#dan rambles

[daz4i]

the new op is making me insane so i’m gonna try to overanalyze its visuals, what i think the symbolism means, how it connects to this season and the manga arcs coming after it. all of it is my interpretation ofc, feel free to disagree and i encourage you to add your own takes!

i’m not gonna go over every single detail, either because i have nothing to say about it or i’m not sure what it could mean, which is another reason i encourage you to add your own analysis in a reblog if you want to :3

warning for major spoilers for the manga under the cut, as well as unholy amounts of reaching lol

first thing i wanna look at is uh. that one fyodor shot, and specifically the second before it

the number of hands is a little odd to me. at first i noticed 4 sets of hand so my immediate thought was “oh, one set for every doa member, minus bram since he doesn’t have any” but noticing that 9th one coming alongside his face threw a wrench in that. so, assuming this number is purposeful, i have a few ideas:

1. it’s not just the doa involved, but the rats as well. both organizations have 5 members we know of. fyodor is in both organizations, meaning that combined, we have 9 people, and a hand for each one

2. it IS just the doa, and 2 hands for each member (bram included), except for fyodor who is both a hand and a head. he is the strategist and planner, thus he is the head, while the others are more like the ones who execute his plans, so they merely get to be hands (not sure how much i love this theory considering at the end of the day he is not their leader, but if you stretch it you could say that in this season we have no reason to assume he isn’t the doa leader so there’s no reason to imply otherwise? or a future implication that he’s letting fukuchi think he’s the leader but is actually manipulating him? yeah i dunno)

3. another one i don’t particularly love, but: it’s less about the number of hands, and rather about the finger highlighting the number 5, since this is going to be a key thing this season

okay, on to a more obvious one:

tachihara has his back to us, as to not reveal his identity yet

he is looking upon a purple background, a color we see in some mafia members’ abilities, hinting at him belonging in the mafia

once again, tachihara has his back to us. aside from him, all of the hunting dogs are revealed to the audience and looking forward (even if not 100%), except for fukuchi who is looking to the side, and is behind the pillar, making him visually separated from the rest of the group, since he belongs in the doa rather than the hunting dogs

couple of things you might be able to get from this:

1. sigma looking to the side, his back to nikolai and bram. he is not willingly in the doa or supports their goals, more dragged along for the ride. he is a part of the group, but has his eyes shut and his back turned to them, some sort of buffer to imply his separation from them

2. the main thing we see of nikolai is his overcoat. ngl i’m not sure what the symbolism in this could mean but it feels important so i wanna point it out for maybe other people to connect the dots i can’t. possibly, this shot is to highlight the tools at the doa’s disposal, aka sigma and bram as themselves, but nikolai mainly used for his ability...?

so. first of all. they’re and red and blue, opposites of each other in color and in direction as well

but the interesting thing to me is that they’re each others’ colors - with the ada usually presented in blue and the mafia in red, here we have it backwards. possibly to imply their (partial) role reversal in the eyes of the public, the ada now being demonized and hunted by the law while the mafia gets to lay low and offer assistance

possibly, you could stretch it to say their role reversal is in part about how fukuzawa would have to sacrifice a member for his organization in order to get what he needs, a thing that’s mori-like to do

speaking of blue to symbolize the ada, ango is clad in a blue light, implying his upcoming alliance with the ada

we see fukuchi using shintō amenogozen in his battle with atsushi and akutagawa

i’ve seen people say this part of the op implies their battle will be in this season and i’m ngl, i don’t think there’s any chance of that. it’s way too much story to cram into this season. i think this part is, for now, just to imply the ada and pm working together against the hunting dogs, and him using this sword and fighting them at the same time is just a nod to sharp eyed manga readers (same with the bram cameos)

that being said. i want you to pay attention to the color of his ability in this frame (it’s a surprise tool that’ll help us later!)

yosano and the butterfly, and we specifically see her from the side, with her butterfly hairpin shining, putting emphasis on her upcoming backstory

okay, now we’re getting into the character face closeups, and here i’m gonna use these handy posts from @/dazaistabletop for reference, bless your soul for getting all of them fr 🙏

the main thing i want to get from it is the colors. tldr: the ada is a teal-ish blue, the mafia is red and purple (depending on their abilities), the guild is yellow, the hunting dogs is white, the special division is brownish-orange, the doa are the same dark blue from fukuchi’s ability earlier. this does match the general color of the members’ abilities through every group as well.

