#so his allignment is lawful good

[lua-magic]

Ninth Lord and from where you will get your Luck.

Ninth house is of religion, father, morality, ritousnes, higher learning, long travels and also of Luck

Planets in ninth house and third house are extremely important for manifestation of your desires, when you allign your energy with the planets sitting in ninth and third House, you will get desires easily in your life.

Ninth house is of also of "Blessings " so if your ninth lord is afflicted, that is with rahu, ketu or with sixth, eighth and twelfth house Lord or your ninth house has malefics, or sixth, eighth, twelfth lord then only BLESSINGS of people can change your luck.

Ninth house wherever sits, you will experience luck in that area, if you work on your ninth lord.

Ninth lord in first house 🏠

It is good, because the person would be religious and lucky for himself, whatever person does, ninth lord will help him.

Person is not only lucky for himself, but also for the people around him/her .

More the person becomes religious, and develops morality and ritousnes and values in his life more Ninth Lord would favour him/her

Ninth lord in second house 🏠

You are lucky when it comes to family and money matters, more you become spiritual with regards to Money more luck will favour you.

Second house is also of words and food habits, keep your words soft and food habits simple in life .

Ninth lord in third house 🏠

Your skills will help you to manifest your desires, more you work on your skills and communication more Lucky you get in your life

Your siblings are also Lucky for you.

Third house is of short travels and ninth lord is your religious activities, more you travel to holy places or go to pilgrimages your ninth lord will improve.

Ninth lord in fourth House 🏠.

Your mother is really lucky for you, and you are lucky in terms of home, property and comfort.

Maintain good relationship with your mother and practice positive thinking and gratitude helps you to be lucky in life

Ninth lord in fifth house 🏠

Ninth house is of higher learning and fifth house is of knowledge, you get lucky when you learn more in your life.

Your children are lucky for you.

Ninth lord in sixth house 🏠 house.

Sixth house is of debt and diseases, this combination could create fight with your father or give disease or debts to your father.

More you involve yourself in social services and volunteering activities, your luck will improve.

You are lucky when it comes to do job, and go in service sector.

Ninth lord in seventh house 🏠

Your partner is lucky for you, don't disrespect your partner, otherwise you will become more unlucky in life .

Ninth lord sitting here, will help you in your business and partnerships

Ninth lord in eighth house 🏠

Eighth house is of in Laws, so your in-laws are lucky for you, you need to respect your in-laws, your in-laws could be religious and connected to their roots.

This combination gives problems with father, and causes separation from father.

Ninth lord when goes in eighth house, you need to get connected to eight house related activities like Astrology, surgeon, CA, Tax etc that would enhance your luck.

Eighth house is of secrecy, so maintain secrecy when comes to sharing your personal life and sexual activities and desires.

Have guiding figure or teacher in your life, that would help you and show you the right path, as making right decisions becomes difficult for you, because luck doesn't favour the native, so move ahead in life only with proper and right guidence .

Ninth lord in ninth House 🏡

Great, as ninth lord is sitting in its own house, so father, guru or teacher are really lucky for you.

Native would be religious, moral and have high values in his life and a great teacher and counselor.

More you become religious more luck will favour you.

Ninth lord in tenth house 🏠

Tenth house is of karma, so Ninth Lord sitting here will help you in all your duties and Karma.

It is good, because whichever job or service you do, you will get promotion easily.

Your bosses are lucky for you.

Ninth lord in eleventh house 🏠

Ninth lord sitting here, will fulfill all your wishes when it comes to material wealth.

Your elder siblings are lucky for you.

"Ask and you shall receive "

More you become social especially with spiritual people, more Lucky you get in Life.

Ninth lord in twelfth house 🏠

Twelfth house is of let go, ninth lord sitting here gives you separation from your father.

You need to let go, in order to get lucky in life, you can't have attachments with your desires.

To get lucky you need to.

Let go your attachments.

Do charity, as twelfth house is of charity as well

Settle in foreign land

Become spiritual.

When your ninth house has Rahu, then you might love to know about other religions as well.

When ninth house has ketu, then your first child would be male child, and it is good for leaning astrology and occult.

Whatever you do, remember best remedy of ninth house is your own Karma, you are responsible for your own luck.

[blueishspace]

What allignement is 3rd Life Grian?

Each major character moment will be rewarded points on the chaos-lawful and good-evil spectrum and at the end we'll see on what allignement he lands.

This is mostly for fun and is pretty dumb.

Grian blows up Scar, this action is definitely chaotic for obvious reasons... however It's not exactly evil as he didn't mean to kill Scar and definitely regrets doing so. Chaotic Neutral, +2 Chaos points.

Grian feels bad and makes a deal with Scar in which he will work for him until he loses his first life. Since It's done to make up for a past misdeed, Lawful Good, +1 Law point and +1 Good point.

Grian plans on creating a monopoly on dark oak, taking respurces from others for personal gain is not extremely awful but it is Neutral Evil leaning. +1 Evil point.

Grian takes the alliance pretty seriously and honestly tries to help Scar make good decision. Lawful Neutral, +2 Law points.

Grian and Scar plan on stealing other player's stuff and selling it back to them. Chaotic Neutral, +2 Chaos points.

Scar tries to Scam people at the desert but Grian tells them not to trust Scar and attempts to stop them from falling for it. Chaotic Good, +1 Chaos and +1 Good.

Grian builds a base for himself and Scar, at this time he's with Scar only because of the deal so he's just following the agreement.True Neutral Leaning towards Lawful Neutral. +1 Law.

Grian tricks and distracts Ren to enchant some of his gear in secret, +2 Chaos, but ends up still paying him in sand, +1 Law.

Grian convinces Scar not to kill him using their deal and then does a rules info-dump. Lawful Neutral, +2 Law.

Grian warns people about Scar's scams again, Chaotic Good, +1 Chaos and +1 Good...again.

Grian uses Scar's red life their deal as an excuse to trap and explode three players. It's equally chaotic and lawful but definitely evil. Neutral Evil x3 deaths, +6 Evil.

He then laughs maniacally at the husband of one of the people he just murdered. Chaotic Evil, +1 Chaos and +1 Evil.

Grian builds a creeper farm in order to get more tnt to use against Renchanting. +1 Chaos.

Grian lava traps the bubblevator. +1 Chaos +1 Evil.

He then launches tnt at the Crastle, +1 Chaos +1 Evil.

Grian and Scar go to Skizz's base to burn his banner and are catched in the act. Just Chaotic Neutral dumbassery, +2 Chaos.

Grian makes Pizza banners for himself and Scar, since the latter was the one most attached to Pizza it could be interpreted as comfort. NG leaning. +1 Good.

Grian rigs the desert, this plan is just so batshit insane it deserves +3 Chaos.

Grian tells Scott and Jimmy about the tnt, he gets +1 Law just because of sticking to alliances.

From now on there is an actual war of alliance vs alliance so killing in a fight does not give points any one way or the other.

Grian decides to stick with Scar despite not being in debt with him anymore... his reasons however are entirely selfish so only +1 Good.

Grian ditches his allies for a short trip to check if he has back up in case he dies. Chaotic Neutral. +2 Chaos.

Grian is betrayed by Scar and attacks him as soon as he sees him but immediately stops as soon as he notices Scar isn't fighting back.

Grian says there can only be one winner but decides to fight Scar in a 1v1 because the spectators wants a fight. He hurts himself and Scar to follow the rules of the game, Lawful Neutral. +2 Law.

