#Even at the end of MHA's story as shown in canon

[stainapologists]

Banri & Fujika make a great duo because they've both been made deranged by their life circumstances but in ways incongruous.

They look at each other and go "Maybe I'm not that crazy, if they're here too."

Fujika thinks it's crazy that Banri uses his quirk on himself for the intimidation factor. Banri finds the ease with which Fujika lies to everyone she knows disconcerting.

[linkspooky]

Does it ever frustrate you (like it bothers me), that the heroes and civilians (and many of the fans) have no concept of "the big picture"?

I mean being optimistic is one thing, but the hero kids are going back to class, hero society is being rebuilt and the same structures are getting back in place with barely a question of what might change, if anything will...

Like shouldn't they know by now??!!

Hawks looked into the league of villain's pasts.

Deku was told directly by shigaraki what was wrong with their society in the last war.

There was a whole (plausibly canon) movie revolving around the threat of the quirk singularity, and still nobody cares.

Judging by the recent chapter, the civilians are the same as they always were, or have become even worse in their mindset.

And at least so far, the heroes haven't shown anything concrete in how they plan on doing things from now on, if their actions or beliefs made any real impact.

At this point it really feels like either:

A. The Lov (Toga, shigaraki and some others) make a miracle resurrection/recovery.

or

B.it's the cycle of violence until inevitable extinction...

Do you feel differently or the same?

Hello, friend.

I definitely share your frustrations.

I think this post by Tumblr User BNHAObservations might be onto the type of societal reform that Horikoshi might be going for in this epilogue.

So there's two approaches that you can approach to MHA, and specifically it's endings. BNHAObservations is using Literary Analysis. That is they're not talking about the work in terms of "thing good, thing bad", but rather assuming that everything Horikoshi put into his work is intentional analyzing the themes which Horikoshi is putting forward. What is the theme of MHA and how does Horikoshi demonstrate that theme with characters and events in story?

That's the question to ask if you're taking a literary analysis angle.

(By the way if BNHAObservations sees this I'm not criticizing your post in any way sorry if I give that intention I'm just using it as an example, and also reccomending people read it because it's a good post. This post isn't a response to this post I promise I'm just linking it to provide an opposite point of view from my own).

The second is Literary Criticism. While I prefer Literary Analysis, I've been taking a Lit Crit approach as to late because. My question is not "What is the theme of MHA?" but rather "Does MHA use the tools of storytelling to communicate it's theme to it's audience well?" So, let's discuss how Hori chooses to convey the themes of the fictional world he created.

So as I said BNHA observations has an answer to your question from a literary analysis perspective. The gist being "Horikoshi seems to be suggesting that the improvement to society will come from the public being more involved with stuff like community outreach to assist the heroes, and maybe with Spinner's comic the villains voices will be heard on top of that." Which is a valid perspective and why I linked it.

However, from my literary criticism angle I don't think that particular theme is communicated well by the story. This is why while I think acknowledging the cultural context of the story is an important perspective, it's just one perspective because MHA is still A STORY and it has to use the tools of storytelling to get those messages across. MHA can exist as a piece of cultural commentary and still be confusing about what exactly kind of commentary it wants to make, because it doesn't function as a story.

So here's the literary critcism angle of: Why is it so gosh darned frustrating that the public at large doesn't seem to have changed at all by the ending of MHA?

When you are a writer you can write anything you want. But if you want to write a story that people want to read you have to follow the rules of good storytelling.

There are reasons why storytelling rules exist. A story is a bond between author and reader, readers to other readers. It is a communication between humans and humans work in a certain way.

I'd also argue that literary criticism is something that exists across cultures, like for example I watch Japanese Horror movies with my friends. Japanese Horror movies are very different from american ones because what that culture considers scary is different. However, if I'm watching the movie that has bad lighting and uncreative camera work, and I criticize it on that grounds, I think the rules of what makes good and bad camera work and shot composition work across cultures.

To quote this post:

Storytelling rules are rules of communication. Rules for handling expectations and saying what you intend to say without it being misheard. Rules for tugging at emotions and pulling heartstrings in a good way rather than a bad way. Storytelling rules are lessons learned by authors of the past that failed to communicate what they needed to. They are not that subjective.

So to address your ask finally friend, I believe a lot of audience comes from Horikoshi's inability to get his theme across in his own story with the tools of storytelling, just what he wants to say about the the society that he's created in his fictional world.

The first is the very obvious discrepancy between setup and payoff. As an example I read the Sam Vimes discworld novels, which you could say is copaganda about a good cop who does his job. However, the story is not trying to be a deep analysis about the crimminal system, it's a fantasy story taking place in a deeply corrupt medieval city where the main character is a parody of Dirty Harry. In other words it doesn't bring up any of those deeper issues so I can just read it for what it is, knowing it's kind of dated.

MHA sets up these deeper issues in a way that calls to be addressed. It's made clear several times in both Shigaraki's walk, and his speech during the first war arc that there's already enough heroes and yet problems in this society persist.

Theme is basically the story asking a question and then providing an answer. The question is: If there are so many heroes then why are there so many people who don't get saved?

It seemed like the answer we are building towards is that heroes need to change the way they deal with villains, hence why everything post War Arc focuses on the main trio trying to save their villains without just putting them down. You have Twice's death at Hawk's hands, and the question of why heroes only save the good victims. You have the parallels between Shigaraki and Eri. You have Deku say "ONE FOR ALL IS NOT A POWER FOR KILLING."

Hori is an author who makes choices and he chose to deliberately bring up these issues and not address them, and that makes the story feel unsatisfying to read because serialized stories hook the audience by promising future development.

Read this story because you want to see how the Todorokis will find a way to unite their family. Read this story because you want to see how Bakugo and Deku will become the greatest heroes, by saving by winning and winning by saving.

Twice's death, Toga's question about if Uraraka is going to kill her, Shigaraki's walk, OFA is not a power for killing these are all things that mattered in the story and then suddenly didn't. If you promise a story is going to address something and then you renege on that promise the audience will find it unsatisfying. If I'm reading a murder mystery and it ends with everyone eating cake and the murder hasn't been solved (and that's not the point of the story) I will feel like the story has wasted it's time.

So it's not just a case of "MHA was never going to be a story of deep societal reform because it's a shonen jump manga" but these themes are brought up, and then never addressed again.

Which is where we get my second layer of criticism, the massive tonal whiplash. My Hero Academia seems like a story of how kids are going to grow up to be better heroes by saving their villains, until it's not.

My Hero Academia is not a tragedy, until it becomes a tragedy in the last five minutes. Every single person thought Shigaraki was going to be saved somehow, until he wasn't. Everyone thought that Twice's death was going to be the last death in the league of villains, because the kids were going to realzie they have to find another way than killing the villains, until it wasn't. The audience isn't stupid for thinking this was going to happen, that's what Horikoshi was foreshadowing in his story until he threw it out.

The worst part is the tragic tone doesn't work, because it's poorly written as a tragedy. Greek Tragedy revolves around the fall of the heroes (this is a japanese work and japanese theatre is different, but Superheroes are inspired by the greeks). If the villains failed to get saved, then it should be a failure on the heroes part, it should be devastating on the heroes.

Hawks failed to save Twice but he's fine, Deku failed to save Shigaraki (OFA is not a power for killing) but he's fine, the only hero who seems personally affected by their loss is Shoto who is losing his brother. If this is a tragedy then heroes should be the ones to fall because tragedies are about the tragic flaws of the heroes.

However, we get this tonal inconsistency instead where no consequences stick to the heroes and every single bad thing that happens to them gets magically done away with by plot convenience.

So Hori has shown that he can just handwave away whatever kind of grievous injury he wants, and yet he still chooses to go out of his way to unnecessarily punish the villains for their actions, in the manga that's supposed to be about saving them.

And even if we go with the "Well, their hearts were saved" approach, the manga fails to demonstrate how their hearts were saved. Naruto, a manga running in the same magazine, does this so much better with characters like Obito.

Look at Obito's sendoff in the manga. A character who also is responsible for directly harming the main characters and who went to war with the entire world.

Obito has a dream sequence where he realizes he could have always gone home and still tried to become Hokage and he wasn't beyond redemption. He lives long enough to assist Naruto in the fight against the final villain. He gets called awesome by Naruto for trying to become Hokage because they shared the same dream.

His last moments in the manga are Rin the girl he loved comforting him in the afterlife, by saying she was watching his suffering all along. His literal last action is to lend his power to Kakashi his best friend in order to fight together once more against the villain.

Shigaraki on the other hand doesn't even get the majority of screentime in his own death chapter, he gets two pages compared to AFO's five.

It's not just the fact they get unsympathetic deaths, the story also bends over to show that they deserved it. Toga doesn't want to accept prison for her actions so it's okay for her to commit suicide even though she's a young girl. Shigaraki didn't want to give up being the hero to the villains, so it's okay that Deku didn't save him.

People are discussing whether or not Spinner should be held accountable for not saving Shigaraki because of his character flaw of deciding to not think about things and go with the flow, but that ignores the fact that once again Spinner is not the main character. Yes, characters should be held accountable for their flaws, but the protagonists are the one who should be held the most accountable because the story is not about them.

Spinner and Deku both failed to save Shigaraki, but let's look at their punishment. Spinner is in prison for the rest of his life probably, almost became a Nomu, and has survivor's guilt for being unable to save Shigaraki in time due to his own actions.

Deku... has to live with the fact he killed Shigarki and will "never forget it."

If we are going for a tragic ending, and Deku is the center of that tragedy, than Deku should be the one suffering for his failures. Deku should be held just as, if not more accountable than Spinner.

Spinner is held accountable and that makes him a good character - but to what end? I know what it's to slide blame away from Deku, which is also why Spinner randomly says something racist at the end of his scene.

So in all it's not frustrating because MHA isn't some deep, thoughtful criticism of Japanese society. It's frustrating because it violates the rules of setup and payoff, and it also is extremely tonally inconsistent.

A common response to this is I've seen is "You should just like MHA for what it is, and not what you want it to be."

However my underlying problem is that MHA as a story seems to be very confused about what kind of story it is. That confusion shows in Horikoshi constantly throwing out his own foreshadowing, and the wild swings in tone from tragedy to a story about optimistic young kids who are going to be the best heroez eva. Hori can tell whatever story he wants, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's telling it well.

