#Endeavor and AFO are similar in this case

[bubblewhale]

I'm just now finding out that people did not like my villain academia arc.

I truly watched bnha for the LOV (besides bkdk).

The main cast is nice and all but if i put on my critical lenses i honestly don't see the hero society as a viable option. Economically and structurally i just don't get it - it's a cult that creates celebrities/heroes who are obviously used as both propaganda and tools of war, under the guise of fighting crime. At this point, heroes serve as either military special op forces or double-agents, or even as nuke level power holders. Either way, they are totally dehumanised soldiers. On the other end, the hero cult itself triggers people becoming villains. It does so by blaming individuals for becoming villains, even when it's obvious that they are direct results of wider structural societal problems. It's shown many times how hate can manifest in families as perfectionism, abuse, obsession, suppression, phobia (Shoto, Dabi, Shigaraki, Toga), poverty and human trafficking (Hawks) and xenophobia and racial (?) discrimination with mutants (Spiner).

The only moment i was hopeful they're gonna address the structural problems was the liberation army attack on the hospital in the war arc. But what was crazy to me is that the hero society held a war prisoner in the basement of a public hospital - using a civilian shield tactic, which is considered a war crime. Spiner's character arc is also extremely sad and unhelpful. Even the school itself becomes a military stronghold.

For the question of family dynamics we get Endeavor atonement arc. But we also get a scene which implies that he sa'd his wife (as if the fact that she was sold to him wasn't enough). The one scene that wasn't believable to me at all was Rei coming to visit Endeavor in the hospital. God bless Shoto, that kid is so strong, understanding perfectly Endeavor is to blame for all that. But it shows that in case of powerful men, sa and child abuse are not treated as crimes, as they should be.

Hawks is another great example of literally being sold and used, similar to Lady Nagant - and nothing is gained from their arcs in the sense of revealing the hidden corruption. Both of them side with the "hero" side in the end, the side that made them do their dirty work for them. He even becomes a murderer because of this but still manages to keep in the public’s good graces by acting as if killing is something he had to do for the greater good, same reason he sided with Endeavor.

Toga is a brilliant representation of discrimination towards a sexual minority but then she dies to save a hero she loves. It's tragic, honestly.

Deku is the only one trying to do something and helping (Shoto, Bakugo, All Might and Shigaraki are some examples) people change their mind and views on heroism/what it means to live righteously. I haven't read the manga so i don't yet understand what Deku losing his quirk could mean but honestly this AFO-OFA tug of war is the most boring part to me.

The show still mostly puts everything down to individual level and blames the villain or makes it somehow personal responsibility of heroes to deal with it.

Thus the league of villains becomes the focal point of the show - their double bind with AFO on one end and heroes on the other.

It just bugs me that the whole show could be read as cop/military propaganda and that our protagonists are basically glorified cops. This is why vigilante Deku arc was so exciting, finally! And this is why the whole concept of the show would be very different if it was made from LOV's pov from the start.

As it is, there's lots of bright and shiny feathers but not much substance in the show. The biggest stars of the show are personal tragedies, sometimes out-shining the main plot and gloriously failing to tie into the bigger picture.

[donkeys-waffles]

Warning! THIS IS A LONG RANTISH POST ABOUT A HEAD CANON.

One of my favorite head canons about All for One (Dad for One specifically,) is that AFO HATES Endeavor. Not as much as he hates All Might, (I mean that's the man that stole his son away from him and turned him into his enemy with One for All,) but close, very close.

More in an envious way compared to his hatred for All Might.

Endeavor forced Rei into a quirk marriage with him so that they'd produce children potentially rivaling All Might. His whole goal was to surpass another in strength, neglecting and abusing his wife and children in pursuit of his own pride. He neglected his other children because they didn't have the 'right quirk'. Endeavor DECIDED to not praise his other children's accomplishments. He DECIDED to pit the children against each other by separating Shoto from his siblings because he was 'stronger' than the others, (even though he was a little kid.) We can easily assume that Endeavor didn't help his kids with their homework, comforted them when they were sick or scared, had breakfast with them, etc... He was a man, known for putting his own selfish desires and work above the needs of those relying on him.

Now we have AFO, Hisashi Midoriya, who sent Gigantomachia away after deciding to mention retiring for the first time in 200 years (why would you want to suddenly leave your work of being a massive dickwad so suddenly, unless you had a little family that became more important?) Hisashi who HATES All Might so much because he took this 'very important thing' away from him. Hisashi, who's main criticism of All Might is how he teaches heroics to children (Izuku,) which leads to them hurting themselves. Hisashi, who locked his brother in a bank vault, in this crazy attempt to protect him. He's a man who's obsessed with his family. And I like to picture him leaving zero traces of himself in the Midoriya's lives to protect them from his enemies. I like to believe he yearns for a peaceful, domestic life with his family. Afterall, this man has been through such a turbulent life thus far (being born into the dawn of quirks and being viewed as a freak, a demon, and then living life as a supervillain.)

I can see him wanting to analyze quirks with Izuku, reading to him, helping him with homework (especially history homework,) and comforting him when he's sick or scared. So, to him, Endeavor (while he also might have to had to deal with his family being targeted, we haven't heard of any occurrences when they were children instead of adults,) who DECIDED to not put his family first, and threw all of the experiences away for his own stupid obsession with a coworker. To All for One, Hisashi, Endeavor had everything he ever wanted and still DECIDED to reject it.

Now, in no way am I trying to make All for One the victim, he's a rotten potato that deserves worse than what he got from All Might. All of the villains in MHA have been humanized, we've seen their backstories, what they love, what they lost, what their goals are and where they originated from. All of the villains have had a backstory, aside from All for One. We know very little about him aside from what we've seen in Vigilantes and MHA, and the idea that all this man wants to do is be a father warms my heart. Like it's an obsession as you can see.

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

How do you think Kotaro would react if he learned about the Todoroki family? He hated heroes because they “abandoned their families to help unrelated folks”, and Endeavour pretty much destroyed his family via abuse and neglect because he wanted to surpass another hero. Would Kotaro take it as a further proof of his belief? Would his attitude towards Tomura, Nao or Hana worsen? If there isn’t much of an age gap between Dabi and Tomura, Kotaro and Endeavour are also of a similar timeline.

I think a world where Enji and Kotaro met is a very interesting one, especially because they are sort of mirroring each other.

Kotaro would have definitely seen Endeavor as proof that heroes are trash that selfishly go to save others, fools that are blind to the extent of the damage they're causing to their families. In that case, I think he'd get worse towards Tenko, since he was the most outwardly rebellious.

Maybe they'd have reached the breaking point sooner, with Kotaro hitting Tenko and Nao finally confronting him and his behavior. Hana is the one who's closest in age to Dabi/Touya and Fuyumi, with Tomura/Tenko being the same age or almost the same age as Natsuo.

Now, the problem is: Kotaro knew he was abusing his children; Kotaro knew he was physically and emotionally hurting his kids and he kept going.

I don't think seeing his abuse reflected on other family would have changed him, but if AFO had not intervened, maybe Nao would have been able to pull Kotaro towards the right path. Let's not forget that AFO worsened all of Kotaro's fears on purpose.

Kotaro and Enji would think of each other as real monsters. The catch? Both of them were trying to keep their kids from becoming heroes.

With that being said, let's remember that Kotaro hates himself. He hates his mother for leaving and sacrificing herself, but mostly for loving him. He wished he had never met her 'cause it would have lessened the pain— her love is a curse to him. He also hates himself for the pain he causes in his home, the way he spirals down on his kids and his wife and the way he can't stop. He's terrified, he's lonely, he's raging and there's no closure for that particular wound.

Nana abandoned him. She's dead.

If he came to realize he was like Enji in so many ways, Kotaro would absolutely have a breakdown. He'd hate himself even more and become worse. No one likes hearing that they are the villain of the story. No one likes hearing that they have become the monster, the abusive figure.

I hope that answers your question!

I have so many thoughts about Enji and Kotaro, but I stopped myself before rambling ever more 😂😂😂😂 hope you have a good weekend!

