[kuromitsu]

Originally Posted by Kirarakim

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

Oh, I didn't mean Squealer himself but the bakenezumi in general whom he was a representative of - sorry if I wasn't clear!

Originally Posted by Kirarakim

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

I actually quite like the approach they used. In the end, both sides are simply fighting for survival. It's up to the future which side emerges as winner, or whether eventually there will be a way for them to coexist peacefully. (Oops, and now I misunderstood what you said - sorry, my brain is clearly not up to the task today.)

Originally Posted by Kirarakim

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.

I'm the opposite: I like that they didn't make this into a bigger deal than it actually is. I mean, to the viewer/reader this is a huge revelation, as it is to Saki & Satoru. But on the other hand, it changes absolutely nothing about their current situation. (And even Saki or Satoru can't really think too much about it, simply because if they accept bakenezumi as humans - they die.)

Originally Posted by creb

Squealer...it's always difficult to react to a character like him. Intellectually, I fully understand, and even empathize with, what he's doing. On the other hand, he's on the other side of the line, and if I was a human of Saki's village, I'd do everything in my power to stop him. I'm not "enlightened" enough to want someone to beat me, just because I understand them.

Yep, same here.

Originally Posted by creb

Do Squealer's (and, to some extent, Kiroumaru's) wishes end up being addressed down the road? Hopefully so. Though, some of the spoilers seem to indicate the peachy, rainbows and sunflowers ending was a departure from the more foreboding one of the novels.

That implies that this ending was peachy with rainbows and sunflowers... Anyway, no, the anime pretty much followed the book on the bakenezumi situation. The novel just goes more deeply into akki and gouma, as Saki makes some discoveries and draws conclusions. The ending itself is the same, with the glimmer of hope, but the world is just a bit darker.

Originally Posted by Arczyx

Isn't that kind of contradictory to what Kiroumaru said before (that their kind won't give up no matter what, as opposed to human)?

That was Kiroumaru. Squealer put everything on the akki - he knew that if they lost the kid their defeat would be just a matter of time.

Originally Posted by Kanon

To think PK users went this far to ensure their supremacy... These people are despicable.

Well, it wasn't just about supremacy, it was about survival, too...