Beabato

Beabato is the het ship between Beatrice and Battler Ushiromiya from the Umineko: When They Cry fandom.

Canon
Ushiromiya family alchemist Beatrice is the fearsome, one thousand year old Endless and Golden Witch while Battler Ushiromiya is a stubborn human strung along with no choice but to overcome her trials. Beatrice is, as far as Battler knows, the powerful witch from his grandfather’s legends who has arrived on the night of October 4th 1986 in order to kill off his family one by one in a series of twisted closed-room murders. In order to deny the existence of the witch it is his job to explain how these murders could have been conducted by humans.

Battler and Beatrice have a complex relationship that develops significantly throughout the game. When Beatrice is formally introduced in Episode Two, she is horrible to Battler. She invites him into her meta world and performs the execution of his family members while the two of them debate over whether this was done by magic or human means. She is gruelling and obnoxious, completely full of herself and never misses an opportunity to take great joy in Battler’s suffering. Battler fights against her existence the best he can all the while she does everything in her power to knock him down. Nonetheless, there are times where the two of them have fun debating with one another with everything they have. She even tells him to call her “Beato”, saying this is a nickname she allows close friends to use, and he continues to call her this for the rest of the entire game. At the end of Episode Two Beatrice formally forces Battler to surrender to her, mocking him and making him crawl around naked as her “furniture”, but he manages to find the will to battle against her once more, and so the game continues into the next episode.

Episode Three is the start of a budding friendship between the two. When a new witch— Eva-Beatrice— earns the right to become the one who massacres Battler’s family, the dynamic between them shifts. At first, Beatrice takes great joy in the new disaster Eva-Beatrice creates, but when Battler expresses sincere disappointment in this, she is forced to reconsider her actions. Over the course of the episode Beatrice attempts to convince Eva-Beatrice to tone down her violence. She wants Battler to forgive her and play with her again, although she won’t admit this, and does all that she can to make Battler take her back as his opponent. At the end of the episode Battler recognizes Beatrice’s wholehearted attempts to redeem herself and the two of them team up against Eva-Beatrice, working together. In order to do this Beatrice must deny her own existence, which Battler is extremely respectful of, and covers his ears and shouts so he won’t have to belittle her in her final effort by hearing her words. They have a heart-to-heart and when Battler acknowledges her she manages to gain back her form. Despite this, at the end of the episode, Beatrice reveals her redemption arc was all an act in order to get him to accept her existence as a witch, sneering at him. Battler is distraught, and the game between witches and humans must continue. However, it can be noted that at one point here, Beatrice visibly hesitates before mocking him.

Episode Four is the last episode of the first half of the game, the “Question Arcs”. It starts off by revealing that Battler is surprisingly accepting of her grand betrayal during the last game, but is firm about her not pulling the same trick again. It is clear that Beatrice wants him to continue to play with her, and thinks she may have gone too far, but is happy to see him in good spirits. This game introduces Ushiromiya Battler’s younger sister, Ange, into the metaworld as an ally to him. They work together against Beatrice and bond with one another, but at one point Ange utterly disgraces Beatrice’s name as a witch in front of someone important to her, leaving Beatrice distraught and furious. She decides that she’s done with this debating game after all. She proceeds to reveal a few truths to Battler, arguing that he isn’t fit to stay as her opponent, and completely devoids him of his purpose so that she doesn’t have to continue to fight anymore. As a result Ange sacrifices herself, being painfully picked apart and turned into scrap meat, to give her older brother the strength to continue against the witch. So, Battler and Beatrice have one final showdown. She forces him to give solutions to many of the grand mysteries throughout the game, all the while teasing him about his sister’s horrible death in order to rile him up. Over the course of the fight he corners her and impales her body with spears of logic and truth. She meagrely recalls how much fun they had together and visibly struggles to keep her fearsome act. At the end of it all she accepts her loss and presents him with one final riddle, the mystery of who she truly is. He embraces the witch, both with solemn expressions, and the fourth episode ends. At one point many of Beatrice’s thoughts flash across the screen, one of which is “please kill me quickly”.

From there begins the Answer Arcs. Episode Five opens with a grave Battler and a Beatrice that can only be described as a husk of her former self. She has completely given up on fighting and wants nothing but to finally be put to rest by Battler, refusing to even speak or move. Other, much more sinister witches continue the murder game of Battler’s family in her place. This episode depicts Battler trying his absolute best to fulfill Beatrice’s final wish, and the two “piece” versions of them (beings separate from the original two but with their same personalities, residing in the world of Battler’s family that is murdered by the witches) get along very well and work together. At one point the piece Battler catches piece Beatrice in his arms, bridal style, in a rather romantic display. During the episode’s climax, Battler is impaled by other witches he lost a fight against and left displayed in place. For the first time since the beginning of this episode, the original Beatrice moves, walking over to Battler and embracing him. She tearfully calls him a liar and thanks him for all his efforts before fading away. Suddenly Battler’s entire world changes, and he understands Beatrice’s truth, as well as the mysteries she was trying to get him to solve. He stands up to fight once more, wins, and then vows to demonstrate that he understands the now deceased Beatrice in the next game.

