Thread by @alachat_

I used to half joke that Oikawa ended up in the Argentina team because Frdt-sensei accidentally created too many great setters, so they had to put him Somewhere. Now I truly believe Argentinian Oikawa has always been the endgame.

The reason is that one of the very main

themes of HQ is "to connect", and it's not just about the connection between players on the same team. The series has gone out of its way to show that volleyball is about connection between teammates, between players on the court and coaches who watch over

them from the sidelines and supporters who watch over them from the bleachers, between fathers and sons, brothers and sisters, between one generation and the next and the next, and, not least if not one of the most important, between players on different sides of the court.

So

for the Olympics, the biggest stage, it would for the Olympics, the biggest stage, it would not do for the protagonists to face a team of strangers. The theme "to connect" demands that the main opponent in the Olympics be someone familiar, someone who has significant connection

to the protagonists, whose presence at the Olympics is the fruit of those connections. This is essentially a role built for Oikawa, who was the first opponent of the main duo and has always meant to be the final one, because Frdt-sensei, to my utmost delight,

loves book-ends.

How does Oikawa's preordained role fit into his character development? I have no idea, please check back later.

PS: The one quote Oikawa has in 402 is also all about connections, which might explain why I was so obsessed with it when

it first appeared.

PPS: This post is brought to you by me listening to stage play Nekoma chanting "tsunage" 繋げ (connect) for the past 3 hours. Please check out the stage plays. Especially The Tokyo Battles.

PPPS: Please check out The Tokyo Battles stage play soundtrack. I looped it for the entire summer of 2019 and I just detected the main theme of all the stage plays weaved into the opening. Needless to say I once again swooned. Wada-san....

PPPPS: You can’t blame me for this. Whenever I watch The Tokyo Battles I always get distracted by Takato