#Especially in an extreme case like DABI?!

[fluffyotters]

People often Misunderstand Dabi's hatred for his dad. It's not because he's abusive

The thing a lot of people confuse is that while Dabi/Touya hated Endeavor, he didn't hate him because he was (physically) abusive to others! Touya does hate Endeavor not because dad was abusive but because he stopped paying attention to him at all and thought he was replaced! Touya hates him because of how much he loves and loved him. He wanted to be like him and to be admired by his dad forever and when he took that away clumsily trying to stop Touya from hurting himself by ignoring him that was even worse. Dabi himself would encourage people to hate on Endeavor for any reason because he wants to make his dad suffer but he does not care about abuse which is what a lot of Dabi apologia and people who fan him (inaccurately) has that he hates his abusive father because he was abuisve. DABI/TOUYA DOES NOT for that reason. Enji was a terrible parent in the past as is known with Shouto and treating his wife Rei and ignoring his non quirk kids Fuyumi and Natsuo, but he was not a terrible parent to Touya until he started ignoring him. In fact while one can assume his training methods can be difficult and Shouto hated them for sure (he was a young kid what the heck) and it's possible that they got harder, but Touya is the kid who will set himself ablaze of his own choice in training so that pain would be nothing to him.

The one person Dabi truly loves and hates is Enji. He wanted his love and attention and if he can't have that he will destroy his father as well as everything he loves including his family until there is nothing left to distract him from him. Using Enji's abuse was only ammo for him! He fully admits Endeavor abused his family because it means nothing to Dabi/Touya. He confesses to kiling more than 30 people (probably because he doesn't know the exact number and lost count after that because it probably is more than 30) because it means nothing to him. This was solely a film to bring down his father Endeavor's reputation at the worst possible time with a double whammy one-two punch of not only ruining his dad's reputation but everyone's view of heroes at the same time with Hawks killing Twice (edited to seem in cold blood). Being a hero is what his dad loved so much, more than him that Dabi made sure to completely destroy the trust people had in all heroes and to make the people dad saved turn against and hate him. See if Touya actually cared about the "abuse" he could have ended Endeavor's reputation and career at any moment. And secretly holding that over his head without him knowing was a trhill for a little while. But all he had to do was well, make such a video before and show a dna test and he could have made everyone very aware that he Endeavor's dead son was alive and that his dad was contrary to his saving the public, horrible to his family. And with it being multiple figures and the clear evidence of him and Shouto being damaged, his wife having been hospitalized, and his children having difficutly with him it would have had actual ramifications. He could have pulled Shouto out. He could have reconected with Natsuo. But he doesn't. Because he doesn't care about that or them except as ammo to hurt his dad. Had things gone differently he would have never said a thing. He worshipped the ground his dad walked on. And as he makes clear with Shouto he doesn't care about Natsuo almost dying when the villain he sent almost killed him despite them having had a past good relationship. All Dabi thought was imagine what Endeavor would think if he died. And Touya had wanted to be back in Shouto's place. Not anymore now, but how dare Shouto have everything he wanted and not appreciate it. Shouto wanted to save hsi brother, Touya wanted nothing more than to destroy him, dad, or both whether to kill Shouto and/or die with him to hurt his dad, or kill his dad directly. And nothing justifies what Dabi does. One could at least understand him wanting to kill his dad, even if that is extreme, Shouto did too and S1-3 it would have been understandable. However, killing lots of random people villains and civillains that have absolutely nothing to do with them is not at all proportional or understandable. And he has zero guilt or remorse and he burns them with fire, an extremely painful excruciating death. They probably don't live long witb how hot his fire is if they don't have a heat resistant skin or quirk (and such people actually gave him trouble fighting) but otherwise it's still a very horrible way to die. He views them all as mere practice kindling and trash to be taken care of and entertainment. People were nothing more than tools in his quest to hurt Endeavor. He loves these random people more than him being their hero? Then let them burn. He doesn't genuinely care whether hero society is corrupt or not. After all, he has no problem with killing solely to spite his dad. He doesn't care about the villains and downtrodden and they were only ever a vehicle to help him enact his eventual revenge in the meanwhile. And readily willing and acting to kill his own family. There was no reason to go after Natsuo and Rei, or Shouto but even allowing extreme leniency understanding that trying to kill his dad and the brother who replaced him is understandable, there is no reason to go after Natsuo and Fuyumi and Rei. Other than that is solely to hurt his dad which is not remotely justifiable.

He got Twice killed and while he says he didn't want Twice to die, if only because he would have helped with his revenge, he very readily had the video made which is extremely convenient. Stupidly reckless of Dabi to let Hawks that close if he actually wanted Twice to survive but on the other hand, he very well could have been saying what Hawks and the others expected to hear. Dabi somehow obtains Twice's blood for Toga later and it just raises even more questions of how and when did he get that? Did he ask for it and just store it for later? (Which weird if he wasn't actually planning this beforehand). I don't see how he would have got enough to be actually in a container for Toga to use that would still be viable if it hadn't been planned for. And he just sat on it until she was emotionally vulnerable and sad and goes here use this. This wasn't about helping her grieve this was getting her even more murder serious and to stop messing about with the heroes. But there is only a small amount of time where they knew that Toga could further copy powers before Twice died so Dabi having it on hand is extremely suspicious since Toga had no idea he had it. And after him helping her and seeming a friend (which he truthfully denies and says only is for his own benefit) h gives her a way to have Twice back and honor him.

Dabi is a very manipulative and cruel And the third most evil in the series after AFO and Overhaul just ahead of Muscular because Touya is smarter, didn't get caught repeatedly and while Muscular is cruel and sadistic and takes great delight in it, Touya is readily willing to hurt and kill his own family and the people he supposedly cares about for the sole singular focused purpose of punishing Endeavor. Dabi is living purely off the extreme rage and focused obsession to make his dad pay that even as his body wounds should have killed him he's still living just to make it happen. Even AFO backed off from even remotely trying to use him as a replacement from the sheer passionate singular depths of Dabi's rage made him unable to be controlled unlike Shigaraki generic molded hatred which passionate but focused on nothing but destroying making it easier for him to take over. And Dabi chose to be like this to deliberately murder and kill people and use them as mere tools. He chooses to continue it over and over living solely out of hatred and spite. This was not created by Endeavor, this is on Touya. People try to blame Enji for creating Dabi which is not true. Did he mess Touya up? Absolutely. Emotional neglect hurts. He would be obsessed with his dad in any form naturally and he would be guilty of that. But Enji is not responsible for Dabi murdering people and becoming a genuine villain. He is not responsbile for Touya going if he won't see me I'll destroy everything he loves. And not responsible for Touya trying to murder his family. He played a role by giving anf taking away love and not getting his clearly agitated unstable son help and absolutely could have done better and is seeking atonment but it is on Toyua all the deeds he had done. And before people say the abuse messed him up, most people do not become serial killers and mass murderers from abuse. (It can contribute but also many were never mistreated or abused at all that do). All it points is that tragedy happens to everyone and that then the personal choice and how to react comes in. Especially since this was emotional neglect not physical abuse. There is a big difference and yes emotional can hurt just as much it wouldn't have turned him into full blown evil like that if he hadn't chosen to be. There were so many ways he could have done a screw you dad look at me without going I'm going to burn you and everything you love to the ground and kill a lot of people along the way. Like I saw a hilarious post about Dabi instead of going okay murder, becoming an All Might Fan and buying all the All Might merchandise such that its everywhere and Endeavor absolutely could not have missed it. And that is the type of petty energy that unironically would have probably worked at getting his dad back to get him to look at him and interact again. (or he could have ignored it as Enji could be disciplined but it would definitely be drving him bonkers so win-win). But even from a young age Touya was obsessive about his dad that he tries to kill Shouto as a baby from the thought of being replaced.

I love Dabi as a villain but it is difficult to see so many blame Enji and abuse for Dabi's choices as if he had no agency in it. And while Dabi would definitely for the public blame Endeavor too, he wanted nothing more for than him to notice and once to always see him and now to make him the only thing Endeavor has by hurting him destroying everything he loves including ultimately himself. Because Dabi love/loved him. And could really care less if he or Enji hurt them as long as it's only him and his dad.

[angy-grrr]

ppl who are talking shit about the manga just because Endeavor is not in jail and the others still talk to him -what are you even talking about?

Some people already talked about how relatable this is for Asian families and the society that punishes in any case victims more than abusers -but also, this is really common in other contexts too. Idk who is able to just get a whole family to agree on punishing the father, of all of the members (usually the one that holds the most power, emotionally and economically), and start the whole process to get him to go jail. Who thinks this is so easy?

Dabi expected to change the way people saw his father by exposing him, but as we saw, people still consider him a hero and admire him, and in any case people were criticizing his inability to control his kid. Are we not reading the same manga? Their society is literally trying to be the same as it was, because thats what the status quo does. You think a war or two change what is considered good in a system? You think the cycle could just stop so easily? That society doesnt support abusers, especially when the one who exposes it is "the villain" accusing "the greatest hero"? Or you even think, in a micro level, that its easy to cut ties with your abusers, especially when they tell you they want to change for the better?

Family is extremely important in many, many cultures, to the point that is a relevant point to bring up in political discussions -the familial structure just changing a little bit is considered reason enough to vote the far right. Women are still shamed collectively for getting divorced, labelled as bad mothers, bad women, inhuman. Kids not talking to their parents says worse things about the victims than the abusers. Why wouldn't you talk to them, after everything they have done for you? Why wouldnt you, when you owe them your whole existence?

And you are here, expecting a divorce, everyone going no contact, Endeavor in jail and everyone all of the sudden thinking they should get into other people's privacy -because getting abused, hurt, etc, at large, is considered a personal problem, that you should resolve on your own without involving others.

Because thats what its normalized, not acting when people need help. That's the whole point.

Everything will be the same. Except it just can't.

And its worthy to show the how to start getting there, than pretending things would change just like that..

We are living with the rising of the new far right trying to get votes, multiple genocides while the military tries to recruit using tiktok, AI and cute girls, multiple countries maintaining slavery systems and models, accelerated exploitation of nature, people and life in general, climate change and covid deniers getting in power... And you think a war and the exposure of abuse would change a society and social system in that way?

No, the change doesnt come from magic, just like that, but thru action and organization. Im hoping the next chapters can show us how Izuku feels about most people pretending everything is fine when he cant agree.

[quirkwizard]

What are your thoughts regarding how Hawks views his idol, especially post-war, as he moved on so fast after the truth was revealed by Dabi. Because it seems like a paradox here: how can he be a pragmatic thinker while not questioning Endeavor's actions and following him blindly? Or is it just another one of his optimistic extremes?

I mean, it's not like Hawks has a lot of room to talk. He was exposed in that very same video from Dabi when he killed Twice. Suddenly turning on Enji may just be a tad bit hypocritical.

Joking aside, there's a lot that could be said about Hawks and his reaction to Enji's history. While a lot of fans attribute this to Hori reducing Hawk's character or excusing what Enji did, that is not the case. Because I feel like this is more about Hawks and his character than it is about Endeavor. If you want to go from a purely pragmatic standpoint, Endeavor is one of the best fighters that the heroes have at this point. Keeping him around and keeping his head in the game until after the war is the best option for everyone. Hawks putting aside his feelings is the pragmatic choice. Which kind of plays a part in this, but it has more to do with his actions than his motivation. Because his support has nothing to do with Enji as a person and everything to do with Endeavor as a hero. That means helping him fight and keeping his head in the game. Which could be part of the reason why Hawks doesn't really react or deal with this. He's very much a self-sacrificing, big picture kind of guy. There are way bigger issues to deal with, and he isn't really giving himself time to process.

The big reason why Hawks doesn't have much reaction is explained in the in-between chapters of around Chapters 299 and 303. Hawks believes that Enji has changed from the person he was before, and he wants to support Endeavor for the man he is rather than the man he was. Which, yes, could be rooted in his admiration of Enji, but I think it comes more from his optimism. Hawk's isn't blind to whom Endeavor is, for better and for worse, but instead chooses to help and support Endeavor. Because so much of who Hawks is is defined by him helping others, especially when it comes to other heroes. Hawks isn't defending Enji at any point in this. He just wants to help Enji because Enji is trying to be better, and Hawks wants to support that. To Hawks, yeah, Enji did some bad stuff. That doesn't erase all of the good he's done as Endeavor or invalidate his genuine attempts to reconcile with his past actions. Did we miss out on Hawks really dealing with Enji's reveal? Maybe, but I think the route taken is more true to his character, his place in the story, and the connection he has to Enji.

[crematedpast]

Touya Todoroki is BPD coded and let me tell you why.

So let's look at the definition of Borderline Personality Disorder before I get into this short observation.

It's no secret that Dabi has an unstable mentality, which includes impulsive behaviors, low self worth (leading to suicidal ideations I'll touch on later), extreme levels of emotions including anger and heavy feelings of emptiness.

