#dissecting microscope

[creantzy]

Defying God - a parallel between Fyolai and Stavrovensky

The Demons brainrot is taking over, and you know what happens when I acquire a new interest: my brain WILL find a way to connect it to my other interests, whether I like it or not!! And this is essentially what it's about xD I've come here to present a parallel I found between Fyolai (Fyodor & Nikolai from BSD) and Stavrovensky (Verkhovensky & Stavrogin from "Demons" by Dostoevsky). Before I start I want to clarify a few things:

• I don't think these two pairings are similar, I just love picking up any crumbs of connections I can find between my interests, even if it'd count as reaching.

• This interpretation (in either character's case) is in no way "the only true way of looking at it". It's merely one interpretation out of many and I chose to focus on just a few aspects out of the many others there are to explore in these complex characters.��

• Feel free to add onto or disagree with anything I say! I'm interested in your thoughts :D

WARNING: There will be spoilers for Bungou Stray Dogs and Demons.

The reason Nikolai wants to kill Fyodor is because he feels affection for him. Emotions are a prison to him, and he basically seeks the opposite of what his emotions make him want to do. Thus, in the face of affection, which makes you want to be closer and wish the best for your friend, he does the opposite and decides to kill said friend, going directly against his feelings in an attempt to prove free will. But here I want to focus more on the "You want to defy God in order to lose sight of yourself" part, specifically the bit about God.

One part of my interpretation is that Nikolai associates God with control. If there is a God who controls all, how can there be a free will? He wants to go against Him and His creations (the human mind, morality, etc.) to prove that it's possible. But God is very abstract - the idea of God is influential but varies depending on cultures, etc. For this point, I'll use the example of the biblical God, or, more specifically, some attributes commonly assigned to the idea of God:

• omnipotence (all-powerful)

• omnipresence (all-present)

• omniscience (all-knowing)

What I am leading up to is the fact that these traits can, in one way or another, be applied to Fyodor. Fyodor's character represents everything Nikolai wants to defy. Nikolai hates control; he wants to fight the idea of God and prove the possibility of complete independence. Fyodor (though not in a "direct" way) could be seen as a symbol for God. He knows everything, he is always present (metaphorically and sometimes literally, the way he spawns sometimes I swear-), and he seems to control everything. Only few people actually see him, but he pulls the strings behind the scenes, and his power is felt everywhere. For Nikolai, to kill Fyodor is not just a protest against his feelings of affection, but can also be a symbolic act of defying "God", of killing "God", by killing Fyodor.

This is supposed to be very symbolic and not taken literally. I feel the need to repeat this because I personally dislike the notion of Fyodor as a literal God (and disagree with the idea of him having a God-complex), so this is merely about the God-like traits he possesses, like a "substitute" for the idea of God, and how it interacts with Nikolai's philosophy. (I've also exaggerated some points for the sake of simplification - for example, I don't actually believe Fyodor is in control of absolutely everything, etc.)

Moving onto Demons:

Pyotr Verkhovensky grew up religious and (assuming based on Stepan's description) with a fear of God.

Now he's an atheist and very anti-religious. He plans to overthrow society, and destroying religion + everything it preaches is part of that plan. But interestingly enough, he picks not himself as the official future "ruler", but someone else: Nikolai Stavrogin. He chooses Stavrogin to be the role of the leader in Verkhovensky's ideal society. But not exactly the "leader" in the traditional sense, because he wouldn't necessarily give Stavrogin all the power. He would simply use him as a "pawn" (for lack of a better word) while himself pulling the strings behind said society. With that, Verkhovensky puts someone else above himself, in a God-like position, but he wants to do it while still keeping full control over Stavrogin. By doing so, he would overcome his childhood fear of God because instead of being controlled by God, *he* will control God.

(Same case here, not the literal God, but the character who he assigns God-like traits to.)

I am undecided (with both Nikolai's and Verkhovensky's character) whether this could be read as a solely subconscious intention or if it would make sense as a conscious one as well. Given that both have a different "main" goal (Nikolai focuses on emotions and Verkhovensky on the revolution) I lean more towards thinking it's subconscious (if present at all - like I said, just interpretations!)

It doesn't help that Verkhovensky describes his vision of Stavrogin's leadership as "hidden": Everyone believes in him and his power, but only very few people are said to actually have laid their eyes upon him. When I first read this part, I was honestly reminded of Big Brother from Orwell's 1984, but eventually realised that similar things can be said about God as well.

