The Hidden Suffering of Orihara Izaya
A while back @wawawawawawawawawawawawawa was screaming into the heavens about Izaya having ASPD (antisocial personality disorder) and posted THIS ARTICLE. I read through it the whole time feeling like I was reading an Orihara Izaya character study. While the language is a bit outdated, this article was really interesting to me when I considered it alongside how Izaya's character is written. I wanted to use this article as a lense to look at Izaya, breaking it down and examining what we know is canon about him as well as my own interpretations of him. I want to look at the characteristics of ASPD as outlined by this article and use that to show how Izaya suffers as a direct result of his ASPD. I have been autistic as fuck about this man for 12 years and as such have developed a lot of opinions about him while consuming every bit of media I could find on him (that was in english at least).
Quotes from the novels are taken from my copies of the books, while quotes from Sunset and Standing Ovation are from translations by Kaede726 and can be found here.
I would also like to formally apologize now because I tried so hard to make this somewhat organized but it just goes off the rails several times because I kept remembering random shit I wanted to add in. Hopefully the places it goes are at least somewhat interesting to you. But anyway with all that said, everyone please feel free to add anything you like to this discussion and I'll be happy to reply especially if you somehow make it through this whole nightmare of an attempted analysis. So strap the fuck in because here we go, motherfuckers.
Also, in an attempt to make things a bit more organized, quotes from the article will be in blue and quotes from Durarara, Sunset, and Standing Ovation will be in orange.
The article opens with a brief description of traits of ASPD which are as follows:
"Psychopathy is characterized by diagnostic features such as superficial charm, high intelligence, poor judgment and failure to learn from experience, pathological egocentricity and incapacity for love, lack of remorse or shame, impulsivity, grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, manipulative behavior, poor self-control, promiscuous sexual behavior, juvenile delinquency, and criminal versatility, among others."
Right off the bat this description slapped me across the face. This is Izaya. Pure and simple, these traits are nearly all a perfect description of who he is. I wanted to really dive into this and provide examples of how well this description actually suits him.
Izaya is charming, intelligent, and manipulative. Those are essentially his core character traits that we see at surface level, as such, these traits don't need to be explored any deeper right now in my opinion. They are widely accepted and acknowledged as fact. I don't think I have anything else to add besides just gesturing wildly at him.
The next criteria I've also grouped together is juvenile delinquency and criminal versatility. Izaya began some less than legal activities starting as early as middle school with his baseball gambling ring using the biology club as a front. This was, by future Izaya's standards, pretty tame. Years later, Izaya makes it clear that he doesn't give a fuck about legality. Just carrying his knife on his person (from what I am aware) is illegal in Japan. Izaya also has no issues with the people around him participating in crime. Just to list a few examples: he is introduced to the series in the novels by drugging two young suicidal women after encouraging them to meet with him and commit suicide together, he does not step in when Izumii threatens to rape Earthworm, and he helps Namie who is literally kidnapping people off the streets (and in the anime can't remember if it's in the novels as well, Izaya actually provides her with a list of illegal immigrants for her to use before Mikado fucks up her shit). Even after the events of Durarara are over, in the intro to Sunset with Orihara Izaya, he encourages a man to murder his friend and business partner. Basically he's involved in a lot of criminal activity whether or not it's him directly doing said activity, he definitely encourages it in people around him.
I'm going to skip over promiscuous sexual behavior just because we do not get any direct evidence of this in the series, although the fandom has come up with some interesting headcanons and fanfictions related to this. The only hint we get of Izaya's sex life is when Eijirou accused Izaya of "defiling" Mikage, and Narita tweeting that Izaya has "normal sexual urges" whatever the fuck that means (Honestly this is probably just Narita being homophobic and trying to shut down Shizaya shippers, but I digress).
So this is where we move on to the deeper subjects. It's difficult to pick where to begin here, but I think the best place to start is with pathological lying. While Izaya doesn't lie all the time, he does lie very frequently, and the consequences of believing his lies can be catastrophic for the rest of the cast.
