We have two sources for Niji's version of events: Niji's suspension and termination notices, and XSoliel's statements. Zaion/Sayu's version of events is currently limited to liked comments and spicy vague-posting on Twitch.
My thoughts on the announcements:
- The termination announcement confirmed that stealth suspensions are real. Some people argued that Cover should have done this for Vesper. I really don't like this approach. It places responsibility on the talent to lie, more blatantly in some cases than others. E.g. At the time of Vesper's suspension, he had already said he'd rather stream than visit his family for the holidays. It also breeds rrats about every unannounced break going forward. But it's possible that management sometimes gives the talents a choice: "You're suspended. Do you want to cover it up or do you want us to announce it?"
- About the reasons given: "They're really petty" vs "A corpo has the right to expect these" - open to argument. "Other livers did many of these things" - fact. "Other livers don't do all these things at once" - also fact. "Other livers were punished when they did these things" - I don't know whether that's true.
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My speculation: Management jumped down Zaion's throat for something they should have let go, e.g. dark jokes. Zaion looked at other people doing the same thing and seethed about it, then doubled down on stuff she should not have, e.g. running her mouth on stream about fighting with management over her old accounts. Then things spiralled. You can swap whoever started it.
- More detail vs less detail: The level of detail is definitely intended to get people on Anycolor's side. But regardless of whether or not Anycolor intended it, it makes Zaion unemployable to JP corpos at the very least. And there's the reason corpos are often vague, and the reason why employers have codes for bad references. The more you say, the more likely it is that an ex-employee can accuse you of slander or wrongful termination. I do not know if Zaion has any legal ground to stand on, or whether it would be wise for her to sue even if she did. But as things stand, she is pretty much forced to address the situation. Contrast with Yugo/U-san and even Oceane/Zoey, who aren't admitting wrongdoing but are also (currently) content with "I'm thankful you found me" sentiments instead of spicy vague-posts.
- Adding on Zaion's likes on her PL account as an offense is a dangerous precedent. I'll admit I'm a hypocrite because I wished something would happen to Kyo for liking comments attacking Zaion using his PL, but now I think I'd rather not have it on
either of their rap sheets.
My thoughts on XSoliel's statements:
- A group stream like HoloJP3 and Kawaii did might have been more prepared, but individual streams are fine in principle, following the precedent of Noctyx and Yugo. If XSoliel knew Zaion's termination was coming, they had the time to think about what they wanted to say when the announcement dropped.
- These statements really do a lot to make people think Zaion deserved to be terminated.
-- For Rushia, the main things that showed the termination was necessary and not just corpo BS were the massive short-term cost Cover incurred in canning her before 3rd Fes, and that the other talents were sad but accepting of Rushia's fate.
-- For Yugo there was less acceptance; there was NijiEN Sad Day on Twitter and Uki went as far as to say that they fought for Yugo.
-- Zaion though... I can see how Kotoka can be taken out of context, but I think she was disappointed that Zaion didn't take her advice. But Ver goes into a lot more detail than I would want an ex-colleague to, explicitly saying that this wasn't a "one oopsie, you're out situation, this was a compilation of several rule breaks, one rule after another" and so on.
-- I'll add that it's
possible that
Zaion's unfiltered commentary has backfired on Ver before, and not just on herself. If so, and if there's more of that behind the scenes, that sheds some light on any negative feelings her former genmates have expressed.
- Having said all that, I don't think Zaion is a backstabber. From this post in her termination archive thread:
Okay so interestingly, I just watched one of her streams in the bg all the way through (genshin alhaitham pull stream if you need the car fax). This was streamed approximately 3 weeks ago and she constantly repeated how she's "the trouble child" and how often she "gets in trouble." She spoke very warmly about her genmates and several other senpai (Iluna being the ones to have helped her the most). I'm starting to think the management rrat I had isn't so far-fetched here....
Also can confirm, she says she did not know about the ban on using older accounts and that no one told her before she was forced to scrub her streams. She brought up something about "being able to EVENTUALLY use her older accounts" but idk what she meant by this?
It does seem like she's got a bone to pick with management and isn't afraid to air out her dirty laundry lmfao
(Kinda based but I see where the bullet points are coming into play)
If this is accurate, even if Zaion fought with her genmates and senpais as Kotoka and Ver imply, she never held it against them. She might feel differently now though. It's also possible that the fights only occurred after Zaion's suspension.