Hey! Let’s Talk About Teru’s Relationship With Food!

hey! let’s talk about teru’s relationship with food!

all three of us get the feeling that food is a love language for teru, or at least, we feel like it’s important to consider how food plays a role in his story arc when doing a character study of him.

okay so first off, right from his introduction he is a foil to mob.

Hey! Let’s Talk About Teru’s Relationship With Food!

[ID: four manga panels featuring teru getting ready for school. from right to left: the first panel shows his hand and a pan frying an egg. the second is his hand holding a remote. the third shows a tv of a meteorologist saying: “today’s weather.” The forth panel is teru pulling on his school blazer, watching the tv. the meteorologist continues: “a lot of sunshine through the country, though the air is a bit unstable. /END ID]

when teru first appears, we as an audience don’t know it yet, but he lives alone and has been living alone without his parents for several years. here he is cooking his own breakfast and getting himself ready in his apartment by himself.

[ID: five manga panels of mob being woken up for school. from right to left: the first panels is a shot of the roof of the kageyama house. the second is mob, asleep on his futon. his mom is talking from off screen. she says: “shige, get up! you’re gonna be late!” the third is mob yawning and stretching his arms about his head. the forth panel is ritsu opening the door to mob’s room. he says “bro. mom said breakfast is ready.” the fifth panel shows ritsu looking at mob. mob is putting on a pair of pants saying: “yeah ritsu. let’s go.” /END ID]

meanwhile mob, is woken up by his mom and is checked on by his brother to make sure he was up in order to get a breakfast that was more than likely made by their parents.

when mob plans on confessing to tsubomi, teru brings up how homemade things tend to make him feel happy when someone confesses to him.

[ID: manga panel of teru being offered a gift from a girl. it reads: “I tend to be on the receiving end of confessions, but…when someone gives me a handkerchief, or a letter, or homemade cookies or something, it makes me kinda happy, so…I was just thinking, there’s that kind of thing too.” /END ID]

also we see teru tend to overindulge when someone (reigen) is offering to buy food for him

[ID: panel from yakiniku omake. teru is ordering food. he says: I’ll have have 4 orders of top ribs, 2 orders of sakura yukhoe, 2 orders of choice salty beef tongue, the extra special zabuton-cut beef, the offal sampler, 3 orders of rice, a tomato salad, and the naengmyeon…and a green tea.” /END ID]

[ID: cropped screencap of official art. teru has finished two ice cream parfaits. the empty glasses sit in front of a third one, which he is using telekinesis to float the toppings near his face. /END ID]

this often played for laughs, but stick with us here…

in the fanbook teru is asked if he cooks for himself and he says yes, and mentions that he’s confident in his pasta making skills.

[ID: cropped screencap from the fanbook that reads: “Q1: do you make your own food? What are you good at cooking?” Teru answers: “I cook lots of different kinds of things! but what I’m confident in is my pasta.” /END ID]

at first this may seem like a very 14 year old answer…I mean, pasta is fairly easy to make. But knowing teru and how he tends to become and expert at the skills he learns, odds are pasta started off as something simple to throw together on a school night. Pasta is easy and convenient and kid friendly, but it is very easy to experiment with and eventually become a speciality.

and one thing we know about teru is that he has too many specialities to list.

this kid has been needing to make his own food 100% on his own since the start of middle school. we can infer he’s getting money from his parents, and we aren’t exactly sure how much or how he spends it regarding food, but the only time we seem him eating alone, he is making a meal for himself outside of something premade or takeout. he said it himself, he makes lots of different kinds of things! he knows how to cook!

but with all things teru something simple and silly comes with tragedy. while it’s nice fore a kid his age to know how to cook, he NEEDS to know because he doesn’t live with his parents. if he didn’t know how to cook he would be relying on others, and that’s just not what teru does. He is fully capable and learns for himself out of necessity. teru is responsible for all of his own meals.

