Celes BSD

Chuuya and Dazai both question their humanity in different formats. With Chuuya it’s a matter of the possibility that he was a clone and was Arahabaki but with Dazai it’s a matter of if his apathy stops him from being human.

Chuuya’s dehumanization is a result of not only being experimented on but could also be related to being “King of The Sheep”, it’s heavily implied that Chuuya was used just for his ability and wasn’t seen as entirely human to the sheep. Instead he was (to them), his ability itself. They didn’t think he was human due to the power he has.

With Dazai, his dehumanization stems from his apathy, his inability to act like a “human”, throughout everything we have seen with Dazai, he seems to be just someone pretending to be human. Being labeled as the Demon Prodigy did not help one bit in this aspect as it made everyone view him worse. Dazai being the Demon Prodigy just made it acceptable for everyone around him to dehumanize him. It’s easier to pretend that someone bad is just a monster rather than recognizing they are an actual person with feelings.

Now, we know that Dazai was fully prepared for Yokohama to burn if it meant Chuuya could prove his humanity to himself, we know that Dazai fully thought of Chuuya to be human from the very beginning, he had no doubt that Chuuya was anything but human— and I think that stems from Dazai implying that Chuuya made him feel alive.

That isn’t a stretch, we can see in the anime itself where it was implied (when fighting Arthur Rimbaud and the Old PM boss) “Really, a suicidal maniac like you wants to live?” “I figured it was worth a shot.” In Dazai’s eyes, his purpose to continue- a goal to keep going towards, is Chuuya himself.

Chuuya seeing Dazai as human stems from the mistakes Dazai makes- his willingness to change- the way he’s calculated and planning. That’s what makes Dazai human to Chuuya.

And, we know that Chuuya would’ve left with Dazai, he would’ve followed out of the PM and Dazai knew that- but he also knew that Chuuya needed to stay there to support Akutagawa and have a friend on the inside of the PM.

Outside of the PM we can still see that their trust runs deep- past the lines of having sides. With Dead Apple, the Prison Arc, and even in Beast where their relationship is so complex and well-developed.

They’re also heavily codependent on each other, that doesn’t mean that Chuuya is weak or Dazai is weak but the codependency does exist in their relationship— Dazai relying on Chuuya as a person, the trust, the power, the relationship, the humanity. And Dazai, vice versa.

Even as an analyzer of BSD, I cannot label the complexity of their relationship. You can play it as romantic or as platonic. There’s no direct way we can know because of the writing. The writing of them purposefully leaves it ambiguous- something to figure out on our own and that what makes it so special to me.

I personally see Dazai and Chuuya as a soul ripped apart- meant to be one but can never be. Play that as romantic or as platonic, up to you. But, I do think that some parts of the fandom who think Dazai and Chuuya are the only “healthy” relationship in BSD is wrong. It’s impossible for a healthy relationship to exist in BSD. That’s just the nature of the show.

So, relating this to Q, their ability is a mind control that forces illusions on people who intentionally or unintentionally harmed them, we can relate this to Freudian Psychoanalysis since Q makes an unconcious thought (I assume fear?) conscious as an illusion that drives people to attack others because of it. Q thinks of their ability as a curse because they know how dangerous it is, and we also know that abilites can influence the user as well so perhaps Q's psychotic nature is due to their ability and how they grew up.

Q has some major issues on how they see society as well, their hatred of their ability was obviously a result of how people treated them and perhaps they feel that society deserves to be forced to see their fears (we know that Q has "fun" when using their ability on others after all). Their personality seems to flip flop between being an innocent child and being sadistic, they are good at following directions and ignoring their wants.

When Q was captured by the guild, we saw that they were easily influenced, they took answers that were given to them and believed it easily, even when it was something that mentally harmed them or made them hate themselves even more. Q's appearance could also relate to their personality since it seems split, half black and half white hair, different shaped pupils, etc.

This ties into him wanting to murder Fyodor- Fyodor is someone Nikolai cares for, someone who Nikolai loves because Fyodor is one of the few that understands him- so, in all these emotions of care that Nikolai is holding, comes the want to murder. He wants to be free of his feelings that are attached to Fyodor.

It’s also why it was so startling to see him so upset over the possibility of Fyodor being dead- because Nikolai doesn’t *want* to feel those emotions but he does anyways.

Circling back to being a “villain”, Nikolai does so because it’s easy to push people away when you’re hurting them. It’s easy to lose yourself- easy to lose your morality because you’re doing bad things that society doesn’t approve of. Nikolai joined the DoA for a place of belonging- for a place to be free from society’s limits, emotional limits, but Nikolai’s want for “freedom” is impossible- and Nikolai knows this. He stays anyways, because the DoA and Fyodor is the closet he’ll get to bring “free.”

“Crime is always accompanied by illness”

“All transgress the law; they are destroyers or disposed to destruction according to their capacities”

“If he has a conscience he will suffer for his mistake. That will be his punishment.”

Now, what does this tell us about Fyodor’s ability? It’s specific, unlike the pure chaos that it seems to be at first. We know that Fyodor killed Karma, made Ace commit suicide, and took over Bram’s body, etc. So, my guess is that it’s literally based off of the amount of crime one does. Ace and Karma are in the mafia, so it makes sense, and with Bram being a Vampire he’s probably committed so many crimes in his time.

The reason why Fyodor took over Bram’s body is because Bram did more crimes than either Karma or Ace did. Fyodor sees himself as some kind of “savior” as you will (which is also a direct reference to Raskolnikov being called a prophet in C&P, “What prophet are you? From the height of what majestic calm do you proclaim these words of wisdom?”)

Breaking this down more; we know from 116-117 that Fyodor knows a divine being (Ame-No-Gozen) and everything was Fyodor’s plan from the beginning. So- assuming Fyodor is a prophet (or maybe even have a god in him like Chuuya with Arahabaki) he is also fit to give out “punishments” to humans who commits crimes, and this is done by killing (or taking over) them.

Where I think it gets specific is how Fyodor/Fyodor’s ability determines the type of punishment one gets, because we know that it’s different for each person, Karma died from being touched, Ace died from suicide, and Bram died by getting taken over, so there’s some type of specifications that determines the punishment, I just don’t know what it is. It also brings into question how Fyodor determines a crime, since we know Fyodor’s morals are lose, much like Dazai’s.