THE LIFE OF THE AVERAGE RAIN GUARDIAN
IN A FIT OF IRONY, this is the first essay I've written in at least a year TWO YEARS? and it's for Yamamoto Takeshi, the happiest kid in Reborn. I do love me some irony.
HERE IS MY RAMBLING ABOUT MY TAKE ON HIM.
Suicide lol
WE MAY AS WELL START AT THE BEGINNING.
When we meet Yamamoto, he's hot in an ugly style, popular, and a baseball star beloved by the whole school - but on a personal level, he's in a slump. After he gets a half-hearted "hard work fixes everything" pep talk from Tsuna, he works too hard and snaps his arm - and the answer to this possible end of his baseball career IS CLEARLY SUICIDE, so he climbs up on the roof and freaks out the whole school. PANICKING, Tsuna takes back what he said about hard work and says that he himself could never think something so intense as "I have no reason to live now" - rather that he would regret too much in his life, and would think he should keep living with a dying will. ONE NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE LATER, Tsuna's saved Yamamoto's life, and Yamamoto instantly becomes gay for Tsuna and tells him he's amazing - that he's right, he should live with a dying will, and he doesn't know what he was thinking. The student body decides it was all a joke and brushes it off (it was a BIG DROP, SURELY SMOKE AND MIRRORS WERE INVOLVED), and we never see Yamamoto depressed again! :D :D :D Except eleven years later
What we DON'T KNOW at this point, is that alongside the goofy upbeat retardedness, Yamamoto is a very focused type of character who prioritizes himself based on major goals he revolves himself around. Gokudera and Yamamoto are set up to be parallels from the start: Tsuna's TWO MOST LOYAL FRIENDS/MEN, whose lives are both saved when they meet him and they're won over permanently by The Way Tsuna Is. While it's PRETTY OBVIOUS Gokudera needs to be someone's mafia bitch to have a fulfilling life, Yamamoto's needs in life are a lot more nebulous because we never actually get to see his inner thoughts. So, we rely on what he says and does! Luckily, Yamamoto wears himself on his sleeve, so understanding his opinion on things is basically a non-issue.
He's pretty much a mix on the same thing as Gokudera: he operates on being DEVOTED TO SOMETHING, and he needs to have a sense that he's achieving something in what he's devoted to. He told Tsuna he was in danger of losing his position on the team, but that's total bullshit seeing as he's clearly Namimori's star player! He's brilliant! The guy at the baseball nets says he's incredible and Yamamoto just brushes it off because he can't meet his own insanely high personal standard! Which means it actually had nothing to do with outside-world payoff or appearances. What Yamamoto needed was a sense of personal achievement, that he was doing something. So "not improving anymore" was a slump bad enough to freak him out and decide THERE WAS NOTHING TO LIVE FOR \o/ How important "something he can DO" is continues to crop up every once and a while! In the Kokuyo arc, when he had the choice to protect his body (for an upcoming baseball game) or get badly injured during a mafia event, he actively sacrifices his arm to protect Tsuna. Brushing off Tsuna's concern for the injury, and saying that he's not a person who puts anything in front of his friends anymore, is PRETTY TELLING that Yamamoto's made Tsuna/the mafia his new true priority, though he still prioritizes baseball if he can. Later, when he's fighting against Squalo and creates a new sword technique with a baseball stance, he says something else that crops up a lot for him: "Unfortunately, I'm not good at anything else other than baseball." So! EARLIER, he was under the impression that there was NOTHING ELSE HE WAS GOOD FOR. Also, he was thirteen years old. There was a very healthy dose of good old basic stupidity involved. Deciding to kill himself over baseball, because he thinks it's the only thing he'll ever be good at and he has no purpose otherwise, is a VERY TUNNEL-VISIONED THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD THING TO DO.
Initially Yamamoto being suicidal is a really awkward way to introduce such a cheerful character - I didn't even mention it in his canon when I wrote his application, because it had NOTHING TO DO with his current character or state of being. Because, REALLY, IT IS SORT OF WEIRD AND AWKWARD compared to his existence in the rest of the day-in-the-life arc! The fact that the character who is the most cheerful of all of them, the source of HILARIOUS OBLIVIOUS RETARDATION, was suicidal when he entered the picture . . . what! BUT. It's much, much easier to swallow now that I've re-read canon a few times, and looked at the event in perspective. Amano has this THING where a lot of what she does is only interesting in retrospect. And in the end, the most defining thing about Yamamoto isn't that he's happy or oblivious (though that's definitely the most obvious thing!) - it's that he's steady and reliable. So the attempted suicide WASN'T ACTUALLY OUT OF LEFT FIELD AND TOTALLY WRONG FOR HIS CHARACTER AFTER ALL \o/ and is in fact helpful (OR EVEN PIVOTAL? maybe not :\) in understanding how he ticks. He wasn't depressed, and nothing about his cheer is remotely fake or overcompensating as he is NATURALLY CHEERFUL. He just. Didn't think there was any point in someone who can't even do the one, single thing he's good at.
