#I don't think Hori's a bad writer

[violetlunette]

Things you hate about Hori's writing?

Before we begin, I want to state that I don’t think Hori is a bad writer. I think he has strengths and weaknesses like all writers. I also know that Hori is under a lot of pressure from fans, his editor, publishers, and whoever else is involved with making a manga. I’m also aware that writing a manga is different than book writing, which is what I’m trying to study, so I may not understand a few things. Plus, Hori is under a time crunch which may affect his writing.

That being said, I was asked what I don’t like about his writing, so;

Notes:

*BNHA Critical

*Anti-Shigaraki (mainly how he's written and handled storywise.)

*Take it with a grain of salt

*Keep in mind that these will be writing elements only, not how I feel about characters.

Also, keep in mind that BNHA is a LONG series, so please be polite in your corrections if you feel there's a mistake. Also, the post is a bit rambly, so if you would like me to clarify something I said, let me know.

1: Lack of Build up.

*Now, not everything needs to be built up in a story, however, if it plays an important role, story or character-wise, then it has to.

This especially failed with Midnight, which pissed me off because Hori showed he could do death a scene right with Twice! Twice was built up as a person, we saw his connections with people, we saw him fighting for what he believed in, and we saw him die. We got none of that with Midnight. To anyone who only read the main manga, did you know she was high school friends with Aizawa and Hizashi and that she took in a kitten they found? And that SHE was the one who pushed Aizawa into his teaching job? No, you didn’t. Because Hori failed to tell us that. Also, Hori failed to build Midnight up as a person, show us what she loved, skipped her death scene, and yet expects to get the same emotional payoff as Twice.

2: Not allowing us to learn more about Class 1-A and seeing their internal struggles.

*I hate the LoV but I understand why others may connect with them. One of the reasons is that we get to see their inner thoughts and feeling and learn about their past and why they’re the way they are. With Class 1-A we don’t know over half the class. What do I mean by that? 

Why are they heroes? Tenya wants to be like his brother, Izuku wants to be like All Might, and Ochako wants money for her family and just likes helping people. But what about Toru? Why does she want to be a hero? How did she get in? And so on. What are the students' morals? They believe in protecting people, but what else? Are they chaotic? Lawful? Neutral? What? And what are their struggles? Etc.

Why is all of this important, and why is it a writing failure? Because we need this stuff to care about the characters. This is especially important in the climax where we’re supposed to be rooting for the heroes, but instead, most aren’t. Why? Because we never got to get to know them.

3: Important information is in side materials

*Most of the development of Class 1-A is in Team Up Missions and school briefs where the canon is questionable as they’re written by different authors. But the worst offense is having Aizawa’s backstory in BNHA:V. Why? Because the payoff for that backstory is in the main series. Aizawa’s backstory has no emotional weight and feels out of place in BNHA:V. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t have been the main story. It could have been slipped in while Aizawa and Hizashi are driving to see Kurogiri. This is especially important as it tells the audience of the main series who Oboro is and why he’s important. As of now, without reading the other series, he’s just a few images where he barely talks.

For it is a huge writing failure on the writer's part if I have to buy DLC or go to side materials to get the complete story as those are supposed to add, not fill in plot holes and such.

4: Everything is being shoved into the final climax

*In the climax where everything is supposed to come to a head, we are dealing with the backstories of several characters, plot points that barely showed up, several "twists" and more, making the fight longer than a DBZ battle. Not only does this stretch things out to the point of boredom where everyone is just like, "get on with it!" but it also fails to give us and the story time to build on these points, most of which are important. To be fair, I don't think this is Hori's fault, as he's being pushed to wrap things up if the rumors are correct.

5: Shiggy barely does anything

*Shiggy is the main villain of the series. He’s on the posters, the covers, in the theme song, etc. 

Yet he doesn’t do a thing to push the plot and Izuku’s arc till the end. And even then, AFO’s does most of the work. No, really; after the USJ arc and before the hospital arc, how does Shiggy influence the plot?

He released two Nomus after meeting Stain. Okay. What role does that play in the plot or on Izuku? None. You can take that out and it wouldn’t change the story except for a scene or two. Shiggy “talks” with Izuku at the mall? What’s the effect there? Well, it has them change the campsite but again, that changes nothing as far as the story goes, nor does it push the plot. And Izuku? Again, no change. Shiggy orders Izuku’s death? See above. The scene with Bakagou? Put anyone there, and it would have been the same. And as soon as the heroes show up, it becomes about AFO.

And once AFO is arrested? Overhaul becomes the villain and—correct me if I’m wrong—the other league members play a bigger role than him. And none of his actions affect the plot that much. Like, do the member of the league do anything that Overhaul’s minions couldn’t do? And again, the effect on Izuku, the protagonist; zero.

It isn’t until Giran is captured that Shiggy does something to push the plot forward and that’s defeating Re-Destructo and having the MLA join him. After that? He goes to sleep so he can get a makeover! (Which, to be fair, paid off as his hair becomes nice and fluffy, but still.)

It’s not until the hospital raid that Shiggy not only moves the plot forward AND affects Izuku. And then, almost immediately, AFO takes over. Even in the current arc, I’m not sure if it’s Shiggy fighting or AFO. The most he did was in the USJ arc, and even then, it was the NOMU that affected the characters and plot. True, Shiggy nearly kills Tsuyu and figures out Aizawa's trick, but he's not the one who leaves the damage on Aizawa that persist throughout the series or lessens All Might's time. It's the Nomu. He crushes Aizawa's face and the rest of his body, then stands enough of a threat against All Might that he has to push past his limit. And both these actions affect the plot of the story. None of Shiggy's actions do.

In Inuyasha we barely saw Naraku, however, you can’t take him out of the story and replace him with someone else. Why? Because the story wouldn’t have happened without Naraku being Naraku. Without him, Kikyo wouldn’t have died nor would the drama between her and Inuyasha. (Not to mention the drama with the rest of the party.) The point is that if Naraku vanished from Inuyasha the whole story would fall apart.

That’s not the case with Shiggy. Anyone could have led the attack on USJ and had the same effect on the story and the characters. Anyone could have been possessed by AFO and triggered Izuku’s need to save them. Anyone could be Nana’s grandson and the effect would be the same. And, as Shiggy is the poster villain for MHA, this is the greatest writing failure of MHA. Why? Because a villain's role is to push the plot and the hero's arc forward.

Hell, Overhaul is only around for one arc, and he affects the story more than Shiggy; 

Overhaul's actions caused Izuku to force himself to grow to help Eri, then showed Izuku that defeating a villain isn't enough to save someone as Eri was still traumatized. Mirio lost his quirk, prompting a sense of guilt in Izuku but determination in Eri so she could help him. The bullets Overhaul made come back and cripple Aizawa to the point he has to depend on others. Night eye is killed by him and dies in Ochako's arms, forcing her to rethink her career and install an intense need to save others so no one dies on her watch again. And so on. 

And as for AFO, just like Naraku, the story wouldn't exist without him. Without him, there would be no OFA, All Might's backstory wouldn't have happened, all the nomu plots wouldn't exist, and Shiggy would have nothing. Everything Shiggy has isn't through his own strength but through AFO.

