#minatsukicest

[minatsuki-on-main]

Why do you relate to Laica? Why do you ship LaicaxMinatsuki?

(So this reply got accidentally deleted once, which is frustrating because I wrote a whole essay. I’ll just start over now.)

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I think having a complex over one’s own perceived insignificance is a particularly hard thing to portray in fiction. By virtue of talking about a character or giving them focus, they appear at least somewhat relevant. Laica was the first character with whom I felt like this theme came across properly, mainly because his flying under everyone’s radar was played on from the audience’s point of view as well. Until around ep 10 he just loiters in the background and only shows up to conveniently take care of the dirty work and I don’t think anyone would have given him a second thought if he just disappeared. By how little even I personally paid attention to him, it hit me really hard why he was so indignated. I feel that way very often. However, it’s so unaddressed as an issue that I wasn’t even fully aware of it before watching BTB.

It makes sense too, because imagine a life where you don’t even have official documents to prove you exist, a family, or anyone to interact with for most of your childhood, then everyone around you gets obsessed with this one specific person that you get informed you’re a spare for. I think of Izanami’s monologue about Koku a lot because to me it was — ironically — more applicable to Laica. I mean the part where they say something like “it’s as if you were screaming ‘I exist!’” because yes, Koku was trying to get his messages noticed, but it was to attract Yuna’s attention while he had a very clear image of his placement in the world and was even a bit too self-assured about it. Laica was actually just frantically trying to prove he existed because it didn’t go for granted in his case. His actions are a very obvious overcompensation, it happens with anything a person is insecure about. “I got denied recognition by everyone so I’m gonna aim for world domination.” Ironically, it’s so ingrained in him that he ends up perpetuating it by exploiting his own talent of not getting noticed; he stays in the background in order not to get suspected, works underhandedly, even gives his name — the only proof of his identity — to someone else. I suspect this started a vicious cycle with his problems. After all, you can’t rely so heavily on a trait of yours without being firmly convinced it’s unchangeable.

Another thing I appreciated and found relatable and — weirdly — respectfully portrayed was how Gilbert was pulling his strings all along. It’s mentioned briefly but they make it evident that it was very heavy psychological manipulation. It prevented Laica —someone who brainwashes people, gives no consideration to their deaths and went up against Koku (and Yuna) in a brutally sadistic way — from harming Gilbert at all when he technically had many chances to. And Laica does not like Gilbert very much at all (as per his dismissiveness when they talked over the phone or the fact that he and Minatsuki were plotting to eliminate him around the start of the show) so he was clearly forced into the partnership. BTB didn’t try to make this pathetic or revel in Laica being weak or anything like that. He was terrifying and dangerous which, though it made him fairly unredeemable, maintained his dignity. People who get manipulated aren’t always ‘soft’ deep down. It’s difficult to process emotional abuse that has gotten you massive authority issues when every fictional character who goes through it ends up being woobified, coddled by someone who’s ‘good’ or such, so this detail really was a gift.

As for why I ship him with Minatsuki... I’m convinced, for a starter, that Laica was incapable of connecting to people in a healthy way. Growing up either alone or around Gilbert is a foolproof way of making sure a kid will never learn a way to relate to others without manipulation and egoism. As much as it’s the wrong way to go about it, what Laica did to Minatsuki was the only way he could have ever felt understood by (and empathized with, with a stretch) someone. The whole incentive behind making Minatsuki take up his identity was to make someone feel the same thing he felt being Koku’s replacement, as he says himself. And I don’t know how much people consider this, but not only was Minatsuki kept around for way longer than it would have made sense, but this whole stunt was largely unnecessary. Laica could have led the Market Maker branch from the shadows on his own — all he had to do was regularly delete everyone’s memories and his identity wouldn’t have gotten out. Minatsuki had a weird symbolic importance to Laica in my opinion. As much as these are two characters who would never show outward affection, there’s a sort of lenience on Laica’s part I can’t place anywhere else. For years he indulged Minatsuki by letting him do basically whatever he wanted, only sort of reprimanding him when he was gonna get himself killed or make massively stupid decisions.