Now he has Tsuna, and the mafia, so there's no need to worry about him slipping back into that mindset. His new game is VERY occupying, and he's very good at it. Rather, he was BORN FOR IT.
Mafia Game Stuff
OR IS IT?!
Spoilers: The answer is yes. Though we know that in The Future Yamamoto EVENTUALLY FIGURES IT OUT, at this point Yamamoto still thinks the mafia is a game. But really, it doesn't even matter. To Yamamoto, it's not just a game; hell, this is a kid who was gonna kill himself over baseball! At this point, he's fully aware of actual death and gore and pain in this "mafia game," and he's willing to go to DANGEROUS LENGTHS for it. Why? Because he loves it.
In the day-in-the-life arc, where EVERYONE IS AS RETARDEDLY AMAZING AS POSSIBLE, the idea that the mafia is a "child's game" is ALL-ENCOMPASSING. Everything mafia-related is made of props and fireworks, all thought up by this hilarious kid. Knives are toys, rocket launchers are props, explosions are special effects, and if he shatters a cement block it was actually styrofoam. He uh, really has no idea NOT to think all of this is true at this point - I mean, a baby hitman scouted him into the mafia. What would YOU think? IT'S A PERFECTLY REASONABLE RESPONSE TO UTTER CRACK, if you ignore the fact that he's barely alarmed beyond initial shock by KNIVES AND BOMBS BEING THROWN AT HIM. H-he's no normal kid himself, but really by this point, everything around him is so insane that thinking it's a hilarious game is totally in-bounds. It's cool, because it's a game! And he gets his GAME MODE ON, which means he's playing it to win. This arc establishes certain OBLIVIOUSNESS RULES, things he will never notice: supernatural things, de-aging/time-traveling things, anything that's RIDICULOUSLY BIZARRE he will probably side on the side of REALITY. The other important thing here is that he will always play along! He's a nice guy, he's not gonna tell the players that they're deluding themselves or anything, he thinks they're great for it. He loves playing games and he thinks anyone who's playing is awesome.
HOW FAR DOES THIS REACH. Anyone who's "deaged," he actually can't tell that you're deaged, but he WILL treat you like you're a kid, because he understands you are "in-character!" Anyone who's aged up? He can't tell it's you! Sex-change, he assumes it's all advanced costume props. Bodyswitch, he thinks they are elaborate costumes, and will technically never be fooled by someone's outer appearance because he knows how a person "feels." If he himself bodyswitches, he'll just think someone dressed him up in his sleep, and he will think it is hilarious. Demons, angels, bounty hunters, anyone bizarre? Again, Yamamoto assumes you are "in-character," and odds are if he looks like he's understanding it, he's really just. Playing along with your game. For example, he's been warned that if he's cut by Mukuro's trident, Mukuro will be able to steal his body - to Yamamoto, that's just the condition they're playing, and the basic meaning of it is "if Mukuro cuts me, it's may be as good as game over." Another example of RETARDATION is the Elrics - he talks to and treats Al like a completely separate person, but as far as he's concerned he's talking to a puppet and Ed is a ventriloquist. When he sees Al up and moving around/not in pieces, he'll just assume somebody's in there now. >D SOMETIMES, SHIT GOES TOTALLY NUTS AND YAMAMOTO SUSPENDS HIS DISBELIEF, like when Enzio becomes FUCKING HUGE or when "robbers" just "appear" from being invisible in Tsuna's house. He doesn't try too hard with that! But usually, Yamamoto can come up with an explanation.
BASICALLY, THIS ARC ESTABLISHES THAT YAMAMOTO IS KINDA THICK. It also establishes a few other things:
- He is, at this point, no longer improving in baseball for baseball's sake. It's only after mafia training that his baseball improves. THIS IS OMEGA IMPORTANT. He has retardedly high standards for himself and works as hard as possible, but only when given a new non-baseball edge does he actually improve. Which MATTERS A LOT.
- He is introduced to the new and interesting object, KATANA. This kicks off the slow evolution into a swordsman, and gives him something new to work on. Yamamoto REVOLVES around improving on a personal level, so giving him something new that helps him with boosting his strength (and giving him something to better apply himself in the MAFIA GAME) is SUPER EXCITING to him.