The point is that AFO and Overhaul cannot be removed or replaced by another to make the story function. Shiggy can, and to me, that is a huge failure.

Special mentions; (these are more opinion based)

1: Wasted concepts

*Hori has a bunch of good ideas but due to time constraints or overwhelming himself, Hori rarely follows through or explores the full potential.

The biggest example is the Nomus. I stated this in another post but I’ll copy it here;

“The Nomus are the ones that carry the threat and the emotional impact for the main cast. Kurogiri connects to Aizawa and shows that AFO has not only been stealing corpses but has been eyeing UA students especially, which connects to UA. And the Bat Nomu is a personal connection to Izuku and Bakagou, who are both major players. And we know Dabi’s connection to the plot.”

Because the Nomus are mostly made of dead people, this could have a huge impact on the cast. Forget about Shiggy, if AFO really wanted to get back at All Might he should have used Nana’s corpse in some way. That would have shaken him up and hurt him and the audience more than some kid All Might met once. Plus, the nomus aren’t just dead people, they’re living people that were experimented on. Think of how that raises the stakes for the heroes as they’re not just fighting villains, they’re fighting innocent people who were kidnapped and brainwashed. And every time a hero dies they can end up as one of those monsters. Again, the emotional stakes are raised.

This is especially important for Izuku. Even if the bat nomu disappeared after one arc he would still have made an impact on the story if he had faced Izuku and been revealed who he was. Why? Because he was someone Izuku knew. A bully, yes, but still someone Izuku knew. And AFO turned him into a monster. This gives Izuku a personal reason to fight and train harder while introducing him to the kind of person AFO was. Whether Bat Nomu died or was captured, there’s a personal stake for Izuku.

I could go on, but this post is already gonna be long. The gist is that we got the bare minimum with them and it’s a shame.

But it’s not just the Nomus, there’s also Stain. They introduced a cool villain with a decent concept and half a leg to stand on, but they lock him up right away and don’t bother with him again for over two hundred chapters. And even then he does ONE thing, then vanishes.

There are also a ton of wasted characters like over half the class of 1-A, The UA teachers, the quirkless, the MLA, and Sir Night Eye.

Now to balance this, here’s what I like about Hori’s writing;

1: Decent Concepts *While he doesn’t always explore them very well, Hori does put out fun concepts that fanfic writers myself have fun with.

2: The creative use of Quirks *When Hori shows us the quirks he’s very creative in their uses which is cool to see. And there’s a lot of science and research behind them that I’m discovering.

3: The Characters *Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Hori creates a lot of interesting characters, a majority that people want to learn about. (Shame we don’t but I digress.) (Plus most of the designs are creative.)

4: All Might’s character and arc *Nearly everything about All Might is perfect from a story perspective. Almost everything about how All Might is written is done absolutely well.

5: The setup *The stage Hori set up is very interesting and I like it. I like the premise, the setting, the characters, and more.

6: The Art *I like most of Hori’s designs as they’re nice-looking and creative. Most of the costumes are fun as well. (I love Ochako's hero costume! As well as Stars and Stripes'.)

7: Subtle scenes *This is mainly shown in the beginning, but many small scenes carry many character and story elements without it being overly obvious. But I talked about them in my chapter reviews, so I won't repeat myself.

And that's it! Feel free to share what you like or dislike about Hori's writing elements.

[problemswithbooks]

I just caught up and while I am not as thrilled as others that the Todofam "finally got agency" and Dabi's misery was understood by their big quirk use moment, the thing that really made my jaw drop was the way Midnight's death and it's effect was minimized to build a generic understanding with the enemy in a rushed fight. It felt worse than whatever the heteromorph racism angle was. Maybe because the spinoff had me grow fond of Midnight's character.

Oh, yeah that was a weird, very out of place moment. I wouldn't say it was as bad as the heteromorph racism thing because that was actually insulting to RL issues, Hori clearly didn't research at all before he wrote it, but it's not great.

The main issue I think is that it was unearned in every sense of the word and slapped in there to tie up a loose end.

Midnight's death was handled terribly from the get go, with her being killed off screen by a nobody villain. Then it was only really brought up maybe twice in passing. Despite the kids crying over her corpse they didn't talk about it afterwards really and we never got any moment where her death was relayed to Izuku or the other 1A members not present to see her body.

It becomes even more of an issue that Mic and Aizawa didn't get much of a moment to really reflect on it either despite how close they were shown to be with her in the spin-off.

To have Mina suddenly understand the villain that killed her doesn't hold any narrative weight. He was a nobody and Mina never showed real drive to find who killed Midnight anyway. The villain who killed her has no reason to have done so, given she was pretty much helpless when he and his guys offed her. In fact he seemed to kill her just because he could.

It does nothing for the story, and to be honest her death was entirely unnecessary, and seems to have been done only to give the war arc more weight by killing off more then background characters. Cutting it and just having her be incapacitated like Gran Torino to take her out of the story would have worked better.

[linkspooky]

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

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

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

Hawks looked into the league of villain's pasts.

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

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

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

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

At this point it really feels like either:

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

or

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

Do you feel differently or the same?

Hello, friend.

I definitely share your frustrations.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To quote this post:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[bibibbon]

I made a huge mistake in going to the MHA subreddit. The braindead takes on 427 have me convinced I'm stuck in a parallel universe where we're reading a completely different story:

"It's great seeing Deku play therapist with the LOV, but all it seems to have done is make things worse!" A) Izuku shouldn't be having to play therapist to begin with, considering he's a 16 year old kid. B) most of the LOV don't see anything they did as wrong, so idk what the fuck Izuku can do about that. Also, WHY AREN'T PEOPLE HELPING IZUKU WITH HIS OWN GODDAMN FEELINGS?!

Apparently Bakugou killed Kurogiri, and there's absolutely ZERO reaction to it both in and out of universe. So of fucking course Izuku is a murderer, but not their precious Bakugou 🥱.

"I feel like Hori's really underrated as a writer!" Horikoshi doesn't know Show Don't Tell, how to actually develop characters, and how to craft actual stakes in the narrative from a hole in the ground. Also, MHA is one of the most popular mangas worldwide, so you're not even using underrated right.

"I feel like Horikoshi sees our discussions and then implements them in the story!" This I can kind of agree with, considering how much y'all hate Izuku and worship Bakugou. But on the other hand, I really doubt Horikoshi thinks the MHA subreddit is as important as you think it is.

"Bakugou's totally going to ask Izuku to start their own hero agency together at the end!" Jesus fucking Christ, just say you hate Izuku. How would that be a great ending for him? He not only has to see the source of his low self esteem and borderline suicidal feelings achieving the dream he'll now never have, but you want them to WORK together?!

@nutzgunray-lvt 👋

Well a lot of the time looking into Reddit is always a mistake unless you're asking a very niche question and you get an answer from 9 years ago or something.

I feel like a lot of people whether that be in universe or in fandom forget that izuku is a 16 year old child soldier. Izuku is more than a decade younger than a lot of the villains in the leauge. He is a child who has been exploited by the system and abused. We have seen in 425 izuku try and talk to someone but simply get brushed aside and while I don't blame shoto or ochako for doing that as they probably didn't mean it and are traumatised themselves it kinda of shows how much this has effected izuku. Also this doesn't help BECAUSE HORI GAVE US NO FLIPPING INTROPSECTION ON IZUKU'S BIT AGAIN!! Also Iam not sure if it's just me but Izuku's eye bags are heavily prominent in this chapter especially when he is talking to spinner.

