Okay so I never posted when the new BSD chapter came out because I was over on my bsd multi / rp blog instead, but!!
THE CHAPTER WAS SO EXCITING...!! i'm so hyped to finally learn about Fyodor, you guys have no idea. And seeing Sigma again was such a good feeling after so long... I'm extremely excited about reading the new chapter next month!
Hello all! It's been a while. I haven't been very active here for a good few months, mostly because I don't really know what to post about and have spending time on my RP blogs instead, but I'd really like to start being here more if possible.
So for my first topic of choice... surprising no-one, it's bsd related, but- I've been thinking about Akutagawa more lately, and he's been slowly rising up the ranks of my favorite BSD characters. But I want to understand him more!
So if any of you have any good meta on him that you happen to have on hand, or if you'd just like to talk about him in ims or wherever... feel free to let me know if you'd like! No pressure of course, but if you are interested, I'd be super happy to get my hands on anything tbh. Thank you!
*gnawing at own forearm* do you ever think about the fact that the only time we clearly see oda in the main series is right when dazai's about to go on a speech that presents bsd's underlying philosophy & driving force for the agency?
"An ex-hitman has no right to turn good." ...do you really think that? That's utter nonsense.
of course it's nonsense – because turning good is what oda wanted for himself, even before he wanted it for dazai. oda didn't want to kill; he wanted to write. of course turning good is achievable – because that's what oda was trying to do. for dazai, that's proof enough that it's possible. he believes it because oda did.
and then!! he keeps going!!!
so you want to be good. you killed people and you want to be good and you don't think you can be, because of who you've been until now.
What should one do when what they want is at odds with reality?
you do what oda did, what the agency does: you fight for it, because that's all you can do.
What do we fight for? How should we live? Nobody can give us the answers to these questions – all we have is the right to agonize over them.
all you can do is try to make it happen, stumbling the entire way, getting lost trying to find your answers. recklessly dashing through the gutter, like stray dogs caked in mud.
this is what dazai believes, because he's seen it happen – with oda, and then with the agency. the ADA gives out second chances to anyone who's trying to be good, to fight to create meaning for themselves.
oda told dazai to be good, and the agency gave him the opportunity to act on it. so when he's trying to convince kyouka that she, too, can be good – that she can join the agency and leave the darkness she's been living in... of course he thinks of oda. of course.
Unimportant post but ngl I forgot how pretty Fyodor is in the manga. I'm very excited to be seeing him again, and I know we've got a while to go before the manga catches up with the anime, but I really hope we'll be getting more on him soon!
Thinking about Fyodor BSD again... so much of his character is shrouded in mystery, and it's impossible to tell where his arc will go, but I really do hope we get a redemption for him.
BSD strikes me as a very pro-redemption series in a lot of ways, and I feel like Fyodor's character could be really good for exploring how like, people can change and be better, and often how people who do bad (though it doesn't excuse their actions) are hurting too... Dazai also explores that theme, but he's already started his redemption by the start of the series. Of course, no-one should be obligated to reach out a hand to Fyodor for that reason alone, since they have the right to be angry & to protect themselves too, but it'd still be really nice to see the series show him some level of empathy, I think.
Or maybe it's like... because Fyodor is so focused on the idea of sin, and everyone is "bad by nature", I think it'd be a neat parallel if like... the series shows empathy to him despite him being someone who does bad, and also shows how he needs to learn empathy for people, despite them being capable of bad, at the same time. I'm not sure if I'm explaining it right, but I just feel like it'd be neat.
I don't blame people who think Fyodor won't be getting redemption mind you, it's just the contrast between his awful actions and his - seemingly - genuine desire for a better world that makes him interesting to me, and that makes me feel that there's more to him than it seems. I get the impression that he's suffering a lot, too, and while again, that doesn't make what he's done any less awful, and I think those who can't sympathize with him are totally valid, it makes him compelling to me personally.
Why in my humble opinion the episode brings the Mersault arc to a satisfying end regarding Fyodor, Dazai, Chuuya and the message it has
So, there's a lot of energy buzzing around in the fandom with the latest episode and I felt like some things have not been pointed out enough, therefore I'm gonna share my thoughts on the parts of Mersault. This is a thread that focuses on the conclusion of the Mersault arc as presented in the most recent episode of the anime in season 5 and I will elaborate on what I think the message of the Mersault arc is, what Fyodor's role in this arc is, I will comment on why I think he was defeated and why it fits the message and I will also go into more detail of how Chuuya and Dazai play into all of this and what I think happened in Mersault.
