#the patterns of control seen in the cults--Claw as well as the Psycho Helmet Religion

[scribefindegil]

HI I LOVED the new chapter- can you talk about Serizawa a little bit? Is it that his anxiety is fending off the effects of the broccoli since he wanted to take Tsubomi’s request immediately or is it that Reigen’s behavior is reminding him of Suzuki and he doesn’t like that? He’s very interesting to me in this situation

(Also the way Reigen’s anger and panic is what finally tipped him over to Remembering because the brainwash is overcome by strong emotions- just So Good)

I'm so glad you liked the chapter!!

Serizawa's super interesting here because he's VERY susceptible to what Dimple calls "the passion of the masses;" I sometimes see speculation that he would have resisted the power of the broccoli because his psychic powers are so strong, but I think this is a bad read. Serizawa cares a lot about fitting into society, and he often doesn't feel like he has enough lived experience to trust his own judgment. Divine Tree takes place only a month or so after World Domination, so he's very much still adjusting to living on his own, and while he's starting to make his own decisions, he has a tendency to look to authority--Mob, Reigen, the business books his mom gave him--to provide structure and guidance. So when suddenly everyone in the city is exerting huge social pressure to care about the Divine Tree and the Psycho Helmet Religion, he's going to be swept along in that. His anxiety, rather than protecting him, just makes him more susceptible.

So why doesn't he speak up in defense of the Psycho Helmet Religion earlier in the chapter? Because of Reigen. I wanted to follow through with the way that Reigen's brainwashing manifests in canon; instead of becoming an outright devotee of the broccoli, the mind control just makes him complacent. He stops seeing the Divine Tree and its cultists as the threat that they are, and instead sees them as just a bunch of people having harmless fun. Nothing to worry about. And this is terrifying to me in its own way and makes him incapable of taking Tsubomi seriously when she shows up, but it also means that one of Serizawa's main authority figures has been advocating for complacency instead of devotion. That's why I included this bit:

Reigen grins. Gotcha. “But I don’t even like the Psycho Helmet Religion!” he says. “I’ve been complaining about how little business we’ve been getting now that everyone’s off having fun with the broccoli, haven’t I Serizawa?”

So basically before Tsubomi's visit, Serizawa's been sort of happily floating in a state where he just accepts what's going on in Seasoning City and doesn't really think about it. Both the societal pressure of everyone else in the city and the authorial pressure of Reigen are telling him that this is nothing to concern himself with. He's been made to forget Mob along with everyone else, and while he's probably aware on some level that something's missing, it's easy not to think about it. Not to worry about it. Not to worry about anything.

And then this girl shows up.

And Serizawa defers to Reigen during consultations. He's still learning. Reigen is so much more knowledgeable than him, so much more experienced.

But they're supposed to be helping people. He took this job because he wants to help people. He's not going to simply defer to authority if that authority is cruel; that's exactly what he was trying to get away from. And so when Reigen gets mean and sharp and dismissive, that, more than anything that Tsubomi is saying, is what gets Serizawa to push back. And once he refuses to blindly listen to Reigen, he also starts to break away from the influence of the Divine Tree.

The climax of this chapter is very deliberately evocative of both Separation Arc and World Domination. Reigen acts in a way that reminds Serizawa of Suzuki, and he refuses to accept that, and it makes him remember the first person who told him that he could have relationships that weren't just built on deference and fear. And Serizawa's refusal to back down reminds Reigen of Mob, and that makes him realize what he's doing, and instead of continuing down the path of control and denial he stops and decide that he isn't going to repeat his old mistakes.