#ds!ferris

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DS!Ricardo: Subaru probably never even heard of drugs back in his hometown.

DS!Ferris: I’ll bet Subaru-kyun’s hometown does a shitload of weed.

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Been a hot minute since I read LN arc 3, but didn’t Ferris try to brainwash Subaru? How would the cast react to that?

Honestly I read the LN 3 and — I feel like I may have misread that section? Like I’m not saying this to “tone down” Ferris or anything but like, I really don’t feel like he was actually trying to brainwash Subaru.

Here’s the scene in question:

Like honestly, to me it comes off more like Ferris just taking advantage of Subaru’s lowered guard in healing sessions to try and convince him to not rush off to get himself hurt — the ethics of which might be somewhat debatable, but I don’t think it’s really the same as him actively trying to brainwash Subaru or something.

…But I was kinda planning on getting some outside opinions on this scene anyway, so. Now is as good a time for that as any.

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Hey uhh, I noticed in Exhibition that you seem to be putting emphasis on Felix being a "Failure of a Man" and blaming his overall appearance on his stunted growth. But if you read arc 3, Felix isn't a suitable finger because of the "rituals" he's performed on himself. He uses magic to intentionally block his puberty and to keep him girly and cute looking.

He also made a promise to Crusch back in the day. In order to be taken seriously, Crusch needs to be masculine, so Felix took it upon himself to be her femininity. That, and I'm pretty sure Felix enjoys being cute and girly.

On another note, is this appropriate for this to be an ask?

I’d say it’s appropriate, yes.

The reason why I reference Ferris as being a “failure of a man” is because — well, it’s how he refers to himself. You don’t really see this in the main storyline because he doesn’t do this shit around Subaru, but specifically in EX 1 (and also a couple of the Crusch Camp Side Stories, I think) Ferris very specifically declares that he dresses as a woman because that is the only way that he could be useful to Crusch, because his extremely abusive upbringing stunted his growth and made it impossible for him to support her by surpassing her in more traditionally masculine roles — specifically swordsmanship, it was this whole thing. This falls in line with what Tappei said about him in a QnA: that Ferris is “an exploration of the Hell of a boy who failed to become a man, who dresses as a girl.” I will pretty much always prioritize the text over QnAs, but in this scenario — it lines up really well actually, yeah. (And then, in Aganau IF where Ferris loses his memories of Crusch, he stops dressing as a woman entirely. Which means that it was never for himself, it was ALWAYS for her.)

What’s REALLY interesting is how this directly foils Subaru, who clearly loves femininity for its own sake but is constantly repressing it because of social pressures. They’re basically in opposite situations here.

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Thanking all that is holy on felix's behalf that dogshow only goes up to priestella and not vollachia/babybaru.

Thank goodness for DS!Ferris! But BTZ!Ferris saw everything. He is not well.

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Currently writing the next chapter of the react fic.

This really does sum up what Ferris and Subaru’s dynamic is like in that fic lmao—

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So quick question what of all of subarus deaths which one hit them the hardest?

It really differs from person to person, but here’s a couple:

Rachins: The one where he stabbed Subaru to death. It was largely an accident, and there are other, worse deaths that come after that, but he just can’t get the image of his own self murdering someone in cold blood out of his head.

Eridna and Beatrice: The first Arc 2 loop. Beatrice wasn’t his contracted partner yet, but she is now, and — she apparently once abandoned him to die, despite the fact that it would have taken her five seconds to just remove that fucking curse. Beatrice is devastated, Eridna is furious.

Rem and Ram: I don’t think there’s any possible answer that isn’t the loop where Rem tortured him for hours before Ram killed him in order to keep him quiet.

Wilhelm: The second Petelgeuse death. Not because of the grotesqueness of the Archbishop’s actions — he’s seen worse, probably — but because of the very painful and haunting realization of the similarities between his own righteous anger and the anguish-inducing display of rage that Subaru presented in response to Rem’s death.

Mimi, Crusch, Felt, and Reinhard: The third Petelgeuse death. Nobody was there. Mimi, Crusch, and Reinhard are all anguished about their failures to be there for him when he was outright begging for help, but Felt is just completely pissed with the lot of them (sans Reinhard, who was legit just not there due to a spell of bad luck).

Ferris: Both of Subaru’s suicides offend him on a very personal level, but the one he does in an attempt to save Rem (and by extension, Crusch and the rest of that lot) from Gluttony has so many other complicated feelings tied up in it that he just — it’s a lot.

Julius: If you think Julius is getting a little too overprotective now, imagine how that man is going to react to watching Subaru attempt to PET THE GREAT RABBIT.

Anastasia and Emilia: The Kiss of Death served as the final nail in the coffin for Anastasia’s opinion of the Emilia Camp as a fucking clown show — especially after she learned what Emilia thought kisses did. Emilia knew the context from the start and now she’s traumatized by her understanding of what she tried to do.

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What do you think of giving the cast a ‘breather’ between arc 2 and 3? Give poor Felix a chance to recover? Don’t get me wrong, I love where you e been going and what you’ve been doing, but it would feel a bit of a shame if he was ‘knocked out’ of the commentary for good? (Totally saying this with the ulterior motive of reading more scenes where Felix and Subaru bicker)

If you count the many, MANY Side Stories between Arcs 2 and 3 as a breather then I guess you’ll get your wish! But I’m not gonna be taking basically any steps to make this experience more pleasant for anyone, so Ferris is on his own.

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I think the funniest part of these recent chapters is how Ferris is somehow worse off than both Rem and Ram. That poor bastard has already completely lost his mind