#I always thought their quirks foiled each other

[thyandrawrites]

AU where Tenko goes to UA, becomes a pro and opens an agency focused on disaster relief with Thirteen. Their duo becomes known as The Vacuum Clearner

[skippygiraffee]

I'm once again thinking of SWSH.

Specifically, thinking about Leon and Raihan's rivalry and how that's framed. Rivalry in SWSH is interesting to me, because the rivals in Pokemon game are usually relegated to the relationship between the player character and some of the others that join them on the journey across the various regions. And SWSH both has a lot of rivals in Hop, Marnie, and Bede, but also showcases rivalry and what that looks like in both adulthood and in the professional setting in Leon and Raihan. Which to me is intensely interesting in many aspects, and I think they're foils of each other in a lot of ways.

Leon is set up to be polished, confident (edging on the side of arrogance in some cases), if not a bit goofy and aloof. I don't think this personally reflects all of him, not in the slightest, but taking a cursory glance at him, he's clean, he's put together, and he's definitely given the quirk of being the silly goofy guy of Galar who keeps getting lost everywhere. Whereas Raihan is a bit messier, a tad feral in his batting pose, and is shown off as being very intelligent. Raihan is the dragon, Leon is the prince/knight, like I think there's a lot to work with there, and I find a lot of that dichotomy interesting.

They also share some aspects, like the connection to royalty, where Leon has the crown on his hat, and Raihan is literally hanging around a castle. But the ways in which both are presented is so different that it feels like a different kind of royalty, or at least they're not supposed to be seen on equal footing.

I also find their ace Pokemon to be quite interesting. I'll die on the hill that Charizard, in this game, is meant to be a dragon. Raihan has his dragon, Duraludon, and I don't think giving him that one is a coincidence. Because they could have easily given him the other Gen 8 dragon, Dragapult, but they didn't, and I think there's a reason for it aside from Duraludon just fitting Raihan better. Honestly, I think it might be drawing a parallel between the White and Red dragons of the Arthurian tales (which these dragons were also imprisoned under a castle and well. Eternatus is right there), and having Leon and Raihan have two dragons, one white and one red is pretty interesting, at least to me, seeing as it might connect to something real world, and since SWSH does take a lot from the myths and stories of the UK and surrounding areas.

I'm also unsure if it ever states how long their rivalry has been going on, but definitely long enough for it to become part of both of their brands, intertwining them in ways that I don't think they can be pulled apart from. Where the other rivals in game are able to grow outside of the rivalry from one another, Leon and Raihan always seem to be both doing their own thing, and always meeting back at the same place to duke it out again.

Not sure where to end it, seeing as I have a lot more thoughts that get caught in the web, but I wanted to at least down and throw them out onto my blog :3

[kooki914]

How do you think would Noelle and Ralsei interact with each other if they got the chance? What would their relationship bring out of the other?

This is something I've given a lot of thought to, and something I'm still salty wasn't explored at all in Chapter 2. So this post is both going to answer your question as well as be my excuse to write an essay about these two.

The thing is, Noelle and Ralsei are narrative foils to each other. That probably sounds weird on account of the fact that they never interact, but both mechanically and through dialogue, we see parallels form between them. They're both enigmatic, mysterious, while keeping up friendly appearances, while also being literal or figurative royalty in their respective worlds (Noelle is from a rich family and is adored, Ralsei is a prince with no subjects). They're both love interests to the leads (yes, to Kris and Susie BOTH, the snowgrave route is essentially an exploration of a toxic friends-to-lovers but I'm not getting into that here), and they're both rife with religious symbolism, as well as the fact they're both prey animals (in a world where boss monsters like Toriel and Asgore can look more lion-esque, Ralsei's decidedly goat-ish appearance is kind of striking to me). They have the same heal spell (a pray to light) and they're both "passive" in that kind of way a mage usually is in RPGs.

Noelle's arc mainly centers around agency, while Ralsei's arc mainly centers around identity. For all the struggles she faces, Noelle doesn't really have that... crisis of character that Susie and Ralsei are prone to. Even in the snowgrave route, she doesn't question herself, she questions Kris. And, while Ralsei IS an obedient doormat, it's not out of a lack of agency (he shows us as much when he puts his foot down right before the kids open a fountain), it's an active choice he KNOWS he can simply... Not Do (as evidenced by how upset he is with Susie's behaviour in chapter 1 and his epiphany about it in chapter 2, he essentially equates mean behaviour to Purposefully making people around you suffer, instead of a personality quirk or showing of emotion).

It's interesting to think about how they'd complement one another. Not even strictly in a character arc sense (I'll get to that), but just in a... character interaction sense. Noelle has this pattern of putting the spotlight on other people. Even when she talks about herself it's always framed as a way to lift up those around her, while Ralsei has this sneaky way of getting to know you without you even realising (if the rooms he made for Kris and Susie are anything to go by). I think this would result in a dynamics where Noelle (passively, almost accidentally) allows Ralsei to open up in a more genuine way, while Ralsei still tends to Noelle's needs like he does for everyone else.

It's also interesting from a worldbuilding sense. We've seen Ralsei not give a flying fuck about Anyone that isn't directly connected to the prophecy, both for humour reasons and for horror reasons (as seen in the snowgrave route), so giving him a friend that's 1) a lightner, 2) not part of the prophecy, and 3) trying to actually know him on a personal level - it'd probably cause him to actually rethink his worldview. If someone like Noelle, someone who's got nothing to do with the prophecy, can be an important person to him and a good friend to people she doesn't *need* to care about, then why can't he? Can he be someone outside the prophecy? Is his identity and purpose not confined to this, and what does that mean for him in the long run?

And, on Noelle's side of things, Ralsei would probably be a healthier outlet for that feeling of nostalgia she's so addicted to. With him around, she's allowed to just be a kid again. No appearances to keep up, no expectations to fulfill, he's a fresh start and a new friend that she's allowed to be her authentic self around because his existence is essentially rooted in tending to the inner child of all the lightners he comes across. And maybe then she'll be able to let go of the past. Maybe, though viewing her childhood through an outsider's eager point of view, she can see how far away it is, and how she doesn't NEED it to be happy. Things can't be the same, and maybe that's a good thing. Maybe they can be better.

Overall, there's also a... vague "burden of femininity" they both have. They take on emotional labour even when they don't have to, just because that's what's expected of them. I so badly want a Dark Fun Gang-esque arc with these two where they defect from the team and just decide to be bad guys on their own terms for a while. Just because they can, just to see what it brings out of them. And, they'd be complete dorks about it of course, but it'd be nice to see them breaking their moulds with people they don't feel judged by, with friends they don't feel the need to impress because they're already so similar to.

There's this one bit of dialogue I wrote for them for one of my AUs, specifically in the above scenario where they decide to be bad guys for a bit, and I feel I need to share it here because it puts into words something I can't without taking away from the feels of it:

[megaboy335]

10 Years of My Hero Academia

I have been an avid reader of Weekly Shonen Jump manga since I was a child, and later started following the magazine closely since around 2009. In that time I've witnessed countless titles start and finish. My Hero Academia is the rare kind of series that connects us from the previous generation of the magazine to its current era. It started in Issue 32, 2014 and finished in Issue 36-37, 2024. That makes it the 2nd oldest series in the line-up at the time of ending. Below is my review of the series. I give my thoughts on several of the story moments and give my final impressions. There will be spoilers and it's a long discussion.

Let's first flashback to the summer of 2014. I was in college preparing to spend my Junior year abroad in Japan. My Tumblr was very active and about to reach new highs with my presence in the Nisekoi fandom. In the Weekly Shonen Jump world, a generational shift was about to occur with the new debut of a new battle manga from a previously 2 time canceled author, Kohei Horikoshi.

Looking back on the issue when My Hero Academia started, we can clearly see how it was a completely different era of Jump. Naruto was still running at chapter 683. That is near the end of the 4th Great Ninja War arc. Naruto would later finish that fall in Issue 50, 2014. Additionally, Kuroko was just a couple of issues away from wrapping up and cementing itself as one of the best sport manga Jump had seen in a decade. One Piece was in the middle of Dressrosa, where little did we know that chapter 752 would only put us halfway through the arc. Gintama was just about to make a major pivot into full time battle manga mode. This issue also saw the conclusion of iShoujo at 20 chapters. (It would later get rebooted on Jump+ as a launch title and run for 14 volumes). It's very clear how My Hero Academia started in a complete era than where are now. So, how was My Hero Academia in the early days? Well, quite honestly I thought it was a very middle of the road title. I was already familiar with Horikoshi through Barrage (the very first simlpub in the digital Jump era that Viz started from chapter 1). He always had a good sense of perspective and the way he draws mouths with depth is a distinctive feature. The series also wore its Naruto inspirations quite openly, while taking advantage of the popularity in superhero movies to add some visibility in the eyes of readers. I thought it was riding the coattails of current trends. The early chapters were standard fare in modern day shonen. Speeding through character introductions and establishing the setting. Shigaraki made an early appearance with the mob baddies called Nomus but it was hard to get invested in the central conflict so soon. However Shigaraki’s eerie design of being covered in hands certainly stood out at the time. I was curious but not necessarily invested right away. (of course in retrospective its clear how Horikoshi used the early events as building blocks for what was to come later)

But you know what sways me the most: Tournament Arcs! This Sports Festival tournament was where I finally started feeling invested in the series. In part because tournament arcs provide an easy to use template for establishing character relationships, create unexpected match ups, ground character arc trajectories, and provide payoffs if used later in the story. The big plot point introduced in this arc was the #2 Hero Endeavor and the relationship with his son, Todoroki. If All Might is the honest public face hero, then Endeavor is the power obsessed guy. He destroyed his family and took extreme measures to produce a child that can beat All Might. Todoroki's story begins with him outright rejecting his father. However, this changed during a fight with Deku. Deku and Todoroki are both foils and yet mirrors of each other at the same time. They were both blessed with powers that were not obtained naturally. Deku was given a quirk on the spur of the moment from All Might. Todoroki was given his abilities in service of someone else’s goals. One accepts their reality and the other does not. Deku showed that Todoroki accepting the power is not the same as acting in father's wishes. He should use the powers gifted to him in whatever ways he sees fit. This moment comes with the first end of chapter title drop and the moment when Horikoshi’s writing clicked into place for me. The scene when Todoroki uses his flames for the first time is powerful because I loved how they were depicted coming out so naturally. These flames are a part of himself and always have been. Todoroki has at last accepted that side of himself going forward.

