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thewhitefluffyhat · 4 years ago

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Thoughts on Gou Episode 21

We're now in the home stretch, and it's time to see which theories stand the test.

But first, crossover references! Although no, I still haven’t read Ciconia yet.

So this happened

tfw the DM forgets your real name and calls you by your PC’s name instead

Gotta love how not!Featherine’s comment makes no sense unless you’ve read both Ciconia AND some Umineko short stories to understand the connections (at minimum, Vier=Takano=Lambda’s pieces, therefore Satoko basically confirmed as Lambda in some form). Good thing it actually doesn’t matter beyond, again, convoluted cross-WTC theorizing.

Speaking of which, Ciconia. I mentioned in my guide that I haven’t read it yet, and I waffled back and forth over whether I wanted to marathon it this weekend rather than doing usual episode thoughts.

At the moment, I think I’m going to take my own advice and not zoom through it and risk burnout. I’ve been super looking forward to reading it for a while, I don’t want to ruin it for myself. (Also: potential liveblog material after Gou, maybe...?) On the other hand, if Reddit continues to be as much of a spoiler minefield as it was this week, I might just do it anyway.

(In particular, I’m really intrigued by the implications of not!Featherine saying Satoko/(Lambda?) has already looped hundreds of millions of times in hopes of meeting her. Is Ciconia Lambda’s ultimate origin? ...Don’t answer that, please!)

Shoutouts to @kanirisu and @endlesscertainty‘s comments on my Lambdadelta guide entry, by the way. I doubt Ryukishi had Gou itself already in mind when he wrote that “Lambda hasn’t finished Higurashi” meta-jokes, but it looks like he’s definitely riffing off of them now!

Also, one read of this situation is that regardless of her "age," Featherine is experiencing the WTC stories not in in-universe order, but in publication order. Which may be another cute meta-joke on Featherine being Ryukishi's author avatar, haha. (Or yet more Ciconia stuff, I suppose.)

Anywho, galaxy brain move on Ryukishi’s part, putting an Umineko character in Higurashi to sell Ciconia lol. Seems to have worked, so I can’t begrudge him that!

Through an Umineko Lens

Lacking Ciconia, therefore, all I can do is apply my Higurashi and Umineko knowledge. But that’s not nothing!

First of all, there's some delicious irony in what may be proto-Lambda being on the wish grant-ee side for once. Lambda herself is usually acting as the wish-granter, and by her criteria in “Memoirs,” I'm not sure she would have considered Satoko's wish interesting enough!

I suppose my "Satoko challenges not!Featherine" theory from last week didn't quite happen, though the general thrust of Episode 21's scene did indeed feel like not!Featherine turning Satoko into a new player - "one who lives in loops" - and not her direct piece. If I had to describe the current game board set up, I think it's not!Featherine as a (neutral?) Game Master with Rika/Bern and Satoko/Lambda as the opposing players. So we're still on track for Bernkastel Origin Story!

Also, I’m really enjoying the differences between Gou's not!Featherine and Umineko's Featherine. Not!Featherine definitely reads as more childish, more cruel, and more impulsive - look how casually she throws her power around! - which seems just right for how I’d expect a younger version of the Umineko character to behave. Essentially, she’s acting a shade closer to some of the newer witches we see in Umineko. How adorable yet horrifying, I like her already!

I'm also glad I added a bullet in the Guide about how Featherine's offers aren't deals, per se. In that sense, not!Featheriene acts exactly like Umineko Featherine. Once you see her, your fate has already been sealed.

At the end of the day, Satoko being as confused as the Higurashi-only audience makes me tentatively hopeful? Maybe? It reminds me of Rena's fourth-wall-leaning "it makes no sense!" from the end of the first cour. Does that mean we may be getting more explanation on who or what not!Featherine is...?

I really do hope so. Not!Featherine being purely a Deus Ex Machina who chucks references to other WTC works everywhere and then disappears would be quite a let down.

Meanwhile, with Ryukishi's comments in the livestream that we'll get more of why Takano changed her mind... I'm also getting my hopes up that maybe I was wrong in this ask too. An actual explanation of what the heck is going on with the Takano/Lambda/Satoko situation would go a long ways to restoring my faith that these Umineko/Ciconia elements are being used to satisfying ends.

Pre-Gou Loop(s) Confirmed!

Continued congratulations to @tsuisou-no-despair, for also predicting the “before Gou, Satoko is trapped in loops where Rika is normal” aspect!

Also, it seems like the answer to my “Satoko goes through loops before Gou�� vs “Satoko initially refuses Featherine's deal, but later things happen to make her reconsider” question from last episode, was indeed that both were true. It was just Satoko’s first loop itself that was a rejection of the deal! That chandelier drop definitely had the air of Satoko consciously and fully accepting the devil's bargain, while she had been dumped into the loop unwillingly before.

And woah, what a way to accept...

Chandelier Yuri Murder Suicide

Damn, Satoko, that’s probably the most ridiculously stylish murder-suicide I’ve seen before. Yuno Gasai can eat her heart out, that’s how you kick off a yandere-fueled time loop. Not!Featherine's must be very entertained!

Still, I’m quite surprised Satoko jumped to both murder and suicide so quickly. I suppose reliving the exact same five years is what desensitized her? (Speaking of: five years is a nice parallel with Rika's initial loop limit.) But I would really have preferred to get more insight into her sliding down the slope and coming to believe that time travel means no consequences to her actions.

At least, like many people, I assume that's why Satoko was able to bring herself to kill Rika - she thinks her actions will get immediately undone. Of course, we the audience also know that Fragments don't work that way...

It also reminds me a little of some of the nonsense Erika pulls in Umineko. When you start thinking outside the Fragment box, and not like this is your only world, that’s a recipe for some serious shenanigans. Really, one of my disappointments with Rika in OG Higurashi was that she never tries anything this dramatic!

And yeah, just like Episode 16, the impact of the cruelty in this scene is majorly dulled for me since I know there’s a version of both girls that got over it.

I’m just imagining Lambda and Bern reflecting on the situation like: “Hey Lambda, didn't you say you once dropped a chandelier on me?” “Ohoho, so I did! Maybe I should do it again some time~ ♡” “Sure, I’ll even let you do it right now if you make the chandelier ten times as heavy and quadruple the height it falls...”

Also of note/interesting contrast: OG Rika normally didn't even consider what would happen to the Satokos of the timelines she abandons. It took until Minagoroshi for her to realize Satoko probably dies in every world too!

And speaking of Gou Satoko playing catch up to OG Rika's selfishness... reminder that OG Rika didn’t always consider Satoko her equal either:

Of course, it’s not just Satoko - Hanyuu was really the only other person who could see the world from Rika’s level. But that attitude puts this line from Rika in a different light, doesn't it?

So yes, I continue to be on the "both girls are such a mess" side, haha.

...Which isn't to say I'm not looking forward to Satoko immediately regretting her theatrics when she wakes up wincing in pain next loop. Heh.

So, “Rika isn’t dead” theory finally denied in spectacular style, right? Hm...

Actually, I'm still not sure that this murder-suicide isn't a fakeout. As in, we’re being tricked to think this was the event that brought Rika back to 1983, concealing that the looping Rika is actually the one from the first St Lucia timeline.

Because Rika simply dying in 1988 doesn’t quite explain why she is able to loop again by herself, or why her looping initially appears desynched from Satoko’s. And not!Featherine outright said that Satoko's looping involves dying, so those theories I had last episode about what happened to the original Matsuribayashi Satoko haven’t been addressed...

Plus that OP sequence (particularly the shot with the hands reflected in Rika’s eye) is just really intriguing, especially given not!Featherine’s slit-pupils and reference to a cat...

In Conclusion

I still have an awful lot of high hopes (more Featherine and Lambda explanations, Rika making her own wish to go back...), but the biggest damper on all of them is the remaining time left. We don't yet have any explanation of what was going on during the previous cour's loops either. How on earth will that fit in just three episodes?

I could see the next episode being another time loop montage, covering how Satoko went from Episode 21 to what we saw in the first cour. Fingers still crossed for some Satoshi and a real H173 vs evil Oyashiro-sama explanation. (Will we get full explanations of the mysteries in the previous arcs, or not?)

There's also the way not!Featherine seemed to think it will take a long time for Satoko to grant her own wish - and in Episode 16, Satoko seemed outright surprised to hear she'd get what she wanted. So how long was Satoko trapped in her own hell? (And how much was it still voluntary by that point?)

After that, then a two episode looper thunderdome finale...? Which will have to cover the fallout of both girls realizing the other is a looper, presumably some kind of fight involving the Onigari, and then the aftermath of whatever happens when a looper gets killed by it.

With that much to cram in, it looks like it will be a zero-sum competition between more meta/cross-WTC explanations and keeping the other club members relevant. Oof.

Please don’t let us down, Ryukishi...!

#when they cry #higurashi #higurashi gou #umineko #higurashi gou analysis #ciconia #houjou satoko #featherine #eua #my ramblings #read more #looper thunderdome #I continue to have problems with Gou's execution #but gosh darn it #I'm still so hype for where it's going...!#and I'm so not ready for Gou to end...#I mean #we just got that awesome new credits sequence!#my higurashi gou sotsu meguri thoughts

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murasaki-murasame · 3 years ago

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Thoughts on Higurashi Sotsu Ep1 and 2

After what’s felt like an eternity, we’re finally back to our good old fashioned anime about trauma and murder :)

Like with my posts about Gou, this will contain spoilers for all of the original series.

Anyway, thoughts under the cut.

Continuing on from how the second half of Gou went back in time to show Satoko’s descent into villainy, Sotsu is starting off by going back to Onidamashi and showing what was happening from Rena’s point of view, as a way of basically doing it’s own version of the answer arcs from the VN.

This isn’t 100% the same as either Onikakushi or Tsumihoroboshi, but effectively these two episodes were still almost entirely taken from material in the VN, which reminds me of how I still think that this show is more of a reboot than people would like to admit. Even if in practice it’s probably still better to just read the VN first and then watch all of this. I just feel like a lot of VN readers are going to end up kinda bored with this because of how much of it is just retreading stuff from the VN, like with the first half of Gou.

Anyway, I’m entirely on board with this being a new take on the answer arcs, and thus far I think the execution has been done really well. Rena ended up getting kinda sidelined in Gou, so I like how they’re really focusing on her perspective in this. It’s obviously not quite as in-depth as the VN, especially if this arc is just going to be one more episode long, but like with Gou I think they’re doing a great job of getting across the characterization and development without many internal monologues or anything.

