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p3chris · 1 year

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*manga spoilers ahead*

Black humour this might be, but the way Yor defines getting hurt, even for a child, goes beyond scrapped knees and boo-boos. It’s extreme, and low-key horrifying and sad, because these are the kind of injuries she herself receives on a regular basis, and because it also suggests that this was the case even when she was young.

Compare this to Yuri’s comparatively innocent idea of death.

On a more cheerful note, let us admire Anya’s cute stubby legs.

This would make for a really great family/childhood friend joke if Anya grows up to have long gazelle legs. With Yor as her mom, it’s quite possible.

#sxf yor #yor forger #yor briar #sxf manga #spy x family #anya forger #sxf anya #lovely legs #short cute stubby legs #Yor is too used to being injured and that’s sad

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p3chris · 1 year

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*manga spoilers ahead*

Hmm.

My feel is that Melinda has a very, very bad relationship with her husband.

Strangely, what I find myself thinking here is that her friendship with Yor might perhaps be just what she needs. Just like how Damian and Anya’s friendship does bring out some of his better sides.

So, instead of Yor trying to learn how to be normal with her, she might instead learn to fully sort out how she feels about her son and her family.

And just maybe, get along better with her husband.

Maybe.

#melinda desmond #sxf melinda #sxf yor #yor forger #damian desmond #anya forger #spyxfamily #sxf manga #forger family might just end up counselling real families #oh the irony

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p3chris · 1 year

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*manga spoilers ahead*

It’s heartbreaking to see that Yor felt the need to justify, bargain and plead with her fake husband for permission to go out and hang out with her new friends, as if she's his daughter rather than his spouse.

It’s even more heartbreaking to see her brace herself to accept a rejection as if she never expected to be able to have what she wanted anyway.

That's why I believe Twilight recognises how rare and how hard it was for her to ask in the first place and relented in spite of his own misgivings.

#manga spoilers #spy x family #spy x family yor #loid and yor #loid x yor #twilight spy x family #loid forger #yor forger #And then Twilight proceeds to let himself get humiliated by Gorey and stages a whole fake SSS arrest #For the mission (for his wife)

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p3chris · 1 year

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The Tribute to Murdoch Swan that No One asked for

*some rather vague references to the latest manga chapters, but otherwise no spoilers*

If anyone needs a reminder as to who Murdoch Swan is, he is the interviewer who somehow manages to look more haggard than the two gentlemen beside him who are, respectively, 12 and 19 years older. In the one chapter or 20 minutes (or 15?) he appears, he repeatedly insults Yor and makes Anya cry. That, and he also enrages Twilight to the point of physical violence, and would have been quite dead if not for the noble sacrifice of a hardwood coffee table and a mosquito. To put simply, he is a nasty scumbag.

However, despite his brief appearance, he gets a relatively well-fleshed out backstory and is an effective plot device that 1) sheds light on the social setting in both Eden and Ostanian society and, 2) advances the plot by setting several important character and relationship developments in motion.

We infer from Twilight's thoughts and Swan's own words that Swan's charmed life (wife, child, prestigious career in Eden that was smoothly paved by nepotism) had recently hit a rough patch when his wife, presumably sick of his behaviour, divorced him and he was denied custody of their child.

Rather than humbly reflect on the interpersonal missteps that led to such a resolution or reminisce about happier family times, Swan instead entitles himself to a self-appointed mission to prod and provoke the uglier sides of people to shatter their happy family image and prove they are as miserable as he is.

Thing is, despite his pettiness, he is actually quite smart with how he goes about it. He knows his father still has great influence over the academy despite no longer being in active service, and that gives him power over both his fellow interviewers and his interviewees. His questions and taunting are chosen with precision. He knows what to ask and say to create tension between people and to attack their weak points. His interviewees can only either defend themselves on the spot and appear rude or disharmonious, or suck it up during the interview and resent one another after that. Of course, he only does this to the families who don't have the political or social clout to threaten him.

That Eden has him in the faculty already raises a red flag about the culture and environment in Eden. The irony of Swan being an assessor of candidates for Eden's hoity-toity standards is that he is himself a poor role model. A later chapter reveals that there are many badly behaved students from his Kline Hall. We also see that it is not just Swan who lacks regard for the children he is tasked to educate; we see that some of Anya's teachers are neither wise nor enlightened. In the latest hostage situation, we also see that Eden’s priorities are incredibly messed up. Eden is, first and foremost, about connections, prestige and networking rather than education.

Twilight hit the nail on the head when he called Eden a school that made light of children's feelings and told Anya she would probably not want to go to this school anyway. Too bad it's his mission.