After the tournament, it shifts into a short arc with the Killer Hero Stain. He brings up the idea that Heroes should be more than symbols for people to worship, and instead Heroes should practice what they preach. He sees All Might as the only authentic hero to follow. This is the first time we see a villain figure making a valid point that pins down one of the faults to hero society. Stains describes how everyone is doing it for fun, out of obligation, or for making money. All Might is someone whose confidence is so strong that his hero persona and outward personality are one in the same. Sadly this arc was too short to fully explore the idea, but it would come up again later. Jumping ahead, the series quickly reached its first major story climax: All Might vs. One For All. I went into this fight thinking All Might was going to die and was very surprised when he didn't. The master passing the torch to his student through a death scene is such a common trope (which yes, it made me even more surprised how All Might survived the entire story). I was on the edge of my seat when reading this weekly and consider it a high point of the series. This fight ended up marking the beginning of the end to the Hero Society. All Might's retirement shakes the very foundation of the Hero world. Who can possibly replace someone who inspires people from all walks of life? From this point on, Deku and Shigaraki are now  walking similar paths as the heirs to this conflict. The following arcs saw the league of villains poking at the cracks and expanding the seeds of distrust.

When manga serializations are constantly one-upping itself on story climaxes, it can be hard to return to any semblance of a daily life in the aftermath of major moments. This middle section of the manga from about volume 12 to 24 is a boring stretch of the series. First getting the provisional licenses felt unnecessary in the grand scheme since there's really nothing stopping them from fighting the bad guys other than technical loopholes in the writing. Then the Shie Hassaikai arc was almost like canon filler to me.  It amounted to very little at the time and came off like a side quest. (This arc also marks the beginning of frequent breaks). Afterwards the U.A. school festival was a refreshing turn back into school life but still, Gentle isn't the fodder we need to see. Lastly, the worst offender of this stretch by far was the class A vs. B matches. A tournament style arc just for show. No stakes. Nothing of consequence.  It basically paused the story for about 2 volumes. Thankfully Horikoshi would resume the plot right afterwards with a bang.

My Villain Academia is exactly what the story needed to get itself back together. The League of Villains seemed like they were supposed to be foils for class A-1 and yet any comparable character development just wasn’t happening. This was finally going to change. This arc focused exclusively on the villains and each member would get a quirk power up, while Shigaraki received the rampaging ally Gigantomachia. We also have the Tenko: Origin chapter to put his past into perspective. While I still have issues with the villain writing, it felt like the villains could finally stand on their own in the story.

The momentum continued into the Paranormal Liberation War. An all-out fight between the heroes and villains at their peak across multiple areas of Japan. The countdown to Mirko stopping Shigaraki from reaching his true form was thrilling. Then came the first real clash between Deku and Shigaraki. However, the star of the show for this arc was undoubtedly Dabi who effectively canceled Endeavor’s entire career. Dabi exposed the past of Endeavor by explaining his own story. He showed that Heroes put up a public positive face to hide their power hungry desires motivating them behind the scenes. This makes Heroes no different from villains in many regards. These words brought an end to Hero society as we knew it. The public was already feeling uneasy after the retirement of All Might, and signaling out Endeavors’s past showed how the system was built on an image, not human understanding. Japan was left in ruins, numerous convicted villains were released back into the wild, and the people have nobody they can trust.

I consider the spread page above to be my favorite from the entire series. Horikoshi’s art reached new highs throughout the Paranormal Liberation War arc. His ability to depict Shigaraki as a real force of nature against the Heroes was crazy good. You could really feel the impact behind every attack on each individual and the surrounding environment. Shigaraki ability is something that alters landscapes wherever he goes.

The final stretch of the story begins with Deku acting like a vigilante. Hero Society at-large has hit its lowest point where the institution of Heroes who maintain public safety is no more. The public is scared for their life. Heroes have largely abandoned their post. One for All and the strongest villains are on the loose, and Deku has been completely worn down by the burden of his role. His mind has entered the idea that only he alone can fix this. The Lady Nagant storyline was awesome. She is someone who had to adapt to survive in these precilous times. A hero and a villian is only matter of perspective after all. Sometimes people will do what they need to in order to survive. If even our main character can be swayed then where is the line hero and villain?

The Dark Deku arc is when Deku is stripped down to his core convictions: the desire to protect his friends and defeat One for All. However it's the very friends that he was trying to push away, who ultimately reached out the hand to save him. Deku has touched each of their lives in ways he can't even begin to imagine. Now it was time for them to return the favor. This brings the story to a touching scene where Uraraka yells to an audience of scared citizens to remind them how Heroes are people too and Deku is one of them. This section is my favorite part of the entire story. It felt like everything had changed. We didn't know where the story was going next nor where to begin tackling the awful state of the world. Everything was so raw. It was an exciting time to be reading weekly.

After reaching a new series high, we drop down to one of its lowest points in my opinion. Star & Stripe vs. Shigaraki was an absolute shame. There should have been a study abroad arc so Deku could meet and experience heroes around the world. So when the Number One American hero is introduced, with death flags, I was skeptical about why. I don't like when characters are introduced just to die immediately. The whole point was to artificially weaken Shigaraki so the heroes would stand a chance in the upcoming final battle. Similarly, I would have liked the traitor reveal if it had been more important throughout the story. Barely came up after the training camp arc in volume 9. It came off like Hoirkoshi just needed to check off that box to appease readers before entering the final battle. But, finally seeing Hagakure’s face was a very nice reward. Despite the stumbles to set up the final battle, I thought it was incredible. One of the best in recent memory from Jump. A fight with the future of Japan on the line across numerous locations. In shonen manga style, it pulled in every single character from throughout the series, used all the mobs to their fullest, and pitted villains vs. their foil villain character. Iit definitely checked off all the boxes of what you need for a grand finale to a long running battle shonen. I think Dabi and Todoroki got the thematic ending it needed. Spinner could have used a little more focus. Himeko and Uraraka reached an understanding at the very end that was probably the safe end for their storyline. I loved seeing the floating stage slowly descend to the surface as the climax approached, while the fighting began to center around Deku and Bakugo. Horikoshi once again reached new artistic highs I couldn’t even imagine throughout the final battle. I like to think the frequent breaks allowed him to pace it better than you typically find in Jump manga final arcs.

As the series comes to close, I am left very pleased with where character arcs ended up. Deku is someone who had to grow up almost overnight. From a quirkless boy to saving all of Japan in the span of a year. He has something that All Might lacked. The spirit to never give up on leading a hand to someone in need. If All Might presented himself with confident bravado, then Deku was the honest human type. Shigaraki is someone who was beyond saving, and yet even if for a moment, Deku wanted to give the respect he deserved as a person. Deku losing his powers cements the story as being about a moment in his life. That he never took the powers he was blessed with for granted, and used them to the fullest throughout the story. I appreciated that Horikoshi made no effort to justify the villain's actions (besides partly Himeko). They are a product of unfortunate circumstances and deliberate choices which brought them to this point. Their actions speak for themselves. This applies to the heroes as well. Endeavor is a complex man with a storyline that reads more mature than you'd expect at first glance. He is a man who drove his family to ruin for the sake of strength, and those choices came back to haunt him in the form of Dabi and Todoroki. He's effectively lost everything. I think Horikoshi stuck the landing by giving readers the final judgment if he should be redeemed or not. The family members were left mixed, and Endeavor is prepared to rebuild from nothing. Shigaraki’s death is best for the sake of tying a bow on the story. Deku indirectly caused it, but he doesn’t beat himself over it that much. The world is the same as it was before the conflict. Heroes will remain in people’s lives. The systemic issues of a Hero society that sells certain images of people and casts aside those who don’t fit will persist. Another person or organization like the league of villains could easily rise up again in the future. However, Horikoshi presents a simple solution. Leading a hand to each other is a good starting point towards making the world a better place. Happiness can spread from person to another, and lead to a better understanding of those we don't know. It takes collective action to make the world a better place for everyone and that can begin with a single person.

So overall, what do I think of My Hero Academia? Ending at 430 chapters is an incredible run for a weekly manga in this current era. Horikoshi covered a lot of characters and topics, many of which I still didn’t cover at this post. I think the series has some of the strongest battle manga highs we’ve seen in the past decade, and of course some parts could have been better. I take issue with pacing and writing choices at times. The villains collectively speaking were the weakest aspect, but the genuine passion for Heroes shines through in every aspect of this work. He used that as a lens to look at problems of the world. Naruto is very optimistic with how communication is the key to bridging differences. My Hero Academia in comparison says that is only a piece of the puzzle. Everyone needs to make a conscious choice to reach out to others. We all can be a hero to someone out there. My Hero Academia will be remembered as the generation-defining Jump series of the past 10 years, In the same way its beginning overlaps late Naruto, perhaps in the future, Kagurabachi fans will remember how it started at the end of My Hero Academia’s run. My Hero Academia will finish as the 9th longest series ever in the history of Weekly Shonen Jump. This is a position it will hold long into the future. I don’t expect anything in the current line-up to come close in length. I've considered Horikoshi to be the best artist in the magazine for the past several years. He always kept improving right up to the end with insanely detailed panels and spread pages. His presence in the magazine will be missed. Thank you Kohei Horikoshi. It's been a long ride. I'm glad you could finally cross the finish line. I look forward to whatever you might do next in the future!

[di-diwata]

Hi Fairy! I've been trying to cook up a Superpowers AU for a while now and I thought I'd ask members of the LS Q gang for their two cents on it if that's alright?

I can't for the life of me figure out what power each LifeStealer would have sooo what's your opinion? I'm planning on having most, if not all, members make an appearance at some point so feel free to go all-out lol. I have Parrot and Flame's figured out but they're not really set in stone so like, anything goes :DD

SICK!!!! i love hero/villain aus favvrouitest thing ever <3333

Hmmm, i always give Spoke shadow travel or shadow powers. It makes sense with his skin and he is a sneaky guy!

Rek you could give like, spider sense? (aka like 5 second warnings for when things are about to go wrong) thats cause of his paranoia and how he seems to be able to tell when traps are about.

Cube you could give control over technology? mainly cause of his work with Redstone. that could also be like, increased IQ.

You could easily do something with Roshambos extra hands, Telekinesis maybe? or just give him extra floating hands.

Vortex has dragon in his name, so you could give him dragon features? Wings or scales.

I tend to see people make Spepticle into a slime creature of some sort? so maybe give him the ability to turn certain parts of his body into slime? maybe he cn remove them to throw at people.

Woogie i feel like would have something to do with winter or cold (cause polar bear). maybe the ability to summon ice or snow? or he can control temperature! on the other hand, he could always have the ability to turn into a literally polar bear. Animal transformations are very fun.

Same goes for Pangi but in the opposite way. Pangolins live in hot climates so you could make him control heat? power foil to Woogie espcially cause they where teamed in S4. Or you could give him the ability to grow scales! pangolins have strong scales and claws so those features might be fun.

Poafa could have something to do with clouds? idk maybe he can summon them? kind of like a quirk from MHA, i'll paste that in:

The quirk Cloud grants the user the ability to generate clouds. These clouds are dense enough to be touched and can carry a relatively large amount of weight.

