#fyodor analysis

fyodor's mission overlaps with raskolnikov's philosophy on the extraordinary man in crime and punishment, and if someone had seen the similarities before, fyodor being unable to achieve his ideal world would've been not much of a surprise at all.

and here's why.

fyodor wanted to instigate a world war between the ability users and the normal civilians. he wanted to do so for the greater good — to wipe out the ones who could wreck violence easily, unnaturally, in the way the unabilitied couldn't. in the absence of the abilitied, i believe he wanted to control the strings of the world from behind the scenes, in a manner which would make crime more difficult to be committed — a more authoritarian world, in my opinion. to ensure punishment would always follow crime adequately. to make society moral, less sinful, in their actions, at least — even if it represses human nature. after all, human nature is the root of all sins. it needs to be suppressed, to some extent, to eradicate crime.

his mission could've stemmed from a philosophy similar to raskolnikov's — the main character of crime and punishment (dostoevsky's magnum opus).

skip the next two paragraphs if you're already acquainted with raskolnikov's theory of the extraordinary man.

according to raskolnikov, by the law of nature, society is divided into two — the ordinary man, and the extraordinary man. the inferior ordinary ones, "who serve only to reproduce its kind", are men who go by what they have been taught in life — regurgitating it in newer ways still, but unable to do, say, or discover something wholly new of its kind. they are law-abiding, conservative in temperament, and "live under control and love to be controlled". it is natural for them, and they are often unrealizing of their subservience to the social norms, customs, institutions, etc. they do not have the conscious right to transgress the law. any attempt at it will lead to retribution — legal, psychological, or both. note that if the ordinary man does break the law, raskolnikov stated that he must accept his suffering, as it is morally wrong, since they do not have ideas that justify their crime.

the extraordinary, on the other hand, are "men who have the gift or the talent to utter a new word" — that is, the ability to develop something entirely new (not a mere regurgitation of what is already known in different ways). one in thousands, perhaps, has a "spark of independence". "one in ten thousand... is born with greater independence, and with still greater independence one in a hundred thousand. the man of genius is one of millions, and the great geniuses, the crown of humanity, appear on earth perhaps one in many thousand millions". raskolnikov tied it to men like lycurgus, salon, mahomet, and napoleon (especially napoleon). such men had the conscious right to transgress the law. they are unarguably criminals, stopping not even at bloodshed. he maintained that the extraordinary have to be without exception criminals, "otherwise it's hard for them to get out of the common rut; and to remain in the common rut is what they cannot submit to". their ideas for the greater good justifies their crime — their courage to go beyond what is accepted in society is what makes them extraordinary. in a nutshell, their ends justify their means.

now that i have established raskolnikov's theory in the best way i could without turning it into a lecture, it can be clearly tied to fyodor's worldview and mission.

undoubtedly, fyodor saw himself in some sense similar to such men like napoleon. (i don't say it arbitrarily — napoleon wanted to conquer europe and reformed france by ensuring equality of men, based status on merit, not birth, protected private property, etc. though there were indeed downsides like him undermining the equality of women and excessive censorship. he caused bloodshed for his idea of a greater good.) such men didn't cease at carnage in order to bring the world to their idea of a better change — "moving the world and leading it to its goal". fyodor wanted to do the same — causing a war to eliminate the abilitied users, and bring the rest under control and order to ensure peace — a more moral society, that is. even if he didn't devop a philosophy similar to raskolnikov's (which is highly improbable), he did believe himself to be akin to the extraordinary types in some shape or manner. raskolnikov's theory also states that the ordinary men are inferior to the extraordinary — maybe fyodor's belief in the same caused why he looked down upon the rest.

but fyodor's end was the same as raskolnikov's, when it came to deploying this theory.

raskolnikov, after murdering an old pawnbroker and her sister, was unable to deal with his guilt and paranoia, and confessed eventually to the crime. he found that, after all, he fell into the ordinary rut at the end of the day — something that almost drove him to madness.

though in bungo stray dogs, fyodor did have new ideas (akin to raskolnikov's) — at the end, he was unable to bring them about. maybe, fyodor too, was ordinary — a man with an inability to bring a greater good to the world in any significant manner. despite being a man of genius.

