in an AU where dazai is a painter, and oda was a writer-

while ango is a bitch LMAWOAKWJHJDAJK

it’s lit them

they care about their son ok

the parallel of fukuzawa lying to ranpo about the glasses to help manage his smarts and odasaku lying to dazai about having this secret reason to live and taking him to bar lupin. i guess if you stretched it a bit, it could be about meaning being constructed, its what you make of it and what you personally attach importance to. because dazai and ranpo know these are lies, but fukuzawa giving ranpo the glasses works, because ranpo decides that they do, he has placed his trust in fukuzawa(placebos can work even if you are aware of it). it functions as a mental barrier anyways. bar lupin becomes a truly special place for dazai; it symbolizes his connection with odasaku. and odasakus wish for dazai to become a "good person" becomes his reason to live. the lies become truth because they gain new meaning due to the personal bonds between the characters. also i just think its funny that the little lies fukuzawa and oda came up with of the top of their heads had such lasting important consequences on the people that look up to them.

Card Meanings in the new, The Day I Picked Up Dazai art.

Ok so im currently still in shock that were getting new day I picked up dazai content so bare with me, but onece again Asagiri has included playing cards in his art so of course I have to break down what they mean.

Lets start with side A (the right side):

First we see a joker:

While Gogol is the obvious fit for the joker, the card also describes Dazai extremely well. He is almost always acting like the fool in any given situation, even in the mafia he loved to be as weird and funny as he could as well as tease and annoy the people around him, something jesters famously did.

In fact, his dynamic with Mori is very close to how a king and a jester used to work, where the jester was the only person who was allowed to openly mock the king and would usually heckle him. They also played a key part in psychological warfare, which we see Dazai specialises in.

I think the whole; wit, intelligence and unpredictability kind of speaks for itself.

Next card is the four of spades:

This one is also really fitting, it shows how after the day I picked up Dazai side A, Dazai settles into his little routine of going to bar lupin with Oda as well as how he finally has someone who he can trust and be comfortable around. Finally, it is a clear message of optimism, something Dazai never shows before he meets Oda.

Next the two of hearts:

This one is pretty obvious, it's Dazai and Oda spending time at bar lupin. It actually fits so well, there's not much I can say about it other then how it shows the love and care Dazai and Oda had for each other (platonically)

Now for Side B (prepare to cry)

The first card is the three of spades:

Whyyyyyyyyyy... why Asagiri. This one is also fairly obvious but it has multiple meanings. It most clearly represents Dazai suffering in side B as he has to run the mafia without odasaku and live in utter loneliness while destroying all the connections he never got to have for the sake of a friend he never got to meet.

“It was hard,” muttered the young man. “It was really hard fighting Mimic without you in the organization. I had no choice but to take over for Mori and make enemies of everyone around me to expand the business. Everything I did was for this world’s—”

It also represents the moment on the platform where he nearly tells Odasaku the truth and goes with him to bar lupin, the horrible decision to abandon everything for Odas future

The next card is... the ace of spades:

The ace of spade has many meanings, most of which involve change or transition, but by far its most famous meaning it death. I really don't think I have to explain this one, Beast Dazai having the card of death has a pretty clear meaning.

But the ace of spade does have a secondary meaning, and this one is a little more hopeful, as it shows Dazai passing the safety of this world onto Atsushi and Auktagawa.

Finally, (it's a bit hard to see) we have the ten of diamonds:

I want to focus mostly on the highlighted part because it's what really applies to BEAST Dazai, he lived his whole life to create a world where what matters most to him, that Oda gets to be happy and write his books, becomes real. This card doesn't apply to Dazai directly, more to the fact that he made succeeding in his mission his only priority and discarded everything else.

Bonus round Odasku card; the king of clubs

the only card thats seen on Oda's section and one that clearly represents Odasaku as a character.

"King of clubs represents a dark man, who is loyal and kind. He is a good businessman, shrewd with money and investments, but isn’t selfish. In fact, the King of clubs is a very devoted father, husband and citizen. In a broader sense, the King of clubs encompasses idealized qualities of a fatherly figure. This card is universally considered as a very good omen."

I feel like this sums Odasaku up very well, the devoted father and loyal friend parts are just him to a t.

(this is also the card I think best represents Fukuzawa)

Right, I think I got everything, if you disagree with this or find something I missed, please reblog or comment with whatever you want to add, or send me an ask. I love discussing, and hearing other people's views as long as they're respectful.

If you add something, please add it in the post not the tags, so I can reply to it (or in the tags if that makes you more comfortable)

Nah everyone asking how and when Chuuya would snap if Dazai died. Where's my how and when will Dazai snap when Chuuya dies girlies?

Like I want deep analysis and shit about Dazai's trauma of losing things the moment he gains them and shit. And boy's obsessed, no way he's prancing out of there normal if that happens.

i once read this fic in cn fandom where chuuya passed on (in the fic) and the comparison they made regarding chuuya and oda in dazai's life was so interesting: odasaku is dazai's sky, and chuuya is dazai's sun.

personally, i think it's somewhat the other way round, though: oda is the sun and chuuya is the sky. in the sense that oda is sth that dazai turns to for guidance and direction, the anchor, the point on a compass, the one thing that might destroy him if he actually took the time to think carefully about their relationship (pls consult this analysis before fighting me). chuuya, on the other hand, is somewhat like the sky: constant, unassuming, you don't think abt the fact that the sky is there. and it's doubly fitting bc the sky itself is a void (in the sense that it opens to the galaxy, so a 'sky' is a thing that is not-quite-a-thing. doubly fitting, if we consider that skk has been apart for more years than they have been together. chuuya is dazai's sky, chuuya is dazai's void, chuuya is the constant that dazai has never lost and will never lose.

