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#like obviously it depends on the stereotype and who the person writing the character is but still

kouyou-arc-when · 2 months

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ON DAZAI AND EMPATHY: A character study Before you read: Obviously diagnosing any character in fiction seriously is a fool’s errand, but I am a fool, so let’s just do this for amusement. The main thing I desire is to discuss is the extent to which Dazai is capable of various types of empathy, as well as how that influences the way he sees and interacts with others. It will be chaotic and all over the place because I just sat down and wrote this in a fit. Let me explain some factors in analyzing Osamu: The author's intention is clearly to make Dazai's internal world a mystery. Since we don't have enough information, all we can do is hypothesize based on external elements. Generally, across all novels, the only time we’ve seen anything of Dazai’s perspective is in “The Day I picked up Dazai” (Beast continuity) – where he “saves” Oda and tortures that random dude. We don’t hear his thoughts narrated from first-person perspective, unlike many of the other novels.

Now, the crux of the issue. For years, it’s been discussed whether Dazai is a “sociopath”. If we disregard that sociopathy is a very loaded term that can mean a lot of things depending on which specialist you consult, at the very least, Dazai does strike me as someone with a unique expression of empathy, who could qualify for Anti-social personality disorder or a related condition. I will abandon the idea that Dazai is a sociopath, and use actual concepts that have legitimacy within this post. Whether Dazai could qualify for ASPD or any other disorder is something I've seen discussed for many years within the fandom. I'll try to analyze how these concepts could apply to him. In regards to mental health and Kafka (since it is a contentious matter) and the validity of any of this: I understand that a lot of people are resistant to the idea that any of the characters could have conditions more complex than depression, anxiety, and PTSD. This is my counterpoint. I have noticed that Asagiri emulates a lot of characteristics commonly attributed to “geniuses”, without confirming or potentially even intending to write these characters as having a specific condition.

A great example is Ranpo – who will read as autistic to any decent mental health professional (Untold Origins). Did Asagiri intentionally sit down and say “I am going to write an autistic character”? Maybe not. However, the “genius” stereotype is profoundly connected to visions of autism, even if people aren’t aware of it. Take people like Sherlock, House and L from Death Note – they’re commonly believed to be autistic by fans. All of these characters borrow from the same group of traits, that just happens to correspond with a certain condition - savants have always been popular in fiction. It's been known that the favorite type of character for Asagiri is the “prodigy” type, and he has used geniuses across fiction for inspiration of most notable intelligent characters within BSD. For Ranpo it was Sherlock, for Fyodor it was Joker from the Dark Knight (a classic sociopath), for Dazai it was Patrick from The Mentalist.

What I’m trying to say is, you can see various personality disorders connected to the portrayal of these geniuses, and even without confirming their state, it is clear they are either intentionally or unintentionally coded to be that way. Extremely intelligent characters not being able to read social cues, lacking empathy, disregarding rules etc. is something we commonly see in fiction. Basically, a lot of people don’t even know that these stereotypes are based on certain personality types, disorders, and illnesses. It’s sort of like drawing a character and dyeing their hair a certain shade of blue that you don’t know the particular name of: it doesn’t change the fact that you used that color, and the fact it has a name. Most authors are not mental health experts anyways, so they may not be entirely aware of every detail of the psychological framework they write the character to possess. They also may not write it consistently, as they're mostly emulating stereotypes. I mention Ranpo and autism because a character can embody traits of a stereotype without the author even necessarily having the intention to do so, however, to anyone who knows a thing or two, it is clear Ranpo is on the spectrum. If Ranpo were to express a few traits that go against this, it would not necessarily take away from the large-scale portrayal he is meant to exude: an autistic coded genius.

Why am I saying this? It is entirely possible for the author to write Dazai as a person with anti-social personality disorder, to “code” him in that way, but to not be entirely aware of how an individual with ASPD realistically tends to act. Because he may be emulating a certain "stereotype" of a genius, he may also end up emulating specific psychological states, without making them entirely consistent in a realistic way. Writing the way individuals with ASPD tend to deal with empathy can be extremely difficult for anyone. It's easy to emulate a sociopath on a superficial level, but beyond that, it gets more challenging. How would a person with limited empathy act when they're hurting someone? That is an easier idea to handle. But how will they act in a friendly relationship? This is where it gets tricky. That is likely why someone like Dazai can never be consistently compatible with a very specific disorder: but, he can come very close. Besides, concepts such as anxiety and depression are pretty well-known, but more niche mental health conditions are not as well understood. So, BSD Osamu was written with specific attention to mental health issues because the author himself was someone who spoke heavily on the topic. I’ve read a lot of real-life Dazai Osamu, with special attention to No Longer Human (the main inspiration for BSD Dazai was Yozo) – and neither RL Dazai nor Yozo gave me the impression they could qualify for ASPD at all.

I know BSD Dazai is the opposite of the RL author in so many ways, but I guess it’s relevant to mention this because we know so little of BSD Dazai’s internal working processes, and Asagiri's main inspiration can tell us a lot about the intentions behind Dazai's portrayal. Generally, an intention or idea behind a character can give a lot of clues to us - more than anything, I am under the impression some of the main ideas behind Dazai's creation was that: 1) He doesn't feel like he belongs among humans 2) He has mental health issues However, we have difficulty defining the exact source of why all of this is in more realistic terms.

Naturally, since Dazai, an extremely socially intelligent person, sees himself as "othered", it is logical to assume he is not capable of fulfilling some emotional function most people can in a successful enough way. If he were just mentally ill in more typical ways (only depression), I theorize he wouldn't feel that "othered". He specifically is not meant to feel human. Obviously, his extreme intelligence is one of the things that isolates him, but the question is what else?

We are led to believe Dazai "sees" something the rest of us don't, and that is one of the reasons he wants to die. However, there is something more to it, as I believe it to be. We have two characters who are as intelligent as Dazai: Fyodor and Ranpo, and neither of them is suicidal, as far as we know. I believe Dazai "feels" a certain way, and then finds a way to logically justify it. Due to his intelligence, he likely falls into a complex loop which leads him to existential nihilism: but you usually don't end up in a place like that if you tend to feel alright in the first place, regardless of how smart you may be. While Dazai is certainly isolated due to his extreme intelligence, most of the people who made an impact on him are nowhere near him in that respect. In fact, I'd argue Dazai isn't even looking for someone equally intelligent to him, unlike Fyodor (this would take another post to explain).

The man who means the world to him, Oda, is more emotionally intelligent and full of common sense, but definitely not his cognitive equal. You can tell a lot about a person depending on what they value: and due to this I believe that Dazai's main issues relate to emotional matters. He primarily feels isolated due to his emotional state, and his intelligence pushes the problem further. Otherwise, he would treasure people like Ranpo and Fyodor over guys like Oda and Atsushi: he's looking for something to ease his emotional pain. Dazai doesn't seek out raw intellectual stimulation as much as comfort/excitement. This post will be an analysis of how Dazai compares to the "average" psychologically and some of the reasons he may feel so othered. Basically, my theory is that the feeling of being "othered" comes from his emotional profile, as much as it comes from his intellectual capacity. Those two take equal parts in his psyche.

Why would Dazai feel so emotionally "othered"? I believe it may have to deal with a specific personality disorder or condition, and mainly how he experiences empathy. One of the possibilities is ASPD. Anyways, let’s look into common ASPD symptoms, and then we'll look into common behavioral patterns the character shows. Dazai is equal amounts portrayed seriously and in a “jokey” way, but his worst traits and moments are usually described without humor. To preface: Keep in mind that you can have any or all of these traits without it qualifying you for a certain disorder. It is the extent to which you show it that makes a person, like Dazai, out of the norm.

1. Repeatedly breaking the law: This one goes without saying, he was in the Mob as Young as 15, and seemingly a violent criminal even before that age. To differentiate him from other members of the Mafia, it is stated by tons of people throughout the story that Dazai was practically born for this job.

Oda in Dark Era:

He was openly murderous before the age of 15, according to both The Day I picked up Dazai and Fifteen:

Dazai and Oda interacting in TDIPUD When talking to Kyouka, it seems that he has an “interesting relationship” with murder as a whole:

One thing is for sure, Dazai is much calmer, calculated, and more Machiavellian than most criminals in BSD, and this all started at an extremely young age. Many people kill when they're young, but they're not this casual about it. The age at which he was this cold about would be of diagnostic significance.

2. Lack of remorse: Everything mentioned above, it is clear that Dazai has an even more complicated relationship with guilt and empathy. I’m pretty sure anyone in real life would consider him out of the norm, as it’s explicitly stated Dazai doesn’t feel remorse for all sorts of things he does, but there are some hints he is either ashamed of the way he is, or regrets his nature, but accepts it. What is particularly significant here is how young Dazai is when he shows a marked level of these traits. A key event that stuck with me is from the Dragon Head event in Mayoi (from my understanding it was written by Asagiri), where Shibusawa mentions Dazai will regret something (to me it sounded like he meant that killing Shibusawa will end poorly for Osamu). However, Dazai’s reaction was interesting – it was like he was almost amused that anyone would believe Dazai “could” feel regret for anything.

Mayoi Later down the timeline it’s quite questionable whether Dazai feels regret for some of his actions because he hides his feelings like a snake hides its legs, but there are implications he is somewhat remorseful if you read between the lines. More on that later. Dazai has changed compared to his past self, but to talk about that, and the extent to which he has changed would take a whole other post.

More on his lack of remorse, In “The Heartless Cur” Dazai is very young when he gets some randos from the Mafia killed in front of Akutagawa, yet his main emotions are amusement and boredom. This is not the “typical” emotional range of most people, even practiced criminals. For example, Chuuya kills people just like Dazai, but his reactions to it are entirely different.

from The Heartless Cur Murder tends to not be the preferred or first solution Chuuya goes for: there is an expected amount of hesitance if you read into Chuuya. He put a bomb below Chuuya’s and sabotaged Ango’s car without much bother. I’d say even if you do see It as a “means to an end”, the way he did it was really cold. Usually, when people of all kinds do bad things, they have remorse and empathy they need to suppress, but with Dazai we don't see much of that. It's like he can just "do it'. He’s also really great at torture, in Side B at age 15-16, he already describes himself as a “specialist”. This is also touched upon when he speaks to Kouyou:

No matter how "grey" a character is, torture is a very specific process that takes a particular psychological profile to pull off. To be a "specialist" at it, you definitely need to possess dented empathy. Lack of remorse and empathy does not mean a person is going to be a criminal at all - it simply opens the opportunity that they may get lost in those waters more easily compared to the average person.

3. Repeatedly being deceitful I’m pretty sure we don’t have to cover this one. Yozo, the character he was loosely based on, is a big liar, and commonly uses “clowning” to distract from his real personality. Even the real Dazai Osamu wrote extensively about the concept of “lying”. There is a lot to talk about Dazai and “masking”, and I’ll get to that in the second half of the post. Generally, Dazai lies a lot, one can’t even be sure what his personality really is. He lies by omission, manipulates, and intentionally deceives people without any issues. There are so many quotes about this that I’d probably reach the image limit right there if I wanted to reference them all. 4. Being impulsive or incapable of planning ahead Does not apply

5. Has difficulty sustaining long-term relationships: Dazai is famously a hoe. From “All women are his type” (and it seems he has zero issues getting together with any woman, young, old or even taken) to being known as “the enemy of all women” (said by Chuuya), it’s clear he is very promiscuous. Wan is in the gray area of canon, but in one of the earlier chapters he has so many love letters by different women that Atsushi burns them all. Kunikida said he hits on any woman he sees in the Entrance exam novel, which is further supported by random Wan! Chapters, silly crossovers, and everything else (literally anything female).

Not only that, but Dazai sounds like a consistently manipulative and toxic romantic partner. In an Otomedia interview, written by Asagiri, Dazai’s real type was basically something like: “Any woman is fine, because he is confident he can shape her to suit his tastes” which shows a remarkable lack of care for the personhood and individuality of his partner.

When answered what he’d do if his partner cheated or betrayed him, his answer was even more concerning. Depending on the translation, it goes something like: “He has not been cheated on, but he has cheated on others” or “he set up women to cheat on him/betray him” where both are a lot, just in different ways.

Either he is compulsively unfaithful, putting all above together, or he plays mindgames with his partners. He’s also told Kunikida that: “And from my experience, it takes only a smile and some kindness to get a woman swooning over you when she's fallen on hard times” painting an image of someone who takes advantage of people’s weaknesses to get what he wants.

Regardless, it’s clear he is very manipulative and likely emotionally abusive. I won’t even touch upon his obsession with double suicide. There’s also the fact that he seems to use sex to get what he wants – insert scene where he fucks the nurse to get his phone back.

