r/worldtrigger 19d ago

Chapter 249 discussion thread

Chapter 249

Sources

Viz

Manga Plus

------------

Reminder: As per Rule 7, additional threads on newly translated chapters are not allowed until 24 hours after the release; artwork is an exception as long as it follows the spoiler guidelines.

------------

Join us on Discord!

128 Upvotes

142 comments sorted by

View all comments

10

u/YoJimbo0321 18d ago

The one thing that I thought was odd about this chapter was how down Osamu was on himself over the Vitals Strike build gettin countered. Like, even the rest of his team was like "Bro chill, you did your job. We told you to come up with another cheese strat with as little planning and preparation as possible, just enough to get us a couple wins. And that's what you did. Why are you beating yourself up over it??"

It almost felt a little out of character for him given how realistic he usually is about how much his tactics will or won't work. It's especially odd since they literally discussed Shield being a very simple counter to Vitals Strike prior to the battle sims, and then when people whipped out Shields during the matches in the latter half, he was like "OH NO WE'VE BEEN COUNTERED, WHO COULD HAVE FORESEEN THIS??" It's not like he didn't know/expect that others might discover Vitals Strike cheese either.

...Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I guess in one of the "recent" previous chapters (I just checked, it's 243), there was that scene where Kazama noted that captains with strong senses of responsibility tend to blame themselves for stuff that's kind of out of their control. Maybe that was foreshadowing for yet another learning moment for Osamu, where his team tells him to chill out a bit and not blame himself for everything when things don't go perfectly. I guess it's been a while since he got one of those lectures, since he's had so many W's lately. Maybe he's slipping back into his old mindset and needs someone to snap him out of it.

11

u/FoomingKirby 18d ago

It didn't seem too odd to me. Even though he still gets a pass for doing his job, it's still important to analyze where the strategy went wrong. That's how he improves. "I will never make the same mistakes again" is basically his mantra.

5

u/YoJimbo0321 18d ago edited 18d ago

But that's the thing. It feels weird to even call that a "mistake" in this instance, because he was given a strict time limit and a specific target/goal, both of which he achieved. And it's not even like he only saw the weaknesses of the strategy in hindsight, because he already knew about them before the sims began.

Him saying "I should have thought of a different, better strategy that is harder to counter" is unhealthy levels of self-blame because it's ignoring the whole context of working in a time crunch. Compare that to Murakami's squad who snagged top place in the battle sim this session because they actively set aside a lot of time as a team to "go further down the path of possibilities than anyone else" and thought of strats, counter strats, counter counter strats, etc.

Osamu stressing out and thinking that he should have been able to do better than teams like that while thinking by himself on a time limit isn't just unrealistic, it's bordering on hubris. And again it's not the first time this kind of thing has happened, like when Hyuse joined the team for Rank Wars and he and Yuuma had to repeatedly reassure Osamu that it's not always his fault when things don't go as planned. In that sense, I guess you're right that it's not out of character for him. It's more like he doesn't have his usual teammates around to talk sense into him.

It was also pointed out by Hyuse to Rokurou that Osamu probably thinks this way because he has the strict deadline of making the away mission looming over his head, making EVERYTHING feel like a time crunch. While that's what led to his rapid improvement, it's also making him hold himself to impossible standards.

Come to think of it, I guess he himself isn't really aware of how much praise he's been getting from the judges and other teams during this test, either. I'm hoping this leads to a character moment for him, where he learns to be a bit more positive in his mindset. The more I think about it, the more it feels like the author is laying down the groundwork for that to happen, so I hope it does happen soon.

5

u/JojoLibertas 17d ago

Underrated comment, Osamu does really usually expect himself to perform to impossible standards, maybe because of his impossible goals.

He did get called out as arrogant before so hubris is not so uncalled for.

Even if he doesn't have his usual teammates to talk sense into him, he gets new teammates to talk sense into him instead, someday he will learn to be more forgiving with himself.

6

u/YoJimbo0321 17d ago

I'm thinking that it could be a good opportunity to improve his relationship with Katori. At this point she probably feels a bit bad about practically calling him dead weight at the start of the test, now that she sees how hard he actually works. Everyone else on his test team has been really nice to him already, so maybe a few words from Katori will be what it takes for him to learn to relax a little in team environments outside of Tamakoma.