[jjblue1]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

We're supposed to be understanding of a man who raped her own daughter and to remember him as a good and loving grandpa.

I don't think you're supposed to approve what he did to Beato (if he did it as Ryukishi took care to raise the doubt it migh have been consensual) but to accept with years he felt sorry for it, he regretted it and tried to make up for it. He didn't stay completely evil forever and maybe he wasn't completely evil to begin with.

There's plenty of characters (the Innominato of the Betrothed) and real people that made something wrong and then redeemed themselves. Understanding Kinzo isn't excusing him for what he did but understanding the whole of him.

In short, Kinzo wasn't a complete monster though surely he did some things that are hard to forgive.
Forgivance however is up to Yasu and Ange as they were also at the receiving ends of his attempt to make up.

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

If there is a common them in Higurashi, Umineko and Ookamikakushi is that Ryuukishi wants us to be understanding of people that for some reasons ended up becoming mass murderers. With Umineko he just pushed it further.

Even if you think madness itself cannot be understood, and it's not entirely true, what you are supposed to understand is the love that caused that madness.

There are many stories that use the theme that something happened to people that caused them to snap and commit one or more murders.
When they're done well you might feel sympathy for the character as yet, he's seeing the world in an insane way but since you got to see the why he's seeing it as such, you can 'excuse' him.

In Meakashi-hen Shion, had 3 of her nails ripped while her head was covered so that she wouldn't see and she was struggling. The first actually she ripped herself because otherwise she believed 3 people could end up being killed. By her family. note that nail ripping is so painful that in the past was used as a form of torture.

It's a highly traumatic situation that is expected to cause a trauma in a normal person which can (or can not) develop into paranoia and insanity.
One doesn't forgive her for what she will do afterward but it doesn't come as a surprise that her mind is screwed up even when one doesn't know of the Hinamizawa syndrome.

In Umineko there's not the presence of a clear highly traumatic situation at which normal people might react with madness and that we could guess beforehand using Ep 1-4. If we use Ep 5-8 we can make speculations but again Umineko is so pretty vague that it's hard to pin the trauma and follow how it developed into 'let's kill everyone'.

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

My point here is to analyze and understand the story, and to do that I need to understand the author, however wacky his mind his.

I think that's what we're trying to do. The problem here is that, as far as I'm involved, I reached a point in which I'm stuck. If I'll skip it just saying 'the author messed up/is messed up' it won't help me to analyze it and find an explanation for it. Actually it's the end of the reasoning and the solution is, simply put, disappointing.