[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by cyth

I think that living in this day and age when Arabic springs and whatnot are happening around the world, when change is sometimes too bright to look at, this ending will surely be underwhelming to many people.

This is why I find all of the claims of "This is the most mature and realistic ending" a bit odd. What's immature and unrealistic about toppling extremely corrupt and unjust regimes? The Arab Spring would seem to suggest otherwise, imo.

And I have to say I find it odd indeed for an American to talk about how mature this ending is. I guess America owes its very existence to George Washington and Benjamin Franklin being decidedly immature men.

History is replete with examples of successful revolutions. So what's so 'immature' or 'unrealistic' about the idea of starting a successful revolution?

And even putting aside the American Revolution, we've seen numerous social upheavals in America's history where old, corrupt systems of government were pushed aside for newer and fairer ones. Thankfully, Martin Luther King Jr. was also an " immature" man...


But I guess Sybil Japan can take comfort in Akane's "maturity", and the continuation of a ruthless and deeply flawed/corrupt system of governance. Mind you, I've honestly grown somewhat tired of rehashing all of Sybil's flaws over and over and over again, so I don't intend to do so yet again right now. I once made a reply to Quadratic where I listed off many of those flaws, but unfortunately I wasn't able to find that post. If I find it later, I'll just link to it here in this thread.

I will link to this, however. My idea there might not be perfect, but I think it goes to show that it's possible to conceive of ways of gradually taking down Sybil and transitioning to a better system.

But even though nothing really changed for this generation of inspectors, change is in the air.

Here is where I disagree with you. I see little hope of change here. My impression is that the only person who knows the truth about Sybil is Akane. And Akane has decided that she'd rather be an Inspector fighting crime than a revolutionary trying to dispose of an evil form of government (and I use "evil" here because that seems to be how Akane herself views Sybil). Other people living in Sibyl Japan have significantly less reason to oppose Sybil than Akane does, so if Akane doesn't actively oppose it, then who does?

And it's not like we get a scene of Akane planning Sybil's slow, gradual decline and eventually demise. She's just basically hoping that somebody else will one day do the dirty work for her.

Much like what a couple other reviewers mentioned, I'd be more pleased with this ending if I saw someone somewhere at least planting the seed of change. But who's planting the seed of change here?

Akane isn't even negotiating with Sybil for more humane treatment of latent criminals, for example. What exactly has changed?