The fandom especially the lov stans side of it love babayifying the actions of the leauge and hyper fixating on the humane soft side they may have while completely ignoring the horrible actions they commited. I talk about this better in one of @palesweetscherryblossom asks

I still can't believe that bk may of killed kurogiri. I don't even know when that happend and I checked the wiki but it says that kurogiris status is unconfirmed so I will be waiting until the last chapter to fully acknowledge if kurogiri is dead or not. However this brings up the point that the fandoms is being quite hypocritical if they're calling izuku a murder but not bakugo. They both killed people but for some reason it's izuku thats put into public light and bashing instead of all the other characters that have killed in the series including villains.

Yeah sometimes it feels like hori is looking at discussions of his series and implementing ideas but I think that goes more for his Japanese fans than us to be honest because after all they're his target demographic. I remember when I first joined Tumblr one of my earliest posts talked about how horikoshi's writing decisions were heavily influenced by his fans which may or may not be true.

At this point IAM convinced that izuku isn't getting a proper happy ending. Every time I think it can't get worse it does. Just by your comment of them starting an agency together haunts me just like the possibility that bk may become the number one hero

[mikeellee]

Are the villains humanized? Yes and no. I feel people think Shig and LoV wanted to change the system and create paradise on Earth which is a fanon thing...Shig has no goals or plans aside destruction.

Do they have sad backstories? Yes. If we exclude Shoto and Izu, not sure the others members of A1 have a sad backstory. Ochako sure as fuck don't. (Hm, now I'm thinking about Sakura here) they suffered. But suffering alone is not enough to make a character interesting... especially if the writer is not interested in do much

Then again...MHA is set in Japan with different cultural values. Look I think Hori messed up for sure even for the target audience but MHA is made in Japan for Japanese audience first!

So my point here is...are LoV humans? Yes. Are they good people? No. The narrative focus on the "poor meow meow" but they are bad people. Hori gave sad backstory and nothing else.

So when I see LoV stans upset how Shigs and Toya aren't saved...well, they forget MHA is culturally different from western ideas and well I don't think Hori knew what to do with any character that wasn't BK.

They are humans ...but terrible people.

The civilians only knew shig as the lunatic who wanted to destroy more! "If they don't learn about his past...things won't change" maybe, maybe not. Shig killed a lot and for no reason. Maybe someone in the future could pity Shig but I think the media will show him more as a monster (not wrong as you know...Shig is a bad person and so inconsistent)

Remember how in canon there only ...more heroes than villains. And no one had time to talk with quirkless deku ofc.

@doodlegirl1998 @bibibbon @kite2013

[anti-katsuki-lounge]

Saw someone saying that most people in the "bnha critical" hashtag mostly just "suck deku's dick" instead of actually criticizing the story. The same person also had another post basically saying that the reason why midoriya gets treated so poorly by the narrative is because every other character's traits were "erased(?) to make up for midoriya's bland character*" * I don't remember their exact words, but they said something similar to that

Those two posts gave me such a headache that I blocked them immediately

I really hate it when people say this.

I’m going to be honest, as someone who likes Izuku, there’s things you can definitely criticize about Izuku’s character. I think that he’s far too naive in certain situations and doesn’t get called out for it much. Him trying to see good in Overhaul is one of those instances. I think he suffers immensely from selective intelligence. He’s supposed to be great at thinking on his feet yet it takes him very long to realize that he could be throwing more kicks. I also think that as the story progresses, he becomes far less creative with his quirks. You get some rare moments like him using Black Whip from his mouth after being inspired by Tsuyu, but we rarely get these moments of his intelligence anymore. He’s also not allowed to really reflect on his past, so he’s extremely stagnant in regards to his views about things such as his quirkless past and the bullying he’s suffered from Katsuki.

However, Izuku isn’t a bland character. The problem is he has a bad writer. We could’ve seen more of his and Ochako’s relationship. Unlike many other relationships, the two are built around the idea that they constantly have each other’s backs. I wanna see more of this. I wanna see more of them bonding. Maybe Ochako asks Izuku for some hand to hand combat training. Maybe Izuku learns more about Ochako’s life/ her hobbies and tries to plan things for them to do that they both enjoy. Maybe they can have a heart to heart about constantly being underestimated and being a part of a group that is looked down upon (Ochako being poor and Izuku being quirkless). With Tenya, maybe the two can study together. Tenya’s great at retaining information but Izuku’s better at being creative, so they can help each other there. They could talk about their feelings of anger and how they feel they have a large legacy to uphold. With Shoto, we can have Izuku and him explore what a normal healthy friendship is like. We can have them confide in each other about the abuse they’ve been through and about their relationships with their moms. These are things that could easily be explored with a character like Izuku and Hori has set up the building blocks of Izuku’s character that allows for these things to be explored. The problem is that Hori doesn’t do any of this. We’re expected to believe that the DekuSquad are close knit with each other, but we don’t see them interacting in anything that isn’t related to heroics. We don’t see much of Izuku’s creativity anymore. He has numerous quirks, but even if some overlap with the others, there are cool combos a hero nerd like him could come up with, but instead Hori would rather have him do the exact same things over and over again. The way Hori writes Katsuki also hurts Izuku’s character. Outside of the first chapter, Izuku’s never allowed to show anything other than fear and admiration for Katsuki. He’s never allowed to be unique or else he’ll utterly surpass Katsuki in something (Katsuki’s latest B.S power up is an example of this). He’s not allowed to reflect on Katsuki’s bullying and the effect it has on him nor is he able to hang out with anyone without Katsuki being nearby or involved.

Long rant, I know, but the point is that while there’s certainly things you can criticize about Izuku’s character, most of the issues with Izuku doesn’t come from being a bad character but from being written by a bad writer who prioritizes other things over developing his MC

[doodlegirl1998]

I don't know if you already talked about this, but what're your opinions on Hawks?

Because for me, while he's far from being one of the worst BNKA characters, he's still pretty low for how both narrative and writers treat him.

For one, he's an Endeavor simp. Which wouldn't be a problem if the story tackled how he must've felt about learning that the person who saved him from his abusive father is an abuser himself. But it doesn't and he still stands by his side, which REALLY questions his morality and just how much the HPSC has branwashed him.

And then there's the whole fiasco with him and Twice. I'm on the camp that he didn't have to kill him, ESPECIALLY after the character development he got.

Not once did he ever think about the time he spent with them and think "Maybe we were wrong about them, maybe they aren't as bad as we thought." But no, he still carried on and killed a man.

Now again, none of this would be a problem if the narrative actually called him out on this and he actually suffers consequences. Such as his wings being burnt to where he's essentially left quirkless or faces public backlash... but none of that happens.

Instead it's treated like he did the right thing when this series is supposed to make us question what really makes a hero and if some of the things they do is really right.

Well that's apparently out of the window if him killing a man is justifiable in these people's eyes!

Hi @theloganator101 👋,

My opinion on Hawks is that I really, really don't like him.