it is undeniable, from this quote in crime and punishment — "one in ten thousand... is born with greater independence, and with still greater independence one in a hundred thousand. the man of genius is one of millions, and the great geniuses, the crown of humanity, appear on earth perhaps one in many thousand millions" — that fyodor aimed to be the crown of humanity. altering the world requires a status of that importance, after all. and he failed to achieve such a status.

i cannot rule whether fyodor was extraordinary or ordinary, because it is entirely subjective. maybe he will come back to life, somehow, and prove us wrong; maybe he never died. perhaps it was a shapeshifter who did. perhaps it was merely a trick once more.

but if he is dead for sure, his end was foreshadowed from the start to anyone who realised the similarities in the philosophy.

one thing is for sure — fyodor will either never come back or will control the world.

Spoiler warning for chapter 129 of bsd and crk

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Before we start, please consider reading my note:

This is an analysis on Fyodor from Bungo stray dogs, Dark enchantress cookie and Shadow milk cookie from crk. My intentions to this analysis is to give a brief rundown on the writing I have seen from both of the fandoms I'm in and how this can affect the future of writing as a whole and how characters are presented to be written as. If you are a fan of bsd or crk and like the arc's, do not consider this as a hate post. This goes out to those who hate bsd and crk for the sake of it. I'm here to give my thoughts and predictions of act 2 of Arena of truth and deceit part 1 of crk. As I am writing this, it is May 8th, 2026, After the release of Timekepper cookie. Please take this analysis into consideration as just someone who likes crk and bsd either way even for its flaws and wishes the best for the story to exceed well. Thank you to whoever read this note before my analysis, it means a lot.

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Part 1: Fyodor's character development

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In Chapter 129 of the ending of the airport arc, we are shown of fyodor's defeat; his death. Throughout the events of the airport arc, he established the capability of the book and his intentions to it for his idea of a better world. The pacing is slow, but gives us, the audience, the length and desperation on fyodor's idea for no ability users in their world.

We have to consider why he does this first. A common question is "why would he go to such length for the annihilation of ability users if he is one as well?" Fyodor doesn't consider himself as human, a very close connection to Dazai himself (especially linked to his pm days). He sees himself as a nuisance since he's in that same category of ability users, especially the ones he speaks of who use their abilities for their own gain and selfish desires. Clearly ironic to chapter 128-129 when he tried to escape the airport with his reincarnation ability.

A big misconception to fyodor (and dark enchantress, who I'll get into with her character development and her parallel to fyodor) is he has a god complex. Instead, he has a savior complex. He believes what he's doing is the right way, and the only right way. He believes that the only way for everyone to feel equal for the sake of humanity is for ability users to not exist, or to the very least not hurt the common people in Yokohama.

One other misconception is his last words at the end in chapter 129. I've seen some say Asagiri made him one dimension and purely evil with his last words. While I do agree that the way Fyodor's character development was not handled properly, there is a lot more to his words that we give credit to. In the translation, he says "It's simple... I hate you all." Which conveys his final moment. Previously, the characters ask who he is, showing clear dehumanization to fyodor. Atsushi's word is "What is in your heart, fyodor?" While dehumanizing, he still clearly sees fyodor as a person but not human, even to some extent. In my perspective, Atsushi doesn't understand why Fyodor would go to such lengths for a better world, yet he still wants to understand even when Fyodor is on the verge of death. He believes fyodor was driven by simple impulses, with fyodor's line saying "You believe it was my heart's doing?" We are shown exhaustion in Fyodor's eyes from all of the events that have happened, especially the affect his ability must've had on him. While I may be making assumptions, it must be extremely brutal and torturing having to be reincarnated many times. Feeling flesh that is not your own to be torn completely as you bathe in nudity and contempt. Fyodor is given the worst form of reincarnation I've seen in fiction in such a brutal fashion. Not to mention he's a very empathetic character despite his actions of using those for his own gain. When I say empathy, I say he understands the lengths of others, especially ability users. Yet, they don't return the empathy to him. It ties back to his loneliness as well and comes to accept that. The scene with him and atsushi really shows how humans have a hard time understanding other humans who do heinous acts because we have a perspective on what is good and evil, black vs white, compassion vs revenge, and so on.

