Finally finished reading ep8. I must confess that my interest in the series has dwindled since last year, and I'm not sure what was the main cause of it. Perhaps I was satisfied with some of the theories (and the fact that they get reaffirmed again and again), didn't want to keep up/participate with the load of theories on here/2ch/official board, that eventually lead to me to stop thinking about it much since Ep6. Or maybe it's the anime, but I'm not going to jab at that here
That's not to say that the series got boring, it's something I can't really put into words.
Without more mumbling, my thoughts on ep8:
Spoiler for Obviously ep8 itself:
The story itself is a bit messy. It jumps from parts to parts, but manages to wrap up nicely near the end for an acceptable ending. Most of the 1st half of the story (chapter-wise) is just fluff without much meanings. Perhaps it's just the setup for Eva for the 2nd half of the story.
The 2nd half of the story, after Bern's game, is the core of this episode. It is where most of the action and development of the story is at. The single truth that Ange (and readers like me) wants, and wills of the denizens trying to preserve their story. The identity of the goats is interesting, and an accurate perception of it. You have goats who believes in magic, and those who denies magic. You have goats that have certain claims regarding the story, but weren't good enough to prove other things. It was good to see several ideas being confirmed, but none of the goat claims came as a surprise. Mostly claims that I've heard before and accepted, or wild claims that I know are false.
The only thing I was expecting, but didn't see, is some of the popular but wild theories being presented here, or by the elite goats at the golden land. It's also good to see the fantasy fights, but I find some of the fights kinda dry. It was only until they fought again in the golden land, and in library, that the fighting scenes got better.
The way the game ends with two different endings (one being the real ending as it leads to more story after the tea party) was interesting. The "trick" ending, explains the ending of ep4, which I was afraid of being not being revealed. The "magic" ending is definitely the better ending, especially when Touya got to the orphanage at the end. However, the "trick" ending is the ending that I find to be more acceptable.
Overall, the ending itself was better, and much more acceptable, than Matsuribayashi-hen for Higurashi was.