#-gets the smallest crumbs possible- I LOVE WINNING

[cyberphos]

[voidix]

So my dear friend @kittytudor and I were discussing some takes the fandom has on Dazai and especially his interactions with Mori and I thought I’d share

I really hate the train of thought that goes like “they’re super smart so they know life has no meaning and nothing matters” like that’s cynical for no reason whatsoever and just nihilistic

Yea when you are intelligent you see all the bad in the world and feel like you’re powerless to stop it a lot of times but the things is

You know scientists see beauty in everything geologist will get excited about literal dirt a marine biologist about a gold fish. When you’re intelligent you see all the bad but also all the good

However it’s easier to see the bad and often times it clouds your view but part of the healing process is starting to see beauty and happiness in the smallest things and I think that’s a journey Dazai is slowly going on.

So I really don’t think intelligence is the issue here and I’m gonna assume you’re an edgy bastard if you say so

I feel like Dazai’s issue is more the environment than anything and the lack of meaningful relationships. I know we clown the scene where he says actually living is okay now 1 day after meeting Chuuya but here is the thing. This might have been the first time he had someone his age who wanted to hang out with him or even less just someone his age who tolerated him. I personally know nothing about his life pre mafia but you can assume it wasn’t a good life if at age 14 you decide the bloody mafia is preferable to wherever you’re at at the moment

In my opinion Mori didn’t encourage it per se but he didn’t try to stop it either I really think that for him he did not expect Dazai would go through with it (again) and /or as cruel as it sounds if he actually did it which Mori didn’t think was likely he had one less rival to worry about but I really think that’s Mori’s reasoning for staying “neutral” for lack of a better word on this issue

That being said I’m sure being surrounded by death and suffering did not do any good for an already depressed 14/15yo

Which leads me to the second point. I really don’t think Mori expected Dazai to leave or tried to make him leave. For Mori Dazai was a powerful asset because of his ability and because of his intelligence that y’all are obsessed with. So why would you want to push that person away and it’s not like he was encouraging him to suicide here which would make much more sense than wanting him to leave.

And I have evidence

I’m gonna start it with: Oda did not die to set an example I don’t think so no. In his conversation with Chuuya he said something like “being a leader means making sacrifices for the well being of the group” or something like that and that’s what he did here.

He sacrifices Oda to get the permit.

The strange thing is I do think Mori meant what he said to Chuuya that he is a leader but also a servant to the mafia he wants the mafia to gain more power and that’s why he did what he did to get the permit.

I do think it could be a lesson to Dazai but not in the “if you cross me this is gonna happen to you” because Oda didn’t cross him Oda didn’t want power he is the last person who was interested in that. I think if anything it was more a lesson as in “when you take over this is something you’ll have to do and I’m showing you how it’s done”

Evidence for that is he was chuckling when he mentioned that possibility that Dazai would kill him and take one someday. And I agree that Mori

Wouldn’t mind if that was better for the Mafia. Like he wouldn’t make it easy for him and he wouldn’t give up but if he is defeated he wouldn’t be angry or annoyed because like I mentioned above I do think he was genuine when he said he is also a servant to the Mafia

My other piece of evidence is that when he showed Dazai the permit he seemed proud of what he’s done. The way he presented it and the entire scenario he seemed proud more than smug. If he really wanted Dazai out I feel like he would’ve been more smug about the whole thing and we know he can do that well.

And obviously there is also the fact he offered him not once but twice to come back. And what’s interesting is that the first time the offer was secret like he sent Gin and Higuchi and it was in a shady ass tunnel

Now the other time is where it gets interesting because it was very public in front of Dazai’s colleagues the black lizard and Fukuzawa.

Now Mori is a smart guy but also he has a sense of pride as we learned so I really don’t think he would risk being humiliated in front of Fukuzawa of all people just to mess with Dazai and he seemed genuinely surprised when Dazai said “you kicked me” and he didn’t offer him to just come back no he offered to be back as an executive and having Dazai decline and clown him in front of Fukuzawa like that I don’t think he would risk that if he was just playing

The thing is Mori is smart but he has tunnel vision in my opinion. He was so focused on getting the permit he forgot that this plan has consequences that aren’t just “we get the permit”

And also one of Mori’s issues is that he never takes into consideration people’s emotions. You can predict human Behavior to a certain degree a lot of times you can know what to

Say or what to do to get a certain result but the thing is humans aren’t algorithms they don’t always operate on logic they have emotions. And these emotions can be so strong that they override any crumb of logic left which is something I think Mori fails to understand. That’s why he didn’t expect Dazai to leave he forgot about the emotional factor.

