How Else Do You Think He Looks This Good Every Morning

BUNGOU STRAY DOGS, CHAPTER 127 THOUGHTS

There are some incredibly interesting parallels in the Akutagawa vs. Atsushi fight, and the standoff between Dosteovsky and Sigma going on this chapter. Especially in regards to how three of them are related to Dazai. Let's look at the parallels and the potential future for these characters under the cut

1. Dazai-san, Dazai-san, Dazai-san!

One of the most interesting parallels in this chapter is the relationship to Dazai that all three of these characters have. Akutagawa who Dazai recruited to the mafia, Atsushi who he recruited to the Detective Agency, and now Sigma who he chose as his item to escape from the prison and it looks like if they get out alive together he will invite to join the agency.

More specifically though, I want to analyze it in terms of Dostoevsky's statement to Sigma. That Dazai preyed upon Sigma's desire for a home, and then waved becoming a member of the detective agency over his head in order to get Sigma to do what he wants.

While it seems to be a pretty transparent ploy on Dostoevsky's part in order to get Sigma to question his alliance with Dazai, after all Sigma has him at gunpoint and apparently cornered. He would say or do anything to get out of the situation, and it's not like Dostoevsky is against manipulating people.

At the same time, I think it's Dos's statement is more along the lines of a half-lie, and half-truth. Dazai is, after all, not someone who goes around adopting orphans out of the goodness of his heart. He's not also someone who's so selfish that he only views people as tools for a larger objective. Dazai's character lies in the nuance between those two extremes.

Which is why I want to say there is a half-truth to Dos's statement. Dazai himself even confirmed this earlier, he had two reasons for recruiting Sigma, the first is that his ability will be useful, and the second is that he knew Do would kill him if he didn't choose Sigma.

The nuance lies there, you can both genuinely want to save or even care about someone, and you can also go so far as manipulate them. In general, my interpretation is that Dazai tries to manipulate people into doing what he thinks is best for them. After all, Sigma needs a place to stay, and the detective agency would be a home and a happy ending for him.

However, dirty methods for a good result doesn't always get the result you intended. Before returning to Sigma I want to briefly talk about the Atsushi and Sigma parallels. Atsushi is clearly set up as a foil to Sigma, Atsushi even goes out of his way and is especially compelled to try to save Sigma while he's falling.

Atsushi at first only saves Sigma because of the page, but then he starts to empathize with him after hearing the utter bleakness of his dying words. At which point he is personally trying to save him, causing Sigma to call him kind. Atsushi obviously also relates to those words, because he's so desperate to have a greater purpose in the world, to be an extraordinary hero rather than a nameless orphan.

Atsushi, Akutagawa, and Sigma are all orphans who have essentially had Dazai sweep into their lives and recruit them into an organization, giving them a home when they previously didn't have one. The detective agency is also, a much healthier environment for Atsushi obviously, because he's in a better place than say Akutagawa who was left behind in the mafia and spent a lot of the beginning of BSD bitter and spiraling because of that.

However, there's a pretty serious downside to the way Dazai recruited both Atsushi and Akutagawa. Akutagawa's strained relationship with Dazai is pretty obvious, so rather than dwell on that let's talk about Atsushi for a second.

Atusshi's extreme indecisiveness has been highlighted this arc over and over again. An Atsushi removed from the detective agency, and more particularly Dazai is constantly struggling to make decisions for himself. I don't believe in this case though, that Atsushi's upbringing in the orphanage is entirely to blame for this.

There are two reasons I would lay the blame for Atsushi's total indecisiveness at Dazai's feet more than anyone else.

First is, Dazai's habit is to manipulate people for their own good, but also to take away decisions from them. Second is when Dazai helps people, it's always with the unwritten implication that they now owe him for his help. Even if he doesn't directly say it, Atsushi obviously believes that he has to EARN his place in the detective agency.

This is Dazai. He nudges them in the direction that he thinks is best for them. Sometimes this takes the form of everyone just following Dazai's plan, because he's the machiavellian scheme r of the group, just Atsushi going where Dazai wants him to go, and fighting who Dazai wants him to fight. Or, like the scenes where Dazai deliberately staged a test to let Kyouka join the agency that would also make her overcome her death wish.

Sometimes, this takes the form of Dazai pitting Atsushi and Akutagawa against each other, two people who might have gotten along a lot earlier and sympathized with each other, if Dazai hadn't made them fight each other because HE THOUGHT that was the best way to make their individual abilities stronger.

Like, yes Akutagawa was in the mafia and murder is a big no-no for Atsushi, but Atsushi was able to sympathize with a murderer like Kyouka from very early on despite being aware of all her crimes. There wasn't really any reason for Atsushi and AKutagawa to fight, until Dazai made one.