One of the biggest symptoms of BPD is intense fear of abandonment.

Let me start this off by saying borderline is a trigger based disorder. People are not born with borderline, it's a disorder caused by continuous abuse and life experiences that causes an unstable mentality and unregulated emotions (likely never taught to them in childhood).

That being said, mostly commonly borderline episodes come from a trigger. Real or perceived abandonment is an example of a trigger. In Touya's case, the level of extreme abandonment Endeavor presented him with after telling Touya his entire childhood had one purpose and then disregarding Touya because of his fire related injuries can be considered an extreme level of childhood abandonment (which is an ongoing trigger for Touya).

In early childhood, you can see symptoms of Touyas fear of abandonment (or rejection) when he was trying to confide in Natsuo.

Touya felt he could confide in Natsuo because he didn't feel like it was safe enough to confide in other members of his family, and once he was presented with rejection from someone he trusted,

He was triggered.

As you can see, his level of emotion skyrocketed with panic once he was presented with another level of abandonment, confirmed with what he said that he felt abandoned by Natsuo and pleaded with him to not reject Touya like Endeavor did.

Touya's level of high emotion has canonly been explored, with his fire raising in temperature if his emotions are strong enough. To the point he cried fire because his emotions were so high (thus burning his tear ducts and rendering him unable to cry).

Another symptom of Borderline is "Threats of suicide or self-injury, often in response to fears of separation or rejection." And it has been shown time and time again that Touya completely disregards his wellbeing in order to avoid rejection.

In adulthood, Dabi shows several symptoms of having BPD, but I'll explore only one of them briefly.

Another case of Touya exhibiting symptoms of BPD, is low self worth and suicide ideations. Dabi never intended to live.

You can see in the later chapters of the manga, he absolutely does not care if he dies and intended to bring Endeavor with him, and in a state of impulsive behavior and likely delirious with pain, wished his family would die too.

I can't imagine how painful it was for Touya to live the way he did, and it's extremely unfortunate that after all the suffering he went through, all of that emotional torture and physical medical trauma, on the brink of death, is what made his family realize what they did to him.

Taking responsibility in interpersonal relationships with someone who has BPD is a crucial part of helping them manage it. Even if they can't ever be truly forgiven, someone willing to understand is a milestone in borderline recovery. I hope Touya will find the support and love that he desperately needs. Especially if he does struggle with borderline.

A support system willing to come from a place of understanding I think is especially meaningful to someone who lives with this disorder. I can't imagine how Touya must be feeling about all of this, but I have hope in his recovery!

[stillness-in-green]

Chapter Thoughts — Chapter 391: Rejecting the World + Chapter 392: Villain Name

On Toga’s Accusations

I am somewhat wary that two-thirds of Toga’s accusations towards Ochaco—you’ve never wanted for anything; your life was perfectly easy to live—are worded in such a way that they’re very easily parried by a reminder that Ochaco grew up in poverty.[1]  No, Uraraka never struggled with quirk-based compulsions like Toga did; she always seemed to fit easily into her social surroundings; that doesn’t mean she’s never wanted for anything and has always had an easy life.  It feels extremely akin to the Spinner fanboys yelling at the Black dude that he has no idea what it’s like to be judged by his appearance; it makes the accusers look wildly self-centered, oblivious to hardships suffered by people other than themselves.

That said, Ochaco’s already done the thing where Toga expresses that she finds her life difficult and Ochaco responds by ignoring that statement completely in favor of moralistic scolding about actions having consequences.  One would hope, given the contents of these two chapters, that we’re not due for yet another speech of that sort.  At most, I’d like to see Ochaco use their shared difficulties—different in nature, but both still present—as a basis for empathy rather than an excuse to chide Toga for not trying harder.

A while back, I criticized the Flamin’ Sidekickers for feeling the need to justify their continued association with Endeavor to Dabi—as if their reasoning makes any difference to Todoroki Touya!—and I feel similarly about this. True as it is that Ochaco has faced her own share of problems, her firing back about those problems and comparing her and Toga’s responses to them would not actually be helpful right now in de-escalating the situation.  It’s not always about you and your own problems!  Especially not when you’re trying to talk someone down!  As was the case with the Spinner fanboys, Toga’s in a very bad place right now, and has been for a long, long time.  Ochaco doesn’t have to validate her crimes, but I do think it’s important to validate her pain.[2]

(Hit the jump for more on Toga—her flashback and the intersection of her emotions with her quirk mechanics—as well as some musings on the broader implications of the quirk counseling scene, and the usual assortment of odds and ends.)

   

On Toga’s Emotional Quirk Mechanics

O Nice to finally get a hard confirmation that the doubles are clones of Toga-as-Twice, not clones of Twice himself.  Makes sense, given the speed with which she’s replicating, and makes it slightly easier to justify her own emotional hang-ups interfering with the way Double normally functions, though I’m by no means rescinding my complaints about that whole thing being hella arbitrary. Also, confirming that these are all Togas would seem to make it less probable for Uraraka to be able to pick out the real thing by her tears, right?  If they’re all Toga-masquerading-as-Twice, shouldn’t they all be crying?

O I like the Zeno’s Arrow-esque nature of the problem with Toga’s time limit on her transformation here.  Like, yes, any given double, and Toga herself, will run out of transformation time eventually, but she’s making exponentially increasing numbers of doubles every single second; each one of those doubles is created with the same amount of blood stock its creator had at the moment it started the creation process.  Each double thus comes into existence with one second more time than its creator now has.  So, how thin can Toga slice those seconds?  How infinitesimally close to the timer reaching zero can a double still snap out a new copy, which now has that tiny fragment more time remaining to make a copy itself? Real life doesn’t operate on philosophical time, of course, so she’ll run out of time eventually, prompting a huge tidal wave of Twices turning back into Togas, but it’s a neat thought exercise.

O DELIGHTED that Tsuyu’s guess was off-base, so all the ice-cold, “Toga doesn’t really love the League,” take meta from the people who think the League are toxic and bad for each other is rendered just hilariously short-sighted in retrospect.  Because, hey, maybe you shouldn’t take Tsuyu’s word over Toga’s about Toga’s own feelings!  Imagine that!

O Interesting that, despite the whole horde moving with the feeling of, “All heroes must die!” when they overrun Tsuyu, they don’t kill her on the spot, but rather just bind her and hoist her up as a hostage.  I assume there’s at least some influence from Hori not wanting to kill off any student characters, but extra-canonical explanations being what they may be, it still reflects interestingly on Toga’s own desires and intentions, and certainly her (underutilized) affection for Tsuyu.

   

On Toga’s Flashback

O So like, Toga’s dad definitely hit her in the flashback, right?

His hand is outstretched, specifically visible against the black silhouette of the rest of his figure; he could have just slapped the bird out of her hands, but I don’t think that would have been enough to spin her all the way in the opposite direction from when her parents first discovered her with the bird.  Further, she’s on her knees and hunched over, one arm raised towards the left side of her face, and if you look closely at her cheek in the next panel—

              —you can see a mark on the left side of her face that isn’t there on the right.

I don’t have a particular observation about this to discuss further—just wanted to point it out.  Toga’s father’s first response to seeing his three-year-old daughter holding a dead bird was not to tell her to put the bird down, or to hit it out of her hands, but to slap her so hard it spun her around and knocked her over.  Oh, and then to accuse her of killing it.

The three-year old.  Killing a fully-grown sparrow with her bare hands.  I couldn’t kill a fully-grown sparrow with my bare hands because a fully grown sparrow wouldn’t let me in touching range without flying away!  What is wrong with Toga’s father, exactly, that that’s the assumption he jumps to??

Incidentally, one of the bright little changes the anime made to that sequence back in MVA—one I actually overlooked in the In Memoriam posts—was to specifically animate him slapping the bird out of her hands and then leave her standing there grinning, arms lowered, as her parents continue berating her.  It’s truly astounding that we are still uncovering new issues stemming from the anime’s butchering of My Villain Academia!

O Speaking of Toga material the anime wildly fucked up, let’s talk about ~~quirk counseling.~~

So like, I tried for so long to maintain a layer of skepticism about what Curious said about quirk counseling.  After all, Curious was a villain, a member of a free-quirk-use cult, violently against the current social order.  She was categorically not a reliable narrator about the intentions and outcomes of quirk counseling!  All the same, it seemed safe to assume she was at least partially right, if only because, in a meta view, no one ever showed up to contradict her!  If we were meant to understand that she was wrong, why allow her words to stand uncontested?

Well, it turns out it’s because she was 100% right!

“They attempt to hammer out any bumps in your understanding of the world and program you to fit neatly into society’s little boxes,” she said, and, “The counseling ends up emphasizing the inherent differences among us all.”  And here we find a counselor saying, “Let’s get you all reformed, nice and normal,” thus emphasizing that Toga is very much not normal.

Of course, the counselor then immediately turns around and reveals that Toga’s desires are normal, at least in the sense that “deviant” desires are quite common in “children with powerful quirks.”  It happens all the time, apparently!  Despite the frequency of the problem, though, the best answer Hero Society has come up with is to preach repression, to strictly control who is allowed to use their quirk—and thus alleviate any natural urges that might accompany it.

Remember what Re-Destro said back in Chapter 227?

Wow!  It’s almost like this was an entirely predictable outcome!

O My perennial gloating about the (MVA-era) MLA being justified and correct aside, it’s interesting and, I think, promising that Horikoshi made time to include that bit on quirk counseling here.  Firstly, it reinforces the idea that Toga did not become a villain due to the actions of one discrete villain like AFO; she was failed by society at large, so simply offering her the sanctified blessing of The Sympathy of One (1) Teenager is not going to do a thing about the problems that created her, and will go on creating others like her unless real change happens in the attitudes of the current society.

(Of course, all of that is also true for Spinner, and we saw how the confrontation with the societal problems that created him went, thanks but no thanks, Shouji.)

Moreover, though, it’s yet another element that points in the direction of the Quirk Singularity Theory looming on the horizon.  If quirks are getting stronger and stronger as generations pass (and we’ve got plenty of evidence that suggests that they are) and psychological issues like Toga’s are common in those with strong quirks (and I don’t see any reason for a professional counselor to misstate something like that[3]), then it follows that such issues will also become more common as quirks increase in strength.  Indeed, an irresistibly strong desire to use one’s quirk would be a logical expression of Ujiko’s conclusion that quirks will eventually go out of control!

This is the dark side of Second’s conflation of a person’s intent with the term “quirk” back in Chapter 369.  It’s a place where the translation of the word kosei as “quirk” obscures the sentence somewhat.  Recall that the word Horikoshi uses translates more literally as “personality.”  So, Second says that a strong intent is what makes a person fearsome, and this is why meta-abilities were given the name they were[4]: the power is merely a vessel, a weapon to be used to carry out the intent in question, a characterful, personalized expression of one’s inner will.  In other words, a “personality.”

But the inverse also becomes true.  If a quirk, a “personality,” is reflective of one’s will, then to suppress one’s quirks is to suppress one’s will.  To condemn someone’s quirk becomes the same as condemning them.  To label a quirk deviant is to label the person’s will deviant.  And if a quirk grows too strong to control, then the will-as-embodied-by-the-quirk also goes out of control.  Hence, Toga snaps after too many years of suppression.

So how does that problem get addressed?  The MLA, of course, wanted free quirk use, because Destro foresaw a time when quirks would grow too powerful for suppression to be effective.  Even radical self-acceptance and an even more radical restructuring of society are still just kicking that problem down the road, though, assuming they’d be effective at all—not that it looks like Hero Society is on the cusp of embracing that particular point of the MLA’s ideology regardless!  Indeed, as Team Hero still regards the problem of quirks increasing in strength as “fringe thinking reserved for cults,” they don’t seem to have any intention at all of addressing the problem.  Time will tell if the story itself will do so.

O It’s striking that even after some years of emotional abuse, Toga was still barefacedly begging her parents to please explain to her what made her so different from everyone else.  It’s a telling parallel to her willingness to actively seek out Ochaco and Deku to ask their opinion on things, and makes it not terribly surprising that she reacts so negatively to being rebuffed by them.  Her whole question in the wake of Jin’s death was whether heroes viewed villains as human—when heroes go on to reject her, like her parents did, of course she’d assume that it means those heroes also view her as inhuman.

   

Stray Notes

O ‘Eeeeeey, people picked up on the Death part of the Parade name this time!  I notice it hasn’t been corrected in the online version of 375, though; I wonder if the volume release will fix it?

O One thing I wasn’t clear on from the leaks/scanlation—the former of which are too fuzzy, the latter too murky—but am very happy to see here is that the Himijin Horde is definitely visible on the horizon for Hawks.  You can tell from the difference in the shading: fuzzy, gray, irregularly sized trees on the right and left, but a long black line of much more regular height in the center:

They’re heading for the Todorokis and Iida, too, of course, but Hawks is obviously the confrontation I’m most interested in.  (Read: GET ‘IM.  GEEEET ‘IM.)  Very much hope we get to see that before Uraraka completely defuses this whole situation.

