Liar Game Chapter 201 Discussion

yoshi9871 said:
Ok time to clear up why this ending was amazing and a work of genius instead of incredibly disappointing or rushed like I've been reading. Rushed? It depends what you all mean by rushed. Was he hurried to finish the manga, maybe, but was the manga ended sooner than it was possible to wrap everything up satisfyingly? Not at all, if there's anything you feel hasn't been explained well enough tell me what it is and I'll try to help considering I've read every single chapter multiple times at this point(what else is there to do with all the hiatuses). I've found almost every instance of someone complaining about the happenings in the last chapter or recent ones, was due to their lack of comprehension of the manga or its themes, or they've forgotten a whole load of info due to its chapters being released so irregularly. Or maybe due to finding out that LG was ending soon, catching up very recently. Every complaint I've read thus far can be invalidated by completing the simple task of reading the manga and paying attention.

All of the things I listed cause you to forget vital information, this is a manga mainly led by text and huge arrays of information which could be even more suited to being a novel, if you're not paying attention or actually reading the words instead of looking at the pretty pictures you're going to miss or forget something. Plus the symbolism in this chapter and the way everything was wrapped up yet still left open in the end was masterfully done especially if going by the logic that he was forced to rush its end. Portrayed so many good messages and stayed true to what's been emphasized since the very beginning of the manga.

Well if people reply to this I'll clear up things for them, but only if it's a rational discussion and not "bawww the ending is bad writing because I expected something different than what happened and there wasn't 300 chapters of foreshadowing in advance" etc.
You need to re-read the chapter and pay attention to what the characters were saying about Yokoya and his "change of heart" if you could even call it that. The characters literally answer your question on the page it's so easy it's not a hard concept to grasp. Yokoya grew as a man and accepted his defeat, but he was never an "evil villain" that would be absolved from ever "changing sides" he was just another participant with a more extreme view of how to gain victory. He chose in the end to rise against and fight the power which proved his triumph over his inferiority complex about his father by humbly accepting defeat. Seriously the characters LITERALLY explain this in the chapter better than I can, I don't have to read between the lines to spell it out or anything.

Yokoya's father has been relevant for awhile now, if you didn't pick up on all the hints like how he acquired such vast wealth so fast that's your own fault, but again it's probably because of the irregular releases which caused people to forget about these things, hardly anyone retained most of the info about LG with the rate that it was released over time I'm sure. People were theorizing that his dad was Artier himself too which was one thing but it was obvious he was a participant in a previous LG for the longest time.
I already answered most about Yokoya, for the rest about him, his influence was pretty much unparalleled through the entire LG and it emphasized his victory over his complex even more that he commanded the group of people in that way instead of someone like Akiyama doing it instead. It's been his entire shtick since his introduction again not a hard concept, but he was introduced as a char many many real life years ago so people might've forgotten his style.

You know there were other masked individuals in that game who weren't ok with how things were developing because they maintained power the entire time until the group decided to suddenly rebel, those were the ones complaining about that, not some random unnamed higher ups, pretty self explanatory.

I'm sure that you know enough about Kaitani as an author to know his exact mindset behind writing the last pages, definitely was planning on something different but changed it to the real ending at the last second I believe you man. It was perfectly fine as a standalone ending, I'm not even expecting a sequel and I despise when things aren't cleared up perfectly and explained in a satisfactory manner. It wasn't even much of a cliffhanger, but now at least the possibility of a sequel(or prequel) is there, the way it did end was fine.

It's been a song sung for generations how the government should be afraid of its people, in a fear-ruled country like the one described in the manga, China or not, the last thing the government would want was something powerful or inspiring enough to cause its people to rebel. The things you describe are exactly what would happen though, you say "it seems absurb" but meanwhile it's been evidenced by actual real life occurrences, governments do not deal well with riots or rebellions and the way it was set up in the manga was about as realistic as it comes.

