#and at this point I've already subjected a few of my IRL friends to messier versions of this ramble

[kawarikisaki]

Been answering a lot of questions lately but haven't been asked one that let me bring up this one specific point I love talking about yet. So this is the post for that.

And it gets its own art too:

And if that doesn't clear up the topic for you....

Well, I'm talking about Kaito and Saguru’s names- but not those ones. No, I’m talking about their family names, Kuroba and Hakuba.

Starting with the kanji. Kuroba reads as 'black feathers', and Hakuba reads as 'white horse'. So even just at the base level they're both asigned a colour and an animal (or in Kaito’s case just the features of one.)

Now of course black and white are often used to symbolize things being opposites. It's a sharp contrast. A clear symbol of them being on different sides.

As for the animals, there are a few things that could be read into that, horses and birds are both used to symbolize a pretty wide variety of things, so there’s a pretty wide range of ways they can be taken even with the colours being specified. But the only one thats really notable for what I want to say here is that a birds wings often represent freedom (and im disregarding the color here because Kaito is associated with both black and white birds).

Anyway, the part i do want to talk about, is the fact that 'Kuroba' can be read as a Japanized 'Clover', which of course paired with the black colour harkens to the clubs suit of playing cards. And in with that in mind Hakuba's 'white horse' can instead be taken as a chess knight.

The two are playing a game together, the game or cat and mouse, cops and robbers- the thief and the detective. But they aren't playing by the same rules, they aren't focused on the same things... they aren't playing the same game, not really.

And both of them know that. Because Kaito knows what his real goal is, and Saguru knows that the police aren't the biggest threat that Kid is facing.

Kaito’s game is a game of bluffs. One where the stakes are high, and he keeps raising them higher by drawing that attention to himself with the intent to force his opponents the people that killed his father to make a mistake. If his poker face cracks, if he slips up he will actually die, and if he doesn’t he could land himself in jail with his freedom stripped from him. Kaito’s game is dangerous.

Saguru's game is a game of calculation. One where moves are carefully crafted and information is carefully controlled to try to reach a desired result... but the game is stretching on longer than he's ever played before, and he's changed his mind about what that 'desired result' even is. But he does know that if he keeps playing his game with the same intentions that he had when he started then he's liable to lose a friend.

But Saguru can't just switch games either, even if he's been able to recognize that Kaito's playing a game with cards, he doesn't actually know what game Kaito's playing.... is it poker? Old maid? Spades? Blackjack? And even if he knew, how is he supposed to play cards if all he has is chess pieces, Kaito's keeping as many of the cards as he can close to his chest... ..... yeah okay so that metaphor started to get messy near the end.