in a sense, i think dazai never ever entertained the possibility of losing chuuya. i don't think he ever saw chuuya as something he owned, as much as he jokes that chuuya is his dog (fifteen), we also see how in stormbringer he actively undermines his own words, referring to chuuya as a human etc. etc. it's almost like the 'dog' and 'possession' thing is an inside joke between the two of them, like dazai is saying all that precisely because he knows it will rile chuuya up. but in dazai's own mind i am willing to bet that he's never seen chuuya as a possession; simply because he doesn't want to risk losing chuuya. it's a conflicting perspective, if he doesn't own chuuya, then he can't lose chuuya. so he sees chuuya as like, a constant. that's why he always refers to chuuya as his partner. not ex-partner (as in, partner i have lost). but partner, as in, partner i'll always have.

so if, in the event that dazai does lose chuuya, no matter what the reason, dazai doesn't feel it first. and for some reason i think it would happen when dazai isn't there/isn't aware of the fact that chuuya is dead when he does die (bc there's no way that dazai would willingly let chuuya die, if canon events have been any indication).

and when it happens, he can almost delude himself into thinking that chibi is still there bc his partner has always existed. not exactly by his side, no, but he's there.

then he might, idk, do the stuff he does when chuuya is around. like look for him in a crowd. impulsively decide to break into chuuya's apartment. only to remember, immediately, a split-second later, that chuuya... isn't there.

and i think it hits him the way it hits us when we learn that the sky isn't quite the 'sky', like it's not just a patch of blue weighing the earth down, but it's an endless void that stretches out into the universe, a hole that we can't fill. it's not helplessness. it's just numbness. he doesn't know what to do about it. he can't do anything about it. chuuya likely didn't leave him any last words or wills and testaments; if he did, it would be something stupid. and dazai wouldn't know how to cope.

oda went towards his death willingly: i think dazai could at least make peace with that. he understands it, to a certain extent, bc oda's death can be read as a form of suicide–– he walked towards the inevitable death despite pleas from dazai himself. chuuya's death, intentional or not (on chuuya's part), wouldn't have been anywhere in dazai's plans at all.

at some point he might try to convince himself that chuuya wasn't his to lose (cue: t.swiftie's august), but it won't change the fact that dazai lost him anyway. and that would hurt the most, because now the sky has fallen and the rug has been pulled from underneath his feet and nothing in the world is permanent anymore.

and with all that said, i think, at his worst, dazai might withdraw permanently. just remove himself from all sorts of social interaction. move back to the shipping container and watch and wait as the days pass by until he dies. the ada might try to stop him, of course. but it'll be a long time before he can bring himself to come back.

how do you go back to a world where the sky has fallen?

how do you even begin to comprehend a world without a sky?

how do you begin to wrap your head around the fact that the sky has always been a void, and that actually, even if the sky falls, nothing will have changed?

it's maddening, and dazai will hate every moment of this existence. even more so than he did before.

Dude...

asagiri: my favourite character is oda. my favourite scene is when he dies

also asagiri: sigma is one of my favourite characters

WHAT IF I KILLED MYSELF WHAT THEN

Dazaicopter

Yippee!!

On Dazai, his heartrate, The Book, BEAST, and metanarratives (or: how we may or may not already know how it all ends)

Have you noticed that in the opening of season 4, Dazai is the only one who is shown to mouth along to the lyrics? Specifically, he mouths along to the last part of the line that goes something along the lines of "The context in which my soul beats, turn it into a heartbeat" (魂が打つ文脈、鼓動に変えてしまえよ (source)).

This is interesting, because as Ango established in episode 11, Dazai has been communicating with the outside world by adjusting his heartrate to encode deciphered messages. And i hate this plot point with a passion, hated it when it came up in the manga and still hate it after the latest episode, so i will cope by doing the following in this 3k word essay (which i wrote in about 5 hours on the day i have an actual real-world deadline):

Trying to figure out 1) what this skill of Dazai implies about his character and role in the overall story, and 2) how this implication is supported by the lyrics of the opening theme, "True Story" by SCREEN MODE, and 3) how this opening suggests a more intricate connection between BEAST and the main timeline, and 4) what all of this means for the current arc, the overall story, and the author(s).

ranpo-san ranpo-san ranpo-san ranpo-san

this pic is so cute but odas face fucking kills me he looks so confused 😭

diversity win! they all have sm going on in the brain <3

Do you ever think in the absolutely devastating contrast between dazai’s reaction to odasaku’s death vs chuuya’s to the flag’s? About how Dazai is generally seen as cold and emotionless but odasaku’s death is one of the few moments in which Dazai shows pure, genuine, /unadulterated emotion/. One of the few moments in which he wasn’t the demon prodigy or this omnipotent being and just someone suffering because they just lost their best friend? About how chuuya is his opposite and is this giant ball of strong /loud/ emotions, about how he is by far the most expressive character in the whole story but when he saw his friends die, he had to keep a blank face? About how he consciously fought the urge to scream? About how he was falling apart but he /forced/ himself to keep his emotions at bay because he put albatross needs over his own pain? Detached, apathetic and always in control Dazai Osamu was overwhelmed by emotion and crumbling apart, meanwhile loud, expressive and impulsive Nakahara chuuya was forced into quietness. I just find fascinating that they showed completely different reactions of what they usually show to the world but is precisely that what makes this scenes hurt so fucking much.

Anyway, just a midnight thought

A sad one today..

Day#25 Gunshot.

This one needs no introductions..

-Nix🌙

“Monster.”

Pt. II, by @otaldofelipesouza on instagram

Dazai: Sorry I haven't been replying. I lost Odasaku last night

Chuuya: You lost Oda-san?

Chuuya: Did you find him?

Dazai: Chuuya no....

Chuuya: oh

Chuuya: OH

Source