"I'll lie to others and even to myself, but not when it comes to business. I wouldn't have much of a business if I did that. You can think of lying as a kind of side hobby of mine." -Durarara!! vol 9, p 73
Izaya states that he never lies "when it comes to business". Obviously, as he says, he wouldn't be a very good informant if he spouted lies all the time. But that statement itself isn't entirely true. That said, there are times where he has lied in a business transaction, although those lies tend to be lies of omission rather than outright false statements. But there are also times where he lies when the line between Izaya's business and personal fuckery are blurred.
Immediately the Akane incident and the take down of Amphisbaena and Heaven's Slave come to mind. With Akane, that was 100% his own fuckery and he simply lied a little too close to the sun. The sun being the yakuza organization that wouldn't hesitate to bury him at a moment's notice. The latter was technically a job for Shiki; however, the lines are difficult to distinguish here given he had been involved personally with these groups before it became work. In this case though, he did outright lie in a business transaction when he told Shiki he didn't know what became of the leaders of each business or why they suddenly ceased activity. Of course Shiki, being wise to his bullshit, has a feeling Izaya does know, but chooses not to press the issue unless it becomes a problem later.
That said, Izaya does tell the truth when Akabayashi hires him to look into Mikado when he does not hide the fact that Mikado is the founder of the Dollars. This could be seen as him lying to Mikado that he wouldn't sell the information that he was the leader of the Dollars; however, Izaya's reasoning/rationale for why he feels this doesn't break his promise is that he could tell Akabayashi already suspected or knew this fact. Does this count as lying to Mikado? To me, it kind of does. But whether or not this is just Izaya making up excuses to not lie to the Awakusu-kai or if he actually believes his reasons are solid…? I am not sure. So yeah, even the statement that he never lies in business is technically a lie.
But let's now consider Izaya's lying "to himself and others" as a hobby. The lying to himself part is very interesting to me, especially that he would outright admit that, but I will get to that in a moment. Typically when Izaya lies it is to make himself more intimidating.
"He just accepts whatever happens, making a face as though everything went as he predicted. This makes people simultaneously feel frustration as well as fear towards him." -Celty, Standing Ovation with Orihara Izaya, prologue
He will say things like "I knew you'd say/do that" or something similar to always appear like he is in control of a situation even when he might not be. The reason so many people such as his "followers" believe he knows everything is because of the confidence with which he speaks and the information he gathers from his ever-growing network. This leads to vulnerable people believing he is omnipotent when in reality, he's just a guy. (Hit him with your car).
Some people are afraid of him as a result of this and seeing as Izaya is already so self-isolated from the people in his life, he seems to throw himself full on into that image. Izaya wants people to think he's dangerous. He wants to drive people away from forming personal connections with him. He wants to be above his own human feelings so that he can observe everything objectively. But I don't think this comes from a place of wanting to be alone. Deep down, although he denies it, Izaya wants personal connections.
"That's the most troubling aspect to him… he doesn't act out of ill intent. He behaves the way he does out of love for humans. He's the 'smoke and miasma'. He's the poisonous mist itself. Even if he doesn't intend to harm anyone, he's harmful to people just by being around them. But here's the catch… as devastating as it is to humans, he wants to be around them." -Shinra, Sunset with Orihara Izaya, Interlude 1
He even mentions that he wants his sister's to treat him like family and seems actually dejected when they refuse.
"'I guess it was foolish of me to expect familial love from either of you,' Izaya snapped, his cheek twitching.
But his sisters weren't done. 'But to you, me and Kuru and mom and dad are no better than strangers when it comes to your targets for observation, aren't we? If you're going to treat all of humanity exactly the same, you can't expect your family to love you back!'
