#anyway. manifest fyodor dostoevsky chapter 91 sorry for dating this post but i HAVE to will him into existence

[shachihata]

ok so we're running with the philosophy of crime and punishment here about the "ordinary man" v. the "extraordinary man." essentially, in the novel, raskolnikov breaks down the world into two groups of people. firstly, there are the "ordinary" people, who don't have the ability to break the mold and create a world according to their own morals/philosophies/beliefs. they’re the direct opposite of "extraordinary" people, who have both the ability to think outside of the box and to break the mold, regardless of the human cost/sacrifice, therefore putting their own ideas into place and "paving the way" for a brighter future.

crucially, raskolnikov makes it clear that there are occasions where the "ordinary man," believing themselves to be "extraordinary," will take lives and commit moral injustices for the sake of pushing their own narrow-minded beliefs -- before being haunted by the guilt of their actions, eventually finding it necessary to confess, repent, and strive for redemption.

even more crucially, by the end of the novel, raskolnikov himself has watched his own theory crumble to the ground as he realizes that he was one of these "pretenders" -- and that, in reality, there are no "extraordinary men." he finds that morality is innate within a person, and repentance/redemption are inevitabilities once one has wronged others or their own innate sense of morality. to pretend that one is not human is to put yourself in a position higher than god himself.

what i'm getting at is that nikolai is the trope of the "ordinary man" and fyodor is the trope of the "extraordinary man" and both of them can and will be redeemed, which would absolutely fit into the existing themes of bsd as a whole. let's get it boys

first off, it’s really obvious imo that nikolai’s entire personality is essentially a mask. he wants to “break free” from the “birdcage” of human morality, but admits to feeling guilt whenever he tries to -- which is a vicious cycle that only leads him into more and more violence, as he tries harder and harder to break free from “ordinary” human morality and gain perfect control over himself and his emotions. he paradoxically recognizes himself as an “ordinary man,” and yet deludes himself into thinking that he can eventually be free if he “breaks through” his own humanity and becomes something “extraordinary” -- somebody devoid of human emotions, human guilt, and human morality.

in other words... yeah, that’s fyodor. fyodor seems to be the polar opposite of nikolai, where he’s admittedly trying to do something great: get rid of the world’s abilities. which doesn’t seem that great At First, but i mean, look at it from his perspective. his own ability only leads to death. he sees other ability users -- the port mafia/the armed detective agency’s constant fighting, shibusawa tatsuhiko, the whole doa -- seemingly only use their abilities for evil, causing further death and destruction to not only yokohama, but in shibusawa’s + fukuchi’s + potentially agatha christie’s case, the whole world. imo, to fyodor, shibusawa was the perfect amalgation of everything fyodor wanted to prove -- a singularity of a bunch of abilities wasn’t anything even close to perfect, it was nothing but a source of absolute destruction. q.e.d., all abilities are evil and ability users need to be saved from their own sins and fyodor thinks he’s the only bitch who can do it because he realizes the “crime” of his own sins and is now going out to actively “punish” for it. (see -- the scene in dead apple where he’s not attacked by his own ability because he accepts that he is both the “crime” and the “punishment.”)

this has allowed fyodor to take on the role of the “extraordinary man,” at least in theory. he has an original idea that he believes is going to make the world better. he is going out to fulfill it, no matter what the human cost is. nikolai idolizes this “extraordinary man” and is willing to go out and do anything to try to be like fyodor because fyodor, as somebody who is extraordinary, can then see through nikolai’s pretending for the “ordinary” person that he really is.

(then comes the “whoops! i’m emotionally attached to the god that i idolize! oh fuck, i have to kill him now to prove him... right? wrong? whichever one works!”)

see, the issue with fyodor’s entire philosophy is that he is only looking through the world through his own narrow-minded perspective. there are plenty of examples of characters who have “broken” through the “fundamental nature” of their own ability in order to seek redemption. just to name a few examples... kyouka accepting demon snow as a guardian and a part of her family, turning from being the port mafia’s pet assassin to a member of the ada. atsushi leashing the destructive nature of the tiger in order to save others, not allowing the trauma of his past to rule over him forever. dazai, turning away from being the leader of the port mafia in order to follow oda’s ideal of a “beautiful” world and find out what it really means to be “human.” in a sense, i would make the argument that this is the fundamental theme that runs throughout all of bungou stray dogs -- that you have to make the choice to be redeemed, you have to choose to use something that might be dangerous for the purpose of saving others. fyodor is doing this, but simultaneously entirely ignoring the fact that the entire ada is working towards the same goal -- in a different way, which allows them to accept who they are rather than being forced to lose a fundamental part of themselves. he’s caught up in his own idealization of fukuchi -- somebody who’s been betrayed so many times, he thinks that all the people of the world have to suffer before they are redeemed.

(look at that, that’s another theme from crime and punishment! raskolnikov had to suffer and struggle with the guilt of his own sins before he could resolve himself and make the decision to choose redemption, no matter what. but that’s a post for another time, lol)

imo, both fyodor and nikolai’s character arcs will inevitably lead them to redemption. they fit the roles of the “ordinary” and “extraordinary,” both of them trying to break out of their birdcages -- humanity, as a concept -- for the sake of proving a point to a world that they think is trying to control them. nikolai is trying to break through the invention of morality, fyodor is trying to attain a virtual “godhood” and a supposed moral superiority. both of them have to choose humanity in order to be saved. both of them have, subconsciously, realized the fundamental errors in their own thinking. nikolai realized that, in order to be truly free, he has to kill the only person who understands him and who he cares about -- he has to kill the literal personification of his ideals. fyodor has, multiple times, been thwarted by human emotion and, honestly, humanity as a whole -- he’s surprised by tachihara choosing to fight for his chosen family, he’s shocked that ranpo (somebody entirely human and, as dazai says, “the strongest man in the agency”) would choose to look through “kamui” and save the members of the ada.

it’s humanity -- the will to live and fight in the real world, experience real human emotions, and fight for sakunosuke’s “beautiful world” -- that allows atsushi to be both the “antithesis of ability users” but also become the world’s most wanted ability user. without humanity, abilities are inherently destructive (as in the example of shibusawa, who was devoid of humanity as a whole), but with it, redemption is always a choice that is available for you to make. it’s the realization and choice that both fyodor and nikolai are going to have to make, in the end, once their ideas and ideals inevitably crumble around them. bsd is about reconciling these "good" and "evil" parts inside of everybody -- and turning them into a unified whole that can then push on, continuing to save the people around them.

#ciphertexts #bungou stray dogs #bsd #bsd analysis #bsd meta #fake tvtropes analysis #there are some points in here that i have elaborated on in-depth in some other posts LOL but i trieddd my best to summarize them here #anyway. manifest fyodor dostoevsky chapter 91 sorry for dating this post but i HAVE to will him into existence