As I said Hori's indecisiveness shows by this point in the story. I've already discussed this with Class1aKids but it really seems like Horikoshi is setting up two things with scissors-kun:

He'll either be A) A new villain that Deku and the kids prevent from becoming the next AFO or B) a resurrected Shigaraki who can save the rest of his league and fulfill his role as hero of the villains.

At this point there's equal foreshadowing for both, and this is my personal theory but it truly seems like Hori is gauging audience reaction to see which path he should take. If the japanese audience is satisfied with the villains "hearts" being saved, or if he should bring Shigaraki back to let the villains end on a more hopeful note.

[justatalkingface]

I find Endeavor giving up on Toya once he found out that his son's quirk (Blueflame) was self-destructive to be, not only out-of-character, but incredibly stupid.

Endeavor is loaded, he bought Rei. Why not buy Toya special support gear costume with cooling? Aoyama's belt, Mirio's suit, and f*cking Mecha Might basically suggest that support gear can do anything as long as the plot demands it.

Besides that, has Endeavor literally never heard of endurance training? That's literally the only type of training Class 1A does most of the time. Just have Rei on standby if anything goes wrong. It's not like being a human cooler would be the most degrading thing she's suffered.

It's like the first time Aizawa criticized Deku for injuring himself with One for All. Did they try thinking of solutions before trying to get them to give up ?

Also, it's kind of messed that Toya's inability fulfill Endeavor's goals is because Rei, the bought mother. It could've easily been Endeavor's fault, like his intense training at a young age ruined Toya's developing body.

OK, you see, the thing is you're thinking about this logically. Like, Endeavor has been many things, but 'rational' isn't one of them. Deeply toxic and twisted, on the other hand?

You need to think like someone desperate to prove themselves, filled with about eight superiority and inferiority complexes, and yet so resigned to his own inferiority that he ended up needing to make someone else to do it for him. The fact that Toya hurt himself? It meant he was weak. That's it. He was weak for being unable to use his powers safely.

And the second he was weak, he was no longer useful, because he could no longer beat All Might.

(Nevermind, of course, that there was nothing he could do to make someone able to beat All Might, because All Might and All For One are both setting breaking hacks that single handedly break the balance of power. Even a super Shoto with the blue flames of Dabi and, like, absolute zero ice, perfectly balanced and able to withstand his own power, would get casually bitchslapped by All Might. That's how overwhelmingly broken he is.)

Beyond that, it's worth pointing out that, 1, Mecha Might is, again, setting breaking bullshit, even in the bullshit casually tinkertech setting that is MHA, and that 2, while Quirk training is a thing (presumably that's how Dabi was able to be as high functioning as he was with his... well, entire everything, that he grinded with his Quirk until he was able to work beyond the pain), there are limits without Awakenings... and let's be honest, Awakenings are just how Hori tried to explain people's various power ups to try and keep them relevent in the ever increasing clusterfuck of his story. No amount of training would make it so that Toya would not burn himself; training like that increases limits, but it doesn't change how the Quirk works.

There's basiclly no reason, in setting, for someone not to suit themselves entirely in support tech to be a purely tech driven hero, beyond institutional culture that is built around people's Quirks. I can't even say it's expensive, because hell, Mei just pulls them out on the regular, and there's every reason to think she was making them even before she actually got into UA, instead of somehow learning to make them within a week or two of getting into school.

The fact that support tech is so damn underused is almost criminal, especially for people with more limited abilities; can you imagine if Kirashima, with his hardening, was given some kind of ranged tool? An air blast or something?

You're also ignoring all his complexes in implying that, 1, Rei could do anything, when literally she only exists to be a breeder, and I don't think he's ever shown imagining her able to do... anything helpful.

And, most importantly, 2: Endeavor always blames everyone but himself. Always. Even in the 'canon' (I have opinions on the sheer level of retcon there) version of events, with how soft that is on Endeavor, Endeavor sets up Toya to have a psychotic break. He isolates him, orients his entire life around one thing (surpassing All Might) and then takes away the very foundation he built his life on, before basiclly ignoring him and never trying to fix him afterwords; of course the kid is messed up! Yet, all this time, he looks back, and all he can think is, 'I couldn't stop him! Toya was so driven, Toya wouldn't stop hurting himself, Toya wouldn't listen to me!'

Toya, Toya, Toya. Everything wrong with Dabi's story was blamed on Toya, even though he was an actual child and Endeavor was the one with all the control in the family; his recollection of things was so warped you could see how it contracted with literally everyone's experience of events... Of course he was going to blame Rei over himself! Rei is the person he bought, and he's the top hero, rich and famous! Nothing is ever his fault!

(Also, I have opinions on Aizawa, and they're overwhelmingly negative. The fact that Aizawa wanted to ditch Izuku first thing is a result of his overwhelming biases and prejudices..... exactly like Endeavor. MHA has this thing of making massively biased authority figures that are obviously so and then going through fire to protect them from their own actions.)

[loopy777]

thoughts on the way MHA ended? Lots of people absolutely pissed that izuku x uraraka was sunk rather decisively(im as well, but thats more because i now know sitting through 428 chapters of their boring ass romance was an objective waste of time) just so Kohei didnt have to deal with an ending that actually had ships sail, and the fandom reaction to that.

For me, i am absolutely gonna use Uraraka's canon wishywashyness to the bitter end, not having the guts to confess for 8 years after the final battle, to shit on her mercilessly in my own stories XD

Wow, harsh. Deku could have asked her to dinner some time in 8 years! What's a girl to think when a guy doesn't go on a single date from age 14 to 22? XD

Anyway, shipping aside, I am quite pleased with the ending. I thought we got good resolutions for more characters than I expected, and I really like not just that last-second twist but how it's done. All Might's eyes are freaky-looking, though.

Since I'm not really a MHA shipper, I thought it odd that we don't get a single romantic confirmation, but I think it's left open enough that there could be romance going on with whatever pairing a reader wants. Perhaps that was a deliberate, cynical choice. I do think there's a lack of payoff in the romances, as we have Deku, Uraraka, Kaminari, maybe Kirishima, and Yaoyorozu all having crushes that provide inspiration at critical character-growth moments, but none of them take the next step. It feels like all those subplots just stop before any climax. We don't even have Kaminari asking Jiro on a date and getting shot down. It feels like there's something missing in terms of the shape of the story.

However, I recognize that Romance is always awkward with these epic coming-of-age tales, especially one in a 'modern' setting like MHA. For something like AtLA, in an 'old' fantasy setting where older teenagers are considered full adults, especially one without formal schooling, I can buy someone marrying a love interest they meet at age 14. For something like MHA, though, it feels more unrealistic since most of us do not know someone who married their first high school sweetheart.

So, normally, I wouldn't dock MHA many points for these no-payoff romances. It could have done a lot worse by attempting the payoffs and fumbling them.

Unfortunately, in the wider context of the MHA, I think this is a fatal flaw that makes me unable to recommend the series to anyone.

No exaggeration. Explanation below the cut.

So, how many actual romantic relationships are there in this story, including the adults? Not that many, if we go by what's on screen. I mean, we had to get out-of-story clarification that Deku's father is still married to his mother. And of the relationships we actually see, how many of them are alive and functional and not something awful like Todoroki's backstory?

Bakugo's parents

Gentle Criminal and La Brava

???

That's all I can think of.

And then I've noted that none of the student crushes get any payoff. We're very clearly shown that these kids have attractions to each other, but at best it becomes a kind of unspoken courtly love. What's up with that?

Well, you could argue that MHA's intended audience is 12-year-old boys who don't want to see kissy romances. And normally, I'd consider that an acceptable answer. It's all over shonen anime/manga: feints towards romance (because boys like the idea of attracting pretty girls) without any actual depiction or fulfillment that could turn off squeamish immature boys. Some of this may be influenced by Japanese society overall, as my understanding is that displays of physical affections overall are rarer there, but I don't think that's the primary factor. Certainly, there are shonen stories where a boy and girl have an actual ongoing romantic relationship, and sometimes there's even kissing.

MHA doesn't have that, though. It has broken relationships, comedic relationships, and unfulfilled crushes. Even among adults.

What else does it have?

Fan-service outfits. Sexual assault played for laughs. Several instances of leering teenage female nudity.

Yeah, I've talked before about how Mineta is the worst part of the show because of how much fun the story tries to make them, and you don't have to go far on the internet to find people who think MHA's depiction of female teenagers is pretty gross, but pair this with the overall story's notable lack of any actual serious romance. That is not a great look. It says the only interest MHA has in romance is for the sex.

Now, I don't know that this reflects Horikoshi's actual feelings or psychology. Maybe this is an unfortunate mix of a juvenile sense of humor with a cynical ploy to avoid ticking off any shippers. But, thanks to the Death Of The Author, the overall message of MHA is that romantic love is equally powerful but less fulfilling than molesting your female classmates. Remember, Kaminari may have found his motivation to help take down some villains thanks to his love for Jiro, but Mineta found the strength and strategy to ace his practical exam thanks to his horny obsession with Midnight.

So the end result is that MHA is decidedly icky about this, and while it's a great superhero story and shonen, IMO, I couldn't recommend it to anyone without a major warning about this aspect of it.

[princess-of-the-corner]

AU Idea

So, I was thinking, and the one MHA/BNHA AU I keep seeing is Izuku staying Quirkless and not getting in to UA which … bothers me? Not the premise necessarily, and not even all of them. Like, deciding to to go the Batman route, or becoming an amazing Support guy, those don’t bother me as much. Its more the surprisingly large number I’ve read where it’s portrayed as “oh, Izuku would try out and not get into the Hero Course, so gives up and becomes an office worker” and like … I admit I’m new to the fandom, but isn’t Izuku one of those Shonen protagonists that has the defining character trait of “never giving up, even when you should”?

and I’m not talking about fics where they play up the prejudice against Quirkless people to explain him not getting in. If that’s the angle you’re going for and you’re telling a good story with it, kudos. But I … kind of get the feeling that UA’s principal wouldn’t really care? About Quirk/less? Like, I sort of get the feeling he’d research Izuku and be like “Oh, this’ll be hilarious”. But most stories in the vein of “Izuku doesn’t get in”, and then we have a story about Izuku running a blog or as an accountant, end up sounding like either they don’t think Izuku could be a hero without a Quirk, or like Izuku didn’t have the drive to be a hero, which … is not the feeling I’m getting from his character?

