Common Room S3E16: Reload Save

Oh no

Hunter Sodek

Installing and Reading Watanagashi/Meakashi to figure out what level this album art is operating on (it's very good either way though!)

Hunter Sodek

Great episode. I played Meakashi recently and I’m just saying, listening to y’all got me thinking. Shion is totally manipulative and conniving, but I think she did sincerely love Satoshi. Not in a healthy way obviously, but I think her feelings were genuine. Especially since she was the only one at the end who was really trying to find him, having almost no resources or power and honestly, so much to lose from her POV (even though the Sonozaki weren’t truly after her like she thought). I think if we’re talking politics Shion did like...a failed revolution. Like she wanted to burn the mother down, but not only did she have no game plan but she also solved all her problems with murder, and murdered innocent people. She was the black sheep of the Sonozaki, so she was pretty in the dark about their operations, so when she suspected they were involved in the disappearance of her friend/crush (a conspiracy they were happy to let grow bc it shored up their power), she felt powerless to stop them. But instead of building solidarity with other people who have also been hurt deeply by the status quo and seriously deserve answers & something better (like Satoko and Rika), Shion mistrusted them and came down on them twice as hard (especially Satoko, a complete innocent whom Shion made a scapegoat. My guess is it made Shion feel powerful & more in control to hurt those weaker than her. Pretty shitty, Shion!) I also think Shion failed because in the end, even though I think she really did want justice for Satoshi, she was unable to conceive of herself outside the power dynamic of Mion and Shion, and that led to her losing herself (Shion is Shion and Mion is Mion...but what does that mean when Mion is a person who matters in the eyes of society and Shion isn’t? Of the two, to be a person with agency at all, you have to be Mion...) and to generalize, that + teen heartbreak + Shion’s chaotic energy + years of pent-up resentment & rage + the syndrome = going out in a blaze of murder!!! PS did y’all notice that Mion loses her character sprite after Shion zaps her with the stun gun and takes her name. God it’s so good (Thanks for reading/coming to my gushing Shion Ted Talk, bye, I love you)