'...Sad…' [What a sad man.]" -Durarara!! vol 9, p 42
Yes, Kururi, what a sad man indeed. The way Izaya reacts here (snapping back at the twins with his cheek twitching) definitely looks like he's being genuine about this. Like it actually bothers him that they don't treat him like family. But he still lies to himself. He tells himself that this isolation is all okay because he is above humans. He doesn't need other people as "friends". All this so that he doesn't have to be lonely.
We all remember this devastating blow dealt by none other than Shinra:
"People think of him like some cold blooded monster, but he's more human than anyone I know; he's so fragile inside. If you pumped him full of love and betrayal and such, I think he'd fall apart. I think that's why he decided to love humanity by letting everything wash over him. Do you see what I'm saying? He accepts everything, but he doesn't take it in. He lets it wash over him. [...] Think of those koinobori poles, with the carp streamers that blow in the wind. At first glance, they appear to have wide mouths and insides that happily swallow everything into them… but there's no bottom to that container. It's just a hollow tube. So of course they can accept everything into their mouths; they don't actually hold it. Of course he can love everything." Shinra, Durarara!! vol 13 p 63-64
Rejection sensitive dysphoria, anyone? Izaya knows he doesn't handle rejection well (or any other emotion for that matter), so instead of dealing with that, he refuses to allow himself to feel anything that is thrown at him altogether. He is desperately trying to separate himself from his own human emotions because he knows he is capable of being hurt. Izaya did not mature emotionally as he grew up. Shiki and I think a few others have described him as a child in an adult body and I think that description is accurate. Izaya never developed healthy ways to deal with his emotions, so he instead just cuts himself off from them entirely, which makes him cold and cruel.
Shinra is consistently the best source of insight into Izaya's personality. Despite not having any real interest in humanity, Shinra is extremely perceptive and Izaya takes note of this when they were in middle school. It is likely Shinra has already diagnosed Izaya's personality disorders and uses that knowledge as a reference for everything Izaya does. Shinra shows no fear towards Izaya, and still considers him a friend despite understanding the "ugly" side of Izaya's personality. This explains why Izaya, in return, still considers Shinra a friend, even when he doesn't show him any sympathy after being stabbed.
Yeah, he doesn't exactly treat Izaya particularly well, but Shinra just… gets him. And isn't driven away. That's why Izaya is so dissatisfied with himself at the thought of upsetting his only friend as I will discuss later.
Deep down Izaya wants real, human connection with people. But he doesn't allow himself to have this because he feels like he needs to be separate from humans in order to properly observe them. Yet still, Izaya watches as those he deems "monsters" (Celty, Anri, and Shizuo) have a circle of friends that continues to grow while his relationships only get worse. This intense resentment, jealousy, and loneliness is probably what led to him deciding to fight Shizuo all out, knowing very well that it might kill him.
"a relationship has been found between the intensity of sadness and loneliness and the degree of violence, recklessness, and impulsivity."
Is Izaya lonely? Absolutely. No other moment in the series displays this like the infamous hot pot party. Almost everyone in the chatroom, all of which Izaya knows in some way, have a hot pot party. For him it's not difficult to piece together that they are all talking about the same party (with the exception of Mairu and Kururi). Izaya is clearly hurt that he wasn't invited, although he likely understands why, it hurts nonetheless.
Izaya gets visibly upset when he starts complaining about how it's out of season to have hot pot, but then immediately turns to Namie and asks if she wants to have hot pot with him.He's not even subtle about feeling left out and Namie calls him out on this and still refuses to join him, instead leaving him with a whole bunch of food by himself.
I mean. Look at his face here. He is genuinely upset. For once in his life he actually wanted real human connection over a shared meal and even Namie, who he pays to be around him, leaves him all by himself.
He's so deeply hurt and upset by this, and seemingly as a result decides to step up his game. He gathers a group of unsavory people, most of whom hate his guts, and claims they're all his friends and they should have hot pot together. Again making it crystal clear he is still bitter about being left out. He then proceeds to use that group to cause even more mayhem than he had before.
