Okay so I know a lot of the fandom sees Langa going pro as a skateboarder (including me) while Reki ends up as a skateboard designer or instructor. But what about this? Reki is the one who goes pro since he’s so passionate about skateboarding, even before he met Langa. He’s competitive and loves everything about skateboarding so being a pro would be his first career choice.
Langa loves snowboarding because of his father, and skateboarding because of Reki but what he found something else that only he enjoys and made a career out it? Kinda like Joe, Cherry, and Shadow.
And can you imagine people telling Reki he should give up about being a professional skateboarder because he’s not naturally talented and should focus on other things while everyone keeps pushing Langa to be a pro because he’s a prodigy?
And at the end, both Reki and Langa encourage one another to do what they like. Reki believes Langa should do whatever makes him happy, even if it makes him a little sad that skateboarding isn’t his #1 passion. Langa believes Reki can be a professional because he’s smart, persistent, and knows Reki overall is amazing.
At the end, even if Langa doesn’t become a pro, they’ll still skateboard together - whether it’s a S (Langa having an alias makes more sense now and Reki is still Reki) or somewhere else. Either they’ll be married and continue to skateboard infinitely.
honestly what i love about watari is how even though he likes “manly” things, he’s still quite open to those around him. he openly and happily took care of onagawa and not only looked out for him but went out his way to make sure onagawa wasn’t pushing himself. he’s openly cried in front of the team more than twice now and he’s more than ok w showing physical affection towards his teammates. he isn’t this walking advertisement for toxic masculinity just because he likes “manly things” but rather he’s the opposite; he shows his emotions and he cares for his friends and he still is interested in stereotypical “manly” stuff. i think that’s pretty cool
my favorite kind of conflict in a story is “no one is 100% right, but no one is 100% wrong either” - situations where every side has a pretty good point. it’s tragically rare.
[image is a stylized drawing of wei wuxian crawling across a flood of red, bleeding from the mouth, his eyes hidden under his disheveled hair. countless colourless, disembodied hands read out to snatch at his hair and clothes as if meaning to drag him back. near the bottom are written two phrases in bitmap text, formatted like a video game selection field: “be good” and “survive”. the second phrase is in bold, as though to indicate that it’s the current selection.]