These two things are the establishing points for Yamamoto's SWITCH, from primarily a baseball nut with mafia on the side, to mafia hitman with baseball nut on the side.
THEN. A FEW THINGS CHANGE IN THE NEXT ARCS.
- In the Kokuyo arc, Yamamoto is introduced to the fact that the violence is real. This doesn't make the mafia game any less of a game - it just means the game is more hardcore. He's flat-out willing to get maimed for it.
- In the Rings arc, for a while there, I THOUGHT HE GOT IT. I REALLY DID. I WAS TOTALLY CONVINCED HE FIGURED OUT IT WAS ALL REAL. Now I know that's not true! (A-and even Reborn, when it's confirmed, is like. What.) But in the end, AGAIN, it really doesn't matter that Yamamoto thinks it's a game; Yamamoto calling the mafia a "game" doesn't make it any less deadly to him, or any less something he needs to fully devote himself to. His dad getting involved and teaching him kendo, passing on the Shigure Souen Style to him, took it to a much higher level. The fact that it's not just playing has been affirmed and ground in. Yamamoto never once calls things a "game" in this arc, or says things "look real" - by this point, it IS all real. Yamamoto will probably accept it subtly anyway, because that's just who he is to roll with anything that comes his way. Games to Yamamoto are on an entirely different level of difficulty, and in the Rings arc he figures out DEATH is involved in this game even though NOBODY DIES, even from a SHAAARK. He knows (and states) that if he doesn't use the flat of his blade when he fights he will kill someone, and he refuses to turn it over in his fight with Squalo. He doesn't think it's a game to make it any easier to accept; the game, at this point, contains dark elements that aren't necessarily easy to accept. It's just the way he thinks, by this point, that it's a game! Dangerous shit is completely real, and he understands how it all works. But we're still on teams, it's still a set-up, and it's still not really the mafia. orz
He'll get there someday! When it needs to, or even right under our nose, it'll click. He's a natural-born assassin, after all.
Normal 14-year-old Boy Stuff JUST A TEENAGER REALLY
Anything that doesn't fall into the category of something COMPLETELY NUTS? Stuff that's real-world, and any logical person would get? YAMAMOTO GETS IT. This is where he's NOT oblivious, where he's actually pretty understanding and observant. He's that well-raised upbeat jock that old ladies wanna smack on the butt, because he's cute and friendly and such a nice boy. He's happy and optimistic, hangs out with his team, sneaks Reborn onto school by pretending he's a ventriloquist doll, does PLAYFUL THINGS like ribbing Tsuna over being popular with girls - the list goes on! He sleeps in school and winces at homework and needing to take remedial classes, and he accepts he's pretty dumb. He helps his dad out at home with the restaurant, and until Dad started kicking his ass at kendo, he would worry like a good son about his old man hurting himself.
On the VERY NICE BOY side, he loves kids and gets along with old people. He loves cooking and usually throws food at sad people to make them feel better. And of course he is a SUPPORTIVE, LOVING FRIEND, who will throw you a party or organize a get-together to make you feel better and try to make you stop fighting with his OTHER friends when you don't get along. :| He is UNNATURALLY TOUCHY and tends to hang all over the people he likes, but other than that, he is every inch one of the cutest most retarded sporty boys ever. HE REALLY TRULY HONESTLY WEARS HIMSELF ON HIS SLEEVE - he blurts his opinions, he says what he's feeling, he gets excited against strong opponents, he doesn't really think before opening his mouth half the time, but at least you always know where he stands. He blurts to Tsuna before his fight with Squalo that he's fidgety, like he's about to step up to the plate in a baseball game - and he pretty much just answers any question Squalo asks him. He's VERY HONEST REALLY, the reason he's happy all the time is because people make him happy. Life makes him happy! LIFE IS GOOD.
He also is not oblivious to real-world complications, stuff that's you know, REAL-WORLD. He understands that Gokudera's from the wrong side of the tracks and gets into street fights - he's a delinquent. He thinks it could be Gokudera when he hears a Namimori student is in a street fight, and rushes to check it out - and he is pissed off when he sees that he's been hurt and takes it goddamned seriously, and this is before he starts realizing people can get seriously hurt in the "mafia game." Hibari IS TERRIFYING AND VIOLENT AND SHADY. Birds is a CREEPY SADISTIC PERVERT. Bianchi's food is POISONOUS and people SHOULD NOT EAT IT. He also understands RELATIONSHIP THINGS, as he is you know, the most popular boy in school.
