#Anyway. The only BNHA villains that REALLY matter are Gentle and La Brava

[shima-draws]

thoughts on All for one for BNHA? :3

He sure does exist!

[stillness-in-green]

How would you rate Villain Hunt Arc?

(Sorry, USJ!Shigaraki, but in fairness, you are what made me drop the series for the first time.)

• Arcs listed roughly in order of my general affection. I tend to mentally group the training camp and the “hideout raid” stuff together in my head as “TrainingCampAttack&Kamino,” so you can consider those two as one block. Likewise, Entrance Exam, Quirk Apprehension Test, and Battle Trial are all very much mooshed together as “Introduction to UA” (or, “The Stuff Before the Plot Kicks In”).

• The Star & Stripe mini-arc wasn’t on this tier maker, which was the most useful to me of several options, but I largely tend to think of it as a wrap-up to the Edgy Deku stuff anyway.

On which note, my insistence on calling it The Edgy Deku Arc probably makes plain my less-than-stellar opinions about it. It really only edges out the school intro stuff by virtue of having characters I like in it who we at least get to check back in with, even if I’m desperately dissatisfied with a lot of what we find out. Definitely my most-complained-about arc, but there is a tiny bit of me that’s withholding judgment until we find out if that arc is going to be the final word on e.g. Muscular and Overhaul.

• Joint Training would probably beat out the Provisional License and Sports Festival stuff if Monoma were in more of it, but my god, it just goes on and on and on. The death rattle of the Fun School Antics angle of the story, but I think by then even most of the hero fans were ready for meatier fare than that. Meanwhile, the Final Exam arc is probably my most, “Wait, which one was that again?” arc of them all. A complete nothing of an arc to me, which earns its bottom rank thanks to being the arc that shoves Uraraka off the Love Interest cliff, where she’ll remain roughly until she runs into Toga during the war.

…I see that the wiki officially puts Shigaraki and Deku’s mall encounter as being the wrap-up to the Final Exam Arc, which would definitely push it up some on the chart. In my heart, though, the mall encounter is just a mini-arc of its own, one I would probably put around the Stain arc, which it so chiefly concerns. The Stain arc is so high, meanwhile, because it’s the arc that redefined Shigaraki for me from my initial extremely negative impression, Stain himself is pretty aces, and it’s Iida’s best material until the Deku vs. Class 1-A confrontation.

• I maintain that the School Festival was the best the “school stuff” in BNHA ever got, with Gentle Criminal and La Brava being villains like no others in the series, easily my favorite of Deku’s solo fights, on top of an unusually good insight via the matter of “Eri’s smile” into the idea that just because you save someone from immediate danger, that doesn’t mean they’re out of the woods for good. A lot more has to go into making sure someone is okay before you can credibly call them “saved,”* which allows for an uncommonly good cooldown arc, the likes of which the War Arc so badly needed.

• Endeavor gets two excellent, tightly written, unusually adult arcs that flesh out the world and the day-to-day life of a hero, which is catnip to my worldbuilding-loving heart, so his two mini-arcs place surprisingly highly for featuring so little in the way of villains. (It probably helps that Ending and Starservant are great street-level villains.)

• And what's there even to say about My Villain Academia? MVA is what was running when I first took the plunge on writing fanfic for this series; it was still going when I first reblogged someone else's BNHA post (about Spinaraki AUs, as it happens). MVA is what took me from a passive fandom observer to an active fandom participant. The characters and situations of MVA are what have fired my longest pieces of meta this side of the Human Debris Masterpost(s). A damn masterpiece of an arc.

----

(* This would be yet one more of several reasons that I don’t give Deku credit for “saving” Overhaul from Nagant’s bullet. What part of that man looks “saved” to anyone as of the last time we saw him?)

[meeko-mar]

Ok I just thought of this. 

This is a further, further thought about my Kidnapped Deku Theory, about the captivity of Izuku, as well as the FUNCTION such an event would serve in his story. Surprise influence from a different Anime(movie) plays into my thought on this. 

Now. Imma just preface this with: Part of me hopes I'm wrong about this, cause I like Compress and I don't want him to die yet.

But here we go.

So, Deku gets kidnapped, and somehow, the whole group, (probably minus Machia) escapes.

