Everywhere I go, fanfictions or gacha reaction videos or literally anything, people always characterise Atsushi as self-pitying, dumb and sheltered and it pisses me off SO much, i’m not even joking..

People always take the scene of Dazai slapping Atsushi as a source of him being self pitying, but lets not forget Dazai was literally trying to break him out of a panic attack because he KNEW atsushi would be too lost in guilt to help anyone if he didn’t?? Atsushi was abused throughout his entire childhood, i would even go as far as to say he has PTSD, he literally has hallucinations too, he isn’t looking for sympathy he’s quite literally trapped in the abuse of his past.. Self Pity is often used to avoid taking action but that is the exact opposite of Atsushi, who is constantly prepared to sacrifice himself which we see in the literal second episode where he uses his body to cover the bomb during the interview, even in the first episode where despite starving he jumps into a river to save Dazai. When he found out about the bounty on his head he literally left the agency despite having nowhere to go, with no regard for his safety whatsoever. He constantly goes out of his way to save others like Lucy and Kyouka. He’s not pitying himself, he just has a very low self esteem, again, stemming from past abuse from his childhood, and he’s empathetic towards others.

As for Akutagawa saying he’s lost in self pity, it’s a completely different thing. Akutagawa suffered through his childhood in the slums and developed a mindset of the survival of the fittest/the weak must die, and he becomes a monster to earn Dazai’s approval, and then Atsushi shows up who suffered just as much yet was adopted by the agency and praised by Dazai and allowed to keep his humanity.. he is SHOWN to be envious of Atsushi for the fact Dazai easily praises him, and calling Atsushi weak and self pitying is his own way to feel superior and more worthy of Dazai.. Akutagawa sees vulnerability, hesitation, and crying as pathetic, so while Atsushi is doubting himself or hesitating because of his own trauma, he sees a coward crying over the past. Akutagawa doesn’t really understand that Atsushi isn’t crying for pity, and because he copes with his own trauma through rage he sees Atsushi’s emotional processing as ‘self pity’. Ironically, I’d say Akutagawa is actually the one who is trapped in a cycle of self pity but instead of tears it manifests as anger, and he’s entirely dependent on Dazai’s praise for his life to have meaning, he calls Atsushi self pitying because he needs Atsushi to be weaker than him to justify his worldview, in a way.

And i’ve seen countless people characterising Atsushi to be slow on catching onto things and seeing the world to be brighter than it is, not understanding that bad people exist who are ‘evil’ just because, but that’s just bull. He’s empathetic, yeah, but he also spent his entire childhood being severely abused bordering on tortured and dehumanised. He would be the LAST person to think the world is all sunshine and rainbows, HE ISN’T SHELTERED!! Him being empathetic doesn’t automatically mean he’ll be shocked at every bad thing a person does.. and then, he’s also called dumb—he literally grew up as an uneducated orphan, but he’s also in a detective agency, and is very observant, he grew up in a hostile environment and probably learnt to read moods, hence he finds it easier to figure out motives of people or hidden pain.

Tbh, it’s not just Atsushi who is characterised as ‘incompetent’ or ‘dumb’, i’ve genuinely seen people mischaracterise so much to the point the call Kunikida dumb..hello?? It’s true that the agency relies on Ranpo and he is no doubt the smartest, but people seem unable to accept that Dazai and Ranpo aren’t the only competent characters. At the end of the day the agency is an elite team of specialised operatives, NOT Dazai and friends