[cum-villain]

in the middle of endeavor vs afo, and im really thinking about endeavor's arc. i've had some thoughts in the past on parallels with bakugou, but i didn't quite see how they were paralleled in any grand narrative. but i'm starting to see what horikoshi is trying to say.

see, we have to think of the demographic bnha is meant to appeal to: teenage boys in japan. plenty will be looking to be some combination of normal and awesome. the best of normal society. not someone strange or weird, but someone lots of people look up to. and, more than being angry fire-type quirk users with an inferiority complex they used to express through hurting others, they fit those ideals. they want to be the greatest heroes, and have the power to be in the top (excluding anyone with one for all). additionally, though, both of them are a type of warning, for different stages of life.

bakugou is someone who learned to be better while he was still a teenager, before he really did damage. we're introduced to him as an awful bully, but it's important to note that that incident is the very worst he's ever been, it sets the bar for the very lowest he can go; he'd never said something as cruel as telling someone to kill themselves before, it was so out of the ordinary his friends commented on it.

and in the early chapters, he goes from a big fish in a small pond (in his early years) to a big fish in a lake full of big and giant fish (u.a. high school). over the storyline, we see him learning to humble himself, to recognize his inferiority complex, to grow past it before he let it fully consume him. he's still a rude bastard, of course, but hes an otherwise decent person as his core, and he stays that way.

so, what does bakugou show? he's the pinnacle of being young, popular, talented, smart, with a bright future and the ambition to make use of those traits. however, that by itself isn't enough. he needed to learn to recognize his own weakness, not focus so much on being the greatest and learn to accept the times he feels inferior. nobody will ever truly be the best at everything, and some humility is vital to learn. and most importantly, that it's possible to change into a better person without losing what makes you uniquely cool. even as hes a better, more mature person, hes a rude bastard.

but what about endeavor? well, he's a warning for what happens when you don't come to terms with your own limits before its too late. he's also talented, he become the 2nd ranking hero, hes extremely successful and should be able to be happy. except, he isn't. he doesn't come to terms with his limits and doesn't curb his ambitions until after he's destroyed his family. his children either hate him, or in the case of fuyumi, cling to hope of a normal family as a way to cope with the terrible home he created. his toxicity eventually made his wife lose her mind, not even mentioning how he took advantage of her family's problems to coerce her into a quirk marriage for his ambitions. with his son being one of the protagonist's friends, a typical storyline would involve him being defeated. however, we know that didn't happen.

instead, he too learned to humble himself. again and again, he was confronted with the harm his actions caused. touya revealing himself when he did was extremely significant in terms of this; he had been on an upswing, trying to make amends with his family, became the recognized number 1 hero, it was almost possible to forget that in season 1 he was almost an antagonist. however, with touya, both he and the audience were reminded, the past never dies. he had still done much harm. he still had much to atone for.

however, despite all of this, his story is still one of healing and redemption. and one of the reasons for that is because, as time goes on, many of those teenage boys will grow up without fully maturing, and they well become someone similar to endeavor. of course, it is ideal for them to not become those sorts of people, but when they do, what next?

when someone becomes the abuser, it is very important to not get stuck in a sunk-cost fallacy of "well, i'm already monstrous and will never be able to redeem myself, i might as well continue being this way." instead, like endeavor, it is important to do what they can to heal themselves and fix what can be fixed, without expecting forgiveness, but simply because it is the better thing to do. endeavor still has a future, and he's lucky that some members of his family will be willing to accept he's trying to change for the better.

in short, both are warnings for the demographic of teenage boys; bakugou's story says "look, you can learn and grow and it isn't lame at all", endeavor's story says "even if you made mistakes, even if they cant be forgiven, you can still move forward and do better". and i think those are incredibly important stories to tell.

[gentrychild]

So, we have a few Anyone time travel fics. But this is what I'd kill for: while on a job Shouto is hit by a quirk. Next thing he knows he's back at his father's place, except things seem different. That's when he sees himself in the mirror, he time travelled. Now Shouto is stuck as a chubby-cheeked toddler who wants to keep his big brother around, stop his mom from having a mental breakdown and convince his dad to send him to a public school so that he can befriend his future platonic soulmate

Oh, this has the potential to be absolutely hilarious.

Shouto is very aware of what's waiting for him. His brother almost dying and running away. His mother's break down. Endeavor being Endeavor. He will have to wait ten years before being happy again and let's be honest, he isn't waiting that long.

Fortunately, he has read enough manhwa with time travel to know what to do. His first target is Touya, who still hates him at the time but who isn’t crispy yet. Shouto follows him around, proclaiming that he adores his brother. Touya hates it at first but Shouto is very adorable and slowly wins him over.

Natsuo and Fuyumi are very jealous that Touya is Shouto’s favorite. Shouto doesn’t care. Shouto can now play football with his siblings and have semi normal bonds with them.

One of the early storylines would be Endeavor suddenly having to deal with his small child flat out not caring about him anymore/actively disliking him. (Remember that this is pre training.) This feels extremely weird since their parents are everything to children and he slowly grows desperate because Shouto apparently hates him? Out of the blue? Rei, who has stopped watching her kids swith eagle eyes in fear of what her children could do to each other, is happy that they finally get along, points out that he isn’t passing enough time with the kids. Endeavor has a realization and tries to be a better dad. (The results are varied.)

Endeavor: “I have decided to take some vacations to spend more time with my lovely family!“

Touya: “Really? It’s the first time you-”

Shouto: “No one asked you.”

Endeavor: T_T

Baby Shouto keeps following Touya around with a fire extinguisher that is bigger than him. Just in case.

When Shouto is five, All Might disappears from the radar for a couple of months, right after an island was vaporized. Shouto realizes that the AFO and All Might fight happened and that Izuku is now dadless and about to become destitute. He informs his dad that he is moving elementary school. More precisely, that he is going to transfer to a very sub par elementary school that isn’t even in the same town he lives.

Endeavor: “How about no?”

Shouto: “I wasn’t asking.”

To summarize, Shouto might have run away from his perfectly good elementary school and reappeared in Izuku and Katsuki’s elementary school. The number 2 hero in person comes and retrieves his toddler.

Sadly, Izuku wasn’t here that day because he was so sad that his dad hadn’t even called for his birthday that he stayed home.

After several similar incidents, Endeavor and Rei force Shouto to tell him what is going on.

Baby Shouto, grabbing baby Izuku by the shoulder: “This is my best friend, Izuku. If I am not in the same school as him, I will cry.”

Izuku: “I don’t know this boy. His eyes scare me.”

Shouto: “I have unlimited budget for All Might merch that I am willing to share with my friends.”

Izuku: “...”

Izuku: “Ah yes, Shouto, my best friend. I add that I will also cry if he doesn’t get what he wants and yes, this is a flooding threat.”

Shouto becomes Izuku’s best friend/fierce protector, which makes things fun for Bakugou. Izuku is not bullied. (Shouto was called to the principal’s office several times but Bakugo < the son of the number 2. Izuku and Shouto probably transfers when they reach middle school. Inko still goes abroad to work and the Todorokis offer to take Izuku in but Izuku is fiercely independent, so they just keep an eye on him.

Years pass but no trace of Anyone appears.

Shouto realizes that Anyone was created because Izuku needed support and now that he has Shouto, it’s not needed anymore. At first, he doesn’t know how to feel about it. It feels like he deprived Izuku of a part of himself.

But in the end, if it means his best friend didn’t have to go through all that hardship, it’s worth it.

The very next day, Izuku appears with a broken arm and a toddler, admitting that he might have hidden from Shouto his slightly illegal organization and his plan to steal All Might’s quirk so he wouldn’t be implicated. But everything went to hell. Now, he needs help.

Shouto is delighted.

And will have his revenge on Izuku not making him part of the quirk heist operation.

[angel-sweets666]

you wanted more so I'm gonna lurk and give it to you! I chose this particular story because it has a lesson in it that I think every shifter, beginner or not, should keep in mind when shifting and working on their scripts. This is gonna be a long one so buckle up!!

