#but i didn't want to put all of this under one HJSKHJK

[yllowpages]

THIS POST CONTAINS HEAVY SPOILERS FOR J.W4 —

john is not a good friend.

at least not that we see in his journey through these movies. in fact, he fairly consistently acts selfishly — he asks for things for personal vendettas, he puts people in conflicting positions, and he even ruins or ends lives just by asking for favors from those he may have considered friends. pretty much every person who helps john is punished and faces the consequences for doing so, no matter how much john cared for them or thought highly of them. marcus saves john's life and viggo kills him for it. charon puts john in his own favor and the marquis kills him for it. winston obviously also favors john over many others and he has to jump through many hoops to gain back his respect and the hotel when all of that is taken away because of john. the bowery king pays for his act of supplying john with a weapon in receiving a physical punishment. sofia is put out when john comes to her and it can be implied she was punished for helping him based on what happened to both the director and the bowery king. koji is killed by caine for even temporarily giving safe harbor to john in the osaka continental.

caine (and, by some extension, winston) is the first time john actually fulfills a less-than-selfish act for something technically bigger than him. allowing caine to shoot him so john could save his last shot for the marquis was john's one slightly selfless action in these films. and only slightly since killing the marquis would free himself (and also winston). still, it seems to me that john came to this realization in chapter 4 that there was nothing left for him. (the dog, yes, but the dog seemed to be doing just fine with the bowery king as well.) his family, helen, was gone. and he'd alienated himself from anyone else he might have called a friend. plus, he'd killed too much to continue trying to avoid the consequences of his actions. he had no life to return to. he didn't want to die, but knew if he had to, he'd rather die as john, "the man who loved and was loved by his wife." and so the moment the marquis was dead, he was able to do that. but ... even if he had no life to return to, caine did. and taking that away from him — after taking koji from his daughter, arguably sofia from hers, and many others from their lives — this was something he owed to both caine and himself. so, in the one moment of real character development he has, john saves his last shot for the marquis so he can have the final word and have his freedom, but also took cain's last bullet so that caine could be with his daughter. it's exactly what koji said, something that john had never considered, therefore had to be reminded of so he could dig himself out of his selfish pit of grief:

friendship means little when it's convenient.