#Mori gets Yosano again → Fukuzawa and Mori fight‚ the ada saves Yosano‚ the Tripartite Framework ends → Mori joins the pm →

[kyouka-supremacy]

i haven't read the light novels, or i might have missed something in the timeline, but would yosano and kouyou know each other? (obviously not a prerequisite for shipping at all lol i just got curious) since yosano left the port mafia when she was so young

I mean, this is not the answer I was going for initially, but after thinking about it for a while, very technically speaking they must be aware of each other's existence on canon basis. It's implied Yosano healed Kouyou when she was taken hostage by the ada: it's logic that she would have never allowed the ada to capture her unless she couldn't fight, yet she was doing fine once she woke up, meaning someone must have healed her up in the meantime– and the ada only has one doctor lol. Additionally, at the end of the cannibalism arc all the major ada and pm members were brought together in the same place, so according to these panels we can say for sure the two existed together in the same place at some point

I haven't read the vast majority of the novels either, but for what I know I think I can fairly confidently affirm they never interacted in any of them. Though you know, in the end it depends on what you mean by “knowing each other”: are they are aware of each other existence, yes; did they ever interact or ever even talk, eh, as far as we know, no.

[sword-dad-fukuzawa]

Narrative Foils in BSD

AYO, WARNING FOR MANGA SPOILERS IN THE LAST FEW PARAGRAPHS. IF YOU HAVEN’T READ UP TO CHAPTER 66 OF THE MANGA, AND YOU DON’T WANT TO GET SPOILED, DO NOT CONTINUE AFTER THE WARNING/KEEP READING MARK.

It’s pretty obvious that there’s a lot of duos/opposites/ying-yang in Bungou. You’ve got Dazai and Chuuya, Akutagawa and Atsushi...even Mori and Fukuzawa. This is highlighted, visually, with the red and blue color scheme. No Longer Human and Beast Beneath the Moonlight are blue to the reds of For the Tainted Sorrow and Rashoumon. With Fukuzawa and Mori, it’s less obvious until you watch the flashback scene in the cannibalism arc and you see Mori drawn in red, with Fukuzawa outlined in blue.

For the most part, the actual narrative foils tend to mirror that of the soukoku pairings. A narrative foil, as defined by the lovely wikipedia, is “a character who contrasts with another character, usually the protagonist, to highlight qualities of the other character”. Trope Talk calls them the Lancer. 

With shin soukoku, it’s clear-cut. Aku and Atsushi’s diametrically opposed philosophies propel them both to question themselves and grow as people. But this is less clear when it comes to the original soukoku, and even less clear for Mori and Fukuzawa. I’d make the argument that Dazai’s lancer is Odasaku, not Chuuya. My reasoning is as follows:

When talking to Akutagawa, Dazai says that while Oda’s a righteous person, he is “a man hated by righteousness”. And during his first fight with Gide, Oda says that “I’m not interested in fighting. I’m interested in living.” This is a direct counterpoint to Dazai’s own life philosophy. And Oda is the mafioso who doesn’t kill, again, unlike Dazai. Honestly, the scene that really sold it for me was when Oda took four bullets to the chest to save Akutagawa. This is a few scenes after Dazai shoots Aku a few times.

Oda’s character is much more integral to Dazai’s personal arc than Chuuya’s, really. To add a layer of more confusing tomfuckery, I’d also argue that Dazai is still Chuuya’s lancer. His calm, ruthless demeanor serves to highlight Chuuya’s own humanity. Chuuya is angry and passionate for himself and those he’s loyal to, so Dazai’s self-serving nature and general apathy serve as contrast.

MANGA SPOILERS AHEAD, PROCEED WITH CAUTION

To understand why Fuku and Mori are each other’s lancers, much like shin soukoku, I’m going to reference a manga scene. When they’re fighting over Yosano’s custody like the divorced couple they absolutely are, Fukuzawa is furious with Mori. It’s inhumane to take Yosano back into the hell of the battlefield, he argues. But Mori wants to use her “undead regiment” to overthrow the current PM boss, and use her ability to build the tripartite tactic upon. Mori doesn’t see Yosano--he sees Thou Shalt Not Die. Fukuzawa is the opposite. 

The difference between Mori and Fukuzawa, in the end, is that Mori is a creature of ruthless, emotionless logic. Fukuzawa is not. This sets them apart as the leader of the PM and the leader of the ADA, as well as their difference in values, and makes them each other’s narrative foil.