I'd like to start with these panels from the manga, chapter 77:
Together with this one from chapter 105:
I think these panels convey the core message of the Mersault arc very well and its goal: Everyone is just human, no matter how smart. And humans are capable of amazing things and even moreso if they come together. This is the greatest difference between Fyodor and Dazai who have been countless of times painted and stated as each other's equals - yes, they are intellectually of a level most can only dream of, only rivaled by Ranpo, but unlike Fyodor, Dazai has learnt to trust humans and understands their bonds to each other.
Fyodor doesn't.
It's a message that is heavily implied and then outright stated by Dazai in the last episode:
The reason why Fyodor fails is that he doesn't trust in people and because he doesn't understand humans in that regard - he thinks that he is above this concept, thinks he can manipulate them and that they're just pawns. It's shown in the way he talks about Sigma, it's shown in the fact that he chose to use Chuuya who is Dazai's partner against Dazai to dangle him in front of Dazai and it's shown when he mocks Dazai for not being "able" to use a "gravity manipulator" and drops the famous line of them having a "shallow bond".
Fyodor is arrogant and very confident in his own abilities, including the one to control those around him. That's what makes him slacking though, he can't comprehend that a plan that relies on a bond and trust would be able to deceive and defeat him and the closer he gets to his goal, the less he cares. That's why he allows Dazai this last speech in 109 too, he doesn't think anything can defeat him. Dazai is at his wit's end, Fyodor is the winner. There's no way that Dazai has a backup plan, Fyodor is a genius and he already thought of everything that could possibly be, so there's no way, right?
Mersault always was about showing what humans are capable of and what they can achieve and that trusting in your allies, in your bonds with the people you love, makes you more capable and achieve higher goals. And it's exactly what happened.
Dazai states that he doesn't have control over all things, that he had a lot of uncertain cards. But he trusted in his allies and it pays off. He wins not because he has it all figured out from the start and a backup plan for the backup plan of the back-p plan, he did his part of the plan and adjusted to the scene and left the rest in full trust with his allies.
This pilot stabbing Fyodor worked because Dazai trusted in the agency and Ranpo and them taking over control the vampires in time. And the rest of the Mersault story before all this?
That brings me to my next point, actually. We learn in the episode that it was all a SKK scheme:
Now, some people were unsatisfied that a plan that simple couldn't fool Fyodor, but I think that is exactly the point of it. Chuuya is a great actor (in Stormbringer he fools with grief and shock Albatross in thinking he saved the in two halves separated Doc for example) and the simplicity of this plan is what makes it so good against Fyodor - why would he assume that the great Dazai, his intellectual equal, another genius, would go through with such a plan?
And it's even better because it isn't actually Dazai's! Now, I have seen a lot of people talking about this and I admit that I assumed the opposite originally as well, that this was all Dazai's scheme, but thanks to a moot I took a closer look on the story-telling and I realized something:
Dazai describes here the moment he realized that Chuuya is on his side in my opinion. This wasn't a "Dazai orchestrated the whole thing and sent Chuuya a text to haul his ass over to Mersault" because it doesn't fit with the storyline. Especially the speech in chapter 101 stands out here - a lot of people are making jokes about how weird and gay of a plan the speech is, but I actually think, based on the situation and the voice acting from Mamoru Miyano, that this goodbye speech is a genuine one.
The speech in 101 seems very genuine down to the point of his fake goodbye in the end, meanwhile the tone of a similar speech in 109 has completely shifted.
And what happened between 101 and 109? Exactly. The elevator.
So, what I'm thinking is this: Dazai saw that Fyodor had Chuuya under control and he knows his partner, he can't quite believe that Chuuya would get himself captured, it's gotta be a plan, right? Soukoku isn't actually the brains-and-brawn duo even though everyone thinks that, but Dazai knows how capable and smart Chuuya is. He hid Arahabaki from him and figured out Rimbaud after all.
But still, there is this bit of doubt nurtured by fear - he trusts Chuuya, but what if this isn't his Chuuya? So his goodbye speech is both:
An attempt to snap Chuuya out of it, an attempt to communicate with him, the hope that carries him because this is his partner, right? Stupid Chuuya that always fights and always clings to life and knows to appreciate it a lot more than Dazai.
