[a thread where i rant about chuuya’s character - part one]
note that if you don’t agree with some things i say it’s totally fine!

[what we know]
okay so when it comes to chuuya’s character, there’s actually very little that we currently know about his internal thoughts other than what we were given in fifteen since, as a side character, he’s not very involved in the current manga arc. in terms of his story-

-we know that he was used as a vessel for the god arahabaki during an experiment to create artificial abilities in the Great War. when rimbaud and verlaine intervened, however, we know that it triggered the giant explosion which destroyed the laboratory and left a (presumably)-

-seven year old arahabaki vessel chuuya alone in the streets where he was eventually picked up by the sheep. what’s interesting is that chuuya says he doesn’t have any memories of before he was seven, leaving a lot of speculation open as to where he was before he was involved in-

-the experiments. did he have a family? or was he an orphan found by the scientists? or maybe he was artificially created idk anything could really be possible. after escaping the lab, he moved from the streets, to the sheep (hehe it rhymes) to the mafia where he is now. he went-

-quickly through the ranks so as to earn information about his past, and now he’s an executive who pops into the story every now and then. stormbringer will most likely fill in the gaps about his early mafia years, and what’s more definitely add more to what happened when he was-

-in the laboratories and, perhaps, before that.
next though i want to zoom in on his time with the sheep and the events of fifteen.

[the past - sheep]
i think that his time within the sheep (possibly eight years?) was definitely an interesting one for chuuya that most likely shaped a lot about his personality. from a young age he was taken in by a group of kiddy criminals making their way to survive in the-

-tricky environment of the slums (created by the explosion at the laboratory), and they were probably very keen to keep him with them when they saw his ability. through the years he had a found family to grow up with, and even if he was often out kicking people’s asses a lot i-

-think that he genuinely loved everyone he was with in the sheep. this probably attributed to the caring attitude we often see him have in the drama cds (like the onsen where he was looking after akutagawa), since he was surrounded by so many other kids he would be looking after-

-day after day. his ability definitely meant that the other members saw him as a leader of sorts as he was the strongest one there, and so he would have a strong sense of responsibility from a very young age, and it would most likely make him feel like he was more of an adult-

-than a kid. this then leads to a problem that i tend to have with how people view the situation with the sheep’s “betrayal”. when he is investigating the arahabaki case for a better understanding of his own origin, he was most likely telling the other sheep to do their own bit-

-of digging without fully disclosing the reason to them. then, when he was forced to work with the mafia, he still neglected to tell them why. this is probably because he didn’t want to freak them out or because he had a sense of responsibility as a “leader”, and so he would-

-have wanted to do it on his own rather than get everyone else dragged in. however this lack of communication is most likely what led them to “betray” him. i think that while a lot of people say “but chuuya was just a kid!” they forget that the sheep were too, and many of them-

-were actually considerably younger as well. if a group of kids fending for themselves in the city slums have an incredibly powerful leader such as chuuya, and then suddenly they realise he’s not enclosing some info to him and is working with the mafia, on of their biggest-

-threats, without telling why, their main thought would be: he’s going to turn on us. they should have tried to ask about it, but in a situation like that it’s only natural they would start fearing that the most powerful member in their group would suddenly become an enemy. this-

-means that, while not entirely responsible for what happened, chuuya did also have a part to play in what happened. had he communicated better, then for all we know the situation that followed could have actually been avoided. this then leads onto the next bit about him.

[flaws]
chuuya has quite a number of flaws. the most notable one for me is definitely his unhealthy sense of loyalty and dedication to the mafia. it’s probable that this stems from the feelings of guilt and failure after the sheep’s downfall, and also from mori’s own emotional-

-manipulation and probably kouyou’s too as she was his mentor for a while. i wouldn’t be surprised if to make up for the guilt of letting down his past found family, he wanted to rise up in the ranks and throw himself into work to compensate for his past failure, and prove him-

-self as a capable leader. this meant that mori would be able to take advantage of that guilt and make him into a dedicated, powerful and unhealthily loyal member of the mafia, and it worked. chuuya is loyal to a fault, and in fifteen, while he looks happy while saying it, his-

-speech to mori speaking about his willingness to dedicate himself to the organisation is really bittersweet. he needs to realise that he can live for himself rather than just an organisation or for other people’s benefit in order to really grow as a character, and i want him to-

-have that realisation in a future arc. while smart and a good leader, he’s also easily riled up, and this means that he can act without thinking if you push his right buttons. it’s a shame because this short temper means that he can be played quite easily by other people if-

-he’s not careful. however, this doesn’t mean that he’s dumb, and i wanna get into that next in part two woo!

|end of part one|