdbjasdadvjk.

Michel and Giselle's life in the mansion is so domestic it feels like a subpar romcom or fanfiction. Nothing bad about that in moderation

He actually WAS threatening to use it on you, though. it is a bit unnecessary to try to tie this to her backstory I have to say.

Michel actually sat his ass down and listened to Giselle. 3 and a half doors of conflict over not being able to communicate over the most basic things and these two finally broke the cycle and talked to each other for once despite Giselle being the person who had the cards stacked against her the most. goddamn

The one thing that admittedly throws a wrench in my trans Michel theory is that Giselle made the White Haired Girl as like someone who is more befitting for Michel except she is like a carbon copy of him but a girl. Does she not know? She is disassociating pretty hard to be fair. Look at the way Michel ripped apart that portrait though(a portrait which WHG assumed was of her) If I was Michel I'd be mad. I guess he has more pressing matters to deal with

Haven't mentioned this before but Michel saying the witch is 'someone else' definitely implies the witch isn't some metaporical being or the house itself but an actual person who has probably existed in the past. I mean the way they talk to Michel points in that same direction already but it's good to make that more clear. I don't really know how I feel about that. They're not Michel or Giselle, and none of the other people do anything that implies they might be.

Also uhh the myth of the witch already exists during Michel's time which means whoever the witch was either took on the name Morgana from that myth or Michel and Giselle we see are already "reconstructed", much like how I assume the main characters from before were reconstructed from the silhouetted we see at the end of door 3.

I guess we'll see how things will go once I finish door 5. It's taking a while for me since the topics are even more heavy than usual.

EDIT: I should have waited for like 10 mins before yapping look at this shit

Ok I completely get why he was so on edge when an another painting showed up even though he is still an asshole for treating Giselle like that. Middle age equivalent of calling your kid to tell him you "miss your daughter"

Audibly laughed

🏳️‍⚧️?

He is a lot more like the previous masters of the house now compared to door 4... what an asshole

My backlog appears to be glitching...?

For most vns, you can experience them through a walkthrough, but you'll miss things like this.

Finished door 3 yesteday. I have some misc thoughts and predictions which I have compiled into an internet friendly numbered list :)

NUMBER 1 I have a few guesses about the monologue all the way at the start now with the information we have. I had always assumed the person speaking was the player, and now I guess that the player is likely Michel.

It is all but confirmed Giselle is the maid imo, made really obvious at the small section after door 3. She has the same signature "hehehe" laugh, calls Michel master and it would make sense for her to assume the player would know more about the mansion if they were Michel (Also the "inspect your memories" menu in the game has the portrait of michel sooooo). Michel claims to be the witch Morgana, and it is implied the witch was burned in a witch hunt of sorts. The speaker in that first monologue mentions that their body was mutilated, which supports this. So does the player feeling scared and hearing chanting about burning the witch before entering door 4 (admittedly they could have been scared for someone else but idk). The witch mentions feeling incredible despair, but was ultimately resigned to their fate. However, someone's voice made them stay. I imagine Giselle and Michel have a love story that ends in tragedy, much like the other doors.

NUMBER 2 I do not understand the deal with the White Haired Girl. There isn't actually that much in common between her different versions, besides the introverted behaviour and the tendency to attract abuse like a magnet. In fact, people just naturally assume she is evil and is responsible for whatever ill happens to them, just because she has commited the crime of being a woman i guess. I am sensing some similarities between her "witch-iness" and Anthy's from sku. Anyway, WH girl in door 2 is particularly confusing to me. She is more assertive compared to her other versions, but she doesn't seem to have any motivation unlike them.

As for who she is, my inital thinking was that she was basically pre-transition Michel, but in text the maid speaks as though they are different people. Her name is mentioned every door but not given, and the only name of importance we know is Morgana. That's why I think Michel could be covering up for her. Honestly, either idea is likely in my head.