JumperWho could have permanent jump boost? i'm not overly familer with her sorry. Same could go for Kab ig?

I like Planet being an alien, so that could work. I also sometime give him gravity control although idk how well that works for his character.

-----

Yeah that's all the ones i can think of! I also can think of some drawbacks of powers? like things that they'd need to work around. But! I hope at least some of these work out or give you some ideas :D

[pocketramblr]

Okay wait i love how you fixed the shoe thing bc the concept of that was always insane to me but i also liked some of what people were doing with it so i was really conflicted. Is there some other way that izuku might be able to deduct that shigaraki used to be quirkless maybe? Bc i always loved that part of it even if i thought the journey to get there was ridiculous

The conflicted feelings are so real like it would be a fun connection if it was real and obviously fic writers can do whatever they want but also. That's a Nike high top and a Converse low top they're literally already fun foils of each other- opposite styles and competing manufactures despite the vibe, same color, and being made of similar materials... just like the people wearing them... without adding something that isn't there... Anyway

Yeah I think there's other ways to get Izuku to deduce Shigaraki was quirkless! Especially once he knows about AfO because if there's no record of any quirk like decay on the registration (which UA teachers say there isn't) and he knows Shigaraki is working for a very old villain who can take and give quirks? OF COURSE he's going to at least consider the possibility that decay was given by AfO. Now, how do we get him to then think that Shigaraki was quirkless before that?

Well, we can just extend the conversation in the mall- Izuku already asked about AfO, so maybe when he's asking Shigaraki about his motive compared to Stain, he also asks why he's working for AfO - did he trade something to get decay? Shigaraki would probably be a bit thrown, and then hurry to say that decay is his own quirk, and then maybe Izuku could see how Shigaraki could easily be treated badly and have to turn to AfO with that quirk but... His answer was kind of suspicious, wasn't it? And honestly, he didn't sound completely sure of it? Like he was about to say he doesn't remember before he changed his mind? And then Izuku can stew on that idea for a while, try to see what it was, before maybe extrapolating from the league messing with Overhaul that maybe he's got more hangups about it, isn't sure. Or maybe Shigaraki says something about the quirk in front of Bakugo, who brings it up to Izuku after. (Or there could be a whole ripple/domino effect from the changed conversation, and Izuku and Shigaraki have different interactions that get him different clues) Maybe he starts really thinking, maybe he brings it up to All Might.

And All Might knows Shigaraki used to be Tenko, so I'm sure he went back to see when Tenko was presumed dead, how he didn't have a quirk registered at all, and Toshi knew Nana's quirk was float, and Gran knew her husband's, so they could probably figure out between them that it's way more likely AfO gave Tenko the quirk when he'd been previously quirkless.

And yeah I think that could have a fun effect when Izuku suspects it just as Tomura is beginning to realize there's something Weird going on there... That's really really fun

[that-spider-fan-over-there]

Okay so the last post wasn't my last BNHA one for the time being but I wanted to expand on this one (how I think Midoriya Izuku: Rising would go), 'cause I kept thinking "how would the buildup to it even go" and I wanted to share!

Also, I'll alternate between Tenko and Tomura a lot in this post, I apologize for it.

So, with that in mind, spoilers for the manga, up until Chapter 417, ahead!

Okay, so the vestige world is going back in time for Izuku and Tomura; and it has currently rewinded to their origins- Izuku, as at least a part of his origins (as you could make a case he was already on his way since the Quirkless diagnosis, while the Sludge Villain incident was a checkpoint). As such, it's likely Izuku will rewind the closer he gets to Shimura family death.

So, based on previous encounters, Tomura would need to be shown a commonality between him and Izuku (being underestimated, told it's impossible for them to be heroes) or the extent he's willing to go to save a person (Lady Nagant, Eri, Kota, Katsuki). With that in mind, I don't know if Izuku would be willing to think about the last one, because of the worms inside that can.

It's a little tiring to hear the same thing, but that "control your heart" thing is indeed very important for Izuku- because how do you connect to someone like Tomura- who has (mostly) lost hope for help if you keep repressing the feeling he'd also connect with? Can anyone recall the last time we've seen, unambiguously, Izuku's thoughts?

This, is where Izuku's repression problem comes in- the first and last setback of his: "Not all men are created equal"; he is the central representation of the matter... and so are the two people involved in this narrative:

Izuku wasn't created equal to most characters, despite BNHA's house of mirrors game: no relation to heroes, no Quirk, no one to encourage him to become one through other means, no self-worth- He's like a lot of characters, but no character is like him, period, least of all Tenko or Katsuki.

Tenko wasn't created equal to Izuku because his relation to Nana (a hero) is what caused Kotaro's resentment to resurface, and Tomura's faith in heroes was shattered because the one who "cared" for him was AFO, who groomed him to be a vessel. We don't even know yet if Decay was his all along or not!

Katsuki wasn't created equal to Izuku because he was thought strong by his Quirk, and too much encouragement caused confidence to become arrogance. He grew up with love, yes, but what was expected of him (to be an arrogant hero? Izuku's closest person? An extra character?) could've been the reason he would have died.

So, they all foil each other in some way, shape or form- but the main contrast between Izuku, and Katsuki and Tomura: he hides one emotion he should be allowed to feel since chapter 1: Unbridled rage. Even in situations he'd be justified, do we see him lose it like in chapter 82-83, 210, 285 and just barely 367?

With all of that information, let's return to Chapter 417; the most recent one as of now.

We know Izuku's priorities- others before himself, even at the cost of his safety. A suicidal recklessness, especially when it comes to kids-Kota and Eri come to mind, Katsuma and Mahoro as well. The panel of him jumping in to reach for Tenko while Nana confronts Kotaro is the best representation of it. So it wouldn't be surprising if he'd stick by Tenko's side during the first Decay (assuming it's Tomura's memory and not the actual person). He's always been like that, the Quirkless teen who just wanted to help people like All Might once did.

Tomura would most likely falter on his resolve, after all, no one helped him in the aftermath of the Shimura tragedy, while Izuku just saw a kid in need and decided to protect him. But I can also see this is where Izuku would lose it as well.

This is where, I think, the memory merging would come in. Tomura reminiscing on the misery that is his life, and Izuku finally losing it once he realized he and Tomura are similar, with all of his rage finally coming loose... But also that he can use that to connect to him, using the embers of OFA he can feel. Not all, but just enough. Dark Deku returns, his feelings of inadequacy, of not belonging anywhere.

Because Izuku knows that feeling of unfairness, of knowing people don't believe in his dreams. But he knows anyone can make a difference, he needs to see how much he already did, just by being the one willing to give a hand for those who needed it. He needs to know where his origin really begins- not when All Might decided to be his mentor, but when he was the first who stepped up to help when it mattered, the sludge villain incident.

For someone who would've fit with the League, had the wrong right cards been dealt for him.

This would be where Tenko would probably cease, at least enough to hear Izuku out. Still as kids, they would probably fight until Izuku breaks through, until both collapse in exhaustion in the vestige world- not only from the fight, but from their emotional state. Just two kids who are tired.

Who, by all accounts, should've been like Tomura, right?

Weren't heroes and villains the same, after all?

The outside world holds their breath, for there is no movement yet. But all beg Izuku to do his best.

Nothing can erase their pasts, but Izuku doesn't want to focus on that. He needs to accept it's a part of him. So does Tomura.

And just as they finally come to an understanding, and Izuku lends a hand- a promise the future can be better despite everything, Tenko is snatched again by a plethora of forceful grips. AFO's trump card is activated- something that tries to break Tenko and possess Tomura again. Izuku tries pulling him out of it, but is slowly consumed as well. In this moment, they grow back to their current ages, while Izuku can barely move. He has no strength, no Quirks, no help, and he'll die then and there.

But.

The vestiges are conscious enough to rebel against AFO, like before. One more time. Maybe for the last time?

Izuku is still connected to One For All.

And he's not the only one.

Maybe this is the last time One For All will exist. But if All For One is defeated, if Tomura is saved, it's worth it at any costs.

The vestiges find their way back to Izuku, trying to pull him out, while he holds on to Tomura, who's terrified of being taken control of once again. They lack the same strength of the Quirk, but still make enough of a difference. Yet, it's not enough.

Until the two hands of a UA student appear beside him.

If their feelings are one, then Izuku knows who it is, and feels something new, worrying, regretful and afraid, but surprisingly for Izuku, he's kind, fully trusting. Vestige or not, that weakness needs to become his strength, just like before, then. So, Izuku channels that part of him, the one he’s ashamed of, and turns into something he’s proud of.

That voice says one thing: Do your best.

And therefore, his strength, complemented by the missing piece of Katsuki’s vestige, ends up being the turning point.

Izuku rips Tomura out of All For One’s grip, in the vestige world and the real world— an explosion; the shape of a star just like the one moments before. The cocoon is destroyed, the hands are shattered and falling from the sky. Tomura is unconscious, but his grip doesn’t decay Izuku at all.

In that moment, the world cheers, as Izuku gets up, a scarred right fist in the air just like his idol. The fight was won, and Tomura was defeated., No, he was saved. Japan was saved. The world was saved.

Deku, Midoriya Izuku rises, and becomes the world’s greatest hero.

[justatalkingface]

What are your thoughts on Shigaraki as a character and his arc?

You have the best MHA takes. What did you think of how Shigaraki was going before the bait and switch? You spoke a bit about Tomura in a previous ask, but I wanted to get your full thoughts.

Whiplash.

In short? He's simultaneously some of the best, most engaging, most realistic character development I've ever seen, so good it took me from zero to a hundred on his character, and someone whose potential got dropped into the ground and smashed like an egg.

I didn't like him at first. Or at second. Or honestly, for years: he slowly grew in the series, like Izuku, but he still remained the same whiny man-child as he was in the first place, and I couldn't stand that. He was, for the longest time, my least favorite villain, the worst part of the League, yet, somehow, the point they all orbited around anyways, and his two or three seconds of menace never made up for how annoying he felt at times.

It felt... piecemeal, boring. Like, there was obviously a conclusion building up there, somewhere, a point where he'd be more, but it felt so far away at times. He'd learn one obvious ass lesson in common sense, then run straight into another situation with an obvious problem he somehow missed 'til it smacked him in the face.

More than that, though, he felt weak. Weakness in a villain, as Gigantomachia helpfully frames it, is a sin; why am I afraid if you aren't threatening? Why are you dangerous if you feel so harmless? Threat, one way or another, is at the core of a good villain: it helps define their character, and through them, it makes you care about the setting, the characters, about what happens next. Oh no, will our hero die? What will that monster do to the Best Friend?

Without threat, without menace , without fear, a villain will always seem less.

