より
I’m a little hazy on what makes this one different from the より in the basic volume, to be honest…
I didn’t know that the adverb より was derived from the particle より “than”, though. I suppose it makes a bit of sense? The より adjective/adverb expresses the idea “more adjective/adverb than now or than otherwise” and is used to make a general comparison rather than a comparison between two specific entries.
If X (の)方が is present, the sentence is comparative without より. In this case, より is used for emphasis.
もっと also expresses the concept of “more”, though it’s more colloquial than より. So, the combination of もっと and よい, the literal version of いい “good” (what do they mean by “literal version of いい?”), is awkward.
On the other hand, もっと can be used when a specific item of comparison これ/あれ/それより “than this/that/that” is known from the situation or context, whereas より is unacceptable in this situation.
That was a bit interesting to me, because I feel like my assumption would be the opposite?
When X 方が “X is (more)” is present, もっと implies “much more” while より is simply for emphasis.
Here's a funny example that's a より applied to a もっと, hahaha. This was from Summer Sun Princess on 2024.07.20, where Shoko Nakajima challenged Miu Watanabe for the Princess of Princess Championship in a losing effort:
Hard mode: here’s the video.
中島「目指すといったその方の背中は、やっぱ自分が想像してる何倍も大きかったですね。ここまで立てないのは…そうですね。ここ10年ちょっとで経験した中で一番歯が立たないと思わされたというか。その後声を掛けていただいて、何回でもやってやるというようなことを言っていただいたんですけど…そうですね。その大きすぎて、逆に私はその言葉が悔しいというか。赤子のようにされてしまったので、やっぱり悔しかったですね。その言葉すら素直に喜べないくらい悔しかったです。(アジャを目指す気持ちは変わらない?)そうですね。よりもっと頑張らなきゃなってことが分かりました。でもやっぱりプロレスラーだからあんな風になりたいって思います」
Nakajima: “The person I was aiming for looms so much larger than I imagined. Until now I didn’t fully gauge her… I really didn’t. Here, I felt more outmatched than I had ever experienced in the past ten years. Afterward, she called out to me and said stuff like ‘let’s do it as many times as we want’, but… yeah. She was so big, I actually felt frustrated by those words. Or rather, I felt frustrated because I was treated like a baby. I’m so frustrated, I can’t just obediently and gratefully accept those words.”
(Have you changed your mind about wanting to become Aja?)
“I haven’t. Rather, I realized that I’ll have to work even harder. But I’m a pro wrestler, after all, so I want to become someone like her.”
ざるの得ない
Vneg ざるを得ない is used in written Japanese (oh that’s why it doesn’t look familiar to me lol) to express an idea of “cannot help -ing” (really funny way to word that).
The irregular verb する changes to せ before ざるの得ない.
Just like its English counterpart, the verb that can be used in Vneg ざるの得ない has to be a volitional verb, so a non-volitional verb such as わかる, できる, 疲れる, 困る, 見える, and not every potential form can be used with Vneg ざるの得ない (this is kind of weird wording?).
Vneg ざるの得ない can be replaced by Vneg なければならない when the latter means “have to do something because there is no other choice”. When Vneg なければならない is used in a context where one has to do something because they have an obligation to do it, it can’t be replaced by Vneg ざるの得ない.
The difference is that Vneg ざるの得ない is used to express only a no-choice situation, but Vneg なければならない is used to express either a no-choice situation or an obligation situation.
Vneg ざるの得ない can also be replaced by Vneg わけに(は)いかない and V しかない.
Vneg わけに(は)いかない can be used in both no-choice and obligation situations, and implies the speaker’s unwillingness to do something indicated by the verb, whereas both Vneg ざるの得ない and V しかない are used only in a no-choice situation. So in an obligation situation, Vneg わけに(は)いかない can be used, but not V しかない.
I looked in a few of my translation documents and didn’t find any ざるの得ない, and I think it’s unlikely that I will find any in this setting.
ぞ
According to the notes, the sentence-final particle ぞ is used only by male speakers in informal speech to express either the speaker’s strong feeling about something in a monologue or a strong desire to draw the hearer’s attention to something.
I have definitely heard female pro wrestlers use this! So it’s not only a male thing, haha, though it’s probably considered somewhat coarse.
The book gives examples of monologues in which a male speaker is expressing an emotion such as dismay, joy, surprise, determination, etc. It also gives examples of other-directed speech in which the speaker wants to draw the hearer’s attention to something assumed to be unknown to the hearer.
The particle ぞ is used in informal speech only. When it is used to draw someone’s attention to something, the addressee has to be either the speaker’s equal or inferior. So a child can’t use ぞ to their parents.
