[Wanderer]

Originally Posted by Renall

But then again, I suppose that's why Bern's there. And a certain will to do something doesn't actually make it happen...

Yeah, because sometimes Featherine just says "No."

I know that these ideas aren't exactly all that different from what many have said already, but I'll weigh in anyway:

Bern and Lambda do not represent anything concrete. They are metaphorical laws of nature; Bern is probability and Lambda is personal determination. It's how the two interact with each other that produces the outcome of things. Of course it's implied that there are other "witches" (metaphorical laws) of Bern and Lambda's level. Meanwhile, Featherine could be thought of as fate itself. Their scope of existence is not in any way limited to the events of Umineko; it just happens to be the context we see them in. And any of them could end up playing the good guy or bad guy depending on the circumstances.

I just finished reading episode 8 (it was very hard work at my level of Japanese). Here are some thoughts:

Spoiler:

It's strange how we get so many incompatible versions of Ange throughout the various episodes. Annoying too, because it makes even the stuff we see in 1998 unverifiable.

Meta-Ange clearly read The Book of One Truth, but did the (a?) real Ange ever read Eva's diary?

The Book of One Truth pretty clearly told a story of everyone finding the gold, which was handed over by Shannon, then returning to the mansion and having a bloodbath. RK07 didn't spell a specific answer out for us, but it seems that the most "canon" culprits are Kyrie/Rudolf.

Interesting note, in both Tooya's and Ange's "memories" of Rokkenjima both Shannon and Kanon appear. Did they actually see each of them? Or have their ideas of Rokkenjima been influenced by the writings?

Oct. 6 Battler didn't seem too distressed about his family being killed or anything. Strange, that was.

Gah... I feel more confused after reading the end of episode 8 than I was before. I can understand not telling us who the culprit is outright, but there were a lot of other loose ends which got no closure at all.