Although this ended up basically playing out the same way as Rena killing Rina in Tsumihoroboshi, it turns out that this version of Rina has gone through the same sort of character development as Teppei did, and now she’s way more sympathetic than she was in the VN, with her wanting to cut ties with Rena’s father out of sympathy instead of just being out to extort all of his money no matter what. The way that this new series has been going about ‘redeeming’ it’s more evil characters has been kinda polarizing with people, but I think it worked out really well here. Partly because they don’t really spell out whether or not Rina has gone through the same process as Teppei with getting traumatized by nightmares of previous loops, and we just see her being a more sympathetic person instead. I think it also makes Rena’s actions here even more tragic, since in this timeline Rina would have left them alone if she’d done nothing, and by the time she found out about that she was already past the point of no return. It doesn’t exactly erase or make up for all of the shit that had already happened between Rina and Rena’s dad, though. It still makes sense why Rena ended up snapping like she did.

Which gets into the whole topic of Satoko injecting her with the syringe, which basically sealed the deal on Rena irreversibly going insane in this arc. In practice she ended up just going down the same path that she already did in Tsumihoroboshi without needing to be injected with anything, but it still raises the possibility that she might have been more willing to abandon her plans if she hadn’t been injected.

Sorta like how the VN was already about the inherent tragedy of how in a perfect world none of these things should have happened and nobody should have resorted to murder, this adds an extra layer of dramatic irony with how Satoko’s looping has caused a situation where the external forces triggering people’s insanity have been slowly going away, but because she’s so intent on keeping Rika in the village by mentally breaking her through continued tragedy, she’s having to go out of her way to force all these things to happen, when otherwise all of these loops might have ended up being ‘perfect’ if she’d just left it alone.

And just for the record, a lot of people seem confused by it, but I think Gou already made it clear enough why Satoko is trying to convince Rika to stay in the village by subjecting her to repeated torture. From a meta perspective, it’s all just about setting up the premise of Rika going through the original arcs again so we can have a part-sequel/part-reboot, but in general her whole plan with this seems to be to traumatize Rika enough that she’ll accept the idea that she’s being punished by Oyashiro-sama for wanting to leave the village. Obviously it’s a pretty extreme and convoluted way to try and convince her to stay, but Satokowashi went to great lengths to show how Satoko tried basically everything else she could think of to stop her without resorting to violence.

And yes, the point of ‘she should be able to just talk to Rika directly and work things out that way’ is an intentional part of the whole tragedy of the situation, lol. If this was a story where people were willing to calmly open up about all of their problems and achieve peaceful resolutions, basically none of this entire story would have happened. And honestly, at least on an abstract level, I can totally relate to that feeling of being willing to do literally anything instead of just talking to people openly, no matter how much extra time and effort it takes.

I also just don’t even think that ‘just talking about it’ would even be enough. Partly because Rika is really dead-set on leaving the village and would prefer to take Satoko with her instead of staying in the village just for her sake [which is the entire premise of what happened in Satokowashi], but also partly because in the long run this is more about Satoko’s personal trauma and her inability to accept leaving her childhood behind. No matter what she does, she’d have to eventually contend with the idea of her friends moving on in their lives, or the village itself changing.

She doesn’t just want Rika to stay with her, she wants to keep everything the same forever because this is where she feels safe and in control. And that’s just not something that you can actually achieve without, well, the ability to loop through time, lol. That’s also why I don’t really think it’s ‘unreasonable’ that Satoko was so willing to sit through Rika’s loops, and to enact her own loops. The looping isn’t just something she has to put up with to achieve her goal, it IS her goal. She isn’t exactly aware of it since she’s so focused on the point of keeping Rika with her forever, but what she wants is to keep repeating this time period forever, and that’s what she’s doing.

Funnily enough I wasn’t really onboard with the idea of Satoko being the villain for most of Gou, but I guess by this point I’m a Satoko apologist, lmao. I just think her whole character arc makes a lot of sense, with her doing everything she can to cling onto the present and avoid the future, but obviously I also get why people think she’s irredeemable.

Either way, I’m kinda curious to see how the next episode goes, since it seems like there’s just going to be one more episode to this arc. It feels like there’s a lot still left to be covered, but maybe I’m over-estimating it. I think they still have to cover the flashbacks with Rena after she moved, her getting more paranoid about Keiichi until finally killing him, and then whatever happened with Rika and Satoko at the end of the arc, so hopefully that’ll fit nicely into one more episode.

I’m still curious to see what happens when we see Rena’s perspective on her fight with Keiichi, though, since there’s been so much speculation about it partly being a hallucination from Keiichi as he rapidly descended into L5 when Rena attacked him. There’s also still the possibility that they’ll reveal that this is an entirely separate timeline to Onidamashi, but I think that’d be a bit convoluted for no good reason. It’s be enough of a twist to just show that the fight scene went differently to how it was originally presented.

Other than that, I think that Rika probably ended up killing herself in despair at the end of this arc, and Satoko kills herself to jump to the next loop. I think that’ll all be pretty straightforward, but hopefully it’ll lead to an epilogue scene with Satoko and Eua.

After this, I guess the next three episodes will be the answer arc for Watadamashi, going by the Sotsu blu-rays being split into sets of 3, 3, 5, and 4 episodes. Unlike how this arc was very straightforward and predictable for people who’ve read the VN, I’m really excited to see what happens in the next arc, since Watadamashi was kinda confusing in a lot of ways, even after we found out about the Satoko stuff. But we’ll get to that when the time comes.

The third arc should then be an answer arc for Tataridamashi, but it’ll be interesting to see if they fit in Satoko’s perspective of Nekodamashi there as well, or if they push that to the final arc, or if the Nekodamashi arc will overlap both arcs. Either way, the fourth and final [unless they reveal more episodes or even another season later] arc will probably then continue on from the end of Nekodamashi and show however things manage to wrap up after that point. It’s really hard to tell how much time they’ll actually need after that to wrap things up, though, which is why I’m not sure if they’ll actually be able to finish things in these 15 episodes, or if we might get more later. Unless we get some major curve balls, I don’t really think it’d be that hard to wrap things up that quickly, but we’ll see.

Anyway, Sotsu is off to a great start, and I’m excited to see where it’s going to go, but mostly at the moment I’m just relieved that the last four months of my life are over now, and I can go back to live-blogging about anime where kids murder each other, lmao.

#murasaki rambles #higurashi #higurashi sotsu

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vanquishedvaliant · 4 years ago

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The sidedish is scrolling your blog and not finding you talking about new anime

I must not be hip enough to recognize precisely what you’re getting at by ‘sidedish’, but I just don’t usually post it much on tumblr unprompted anymore because writeups are a pain, they don’t usually get much traction, and I’m more than satisfied talking about it in discord with people that are actually going to listen and respond.

I DO have thoughts on new anime I can serve if it’s that in demand, though.

Here’s what I’m watching this season with some initial reaction ratings based on the first couple episodes

New this season;

Wonder Egg Priority 10/10

UraSekai Picnic 10/10

Kumo desu ga, nani ka 8/10

Kemono Jihen 9/10

Hortensia Saga 7/10

Soukou Musume Senki 7/10

Gekidol 6/10

Sequels;

Cells at Work 9/10

Cells at Work: Black! 9/10

Uma Musume Pretty Derby 10/10

Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken 8/10

Log Horizon 8/10

Dr Stone 10/10

Continuing from last season;

Higurashi ... Gou 10/10

Hanyou no Yashahime 6/10

Jujutsu Kaisen 10/10

I’m also watching the original Higurashi in between off days to catch up to where Gou is, since I’d never seen it before and it’s clear I’m not getting the full story in Gou anymore without it.

Deeper thoughts under the cut.

Wonder Egg Priority and Urasekai Picnic are the clear AOTS contenders. Both are at once extremely superficially similar but very different in practice, and both bring something unique and charming to the table.

Urasekai is extremely notable at being a well executed supernatural adventure anime that is also a yuri; as much as I love pure romances like Bloom into You or Adachi and Shimamura, it’s very rare that we get anime with lesbian main characters or WLW romance where the romance itself isn’t the focus, that includes a serious, intriguing plot alongside the elements of romance. You know, like straight people get without a question every single story ever.

It’s got this very classic cryptid / SCP / otherworld adventure feel and has the right comedic and tension beats to be quite good, though its long term impact will be determined by what kind of further message it has.

Wonder Egg Priority immediately comes off with extremely powerful vibes in the vein of things like Flip Flappers, which I mean in the highest compliment. A surreal, metaphor-filled story of dreams and desires and well laid subtext, with colourful, exotic action and a snappy pace. This one’s extremely interesting to me, and its first episode was masterfully efficient in setting up its premise both aesthetically and thematically.

The real test for Wonder Egg will come with time; this is a story that trades heavily in meaning; so it’ll have to run longer and come to a conclusion to really test what kind of impact it’ll have. For now, I’m VERY interested and cautiously optimistic.

Spider Isekai is a charming twist on the typical flood of fantasy game / isekai stories placing our protagonist at the extreme low end of the power curve, and quite UNLIKE Slime Isekai or most others on the market like last season’s Kuma Bear, this one seems intent on keeping her there rather than immediately granting her insane godlike powers and thrusting her back above the curve.

The parts of the show that focus on the spider herself are lovely; there’s a real tension and sense of stakes in her struggle to adapt, slowly getting used to her new body and gaining levels and abilities, making even simple conflicts against frogs or lizards seem life threatening and serious, giving us a real reason to root for her.

On the other hand, the show frequently switches focus to... the entire other classroom of isekai’d children which is by far less interesting. There’s potential in there somewhere for a story about mass isekai’d kids adapting, but other than some details like one girl being gender swapped, and another being the class pet, there’s just really not much interesting about them at the moment and these sections just feel like a waste of time while waiting for the Spider to come back.

I don’t doubt that they’ll eventually meet up and have their stories intertwine... but at the moment, I don’t think I actually want that to happen. We’ll see where this one goes.

Kemono Jihen took me by surprise, and I wasn’t planning to watch this one unti l saw some screencaps. But the first two episodes have been outstanding, giving us a fantastic supernatural mystery detective agency plot and characters with real emotions, eye catching action scenes, and a compelling mystery.

Definitely looking forward to more of this one.

Hortensia Saga seems like a fairly typical fantasy war chronicle RPG story. It feels very in the vein of early to mid era fire emblems, and I happen to like anime like this that are solidly executed, like Grancrest Senki a while back. It’s doing a good enough job so far to keep my interest. Nothing game changing here, but a decent offering.