So loneliness aside, how exactly is Izaya suffering from all of this? On the surface, Izaya seems to be thoroughly enjoying himself for most of the series besides those couple moments when he's getting his ass kicked. The article states that "[...] psychopaths suffer emotionally as a consequence of separation, [...] or dissatisfaction with their own deviant behavior." I specifically isolated the ideas of separation and dissatisfaction with their own behavior because these two points really seem to be where we see Izaya struggle.
Remember when Izaya–in a rare display of emotion–punches a telephone pole in frustration? Anime only people unfortunately missed out on this scene so I will provide a bit of context. After his fake kidnapping by Amphisbaena, Izaya brings Celty's head with him when he meets with Celty to give her the information he owed her for doing work for him. From there, Izaya begins reflecting on his relationship with Shinra and how Shinra might be mad at him for bringing Celty's head so close to her body.
"And now he was betraying that friend of his. A friend by the definition of the rest of the world, not Izaya's own twisted standards.
He'll be pissed if he finds out I brought the head very close to Celty.
'Ha-ha!' he chuckled, imagining the sight of the one actual friend he had consumed by rage.
Nothing to be afraid of.
That was how he'd always lived; he laughed– and laughed– and laughed– and laughed– and laughed–
–and clenched his right hand into a fist, then rammed it into a telephone pole." -Durarara!! Vol 9, p 188
While Narita leaves it very vague here as to what Izaya might actually be feeling, it is clear he is upset. It's not a far stretch of the imagination to assume he is pissed at himself for jeopardizing his relationship with Shinra over something as simple as curiosity. This scene in particular adds an incredible layer of depth to Izaya and shows that he absolutely struggles with his own behavior (and no, I'm absolutely not bitter it was cut from the anime. Not at all.) So does this mean Izaya has the ability to show remorse or shame? I would argue that he does, but definitely not to the extent a neurotypical person would. If he truly had remorse for his actions, he wouldn't do half the shit he does throughout the series. But there are times, such as this scene, where we see how Izaya's impulsivity can lead to moments of regret or anger with himself.
I also noticed something else while looking at this scene again. Specifically the line "Nothing to be afraid of. That was how he's always lived". At surface value, this just reads like Izaya trying to convince himself that Shinra's anger was nothing to be afraid of. That Shinra's anger specifically was what potentially scared him. But then I saw this line from Sunset with Orihara Izaya:
"He exaggerates that this is his punishment, but in his heart he may be afraid - afraid to revert back to his old self and once again return to his old home town: Ikebukuro." -Sozoro, Standing Ovation with Orihara Izaya, Interlude 3
Both passages mention Izaya being afraid, but the second specifically seems to refer to his life and behavior, which made me read deeper into the use of the word "afraid" during the telephone post scene. Izaya might actually be afraid of himself. Specifically this version of himself that does shit without caring about the consequences only to have regrets later. This reckless, impulsive, obsessive version of himself that drives him to put himself in dangerous situations for the thrill it gives him and left him in a situation where his only friend might grow to hate him.
"What needs to be treated is not my legs. It may have to do with my mind [...] I'm quite aware that I'm not normal. But even so, I can't stop it. I've at least come to accept how I am, but the next time I slip up… I feel there's a good chance I'll die." Izaya to Sozoro, Sunset with Orihara Izaya, chapter 4
It's the "I can't stop it" part of this quote that stands out the most. Izaya is painfully aware of his mental illness, but he is powerless to stop himself. Even understanding that it may very well kill him in the end, he is unable to stop. And that scares him.
"Psychopaths are known for needing excessive stimulation, but most foolhardy adventures only end in disillusionment because of conflicts with others and unrealistic expectations. Furthermore, many psychopaths are disheartened by their inability to control their sensation-seeking and are repeatedly confronted with their weaknesses."
