#what is up with asagiri and drowning people 😭

[sumeruin]

JUST READ THE NEW BSD CHAPTER???? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON

[fyodcrs]

hi! fellow fyozai enjoyer, I saw your post about fyozai and how you disliked the finale, and I have thoughts about how I actually loved the finale for fyozai (I mean this /lh, it’s fully my opinion)

the basis of it is what Dazai tells Fyodor, and a theory I saw around chapter 101-ish of the manga.

Dazai tells Fyodor: “you don’t trust anything you can’t manipulate”

and the theory I saw had it’s basis centered around the fact that Chuuya was a wildcard for both Dazai and Fyodor. now, chapter 101, the fandom’s assumptions were a) Chuuya is actually a vampire, and b) Dazai just tried to kill Chuuya via drowning

the theory basically said, SKK have a strong bond right? an extremely popular theory around that time was that Dazai was trying to drag Chuuya out of the vampirism via his speech, possibly coded, and the water and drowning. so the theory said that what if Dazai was trying to use their bond, and Chuuya’s own willpower, to drag Chuuya out of vampirism and have him be an element of surprise against Fyodor - e.g. Chuuya is pulled out, recognizes Dazai’s plan, and plays along to eventually betray Fyodor, being the closest to him physically, and because Fyodor is already convinced of his control of Chuuya.

essentially, Dazai relies on his bond with Chuuya, his ally and human nature, while Fyodor is so focused on control that he is caught off guard because of Chuuya’s willpower

which is what happens in canon, sort of - Dazai relies on his allies and human nature, while Fyodor is so certain of his plan (he says it himself- his plan is perfect) that he doesn’t question Chuuya’s vampirism. he is so convinced that the vampirism is absolute that why would he need to check?

and then Dazai wins. and he tells Fyodor, “you don’t trust anything you can’t manipulate”

Dazai doesn’t either, or he didn’t, and here’s where I love the ending so much and what it means for fyozai - neither of them trust what they can’t manipulate. but Dazai did, has been doing since he joined the Agency, and that’s how he won - he grew out of this belief that Fyodor still currently has, also aligning with their fundamental differences in one belief, the value of human life + experiences

anyway. that’s my opinion on why I actually love the ending sm and don’t understand why so many people hate it. “how did Fyodor not notice Chuuya put on a Halloween costume” that’s the POINT - it highlights fyozai’s fundamental difference in belief, Dazai’s growth, how Dazai has pushed past that blockage that Fyodor still has and which is why he lost, ALSO highlighting how they are the same person expressed differently in one root belief. which makes them even CRUNCHIER in my opinion

ty for reading, you’re so correct that not enough people enjoy fyozai 😔✌️(and if any of this came off harsh please know I don’t mean it to be 😭)

Hi, fellow fyozai enjoyer! Thank you for sharing your perspective on the finale! I love hearing other people's opinions, so I appreciate you throwing your two cents in. And no worries, none of that came off harsh. 😆 I'm about to rant here, so I hope I don't come off as harsh!

I think you're spot on in what Asagiri/the anime writers were going for. However, there are several fundamental problems I have with it, from a character perspective and from a storytelling perspective. My issues with the finale really don't have anything to do with fyozai; my issues are with the writing, especially the writing of Fyodor's character. Because the thing is, it makes sense in theory, but it doesn't work the way they did it.

In theory, it makes perfect sense that Dazai "won" because he trusts his allies and Fyodor does not. It's even set up in these scenes:

In the first, Dazai and Fyodor are (quite hilariously) telling each other how they manipulate others. Dazai acts the fool, pretends to be lazy and unengaged so his "workers" have to step up and do something themselves. That's how he plays puppet master behind the scenes. Fyodor takes control of his pawns by leaving them no choice. That's how he plays puppet master behind the scenes. Dazai's method requires a lot less control and a lot more trust.

In the second, Dazai is saying that the world is chaotic and all of their "ingenious plans" don't amount to much (except when it's Dazai's "ingenious plan" to dress Chuuya up in a Halloween costume!), challenging Fyodor's idea that he can impose his own order on the world (which is exactly what Fyodor is trying to do, though he can't see that - he isn't doing God's will, he's only doing his own; the order he is trying to impose upon the world by using the Book is not God's, it is his own).

Personally, I think "Dazai wins because he has friends, Fyodor loses because he doesn't" is kind of a boring way to go with both Fyodor's character and with the conflict between him and Dazai. Considering this is BSD, where everyone and their boss gets a redemption arc of some sort, and considering this a character based (however loosely) off of Fyodor Dostoevsky, a man who wrote numerous novels exploring deeply complex philosophical and religious ideas about human nature and redemption, I had hoped that Fyodor's character would have a redemption arc of his own. I really hoped that he wouldn't end up being the one character in this series treated like a stereotypical villain. Alas, here we are...

But whatever, they set this up, and again, theoretically, it makes sense. It works for their characters, and I don't mind the idea that Fyodor loses to Dazai because of Dazai's trust in others - in theory. You are certainly right that it makes fyozai all the crunchier!

But it just doesn't work the way they did it. It doesn't work because Fyodor does not actually have any direct control over the vampires.

Unless I missed something about there being a line on the Page that says "the vampires shall obey Fukuchi Ouchi, Bram Stoker, and Fyodor Dostoevsky, and no one else", Fyodor does not control the vampires. Fukuchi does, because Fukuchi has control of Bram. Or Fukuchi is supposed to, because Fukuchi is supposed to have control of Bram. The only reason the vampires would obey Fyodor at all is because, presumably (though I don't think this is ever stated), Fukuchi ordered them to through Bram and Bram's Ability.