Other than that, Dazai appears to be rather solitary. Ango and Oda are said to be “the only ones close to him” because they respected said loneliness. Even in ADA, Dazai seems to be professionally close to people, but very few people seem to know him on a personal level. I’d say he keeps people at a distance intentionally – before it was violently, later it is by being avoidant. For as much of a womanizer he is, there was that early comic where he spent Valentine’s Day drinking at Lupin “with Oda”, instead of going out with any particular person. I think this demonstrates how emotionally distant he is from all the people he interacts with

6. Being irritable and aggressive:

Dazai is not particularly aggressive, nor irritable, but he has moments where he slips. Tbh, reading back, it says a lot about Dazai’s character who he gets angry at and why. It’s important to say that when Higuchi calls him out on “Hollowing out the hearts of his opponents” in incredibly brutal ways, Dazai replies that he thinks “Sadism is just a method, and how it’s boring”.

Akutagawa is the receiver of a lot of his violence to a disproportionate degree. He beats up Akutagawa beyond what could ever be “just training”. There’s something that ticks him off about Akutagawa, which is interesting, since Dazai tends to not react this way to anyone who doesn’t touch him “intimately” in some way. A lot of people justify Dazai’s physical abuse by saying it is “training”, but it stood out to me how he kicks Akutagawa in the stomach even the first time he meets him in “Beast”, when Akutagawa is just an extremely traumatized and deprived kid he refuses to recruit. There is not much utility to that kick, to me. It felt personal.

Another example of him expressing anger is when people “called him foolish for wanting to die” – clearly he did not take it well since all of those people ended up dead. This is from “The Day I picked up Dazai” when Oda tells him he is a fool for wanting to die.

Other times Dazai expressed rage was in relation to Ango and Oda, particularly anything that related to Oda’s wellbeing.

He snaps at his subordinates when they tell him he shouldn’t be friends with someone “of such low status”, and the only time we really hear Dazai say he hates someone is when he’s torturing one of the guys who put Oda in trouble in the Beast timeline of “The day I picked up Dazai”. Obviously, he is resentful towards Ango and incapable of forgiving him. “Dead Apple” guidebook touches on it.

“Though they were once good buddies who used to drink together, to Dazai, Ango is one of the persons who caused the death of Odasaku. He still holds that resentment up to now, and is unable to forgive. Ango also seems to feel Dazai’s silent wrath towards him.”

Harukawa has said to pay attention to how cloudy the eyes of a character are to accurately interpret their psychological state. I don't think there are many times Dazai's eyes are drawn in such an extreme way - there is no "light" she talks about here. His eyes are pure black when he talks to Mori during the Guild arc.

He also agrees with Fyodor on “Malice being the best fruit that God Bestowed upon Mankind”

There is also this with Jouno:

Basically, Dazai rarely gets angry, insults don’t work on him (as he tells Chuuya), nor does beating him up, but when he does get irritated he flies off the handle and has no issue crossing any normal boundaries.

That detail is what stands out to me – usually, people have a line they won’t cross when getting mad, but for Dazai it’s like most moral lines disappear. Imo, his anger is for social standards over disproportionate in how far he’ll go and how he'll act on it– he usually has a clear intention to harm the individual he's mad about. In comparison, Chuuya is someone who gets angry more than Dazai, but Chuuya clearly has a line he won’t cross. There is also no pointed sadism in his reactions. Dazai will likely do almost anything.

Basically, it's not how much Dazai gets angry, but the way he gets mad that sticks out to me. Most importantly, Dazai only ever gets enraged if it concerns something very personal and intimate: Oda and his death, his suicide attempts etc. At this point, for me, It’s safe to say that if Dazai gets extremely angry, it means the topic affects him on a deep level (a hint to whatever Is happening between him and Akutagawa, I could talk a lot about that).

More on Dazai’s unpredictable and violent nature:

Stormbringer I think there is a valid argument in seeing Dazai’s aggression as just a tool he uses to keep others at bay, something to hold over people and control them – but even then, it shows a marked disinterest in social norms people usually respect.

7.Having a reckless disregard for their safety or the safety of others This one builds upon all the others. However, it’s always been interesting to me how it’s clear something flies over Dazai’s head when it comes to regularly empathizing with others.

This is often seen with Chuuya. In my opinion, most of the bullying Dazai gives Chuuya is not motivated out of rage, but rather some form of spite. He goes at length to Rimbaud about planning Chuuya’s murder in “15”, then he also lets Chuuya be tortured in “Stormbringer”.

I am under the impression he sees these moments as “amusing” and doesn’t fully emotionally understand why this is something bad, even if he does on a rational level. I’ll say that Dazai did seem to show some rage whenever anyone hurt him physically in the past (seems likely to be a hint to a traumatic past), which Chuuya did when they met, but I don’t get the impression he is generally angry with Chuuya, it’s more like he just enjoys fucking with him. Ironically, for how rarely Dazai gets angry, it seems he reserves his rage/irritation exclusively for people and things he cares about, so Dazai being specifically irritated at Chuuya is just a sign of how much the guy gets to him.

If Dazai were angry at Chuuya, it is in character that he would try to hurt him a lot more than he does. However, I'd say Dazai has a blurry space for what's ok between "keeping someone purely safe" and "deeply hurting them". There is some lack of emotional empathy there - to him, it is more amusing than anything to see someone he finds interesting struggle.

Dazai sees boundaries differently. He’ll put people into danger or through discomfort without worrying much, especially if he’s sure they’re going to walk and live after it, but sometimes not even that. (there’s so many examples of it). I’d say it’s not that Dazai doesn’t care, he just cares about people differently compared to what we’re used to socially.

Regarding personal safety, it’s pretty obvious: he’s a suicide maniac, but even more, he also puts himself in harm’s way all the time without any anxiety present. Examples are when he provokes that sniper in Dark Era (when Oda gets angry at him and wants to punch him), knows he is going to get shot by Fyodor, but lets himself get hurt anyway. When he “dies” in 55 minutes, he seems “lightly” surprised, but there’s no strong reaction to it. To me, it seems that the only physical harm he dislikes is pain he suffers from another person (when he doesn’t plan it). Dazai apparently doesn’t feel much “anxiety” – I remember many different times when he comments on another character’s timidness or meekness, seeing it as something unusual.

8. Behave irresponsibly and show disregard for normal social behaviour He’s extremely eccentric, and even Ranpo says he doesn’t get him. Dazai asks women to commit suicide the moment he meets them, and often attempts suicide around people even if it distresses them (Entrance exam).

While I think he made this excuse in Dark Era to Taneda because he didn’t want to work with Ango, I do believe he believes what he said: “You’d lose your job if I did that.” Dazai wryly smirked. “I don’t like places with lots of rules.” Not being able to accept conventional rules is very often a telltale sign of a personality disorder. Clearly, Dazai fits many of the criteria necessary for having ASPD, so let’s look at some other details that are common for people with ASPD.

Masking: In psychology and sociology, masking is the process in which an individual camouflages their natural personality or behavior to conform to social pressures. Masking is common with many disorders, such as autism, ASPD etc. I am pretty sure it’s canon Dazai masks – on a BSD exhibit, the key element Asagiri wanted to talk about in Dazai’s personality was related to this.

“When I describe Dazai to the staff, there is a phrase that I always use, “an unworldly being with a mental age of two thousand years.” Dazai has far surpassed the mental dimension that human can reach, thus no-one can even tell if the emotions he shows are the real things or not.

There are rare moments when that Dazai shows his very “human” side. That is when he talks to another superhuman who is on the same level with him. The other is when he talks about his old friend who has passed. This is the scene when Kyouka wondered “Maybe I’m, after all, just a murderer at heart.” and refused to be saved. And Dazai’s reaction to that. When he said “Don’t give me any of that!” here, he really meant it. That was an outburst from Dazai, as a 22-year-old boy, in this scene.” Light novels often describe his smile as fake, mask-like, and I could probably find 20 panels where Harukawa clearly drew him to intentionally seem like a fake smiler. From “15” to “Entrance exam”, Dazai often drops his mask, and then goes back to acting silly just to make the other person relax. He does this with everyone, Mori, Kunikida, Atsushi, etc. Chuuya also mentions that Dazai’s “happy-go-lucky” personality in ADA is something new, and he believes it doesn’t fit him.

Kunikida says this in the Entrance Exam: "For someone so full of eccentricities, there is something about his behavior that makes it seem as if he has an unobstructed view of the world. I don’t know exactly why, but all his emotions strike me as an act to some degree. Is he just playing dumb? Could there be more to him than he’s letting on, lurking behind his ambiguous mannerisms?"

More than anything, Dazai himself says that Oda was the person closest to seeing his “real” personality. That pretty much confirms he keeps his real self hidden away. I’d say that there are several possibilities to why this is: He hides it because he dislikes being vulnerable, he doesn’t know how to act “normal”, people are unable to understand him, so masking makes it easier for him to communicate with others…there’s a lot of theorizing I could do here.

Dazai also tends to have interesting thoughts about personalities as a concept.

You’ll commonly see Dazai say something serious, followed by a severe reaction of the other character, ending with Dazai changing his demeanor and saying “just kidding” to lighten the air.

Manipulation: Dazai is extremely Machiavellian – he is prone to manipulating everyone around him, regardless of how much they care about him or not. He manipulated Chuuya into joining the mafia, he does the same with Akutagawa even today: Here we have him preying on Aku's insecurities to sabotage his self-confidence

He seems to be able to cut off his emotions from any situation, seeing people in a raw, factual sense.

There are several moments throughout the novels where Dazai talks about people as if they’re purely resources or pawns. An example of this in Dead Apple (where Chuuya gets angry because he doesn't respect people or show enough sympathy)

The way he speaks of Atsushi, when asked what he thinks of him in a guidebook, is something like “developing as expected”. Especially in the original, it sounds extremely factual, mechanical, and cold. To me, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care about Atsushi, he’s just the type to compartmentalize his emotions in opposition to his thinking. This is very common for a few personality disorders and mental health conditions: the capacity to totally cut off your emotions from the equation. Obviously, many people are capable of doing this to one extent or another, but the amount to which he does it is what makes it significant.

Lack of traditional empathy: Personally, I think everything comes down to this. Dazai's experiences with empathy are one of the main themes of his character arc. I believe one of the things that makes him feel othered is his lack of emotional empathy.

People with ASPD tend to have issues experiencing what a lot of people consider “typical” empathy – however, ASPD is also on a large spectrum, so experiences certainly vary. Keep in mind that "lack of empathy" is common for all sorts of disorders, but since ASPD seems to be one of the most popular choices for Dazai, I decided to start there.

Before we continue, there are 2 types of empathy: Cognitive empathy is the ability to recognize and understand someone’s feelings and experiences and imagine yourself in those scenarios. Emotional empathy is experiencing shared emotions with someone or feeling emotions as though the experience is your own.

People with ASPD can commonly do the first type easily, and struggle with the second one. It does not mean they cannot experience emotional empathy, it’s just rarer for them to feel it. In my opinion, Dazai heavily relies on Cognitive empathy compared to Emotional empathy.

You can see often that he seems to not entirely understand “why” something is wrong on a personal level, but he can logically see it. This is a running theme, and you can commonly see that Dazai doesn’t fully understand “normal”.

“15” Asagiri seems to be writing Dazai as someone who has gone “beyond the human dimension” in his skills and intelligence, so other people can’t fully understand him, but I think this goes both ways. Dazai has lost touch with what’s the standard human experience.

One of the times Chuuya specifically calls out Dazai for not "acting human-like" is when he's not expressing empathy and respect. It is clear that Dazai's lack of empathy is one of the aspects which make others see him as "inhuman".

There is another situation with Kunikida during the Azure Messenger arc where Dazai seems to apologize for not getting something “is normal”, it slips by you very easily. It is framed as a joke, and it can be read as him making fun of Kuni, but Kunikida asks himself why Dazai apologized. It does read a bit unusually.

To me it seems like Dazai doesn’t fully emotionally understand other people, so when his mask slips you can see that he struggles a ton with getting what’s exactly “typical”.

Because Dazai is extremely intelligent, he masks in order to fit into society, and he does it successfully since he can intellectually understand most social and emotional functions and processes. However, he slips up like everyone does. This is why he got along with Oda well – since Oda just let him act like himself without having ulterior motives. Dazai didn’t have to “mask”. He didn't see Dazai as "just anyone", but he also realized Dazai was human. Basically, to Oda Dazai was a kid that had empathy issues, but he was struggling much like everyone else.

Personally, I feel like Dazai doesn’t feel entirely “human” because he doesn’t feel “emotional empathy” on the same level as other people, and this is one of the key issues of the character (as it's clearly stated in the Dead Apple manga, where Dazai does seem a bit upset by Chuuya's reaction)

. The reason he felt “seen” by Oda is because Oda fully recognized this and still believed Dazai could do “good”. In our society, it is common for people to think that "empathy" and "sympathy" are conditions for being a good person, but it isn't so simple. The possible complexity of Dazai's moral state is why I find the character so interesting - a person without traditional empathy choosing to be good is really fascinating. (more on this later).