And sure, technically he was dangerous, but not villainous. He wasn't evil, he was an oversized baby someone handed a death ray and throwing tantrums with it. The thing is, for most of the time Shigaraki Tomura wasn't dangerous because who he was, he was dangerous because he won the murder lottery, nothing more. But at the same time, he didn't have to be anything more than a child, because AFO was covering his ass, taking that role for him, even with maybe two minutes of screen time... until Kaminio. And without AFO to hold his hand, he was toddling off into the wider world like the child he really was, and he felt so damn impotent as he was railroaded to Gigantomachia, still not knowing what to do, still with the actual adults holding all the cards.

And it's just... this is Izuku's foil? This is the new evil to replace AFO, the new Symbol of Fear? Izuku has ascended in leaps and bounds, and this idiot is still figuring out step one!

Then he steps away from the invincible giant, and we get the MVA arc.

And the character development; he becomes a different person, but at the same time, unlike so many 'wimpy character gets hard' arc, he's still Shigaraki at the end.

It something you see a lot in fanfic and such, a character being trapped into an endless combat hell like he was. The one that emerges from that, though, is always a new person, their interests and perspectives gone and replaced by the new, edgier ones, often explicitly rejecting their old life and talking about how different they are now. New Shigaraki, even with his dumb-ass cape and the artificial way his Quirk felt leveled up, was still Shigaraki.

It's the brilliance of that change I can't praise enough, where Shigaraki's character growth suddenly makes sense. It's not typical, one step coming before the other, like Izuku. The way he so haphazardly gained each little piece was like that because he was meant to use all of them at once, as foundations to a new stage. It's the difference between stacking blocks on top of each other, and getting a neat little tower, or standing up a handful of normal blocks to act as legs to hold up one giant block. Which leg came first didn't matter since it could only happen once he had all the pieces.

And that conclusion he eventually comes to? Magnificent. Oh, it's objectively terrible, obviously, and the logic is ass, but the thing is is that it's his logic. It is absolutely something I can see him saying, see him thinking, that he would end up with with his cripplingly small amount of insight into the world and how things work, with his long established habits of hatred and holding grudges and wanting to break everything that bothers him.

His goal, no matter how you cut it, is simply monstrous in a way that surpasses even his mentor. At best, he wants to destroy all of society. At worst, at his most literal (and Shigaraki doesn't really do deception) he wants to simply and purely destroy everything he possibly can. You know, except his friends. And whatever they like.

It's a child's view of evil, of change, like painting a picture where anything they don't want can just be... painted over, without any real consequence. It's malformed and incomplete, but all the more terrifying for that, because it's the malice of a child.

It's that juxtaposition, between the ignorant innocent that a child represents, and the darkness of their desire to kill, that makes evil children so disturbing, and Tomura's aims so malicious.

And then.. we get the War Arc, and I think anyone reading this knows what I think about that. And it's here, in the War Arc, where Hori turns to this beautiful horror he's just made, and starts frantically tearing it apart, and has continued to do so at every possible moment. You can almost hear him screaming, 'Wait, wait! I don't want this!'

There was so much... symbolism in Shirgarki's full hearted acceptance of villainy, how he Decayed his family, again, willingly. It was wonderful, a perfect sign about how he have finally moved past who he was as a child, and no longer needed to cling (or be clung to) by their memories. And the way he Decayed All For One during the War Arc (one of the few good moments), boldly declaring he'd surpass him? Chilling.

Too bad Hori decided to promptly throw all that out by having AFO take over. And then, after Shigaraki had explicitly killed off his past, moved beyond who he was as a child... Izuku sees Tenko inside him.

Later, when we get to the final arc, we see Tenko mindlessly make the family he explicitly rejected as security blankets.

All of that growth, all that development... thrown out, so that Deku, that empty shell of a character, can look at him and go, 'I need to save him!' Nevermind all the people had killed, nevermind everything he had destroyed, nevermind what he thinks of the man who haunted him ever since this story started, The Protagonist saw A Child and he needs to save him.

In theory, AFO taking over Shigaraki could have been great. After all that development, though, all that work to make him finally able to stand on his own as a threat? It feels like Hori frantically trying to regress him to an acceptable level of innocence, so that AFO can carry all the burden of guilt for him (and Dabi. And god knows who else by the time this is over....) so whatever redemption they end up with doesn't fall flat (it's totally going to fall flat). However he escapes that, he's no longer going to be who he was, he'll just be reduced to the regretful villain, who is better now, honest! ...That is, if the actual child isn't what he ends up as, and there's a non-zero chance of that.

Meanwhile, let's talk power ups. Shigaraki getting stronger was understandable. Him getting All For One was thematic. The fact that an incomplete version walks out of the tank, and tanks all heroes attacks without dying is just... way too much. And then he gets stronger, or rather Hori turned to the 'Power Up' button and spent every moment SFO was on screen slamming it.

Worst yet, his power ups and Izuku's power ups are this self perpetuating cycle that won't end until the story is over: Izuku is too strong so Shigaraki gets stronger, when means Izuku is too weak so he gets stronger, which means that Shigaraki needs to get stronger again.... they've already far eclipsed everyone else and I'm fully prepared for more upgrades to come as we reach the finale and throw away all logic for bigger, more epic explosions.

It makes so much of his fights seem empty, because you know he'll win. The big fight with everyone not named The Protagonist, all the tricks they brought out to face him, was pointless noise, because every other minute he seemed to take a new form for no reason, faced no challenge, no threat, from all the people attacking him and yet was still unable to do anything. The fact that he's reached a point where Erasure needs to be constantly in effect is just... Madara Syndrome all over again.

'Haha, I've made my villain so cool! He can do all these awesome looking things, and he's invincible, and... wait! Shit. He's invincible! Shit shit... what am I going to do... Oh, I know! I'll have the moon eat him station Erasure constantly in sight of him and yet have him never be willing or able to stop it even though he's basiclly a demigod!'

If you have to nerf your villain every time he appears to have your heroes survive him, you have a problem. Hori gave him all these toys, only to have them taken away so suddenly, before he could even use them, it makes you wonder why he even got them in the first place other than for hype.

Also, while I'm at it... let's talk about one of those toys: Decay. Or rather, 'Original Decay' or whatever. This getting powered up make sense, but the way it happened just feels like retroactive justification of Shigaraki as a villain. Plot wise, I get that it was great symbolism, and helped tie his backstory together, but the fact he was repressing it, and suddenly 'got it back' just sat badly with me. It feels like it'd make a lot more sense, in a 'realistic' sense for it to have just Awakened (which is definitely a thing that should have been talked about more before they started happening everywhere) to explain the sudden power up rather than him just nerfing himself this entire time and only suddenly realizing it. This is me just nitpicking, really, but it irks me.

So yeah, Shigaraki was great potential that become no potential in about two minutes flat, and I dread whatever end he gets at the close of the story, because it will never match up to what it could have been.

[coffee-in-veins]

The Character Bingo for Damian👀? Also, thoughts on the redesign?

thank you for the ask!

i really should save drafts of those, when will i learn...

here's Damian's dd1 bingo:

frankly, i didn't think much about flagellants since i rarely used them in dd1 the game. i thought about Damian since my dear friend liked him, and he even got a supportive character role in RRR since i can easily see him hunting Bloodsuckers with single-minded religious zeal. he makes a nice foil for a decent amount of folk - Rey, Junia and Baldwin for their religiousness, Tardif for their inability to comprehend their own feeling, Sarmenti for singlemindedness. there's a lot one can play with, genuinely. i like the concept.

in-game, my biggest issue was that my flagellants always failed their very first death door checks despite their supposed high rez (hell, they had martyr's seal and it didn't flipping help in the slightest!), so i just sighed and resolved to a bunch of hwms and jesters for all my bleeding needs.

anyway, here's the same bingo for dd2:

hope it explains a lot, including my attitude towards the redesign. please bear in mind, i don't own the game (and now i doubt that i will unless it gets a nifty sale.. but i'm derailing here), so my attitude is based on text descriptions and three screenshots i've seen.

but if we want to be technical:

as i mentioned above, my flagellants died more than any other class (save for maybe vestals because i didn't play with occ as healers), so seeing literal Death chasing him is frankly hilarious;

i hate zombie characters when they are played as straightforward zombies. if they are more or less creative (fungal artillery my beloved - the yell i let out when i realized what exactly was going on with this thing was and still is priceless), then they get a pass, but you can't get any more zombie-y than a mummified guy who "refuses to die because of his will";

also the snobbery of that statement. i get that it was a magazine interview but just... others are pussies, i suppose, if they fail death check and die? wonder what does it make a non-candlefed flagellant when he inevitably bites an L and dies...

also WE ARE KILLING DEATH; no, for reals. it's Death. not a monster. not some eldritch being. not corporeal demon. DEATH. the literal aspect of it. how? why? since when it's a thing?? we are the motley crew of fuckups and social rejects; yes, they (supposedly) stopped The Heart of Darkness in DD1, but there it was more of the benefit of the estate and the looping nature of the land surrounding the titular Darkest Dungeon than anything, with a dash of Sleeper's time fuckupery and the Heir heavily implied to be cursed to keep the loop going and the Heart sleeping. and then again - you are supposed to lose a minimum of two heroes in that fight. are we supposed to perma-lose someone "Come Unto Thy Maker" style each time we fight Death? I highly doubt it, because Damian will become a liability quicker than he'd appear on a character select screen; here we are supplexing literal "i'm in my horsegirl phase" Thanatos AS A ROAD MINIBOSS; let's see what road minibosses are: a canon, a greedy woman with PTSD from her former expeditions, a pack of bandits and LITERAL DEATH; am I the only one who sees a "what the fuck are stakes" problem, here...?

also also seeing a fanatically zealous character having a move to desecrate corpses/graves is very odd, imo. yes, Baldwin/Leper has one too in dd2 - but in dd2 he is canonically no longer religious;

this is more of my quirk of trying to biologically explain eldritch fuckupery - but if Damian has coherent lines in DD2, this is a fuckup on RH part. he has no lips. he physically cannot speak as a human would, since lips and cheeks are a big part of how we form sounds to make words. if he groans, moans and wheezes only - my bad, you can ignore this point completely;

he no longer has his tooth gap. why? why, RH, why? his CC set trinket is literally Chipped Tooth. his background comic highlights him losing it. and yet his "rotting body" somehow got dental work and got it back...?

I dunno man. much like DD2 in general, i want to love it, i genuinely do, but it feels like... how do i put it. imagine amazon "hollywoodifying" DD1 with absurd stakes and literal "we're the only one who can stop the end of the world with our street magic" and making a sequel based on that and... i just dunno. i want to give it the benefit of the doubt, but the more i see, the less hope i have. huh. much like the game itself does, i suppose. it was a dd2 joke. an attempt to make one, at least.

sorry to end on such a downer note ^^' i hope you can enjoy dd2. i genuinely hope you can, i'll envy you in the best of ways. the game looks amazing and sounds decent, and i wish i didn't detest the rest of it. looking at you, gatcha.

and we end up on another rant of mine about dd2... sorry ^^' i'll try to control myself next time.

