chap 9's up, I'll be making a post with that soon I just wanted to share some thoughts on izaya's manipulative nature/tendency to lie.
Cause yeah obv even in canon he's a pathological liar, basically just bullshitting most of the time to get a reaction, achieve a goal or to mess with someone. The first and last are fairly simple, but the middle one has really got me thinking—
Izayas gotten so used to lying to advance in life that some of the things he says have almost become true, while true things turn false. In SF, his main motivation is to save his sister, or so he says.
“I came here to find immortality, Jinnai. I came all this way seeking a path that bypasses Death, because my study of it demands that it is folly and accident that lead to it, not necessity. Nobody knows this, but I left my dying sister to find the cure that will prove that very hypothesis…
Everything is true and at the same time, he's using his genuine emotion to force an outcome out of Jinnai. Amid all that, it's also clear that despite trying to manipulate him with sympathy fishing or whatever, he finds the cure that will prove the hypothesis, and not find the cure that will help his sister.
I don't want to say he's forgotten about Mairu, but it almost is that way—opposed to shizuo's constant striving to save kasuka. Lies are used like truth and truth dresses up as lies, and in that labirynth Izaya loses himself.
In Chap 10, there's going to be a little deeper dive into his character, which I'm super excited for. I feel like he's got even me fooled sometimes even though I'm the one writing him...