Art by  karinoaaa

Posted with Permission (reprint/edit and/or commercial use prohibited)

Try drawing boss for the first time

死印の大門さん

そんな～時代も～あったねと～♪️ || りつ（左）[@r1kuuw] ※Permission to upload this was given by the artist (©). **Please, favorite/retweet/follow to support the artist** [Please do not repost, edit or remove credits]

Fukumori (& Elise) in picrew

(A/N: link at the bottom)

Fukuzawa

Mori

Elise (I know this isn't a great represenation of Elise but this was the only dress the picrew had so maid cosyume it is)

Link

not "they did nothing wrong" or "they are a horrible bastard" but a secret third thing: they did things wrong and I like that about them but everyone over-exaggerates their negative impact on the story

Mori Ogai and Regret

Mori in the BSD Manga and Light Novels prides himself in always finding the optimal solution, in pushing his own feelings aside to accomplish the optimal goal for any given situation.

He is a man of logic and carefully wielded cruelty.

We see countless examples of the way he handles things and in the end achieves the best possible solution to his problems.

There were all instances where we saw Mori put aside his own emotions and morality to achieve a greater goal. He wielded cruelty, facts and logic as weapons to achieve the in his mind most logical and optimal solution.

But Mori is human. And Humans can not completely disregard and turn off their emotions, no matter how hard they try.

Mori himself says that he has no regrets during the Guild Arc.

But does this like the face of a man void of regrets?

Or this?

In this instance Dazai is choosing the words that will invoke the feeling of Regret in Mori to push him towards choosing a truce with the ADA.

Dazai is aware that Mori has regrets.

But so is Hirotsu.

His inclusion in any conversations Dazai and Mori have regarding the old Boss tells us, as the reader, that Hirotsu knows the full picture.

He isn't just aware that Mori killed the old Boss like other people, but also of Mori's goal from that act.

Hirotsu even goes as far as to tell Mori that Dazai understands why Mori did what he did, implies that Dazai would also understand other actions Mori takes to reach the optimal solution.

But this also shows us something different.

Mori needs reminders.

After Mori killed the old PM Boss Dazai became a constant reminder of why he did what he did. It was inevitable that Dazai would forever remind Mori of the act itself and the initial reasoning behind it, since Dazai was present and Dazai helped him plan it.

Once Dazai left the Mafia Hirotsu transformed into a reminder of it all. In some way Kouyou is also a reminder of what he did and why he did it.

But why these two?

They were there during the reign of the old Boss.

But how does Mori remember the regrets of another part of his past? How does he remind himself of a time where he miscalculated, where he should have taken the emotions of the people he regarded as tools into account?

How is Mori reminded of the mistakes and regrets of the Great War, of Yosano?

Elise.

Elise is Mori's ability, Vita Sexualis. A humanoid puppet to control as he wishes.

But also to shape as he wishes.

During the Great War Elise is nothing more than a robotic being wearing a human skin, void of emotions, thoughts and autonomy.

Mori has always made Elise take the form of a younger girl.

While it is speculated in the fandom that this could be linked to his Lolicon, I believe otherwise.

Elise is for one inspired by the Novel The Dancing Girl from the real life author. But since she is Mori's ability in BSD she will be influenced by his subconcious.

Elise shows us that Mori, even in his twenties, wanted an apprentice. He wanted to impart his knowledge on someone else but until he found Yosano he did not have someone to do this with.

(Im Beast Elise takes the form of a women. Mori already has children to take care of and bestow his knowledge upton, he doesn't need her to fill thie role. But he does need another caretaker, so that is what Elise becomes)

Yosano herself says in the Manga that she respected Mori as a doctor.

Choosing a young and mallable girl as his apprentice did make her easier to manipulate, to create an army that can not die. But young people are also sponges for knowledge.

And here we come to his regret.

Mori does regret how he handled the situation with Yosano.

He liked that strong willed and opinionated young girl he drafted, and he broke her.

We do not see much of Elise until Dark Era, so we can not tell how long it took for Elise to display Yosanos personality after Yosano was redcued by Fukuzawa and Ranpo.

In this official Art we see Yosanos shadow in Elise, a clear indication of teh fact that Mori's impression of Yosano was bleeding into Elise. But we also see her still wearing pigtails.

Her hair and general clothing tells us that this is between loosing Yosano and Dark Era. With time, Elise will resemble Yosano more.