Soukou Musume Senki; this one also comes across in the standard seasonal fare of superpowered teenagers fighting aliens, this time with power armor and mild isekai elements. The monster designs are good this time, and the second episode brought us some nice moral / political dialogue showcasing some level of self awareness and depth. It’s fun so far.

Gekidol this show wants really badly to be compared favourably to Shoujo Kageki Starlight Revue. They’re hamming up the theatre tropes, putting out specials, sliding in secret background lore. First episode was fairly interesting, but the second seriously dropped the ball with its half assed Idol episode, and incredibly tone deaf play at a heartwarming moment.

I’m gonna keep watching this one for now, but it really needs to prove to me it has some meat and isn’t going to just keep borrowing tropes from other shows to lend it superficial “deep” merits.

For sequels,

Cells at Work is as cute, wholesome, and info-taining as ever. I think the OP this time is missing a little oomph, but the show itself is still going strong.

Cells at Work: Black! is offering a new take on it with a slightly darker and mature setting with a stressed out alcholic smoker at risk of contracting STDS, with a little bleaker tone and harsher stakes. It relies on the background of the original Cells at Work to work both tonally and narratively, but with that support it provides something quite interesting and unique.

The usual Cells at Work metaphors and humanization of bodily processes are just as excellent as always, and I’m giving special credit to the sketch about alcholic liver damage being compared to drunken abuse of host club employees, displaying a perhaps obvious if natural juxtaposition of the physical and emotional damage the substance abuse is causing to both the body itself and others around them.

Uma Musume; Horse girls! Racing! Just as surprisingly excellent as last season, giving us a fantastic sports story anime with charming characters and balanced stakes, with a good helping of humour. Easy recommend.

Slime Isekai: This one’s still going strong but has diverged from it’s original premise quite seriously. There’s nothing intriguing about this being an isekai about being reincarnated as a slime anymore; and he’s way too overpowered for any of the combat to have any stakes. What it DOES have however is a fascinating look at the birth of a fantasy nation of monsters, politics, science, and social development of a varied and multicultural monster nation. And THAT I’m still in for.

I will seriously never forgive them for making Bobcut Lizardgirl into a regular ass human though. It has a serious problem with de-monsterizing its character designs and seriously reducing their appeal.

Log Horizon the true king of MMO isekai is back after 7 long, long years, and it’s jumping STRAIGHT into the depth of its political intrigue and deep understanding and development of the socio political issues inherent to its setting. Somewhat dry as ever, but truly fascinating for those looking at a more serious exploration of what the concept of living in a game actually means.

Dr Stone: I don’t have to hype this up, do I? Mad science speedrunning the development of human culture from the stone age up! This time they’re going to war! They made cell phones and cup ramen out of rocks! It’s heartwarming, emotionally rich, entertaining and informative, and funny as all hell. A classic for sure.

Higurashi. Everyone knows higurashi. Thing is, I just never watched it. We thought Gou was going to be a remake, but then it ended up being Rebuild of Evangelion, so I stopped at episode 12 or so and went back to watch the original. Classic horror mystery.

Yashahime. Yikes. This one’s... well. I don’t have any especial nostalgia or affection for Inuyasha like many people, but Yashahime is clearly a very middling approximation of it. There’s things to like here, the main trio of characters are all great designs, Moroha standing even head and shoulders above them as a truly endearing goblin child, and it really does feel in ways like 90s toonami fare. But there’s some lack of depth going on here, and I just don’t even know what to say about the Sesshoumaru pedophilia thing. Extremely questionable plotting.

#Anonymous #TFWI #anime #anime recommendations #seasonal anime

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onestowatch · 4 years ago

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The Best of 2020 | Staff Picks

We made it! 2020 is finally coming to an end (hopefully not along with the world). You’ve finally mastered your TikTok algorithm and only get served the hits. You’ve mastered the perfect rotation for your Zoom backgrounds. You’ve broken the Guinness World Record for consecutive hours doom-scrolling. You’ve finished reading White Fragility and have made the pledge to be a better ally. This year is going down in the history books as one of the toughest in our generation due to the tragic losses of life due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to COVID-19, the entire music industry has come to a stand still and a lot of our colleagues have lost their jobs and the future of our industry is going to look very different. As sobering as this year has been, we’ve all had to take a long look at ourselves and make a decision about who we wanted to be.

But there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel and 2021 is already starting to look up. As usual, music is one of the things that always helps us get through tough times and 2020 was no different. We honestly may have needed it even more this year. As we try to put the tragedies of 2020 behind us, and look forward to the return of live music, being outside, and seeing our loved ones in person, our staff would like to share our favorite things that helped us survive this year and some of the things we’re excited to hear more of in 2021.

Max Polo

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: Bea Miller, Aminè - “FEEL SOMETHING DIFFERENT”

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: 박혜진 Park Hye Jin

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: Doja Cat. From first seeing her at Echo Park Rising in 2014, it’s been a long time coming

Best Music Video of 2020: KennyHoopla - “how will i rest in peace if i’m buried by a highway?//“

youtube

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: Carly Rae Jepsen, this year and every year.

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Video games without a doubt. Between crafting my own island paradise on Animal Crossing to exploring the gorgeous world of Genshin Impact, 2020 would not have been bearable without a digital escape.

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: My Chemical Romance, fingers crossed 🤞🏽

Favorite 2020 trend: TikTok finally entering the mainstream.

Artist to Watch in 2021: Keep an eye on Holly Humberstone, María Isabel, and spill tab.

Favorite Song of 2020: ZICO - “Any Song”

Favorite Album of 2020: Gus Dapperton - Orca

Favorite Artist of 2020: Jean Dawson

New Year's Resolution?: Check Facebook comments less.

Green Lee

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: Soulja Boy - “Kiss Me Thru The Phone”

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: Su Lee

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: Giveon / BENEE

Best Music Video of 2020: DJ Khaled x Drake - “POPSTAR”

youtube

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: Peggy Gou

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Computer Games & Anime. It’s like I’m 19 again!!!

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: Duckwrth. I need to see SuperGood in action.

Favorite 2020 Trend: Non-teens dropping their ego and hopping on the TikTok train (me included)

Artist to Watch in 2021: spill tab / blxst / Ambré

Favorite Song of 2020: No Rome ft. Bearface - “1:45AM”

Favorite Album of 2020: Duckwrth - SuperGood

Favorite Artist of 2020: keshi

New Year's Resolution?: Huh?

Paige MacDonald

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: Flor - “Dancing Around” (not being biased)… the accuracy of the lyrics is too on point.

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: Zachary Knowles

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: Tate McRae

Best Music Video of 2020: Conan Gray - “Heather”

youtube

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: The bass player in Flor… Obviously

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Ugh….. Ashamedly…….TikTok

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: Turnover… because they make everything better and after the year we just had… need to stand in the middle of the crowd and have a good cry/scream.

Favorite 2020 trend: Work from home clothes AKA sweats every single day

Artist to Watch in 2021: Oh… that’s a hard one to narrow down but I’d say Zachary Knowles (again) and 1990nowhere.

Favorite Song of 2020: Zachary Knowles - “Super Sad Songs’

Favorite Album of 2020: MisterWives - SUPERBLOOM

Favorite Artist of 2020: Conan Gray

New Year's Resolution?: More time for myself AWAY FROM A SCREEN and less postmates

Malcolm J. Gray

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: N.E.R.D. - “Love Bomb”

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: Joesef

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: Blxst

Best Music Video of 2020: Disclosure - “My High” featuring Amine & slowthai

youtube

Favorite 2020 Distraction: “Focus on Yourself King” TikTok Videos

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022:

Favorite 2020 trend: Calling people you care about

Artist to Watch in 2021: Fana Hues

Favorite Song of 2020: Saint Lyor - “Big Facts”

Favorite Album of 2020: Yves Tumor - Heaven To a Tortured Mind

Favorite Artist of 2020: Arlo Parks

New Year's Resolution?: Ideate less, Execute more

David O’ Connor

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: Chiild - “Hands Off Me"

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: KennyHoopla

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: Jack Harlow

Best Music Video of 2020: Lil Baby - “The Bigger Picture"

youtube

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: CHLOBOCOP

Favorite 2020 Distraction: ruthless optimism besting calculated cyncism

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: fuck, yes...

Favorite 2020 trend: asking your neighbors kids how to find rare gear in Witcher 3

Artist to Watch in 2021: again&again

Favorite Song of 2020: Arlo Parks - "Eugene"

Favorite Album of 2020: Kota the Friend - Lyrics to Go, Vol. 1

Favorite Artist of 2020: Reo Cragun

New Year's Resolution?: vaccinate before ya date

Joey Legittino

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" - R.E.M

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: badmonsham

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: Gracie Abrams

Best Music Video of 2020: MGK ft. Halsey - “Forget Me Too”

youtube

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: still Kailee Morgue

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Tik Tok

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: Rage Against the Machine

Favorite 2020 trend: Aliens

Artist to Watch in 2021: Morray

Favorite Song of 2020: Hans Williams - “Body on My Shoulders”

Favorite Album of 2020: Babyjake - Don't Give Me Problems Give Me Wine

Favorite Artist of 2020: Fiji Blue

New Year's Resolution?: Do better than last year

Alexa Schoenfold

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: D’Angelo - “The Charade”

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: Joy Oladokun

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: BENEE, Jean Dawson

Best Music Video of 2020: Loathe - “Two-Way Mirror”

youtube

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: Tom Misch, MGK

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Nature (...and FaceTime)

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: Thundercat

Favorite 2020 trend: Giving a sh!t about other people

Artist to Watch in 2021: Q, Zach Bryan

Favorite Song of 2020: Jazmine Sullivan - “Lost One”

Favorite Album of 2020: The Avalanches - We Will Always Love You

Favorite Artist of 2020: SAULT. (Also... Miley.)

New Year's Resolution?: Show up with kindness. Stay connected to those that matter most. Finally get a normal bedtime.

Jessica Thomas

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: Ashnikko - “Working Bitch”

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: KILLBOY (not for long)

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: Remi Wolf

Best Music Video of 2020: ROSALÍA & Travis Scott - “TKN”

youtube

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: Luna Aura

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Slightly insensitive 2020 / COVID internet memes that drag me at my core…

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: Jacob Collier

Favorite 2020 trend: TO GO COCKTAILS

Artist to Watch in 2021: Avenue Beat

Favorite Song of 2020: spill tab - “Calvaire”

Favorite Album of 2020: Gracie Abrams - minor

Favorite Artist of 2020: mazie

New Year's Resolution?: Stop falling asleep in my clothes & achieve homeostasis.

