he/him

He's an asshole. He supports his friends. He pursues success so hard he's willing to cheat openly. He never sabotages anyone. He’s vengeful. He calls Mecha Man a hero regardless. He almost dies after being locked up in a sensory deprivation tank and never blames anybody. He’s confident. Trees make him insecure. He has no idea how to be kind to people. He likes helping others. He wanted to die as a villain. He wants to live as a hero. He likes who Flambae is. He never talks about Chad.

One of the first bits of information that you can find on Dissociative Identity Disorder is that it is a disorder founded in childhood trauma, usually causing polyfragmentation of the self. A single fragmentation of the self caused in FULL ADULTHOOD may as well be psychologically impossible. I’m a college student with one psychology course under my belt and I know that. Yamanaka has a fucking psych degree and somehow put less research into writing Mikoto’s disorder than I did writing fanfiction about him. IN HIGH SCHOOL. Because he didn’t want to let go of his ableist narrative.

Because let’s be frank, it is absolutely an ableist narrative. I can see that the intention is to critique the intense stress of Japanese workplace culture on the mentally ill, which is a noble idea, but the fact remains that the narrative of people with disorders like schizophrenia and DID being habitually violent and dangerous is rooted in the idea that mentally ill people are to be othered and shunned instead of helped and empathized with. All this time, I thought the intention with Mikoto was to employ the trappings of this harmful trope as a framing device that the writers then intended to deconstruct. Clearly, that was too much to hope for.

Happy disability pride month!! I had a dream a few nights ago where I met and fell madly in love with Barry Styles so I decided to draw him 💄💖

(Alts under cut)