Swan’s behaviour also overtly reflects the attitude of Ostanian society, namely in the way it treats women. His chauvinism is obvious, but not isolated - it is implicit in the way Walter Evans directs the cooking question to Yor, in the way Henderson credits Loid Forger for the elegance the entire family exhibits, in the way that Swan directs all his attacks at Anya and especially Yor rather than at Loid (and I highly doubt it was entirely because Loid appeared flawless).

In earlier and subsequent chapters, we see more gender inequality in Ostania at work: how positions of higher prestige and leadership are mostly, if not entirely, occupied by men, how women are socially expected to aspire to conventional marriage by a certain age and how older unmarried women are viewed upon with suspicion. To me, I also see a little of it in the way Yor is quick to put herself down and how she chooses to elevate Yuri academically instead of investing in herself in any manner.

The way I see it, despite Twilight initially hoping not to offend Swan, the Forgers were already in trouble with him: the more Swan perceived Loid and Yor as a loving couple and the Forgers a perfect happy family, the more he wanted to tear them apart.

But it was his nastiness that strengthened the Forger family and moved the plot along, because in the course of his appearance, he managed to:

a) Trigger Anya’s protectiveness over her parents and strengthen her resolve to go to school for Operation Strix

b) Trigger Twilight’s protectiveness over Yor and Anya. Feeling awful over how the abuse they suffered is the least he (Twilight) could do because it would have been real scummy of him to remain unmoved at the unfair treatment of the two innocent civilians (or so he thinks) he got involved with his mission. The interview also showcases Twilight's liberal views (yes, it was most certainly Twilight, not Loid, who attended this interview) - that he does not believe in traditional gender roles and is accepting of individual strengths and weaknesses, that children deserve consideration and respect, and that wellbeing is not physical but mental and emotional as well.

c) Indirectly reawaken Henderson’s pride over his calling as an educator, leading to his impulsive punch and quite importantly, resulting in him becoming Anya's homeroom teacher (given the lack of investment from her other teachers, this is likely a very good thing.)

d) Trigger Yor’s protectiveness and motherly instincts towards Anya and made Anya cherish having a mother.

To me, the impact of this is a very big one. After all, Chapter 1 is about the start of Twilight and Anya's relationship. Chapter 2 is about the start of Twilight and Yor's relationship. Chapter 3 is about the Forgers finding a bit of their footing together. Even up to Chapter 5, Yor at times still appears uncertain around Anya.

In Chapter 7, Yor is motivated to try to be a better mother to Anya, and Anya sees her mother’s vulnerable side. From this point onwards, Yor and Anya's mother-daughter relationship takes off and they are subsequently seen spending a lot of time together. We also see that Anya might love Papa more, but she never doubts Mama's love.

e) Indirectly cause the events in Chapter 7, which leads to many significant events and long-lasting developments in SxF:

i) Yor and Anya's combat training.

ii) Anya punching Damian on Orientation Day. Henderson, as homeroom teacher, reduces three Tonitrus bolts to one at his discretion.

iii) Becky becoming Anya's best friend.

iv) Damian subsequently developing a crush on Anya.

v) Yor's cooking endeavours

See how important this scum is to the story?

#spyxfamily #spy family #twilight spy x family #yor forger #anya forger #loid forger #murdoch swan spy x family #henry henderson #walter evans spy x family #eden academy spy x family #small role big impact #as much as I dislike him I really have to credit him for Yor and Anya's relationship progress

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p3chris · 1 year

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*manga spoilers ahead*

Oh, Yuri… *chuckles*

That said, it was an incredible thing he did and his heart was in the right place. Thanks to him, no one on the other school bus was hurt. It’ll be really nice if Anya gets to know what the annoying uncle did for her.

On the other hand, there are monsters everywhere.

Anya was incredibly brave to have tried her best to thwart this.

I also hope her naïve fascination with bombs dials down after this.

#yuri briar #sxf yuri #sxf anya #anya forger #sxf manga #spy x family

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p3chris · 1 year

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*manga spoilers ahead*

See how Twilight’s avatar was bigger and more central than everyone else and how she used Twilight’s aspirations for herself. Anya is very obviously Daddy’s girl. That, and Papa is very frowny and Mama is smiley in Anya’s impression. But that’s okay, she loves them.

In other news, we now know that Sharon’s son did also make it into Eden. And isn’t this quite the surprise: Yor investigates her daughter’s whereabouts by checking in with the mom of another Eden kid. This strikes me as a rather socially savvy move that I honestly don’t think the Yor Briar of before would do.

The Forgers are all rubbing off on each other.