Yasmin Damoui

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: Role Model - "going out"

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: CHIIILD

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: BENEE

Best Music Video of 2020: Channel Tres - "Weedman"

youtube

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: Omar Apollo (every year)

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Eating KIVA gummies and listening to anything by LEISURE or Polo & Pan

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: Usher in Vegas

Favorite 2020 trend: LOTS of unexpected artist collaborations

Artist to Watch in 2021: Tycho Jones, spill tab, Payday, Hojean, Royal & The Serpent, Abby Sage, mehro (sorry I cheated - there's so many!)

Favorite Song of 2020: SAULT - "Wildfires"

Favorite Album of 2020: Holly Humberstone - Falling Asleep At The Wheel

Favorite Artist of 2020: Verzache

New Year's Resolution?: Continue practicing gratitude for all the amazing blessings we took for granted pre-COVID

Alec Wing

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: Vegyn

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: Caroline Rose

Best Music Video of 2020: Moses Sumney - “Cut Me”

youtube

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: Lianne La Havas

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Surprisingly evocative dreams

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: D’Angelo (fingers crossed)

Favorite 2020 trend: Checking in on loved ones more consistently

Artist to Watch in 2021: Athletic Progression

Favorite Song of 2020: Gorillaz - “Simplicity”

Favorite Album of 2020: Fiona Apple - Fetch the Bolt Cutters

New Year's Resolution?: To come up with something new

Tyler Borland

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: Curtis Waters - “Pity Party”

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: Elroy

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: Teezo Touchdown for sure!

Best Music Video of 2020: This is a tough one, but probably the slowthai "feeling away" video or "Power Freaks" by Jean Dawson

youtube

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: Jorja Smith

Favorite 2020 Distraction: I've gotten super into Curb Your Enthusiasm

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: Oh man I miss concerts... probably ericdoa, BIGBABYGUCCI, and Kevin Kazi

Favorite 2020 trend: Verzuz has been so entertaining. Not sure if it's a trend, but definitely one of my favorite things to come out of this year.

Artist to Watch in 2021: Elroy, 18veno, Hollow Sinatra

Favorite Song of 2020: Tycho Jones - "Don't Be Afraid"

Favorite Album of 2020: brakence - punk2

Favorite Artist of 2020: brakence, Kenny Mason, BIGBABYGUCCI, Jean Dawson

New Year's Resolution?: Finish college and get a full time music gig

Maddy Quach

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: Antonio Williams and Kerry McCoy - "Changes"

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: Issy Wood. She's just signed to Mark Ronson's Zelig Records & I'm so excited to see what comes of it.

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: glaive

Best Music Video of 2020: slowthai - “nhs"

youtube

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: Freddie Gibbs this year and also every other year.

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Hand-sewing clothes!

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: YG, Grimes, Sharon Van Etten. I'm buying tickets to anything and everything next year.

Favorite 2020 trend: That one month at the beginning of quarantine when everyone was drawing carrots and bananas on their Instagram stories. What was that...

Artist to Watch in 2021: ICECOLDBISHOP, CoachDaGhost

Favorite Song of 2020: This one goes to "Empty Beach" by Coco (although Hotboii's "Don't Need Time" is a close second).

Favorite Album of 2020: Fiona Apple - Fetch The Bolt Cutters

Favorite Artist of 2020: Flo Milli

New Year's Resolution?: Celebrate my accomplishments more.

Rachael Jansky

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: Benee, Gus Dapperton - “supalonely” (the pandemic really has me missing all the homies :()

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: Q

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: CHIKA - forever grateful I didn’t scroll past her Tiny Desk on my Twitter feed

Best Music Video of 2020: Amine - “Compensating”

youtube

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: Halsey. My answer will never not be Halsey.

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Love Island, but the UK version ONLY

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: Rico Nasty!!!!

Favorite 2020 trend: allllll the Clubhouse drama

Artist to Watch in 2021: Sally Boy

Favorite Song of 2020: Charlie Burg - “Lancaster Nights”

Favorite Album of 2020: Glass Animals - Dreamland (you literally melt into their music, perfect escape from the shit show of a year we’ve had)

Favorite Artist of 2020: Dominic Fike

New Year's Resolution?: Graduate college, land my first big girl job, and have fewer existential crises :’)

Jimmy Smith

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: “Brave Faces, Everyone” - Spanish Love Songs

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: POORSTACY

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: KennyHoopla

Best Music Video of 2020: Code Orange - “Swallowing The Rabbit Whole”

youtube

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Daydreaming about 2021. Oh and lots of TikTok

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2021/2022: Every Time I Die

Favorite 2020 trend: Pop-punk revival

Artist to Watch in 2021: nothing,nowhere.

Favorite Song of 2020: The Dirty Nil - Doom Boy

Favorite Album of 2020: The Used - Heartwork

Favorite Artist of 2020: Travis Barker

New Year's Resolution?: Don’t take live music for granted

Jenna Singer

Song That Best Describes Your 2020: bulow and duckwrth - “sad and bored”

Most Underrated Artist of 2020: Jean Dawson

Best Breakout Artist of 2020: glaive

Best Music Video of 2020: idk but “Thick and Thin” – Lany got me through some shit

youtube

Biggest Artist Crush of 2020: Justin Bieber

Favorite 2020 Distraction: Cooking

Artist you’re most looking forward to seeing live in 2020/2021: Billie Eilish

Favorite 2020 trend: hyperpop

Artist to Watch in 2021: Huron John

Favorite Song of 2020: Still Woozy - “Window”

Favorite Album of 2020: LANY - mama’s boy

Favorite Artist of 2020: can’t give that away sorry

New Year's Resolution?: less time on social media

#Year End List #Ones to Watch #Best of 2020 #Best of #Jean Dawson #Slowthai #Maria Isabel #Benee #channel tres #joesef #arlo parks #Remi Wolf #Kennyhoopla

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sturlsons · 8 years ago

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jaywalkers FAQ + extras

(( spoilers! please don’t open this unless you’ve finished reading pt24 ))

HELLO. first of all, if you’ve made it this far, i want to say thank you for sticking with the kids right until the very end! thank you, thank you, thank you.

as always, my FANTASTIC team: teddy ( @soodyo ) and ksenya ( @fyolette ) without whom this would not have been a thing.

i’m going to ramble a bit about the series here, with some extras and questions like the packaging says! without further ado:

general

≫ jaywalkers tag // jaywalkers fanart tag (excluding teddy’s fantastic work which is in the main tag)

≫ my askbox if you have any more questions // my twitter // my instagram (locked but i’ll accept all requests!)

≫ previous FAQ post

playlists

≫ jaywalkers titles // all the songs i borrowed fic titles from, in order

≫ le petit ____ // a café playlist

≫ god of disc jockeying // a vertigo playlist

≫ raspberry muffins and existentialism // kuroo and tsukki

≫ one thousand three hundred and seventeen // akaashi and bokuto

≫ boxes // bokuto and kuroo

≫ jaywalking

questions

≫ will you be writing more haikyuu!! fic? nope! jaywalkers was my present/contribution to the fandom, and while it’s been a fantastic ride, i won’t be writing anymore! you can now find me in my BTS sandbox.

≫ le petit ____? le petit writer-is-still-an-asshole.

≫ WHO IS Iwaizumi the Angry Review Guy’s EDITOR, DAMN IT. iwa-chan’s editor is The Dog Park. as in, Do Not Approach The Dog Park.

≫ Hinata the Hug Guy? happy as ever! the world always needs hugs; his career is flourishing. his scooter, not so much, but it was totally not kageyama and bobby pin’s fault, okay.

≫ OIKAWA? IWAIZUMI? they couldn’t do it. the condoms were rilakkuma. it set them back by five years in terms of getting their shit together, but they do eventually get their shit together. ushijima has to intervene; i’ll leave you to imagine how that happened.

≫ USHIJIMA? TENDOU? ushijima is very happily uninterested in romance and relationships. tendou clocks this after a few misguided attempts at wooing him. neither disheartened nor disappointed, he instead takes up an elective in literature and vows to become ushijima’s BFFL. it works.

≫ Gecko Tooru? Count Dracula? they continue to be worshipped; they are immortal.

≫ what is kuroo’s reaction to seeing bokuto’s project? they aren’t sure which one of them cried harder, but kuroo likes to think it’s bokuto and bokuto likes to humour kuroo.

≫ what are their careers? tsukki actually ends up landing that actuarial management job, but he also has a double master’s in economics because he’s greedy about education, which eventually leads to him being a visiting lecturer at universities. kuroo works his way up the ranks of a conglomerate to make a place in the executive suite. bokuto is an obnoxiously whimsical fashion photographer whom the industry hates and loves in equal amounts. akaashi is a simply terrifying and efficient engineer with a company the country probably can’t do without.

suga teaches dance, and daichi works at kuroo’s rival company, something he never shuts up about. yamaguchi stays in education the longest, ten years from the day he first started university. he opens up a small clinic of his own eventually, and yachi and gou do the interiors. kageyama and hinata go pro, because what else were they supposed to do, study?

oikawa earns the most out of all of them, which would be just fine if someone knew what the fuck he does for a living.

≫ does tsukki get his headphones back? nope! tsukki progresses to earphones, and kuroo keeps the headphones safe. in a velvet lined box in the bottom drawer of his study desk, first in his campus abode and then in every progressively larger apartment he and tsukki move into.

≫ brah they what OF COURSE THEY MOVE IN TOGETHER. in tsukki’s second year and kuroo’s final year of their bachelor’s degrees. it’s a splendid disaster at first, which is amazing because you’d think they’ve gotten used to each other’s habits by now, but no. kuroo uses approximately thirty hair products and tsukki’s tiny basic colour-protect shampoo bottle is lost among them, much to his chagrin. tsukki has the terrible habit of midnight snacking that personally offends kuroo, who follows a military regimen during the week so that he can drink his bodyweight in screwdrivers during the weekend. they both initially hate someone being in the same bed as them. but they work it out, they work it all out, because they’re kind of embarrassingly in love and refuse to do without each other.