HORMONES LOL
WHICH IS PART OF BEING A 14 YEAR OLD, REALLY. Yah, Yamamoto's the most popular boy in school. HE'S PRETTY GRACEFUL ABOUT IT. On Valentine's day he is SURROUNDED BY GIRLS and he manages to laugh and say thank you and is in general pretty smooth. I play it the way I think it is: the way Japanese culture goes he's probably been confessed to A LOT, but he thinks he's too busy with baseball, and the mafia, to have a girlfriend. Because girlfriends take special time! He's turned down a lot of confessions like this. He's kissed before, curiously fooled around a little, but unless a cheerleader decided to rape him, he wouldn't really go far before feeling guilty about not being able to have a real relationship.
Oh, he's perfectly okay with this whole I HAVE HORMONES NOW thing. Yamamoto's life is sort of a giant flow of accepting things as they come, and dealing with them immediately in his own "terms." He has all those nifty Rain Guardian traits that he fully personifies: an unchanging person who squares every situation, someone you can absolutely rely on in battle and in life. Squalo is LOUUUUUD AND RAAAAH while Yamamoto is happy and accepting! Yamamoto's still YOUNG, but he's pretty destined to be open to whatever comes his way. He figured out cheerleaders were hot pretty quick after this whole HORMONES thing started happening, and then when he caught himself checking out a teammate or two. . . well! For a character like him, it would be weird if he wasn't bisexual. H-he's just too open to everything, and his dad never said anything was WRONG, so there you go.
One thing he DOES do is check people out. It's a very boyish casual type of look, assess, file away with a grin. He's busy and he's not interested in a girlfriend, buuut that doesn't mean he doesn't appreciate it when someone's being hot. THIS BECAME VERY APPARENT WHEN I WAS DOING HIS ICONS. Just casual looks! But it's enough to show that yeah, he knows enough to like what he sees.
AS FOR POTENTIAL SUBJECTS OF AFFECTION?
Well. W-well. He's pretty much designed to be married to the mafia, because he's too obsessed with it, so his friends are his true number one prospects. And as Reborn said, if Yamamoto didn't know he was gay for Tsuna already, he sure as hell knows he is now. Because Tsuna played a PIMP DADDY GAME, which was kind of WEIRD for Tsuna because it's really not the kind of game Yamamoto thought he'd play. N-not that he wasn't good at it, because he sure was in character! And in-character meant walling him and MOLESTING HIM. Which was. K-kinda hot. Even though it was also kinda WRONG because i-it was so unlike Tsuna! And he wasn't really sure if he should be playing along so willingly! B-but there wasn't much else to do, and it was kinda hot, even though it was really confusing and weird a-and especially strange to be kissing his closest friend for the first time ever in a game like that, and necking, and getting kinda hot and close in general, there.
Also now Tsuna "doesn't remember," which. Yamamoto can play along with! Ha ha, games like this are a lot more popular here, after all - maybe Tsuna's gotten used to them? Still, he doesn't think that's quite right - SOMETHING IS WEIRD, HERE. But, either way, Tsuna's back to "normal," so Yamamoto is taking his cue and treating the situation like - well, LIKE IT IS; A normal!Tsuna who doesn't remember molestinating Yamamoto PROBABLY WOULDN'T WANT TO KNOW THAT HAPPENED, he'd get mortified, and Yamamoto doesn't want that and he's pretty thoroughly embarrassed anyway >: So. HE CAN LIVE WITH IT ALL BEING A SECRET. Yamamoto's very eager to not be awkward about it, and Tsuna not remembering means it's his cue to go back to normal too, and just drape all over him without any hesitation! He just, uh. Also knows he's pretty gay for Tsuna now. Ha ha, life is funny sometimes!
There is also Gokudera - there's a few pings here and there beneath all the MY ANGRY FRIEND WHO IS HILARIOUS THAT I CARE ABOUT, like if he's looking particularly good, or if there's a moment and Yamamoto sorta senses it's a moment but doesn't quite linger on it enough to figure it out. T-too many priorities/rivalry in the way, as of now. >D HE HAS MORE COMPLICATED FEELINGS ON GOKUDERA, AND TRUST ME HE'S A SOLID SECOND PLACE (and he was previously more hormonally aware of Gokudera than Tsuna before. THIS IS NOT TRUE AT THE MOMENT but it'll probably settle back there eventually) BUT, I AM TIRED. There are also quite a few girls in camp that have pinged him every once and a while. People in camp are hot :|
BLAH BLAH BLAH. This is a lot of words to explain my take on a retard, and I didn't even touch the future arc stuff where he shows how he's TOTALLY GAY FOR GOKUDERA and trusts Reborn a lot and takes things really seriously and wants to support everyone :\ Yamamoto is a perfect Rain Guardian! An unchanging, steady force of nature who can roll with basically anything, a natural-born assassin, and a nice guy you can always count on to be at your back.