O Love the acknowledgement from both Ochaco and Tsuyu that Ochaco’s efforts here are late, and that’s worth an apology, worth Toga being upset about.  I’m thrilled that the story is finally, explicitly folding villains into that idea expressed by Nedzu that it’s difficult but necessary for someone to be the first one to hold out a hand if society is to meaningfully advance.  I extra love that Ochaco is holding out that hand while also taking a huge risk: offering her thoughts on why Toga’s having problems with making quirk-use-capable clones.

As I said about Chapter 382, Toga resolving that issue would be incredibly dangerous for Team Hero, and I love that Uraraka is still—despite being very aware of that danger—willing to try to help Toga with it.  With no guarantee of reciprocity, with everything at stake, Uraraka still takes the time to carry on that conversation because it’s what her heart tells her is the right thing to do.

After all, if she can resolve Toga’s issue, that stands to win her back at least a degree of Toga’s faith, at which point a Toga-made clone of Shigaraki obliterating this whole stretch of countryside would no longer be what Toga wants.[5] More than the strategic considerations, though, it's plainly apparent that Toga struggling with Jin's quirk is causing her great anguish, and that's really what Uraraka wants to soothe.

Taking the talk-no-jutsu gamble is how Shinsou should have handled Machia; it’s how Deku should have been handling Shigaraki instead of drowning him in his Fist Ocean.  I praised Mirio for making at least a game attempt at it, and Shouto took a crack at it before slipping back into castigation; if Spinner had been coherent enough to hold an actual conversation with Shouji, we might have gotten it there.  This conflict, though, is where I expect the tactic to finally work, as Toga has both the emotional investment in Uraraka[6] and the presence of mind/free agency to actually respond.  I can’t wait to see how it goes!

O Toga’s spitting-mad injunction that Uraraka not dare to pity her based on societal standards that never made room for Toga to begin with is an excellent echo of Jin's indignance that Hawks would dare to say Jin led an “unlucky” life, as well as Toga’s own fury at Curious for trying to paint her as miserable.

----------------- FOOTNOTES -----------------

[1] So far as I can tell, there’s not an officially recognized difference between “being poor” and “living in poverty”—they’re just different parts of speech describing the same condition—though it seems many people feel instinctively that there’s a difference in severity there.  Still, I’ll stick with “poverty” in this case: while Uraraka’s family never seemed so destitute that they were worried about keeping a roof over their heads, we know that, as of the beginning of the manga, she was skipping meals to save money.  I doubt she would have been so blasé about going hungry that it could be used as grist for comedic volume extras if she didn’t have prior experience with it, and not having enough money to have regular meals is right there in what it means to live under the poverty line.

[2] Elsewhere in this same angle, Deku’s frank empathy for and validation of Gentle and his motivations is what made Gentle’s return feel so much more earned compared to Nagant’s, and Shouto scolding Dabi for involving innocent people proved ineffective.  Shouji, meanwhile, took a stab at validating the mob’s pain, but didn’t have a single word of sympathy for Spinner.

[3] You know, assuming she doesn’t turn out to have been secretly on AFO’s payroll or something.

[4] Setting aside Second’s rampant historical revisionism about the origin of the term, of course, because not a lick of what he says lines up with the actual story of the Mother of Quirks.

[5] Though, you know, the clone Shigaraki would probably still want it!

[6] Dabi’s emotionally invested in Shouto, but in an inverted way, not one that primes him to listen to anything Shouto has to say.

[bokunowtv]

Crazy because Enji didn't even wrong Touya, the only child he abused was Shouto, Touya was nothing more than spoilt brat and nothing more or less.

Anon, yes, yes he did. Enji absolutely wronged Touya.

As Touya's father, Enji had a duty to care for him and help him whenever he needed him. But in spite of Touya's desperate and very obvious calls for his attention, Enji refused to spend time with him ("all I can show anyone is the world of heroes"). Instead he foisted him on Rei - who also didn't properly look after him by her own admission.

Touya might look like a spoilt kid on the outside since he was lacking for nothing materially (huge house, good food, excellent education) but the truth is that his basic emotional needs weren't met: he felt abandoned, he didn't feel like he mattered to his father, he was having an existential crisis as a kid. That's emotional neglect. Emotional neglect can have a severe impact on a kid's mental and physical health - which was obviously the case for Touya, who was continuously self-harming.

In addition to that, after Shouto was born Enji started violently training him against his will and brutalizing his wife when she would try to stop him. We know Touya at least saw him abuse Shouto. So while Touya wasn't a direct victim of the physical abuse, he witnessed it. That's an extremely toxic environment to grow up him, and amounts to psychological abuse. Children can't feel safe in a home where their helpless relatives are being put through the grinder by their own father.

Finally, Enji picking an heir and choosing to focus solely on him and his development is the kind of favoritism that is considered abusive, since it seriously hurt his other kids' sense of self-worth - especially Touya's. It's extremely damaging for a parent to shower one kid with attention (no matter how terrible that attention actually was) and ignore the others' desperate attempts to please them.

I mean, look at this:

Here Enji's son is telling him word for word that he thinks Enji isn't glad that he was born. He's in visible distress and hurting himself. It couldn't be more obvious that he needs his father to reassure him and care for him. That's Enji's duty, and he failed to do it. He failed Touya.

Anon, I think you sent me this ask because you saw that I'm an Endeavor fan. You know that I read him with compassion, so you know I'm not trying to hate on him here. I'm also absolutely not trying to excuse the crimes Dabi will later commit - I do not believe that this backstory excuses anything and I hold him responsible for his own actions.

What I believe is that understanding that Enji did wrong Touya as a kid is essential to understanding MHA as a whole. And more than that, it's important to get it in order to be able to help families like the Todoroki's in real life - and that includes men like Enji (*).

(*) Because the tragedy of their story is that Enji did love Touya, but was too fucked up himself to give up his obsession and didn't know how to handle his own emotions let alone his son's. He was obviously extremely distressed by the situation which was only making him even more abusive. At this point, the family needed outside help.

I really do think showing this story to young boys in a Shonen magazine is a good way to teach them how NOT to act or how to recognize abusive behaviors even in people who aren't necessarily malicious.

[yellowbluemoonshine]

really love the post u made on toga's quirk! personally i think how it works could also be alike to toya's quirk, ie being fuelled by extreme emotions. his firepower grew significantly when he was upset and changed the colour from red to blue. and similarly i think it's fair to say that rn toga feels way stronger towards ochako and jin, someone she has a crush on and currently has to fight, and someone who was recently murdered and whom she's still mourning, than she does towards tomura and toya. of course she loves them too, but those emotions just aren't as big in comparison

Thanks, anon but i disagree which is what i explained in my post.

I dont think Toga's love is bigger for Ochaco or Jin than her love for Tomura and Dabi. I mean, Toga doesnt even see Ochaco as person, she doesnt value her as human being, she is just a crush for her, compared to her usual crushes, Toga value well being of league of members. She always wondered how Shigaraki felt, she was worried about Dabi's wounds, she even trusted Iguichi enough to risk her own life in battle and Twice and Mr Compress were like caretaker for her. She value their well being and trust them so much. How can this kind of love be inferior to her love for Ochaco and Izuku? I dont think it can.

And i dont think Jin was Toga's favorite in league. I personally think Shigaraki was/is her favorite person. No doubt that Jin was her bestfriend, her big brother and they connected but i always read her feelings for Tomura was a lot more than that, despite the fact that she didnt really connect with him, he was always in her mind. Toga's crushes wouldnt matter as people so it doesnt makes sense Izuku and Ochaco to be matter for her than her usual crushes. And despite the fact that she had Twice as friend, she still felt like she wasnt trusted and wasnt close enough to someone uncertain. We know thats not Twice because she already knows that Twice cared her more than anything.

And honestly, i dont really want to compare different types of love. There is family love, friendship love and romantical love. All of those are important. Maybe in Dabi's case, we could say she loved Jin more than him since Dabi and Toga werent really close that much, they recently connected but i dont think that was the case in Shigaraki's case.

She was one of the first league members he gets along with. Especially before Twice died, in several arcs and official arts that Toga was shown as thinking about Shigaraki's feelings, always trying to make him happy, listening his orders, imitating his behavours and more. More details in here. It condracts with what was/is shown to us. She clearly loves him so much too. So i dont think its because 'she love Ochaco and Jin more' or 'she didnt love Tomura and Dabi enough'.

I think its simply because Toga loves Tomura and Dabi but she feels disconnected from them, she is unable to reach out to them and i hope, they can eventually connect. Because this disconnection is always one of the center themes of Toga, Shigaraki and Dabi's arc. They feel disconnected from their loved ones, their identity and rest of the world. And they need help because of it. This is why they are so broken. They need someone to reach out to them and break this disconnection and let them be finally free. I hope Uraraka and Izuku and Shouto can help them.

[epickiya722]

Deku/Mirko hate is extremely hilarious when it comes from angry dudebros bc you can feel how strong their ego and masculinity is as much as of a wet piece of paper.

But when it comes from ppl whose favorite manga/anime is CSM, JJk and Mp100, calling Deku "pathetic" or complaining abt how Mirko is too sexy... Girl what the fuck are you talking abt you're literally in the pathetic loser meow meow man and sexy girlboss fandom WHAT

(Anon, means the two characters separately, not as a ship. I just have a feeling someone would have taken as such.)

NOT THE WET PAPER! 🤣

But no, for real, it's astounding to me when people hate on Deku or Miruko for reasons I find totally backwards. And it honestly just increases my love for both characters.

I was gonna make a post about it, but I stopped myself because "Kiya, cease the saltiness". But you know what? Imma say it here.

Warning, this is about to get LONG because I have so much to say and I'm tired of just writing posts and deleting them.

Let's me start with my queen, my goddess, the icon Miruko.

I get it when people are tired of the whole "sexy anime girls with the big boobs and butt shots" especially in shonen, I'm annoyed with it myself at times, I am.

But compared to what I seen for female characters in other shonen, especially with Rabbit girls, Miruko is both something tamer and new. Let's be real here!

A lot of rabbit female characters, most really in general, in anime be tiny and meek. Have big boobs and showing off cleavage. And even if they are strong, their physical appearance doesn't mirror it because they're supposed to be "cute".

Miruko though? She has muscles, but she isn't packing them like fucking All Might now. Her body is reminiscent to someone who would work out, someone who is an athlete, especially those who specializes in speed and agility.

What's even better? It's not like Miruko is incapable of being cute.

People look at her and see "aggressive, feral woman with muscles".

But come on now!

This? This can't be cute?

Fuck out of here!!

She is a short rabbit woman! How the fuck isn't she cute to anybody?!

(And honestly, again, I love that she is short because it makes sense. Her being tall is just awkward to me. It's ridiculous, I'll be frank. And honestly, makes me mad for several reasons as someone who shares similar physical features as her.)

Oh, so it's illegal to be sexy and cute for Miruko, but some of the same people lose themselves over shirtless guys in the same anime.

"Look at all the gratuitous shots of Miruko's legs, blech". Not even a moment later, Dabi shows a little bit of tit and people are drooling. Oh, please. Hawks does anything, "he's so cute". Get the hell of out here.

Miruko gets shots of her legs, sure. It's expected in a shonen. But at least her boobs aren't unnecessarily huge and her waist is nearly the size of a pinch. The most that is emphasized is her legs. Midoriya and Iida even gets shots of their legs sometimes!

Oh! Let's not forget how people hate on her because how much she's a fighter!

What bothers me is that I get why it's iffy that Miruko is "aggressive" while having brown skin, I have mixed feelings about that. On one hand, being that she is a brown skinned woman, it is off that she is the way she is. On the other hand, and this is a theory, she could be a reference to Horikoshi's previous protagonist Shiina. Who is an albino rabbit man who had the exact personality Miruko does.

Now the thing that bothers me about this on the part of the fandom is they hate Miruko for being aggressive, right? THEN WHERE THE FUCK IS THE SAME ENERGY FOR SOME OF THE OTHER CHARACTERS?

No, no because almost every character is ready for a fight in BNHA. We are not going to act like Miruko is the worst case out there because she isn't. There are people who love Toga for her bloodthirsty nature but hate Miruko. Bakugou may have some haters, but oh my gosh there are plenty of people who find him badass and attractive for that attitude. The other villains can be just as "mean" and talk about killing, yet oh! They have fans! Hell, even Endeavor got fans!! Kirishima is always ready for a fight, too and practically NO ONE hates him!

So why hate on Miruko?

Hell, even in the mentioned animes/mangas you pointed out, Anon, the women are worse than Miruko. Come on, example, Chainsaw Man. I cannot recall any female character in there that wasn't like evil or bloodthirsty or is like super nice.

And it's not like Miruko is mean. She's just blunt and isn't afraid of who she is. Her "mean" side comes out when she's facing villains. She is a "no-nonsense" character.