The next episode begins by demonstrating that between this episode and the last, Battler has attempted to use his newfound power to revive Beatrice. He managed to revive her, but only the version of her that lacks the specific one thousand years the past Beatrice went through. Chick Beato, as she is called, is a much more innocent and sweet version of the past Beatrice and Battler struggles to get along with her in his grief. Battler even conjures up an illusion of the past Beatrice to talk to him and urge him to get through this. He eventually manages the courage to be kinder and open up his heart to Chick Beato once he begins to think of her as the lost Beatrice’s daughter, and even offers to participate in a series of love trials for her sake. At the end of the episode Battler has found himself being forced to marry the enemy and stricken of all his power. Chick Beato enters her own unique set of circumstances and finds what she needs to revive herself into the past witch Beatrice, which she does. She arrives at the wedding and saves Battler from his poor fate. The two of them then get married themselves, and are extremely happy together.

Episode Seven is very different from the previous episodes and Beatrice and Battler are only mentioned in passing. However, both of them are very important figures in the final episode, Episode Eight.

In Episode Eight the two of them must face off one final time against the enemy in order to claim their happy ending with everyone else, but it starts off more lighthearted. Battler and Beatrice throw a party for his previously mentioned younger sister Ange, hoping to make her happy and show her the goodness in the world. The two of them frequently flirt with each other during the party, and when Battler first introduces Beatrice to Ange, he describes her as simply “his friend”, to which she teasingly freaks out and pouts over. The party is later interrupted by the enemy and Battler and Beatrice are challenged to solve a new riddle. They work together to solve it, on the same side for once, and make a great team as both of them are proficient in mysteries at this point. Their home, the gameboard and the Golden Land, is then attacked. They split up and battle against the evil witches for their territory back. They are successful after a long painful fight and several efforts from Ange herself. They then send her off back to her own world, having taught her the lesson they wanted her to learn. Battler and Beatrice have done all that they can and managed to reach a happy ending.

The scene that follows is one of the most important in the entire game. It features a special scene, depicting Battler and Beatrice escaping the tragedy of his family’s murders together. They make it off the island that it happened on with the use of a small boat. At first, Beatrice refuses to join him, claiming that she is an evil witch who has committed far too many sins and must stay on the island to die. But Battler insists, saying that he’ll “kidnap his golden witch”, so she must come, and lifts him up into his arms. They set off onto the water and have a peaceful moment together, the seagulls crying around them. Beatrice then sheepishly asks Battler to close his eyes, and leans in for a kiss. They share the kiss and both of them are embarrassed but happy. She then asks Battler for another kiss, having him close his eyes again, but when he eventually opens them he finds that Beatrice is gone. He realizes she has jumped into the deep ocean in an attempt to kill herself, unable to forgive herself for all that she’s done, and he jumps in after her. She tearfully calls him foolish for this but he embraces her sinking body and refuses to let go, and the two of them drift down into the sea together.

Fanon
Beabato is Umineko No Naku Koro Ni’s most popular pairing, seeing as it is the main focus of the game. There are many other fandom ships but the only one who really rivals it in terms of content is Lambdabern, a canon femslash ship between two evil witches.

Almost all people who play Umineko enjoy Beabato and the complicated but loving relationship between the pair. There is a very high number of fanart and fanfiction depicting them, both of the two as enemies from earlier in the game and the two as lovers from later in the game. Much of their fan content is of a sadder nature, seeing as their relationship is ultimately a tragedy. Someone in the fandom will often see drawings of them drowning in the sea together or Beatrice waltzing around with Battler sporting a dog chain and collar around his neck.

The most contested part of the pairing is the reveal that the two of them are actually related. Battler is the grandson of Ushiromiya Kinzo, while Ushiromiya Kinzo is Beatrice’s father and grandfather of a different mother. Kinzo had an affair with his wife (the line that Battler comes from) with another woman, and then proceeded to have a child with his bastard child, who is Beatrice. Fans have complicated feelings about this but most consider them not to be related, as the Beatrice that Battler loves can be considered a different person than the one who is Kinzo’s child. There is also contest about whether or not their relationship is healthy seeing as for the first half of the game Beatrice was very abusive towards Battler. However, other fans argue that Battler has completely forgiven Beatrice for this and even as enemies the two were slowly kindling a relationship as equals and friends.

Fandom
Twitter

Trivia

 * Battler is taller than Beatrice.
 * Battler's part of the ship name, "Bato" comes from "Batora", the romaji for his name.
 * If Beatrice's one thousand years of living was to be taken literally, then they would technically have an age difference of 982 years. However, Beatrice's real age is nineteen, making her and Battler only one year apart.
 * Both of them have red and gold in their color schemes.