My khr hot take is that Nana is actually the character in the best position to sympathize with Xanxus.
Timoteo and Iemitsu each hid things from them, each lied to them, and both of them will suffer the steepest emotional consequences. There’s no way they can hide the mafia stuff from her forever. There’s no way she doesn’t suspect… Something. And I think it’s such a fun character parallel, if you really get into it. Into Nana’s thoughts, if you try and put yourself in her shoes.
Just. At the kitchen table, such an unlikely duo, and Nana stares with sad eyes into her tea, cupped in her hands in lieu of someone to reassure her.
“No matter how well intentioned… A lie is a lie. Even if they tell you it was all to protect you, even if they really believed it… At the end of the day, it was mostly to protect themselves from having to talk about something that might be difficult, or might not have gone the way they wanted it to. No matter the justification… The person who was lied to is the one hurt. And you feel… so stupid, after.”
A life built on lies isn’t really a life at all, because once it’s discovered, you have to build yourself up again from scratch
Nana did not grow up in the high stakes, high expectations society of the mafia. But she did become a wife, a mother, in the suburbs, where gossip is king and the accomplishments of your family is a reflection of your own character.
We never see nana with friends of her own. I think she’s rather lonely. I think she’s isolated from the rest of her community, both because her husband is never home and because she doesn’t want to have to answer questions about Tsuna. Doesn’t want to listen to people pass “well meaning” judgement over her or her son or her parenting.
I know it’s easy to blame her. She’s the one who’s there, after all. But I have a lot of sympathy for Sawada Nana. I’m not surprised she loves her house so full of people, when before it was only her and a child whose bullying problems she can’t solve. Perhaps she thinks giving up on Tsuna is a kindness. To take that pressure off of him and try, however poorly it’s expressed, to reassure him that it’s fine to be useless, no good.
Sometimes she feels she’s the same.
And it’s not like there’s anyone she can express these feelings to. Maybe Xanxus can give her a bit of a reality check about how important it is for someone to have expectations of you.
Because “to have expectations” is the same as saying “I believe in you”