#chapter 128 spoiler

[couponsfortherapyplz]

anyone else thinking this pose is looking a little familiar?

I think it's really interesting how both times, right before we've seen Fyodor reincarnate, we see him make this pose. The same pose Jesus made as he died on the cross, before coming back.

When Jesus was killed by man, he came back again as half man and half God. And as Jesus died for our sins (not only metaphorically, but also him literally dying because of the sin of us killing him), he returned as the hope to guide us away from our mistakes.

I think this ties in really nicely with Fyodor's ability, his motives, and how he views himself. We know Fyodor has this sort of God complex where he views himself as the hand to correct our mistake and remove the world of ability - like Jesus were to remove the world of sin. I mean, just imagine the first time Fyodor was killed (likely with an ability considering his mindset), in orthodox Christian Russia. It makes sese how he would have gravitated and turned to the Christian culture he grew up in, and in turn, began to view himself similarly to Christ; thinking they're both sacrificing their lives for the same great cause.

See how his head is bowed? We'd assume he looked defeated and had given up if we didn't know how Fyodor was. And in the Bible, Jesus "bowed his head and gave up his spirit" (John 19:30) as his final act before dying. And now we see Fyodor in the same position. Bowing his head, and maybe even giving up (had the snipper not shot him).

Also, the real Dostoevsky also placed a lot of emphasis on Christs suffering in the path to redemption and the value of faith offering meaning beyond the physical world (which we see in bsd Fyodor with how he talks of transcendence, ect.)

I think it just shows how the parallels exist so well between these characters.

[couponsfortherapyplz]

super interesting to see Atsushi's character development in the background of everything else going on

I've noticed that recently we've been seeing a lot more of the orphanage director, and we've also been seeing his relationship with Atsushi get fleshed out more.

I think it's interesting how as Atsushi learns to accept himself and his feelings about the director we see more of their relationship (it also puts into perspective why it was so hard for him to forgive the director since it's common for victims of abuse to struggle to forgive their abusers especially when they sometimes were able to see how kind they could be). But this sort of mirrors the shift from when the director stopped being the voice that would tear Atsushi down, and now we see him more as someone who guides Atsushi when he needs it most.

Now that Atsushi has said farewell, I think this is the last time we'll see him in a while (and great timing because with Fyodor about to come back to life again we'll need to see how he acts now with his character developed from all of this)