Unanswered Questions after Episode 1
Thoughts and theories on Umineko Episode 1
Significance of the missing shrine
At the very beginning of the episode, Maria notices that a Torii and its respective shrine has vanished from a tall rock near the shore. I still have no clue what this means within the story. My guess is the shrine protected the island or something, and maybe Kinzo removed it knowing that October 4 was Beatrice day
The Wine Bottle Notebook's Narrative
The final paragraph of the wine bottle notebook from Maria is strange to me. "please uncover the truth" is such a vague thing in this context; also, is this what Maria wanted or what Beatrice wanted? It doesn't seem in line to either at the moment to ask something like this, Maria especially because that isn't what her motives are at all (from what we are shown).
How did Rudolf know he was going to die?
He likely read the epitaph, but still, nobody believed in the epitaph hours before. What happened to turn over that belief? Did something else happen within that time span? Did Maria convince him?
7 steaks and the 7 deadly sins
According to the TIPS, this would mean all of the people stabbed by stakes have committed at least one of the seven deadly sins, so really nobody's safe here (except for Battler). According to Beatrice, Kanon's sin is anger; so I've got a lot of other people to guess. I think Eva's is greed, Hideyoshi's is gluttony, Kinzo's is pride, not sure about Genji's, Nanjo's is sloth, and Kumasawa's is envy? I'm not sure what the stake names are either but they definitely fall in line with Beatrice's control over all of the demons in the Lesser Key of Solomon.
How exactly did the first 6 die?
It still isn't clear how exactly the first 6 were killed; we are directly shown Kanon's death (twice) and given an idea of how the last victims and Eva and Hideyoshi died. It's clear Beatrice showed up in the room, probably talked a bit, then spontaneously killed all 6, but the circumstances leading to their death isn't made clear.
When did Kinzo die?
Based on the order shown, Kinzo died after Eva and Hideyoshi before Kanon. Was this the order they were spotted at or does this mean Kinzo survived up until 7 PM on October 5? Not exactly sure.
Purgatorio
The events in Purgatorio is clearly canon somehow, but I'm unsure where the meta-commentary ends and the story itself begins here, but I think it's clear that when the description for Jessica states she was "chewed to bits by demons, and went to hell", they mean that literally. Based on what Bern says, I think this means Beatrice can pull souls from hell, and Battler and the others are being held in purgatory to have a chance at solving the gold before Beatrice tosses them back into the real world to kill them again.
Witch's Tea Party
For the Witch's tea party, this confirms that Higurashi was Bern and Lambdadelta's conflict, and Bern has been fragment-hopping since.
Now the one thing I can't wrap my head around is the reader's role in the story. The reader is very clearly located wherever Bern and Beatrice are drinking tea, as an observer of their own. Based on what Bern says, it seems we are stuck here, and Bern has agreed to help us when Beatrice isn't looking (she denies it but she's helping anyway). I haven't got a clue what role the reader has in all of this since I don't have anything to work on yet.
How the fuck did Krauss get that gold ingot? (2)
we still don't know