They bunker down in some hidden location. Shigaraki is way too depleted to physically do anything about stealing OFA at this particular point, so for now they just restrain Izuku where they can keep a close eye on him until shiggy gains enough strength . Izuku is desperately tired as well and cannot even hope of fighting back yet. So sit in captivity he does. And he observes.

And now here's where the whole thing of "Izuku needs to realize that the villains need saving too" thing comes into play,

Compress is SUPER injured. And unless one of them has some pretty adept med skills, it's unlikely that he'll get proper medical treatment for his wounds. So...barring anyone coming up with sudden healing Quirks, be it Shigaraki Or Izuku, it's likely that Compress will die. 

Izuku is going to have a front row seat to the league as they lose, and mourn the loss of their friend.

Like I said I kinda don't want compress to die, but if his death has a purpose, aside from the escape of Shigaraki, maybe it's a step towards humanizing the League to Izuku. Up until this point, to him, they have been a nefarious, one-dimensional entity who has done nothing but terrorize his class and caused mayhem and death.

And nooo, this definitely ain't gonna erase any of that terrible shit they’ve done, or want to do, and he sure as hell ain’t gonna become their friend, but seeing some more relatable  moments and seeing that even these guys are a found family and mourn each other's losses and that they sacrifice for one another too. It's gonna give him something more to think about in the big picture(and maybe make him realize some of the flaws in their Hero Society)

And, even though Izuku has chosen the profession of Hero, it doesn’t mean that he’d witness Compress’s death and be happy about it. He’s not the type to sit there and say “GOOD, you all deserve it, one less villain in the world!” (that’s Bakugou’s thing, after all) Izuku is a naturally kind and empathetic person. He can understand death and loss, and even though he cannot agree with their methods of rage, murder and destruction, he could come to understand some of the more nuanced roots of it. He wants Villains to face justice for their crimes, but he’s never been the type to actually wish death upon them (even when he’s trash-talking them while emulating Bakugou’s style). 

((not to diverge too far, but I think the same goes for his understanding of Touya, he can grasp that Enji Todoroki was an absolute shit-heel to his kids/wife. He has a concept of abuse and how that had affected Shoto, and has in fact snapped back at Enji himself back at the sports fest when he really didn’t have to or even have the place for it, BUT It still doesn’t change the fact that Dabi was so far out of line in trying to murder his own brother that yes, Izuku is still super justified in what he said to Dabi instead of stopping mid-battle and trying to work it out with him. Like I said before, this ain’t that type of Talk-no-Jutsu anime. BUT I DIGRESS, BACK TO OUR TOPIC))

Like I said before and will say again til I’m blue in the face, Izuku’s understanding and developing vision of this world is more nuanced than that, and this is basically a slow-burn. He’s still young and learning, and he just needs those perspectives and experiences to edge in to his pre-conceived and admittedly exclusionary notions of heroism and society.

Secondly, Toga is also going to be mourning the death of Twice, who was killed at the hands of a hero that Izuku has worked with/admired himself. She’s going to have her own issues with Izuku and she may get the chance to have a more extended conversation with him, not like how the convo with Ochako was so stunted because Ochako was trying to apprehend Toga and was full of anger and adrenaline...Izuku in this situation will probably have no other option than to hear her out entirely. Assuming she’s not trying to stab him or suck his blood while she’s doing so. 

The third thing that could affect him and his outlook, is that Izuku has already seen AFO’s manipulative tendencies over Tomura in the Quirk “dimension”, so he even has that to think about as well...potentially more, if Shiggy gets to try stealing OFA again. So there’s also that, which I think Hori is going to expand on later no matter what, arguably there was that one panel already that showed Izuku try to run towards Tomura as if to save him(not sure if that was what was happening, but we shall see).

Izuku may find himself in the den with villains, but he may see more pieces to the puzzle, and it might be the perspective he needs to truly become the world's next symbol of hope.  

OKAY ADDED CONTEXT TIME. I suddenly realized where I think I got this particular vision. 

If you have seen the Studio Trigger movie, PROMARE, there is a scene where the plucky protagonist, Galo, finds where a group of the Burnish are hiding, and the Deuteragonist, and Burnish leader, Lio knocks him out and ties him up. (without being too spoilery, the Burnish are people who have sometimes uncontrolled bursts of flames that have a habit of causing much destruction and death)

From here, Galo witnesses how they take care of each other even when the public image of the Burnish is a harsh and fearful one of rigid oppressionand dehumanization. He sees that they need to eat to survive, and most importantly, he witnesses one of their number perish after being a victim of many human experiments, and he sees them try to save that person, and then mourn, before they all leave. Additionally, Lio explains to him what the Burnish experience is actually like, as opposed to the narrative that is out there surrounding them, that Galo knows.