This means that in order for Fyodor to use any of the vampires, including Chuuya, as his pawns, he would need to have complete trust in Fukuchi. He would need to trust that Fukuchi hasn't fucked anything up, has not lost control of Bram, and that whatever Dazai was plotting with his buddies outside the prison has not caught up to Fukuchi and exposed him or taken him down. And Fyodor knows that Dazai is plotting, he knows that Dazai is in contact with the outside. He knows Ranpo is out there, and that Dazai is relying in particular on Ranpo.

And he was able to predict Ranpo's moves at least up to trying to intercept the One Order. So he also knew that Fukuchi had been/would be discovered and that the ADA were actively trying to thwart him. But he carried on his plan to use Chuuya, because he still trusted that Fukuchi had control of Bram.

In other words, he was trusting Fukuchi in exactly the same way Dazai was trusting Ranpo and the others.

It doesn't matter if Fyodor and Fukuchi are "friends," or if they're real "allies" - the point is that Fyodor did not actually have any direct control over the vampires, or over Fukuchi. Fukuchi even says in the anime that he "sent him (Fyodor) to prison" to ensure that Fyodor could not interfere with his actual plan - which was, of course, not Fyodor's actual plan. But Fyodor trusted that things were still going according to his plan, even though he couldn't actually manipulate things directly from where he was. Exactly like Dazai.

I get the whole "Fyodor thinks his plan is perfect" thing, but in this plan, Fukuchi had all of the power over the vampires, not Fyodor. Sure, you can argue Fyodor thought he had Fukuchi under his thumb (which, by the way, I find very hard to believe, because from what Fukuchi tell Fukuzawa, Fyodor knew what Fukuchi really wanted, and made a deal with him to achieve that; therefore, he knew Fukuchi had his own motives), but that doesn't matter - what matters is that he placed control of the pawns he intended to use in the hands of someone else.

That ruins Dazai's whole "you don't trust anything you can't manipulate" - because he wasn't manipulating the vampires, and he couldn't manipulate Fukuchi from prison.

And he purposefully put himself in prison as part of his "perfect plan," so he intentionally put himself in a position where he could not directly manipulate his most important pawn: Fukuchi.

So the whole "Fyodor loses because he doesn't trust others" is bunk precisely because they used the vampires as the key to Fyodor's downfall. Fyodor literally cannot use the vampires as part of his plans without trusting an ally - Fukuchi. The idea behind Fyodor's downfall is fine. The execution is what doesn't make any goddamn sense.

It also doesn't work for me because this is Fyodor we're talking about here. Are you seriously telling me I should buy that Fyodor was fooled by contacts and fake fangs? Like for real? If it were anyone else, sure. But Fyodor? I wouldn't buy Dazai or Ranpo falling for that, either. I don't care how much Fyodor believes in his own perfect plan. He still should be able to tell the difference between someone who has been turned into a vampire and someone who has not. Especially since Dazai says he and Chuuya have pulled this kind of thing before. I'm expected to believe it never occurred to Fyodor they'd do something like that? Why, because he's not a soukoku shipper?

I wish we had gotten Dazai bringing Chuuya back to his senses through their bond, because that would make a whole hell of a lot more sense than this being an elaborate act - and it would actually give credence to the idea that Fyodor's desire for complete control is his undoing.

And while we're talking about the narrative problems, let's talk about that hand injury that's so important to all of this. I already talked about this in another post, but Fyodor deciding to let the vampires pilot the helicopter because his hand injury made it impossible for him to do so doesn't make sense to me, either, because the hand is clearly shown to still be mobile:

I know there's a big difference between piloting a helicopter and pressing a button or letting someone else hold your hand, but the hand is obviously not useless. Why would Fyodor be willing to put himself at the mercy of his pawns if he can still use his hand, wounded or not? Again, when he's not actually the one controlling them?

Obviously, this isn't going to be a plot point in the manga because Fyodor has no hand injury in the manga, but this was another thing that bothered the hell out of me. They really just had Fyodor act stupid all of a sudden so he could get himself killed.

Again I hope I'm not sounding too harsh! I'm not trying to attack you at all!! But do you see why I have such a problem with the finale? I get what it was trying to do, but the way it was done just doesn't make any sense, imho. Now, if they had done something with Sigma and Fyodor, like I thought was going to be the case...

I do really appreciate your opinion on the finale, and I don't want to suggest you're wrong or anything. I'm just saying that to me, there are massive issues with it. I just think it's really bad writing.

More than that, it felt so cheap to kill Fyodor off that way. It didn't feel like a big deal, it just felt rushed and - well, cheap. Fukuchi's death has the same problem, but at least with Fukuchi they took the time to flesh out his character, give us answers to the remaining questions about his past and his motives, and give him an emotional send-off. They just blew Fyodor up and went, "Well on to the next!"

But!! With time to reflect, I think the people saying that Fyodor isn't really dead at all are probably right. There are just too many unanswered questions; it doesn't make narrative sense to actually kill him off at this point.

And we don't know how the manga is going to go yet. If the manga does follow the anime, I think it's a pretty good bet that when Sigma wakes up, the secrets he learned about Fyodor will be revealed, and then - well, I guess we'll see.

In the meantime, though, I'm going to continue to (mostly) pretend the finale didn't happen sdfghjghj

Again, thank you for sharing! 💕💖 I think you made some good points, but I hope I was able to explain why I disliked the finale so much :/

*hugs* ଘ(੭ˊᵕˋ)੭* ੈ✩‧˚ ♡♡