#ch 129

Someone must kill you, then themself.

In oser worlds...

ch. 129

Fyodor is deeply connected to the Christian faith, and so far that's one of our best ways of understand him and his intentions. Practically every chapter reveals more of his veiws, and I think now that he's dead we can finally analyse it completely.

So at this point, Fyodor's escape plan is going perfectly and he's picked up a radio to communicate his thoughts. We see the radio is connected to the radio who belonged to (what I think?) is the dead body of the helicopter driver in Mersault that was his old body. (This later sets the scene for the radio which Dazai will have and use to communicate to Fukuchi).

Already, this is quite a call back (although it's worth rembering very little time has passed in the actual story) to when Fyodor first thought he'd won. This scene was also when he tried to leave after his first 'victory' (foreshadowing how he was once again wrong).

Here, Fyodor says how, ultimately "you" could not "choose peace". This relates to Fyodor's overarching veiws on humanity and how we always choose war over peace. I'll come back to this later, (but it's ironic considering he manipulated Fukuchi into helping him by coming him that it would lead to fewer deaths in war and out was ultimately Fukuchi who sacrificed himself for peace). Also saying "choose" implies an active decision being made (note: I don't speak Japanese so it might be different in the original, and this applies to any quote). I think this ties to Fyodor using "all of you" to refer to all of humanity in genral here, who he believes is constantly making the choice for war over peace. (This could also be a point where Asigiri is doing a bit of societal critique on how we as people never/rarely choose peace).

Next Fyodor says how he doesn't blame us, because when we were created in God's image (Genisis 1) but we were not given "his most vital trait" (I'll come back to this later on). This of course follows scripture and explains why Fyodor thinks how we act (in never choosing peace) is outside of our control because God simply made us this way. Interestingly, according to Christian scripture, it's sin which separates us from God (Genisis 3 - The Fall) and it's a result of our free will. As Fyodor veiws sin to be inevitable, he can't blame us for repeating the same mistakes we were destined to. (Slight side tangent, but it's believed that the first sin committed in heaven was that of pride (Isaiah 14) which is often also what motivates people to go to war/not settle for peace)

I think "[struggling] in this valley of death [...] far from God's grace" could just be another reference to The Fall of mankind (Genisis 3) where after the fruit was eaten, humans became mortal. Losing his trust after child be why we're far from his grace and negate of punishment given to humans after the fall, why we "will continue to struggle".

Fyodor then says "You wish to change/You wish to be good", and this text is over a panel of Atsushi and Akutagawa, the two charecters who have arguable changed the most (once again, more proof of Fyodor's incorrect mindset). There could be some comment of desire/what it means to want something, but I think it just comes down to what he says next:

"And yet, humanity is immutable"

A lot of emphasis is placed on this one line, and it likely summerises Fyodor's mindset the best way we've seen so far. Immutable means something that can not be changed over time (more specifically in programming: can't be changed after creation - possible another reference to God creating us).

Fyodor believe that despite our desire to change and be good and strive for peace, it is fundamentally pointless as it is the most vital trait of God that was not given to us.

Frankly I was really confused when I first read this, since I know a lot of Christian scholars believe God is atemporal (exists unaffected by time; which can't be the case of if he's capable of change) since a perfect God can't really change to become more perfect (or it implies it previously wasn't/now it's imperfect). Some do disagree (often I think Noah's flood is given as an example since God leaned from that), so we're going to work with Fyodor believing that and having an idea that humanity doesn't have it.

Yet this is completely incorrect and is shown throughout this chapter. Every charecter in bsd has changed greatly, and in a charecter driven narrative it makes sense they would. Ango, Akutagawa and Atsushi are all in the panels as Fyodor talks about how people can't change and do good because they are a direct contrast to what he's saying. They, alongside the rest of the cast, are proof he's wrong. Fyodor is killed as a sacrifice by Fukuchi, showing the choice for piece who's guided to do so by Dazai (a charecter who's arguably changed the most in the whole series).

In fact, the one charecter we have the most evidence to deem as "immutable" is Fyodor himself. The charecter who believes himself as so separate, maybe even above humanity, has its greatest flaw? Fyodor has been alive for at least hundreds of years yet we have not seen his mindset or personality change at all.