Last year when bnha s6 was airing, I felt extremely motivated to shift so I lied down and got to work! I ended up having a lucid dream where I was in a helicopter over a destroyed city (I had just caught up to the anime and finished the episode where Tomura destroyed Jaku hospital) and I decided it was a good a time as any to shift!! Lucid dreams are an alternate state of consciousness so shifting can be easier! A lot of people suggest making portals to your dr in your dreams but I suggest the "falling through the floor" method because it's simple and worked for me the first time I used it!! Basically you just jump through the floor with the intention of shifting

so I'm in the helicopter in my dream, I jump out and fell to the city below with the intention of shifting when I hit the floor, thinking hard about what I wanted in my dr and what reality I wanted to go to!! As I'm falling I see these white blobs in an infinite, black void, they're blinking and rapidly expanding and shrinking in no particular order (I usually get these when I'm shifting or close to shifting) and then as I'm falling, the blobs transform into different memories from my bnha dr and every single memory was a childhood memory of AFO. I didn't see anything like children's toys or a crib that cued me in on the fact that they were childhood memories, I just kinda knew. It was the same way you'd know the color of your eyes or your name without having to think about it, a fact that you didn't need to double check.

After falling through a few memories of AFO, I "settled" in what I could tell was some sort of core memory. The other ones kinda just flashed by me but this one I felt like I was LIVING IT!!

I, or I guess the child version of me, was outside. The sky was blue, there were a few clouds in the sky. All For One was in front of me, I could see the tree tops above him and around us. He stood in front of me and held his hand out to me as he spoke. He spoke Japanese and he spoke it with this weird, knowing grin on his face. I don't know what he said because I don't speak Japanese in this reality, but judging by the context clues, I know it was something similar to what happened to Tomura. When he was done speaking, he grinned evilly at me and then the memory ended.

Now for a bit of context, back in Dec 2020-Jan 2021 when I was naive and less knowledgeable about shifting, I scripted that my parents were S and A class villains, about on the same level of the Paranormal Liberation Army, and that I was being raised to surpass AFO but was adopted by a member of the hero commission after my parents were arrested and ended up going down a different path, choosing to be a hero. What I HADNT scripted was any past or relationship with All For One so it was really jarring for me. I was under the assumption that my parents didn't know him personally, that maybe they had one sided beef with him. Kinda like Endeavor's goal of using his kids to surpass All Might, but obviously that wasn't the case seeing as AFO had access to me as a child.

I ended up getting a spiritual reading done on it a few weeks later and I learned that my parents in my dr made a deal AFO involving me, that I was their bargaining chip and I was "promised" to him. Apparently he didn't want Tomura anymore because I was the key to everything he had ever wanted, I was his trump card!! I learned that instead of being born to surpass him, I was born to "become him", again I'm guessing he means it in the same way he's using Tomura's body as a vessel for his own consciousness. I don't know what exactly they made a deal about or why, just that I'm a major part of it. AFO actually implied that me getting adopted and taken away wasn't as accident, that my parents tried to hide me from him because they wanted to protect me. I don't have all of the answers yet.

Moral of the story: BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU SCRIPT!! Your dr is a reality just like this one, you cannot control 100% of what goes on there and the things you script may have unintended consequences, some good, some bad. Be mindful of what you're scripting because one event and snowball into something catastrophic if you're not careful. I'm not saying don't script connections to villains or certain events, I'm just saying think about what scripting it might entail, how it effects your life in that reality, the people around you, and their feelings about it. Every action has consequences, just like this reality!

I accidentally set myself up because I wanted a cool backstory in my dr. I'm not going to change my script because I want to learn about my past in that reality and because I was told there was a lesson to be learned in my relationship with AFO. I'm gonna see it though, but you don't have to.

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU SCRIPT!! I hope this story motivated those interested in reality shifting and deepened their understanding of how real it is, that it's a real life you'll be living!! Happy shifting everyone 💝

omg thank you for this warning, I didn’t actually think of it that way. I was mostly scripting some basic stuff about me, yk like I can’t get pregnant unless I’m like 100% I want to. Yk that sort of stuff but I was just about to get into my backstory, tysm for this I rlly appreciate you

[super-paper]

This might sound weird. In my viewpoint AFO feels like a child trapped in a grown man's body with his attitude and mindset. A man-child if you will. He's trying to enact childish fantasies onto the world, this obsession may stem from an event he experienced in his youth. He feels like a kid, felt it again when he blamed Kudou this chapter. In a better world AFO would've gone into the age regression community to get his chance to act out his childish impulses in a safe environment to process whatever trauma he endured instead of taking it out on the world.

YEAH I'M LOVING IT BC

Hori typically uses child imagery to like, show characters at their most vulnerable and honest and represent like the "naked essence" of who they really are. AFO rewinding into a literal child plays with those expectations, in a way-- but in this case, AFO "at his most honest/vulnerable" is almost monstrous in its depiction:

Like, AFO's got some pretty heavily implied hang ups about feeling powerless/being powerless and he uses escapism + the constant degradation of others to distance himself as far as he can from those hang ups. I wouldn't be surprised if his backstory ends up depicting some horrible violation of his own autonomy where he was treated as subhuman/toyed with-- and he's now attempting to inflict that same feeling of powerlessness on everyone else. Instead of healing from whatever trauma he experienced, he's become a slave to it. Of course, there's always a chance I'm reading into this too much-- But Hori's been pretty consistent in his depiction of abuse as a cycle (esp. with the Kotaro-Tenko and Endeavor-Touya plots), so tbh, it would strike me as an odd writing choice if he decided "yeah, AFO just woke up one day and decided to Be Like That."

And I've said this before on twitter, but like-- AFO is SUCH an Umineko/"Witch" coded character. It's one of the reasons I find him so fascinating, bc I've always loved the way umineko depicts coping mechanisms in severely traumatized/abused individuals and how it depicts abuse as a vicious cycle:

In Umineko, "a witch" is typically a manifestation that's born from a person's horrible trauma (or from a person's "will" to overcome that trauma and escape from an otherwise inescapable fate). They're born from humans who have been violated in some terrible way and who are desperate to redefine themselves as something powerful-- something that transcends that pain, something that pain can no longer "touch." They reclaim a sense of agency over their trauma/abuse/etc by adopting powerful alter egos who blend fiction and reality-- but ultimately, it's all still a form of escapism.

It's hard not to see the similarities between how umineko defines "witches" and how mha defines "villains"-- especially with characters like AFO, Tomura, and Dabi who have all adopted trauma-based alter egos-slash-identities and who attempt to reclaim "agency" over their trauma in intensely destructive ways.

Like.... so much of heroaca is just "my trauma takes the form of a powerless child because that's how it made me feel, and that's how it still makes me feel even though I'm not a child anymore-- but what if you could see that?" and then AFO won't even allow that much bc he's throwing his whole afoussy into rejecting MHA's usual tactics for humanization and instead going "OH??? YOU LIKE CUTE KIDS???? YOU LIKE CUTE INNOCENT WEEPY KIDS?? I'LL SHOW YA'LL CUTE *rips his entire face open*". We gotta respect his commitment to the bit, I guess, but at the same time jesus fuckin' christ dude.😬

[commander-revan]

what do you think akane and touya's life together would have been like if she had been able to go to sekoto peak?

Oof, so this is something I've thought a lot about, and maybe someday I'll even write an AU for it (assuming I ever finish the fic I'm working on now).

In an idealistic world, what would probably be the most mentally healthy thing for them to do would be to give up on their dream of becoming heroes. Touya could let go of seeking his father's approval, and channel his rage and pain into art, something that all of the world could see, that proves he exists and exists for a reason. And while Akane isn't good with people in any universe, she could use her self sacrificing and protective instincts (what Dabi calls her tendency to take in broken things, like himself) to work in animal rescue in some capacity, maybe even training service dogs.