Boredom and general emptiness: “Boredom” is an extremely common complaint for people with ASPD – in fact, intense, non-standard boredom, along with other symptoms such as atypical experience with empathy, is one of the easiest ways to recognize ASPD. A “numbed” emotional state is common for people with ASPD, and due to their different emotional range and inability to connect with others in a more typical fashion, they are prone to “boredom” and seeking out extreme experiences.

Alcoholism/Substance abuse is common for people with ASPD, and it’s pretty much canon Dazai drinks a lot (alcohol is even in his likes). Aside from that, Dazai often cites boredom as one of the main reasons he wants to die, and I remember so many instances where he complains about it in bizarre circumstances. This is common for people with ASPD: depression/suicidality is comorbid, and I have heard people with ASPD mention they wanted their life to end once they no longer have enough stimulation. Dazai is often stated to be “bored”, or look bored even when extremely horrifying things are happening (people dying around him/telling their life stories..). An example with Mori where he talks about wishing to die (from 15):

Another really funny thing, a lot of people with ASPD I have seen tend to dislike “dogs”. Obviously, this hatred comes from the real life Dazai being scared of them and thinking they can attack at any moment, but it’s a funny coincidence. They tend to dislike dogs for an entirely different reason than Dazai does, to be fair.

How Dazai seems to see himself and morals in general

Generally, to me it seems like Dazai is not entirely happy with his nature. He admires Oda and doesn’t understand why he wouldn’t use his talents to rise up in ranks within the Mafia, simply because that is logical to Dazai – perhaps it is that difference between them that he enjoys so much. He is frequently attracted to displays of empathy:

Examples: 1. Ango documenting the deaths of people within the mafia even if it’s “just a waste of money” 2. Almost everything Atsushi and Oda do

He often describes altruism as “interesting”. I am also under the impression that Dazai has a tendency to project his nature onto others, which we can gather from his “Evil expects evil from others” quote to Mori. Furthermore, he sadly remarks in Dark Era that he is “a man despised by righteousness”. so I feel like there is something up here, some sort of guilt, distaste or shame.

This tells me:

a)Dazai sees himself as “evil”

b)He is constantly assuming the worst in others or is prepared for the worst

Another thing this tells me is that Dazai is someone who is likely extremely wary of people’s intentions. This is a ubiquitous theme all across BSD, especially when we see him as a kid. Osamu tends to be skeptical of everyone and everything, as if he’s waiting for people to betray or fuck him over at any corner. In TDIPUD, he keeps getting upset that he can't figure out Oda, since it makes no sense for him to be so charitable for absolutely no reason. Oda said “good and evil are the same to you” – personally I interpret this as Dazai being largely amoral rather than immoral. Whether Dazai can be described as “good”, “evil” or “neutral” largely depends on your view of ethics. Just because someone lacks traditional empathy, it doesn't mean they are necessarily sadistic or bad at all. Immoral and Amoral are two words that sound similar but have different meanings. Immoral is an adjective that describes “something against pre-established morals, ethics, or standard societal practices.” Amoral, on the other hand, is an adjective that describes “something or someone completely lacking morals.” In common society, if you’re not “good”, you are often automatically “evil”. Basically, a person who has "no morals" is just as bad as a person who has cruel beliefs, but those two fundamentally differ. However, in a technical, utilitarian fashion – this is often seen to be true. More or less, “good” is the neutral state, and the more you step away from it, the more “evil” you are perceived to be. The more moral conventions you break, the more "evil" you are, regardless of your intentions. The results of the actions matter more than the source and motivations. In the end, a person is dead, regardless of why you killed them or how you felt about it. The reasons why people do conventionally moral things can be all over the place too - people aren't always kind because they have sympathy. When I hear “evil and good are the same to you”, it sounds like Dazai has no need for either, meaning, yes, he has no inherent need to do good, but no need for bad, he is simply not opposed to either of them. Regardless of what he's doing, he feels the same way. They're both tools to satisfy particular needs. Many people read this and say "aha, so if he sees no difference between the two, that means he is evil", but I think the truth is in the middle. I always say that to estimate Dazai's moral framework, you need to judge him outside of normal conventions. Basically, his starting point in making decisions is different. He begins his process likely by thinking "what will this bring me?" Most of his “evil” is not out of pure sadism, it’s just that he feels no need to stop himself due to moral conventions, he mostly cares about practical results. This is opposed to Kunikida who cares about ideals and morals in a vacuum and pursues them in their most idealized version (and it's well known Asagiri writes duos as opposites). Entrance exam as a novel was about how idealism can lead people to ruin when it's unrealistic.

He’s naturally immune to socialized pressure that forms the moral frameworks of most people on an emotional level. All of this is very common for ASPD, and a few other conditions. The more I see Dazai talk about how he sees the concept of personality, murder, morality – the more I am convinced his ethical framework is focused on results rather than the inherent morality of said actions. Example: He's going to lie to you to make you happy, even though "lying is bad". There is no inherent value in staying honest if it makes an individual miserable in the long run, even though society sees frankness as a virtue. That way, most actions are “open” for Dazai to undertake, he has no qualms most people have against them, since he doesn’t have socialized morals. A lot of the time, we only see certain things as "unconditionally bad" because we've been socialized to see them that way, even if it's not necessarily logical. He simply lacks socialized morals, leading to a tendency to be amoral. Everything is a means to an end, every action is alright if it's a tool that has more pros than cons. Oda's death was a useful character arc, since it led Dazai to taking Oda's moral framework as his own. He doesn't believe he is better than others, nor does he enjoy hurting random people, he doesn't kill or rob randos to get something and believes he is justified in it. Things of that type would make him “immoral”. Most of Dazai’s evil actions seem utilitarian, rather than committed for the pure act of pleasure or cruelty. When I say “amoral”, I mean this from Dazai’s point of view. Since he has no “moral boundaries”, all actions are open for him to undertake. He can go as far as he wants to any extreme largely depending on his subjective worldview and feelings (as seen in Beast, where he breaks all sorts of ethical codes of being "a good man" so Oda could get a decent life). However, since he is aware that there is a fight between good and bad in every person, and that evil tends to win out compared to the good, under enough pressure, he admires people who selflessly continue to be kind. That is why Oda, a highly moral person even beyond what is logical (his insistence to not kill even if it harms him) is the opposite that pushed him to change. Ulterior motives tend to be something Dazai is worried about in people, perhaps because he is possibly projecting all he is, or can be, on others. He describes Oda specifically as:

"a man who has no ulterior motive". Oda is obviously being a good person partially out of self-interest ("people live to save themselves"), but this self-interest is not destructive. I think for Dazai, it was difficult to find people who didn't have an ulterior motive that was ultimately hurtful, and he projected that onto everyone. Oda acting in his self-interest was ultimately beneficial to everyone. All in all, while Dazai does admire Oda's morals - I think a lot of this appreciation comes from an intimate and subjective place, where he feels comforted someone like Oda even existed. Continuing Oda's work is likely an extension of this as well. Keep in mind, any person has the right to see Dazai's actions as bad, as they often are. I am more speaking of Dazai's internal mental framework. Conclusion: Dazai has no inherent need to do good or bad, for the most part. He just goes as far as he needs to to satisfy his emotional needs.

Oda saved Dazai’s life in the day I picked up Dazai, and listened to him, but expected nothing in return. I feel that Oda saw this struggle within Dazai, and the way “good and evil don’t mean much to him” due to his disorder, but recognized that Dazai perhaps didn’t want to be this way.

Since Oda saw Dazai’s “irregular” nature, and still believed he could be a good person, Dazai was touched and decided to change his life. I believe Dazai had some distaste for himself, regardless of his lack of empathy, he could recognize what he was doing was not entirely right. As Asagiri mentioned, Oda told him exactly what he needed to hear, and the fact that these words were so life-changing to Dazai tells us a lot about what he had on his mind. In my opinion, to see who Dazai is, you need to follow exactly which words got to him.

In my opinion, it likely meant a lot that a person he actually admired wanted to be in his life, especially a person he considered so kind like Oda. He often says that Oda is “the most interesting person he knows”. Imo, this is because “empathy” is one of the things Dazai doesn’t fully understand. He had to learn it. Since he understands human nature so well, cognitive empathy comes easy to him, but he still fucks up sometimes.

Here, I also feel like he is talking about himself – he sees himself in Kyouka. It doesn’t come naturally to Dazai to be “good”, but he is trying his best, that is his ideal now. (Asagiri said this was one of Dazai's rare human moments). For that reason, I think Dazai admires empathetic people and tends to dislike those who are naturally violent, or even choose to be violent out of sadism.

On the BSD exhibit, Asagiri said Atsushi was "an empathy user", and how that is the key to his character. During one interview, the author mentioned that Dazai keeps testing Kunikida's ideals, but Osamu secretly hopes that Doppo will prove to be right, and Dazai wrong. This to me paints a picture of someone who hopes that "good" is worth it, at least from an intellectual point of view. When talking with Fyodor, he seems to admire people who live emotionally, thinking god doesn't prefer perfection, logic and harmony.

"The ones who actually make the world run Are those who scream in the storm of uncertainty and run with flowing blood"

Dazai seems to reject the idea that him and Fyodor and better because they are more calculating and cold - like I mentioned earlier in this god-forsaken post, this to me says Dazai believes empathetic and emotional people are better than him.

"I've come to see it many times, his gimmicks are the accidental and illogical that's a weakness two of us have in common" He suffers because he is not like them, and that contributes to him feeling "othered".

Negative emotions and Akutagawa

My guess is that one of the reasons Dazai has so many issues with Akutagawa is because he is projecting his own issues with his lack of empathy onto him. This makes him relate to Akutagawa, but also dislike him beyond how he usually treats people. Akutagawa questions why Dazai's acts of violence are justified, while Osamu is judging Akutagawa: to me it sounds that Dazai sees his actions as at least partly justified because they are "logical" and utilitarian. He puts a difference between him and Aku, as if Dazai's natural instinct is not to mindlessly hurt others. However, it's interesting he needs to draw this line.

I believe Dazai sees a lot of the hurt he enacts on others as either "justified" or subconsciously defensive. "If I don't hurt others, they will hurt me", and he uses this against all kinds of people to keep them in control. In the Dark Era novel, Dazai speaks of Akutagawa like this:

“When I first saw him over in the slums, I was horrified. His talents are extraordinary, and his skill is extremely destructive. Plus, he’s stubborn. If I’d left him to his own devices, he would’ve ended up a slave to his own powers until he destroyed himself.” Interestingly, Dazai was "horrified" at what Akutagawa was capable of, where most things don't seem to exactly phase him. I think something about Aku's capacity for violence even scares him, and he "lashes" out in response to control him.

Later on Oda calls out Dazai's thinking indirectly in Beast, saying that hurting Aku is still bad no matter why he did it. (more on this in the next section) However, it’s very clear he cares for Akutagawa in “Chopsticks and a Spoon”, so I do feel like he’s likely aware of it. In fact, that story contains one of the gentlest expressions Dazai has pointed at anyone, so I think he partially sees Akutagawa as "innocent" in nature, and more like a wounded animal. I'll likely write a post about it. Since Dazai has expressed some lament or even shame regarding him being a person "hated by righteousness", I do think he is a bit ashamed of who he is. This part is a theory: When talking about "No Longer Human", Asagiri mentioned that he felt the book was about "embarrassment". Since Dazai is canonically famously based on Yozo to some extent, I feel that we can guess that Osamu likely does feel some shame - the question is about what. The rare times we see BSD Dazai express something similar to shame is when talking about his moral nature (when he beat up Akutagawa in Dark Era), but it's a "blink and you'll miss it" type of thing. Yozo and RL Dazai's relationship with his father was one of the cornerstones of his work (NLH even ends with him mentioning how he would have been alright if he had a better relationship with his father). Within the book, Yozo feels all sorts of things which make him feel "inhuman", but he is terrified about being open about it due to his strict father who sees him as somewhat strange. Since the theme of "fatherhood" was lightly touched upon when Atsushi's orphanage director died, I do think this is potentially a sore spot for BSD Dazai too. My guess is that Dazai likely had a poor relationship with his father figure, who saw him as "strange" or "inhuman" due to the way he acted: leading BSD Dazai to feel shame over his nature. Perhaps one of the things that made his father see Dazai as inhuman was his lack of typical ethics and empathy. Osamu internalized this - and ended up becoming a criminal at a very young age, perhaps in an attempt to confirm what hurt him, seeing himself as someone who could mostly do bad (which could be one of the reasons he wanted to die so young). Perhaps Oda making a way for him to "act good" was life-changing because of that too - it targeted a specific wound. All of this is speculation, but Dazai did mention that "self-pity leads you to living a life that is an endless nightmare". My guess is he was talking about himself there: and his own experiences with shame. To extend this: I think one of the reasons Dazai is so harsh on Akutagawa is because he is possibly projecting his relationship with his father onto Aku. Akutagawa is violent and troubled, and Dazai was shamed for the same thing. (but it would take a lot of time to work through this theory, so moving on..)

