#separation arc

[doctorsiren]

Moth Psycho 100 AU

Something that I latched onto for mp100 is the moth imagery for Mogami. More than once is a moth shown as symbolism, but it’s also associated with Mogami more than once, whereas with the other bugs he’s shown associated as, it’s just once i’m pretty sure (even if not, moths show up as symbolism the most so uhhh yeah)

So @cupofchemicalchatter and I cooked up an AU idea :)

Mogami Arc happens as normal except for the very end. Instead of Matsuo catching Mogami’s spirit and trapping him, Mogami is able to go and watch Mob from afar like he said he would: “You made your choice, kid. I’ll keep watching from afar to see if you made the right one.”

At the end of the Mogami Arc, Reigen says: “Anyway, history has shown that no good ever comes from drowning in wealth, fame, or power. Think about it: Mogami let his own powers swallow him up too.” Remember this, as this is important for the AU I’m about to explain. 

And this will go into the next arc, the Separation Arc. The part where Reigen is in the alleyway under the streetlight with those moths above him always felt deeper to a level that it probably wasn’t supposed to be and by that I mean I was connecting it to Mogami’s moth thing.

What am I talking about? Okay well, just imagine the Separation Arc happening as usual UNTIL that moment. The moment where Reigen is in the alleyway:

Mogami had been keeping an eye on both Mob and Reigen, figuring that a way to break Mob was to use someone he cared about, that person being his mentor. So in that moment, Mogami had been possessing / using that moth as his vessel to watch Reigen. The moment that the moth drops dead and Reigen looks up is the moment that Mogami transferred his possession from the moth to Reigen, causing his sudden change. Now he is determined to “become somebody”. Of course, just like in canon and like Mogami did, he starts out by helping people out with their problems. He stated in the Mogami arc: “Mogami? Yeah, I modeled part of my work off him when I started this job.” Mogami stated that “at first, I used my abilities for good, giving advice and solving various problems.” Mogami was the “Psychic Star of the 20th Century”, with Reigen being the “Greatest Psychic of the 21st Century”. Mogami basically told Mob the classic villain thing of “we’re not so different, you and I”, but Mogami now sees that with Reigen as well. Despite the man not having powers, he would prove useful.

Reigen began “developing” psychic abilities. He thought at first that it might have been something residual still left over from when Mob gave him his powers while fighting the Scars, but he soon began to believe that he had dormant abilities that became awoken once he set out on “becoming somebody”. However, it’s actually just the possession from Mogami. He begins to realize that he doesn’t need Mob anymore. He can do exorcisms on his own now! So, he starts pushing everyone away…the people who would be able to actually help him out of this.

Reigen starts to hear a voice in his head. It’s Mogami speaking to him like he did with Mob, but he disguises it as Reigen’s own voice, allowing the conman to think that it’s his own thoughts. Reigen begins to separate himself from this “new” version of himself (which is just Mogami), but not in a way of “oh, these are bad thoughts” but in the way of “this version of me is my only true friend.” Since he’s being possessed, he’s not really thinking rationally. 

His reflection becomes a way that Mogami can communicate visually, while disguised as Reigen, of course. He speaks to Reigen, convincing him further that he doesn’t need anybody. Only himself.

His shadow also becomes a visual way for “Reigen” to communicate (because I thought that would be cool, kind of like Morgana in Ducktales 2017, or in The Princess and the Frog). 

The turning point for where things actually go south is the Supernatural Detective TV spot. When Jodo suggests that Reigen be the one to do the exorcism, instead of letting Jodo trick him, Reigen insists that Jodo go ahead with how the program was planned. In this world, the event is reversed. Jodo actually does the fake exorcism, since it was scripted, but then Reigen steps in and explains there was no evil spirit to exorcise, hence making Jodo the fool rather than Reigen. The host praises Reigen and the child reveals that he was acting the whole time. 

And then begins his true metamorphosis. 

Usually, butterflies are used to represent change, however moths go through that same transformation, but to most, they are held typically in a lesser regard than their daytime counterparts. Not really important, but I just thought it was interesting.

Reigen starts to spiral, becoming more and more of a corrupted conman. He isn’t assassinating people for money like Mogami had done, but he is lying more and more and more. The more he becomes corrupted with power, the more his psychic abilities grow (think Ritsu with Dimple and the student council stuff)/ The idea actually started out by me suggesting that as he gets more corrupted, he starts to cough out moths (sorta like an odd moth-based hanahaki, but having literally nothing to do with unrequited love and he won’t die from the moths. He just coughs them out because we thought that went kinda hard), but of course, he keeps telling himself (as well as Mogami telling him) that he’s fine. 

