Sorry to keep throwing Miscellaneous Asks your way, but I finally had a moment to get my thoughts in order on one of the points on your Venn diagram I wanted to talk about! I always kind of debate whether or not to send other, semi-unrelated long asks like this when we've already got a chain going, but oh well. I'll try and address anything brought up in response here in the main one and hopefully it doesn't get confusing lol.
So I was thinking about the extent of Jo and Arakawa's relationship. It is completely true there's not much you can say that's concrete, especially since most of what we see is from Jo's perspective. Although his perspective is crucial to forming an understanding of their relationship, it's not sufficient. This is particularly the case because, coming back to giri-ninjo for a moment, Jo is largely bound by giri; it's clear his loyalty runs deep, but it's not a choice for him.
Arakawa, on the other hand, can choose who he places his trust in, especially early on. And I think it's incredibly important that, despite having men who've already been with him from day 1, men who've already been helping him with his son, Arakawa chooses to "place every confidence" in Jo (per an old Famitsu profile, one of the first official ones) and chooses to make Jo his captain.
Similarly, he kind of chooses Jo "over" Ichi in sending Ichi to prison "instead of" Jo. Perhaps the family really would collapse without Jo's talents, but… does it have to collapse entirely? Didn't Arakawa make it pretty far on his own? I guess it's neither here nor there, but I've always wondered if things would've really played out as feared if Jo went to prison instead. Not to understate Jo's role in the family, of course.
Anyway, I think that trust shows not only in overt gestures such as entrusting Masato and the family's finances to Jo, but also in more subtle behind-the-scenes ways, such as what we were talking about before with regard to New Year's 2001. There's also the fact that leaking information to Aoki was Jo's idea; for that to be the case, Arakawa would have to discuss Aoki's threats at length with Jo. (Unrelated, but come to think of it, "complying with him [to] make him see value in keeping us around" is very often the strategy of victims of abuse and neglect…)
And this one's an underrated detail many people miss, but after Arakawa shot Ichi, while he was able to come up to Ichi to tell him he's counting on him and sneak in the fake bill, if the goal was to not arouse suspicion, I don't think he would exactly have been able to excuse himself from the dinner to drive Ichi to Yokohama. Time was of the essence in terms of Ichi's survival, so that leaves Jo, who was conveniently already at the scene and who was certainly in on the "secret rule" that constitutes part of the Arakawa Family's agreement with the homeless camp. Overall, there is a pattern of Arakawa approaching Jo before anyone else, isn't there?
Sort of branching off of that, I would personally feel comfortable saying that Jo knows Arakawa better than anyone else. He seems to know details about Akane and New Year's 1976 no one else does, details Arakawa would have had to volunteer himself, and that plus his own experiences are what allow him alone to have the most complete picture of that night.
I also get the impression Jo understands Arakawa better as a person than anyone else--certainly better than Aoki, but perhaps even better than Ichi in some cases. There are multiple instances where he defends Arakawa and challenges their perceptions of him--that he's "betrayed" the Tojo Clan, that he's betrayed Aoki, that he's the type to scheme and make power-plays behind Aoki's back. He hasn't. And, despite how little Jo's "allowed" to say, he turns out to be right every time. Also worth noting Arakawa does something similar in asking Ichi to try and understand Jo's frustrations, though he's more or less enabling Jo's abuse in doing so.
Lastly, The Smallest Detail that drives me kind of insane. Them arriving at the office in the back seat of the same car in one of Ichi's flashbacks. I wouldn't think too much of it if it were any other time of day, but the first-thing-in-the-morning quality and the fact Jo isn't driving (thus it's not as an act of service but as an equal) is like… Okay. You're carpooling to work. And if you're not carpooling, you're honest-to-god living together. What the hell.