However, this isn't to question the morality of Dazai's actions in making people's choices for them, but rather to point out the results. There's a reason that every. single. time. Atsushi cannot make a decision for himself he pictures Dazai suddenly showing up and telling him the answer.

By positioning himself as Atsushi's savior, and even giving Atsushi a home, Dazai's basically put himself in a position where number one Atsushi believes in a pretty idealized version of Dazai, and number Atsushi thinks he OWES Dazai. These things make Atsushi pretty obedient to Dazai in general. There's a reason that in Beast which is the darkest timeline for Atsushi, Atsushi is so paralyzingly afraid of making his own decisions he has a mental breakdown unless Dazai gives him orders to follow. He literally wears a collar that Dazai gave him.

Now, for Atsushi in the main story, aren't we witnessing him go through something similiar? Sure, he's not massacring people and breaking down in tears like White Reaper Atsushi, but every time someone throws up a roadblock on his path he literally begs Dazai to show up, and when he doesn't he imagines Dazai magically telling him what to do.

All of these subtle manipulations have made Atsushi pretty obedient to Dazai, and also, doubtful of his stability in the detective agency and left with the idea he has to earn his keep. Now in an arc where Atsushi is separted from the detective agency for a long time now, and also separated from Dazai and unable to follow his plans we are watching him continually choke underneath the pressure.

Which is where we get the results of Dazai's dirtier methods, Dazai isn't really raising Atsushi into a strong, independent adult, he's making Atsushi into a tool. I don't think his intentions are fully to use Atsushi as a tool, but rather his methods end up with that result.

There's a difference between the way Dazai takes in orphans, and the way Oda does. He says as much in Dark era.

"I have this friend who's supporting several orphans all on his own, you see," he continued his weapon still drawn and aimed at the boy. "Akutagawa, I'm sure Odadsaku would've been patient enough to give you the guideance you needed had he been the oe who found you on the brink of starvation in the slums. That would've been the "right" thing to do. But "righteousness" doesn't sit kindly to me. And there's only one thing that people like me do to useless subordinates."

Obviously, Dazai's undergone character development since then, but just compare the orphans Dazai takes in to the ones that Oda does. Oda's orphans don't have any special abilities or talents, they're just kids that he raises and supports with money. Atsushi, Akutagawa, and even Sigma all have an ability that benefits Dazai in some way.

In fact, in the AU where Oda does take Akutagawa in, despite having an incredibly overpowered ability, Akutagawa doesn't get to join the agency until he's undergone personal development and spent time with every single member to learn how to be a better person first.

Which is what Akutagawa needs, he's constantly stuck in survival mode and believes everything is a vicious battle for his life, much like Atsushi he's never been allowed to be a normal kid for a single second in his life. Beast allows Akutagawa to develop as a person rather than a Beast fighting to survive.

Dazai skips a pretty important step in their personal growth for all three of them, focusing more into shaping what he needs them to be for a greater mission.

Atsushi's still working to earn someone else's praise, Akutagawa's still ready to die for Dazai's sake because he believes that will give his life meaning, Sigma is still desperate to do anything that will give him a home. Mori, of all people in the Beast Epilogue, points out that this is the wrong way to raise a child, because you don't raise a child to be what YOU WANT THEM TO BE. You raise them so they can grow up and figure out what THEY WANT TO BE, and grow into their own person.

To give Dazai the benefit of the doubt, he's probably not doing this intentionally, but the result of it is that both Akutagawa and Atsushi are very, very compliant with his orders. After all, if they were like, free thinking adults they might disagree with him or tell him no.

Which is why while it is a good thing for Sigma to join the detective agency, and is probably the best ending for him, at the same time Dazai just dangling joining the detective agency out there to Sigma as bait to get him to do what he wants is not starting out on the right foot.

Because Dazai doesn't save people out of the goodness of his heart, he takes people in and then they owe him something back. Which is what Dos is trying to get at when undermining Sigma.

The detective agency is a much better place for Sigma, but if Sigma joins the detective agency because he think he owes Dazai, or the agency something for giving him a home, it's essentially a repeat of the way that Dos used him. Atsushi has the same desperation to continually prove himself to the agency, as Sigma once did to try to protect the casino.

2. SAVE ME!

Now to finally focus on the Sigma and Akutagawa parallels, both Akutagawa and Sigma are characters who are most likely going to finish their arcs by joining the detective agency. They are also both orphans who need to be saved.

A particularly strong parallel between the two of them is that they were both initially taken into a harmful organization, only because of their ability. Akutagawa is a starving child in the slums, but he so happened to be born with an insanely strong ability to turn his clothing into weapons which causes Dazai to fish him out of the slums and bring him into the mafia which is his current "home" so to speak. Though, a home where he has to earn his keep and is considered disposable if he's not useful.

