#i am personally fascinated by fukuchi's writing id say he's my favourite written antagonist besides akutagawa + maybe fyodor

[starlostlix]

Fukuchi is a 'tragic hero' and how his narrative on the page parallels that of the current manga narrative

[Sorry for the bulky title I didn't know how to phrase it with any less words.]

Anyone who has seen my post probably knows how interested i've been in the writing of Fukuzawa and Fukuchi in recent chapters, and I've just recently had an idea (inspired by a post by @starlightshadowsworld about Fukuchi and Fukuzawa) that Fukuchi is in some ways a 'tragic hero', mostly inspired by Macbeth (I have studied Macbeth like 3 separate times in school I think it may stick with me forever in some way).

So a tragic hero is usually a central character of a story, someone who is noble yet experiences a tragic downfall linked to a fatal flaw in their character. But some antagonists can also be tragic heroes. A tragic hero has to be virtuous to gain audience sympathy, have a tragic flaw that leads to their downfall, and suffer a reversal of fortune.

- So where does this apply to Fukuchi?

Fukuchi can be considered virtuous - he has goals of world peace, he's portrayed as a hero in his movies and to the people of the world, and he has his willingness to give up his life as part of his plan - which can all lead to the anime audience/manga reader and the people of the BSD universe feeling sympathy for him.

He also has his fatal flaws - he works with untrustworthy people like Fyodor to try and make his plan work (ultimately leading to his plan failing and him being turned into a weapon), and he displays a sense of cruelty despite his personal limit of 500 deaths for his plan. I do think that his ability itself is also a fatal flaw - his ability (being able to strengthen any weapon by 100x) is inherently made for combat and destruction, and goes directly against his ideals of world peace. In fact, the reason Fyodor needed him in the first place was his ability. In universe, his bloodlust and his own friendship with Fukuzawa would be seen as his fatal flaw, as may be written on the page.

Then the reversal of fortune. His original plan was to die and world peace to be achieved via the page from that. Instead Fyodor uses him as part of the Tripolar singularity and he is now the vessel of the Divine being that threatens to destroy everything around it - and goes directly against his ideas of peace. But that is OUR narrative - the people of the BSD universe were to have the narrative of Fukuchi being defeated in battle by his own friend, his bloodlust luring him to his own defeat.

But being a 'tragic hero' is to mean that his actions are inherently flawed, much like Macbeth being willing to shed so much blood for his own gain. Fukuchi's actions put the world in danger, even with his noble goals of world peace, and it is his flaws and actions that have led to the world being in such a dangerous situation - leaving it vulnerable to not only manipulatiors like Fyodor, but possible corruption via a potential dictatorship. His ideas were overly optimistic and doesn't account for these potential disasters enough (and no, placing Fukuzawa as leader does not solve this issue - what about who comes after? will they be as kind? and even then he's just shouldered his dear friend with a huge burden he didn't want in the slightest. i'd argue that's also another flaw of his - not having the necessary compassion to consider the effects his plan may have on fukuzawa, teruko and others involved and seeing that his goals may not be worth those.)

- So Fukuchi clearly hits all those boxes, but why do you keep mention the in-universe BSD population?

Well the main idea is that the narrative we see in the manga parallels that of the one the people of the BSD universe would see.

Fukuchi (his body now possessed by the Divine being) is creating all out destruction in Yokohama, with no reason or remorse for it. It is likely that this is how Fukuchi, if the page took effect when he was defeated, would be viewed by the public for his actions with the Vampirism and the One Order. Nothing more than a mindless monster, where his bloodlust is his fatal flaw, rather than his ability and his trust in the wrong people.

This is why i theorise that the final blow to kill the Divine being/Fukuchi will be done by Fukuzawa - preserving the effects of the page and playing out exactly like the page would have predicted. Essentially I also see the narrative of the page being applied to defeating the Divine being instead of just Fukuchi.

In addition, the people of the BSD universe would have had sympathy for him until this point. Not just Fukuzawa and Teruko, but all his fans who enjoyed his movies and the soldiers and politicians who idolised him. Whilst the current manga narrative has some attempts at evoking sympathy for him, most of the fanbase don't feel sympathetic to him (which flips the narrative presented in-universe).

[So essentially the current narrative we the reader see is possibly mirroring the one already written on the page - at least that's what I'm trying to say (i'm kind of confusing myself trying to write this, I had a point but it's kind of slipping my mind when I try to explain better). I hope this makes sense to at least one person lmao. This has been in my drafts for a bit so I hope it still makes some sense.]