Now let me move on to my green boy, Midoriya because whoo boy. When it comes to people within and outside this fandom, I want to gatekeep him so bad.

"Midoriya is so pathetic, he's just a crybaby".

So I guess other shonen protagonists don't exist, huh? So other shonen protagonists don't be crying whether it be for gags or serious moments?

Like this is the same kid who has moments like this.

Him? Him? Are we sure this is the "pathetic" one?

No, this is someone who eventually gets tired of everyone else's shit. (True ♋ Vibes right there.)

Kid cleaned a beach WITHOUT ANY POWERS.

His goal to be a hero is no different than any other protagonist back then and now. And he looks badass doing it.

Know what I adore about Midoriya? That he actually comes off like a damn teenager and have other defining traits that is opposite of other protagonists.

He isn't girl crazy. He's awkward around girls, but he isn't some pervert. Hell, girls are the last thing on his mind.

He's also not some dumb kid. He's may not be #1 in his class, but he's isn't book dumb. He's smart both on and off the field and relies on what he observes to win battles instead of taking five episodes to train while his friends fight some overpowered villain and come back and win within two minutes.

He actually struggles in battle, even with all those quirks, he does have struggles, including what happens with his body. Physical evidence. We barely get that in anime. The most it's a scar or a lost limb that happens BEFORE the story. Midoriya gets abrasions, scars, crooked fingers and even warnings about losing his arms.

Even his appearance is a breath of fresh air to me because I swear red, orange and yellow are too common for protagonists. Don't hate the colors at all, but let's be for real here. Warm colors, be it clothes or hair, is a sign of "Oh that's the protagonist".

Midoriya? Green. HE'S GREEN AND I LOVE IT!! The most he wears of red is his belt and shoes and his backpack is yellow, but Horikoshi makes it very clear that GREEN is his signature color. His name means GREEN.

Midoriya is not the typical shonen protagonist and I adore that about him.

Overall, out of all the characters, I adore both them and find some of what people complain about them just so... *sighs really loud*.

[fifthmoon0]

I want to take a moment to talk about why Dabi is the way that he is. I’m not going to go in depth about the correlation between his trauma and his actions. I’m also not going to try to figure out what mental illness / illnesses he may have. But I am going to talk about the trauma itself and how it severely damaged him.

It’s obvious, but the biggest reason he is the way that he is , is due to the trauma he endured growing up. I’ve seen a lot of people online claim that what he’s doing isn’t justified when you compare it to his actual trauma. That’s complete BS. What you endure emotionally / physically as a child can manifest itself in many different ways as you get older and into adulthood. Even the slightest bit of trauma can evolve into something much worse later on in an individuals life. Also, what Endeavor did may seem subtle and not that bad to some people, but it had worse implications than you may think.

You need to think about what Touya went through and put yourself into his shoes. Originally Endeavor thought so highly of him. Touya felt loved, cared for and special. Fast forward just a little into the future and you’ll find that this changes for Touya. Now he was being told that he is actually weak and because of this, he isn’t useful to his father anymore. On top of that, Endeavor straight up started to ignore Touya. He threw him to the side like he was some kind of wasted science experiment and not his child …. Endeavor only cared about him when he was useful to him. At this age, Touya was still developing mentally, so this behavior was detrimental to his mental health. Also, children, especially young children, love and admire their parents with all of their heart which just makes trauma all that much worse… I could tell that Touya really looked up to his dad. Trauma isn’t only an outcome from physical abuse. Emotional neglect , mental abuse and verbal abuse can also be super damaging to the ego and can cause so many negative side effects.

Quick side thought - I find it hard to believe that Touya still cares about his siblings, his father or even his mother in any capacity. And even if he does, I can tell that those feelings are nothing compared to the anger he feels instead. Mentally he isn’t well and and hasn’t been for a long time ... At this point he just cares about hurting and killing his father… 😓

Ok getting back on track. SPOILER ALERT - As a child Touya tried to kill baby Shoto. This is awful and you can’t deny that … However, you have to look at the situation at the point of view of a child. Touya was praised and loved so much but then suddenly tossed aside. Endeavor didn’t just tell him ‘hey we just can’t train anymore’ , he literally just stopped interacting with him in any way :/ At this point in time Touya was a very misunderstood, ignored and unloved child…. Children have a hard time expressing their emotions as it is and they often go to extremes without even fully understanding why. Imagine how much worse they must feel when they are also traumatized! Touya’s father straight up didn’t care about him anymore. I don’t think that he 100% stopped loving Touya, but I’m sure that’s how it felt for Touya. He felt an insane amount of misunderstood jealousy and anger towards Shoto. He probably also thought that ‘if Shoto is gone then dad will love me again’…. Again, he was at an age where his brain was still developing and he was going through emotional neglect. 😓… I do not think that this was in any way a case of Touya being naturally psychotic or anything like that. Not a chance. I think this was a negative set of emotions that stemmed from the trauma and neglect he was going through. Children already don’t completely understand the consequences of their actions or even understand death. And with Touya having having endured trauma so early in his life, his actions were probably more extreme than a usual child’s actions would be. Endeavor didn’t even consider this behavior as a warning sign or a call for help or anything. He did jack shit. That’s fucked up.

This may also be SPOILERS for some, just a warning. It’s also more or less a recap of some things I already mentioned. But basically , in the manga Touya learned that his body can’t withstand his own quirk. Because of this, Endeavor stops training him, which is honestly a good thing…. But as a result of doing that, he also just completely stops being there for Touya. He straight up ignored him and neglected him emotionally without any concern for him. He didn’t even go to check in with Touya. Just zilch. Nada. Nothing at all.

The fact that Touya was told that it was dangerous for him use his quirk no longer mattered to him. What really mattered to him was getting his fathers attention and getting the much needed affection that he was so desperately needing from him. That he used to get from him… Endeavor should have still been there for him, quirk or not. He should have been a loving and caring father no matter what. And he wasn’t. At that time, in Touya’s mind he believes the only thing that will help achieve this and make him feel better is by training himself so he can show his dad that he is actually worthy, even though his body can’t handle it. His flames became too powerful for him and well that’s as far as I’ll go because there’s more spoilers. But I can only imagine that this incident plus the events that took place afterwords only made his mental state that much worse. I can’t even imagine how bad it all must have been for him….

If Endeavor had just been there the whole time for his son & loved him for who he was and not just for his damn quirk, this would have not have ended up happening. For Endeavor it was just a matter of his son supplying him with what he wanted. We saw that with how he treated Shoto too. And he tossed his other children aside as rejects also, which is just so wonderful 🙃…. Touya was a different situation because he was cherished at first and then he was just thrown out like he was nothing. All of these children went through severe trauma but I believe this action towards Touya is particularly damaging. (It’s also interesting with Shoto because he was physically, mentally & verbally abused but also praised for being strong. This was also very damaging, but obviously brought a different outcome with it)

I don’t think Dabi’s actions are right in any way. He has done terrible and unforgivable things and he is not a good person in any way, shape or form. But you have to understand where it all stems from. And I can’t help but feel bad for him. I also really like him. He’s definitely a problematic fave of mine (I really like the other LOV characters too, for both similar and different reasons) To sum everything up, Endeavor was an awful father and husband. He has a huge mess to clean up that was caused by his actions as a father (and inactions) And although I find it hard to like his character, I’m glad that he is actually trying to atone for what he has done. That’s more than what most parents do. But like Dabi said… You reap what you sow…. :/

[loopy777]

So one of the more ambiguous parts of later MHA is Dabi's actual relationship with the league, and how he truly thinks of them, especially Twice.

In particularly, his extreme reaction to Twice death serving as the decisive turning point where he once and for all went completely off the rails as utterly nuts, leaving any bit of sanity behind, can be read two ways.

Either his words can be taken at face value, and he never gave a damn about the league, and was only pissed because twice was the single biggest ace in the hole for his ultimate goal, and his death put a massive dent in it, or he is simply coping with suddenly feeling real sadness and despair by distancing himself from Twice by saying of course i didn't care about him, of course I'm not in any emotional pain right now, and by extension emotionally distancing himself from the rest of the league(Who's potential deaths could hurt him just as much).

Adding fuel to this is how he seems to emotionally get and connect with Toga while burning down her childhood home.

Of these two interpretations, it's one or the other.

In any case, which do you find to be the more likely one?

I've wondered about this myself, and had to discuss it with my brother because I'm so conflicted about it. The thing that really stands out to me about the whole matter is that Dabi doesn't seem to blame Twice for falling for Hawks' deception and even tries to comfort the guy. I mean, in that situation -- Twice falling for a second time for someone who exploited his trust to hurt the League, and this time so disastrously that it might lead to the end of everything -- I'd probably have a level of anger at a friend for doing it, but Dabi purely blames Hawks and even acts like he's there to support Twice in the wake of the betrayal.

At the same time, I don't feel like Dabi is merely covering up his hurt at Twice's death. I think Dabi really is obsessed with his whole revenge quest, and he has such a degree of emotional detachment from other people that I don't believe he's capable of forming bonds and friendships the way normal people can. I don't think he could be such a proliferate murderer, and so blase about it, without that dysfunction. Honestly, I don't think Dabi values human life enough to make real friendships; I don't think he even fully values his own life, never mind that of his buddies in the League.

So I guess I'm splitting the difference and saying that Dabi is complicated in a very messed up kind of way, where he really is capable of seeing similarities between himself and others who aren't standing in the way of his goals, and can identify and express sympathy when they're hurt, but at the same time he doesn't really value those people enough to feel hurt from losing them. He's not a chess master considering other people as resources, he just has no capacity for grief.

Maybe the key comes down to Loss. Dabi no longer responds to it, perhaps because he already feels like he's lost everything, so all the comings and goings in his life are just rounding errors.

He can look at someone like Twice or Toga and say, "Hey, we were all hurt in the same way and that makes us cool (as long as you don't get in my way), but all of us are just dead men walking so I'm not going to climb out of my grave to attend your funeral."

Anyway, that's just my speculation. I think it's great that Twice's subplot climaxes in such a way that is so rich and rewarding for all the characters entangled in it. It makes us ponder them all in new ways, and so might be one of the best in all of MHA.

[bokunowtv]

Hey, first of all, sorry for not putting that wall of text under a cut. I've been away from tumblr in a while so looks like I forgot… --' And thanks for the polite reply, I really do enjoy these debates.

Loooong reply under the cut!

So, to start with, just to clarify, I think you misunderstood me on some points:

1) I'm not saying that people in the west do not visit their criminal relatives - even in Japan a lot of them do actually. But Touya is a particularly extreme case, and in extreme cases like Touya? I really do not think that "it's a given" that the father would stick with the son (let alone visit him everyday) no matter the country. And - again only talking about extreme cases like Touya - afaik they are likely to face social stigma even outside of Japan. To give a few concrete examples, in the US, the parents of mass shooters like Nikolas Cruz, Adam Lanza, Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, etc. all struggled with social backlash (blame, threats, etc.). Note that Touya is a much worst case (he's responsible of the death of many more people and displaced millions). (I do 100% agree that it's even worse in Japan though!)

2) I don't think you hate Enji, sorry if I implied otherwise. And I agree that it's not a matter of "sides" between Touya and Enji and that you can like both. On twitter I follow several accounts who are crazy about both of them and their relationship. I also find all of the Todorokis interesting personally, though I'm still figuring out my feelings on Dabi's character (the adult version) - maybe that's why I enjoy discussing him.

3) "If I hadn't misunderstood you, you wouldn't forgive a murderer. Another person can chose not to forgive an abuser, even if said abuser says he's sorry." -- I absolutely could forgive a murderer! I do not even think that murder is always bad lol. And tbh, I have already fantasized about murdering an abuser, so I definitely understand people who refuse to forgive.

------

Regarding Enji accepting Touya's death, I think I just don't see it the same way as you. First, everyone reacts differently to death and I won't judge a person for not having the "right" emotions or not entering a state of denial. I don't see it as lack of love - especially since Endeavor is a top hero who has been trained all his life to handle crisis and is hard-wired to always think about saving people. In that situation where the story didn't present him with a way to stop Touya's fire, I see Enji being willing to sacrifice his life for Touya (and atonement to the rest of his family) as love. It was at that point the only thing he could do to atone to his son.

The comparison with Rei doesn't work for me, because 1) she (and Fuyumi and Natsuo) didn't have all the elements when they jumped into the fray (they couldn't have known Touya was no longer capable of rational thought or what state his body was in, so they couldn't have known how hopeless the situation was), and 2) I think that she was doing essentially the same thing as Enji anyway - I think the story implies she went in there to die with them. When Enji tells her she'll die she doesn't deny it or say something like "I have to do my best to save him" or "it's not too late as long as he's still alive" - instead she replies with "so will you and Touya", which sounds resigned. She doesn't talk to Touya to try and make him stop, she just apologizes. She even panics when she sees that Fuyumi and Natsuo followed her even though they also have ice they could use to cool Touya.