Dazai exhibiting empathy However, Dazai does show empathy for Oda, and a lot of it. I’d go as far as to say that he over-empathizes with Oda, while he underempathizes with everyone else. His relationships with the people closest to him tend to be why some people think he may have BPD. Especially due to devaluation and the "favorite person" concept. For someone with this type of BPD relationship, a “favorite person” is someone they rely on for comfort, happiness, and validation. A FP is a person who someone with BPD relies heavily on for emotional support, seeks attention and validation from, and looks up to or idealizes. For Dazai, this is Oda. On the other hand, In the context of BPD, “devaluation” refers to a psychological defense mechanism or coping strategy that individuals with BPD may employ in their interpersonal relationships. Devaluation involves a shift in the person’s perception of others, where they view someone they previously idealized or held in high regard as unworthy, flawed, or worthless. They become unworthy of their affection and praise. The person with BPD may engage in behaviors such as intense criticism, verbal attacks, withdrawal, or even cutting off contact with the person they have devalued. These actions are often driven by the individual’s fear of rejection, abandonment, or a desire to protect themselves from potential hurt or disappointment. For Dazai, the clearest example of this is Ango. However, a person can exhibit the "favorite person" and project the phenomenon of devaluation without having BPD. In my opinion, Dazai does show heightened polarity in his feelings toward others, but I am not sure if BPD would be my choice for him. It's very difficult to say, as many conditions mask as BPD, and Dazai's expression of empathy is unique.

Dazai idealizes Oda, and deeply sees his pain as his own, while he always frames Akutagawa in a negative light, even though he is likely one of the people Dazai cares about the most (next to Oda, Chuuya, Ango, Atsushi, especially according to Beast). Another example of his heightened negative emotions are Ango, and Chuuya to a much lesser extent. My guess is that Dazai doesn’t deal with caring about people well, especially when they are any sort of “threat”: which is why he tries to “bully” them down. The reason he goes easier on Chuuya than Akutagawa is because he feels Chuuya is in his nature more sympathetic.

In my opinion, the moment Dazai warmed up to Chuuya was when he realized that The Sheep were pushing Chuuya around: he was no “King of the sheep”, he was acting out of empathy and care. Since Chuuya is so powerful, it was likely admirable to Dazai that he didn’t abuse his abilities for self-gain. This is when he decided to isolate Chuuya from the Sheep: and I think the reason above is specifically why

I'd say Dazai is likely "spikey" to anyone he cares about but has less confidence they won't hurt him. There are two camps of people: 1. Atsushi, Oda, Kunikida, Sigma (generally upright, meek, moral at the end of the day) 2. Chuuya, Akutagawa, and lastly Ango (people who are aggressive, challenging, and need to be put down in Dazai's eyes).

He cares about both camps (Sigma is debatable, I spoke of the type of personality Dazai seems to deal with easily in his case), but he likely feels "less safe" with the second type. Mori could potentially go into the second camp - there is some respect and resentment there at the same time. He even talks about this with Kunikida in Entrance exam.

"“I guess. But you, Kunikida, I’ve got a good idea of who you are now, so nothing you do will ever surprise me. I mean, compared with me, you’re just a simple man with a simple mind, after all.”

See? You wear your heart on your sleeve. You don’t hide how you’re really feeling. It’s nice. You know what else is nice? Just knowing that you’re going to be worrying later to yourself, ‘Am I really that simple?’”

“Why, you—”

But I refrain from arguing. Whatever my response, he’s just going to end up telling me, “I knew you’d say that.”

I suppose that being around Kunikida comforts him since he is predictable, yet kind. On the other hand, someone like Chuuya excites him, because he is wild and challenging enough, but is still a good person when it comes down to it. Basically, Dazai is hypervigilant of pain.

Akutagawa is “off the chain” in comparison to all of them. I am under the impression that Dazai can care about people without treating them well at all, and 2 of the people who are at the top of his list (Chuuya and Aku) are people he “seems” to dislike (In Chuuya’s case rather openly in his profile).

It appears that the more “intense” and “unpolished” parts of Dazai’s personality are strictly reserved for people he cares about, but he is extremely selective about who he shows emotional empathy to as it’s such a rare experience for him. He may capable of "cutting off" empathy to protect himself emotionally. It is quite clear some aspects of empathy miss him broadly in Beast, when he appears shocked that Oda would react so strongly to endangering Akutagawa since “it’s all supposed to end well if he survives”. That sentence itself is totally tone-deaf, yet Dazai is acting as if Oda is supposed to take that normally. It’s quite clear that Dazai doesn’t treat Atsushi all that well in Beast either, as he exploits his fears for Atsushi to be totally obedient to him.

I really like this moment, because it demonstrates that even if Dazai does have some point regarding Akutagawa and the way he goes about things, the way he has treated him is still too much – and Dazai can’t exactly convince Oda, a decent person, why this is ever justifiable under any circumstances. There is an aspect of regular empathy that misses Dazai – it doesn’t cross his mind why his actions are inherently bad. Perhaps it is possible that Dazai was treated with little to no empathy growing up, so he accepted that as a model for acceptable behavior. A lot of the time, cruel actions don't seem to even register to him as bad, in an almost innocent way. It's like it doesn't cross his mind that stuff is out of the ordinary. When talking to Oda about this, he was described as "childlike".

However, Dazai shows a lot of extreme emotional empathy for Oda, which tends to be rare for people with ASPD (obviously, all traits of it are on a spectrum).

Dazai clearly feels as if he himself is being beaten when Oda suffers. Furthermore, “Beast” shows that he is willing to endanger multiple people he cares about so Oda could live and write his book. In his words “the me from other worlds doesn’t care about the world” – showing that even though he may “care” about people, it’s really hard for him to fully emotionally connect with others.

This leads him to severe feelings of loneliness and isolation, but it’s quite clear Oda is the exception to this.

Dazai has multiple anxiety attacks when meeting with Oda in Beast and TIPUD:

“I see.” Oda says after he gives it a moment of thought. “I’ll do so then. That is very kind of you. You are a good guy.”

Dazai’s expression becomes distorted.

He opens his mouth, and closes it again, as if he can no longer breathe.

If he tells him everything now, maybe things will go back to how they were. The two of them will go to the bar together and have a toast. Just like that night.

“Odasa…”

Just as Dazai is about to say that name, a train passes by. The express train passing through that station cuts through the silence of the night, right next to where Dazai and Oda is."

and obviously the whole showdown at the bar. Earlier, Oda mentions that Dazai looks like he is about to cry:

An interesting part here is that Dazai gets shocked that Oda would even consider that Dazai could hurt him:

It almost sounds absurd that Dazai, who is known for scheming even against people he likes, would be that surprised someone would expect this from him. This, to me, shows that Dazai does have that underdeveloped, childish emotional side to himself, where he doesn’t understand everything he does. It’s quite logical why Oda, or anyone else, would be consistently doubtful of Dazai, yet he is so used to not caring about anyone, that when he does feel things he is remarkably unpolished and just as illogical as anyone else. I’d say his heart is like a knife that went blunt from lack of use. Since he has no experience dealing with people he feels strongly about, it always comes across very messy – and Asagiri himself often describes him as childish at his most vulnerable.

Furthermore, the lyrics of the song for Beast have these words to say: “Loving you to death won’t kill me Because I don’t love this world enough” And in the Beast novel, he mentions all he has to give to the world is love. I think we can certainly see that Dazai is not emotionless.

To me it seems like Dazai is capable of selective emotional empathy. I feel like one of the reasons Oda was “the one” Dazai attached himself to the most, is because Oda was a struggling man who was also depressed (rather clear the more you read), but he was empathetic and accepted Dazai for who he was.

Him and Dazai had difficulties in common (the guy was a killer as a kid too), yet Oda did his best to be a good person – that is one of the reasons, as Asagiri mentions, why he had an “outburst” when Kyouka implied former killers can’t be good people. Oda was a good person in his eyes, and his role model of “empathy”: someone he wished to emulate. I am pretty sure that Oda became the blueprint for the moral compass he strives towards.

Most importantly, Oda didn’t really judge Dazai when he showed his lack of empathy, while he remained firm in what he believed in.

“Odasaku is the type of person who will never lecture anyone. Because he does not consider himself a superior person who can teach and guide others. However, it doesn’t mean that he has nothing he wants to say. The sentiments that he couldn’t convey in these two scenes were finally delivered to Dazai in the last scene through the words “Become a good person.” Very meaningful scenes when read as a set.”

is how Asagiri described Oda during the exhibit. As Asagiri says, one of the reasons he didn’t tell Dazai anything when he provoked the sniper was his modesty. Since Oda didn’t look down on him, yet showed concern and fully understood Dazai wasn’t just a struggling depressed kid, but someone with serious issues who also happened to be a child – Dazai grew to deeply care for him. Oda didn't shame him, likely avoiding Dazai's hypervigilant sensor for pain.

Selective empathy is common for many disorders – and Dazai, after not feeling “seen” his whole life, ended up making a true connection with Oda. I guess, in that sense – Oda was the one who really reached Dazai’s heart, and since he was the only one who came that close, all of Dazai’s emotional empathy is reserved for him.

In my opinion, the reason Dazai was so difficult to “get to” was that even people who had good intentions toward him never truly saw him.

To see Dazai as a depressed woobie who just needs to be saved is to idealize him – which wouldn’t exactly help him. They’re talking about a version of him that doesn’t exist. If the only way he could be seen as worthwhile was someone seeing him as more “traditionally good” than he truly is, it’s not going to work. He needs to be seen for exactly who he is, and still given a chance to be better.

Likewise, it had to be someone who wasn’t helping him in order to get something from him. I would say that one of the main reasons why Dazai got so attached to Oda was because his friend had no reason to save him, he gave him space, and didn’t even force himself into Dazai’s life.

It was purely altruistic, and for Dazai, who expects the worst from others and seems to fear people’s intentions, this was perfect. One of the main aspects of Dazai's character is his anxious-avoidant attachment style, where he is likely so afraid of potential pain, he pushes others away, or punishes anyone he cares about who might hurt him preemptively. A lot of this is not impulsive, but calculated, which is why he feels a natural resistance to Akutagawa (but relates to him and cares all the more because of it). He understands the self-destructive nature of Akutagawa.

"If I’d left him to his own devices, he would’ve ended up a slave to his own powers until he destroyed himself.”" I believe Dazai likely allows himself to fully empathize with Oda because he feels only Oda is "safe" in this world. The fact that Oda is dead and gone perhaps makes caring for him even safer, as his image of Oda will never change.

Conclusion: I'd say Dazai is someone who is probably extremely traumatized, with a specific emotional profile that doesn't allow him to experience empathy like normal people do - and this is one of the defining traits of the character for me. He is able to isolate himself from normal social pressures and boundaries - and because of this and his extreme intellect, he feels like an alien in this world. A lot of his struggle likely deals with the fact that he dislikes the hurtful person he is, but has difficulty seeing why he should be better - all while he has a distaste for sadism, cruelty and senseless violence in others. In my opinion, a lot of his own cruelty is "reactive": he acts "evil" because he expects the same from others ("evil expects evil from others), and decides he wants to beat them to the punch. He is comforted when he is in the presence of altruistic and empathetic people, because he doesn't have to be what he dislikes (as "enemy" evil will always make him react since he is threatened). In the end, he rationally sees that cruelty is negative, but he still feels it is an effective tool. If Dazai weren't this way, he wouldn't consistently choose empathetic people for his company throughout the story, while acting callous himself most of the time.

A lot of things Dazai does to me feel like he is avoiding hurt, or attempting to "control the pain" he gets in his life. Notably, Dazai mostly lets himself get "bullied" by people he sees as innocent and simple like Kunikida, since "Kunikida will never surprise him" - he knows that Doppo won't cross the line. Ironically, he famously says he "dislikes physical pain", but often gets himself into physically dangerous scenarios.

It's like he doesn't mind pain if he's the one in control (when Fyodor let the sniper shoot him, when that dude from Mimic shot him point blank). Avoidance of pain and control are other keys to Dazai's character. In that sense, I think Dazai was possibly traumatized and learned to almost completely disassociate from empathy early in his life. There are so many theories I could think of here that we'd get nowhere.

It is clear that Dazai is capable of extreme emotional empathy due to his relationship with Oda, and it's possible he doesn't allow himself to feel it in most scenarios due to his avoidant nature regarding pain. However, whatever the reason behind it, it is clear he doesn't feel a ton of emotional empathy in his day-to-day life, and this disassociation from empathy has crafted him into a person who doesn't fully understand "normal humans".

That is why he sees them as fascinating after Oda dies - he reaches Dazai's heart and opens him up to the idea that not all people are unempathetic and cruel - meaning Dazai doesn't always have to be on guard. Does Dazai have ASPD, or is his lack of empathy a result of other things: PTSD, CPTSD, is he perhaps autistic? I can't say for sure, as it could be so many things. Personally, anyone could make an argument for any of these in my eyes. Above, I mostly analyzed his displays of empathy and tried to study which emotional patterns he appears to follow. I think Dazai's character arc has a lot of worth specifically because we see someone for whom emotional empathy may not be natural trying to be good. It's a unique ethical dilemma, and that's one of the reasons I feel in love with the series. Since it isn't natural for him, his efforts mean a lot, and the struggle feels real and genuine.