[faux-ee]

I posted 3,543 times in 2022

That's 2,736 more posts than 2021!

737 posts created (21%)

2,806 posts reblogged (79%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@kyouka-supremacy

@colourofthekites

@grishaverse-chaos

@chenechen

@akhlys-san

I tagged 1,669 of my posts in 2022

#fyolai - 51 posts

#dabihawks - 50 posts

#bsd - 33 posts

#bungo stray dogs - 19 posts

#personal - 18 posts

#spotify - 17 posts

#asks &lt;3 - 16 posts

#bkdk - 14 posts

#soukoku - 13 posts

#sskk - 13 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#it was so unfeeling and repetitive and like. sir. i can’t relate to ur experiences and u aren’t doing a very good job making me care abt it

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

bungo stray dogs is a piece of media thats so filled with tumblr energy. Its like a collective mass hallucination of famous author fanfiction with just the right amount of derangedness, mental illness, generational trauma and existential crisis. Each and every character gives major gender envy. Everything is enemies to lovers to enemies to freinds to lovers to enemies. Everything the characters do is high-key illegal and everyone agrees that old guys in the government r useless except for this one triple spy who's sleep deprived to a fault. There is a guy who is chronically online and absolutely cannot leave his futon. There's another guy who could write novels in days and is more attached to a racoon than the rest of the world. bram stoker listens to spotify. bsd is the true tumblr-esque media.

Edit: and as it often appears bsd characters become each other's blorbos. They wanna hug each other they wanna see them going through the undying pain of human existence they spin them around in a mental microwave or smth

Edit edit: also tumblrinas love literary analysis and bsd is full of literary motifs

420 notes - Posted December 4, 2022

#4

ranpoe actually foils fyolai bcs when poe had his mind set on killing ranpo he had a moment of realization that he wouldn't know how to live in a world w/o him, and several chapters after he became besties w/ ranpo, but nikolai already knows that fyodor is his intimate friend, there will never be another person like fyodor for him, yet still decided to kill him, bcs he "wants freedom more than any kind of joy"

434 notes - Posted June 29, 2022

#3

Kacchan is the only thing Izuku allows himself to have

and it's why Izuku’s always vague when it came to the intensity of his feelings about Kacchan & why Katsuki at first instinctively pushed Izuku away. 

idk if anyone has done this before, but anyways here's my fav aspect abt BakuDeku's relationship: Izuku's possessiveness over Kacchan and Kacchan only.

So I've been thinking abt Kamino a lot, and specifically two scenes: a) Izuku shouting "Give him back to me!" to Mr. Compress, and b) Izuku's devastated scream after Bakugo was taken away.

Izuku is an extremely selfless person, with only the heart for "saving people". That was part of the reason why he was almost immune to Katsuki's bad attitude towards him: dude doesn't think about himself a whole lot, alright. He's just kind of out of it. An observer. He wants to focus on his own feelings much less than he cares about others.

When have you seen Izuku do something for himself? Sure, he wanted to become a hero, he wrote 13 notebooks' worth of hero analyses. But this may as well only be an exertion of his obsession abt quirks & strategies, because despite all the talk about his dream, he never actually thought to exercise and improve his body strength before he got the OFA.

Here's an idea: Izuku doesn't know how to do things for himself, unless given a larger purpose. He takes little care of his own ambition before taking the world's weight onto his shoulders.

And he is subconsciously avoiding any selfish thinking, especially any private feelings he has about Kacchan, platonic or otherwise. 

He doesn't know what has triggered the blackwhip; can't remember what Kacchan told him before almost sacrificing himself to save him; doesn't remember whatever made him go berserk in battle. He acted like none of this emotional turmoil he experienced happened at all and went back to being this people-saving, smiling sunshine every. single. time. Even after Kamino, his first thought was Kouta, except that after Todoroki mentioned Katsuki, the light returned to his eyes and he finally broke down. 

Izuku actively avoids thinking about anything that causes strong emotions to erupt in him, yes, but more importantly, even when he is recounting these experiences to others, he omits whatever part that concerns Kacchan (i.e. when he told his classmates “I couldn’t save what was in front of me” - right, but Izuku, why are you describing Kacchan as if he is just anyone else instead of the person you have looked up to for all your life?)

He doesn’t allow himself to be selfish, to be partial, to treat Kacchan as somone special even when that’s what he does (notice how he’s always going like “Kacchan and the others”). 

Let’s look at what he said to Mr. Compress again: “Give him back to me!”

Didn’t he almost sound like a child who was robbed of his favorite toy? 

Why would he feel such possessiveness over Kacchan, though? 

Kacchan is Izuku’s Symbol of Victory, right? Izuku follows him, admires him, idolizes him (”closer to me than All Might, this amazing person in my life”). Here it is: Kacchan has been somewhat of an idol to Izuku, the incarnation of victory. 

Kacchan was part of Izuku’s definition of heroism; and heroism, to Izuku, is almost like a religious belief. He draws strength from it, uses it to cope with the pain of being quirkless, and admires All Might as one might do any deity. 

I’m going to go a little further here: when one prays to whatever deity one believes in, one is often praying to this concept inside one’s head, and taking what one needs from this private connection. Similarly, Izuku feels possessive over Kacchan because the latter to him is something of a god-like character, from the attachment to whom Izuku draws his desire to win. To Izuku, Kacchan is not just the Symbol of Victory. It’s his Symbol of Victory. 

Katsuki is his. His sun, his god, his drive to win. 

Izuku, who is so selfless that he rarely wants things for himself, doesn’t want to acknowledge that he can, in fact, be a little selfish when it comes to Kacchan. 

Meanwhile, as Mr. Compress had stated, Bakugo doesn't belong to anybody. And with such a big ego Bakugo would hate to be anything but independent. Something about Izuku made him want to keep his childhood friend at arm's length; he felt as if Izuku was stronger than him, looking down on him - and where does he get this feeling? Because Izuku offered to help him once at four? Stood up to him a couple of times?

There is another dimension to it, I think: it was also because Izuku had always followed him. And Katsuki, being the kind to always over-think, could mistake Izuku's possessiveness for Izuku seeing himself above him.

If an independent person ever finds himself on the receiving end of such possessiveness, he would feel chained, scared, and pissed off. Don't come, Deku, I don't want anything to do with you because the way you stick with me as if I belong to you, it almost chains me down. 

Thanks for bearing with my shipping brainrot xD

445 notes - Posted April 8, 2022

#2

B-B-Boyfriend? Like a guy who your body moved on its own for when he was in danger? Who you've grown up with? Activated a whole new quirk for?

550 notes - Posted March 19, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

being invested in bsd is such a unique experience bcs u watch the anime and think oh theres mafia and detectives and terrorists this shit's so hardcore and then u open bsd wan and they r kindergarteners and magical girls and princesses and ur just like. look at my cute little uwus <3 and then u read the manga and was hit with like three different schools of philosophical thoughts and suddenly become interested in classical novels with rlly deep themes and start to develop an existential crisis. its like yeah i watched an anime abt super powers and it all went downhill from there lol

993 notes - Posted June 21, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[itsnothingofinterest]

Being honest, I won't act like that wouldn't be my own response in this hypothetical, so long as Shigaraki kept his mind in tact anyway.

But in my defence, at least part of that was because ever since the first war arc I always thought it was in the cards for Deku, even if he went through all the character development I hoped he would, would come up short of being the hero that Tenko and others in/like the League needed. But I also always figured that's okay because, as long as his arc ends with saving Tomura in a way that acknowledges him as a guy worth listening too, they could team-up such that Tomura could cover for Deku's short comings and vice versa.

See, while I suspect most bnha fans tend to read one of the two foils as largely in the right and the other in the wrong (I mean I'm writing this, but I find I usually fit this description); I think an objective view would say that each has good qualities, things they're right about, and important points to make & things to fight for. But they are also each deeply flawed. In pretty much every way that Tomura's a 5-year old who's traumatized and lashing out, Izuku is a 4-year old desperately playing All Might like it's the only thing that matters to him; both of these aspects to the characters have many flaws stemming from them that I think were nearly all apparent in this final arc. (Might've even been ramped-up, with Tomura more nihilistically destructive & Deku more self-righteously thick-headed than usual.)

However, I think a lot of their good points were things that could've covered the other's flaws; Deku's optimism countering Tomura's pessimism, Tomura's ambition for improvement countering Deku's complacency, etc. If they had ever teamed-up for real, all for one and one for all (the quirks at least) united as yin & yang, who knows? Maybe they could've improved society while keeping it stable. Or something.

So yeah, I honestly would be calling it a success if Tomura lived and nothing else changed (well, I'd also like him to acknowledge the adult Shigaraki Tomura a bit more; but even if he didn't, there's still be hope if Tomura were alive); because that's been my thought process for a while: "it's okay if Deku kinda sucks because as long as he saves Tomura, then Tomura can cover for Deku's failings going forward. (And, y'know, Deku could cover for Tomura's flaws too I guess.)"

Ah, if only.

the ridiculous thing is that I think if 423 had ended with Shigaraki's regeneration kicking in after the AFO vestige was defeated, or Deku miraculously pulling out a five-year-old Tenko from the disintegrating form of Shigaraki-Possessed-By-AFO, or whatever 'save' Deku does, then it would be seen as a success, a 'save', and him as the greatest Hero. Nothing would've changed about his awful methods all throughout the last 100+ chapters or his condescending attitude towards Shigaraki and the villains, but because it worked out in the end - not by his efforts, but by sheer luck or deus ex machinas - it would've been seen as a successful save. and we'd be getting heartwarming panels of Shigaraki Tenko and the guy who tried his hardest to break open his soul and beat him to pieces but thankfully did not succeed due to quirk magic.

[grimalkinmessor]

*cracks knuckles* TIME TO GET INTO MY SHIGADEKUBAKU AGENDA

How Shigaraki is BOTH Midoriya And Bakugou's Main Villain And How They're All Tied Together: A Long Ramble

.

.

First thing's first—parallels. Specifically the differences between thematic parallels and narrative foils.

Hori has set Bakugou up as Shigaraki's thematic parallel, and Midoriya up as his narrative foil by making Midoriya mirror Tenko while also having Bakugou mirror Shigaraki.

Both Midoriya and Tenko grew up abused and lonely, one thought to be Quirkless and the other actually Quirkless, and even then the first manifested a 'villainous' Quirk not long afterward. Both of them have experienced Quirk discrimination and the inequality of society.

Both were shamed and discouraged for wanting to be a hero to the point that others would get physically violent with them. And while all three of them idolized All Might as children, only Midoriya and Tenko (specifically Shimura) have direct connections to All Might.