A nagging thing in Laica’s life is people prioritizing Koku over him. It’s a problem that’s never going to go away. I think it’s fair to bring up Izanami because I can see people asking ‘but wasn’t Laica closer to them than to Minatsuki’? And while yes, that bond definitely had its importance, the obstacle is always the same one: Izanami very blatantly preferred Koku. I don’t think Laica would have ever gotten over that. Aside from the fact that he wasn’t really close to anyone, not beyond a certain extent. He didn’t care about either Izanami or Minatsuki dying for instance, it’s just that with Izanami it wasn’t that accentuated with what was shown on-screen. It’s fair to say he doesn’t care about people dying in general. Minatsuki was perhaps the only person who was focused on Laica specifically, something that seemed deliberately induced with the drug addiction and all that — but there still wasn’t anyone else like that. The way Minatsuki ended up was terrible and ep 11 still makes me sad for him, but, just to be controversial, consider the alternative. He would have died as a kid without even having a proper name if Laica didn’t pick him up. Minatsuki started suffering from the moment he regained his memories, but Laica didn’t allow that to happen for about a decade prior to it, a decade in which Minatsuki got to be a mafia boss, give people orders and sit around drinking his expensive whisky, which is possibly more fun than whatever Laica was doing, smuggling drugs, hauling back Kamui from dark alleys and being angry at Koku.

There was no way I wasn’t going to get verbose about this ask.

[akinii]

him get drun k

[37h4n0l]

🅱️ 🅱️he 🅱️eginning

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From different angles, they were both so convinced there was a meaning to what they were doing

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If you think Laica and Minatsuki aren’t still my favourite chaotic bastards you’re wildly mistaken

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I was drawing a bunch of stuff to put in a comic (if I get to it?) and I guess this is a pv dump

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𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐦𝐲 𝐩𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐦, 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐡𝐢𝐬.

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Just drawing things, the usual shtick...

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Laica: your girlfriend was in the most famous government-funded criminal organization, you sure put no effort into finding her haha

Koku: at least I didn’t let her die of withdrawal syndrome and blow her up on a fucking airship

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Truth is? I’m hurting so much over minatsukicest that at one point I’m just gonna have a cerebral aneurysm and start spouting nauseating domestic headcanons to give them the happiness that they both deserved (but also fucking didn’t)

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As I’m here, being unproductive, I’m throwing back the minatsukicest pinterest board which I expanded a bit

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Murder clown couple ignores the deep-seated issues with their relationship for a week, goes on vacation, probably gets drunk off cocktails without paying

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It got stuck with me how ‘Laica’ told Minatsuki “Don’t be afraid” when they were kids, I like to think he said the same phrase to him over and over every time he brainwashed him, softly enough that after a while Minatsuki induced himself to think it was a form of affection. And maybe to Laica it was, maybe he was convinced that’s how you treat people you care for because he hadn’t really experienced anything else.

[minatsuki-on-main]

Another song that kinda reminds me of Laica and Minatsuki's relationship is Hoodoo by Muse. Some fragments make me think about how Laica treats(?? Minatsuki and how Minatsuki does unconsciously feel about it. "You should never be afraid You're protected from trouble and pain Why, why is this a crisis in your eyes again" Idk maybe it's just me #overthinking everything again

All of Hoodoo fits well honestly, the end in particular;

“You’ll have to set us freeWatch our souls fade awayLet our bodies crumble awayDon’t be afraidI will take the blow for youAnd I’ve had recurring nightmaresThat I was loved for who I amAnd missed the opportunityTo be a better man”

It kinda sounds like MM dying off one by one, Minatsuki fighting with Koku and dying then Laica taking into consideration that if he had had more of a decent childhood he wouldn’t be doing all the grandiose shit he was convinced he’d do by fulfilling the prophecy.

About songs for them; I keep being stuck on Oleander by Mother Mother with the whole theme of having someone who has to stay with you or you go off the rails. I also think a lot about Dead Inside by Muse (for the brainwashing), Meds by Placebo, Blanket by Oh Be Clever (the golden drug addiction) and a whole fuckton of Vocaloid stuff I won’t delve into because I’m a weeaboo. Though I’m approaching that stage where every song becomes about minatsukicest and I can’t even tell what fits anymore from the overinvestment…

[minatsuki-on-main]

Me: I should make a minatsukicest playlist

The reasonable part of my brain: *thinks of 20 serious and angsty songs*

My inner shitposter:

[minatsuki-on-main]

There's no heterosexual explanation for this