I Need More BSD Blogs To Follow!!

DAZAI LOOKS SO CUTE IN THE CARDIGAN I JUST WANNA SNUGGLE HIM

I just found out that these two official arts are actually related

Do you ever just……

When someone you admire and respect as a content creator likes your stuff??

No? Just me? Okay that’s fine

BSD Chapter 113 Historical Analysis

Basically, I can put my History and Religious Studies Degree and put that shit to use and do some good for society

Essentially, I think chapter 113 left us clues for hinting at the bigger themes of Bungo Stray Dogs and possibly some insight into Fyodor's motivation for being caught by Bram. This might get long so buckle up bitch.

OH AND I THINK I FIGURED OUT THE EXACT YEAR THE DUNGEON MEMORY TAKES PLACE

Okay, so the first thing to understand is the contemporary events mentioned in Chapter 113. The guards and Bram mention King Matthias, the Sultan, and the Holy Crusaders.

The Crusades, for those of you who don't know, are a series of so-called Holy Wars whose main objective was the "reclamation" of the Holy Land. However, not all crusades had this objective. There were several crusades within Europe itself. These wars, like the Cathar Crusade, were aimed at driving out paganism or "heretical” sects of Christianity. While the main Crusades happened centuries before the Dungeon scene took place (the first official Crusade happening in 1095) there existed later Crusades that often sought to limit the authority and scope of the Ottoman Empire. Which is also mentioned in the chapter with "Sultan"

Now the Sultan mentioned is Mehemed II, often referred to as the Father of Conquest. He was in power when King Matthias (Matthias was the King of Hungary and Croatia) ruled and often fought to expand Ottoman territory into the lands Matthias ruled.

Now, you know who else was a contemporary ruler? Our boy Vlad Dracul, the inspiration behind Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Now, Vlad Dracul was the ruler of Wallachia, which is basically Romania today. Now it is my belief that Bram Stoker. like a lot of characters in BSD, is inspired by the tale of Dracula and not the actual Bram Stoker. But, I think instead of using the character of Dracula, Asagiri is using Vlad Dracul (also known as Vlad Tepes) as Bram's inspiration. This is for two reasons. 1. The castle depicted in the manga is the same castle Vlad ruled from 2. Bram states that he wants Fyodor skewed like a little shrimpy on the grill. Vlad Dracul got his bloodthirsty reputation by impaling his enemies and leaving their heads on pikes outside his castle for several months at a time. In fact, I forget the exact quote, but a visitor of the castle during Vlad's reign said you could smell the decaying rotten flesh for miles before arriving at the castle. This is why Bram Stoker wrote Dracula based on Vlad Dracul.

Now as for the specific year the memory takes place, I personally believe it takes place in the year 1462, either summer or early fall. Once again this is based on the textual evidence given in the manga... The guards are clearly nervous about the sultan, who we have established is Mehemed II. This guy is responsible for the downfall of the Byzantine (or Eastern Roman Empire) and founded the Ottoman Empire. He also has beef with Vlad since Vlad brutally killed Ottoman envoys sent to Wallachia in an attempt to make Wallachia a vassal state for the Ottomans. Moreover, 1462 was the year that Vlad was imprisoned by King Matthias till his release in 1475. During this time Wallachia was essentially conquered. Vlad died between 1476 and 1477 (the sources don't have a specific date).

Now historically speaking there is reason as to why King Matthias imprisoned Vlad. A letter, which a lot of scholars think was made up, allegedly claimed Vlad pledged his allegiance to the Ottomans to help them conquer Hungary and Croatia. Now, strictly speaking for the events of the manga, having Bram imprisoned and/or taken out of power sounds like something Fyodor would do. So it makes sense that in the manga he would have something to do with Bram being imprisoned. If Bram is imprisoned that is to say since we still don't have clear motives for that.

It should also be noted that Fyodor warns Bram that the "Gods of Warfare come from the West”. historically speaking it was the Ottoman Empire that caused Wallachia problems and not the Holy Roman Empire aka the Romans mentioned in the chapter. The only reason I can think of the guards and Bram suspecting "holy crusaders" and "Romans" is because of their differing religious beliefs. Now Wallachia followed Orthodox Christianity while Romans obviously followed Roman Catholic traditions. Protestantism wasn't a thing yet, but these two groups were already tense and there have been several major conflicts (like the Crusades I mentioned earlier) and schisms within the church.

So, this is the only thing I could think of, but I'm not sure of what Fyodor's play is at here. Maybe he's an immortal being wanting to rid the world of abilities and having Bram Stoker in chaos would help in advance that goal. Maybe he can take people's life forces away like I've seen a lot of people suggest. I don't know. And the whole "come from the West" quote is the one thing throwing me off. Overall, I would love to know if Asagiri used any sources from the period to influence this memory scene, and if so...I wanna know which one's bestie!!

Please let me know what you think! If I just rambled or if my sleep-deprived thoughts and research make any semblance of sense. I would also love to know any fun theories and/or facts you have about this chapter or BSD in general. Also, would pictures be helpful?

married odango where they start living together and oda packs ango lunch for work cuz he figures he might as well since he alr has to pack lunches for the kids except he makes them all cutsey bento boxes to their liking and sometimes he’ll instinctively make angos like that too

all his coworkers tease him abt it cuz they don’t expect mr “five cups of coffee is a good enough substitute for a meal” to start coming to work w kitty shaped rice and veggies cut into stars

[read from left to right]

That's so foolish, Jinko 😐 *keeps watching* *secretly enjoys it*

all credits to the original artist @anikenom on X

If there isn't a kunikidazai interaction in the next few chapters I will RIOT

Bonus:

this comes from someone who likes a lot of BSD ships but, it’s bold to assume Dazai would be in a monogamous relationship and not some sort of weekly rotation of all his crushes. This is pure crack I just think it would be funny

I wanna kiss it

Listen to me guys hear me out-

DAZAI'S FOREHEAD IS REAL

Sketchbook pages under the cut ⬇️

yes it depressed me a lot painting this