Meanwhile, Bakugou and Shigaraki are more physically similar. Both of them have extremely destructive, hand-centralized Quirks, and both of them have the same sort of attitude about them—even their speech patterns are similar in that they both say brash things while simultaneously staying polite in their actions. They are both quick to anger and yet incredibly intelligent and strategic, as well as not-so-natural leaders.

Bakugou's learning curve mirrors Shigaraki's on that almost identically. They approach their set goals with a stubborn single-mindedness that's honestly impressive.

The only place that they really differ is in their mindset towards battle.

Where Bakugou has always fought and trained to achieve absolute victory, Shigaraki has grown up being told that failure is expected and should be turned into a learning experience.

And now in this recent battle this difference is even more important, because while Bakugou is now finding a sort of 'freedom' in failure, Shigaraki has victory in his grasp and yet ultimately remains trapped.

Where Midoriya recognizes Tenko and his pain, but can't understand Shigaraki's villainy, the reverse is true for Bakugou. Where Bakugou cannot relate to discrimination and discouragement, he can understand Shigaraki's villainous mindset.

Because Bakugou has a mirrored redemption arc.

Both he and Shigaraki have anger issues. They lash out and hurt people at the slightest provocation, and are obsessed with making sure that they get what they want. If anyone gets in their way, they're toast.

Or, that WAS the case, at least.

Because wouldn't you know it, Bakugou has since grown! He was confronted with his own weakness, and learned the value of teamwork and kindness by making friends—though his ultimate form of redemption came through Midoriya.

Sounds kinda familiar, doesn't it?

My third point, which my bakudekus will love, is that Midoriya and Bakugou were always meant to be a team.

I always wondered why Bakugou didn't have a true villain of his own, before I realized that it's because Shigaraki is both Bakugou and Midoriya's main villain.

They are a matched set, a pair—you cannot have one without the other. Bakugou and Midoriya have each encountered Shigaraki once alone (Midoriya at the mall and Bakugou during his kidnapping), and every other time they've faced him together.

Because Bakugou was never meant to be his own hero with his own story. He's always been intimately tied in with Midoriya.

This goes all the way back to Deku vs. Kacchan 2, where the phrase 'win to save, save to win' came up, because it comes to fruition in their fight with Shigaraki.

Midoriya is not meant to fight Shigaraki, because he needs to save him. And only Midoriya can save him, because he's the only one who understands that Tenko needs to be saved.

Bakugou is not meant to save Shigaraki, because he needs to fight him. And, as we've seen in the new chapters, (what, you think a student would be the only hero to land a hard hit on the villain if it wasn't plot relevant?) only Bakugou can fight him, because he understands Shigaraki.

To beat ShigAFO, and to save Tenko, both Bakugou and Midoriya need to be the ones to face him. Together.

Both Bakugou and Midoriya understand helplessness intimately. They both know exactly what Shigaraki is going through right now.

In order for All For One to be defeated, and Shigaraki to be saved, you need them both. Because Bakugou couldn't do it on his own, and I guarantee you that Midoriya won't be able to do it on his own either.

And after Shigaraki is let loose, I'm willing to bet that it will take all three of them turning on All For One to defeat him. Not only because it seals Shigaraki's own redemption arc in place, but because it will finally be the three of them all together on the same side.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk! :D

[makeste]

I saw this take on twitter about Hana & Kacchan having “reverse parallels” and since they both have apologised to Tenko/Deku (but one was more or less sincere and the other was absolutely sincere) and they said that, while Hana moved away from Tenko, Kacchan ran to catch Deku. There was also more to the thread abt Kacchan & Hana’s differences. They were sorta trying to argue that this is a clue that Hori intends for Bkdk to be sibling-like/brotherly. As a bkdk shipped, I’ve accepted that it makes sense.. cause it’s an established fact that Tenko & Deku parallel each other. Tenko having his own “Kacchan” makes sense. Tho yes I am a little sad since I’ve held a little bit of hope for romantic bkdk becoming canon. I just wanted to ask your opinion if Hana was really meant to foil Kacchan or was it just a reach?

okay so I have a couple responses to this.

1. while it's true that Horikoshi has woven a lot of deliberate parallels between Deku and Tenko's characters, that doesn't mean every single thing about their lives and every single person they interact with is a part of those parallels. which is to say that no, I don't really think Hana and Kacchan are meant to mirror each other in any kind of significant way. Hana's apology to Tenko was under completely different circumstances than Kacchan's apology to Deku; I really don't see any connection between the two situations. you might as well be trying to compare Hana to Endeavor, or Deku, or Hawks, or Aizawa, or any other character who's apologized to anyone over the course of the story.

2. please pardon the forthcoming rant, anon -- and I hope you know that none of this is aimed at you in particular -- but for me personally, this whole obsession with ships becoming canon is one of the most exasperating types of discourse there is. like, don't get me wrong, I totally understand people wanting to see their favorite ships validated by the author, and not to mention there's also the issue of having more LGBTQ+ representation. but speaking as someone whose own orientation (aromantic) has almost no representation in fiction whatsoever, it gets frustrating to see so many people dismiss non-romantic relationships as being an inferior type of ship, to the extent that calling a relationship "sibling-like" is now a commonly-used attack in ship wars. so many people view romance as this completely transformative element, to the point where two characters can literally tick every other box on the intimate personal relationship checklist, and none of it will matter to some people unless they actually confess their love and kiss.

and again, I'm not saying I don't understand it, especially since queerbating is a thing. it's one thing if a writer is genuinely just trying to portray a close friendship, especially in series where romance isn't really a focus. but it's another thing entirely if a writer is deliberately hinting at a romance in a blatant bid to attract a larger queer audience, while all the while having no intention whatsoever of having those hints lead anywhere. the issue, I guess, is that it's not always easy to tell which scenarios are the former, and which are the latter. and of course, you also have people who think that the former is a type of cop-out as well, because the thing is that romance is always viewed as the default. so for a lot of people, allosexual and alloromantic relationships are the only ones that get considered as far as representation goes.

but you know what, I'm just gonna say it; even knowing where people are coming from, it's still discouraging to know that so many people are so dismissive of aro and ace relationships that the thought of a favorite ship not becoming romantic in canon is considered a profound disappointment. and it's even more discouraging that the thought of a rival ship becoming canon is considered such an existential threat to some that they will literally use "oh, they're just like siblings" as an argument against the ship, rather than a point in favor of. because siblings are a downgrade. friendship is a downgrade. any kind of close relationship that isn't inherently romantic or sexual in nature is less important, and that's just how it is.

so yeah, that's kind of a pet peeve, ngl. especially since the truth is I actually do think Bakugou and Deku's relationship is very akin to siblings. and so I do sometimes get weary of not being able to just outright say that without having to first pepper the statement with all kinds of disclaimers so that people don't think I'm invalidating the ship. I feel like I have to walk on eggshells if I ever want to talk about their relationship in terms that I can personally relate to.

but I mean, here's how I look at it. they've known each other since they were small children. they call each other exclusively (or almost exclusively) by childhood nicknames. they have an openness and an unspoken, almost taken-for-granted trust in each other to the point where they'll share closely guarded secrets ("I got my quirk from someone else") and personal vulnerabilities ("why was I the one who ended All Might?") with barely a second's hesitation which they would never share with anyone else. they have a comfortable little bickering type of rapport ("I'm getting stronger"; "well I'll just have to get even stronger then"; "you'll never surpass me"; "we'll see about that") which they can fall into with ease and which looks weird af to outsiders, but is "normal" to them and something they're both grateful to have.

they're so intimately familiar with each other's personality and behaviors that they can predict them with perfect accuracy. they're so in tune with each other that they can whip up elaborate coordinated attacks right on the spot in perfect sync. their admiration for each other is so strong that they each think of the other as being the epitome of winning and saving, respectively. their mental images of each other are so vivid that they subconsciously mimic each other's speech patterns whenever they start falling into a particularly strong Win or Save mindset themselves. they take no small amount of pride in showing off for each other. they go apeshit any time the other is in danger or hurt. and each of them would literally die for the other if it ever came to that.

all of that is already canon. on just about every metric imaginable except for "now kiss", the two of them already have a canon intimacy that rivals just about every other great relationship out there. and so to say that none of it actually counts unless there's an actual love confession involved frankly just boggles me. again, maybe it's because I have no personal vested interest in romance myself, though. I'm literally just not wired that way, and so I'm really not the best person to vent to when it comes to these kinds of concerns.

but look, no matter what happens from here on out, these two care about each other on a very deep and personal level. they're going to continue to be a part of each other's lives no matter what. and each of them, no matter what, will continue to occupy a space in each other's lives that no other person can fill, regardless of how we or Horikoshi or anyone else choose to label and define that space. and so in my book, that's already a win.

anyways, apologies again for the impromptu rant. again, this wasn't particularly directed at you in any way; if anything it's mostly just a generic response to the constant shipping discourse in this and every other fandom, and a more detailed explanation for why I personally don't like to get involved in it. this is just one of the myriad reasons why I try my best to stay very far away from BnHA twitter lol.

[haleigh-sloth]

i know deku wants to save ppl bc it is natural for him to do that but do you think its possible for him to somehow connect emotionally with shiggy? like in a genuine way and not just 'we both like/liked heros' way

Yes, definitely.

In fact, I really don't think the "we both wanted to be heroes" origin is going to be what connects them at all. The purpose of Shigaraki saying that exact same line was specifically for you to connect the two in your head. But their origin stories are vastly different and take off in similar, yet very different directions. They parallel AND foil each other.

Midoriya and Shigaraki have similar origins in terms of aspirations and personalities (protective of friends, sweet kids who wanted to help others), but later on their lives took completely opposite directions. Opposite directions, but also somehow the same. Both inherited powers they thought they wanted, only to end up in a war that was never theirs to fight. But they’re stuck having to anyway.

It started off with the notion that they just both wanted to be heroes, but it ended up going much deeper and personal than that.

Everything past this point is my personal prediction, but I'm basing it off of recent developments in the story and things we've known for a while.

What I think is actually gonna connect them is the fact that they’re each other’s missing piece. Midoriya can’t be the hero he wants to be if he can’t save everyone. He can’t be the hero he wants to be if he can’t succeed where All Might failed. All Might failed Tenko, who was technically always OFA’s responsibility because of Nana Shimura (All Might’s initial reaction of guilt over this proves that). Midoriya can’t be the hero he wants to be without Shigaraki, and I think at this point in the story Midoriya is probably wondering how the hell he’s gonna save this dude. All I know is that it's gonna be more about words and actions than fighting. We don't know the details of how it'll go down, but we know he’s going to reach and save him.