IMO, the whole situation was different from that of a family in a hospital. In these cases, there is no urgency, no danger to anyone, whereas Touya is like a terminally-ill suicide-bomber that has completely lost his mind. Enji had to make his decision under duress: people were going to die. Idk, like, think of these stories from the Holocaust or Rwandan genocide of parents being coerced into killing one child to spare the rest from further torture or death. It's cruel to blame them whatever they chose because of how terrible it is that they have to make this choice at all.

And another difference is that the families you saw in real-life probably aren't dealing with a killer zombie as their loved one. What you wanted actually already happened with Enji the first time Touya died: he was that parent who refused to believe it, who kept looking for his son even after finding a piece of his jawbone. But Dabi isn't just Touya, the boy they loved and mourned for a decade. He's a Touya who came back from the dead but very horribly wrong, so the Todorokis don't get to feel joy at him being alive - rather horror, sadness and a sense of responsibility. It's not just Enji: all of them accepted easily enough that Touya was slowly dying in the epilogue. And it makes sense to me because I did not get the impression they were ever uber-optimistic in the first place about Touya's future (apart from maybe Shouto). Rei literally asked Enji to "fight Dabi" (knowing he couldn't do that without burning him so?) and they all talk about "stopping" him, not "saving".

------

But weeeell, that's an analysis from a Watsonian perspective, and it may be pointless to argue about it (says I after writing an entire essay on one single moment lol) because if I understood correctly the crux of your issue seems to be Enji's narrative arc from a Doylist perspective?

Personally, I think Enji's atonement (which, btw, is actually only part of his larger arc imo) is fantastically written and hit all the right notes. It worked for me, since imo Enji gave each one of his victims what they needed from him. Just to recap:

Rei needed to know that he (unlike her own family) hadn't abandoned her (that he no longer blamed her and still cared for her). He personally went to gift her her favorite flowers and accepted that they would only meet if she was ready without pressuring her. Later, he built a house for her to make sure she'd have a space where she'll be able to recover and rebuild her relationship with their kids away from him. After Dabi Dance, he kept fighting at her behest to atone for all of them, in spite of his initial resolution to retire immediately. And in the epilogue he promises he'll still take on the brunt of the consequences of Dabi's crimes, even if Rei was also his parent.

Fuyumi wanted a happy family and it's implied he made efforts to spend quality time with her. He also tried to be part of her dinner parties and when that failed he built the new house so she'd be able to enjoy meals with the rest of their family, and to take the pressure of being the peacemaker off her shoulders.

Natsuo needed to vent his anger and to be reassured that it was ok not to forgive him. Endeavor let him rage at him, validated his feelings, took responsibility and reassured him that he was still a kind person. He needed space to be able to bond with his mom and siblings without having to deal with his trauma, so again the new house was the solution. And at the very end of the last battle Enji found the strength to attack AFO one last time with his burnt and broken body because Natsuo asked him to.

Shouto wanted his help and guidance as a hero, as well as a chance to compete with his friends. Endeavor accepted to train them all together, and to train Shouto on Shouto's terms. It's in that environment that Shouto was able to master Flashfire Fist and "stumble onto" Phosphore. Even before that, Enji had told him he was proud of him and that he would strive to make him proud too - which is something Shouto thought about when he was afraid his father might die against Hood, so it meant something to him. Shouto also wanted more than anything to become his own hero, and that was basically Endeavor's entire motivation for fighting - he wanted to protect his son's future: against AFO, this was the thought that allowed him to go plus-ultra.

For all 3 of his younger kids, he of course also promised to shield them from the fallout of Dabi's reveal and make amends for the rest of his life, while freeing them from filial duty.

Your original post already went into details about how Enji atones to Touya: the public admission of guilt, his attempts to contain him without hurting him in the war, his resolution to keep visiting him every day, etc.

And there's of course the apologies.

So, at the end of day, Enji got to atone in multiple ways to each one of his victims based on their individual needs. He listened to them and acted accordingly, respecting their boundaries. In addition, the story makes it clear that 1) this is only the beginning and he'll continue to atone for the rest of his life, and 2) nobody has to forgive him and he's not doing it for a reward. It shows him making mistakes (e.g. saying the wrong words to Natsuo, misunderstanding Shouto coming to him for the internship as him opening up to him as a father) which he then tries to rectify. And the most important thing for me is that it all feels very real: it's all stuff that a father who abused his family in real life could and should do. There's never an easy way-out (e.g. he doesn't get to save Natsuo from Ending) just like in real-life you probably wouldn't get a magical opportunity to physically save your kid and call yourself redeemed.

It's consistent, it's nuanced and to me it feels complete (his atonement is not done but the arc went over all the points it needed to) - especially since BNHA has so many characters and there's limited space to tell Enji's story.

(It's actually incredible how much love and attention the Todoroki subplot got, taking the time to flesh out 3 background characters that have absolutely nothing to do with Deku or the main plot. Deku's own family got no screentime in comparison, neither did Bakugou's or All Might's or Shigaraki's or even AFO's.)

But back to the actual point of contention: did Enji, in addition to all the above, also need to save Touya to "succeed"? And here we have different interpretations of the story. If "saving" means physically saving him, then I disagree that was ever Enji's narrative role. Enji's wish that Touya could sit with the rest of the family around the dinner table was never meant to be a story objective imo (he wasn't even thinking of Dabi but a fantasy Touya who never died). Of course, it's true that Dabi is a challenge for Enji, but the text never makes that challenge "saving him".

Imo, the Todoroki narrative after Dabi Dance can be read on 2 levels:

On the surface level, their challenge, their actual stated goal, is to stop Dabi (the "family sin"). Enji's duty is to keep being a hero in spite of his broken heart but for the sake of atonement this time: atonement to society on behalf of the family. He has to shoulder the responsibility as the Number One Hero and the blame as Dabi's father.

On a symbolic level, Dabi is a ghost of the past. He's the one who's been left behind, the child whose future was taken from him, the pain nobody wanted to look at. That pain turned into hatred and came back to haunt them. So for me, their narrative challenge on this level was to face Dabi, to see him and listen to him and heal his soul - especially Enji and Rei. And since in the past they let the stress of dealing with Touya divide them, their challenge this time was to do things right, show they learned from their mistakes: to support each other and take responsibility together. The story gives them both the opportunity to do that. Enji accepts Touya's invitation to dance. He looks at him, admits his mistakes and resolves not to abandon him this time, to die with him as his father -- or after they both survive, to keep dancing with him in their own makeshift hell, until Touya can finally rest in piece.

So if "saving" means something like "soothing his anger", I think Enji (and the rest of the Todorokis) actually succeeded - or it's implied that he will eventually. Dabi's eyes reappearing after hearing his father's apology to me is symbolical of his lost humanity/love returning to him (and before that he had that moment where he finally feels seen and valued when Enji is looking at him through the fire). And in the epilogue, Dabi is at first his usual venomous self, but the rage seems to evaporate after Enji swears to keep visiting him and he visibly softens - and later even sort of reconciles with Shouto.

------

Last point regarding Enji having to "pay a huge price" to atone or the need for "negative consequence of equal value for him": I personally do not mind Enji's ending (he made honorable sacrifices as a hero and as a father and I respect that the consequences stuck). Buuuut the idea that he had to suffer to atone is a pet-peeve of mine. Who does it help, that Enji is disabled now? Is it going to improve their lives? Not even Touya seemed particularly happy about it. And like, promising abusers pain and ostracization if they try to atone isn't going to help them want to admit their sins. A message is only meaningful if its applicable to real life, and in real life, I do not believe that this is the philosophy with which we should approach wrong doers ("we gotta make them suffer as much as the victims").

(I mean, if we're thinking like that, they should be torturing Touya for his remaining lifetime instead of giving him a peaceful death - and even then he wouldn't have repaid the suffering he caused to his many many many victims. Should we wish for him to burn in hell until he pays his debt?)

Did Enji atone to Touya (and his family) and stepped up on his role as a father?

Boku no Hero Academia has a grave 'flaw'. The fact that's strongly tied to Japanese culture and Buddhism makes it a very interesting work but also makes it a hardly international work because way too many cultural things are left unexplained because they're assumed to be a given. Only they're not when the work is read by foreign readers. And this lead to confusion.

The Todoroki plotline is an example of this.

In the west many feel Enji did nothing for Touya or did too little because the little he did is a given in the west. The point is... it's not a given in Japan. In Japan is a BIG DEAL. So let's go though it.

First, the fact that he doesn't want to kill Touya even though he's a criminal

Todoroki Enji ‘Ore wa ikinobite mo... ENDEAVOR wa shinda. Tairyō satsujinsha (read: musuko) to tatakaenai.’ 轟炎司「俺は生き延びても...エンデヴァーは死んだ。大量殺人者（むすこ）と戦えない。」 Todoroki Enji “Even if I survived... Endeavor is dead. I can't fight against a mass murderer (read: my son).”

Let's compare it to these two scenes of "Death Note" and see how Yagami Soichiro, a policeman, is taking the idea his son might be a killer and how, although Misa protests, the story doesn't present it as him being crazy but as it being his duty.

That's why Hawks doesn't want to send Enji, who's on an atonement path, to face Dabi, because Enji might end up in a situation in which he would have to kill his son and he would refuse... which is more or less what happens.

Second, Enji acknowledges that what Touya said is true, Touya is his son and Enji did what he did. In such a situation many would lie. Dabi's video proves nothing. He is a Villain, they had a doctor in the team who could create Nomu, the paternity test could be fake, even if Dabi were to provide a sample of his blood or skin they could insist that's fake.

Society didn't want the truth, they don't want Enji to confess, they wanted him to reassure them, they even commented he should have lied because yes, that's what's done often.

Basically he put his honor on the chopping block. A public apology like this one is a BIG DEAL in Japan. It's much more serious than in western countries and he does it when he could have spared himself and say Dabi lied but that would have meant to deny his son.

Third, it connects to the first in a way. While Enji is unwilling to kill Touya, he's willing to die with him. It's ‘shinjū’ (心中 Lit. “Mind/heart center/inside” but more likely means “oneness of hearts”, probably reflecting a psychological link between the participants) and it’s a word used in common parlance to refer to any group suicide of two or more individuals bound by love, typically lovers, parents and children, and even whole families. People who commit shinjū believe that they would be united again in heaven, a view supported by feudal teaching in Edo period Japan, which taught that the bond between loved ones would continue into the next world, and by the teaching of Pure Land Buddhism wherein it is believed that through shinjū, one can approach rebirth in the Pure Land. By volunteering to die with him, Enji is basically agreeing to remain with him in their next reincarnation.

For us it's crazy, it's Enji giving up on saving him. In Japan it sounds like 'I love you and I want to be with you'.

Forth, he'll apologize to Touya. As said before it's a BIG DEAL, especially since Enji is the family head and, although for us most of what he did is wrong, in Japan most of what he did is well within what he can do. Marrying a woman you don't love in a combined marriage to expect the child who'll be born from it will fulfill your ambitions and not really bothering to raise it because that's a mother job, well, things are changing in Japan but none of the above is a crime. In a not so distant past it was actually the norm. Yet Enji apologizes even though normally a family head wouldn't.

Fifth it's a bit in the first point and in the second but it'll drag on through all the story, Enji won't reject Touya. He's the only one (except Fuyumi who however doesn't get to say much) who never calls him Dabi after the reveal, and he won't strike him out of the family register but will keep on considering him his son.

Look at the Tobitas instead and at how they kick their son out.

Don't think Hawks is cutting strings with his parents solely because they were abusive, the Tobitas show us how you should just cut strings with a criminal. Same as the Togas.

Have "Theseus no fune" in which a man accused to be a murderer, send a birthday gift to his son and watch the reaction of his wife.

They don't want to keep contact with a criminal. It's scary because they'll be mistreated if they are discovered to be related to him.

And, in this vein, the fact he wants to go see him, that he'll keep on seeing him till the end instead than turning his back on him, is seen as important. It's seen as him being his father.

To many of us it seems as if he's forcing his presence upon Touya. Actually, from a Japanese perspective he's instead not abandoning him like many others would.

And since Touya is dying, very likely the talking will be the talking that's done in a Buddhist culture when someone is dying. Death should occur in a calm and peaceful environment, with close friends and family in attendance. Together they should reflect on the good deeds the dying person has done throughout their life, in the hopes it will help them in their next reincarnation. Additionally, family and friends can perform good deeds on behalf of them, which they believe will be of merit to the deceased.

So, since Touya is dying he won't get a scolding like Chisaki, they'll all only tell him nice and soothing things so he'll die peacefully.

Now... in the west all this is absolutely way too little, and in some points even feels wrong. Dying together instead than insisting in trying to save him? Deciding unilaterally to show up every day? Not our thing...

We can totally say 'thanks, I hate it' because we grew up with Darth Vader who instead gave his life to SAVE his son. All this accepting that Touya instead is going to die so Enji can at best die with him or keep him company until he does... well, it's mostly not our cup of cultural tea.