Like, Izuku trying out and not getting into the Hero Course on the first try Quirkless, sure, fine, that I’ll believe. Especially because the tryouts are kind stacked in the favour of the more combat oriented Quirks, so even if he did have a Quirk, depending on what it was, the test might screw him over. But trying out and giving up immediately? Just because he wouldn’t get into the Hero Course? Like, correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the test specifically engineered for the Hero Course kids? Like, Shinsou tries out aiming for the Hero Course and gets screwed because his Quirk isn’t as in your face, but he still gets into the school, right? He’s Gen ed, or something until the Sports Festival, when he has a better chance of displaying his abilities. You’re telling me that Izuku - analyst, insanely clever, reckless and determined - either failed the entrance exam badly enough not to get in at all, or decided that because it wasn’t the Hero Course, he wasn’t even going to try? Like, not even as Support or whatever?

Again, I’m fairly new to the fandom but it feels weird? Like, is It just me?

I think the only fic I saw of the “Izuku Doesn’t Get In” variety that I thought was decent without his character feeling weird was one where Izuku did try out and did get in, but his mom freaked out and basically forbade him from going? Like, not one of those where she becomes an abusive monster, but more supremely overprotective? Like, that was a great plot point, but they kind of didn’t do much with it. We get the feeling that their relationship is strained, and Izuku mentions not talking to his mom much, but like … it doesn’t really get explored? Granted the fic was mostly a Izuku/Shouto fic, where it was less about plot and more about them falling into bed together but it had some neat plot elements and … 

Honestly, I don’t know where I’m going with this. Just trying to get a feel for a new character by playing the “What If” Game and uncertain how “canonically” certain things would play out.

-

Oh yeah no absolutely!

Izuku is a stubborn little shit who will not give up.

Like. Within my Vigilante!AU, the reason he doesn’t go to UA isn’t giving up. He actually passes the Entrance Exam! but while the UA staff would be fine with teaching him, the Commission doesn’t really want a Quirkless Hero. After all, so much of Heroes images are in how Amazing their Quirks are and how they’re so much better than normal people and a Good Quirk = Good Hero. 

They wouldn’t want ‘just some guy’ being shown as on par with them. And if they let Izuku into UA at all, even in Gen Ed, then there’s a chance for him to enter the Sports Festival and be broadcast to the world as ‘on par’. Or even for just after-class sparring sessions where sure it’s not as widespread but people will See Him.

But yeah like. If I did a side-AU where Izuku stayed ‘Quirkless’ but got into the Gen Ed course, he’d 100% enter the Sports Festival! And considering how the event went in Canon, he didn’t actually use his Quirk until the 1v1 battles! So he’d get a lot of attention for making it to the third round without a Quirk!

It’d be a question of how well he’d do in the 1v1 battles though. His first battle is against Shinso who does have a Quirk that’s very hard to beat once he can get it going. Maybe I could have Izuku already befriend Shinso so he knows the limitations of Shinso’s Quirk and can’t be baited into responding. The fight against Shoto would probably go badly for him, but also who knows what Shoto’s mindset would be re: his own fuckery since he likely didn’t traumadump to Izuku before the fight.

[pixeldemonia]

My universe

Real name: Unknown (her public name is Kuromi Kintsugi, but her real name is kept secret).

Age: at the start of the story 17, in this momment 19/20.

Pronouns: she/her.

Sexual orientation: Bisexual, demisexual.

Quirk: video game character

This quirk gives its owner the main abilities of a battleroyale video game character, such as the ability to use and store different types of weapons, create barriers, have maps of the place where they are, a control menu where statistics are shown, like physical state, remaining battery, etc. She also has the ability to regenerate at small levels, and can also help heal other people through her blood, which would work as a "healing potion". There are 10 levels, the usser levels up by completing missions, which consist of winning battles, completing exercises, and things like that, unlocking a level unlocks 10 new weapons and improves some skills from previous levels. The levels are differentiated not only by the name but also by the "skin" which is noticeable in the figures that light up in the eyes, the horns or headsets made of pixels, and sometimes in the form of bright marks on the skin. Weapons, barriers and screens are made of pixels, which come out of the body, in the case of weapons, these come out of compartments that come out from under the skin when the bearer decides to use them, the rest of the time these compartments are not visible nor can they be felt. fire weapons have three types of bullets, real and expanding bullets, rubber bullets, and special bullets, which are essentially like sleeping darts that only work when the bullet hits the target's head.

The weaknesses of this quirk are the loss of battery, the loss of blood and the same physical damage that is generated by opening and closing many compartments

in general, it's a flashy quirk that is great to capture villains without the need to damage the stage too much or have long dangerous fights, if this quirk is used carefully, it can be really usefull.

The story

Clarification: more than an Oc she is an idealized version of what I would like to be if I were part of the bnha universe, this is a brief summary of her life story, which obviously is not totally like mine but in which I represent (in a fantastic and more bnha-like) situations in my life that marked me, I would really appreciate it if you didn't throw hate at me, since it is a way of airing my problems and in a certain way escaping from my reality. I struggle with certain health issues, both fisical and mental, i need to use diferent medicines and i'm still being studied to give me a complete diagnosis of my illneses, things aren't exactly easy, so please be nice to me, i don't intent to pass this as canon, and isn't something that happens in the canonic mha universe, this is pure fantasy, only a fictional work.

in a world in where 80% of the population has manifested a quirk, there have to be regulations to keep people safe, to my bad luck I was born in a poor and dangerous area, full of villains, in which the heroes didn't intervene much, despite the problems and how difficult life was, I was a happy girl with illusions and a dream, but all that ended when at the age of 5 I manifested my quirk "videogame character" the teachers who witnessed the first time it manifested, considered it extremely dangerous, since in a world full of even more dangerous powers, weapons are still something to fear, they called the corresponding authorities, but to pay for the security and quirk control protocols, I had to say goodbye to the one I consider my only dream

life did not become easier, my health was not good, the economic situation did not improve either and at 10 years old I had to learn to evade the security protocols to be able to use my quirk to earn some money. loneliness consumed me and depression began to crush me, without realizing it, every day I was closer to graduating from school, which means choosing what you will do to support yourself throughout your life, I had no idea what I would do, finally I felt that I had no way to move on.

But life was the one that made the decision, when I got into a fight with a dangerous villain while trying to save a child, the news spread, without exposing my identity since i was a minor, but the only ones who managed to find me were the superiors of the supernatural division of the Japanese army, the ones in charge of training and employing those who were born with quirks too powerful to be ignored, but too dangerous to work in other areas.

When I arrived in Japan, I was happy to no longer live in a place surrounded by so much violence. The trainings were terribly hard since they had to "catch me up with the others", at first it was too much for me, but one day, I saw someone, someone totally opposite to me "I promise to be number 1" someone with such confidence and determination to achieve his goals, could I one day be like him?, I don't know what happened, but i felt determinated to do my best in everything that i wanted to do. I still felt bad, but at least I didn't have to worry about money anymore, the missions were dangerous, my personal life and relationship with my family continued being terrible, at least the medicines helped me, life continued normal, until the war against shigaraki and AFO began.

Bnha manga spoilers ahead!

at first we were not allowed to intervene, until in an act of desperation the hero commission asked us to go to the battlefield, me and my team arrived at the stadium where shigaraki was, and this is where katsuki's story and the mine intertwined

After an arduous battle we managed to emerge victorious, despite this most of us had to be transferred to the same hospital, katsuki and I began to interact there, until we became friends, after months of recovery, the school year finally began , I thought that I would never see him again due to how different our work fields are, but the UA and my superiors reached an agreement, and I started studying in the second year with class A.

from the beginning the two of us connected very well, he considered me someone trustworthy, I suppose that having been together in such a dangerous situation helped us to form that bond, I supported him to be able to overcome everything that had happened to him, despite the little time that we had known each other I think we got to know each other more deeply than with any other person. I have always had problems adapting to social environments, so when I entered the UA I was very lucky to be in the same class, he helped me a lot. Time passed and slowly we both started to develop romantic feelings for each other, although we were both too dumb to realize it, and when we did it was hard, we both didn't know what the other felt and we were afraid of ruining our friendship, we had to go through another situation that put our lives in danger so that we could confess what we feel, since then we have been together, not everything is perfect, but we support each other, we take care of each other, we understand each other, we are happy together and it will be that way forever.

Time passed and despite the fact that there are still conflicts to resolve and things to improve as a society, definitely everything is better, today we are all graduated and working as professional heroes, Dynamight created his own hero agency, in which I work as a hero, he's the number one hero on the hero charts, i'm the number 9, most of class A are still friends, the future is bright, despite all the hard times we've had, things are fine, and always will be...

The relationship

We dated for a year and a half until he asked me to marry him for the first time, although that was more a confession of his wishes and strong feelings than an official commitment. We got seriously engaged 4 months after graduating and got married 3 months after the engagement, our anniversary is October 31st.

Our relationship is based on trust, communication, respect and the immense love we have for each other. Although sometimes we argue, we always manage to solve everything. For different reasons we both decided not to have children, but we have a cat that we love like one.

We share many tastes and interests. Many times we work together on missions and we are partners on patrol, our career as heroes is very good. We know each other well and we respect each other, we would never do anything that would hurt or annoy the other.

We are sure that we are soul mates.

We are happier than we imagined we could ever be.

Final notes (by the usser)

Again, this is a fictional story far from the canon, that is why the characters have already grown up (not so much since I am terrible at making mature faces) I also know that romantic relationships are not normally like that in real life, this it's pure fantasy, it's just something that makes me happy, I really started to create all this because I wanted to show katsuki being happy. I am not planning to write my little au in more detail, since I dedicate myself to only making drawings, I just wanted to write this section to have my blog a little more organized and so that if someone is interested in knowing something about this, they can understand it. if you think this type of content is wrong, or you don't like it, just ignore it and block my blog, you don't have to tell me, but if you like it, you're more than welcome to stay, I want this to be a happy internet corner and a safe place for all, finally, thank you very much to all who follow and support me, to all those who like my art for some reason, this is a personal project and a hobby that makes me very happy, so you can not imagine how happy it makes me too se so many positive backlash after my content, love ya'll ❤️

[neonscandal]

Neon, from all openings and endings songs of BNHA & JJK, which are your fav? Why?

Ooof, you're probably expecting really deep analysis to accompany these likes but my pleasure is not always that deep so please lower your expectations! I'm usually listening and looking at the animations for easter eggs and vibes, if anything, I don't religiously look up translations. Some of your questions are so funny to me, I'm sorry to disappoint if this wasn't what you were expecting!