≫ k,, ur o tsu kk ki ,, same. what do u wanna know? ask me anything, i know everything about their lives.

they move in during their bachelor’s degree. kuroo graduates with a master’s in management and companies looking to recruit him before he even sends in his application. tsukki gets a chance to do a one-year master’s program abroad and hesitates to take it because he’s too attached to everyone and everything and he doesn’t want to take off just when he’s gotten everything together. it leads to the longest and worst fight he’s ever had with kuroo (sneering, screaming, sarcasm; everything that they’re so horribly ashamed of later), one that kuroo wins. when tsukki comes back, he thanks kuroo for forcing him to grow, and he gathers kuroo up in his arms, and he promises himself that he’ll never forget this lesson that he’s learned.

when tsukki moves out of his childhood home for good, there’s one final night when he and akiteru are sitting on opposite ends of the couch, watching a movie they both used to love as kids. halfway through, akiteru hunches over with his hands to his face, and tsukki sits quietly, still watching the screen. they’ve never had a single fight for all the wrong reasons, and they’ll never have a single one for all the right ones.

kuroo proposes when he’s twenty-seven and tsukki’s twenty-five. says “i love you so much that it changed my life. will you let me use the rest of it to tell you that every day?” and tsukki’s so busy hyperventilating that he doesn’t even say yes, something kuroo points out when tsukki indignantly sobs “why are you still on the floor? get up!” pay attention, tsukki, you’ll never get your doctorate this way.

(before that, kuroo stumbles through asking akiteru for tsukki’s hand, talking about how he’s been expecting this promotion and when he gets it— akiteru cuts in with a gentle “kuroo, as far as i am concerned, you had my approval six years ago.” so when kuroo gets that promotion, he calls akaashi up because they’re on the same sartorial wavelength, and bokuto is very offended at not being invited to ring-shopping.)

the wedding is fantastic. bokuto brings up the bubble butt video in his best man’s toast, kuroo cries his eyes out, tsukki laughs, there’s a raspberry muffin on a plate in front of the god-knows-how-many-tiered cake. even akaashi cries.

man, they love each other. kuroo the hotshot young managing director bakes tsukki dinosaur cookies in their high-end kitchen and brags about him at fancy business parties. tsukki calls him tetsu and carries him to the car when he falls asleep on the couch during poker night with the boys. no one lives as happily as they do, because no one’s happiness is as hard-earned.

≫ bo .. o k ku a ka ? ? bokuto’s one of those genius photographers who makes it big all of a sudden because his talent is spotted. the problem is, he’s kind of too fucking dense to register his success (ever). one evening he brings home two mcdonald’s happy meals like “keiji, keiji, i scored a shoot with this one magazine”, and akaashi indulges him, smiles, takes a sip of his fanta, says “that’s nice. what magazine would that be?”

“l’officiel!”

akaashi chokes on his fanta.

it’s not all rainbows and butterflies, though; bokuto earns a reputation for being a temperamental photographer, which, well, is entirely accurate. they recruit a personal assistant for him, this girl with a death glare and a high ponytail who takes exactly none of bokuto’s shit. (he never thought he’d meet someone even half as terrifying as akaashi, but life is always throwing new things his way.) he also has to deal with a shitton of temperamental models, whom he complains about when he puts on his reading glasses and balances his laptop on his knees in bed, waiting for akaashi to get in and listen.

bokuto still wears his polos but he also wears glasses now. adult, put-together, just as obnoxious as ever. akaashi’s definitely the more frightening one of the two with his blueprints and ironed shirts, but no one bokuto works with is ever willing to believe that his muse is an industrial engineer. (they are, however, very welling to believe that bokuto met said muse because he took over a thousand pictures of him. one thousand three hundred and seventeen, to be precise. that they are very willing to believe.)

no photographs bokuto takes of akaashi are ever released, despite everyone wanting to see. bokuto pronounces akaashi as the love of his life very publicly, and then spends the rest of his time making sure no one takes pictures of akaashi. vicious, protective, expensive clubs with VIP entries, glitter and glamour yet bokuto still stutters if akaashi says something cutting enough, and akaashi smiles to himself like yep, still got it.

going to the country house with kuroo and tsukki once a month is a ground rule. meeting up with the rest of the gang once a month is a ground rule. being efficient but ridiculous, silly but ambitious is a ground rule. living life to the fullest is a ground rule.

≫ ARE THEY ALL HAPPY? THEY’RE ALL HAPPY. daichi and suga get married first, followed by kuroo and tsukki. bokuto and akaashi don’t even consider it for the longest time; do it almost as an afterthought because the idea of rings is nice. kenma goes into research, iwaizumi goes into journalism, yachi goes into design.

shimizu is as beautiful as ever, michimiya is as whipped as ever. asahi and nishinoya never have more than that one dance at suga’s new year’s eve party, but nishinoya promises to always be ready to fight if someone ever upsets asahi. (himuro and izuki, on the other hand, have several existential crises when granrodeo breaks up and they go into different lines of music production, before they realise that not making music together doesn’t mean they can’t make music together.) gou and tanaka are constantly voted cutest couple wherever they go, and end up getting matching tattoos because no one informed them that’s too corny to be legal. saeko shows up at one point with a hot russian girlfriend, and bokuto gets another pitcher turned over his head for the trouble of asking if said russian girlfriend would like to come to one of his photoshoots. (it’s iced tea, which bokuto considers progress.)

they’re all happy. friends are forever if you reach out, the world is beautiful if you reach out. these kid always reach out. kuroo and tsukki always reach out.

≫ I’M ALL UP IN MY FEELINGS NOW. I’M ALL UP IN MY FEELINGS NOW.

THAT’S A WRAP, FOLKS. i will always be answering questions about jaywalkers, whether it’s headcanons or other extras or behind-the-scenes re: the writing process. like i said, just because this is where i stop telling the tale, it doesn’t mean that this world no longer exists! it always will, and you can revisit it whenever you want.

thank you for sticking with the kids, and with me as i improved! 2016 taught me a thing or two about writing, and i want to show what those things were in 2017, so i hope to see you around for my writing endeavours for the year.

thank you once again! see you.

#jaywalkers #kurotsuki #kurotsukki #bokuaka #haikyuu #eh #fic

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phillip-clyde-blog · 7 years ago

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Our Electoral College Problem �� One Year Later

The American debate between having a national popular vote as opposed to the current Electoral College has been one of the oldest, often obscure, and recently contentious debates in our country’s history. Arguments have peaked and waned over the years, but this past general election has rekindled flames on both sides as to whether our current system is the most efficient for the American people. Often, the people debating the topic tend to shape arguments more towards the narrative that fits their candidate or party the most. Over the past few months many Trump supporters reaffirmed their confidence in the Electoral college, the body that made him president. All the while many Clinton supporters sent calls for a reevaluation of our election process as they felt it unfairly represented them given Clinton won about 3 million more total votes than Trump. As politics go in this country, right and wrong in this debate depends on which ballot you cast.

I’m not for the current electoral college system, nor have I been since I learned what it was and, more specifically, how it works. This is my reason for not voting in presidential elections, and my calls to reform this system. A year after a poor example of how this system fails our U.S. democracy, my post shares my thoughts on why the Electoral College is an antiquated and misrepresentational system that is long overdue for reform i.e. scrapping the winner-take-all method of allocating votes or be retired all together.

So I’ve watched this YouTube video https://youtu.be/V6s7jB6-GoU that claims to give reasons to “be proud of” the Electoral College a few times now. The narrator brings up some factual points, however they all have their well-deserved criticisms:

1) “The founding fathers never intend for the U.S. to be a pure democracy..” – True, this is the reason for the three branches of government – an authoritarian figure (Executive), a republic of elected officials (Legislative), and an independent body to interpret laws (Judiciary) – all except the judiciary elected by the people (Democracy). The two houses of congress – one representing the population (House of Reps) and one representing equality of the states (Senate) – represents a Republic. Our government is a hybrid of a pure democracy, republic, and authoritarian system. Checks and balances between the Executive and Legislative branches in addition to the Judicial Branch establish limits on government factions as well as a tyrannical majority of the few or the whole of the people. I am in support of such a system, however none of this bodes directly to how the president is elected by Electoral College. Furthermore, this has nothing to do with the primary problem of the Electoral College – the winner-take-all method. The Electoral College was never constitutionally established with a particular way in which the electors are required to vote therefore leaving the states to decide. Yes, the STATES, not the Constitution nor Federal government, established the winner-take-all voting method of the Electoral College and long after said body was established. This video from the National Popular Vote explains this very well https://youtu.be/ubIeQ-uO_b0

Furthermore, the Electoral College created what is known as the Senatorial Bump to smaller states. For example, if state A has ten (10) House reps and state B has one (1) house rep, that holds a weighted ratio of 10:1, or state B only having 10% of the voting weight of state A. Add in the Senate (+2 each), and state A now has 12 reps to state B’s three (3) reps – a ratio of 4:1 (12:3), with state B now holding 25% of the voting weight of state A. The original intent of the Electoral College being embodied by congressional representation was to give greater weight to smaller states. The problem with this now is that it means because state B has only 1/10 the number of voters’ state A has, but 1/4 the voting of weight of state A, vote by vote state B’s votes are 2.5 times (.25 divided by .1) more valuable than state’s A’s. Any sensible person who knows math can see that this distortion is not fair. On the same token that those who live in rural areas are concerned that large population areas controlling elections wouldn’t be fair, smaller states and therefore rural votes counting more towards and election than others is also not fair. It shouldn’t matter if you live in a city or small town. The votes should have equal weight and more representation in elections.

2) “The Electoral College votes for either the democratic or republican electors for the primary candidates, not the candidates themselves..” – The two party political system has been a primary catalyst for the national divide in this country as of late and only fuels the unwarranted and distracting polarization, gridlock, side-choosing, and biased information spewed into the public. I could (and probably will) write a whole other lengthy post on the two-party system, but I’ll be brief. When votes are allocated to members of the Electoral College by party it only bolsters and reaffirms these parties’ existence and their dividing control in our political arena. It defaults votes into a particular bloc of policy and logic, which does not represent the majorly Independent ideology of American citizens. I, like most Americans, have been highly critical of the two parties and we as Americans are choosing not to affiliate with either of them at growing rates. This also inevitably pushes out Independent and Third-Party candidates as well giving us less options to reasonably choose from. This forces many to choose sides of only candidates likely to win when many people would rather not pigeonhole themselves to a side. This past election with two of the most unpopular candidates in history is a prime example. The majority of Americas generally hold centrist views so why do we continue to support a system that supports splitting us by party? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_IUIaf9egA – This video also points to concerns of the breakdown of the two party system, A GOOD THING.

