Mori Ougai’s belief as the boss 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. [...] “Therefore, no matter how much your heart aches, you have to ignore your personal feelings.”
Kafka Asagiri, for the BSD exhibition
On Mori and regret.
This man acts based on his perceived "optimal solution". It means relying on cold logic, detached from (his own and others') emotions. In that way, he fits right in as one of the smart characters of BSD, contrasting for example Dazai's way of working with/around people's feelings, and Fyodor's way of manipulating and twisting those feelings into monsters.
Mori remains cold, logical, distant, efficient. It meant disregarding Yosano's and the soldiers' deteriorating mental health during the war because the concept of an army that cannot be wiped out was too good. It meant following Natsume's plan and taking the old boss' place himself to fix Yokohama's underground and protect the city and its people. It also meant disposing of Mimic by sacrificing Oda in order to get the special ability business permit, despite (and perhaps because of) Dazai's attachment to the man.
The thing is, humans are not logical creatures, and will inevitably encounter conflicting emotions.
(does this look like the face of a man without regrets to you?)
Mori in Dark Era tried to pass on to Dazai his practice of putting aside his own feelings for the sake of choosing the most efficient solution that will benefit the group. It backfired spectacularly, so much so even, that Mori regrets it to this day.
For the BSD exhibition, Asagiri wrote some individual character commentaries, all very interesting insights into their characters and the writing intentions. For Mori, here's what he wrote:
“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”.
(By the way, it goes without saying that Dazai is inducing Mori’s thoughts by words that will make him regret the past. It is to make him decide to form an “alliance”.)
source and translation: Popopretty
(notice the inclusion of Hirotsu in this scene. Remember that later, Hirotsu suggests that Dazai knows why Mori did what he did to overthrow the old boss, which, in my opinion, is both a proof of Dazai's support in Mori's goal, and a reminder to uphold it.)
One of my favourite parts of the Dark Era light novel is a small scene during the epilogue that was not adapted into the anime. This is two weeks after Dazai defected:
To quote Asagiri again, "Therefore, no matter how much your heart aches, you have to ignore your personal feelings." Mori is conflicted about the outcome of the Mimic incident. He holds in his hands the Silver Oracle he himself gave to Oda, and reflects on its purpose: to "help the man mentioned above without hesitation in the face of any and all trials". Didn't he fail to do just that with Oda? Didn't he set him up and sent him to his doom? Didn't he abandon him to his trial?
But he rationalizes the events by saying he got the permit they so badly needed. No matter if he sacrificed one of his men. No matter if he drove Dazai away. He accomplished his priceless goal. It was a total success.
And yet, he poorly folds a paper airplane with the very Silver Oracle he gave Oda, throws it, watches it crash immediately, and mourns the loss of his right-hand man, without ever moving on.
But we have a direct example of Mori expressing regret.
The perception that Mori in BEAST is a completely different character than Mori is in canon, when that perception doesn't extend to any other character from that universe, rubs me the wrong way. The characters in BEAST are very similar to their canon selves, with some core traits getting a new twist. They are all one or two major life changes away from becoming these versions of themselves. As far as we know, Mori's only life-altering event was being forcefully removed from the Port Mafia by Dazai, and secretly put in charge of Atsushi's old orphanage.
Mori unambiguously made that orphanage a better place, as stated by Atsushi himself. BEAST!Mori is a lot softer, vulnerable and honest. That Mori offers to be a father to Atsushi while he heals. He also expresses regret in not being able to help Dazai when he was in his care.
I think it's very interesting, especially when knowing that Asagiri wrote both BEAST and Fifteen at the same time for the Dead Apple movie, because in Fifteen we have this:
The beginning of the first chapter of Fifteen is a gold mine. It is narrated from Mori's point of view, the man of logic and calculations, and yet it is full of doubt. He is alone and struggling to fix everything with so many people against him. But, throughout this scene about grasping at the Port Mafia's power, there is also this secondary thought being woven in, of Mori having started to actually care for Dazai.
The teenager is scary to him, smart enough to be a threat should he decide to be done with all this and turn against him, and yet, he immediately (and with a hint of sadness) finds that Dazai reminds him of himself. This lonely, lonely man found a kindred spirit, bright enough to grasp any situation in seconds and prone to using an uncomfortable obsession to divert and keep you guessing his true intentions. Mori entered Mentor Mode™ then. He taught Dazai his ways, he shared his struggles and thought process, he fought tooth and nail to keep him alive.
So when he asked Dazai why he wanted to die, it was with the concern of someone who has started to care. It was with the mind of someone who is trying to prevent the worst by fixing the problem at its source.
(translation: Reneray)
But it's also that self-projection/ability to relate that made him drive Dazai away, when he pushed too hard and forced Dazai to adhere to his optimal solution philosophy. Because Dazai cannot separate himself from his attachments, could not ignore his emotions like Mori does, and chose Oda over Mori's logic. From Dazai's point of view, that was betrayal. Mori and him were accomplices!
Dazai planted the idea that Mori was afraid of him taking over as boss, and Mori seems to agree with that thought (would it be because he feared for his life, or for Dazai's ability to replace him?) Yet, for a man afraid of his closest subordinate backstabbing him, he seems to be hanging on quite hard to the possibility of Dazai coming back, leaving his seat open to this day, inviting him back twice in the same arc, and...