But also a genuine goodbye, just... in case. Because he could never forgive himself if he doesn't say goodbye to Chuuya, JUST IN CASE. He trusts and believes in Chuuya, but he can't not say goodbye to him, just in case that Fyodor really got Chuuya.
And then the elevator scene happens and Dazai realizes: He only has one way of surviving, but he will not drag Sigma into this, not if he can help it. And he made a promise to him, after all. So, Dazai pushes Sigma out, makes sure that Sigma is alive like he promised. Then he keeps falling.
The only one that can save him now is Chuuya and Dazai decides to trust him. If this is his Chuuya, Chuuya will save him. Because that is what they do: Soukoku come to each other's call, they trust each other with their life and in return get that life saved by the other.
And if this isn't his Chuuya? Well, then Dazai died for the sake of the agency and he probably thinks that this is a good way to die, too.
But he doesn't die. He gets saved by Chuuya of course, how could he have ever considered something else? Chuuya came to his help and he has a plan. So, now all Dazai has to do is play along, just like in old times.
I wanna talk about this specific part of 109 too - I saw people arguing that the fact that Chuuya has been acting all the time made the scenes less impactful for the plot or their bond, but I actually would argue the opposite. Like I just laid out, in my opinion he only learnt just before this that Chuuya is on his side. That means, they don't have an actual plan that they discussed before, but they're good, they're Soukoku - we have seen in Dead Apple during the Dragonhead's Conflict and in the Dragon fight 6 years later what they are capable of without much communication.
But this is not only a way to show off their flawless communication and synchronization again, it also shows us something that we always knew but that is now plainly laid out: Dazai trusts Chuuya with his life. He trusts Chuuya to shoot, but not kill him.
Truly, you could say:
"The core characterization of Dazai and Chuuya's partnership is based on pure trust where both of them are capable of leaving each other's life on the other's hand without a second thought or doubt."
- from the Dead Apple guide book
Chuuya acting from the very beginning as vampire and Dazai finding out along with a leap of faith and them proving once again the close bond they share is exactly the way this arc was supposed to go and the fact that it was predictable in that sense doesn't make it bad writing, in contrary. Asagiri set up and delivered the message of the arc extremely well, the arc had a clear red string following through all of it.
And this is why, in my opinion, this arc was actually written very well and why Fyodor's defeat is actually a good break for his character arc (because I don't believe he is dead, but this here is already way too long and many others have pointed plenty why he probably isn't dead) and why I really like the message of the Mersault arc.
I'd like to bring up that Asagiri had finished this arc ages ago and he has always dropped hints in official art.
Chuuya's ram skull with the camellias often used to symbolize skk in art.
Chuuya's facial corruption marking on the elevator/box on Dazai's side even when Chuuya himself is on Fyodor's.
The Chuuya puppet being the only one not limp and controlled by anything despite being on a string. Being in control of gravity and staring directly at Fyodor.
As for the other arguments against this being a logical ending.
How did Fyodor not know?
He was too filled with hubris and was actively looking down on everyone, specifically Chuuya and Dazai. And Chuuya is a very convincing liar and efficient performer.
How did Chuuya get there?
Mori sent him. If Fyodor was expecting him meant he sent someone to turn Chuuya, but there is no way someone could get close enough to turn him. They probably intercepted this plan and sent Chuuya back as a fake vampire.
This lowers the stakes because Dazai was never in danger.
False, Dazai was always in danger. Dazai didnt know Chuuya was on his side till later, and Chuuya was working to keep him alive from right under Fyodor's nose. Not to mention Chuuya can control bullets but how precise he would need to be to ensure his gravity manipulated bullet stops at his skull without doing fatal damage within the inch between the muzzle and his head when Dazai actively negates abilities? He decided to keep trusting Chuuya despite his uncertainty and kept trusting that the agency would not be late.
Chuuya has no agency.
False, this entire plan hinged on Chuuya convincingly lying to Fyodor and saving Dazai's ass without Fyodor knowing. Chuuya was sent in blind with contacts and fake teeth. The rest was most likely all him.
Why didn't Chuuya kill him?