So a lot of it is this web of inferences--it has to be, at least currently--but I really do think there's a lot to chew on. More than meets the eye, anyway. I've also been stewing in all of this for years, especially since drafting Jo's relationships section, so I might just have inhaled the fumes for too long lol
Thank you for coming to me about the nature of their relationship! Although I did put it down as being more-or-less 'uncertain' on my chart, I do agree that their relationship isn't as cut-and-dry as other relationships might be (it's going back to appreciating the complexities of RGG relationships, especially in the case of the Arakawa's where for every party involved it really IS complicated)
I wanted to exclude making any definitive statements on things that couldn't be verified without making a detour on the original post (I know I already mentioned frequently that Arakawa is able to joke about Jo being 'softer' on Masato, but I do think about their relationship often and the implied depth of Jo's loyalty if- as you said- he was able to climb through the ranks of the Arakawa family much quicker than preexisting members), but there are clear points in the game that due allude to a great trust between the two (and I also note that carpooling detail during Ichi's flashback- or at the very least I know I'd find myself noticing Jo sitting in the back opposed to the front/driving). It's definitely not hard to assert that Jo knows Arakawa well either, it's hard not to come to that conclusion when we have evidence from the game to infer that.
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For fucks sake it's 4 am. Can I not ever unexpectedly hyperfixate at a reasonable time
Anyways. I haven't even seen the show yet, I just kept finding clips of rottmnt on my yt reccomendations??? I used to watch 2012 tmnt when I was a kid and Mikey was literally always my favorite like. I kin this mf so hard djfkgglkfj
Anyways (^2), this art is just me messing with some hc ideas that I've developed over the last. *checks watch* twelve hours of scrolling through the tumblr tag and watching yt clips and reading fandom wikis (ex. The scars on his hands are from his mystic powers even though it's nooot realistic at all I honestly just wanted to draw him with scars)-
Also I felt sort of weird about drawing an anthropomorphic teenage turtle with no clothes so I made up an outfit for him 😳👉🏽👈🏽
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[Hana Overblot AU by my friend, the glorious mafia fish, @pinsssss <3] […does this count as fanart????] [lol]
I’m going to be seeing green for a week but it’s okay because it’s Hana. - Yami’s dumbass at 11:00 PM
This is sort of inspired by this one drawing and based on one of the two bad ends, the one where Hana keeps Cater captive,,,
Anyways more babble under the cut [aka tired dumbass who now sees in green thinks too much into the several overblot aus] [also non spoopy version under the cut too] [my tags are even worse oh god 😔]
I dunno this BE OB AU and Jade’s BE OB AU have similar yet different vibes,,,
Like in it’s broadest terms, it’s got “suffer with me” vibes because the whole bad end has the other party suffering with the OBed person, not only suffering because of them but suffering with them too 🤔 But Hana’s “suffer with me” is different than Jade’s… Cater’s suffering because of Hana (like how Chiaki’s suffering because of Jade) but Hana’s trying to relieve Cater of his suffering at the same time. Trying to convince him that he’s safe in her arms. That it’s gonna be okay because she’s got him. That she won’t leave him the way all his friends did (aka when she uh. you know. murdered them.) While with Jade it’s literally “suffer with me” like “you did this to me, and now you’re going to suffer with me, whether I have to drag you while you’re kicking and screaming or not.” Also yes that is a quote he says and another quote he says that really matches the situation is “there’s something fundamentally wrong with you. What made you think this was going to work out in your favor?” Which yes there is something wrong, why did you think imprisonment would work out in your favor Hana 😭 and there’s mentally shattering a person and forcing them to develop a dependency on the OBed person which I won’t get into because then I’d. be here all night. Also my Hana and Jade interpretations are complete wack at the moment so there’s that too. BUT LIKE the vibes. These are also Sadie’s vibes, over analyzing and making bizarre connections and shit. Ahhh the joys of being a writer and an artist/lh But also like ignore me it’s almost midnight as I’m typing this and sleepy silly silly sleepy director, you’re here for the art not the tired angelfish babble/lh
Anyways, non spoopy versions where you can see things [I need to do this for my other spoopy drawings but lazy,,,]
And also
Pink
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