Grian wins with a total of:

9 Law.

18 Chaos.

5 Good.

9 Evil.

(Net score: 9 points towards Chaos and 4 points towards Evil.)

[maeinthekinning]

If you are going to push for or against gun control you have to make it non bigoted.

Example of bigoted: obama in his term made it so mentally disabled people couldn't own a gun (overturned by trump)

The sliding scale of nonbigoted.

Level 0: all weapons allowed

Level 1: standard weapons allowed but no tanks or missile launchers or such.

Level 2: gun license like a drivers license, showing you passed a basic gun safety class

Level 3: only hunting weapons allowed

Level 4: the only people who can own a gun are the military andor the police.

And this goes in general, not just gun laws.

There are many bigoted ways laws can be written whatever your viewpoint. But there will be nonbigoted ways for atleast some of your views.

Do not blindly think a law is good cause sounds like alligns with your views. Reflect to see if it would lead to harm you aren't a fan of (like social media safety for children laws which end up hurting children and adults) and reflect to see if it would be bigoted

[thewingedbaron]

Character Introductions for Owlcatober!

Owlcatober is right around the corner! I'm hoping to do a lot of writing for this one, so I figured it would be a good idea to reintroduce my three oc's that may (or may not) be taking the spot light for the month. I don't know how often I'll be doing the prompts or even what characters I'll be using for them yet so I'll just give you a little look into each!

Any and all of my prompt writing will be under #TWB Owlcatober and linked here once the month get's going!

Character Intros under the cut.

Allix is my first knight commander. He started out as a bounty hunter looking for bigger scores in the world wound, much like Greybor but without the assassin evil bits. However, upon discovering his powers, Allix became an unwilling angel, adopting the powers of heaven despite his clashes with lawful alignment and authority. He would eventually give up his powers and instead opt for the legend route, proving to the world and the gods that a mere mortal could challenge them any time he liked.

Allix was an Arueshalae romancer (my wife), and always strides to see the best in people. His ride or dies were Seelah, Sosiel, Arueshalae, Ember, Nenio, and Lann.

Vysk is my most recent knight commander, a sable company marine turned Atza. She's still figuring out this whole "Commander of the Crusade" thing, and isn't exactly thrilled to find herself at the helm of such a massive operation. She originally traveled to the world wound after her commander, Commandant Marcus Endrin was "killed" for trying to assassinate the Red Queen Ileosa Arabasti from the City of Krovosa. While she had no hand in the assassination, the Red Queen decided it would be easier to purge the ranks of the Sable Company f anyone loyal to the former Commandant. Vysk has been on the run ever since.

Vysk is not far enough for a romance path yet, but her chaotic nature leads alligns her with her ride or dies, Seelah, Sosiel, Woljif, Arueshalae, and Ulbrig. Her hippogriff is named Jester for his daredevil nature. (He really likes hard caramels for some reason).

Finally, Silus Von Valancius, the newest Rogue Trader of the Valancius dynasty. Silus was surprised to recieve summons from Theodora, given his... lifestyle. Silus was born on a voidship, and was rasied as a raider and pirate in the far off systems of the Imperium. In time, he killed, lied, and stole his way to his own ship, captaining a crew of void raiders. At the time of his summons, he'd developed a small criminal empire of pirates and smugglers, but that was nothing compared to what awaited him.

It's rare to find an honest pirate, but Silus has always found that the right combination of threats and trust will carry you much further than backstabbing every compitent person around you. See that your crew is cared for and they will care for you. He ultimately strayed down the Iconiclast path, creating an empire that would outlast him even in the face of the harshest compeition.

Silus had a fling with Jae, but ultimately fell in with his Aeldari Advisor Yrliet. His ride or die party consisted of his bullwark Abelard, Cassia, Pasqual, and Yrliet for most missions.

[everydaydg]

43. Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (DS, 2009)

Devil Survivor is amazing.

I will admit that I was pretty darn scheptical at first with the main artist being Suzuhito Yasuda and it being a tactical rpg

Something about the cybersleuth artist working on it seemed off to me, it made me expect alot of anime tropes.

I am not speaking badly of Yasuda mind you.

The man is a great artist and his works are great! (Love most of the designs here and his work on cybersleuth is lovely!)

Its just that my brain just associates him with cybersleuth and that game goes for a wayyy different tone.

I am also incredibly bad at tactical rpgs which didnt help

I dont play them often due to me being an absolute pussy and I dont want my favorite units dying forever.

Considering that, It was a bit of a shock hearing that this was one of the best entries in the entire series.

I heard it from multiple people which had me curious.

And at the start of last month, I decided to give it a go and my god im I glad I did. (well its not last month by the time im posting this, this review got left cooking too long)

SMT:DeSu (Can't call it DS, theres like 3 games that start with DS) is one of most deceiptfully amazing entries in the series.

Alot of things that should be bad are done so well that it goes back arround to being amazing

Alot of things are limited and simple (like the exploration) but in a good way. The game focuses on the best aspects of its simple gameplay loop.

Yeah thats the word to describe this game. Focused.

but I will elaborate on that later when talking about the usual gameplay. Lets start with the characters.

Okay, I thought I was walking into another landmine like Persona 4 but my god im so glad that wasnt the case

(might as well rip the bandaid in case I mention P4 again- I dont like Persona 4, it shows alot of potencial on the gameplay dept. with the "one more" system, the randomly generated dungeons and the calendar system. so much so that I am exited to play P3FES later this december but the writting and characters in 4 really... REALLY sucked dick. it was terrible.)

A huge chunk of the characters are fantastic and present such unique perspective of the usual law, chaos neutral allignments.

For Example:

Atsuro!

Atsuro is a loveable dork, every scene he is in is a joy, he is a really likeable character that has alot of chemistry with the rest of the cast

and he presents one of favorite representations of chaos in the entire series. A middle point between chaos and neutral, a world where demons are used for the benefit of humanity.

Yuzu, is a character that I was expecting to hate but she grew on me as the game went on! She is lovely! While yes her ending is kinda just... leaving but its an interesting take on neutral, refusing the influence of demons and the messages of angels to escape and live for another day even if it is cowardly and is ultimately forsaking humanity.

Keisuke is a character im not too much of a fan of after him being a fucking idiot with Yama but I like the overly extreme aproach to law and judgement he shows.

DeSu strays away from extremes like SMT4 to provide the upsides and downsides of every allignment, the beautiful middle points. This is one of the only games where all allignments are equal and that is an insane achievement.

On the topic of characters and allignements

Alot of characters go so damm well together and present such interesting scenarios like Keisuke and Kaido.

Polar oposites clashing, one seeking extreme judgement and the other seeking true power and nothing else.

I absolutely love it man. Gin, Haru, Shoji, Amane... NAOYA... N A O Y A MAN... I FUCKING LOVE HIM...

Okok enought screaming. So the characters are good, so much so that they drive the story and the way the game handles allignments seems sublime. what about the story these characters are in

So Kazuya (The Protagonist), Atsuro and Yuzu, three friends, all meet up one day in the Yamanote circle, unfortunately for them, a strange series of events involving demons suddenly starts a lockdown in the whole area locking them in.

Using the power of some strange portable computers that your cousin gave to you; you and your friends have to figure out how to end the lockdown, deal with the demons and evoid as many casualties as possible.

Its simple really simple but its executed well!

Thanks to the great character writing and other aspects like the protagonist being able to see how much time anyone has untill their death, it creates a story that makes you want to see more. How do you save these characters from dying, how will things escalate on the following days and so on. Its so much fun seeing where everything goes.

