I Was Thinking About This Panel The Other Day And How The Narration Tells Us That Afo Choose That Particular

I was thinking about this panel the other day and how the narration tells us that afo choose that particular kanji for yoichi's name is because he saw yoichi as a gift that was given to him.

then I also remembered this line when he's talking to kotaro, "children need siblings because nobody else will help them out"

I feel these two panels show that afo saw yoichi as the one good thing in his life growing up. he's living in complete destitution, he has no adult to take care of him, society doesn't bother to help him and he's considered a diseased creature majority of them. the only thing he has that stays by his side on a consistent basis is yoichi, that tiny weak thing that has been there with him from the very beginning.

focusing on that word "need", I believe afo was speaking from his own experience here and not simply saying this just to get kotaro into the idea of having another child. for a long time the only one that ever acknowledged his presence was yoichi and because of that he grew deeply attached to him. of course yoichi's acknowledgement wasn't enough for afo in the end and he wanted to get the world's attention, but the fact that he emphasized how children need siblings because no one will help them out shows how much yoichi's presence in those days meant to him.

he needed him because without him who would've been there to give him some comfort amongst the chaos that surrounded him? who would've talked to him and kept him company during those quiet nights when hiding out in abandoned buildings? humans need affection from other humans in order to thrive, there's been literal studies done about how loneliness can kill you. afo wouldn't be the exception to this rule, yoichi helped him get through those dark days.

I think afo would've turned out much worse if he was forced to grow up alone. at the end of the day afo just wants people to acknowledge his existence and yoichi gave him that as a child. the only one who ever did willingly for many years and that made a huge impact on afo's life.

going back to how he named yoichi, I think it shows how he sees yoichi as the one good thing the universe decided to grant him amidst all the ugliness in his life. everything else he had to take by force, but yoichi was the only thing granted to him freely. so he viewed him as something precious and irreplaceable, something that must be held onto tightly to a suffocating degree so it could never leave him. unfortunately that attitude is what ultimately caused him to loose him for good.

and it all just leads to this

you're different than everyone else, you actually mean something to me. you're the only one who was there when the world turned it's back on me. I can't keep going on without you the world loses it's colour and ceases to have meaning. everything I am is tied into you so without you I am nothing. you have to stay here with me I love you more than anything.

tragic the way things ended between them, and almost poetic in how the thing afo loved the most is what brought about his ruin