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literally them

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I love him sm🥹✨

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most beloathed

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i like them a normal amount

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eclipse

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дай нам остаться здесь, дай нам остаться здесь.

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vasioweek entry things

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Thanks for the mention in this! From my very brief amount of research, it is technically accurate to call the woodcock a snipe. “Snipe” was historically used in the English language for any number of wading birds, woodcocks included in that number. It’s similar to how you can call a number of species of bird an “eagle”, as yes they are technically eagles, but it is a broad term that does not specify which exact species of bird it is. I think the history of the term “sniper” coming from this bird is very interesting, and it’s cool to see it referenced (even if unintentionally) in Golden Kamuy.

As for the content of the original post, I can’t say for certain if Noda was intentionally referencing the origin of the term “sniper”. I don’t think the Japanese word for “sniper” is even in Golden Kamuy, it’s just in the English translation, and I have no way of knowing if Noda is even aware of the origins of the word. But regardless, I think this short storyline is a great insight into Ogata’s character, and I want to expand on that a little.

Having a story beat of Ogata successfully shooting three snipes/woodcocks after he was told he couldn’t even shoot ONE is a great, if albeit brief, insight into how Ogata works. While I do think OP’s interpretation of Ogata’s character is correct, I believe in this specific circumstance Ogata is not complex and is actually quite simple: someone doubted he was a good enough shot to hit those birds, and Ogata disagreed and he had to prove them wrong. In short, his pride meant he had to shoot those birds.

In my opinion, Ogata’s character and his actions can be very easily boiled down to one thing: his pride. Yes, Ogata has a lot of complicated parts to him, but I think all of those parts can be simplified when you realize that he is arrogant above anything else, so arrogant he isn’t even aware of his own insecurities. He genuinely thinks he is the best there is, that fate is on his side, that he will win and get everything he wants. There simply isn’t another option for him, he’s too proud to accept anything less.

Ogata’s driving force is his pride: he cannot admit that he has made a mistake, he cannot admit when he is not good enough, and he cannot admit that he does indeed feel guilt. And he will go to great lengths to prove that he has never made a mistake, that he is good enough, that he does not feel guilt. Ogata is so proud he is incapable of dealing with the things hiding beneath his arrogance, to the point that he literally kills himself over it.

In my opinion, this small storyline with the snipes isn’t any deeper than just showing in a humorous way how Ogata is arrogant. OP does have some very good insights into Ogata’s character overall that I agree with, but I think in this case, him successfully going on a snipe hunt is just supposed to show that Ogata is an ass who doesn’t like being told what he can’t do.

Okay, but we should take a moment to appreciate this scene:

So these birds are called woodcocks TODAY. But in the 1800s they were called SNIPES.

The word "snipe" used to cover about 40 species of very similar looking birds, but sometime in the past 200 years, a few of those birds were renamed woodcocks.

But anyway, when they're flying, they make these unpredictable turns so theyre one of the most difficult birds to shoot.

So a sniper is literally someone who is really fucking good at shooting THESE SPECIFIC BIRDS.

That is literally where the word "Sniper" comes from.

At this point in the story Asirpa just met Ogata. She doesn't know anything about him yet.

Ogata has based his entire self worth on being a sniper.

He feels that being raised in a broken home caused him to not develop things that are fundamentally human. He's defective and broken.... missing important pieces. That's why people mistreat him and things don't work out for him.

As defective and broken as he sees himself, he does have one good thing. HE IS A DAMN GOOD SNIPER.

He went ALL IN on this sniping thing.

He has disturbingly intimate knowledge of all different types of guns, down to the sounds they make while being fired. He knows and employs a bunch of sniping techniques that no one in Japan has ever seen, he knows the history of sniping, he read up about sniping techniques of the American revolution. He can load a gun with his tongue.

Like I said, ALL IN.

His marksmanship is thing that gives him value. Even if people despise him, he can be relied upon and needed as a weapon.

It's the only thing about himself that he's proud of.

And Asirpa just denied him that.....

She doesn't think he can do it. She doesn't think he's good enough.

#Triggered.jpg

So of course he was going to get up at the asscrack of dawn to shoot these damn birds. He probably spent the whole night bubbling around in his low self-worth.

He is a sniper and can indeed shoot a snipe..... In fact he can shoot THREE snipes. Way more than you, in fact.

There you go. This is an important scene.

Little girl meets Adult man for the first time and invalidates him in the worst way possible.

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Dramatic light ver.

Normal version under cut

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I feel like there's a better version of this but