i've talked about the compulsive need to be "critical" (read: negative) and defensive when talking about things that you like. like knowing only how to praise things by berating other things. but there's another flavor of that: comparing them to some hypothetical perfect ideal.

even in my carefully curated sources for reactions to the mp100 finale, everyone felt the need to comment on if dimple coming back was the "right" thing to happen. few even said that the only thing they'd change in the story would be keeping him dead. everyone said him coming back felt right in context, but it would be the one small detail they would prefer to have happened differently.

a question came to me. does that preference actually have anything to do with mp100 and this specific instance of a dead character coming back? or is it because other series have used this trope, this tool, in unsatisfying ways? because it's the thing to do, to say that they should have stayed dead? it's an easy criticism, and often a fair one, after all.

but if mp100 was a story where dimple didn't come back, it would be a completely different story. it would be a harsh story, one where growing up comes with the cost of the magic dying out. dimple is mob's connection to the spiritual side of him, to the supernatural part of the world, like reigen is to the mundane and human. him staying dead would have read as that connection starting to fade. it would have made the ending read more as mob giving up his powers and moving past them, instead of accepting them as just a part of him, just a part of the world.

dimple's death, even as temporary, wasn't meaningless to the structure of the story. imagine if dimple was there when mob got hit by the car. would any of the final arc have happened? his absence might have felt minor, but he was a load bearing wall in mob's circle of friends. imagine if he was there to possess mob before shigeo stood up, or was talking there in the blank space of his mind like he is when he reappears. would the events have progressed unchanged?

the emotional impact of his death wasn't cheapened by his return, because dimple wasn't killed off to tug at the audience's heart strings. he was killed off to make mob vulnerable enough so that when things went wrong, they went really, really wrong, and the climax of the story could happen.

he came back, because sometimes people do come back, and mp100 was always supposed to be a kind and hopeful story. he came back, because without him coming back, the emotional resolution to the story would not be what it is.

and it's okay to prefer those other kinds of stories, those other kinds of resolutions. but mp100 is not one of those, and never tried to have a conclusion like that, and dimple coming back isn't a small detail but a necessary part of achieving that.

you are allowed to enjoy it on its own merits.