#my opinion is that the formal structure of the employee and boss dynamic makes this relationship more comfortable for Billy

[daydreamerdrew]

Captain Marvel Adventures (1941) #27

[skeilig]

as long as i'm having delayed reactions to the mp100 fanbook, i also wanna talk about the part where mob says he's still working at spirits & such regularly while he's in high school and, uh... defend my interpretation that he stops working there after ch100 bc i'm attached to this (and i feel like it's canon compliant with the actual manga/the reigen spinoff manga)

so here's why i like the idea that mob stops working at S&S after ch100 (and months before the epilogue):

reigen and mob's relationship until now has been defined by this employee-boss/student-mentor dynamic and they both are afraid that if they drop those formalities they will lose the relationship. reigen, in ch100, explicitly states that he expects their relationship to END once he's no longer mob's master!! the idea that they can let go of this structured excuse to be in each other's lives and CHOOSE to continue being important to each other, under no false pretenses, just as friends, on more equal footing? yeah :') it's nice

in the epilogue, reigen is moved TO TEARS when he see that mob is at his surprise party !!!!! i don't think he would react that strongly if he was seeing mob every week after school, or even a few times a month, and it just makes the moment hit harder if they've seen each other a lot less often in the 6-or-so months between ch100 and 101.

and finally, to think that this chapter of their lives ends, permanently, by the end of the manga, makes me feel like i've been stabbed in the chest but IN A GOOD WAY, like, isn't that what it's all about... mob is growing up, he has to leave this behind in some real way, and so much stays the same by the end of the manga that i want to hold onto this one major change to demarcate it... he and reigen both changed each other for the better, but in a fundamental way their self-improvement means they don't need each other as much now, in a healthy but still kinda heartbreaking way. mob has a much larger support network and is comfortable with himself and is truly living reigen's words of advice every day, and reigen is living more honestly and also has more people to depend on, thanks to mob. i love seeing that a relationship changing for the better can mean you are actually less involved with each other and that doesn't mean you care less... on the contrary, it means you're probably putting more thought into maintaining the relationship and more actively demonstrating that you care by making a point to spend time together! it's a more mature version of a relationship, which is why it's a good endpoint for this coming of age story... in my opinion :-) sorry ONE