HERE IS MY RAMBLING ABOUT MY TAKE ON HIM.
Suicide lol
WE MAY AS WELL START AT THE BEGINNING.
When we meet Yamamoto, he's hot in an ugly style, popular, and a baseball star beloved by the whole school - but on a personal level, he's in a slump. After he gets a half-hearted "hard work fixes everything" pep talk from Tsuna, he works too hard and snaps his arm - and the answer to this possible end of his baseball career IS CLEARLY SUICIDE, so he climbs up on the roof and freaks out the whole school. PANICKING, Tsuna takes back what he said about hard work and says that he himself could never think something so intense as "I have no reason to live now" - rather that he would regret too much in his life, and would think he should keep living with a dying will. ONE NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE LATER, Tsuna's saved Yamamoto's life, and Yamamoto instantly becomes gay for Tsuna and tells him he's amazing - that he's right, he should live with a dying will, and he doesn't know what he was thinking. The student body decides it was all a joke and brushes it off (it was a BIG DROP, SURELY SMOKE AND MIRRORS WERE INVOLVED), and we never see Yamamoto depressed again! :D :D :D Except eleven years later
What we DON'T KNOW at this point, is that alongside the goofy upbeat retardedness, Yamamoto is a very focused type of character who prioritizes himself based on major goals he revolves himself around. Gokudera and Yamamoto are set up to be parallels from the start: Tsuna's TWO MOST LOYAL FRIENDS/MEN, whose lives are both saved when they meet him and they're won over permanently by The Way Tsuna Is. While it's PRETTY OBVIOUS Gokudera needs to be someone's mafia bitch to have a fulfilling life, Yamamoto's needs in life are a lot more nebulous because we never actually get to see his inner thoughts. So, we rely on what he says and does! Luckily, Yamamoto wears himself on his sleeve, so understanding his opinion on things is basically a non-issue.
He's pretty much a mix on the same thing as Gokudera: he operates on being DEVOTED TO SOMETHING, and he needs to have a sense that he's achieving something in what he's devoted to. He told Tsuna he was in danger of losing his position on the team, but that's total bullshit seeing as he's clearly Namimori's star player! He's brilliant! The guy at the baseball nets says he's incredible and Yamamoto just brushes it off because he can't meet his own insanely high personal standard! Which means it actually had nothing to do with outside-world payoff or appearances. What Yamamoto needed was a sense of personal achievement, that he was doing something. So "not improving anymore" was a slump bad enough to freak him out and decide THERE WAS NOTHING TO LIVE FOR \o/ How important "something he can DO" is continues to crop up every once and a while! In the Kokuyo arc, when he had the choice to protect his body (for an upcoming baseball game) or get badly injured during a mafia event, he actively sacrifices his arm to protect Tsuna. Brushing off Tsuna's concern for the injury, and saying that he's not a person who puts anything in front of his friends anymore, is PRETTY TELLING that Yamamoto's made Tsuna/the mafia his new true priority, though he still prioritizes baseball if he can. Later, when he's fighting against Squalo and creates a new sword technique with a baseball stance, he says something else that crops up a lot for him: "Unfortunately, I'm not good at anything else other than baseball." So! EARLIER, he was under the impression that there was NOTHING ELSE HE WAS GOOD FOR. Also, he was thirteen years old. There was a very healthy dose of good old basic stupidity involved. Deciding to kill himself over baseball, because he thinks it's the only thing he'll ever be good at and he has no purpose otherwise, is a VERY TUNNEL-VISIONED THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD THING TO DO.
Initially Yamamoto being suicidal is a really awkward way to introduce such a cheerful character - I didn't even mention it in his canon when I wrote his application, because it had NOTHING TO DO with his current character or state of being. Because, REALLY, IT IS SORT OF WEIRD AND AWKWARD compared to his existence in the rest of the day-in-the-life arc! The fact that the character who is the most cheerful of all of them, the source of HILARIOUS OBLIVIOUS RETARDATION, was suicidal when he entered the picture . . . what! BUT. It's much, much easier to swallow now that I've re-read canon a few times, and looked at the event in perspective. Amano has this THING where a lot of what she does is only interesting in retrospect. And in the end, the most defining thing about Yamamoto isn't that he's happy or oblivious (though that's definitely the most obvious thing!) - it's that he's steady and reliable. So the attempted suicide WASN'T ACTUALLY OUT OF LEFT FIELD AND TOTALLY WRONG FOR HIS CHARACTER AFTER ALL \o/ and is in fact helpful (OR EVEN PIVOTAL? maybe not :\) in understanding how he ticks. He wasn't depressed, and nothing about his cheer is remotely fake or overcompensating as he is NATURALLY CHEERFUL. He just. Didn't think there was any point in someone who can't even do the one, single thing he's good at.