While these are parallels, they don't come without differences. Nikolai needs Fyodor dead, Verkhovensky needs Stavrogin alive. Nikolai wants to kill Fyodor for a sense of freedom, Verkhovensky wants to keep Stavrogin for a sense of control. Yet both symbolic goals are bound to fail:

Fyodor turns out to be unkillable, and Stavrogin ends up dead.

At the end, "God" stays untouchable.

[shima-draws]

Obsessed with Law tbh. He's a walking contradiction. He's a doctor but a sadistic one that enjoys playing with people's organs. He's covered in sick tattoos but they're actually in honor of his late father figure. He likes to be carried around like a pretty princess but he'll complain about it the entire time. He's surprisingly picky about food and pouts like a child about it. He's stupidly attractive and badass but he's also the most cringefail loser I've ever seen in my life. He's got such an unhealthy attachment to Cora that he spent thirteen years of his life trying to murder the man that killed him. AND his pirate group is also inspired by Cora. He's an Edgelord but the entire fandom calls him their silly little guy, their babygirl, their cutie patootie. He acts like he hates working with others and people in general but he got tamed and domesticated like a wild animal by the Strawhats SO quickly. What is wrong with him (affectionate) (derogatory)

[thecelestial-art]

[ALT ID IN IMAGE] save me earth kingdom zutara au save me

Anyway inspired by forgetting is a kind of mercy on ao3 by @nerdylizj . This fic single handedly made me crazy about zk again lol

[justplaggin]

bsd s5 blu-ray & dvd bonus illustration by harukawa

[patroclusdefencesquad]

absolutely batshit insane response to a man telling you about how he lost the love of his life

[prettysurethatsakidney]

I have recently became obsessed with Gravity falls again specifically bill cipher and Stanford Pines and every time I try to draw I keep going back to them so here are all my unfinished bill fanart😋🫶

Starting from my first then to my most recent

This was my first attempt at a human design for him I took a lot inspiration from other designs I loved I also wanted to give him a rat kinda vibe cause he’s a rat man imo

Drawing 1) This is my LEAST favourite I was kinda in a art block and completely forgot how to draw so it turned out disgusting didn’t even finish colouring it I was already over it he’s giving dutch van der lin vibes tbh feel like he’s gonna make me hand over all my money only to tell me he needs more money also I decided the way the scars on his face sat in this one

Drawing 2) Don’t really like this one ether it’s wonky and the proportion are all off it’s also the first time I drew Stanford I tried doing bill with long hair but I just wasn’t feeling this drawing so I scraped it

This one I really like it’s simple but whatever this is when I was getting more used to drawing him

This one I scraped as well I was trying to design an outfit but failed I do like the cane and the hat tho I’ll try keep those in his design

This this is where it got good omg I like this design a lot I took inspiration on Egyptian/Arab clothing mostly cause I was running out of ideas but then I saw a design of an Egyptian Bill Cipher cause yknow he’s a pyramid and those are Egypt… yeah anyway I added more triangles to the design just cause

I hope you liked my designs and all

[allastoredeer]

My favorite appleradio dynamic is prejudiced Lucifer x sassy bitch Alastor.

In Dad Beat Dad, Alastor may have started the passive aggressive jabs, but Lucifer escalated to death threats (Alastor's head on a plate) with shocking ease.

Like: "Okay, Luci. You're at a 10 and I need you at a 2." Man literally needed less than half a reason to start that Loony Tunes bout.

I like to imagine it's a side effect of his need to control everything. Like he was fighting both sides of the argument rapid fire in his head and was then meeting the escalation of an imaginary Alastor.

Sort of like how he answered for/with Charlie when she thanked him mid-song for offering his help free of charge.

It's the type of overreaction that someone that aggravates others for fun would love! Enter Alastor, Certified Public Troll with only a passing acquaintance with self-preservation.

New Mission: How far can I go before this could be considered self-destructive tendencies?

Alastor unintentionally disproving Lucifer's "All sinners are the same" philosophy by just being the worst... and then Lucifer has to face the horrifying realization that he likes the bastard. XD

Lucifer: All sinners are bad.

