There are many types of intimacy and I love the way Spy x Family shows developing trust, especially between Loid and Yor.
This first moment when Loid explicitly recognizes Yor as the mother in the Folger household is especially important in their relationship.
Even though he is focused on his mission, he is actually exhibiting a vulnerability that he repeatedly tells himself he can’t indulge in as a spy. This isn’t one of his calculated statements. He is trusting Yor not only with supporting him in his mission (however unbeknown to her) but also with helping him uphold one of his core values - protecting the well-being and happiness of children - with Anya. Yor is a real partner to him regardless of the reasons their arrangement began.
Loid is a perfectionist, in his line of work he has to be because any mistake can cost him his life. Anytime a situation doesn’t go the way he played it out on his head, he beats himself up harshly and starts overthinking.
But thankfully Yor keeps him grounded, reminds him that he’s still human. She reminds Loid that what he wants for Anya is completely different from what Anya wants for herself. Yes school and grades comes first, but she’s still a little kid at heart and Yor wants her to have fun while doing it. Even though he may make these little mistakes when raising Anya, Yor reassures him that he’s still a wonderful father, “A perfect 100 points!”
Now look at Nightfall, while I do think her one-sided love for Loid is funny and tragic at the same time, I don’t think any real progress would be made for Operation Strix if she was his wife.
Look at these 2 panels, Nightfall is quick to criticize Loid for focusing his efforts on “playing house” with Yor, Anya, and Bond. But the core of his mission IS to play house because he’s a Father, Husband, Pet Owner first and Spy second. By this point he finally realized that and readjusted himself thanks to his experiences with Anya, Yor and Bond hence why he seemed a little angry when she calls them “accessories” because that’s how she sees the family “accessories” to the mission.
Compared to Yor, Nightfall’s approach to motherhood would no different than the very scientists that caused Anya to have her telepathy. “Give me results, I want results. You’re just a means to an end, I could care less about what you want. It’s about what I WANT and I HAVE A DEADLINE TO MEET.” In the end Anya would hate school more and it would just bring up bad memories of those scientists, causing her overall well-being to plumment and the mission to fail before it could gain any traction.
It’s why Yor and Loid work so well. They may not be the perfect parents but they work so hard to give Anya the childhood they both couldn’t have when they were younger they understand what works and what doesn’t and learn from their mistakes. Aside from being good parents they also strive to be the best fake Husband and Wife to each other. They lean on each other for emotional support and reassurance even when they doubt themselves.
Although they deny it with every fiber in their being but they love each so much. Because this they’re able to devote themselves even more to reason why they became a Spy/Assassin with clarity.
The way Twilight and Yor complement each other cuts to the bone. Simply, one strengthens the other’s weakness, no matter how different they are. They are both Not a ground wire, reminding them that “they can be better”. They do not idolize themselves, but instead recognize the high and low points. The biggest difference between Yor and Nightfall is that the one is capable of generating a change in Twilight, it gives her the necessary ingredients to be a family. Because in a family you don’t need to be “perfect” but to improve by real and deep love. And that is the love that Yor delivers, a love based on effort to be better
A running theme within the Forger Family is that while Loid fully understands that his Family is a front. Yor over time has tends to forget that her marriage and family are fake.
This particular moment sticks out with me because Yor looks Loid dead in the eyes immediately after he reassured her that she’s doing fine as a mother and said “I’m really glad I married you Loid.”
No mention of “as part of our arrangement” or “because I can continue my contract killing job.” just Yor telling Loid that she’s genuinely happy and fortunate that she got so lucky to marry someone as understanding and endearing as Loid.
During the Bond Introduction Arc, when Anya read Bond’s mind of him seeing the future, this panel perfectly describes how Yor would feel if Loid suddenly died and left them both alone.
Throughout the Manga the lines between real and fake blur for Yor just as quickly as it did for Loid.
When the Cruise Arc happens and Olka asks if Yor’s family is just a cover for her real job, it’s a harsh reminder to her that they still are still a fake family. Yor completely forgot that she’s with them out of circumstances and you can see the hurt and sorrow in her eyes of that reminder
But as long as she is able to go home to Loid and her family, then who cares if her marriage and family is fake? Who cares if she has to drop thousands of bodies? As long as Yor can keep them safe from her line of work and go home to them, that’s all that matters.