Now let me explain why:

Missed Potential

Hawks's set up is interesting, a HPSC spy, being raised in an abusive manner to be a hero at the cost of his identity. The spy angle also made it look like he could jump ship to the villains side at one point, it was heart warming to see him (seem to) genuinely like Twice for a time.

Then he betrays and kills Twice. I didn't like that.

But it could have been interesting to have seen the fallout of this.

Had Dabi succeeded in permanently disfiguring Hawk's when he burnt his wings off in retailation.

Had the HPSC threw Hawks under the bus as their scapegoat once they realised he was of no further use to them.

Had Hawks experienced a moral crisis / breakdown for having killed a good person (someone who he liked) essentially for nothing because he could have captured and put him in jail instead.

Had Hawks been horrified by the fact that his idol was a child abuser to a similar degree as his own father.

Instead we have the Rotting of Hawks character.

Canonically instead of any of these interesting plot points we have the phenomenon I like to call the 'rotting of Hawks character.' This is where he degrades from a character with an interesting premise to someone flat and aggravating to read.

There are several reasons why this occurred:

No consequences are experienced from killing Twice.

Hawks remains a hero (they are in a time of war) but Hawks doesn't even lose any popularity, if I remember rightly. He killed a man running away in cold blood when he could have knocked him out! Come on!

Hawks doesn't lose his wings or voice permanently from Dabi's attack. He gets a new hair cut and rugged new 'sexy' scar... From being burnt to shit by blue flames. Come on Hori!

To add insult to injury Toga's Twice clone only manages to give him a couple of small scratches in her final fight when she should have been gunning to kill him this whole time.

And Hawks thinks of Twice's memory as a good guy who supports his friend to turn around and support an admitted and powerful "Hero" child abuser... Just fuck off.

When Hawks sees Toga's Twice clones he just yells to kill them again... Wow...Do I need to elaborate how much character stagnation this is and how much I hate it?

After the interaction with Lady Nagant all Hawks's interesting dark edges are scrubbed away to become - Endeavor's bootlicker. *Shudder*

The way the HPSC was essentially killed off screen never to be mentioned again marked the beginning of the death of the interesting Hawks we were introduced to - more Hawks's flashback imagery is linked to that damn Endeav doll that I want to set on fire rather than elaborating on what the HPSC training IS.

Hawks is stagnant in adoring Endeavor and experiencing no conflict supporting a 'redeemed' child abuser despite being a child abuse victim himself which is irritating to read. Especially since we are meant to see this as sweet... Not some type of unhealthy projection on Hawks end.

He doesn't die when he should do and this just nulls all stakes...

Hawks doesn't die to Dabi back in the war arc (although he probably should have), he doesn't die in the near death moments he had against AFO in one moment it turned out to be a projection all along which killed all excitement for that fight.

The worst that happens is Hawks loses his wings to AFO, Tokoyami who is a complete innocent in all this, also loses his quirk to AFO. Hawks doesn't suffer alone here. Add on to the fact that AFO is a bastard who likes to steal quirks and this really isn't a consequence - rather a occupational hazard of fighting AFO (this action also bites AFO in the ass later.)

Furthermore, Hawk's 'wins' such as the rebelling of the Vestiges in AFO caused by Vestige Hawks just feel unearned and like asspulls recently.

All of this means that Hawks is now a character I don't like but also don't care too much about because Hori killed everything interesting about him. Hori also doesn't have the balls to actually kill him off and risk upsetting his stans.

So I am now stuck having an internal groan now nearly everytime I see him on the page.

[justatalkingface]

Everything Changed When The War Arc Attacked:

Or, why do I hate the War Arc so fucking much?

At this point, eh, why not? Writing every day is supposed to be good for improving as a writer.

ECWTWAA is a simple, quippy line that holds all of my festering loathing for watching MHA gleefully hurl itself off a cliff once the War Arc happened, and, much like someone jumping off a cliff like an utter moron (or the Air Nomads after the Fire Nation attacked), it has never truly recovered.

*sigh*

In retrospect, MHA had been going downhill for a long time before that point, and a lot of it was something I noticed unconsciously, but didn't quite rise to me really paying conscious attention to it, beyond a few notable points (*cough*, Bakugou, *cough* FuCkiNg NIGHTEYE), but as my brain was somewhat in the off position as I read, I was still enjoying the ride, even as it bumped; the enjoyment was as much, if not more, that I used to enjoy it more than the actual content, but there was enjoyment.

If MHA before The War Arc was a somewhat imperfect roller coaster ride, the only way I can describe the War Arc is if the roller coaster ride abruptly ended in the side of a cliff, only somehow dragged out for months of slow paced agony. I watched, in vaguely real time, as Hori systematically trashed the last foundations of his story, the swan song of one of the best, most interesting characters in the series, toss aside the sudden yet exciting development of it's main villain, and escalate to a higher gear than ever before the constant work to protect some of the most vile characters, including said mass murdering villain, from even the slightest criticism by sacrificing everyone around them, as well as the very integrity of the story, to the alter of, 'They're not that bad, honest! Don't hurt their little feelings, you bully!'

And, I watched him finally finish the lobotomy on his main character, permanently ripping away what remained of his original personality and intelligence, leaving an empty puppet, a Deku, with the singular purpose of driving the story faster, and faster, and faster towards that thing that Hori seems to crave above everything else now: The End.

Freedom, freedom from the strangling chains of a merciless Jump schedule, of a plot long grown too complex for him to manage, or for him to even want to try, and from the burden of writing characters and stories he so clearly seems to despise, for some reason. And if they only way he feels he can get it is by burning everything he's done down to the ground, well, Hori's clearly more than willing.

In all honesty it became obvious that, in all of MHA, he only actually liked six things: Endeavour, Bakugou, body horror, dramatic, flashy fight scenes with flashy super powers, attractive women in minimal clothing and vaguely fetish-y torture scenes on attractive women in minimal clothing.

These things, from that point on, are the only things he has spent real, actual time on, developing, giving focus to. Everything else, everything else, is rushed, pushed constantly forward by Deku, the puppet, as he runs from plot point to plot point as fast as he can, never allowed a moment to rest, to reflect, to really think at all, all in the name of progression as empty as he has become.

In all honesty, it was a needed, if unwanted, shock to help me realize the truth, but at what cost? At what cost is this clarity? The joy is gone now; once I dropped my unconscious acceptance of the narrative, everything I had been ignoring came to me a rush of horrified realization, even the most mild of flaws became glaring, and now reading the early chapters that got me into this story in the first place is just... hollow now, like I'm watching my old self enjoy them, rather than enjoying them myself, and I can't help but be both jealous and vaguely contemptuous at the innocent pleasure that person had.

I'll admit, I'm being more dramatic than I'd like to be, but... I've said this before, I'd been reading MHA for years before this point. Years of enjoyment, interest, and focus, and it's all ash to me now. I'm somewhat bitter about it.

[dashielldeveron]

okay i just gotta talk about bnha's ending

and what i thought was gonna happen based on the way the narrative had been setting things up.

some light bnha meta. spoilers obviously.

i will preface with i am not concerned with ships. i would be fine with whatever, really, because ultimately, i am my favourite characters' girlfriend (and you are your fave's significant other, etc.). moving on.