3) “Protects against the tyranny of the majority, promotes coalition building, and discourages voter fraud..” – The tyranny of the majority is held in check by checks and balances as well as constitutional interpretation, referenced the first point I made. Example given – Obama, a Democrat, struggled to pass much of his proposed legislation due to a Republican controlled congress for much of the latter half of his years in office. However, legalizing same-sex marriage, something Obama and the majority of Americans supported legislation for, was ruled constitutional only by the Supreme Court which overturned same-sex marriage ban legislation statewide. So, the ideology of the majority still won out, however only by constitutional interpretation. Also, is there any founded proof that “coalition building” is dependent upon the Electoral College? It would seem this could be done in the same way regardless of the Electoral College body. It is also unclear how coalition building benefits the general public, especially in diverse areas. Lastly, voter fraud in presidential elections have been found to occur at an alarming .0004% of the time in popular votes – an illegitimate rate to be a major talking point.

4) “The Electoral College makes it harder to steal votes..” – First, it is never explained how a popular vote would ‘steal’ votes. No examples of how this would be a problem make it a weak argument. Second and playing off of the first topic, how is the current winner-take-all method of voting not stealing votes? The logic: All (100%) of a state’s Electoral College electors, representing the state’s voters, but using the winner-take-all method rally to cast their votes for Candidate A because that Candidate A received the largest quantity (but less than 100%.. sometimes far less) of all votes in said state, therefore stealing the value of every vote in said state that went towards Candidates B, C, or D. The votes for Candidates B, C, or D are essentially pooled behind Candidate A because the electors using the winner-take-all method pooled behind Candidate A. This happens even if the electors themselves do not support Candidate A. Using that logic, how is that not stealing votes?

5) The last concern addressed and seemingly the primary concern of most of those opposed to a national popular vote is that this could potentially lead to candidates focusing mainly on larger population areas and cities in lieu of smaller towns and rural areas. It’s a valid concern regarding the amount of weight population areas have during campaigns and the corresponding attention. However this is regarded as an unfounded falsity for two reasons. The first being based solely on the factual population numbers in cities and urban areas presently in the U.S. (examples below). The second being that this concern makes the huge and unfounded assumption that everyone in larger cities vote or will vote a certain way in a popular election.

Let’s look at these in depth. The first reason is based on pure population numbers since it is the easiest (almost too easy) to calculate. Here is a link to the population numbers according to Census.gov (https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk).

The total population of the top 100 cities in the U.S. is roughly 64 million. Divide this by America’s total population of roughly 324 million and this makes up only %19.75 of the country’s total population, or not even 1 in 5 Americans. This should debunk the myth right off the bat but we’ll take a look at my home state Missouri as a further example.

Take a look at the table above that shows the state of Missouri’s 10 largest cities. Missouri 2017 population: 6,123,362. Subtract the total population in the 10 largest cities from this, 1,576,733, and that still leaves over 4.5 million people. So, of these “cities” about 26% of all Missourians reside within them, or roughly only 1 in 4, but the bulk of the population lives heavily in rural counties. Moreover, if a presidential candidate came to Missouri and expected to make significant voter gains, it would be wiser to do so by focusing on the smaller rural areas where most of the population resides rather than larger areas of this state. More on Missouri http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/state/mo

Numbers do not lie.

source http://worldpopulationreview.com/ . The largest cities in all states except seven (7) (Rhode Island, North Dakota, New Mexico, Nevada, Nebraska, Arizona, and Alaska) have the majority of the population reside outside of the ten (10) most populated “cities” in that state. I put “cities” in parenthesis because technically a city is a municipality with 10,000 or more people residing in it. A small city is 10,000 to 100,000; a medium to large city is 100,000+; a huge city is more than 1 million. Although, if you check the chart you will see that many of the ten (10) largest “cities” in most states have less than 100,000 people in them. Also, how many of these “cities” are anchored by larger cities and thus part of a larger metropolitan area, many of them can be considered “rural” by definition with no large city anchoring them. So again, why would candidates campaigning in a state focus more on cities than rural areas?

Small town values will not be forgotten in way of city values. It is an unfounded assumption in this country that cities and larger population areas tend to be more liberal than average while rural and smaller population areas tend to be more conservative. There is some truth to that assumption. According to this videos below by the National Popular Vote generally 2/3 of cities tend to lean liberal, rural areas tend to lean conservative 2/3, and suburban areas are 50/50. However, the assumption that everyone in a large city will vote democrat while everyone in small towns will vote republican is not true by the numbers, unfounded by any valid proof, and a far stretch of an assumption to make in the case someone wants to campaign for more votes in large population areas. For starters, regardless of city or rural area, 2/3 of people in an area leaves a still large 33% chunk of people who hypothetically wouldn’t support a candidate the rest supports. This also accounts for how people votes, but ignores the fact that the majority of American voters, regardless of the way they end up voting, identify as Independent and hold generally moderately centrist political views making this assumption even more difficult to find factual. I personally know people from larger cities with conservative values and people from rural areas who lean liberal. In this past election alone many conservatives couldn’t bring themselves to vote Trump while many liberals couldn’t do the same with Clinton. Also in every state except Montana voters 18-25 majorly voted for Clinton regardless of their state size, size of cities, or traditional political leaning. Thus, there is no way to predict how cities, counties, and even states will vote in an election. It ignores the fact that cities are made up different people with different views just as rural counties are, regardless of what assumptions tell you. Also, this assumption tries to further embolden the two-party, two-ideology, side-choosing narrative pitting big cities vs. small ones and once again pigeonholes people in these areas into right vs left labels.

BEFORE YOU READ FURTHER, WATCH THESE VIDEOS! https://youtu.be/_gbwv5hf2Ps and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfm6O1Fm14w

With all this said, I’m against the winner-take-all method of voting, but I’m not completely against the idea of an electing body such as the Electoral College nor am I against Congressional representation in elections. I understand the original function of the Electoral College which was to give greater weight in elections to smaller states (electors by senate representation i.e. Senatorial bump) while also being true to majority population’s ballot casting (electors by House). It was established to make sure too much power didn’t shift to larger states. It is in no way a perfect system, but importantly ties presidential voting to an equal Republic. Still, the winner-take-all method is NOT a constitutionally established way of voting. The states decided and amended how they chose to cast their votes. Many of them did so based on the dominating party (again with the party problems) and went forth with the winner-take-all method. This has currently shifted power not from small states to big states or vice versa, but ALL STATES to SWING STATES. This shift has gone unnoticed by many over the years. Yet, state legislatures are still free to establish voting rules and districts based on the number of EC electors they have. This means STATES CAN TODAY, HERE, NOW, 2017, AGAIN AMEND AND CHOOSE NOT TO VOTE IN A WINNER-TAKE-ALL METHOD. In a system such as the EC, state legislatures can draft laws establishing the casting of votes done in close proportion to how the state voted. It would be a more accurate representation of the state’s voters while not having the presidency based in a direct national popular vote. This is important because abolishing the Electoral College outright would take the cooperation of 38 states, something that is NOT likely to happen. I’m open to different ideas on this.

Here’s an idea that has been growing in popularity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6ZOiiMjIxE. It is for establishing the National Popular Vote Law, a law drafted by states that allows them to cast all of their EC votes for the candidate who won the popular vote, regardless of how voters voted in that state. I hold criticism of this, too. The big glaring flaw with this – it’s a version of the winner-take-all method, just on a national level now. The winner of the national vote gets ALL of a state’s electors, and anyone else in that state who voted otherwise does not get represented when the final December election is held. Sound familiar? While this respects majority rule, it does not count votes equally just as the current EC winner-take-all method by state does. NOT the solution we need, but kudos to the video for also pointing out that states can amend their winner-take-all voting laws.

As I believe goes with almost all controversial issues, the best way to disagree with a policy or system is to offer a better alternative or solution to the problem.

I’m personally in support of something more representative on a micro-population level. A system that better represents ALL the people of that state. However, I do understand that there isn’t one perfect system and I’m particularly sold on one. However, I do think we can do better. Below, I’ve compared pros and cons of our current system to a few other options.

Take Missouri, again, for example since it has 10 EC electors and so it is an easy example. Keep in mind that Missouri had a voting age population of approximately 4,500,000 people. https://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk

Electoral College with Winner-Take-All. The current system is setup with each state’s Electoral College representatives based on the number of congressmen – House and Senate. The system works in a way where the candidate with the most votes in a given state will receive ALL of the Electoral College votes in that state.

** To note once again, the original Electoral College system never established the voting method in which the representatives of the states cast their votes, leaving that discretion up to the states.

Current Electoral College WTA Scenario 1: Say 60% of MO voters (2,700,000) cast for candidate A and 40% (1,800,000) cast for candidate B. In the current winner-take-all method ALL 10 electors would unify behind candidate A and cast their EC votes for him/her. The 40% or 1.8 million votes for candidate B voters aren’t represented in the final vote for presidency.

Pros:

1) At least in the country’s beginning, the Senate – two representatives per state, regardless – was established in parallel to the House of Representatives – representatives based on population – to represent equality among the states.

Cons:

1) It devalues the votes of candidate B voters and over-valuing the votes for candidate A at the final December election. Some 1.8 million votes for candidate B end up with no value at all, while 2.7 million votes for candidate A end up with more value than originally cast, representing the whole 4.5 million.

2) It discourages voting all together from candidate B supporters in states where candidate A is heavily supported; discourages voting for candidate A supporters in states where candidate B is heavily supported; and/or discourages voting for those who don’t feel represented at all by candidate A or B and would prefer other options.

3) This bolsters a two-party system, creating a general divide while crowding out independent and third party candidates.

4) Allows candidates to focus attention away from “safe” states that heavily support them while focusing more attention on the swing states that could go either way. As national popular vote claims, 12 out of the 50 states saw 94% of all campaign events - http://www.nationalpopularvote.com/campaign-events-2016. The other 38 apparently can afford to be ignored since their EC vote can be seen as “safe” for them. This ignores both supporters and detractors if each candidate in those states. Furthermore, not only do the minority voting group(s) in the safe state get ignored, they will likely have their votes devalued at the EC voting. Those who support the current EC winner-take-all method because it supposedly “gives a voice to a small minority of voters” should take issue with this as it contradicts the same principle their trying to support.

Current Electoral College WTA Scenario 2: Say 40% of MO voters vote for candidate A, 30% of MO voters vote for candidate B, 20% vote for candidate C, and 10% for candidate D. In the current winner-take-all method, ALL 10 electors would unify behind candidate A and cast their EC votes for him/her. The 60% of votes for candidates B, C, & D aren’t represented in the final vote for presidency.

Another Con:

1) The glaring problem with this in the current system is that more people in the state voted for someone other than candidate A than people who voted for him/her, yet candidate A still gets ALL the EC votes. This skewers votes even more when the majority cannot decide on a candidate.