This all brings us back to the next category from the article: Impulsivity, poor self control, poor judgment, and failure to learn from experiences. Izaya gets bored easily. Ideally he wants to be an observer, but as he says:
"I'm not trying to do anything with humanity. I just want to watch it. And in order to keep things interesting, to poke them just a little bit now and then." Durarara!! Vol 9, p 187
Izaya needs things to be interesting to him. The mundane isn't enough even if he wants it to be. So he pushes the limits. This gets him excited and likely produces a rush of dopamine in his brain which only serves to make him push things further… and further… and further… until he does something he regrets. But along the way he feels great. Just look at him when he's fighting Shizuo. He's grinning and laughing the whole time despite the actual danger to his life. The rush is fun for him, and it's very possible that he's become addicted to that high.
"He knew that actions he took had a way of coming back around to bite him. But usually that happened because he couldn't help himself and did it anyway." Durarara!! vol 11, p127
That could be what he's potentially afraid to revert back to after the main series is over. He knows that his desire to push and push and push is what landed him in a wheelchair and in chronic pain. He doesn't necessarily want to die, but he knows that if he were to continue down that path where the only thing that made him feel alive was the thrill of his life in danger… it would cut his life much shorter than he wants.
Yet still, Izaya doesn't expect to live a long life. Instead, he just chases that dopamine high wherever it takes him. Even after vol 13, in the Izaya novels, he continues to do things that put him in physical danger despite it being even more dangerous for him now that he's physically disabled. But he is definitely more aware of it now.
In the main series, Izaya's constant dopamine seeking leads him to have poor judgment in some situations. Like the Akane arc for example. Messing with Akane at all is just a shining example of Izaya's poor judgment in my opinion, especially since he works so closely with the Awakusu-kai, who are already weary of him causing trouble. He managed to save his own ass by not meeting Akane in person to feed her lies, but overall this entire thing really felt like Izaya taking advantage of Akane's situation without entirely thinking about the consequences.
Did Izaya learn from this experience though? Absolutely not. He goes on to lie to Shiki again about Amphisbaena as discussed before. He also demonstrates that he doesn't learn from experiences when he gets stabbed. Kujiragi used her organization to try to get him out of the way for a bit because he was fucking around with her plans. What does he do as soon as he's able to walk around again? He fucks with Kujiragi's plans. Where does that lead him? To be attacked by Sloan and nearly kidnapped. How does he respond? By once again interrupting Kujiragi's business deal and causing chaos around her deal. He doesn't learn because the dopamine rush he gets from doing these things far outweighs any consequences.
"That obsession of his… It's honestly frightening to imagine how focused he'd get when he has an eye on something to where even his life is irrelevant. If there's any 'fear' I have towards him, it would be that one point. So watch out. First, his own life is secondary to him. Any time I thought 'with this he'll lay off'. he'll take another step forward and come at me again." -Shizuo, Sunset with Orihara Izaya Interlude 5
The fact that even Shizuo recognizes this and admits it's scary is what gets me. Shizuo hurts himself all the time. In his own way, he's a poster child for impulsivity, yet he picks up how it's just different in Izaya. Izaya's goals come before his own physical and mental health. When he gets himself kidnapped by Earthworm, he admits he was fully prepared to be tortured by her. Like nails ripped off, beaten, straight up torture. When she went for the psychological instead Izaya was more interested in her methods but the fact remains he was ready to endure torture just to collect her and Shijima as pawns. If that doesn't scream impulsive and reckless behavior, I don't know what does.
Anyway, circling back to the list of characteristics… I'll be honest, I had a hard time coming up with good examples that I wanted to talk about for pathological egocentricity and grandiose sense of self worth. I'm absolutely sure it's there and I have some ideas floating around my head but I didn't feel like looking into them while writing this, and then I remembered this is not a graded assignment so I can just say fuck it and skip it. If anyone wants to jump in here and give some examples feel free because to be honest I really just want to move on to the final topic: incapacity for love.