when it comes to the order of the frames, i think it’s mostly random (tho, with key characters coming early, and more minor characters we barely even really see this season if at all showing up near the end) except for a few pairs:

dazai and fyodor are the first 2 frames, the key foils of this season

fukuchi and fukuzawa are one after the other because they are divorcing each other

akutagawa and atsushi are the ones to close this section and the opening as a whole, as they often do as the key foils of the entire series

a few frames i want to highlight in particular:

tachihara’s purple is lighter than the other mafia members’ purple (added gin for comparison), implying his belonging to the hunting dogs

mushi is brown too?? not sure what that implies ngl. mostly pointing it out as a request for anyone to chip in with their own take on that

despite not working for the guild anymore (and given that he’s without his glasses we have to assume this is him working for fyodor), nathaniel is still in yellow. like with mushi, i’m not sure what that could mean. maybe they just didn’t want to figure out a color for the rats for 2 frames i dunno. again if you have your own take, hit me

poe is fully colored the same color as the ada 🥺 he’s fully part of the team by now (ok now do lucy next.)

the text appears for just two frames, nikolai and akutagawa. for akutagawa, it blends with his red background, but for nikolai it actively stands out and covers his already covered eye. unfortunately i can’t read japanese, so i would love that if someone who does sees this could tell me what the text says to see if that means something as well 🙏

edit: according to my friend @/almightyrozenidiot apparently it says rashomon! and i’d guess it’s in red because this is the color of this ability, after all. i still think its placement on nikolai’s covered eye is interesting, esp given how much it stands out (the other ability names flashing on screen in that sequence are written in white, i barely even noticed they were there), and i wonder if this might imply some future thing asagiri’s planning between them.

okay, so you were probably wondering why i skipped the fyodor flowers moment, and this is why

so. i tried figuring out what at least some of the flowers are to maybe see if there’s meaning there and either couldn’t, or the ones i did recognize did not align with anything meaning wise, so i figured the colors stand more for the colors of abilities we’ve seen so far, and mainly the ada and port mafia

the faces frames in the end of the op establish the special division’s color as orange, hence the two small orange flowers (and their yellow center could be for the guild). they definitely stand out less, as for now they are a smaller pawn in the plan. the ada - marked with the blue flowers and green leaves - are the biggest target of the current phase of the plan, and that’s why they’re closest to his face and make the most of the flowers, size wise

the only purely white ability we’ve seen so far is natsume’s. as the mediator between the three main organizations in yokohama, it makes sense for him to be in the middle of all these colors. the same white flowers are also on the outside (as seen below), since he is mainly watching things unfold from the side.

will also add that at times, no longer human appears as white or grey as well (tho usually - but not always - with a slight blue tint). this also makes sense given that dazai was in both the mafia and ada, and serves as a mediator or communicator between them at times, hence put in the middle as well.

unfortunately, i can’t tell what the pink flowers are meant to be. the only ability i can think of that’s pink is lucy’s (i don’t recall ever seeing the colored circles when she activates it, but given what anne’s room looks like it seems like a fair assumption), but it’s weird she’d get such a big part of this frame just for herself. maybe it’s because of how big her role is in helping the ada this season? again, if you have your own take please go ahead and share it!!

the flowers then stop growing and start withering as the white flowers take over

could not for the life of me find what these flowers are unfortunately, but, white flowers in general usually mean some form of purity and innocence. this does align with fyodor’s ultimate plan - to purify the world of abilities. white flowers often symbolize holiness as well, since his plan is, to him, the will of god

notice that the flowers have 5 petals as well, a repeating number of this arc and in many of the doa’s plans

edit 2: @/larathia pointed out in the comments that these flowers are japanese snake gourds! and apparently, in hanakotoba they mean “hatred of men”. yeah that checks out with fyodor lol

and... i think that’s all i have for you today! i hope you liked it! once again encouraging you to reblog with your own additions on things i might’ve missed or your own take on things, and i hope you all have a lovely day 🙏🖤

[whoregaylorenzo]

no but Dan is just so- ugh. he comes into the third race of a triple header, after an awful race the week before, he eats his favourite pizza, he's talking italian, he has an incredible friday, puts his car just barely behind p3 and p4, he's laughing, he's smiling, he's a bit frustrated, he's hungry for more. he puts his car on the front row on saturday, he's joking around, still laughing, saying he's gonna win this. he's talking more italian in his interviews. he makes an incredible start, he keeps the lead the whole race, he wins the italian grand prix, he's yelling, he's standing on top of his car, punching his chest, he's hugging everyone, he's crying at the national anthem, he's drinking sparkling wine from a shoe, his smile is powering all of italy at this point, he's running around in his white socks, refusing any shoes. he's sitting in the press conference, still in his socks, he's laughing, he's talking about what this means to him. he's serious, he's talking about how important it is to back yourself. always. he leaves the track late, it's dark already, he's still taking pictures, he wakes up in the morning, he's still floating. fuck....