In in Japan though, all Enji does is important. Enji is doing something for Touya as a father, something important many fathers wouln't do for their sons.

Does it would satisfy a Japanese audience? They'll get the message better than us... but things are changing and anyway it can still feel too little. "Death Note" is dated 2005/2006 and back in it Misa was already questioning the idea of a father killing his son and then killing himself. BNHA is more innovative as Enji doesn't think to kill Touya but he still goes for the 'let's die together' route... and Horikoshi subtly criticizes it by having the rest of the family decising they'll try to stop the fire before just giving up. They're willing to die, but not before trying.

Enji represents plenty of old theories after all, which Horikoshi acknowledges were moved out of wrong beliefs, not moved by mean intents... which, is possible, would still not be enough for Japanese readers either because among teenagers, the target audience, there's an increasing number of teen who, in Japan, are forced to leave home (the Toyoko Kids) and often ends up committing crimes to survive and the league seems to be based on all the kind of homeless people Japan has.

While for a kid at home with a loving family being told that your father will die with him if he messes up instead than just dumping him might be comforting... for a kid that was abused and forced to leave home this might feel not enough.

People want to be saved, being told it's too late to save them, might be a lesson for those who hadn't done anything wrong yet so that they won't do it, but it's surely not a hopeful message for who instead got himself into troubles.

But well, that's something for the Japanese audience to ponder.

There's also to point out that, even though the message is not hopeful, Horikoshi is seeing the homeless people and acknowledging they should be helped.

Japan in regard to the Toyoko kids is mostly like the old woman who pretended not to see Tenko but that, in the end, helps that new boy.

I think Horikoshi's message desperately wants to be hopeful even for them, that he wants BNHA be like Midoriya's final stand, something that will push people to acknowledge they exist and reach out to help them.

It just that... it gets lost in what I'll call the 'litteral translation'.

No one explains us how we should jusge the scenes and, since we lack the cultural background, to us they are perceived differently because to us things work differently.

And, personally, even when I think I figured out the author's intent and can see the positivity of it, the cultural filter is still too tick and the picture gets blurried.

It's like being beginner at speaking a foreign language and having to constantly translate it in your head. The message loses its natural beauty, get simplified and not fully grasped.

I think I understand how Enji's atonement work in regard to Touya... it still doesn't feel fulfilling to me. But enough about Touya.

'Now,' you might rightfully say, 'fine, I'll bite, let's assume what Enji has is an atonement arc for Touya. It doesn't work at all in the west but let's give it a pass. What about his other kids?'

Natsuo and Fuyumi's wishes are in conflict.

Fuyumi wants the five of them to be a family (at the time she doesn't know Touya is alive), Natsuo doesn't want to be part of a family with Enji.

Enji's solution is giving Fuyumi a house in which she can welcome her mother and live with Natsuo (and Shouto when he comes home), while he removes himself from the equation. The solution fulfills Natsuo's wish of not seeing Enji because it makes him feel bad. It only partly fulfil Fuyumi's wish because it'll allow her to have her mother back (Rei couldn't bear meeting Enji either) and to stay with her siblings... but Enji takes responsibility for it, he doesn't tell her it's due to Natsuo that he can't live with them, so, in theory, it won't be Natsuo the one who's stressed to be at home when Enji is there and the one who has to leave home because he can't stand the sight of Enji.

There are many things I can say on how this is not a good solution (it doesn't make Natsuo feel better, it just stops him from feeling worse), but there are two points to consider. The first is that Enji is getting old and it would be his children's duty, due to filial pity, to take care of him, instead he's basically giving them the means to leave and take his wife with them.

Actually, since Natsuo is now the oldest MALE, it should fall on him specifically. Yes, Enji always intended to have Shouto inherit his mantle but this doesn't free Natsuo from his duties. Instead Enji is letting all his children free.

Even with Shouto, he doesn't insist anymore for Shouto to learn Flashfire Fist as his heir but just as an intern.

I take this is big in Japan.

Here again, not so much, especially in the countries in the west that think kids should leave their parents' home as soon as possible and we don't think our children are obliged to inherit our mantles.

Note how the story implies that this was meant to be the end for the Natsuo/Enji arc.

Natsuo made clear he didn't want to meet Enji again, he does it solely because they've to stop Touya and, once they've stopped Touya, he makes clear he doesn't want to see him again.

If we want though, the fact he's leaving the family can be seen as a concession in a way.

Since apparently Rei wants to stay with Enji (and likely their old house was devasted because that's what happens to relative of criminals) Enji can now move with Fuyumi and Rei and Natsuo won't have to see him because he'll leave home... to make his own home.

As for Shouto... Horikoshi answered his request by basically showing him Enji being a father for Touya and then promising he would protect them from the fiery fallout, which Horikoshi doesn't show at all because it's another thing that's a given in Japanese culture, it'll be hell for Enji to protect them, but not for us.

Just to get an idea of the fiery fallout here are some images from "Theseus no fune" again showing you how bad is this sort of thing.

Back to Enji, Horikoshi gives us verbal confirmation that Enji is now being a father by being willing to do this, by having Natsuo, who never called him as such, calling him father for the first time.

For Horikoshi that's Enji being a father.

Again, we've no idea of which hell Enji will suffer because that's not part of our culture. I've posted above screencaps of "Theseus no fune", that's how the fallout should be so not pretty at all.

So the fact that Enji will try to protect them from it is, again, BIG.

So yeah, Enji did do BIG things to atone and keeps on doing them and if he'll ultimately get forgiven by Natsuo (the rest of his family wanted to forgive him way before he were to do something), that's up to Natsuo... Horikoshi likely left this as open ending because he wanted to let it up to readers so as not to make them feel they were forced to forgive Enji.

In the general hopeful theme of the manga and with Natsuo acknowledging him as a cool father I guess his idea is that Natsuo too will eventually forgive him because he's kind.

I don't want to say that Natsuo forgiving Enji would be a culture clash because there's people even here that forgive their horrible parents and that's valid. Forgiving is a personal choice and one has the right to make it even if said horrible parent did nothing to deserve it.

It's up to you.

But sure is, if again we take the story at face value and not in its cultural contest, we can't see what Enji does to atone, because for us is nothing big.

It's even made worse by how Horikoshi doesn't show at all the hell Enji will go through (as for him is a given) so for us IT DOESN'T EXIST. We see Enji as having it easy, talking big but not having to face anything at all.

Honestly though... I think this is a bit of a flaw of the manga as a whole.

Way too often it prefers to focus on the good than on the bad so that the bad gets sidelined to much to the point people forget it.

There were horrible Heroes who committed crimes and had no intention to repent or stop... and we never met them. Nagant killed them off but we never met them.

Mountain Lady, who became a Hero for money and fame, then sticks to the job even when it's bad. Desugoro, who left the job when it turned bad, then came back to help. Enji is on an atonement path and, anyway, on work he was always a good Hero.

In the same way Horikoshi prefers not to show Enji's hardship but focus on how he'll have the support of his sidekicks, driver and Hawks... partly also because it ties in so well with the general message of everyone reaching out.

The result is that the Midoriya plotline of everyone reaching out becomes more important of the Enji atonement arc and overshadows it.

Enji's atonement arc ends in 426, chap 430 doesn't feel the need to tell us if Enji is keeping up with it despite the hardship, nor how his family is doing. It feels the need to reassure us that people will reach out for him even if he's in hell, that even if he had to give up on his family, he now as a new found family.

It's thematically consistent with the theme of reaching out but... the fact it overwrites the atonement arc honestly FOR ME doesn't work so great.

I think it's an overall problem of the 'reaching out message'.

While in itself is beautiful... it saves nothing I was lead to care about.

In Enji's case I was interested in his atonement arc, in how he could help his kids. I wanted more of that, partly because his atonement arc is so far from my culture, partly because it touched characters I cared about, I wanted to be reassured he would keep on working on it and that his family would be well.

Yes, he should be in hell, but the story didn't really work hard on trying to make me worry for him as it established already a support network for him. The story made me worry for the kids, for Touya, who was dying, for Fuyumi, who wanted back her family and won't have it, for Natsuo, who's marrying an unknown character so young, for Shouto, who has to cope with the loss of the brother with whom he wanted to connect.

I don't really care Burnin, Onima, Kido and Hawks are willing to continue to protect Enji, to reach out to help him, I knew they would, I wanted to be reassured Enji's kids are safe, well and protected. I wanted to see ENJI reach out and help them.

In this vein I don't really care the old grandmother saved a nameless abused kid, or, at least, not as much as I cared for Tomura to be saved. It's nice she saved him, it's nice he gets to live the life Tomura was denied but honestly, he's a mob character with a super tragic backstory created deliberately to force us to emotionally connect to him.

The message he now will be saved is good, but my emotional investment to him is too little.

The same applies to Uraraka's Quirk counsueling program, we knew next to nothing about the Quirk consueling previous program beyond that it didn't work (a real problem in Japan as they have a school consueling program that didn't work... and changes are in progress) and that now it supposedly does.

To how Shouji now solves peacefully plenty of conflicts caused by Heteromorph discrimination, which Horikoshi tossed in later and never really showed how to solve (and, don't take me wrong, it's not solved even by Shouji, he just solves peacefully the conflicts, how is up to everyone's speculation).

Long story short, I think Horikoshi worked really hard for BNHA to have an optimist, hopeful message... but part of it goes lost in cultural differences and part of it goes lost in how the story didn't try to get me invested in the things it's now saving.

So yeah, I'm still sad for this little panel in chap 430

I guess I'll eventually get over it. Today though, it's not that day.

On a positive note... if we count the pages of all the chapters that should go in vol 42 they're only 132. The chapters that were meant to go into Vol 39 had 165 (which yes, Horikoshi further expanded once the volume was released).

So yeah, unless Vol 42 will be slimmer than usual or that he'll add to it some sidestory or extra story, it's possible we'll get more plot in terms of epilogue. We'll see.

(also yes, I'm not touching Rei in this post. Rei is another can of worm entirely and one, I fear, Horikoshi doesn't care about. The poor woman doesn't even get a profile while Ikoma Komari does. And really, I do think Rei is much more important than Ikoma Komari)

[tiredqueermushroom]

Post Chapter 362 BNHA Thoughts: Bakugou

So Bakugou is dead. And I want him to stay dead. I feel like this the push hero society in the bnha universe need to completely overhaul the system. From quirk supremacy to it's complete lack of prevention or rehabilitation for villains needs to be addressed.

It's insane that Bakugou went almost 16 years without realising that he was a literal walking time bomb. If he hadn't died in this battle, it could be very possible he could have died doing another form of high intensity hero work. He was died before he hit the ground. But no measures were taken to fully assess the potential dangers of his quick.

No research or studies into how to better manage the use of strong offensive quirks from a young age. Not items created to prevent children from hurting themselves and others, quirks develop as young as 4 years old. We see a constant mismanagement of quirks, especially in children. From very tame case as Kirishima cutting himself to extreme case, like Dabi accidental self-immolation and Shigaraki killing his whole family. Things that were preventable to some extent if support items were offered to children.

Bakugou's death is symptomatic of a larger issue. In that the current structure of hero society robs children of the ability to be children. Aizawa had to watch his childhood friend die due to heroing, Bakugou was roobbed of something so simple as getting an autograph from his childhood hero.

And while the lose of Bakugou doesn't even being to address how hero society has enabled cycles of abuse and societal complacency, its hopefully a start.

[fan-dweeb]

I love this manga omg. The amount of social commentary in it is amazing.

Someone has probably said this already, but I also love the parallels in their origin story here.

Mini word vomit up ahead

Both Dabi and Toga did not get the love and support they needed to reconcile an inner conflict, highlighted through their quirks. Where Dabi’s inner conflict of Touya v. Dabi is portrayed and highlighted through his physical body, Toga’s inner conflict of instinct v. society is demonstrated in contradiction between her actions and thoughts.

Second page panel 2 (Dabi headshot) is so similar to the very first photo of Touya we know (the one kid photo that’s put on a makeshift alter in the todoroki household). And he’s smiling but he’s cracking. Ngl it was probably for aesthetics, but for the sake argument, isn’t it also funny how it’s not cracked in half, but in the mirrored way of Shoto’s scar? The separation of his identity and the inability to reconcile the two sides of his quirk, which actually brings a nice parallel between him and Shoto too. (or even just consider their quirks in general like, despite the fact that Shoto’s quirk is the one is literally split half and half, Touya’s the one that’s splitting him from the inside. It’s an invisible thing that’s gets ignored, much like,,,, everything else about Touya tbh.

And do I even need to mention how Toga looks like she’s letting go of a bird? Like there are so many things the bird could represent (typically like freedom/ new beginnings/ hope/ etc), and in this case it links back to Toga’s very first ‘murder’ for her quirk (the infamous blood sucking scene). BUT ALSO, notice how the third panel might also be paralleling her origin story? I might be overanalysing, but there’s a very similar panel of her looking up at her parents, pulling at her chest as she cries about needing to suppress the nature of her quirk. And like, she’s happy and not as tense now, y’know? I’m not even a hardcore Toga fan, but this panel made me so soft for her.