You made it seem like the people who partook in the LG would be placed in front of a squad of armed SWAT members, but there's a difference between the LG revolution and an actual stirred revolution from the books. The population of a county far exceeds the population of a government using fear to rule and if it got worse they'd get their own machine guns and fight back. It's so symbolic, hell, from the very first chapter of the LG had everyone playing decided "fuck this let's rebel" the LGT would have been powerless to stop and it would have ended just as described. It's common sense it's how things work hence what thoe governments censored and tried to stop for that reason.

The thing is no one is influential enough to do such a thing, it's obvious all the people are oppressed and do not enjoy their time in x country, they needed a good push to actually do something. Something like that novel, something like Yokoya's influence, etc. was enough, it's all about the crowd mentality, no single person would speak up in that situation but once given enough incentive it's over. Source: real life

As for the food they didn't have enough food to last forever, they would undoubtedly lose the war, everyone had decided to cooperate and could chill indefinitely as the LGT were bound by their words and would have to constantly provide more food for them and so on also pretty self explanatory. If it was a stamina battle from that point it was sure to be the group's victory, so no point in them wasting time when they recognized their loss.

In summary: How would you rather have things gone? Do you feel that it's bad writing just because it didn't end how you wanted it to? Can you give some examples of what would be a better ending given the time constraints of wrapping it all up in the last few chapters?

This was one of the best chapters in the manga imo, you should re-read the whole manga some time so you aren't behind on things or haven't forgotten too much. I hate that too, the ending is probably one of hte most important parts of a series to me and I can't stand when it's not wrapped together nicely. This one was done excellent though. Before I read it I could have sworn I'd be disappointed, I was preparing for the absolute worst. On top of that it had that kind of "open ending" that I loathed, but in the end it delivered spectacularly.

What about it didn't seem like an ending? All the loose ends were tied up, maybe you wanted something else to happen instead which I'll ask you the same questions as I gave the above poster, other than that there isn't really much else and it was still an ending. You might think it was wrapped up too abruptly but it didn't stop its quality reveals and explanations, only the speed at which they were actually revealed was changed not cut content or making the chapter shittier because of it. To be able to put everything so concisely in the past few chapters and wrap things up without leaving any questions in such a short time is even more testament to how well handled it was.

Also even if the chapter was 1/10 the manga as a whole would still be an easy 10 imo, the journey this past 6+ years has had for LG was a good one, truly a good manga it will be missed. But it wasn't, the ending was still god tier just like the rest of the series for that I am proud.

Didn't mean to make this post very long... but wanted to clear up as many misconceptions as possible so that maybe people can appreciate the chapter more, since some things are just wrong and can be easily remedied by again, (re)reading the manga.

RioOba said:
I have a theory. I think the last 2 chapters was rushed because the author wanted to portray that the manga itself was being axed.

It's not really being axed (in real life), but it wanted to let the readers think that in a pseudo 4th wall-breaking chapter (which is chapter 201), he wanted to tell us that the whole manga itself was the 3rd volume of the novel which was never released to the public.

The fact that the manga never had a proper ending was because the elitist government (in that world) does not want the readers (you) to know the true secret behind what the liar game is. They successfully did so which is why this forum thread is even created in the first place and why were are having discussions about it.

By taking down the video in youtube (in the manga), that means the people of THAT world was not able to see the entirety of the Liar Game, and, therefore, continue to be mindless sheep. The taking down of the video on youtube translates to us (in the real world) as having the ending cut short and incomplete. In essence, we, as the true Liar Game players have also been deceived by the government, and therefore, continue to be mindless sheep.

tl;dr We (the common-folk in real life) did not get to understand the full meaning of the Liar Game, and therefore the Elitist Government won. We cannot beat the system after all.

Btw, Yokoya taking a 180 doesn't seem to be that surprising. After being outsmarted by Akiyama in the final game, Yokoya finally admits defeat, claiming that unlike Hitler whom he admired, he must know when to quit. It was said earlier that Yokoya despised Hitler later on because Hitler did not know when to quit.