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kghn & the concept of friendship. a thread ft. 365 & 398
kghn are so funny bc theyre explicitly “not friends”, its implied that they dont think of eachother as traditional friends either. theyre always described to be “something else.” aka partners [on court].
kghn are so funny bc theyre explicitly “not friends”, its implied that they dont think of eachother as traditional friends either. theyre always described to be “something else.” aka partners [on court].
but i think it’s interesting to consider how unreliable narrators play a role in defining their friendship (or lack thereof)... they dont perceive eachother as traditional friends despite having an extremely close and dedicated relationship with eachother.
like yeah u guys may not experience friendship with eachother like its typically shown (going shopping together, going out to eat together, hanging out at eachothers houses) but u guys literally have a telepathic sense of communication and an inherent unique understanding
of eachother’s personhood... define friendship. quickly. and dont do it in a way that’ll make me Okay Allistic you. the argument that theyre not friends originates from the fact that their relationship is focused “on the court”.
“u guys are teammates/rivals/partners/fated match but ur not friends, not off the court.” but what is really “off the court”? take into account 365 & 398 and takeda’s words “this is volleyball too.”
with kghn there is no “on the court” and “off the court”. training, sleeping, eating, their entire way of living, is all volleyball. there is no “you guys dont matter to eachother outside of volleyball” because there is no “outside of volleyball.”
you also have to realize nd ppl experience friendship differently from nt ppl.... when you take into account their nd coding, u see how volleyball as a fixation is the center of eachother’s lives. that bc volleyball is their fixation the other is in fact inherent in their lives..
that sense of importance, i argue, is equivalent or stronger than the typical nt definition of “friendship”.
its complicated to really define where the line between friendship and teammate/rival/partner is, and i think a lot of people take furudate explicitly saying theyre not friends as a sad thing, but i think it’s actually quite the opposite.
theyre said to not be friends, but they are said to be everything else, and through that everything else, you recontemplate what friendship really means to them.
theyre said to “not matter to eachother off the court” and then we’re left to ponder what “off the court” really is. how furudate has developed the idea of volleyball from something isolated on the court -> an entire way of living.
and then we realize that kghn are literally present in eachother’s way of living. not in an unhealthy codependent way but in a “we have helped eachother be the best versions of ourselves by eachother’s sides, so that we may bloom as individuals and as a pair” way.
and would u not consider someone like that, a “friend”? yes, i dont think they consider eachother traditional “friends”. but i dont think they, at least with eachother, experience the concept of “friendship” the the way that its presented to us by narrators like yachi or
even kghn themselves. and thats another interesting narrator perspective to consider, “what is their definition of friends, and does it match with mine? when they tell us theyre not friends, are they saying they are not what i perceive to be friendship? and are they even aware?”
and furudate themselves directly spelling out that theyre “not friends” bc they dont do “friend things” is... less of a “see theres a disconnect that makes their dynamic weaker” and more an invitation to rly process what friendship is to them.
haikyuu’s theme of unconventionality = strength, “strength is being free.” it’s interesting to explore how kghn’s relationship has so much freedom associated with it (224 hinata freeing tobio, 314 “fly!”). so why should we not find it intriguing to also apply
that theme of freedom into what we’re EXPLICITLY told is “not friendship”. to apply what we know of hq’s themes to examine what “friendship” really is for them. [end]
just think its funny that hinata himself says hes not the first friend i made he was a partner and thinking abt his reliability as a narrator. what is His definition of a friend and does that friend include “partner”. and is furudate, when talking abt them not being friends,
referring to hinata’s definition of friendship? do you, as the reader, agree with this interpretation of friendship?
