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Endo-sensei’s illustration for ch114 (source)

He also apologized for forgetting to draw the door that leads to the bathroom in Yuri's house 😅

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The fear of evolving…

Okay, we’re back with a new chapter of SxF 114, and Endo leaves us with a deep reflection.

And yes, this will be a long post with spoilers.

Sheets and toothbrush new…

Focusing on the chapter, we see that it revolves around a family outing with Yor and Yuri, where they spend quality time together. The outing starts with Yuri desperately wanting to buy something that will please Yor. However, this turns out to be quite challenging when what Yor wants are household items that remind her of her husband and daughter.

This is very frustrating for Yuri, who just wants the chance to indulge Yor's personal whims and feel the satisfaction of "providing" for her, both materially and emotionally. But I’ll come back to this point later

Yor should drink alcohol more often... please?

Once at the restaurant, Yuri expresses his frustration that everything in Yor's mind is centered around her family and not on her individuality. In Yor’s angelic mind, she constantly thinks like a mother and a wife, which leads Yuri—who tends to have extreme thoughts—to see her as someone losing her individual identity just to fulfill a role (which isn’t true).

Yuri's criticism is, to some extent, constructive. Many people feel frustrated when they find themselves boxed into a role that prevents them from exploring their individuality. In fact, part of the lessons Yor is learning is to think for herself and to be "a little" more selfish by wanting to have friends, go out, and maybe even pick up a hobby. But we all know that this journey is slow and must be surrounded by positive stimuli that show us that being "authentic" and a bit selfish can be healthy.

....To love is also to fulfill stages...

However, Yuri's mistake is believing that Yor is in an oppressive and dictatorial environment, when it’s clear that the Forger family has become a "safe space" that provides Yor with validation, love, and understanding—enough for her to want to explore her own tastes on her own, even if they are very small steps. For Yor, the role of mother is deeply intertwined with her identity; she grew up fulfilling this role at a young age, and her sweet and strong heart instinctively makes her a wonderful mother.

The issue is that, like all mothers, fulfilling this role or mission with her children has a set timeframe. You will never stop being a mother or pather, but the stage of "dependence" has an expiration date.

Of course, Yor longs for Yuri's childhood and treasures those wonderful memories because it was a stage of life that she knows will not return (and she will likely experience again when Anya is an adult). For Yor, taking care of her brother, providing affection, food (even if it’s toxic), and looking after his health (to the point of almost harming him) was not a sacrifice; it wasn’t an obligation that frustrated her. She loved doing it because she loved her brother. Although she knew that this made her miss many experiences, she also understands that it gave her a purpose that kept her clinging to life for a long time, helping her not to face the void and absence of her parents alone.

Yor has gone through various stages and allowed other people into her life to gain new experiences and expand her emotional connections (the Forger family). Now she has a husband (with whom she occasionally gets heated and drunk), a beautiful daughter (who drools on blankets), and a dog that scratches.

But… what is really happening with Yuri? Now, here comes the more complex part:

Yuri has grown physically; he is an adult, has a job, and earns a good salary. However, emotionally, his mind is still that of a child.

For Yuri, emotional connections (love) are grounded in dependency—in other words, a provider-receiver dynamic. In this view, the person who provides fills the other with love and care, and the receiver must be grateful. This is the flawed perception Yuri has of Yor's role in his life.

Yuri believes that since Yor has been everything to him, the only way to repay her and maintain their bond is by reversing the roles and paying her back with even greater value and effort. He is stuck in a stage that prevents his love from evolving into a new phase. In part, Yuri has also sacrificed his childhood and adolescence to become a productive adult because he thinks the only way for his relationship with Yor to work is for one of them to be completely dependent on the other. His fear of evolving is tied to the belief that if their love changes, it means "I don't need you anymore, I don't love you."

The issue is that Yor doesn’t need a single source of affection because she now has a broader support circle.

Yuri holds an irreplaceable place in Yor's heart and life (which is why she cherishes her childhood memories).

However, Yuri clings to the mistaken belief that if one doesn’t depend on the other, he will soon be pushed aside and left behind. This leads him to want to remain the same child, living in the mountains and recreating his past—holding on to a stage of his life that he views as the only happy one. He believes that without Yor in his life, he no longer has purpose as a person or individual, nor any source of affection.

I know Yuri is a pain and his head is full of nonsense, but Endo's subtlety shows that beneath those layers of discomfort, oddities, shouts, grunts, and other flaws, there’s a good guy. Even against his will, he bought the things Yor wanted (for their family).

It’s now that he realizes everything he thought he had to do to "stay" by Yor’s side doesn’t actually satisfy him; on the contrary, it frustrates him even more when he arrives at an empty room. Many times, we cling to dynamics and fill our heads with goals and expectations, believing that this way "things won’t change" out of fear of loneliness, when in reality, the effect is the opposite.

