#as to the first qs: the roleswap I'm currently rotating in my head is a poorly-adjusted mentor/well-adjusted ex-terrorist swap

[the-obnoxious-sibling]

i love how flexible the concept of a roleswap can be. if i swap reigen and serizawa, am i changing which one is psychic? which one is a liar? which one is mob's mentor? which one went viral on twitter? which one used to be a shut-in? a terrorist? a water cooler salesman?

what roles do they occupy that i want to study like a bug under my magnifying glass?

but also: what is "role" and what is "character"? if i swap all of these things, what if anything is left of the original characters that makes the swap interesting? is it just aesthetics left at that point (i.e. only visually distinct) or is there still something different about the story you'd tell with them?

what is it that makes reigen essentially reigen, that you couldn't replace without making him unrecognizable? is it the same type of quality that makes serizawa essentially serizawa?

#i don't have good answers to those char vs role questions which is why i love thinking about them. ship of theseus with character traits. #as to the first qs: the roleswap I'm currently rotating in my head is a poorly-adjusted mentor/well-adjusted ex-terrorist swap #and i gotta say making serizawa More Of A Mess is fun (some men will mentor a child instead of going to therapy) #but not half as fun as reigen bullying serizawa into starting a psychic business in order to get himself hired there #'hey! incredibly powerful psychic i just met! (yw for saving ur life btw.) why tf are u a neet? w ur powers u should be raking in the cash! #oh i see... you don't have a business degree or any management experience... if only you knew a guy with both who just quit his job...' #and then he just 👀 at seri until the poor guy awkwardly provides the prompted 'uh... like you?' response. #'oh hey gr8 idea! so ill have the business incorporation documents ready for you to sign... monday?' 'what' 'AWESOME see u then boss~' '??' #GOD giving reigen the third act bad guy intro -> mob-induced 180 -> Productive Member of Society arc makes him hysterically funny to me #i guess i should tag this if only so i can find it again later #mob psycho 100 #reigen arataka #serizawa katsuya #notfic