Been A While Since I Posted Gothfam So Here's Zorito And His Awkward Father Mihawk 👁️⚔️

BSD chapter 121 – SPOILER / "THEORY"

Something i haven't seen anyone else point out, is that in the last pannel of the chapter, "Dazais" clothes clearly don't fit him

For comparison, both from the same chapter

His coat is clearly too big for him. The sleeves hang too low, usually just below the elbow, now down to his wrists.

His pants don't fit him either, although the coat hides it pretty well.

Overall his clothes are significally more baggy.

His hair is also parted diffrently. Dazais hair is almost always parted down the middle. First I thought his hair was being blown by the wind – thusly messing the parting – but one look at the hem of the coat proved me wrong.

The right side of his hair is instead longer then the left side.

He also seems to not have his neck bandage. The longer then usual sleeves concealing his arm bandages (or the lack thereoff).

"Dazai" is morphing into someone else. Which brings me to:

Atsushi is shorter then Dazai, making Dazais clothes most likely too big for him.

The longer side of Atsushis hair is the right one. The parting of hair – while not exact – seems to also match our resident tiger lad.

The illusion of Dazai is being torn apart, as Atsushi realizes its true nature. His own thoughts, fleelings, and conclusions wearing a Dazai themed Halloween mask.

When Atsushi says he 'knows who you are, he's not talking about Dazai or the hallucination, but *himself.*

Atsushi has never needed someone else to tell him to live, but he has always felt like he does.

To be less extra 'bout it, i think Atsushi groked what he is and is going use that to save Akutagawa / kick Fyodors ass.

If i missed or got smt wrong feel free to tell me

Lol what da dawg do?

Oh.

today is agressive day

New spread :3

I’ve always wondered if Kyouka and Chuuya ever interacted during her PM days bc she’s literally Kouyou and Verlaine’s mentee

Anyway, I would love your thoughts on a family dinner of those four it would be insane

oh, I have lots of thoughts about Verlaine's les enfants

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I don't think Akutagawa has lost his memories, neither do I think he's faking it, or doing it as a way to get Atsushi to react and get back on his feet.

In chapter 117, when Bram saves Aya from the airport wreckage, he says that he transferred his consciousness into Akutagawa's body when Fyodor's ability took over his own body, and that his ability would also die with him, his consciousness disappearing as a consequence. . The question is: we don't know what happens to a vampire who turns back into a human, nor whether all vampires were transformed back, or just Akutagawa, because Bram took his body. I don't believe that all vampires have become human, as Fyodor mentions that as long as he has Bram's body, the echoes of his ability would still exist, and he can still control everyone who has been turned into a vampire around the world, so it is likely that only Akutagawa was transformed into a human again (vampirism having disappeared along with Bram's consciousness), even if remnants of his transformation are still present in his body, like a vampire's durability. It is these vampiric remnants and characteristics that make me think that Akutagawa's sudden amnesia was caused by traces of Bram's soul/consciousness in his body.

When Bram dies, we see Akutagawa accepting his mission to protect Aya. Everything in the manga suggested that this was Akutagawa's own decision, and to a certain extent, it is, but it is quite likely that Bram's traits and characteristics remained in Akutagawa's body even after his death. This whole role of a "noble knight" was a striking characteristic of Bram, who always saw the current world as if it were still his time, and used terms from that same time to refer to everyone. Part of Bram's consciousness may have remained in Akutagawa's body along with the vampire characteristics, causing his consciousness to mix with Bram's consciousness, or be overwhelmed by it, which perhaps could have been the cause of his lack of consciousness, and memory. Something I found curious is that Akutagawa not only has protecting Aya (or the princess) as his mission, but also the commoners, something that was not included in Bram's order/request.

So where did the part about protecting the commoners come from? Is it something caused by Bram's influence? A part of Akutagawa's new (and probably temporary) knight persona? Or a wish of his own? His own desire to protect people?

Well, I don't know, but if that's the case, I can see a lot of ways this memory loss could really add something to Akutagawa's character arc. We know that he is someone who is truly true to his promises, and when Bram's consciousness and influence begin to dissipate from his mind, he will probably still remind that he promised to protect Aya, and will commit to fulfilling his promise. Being placed in the role of protecting someone, for Akutagawa, would be something really good, it would help him understand that he doesn't need to kill for his life to have meaning, that there is also value in protecting other people, that this is not necessarily linked to a failure (the last time he protected someone, they all got killed), and that there is something good about protecting and helping people. Finding a new reason to live would also help him get rid of the idea that the value of his life is linked to Dazai's approval of him. It's clear how he was using rashomon in a much more effective way in the last chapter compared to his other fights, so much that even Atsushi seems surprised. I believe this comes from the fact that Akutagawa learned (due to his life both on the slums and in the mafia) to use rashomon as a weapon, not as an extension of his own body, as a part of himself, in addition to that he does not need to use rashomon to fortify his body, which allows him to use rashomon more freely.