Now he has Tsuna, and the mafia, so there's no need to worry about him slipping back into that mindset. His new game is VERY occupying, and he's very good at it. Rather, he was BORN FOR IT.
Mafia Game Stuff
OR IS IT?!
Spoilers: The answer is yes. Though we know that in The Future Yamamoto EVENTUALLY FIGURES IT OUT, at this point Yamamoto still thinks the mafia is a game. But really, it doesn't even matter. To Yamamoto, it's not just a game; hell, this is a kid who was gonna kill himself over baseball! At this point, he's fully aware of actual death and gore and pain in this "mafia game," and he's willing to go to DANGEROUS LENGTHS for it. Why? Because he loves it.
In the day-in-the-life arc, where EVERYONE IS AS RETARDEDLY AMAZING AS POSSIBLE, the idea that the mafia is a "child's game" is ALL-ENCOMPASSING. Everything mafia-related is made of props and fireworks, all thought up by this hilarious kid. Knives are toys, rocket launchers are props, explosions are special effects, and if he shatters a cement block it was actually styrofoam. He uh, really has no idea NOT to think all of this is true at this point - I mean, a baby hitman scouted him into the mafia. What would YOU think? IT'S A PERFECTLY REASONABLE RESPONSE TO UTTER CRACK, if you ignore the fact that he's barely alarmed beyond initial shock by KNIVES AND BOMBS BEING THROWN AT HIM. H-he's no normal kid himself, but really by this point, everything around him is so insane that thinking it's a hilarious game is totally in-bounds. It's cool, because it's a game! And he gets his GAME MODE ON, which means he's playing it to win. This arc establishes certain OBLIVIOUSNESS RULES, things he will never notice: supernatural things, de-aging/time-traveling things, anything that's RIDICULOUSLY BIZARRE he will probably side on the side of REALITY. The other important thing here is that he will always play along! He's a nice guy, he's not gonna tell the players that they're deluding themselves or anything, he thinks they're great for it. He loves playing games and he thinks anyone who's playing is awesome.
HOW FAR DOES THIS REACH. Anyone who's "deaged," he actually can't tell that you're deaged, but he WILL treat you like you're a kid, because he understands you are "in-character!" Anyone who's aged up? He can't tell it's you! Sex-change, he assumes it's all advanced costume props. Bodyswitch, he thinks they are elaborate costumes, and will technically never be fooled by someone's outer appearance because he knows how a person "feels." If he himself bodyswitches, he'll just think someone dressed him up in his sleep, and he will think it is hilarious. Demons, angels, bounty hunters, anyone bizarre? Again, Yamamoto assumes you are "in-character," and odds are if he looks like he's understanding it, he's really just. Playing along with your game. For example, he's been warned that if he's cut by Mukuro's trident, Mukuro will be able to steal his body - to Yamamoto, that's just the condition they're playing, and the basic meaning of it is "if Mukuro cuts me, it's may be as good as game over." Another example of RETARDATION is the Elrics - he talks to and treats Al like a completely separate person, but as far as he's concerned he's talking to a puppet and Ed is a ventriloquist. When he sees Al up and moving around/not in pieces, he'll just assume somebody's in there now. >D SOMETIMES, SHIT GOES TOTALLY NUTS AND YAMAMOTO SUSPENDS HIS DISBELIEF, like when Enzio becomes FUCKING HUGE or when "robbers" just "appear" from being invisible in Tsuna's house. He doesn't try too hard with that! But usually, Yamamoto can come up with an explanation.
BASICALLY, THIS ARC ESTABLISHES THAT YAMAMOTO IS KINDA THICK. It also establishes a few other things:
- He is, at this point, no longer improving in baseball for baseball's sake. It's only after mafia training that his baseball improves. THIS IS OMEGA IMPORTANT. He has retardedly high standards for himself and works as hard as possible, but only when given a new non-baseball edge does he actually improve. Which MATTERS A LOT.
- He is introduced to the new and interesting object, KATANA. This kicks off the slow evolution into a swordsman, and gives him something new to work on. Yamamoto REVOLVES around improving on a personal level, so giving him something new that helps him with boosting his strength (and giving him something to better apply himself in the MAFIA GAME) is SUPER EXCITING to him.
These two things are the establishing points for Yamamoto's SWITCH, from primarily a baseball nut with mafia on the side, to mafia hitman with baseball nut on the side.
