[Arya]

Originally Posted by ~BC~

The bloodbath did happen; it was just gas instead of bullets. Though obviously not to the extent of episode 21. And the only reason things didn't turn out worse was due to Prue's migraines resulting in Cain calling things off. L-Elf had nothing to do with it.

At the end of the day they were saved. They survived. Considering the power imbalance between the two forces, I saw that as a victory for Module-77.
Speaking of L-Elf, he had to do with it. Didn't he give Satomi a script to follow? Didn't he take away Shoko from the bridge deck? He organized their defense lines. It's just that Cain outsmarted him. Then the Prue's migraines, due to stress in fighting against Haruto and L-Elf IIRC.
From my point of view the fact that a high school, even supported by VVV, survived to that kind of attach is everything but a defeat.
For that reason the real bloodbath that happened later felt (to me) strictly related to this first event.
What was missing from the equation in that second event? L-Elf. That's because L-Elf was the solely reason they went that far into the story. Considering even how much worthless Haruto had been until that point. He was pivotal for everything. Much more than one could think.

Originally Posted by ~BC~

The massacre in episode 21 is also never portrayed as being Shoko's fault for all that people like to insist otherwise. There was no commentary about how the students should've been armed, no one blamed her for holding the conference.

I don't blame her for the tragedy, as I said, the moment you took L-Elf out from the games the house of cards collapsed at the first occasion. Still I admit I can't avoid to relate it, the massacre, to that unfulfilled S1 ending as being the real ending of that, just postponed.

Originally Posted by ~BC~

The election was Nanami's idea. But in general, I think you're giving the writers too much credit. They really just don't know how to write politics and that seems to be a thing with anime in general (at least the ones that don't use it as a focal point in the plot). The Fuhrer and ARUS president never went beyond caricatures of their respective government types. Your idea is interesting but I really don't feel that's what they were going for.

I also don't know what to think. That is more what I saw and felt, if they were really aiming for that is, I guess, impossible to know. But the out of proportion L-Elf skills in comparison to your normal school boys and school girls feel more down-to-earth than having a girl with no skills ruling a country. And the evidences were there. Even A-drei response to L-elf unnecessary info-dump he was giving him seems to remark that
Surely all the holes and missing points in Shoko's development, (it felt like they cut away hers and Saki's parts completely from the show), didn't help, but still they decided to show really odds scenes to depict her.