#spy x family yor #spy x family spoilers #spyxfamily #sxf anya #sxf yor #yor forger #yor briar #sxf manga #spy x family #anya forger #now what happens from here

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p3chris · 1 year

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Some Thoughts on Yor and Yuri's relationship

*Manga Spoilers Ahead*

Yuri's anxiety over being replaced by Loid in his latest visit is not entirely unwarranted. Yor is seen to increasingly value Loid's views, despite the two only having met not all that long ago. Yor might now even value Loid's opinions over Yuri's.

One part of that is likely because Yuri's compliments are... hard to take in.

Every time we see Yuri praise Yor over her cooking, his compliments are manic and forced (kinda understandable, though). He also praises her for things that do not deserve praise, such as cutting through Camilla's chopping board.

[In fact, I don't know what it says about the siblings that they seem so blasé about property damage.]

Back in their childhood, they were each other's world and socially isolated from everyone else. But Yor's world has now expanded, and along with that expansion is glaring proof that invalidate some of Yuri's empty praises and also show the damage caused by that blind confidence.

Also, Yuri's compliments tend to revolve around the same 'ideal' traits. He praises her for being beautiful, kind, and a good sister.

While these praises are more sincere and appreciative of her efforts, they also seem to pressure Yor to behave in a certain way for him.

Yuri's communication with her also tends to be one-way, where he keeps talking over his sister rather than listen to her. He fails to see her for who she is, because he never makes the time to do so.

In contrast, Loid encourages her to be herself, and while he does not lie about her results, he praises her for her efforts. More and more, Yor is coming to trust his words.

#yuri briar #sxf yuri #spy x family spoilers #spy x family #sxf yor #yor briar #yor forger #loid and yor #yor and yuri #this sibling dynamic needs to evolve

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p3chris · 1 year

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Pray tell, how exactly did he use his incredible equivocation skills to get out of the situation?

#sxf twilight #agent twilight #twilight spy x family #spyxfamily #spy x family #sxf loid

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p3chris · 1 year

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Twilight goes from complaining about how he still has to maintain his fake family to whining about not getting to go home on time.

#sxf twilight #sxf loid #loid forger #spy x family #agent twilight

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p3chris · 1 year

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*manga spoilers ahead*

Every member of the Forger family fears the family breaking up or getting kicked out or abandoned.

Every.

Member.

#forger family #spyxfamily #spy x family #yor forger #loid forger #anya forger #bond forger #because this family is everything to them

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p3chris · 1 year

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If we look back on all the previous anime episodes and especially the previous manga chapters, we will find that this is the first time in the main story proper that Yor smiled, truly smiled, at Loid.

Hence Twilight's blush and shojo filter.

Well, there's this too. But right now, I'm really kinda confused about where this fits in the chronology of the story...

#loidyor #loid and yor #loid forger #sxf loid #yor forger #loid x yor #twiyor #spy x family yor #twilight spy x family #twilight x thorn princess #sxf thorn princess #the little hints that the man is quite attracted to his wife

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p3chris · 1 year

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In Camilla's defence

Now, don't get me wrong, Camilla is not sweet. But she isn't so bad, and Yor isn't necessarily a bad judge of character for thinking she's a nice person.

Observe how in Yor's introduction, Camilla tries to involve Yor in the conversation at first. We see Yor turning away with a small smile in the anime, but her expression in the manga as she rebuffs Camilla and Millie's compliments is blander and more disinterested. Camilla's claws appear after this.

What she does at the dinner party is terrible, true. It is even more inexcusable given that she is the host.

But in the anime, we get this gem after Twilight's speech, where Camilla and the guests are left in stunned silence. She then pushes her hair back while still stunned. It is likely that she either had not known of Yor's circumstances before or had not thought too deeply about it. It is a moment of reflection and acknowledgement that perhaps she went too far.

We also see this consideration again later when she's teaching Yor to cook.

Camilla noticeably eases up on Yor after that dinner party. It's not a 180, but in her subsequent interactions with Yor we see annoyance, not malice, in her expressions. She does not have nice things to say, but she just tries to speak less to Yor and avoid her if she can help it.

In fact, it's Yor who does the 180 and goes from being indifferent to her colleagues to frantically consulting them every time she needs help.

I actually felt sorry for Camilla during the cooking lesson chapter. She is reluctantly roped into helping because she cannot turn down Dominic and Yor's puppy eyes. They persist for days after work before finally getting Yor to successfully cook one dish. Her kitchen gets trashed every day from Yor's overbuying, rough handling of tools and on the last day, Yuri's vomit. Yor destroys her favourite chopping board. She keeps getting poisoned during this time too.