But, even in a world where Touya lived, neither of them are ever in the best mental state due to everything they've been through, and both of them are too stubborn and determined to give up on their goals once they've set them. Touya would still want to prove himself, and Akane would still want to find out what actually happened to her mom. (Spoilers for my own fanfic because it'll be a long time before I get there so whatever, but it's All For One related, and her mom was basically involved in a situation similar to some of the plot in the Vigilantes manga. And AFO also stole her quirk and put it in a Nomu, so that'll be fun once I get around to the Paranormal Liberation War arc)

I've got a lot of sort of disjointed thoughts on this though, so bear with me for a bit, lol. I think that in a world where he lived, she would almost not make it to him in time, but something would make her realize that despite what was going on with her family the same night, that she needed to go find him. She'd find him crying under the tree and either the area under his eyes would have already caught fire, or his whole body would have just erupted into flames. She'd get there, see him, grab him, and dive into the water he had tried to get to on his own. He'd still suffer from some rough burns that he'd definitely have to go to the hospital for, but I think seeing her show up could have jolted him out of it enough for the flames to die down before the water douses them completely.

I also think given what almost happened to him, and the fact that she did lose her mom that same night, Akane would actually admit her feelings for him, and tell him she loved him. Which, while it wouldn't fix things for Touya, it would maybe help him heal and realize that he shouldn't have to fight for Endeavor's love/attention so much.

That event would scare both of them enough that they'd start trying to reevaluate their training techniques, and since Enji only ever taught Touya how to burn, they'd make it a priority to try to figure out how to turn down Touya's flames in case something like that happened again. Maybe even going to Rei, Fuyumi, and Natsuo for tips given their ice quirks. (Also maybe discovering Touya's latent ice quirk sooner? We still don't really know what's going on with that in the manga, so we'll see.)

Akane would probably be able to convince him that he should look into support gear to help him stay cool and not burn himself as much (not really sure if there is support gear that could help that, but fuck it, it's a fanfic), that unlike what his father thinks, it doesn't make Touya any lesser for needing it, it's just that others have an unfair advantage.

With Touya not dying, I think Rei would have improved a lot faster in the hospital, and given how apologizing to his mom is one of the first things Touya thinks of when waking up after his coma in the manga, I think they'd write to her/go visit her a lot more. Touya and Rei could start having more honest conversations about their life at Akane's urging since she never got to have that relationship with her own mom. And because of that, I think Touya would realize how much of a monster his father is sooner, even if deep down he still craves that approval, he'd see how Enji's behavior isn't ok and none of them ever deserved what they went through. Which would make Akane and Touya try to make looking out for Shoto a priority. Even if there is still a bit of that jealousy there, Touya would be able to see past it and see how much pain Shoto was in.

Akane would probably try to reach out to someone, maybe even All Might since Endeavor hates him so much, to tell them about what Endeavor was putting his children and wife through. I'm honestly not sure if that would result in the kids being taken away from him (I do think the HPSC and the courts would just ignore any evidence of abuse though) or Endeavor changing at all. But maybe All Might would start doing wellness checks on the Todoroki's at least.

Akane and Touya would still probably go to U.A. and similar to the rooftop trio, they'd want to follow through on their promise to start a hero agency of their own together. With Touya learning to want to be a hero for himself and his family along the way, instead of chasing the Number One spot and status like his father.

Akane's father would still die her first year at school, and she'd probably still see Vlad King as a mentor figure, whether she ended up in 1A or 1B. So her experience there would be a bit similar to what it already is in some ways. Though instead of living in a U.A. dorm set up after her father's death, I can see Fuyumi and Touya petitioning their parents for her to live with them, and for her to share a room with Fuyumi.

I can see both of them being highly critical of hero society as a whole once they become Pros, maybe not enough to join the League or anything like that, but enough to try to change things from the inside, at least for a while. Ultimately I'm not sure where that would put them by the time we get to current events in the manga, but those are some of the basic ideas I have.

There would still be a lot of difficult times for them, sleepless nights, some bouts of suicidal ideation, tough battles, and that sort of thing, but they would absolutely be happier. They'd definitely be one of those insufferably cute couples that would burn the world for each other. Even if they are heroes, that still doesn't make them the best morally in some situations, and they'll always choose each other first before anything else, even at the cost of innocent lives.

[transhawks]

["It's weirdly kind of like in Return of the Joker, where Joker had no trouble dealing with Bruce Wayne's Batman for years but couldn't handle being mocked by Terry's Batman. All Might probably didn't quip a lot at AFO, always taking him very seriously, likely giving AFO a sense of importance and measure of control."]

[AFO: "You're really telling Endeavor to give up fighting me? Such little faith you must have in your "hero"."

Hawks: "You mean the guy you already lost to?"

AFO: "...You little sh*t."]

[He pulled a dark souls boss second phase when endy used all his heals in the first one with 10HP left 💀]

["Phew, she's finally dead."

"When the Ashes are two, a flame alighteth. Thou'rt Ash, and fire befits thee, of course..."

"Why do I hear boss music again?"]

[I think because AFO got used to typical heroes who are, in his perspective, hypocrite goody-two-shoes who think they are "professional" but when the right shittalking they would be emotional and throw their professionalism out of the window to get wild and defeat their enemy. AFO knows how easy to defeat heroes like that and push their right buttons to make them emotional.

Hawks is far away from being a hero like that and he himself knows it (he is more like an assassin tbh). And damn, AFO is really starting to panic that he can't push the mental buttons of this guy when he said he already got defeated by Endeavor.] Some gems I found out-of-tumblr.

These are all really good takes!

I think why people, and specifically I mean everyone, get in trouble around Hawks is the constant underestimation or thinking you what he is. Dabi fucked up this way. I think the heroes don't want to look too closely into it. But AFO is like clearly stumbling across the actual truth which is Keigo is very much more an assassin than a hero, and it's not... Nagant cracked, eventually. And I think one of the reasons is because she has a life and identity outside of being Nagant. They got her too late. I always wonder what the HPSC really changed in raising Keigo but I think one of their main goals was to create someone who wouldn't fold like she did. Who essentially understood "what had to be done".

There's an ask in my drafts I want to answer that talks a lot about child psychology that hits on this - Keigo was already going through neglect and abuse from his birth. There's detachment there we see as early as him being five. It's not normal. In many ways, Keigo was kind of perfect for what he's been made to be.

Now there's plenty to poke back at Hawks with. I think pointing out he isn't as good a person as he wants to be is a good route. But Hawks would also be aware that is a button being pushed. Because ultimately, it's the button he'd push.

People like AFO and Hawks are hyper alert when talking to people. It's near subconscious - the way they just absorb everything about a person and start figuring out what buttons to press. Keigo did this with Endeavor in front of our eyes. He did this with Jin. Just in case they have to. And it's very much a survival mechanism.

I think AFO hasn't realized Hawks is like that yet, but the moment he does, it's like..a dam breaking. Because AFO is letting Hawks dig under skin better than he is right now because he's not realizing they have similar playbooks.

[marunalu]

I know for when it comes to Dad for one, what is mainly talk about is the reactions of Izuku, Inko, All Might, Endeavor, and Hawks. So how would other characters like Izuku friends (Bakugo, Iida, Shoto, Ochaco, etc.) and other people that know Izuku react to this news when/if the dad for one reveal occurs. I gotta hear your input since you're one of the best people that talk about dad for one in detail🤔

Awww thank you for your kind words! ☺️

Okay so thats an interesting question and I agree way to few people talk about the reaction of izukus friends if dfo is revealed.

I think that class a will be very shocked at first. Because how is it possible that someone so good heartet as izuku is the son of the most evil bastard in the world? Its possible that at first the kids dont know how to act towards izuku, dont know how to approch him, dont know what to say or to do. There will be a lot of hesitation around them. They will NOT start to see him as a bad person or even hate him, but there will be a lot of drama and much to talk about. Most importantly I think it will be class a who will help izuku to make amends with that knowledge and help him to accept it. Espicially the students who izuku is the closest with: todoroki, ochako, iida and I would argure aoyama and mineta. I dont include bakugou here, because I believe the reveal will have a big impact on his and izukus relationship, but I will talk about that later.

