NAT CRASH OUT!! WE ALL SAY IN UNISON!!!! NAT CRASH OUT NAT CRASH OUT NAT CRASH OUT NAT CRASH OUT NAT CRASH OUT NAT CRASH OUT NAT CRASH OUT NAT CRASH OUT NAT CRASH OUT NAT CRASH OUT NAT CRASH OUT
well coswan and anti-coswan is just based, their my fav parents. also I just looove a good family dynamic. especially if its found family, you can make me cry sooo easily
i cant lie i am intrigued with perirep haha, love the enemy- to lovers- back to enemy thing they have going on. plus with the whole "only" fairy/ anti-fairy of their generation it does make sense that they would have a bit of a different relationship than other fairies and anti-fairies. and the au where they both co parent Dev is just chef kiss haha i do visit this tag a lot.
i dont really ship Timmy with anyone in universe but Timmy x Jimmy is cute. i really loved the power hour crossover when i was a kid. they just fit together so nicely.
and, i cant believe im saying this but- peri and dale. NOW HEAR ME OUT HAHA its such a funny crackship! its so hilarious that i want to see more of it. toxic yaoi my beloved hahaha
I've been thinking a lot about the one-dimensional kinda fandom interpretations of Dazai and Chuuya in particular - the overemphasis on Dazai's weird brand of mischief/manipulation and Chuuya's anger and tendency to lash out and how it's not like these traits are... wrong, per se - these are their surface level/immediately notable characteristics - it's just that it misses the nuance as to why these traits likely exist.
What these interpretations don't fully capture is their very similar cores deep down - two people plagued by feelings of alienation, human inadequacy and repeated loss. Despite starting from these very similar places, they both dealt with the issue in near opposite ways. Dazai numbed himself to pain (remember: he hates pain! I cannot emphasize this enough!) and rarely gets close to anyone for fear he will lose them - his loss led to apathy, a withdrawal from humanity, a fear that he will always be empty inside - his ability: No Longer Human. Chuuya, on the other hand, refuses to numb himself and instead feels every single emotion in full and values his bonds with others over anything. He wants to belong and makes efforts to be perceived as a part of his group. Underlying this, however, is a kind of tired grief paired with resilience - remember that his ability is Upon the Tainted Sorrow. Not anger, or rage.
Sorrow is what results from this kind of heavy identity crisis and loss - for both of them. Think of Odasaku's read on Dazai as someone who looked close to tears when "acting" in front of the sniper poised to shoot him, describing him to Gide as a too-smart child left in the dark, or the way Stormbringer constantly reminds us that Chuuya is 16 and the desperation he feels in the scene where he holds his own dying clone, unable to help him.
Both characters carry a melancholy, resulting from their respective issues with their own humanity - I know I'm not the first one to comment on how their abilities could just as easily be referring to each other as well as themselves. This reads as very intentional to me - much like Atsushi's story begins as a clear parallel to the short story Rashoumon and Akutagawa sometimes being referred to in more beast-like terms than man, it makes sense that Dazai and Chuuya would reference each other in a similar vein.
And if that was the end of it, then we would expect that deep sorrow to shine through in both characters, but it rarely does except in pivotal moments. That's because the both of them have had to constantly deal with external threats - they believe they cannot afford to show vulnerability.
So, what you get instead is Dazai taking a kind of twisted ownership over his inhumanity and using it to make people afraid of him and to control everything so that he is never blindsided and hurt again, in the process, further alienating himself and making his issues worse. He inflicts fear so he doesn't have to be afraid. He can relax and be as silly as he wants - so long as everything around him is completely according to his predictions. There's a bonus to his foolish demeanour as well: hardly anyone can read him well enough to get close.
Then you get Chuuya, who feels so strongly and so much that it has no choice but to boil over, and due to never being able to or feeling comfortable with being anything but "the strongest", he hides moments when he is touched, or worried, or grieving, with anger and violence and defensiveness. As such, he is always seen as more weapon than person, a cut above the rest, forever standing out to others no matter how much he tries to integrate. The closest he came to true belonging was wrenched away from him before he could have a chance to know what that would actually feel like with the death of the Flags.
These surface traits are defense mechanisms. And the amusing thing to me is that likely means these two would love if that's all most people ever saw of them. (Of course, they clearly do want to be seen and accepted, but defense mechanisms become automatic over time because they often feel much safer. Likely another reason they clash so much - they see each other, and it is deeply uncomfortable for them both.)
So, you have Dazai defending himself with his two-faced nature, making jokes and/or manipulating everyone in the vicinity, and Chuuya defending himself with intimidation and anger, never letting any vulnerability show through because anger is easier but at the core of all of this is that loss and that grief and the sorrow and fear that pervades from it.
The Saw limited edition box set arrived!!!!!! The brainrot this franchise has given me, despite having only gotten into the series very recently, is insane. The box set, at its normal retail price, is INCREDIBLY pricey, but I got it cheaper during a black friday sale, and the amount of content it comes with made it worth it.
The reverse bear trap replica is well sculpted and is actually quite hefty and solid. It also fits my Frodo plush (Frodo’s here for size reference and for sacrifice).
The book is the dvd storage and it’s pretty sick, I’ll post some inside photos of it in a following reblog, but there’s a lot of unboxing videos out there so if you are interested in seeing it in-depth, I’d search YouTube.