This is a light skinned man. IYKYK

JJK

Off the top of my head, I feel like JJK has no misses? Hitting different vibes but nothing that feels like a theme song. Don't get me wrong, I love a good "Gotta Catchem All" or Pokemon Rap, too, but I prefer songs that don't feel out of place if it just popped up on shuffle, you know?

KaiKai Kitan - THE TROLLING.

Lost in Paradise - Catchy AF. Plus, this was as close as we were getting to a filler episode. I love how "simple" the illustration style is but the animations of each character have so much personality in their movements. Plus, provided a solid cozy cosplay on the last day of cons when you want to dress up but don't want to be encumbered as you hit the dealer room and artist alley.

Give it Back - even without the translation, this is sad. The animation is sad. The idea of this day that never happened when you think about the canon timeline is sad. It inspired a mediocre lil oneshot because why would they do this to me, specifically? This, of course, is animating something so realistic but ethereal.

Ichizu - okay, so maybe I looked up the translation to this one too and just.. SatoSugu.

Where Our Blue Is and Lantern - make me want to burst into flames? Also, I had a no-sleep-epiphany the other night where, if Geto was the last blue spring of Gojo's youth and blue is the basis of Gojo's strength then... I failed to make a sensical connection because I clearly don't rest and I'm unwell. It's currently 3:45AM. But it was something along the lines of equating that Gojo is not at full strength without Geto.

Specialz - this animation is just. 😘👌🏾 Also the breakdown at "I love you, baby". Nevermind that it is synonymous with tragedy and trauma. King Gnu clearly must have known that when signing on since a great deal of JJK songs are theirs

More Than Words - Again, simple illustration but also capturing this idea of youth for the trio which... after S2 is so *melt emoji*?? I think the theme of romanticizing life and their connection to one another while actively contrasting with murder and mayhem is so funny to me. 🥲

God tier level looping, tbh. Ty for your service @osakaxkobe

MHA

Def more of a casual enjoyer for the music on MHA. Especially since the brain rot for this series didn't set in for a very long time so I had to go back and look up each song.

Peace Sign - my niece and nephew dance to this song dramatically and, knowing none of the words confidently, sing anyway. I think it's the instrumentals and the clapping that does it for me haha

Odd Future - lowkey meets the "appears on shuffle without being too embarrassing" requirement but, with MHA being as pervasive as it is... will not beat the weird kid allegations if this pops up because I think it's recognizable

Merry Go Round - That "Hey Brother Listen" popped off so does the crescendo.

Hitamuki - I just like the graphical switch up to the comic book style because isn't it so silly and cute just to preface some trauma??

North Wind - are you kidding me? Showing all these critical moments from Deku's first. person. perspective. to elevate how important the people shown are when we've had largely the whole story from his actual first person perspective? As he's running to catch up to everything the story has built up to like running through a museum exhibit. Inspired. Beautiful. No notes.

Sketch - for the depression. ✨

Datte Atashi no Hero - just... fantasy AU. Song I can do without but who am I to ignore the best AU illustrated and animated? A nobody, that's who.

Believe - Hawks really said "The next time the cherry blossoms fall, I hope we will all be smiling" and then everything went to shit.

Shout Baby - less song more visual commentary. Hero or villain, it all started where Class 1A is right now, some of it even sooner (like with Tenko).

[rafs13]

Can Bleach Shippers all agree that Kubo ‘’baited’’ us regarding the romance in Bleach!?

Yes, I know Bleach is a Shonen Manga and isn’t focused on romance, but Kubo did decide to have Ichigo end with Orihime and Rukia with Renji. 

That’s canon despite how I and others feel about it. 

With the comeback of Bleach’s Anime, the shipping wars between Ichiruki and Ichihime have ‘’resurrected’’ and this has caused speculation on what is the better ship, and what Kubo intentionally wanted. In all honesty, we don’t know what was originally planned regarding the romance in Bleach, we aren’t Kubo, we are not 100 percent sure of what he thought while writing the story. Authors change their stories millions of times, this happens with Mangaka’s since they have to write chapters weekly so they don’t get time to flesh out ideas at times.

Based on the Manga (Source material) no matter what you shipped Kubo did cater to both Ichiruki and Ichihime in various ways. Shippers are not wrong for shipping Ichiruki and Ichihime. I used to think how could anyone ship Ichihime when it was so one-sided, I even wrote posts on it in the past. Based on the manga and story, Ichiruki had more depth to it, no matter if you are a shipper or not. But looking back on how everything panned out I can see how Ichihime shippers got invested into this ship.

With Ichihime Kubo focused a lot on Orihime’s crush on Ichigo. A lot of the romance of Ichihime came from Orihime’s view/standpoint. She is the one who says she would love him in 5 different lifetimes, Orihime chose to spend her last night next to Ichigo before being taken to Hueco Mundo by Ulquiorra, and she wanted Ichigo to save her from Hueco Mundo (she initially went there with no resistance because of this). I can see why shippers would run to ship this because in canon Orihime likes Ichigo, it’s been said and showcased in the Manga/Anime with all these moments. Fans of her character can see why it’s important to her so of course they would want her with Ichigo. But that’s where the material ends. Kubo only gives anything that pushes for Ichihime from Orihime’s standpoint and not Ichigo’s.

It’s only after the manga ends that he tries to make the connection from Ichigo’s standpoint in the light novels. Why not in the manga?

Plus, I can surely say for a fact that Orihime was challenged as a character whenever she was around Ulquiorra and Uryu. And those characters were also teased too to be with Orihime at some point and it was very subtle. They had some small romantic moments with her and it worked well with the narrative of the storyline.

I always questioned why Kubo would make Orihime have a crush on Ichigo but then include multiple moments of romance between Ichigo/Rukia?

Why did Kubo have Orihime love Ichigo? What did he plan to do with the romance and how would it add to the plot of the story? Was it to add to her character arc? Because aside from Hueco Mundo and her mini-arc with grieving over her brother Sora, and unlocking her fullbring powers to protect Tatsuki in s1, she didn’t get much attention or story. I know she got some moments outside of these areas but they weren’t vital. Her love for Ichigo only revolves around her really, he’s not that involved if we think about it. Most Anime fans who know of Bleach only know Orihime for screaming ‘‘Kurosaki-Kun’‘ while Ichigo is seen as his character/person outside Orihime.

In comparison, let us look at another shonen anime like MHA. 

Yes, we know Uraraka loves Izuku and it’s been shown to be stronger on her end than his. While he does love her it’s taking him more time to know he is in love, since he’s so focused on becoming the best hero. But he has shown many actions of love/affection towards Uraraka in the anime/manga. However, the difference is Uraraka has her character and continuing storyline, her love for Izuku pushes the narrative of how heroic Izuku is. He inspired her to be a better hero and to be more confident and serious about getting better.

That works for the story and Uraraka’s character.

With Bleach, Orihime’s love for Ichigo ends with her. This is because Kubo didn’t make it convincing enough with the material in the manga. He gave Ichihime fans some ground to work with, but also kept pushing the narrative of Ichiruki in the meantime. For me, Ichihime falls flat because there is not enough material or push on Ichigo’s end throughout the whole manga to support that he loved Orihime. No confession in the Manga/Anime while it was running (or at its height during the 2000s), no artwork or spreads of the two (ALONE) to showcase romance/affection from Ichigo’s perspective, and nothing from Kubo either if we want to keep it real. He never talked about Ichihime being the endgame couple or hinted at it, and I surely remember him saying Ichigo and Rukia were more than friends less than lovers.

Why was he so happy to talk about the relationship between Ichigo x Rukia, when he could have shut down the speculation of them being together?

At this point I don’t have to write why I and any other shippers shipped Ichiruki...the manga is right there. We didn’t ship them to spite anyone, Ichiruki was pushed heavily at the start of the manga and many moments in-between after that. 

Why make Rukia stop Ichigo’s rain and not Orihime? Why has Ichigo repaired the broken relationship with Rukia and Byakuya in the SS arc and not Renji? Why has Ichigo saved Rukia and not Renji? Why let Rukia say Ichigo’s the man in her heart? 

Shouldn’t that be Renji? But it wasn't....

Another thing I want to talk about is Rukia being like a sister to Ichigo. Many fans say this or that she’s just a friend. Kubo said himself that she’s more than a friend in an interview so we can’t caller her that. So is she like a sister? What would be the need for that? Ichigo has two sisters already (Yuzu x Karin say hi!) and we see how he acts with them. He’s protective but secretive at times to protect them from knowing his identity as a soul reaper during the first few arcs. Ichigo pretends to be happy and okay when he’s really depressed inside when it comes to his sisters. He even showed this behaviour to Orihime, remember he was depressed about his mother’s death anniversary and he pretended to be happy around Orihime at school? But with Rukia he didn’t act that way, he straight up told her he was depressed and not okay because of his mom’s murder.

He’s transparent with Rukia.

It’s clear Rukia is above the role of a sister when it comes to how Ichigo views her. Remember Orihime was nervous about their relationship and even spoke to Rangiku about it.

Why would Kubo add that in if he was 100 percent gunning for Ichihime? Make it make sense because the math ain’t mathing. 

Aside from this point, even with the new anime promo for Bleach Kubo is making official art with mostly only ‘’ichiruki’’ panels. He knows that people like them as a pair (the way many of his ichiruki japanese/international fans reacted to the ending by burning bleach volumes says it all) so he keeps on giving us content. I wondered why Ichigo and Orihime have not had any official art together or to promote them as a couple? 

The same question I ask here for Renruki?

I just wanted to make this post because I feel like from both sides are being played when it comes to ships, I just wish I could speak to Kubo and get some clarity.

I do think it’s fact that Ichiruki felt more earned and believable than Ichihime based on the fact that BOTH sides showed romantic actions/cues towards each other in the manga. It didn’t seem one-sided and you can’t deny they have an unbreakable bond. 

I will always be a Ichiruki fan but I just wish Kubo didn’t pander/tease various couples. It did more harm than good and now with Bleach coming back it’s going to be a ship war again.

[nanaosaki3940]

Dabi, Gojo & Eren: Fuckboys or not?