The setting of a lockdown is also the perfect excuse to limit exploration too!

I did mention previously that the exploration is really limited and simple and I feel its a good time to start elaborating on that and start talking about the general gameplay loop.

So, you have a limited number areas to go to and they are all laid out for you on a simple menu on the bottom screen. The main appeal is choosing where you want to go and who you spend time with, every interaction and conversation takes time (arround 30 in game minutes) and naturally you cant do everything in one go.

The loop consists of deciding who to hang out with as to get more information on the lockdown or just to form strong bond with them (which leads to the different endings), after a certain amount of time a combat scenario is triggered, after overcoming the challenge you can go back to checking arround town.

I like this aproach! Its extremely simple but efective.

While it does completely erase the idea of exploring the yamanote circle, I dont think a 3D hub would add much to begin with and it would only pad out time by having to walk from place to place and having to deal with random encounters often... oh yeah! the combat scenarios!

Hooo boy the combat. Ive been waiting to talk about this for a while. if there is one thing I like as much as the writing in this game is the combat scenarios.

So the combat scenarios are presented in a isometric perspective, utilizing a grid system like most tactical rpgs (Yknow like Front Mission and Final Fantasy Tactics).

Maps usually tend to be very big, which is a small gripe that I have with the game, not a big enought problem to make the game bad but still an issue. It takes a while to get everywhere without Devil Speed (A move that increases your move range) and your atack range is also pretty bad without Chaos Wave (everything has to be right in front of you to hit it which kinda sucks)

for the units that dont have either of those two skills, catching up can take a few more turns than it should.

you could argue this adds to the planing for each battle and that is true! it can be fun to mess arround with the huge map with some magic, like swap and animal leg. That is why I dont see this as a big issue but when you have to switch your teams quite often through the story due to having to to adapt to every fight... there will be those few times where you just dont have any skills to make things to faster which will drag things down a fair bit.

Ok so what about teams/units?

You usually have 3-4 teams on the field at all times. Those being composed of a friend/comp user (Atsuro, Yuzu, Keisuke, Midori, Naoya, etc) and two demons

You cant have one team with more than one comp user nor a team with three demons

It needs a singular comp user in the middle, having the role of the leader. Thats enought to register it as a team.

(img for reference)

Enemies work the same way.

You might ask why im explaining how units are formed and that is because its an integral part of combat

The actual combat! so this game uses another variation of press turn... because it woudnt be shin megami tensei without another variation on press turn.

(I say that but I love variations of press turn lmao)

as mentioned previously. three units, middle one is a leader

The main thing that makes that set up unique is that you can choose to make fights easier or harder on the fly.

Fights end instantly as soon as you kill the middle unit/leader but that will give you less exp compared to if you did kill every unit on that team.

So its a balancing act of knowing when to kill everything and when to not do so to maximize exp per characters.

Combat encounters are RUTHLESS in DeSu, they can dish out as much damage as you do and MAN is it tense. Sometimes going for every demon is a death sentence, sometimes its best to just end things fast and survive.

The skill crack system goes along with this great! what is a skill crack you might ask, the skill crack system is the main way you get new spells through the game. You select a stealable skill at the start of the combat scenario and have to kill a specific demon with a specific team you assigned for that demon. Once the specified unit kills the demon with the skill, you obtain that skill permanently and can switch it arround with your other skills.

Having to kill a very specific demon... which is often a demon on the side and not a leader.

sometimes stealing a skill is not worth it as the demon with said skill is way too strong, its best to cut your loses at times and just hope you can steal that skill some other time.

Its a small extra layer to the combat that I apreciate.

So what about that press turn variation huh. Extra Turn.

Extra Turn is simple, you get one more turn after using your turn, you get this by hitting the weakness of the demon or landing a critical hit.

As simple as that is, it helps a ton! several encounters can be ended in one turn if you are well prepared.

You can get your extra turn stolen by any demon with just a critical hit or them hitting your weakness. Its a good variation of press turn! maybe not as good as "One More" from Persona 3-5 or just regular press turn but its still good!

Its really fun! and its nice seeing all your planning pay off after a while

Planning fights is as fun as ever too, made even easier due to the demon auction.

You cant recruit demons mid combat scenario, just buy them at the auction.

Save up some cash, buy some demons, fuse those demons to create a really strong demon. normal megaten things. its as fun as ever, just you need to buy every demon

I would like to aknowledge the lack of a compendium... that was added in overclocked (I played the original version if that wasnt clear)

It wasnt unmanageable or anything mind you, I have beaten SMT1 so its not like im not used to this but its omision is strange.

So what about skills? the amount of magic skills here is smaller than the usual lineup. Light Magic and Dark magic has been completely omited

(there are a few instant kill spells but they are based arround if your character has a certain status effect like paralisis and so on)

Leaving only Fire, Wind, Ice, Thunder, Curse (for status effects) and Neutral as the only types of damage arround.

even then the amount of skills those types have is way smaller than usual which most likely was for balance.

Considering the freedom you have when building your leaders, I dont mind the smaller amount of spells, its less overwhelming.

Due to how flexible are the tools the game gives you in order to create your team, overcoming hard fight with better planing is so satisfying, I found myself frustrated several times only to be hit with so much bliss as soon as I beat a boss with a revamped team, its so damm satisfying.

Man I could keep going and going and going on about this game in more detail, I could go on with the magnetite system, how certain spells can break the late game and so on... but I feel its best you try it out for yourself.

I am trying my best to evoid mayor spoilers, there is... alot in this game for as simple as it is. Its fantastic

My only suggestion to ends things off is to turn on the ability to skip text by holding L + R, it makes retrying scenarios much faster (you will get your ass kicked).

The art is good, the CG backgrounds have held up really nicely, the gameplay is fun, the characters are great, the story is great, the soundtrack is good! (even if it gets tiresome by the end... yknow its the SMT1 problem where the music gets repeated often)

Devil Survivor is one hell of an RPG and trully one of the best in the entire series. I am glad I went ahead and played it

10/10

Hah... pretty bad review that I left in the drafts for a while huh... im glad its done. never forget that all my reviews are ramblings and that im no writter. have a good day

[themagdalenaotiende]

Task #001 — Personality

MBTI: ENFJ-A (The Protagonist)

People with the ENFJ personality type (Protagonists) feel called to serve a greater purpose in life. Thoughtful and idealistic, ENFJs strive to have a positive impact on other people and the world around them. These personalities rarely shy away from an opportunity to do the right thing, even when doing so is far from easy. ENFJs are born leaders, which explains why these personalities can be found among many notable politicians, coaches, and teachers. Their passion and charisma allow them to inspire others not just in their careers but in every arena of their lives, including their relationships. Few things bring people with the ENFJ personality type a deeper sense of joy and fulfillment than guiding friends and loved ones to grow into their best selves.

Enneagram: One

Ones are defined by their belief that everything must be in order, and by their feeling that they must always be "right." They show great commitment and determination to improve conditions that they find need improvement, and they are forward in encouraging others to improve their performance, too. At their core, Ones are the “model children” of the Enneagram world⁠—dutiful, responsible and perfection-seeking. At the same time, they are idealists, in the sense that they believe they know exactly how to perfect the world and they wonder why others do not see it. Many Ones proselytize about the one true set of rules; the one true course of action; or how things "ought" to be. They are often drawn to positions of teaching, advocacy or inspirational leadership where they can share their vision and seek to reform the world. As teachers, they are creative, exemplary and motivating.

