replacement suggestion for people who want the drama of Arahabaki being a voice in Chuuya's head that yearns for destruction and stuff (since canonically it has no thoughts or will of its own and is just raw power):
Picture our Nakahara "I do everything for my friends" Chuuya, Nakahara "with great power comes great responsibility" Chuuya, Nakahara "if I compartimentalize my trauma it can't hurt me" Chuuya.
Picture our guy so raw from using Corruption, or maybe not dealing as well as he thinks with his trauma, or maybe just really tired, or any moment of weakness where you'd want the Arahabaki whispers to kick in.
In those moments of weakness, the Bad Feelings get a hold of him: self-doubt, despair, anger, loneliness. It's so unusual for him to dwell on those things it might as well sound like someone else is feeding him those thoughts. Maybe it adds another layer of frustration. Maybe it does make him want to blow everything up, just to let off some of those feelings.
And maybe in that already bad state of mind, intrusive thoughts enter the field. Things he doesn't really want and things he would never do. Things that make him uncomfortable, things that scare him. He would be able to bring down the Port Mafia. He could kill all those random civilians. He could run away. He already has black holes at the tip of his fingers, he could just destroy everything and leave nothing behind.
And between the very real (but enhanced, put at the forefront) bad feelings and the persistant intrusive thoughts, things might get jumbled in his head. If missing departed friends is real, maybe wanting to get rid of those left is, too. If he's angry at how unfair things have been for him and his loved ones, blowing everything up might be a legitimate reaction. Maybe it really is what he wants? Perhaps that little voice, no matter how scary, is right?
In short: replace "Arahabaki" with "Chuuya's subconscious", for better and for worse. Not to quote Dazai, but: let Chuuya suffer as a human being. Let his struggles be tragically mundane and common.
(and for comfort there's nothing like bringing other people in for a reality check and ground him again)
Where do you think skk currently stand with each other now? Reading the lns and then rereading the manga, I was honestly surprised with how openly Chuuya showed concern for Dazai whenever he got hurt during the Lovecraft fight. It feels like their dynamic has shifted from when they were kids, but it's hard to pinpoint what exactly.
Ohhh boy thanks for the ask, anon!
I think right now they stand in a place where their dynamic from when Dazai left the mafia shines through, despite Dazai's "betrayal". That being said, we don't really know what that dynamic was. Dark Era has 0 Chuuya in it, and I don't think that's unintentional on Asagiri's part. I think he wants us to wonder a little bit more before he tells that part of their story. He literally said as much in the Stormbringer afterword, after all. My guess is that they've gotten to the point where they both understood they didn't actually hate each other, quite the opposite, in fact. Still too young and stubborn to actually talk about it, but I do think they consciously considered each other friends and partners in more than just the teamup Mori thrust them into. We see Dazai hides less and less of his affection toward Chuuya when no one who's opinion he cares about is looking. And in the Dead Apple manga adaptation we get to see a little more of Dazai and Chuuya. Dazai only gets off his ass when Chuuya calls him out on it. And Dazai trusts Chuuya to figure out his plan and come rescue him. Hell he lets Chuuya pass out on his lap afterward, a clear parallel to the ending of Dead Apple. That particular moment shows us that this kind of thing happened quite often, a natural progression to them using Corruption as a tactic and the ending we saw in Stormbringer, when Dazai caught Chuuya and let his true affection shine through in the moment when Chuuya couldn't hear him. Again, we know nothing of 17 and 18 year old soukoku, but if we follow that progression to its conclusion, then Dazai and Chuuya started to trust each other more, become closer as partners and friends, be less afraid of showing it to one another.
And then Dazai left, and Chuuya was fucking devastated.
Here's the boy who not only dragged Chuuya into the mafia, but who became the first person to treat him as a human being, not a tool that could be used and discarded when need be. The Sheep didn't do that. Rimbaud never did that. Mori was frank when he said he saw all his subordinates, including himself, as tools. But Dazai was the one who said that Chuuya could do what he wanted with his power. It was Dazai who made sure to never force Chuuya to use Corruption when he could, to give him a choice, from the very beginning. That's why Chuuya trusted him. And then Dazai, who joined the mafia alongside him partly because he wanted to live long enough to have Chuuya by his side, left him and the entirety of the Mafia. It's only inevitable that Chuuya saw it as a betrayal.
There's a whole analysis of 18 to 22 year old Chuuya I could do, what he was like after Dazai's betrayal, how he became the person he is now, but that would take. So long. Maybe later.
Anyway then Dazai shows up in the Port Mafia's basement and is like "hey whatsup don't get me wrong I still don't like you also remember how we used to be partners?" And Chuuya is clearly hiding A Lot of Feelings but he plays along and lets Dazai go, along with the information Dazai needed.