A Popular Vote is the easiest and most democratic voting system. We already do this, however the Electoral College acts as a representational filter for the popular votes cast. Furthermore, the states’ winner-take-all method of voting allows for the popular votes to be distorted in ways that dramatically swing elections. Removing these filters to a one person one vote system give equal weight to eligible voters, and eliminates states, party, and representative influence from elections. It is the most Democratic system that can be implemented as it is a true reflection of the people.

Popular Vote Scenario: Say 60% of MO voters (2,700,000) cast for candidate A and 40% (1,800,000) cast for candidate B. The votes get counted along with the votes for the same candidates from other states toward a final total popular vote. There is no “winning a state” as the candidate with the most votes of the states’ totals win.

Pros:

1) Each eligible voter gets equal weight to votes and counts directly towards a candidate. The problem with representatives is that they are supposed to be a general representation of their constituents. This becomes more of an over-generalization the larger the scale goes. One president doesn’t represent 325 million Americans. Two Senate representatives do not represent all in states with millions of people. A few House representatives do not accurately represent the thousands of people in their districts. Many interests and ideals are lost in the hierarchy of representatives and therefore can never be an accurate reflection of the population. Individual votes that go directly towards candidates without the barrier of a representative represents the most direct voice in putting a person voice to power through the election process while being equal to the voices of others.

2) Encourages candidates to focus on more states, and more importantly more areas of the whole population. This does NOT mean candidates will focus on more heavily populated areas more than rural ones. As mentioned before, a candidate in Missouri could not win the majority of votes in the state by focusing solely on the ten largest “cities” and ignoring everyone else. Nearly 3 in 4 people in Missouri live in rural areas. This trend is true in more states than it is not. Campaigns would spread to more states and in more areas, rural and city.

3) Nearly eliminates the influence of political parties. The power of political parties exists in a generic set of values that can reach large numbers of supporters. Political parties have done a good job over the decades with rallying causes together behind a base. A uniform way of thinking. However, people do not think alike. People agree and disagree with certain issues regardless of party position. Issues and interests vary from person to person, community to community. We all have freedom to think independently, and joining a bloc way of voting does the opposite of this. People should have equal and direct voting to the candidate that best suits them, and have that count towards something.

4) In addition, one person one vote not only diminishes the influence of political parties, but it gives way to more third party and independent candidates. More choice equals more representation. More candidates are open to run and people are free to choose from a wider array of candidates.

Cons:

1) In raw form, it allows for extreme splintering of candidate votes. Imagine if every single eligible voter voted for someone different. We would have tens of millions of candidate ballots. This is not likely as people tend to unify behind common candidates even outside of political affiliation. However, without a system in place to narrow down candidates to a few there could be too many candidates for any one of them to have a dominant number of votes. For example, if there are 10 candidates, and each receive roughly 10% of the total votes, the winner would win without nearly 90% of the votes cast.

Districting the Electoral representatives in each state and allowing them to vote independently of each other. Nebraska already does a version of this with their electoral system of voting. This keeps the body of Electoral College representatives. The electors should vote based on how their district voted with no influence from the others in their state nor a specific party. How states setup their districts can cause controversy as well, like the current Gerrymandering process. This should be done by independent commissions. The most fair way to setup districts are by population – something winner-take-all supporters have issue with. However, as previously mentioned that many states have just as much rural representation as metropolitan representation. Districting allows for voices in both areas to be fair represented without drastically swinging votes one way or another.

Votes Based by District Scenario: Say 60% of MO voters cast for candidate A and 40% cast for candidate B. The overall percentages would actually not matter. The percentages of each district would matter more. For example: In district one, candidate A gets 65% of the vote and candidate B gets 35% of the vote. In district two, candidate A gets 45% of the vote and candidate B gets 55% of the vote. The district one EC representative would cast one vote for candidate A, while the district two candidate would cast one vote for candidate B.

Pros:

1) Allows for a more community-based approach for candidates, and is more representational voting for the communities themselves. Especially in states with various areas of influence. This included areas such as cities and rural areas, but also those with economic influence. Farming communities, factories, tech hubs, and the like all have certain interests and influence that need to be considered.

2) Encourages candidates to focus on more states. Adding to the first pro, there are farming and factory communities in almost every state. The candidates who represent certain interests and people will shift focus to other states, not just swing.

3) Weakens the influence of a two-party system and their focus from entire states to smaller districts. So people can’t just say everyone in Alabama will vote one way, or everyone is Massachusetts will vote another way.

Cons:

1) Minority candidate voters in each district will not be fully represented in the final vote. So candidate B votes in district one and candidate A votes in district two from the above scenario get devalued in the end. This is essentially the same winner-take-all issue in our current system and presents the same cons, just on a smaller scale.

2) Could encourage gerrymandering-like rules, laws, and boundaries so districts are slanted or disproportionate to or against one or more groups.

Votes Based On Proportion of Votes Scenario: Say 60% of MO voters cast for candidate A and 40% cast for candidate B. If the electors of MO voted in proportion to this, six (6) electors representing the 60% would cast for candidate A, and four (4) representing the 40% would cast for candidate B. Similar to Districting but not beholden to them, and would keep the Electoral College body of representatives.

Pros:

1) Both candidates’ supporters would be represented by the representatives in the December election. This push would likely lead to more campaigns in more states that are not swing. As in the MO example before, candidates would likely campaign in MO’s largest cities, but likely put equal or even more focus on MO’s rural counties as they have more people than the cities. More campaigning in more states leads to more voices being heard. These voices are the ones that shape policy and so it’s likely more policy conversation would be had as well, a great thing for all.

2) Avoids controversial districting rules, laws, and boundaries that could be slanted, biases, or inefficient.

Cons:

1) This can still devalue votes. Say there’s a Third-Party candidate that receives 3% of the vote. This low percentage would not be enough to warrant that candidate a proportion of the electors and therefore would not be represented in the EC December election. Also in addition to this, many states with an uneven number of electors will see small skews in the way the electors vote that can also devalue votes. Say a state with 9 electors votes popularly nearly 50/50 for candidates A and B. A “perfect split” of popular votes very unlikely therefore giving the candidate with slightly more 5 electors and the candidate with slightly less 4 electors.

So obviously middle ground is needed. We are far too advanced of a country not have a meeting of the minds on how to improve our voting system. No option is without flaw, and these flaws need to be considered. Still, each of the options present more improvements than the current system does in being more representational of the voting population. The sentiment that the current Electoral College winner-take-all system has glaring problems that need to be amended is true. Trump lost the popular vote by roughly 3 million votes. He also failed to get 50% of the vote in 27 states and DC, and only received 46% of the total votes casted. Yet, won the presidency by a comfortable Electoral College margin.

This is upsetting, and not just because Trump won (no, I’m not supporter of him but the there’s a bigger issue at hand). So many votes were not valued in the result. In the state of Missouri 1,071,068 voted for Clinton, 1,594,511 voted for Trump, and 143,026 voted for someone else. The Clinton and other votes, totaling 1,214,094 were essentially drowned out by the Electoral College winner take all system while only the 1,594,511 Trump votes were voices were heard as all 10 electors sided with Trump’s 1.6 mil and ignored the other 1.2 mil. Not to be candidate specific, in California, the nation’s most populous state that safely voted for Clinton, 5,427,807 votes and voices who casted their votes for Trump and others were essentially drowned out as well. 5.4 MILLION people is almost the population of the state of Missouri! Drowning out political voices, for many the only one they have, is a failing of the Electoral College winner take all system that happens in 50 states and DC, no matter who the candidates were/are. http://cookpolitical.com/story/10174

And reforming or retiring the Electoral College isn’t just a problem you bring up when your candidate loses like many Clinton voters have been doing since last November, or a “great” system you defend when your candidate wins like many Trump voters are currently doing. This system fails everyone and it should make everyone feel slighted, regardless of your “side.”

In 2012, I casted my vote in the state of MO for Barack Obama. I did so reluctantly because of my doubts of it counting towards anything. I went to an election watch party, which so happened to heavily lean democrat, and it saddened me to see that everyone in the room pulling for Obama to win put all hope in California, not Missouri the state we all were in. Missouri voted safely Romney during that election and so mine, like many other votes in that room and overall in that state, essentially counted for nothing since all 10 MO electors allocated behind Romney due to the winner-take-all method. However, one other thing upset me that night as well. By the time I had stopped watching the vote totals two things had happened: 1) Obama, who I had voted for, had secured enough Electoral College votes to remain in office, and 2) Romney had outgained Obama in popular votes. This also upset me. My candidate had won. Yet, I felt at the time our democracy had failed to truly represent the country’s constituents. If some of us get misrepresented, we all do.

In my own opinion, no one can bold face say that the current Electoral College winner-take-all method of voting is the best solution for this country or any country. If someone is happy with the current system, I assume they have not done their research and are likely defending it because their candidate(s) have benefited from it. This is wrong, and not representative of a democracy or a republic. It is a hybrid system that has been amended to misrepresent.

So why not make our candidates work for the country’s votes? They’ll be working for the American people. Why not force them to campaign in every state? The video in the beginning of this post claims swing states are hard to predict and change often. While there’s some truth to that, there’s also truth to the fact that regardless of which states are swing, any candidate running for presidency is going to focus more on the swing states than the so called “safe states.” Going into campaign season many experts can give professional analysis of which states will likely be close and which ones will not. Candidates know this and have people on their teams that strategically pinpoint which states they can swing. This almost always shift campaigns to these close states while ignoring much of the rest of the country. They need to hear people in Wyoming and Washington just as much as they need to hear people in Ohio and Michigan.

Which leads me to my next point – policy. They need to hear us. All of us. So that it shapes policy and legislation. We mentioned before that with a national popular vote, candidates will have to go to states with varying populations in both large cities and rural areas. They’ll have to win votes of the city folk AND the country folk. A campaign that’s people focused instead of state focus would likely be more specific as far as details of policy proposals. Speeches, ads, and events would cater to actual issues concerned by the people and not just general promises that states can rally behind. No longer will people in Idaho have to make guesses about how candidates will impact their states based on and handful of speeches to Wisconsin voters. They’ll get their own.

This will also shift focus on policy compromising as well, and create some distance between staunch party lines. The far right and far left ideology control many of our elected officials because a break from the norm or the expected is a potentially career-ending move. Focusing on the total population, in cities and rural areas alike, in more than just 12 states, can and will shape policy in a way that bridges more gaps by hearing more concerns. Not focusing on “red vs. blue” ideas, values, and concerns based on painting everyone in a state the same color, but people from all walks of life within that state considers the great ideas on left and right, and attempts to solve the failings of both as well. It embodies the overall American independent and centrist tone. After all, we are all more alike than we are different.