His powers (Mogami’s powers) are getting stronger and he’s taking out bigger spirits, taking on bigger clients, and becoming a bigger star. He finds himself losing consciousness / disassociating at times, only to wake up and find that he is stronger. It has become a little of a Jekyll and Hyde situation, but while Mogami has control of Reigen’s body, he uses it to consume evil spirits to try and regain the power he lost from fighting Mob. How we’re visually showing the possession is through a scar (like how Dimple has the red cheek spots). He got the scar under his right eye when Mogami exploded that one-way mirror in the Mogami Arc, and since Reigen’s technically being possessed during the duration of the AU (once that moth dies), the scar is visible the whole time.

In the end (we haven’t figured out when but we just know), Mob has to confront Mogami inside Reigen’s head, like he did with Minori. Inside Reigen’s head, it becomes blatant that Reigen isn’t psychic, although Mob’s sorta known that for a while (as it is alluded to at the end of the Separation Arc). But, Mob himself doesn’t want to acknowledge that fact. Reigen always said he had powers! Why would he lie? So although Shigeo knows the truth, Mob doesn’t see it. He pretends that it’s not true. He believes in Reigen’s lies. The student has become the master, in it that Mob is now lying to himself because he can’t bring himself to believe that Reigen lied to him.

After everything, Mob is able to separate Mogami from Reigen (but of course, not without everyone getting their fair share of trauma). The scar goes away, as he is no longer possessed. He’s back to being powerless, and now he knows that it was Mogami the whole time. However, Mob says that line. He says how he’s known that his master is genuinely a good guy, because it wasn’t on his own that he did all that conning and evil spirit stuff. It was because of Mogami’s corruption and influence. I think Matsuo would still somehow come across Mogami’s spirit and capture him, just so that it can come in handy later when he’s used in the World Domination Arc bc I don’t wanna mess that up lmao

Anyways yeah that was my attempt at compiling some frantic and excited discord DMs about this AU into something somewhat cohesive! Now here’s art for the AU, because I wanted to share them, but I needed to explain what was going on first!

This was the first one I did for the AU, when I knew I needed to draw something up for the concept of him getting corrupted and coughing moths 😄

And then the shadow and mirror thing (I LOVE the one of “Reigen” in the reflection oughhhh)

If you remember that post where I said I woke up and found I had written “twink controlling a twink” the night prior, this is what it was in relation to 😭 why did I call Mogami a twink very very late at night? Who knows. The important thing is that doing so altered everything and now he is one in my mind, so I can’t do anything about it. Don't ask why this page seems really fruity, it was like 3 AM and over a week ago so I don't know (/silly)

These were from when I was rewatching the Mogami Arc to pick up details for the AU

Moths have the patterns on their wings to mimic eyes, so there’s that inherent aspect of deception and lying. It makes the moths seem like a bigger threat than they actually are. (also I have him wearing Mogami's blazer and shirt)

And then just the moths and such with Mogami’s spirit

And me pulling a quote from when Dimple was explaining who Mogami was.

YEAH I just really love drawing stuff for this AU bc of the fun moth symbolism.If none of any of this makes sense, I’m so sorry. I just needed to finally post about this AU bc it’s given me brainmoths (like brainworms, but y’know)

We kinda came up with the AU backwards and filled in random spots here and there after the fact of our original conjuration of it, so I had to try and piece it together HAHA 

[exilepurify]

I know this is way old news, but I’d just like to say that them putting the 7th division back slash on Reigen during his press conference realization sequence was such interesting visual symbolism. The cut on his back is something so easily forgotten about because it seemed to have no lasting consequences when it happened, but when you see it again here, it’s like being punched in the teeth.

[sallymew4]

all my edits kinda lag on tumblr, sorry </3

[2bencats]

WHO IS: REIGEN ARATAKA?

[hhyurein]

the stacks of paper left me feeling

i had to rewatch some parts of the separation arc to get this done and it hurt as much as it did the first time :( and the second :( and the third :( you get my point

oh to be a good person..!! reigen and mob the people that you are

song: eleven weeks by vansire

[mintbreeze]

kinda funny but actually i watched the whole show and read spin-off because of these Reigen wildside edits/memes. I wish i was joking.

[candyskiez]

Thinking about why Separation arc works so well again.

There's already a very good post about how it makes you think it'll have Reigen fail at keeping up the business on his own, and apologize to Mob to get him back because he can't do it without him. Only to have him actually be perfectly capable of running the business by himself without even touching real spirits. But why didn't they do that?

It wouldn't have actually meant anything. Reigen apologizing to Mob wouldn't have meant shit, because it would just come off as using him. Mob going back to him wouldn't be satisfying or a relief. It'd just feel like he was going back to an unhealthy environment. No character development, no actual satisfying resolution.

What they do instead works so much better, and I've been thinking about why. Because I think about this show way too much, let me live.