There are four differences between the sentence-final particles ぞ and よ.
First, the latter can’t be used in a monologue, but the former can. So, よ is always other-directed, but ぞ can be used in either a self-directed or an other-directed way. The choice of よ sounds much less persuasive and informal than the choice of ぞ.
The second difference is that よ can be used by both male and female speakers, but ぞ is only by male speakers.
The third difference is that in the sentence-final combination of よね (assertion + confirmation), よ can’t be replaced by ぞ.
The fourth difference stems from the fact that ぞ can be used only with informal forms. In contrast, the particle よ can be used either with informal or formal forms.
Here's are a couple examples from the TJPW show I just finished translating! This is from the 2024.12.14 show, wherein after Hyper Misao's match with Yoshiko Hasegawa, Super Sasadango Machine from DDT invaded TJPW to attempt to bribe Misao into pulling out of their tag match at the upcoming DDT show, Ultimate Party:
No video link because this was said in the ring. Also shupro has a gigantic paragraph and not an easily readable transcript of everything, so the format is a bit different for this one, sorry. There’s also at least one typo in the Japanese, lol. That’s the fault of whoever transcribed it for shupro. Any mistakes in the English are mine, haha.
Just for clarity, Sasadango is a man, and Misao is a woman. There’s a ぞ from both of them in here (and actually a second ぞ from Misao in a part I won’t quote because this section is super long).
試合後、ミサヲがマイク。「長谷川さん、試合ありがとうございました。長谷川さんの気持ち、メチャメチャ痛いぐらい伝わったので、改めて東京女子プロレスの一員として楽しい楽しいプロレス生活をやっていきましょう! よろしくお願いします!(長谷川は退場)せっかくマイク持ったので宣伝がてら。私、大一番控えてます。東京女子プロレス、よっぴが仲間に加わったのもそうだし、アイビーちゃんが加わったり、荒井ちゃんは現役続行してくれるとか明るいニュースばっかり。東京女子プロレスは団体力がいまMAXに上がっている時。そんな時に年末のDDT両国国技館でDDTプロレスと東京女子プロレスの全面対抗戦がおこなわれます。私たちが絶対にDDTプロレスを倒してやりますよ! 絶対勝利してやるぞ!」するとここで『移民の歌』がヒットし、スーパー・ササダンゴ・マシンが紙袋を手に登場。ササダンゴ「DDTプロレス側のメンバー知ってんのかよ? 大鷲透…素行不良、職務怠慢。あのガッチガチのジェルを取るとフワっとした蕎ソバージュ。アントーニオ本多、この下ネタ厳禁の東京女子プロレスと違って、DDTは無法地帯! 彼ののごんぎつねでどんな下ネタを言われて、心がズタズタになったら辛いぞ! でもな、このスーパー・ササダンゴ・マシンは話し合いができるタイプのレスラー。どうかここは一つ、東京女子プロレスと我々の間で和解をしてだな、両国国技館は辞退してもらえないか? 余計な血が流れるのは皆さん見たくないでしょう。余計な受け身なんて取らなくていいんだよ」
After the match, Misao takes the mic.
Misao: “Hasegawa-san, thank you so much for this match. You got your feelings across to the point where it hurt quite a bit, so with you now formally a member of TJPW, let’s do fun and entertaining pro wrestling! I look forward to working with you!” (Hasegawa exits) “Since I’ve got a mic in my hands, I’m gonna do some promotion. I have an important match coming up. TJPW has had nothing but good news lately, with Yoppy joining, and Ivy-chan joining, and Arai-chan continuing as an active wrestler. TJPW is currently at max power as an organization. At the end of the year, at DDT Ryogoku Kokugikan, DDT Pro Wrestling and TJPW are going to have an all-out war. We are absolutely going to defeat DDT! We are going to win!”
At this point, “Immigrant Song” hits, and Super Sasadango Machine enters, bearing a paper bag in hand.
Sasadango: “Do you know the wrestlers on DDT’s side? Toru Owashi… poor conduct, dereliction of duty. When you take that stiff gel off, he’s got wavy flowing hair. And Antonio Honda, unlike in TJPW, where dirty jokes are strictly prohibited, DDT is a lawless zone! Whichever kind of dirty joke he tells in his Gon The Fox story, it’s gonna hurt when your spirit gets torn to shreds! But I, Super Sasadango Machine, am the type of wrestler who can talk things out. Can we please make a settlement between TJPW and ourselves and then pull out of the Ryogoku Kokugikan show? No one wants to see unnecessary bloodshed. You don’t have to take any unwarranted moves.”
And with that, I’ve finished the main entries! 
Next I will be moving on to the appendixes!