#mori is awful

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

Absolutely obsessed with Mori's ability to always make himself out to be the lesser evil. Like his power and influence is entirely derived from him being in an objective position where he can say "sure I'm bad, but I'm not as bad as that guy".

He repeatedly teams up with Fukuzawa in their backstory because he might be awful but "at least they both want to protect the city". He kills the old boss but assures the mafia's loyalty over time because "at least he's being rational and not indiscriminately murdering out of paranoia". He's the leader of the most dangerous criminal group in Yokohama but "at least he's doing this under Natsume's direction". "At least he's not Mimic". "At least he's not The Guild". "At least he's not The Hunting Dogs".

It puts a lot of people in this very awkward position because the truth is that he's not just saying he's the better option, he's framed and manipulated the situation in such a way that he genuinely is. And this approach is largely successful.

He gets the ADA's cooperation in the Guild arc

He earns Kouyou's loyalty by being a better boss than the old boss

He earns Chuuya's loyalty by being a better leader with advice to give (also by having the mafia be Chuuya's only home at this point, but that's not related to this post)

He gets the ability user permit by literally just not being Mimic and promising to deal with the situation

Most of the people in the mafia are loyal because as tough as it is at least they're not back on the streets or in the slums or wherever they came from originally

Puts Fukuzawa into this terrible, no-good situation where the mafia is quite literally the ADA's best choice for getting away from the hunting dogs - and he gets to demand what he wants in return

He almost always gets what he wants in return. It doesn't matter if people see though it because he's made himself the best option in an awful scenario. There's been a few times where this has backfired: he lost Dazai in the Mimic incident because he, once again, assumed Dazai thought exactly like him (he doesn't), and in Yosano's backstory, where framing himself as the lesser evil to the enemy wasn't enough because he was the only one in direct contact with her. For the most part, however, this seems to work out for him and it allows him to seize power, gain favours, inspire loyalty and just generally be a really canny leader.

It's absolutely awful. It's absolutely brilliant. In fact, I think it's got a similar premise to that one sales tactic (can't remember the name) where you suggest a stupidly high price and then barter it down to a "better deal" but the better deal was actually just the original price of the thing you were trying to sell and you intended to sell it at that price from the beginning. That's what this feels like, except he barters situations.

How do you do it murder man? Tell me how you keep doing this.

[taintedmind6669]

[myths-tournaments]

Awful Characters Round 1 Part 2 (2/8)

Propaganda under the cut!

MORI OGAI

Yes, he's a horrible person but gd is it cool to see him get serious. I'm excited every time he shows up. Traumatised like The important character in the series and also multiple others. I still like him. He is canonically a pedophile so… understandable why people hate him but also he's fictional and a great character. And yeah, every time he gets brought up people will in fact get called bad for liking him.

BENNY

The first thing that happens in new vegas is that benny fucking shoots your character in the face, steals your shit and leaves you in an open grave. Benny is by all accounts a bastard. He kills you, steals from you, he killed his last boss, he is the single most duplicitous man around. His gang are all about honesty- except him. He's a lying, cheating bastard. The guys who helped him catch you? He skipped on paying them and left them to get shot to death. His new boss, mr.house? He stole his robot, broke it open, got someone to reprogram it and decided to use it to TAKE OVER THE WHOLE OF VEGAS. Benny literally kills people, lies to people, steals their shit and takes charge. That's all benny does. He gets fucking CRUCIFIED if you don't help him out just because so many people fucking hate him. And yet. And yet. Benny is the single most compelling character in the whole game to me. He's just a little guy! He's just there! You can get shot in the head and come back and he goes "what in the goddamn" and then if you try and flirt with him he's like "uhhh sure? Okay?" And leaves you a polite note in the morning. He's fancy. He wears a stupid suit. He has a tiny gun with shitty bullets. He's catholic. He talks like an old timey news presenter. Literally nobody else in the entire game does that. He's got an intelligence of 3. He's my funtime boy. My silly little man. He's so funny. The antagonist in this game is a guy dressed like a tablecloth who looks at all times like a confused dog who doesn't understand what a tv is. And like. He's compelling. He robs from you, shoots you, but…. he never seems to actually wish you harm. He kills and robs and lies but like. He apologises for doing it to you. When he sees you again he doesn't attack you, he's just… confused. He tries to defuse the situation. You can convince him to talk to you, alone, with no guards and it's not that hard. If you spare his life, he doesn't go after you, like. Even if you sleep with him he doesn't take advantage of that and kill you, even if you try to. He… he just leaves. He gives you an apology. If he gets kidnapped by Caesar He just… apologizes again. He tells you his whole plan to take over the city, too. He thinks he'll die, and he wants something of him to survive. He's happy that you made it. And if you let him free, he just… leaves. He knows he's beat, he doesn't want to cause any more trouble. He walks out and leaves. The NCR will kill you if you cross them. The legion will crucify you. House? He'll blow you the fuck up. But benny, the guy who lies and cheats and schemes, he's honest. He's polite. He's… harmless. You can kill him with a single shot if you want. And he can't kill you. He doesn't kill you the first time, and he'll never really hurt you again. Benny just wanted to win. When he knows he's beat he just leaves. No lingering, no harm, he's off, off into the desert heat, and never seen again. Isn't that just insane? like have you ever known an antagonist so polite? He just leaves!! He offers you a drink!! His plan is genuinely probably the best one for the people of new vegas!!! He's. Benny is Benny.