Friend! I'm not even going to think about where I get so many photos from!

It’s hopeful that Yuri doesn’t have to be "truly" alone without Yor. Even if he doesn’t realize it, he already has friends, colleagues, and someone interested (and a bit jealous) in him waiting on the other end of the call. This suggests that if Yor has found her place with the Forgers, perhaps Yuri is closer to understanding that he has more people around him than he thinks.

Bonus +

We love Chloe, who is panicked (and jealous) that Yuri is going on dates!

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I love her!!!

I could never hate you Chloe

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After the newest episode of Daima, I’m now just thinking of Vegeta and Bulma having this conversation from Friends:

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so I was thinking about the Maslow Pyramid for Goku and Vegeta, which basically si like:

Goku: Food (weakness/priority) - Fight (relevant) - Sex (highly appreciated) Vegeta: Sex (weakness/priority) - Fight (relevant) - Food (highly appreciated)

which makes the gochi and vegebul couple so cool because both of their wives give them that in the exact order they need lol

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Literally! It was the first thing I thought of this scene when I saw that chapter!

Daima canonized what Vegeta’s priorities are and I can’t stop making memes on it XD

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[Spy x Family ch. 109 spoilers]

I just finished the chapter as of two minutes ago, and I have to tell you, I am having the best time getting to use whip out my psychology degree again.

Good people of tumblr, allow me to introduce to you:

Capgras delusion

It's interesting that Melinda disclosed that she was a patient of the hospital before. It is no small feat to be admitted into psychiatric care - especially in a hospitalised setting. Psychiatric hospitals typically deal with very high-risk disorders and behaviours, with many patients being admitted to hospital either for their own safety, or for the safety of those around them.

What has this got to do with capgras delusion?

Capgras delusion is a very serious psychiatric disorder in which a person believes that someone very close to them has been replaced with an impostor.

It is not uncommon for sufferers of capgras delusion to believe that their loved ones have been replaced by aliens, a doppelganger, or a clone.

It can be from many causes: psychosis, schizophrenia, brain damage, neurodegenerative disease. In very rare cases there have even been documented unexepcted triggers such as ketamine, diabetes, migraines, and urinary cystitis.

And, crucially; it is not unheard of for sufferers of capgras delusion to be physically agressive towards the perceived impostor.

(Is that why she was sent to psychiatry before? Is that why she is estranged from Donovan and the children? Is that why she is kept under very close watch? Or is there something more sinister going on?)

From this chapter alone, I wonder if we will see a link between Melinda's delusion, and her past experiences. If Endo chooses to take the scientific route, we may see a history of physical abuse that resulted in brain damage, or a history of psychological abuse that made Melinda vulnerable to psychosis.

I would be really interested to see if Melinda's current way of thinking may have originated from having an initially loving relationship with Donovan Desmond, but she saw a sudden change in behaviour in him to become the heartless warmonger we now know him to be, which could have pushed her into this delusional belief.

After all, how could the man she fell in love with (conjecture), have turned into such a monster? The only explanation must be that Donovan Desmond is not the Donovan she knew, and just an impostor, right?

....Right?

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Donovan before

Donovan Now:

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Will world peace happen when Donovan takes a cow with him in his spaceship?

Okay, after seeing thousands of memes on twitter of Donovan being a dancing green Alien. I would like to give a brief speculation on my part.

Honestly, I don't want to believe that Donovan is an alien in the “conventional” sense of the word. But, perhaps, a person who was subjected to some experiment during the war, related to the “Apple” experiments.

If we place ourselves in the post war era, with the creation of weapons, something that became popular was the science fiction stories and the constant paranoia of extraterrestrial contact. So it is not surprising that in SxF a fictional series (including a telepathic girl and an oracle dog), touches on these themes. So, the theory that many have mentioned that Donovan at some point underwent an experiment that is responsible for the scars on his head may not be far-fetched. But what if, before Melinda's eyes, Donovan's abilities unleashed a level of paranoia so great that it led her to conclude that her husband is an extraterrestrial?

It's not so crazy, if you think that one of Anya's greatest fears has been rejection by her parents and other people close to her if they were to learn of her powers. In fact, thinking back, I remember that when Twilight adopted Anya, we were given to understand that the orphanage owner and previous families had already rejected Anya.

Melinda clearly shows signs of a person who has been psychologically abused.

Melinda, clearly shows signs of a person who has suffered psychological abuse related to her husband and has developed disorders that affect her mental health, and this not only affects her but also her bond with her children (as we saw with Demian).

Perhaps Melinda's mind created this idea that Donovan is an alien as a defense mechanism to deal with the abuses (and possible crimes) of her husband?

