#Why would laios the outcast be an effigy of Western culture? Of any culture?

[zoobus]

Okay I know this is old news and no one cares anymore but another reason it's dumb to put Toshiro not explicitly telling Laios he didn't like him on his culture/upbringing/east vs west/poorly defined anthropology concepts

(in addition to all the other reasons e.g. Laios canonically has a 1 in people skills, Falin is of the same culture and does not struggle in the same way Laios does, Laios' inability to pick up "high context" social cues/read people is an issue that follows him throughout life not just with this one foreigner, everyone else in his party figures out how Toshiro feels despite not being easterners, Toshiro's recollection of how he indicated he wasn't interested are all common ways to softly reject people in "Western" culture ["I'm busy that day. I'm busy the next day. I'm busy every single day."], Toshiro's nanny [also an easterner] points out his inability to speak his true feelings as both odd and a character flaw he should work on, Toshiro has logical reasons to not make his feelings known, one of the big background themes of the story is that broad, sweeping assumptions about how Other Races think is a good way to misunderstand the individual you're dealing with and the lived experiences that shaped them)

IN ADDITION TO ALL THAT. What was it Rin said before that fight?