Hello!! I Just Saw Your Post About Teru’s Character Arc And Dynamic W/ Mob And Was Blown Away - I Never

hello!! i just saw your post about teru’s character arc and dynamic w/ mob and was blown away - i never EVER noticed the heart eye panel. i was curious if you had a deep character analysis of teru/would be willing to share your opinions on teru’s arc? at risk of sounding completely media illiterate i feel like most of teru’s arc went completely over my head watching the anime and i would be curious to hear your thoughts (if you would like to share)!

oh it's totally not your fault, a lot of teru's arc was already pretty subtextual in the manga and the anime cuts a lot of the small details that give you the context to put the whole thing together

im gonna put my own interpretation of his arc under the cut because i could literally talk about this kid for years

ok so basically, teru's starting point as a character is "im special and important because of my powers because i have to be special and important or my life is empty and meaningless"

the entire construction of his social life; his overachieving in sports, his popularity, his place as the shadow leader of a middle school gang- all of that exists to prop himself up as the main character of the world and distract himself from how crushingly empty and devoid of connections his life is. hence-

this fight is what dismantles the idea that his powers make him uniquely special and enlightened, but it doesnt really do anything to actually built an internal sense of self confidence. his realization that he is an ordinary person doesnt come with "and that's okay because everyone is", it's just a reshuffle of the heirarchy he has viewed the world as. now instead of himself > everyone, it's mob > himself > everyone.

the fact that he knows special powers don't make him special is his new point of false confidence- he isnt uniquely enlightened because he has special powers, he's uniquely enlightened because he knows those powers don't make him special

and while the 7th division arc serves some challenging of this worldview, it's not really until wd arc that it actually gets dismantled.

to...

BUT this isnt the end of it. teru's notion that he is uniquely special and important has, by this point, been thoroughly dismantled. however....

other people....

by necessity no growth can really occur within broccoli arc for anyone but mob and dimple. since everyones memories of this arc get wiped, it serves as a good setup for where everyone's characters arcs are left to go before we get into confession arc. teru has been left in a place where, while his place in the "special and important people" hierarchy has been dropped, this has left mob at the top of an unreachable pedestal. dimple's prior efforts to convert teru through force, with the cookies and insisting himself as god, were fruitless. being controlled like that only made him angry. it was only through teru's idolization of mob that he was able to replace himself in that already existing spot in teru's psyche

so going into confession arc, teru has this unshakable, almost literally godlike image of mob in his head, which leads him to the same mistake so many people in this arc have to work through.

this isnt him. he's perfect. he doesn't make mistakes. he would never lash out and hurt anyone. he would never-

once civilians are in the picture is the moment it clicks for him. and then we get this wonderful mirror that kills me to think about.

so many of the parallels in these fights (which. i dont feel like finding all of them) culminate in this. because ultimately, they are very similar conflicts. both represent the dissolution of their respective personas. confession arc is a crossroads in mob's brain: to spend the rest of his life restraining his powers and- by extension, his identity- for the sake of other people, or to let his powers run wild and push away all these people whom he sees as only liking the fake him ("mob").

the breaking point, murderous intent, the point at which this fight goes from simply trying to push the other way/push the other into fighting back, is the assertion of the other's normalness. teru pushes back with the violence of a commoner, mob pushes back with violence that can only be exerted by an esper. teru cannot accept his powers do not make him uniquely amazing, mob cannot accept his do not make him uniquely horrible- uniquely despicable- uniquely unlovable.

which brings us to heart eye panel.

because this is the moment that teru sees mob for who he truly is- for a human being with flaws who's capable of having ugly emotions and losing control and lashing out- and still loves him.

and through this teru, despite his uglier emotions, despite whatever he's done in the past, is a person who is capable of being loved. he doesnt need to be the best esper or the best at sports or the best in his class to stand out, to be paid attention, to form genuine connections.

the people close to you will love you despite your flaws, will understand when you're going through hard times, will offer support even when you push them away. they dont just love the perfect image of you you try to present, the non confrontational person who doesnt speak out for themselves, or the overachiever who's always good at everything. they love you.