I think the first one who will reach out to izuku will be shoto. Because of all people in izukus life he understands the best what izuku is going through in the moment. He also has a villain in his family who did many terrible crimes. The thing is while shoto has a villain brother, in izukus case its his FATHER! And not just any villain. The most powerful and feared supervillain in their whole world. Shoto is still the son of a hero, while izuku may see himself as rotten for comming from an evil man. So shoto and izuku are in a similar situation, but I would argure that izukus would be worse. All of japans hope lays on his shoulders, he is the "choosen one", it his "destiny" to defeat the big bad, but then its revealed exactly that big bad is his dad. I think shoto will reach out to izuku first, but still struggle a litte, because izuku is in an even worse situation than he is with dabi. But Im also sure he will give izuku the motivating speech back, izuku gave him in the sport festival - that he is not his father. That his quirk (if izuku has his own afo quirk) is his own.

Ochako and iida will also be one of the first people to talk to izuku after their shock over the reveal will fate away. Ochako was izukus very first true friend, she knows him, she understands him, she is in love with him and likes him exactly the way he is. His parentage will not matter to her. Same goes for iida. In the izuku vigilantes arc, it was iida who finally managed to reach izuku, to grab his hand and to tell him "Im your friend. I will stay by your side no matter what. Dont carry all of the pressure on your shoulders all on your own, but give something of it to me, so we can manage this problem together." Thats the kind of friend iida just is.

Izuku was aoyamas first real friend and izuku was one of the first who was ready to gave aoyama a second chance after the traitor reveal. He was ready to forgive him without a second thought and I think at that point aoyamas loyality to izuku is just to big. Mineta always admired izuku and wants to be like izuku. He will also not care about the parentage and all of them together will make the rest of class a realize that izukus parentage doesnt matter.

Now I want to come back to bakugou and oh boy. First of, I dont think bakugou will give izuku shit for his fathers actions or something like that. Honestly I dont think bakugou will care that much. But I still think there will be a fight between bakugou and izuku concerning afo. Because unlike some of the other students like ochako or shoto, bakugou is still not really able to see villains as human beings. He doesnt care about villains and there feelings or why they turned into villains in the first place, he sees them as criminals. For him afo is the big bad who needs to be stopped or even killed (and honestly as much as I hate bakugou, I could understand him thinking like that), because only then the heros win and things can go back to normal. And I have the theory that bakugou will exactly say something like that. That afo needs to be killed. And this will trigger something in "I would never hurt someone I love" izuku. Bakugous words will start a debatte between the two, because izuku will refuse to kill his father (Im not even sure if he will be able to fight against him - at least not first) and will instead try to talk with him. Bakugou on the other hand has every reason to want to see afo dead. He did MANY terrible things, he killed bakugou all most twice by now and is also responsible for all mights retirement, something bakugou blames himself for. We still havent got izukus view about what happened in his and bakugous past. We are still missing the view of the abuse victim, because izuku is still repressing his trauma. He still hasnt accepted bakugous apology nor did he ever say something or think about it afterwards. Izuku hearing out from bakugous mouth that he wants afo (izukus dad) dead could trigger him BAD! Because izuku wants to save EVERYONE - and he would never hurt someone he loves.

[truly-quirkless-a]

Type: World Building/Plotting the Timeline

Okay, so...differences to the timeline + addition of the last two movies, and I've finally seen the Dark Hero Arc, so...ideas on that. All under the cut, bye~.

One thing that I don't need to put under the readmore: eradicating Quirkless' final two abilities, 'Selective Manifestation' and 'Total Manifestation'. The best Fin can do is the Quirkless Field, and the Quirks they have post-Kamino are unusable due to Quirkless being eternally on in their own bloodstream.

WARNING FOR SPOILERS.

We'll segment this into areas based on what I saw, starting with the more recent, and probably ending with what I saw first.--

World Heroes Mission

First off- least favorite of the three movies, but Flec was pretty cool. I already knew a good portion of the plot thanks to MHUI, but everything involving Rody's involvement...had no clue. Y'see, I kinda- skipped- the story parts in the case files...so I could get to beating the levels.... ^^;

This movie actually solidified something for me. I've been thinking about Fin's ability to selectively manifest Quirks, and it makes no sense with Quirkless itself...so I'll be retconning that they can use the other Quirks AfO gave them after Kamino Ward. The Quirk 'Quirkless' may gain a larger radius thanks to this movie, but that'd be about it, if anything.

The only two routes I have in my head are:

Fin stays with Yagi at the command center for the whole operation against Humarise, due to 'Quirkless' not having too many effective uses. However, this wouldn't make sense since their Quirk is incredibly similar to Aizawa's.

The more likely route: Fin is also dispatched with the other Heroes. Most likely, they'd end up following Endeavor and his team- though they wouldn't follow Bakugo and Todoroki.

So- they'd just be another one of the background characters for the movie, though I may hint towards them having been contacted by Humarise before it. Might write a bit of that movie, but it wouldn't be an Event on the blog since I can't sort out any big impact Yagi and Fin would each have. They're both preeeeetty much sidelined the whole film.

Heroes Rising

This movie? FUCKING AWESOME. Fin and Yagi basically won't exist the entire time, but still. Great movie--- though they'll both be rushing the moment they hear Nabu Island is under attack...only to arrive after the dust has settled. Fin will obviously help with repairs- I assume that 'Heroes Rising' takes place between seasons three and four, which means that the second semester at U. A. hasn't started...yet.

After helping at Nabu Island, Fin's kind of pulled into working alongside other Heroes and working on upgrading U. A.'s security system- when they aren't working on getting construction crews coordinated, they're training (for reasons they don't quite understand at first) with a Hero- who quickly becomes a friend amidst their training for upcoming fights.

I'm tempted to say that Hero is Hawks, but for now...unsure. Might be Aizawa that they end up training with, since that'd make more sense due to the two having similar Quirks.

Yeah, Aizawa.

Fin will still take part in Eri's Rescue, but they're still a minor role- and they get sucked into keeping Toshinori safe when the few embers of OfA he has burns out mid-fight (he warns them and Fin forces him back). The two ultimately fight some low-level villains, jointly.

And of course, they go to the school festival (Fin took a picture of Yagi's smile before they started jamming like Hell with the rest of the crowd)...

Fin does get pulled into watching the 1-A vs. 1-B fights, mostly at the inquiring of Toshinori.

They get pulled into working alongside Endeavor's sidekicks/Midoriya/Bakugo/Todoroki in his agency for several months, still juggling Hero work and organizing the construction teams every day to the best of their ability.

Since Aizawa went with the team towards the hospital, Fin was sent in the opposite direction- towards the manor of the Paranormal Liberation Front. They went near the front with the other Heroes, though a berth was kept around them when they activated their Quirk.

Fin was hospitalized after the Paranormal Liberation Front attack, and was told (while in the hospital) that the security system for U. A. was finally up and running. Due to them knowing the extent of One for All at that point, they were pulled into the plan that leads into the Dark Hero Arc...

The Dark Hero Arc

For the most part, Fin and Toshinori didn't really split during this arc. They comforted Toshinori for the most part, when the two weren't rushing somewhere or trying to keep Midoriya in good health. Fin was injured by the assassins that tried to take out Yagi- and some of the blood from their injury was kept by Stain.

When Stain had his chat with All Might, he made sure to immobilize Fin before putting his blade to the Hero's neck.

By the end of the arc, they're starting to wig since the timer just got shortened from thirty days to a handful.

I assume there's more in the manga, but I have a space in my knowledge between the Dark Hero Arc and what's currently happening, so...no further ideas for the time being! I do have ideas concerning the final fight, but I'll keep from bringing those up here for the time being.

Okay, I think I got rid of all my energy from watching those two movies back-to-back after finishing up S6 of MHA Tues-Wed.

A self-list of the Events I'll probably open to the public on the blog when they hit... These will be open to any muse participating, so long as they have interacted with Yagi or Fin at least once. If it hasn't been discussed between me and the mun of any muse who participates, it will be assumed other's muses are not from YagiFin's world, and, as such, are doubles from other worlds (so the counterpart for YagiFin's world will also be present).

I haven't read the descriptions for the first or second case files, those may also be added. If they are, they'll be between S5 and S6.- Since (from what I can tell) all of the case files take place during the kids' work studies under Endeavor. Which, in this AU, would also pull Fin into working through the cases as well.