THEN. A FEW THINGS CHANGE IN THE NEXT ARCS.
- In the Kokuyo arc, Yamamoto is introduced to the fact that the violence is real. This doesn't make the mafia game any less of a game - it just means the game is more hardcore. He's flat-out willing to get maimed for it.
- In the Rings arc, for a while there, I THOUGHT HE GOT IT. I REALLY DID. I WAS TOTALLY CONVINCED HE FIGURED OUT IT WAS ALL REAL. Now I know that's not true! (A-and even Reborn, when it's confirmed, is like. What.) But in the end, AGAIN, it really doesn't matter that Yamamoto thinks it's a game; Yamamoto calling the mafia a "game" doesn't make it any less deadly to him, or any less something he needs to fully devote himself to. His dad getting involved and teaching him kendo, passing on the Shigure Souen Style to him, took it to a much higher level. The fact that it's not just playing has been affirmed and ground in. Yamamoto never once calls things a "game" in this arc, or says things "look real" - by this point, it IS all real. Yamamoto will probably accept it subtly anyway, because that's just who he is to roll with anything that comes his way. Games to Yamamoto are on an entirely different level of difficulty, and in the Rings arc he figures out DEATH is involved in this game even though NOBODY DIES, even from a SHAAARK. He knows (and states) that if he doesn't use the flat of his blade when he fights he will kill someone, and he refuses to turn it over in his fight with Squalo. He doesn't think it's a game to make it any easier to accept; the game, at this point, contains dark elements that aren't necessarily easy to accept. It's just the way he thinks, by this point, that it's a game! Dangerous shit is completely real, and he understands how it all works. But we're still on teams, it's still a set-up, and it's still not really the mafia. orz
He'll get there someday! When it needs to, or even right under our nose, it'll click. He's a natural-born assassin, after all.
Normal 14-year-old Boy Stuff JUST A TEENAGER REALLY
Anything that doesn't fall into the category of something COMPLETELY NUTS? Stuff that's real-world, and any logical person would get? YAMAMOTO GETS IT. This is where he's NOT oblivious, where he's actually pretty understanding and observant. He's that well-raised upbeat jock that old ladies wanna smack on the butt, because he's cute and friendly and such a nice boy. He's happy and optimistic, hangs out with his team, sneaks Reborn onto school by pretending he's a ventriloquist doll, does PLAYFUL THINGS like ribbing Tsuna over being popular with girls - the list goes on! He sleeps in school and winces at homework and needing to take remedial classes, and he accepts he's pretty dumb. He helps his dad out at home with the restaurant, and until Dad started kicking his ass at kendo, he would worry like a good son about his old man hurting himself.
On the VERY NICE BOY side, he loves kids and gets along with old people. He loves cooking and usually throws food at sad people to make them feel better. And of course he is a SUPPORTIVE, LOVING FRIEND, who will throw you a party or organize a get-together to make you feel better and try to make you stop fighting with his OTHER friends when you don't get along. :| He is UNNATURALLY TOUCHY and tends to hang all over the people he likes, but other than that, he is every inch one of the cutest most retarded sporty boys ever. HE REALLY TRULY HONESTLY WEARS HIMSELF ON HIS SLEEVE - he blurts his opinions, he says what he's feeling, he gets excited against strong opponents, he doesn't really think before opening his mouth half the time, but at least you always know where he stands. He blurts to Tsuna before his fight with Squalo that he's fidgety, like he's about to step up to the plate in a baseball game - and he pretty much just answers any question Squalo asks him. He's VERY HONEST REALLY, the reason he's happy all the time is because people make him happy. Life makes him happy! LIFE IS GOOD.
He also is not oblivious to real-world complications, stuff that's you know, REAL-WORLD. He understands that Gokudera's from the wrong side of the tracks and gets into street fights - he's a delinquent. He thinks it could be Gokudera when he hears a Namimori student is in a street fight, and rushes to check it out - and he is pissed off when he sees that he's been hurt and takes it goddamned seriously, and this is before he starts realizing people can get seriously hurt in the "mafia game." Hibari IS TERRIFYING AND VIOLENT AND SHADY. Birds is a CREEPY SADISTIC PERVERT. Bianchi's food is POISONOUS and people SHOULD NOT EAT IT. He also understands RELATIONSHIP THINGS, as he is you know, the most popular boy in school.
