The Attempted Zuko

Hi! I'm Vee! They/them, 26. Commissions currently closed.

[videogamelover99]

If you're interested in commissioning from me, feel free to DM me or send an email to [email protected]

[videogamelover99]

Y'know, I never quite got the appeal of poly ships until I saw Death Note. Light, Misa and L all have their own separate thing going on with each other, one freakier than the last. I think they should all hold hands.

[ponury-grajek]

two proud dads

[ponury-grajek]

I just want to say that everything I draw is canon and 100% correct

based on Javert is in slash fiction comic, original by Kate Beaton

[merryweathart]

revenge is a dish best served cold

[xx-r0t-dot-com-xx]

also i just KNOW L was completely nonverbal until one day when hes like 5 he turns around and goes "i am of the opinion that the judicial system is ill equipped for the calibre of criminal activity permeating this world" or some shit

[jolyonvane]

misa amane, ai detector

[videogamelover99]

Soukoku hate each other because they embody each other's Shadow in the Carl Jung sense next question.

[s1lentpine]

Dad Mori doodle

[videogamelover99]

15 episodes into Death Note and L might be the most interesting character in the entire show. I'm so glad I got spoiled because I can't even image how angry I would have been if I hadn't.

[iamthemess]

I never realised how the PM & ADA team up conversation worked until now.

The whole thing is basically:

ADA: We have to team up to save the city

PM: agree but, hear me out. We can't. One of us will take the opportunity to attack the other if we have a cease fire. It would never work. It will only end in conflict.

ADA: but hear me out. We have to do it anyway.

The solution; sending the two members most loyal to their respective organisations so they won't betray their own side who also happen to be so ride or die for each other that they wouldn't betray each other and break the cease fire. Its a bonus they also happen to be the perfect team who already know how to work together and are known for decimating their enemies.

10/10 solution. Just send in your craziest ride or dies in together

[moths-to-flame]

And make these craziest ride or die have three generations

[videogamelover99]

What is Dazai's Morality?

There's an interesting phenomenon I see with BSD fans that I actually realized happens in many other fandoms, that Dazai unfortunately suffers from, and that's a mischaracerization by the fandom based not on the text, but on how he's framed on screen.

Let me explain.

The trend I'm talking about is fans, predominantly anime-only fans, claiming that Dazai is genuinely written like an evil, scociopathic character devoid of morals and in it for his own mysterious goals. Which, if you actually pay attention, is not true for his character at all.

Dazai's goals are not mysterious. They're straight up the main lyrics of S2s OP. Dazai's morality is also not mysterious, if you actually pay attention to the Dark Era arc.

The Dark Era sets up an interesting premise for a character that I've seen in other media, namely that the way a character is seen by others is a biased, unreliable take on the reality of the situation. From the first few pages of Dark Era, through Oda's POV, we are told that Dazai is ruthless, merciless, a distilled version of the PM's evil and violence. Everyone is afraid of him, and the trick is, this has more to do with reputation than it does with who Dazai actually is.

Dazai is said to be merciless, yet he lets Ango, a known traitor, go. He's said to be without morals, but we constantly see him idolize Oda, a man who deliberately stopped killing others. Through Oda, we see Dazai be friendly, kind, merciful, and having adopted a random orphan because he has faith Akutagawa can achieve something (which, Akutagawa is complicated. Dazai absolutely shows his ruthlessness and violence toward him, I think I have a different post on the parallels between Dazai and Atsushi's orphanage master. Keep in mind though that Oda does not see the abuse. Oda hears Dazai say something confident about Akutagawa, realizes Dazai cares about this kid, then goes to save him).

And at the end, when Oda is dying, the conclusion he makes about Dazai is that Dazai isn't anything like his reputation. Beneath all the veils and misdirections Dazai is just a crying child, alone in the darkness. Despite Dazai intellectually not caring about good and evil, Oda knows Dazai's life would be a lot easier if he gave himself permission to be kind, to do good, and to save people. Because no matter what Dazai thinks about himself and what kind of man he is, he does care about those things. Otherwise he would never have been drawn to Oda.

I think people tend to watch/read through the Dark Era and think the dark persona is somehow Dazai's true colors, when it's quite the opposite. I think the whole bait and switch of Dazai's character could be summarized in a few panels of the prison arc, when Sigma assumes Dazai was someone out to kill him in that elevator, only to realize a second to late that Dazai's goal, always, was to save him.

Buuuut the story, especially the anime, keeps those parts of the text subtle. And the more obvious framing we see is Dazai as a villain. Dazai in black, Dazai and his evil glances, the characters around his saying "no one can know his true intentions." That's bullshit. Every action Dazai takes points to the obvious, but how the camera frames him, as a character, takes precedence. How other characters see him takes precedence. And so the fans latch onto that.

Something very similar happened with Arcane season 1. The amount of video essays and posts calling Jinx a "sociopath" who doesn't care about Silco's cause or have real empathy was kind of absurd. It was almost like the fandom agreed that was her characterization until season 2 came out, and all the sudden people were scrambling to figure out why a teenage girl raised to be a killer was suddenly being framed as a hero.

But like, Jinx was never a villain or a sociopath, she was just framed that way. By the camera and common tropes as much as by Piltover. There's a great video essay on this, about how Jinx was always meant to be the hero/main character or Arcane, and how the story purposely obfuscated that in season 1 to show how easy it is for a system to blame someone's villainy for their own oppression.

I kinda think that's what happened with Dazai. The anime, much more than the manga, emphasizes Dazai's past as a villain, rather than a kid in terrible circumstances. And fans take that as a given.

Anyway, Dazai was never actually complicated or evil. I think he just saw himself that way, and leaned into the role like it was a given. Oda was the one who knew otherwise.

[poofmalyakaet]

the world is rotten… except for light yagami, of course

[poofmalyakaet]

nasty adult things ft. Light, Misa and L

[sskk-manifesto]

[sugar-plum-faeries]

@nolofingolfin

[s1lentpine]

Imagine you’re Chuuya:

You wake up to discover that your partner has left the mafia and may or may not be dead. (great)

Because of this your boss calls you for a brief meeting. You leave to go drive your car to— oh your car has blown up! (wonderful…)

You grab a PM Taxi to the bosses office and once you enter you discover your boss’s creepy af ability has started MIMICKING YOUR (ex) PARTNER. (what the fuck)

… (naturally you crash-out)

You get the day off and spend the rest of your day drinking antique wine in ‘celebration’. (Totally)

[geckoku]

Does anyone ever think about how Dazai specifically says Fyodor can only die by a double suicide. Like not murder suicide. Specifically says double suicide and I checked the kanji too

He COULD have said murder suicide because that’s literally what happens. Fukuchi kills Fyodor and then himself. But Dazai calls it a double suicide. WHICH TO ME IMPLIES THAT FYODOR WANTED THIS ON SAME LEVEL. Or that Dazai thinks Fyodor wanted this on some level. Either that OR this is once again Dazai projecting. Like in 15arc when he keeps shooting the dead body ‘this is more than you deserve’. Dazai is once again witnessing someone get something he desires. YOU EVER THINK ABOUT THAT yeah me neither