Beatrice (Umineko no Naku Koro Ni)

Beatrice is the main antagonist of Episodes 1-4 Umineko no Naku Koro Ni anime and games.

Beatrice clashes with Battler Ushiromiya, trying to convince him that witches are real and that she used magic to execute a series of bizarre murders on the island of Rokkenjima.

She has claimed to have lived for well over a thousand years. She has already strayed from the domain of humans, and it is said that as demons do, she appears when summoned by a human and lends him her power for a compensation of equivalent value. She likes black tea and ice cream and hates boredom and people who deny her.

Her real identity is Sayo Yasuda, the child of Kinzo Ushiromiya and grandchild of Beatrice Castiglioni. According to Sayo, her 'Beatrice' identity was only fully created on November 29, 1984, when she discovered her true identity and inherited the 10 tons of gold belonging to her grandmother.

Appearance
Beatrice appears as a Western-style woman with ginger-blonde hair and blue eyes. Beatrice has many different appearances. Her witch form wears a bow adorned with a rose in her hair, a choker, and ballgown-like dress. Her dress constantly switches from brown to dark brown across the different adaptations, appearing brown in both the anime and PS3 game, while the dark brown in Ougon Musou Kyoku and the original visual novel. She also wears the successor ring on her left middle finger. She is also sometimes seen holding a gold kiseru. In Ougon Musou Kyoku her outfit has a ribbon added to her lower back. In Pachi-Slot Umineko no Naku Koro ni, she has long nails polished red.

Her human form wears a collared shirt with a cropped jacket and tie, a ruffled miniskirt, striped stockings, and boots and usually holds a cane with an eagle head as the handle. In End of the Golden Witch, she is seen as her witch form, but with her hair down. In Dawn of the Golden Witch, her "chick" form is seen as her witch form, and her "elder sister" counterpart is seen as her human form.

Personality
Beatrice is quite a controversial character. On the front, Beatrice is a very cruel person, who loves to torture and kill people just for the sake of fun, a being so terrifying that even in the Meta-World she is feared from heavens to hell as one of the cruelest witches ever. She is at times very composed and majestic, and at other times very disgraceful and insightful with a creepy laughter and a demonic smile.

However, as the saga goes on, more sides of her character are revealed. She proves to have a very joyful attitude and quite a childish side. She is in fact described by her teacher as a naive child who loves to play with toys without the fear to break them and also with a power so big that she hardly realizes she can handle. She shows this side primarily with Virgilia and Ronove which have a very parent-like attitude with her and less with Battler which she'd feel embarrassed with to act so. Quite common is, in fact, to see her sobbing on Virgilia's chest when things don't go her way.

Abilities
As the Endless Witch, Beatrice has the ability to control life and death. She can repair damaged objects as well. She also uses her kiseru as a wand and it can also turn into a golden duel sword as seen in Episode 8, when she fought against Erika.

Beatrice's remarkable ability is to take huge amounts of damage and survive, such as when she was impaled by several spears by Virgilia only to stand up and heal herself, though in the 4th game, she was "pierced" by Battler's Blue Truths and was "killed."

Beatrice can summon several items, such as the Stakes of Purgatory, which she mostly uses to carry out the murders in the island, along with the Chiester Sisters Imperial Guard Corps, Ronove, her butler, and goat attendants. Beatrice is also shown levitating in the air, teleporting, and turning into a swarm of golden butterflies. In the 4th game, she is shown burning Kinzo to death just by thinking about it. Beatrice is capable of summoning giants that would use shields of Hephaestus for protection. She also summoned "Shoulder Towers" which fired spears of light during her battle with Virgilia. In the Meta-World, as well as the game board (Rokkenjima) she can use the Red Truth, Blue Truth and (most likely, being Game Master) Golden Truth. She is a witch in a beginner class, however, she is said to be by Bernkastel such a powerful being that if she was fully aware of it no one would be a match to her, not Lambdadelta nor Bernkastel herself. Actually, Beatrice might have unconsciously reached a level that surpasses that of witches and have become something even bigger. However, Beatrice is known for her skillful use of Endless Magic to create any sort of illusion and her perfect mastery in creating and destroying the concept itself of eternity and infinity.

Trivia

 * Beatrice's original name is uncertain, given Virgilia's former name was Beatrice as well and the name was passed down to Beatrice along with the title of Endless Witch. When Beatrice was young, Virgilia called her Princess, though it is unconfirmed if that was a title or a nickname. When Beatrice passes her name and titles to EVA-Beatrice, Battler continues to call to her as "Beato", the nickname that both he and Mariapreviously referred to her as, when she demands that he give her a new name. However, it was confirmed in Clair 's narration of her life till 1984 that her actual name is in fact, Lion.
 * Nickname "Beato" is the actually Italian male name and it can be translated as "blessed".
 * Unlike other witches the name Beatrice is actually part of her title.
 * Beatrice's name is pronounced the Italian way, as "Be-a-tr-ice" (Be-a-to-ri-che in Japanese phonetics) rather than the English way, as "Be-a-triss".
 * Beatrice, out of eight characters, has had two portraits of her featured in it.
 * The embodiment of Beatrice as Battler's ideal woman is most likely a reference from La Divina Commedia in which Beatrice Potinari is also Dante's ideal woman.