so what happens when he is no longer responsible? it could be an issue with humbleness. it could also be just normal 14 year old boy hunger, but when reigen takes him out to eat there’s no limits. but here’s the thing…when’s the last time teru has had a home-cooked meal that was made for him by someone else? not from a restaurant, but someone making something for him?

this is why we have the omurice scene in backdraft. there’s a comfort in the domesticity of having food prepared for him in a familial setting that he has not realized he has been missing from his life.

we’ve focused on the fear of him getting cut off from his parents and how money scarcity turns into food scarcity. he’s always been in survival mood, it’s just that money was the breaking point for him.

going back to mob. he and his family are normally seen sitting at the dinner table together. a normal domestic setting.

[ID: screencap of the kageyama family eating omurice together]

something teru doesn’t have. he eats alone at a table in his apartment…one with multiple chairs around it.

[ID: screencap of teru in his apartment. In the background, he is getting ready, looking in a full length mirror. next to him is a tv showing the weather. in the foreground is a table with an empty plate, mug and saucer, and a basket with a single roll. two chairs are seen at the table. /END ID]

teru has not invited anyone into his apartment until mob got attacked by koyama.

who are those chairs for teru?

of course, in backdraft we have the restaurant scene that mirrors this. empty chairs for absent parents.

BUT ITS NOT ALL SAD

back to food being a love language and specialty to teru…imagine once he’s no longer in survival mode due to trauma. food as a comfort, not only receiving, but making it for others as well. tying into him wanting to be a teacher, sharing his skills with others…the fact it feels good creating and sharing something. no longer taking care of himself out of necessity, but learning what his skills and hobbies are and genuinely sharing them because they make him feel accomplished and happy! it just ties everything together with this dude.

in short, cooking is more than likely another speciality teru has developed due to needing to live on his own. since mp100 has themes that involve human connection and relationships with others, we feel food is something that brings people together and our boy teru here should experience that firsthand.

that is why it plays a big role in what we have so far in backdraft!

A Shoto arc retrospective

Can I say something really mean about my hero academia? Can I??

I got into mha when I was a 14 yo girl, I saw Deku vs. Todoroki at the sports festival and I was immediately sucked into the story.

I was a little girl being physically abused by a parent at home, and when I saw Shoto, the first ever character I came across in TV who was being abused in a similar way as me, it sparked hope deep in my chest. That he was going to be saved, that he was going to be believed and helped and rescued and maybe, just maybe, that meant that there was a chance for me too.

Maybe I was going to be saved.

For years, I daydreamed about the time when the truth of Endeavor would come out, when Shoto was finally going to be safe. Sometimes it was my only comfort when I dissociated during or after being hurt.

Then it happened, and Shoto wasn’t saved, and Endeavor faced no consequences with the law or his reputation. Shoto’s feelings on the matter were never addressed. He never got to cry, his friends never got to comfort him, Aizawa or any other adult in his life never got to save him like I had imagined so many times.

Maybe it’s selfish of me to project my desire to be saved onto a fictional character that isn’t mine.

But I was 14, and I was still scared to call what was being done to me ‘abuse’, and Shoto was my anchor through a lot of pain. Because he was like me, isolated and hurt. And I hoped that I could be saved like he was going to be.

And then he wasn’t.

Now I’m 23, and mha is ending, and I’ve never been more disappointed by a piece of media in my life.

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heytemporary

4 months ago

starry decorations

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heytemporary

5 months ago

Bakugou stans who hate Endeavor and Endeavor stans who hate Bakugou make me laugh.

Because when you get down to it, they both benefit from the same things: in-universe privilege, narrative advantages, and plot manipulation. Their arcs enable each other in a way, they're both abusers being given more exposure and grace than their victims. They're both constantly being propped and accepted by the other characters despite being horrible people.

Criticizing one and not the other is obtuse. They're cut from the same exact cloth, the issues with their characters are nearly identical. And the focus of both their characters contribute to the overarching problem of MHA; not only pandering to abusers but pandering to those born privileged and who knowingly abused that privilege. And neither had to face actual repercussions without being protected by the author.

