#orgel

Picture: M33

Place: Chartres, France

Like we do know Takashi owned Eugene's music box for a couple of days (he even used it to tease him) what i was wondering is did he ever listened that? What did he think if he ever? I have a couple of theories on that but I would like to hear an another person's ideas 🤭

Ok, first of all—

Thank you so much for sending this ask and I'm really glad to hear that you adore my works! 🥹

Feel free to reach out with more stuff that itches your brain about these two or the show in general lol

I'm always up to talk about it whenever I can 🙂‍↕️

Secondly—

Oh, he definitely HAS listened to it!

(see: canon scene where he's whistling the tune to Eugene >>)

(Alternate translation: "It's such a truly despairing song.")

That damn music box always has MY brain itching— it's such a significant item in their dynamic, relationship, and history together!

The line in this scene already gives a glimpse into what Takashi thinks: "A truly despairing song" and the line that follows this (if I'm not mistaken) is: "Fitting for Joseon's fate"

Takashi has always been shown to be strangely and intensely fixated on Eugene and Eugene's connection to Joseon, and this is just another huge part of that

It also drives me insane how well Takashi knows about the emotional weight and significance of the music box to Eugene, how well he knows the kind of reaction and response it would evoke from Eugene

Even when Eugene tries to remain composed and act like it's no big deal when Takashi brings it up, Takashi sees right through him, confident when he tells Eugene that Eugene's reaction as Takashi shows him the music box is strange

It drives me insane because that music box and it's significance to Eugene goes way back to when Eugene was still a child and struggling after being forced to run from home

And canonically, Eugene and Takashi have only known each other for a few years at most, and yet Takashi apparently is close enough to Eugene to not only get a glimpse of something so dear and emotionally significant to Eugene, but to also know what it means to Eugene enough to use those emotions against him???

As much as Takashi claims that Eugene confuses him, Takashi is equally as confusing

And about what he thinks of the song and the music box (and Eugene by extension) these are a few of my thoughts:

1. He sees (or knows) the music box as the turning point in Eugene's life.

I like to believe that when he first discovered the music box and was enlightened about the meaning (back in America when Eugene didn't know him as a cruel psychopath)—

(Also— damn, hold on, tangent: Eugene either trusted and let his guard down enough around Takashi to tell him about the music box and what it meant or Takashi was just THAT crazy-obsessed and fixated on Eugene to go through the lengths to find out. Or both and the order of events is up to us to decide)

Anyway, when he first discovered the music box and the meaning, I think he saw (or believed) it to be some kind of catharsis(?) for Eugene—

Like some kind of symbol to mark Eugene cutting off ties with Joseon (the nation that made him suffer)

The music box represents how Eugene is now placed somewhere better in life, how Eugene had worked himself up and is now someone Takashi can see as an equal compared to Eugene's origin as a low-born Joseon slave (something that is canonically confirmed to be one of the things Takashi despises the most)

2. The music box is something that still ties Eugene to Joseon.

Following this first thought, when Takashi does arrive in Joseon later on, and he sees Eugene (and this is something I love most about that scene), he discovers a change in Eugene

I like to rant (to myself) about Eugene's reaction to seeing Takashi and how different he seemed to the man Eugene thought he knew

But there's also the side where Takashi's face falls in that first meeting, seeing Eugene interact with Aeshin and defend the people of a Joseon household

This scene is where I think the beginning seeds of doubt and confusion begin in Takashi where he starts to think that maybe Eugene hasn't quite completely cut Joseon off yet or that Joseon still has its roots sunk deep into Eugene

(Something something, perhaps you can take the little slave boy out of the nation, but you can't take the nation out of the boy)

And so, when Takashi brings up the music box next time, he's searching Eugene's reaction— to confirm (or something) his theory/doubts about where Eugene's loyalties now lie

(Insert one of my favorite lines: "Careful, Eugene— Here on Joseon grounds, I can't tell whether you're American or Joseon.")

3. The song is what Eugene is to Takashi.

Something sad, full of sorrow, despairing, pathetically tragic— I could go on

As much as Takashi is insane, obsessive, antagonistic, and cruel to Eugene— I can always feel a certain sadness or... pity(?) in the way he looks at Eugene and speaks to him

When he persists in trying to understand Eugene and where Eugene belongs or 'which side Eugene is on', a lot of the wording implies and reeks of a certain desperation for the answer to be that Eugene is against Joseon

Because if Eugene has somehow, once again, returned to being... 'Joseon's' then that would mean they would be against each other

Eugene would be a low-born slave again and Takashi would just keep shooting higher as the elite commanding office of Japan's elite Imperialist ranks

("Does that mean the gap between us is only growing bigger?"

"America saved you—"

"So live as an American, Eugene."

"In the end, you've returned to being Joseon's—")

When he whistles the tune in the scene above and compares it to Joseon's fate, it feels like he's obviously also talking about Eugene's own fate (and perhaps by extension, the fate of the two of them— their relationship *whatever the heck it is*)

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This got really long 😭 Sorry if I got too ranty or wordy about my response lol

(I might be missing some things that I might want to talk about later when I remember them, but I think about these three points the most ig)

I'd definitely love to hear your own thoughts and theories as well!

Sketch Collection. Fanart edition.