the catboy and the bad bitches he pulled (platonic or romantic, up to you) by being autistic
(other doodles and Normal ramblings under the cut)
I love LOVE all the parallels between the three of them so much.
From their characterizations and their priorities,
Seth is exceedingly passionate. He cares a lot about the safety of every person and values his morals above all else. Yes, he's narrow-minded and stubborn, but he puts his 110% into everything he does. Because, to him, everything matters.
Jane is a schemer whose charisma is her greatest weapon.
Harumsa is a self-loathing pessimist under the facade of a snarky jokester.
Both him and Jane are tricksters that slink around the enemies with every dirty trick they know so long as it's effective/efficient. They lie and manipulate people if need be. They're obviously physically capable as well but they often rely on their words and their 'people skills' more than their fighting prowess.
Even so their methods sort of manifests in opposite directions.
Jane prefers to get up close and personal with her targets. She bides her time and turns their trust in her against them.
Harumasa prefers to strike from a distance and oftentimes doesn't even bother to get his hands dirty if he could help it.
The facades they wear are also out of different reasons, where one is more professional and another is personal. And yet, those carefully crafted walls would crumble at One stupid catboy (affectionate).
On a deeper level,
Seth happened to attract the most under-handed strategists and a large part of that, to me, is because of just how earnest he is that Jane and Harumasa become so easily endeared.
Something about that purity and naivety feels exceptionally different, it's unique and hopeful and bright, and it's everything they want to protect. It's almost contagiously positive that it gives them a bit of hope too. Especially for Jane, as she studies criminal activities and psychology on a daily basis, and Harumasa for... obvious reasons.
And I think that those feelings of admiration are entirely mutual. Seth might not fully know everything about Jane or Harumasa, but that immense respect translates into his trust for them. Between the teasing and jokes, there's a sincerity of 'I adore you for you and nothing else'. Even if it's not something he could explicitly decipher into comprehensive words, it's still felt.
separate read on Jane and Harumasa’s character parallels bc I forgot to ramble about this on the og janesetharu post 💀
Something I find really interesting about these two is in the way they weaponize their charisma (esp bc I don’t think they’re written with each other’s personalities in mind at all):
I mentioned this before but, both Jane and Harumasa put on a persona for differing reasons and the intent of it feels so poetic in a way(?)
Jane’s persona is meant to ward off ‘predators’.
A large part of her motif is the idea of her being a rat, considered a natural prey, often being the Hunted. So she very much pretends to be a lot stronger than she actually is, to garner fear, adoration, respect etc. She bares claws despite not having any, but her ability to read people and act accordingly makes them believe regardless.
(this next paragraph is going to be a bit sparse since I have yet to do all the Quality Time hangouts with Jane)
Inwardly, Jane isn’t actually that well-put together. Aside from the obvious symbolism in being a prey, she’s apparently a bit of a mess when she’s by herself. Though none of that particularly matters, so long as that part of her life stays entirely separate from the act she puts on.
Harumasa’s persona is to alleviate dread.
He acts the way he does and makes light of everything, including himself, because he doesn’t want people to see him as anything but who he really is; just a Regular guy. It can be argued that he acts playfully out of fear that people will be terrified if they found out about how he’s essentially a ticking time bomb. But I personally find this interpretation a little lackluster.
Harumasa has accepted his life as it is a long time ago, he’s learned to live with his scars and has actually become really adept at dealing with said scars. To me, what he fears more than anything else is finding people who truly love him and care about him, not out of pity or obligations, just because. So he plays everything off as a joke because he doesn’t want to bring the mood down. He acts (humorously) weaker/more jovial than he actually is to keep the people around him happy, so they’d continue to want to actually be around him.
Jane acts stronger than she is to push people away.
Meanwhile, Harumasa acts weaker than he is to keep people sticking around.
I just find it so interesting that such a large facet of Seth’s interactions with others has to do with secrecy and moral ambiguity. Like, yes, it makes sense and is very fascinating to see a character whose entirely life hinges on being Good form these relationships with characters who are more morally grey.
To Jane and Harumasa, the end justifies the means, and it really makes me wonder just how Seth would react if he found out about the Definitely Not Legal things Harumasa has been doing, or just how much he’s been kept in the dark.
Would he even be able to believe it?
Would he completely deny them any sort of redemption, or would he defend them?
And if he does defend them, how far is he willing to go?
