Ice Watching - Round 3 - Part 4
To get acquainted with this part, it is recommended to read the three previous parts.
Suno-san appears on the scene out of nowhere (no, seriously, he literally teleported there). This takes our two friends by surprise, and now comes the hardest part of this discussion for me…
This dialogue with Suno-san begins with the unexpected appearance of Suno-san HIMSELF (no, seriously, he literally teleported there). Based on his opening phrase: "Because, Shirogane. You're a dimwitted, irritating, wealking piece of dog doodoo," one can immediately conclude that Suno is a sarcastic cad who dislikes Shirogane and, having witnessed the entire scene with the boat, Rocma, and her going, skillfully intervenes in the conversation in a way that simultaneously makes himself heard and catches his opponents off guard, with far greater effect than the polar bear had done earlier.
Next, we see the reactions of our two childhood friends. Shirogane, already depressed by his interaction with Rocma and clearly not ready to take another blow from Suno-san, shows surprise, more likely from what was said to him, while Yukisada is simply surprised by the snowman's unexpected appearance. However, I can see that, in addition to surprise, Shiro also displays fear (shouts instead of the previously demonstrated silent surprise at Rocma's appearance: "Waugh?!?", stuttering: "W-What…", and an overly emotional reaction, compared to how he reacted with the polar bear), which is not the case with Yuki (shouting out the name is not accompanied by excessive use of punctuation, like Shiro, and stuttering is also not accompanied by an overly emotional display of reactions on the sprite or any obvious fear in the moment: "S-Suno?!").
The next thing worth noting is Shirogane's attempt to hide his previously displayed emotions and retake the initiative in the conversation with the phrase, "You got a problem…?" But the snowman ruins this plan as well, saying, "Oh, there's lots of problems with you! For starters, that miserable mug of yours," which leaves Shiro even more flustered, not finishing his sentence, "Wh…," thus demonstrating that he can't keep up with the aggressives rapid pace of conversation set by Suno-san. This demonstrates that the polar wolf, while not a very sociable guy, was also inept at verbal battles due to his unsociability, low level of social interaction, and lack of self-confidence. When interacting with Rocma, he didn't show this in such a vivid way as here, which is why his behavior then could be written off as a manifestation of cowardice. However, with Suno, he demonstrates, rather, the reason for his cowardice is not so much external, but internal, in my opinion. There is no obvious reasons for Shirogane to be so obviously afraid of Suno, and if there is nothing we can see, then these reasons lie within Shiro himself.
But I can see that Suno-san is very talkative. He's one of the most talkative characters in this cutscene. This piss-stained snow must have been somewhere honing his eloquence and ability to use verbal battles instead of physical force.
In this moment of the dialogue, Suno-san scolds Shirogane's actions, much like Rocma had done earlier, but in his own style. In short, it all boils down to the fact that if the polar wolf wants to leave Iceberg Isle, he should do it ALONE, without involving anyone else (in this case, Yukisada), summing it all up by saying that Shiro is a "bad doggy, can't even change for the better." This is quite strange to hear, considering the only difference in this situation is that Shirogane will suffer from the Orca ALONE, and Suno will be fine, whereas if he takes his friend with him, they will both suffer, and that's not good for Suno (although for me the situation will be bad either way due to the high probability of being beaten by Orca IN ANY CASE). Suno doesn't seem to notice that Shiro could be in danger either way. Yeah, Shirogane does this on his own initiative, but for some reason, Rocma doesn't seem to pay attention to it and tries to stop him, as if she worry about both him and his friend, even though she is depicted as a colder and stricter person than the talkative snowman. This makes me begin to conclude that he either doesn't care what happens to Shiro, or he REALLY wants to see the wolf's suffer.
Now, Yukisada, seeing his friend's extreme passivity, albeit hesitantly tries to defend him from the piss-stained snow's verbal attacks with the phrase, "S-Suno! How dare you?! You can't say sucр cruel things!" - which, I think, slightly offends Suno-san when snow owl mentions the "cruel" of the things he said earlier. Because of this, he may be using an abusive form of defense, trying to portray himself as like a "nice guy" who is caring for Shirogane, and who, if he says something "cruel," is because "this dumb doggy doesn't seem to get it, so I'm giving him a little hand," although, due to the points I mentioned earlier in this dialogue, this is SO FAR from the truth.
And yeah, Suno, "for his own good" you wanted Shirogane to go out to sea ALONE and meet his hypothetical death at the hands of Orca instead of talking him out of it AT ALL?
And in case anyone hadn't noticed, Shirogane had indeed become very passive when interacting with Suno-san, so much so that his close friend had noticed and started defending him from the snowman. This is very strange, considering that when he was hurt by Rocma's words, he tried to say something to her, even if it was just an empty apology. Here, instead of Yukisada, he stubbornly remained silent when interacting with Suno, perhaps hoping that these verbal attacks would soon end and that he only needed to endure it all (or perhaps he preferred to be verbally abused than to say ANY words this snowman, let alone an apology…). And even when he began to cry, Shiro showed no desire to leave, as if he STILL wanted to go on a boat ride even through all this humiliation (and despite the encounter with the evil Orca, yeah…).
But what Shirogane CERTAINLY couldn't stand was the very POSSIBILITY that Yukisada might think of him in much the same way as most of the isle's inhabitants, hence his reaction to Suno-san's twisted interpretation of Yuki's words: "And by that mean he's spineless, right?" It seemed that what this wolf feared most wasn't the cruel Orca, or the angry polar bear, or the enraged Eyebrows, or even the caustic remarks of the piss-stained snow, but that his childhood friend would become disillusioned with him and treat him the same way most of inhabitants did. His low self-esteem gave others the opportunity to humiliate him, and this time, it also gave him reason to doubt the strength of his friendship with Yukisada. It's possible that up until this moment, he truly believed that Yuki regarded him as a FRIEND, not a PATHETIC PUPPY, and that's why he initially acted so confidently with him and in his intentions.
Perhaps Shirogane genuinely hoped that even if they left the isle, everything would be fine as long as they had each other, but what would be the point if he became as useless and pathetic to his friend as he was to everyone else? Ah, well, it's all very sad…
