Lion Ushiromiya

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Template:Character Details 

"Please, don't leave me here! I'll definitely survive! And so will you!! "

— Lion telling Willard that no matter what, they will live on as Beatrice's miracle

SPOILER WARNING: Plot details follow.

Lion Ushiromiya (右代宮 理御, Ushiromiya Rion) is the first child of Krauss and Natsuhi and is consequently the older sibling of Jessica by one year. They were chosen as the indisputable successor of their grandfather Kinzo as the next head of the Ushiromiya family.

Appearance

Lion appears as an androgynous person with long blonde hair and gray eyes. Will describes Lion as either an effeminate young man or an assertive no-nonsense young woman, furthering their ambiguous gender. During the events of Requiem of the Golden Witch, Bernkastel hid Lion's gender by controlling the people around them by referring to them as "Successor-sama". They wear a collared shirt with a green brooch and pink scarf, a red jacket, short red pants, and gray boots, with the Ushiromiya crest on their left collar and left side of their pants. Upon their middle finger is the silver successor's ring. Like Kinzo, they have polydactyly.

Personality

Lion is a mild and polite person without any clear faults. They believes in equality regardless of gender or rank. Because of this trait in their personality, they dislikes the fact that they are called "Successor-sama" by the rest of the family. They also do not like rude people and tend to pinch their butts regardless of their sex. According to one of Ryukishi's 'in-character' answers on Twitter, Lion thinks that regardless of gender, one should be able to stand in the kitchen.

Because people would often ask questions on the topic of their gender, Lion admits to having a bit of a complex towards these questions. When Will asks what Lion's gender is, Lion presents a retort, suggesting the answer to Will's question should be obvious.

Background

In truth, Lion is actually Kinzo's child by his daughter, Beatrice, who in turn was the daughter Kinzo had by his mistress, Beatrice Castiglioni. They are the child whom Natsuhi Ushiromiya abandoned in 1968 and could only exist as themselves under the circumstances that Natsuhi accepted the child that Kinzo had given her to raise in order to prove her capabilities as a mother, which only has a 1/2,578,917 chance of happening. Because Lion exists, Beatrice, the Golden Witch doesn't exist, creating an alternate set of events to occur on Rokkenjima in 1986.

They grew up receiving the same love Jessica was given by her parents. For most of their life, they believed that they were the child of Krauss and Natsuhi and the older sibling of Jessica. At an early age it was made clear that they were already adored by Kinzo and because of it, they were chosen to be the next head. They were unaware of the fact that Krauss' siblings envied them for it, though they did respect them to a certain degree.

During their high school years, they lived up to their parents' expectations as being an excellent student, the Student Council President and even captain of the badminton team. Aside from being viewed by the rest of the family as still being too young (Lion is 19, and will become head of the family after turning 20), Lion is more suited to be the next head than anyone else. Naturally, Lion's many achievements put quite a bit of pressure on Jessica, and they tend to argue as a result.

Plot

Requiem of the Golden Witch

Lion is officially recognized as the child of Kinzo's eldest child Krauss and his wife Natsuhi, and the older sibling of their daughter Jessica. Lion is the undisputed heir to the Ushiromiya family, as proven by the silver successor's ring, and is well-liked by all members of the family because of the kind and quiet personality they portray.

Throughout Requiem of the Golden Witch, Lion becomes close with Willard H. Wright while investigating the mysterious circumstances surrounding Beatrice's death. Lion and Will are able to learn the story behind how Kinzo met the original Beatrice and her connection with the Beatrice whom Rosa met, as well as the nature of the individual who created the Golden Witch in the form of Clair Vaux Bernardus .

Later at the Tea Party, Lion along with Ange is forced to witness the truth of the Rokkenjima Massacre. As Lion begs Bernkastel to stop it, Bernkastel shows Lion another world where they were killed in the parlor, ultimately telling them that even by existing, the massacres will still happen and nothing can stop them.  Lion is put right into the moment when they are shot by Kyrie, but is miraculously rescued by Will.