I adore this man

[sugaphys]

if the bountiful supply of suspicious, yet strangely alluring sexy women coming onto my page wanting to "have a good time" while sending me bitly links would like to also give me a wet kiss on the lips with tongue i would much appreciate it

[maeumin]

having the possibility of writing as much as i want here... oh i'm going to be so annoying

[whorechata-writes]

ngl i’ve always wanted to write a cardverse fic where Alfred is a ruthless king who conquers in the name of gold and ‘advancement’, all while searching for his queen who he knows will propel Spades into a whole new area of glory.

Meanwhile Arthur was a young boy who lost his family to the grueling iron mines, and when he was sold off because he couldn’t mine enough to satisfy the foreman, he vows to bring justice against the crown. He runs off and when two years later, the spades mark appears on his shoulder, he slashes it with his knife and vows to bring the king to his knees.

Years later, Alfred hears of a terror that reigns east of the shores, destroying ships of any creed with ease and leaving no survivors. His curiosity is peeked when one of his own ships gets attacked, and this time they send back one survivor, who barely lasts long enough to whisper the pirate’s only message:

Long live the Queen.

[coldcanadianwinters]

I wish the pandemic would end so I can travel to some faroff place that I’ve learned some of the language of where I’m a mysterious stranger and everyone looks at me with wonder and attraction and I get a girlfriend who either I’ll stay with and we’ll travel together or we’ll go back to my home and we’ll travel together :)

or honestly I wish the pandemic would end so I can get a girlfriend, can’t get a gf if I can’t socialise and I can’t socialise if there’s a deadly fuckin disease hangin around my head like the gd sword of Damocles

[fangzeronos]

WOOOOOOHOOOOOO

369 days and my first EXTREMELY long fic is finished! “Mercy’s Big Experiment” was a stupid little idea of “Let’s make Overwatch’s resident healing angel fuck the rest of the named women that aren’t dead or haven’t appeared!”

I actually had it all planned out, but you know the saying “The character dictates the story”? Yeah...that happened. Chapters got shuffled, ideas got scrapped, whole sections got removed because I didn’t think they’d flow right (like a scene between Mercy and Soldier:76 in Chapter 13.) and it flowed a lot better.

I’m really happy with how it turned out, and even though I didn’t post it here, it’s up in it’s entirety on both AO3 and FanFiction.net, just look up the same username as here on both!

Gonna take November and December off, recharge the batteries and HOPEFULLY I’ll come back in January with some new ideas to hammer out. Like a “How many weapons do you have!?” sex-fic between Azula and Suki in my “Fanning The Flames” series. ;)

[gracefulsinkingships]

How tf did they get enough of that kind of acid to fill an entire fucking facility like is it just a bunch of reagents combining to form the acid itself or like

Did the secret facility (not technically run by the government, instead a private company!!!) Have that much access to what would definitely be a highly controlled substance

Of course if theyre engineering complex bioweapons they probably know about acids the general scientific community couldn't dream of but HONESTLY this is a massive oversight

The maintenance you would need watching over the tanks holding the acid, the distance you need to keep them from the facility if ever there were a breach in those tanks, but still close enough to be able to be pumped into the main facility chamber in a timely manner for like whatever happened in Infinite Darkness

Osha nightmare is all im sayin

[dreamboatdani]

I was gonna download genshin impact on my phone but then my parents put a restriction that forces me to ask them to download an app

i turned it off before but now its back on so

no genshin impact for me until sometime later >:’/

[missingskeleton]

my husband did the sweetest thing last night. We had 2 of his coworkers over for dinner (everyone’s vaccinated, wears masks, and doesn’t generally leave the house), and afterward I was exhausted. So I ended up falling asleep before we could even finish the video we were watching. Well, I’ve been putting rain sounds on on my phone before I sleep because it’s been helping me sooth my anxiety before bed, but fell asleep last night before I put them on. I woke up this morning and heard rain sounds. After I fell asleep, my husband went to go turn off the computers and clean up a bit, realized I didn’t have my phone plugged OR rain sounds so he looked up a 10 hour video and put it on for me. That may just be one of the sweetest things ah;ksfh;as