Now, Galo wasn’t exactly hateful against the Burnish people to begin with, but due to his job being a firefighter(an occupation in this world that is super Hype, kind of like Heroes in BNHA), his lot in life runs opposed to them by nature. He serves to protect others from the chaos that the Burnish people (mostly unintentionally) bring about...(also a bit like the Hero society.)

But this scene, set in a cave, with him restrained and with no option but to observe, serves to humanize the Burnish people, which obviously serves as the catalyst to the rest of Galo’s development and his choices later to stand up and help Lio.

BTW, PROMARE is an absolutely EXCELLENT movie and I highly recommend it...my hubby and I only just now got to watch it one of the first nights we were stuck at home sick. We slept on this the first year or two it was out, but it’s really good.

And as I was typing this and looking at a Meta video on YT about PROMARE it clicked that I must have gotten a little brain worm from this scene. Sorry if this got too far out of BNHA, and I didn’t share anything very spoilery.

So, RETURNING TO DEKU, and long story short: what would be the point of Deku getting kidnapped, especially at this time when the Villains have faced loss with Twice, and are quite likely to face it again if Compress dies from his wounds??

I think it’d be very very similar to this Promare scene, and would serve...almost the same function. Again, he’s not gonna become friends with the villains, and they are not going to turn to the Hero side, either. And it bears stressing, it doesn’t erase or condone or change Deku’s opinion on any of their criminal actions. Of which, there are many.

But it’d force Izuku into a different perspective, and he might learn a bit about at least some of their past, and their reasons for villainy... If they feel like explaining any of that to Izuku. It’s going to build on that foundation that his fight with Gentle and La Brava built. (Y’all, I love Gentle and his fight with Deku was important, if I’m reading these breadcrumbs right)

Anyway, this was super long, hopefully wasn’t too hard to follow, But my Kidnapped Deku Theory just keeps growing-- H E L P. 

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 177: Construction Site Clash

Previously on BnHA: Deku confronted Gentle outside of a tea shop. Gentle sprang into action and revealed his quirk: elasticity. Basically he’s Monkey D. Luffy but instead of making himself stretchy and bouncy, he can do it to anything he touches, including the ground and even the damn air. Deku charged at him and promptly got flung waaaay back, but Gentle and La Brava realized how strong he is (and La Brava recognized him from his batshit insane fight against Todoroki in the sports festival where he broke all off his fingers just to prove a fucking point) and tried to run, not wanting to go toe to toe with him. Probably a good call, because after getting bounced into the air, Deku -- thinking about Eri and Jirou and everyone else who’s been looking forward to the cultural festival -- unleashed his new long-range Delaware Smash: Air Force attack. Then he grabbed Gentle by the collar and flung him into a fucking building. Damn, Deku.

Today on BnHA: Deku has a weird conversation with Gentle while the latter dangles from a construction beam. Gentle tries to reason with Deku and explain how his plan is somehow going to be a win-win situation for everyone. Deku calls bullshit and then lies and says the authorities are on their way, so Gentle cheerfully leaps back into action and starts using his quirk to springboard all over the place Gran Torino style so that Deku can’t get in a clean shot. He then tries to drop a giant steel beam onto a hapless old man, forcing Deku to jump in and save him. While he’s occupied, Gentle and La Brava take the opportunity to flee. We get an update on the time -- it’s now 8:45 a.m., t-minus 15 minutes to the start of the festival -- and then we cut back to Deku, who gets real mad and lifts the beam with only one fucking hand while aiming another air gun attack at Gentle with the other. La Brava is all “oh shit this kid doesn’t give up” and says that she’ll have to use her quirk.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 202 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

you guys. it’s February 3rd 2019 and I’ve just watched the worst, most mind-numbingly boring Superbowl in history. wtf was that. BnHA please help me wash the bad taste out of my mouth please and thank you

lmao oh my god

do you guys remember that scene from Avengers where Bruce Banner wakes up in an abandoned building and Harry Dean Stanton thoughtfully gives him some pants. for some reason this reminded me of that. “well then, son, you’ve got a condition”

now La Brava’s running over from a nearby roof and she’s all “DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT POPS”

she says they’re just shooting a film, and she’s asking him to let the neighbors know as well

well this is the most transparent lie of all time

(ETA: or is it just transparent enough to work!)

