We had to steer a middle course with Iwatani’s narrative here. “Hoo ha, the idiot thinks he’s a prophet, how droll, he’ll never see me coming!” would show hubris that’s more Taro’s bag than his. “Good thing his awesome predictive powers can only benefit me” would still be too naive. “He can foresee every move I make, he will end us all, so if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” would be too defeatist. And the bit about seers rarely “seeing” their own importance or lack thereof actually seems to have some psychological merit, so good on you, Iwatani.

Although, looking back at it, Iwatani may have made an additional mistake here. Taro’s fear of Brother Tom is pretty obvious, so maybe it would have been a good idea to reassure him that Iwatani would never, ever, under any circumstances, treat his child as “an acceptable short-term loss.” I don’t know if it would’ve made a difference to Iwatani’s eventual fate, but Taro is absorbing more of these little lessons than it looks like, especially the parts about “duh, of course betrayal” and “killing people is cool.” So instilling “we don’t betray family, ever” in his head would at least be worth a try.