#i don't mean to be so despairingly negative but

[hozaloza]

HALF Crane Organization analyzation(Spoilers!)Srs there's some mega spoilers here!!

Maverick

Connecting the whole thing the person said on the Boss, I've decided to briefly explain my hc backstory I came up with bc of the movie Vivo, specifically the song 'One More Song' (Some info was changed bc of my new perspective on him)

Basically, I randomly thought of the idea of Maverick being adopted by this nice older gentleman in Columbia. They would sing music together, preform, and play instrument duets. This was Maverick's life up until when he was 18. His father died of old age, and he was left alone in a world with no clue on how to survive. For a while, he sulked in his house despairingly, mourning the lost of his father. Then, one day, he stumbles upon old research his father did in Georgia. Looking for reason to get over this grief, he picks up on what his father was looking into, and migrates to Georgia. At first, it is regular stuff, the typical information about the state. Then, he stumbles upon the phantoms. He's intrigued in this, and studies further into it, trying to find any reason to cope with his feelings. Eventually, Maverick meets the man who addressed him in that fast pass episode, and they 'hit' it off with the similar interest in the phantom dimension. He joins their organization, forming his "Origami Cranes" sub organization to do his own research on this. Crane members come in, and at some point, he meets the Crane Trio as teenagers. He notices something strange about them, especially Thomas. (Note that I strongly believe Thomas has a weird connection to the rift, bc damn well those eyes+smile in episode 64 are not normal). He keeps them in his watch, eventually inviting them to the organization once they are able to. (Don't knew whether or not I wanna keep in the thought of Thomas being experimented on. Keep that hc in your back pocket).

Also, the meaning behind Maverick may possibly give us a pretty good idea on how he functions (and...foreshadowing?)

I'm specifically looking at rebel. Rebel against who...the big boss.? Not sure why, but I also have this idea that the dude who addressed Maverick (He name-dropped his name) may be abusive towards him (that's why I put 'hit' earlier). A lot of these terms give me an idea of who Maverick is. Looking at outsider, it may mean Maverick is the odd one out from the big organization. He's pretty mysterious in my opinion.

There's also this. I believe how this applies to Maverick is that he thinks differently from others. Possibly because of this thinking process, he was able to find Ashlyn, and realize there is something off about her.

This is so unorganized, but I keep seeing new stuff, and want to put my thoughts down before I forget. The fact that it says that the word is seen as positive means that it could be possible that Maverick may be the good guy (HAHAHAH I PREDICTED IT IN ONE OF MY IG STORIES--)

"Valued in society." Hm... I wonder what this could mean in SBG...

(Could it mean that he'll do something that benefits society? Or... new thought, he sacrifices that chance to help the kids, because in order to achieve that, he has to do something to the kids, which is negative).

I mean, he's definitely taking chances with the whole experiment. And from "accepted course," could be what society sees as morally okay. He's departing from those morals by experimenting on people, turning them into the infected patients.

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Thomas Walter

To start off on this handsome, FINE, young man, I decided to bring up the cranes found on Thomas's desk...

Orange..and blue...

(If that isn't orange, I'm offing myself.)

what do they mean in origami sense?

Maybe this story I made a while back can explain. Basically;

Orange- rich in enthusiasm and energy

Blue- Honour and Faith

What does this have to do with Thomas? In my personal belief, these represent his personalities. He has honour and faith in the organization, doing anything to help the boss no matter how immoral it is.

That side of him is his true side.

As for orange, when we are first introduced to Mr. Thomas, he's always energetic and enthusiastic about teaching, saying he's excited to be teaching a class by himself. He also always keeps a smile on his face.

That side represents his fake persona, supposedly 'Mr. Thomas'

...

My only issue with this idea is that IN THE FIRST INTRODUCTION--

"Worry" MAN

Okay, possibly he only has concerns for people if they are just regular people. If they are of the organizations targets, he'll be 'cold' towards them. (By cold I mean less concern for, not as caring)

Moving on, I didn't do this with Maverick, however, I still would like to bring it up. So, you know how sometimes characters can have a counterpart of themselves via personality? Well, I actually came up with some for the Savannah Gang and the Origami Group (Trio and friends)

I decided that Mr. Thomas and Aiden would be the perfect match up

"But Maverick--" Sh

This isn't about him

He had his moment.