Whenever Izaya talks to someone about how he "loves humans", he always specifies to the listener that he doesn't love "you in particular". This could be an argument that he is completely incapable of feeling love for an individual, but I do feel like he does have the capacity to love an individual but, in fact, chooses not to. The issue here isn't that he can't love, it's that the way he shows love is fundamentally different.
"Like healthy people, many psychopaths love their parents, spouse, children, and pets in their own way, but they have difficulty in loving and trusting the rest of the world."
In most (neurotypical) people, when they love someone or something, they are kind to the object of affection. Izaya's love, however, is… different. Izaya loves humanity, and as we have seen time and time again, this "love" doesn't necessarily translate to kindness.
"It's like… you know how when cat people see cats and just find them irresistibly cute? Whether the cat is angry, or sulking, or sleeping, or whatever [...] I bet that if he saw a cat get run over by a car, or the instant it died of illness, or if a cat tore out another cat's throat, he'd still have the same reaction to it. Like, 'aww, that's so cute.'" Nakura, Durarara!! vol 9, p 6
Izaya loves the good, the bad, and the ugly in humanity. It makes sense that his love for an individual would kind of be the same way. We don't really know exactly what this might look like though, as Izaya seems to not allow himself to feel any deeper form of love with an individual.
Sozoro hints that it's "not possible right now" for Izaya to fall in love with an individual and I agree with that. Izaya needs to heal and develop emotionally more before he is capable of allowing himself to love an individual. But I do believe he can. In his own way, at least.
As Izaya is now–as Sozoro mentions in the Izaya novels–if Izaya were to choose an individual person to love, he would do literally anything to make that person love him back. I'm sure the phrase "if you love them, let them go" would be meaningless to him. If he wanted someone, he would have them. Simple as that.
Perhaps because he already knows what Sozoro says is true about himself and he refuses to let himself become that obsessive over an individual when he is supposed to love all of humanity? And this is where the Shizaya happens. If you're reading this and you don't ship Shizaya, well, too bad. I don't want to hear it.
Remember when I pointed out Izaya admits he lies to himself? The biggest lie Izaya tells himself is that he hates Shizuo. What Izaya actually hates is how Shizuo makes him feel. Shizuo makes him feel things he doesn't want to feel towards an individual human, hence why he is determined to prove Shizuo to be a monster. He builds Shizuo up to be this inhuman creature that he is allowed to hate. But deep down, he resents Shizuo.
"They see the love and friendship others share and feel dejected knowing they will never be part of it."
Shizuo is considered a monster by the general public which is the idea Izaya also grasped onto, but those who are close to him all agree, Shizuo is human. He is able to form close friendships with others, and his true personality is generally likable when he's not angry. But from an outside view, he's a monster. The same way everyone views Izaya as a monster for the fucked up things he does. Yet still, he has close relationships with people and Izaya does not. Izaya may have set himself up for this, but it still really seems to bother him that people like Shizuo and not himself.
"What's so ironic is I lost to that monster's humanity [...] If that monster killed me then he would truly become a monster. To me, that would have been my win - someone who loved humanity and got killed by a monster. This should have been a satisfactory end. But that didn't happen. Despite being a monster, he was able to make human friends. Really trustworthy friends. And those humans stopped that monster. And so… I lost [...] Because I never tried to look at the human parts of that monster, I lost." Izaya to Sozoro, Sunset with Orihara Izaya, chapter 4
This whole fucking chapter just ripped my heart out of my chest, especially this. The way Izaya speaks here is… So much unlike himself as we usually see him. He has these moments a few times in the spin off novels, and honestly it's heartbreaking. He understands his flaws and his patterns and how self-destructive they are, and it seems like it's really beginning to eat away at him. Izaya convinced himself that Shizuo wasn't human, and that was his downfall.