The only difference between them is in the literal sense; Endeavor is a worse person morally while Bakugou is a worse character narratively.

They both still suck ass

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heytemporary

1 year ago

Something silly I drew just to learn how to draw these guys. Or, just learn how to draw 😭…

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heytemporary

9 months ago

Tsubomi is probably aroace, honestly. Being queer in a predominantly non-queer setting can be quite isolating, which has its own additional aspects for aro and ace people, since we can't just translate the general experience of romance into something that makes sense to us the way people who do experience attraction can. She's described as having some distance between herself and her friends, and she doesn't seem to have interest in anyone romantically. When in the epilogue, it's revealed that Mob rekindled his friendship with her after all, it's not portrayed as being indicative of any romantic subtext. It's just what it is: a rekindled friendship.

Middle school is a time where a lot of allo people start to realize what kinds of people they're into, so it's a confusing time for aro and ace people. It's hard to pinpoint an absence, after all, and the world is so amatonormative. There's an expectation that wanting a straight romance with one other person is the norm, and anything else is thrown to the side. It's just as hard for people to realize they want something different as it is for people to realize they don't want any of it. Tsubomi's distance from her friends and her disinterest in any of the guys who asked her out seem to fit this.

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heytemporary

8 months ago

The real reason he had to kill his doctor…

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heytemporary

6 months ago

Mob Psycho 100 represents such a refreshing, powerful portrayal of platonic love, but the fandom seems to be dominated by romantic headcanons. It makes me kind of sad. I feel like shipping the characters romantically negates some of what makes MP100 so meaningful.

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heytemporary

8 months ago

my thoughts on canon Muzan

For being the main antagonist of this series, there is a reason why people naturally gravitate more towards his Upper Moons, and that is the execution of his characterization. I’m sure many of you have come across posts explaining the references to natural disasters and his philosophy and also his constant claims to godhood, which are aspects that I do think Gotouge intended to share, but it’s not particularly delved into.

I have had complaints before that it was really difficult to relate to Muzan’s character in any way. Now, I realize that was the point Gotouge was intending to make, however this realization didn’t quite satisfy me like it should have. He’s arrogant, stubborn, and sometimes flat out childish, but at no point do we see any strengths. It’s not clear if he has a genuine passion for science. Or for learning in general. He doesn’t have a single likeable trait to contrast his faults, other than he’s charismatic, but we do not see that part of him nearly as much as we should.

His motivations for becoming the perfect Demon don’t have any plans afterwards, either. Like, what was he going to do after he accomplished his goal? We don’t know. And the fact that we really don’t know, when it should have been stated at some point, is not great, since again, this is our main antagonist. In a shounen.

I don’t know, I don’t doubt Gotouge had big ideas for Muzan, but it feels like they really bit off more than they could chew, and the genre that Muzan is placed in being action-focused didn’t do him any favors. I am a firm believer of the idea that he would have fared much better in some Edwardian era science horror where his philosophy and unique outlook on life would have been expected to be properly explored. But, yeah…

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heytemporary

8 months ago

Muzan and Chronic Illness: an Essay of Sorts

Part of why I love Muzan in KnY is because I relate to him. While his objective actions in the story are obviously evil, I think he’s a lot more sympathetic than the writers want him to be. This essay explores Muzan’s backstory, his treatment by the narrative, and my feelings toward the use of his character. As such, it contains MAJOR MANGA SPOILERS. THIS IS YOUR WARNING. This piece is not trying to “cancel” KnY for ableism or to say anything about the views of the mangaka/anime screenwriters/etc. I enjoyed KnY, and if you’re thinking about giving it a shot, I do recommend it. This is just a self-reflective piece that I wrote to process my own experiences with chronic illnesses in my own life and analyze the nuances of a piece of media that I love.

Keep reading

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