Anyways, the reason why I chose Mr. Thomas is because he's constantly keeping up a positive attitude, always smiling, always energetic.

Sounds a lot like Aiden to a sense, huh? Plus, I strongly believe Mr. Thomas may be a little bit psychotic, so that checks off. Now, in terms of the recent fast pass episode, I also realize that it's possible that they both smile through the pain. Aiden is definitely suffering, but regardless keeps up his little personality. Mr. Thomas, while not shown to have been suffering from anything yet, could also be hiding something similar. Maybe he's also in pain, or he could just be hiding his true colors.

Now, if he isn't evil, he's possessed (Oh my granny Hoza if you mention the black eyes theory--)

YES I'M NOT LETTING THAT GO. Anyways,

Normal eye color

Then black

No it isn't lighting. It's black eyes. Possession. PHANTOMS. ITS PHA-

So, from what I understand, every time the phantom dimension influences the kids, they always have black eyes (Ep 44 for example).

Also, this is pretty much a good example in my opinion;

Normal eyes

Black (plus the red, coloring y'all)

Also, are her eyes fading back to green? Huh...

What makes me frustrated about this realization is that often times a character will have black eyes, but nothing is really happening

LIKE, OKAY FINE DISPROVE MY INITIAL THOUGHTS.

No but, it's so difficult to pinpoint why their eyes turn black sometimes. Could it be because the phantom dimension is starting to influence them more and more? Or when they talk about it? Who knows, maybe I'll make the connection while in class or something.

But back to my original thought, whatever the connection is, it definitely is affecting Thomas, maybe perhaps someone of higher power is making him do this? Or...the phantom dimension is forcing him to get Ashlyn, practically bring her to the Cranes so the big thing can be done. (Y'all Ashlyn is definitely the queen or something to the phantom dimension, or is a phantom).

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Blondie

Last character I would like to speak about is...Blondie, who doesn't have a name yet (hopefully soon he gets one). Blondie is the nickname I gave to that one buff blonde dude who had the handcuffs in ep 67. Now, you're probably wondering why I want to analyze him when there isn't anything to observe. Well, that's why I'm observing his physical appearance in the episodes.

You see, he sort of reminds me of Ben. His height, body build, expression, and the way he walks/stands there on the side (I'M SORRY BEN BUT YOU KINDA DO JUST STAND THERE WITH YOUR LITTLE SWEAT LINE), oh he also has the little sweat thing.

Like, look at his posture. It's pretty similar to Ben's

Both also keep their arms flat to their sides. Say I'm picking at straws all you want, but I can't be the only one who doesn't notice this.

They also both wear the damn same shirt (Idk why but Blondie gives off "I'll wear this same shirt for the rest of my life" vibes). Based on just appearance, I'd assume Blondie is the silent type, doesn't speak much (or at all, could be mute), knows more then they lead on, possible anger issues, constantly tired (no sleep because of the organization), and is definitely strong/reflexive. There's a likely chance he's not important, and could be a background character, but I just feel like he's important. The match-up is literally perfect, it can't just be coincidence.

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That's all I can really think of at the moment. Hope it wasn't too long. Again, thanks B3achysurfer for making that analysis post, really helped me further expand my ideas. Sorry if this was a mess, I just kinda splotched my thoughts down.

I'll share the rest of the crane group another day.

[dazais-guardian-angel]

new BSD chapter is almost here and i still haven't gathered my thoughts on 117 yet, so i'm doing that now. My..... extremely frustrated thoughts, to say the least. kinda been numb to it all for weeks now which is why it took me this long to ramble about it, meh. incoherent negativity and spoilers belowwwww

I'm... really not happy with Bram's death, to put it lightly. and yes you can say I'm just grieving, I'm in the denial/depression stage. but I'm not just sad because he died. I wish that was all it was. I wish I could just be devastated in a normal, well-meaning, bittersweet way. but I can't.