Four Temperaments: Sanguine

The sanguine personality is characterized by a cheerful disposition, lively energy, and a generally positive and optimistic outlook on life. Sanguine individuals tend to be highly social, extroverted, and enthusiastic, often possessing a contagious sense of humor that makes them the life of the party. They are usually creative, imaginative, and tend to be very entertaining. Sanguine individuals are also spontaneous and can be seen as impulsive at times. They have a tendency to live in the moment, which often leads to them being adaptable and flexible in different situations. They tend to be more interested in the present than in future plans or consequences. This trait, however, can also lead to difficulty in maintaining focus, staying organized, and following through on tasks. Moreover, sanguine people are often charismatic and are able to influence and inspire others with their vibrant energy and contagious enthusiasm. Their natural ability to create and maintain relationships often leads to a large network of friends and acquaintances. On the flip side, the sanguine temperament may lack depth in the analysis of situations and can sometimes take things too lightly, even when seriousness is required. This can lead to a tendency towards forgetfulness and disorganization. Their desire for social acceptance and fear of rejection can also make them overly sensitive to criticism. Overall, sanguine individuals are warm-hearted, buoyant, and carefree, bringing lightness and joy to their environments and interactions. Despite their potential challenges, they have a unique ability to rebound from disappointments with their resilient optimism.

The Allignment System: Lawful Good

A lawful good character acts as a good person is expected or required to act. He combines a commitment to oppose evil with the discipline to fight relentlessly. He tells the truth, keeps his word, helps those in need, and speaks out against injustice. A lawful good character hates to see the guilty go unpunished. Lawful good is the best alignment you can be because it combines honor and compassion. Lawful good can be a dangerous alignment when it restricts freedom and criminalizes self-interest.

Love Language: Quality Time

Your Love Tank overflows with Quality Time. You prize undivided attention from others. Spending meaningful and uninterrupted time together profoundly impacts your emotional world. Whether it’s in deep conversations or sharing experiences together with a loved one who is fully present and engaged, Quality Time conveys that you are a top priority and deeply loved.

Zodiac Sign: Virgo

Virgos are always paying attention to the smallest details and their deep sense of humanity makes them one of the most careful signs of the zodiac. Their methodical approach to life ensures that nothing is left to chance, and although they are often tender, their heart might be closed for the outer world. This is a sign often misunderstood, not because they lack the ability to express, but because they won’t accept their feelings as valid, true, or even relevant when opposed to reason. The symbolism behind the name speaks well of their nature, born with a feeling they are experiencing everything for the first time.

[thephoebeyates]

Task #001 — Personality

MBTI: ENFJ-T (The Protagonist)

People with the ENFJ personality type (Protagonists) feel called to serve a greater purpose in life. Thoughtful and idealistic, ENFJs strive to have a positive impact on other people and the world around them. These personalities rarely shy away from an opportunity to do the right thing, even when doing so is far from easy. ENFJs are born leaders, which explains why these personalities can be found among many notable politicians, coaches, and teachers. Their passion and charisma allow them to inspire others not just in their careers but in every arena of their lives, including their relationships. Few things bring people with the ENFJ personality type a deeper sense of joy and fulfillment than guiding friends and loved ones to grow into their best selves.

Enneagram: Four

Fours are defined by their belief that they are different from other people, and by their feelings of envy for what others have. Fours have the sense that something is missing from their lives, and they worry that they will never have the happiness that other people experience. At their core, Fours feel they are fundamentally flawed and will never be able to be truly understood by other people. At the same time, they passionately long for the type of deep connection that will make them feel whole and accepted. Many Fours romanticize and idealize their relationships, hoping that each new connection will be the one that finally makes them feel understood and appreciated.

Four Temperaments: Melancholic

The melancholic temperament, is often characterized by deep thoughts, introspection, and a propensity for reflection. A person with a melancholic temperament is typically introverted, detail-oriented, and analytical, often displaying an inclination toward philosophical or intellectual pursuits. Melancholics value order, consistency, and perfection. They are driven by a strong sense of right and wrong and have high personal standards. While this can make them incredibly dedicated, it can also lead to self-criticism or perceived inadequacy when they fall short of their own expectations. Melancholics tend to form deep, meaningful relationships, cherishing a few close bonds rather than seeking broad social networks. They are typically sensitive and empathetic, often going to great lengths to understand and support those close to them. Their introspective nature can lead to a predilection for solitude, and they often need time alone to recharge. They are known for their introspective and often creative minds, as their propensity for deep thought can inspire beautiful pieces of art, literature, and other forms of expression. On the downside, melancholics can struggle with a tendency towards pessimism, and they may be prone to feelings of sadness, worry, or even depression. They can get caught up in overanalyzing situations, which can lead to indecision or inaction. They might also struggle to adapt to new environments, preferring to stick to what they know and are comfortable with. Despite these challenges, when in balance, melancholics can contribute enormously to society, especially in roles that require thoughtful analysis, attention to detail, or deep empathy. They are the planners, the thinkers, and the caretakers, often bringing a level of depth and introspection that can deeply enrich the lives of those around them.

The Allignment System: Lawful Good

A lawful good character acts as a good person is expected or required to act. He combines a commitment to oppose evil with the discipline to fight relentlessly. He tells the truth, keeps his word, helps those in need, and speaks out against injustice. A lawful good character hates to see the guilty go unpunished. Lawful good is the best alignment you can be because it combines honor and compassion. Lawful good can be a dangerous alignment when it restricts freedom and criminalizes self-interest.

Love Language: Words of Affirmation

Your Love Tank overflows with Words of Affirmation. Words hold a special power for you in building connections. You thrive on hearing kind and encouraging verbal expressions that come from the heart. They quickly fill up your Love Tank. Words of Affirmation encourage you and make you feel deeply valued and connected.

Zodiac Sign: Libra

People born under the sign of Libra are peaceful, fair, and they hate being alone. Partnership is very important for them, seeking someone with the ability to be the mirror to themselves. These individuals are fascinated by balance and symmetry, they are in a constant chase for justice and equality, realizing through life that the only thing that should be truly important to themselves in their own inner core of personality. This is someone ready to do nearly anything to avoid conflict, keeping the peace whenever possible

[linkspooky]

CHOUIN X, CHAPTER 41.1 THOUGHTS.

Another interesting chapter with lots of character development for Tokio and set up for future plotlines. In my last post I speculated their might be a future relationship between Azuma and Palma so it's interesting that this chapter it's Tokio who senses that she's in trouble and goes out of his way to save her. More thoughts under the cut:

I NEED A HERO

The chapter begins with Tokio sensing Palmera's crisis, presumably because they are both Beast Choujin and they were both given their abilities with the same serum made from Zora's blood. Tokio's argument with his teacher is actually a pretty nuanced one where both sides have a point.

Tokio is right in that a chaosified Choujin presents a risk to not only the person who's chaosified but also everyone around them, and there is legitimately no one else on hand to handle it and people might be hurt in the time they wait for backup.

It calls back to Tokio's conversation with his little birdy friend, those who hesitate lose. Though Tokio might not be thinking entirely clearly here if he's motivated by his fear of losing people above all else. It's very Kaneki of him, to hate to be helpless and do nothing in this situation.

On the other hand not only is Zora the bigger objective they are after a person who is a risk to even more people, but this is also Tokio's misison. He's the one who asked everyone to delay their mission amonth and trust him to hunt down the source of the Opium. He took on the responsibility, it's therefore irresponsible of him to just change his mind halfway through and then run off to save someone half-cocked.

