This Is Not A Fully Formed Thought But. Considering The Ways In Which One Of The Big Tensions Of Mob

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love this little dude. love drawing him wearing random shit... little man is always DRIPPED 😤

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Roy and Riza vs defeated idealism.

Roy and Riza's journey in Fullmetal Alchemist is the struggle of the naive idealism of youth against the cynical realism of adulthood. At the core of their characters there is a tenet: that Alchemy — or rather power — should be used for the benefit of the people. Like many things in FMA there is an irony in this. This belief that's so crucial to their characters is something they inherited from someone who, in a way, represents the antithesis of this idea.

Berthold Hawkeye.

The Manga goes out of its way to tell us this is something Behold believed in and passed on to them. First when Roy uses it to justify why he joined the military, and then when Riza admits that she believed in her father's words.

The thing is that there is a dissonance between Berthold's teachings and his character's actions. Berthold is a recluse living away from the people his hoarded knowledge is supposed to help. Roy and Riza know this, and they call him out on it.

They both fervently believe in Berthold's teaching, and they don't understand why he's so adamantly against putting it to practice. When they join the military they don't do so to spite him, they do so because they believe in what he preaches, so much so that they want to prove his cynicism wrong.

The problem is that Berthold is right.

He's sooo freaking right.

Their government is corrupt. All that talk about protecting their people is pure propaganda. His cynicism is the pain of someone who was burned too much by the world's cruelty. Berthold is an idealist that has given up, much like Hohenheim before Trisha. He is someone that once wished to help people, and probably came to the same painful realization that Roy and Riza eventually had in Ishval. The path to hell can be paved with good intentions, and sometimes you're completely powerless to do anything about it.

Now, what makes Riza and Roy such great characters, is the fact that instead of falling into despair and secluding themselves like Berthold did, they decide to fight back and continue clawing at the world with their own — no longer so naive — idealism. They have seen where defeat leads to, and they refuse to walk that path.

My favorite example of Roy's acceptance of both Berthold's teaching, as well as his rejection of Berthold's character, is his conversation with Hughes in Ishval.

This conversation is such a beautiful call back to Berthold telling Roy that alchemists die when they cease to think. This is Roy doubling down, acknowledging that yes he was naive — the world is a much more complicated and painful place than he realized — but still he refuses to give up on the face of reality like Berthold did. Where Berthold accepted his fate, as a man who was already dead inside, Roy and Riza continue to struggle to survive.

Berthold might have taught Roy and Riza that power should be used for good, but his biggest lesson to them was perhaps serving as an example of what happens when you allow your dreams and hope to die.

Ps. This thematic of children following on their parent/mentor footsteps and surpassing them is constant on FMA. Winry being a mechanic like her grandma and deciding to be like her parents by forgiving Scar. Ed and Al becoming alchemist like Hohenheim, but also embracing their familiar bonds and continue to help people despite their trauma. Ling Yao becoming emperor and dismantling the infighting his father had promoted. Scar embracing his brother's alchemy and dream. It is then fitting that Roy and Riza also inherited something from Berthold and then surpassed him.

reigen: i want to be famous and powerful and respected but not for who i am as a person, only so my talents are recognized and make people happy along the way. but i dont actually believe in my own talents even if they prove successful and i have zero self esteem because ive literally just been winging it my whole life to the point where i dont know who the real me is anymore and all thats left is the persona ive accidentally let take my place. and im so scared that all of this could come crumbling down at any moment so i just have to keep pretending like i know what im doing

dimple, immortal fart ghost who might as well not exist, who tried so hard to build a network of positive human connections so he wouldnt be lonely anymore but failed because the only way he knows how to do anything is through spooky ghost possession, looking at this super loud n charismatic dude winning at life by doing nothing: i fucking hate you

Start your day right with my favorite shot of Tome Kurata from the Reigen manga.

Drawing details and background is actually pretty fun  _(:,3 」∠)_

Grief in art

Grief is an interesting subject for depiction, because it isn't ever really just one feeling. It's a cluster of feelings, an array of very different, sometimes almost contradictory emotional states, which collectively we understand as expressions of that one underlying condition, which is grieving.

So how do you show that? How do you take that and make it visible to an audience? Many, many artists have tried, and their attempts are varied, fascinating, and very occasionally heartbreaking.

Let's take a little non-comprehensive walking tour of grief in art history, from the 1400s to the 2020s, from the religious to the cartoony, and get in our feelings a bit.

Train ride.

Bonus:

MP100 Theory: Mob’s Power

(This post only uses manga caps for convenience’s sake,)

One of the main plot points of MP100 is Mob’s aversion to using his powers. This was due to a number of things, but that main two being Tsubomi and a tragic event where he accidentally hurt his brother.

This, of course, eventually leads to Mob’s explosions or “100%.” But in theory, these explosions wouldn’t be nearly as bad if Mob wasn’t as powerful. Which begs the question - where did all of Mob’s psychic power come from? 

We know he’s a natural born psychic. He’s had his powers since he was young - Ritsu confirmed as much.

But obviously being able to float dogs since birth doesn’t give you godly powers. There are at least four other natural born psychics in the show, and their abilities all differ.

We also already know that Mob hasn’t been “training” his powers or anything. He’s avoided using them at all cost. So why the strength if he’s not even training? Well, the answer is simple.

Holding back his emotions.

We already know from Dimple that emotions can affect your psychic powers, and from Ritsu’s “experiments,” we know it can increase said power.

So it’s safe to say that after years of stress and other floods of emotions (that Mob has been holding back,) his power naturally increased because of all his turmoil. However, this wouldn’t be bad if he were also using his powers freely like Ritsu did. But since Mob is still too afraid to do such, he was accidentally saving energy.

Saving energy is something that we know is possible due to both of the Suzukis doing it. You can still use part of your energy and save the rest. Kind of like eating one slice of pizza instead of the entire thing.

These two things are what makes Mob so overpowered. Whenever Mob goes 100%, he is using part of 10+ years of held back emotions.

But keep in mind that this energy isn’t being immediately replaced. When you eat a slice of pizza, another one doesn’t magically take it’s place. You either have to cook more or buy another slice. Both of which takes time.

So when Mob goes 100%, he is depleting part of the energy he has saved for so long.

This leads you to believe “Wouldn’t Mob eventually run out of stored energy?”

Yes, but when he uses ???%, this energy is replaced.

During his fight with Teruki, he absorbed the other’s power. (Along with everything else in the atmosphere.)

Luckily, ???% is much rarer than 100%, otherwise Mob would eventually take in more energy than he got rid of.

TLDR: Mob’s power is due to him holding in his emotions and if not for his 100% explosions, he could eventually kill us with a sneeze.

hey ! any tips on how to draw ritsus emo ass hair? u dont have to tho

here are my tips n tricks + general assumed structure

i dont draw his hair consistently but tbh you dont have to. just give him bangs and spikes that sprout from the whorl and ur good