I love Goshiki so much and you all get to hear me briefly explaining his character:
Goshiki is the only first-year on the starting lineup of a powerhouse school that is absolutely formidable. Imagine the pressure, being selected out of the other hundred students: not just the other first years but also the second and third years. There aren't even any other first years on the bench, he is the only first year on the court entirely. Seriously, imagine the stress he is under to perform as calmly, perfectly and logically as all his cold and unreasonable upperclassmen, who've all been to nationals many times. Not only that, he is regularly told he will be the next ace once Ushijima, one of the top three in the whole country, graduates.
Everyone expects him to live up to being the ace of a legendary team, succeeding the local "miracle boy" himself. He probably doesn't have a lot of his friends in his classes due to volleyball commitments and probably is shunned by other first years on the club out of jealousy. The only company he'd really have are his other teammates, whom he is trying so hard to impress. He doesn't want to let them down, he wants to do them proud and be worth all the effort they put into him.
He is a bit loud, brazen, tries to talk big but you can see how much he looks for his upperclassmen's approval. He's making promises, he's trying to show the team that he's not cracking under the pressure, that he can brush it off too. He's challenging ushijima to prove he's fearless, to prove he's not daunted by the task everyone is expecting him to accept.
Some might read that and think I'm saying he's crumbling on the inside, that this pressure is breaking him into nothing but I wouldn't say crumbling. Hell, I don't think Goshiki could ever actually crumble. I think part of him believes this sense of confidence. I would say, though, that there is a voice in the back of his head that tells him he's not enough. Everytime he messes up, it sits in the back of his mind, every point missed he feels it. He knows he's giving his all but he wants to give more.
I love Goshiki Tsutomu and he is so often treated like a pet peeve of arrogance or Shiratorizawa's "baby" but think of it like this: Ushijima hates baseless confidence. He hates when someone's bark is louder than their bite, we see how he views Hinata for a start. Do you think he'd ever encourage Goshiki so honestly if he didn't have the potential to enhance Shiratorizawa?
Do you think Washijou would've even glanced at him if he wasn't something? Do you think Shirabu would set to someone who wouldn't score? Do you think anyone in the team would let him mess up and geek out if they didn't believe, deep down, he was as good as them?
When my mum watched Haikyuu with me, she said she found Goshiki arrogant, annoying and immature: it infuriated me and I could never quite articulate how she has misread him so much. Maybe on the surface he seems that way but it's because it is all on the surface. He is constantly trying to seem cool, for the validation and respect of his senpais, who do not seem to understand that the praise is really what he needs.
When Hinata compliments him, Goshiki shone and he performed with flying colours. The praise was all it took for him to change his mind on a dime and play with them and, not to mention, he was the designated leader of that training camp for sure!
He was the one everyone had their eyes on and he was the most advanced - you could tell that these players respected him and I hope he knew it, I hope it gave him the confidence boost he'd been lacking for so long ever since joining Shiratorizawa.
It got slightly off track at the end but I hope you followed :') I love my boy lol
it's not that his teammates don't give him any praise (it's quite the opposite, when we see Yamagata and Reon hyping him before a serve), but I think he's put his idols on such a pedestal that even them supporting him cannot register.
His teammates encourage him (except Shirabu but that's Shirabu) but Goshiki is so busy focusing on not messing up that he cannot excel the way he normally can when there's no pressure
And, sadly, I don't know if he'll ever grow out of it. I don't know if he's even all that aware of that stressed attitude in the back of his mind. I think he'd really benefit from some of Kita's mindset tbh and not just rely on the type of confidence everyone else in Shiratorizawa lives off
I wouldn't say he has performance anxiety at all - he's no Yamaguchi - but he definitely puts more pressure then needed on himself when he thinks it counts.
He doesn't wanna let anyone down, he's just a good kid :)
Am I the only one who gets annoyed when people talk about the "abuse web" in Bsd?? It's just that it makes it seem like a character's faults aren't really their own, and it's actually someone else to blame which is downright ridiculous?
It doesn’t matter how much people hurt you; unless your being forced, the choice is yours at the end. It was Dazai's choice to commit 600+ crimes. Mori may have harmed him, but he didn’t force him to kill 138 people did he? It was Chuuya's choice to join the mafia. Sure Dazai turned the sheep against him, but it's not like Chuuya is this helpless lamb (pun not intended) either. Chuuya likes being in the mafia, it's his home. He doesn’t need some big strong prince (*cough* *cough* Dazai *cough*) to save him like those skk shippers keep claiming he does. Dazai abused Akutagawa, but no one forced Akutagawa to kill or hurt anyone. He doesn’t even mind killing.
HEAVY ON THE AKUTAGAWA STUFF TBH. A lot of people I see who love Akutagawa act like he's done no crimes bc he was abused by Dazai. The abuse was BAD ofc, but does that undermine or forgive how Akutagawa abused Kyouka? Or how badly he treats Higuchi?
A lot of Akutagawa's crimes, particularly against female characters, are brushed off by the fandom in order to make him some permanent victim of Dazai and the mafia
(legal disclaimer that this is not all Akutagawa fans, that Dazai and Chuuya fans do the same thing, etc)
Also this is NOT character bashing, this is fandom bashing. I do not hate anyone's fav
if I ever tell you “lmk what you think if you read/play/watch it!” I am firmly inviting you to send me a play by play minute by minute cataloguing of your thoughts about The Thing
given the current climate this pride especially i feel i must mention that i love my trans friends, i stand with trans people in the fight against transphobic legislation and those who would enforce it, and this blog is not a good place for you to be if you do not vibe with that
isn't it crazy that a woman being gender nonconforming literally just requires her to exist in her own body without making any changes whatsoever. why does the fact that i don't wear makeup and i don't shave and i don't wear a bra have to be some political act. why can't i just fucking exist
Girl, just do it fat. Don’t wait until you’ve lost enough weight. You’re worthy of taking up the space that you fill. Live your life now. Don’t wait for some future version of yourself that you think will be more deserving. You have every right to pursue your passions and dreams just as you are today. Your worth isn’t tied to a number on a scale or the size of your clothes; it is inherent in who you are. You’re allowed to be seen, heard, and celebrated in whatever body you inhabit right now. Don’t let anyone or anything convince you for too long. So go out. Do it fat! Wear the clothes you love, pursue the opportunities that excite you, and live unapologetically. There’s no reason to put off living the life that you want, waiting for a moment that you’re not even sure will come. You deserve to be happy and fulfilled just as you are, and the world needs you exactly as you are today. Everything good that has ever happened to you, happened in this body. Girl, just do it fat.