Because this is BSD. And that means there's a chance he could come back. And I know, I know, I hear you: "that was so final, so conclusive, more than any other named character death in the manga so far; there's no way he would be brought back after dying peacefully and having been reunited with his wife and daughter." And you're absolutely right! For all intents and purposes, this was Bram's permanent sendoff! And I would 100% believe that with absolutely no room for doubt.... if this wasn't bungou stray dogs!! Where people drop dead and then come back to life as casually and rapidly as going in and out a revolving door (cue that one Simpsons door gif)! If this was any other manga, I wouldn't for a single second question the permanence of his death. And yet..... because it's BSD, there's a 1% chance, as low as that is, as final as that sendoff felt, that he might still be back one day, against all logic. And that's the most aggravating part of all this.

Because I can't just be sad. I have to be sad while having hope. I have to be sad, all the while wondering if my grief will all be for nothing in a few months. If my feelings are being played with, yet again. I can't just grieve here and now and accept it and that's the end of it; I have to go on still hoping, because this manga has trained me to not believe that ANY death of a named character will be for real.

While it was much more obvious compared to Bram that say Chuuya and Dazai weren't going to stay dead after chapters 101/109 (because they're popular characters lol, but especially because their arcs aren't finished yet if Chuuya even gets one, which I despairingly doubt more and more every day), I felt for everyone extremely distraught by their deaths at the time. I mean, Dazai is one of my favorites as well, and regardless of whether or not I thought his death would stick, it was incredibly painful to see him in that state. Just like it was painful to see Fukuzawa get fatally stabbed 34596 times multiple chapters within the same fight, and painful to see Mushitarou's initial fakeout death after his arc, and Kunikida's when he exploded himself on the helicopter. It hurts, and you go through the grief, only for "whoops they're fine actually!" just a few chapters later, meaning that none of your grief ever mattered and that you never needed to go through all that in the first place; it was just for shock value, just to extort strong emotions from you in the moment that weren't meant to actually hold any meaning, because soon after it would be like the angst never even happened. And that's exhausting. It's not fair. It makes future deaths hold less and less weight and become harder to believe in/take seriously, as many people have said, but on the other hand, if a large part of you does believe in it, if that's your fave and you're grieving over their death, prior experience tells you that you might just be having your emotions played with; that you might spend all that time being sad ultimately for no reason at all, that you have to keep hoping for god knows how long. The rational side of you says "don't be affected by it, because it won't last" (which is shitty in of itself if you succeed in that, because imagine seeing your fave die and just instinctively not feeling anything???), but the irrational side of you that IS scared and upset because we're humans and we can't help but react strongly to something like this, has to contend with the thought of "but how many months am I going to have to wrestle with "will they or won't they"? How long am I going to have to be strung along with the possibility that this might not be permanent, like no death ever is in this series? How long will I be forced to have HOPE, until it's crushed even harder than it is right now?"

Again, everyone is going to have a different response to a character death, based on the person and based on the character and the circumstances of their death. But the objective fact remains that we haven't had a single permanent named character death in the manga so far (except for... Ace, I guess? lol that's the only one I can think of. And Fukuchi, I guess, for now lol), so it follows that anyone would have at least some small degree of doubt, even with the most damning of circumstances like how Bram went out here — I mean, in a sense, he already had one fakeout death before he came back to Aya here briefly (the end of the last chapter literally cliffhanger'd on his revival lol, the opposite of what it normally does), and his death here happens in the same fucking chapter as another death that is 100% not going to stick, which just makes it even more laughable and harder to take seriously!!!

But there's another side of this, too, that makes all this even worse. Let's say that Bram's death is permanent, that this is indeed no fakeout, no take-backsies ten chapters from now. Why is Bram the first time plot armor has no effect? Why is HE the first character who has to die for real? After so many instances of characters getting to come back from literally anything, it doesn't feel like him being the first one to actually stay dead is because there's something significant about him, or about everyone else inversely compared to him, but simply because Asagiri chose to finally go against his formula and lift the plot armor at random just this once. AND THAT DOESN'T FUCKING FEEL GOOD!!!! Not that having your body taken over by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (god what is this series) is something I'd expect someone to just shrug off, but literally all these other characters shrug off getting stabbed, shot, EXPLODED, etc, so why is it only Bram that can't get off just as easily, just because the writing said so? Hell, Asagiri literally went out of his way to have Bram come BACK in another body one last time, so that was even MORE reason to assume he could have found a way to permanently stay alive not in Aku's body though obviously, with how powerful he is — I mean, supernatural rules are made up by the writer, Asagiri could have made it so that Bram could come back and stay back if he wanted to lmao, versus actual physical wounds that you can't just magically survive (again without supernatural interference). But he didn't do that, because Bram needed to die, because he's the unlucky one in a series where you can survive literally anything. Okay then. Sucks to be him and sucks to be a Bram lover, I guess. Sucks to be Aya.