and even she’s thinking that it’s probably not going to buy them much time and that their plans have basically been foiled and they have to retreat

and now we’re cutting to inside of the building

on the one hand, it’s a cool setting and conveniently empty so that no one will get hurt! but on the other hand, this looks like the perfect place for someone to land the wrong way on a rebar and get accidentally impaled. please no one get impaled. we had enough impalings in the last arc

Deku’s thinking grateful thoughts about Mei and flashing back to when she gave him the details about his new gloves

yeah I’m just going to post this, not even gonna try and sum it up

(ETA: might wanna think about using a different font in the future if you want to avoid any confusion when typing out the word “flick”, Jaimini)

she sure knows a lot about his OFA capabilities, huh? thankfully she’s the type who gets so caught up in whatever she’s currently focused on that she would never in a million years note the many, many similarities between Deku’s quirk and All Might’s

also, interestingly, Deku is thinking a “thank you” to Mina as well!

because he apparently incorporated her “special dance training” into his attack?? omg what. “dance-off, bro. you and me”

Gentle is such a wacky fellow he might actually do it too

oh my lord

see what I mean

also hush, Deku. it’s called “flair” okay?

now Gentle is grinning like a loon and saying that he’ll execute his plan no matter what. “this is my resolve”

your resolve is stupid, Gentle. there, I said it. I love you but you lost this one pal. stop trying to attack a bunch of teenagers who are just trying to have a fun and wholesome time at school

Deku’s yelling at him. “you’re no gentleman!”

wow, harsh Deku

now he’s asking what Gentle is planning

meanwhile La Brava is hopping the fence and entering the construction site, and this overly trusting man from earlier has been completely fooled

lol she should just make something up. “uh...” [okay, just be cool, La Brava. just pick something reasonable] “...Animal Planet.” [nailed it]

now she’s sprinting over to where Deku and Gentle are and getting ready to film again

lol

so Deku is telling him that the school is on high security alert and the alarms will sound even before he can get in and he’ll definitely be caught, and on top of that the festival will be called off

this motherfucker is genuinely trying to negotiate with him lmao

Deku’s all “THAT’S EVEN WORSE” and Gentle is all “lol yeah I guess” omg

and now he (Gentle) is all “well, so that’s my plan, now if you don’t mind I’d like to get back at it”

oh snap

well at least he’s a better liar than La Brava

uh oh, Gentle is activating his quirk again it looks like

he’s springboarding off the floor and shouting “BEGONE, STUDENT OF U.A.”

outstanding use of the word “begone”, Gentle my good man

anyway, so he’s bouncing around and Deku is watching and trying to predict his movements

and Gentle is getting ready to springboard again

that probably isn’t good for the building

-- oh for fuck’s...

so all that time training with Gran Torino was for nothing?

wtf, now what??

did he just get hit? what’s going on

Gentle is saying “if you can use an air bullet, allow me to counter with an air barrier”

wait, what? so is the idea to reflect Deku’s attack back on him?

oh wait. or did Deku just walk into an elastic patch of air and get bounced back? is that what it is?

La Brave is telling Gentle that they need to retreat, and yeah they really should

but instead, Gentle is removing a bolt from one of the beams

did he do that with his bare (well, gloved, but you know what I mean) hands?? just like that? either this construction is shoddy as hell, or else this is the single most unrealistic thing I’ve ever seen in this manga about kids with superpowers and bird heads and astronomical high school entrance exam budgets

anyway, now he’s bouncing on the beam and it’s vibrating

he says he can’t consciously deactivate his quirk

interesting. also potentially pretty dangerous and certainly inconvenient

but objects turn back to normal given a little time

and that’s what’s happening with this beam oh snap

well but I mean, as soon as you manhandled that screw loose -- did he use his quirk for that? is that why it was so easy? -- it was pretty clear what you intended to do

and by the way, dropping a steel beam onto a 16-year-old is pretty damn metal for someone who’s supposedly a gentleman villain

oh shit wait

damn, dropping it onto an unsuspecting old man who’s not even a fighter is even more metal

but thankfully Deku is Deku

nice, Deku

now he’s getting all outraged and “DID YOU JUST TRY TO DROP IT ON THAT INNOCENT OLD MAN”

oh, Gentle

c’mon, Gentle. c’mon. you tried to kill a dude. just admit it. that was not nice

(ETA: is La Brava still filming all this?? did the cops eventually get this footage? Gentle’s gonna be put away for attempted fucking murder. sorry dude)

now the old dude is finally running away, and meanwhile Gentle seemingly intends to just leave Deku here...?