My theory is that Camilla might have initially respected Yor's seniority at City Hall and admired her beauty and wanted to be friends. However, years of Yor's thoughtless rejections likely led her to think of Yor as being stuck-up and unpleasant, and her jealousy and fear of losing Dominic to her made her behaviour worse. That said, even at her worst, Camilla's meanness has always been to Yor's face, unlike certain other people. *glances at Nightfall and Shopkeeper*

#sxf camilla #spyxfamily #spy family #spy x family #sxf yor #spy x family yor #yor briar #yor forger #imo Camilla is actually decent

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p3chris · 1 year

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Twiyor Couple Mirroring!

*some manga spoilers ahead*

For two strangers who came into a fake marriage, these two start to mirror expressions a lot:

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p3chris · 1 year

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Revisiting Nightfall/Fiona's visit

Welp, first, I gotta say that this blunt analysis is not for Nightfall fans.

On to it.

Re-watching Fiona's visit made me see her visit in another light: Her visit is meant to be quite nasty for the Forger family and Operation Strix, though she ultimately fails because her plan of attack is single-minded with no contingencies.

Right from her first appearance at the door, Fiona deliberately evokes the impression of being the third party. She shows up unannounced as a single young woman to a married man's house for a bullsh*t reason - she could pass the magnifying glass over at the hospital. It's such a trivial reason that both Twilight and Yor figure there has to be more to her visit. Loid assumes it is for WISE reasons. Yor actually guesses the right reason, but incorrectly guesses Loid is in on it.

She also tries to intimidate Yor and make her feel unnerved and unsettled. This is executed beautifully by Sakura Ayane and Hayami Saori in the anime. Nightfall twice exerts an oppressive and uncomfortable social silence to pressure Yor. Once, when Yor opens the door and she just silently hovers until Yor timidly asks for her identity. Then again, after returning the magnifying glass, she just lingers there until Yor awkwardly invites her in for tea.

When I first read this chapter, some of my first thoughts were, Yor, sweetie, it's not rude to turn her away. You are not obliged to invite and attend to an unexpected house guest, especially when the person this guest is acquainted with isn't even at home to verify their relationship.

But, of course, Yor is Yor.

After being served tea, if we pay attention to her 'small talk', she is actually being quite rude. She doesn't apologise or offer a reason for imposing, offers no (even false) information about herself, makes no attempts to relate or appear friendly, and asks questions about the family that can be interpreted as intrusive and presumptuous. Her terrible body language does not offset the rudeness of her questions either. She is either trying to provoke Yor into getting offended enough to fight, or trying to goad Yor into complaining about her family.

Of course there is also the Lie. This is a risky move that could have been a shot in her own foot if Yor was socially confident and assertive enough, or even angry enough, to bring it up with Loid present. It is extremely rude - an explicit insult to her host and an indirect insult to the host's husband, her work superior, for criticising his wife behind her back.

There is simply no nice way to interpret this action. She is not Yor's confidant or in a position familiar enough with Yor to tell her this. There is only one reasonable way for anyone else to interpret this: She is gloating like she is the third party in their relationship.

Additionally, Nightfall knows that their marriage is transactional. Twilight is no position to "grumble about his wife". Nightfall is painting Twilight in a bad light to Yor. Why? She is sowing discord between them by planting seeds of resentment in Yor for a future argument.

Just as she looks like she's about to get into Yor's head, God (Endo, haha) interrupts Nightfall's attack by summoning rain and we see her attack plan crumble.

With Twilight's appearance, we see that contrary to Nightfall's eagerness to follow Twilight's instruction to kill her emotions, she actually has very poor control over her feelings as well as poor social awareness. Having a poker face means nothing if all her decisions are ruled by her impatience for fast results and immature hostility.

She near immediately loses her head and launches into a daydream over him and pretty much demands in spy code for Yor to be replaced there and then. Her calm and rational plan of making Yor leave on her own accord is flushed down the drain. She starts to think that with her mere appearance at his house, Twilight will be joyfully convinced to replace Yor on the spot and embrace Nightfall as his cover (and real) wife.

[We see this lack of touch with reality again after the Tennis arc, where she once again thinks her performance in this singular mission is enough for Twilight to dismiss Yor straight after and take her as his cover (and real) wife. In reality, Twilight becomes guarded against this reckless mission hijacker and it is Yor that he later tries to honey-trap into being his real wif-]

We then also see that she seriously has no idea how her actions come across to Twilight. Her criticisms and unreasonable demands, the unwarranted visit and indirect sabotage to his family man image serve practically as a declaration of war to Twilight - that Nightfall is trying to hijack Operation Strix - and we see him react accordingly. See how cautious he is about being seen with her without his family after the Tennis arc.