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At the end of chapter 129, his death, he is still dehumanized from the cast. To an extent from Dazai himself. Ironic from someone who used to not see himself as human back then is dehumanizing someone who parallels him to the extreme. (Do excuse the poorly screenshot of the manga panel)

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This is where the complaint of how fyodor's character was handled. Fyodor died knowing his plan did not succeed. As I established how his line can be conveyed differently rather than in a black and white perspective, this is still not a good execution to end his character. While I say it is far better than Dark enchantress's character development, it still has some flaws. The airport arc was dragged to hell and back while being stuck in one specific spot, we did get to see fyodor's knowledge of the book yet not understand why he would go to this extreme length to do this, especially summoning amen no gozen. As a friend of mine mentioned as well, she asked why fyodor would frame the ada if he could've find an alternative way to get amen no gozen than do a different way.

In the very end, he was killed by the thing he was fighting against: Ability users. The people he wanted to be rid of from the world of Bungo stray dogs came together and opposed Fyodor's way of a perfect world. Even fyodor to an Ability user in his death (aka Fukuchi.)

I do wish it was handled differently and given a different alternative action to the situation and the events of the airport arc.

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Part 2: Dark enchantress's character and how to kill your main villain

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This one I have a lot of thoughts on. Firstly, I want to compare the very close similarities to Fyodor and Dark enchantress cookie:

Savior complex.

Fyodor's motive is wanting a world without ability users, or a world where ability users cannot hurt others. He believes this is the right way to create a better world and believes he's doing it for the suffering of ability users and himself, which I find ironic because his ability is the act of suffering for many years and the feeling of torture and taking away someone's autonomy from his ability.

Dark enchantress on the other hand, believes she too, is doing the right thing for cookie-kind in the name of freedom. Albeit, in an extreme way compared to White Lily's idea of freedom, just twisted into a dark form. She believes all cookie's souls and their suffering is combined into one being, bypassing the path they are meant to live as cookies; to be eaten by their creators. It ties back to the Avatar of Destiny that is an amalgamation of cookie's souls all smashed into one entity of shared suffering from their downfall of their fates.

The difference between them is done by one thing and it's how their character development ends and executed.

For Fyodor, despite his lackluster death, he learned in the end that he cannot convert ability users to his ideologies of a better world. Coming to the conclusion that neither him, ability users, and humanity can co-exist. While a mediocre ending for his character, he at least learned why him and ability users disagree on a certain level and why they don't agree with his idea of a better world. He didn't have to understand why he was wrong because he was right about ability users who use their powers for their own needs. Take Francis or Akutagawa in the early stages of the manga, or Nikolai's ability to frame the ada and use his ability to his idea of freedom (for nikolai fans here's your one mention of Nikolai in this analysis. I couldn't contain myself from not mentioning him). However, Ability users came together and used their abilities to oppose fyodor. While right in some uses back then, it's ironic how as he bleeds out, the thing he was fighting against ended up biting him in the end.

For dark enchantress, however, she did not learn anything even up to her death. As she is dying, she cries on how could her plan have possibly failed? She did not learn why cookie's did not choose her idea of freedom and oppose her. She did not learn why she was wrong or how her actions affected others.

Another parallel I would like to note is how their death can be perceived:

Dying to the thing you were fighting against.

Both Fyodor and Dark enchantress were killed or defeated by the thing they were opposing, that being their own people.

While they both died having mediocre endings, one died being dehumanized and ultimately killed from the thing he was fighting against, while the other died not understanding what killed them in the first place.

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Part 3: The cycle repeats; predictions on Shadow milk's downfall

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So far as Act 2 part 1 has shown, shadow milk seems to have a huge crisis in himself with taking a portion of the ultimate dough in him and the last life essence of the other beast (besides silent salt) as he says in Act 1 of the finale of the Dark enchantress arc.

A huge plot hole in the story with him and the beast during the war was the beast (besides Silent Salt) were already dead and shadow milk was seconds away from dying as well. In a matter of time, he somehow got out of the shackles that Silent Salt had on him, got his way to the oven without other cookies (especially Dark enchantress, the ancient heroes, or Silent Salt himself) from knowing, able to escape the oven without the ultimate dough consuming him whole as they tried before forcible with Gingerbrave, and even able to regain energy without showing side effects until act 2. Not to mention how he even got some life essence of the beast when they were already dead beforehand.