S1 - The USJ Incident

S2 - Evan Well's Return

Movie 1 - Two Heroes

S3 - The Summer Camp Incident/Bakugo and Fin's Kidnapping/All Might's Reveal

S4 - The Shie Hassaikai Raid

S6 - The Paranormal Liberation Front War

[themattress]

I feel like the Ransik or Dr. Regal comparison works, but only for AFO, Shigaraki and Stain, the LoV's leaders and ideological gurus. AFO just wants to spread villainy because he's evil for evil's sake, Shigaraki doesn't actually care about a better society built in the ruins of the old and just wants to destroy society as a matter of vengeance and hatred, and Stain embodies that Dr. Regal quote but with the extra stupid addition that he thinks some human beings aren't truly evil at heart and that they deserve to be society's benevolent dictators.

Dabi is a similar case, but he's more self-aware. He knows what he's doing is wrong and doesn't deny culpability, which is why he always intended on killing himself along with Endeavor, whom he is 100% correct about also holding culpability and deserving of Hell.

The others, though, I'm more inclined to make this comparison.

Like Akito, there is absolutely no excusing or absolving the evil deeds that they commit and the pain they cause others. But it's also disingenuous to act as if they were provided with the proper understanding of how wrong what they do is or with adequate chances to change their ways. Their backstories all feature cartoonishly horrible people teaching them through example that hurting others is justified if in the name of upholding the life you want to live and the society you wish to live in, so they naturally internalize that behavior and even have a point about hypocrisy from heroes since if it's so imperative that they must be stopped, then where were heroes to stop their own abusers? Why should they follow a system that picks and chooses who is worthy of being helped or not, or who is worthy of being stopped or not. That's why they want to fight to change that system, which makes it all too easy for them to be taken in by the likes of AFO, Shigaraki and Stain and show them blind, unquestioning obedience even as they are dragged down an increasingly dark path beyond redemption.

Lastly, I must agree with the two comments left on this post that rightfully point out that no, the MLA are actually NOT any more "legitimate anti-villains" or any less hypocritical than the League of Villains. OP is conflating how the organization started out under Destro and how it currently is under his descendant Re-Destro. Destro's MLA was an organization that had well-meaning goals and tried to the best of its ability to achieve them peacefully. But the current incarnation is a corrupt, privileged, Communist-like terrorist organization that promotes people with quirks using them however they want on others, the strong pushing down the weak....except, of course, if those people want to use quirks in a way the MLA doesn't approve of, in which case they'll be dealt with. There's a reason this version of the MLA merged with the LoV: because they did not, in fact, "have a leg to stand on" morally.

There was said interview, where HK said that jpn audience hated the villains and since villains started to gain more popularity, the manga popularity plummeted each year and rn SJ is rushing HK to end bnha. Villain stans got totally mad of course calling jpn fans dumb, weird, saying they have a terrible taste and that jpn only dislikes them bc of the culture since they don't like out of the norm ppl gaining popularity and don't like to see opressed ones trying to change the system

So what do you think abt that?

Warnings:

*Mentions of Terrorism

*Mentions of Serial Killing

*Bad Language

*Anti League of Villains

**Anti Himiko Toga

**Anti Dabi

**Twice Critical

*Victim Mentality

Basically, Villain Stans may want to skip this.

First, I kinda knew that HK is being rushed to finish the story, as you can feel it when you read it. I wasn’t aware of the reason though.

Now I am not Japanese and I have never met one personally, but I don’t meet many people (I don’t like them, see?) so I don’t know what they’re thinking. But I think it’s insulting that westerns—yeah, I know who the culprits are, sadly--are making such a gross generalization. But if any of the Eastern parts of the fandom--particularly the Japanese--want to weigh in, then by all means, please do.

Why does everyone assume people hate villains because they’re “out of the norm people?” Jack Sparrow is “out of the norm,” and he’s the most famous pirate in fiction! The Disney villains are all “out of the norm,” and people love them more than the heroes! (And note how most Disney fans aren’t trying to justify their actions either.) Dr. Stein from Soul Eater is “out of the norm,” and—you all get the point.

Why is it so hard to accept that people hate villains because they do VILLAINOUS things? Is it really so hard to believe that villains can be hated because they kill innocent people, steal, and cause harm without remorse? And is it really so unbelievable that not everyone is willing to wave aside their crimes just because of a sad backstory?

Have any of the Japanese fans actually said, “I don’t like this person because they’re different?” Or have they given other reasons that people are ignoring?

“Oppressed ones trying to change the system?” Bullshit. That's my opinion on that. The League of Villains was never oppressed! (At least by the hero society.) Oh, yeah, I’m fucking going there!

Tago is a freaking serial killer, who wants to be able to do whatever she wants without consequence. Even if the thing she wants to do is drink blood without consent or drink them dry.

Dabe just wants revenge on Endeavor and has killed tons of innocent people to do that and even set up his siblings to die as well.

Compress comes from a family of thieves, who claims to want to bring corrupt heroes to light, but we never see that. Maybe his ancestors did, but here he’s just using his powers to hurt people and kidnap kids.

Twice was a criminal who was a one-man army who used his powers to commit armed robberies, battery, and assault (not confirmed if he crossed into murder). 

And finally, Shiggy is a brainwashed criminal whose actions have been manipulated and controlled by All for One since he was little, and he never received the psychological help he needed after accidentally murdering his whole family. He doesn’t want to change anything! He just wants to destroy heroes because that’s what AFO wants.

Spinner may want to change things to help people, but he’s probably the only one.

Every single person in the league is a terrorist who attacked innocent people and resulted in mass destruction. Not one of them is innocent.

Endeavor is the only one on the hero's side who has hurt an innocent person and set a member of the league on the path to villainy. If Dabe only hurt Endeavor we would be having a different talk, but he hurt several innocent people and tried to murder his siblings, so here we are.

The worst that society has done was suffer the bystander syndrome, and yeah, that’s bad, but it’s something everyone’s guilty of. Everyone has seen a stray and ignored them. Everyone has seen a homeless person on the street and moved on with their day. Doesn’t mean everyone deserves to die, it just means we need to be better. Same with the manga.

Now the Meta league, that’s a different story. Yes, they’re still villains and killers, but they’re the ones actually fighting for their rights and unlike the League, they have points. Quirks are a part of who people are, and if they’re not hurting anyone, they should use them. It’s not fair that only “heroes” should be able to use them legally. THEY’RE the “oppressed ones trying to change the system.” And they tried to do it peacefully at first and only went to extremes when no one would listen, as back then there was a fear against quirks. And now, thanks to their history, they’re seen as anarchists and no one is willing to even listen to them. They’re still villains, but they’re villains with a leg to stand on.

The LoVs are just people who kill other people, then throw a fit when they’re called out on it. This reminds me of a villain from demon slayer, who was always going, “Stop picking on me!” or “I can’t stand those who bully the weak!” when said demon was literally murdering a village of people. That’s exactly what the LoVs are. They are stuck on the victim mentally because they don’t want to change.

The heroes are far from perfect, and they’ve done questionable things with the assassins, and Hawks, but the majority of heroes still do everything they can to help people. Some do it for money and fame, but they still save people. Even Endeavor, who is the biggest asshole on the hero side, still saves people every day. (He should still go to jail for child and marital abuse, and lose all custody of his children, but I digress.)

Stans and the narrative can push all they want that the LOVs are just “oppressed ones trying to change the system,” but the facts prove that they aren’t. They’re killers and criminals who want to do bad things without being challenged or made to feel bad.

The manga's not over, so there's a slight chance I may change my mind, but I doubt it. As is--well, I think I've made my feelings clear. 

That’s all from me on the topic. Have a nice day!

[tiredhawks]

Lmao, call me petty but I want Hawks to keep some of his win records, it's sad enough Hori decided he was past his prime at 23, and YET this man is going toe to toe with AFO while disabled (which is his QUIRK) with nothing but two katanas and swung hard enough to BREAK the steel. And now he's going to fight AFO in his prime. All Might could never. I hope AFO stays there the whole time, getting rewinded until he turns into a toddler and Hawks just punts him into the sun. Let Deku's legacy be saving Shigaraki's heart, let Hawks' new legacy be decapitating AFO and bullying toddler demon lords. Anyways this got away from me, but we don't actually know which half of the year Hawks debuted right? For all we know, it could've been his birthday, April as is the new school year and when Mt. Lady did, so technically, it's up in the air how quickly after he turned 18 that he hit the top ten, and so it is unknown how quickly Deku would have to be to break that record. Hawks could have a week earlier on him for all we know.

