Cello Anon! Hello again ahahah~ First of all, I am glad you feel comfortable sharing all kinds of questions about the Conjurer here, I hope my blog is indeed a safe space that invites to character contemplation and embracing the beauty of complicated characters. My blog wasn’t always one dedicated to Fedya, but I guess since January 2022 it officially is… Rachmaninoff started it all,I tell you.
For those interested in the first part of our discussions, the link is here. I will copy the text of the rest of your ask below the cut and add my answers there too. I hope you and fellow BSD fans will enjoy this nice, calm talk, largely about Fedya of course.
Cello Anon: “Also, I am not too worried about Fedya dying in the June chapter (that is.. if we have a prison gang chapter,, maybe Asagiri-sensei would change pov again =_=) bc he says so confidently that Dazai can’t kill him,,, so it’d be just cheap writing to kill him off the very next chapter lol…. What I am more worried is Dazai might try to force and glean information out of Fedya being pushed into a tight spot now,,, but I have full faith in him, he will wriggle out of the situation and again the Dazai vs Fedya will become a stalemate as always.”
Ngl I have the slight intuition that ch102 will be a flashback chapter or, like you suggest, one that switches the point-of-view. But intuition does not help us much in this talk, because literally anything could happen. Still, writing-wise, I don’t think Asagiri would fall into the trope of killing characters off for shock. This never happened so far (Akutagawa and the entirety of the Port Mafia don’t count, they’re still there, they exist, unlike Odasaku…). And also nglwhen I’ve read Fedya saying “You can’t kill me”, my Devil May Cry 5 love triggered and I couldn’t unhear Dante’s crazy battle theme therelol
* I will never get over how cool it sounds especially when sloooowly approaching enemies and letting the build-up grow and grow like in the video until minute 1:00, because in the game, the better you play, the hotter the music gets mmmm. Honestly I am infatuated with the moments from minute 4:00 onwards. To understand what I mean by “You cannot kill me”, just listen till you reach rank S and beyond, the lyrics repeat partially at SSS. Even if other battle themes are cooler imo, like… I’m sorry but Vergil’s theme I still love fighting as Dante the most).
Now, Dazai forcing information out of Fedya is indeed a plausible (and in my opinion very likely to be true) explanation as to why press him to the point of killing him. But I suspect Fedya is an “all or nothing” type of person, like me, so things cannot take that turn, or if they will, he will bring hell itself with him.
Cello Anon: “Moreover, we still need to know what his ability is,,, I have read many theories about his ability but none of them scratch that particular itch for me lol. Oh and also, I saw you mention somewhere (I can’t remember where) that he might have a long-ranged ability after all,,, seeing the bloody chaos he pulled in Ace’s ship, I agree. Let me raise you one more– this man SINGLEHANDEDLY killed all the guards in the 7th Agency prison as well! Even if, say, Ace’s guards were caught offguard, there is no way the 7th Agency guards won’t put up a fight and not try to protect their very valuable prisoner?? Maybe, I am overlooking something but I am leaning towards his ability having an additional long range feature….. Not like he needs his ability for his plans anyway. All he needs is a knife (I sometimes wonder if the fandom collectively forgets that Dead Apple exists bc wherever I turn, esp after the prison games started, all I can see is “Dazai at least spent some time in the PM while Fyodor is too weak and has no training at all!” The moves on this man doesn’t seem like one without training???) and a gun and he is all set lol. I am amazed at how little he uses his ability and yet manages to be feared as the most dangerous man in BSD currently so much that Dazai wants to kill him off,, not even capture, straight up /kill/ hahaha”
Dear Cello Anon, did you notice how on my blog I never speculate on what Fedya’s ability, Crime and Punishment, actually is? Or how it works? My essay too, it is about Fedya’s personality, and thus it will not touch upon that kind of speculation. Do you know why that is so? It’s because I personally find it meaningless to speculate on his ability on my blog, precisely because it can be anything. I love reading posts who collect information, interpret it and deduce anything they can, and yet I myself refrain from doing so, and just await its reveal by Asagiri and Harukawa themselves. There are plenty of loose threads, one scarier than the other (like you pointed out, he killed the entirety of the Seventh Agency security guards in ch55 by himself, without a scratch, and that, together with “cleaning” the entirety of Ace’s ship in ch42, is not only impressive, but also frankly bonechilling. The post you are referring to is this one, in whose replies dear Alex (the post’s OP) wondered if Fedya has indeed a long-range attack too, as a possibility. While I love the idea, I neither support nor deny it. I simply do not hold any position in the “What is Fedya’s ability?” debate yet. I wait for more information. Lastly, it is indeed fascinating that Fedya used his ability extremely few times so far (or so it seems), and I love him for I admire this character for his strategical use of all resources he has at hand, be it ordinary means (classic stuff like information dealing, spreading false info, hacking, making deals, kidnapping with the purpose of obtaining info etc.), or just a handful of (seemingly disconnected) people. I will also talk extensively about Fedya’s methodology in my essay.
