Ramalama (Bang Bang)

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.

check in the mirror to see how i look, i look different in different ways. ah, you do the math, ah, who's looking back, ah? shananananana that's not me!!

Idea: Takenaka is using his powers in this scene. He notices Reigen staring at him, and decides to listen to Reigen’s thoughts to see what’s up. But what Takenaka realizes in that process is that the man is also reading him like an open book – this telepath can hear Reigen breaking down every miniscule aspect of his current presentation, and the conclusions he’s drawing are so uncannily accurate that he might as well be a telepath himself. Being read like this is a new experience for Takenaka since he’s always been on the other side up to now, and this is honestly really unnerving for him.

confession for mobtober

ⵜⴰⵍⵡⵉⵜ ⴷ ⵜⴰⵢⵔⵉ

Edit: Print now available here.

Had riza ever tried to train ed with a gun, u think? How do u think roy felt about this

Mama Hawk just wants to keep her boy safe. She, more than anyone, knows that you can’t always rely on alchemy to fix all your problems :’)

Bonus:

#tomeweek2023 Day 3: Birthday + Friends

come on tome. be cool

Friends, once again :’)

Okay to elaborate on that last tag rant:

When Reigen tells Serizawa to get him as close to Mob as possible, he doesn’t know what he’s going to do when he gets there. This isn’t surprising. Reigen very seldom knows what he’s going to do until he’s actually doing it. He thrives under pressure. He’ll dance at the edge of a precipice and come out unscathed. He doesn’t need a plan! He’s been thrown into wilder situations before!

He doesn’t crucially, really understand what’s going on. He doesn’t know what the problem is. He knows that Mob’s involved, but he thinks he can fix it the same way he’s fixed things before: with some quick thinking and off-the-cuff advice and half-truths papered over with offers of ramen.

And then he sees Mob. (Check out the last post by @exilepurify for a fantastic analysis of this moment!) That’s when he realizes what Mob’s been dealing with and the scale of his struggles and the harm he’s capable of causing. And it’s also when Reigen realizes how much harm his lies have caused, because he promised to help but he didn’t, he couldn’t, he has no freaking idea how any of this works, but he let Mob believe him.

And after the moment of shocked, horrified realization, he knows what he has to say. And it says so much about Reigen that he’s right! He’s able to figure out what Mob needs! He’s able to pinpoint the thing that will undo this giant knot of insecurities at the center of Mob’s heart! He sees what looks like a monster inside his kid and he immediately understands!

(It’s because he sees a monster inside of himself, too.)

The thing that Reigen gets wrong is in thinking that once he makes his confession, that will be the end of his and Mob’s relationship. It makes sense that he’d assume that! He hurt this kid, and it would be totally justified for Mob to cut him off. But this isn’t that kind of story.

But while he’s running through the tornado, while he’s screaming for Mob to please listen to him, while he’s looking up at the sky and trembling, he’s steeling himself for this to be their final conversation. I’ve seen all the posts about the shoes, and while I’m not disputing a more literal interpretation, to me it feels much more like an acknowledgment of “There’s no coming back from this.” He can’t talk his way out. He can’t cover it up. He’s laying bare the worst parts of himself and ready to suffer the consequences. Whether Mob kills him or decides never to speak to him again almost doesn’t matter; they feel equally final and equally painful. But he doesn’t care, because his confession is what Mob needs.

🫠 i dont know what i am drawing but i love post confession terumob