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HQ // 394 analysis thread
Prepare because I’m gonna go deep into this, I really want to talk about the chapter’s ending and how brilliant this whole thing is but I feel that the best way to understand the ending is if I deconstruct the whole chapter, so here I go +
Prepare because I’m gonna go deep into this, I really want to talk about the chapter’s ending and how brilliant this whole thing is but I feel that the best way to understand the ending is if I deconstruct the whole chapter, so here I go +
For this thread, there are two things important things which are: defining what it means to be lucky and then understanding what it means to be prepared, because at some point, both of these will intertwine +
394 starts with this conversation, but the most important dialogues are “why are you so strong Wakatoshi-kun?” and “because I got lucky” because it start to introduce what it is to be lucky +
then we move to the opposite concept which is to to define what it means to be unlucky, and for this, Furudate focuses on Hinata and Hoshiumi because their lack of height makes them being at a disadvantage, +
now, the reason why these panels matter is because they introduce the idea in which, luck are all the things we can’t control, Ushiwaka’s weapon has always being the fact that he’s left-handed, something he can’t control as viewed on Ushiwaka’s back story +
on the other hand, Hinata and Hoshiumi are referred as “unlucky” for not being taller, but the things is, they can’t control their height, so this way of defining luck allows us assume that its meaning refers to all the things we can’t control +
then the chapter introduces what it means to be prepare, this starts the moment Sakusa starts to talk to Hinata saying how much he dislikes those who are carless and instead, values what it is to be meticulous and this is even reflection on his admiration for Ushiwaka +
Side note: but he also acknowledges that “the unforeseen occurrences happen” but this becomes relevant later one, I’m just pointing this out because it’s important to keep it in mind +
coming back to the part of preparation, the following panels are about him working on things he know and working even harder on those things he fails to do +
here is what it’s important: he is always working and he is always being careful +
And a few pages later, we can finally see how luck and preparation intertwine with the following:
1. Ushikawa not going to the nationals
2. “Their big star collapsed in the last set”
3. The captain got an injury on his ankle
1. Ushikawa not going to the nationals
2. “Their big star collapsed in the last set”
3. The captain got an injury on his ankle
those three things are relevant because these aren’t things the public couldn’t have foresee, and I know as a reader it might seem that Ushikawa losing it was something we we’re prepared and even looking for it +
but Sakusa and everyone else couldn’t because they are outsiders of Karasuno’s handwork, they don’t know how hard they worked and even the manga acknowledges sometimes how it was +
a surprised that they won, they didn’t win on mere luck, but on volleyball (an life in general) sometimes “luck” plays a part on the victories, like those balls who are dancing on the net and suddenly falls on the opposite net,
or all of those times in which Hinata was receiving the ball with his face and be able to make a point because of that, or when the characters themselves admit that they didn’t know how the point happened,
and it’s now that Furudate or my interpretation is trying to diminish their hard work, but it’s that if we want to accept what it means to be unlucky, we also have to accept that being lucky plays a part of our life this is so we can see the how this idea is used as +
“Although you prepare hardly, there are things outside of your control, sometimes is good, other times they aren’t but luck, or the lack of it, is always playing a role”
and this is why this matters, on this panels we see Sakusa asking a question to which Sakusa says that he doesn’t understand why would he cry when there’s nothing to regret +
the captain prepared and he didn’t lack the practice, the captain did everything he was supposed to, which the captain basically says “that’s why it hurts so much!!”
because the only reason for his failure was something he didn’t do, and sometimes, this is kind of failure is harder to accept, because you did everything and yet you failed, how do you life with that, knowing that there’s nothing to change but to completely accept the outcome? +
and sometimes not being able to change anythings makes you feel impotent, and this is what the captain is discussing in here, he feeling impotent over the fact of not being able to change anything at all, +
and for that, I am using this ending, because it highlight the main idea of this chapter, which is “with luck, you never know the outcome” and this ending is everything +
because they way I see it, Sakusa, or rather Furudate, is teaching us how to live with luck, or in other words, with the unknown, I feel that this is such a good lesson because we are often taught that everything in life can be controlled +
with the right mentality, but here Furudate is breaking the mold and telling us that, no, some things are out of our reach, so I am going to teach us how to life with it, and how to accept them, and what +