HORMONES LOL
WHICH IS PART OF BEING A 14 YEAR OLD, REALLY. Yah, Yamamoto's the most popular boy in school. HE'S PRETTY GRACEFUL ABOUT IT. On Valentine's day he is SURROUNDED BY GIRLS and he manages to laugh and say thank you and is in general pretty smooth. I play it the way I think it is: the way Japanese culture goes he's probably been confessed to A LOT, but he thinks he's too busy with baseball, and the mafia, to have a girlfriend. Because girlfriends take special time! He's turned down a lot of confessions like this. He's kissed before, curiously fooled around a little, but unless a cheerleader decided to rape him, he wouldn't really go far before feeling guilty about not being able to have a real relationship.
Oh, he's perfectly okay with this whole I HAVE HORMONES NOW thing. Yamamoto's life is sort of a giant flow of accepting things as they come, and dealing with them immediately in his own "terms." He has all those nifty Rain Guardian traits that he fully personifies: an unchanging person who squares every situation, someone you can absolutely rely on in battle and in life. Squalo is LOUUUUUD AND RAAAAH while Yamamoto is happy and accepting! Yamamoto's still YOUNG, but he's pretty destined to be open to whatever comes his way. He figured out cheerleaders were hot pretty quick after this whole HORMONES thing started happening, and then when he caught himself checking out a teammate or two. . . well! For a character like him, it would be weird if he wasn't bisexual. H-he's just too open to everything, and his dad never said anything was WRONG, so there you go.
One thing he DOES do is check people out. It's a very boyish casual type of look, assess, file away with a grin. He's busy and he's not interested in a girlfriend, buuut that doesn't mean he doesn't appreciate it when someone's being hot. THIS BECAME VERY APPARENT WHEN I WAS DOING HIS ICONS. Just casual looks! But it's enough to show that yeah, he knows enough to like what he sees.
AS FOR POTENTIAL SUBJECTS OF AFFECTION?
Well. W-well. He's pretty much designed to be married to the mafia, because he's too obsessed with it, so his friends are his true number one prospects. And as Reborn said, if Yamamoto didn't know he was gay for Tsuna already, he sure as hell knows he is now. Because Tsuna played a PIMP DADDY GAME, which was kind of WEIRD for Tsuna because it's really not the kind of game Yamamoto thought he'd play. N-not that he wasn't good at it, because he sure was in character! And in-character meant walling him and MOLESTING HIM. Which was. K-kinda hot. Even though it was also kinda WRONG because i-it was so unlike Tsuna! And he wasn't really sure if he should be playing along so willingly! B-but there wasn't much else to do, and it was kinda hot, even though it was really confusing and weird a-and especially strange to be kissing his closest friend for the first time ever in a game like that, and necking, and getting kinda hot and close in general, there.
Also now Tsuna "doesn't remember," which. Yamamoto can play along with! Ha ha, games like this are a lot more popular here, after all - maybe Tsuna's gotten used to them? Still, he doesn't think that's quite right - SOMETHING IS WEIRD, HERE. But, either way, Tsuna's back to "normal," so Yamamoto is taking his cue and treating the situation like - well, LIKE IT IS; A normal!Tsuna who doesn't remember molestinating Yamamoto PROBABLY WOULDN'T WANT TO KNOW THAT HAPPENED, he'd get mortified, and Yamamoto doesn't want that and he's pretty thoroughly embarrassed anyway >: So. HE CAN LIVE WITH IT ALL BEING A SECRET. Yamamoto's very eager to not be awkward about it, and Tsuna not remembering means it's his cue to go back to normal too, and just drape all over him without any hesitation! He just, uh. Also knows he's pretty gay for Tsuna now. Ha ha, life is funny sometimes!
There is also Gokudera - there's a few pings here and there beneath all the MY ANGRY FRIEND WHO IS HILARIOUS THAT I CARE ABOUT, like if he's looking particularly good, or if there's a moment and Yamamoto sorta senses it's a moment but doesn't quite linger on it enough to figure it out. T-too many priorities/rivalry in the way, as of now. >D HE HAS MORE COMPLICATED FEELINGS ON GOKUDERA, AND TRUST ME HE'S A SOLID SECOND PLACE (and he was previously more hormonally aware of Gokudera than Tsuna before. THIS IS NOT TRUE AT THE MOMENT but it'll probably settle back there eventually) BUT, I AM TIRED. There are also quite a few girls in camp that have pinged him every once and a while. People in camp are hot :|
BLAH BLAH BLAH. This is a lot of words to explain my take on a retard, and I didn't even touch the future arc stuff where he shows how he's TOTALLY GAY FOR GOKUDERA and trusts Reborn a lot and takes things really seriously and wants to support everyone :\ Yamamoto is a perfect Rain Guardian! An unchanging, steady force of nature who can roll with basically anything, a natural-born assassin, and a nice guy you can always count on to be at your back.