Thank you all for reading if you made it this far <3 I've taken a lot of posts and translations I've gathered over the years, and I am sure I won't be able to thank everyone, but, I'd like to show appreciation for popopretty, aja154ever and many others for sharing info from exhibitions, databooks and so. Have a nice day !

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #bungo stray dogs #dazai #dazai osamu #osamu dazai #osamu #oda sakunosuke #bsd dazai #theory

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juni-ravenhall · 15 days

Text

long post about ydris & circus worker / traveller / romani stereotypes (+ unrelated but related heterochromia)

(.... and sse's behaviour around one traveller-coded character and then of a masc-ish woman of colour while they dont do this with their plain white toast characters)

yasmin told me to write a post about this after i was telling her about it, so here it is.

first for canon: ydris is obvs pandorian, non-human, and his human form does not necessarily read as a specific ethnicity or cultural belonging (but i will get back to his looks later in the post!). he throws in french words but he is pandorian. why he speaks french (or uses it for flair?) is not clear from the lore afaik.

anyway. there are stereotypes about people who work in the travelling circus (or in any circus at all, depending). these stereotypes often go hand in hand with stereotypes about romani people and other travelling people. (im talking both about circus people of the past and present.)

here are some examples of harmful stereotypes about travelling people, circus people, and romani people (often these are founded in being an "outsider", people dont like to trust outsiders and consider them strange for not being exactly the same as themselves, aka xenophobia):

thief, criminal, dangerous

trickery, lying, cheating

seduction, enchanting (can come back to ^ trickery etc)

unreliable, untrustworthy

immoral, and/or follows other morals/laws than "the norm" in the places they travelled to [and this is seen in a negative way]

promiscuous, unfaithful

mysterious, intriguing

using magic / reading fortunes (these can be connected back to trickery, mystery, seduction...)

wild, untamed

"are they good or bad?"

speaks a foreign language or a secret language (and may use this to talk behind the backs of locals / to trick locals)

sexualised on behalf of above points (immoral, mysterious, seductive, enchanting, wild, untamed...)

objectified and/or dehumanised on behalf of above points (i think you get it by now.)

these stereotypes can affect people who are, for example, european or american white people who work in a travelling circus. however, romani people, on behalf of their ethnicity, can be affected by these stereotypes about nomadic people even if that romani person doesn't live a nomadic lifestyle, because these stereotypes about romani people persist as racist and cultural stereotypes even when you take the travelling out of the equation. (i think irish travellers also face the stereotypes regardless of if they live as settled or as nomads?)

now, i want to say some things about ydris looks before i move on with the topic of these stereotypes, but first its important to note that sso is a swedish game made by swedish people, and whats considered "white" or "white passing" in the US is not the same as what it is in scandinavia or northern europe (i cant speak for other parts of europe well enough so i wont). its also more like "what part of europe"-passing rather than just "white" passing.

in sweden, you're not going to meet hispanic americans or african americans, for example, but you will see romani people and kurdish people, for example, and ofc, polish people, estonian people, people from around the area.... the minority groups are different in europe vs the US (vs anywhere else ofc. i hope USamericans learn that nowhere else is the US and you need to stop projecting shit on other places). the idea of whats "swedish ethnicity" or "scandinavian ethnicity" or "european ethnicity" and so on are not equal to "white american ethnicity". remember that many white ppl here can trace back their history like a thousand years in the same country, while white ppl in america are generally like, "my great grandpa came from germany, my great grandma from poland, and my girlfriend's family came from ireland" and so on. theres a mash of different cultures and ethnicities, which isnt the average case for white people in europe. (please: obviously im not saying "everyone is this" just on average. plenty of ppl are mixed here, or have grandparents who moved here, etc.)

i am a swede with dark brown hair and dark brown eyes and i have experienced white ppl colorism (im still not sure if colorism is the right word, but i think so. however its mostly harmless idiocy, but frustrating to hear over and over). i dont mind it anymore, i just think its stupid, now, as an adult. and colorism(?) within white people is not at all as bad as racism that poc experience in the same country - just to be clear. the reason i bring it up isnt to say "boohoo me", but to try to explain what "white passing" or "swedish passing" is in sweden, from a person who literally is white but is not considered swedish enough due to having darker eyes and darker hair.

anyway! ydris has black hair. from a swedish developer and swedish audience perspective, black hair is enough to make a character read as "foreign". (thats why we had this whole tangent ^ above.) but, we also dont need to rely on a vague hint of foreignness, because he throws in french words, and he's from pandoria. and a lot of people will associate the travelling circus and ydris' wagon with romani culture to some degree, whether or not that's accurate (again, circus culture and romani culture and other nomadic cultures can become mixed up). the black hair ties well into the image of a travelling circus person.

ydris is a sort of "chaotic neutral" in the story so far. he has different intentions than the "heroes" and "villains" both, and he is largely self-centered (focusing on his own desires - tho he seems to care about pandoria as well - and he likely experiences different feelings than the average jorvegian does, and his sense of morals and social rules are different). now, im sure you can see how that ties back into some of the stereotypes ive listed: he's a foreign outsider who cant be trusted, he is mysterious, is he good or bad?, he tricks people, he behaves chaotically (wild)...... etc

he also comes across as flirty towards the player, which im sure you can see, ties back in to things from the stereotype list like seduction, enchantment, and being promiscuous. if it helps, consider Esmeralda from Hunchback of Notre Dame, as an example of the harmful stereotype of seductive romani. (i loved disney hunchback when i was a kid, and i also want to point out that that movie handles the topic of how esmeralda has to do things just to scrape by, and she is demonised in the eyes of a rich white religious man in power, who is evil, while she herself is a good person and being oppressed and dehumanised. just leaving that here as food for thought, not to really defend or cancel anything, but to encourage ppl to view things in a nuanced way. the stereotypes are harmful and disney is an evil company, but there are also parts in that story that are criticising the right things. then theres other parts that are just ??? )

also, there is a significant population of romani in france, but ofc there are romani across many countries. yasmin pointed out when we talked that french is also seen as a "sexy language" - so it kind of both ties into the "foreign traveller from further down in europe" and "seductive romani" by having him use a language considered "sexy".

ydris also has heterochromia (one light blue eye and one dark blue) which isnt related to the idea of the traveller, but it *is* considered "mysterious", "strange", and potentially "untrustworthy". this is ofc really weird - heterochromia is a real life condition that completely normal people have. having heterochromia shouldnt be portrayed as anything weird or special - there is nothing mysterious or strange about it, or something "untrustworthy" (playing into things like being two-faced).

if you go back up to the list of harmful stereotypes, keeping the things ive said in mind, and how ydris behaves in the game..... im sure you can understand what im saying about the bigger picture. the combination of living in a circus wagon, being mysterious and flirtatious and living by his own rules, being untrustworthy, having black hair, throwing in french words, theres a lot of things that maybe seem okay out of context, but when you put them together, to me, it makes it clear that ydris is like.... romani coded, or something close to romani coded, despite, yes, technically being pandorian, i get it, thank you, its not relevant, he is not real, the staff at sse are real and their biases are real.

theres nothing wrong in itself with being flirty or promiscuous or seductive and whatnot - or with fictional villains, or chaotic, untrustworthy characters - the problem is the stereotype of a group of real people. especially when you're passing these stereotypes on to an audience of impressionable children. why is ydris the character being handled this way? why is sabine the character to be handled this way? why dont they handle plain white toast characters this way?

an important point is that i dont think neither ydris or sabine are really sexualised within the game itself - the more blatant stuff happens on sse's official social media. ydris is sexualised to some degree in the way that he flirts: again, it alludes to the seductive romani person, even if its very mild flirting (the stereotype is still perpetuated). sabine is mostly not sexualised in the game, just hyped up in general, but the social media team keeps milking the fact that ppl are thirsty for sabine. the post is not really about sexualisation as the focus. its about general questionable or outright harmful design choices, that sometimes also has to do with sexualisation and objectification.

this, as usual, isnt about cancelling sso or sse. its about being analytical and critical about the media you consume, and about biases both from creators and from audiences. its about learning how to be more understanding and respectful towards other people. and about raising your voice and holding ppl accountable when they perpetuate harmful things (esp if its people in power, like companies, celebrities, and politicians).

personally, i dont think you arent allowed to think ydris or sabine are hot. its okay if they are your type or if you relate to them or whatever, because like, ultimately we're surrounded by all these characters and real people everywhere in media that are affected by biases. but i DO think you need to actually think about this shit if you are thirsting for sabine or thirsting for ydris. i dont think its great to just be like, omg, typical ydris, he tricked me again and then he seduced me, typical circus people. or to be like, wow, sabine is so hot and should step on me, beefy women of colour are scarier than beefy white women, thats so hot. do you get it? you can be attracted to these charas without being racist or xenophobic or misogynist or whatever, they just happen to be your type, and thats nice, but you do need to think about how you view them and why, and how you talk about them and why, bc a lot of people have biases they arent even aware to, and might not understand what kind of biases you perpetuate. example: how apparently most ppl didnt think about the romani / traveller stereotype implications of ydris so i had to write this post. stay woke and pay attention to potential harmful stereotypes in media, so i dont have to write this shit anymore

#also disclaimer this post could be less of a mess. its sleep time and this wasnt the easiest topic to explain

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saintsenara · 1 year

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12 and 22 for violence asks

thank you so much for the questions from the choose violence ask game, pal!

12. who is an unpopular character you actually like, and why should more people like them?

petunia dursley.

now, before i get attacked for child abuse apologism, obviously her treatment of harry is abhorrent and harry is right to never see her again once he leaves that house.

but no situation is purely black-and-white and no person is purely good-or-evil, and petunia is one of the most fascinating characters in the entire series because of how utterly full of contradictions she is.

she's bitter and self-righteous and prejudiced and rigid, and also lonely and grieving and longing to escape the mundane into a world of magic. she hates her sister and she loves her and she's furious at her for dying. she's a middle-class stereotype who clearly grew up nothing of the sort, and her clinging to keeping-up-appearances is because she knows her new social class is fragile and dependent on vernon. according to pottermore, she left cokeworth at the age of sixteen to move to london on her own, which is genuinely brave, a term that we never see applied to her. she loves her son but her love for him is corrupting. she is a victim and a perpetrator all at once. and this makes her somebody profoundly interesting to read and write and think about.

[she is also, i think, one of the primary victims in fandom spaces of the adult cast being massively aged up in the films. in the books, if we imagine that she is, at most, three years older than lily, she marries and has dudley when she's in her early twenties and her sister is dead by the time she's 23-24. it is also implied that vernon is quite a bit older than her, and their relationship reads very differently when that is taken into account.]

22. what is your favourite part of canon that everyone else ignores?

that snape's worst memory is as much about voldemort as it is harry, snape, and the marauders.

seeing the memory and realising that his father was "every bit as arrogant as snape had always told him" is a major trigger for personality growth for harry.

he tends, throughout the series, to have a very black-and-white interpretation of things - people he likes are good, people he dislikes are bad, his perception of things is the correct one - but confronting the fact that snape's views of the marauders are justified starts him on the path towards understanding nuance in people which is fulfilled in deathly hallows.

in contrast, another orphan who looks absolutely identical to his father [and who, i am reasonably convinced, also has his mother's eyes] is unable to go on this journey towards nuance. when dumbledore first encounters him, tom riddle has an imagined view of his father every bit as hero-worshipping as harry's of james, but, unlike with harry, finding out he is wrong totally destabilises his entire world. it is one of the most profound differences in harry and voldemort's otherwise incredibly similar characters, and one which I think is much more interesting than the nebulous, dumbledore-ish concept of love-as-sacrifice.

[voldemort's relationship with his parents, especially his mother, is something i love more broadly: the fact he's furious when hepzibah smith insults merope! the fact he spends ages monologuing to harry in the graveyard about her! the fact he lies to himself that tom riddle sr. hated magic rather than, you know, being raped! the fact that his mother's locket is the only horcrux he hides in a place meaningful to him from childhood! he is such a mammy's boy, albeit one very much in want of a mammy, and i love fics that draw that aspect of canon out.]

[other answers from this ask game]

#asks answered #choose violence ask game #petunia defence league

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cangrellesteponme · 21 days

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Genuine question after reading the mey-rin essay (which I love btw, the way you wrote it? Immaculate): do you think the writing of women in Kuro could improve if they had more focus? Like, with Lizzie i personally did a whole 180° on how I feel about her once her past was more shown during book of Atlantic. Mey-rin I already loved her and after her own "focus" my love for her increased even more, it felt like reading something more real other than just a stereotype or a trope. I feel like they would all be more enjoyable (tho I'm biased because I love them) if they had more time to shine. *pls Yana, Ran Map focus one day, I would love to know more*

hi anon, first of all thank you, i’m glad you liked the essay :))

short answer: yeah, no. focus is not inherently redeeming.

so, we all clear on my take ? good, good. let’s get into a bit more detail. (and into some proper capitalisation)

Now, focus is great and all, but there has to be a reason the new information we get is interesting. In the cases of Lizzy and Mey-Rin, it kind of is the same phenomenon: now that we have more of this background information, it recontextualises aspects of the character we might not have cared for before, and we gain a renewed appreciation for a character we understand better. This works well, and kind of is a requirement, because they both got very rocky starts. We’re turning elements readers have identified as “bad” into parts of a more complex, “justified” whole.

