[BSD 120.5] Theory/Analysis
NOTE BEFORE READING: 90% of this post was written on the day of the chapter's release but got forgotten in my drafts. As I'm too lazy right now to read through and edit, expect things that: make no sense, are worded as if the chapter came out today or recently, stop in the middle of the sentence/incomplete etc. Also for some reason I added stuff not directly relating to the chap...I'm sure I wanted to lead into a bigger point but by now I have no idea what I was going for.
I realised it's almost time for the new chapter and that's how I remembered this was still in my drafts...
So I'm posting it more for me rather than anyone else (which I sort of already do anyway).
Well well well...it's been another month so I'm here again to put my 2 cents in on this month's chapter.
I'm sure there's no need to say it but the following will contain spoilers for BSD chapter 120.5.
And as always with my long posts...expect me to sidetrack a lot.
This includes a deep dive into Fyodor's title as well.
Humanity & Fyodor's outlook
The page isn't with Fyodor
Thoughts on Fukuzawa's "death"
Humanity & Fyodor's outlook
Today's chapter gives us a great insight on Fyodor's goal, or at least confirms the one we already knew of and bathes it in a new light. But let's first start with what his outlook on humans is.
"An unlearned outlook befitting of your short lives."
"Your" = humans
"Short lives" = human lifespans
This is basically saying: "You haven't lived as long as me so you don't know/understand" Or better yet, "You will never have enough time in your short lives to learn like I did."
Fyodor in his immortal life has seen things, witnessed eras come and go, same with wars. He has had nothing but time to observe humanity and their many flaws.
He believes no one with a short life-span (humans) will understand his learned outlook.
Note: We don't know how old Fyodor actually is. I personally believe that he's over two thousand years old but I only have one small piece of unrelated evidence that supports this. Though, no matter the age, he has lived a long time, that doesn't change.
Fyodor looks genuine in this scene. The look of "acceptance". Accepting the fact that humans won't understand or change, no matter how many centuries pass.
Note: It should be remembered that acceptance does not mean compliance. Fyodor is the perfect example of this.
It honestly feels lonely. Trust me, I don't even like Fyodor but this is just depressing, even for the villain. Imagine your ability has made you pretty much immortal and you watch humanity make the same mistakes, have the same flaws, see them drive themselves to ruin multiple times and no one will ever understand you as they haven't lived as long as you. (Arguably, I'd say Dazai got close)
TLDR: Imagine living forever and watching humans ruin themselves repeatedly and having no one who will understand what you're thinking. That's Fyodor's life.
He lost faith in humanity a long time ago.
Anyway...on a different note (slight backtrack), our boy Atsushi seems to agree or at least understand that "Humanity cannot bear such enormous virtue." Based on his expression here and the panel.
It's like his expression is saying, "Damn, he's right, I've gone through so much to stop this but it's just way too much even for me (an ability user)." or something...idk honestly.
Atsushi is emotionally tuned in with the world so maybe he just saw Fyodor's expression and was like: "holy shi-" again, idk.
"Pure evil"...not like anyone has said otherwise about Fyodor.
His calm yet determined(?) expression when Fukuzawa tells him this shows that he finds what he's doing as necessary and planned.
What Fyodor wants is a world war. Specifically, one that will eliminate all ability users. Instead of getting his hands dirty, it'll be done by humans.
Now, I know that ability users get separated a lot from your every day average human but Fyodor's choice of words shows that he doesn't view ability users as humans at all.
Though, the way he uses the word "humanity" may be more as in those of the greater population, or just "The ones without abilities."
With [One Order] though, does "humanity" include ability users? In theory it should, and yet it doesn't seem that way.
Fyodor believes there will be peace if ability users are gone...Looks like he either has never seen a world without ability users or there's more to this plan than he's letting on.
"What...are you...? I can't possibly see you as human."
Fyodor has never once claimed to be human. Or at least he has never seen himself as human.
And he clearly separates himself from those with short lives (humans) as a different being.
He has been considered a demon throughout the whole series.
Now for my monthly: "Analyse the original Japanese even though I don't speak it."
Today's segment will mostly be my curiosity taking word form, so feel free to skip to the next part or enjoy.
First off, I didn't manage to get the raws to see the spelling of the title. I only heard the spoken Japanese version in the anime, which was "majin".
[ Dazai says it around 12:33 in Season 3 Episode 8 ]
So feel free to interpret it as either [魔神] or [魔人] (both are pronounced as "majin" but have different meanings).
Due to the official translation calling him "conjurer", I thought that maybe it was [ 魔人 ] but the fact that the fan translation calls him "demon", points closer to [ 魔神 ].
Left: Fan translation (DazaiScans) | Right: Official English translation
When you break it down more into individual Kanji, you start to see the difference and similarities.
Both are pronounced as "jin" when in "majin".
[ 魔 ] / "ma" is in both [ 魔神 ] and [ 魔人 ]. And it's from "ma" that we get the more demonic/evil meaning.
So, in a way, even [ 魔人 ] could be seen as "demonic person".
[ 魔 ] / "ma" is in "majin" and "akuma"
Now, when Dazai was called a "demon" he was referred to as "akuma".
As you can see, [ 悪魔 ] is way more serious than [ 魔人 ] or [ 魔神 ] .
This obviously gets lost in translation, as both become "demon".
One instance where Dazai is being referred to as 悪魔 is in the 15 light novel and manga adaptation. For some reason, it's not in the anime.