Lion almost accepts the fate of being killed resulting in a loss of world, but is convinced by Willard to run away and breaks down shortly after leaving the meta-world theater, only to be rescued by a mutilated Will again. Together, they try to escape the fate of Lion's death, but end up being surrounded by demonic cats summoned by Bernkastel. It is implied that Will and Lion are killed in that meta-world.

Twilight of the Golden Witch

It was revealed in Twilight of the Golden Witch that Lion and Willard have been revived as pieces by Lambdadelta. They appears with Willard as Lambdadelta's guests during the after-party of Battler's game. At the moment Lion and Beatrice encountered each other, both knew that they were the same person from different worlds. Unlike the previous arc, they do not play much of a big role. They were one of the people to beg Lambdadelta to help Battler.

Relationships

• Natsuhi Ushiromiya - foster mother, half sister-in-law, aunt
• Krauss Ushiromiya - foster father, oldest half-brother, uncle
• Jessica Ushiromiya - foster sister, niece, cousin
• Kinzo Ushiromiya - father, grandfather, predecessor
• Beatrice Ushiromiya - mother, older half-sister
• Beatrice Castiglioni - grandmother
• Battler Ushiromiya - nephew, cousin
• George Ushiromiya - nephew, cousin
• Maria Ushiromiya - niece, cousin
• Ange Ushiromiya - niece, cousin
• Eva Ushiromiya - older half-sister, aunt, successor
• Rudolf Ushiromiya - older half-brother, uncle
• Rosa Ushiromiya - older half-sister, aunt
• Willard H. Wright - friend, partner
• Chiyo Kumasawa - mother figure
• Genji Ronoue - father figure
• Sayo Yasuda/Beatrice/Shannon/Kanon - alternate existence

Abilities

Lion is unlike most characters in the series as they are a normal person. They do not have any magical abilities and the like. They are an overachiever at school but their weakest subject would be English due to having a native prunounciation of the language. They are good at badminton it can be assumed that they are a good teacher as well, being able to teach Willard the sport. They are also skilled at cooking.

Trivia

• Lion's name is actually pronounced "Lee-on" rather than "Lie-on".
  • This is the correct pronunciation of the word "Lion" (Lion in French).
• Willard H. Wright sometimes calls Lion his Watson. Lion even turns it back on him at one point by calling him "Willard Holmes".
• Lion's palette swap in Ougon Musou Kyoku CROSS is based off the character Saber from Fate/Zero. They also share the same voice actress.
• It was revealed in Ryukishi07's booklet that Lion's birthday is 11/29 with blood type O. Lion likes their friends, family and comrades but dislikes people with no manners.
• Despite being presented with an ambiguous gender by Bernkastel in order to hide Yasu's original biological sex, there are various hints that Lion is male.
  • They claim to be good at cooking "despite their gender". They would have no reason to mention this if they were female, as women are generally expected to be able to cook, especially in the setting and time period of Umineko.
  • They were annoyed that Will couldn't tell what gender they were at first sight, even though they wear a suit, and other Ushiromiya women wear skirts or dresses.
  • They responded naturally to Will calling them "bocchan", a male-gendered term for "young master". The female equivalent is "ojousama".
  • It is said that the only thing stopping them from becoming family head is their young age. If they were a woman, their gender would have been a huge obstacle. Kinzo and Krauss both have misogynistic attitudes, and Eva was unable to become family head solely because of her gender.
  • Natsuhi knew that the baby she abandoned 19 years ago would grow up as a man.
  • Genji was not concerned that Kinzo would see Lion as another reincarnation of Beatrice because Lion's male genitals are presumably intact, unlike Yasu's, who had to be hidden from Kinzo.

References

1. [1]; Translation: “Lion: I like most subjects, but probably the one I like least is English. It seems my pronunciation is too native - my classmates laughed at me, which was a little uncomfortable. I’m also skilled at cooking. Gender equality, after all. I think that regardless of gender, one should be able to stand in the kitchen.”