1) the first major red flag for me, as a writer, was when we barely spent any time at all at shigaraki's childhood home with dark!deku. it signalled that midoriya wasn't going to fully understand what was going on with shigaraki and therefore lose some nuance/meaning to [what i thought was going to be] shigaraki's redemption. by only having the audience understand shig's tragedy but not midoriya, midoriya is not making a fully informed decision and therefore his choices weigh a bit less.

1a) additionally, with dark!deku, it sets us up to have a thorough examination of shig/deku mirroring each other. doesn't really happen. and midoriya's getting his arms back within one chapter takes away from the overarching motif of taking someone's hand to finally accept help. like captain kirk once said, the three most beautiful words in the universe are "please help me." this could've been a chance for deku to ask for help from shig or the vestiges and further blur the line between villains and heroes.

2) when nana shimura holds shigaraki--this is probably the most confusing narrative decision from my perspective, because i figured we were about to go into OFA with both shig and deku, have some sort of glorious discussion over a fight about what a hero is and saving yourself and accepting help and friendship and stuff, but we just...don't. we don't go see all the vestiges with shigaraki. i thought that was what we were building up to, this ultimate scene with all the OFA users and shig all in the same place, accepting shig as someone who was used/abused and could still move on. i fully thought this would happen and that some unfamilar, bodily form of tenko would be spat out after the discussion, a tenko who's shoved off all shreds of AFO and can begin as solely himself.

instead we get that weird-as-fuck evaporation scene where shigaraki still wanted to fight. which is weird to me, because i haven't read shigaraki as wanting to fight for a long, long time. i've been reading him as wanting to rest.

3) i didn't want toga to die, but i could feel it coming bc "bury your gays" pervades pop media. but holy shit. not even on screen? the last scene seems to set uraraka and toga up to sacrifice each other for the other, and i figured they'd survive, though both severely injured. toga's death (and other villain deaths/putting away in a box) feels contradictory to the story's themes of saving people, that anyone can change to be anything they want. killing/punishing the villains seems to be saying that villains will always be villains, and even if they showed some remorse, they have to die, because they did bad stuff once.

4) touya is more of that "punishing bc he's a villain" stuff. uh. okay. narratively, he seems to be alive to show endeavor's regret. okay. a better way of showing this would be to have touya medically healing and have endeavor supporting him every step of the recuperation. (not that i would personally want this, bc i don't think endeavor's shown enough growth to do this.) and like. how it is now, with endeavor saying that no one has to talk to him, but he's gonna come visit touya and how the others are going to visit touya as well--it feels like they're arguing over who gets touya in the divorce lol (well, it would be lol, except they're dehumanising/objectifying touya again).

4a) why set up the soba eating with touya/shouto if we're not going to see it. why do that, hori. why would you

5) the timeskip to the hospital was jarring. we spend over a year in this one battle, and then we don't see it wrap up. we're left with questions about characters that could've been answered here, in this moment, in the transitional period of getting everyone medical help.

6) okay this is me being very selfish, but as someone with a focus in disability studies, i'd like to know more about everyone's recuperation. mostly, you'd FUCKING THINK that once they're at the hospital, they'd be able to get a whole-ass edgeshot out of bakugou. that's unfair to both of them. edgeshot was taking the place of medical equipment on the battlefield, so why not replace him with actual medical equipment now that bakugou is safe? we also spend a bit talking about bakugou's damaged arm, so why don't we see him working with it?

7) weird amount of focus on new students. i understand some focus, because setting up the new generation, and all, but since hero society appears to be exactly the same, it means significantly less to set them up to be better than the mistakes this generation made. since society/worldbuilding isn't changing in a major way, the audience desire is primarily to see what's happening with the characters we care about. so this feels unsatisfying.

8) also. attached to point 2 about shigaraki being redeemed. hero society should be changed. there should be a new status quo about what being a hero means and how the whole system works in light of this knowledge. shigaraki, touya, spinner, and toga should be alive and out there doing other stuff, showing that you can grow past what you've gone through. deku should still be out there doing "hero stuff" regardless of quirk/power, because of his character and fortitude.

why the hell is the ending message that anyone with power can be a hero instead of the obvious (and more moral) moral of anyone with courage/determination/"my body moved on its own" to help others, as deku did, can be a hero, regardless of birth or status. it was right there!!!! how was this sidestepped!!!

9) no bookend to spinner? no spinner? babe. i'm not even the greatest fan of spinner, and it feels like we left him unfinished.

10) scratch that. it all feels unfinished. rushed. did something happen to end it this way?

anyway. thanks for reading. i'm confused about the writing choices.

TL;DR: recent narrative decisions make no sense based on what the manga has set up for us, particularly the evaporation/death of shigaraki bc it contradicts the message that anyone can be a hero, regardless of your past, and that it's okay to ask for help.

[ofmermaidstories]

I completely agree and think it's unfair that the fandom continues to demand perfection from Hori; especially when 'perfection' can be a loosely coined term depending on what it is each of these whingers want to see before the series ends. I think that with all works of art, meaning (and in this instance, interractions between characters) are interpretted based on the individuals shaped life experiences. I read a post somewhere that perhaps the lack of filler episodes contributes to all this complaining, because we don't get to see the little side stories between such and such characters, or a more indepth delve into certain side characters backstories. But tbh you're damned if you do, you're damned if you dont. I remember how much shit Kishimoto copped for all the fillers, despite how much (arguable) richness and depth it provided for the relationships between characters. Even if it was just an extra silly little story.

Theres no real point to this message, just wanted to chime in with my 2c.

Hope you're having a great weekend 🫶

you’re so right though, because what would make MHA a “perfect” story? i whinge all the time about like, there being no real consequences, or Hori sliding past the emotional beats he sets up—but if there were serious, hurtful consequences (beyond the villains dying), and Hori did hit those beats, MHA on the whole would be a completely different story LMAO. Like—it’s just so fascinating! We don’t get like, “filler” chapters really, where we get to see more of the kids’ relationships with each other—but Hori then like, shoves them into other moments? like random panels. he mixes the kids up, shows them strewn about the dorms and the school in a variety of different groups. Kiri, Bakugou and Iida visiting Shouto in his room, for example, before Big Fight #102. Bakusquad and Dekusquad are fun fandom things, but Hori’s always like… taken great pains to show that Class-A is a clump, that intermingle among themselves. The fandom loves to bear down on Mineta—“mineta minrou is expelled from UA high school” and “shinsou hitoshi replaces mineta minrou” are the two first tags that auto suggest, for mineta, on ao3—but he’s very much apart of the crew!!! Like, I would argue that he seems to consider himself great mates with like, Deku lmao, at least!! I think if anything, Hori has been hamstringed by the weekly nature of the updates. He has so much to shove in, and a lot of stuff gets left out. And while the kids relationships to each other is like, one of the core tenants of MHA, I personally don’t believe Hori is the kind of writer that wants to give them a beach episode, lmao. 🥹 and i agree, i think that throws a lot of fans off!! people seem to really want like, MHA slice-of-life stuff but…. idk, it’s never been a story about that. 💀 it really is a case of damned-if-you-do and damned-if-you-don’t, tho. 💀💀 part of me is like, oh, this ending feels a little rushed… 🥺 but then the other part of me is like boy, pump out that last panel and run. 💀 LMAOOOO. idk idk idk. i really liked 429—this second-last chapter—because i thought it was sweet. 🥺 i have absolutely no guesses for the final chapter—for the end of this story. and tbh i kinda like it that way? it could be good, it could be bad. i personally hope that it leaves me feeling like it’s a “perfect” ending for right now—for wherever we leave Deku and the MHA world. That it gives them both—character and universe—space to breathe, and grow beyond the final panels. Like… leaving a friend’s house after a rowdy lunch, maybe? You’ve got other things to do, some errands, maybe someone else to meet, and your friends have shoo’d you away from the dishes but when you leave you can hear them laughing behind the door, with someone else who’s taken the tea towel to dry ‘em.

