>>24305There exist two(in my headcanon 3) versions of Ongezellig.
1. The Ongezellig we have. A 22 minute pilot and 1,5 comics. When we consider just this, Ongezellig is rather depressing: whilst people call the ending of the pilot optimistic, I still only see a girl who will exclude herself from something she wishes to join. Merely wanting to fix your life is not enough: desiring change and making change happen are different. Maya demonstrates this: she daydreams of having friends, whilst she sits alone in the bathroom during break.
2. The Ongezellig Massa imagined. This is a very broad thing, and it includes all the plans Massa had that weren't materialized, and thus Massa himself with his creative process and inspiration. This is somewhat more hopeful, but not entirely. On the one had, we have the planned episode about Mymys sister, in which Maya has her ideal friend taken from her by forces outside her control. You also have the planned episode where her cat is killed because it develops cancer, something else she has no control over. Here I detect a theme different from the pilot: Maya is not responsible for what befalls her, and thus has limited power over her own life and happiness.
But when we consider Massa in the picture, as well as Ongezelligs progenitor, Mayo and Curry, it paints a much more optimistic picture. Given that Maya is a recurring character and is very heavily influenced by what Massa experienced as a child, maybe him letting go of her shows that he has been able to overcome it. He made the Dutch history iceberg afterwards, And his illness likely did not affect his cancellation of Ongezellig. So, in a broader sense, the Ongezellig phenomenon shows that you can overcome the challenges set by outside forces and yourself. Let's hope Massa does not succumb to whatever ails him, because that would ruin this slight glimmer of hope.
3. I discovered Ongezellig two months after it was cancelled. In my experience, Ongezellig is an ongoing struggle to keep something precious alive. It seems hopeless, with the OUC and ROY getting delayed, but just as Maya could reach out to Coco, so could I and the broader Ongezellig community succeed in keeping this gem alive. Real shame pedophiles and 1488 people form such a large portion of the community.