Sigma was literally created by the book, and then found, and given a place to call home by Dostoevsky, implicitly because his ability was useful. He also once agan, put Sigma into a position where he had to earn his keep. He took advantage of the fact Sigma came from nothing and had no home, and was terrified of going back to having nothing to make him willing to risk his life and everything else to defend the sky casino.

They are both deceived into thinking they have been saved or taken in, when really they are still fighting for their own survival. It's what stunts their growth so much as people, if you're continually in survival mode, and completely insecure in your living situation and attachment to other people then how are you supposed to grow and develop as a person?

They are also essentially people who come from "nothing" though the nothing is poverty in Akutagawa's case, they're also people who were victimized by crimminal organizations, Sigma by human traffickers, and Atsushi by the port Mafia, until they were rescued by their not-so-benevolent "saviors."

They are also, both in a way resigned to their own deaths. Sigma accepts falling off of the casino to his death, and thanks Atsushi for simply TRYING to save him (please get higher standards Sigma). Akutagawa's accepted that he's going to die soon for his illness, so he's willing to put everythig on the line in a final gambit to pass Dazai's "TEST" and then make Dazai's promise that he will give meaning to Akutagawa's death.

Sigma: I never understood what I was born for.

Akutagawa: I want you to find a reason.. a meaning to my life."

They're also looking for someone else to give them the answer to themeaning of their life, and the person who promises that they feel indebted to. Sigma is of course, a little more aware than Dos is using him than Akutagawa is towards Dazai, but they both end up ultimately doing what Dos and Dazai wants them to do.

They've been taken in by someone, but they haven't been saved, which is why both of them are so easily resigned to their death. This is also where Atsushi comes in for both characters. Yes, it's Atsushi's bad habit to play hero. He saves people because he wants someone to protect, because protecting someone makes him feel like he's needed and worthy to live.

However, while Atsushi may have self-interested reasons for saving people that he doesn't seem fully aware of yet, I also believe he's more capable of relating to their personal feelings as a fellow victim than Dazai is. The moments when Atsushi truly saves someone is when he relates to them, when he exposes his own scarring and vulnerability to them in a way of saying "Hey, I'm suffering through this too that's why I want to help you."

That's why say, Atsushi's bond with Lucy just feels more natural and less codependent than his bond does with Kyouka. Atsushi didn't start with Lucy by thinking (Hey, if I protect her does that mean I'm a good boy and earn good boy points???) Also, Atsushi explicitly did not show up and save Lucy despite the fact he promised to. Because his moment of saving her wasn't showing up as a hero and rescuing her as a damsel, but relating to her feelings.

Atsushi also explicitly fails at saving Sigma. He goes the extra mile to try to save him, but Sigma falls anyway. Yet, Sigma remarks that Atsushi is kind because he empathized with the part of Sigma that believes he didn't mean anything to anyone in the world and was ultimately disposable. Which shows underneath this big hero persona that Atsushi puts on, he is genuinely someone who wants to help people who are lonely and scared just like he is.

So, Atsushi's approach to saving both Akutagwa and Sigma is different from Dazai's approach. I'm not going to say because Atsushi is more empathic and Dazai is low-empathy that Atsushi is a better person.

No, I think it's more like Atsushi tries to approach them as equals. At least, when he doesn't see them as a damsel in distress to earn good boy points, Atsushi is capable of exposing a part of himself to these people and showing them they're not alone in their suffering. Dazai is so distant to other people, he doesn't know how to relate to them on their level. Which is why he always takes control in the relationship.

Which is where we get to this chapter, Dazai isn't Akutagawa's savior. Atsushi is. This is the great narrative challenge that has been set up for Atsushi.

Atsushi and Sigma are both stuck in a situation where someone they don't udnerstand has just selflessly tried to save them for reasons they don't understand. (I won't dwell on this too long, but I think Dazai was genuinely willing to risk his life and put Sigma's life above his own, not just because Sigma's useful to the detective agency but because he's an innocent).

Atsushi doesn't understand why Akutagawa would selflessly sacrifice himself to save Atsushi. Partially, because Atsushi has been trained to see the bad in Akuatagawa rather than the good in him (hello there, Dazai).

However, on top of that I think geuniely Atsushi doesn't really understand that someone would go out of their way to save him without asking him something in return. It's not just the selfless action coming from Akutagawa that baffles him, but the selflessness of the action itself.

As for speculating for Akutagawa's reasons for saving Atsushi, I think it goes back to Atsushi's reasons for helping Lucy, there's something similiar about the wounds they've suffered in the past and Akutagawa sees that in Atsushi and relates to his pain. A lot of the attempts to connect have been on Akutagawa's part.

