Thread by @fuwametal_, I'm going to get lambasted for this, but remember:Taichi does not "deserve" [...]

I'm going to get lambasted for this, but remember:

Taichi does not "deserve" Chihaya because of his efforts. Arata does not "deserve" Chihaya for his efforts either. No one "deserves" Chihaya for their efforts, because to say so implies that Chihaya is a trophy to be won for

their personal happiness. To say that you want Taichi to win over Chihaya for him to finally be happy after all of his suffering and the efforts that he's put in is quite reductive of Chihaya's role in the story as the protagonist and as a woman who has the agency and the freedom

to choose whomever it is that she wants to love. I think that it's also insulting to Taichi's character progression to stake all of his happiness on someone else instead of on his person when his character's growth and story arc revolves around him accepting that not all battles

can be won, a point which he has finally arrived at in the manga.

All this to say that we don't decide whom it is Chihaya should love. We are onlookers in their story, and if you ask me, whomever it is that she chooses in the end deserves her love fully, solely for the fact that

Chihaya chose them. Chihaya doesn't owe Taichi her love because he put in all of his efforts into making her fall for him. Gambling everything you have in the game of love will not guarantee that you will come out the victor. It's just the way that it is. Love and life is unfair.

For the record, I'm not saying you can't root for Taichi's happiness, I just think it's not very healthy to stake all of his happiness on him ending up with Chihaya. I, too, want to see Taichi happy after all he's suffered through to be with Chihaya, but if Chihaya can't love him

then I will wish for his happiness elsewhere. Somewhere that isn't with Chihaya, because I also want to respect Chihaya's feelings for Arata (who is on the track to being Chihaya's endgame), and because I don't think Taichi would be very happy to end up with a Chihaya that still

loves Arata. It would feel like a hollow victory won out of pity. A consolation prize. I wouldn't be happy with that.

In the end, no matter who it is that Chihaya ends up with, I will be happy, and I will wish for the loser in love to find happiness elsewhere. That I am a

Chihaya/Arata shipper watching Arata winning over Chihaya's love brings me great joy, but that doesn't mean I don't feel for Taichi or his struggle either. I want him to be happy, but not with Chihaya, because it seems to me like Chihaya's already made her choice and I respect

that. If it were the other way around, I would be disappointed that my preferred pairing isn't the canon pairing, but I would nonetheless be happy for Taichi, and likewise wish for Arata's happiness elsewhere.

Last thing. It irks me to see people say with their whole chest that

Taichi is a more eligible partner than Arata because he put in more effort and has shown more character growth than Arata. It also irks me to see people say that Arata is a static character. It seems to me like we didn't watch the same anime or read the same manga. Arata has done

just as much growing as Taichi and Chihaya and has put in just as much effort as either of them into karuta. His whole life is karuta. He's put in more time into karuta than either Chihaya or Taichi because he's been playing since he was a child. Of course he'd be strong from the

moment he was introduced, and of course he doesn't have leaps and bounds to grow within the sport anymore. He's already done that growing outside of the time that they show him in the anime. His struggles are different. Struggles with loss and grief. Struggles with the anxiety of

separation. Struggles with the distance between him and his friends, between him and his peers, between him and his rivals. Struggles with identity as the scion of an Eternal Meijin. Struggles with relying on others for support. Struggles with leadership over a team after a

career focused on the individual sport. Struggles with accepting his own feelings for Chihaya, even. Remember when he said that he thought of Chihaya as belonging to Taichi? Him telling Taichi in that conversation that she doesn't belong to anyone is growth for him, too. That was

him getting past the trepidation of leaving his feelings by the wayside in favor of letting Taichi be the one to always be by Chihaya's side for the sake of their happiness. That was him learning to be selfish in his love to finally pursue Chihaya. That was real growth.

There's just as much nuance to his character and his growth as with any of our other protagonists. It just irks me how much people seem to brush aside about his characterization just because Taichi's pain is more obviously presented. They are BOTH very strong protagonists.

If I had to make a tl;dr for this thread, it would be this:

There's a difference between sincerely thinking "Chihaya should choose [x] in the end" and "I hope Chihaya and [x] end up together."

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