I'm not here to talk about Dazai's humanity though. I just wanted to show the difference in seriousness of "demon" between the titles*.
*Correction, "Demon" is not Dazai's title. While he has been called as such, his only known title was "Black Wraith" (Kuroi Yuuki - 黒い幽鬼).
Yuuki [ 幽鬼 ] - ghost; revenant; spirit (of the dead); departed soul
Kuro [ 黒 ] - black (as noun) - Kuroi [ 黒い ] = black (as adjective)
So back to the topic at hand!
Fyodor being referred to as "majin" instead of "akuma" makes a big difference even if both can be "demon".
In this chapter - as I stated earlier - we see Fyodor talk as if he isn't human. Akuma would refer to a demon - not human, but majin refers more closely to an "evil being", and if it's [ 魔人 ] it can especially be seen as a "demonic/evil human".
Therefore, Fyodor's title shows that he is human, no matter how much he separates himself and the rest of the ability users from the greater human population.
...Wait a minute...just remembered something.
I should have trusted my memory and checked the raws from chapter 120 earlier...it was literally only a month ago and yet I almost forgot Fukuzawa literally used Fyodor's title at the end of the chapter!
So Fyodor's title is [ 魔人 ]
[ 魔 ] for "witch", "demon", "evil spirit"
...Remembering this earlier would have saved me so much time ;-;
I will still keep what I wrote from earlier - my rambling about wether it's [ 魔人 ] or [ 魔神 ] - as I spent way too long on it and don't have enough mental energy to change it.
(Specifically in the eyes of Fyodor)
Now that we know it's [ 魔人 ], I can analyse further into Fyodor's view on ability users.
In short, Humans are...humans, I won't go into the foolishness and ugliness of humans, because in life there's death just like there's pain in love, it's yin and yang. Basically: where there's good, there's evil.
異能 - unusual power; superpower; ability beyond that of humans
者 - person (rarely used without a qualifier)
I understand 者 as the user in "ability user"
So 人類 vs 異能者 = Humanity vs Ability users.
[Section Incomplete] - I remember wanting to talk about how Fyodor sees himself and then talking about how that shows how he views humanity and ability users. First off, he doesn't care what he becomes or is seen as. He is the type to "willingly become a demon for future peace" (at least "peace" in his eyes). I remember having a plan (in my head) for this section but...by now I've forgotten and are too lazy to continue it.
The page isn't with Fyodor
This may sound strange since we see Fukuchi hold the page too but remember: we never saw them actually use/write on the "page" that we've seen. It's basically just a normal piece of paper.
Fukuchi claims the paper he's holding as the page. [Chapter 83.5]
There's no proof of it actually being the page though.
Fyodor offers the page to Atsushi [Chapter 119]
This was Fyodor's plan to show Atsushi that the page is there with them. So that he has no reason to question where the page is.
If you see an apple in front of you, you won't be thinking "I wonder where the apple is" but instead believe that it's right there.
I had a far fetched thought that maybe the page was with Fyodor in the prison and then made to be found by Sigma in the guise of the note claiming he needs help:
When Sigma picks it up, it looks like there are two papers.
And yet, when he shows it to Fyodor there seems to only be a one:
Now of course, this could just be artistic error or even mere perspective but I don't think so. Every detail is usually intentional.
So what's the second paper?
"How did Sigma not realise?" I don't know...Maybe it's been changed to appear as a blank page somehow.
This would tie in with my theory from last update that Fyodor is in a rush to get to Sigma before he wakes up.
Atsushi thinks Fyodor has the page and that he'll have to take it off him (steal it) somehow. He has no idea that the page isn't even close by but instead in Meursault.
A lot of people think "How could Atsushi's day get any worse?"
Well...fight a literal god-like-level being who is controlled by a 2k+ old evil mastermind who wants to get rid of all ability users by manipulating the general public and then never even get the page that you were fighting for because you were being manipulated this entire time and the page was never there...
Thoughts on Fukuzawa's "death"
First off, I don't think I've mentioned it in my theories so far but I don't believe that those "killed" by ame-no-gozen will stay dead. At some point, all of them will be alive again with no issues.
Anyway, Fukuzawa's "death" reminded me of Rampo after the "Kamui is Fukuchi" discovery. Is this a sign that we'll see him in the next chapter? ...probably not, but it did feel like a parallel, at least to me.
Also, I know last time I said "maybe next chapter he'll die" but no, this is not the death
Btw, this feels like a parallel to me even if it's not exactly the same:
Note: The following segment was written around a week after the chapter released.
The moment I finished reading the chapter (a few hours after it released) I started typing this immediately. So I've been writing this on and off for a week now...
First, I was tired IRL, then the next day was busy, and the next and the next and...you get it. I probably wrote most of it on the first day while tired so don't mind if anything makes no sense.
This must be the longest theory post I've written for BSD so far...
Should I stop doing long posts? Would you guys prefer short ones? I try to do one long post per chapter, but I feel like not many people read them, precisely because they're long. I like doing it like this as it's more compact (in my opinion) but if you guys would like me to stop the long posts let me know.
To the people who actually read this post, if anything doesn't make sense or seems incomplete, it's because I wrote all this while tired (35% with a headache) and whenever i came back to write more I couldn't remember what I was trying to say...
It was in my drafts partially incomplete so since we're expecting the new update soon, I remembered this and posted it.