Other things that I think could have caused Akutagawa's amnesia are his transformation back into a human (dying, being turned into a vampire, and then back into a human again could definitely do some damage to anyone's brain), and Bram's promise to Aya to protect her, as we know that in Bsd promises can be kept even after someone has turned into a vampire (as we see with Akutagawa and his promise not to kill anyone). Bram's promise to Aya surpassed Dostoevsky's ability, causing Fyodor to create a great will to protect Aya, so it is not so impossible that it also surpassed Bram's death.

Throwback to Stormbringer really quick before I continue with the Prison Arc. With good reason too.

Referring to real-life Dostoevsky and Dazai.

Dostoevsky believed that suffering elevated, that it was essential for attaining true faith. Dazai feared God. He has only ever been able to believe in God's punishments due to the endless spiral of hopelessness and depression in his life. To him, suffering destroys.

Back to Bungo Stray Dogs.

Dazai made Chuuya suffer so that Chuuya could see that he isn't a monster. That I've known since I've written that portion. However, suffering destroys. He needed to destroy Chuuya's misconception of him not being human, and because to him suffering destroys, he believed Chuuya needed to suffer to break. So, no, Dazai didn't do it for shits and giggles.

So something that caught my attention with the Dragon symbolism stuff with the world nobles vs how it’a used in the RA led me down a rabbit hole that I found interesting enough to share.

So the whole thing stems from two instances of dragon claws being depicted in One Piece.

So! First we have the Celestial Dragon Claw, four clawed, used as branding to mark word noble “property”. Then we have the Dragon Claw Fist, three clawed, a fighting style that we can assume was developed by the RA using the Finger Pistol of the Six Powers as a base.

The difference here is the number of claws, which is what lead me down the rabbit hole in the first place.

The consensus is that the claw number of a depicted dragon is actually a class indicator. Bear in mind that these observations stem from Chinese folklore and its place in Imperial Chinese law, so it might not hold water. And as always do correct me if I’m off in any of these points.

The number of claws and the colorations of dragons in Imperial China was an extremely important thing, and misrepresentations of these could quite literally get you and others executed for acts of treason.

Five clawed yellow or gold (or red during the Ming Dynasty) dragons are a symbol of imperial power for the emperor alone to use. It was illegal for nobles and civilians to wear anything depicting a five-clawed yellow or gold dragon in Imperial China. It was considered- as stated above- an act of treason, and offenders (and their families) could be imprisoned or executed for the crime.

Four clawed dragons are a symbol of nobility. Lesser in the hierarchy than the imperial dragon, but still a mark of high status. It was illegal for civilians to wear depictions of four-clawed dragons. Again, a treasonous act punishable by death or imprisonment under Imperial law.

Civilians could depict dragons with three claws. This was allowed.

So, we can make an assumption here that through these observations, the RA use the three clawed dragon as symbolic of the class warfare that is happening in the One Piece world. But there is another thing!!!

There are these things called Dragon Dance Competitions, where a nine-segmented dragon puppet is manipulated by a team of dancers and musicians to have the dragon chase a pearl- a symbol of wisdom- across the allocated space. These are very interesting to watch, and I highly recommend giving one a watch, since there are plenty of them to see on YouTube. Do take care if you are photosensitive or sound sensitive, as they are bright and loud.

A tradition for these competitions and others (such as lion dances and dragon boat races) is called an “eye dotting ceremony”, which happens at the beginning of the competition. An authorized party comes by to paint the pupils on a dragon to symbolically awaken or- relevant to this post- empower it.

The Celestial Dragon’s Claw is a symbol nobility, and likely has high amounts of regulation on how it can and cannot be used, with infractions on those regulations met with imprisonment at best, and cipher pol or a buster call at worst. It would be highly guarded, and was used to brand people to mark them as property, as we know.

The dragon depicted in the introduction to the Dragon Claw Fist that Sabo utilizes? Three claws, no pupils. It is an unempowered civilian dragon- a weakling by dragon standards- and it is beating the shit out of a World Government official.

Class warfare symbolism. Revolutionary symbolism.

thinking about imu as the antithesis of luffy and what he wants to be. imu might be the most powerful person in the world, and yet they must have very little freedom. they could control most of the world, but only from the shadows. their very power is dependent on the world thinking they—the sole ruler of the entire world—don't exist. and to keep something so big a secret must come with a lot of restrictions on what they can and can't do. what imu has is exactly what luffy doesn't want: power at the cost of freedom.