Reigen was perfectly fine money wise before Mob showed up. Money problems aren't even implied to be a reason why he wants to leave spirits n such. It's all just being unsatisfied. He's restless and unfulfilled, and nothing really catches his interest. And then actual company shows up, and gets him talking to people, and gives him something worthwhile to do.

Most of Reigens worst moments have nothing to do with money. His controlling tendencies come out when he feels left behind or like someone is a better person than him. His toxic traits are so painfully human. He lashes out when he feels like his place in someone's life is in danger, he's not honest because he feels like nobody can love him as he is, and he doesn't try to change because he feels like he's inherently bad and cannot get better. Because of this, he doesn't stop and recognize he's hurting people. He thinks of him being a bad person as Inherent, not actions he can stop doing.

This is why it's so so SO important that there be a moment in the arc where he stops and looks back at how he treats people. He needs to realize that him being Bad isn't determined by just being bad by existing, but by what he says and does. Mob didn't leave because Reigen is inherently bad. Mob left because Reigen treated him badly.

If the Reigen and Mob conflict had been resolved with Reigen apologizing because he needed him for his business, it would've come off like Reigen didn't care about Mob. But because it became clear that Reigen didn't need Mob for his business, it tells the audience that Reigen really fucking cares about Mob AND why Reigen had actually acted the way he did:

Because he was a sad bastard who's scared of being alone.

And also, if they had Reigen just take on a spirit alone, the audience wouldn't have had nearly as much reason to be sympathetic towards him. It would've just felt like Reigen was being an idiot. But because of how they set up Reigen's downfall, we're so much more sympathetic to him. He works hard and gets what he thinks he wants, only to be set up by a guy who he saved the life of. It makes us feel extremely bad for him and like his ridicule is completely undeserved.

It also tells us something about him. Reigen has had so much experience where doing the right thing is punished. Reigen feels like it's too late to be good. Reigen falls into thinking he cannot be good, so he needs to buckle in and keep going. Because it shows Reigen being punished for being good as well as being punished for being bad, it makes what Reigen did feel so much more human. You're more inclined to sympathize with him, because it's not just about money. It's about the fact he was an asshole to his only friend because he felt like if he had other friends, he'd like them more and leave him. And seeing him face negative consequences for Doing The Right Thing as well as the wrong thing makes you understand why he just...doesn't try. If that makes sense lmao.

The way they constructed the arc makes us sympathize with Reigen while he's acting like an absolute asshole, while also setting up Reigen stopping and asking himself "why DID I do this, why DID I choose this path, why DO I treat people like this" perfectly.

Tldr, it's a really good arc.

[bandtrees]

- EXCLUSIVE !! Street Interview With 2012’s Scam Psychic, Former Star of Supernatural Detective, Arataka Reigen’s Former Middle School Student - What He Told Us Will Shock You !! Bit-crunched, at the text’s side, is a dull-eyed, dark-haired boy Reigen couldn’t forget, even four years later. -- Reigen’s message at the press conference in 2012 receives no answer. Yet, in 2016, a rogue phone call does.

inspired by this post by @fuck-kirk, here's an au where mob and reigen never make up after separation arc - and where they stand four years later :'] (ft trans/nb mob at the end)

this was a unique thing to write for me, so i hope you all like it ^.^

[mp100confessionbox]

I skipped almost half of separation arc because the second hand embarrassment got too bad. Half of what I know from the arc is from fan content.

[lettucefather]

good morning I come bearing reigens

[eefozlab]

LMFAOOO IMAGINE GETTING CANCELED ON TWITTER 🤣😂🤣

[exilepurify]

The emptiest of feelings / Disappointed people clinging onto bottles / and when it comes, it’s so, so disappointing

A Reigen-centric AMV I’ve been thinking about since last year and finally got around to putting together. I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out :}

Song: Let Down by Radiohead

[luciferstit]

The end of the separation arc still kills me. It’s almost overblown in the fandom but genuinely: I hope that if anyone on this Earth is revealed for their worst flaw and has to be seen and judged by everyone they know for this embarrassing, lowest part of themself, and has to feel the fear of rejection and abandonment, I hope someone you love finds the beauty and inherent worth in you as easily as Mob found it in Reigen. I hope someone holds you with unconditional love and acceptance in their little hands just as easily as he did, and I hope it’s gorgeous enough to change you forever. i hope you get a millionth second chance.

[abri-chan]

(lowposting with @plavi)

[eudikot]

Hey mobbers new Separation Arc song just dropped

[heather-m-quigley]

imo this separation arc should have been handled different. it did 9 straight eps of luffy's side and now seems to be catching up with 2 crewmates each episode. i would have preferred these parts spread out through his eps.

(from the production end i get it, i guess.. giving VAs a bit of a break or something)

ok looks like robin gets her own and i like it... oh nm 5 mins of usopp at the end