Cello Anon: “And hopefully we get to know his backstory on what actually made him start on this path and more (I bet something something to do with the Great War??) So yeah, he can’t die now,,,, and as you say, he is too intelligent to die just like that. He carries a major part of the manga on his back so I won’t accept his death without a satisfactory arc if he indeed has to /die/ after all T_T”
I am so excited to know his backstory too! Quite frankly, I will just lose my mind once it is revealed. Now, although Fedya’s age is not yet revealed (if he indeed has an age at all), if he is around Dazai’s or Kolya’s age (anything between 22 and 26, or even till 29 if we count in Shibusawa), then that means he was likely a child or a young teenager during the Great War, which in the BSD timeline took place 15 years ago, if I’m not mistaken. Yosano too (currently 25 like me), after all, was just a child when she took part in it, with Mori exploiting her ability to the point of breaking her spirit apart (ch65). I do talk a bit about the War and Fedya in a section where I speculate about something, but that one still needs to be fleshed out. We’ll see how it will turn out…
Cello Anon: “If this ask spoils a lot of your planned essay, you needn’t answer it,,, your views about Fedya and mine seem a lot similar from what I can see :D –Cello Anon (I love this name <3) PS: I am starting to read Pandora Hearts bc of that one scene I saw on your blog and I really like it so far! PPS: I don’t know which is the right blog to send you asks sorry! If you plan to answer this, you can answer on either, I will check it out no problem :)”
This was such a lovely interaction! Thank you for the asks, and for your enthusiasm <3 also I am SO happy to hear you started Pandora Hearts, it is indeed such a good, intricate story, with plenty of things to dwell on and all characters are simply superb! I hope you will enjoy the reading experience, as well as following MochiJun as her artstyle evolved and bloomed through the series. (Also yes, for BSD things like these, I much prefer receiving the ask on my main blog here <3) Have a peaceful Sunday~
Dear Anon, It is not a weird question at all, as this scene demands careful inspection indeed, given that the differences between the manga and the anime are significant, especially in pretty much everything related to Fedya. Besides a bunch of other differences I already wrote out in my essay (to be published, hopefully, in June!), it is true that Fedya never breaks his cello in the manga’s ch47, whereas in the anime’s S3ep9we see him looking down to his broken cello at his feet, at the end of the episode. Here is a quick comparison of the last scenes in which the cello is visible in the manga and the anime:
We can see how the anime decided to include an entirely new scene, with a different message. In my opinion, this adds mischaracterization to anime!Fedya, but I shall talk more about that in my essay as well.
