#I have finally figured out what the AM card meant 🥲

[chocmuffinsscones]

I was rereading a few chapters back, I got very overwhelmed by the sheer meaning of a scene that suddenly hit me today. I guess I didn't fully comprehend it on my first read even when I've read metas about how important that one panel meant.

Just at the moment he detonated his own heart, knowing that there's no chance of survival after his actions, we see Katsuki's mental state.

He's apparently in a calm, peaceful state, as if he's accepted what's gonna come, and the first thing he sees is vestige AM. And the only thing that comes to his mind is

The genuine wish that if only he could be his true self all this time.

I think there's a nuance in here. From what I felt, the highlight here isn't that there's a vestige AM in him (tho that fact is equally important for the story), but the fact that Katsuki isn't looking at AM at all even when he's right in front of him.

It's the AM card. The sheer significance of its existence and the importance it held for Katsuki.

Katsuki kept this card doesn't just signify that he still has a nerdy side in him, the side that how much he had admired AM all this time.

No. What he sees through the card was the precious time that he once shared with Izuku. The knowledge that he, on that day, so fortunately got the same AM card with Izuku, a kid who he could never stop thinking about throughout his 10+ years.

Have you started to comprehend that one panel that change the meaning of this small moment?? The sequence leading to that panel, before and after it, the implication that it brings?? Have you ever wondered why the card was highlighted two times in these scene?

Yeah people joked that it's bcs Izuku loves AM and couldn't ignore a damaged merch. But to Katsuki, the card meant a bond that he could have with Izuku if he hadn't been feeling insecure and inferior due to his pride this whole time.

In fact, he wasn't lamenting his missed chance of getting a signed merch from AM.

Towards his last moment, he was still only thinking of Izuku, of the missed out moments that they could have nerded out about AM together all this time. He recalled that precious memory while making a genuine and candid smile to himself.