So why is it that Dabi ends up burning but Toga doesn’t? My theory is that he’s unable to let go because of the total rejection of Touya. (Wherein the separation is much more extreme). Even with Endeavor accepting Dabi, it’s as op said, too little too late. I’ve come across another analysis that mentioned this with a specific focus on the ongoing theme of trust. As in there is a pattern where a villain is only saved if they get the complete trust of another hero and that point has still yet to come for Dabi. (I’ll see if I can find the link to that post)

In conclusion, be a nice person. Reach out to people who look like they need help. Or even just love and be supportive of kids, especially. Help them with the thing that’s completely outside of their control instead of ostracising them.

Thanks for coming to me Tedtalk lmao

Edit: the posts I was gonna link

1 - Dabi’s inner conflict https://www.tumblr.com/silversynaesthesia/723390600783839232/as-someone-with-c-ptsd-whose-job-revolves-around

2 - trust and bnha villains (op had like 3 separate posts abt this) https://www.tumblr.com/transhawks/739742224464609280/oh-god-just-the-pattern-developing-here

losing my mind a little. also big fan of the “thank you family/young heroes that’s nice and all but the world should’ve been nice to me ages ago for it to mean enough” theme going on

[animeyanderelover]

hello! can i have a Yan dabi, hawks, aizawa and shiggy with a s/o who’s from a different universe where they don’t have quirks so they’re super amazed with the yanderes quirks! I hope you’re having a good day 💕

Sorry this took me so long, I just had so many other requests.

Tw: Yandere themes, unhealthy mindset, unhealthy relationship, possessiveness, obsessiveness, delusions, kidnapping

That’s so cool

Tomura Shigaraki

✋He is pretty much shocked over the fact that his darling is amazed with his quirk because he can literally erase someone’s existence without having to do much more than touching them. His darling knows that as well, don’t they? And they’re not afraid of him? That might be at first a bit odd, but Shiggy becomes in no time thrilled about this since he was at the beginning more scared that they would be afraid of him due to his deadly powers. It still doesn’t mean that he won’t be careful since he still fears you might fear him if he accidentally hurts you for which he would totally hate himself.

✋He wouldn’t really have much of a reaction over a darling from another world, he doesn’t care. But he does care that you stay with him and love him, these are a few of his top priorities and having a quirk or not doesn’t matter, or in this case, being from another world. He won’t let you go back anyways and is not really interested in your world, though he will listen if you talk about it and he can meanwhile just snuggle with you. That’s fine for him.

Dabi/Touya Todoroki

🔹He does take a certain pride in his quirk, but he doesn’t think too much about it either since it is too natural for him. His reaction is actually pretty laid-back since that is how Dabi is in general with his darling if there is no trouble or danger. It secretly boosts his ego a bit, but he manages to not come over as arrogant since he knows the dark aspects to his fire as well. But for someone who comes from a pretty plain world he guesses blue fire must be extremely cool, especially since a person can control it. He has no problem whatsoever to do a few simple tricks just to astonish his darling, but he will also be cautious to not burn them accidentally.

🔹Touya becomes more protective over a darling from another world, even so much more when getting to know that quirks are non-existing and they’re completely new to everything in here. He sees you as someone weak and for that someone he has to protect and whilst you might get offended when he labels you as fragile, he is somewhat talking facts because even against a less strong quirk you wouldn’t stand a chance. He won’t be too persistent to ask you about your world, but is here to listen if you need someone to talk to when missing your old life.

Hawks/Keigo Takami

🪶Okay, I’m pretty sure he would be totally excited about a darling like this because Hawks is, not meant in an offensive way, very full of himself. His darling just feeds into his ego like this and being a show-off, he boosts about his quirk a lot in front of them just so he can see that amazed expression on their face. Flying is in his your pretty much a dream and having someone with wings is just beyond cool for them. It kind of makes him easier jealous and possessive though since he wants to be the only one who you compliment and he gets rather competitive when another hero gets the same reaction. It makes him feel like he has to show he is the best which he wants to be for you.

🪶He is annoying with the whole thing about you being from a different universe and is pestering about it. He is obsessive over it in a way, not only because he is interested. But also because he also wants to make sure that you won’t leave him, be that willingly or forcefully, though he chooses to go with both. Hawks mostly wants to know how he can charm his darling enough so they wouldn’t want to leave even if they get the chance and also to prevent anything of this to happen in the first place.

Aizawa Shouta

💤Aizawa actually doesn’t think that his quirk is all that flashy, though of course it is a very strong and practical quirk to have. But in comparison to quirks of his students and his fellow teachers it doesn’t look all that cool like a fire quirk. But it doesn’t bring him down and since he is pretty chill, he doesn’t react too strongly to his darling telling him this. He gets kind of flustered every time he catches them just thinking of his quirk as the most amazing thing ever, but he doesn’t let it get to his head too much and is with his feet pretty much down to earth. That’s what he tells you as well, that they’re people with quirks stronger than him and if you still protest he feels flattered since he feels like he isn’t the best in a relationship.

💤Similar to Dabi he as well feels like he has to protect you more since you’re new to this world and are much more helpless than many others. But different from the villain, he doesn’t think of you to the same extent of a docile darling that has to be protected all the time. There are people in this world as well who have no quirks and that is why he lets you do things more freely. The only things he really is anxious about is whether you would want to leave him if ever getting the chance to travel back or what some people might do if they discover from where you are.

[dancingamongstdust]

MHA Scenarios - First Meeting (Part 4)

Requests are still open as of this post.

Shigaraki

You hadn’t meant to cause that level of destruction. It was an accident.

But they hadn’t seen it that way.

Their words followed you even when they could not. You could hear the accusations ringing in your head whenever you used your quirk – for better, or for worse. It became easier to ignore as you slowly learned to stop caring.

Until your quirk went out of control again.

You woke up in a dark room with a pounding headache and exhausted limbs. The doctor who was looking after you (a man you were relatively certain had no actual medical knowledge) had gotten very close and asked how much you remembered. When you informed him that it wasn’t much, he had smiled.

“Well, you certainly drew attention to yourself,” he had laughed. “Perhaps you should consider yourself lucky that the heroes didn’t get to you first.”

“I guess so…”

Something warned you that this situation was more dangerous than it seemed. Your eyes drifted over the covered windows of the room and you stared at the door. “Why did you help me?”

“Well that’s hardly for me –“

He didn’t get a chance to answer before you dashed for the exit. The doctor’s quirk didn’t allow him to grab you and his alarmed shout was all you heard before you were darting down the hallway. You weren’t going to stick around and get experimented on.

You turned the corner, heart pounding in your chest. They must have given you something because you felt drowsy. The entire world was spinning.

But you had to nearly trip yourself up to avoid running directly into somebody as you sprinted down a different hallway.

This was hardly your first time dealing with villains and many of them had odd quirks, to say the least. It shouldn’t have shocked you to see somebody with a human hand on their face but maybe the medication was lowering your tolerance because it was terrifying.

“Who are you?” you snapped out, immediately on the defense. You took a step away, ready to run or fight, whichever seemed easiest.

The man didn’t seem too bothered by your snap at least; the one eye that you could see watched you steadily from behind his hand mask. “I’m sure you’re not meant to be running around here,” he said. “But you’re no hero so you must be here for your quirk. Do you still have it?”

Your heart skipped a beat.

It wasn’t unknown in the underground that there was a man who stole quirks he liked. Nobody knew what he did with them but it wasn’t unheard of for villains to wake up with nothing. And you would never get them back.

You could feel your quirk was still there. It pulsed under your skin like a warning.

“My quirk?” you repeated. “I have my quirk.”

You did a random gesture, summoning all of your past acting experience to appear horrified when nothing happened. Again and again you tried before looking around in shock and horror.

The guy bought it and he shrugged. “Then there’s no reason to stop you.” He brushed past you and continued walking. “Not like you could find the exit anyway.”

The moment he turned the corner, you dropped the act and bolted again. This place was a maze but you found the exit and avoided any encounters with a practiced ease. Before leaving, you looked back up at the building and grimaced, hoping to never see it again.

Toga

It was late at night when you had the strangest encounter of your life. Not that that was a bad thing necessarily but it was something that occurred, nevertheless.

You had been feeling quite exhausted from a long day of fun with your friends. They had headed off to get a cab when you had realised that you needed the bathroom and disappeared to go find one.

There was a public toilet not too far from the street though it certainly wasn’t as clean as you would have hoped. Not to be deterred, you slipped in and found a sight that, even to your exhausted mind was uncomfortable.

A girl stood in front of one of the mirrors, blood staining much of her face. It covered the counter beneath her fingers and seemed to be coming from her lip.

“Are you okay?!” you asked, panicked.

She looked up at you, startled. Her dark hair covered much of her expression but she seemed a little out of it. Maybe she got hit on the head or something.

“I –“ she paused, her voice croaky and sore. She brought her hand up to rub her throat. “I think so.”

“Just wait, let me help you,” you said. You rushed into one of the stalls and gathered up some toilet paper. “Do you need me to call somebody or?”

“No,” she said quickly. “No. Thank you.”

You offered some of the damp tissue to her and she started wiping it away from her mouth. While she dealt with that, you cleaned the blood that she had left on the counter, making sure to get it out of all the cracks in and around the sink. “What happened to you?” you asked. “Did somebody attack you?”

“I slipped,” she said. “The tiles are really slippery and I think that I hit my mouth on the sink. It’s all kind of blurry.”

“Don’t worry,” you said, digging through your bag and grabbing some headache tablets. You offered the bottle to her. “Take two of those just in case. Even if it doesn’t hurt now, you don’t want to wake up with a headache tomorrow.”

“Thank you,” she said. “Do I still have any blood on me?”

“Just on your jaw,” you pointed out. “Come on, my friends and I are getting a cab. We can call one for you also if you need.”

She took one last glance in the mirror before leaving. You had forgotten your own need for the bathroom and it was for good reason also. If you had hung around for a little longer, you may have seen blood trickling out from one of the stalls. Perhaps then you wouldn’t have been so worried about this stranger hitting her head.

“What’s your name?” you asked as you looked around for your friends.

“Toga,” the girl said, though she didn’t seem too happy with having told you. The words must have slipped out without her meaning to.

You gave her your own name and went up onto your toes to look around the crowd for your friends. Eventually you spotted them and waved but when you spoke to Toga, she didn’t respond.

She had disappeared into the crowd.

You went back into the bathroom and checked but she was long gone. Just like how the blood has escaped your notice earlier, you didn’t see the blonde watching you from the other side of the street, her head tilted a little.

Dabi

It was a rare day when you found yourself alone without at least one person to watch your back. You didn’t always need the protection but sometimes, it was nice to have.

But you had given your word and it wouldn’t do to back out of this now.

The building where everything had been organised was old and crumbling – its ancient nature hidden on the outskirts of the city and slowly becoming overtaken by countless plants. It wasn’t somewhere anybody with good intentions would find themselves.

You liked to think that your work was good. It benefitted many and took only from those who could afford to lose it. Unfortunately though, rules had to be broken for the best results, and sometimes what was classified as ‘wrong’ turned out to be needed in order to achieve a goal. It wasn’t quite in line with what you believed but it had to be done.

Did working with villains make you uncomfortable? Of course. But it was hardly going to be something that stopped you from moving forward.

The two members from the League of Villains that had been sent to meet you were both men. You didn’t bother with greetings, just holding up the briefcase that you held.

“I’m looking for a specific artwork,” you said. “I’ve been told that you might be able to help?”

“An artwork?” the one asked. He wore a white and black mask that concealed most of his face and an extremely gaudy costume.

“Not just an artwork,” you explained. “It has something of mine hidden in the canvas. Normally, I would just get the police involved but if they found it, it would be quite problematic for me. The group that stole it won’t listen to many but the League of Villains, I’m afraid. They have a few good quirks and they’re extremely cocky for it.”

“We’re not lapdogs,” the other man said. “Especially not for whatever agenda you’re pushing.”

“I don’t pay lapdogs,” you acknowledged. “Consider me a sponsor.”

Flames cackled into existence in his hand, surprising his colleague enough to jump a little. “Chances are, they’ve already found your thing. Even if they haven’t, the league can hardly go around picking fights with random gangs.”

“Shigaraki did ask –“

The masked man was cut off by a glare. Blue flames sent flickering light through the air as they waited patiently for your answer.

“If it’s already been discovered or if it happens to get damaged during the process, then I don’t plan on getting anything out of our deal. It’ll simply be a loss on my side.”

The flames slowly flickered out and you allowed yourself to breathe again. Confidence was a requirement for these deals but you didn’t quite have the nerves of steel that you portrayed. It was always a fight to keep your reactions in check.

