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ever since 148, the concept of pride has been carelessly associated with oikawa to the point that it became everyone's favorite answer to the question of what oikawa's motivations in life are.
but what did oikawa truly mean when he mentioned his "worthless" or "petty" pride?
but what did oikawa truly mean when he mentioned his "worthless" or "petty" pride?
first things first: let's visit the context of this conversation. ushijima was the one who approached oikawa. ushijima was the one who told him he chose the wrong path. ushijima was the one who mentioned oikawa's "petty pride."
ushijima essentially reduced all of oikawa's motivations to choose aoba johsai to mere pride, implying that oikawa believed in his skills so much that he chose a random school instead of shiratorizawa—a place where he could have shined brighter.
but we know that this is not the case. oikawa is many things, but personal pride is something we can't even fault him with because we know that beneath oikawa's gaudy façade is a boy who knew there were people better than him. oikawa knew what his skills amounted to.
(funnily enough, in this conversation, there is one (1) person who is overflowing with pride.
hint: it's not oikawa)
hint: it's not oikawa)
i'm not necessarily a fan of the viz translations, but the excessive use of quotation marks for "petty pride" honestly drives the point home. this sentiments wasn't oikawa's, and he obviously was just using ushijima's words against him at this point.
oikawa mentions that he doesn't deny having petty pride, but if we think about it, what exactly did oikawa mean? did oikawa mean he was truly a prideful player? or did he mean something else?
oikawa claims that the choice he made was not the wrong one, essentially saying that he has reasons aside from his so-called pride to stay in aoba johsai. given his nature as a setter, the answer here is—to me—quite obvious.
oikawa is a setter who, above all else, trusts in his team. he wholeheartedly believes in the capabilities of the people who play alongside him. he loved seijoh, and not only as a means to claim victory.
he may have wanted to defeat shiratorizawa and crush kageyama, but clearly, his reasons for that weren't linked to pride. if anything, his initial intentions were rooted in insecurity, and it wasn't until he talked to jose blanco that things changed for him.
if there was anything oikawa took pride in, it was his team. not himself. he believed in the individual skills of his teammates and their strength as a whole because:
so really, i never saw this declaration as a testament to oikawa's pride. it was a warning, at best, for ushijima not to underestimate him and his ideologies. considering ushijima approached oikawa to warn him, it's only fitting that oikawa reciprocates with a warning of his own.
i feel like i still have a lot of bases to cover but these are my thoughts for now. i'm just tired of people branding oikawa as a petty and spiteful person when he is so much more than that. also, i literally just woke up and i'm not even out of bed yet.
for the record: i used the viz translation for this thread because it's the only one i readily have lmao
some points you may want to consider! https://twitter.com/kassia_miya/status/1288677258454958080
