#‘eat properly!’ is something Mobius is shown to have actually listened to Klein about after her death

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

one detail i love regarding Mobius is that Klein hates radish

Klein hates radish, so Mobius gives her own radish to Klein and tells Klein to eat it all because it’s good for her health (Klein being an ELF, she’s absolutely kidding, which Klein is fully aware of)

and when Klein chokes it down, Mobius laughs

It’s unclear how many time that’s happened, because Klein’s english formulation implies a routine, but I didn’t check the CN. Mei’s guess is that Mobius also hates radish and uses it as an excuse to get rid of hers, but

Mobius is not forcing Klein to eat it, oh no.

She gave Klein absolute freedom and she holds herself to it.

Klein eats it so Mobius won’t be disappointed. She knows Mobius’s claim that it gives her nutrients she needs is a prank, but she eats it anyway, even if she really hates the taste (probably ends up making funny faces, too), and Mobius laughs

and I don’t think Mobius is mocking her at all

picture this. You’re eating lunch with a friend, or a sibling, maybe a cousin, someone you’re close to who’s maybe a bit younger than you. Neither of you likes… let’s say, radish.

You hear your friend say they hate it, so you snicker and give yours to them, “go on, eat it, it’s good for your health~”

Obviously, it’s a joke, your friend/sibling can give you a taste of your own medicine anytime

But what’d you do if they looked at you in the eye and opened their mouth real wide and shoved the detested food down their throat?

They make a disgusted face but they start to chew. You can’t hold it back. You laugh. That’s hilarious. You’re not mocking them. You aren’t looking down on them and you don’t think they’re stupid— you know they know you’re full of shit on that one.

But you share a bond and they ate both of your vegetables and it surprised you. You know they did it only because it’s you and it made you feel warm—

And so you laughed. Laughter is an expression of joy.

Maybe it becomes a private joke, or it’s a one time thing, it doesn’t matter. It was a petty little prank but it made Mobius happy, it made her laugh in the middle of the apocalypse, so what does choking down a yucky radish matter?

Klein just loves Mobius. And Mobius loves Klein, too.

Because there’s more to this than character dynamics analysis!

“Eat your vegetables because they’re good for you” is something parents tell their children, not just because you need the nutrients to grow, but also because you’ve got to internalize this lesson— sometimes you have to do stuff you don’t like because it’s necessary.

Mobius is Klein’s parent, in a way, and while she isn’t a standard one by any means, she still takes on a teacher/parenting role in her own way. She claims people are thrown to the wolves as soon as they’re born, but it’s not really what she enforces.

Mobius grants freedom to her creations, but she doesn’t refuse aid— despite claiming she wants to see how Gray Serpent will evolve without interfering, he comes back to her lab several times, and someone had to give him those umbrellas. She describes his flesh as corrupted when she picked him up from the destruction pool— and he’s majorly cybernetic in present day— you bet she gave him at least a minimum of help until he was capable of leaving the lab on his own. Even the sim admits she’s proud to hear he found himself in the end…

And most importantly, she tells him he is free, that his freedom is absolute, which he takes very seriously. (Seriously enough for him to dedicate significant energy and resources into figuring out what exactly that means, at least)

Mobius also told Klein this, and she repeats it when Klein asks to help in her experiments— “you are free and you don’t have to do anything the other Klein did”

What Mobius does as a parent to the unusual lives she creates is give them values. “You are free to choose your own life and mustn’t feel held back by expectations of others” is a value, and I’d wager it’s even something Mobius holds close to her heart, given that the society she lives in constantly fights her, whether it’s her experiments or people calling her names behind ber back. Infinite freedom is an ideal and the way she sees it, being free from others is how she’s happiest.

This freedom is a wish for the happiness of her “children”, who are not born within standard society and therefore have a chance not to be constrained by it.

While we have little information on what she told Gray Serpent past the freedom bit, the convo where Klein tells Mei about the radish incident holds another value: Mobius taught Klein that “to get through the hard times, you have to do what you have to”. Klein says she was very impressed by this, even though it later turned out the budget wasn’t that dire, Mobius mostly just wanted to eat some cup noodles.

It was a whim, but Mobius still made a point to turn it into a lesson, not just to Klein, but to Fuxi and Nuwa as well (it’s referenced in a much more somber recollection), and it’s another value that she holds close to her heart. Mobius will stop at nothing to get through hard times, whether they’re the apocalypse, death itself, or radish.

So while, yes! “Eat your vegetables” was a joke, it’s also a value with an underlying meaning that Mobius actually takes seriously. You have to do what’s necessary. And there’s one more layer to this (last one I promise), from the Mobius Lab web event…

Klein, the assistant, used to nag Mobius to eat properly.

#honkai impact #mobius #hi3 #long post #i wonder if the laughter Klein heard #was mixed with some grief as well #‘eat properly!’ is something Mobius is shown to have actually listened to Klein about after her death #she stares at her cup noodles and says the cafeteria must still be open #even if nobody wants to see her there… #the fact that she had radish in her plate at all implies she was following Klein’s plea to take care of what she eats #it’s poetic isn’t it?