At the same time, Yamato Mori is given the power they have because their mission is to save people. It's against the nature of their mission to sacrifice someone who they can save, and abandon them in order to claim a higher objective. Heroes are supposed to save people. It's their duty and the responsibility they've been trusted with.

It's a good conflict where Tokio has to figure out where his duty lies. Letting someone else handle Palma is a more utilitarian decision for a greater objective. Saving her is a more altruistic decision. What's more important? Maintaining law and order, or helping the people in front of you.

Not to insert Azuma into everything (can you tell he's my favorite) but he'd probably favor the former over the latter considering his policeman father.

One more piece of foreshadowing is setting up Tokio with the objective of being the one to succeed Sandek. Once again the author making a parallel between Tokio and Sandek, while Azuma is continually paralleled to Batista.

In a previous post I discussed whether it was more likely for Azuma or Tokio to eventually defect from Yamato and join Zora's cult, and I think setting up Tokio as a successor to Sandek is more proof that he might be the one to stay with Yamato Mori.

Though on the other hand Sandek arguing with Sato and going against the parameters of his mission to save Satomi might also be proof that his values don't allign with the values with Yamato Mori, which might eventually give him reason to leave.

There's a lot of potential set-up with this chapter. If Satomi is saved by Tokio that might give her a reason to join up with Yamato Mori and give her further interactions with Azuma. We'll have to see how all this setup pays off in future chapters.

[prettyboykatsuki-moved]

hi !! genuine question here (i dont wanna google it bcos i've already been accidentally spoiled once and dont want it to happen again so i am here on my fav bg3 posting blog<3) - is the romance aspect harsh in terms of you have to make ur character fit this specific critera in roder for the romance to be succesful? like for example do i have to have a morally bad tav to romance astarion or lae'zel? and the opposite, can i only be morally good to romance wyll, gale, etc?

ooohhh this is a tough question actually i dont know how to answer.

im going to say it's not super harsh - its more about finding balance. most of wanting to get their approval will happen in the first act. there's a major event that occurs there that all the romances have the option to trigger, and your approval must be high enough for that to happen

to put it into perspective, ive played four separate tav allignments (lawful good, chaotic good, neutral evil and lawful evil) and made decisions aligned with each of them - but have never had trouble getting my approval up high enough for my respective romance partners of opposite alignment.

it also in a sense depends on the character you're romancing. like a lot of people think you need to be evil for astarion but thats not necessarily true, you can still be fairly good aligned and get his approval. like i said balance.

for a character like gale he does prefer if you're good aligned but he's not completely against some evil actions or neutral actions. wyll and karlach both prefer good aligned characters in general, i'd say they are the most clear cut about it. but it's not for everything, and it's also easy enough to gain their approval that it falling every now and again wont effect their romance.

you dont need to be morally bad for lae'zel because her approval will naturally go up when you play her storyline and allow her to make choices in it. same for shadowheart imo.

bg3 romance is different from other video game romances where the characters can all be romanced in the same way. every character has likes and dislikes specific to their backstory and upbringing. when it comes to gaining or losing approval - you have to consider what each individual character has experienced. what can make a character break up with you is specific to them, and what they disapprove of or approve of is also specific. and all actions that can earn or lose approval are not weighed the same. some losing approval is minor whereas some is major and that is also something to consider.

i'd say its not the most harsh but you will have to do some catering, especially more early on. it's really more about taking the characters story into account and also knowing where to challenge them etc

[randomwritingguy]

Lucasfilm shouldn't be obligated to always follow George Lucas' vision to the letter.

I just need to get this off my chest.

Lately I feel like the fanbase generally treats George Lucas like his word is absolute law and if a story doesn't really align what he particularly thinks then its betraying Star Wars or it it automatically sucks. Don't get me wrong, I am glad that George Lucas is recieving more love from the fans after the hate he got during the Prequel Trilogy. He is a creative genius and I have so much respect for him. However, I feel like many people forget or don't realise is that just because George Lucas came up with an idea or a product alligns with his vision doesn't guarantee that its good.

Both Canon and the Expanded Universe have ideas that George didn't agree with. With the EU, George's vision for the Old Republic was different from what we got. However, the Old Republic that came out was beloved by many. He also didn't think Luke would get married either. And yet Mara Jade and her relationship with Luke is also beloved by many Star Wars fans to this day. These are only two examples of course but, in my opinion, they alone show that one doesn't have to follow George Lucas' vision to create good stories and ideas in Star Wars.

Now, I'm not saying George Lucas should be completely disregarded and ignored. His ideas and concepts should at the very least be considered. However, Lucasfilm shouldn't feel obligated to follow them and the fans shouldn't believe without question that every single idea George Lucas comes up with is absolutely perfect. Luke's role in the Sequel Trilogy was inspired by George Lucas' vision for the character in his ideal Sequel Trilogy and we all know the fanbase feels about Old Man Luke. Dave Filoni is guilty of this too. I understand that he is the "protege" of George Lucas but his insistence on following his "mentor's" vision has really hurt some of his stories in my opinion.

Basically, what I'm trying to say in this ramble is that if we limit Star Wars to George Lucas' vision alone, this franchise will never evolve and grow to become more than it already is. It will forever be confined to one box, shackled to the chains of the ideas of one man rather than being free to draw ideas from various sources. To quote Uncle Iroh from Avatar The Last Airbender: "It is important to draw wisdom from different places. If you take it only from one place, it grows rigid and stale."

[des8pudels8kern]

Another week survived!

Barely.

Everything at work has continued to be non-stop and hectic.

To give you an impression: We've known for six weeks that I'll be taking over for my team-lead when she retires. Monday is her last day, and half of that will be brunch with the team and the higher-ups. You know how much time we've spent with her briefing me and teaching me the new tasks awaiting me? Half an hour, Friday afternoon, after we should have gone home for the weekend already and well after our brains were any good.

I slept 11 hours Friday to Saturday and the same Saturday to Sunday, and I am still just so fucking exhausted.

I am confident I can do the job, but, oh, the first months will be tough, and I'll be floundering to much.

Due to the above mentioned everything, I still haven't watched TWN S3. Yes, including 3.1, which has been out for weeks. Jaskier is a Blorbo, and I don't have the mental bandwidth for new Blorbo content. I have decided to just enjoy the posts on my dash, spoil myself silly, and not put pressure on myself to watch now when I'm not in the proper state of mind for it.

I also have hardly even thought about the fake!Sith Obi-Wan AU, because I am just so, so done. There is, however, a rambling voice message on my phone that I left myself in the middle of the night about a scene I want to write. I have not listened to it yet. I know what state I was in when I recorded it and am afraid to find out how incoherent my explanation of something I thought of as a genius idea might be.

I did, however, watch Good Omens S2 yesterday and today. I adore Good Omens, but neither of them is a proper Blorbo to me and ergo it's, well, easier emotionally.

My verdict with very vague spoilers: I did actually enjoy Jim. Muriel is a cinnamon roll and needs to be protected at all costs. And, while I do understand and sympathize with Crowley, I'm Team Aziraphale when it comes to that big decision. I think Aziraphale chose the way he did not because he still firmly believes in a broken system, but because he believes, down to his very core, in doing good, and that means not abandoning those caught in said broken system. Crowley, meanwhile, ultimately only cares about himself and Aziraphale. It's why he wanted the two of them to leave and go to Alpha Centauri in S1, and tbh it's the same attitude that Gabriel and Beelzebub share and that let them do as they did. They are, all three of them, ultimately selfish (in a me and mine, screw everything else sort of way), whereas Aziraphale may seesaw between being alligned lawful or chaotic good, but cannot bring himself to not at least try to protect his people.