Alastor: *being the absolute worst person Lucifer's ever met*

Lucifer: You know what, maybe other Sinners aren't that bad actually

But yes, prejudiced!Lucifer x sassybitch!Alastor is my bread and butter. It's so good. They clash so much and that's what makes it fun.

And literally, Alastor may have been passive aggressive first, but the way Lucifer ramped it up was impressive. I made a post before going over the scene when they officially met, and, like, Alastor's comments overall? Not very antagonist. Or, the words at least. Passive aggressive, sure, but the most outright antagonistisitc he got was when he called Lucifer short.

Whereas it was immediate dislike on Lucifer's side.

All Alastor said was (both in response to Lucifer's reaction to his bar and the very first time they spoke to each other): Just some of the renovations we had done. Adds a bit of color! Don't you think?

And THIS was Lucifer's face ⬇️

"And you are?"

Like, Alastor didn't even sound that passive aggressive. The most I could give him was the smirky little face he gave Lucifer

(god, why is Alastor so pretty right here though??? maybe that's why Lucifer was so mad. Boi turn down those bedroom eyes, Luci can't think. That was Alastor's first plan. He was going to seduce the king of Hell, but then Lucifer insulted his bar, and he decided they were throwing hands instead).

I'm of the opinion that Lucifer was antagonist towards Alastor first and Alastor was just matching his energy (albeit very readily LMAO his eye was twitching the moment Lucifer walked through the door).

Also, yes, thank you for bringing up Lucifer answering for Charlie, cuz I think that's something a lot of people overlook.

Well, maybe he didn't answer for her exactly. I imagine it's just what he wanted her to say, but still, look at Charlie's face ⬇️

She doesn't look very comfortable.

In fact, she looked awkward, annoyed, frustrated, and uncomfortable throughout most of her interactions with Lucifer in this episode.

(there's a lot more but tumblr has a picture limit)

Wheras, this is what she was like with Alastor:

like

DAMN

Okay Luci, I see why your insecurities were firing on all cylinders.

We all know that Alastor wasn't genuine about being a father figure to her, but there has to be something to his and Charlie's relationship if she's looking at him like this. Especially in front of Lucifer.

I'm getting off topic though, I could do a WHOLE other post on my thoughts about Charlie's relationship with Lucifer VS Charlie's relationship with Alastor, and why it is the way that it is.

Anyway, yes, I agree with you. Lucifer 100% escalated the fight between him and Alastor. He went from zero to sixty with no hesitation, and he wasn't even AWARE of Alastor and Charlie's relationship yet. Essentially, the way I see it, he was acting that way toward Alastor for the sole reason that he's a Sinner which is the definition of prejudice.

And I want to clarify to anyone reading this, this isn't me hating on Lucifer. I love Lucifer. I love his character and his flaws and his insecurities. I love the way it all affects how he interacts with other characters, both negatively and positively. This is what makes him so interesting to me.

He holds so much capacity for love while also being so heavily flawed and it is 😙👌 delicious.

[bolithesenate]

local son so incredibly bad at being a Jedi that his High Councilor mother gets blackmailed over it

[theallianceofcelestials]

You know what's an amusing thing about the previous two Eclipses? The way the both of them were with Sun.

They were never kind to him, no, it would be foolish to say that either the first Eclipse or the backup Eclipse were kind to Sun. But regardless of which one we're talking about, Eclipse has always been more, indulgent with him.

When Sun first met Eclipse eye to eye after that fateful argument he had with Moon in Beta-10, Eclipse was... weirdly gentle? It's not even the correct word for it, but he appeared to indulge Sun and his anxious rambling, before shooting him down. He was also much more friendly than he was with Moon, probably because he did not see Sun as a threat, but still. He quite helpfully pointed out the exit point to Sun, and was acting kinda peacful. He was also less antagonistic, although he was definitely condescending.

When Sun exited the mindscape, he apologised to Eclipse, and Eclipse replied something like: "Oh, don't be sorry, only time you're ever sorry is when it actually IS your fault." which is obviously a jab. However, there's also a hidden admitance, that Sun is innocent, and is not at fault. It kind of feels like comfort from Eclipse? This was preluded by Eclipse admiting that Sun WAS a good person, but with issues (like everyone else lol).