[theloganator101]

Just read a fic praised by the MHA fandom as being 'anti Bakugou' and 'anti Endeavor' it is don't get me wrong but there is a part where the messaging becomes awful and the story goes downhill hard.

Aizawa confronts Shoto and Izu on some concerning behaviour they have shown because of their trauma. Then Izu tells him essentially 'Our situations are shit. You can't change mine or risk Bakugou becoming a villain. You can't change Todoroki's unless you want the HPSC after you for ruining Endeavor and having the public question heroes.'

In this fic, Aizawa hears this. Then literally just nods, agrees and decides to do nothing...

Like ignore the fact that the messaging to the reader is pure ass for a moment, what the fuck kind of teacher would react like that?!

Bakugou becoming a villain due to facing consequences of being an abusive shit? Let him. Being a villain would be HIS choice and for him to face the consequences of down the line. Besides he's not an AFO level threat, most heroes could K.O this fucker (especially Izuku which would be cathartic to read) if Hori weren't playing favorites.

The HPSC going after Aizawa for exposing Endeavor as a child abusing shit and the public questioning all heroes because of it? Well, if the HPSC are going to react like that instead of rightfully condemning Endeavor then they SHOULD be questioned. All heroes should be scrutinised because how many other heroes would have similarly got away with being child abusing shits with that logic? How is that a bad thing? In fact, if they did this it would take the wind out of Dabi because he wouldn't have SO MUCH of a valid point about Endeav not facing consequences for being a abuser.

God, the way Izuku and Todoroki in this are content sacrificing their childhoods on a pyre in this to protect these two abusive shits is so, SO sad. It's even sadder that the writer paints this as a noble choice instead of recognising it being a flawed one made by two traumatised children.

Then there is the fact that Aizawa LETS them instead of telling them, 'no you both deserve a happy childhood too' or 'no I will fight for you.' This paints him as an lazy and AWFUL teacher but also a AWFUL person point blank. The fic I don't believe did this intentionally because it isn't tagged Aizawa bashing which makes it worse...

Todoroki and Izuku's other friends and the other adults in their life also all try their best to cheer them up and fail because they don't have a clue what is going on. They also become noticeably sadder as a result which is just depressing.

Sorry for the rant, I'm just so depressed and angry now having read that and needed to vent somewhere.

I'm not the type to be a hater on someones work and I wanted to know your thoughts.

I... don't think I ever read this fic.

But from what you explained... yikes.

Why do these writers want to portray Bakugou becoming a villain as the worst possible outcome? Like I get and I'm all about giving people a chance to change for the better, but you also have take into context what that person has done and if they're WILLING to take that chance and actually WANT to change!

But from what we've seen of him, he never shows any signs of wanting to change for the better and just started holding back his brash behavior. In fact I'm even more convinced that once he's an adult, he'll just start putting a front for the public to make himself look good while concealing his true personality behind closed doors.

I think the only way to make Izuku saying this phrase work is if the story acknowledges what he's saying is wrong, have some of the characters point that out to him, and have one of the adults say something like this to him.

"If he ends up becoming a villain after this, then that's his decision. We'll be there to apprehend him and keep him from hurting anymore people."

Or you can make it into more like it's been ingrained in Izuku's mind that Bakugou is a strong fighter and that if he becomes a villain, than it's all over and no one can stop him. Only to be proven wrong when the news cover Bakugou's capture and how easy it was to take him down.

And as for the second part with Endeavor, god that logic is so fucking flawed...

Did the writer of that story NOT read through that or thought twice how that probably wouldn't make sense if the reader put two seconds into thinking about it? It wasn't like the HPSC was helping him conceal his abuse or anything, that was ENTIRELY on him!

And if he does end up being exposed? So what? They got plenty of heroes to spare and I'm sure they would want to save face to keep people from bashing on them for allowing such a person to be in a position of power.

Both Izuku and Shoto shouldn't have to sacrifice their childhoods to prop up and protect these horrible people in their lives, they both need to learn that people like that needs to be cut out from their lives. And even if they're changing, they aren't obligated to forgive them and keep them close... it won't make you a horrible person for choosing not to.

That's one of the problems I keep finding in this fandom, they have a black and white view on things that they think forgive and forget is the only best option and that choosing not to will make them into a horrible person for holding grudges.

[rain-coat-killer]

Well, that's just how every piece of media I personally have liked has been going lately.

It's good as it goes, but once it gets to the end it's kinda...yeah.

P.S This is just my personal thoughts on this manga at the moment. So you guys don't have to read if you would rather not.

Unless Afo's vestige shows up, there's going to be a lot of holes in the narrative. Not exactly plot holes persay, but a decent amount of things that are just going to be up in the air.

It'll be unsatisfying, is what I'm saying.

Bakugo coming back just to keep Afo from meeting Izuku and then immediately passing back out was just...bad.

It felt from a writer standpoint, someone trying to hastily fix a mistake they couldn't anymore. Or they just suddenly got an idea they, at the time, thought was really good. So they came up with a bunch of crap to justify it.

It felt very rushed and sloppy basically, and that's all I have to say about it.

Then we have the fact that Izuku and Shigaraki's fight has been out of the picture for so long. There's this feeling of disconnect. I find I don't exactly care?

Like Izuku and Tomura as characters feel too distant at the moment. That's not great for the supposed main character and his villain.

As well the reason we were looking away from them for so long was Afo, and Afo's whole journey here proved pointless because he failed. So, in turn, it kinda just feels like we were being patted out for a whole year for nothing.

Storywise, it feels like nothing has happened for such a long time, now that Afo has failed. A complete waste of time.

There could be an argument that it shows everyone's contributions brought this. But honestly, it still doesn't feel earned.

Hori didn't show enough pushback. Afo started the war disabled, then died, then he activated rewind and was on the clock. He didn't kill a single person. Apart from maybe Stain. But I doubt it.

This whole war has felt very one-sided. So his death almost feels like a beaten dog finally getting kicked to death.

Now I am left wondering why the nomu have never hurt Izuku, why that winged nomu grabbed him specifically.

Why was Ujiko Izuku's childhood doctor? Would he have recognized him if they met?

What Afo had planned in the first place for Izuku, since he had apparently spent his entire time in prison thinking about him. That comment, while chilling at the time has led to absolutely nothing.

As well, I do not know how this manga is going to finish in a satisfying way. As I said, Tomura and Izuku's characters feel so distant now. Any conversations they have or change of heart Tomura has is going to feel fake to me.

And that's how it's going to end, right?

Tomura being redeemed. It's either that or he dies. Or worse gets redeemed just to die.