Anyway if you want to see some REAL propaganda go to the blog @letmebegaytodd and look in the #benny tag. You'll Understand < https://www.tumblr.com/letmebegaytodd/717051175751614464/in-another-life-i-wouldve-really-liked-just> <- look at this shit man

pollrunner's note: yet again another case of ''it's all supposed to be one quote block, but tumblr hates me''

[tricitymonsters]

Consider this image: mori x emo mc

@b00k3t was struck with a vision (og meme here)

[aroacesigma]

15 dazai wondering if its normal to really want to be a boy and chuuya (equally transgender) going yeah yeah everyone wants that right (his only frame of reference is shirase . also trans) . both of them remain oblivious until kouyou's like so help me god im going to crack these eggs with a hammer . this is canon to me btw

[unanottexxx]

once, someone (he doesn't even remember who), between their unnecessarily praising speech to mori, mentioned how much his bandaged executive and him are similar. dazai was zoned out the whole speech so this small, unconsidered statement felt like a punch in the gut and suddenly he became extremely nauseous. they went on with their nonsense, mori listened with a polite smile on his face and all dazai could focus on was suppressing his urge to puke right into the speakers mouth, all over this huge room of mori's and finally on mori himself. he visualized in his head how his vomit will choke the speaker and how it'll pour from mori's hair. the smell would be awful.

later on, he stared at his distorted reflection on a puddle. a breeze lifted his coat, he smiled slightly and a few seconds later he was bent over to empty his whole stomach. he never had to vocalize it because he already knew. but how come others realize it too? he felt himself full of something sticky and poisonous, melting everything inside him and re-shaping them. he swears if he were to scratch and scrape his skin until it bleeds he'll find him there. was it always that obvious? at some nights he dreams himself on top of mori's dead body; his neck sliced open with a lancet. but deep down he knows there won't be any difference. it's too late, mori could die, disappear even; he has already injected all his venom into dazai's veins.

and dazai could see himself taking the syringe from mori's hands, just to poison another soul, just to melt them completely and destroy what they had of a person once. he knew all of these.

but still, he never got used to hear them from others.

[dazais-guardian-angel]

kinda wild to me that one of the most compelling aspects of both Chuuya and Kunikida's characters to me, that I never really see talked about, is how they're heavily set on a doomed crash course towards complete and utter destruction, and how I am so, so worried for them both.....

[spooky-something]

These playlists are gonna make me cry, I can't, they're so bad...

Don't you dare try to gaslight me, Victor would NOT listen to Will Wood, leave him out out this...

Like, for actual characterization, this one had it, a lot of these songs are actually on our own Frankenstein playlist...

Heavy on HAD...

[monti-moth]

The gold caught the ember-light and shone the colour of a human voice.

Missed Mori's birthday by almost a month but when have I ever been punctual. Lineart under the cut!

[bkyngw]

i genuinely dont think i'll have the time and energy to do art fight this year (july is my busiest month 😭) but take this anyway

my profile

[sugarcarnation]

yeah kousano angst about kouyou working for mori is neat but have you considered kousano angst about yosano having escaped her abuser and the mafia something which kouyou was never able to achieve??

[lordrandreaming]

Colored sketch of Kagero's face, just so I can get comfortable with drawing him with and without the mask :3

[frost-eyed-autumn]

{--Tbh people who try to make Mori look worse than he is for their SKK angst are the worst actually not to mention missing out.

"Oh Mori is definitely abusing Dazai and Chuuya and like what if they just killed Mori and then they could be free from him--" Shut up. There is literally not a single piece of content anywhere that suggests Mori and Chuuya don't have a great working relationship.

"Oh but Chuuya doesn't get a choice, Mori is his Boss--" literally what is stopping Chuuya from just using his big bad Gravity powers from blowing Mori up if he actually wanted to? What was stopping Chuuya from killing him or letting him die during the Cannibalism arc? We all remember Chuuya's first response to Mori's life being compromised by Fyodor was to rally the entire organization to wage war on the Agency to save Mori's life right?

Kouyou didn't even want to attack the Agency and Chuuya went "Fuck that, we're going and I'm leading the charge" because he values Mori's life. Idk what version of BSD some of you people read/watched but it wasn't the same one that I did.--}

[tricitymonsters]

I’m a huge cat person. I want every cat I meet to be my best friend. Currently I’m imagining seeing Mori in his kitty cat form just outside, not knowing it’s him, then petting him and going “oh my god you’re so cute I love you so much forever” (which is how I react to every cat) then perhaps taking him inside thinking he’s a stray (I’m willing to bet he’d look scrungly), going to the pet store to get food and whatnot, then returning home to find a random hot guy in my apartment. And he ABSOLUTELY would bring up me saying I love him. Anyway yeah. Cat person.

This bastard can, has, and will continue to use his cat form to charm people for both intensive love bombing and snacks. I joked once that he'd transform back into a human and be like LOOK YOUR LOVE AND CARE HAS TURNED ME INTO A BEAUTIFUL MAN.

[nilesmoon]

Incredible how mori has not changed At All. like my man straight up didn't learn a single lesson!!!! after fukuzawa took yosano he decided to manipulate yet Another Child to take over the mafia

[ooogai]

Thank you. That was quite useful. Also, there are no bombs. I don’t have the budget. Sorry for dissapointing.

you’re welcome.