Also, ever since Eclipse locked Sun and Moon into the Infinite Staicase SCP, and forced Moon to admit that he (Eclipse) IS better, seemed to have put more weight on Sun's opinion. Which can be clearly seen in the episode where Sun, having been fed up with Eclipse constantly throwing him and New Moon into things, exploded on him, and Eclipse just... left.

He also passed up some opportunities to actually hurt him? Like we now know, that Sun was tortured in the mindscape, but the first interaction we see between them, which is not a power struggle, Eclipse never got violent. He was a jerk, but a toned down jerk compared to how he was with Moon. Eclipse also, during the first ever video fully focused on him "Sun and Moon TRANSFORM into ECLIPSE in VRCHAT", said he was going to kill Sun, and then never followed through with it, even though he had the entirety of October to do so. Like my guy, do you or do you NOT want to kill him? You said you wanted to! Then actually do it, pussy!

And Eclipse is a killcode right? They said in the show that he is so. But compared to other people, he's actually kinda peacful. Like there are only a couple confirmed kills Eclipse has, like the homeless person he beat to death using Monty's body and the government official before that.

All these can be said to be little things, that Eclipse did not bother with, because they seemed like a waste of his time, but there is one piece of information he had, that could have destroyed both his enemies from the very beginning. A neat little fact. Moon wanted to kill Sun. He wanted to kill him, because he felt injustice at the fact that he was locked into their mind, and wanted a body of his own. The fact that it was their PLAN to do so.

Of course it was probably an intrusive thought of Moon, corrupted by his homicide code, and was probably his greatest shame. Before Eclipse that is. And it's obviously understandable why Moon wasn't jumping at the chance to tell this to his brother, the ONLY person he could fully, truly and wholly love and care about (before Lunar also appeared), but then why didn't Eclipse?

He could have won. He could have won before the brothers had a chance to realise how screwed they actually were, before the October Takeover, before the Wither Storm, before the infamous Beta-10 argument, before anything really. All he had to do, was basically poison Sun with this hate, and ruin any sort of relationship Sun and Moon ever had. Sure, probably when he would have first told it to Sun, he would've thought him a liar, but doubt eventually would have come. That was something Moon could not have countered in any form, and he probably would not have wanted to from how terrible he must have felt about that. Moon would have probably given up, if confronted with that information, because I don't think he'd have lied about something of that magnitude.

But alas, Eclipse never told (probably cuz Reed and Davis had no solid idea about it back then). This could have been such a powerful trump card from him. He could have ruined New Moon and Sun's relationship before it even began! Because back then Sun was still (understandably) more attuned to the Old Moon. So he would not have overcome it as easily, not saying he would do so now. Eclipse could very easily break Sun's fragile little sanity. And yet he never did. He never once even uttered anything similiar to it when in front of Sun. Sure he threw insults and taunts, basically tortured the guy for funsies, but this was a line he never once crossed. And I'm not sure why.

Eclipse had a strong ace up his (non-existent) sleeve, that he could have used anytime. At all times, it would have allowed him to win. But he never once used it. He took it with him silently, everytime he was defeated. I can't stress this enough.

This man had the chance to destroy his enemies with just a couple little words.

But both times he took it to his GRAVE.

Let's see if this one will too (:

[miyamiwu]

Not gonna lie, I love Kaiser as a character more after chapter 261. His relationship with Ness also becomes more compelling and nuanced that KaiNess has now cemented itself in my psyche.

God, I just love dissecting characters that are so mentally wrong (I think I can understand my psychiatrist now)

[genesisvirus]

even after you change, do you think it will fix all the previous years?

[drawingvvitch]

He smoke the gas station weed

[youhavethesun]

I neeeed a kreese/tory interaction about tory dealing with her mum’s death in s6 pt.3 I am so obsessed with their fucked up pseudo-father/ daughter dynamic it is so special to me !!!

[ammyamarant]

This voice line fascinates the living daylights out of me. The insinuation that she'd be just as close to SilverAsh as she is Pramanix if he became a religious figure like Pram, and that the two of them have more in common than they want to admit...

[rusted-phone-calls]

trust and devotion in jolie and vertina's relationship: a presentation

for @camelspit's roisin's reading rumble 2024! thank you sm for the opportunity to ramble about the characters i love. behold a ppt in which i am so normal about them. and i talk about jolie & vertina a normal amount

and bonus where i break the fourth wall and overthink:

[ahdriking]

Khem meet Wichien for the first time

- Mansuang (2023)