But yeah, these were just all the thoughts running through my head at the moment, so that's probably why they sound disjointed. 😂

Overall, I still love this series, and it will always hold a special place in my heart. But yeah. Crappy ending so far. 😑

[sapphic-agent]

i really appreciate your anti bakugo posts, because i don't like him. and people saying he misunderstood like??? he doesn't need to take 300+ chapters to give a half-assed apology I'm in another fandom where there is a character extremely like bakugo, and his stans treat him the same when in reality that character is the worst. Like, they treat him as short of misunderstood saint and underdog when he isn't. but the difference is how the writers treat them in canon; while Hori is trying to make Bakugo looks more likable with his plot armor and the fact that he only faces a slap on the wrist on his horrible actions.

while the other writer is like: Nha. He got the unhappy ending he deserves and he and the MC will not reconcile and he gets no bitchs. while the MC gets his happy ending with the person he loves and travels the world. like that character was so bad that they needed to soften him in lots of the adaptions; because he was that bad in the story narrative. both of them wrote about extremely angry characters, but the way that they did them is extremely different in the narrative of the story. like as someone with anger issues, since i was a toddler, the why fandom says that "he angry character it isn't his fault." is making me unironically mad. like; i can say lots of things in angry fits but i apologize like immediately after i calm down. taking accountability and facing consequences for your own actions is,,, suppose to be normal. sorry for the rant. I'm tired of my friend telling me that bakugo is misunderstood character (we have been going on it since the 1st session was released so like... 5 years)

Hi there, I'm so glad you like my posts!

The fandom certainly does victimize Bakugou a lot, doesn't it? People will point fingers literally everywhere else: his mother, his teachers, society, etc. But never towards Bakugou himself. Never holding him accountable for his own actions. One time when discussing with someone, they tried to tell me that Bakugou is aware that what he does to Izuku is wrong...

Okay? Then why doesn't he stop? That isn't the defense they think it is.

I think a great example of how to handle a character like this is what they do in Bojack Horseman. Bojack had a shitty childhood too with parents who were actually abusive. But the show stresses the fact that while his childhood is a reason for his actions, they are not an excuse. He also doesn't get a happy ending. He lost everything he ever had that was important to him: the TV show that made him famous, his money, his house, his close relationships- all of it.

Now obviously nothing Bakugou did was as bad as Bojack. And I don't necessarily think that (narratively speaking) he should have been expelled or had his life ruined. He was still a kid after all and I don't think he was ever at any point irredeemable.

But Bakugou never had to work hard to redeem himself, people just... let him. Ignored his behavior and the way he treated everyone (not just Izuku). I've said before that he continued to treat everyone like shit and got away for it because of comedy which severely undermined Horikoshi's attempt at redeeming him. This could have easily been rectified by giving Bakugou a moment of clarity whenever he did this. Even if it wasn't outright "sorry" it could have been an internal monologue where he shows regret for lashing out. It would not only make it clear that he's actively trying to be better even if he doesn't change immediately, it would have made him way more realistic.

I, personally, don't mind anger issues and his anger isn't why I dislike him. I mean, it can be annoying as hell but that isn't why I think he's a bad character. I've liked a ton of characters with anger issues (I have freaking Santana Lopez in my pfp lolz) and as long as they're well-written I've never had a problem.

[transhawks]

It's clear that Hori planned a redemption for Enji from the start, but with that in mind, do you think maybe he went overboard with how horrifying he portrayed him in the beginning or was it necessary to have a more impactful climax? Like the level of violence shown was far worse than other depictions of abuse, so objectively it's easier to forgive Abuela (Encanto) or even give Toji (JJK) a pass. I like his arc, but sometimes I think he went a bit too far if he was planning on redeeming Enji.

I don't know if I've written this out here, but you've essentially verbalized what I've been saying in people's DMs for a good year and a half now. I think if there were mistakes done with the Todoroki family, they were early on, when we were first introduced to Endeavor. I very firmly believe Horikoshi didn't mean him to come off that bad. This was very early into BNHA so I think this was essentially the mistake of a more amateur writer than anything. So, yeah, it's the former - Enjidemption was always in the plans, but Horikoshi made him a bit too horrible early on.

[mikeellee]

Hi 👋

I don't know if this is just me but what pisses me off about hori is how he treats izuku but not only that what pisses me off a lot more is if you really think about it izuku is low-key the best character you can have to be your main character. What I mean is that izuku is probably one of the only characters that has a lot and I mean A LOT OF DIFFERENT PARALLELS/ CONTRASTS with other characters whether it be as obvious as izuku and all might or as vague as izuku and Dabi. Izuku is the only character who has this which in my opinion makes it so much easier for hori to develop and use him to expand on the story and world building of MHA in general.

So coming back to my original point I really hate hori for ruining izuku and it's literally something I can't get over because by ruining izuku he kind of ruined the whole story

Hey @bibibbon

Thanks for the ask. So many good points here, let go for parts.

1) I think Hori sincerly hates his MC. He has stated how Izu is all thanks to a gag. "We have ikemen characters/pretty boys and gags characters" that I could ignore as I noticed how Japan and others asian countries do think poorly on freckles. But its the way Izu's pain is written off or as a gag that cements how Hori hates Izu.

You don't see any shonen writer do such thing with their MC. Oda does love Luffy. Kubo loves Ichigo and so on...Hori? He is riding BK's dick shameless.

2) Izu has many good paralels with Shig and Dabi. Dabi has a quirk that hurts him(only Dabi has this...I ignore Aoayama bc it was so...poorly done and just to shit on Izu. I will touch on that in a min) and even coming from a rich background...Endy did absolutely nothing! Inko IS emotional neglectful with Izu and did absolutely nothing as Izu was abused for 10 years.

Izu has so many paralels with Shig...its insane. Its insane bc Izu knows almost 0 about him and Shig- while knowing Izu is quirkelss and reacting surprisingly well- knows nothing about Izu. The final showdown is sooo...meh. What those 2 know? How Izu can even save Shig at this point?(his only mission here and is EXTRA HARD for no reason)

3) Izu has a quirk that hurts him and fuck him! I mentioned Aoayama before...ok. look, Izu got a quirk that breaks his bones and UA looks and does nothig, Aoayama's retcon is how he was a quirkless boy and went to afo to get a quirk...I do think this revelation is just to hurt Izu. No, he and Aoyama arent bffs, but his past can hurt him...but at the same time Izu can't ever heal.

He was abused! Plain and simple.

Hori weeps bc...the abuse made his beloved bk look bad.

Izu? Fuck him. Hori wrote this.

4) Izu had such potential. He could have a quirk(quirkless hero Izu wouldnt work in the story) but being way more creative. Hell, imagine Izu winning the Sports Festival without using his quirk? That would be cool.

To sum up, Izu's pain is a gag for Hori. Izu is given a ridiculous impossible task and is hirt and alone. Know the worst part? Its how saving Shig is not smth season 1 Izu would ignore. Izu would help him...or try. This plotline is useless.

Hori is riding on bk till the end.

