pa-CHING!

[mousapelli]

marksykins is my hero, because she has written perfect Shindou/Touya rivalry and Go-playing, and the phrase 'their Go' is used, and...and...alkasdfklg I love it. *squees quietly to self*

Metaphor by marksykins

I realized the other day that the name of the show is "Hikaru's Go." I mean, i knew that, but I hadn't ever really thought about it before, how often in the series that phrase gets used, talking about Sai's Go, or Touya's father's Go, or Touya saying that it's like Shindou has two Gos early on. Something about the turn of phrase just pings me, perhaps because it's sort of a non-English idea and I'm a language dweeb. And their Gos are so much shorthand for the entirety of their being.

When Shindou thinks at Touya "you see Sai in my Go", what he means is that Touya understands Shindou, from one side to the other. In a way, the heart of the series is Shindou realizing that he has a Go, his own Go, he's not borrowing Sai's and he's not just chasing Touya, he's got his own drive and pattern and shape.

The scene where Isumi plays Shindou to make him join the pros again is heart-breaking but also ridiculously joyful, because it isn't until then that Shindou realizes that he's seeing Sai in HIS OWN Go, that even though Sai is gone, he has his own self, no matter what.

So i really love it when fics play with that turn of phrase and talk about Touya's Go or Sai's Go. I take a great deal of glee in taking it one step further and calling the ridiculous, winding road of shindou and touya that makes, a lot of times, ZERO sense "their Go". their pattern and understanding of each other is completely incomprehensible to outsiders most of the time, but everyone can see that it exists.

I mean, I can't exactly see Shindou looking Touya in the eye and saying "I understand everything about every part of you better than anyone else ever will" but I can see him saying "I know your Go", and I know that Touya would know exactlly what that means.

Comments

[marksykins.livejournal.com]

Oh, you. I think I'm going to squeeze you forever. And now that I've written the little fic, I think I can write the longer fic I've been kicking around.

Seriously, when Touya's all there's another person inside you, which dirty thoughts aside, Shindou's just ridiculously pleased because even though Waya and Ogata and Touya Meijin all recognize there's a connection between Shindou and Sai, Touya's the first (and only) one to really get it. He sees Sai's Go and he sees Hikaru's Go, and he knows they're different, even if they're similar. Which is why Shindou will tell him about it some day. Which is why they'll so clearly end up doing it.

I am so in love with this series for many many reasons, but I think I've just about pinpointed it: It's so NORMAL. I mean, yes, I can sort of get I've been flushed to another kingdom and I'm your Demon Ruler, or this evil wizard killed my parents and I'm next, but when you say, "Oh, so these kids are totally obsessed with this thing that most people consider weird, but they love it and they happen to kick ass at it," well, that I get. Like, a lot. Because I am obsessive about everything I love and everyone looks at me weird when I get going on these topics...unless the people I'm talking to love it as much. So yeah. Shindou/Touya, OTP, because they GET it.

[miko-no-da.livejournal.com]

Hikaru no Go has some surprising depths and subtleties to it. The more I watch it and read about it, the more insights I get into it, and the more I realize 'this really isn't just a shallow attempt to draw kids into Go'. It's as deep and layered as a game of Go itself, as is Touya and Shindou's relationship.

I keep wishing I could write for this series, but I'm not actually sure I could do it justice.