Yor has always loved the fact that Loid has always been supportive of her in what she does since the very beginning, always looks to him for approval and support. Yor’s motivations as an Assassin are so similar to Loid’s motivations as a Spy that it allows her to do what she does with no regrets and she knows Loid would understand and respect her decisions at the end of the day because as she puts it:
I had looked into the fashion inspiration for SpyxFamily and I came across Sylvia Sherwood’s spy outfit inspiration. And if you notice the rings on her finger, it’s the same ones Fiona had gotten from Campbell’s collection.
Saint Laurent Paris Spring 2013 - Hedi Silmane’s much anticipated debut collection for Saint Laurent was heavy on 70’s rock and roll.
So, while randomly going through the Crunchyroll Dubs youtube channel, I stumbled across this debate over whether you should watch “Spy x Family” in dub or sub. The dub is great, but there was the usual band of assholes saying “sUb oNLy!!111!”. However, one user actually wrote that people should only watch the sub because the “right” way to watch anime is to watch in the “culturally accurate” way.
That argument is hilarious to me because, if you REALLY want to watch a culturally accurate “Spy x Family”, you’d watch it in the German dub. The show is based on Cold War-era East and West Germany and the capital city is literally called Berlint. Also, even without the German background, the English dub would be more culturally accurate since all the characters and setting are obviously European-based.
So in the pointless war of subs versus dubs, this is one instance where the dub side wins.
I finally got around to watching the German dub of “Spy x Family”. All I have to say is that it makes a HUGE difference. It actually feels more appropriate for the setting since the series is based on Cold War-era Germany. Like, this is the version of “Spy x Family” that plays in my head when I’m reading the manga. It also helps that the German cast manages to match the energy of the Japanese cast.
So, yeah, I might just stick to the German dub from now on.
Also, this might be a hot take, but German Yor (Daniela Molina) sounds…better? Not to take away from Saori Hayami’s performance, but her Yor sounds a little too timid. Daniela Molina’s Yor sounds like she could be a loving mom/wife AND a stone cold killer.
I colored some Spy X Family panels from the manga with @un0vian !!!! on the first one he did the thought bubble and I did Anya, on the second we split it in two and he did left side while I did the right one!! This was so fun to do :DDD
spy x family has so many MANY wonderful things about it (both in the anime and the manga) HOWEVER. this. THIS RIGHT HERE. I can’t. I can’t. I don’t know why this needed to be in here but I hate it
something i really love about twiyor is HOW they fell in love (they absolutely are i do not care about your opinion at all) because to me the scenes in which they both fell in love with eachother are when the other is being their GENUINE self and not their “secret” identities and showcasing their true feelings about the other.
For Yor I believe she really fell in love with Loid during the party scene where Loid defends her and ILL EXPLAIN WHY!
Now it may seem very obvious as to why she fell in love here (Loid supports her and respects her even though he doesn’t know the true reason she goes to hotels and stuff) BUT it goes a little deeper than that for me.
Loid in this scene is his 1000% true self and this is proven by the flashback. Loid never truly finds out the reason why Yor went to hotels but he still respected her fully because he understands the having to do something you don’t really want to do to take care of yourself or others, he understand that better than everyone. And whilst it’s not hard to understand why Yor would fall for that, it’s beautiful to understand that this is one of the scenes in which Loid isnt really “lying”. He completely and 100% respects her choices and the things she had to do because he also had to do them.
NOW as to where I think Loid fell for her
Yep. not shocking at all. But I wanna explain how this scene also relates to my reason for loving where Yor fell in love.
Loid in this episode was trying to find out whether or not Yor had been up to something and whether she was connected to the secret police yada yada and OBVIOUSLY we can talk about Loid truly feeling guilty for doubting her and that being a whole other thing that makes me wanna cry BUT that scene right there. it’s special for so many reasons.
Yor is someone who gets embarrassed easily after saying really cheesy stuff or just by normal things, but after this scene Yor doesn’t take back her words or gets super embarrassed, instead we can see how she truly means her words to Loid. Saying she’s really glad she married Loid specifically because of the kind words Loid said to her and most would think that’s when Yor fell in love, but that little blush after that statement shows me Loid was the most affected even by a tiny statement. Loid throughout his whole life has been someone who’s been through so much, and even as a spy has never really received a thanks or any words of affirmation at all, he just does his work and gets on with it.
Receiving a statement such as someone is glad he’s in their life the way Yor does it, no embarrassment or taking back of the words, just pure and simple honesty, thankfulness and affection, yeah that’d make me fall for someone too.
TLDR They both find each others words to be so filled with honesty and genuineness which at the end of the day are each others real personalities ideals and morals shining through the “disguises” they made for themselves, which makes this relationship that much sweeter, that they both fell in love with the others real selves, even if they don’t know it.