[sasukefeetpics]

hey if ur my mutual or just following me uh, chances r i wont be active here soon bc im headed to the psych ward. i'll be back though!!! love u guys

[daz4i]

not to overanalyze a character's fucking. preferred suicide methods but the difference between dazai pre oda's death to after it is making me insane rn

like. when he's younger he tries things like poison. standing in front of people as they fire guns at him. cutting deals with people so they'd kill him/help him die. all of it is about dying swiftly and alone

after making the promise to oda to keep living, his go-to method is usually drowning, plus some various things like the barrel and the mushroom, and he focuses on committing a double suicide and finding a woman to do it with. slow death if it's achieved at all - usually stuff where you can get saved in the process and usually make it out alive - or not alone

i think he still wants to die, that much is obvious, but he's also trying to postpone it. finding a woman who'd want to die with him as sort of an excuse to not just kill himself on his own already. it aligns with his clowning, too. make it sound ridiculous, be exaggerated about how much you want it (like mourning a dead woman by saying she could've died with you), and people won't look into why you want this type of death specifically so much bc they'll assume you're joking. when really, it might be about not dying alone too, but imo it's mostly about stalling for time.

in the very first time we meet dazai, atsushi saves him, and he probably couldn't have predicted that, but. kunikida is also there within like a minute. meaning, theoretically dazai could've been saved by him instead (and knowing dazai it wouldn't be that far of a reach to assume he predicted kunikida being in that spot at that time). he wouldn't have died on that day either way.

my own personal take is that he keeps making those attempts anyway with the hope that maybe one will stick eventually, while being aware that the odds aren't high and sometimes even counting on that. he's sort of... microdosing on suicide, as funny as it is to say. anyone who self harmed repeatedly in the past would tell you 1 how hard it is to stop 2 how hard it is not to relapse, and that's basically what it is for him, imo. surely there's more to that but if i had to guess, then this'll be the core of it

[little-voe]

Hey folks, Long time no see, I must apologise that I do tend to disappear from tumblr for long periods of time - I think because my transition is so stable now, and there aren’t as many “milestones” to reach, I have less to update on. However, I would like to continue to update this blog with resources and beautiful trans positive art and quotes that I see, so I will try and add some stuff to the queue system.

I don’t make as much personal art as I used to, but I am thrilled to announce that I will be working with my local museum on a digital exhibit concerning LGBT+ issues in the local community, which I’m very excited about!

Similarly, although I may not be as active, my askbox is always open and I will strive to answer any messages that I come back to - just be aware that it may take a while for an answer to come through!

Life wise, things are good - as good as they can be within a worldwide pandemic. I have moved away from teaching to work as a lab technician, and my fiancé and I have been lucky enough to move into our own house, which is very exciting!

I hope you’ve all been well, and as always, thank you so much for all your support over the years - I hope that my journey can give people hope that you can and will overcome the challenges thrown at you, and that although being trans can be a challenge, it is also a beautiful part of your life that gives you a unique experience of the world.

Lots of love, Dan

[friendshapedhorrors]

I am absolutely furious with myself. I have spent the past 3 days in a fuckin shit panic because I thought my college course end date was April 29th. I thought I had to get 7 units done in two weeks.

I have another month and a bloody half. So anyways I’m going to fucking bed and I’m gonna go pout for a while about how fuckin dense I am sometimes.

[whorechata-writes]

also while im on a sad song kick, having alfred and Arthur screaming at each other and Alfred crying as he throws his ring off at arthur desperately asking “Why did you marry me then knowing you love him!?! I ASKED you if you wanted this, I GAVE you a way OUT!”

And Arthur just sobbing and hugging himself tightly because he doesn’t know himself why he agreed to marry Alfred when he loves Allen instead

[coldcanadianwinters]

I love artists a whole fuckin lot, don’t get me wrong, and I myself am partially one, but whenever I see specifically women drawn in *that way*, yall know the one, where they’re thin as shit, two triangles pointed towards each other stacked on top of each other, all I can think is “where are their organs??” Like look at a classic Disney princess, and tell me where their organs are. They have none, they are missing their intestinal tract. It’s like they’re a completely different species from any men drawn next to them, and it’s terrifying