And considering how the war has affected the entire generation of Loid, Yor and Melinda who lived their whole lives with the war. It is not surprising that Melinda at some point has been affected by all the media talking about this issue, and started to link all these events to Donovan's co-ducts.

Then… No spaceships?

I can't rule out that the “Apple” experiments may have had a slight contact with technology or some kind of unknown being, and this may have been the basis for experimentation to obtain Anya and Bond's powers. (Remember we haven't confirmed if Anya has real horns, have we?) Also, this chapter made me think that Anya mentioned that her powers are linked to the lunar phases, so she may lose her telepathy with the crescent moon.

Girl, what are you saying?

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A while back My Happy Marriage's twitter account revealed a special early viewing of the first 3 episodes of season 2 in Japan. Obviously I couldn't watch it, but today I stumbled upon a VERY special leak from the 3rd episode and it has a MAJOR scene between Miyo and Kiyoka! This is the best way to end 2024 for me.

Look below to see the spoiler pic, but beware it'll do a number on your heart!!!!

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Donovan to his family: I'm not locked up with you .... You are locked in here with me....

Melinda if you want me to call the police look away)

I guess you can't kidnap your kids and wife, and give them a life of probation..... Right Donovan?

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Average family games:

The person who makes others uncomfortable wins!

Donovan wants to be undefeated in this game

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Forger Family: We are a fake family, with no feelings, everything is a cover for appearances, and we don't care about each other's welfare:

Familia Desmond: ...... Ehhhhh.... Well

Well... They have the last name, don't they?

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It's honestly painfully profound and human as Saitama struggles with his own identity and self-concept.

You really understand when ONE says that “a normal life is hard,” especially when you're not particularly privileged from the start. And your constant struggle to fit into the world becomes uphill. Which makes you sympathize more with Garou's vision.

Watching OPM you realize that Saitama is particularly talented, and although he doesn't see it, he absorbs more knowledge than he realizes. He could be on par with geniuses like Garou, -whose mind is focused on technique and refinement- if he had the motivation to do so. For his level of commitment and discipline drove him to be so strong in the first place.

It is painfully human that our ability to grow is very much tied to our perception. Whether we see ourselves as capable or we see ourselves as failures. But Saitama's constant discouragement in believing that “Being strong is all there was in him, all that gave him meaning.” But when he became absurdly powerful, he believes he reached his limit as an individual.

Your focus is on the result. If the result is the same, then there is no improvement, right?

It is paradoxical, because Saitama is someone who motivates others not to focus on defeats but to move forward.

He genuinely needs to stop seeing his strength as the only thing that exists in himself, and perhaps open up more to all that he can achieve. After all, supreme strength doesn't always guarantee you to be the most efficient hero and save everyone, we learned that the hard way, didn't we?

Honestly, Saitama's perception and self-concept is painfully human and one that more than one can relate to, if you remember that many of us don't feel capable of achieving some goal just because we think we are incapable, or we think we have reached a plateau and we are nothing more than that.

Reasons to love OPM & little tidbits #9

Small characterizations details that are easy to miss ep9:

Saitama is far better in martial arts than it appears.

Saitama from the very beginning has actually been interested in how the human body works, even when he was a mere 12-year old kid, he rather studied human health and physical education than interact with his peers. (Chapter 8.5: "200 yen)

Saitama does not often show this capacity for both learning and understanding martial arts and how the human body works, often just being ragdolled around by his opponents, but when he does, for instance, when Garou attempted to chop him because he thought he was another pursuer, Saitama perform a very difficult and even dangerous chop maneuver back to hit the vagus nerve on Garou's neck with precision and makes Garou pass out like a light. One could say he simply copied the maneuver, but Garou did perform his maneuver a fair bit differently than Saitama. (Chapter 51: Headgear)

Saitama is also not only interested in the subject at hand when Tank top master explains how Garou can take down heroes, but he also understands the concept of striking vital body parts and does not ask any follow up nor clarifying questions but follows the thought process easily and he's very happy to find someone with a martial artist background as his potential opponent. (Chapter 49: I'm bored anyway)

Saitama from time to time, has actually showcased real Karate and boxing maneuvers, such as during the matrial arts tournament wherre he performs a kata without a prompt and when he fought Garou on I.O., he gives him a right hook and later even uppercuts him. (Chapter 70: Being strong is fun) (Chapter 167: I.O)

Unfortunately for Saitama, he himself consciously believes he cannot actually learn anything like martial arts, despite instinctually learning so much from Garou in such a short duration, to the point of being able to turn back time by merely copying him. It is a sad prospect that Saitama fully believes he does not gain a thing, after getting burned so much from learning during his childhood that the entire prospect of learning new things in his adulthood is demotivating. (Chapter 76: Stagnation and Growth)

Here's hoping Saitama gets past that demotivating hurdle at some point, that stops him from learning new things to better himself.