RegardingVolume 19’s omake, which you reference, it is important to note that the scenes from both pages happen in Sigma’s dream, thus they never happened in the main timeline’s “reality”. The assumption that Fedya shipped his cello to Japan is plausible on its own, nonetheless, while the “for a mission” part remains debatable, as the manga never explained the purpose of the cello recital so far. In my essay, I offer an interpretation in which what I deduced was its purpose becomes clear, so I am rather eager to share it in the future essay post. Either way, I find it very interesting that Sigma dreamed of his co-workers and that this included a reference to Fedya’s cello being transported, because, according to Fedya in ch75, Sigma was born from the Book 3 years prior to the moment he and Dazai ended up in Meursault. That points us to a timeline where both Sigma and Kolya were already working with Fedya during the Cannibalism plan (since its very start), and even before. I think the fandom would be blessed if someone were to make a chronology of the main events and verify this. Also, since Fedya in Sigma’s dream explains to him that his cello was already shipped to Japan, we may ask ourselves where were they? – in Russia? or somewhere else in Europe? – given how it sounds that his cello was shipped to an external place, internationally. Imagine Kolya and Sigma together with Fedya in Russia, then sneaking into the Japanese territory together. Who knows? But then again, speculating on this “info” is like walking on thin ice, because:
As for why exactly Fedya captured Katsura, that too is never addressed directly in the manga, except for Fedya’s own words to Katsura (“I simply wished to ask about our mutual acquaintance. The Detective Agency, that is”), which tell us it’s all about gaining information again (Fedya is an information “trader” after all, besides a million other things). What is more, we as the readers are conveyed the following message by the simple fact that Katsura ended up in Fedya’s basement (yes, basement, not a luxurious room full of stained glass, but this I can forgive because the scene was gorgeous animated in that room): Fedya can easily capture even those freshly arrested by the government (Katsura was arrested in ch40). Does this imply he got his own pawns in the government? An open possibility, I’d say. Or a given fact, at this point, but, until the theories are confirmed kjdsfgnjkf
Thank you for sending me this lovely question, I greatly enjoyed answering it and I hope you don’t mind me answering here, on my main blog! I write my own thoughts / analysis stuff on main.
Bonus info I share again because my love is infinite: Fedya’s song is called “Bird of Death” in the BSD Season 3 OST, and there are two variants of it, which you can find both on youtube and spotify searching by their Japanese titles:
チェロとピアノの為の「死の鳥」 (”Bird of Death” for Cello and Piano)
弦楽オーケストラとハープの為の「死の鳥」 (”Bird of Death" for String Orchestra and Harp) (((please note I sadly do not speak Japanese, and these title translations are from the BSD wiki)))
/// Anon’s full question is transcribed below the cut:
Adding part of Anon’s beautiful response to share last bits about things I share the opinion on!! <3 <3 <3
This! That scene is of suchsolemnity and importance! I analyze it as an example in one of the sections of my essay, concentrating exactly on what the manga had and the anime took out. Moving on, later in this ask you said “maybe, the anime didn’t need to add a broken cello if it wasn’t in the manga” – now, I think there was no broken cello at all in the manga, and it’s not uncommon that anime adaptations add entirely new scenes to canon material, thus usually a manga is considered the only true primary source of “canon”. I do work with a flexible mindset regarding that (we need to take into consideration Dead Apple in all forms, as well as the other light novels after all), but one of my essay’s conclusions is indeed that the anime mischaracterizes Fedya so far (except for Ray Chase dubbing him, he is a very talented voice actor I heard in many roles, and he already has a good intuition of what kind of character Fedya is, I’d say he nails him 100%; I cannot comment on the Japanese VA since I am not a native Japanese speaker though OTL). Still, manga!Fedya is the real Fedya, all things considered.
And just for the beauty of it, I’ll leave the quote you invoked here:
ch46, Fedya (official EN translation): “Man is sinful and foolish. Even if they know it is all an artifice, they cannot help but kill each other. Someone must purify them for those sins. That is why I seek “The Book”.
(…) And I will use that Book to make a world free of sin and skill users”.
*edit*Forgot to add: me and you caring hardcore about Fedya’s cello emanates the same energy as that ??? time I wrote my “calculations” of his cello’s height here. I have no excuse, but it was too much fun. What a time it was.