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Very inconsistent and a huge plot convenience to Shadow milk alone. Might even say he has way more plot armor than Nikolai himself when he didn't get caught in the surveillance cameras in the prison during the beginning parts of the merusault arc.

As of the release of Act 2 part 1 of the story, shadow milk has been getting worse and worse as the arc continues and has not shown any other elements of character development to be established.

I would even say his motive is very underdeveloped. His motive is to destroy all timelines besides his own, which while can tie to his self ego and attention seeking center, we were not given any more of his reasoning besides being pissy at Silent Salt from sealing them away. He doesn't hold any grudges from the other beasts, dark enchantress, the ancient's (although he does hold some grudge on pv and wl but nobody else) or any of the main cast like Gingerbrave. It's also never mentioned of his trauma with the common cookie's from his past wanting more out of him. Their consumption and gluttonous need for answers and anger when it's not what they think it is. Shown of complete incomprehensibility of cookies wanting an answer to satisfy their beliefs, rather than complete truth. If we were given more explanation for shadow milk's motive outside of pettiness for Silent Salt, I would understand as the audience why he would go to such lengths to destroy all timelines except his own, especially if we are given how his trauma made him act out instead of the ultimate dough and the other beast being inside him all at once, which complicates more issues of his reasoning. We as the audience now don't know if it's shadow milk speaking or somebody else inside him speaking.

These are clear signs of characters having their character development potentially ruined:

1. Their reasoning is to an extreme length that does not add up to their motivation

2. It does not tie to their background or character as a whole (i.e backstory, or their character in general (in this case fyodor since he does not have a backstory)

And in most cases, as shown from dark enchantress and Fyodor, there are two predictions I have with how shadow milk's character will likely end up resulting.

1. The fyodor effect.

Shadow milk will likely have some good elements to his character development, but will be killed off before they are established and be dehumanized by the cast for his actions. Never looking back to his backstory as his reasoning in why he did what he did, although with the lack of his backstory being his motive to what he does, he'll likely die knowing he had some levels of being wrong but never mentioned from the cast themselves.

Or two;

2. The Dark enchantress cookie effect.

Shadow milk will likely have the same situation as Dark enchantress. He'll die not knowing what he did wrong or never coming to the conclusion that his actions were wrong, dying from only knowing he failed to do what he wanted to do. If we wanted to put salt in the wound, he will likely die to the thing he was fighting against; the common cookie's.

If you want to worsen it, give him the president snow death (from the hunger games) where he's killed by the people he feared or against: the district and capital. (However this is very unlikely but probably only ever happen for pity points)

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In conclusion, The writing in both Dark enchantress and Fyodor are similar and end up dying to similar fates in their story. They are just handled a lot differently and executed differently, though I personally think fyodor's was executed better in comparison to Dark enchantress. While the patterns from what I list are very vague, it should give a small hint at what to notice in a writing standpoint when writing an antagonist or reading an antagonist's background for their motivation if they are central to the plot.

My only hope for Shadow milk as a character is for him to break out of this cycle of writing and get a well executed character development, even with the lack of elements from the list. There is still potentially his character that shouldn't fall into the Fyodor and Dark enchantress effect as mentioned. I want to be wrong about what Shadow milk's character will likely be in the near future, and I hope I am wrong. But from the noticeable signs from him in the recent update, it's starting to take effect on him and his character development.

i posted this on Pinterest too but guess what! it got hidden 🤣🤣🤣 kms i spend so long tryna make this, the analysation was the easiest part. FINDING THE MANGA PANELS WAS NOT.

-🎪 anon

I agree, 🎪-anon!♥️

I don’t know if it’s because he found his faith there, but I think that is very likely and seems reasonable.

However, I also believe he was born into a religious family to begin with. I’ve thought through other aspects as well. Let me break it down for you:

Purity and Fyodor’s inner moral code:

Fyodor describing himself as the color white, especially like the snow from his hometown, speaks volumes. It hints at his complex inner moral code—he engages in dark actions under the belief that they serve a greater good.

This idea of “purity” contrasts sharply with his behavior. But does it?

In my humble opinion, he is well aware that what he does is evil, but his inner moral depiction is influenced by Machiavellian tendencies.

He does whatever he needs to do to cleanse humanity of their sins. Therefore, his actions reflect Machiavellian principles.

In short: the ends justify the means (The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli).