“I guess if we happen to bump into the group, we can check around for your shit.”

You knew his bluff as well as your own. The League of Villains had always worked well with those who had money. They required funding and wouldn’t say no to being able to flex their reputation around the underground. It was almost needed with the way rumours were circulating.

It was less than a week after that encounter when you found your artwork sitting outside your home. Charred on the edges, it was damaged enough to make the art itself worthless. But your items inside were perfectly unharmed.

Not bad for your first time working alongside the League of Villains. It was worth the cost… you should do it more in the future.

Twice

When you had been called in for this job, you had no idea that it was going to turn into a fight of the magnitude you experienced.

Flames tore along the streets. They melted lamps and trapped hundreds inside buildings – the screams for help becoming almost deafening as you broke down yet another wall to get civilians out. It was the third building you had had to smash into and there were more yet.

Nobody could get out and, if they remained trapped, they wouldn’t survive much longer.

When your partner and you had realised you were dealing with the League of Villains, you had immediately called in the big guns. What you hadn’t realised was that doing so would result in a brawl of sorts in the streets. The League of Villains didn’t care about collateral and honestly, sometimes you wondered if the heroes did.

You were starting to overheat. The amount of fire swirling around was getting to you, drawing the breath from your lungs and slowing your movements. Its angry blue nature hinted at its abysmal nature.

The next building’s walls took even longer to get through but you managed it and a few people scrambled out. You ushed as best as you could although it was starting to get hard to speak.

But then you noticed a dark figure lying in one of the rooms

Outside, the fire roared and smacked against the walls but you couldn’t just leave somebody there. You stepped over the rubble and made your way to the figure.

It was hard to make out details with the flames. The heat seemed to be getting worse as you approached – soon identified as being caused by the gaping hole in the wall. It radiated around the room in waves. You covered your mouth and nose the best you could, creeping forward to reach where the person was.

When you arrived, it took you no time to recognise that you weren’t saving an unfortunate civilian but rather a member of the League itself.

You hesitated for a second before hooking your arms under his and beginning to drag him away from the danger. This was the type of thing that lost reputation for heroes. Civilians didn’t like seeing villains being rescued but you honestly didn’t care.

If he was left there, he was probably going to end up dying.

Though he had seemed unconscious, when you got him out of the building, he muttered something and moved. It was enough to make you jump back but he didn’t attack or anything. He just touched his face and then let his arm go limp again.

You moved back cautiously. His suit had been ripped on the one side, missing its arm and half of the torso. You checked his pulse, relieved to feel that it was still going, even if it was unsteady.

“Can you hear me?” you asked.

He didn’t respond and you reached up to remove his mask. His hand immediately snapped up to grab your wrist and you prepared to activate your quirk but all he did was push your arm away from his face.

Alright then. No touching the mask.

You bandaged the open wound on his side as best as you could. It looked like he had gotten launched through the building. Once he was as stable as he could be, you moved him to a safer area and jumped back into the fray. A ton of rescues later and the heroes had won, at the destruction of much property.

And, rather unsurprisingly, the villain you had saved was long gone.

Overhaul

There was a new drug running around the market. You had heard of a number of small-time villains taking it – most of them dying shortly after consumption. It wasn’t unheard of. If something had even the promise of a good time then it would attract thousands.

But what was a problem was that you had lost several of your newest underlings as a direct result of this drug.

Given how picky you were about hiring, this was going to be a problem.

You tracked the source to none other than the Shie Hassaikai. They were an old branch of the yakuza, sitting on the edge of a downward spiral into irrelevance. Rumors followed that their boss had fallen quite ill and now, it was only a matter of time until they fell completely on their faces.

So you didn’t feel too nervous when you approached the house that fronted their main base. Even with the members watching you from the bushes, you kept a straight line.

You weren’t unknown. It would do them a great disservice to attack you.

And they knew it.

You walked in the front door with absolutely no resistance and remained unsurprised when two masked men came out to greet you. They didn’t ask about your business or enquire as to who you were. Instead, they led you into a sitting room and gestured for you take a seat.

Instead of that, you walked around the room and picked up everything that looked interesting. Nothing was hidden around but you hadn’t expected there to be.

“Please don’t touch things without gloves on,” a smooth voice interrupted your curiosity. “Cleaning this entire house is rarely needed and I’d rather you didn’t change that.”

You turned around to find somebody considerably younger than you had expected for the head of the Shie Hassaikai. He wore their signature mask and a feathered coat, almost his entire body hidden in some way.

“Not a fan of germs?” you enquired.

“Not at all.”

You shrugged and made your way to the couch, sinking down into it. “Guess that means no drinks or anything? Oh well, that’s too bad.” You gestured for him to sit.  “So, you’re not who I was expecting.”

“You’ve never worked with our organisation before,” he said, sitting on the edge of the chair opposite you.

“No. You’re not in the same line of work as me and I don’t care too much about the Yakuza.”

“Then why are you here?”

You straightened, aware that you were about to get into the most dangerous part of the meeting. “Your drugs have been getting into my areas. Now, I don’t care all too much about how you distribute stock but it’s not just coming into possession of low-life criminals. My men are getting practically gifted it.”

His eyes narrowed. “We need to test it somehow. Besides, that sounds like a problem for you, no? Have better control of your men.”

“Keep your test tube shit out of my territories.”

A small staring contest took place – a test to see who would break first. You had been in almost a hundred of these over the course of your career. They didn’t bother you much at all in anymore.

Eventually he waved his hand through the air. “I guess we could stop supply to traders in your areas but this isn’t a charity.”

“I could kill your men.”

“But you would lose your own in the process. Wouldn’t it be easier to do this the peaceful way and maybe even establish a relationship between our two groups?”

“You have my attention. Don’t waste it.”

Kurogiri

There are those days when everything begins so well only to rapidly spiral into a situation out of your worst dreams. This was something like that.

You had gotten horribly caught in the crossfire of a battle between heroes and villains. It all occurred faster than you could have ever imagined – flashes of light and explosions of sound. People were screaming, the sound coming through a haze as you tried to get a grasp on what had happened.

Blood was trickling down your arm but you felt no pain. You slowly lifted your head. Something had hit you, you remembered that now as your brain caught up to the dull ache coming from your ribcage.

You tried to move, finding that you couldn’t. The ache became worse and a heavy, scraping sound interrupted your attempts to crawl away.

It was a piece of concrete, heavy and painful, pinning you effectively to the ground. A smaller chunk was holding it up and stopping you from being crushed. But if you moved too much…

You forced yourself to take a deep breath, nearly choking on the dust that filled the air. Maybe if you shifted slowly.

A crunching noise made you hiccup.

Alright, so that wasn’t going to work either. You strained your eyes to see through the carnage but you couldn’t make out any heroes. They would come eventually; you just had to wait patiently and try not to move too much.

The concrete seemed to get heavier still and you fought the desire to cry.

There was a crunching sound. You couldn’t just wait around.

Slow as you dared, you began to inch forward. The rough surface snagged at your clothing and made every centimeter feel like it was going to end with you crushed. Worse still, the more you moved, the more apparent the injury on your back became.

The blood that had been trickling down your arm was now creeping along your torso. It pooled in your clothes and made everything sticky.

You tried not to think about it but it made you light-headed regardless.

About half-way out, you spotted somebody nearby. It was just their silhouette but still, relief flooded your veins and you cried out desperately for help.

The figure made its way over to you, soon revealing that the man was almost entirely made of smoke. He wore a suit and tie but his body swirled as though only somewhat solid. Bright yellow eyes stared at you – any emotion behind them was completely unreadable.

His eyes traced your shape. “You’re not who I’m looking for.”

“Please help me. This thing’s going to crush me.”

He paused, the swirling darkness that made up his face shuddered as though it was unsure how to respond. “I should leave you here,” he mentioned. “You’re of no consequence to me or to my cause. If anything, I should add pressure to the piece of rubble and make sure the fatality numbers are higher.”

You caught of whimper before it could escape. “Please.”

His smoke shook again, almost as though he was struggling to keep hold of it. Then he raised a foot and placed it on the concrete.

You screwed your eyes shut and tried to imagine the best parts of life.

A loud horn blaring made you open them again and a surprised yelp escaped as you saw tires race past in front of you. People were shouting, their voices loud and nearby. Bright lights surrounded you and the air was clear once more.

The last thing you remembered seeing was a panicked nurse rushing over to you.

[some-kindofgnome]

Do u have any fic recs? Nsfw or sfw?

hi anon! sorry it took me so long to get back to this, I’ve been sitting on it for a while as I compiled a list of my favourites for you! 

These are all nsfw to varying degrees, but many of them have lots of delicious plot and romance alongside the smut! (those are my favourite kind of stories, so I’m drawn mostly to that kind of writing) And they're all x reader, just in case that was unclear!

Some of these fics do contain dubcon elements and other darker themes, so please heed the warnings and proceed with caution!

Additionally, these are all BNHA. But if you have any jjk or haikyuu recs that have the same overarching tone or genre, please send them my way!

For your convenience, I’ve sorted them by character below: 

Katsuki Bakugou

surrender (whenever you're ready) by @ofmermaidstories : if you haven't read this one yet, you must. it's absolutely transcendent. it made me weep. there is an essay sitting in my notes app that i'll pluck up the courage to post in mermaid's comment section one day but- BIG FEELS.

Opposites Attract by @mindninjax : This is an INCREDIBLE soulmate/college AU that Marquie wrote for a Secret Santa exchange because she is an absolute angel. It's sweet and sexy and so, so well-written. Marquie does the college AU thing so well. I just wanted to live inside this story.

Smart Mouth by @dymphnasprose : This story is boiling lava, hot-pocket-filling-fresh-out-of-the-microwave hot. Bakugou is your next door neighbour with a SERIOUSLY bad attitude and you've got the eponymous smart mouth that knocks him on his ass. The banter in this fic and the dynamic is ADDICTING and the smut will make you throb.

how to set fires by @hawnks : This is another really gorgeous slow build of tender affection and intimate fondness. I really liked the way that Mint captures Katsuki in this. The imagery in this is really soft and special and the romance is sweet but subtle.

Shouto Todoroki

Siberia by @hoe-doroki : Another one that you NEED to check out, even if you've never felt so much as a tingle for Shouto before. Beta-ing this story for Ana was the best thing that ever happened to me. She makes you fall in love with Shou through the eyes of a reader that you also want to fall in love with. It's an incredible ride and you will love every moment.

Izuku Midoriya

one single thread of gold tied me to you by @spacelabrathor : This is A/B/O like I've never read it before. Cee toes the line between soft alpha!deku and ALPHA alpha!deku with devastating precision and the resulting story will sweep you off your feet. It is a masterclass in sexual tension and sweet pining and again, even if you've never spared Deku a single thought, you need to read this one.

Sunlight by @hoe-doroki : This is a quick little read that captures some sweet post-nap loving with an older-coded husband!deku. Ana's crafted an incredibly vivid scene here and I've re-read this story sO many times because it's such a lovely little world. It captures peace and soft love and I am in love.

Hanta Sero

Hero Santa by @lord-explosion-baku : This is the fic that made me fall for Sero. I really love the way he's captured in this as the sweet, funny and nurturing best-friend-turned-lover. There are lots of sweet moments in this and some heartwarming, goofy, giggly sex that turns me to mush every time i read it. If you read this, you'll fall for him too- guaranteed.

Words on Glass by @whats-her-quirk : This is a VERY sexy quarantine roommate fic with some really lovely moments of tension and desire. All culminating in some steamTASTIC shower sex. Sero is absolutely irresistible in this fic. And the roommates trope will absolutely never get old, especially with somebody like him.

Denki Kaminari 

Finish Line by @whats-her-quirk : This is another one of my favourite college AUs! Denki stars as your sexually-experienced but tender-as-hell best friend who finds out that you've never had an orgasm before. The friends-to-lovers softness in this is supplemented by some iNCREDIBLY sexy smut. another fic that you should read, even if you've never crushed on Denki before.

Keigo Takami

What's Said Is Said by @shadowworks *dubcon : This is a REALLY incredible Fantasy AU that features Fae!Hawks, which is a great characterization for him. The imagery in this story is out of this world- it's extremely rich and evocative. There's an eerie undertone to the entire story that is absolutely thrilling and very sexy.

Priorities by @keilemlucent : This was one of the first stories of Salem's I ever read. And even though it doesn't often show I am a SUCKER for angst. This story does a really incredible job of illustrating some of the tougher elements of a relationship with a pro like Keigo, but also walks you through a gentle (and tender, loving, sexy) solution afterward.

Dabi

Compulsion by @shadowworks *dubcon : This is one of my favourite Dabi stories out there. It's a black comedy/thriller mafia au that takes place on a chilling winter evening in the city. Dabi's characterization in this is spot on and totally irresistible. Every time he's even mentioned my heart flutters a little. And there are some guest appearances from some of your other favourites as well. This story is part one out of a series to come and I can't wait to read the rest!