[katsudoncat]

I'M SORRY HORI-WHO? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? I DON'T KNOW ANYONE WITH THAT NAME…

Mmhh Boku no Hero Academia? Oh, are you referring to that manga that was cut short just before the end? Yes, it's a shame it wasn't finished!

ah wait you said it's finished? oh wow that's true… what things right? it seems that Hirikoshi kept his promise…

Izuku's father was revealed! what a surprise, is Toshinori, yes because a true father is the one who raises not the one who engenders as we say in Mexico, and Izuku and Kacchan finally held hands! and all the plot holes were covered. I'm so happy, Horikoshi is a great writer… applause

IN CASE YOU HAVEN'T NOTICED I'M BEING FUCKING SARCASTIC!!! I'M SO PISSED OFF!!

First of ALL! In what world is this…

is that a fucking ember? I don't see an ember! To me that's a fucking burning flame!

And This?...

WHAT IS THIS THEN?! A FUCKING PRINTING ERROR?! I don't think so! Those are AFO hole lights! AFO IS IZUKU'S FATHER and no one will ever take that idea away from me!

Let's see what else? Ah, Toshinori like a Good Parent giving Izuku a new suit… let's hope it's not a Mecha-armor like the one he used against All For One…

although I guess there won't be a villain powerful enough to break the armor with Izuku inside....

Yeah, like a damn peanut. 😥

Oh ok I've already seen the last page, thank goodness it's a body armor and not a mecha type armor like All Might.

That's seriously a relief 😩

AND Last but not least… Izu-chan and Kacchan finally held hands!…

Come Deku!

But off-screen!!!! 🤬

Everyone knows that this has always been Deku's dream But in this case the order of the factors does alter the product!

We know from experience that if it is KACCHAN who asks Izuku for something, he will gladly do it! because this is what happens in his head…

And well, who can resist the charm of Bakugou Katsuki? Even I would take his hand 😍

But that's not what I meant, what I meant was that the order of the factors for me does alter the product, because it is Katsuki who must take Izuku's hand and not the other way around, what we expected or at least what I expected was for Izuku-chan to extend his hand towards a fallen Kacchan and for him to take it after hesitating a bit… You know, like the tsundere that he is…

Or rather, what I expected was something like:

They're in a fight with a group of random villains and one of them hits Katsuki's chest right over the scar on his heart, he stumbles out and falls on his back, Izuku sees him and after getting rid of his opponent with a punch to the stomach sending him flying several meters he runs towards Kacchan who is complaining a little while the villain he was fighting approaches mockingly, then Izuku knocks him out with a kick to the head and approaches Katsuki hesitating a little to reach out his hand (due to previous experiences)ias).

"Kacchan, does it hurt a lot? Are you..."

"Don't finish that sentence or I'll kill you, Nerd!"

"O-ok Kacchan"

"So, are you going to help me get up or what?!"

"Of course I do, Kacchan!"

Izuku then takes him by the hand with his bright smile and teary eyes quite happily, Katsuki responds by rolling his eyes with a…

"Tch, you're still a crybaby, nerd" as he stands up and they both walk.

"Ah Kacchan since you're standing you can let go of my hand"

"You're not telling me what to do you fucking nerd!… I'll let go of you whenever I want now hurry up and let's go back to the agency!"

But well, what else is left for us to do, Horikoshi is the creator of the manga and we can only conform and although DFO is not canon for me it is and will always be my headcanon.

Now for 'The more or less good things THAT I found':

The boys had an explosive graduation (thanks Kacchan) as did the Big 3 Mirio, Nejire and Amaijiki.

Izuku learned how to tie a tie properly and now wears formal shoes (bad luck for the quirkless red shoes theory supporters, I thought the same too 😩)

Izuku is a teacher at UA and from what was in his notebook it's possible that he's a Quirk Analysis/Physical Analysis teacher.

Shinsou grew his hair to emulate Aizawa-sensei.

Aizawa-sensei cut his hair and doesn't look like a homeless guy anymore but a 40 year old emo K-poper.

Gran Torino and Chiyo (RG) are still alive despite being very old now.

Kouta-kun goes to UA and still calls Izuku nii-chan.

The kid with the sewn mouth who escaped from the basement of his house is Kouta-kun's classmate and may become a future hero too.

Eri-chan's little horn grew back and she's now in junior high school, I hope that when her horn grew back her quirk also returned to normal (remember that her little horn was like a container for her quirk's power).

Aoyama is back and is also a hero now along with all the ex-1A's.

Izuku is still mumbling his quirk analyses and looking scary doing it.

He still has the heart of a hero and supports kids with weak quirks who are like him (with a hero's heart)

Kacchan continued his physical therapy and it seems that he has fully regained the mobility of his arm.

Kacchan worked hard and saved up for eight years to help fund Izuku's new mech suit and support items so they could be heroes together and follow each other for the rest of their lives! if that's not love then I don't know what is (BKDK CANON BECAUSE I SAY IT YEAH)

Oboro finally rests in peace unless it's Nemuri's grave that the Yama-zawas visit.

Izuku ended up becoming the first Quirkless Hero in history just like he wanted and that makes me happy even though he lost OFA 🥺...

But it still bothers me! SO if a QUIRKLESS wants to be a hero he has to be a billionaire like Batman and Ironman to get a super suit! that was what Horikoshi gave us to understand, QUIRKLESS are still USELESS if they don't use an advanced technology suit! And I know that Izuku will be happy to be able to be a hero again, BUT this is stupid, FUCK YOU HORIKOSI! and it was more than obvious that if the boy keeps training and exercising even without a quirk it's possible that he can lift a car full of people on his head, after all, a Quirk is nothing more than a simple tool, right? If Izuku had continued training his strength and intelligence he would have been unbeatable despite not having a Quirk! If even being a weakling of 14 years without a Quirk he was able to drag a refrigerator with an All Might weighing more than 250 kg on top at the beginning of his training on Dagoba beach.

And I'm also still VERY upset with Horikoshi because I have no idea who Izuku's biological father is (not the adoptive one, I already know it's Toshinori) because he neither confirmed nor denied anything and now I have to imagine everything he left out! And because I didn't see the Baku-Deku holding hands on screen! 😡 SO FOR ME! MY THEORY IS THE TRUE ENDING AND THAT'S IT!

Yeah I know it's been 10 years, the guy must be exhausted and his brain completely fried after all this work, but I'm still upset! and sad! BECAUSE IT'S NOT FAIR! It's not fair what Hirikoshi did to Izuku, the kid didn't need a fucking armor, just a support item maybe, I'm sure if Horikoshi had stayed with Akatani Mikumo 'Yamikumo' the story would have been different and it's possible that he would have been the first quirkless hero with only a support tool…

I wanted to wait for the official release but I saw the spoilers and I couldn't stand it anymore, I'm sorry but I'm not sorry, I had to say I thought about the last chapter of the manga and well this wouldn't be the first time that a mangaka disappoints me (Gosho Aoyama I'm looking at you 😡) And it won't be the last either I guess, and it hurts and I'm torn apart and I just want to have Horikoshi in front of me and punch him or just yell in his face but there's nothing to do but… CREATE TONS OF FANFICTIONS AND SHOW THAT BASTARD HORIKOSHI HOW TO WRITE A TRUE ENDING!!!!!!! but it doesn't matter, as I said, I'm sticking to my own canon 😒 and dedicate myself to writing This critic to vent 😔