[blueishspace]

What allignement is Last Life Grian?

(Third Life)

Same buisness as last time, Grian will be assigned points based on his actions during the season.

Grian begins his season scamming Scar out of a life, Chaotic Neutral leaning on evil. +2 Chaos, +1 Evil.

Grian randomly steals from Ren... again, +2 Chaos, but ends up still paying him later...again, +1 Law.

Grian is actually a pretty good ally at the start of the series, so to be generous, +2 Law and +2 Good.

Grian proposes the trust game as a way to test loyalty to the faction, Lawful Neutral leaning, +1 Law.

Grian proceeds to spend most of session two sticking with the southlander in both good and not. +1 Law.

Grian burns down a forest, +2 Chaos.

Grian uses Scar's horse to threaten him, +1 Evil, and then after it doesn't work he drops it into lava because why not, +2 Chaos +2 Evil. It's extremely vicious considering Grian knows how much Scar cares about his pets. *Cough* Pizza *cough*.

Grian continues to just be shady and make plans of destruction for a whole session...just +1 Evil and +1 Chaos... Then he goes red and he and Mumbo can still be friends, Mumbo just needs to join him. -1 Mental stability.

Grian plans to spawn trap Scar's bed to threaten/torture him into giving him what he wants. +3 Evil. Grian blows up Scott's and Pearl's base, +1 Chaos and +1 Evil.

Grian warns Scar about a trap, +1 Good but I bring it up because... Even after you plan to kill and torture him you still can't shake off Third Life completely. -1 Mental Stability for Third Life in general.

Grian employs some good psychological manipulation to grow distrust between the reds. +2 Chaos.

Grian straight up murders Jimmy and Mumbo for what is basically a joke. He's red so It's not AS evil, +1 Evil, but it's definitely +2 Chaos.

Grian spawns the wither, +3 Chaos and I still feel like that's too little.

Grian breaks the terms of the deal with Scar then lies to Scar to pin his misdeeds on others. +1 Chaos and +1 Evil.

His session 9 can just be summerized as: +2 Chaos.

Grian ends Last Life with:

5 Law.

3 Good.

20 Chaos.

11Evil.

- 2 Mental stability.

Net Score: 15 towards chaos and 8 towards evil. That makes Last Life Grian 67% more chaotic and 100% more evil then Third Life Grian and gives a total between both seasons of:

24 Chaos points.

12 Evil points.

-2 Mental stability.

[astarionconsort]

I'll only say this once. There's a tier on how you can judge someone's sociopolitical opinion. 1. Their real politics that is not involved with fandom. 2. General fandom opinion such as example how someone sees Rey from Star Wars 3. Self indulgence parts of fandom such as fan work, favorit Chara and simping

1. Is obvious

2. If you see a dude keep repeating that Rey or Captain Marvel are Mary Sue and how strong female protagonist is a feminist propaganda then you can tell they are a misogynist. Same thing with factions morality/perks debates

3. Things like fanfic, self indulgence theory, fetish, personal perspectives about a FAVORITE Chara, it's no fair to judge someone's morality from something that can be very deeply personal and indulgences (or maybe they don't see it as a big deal anyway)

The conversation about how people 'play' (how they simp for him, how they write him, how they draw him, or even how they sees him) with Astarion belong with tier 3. Which is the bottom tier. The most detached tier from people's true morality

Also I haven't seen a single AA fans who say that ascension is not an evil act or doesn't turn him evil.

Most people keep saying that Ascendant Astarion is STILL capable of loving Durge/Tav because of annoying people who won't stop being snarky and saying that Ascendant Astarion is incapable of love and thus his fans are "stupid and delusional"or even "likes abuse and actually condoning abuse"

Also nobody said that Astarion doesn't change in a way that he became more evil than before, people acknowledge that. But just because he became more evil doesn't mean EVERYTHING about Astarion completely change or destroyed by the ritual

There are people who already don't like AA anyway and they keep insisting to his fans that Astarion is essentially "dead" or destroyed after the ritual and we are 'delusional' for liking him. The newest interview even stated that Astarion is still Astarion when he ascend. At the end it was his decision

The argument of ascension as a good ending is not even saying that it is a morally good ending but it is good for Astarion FROM HIS OWN PERSPECTIVE (and by that point Astarion doesn't care about morality or the people he sacrificed, so he doesn't see any downside) because he got so many perks like immunity to sunlight, money, running water, hunger for blood, got new powers, and Cazador died. And it's good for Tav/Durge who is power hungry/evil or wanted to work with him because their goal is aligned. Profitable but not morally good

An evil ending that is only good for Astarion and a Consort/Ally who is aligned with him but not for everyone else in Baldur's Gate

Also it's depends on the route/RP/story

If you don't like Ascension then it is bad ending, of you want Astarion to be nicer then it's a bad ending, if your Tav/Durge doesn't align with Ascended Astarion then it's a bad ending. If your goal is to ascend him or you like ascension ending or your Tav/Durge alligned and wanted Astarion to ascend then ascension is still evil but not necessarily a bad ending like Astarion turned into sacrificial zombie

If your Tav is a lawful good person then their romance with ascendant astarion is a bad ending, but my Tav is an enabler and unhinged yandere anyway, it was HIM who keep pushing Astarion to ascend. Astarion's objectively bad ending that can be applied to any universe, any perspective and any Tav/Durge is him dying and Cazador turned him into a zombie for the Ascension ritual

Also my post is basically saying "Don't harass people over a vampire blorbo" your respond sounds like "Yes but actually—" no, no one should be harassed/bullied over liking Ascendant Astarion full stop

Friendly reminder: You are not an abuse apologist for liking ascendant Astarion and pursuing a romantic path with him. No one should be harassed and received death threats over this.

No one should feel bad for ascending him. You shouldn't dismiss other people's trauma over him (it's bullshit that there are people who thinks you are a 'fake survivor' just because you like a different ending for a vampire) You paid $60 for bg3 and by god it is your rights to ascend him 100 times if you wish. No one should mock or berate other people's Durge/Tav story with Ascendant Astarion

No one needs to hear "I hope you understand that this is actually a bad—" BG3 fans are adults, we dont need strangers online to hand holding us

If people are chill with villain fuckers like Dimitrescu fans or homelander fans. Why the hell Astarion fandom made so many drama over this evil vampire? Ridiculous. Utter nonsense I tell ya

[ineedmora]

/  I used to write him a long time ago and I’m always -clenches hands on fists-

[hopemerged]

@tenkoseiensei​​ said ; ' anyone with a secret base or a private army or a house must be pure evil! ' /  𝐔𝐍𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐌𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐃

                       ❝ So you are saying that.... The count is evil? ❞  That was his first thought as he glances to the side where Yan Qing sits, for it was the count the man Yan Qing has been staring at from afar, and as an individual who rarely made his appearance seen, he could only ponder if the count had a secret base where he hid during the day or something. Once he returns his canned beer back to the top of the table, many thoughts begin to pop inside his mind, for although Arash was a honest man, his allignment was still chaotic neutral, and Yan Qing’s statement serves nothing but to spark the archer’s interest. What a strange statement.... if one were to think strictly about the conditions the other imposed for someone to be pure evil, then a lot of servants would be evil- for a lot possessed high titles of nobility, which in exchange meant having money- money to pay for a private army, a scret base or... well, a house.