ffff now he’s making the crane bendy??

and he’s telling Deku he’s sure someone will find him. lol what the hell is he going to do

Deku’s thinking to himself that they’re going to infiltrate the festival at this rate, and he has to act

omg yay we’re cutting back to 1-A!

lmaooooo Kaminari really didn’t end up sleeping a wink, huh. he was so hyped up

BAKUGOU, PUT ON YOUR T-SHIRT!! WE MADE IT JUST FOR THE OCCASION!!

I wish I could read what they say underneath the A? Toko’s shirt seems to start with “BN” (if they say bnha I s2g), but Momo’s shirt looks different. maybe an error though

(ETA: so as we eventually learn, they say “A Band”, and the delightful story behind this exceptionally creative name is the topic of today’s omake!)

the dancing team is also getting dressed, and they’ve got their own special costumes which are cute but I’m not gonna post the panel because Mineta is ruining it. how come no one ever drops a steel beam on him

Shouto is wearing one of the class A t-shirts, so I guess the staging team is rocking those too

anyway he’s asking where Deku went, and Aoyama says he went to buy rope

and now Shouto’s “is my boyfriend in danger” senses are tingling

this is a reasonable concern because as we all know, if you leave Deku alone for more than five minutes he will inevitably run into a villain. in hindsight they never should have let him leave

meanwhile Aoyama is already thinking about backup plans, oh damn

fully serious, if you combined Aoyama’s ingenuity with Mina’s they’d make a pretty unstoppable team. these kids are creative as fuck

ohhh, Gentle was just using the crane to launch himself and La Brava into the air towards U.A.

damn, dude doesn’t even care that Deku supposedly put out the alert. he says that if they make it in even with U.A. on the lookout for them, his name will become even more recognized

what are you trying to accomplish though, dude, in all seriousness? do you know what’s going to happen if U.A. suffers another break-in after all of the security measures they supposedly put in place, and after they insisted on holding the cultural festival despite police objections? they’ll be fucking shut down is what. this will be the third villain incident in less than six months. people are not going to be happy about that. best case, they’ll be allowed to stay open but with a ton of restrictions in place. basically you’ll make it harder than ever for them to do their job, when right now the world needs them more than ever. they’re raising the next generation of heroes here, and this is a post-All Might world. so maybe just cut them some slack, jesus christ

and now we’re cutting back to Deku, straining under the beam

come on Deku, you got this. powerlift this bitch

LOL OHHHHH SHIT

WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST PUT IT DOWN YOU NIMROD LMAO. “LOOK AT ME, I’M DEKU, ALL MIGHT’S SUCCESSOR! I CAN LIFT STEEL BEAMS WITH ONE HAND AND FIRE AIR CANNONS AT VILLAINS WITH THE OTHER”

oh damn. and it seems we’re finally going to get to see La Brava’s quirk! about fucking time. bring it

BONUS: what should we name the band?

“Electric Spark Kids”, Kaminari? really?? you really do just blurt out whatever the fuck pops into your head huh. (actually tbh this is my favorite name out of all of them)

Tokoyami has a fucking obsession with banquets. I really want to know how he ended up latching onto this out of all the “___ of darkness” things he could have possibly chosen. fwiw I did find out there is a song called Banquet in the Darkness which I haven’t actually listened to because the album art alone is frankly terrifying to me and I somewhat regret having looked this up

there is also a band called Ore, though I assume it’s intended to be the English definition of the word rather than Bakugou’s intended meaning. but it just goes to show you that it’s impossible to be original anymore no matter what you do

and then Momo is just... it’s a band... representing class A... band... A... band... A Band? and Jirou is just like OMG THAT’S THE GREATEST IDEA EVER despite the fact that it clearly is the most half-assed idea anyone has ever come up with. she just loves Momo that much. and is also desperate to stop the boys from coming up with any more suggestions lmao

by the way I just want to say that all of the kids are absolutely adorable in this sketch and it’s easily one of my favorite omakes for that reason alone. so stinking cute omg