I oftentimes think about how Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid handles the idea of mortality and time, particularly with Tohru's character since she has to deal with these ideas.

Here's a thread of my quick thoughts on the topic of Tohru, her perception of time and mortality.

When Fafnir confronts Tohru about the idea of mortality, there's a really cool use of dutch angles to create a sense of uneasiness. When Tohru explains her reasoning, the camera angle levels itself to mirror Tohru being seemingly content with her reason.

She knows that Kobayashi will die during her lifetime, recognizes that the event will be sad, but finds comfort in living her life happily to the fullest with Kobayashi so that, when it happens, Tohru won't be left with regrets. This is how she copes with her limited time.

She seems content, but it only takes a TV show discussing how a mouse's life is shorter than a human's to spike her fears. Her head is framed in the center of the four TVs as they're discussing the mouse's lifespan, paralleling how Tohru is thinking about Kobayashi's short life.

Tohru's perception of time differs from a human like Kobayashi because her life expectancy is eons longer. Kobayashi's short lifespan, as a human, might feel long to her, but Tohru, as a dragon, feels sadness at the thought of what she perceives as a short life for Kobayashi.

The manifestation of her doubts begin to symbolically and heavily weigh down on her, followed by a shot of the TV show, and her anxiety towards the idea of time, life, and death erratically engulfing her mind as shown in the last two shots consuming the word "die" and Kobayashi.

After Kobayashi stands up to Tohru's father, her anxieties on the matter of Kobayashi's eventual death are alleviated. She completely cherishes Kobayashi here and fully realizes that, despite what will happen, she has to cherish the present while she's still alive.

Despite knowing the pain that'll come with death, she accepts it. She's successfully not living with any form of regret as she admits to not regretting meeting Kobayashi, and she now has the complete resolve to treasure all of her time left with Kobayashi.

That's all I wanted to say, I could've gone deeper in a few areas and talked about a few more scene but I just wanted to get my general thoughts out on the matter. If you enjoyed reading this that's wonderful! Share this thread around if you want. Anyways, have a great day!