❝ Y’know, for once, you are actually saying something that makes sense. Why would someone have a private army? how much money do you wanna rub on our faces? That’s right, pure evil if you ask me. ❞   Robin interrupts . His words come not from genuine malice but more out of a sense of pettiness as he nonchalantly pulls his cigarette from his lips, only to then direct his gaze back at Arash who seemed to have a sudden train of thought.

❝ Well, I’m not too sure about having a house being an indicator but- he kinda has a point with having a secret army- I mean, we are all fighting together for supposedly the same greater good so what’s the need to have one? ❞   Strategically wise, he understood the importance of managing resources, keeping an ace under one’s sleeve, he knew about that, he’s been there before. however if the matter revolved around Chaldea, then he couldn’t help but somehow agree that it could make someone rather suspicious.   ❝ but then, wouldn´t that make the master evil? I mean, we are kinda their army, don’t you think ? ❞   

[linkspooky]

BUNGO STRAY DOGS VS LITERATURE: THE DECAY OF ANGELS

This is going to be the first in a long (long) running series where the goal is to read every single book mentioned by name in Bungo Stray Dogs, and try to connect the themes of that book to the characters who are referencing that book. In light of the recent arc I am starting out with "The Decay of Angels" the villainous organization consisting of Bram Stoker, Nikolai Goggol, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Ochi Fukuchi and Sigma.

The name Decay of Angels comes from Yukio Mishima's novel, the Decay of the Angel. The fourth and last book in his Sea of Fertility tetraology which is widely considered to be his masterpiece. I read all four books, so underneath the cut I'll elaborate on the connections between Yukio Mishima's work and Bungo Stray Dogs.

1. The Decay of the Angel

The Sea of Fertility is a tetralogy of novels written by Japanese AUuhor Yukio Mishima. The four novels are Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, the Temple of Dawn, and the Decay of Angel. The main timeline of the story stretches from 1912 to 1975, the main character of all four books is Shigekuni Honda a law student in Spring Snow, who's best friend Kiyoaki Matsugae dies at the age of twenty at the end of the first book. In each sequel, Shigekuni meet what he believes are the reincarnations of Kiyoaki, who are condemned by karma to die at an early age. Every time he attempts to save them from their deaths he fails.

The strongest connection between the Sea of Fertility itself, and the "Decay of Angels" organization depicted in Bungo Stray dogs is that both are heavily inspired by Buddhist ideology. The Sea of Fertility is an exploration of the concepts of both "reincarnation" and "karma" while the ideology of the decay of angels is to enact Karma in the real world for the past sins of the governing body.

The brihadarankyaka Upanishad states: Indeed the person performing a good deed will become benevolent, and one performing a bad deed will bcome evil; one becomes pure by pure acts, and black by evil acts. Therefore it is said: a human being is composed of karma, or "desire" by following karma one creates will, by following will one creates karma, and through karma, samsara comes into existence." The Temple of Dawn

Both the ideology of the Decay of Angels, and Yukio Mishima's work make constant references to budhism like this. Budhists conceive of the world as a suffering-laden sycle of life, death and rebirth without beginning or end known as Samsara. In essence in budhism, beings are driven from life to life in this system by karma which is activated by good or ill actions committed in this life as well as previous lives. Fukuchi's goal is more or less to make Karma real and enact it with his hand, to punish governing bodies for their past sins.

His ideals are also heavily budhist in nature, more or less budhists believe suffering in inherent to life. The goal of budhism is actually to stop being reborn and escape the cycle of death and rebirth by eventually purifying yourself of earthly desires, etc. etc. Fukuchi's goals allign with these ideas. Just like reality and earthly desires inherently cause suffering. As long as governments exists, they will continue to create war. The only way forward is to create a death and rebirth. Governments have to die, so society as a whole can be reborn into a higher, more enlightened state. He is essentially twisting lofty budhist ideals to justify his extreme political actions.

Bungo Stray dogs also borrows some symbolism from the fourth book, the Decay of the Angel. In budhist scripture Devas are mortal angels. A topic the fourth book discusses at length.

Here is the account in the twenty fourth fascicle of the Ekottara-augama: "There are thirty-three angels and one arch angel, and the signs of death in them are fivefold. Their flowered crowns wither, their robes are soiled, the hollows under their arms are fetid, the body ceases to give off light, it loses awareness of itself." Decay of the Angel

There are five members of the decay of angels in BSD, Fukuchi, Fyodor, Goggol, Bram, and Sigma, just like the five stages of decay. Just as in budhist belief death comes for everything, even the angels, the stated goal of the organization is to bring death to the members of the world's government. Quite literally in Fukuchi's case, by controlling a vampire army (vampires being symbols of death due to being undead and bloodsuckers themselves).

2. Death and Rebirth

The main premise of the Sea of Fertility is tracking the four reincarnations of one individual. Each successive reincarnation lives a short life and dies for the sake of an ideal.

'Kiyoaki Matsugae was caught by unpredictable love, Isao Iiinuam by destiny, Ying Chan by the flesh. And you? By a baseless sense of being different, perhaps? If destiny is something that takes hold of a person and drags him after, then the other three had desinty. And has anything caught you?' The Decay of the Angel

The whole organization of Decay of Angels, is seeking a somewhat symbolic death and rebirth of society, but at the same time as individuals four members are seeking to die for the sake of an ideal like the four lifetimes of Kiyoaki.

Gogol's may seem to be the simplest, to commit suicide in order to free himself entirely from god's will. He may be a russian character, but even some of his ideals are budhist. One of the major differences between Budhism and Hinduism as commented on in the books, is that Hinduism believes in the divine whereas in Budhism there are no gods. Not only do they reject gods, but they also reject the idea of a "soul."

"Budhism does not recognize the soul as such. If there is no core substance called soul in beings, there is of course, none in organic matter. Indeed quite like a jellfyfish devoid of bone there is no innate essence in all of creation. . If we assume there is no self, what is the basis of the birth-and-death cycle to start with?... WHen the Threavada Sautranika school evolved the concept of "seed perfurming" was established according to which the effect of a good or bad deed remains in ones consciousness, permeating it as the fragnace of perfume permeates clothes and thus forms character."

Gogol's ideal is similiar to that belief, he rejects both the idea of god, and the idea of his soul, in order to prove that all that exists of the universe is his free will and consciousness. He even goes through a metaphorical death and rebirth in order to reach that ideal, he fakes his own death, and then is revealed to be alive.

There's even a discussion of free will in several of the books, particularly the fourth.

"He should have armed them with the foreknowledge that would keep them from flinging themselves after their destinies, take awaay their wings, keep them from soaring, making them march in step with the crowd. The world does not approve of flying. Wings are dangerous weapons. They invite self-dstruction before they can be used." Decay of the Angel

If you wanted to parallel him to one of the lifetimes, you could even say he is much like Kiyoaki, someone caught up in an unpredictable love. At one point in the story, as he's dying of sickness he continues to try to visit his lady love every day for the sake of seeing her one last time and considers facing his impending death to be a trial to prove his love. Gogol similiarly puts his closest friend through a life or death trial to see if his feelings spring forth from himself and his own free will, or are brainwashing.