And so I will continue to push for a change to this process. I will write letters to legislators, voice my concerns, spread awareness for those not informed, and keep my promise of not voting in presidential elections until this is changed. If you’ve read this far, I hope I’ve provided some valuable insight, and/or let you in on something I’m truly passionate about. Flaws and all, I love this country and I want to see it get better FOR ALL.

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murasaki-murasame · 3 years ago

Text

Thoughts on Higurashi Sotsu Ep6

Let’s just file this one under “top 10 shittiest anime deaths” *badum-tish*

Thoughts under the cut.

I feel like in a lot of ways this episode kinda highlights the highs and lows of the new series, and how it feels like it’s trying to be like three different stories at the same time and usually only succeeding at being one of them.

This episode, and this arc in general, as a standalone part of the franchise was actually really good, and delivered on the promise of ‘what if Mion actually became the culprit in one arc’, but as part of the answer arcs for the new series it just continues to feel kinda pointless and predictable. I still think that a lot of this has to do with them trying to be both a sequel and a remake at the same time, but unlike with the Rena answer arc, I honestly feel like even new fans could have guessed everything that happened in this arc, since it didn’t actually go into anything that wasn’t already discussed in Gou. So even on that level it doesn’t really feel like it’s providing essential answers that couldn’t have been worked out in advance.

It’s kinda weird how little this arc actually explored anything about Mion and Shion that wasn’t already shown in Gou, considering how much stuff from the VN related to them hadn’t been covered. A lot of their backstory stuff ended up not exactly being relevant to how this arc played out, but it just feels like a weird thing to gloss over when they’ve spent so much time going over stuff from the VN as it is.

Though on that note, I’m really curious about how they’ve made absolutely zero reference to the fact that Mion and Shion swapped places as kids, or anything about Mion’s tattoo. At this point I have to wonder if maybe Ryukishi just doesn’t actually like that plot point in hindsight, and is choosing to effectively write it out of the story here. I can see why, though, since from what I remember it kinda verges into being a twist for the sake of having a twist, and doesn’t actually do much for them as characters that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

The lack of basically anything to do with Shion’s backstory and her relationship with Satoshi still feels a lot more iffy, but at least some of this stuff feels like intentional revising on Ryukishi’s part. Which I think is a really interesting aspect of the new series as a whole. It feels like he’s taking the chance to look back on the VN and show us how he feels about it after all this time. The stuff with characters like Teppei and Rina seems to be his way of making up for them being shallow villains in the VN, and Satoko being evil here seems to be in part inspired by how little agency or control she had in the original story. I guess the big issue here is that a lot of people probably just straight up disagree with the things that Ryukishi thinks of as being problems with the VN that he’s trying to ‘fix’ here, but I think it’s really interesting to see him do this sort of thing, even if it’s messy and overly ambitious and doesn’t fully work.

For the most part I agree with all the criticisms about these arcs feeling like a bit of a waste of time as we wait for the story to eventually loop back to the Nekodamashi cliffhanger. Even from the perspective of this being mainly for the sake of new fans, it feels kinda strange to see such straightforward ‘this is what was happening behind the scenes in the question arcs’ style answers, with lots of reused footage and basically zero twists or reveals. The VN’s way of designing separate arcs that provide answers for the question arcs was more satisfying, and Umineko went even further with that by just vaguely going over the basic keys to figuring out all the how-dunnit mysteries of the question arcs, and everything else about the answer arcs there was just a continuation of the meta plot. So it feels kinda weird to see him loop back around to the opposite end of the spectrum here.

It makes me wonder if there’s some sort of larger meta mystery going on here that’ll become more apparent in the next arc, and will reveal that we didn’t actually know everything that was going on like we thought we did, but at this point I feel like it’ll probably all end up being a lot more straightforward than we predicted. But there’s still the looming specter of the meta plane stuff, the hints dropped about where this series fits into the wider WTC universe timeline, and the fact that the whole point of the new series in the first place seems to be guiding Rika and Satoko down the path toward becoming their Umineko counterparts. So all of that stuff makes me think there might be some curveball twists going in the future that expand the scope of the story, but I have no real idea what to expect from that, and if it’d even feel satisfying. As much as I’m a diehard Umineko fan who loves the idea of this being a Lambda and Bern origin story, I still worry that the execution might not work once we get to the end. I also don’t really think that anything the series does in the final arcs will completely make up for how predictable these first few answer arcs have felt on a week by week basis, lol.

In general it gets me thinking that in spite of how predictable the answers have been thus far, I’m largely clueless about how I think they’ll actually wrap up the overarching story with Satoko and Rika. It feels like there’s still a lot of different directions they could take it in, and a lot of it depends on just how far Ryukishi wants to go with tying this into other WTC works.

For one thing, I’m not even sure how to expect them to follow up on the Nekodamashi cliffhanger. It’s at least hard to imagine how they could stop Satoko from shooting Rika then and there, considering how this episode in particular went. And one way or another, we’ll have to see how Rika and Satoko handle being in a situation where they both know what’s going on with each other. I think it’ll then just depend on what Satoko’s mental state is like at that point, and also what they plan on doing with the whole looper-killing sword thing. I think Ryukishi’s implied multiple times now that the next arc will start to test Satoko’s resolve, and going by her attitude during the infamous gut-ripping scene, as well as her traumatized reaction to the punching glove box prank, I think she’ll be much less confident in her goals by that point, and probably more willing to talk about what’s going on.

I don’t think it’ll be as simple as ‘she just gives up and everyone forgives her’, or even ‘Rika beats up Satoko while everyone cheers and they all move on and abandon her’, though. I think there’ll be some kind of balancing act between redemption and punishment, but I also think that ultimately it’ll also tie into the Lambda/Bern origin story stuff they seem to be going for. I think I’ve said this before, but my best guess for how this will end is that the looper-killing sword will be used to separate their ‘meta selves’ who are aware of the loops and stuff, while leaving behind their regular physical selves who thus lose most/all of their memories of the loops. At least that way they can have their cake and eat it too by showing how Lambda and Bern became witches, while also having separate versions of them that get to stay behind and mend their relationship or something. But I’m not even confident about all of that, lol.

It’s also worth noting that the key visual for Sotsu features Satoko and Rika as teenagers, and the OP also features that pretty heavily, along with an ominous scene of the other main characters as teenagers. So that makes me think that the story will somehow get back to that whole time period, which makes me a bit more unsure how the last arc will go. One option is that the final Nekodamashi arc will just keep going until they become teenagers again, but the way those scenes are presented in the promo material makes it seem like Satoko and Rika’s relationship is still bad then. So maybe on the other hand we’ll just go back to the original Matsuribayashi timeline where Satoko first met Eua, but I feel like that’d probably be the happy ending where everything goes back to the original timeline and they all end up reconnecting again, so I’m still not sure how the ominous presentation of the teenage characters might play into that.

Either way, I think all of that stuff will probably just come up in the final arc. The next one will probably be covering Tataridamashi and Nekodamashi from Satoko’s perspective. The next arc should be where things start to shake up, but I still think they could easily cover both of those arcs in just five episodes. Nothing much seemed to be happening with Satoko until the final days of Tataridamashi, and I can’t imagine there being much to explore with how she set up the rapid-fire loops in Nekodamashi.

With what’s been hinted at about the next arc not going according to Satoko’s plans, and her resolve being tested, I think that this will probably be where things go entirely out of her control and she starts to doubt whether or not she should continue with her plans. Specifically I think that being in a new loop with Teppei being nice to her, and watching everyone else try to save her from her [perceived] abuse, will start to sway her toward thinking that maybe that sort of timeline is worth staying in, even if it means giving up on controlling Rika.

One way or another I think Ooishi went crazy all on his own. I think Ryukishi explicitly said in an interview that Ooishi went L5 naturally, and I think the manga version of Tataridamashi made it clear that Satoko was genuinely thrown off by how things went there, so she probably didn’t want Ooishi to kill anyone. I can see how he might have gone off the deep end by interrogating Teppei and realizing that there was basically a witch hunt going on against him, but I’m not sure how he would have ended up specifically blaming Rika unless Satoko pushed him into it. Either way, Teppei probably really did attack Keiichi at the end of the arc, and we know that Satoko just has one syringe to use, so at most she probably injected Teppei and then Ooishi went L5 naturally.

I’m also curious to see if/when Satoko learns about Rika being given the power to remember her deaths, since that’d also go a long way toward explaining what her intentions might have been with how that arc ended. I think Satoko is at least aware that Rika doesn’t remember how she dies, so I’m at least not sure what she’d try and accomplish by setting up a loop that only goes to shit at the very last second. It feels like it wouldn’t do a whole lot aside from making Rika confused in the next loop. But Rika only gets her ability to remember her deaths after that loop already ends, so Satoko could have only known about it if there’s some sort of conspiracy going on about Hanyuu. Which there probably is, since her whole presence in this is weird and her deciding to give Rika a new set of powers was always super suspicious, but still.

I’m also curious to see if we get any real payoff to the idea that Satoko’s looping is causing more and more people to remember past loops. Especially when it comes to the main club members, since there’s various moments in Tataridamashi and Nekodamashi, both in the anime and manga, that seem to imply that most of them are starting to remember things.

Even though the execution of this whole new series makes me a bit more wary about how any sort of new anime for Umineko along these lines might pan out, I can’t help but still really hope this is leading to something like that. For one thing I just think that if he’s going for a Lambda/Bern origin story with this, at the risk of alienating lots of existing fans, I think there should at least be a more concrete payoff to that than just ‘ok now you can go back and read the Umineko VN’. But I think there’s a lot of potential to be had with some sort of remake or sequel to Umineko where he gets a chance to revisit it after more than 10 years. One of these days I should still just make a whole post about my hopes and predictions for what could be done with any sort of new Umineko anime, lol.

Anyway, this got longer than I planned, but all in all I enjoyed this more than it probably comes across like I did, lol. Even if the plot’s been kinda boring, I think Sotsu has done a great job of elevating it with good direction and visuals. The moment to moment pacing can still be kinda choppy, and sometimes the presentation of flashback scenes is confusing and ambiguous, but in general it still feels entertaining to watch unfold, and the brutality has a lot of impact. I’m just hoping that the rest of Sotsu is more ambitious and surprising than these first two arcs have been.

#murasaki rambles #higurashi #higurashi sotsu

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