(The bow resembles the butterfly hairpin of Yosano.)

In this scene Mori tries to convince Elise to try on a new dress.

She refuses and clearly displays Yosano's personality in thsi interaction. From the way Mori handles it this isn't knew.

Their dynamic had already shifted into something more like Yosano and Mori instead of the Ability and Mori.

But her hair is different from the last picture.

Elise now has open and wavy hair. Does this remind you of someone?

(For a boy Dazai has always worn his hair longer than traditional seen as boyish, which in turn let's his ends curl and wave more noticable)

But why would Elise take on appearance markers of Dazai?

Simple.

Because there is something Mori regrets.

He only openly mentiones it in Beast but since Beast is a mirror of Canon, that shows us how different choices will change the same people, we can assume this are also the feelings of Canon!Mori.

Mori regrets not being able to really help Dazai.

And his regret will only get deeper as he makes another choice for an optimal solution.

Driving Dazai away and getting Oda killed fulfilled many positives for Mori, what he reached was the optimal solution. He just had to lose his right hand man.

(Light Novel Dark Era)

This is not the behavior of a man not regretting driving away the boy he cared about for 4 years to this point.

To this day Mori leaves Dazai's spot as executive open. He invited Dazai back into the Mafia.

And when we see Elise after Dark Era she has changed once again.

But this time it is not her appearance that changed, it is her attitude.

Elise displays a very much Dazai-like attitude when talking to Mori.

Where Yosano - and until the end of Dark Era Elise - were strong in their oppinion but polite and steadfast in their refusal, Dazai was bargaining. Dazai more often than not wanted something in exchange for doing something he deemed unpleasant/bothersome/boring.

During the recent timeline Elise also does this.

She doesn't just refuse things, she makes deals.

And she doesn't lie during negotiations, just like Dazai.

In the end Elise changes to be more like the people Mori feels a form of regret over. Elise is a constant reminder of his Regrets and Mistakes.

To support this, here are Asagiris words about Mori from the BSD Exhibition:

“He who fell out of the optimal solution”

Mori Ougai’s belief as the boss is described in the novel “Dark Era” and “Dazai, Chuuya, Fifteen”. That is “The boss stands on top of the organization, and at the same time, be the slave of all.” For the sake of the organization, the boss must always take the “logical optimal solution.” That is the duty of the boss.

There is an unspoken additional point to it. “Therefore, no matter how much your heart aches, you have to ignore your personal feelings.” We can catch a glimpse of that in this scene. [the ADA-PM alliance meeting]

Mori’s expressions after “Burnt it.” and “Like what you did to your predecessor”, gave us a glimpse of his true feelings that were made sacrifices for the sake of the “logical optimal solution”.

[Translation by @popopretty here on Tumblr]

A true optimal solution would leave Mori with no regrets. But whenever Elise changes and reminds him of regrets he feels, it is also a reminder of the time he did not truly reach an optimal solution.

A lot of people are going to hate me for this, but

Analysis on why Mori treats Yosano and Dazai differently. So, both Dazai and Yosano are implied in the narrative to represent Mori's "children" figures, but for very different reasons. Yosano was a rebel and carefree child with a strong personality, and Mori says that "her fortitude was amazing". We can notice that he was really friendly with her at first. He really admired her, and in particular the way she spoke back and fought against authority, a thing that Mori never really had but wished to have. In short, young Yosano represented what Mori aspired to be. That is why Elise was modeled after her, because abilities in bsd's world are tied with the user's soul. I think that many people misinterpreted Vita Sexualis, it has never been said that ot represents what Mori is attracted sexually too, but it represents what Mori desires. Elise is also a symbol of Mori's guilt, for traumatizing Yosano in that way during the war. He never intended to hurt Yosano in any way because he cared about her, but he felt obligated to do it for the "greater good". Now, let's talk about Dazai. We can see that even from the start, Mori doesn't treat Dazai the way you would normally treat a 14 yrs old, but he treats him like an adult, sort of like he was one of the people working with him. Then plan strategies together, they talk about cruel acts without any bother, and Dazai becomes his right-hand man. This is because Mori knew that Dazai was a really smart, intelligent and dark soul. Mori treated young Dazai so differently because he said multiple times that he reminded him of himself. I think that no one would want to see the darkness that they had in themselves everyday, like a reminder of all those terrible things. Dazai was Mori's reality, the cold truth that he is supposed to serve the city and commit terrible acts for the greater good, while Yosano was his dream of becoming careless.