In this modern age and time of anime and manga, the world of the internet is blessed by the presence of several different attractive 2D anime men. And arguably the most favorite ones among the fans are Dabi aka Touya Todoroki (My Hero Academia), Satoru Gojo (Jujutsu Kaisen), and Eren Jeager (Attack On Titan). Everyone just wants a piece of them. But the real question is, who would these men date and how? While we all know that Dabi and Gojo aren’t dating anyone canonically so far because Kohei Horikoshi and Gege Akutami just aren’t about all that jazz, Eren on the other hand did show romantic interest towards Mikasa Ackerman, but that relationship had to meet its tragic ending very soon than expected. Also, there are barely any romantic threads explored through the chapters of MHA and JJK manga so far for both Dabi and Gojo. Perhaps because of it, the show's viewers and the manga readers have been obsessively trying to find any pair of people (or curses) to ship together in various permutation combinations.

This isn’t something new or unique to MHA, JJK, and AOT as I must say - "Writers gonna write, fandoms gonna ship."

I'm well aware that the fandoms of MHA, JJK, and AOT have always portrayed Dabi, Satoru Gojo, and Eren Jeager as fuckboys, but are they really that? That's why I'm on an important quest here to determine once and for all if Dabi, Gojo, and Eren are fuckboy or not. Let’s dive right in. Since this is going to be an in-depth analysis, I did some research on what makes a fuckboy. According to this article, there are some traits that all fuckboys have in common. We’re gonna explore some of them and see if they apply to these mentioned hunky men. 

First, let's point out the traits of a fuckboy - 

He's a smooth operator 

Yet knows how to play it cool 

He promises a lot 

He's always busy as hell 

He has the tendency to lie 

He's always online 

His social media is full of women 

He SAYS he's not a fuckboy 

The relationship is pretty sexual

It's always a little one dimensional  

Now it's impossible to go through each and every given point mentioned above, but I'll try to cover at least half of them. 

He's a smooth operator - 

This describes a charismatic, funny, charming, smooth man. They can talk you up and their way out of any situation because they seem to know all of the right words. 

Dabi may not be a smooth operator, cause we've never seen him being funny or charismatic anytime in the series. Sure he's smart, calm, and collected (even manipulative) which is shown from time to time whenever he's appeared in the scenes, but we've never seen him butter up someone or talk his way out of any situation whatsoever. 

Besides, Dabi isn't someone who would do such a thing anyway, to begin with (because he's too emo and edgy for that). So I'm giving him a hard NO. 

The same goes for Eren as well. Sure younger Eren was hardheaded, strong-willed, passionate, impulsive, reckless, selfless, and charismatic, older Eren on the other hand isn't like that at all. Older Eren has an unnervingly stoic and calm demeanor, never losing his composure and usually wearing a blank expression on his face, no matter how dire or stressful the situation may be. Sure we saw him once using Falco to meet up with Reiner back at Marley, but he didn't use his charisma to trick Falco. Instead, he used his tactic and manipulation to deceive the young boy and convinced him to bring Reiner to him. 

So for this Eren also gets a hard NO.

Gojo on the other hand is very comfortable joking around with literally everyone he interacts with, friend or enemy. Moreover, he is very witty and charismatic in all these interactions. 

All evidence would point to Gojo being a smooth talker, except this doesn’t seem to work on most people in JJK. While Gojo has a fair share of admirers within the story, most people are either annoyed or neutral to his charms. We’re gonna give him a MAYBE on this criteria. 

Can play it cool - 

If I’ve understood this one correctly, then this is a person who won’t show excitement for things. They might not text you back immediately or might act nonchalantly and unbothered. 

First of all, Gojo is anything but nonchalant and unbothered and you all know the reason why - 

For this Gojo gets a hard NO. 

For Dabi, I must say he fits in this category quite well, but that was prior to the Touya-revelation chapter. Because as soon as he revealed his true identity and abusive childhood to the whole world, he wasn't Dabi anymore. He's reverted back to his old self: Touya Todoroki. Dabi may act nonchalantly and unbothered, but Touya doesn't. While little Touya was very energetic and boisterous back in the days, older Touya on the other hand is highly enigmatic and pragmatic. He takes pleasure in taunting heroic figures, students, and Pro Heroes alike, sadistically enjoying the pain he inflicts on others, including those he murders. He loves to engage in psychological warfare in order to unnerve whoever his opposition is and is rather savvy about how heroes operate and will exploit their natural tendency to rescue others. He is not afraid of causing collateral destruction, rarely holding back, even if it puts his allies at risk. Touya is intolerant of most people and can be very derisive most of the time, being quite rude and condescending to essentially everybody he interacts with. He insulted Shigaraki immediately after meeting him and constantly does the same to both his allies and enemies but doesn't always do it with the intention to be rude. Though older Touya is sadistic and sociopathic, he can also be apologetic, remorseful, and sympathetic at times needed. And most importantly, after revealing his true identity, Touya's NOT at all chilled - 

For this Dabi gets a soft NO. 

And if we're talking about older Eren here, then yes, older Eren is really chilled whatever the situation is. For those who have seen season 4 of AOT, I don't think I need to go any further about older Eren here. So for the criteria, Eren gets a hard YES. 

He makes a lot of promises -  

This criterion describes someone who makes a lot of promises but never fulfills them.

Let's talk about Dabi here. The reason why he's so traumatized and is now considered the most 'tragic' character in the series is all because of his father, Endeavor aka Enji Todoroki. Enji threw him into an illusion of becoming a great hero (even greater than All Might) and promised to support him to the end at a very young age. Touya clung to those fickle hopes, dreams, and promises even after his father later rejected him and tossed him to the side. 

Even though his father abused him mentally and emotionally from time to time, Touya still kept on loving his father to the point it became a borderline unhealthy obsession. And not only that, when he finally started to resent his father after waking up from comatose and promised himself to destroy the pride and status that Endeavor took years to build, he kept that promise to that very end. He waited 8 whole years to destroy Endeavor which also indicated that Touya is a very patient man. For someone who was deceived over and over again by his loved one, whose promises were broken by the same loved one, I don't think Dabi/Touya would be someone to make any sort of promises to his s/o. Rather he's someone who believes in the quote "action speaks louder than words". So he's getting a big hard NO on this one. 

Now let's talk about Gojo. episode 3 of JJK, Gojo promised his students a tour of Tokyo but took them to a haunted site full of curses instead. So I can imagine Gojo making a lot of fickle promises and ending up doing what he wants to instead. 

However, by the end of that episode, Gojo did take his students out for a ride and dinner. 

He might get playful and seem conceited at times but Gojo always comes through. There are very few things that Gojo takes seriously, and keeping promises is one of them. Gojo gets a hard NO for this one as well. 

And now let's talk about Eren here. Both younger Eren and older Eren are passionate individuals and are someone who cares about their loved ones to death. I mean the man promised to give a better world to his friends and ended up committing genocide (killing 80% of humanity or four-fifth of the society). This man knows how to keep his promises. So he's also getting a hard NO on this one too. 

He's always busy - 

From time to time, Dabi's shown to be busy in the series, like going around the city and doing his own thing (burning people alive that is) but he's not too busy to lend a helping hand to Shigaraki and the League whenever necessary. 

So, he's getting a soft NO on this one. 

Gojo on the other hand has a habit of often passing on his missions to his students. In episode 2 of JJK, Megumi is left alone to fight with Sukuna and gets badly injured. Gojo arrives at the scene and it is revealed he was sightseeing and buying souvenirs while people’s lives were in mortal danger. 

Surely, Gojo isn’t around a lot of times when he is needed. However, he does hold an important position in the Jujutsu Sorcerers’ world. Additionally, he has a lot of faith in his student. What I am trying to get at here is that while Gojo may not be there all the time, he usually has a good reason for it. Although he does seem the type to ditch his significant other in the middle of a date because he got distracted by an ice-cream truck or a baked potato stand. So, we’re gonna give him a soft YES to this one. 

Have we ever seen Eren being really busy with something and not being able to give quality time to his loved ones? Not really (at least from what I've seen so far). And due to the lack of evidence, I'm gonna give him a NO on this one again. 

You never fully know them - 

Relationships, or in most cases, Situation-ships with fuckboys in real life can be pretty one-dimensional. You never fully get to have deeper connections with them because you never get to know them. 

Dabi, yes at first was mysterious, I mean really mysterious, but he also had a solid reason to be like that - to destroy Endeavor's life and career. But after that whole revelation happened, Dabi didn't hesitate to keep anything secret at all. He revealed and exposed everything that's related to him (including his traumatic past, his abusive father, etc.) to the whole world back in the war at Jaku City and later in the 2nd war when Shoto asked him why he didn't come back home after surviving the forest fire, Dabi again didn't hesitate to tell the backstory of his rescue and survival. 

Dabi may not open up to his s/o at first, but he will at some point in time. Slowly but surely. It's just a matter of time and place until he'll vomit out everything. So he's again getting a soft NO on this one.

Seeing Gojo with this lens makes a certain degree of sense. Even people who spend a majority of their time with him can not seem to figure him out. However, in Gojo’s case, this is less a matter of his shallowness and more a matter of, there is no one in the JJK Universe who can stand beside Satoru Gojo. Even people like Nanami who openly say they don’t respect Gojo, still hold him in high regard and rely on him. In conclusion, while we may never fully understand Gojo, he gets a soft NO in this. 

Do we really need to say anything about this when it comes to Eren? 

This man hid all of his plans, his emotions, his almost everything within himself in order to carry out and execute the genocide without any hindrance. For sure, Eren gets a hard YES on this one, no doubt about it. 

Arrogance and self-obsession - 

I personally have other criteria for fuckboys and that is arrogance and self-obsession. We all know that canonically Dabi and Eren aren't arrogant or self-obsessed and they're not someone to show off how awesome and cool they are. Maybe younger Eren and younger Touya would like to have shown off their powers and abilities to others around them, but their older selves won't. So they're getting a HARD NO on this one for sure.

Gojo on the other hand actually fits perfectly for this. He has a degree of self-assured arrogance and this mostly annoys older or mature people in the JJK series namely, Megumi, Nobara, Maki, Panda, Inumaki, Nanami, Utahime, Yaga, Gakuganji, etc (while others like Geto and Shoko don't give a shit about it). However, naive people like Miwa, Yuji, or even Yuta find him quite interesting and charming. Gojo never misses a chance to show off how cool and awesome he can be. Additionally, he never shies away from praising himself when no one else will. 

Having said that, is it really narcissism if it’s all true? Sure, Gojo smugly says he is the strongest on multiple occasions, but that is objectively 100% the truth in the JJK universe. 