Because we don't know what his ability was or what he himself was. If Chuuya tried to kill him and failed the entire plan would fall apart completely.
so a while ago i read a theory on reddit (can't recall the user, sorry) that said that asagiri purposely shortened the manga chapters after season 4 was released so that the anime adaptation caught up to the manga. if you are a manga reader, you already know this is true and that season 5 episode 11 goes in fact beyond the manga plot.
this reddit user gave various reasons for this. one (and perhaps the most plausible one) said that it was to force manga readers to watch the season 5 finale. but i think i recall that another option may have been to tie up the manga and the anime, since parallel worlds have a special and pivotal role in bsd (we literally have the beast universe there) and therefore asagiri would be treating the manga and anime storylines as parallel worlds/universes.
and i can't help but worry because i was so relieved when dazai and fukuzawa came out of the conflict alright and everyone started to wake up. we got the detectives back, the hunting dogs (except for yosano, tachihara and jouno) and some port mafia members such as akutagawa and chuuya. both enemies (fyodor and fukuchi) were defeated AND killed. this puts the entirety of the fandom at ease.
the last few seconds of the episode show atsushi and akutagawa fighting against an ame-no-gozen wielder, who has fukuchi's scars and is also wearing a mask similar to the one he's wearing in an official art. so it's HEAVILY hinted that it's him.
now, the thing is, what if the manga takes another direction? what if that fukuchi is there because in the manga the ada loses and fukuchi/fyodor uses the book to jump into the reality where they don't win, which is the anime?
like now we manga readers are sort of relieved because the anime showed us how the arc ends, right? we just watched it. we will read that in the october chapter, right?
Back to writin' this. Assuming that the anime is following hte manga's path (likely), Fyodor's gonna be fine y'all. Eventually.
I mean, first and most obviously, we still don't know Fyodor's ability. That's kinda important lol and set up as a major mystery.
Fyodor as Jesus
Fyodor's last words are "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" aka Jesus' last words (or among his last words). I mean, think about what happens after Jesus dies. It's kinda the whole basis of Christianity.
But there's another layer to the whole Fyodor=Jesus thing. Actually, a couple layers. See, Dostoyevsky was himself very Christian, as much theologian as novelist. So the comparison very much makes sense.
Jesus is the Son of God in Christianity... and Fyodor? He's also the son of God.
God is a Character
This God figure Fyodor references is probably an actual person, and God is probably Tolstoy. I'm sorry but there is 0 chance we are getting Dostoyevsky and a whole host of Russian novelists but not Tolstoy who could have "War and Peace" as his ability. Not to mention... the set up is kinda perfect?
Tolstoy's three novels are War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and... Resurrection. Gee I wonder what his ability might be and how that ties into Fyodor (it's also surely not unheard of for Asagiri to use multiple literary references in an ability).
What is Tolstoy's relationship with Fyodor? Probably a parent-child one. I'd say it's extremely obvious, actually, that parent/child relationships are a main theme of this arc, even if the parental-child relationships are not actual flesh and blood.
Gogol-Fyodor parallel Chuuya-Dazai, Kunikida-Dazai, Tecchou-Jouno, and Atsushi-Akutagawa. All of these pairings also have parental figures (Mori, Fukuzawa, Fukichi, Dazai) except Gogol-Fyodor, who are themselves parental figures to Sigma. I highly doubt Fyogol is the exception, though.
If there is no god, then I am god
Anyways if Tolstoy is introduced, it would kinda be perfect to have him thematically in this role of family. Because the real life Tolstoy was actually terrible to his family despite his altruistic, idealistic pacifism that directly influenced Gandhi (with whom he corresponded). And also because he wrote one of the most famous opening lines in all of literature which would kinda sorta address all the pseudo-parental relationships in the entire story:
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way
man i am a little bummed about how this means that all this time we thought dazai was struggling for the first time was actually all just faked though. i hope we get to see dazai out of his depth at least once before the end of the series.
thoughts on the new ep will come soon!! but for now i still need to process everything, so i'll just say (MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOWING)
whether or not this direction for the story is "good" or "bad" to me entirely depends on what happens next and where it goes in the future. i could end up loving or hating it, but at the very least, i sure did have a good time watching the ep!!
(everything working out so perfectly for dazai is a little forced for me, but I do like that it's due to the "trust" and allies he has that fyodor lacked. plus it's bsd so i'm used to contrived shit like this. also also fyodor isn't dead, you heard it here first-)