(This is just my very very personal interpretation ofc!! Everyone has their own opinions which I totally respect. Also, sorry if I wrote anything wrong, I am so sorry lol.)

i will personally never forgive yenpress for botching the translation because now it's impossible to find chuuya / dazai / yosano takes that do not start with "first off, mori sucks and he's a predator"

mori is the don of the port mafia and has committed several war crimes, but not those ones. yell at him and hate him for the severe psychological manipulation of yosano & for dazai joining the mafia n being his witness. you know, the things he did.

I think an important piece of context that is missing from a lot of the hot takes about Mori and Elise is, well, the legendary 1970s manga Black Jack.

(very long illustrated explanation below)

I thought about the extreme fandom wank about Mori a little more, and here is more context that might be useful for thinking about this fictional character. Don't ask me to explain why the mangaka for BSD did or didn't make any particular jokes - I can't read minds! But this might be a useful bit of background.

Art by  karinoaaa

Posted with Permission (reprint/edit and/or commercial use prohibited)

Happy Birthday! 🥳 May you always be happy and may you find people who understand you! 💕 お誕生日おめでとうございます！🥳 お幸せに！💞 ° ° ° ° #bungoustraydogs #bungousd #bsd #moriougai #文豪ストレイドッグス #文スト #森鴎外 #2月17日は森鴎外の誕生日 #ポートマフィア首領生誕祭 https://www.instagram.com/p/CLYlg3iHQ3t/?igshid=kdsvdaulg9mc

May you always be happy 🙏❤️❤️

I think something that people writing Chuuya’s relationship with Mori as “full of tension” and “does not like the man” are forgetting - or maybe they haven’t seen? - the fact that in a fully official business meeting at one point, Mori had his hair done in little ponytails by Elise, and was having a hard time figuring out the date for a meeting with a company.

When he says the meeting can’t be on a date Kouyou suggests because it’d clash with a shopping trip he’d had planned with Elise, Chuuya agrees, as if this is only natural.

Like… yes, what we see most of is Chuuya talking to the guy and interacting with him like he’s the untouchable Boss, whose motives and orders can’t be questioned; however, Chuuya’s also seen in canon to indulge the Boss and Elise in informal situations, as well as the more formal celebrations we’re privy to.

Chuuya’s known Mori, Elise, and Kouyou for seven years. As long as he’s known Dazai, in fact, except - no. He’s known them longer, and more intimately, because when Dazai left the mafia, Chuuya didn’t. Chuuya stuck with these people, and I wonder if many people realise just what that’d mean.

Because… yeah, Mori had a bad relationship with Dazai. He saw himself in Dazai, and he was afraid of Dazai.

But Mori doesn’t act that way toward Chuuya. For various reasons, even. Mori sees Chuuya and the moment they first meet, there’s a respect there. Respect between two people being one of the underlying themes of BSD, often coming with unhealthy relationships such as Dazai and Akutagawa, but also relationships such as mentor ones, like Dazai and Atsushi, which I think is more along the lines of what’s going on here. Mori looks at Chuuya and sees someone who could, given time and life experience, become the next Boss.

Mori has absolutely no reason to turn Chuuya against him. Mori feels comfortable with Chuuya, as far as I see, and goes as far as to indulge him when Chuuya does something that might not have been pre-approved. I personally think that after promoting Chuuya to executive, Mori became closer to Chuuya, encouraging his potential as a leader, in ways which were beneficial to him (which were, conversely, non-beneficial to Dazai given the workload Chuuya would have been under).

And when Dazai leaves the mafia? Yes, I truly do think that Mori actively manipulated events so that Dazai would leave, but I also think that Mori would not have been stupid enough to be cold and heartless about it to the kid who’d been Dazai’s partner for three years, and even if Chuuya couldn’t see it, Mori had been able to see how much they meant to each other from the moment he partnered them up at fifteen.

Think what you will of Mori, but to Chuuya he isn’t just ‘Boss’, he’s probably the closest thing Chuuya has to a positive male role model, since Rimbaud is dead, and only left Chuuya with one real conversation, if that, even if that conversation did shape Chuuya into the person we know him to be today. 

