Why can てもらいたい mean "someone else wants me to do something for them"?

Question

逢桜「元々、才華学園入学前に持ってあと３年だろうって言われてたんだ」

逢桜「野球を辞めた理由も怪我じゃなくて、この病気が原因だよ」

逢桜「徐々に体が動かなくなっていく難病で、最終的には呼吸も出来なくなって亡くなるんだって」

逢桜「両親はね、わたしに少しでも長く生きて欲しいから、クリエイターとしての活動は止めてもらいたかった」

逢桜「でも、無理をいってここまで伸ばしてもらってた」

逢桜「だけだ、去年の12月ごろに大きな発作があった」

逢桜「その時にさ両親に強く創作活動を辞めて欲しいと告げられたんだ」

I understand that the meaning of the bold part is that "My parents wanted me to quit the creator's activities". But usually てもらいたい means "I want someone else to do something for me", not "someone else wants me to do something for them". So why can てもらいたい be used like that in the quotation?

Answer 1

両親は(私に)クリエイター活動を止めてもらいたかった can naturally be used in this situation because her parents' desire is a past known fact that doesn't require any assumption of the speaker. The speaker clearly and directly knew her parents wanted her to quit at this time point in the past.

In Can たい and たがる be used for a 1st/2nd/3rd person's desire?

たい expresses a desire. た-がる literally expresses giving off the impression of having a desire. たい can be used if one does not need to assume that they know about a specific desire of a specific person, and たがる can be used if one is making assumptions on another person's wishes.

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たい, situations that do not involve making assumptions about a person's desires:

• it turned to be a fact that another person did desire it

両親は(私に)クリエイター活動を止めてもらいたがっていた is also perfectly natural, though.

EDIT: Of course 両親は(私に)クリエイター活動を止めて欲しかった and 両親は(私に)クリエイター活動を止めて欲しがっていた are also perfectly correct in this context. She used もらう because she knew her quitting was a beneficial action to her parents even if it was undesirable to the speaker herself.

Answer 2

usually てもらいたい means "I want someone else to do something for me"

not "someone else wants me to do something for them"

Your understanding is correct :)

So why can てもらいたい be used like that in the quotation?

You just have be a bit flexible and implement the above understanding to a "he said I said" situation.

Quoting your translation "I want someone else to do something for me", it goes like this:

From the parent's point of view, I (the parents) , wanted someone else (their kid) , to do something (stop doing creator stuff) , for me (the parent).

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BLAH はね、 BLOOPたかったの

This pattern is not uncommon when a feminine person is trying to explain another entity's intention of the past. It's used in drama, anime, manga etc. due to the dramatic effect it carries.

Adding a question mark to the end would make it a direct question (and a totally different meaning). Without the question mark, the sentence sounds incomplete, which is intentional. So, we typically add a trailing ... to make up for the incompleteness, and then the female will follow up with another sentence to elaborate.

If I were to translate, it would be like:

BLAH you see, wanted to BLOOP

But this translation alone won't convey the dramatic effect of its Japanese counterpart. It's one of those patterns you'll get used to by watching girls confess/justify her friend's past actions. Or even her own, by using her own name.

Eg.

Smart person "Why is this answer so long? It deserves a down vote"

My mother "dungarian just wanted chino alpha to understand... (more to follow)"

dungarianはね、 chino alphaに理解してほしかった (more to follow)

Answer 3

てもらいたい means The subject wants to receive.

So the subject or topic of that phrase is 両親 and thus 両親 were the ones who "wanted to receive the favor of us quitting the creator lifestyle, because even if it's only a tiny increase they want us to live a long life."

もらう = subject of the sentence receives.

So in this case, keep a flexible mind about who the main focus / focal point of the sentence is. The sentence can "orbit" around any one or any group or any thing so keep a flexible slot for the subject in mind.

Subject は blank がもらいたい。

As for subject, wants to receive blank.

In this specific instance,

As for our parents,

they wanted to receive the favor of us...

= they wanted us to...