Amalfi

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Source: The Silent Watcher

NO BUT LIKE,,,,,THAT WAS THE THING WASN'T IT

Obsessing over my last reblog because THAT was it. Like, both Reigen and Mob already knew that the measure they had of the other wasn't their true self. ???-kun even said it:

Mob knew that Reigen had no powers of his own. He just never acknowledged it aloud because then where would he be? Where is his hope then? The merit he ascribed to everything Reigen said to him would be null and void if he let himself stop believing that the first thing he'd ever believed to be true about Reigen was a lie.

And Reigen, oof. Reigen knew. That's why he wasn't surprised at all by the sight of ???% Mob—he was just saddened by it.

"This is what you've been carrying all this time?"

Reigen knew that Mob's power was unmatched. That it was something so ungodly powerful that if he ever lost control of it completely, the devastation would be immeasurable.

But neither of them knew this at the beginning of the show. Mob had likely begun to suspect, but until the end of that first season I don't think he knew for sure. And I say the end of the first season because when Reigen asks Mob to lend him his powers again, Mob is not at all surprised. He doesn't ask why Reigen didn't use his own. He doesn't even suggest that Reigen use his own since Mob's are tapped out.

And Reigen—that first episode tells us a lot. When the boxing spirit tells him to call Mob back, he does. He hesitates a little, likely because he's never seen Mob struggle against a spirit before, but he does end up calling him back. Because he's not sure how powerful Mob really is. But after that, with Mogami, Reigen says he has full faith in Mob. No; even before that, at the Seventh Division headquarters, Reigen seems uncharacteristically serious when he reminds Mob not to use his powers against others. So I guess both of them had kind of figured it out by then. But they kept up the charade of Master and Disciple because what else could they do? They need each other.

And then—and then, when the time came. When the Confession Arc comes around, Reigen tells Mob to just be himself. To show her his true self. And ???-kun takes that to heart.

"If she could accept me like this, then that would make me happy."

And everyone else is trying to stop Mob from reaching Tsubomi like that. They are, to ???-kun's eyes, trying to stop him from showing her his true self. But I think that's why Reigen is able to get in close where no one else manages it. Because he's not trying to stop him. He's just trying to match vulnerability for vulnerability. He's trying to help Mob, not stop him. Because he's the one who told him to do this, right? To show Tsubomi his true self? And if Mob's true self is so pained, so weighed down, and Reigen is finally seeing it for himself instead of just guessing at it, then doesn't he have a duty as Mob's friend to reciprocate? To display his own pain, his own weight, his own true self.

So they can finally stand on even ground.

I adore the fact that in so many other stories, Mob Psycho would’ve concluded with the World Domination Arc. After all, it has the big, climatic battle with the ensemble cast versus the overarching villain. They win, and everyone goes home, all’s well that ends well, right?

Except the story doesn’t end there. Because Mob has yet to reckon with this internal, antagonist force that has haunted the narrative since the very beginning: Himself.

When Mob comes face-to-face with ???% at long last, he says: I am Kageyama Shigeo.

This isn’t a conflict with a villain, or another esper, or even a separate entity that resides inside Mob’s body. It is something far more personal, and far more relatable.

???% is the culmination of everything Mob’s held back. Not just emotions like anger or fear. Even his desires, like his crush on Tsubomi. All muted by his efforts not to hurt anybody with his powers. Mob has come such a long way, but he’s still restraining his feelings so tightly that the moment his control wavered, ???% took over.

But the conflict isn’t the destruction ???% is wreaking just by walking through the city. The conflict is Mob refusing to accept this part of himself he’s suppressed for so long.

And ???% is right! Every attempt to stop him thus far has failed. Because he isn’t meant to be stopped. Mob has to reconcile with the parts of himself that he won’t acknowledge.

And it’s the most difficult thing Mob has ever had to do! This is the part of himself that hurt his brother; that hurt his friends and decimated so much of the city. Reconciling with it means accepting that Mob hurt those people, whether he wanted to or not. It means accepting all facets of himself, even ones he’s not proud of or wishes he could change but cannot.

Mob has grown so much in this latest season alone, he hasn’t had any explosions, and he felt confident enough in his own abilities to actually ask Tsubomi out, which was something the Mob of two seasons ago could never imagine.

But what about the advice Reigen gave him for his confession to Tsubomi?

His true self, in its totality. This is what Mob has struggled with the entire story. This is why his confession to Tsubomi is the culmination of his character arc. Expressing his feelings means exposing his true self to someone else, even with the fear of rejection.

And while we’re on that subject. Let’s talk about Reigen. Right after he gives this advice to Mob, he says this about himself:

It is the height of irony (and tragedy) that Mob and Reigen admire each other’s strengths so much, yet have no idea they struggle with the same exact fear: that if the people they cared for found out who they truly were, they would reject them. It is why Reigen relies on lies and why Mob suppresses himself.

It is also why Reigen has never actually witnessed ???% until now. It is why Mob has never heard Reigen admit the truth about himself out loud.

And that’s why the final arc feels like such a gut-punch in the best of ways. What is harder than accepting who you are, and hoping for others to accept you as you are? Even at your most deceitful, or your most destructive? Mob Psycho ends with the Confession Arc because that’s the very heart of the story.

in a train right now, i can see the city lights and i feel so so overwhelmed

ana schüler

Whisper of the Heart

everything in moderation. except garlic

Frieren - Thanks for the Journey Definitely my favorite anime this last season, sad it's over now it got me so emotional!

misty