Chuuya might stand on ceremony and obey orders when Mori is acting as Boss, but when he’s not actively acting as Boss and giving orders, they’re just gonna be… well, Elise’s picture says it all, really. In her eyes, the mafia is a family. With her on top and in charge, naturally.

I am going to be consistently confused over why so much of the BSD fandom seems to think that Dazai was somehow abused during his time in the mafia, especially by Mori. 

When the Fifteen light novel shows Mori saying he’s basically done “action movie level stunts” to keep Dazai from killing himself, and also “this mission shouldn’t involve any actual danger” - not to mention how a massive part of Mori’s personality is that he doesn’t want to see his subordinates getting killed.

Mori is… brutally protective. 

I say that in the sense that he doesn’t seem to mind what sort of messes they choose to get themselves into, but if someone else goes after them? Those are his subordinates. 

Literally the only times I can think of when Mori intentionally allows a subordinate to be hurt or killed is when he either a) knows they’re not actually loyal (Ango, and arguably Rimbaud, if you want to think he may have already known), or b) has judged that their worth to the organisation is such that he is willing to spend them in their entirety on one action (Oda, versus the Special Ability Business Permit).

As for how I can see Mori handling Dazai?

With caution. 

A LOT of caution.

Mori was afraid that one of those days, near the end of the Dark Era, Dazai was just going to slit his neck and take the job. Mori would NOT have made that worse - if he’d made himself into a clear and obvious threat in Dazai’s eyes, then that would not have been the Optimal Solution. Mori wants to stay alive, thank you.

The irony is that, the thing is? I can see him abusing and manhandling Dazai in one aspect - and that’s in terms of ensuring that Dazai did not die on his watch.

Dazai was someone he’d known since Dazai was fourteen years old. Since he was a bratty kid in his early teens. He knew Dazai for four years. We see how he can be. We also see how Mori can be when he loses his patience, even if it’s not with Dazai himself.

So… Mori grabbing at Dazai and forcing him to stay or go? Forcing him to eat when he’s clearly malnourished? Possibly even using vitamin supplements when he’s seen that Dazai is getting, say, anaemic? 

I’d say that Mori’s main major issue would be his lack of ability to sympathise with Dazai, and show natural compassion. He loses patience easily, and resorts to using force just as easily. 

But… he wouldn’t harm one of his own subordinates, let alone Dazai, if it doesn’t give him anything that’s worth the effort and risk of doing so.

If anything, I’d say that Mori’s comment during the secret meeting says a lot about his attitude toward Dazai in general-

“I thought you left of your own free will?”

I won’t say that Mori was a good or positive presence for him, because he wasn’t. Mori was - as I’ve said in a previous post - life support until Dazai could find first Chuuya, then Odasaku, and then be able to find the ADA, where he thrives. 

And… that’s the thing. All these others encourage him to find his own reasons to live, and take care of him in some way - from Chuuya’s mother hen tendencies even if they are covered up by unfriendly bickering, to Odasaku’s acceptance even when he should’ve spoken up, to the ADA believing that he can be good - and Mori, right at the beginning, didn’t see that as a side of Dazai he had to encourage to grow.

…Honestly, I think people just have a hard time understanding that the root of Mori’s character isn’t “acts weird around little girls and is an amoral doctor” but that he’s literally pragmatic to a fault. If there’s no good logical reason for him to do a thing? He won’t do it. If game theory says that he gets the most out of this thing and it costs him something? That cost is worth it. If he gets the desired result and a person involved now hates him? Well, at least they’re alive in order to hate him, and still be useful, right?

Like… with that in mind, why would he encourage self-destructive behaviour in his subordinates? Why would he experiment on subordinates? Why would he do anything that would alienate them if that was not the explicit desired result?

If he doesn’t get anything out of it, he won’t do it.

And… if Mori was going to medically experiment on anyone, why make it Dazai? Why wouldn’t he go for Chuuya, if that was what he would do? But the thing is, again, any reasons he might choose to are outweighed heavily by the reasons not to go ahead with it, because Chuuya is more important to him loyal and not just loyal, but whole and alive and happy to stay, than anything else.

In short: it’s okay if you want to hate on a character, just be honest about what you’re doing, and why you’re doing it, and if you’re going to write them, please at least make sure it fits with canon and I can’t just delve in and get at least three quotes that discredit your entire characterisation of them.