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Originally Posted by kuromitsu
But what lesson were you expecting ad how would that have influenced anything? It was one month after the war. People wanted revenge and safety. What they did was ugly and uncomfortable to watch, but it was pretty much looking into a mirror: this has happened a million times during human history.
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I 100% realize what the series is trying to say with the ending it's actually a pretty tragic look at humanity but one mixed with hope via Saki and Satoru.
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It's easy to sympathize with Squealer because what he said made sense, and it's easy to sympathize with the oppressed side. But as someone already pointed out, had Squealer succeeded he would've shown no mercy either. The bakenezumi would've become oppressors - hell, his plan was to raise a generation of humans as slaves to bakenezumi.
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Kuromitsu I know you have read my posts throughout this series. Have I ever given any indication that I wanted Squealer to win because I sympathized with him? In fact I remember saying the exact thing you are saying now in previous posts
However I do think the series would have been more thematically powerful if it had for example ended with the humans losing and then many years later the bakenezumi's being overthrown instead in a vicious cycle (that is actually similar to how
War with Newts ended). This would have been a tragedy.
The humans being effected more negatively (even in a physical sense) by squealer's words of what the monster rats really were would be another way.
Instead the series took a more bitter sweet note. I am not saying it is a bad ending in fact I believe I said just the opposite. It's a solid, even beautiful ending. I still think it leaves me with a lot to think about but it is not quite as powerful as a more devastating ending would have been to me.
And like I said anime rarely does true tragedies so maybe I also built myself up that this would be one. I love bitter sweet endings too though.