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What fictional character do you relate to/connect with the most?
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Blue Ghost
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Jun 29, 2025 12:56PM
What fictional character do you relate to/connect with the most?
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The main character's mother is a Professor. My mother was a teacher, then she became principal and later an Education Officer. There's a lot of pressure to live up to that and be just as smart, accomplished, etc. In my case, the pressure wasn't just from family but from every single person that I've ever interacted with that knows my mother. And that's a lot of people including friends I had. It's exhausting.
The main character describes how you handle it as either "drinking the Kool-Aid" (conforming to the pressure) or rebelling. The main character rebelled but I went in the opposite direction. I tried to live up to it. Unlike my mother though, who's into English and History, I'm into Science.
I guess I relate to the main character in the sense that there's been a lot of pressure from a young age to be just like your parents or even "perfect".
I don't even think I'm that smart but people seem pleased 😅
Okay, Kageyama Shigeo, also known as Mob, from Mob Psycho 100. It's my favorite anime and manga (though I am only lightly versed in that field of media), and I did finish the 12th volume maybe 2 weeks ago now. The story is a slice-of-life mixed with psychic abilities sorta situation. If you're so inclined, I would suggest watching the anime, as it is GORGEOUS.Mob's a middle schooler who is quiet and seemingly unremarkable (in Japanese—and maybe other cultures—animation, "mob characters" are general looking background characters); he's not popular nor particularly good at much. Kids can be cruel, and from my own experience as a reserved middle/high schooler, if you're not boisterous, you can be labeled as feckless; if you're too nice: you're easy to manipulate. Into my early 20s, I was bullied for being too quiet and taken advantage of for being too nice.
That's Mob's whole life, but he's crazy resilient, and develops his own goals and sticks to them. There are many supporting characters who want to manipulate Mob for their own gains (he's got OP psychic abilities), but regardless, Mob changes into who HE wants to be and not into who the people around him want him to be.
Beyond a story about an unassuming kid who finds his footing, it's also about A LITTLE BOY WHO LEARNS HOW TO FEEL. His wicked strong powers are directly linked to his emotions, so he suppresses them. He's afraid of them. His powers and his emotions. Lemme tell ya, I'd bottle up my emotions—still do sometimes—because it's hard to express negative emotions without lashing out on those around. I was afraid of feeling mad or sad, because I was afraid of damaging/ruining my relationships.
Anywho, thanks Mob for having a story loosely similar but far more interesting than mine, so I can have some closure with the struggles of kid me, and have something for adult me to relate to.