And then Shigaraki can’t be saved without Midoriya. Midoriya sees someone who needs to be stopped AND saved. Not somebody who needs to be killed, and not someone who needs to be encouraged to continue on the destructive path he's on (which the LOV are doing, as a result of their own anger too). Midoriya clearly sees the faults in Shigaraki’s methods, but he’s also starting to see where he may have fallen short as a hero.

Also the biggest thing about Midoriya and Shigaraki is that they both need to come to an understanding. Because Midoriya said something in the beginning to Shigaraki that stuck with him throughout the entire story.

And Midoriya has been reflecting lately too.

There's more on Shigaraki's part in this too. If you look back in the early EARLY chapters, Shigaraki clearly noticed Midoriya a long time ago. At the time it came across as "checking out and keeping an eye on your enemy", but after we saw Tenko asking for Midoriya specifically, to save him, I don't think we're supposed to think that anymore. Literally every notable save Midoriya has made throughout the story, Shigaraki was there to witness it, either up close or from the sidelines. But he saw it. He also saw Stain save Midoriya. Stain, who had literally just got done lecturing Shigaraki about "fake heroes" and only killing with a purpose. He saw the HERO KILLER STAIN save Midoriya, an aspiring hero.

So basically, my prediction for how this is gonna go is, I think we’re gonna find out in the coming chapters that Shigaraki, deep, deep, DEEP down (and not acknowledging it) believed in Midoriya’s ability to be a hero, regardless of his quirk. Which is something Midoriya also needed from the beginning. Because Shigaraki didn't know about OFA! He had no idea. But Midoriya irritated him from the get go because he reminded Shigaraki of All Might.

And well, I think it's obvious by now that Shigaraki's hatred of All Might is because of the praise he gets for saving "everyone", everyone except for Tenko.

So like....my take on the mall scene, which was an important scene to both of their arcs, is that Shigaraki had already decided in his head that Midoriya was actually heroic. And that bothered him. The kid bothered him before he even knew anything about him.

I mean for fucks sake look at what he was doing literally right before he went to the mall lol

So I don't think the answer to their connection is "oh you liked heroes as a kid too???" I think it's going to be Midoriya realizing what it takes to really be a true hero, and Shigaraki realizing that hope is NOT lost, he is still worth saving, and there is someone who will do it. And a bonus for him, learning that his gut feeling was right and he took notice of the right person after all.

[bakugohoex]

part one: “you want to sleep on the floor”

pairing: katsuki bakugo x female reader

cw: university student y/n, implicit nsfw, fluff and language

word count: 3400+

a/n: this is dedicated to the one anon who was super sweet to me yesterday, all of your support means the world to me and i hope you guys enjoyed this 

summary: in which you’re neighbours with pro hero katsuki bakugo, one night your roommate and her boyfriend get a bit too loud, with no where else to turn you end up in the apartment of bakugo’s, sleeping beside him you both realise the hidden feelings between one another 

part two 

↞ back to my hero academia masterlist

The bed squeaked and headboard banging against the wall, moans filled the apartment and the sound of ongoing thrusts erupted out of one single room. You hadn’t slept in hours, the sound from your roommates room vibrating against the whole apartment.

What was even worse, was not just having both your rooms side by side, meaning every time the man thrusted back and forth inside of her you could hear her bed hit the wall, no it wasn’t just that, it was the fact this had been going on for hours now.

You saw the digital clock indicate three am, how could one couple go at it for two hours straight, better yet who gets horny at one am and thinks lets having a fuck session whilst their roommate is next door.

Well your friend clearly did, it wasn’t like you wanted to interrupt them, they hadn’t seen each other in a while and deserved something. But at the expense of your sleep, it was a lot more than you had expected. You had prayed they would stop but the moans of his name continued, and it seemed like they would never stop anytime soon.  

You swung your legs off your bed, yawning as the stars filled the sky, you would go to the balcony, probably try and fall asleep outside if it was summer, but it wasn’t. It was fucking winter and you could see the snow form on top of the window ledge. There was always the sofa, you put a hoodie on your body, covering the short shirt and bottoms you wore, dragging your duvet to the sofa.

Staring up at the ceiling, trying to gain some sleep, you hoped the noise of their maniac sex would calm down. But to your luck, the noise seemed to get even more louder, as if they had left the door open. You really did not need to hear the consistent grunting and moaning coming from your friend and her boyfriend. You knew tomorrow morning you wouldn’t be able to face them after the night they were having.

You were cynical, the last time you had sex being months ago. You were touch deprived and even worse the crush on your pro hero neighbour made it worse, when you’d go in the early mornings to the balcony or get your mail, you’d see the man.

He’s be sweaty from some sort of training, his black vest always clinged onto his body perfectly. He was like a renaissance art piece, he deserved to be in a museum. You tried to think about him, to get rid of the sound of your roommate, you had had an encounter with him in the morning. He had come back from an early morning run and you had gone to get the mail. Flicking through it Bakugo called your name to make sure the elevator didn’t go without him.

The pro hero was drenched in sweat and his long-sleeved running shirt clung to all his muscles, the shorts and leggings he wore underneath sticking to his thigh muscles. It was a sight for sore eyes, and you tried to not stare. “Hey Bakugo.”

You spoke politely, he looked down at you flicking through the mail, mainly magazines and other shit. “Y/n.” He spoke coldly, how could you had a crush on such a cold man.

“I saw on the news about the villains you captured, it was cool.” You tried to converse; he raised an eyebrow crossing his arms.

“It was more than cool, I did it single handily, stupid extras didn’t even help.” He smirked as if he was reminiscing in the past nights action.

You looked up at him, his jaw clenched. “Oh well you didn’t need their help in the first place, did you?” You teased a grin on your face.

He saw you step out of the elevator about to answer but instead keeping quiet, you wish you had stopped walking waiting for an answer but your boldness at teasing had made you too flustered to wait. He often was cold to both you and your roommate, mainly your roommate who found the pro hero an irritant. You often saw his friends come back and forth out of his apartment; you were shocked at how his friends were a foil of the man.

He was angry and frustrated and red riot who you assumed was his best friend frequently visited. Your roommate hated the boy due to her theory that he looked down on commoners, you were studying to go into (any career) and you had been working hard. Was she right? Were you really nothing more than commoners needing to be saved.

Your thoughts turned to your roommate and you got out of your daze of the pro hero, you really couldn’t sleep with the grunts. Your best option was to find somewhere else to sleep for the rest of the night, you were glad it was Sunday the next day so you could have a lie in.

You thought of who you could text to ask if you could spend the night, most of your friends being their own university students with their own problems. Your finger lingered over Bakugo’s number before you decided to just straight up ask him if you could sleep on his sofa.

Leaving your duvet in your room, you unlocked the door of your apartment, quickly slipping out. You finally had some peace without having to hear any more vigorous thrusts, did he want to split her in half or something. You rested your head against the door, before pacing outside Bakugo’s door, the number nine on the side. You hesitated knocking, maybe you should’ve texted before knocking at his door at half three in the morning.

It was only by accident and your nerves that you quickly knocked on the door. Maybe he wouldn’t even hear it, it was early morning, and he could be sleeping. About to leave the door, you were met by the man, he was shirtless, only wearing some grey joggers. You were almost about to admire his body, but as he raised his eyebrow a ‘what’ coming from his mouth you started to spew out your thoughts.

“…so yeah, my roommate and her boyfriend have been fucking for nearly three hours now, and I need my sleep so can I like sleep on your sofa or floor” He raised an eyebrow, his arm was leaning against the top of the door, his height making it easy for him to reach. “It’s fine, if you’ve got no room, I can just go back and h…”

“Shut up and get inside.” You were shocked but quickly obliged, walking into his apartment.

It was not what you had expected, the same layout even with two bedrooms. “My spare room has my hero stuff in it, you want to sleep on the floor”

He was grinning at the idea of you sleeping on the floor, “I can sleep anywhere just not in a sex ridden apartment.”

“My bedrooms free.” He spoke, your face reddening.

“Umm…aren’t you s…sleeping there?” You asked not meeting his gaze.

He crossed his arms, his blond hair less spiky from sleeping. “We’re adults Y/n, we can sleep in the same bed.”

You nodded, not speaking out of fear you’d say something wrong. He walked towards the room as you followed in suit, “stay on your side and we should be fine.”

You nodded again, he went on his side, lying down bare in front of you. It was a sight, his room was boiling, you took your hoodie off he looked at you, trying to not see how your shirt rid to show your exposed stomach. He looked away just as your head popped out of the hoodie. You laid on your side, Bakugo’s broad shoulders made your own touch his as he was partially on your side.

“You have a nice apartment.” You complimented knowing the two of you were still awake facing the ceiling.

He huffed, side eyeing you, he watched as your brought the covers around your shoulders. “It’s exactly like yours, minus the horny roommate.”

You laughed at the comment, turning to face his body. You didn’t care if you both weren’t classed as friends, you were going to try and somehow become friends of sorts. “Who wouldn’t love a horny roommate?”

“Me, I need my space and defiantly cant handle being around sex noises, you should’ve shot them with your quirk or something.”

You hadn’t even told him what your quirk was, it was simple and useless in most situations. “I don’t think its possible for me to do that with my quirk.”

He raised an eyebrow still facing the ceiling, his arm had moved behind his back , you could see his arm muscles all on show, “oh yeah what is it then?”

“Guess.” You teased, stretching the word out. Bakugo finally faced you, he saw how your hair framed your face, your eyes looked tired, but you seemed more awake than you had when you had knocked on his door.

“Just tell me, shitty woman.” You pouted at the man.

“You’re no fun, I can create sparks from my fingertips, I know it’s lame, it’s why I’m at university.” Bakugo looked at you, you expected laughing to come from him, you had heard him call most people extras and those without quirks had been mocked by many people. You expected the same at your lame quirk.

“Can you show me?” He wasn’t acting the same, you ignored his calmness, putting your hand from under the cover. You rubbed your fingers together, a spark coming from each finger, it was like a firework sparkler and was painful to touch. But the application of it was never pro hero material.

His hand moved closer to it, “I would…” He did anyway, his finger touching the top, he quickly moved it away after feeling it for less than a second.

“Oww, Y/n what the fuck? It stings.” You laugh, making the sparks go away, grabbing his hand your breath cool air on it. He hadn’t expected this action, feeling your breath on his fingertips, made his ears go red.

“It’s okay now.” He pulled away, not looking at you.

You didn’t say anything, nobody said anything, you could hear the clock tick away, the minutes going past. Maybe Bakugo had gone to sleep, but as you turned back, he had been fixated on the ceiling. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” He spoke with frustration on his tongue.

“Oh, I don’t know you seemed out of it.” You spoke turning away from him, you could feel his legs move closer to your own, you didn’t dare think of the actions you wanted him to do to you. Inside trying to think of other stuff.

Bakugo instead broke the silence, “your quirk is decent.” It was some sort of compliment and you would take it.