However, I’m going to be very honest here, I think it’s stupid and doesn’t change the fact that the writing of women in Kuro is fucking horrendous.

It’s great for Mey-Rin: it doesn’t necessarily detach itself from previous characterisation and actually strengthens it (hence the feeling of it turning the stereotype more real), and causes no real change in the character. On top of that, the timing is perfect: right before a demonstration of pure loyalty, Yana shoves a big, red “THIS CHARACTER IS THE WAY THEY ARE FOR THIS REASON” sign, which associates the recontextualised elements with a virtue readers will absolutely love. All in all, absolute banger (with a few problems), let’s not write another essay.

But what the fuck was that with Lizzy? Don’t get me wrong here, I love writing about how awful gender is sometimes, but did we really need to do it… like that? In case what I mean isn’t clear, let’s do a quick recap. This very normal child with normal child behaviour (being girly, childish, emotional, and lowkey annoying, in a normal kid way) was very strongly hated (and. well. mocked by the narrative) for those traits, and her turning point is…? Let me check my notes. Ah, yes, the turning point is that Lizzy behaving like a girl is okay not because it just fucking is, but because it’s actually all a lie and deep down she’s a strong warrior who’s just acting like that because she was told to. Obviously you can’t just be both, silly! And yeah there’s more nuance to that, but I’m not writing a Lizzy essay, for a plethora of reasons. What bothers me is that the readers’ enjoyment of the character is dependent on the denial of her previous femininity, and it’s not just an unexpected effect – it’s how it’s written.

(and, sidenote: as a lizzy enjoyer i kind of hate the fandom’s general perception of her? at least with mey-rin it truly improved with time, but with lizzy… people still think of her the exact same way, they just spend a lot of time talking about how much they enjoy the “cooler” parts of her, instead of spending time shitting on the rest of it. anyway, no lizzy essay, i should keep my takes to myself before i end up in trouble!!)

So, based on those two examples: no, focus is not enough to let Yana show that she’s always been capable of writing women.

And as much as I love Ran Mao (which is a lot) I think I will have to deeply sigh at every single aspect of her character if we get more detail. I’ll take it, because I love her, but I will be even more acerbic in my criticisms. Because focus won’t fix her. If you pull a magnifying glass on shit it’s still shit. And the writing of women in Kuro is, in fact, very shitty.

so, anon, i hope my answer is at least interesting? obviously if yana somehow puts her head on straight and starts writing ran mao well i will be here for it but the odds are… not in our favour. as for the other women… well i’d love to see more of lady midford, but that seems unlikely, and i’m always here for more grelle, and her writing is… a complicated issue other people explain way better than i do. so yeah.

#kuroshitsuji #ota's ask answers #if i ever write another essay it would probably be about agni because yeah he's my favourite character #and it would be more literary. and actual character analysis. the mey rin essay was a lot of... fandom sociology?#which is not my field of study at all i'm a linguist #i have a pal in gender studies but that's about it for my exposure to that stuff

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willel · 8 months

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I am going to be honest, as a queer person it also irritates me when I see the GA talk about Will, especially in the context of his sexuality and them not noticing it and saying he must like Eleven. But at the same time, I have to agree with the GA on one part, and that is the way the show wrote things in terms of Will's sexuality (and his whole character... but that's another topic), they made it so subtle that most of the audience missed Will was gay. He doesn't even come out to Jonathan, and the fact that the scene between them both was also an afterthought left a bad taste in my mouth. The van scene happens so quickly into the episode too, so it has like a couple of minutes at most and then the audience's focus is shifted to the main plot. It isn't centered or anything, it kind of seemed like they just wanted to show it and then quickly move to the 'real things' to me. That's ofc partly dependent on how the Cali plot is overall written and their lack of screentime and focus compared to other plotlines, but the scene feels very out of touch with everything else going on, and on top of that the confirmation is not that obvious either, so it feels sort of weird. Most of the audience didn't notice the scene and didn't understand it because of the writing choices imho, so I really cannot fully blame the audience for their criticism and lack of noticing things.

But the thing is, it was not that subtle at all. You didn't have to be a super analyst to see the signs.

I am someone who likes critically thinking about the media I consume, but I often completely ignore the romantic aspects of characters. Most popular media these days boil down to a straight romance with a love triangle that didn't need to exist but the writers couldn't think of any other way to make it exciting.

I also don't put a lot of thought into character sexualities because it's always either a case of super straight no question about it, straight but the writers thought it would be fun to imply they're not, or gay in an almost stereotypical way that executives wanted to cash in on.

To me, Will was none of these things. He was just... an average kid in the closet. I started to pick up on it in season 2, mostly nearing the end. Joyce was teaching him how to dance at the ball but she was the lead which is usually what a guy does. Will clearly and obviously had no interest in dancing with that girl and it wasn't because she called him zombie boy. And finally, "every smile you fake" playing when he was on screen as the Mind Flayer, who was just inside his mind, was hovering over the ball.

It was then I went, "Ah, Will isn't straight. Not sure what he is exactly, but it's not straight. And the monster probably knows it. "

How can anyone not notice those things? You have to be blind not to see the signs. I don't think the writers need to be particularly overt and blast it in peoples faces, people should be able to pick up on those clues in my opinion. Especially how awkward Will was being with that girl compared to every single one of his male friends.

And then you got season 3??? How can anyone possibly think "It's not my fault you don't like girls!" and Will's absolutely devastated reaction to it could mean anything else? You really think a teenage boy would be on the edge of tears and have an emotional breakdown in the forest just because his friend said he doesn't have a crush or a girlfriend?

I mean I know teenage boys are emotional, but it was SO obvious what was being laid down and anyone who denied that was being purposely obtuse. People were arguing about it on reddit for years leading up to season 4 even though it WAS SO OBVIOUS.

And then in season 4???? No one has any excuse anymore not to see what was going on with him. It wasn't not subtle at ALL. I think even the straightest person you ever did see knows how a coming out scene might look like even if the words "I'm gay" are never said. That was the Will and Jonathan kitchen scene in a nutshell.

Maybe the writers could've done a few things here and there to make it even more obvious for the less observant people (like the cut script of season 2 when they had Will looking at Mike across the room dancing with El, though I feel they cut that because they were probably still debating on who would Will actually be interested in, Mike or someone new)

But I will not give the audience a pass at this point for missing what is right in their face. Especially when some of that audience is actively malicious against LGBT+ anything.

I do not advocate dumbing down our media or making things so overt that it's out of place so that people who refuse to analyze their media even a teeny tiny bit won't have to think at all. If a general audience member later realizes WIll was gay and says "Oh I didn't notice!", then their first thought should be, "Dang, I really missed that? I should rewatch and actually watch the show this time."

You don't need a big brain to consume Stranger Things. It's not as deep or complicated as some shows can get. But also, people shouldn't treat Stranger Things as the summer popcorn flick where they just go into the movies, laugh and giggle, and then forget everything as soon as the movie is over. There are too many people in the GA who treat it this way, ESPECIALLY after what season 3 turned out to be.

#ask #Anonymous

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zorilleerrant · 6 days

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I want to preface this by saying: everything is canon unless it's not. If you want to throw out pieces of canon that just make you uncomfortable or unhappy, or keep ones that don't make a whole lot of sense but bring you unbridled joy, go ahead! But I've seen people react to what is and isn't canon in odd ways that confuse me, so I wanted to make a breakdown of the different types of canon. Not how canon something is, but why.

Cultural Setting. The broadest type of canon, this includes both time and place (of publication usually, but older bits of design or writing will slip in here). Characters are assumed to have certain traits by default, and it will only be remarked if characters deviate from those traits, so they may make vague references to such a trait without it meaning anything, even if it kicks off story elements. Worldbuilding will assume types of places work types of ways, and plot elements will assume things that happen a lot or in a certain way. A lot of this is very specific to time or place! A lot of it is also ethnocentric and makes assumptions about "everyone" and "always".

Genre Setting. Also a fairly broad type of canon, this is where the story takes place within a genre dialogue. There are elements of genre - especially subgenre - that audiences expect to see, and without a good reason to exclude them, creators will typically put them somewhere in the story without assigning any particular meaning to them. Likewise, there are elements that are very marked if they're included without an explanation, so unless the creators have a reason to make those elements prominent, they usually won't include them even if they might have worked well in a different genre. Authors who aren't very familiar with the genre may guess wrong, and authors who are extremely familiar may specify subgenre in a way that's not as legible to their readers.

Social Position. This is a basic part of character design. The most common place for this to impact setting is through a character's work, home, or social life. The most common place for it to impact worldbuilding is through politics of oppression. It will probably only impact plot through person or place. This includes things like class, race, gender, sexuality, disability, religion, age, profession, etc. Some of these will be stereotypes or incorrect assumptions, but they intend to reflect common experiences of people in that category, and are tied to the category rather than the character specifically. They form a basis to create a more specific character, while still acknowledging how they see the world.

Character Archetype. Like the genre setting, different archetypes carry different expectations with them. These can include skillsets, attitudes, relationships with other characters, modes of speech, types of backstory, etc. There's usually a fair amount of wiggle room, which may be more or less depending on genre, but there tends to be a lot that a creator has to include or can't include if they don't want those traits to be marked. These also exist in plot - the stock plot, or the recognizable adaptation - but it's easier to see on the surface in a way characterization isn't usually when it's done well. There are archetypes of worlds, too, but they're usually covered by the genre setting if you're not talking specifics of worldbuilding. Background characters may only have this part.

Specific Traits. These are the things that make that story so unique. Traits given to the character to build up their personality, the place to create the feel of it, the plot to give it twists and turns. Obviously these don't belong to any one narrative exclusively, but they help differentiate even very formulaic narratives and give them (and the characters) personality.

Now, what do you do with this? Well, you put things in these different groups to help you create your AUs. If you change the time period, region, subculture, etc. you want to figure out which parts of the story were crafted as part of the first group. If you want to swap genres - and this can be very important in crossovers - you should look at what's tied to genre. If you want to change or delve further into a character's gender, race, age, job, etc. then you should figure out what components are tied to that. And if you're giving the character a new role in the story, you should look to their archetype to see what traits to swap out. The rest is probably stuff you should keep to make sure the character (or setting or plot or whatever you're fiddling with) is still recognizable.

Do keep in mind that a lot of this isn't consciously thought through or separated like this, and creators often have a feel for combining these different elements and do it intuitively. So there's nothing wrong with just winging it, or doing something because you feel like it makes sense. But if you're stuck on how to change what you're changing, maybe it's because you're thinking of it as part of a different category, and changing it too much or too little to suit the needs of your own creation!

#look i said something #writing advice

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yomiurinikei · 1 year

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tsurugi for the ask meme?

god the cws for this damn boy. uhh neglect and also i can’t see kinjomae as healthy w/what happens in the game and that’s discussed so. yeas

- My identity hc for them

gay little beast. he and kouhei had Something going on btw. anyways i also hc him as trans, it’s not one of those things i feel could actually fit into canon. but idgaf!! to me he is trans because i’m trans and so is my boyfriend (do u know him?) and every cool person is trans. tsurugi isn’t cool but i think he deserves a win once so he can have one in the form of getting to be trans!!!

- Thoughts on their home life/family

ogh. im using this bullet point as a chance to talk about stuff i’m not otherwise able to/which i don’t think i’ve shared? but like. agh…. how can anyone put into words literally anything about this little worms life. my hc for his mom is currently that she walked out when tsurugi was fairly young and isn’t interested in. any of it, so it’s just him and juu? so i think tsurugi started being left home alone Very Early, and going with his dad to work was like.. a nice treat away from being by himself for the majority of the day. which probably helped contribute to tsurugis entire identity and existence and everything revolving around his work as a police officer. aaaaaaa.

- How i feel about their canonical writing/handling

i don’t like what linuj did to him in sdra2 because amidst all the other controversies that arose with that game it really just felt lazy and like icky stereotypes. there was better ways to handle a tsurugi who had gotten worse/wasn’t doing well/etc past what happened in sdra2. i don’t like it and it doesn’t feel accurate to what should have happened if we were going to go the route of “tsurugi didn’t magically decide to go to therapy and heal”. i completely understand that people and especially fictional characters can get worse and have negative character development. but it’s the way in which tsurugi acted that felt lazy and ooc to me.

so anyways to retreat into the dark recesses of my brain. he’s so scrunkle… wet dish rag i am wringing all the water out of. i like him in dra i like the narrative role he plays i honestly think he’s v fun. i’ve waxed poetic before (not publicly i think? not about the thing i’m thinking of rn) about the tragedy of what happens to him and how u can read things as all being set up to screw boy over. but it’s just very interesting. i want to squeeze him so bad.