Izaya doesn't want to love Shizuo. That's why he came up with this lie. That's why he doesn't pursue loving him in the way Sozoro described. But still, Izaya spends a lot of time messing with Shizuo. The way he smiles as he runs away from Shizuo shows how he enjoys their fights, especially as a way to feed that dopamine deprived brain. If he didn't like Shizuo, he could have just chosen to ignore him. But instead he continues to push him from the day they met until their final fight. But Izaya refuses to let himself believe that this is love. He lies to himself that he does all of this because he hates Shizuo, when in reality, he is fascinated by him. Shizuo always defies his expectations and he loves that rush it gives him every time.
Izaya is not ready to accept the truth of how he actually feels. He is not ready to show "love" to Shizuo in any form. So he permanently leaves Ikebukuro after he failed to kill him.
"Psychopaths can suffer emotional pain for a variety of reasons. As with anyone else, psychopaths have a deep wish to be loved and cared for. This desire remains frequently unfulfilled, however, because it is obviously not easy for another person to get close to someone with such repellent personality characteristics. Psychopaths are at least periodically aware of the effects of their behavior on others and can be genuinely saddened by their inability to control it. The lives of most psychopaths are devoid of a stable social network or warm, close bonds."
Both Shizuo and Shinra have what Izaya wants. On one hand, Shinra is "above" humanity, and isn't affected by anything unless it gets in the way of his love for Celty. Shizuo on the other hand, has close bonds with friends and family, and has people he can turn to when he's struggling who are willing to help.
Izaya seems to be torn. Split between his desire for connection and his desire to remain isolated. I have no doubt that Izaya suffers from periods of emotional dysregulation where he battles against his own human desires. Hell, we even get to see one of these moments with the telephone pole scene. I am willing to bet that behind closed doors Izaya frequently has moments like this. Moments where his frustrations with himself grow to a point where he can't control his emotions.
I'm going to go off on a brief tangent about Shinra for a moment. Shinra was, without a doubt, a huge influence on Izaya in his formative years. Not only was he his first and only real friend, but Izaya admits he saw Shinra as a rival whom he aspired to be. Ultimately, it seems it was Shinra's influence on his life that drove Izaya to become worse.
"Despite their outward arrogance, psychopaths feel inferior to others and know they are stigmatized by their own behavior. Some psychopaths are superficially adapted to their environment and are even popular, but they feel they must carefully hide their true nature because it will not be acceptable to others. This leaves psychopaths with a difficult choice: adapt and participate in an empty, unreal life, or do not adapt and live a lonely life isolated from the social community."
Izaya acknowledges Shinra getting stabbed as a turning point in his life. This seems to be where he made the difficult choice mentioned above. Until this moment, Izaya was primarily a passive observer. He didn't really get involved in anything and the worst of his behavior was his baseball gambling ring. But when Shinra was stabbed it was like Izaya suddenly realized what he was capable of. He was upset that this one person he considered a friend got hurt and realized he wanted to make Nakura suffer. He took the blame for the crime and started his crusade of fucking with an individual's life simply because he could. It seems like the rush he got from deciding to ruin Nakura's life paved the way for Izaya to start getting worse.
"violent psychopaths ultimately reach a point of no return, where they feel they have cut through the last thin connection with the normal world. Subsequently, their sadness and suffering increase, and their crimes become more and more bizarre."
Shinra's stabbing was this point of no return. Izaya was simply ignored by most people up until now, but from this moment on Izaya began doing things that made people actively hate him. He stopped caring about being an observer that doesn't get involved. From this moment on, Izaya decides he can do whatever he wants to other humans and his actions only escalate from here…
Until his downfall against Shizuo.
In Sunset and Standing Ovation the only time we see any of the original Durarara cast is through interludes in the form of interviews. In Sunset we hear more from Izaya's past acquaintances, and in Standing Ovation we hear more from his current ones. During Sozoro's interview in Standing Ovation, he reveals that he knows Izaya is the one who sent a detective out to find out what other people from his past and present think of him. Sozoro says something very interesting to the detective as a message to Izaya.