NUMBER 3 This one is short and random but whyyy do the people at the mantion start having nightmares and hearing things. The beast definitely hears voices, and possibly the WHG in door 3. I don't have any comments on this it is just creeping me out.

NUMBER 4 Everything about the moment with Maria in the cellar, really.

Just going to put these two unrelated quotes next to each other for no reason in particular.

Let's look at other things mentioned: a painting of someone with white hair and red eyes, with a torn up face, the handwriting suspiciously similar to Maria's. I wonder if everyone else are reincarnations too, not just the WH girl. Later, we explore the mansion for ourselves and encounter 4 other people. The first three sound like they are the masters of the mansion from previous doors.

The speech patterns and what they are talking about plainly matches with each person. For example, it is clear that the person above is Mell. The silhouette is not his, though. The same goes for the other two. Again, this supports the theory that they are reincarnations of people from long ago. Especially with this bit taken into consideration:

The painting also mentions that we weren't summoned like the others, further implying that the player is the person monologuing at the start.

NUMBER 5

This has gotta be that fucked up painting of the WH girl. I don't have much to add I just wanted to keep this in mind.

NUMBER 6 Door 2 continues to perplex me. In doors 1 and 3, the main theme is miscommunication that forms from our assumptions and biases. Door 3 practically beats you over the head with it. But then you go to door 2 and it's like "lol he was just evil the whole time". When I was reading this, I kept thinking, "you don't have to tell me all this, if you just said he went mad because of what happened I wouldn't get mad at that for being unrealistic" Now I can't help but wonder why the maid is so adamant about this part. She is the showing us the story, after all. And she has already admitted to hiding things from us.

Okay this is all. I didn't take any notes I'm just rambling so I forgot some things most likely. But it's ok.

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Well fuck me I guess lolll

Exactly what I am saying man. Besides, Maria could only hurt white haired girl the way she did because Jacopo decided to be a piece of shit at every available opportunity. HE repeatedly shut he rup when she tried to explain things and put her in what is basically solitary confinement for MONTHS. He was raised in mafia and all that, I am aware, but Maria was in an even worse situation.

MARIAAAA YOUUUUUUUUUUUU PIECE OF SHIT

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I thought the part with the other mafioso was really weird because why would she talk to him ? It has to be Maria right... and then it was like ooooohh fuck. I KNEW IT

hello?

does anyo ne else think this jacopo guy sucks

whoa mama we're in america

I take it that Giselle is the maid and we are Michel? Well, that would explain why she thinks we would know more about the house, yes?

There is also something to be said about Michel. Referred to by others as a witch, an insult directed at women, called "Morgana" by others, a feminine name... but the nametag we are given is a Masculine one? (predominantly, I took german as a basis because Giselle is a german name) It looks like to me that Michel is transmasc. I would be surprised if there wasn't some gender themes going on at the very least.

Alternatively, it might be from the candle light but... Michel's skin looks pale but not colorless like the white haired girl's. In door 1, she mentioned that her father had white hair and red eyes too, but he wasn't pale like her. So Michel could be the father instead of the white haired girl. To be honest, I can't really understand why she looks like that, if she was albino she'd have a red undertone still, instead of the ivory white she is shown as. I assume she is actually suppose to be a ghost like being like the maid, the only person who shares her colorless skin, right? It's not just a style thing?

Not sure how I feel about this

honestly for a second I thought the beast wasn't the merchant but some other guy because I hadn't even considered the possibility that the beast was someone we knew. I thought he was a foreign soldier I thought the merchant was there to set a point of contrast between himself and the beast. It was stupid of me, looking back it was so obvious that the beast would be yukimasa as he and Pauline are the only two japanese people we know the name of. The racism themes on their own wouldn't be enough to justify disguising the beast for so long I guess.

I feel like I can speak definitively on their character because I heavily doubt we will ever see them again so, I have to say, it is wild to me how much hate Nellie gets from some people but Mell doesn't get anything close to the same level of scrutiny. Honestly, I find her way more sympathetic.