Listen. I love Oda's death. Oda is my favorite character in all of BSD, and his death is my favorite moment in the entire franchise so far — which sounds contradictory, of course, but as devastating as it makes me, his death is so beautiful, and so pivotal and meaningful for the series as a whole, not just for Oda and Dazai themselves. I wouldn't want it to be removed or changed in any way, and I would be perfectly fine with him and a couple other notable light novel characters being the only ones to actually die in this series. BSD is a hopeful series, ultimately, so I don't need deaths everywhere, since it's ultimately about people learning how to live and getting those second chances — Oda being the notable exception to that and catalyst for the entire story (and I do mean the entire story). But what I don't need are the illusion of death and stakes, only to not commit to any of it for that aforementioned message, trying to have your cake and eat it too. Because, as beautiful as Oda's death still is, it looks rather foolish now, because now things have reached a point where I (and others too, I've seen) ask "how is it that he died from just a little bullet, when so many others have since survived similar or worse?" Which is what I'm similarly asking with Bram now, if I'm meant to believe this really is his death, when the only reason we have to believe he couldn't just override Fyodor himself (or at least Akutagawa permanently) being "because Asagiri said so". His death is beautiful too in isolation, just like Oda's is, with everything he says to Aya, and the closure and peace that he gets. But how can I appreciate it or take it seriously when all I can think about is how A) there's absolutely no reason he had to die here, when so many others before him survived, and B) that I could potentially spend months being distraught only for him to come back eventually anyway, and that minuscule amount of fleeting hope just makes it hurt unfairly even more?

I love that he found peace, in the end, and felt like Aya helped him get closure with his daughter. I love that I fucking called it that Aya is going to become a knight for him and save the day (aka beat Fyodor herself, most likely), in his place, because that just makes sense for where her character has been going, and I feel vindicated in seeing him say that to her, as much as the circumstances fucking kill me. I don't MIND the idea of Bram's death in of itself, I can't stress this enough; I love him so goddamn much and I want them to be a family together so much it hurts, but I don't think it's unreasonable to imagine writing him dying to further Aya's character development, and there are a thousand ways it could have been done. But I just........ hate the circumstances leading up to it here. I hate that it feels so sudden, I feel like we still needed so much more time with him, and FAR more than merely two pages of backstory for him and his family. I hate how all the fakeout deaths before it make it feel like a cruel, unfair fucking joke even though it's supposed to be a powerful, moving moment — when Kunikida DIES BY TURNING INTO SPARKLING SOAP BUBBLES LATER IN THE SAME FUCKING CHAPTER, A DEATH PLAYED JUST AS STRAIGHT AS BRAM'S DESPITE HOW RIDICULOUS AND OBVIOUSLY IMPERMANENT IT IS (so if the manga is putting them both on the same level and wants us to take both equally seriously, what does that say about Bram's death???). And if it is indeed permanent, I really hate that even though Bram's last words to Aya were so touching, Aya's last words to him were basically telling him to gtfo — obviously it's a completely reasonable reaction for someone her age in that moment, she doesn't know how to cope, but you're telling me that that's the last thing she'll ever say to him, which we know she'll hate herself forever for??? It just leaves a bad fucking taste in my mouth, ugh.

Idk. I've been pretty disillusioned with the direction of the manga for a while now, and how much its changed from how slower-paced and more thoughtful it used to be, so I know I'm very biased and very tired and that that's clouding my judgement lmao. But I just hate this so much 🫠🫠🫠 I never wanted Bram to die, but worst of all is having him die like this, where i just feel numb and bitter and angry, instead of sad but touched, the way a good character death in the vein of Oda's (which Bram's is very much meant to emulate) should make me feel. It's so rushed, and all the "deaths" around it and before it undermine it so badly it's just pathetic. I'm looking forward to Aya's future development, but I'll always be bitter at how much better she and Bram deserved, and if he does come back I won't be surprised at all lol (and I hope he does, not just because I want him back, but because he deserved a better death than this....)