"There is no need to reexamine you. There is no way for you to return to sanity. When you have finally gone mad, at least I, Densuke Sozoro, will finish you off." Sozoro, Standing Ovation with Orihara Izaya, interlude 3
It seems that this entire time through both Izaya novels Izaya is gathering this information on how others feel about him because of some form of uncertainty within himself. It seems that he has lost confidence in his own humanity and possibly even his own sanity. Izaya as he is now is on a path to total self-destruction. What that looks like, we have yet to see. But if he is questioning his own sanity enough that Sozoro has noticed, it looks like he's on his way to crash and burn.
"As psychopaths age, they are not able to continue their energy-consuming lifestyle and become burned-out and depressed while they look back on their restless life full of interpersonal discontentment. Their health deteriorates as the effects of their recklessness accumulate."
I believe this is exactly what we are seeing happen. Izaya is slowly losing the battle with himself to keep his own sanity, but he is fully conscious of it the entire time. He knows exactly where he's headed, and doesn't feel the need to stop it from happening. That's why he refuses to go through physical therapy to be able to walk again. He probably fully believes it to be pointless because he will go right back to his old self and end up once again seriously injured or dead. After all, why go through all of that rehabilitation just to end up reversing it all in one moment of impulsivity?
"Violent psychopaths are at high risk for targeting their aggression toward themselves as much as toward others. A considerable number of psychopaths die a violent death a relatively short time after discharge from forensic psychiatric treatment as a result of their own behavior."
Izaya not seeking treatment is a form of self-harm. Or at the very least self-sabotage. He believes his behavior will be the end of him whether he gets help or not; therefore, he doesn't bother. He knows he needs help though, but for him he'd rather keep himself confined to his wheelchair than risk getting help and "ruining" himself all over again.
Izaya really is a bit different in Sunset and Standing Ovation. Losing against Shizuo and still being alive to tell the tale is not something he anticipated. It changed him in some subtle ways that only really come to light in these conversations he has with his new posse. Sozoro seems to be the one who is the most aware of this.
"Izaya-dono seems to have become even more attached to 'people' since that incident. Until now he seemed to prepare the large quantity of convenient pawns he kept a reasonable distance with, but in recent years it should be said he has come to seek for people so substitute for the activities he cannot do like I have." Sozoro, Standing Ovation with Orihara Izaya, interlude 3
Being his bodyguard, Sozoro is around Izaya quite a bit, and as such has a pretty good grasp on who he is. Izaya does seem to open up a bit more to him than he has with any other character in the past, thus proving what Sozoro says here. Izaya seems to be trying to connect just a little bit more with his "pawns" than he used to. He even seems to discourage Haruto from wanting to grow up to be like him.
The way Izaya interjects with that "No." It's so absolute. I could be wildly misinterpreting this, but it really feels like he wants to immediately discourage Haruto from walking in his shoes. What's extra interesting about this is it seems to be the next step from how Izaya treated Mikado. Izaya saw Mikado standing at a crossroads where he could either go down the path to the underworld or stay on the surface. Izaya expresses his confliction on whether or not he should take Mikado by the hand or push him away.
"As your senior in life, I'm undecided at the moment. I've got connections to him and the Awakusu-kai, as you know. I could get shot and killed at any moment. I don't know whether I should take your hand and show you how to navigate the depths of this treacherous sea, or push you back up to the safety of the beach and sunlight." Izaya, Durarara!! Vol 11, p124
Mikado attempted to be on the borderline between these two options, and well, we know how that ended. And so does Izaya. So when little Haruto starts expressing interest in becoming just like him… Izaya makes a firm decision this time. He doesn't seem to want this child to end up like him. He doesn't want this child to end up a monster like him.
So anyway that concludes whatever the fuck this was and someone needs to tell Narita how he has thoroughly ruined/changed the trajectory of my life.
And once again, feel free to add whatever you like to this absolute mess. You can respond on this post, send me asks, however you see fit. I'm always down to discuss this sad motherfucker.