I’m imagining it like this: God has given him the enormous power of being immortal—never truly able to die.

God also gifted him with an intelligence that is above any other human being.

This means he must be someone important.

This means he is meant to be the rightful hand of God, tasked with creating a world that is worthy of God’s beauty.

Therefore, he wishes to help God’s creations, cleansing them and this sinful world of all their sins.

This is one reason why he says that he likes all humanity equally. Because he really does.

They are all the same to him—fools who could do better. Fools that could be worthy of God’s perfect world.

What fascinates me the most about him is that, even though he is doing all of this out of pure self-assurance and his own complex inner moral compass, he still claims that he is doing it for the whole world. And I believe he does.

I can totally see this being his ultimate end in the future.

His Hometown and it’s significance for him:

By referencing his hometown, he reveals a more humane side to himself.

If you haven't already, l'd recommend you read THIS and THIS posts of mine, where I explained very clearly how I perceive Fyodor's humane side.

It shows that he yearns for connection and perhaps misses the simplicity and innocence of his past.

This duality makes him such a fascinating character, caught between his dark pursuits and the remnants of his humanity.

Imagine feeling like, or even knowing that you're "the chosen one," only to end up isolated, dehumanized, and lonely, with nothing to hold onto but your belief in your God.

You can't die, because the only way for you to do so is by your own hands, which is considered the greatest sin.

You can't die. Not until you take your own life.

How deep must his religious beliefs run for him to be this dedicated to his goal, mentally able to endure and live for hundreds, maybe thousands of years?

This made me so emotional. I want to give him a hug. My precious love.♥️

What if Fyodor is one of the ten calamities? We know for sure that Bram is one of the calamities and that probably Lovecraft is one too, however what if Fyodor is one?

I agree but what hit me hard is that when i think about Fyodor I think how intelligent he is, ofc he isn't as intelligent as Ranpo but also there are diffrent kind of intellience so you can't really compare that easily, Fyodor is more calculative than Ranpo.

Omg does it shows how i write that I have ADHD I wanted to say something that i didn't even wrote, i went to 3 diffrent things. I need to stay focus.

What i want to say is that as much that Fyodor and Dazai or Ranpo are intelligent they are delusional. I guess it's pretty funny to think about

Ranpo can crack any cases but not really people or he didn't understand when he was younger that others weren't as intelligent as him.

Fyodor is delusional to think that whatever he does it's good because clearly it's not, his view is twisted

And

Dazai is the same, sorry for Dazai defenders but he is clearly depressed and depression can influance the thinking of a peron more importantly a human so just by that Dazai could know he is a human because he struggles but that's another story damm i need to stay focus.

I guess it's interesting to see humans that have an iq above 200 but are still prisoners of their minds because their weakness is being human.

[scoops honey out and brings it to my mouth] and that's the thing that's the fucking thing he uses people, he only sees them as pawns. whereas Dazai actually cares. he builds relationships with those people and he uses those relationships. well he doesn't use them but he knows they're there for him and he knows that they're with him.

[shoves honey in my face] and thats is why he beats Fyodor. he beats Fyodor basically with the power of friendship and that's why Fyodor falls flat and that's why Fyodor has no character. he has no emotion.

[slowly withdraws my hand and sticks it honey again] with dazai, you can clearly see he has emotion because he made an irrational decision to leave the Port Mafia, he knew he'd have to deal with Mori, he knew he'd have to deal with the consequences. he knew this all and he did it anyway for odasaku because he. cared.

[scoops out honey with one hand, brings out jar of sprinkles with the other] fyodor, on the other hand, does not care for any one. he doesn't have any real emotion that he shows other than cynical pleasure or surprise. that's it. that's all he shows.

[sprinkles rainbows and unicorns on the honey] you can take literally any character: dazai, chuuya, atsushi, akutagawa, ect. they all have one thing in common. they have a crippling emotion on emotion that they feel that makes them do irrational things. fyodor does not have that emotion. fyodor is frankly a boring character in my opinion. we don't know his drive, we don't know that singular emotion that he feels that makes him do the things he does.

[shoves honey into my face again] for chuuya it's loyalty. For dazai it's caring and being cared for for. for atsushi its actually many things. for akutagawa it's his need for approval from dazai. all these things make them do irrational things but it gives them character, it makes them human.