That’s what Mori lacks but Dazai has and my evidence for this is a scenario we laughed at because it was presented in a funny way but I think that’s something that shows that Dazai is better at this 4D chess game than Mori.

On the Moby Dick he knew that Akutagawa would abandon everything to talk to him. If Dazai only operates by thinking about logical Behavior he wouldn’t have told Atsushi to do this but he realises that the emotional factor is one of the strongest drives humans have.

And you know I think Mori knows that when it comes to 4D chess Dazai would defeat him but he doesn’t mind that he isn’t scared of that. In dead Apple he couldn’t have possibly known the whole business with the pill but he told Chuuya to interfere. Mori has a strange sense of trust towards Dazai even now that they’re part of different sides.

I think Mori is has always been aware that although he says he does Dazai doesn’t actually want to die and I think the scene with the hyper and hypo tension medication in 15 shows this. If you actually want to die why would you Mix medicine with effects that cancel out each other and Mori is a doctor he knows this. That’s why I think he didn’t expect Dazai to commit and that he believes Dazai actually wants to live and because of that he will try and preserve himself and by extension Yokohama which is why he told Chuuya to go in dead apple, which is why he let Akutagawa go on the Moby Dick in season 2 because he realized Dazai wanted him to go there and he trusts Dazai to a certain degree .

I really feel like his underestimated the emotional factor and this will ultimately lead to his downfall. Like he didn’t expect Dazai to leave he wouldn’t expect anyone to react super emotional to god knows what he’ll do and thereby underestimate their response to that which will make him meet his end.

I don’t think the “you kicked me” is Dazai in denial he acted ok emotions or at least that’s not the whole thing. I think that Dazai’s reasoning for saying that is this:

Oda died so Mori can get more power which was part of Mori’s plan all along so looking at the bigger picture it was Mori’s plan and actions who drove me out of the Mafia so he basically “kicked me out”

Also I wanna add that I feel like Mori because he underestimates the emotional factor he doesn’t understand to this day why Dazai left like he knows it’s related to oda he can follow that train of events but in his mind it doesn’t make logical sense why Dazai would do that which is why he didn’t manage to win Dazai over back to The Mafia because in his mind be doesn’t know the logical reason why Dazai left which is also another reason why he was so surprised when Dazai said he kicked him

Also I’d like to add that I really don’t think he felt threatened or wanted to just get rid of him

Dazai was already suicidal so if it would very easy to make it look like that. And like I mentioned before if it was the best choice for the Mafia I really don’t think Mori would be that bothered about being replaced by Dazai.

I also don’t think he thought Dazai would be more useful on the outside because once again why lose a valuable addition like that

And it’s not like

He wanted to use him

As a spy or anything we know that would’ve been arranged differently see Ango

So Mori the logical guy he is wouldn’t want his enemies to have someone with Dazai’s ability because that’s a pain in the ass and also

He wouldn’t want an insider like Dazai to join his enemies and spill all his secrets. Dazai had a very high rank and like I said I don’t think Mori expected him to leave so he had no reason to hide things from

him so even without his ability he would be a very strong asset to the Mafias enemies so there is no way Mori would think he is more useful on the outside since

1. we already said mori has tunnel vision he couldn’t possibly predict that much that he thinks Dazai is better out

2. We established that he isn’t afraid of him

3. He wouldn’t want the ability and the information to fall into his enemies’ hands

4. If he was actually scared and wanted to get rid of him making it seem like suicide or actually driving him to suicide would be much easier especially since mori is a doctor

So yeah this is long thanks if you read until the end it was super fun to write this id love to know what others think I’m sorry if it’s a bit unorganised it’s copied from my notes app

[rksora]