"I'd tell myself in it was because I was insincere. I'd know in my heart that if only I had gotten out of the rickshaw and walked, no matter how weak I felt, then such sincerity - even if she was unaware of it - would have affected her, and she would have seen me. That's it then. There's no reason to have such regrets. I have no other choice but to risk my life, if I want to see her. To me, she's the essence of beauty. ANd it's only that which has brought me so far." -Spring Snow

The second lifetime lived by Kyoaki is that of Inao who is a far-right extremist in Japan, who wishes to see japan return to its more imperialist ideals. As a whole these novels take place over a time frame that's post the russo-japanese wars, all the way to the lead up into world war two, and then post world war two. There are pretty obvious references to world war two (the island where Fukuchi fought on being a reference to Okinawa, Ahabaraki being a reference to the nuclear bomb). Bungo Stray Dogs also clearly takes place in a post-war society. The motivation of the current villain Fukuchi is the mistreatment of soldiers during that previous war.

Fukuchi resembles Isao, the far right extremist. In the second book there is a long recounting of the history of the Satsuma Rebellion. It was a revolt of disaffected samurai against the new imperial government, nine years into the Meiji Era. In the book it’s mentioned  they prayed at a shrine a number of times, and waited to rebel until they believed the god’s themselves approved of their rebellion. The main character of the book Isao wants to enact a similar rebellion against the government to rid Japan of western influence and to make the emperor all powerful again.

The sins I refer to have nothing to do with the law. And the greatest sin is that of a man who, finding himself in a world where the sacred light of His Majesty is obscured, neverthless determines to go on living without doing anything about it. The way to purge this grave sin is to make a fiery offering with one's own hand, even if that itself is a sin, to express one's loyalty in action, and then commit seppuku immediately. With death, all is purified Runaway Horses

The goal of the main character is to "before the sun... at the top of a cliff at sunrise, while paying reverence to the sun... while looking down upon the sparkling sea, beneath a tall, noble pine... to kill myself..." He is a man who wants to commit a sin he believes will put his country on the right track, and then die for his country. He also believes the only way forward is a military coup (guess what happens in japan in a couple of years). Fukuchi's goal may be the opposite, but he still uses the same methodology. He has seized full and total control of the world's governments acting as an ultimate emperor to achieve his goal. Everyone else is just instruments and puppets to him, he literally changes them into mindless zombies.

"Here was the power of the emperor himself. Only on this drill ground was the hand of the sun working with a mathematical clarity and precision. Only here! The will of the emperor penetrated the sweat, the blood, the very flesh of these young men, piercing their bodies like X-Rays." Runaway Horses

Fukuchi's goal is essentially to fight imperialism by using tools of imperialism himself. He also invokes the divine when fighting against Akutagawa and Atsushi, saying he carries and enacts the divine will. He is focusing all power on himself, the same way Isao wished for the emperor to have total control and authority of the country once more to purge out western, socialist, and capitalist influence.

He also, just like Nikolai experiences a death and rebirth on the battlefield. Fukuchi was once manipulated like Isao by far-right ideals that joining the military would equate to protecting both his comrades and his countries, only to be eaten up and chewed out by the war-machine and not accomplishing protecting anyone but the governments already in place, creating the current Fukuchi.

Just like the deaths of his comrades were wasted, Isao also experiences a disapopinting suicide which is the exact opposite of what he wanted, and the ideal of dying with honor presented throughout the story. Which clearly illsutrates all the militaristic and far-right ideals Isao believed in through the story, were proven false and nil by the end. 

“The sun will not rise for some time,” Isao said to himself, “and I can’t afford to wait. There is no shining disk climbing upwards. There is no noble pine to shelter me. Nor is there a sparkling sea.” 

Runaway Horses

The third book features Thai Princess Ying Chan who is said to have been caught by the flesh. This will be the shortest section because the third book is very dark, but basically the third book the Temple of Dawn deals with how the elder generation of japan, preys upon and takes advantage of the youth. Ying Chan because of her youthful body, is molested by two adults who she trusts.

Sigma is someone similiar to Ying Chan, a youth who is born and then continually used by everyone around him in his life. He is the ultimate child taken advantage of by society passed over again and again due to being born from "nothing."

The last reincarnation depicted in the fourth book "The Decay of the Angel" deals heavily with themes of nihilism, and deeply resembles Dostoevsky. Especially if you believe Fyodor is in part an adaptation of Raskolnikov's theory that truly great people should be above morality as depicted in crime and punishment.

Toru's goal in the Decay of Angels, is to devote himself to a pure form of evil and get lost in the pursuit of it. He is depicted as a twenty year old exceptionally brilliant individual who does not form relationships, is detached from the society around them, has no strong pursuits except for this, and his highly nihilistic believes. The kind of nihilism that is portrayed for its flaws in many of Dostoevsky's works.

"My purity will presently wander beyond the horizon to that invisible realm. Probably not on the end of unbearable pain, I shall seek to become a god. The pain! I will know of it, the pain of absolute silence, a world of nothing at all. I will crouch in the corner, like a sick dog. And the happy ones will sing songs around me. There is no medicine for it. No hospital. It will be written in tiny gold letters somewhere in the history of the race: that I was evil."

Which mirrors the description of Fyodor in his introduction as something "Darker than evil, something horrifying."

Fyodor is also someone with a large blind spot when it comes to ordinary people, this is something he is lectured on by Dazai. That he believes he has enough control like a player sitting outside of the gameboard that he can control the movment of every single piece. That the world is controlled by great people manipulating it. Whereas Dazai's beliefs are the world is controlled by everyone's actions moving together in an unpredictable fashion, rather than a god sitting outside manipulating things.

Toru receives a similar lecture because he bbelieves himself to be some kind of great man due only to his extra intelligence and how isolated he is from others.

"There is no special right to happiness and none to unhappinnes. There is no tragedy and there is no genius. Your confidence and your dreams are groundless. If there is on this earth something exceptional, special beauty or special evil, nature finds it out and uproots it. You thought didn't you, that you were a genius beyond compensation. You thought of yourself, didn't you, as a beautiful little cloud of evil floating over humanity." The Decay of the Angel

Which seems to be the lesson that the story is going in the direction of teaching Fyodor, that there is no such thing as inherent specialness, exceptional people, gods or demons. 

Fyodor is also someone who while he has no undergone a death himself, his goal is to deal death, which he seems to be able to do with just a touch of his hands, in order to make the world reborn into a “world without the evil of ability users”. Death, birth, and rebirth are themes that are strong with all five of these characters. 

As for Bram he’s the character we know the least about, but I would say while Fyodor, Fukuchi, Gogol and Sigma can be equated to individual lifetimes of Kyoaki, Bram himself being an immortal vampire and oldest of the group is much like Honda who is an outsider and witnessing the lives of young people being reborn over and over again. Especially since by the fourth book he is eighty years old and essentially a helpless elder. The various lifetimes of Kiyoaki die young, he lives on a much emptier life than any of them. Bram’s just a head. He’s the most helpless of the whole group. He’s just a witness to all of this. But he’s also an immortal vampire, so therefore an outsider to the cycle of death and rebirth. 

Well, that is all I have to say about “The Decay of the Angel” and the connection to the “Decay of Angels” depicted in Bungo Stray Dogs, and the five members who make it up. I fully reccomend picking up the book, just as Bungou Stray Dogs is shaping up to be anti-war in its text and the depiction of several successive generations (the war generation, the post war, the Sea of Fertility is a massive work referred to as “the most complete vision we have of Japan in the 20th Century” by Paul Theroux. It deals with similiar themes in BSD of the changes between generations, the shift in society of japan in the last century, the influence of imperialism. If you want to pick it up and read it, it comes highly recommended by me!