Anon you are going to make me write a literal essay here. I 100% agree. I think people severely overlook how crazy Hawks' accomplishments were too. People make similar comments about 1a's big three doing what Hawks did. And honestly they won't. Endeavor has insanely powerful fire quirk, the will, and is work obsessed. He did not do what Hawks did. He was the second youngest, I think? But there is still a few years difference there. So how would Bakugo or Shoto be in a different situation? Realistically, they wouldn't. They would ascend the ranks quickly, but not in the way Hawks did.

Izuku is a special case because he is All Might's successor and the world is desperately missing All Might. But at this moment, people don't actually know that. And winning the war is a huge accomplishment, but there is a limit to how much that can boost him overall. It's a point scale, not an arbitrary number handed out. And here's the thing- they are first year students. No matter what happens, they cant be pro heroes as students. That's several years of lag for public attention to die out and other things to happen. We can't assume what does or doesn't happen in those years. We also shouldn't forget that Izuku is kinda unpopular right now. We just had an arc where people gathered outside UA to not let him back in. The civilians in MHA don't see the world we see, the fights we do, or what these kids are dealing with. There's too much going on here to say yes or no. Could Izuku do it? Possibly, but I don't think it's as likely as people act. Does he deserve it? Obviously, he's literally going to save Japan. But the hero ranking is a process and I still think it's important the narration says "how I become the greatest hero" and not the number 1. This isn't a is Izuku better than Hawks comparison, it's a discussion of how hero ranking works.

(Not to mention the commission is fucked up right now and it seems the way everything is headed is that there won't be ranks anymore at all.)

Hawks had very unique circumstances considering he was literally groomed since 7 years old to fill this role. He had the personality, the looks, the knowledge, and a quirk that makes him extremely extremely extremely active. He is a workaholic to an unhealthy amount. THAT is how he climbed the ranks impossibly fast. There was not a single second he wasnt scoring popularity points or activity points, or both at the same time. And that WASNT. GOOD.

We don't WANT that. Hawks broke records because he was in a situation that was the product of everything fucked with hero society.

That's the point of his character. Hawks worked and worked and was handsome with the perfect quirk and broke records and made girls swoon- and Keigo didn't exist. Keigo was not a person. Hawks the hero was the only thing there. The entire point of his character is to show the problem with hero society and to have people go "my fav will break his record lol" IT DOES INDEED IRK ME A LITTLE BIT. And you addressed this by mentioning Hawks being last his prime at 23. That is so incredibly depressing and people just gloss over what it actually means. Izuku is supposed to be healthy, have a life, have friends, have off time. He's not supposed to be in this war at all or have this pressure. And before anyone goes "girl, it was a joke TikTok" listen, this isn't about the TikTok anymore. This is an attitude and thought process I have repeatedly seen in this fandom. Oh my god I'm just going to make another post about Hawks' work this is so long

[azure-arsonist]

Greed says that homoculus are "sturdier" than humans, along with regeneration I'd expect they'd have some level of increased durability compared to regular humans.

For the second comment I mean his flame alchemy specifically works by manipulating air molecules + ignition, so it could be possible for him to still use fire while making the oxygen around endeavor too thin to actually ignite/breathe (it also makes people really lightheaded apparently)

And thats if we're talking about only using flame alchemy. Mustang can do other transmutations aside from that if he has time which, I dunno how fast the boy can scribble

And I mean if we're talking about endeavor at the state of him vs afo (a fight he lost) then wouldn't the equivalent of that be promised day/post promised day Roy? If that's the case Roy's got clapping alchemy and possibly (?) sight.. all he needs to do is evade and block until endeavor wears himself out and make one concentrated blast to his head. Endeavor has him on physical reflexes but his flame alchemy moves pretty similar to lightning in some cases.

I don't think Roy would be dumb enough to fight endeavor head on hand to hand or put himself in that position either, (7ft tall man is a red flag) he'd want to wear him out or goad him into an unfavorable position and stay out of sight/reach.

That being said they're both arrogant so I think a key factor would be who lets their hubris get the better of them first. Which, idk depends.

This isnt counting on the hypothetical sniper on the roof somewhere idk if that'd be fair.

And also we can just agree to disagree at the end of the day.

I still think Roy Mustang could solo Endeavor if he wanted to and I haven't heard a good argument otherwise.

[stillness-in-green]

What do you think of shigaraki killing afo?

I made a quip about this months ago, but at this point I have no idea which post it was in, so I'll go ahead and reiterate and expand on it here.

On the one hand:

I think there’s a hanging conflict between All Might saying that trying to kill AFO seven years ago was a mistake and Hero Society’s inability to keep AFO in prison, and the easiest way out of that conflict that doesn’t leave AFO’s blood on a hero’s hands is to make the question moot by having Shigaraki kill him instead.  Absolving a story’s heroes of having to make a difficult moral choice has long been the purview of villains!

As far as the heroes go, I know most people think AFO is an unrepentant monster and killing him is not exactly a mortal sin, and they’re not wrong that he’s a ludicrous caricature who law enforcement would have every justification in the world for putting down as an active threat.  That kind of judgment, though, is easy from the metaphorical armchair, but gets a bit more complex when you start asking how it fits into a regulated system and/or the overarching narrative themes.

Should Midoriya Izuku be the one to kill All For One?  Are we okay with asking a teenager, one who thinks the highest aspiration of his chosen career is saving people, to take a man’s life?

What does it do to All Might and the institution he represents when he, the paragon of heroes, caved in a man’s skull with his bare fists?  What does it further say about All Might and his society when he calls that murder attempt a mistake, only to turn around and help plan another one not even a year later because he can’t think of another solution?

Endeavor and Hawks?  We already know they’re willing to kill; it was kind of a defining thing for them with the High End Noumu and Twice.  It’s not exactly a big challenge to who they are and who they wish to be to have them do something they've already proven capable of doing, especially when they’ve never truly reckoned with the blood already on their hands.

And so on.

We could also ask, who okayed this?  We know that Tsukauchi was involved in the planning stages, and since Tsukauchi is a police detective, that does imply state approval.  The readers never see that process, though, and it certainly doesn’t seem to have involved a trial at any point.  Is there a judge somewhere who weighed the evidence and then signed off on an outstanding circumstances waiver of some kind?  A Head Commissioner of the National Police Agency?  How much bureaucracy did this have to go through?  How much precedent is being established by it?  What protections are there against similar actions being called against lesser threats, now that this example is being set?

I know there’s a point at which asking questions like this of a fantasy adventure narrative gets pretty absurd, even willfully obtuse, but BNHA leaves itself open to arguments like mine in the way it positions its heroes as duly vested agents of a state government, especially a state government the story itself has positioned as grotesquely corrupt.

On the other hand...

All of that being the case, Shigaraki is not a duly vested agent of the state.  Nor is he a character whose hands the narrative has any motivation to keep clean.  Shigaraki is the (living) person in the story most directly, personally wronged by All For One, especially if it turns out he’s the one who gave Tenko Decay to begin with.

There’s a karma to All For One dying at the hand of one of his victims that there isn’t when he’s being killed by someone who’s more his “equal” or who lacks that personal connection.*  And while there’s a reason vigilante justice is illegal, Shigaraki’s role in the story is such that he’s posing and answering different moral questions than a hero would be.  If it’s problematic to let Shigaraki have that kill, it’s only because it lets the author dodge a harder question, not because it’s Setting A Bad Example For The Readers or Establishing A Worrying Precedent For The In-Universe Legal System.

Cards on the table?  AFO is kind of asking for it, where Shigaraki is concerned.  I used to admire that he was the only person in the story who never doubted Shigaraki’s capability—the only one, even counting all of Shigaraki’s friends!  But if AFO is going to swan in and think he can easily handle his protégé, the kid who has risen to every occasion, upended every expectation, then frankly, he deserves no better than every other asshole who’s made that same mistake.  I am praying Horikoshi gives me that level of consistency in Shigaraki’s villain arc!