- The one thing i’d want to make canon about them

he and kouhei had frequent sleepovers at kouheis place. i don’t CARE if it doesn’t fit with tsurugis childhood i think kouheis parents were nice to him and cared about him. overall i just think all my thoughts on kouhei and tsurugi should be made canon. i should write a fic…

- My number one favorite ship for them

mmmm… right now it’s tsuhiko but all of the chatting about kouhei makes me wanna say tsuruhei. tbh i’m very versatile in who i ship tsurugi with i think he fits well with a lot of people (in non despair) and so long as there’s someone by his side i don’t really care who it is or if he holds hands with them or not.

- …Now everyone else i ship with them

mmm. kinji obviously, i still like teruya w/tsurugi in some aus, yamato but i’ll be honest i’m kinda weird about them. i think they’re separated. not divorced but separated. but also they’ve never dated they’re just besties. but also they have the most tender interactions. not to use this line but i think they should just have a weird very queer coded friendship where they both Know what the underlying vibe is and both choose to not broach the subject of how charged things are.

- The thing i will NEVER ship

tsurugi undeniably had feelings for yuki and while u can argue about how authentic yukis feelings were (ie were they just there to incentivize him to get closer so as to further damage tsurugi) it was definitely mutual. just again. how Real things were for yuki depends on how separate u view him from utsuro. uhhhhhhm. but just because feelings were there doesn’t mean it’d be good or healthy for them to date !.

- a dynamic/relationship i wish was explored more (in canon, or in fandom)

on my hands and knees fucking begging u all for more kouhei. if i make a p2 of my kouhei hcs will that be enough propaganda. what do u all want from me. uhhh also if there’s one thing i miss from old sdra fandom days it’s tsurugi + kizuna worsties content.

- thoughts on their design (appearance-wise)

ah… i definitely prefer his dra color palette over his sdra2 one but that could be because something about his look in sdra2 just feels very off to me. that in mind i fucking hate his pants why are they that shade of blue linuj get off ur knees for that shade of blue. it’s too fucking bright it stands out so much. anyways i understand the uniform but i’d like to see him in like… maybe smthn professional/more formal, but not? the dress shirt and tie.

- A music-related thought- a song that reminds me of them, or what their music taste is, etc

oh god oh fuck if i don’t find a good song this is going to be. so miserable for me and i will get cyber bullied again. uhhh. wires - the neighborhood bc lol make sure u tell him the right wire to cut tsurugi! don’t fuck it up lol! haha it can’t be that hard surely this is the same as all the other bomb diffusals right? right tsurugi? im the ceo of intentionally misinterpreting songs to fit my vision. mkay that’ll work. damn i need to listen to more music before i go do more ask memes

#tsurugi kinjo #yomis ask meme

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twisted-wonderland-but-gayer · 2 years

Note

no one asked but here's my opinion anyways

things i hate seeing in fanfic [CW: i'm mean]

uwu shy smol reader: what.

gn!reader!! and then reader is not gender neutral: is it hard. is it so fucking hard for you. please log out for me

fem!reader with no tag/no warning: shut the fuck up shit the fuck up shut the fuck up. do you know people who aren't women exist. did you know that the world does not revolve around you? its not hard, it's 2 words, 10 letters. you are terminally stupid.

no commas: why,,,, why....

reader is completely helpless and useless: why would anyone want this???? please get some self respect

abusive/toxic relationships, with no tag: yeah thanks i love being abused by my favorite character this is so nice. unless you like angst why would you want this?? ah uh yeah, this character would totally abuse you and manipulate you <3 because that's just so them <333 yes this is totally canon and plausible wdym? <3333

"hey can reader do anything dominant or like be confident or assertive" no lol! this character who is dominant cannot not be in control! they will literally do anything to have the higher ground!! they will wrestle any bit of control out of your hands! and also they'll make fun of you and you will be all blushy and flustered an like "n-no character!! stoppp *uwu eyes*": what. are you okay? this is not healthy behavior i don't think

this character has 1 (one) personality trait and that is that they are incredibly mean and do not respect you as a human being!! you are nothing but a plaything to them! they are incapable of positive emotions!: i'm 90% sure this is some weird kink thing. also, why would you want this in a relationship.

character is mean to you and reader does nothing: no tf? i'm beating they ass. no one is allowed to disrespect me especially not my damn s/o

reader is so small and short and frail and petite and weak!! character needs to protect them!!!: stereotypes about a certain body type that piss me off

reader is flustered easily: it's really fucking annoying to me, idk why, honestly.

reader blushes: i'm black. people who are not pale read fanfic too yaknow. it's really not hard to just?? not write that??? you can be bashful/embarrassed/flustered in other ways

sub and/or bottom reader not being tagged: you are stupid. also, why is it always sub reader? why is it always bdsm? why the fuck

obviously, there are exceptions to each of these!

and authors are totally free to write what they want! i'd just like some sort of warning first before reading anything like this.

also, i'm confused on writers making it a point that reader is very much weaker/less smart (in any way) than the characters. if a character is super strong or intelligent, realistically reader would be less so. but why would you go out of your way to emphasize that? and why would you want this? you could literally be anything, the possibilities are endless, and you choose this?

these are almost all about annoying incompetent y/ns and unhealthy relationships

Simple: black people don't exist ❤️

In all seriousness I try to avoid certain troupes in my writing or at least try an justify what the reader does. I love angry or wild characters but I also like rational ones or MCS that have a feel or personality to them. For example this MC isn't shy, but it wouldn't be wise to start anything right now because of X or maybe they'll get revenge later.

As for nsfw I feel like ppl immediately assume bottom=sub when service tops and power bottoms exist. I usually write MC as a switch that can go either depending on my mood cause it's so boring if you just stick to one imo.

And the skin tones... I come from a mixed af family and have some black sisters that have a hard time finding content for them. It's why I try and keep MC as neutral as possible. Hell, my ocs are alien monsters that are cold-blooded they can't blush. So unless stated otherwise MC is completely up to the readers interpretation: Pale, Dark, Scaly, ect. For much more monstrous mcs that require more descriptions I tag it as monster mc.

My advice for people who dont really know how to write neutral. Describe actions or feeling of an MC that would make sense. Rather than blush why not say "they felt a little flustered/off guard" or "a flustered expression crosses their face." Try not to describe hair, and if you mention it even for a second, let people know.

As for characterizing MCS. It's okay to want to make a Mary sue or a weaker MC, as long as it's written well.

Give your readers a choice. "You decided to to punch them, whether it's because your exhausted or they're not worth the trouble, you don't know." Or give a bit of vague backstory. "You remember what happens if you stay out to long. Best to keep quiet/get home/be wary."

You can leave your readers or mcs backstory up to interpretation for the reader and hey is you get comments on your fics or discussions about then, like for example Food Truck Yuu/Beast Tamer Yuu then you can incorporate it into your work as people all decided to agree on what character they want to be. This way it doesn't feel like someone's OC but rather, developed instead.

Idk sorry for the weird rant advice it's just my take. Even I mess up sometimes you know?

#not writing #not requests #rant tw #rant #in case #advice #long post

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shrimpmandan · 2 years

Text

I honestly really, really hate the sanitization of mental illness in writing spaces. People are so on-edge about mental health awareness that they ironically end up not being very aware at all. This is mostly about mental illness and how it relates to violent or criminal activity, abusive behaviors, and just in general being a bad person or doing bad things.

I should preface by saying I, and almost everyone in my immediate life, is mentally ill. I am speaking from personal experience and not for the entire mental health community. I won’t be naming specific diagnoses, but I will be talking about how people don’t like to acknowledge that, yes, mental health DOES contribute to toxic behaviors and sometimes even violence.

Destigmatizing mental illness is a good thing. There is LOADS of misinformation out there about mentally ill people, stereotyping them as inherently dangerous or volatile. Obviously, this isn’t accurate. The issue is people have gone to the complete opposite end of the spectrum and begun to silence and shun mentally ill people who display those stereotypical behaviors. Mental illness is insanely broad. Certain disorders may be characterized by violent impulses or ideations, while others aren’t. It really depends. And even still, no two people with the same disorder will act the same way. One person with Borderline Personality Disorder may be kind and compassionate, another person with the exact same disorder may be violent and cruel, or maybe even both depending on the day -- the severity of symptoms fluctuate for most disorders! Stereotyping all mentally ill people as being incapable of doing wrong is just as bad as stereotyping all mentally ill people as monsters; the former is infantilizing, but both are dehumanizing.

I personally write characters based off of my own experience, both with my own mental illnesses and with my family’s. Every single person in my immediate household with the exception of my brother has either considered, openly discussed, or attempted violent or abusive acts. We’re all trying to unlearn toxic patterns. That’s just how we are. I write characters based off of this, and I can’t say that mental illness HASN’T contributed. I would not be as angry and unstable as I am if it weren’t for years of trauma, I can say that much. Mental illness, while rarely a sole cause, is a contributor to violent and toxic behaviors. You also have to consider environmental factors, such as if the person is in a supportive environment where they can get help or not. Maybe they live somewhere where violence and death is simply normalized.

It’s important to kill misinformation about mental illness, but to say that mental illness never contributes to acts of violence and abuse counts as misinformation as well. Mentally ill people who are like myself WILL see these messages about how portraying mentally ill people as violent is inherently bad, and internalize it to believe they themselves are bad.

#personal #mental health #mental illness #mental health awareness #writing #psychology #ok to rb #tw abuse

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madtomedgar · 1 year

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umm genderbend 3zun (obviously) and yanli? (maybe lan qiren?)

unfortunately sometimes my genderbend thoughts on a particular character are "no." And to me, Nie Mingjue's character is so intrinsically wrapped up in toxic hyper-masculinity that I just can't make it work. Like. Part of my philosophy of gender-bends is that a character's relationship to gender should be mirrored. So a very gender-conforming character should stay gender conforming. A character that is perceived as effeminate should in a genderbend be seen as kind of manly or unladylike or like. crude/harsh/rough in that particular "failing at woman" way. And with Nie Mingjue and characters like him, they just can't fill the same role in the story as a devotee and enforcer of the worst aspects of femininity. I know a lot of people love "butch" f!Nie Mingjue, by they mean "big muscly woman with an undercut," and like. I hate that. To me it's reminiscent of a particular type of butch fetishization where we are seen as like. Big, hypermasculine canvases to project fantasies onto, and also a collection of negative stereotypes where we're angry, violent, kind of dumb, gruff, pushy, negging, dominant, with no real feelings or desires beyond the erotic fantasy and the psychosexual repulsion etc. So. Those are my feelings on r63 3zun. Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao as women is the best, but he just... he can only be a guy. I could get behind a trans guy Nie Mingjue who has bought into the worst parts of masculinity and thinks by going as hard as he can in that direction he can completely rid himself of any lingering trans-ness, but that is definitely not my story to tell or explore, yknow.

In terms of Yanli. I also don't love taking the one or two women in a cast of men and... making them men also. What, were there not enough men here already? But, ok. Madam Yu's firstborn, and he's... ah. He's ill. He's weak. He's sweet and sensitive, and he wants... oh no. He wants to be a Scholar. Where did those genes even come from what the fuck. I think a lot about how this goes though depends on whether or not Jiang Cheng is also gender-bent, and if Jin Zixuan is gender-bent, and what's going on with Wei Wuxian. Because sickly nerd m!Yanli and f!Jiang Cheng who is... Jiang Cheng and canon Wei Wuxian is basically Madam Yu's personal nightmare and that'll be a Whole Fun Thing. But if Jiang Cheng is still himself, and Wei Wuxian is still himself... I think Wei Wuxian might be more annoying to her but less threatening. I don't think m!Jiang Yanli would be a Mei Changsu mastermind type, he's just a fucking nerd in a family of jocks. He's writing poetry to praise Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian's exploits and doing really interesting things with it that you only get if you know a lot of literary theory. He is like. Mr. Older Brother but has no interest or ability to be the heir. Idk Jiang Yanli is also hard because so much of her character is just... feminine domesticity and passivity. And like. You could keep that but that's just a bodyswap OR it's a very different character because then they have Gender Issues bigtime, as opposed to having issues of like... conforming too well. Idk if that makes sense.