“Really?”

“Don’t make me repeat myself.” You laugh at the boy, his own mouth twitched upwards. “At UA, there was a kid who made purple balls from his head, so you’re already one hundred times better than him.”

You supress a laugh at someone having a more useless quirk than you, “was he at least hero type.”

“He was just some extra, but he was below four foot and a pussy.” You couldn’t suppress it any longer, a laugh wavering through the room. “And a perv, he loved looking up girls skirts.”

“For some extra, you did pay attention to him.”

“When you have friends that I have, you hear too much unnecessary information.” You smile turning to face him again.

You thought of the heroes who he worked with, who came intro his apartment, they seemed like nice people to be friends with. “So what you don’t pay attention to your friends?”

“I pay attention to important people.” He turned back to face you, both of you under the covers but Bakugo’s hand had moved on top of the duvet, right on top of your body. You didn’t question the action instead questioning him.

“And who’s important to the great Katsuki Bakugo.” You gave a gleeful look waiting for a response.

He thought it out, before finding the confidence to speak, “you.”

You were dumbfounded, your eyes widening waiting for more context, “me?”

“You study (subject area), you and your roommate go to yoga every Friday night, you babysit who I assume is your nephew once a month, you like drinking coffee on the balcony and you always seem to have cooking magazines in your hand.” You were shocked at how much he had remembered and seen from you.

“You noticed.” You were calm on the outside but freaking the fuck out at how much he acknowledged about you, you had spoke about your studies, and what you normally did when you passed by him, but you never expected him to remember.

“How could I forgot your interests.” You smiled looking down before he spoke again, “oh yeah, and you have a massive crush on me.”

Your cheeks reddened, were you that obvious, “w…what?”

“Y/n, I know when girls have crushes on me, I’m surprised in the months I’ve know you; you have brought back one guy and he was the polar opposite of me.” You remembered the guy you had brought back to have sex with, he was the opposite of Bakugo, from his appearance to personality. “Was he able to fuck you good at least?”

A cocky smirk was placed on the blond’s face, his red eyes were filled with a knowing look, you shook your head feeling his hand press harder on the covers, feeling how his hand rubbed back and forth on your leg from on top. “That’s what I thought, I bet you didn’t even cum.”

“I didn’t.” You blurted out.

“You’re lucky you’re better than the other extra’s, you actually have a chance of getting with me.” You looked at him, his other hand moving towards your face.

“Just getting with you?” You hesitantly spoke, your hand meeting his to stop him.

He realised how he had phrased it and quickly rephrased it, “not just to fuck Y/n, I’m not a man whore who does one-night stands.”

“So you’d want to go on a d…date?” You question, pulling his hand towards your cheek.

“Your words not mine.” He spoke defensively, you smirked wanting to close the gap but being scared to make the first move.

He noticed your eyes move down towards his mouth before he closed the gap. The fast pace of the kiss made you more turned on for him, his hands on your cheeks bringing your closer to his face. You had never been kissed like this before, never felt this thrill inside of you and you craved more. His hand moved to your thighs, making you move on top of him, before you sat on top of his exposed chest, your lips still attached to him.

His hands on your sides bringing you closer under the covers as your hands went to his face, making the kiss’ pace fasten. You moaned his name, an instant turn on at the sound of hearing his first name, he had often seen you reading outside on the balcony, he admired how peaceful you got.

But every day when he saw how calm you looked, he fell more and more in love with his neighbour. He watched how you went through the motions every time you read a new book, it was like you were in your own fantasy and he loved it.

His grip on your sides moved to your ass, he squeezed it, making you moan again, this time allowing his tongue access inside your mouth. You loved the feeling, loved his tongue with your own, he loved how you sat on his perfectly, the way one of your hands had moved to his bare chest, glossing over each muscle. As you both parted, he bit at your bottom lip, tugging to make one last moan come from your mouth.

The sound making his ears tingle in enjoyment before he flipped you over. He craved you but was always going to ask before he moved onto other things. “I don’t want to do anything you don’t want to do.” He spoke his mouth on your stomach moving upwards, he was a predator and you his prey and he wanted to devour you.

“I want to wait.” You spoke breathlessly.

He nodded, “I can still kiss you right?” He stopped kissing right underneath your bra, his hand having lifted your shirt up.

“Yes Bakugo.” You smiled feeling his mouth latch upwards, past your bra and onto your neck. Sucking the spot, his hand on your side as he continued to nibble and bite on your collar.

“It’s Katsuki, baby girl.” The single word sent your insides into to turmoil. A purple bruise formed on your neck, before he captured your lips his own. Your legs wrapped around his back, as you brought your arms round his neck, wanting to limit the gap between the two of you.

“Baby…” You trailed off speaking through the kiss, it was too much excitement as his kiss left you a sloppy mess, you felt like putty in his hands. He let go letting you breath, before lying on his back.

“Come ‘ere.” He grabbed your waist, bringing you closer to his body. “We can finish this after our date tomorrow.”

“Is that a promise.” You smiled boldly, his face going into the crook of your now bare back, his arms around your exposed stomach and lips kissing your shoulder.

He went to your ear, licking the back of your ear before nibbling at the earlobe, “I’ll show you what you’ve been missing out on, and we’ll make your roommate hear it all.”

You smiled in agreement; his arms wrapped around your body. You had not expected this to happen, you had thought you were doomed to be alone, but in the angry boys defence, you never even thought he acknowledged you. But as you laid hearing his soft snores in your ear, you gleamed at how you had got something you had been craving for months now.

bonus scene 

You woke up the sound of Bakugo in his kitchen, finding his discarded shirt, you wore it, it was a lot bigger than you, but you hoped Bakugo liked it. You walked into the kitchen, a plate of pancakes on the table. “I mad…” He turned around seeing your cute little face in his shirt. “You really want me to bend you over right now.”

You giggled walking up to him, he grabbed your waist planting a soft kiss on you mouth. It was a lot calmer than last nights, but still had the same love in it. You heard his front door open, but Bakugo’s grasp on your was still tight, you squealed not wanting to be seen, instead Bakugo flipped you around, his body pressed onto your back and his chin resting on your shoulder.

“Oi Bakugo, did you forget we were meeting at the…” He trailed off seeing both of you. “Isn’t that your attractive neighbour.”

Your face reddened, “I said you could use my spare key in emergencies.” The door was still wide open, and you knew Bakugo’s shouting would raise some attention.

“I thought you died.” Kirishima spoke. “I’m Eijiro Kirishima, you’re the neighbour, we’ve all had to hear so much about.”

You smiled at the fact Bakugo spoke about you, it melted your heart. “I’m Y/n Y/l/n.” You smiled, Bakugo’s grip loosening as you went to shake Kirishima’s hand.

“Nice to meet you.” He smiled out.

“What the fuck is all the noise.” You saw the door of your apartment open, you looked at your roommate who looked tired and her hair dishevelled. “Y/n what the fuck are you doing in there?” she looked between Bakugo and you, the way his arm was placed around your waist.

“You didn’t, even after everything I said.” She spoke a loud. “Tell me everything.”

She grabbed your hand, dragging you out. “I’ll see you tonight.” You shouted at Bakugo who watched you walk away.

“Ooo pancakes.” You heard Kirishima gleam out, Bakugo watched you get dragged away. A smile at the fact he had finally gotten what he wanted.

proceed to part two here 

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[greasygrimoire]

I really enjoyed reading @infinitebrians end of year writings, and I decided to try something similar (I hope you dont mind)! Over January I'll doodle something from my favorite video games I played in 2023 (not necessarily released last year) and write down some thoughts. First up is Fire Emblem Engage! Words and Opinions below the cut! There are also FE engage spoilers.

I almost didn't bother playing Engage, but it may be my favorite game of the year! It's definitely up there, and while I havea few issues with the game, I think I had the most fun playing it.

If you aren't familiar with Fire Emblem, it's a series of tactical role playing games that's been around since the NES days (with the series debuting in North American much later, on the GBA). The game plays sort of like chess meets Final Fantasy, where each piece (or unit) is a character with their own parameters like HP, Strength, Speed, etc. The series is notorious for it's perma-death feature; if your unit dies in combat, they die for real and you cannot use them the rest of that playthrough. I couldn't put the GBA games down back in the day, and I've mostly kept up with the series.

When Engage was leaked in 2022 or so, I was really put off by the protagonist's design. The series has always had anime designs and hair styles, but this red and blue toothpaste looking dragon was really something else! I thought they were fake screenshots, but they were confirmed with the first official trailer.

I wrote a bunch about the story, but I'll cut it down to this: it's not great or very interesting. There are some cool ideas, like Sombron's missing Emblem and his plan to seek them out through all the worlds of FE, but the game doesn't really do much with them. While most of the side characters are fun, the focus is always on the main cast of royals.

All that said, I don't play FE for the story. It's all about the individual characters, and the tactical gameplay. And whoa does Engage do a good job on those! Almost every character, aside from Alear, has some weird quirk, obsession, flaw, or gimmick. Despite their wacky haircut, Alear manages to be the most grounded character and is a really fun foil to the other characters. Some of my favorites include Yunaka, a wandering thief trying to leave behind a dark past. There's also Boucheron, an axe-wielding beefcake who has trouble controlling his emotions. Instead of being a furious berserker as would be expected with his archetype, he cries over nearly everything. A mild inconvenience for the heroes of a novel, or even an especially cute dog are enough to set off the tears. These two are my favorites, and they were really strong units for most of the battles!

I started the game on Maddening, the hardest difficulty. I don't usually play this mode, but it was so much fun and added a lot to the experience. Every decision in battle was important, there were multiple instances where I'd have to undo several turns because an attack or positioning ended up biting me later. Unfortunately, I didn't really use the skill inheritance system before the Emblems were stolen, and I locked my army out of lots of skills and potential character builds. I decided to keep going after Chapter 12 because it was so fucking hard, there was no way I could do it again. It's an amazing pair of maps and experience but it was brutal!

Eventually, I hit a point where my units couldn't keep up with the enemies' defenses. I think it was around chapter 20 where I decided to drop difficulties to Hard. Suddenly units were one-shotting enemies, and the last few chapters were a bit underwhelming with how easy they were. The final battle with Sombron was still somewhat challenging, and it was a nice end to my first playthrough of Engage!

I also played the DLC. The bonus maps were all pretty fun, in particular Tiki's and Veronica's maps. It felt like these should have been included in the base game. The separate DLC campaign was a huge let down. The new characters didn't interest me much and the maps were a chore to play through.

Overall, Engage was a great experience! I'm glad I gave this game a chance after the leaks. While I didn't care for the story and a few other decisions, the characters and dialogue I did enjoy were fun breaks between the tough maps and interesting unit building.

I think these two should have had support convos. Think of the dumb adventures they could go on!