#statesota

I just love the combination of rough looking stopmotion and extremely traumatized characters… that doesn’t sound very appealing BUT IT IS!

The rough animation really elevates this very well thought out criticism of the church, but also the society build up around it! It’s always such a gutpunch when the show goes from Orels happy, naive childview to the adults who struggles to fit into the neat boxes their society expects them to be in. Like Clay being gay, but married to Bloberta.

I could honestly go on for HOURS about this show! It’s just such an experience where you’re going through all of your emotions. It goes from laughter to disgust, from hope to despair. All of it!

Because I'm a huge nerd and I wanted to expound upon the original conversation between a few users yesterday, I decided to look into the state history of Missouri to see how Statesota comes to be.

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First off, the intro shows that Statesota is the left half of Missouri. I also noticed shades of Southern culture that leaned towards New Orleans as well as housing scenarios intended to uphold Jim Crow era policies. There was also the debate on why there was a strong anti-catholic lean.

When I looked into state history, my answers were found for all of it.

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In regards to it's origins, Missouri was settled by the Spanish then the French and was primarily used for trade via the Mississippi River. It became part of the Louisiana Purchase.

It was admitted to the US as a slave state with the Missouri Compromise.

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According to Wikipedia, "As many of the early settlers in western Missouri migrated from the Upper South, they brought enslaved African Americans as agricultural laborers, and they desired to continue their culture and the institution of slavery. The area became known as "Little Dixie."

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So yes, they absolutely would be influenced by the Daughters of Confederacy. And it explains the Louisiana like influence in the surrounding cities of Sinville.

But that's not all.

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" The Mormon War erupted in 1838. By 1839, with the help of an "Extermination Order" by Governor Lilburn Boggs, the old settlers forcefully expelled the Mormons from Missouri and confiscated their lands."

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So far the protestantsim was fought for and victorious the first time around. Missouri Protestants in this time period had a history of extreme religious zeal.

Catholicism became part of the atmosphere afterwards both as a holdue to German and Irish immigration before the Civil war in the 1840s and 1850s.

This combined with old Civil War tensions could be the start of the anti Catholic sentiment in Statesota. But that's not where the schism begins.

It comes during the Reconstruction period and Joseph "Holy Joe" Folk.

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Joseph "Holy Joe" Folk was a key leader who made a strong appeal to the middle class and rural evangelical Protestants. Folk was elected governor as a progressive reformer and Democrat in the 1904 election. He promoted what he called "the Missouri Idea," the concept of Missouri as a leader in public morality through popular control of law and strict enforcement. 

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This got me to thinking.

What if he never won that election?

What would happen if a man like that and his protestant base kicked up enough of a fuss that it started the seccesion of Statesota?

What if Moralton was the byproduct of a lost election and a man who was too invested in upholding his vision of prosperity and morality for Protestants?

It was A 3