  ⭑         ━━━━━━   AND﹡ROMA VLIVE  .  〖 소라 〗  ┊ 20.08.24                 DURATION  /    25:15

she’s handed the phone just as she makes herself comfortable in the backseat of the van. having mentioned it in passing to their manager before she and sunmi had their schedule at sbs power fm, she was happy to find her request accepted. and upon their return to the van, juhee relayed what she had in mind for her second v-live video. she knew some of the company’s pr team had mentioned it to her that she should have made it more of a habit of having v-lives, but suddenly being tossed into comeback practice had kind of derailed that plan.

so, she decides for a new video to play some of her favorite summer hits for fans -- albeit boring, juhee couldn’t really find any other way to spend with fans outside of reviewing her latest dramas she’d been binging on the side of their promotions and juhee wasn’t sure she was ready to cause fandom wars over dramas.

she can be seen fixing the phone in front of her in the car, her voice vying in and out as she laughs at something being said off-camera by their manager before she’s handed the snack that the studio had gifted them upon their departure from the studio. now that they’ve comeback juhee was getting more and more used to their radio appearances.

“hello everyone ~ did you just hear me and sun -- i mean darae unni on the radio? we were on sbs power fm! if you didn’t hear, maybe you can re-listen on their website!” her hand waves huge as she sets down her snacks in her lap and claps her hands to get rid of the crumbs that had stuck to her palms. “long time no see ~”

“i hope everyone has been well!”

“a-ah, i forgot to introduce myself. eh? everyone knows who i am?” she says, her eyes widening as she reads the comments. “eh, no way ~” she laughs, her nose crinkling before shaking her head. “i’ll introduce myself anyways for the new ones just joining us!” juhee remarks as she watches the viewer count rise.

“hello guys ~” her hand does and﹡roma’s signature greeting hand motion, fingers spread apart as she waves her hands, “twinkling and sparkling! hello ~ i’m and﹡roma’s new sky, as far as the eye can see, sora -- nice to meet everyone !”

“okay, now we’ve got that out of the way -- i’m here today to ..” she imitates a drum noise while fiddling her fingers along her lap. “dugu-dugu-dugu ~” 

“show off a few of my favorite songs from this summer. now that autumn is coming, i think it’s nice to look back at some of the songs that kept me company this summer!” 

“first! of course, i can’t not promote our newest song, high heels. if you haven’t listened to it yet -- here you go! did you see our music video? wasn’t it so cute? it was my first time practicing with heels -- i tried dancing with them before but i’m still kind of not used to it.”

she reads the comments before proceeding, “ah? any wishes for this comeback?” she hums as she thinks, “mm -- would wishing for a first win be too ambitious? i think everyone wants a first win but we’ve been working really hard for this comeback so i hope we can get a special reward such as a first win for all our efforts!”

her hand shows off her phone, the last of and﹡roma’s album drowned in the background so that juhee could play the songs from her phone. “now you’ve probably heard this song before -- luxe sunbaenim’s ‘ up & down ’ .” 

she grins proudly, “i’m not sure if many of you know this, but a few weeks ago and﹡roma did a cover of sunbae’s song and i had ashe sunbae’s lines and i was so nervous. it’s a concept we’ve never done before but i think we did it justice, though i’m nowhere near as good as ashe sunbae. i haven’t met her yet but i really hope to! she seems really cool!”

she had played a short snippet of up & down -- knowing for sure that everyone and their mothers had already heard of the song enough ( it was playing nonstop in almost every store possible since it’s release, it seemed ) -- before changing the song to a song by their brother group ( laughable considering juhee had yet to meet any of their members ), per_se.

“and next is per_se sunbaenim’s new song, ‘ o sole mio ’ , since it released it’s been stuck in my head for ages. even while we were preparing for ‘ high heels ’ i was playing it -- maybe i’ll do a cover of the choreography. it is really nice. i really like the move they do with their arms.” she reenacts the move while the song plays with a laugh. her eyes focus on the comments, letting the song play in the background. “i’m glad you guys enjoy the song too. it was a nice sound for the summer, right?”

“there’s also this american artist i’ve been listening to a lot these days, his name is giveon -- one of the new songs off his new album is my favorite. it’s called ‘ this ain’t love ’. please listen to him, his voice is really nice!”