Dear Anon, It is not a weird question at all, as this scene demands careful inspection indeed, given that the differences between the manga and the anime are significant, especially in pretty much everything related to Fedya. Besides a bunch of other differences I already wrote out in my essay (to be published, hopefully, in June!), it is true that Fedya never breaks his cello in the manga’s ch47, whereas in the anime’s S3ep9we see him looking down to his broken cello at his feet, at the end of the episode. Here is a quick comparison of the last scenes in which the cello is visible in the manga and the anime:
We can see how the anime decided to include an entirely new scene, with a different message. In my opinion, this adds mischaracterization to anime!Fedya, but I shall talk more about that in my essay as well.
RegardingVolume 19’s omake, which you reference, it is important to note that the scenes from both pages happen in Sigma’s dream, thus they never happened in the main timeline’s “reality”. The assumption that Fedya shipped his cello to Japan is plausible on its own, nonetheless, while the “for a mission” part remains debatable, as the manga never explained the purpose of the cello recital so far. In my essay, I offer an interpretation in which what I deduced was its purpose becomes clear, so I am rather eager to share it in the future essay post. Either way, I find it very interesting that Sigma dreamed of his co-workers and that this included a reference to Fedya’s cello being transported, because, according to Fedya in ch75, Sigma was born from the Book 3 years prior to the moment he and Dazai ended up in Meursault. That points us to a timeline where both Sigma and Kolya were already working with Fedya during the Cannibalism plan (since its very start), and even before. I think the fandom would be blessed if someone were to make a chronology of the main events and verify this. Also, since Fedya in Sigma’s dream explains to him that his cello was already shipped to Japan, we may ask ourselves where were they? – in Russia? or somewhere else in Europe? – given how it sounds that his cello was shipped to an external place, internationally. Imagine Kolya and Sigma together with Fedya in Russia, then sneaking into the Japanese territory together. Who knows? But then again, speculating on this “info” is like walking on thin ice, because:
As for why exactly Fedya captured Katsura, that too is never addressed directly in the manga, except for Fedya’s own words to Katsura (“I simply wished to ask about our mutual acquaintance. The Detective Agency, that is”), which tell us it’s all about gaining information again (Fedya is an information “trader” after all, besides a million other things). What is more, we as the readers are conveyed the following message by the simple fact that Katsura ended up in Fedya’s basement (yes, basement, not a luxurious room full of stained glass, but this I can forgive because the scene was gorgeous animated in that room): Fedya can easily capture even those freshly arrested by the government (Katsura was arrested in ch40). Does this imply he got his own pawns in the government? An open possibility, I’d say. Or a given fact, at this point, but, until the theories are confirmed kjdsfgnjkf
Thank you for sending me this lovely question, I greatly enjoyed answering it and I hope you don’t mind me answering here, on my main blog! I write my own thoughts / analysis stuff on main.
Bonus info I share again because my love is infinite: Fedya’s song is called “Bird of Death” in the BSD Season 3 OST, and there are two variants of it, which you can find both on youtube and spotify searching by their Japanese titles:
チェロとピアノの為の「死の鳥」 (”Bird of Death” for Cello and Piano)
弦楽オーケストラとハープの為の「死の鳥」 (”Bird of Death" for String Orchestra and Harp) (((please note I sadly do not speak Japanese, and these title translations are from the BSD wiki)))
/// Anon’s full question is transcribed below the cut:
Anon to @kaus-fangirlis (my sideblog):“Weird question: does Fedya break his cello in the manga? I saw that scene in the anime but I can’t find it in the manga :( I mean,, yeah, Fedya sent it to Japan for the sake of a ‘mission’ (if the omake can be taken as canon) and it’d hella funny if he played it once and smashed it to pieces (why did he even kidnap that guy lmao) But I think he must attach a lot of importance to it and sent it on before he left for Japan,,, so he must have kept it somewhere safe before he went off to prison, broken or not….
tl;dr, if the cello-breaking scene is in manga please tell me in which chapter,,, it’s very /important/ information I need to know ＞﹏＜”
