he does want to mean something to denji. he scrounges up whatever he can pass off as happy memories with him as a last ditch effort to create some kind of lasting impression on him after he dies. holds his hand and stares directly into his eyes as he sets off the bomb. burns it into his memory.

but there is a part of him that is disappointed and spiteful at their odd, distant, walled off (yet constantly in each other's orbit) relationship and how denji- even if he has just as much a hand in maintaining the distance- keeps pushing him away

so i think it would genuinely be hard for him to allow himself the feeling of rejection, because that would be an admission to believing there was something to reject in the first place

but i definitely see this also playing out on a subconscious level. he doesn't realize it, let himself think it

tbh i think scorn requires a lot more-- faith in the possibility of a relationship than yoshida ever had. i read a key part of yoshida being that he doesn't believe he could ever have a real relationship with denji that wasn't transactional or kept within the bounds the role that controls him allows

it wasn't, but at the very least, mom was there to soothe you by constructing a reality for you.

especially when it feels as if the cruel realities of late stage capitalism is robbing you of any and all possible sources of happiness and comfort.

the past had to have been better than this. it wasn't so random and thoughtless and painful like it is now.

i don't think i have really anything to add besides that tearing apart the very fabric of the world in order to return to some imagined perfect form of the past is the core of the fascism we live in today. part 2 speaks to just how easy it can be to fall into this reactionary-nostalgic thinking

this is a truly beautiful thread. honest to god has shifted my perspective on how to view and read part 2 on the whole.

curious: why didn’t you not like him?

The only way I can remotely think of translating the spirit of this pun is something like… “branching thoughts”

It’s 181, Trees on the Mind

Ki ni naru (気になる) roughly means “to be worried about.”
But tree is also pronounced ki and naru can also mean become so “become a tree” (木になる) would also be pronounced ki ni naru

“Shi da” -> it’s death

I don’t know if but I’m hoping that it’s the same phrasing as this in Japanese

“Death” (shi) is inside of “Yoshida”. It could be one of those really obvious in retrospect wordplays like with makima (mama) and aki (ak-47)

I mean they’re kind of in the sky right now and Fami’s been literally just a head before and was 100% a-ok sooooo she’s fine!!

CSM’s erasure powers explicitly only work if he eats the devil. Just cutting them up will not erase them.

Why? Pochita isn’t shown eating her and Yoru restarts the fight immediately after he eats Death. He wouldn’t have had time to do that?

She’s fine!

what’s the organ and or firstborn exchange rate for that yoshimiri public safety partners/roommates fic I wrote like a third of and then gave up when the csm plot went wildly off expected course

Something they wish they were doing there.

And so, entirely unaware of what they’re actually putting into motion, they help with the festival that’s ultimately going to return Death to reality and usher in the apocalypse.

Oops!

being heavily muddled both by that and the ??? he just experienced… despite remembering having /some/ kind of agreement and plan with each other and that for both of them, the school is— significant? But they can’t remember. there’s something there important to them.