... Actually I could get behind trans woman Jiang Yanli. That would be AMAZING. Like. oh man. ok. Her brothers are both like "yes this is our sister duh. do you need glasses are you stupid do you want to die." Jiang Fengmian is like... well he can either have a failson or he can have a daughter who is... fine. So sure, let the kid be happy. Yeah ok it burns out the golden core a bit to make their body conform to their spirit like that but whatever, this kid was never going to be a great cultivator, this way she's happy. Jin Zixuan is like. A mega dickhead about it and the Yunmeng brothers are Going To Murder Him in this life and the next :D. (Jiang Yanli wishes they would stop because all it does is draw more attention to this and she just... she just wants to be a normal girl.) Jin Zixuan comes around post-sunshot and realizes he was a mega-dickhead and that Jiang Yanli is the best woman alive, actually. And Madam Yu. Oof. The thing is she would be much cooler, proud and happy even, if Jiang Yanli took after her. But from her perspective, Jiang Fengmian let one of her sons become weak and useless on purpose to insult her specifically, and now her daughter is setting herself up to be a defenseless laughingstock and doormat, and everyone will blame her for it. So she is awful about it. And like... Jiang Yanli was just never going to be a warrior, or a hero, or a strong assertive person, because that's just not who she is. She just wants to love people and have her family close, and make food, and take care of kids, and it's... not about gender but it kind of is, but not like her mother thinks. She gets exactly what she wants in the end, and nothing bad ever happens to her or Jin Zixuan or Jin Ling (Wei Wuxian created a method to have magic babies just for shijie). Yeah. This, I love.

#untamed stuff #rule 63 #every day i lose more respect for nie mingjue #i like. rarely do stuff with making characters trans #mostly because like. it's not my story to tell and #i worry about fucking it up yknow #so if i have indeed fucked it up i am very sorry #and if you feel up to it please let me know so i don't do it again #yeah

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aimmyarrowshigh · 2 years

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I think I might have asked this already so feel free to just ignore if you didn't feel like answering but how is Finnick feminized by the narrative? Apart from the obvious.

DISCLAIMER: I haven't reread THG in a LONG time.

Oooh man, that's a deep cut from the blog, lol! I mean, from what I remember of my line of thinking -- mostly the obvious, insofar as Finnick is largely defined by outsiders' perspectives of his physical appearance; is a story of sexual trauma that is not about reclaiming power through retribution (which would be a more stereotypically 'masculine' trauma-recovery story, not that male victims of sexual violence are get their stories told all that often); and the climax of his story is marriage and having a child.

To whit: I am not saying any of those are FEMININE THINGS in the real world. I am saying that in Western storytelling, those things are generally reserved for female CHARACTERS and are framed in THG in a way that INTENTIONALLY SUBVERTS GENDER EXPECTATIONS, much like many of the THG characters do. Most notably, ofc, Katniss and Peeta. (I wrote a whole chapter on Panem & Gender in The Panem Companion if I rememberrrr correctlyyy? where I go into Katniss and Peeta's gender subversions, so you can check that out for them!)

I think I also touched on Finnick in there, too, but since writing TPC, I've um. improved. as a writer. and also tightened my focus a lot on analysis, so what ISN'T touched on in TPC re: Finnick and gender, and also Katniss and gender, is on the actual sentence-level language used to talk about Finnick. Since THG is told in Katniss' first-person POV at a fairly close psychic distance and without any explicit narrative unreliability, we can take Katniss' judgments of Finnick to be her personal truth (and that is why, when Katniss learns that Finnick isn't a playboy, he's a trafficked sex slave, it's such a shock for the reader, too -- because we have been going through three books taking Katniss' POV on Panem as the truth, and that's one of the moments when we remember that she is just one traumatized and very sheltered 17-year-old girl, and she's not omniscient).

Katniss views Finnick, in CF, with the same disdain that she mostly reserves for people of the Capitol and for other girls and women. Katniss? Does not like Other Girls and Katniss does not like Women. She has a mile-wide Not Like Other Girls streak going. She tends to introduce and view male characters in terms of their potential danger to her, and she introduces and views female characters -- and Finnick -- by rejecting the idea of their interiority and/or commenting on their appearance in some way, depending on how she will be interacting with them. (Caveat: that's only true for the characters who Katniss actually introduces with any detail at all, which is NOT that many.)

Finnick inspires in Katniss a very similar reaction as Effie or the Prep Team, which I think was *intended* to compare him to the Capitol since Katniss thinks at that point that he is a willing Capitol citizen and ~lover~, but functions metanarratively as Katniss falling into the same trap OF THE CAPITOLITES THEMSELVES by viewing Finnick as a sexual object rather than a person with a private inner life.

Also, Finnick fulfills the trope of the courtesan-spy. He is let into the beds of the wealthy and powerful because he's beautiful and seen as simple or less-than, and he uses it to bring down the wealthy and powerful by exposing their depravity. He's word-for-word the courtesan-spy trope, except he's a man. It's ARGUABLE that his maleness is undercut by how young he was when he started being trafficked and therefore he's functioning in this trope as a child rather than as a man, but like, he's 24 when he finally gets to air all the dirty laundry, so I think it counts. This is probably the most The Obvious(TM) answer, but it's still true.

Also, Finnick's story is a rape recovery story. While obviously rape does happen to men (and people outside the binary), the Western canon basically says that rape recovery stories are the provenance of women. This is the other most The Obvious(TM) answer, so I'm not going to go into it (also because I'd want to pull specific examples from Mockingjay that take place during his breakdown and I'm not going to go to the other room and get my book womp womp).

And also also: Finnick's story is a love story. It's a Fairytale Romance. "𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐮𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐥𝐲, 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐰𝐨, 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐬𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐞, 𝐞𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐝, 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐦 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐚 𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐥, 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐲. 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠. 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞." The centerpiece of Finnick's existence is his romance, his love, his WEDDING. Again, obviously men get married, but in storytelling, romance stories are generally The Woman's Story (And A Man Is There) and not The Man's Story. (Except in fanfiction, which is a whole other essay.)

#the hunger games #books #ya lit #**thg

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longlivethereaper · 10 months

Text

💜Hello! My name is Reaper, 26 NB, EST. I work overnights but have the freedom to be available to talk pretty much my entire shift and am also awake in the afternoons. I almost always respond as soon as I see the message unless I'm playing a video game, driving or something else important has my attention. I write typically 1-4 paragraphs, maybe more depending on the situation but I will always give you enough to work with for a response. I only roleplay via discord!

What I require from my roleplay partner:

1. At least one response a day, though I very much prefer more. I find it frustrating to have to pick up and try to remember what's going on every day, especially if I like the plot but it's moving too slowly for anything to actually happen. I understand life happens but please let me know if you're going to be unavailable for an extended period of time or if you just don't reply a lot, then don't respond.

2. Literacy. I dont require a certain amount of paragraphs to be written but I do require basic grammar. Punctuation, quotation marks, new paragraphs for new situations. This is a hobby about writing and I don't want to have to decipher each and every post you make. Spelling errors happen, I do it all the time but as long as I have contextual clues, it's fine!

3. No real life face claims and no stolen art. I know not everyone can draw but there is picrew and other means to make a character. Even if they're just described, that's perfectly fine. I don't mind to draw your ocs!

4. Must be 18+ as there will be NSFW themes involved! This is for my comfort.

Things that I'm comfortable with:

-Obviously the LGBTQ community as I'm apart of it! I only roleplay MLM at this moment as it's what I'm most comfortably. I prefer writing the bottom however I will write all sorts of dynamics if I'm into a certain idea.

-Omegaverse. I don't do A/A or O/O and I don't have much experience with betas but I'd be willing to hear out ideas for it. I like stereotypical omega and alpha personalities and am down for some of the darker sides of this Fandom if that's what you would call it but that can be discussed privately.

-Fantasy. In fact, it's what I prefer! Modern/strictly humans can be incredibly boring and stagnant to me and I have mostly nonhuman characters anyways.

Roleplay Ideas:

Sugar daddy/sugar baby

(ABO)deity impregnates omega and sticks around in secret to make sure they're taken care of

Childhood friends now adults who have been pining for each other for ever

Two mafia family's sons get together, one knows who the other is but the other has no idea.

Open to others!

Best way to contact me is to either like this post or dm me directly!

#Roleplay #Mlm #Mafia #Search #Mxm #Ocxoc #Roleplay search #Discord

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xmanicpanicx · 2 years

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If you want your protagonist to be likeable...

There is a certain set of “don’ts” you’ve got to avoid. There is a trend lately toward having protagonists that are “unlikeable,” but I feel like that’s a bit of a misnomer. These trendy characters may be unpleasant, but that doesn’t make them unlikeable. This is because we can often relate to the so-called unlikeable aspects of these characters: unbridled anger, a selfishness borne of being unable to depend on anyone else, etc. I think it’s great that we’re seeing more protagonists, especially young female characters, that aren’t universally palatable because it shows people that it’s okay to be fed up, to stand up for yourself, to have a string of bad days (or weeks or months). Many people are like this in real life, and showing them that they aren’t alone, that their feelings and experiences are valid, is important. In fact, I would say all of us are “unlikeable characters” sometimes. You don’t have to shrink yourself down so that the world will accept you because the world belongs to you just as much as it belongs to anybody else.

In my own personal opinion, truly unlikeable characters are either hateful or annoying. Fortunately, hateful protagonists are not very common. Hateful characters are the ones that are filled with prejudice or harm innocent people, without ever changing their thoughts and actions or showing any sort of remorse. It’s pretty hard for most people to relate to a psycho.

An annoying character, based on my own pet peeves and what I’ve seen people write in book reviews over the years, has one or more of the following traits. Here’s the aforementioned set of “don’ts”:

1) Don’t make your protagonist bland. Some people would call this type of character a Mary Sue or a Gary Stu. This character has no personality to speak of, their voice is indistinct, and they are entirely forgettable. You can’t really hate a character like this, I guess, but you can’t like them either. This is automatically annoying because a) people read books expecting to feel something, but how can they when they’re reading from the perspective of someone like this? or b) it’s maddening to see interesting things happen to and interesting characters interact with a bland protagonist who really has only one thing going for them: they’re the protagonist.

2) Don’t make your protagonist hypocritical. Unless they eventually become self-aware about this. We’re all guilty of hypocrisy sometimes, but few things are less tolerable in another person than this. Double standards are infuriating.

3) Don’t make your protagonist a whiner. I’ve read far too many novels wherein the female teenage protagonist complains endlessly about the pettiest, most trivial things. As a teenage girl, I was pretty insulted by the stereotype actually lol. Again, whining is something we’re all guilty of occasionally, and we let the people we love whine to us because we love them and because we understand that everyone needs to vent sometimes. But reading a character’s rants about first world problems holds exactly zero appeal, unless you write it like a comedian would for their bit onstage, where they complain about everyday things in a funny, relatable way, but they don’t go on like the world owes them something.

4) Don't make your protagonist a bonehead. If they’re constantly making decisions that are quite obviously stupid from any angle, the reader will become frustrated. This also plays into the misstep of using a character as a plot device without giving them a strong motivation for their actions. Many YA novels of the mid-to-late 2000s and early 2010s featured these characters, unfortunately. Yet another unbecoming stereotype of teenage girls. I can’t remember any specifically stupid decisions that annoyed me in these books at the moment, so I’ll just use a universal example. You know in a thriller/horror movie when a character is alone, and they hear a strange noise in their house, so they go to investigate, and the whole time you’re thinking on repeat “Don’t go there!” because you know, and you believe it should be pretty obvious, that that’s where the killer is? That’s the kind of stupid decision I’m talking about. Although when I hear a noise, I usually go investigate because I don’t want whatever made the noise to find me first. So maybe I’m stupid, too.

Anyway, if you automatically avoid these four no-nos (plus the hateful character traits), I guarantee you, your protagonist will automatically be more likeable than at least a good quarter of the protagonists already out there.

#writing rants #writing tips #writing advice #character #characterization #character development #writing protagonists

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findyourrp · 10 months

Note

What I require from my roleplay partner:

4. Must be 18+ as there will be NSFW themes involved! This is for my comfort.

Things that I'm comfortable with:

-Fantasy. In fact, it's what I prefer! Modern/strictly humans can be incredibly boring and stagnant to me and I have mostly nonhuman characters anyways.

Roleplay Ideas:

Sugar daddy/sugar baby

(ABO)deity impregnates omega and sticks around in secret to make sure they're taken care of

Childhood friends now adults who have been pining for each other for ever

Two mafia family's sons get together, one knows who the other is but the other has no idea.

Open to others!

Best way to contact me is to either like this post or dm me directly!

like & asker will find you!

#rp finder #18+ rp #oc rp #oc x oc rp #fandomless rp #rp ad

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findroleplay · 10 months

Note

What I require from my roleplay partner:

4. Must be 18+ as there will be NSFW themes involved! This is for my comfort.

Things that I'm comfortable with:

-Fantasy. In fact, it's what I prefer! Modern/strictly humans can be incredibly boring and stagnant to me and I have mostly nonhuman characters anyways.

Roleplay Ideas:

Sugar daddy/sugar baby

(ABO)deity impregnates omega and sticks around in secret to make sure they're taken care of

Childhood friends now adults who have been pining for each other for ever

Two mafia family's sons get together, one knows who the other is but the other has no idea.

Open to others!

Best way to contact me is to either like this post or dm me directly!

#rp #roleplay #mxm rp #omegaverse rp #fantasy rp #original rp #oc rp #fandomless rp

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