Despite her poker face, her hostility is so apparent even Anya the baby chaos gremlin picks up on it, and it is not entirely from mind-reading. Fiona looks scary to her.

Of course, Anya also picks up on Nightfall's abusive intentions towards her, and we see Anya and Twilight both defending Mama and the family in their respective ways.

But Nightfall succeeds in shaking Yor's self confidence about her place in the Forger family and gets away with it.

.....

Or does she?

Despite her smiley-ness, Yor does know when she's being insulted. We see this in Chapter 2. We see later in the cruise arc that Yor is sensitive to detecting bloodlust (that is, hostility!). Every thought Nightfall has of Yor is unflattering and she imagines Yor not only being thoughtlessly discarded by Twilight, but also being humiliated in the process.

Nightfall doesn't hide her dislike of Yor as well as she thinks she does and Yor isn't as obtuse as we think she is. Then Nightfall, freshly stung by Twilight's rejection after the Tennis arc, makes the emotional decision to bully Yor with a show of strength...

And we all know how that ends.

It might not be a conscious or immediate realisation, but Yor's subsequent jealousy after the house visit, subconscious perception of 'Fiona' as an enemy and the Unwaveringly Homicidal Tennis Serve™ reveal that on some level, she recognises Nightfall's intentions, which triggers a newfound possessiveness over her role as Mrs Forger.

Congrats, Nightfall, you made Yor want to be Mrs Forger even more.

p.s. Yor's subconscious categorisation of 'Fiona' as an enemy probably influenced the decision to assign the guest teacup. (For context, please see @shinybluebirdwizard’s excellent analysis on teacups!)

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p3chris · 1 year

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What an interesting change from the manga.

In the manga, it looks like Franky has his doubts and has things to ask and say to Twilight. He also looks like he’s looking only at Twilight.

In the anime, he’s looking at the entire scene. There is nothing to ask because he already has his answers, and there is nothing for it but to see it through and enjoy the ride. Also, he looks much more like a part of the family.

I also loves the extra details in the anime. This is way more suggestive than in the manga and shows Twilight clearly breaching respectable distance and personal space. It also puts Franky’s jeer into much better context, when Franky laughs at Loid for getting hit after putting the moves on Yor.

Yor vehemently denies it. Twilight notably doesn’t say anything in his own defence. Because Franky is right.

That was inelegant.

#spy x family #twilight spy x family #sxf #spy family #loid forger #sxf twilight #agent twilight #yor forger #spyxfamily #sxf franky #franky franklin #twilight x yor #loid and yor #spy x family yor #sxf yor #yor briar #loid x yor #serves you right shame on you Twilight

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p3chris · 1 year

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Mission 35 comes out in anime soon!

*manga spoilers ahead*

If we look from the perspective of Twilight getting worried about the safety of his cover, he does actually have a somewhat logical reason to want to seduce Yor.

[I say somewhat because if Twilight truly wanted to be safe, perhaps the safest option would be to swap out Yor and avoid contact with Yuri completely. But throughout the entire spectacle, Twilight never considers simply changing wives. That says something in itself.]

The ostensible benefit Yor gets from their marriage is camouflage from the SSS. But if Yuri reveals his status, Yor will find that the marriage cover is unnecessary after all - under Yuri's SSS protection, she won't get into trouble for being single.

With that knowledge, Yor can safely quit the marriage and leave Twilight (and his mission) in the lurch.

Of course, we readers know this is still unlikely to occur. Yuri has no intention of outing himself because he is terrified of Yor's potential disapproval, and what Yor truly fears is not actually getting caught by the SSS but her actual profession coming to light. Yor is also becoming reluctant to leave because of Anya and him. But Twilight doesn’t know that. For him, it is clear this arrangement is not secure.

But if Yor was genuinely attached to and happily in love with Loid, she would not go raising any alarms to Yuri. Their romantic involvement would add a layer of protection should the original terms of their marriage agreement fall through.

In this context, the honey trap makes sense.

Except... When Twilight jumps at the chance to honey trap his wife, there is none of the above thought processes shown.

Despite the manga telling us Twilight mode is engaged, his thoughts are certainly not Twilight thoughts: there is none of his cautious overthinking and risk-benefit assessment, he makes this inexplicable leap from nowhere to the conclusion that he has to perform a honey trap, and he plain forgets what a violent drunk Yor can be.

Which means he is not thinking straight. He does not know what he is doing.

That makes the Twiyor fan in me very happy.