I remember someone remarking how this showed the healthy father-son dynamic between Iwatani and Taro, and even at that point I was like, Oh, yes, extremely healthy, those two, can’t see any conflict brewing on that horizon at all.

Still, their dynamic is kind of adorable here, I’ll admit. The Jason Waltrip expressions help with that.

“Never admit weakness” is one of those bits of wisdom that narcissists love, because there’s some genuine Sun Tzu deception-based strategy to it, but it’s also often narcissism rationalized as strategy. Someone like Syr’Nj is knowledgeable about many things but usually unafraid to admit what she doesn’t know. Someone like Iwatani Sr. may pretend military expertise, however, if it brings him power. But he is at least honest enough with himself to know much of what he doesn’t know and lean on the real experts when he needs to. Someone like our outgoing pres Taro will pretend so hard that he’ll start believing his own press.