Definitely some interesting points have been raised. But at the risk of being persnickety (
), I'm not so sure one can say that post-curse (or rather curses) Barnabas evolved into a decent guy - at least not until
perhaps the 1840/41 storyline. People who are considered to be marked by moral integrity, kindness, and goodwill and who conform to the standards of propriety don't influence others to kill themselves as Barn would do post-1897 to Sky at the end of Leviathans (no matter how satisfying that action may have been to the audience - though personally I honestly think Sky should have been given a medal and the residents of Collinsport should have built a statue in the town square to honor the fact that Sky was the one who finally got rid of Jeb - but maybe that's just me
).
Also, it's no secret that there were people who thought sending out lynch mobs and/or taking justice into their own hands was generally acceptable. But I suspect there were just as many if not more who thought those practices were wrong, and that the people who thought it was acceptable were looked down upon by civilized people - not lauded for their behavior. And there's no evidence that 1795/96 Barn thought it was generally acceptable. In fact, quite the contrary. For example, Barn was an extremely vocal advocate for Vicki being allowed to be judged innocent unless or until she was found guilty. If Barn, or anyone in the Collins family had wanted frontier justice and to settle the matter on their own, they could have killed Vicki and been done with it instead of dealing with the spectacle of a public trial. (Though, of course, they would have killed the wrong person, which is the real danger of taking justice into ones own hands - but that's an entirely different point...)
One of the most interesting things about Barn is that post-curse he exhibits an arrogance that's not much in evidence pre-curse. stefan makes an intriguing point that post-curse Barn became a complex and permanently traumatized individual. But then, given his life experience, who wouldn't have been that way? Though that being said, there's certainly a distinction between a complex/traumatized guy and good/decent guy.