“also samuel seo sunbae’s song ‘ soon ’ is so nice, when i go to yoga on my off days i always have this playing in the background.” she quickly changes the song after giveon’s finishes to sameul’s -- cutting out the song that had almost started in between. “it has this nice almost dance-like vibe but it’s also still nice for easy listening.”

as soon finishes, juhee pauses the next song so she can introduce it properly. “this one isn’t a new song but i just found it and i love it. i’ve never been in love before but this song kind of ... makes me wish i have.” her voice softens slightly as her gaze drops to her phone, it’s for a moment before she re-focuses her stare to the screen in front of her. she laughs at the comments that suddenly come flying. it has her sheepish at the sudden words of love coming from the fans. it’s all so new -- being told she’s loved, especially from people she hardly knew. “it’s called ‘ love ’ and from the lyrics i can understand it’s about a friend falling in love with their friend and wanting to stop pretending that their relationship is ‘ just friends ’ -- does anyone relate to it? ah, a lot of you? aw ~ i wish i could give you all hugs.”

“last but not least -- i also found this producer, called dept, and i really like his songs. they’re more rnb than pop but i think their sound makes for nice winding down music. i think it’s the best way to end the v-live, too. so let’s listen to this song well before we say goodbye ~”

her fingers press play, “it’s called ‘ summer again ’.”

juhee let’s the last song play in the background as she reads the comments, one of them catches her eye and she has a laugh -- “ah, you caught me. they’re not really upbeat or ‘summery’ -- my music taste is kind of moody, i think? at least that’s what my friends tell me.”

it’s the smallest part of juhee that she was willing to share with her fans -- even if most of the rest that she shares is unlike the real her. the smiles she shows, and the upbeat attitude she dons for shows is much unlike her actual persona but she keeps them on -- hoping that just an ounce of this smile could become real for her.

for juhee, she wished she was just the slightest bit more upbeat.

unfortunately, her music tastes failed to portray this wish.

“ah, we’re almost home so i guess this is the end for us guys ~” she waves, shooting finger hearts to the camera as she reaches out to stop the recording. “until next time!”

[isatisnn]

I agree 99% with you but specially in "and actually getting to spend time with the love interest". I think there was a lot to be done still with character development but surely they were more interesting before (I still can't forgive Beemoov by how Leiftan would claim he would want no more innocent hurt and then... 'I killed your friend but you would not understand! I did this for uuuuus") . Now in ANE their own personality feels as if someone passed a rubber over. The only one who saw his personality impaired the less was my LI and even with it, it was enough for so many Leiftan fans to quit (plus more reasons, some you spoke about, some others talked about it in other oportunities). We still would play in TO because we were here for them, for the LIs, for the romance part. Even the game itselfs claims to be a 'dating sim'. Hell!

And yes, I can't add more to what you already said, you listed 90% of my resentment against ANE. Huang Hua used to be an empathetic being, someone who would bring our character some warmness in a place where the human had to win a place, a place she didn't to choose to be in to begin, with so many drastic things going on... Now this Huang Hua would even ask the protagonist to make her feelings aside two or three times, if not more. She's maybe... Used to 'help' us to move page with Lance? But hell, again... I wanted a reason to forgive Lance, I wanted to move forward because of his struggles not because he changed but because I saw the journey to those changes. So many more situations lacking of, really, that much depth we could be naming for years. Beemoov wasn't prepared to do correctly, because they do priorize other projects.

Valkyon and Ezarel, both, received the smallest portion of the cake. As this new projects urges us to 'move from TO', their sacrifice or their leaving it's mentioned a few times, a few lines in the first episodes. Something big like Valkyon's demise should be meant for greater involvement in ANE storyline, but not even Huang Hua, the 'destiny worshipper' seemed to acknoledge it.

I don't think we can ever call that a 'background', they're tiny crumbs of background, just like they did with Leiftan past. Nevra didn't had that much exposed either. And this is what saddens me the most: Our boys deserved more. They deserved to have a past, their own fights and their healing path. They deserved real archs and that's something not TO and not ANE could accomplish. I hope Nevra at least has the opportunity to see a bit of that healing now that he knows his father passed away (tbh, I didn't replayed last episode as i'm used to, it bored me and avoided it. I read it from someone else's so its possible he did had more to say in his own route about it that what I saw by myself). But knowing how little Beemoov does for eldarya...

I'm having too much hope if I say they still have 5 episodes remaining to tell us what was Leiftan doing in episode 30 while Erika returns to the crystal and if it's related to the crystal spitting them out?