[Sherringford]

They didn't have one, sure. But.... well, it'd be a genre switch. Umineko is fundamentally not a detective story. Any kind of suspense would've been dashed if Battler just took everything that happened in his stride easily.

Bullcrap. Raymond Chandler made a career out of the emotionally charged yet composed and badass detective, and he did it with suspense. It's possible to be competent and still keep the story suspenseful.

Around the time of episode 4 or 3 I think, there was an interview with some dialogue from Beato and Ronove at the end. Where Ronove talks about how the red truth might not be as true as we think it is. So The clues have been there for a long time. We just didn't take them seriously until episode 6 you're right.

Bullshit. "The clues were there" is a terrible excuse. Foreshadowed or not, it's still a terribly stupid move. It renders the red useless.

Is it a lie? No. It's worse. A lie eliminates a possibility, it gives you information once you figure out it is a lie. It's just a cheap swindle.

"This VERY ULTRA SPECIFIC STATEMENT is the truth. Also you don't know what the specifics are. Also those very specific statements are the only connection you have to the story, because everything else is something I can bullshit. I also don't have a detective to show you what I think is bull and what isn't. WHAT? YOU MEAN THIS IS NOT A MYSTERY? YOU GOAT."

Ryuukishi set up this dynamic:

Anything not in red=Possible lie.
Red=possible lie as well(if done carefully).

That's not really a good setup for a mystery. Hell, it's not a good setup for a story period. There is no footing to step on. There is no characterization to be sure of. And thanks to the final "truth is bad" message we can't even be sure that George wasn't gay for example. Everything we have seen so far could have been a lie.

The red abuse in 4, 5 and 6 made red completely trivial.

Yeah, it's completely obvious what Beato did, I'm not arguing that. That doesn't mean that the "magic" answer is a lie, though. Now, if the choice was something like "the witch conjured the candy from nothingness", that would be a lie.

Bullfuck. The message was really clear, no matter how you cut it.

"It's not magic=everybody dies, Ange is miserable forever."
"It's magic=everything is good!"

Episode 8 was basically a long speech about how evil wanting to know the truth was. People wanting to find out about the truth are portrayed as VILLAINS. This isn't a case of "magic and reality are good." It's a case of "reality is bad so please run off to fiction."