Conclusion -

Now that we’ve gone over almost all the factors that form a fuckboy, we’re ready to arrive at a conclusion. Based on their behaviors around their seniors, peers, juniors, enemies, friends, family, students, or whatnot, we can somewhat conclude that these three men might have the aesthetics of a fuckboy, but they are not. 

Well, at least Dabi and Eren are NOT fuckboys for sure, Gojo on the other hand, it's kinda complicated. And the biggest piece of evidence of Gojo being a potential fuckboy comes from Gege Akutami himself. As Gege said in one of his past interviews, he can not imagine Gojo being faithful to a woman. However, since Gege doesn’t plan on giving Gojo (or any main character) a romantic angle in the story, we’ll never truly know. 

Gojo is a lot of things, fickle, conceited, self-centered, arrogant, and so on. However, all aspects of his personality are completely genuine. He is someone who is capable of deeply caring about people and goes to great lengths to protect them and he brings people souvenirs every time he visits places. 

This charming man-child might be a 6’3” walking red flag but based on all the highly scientific research and my personal feelings, Gojo is also NOT a fuckboy.

Dabi, on the other hand, might be the greatest, the coldest, and the emo-est, edgelord ever lived in Musutafu City, but deep down he still cares to some extent, feels remorseful for his wrongdoings, and even feels sympathetic and apologetic for certain people around him (for example, while he had no problem killing the Pro Hero Snatch, the latter's words appear to have resonated with him, implying that Dabi has sympathy for those that have lost family due to villains, as well as the loved ones of those who he has killed. This does not extend to his own family though, as Dabi has frequently contemplated their deaths for the sake of revenge). 

It's just that his hatred and resentment towards his own father (also his whole family) are stopping him from becoming a soft boi. 

Whichever version of Eren Jeager you choose, at the end of the day, he's just someone who loves and deeply cares about his loved and dear ones. 

Don’t get me wrong, all three of them are still very frustrating men to have a romantic relationship with, but they are still lovable in their own ways and also loved by the fandom themselves. 

[villainsandvictimsalliance]

Do you think any ships in MHA will be canon? If so what's your reason for it and if not what's your reason.

Btw, I love your writings about the MHA characters. Have a lovely day.

Being honest I don't see romantic love as something central in bnha.

There are in fact few examples of romantic love. We could divide it in three categories: romantic love as shown in the characters around the age of the UA kids, romantic love as shown within older generations and romantic love as shown in marriages. The last category can be aslo separated in happy marriages and complicated or tragic marriages.

In the first category, you have Izuku and Ochako. They are the main pairing in the manga. This is one of the few romances that is not in the marriage stage, and that has had a constant development. The rest of the UA kids haven't had such explicit treatment in terms of romance.

In the second category you have Natsuo and his girlfriend, for example. These are minor romances with low impact. Even when you think of the pro-heroes, it's hard to point out really relevant romances. The lines between romance and friendship are not well drawn, which also happens with a lot of the UA kids.

And then you have the marriage romances. This are mostly shown in the form of the parents of the UA kids. Although they are many happy marriages, most of them are secondary or have little impact; the expectation is the marriage between Bakugou's parents, but they are a complicated subject.

Some of the most important marriages in the manga are more tragic or complex: Rei and Enji Todoroki, Kotaro and Nao Shimura, Nana Shimura and her husband, David Shield and his wife, even Inko and her mysterious husband. I think Rei and Enji Todoroki are the couple that has more impact on the plot after Uraraka and Deku's pairing.

Why does it matter to answer your ask? Well, all of this tells you that Horikoshi is not a writer that's very interested in romance.

In comparison with Naruto, for example, you can see how little bnha talks about romance. In Naruto you had kids constantly and explicitly talking about romance, you have many pairings and examples of people falling in love, losing lovers, getting married and even having kids.

Even if you take other shounens, you will notice the difference. The protagonist normally have parents that loved each other very much, or happy parents that couldn't protect them, or complicated parents, or are themselves in a very specific romantic relationship or tangled in an specific romantic plot.

In contrast, Deku is the son of a single mom. The plot hasn't cared that much about the whole subject of Deku's father for a reason. Deku himself has a very soft relationship with Ochako, way more light and occasional than other pairings in anime or manga.

Of course, Horikoshi could always surprise us making some Naruto ending and putting together a bunch of pairings, but for the moment I think he's way more focused on the whole redemption of the villains and the kids surpassing the old heroes. Horikoshi is not that worried about love, so don't expect to have great love confessions until the end. And I prefer it that way, being honest. I find most bnha ships really cute, but I like better when they are not explicit so everyone can have their fun makign pairings. I also like bnha not being about romantic love. That's something I value a lot, because sometimes it's hard to find stories that worried more about other types of love (friendships, families, colleagues, etc) and doesn't push romance to try and make a character complete or something like that.

Sorry if you was waiting for another answer,,,,,,,, :( but I don't see many ships becoming canon. Maybe some UA ships, or some pro-heroes getting married, or stuff like that. But there's no great evidence of a bunch of ships in the manga and even if you can take some stuff as evidence, it could be played out as good friendship and not love.

I'm glad you enjoy my writing and I hope you have a nice day too! Please remember to take care of yourself! Stay safe, stay healthy!

[uno-writing]

Yeah something that I found rlly unusual about unOrdinary is that literally none of the characters are shippable, or even implied to be in canon. In the beginning I thought that Blyke had a thing for remi, but now I'm more inclined to believe that he's just rlly protective. Literally not a single one of the main cast has been shown to have a moment with anyone. It's all just stellar friendship.

Tbh, it's straight up weird to think about any of the characters together, and I think that's why most of the fics and hcs are xreader. Really surprising given that's it's a dystopian highschool YA. Every one of those genres always has romance and unOrdinary Really said that we're only here for plot and social allegory and awesome characters and we stan. (love a good romance just as much ofc)

It’s definitely a change of pace to this type of story🍿🥤🍭🍬🍫🧋. I mean, I think the most similar form of media to UnO would be MHA and the DekuxUraraka relationship canonically keeps popping up in almost every episode. I kinda enjoy it bc it keeps things focused on other problems/conflicts instead of falling back on the same old romantic drama.

I think the only character who has canonically had a thing for another character is Isen. When he interviews John we see a little doodle that he drew of him being all muscly and He drew Remi having heart eyes for him. He also calls many characters hot/pretty/attractive.

It’s so hard for me to actually imagine any of the characters in a relationship. Like most of the ships are completely toxic. Especially the John x whoever ships bc John canonically hates, or at least strongly dislikes, everyone except for his dad and Sera. I hope people aren’t shipping John an his dad (but I’m sure it’s happened, knowing the internet) and it seems like Sera and John are too close of friends that they’d more likely see each other at siblings rather than romantically.

I’m so so glad I haven’t seen anyone Sansing or Oncelering UnO characters. (if you don’t know, people really liked these characters and there wasn’t anyone canonically they wanted to ship them with so people made au versions of sans from undertale and the onceler from the lorax and shipped them together (so like sansxsans or oncelerxonceler)). Like…I’m sure someone has done it, I mean, it’s the internet. It’s highly likely some jimps have shipped JohnxJoker or something like that.

**Of course, just bc they’d be less likely to end up canonically doesn’t mean you can’t ship them. Once you take the toxicity away, 90% of these ships are adorable (the 10% are ships like keonxjohn or ships of a similar fashion).***

[elkian]

I was gonna do a “missing the point”-style meme but I’m honestly not sure that would even work tho so:

Harry Potter and My Hero Academia/Boku no Hero Academia have similar issues with introducing and then immediately ignoring ENORMOUS issues re: ableism.

I think these two series in specific come to mind bc it’s ableism within a specific empowered community, and in both cases the series are pretty well-known and the community (Wix/Heroes) are immediately identifiable to many audiences.

[WARNING: Discussions of ableism, child harm, and abuse on multiple levels.]

What’s the problem?

SQUIBS.

[This post got stupid huge SO here is a tl,dr for all you lovely people who understandably have no time for this.

TL, DR: Both Harry Potter and Boku No Hero have a bad tendency to implement or imply a level of disability regarding unempowered people in empowered societies. They then continue on to completely disregard important conclusions to these implications, such as how heavily it is implied that these unempowered people (Squibs) are so ‘worthless’ to those societies that their very deaths are merely a byline rather than an actual tragedy.

This is especially troubling in MHA/BNHA when so many other political and worldbuilding considerations HAVE been planned out, and seems to be less-discussed in the fandom as a whole, so that’s a much larger chunk of this post.]

That’s your tl, dr!

Here’s the Harry Potter angle:

HP has a bit that I’ve seen people discussing already: Neville’s magic was discovered when his uncle dropped a literal child a potenial lethal distance. 

Neville activating his power and surviving is celebrated, and then JKR immediately glosses over the glaring issue this has introduced: the heavy implication that a Squib dying from this incident would have not have been mourned or even really commented on.

The few adult Squibs (and isn’t that a whole new slice of wonderful /j) are generally disliked and ridiculed for some reason or other. Now, while obviously there are plenty of places where the Venn diagram of “disabled” and “asshole” intersect irl, when your ONLY presentation of a disabled character or group is, every time, an asshole or a fool or both, boy! That’s bad!

Neville (who is generally presented as magically, physically, and mentally weak and often treated as comic relief) is a bit better via the POV Character constantly having positive interactions with him, but this is still a mess. Yes, Neville canonically is not a Squib, but it’s not subtle that he’s on the cusp OF being a Squib, and that is a key element of ridiculing him in many situations (also the whole trauma thing multiple times, like if I really get into it I could do a whole double-size post of how Neville was done dirty or nearly dirty by JK all the time but this isn’t that post).

This isn’t even the point of this post. Let’s move to MHA/BNHA

Hero Academia has differing but honestly even worse issues. And I’m aware that different countries handle ableism and accessibility in different ways, but if you think too hard about it this is an absolute clusterfuck.

What is the problem now?

Squibs! Or rather, the main character of the series, Midoriya Izuku.

Deku (a nickname meaning “useless”! Imparted after his disability is recognized! hilarity!!) is also born without powers. Even worse in some ways, he is born without powers in a world where the overwhelming majority of the global population has some kind of empowerment. I can’t recall if it’s outright stated or only implied that someone with a functionally useless (and hoo boy, usefullness to society is its own post nope not today i do not have that much energy) Quirk is still more of a person than a Quirkless human.

