was it someone you loved?

it was weird to see fyodor make expressions that aren't just "smug" lol, though the last time we see him he was getting a bit a-head of himself so it makes sense

I havent gathered my thoughts on this topic so im curious to hear your opinion. do you think the port mafia has been romanticized in recent bsd chapters? what with tachihara's arc etc.

no pressure ask btw!

ty king :)

yoooo! it's always so good to see you in my notifs omg!!!

uhhh as for "romanticised", tbh i never understand what that term really means somehow. like, in canon it's seen as less dangerous and threatening now? yes i guess, it has definitely gone down the "first enemy of the protags that later ends up becoming a team in the face of greater evil" path, but that was obviously always the intent of the port mafia's arc. the very point of keeping mori at the head of the port mafia is that he loves yokohama in all its twisted glory, and just like the ADA and the Special Abilities Division, has a vested interest in keeping Yokohama safe from outsiders that infiltrate it for the Book.

talking about tachihara's arc (that is, how being in the port mafia is shown as a good thing), i think...hm. when thinking about tachihara specifically, his alternative is the hunting dogs, which to me reads as the frontline of authoritative fascism in BSD (flay me alive for this take but! fukuchi, their leader, falls for fyodor's fearmongering tactics and ends up killing thousands to keep "theirs" safe. classic.). as compared to that, you can't really say that the port mafia is worse in any aspect.

in BSD, i think all the organisations except the armed detective agency (which is the only agency to stick to their code of conduct even at great detriment to themselves, and end up disbanded because they do so), are involved in some sort of ill practices. the port mafia is actually portrayed as better than the governmental agencies who do all sorts of human rights violations (mushitaro and the seventh agency?!) "lawfully", and i can't say i disagree with that sentiment. in fact, i would say i find the hunting dogs far more unsavory than the port mafia.

i do have another frame of thought regarding this though, and that is when remaining in the port mafia is somehow not seen as a reflection of some characters just because the fandom likes them (coughchuuyacough). like certain characters are going to be seen as morally bankrupt (coughdazaicough) no matter how much they change their actions, showing that most people tend to base their idea of what is "good" and "bad" based on whose mentality they find more typical to society and hence more palatable rather than what they choose to do in their life.

i think trying to question BSD for showing someone as "good" when you (general) think of them as "bad" is a task destined for failure. the beauty of BSD is that it's made of people who are shaped by circumstance. akutagawa, who is loyal to the port mafia in mainline, detests it in BEAST. similarly for atsushi. just think about the kind of characters who are/were in the port mafia: kouyou was held captive there but she came to care for the organisation that mori shaped. dazai came there as a lost child who couldn't see anything worth living for in the world and hoped that he would discover something worth holding on to while witnessing humans at their rawest, and he left the second he realised there really was nothing he could discover externally that would fix the kind of impression of humanity he had in his mind. akutagawa was a child in horribly abused in the slums to the extent he lost the capability to show emotions or have any hope of a decent life, and he was brought into the mafia with the hope of being given a reason to live. mori wanted to save Yokohama from the erratic orders of the previous boss and. kyouka was essentially trafficked into the mafia and used as a killing weapon. i think this isn't a case of romanticisation but just showing the ground realities of the people who are involved. all of this is not even considering that the port mafia was the kindest option any Ability user had before the ADA because by god you can't trust the government (look at chuuya's case, or the hunting dogs).