#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

[minatsuki-on-main]

I HAVE NO WORDS THIS IS SO GORGEOUS

@ahintofblue THANK YOU SO MUCH

A birthday gift for @minatsuki-on-main commissioned by @ahintofblue

Very honored to have done art for you guys. Hope you like it!

Commission Info Here

[minatsuki-on-main]

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

[minatsuki-on-main]

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

[minatsuki-on-main]

Never forget

SPOILERS from B: the beginning ahread.

Me, watching B: the beginning: Minatsuki and Laica are fucking… for sure…

Minatsuki: *turns out to be Laica’s phantom*

me: Damnit…

[minatsuki-on-main]

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

[minatsuki-on-main]

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

[minatsuki-on-main]

Just drawing things, the usual shtick...

[minatsuki-on-main]

GOD

Minatsuki: *sneezes*

Laica: Bless me.

Minatsuki: You mean 'bless you'?

Laica: No. It's me.

Minatsuki:

Laica:

Minatsuki: What

[minatsuki-on-main]

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

[minatsuki-on-main]

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)

[minatsuki-on-main]

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

[chvvva]

The idea is that despite them being very different agencies in terms of methodology and work ethic (if it can even be called 'work ethic') they serve the same country, so we can have them COLLABORATING despite their tensions! Also, since I don't really see Eric as a spy he could be the High Ranking military man the RIS (as a non-governative agency) needs to stay on their feet, to advocate for them ecc.

On the contrary MM is a hidden organization born within the government. you could view it as a secret branch of the military; they're infinitely more surveilled and undergo very specific fight-oriented training before joining. They're the best of the best but one of their teachings is that they can't trust anyone, including their own companions, which is why they're more jaded than the RIS squad.

In the ep 'Coffin', together with Miyoshi's very interesting case a lot of shit goes down with Lt. Colonel Yuuki and a guy in the German Army who's obsessed with him, Wolff. Sort of a cat-and-mouse game. hello Gilbert is that you? (jokes aside some keith/gilbert action in this setting would be really cool i guess, especially if Gilbert is himself a spy for another country and they're trying to catch each other)

Excuse me for moving the focus to MarBran but OK LET'S GO WITH MARIO ENLISTING IN THE MILITARY a few years back, and he obviously isn't high-ranking yet but Eric trusts him enough to send him as liaison. Eric is friends with Keith so he may be trying to manipulate the higher-ups but Mario is this random guy with no connections. they expect him to be super partes.

Now, Mario is the kind of person who would take this role very seriously and really try to figure RIS out. he can't because they all see things so differently from him (justifiably... he received a totally different training lmao) and he's a bit freaked out by the tests they have to undergo. he doesn't even think Bran is right for the job, the military would have weeded him out instantly. and eventually Bran makes it! and he's proved wrong! and he's a bit salty about that!

But they hit it off after actually TALKING to each other and Kaela is lowkey supportive. nobody thinks it's a good idea because Bran will soon be sent to some faraway place to operate and Mario has a lot on his plate too. he surely grows very attached and very Protective. He sees how indipendent and cunning Bran is but he just can't shake off completely the memory of his trainee days

@minatsuki-on-main ok so you were saying Joker Game AU and it’s been torturing me for thirty minutes or so, here’s Thoughts:

-RIS and Market Maker as opposing intelligence agencies

-Kaela and Brandon share a beautiful relationship based on Kaela eyerolling at Brandon’s paranoia but still helping him out when he needed during spy training.

-Brandon may not look like the perfect candidate among the other spy trainees but the core issue is simply getting him out of his comfort zone. Once he does, he’s the most impressive glo up. Aces the final tests and becomes a very valuable member thanks to his skills and his acute tendency to pick up on stuff despite still not believing in himself 100%

-I’m unsure whether Mario would be a trainee as well or just enlisted in the military to serve the country. In the first scenario he and Bran get to know each other during training, but, and it pains me to say this, they’re a textbook definition of slow burn. Personally I don’t see them interacting much at the beginning due to their different personalities so it’s even more impressive how they manage to build such an intimate friendship later on. 

-My mind wants to believe Keith is the spymaster and you literally can’t convince me otherwise. He looks a bit too lazy and stingy to be a spy, but that’s his charm

-Lily. Oh dear. She probably is the most unorthodox spy of the bunch, deemed way too impulsive and direct for the job. Her “think-outside-of-the-box” oriented brain gets her through any mission though, especially the ones that present unforeseen and sudden events (like JG episode 3, France mission lmao)

I can’t tackle everything in a post but this AU is a treasure trove imo. your fault for fueling my Brandon feelings

[minatsuki-on-main]

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