I think that I am probably over thinking this which has lead to me become
confused as to what それ is referring to below.

To provide some additional context, the main character had just asked his
friends 「みんな、大人と戦う覚悟はできてるか？」and the below extract begins after their answers.

> そうか……。そうだった。
>
> こんなこと、聞くまでもなかったんだ。改めてみんなの気持ちを確認する必要なんてなかったんだ。
>
> 覚悟なんて、とっくの昔に固まっていたんだから。
>
> 「みんなで、この世界を守り抜こう。たとえ、誰がここに攻めてきても、追い返してやるんだ！」
>
> みんなが笑顔で頷いてくれる。
>
> 最初から、 **それ** だけで十分だった。

I was originally thinking that それ was referring to the utterance
「みんなで、この世界を守り抜こう。たとえ、誰がここに攻めてきても、追い返してやるんだ！」, i.e. this was all he had to say
in the first place (instead of asking the proceeding question to confirm their
resolve). However, then I thought that if he was actually saying this then his
utterance would have been worded differently which now leaves me a bit
confused as to whether he is saying what I originally thought, or if he is
referring to [みんなが笑顔で頷いてくれる].

I would appreciate if the answerer could clarify which is correct, (and
potentially how the sentence would have been worded differently if they
intended the other meaning).
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2019-04-22T21:28:06.093
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2019-04-23T21:13:10.437
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question
grammar meaning
What is それ referring to in this narration?
Not 100% sure on this, but I believe それ refers to their 笑顔 and not his
previous statement. I think it’s more likely that それ would come right after
what is being referred to, and so the placement of that line makes me think
it’s the smiles and not his statement. Also, I feel like, judging from this
small display of character and how characters like this person usually act,
the main character would still want some sort of input from his friends rather
than none at all, and since smiling is such a direct expression of emotion, it
makes sense that that would be enough for him.

If it were referring to his statement, I’d think it would be something like,
その言葉だけ... instead of just それ.
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2019-04-23T01:10:36.813
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2019-04-23T01:10:36.813
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answer
IMHO this それ refers to what he said: "みんなで (snip) 追い返してやるんだ！", as you
initially thought. The shortened context is something like this:

> I did not have to ask "Do you want to do this?", but just **saying "Let's do
> it"** was enough.

I'm not sure why you thought "if he was actually saying this then his
utterance would have been worded differently". From what I can see, this line
is what he actually said to みんな. Otherwise, they could not have nodded.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-23T21:07:44.137
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2019-04-23T21:13:10.437
2019-04-23T21:13:10.437
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answer