>>82638298She should have continued doing what she was doing before Selen's drama: stream, keep her head down, make new friends, work hard on networking and improve herself. It was actually working: her community was growing organically, she was in a good mood, and planning some milestones was very helpful to keep her motivated.
After Selen's termination and Nijisanji officially becoming a black company, Sayu got a pretty big boost in views, subs, and donations on all fronts, but unfortunately she misunderstood the situation and thought that this would erase the whole previous year, immediately get her back on her feet, and make all her former friends apologize for how they treated her.
...But nothing like that happened. At least, not as much as Sayu had hoped. She entered a vicious cycle of depression and impostor syndrome because, despite "clearing" her name, she still hadn't regained her previous life.
The thing is, Sayu was clearly dealt some really shitty cards, but knowing her personality and how many of her previous friends still ignore her, it’s also easy to imagine that she might have been a bitch to them when she tried to get them to help her. She probably didn’t realize that she was part of the problem, and simply thought everything would fix itself if Nijisanji went down (that's why she took the chance to apologize to Matara in the middle of her interview with False, because she probably thought that the real problem was already fixed)
My guess is that Sayu is, to some extent, aware of this, but she has a huge problem admitting that she could be wrong about anything (you just have to see the dumb drama of the other day about her account getting "hacked"), and she tends to go on the attack instead of trying some self-reflection, which usually backfires spectacularly and harms her reputation within the community. She is also extremely easy to one guy'd, so that doesn't help her either.
Even so, any time she complains about something, you'll see many vtubers quickly rushing to her side to support her. This shows she is obviously popular to some extent within the indie community, and her own fanbase is not small either, lots of people clearly love her. But for some reason, this is not enough for her, and she still desperately wants to sit at the table of the popular kids. No matter how successful she is, she always finds something to dislike, leading her into a new arc of depression and self-pity.
Right now what Sayu really lacks is the proper mindset needed to succeed in this industry: putting the content before herself. Most of her fans now watch her more out of loyalty than genuine enjoyment of her content, and that's just poison for the growth of her community. Yes, she was harassed and no one can magically move on from trauma, but this is also a job and no one will give you their time and money for free.
It makes me feel bad for her, but I honestly don’t see her getting out of this slump at this point. I’m not saying she will graduate tomorrow or next year, but I don’t think anything will change for her either.