He comforted Atsushi the day that the orphanage headmaster died. When Atsushi challenges him not to kill people, Akutagawa genuinely keeps his end of the bargain. Akutagawa does attempt to take care of the people he sees himself in in his own way, he did it for Kyouka in a twisted way, and was genuinely happy for her when he saw she no longer wanted to die.

Atsushi tells Lucy that just letting innocent people in the street die as a part of the guild's plan, would be the same as letting the childhood versions of themselves die. It'd be repeating what was done to them. Atsushi, Akutagawa, Lucy they've all been wounded because the people in their lives who were supposed to take care of them didn't. Now, despite those wounds, all three also attempt to reach out and take care of others, because they know what being abandoned is like.

Akutagawa probably just saved Atsushi because he relates to him, coupled on top of the fact that Akutagawa knew he was going to die soon, so if one of them was going to live might as well be the one who has a life to live and a chance at happiness.

Akutagawa has also, due to the vampire's power in him, basically become a dark and twisted version of what Dazai intended him to be. Dazai scouted him for his ability, and then made his ability strong without really caring about who Akutagawa was or what his needs were as a person.

He also made Akutagawa into someone willing to die to earn his praise. Now we have Akutagawa as a literal undead zombie, that just violently attacks everything near him. He doesn't even bother to defend himself, just like Akutagawa has no regard for his own life. He just attacks, regenerates, and attacks, he's a living weapon of violence. He's a mindless zombie too, just like in his previous life he was pretty obedient to Dazai's orders.

Which is exactly the narrative challenge that is being set up here for Atsushi. Akutagawa saved Atsushi because he saw something of himself in him, but also because he believed he was going to die anyway and he was less worthy of salvation. Now it is time for Atsushi to return the favor to Akutagawa. Akutagawa won't save himself, and he won't get better with outside help, so he needs someone else to convince him that there's more to life than what he's currently seeing.

It's a narrative challenge especially because killing him would be the easier option here, Akutagawa is already dead technically, and a mindless zombie that will keep attacking everyone around him until someone puts a bullet in his brain, and then another one to double tap.

Yet, Atsushi isn't doing that. He doesn't even considering it an option. He jumps straight to trying to reason with Akutagawa even in mindless zombie mode. It's already been hinted last chapter that Akutagawa might still be in there because he didn't immediately go after Bram Stoker. Now, not only does Atsushi believe that he can reach Akuatagawa, he's actively trying to reach out for him.

Which really is just tremendous character growth on Atsushi's part. He's finally learning to see Akutagawa as a person and trying to reach that person. To do otherwise would be to abandon the child he used to be.

I love drawing my fixates >__<

The best genre of ship fanart is when they’re both women btw

Happy birthday to my oct babies

//healing scars

Happy birthday you silly goose nd also Juneteenth to my fellow AA’s <33

~ 6/19

THE WORST STALKER

After having a lover’s quarrel, Atsushi and Akutagawa are destined to reuinite, in a fight that will probably serve as the climactic battle of the arc, happening at the same time as Dazai and Sigma vs Chuuya and Dostoevsky. This fight will also confront Atsushi about his most major flaw, his demonization of Akutagawa refusing to see him as anything other than a murderer even when presented with more sympathetic traits, by now being faced with a vamped up, Akutagawa who cannot kill and is not anything other than death incarnate. 

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I can't even lie, I've been

Lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely

They say the loudest in the room is weak. That's what they assume, but I disagree, I say the loudest in the room is prolly the loneliest one in the room. /Lyr

I like to forget bsd is full of silly little orphan murders with trauma sometimes

“The desperation of an ordinary man”

Honestly speaking, Asagiri the author loves Sigma. I am truly happy as a writer to be able to create such an enemy character. I like him so much I ended up putting him in Mersault, which is not my original plan. That I feel a little sorry. Anyway. “If I become desperate, I wonder what I could do?” - is there anyone who has never once thought about that? No one. I’m sure we all have that thought. “Maybe if I put my mind into it, even someone with no talent like me could break through all the walls of this world.” Sigma is the one who took on this statement and faced a huge wall by himself. As a character on the enemy side on top of that.

<Bungou Stray Dogs Chapter 75 - Translation by akai-koutei>

If Sigma had been a protagonist on the side of justice, it would have been a beautiful story that ends with something like, “That’s right. Even an ordinary person can defeat a huge enemy.” However, since Sigma is an enemy character, it is possible to dwell on the question “What is the actual truth?” in the end. The brutal truth. I want you to see what lies at the end of the path he has shown us, and the outcome of his vow to “definitely win” here. And I want you to try and think about the “desperation” that will gush out of you one day and about how it will end.

<Asagiri Kafka’s comment on Sigma’s character in the BSD expo 2023>