That sink in? Okay, let’s move on.

In a narratively not-uncommon turn of events, Deku gains power. This is partially a product of, and directly tied to, his own work and determination, as well as his willingness to help even when physically outmatched.

To an American audience (NOT the intended audience though I wouldn’t doubt it if Horikoshi meant to have international appeal more or less from the start), this is a deeply satisfying narrative. Who doesn’t love an underdog story? And we even learn that the strongest hero of all time (til this point, anyways) was ALSO born Quirkless!

However, from here, things take a nosedive.

The key problem is a combination of story progression and overall thought put into worldbuilding. Horikoshi’s efforts may not be the MOST thorough, but he has put a great deal of work and thought into his creation (he at least understands the concept of implications and sometimes plans accordingly, looking at you JKR). However, that tied with story progression and personal repercussions actually works to the detriment of the matter.

Especially given recent turns of events.

 [BIG MEGA SPOILERS FOR FAIRLY RECENT PLOT

 STOP HERE IF YOU’RE NOT CAUGHT UP

 SERIOUSLY]

 What I mean by this is the current state of events re: two particular recent/recent-ish plot arcs.

First, Quirk Removal, and second, Endeavor’s comeuppance.

Quirk Removal/Loss was the start of my realization to what the narrative was doing regarding Izuku’s Quirklessness and the state of being overall.

This arc was a perfect time to bring up Midoriya’s past! A lot of Western works certainly would have done so! And yes, it may be bordering on done-to-death, but many elements of Hero Academia put new twists on common themes and cliches; it wasn’t unreasonable to hope that he might do it again.

Instead, little to NOTHING is discussed during this time! In fact, iirc I’d go so far as to say Midoriya straight-up never considers his past at any point during this arc!? If I’m wrong then it obviously made little impact.

NOW, not every disabled character needs to incorporate their disability and/or skills gleaned from living with it in every narrative. In fact, it would get tedious and questionable if they did (note: this does NOT mean ignoring/forgetting the character is even disabled when convenient. Like, I’d like to think that’s the obvious point of this post but... *gestures at tumblr*). 

But the complete lack of it here feels really weird. Like, almost hollow. I think Midoriya makes some kind of suggestion to Mirio of his former Quirklessness at the end of the arc, but nothing that made any kind of impact.

Let’s move on.

Endeavor.

Now, the problem with Endeavor’s arc is not the arc itself. Or, rather, it’s the fact that Endeavor’s Comeuppance is pretty good.

This is a problem because someone else should be getting this exact same arc, yet the issue is never even RECOGNIZED, let alone addressed.

Endeavor’s abuse of his wife and children, all in the name of creating a Heroic legacy, is publicized and tanks his popularity. The general public is now aware of what he’s done to the people closest to him, which aside from giving him a more correct reputation, means they can’t trust him to protect them if they can’t trust him to protect his own family.

This isn’t the goal of this post and I’m no expert regardless, but up to this point (around chapter 290) this was handled in an interesting way. Endeavor is humanized and often shown interacting with people in a way that, while often domineering, isn’t always aggressive or abusive. He runs a Hero Agency for crying out loud! But abuse in the real world often isn’t constant, nor happening to everyone in contact with the abuser. So this is a surprisingly good lead up to the reveal, where you can understand how most people never realized this was an issue.

But here’s my main point. Let’s examine some traits and actions that come up:

physically abusive to a child (often dangerously so) to the point of permanent trauma and severe scarring in some cases

target of abuse was weaker (physically and/or regarding Quirk power)

often abused victim emotionally/psychologically, bringing this weakness up again and again

own immense power led to rising in the world of Heroics

comrades, fellow Heroes, UA teachers etc. not aware of prior abuse issues

Who does this sound like?

Endeavor, who has a whole fucking arc dedicated to this reveal and repercussions?

Or Bakugou?

Reminder: This isn’t a hate post. This isn’t a character post, or even an abuse post. This is about ableism.

Bakugou exhibits many, many traits and actions that Endeavor was literally just punished for. So why does the treatment of these characters in-universe differ so drastically?

Two primary reasons I can think of, which feed into each other:

1) Bakugou was a child (still technically is a minor, remember! Still a first-year high schooler!) when this started. This doesn’t mean he’s strictly innocent, but it’s an important point, because it leads us to

2) Bakugou Katsuki’s abuse of Midoriya Izuku is socially accepted.

Reminder of the audience’s first encounter with Katsuki. The very first page with him is him and his grade-school posse picking on a kid that Izuku is trying to protect. His posse is showing off their Quirk powers and mocking Izuku’s lack thereof.

Then we flash forward to late-middle school versions of the kids. Bakugou, in front of a fucking teacher and entire class, is verbally, physically, etc. abusive to Izuku. He trashes his stuff, threatens him, tells him to kill himself (which, as Izuku notes later, is a fucking felony in Japan too).

No one stops him.

No one criticizes him.

We don’t even get a shot of like, some more ‘regular’ students being like “man Bakugou’s kinda fucked up but we’re too scared to do anything about it” NO. NO. Everyone more or less either backs Katsuki up or straight up doesn’t care.

Remember that this started when Katsuki and Izuku were four. Remember that Katsuki’s power is absurdly dangerous, ie. LITERAL. GODDAMN. EXPLOSIONS.

Izuku has scars. He probably has hearing loss! He may have gotten at least one concussion which can cause serious neurological issues and open him up to further risk!

He could have died.

And?

NO ONE. DOES. ANYTHING.

THIS is the point of the post. THIS is the value placed on Quirkless people in this society.

And yet. Despite Endeavor’s comeuppance. Despite All Might and Izuku’s blatant ‘value’ to society through Heroics. Despite so many other political implications and quandaries address in the Hero Academia series.

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing about this is addressed. The nearly-lethal ableism towards Quirkless people in this society is never ONCE brought up properly once Izuku receives One For All.

There is so much potential here! There is so much worth talking about! And yet we’ve moved into what feels very much like the Final Battle without it being addessed, despite numerous, numerous opportunities for a meaningful conversation about it along the way.

Mirio losing his power! Hell, Mirio’s powers’ drawbacks (and pretty much every Quirk’s drawback! if acknowledged properly!) border on a disability-analogue, and even more when Yuga’s laser comes up, and yet again and again we fail to truly engage with the matter in a meaningful way.

At this point, even if it comes up in the finale, I’m going to be disappointed in this particular aspect of the series due to the complete and total shut-down it’s been given so far.

What the FUCK, Horikoshi?

[justatalkingface]

Thanks for answering my ask! Just one thing though I probably should have worded it better, my bad, when I asked if ochako's goals conflicted, I was thinking something like she might be rejected by hero society despite everything she's done, in a more extreme sense. Like if ochako started advocating for better treatment for heroes and eventually villains, then hero society might literally try to get rid of her.

In the chapter with izuku and the civilian mob outside UA (main character's solution: bring it all back 😅), nagant and hawks with the commission (I know they're technically gone but with no safeguards preventing them from coming back, you know), the heroes and civilians have been shown to fight against and in many cases eliminate those who they feel are a threat to them or their way of life, no matter who they are. Maybe it's just overthinking on my part in hoping that ochako might really accomplish something in the end, but with what we've been shown in bnha on the 'heroes' side, it just never seems like a clear picture that'll turn out well. Does this make sense or no?

Oh, sure.

There's actually two questions here, whether you know it or not.

There's would this happen in a 'realistic' version of MHA, and would this happen in our MHA.

In reverse order, in our MHA? Not a chance. Ochako, the half assed love interest of The Main Character, if she was campaigning to do The Right Thing, after the story is over? There's no way she'd be shunned. It's just... not going to happen, because she's a hero and as I've said before, Hori is afraid of letting his heroes look wrong, or having problems where they're morally conflicted. If they're doing something, its right, therefore they'll do it successfully because it's right. At worst, there will be some minor protest from someone unimportant, solely to be shouted down and prove Ochako's point.

Granted, I'm not sure how much advocating for the villains would happen, what with this series's complete refusal to address the problems it brings up, but off screen there could easily be something done that 'fixes' things, somehow, about villains, when it's clearly a societal problem the heroes are having problems admitting even exist, because at the end of the day Hori has locked onto the basic story book ending here.

Also, this assumes that hero society and/or Quirks is still around post canon, which is actually up in the air at this point.

On a more realistic sense... that is where it could get interesting.

Assuming, for this, that after the story everything is the same, more or less, that there's still Quirks, heroes, ranked heroes, monetization, Japan hasn't been Dusted or SMASHED into oblivion....

Basically, Status Quo is God, and Ochiko wants to punt God into the sun, as is right and proper, yeah?

Then she could be having some problems, because while she would have a lot of good feelings going her way, as a hero of the... war(? whatever AFO's suppression get's labeled as), and probably with her classmates support, villains are probably going to be loathed by the general public, since, you know, they keep killing everyone and starting a war. It's the reason the League is so nonsensical; they're so extreme in their actions that the public can't have any sympathy for the causes they (theoretically) are fighting for.

Moreover, heroic society itself has serious inertia to it, and it is (theoretically) filled with heroes more concerned with money or fame than actually helping, and they wouldn't want their cushy jobs, after the the brief period of stress that is the war, to be messed up any more, or heroes who just hate villains or what not who honestly think these policies would be wrong. That's not even counting the HC's work with people like Lady Nagant and Hawks which is just... never acknowledged in story? Or presumably dealt with in any way? (Destro did kill some of them, yeah, but the structure is still there. It's relatively simple to just... slot some other people in there, since it's not actually gone) So yeah, that'd still be there as well, and that means there's actually a chance that Ochako would be assassinated for 'The Greater Good'.

In a 'Hori if he had put work into all this' kind of story, where he's attached to the characters, of course that'd never happen (or rather work), but in a just 'realistic' story Ochako using her influence like that to 'support' villains would be viewed as a threat to the industry (and I do mean industry) by the powers that be, and if she's the primary voice of it, an 'accident' could stop it from continuing on as much.

But that's an extreme option, and there's plenty of more reasonable options to use before then, by giving her worse jobs, having the media that would presumably be in their pocket work to discredit her and tar her image, and all the other petty bureaucratic shit that can be used against someone to try and make her life hell until they give up or quit.