Also too, it's not like Shigaraki killing AFO would instantly end the series or the problems the heroes are facing. Shigaraki killing AFO just gives Shigaraki his agency back, makes him a threat again rather than a hostage, and Shigaraki's status as ultimate victim/ultimate villain makes him a way more challenging moral dilemma than AFO ever presented. All things considered, he'd be a trade-up.

Thanks for the ask!

*Are Deku and All Might his victims?  Well, they’ve certainly been targeted by him, and All Might was injured pretty terribly in the backstory, but the OFA generational rivalry puts a much different spin on those relationships than the one AFO has with, say, Tomura or Aoyama.  Both All and Deku, in any case, try to frame their battles against AFO as being intended to stop AFO from committing further harm, rather than one of vengeance or personal recompense.  All Might in particular is not without those motivations, especially when AFO starts mocking Nana, but it’s a frame of mind he has to be baited into, not the one he normally occupies.

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

Dude…. Toumura/AFO is a world threat that can’t be hold down by any prison in the world. Why wouldn’t she try to kill him? I mean, if there was a being so powerful that it can destroy city’s just by touching the ground and there was a good chance it might come to your home, wouldn’t you tried to stop it?

In fact anon, I don't think death is the answer to any of this and I'm really really thankful for this ask! It gives me the opportunity to explain it.

See, I understand why so many defend Star and Stripe's point of view. Tomura is very dangerous, there's not denying it. He has killed a lot, make a lot of people suffer, destroy thousands of lives and homes. And this new being that's a mix of Tomura and AFO is worst.

However, we can't bring this whole situation out of context. Star and Stripe understand very little about the whole AFO/Tomura conflict. Like the manga said, less knowledge can drive a person to make poor decisions, it's normal. She is trying to help, we can't deny that either, but we have seen this a million times in other hero movies. Sending giant missiles and having a giant fight is rarely a satisfying answer. Specially when the narrative is telling you that violence only generates more violence, and that Tomura's pain is only leading the world to its destruction.

What I'm trying to say is that, following the narrative, it's actually a bad move what Star and Stripe is doing out of ignorance. Aaaaaand there are also many problematic aspects of her whole character. But let's see it point by point.

First of all, we need to acknowledge too how exactly Tomura ended up in that situation. Not as an excuse, because there's no excuse for that, but there's also no way of understanding the problem by ignoring what caused it.

All his life violence has been the answer to his questions. The only thing he knows is violence, people trying to deny his existence, people ignoring him, looking the other way because it's not their problem, stuff like that. This is how a neglected and abused child became a murderer at a short age. After that, AFO nurtured hatred and violence within Tomura with gross and fucked up strategies like making him wear his dead family's hands all over his body.

What I need you to understand is that at this point Tomura can be seen as an ordinary person. He was raised in isolation, like those horror cases of kids being kept in basements. He gave little to none human contact, both because he couldn't touch and because he was exiled from society. There was a mad doctor wanting to experiment on him, his care taker was a half living being created from a dead boy and he had a skin condition that made propel fear him just by his look.

Added to it, he saw his whole family die in a horrible way by his own hands. He felt guilty and was looking for someone to ease his pain, because he only wanted to be happy, to be himself, to be truly loved and defended.

Instead, AFO took him.

There's no character in bnha that understands completely this situation, except for AFO (and he doesn't care). The person that comes closer is Midoriya Izuku, who has also seen similar cases over the years. Of course this happens because he's the main character, but all his education and experience tells him that Tomura is not wrong when he talks about how rotten society is. Deku heard Lady Nagant, he knows about Endeavor, he has seen the discrimination to mutant people and he has lived the discrimination against quirkless people.

I understand the fear of Tomura being too far gone. Trying to save him can end up with the whole planet dead, I know. But we, the readers, know that's not true. Horikoshi is showing us what the characters within can't see, he's expecting us to root for Tomura, to be afraid of him dying, to feel complicated about it. Because we know what only Deku knows, and Deku as the main character wants to save Tomura.

Why? Because that's what the greatest heroes do: what other heroes can't. And in bnha case, it's not a matter of having more strength or quirks or speed, but a matter of who is capable of saving the people who no one else can save.

Why Star and Stripe is not like All Might, even when she wants to be?

It's actually an easy answer. Like Stain told Toshinori, he was not All Might thanks to his quirk and muscles. It was his heart, his complete devotion to save others and bring peace to the world by saving (not killing) people, which made him who he was. Deku is more like him. Even when Bakugou was really mean with him, even when Shouto acted like he didn't care (to give a few examples), he kept trying to help them. Because heroes save people who "doesn't want to be saved", they go beyond the barriers, they try every single method and if they run out of options, they create more.

One perfect example was the situation with Nighteye and Deku. Both Star and Stripe and Nighteye were inspired by All Might, they both were highly respected pro-heroes and they had both good hearts. However, they couldn't catch the essence of All Might like Deku could. Nighteye saw the future of All Might and took it as the only option, what kept him from changing the future. The same way Star and Stripe takes as an absolute that Tomura is too far gone, Nighteye took as an absolute that All Might was going to die. Deku changed that tho. Because he's going to try until the very end.

The other thing you need to take into account is the fact that AFO is possessing Tomura.

Imaging AFO possesses Deku. Wouldn't you like to see his friends trying until the last minute to save him? Well, it's the same right here. We saw All Might always trying until the very end, so it's normal that people consider Deku more heroic than Star and Stripe because he's not giving up on Tomura just yet.

The whole problem here is how to see Tomura.

We know from the narrative that the titles of heroes and villains can be very damaging, because they can deshumanize characters. Take All Might and Nana Shimura for example, who lost themselves in the hero title. Or take Tomura, who is not longer seen as a person or a young man, but a demon king of some sorts.

Ultimately, they are just people. Strong people for sure, but people. They fear, they hate, they love, the celebrate... More important than anything else, they learn. Deku already found out about that. We saw in the War arc how much he regrets not knowing that before, because he could have saved other villains like Gentle Criminal or La Brava if he had seen them as human beings and not mere enemies.

He doesn't want to make the same mistakes all the people around him and before him have made. If he only tries to kill AFO, it could end up just like it ended up for the Vestiges, with AFO surviving and the cycle repeating itself. Instead, if he saves Tomura, that's going to weaken AFO. And since Tomura is so powerful, and because Tomura is the closest human being to AFO, there's a golden opportunity of using all that strength and knowledge against AFO himself. To kill Tomura is a foolish move.

Star and Stripe can't know anything of this because she doesn't know the context, just like I explained before. She's reckless and a little selfish, just like Deku was selfish for leaving UA behind and going by his own against AFO. Both Deku and Star and Stripe could get themselves and many many people killed with those decisions. What if AFO stole New Order? What if AFO took OFA? It's not just their fight, it's the whole world's fight.

They can't afford recklessness.

The difference between the previous fights against AFO and the recent fight is that the OFA user is not alone anymore. The whole world being invested in such fight is a good thing. When you can't rise against a challenge on your own, you ask for help.

I don't totally hate Star and Stripe. I consider she could have been more interesting if presented in other forms. I find personally annoying her whole persona because I find way too heavy the USA symbolism on her. Also I would like to see a N. 1 world woman hero inspired by All Might who was not more of a copy of All Might, nor a living personification of her country. Her quirk is super interesting, but I don't like how it was presented either. But that's personal taste.

Also, one of my other problems with her is that introducing a new super powered character by the end of the story is never a good idea. It feels anticlimactic. So in terms of writing, I don't like hers. Even if Horikoshi is writing her as a parody, I still don't think it was the best decision.

I'm really sorry for the long post. This was original longer lol, but I figure out here you have enough good points to support my discourse. You are free of thinking about Star and Stripe and Tomura as you like, but I hope you understand why the people who likes to see Tomura alive is also valid, and we we can be annoyed by Star and Stripe.

With that said and done, I hope you're having a nice week and please remember to take care of yourself, okay? Thank you so much for your ask!