I think Dazai and Chuuya see their relationship quite differently. Because Dazai never saw his leaving the Mafia as him leaving Chuuya. Hell, look how he talks to Akutagawa vs Chuuya. He literally tells Akutagawa that Atsushi is his replacement. He never does that with Chuuya, hell, he keeps reminding Chuuya of their partnership. Literally tells him that Dazai's second reason was that he wanted to see Chuuya again. That it was a "reunion long in the making". I have a feeling Dazai also got caught cause he wanted to see what Chuuya would do. And Chuuya lets him go! With information! They bicker and bully each other like old times, it's better than he could have hoped!
Anyway. To Dazai, Chuuya is still the same old Chuuya as the one he left behind when they were 18.
As we said before, Chuuya sees it differently. He's clearly still bitter about it, saying that Dazai "made a fool of everyone, be it friend or foe". Like, he's clearly talking about Dazai leaving here. Chuuya's clearly hurt because he trusted someone, and again, that trust was met with a betrayal. He doesn't know what to make of this "new Dazai", doesn't trust him, because he sees Dazai be merciful and kind and that's not what he remembered Dazai to be like. And if Dazai was secretly a good, kind person the whole time, why would he leave Chuuya like that? Did that mean Chuuya just wasn't worth that kindness? So their interactions so far have been about Dazai testing and building back up that trust and partnership they had beforehand. Showing up in that basement to tease him. Letting Chuuya choose to use Corruption. Getting himself "killed" by Shibusawa, putting his own trust forward that Chuuya would come for him.
Also, they're not teenagers anymore! They're adults! Which means they can process their feelings in a more mature way! So Dazai is way more overt with his fondness for Chuuya, he's got the guts to call him "buddy" to himself. He seems to understand his own feelings for Chuuya a little more. His little conversation with Akutagawa before Shin Soukoku's fight with Fukuchi? You can't tell me that's not Dazai understanding his loyalty to Chuuya and seeing that same partnership in Atsushi and Akutagawa.
"You'll save him. You know the reason yourself, don't you?" Like bitch kill me now just
AND THEN AKU FUCKING DIES JUST SO ATSUSHI CAN ESCAPE I CAN'T.
If Dazai is modeling Shin Soukoku off of his partnership with Chuuya, then you know exactly how he feels about it. It means a whole heck of a lot to him.
And now we have an arc where Dazai's one true enemy is using Chuuya like a glorified pet bodyguard. I keep thinking of that line he said to Aku and, like, I'm 99% sure Dazai would die for Chuuya if he had to? (wow Dazai please don't die).
Meanwhile Chuuya's feelings a little less clear but I'm getting a "I want to trust Dazai even though I know I shouldn't cause he left me behind before what makes me think he won't do it again?" Please, Asagiri, I need to see this boy's crisis when Dazai left. I need it.
Note that all of this is mostly just speculation I infodumped in this ask, but if we're talking canonically, their relationship seems to be heading into a moment when they both need to deside how important they are to each other, admit it to each other, epecially with Dazai finally admitting that he cares a heck of a lot for Chuuya. In terms of shipping, their maturity makes them understand their own feelings for each other more. Dazai is no longer so intimidated by his giant obsession crush, and Chuuya can understand why he needs Dazai in his life, even after all the betrayal and the hurt. This is just a fun little thing, but the current jailbreak arc kind of reminds me of that moment where Adora needed to fight Catra to bring her back home:
Okay okay I'll stop typing now.
I am learning tumblr etiquette. Didn't know anyone here had manners. Knew there were rules. But manners? Hm...
Complete crackhead theory but you know how the moon in bsd looks absolutely massive, which suggests that the moon in bsd verse is actually much closer to earth than in our own world. There's a theory that the earth's magnetic field is influenced and maintained by tidal effects from the moon, so a closer moon would arguably have an even greater effect on earth's magnetic field, making it much stronger. There's also the theory that the Cambrian explosion - when life evolved from single-celled water-dwelling organisms to more complex multicellular life - may have been enabled by the solidification of the earth's iron core, which would have led to a much stronger magnetic field. The stronger magnetic field would thus have reduced the amount of ionizing radiation at the surface, allowing life to evolve significantly. Due to conservation of angular momentum, a shorter earth-moon distance would also increase the earth's rotation period, resulting in shorter days, which would in turn have led to biological effects such as an altered circadian rhythm, thereby influencing evolution itself. In this essay, i will present the hypothesis of how the existence of abilities in bsd may originate from the increased magnetic field strength and faster rotational speed of the earth as a result of the moon being located at a significantly short distance from the earth
PUPARIA (ピューパリア) — 2020 | dir. Shingo Tamagawa
I think we should start a collaborative collection of minor bsd lore/character facts that people forget/don't know about because they're manga or light novels-exclusive because there's so many of them
Like Dazai making extremely good tofu while trying to make a saying literal by hurting his head on tofu and being mad about it in Dark Era
You know this one line in Stormbringer where Dazai is said not to breathe while watching Chuuya use Corruption? Yes.
[inspired by a still from Studio Heartbreak’s short film The Lovers]
The helicopter shot at us. My three children and I barely escaped. We saw many injured people in front of us.