[raspberry-rampage]

MIDNIGHT DESERVED BETTER

SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 296 I GUESS

can i just say that midnight’s death was simply stupid.

to summarise her actions in the recent arc:

she’s assigned to the group attacking the mansion. knocks out big number of the the PLF members. pairs up with kamui woods and tries getting closer to make machia fall asleep. dabi attacks them, kamui gets burned and throws her. she gets hit by the rubble that mr. compress throws. she falls down. calls yaomomo to give her a plan. she’s hurt from the fall. encounters plf members. presumably, cause it happens off screen, fights and gets killed by them. she dies alone. later her body is found by the students. her face is not shown, only her mangled mask and students holding her hand.

let’s compare her death to another character’s who died in the presence, who was quite important to the main character/s, their ally, mentor, and significant to us, readers. i mean nighteye.

nighteye, all might’s former sidekick. becomes a mentor figure to deku. fought with overhaul, the main boss of the arc. gets mortally wounded, it’s shown clearly on the pages. we also get a hospital scene where he says his farewells. the funeral gets a mention in later chapters.

nighteye’s lifespan amounts to... 38 chapters (124-161). midnight’s ‘official debut’ was in chapter 24.

what midnight gets? she doesn’t fight the main boss. gets offed off-screen by minor villains. her farewell is three panels, no dialogue.

can i just say. WHAT THE FUCK.

i’m not hating nighteye, no siree, liked the guy, was sad to see him go. but midnight? i adored her so much. especially started appreciating her more cause of ‘vigilantes’. but. i can’t get over how unfair this seems.

also, i’m not saying that everyone should go out in a blaze of glory. life is ugly, after all. but we’re talking about a fictional work and about what a character that is of importance in the story deserves.

what could be the cause of this treatment?

my theory is that it could be:

a) midnight’s gender, so her being a woman;

b) horikoshi trying to wrap the arc quickly and move on to the ‘final’ fight and then prison break (which cuts out farewell time, i guess we can expect to see a funeral scene later, if lucky).

for example, point a can relate to the fact that her face was not shown during the laughably short farewell scene. horikoshi doesn’t shy away from gore, yet midnight’s beaten up face was too much, i guess?

i just. i can understand this treatment for majestic. dude was mentioned but made an official debut not that long ago. but we’re talking about midnight. the beloved midnight. the only female teacher/staff member of u.a. besides recovery girl that we’ve met. oh wait, forgot about thirteen. so hooray, 3 women to 11 men ratio. now 2.

what the absolute fuck, i repeat for plus ultra-th time.

midnight was pretty much the only adult woman hero that was the closest to the main cast. let’s not get more into how sexualised the female heroes are (it’s even mentioned in canon, so horikoshi knows what he’s doing and YET doesn’t acknowledge that in his designs or how female heroes are represented), just so many wrong things are going on. and i’m not saying i hate their designs (big mirko fan) but i get pissed off at the unfair treatment. why do most of the female heroes have to wear spandex? but that’s not the issue that we’re talking about now.

i don’t know. maybe i’m overreacting. probably am. but i honestly can’t comprehend how horikoshi could’ve treated midnight like this. it’s not the first time that a female character in mha gets the short end of the stick, but i can’t help but hope. oh well.

tl;dr midnight deserved better than being offed off screen and getting a few panels with no dialogue as a farewell.

please feel free to express your own opinions on this.

[interstellar-elf]

The Alien Quirk Theory

Okay, so this is something I kept thinking about last night but didn’t think I could talk about it until now. It sprang up when thinking about the X-Men and Dragon Ball Z influences in MHA as of late and also on the fact that Horikoshi is a big fan of Star Wars.

So my theory is that Quirks were created by aliens to take out the human race in order to colonize Earth but the virus mutated in some way that it ended up mutating humanity into what it is in the MHA universe now. 

My justifications into why this is true actually start with Nedzu and Overhaul. Back in the Overhaul Arc, we found out via Overhaul’s inner dialogue, that scientists believe that Quirks started out as a virus carried by rats. This is when the fandom literally jumped on the idea that Quirks are a virus carried by rats and that Nedzu is one of those rats who carried Quirks and might have been experimented on by humans. However, the actual evidence for it inside canon as of this date is literally non-existent. The only thing we have to assume with that is a theory and Overhaul’s assertion of Quirks as a ‘disease” is suspect mainly for his thoughts on Quirks being a “disease upon society” and responsible for all of society’s ills, so his position is grossly biased against Quirks as a whole. In addition, Nedzu as a rat seems suspect as well. In his first introduction, Nedzu says he has the aspects of a dog, a rat, a bear, and his tail looks more like a cats in contrast to a rat’s, so I’m pretty sure he isn’t a “rat” but resembles one a lot. Furthermore, if Quirks were a disease featured in rats, it would make more sense to have more animals, or at least more rats in story to manifest Quirks. This is considerably non-existence or super rare in canon, since as far as we know, only Nedzu, Kuin Hachisuka and the Monster-Cat are the only animals featured with Quirks. 

Quirks being a virus is still suspect, as viruses need to transmitted via some way, but in the canon as it’s shown doesn’t seem to show any kind of transmission except via rats and humans, though even that is suspect as seen above. However, it could have been transmitted like a virus but not be like a virus. In fact, it seems to be more of a genetic mutation rather than a virus. 

My theory being that it’s something aliens brought in rather than something that arose naturally comes from how the Mutants arose in X-Men. An alien race called the Celestials experimented with the human race in the past, eventually creating the factors that would create Mutants in the Marvel timeline. This had me thinking: what if Quirks were implemented by an alien race in the past of the MHA universe?

But I further this: given the whole take on Quirks being a virus, Quirks and rats being intertwined in the narrative via Destro and Overhaul, I feel like the idea of Quirks being a virus in the canon isn’t out of question, but I also feel like it’s more of a common mutation that got out of hand. As for the rat imagry, I feel like the actual reason for it, may be because of the aliens who brought the virus may look like rats. Yes, I’m saying that Nedzu might be an alien. My main reasoning is that it seems like Nedzu seems to have some weird additions to his Quirk aside from high intelligence, he also seems to be either long-lived for a rat and large. Also, with the references to alien movies and the ambiguity of Nedzu’s past, my thought is, MAYBE he’s an alien. I don’t think that would too crazy, so let me explain.

I purpose that sometime in the past of MHA world, aliens started to change the genetic material of humans via a virus. They did this at a distance, though with Nedzu being captured and later escaping, the idea that rats brought the “Quirks virus” was instilled via this revelation. The main purpose may have been to take out humanity so Earth could be colonized. However, this did not work, and instead humanity mutated and Quirks mutated and became stronger over time.

[uozlulu]

BnHA/MHA chapter 284 reaction and spoilers

Looks like Bakugou’s a few squares away from a anxiety blackout bingo. I mean like we’ve got a) Midoriya’s being reckless, b) Bakugou maybe froze up a chapter or two ago, c) Shigaraki is here and all that baggage from the kidnapping, d) Aizawa is now missing a leg and bleeding from the face, e) Grand Torino is definitely dying, f) even the pros are having trouble fighting, Shigaraki, g) plans aren’t working, h) all his friends and classmates are in the middle what’s turning into a war, etc…etc…etc… We’re basically like missing his family and UA being directly threatened at the moment. Well, and the rest of the League haven’t shown up yet so that’s also going to add to the situation when that happens too.

In some ways I think that this is meant to underscore how far Midoriya and Bakugou’s reconciliation has come, but at the same time Bakugou, even at his most vicious, has always had anxiety about Midoriya just flinging himself into situations without thinking (ex: the slime villain incident, warning Midoriya not to follow him when he was kidnapped, etc…)

This flashback reminds me of a section of that soulmate AU I’m writing, but luckily I won’t have to rework it like the earthquake at a mall sequence because a) Bakugou and Midoriya training together takes place after graduation and b) luckily I didn’t write that bit of the fic before this cropped up so I will at least have this in mind to do with what I want and feel less samey about it. It’s what I get for using canon-typical plot points are filler between soulmate nonsense.

I’m also glad we got to see what Yagi did with Class 1-A while Aizawa and Yamada were dealing with Kurogiri revelations. This also means that Bakugou and Midoriya were training together willingly a few months ago timeline wise and it would be interesting to see this reflected in their current interactions more, which would help do what the opening to this chapter is trying to do by showing the progress of their reconciliation in more of a real time way.

This Bakugou and Yagi conversation is really nice. I like it a lot. It also carries on the theme so far in this chapter of how far Bakugou’s matured since the start of the manga. However, again, it’d be nice to have gotten some of this in a real time format. It also makes me wonder when/if he will have such a conversation with Midoriya.

Bakugou admits to Yagi what I’ve always suspected that, “Something’s not right. It makes me wanna keep him at arm's length. Back then, I ignored my own weakness so I ended up bullying him,” which is why Midoriya being reckless is at the top of the anxiety bingo. I’m glad that Bakugou’s getting to a place he can say this out loud. Would like to see him and Midoriya get to a place in which he can convey this to Midoriya in some way.

But I’m also concerned about the “Something’s not right,” line. Has something always been not right or has that feeling only begun since Midoriya took on OFA? If it’s true that Midoriya might have been experimented on in childhood, which could account for his ability to unlock previous users’ abilities, maybe that feeling of something being not right has always existed since kindergarten or there abouts.

Midoriya’s thinking, ‘Looks like he's [Shigaraki's] adapting to my 100% attacks and taking hits! But, his wounds are healing slower! This damage is sticking! The last two 100% attacks wrecked my left arm! Shigaraki now possesses All For One and One For All is a power passed down for the sole purpose of beating All For One! He has to go down here! Now’s the moment to let it all out! Everything that One For All has to offer! No matter what happens to me!!’ and it’s making me wonder much like we saw All For One controlling Shigaraki and speaking through Shigaraki a few chapters ago, if One For All in turn isn’t pushing Midoriya into a similar position. I mean they were both immediately drawn to each other, Midoriya just takes the lead on this fight, etc…etc…lots of questions.

I heard a rumor that the manga might end at chapter 300, but I’m not inclined to believe it. There are so many things up in the air and the story seems so much bigger than that. Maybe it’s my hope that the story will have three parts to it (first year = introduction to universe, second year = Midoriya starts to realize the problems with said universe, third year = Midoriya helps change the universe (although I could also see Midoriya validates the universe happening too)). Not to mention this seems like the type of battle in which the protagonists get their asses handed to them and then they have to regroup and get stronger, so that is my hope even if that’s going to be painful to watch. The story just seems too big to end satisfactorily in sixteen chapters.