(yeah I used this picture at the start too. "I hAvE nO rEgReTs" he says)
Mori may try to convince himself he feels no regrets and no guilt over his own actions by weighting gains and losses objectively, but he still hurts and has a very hard time moving on. He's human despite his best efforts, prone to mistakes and doubts. He's lonely and wishes to impart his knowledge onto others. His cold logic has both helped him in fixing the city, and alienated him from some of the people he most cared about.
In a similar vein, should the ADA employee transfer be of topic again, and should Mori clash with Yosano again, I wish we get to see some similar conflicting emotions in Mori between the usefulness of Yosano's ability, and Yosano herself as a person. The war was 14 years ago, that's a long time, and I want to believe that counts for something.
914 notes
·
View notes
I promise I'll do a proper post about this sometime but
House was so different before the infarction, and we as a fandom don't talk about that nearly enough. His gentleness and vulnerability with Stacy (at the end of The Mistake "so what do we do now?" - in the middle of the ep with her husband). In s1e21 Three Stories, he's so gentle with Cuddy even though it was her hospital's mistake. He doesn't shout at the nurse or rail against anyone, just quietly insists on his (borderline suicidal) course of action.
Basically, the level of abrasiveness, misanthropy, etc etc that we see in the show pretty clearly (though subtly) didn't exist prior to the infarction. Is it exacerbated by the clear self-esteem issues, implied trust issues, and ofc his usual anti-authority attitude that clearly came from a lifetime of being raised by John House? Yeah.
But House could be and was vulnerable before the infarction. Sometime I'll write a post about his different life stages through the show, but tldr;
the abuse House suffered as a child was only one of the core drivers of his "walls to keep people out;" the infarction was another massive change / hit for him.
102 notes
·
View notes
So Secret Life is happening. And it's great. And it has potential to be a LONG series compared to other life installments.
Let me explain.
Historically, the biggest killers in the life series are fall damage, PvP, and TNT (if you're wondering how I know this, this is how). Let's look at how each of those makes you dead.
Fall damage gets people in one of two ways: either taking a fatal bit of damage after being almost killed by something else (ex. Tango's final death in Limited Life), or falling a massive distance that wipes all ten hearts in one go (ex. Grian's final death in Limited Life). Neither of these are particularly viable at killing someone in Secret Life, at least not for a while, given all the players have triple the amount of hearts as usual. As for big falls, a lethal fall for someone with a full 30 hearts would have to be roughly 63+ blocks (fall damage is half a heart for every block after the third, with some small discrepancies for tick timings). That's a LONG fall. I'm talking you could jump off the top of the Crastle from 3rd Life and survive just fine. Granted, people won't be on 30 hearts forever, so that number will gradually whittle down, but what's typically a big killer is going to be more of an inconvenience for people with higher hearts.
PvP is the only top cause of death that's based on consistent and deliberate lowering of health, and without the boogeyman, it's not even a factor until someone goes red. Grian has implied, however, that reds will get different (and likely more violent) secrets, so I expect that once one person goes red, things will go downhill for everyone else rather quickly. I'm curious to see how PvP will work for people with high hearts but no regeneration. It'll probably take longer—an unenchanted Netherite axe in the right hands can deal a full 30 hearts worth of damage in just 4 seconds, but against unenchanted diamond armor would take around a full 20 seconds, assuming the person (for some reason) didn't fight back at all. And keep in mind players are allowed to enchant to their heart's content this season. The goal of most confrontations is likely going to be just to put a big dent in another player's health and in the hopes that that endangers them enough to be killed by more natural causes, rather than putting in the effort to wipe them out completely. Reds will likely prefer seeking out players with lower health in order to complete their secrets, but they may have to break the mold if they can't find an ideal target. Additionally, I wouldn't be surprised if some red secrets are something along the lines of "deal [x] amount of damage to a player" instead of just "kill someone."
On to TNT. The idea when setting off an explosion is always to do the maximum amount of damage possible. Explosions are based on power (how hard a thing explodes (4 in the case of TNT and 6 for end crystals)) and impact (how hard the exploding thing hits you). Impact is based on exposure (how close you are to the exploding thing), which varies wildly every time, so it's hard to say exactly how much TNT it would take to kill someone with 30 hearts in one go. My best guess, based on TNT-related deaths we've seen, is probably sixish point-blank explosions (probably best reached with six stacked TNT minecarts). Personally, I would love to find out exactly how much TNT you would need, and I'm sure Secret Life will help me out here. In short, you need a LOT of TNT to kill someone, but iron and TNT can be earned from secret rewards, so it may not be all that hard to get. And players should invest in a piece of blast protection armor (just one, though, more than one doesn't do enough good to be worth it).
And, on top of all this, players can get hearts back. Not without some trials and tribulation, but they have three pretty substantial lives. Sure, people will have bad days (like Martyn) from natural hazards like caving and being exposed at night, but both those things become much easier to avoid after session one or two.
TL;DR—it's harder to lose a life in Secret Life. As long as people are careful and try to hang on to their green/yellow lives, it could easily be the longest life series installment yet.
29 notes
·
View notes